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diff --git a/19779.txt b/19779.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c49645a --- /dev/null +++ b/19779.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9284 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, +August, 1867, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: November 13, 2006 [EBook #19779] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +_A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics._ + +VOL. XX.--AUGUST, 1867.--NO. CXVIII. + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867 by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + + + +Transcriber's note: Minor typos have been corrected. + + + + +THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +MADNESS? + +Mr. Clement Lindsay returned to the city and his usual labors in a state +of strange mental agitation. He had received an impression for which he +was unprepared. He had seen for the second time a young girl whom, for +the peace of his own mind, and for the happiness of others, he should +never again have looked upon until Time had taught their young hearts +the lesson which all hearts must learn, sooner or later. + +What shall the unfortunate person do who has met with one of those +disappointments, or been betrayed into one of those positions, which do +violence to all the tenderest feelings, blighting the happiness of +youth, and the prospects of after years? + +If the person is a young man, he has various resources. He can take to +the philosophic meerschaum, and nicotize himself at brief intervals into +a kind of buzzing and blurry insensibility, until he begins to "color" +at last like the bowl of his own pipe, and even his mind gets the +tobacco flavor. Or he can have recourse to the more suggestive +stimulants, which will dress his future up for him in shining +possibilities that glitter like Masonic regalia, until the morning light +and the waking headache reveal his illusion. Some kind of spiritual +anaesthetic he must have, if he holds his grief fast tied to his +heart-strings. But as grief must be fed with thought, or starve to +death, it is the best plan to keep the mind so busy in other ways that +it has no time to attend to the wants of that ravening passion. To sit +down and passively endure it, is apt to end in putting all the mental +machinery into disorder. + +Clement Lindsay had thought that his battle of life was already fought, +and that he had conquered. He believed that he had subdued himself +completely, and that he was ready, without betraying a shadow of +disappointment, to take the insufficient nature which destiny had +assigned him in his companion, and share with it all of his own larger +being it was capable, not of comprehending, but of apprehending. + +He had deceived himself. The battle was not fought and won. There had +been a struggle, and what seemed to be a victory, but the +enemy--intrenched in the very citadel of life--had rallied, and would +make another desperate attempt to retrieve his defeat. + +The haste with which the young man had quitted the village was only a +proof that he felt his danger. He believed that, if he came into the +presence of Myrtle Hazard for the third time, he should be no longer +master of his feelings. Some explanation must take place between them, +and how was it possible that it should be without emotion? and in what +do all emotions shared by a young man with such a young girl as this +tend to find their last expression? + +Clement determined to stun his sensibilities by work. He would give +himself no leisure to indulge in idle dreams of what might have been. +His plans were never so carefully finished, and his studies were never +so continuous as now. But the passion still wrought within him, and, if +he drove it from his waking thoughts, haunted his sleep until he could +endure it no longer, and must give it some manifestation. He had covered +up the bust of Liberty so closely, that not an outline betrayed itself +through the heavy folds of drapery in which it was wrapped. His thoughts +recurred to his unfinished marble, as offering the one mode in which he +could find a silent outlet to the feelings and thoughts which it was +torture to keep imprisoned in his soul. The cold stone would tell them, +but without passion; and having got the image which possessed him out of +himself into a lifeless form, it seemed as if he might be delivered from +a presence which, lovely as it was, stood between him and all that made +him seem honorable and worthy to himself. + +He uncovered the bust which he had but half shaped, and struck the first +flake from the glittering marble. The toil, once begun, fascinated him +strangely, and after the day's work was done, and at every interval he +could snatch from his duties, he wrought at his secret task. + +"Clement is graver than ever," the young men said at the office. "What's +the matter, do you suppose? Turned off by the girl they say he means to +marry by and by? How pale he looks too! Must have something worrying +him: he used to look as fresh as a clove pink." + +The master with whom he studied saw that he was losing color, and +looking very much worn, and determined to find out, if he could, whether +he was not overworking himself. He soon discovered that his light was +seen burning late into the night, that he was neglecting his natural +rest, and always busy with some unknown task, not called for in his +routine of duty or legitimate study. + +"Something is wearing on you, Clement," he said. "You are killing +yourself with undertaking too much. Will you let me know what keeps you +so busy when you ought to be asleep, or taking your ease and comfort in +some way or other?" + +Nobody but himself had ever seen his marble or its model. He had now +almost finished it, laboring at it with such sleepless devotion, and he +was willing to let his master have a sight of his first effort of the +kind,--for he was not a sculptor, it must be remembered, though he had +modelled in clay, not without some success, from time to time. + +"Come with me," he said. + +The master climbed the stairs with him up to his modest chamber. A +closely shrouded bust stood on its pedestal in the light of the solitary +window. + +"That is my ideal personage," Clement said. "Wait one moment, and you +shall see how far I have caught the character of our uncrowned queen." + +The master expected, very naturally, to see the conventional young woman +with classical wreath or feather head-dress, whom we have placed upon +our smallest coin, so that our children may all grow up loving Liberty. + +As Clement withdrew the drapery that covered his work, the master +stared at it in amazement. He looked at it long and earnestly, and at +length turned his eyes, a little moistened by some feeling which thus +betrayed itself, upon his pupil. + +"This is no ideal, Clement. It is the portrait of a very young but very +beautiful woman. No common feeling could have guided your hand in +shaping such a portrait from memory. This must be that friend of yours +of whom I have often heard as an amiable young person. Pardon me, for +you know that nobody cares more for you than I do,--I hope that you are +happy in all your relations with this young friend of yours. How could +one be otherwise?" + +It was hard to bear, very hard. He forced a smile. "You are partly +right," he said. "There is a resemblance, I trust, to a living person, +for I had one in my mind." + +"Didn't you tell me once, Clement, that you were attempting a bust of +Innocence? I do not see any block in your room but this. Is that done?" + +"Done _with_!" Clement answered; and as he said it, the thought stung +through him that this was the very stone which was to have worn the +pleasant blandness of pretty Susan's guileless countenance. How the new +features had effaced the recollection of the others! + +In a few days more Clement had finished his bust. His hours were again +vacant to his thick-coming fancies. While he had been busy with his +marble, his hands had required his attention, and he must think closely +of every detail upon which he was at work. But at length his task was +done, and he could contemplate what he had made of it. It was a triumph +for one so little exercised in sculpture. The master had told him so, +and his own eye could not deceive him. He might never succeed in any +repetition of his effort, but this once he most certainly had succeeded. +He could not disguise from himself the source of this extraordinary good +fortune in so doubtful and difficult an attempt. Nor could he resist the +desire of contemplating the portrait bust, which--it was foolish to +talk about ideals--was not Liberty, but Myrtle Hazard. + +It was too nearly like the story of the ancient sculptor: his own work +was an over-match for its artist. Clement had made a mistake in +supposing that by giving his dream a material form he should drive it +from the possession of his mind. The image in which he had fixed his +recollection of its original served only to keep her living presence +before him. He thought of her as she clasped her arms around him, and +they were swallowed up in the rushing waters, coming so near to passing +into the unknown world together. He thought of her as he stretched her +lifeless form upon the bank, and looked for one brief moment on her +unsunned loveliness,--"a sight to dream of, not to tell." He thought of +her as his last fleeting glimpse had shown her, beautiful, not with the +blossomy prettiness that passes away with the spring sunshine, but with +a rich vitality of which noble outlines and winning expression were only +the natural accidents. And that singular impression which the sight of +him had produced upon her,--how strange! How could she but have listened +to him,--to him, who was, as it were, a second creator to her, for he +had brought her back from the gates of the unseen realm,--if he had +recalled to her the dread moments they had passed in each other's arms, +with death, not love, in all their thoughts. And if then he had told her +how her image had remained with him, how it had colored all his visions, +and mingled with all his conceptions, would not those dark eyes have +melted as they were turned upon him? Nay, how could he keep the thought +away, that she would not have been insensible to his passion, if he +could have suffered its flame to kindle in his heart? Did it not seem as +if Death had spared them for Love, and that Love should lead them +together through life's long journey to the gates of Death? + +Never! never! never! Their fates were fixed. For him, poor insect as he +was, a solitary flight by day, and a return at evening to his wingless +mate! For her--he thought he saw her doom. + +Could he give her up to the cold embraces of that passionless egotist, +who, as he perceived plainly enough, was casting his shining net all +around her? Clement read Murray Bradshaw correctly. He could not perhaps +have spread his character out in set words, as we must do for him, for +it takes a long apprenticeship to learn to describe analytically what we +know as soon as we see it; but he felt in his inner consciousness all +that we must tell for him. Fascinating, agreeable, artful, knowing, +capable of winning a woman infinitely above himself, incapable of +understanding her,--O, if he could but touch him with the angel's spear, +and bid him take his true shape before her whom he was gradually +enveloping in the silken meshes of his subtle web! He would make a place +for her in the world,--O yes, doubtless. He would be proud of her in +company, would dress her handsomely, and show her off in the best +lights. But from the very hour that he felt his power over her firmly +established, he would begin to remodel her after his own worldly +pattern. He would dismantle her of her womanly ideals, and give her in +their place his table of market-values. He would teach her to submit her +sensibilities to her selfish interest, and her tastes to the fashion of +the moment, no matter which world or half-world it came from. "As the +husband is, the wife is,"--he would subdue her to what he worked in. + +All this Clement saw, as in apocalyptic vision, stored up for the wife +of Murray Bradshaw, if he read him rightly, as he felt sure he did, from +the few times he had seen him. He would be rich by and by, very +probably. He looked like one of those young men who are sharp and hard +enough to come to fortune. Then she would have to take her place in the +great social exhibition where the gilded cages are daily opened that the +animals may be seen, feeding on the sight of stereotyped toilets and +the sound of impoverished tattle. O misery of semi-provincial +fashionable life, where wealth is at its wit's end to avoid being tired +of an existence which has all the labor of keeping up appearances, +without the piquant profligacy which saves it at least from being +utterly vapid! How many fashionable women at the end of a long season +would be ready to welcome heaven itself as a relief from the desperate +monotony of dressing, dawdling, and driving! + + * * * * * + +This could not go on so forever. Clement had placed a red curtain so as +to throw a rose-bloom on his marble, and give it an aspect which his +fancy turned to the semblance of life. He would sit and look at the +features his own hand had so faithfully wrought, until it seemed as if +the lips moved, sometimes as if they were smiling, sometimes as if they +were ready to speak to him. His companions began to whisper strange +things of him in the studio,--that his eye was getting an unnatural +light,--that he talked as if to imaginary listeners,--in short, that +there was a look as if something were going wrong with his brain, which +it might be feared would spoil his fine intelligence. It was the +undecided battle, and the enemy, as in his noblest moments he had +considered the growing passion, was getting the better of him. + +He was sitting one afternoon before the fatal bust which had smiled and +whispered away his peace, when the postman brought him a letter. It was +from the simple girl to whom he had given his promise. We know how she +used to prattle in her harmless way about her innocent feelings, and the +trifling matters that were going on in her little village world. But now +she wrote in sadness. Something, she did not too clearly explain what, +had grieved her, and she gave free expression to her feelings. "I have +no one that loves me but you," she said; "and if you leave me I must +droop and die. Are you true to me, dearest Clement,--true as when we +promised each other that we would love while life lasted? Or have you +forgotten one who will never cease to remember that she was once your +own Susan?" + +Clement dropped the letter from his hand, and sat a long hour looking at +the exquisitely wrought features of her who had come between him and +honor and his plighted word. + +At length he arose, and, lifting the bust tenderly from its pedestal, +laid it upon the cloth with which it had been covered. He wrapped it +closely, fold upon fold, as the mother whom man condemns and God pities +wraps the child she loves before she lifts her hand against its life. +Then he took a heavy hammer and shattered his lovely idol into shapeless +fragments. The strife was over. + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A CHANGE OF PROGRAMME. + +Mr. William Murray Bradshaw was in pretty intimate relations with Miss +Cynthia Badlam. It was well understood between them that it might be of +very great advantage to both of them if he should in due time become the +accepted lover of Myrtle Hazard. So long as he could be reasonably +secure against interference, he did not wish to hurry her in making her +decision. Two things he did wish to be sure of, if possible, before +asking her the great question;--first, that she would answer it in the +affirmative; and secondly, that certain contingencies, the turning of +which was not as yet absolutely capable of being predicted, should +happen as he expected. Cynthia had the power of furthering his wishes in +many direct and indirect ways, and he felt sure of her co-operation. She +had some reason to fear his enmity if she displeased him, and he had +taken good care to make her understand that her interests would be +greatly promoted by the success of the plan which he had formed, and +which was confided to her alone. + +He kept the most careful eye on every possible source of disturbance to +this quietly maturing plan. He had no objection to have Gifted Hopkins +about Myrtle as much as she would endure to have him. The youthful bard +entertained her very innocently with his bursts of poetry, but she was +in no danger from a young person so intimately associated with the +yard-stick, the blunt scissors, and the brown-paper parcel. There was +Cyprian too, about whom he did not feel any very particular solicitude. +Myrtle had evidently found out that she was handsome and stylish and all +that, and it was not very likely she would take up with such a bashful, +humble, country youth as this. He could expect nothing beyond a possible +rectorate in the remote distance, with one of those little shingle +chapels to preach in, which, if it were set up on a stout pole, would +pass for a good-sized martin-house. Cyprian might do to practise on, but +there was no danger of her looking at him in a serious way. As for that +youth, Clement Lindsay, if he had not taken himself off as he did, +Murray Bradshaw confessed to himself that he should have felt uneasy. He +was too good-looking, and too clever a young fellow to have knocking +about among fragile susceptibilities. But on reflection he saw there +could be no danger. + +"All up with him,--poor diavolo! Can't understand it--such a little +sixpenny miss--pretty enough boiled parsnip blonde, if one likes that +sort of thing--pleases some of the old boys, apparently. Look out, Mr. +L.--remember Susanna and the Elders. Good! + +"Safe enough if something new doesn't turn up. Youngish. Sixteen's a +little early. Seventeen will do. Marry a girl while she's in the +gristle, and you can shape her bones for her. Splendid creature--without +her trimmings. Wants training. Must learn to dance, and sing something +besides psalm-tunes." + +Mr. Bradshaw began humming the hymn, "When I can read my title clear," +adding some variations of his own. "That's the solo for my _prima +donna_!" + +In the mean time Myrtle seemed to be showing some new developments. One +would have said that the instincts of the coquette, or at least of the +city belle, were coming uppermost in her nature. Her little nervous +attack passed away, and she gained strength and beauty every day. She +was becoming conscious of her gifts of fascination, and seemed to please +herself with the homage of her rustic admirers. Why was it that no one +of them had the look and bearing of that young man she had seen but a +moment the other evening? To think that he should have taken up with +such a weakling as Susan Posey! She sighed, and not so much thought as +felt how kind it would have been in Heaven to have made her such a man. +But the image of the delicate blonde stood between her and all serious +thought of Clement Lindsay. She saw the wedding in the distance, and +very foolishly thought to herself that she could not and would not go to +it. + +But Clement Lindsay was gone, and she must content herself with such +worshippers as the village afforded. Murray Bradshaw was surprised and +confounded at the easy way in which she received his compliments, and +played with his advances, after the fashion of the trained ball-room +belles, who know how to be almost caressing in manner, and yet are +really as far off from the deluded victim of their suavities as the +topmost statue of the Milan cathedral from the peasant that kneels on +its floor. He admired her all the more for this, and yet he saw that she +would be a harder prize to win than he had once thought. If he made up +his mind that he would have her, he must go armed with all implements, +from the red hackle to the harpoon. + +The change which surprised Murray Bradshaw could not fail to be noticed +by all those about her. Miss Silence had long ago come to +pantomime,--rolling up of eyes, clasping of hands, making of sad +mouths, and the rest,--but left her to her own way, as already the +property of that great firm of World & Co. which drives such sharp +bargains for young souls with the better angels. Cynthia studied her for +her own purposes, but had never gained her confidence. The Irish servant +saw that some change had come over her, and thought of the great ladies +she had sometimes looked upon in the old country. They all had a kind of +superstitious feeling about Myrtle's bracelet, of which she had told +them the story, but which Kitty half believed was put in the drawer by +the fairies, who brought her ribbons and partridge-feathers, and other +simple adornments with which she contrived to set off her simple +costume, so as to produce those effects which an eye for color and +cunning fingers can bring out of almost nothing. + +Gifted Hopkins was now in a sad, vacillating condition, between the two +great attractions to which he was exposed. Myrtle looked so immensely +handsome one Sunday when he saw her going to church,--not to meeting, +for she would not go, except when she knew Father Pemberton was going to +be the preacher,--that the young poet was on the point of going down on +his knees to her, and telling her that his heart was hers and hers +alone. But he suddenly remembered that he had on his best pantaloons; +and the idea of carrying the marks of his devotion in the shape of two +dusty impressions on his most valued article of apparel turned the scale +against the demonstration. It happened the next morning, that Susan +Posey wore the most becoming ribbon she had displayed for a long time, +and Gifted was so taken with her pretty looks that he might very +probably have made the same speech to her that he had been on the point +of making to Myrtle the day before, but that he remembered her plighted +affections, and thought what he should have to say for himself when +Clement Lindsay, in a frenzy of rage and jealousy, stood before him, +probably armed with as many deadly instruments as a lawyer mentions by +name in an indictment for murder. + +Cyprian Eveleth looked very differently on the new manifestations Myrtle +was making of her tastes and inclinations. He had always felt dazzled, +as well as attracted, by her; but now there was something in her +expression and manner which made him feel still more strongly that they +were intended for different spheres of life. He could not but own that +she was born for a brilliant destiny,--that no ball-room would throw a +light from its chandeliers too strong for her,--that no circle would be +too brilliant for her to illuminate by her presence. Love does not +thrive without hope, and Cyprian was beginning to see that it was idle +in him to think of folding these wide wings of Myrtle's so that they +would be shut up in any cage he could ever offer her. He began to doubt +whether, after all, he might not find a meeker and humbler nature better +adapted to his own. And so it happened that one evening after the three +girls, Olive, Myrtle, and Bathsheba, had been together at the Parsonage, +and Cyprian, availing himself of a brother's privilege, had joined them, +he found he had been talking most of the evening with the gentle girl +whose voice had grown so soft and sweet, during her long ministry in the +sick-chamber, that it seemed to him more like music than speech. It +would not be fair to say that Myrtle was piqued to see that Cyprian was +devoting himself to Bathsheba. Her ambition was already reaching beyond +her little village circle, and she had an inward sense that Cyprian +found a form of sympathy in the minister's simple-minded daughter which +he could not ask from a young woman of her own aspirations. + +Such was the state of affairs when Master Byles Gridley was one morning +surprised by an early call from Myrtle. He had a volume of Walton's +Polyglot open before him, and was reading Job in the original, when she +entered. + +"Why, bless me, is that my young friend Miss Myrtle Hazard?" he +exclaimed. "I might call you _Keren-Happuch_, which is Hebrew for Child +of Beauty, and not be very far out of the way,--Job's youngest daughter, +my dear. And what brings my young friend out in such good season this +morning? Nothing going wrong up at our ancient mansion, The Poplars, I +trust?" + +"I want to talk with you, dear Master Gridley," she answered. She looked +as if she did not know just how to begin. + +"Anything that interests you, Myrtle, interests me. I think you have +some project in that young head of yours, my child. Let us have it, in +all its dimensions, length, breadth, and thickness. I think I can guess, +Myrtle, that we have a little plan of some kind or other. We don't visit +Papa Job quite so early as this without some special cause,--do we, Miss +Keren-Happuch?" + +"I want to go to the city--to school," Myrtle said, with the directness +which belonged to her nature. + +"That is precisely what I want you to do myself, Miss Myrtle Hazard. I +don't like to lose you from the village, but I think we must spare you +for a while." + +"You're the best and dearest man that ever lived. What could have made +you think of such a thing for me, Mr. Gridley?" + +"Because you are ignorant, my child,--partly. I want to see you fitted +to take a look at the world without feeling like a little country miss. +Has your Aunt Silence promised to bear your expenses while you are in +the city? It will cost a good deal of money." + +"I have not said a word to her about it, I am sure I don't know what she +would say. But I have some money, Mr. Gridley." + +She showed him a purse with gold, telling him how she came by it. "There +is some silver besides. Will it be enough?" + +"No, no, my child, we must not meddle with that. Your aunt will let me +put it in the bank for you, I think, where it will be safe. But that +shall not make any difference. I have got a little money lying idle, +which you may just as well have the use of as not. You can pay it back +perhaps some time or other; if you did not, it would not make much +difference. I am pretty much alone in the world, and except a book now +and then--_Aut liberos aut libros_, as our valiant heretic has it,--you +ought to know a little Latin, Myrtle, but never mind--I have not much +occasion for money. You shall go to the best school that any of our +cities can offer, Myrtle, and you shall stay there until we agree that +you are fitted to come back to us an ornament to Oxbow Village, and to +larger places than this if you are called there. We have had some talk +about it, your Aunt Silence and I, and it is all settled. Your aunt does +not feel very rich just now, or perhaps she would do more for you. She +has many pious and poor friends, and it keeps her funds low. Never mind, +my child, we will have it all arranged for you, and you shall begin the +year 1860 in Madam Delacoste's institution for young ladies. Too many +rich girls and fashionable ones there, I fear, but you must see some of +all kinds, and there are very good instructors in the school,--I know +one,--he was a college boy with me,--and you will find pleasant and good +companions there, so he tells me; only don't be in a hurry to choose +your friends, for the least desirable young persons are very apt to +cluster about a new-comer." + +Myrtle was bewildered with the suddenness of the prospect thus held out +to her. It is a wonder that she did not bestow an embrace upon the +worthy old master. Perhaps she had too much tact. It is a pretty way +enough of telling one that he belongs to a past generation, but it does +tell him that not over-pleasing fact. Like the title of Emeritus +Professor, it is a tribute to be accepted, hardly to be longed for. + +When the curtain rises again, it will show Miss Hazard in a new +character, and surrounded by a new world. + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +MYRTLE HAZARD AT THE CITY SCHOOL. + +Mr. Bradshaw was obliged to leave town for a week or two on business +connected with the great land-claim. On his return, feeling in pretty +good spirits, as the prospects looked favorable, he went to make a call +at The Poplars. He asked first for Miss Hazard. + +"Bliss your soul, Mr. Bridshaw," answered Mistress Kitty Fagan, "she's +been gahn nigh a wake. It's to the city, to the big school, they've sint +her." + +This announcement seemed to make a deep impression on Murray Bradshaw, +for his feelings found utterance in one of the most energetic forms of +language to which ears polite or impolite are accustomed. He next asked +for Miss Silence, who soon presented herself. Mr. Bradshaw asked, in a +rather excited way, "Is it possible, Miss Withers, that your niece has +quitted you to go to a city school?" + +Miss Silence answered, with her chief-mourner expression, and her +death-chamber tone: "Yes, she has left us for a season. I trust it may +not be her destruction. I had hoped in former years that she would +become a missionary, but I have given up all expectation of that now. +Two whole years, from the age of four to that of six, I had prevailed +upon her to give up sugar,--the money so saved to go to a graduate of +our institution--who was afterwards----he labored among the +cannibal-islanders. I thought she seemed to take pleasure in this small +act of self-denial, but I have since suspected that Kitty gave her +secret lumps. It was by Mr. Gridley's advice that she went, and by his +pecuniary assistance. What could I do? She was bent on going, and I was +afraid she would have fits, or do something dreadful, if I did not let +her have her way. I am afraid she will come back to us spoiled. She has +seemed so fond of dress lately, and once she spoke of learning--yes, +Mr. Bradshaw, of learning to--dance! I wept when I heard of it. Yes, I +wept." + +That was such a tremendous thing to think of, and especially to speak of +in Mr. Bradshaw's presence,--for the most pathetic image in the world to +many women is that of themselves in tears,--that it brought a return of +the same overflow, which served as a substitute for conversation until +Miss Badlam entered the apartment. + +Miss Cynthia followed the same general course of remark. They could not +help Myrtle's going if they tried. She had always maintained that, if +they had only once broke her will when she was little, they would have +kept the upper hand of her; but her will never _was_ broke. They came +pretty near it once, but the child wouldn't give in. + +Miss Cynthia went to the door with Mr. Bradshaw, and the conversation +immediately became short and informal. + +"Demonish pretty business! All up for a year or more,--hey?" + +"Don't blame me,--I couldn't stop her." + +"Give me her address,--I'll write to her. Any young men teach in the +school?" + +"Can't tell you. She'll write to Olive and Bathsheba, and I'll find out +all about it." + +Murray Bradshaw went home and wrote a long letter to Mrs. Clymer +Ketchum, of 24 Carat Place, containing many interesting remarks and +inquiries, some of the latter relating to Madam Delacoste's institution +for the education of young ladies. + + * * * * * + +While this was going on at Oxbow Village, Myrtle was establishing +herself at the rather fashionable school to which Mr. Gridley had +recommended her. Mrs. or Madam Delacoste's boarding-school had a name +which on the whole it deserved pretty well. She had some very good +instructors for girls who wished to get up useful knowledge in case they +might marry professors or ministers. They had a chance to learn music, +dancing, drawing, and the way of behaving in company. There was a +chance, too, to pick up available acquaintances, for many rich people +sent their daughters to the school, and it was something to have been +bred in their company. + +There was the usual division of the scholars into a first and second +set, according to the social position, mainly depending upon the +fortune, of the families to which they belonged. The wholesale dealer's +daughter very naturally considered herself as belonging to a different +order from the retail dealer's daughter. The keeper of a great hotel and +the editor of a widely circulated newspaper were considered as ranking +with the wholesale dealers, and their daughters belonged also to the +untitled nobility which has the dollar for its armorial bearing. The +second set had most of the good scholars, and some of the prettiest +girls; but nobody knew anything about their families, who lived off the +great streets and avenues, or vegetated in country towns. + +Myrtle Hazard's advent made something like a sensation. They did not +know exactly what to make of her. Hazard? Hazard? No great firm of that +name. No leading hotel kept by any Hazard, was there? No newspaper of +note edited by anybody called Hazard, was there? Came from where? Oxbow +Village. O, rural district. Yes.--Still they could not help owning that +she was handsome,--a concession which of course had to be made with +reservations. + +"Don't you think she's vurry good-lookin'?" said a Boston girl to a New +York girl. "I think she's real pooty." + +"I dew, indeed. I didn't think she was haaef so handsome the feeest +time I saw her," answered the New York girl. + +"What a pity she hadn't been bawn in Bawston!" + +"Yes, and moved very young to Ne Yock!" + +"And married a sarsaparilla man, and lived in Fiff Avenoo, and moved in +the fust society." + +"Better dew that than be strong-mainded, and dew your own cook'n, and +live in your own kitch'n." + +"Don't forgit to send your card when you are Mrs. Old Dr. Jacob!" + +"Indeed I shaaen't. What's the name of the alley, and which bell?" The +New York girl took out a memorandum-book as if to put it down. + +"Hadn't you better let me write it for you, dear?" said the Boston girl. +"It is as well to have it legible, you know." + +"Take it," said the New York girl. "There's tew York shill'ns in it when +I hand it to you." + +"Your whole quarter's allowance, I bullieve,--ain't it?" said the +Boston girl. + +"Elegant manners, correct deportment, and propriety of language will be +strictly attended to in this institution. The most correct standards of +pronunciation will be inculcated by precept and example. It will be the +special aim of the teachers to educate their pupils out of all +provincialisms, so that they may be recognized as well-bred English +scholars wherever the language is spoken in its purity."--_Extract from +the Prospectus of Madam Delacoste's Boarding-School._ + +Myrtle Hazard was a puzzle to all the girls. Striking, they all agreed, +but then the criticisms began. Many of the girls chattered a little +broken French, and one of them, Miss Euphrosyne De Lacy, had been half +educated in Paris, so that she had all the phrases which are to social +operators what his cutting instruments are to the surgeon. Her face she +allowed was handsome; but her style, according to this oracle, was a +little _bourgeoise_, and her air not exactly _comme il faut_. More +specifically, she was guilty of _contours fortement prononces,--corsage +de paysanne,--quelque chose de sauvage_, etc., etc. This girl prided +herself on her figure. + +Miss Bella Pool, (_La Belle Poule_ as the demi-Parisian girl had +christened her,) the beauty of the school, did not think so much of +Myrtle's face, but considered her figure as better than the De Lacy +girl's. + +The two sets, first and second, fought over her as the Greeks and +Trojans over a dead hero, or the Yale College societies over a live +freshman. She was nobody by her connections, it is true, so far as they +could find out, but then, on the other hand, she had the walk of a +queen, and she looked as if a few stylish dresses and a season or two +would make her a belle of the first water. She had that air of +indifference to their little looks and whispered comments which is +surest to disarm all the critics of a small tattling community. On the +other hand, she came to this school to learn, and not to play; and the +modest and more plainly dressed girls, whose fathers did not sell by the +cargo, or keep victualling establishments for some hundreds of people, +considered her as rather in sympathy with them than with the daughters +of the rough-and-tumble millionnaires who were grappling and rolling +over each other in the golden dust of the great city markets. + +She did not mean to belong exclusively to either of their sets. She came +with that sense of manifold deficiencies, and eager ambition to supply +them, which carries any learner upward, as if on wings, over the heads +of the mechanical plodders and the indifferent routinists. She learned, +therefore, in a way to surprise the experienced instructors. Her +somewhat rude sketching soon began to show something of the artist's +touch. Her voice, which had only been taught to warble the simplest +melodies, after a little training began to show its force and sweetness +and flexibility in the airs that enchant drawing-room audiences. She +caught with great readiness the manner of the easiest girls, +unconsciously, for she inherited old social instincts which became +nature with the briefest exercise. Not much license of dress was allowed +in the educational establishment of Madam Delacoste, but every girl had +an opportunity to show her taste within the conventional limits +prescribed. And Myrtle soon began to challenge remark by a certain air +she contrived to give her dresses, and the skill with which she blended +their colors. + +"Tell you what, girls," said Miss Berengaria Topping, female +representative of the great dynasty that ruled over the world-famous +Planet Hotel, "she's got style, lots of it. I call her perfectly +splendid, when she's got up in her swell clothes. That oriole's wing she +wears in her bonnet makes her look gorgeous,--she'll be a stunning +Pocahontas for the next _tableau_." + +Miss Rose Bugbee, whose family opulence grew out of the only +merchantable article a Hebrew is never known to seek profit from, +thought she could be made presentable in the first circles if taken in +hand in good season. So it came about that, before many weeks had passed +over her as a scholar in the great educational establishment, she might +be considered as on the whole the most popular girl in the whole bevy of +them. The studious ones admired her for her facility of learning, and +her extraordinary appetite for every form of instruction, and the showy +girls, who were only enduring school as the purgatory that opened into +the celestial world of society, recognized in her a very handsome young +person, who would be like to make a sensation sooner or later. + +There were, however, it must be confessed, a few who considered +themselves the thickest of the cream of the school-girls, who submitted +her to a more trying ordeal than any she had yet passed. + +"How many horses does your papa keep?" asked Miss Florence Smythe. "We +keep nine and a pony for Edgar." + +Myrtle had to explain that she had no papa, and that they did not keep +any horses. Thereupon Miss Florence Smythe lost her desire to form an +acquaintance, and wrote home to her mother (who was an ex-bonnet-maker) +that the school was getting common, she was afraid,--they were letting +in persons one knew nothing about. + +Miss Clara Browne had a similar curiosity about the amount of plate used +in the household from which Myrtle came. _Her_ father had just bought a +complete silver service. Myrtle had to own that they used a good deal of +china at her own home,--old china, which had been a hundred years in the +family, some of it. + +"A hundred years old!" exclaimed Miss Clara Browne. "What queer-looking +stuff it must be! Why, everything in our house is just as new and +bright! Papaae had all our pictures painted on purpose for us. Have you +got any handsome pictures in your house?" + +"We have a good many portraits of members of the family," she said, +"some of them older than the china." + +"How very very odd! What do the dear old things look like?" + +"One was a great beauty in her time." + +"How jolly!" + +"Another was a young woman who was put to death for her +religion,--burned to ashes at the stake in Queen Mary's time." + +"How very very wicked! It wasn't nice a bit, was it? Ain't you telling +me stories? Was that a hundred years ago?--But you've got some new +pictures and things, haven't you? Who furnished your parlors?" + +"My great-grandfather, or his father, I believe." + +"Stuff and nonsense. I don't believe it. What color are your +carriage-horses?" + +"Our woman, Kitty Fagan, told somebody once we didn't keep any horse but +a cow." + +"Not keep any horses! Do for pity's sake let me look at your feet." + +Myrtle put out as neat a little foot as a shoemaker ever fitted with a +pair of number two. What she would have been tempted to do with it, if +she had been a boy, we will not stop to guess. After all, the questions +amused her quite as much as the answers instructed Miss Clara Browne. +Of that young lady's ancestral claims to distinction there is no need of +discoursing. Her "papaae" commonly said _sir_ in talking with a +gentleman, and her "mammaae" would once in a while forget, and go down +the area steps instead of entering at the proper door; but they lived in +a brown-stone front, which veneers everybody's antecedents with a facing +of respectability. + +Miss Clara Browne wrote home to _her_ mother in the same terms as Miss +Florence Smythe,--that the school was getting dreadful common, and they +were letting in very queer folks. + +Still another trial awaited Myrtle, and one which not one girl in a +thousand would have been so unprepared to meet. She knew absolutely +nothing of certain things with which the vast majority of young persons +were quite familiar. + +There were literary young ladies, who had read everything of Dickens and +Thackeray, and something at least of Sir Walter, and occasionally, +perhaps, a French novel, which they had better have left alone. One of +the talking young ladies of this set began upon Myrtle one day. + +"O, isn't Pickwick nice?" she asked. + +"I don't know," Myrtle replied; "I never tasted any." + +The girl stared at her as if she were a crazy creature. "Tasted any! +Why, I mean the Pickwick Papers, Dickens's story. Don't you think +they're nice?" + +Poor Myrtle had to confess that she had never read them, and didn't know +anything about them. + +"What! did you never read any novels?" said the young lady. + +"O, to be sure I have," said Myrtle, blushing as she thought of the +great trunk and its contents. "I have read Caleb Williams, and Evelina, +and Tristram Shandy" (naughty girl!), "and the Castle of Otranto, and +the Mysteries of Udolpho, and the Vicar of Wakefield, and Don +Quixote--" + +The young lady burst out laughing. "Stop! stop! for mercy's sake," she +cried. "You must be somebody that's been dead and buried and come back +to life again. Why you're Rip Van Winkle in a petticoat! You ought to +powder your hair and wear patches." + +"We've got the oddest girl here," this young lady wrote home. "She +hasn't read any book that isn't a thousand years old. One of the girls +says she wears a trilobite for a breastpin; some horrid old stone, I +believe that is, that was a bug ever so long ago. Her name, she says, is +Myrtle Hazard, but I call her Rip Van Myrtle." + +Notwithstanding the quiet life which these young girls were compelled to +lead, they did once in a while have their gatherings, at which a few +young gentlemen were admitted. One of these took place about a month +after Myrtle had joined the school. The girls were all in their best, +and by and by they were to have a _tableau_. Myrtle came out in all her +force. She dressed herself as nearly as she dared like the handsome +woman of the past generation whom she resembled. The very spirit of the +dead beauty seemed to animate every feature and every movement of the +young girl, whose position in the school was assured from that moment. +She had a good solid foundation to build upon in the jealousy of two or +three of the leading girls of the style of pretensions illustrated by +some of their talk which has been given. There is no possible success +without some opposition as a fulcrum: force is always aggressive, and +crowds something or other, if it does not hit or trample on it. + +The cruelest cut of all was the remark attributed to Mr. Livingston +Jenkins, who was what the opposition girls just referred to called the +great "swell" among the privileged young gentlemen who were present at +the gathering. + +"Rip Van Myrtle, you call that handsome girl, do you, Miss Clara? By +Jove, she's the stylishest of the whole lot, to say nothing of being a +first-class beauty. Of course you know I except one, Miss Clara. If a +girl can go to sleep and wake up after twenty years looking like that, I +know a good many who had better begin their nap without waiting. If I +were Florence Smythe, I'd try it, and begin now,--eh, Clara?" + +Miss Browne felt the praise of Myrtle to be slightly alleviated by the +depreciation of Miss Smythe, who had long been a rival of her own. A +little later in the evening Miss Smythe enjoyed almost precisely the +same sensation, produced in a very economical way by Mr. Livingston +Jenkins's repeating pretty nearly the same sentiments to her, only with +a change in two of the proper names. The two young ladies were left +feeling comparatively comfortable with regard to each other, each +intending to repeat Mr. Livingston Jenkins's remark about her friend to +such of her other friends as enjoyed clever sayings, but not at all +comfortable with reference to Myrtle Hazard, who was evidently +considered by the leading "swell" of their circle as the most noticeable +personage of the assembly. The individual exception in each case did +very well as a matter of politeness, but they knew well enough what he +meant. + +It seemed to Myrtle Hazard, that evening, that she felt the bracelet on +her wrist glow with a strange, unaccustomed warmth. It was as if it had +just been unclasped from the arm of a young woman full of red blood and +tingling all over with swift nerve-currents. Life had never looked to +her as it did that evening. It was the swan's first breasting the +water,--bred on the desert sand, with vague dreams of lake and river, +and strange longings as the mirage came and dissolved, and at length +afloat upon the sparkling wave. She felt as if she had for the first +time found her destiny. It was to please, and so to command,--to rule +with gentle sway in virtue of the royal gift of beauty,--to enchant with +the commonest exercise of speech, through the rare quality of a voice +which could not help being always gracious and winning, of a manner +which came to her as an inheritance of which she had just found the +title. She read in the eyes of all that she was more than any other the +centre of admiration. Blame her who may, the world was a very splendid +vision as it opened before her eyes in its long vista of pleasures and +of triumphs. How different the light of these bright saloons from the +glimmer of the dim chamber at The Poplars! Silence Withers was at that +very moment looking at the portraits of Anne Holyoake and of Judith +Pride. "The old picture seems to me to be fading faster than ever," she +was thinking. But when she held her lamp before the other, it seemed to +her that the picture never was so fresh before, and that the proud smile +upon its lips was more full of conscious triumph than she remembered it. +A reflex, doubtless, of her own thoughts, for she believed that the +martyr was weeping even in heaven over her lost descendant, and that the +beauty, changed to the nature of the malignant spiritual company with +which she had long consorted in the under-world, was pleasing herself +with the thought that Myrtle was in due time to bring her news from the +Satanic province overhead, where she herself had so long indulged in the +profligacy of _embonpoint_ and loveliness. + +The evening at the school-party was to terminate with some _tableaux_. +The girl who had suggested that Myrtle would look "stunning" or +"gorgeous" or "jolly," or whatever the expression was, as Pocahontas, +was not far out of the way, and it was so evident to the managing heads +that she would make a fine appearance in that character, that the +"Rescue of Captain John Smith" was specially got up to show her off. + +Myrtle had sufficient reason to believe that there was a hint of Indian +blood in her veins. It was one of those family legends which some of the +members are a little proud of, and others are willing to leave +uninvestigated. But with Myrtle it was a fixed belief that she felt +perfectly distinct currents of her ancestral blood at intervals, and she +had sometimes thought there were instincts and vague recollections +which must have come from the old warriors and hunters and their dusky +brides. The Indians who visited the neighborhood recognized something of +their own race in her dark eyes, as the reader may remember they told +the persons who were searching after her. It had almost frightened her +sometimes to find how like a wild creature she felt when alone in the +woods. Her senses had much of that delicacy for which the red people are +noted, and she often thought she could follow the trail of an enemy, if +she wished to track one through the forest, as unerringly as if she were +a Pequot or a Mohegan. + +It was a strange feeling that came over Myrtle, as they dressed her for +the part she was to take. Had she never worn that painted robe before? +Was it the first time that these strings of wampum had ever rattled upon +her neck and arms? And could it be that the plume of eagle's feathers +with which they crowned her dark, fast-lengthening locks had never +shadowed her forehead until now? She felt herself carried back into the +dim ages when the wilderness was yet untrodden save by the feet of its +native lords. Think of her wild fancy as we may, she felt as if that +dusky woman of her midnight vision on the river were breathing for one +hour through her lips. If this belief had lasted, it is plain enough +where it would have carried her. But it came into her imagination and +vivifying consciousness with the putting on of her unwonted costume, and +might well leave her when she put it off. It is not for us, who tell +only what happened, to solve these mysteries of the seeming admission of +unhoused souls into the fleshly tenements belonging to air-breathing +personalities. A very little more, and from that evening forward the +question would have been treated in full in all the works on medical +jurisprudence published throughout the limits of Christendom. The story +must be told, or we should not be honest with the reader. + +TABLEAU 1. Captain John Smith (Miss Euphrosyne de Lacy) was to be +represented prostrate and bound, ready for execution; Powhatan (Miss +Florence Smythe) sitting upon a log; savages with clubs (Misses Clara +Browne, A. Van Boodle, E. Van Boodle, Heister, Booster, etc., etc.) +standing around; Pocahontas holding the knife in her hand, ready to cut +the cords with which Captain John Smith is bound.--Curtain. + +TABLEAU 2. Captain John Smith released and kneeling before Pocahontas, +whose hand is extended in the act of raising him and presenting him to +her father. Savages in various attitudes of surprise. Clubs fallen from +their hands. Strontian flame to be kindled.--Curtain. + +This was a portion of the programme for the evening, as arranged behind +the scenes. The first part went off with wonderful _eclat_, and at its +close there were loud cries for Pocahontas. She appeared for a moment. +Bouquets were flung to her; and a wreath, which one of the young ladies +had expected for herself in another part, was tossed upon the stage, and +laid at her feet. The curtain fell. + +"Put the wreath on her for the next _tableau_," some of them whispered, +just as the curtain was going to rise, and one of the girls hastened to +place it upon her head. + +The disappointed young lady could not endure it, and, in a spasm of +jealous passion, sprang at Myrtle, snatched it from her head, and +trampled it under her feet at the very instant the curtain was rising. +With a cry which some said had the blood-chilling tone of an Indian's +battle-shriek, Myrtle caught the knife up, and raised her arm against +the girl who had thus rudely assailed her. The girl sank to the ground, +covering her eyes in her terror. Myrtle, with her arm still lifted, and +the blade glistening in her hand, stood over her, rigid as if she had +been suddenly changed to stone. Many of those looking on thought all +this was a part of the show, and were thrilled with the wonderful +acting. Before those immediately around her had had time to recover +from the palsy of their fright, Myrtle had flung the knife away from +her, and was kneeling, her head bowed and her hands crossed upon her +breast. The audience went into a rapture of applause as the curtain came +suddenly down; but Myrtle had forgotten all but the dread peril she had +just passed, and was thanking God that his angel--her own protecting +spirit, as it seemed to her--had stayed the arm which a passion such as +her nature had never known, such as she believed was alien to her truest +self, had lifted with deadliest purpose. She alone knew how extreme the +danger had been. "She meant to scare her,--that's all," they said. But +Myrtle tore the eagle's feathers from her hair, and stripped off her +colored beads, and threw off her painted robe. The metempsychosis was +far too real for her to let her wear the semblance of the savage from +whom, as she believed, had come the lawless impulse at the thought of +which her soul recoiled in horror. + +"Pocahontas has got a horrid headache," the managing young ladies gave +it out, "and can't come to time for the last _tableau_." So this all +passed over, not only without loss of credit to Myrtle, but with no +small addition to her local fame,--for it must have been acting; and +"wasn't it stunning to see her with that knife, looking as if she was +going to stab Bella, or to scalp her, or something?" + +As Master Gridley had predicted, and as is the case commonly with +new-comers at colleges and schools, Myrtle came first in contact with +those who were least agreeable to meet. The low-bred youth who amuse +themselves with scurvy tricks on freshmen, and the vulgar girls who try +to show off their gentility to those whom they think less important than +themselves, are exceptions in every institution; but they make +themselves odiously prominent before the quiet and modest young people +have had time to gain the new scholar's confidence. Myrtle found +friends in due time, some of them daughters of rich people, some poor +girls, who came with the same sincerity of purpose as herself. But not +one was her match in the facility of acquiring knowledge. Not one +promised to make such a mark in society, if she found an opening into +its loftier circles. She was by no means ignorant of her natural gifts, +and she cultivated them with the ambition which would not let her rest. + +During the year she spent in the great school, she made but one visit to +Oxbow Village. She did not try to startle the good people with her +accomplishments, but they were surprised at the change which had taken +place in her. Her dress was hardly more showy, for she was but a +school-girl, but it fitted her more gracefully. She had gained a +softness of expression, and an ease in conversation, which produced +their effect on all with whom she came in contact. Her aunt's voice lost +something of its plaintiveness in talking with her. Miss Cynthia +listened with involuntary interest to her stories of school and +schoolmates. Master Byles Gridley accepted her as the great success of +his life, and determined to make her his sole heiress, if there was any +occasion for so doing. Cyprian told Bathsheba that Myrtle must come to +be a great lady. Gifted Hopkins confessed to Susan Posey that he was +afraid of her, since she had been to the great city school. She knew too +much, and looked too much like a queen, for a village boy to talk with. + +Mr. William Murray Bradshaw tried all his fascinations upon her, but she +parried compliments so well, and put off all his nearer advances so +dexterously, that he could not advance beyond the region of florid +courtesy, and never got a chance, if so disposed, to risk a question +which he would not ask rashly, believing that, if Myrtle once said _No_, +there would be little chance of her ever saying _Yes_. + + + + +HOSPITAL MEMORIES + + +I. + +When the first wave of patriotism rolled over the land at the outbreak +of the late Rebellion, fathers and mothers were proudly willing to send +forth sons and daughters to take their part in the struggle. The young +men were speedily marshalled and marched to the scene of action; but the +young women were not so fortunate in getting off to places in the +hospitals before the first ardor of excitement had cooled. Indeed, all +hospital organization was in such an imperfect state that no definite +plan could be made for ladies desiring to enter upon the good work. + +Then came grave doubts from sage heads as to the propriety and +expediency of young women's going at all. One said that they would +always be standing in the way of the doctors; another, that they would +run at the first glimpse of a wounded man, or certainly faint at sight +of a surgical instrument; others still, that no woman's strength could +endure for a week the demands of hospital life. In fact, it was looked +upon as the most fanatical folly, and suggestions were made that at +least a slight experiment of hospital horrors ought to be made before +starting on such a mad career. Accordingly, in Boston, a few who +cherished the project most earnestly began a series of daily visits to +the Massachusetts General Hospital. To the courtesy and kindness of Dr. +B. S. Shaw and the attending surgeons,--especially Dr. J. Mason +Warren,--these novices were indebted for the privilege of witnessing +operations and being taught the art of dressing wounds. The omission of +fainting on the part of the new pupils rather disappointed general +expectation; and though the knowledge gained in a few weeks was +superficial, yet for practical purposes the nurses were not deemed +totally incompetent. + +After receiving a certificate of fitness for the work from medical +authority, it was discouraging at last to be denied the consent of +parents. However, some favored ones went forth, and, returning home in a +few months, brought back such accounts of satisfaction in finding +themselves of use, and of their enjoyment in ministering to our +suffering soldiers, that at length the prejudices which withheld consent +were overcome, and one of the last of those who went was allowed to take +part in the most interesting duties to which the war called women. + +I have often thought that one day of hospital employment, with its +constant work and opportunities, was worth a year of ordinary life at +home, and I remember with thankfulness how many times I was permitted to +take the place of absent mothers and sisters in caring for their sons +and brothers. It seemed to me that we women in the hospitals received +our reward a hundred-fold in daily sights of patient heroism, and +expressions of warm gratitude, and that we did not deserve mention or +remembrance in comparison with the thousands at home whose zeal never +wearied in labors indirect and unexciting, until the day of victory +ended their work. + +No place in the country could have been better adapted to the uses of a +hospital than the grounds and buildings belonging to the Naval Academy +at Annapolis, enclosed on two sides, as they are, by an arm of the +Chesapeake Bay and the river Severn, and blessed with a varied view, and +fresh, invigorating breezes. At the opening of the war General Butler +landed troops at this point, thus communicating with Washington without +passing through Baltimore. The Naval School was immediately removed to +Newport, where it remained until after the close of our national +troubles. The places of the young students preparing for the naval +service were soon filled by the sick and wounded of the volunteer +armies. + +The city of Annapolis is old and quaint. Unlike most of our American +capitals, it gives a stranger the impression of having been finished for +centuries, and one would imagine that the inhabitants are quite too +contented to have any idea of progress or improvement. The Episcopal +church, destroyed by fire a few years since, has been rebuilt; but even +that is crowned with the ancient wooden tower rescued from the flames, +and preserved in grateful memory of Queen Anne, who bestowed valuable +gifts on this church of her namesake city. + +Within easy access of all the conveniences of a city, and with excellent +railroad facilities, the hospital grounds were perfectly secluded by +surrounding walls. As one entered through the high gates, an +indescribable repose was felt, enhanced by the charm with which Nature +has endowed the spot, in the abundant shade, evergreen, and fruit trees, +and rose-bushes, holly, and other shrubbery. The classical naval +monument, formerly at the Capitol in Washington, has within a few years +been removed, and with two others--one of which perpetuates the memory +of the adventurous Herndon--stands here. The wharf built for the +embarkation of the Burnside Expedition in 1861 is also here. About sixty +brick buildings, comprising the chapel, post-office, dispensary, and +laundry, with long rows of tents stretched across the grassy spaces, +afforded accommodation for patients varying from five hundred to +twenty-two hundred in number. + +In the summer of 1863, Dr. B. A. Vanderkeift was appointed surgeon in +charge of the U.S. General Hospital, Division I., at Annapolis, more +frequently called the Naval School Hospital. Dr. Vanderkeift, from his +uncommon energy of character, his large experience, and rare executive +ability, was admirably fitted for his position. By day and night he +never spared himself in the most watchful superintendence of all +departments of the hospital; no details were too minute for his care, no +plan too generous which could tend to the comfort of the suffering. +Absolute system and punctuality were expected to be observed by all who +came under his military rule. The reveille bugle broke the silence of +early dawn. Its clear notes, repeated at intervals during the day, +announced to the surgeons the time for visits and reports, and to the +men on duty--such as the guards, police, nurses, and cooks--the time for +their meals. One of the most original of the Doctor's plans was the +establishment of a stretcher corps. At one time there was daily to be +seen upon the green in front of head-quarters a company of men, +ward-masters, nurses, and cooks, performing the most surprising +evolutions, playing alternately the parts of patients and nurses, +studying by experiment, under the eye and direction of skilful surgeons, +the most comfortable method of conveying the helpless. In this way the +stretcher corps acquired an amount of skill and tenderness which was +brought into good use when the long roll on the drum summoned them to +meet an approaching transport, bringing either the wounded from the last +battle-field, or the emaciated victims who had been held as prisoners of +war at the South. + +Shortly after Dr. Vanderkeift came to the hospital, he invited "Sister +Tyler" to take the head of the ladies' department. She will always be +remembered as identified with the war from the very beginning. She was +the only woman in Baltimore who came forward on the 19th of April, 1861, +when the men of our Massachusetts Sixth were massacred in passing +through that city. She insisted upon being permitted to see the wounded, +and with dauntless devotion, in the face of peril, had some of them +removed to her own home, where she gave them the most faithful care for +many weeks. These men were but the first few of thousands who can never +forget the kindness received from her hands, the words of cheer which +came from her lips. Until within ten months of the closing events of the +war, she was constantly engaged in hospital service, and then only left +for Europe because too much exhausted to continue longer in the work. +"Sister Tyler" had supervision of the hospital, and of the fourteen +ladies who had a subdivision of responsibility resting upon each of +them. Their duties consisted in the special care of the wards assigned +them, and particular attention to the diet and stimulants; they supplied +the thousand nameless little wants which occurred every day, furnished +books and amusements, wrote for and read to the men,--did everything, in +fact, which a thoughtful tact could suggest without interfering with +surgeons or stewards. + +Dr. Vanderkeift wisely considered nourishing diet of more importance +than medicine. There were three departments for the preparation of low +and special diet, over each of which a lady presided. The cooks and +nurses, throughout the hospital, were furnished from the number of +convalescent patients not fit to go to the front. They made excellent +workers in these positions, learning with a ready intelligence their new +duties, and performing them with cheerful compliance; but they often +regained their strength too rapidly, and the whole order and convenience +of kitchens and wards would be thrown into wild confusion by a stern +mandate from Washington, that every able-bodied man was to go to his +regiment. No matter what the exigency of the case might be, these men +were despatched in haste. Then came a new training of men, some on +crutches, some with one hand, and all far from strong. When the ladies +remonstrated at having such men put on duty, they were told that +feebleness must be made good by numbers, and it was no uncommon thing +for four or five crippled men to be employed in the work of one strong +one. These changes made wild confusion for a few days, but gradually we +began to consider them a part of the fortunes of war, and to find that a +stoical tranquillity was the best way in which to meet them. Though +exceedingly inconvenient, there was rarely any serious result attending +them. Occasionally a lady would be fortunate enough to evade the loss of +a valuable man by sending him into the city on an errand, or by keeping +him out of sight while an inspection was going on. In this way my chief +of staff, as I used to call a certain German youth, was kept a year in +the hospital. His efficiency and constant interest in the patients made +him a valuable auxiliary in my little department; and I know that his +services were appreciated by others than myself, for one of the chief +surgeons advised me to keep him by all means, even if hiding him in the +ice-chest were necessary. + +The regular supplies from the commissary were comparatively plentiful, +but fell short of the demand, both as to quantity and variety. The +Christian and Sanitary Commissions met this want in great measure, +providing good stimulants, dried fruits, butter, and various other +luxuries. But with the utmost delight were received boxes packed by +generous hands at home. I shall ever feel indebted to many Boston +friends for their laborious care and munificent contributions. One of +them, Mrs. James Reed, has now entered upon the full reward of a life +rich in noble impulses and kindly deeds. Her cordial sympathy for those +languishing in distant hospital wards was manifested in sending gifts of +the choicest and most expensive home luxuries. + +A gentleman well known in England, as well as our own country, for his +friendly patronage of art, was never forgetful of our warriors in their +dreary days of suffering. Many a cheery message did he send in letters, +and never without liberal "contents." His name was gratefully associated +by the men with bountiful draughts of punch and milk, fruits, ice-cream, +and many other satisfying good things. His request was never to allow a +man to want for anything that money could buy; and though "peanuts and +oranges"--of which he desired the men should have plenty--were not +always the most judicious articles of diet, the spirit of his command +was strictly obeyed. + +Mrs. Alexander Randall, who lived near the hospital at Annapolis, was +exceedingly kind in sending in timely delicacies for the men. Fruits and +flowers from her own garden in lavish profusion were the constant +expressions of her thoughtful interest. I remember especially one +morning when a poor boy who was very low could not be persuaded to take +any food; many tempting things had been suggested, but with feeble voice +he said that some grapes were all that he cared for. It was early in the +season, and they could not be bought. But just at this moment Mrs. +Randall opportunely sent in some beautiful clusters. The countenance of +the dying boy brightened with delight as he saw them. They made his last +moments happy, for within half an hour he turned his head on the pillow, +and with one short sigh was gone. + +The large basketfuls of rosy apples from this lady were hailed with the +utmost delight by those allowed to eat them. "I have wanted an apple +more than anything," was often the eager reply, as they were offered to +those who had recently come from a long captivity; and as they were +distributed through the wards, not the least gratifying circumstance was +the invariable refusal of the ward-masters and nurses to take any. Their +diet was not sumptuous, and apples were a great luxury to all; but they +would say, "No, thank you, let the men who have just come have them +all." + +On the 17th of November, 1863, the steamer New York came in, bringing +one hundred and eighty men from Libby Prison and Belle Isle. Most of +these were the soldiers who had fought at Gettysburg. Never was there an +army in the world whose health and strength were better looked after +than our own; the weak and sick were always sent to the general +hospitals; and the idea that our men were ever in other than the most +sound and robust condition at the time of their becoming prisoners has +no foundation. Language fails to describe them on their return from the +most cruel of captivities. Ignominious insults, bitter and galling +threats, exposure to scorching heat by day and to frosty cold at night, +torturing pangs of hunger,--these were the methods by which stalwart men +had been transformed into ghastly beings with sunken eyes and sepulchral +voices. They were clothed in uncleanly rags, many without caps, and most +without shoes. Their hair and beards were overgrown and matted. The +condition of their teeth was the only appearance of neatness about them: +and these were as white as ivory, from eating bread made of corn and +cobs ground up together. A piece of such bread four inches square daily, +with a morsel of meat once a week and a spoonful of beans three times a +week, had been their food for several months. Some were too far gone to +bear the strain of removal from the steamer; nine died on the day of +arrival, and one third of the whole number soon followed them. Roses, +which had lingered through the mellow autumn, were wreathed with laurel +and laid upon their coffins as they were carried into the beautiful +little chapel for the funeral services, before they were laid in the +government cemetery, about a mile from the hospital. It is a lovely +place, with many trees surrounding its gentle slopes; and here thousands +sleep, with their name, rank, company, and regiment inscribed upon +wooden slabs. But "Unknown" is the only sad record on many a headboard. +These were men who died either on transports, or who when brought to us +were too much impaired in mind to remember anything,--for the loss or +derangement of mental faculties was no uncommon occurrence. When the +first cases of starvation were brought under treatment, the doctors +prescribed the lightest diet, mostly rice, soup, and tea. By experiment +it was proved that just as many died in proportion under this care as +when an intense desire for any particular article of food was allowed in +a measure to be satisfied. Almost every man on his arrival would have +his mind concentrated on some one thing: with many, pickles were the +coveted luxury; with others, milk. Often, as I passed through the wards, +one or another would call out, "Lady, do you think there is such a thing +as a piece of Bologna sausage here?" or, "Lady, is there a lemon in this +place? I have been longing for one for months." The first thing that one +man asked for was a cigar. He was very low, but said, "I would like one +sweet smoke before I die." He finished his cigar only a few moments +before he breathed his last. + +The gratification of an insane craving for food cost many a poor fellow +his life. One morning a man who had just come received some money from a +friendly comrade; going in to the sutler's, he bought a quart of dried +apples. After eating them he became quite thirsty, and drank an alarming +quantity of cold water. It is needless to say that he died the next day. +At another time a boy received a box from home; his fond mother, with +more kindness than good judgment, sent, with other things, a mince-pie, +which delighted him, and he was greatly disappointed in not being +allowed to taste it. Though warned of the danger, when the nurse left +him for a few moments to bring him some beef-tea, he got at the pie, ate +half of it, and when the nurse returned was lying dead. Perhaps his +death was not caused, but only hastened, by this. It was impossible +always to guard against such imprudences. + +One of the most interesting of the patients, who lived a few weeks after +coming, was Hiram Campbell, of the Hundred and Forty-fifth Pennsylvania +Regiment. An imprisonment of one hundred and thirty-eight days had +reduced him to a point beyond recovery. Day by day he grew weaker, yet +clung to life for the sake of going home to see his friends once more. A +few weeks before, Dr. Vanderkeift had allowed a man in similar +condition to start for home, and he had died on the way; so that the +Doctor had made a rule that no man should leave the hospital unless able +to walk to head-quarters to ask for his own papers. An exception to this +rule could not be granted, and the only chance was to try to build up +Campbell's little remaining strength for the journey, to relieve his +sufferings by comforts, and to keep hope alive in his mind by +interesting him in stories and books. He was delighted to have +"Evangeline" read to him, and the faint smile which passed over his +haggard features as he listened told of a romance in his own life, +begun, but destined too soon to be broken off by death. When too low to +write, as a lady was answering a letter from his sister for him, he +asked to have it read over to him. In her letter the sister had +requested him to name her infant daughter. When the lady came to this +request, he stopped her by asking what she thought a pretty name. Edith +was suggested, but he did not seem satisfied with that; at last he said +shyly, "How do you spell your name? I think I would like to have her +named for you." The lady felt rather embarrassed in writing this, and +persuaded him to let her mention several names, so that at least the +sister might have a choice. This was only a few days before his death. +His father was sent for, because it was evident that there could no +longer be any hope of returning strength for him. The poor old man was +heart-broken when he saw his son in such an emaciated condition. They +had heard at home of his severe sufferings, but said he, "How could I +ever expect to see him the like of this?" With patient resignation to +God's will, the sufferer waited, and his life ebbed slowly away. + +The sorrow-stricken father took to his home in the interior of +Pennsylvania the body of his son, that he might rest in the village +graveyard by the side of his mother. By his grassy grave a little child +often hears from her mother's lips how her uncle fought and died for +the country, and with questioning wonder asks, "And am I named for the +lady who was kind to Uncle Hiram?" Such are the strange links in life. + +At this time there was in the wards an elderly man, who for months had +been vainly trying to recruit his strength. He had not been a prisoner, +but had been sent to the rear on account of feebleness. Now John Bump +thought it a great waste of time to be staying here in the hospital, +where he was doing no good to the nation, while, if he were at home, he +might be acquiring quite a fortune from his "profession," for he was a +chair-maker. His descriptive list not having been sent from the +regiment, he could draw no pay. One day he received the following +important queries from his anxious wife, who with eight small children +at home did seem to be in a precarious condition: "The man who owns the +house says I must move out if I cannot pay the rent: what shall I do? I +have nothing for the children to eat: what shall I do? There is nothing +to feed the hens with: what shall I do? The pigs are starving: what +shall I do?" An application was made, which resulted in John Bump's +being sent to his regiment, from which he no doubt soon received his +discharge papers. + +Around the post-office at noon might always be seen an eager group +awaiting the distribution of the mail. A letter from friends was the +most cheering hope of the day, often proving more effectual than +anything else toward the restoration of health, by bringing vividly to +minds languid with disease all the little interests and charms of home. + +Gathered about the fire on a wintry day, the men would recount the +experiences of their captivity, from the moment when they first found +themselves with dismay in the power of the enemy, and, relieved of +muskets, were marched without food to Richmond. There whatever they +chanced to have of money or of value was taken into the care of a Rebel +officer, with the assurance that it would be returned on their release. +The promise was never fulfilled, and the men were hurried off to the +sandy plains of Belle Isle. The death of companions was the principal +change in their dreary, monotonous life, varied also by the addition +from time to time of others doomed to share their fate. Efforts to +escape were not always unsuccessful. At one time eight men burned spots +on their faces and hands with hot wire, and then sprinkled the spots +with black pepper. When the doctor came round, they feigned illness, and +he ordered these cases of small-pox to be taken to the pestilence-house +beyond the guards. In the night the men started for their homes in the +West, and were not caught. + +Tracy Rogers, with his bright, sunny face, and sweet voice, whose merry +music resounded through the wards, was one of the first to regain +strength and spirits. His patriotic zeal had only been reanimated by his +sufferings, and he was in haste to be in his place at the front again. A +brother had been killed in the same battle in which he was taken +prisoner, and another had died in a Philadelphia hospital. He was sure +that he should yet die for his country, and talked of death as soon to +come to him. With earnest thoughtfulness, he recalled the teachings of a +Christian mother in his far-off Connecticut home. As the tears filled +his manly blue eyes one day, he asked if the hymn, + + "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, + And cast a wishful eye," + +could be found in the hospital. He said that it had been sung at his +mother's funeral, on his fourteenth birthday; that he had never seen it +since, but that lately he had thought much about it. The hymn was +brought, and he committed it to memory. We were sorry to part with him, +when, after serving as ward-master, he was strong enough to go to his +regiment. Not long after he left, a letter came, saying that he had been +badly wounded, and wished himself back among his Annapolis friends once +more. We never heard of him again, and fear that his wounds must have +proved fatal. + +Those were quiet, solemn hours passed in the hospital in the intervals +between past and coming dangers. At the close of the day, the men would +gather into one ward for prayers. Many a stern voice was uplifted that +never prayed before. After petitions for pardon and guidance had arisen +to the Giver of all good things, the men would sit and sing, for hours +sometimes, each one wishing for his favorite hymn to be sung, and saying +that this time was more homelike than any other of the day. + +The inspection on Sunday forenoon made it the busiest morning of the +week. In the chapel at two o'clock, and again at seven, short services +were held, conducted either by the chaplain, or by the Rev. Mr. Sloan, +the devoted agent of the Christian Commission at this post. After a +while the second service was changed into a Sunday school, very +interesting to our grown-up scholars. The ladies found themselves fully +occupied as teachers in answering the various difficult questions +crowded into a short space of time. Sometimes the officers who were +patients would take classes too, which was far less embarrassing than +having them ask permission to take the part of scholars, as they +sometimes did. Before we had Sunday school, the men in my own wards +would ask to have psalms and passages selected for them to learn on +Sundays. On Monday mornings each one would have his little book ready to +recite his lesson. + +For a week before Christmas, active preparations were made for its +celebration. The men were allowed to go into the woods across the river, +and bring boughs of hemlock, pine, and laurel, and of holly laden with +bright berries. Every evening was occupied in twisting and tying +evergreen in the chapel. Many a reminiscence of home was told, as we sat +in clusters, wreathing garlands of rejoicing so strangely contrasting +with the sights and sounds of life and death around us. Late on +Christmas eve, some of the men from Section V., a tent department, came +to ask as a great favor that I would assist them in decorating the tent +of Miss H----. They said that she had been "fixing up" the wards all +day, and they wanted to have her own tent adorned as a surprise when she +came down in the morning. + +On going over to the tent, I found that they had already cut out of red +and blue flannel the letters for "A Merry Christmas to Miss H----." +These were soon sewed upon white cotton, which, being surrounded with +evergreen, was hung in the most conspicuous place. Then there were +crosses, stars, and various other designs to go up, among them a Goddess +of Liberty of remarkable proportions, considered the masterpiece of the +whole. There were only a few men present, not more than a dozen; each +had been seriously wounded, and nearly every one had lost either a leg +or an arm. It was a weird sight as they eagerly worked, by the light of +dimly burning candles, on this cold, full-mooned midnight, cheerfully +telling where they were a year ago, lying in rifle-pits or on picket +duty, and wishing themselves only able to be there again. + +Christmas morning came at last. As the sun shone brightly on the frosty +windows, each one showed its wreath, and the wards were gayly festooned. +In some of the larger ones there were appropriate mottoes made of +evergreen letters; as, "Welcome home,"--"He bringeth the prisoners out +of captivity." Friends in Philadelphia had requested to provide the +dinner, which was most lavish and luxurious. The tables were loaded with +turkeys, pies of various kinds, fruits, and candies. This was a feast +indeed to the thousand heroes gathered around the board, and to those +too ill to leave the wards a portion of all was taken, that at least +they might see the good things which the others were enjoying. The +thoughts of many of the sick had centred on this Christmas dinner, and +they had named the favorite morsels that they wished for. + +An Episcopal service was held in the chapel in the evening, by the Rev. +Mr. Davenport of Annapolis. A crowded congregation gathered within the +walls, which were hung with scrolls bearing the names of our +battle-fields, and richly adorned with evergreen, while the national +flag gracefully draped the large window. Carols were merrily sung, and +the shattered, scarred, and emaciated soldiers in the most righteous +cause that ever brought warfare to a nation joined in heralding the +advent of the Prince of Peace. + +The Christmas had been rendered still happier by the reception of a +telegram, that another exchange of paroled prisoners had been made, and +we were hourly expecting their arrival. In the cold, gray dawn of the +29th of December, the shrill whistle of the "New York" coming up the bay +was heard. Every one was soon astir in preparation for a warm welcome. +Large quantities of coffee, chocolate, and gruels were to be made, +clothes were to be in readiness, and the stretcher corps to be mustered. + +As the sun arose, a great crowd assembled, and when the New York neared +the wharf, shouts and cheers greeted her. The decks were covered with +men, whose skeleton forms and vacant countenances told of starvation, +the languid glimmer that at moments overspread their faces feebly +betokening the gratitude in their hearts at their escape from "Dixie." + +This time the Rebel authorities had allowed only "well men," as they +called them, to come, because so much had been said at the North about +"the last lot," who came in November. Those able to walk were landed +first, the barefooted receiving shoes. Many were able to crawl as far as +Parole Camp, a little beyond the city. The more feeble were received +into the hospital, where hot baths awaited them; and when they had been +passed under scissors and razor, and were laid in comfortable +beds,--only too soft after the hard ground they had lain on for months, +with as much earth as they could scrape together for a pillow,--they +expressed the change in their whole condition as like coming from the +lower regions of misery into heaven itself. + +Handkerchiefs and combs, writing-materials and stamps, were among the +first requisites of the new-comers. A few were able to write; and for +the others, the ladies were but too happy to apprise the friends at home +of their arrival, even if recovery were doubtful. In taking the names of +the men, I came to a white-headed patriarch, and expressed surprise at +finding him in the army. His name was R. B. Darling; and as I wrote it +down, he said: "You might as well put 'Reverend' before it, for I am a +Methodist minister. I lived in Greenville, Green County, Tennessee, and +when this Rebellion came on, I preached and preached, until it did not +seem to do any good; so I took up the musket to try what fighting would +do." He had left a wife and six children at home, from whom he had heard +only once, and then through a friend taken prisoner six months after +himself. He had been down with "those fiends," as he called them, +twenty-one months, and had been in nine different prisons. He had worked +for the Rebels--only at the point of the bayonet--while his strength +lasted, in digging wells. He had passed three months in the iron cage at +Atlanta, and three months in Castle Thunder under threat of being tried +for his life for some disrespectful speech about Rebeldom; finally, +after all the perils of Libby Prison and Belle Isle, he was free once +more. "These are tears of gratitude," he said, in answer to the welcome +given him, as they rolled down his furrowed cheeks; "it is the first +word of kindness that I have heard for so long." On soiled scraps of +paper he had the names of many of his fellow-prisoners. He had promised, +should he ever escape, to let their friends at home know when and where +they had died. Letters were at once written, carrying the painful +certainty of loss to anxious hearts. To his own family it was useless to +write, for the Rebels surrounded his home, cutting off postal +communication. He brought with him six little copies of the Gospels, one +for each child at home; they had been given to him at the South, having +been sent over by the British and Foreign Bible Society for +distribution. Surely no men ever more needed the promises of divine +consolation than the captives whom these volumes reached. + +It was difficult to restrict the diet of this old hero. After eating an +enormous meal of soup, meat, vegetables, pudding, and bread, his +appetite would not be in the least satisfied; he would very coolly +remark that he had had a very nice dinner; there was only one trouble +about it, there was not enough. On being told that we would gladly give +him more, were it considered safe, he would persist in saying that he +felt "right peart," and begged me to remember that it was twenty-one +months since he had had any dinners. As he gained strength enough to +walk about, he became acquainted with the system of the hospital and +made a discovery one day; namely, that he was on low diet, and that +there was such a thing as full diet for the well men. "If my present +fare is low, what may not the full be?" he reasoned, as visions of +illimitable bounty floated through his insatiable mind. So he asked the +doctor one morning to transfer his name to the full-diet list; and when +the bugle sounded, he joined the procession as it moved to the +dining-hall. Salt-fish, bread, and molasses chanced to be all that +presented themselves to the famished, disappointed old man; his +countenance was forlorn indeed, as he came to the window of the low-diet +serving-room to ask for something to eat. "I shall get the doctor to put +my name back on to this list, for I like this cook-shop the best, if it +_is_ called low diet." + +Father Darling, as he used to be called, soon became a favorite all over +the hospital. He delighted to perform any act of kindness for his +fellow-sufferers. On Sunday mornings he might be seen wandering through +the grounds, carrying books and newspapers into the wards, with a +bright smile and cheery word for each man. His eloquence reached its +highest pitch, when, talking of the Southern Confederacy, he declared +that he did not believe in showing mercy to traitors, but that God +intended them to be "clean exterminated" from the face of the earth, +like the heathen nations the Israelites were commanded to destroy ages +ago. He had but too good reason for wishing justice to be done. After he +returned to his home in Tennessee, he wrote: "There is but one tale in +the whole country: every comfort of life is purloined, clothes all in +rags, a great many men and boys murdered, and, worst of all, +Christianity seems to have gone up from the earth, and plunder and +rapine to have filled its place. Surely war was instituted by Beelzebub. +The guerillas are yet prowling about, seeking what they may devour. In +these troublous times, all who can lift a hoe or cut a weed are trying +to make support, but unless we get help from the North many must suffer +extremely. The Rebs have not left my family anything. They went so far +as to smash up the furniture, take my horse, all my cattle, and carry +off and destroy my library. They smashed up the clock and cut up the +bedsteads; and, in fact, ruin stares us in the face, and doleful +complaint stuns the ear. Even sick ladies have been dragged out of bed +by the hair of the head, so that the fiends of Davis could search for +hid treasure. All who have labored for the government are destitute. +Since the winter broke, I have been fighting the thieving, murdering +Rebels, and now their number is diminished from two hundred to nine, and +I can ride boldly forth where for the last three years it would have +been certain death. O, how are the mighty fallen!" + +On New Year's evening the ladies held a reception. Huge logs burned +brightly in the large old-fashioned fireplace of their dining-room, and +a "Happy New Year to all," in evergreen letters, stood out from the +whitewashed wall. Surgeons and stewards, officers, extra-duty men, and +patients, mingled in groups to exchange friendly good-wishes. +Conversation and singing, with a simple repast of apples, cake, and +lemonade, proved allurements to a long stay. Those who had gained +admission were reluctant to depart to make room for the hundreds +awaiting entrance outside. For days afterwards this evening was talked +over with delight by the men: it was the only party they had attended +since the war began, and it formed the greatest gayety of hospital +experience. + +Some of the vessels of the Russian fleet, then cruising in our waters, +wintered at Annapolis. A severe sickness breaking out among the sailors, +their accommodations on shipboard were not found adequate, and, by +invitation of our government, they were received into the hospital. +Their inability to speak one word of English made their sojourn rather a +melancholy affair. Their symptoms were often more successfully guessed +from signs and gestures, than from their attempts to express some +particular wish in words. They all returned to their floating homes in a +little while quite recovered, except one, who met with an accidental +death, and was buried from our chapel with the full ceremonies of the +Greek Church. With his face uncovered, he was carried by his comrades to +the cemetery, and laid by the side of our soldiers. A Greek cross of +black iron, among the white slabs, designates this stranger's grave. + +The Vanderkeift Literary Association held a meeting every Tuesday +evening in the chapel, which was always crowded. Some of the citizens of +Annapolis, with their families, did not disdain a constant attendance. +An animated discussion of some popular topic was held by the debating +club; and the intelligence often shown did credit to the attainments of +the men who filled the ranks of our army. Ballads were sung by the +Kelsey Minstrels,--so named from their leader, a clerk at head-quarters. +"The Knapsack," a paper edited by the ladies, was read. Into it was +gathered whatever of local interest or amusement there was going on at +the time. Contributions in prose or verse, stories, and conundrums +filled the little sheet. + +The short Southern winter wore quickly away, with little of unusual +excitement in the constantly changing scenes of war. Our prisoners pined +in dreary captivity, and the clash of arms was stilled for a season. + +So many strange ideas are entertained about a woman's life in hospital +service that I am tempted to transcribe a page from my own experience, +in order that a glimpse may be had of its reality. Imagine me, then, in +a small attic room, carpeted with a government blanket, and furnished +with bed, bureau, table, two chairs, and, best of all, a little stove, +for the morning is cold, and the lustrous stars still keep their quiet +watch in the blue heavens. A glow of warmth and comfort spreads from +gas-light and fire,--an encouraging roar in the chimney having crowned +with success the third attempt at putting paper, wood, and coal together +in exact proportions. After all, the difficulty has been chiefly in the +want of a sufficient amount of air, for there could be no draught +through the dead embers, and these could be disturbed only noiselessly, +for the lady in the next room has the small-pox, and it will not do to +awake her from her morning slumbers. + +A glance at the wonderful beauty in which day is breaking is sufficient +compensation for such early rising, as with hurried step I go to the +wards, about seven rods off. The kind-hearted steward stands at the +door: "Talbot died at two o'clock; he was just the same till the last." +I am not surprised, for when I left him I knew that his feeble frame +could not much longer endure the violence of delirium. He was by no +means among the most hopeless of the last prisoners who came, but an +unaccountable change had passed suddenly over him within the last few +days. And now tidings of his death must carry a sad revulsion to hearts +at home, made happy, but a short time since, by news of his safety. + +The patients rouse themselves from the drowsiness of a sleepless night, +expecting a morning greeting as I pass through the wards, giving to each +his early stimulant of whiskey or cherry-brandy. The men in the ward +where poor Talbot died seem in especial need of it; for, as they glance +at the vacant corner, they say, "He screamed so badly, we didn't get +much sleep." + +At the call of the bugle a general stampede takes place for breakfast, +and I must repair to the serving-room to oversee the last preparations +for low and special diet; for on his return each of the male nurses will +appear at the window with a large tray to be filled for his hungry men. +Beef essence, jellies, and puddings for the day's requirement claim a +little personal attention. Such things are not always left to servants +at home; and how could our "boys in blue" be expected to handle the +spoon with the same dexterity as the musket? They are not, however, +deficient in culinary skill, as the savory hash, well-turned beefsteaks, +nicely dropped eggs, and good coffee will testify. + +After the procession of heavily laden breakfast-bearers has moved off, +supplies from the commissary need a little arranging; and one must plan +how they may be made the most of, and what additions for the next three +meals are to be furnished from private resources. The result of which +consideration is usually the despatch of Henry, the chief cook, into the +city to purchase chickens, oysters, and milk in as great quantity as can +be bought. + +At eight o'clock the ladies meet for their morning meal. Good cold +water, bread and molasses, with the occasional luxury of a salt-fish +cake, suffice to keep soul and body together. The coffee is said to be +good by those in the habit of taking it, and some, too, enjoy the +butter. + +The preparation of lemonade in large quantities, and drinks of various +degrees of sweetness and acidity, is next to be superintended. As +rapidly as possible the little pitchers are filled, and I follow them to +the wards. + +Wondering what can be the matter, and cooling his parched lips and +bathing his burning brow, I stand over Allen as the doctor enters. Doubt +is soon dispelled, for he pronounces it a violent case of small-pox. It +is becoming very prevalent, but this is my first introduction to it. The +doctor orders the immediate removal of the patient to Horn Point, the +small-pox quarters, about two miles across the bay. It is too bleak for +the open-boat conveyance, and so he must be jolted six miles round in an +ambulance. On his bed, buried in blankets and stupefied with fever, he +starts for his new abode, not without a plentiful supply of oranges, +lemons, and bay-water. + +The plaintive, whining tones of William Cutlep, a boy of sixteen, who is +a picture of utter woe, with mind enough only left to know that he is in +"awful pain," detain me too long; and when I must leave him, it is with +the promise of coming up soon again, for he says he always did like to +see "women folks around." His home is in Southern Virginia, whence he +escaped to join the Union army; and he will never hear from his home +again, for thirty-six ounces of brandy daily will not keep him alive +much longer. He has already taken a ring from his finger, to be sent +home with a dying message after the war is over. + +The lower ward is not reached too soon, for the manly, gentle Mason is +near his end. He faintly presses my hand, begging me not to leave him +again, for it will soon be all over. An attack of pneumonia has proved +too much for his reduced system to resist, and, meekly submitting to its +ravages, he lies at last upon his death-bed. A saintly fortitude +sustains him, as in broken accents these sentences come from his lips: +"It is a country worth dying for." "Others will enjoy in coming years +what I have fought for." "I can trust my Saviour. He is lighting me +through the valley of death." "All is well." Low words of prayer commend +the departing soul to the God who made it, and the sweet hymn, + + "O sing to me of heaven, + When I am called to die," + +breaks the stillness of the ward. + +"It is growing dark,--I can't see you any more,"--he whispers; and then, +as the bugle notes strike his ear, "Before that sound is heard again, I +shall be far away." His heavy breathing grows thicker and shorter, until +that radiance which comes but once to any mortal face, streaming through +the open portal of eternity, tells of the glory upon which his soul is +entering, as his eyelids are quietly closed on earth. The men in the +beds around mutely gaze upon him, wishing that they may die like him +when their last summons comes. The tender-hearted McNally, the faithful +nurse, tearfully laments the loss of the first patient who has died +since he took charge of the ward, and is sure that he could not have +done more for him had he been his own brother. Nor could he. + +I go back to the upper wards. Little Cutlep moans deeply in restless +sleep. But there are others to be cheered, and many a promise to be +fulfilled from the heterogeneous contents of a small basket, a constant +and most valuable companion. Comfort-bags, braces, knives, come forth at +requirement. Books, too, are always in demand. After they have been +read, they are sent to many a distant fireside by mail; some of the boys +have several treasured up to take with them when they go home, for such +books are rare where they live, and their little brothers and sisters +will greatly prize them. One boy still keeps under his pillow, clinging +to it until the last, the little book, "Come to Jesus," which he +requests shall be sent to his mother after his death, with the message +that it has been the saving of his soul. + +New wants arise to be remembered, and special desires for additions to +the next meal are expressed. On the whole, the men seem comfortable and +happy to-day, as they rest on their elbows partly sitting up in bed, +playing backgammon, or scanning the last pictorial newspaper, or working +over puzzles, for which last they are indebted to Rev. Mr. Ware, who +made a visit to our hospital a few weeks since, and on his return sent +from Boston a goodly assortment of amusements. + +By this time the stimulants are to be given out again, and preparations +made for dinner. For it will hardly be welcome, unless the promised mug +of milk or ale, fried onions or sour-krout, fruit or jelly, shall come +with it. Each tray receives its burden of hearty nourishment, and by one +o'clock the ladies may be seen returning to their quarters for rations +of beef and bread. It is well that we are blessed with elastic spirits, +for "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine." All sadness for the dead +must be concealed for the sake of the living. As we cheerfully meet at +dinner-time, an occasional letter in the following strain is not without +a salutary and amusing effect:-- + + "DEAR MISS T----:--I set down to tell you that I've arrove hum, + an wish I was sum whar else. I've got 3 Bully boys an they are + helpin me about gettin the garden sass into the groun; but they + haint got no mother, an ive got a hous and a kow an I thort + youd be kinder handy to take care of um, if youd stoop so much. + I've thort of you ever sense I com from the hospittle, and how + kinder jimmy you used to walk up and doun them wards. You had + the best gate I ever see, an my 1st wife stepped of jis so, an + she pade her way I tell you. I like to work, and the boys likes + to work, an I kno you do, so ide like to jine if youv no + objecshuns; an now ive maid so bold to rite sich, but I was + kinder pussed on by my feelins an so I hope youl excuse it and + rite soon. I shant be mad if you say no, but its no hurt to ask + an the boys names are Zebalon, Shadrac and peter, they want to + see you as does your respectful frend wich oes his present + helth to you + + "I---- G----." + +A few letters for the men are to be written for the afternoon mail. +Twining a wreath of immortelles and laurel, is the last that can be +done for brave Tenny, who died yesterday, and will be buried with +military honors to-day. The little procession, with reversed arms, winds +slowly through the grounds, and at the sound of the bugle four patriots, +each wrapped in the flag he has died for, are borne into the chapel. +Inspired passages are read, "There is rest for the weary" is sung by the +ladies, and prayers are offered for bereaved relatives at a distance. +The chaplain precedes the short train to the cemetery, where the final +portion of the church burial-service is said, and over the newly made +graves resound three sharp volleys of musketry. + +There is not much time to-day to read to the group around the fire, but +with evident pride and pleasure they listen to "The Blue Coat of the +Soldier," and "The Empty Sleeve," a touching poem, inscribed to the +noble General Howard. I would gladly tarry longer at the request of the +little audience, but the other wards must be looked after. An awkward +man stands in the first one I enter, and begins a protest against being +put on duty. He says he "'listed to fight," and knows nothing about +"nussing." He hands over the materials for a mustard plaster, as he +professes profound ignorance on the subject, saying that he fears the +men left to his charge will not get very good care. This is the only +instance I remember of a man who did not cheerfully try to do his best +for his sick comrades. Fortunately, he was soon sent to his regiment. + +Preparation of stimulants and supper keep me busily occupied until, in +the shadowy twilight, the men from the fifteen wards gather into one, +where the patients are not too ill to listen to a few texts from the +Holy Book, which come with a diviner meaning of consolation than ever +before, in the hush of closing day, with death so familiar a thought to +each. Sergeant Murphy leads in prayer with true Methodist fervor, and +the hymn, + + "Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, + That calls me from a world of care," + +concludes the short service. + +After their tea, the ladies meet in the chapel, to teach in the evening +school held for an hour four times a week. It serves to interest the men +in useful study. A large library in one corner of the chapel furnishes, +too, stores of knowledge and amusement in works of history, travel, and +fiction. + +On going back again to the wards, I am glad to find that Carney's wife +has come in the evening train. She was startled by the last news from +him. It is well that she is here: if anything can save his life, it will +be her presence. The poor woman is worn out by anxiety and a two days' +journey. The chaplain must be found to write a permit for her entrance +into the "Home" provided by the Sanitary Commission for the +accommodation of those coming to see their friends in the hospital. The +good-natured orderly, Frank Hall, conducts her out to the comfortable +house. + +The lurid gas flickers in the chilly breeze, for never are the windows +allowed to be closed by day or night, in sunshine or storm. It does +sometimes seem as if a circulation of air a little less like a hurricane +from an iceberg might conduce more to the health and comfort of the +inmates; but then this is one of Dr. Vanderkeift's pet points of +practice, and woe betide any one who dares to shut out a breath of the +exhilarating element. Most of the men are stilled in merciful slumbers, +more or less peaceful or unquiet. One shout from a sleeper of "We'll +whip them yet, boys!" tells that Colby is fighting over in a dream his +last battle, while from others come groans only audible in hours of +unconsciousness. In wakeful uneasiness, others sigh for sleep, and are +at length lulled to rest by soothing words or rhymes, not unfrequently +by the childish melodies of Mother Goose. And so the day's privilege of +duty ends with gratitude, and a healthful weariness that vanishes before +the next morning. + + + + +DIRGE FOR A SAILOR. + + + Slow, slow! toll it low, + As the sea-waves break and flow; + With the same dull, slumberous motion + As his ancient mother, Ocean, + Rocked him on, through storm and calm, + From the iceberg to the palm: + So his drowsy ears may deem + That the sound which breaks his dream + Is the ever-moaning tide + Washing on his vessel's side. + + Slow, slow! as we go, + Swing his coffin to and fro; + As of old the lusty billow + Swayed him on his heaving pillow: + So that he may fancy still, + Climbing up the watery hill, + Plunging in the watery vale, + With her wide-distended sail, + His good ship securely stands + Onward to the golden lands. + + Slow, slow!--heave-a-ho!-- + Lower him to the mould below; + With the well-known sailor ballad, + Lest he grow more cold and pallid + At the thought that Ocean's child, + From his mother's arms beguiled, + Must repose for countless years, + Reft of all her briny tears, + All the rights he owned by birth, + In the dusty lap of earth. + + + + +UP THE EDISTO. + + +In reading military history, one finds the main interest to lie, +undoubtedly, in the great campaigns, where a man, a regiment, a brigade, +is but a pawn in the game. But there is a charm also in the more free +and adventurous life of partisan warfare, where, if the total sphere be +humbler, yet the individual has more relative importance, and the sense +of action is more personal and keen. This is the reason given by the +eccentric Revolutionary biographer, Weems, for writing the Life of +Washington first, and then that of Marion. And there were, certainly, in +the early adventures of the colored troops in the Department of the +South, some of the same elements of picturesqueness that belonged to +Marion's band, with the added feature that the blacks were fighting for +their personal liberties, of which Marion had helped to deprive them. + +It is stated by Major-General Gillmore, in his "Siege of Charleston," as +one of the three points in his preliminary strategy, that an expedition +was sent up the Edisto River to destroy a bridge on the Charleston and +Savannah Railway. As one of the early raids of the colored troops, this +expedition may deserve narration, though it was, in a strategic point of +view, a disappointment. It has already been told, briefly and on the +whole with truth, by Greeley and others, but I will venture on a more +complete account. + +The project dated back earlier than General Gillmore's siege, and had +originally no connection with that movement. It had been formed by +Captain Trowbridge and myself in camp, and was based on facts learned +from the men. General Saxton and Colonel W. W. H. Davis, the successive +post-commanders, had both favored it. It had been also approved by +General Hunter, before his sudden removal, though he regarded the bridge +as a secondary affair, because there was another railway communication +between the two cities. But as my main object was to obtain permission +to go, I tried to make the most of all results which might follow, while +it was very clear that the raid would harass and confuse the enemy, and +be the means of bringing away many of the slaves. General Hunter had, +therefore, accepted the project mainly as a stroke for freedom and black +recruits; and General Gillmore, because anything that looked toward +action found favor in his eyes, and because it would be convenient to +him at that time to effect a diversion, if nothing more. + +It must be remembered, that, after the first capture of Port Royal, the +outlying plantations along the whole Southern coast were abandoned, and +the slaves withdrawn into the interior. It was necessary to ascend some +river for thirty miles in order to reach the black population at all. +This ascent could only be made by night, as it was a slow process, and +the smoke of a steamboat could be seen for a great distance. The streams +were usually shallow, winding, and muddy, and the difficulties of +navigation were such as to require a full moon and a flood tide. It was +really no easy matter to bring everything to bear; especially as every +projected raid must be kept a secret so far as possible. However, we +were now somewhat familiar with such undertakings, half military, half +naval, and the thing to be done on the Edisto was precisely what we had +proved to be practicable on the St. Mary's and the St. John's,--to drop +anchor before the enemy's door some morning at daybreak, without his +having dreamed of our approach. + +Since a raid made by Colonel Montgomery up the Combahee, two months +before, the vigilance of the Rebels had increased. But we had +information that upon the South Edisto or Pon-Pon River the rice +plantations were still being actively worked by a large number of +negroes, in reliance on obstructions placed at the mouth of that narrow +stream, where it joins the main river, some twenty miles from the coast. +This point was known to be further protected by a battery of unknown +strength, at Wiltown Bluff, a commanding and defensible situation. The +obstructions consisted of a row of strong wooden piles across the river; +but we convinced ourselves that these must now be much decayed, and that +Captain Trowbridge, an excellent engineer officer, could remove them by +the proper apparatus. Our proposition was to man the "John Adams," an +armed ferry-boat, which had before done us much service,--and which has +now reverted to the pursuits of peace, it is said, on the East Boston +line,--to ascend in this to Wiltown Bluff, silence the battery, and +clear a passage through the obstructions. Leaving the "John Adams" to +protect this point, we could then ascend the smaller stream with two +light-draft boats, and perhaps burn the bridge, which was ten miles +higher, before the enemy could bring sufficient force to make our +position at Wiltown Bluff untenable. + +The expedition was organized essentially upon this plan. The smaller +boats were the "Enoch Dean,"--a river steamboat, which carried a +ten-pound Parrott gun, and a small howitzer,--and a little mosquito of a +tug, the "Governor Milton," upon which, with the greatest difficulty, we +found room for two twelve-pound Armstrong guns, with their gunners, +forming a section of the First Connecticut Battery, under Lieutenant +Clinton, aided by a squad from my own regiment, under Captain James. The +"John Adams" carried, if I remember rightly, two Parrott guns (of twenty +and ten pounds caliber) and a howitzer or two. The whole force of men +did not exceed two hundred and fifty. + +We left Beaufort, S. C., on the afternoon of July 9th, 1863. In former +narrations I have sufficiently described the charm of a moonlight ascent +into a hostile country, upon an unknown stream, the dark and silent +banks, the rippling water, the wail of the reed-birds, the anxious +watch, the breathless listening, the veiled lights, the whispered +orders. To this was now to be added the vexation of an insufficient +pilotage, for our negro guide knew only the upper river, and, as it +finally proved, not even that, while, to take us over the bar which +obstructed the main stream, we must borrow a pilot from Captain Dutch, +whose gunboat blockaded that point. This active naval officer, however, +whose boat expeditions had penetrated all the lower branches of those +rivers, could supply our want, and we borrowed from him not only a +pilot, but a surgeon, to replace our own, who had been prevented by an +accident from coming with us. Thus accompanied, we steamed over the bar +in safety, had a peaceful ascent, passed the island of Jehossee,--the +fine estate of Governor Aiken, then left undisturbed by both sides,--and +fired our first shell into the camp at Wiltown Bluff at four o'clock in +the morning. + +The battery--whether fixed or movable we knew not--met us with a +promptness that proved very short-lived. After three shots it was +silent, but we could not tell why. The bluff was wooded and we could see +but little. The only course was to land, under cover of the guns. As the +firing ceased and the smoke cleared away, I looked across the +rice-fields which lay beneath the bluff. The first sunbeams glowed upon +their emerald levels, and on the blossoming hedges along the rectangular +dikes. What were those black dots which everywhere appeared? Those moist +meadows had become alive with human heads, and along each narrow path +came a straggling file of men and women, all on a run for the +river-side. I went ashore with a boat-load of troops at once. The +landing was difficult and marshy. The astonished negroes tugged us up +the bank, and gazed on us as if we had been Cortez and Columbus. They +kept arriving by land much faster than we could come by water; every +moment increased the crowd, the jostling, the mutual clinging, on that +miry foothold. What a scene it was! With the wild faces, eager figures, +strange garments, it seemed, as one of the poor things reverently +suggested, "like notin' but de judgment day." Presently they began to +come from the houses also, with their little bundles on their heads; +then with larger bundles. Old women, trotting on the narrow paths, would +kneel to pray a little prayer, still balancing the bundle; and then +would suddenly spring up, urged by the accumulating procession behind, +and would move on till irresistibly compelled by thankfulness to dip +down for another invocation. Reaching us, every human being must grasp +our hands, amid exclamations of "Bress you, mas'r," and "Bress de Lord," +at the rate of four of the latter ascriptions to one of the former. +Women brought children on their shoulders; small black boys carried on +their backs little brothers equally inky, and, gravely depositing them, +shook hands. Never had I seen human beings so clad, or rather so unclad, +in such amazing squalidness and destitution of garments. I recall one +small urchin without a rag of clothing save the basque waist of a lady's +dress, bristling with whalebones, and worn wrong side before, beneath +which his smooth ebony legs emerged like those of an ostrich from its +plumage. How weak is imagination, how cold is memory, that I ever cease, +for a day of my life, to see before me the picture of that astounding +scene! + +Yet at the time we were perforce a little impatient of all this piety, +protestation, and hand-pressing; for the vital thing was to ascertain +what force had been stationed at the bluff, and whether it was yet +withdrawn. The slaves, on the other hand, were too much absorbed in +their prospective freedom to aid us in taking any further steps to +secure it. Captain Trowbridge, who had by this time landed at a +different point, got quite into despair over the seeming deafness of the +people to all questions. "How many soldiers are there on the bluff?" he +asked of the first-comer. + +"Mas'r," said the man, stuttering terribly, "I c-c-c--" + +"Tell me how many soldiers there are!" roared Trowbridge, in his mighty +voice, and all but shaking the poor old thing, in his thirst for +information. + +"O mas'r," recommenced in terror the incapacitated witness, "I +c-c-car-penter!" holding up eagerly a little stump of a hatchet, his +sole treasure, as if his profession ought to excuse him from all +military opinions. + +I wish that it were possible to present all this scene from the point of +view of the slaves themselves. It can be most nearly done, perhaps, by +quoting the description given of a similar scene on the Combahee River, +by a very aged man, who had been brought down on the previous raid, +already mentioned. I wrote it down in my tent, long after, while the old +man recited the tale, with much gesticulation, at the door; and it is +by far the best glimpse I have ever had, through a negro's eyes, at +these wonderful birthdays of freedom. + +"De people was all a hoein', mas'r," said the old man. "Dey was a hoein' +in de rice-field, when de gunboats come. Den ebry man drap dem hoe, and +leff de rice. De mas'r he stand and call, 'Run to de wood for hide! +Yankee come, sell you to Cuba! run for hide!' Ebry man he run, and, my +God! run all toder way! + +"Mas'r stand in de wood, peep, peep, faid for truss [afraid to trust]. +He say, 'Run to de wood!' and ebry man run by him, straight to de boat. + +"De brack sojer so presumptious, dey come right ashore, hold up dere +head, Fus' ting I know, dere was a barn, ten tousand bushel rough rice, +all in a blaze, den mas'r's great house, all cracklin' up de roof. +Didn't I keer for see 'em blaze? Lor, mas'r, didn't care notin' at all, +_I was gwine to de boat_." + +Dore's Don Quixote could not surpass the sublime absorption in which the +gaunt old man, with arm uplifted, described this stage of affairs, till +he ended in a shrewd chuckle, worthy of Sancho Panza. Then he resumed. + +"De brack sojers so presumptious!" This he repeated three times, slowly +shaking his head in an ecstasy of admiration. It flashed upon me that +the apparition of a black soldier must amaze those still in bondage, +much as a butterfly just from the chrysalis might astound his +fellow-grubs. I inwardly vowed that my soldiers, at least, should be as +"presumptious" as I could make them. Then he went on. + +"Ole woman and I go down to de boat; den dey say behind us, 'Rebels +comin'! Rebels comin'!' Ole woman say, 'Come ahead, come plenty ahead!' +I hab notin' on but my shirt and pantaloon; ole woman one single frock +he hab on, and one handkerchief on he head; I leff all-two my blanket +and run, for de Rebel come, and den dey didn't come, didn't truss for +come. + +"Ise eighty-eight year old, mas'r. My ole Mas'r Lowndes keep all de ages +in a big book, and when we come to age ob sense we mark em down ebry +year, so I know. Too ole for come? Mas'r joking. Neber too ole for leave +de land o' bondage. I old, but great good for chil'en, gib tousand tank +ebry day. Young people can go through, _force_ [forcibly], mas'r, but de +ole folk mus' go slow." + +Such emotions as these, no doubt, were inspired by our arrival, but we +could only hear their hasty utterance in passing; our duty being, with +the small force already landed, to take possession of the bluff. +Ascending, with proper precautions, the wooded hill, we soon found +ourselves in the deserted camp of a light battery, amid scattered +equipments and suggestions of a very unattractive breakfast. As soon as +possible, skirmishers were thrown out through the woods to the farther +edge of the bluff, while a party searched the houses, finding the usual +large supply of furniture and pictures,--brought up for safety from +below,--but no soldiers. Captain Trowbridge then got the "John Adams" +beside the row of piles, and went to work for their removal. + +Again I had the exciting sensation of being within the hostile +lines,--the eager explorations, the doubts, the watchfulness, the +listening for every sound of coming hoofs. Presently a horse's tread was +heard in earnest, but it was a squad of our own men bringing in two +captured cavalry soldiers. One of these, a sturdy fellow, submitted +quietly to his lot, only begging that, whenever we should evacuate the +bluff, a note should be left behind, stating that he was a prisoner. The +other, a very young man, and a member of the "Rebel Troop," a sort of +Cadet corps among the Charleston youths, came to me in great wrath, +complaining that the corporal of our squad had kicked him after he had +surrendered. His air of offended pride was very rueful, and it did +indeed seem a pathetic reversal of fortunes for the two races. To be +sure, the youth was a scion of one of the foremost families of South +Carolina, and when I considered the wrongs which the black race had +encountered from those of his blood, first and last, it seemed as if +the most scrupulous Recording Angel might tolerate one final kick, to +square the account. But I reproved the corporal, who respectfully +disclaimed the charge, and said the kick was an incident of the scuffle. +It certainly was not their habit to show such poor malice: they thought +too well of themselves. + +I recall with delight my conversation with this captured boy, he was +such a naive specimen of the true Southern arrogance. For instance:-- + +"Colonel," said he, respectfully, "are there any gentlemen on board the +steamboat where I am to be placed?" + +I told him that such a question sounded strangely from a captured +private soldier. + +"Perhaps it does," said he wistfully, "and I know my position too well +to offend an enemy. I only wished to know"--and here he paused, +evidently trying to find some form of expression which could not +possibly disturb the keenest sensibilities--"if there is likely to be +any one on board with whom I can associate." + +This was carrying the joke rather too far. I told him that he would find +United States officers on board, and United States soldiers, and that it +was to be hoped he would like their society, as he probably would have +no other for some time to come. But the characteristic feature of the +thing is, that I do not believe he meant to commit any impertinence +whatever, but that the youth rather aimed to compliment me by assuming +that I appreciated the feelings of a man made of porcelain, and would +choose for him only the most choice and fastidious companionship. But I +must say that he seemed to me in no way superior, but rather quite +inferior, to my own black soldiers, who equalled him in courage and in +manners, and far surpassed him in loyalty, modesty, and common sense. + +His demeanor seemed less lofty, but rather piteous, when he implored me +not to put him on board any vessel which was to ascend the upper stream, +and hinted, by awful implications, the danger of such ascent. This +meant torpedoes, a peril which we treated, in those days, with rather +mistaken contempt. But we found none on the Edisto, and it may be that +it was only a foolish attempt to alarm us. + +Meanwhile, Trowbridge was toiling away at the row of piles, which proved +easier to draw out than to saw asunder, either work being hard enough. +It took far longer than we had hoped, and we saw noon approach and the +tide rapidly fall, taking with it, inch by inch, our hopes of effecting +a surprise at the bridge. During this time, and indeed all day, the +detachments on shore, under Captains Whitney and Sampson, were having +occasional skirmishes with the enemy, while the colored people were +swarming to the shore, or running to and fro like ants, with the poor +treasures of their houses. Our busy Quartermaster, Mr. Bingham,--who +died afterwards from the overwork of that sultry day,--was transporting +the refugees on board the steamer, or hunting up bales of cotton, or +directing the burning of rice-houses, in accordance with our orders. No +dwelling-houses were destroyed or plundered by our men,--Sherman's +"bummers" not having yet arrived,--though I asked no questions as to +what the plantation negroes might bring in their great bundles. One +piece of property, I must admit, seemed a lawful capture,--a United +States dress-sword, of the old pattern, which had belonged to the Rebel +general who afterwards gave the order to bury Colonel Shaw "with his +niggers." That I have retained, not without some satisfaction, to this +day. + +A passage having been cleared at last, and the tide having turned by +noon, we lost no time in attempting the ascent, leaving the bluff to be +held by the "John Adams" and by the small force on shore. We were +scarcely above the obstructions, however, when the little tug went +aground, and the "Enoch Dean," ascending a mile farther, had an +encounter with a battery on the right,--perhaps our old enemy,--and +drove it back. Soon after, she also ran aground, a misfortune of which +our opponent strangely took no advantage; and, on getting off, I thought +it best to drop down to the bluff again, as the tide was still +hopelessly low. None can tell, save those who have tried them, the +vexations of those muddy Southern streams, navigable only during a few +hours of flood-tide. + +After waiting an hour, the two small vessels again tried the ascent. The +enemy on the right had disappeared; but we could now see, far off on our +left, another light battery moving parallel with the river, apparently +to meet us at some upper bend. But for the present we were safe, with +the low rice-fields on each side of us; and the scene was so peaceful, +it seemed as if all danger were done. For the first time, we saw in +South Carolina blossoming river-banks and low emerald meadows, that +seemed like New England. Everywhere there were the same rectangular +fields, smooth canals, and bushy dikes. A few negroes stole out to us in +dug-outs, and breathlessly told us how others had been hurried away by +the overseers. We glided safely on, mile after mile. The day was +unutterably hot, but all else seemed propitious. The men had their +combustibles all ready to fire the bridge, and our hopes were unbounded. + +But by degrees the channel grew more tortuous and difficult, and while +the little "Milton" glided smoothly over everything, the "Enoch Dean," +my own boat, repeatedly grounded. On every occasion of especial need, +too, something went wrong in her machinery,--her engine being +constructed on some wholly new patent, of which, I should hope, this +trial would prove entirely sufficient. The black pilot, who was not a +soldier, grew more and more bewildered, and declared that it was the +channel, not his brain, which had gone wrong; the captain, a little +elderly man, sat wringing his hands in the pilot-box; and the engineer +appeared to be mingling his groans with those of the diseased engine. +Meanwhile I, in equal ignorance of machinery and channel, had to give +orders only justified by minute acquaintance with both. So I navigated +on general principles, until they grounded us on a mud-bank, just below +a wooded point, and some two miles from the bridge of our destination. +It was with a pang that I waved to Major Strong, who was on the other +side of the channel in a tug, not to risk approaching us, but to steam +on and finish the work, if he could. + +Short was his triumph. Gliding round the point, he found himself +instantly engaged with a light battery of four or six guns, doubtless +the same we had seen in the distance. The "Milton" was within two +hundred and fifty yards. The Connecticut men fought their guns well, +aided by the blacks, and it was exasperating for us to hear the shots, +while we could see nothing and do nothing. The scanty ammunition of our +bow gun was exhausted, and the gun in the stern was useless, from the +position in which we lay. In vain we moved the men from side to side, +rocking the vessel, to dislodge it. The heat was terrific that August +afternoon; I remember I found myself constantly changing places, on the +scorched deck, to keep my feet from being blistered. At last the officer +in charge of the gun, a hardy lumberman from Maine, got the stern of the +vessel so far round that he obtained the range of the battery through +the cabin windows, "but it would be necessary," he coolly added, on +reporting to me this fact, "to shoot away the corner of the cabin." I +knew that this apartment was newly painted and gilded, and the idol of +the poor captain's heart; but it was plain that even the thought of his +own upholstery could not make the poor soul more wretched than he was. +So I bade Captain Dolly blaze away, and thus we took our hand in the +little game, though at a sacrifice. + +It was of no use. Down drifted our little consort round the point, her +engine disabled and her engineer killed, as we afterwards found, though +then we could only look and wonder. Still pluckily firing, she floated +by upon the tide, which had now just turned; and when, with a last +desperate effort, we got off, our engine had one of its impracticable +fits, and we could only follow her. The day was waning, and all its +range of possibility had lain within the limits of that one tide. + +All our previous expeditions had been so successful, it now seemed hard +to turn back; the river-banks and rice-fields, so beautiful before, +seemed only a vexation now. But the swift current bore us on, and after +our Parthian shots had died away, a new discharge of artillery opened +upon us, from our first antagonist of the morning, which still kept the +other side of the stream. It had taken up a strong position on another +bluff, almost out of range of the "John Adams," but within easy range of +us. The sharpest contest of the day was before us. Happily the engine +and engineer were now behaving well, and we were steering in a channel +already traversed, and of which the dangerous points were known. But we +had a long, straight reach of river before us, heading directly toward +the battery, which, having once got our range, had only to keep it, +while we could do nothing in return. The Rebels certainly served their +guns well. For the first time I discovered that there were certain +compensating advantages in a slightly-built craft, as compared with one +more substantial: the missiles never lodged in the vessel, but crashed +through some thin partition as if it were paper, to explode beyond us, +or fall harmless in the water. Splintering, the chief source of wounds +and death in wooden ships, was thus entirely avoided; the danger was, +that our machinery might be disabled, or that shots might strike below +the water-line, and sink us. + +This, however, did not happen. Fifteen projectiles, as we afterwards +computed, passed through the vessel or cut the rigging. Yet few +casualties occurred, and those instantly fatal. As my orderly stood +leaning on a comrade's shoulder, the head of the latter was shot off. At +last I myself felt a sudden blow in the side, as if from some +prize-fighter, doubling me up for a moment, while I sank upon a seat. It +proved afterwards to have been produced by the grazing of a ball, which, +without tearing a garment, had yet made a large part of my side black +and blue, leaving a sensation of paralysis which made it difficult to +stand. Supporting myself on Captain Rogers, I tried to comprehend what +had happened, and I remember being impressed by an odd feeling that I +had now got my share, and should henceforth be a great deal safer than +any of the rest. I am told that this often follows one's first +experience of a wound. + +But this immediate contest, sharp as it was, proved brief; a turn in the +river enabled us to use our stern gun, and we soon glided into the +comparative shelter of Wiltown Bluff. There, however, we were to +encounter the danger of shipwreck, superadded to that of fight. When the +passage through the piles was first cleared, it had been marked by +stakes, lest the rising tide should cover the remaining piles and make +it difficult to run the passage. But when we again reached it, the +stakes had somehow been knocked away, the piles were just covered by the +swift current, and the little tug-boat was aground upon them. She came +off easily, however, with our aid, and, when we in turn essayed the +passage, we grounded also, but more firmly. We getting off at last, and +making the passage, the tug again became lodged, when nearly past +danger, and all our efforts proved powerless to pull her through. I +therefore dropped down below, and sent the "John Adams" to her aid, +while I superintended the final recall of the pickets, and the +embarkation of the remaining refugees. + +While thus engaged, I felt little solicitude about the boats above. It +was certain that the "John Adams" could safely go close to the piles on +the lower side, that she was very strong, and that the other was very +light. Still, it was natural to cast some anxious glances up the river, +and it was with surprise that I presently saw a canoe descending, which +contained Major Strong. Coming on board, he told me with some excitement +that the tug could not possibly be got off, and he wished for orders. + +It was no time to consider whether it was not his place to have given +orders, instead of going half a mile to seek them. I was by this time so +far exhausted that everything seemed to pass by me as by one in a dream; +but I got into a boat, pushed up stream, met presently the "John Adams" +returning, and was informed by the officer in charge of the Connecticut +battery that he had abandoned the tug, and--worse news yet--that his +guns had been thrown overboard. It seemed to me then, and has always +seemed, that this sacrifice was utterly needless, because, although the +captain of the "John Adams" had refused to risk his vessel by going near +enough to receive the guns, he should have been compelled to do so. +Though the thing was done without my knowledge, and beyond my reach, +yet, as commander of the expedition, I was technically responsible. It +was hard to blame a lieutenant when his senior had shrunk from a +decision, and left him alone; nor was it easy to blame Major Strong, +whom I knew to be a man of personal courage, though without much +decision of character. He was subsequently tried by court-martial and +acquitted, after which he resigned, and was lost at sea on his way home. + +The tug, being thus abandoned, must of course be burned to prevent her +falling into the enemy's hands. Major Strong went with prompt +fearlessness to do this, at my order; after which he remained on the +"Enoch Dean," and I went on board the "John Adams," being compelled to +succumb at last, and transfer all remaining responsibility to Captain +Trowbridge. Exhausted as I was, I could still observe, in a vague way, +the scene around me. Every available corner of the boat seemed like some +vast auction-room of secondhand goods. Great piles of bedding and +bundles lay on every side, with black heads emerging and black forms +reclining in every stage of squalidness. Some seemed ill, or wounded, or +asleep, others were chattering eagerly among themselves, singing, +praying, or soliloquizing on joys to come. "Bress de Lord," I heard one +woman say, "I spec' I get salt victual now,--notin' but fresh victual +dese six months, but Ise get salt victual now,"--thus reversing, under +pressure of the salt-embargo, the usual anticipations of voyagers. + +Trowbridge told me, long after, that, on seeking a fan for my benefit, +he could find but one on board. That was in the hands of a fat old +"aunty," who had just embarked, and sat on an enormous bundle of her +goods, in everybody's way, fanning herself vehemently, and ejaculating, +as her gasping breath would permit, "Oh! Do, Jesus! Oh! Do, Jesus!" When +the captain abruptly disarmed her of the fan, and left her continuing +her pious exercises. + +Thus we glided down the river in the waning light. Once more we +encountered a battery, making five in all; I could hear the guns of the +assailants, and could not distinguish the explosion of their shells from +the answering throb of our own guns. The kind Quartermaster kept +bringing me news of what occurred, like Rebecca in Front-de-Boeuf's +castle, but discreetly withholding any actual casualties. Then all faded +into safety and sleep; and we reached Beaufort in the morning, after +thirty-six hours of absence. A kind friend, who acted in South Carolina +a nobler part amid tragedies than in any of her early stage triumphs, +met us with an ambulance at the wharf, and the prisoners, the wounded, +and the dead were duly attended. + +The reader will not care for any personal record of convalescence; +though, among the general military laudations of whiskey, it is worth +while to say that one life was saved, in the opinion of my surgeons, by +an habitual abstinence from it, leaving no food for peritoneal +inflammation to feed upon. The able-bodied men who had joined us were +sent to aid General Gillmore in the trenches, while their families were +established in huts and tents on St. Helena Island. A year after, +greatly to the delight of the regiment, in taking possession of a +battery which they had helped to capture on James Island, they found in +their hands the selfsame guns which they had seen thrown overboard from +the "Governor Milton." They then felt that their account with the enemy +was squared, and could proceed to further operations. + +Before the war, how great a thing seemed the rescue of even one man from +slavery; and since the war has emancipated all, how little seems the +liberation of two hundred! But no one then knew how the contest might +end; and when I think of that morning sunlight, those emerald fields, +those thronging numbers, the old women with their prayers, and the +little boys with their living burdens, it seems to me that the day was +worth all it cost, and more. + + + + +POOR RICHARD. + +A STORY IN THREE PARTS. + + +PART III. + +In country districts, where life is quiet, incidents do duty as events; +and accordingly Captain Severn's sudden departure for his regiment +became very rapidly known among Gertrude's neighbors. She herself heard +it from her coachman, who had heard it in the village, where the Captain +had been seen to take the early train. She received the news calmly +enough to outward appearance, but a great tumult rose and died in her +breast. He had gone without a word of farewell! Perhaps he had not had +time to call upon her. But bare civility would have dictated his +dropping her a line of writing,--he who must have read in her eyes the +feeling which her lips refused to utter, and who had been the object of +her tenderest courtesy. It was not often that Gertrude threw back into +her friends' teeth their acceptance of the hospitality which it had been +placed in her power to offer them; but if she now mutely reproached +Captain Severn with ingratitude, it was because he had done more than +slight her material gifts: he had slighted that constant moral force +with which these gifts were accompanied, and of which they were but the +rude and vulgar token. It is but natural to expect that our dearest +friends will accredit us with our deepest feelings; and Gertrude had +constituted Edmund Severn her dearest friend. She had not, indeed, asked +his assent to this arrangement, but she had borne it out by a subtile +devotion which she felt that she had a right to exact of him that he +should repay,--repay by letting her know that, whether it was lost on +his heart or not, it was at least not lost to his senses,--that, if he +could not return it, he could at least remember it. She had given him +the flower of her womanly tenderness, and, when his moment came, he had +turned from her without a look. Gertrude shed no tears. It seemed to her +that she had given her friend tears enough, and that to expend her soul +in weeping would be to wrong herself. She would think no more of Edmund +Severn. He should be as little to her for the future as she was to him. + +It was very easy to make this resolution: to keep it, Gertrude found +another matter. She could not think of the war, she could not talk with +her neighbors of current events, she could not take up a newspaper, +without reverting to her absent friend. She found herself constantly +harassed with the apprehension that he had not allowed himself time +really to recover, and that a fortnight's exposure would send him back +to the hospital. At last it occurred to her that civility required that +she should make a call upon Mrs. Martin, the Captain's sister; and a +vague impression that this lady might be the depositary of some farewell +message--perhaps of a letter--which she was awaiting her convenience to +present, led her at once to undertake this social duty. The carriage +which had been ordered for her projected visit was at the door, when, +within a week after Severn's departure, Major Luttrel was announced. +Gertrude received him in her bonnet. His first care was to present +Captain Severn's adieus, together with his regrets that he had not had +time to discharge them in person. As Luttrel made his speech, he watched +his companion narrowly, and was considerably reassured by the +unflinching composure with which she listened to it. The turn he had +given to Severn's message had been the fruit of much mischievous +cogitation. It had seemed to him that, for his purposes, the assumption +of a hasty, and as it were mechanical, allusion to Miss Whittaker, was +more serviceable than the assumption of no allusion at all, which would +have left a boundless void for the exercise of Gertrude's fancy. And he +had reasoned well; for although he was tempted to infer from her +calmness that his shot had fallen short of the mark, yet, in spite of +her silent and almost smiling assent to his words, it had made but one +bound to her heart. Before many minutes, she felt that those words had +done her a world of good. "He had not had time!" Indeed, as she took to +herself their full expression of perfect indifference, she felt that her +hard, forced smile was broadening into the sign of a lively gratitude to +the Major. + +Major Luttrel had still another task to perform. He had spent half an +hour on the preceding day at Richard's bedside, having ridden over to +the farm, in ignorance of his illness, to see how matters stood with +him. The reader will already have surmised that the Major was not +pre-eminently a man of conscience: he will, therefore, be the less +surprised and shocked to hear that the sighs of the poor young man, +prostrate, fevered, and delirious, and to all appearance rapidly growing +worse, filled him with an emotion the reverse of creditable. In plain +terms, he was very glad to find Richard a prisoner in bed. He had been +racking his brains for a scheme to keep his young friend out of the way, +and now, to his exceeding satisfaction, Nature had relieved him of this +troublesome care. If Richard was condemned to typhoid fever, which his +symptoms seemed to indicate, he would not, granting his recovery, be +able to leave his room within a month. In a month, much might be done; +nay, with energy, all might be done. The reader has been all but +directly informed that the Major's present purpose was to secure Miss +Whittaker's hand. He was poor, and he was ambitious, and he was, +moreover, so well advanced in life--being thirty-six years of age--that +he had no heart to think of building up his fortune by slow degrees. A +man of good breeding, too, he had become sensible, as he approached +middle age, of the many advantages of a luxurious home. He had +accordingly decided that a wealthy marriage would most easily unlock the +gate to prosperity. A girl of a somewhat lighter calibre than Gertrude +would have been the woman--we cannot say of his heart; but, as he very +generously argued, beggars can't be choosers. Gertrude was a woman with +a mind of her own; but, on the whole, he was not afraid of her. He was +abundantly prepared to do his duty. He had, of course, as became a man +of sense, duly weighed his obstacles against his advantages; but an +impartial scrutiny had found the latter heavier in the balance. The only +serious difficulty in his path was the possibility that, on hearing of +Richard's illness, Gertrude, with her confounded benevolence, would take +a fancy to nurse him in person, and that, in the course of her +ministrations, his delirious ramblings would force upon her mind the +damning story of the deception practised upon Captain Severn. There was +nothing for it but bravely to face this risk. As for that other fact, +which many men of a feebler spirit would have deemed an invincible +obstacle, Luttrel's masterly understanding had immediately converted it +into the prime agent of success,--the fact, namely, that Gertrude's +heart was preoccupied. Such knowledge as he possessed of the relations +between Miss Whittaker and his brother officer he had gained by his +unaided observations and his silent deductions. These had been logical; +for, on the whole, his knowledge was accurate. It was at least what he +might have termed a good working knowledge. He had calculated on a +passionate reactionary impulse on Gertrude's part, consequent on +Severn's simulated offence. He knew that, in a generous woman, such an +impulse, if left to itself, would not go very far. But on this point it +was that his policy bore. He would not leave it to itself: he would take +it gently into his hands, attenuate it, prolong it, economize it, and +mould it into the clew to his own good-fortune. He thus counted much +upon his skill and his tact; but he likewise placed a becoming degree +of reliance upon his solid personal qualities,--qualities too sober and +too solid, perhaps, to be called _charms_, but thoroughly adapted to +inspire confidence. The Major was not handsome in feature; he left that +to younger men and to lighter women; but his ugliness was of a +masculine, aristocratic, intelligent stamp. His figure, moreover, was +good enough to compensate for the absence of a straight nose and a fine +mouth; and his general bearing offered a most pleasing combination of +the gravity of the man of affairs and the versatility of the man of +society. + +In her sudden anxiety on Richard's behalf, Gertrude soon forgot her own +immaterial woes. The carriage which was to have conveyed her to Mrs. +Martin's was used for a more disinterested purpose. The Major, prompted +by a strong faith in the salutary force of his own presence, having +obtained her permission to accompany her, they set out for the farm, and +soon found themselves in Richard's chamber. The young man was wrapped in +a heavy sleep, from which it was judged imprudent to arouse him. +Gertrude, sighing as she compared his thinly furnished room with her own +elaborate apartments, drew up a mental list of essential luxuries which +she would immediately send him. Not but that he had received, however, a +sufficiency of homely care. The doctor was assiduous, and the old woman +who nursed him was full of rough good-sense. + +"He asks very often after you, Miss," she said, addressing Gertrude, but +with a sly glance at the Major. "But I think you'd better not come too +often. I'm afraid you'd excite him more than you'd quiet him." + +"I'm afraid you would, Miss Whittaker," said the Major, who could have +hugged the goodwife. + +"Why should I excite him?" asked Gertrude, "I'm used to sick-rooms. I +nursed my father for a year and a half." + +"O, it's very well for an old woman like me, but it's no place for a +fine young lady like you," said the nurse, looking at Gertrude's muslins +and laces. + +"I'm not so fine as to desert a friend in distress," said Gertrude. "I +shall come again, and if it makes the poor fellow worse to see me, I +shall stay away. I am ready to do anything that will help him to get +well." + +It had already occurred to her that, in his unnatural state, Richard +might find her presence a source of irritation, and she was prepared to +remain in the background. As she returned to her carriage, she caught +herself reflecting with so much pleasure upon Major Luttrel's kindness +in expending a couple of hours of his valuable time on so unprofitable +an object as poor Richard, that, by way of intimating her satisfaction, +she invited him to come home and dine with her. + +After a short interval she paid Richard a second visit, in company with +Miss Pendexter. He was a great deal worse; he lay emaciated, exhausted, +and stupid. The issue was doubtful. Gertrude immediately pushed forward +to M----, a larger town than her own, sought out a professional nurse, +and arranged with him to relieve the old woman from the farm, who was +worn out with her vigilance. For a fortnight, moreover, she received +constant tidings from the young man's physician. During this fortnight, +Major Luttrel was assiduous, and proportionately successful. + +It may be said, to his credit, that he had by no means conducted his +suit upon that narrow programme which he had drawn up at the outset. He +very soon discovered that Gertrude's resentment--if resentment there +was--was a substance utterly impalpable even to his most delicate tact, +and he had accordingly set to work to woo her like an honest man, from +day to day, from hour to hour, trusting so devoutly for success to +momentary inspiration, that he felt his suit dignified by a certain +flattering _faux air_ of genuine passion. He occasionally reminded +himself, however, that he might really be owing more to the subtle force +of accidental contrast than Gertrude's lifelong reserve--for it was +certain she would not depart from it--would ever allow him to measure. + +It was as an honest man, then, a man of impulse and of action, that +Gertrude had begun to like him. She was not slow to perceive whither his +operations tended; and she was almost tempted at times to tell him +frankly that she would spare him the intermediate steps, and meet him at +the goal without further delay. It was not that she was prepared to love +him, but she would make him an obedient wife. An immense weariness had +somehow come upon her, and a sudden sense of loneliness. A vague +suspicion that her money had done her an incurable wrong inspired her +with a profound distaste for the care of it. She felt cruelly hedged out +from human sympathy by her bristling possessions. "If I had had five +hundred dollars a year," she said in a frequent parenthesis, "I might +have pleased him." Hating her wealth, accordingly, and chilled by her +isolation, the temptation was strong upon her to give herself up to that +wise, brave gentleman who seemed to have adopted such a happy medium +betwixt loving her for her money and fearing her for it. Would she not +always stand between men who would represent the two extremes? She would +anticipate security by an alliance with Major Luttrel. + +One evening, on presenting himself, Luttrel read these thoughts so +clearly in her eyes, that he made up his mind to speak. But his mind was +burdened with a couple of facts, of which it was necessary that he +should discharge it before it could enjoy the freedom of action which +the occasion required. In the first place, then, he had been to see +Richard Clare, and had found him suddenly and decidedly better. It was +unbecoming, however,--it was impossible,--that he should allow Gertrude +to linger over this pleasant announcement. + +"I tell the good news first," he said, gravely. "I have some very bad +news, too, Miss Whittaker." + +Gertrude sent him a rapid glance, "Some one has been killed," she said. + +"Captain Severn has been shot," said the Major,--"shot by a guerilla." + +Gertrude was silent. No answer seemed possible to that uncompromising +fact. She sat with her head on her hand, and her elbow on the table +beside her, looking at the figures on the carpet. She uttered no words +of commonplace regret; but she felt as little like giving way to serious +grief. She had lost nothing, and, to the best of her knowledge, _he_ had +lost nothing. She had an old loss to mourn,--a loss a month old, which +she had mourned as she might. To give way to passion would have been but +to impugn the solemnity of her past regrets. When she looked up at her +companion, she was pale, but she was calm, yet with a calmness upon +which a single glance of her eye directed him not inconsiderately to +presume. She was aware that this glance betrayed her secret; but in view +both of Severn's death and of the Major's attitude, such betrayal +mattered less. Luttrel had prepared to act upon her hint, and to avert +himself gently from the topic, when Gertrude, who had dropped her eyes +again, raised them with a slight shudder. "I'm cold," she said. "Will +you shut that window beside you, Major? Or stay, suppose you give me my +shawl from the sofa." + +Luttrel brought the shawl, placed it on her shoulders, and sat down +beside her. "These are cruel times," he said, with studied simplicity. +"I'm sure I hardly know what's to come of it all." + +"Yes, they are cruel times," said Gertrude. "They make one feel cruel. +They make one doubt of all he has learnt from his pastors and masters." + +"Yes, but they teach us something new also." + +"I'm sure I don't know," said Gertrude, whose heart was so full of +bitterness that she felt almost malignant. "They teach us how mean we +are. War is an infamy, Major, though it _is_ your trade. It's very well +for you, who look at it professionally, and for those who go and fight; +but it's a miserable business for those who stay at home, and do the +thinking and the sentimentalizing. It's a miserable business for women; +it makes us more spiteful than ever." + +"Well, a little spite isn't a bad thing, in practice," said the Major. +"War is certainly an abomination, both at home and in the field. But as +wars go, Miss Whittaker, our own is a very satisfactory one. It involves +something. It won't leave us as it found us. We're in the midst of a +revolution, and what's a revolution but a turning upside down? It makes +sad work with our habits and theories and our traditions and +convictions. But, on the other hand," Luttrel pursued, warming to his +task, "it leaves something untouched, which is better than these,--I +mean our feelings, Miss Whittaker." And the Major paused until he had +caught Gertrude's eyes, when, having engaged them with his own, he +proceeded. "I think they are the stronger for the downfall of so much +else, and, upon my soul, I think it's in them we ought to take refuge. +Don't you think so?" + +"Yes, if I understand you." + +"I mean our serious feelings, you know,--not our tastes nor our +passions. I don't advocate fiddling while Rome is burning. In fact it's +only poor, unsatisfied devils that are tempted to fiddle. There is one +feeling which is respectable and honorable, and even sacred, at all +times and in all places, whatever they may be. It doesn't depend upon +circumstances, but they upon it; and with its help, I think, we are a +match for any circumstances. I don't mean religion, Miss Whittaker," +added the Major, with a sober smile. + +"If you don't mean religion," said Gertrude, "I suppose you mean love. +That's a very different thing." + +"Yes, a very different thing; so I've always thought, and so I'm glad to +hear you say. Some people, you know, mix them up in the most +extraordinary fashion. I don't fancy myself an especially religious man; +in fact, I believe I'm rather otherwise. It's my nature. Half mankind +are born so, or I suppose the affairs of this world wouldn't move. But I +believe I'm a good lover, Miss Whittaker." + +"I hope for your own sake you are, Major Luttrel." + +"Thank you. Do you think now you could entertain the idea for the sake +of any one else?" + +Gertrude neither dropped her eyes, nor shrugged her shoulders, nor +blushed. If anything, indeed, she turned somewhat paler than before, as +she sustained her companion's gaze, and prepared to answer him as +directly as she might. + +"If I loved you, Major Luttrel," she said, "I should value the idea for +my own sake." + +The Major, too, blanched a little. "I put my question conditionally," he +answered, "and I have got, as I deserved, a conditional reply. I will +speak plainly, then, Miss Whittaker. _Do_ you value the fact for your +own sake? It would be plainer still to say, Do you love me? but I +confess I'm not brave enough for that. I will say, Can you? or I will +even content myself with putting it in the conditional again, and asking +you if you could; although, after all, I hardly know what the _if_ +understood can reasonably refer to. I'm not such a fool as to ask of any +woman--least of all of you--to love me contingently. You can only answer +for the present, and say yes or no. I shouldn't trouble you to say +either, if I didn't conceive that I had given you time to make up your +mind. It doesn't take forever to know James Luttrel. I'm not one of the +great unfathomable ones. We've seen each other more or less intimately +for a good many weeks; and as I'm conscious, Miss Whittaker, of having +shown you my best, I take for granted that if you don't fancy me now, +you won't a month hence, when you shall have seen my faults. Yes, Miss +Whittaker, I can solemnly say," continued the Major, with genuine +feeling, "I have shown you my best, as every man is in honor bound to +do who approaches a woman with those predispositions with which I have +approached you. I have striven hard to please you,"--and he paused. "I +can only say, I hope I have succeeded." + +"I should be very insensible," said Gertrude, "if all your kindness and +your courtesy had been lost upon me." + +"In Heaven's name, don't talk about courtesy," cried the Major. + +"I am deeply conscious of your devotion, and I am very much obliged to +you for urging your claims so respectfully and considerately. I speak +seriously, Major Luttrel," pursued Gertrude. "There is a happy medium of +expression, and you have taken it. Now it seems to me that there is a +happy medium of affection, with which you might be content. Strictly, I +don't love you. I question my heart, and it gives me that answer. The +feeling that I have is not a feeling to work prodigies." + +"May it at least work the prodigy of allowing you to be my wife?" + +"I don't think I shall over-estimate its strength, if I say that it may. +If you can respect a woman who gives you her hand in cold blood, you are +welcome to mine." + +Luttrel moved his chair and took her hand. "Beggars can't be choosers," +said he, raising it to his mustache. + +"O Major Luttrel, don't say that," she answered. "I give you a great +deal; but I keep a little,--a little," said Gertrude, hesitating, "which +I suppose I shall give to God." + +"Well, I shall not be jealous," said Luttrel. + +"The rest I give to you, and in return I ask a great deal." + +"I shall give you all. You know I told you I'm not religious." + +"No, I don't want more than I give," said Gertrude. + +"But, pray," asked Luttrel, with a delicate smile, "what am I to do with +the difference?" + +"You had better keep it for yourself. What I want is your protection, +sir, and your advice, and your care. I want you to take me away from +this place, even if you have to take me down to the army. I want to see +the world under the shelter of your name. I shall give you a great deal +of trouble. I'm a mere mass of possessions: what I am, is nothing to +what I have. But ever since I began to grow up, what I am has been the +slave of what I have. I am weary of my chains, and you must help me to +carry them,"--and Gertrude rose to her feet as if to inform the Major +that his audience was at an end. + +He still held her right hand; she gave him the other. He stood looking +down at her, an image of manly humility, while from his silent breast +went out a brief thanksgiving to favoring fortune. + +At the pressure of his hands, Gertrude felt her bosom heave. She burst +into tears. "O, you must be very kind to me!" she cried, as he put his +arm about her, and she dropped her head upon his shoulder. + + * * * * * + +When once Richard's health had taken a turn for the better, it began +very rapidly to improve. "Until he is quite well," Gertrude said, one +day, to her accepted suitor, "I had rather he heard nothing of our +engagement. He was once in love with me himself," she added, very +frankly. "Did you ever suspect it? But I hope he will have got better of +that sad malady, too. Nevertheless, I shall expect nothing of his good +judgment until he is quite strong; and as he may hear of my new +intentions from other people, I propose that, for the present, we +confide them to no one." + +"But if he asks me point-blank," said the Major, "what shall I answer?" + +"It's not likely he'll ask you. How should he suspect anything?" + +"O," said Luttrel, "Clare is one that suspects everything." + +"Tell him we're not engaged, then. A woman in my position may say what +she pleases." + +It was agreed, however, that certain preparations for the marriage +should meanwhile go forward in secret; and that the marriage itself +should take place in August, as Luttrel expected to be ordered back into +service in the autumn. At about this moment Gertrude was surprised to +receive a short note from Richard, so feebly scrawled in pencil as to be +barely legible. "Dear Gertrude," it ran, "don't come to see me just yet. +I'm not fit. You would hurt me, and _vice versa_. God bless you! R. +CLARE." Miss Whittaker explained his request, by the supposition that a +report had come to him of Major Luttrel's late assiduities (which it was +impossible should go unobserved); that, leaping at the worst, he had +taken her engagement for granted; and that, under this impression, he +could not trust himself to see her. She despatched him an answer, +telling him that she would await his pleasure, and that, if the doctor +would consent to his having letters, she would meanwhile occasionally +write to him. "She will give me good advice," thought Richard +impatiently; and on this point, accordingly, she received no account of +his wishes. Expecting to leave her house and close it on her marriage, +she spent many hours in wandering sadly over the meadow-paths and +through the woodlands which she had known from her childhood. She had +thrown aside the last ensigns of filial regret, and now walked sad and +splendid in the uncompromising colors of an affianced bride. It would +have seemed to a stranger that, for a woman who had freely chosen a +companion for life, she was amazingly spiritless and sombre. As she +looked at her pale cheeks and heavy eyes in the mirror, she felt ashamed +that she had no fairer countenance to offer to her destined lord. She +had lost her single beauty, her smile; and she would make but a ghastly +figure at the altar. "I ought to wear a calico dress and an apron," she +said to herself, "and not this glaring finery." But she continued to +wear her finery, and to lay out her money, and to perform all her old +duties to the letter. After the lapse of what she deemed a sufficient +interval, she went to see Mrs. Martin, and to listen dumbly to her +narration of her brother's death, and to her simple eulogies. + +Major Luttrel performed his part quite as bravely, and much more +successfully. He observed neither too many things nor too few; he +neither presumed upon his success, nor mistrusted it. Having on his side +received no prohibition from Richard, he resumed his visits at the farm, +trusting that, with the return of reason, his young friend might feel +disposed to renew that anomalous alliance in which, on the hapless +evening of Captain Severn's farewell, he had taken refuge against his +despair. In the long, languid hours of his early convalescence, Richard +had found time to survey his position, to summon back piece by piece the +immediate past, and to frame a general scheme for the future. But more +vividly than anything else, there had finally disengaged itself from his +meditations a profound aversion to James Luttrel. + +It was in this humor that the Major found him; and as he looked at the +young man's gaunt shoulders, supported by pillows, at his face, so livid +and aquiline, at his great dark eyes, luminous with triumphant life, it +seemed to him that an invincible spirit had been sent from a better +world to breathe confusion upon his hopes. If Richard hated the Major, +the reader may guess whether the Major loved Richard. Luttrel was amazed +at his first remark. + +"I suppose you're engaged by this time," Richard said, calmly enough. + +"Not quite," answered the Major. "There's a chance for you yet." + +To this Richard made no rejoinder. Then, suddenly, "Have you had any +news of Captain Severn?" he asked. + +For a moment the Major was perplexed at his question. He had assumed +that the news of Severn's death had come to Richard's ears, and he had +been half curious, half apprehensive as to its effect. But an instant's +reflection now assured him that the young man's estrangement from his +neighbors had kept him hitherto and might still keep him in ignorance of +the truth. Hastily, therefore, and inconsiderately, the Major +determined to confirm this ignorance. "No," said he; "I've had no news. +Severn and I are not on such terms as to correspond." + +The next time Luttrel came to the farm, he found the master sitting up +in a great, cushioned, chintz-covered arm-chair which Gertrude had sent +him the day before out of her own dressing-room. + +"Are you engaged yet?" asked Richard. + +There was a strain as if of defiance in his tone. The Major was +irritated. "Yes," said he, "we _are_ engaged now." + +The young man's face betrayed no emotion. + +"Are you reconciled to it?" asked Luttrel. + +"Yes, practically I am." + +"What do you mean by practically? Explain yourself." + +"A man in my state can't explain himself. I mean that, however I feel +about it, I shall accept Gertrude's marriage." + +"You're a wise man, my boy," said the Major, kindly. + +"I'm growing wise. I feel like Solomon on his throne in this chair. But +I confess, sir, I don't see how she could have you." + +"Well, there's no accounting for tastes," said the Major, +good-humoredly. + +"Ah, if it's been a matter of taste with her," said Richard, "I have +nothing to say." + +They came to no more express understanding than this with regard to the +future. Richard continued to grow stronger daily, and to defer the +renewal of his intercourse with Gertrude. A month before, he would have +resented as a bitter insult the intimation that he would ever be so +resigned to lose her as he now found himself. He would not see her for +two reasons: first, because he felt that it would be--or that at least +in reason it ought to be--a painful experience to look upon his old +mistress with a coldly critical eye; and secondly, because, justify to +himself as he would his new-born indifference, he could not entirely +cast away the suspicion that it was a last remnant of disease, and that, +when he stood on his legs again in the presence of those exuberant +landscapes with which he had long since established a sort of sensuous +communion, he would feel, as with a great tumultuous rush, the return of +his impetuous manhood and of his old capacity. When he had smoked a pipe +in the outer sunshine, when he had settled himself once more to the long +elastic bound of his mare, then he would see Gertrude. The reason of the +change which had come upon him was that she had disappointed him,--she +whose magnanimity it had once seemed that his fancy was impotent to +measure. She had accepted Major Luttrel, a man whom he despised; she had +so mutilated her magnificent heart as to match it with his. The validity +of his dislike to the Major, Richard did not trouble himself to examine. +He accepted it as an unerring instinct; and, indeed, he might have asked +himself, had he not sufficient proof? Moreover he labored under the +sense of a gratuitous wrong. He had suffered an immense torment of +remorse to drive him into brutishness, and thence to the very gate of +death, for an offence which he had deemed mortal, and which was after +all but a phantasm of his impassioned conscience. What a fool he had +been! a fool for his nervous fears, and a fool for his penitence. +Marriage with Major Luttrel,--such was the end of Gertrude's fancied +anguish. Such, too, we hardly need add, was the end of that idea of +reparation which had been so formidable to Luttrel. Richard had been +generous; he would now be just. + +Far from impeding his recovery, these reflections hastened it. One +morning in the beginning of August, Gertrude received notice of +Richard's presence. It was a still, sultry day, and Miss Whittaker, her +habitual pallor deepened by the oppressive heat, was sitting alone in a +white morning-dress, languidly fanning aside at once the droning flies +and her equally importunate thoughts. She found Richard standing in the +middle of the drawing-room, booted and spurred. + +"Well, Richard," she exclaimed, with some feeling, "you're at last +willing to see me!" + +As his eyes fell upon her, he started and stood almost paralyzed, +heeding neither her words nor her extended hand. It was not Gertrude he +saw, but her ghost. + +"In Heaven's name what has happened to you?" he cried. "Have _you_ been +ill?" + +Gertrude tried to smile in feigned surprise at his surprise; but her +muscles relaxed. Richard's words and looks reflected more vividly than +any mirror the dejection of her person; and this, the misery of her +soul. She felt herself growing faint. She staggered back to a sofa and +sank down. + +Then Richard felt as if the room were revolving about him, and as if his +throat were choked with imprecations,--as if his old erratic passion had +again taken possession of him, like a mingled legion of devils and +angels. It was through pity that his love returned. He went forward and +dropped on his knees at Gertrude's feet. "Speak to me!" he cried, +seizing her hands. "Are you unhappy? Is your heart broken? O Gertrude! +what have you come to?" + +Gertrude drew her hands from his grasp and rose to her feet. "Get up, +Richard," she said. "Don't talk so wildly. I'm not well. I'm very glad +to see you. _You_ look well." + +"I've got my strength again,--and meanwhile you've been failing. You're +unhappy, you're wretched! Don't say you're not, Gertrude: it's as plain +as day. You're breaking your heart." + +"The same old Richard!" said Gertrude, trying to smile again. + +"Would that you were the same old Gertrude! Don't try to smile; you +can't!" + +"I _shall_!" said Gertrude, desperately. "I'm going to be married, you +know." + +"Yes, I know. I don't congratulate you." + +"I have not counted upon that honor, Richard. I shall have to do without +it." + +"You'll have to do without a great many things!" cried Richard, +horrified by what seemed to him her blind self-immolation. + +"I have all I ask," said Gertrude. + +"You haven't all _I_ ask then! You haven't all your friends ask." + +"My friends are very kind, but I marry to suit myself." + +"You've not suited yourself!" retorted the young man. "You've +suited--God knows what!--your pride, your despair, your resentment." As +he looked at her, the secret history of her weakness seemed to become +plain to him, and he felt a mighty rage against the man who had taken a +base advantage of it. "Gertrude!" he cried, "I entreat you to go back. +It's not for my sake,--_I_'ll give you up,--I'll go a thousand miles +away, and never look at you again. It's for your own. In the name of +your happiness, break with that man! Don't fling yourself away. Buy him +off, if you consider yourself bound. Give him your money. That's all he +wants." + +As Gertrude listened, the blood came back to her face, and two flames +into her eyes. She looked at Richard from head to foot. "You are not +weak," she said, "you are in your senses, you are well and strong; you +shall tell me what you mean. You insult the best friend I have. Explain +yourself! you insinuate foul things,--speak them out!" Her eyes glanced +toward the door, and Richard's followed them. Major Luttrel stood on the +threshold. + +"Come in, sir!" cried Richard. "Gertrude swears she'll believe no harm +of you. Come and tell her that she's wrong! How can you keep on +harassing a woman whom you've brought to this state? Think of what she +was three months ago, and look at her now!" + +Luttrel received this broadside without flinching. He had overheard +Richard's voice from the entry, and he had steeled his heart for the +encounter. He assumed the air of having been so amazed by the young +man's first words as only to have heard his last; and he glanced at +Gertrude mechanically as if to comply with them. "What's the matter?" he +asked, going over to her, and taking her hand; "are you ill?" Gertrude +let him have her hand, but she forbore to meet his eyes. + +"Ill! of course she's ill!" cried Richard, passionately. "She's +dying,--she's consuming herself! I know I seem to be playing an odious +part here, Gertrude, but, upon my soul, I can't help it. I look like a +betrayer, an informer, a sneak, but I don't feel like one! Still, I'll +leave you, if you say so." + +"Shall he go, Gertrude?" asked Luttrel, without looking at Richard. + +"No. Let him stay and explain himself. He has accused you,--let him +prove his case." + +"I know what he is going to say," said Luttrel. "It will place me in a +bad light. Do you still wish to hear it?" + +Gertrude drew her hand hastily out of Luttrel's. "Speak, Richard!" she +cried, with a passionate gesture. + +"I will speak," said Richard. "I've done you a dreadful wrong, Gertrude. +How great a wrong, I never knew until I saw you to-day so miserably +altered. When I heard that you were to be married, I fancied that it was +no wrong, and that my remorse had been wasted. But I understand it now; +and _he_ understands it, too. You once told me that you had ceased to +love Captain Severn. It wasn't true. You never ceased to love him. You +love him at this moment. If he were to get another wound in the next +battle, how would you feel? How would you bear it?" And Richard paused +for an instant with the force of his interrogation. + +"For God's sake," cried Gertrude, "respect the dead!" + +"The dead! Is he dead?" + +Gertrude covered her face with her hands. + +"You beast!" cried Luttrel. + +Richard turned upon him savagely. "Shut your infernal mouth!" he roared. +"You told me he was alive and well!" + +Gertrude made a movement of speechless distress. + +"You would have it, my dear," said Luttrel, with a little bow. + +Richard had turned pale, and began to tremble. "Excuse me, Gertrude," he +said, hoarsely, "I've been deceived. Poor, unhappy woman! Gertrude," he +continued, going nearer to her, and speaking in a whisper, "_I_ killed +him." + +Gertrude fell back from him, as he approached her, with a look of +unutterable horror. "I and _he_," said Richard, pointing at Luttrel. + +Gertrude's eyes followed the direction of his gesture, and transferred +their scorching disgust to her suitor. This was too much for Luttrel's +courage. "You idiot!" she shouted at Richard, "speak out!" + +"He loved you, though you believed he didn't," said Richard. "I saw it +the first time I looked at him. To every one but you it was as plain as +day. Luttrel saw it too. But he was too modest, and he never fancied you +cared for him. The night before he went back to the army, he came to bid +you good by. If he had seen you, it would have been better for every +one. You remember that evening, of course. We met him, Luttrel and I. He +was all on fire,--he meant to speak. I knew it, you knew it, Luttrel: it +was in his fingers' ends. I intercepted him. I turned him off,--I lied +to him and told him you were away. I was a coward, and I did neither +more nor less than that. I knew you were waiting for him. It was +stronger than my will,--I believe I should do it again. Fate was against +him, and he went off. I came back to tell you, but my damnable jealousy +strangled me. I went home and drank myself into a fever. I've done you a +wrong that I can never repair. I'd go hang myself if I thought it would +help you." Richard spoke slowly, softly, and explicitly, as if +irresistible Justice in person had her hand upon his neck, and were +forcing him down upon his knees. In the presence of Gertrude's dismay +nothing seemed possible but perfect self-conviction. In Luttrel's +attitude, as he stood with his head erect, his arms folded, and his cold +gray eye fixed upon the distance, it struck him that there was something +atrociously insolent; not insolent to him,--for that he cared little +enough,--but insolent to Gertrude and to the dreadful solemnity of the +hour. Richard sent the Major a look of the most aggressive contempt. "As +for Major Luttrel," he said, "_he_ was but a passive spectator. No, +Gertrude, by Heaven!" he burst out; "he was worse than I! I loved you, +and he didn't!" + +"Our friend is correct in his facts, Gertrude," said Luttrel, quietly. +"He is incorrect in his opinions. I _was_ a passive spectator of his +deception. He appeared to enjoy a certain authority with regard to your +wishes,--the source of which I respected both of you sufficiently never +to question,--and I accepted the act which he has described as an +exercise of it. You will remember that you had sent us away on the +ground that you were in no humor for company. To deny you, therefore, to +another visitor, seemed to me rather officious, but still pardonable. +You will consider that I was wholly ignorant of your relations to that +visitor; that whatever you may have done for others, Gertrude, to me you +never vouchsafed a word of information on the subject, and that Mr. +Clare's words are a revelation to me. But I am bound to believe nothing +that he says. I am bound to believe that I have injured you only when I +hear it from your own lips." + +Richard made a movement as if to break out upon the Major; but Gertrude, +who had been standing motionless with her eyes upon the ground, quickly +raised them, and gave him a look of imperious prohibition. She had +listened, and she had chosen. She turned to Luttrel. "Major Luttrel," +she said, "you _have_ been an accessory in what has been for me a +serious grief. It is my duty to tell you so. I mean, of course, a +profoundly unwilling accessory. I pity you more than I can tell you. I +think your position more pitiable than mine. It is true that I never +made a confidant of you. I never made one of Richard. I had a secret, +and he surprised it. You were less fortunate." It might have seemed to a +thoroughly dispassionate observer that in these last four words there +was an infinitesimal touch of tragic irony. Gertrude paused a moment +while Luttrel eyed her intently, and Richard, from a somewhat tardy +instinct of delicacy, walked over to the bow-window. "This is the most +painful moment of my life," she resumed. "I hardly know where my duty +lies. The only thing that is plain to me is, that I must ask you to +release me from my engagement. I ask it most humbly, Major Luttrel," +Gertrude continued, with warmth in her words, and a chilling coldness in +her voice,--a coldness which it sickened her to feel there, but which +she was unable to dispel. "I can't expect that you should give me up +easily; I know that it's a great deal to ask, and"--she forced the +chosen words out of her mouth--"I should thank you more than I can say +if you would put some condition upon my release. You have done honorably +by me, and I repay you with ingratitude. But I can't marry you." Her +voice began to melt. "I have been false from the beginning. I have no +heart to give you. I should make you a despicable wife." + +The Major, too, had listened and chosen, and in this trying conjuncture +he set the seal to his character as an accomplished man. He saw that +Gertrude's movement was final, and he determined to respect the +inscrutable mystery of her heart. He read in the glance of her eye and +the tone of her voice that the perfect dignity had fallen from his +character,--that his integrity had lost its bloom; but he also read her +firm resolve never to admit this fact to her own mind, nor to declare it +to the world, and he honored her forbearance. His hopes, his ambitions, +his visions, lay before him like a colossal heap of broken glass; but +he would be as graceful as she was. She had divined him; but she had +spared him. The Major was inspired. + +"You have at least spoken to the point," he said. "You leave no room for +doubt or for hope. With the little light I have, I can't say I +understand your feelings, but I yield to them religiously. I believe so +thoroughly that you suffer from the thought of what you ask of me, that +I will not increase your suffering by assuring you of my own. I care for +nothing but your happiness. You have lost it, and I give you mine to +replace it. And although it's a simple thing to say," he added, "I must +say simply that I thank you for your implicit faith in my +integrity,"--and he held out his hand. As she gave him hers, Gertrude +felt utterly in the wrong; and she looked into his eyes with an +expression so humble, so appealing, so grateful, that, after all, his +exit may be called triumphant. + +When he had gone, Richard turned from the window with an enormous sense +of relief. He had heard Gertrude's speech, and he knew that perfect +justice had not been done; but still there was enough to be thankful +for. Yet now that his duty was accomplished, he was conscious of a +sudden lassitude. Mechanically he looked at Gertrude, and almost +mechanically he came towards her. She, on her side, looking at him as he +walked slowly down the long room, his face indistinct against the +deadened light of the white-draped windows behind him, marked the +expression of his figure with another pang. "He has rescued me," she +said to herself; "but his passion has perished in the tumult. Richard," +she said aloud, uttering the first words of vague kindness that came +into her mind, "I forgive you." + +Richard stopped. The idea had lost its charm. "You're very kind," he +said, wearily. "You're far too kind. How do you know you forgive me? +Wait and see." + +Gertrude looked at him as she had never looked before; but he saw +nothing of it. He saw a sad, plain girl in a white dress, nervously +handling her fan. He was thinking of himself. If he had been thinking of +her, he would have read in her lingering, upward gaze, that he had won +her; and if, so reading, he had opened his arms, Gertrude would have +come to them. We trust the reader is not shocked. She neither hated him +nor despised him, as she ought doubtless in consistency to have done. +She felt that he was abundantly a man, and she loved him. Richard on his +side felt humbly the same truth, and he began to respect himself. The +past had closed abruptly behind him, and tardy Gertrude had been shut +in. The future was dimly shaping itself without her image. So he did not +open his arms. + +"Good by," he said, holding out his hand. "I may not see you again for a +long time." + +Gertrude felt as if the world were deserting her. "Are you going away?" +she asked, tremulously. + +"I mean to sell out and pay my debts, and go to the war." + +She gave him her hand, and he silently shook it. There was no contending +with the war, and she gave him up. + +With their separation our story properly ends, and to say more would be +to begin a new story. It is perhaps our duty, however, expressly to add, +that Major Luttrel, in obedience to a logic of his own, abstained from +revenge; and that, if time has not avenged him, it has at least rewarded +him. General Luttrel, who lost an arm before the war was over, recently +married Miss Van Winkel of Philadelphia, and seventy thousand a year. +Richard engaged in the defence of his country, on a captain's +commission, obtained with some difficulty. He saw a great deal of +fighting, but he has no scars to show. The return of peace found him in +his native place, without a home, and without resources. One of his +first acts was to call dutifully and respectfully upon Miss Whittaker, +whose circle of acquaintance had apparently become very much enlarged, +and now included a vast number of gentlemen. Gertrude's manner was +kindness itself, but a more studied kindness than before. She had lost +much of her youth and her simplicity. Richard wondered whether she had +pledged herself to spinsterhood, but of course he didn't ask her. She +inquired very particularly into his material prospects and intentions, +and offered most urgently to lend him money, which he declined to +borrow. When he left her, he took a long walk through her place and +beside the river, and, wandering back to the days when he had yearned +for her love, assured himself that no woman would ever again be to him +what she had been. During his stay in this neighborhood he found himself +impelled to a species of submission to one of the old agricultural +magnates whom he had insulted in his unregenerate days, and through whom +he was glad to obtain some momentary employment. But his present +position is very distasteful to him, and he is eager to try his fortunes +in the West. As yet, however, he has lacked even the means to get as far +as St. Louis. He drinks no more than is good for him. To speak of +Gertrude's impressions of Richard would lead us quite too far. Shortly +after his return she broke up her household, and came to the bold +resolution (bold, that is, for a woman young, unmarried, and ignorant of +manners in her own country) to spend some time in Europe. At our last +accounts she was living in the ancient city of Florence. Her great +wealth, of which she was wont to complain that it excluded her from +human sympathy, now affords her a most efficient protection. She passes +among her fellow-countrymen abroad for a very independent, but a very +happy woman; although, as she is by this time twenty-seven years of age, +a little romance is occasionally invoked to account for her continued +celibacy. + + + + +THE GROWTH, LIMITATIONS, AND TOLERATION OF SHAKESPEARE'S GENIUS. + + +In an article on Shakespeare in the June number of this Magazine, we +spoke of his general comprehensiveness and creativeness, of his method +of characterization, and of the identity of his genius with his +individuality. In the present article we purpose to treat of some +particular topics included in the general theme; and as criticism on him +is like coasting along a continent, we shall make little pretension to +system in the order of taking them up. + +The first of these topics is the succession of Shakespeare's works, +considered as steps in the growth and development of his powers,--a +subject which has already been ably handled by our countryman, Mr. +Verplanck. The facts, as far as they can be ascertained, are these. +Shakespeare went to London about the year 1586, in his twenty-second +year, and found some humble employment in one of the theatrical +companies. Three years afterwards, in 1589, he had risen to be one of +the sharers in the Blackfriars' Theatre. In 1592 he had acquired +sufficient reputation as a dramatist, or at least as a recaster of the +plays of others, to excite the jealousy of the leading playwrights, +whose crude dramas he condescended to rewrite or retouch. That graceless +vagabond, Robert Greene, addressing from his penitent death-bed his old +friends Lodge, Peele, and Marlowe, and trying to dissuade them from +"spending their wits" any longer in "making plays," spitefully +declares: "There is an upstart crow beautified with our feathers, that, +with his tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide, supposes he is as +able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and, being an +absolute Johannes Factotum, is, in his own conceit, the only Shake-scene +in the country." Doubtless this charge of adopting and adapting the +productions of others includes some dramas which have not been +preserved, as the company to which Shakespeare was attached owned the +manuscripts of a great number of plays which were never printed; and it +was a custom, when a play had popular elements in it, for other +dramatists to be employed in making such additions as would give +continual novelty to the old favorite. But of the plays published in our +editions of Shakespeare's writings, it is probable that "The Comedy of +Errors," and the three parts of "King Henry VI.," are only partially +his, and should be classed among his early adaptations, and not among +his early creations. The play of "Pericles" bears no marks of his mind, +except in some scenes of transcendent power and beauty, which start up +from the rest of the work like towers of gold from a plain of sand; but +these scenes are in his latest manner. In regard to the tragedy of +"Titus Andronicus," we are so constituted as to resist all the external +evidence by which such a shapeless mass of horrors and absurdities is +fastened on Shakespeare. Mr. Verplanck thinks it one of Shakespeare's +first attempts at dramatic composition; but first attempts must reflect +the mental condition of the author at the time they were made; and we +know the mental condition of Shakespeare in his early manhood by his +poem of "Venus and Adonis," which he expressly styles "the first heir of +his invention." Now leaving out of view the fact that "Titus Andronicus" +stamps the impression, not of youthful, but of matured depravity of +taste, its execrable enormities of feeling and incident could not have +proceeded from the sweet and comely nature in which the poem had its +birth. The best criticism on "Titus Andronicus" was made by Robert +Burns, when he was nine years old. His schoolmaster was reading the play +aloud in his father's cottage, and when he came to the scene where +Lavinia enters with her hands cut off and her tongue cut out, little +Robert fell a-crying, and threatened, in case the play was left in the +cottage, to burn it. It is hard to believe that what Burns despised and +detested at the age of nine could have been written by Shakespeare at +the age of twenty-five. Taking, then, "Venus and Adonis" as the point of +departure, we find Shakespeare at the age of twenty-two endowed with all +the faculties, but relatively deficient in the passions, of the poet. +The poem is a throng of thoughts, fancies, and imaginations, but +somewhat cramped in the utterance. Coleridge says, that "in his poems +the creative power and the intellectual energy wrestle as in a war +embrace. Each in its excess of strength seems to threaten the extinction +of the other. At length in the drama they were reconciled, and fought +each with its shield before the breast of the other." Fine as this is, +it would perhaps be more exact to say, that in his earlier poems his +intellect, acting apart from his sensibility, and playing with its own +ingenuities of fancy and meditation, condensed its thoughts in crystals. +Afterwards, when his whole nature became liquid, he gave us his thoughts +in a state of fusion, and his intellect flowed in streams of fire. + +Take, for example, that passage in the poem where Venus represents the +loveliness of Adonis as sending thrills of passion into the earth on +which he treads, and as making the bashful moon hide herself from the +sight of his bewildering beauty:-- + + "But if thou fall, O, then imagine this! + The earth, in love with thee, thy footing trips, + And all is but to rob thee of a kiss. + Rich preys make true men thieves; so do thy lips + Make modest Dian cloudy and forlorn, + Lest she should steal a kiss and die forsworn. + + "Now of this dark night I perceive the reason: + Cynthia for shame obscures her silver shine, + Till forging Nature be condemned of treason, + For stealing moulds from heaven that were divine. + Wherein she framed thee, in high heaven's despite. + To shame the sun by day and her by night." + +This is reflected and reflecting passion, or, at least, imagination +awakening passion, rather than passion penetrating imagination. + +Now mark, by contrast, the gush of the heart into the brain, dissolving +thought, imagination, and expression, so that they run molten, in the +delirious ecstasy of Pericles in recovering his long-lost child:-- + + "O Helicanus, strike me, honored sir! + Give me a gash; put me to present pain; + Lest this great sea of joys, rushing upon me, + O'erbear the shores of my mortality, + And drown me with their sweetness." + +If, as is probable, "Venus and Adonis" was written as early as 1586, we +may suppose that the plays which represent the boyhood of his genius, +and which are strongly marked with the characteristics of that poem, +namely, "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," the first draft of "Love's +Labor's Lost," and the original "Romeo and Juliet," were produced before +the year 1592. Following these came "King Richard III.," "King Richard +II.," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "King John," "The Merchant of +Venice," and "King Henry IV.," all of which we know were written before +1598, when Shakespeare was in his thirty-fourth year. During the next +eight years he produced "King Henry V.," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," +"As You Like It," "Hamlet," "Twelfth Night," "Measure for Measure," +"Othello," "Macbeth," and "King Lear." In this list are the four great +tragedies in which his genius culminated. Then came "Troilus and +Cressida," "Timon of Athens," "Julius Caesar," "Antony and Cleopatra," +"Cymbeline," "King Henry VIII.," "The Tempest," "The Winter's Tale," and +"Coriolanus." If heed be paid to this order of the plays, it will be +seen at once that a quotation from Shakespeare carries with it a very +different degree of authority, according as it refers to the youth or +the maturity of his mind. + +Indeed, when we reflect that between the production of "The Two +Gentlemen of Verona" and "King Lear" there is only a space of fifteen +years, we must admit that the history of the human intellect presents no +other example of such marvellous progress; and if we note the giant +strides by which it was made, we shall find that they all imply a +progressive widening and deepening of soul, a positive growth of the +nature of the man, until in Lear the power became supreme and becomes +amazing. Mr. Verplanck considers the period when he produced his four +great tragedies to be the period of his intellectual grandeur, as +distinguished from an earlier period which he thinks shows the +perfection of his merely poetic and imaginative power; but the fact +would seem to be that his increasing greatness as a philosopher was +fully matched by his increasing greatness as a poet, and that in the +devouring swiftness of his onward and upward movement imagination kept +abreast of reason. His imagination was never more vivid, all-informing, +and creative,--never penetrated with more unerring certainty to the +inmost spiritual essence of whatever it touched,--never forced words and +rhythm into more supple instruments of thought and feeling,--than when +it miracled into form the terror and pity and beauty of Lear. + +Indeed, the coequal growth of his reason and imagination was owing to +the wider scope and increased energy of the great moving forces of his +being. It relates primarily to the heart rather than the head. It is the +immense fiery force behind his mental powers, kindling them into white +heat, and urging them to efforts almost preternatural,--it is this which +impels the daring thought beyond the limits of positive knowledge, and +prompts the starts of ecstasy in whose unexpected radiance nature and +human life are transfigured, and for an instant shine with celestial +light. In truth he is, relatively, more intellectual in his early than +in his later plays, for in his later plays his intellect is thoroughly +impassioned, and, though it has really grown in strength and +massiveness, it is so fused with imagination and emotion as to be less +independently prominent. + +The sources of individuality lie below the intellect; and as Shakespeare +went deeper into the soul of man, he more and more represented the brain +as the organ and instrument of the heart, as the channel through which +sentiment, passion, and character found an intelligible outlet. His own +mind was singularly objective; that is, he saw things as they are in +themselves. The minds of his prominent characters are all subjective, +and see things as they are modified by the peculiarities of their +individual moods and emotions. The very objectivity of his own mind +enables him to assume the subjective conditions of less-emancipated +natures. Macbeth peoples the innocent air with menacing shapes, +projected from his own fiend-haunted imagination; but the same air is +"sweet and wholesome" to the poet who gave being to Macbeth. The +meridian of Shakespeare's power was reached when he created Othello, +Macbeth, and Lear, complex personalities, representing the conflict and +complication of the mightiest passions in colossal forms of human +character, and whose understandings and imaginations, whose perceptions +of nature and human life, and whose weightiest utterances of moral +wisdom, are all thoroughly subjective and individualized. The greatness +of these characters, as compared with his earlier creations, consists in +the greater intensity and amplitude of their natures, and the wider +variety of faculties and passions included in the strict unity of their +natures. Richard III., for example, is one of his earlier characters, +and though excellent of its kind, its excellence has been approached by +other dramatists, as, for instance, Massinger, in "Sir Giles Overreach." +But no other dramatist has been able to grasp and represent a character +similar in kind to Macbeth, and the reason is that Richard is +comparatively a simple conception, while Macbeth is a complex one. +There is unity and versatility in Richard; there is unity and variety in +Macbeth. Richard is capable of being developed with almost logical +accuracy; for though there is versatility in the play of his intellect, +there is little variety in the motives which direct his intellect. His +wickedness is not exhibited in the making. He is so completely and +gleefully a villain from the first, that he is not restrained from +convenient crime by any scruples and relentings. The vigor of his will +is due to his poverty of feeling and conscience. He is a brilliant and +efficient criminal because he is shorn of the noblest attributes of man. +Put, if you could, Macbeth's heart and imagination into him, and his +will would be smitten with impotence, and his wit be turned to wailing. +The intellect of Macbeth is richer and grander than Richard's, yet +Richard is relatively a more intellectual character; for the intellect +of Macbeth is rooted in his moral nature, and is secondary in our +thoughts to the contending motives and emotions it obeys and reveals. In +crime, as in virtue, what a man overcomes should enter into our estimate +of the power exhibited in what he does. + +The question now comes up,--and we suppose it must be met, though we +should like to evade it,--How, amid the individualities that Shakespeare +has created, are we to detect the individuality of Shakespeare himself? +In answer it may be said, that, if we survey his dramas in the mass, we +find three degrees of unity;--first, the unity of the individual +characters; second, the unity of the separate plays in which they +appear; and third, the unity of Shakespeare's own nature, a nature which +deepened, expanded, and increased in might, but did not essentially +change, and which is felt as a potent presence throughout his works, +binding them together as the product of one mind. He did not go out of +himself to inform other natures, but he included these natures in +himself; and though he does not infuse his individuality into his +characters, he does infuse it into the general conceptions which the +characters illustrate. His opinions, purposes, theory of life, are to be +gathered, not from what his characters say and do, but from the results +of what they say and do; and in each play he so combines and disposes +the events and persons that the cumulative impression shall express his +own judgment, indicate his own design, and convey his own feeling. His +individuality is so vast, so purified from eccentricity, and we grasp it +so imperfectly, that we are apt to deny it altogether, and conceive his +mind as impersonal. In view of the multiplicity of his creations, and +the range of thought, emotion, and character they include, it is a +common hyperbole of criticism to designate him as universal. But, in +truth, his mind was restricted, in its creative action, like other +minds, within the limits of its personal sympathies, though these +sympathies in him were keener, quicker, and more general than in other +men of genius. He was a great-hearted, broad-brained person, but still a +person, and not what Coleridge calls him, an "omnipresent creativeness." +Whatever he could sympathize with, he could embody and vitally +represent; but his sympathies, though wide, were far from being +universal, and when he was indifferent or hostile, the dramatist was +partially suspended in the satirist and caricaturist, and oversight took +the place of insight. Indeed, his limitations are more easily indicated +than his enlargements. We know what he has not done more surely than we +know what he has done; for if we attempt to follow his genius in any of +the numerous lines of direction along which it sweeps with such +victorious ease, we soon come to the end of our tether, and are confused +with a throng of thoughts and imaginations, which, as Emerson +exquisitely says, "sweetly torment us with invitations to their own +_inaccessible_ homes." But there were some directions which his genius +did not take,--not so much from lack of mental power as from lack of +disposition or from positive antipathy. Let us consider some of these. + +And first, Shakespeare's religious instincts and sentiments were +comparatively weak, for they were not creative. He has exercised his +genius in the creation of no character in which religious sentiment or +religious passion is dominant. He could not, of course,--he, the poet of +feudalism,--overlook religion as an element of the social organization +of Europe, but he did not seize Christian ideas in their essence, or +look at the human soul in its direct relations with God. And just think +of the field of humanity closed to him! For sixteen hundred years, +remarkable men and women had appeared, representing all classes of +religious character, from the ecstasy of the saint to the gloom of the +fanatic; yet his intellectual curiosity was not enough excited to +explore and reproduce their experience. Do you say that the subject was +foreign to the purpose of an Elizabethan playwright? The answer is, that +Decker and Massinger attempted it, for a popular audience, in "The +Virgin Martyr"; and though the tragedy of "The Virgin Martyr" is a +huddled mass of beauties and deformities, its materials of incident and +characters, could Shakespeare have been attracted to them, might have +been organized into as great a drama as Othello. Again, Marlowe, in his +play of "Dr. Faustus," has imperfectly treated a subject which in +Shakespeare's hands would have been made into a tragedy sublimer than +Lear could he have thrown himself into it with equal earnestness. +Marlowe, from the fact that he was a positive atheist, and a brawling +one, had evidently at some time directed his whole heart and imagination +to the consideration of religious questions, and had resolutely faced +facts from which Shakespeare turned away. + +Shakespeare, also, in common with the other dramatists of the time, +looked at the Puritans as objects of satire, laughing _at_ them instead +of gazing _into_ them. They were doubtless grotesque enough in external +appearance; but the poet of human nature should have penetrated through +the appearance to the substance, and recognized in them, not merely the +possibility of Cromwell, but of the ideal of character which Cromwell +but imperfectly represented. You may say that Shakespeare's nature was +too sunny and genial to admit the Puritan. It was not too sunny or +genial to admit Richards, and Iagos, and Gonerils, and "secret, black, +and midnight hags." + +It may be doubted also if Shakespeare's affinities extended to those +numerous classes of human character that stand for the reforming and +philanthropic sentiments of humanity. We doubt if he was hopeful for the +race. He was too profoundly impressed with its disturbing passions to +have faith in its continuous progress. Though immensely greater than +Bacon, it may be questioned if he could thoroughly have appreciated +Bacon's intellectual character. He could have delineated him to +perfection in everything but in that peculiar philanthropy of the mind, +that spiritual benignity, that belief in man and confidence in his +future, which both atone and account for so many of Bacon's moral +defects. There is no character in his plays that covers the elements of +such a man as Hildebrand or Luther, or either of the two Williams of +Orange, or Hampden, or Howard, or Clarkson, or scores of other +representative men whom history celebrates. Though the broadest +individual nature which human nature has produced, human nature is +immensely broader than he. + +It would be easy to quote passages from Shakespeare's works which would +seem to indicate that his genius was not limited in any of the +directions which have been pointed out; but these passages are thoughts +and observations, not men and women. Hamlet's soliloquy, and Portia's +address to Shylock, might be adduced as proofs that he comprehended the +religious element; but then who would take Hamlet or Portia as +representative of the religious character in any of its numerous +historical forms? There is a remark in one of his plays to this +effect:-- + + "It is an heretic that makes the fire, + Not she which burns in't." + +This might be taken as a beautiful expression of Christian toleration, +and is certainly admirable as a general thought; but it indicates +Shakespeare's indifference to religious passions in indicating his +superiority to them. It would have been a much greater achievement of +genius to have passed into the mind and heart of the conscientious +burner of heretics, seized the essence of the bigot's character, and +embodied in one great ideal individual a class of men whom we now both +execrate and misconceive. If he could follow the dramatic process of his +genius for Sir Toby Belch, why could he not do it for St. Dominic? + +Indeed, toleration, in the sense that Shakespeare has given to the word, +is not expressed in maxims directed against intolerance, but in the +exercise of charity towards intolerant men; and it is thus necessary to +indicate the limitations of his sympathy with his race, in order to +appreciate its real quality and extent. His unapproached greatness +consists not in including human nature, but in taking the point of view +of those large classes of human nature he did include. His sympathetic +insight was both serious and humorous; and he thus equally escaped the +intolerance of taste and the intolerance of intelligence. What we would +call the worst criminals and the most stupid fools were, as mirrored in +his mind, fairly dealt with; every opportunity was afforded them to +justify their right to exist; their words, thoughts, and acts were +viewed in relation to their circumstances and character, so that he made +them inwardly known, as well as outwardly perceived. The wonder of all +this would be increased, if we supposed, for the sake of illustration, +that the persons and events of all Shakespeare's plays were historical, +and that, instead of being represented by Shakespeare, they were +narrated by Macaulay. The result would be that the impression received +from the historian of every incident and every person would be +different, and would be wrong. The external facts might not be altered; +but the falsehood would proceed from the incapacity or indisposition of +the historian to pierce to the heart of the facts by sympathy and +imagination. There would be abundant information, abundant eloquence, +abundant invective against crime, abundant scorn of stupidity and folly, +perhaps much sagacious reflection and judicial scrutiny of evidence; but +the inward and essential truth would be wanting. What external statement +of the acts and probable motives of Macbeth and Othello would convey the +idea we have of them from being witnesses of the conflict of their +thoughts and passions? How wicked and shallow and feeble and foolish +would Hamlet appear, if represented, not in the light of Shakespeare's +imagination, but in the light of Macaulay's epigrams! How the historian +would "play the dazzling fence" of his rhetoric on the indecision of the +prince, his brutality to Ophelia, his cowardice, his impotence between +contending motives, and the chaos of blunders and crimes in which he +sinks from view! The subject would be even a better one for him than +that of James II.; yet the very supposition of such a mode of treatment +makes us feel the pathos of the real Hamlet's injunction to the friend +who strives to be his companion in death:-- + + "Absent thee from felicity awhile, + And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, + _To tell my story_." + +If the historian would thus deal with the heroes, why, such "small deer" +as Bardolph and Master Slender would of course be puffed out of +existence with one hiss of lordly contempt. Yet Macaulay has a more +vivid historical imagination, more power of placing himself in the age +about which he writes, than historians like Hume and Hallam, whose +judgments of men are summaries of qualities, and imply no inwardness of +vision, no discerning of spirits. In the whole class, the point of view +is the historian's, and not the point of view of the persons the +historian describes. The curse which clings to celebrity is, that it +commonly enters history only to be puffed or lampooned. + +The truth is, that most men, the intelligent and virtuous as well as the +ignorant and vicious, are intolerant of other individualities. They are +uncharitable by defect of sympathy and defect of insight. Society, even +the best, is apt to be made up of people who are engaged in the +agreeable occupation of despising each other; for one association for +mutual admiration there are twenty for mutual contempt; yet while +conversation is thus mostly made up of strictures on individuals, it +rarely evinces any just perception of individualities. James is +indignant or jeering at the absence of James in John, and John is +horror-stricken at the impudence of James in refusing to be John. Each +person feels himself to be misunderstood, though he never questions his +power to understand his neighbor. Egotism, vanity, prejudice, pride of +opinion, conceit of excellence, a mean delight in recognizing +inferiority in others, a meaner delight in refusing to recognize the +superiority of others, all the honest and all the base forms of +self-assertion, cloud and distort the vision when one mind directs its +glance at another. For one person who is mentally conscientious there +are thousands who are morally honest. The result is a vast massacre of +character, which would move the observer's compassion were it not that +the victims are also the culprits, and that pity at the spectacle of the +arrow quivering in the sufferer's breast is checked by the sight of the +bow bent in the sufferer's hands. This depreciation of others is the +most approved method of exalting ourselves. It educates us in +self-esteem, if not in knowledge. The savage conceives that the power of +the enemy he kills is added to his own. Shakespeare more justly +conceived that the power of the human being with whom he sympathized was +added to his own. + +This toleration, without which an internal knowledge of other natures is +impossible, Shakespeare possessed beyond any other man recorded in +literature or history. It is a moral as well as mental trait, and +belongs to the highest class of virtues. It is a virtue which, if +generally exercised, would remove mutual hostility by enlightening +mutual ignorance. And in Shakespeare we have, for once, a man great +enough to be modest and charitable; who has the giant's power, but, +instead of using it like a giant, trampling on weaker creatures, prefers +to feel them in his arms rather than feel them under his feet; and whose +toleration of others is the exercise of humility, veracity, beneficence, +and justice, as well as the exercise of reason, imagination, and humor. +We shall never appreciate Shakespeare's genius until we recognize in him +the exercise of the most difficult virtues, as well as the exercise of +the most wide-reaching intelligence. + +It is, of course, not so wonderful that he should take the point of view +of characters in themselves beautiful and noble, though even these might +appear very different under the glance of a less soul-searching eye. To +such aspects of life, however, all genius has a natural affinity. But +the marvel of his comprehensiveness is his mode of dealing with the +vulgar, the vicious, and the low,--with persons who are commonly spurned +as dolts and knaves. His serene benevolence did not pause at what are +called "deserving objects of charity," but extended to the undeserving, +who are, in truth, the proper objects of charity. If we compare him, in +this respect, with poets like Dante and Milton, in whom elevation is the +predominant characteristic, we shall find that they tolerate humanity +only in its exceptional examples of beauty and might. They are +aristocrats of intellect and conscience,--the noblest aristocracy, but +also the haughtiest and most exclusive. They can sympathize with great +energies, whether celestial or diabolic, but their attitude towards the +feeble and the low is apt to be that of indifference, or contempt. +Milton can do justice to the Devil, though not, like Shakespeare, to +"poor devils." But it may be doubted if the wise and good have the right +to cut the Providential bond which connects them with the foolish and +the bad, and set up an aristocratic humanity of their own, ten times +more supercilious than the aristocracy of blood. Divorce the loftiest +qualities from humility and geniality, and they quickly contract a +pharisaic taint; and if there is anything which makes the wretched more +wretched, it is the insolent condescension of patronizing +benevolence,--if there is anything which makes the vicious more vicious, +it is the "I-am-better-than-thou" expression on the face of conscious +virtue. Now Shakespeare had none of this pride of superiority, either in +its noble or ignoble form. Consider that, if his gigantic powers had +been directed by antipathies instead of sympathies, he would have left +few classes of human character untouched by his terrible scorn. Even if +his antipathies had been those of taste and morals, he would have done +so much to make men hate and misunderstand each other,--so much to +destroy the very sentiment of humanity,--that he would have earned the +distinction of being the greatest satirist and the worst man that ever +lived. But instead, how humanely he clings to the most unpromising forms +of human nature, insists on their right to speak for themselves as much +as if they were passionate Romeos and high-aspiring Buckinghams, and +does for them what he might have desired should be done for himself had +he been Dogberry, or Bottom, or Abhorson, or Bardolph, or any of the +rest! The low characters, the clowns and vagabonds, of Ben Jonson's +plays, excite only contempt or disgust. Shakespeare takes the same +materials as Ben, passes them through the medium of his imaginative +humor, and changes them into subjects of the most soul-enriching mirth. +Their actual prototypes would not be tolerated; but when his genius +shines on them, they "lie in light" before our humorous vision. It must +be admitted that in his explorations of the lower levels of human nature +he sometimes touches the mud deposits; still he never hisses or jeers at +the poor relations through Adam he there discovers, but magnanimously +gives them the wink of recognition! + +This is one extreme of his genius, the poetic comprehension and +embodiment of the low. What was the other extreme? How high did he mount +in the ideal region, and what class of his characters represent his +loftiest flight? It is commonly asserted that his supernatural beings, +his ghosts, spectres, witches, fairies, and the like, exhibiting his +command of the dark side and the bright side, the terror and the grace, +of the supernatural world, indicate his rarest quality; for in these, it +is said, he went out of human nature itself, and created beings that +never existed. Wonderful as these are, we must recollect that in them he +worked on a basis of popular superstitions, on a mythology as definite +as that of Greece and Rome, and though he re-created instead of copying +his materials, though he Shakespearianized them, he followed no +different process of his genius in delineating Hecate and Titania than +in delineating Dame Quickly and Anne Page. All his characters, from the +rogue Autolycus to the heavenly Cordelia, are in a certain sense ideal; +but the question now relates to the rarity of the elements, and the +height of the mood, and not merely to the action of his mind; and we +think that the characters technically called supernatural which appear +in his works are much nearer the earth than others which, though they +lack the name, have more of the spiritual quality of the thing. The +highest supernatural is to be found in the purest, highest, most +beautiful souls. + +Did it never strike you in reading "The Tempest," that Ariel is not so +supernatural as Miranda? We may be sure that Ferdinand so thought, in +that rapture of wonder when her soul first shone on him through her +innocent eyes; and afterwards when he asks, + + "I do beseech you + (Chiefly that I might set it in my prayers) + What is your name?" + +And doubtless there was a more marvellous melody in her voice than in +the mysterious magical music + + "That crept by him upon the waters, + Allaying both their fury and his passion + With its sweet air." + +Shakespeare, indeed, in his transcendently beautiful embodiments of +feminine excellence, the most exquisite creations in literature, passed +into a region of sentiment and thought, of ideals and of ideas, +altogether higher and more supernatural than that region in which he +shaped his delicate Ariels and his fairy Titanias. The question has been +raised whether sex extends to soul. However this may be decided, here is +a soul, with its records in literature, who is at once the manliest of +men, and the most womanly of women; who can not only recognize the +feminine element in existing individuals, but discern the idea, the +pattern, the radiant genius of womanhood itself, as it hovers, unseen to +other eyes, over the living representatives of the sex. Literature +boasts many eminent female poets and novelists; but not one has ever +approached Shakespeare in the purity, the sweetness, the refinement, the +elevation, of his perceptions of feminine character,--much less +approached him in the power of embodying his perceptions in persons. +These characters are so thoroughly domesticated on the earth, that we +are tempted to forget the heaven of invention from which he brought +them. The most beautiful of spirits, they are the most tender of +daughters, lovers, and wives. They are "airy shapes," but they "syllable +men's names." Rosalind, Juliet, Ophelia, Viola, Perdita, Miranda, +Desdemona, Hermione, Portia, Isabella, Imogen, Cordelia,--if their names +do not call up their natures, the most elaborate analysis of criticism +wilt be of no avail. Do you say that these women are slightly idealized +portraits of actual women? Was Cordelia, for example, simply a good, +affectionate daughter of a foolish old king? To Shakespeare, himself, +she evidently partook of divineness; and he hints of the still ecstasy +of contemplation in which her nature first rose upon his imagination, +when, speaking through the lips of a witness of her tears, he hallows +them as they fall:-- + + "She shook the holy water from her heavenly eyes." + +And these Shakespearian women, though all radiations from one great +ideal of womanhood, are at the same time intensely individualized. Each +has a separate soul, and the processes of intellect as well as emotion +are different in each. Each, for example, is endowed with the faculty, +and is steeped in the atmosphere, of imagination; but who could mistake +the imagination of Ophelia for the imagination of Imogen?--the +loitering, lingering movement of the one, softly consecrating whatever +it touches, for the irradiating, smiting efficiency, the flash and the +bolt, of the other? Imogen is perhaps the most completely expressed of +Shakespeare's women; for in her every faculty and affection is fused +with imagination, and the most exquisite tenderness is combined with +vigor and velocity of nature. Her mind darts in an instant to the +ultimate of everything. After she has parted with her husband, she does +not merely say that she will pray for him. Her affection is winged, and +in a moment she is enskied. She does not look up, she goes up; she would +have charged him, she says, + + "At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight, + T'encounter me with orisons, for then + _I am in heaven for him_." + +When she hears of her husband's inconstancy, the possible object of his +sensual whim is at once consumed in the fire that leaps from her +impassioned lips,-- + + "Some jay of Italy, + Whose mother is her painting, hath betrayed him." + +Mr. Collier, ludicrously misconceiving the instinctive action of +Imogen's mind, thinks the true reading is, "smothers her with +painting." Now Imogen's wrath first reduces the light woman to the most +contemptible of birds and the most infamous of symbols, the jay, and +then, not willing to leave her any substance at all, annihilates her +very being with the swift thought that the paint on her cheeks is her +mother,--that she is nothing but the mere creation of painting, a +phantom born of a color, without real body or soul. It would be easy to +show that the mental processes of all Shakespeare's women are as +individual as their dispositions. + +And now think of the amplitude of this man's soul! Within the immense +space which stretches between Dogberry or Launcelot Gobbo and Imogen or +Cordelia, lies the Shakespearian world. No other man ever exhibited such +philosophic comprehensiveness, but philosophic comprehensiveness is +often displayed apart from creative comprehensiveness, and along the +whole vast line of facts, laws, analogies, and relations that +Shakespeare's intellect extended, his perceptions were vital, his +insight was creative, his thoughts flowed in forms. And now was he proud +of his transcendent superiorities? Did he think that he had exhausted +all that can appear before the sight of the eye and the sight of the +soul? No. The immeasurable opulence of the undiscovered and undiscerned +regions of existence was never felt with more reverent humility than by +this discoverer, who had seen in rapturous vision so many new worlds +open on his view. In the play which perhaps best indicates the ecstatic +action of his mind, and which is alive in every part with that fiery +sense of unlimited power which the mood of ecstasy gives,--in the play +of "Antony and Cleopatra," he has put into the mouth of the Soothsayer +what seems to have been his own modest judgment of the extent of his +glance into the universe of matter and mind:-- + + "In Nature's infinite book of secrecy + A little I can read!" + + + + +LONGFELLOW'S TRANSLATION OF DANTE'S DIVINA COMMEDIA. + + +In the North American Review for March, 1809, we read of Cary's Dante: +"This we can pronounce, with confidence, to be the most literal +translation in poetry in our language." + +"As to Cary," writes Prescott in 1824, "I think Dante would have given +him a place in his ninth heaven, if he could have foreseen his +translation. It is most astonishing, giving not only the literal +corresponding phrase, but the spirit of the original, the true Dantesque +manner. It should be cited as an evidence of the compactness, the +pliability, the sweetness of the English tongue." + +If we turn to English scholars, we shall find them holding the same +language, and equally ready to assure you that you may confidently +accept Cary's version as a faithful transcript of the spirit and letter +of the original. And this was the theory of translation throughout +almost the first half of the present century. Cary's position in 1839 +was higher even than it was in 1824. With many other claims to respect, +he was still best known as the translator of Dante. + +In 1839 Mr. Longfellow published five passages from the _Purgatorio_, +translated with a rigorous adhesion to the words and idioms of the +original. Coming out in connection with translations from the Spanish +and German, and with original pieces which immediately took their place +among the favorite poems of every household, they could not be expected +to attract general attention. But scholars read them with avidity, for +they found in them the first successful solution of one of the great +problems of literature,--Can poetry pass from one language into another +without losing its distinctive characteristics of form and expression? +Dryden, Pope, Cowper, Sotheby, had answered no for Greek and Latin, +Coleridge for German, Fairfax and Rose and Cary for Italian. But if Mr. +Longfellow could translate the whole of the _Divina Commedia_ as he had +translated these five passages, great as some of these names were, it +was evident that the lovers of poetry would call for new translations of +all the great poets. This he has now done. The whole poem is before us, +with its fourteen thousand two hundred and seventy-eight lines, the +English answering line for line and word for word to the original +Italian. We purpose to show, by a careful comparison of test-passages +with corresponding passages of Cary, what the American poet has done for +the true theory of translation. + +It is evident that, while both translators have nominally the same +object in view, they follow different paths in their endeavors to reach +it; or, in other words, that they come to their task with very different +theories of translation, and very different ideas of the true meaning of +faithful rendering. Translation, according to Mr. Cary, consists in +rendering the author's idea without a strict adherence to the author's +words. According to Mr. Longfellow, the author's words form a necessary +accompaniment of his idea, and must, wherever the idioms of the two +languages admit of it, be rendered by their exact equivalents. The +following passage, from the twenty-eighth canto of the _Purgatorio_, +will illustrate our meaning:-- + + "In questa altezza che tutta e disciolta + Nell'aer vivo, tal moto percuote, + E fa sonar la selva perch' e folta." + +Literally, + + In this height which is all detached + In the living air, such motion strikes, + And makes the wood resound because it is thick. + +Such are the words of Dante line by line. Let us now see how Cary +renders them:-- + + "Upon the summit, which on every side + To visitation of the impassive air + Is open, doth that motion strike, and makes + Beneath its sway the umbrageous wood resound." + +The fundamental idea of this passage is the explanation of the sound of +the forest, and this idea Cary has preserved. But has he preserved it in +its force and simplicity and Dantesque directness? We will not dwell +upon the rendering of _altezza_ by _summit_, although a little more care +would have preserved the exact word of the original. But we may with +good reason object to the expansion of Dante's three lines into four. We +may with equal reason object to + + "which on every side + To visitation of the impassive air + Is open," + +as a correct rendering of + + "che tutta e disciolta + Nell'aer vivo,"-- + + which is all detached + In the living air. + + "To visitation of the impassive air," + +is a sonorous verse; but it is not Dante's verse, unless _all detached_ +means _on every side is open to visitation_, and _impassive air_ means +_living air_. _Beneath its sway_, also, is not Dante's; nor can we +accept _umbrageous wood_, with its unmeaning epithet, for _the wood +because it is thick_, an explanation of the phenomenon which had excited +Dante's wonder. + +Here, then, we have Cary's theory, the preservation of the fundamental +idea, but the free introduction of such accessory ideas as convenience +may suggest, whether in the form of epithet or of paraphrase. + +Mr. Longfellow's translation of this passage may also be accepted as the +exposition of his theory:-- + + "Upon this height that all is disengaged + In living ether, doth this motion strike, + And make the forest sound, for it is dense." + +We have here the three lines of the original, and in the order of the +original; we have the exact words of the original, _disciolta_ meaning +_disengaged_ as well as _detached_, and therefore the ideas of the +original without modification or change. The passage is not a remarkable +one in form, although a very important one in the description of which +it forms a part. The sonorous second line of Mr. Cary's version is +singularly false to the movement, as well as to the thought, of the +original. Mr. Longfellow's lines have the metric character of Dante's +precise and direct description. + +The next triplet brings out the difference between the two theories even +more distinctly:-- + + "E la percossa pianta tanto puote + Che della sua virtute l'aura impregna, + E quella poi girando intorno scuote." + + And the stricken plant has so much power + That with its virtue it impregnates the air, + And that then revolving shakes around. + +Thus far Dante. + + "And in the shaken plant such power resides, + That it impregnates with its efficacy + The voyaging breeze, upon whose subtle plume + _That_, wafted, flies abroad." + +Thus far Cary. + +Cary's first line is a tolerably near approach to the original, although +a distinction might be made between the force of _power resides in_, and +_power possessed by_. The second line falls short of the conciseness of +the original by transposing the object of _impregnates_ into the third. +This, however, though a blemish, might also be passed over. But what +shall we say to the expansion of _aura_ into a full line, and that line +so Elizabethan and un-Dantesque as + + "The voyaging breeze upon whose subtle plume"? + +In this, too, Mr. Cary is faithful to his theory. Mr. Longfellow is +equally faithful to his:-- + + "And so much power the stricken plant possesses, + That with its virtue it impregns the air, + And this, revolving, scatters it around." + +We have seen how Cary's theory permits the insertion of a new line, or, +more correctly speaking, the expansion of a single word into a full +line. But it admits also of the opposite extreme,--the suppression of an +entire line. + + "Ch'io vidi, e anche udi'parlar lo rostro, + E sonar nella voce ed _io_ e _mio_, + Quand'era nel concetto _noi_ e _nostro_." + + For I saw and also heard speak the beak, + And sound in its voice and _I_ and _my_, + When it was in the conception _we_ and _our_. + + _Paradiso_, XIX. 10. + +There is doubtless something quaint and peculiar in these lines, but it +is the quaintness and peculiarity of Dante. The _I_ and _my_, the _we_ +and _our_, are traits of that direct and positive mode of expression +which is one of the distinctive characteristics of his style. Do we find +it in Cary? + + "For I beheld and heard + The beak discourse; and what intention formed + Of many, singly as of one express." + +Do we not find it in Longfellow? + + "For speak I saw, and likewise heard, the beak, + And utter with its voice both _I_ and _My_, + When in conception it was _We_ and _Our_." + +It is not surprising that the two translators, starting with theories +essentially so different, should have produced such different results. +Which of these results is most in harmony with the legitimate object of +translation can hardly admit of a doubt. For the object of translation +is to convey an accurate idea of the original, or, in other words, to +render the words and idioms of the language from which the translation +is made by their exact equivalents in the language into which it is +made. The translator is bound by the words of the original. He is bound, +so far as the difference between languages admits of it, by the idioms +of the original. And as the effect of words and idioms depends in a +great measure upon the skill with which they are arranged, he is bound +also by the rhythm of the original. If you would copy Raphael, you must +not give him the coloring of Titian. The calm dignity of the "School of +Athens" conveys a very imperfect idea of the sublime energy of the +sibyls and prophets of the Sistine Chapel. + +But can this exactitude be achieved without forcing language into such +uncongenial forms as to produce an artificial effect, painfully +reminding you, at every step, of the labor it cost? And here we come to +the question of fact; for if Mr. Longfellow has succeeded, the answer is +evident. We purpose, therefore, to take a few test-passages, and, +placing the two translations side by side with the original, give our +readers an opportunity of making the comparison for themselves. + +First, however, let us remind the reader that, if it were possible to +convey an accurate idea of Dante's style by a single word, that word +would be _power_. Whatever he undertakes to say, he says in the form +best suited to convey his thought to the reader's mind as it existed in +his own mind. If it be a metaphysical idea, he finds words for it which +give it the distinctness and reality of a physical substance. If it be a +landscape, he brings it before you, either in outline or in detail, +either by form or by color, as the occasion requires, but always with +equal force. That landscape of his ideal world ever after takes its +place in your memory by the side of the landscapes of your real world. +Even the sounds which he has described linger in the ear as the types of +harshness, or loudness, or sweetness, instantly coming back to you +whenever you listen to the roaring of the sea, or the howling of the +wind, or the carol of birds. He calls things by their names, never +shrinking from a homely phrase where the occasion demands it, nor +substituting circumlocution for direct expression. Words with him seem +to be things, real and tangible; not hovering like shadows over an idea, +but standing out in the clear light, bold and firm, as the distinct +representatives of an idea. In his verse every word has its appropriate +place, and something to do in that place which no other word could do +there. Change it, and you feel at once that something has been lost. + +Next to power, infinite variety is the characteristic of Dante's style, +as it is of his invention. With a stronger individuality than any poet +of any age or country, there is not a trace of mannerism in all his +poem. The stern, the tender, the grand, simple exposition, fierce +satire, and passionate appeal have each their appropriate words and +their appropriate cadence. This Cary did not perceive, and has told the +stories of Francesca and of Ugolino with the same Miltonian modulation. +Longfellow, by keeping his original constantly before him, has both seen +and reproduced it. + +We begin our quotations with the celebrated inscription over the gate of +hell, and the entrance of the two poets into "the secret things." The +reader will remember that the last three triplets contain a remarkable +example of the correspondence of sound with sense. + + "Per me si va nella citta dolente; + Per me si va nell'eterno dolore; + Per me si va tra la perduta gente; + Giustizia mosse'l mio alto fattore; + Fecemi la divina potestate, + La somma sapienza e'l primo amore. + Dinanzi a me non fur cose create + Se non eterne, ed io eterno duro: + Lasciate ogni speranza voi che'ntrate. + Queste parole di colore oscuro + Vid'io scritte al sommo d'una porta; + Perch'io: maestro, il senso lor m'e duro. + Ed egli a me, come persona accorta: + Qui si convien lasciare ogni sospetto, + Ogni vilta convien che qui sia morta. + Noi sem venuti al luogo ov'io t'ho detto + Che vederai le genti dolorose + Ch' hanno perduto il ben dello'ntelletto. + E poiche la sua mano alla mia pose + Con lieto volto, ond'io mi confortai, + Mi mise dentro alle secrete cose. + Quivi sospiri, pianti ed alti guai + Risonavan per l'aer senza stelle, + Perch'io al cominciar ne lagrimai. + Diverse lingue, orribili favelle, + Parole di dolore, accenti d'ira, + Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle, + Facevano un tumulto il qual s'aggira + Sempre'n quell'aria senza tempo tinta, + Come la rena quando'l turbo spira." + + _Inferno_, III. 1-30. + + "'Through me the way is to the city dolent; + Through me the way is to eternal dole; + Through me the way among the people lost. + Justice incited my sublime Creator; + Created me divine Omnipotence, + The highest Wisdom and the primal Love. + Before me there were no created things, + Only eterne, and I eternal last. + All hope abandon, ye who enter in!' + These words in sombre color I beheld + Written upon the summit of a gate; + Whence I: 'Their sense is, Master, hard to me!' + And he to me, as one experienced: + 'Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned, + All cowardice must needs be here extinct. + We to the place have come, where I have told thee + Thou shalt behold the people dolorous + Who have foregone the good of intellect.' + And after he had laid his hand on mine + With joyful mien, whence I was comforted, + He led me in among the secret things. + There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud + Resounded through the air without a star, + Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat. + Languages diverse, horrible dialects, + Accents of anger, words of agony, + And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands, + Made up a tumult that goes whirling on + Forever in that air forever black, + Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes."--_Longfellow_. + + "'Through me you pass into the city of woe: + Through me you pass into eternal pain: + Through me among the people lost for aye. + Justice the founder of my fabric moved: + To rear me was the task of power divine, + Supremest wisdom, and primeval love. + Before me things create were none, save things + Eternal, and eternal I endure. + All hope abandon, ye who enter here.' + Such characters, in color dim, I marked + Over a portal's lofty arch inscribed. + Whereat I thus: 'Master, these words import + Hard meaning.' He as one prepared replied: + 'Here thou must all distrust behind thee leave; + Here be vile fear extinguished. We are come + Where I have told thee we shall see the souls + To misery doomed, who intellectual good + Have lost.' And when his hand he had stretched forth + To mine, with pleasant looks, whence I was cheered. + Into that secret place he led me on. + Here sighs, with lamentations and loud moans, + Resounded through the air pierced by no star, + That e'en I wept at entering. Various tongues, + Horrible languages, outcries of woe, + Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse, + With hands together smote that swelled the sounds, + Made up a tumult, that forever whirls + Round through that air with solid darkness stained, + Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies." + + _Cary._ + +The following, though less remarkable for its poetry than many others +which we might select, is very difficult for the translator. We cite it +as an illustration of the boldness with which Mr. Longfellow meets +difficulties. + + "E quale e quei che suo dannaggio sogna, + Che sognando disidera sognare, + Si che quel ch'e, come non fosse, agogna; + Tal mi fec'io non potendo parlare: + Che disiava scusarmi e scusava + Me tuttavia e not mi credea fare + Maggior difetto men vergogna lava, + Disse'l maestro, che'l tuo non e stato: + Pero d'ogni tristizia ti disgrava; + E fa ragion ch'io ti sempre allato, + Se piu avvien che fortuna t'accoglia + Dove sien genti in simigliante piato: + Che voler cio udire e bassa voglia." + + _Inferno_, XXX. 136-148. + + "And as he is who dreams of his own harm. + Who dreaming wishes it may be a dream, + So that he craves what is, as if it were not; + Such I became, not having power to speak, + For to excuse myself I wished, and still + Excused myself, and did not think I did it. + 'Less shame doth wash away a greater fault,' + The Master said, 'than this of thine has been; + Therefore thyself disburden of all sadness, + And make account that I am aye beside thee, + If e'er it come to pass that fortune bring thee + Where there are people in a like dispute; + For a base wish it is to wish to hear it.'" + + _Longfellow._ + + "As a man that dreams of harm + Befallen him, dreaming wishes it a dream, + And that which is, desires as if it were not; + Such then was I, who, wanting power to speak, + Wished to excuse myself, and all the while + Excused me, though unweeting that I did. + 'More grievous fault than thine has been, less shame,' + My master cried, 'might expiate. Therefore cast + All sorrow from thy soul; and if again + Chance bring thee where like conference is held, + Think I am ever at thy side. To hear + Such wrangling is a joy for vulgar minds.'" + + _Cary._ + +The following passage from the Purgatorio is not only strikingly +difficult, but strikingly beautiful. + + "Ed un di lor, non questi che parlava, + Si torse sotto'l peso che lo 'mpaccia, + E videmi e conobbemi, e chiamava + Tenendo gli occhi con fatica fisi + A me che tutto chin con loro andava. + Oh, diss'io lui, non se'tu Oderisi, + L'onor d'Agobbio e l'onor di quell'arte + Ch'_alluminare_ e chiamata in Parisi? + Frate, diss' egli, piu ridon le carte + Che pennelleggia Franco Bolognese: + L'onore e tutto or suo, e mio in parte. + Ben non sare'io stato si cortese + Mentre ch'io vissi, per lo gran disio + Dell'eccellenza ove mio core intese. + Di tal superbia qui si paga il fio: + Ed ancor non sarei qui, se non fosse + Che, possendo peccar, mi volsi a Dio. + Oh vana gloria dell'umane posse, + Com' poco verde in su la cima dura + Se non e giunta dall'etadi grosse! + Credette Cimabue nella pintura + Tenor lo campo; ed ora ha Giotto il grido, + Si che la fama di colui s' oscura. + Cosi ha tolto l'uno all'altro Guido + La gloria della lingua; e forse e nato + Chi l'uno e l'altro caccera di nido. + Non e il mondan romore altro ch' un fiato + Di vento ch' or vien quinci ed or vien quindi, + E muta nome perche muta lato. + Che fama avrai tu piu se vecchia scindi + Da te la carne, che se fossi morto + Innanzi che lasciassi il pappo e'l dindi, + Pria che passin mill'anni? ch'e piu corto + Spazio all' eterno ch'un muover di ciglia + Al cerchio che piu tardi in cielo e torto. + Colui che del cammin si poco piglia + Diranzi a te, Toscana sono tutta, + Ed ora appena in Siena sen pispiglia, + Ond'era sire, quando fu distrutta + La rabbia Fiorentina, che superba + Fu a quel tempo si com'ora e putta. + La vostra nominanza e color d'erba + Che viene e va, e quei la discolora + Per cui ell'esce della terra acerba." + + _Purgatorio_, XI. 74-117. + + "And one of them, not this one who was speaking, + Twisted himself beneath the weight that cramps him, + And looked at me, and knew me, and called out, + Keeping his eyes laboriously fixed + On me, who all bowed down was going with them. + 'O,' asked I him, 'art thou not Oderisi, + Agobbio's honor, and honor of that art + Which is in Paris called illuminating?' + 'Brother,' said he, 'more laughing are the leaves + Touched by the brush of Franco Bolognese; + All his the honor now, and mine in part. + In sooth I had not been so courteous + While I was living, for the great desire + Of excellence, on which my heart was bent. + Here of such pride is payed the forfeiture: + And yet I should not be here, were it not + That, having power to sin, I turned to God. + O thou vain glory of the human powers, + How little green upon thy summit lingers, + If 't be not followed by an age of grossness! + In painting Cimabue thought that he + Should hold the field, now Giotto has the cry, + So that the other's fame is growing dim. + So has one Guido from the other taken + The glory of our tongue, and he perchance + Is born, who from the nest shall chase them both. + Naught is this mundane rumor but a breath + Of wind, that comes now this way and now that, + And changes name, because it changes side. + What fame shalt thou have more, if old peel off + From thee thy flesh, than if thou hadst been dead + Before thou left the _pappo_ and the _dindi_, + Ere pass a thousand years? which is a shorter + Space to the eterne, than twinkling of an eye + Unto the circle that in heaven wheels slowest. + With him, who takes so little of the road + In front of me, all Tuscany resounded; + And now he scarce is lisped of in Siena, + Where he was lord, what time was overthrown + The Florentine delirium, that superb + Was at that day as now 'tis prostitute. + Your reputation is the color of grass + Which comes and goes, and that discolors it + By which it issues green from out the earth.'" + + _Longfellow._ + + "Listening I bent my visage down: and one + (Not he who spake) twisted beneath the weight + That urged him, saw me, knew me straight, and called; + Holding his eyes with difficulty fixed + Intent upon me, stooping as I went + Companion of their way. 'Oh!' I exclaimed, + 'Art thou not Oderigi? art not thou + Agobbio's glory, glory of that art + Which they of Paris call the limner's skill?' + 'Brother!' said he, 'with tints that gayer smile, + Bolognian Franco's pencil lines the leaves. + His all the honor now; my light obscured. + In truth, I had not been thus courteous to him + The while I lived, through eagerness of zeal + For that pre-eminence my heart was bent on. + Here, of such pride, the forfeiture is paid. + Nor were I even here, if, able still + To sin, I had not turned me unto God. + O powers of man! how vain your glory, nipped + E'en in its height of verdure, if an age + Less bright succeed not. Cimabue thought + To lord it over painting's field; and now + The cry is Giotto's, and his name eclipsed. + Thus hath one Guido from the other snatched + The lettered prize; and he, perhaps, is born, + Who shall drive either from their nest. The noise + Of worldly fame is but a blast of wind, + That blows from diverse points, and shifts its name, + Shifting the point it blows from. Shalt thou more + Live in the mouths of mankind, if thy flesh + Part shrivelled from thee, than if thou hadst died + Before the coral and the pap were left, + Or e'er some thousand years have passed? and that + Is, to eternity compared, a space + Briefer than is the twinkling of an eye + To the heaven's slowest orb. He there, who treads + So leisurely before me, far and wide + Through Tuscany resounded once; and now + Is in Sienna scarce with whispers named: + There was he sovereign, when destruction caught + The maddening rage of Florence, in that day + Proud as she now is loathsome. Your renown + Is as the herb, whose hue doth come and go; + And his might withers it, by whom it sprang + Crude from the lap of earth.'"--_Cary._ + +For much the same reason as that already stated, we give the following +beautiful passage, a touching story in itself, but how deeply touching +in the energetic directness and simplicity of Dante's verse! + + "Io mossi i pie del luogo dov'io stava + Per avvisar da presso un'altra storia + Che diretro a Micol mi biancheggiava. + Quivi era storiata l'alta gloria + Del roman prence lo cui gran valore + Mosse Gregorio alla sua gran vittoria: + I' dico di Trajano imperadore; + Ed una vedovella gli era al freno + Di lagrime atteggiata e di dolore. + Dintorno a lui parea calcato e pieno + Di cavalieri, e l'aguglie nell'oro + Sovr' essi in vista al vento si movieno. + La miserella intra tutti costoro + Parea dicer: signor, fammi vendetta + Del mio figliuol ch'e morto, ond'io m'accoro; + Ed egli a lei rispondere: ora aspetta + Tanto ch'io torni; e quella: signor mio + (Come persona in cui dolor s'affretta) + Se tu non torni? ed ei: chi fia dov'io, + La ti fara; ed ella: l'altrui bene + A te che fia, se'l tuo metti in oblio? + Ond'elli: or ti conforta, che conviene + Ch'io solva il mio dovere anzi ch'io muova: + Giustizia vuole e pieta mi ritiene. + Colui che mai non vide cosa nuova + Produsse esto visibile parlare, + Novello a noi perche qui non si truova." + + _Purgatorio_, X. 70-96. + + "I moved my feet from where I had been standing, + To examine near at hand another story, + Which after Michal glimmered white upon me. + There the high glory of the Roman Prince + Was chronicled, whose great beneficence + Moved Gregory to his great victory; + 'Tis of the Emperor Trajan I am speaking; + And a poor widow at his bridle stood, + In attitude of weeping and of grief. + Around about him seemed it thronged and full + Of cavaliers, and the eagles in the gold + Above them visibly in the wind were moving. + The wretched woman in the midst of these + Seemed to be saying: 'Give me vengeance, Lord, + For my dead son, for whom my heart is breaking.' + And he to answer her: 'Now wait until + I shall return.' And she: 'My Lord,' like one + In whom grief is impatient, 'shouldst thou not + Return?' And he: 'Who shall be where I am + Will give it thee.' And she: 'Good deed of others + What boots it thee, if thou neglect thine own? + Whence he: 'Now comfort thee, for it behoves me + That I discharge my duty ere I move; + Justice so wills, and pity doth retain me.' + He who on no new thing has ever looked + Was the creator of this visible language, + Novel to us, for here it is not found." + + _Longfellow._ + + "To behold the tablet next, + Which, at the back of Michol, whitely shone, + I moved me. There was storied on the rock + The exalted glory of the Roman prince, + Whose mighty worth moved Gregory to earn + His mighty conquest, Trajan the Emperor. + A widow at his bridle stood, attired + In tears and mourning. Round about them trooped + Full throng of knights; and overhead in gold + The eagles floated, struggling with the wind. + The wretch appeared amid all these to say: + 'Grant vengeance, Sire! for, woe beshrew this heart, + My son is murdered.' He replying seemed: + 'Wait now till I return.' And she, as one + Made hasty by her grief: 'O Sire! if thou + Dost not return?'--'Where I am, who then is, + May right thee.'--'What to thee is other's good, + If thou neglect thy own?'--'Now comfort thee,' + At length he answers. 'It beseemeth well + My duty be performed, ere I move hence: + So justice wills; and pity bids me stay.' + He, whose ken nothing new surveys, produced + That visible speaking, new to us and strange, + The like not found on earth."--_Cary._ + +How different is the character of the following description, which fills +the ear with its grand and varied harmony, as it fills the mind with a +rapid succession of pictures! + + "Io m'era mosso e seguia volentieri + Del mio maestro i passi, ed amendue + Gia mostravam com'eravam leggieri, + Quando mi disse: Volgi gli occhi in giue; + Buon ti sara per alleggiar la via + Veder lo letto delle piante tue. + Come, perche di lor memoria fia, + Sovr'a'sepolti le tombe terragne + Portan segnato quel ch'elli eran pria; + Onde li molte volte si ripiagne + Per la puntura della rimembranza + Che solo a'pii da delle calcagne: + Si vid'io li, ma di miglior sembianza, + Secondo l'artificio, figurato + Quanto per via di fuor del monte avanza. + Vedea colui che fu nobil creato + Piu d'altra creatura giu dal cielo + Folgoreggiando scendere da un lato. + Vedeva Briareo fitto dal teio + Celestial giacer dall'altra parte, + Grave alia terra per lo mortal gelo + Vedea Timbreo, vedea Pallade e Marte + Armati ancora intorno al padre loro + Mirar le membra de'giganti sparte. + Vedea Nembrotto appie del gran lavoro + Quasi smarrito riguardar le genti + Che'n Sennaar con lui insieme foro. + O Niobe, con che occhi dolenti + Vedev'io te segnata in su la strada + Tra sette e sette tuoi figliuoli spenti! + O Saul, come'n su la propria spada + Quivi parevi morto in Gelboe + Che poi non senti pioggia ne rugiada! + O folle Aragne, si vedea io te + Gia mezza ragna, trista in su gli stracci + Dell opera che mal per te si fe'. + O Roboam, gia non par che minnacci + Quivi il tuo segno, ma pien di spavento + Nel porta un carro prima ch' altri'l cacci. + Mostrava ancora il duro pavimento + Come Almeone a sua madre fe'caro + Parer lo sventurato adornamento. + Mostrava come i figli si gittaro + Sovra Sennacherib dentro dal tempio, + E come morto lui quivi lasciaro. + Mostrava la ruina e'l crudo scempio + Che fe'Tamiri quando disse a Ciro + Sangue sitisti, ed io di sangue t'empio. + Mostrava come in rotta si fuggiro + Gli Assiri poi che fu morto Oloferne, + Ed anche le reliquie del martiro. + Vedeva Troja in cenere e in caverne: + O Ilion, come te basso e vile + Mostrava il segno che li si discerne! + Qual di pennel fu maestro o di stile, + Che ritraesse l'ombre e gli atti ch'ivi + Mirar farieno uno'ngegno sottile? + Morti li morti, e i vivi parean vivi. + Non vide me'di me chi vide'l vero, + Quant'io calcai fin che chinato givi." + + _Purgatorio_, XII. 10-69 + + "I had moved on, and followed willingly + The footsteps of my Master, and we both + Already showed how light of foot we were, + When unto me he said: 'Cast down thine eyes; + 'Twere well for thee, to alleviate the way, + To look upon the bed beneath thy feet.' + As, that some memory may exist of them, + Above the buried dead their tombs in earth + Bear sculptured on them what they were before; + Whence often there we weep for them afresh, + From pricking of remembrance, which alone + To the compassionate doth set its spur; + So saw I there, but of a better semblance + In point of artifice, with figures covered + Whate'er as pathway from the mount projects. + I saw that one who was created noble + More than all other creatures, down from heaven + Flaming with lightnings fall upon one side. + I saw Briareus smitten by the dart + Celestial, lying on the other side, + Heavy upon the earth by mortal frost. + I saw Thymbraeus, Pallas saw, and Mars, + Still clad in armor round about their father, + Gaze at the scattered members of the giants. + I saw, at foot of his great labor, Nimrod, + As if bewildered, looking at the people + Who had been proud with him in Sennaar. + O Niobe! with what afflicted eyes + Thee I beheld upon the pathway traced, + Between thy seven and seven children slain! + O Saul! how fallen upon thy proper sword + Didst thou appear there lifeless in Gilboa, + That felt thereafter neither rain nor dew! + O mad Arachne! so I thee beheld + E'en then half spider, sad upon the shreds + Of fabric wrought in evil hour for thee! + O Rehoboam! no more seems to threaten + Thine image there; but full of consternation + A chariot bears it off, when none pursues! + Displayed moreo'er the adamantine pavement + How unto his own mother made Alcmaeon + Costly appear the luckless ornament; + Displayed how his own sons did throw themselves + Upon Sennacherib within the temple, + And how, he being dead, they left him there; + Displayed the ruin and the cruel carnage + That Tomyris wrought, when she to Cyrus said, + 'Blood didst thou thirst for, and with blood I glut thee!' + Displayed how routed fled the Assyrians + After that Holofernes had been slain, + And likewise the remainder of that slaughter. + I saw there Troy in ashes and in caverns; + O Ilion! thee, how abject and debased, + Displayed the image that is there discerned! + Who e'er of pencil master was or stile, + That could portray the shades and traits which there + Would cause each subtile genius to admire? + Dead seemed the dead, the living seemed alive; + Better than I saw not who saw the truth, + All that I trod upon while bowed I went." + + _Longfellow._ + + "I now my leader's track not loath pursued; + And each had shown how light we fared along, + When thus he warned me: 'Bend thine eyesight down: + For thou, to ease the way, shalt find it good + To ruminate the bed beneath thy feet.' + As, in memorial of the buried, drawn + Upon earth-level tombs, the sculptured form + Of what was once, appears, (at sight whereof + Tears often stream forth, by remembrance waked, + Whose sacred stings the piteous often feel,) + So saw I there, but with more curious skill + Of portraiture o'erwrought, whate'er of space + From forth the mountain stretches. On one part + Him I beheld, above all creatures erst + Created noblest, lightening fall from heaven: + On the other side, with bolt celestial pierced, + Briareus; cumbering earth he lay, through dint + Of mortal ice-stroke. The Thymbraean god, + With Mars, I saw, and Pallas, round their sire, + Armed still, and gazing on the giants' limbs + Strewn o'er the ethereal field. Nimrod I saw: + At foot of the stupendous work he stood, + As if bewildered, looking on the crowd + Leagued in his proud attempt on Sennaar's plain. + O Niobe! in what a trance of woe + Thee I beheld, upon that highway drawn, + Seven sons on either side thee slain. O Saul! + How ghastly didst thou look, on thine own sword + Expiring, in Gilboa, from that hour + Ne'er visited with rain from heaven, or dew. + O fond Arachne! thee I also saw, + Half spider now, in anguish, crawling up + The unfinished web thou weavedst to thy bane. + O Rehoboam! here thy shape doth seem + Lowering no more defiance; but fear-smote, + With none to chase him, in his chariot whirled. + Was shown beside upon the solid floor, + How dear Alcmaeon forced his mother rate + That ornament, in evil hour received: + How, in the temple, on Sennacherib fell + His sons, and how a corpse they left him there. + Was shown the scath, and cruel mangling made + By Tomyris on Cyrus, when she cried, + 'Blood thou didst thirst for: take thy fill of blood.' + Was shown how routed in the battle fled + The Assyrians, Holofernes slain, and e'en + The relics of the carnage. Troy I marked, + In ashes and in caverns. Oh! how fallen, + How abject, Ilion, was thy semblance there! + What master of the pencil or the style + Had traced the shades and lines, that might have made + The subtlest workman wonder? Dead, the dead; + The living seemed alive: with clearer view + His eye beheld not who beheld the truth, + Than mine what I did tread on, while I went + Low bending."--_Cary._ + +The following is distinguished from all that we have cited thus far by +softness and delicacy of touch. + + "Vago gia di cercar dentro e d'intorno + La divina foresta spessa e viva + Ch'agli occhi temperava il nuovo giorno, + Senza piu aspettar lasciai la riva + Prendendo la campagna lento lento + Su per lo suol che d'ogni parte oliva. + Un'aura dolce senza mutamento + Avere in se, mi feria per la fronte, + Non di piu colpo che soave vento: + Per cui le fronde tremolando pronte + Tutte quante piegavano alla parte + U'la prim' ombra gitta il santo monte; + Non pero dal loro esser dritto sparte + Tanto, che gli augelletti per le cime + Lasciasser d'operare ogni lor arte; + Ma con piena letizia l'ore prime + Cantando ricevieno intra le foglie + Che tenevan bordone alle sue rime, + Tal qual di ramo in ramo si raccoglie + Per la pineta in sul lito di Chiassi, + Quand'Eolo scirocco fuor discioglie. + Gia m'avean trasportato i lenti passi + Dentro all'antica selva tanto, ch'io + Non potea rivedere ond'io m'entrassi; + Ed ecco il piu andar mi tolse un rio + Che'nver sinistra con sue picciol'onde + Piegava l'erba che'n sua ripa uscio. + Tutte l'acque che son di qua piu monde + Parrieno avere in se mistura alcuna + Verso di quella che nulla nasconde, + Avvegna che si muova bruna bruna + Sotto l'ombra perpetua, che mai + Raggiar non lascia sole ivi ne luna. + Co' pie ristetti e con gli occhi passai + Di la dal fiumicel per ammirare + La gran variazion de'freschi mai; + E la m'apparve, si com'egli appare + Subitamente cosa che disvia + Per maraviglia tutt'altro pensare, + Una donna soletta che si gia + Cantando ed iscegliendo fior da fiore + Ond' era pinta tutta la sua via." + + _Purgatorio_, XXVIII. 1-42. + + "Eager already to search in and round + The heavenly forest, dense and living-green, + Which tempered to the eyes the new-born day, + Withouten more delay I left the bank, + Taking the level country slowly, slowly + Over the soil that everywhere breathes fragrance. + A softly-breathing air, that no mutation + Had in itself, upon the forehead smote me + No heavier blow than of a gentle wind, + Whereat the branches, lightly tremulous, + Did all of them bow downward toward that side + Where its first shadow casts the Holy Mountain; + Yet not from their upright direction swayed, + So that the little birds upon their tops + Should leave the practice of each art of theirs; + But with full ravishment the hours of prime, + Singing, received they in the midst of leaves, + That ever bore a burden to their rhymes, + Such as from branch to branch goes gathering on + Through the pine forest on the shore of Chiassi, + When Eolus unlooses the Sirocco. + Already my slow steps had carried me + Into the ancient wood so far, that I + Could not perceive where I had entered it. + And lo! my further course a stream cut off, + Which tow'rd the left hand with its little waves + Bent down the grass that on its margin sprang. + All waters that on earth most limpid are + Would seem to have within themselves some mixture + Compared with that which nothing doth conceal, + Although it moves on with a brown, brown current + Under the shade perpetual, that never + Ray of the sun lets in, nor of the moon. + With feet I stayed, and with mine eyes I passed + Beyond the rivulet, to look upon + The great variety of the fresh may. + And there appeared to me (even as appears + Suddenly something that doth turn aside + Through very wonder every other thought) + A lady all alone, who went along + Singing and culling floweret after floweret, + With which her pathway was all painted over." + + _Longfellow._ + + "Through that celestial forest, whose thick shade + With lively greenness the new-springing day + Attempered, eager now to roam, and search + Its limits round, forthwith I left the bank; + Along the champaign leisurely my way + Pursuing, o'er the ground, that on all sides + Delicious odor breathed. A pleasant air, + That intermitted never, never veered, + Smote on my temples, gently, as a wind + Of softest influence: at which the sprays, + Obedient all, leaned trembling to that part + Where first the holy mountain casts his shade; + Yet were not so disordered, but that still + Upon their top the feathered quiristers + Applied their wonted art, and with full joy + Welcomed those hours of prime, and warbled shrill + Amid the leaves, that to their jocund lays + Kept tenor; even as from branch to branch, + Along the piny forests on the shore + Of Chiassi, rolls the gathering melody. + When Eolus hath from his cavern loosed + The dripping south. Already had my steps, + Though slow, so far into that ancient wood + Transported me, I could not ken the place + Where I had entered; when, behold! my path + Was bounded by a rill, which, to the left, + With little rippling waters bent the grass + That issued from its brink. On earth no wave + How clean soe'er, that would not seem to have + Some mixture in itself, compared with this, + Transpicuous clear; yet darkly on it rolled + Darkly beneath perpetual gloom, which ne'er + Admits or sun or moonlight there to shine. + My feet advanced not; but my wondering eyes + Passed onward, o'er the streamlet, to survey + The tender May-bloom, flushed through many a hue, + In prodigal variety: and there, + As object, rising suddenly to view, + That from our bosom every thought beside + With the rare marvel chases, I beheld + A lady all alone, who, singing, went, + And culling flower from flower, wherewith her way + Was all o'er painted."--_Cary._ + +We give a characteristic passage from the Paradiso. + + "Fiorenza dentro dalla cerchia antica, + Ond'ella toglie ancora e terza e nona, + Si stava in pace sobria e pudica. + Non avea catenella, non corona, + Non donne contigiate, non cintura + Che fosse a veder piu che la persona. + Non faceva nascendo ancor paura + La figlia al padre, che il tempo e la dote + Non fuggian quinci e quindi la misura. + Non avea case di famiglia vote; + Non v'era giunto ancor Sardanapalo + A mostrar cio ch'in camera si puote. + Non era vinto ancora Montemalo + Dal vostro Uccellatoio, che com'e vinto + Nel montar su, cosi sara nel calo. + Bellincion Berti vid'io andar cinto + Di cuojo e d'osso, e venir dallo specchio + La donna sua senza'l viso dipinto: + E vidi quel di Nerli e quel del Vecchio + Esser contenti alla pelle scoverta, + E le sue donne al fuso ed al pennecchio: + Oh fortunate! e ciascuna era certa + Della sua sepoltura, ed ancor nulla + Era per Francia nel letto deserta. + L'una vegghiava a studio della culla, + E consolando usava l'idioma + Che pria li padri e le madri trastulla: + L'altra traendo alla rocca la chioma + Favoleggiava con la sua famiglia + De'Trojani e di Fiesole e di Roma. + Saria tenuta allor tal maraviglia + Una Cianghella, un Lapo Salterello, + Qual or saria Cincinnato e Corniglia. + A cosi riposato, a cosi bello + Viver di cittadini, a cosi fida + Cittadinanza, a cosi dolce ostello, + Maria mi die, chiamata in alte grida; + E nell'antico vostro Batisteo + Insieme fui Cristiano e Cacciaguida." + + _Paradiso_, XV. 97-135. + + "Florence, within the ancient boundary + From which she taketh still her tierce and nones, + Abode in quiet, temperate and chaste. + No golden chain she had, nor coronal, + Nor ladies shod with sandal shoon, nor girdle + That caught the eye more than the person did. + Not yet the daughter at her birth struck fear + Into the father, for the time and dower + Did not o'errun this side or that the measure. + No houses had she void of families, + Not yet had thither come Sardanapalus + To show what in a chamber can be done; + Not yet surpassed had Montemalo been + By your Uccellatojo, which surpassed + Shall in its downfall be as in its rise. + Bellincion Berti saw I go begirt + With leather and with bone, and from the mirror + His dame depart without a painted face; + And him of Nerli saw, and him of Vecchio, + Contented with their simple suits of buff, + And with the spindle and the flax their dames. + O fortunate women! and each one was certain + Of her own burial-place, and none as yet + For sake of France was in her bed deserted. + One o'er the cradle kept her studious watch, + And in her lullaby the language used + That first delights the fathers and the mothers; + Another, drawing tresses from her distaff, + Told o'er among her family the tales + Of Trojans and of Fesole and Rome. + As great a marvel then would have been held + A Lapo Salterello, a Cianghella, + As Cincinnatus or Cornelia now. + To such a quiet, such a beautiful + Life of the citizen, to such a safe + Community, and to so sweet an inn, + Did Mary give me, with loud cries invoked, + And in your ancient Baptistery at once + Christian and Cacciaguida I became." + + _Longfellow_ + + "Florence, within her ancient limit-mark, + Which calls her still to matin prayers and noon, + Was chaste and sober, and abode in peace, + She had no armlets and no head-tires then; + No purfled dames; no zone, that caught the eye + More than the person did. Time was not yet, + When at his daughter's birth the sire grew pale, + For fear the age and dowry should exceed, + On each side, just proportion. House was none + Void of its family: nor yet had come + Sardanapalus, to exhibit feats + Of chamber prowess. Montemalo yet + O'er our suburban turret rose; as much + To be surpassed in fall, as in its rising. + I saw Bellincion Berti walk abroad + In leathern girdle, and a clasp of bone; + And, with no artful coloring on her cheeks, + His lady leave the glass. The sons I saw + Of Nerli, and of Vecchio, well content + With unrobed jerkin; and their good dames handling + The spindle and the flax: O happy they! + Each sure of burial in her native land, + And none left desolate abed for France. + One waked to tend the cradle, hushing it + With sounds that lulled the parent's infancy: + Another, with her maidens, drawing off + The tresses from the distaff, lectured them + Old tales of Troy, and Fesole, and Rome. + A Salterello and Cianghella we + Had held as strange a marvel, as ye would + A Cincinnatus or Cornelia now. + In such composed and seemly fellowship, + Such faithful and such fair equality, + In so sweet household, Mary at my birth + Bestowed me, called on with loud cries; and there, + In your old baptistery, I was made + Christian at once and Cacciaguida."--_Cary._ + +It would be easy to extend our quotations; but we have given enough of +Mr. Longfellow's translation to show with what conceptions of duty to +the original he came to his task, and how perfectly that duty has been +performed. According to his theory, then, as we gather it from these +volumes, translation is not paraphrase, is not interpretation, is not +imitation, but is the rigorous rendering of word for word, so far as the +original difference of idioms permits. Its basis is truth to the form as +well as to the thought, to the letter as well as to the spirit, of the +text. The translator is like the messengers of the Bible and Homer, who +repeat word for word the message that has been confided to them. He, +too, if he would be true to his office, must give the message as it has +been given to him, repeat the story in the words in which it was told +him. Every deviation from the letter of the original is a deviation from +the truth. Every epithet that is either added or taken away is a +falsification of the text. The addition or the omission may sometimes be +an improvement, but it is an improvement which you have no authority to +make. It is not to learn what you think Homer or Dante might have said +that the reader comes to your translation, but to see what they really +said. When Cesarotti undertook to show how Homer would have written in +the eighteenth century, he recast the Iliad and called it "The Death of +Hector," and in this he dealt more honestly with his readers than Pope; +for, although he failed to make a good poem, he did not attempt to pass +it for Homer. + +The greatest difficulty of the translator arises from his personality. +He cannot forget himself, cannot guard, as he ought, against those +subtle insinuations of self-esteem which are constantly leading him to +improve upon his author. His own habits of thought would have suggested +a different turn to the verse, a different coloring to the image. He +finds it as hard to forget his own style, as to forget his identity. It +demands a vigorous imagination, combined with deep poetic sympathies, to +go out of yourself and enter for a time wholly into the heart and mind, +the thoughts and feelings, of another; and it is not to all that such an +imagination and such sympathies are given. There is scarcely a great +failure in poetical translation, which may not be traced to the want of +this power. + +It may seem like the grave enunciation of a truism to say that another +indispensable qualification of the translator is perfect familiarity +with the language from which he translates, and a full command of his +own. It is not by mere reading that such a familiarity can be acquired. +You must have learnt to think in a language, and made it the spontaneous +expression of your wants and feelings, if you would find in it the true +interpretation of the wants and feelings of others. Its words and idioms +must awaken in you the same sensations which the words and idioms of +your own language awaken; giving pleasure as music, or a picture, or a +statue, or a fine building gives pleasure, not by an act of reflection +under the control of the will, but by an intuitive perception under the +inspiration of a sense of the beautiful. The enjoyment of a thought is +partly an intellectual enjoyment; you may even reason yourself into it; +but the enjoyment of style and language is purely an aesthetic enjoyment, +susceptible, indeed, of culture, but springing from an inborn sense of +harmony. To extend this enjoyment to a foreign language, you must bring +that language close to you, and form with it those intimate relations +between thought and word which you have formed in your own. The word +must not only suggest the thought, but become a part of it, as the +painting becomes a part of the canvas. It must strike your ear with a +familiar sound, awakening pleasant memories of actual life and real +scenes. Idioms are often interpreters of national life, giving you +sudden glimpses, and even deep revelations, of manners and customs, and +the circumstances whence they sprang. They are often, too, brief +formulas, condensing thought into its briefest expression, with a force +and energy which the full expression could not give. To mistake them, is +to mistake the whole passage. Not to feel them, is not to feel the most +characteristic form of thought. + +The preposition _da_ is one of the most versatile words in Italian. Its +literal meaning is _from_; it is daily used to express _to_. _Da me_ may +mean _from me_: it may also mean _to me_. _Fit_ or _deserving to be +done_ is a common meaning of it; and it is in this sense that Dante uses +it in the following passage from the fourth canto of Paradiso, +fifty-fifth line:-- + + "Con intenzion _da_ non esser derisa,"-- + With intention not (_deserving to be_) to be derided. + +Cary, though a good Italian scholar, translates it _to shun derision_; +and, giving it this sense, quotes Stillingfleet to illustrate the +thought which, for want of practical familiarity with the language, he +attributes to Dante. + +We believe, then, that the qualifications of a translator may be briefly +summed up under the following heads:-- + +He must be conscientiously truthful, studiously following his text, word +by word and line by line. + +He must possess a thorough mastery over both languages, feeling as well +as understanding the words and idioms of his original. + +He must possess the power of forgetting himself in his author. + +And, lastly, he must be not merely a skilful artificer of verses, or a +man of poetic sensibility, but a poet in the highest and truest sense of +the word. + +We would gladly enlarge upon this interesting subject, which not only +explains the shortcomings of the past, but opens enticing vistas into +the future. We cannot doubt that Mr. Longfellow's example will be +followed, and that from time to time other great poets will arise, who; +not content with enriching literature with original productions, will +acknowledge it as a part of what they owe the world, to do for Homer and +Virgil and AEschylus and Sophocles what he has done for Dante. It is +pleasant to think that our children will sit at the feet of these great +masters, and, listening to them in English worthy of the tongues in +which they first spake, be led to enter more fully into the spirit of +the abundant Greek and the majestic Latin. It is cheering to the lovers +of sound study to feel that every faithful version of a great poet +extends the influence of his works, and awakens a stronger desire for +the original. We never yet looked upon an engraving of Morghen without a +new longing for the painting which it translated. + +We have not left ourselves room for what we had intended to say about +the notes, which form half of each of these three volumes. Those who +know what conscientious zeal Mr. Longfellow brings to all his duties +need not be told that they bear abundant testimony to his learning, +industry, and good taste. They not only leave nothing to be asked for in +the explanation of real difficulties, but, as answers to a wide range of +philosophical, biographical, and historical questions, form in +themselves a delightful miscellany. Dante has been overladen by +commentators. In Mr. Longfellow he has found an interpreter. + +It is not to Mr. Longfellow's reputation only that these volumes will +add, but to that of American literature. It is no little thing to be +able to say, that, in a field in which some of England's great poets +have signally failed, an American poet has signally succeeded; that what +the scholars of the Old World asserted to be impossible, a scholar of +the New World has accomplished; and that the first to tread in this new +path has impressed his footprints so deeply therein, that, however +numerous his followers may be, they will all unite in hailing him, with +Dante's own words,-- + + "Tu Duca, tu Signore e tu Maestro,"-- + Thou Leader and thou Lord and Master thou. + + + + +THE OLD STORY. + + + The waiting-women wait at her feet, + And the day is fading down to the night, + And close at her pillow, and round and sweet, + The red rose burns like a lamp a-light. + Under and over, the gray mist lops, + And down and down from the mossy eaves, + And down from the sycamore's long wild leaves, + The slow rain drops and drops and drops. + + Ah! never had sleeper a sleep so fair; + And the waiting-women that weep around + Have taken the combs from her golden hair, + And it slideth over her face to the ground. + They have hidden the light from her lovely eyes; + And down from the eaves where the mosses grow + The rain is dripping, so slow, so slow, + And the night-wind cries and cries and cries. + + From her hand they have taken the shining ring, + They have brought the linen her shroud to make; + O, the lark she was never so loath to sing, + And the morn she was never so loath to awake! + And at their sewing they hear the rain,-- + Drip-drop, drip-drop, over the eaves, + And drip-drop over the sycamore-leaves, + As if there would never be sunshine again. + + The mourning train to the grave have gone, + And the waiting-women are here and are there, + With birds at the windows and gleams of the sun + Making the chamber of death to be fair. + And under and over the mist unlaps, + And ruby and amethyst burn through the gray, + And driest bushes grow green with spray, + And the dimpled water its glad hands claps. + + The leaves of the sycamore dance and wave, + And the mourners put off the mourning shows, + And over the pathway down to the grave + The long grass blows and blows and blows. + And every drip-drop rounds to a flower, + And love in the heart of the young man springs, + And the hands of the maidens shine with rings, + As if all life were a festival hour. + + + + +A WEEK'S RIDING. + + +"My dear grandfather, why did Mr. Erle start so this evening when he saw +my picture?" I said. + +He laughed softly as he answered: "He will tell you himself to-morrow, +if you care to ask him. It is no secret, but you will like the story +best as he tells it. A very pretty story,--a very pretty story," he went +on, as he kissed me good-night, "and one my little girl will relish as +much as a novel." + +My grandfather was such a fine, white-haired old gentleman, and looked +so handsome in his handsome house! It was one of the old, square houses +which are fading from the land in country as well as in town, ample and +generous in every way, with broad, carved stairways, and great, wide +hearths for andirons,--a house to make the heart glad, and incline it to +all sweet hospitalities. The warm, low rooms were full of furniture, +softened and made comfortable by unsparing use; the walls were hung with +good paintings and engravings, some of them real masterpieces. But the +glory of the house was its bronzes, gathered by three generations of +rarely cultured men, from my great-great-grandfather, whose rougher +purchases were put in more hidden corners every year, to the grandson +now in possession, whose pure taste chose the latest gems of French art, +and placed them where our eyes might best enjoy their beauty. The +library was crimson, and the dining-room beyond two exquisite shades of +brown and gold, a curtained doorway between. In these two rooms I spent +most of my time when I was with my grandfather, reading with him, and +singing to him, and listening to his cynical, witty talk. At dusk we +gathered round the fire, he and I and the two tawny setters, three of us +on the rug, and he in his long, low chair, and talked of the old family, +whose sons were all dead, and of the gay years when we had been in our +glory. I thought we were very well off in worldly possessions as it +was, but my dear old hero put such content to speedy flight with his +tales of the days that were gone, when, to put implicit trust in him, a +regal hospitality had filled the house with great and distinguished +guests, glad to be with the family which always had a son leading the +right in state and in church, in army and in navy. + +I listened with glowing heart, and looked proudly at our men as I walked +by their portraits in the halls on my way to bed. Perhaps my faith in +their great deeds is not so childlike now; but it was pure and unlimited +then, and those library stories can never fade from my memory. + +I had been with my grandfather a week when the conversation with which +my tale opens occurred, and I was to return to my parents in three days, +under the protection of the very gentleman who was the subject of it. +The two old friends were very intimate, and Mr. Erle spent every evening +at the house; so I knew him well, and had no fear in asking him any +question I chose, and I looked forward to the next evening as to a grand +festival. + +When we came in from dinner, I drew the window-shade, and saw that it +was snowing fiercely. + +"Perhaps he will not come," I said, turning to my grandfather +disconsolately. + +"Never fear that," he answered. "Mr. Erle is a man who is not kept at +home by the weather, or anything else." + +I came to the hearth. The last words had been added in the dry tone +which always meant something, coming from his lips. + +"Has Mr. Erle children?" I asked. + +"Yes; the youngest boy is only sixteen." + +"And he never spends an evening at home?" + +"I've not known him to do so for twenty years. Sing the 'Health to King +Charles,' dear." + +I sat down at the piano, and sang as I was bid. + +We were stanch loyalists from tradition, and my list of Stuart songs was +so long that I had sung scarcely half of it when the clock struck nine, +and rapid wheels came over the pavements. Opposite our door the horse +slipped, and we heard the instantaneous lash singing in the night air +and descending unmercifully on the poor animal. An immense stamping and +rearing ensued. "That is Erle, sure enough," my grandfather said, going +to the window. I followed him, and lifted the shade in time to see Mr. +Erle standing in the trampled snow at the horse's head, patting him as +gently as a woman could have done. In a moment he nodded to his servant, +and watched him drive round the corner before turning to our door. + +He came in quickly, exquisitely dressed, and courteous, with the +beautiful old manner they cannot teach us now. After the first words, my +grandfather said, with a superb affectation of seriousness, "The +merciful man is merciful to his beast." + +Mr. Erle looked up, with a bright laugh. "So you heard our little +dispute? The old fellow bears me no malice, you may be sure; he knows +that I never sulk." + +"Perhaps he would like it a little better if you did," I said. + +"Not at all. He respects me for my quick ways with him." + +I shook my head doubtingly, and then, as if in defence of his theory, he +said: "Did I ever tell you of Lillie Burton? Her animals did not mind a +little discipline." + +My grandfather laughed. "Oddly enough, we had laid a plot to make you +tell that charming history this very evening," he said. + +"Don't laugh about it," Mr. Erle answered. "I cannot tell you how +vividly the sight of Miss Thesta's picture brought back the old time to +me." + +"I beg your pardon," the other said, bowing. + +At that moment a servant came in with wine, placing the Japanese waiter +with the old gilded bottle and glasses at my grandfather's elbow on the +table. He poured out three glasses, and said, very simply: "We will have +our own old way to-night, Erle, while you tell your old story, and drink +as our fathers did, not vile alcohols, but the good fruit of the vine. +Remember, Thesta, I leave you all my wine, on condition that you drink +it, and never let a drop of whiskey come into your house." + +"I promise," I said, and sat down at his feet. + +"Perhaps you have heard of Lillie Burton?" Mr. Erle began. + +I had a confused idea that the name of his wife was Lillie; but it was +so confused that I answered, frankly, "No, I never heard of her at all." + +"She is not Lillie Burton now," he went on with a sigh; "but I must +begin at the beginning. It is a real horse story, which will tell in its +favor with you, I am sure." + +"Yes, indeed," I answered, with enthusiasm, and then he began anew. + +"I was a gay, happy man of twenty-four, living in London with my dear +friend, now dead, Richard Satterlee. We imagined ourselves very tired of +town gayeties, and were languidly looking round for some country-place +where we could be alone and quiet for a week or so, when the little +incident occurred which led to my acquaintance with Lillie Burton. I +must tell you that Satterlee and I were used up in more ways than +one,--we had been unfortunate at the races that year, and so were well +out of pocket, and I had not escaped heart-free from the season's balls, +as Dick had, who, bless his honest soul, was as unmoved as a rock among +the fairest women of the land. Not that they were indifferent to him, +though. His broad shoulders and downcast eyes made sad havoc among them, +Miss Thesta,--so beware of those attractions among the men you meet: +there are none more deadly. Well, they loved Dick, and I loved Miss +Ferrers. She was not very handsome, but more fascinating to me than any +other woman, and as thorough a flirt as ever made a man miserable. Never +mind the how and why, but, believe me, I was very hard hit indeed, and +sincerely thought myself the most wretched man in all London when I +heard that she had gone to Spain with her brother-in-law, Lord West, and +his wife. She had treated me shamefully; but I loved her all the more +for it, and was quite desperate, in short. You may not think it of me, +but I could neither sleep nor eat. In this state of mind I was walking +home one afternoon, determined to tell Satterlee that I should leave +him, and go back to my people in America, when I saw a small crowd +ahead, and heard them cheer before they broke up and walked away. I +should have passed by without a second glance, had I not been struck by +the appearance of one of the three men who remained on the spot,--a +strong-limbed fellow of thirty, evidently of purest Saxon blood. His +whole face was handsome, but his hair was simply superb, and this it was +that attracted me. Imagine long yellow locks of brightest gold, not +exactly curling, but waving in short, determined waves back from a low +forehead. Ah, I cannot describe to you that wonderful hair, how it shone +on me through the gloaming, and drew me irresistibly to the man himself! +I stopped, and asked one of the others what the row had been about. + +"'O, he pitched into a feller that was kicking a dog, and came near +getting kicked hisself,' was the only answer I got, as he walked off +with his companion. I turned to my hero, and, as our eyes met, a +pleasant smile lighted up his face. 'Can you tell me the nearest place +where I can buy a hat?' he said; 'there's not much use in picking up +that thing,' pointing to a mashed heap in the gutter. + +"'I should think not,' I said. 'There is no shop near, but if you will +come round the corner to my rooms, I can provide you with a covering of +some kind.' + +"'Thank you,' he answered, and we walked away together. There was not +time for much talk, and he had said nothing of himself when we opened +the door. Satterlee was standing with his back to the fire, and no +sooner did he see my companion than he sprang forward, in eager welcome. +'Burton of Darrow, by all the gods!' he cried. 'Where's your hat, good +friend?' + +"He of the golden locks burst into a merry laugh,--what white teeth he +had! 'It is gone forever. Do let me know your friend, who has been so +kind to me about it.' + +"We were introduced to each other in due form, and Burton sat down at +our hearth like an old friend, chatting merrily, and warming his great +fists at the blaze. 'I ought not to have stayed so long,' he said +presently, 'my father will have waited for me. Can the hats be +marshalled, Mr. Erle?' + +"I brought out all my store, and Satterlee's too, and, amid much +laughter, Burton managed to hide some of his mane under a soft felt, and +bade us good night. 'I must have you both at Darrow,' he said, his hand +on the latch; 'remember that, and expect a note in the morning to tell +you when to come.' + +"As the door closed I laid my hands on Dick's shoulders. '_Who_ is he?' +was all I said. + +"'Why, Gerald, you're waking up,' he answered. 'If the male Burton can +do this, what will not Lillie do?' + +"'But who is he?' I repeated. + +"'He's the oldest son of John Burton of Darrow, in ----shire. They are +farmers, and they might be gentlemen, but they are queer, and won't. For +generations untold they have cultivated their own land, and are mighty +men at the plough and in the saddle. So are the women of the family, for +that matter. But you will see when we go down. They are one of the few +great yeoman families left in the land. We shall have a jolly time.' + +"'And who is Lillie?' I asked. + +"'This man's sister. If you want to see a woman ride, see her,--it's +absolute perfection,--hereditary too: they all ride till they marry.' + +"'And not afterwards?' I said, very much amused. + +"'Never for mere pleasure, I believe. They have family traditions about +all sorts of things, this among others. It is some notion about taking +care of their homes and children, if I remember rightly. Miss Lillie +will tell you all about it. How lucky that you met Jack this afternoon.' + +"This was all I could get out of Satterlee; but, dull as you may think +it, I was really interested, and waited impatiently for the coming +invitation. + +"The next morning arrived a note from Mr. Burton, asking us, in his +father's name, to spend the next week at Darrow, and saying that the +farmers' races were to take place then, and would be our only amusement. +Before the day for starting came, I had lost half the enthusiasm which +the sight of valiant Jack Burton's hair had kindled, and tried hard to +get off from going; but Satterlee was bent on a week's riding, as he +always called our visit, and we started early one Wednesday morning, and +at dusk on Friday found ourselves entering the broad valley which formed +the Darrow estate. Satterlee was familiar with the ground, and +discoursed eloquently of its beauty and fertility as we drove along; but +he failed to interest me, for, to tell the truth, I was sunk in +melancholy, and thought only of Miss Ferrers and of that which had +passed between us. Why had I come all these miles to see people who were +total strangers to me, and would almost certainly prove dull, or even +vulgar? Dick was an enthusiast, and not to be believed,--we might turn +back even then. + +"Such were my thoughts as we entered the lane at the end of which shone +the lights of Darrow House. As we drew near, I could see that it was a +mere farm-house,--very large indeed, but otherwise in no way +remarkable. We drove up to a side-door, and had hardly stopped when the +ringing voice of Jack Burton greeted our ears, and he came striding out, +his glorious hair all afloat, as I had seen him in London streets a week +before. All my love for the man--and I can use no lesser term--came back +on the instant, and I grasped his hand almost as warmly as he did mine, +I was so glad to be there. + +"'Come in and see my father,' he said. 'He was afraid we should not see +you to-night.' + +"We went into the hall, and then, immediately through an open door at +the farther end, into the most homelike room I ever saw,--a large room, +exquisitely toned by great brown rafters, and lit by two fires, one at +each end. Near one stood an immense wooden table covered with tools of +every kind, and with what seemed to me a confused heap of saddles and +bridles. Over it bent two men and a woman. I only saw that all three had +the same wonderful light hair which so fascinated me; for Burton led us +directly to the other fire, and introduced us to his father. He was a +man of seventy, very roughly dressed, but self-possessed and courteous. +'You are welcome to Darrow,' he said, in low, gentle tones. 'I hope I +shall be able to give you good sport while you are here.' + +"This seemed to be all we were expected to say with him, for he bowed +slightly, and Burton said, 'Come now to the workshop, as I call it,' and +led us to the other end of the room. Satterlee went forward and shook +hands warmly with the two young men and their sister, whose face I did +not see, as it was turned away from me; and then Burton said, 'Lillie, +this is Mr. Erle, whose hat you found so comfortable.' + +"As he began to speak, she looked round, and held out her hand with a +frank smile, saying, 'I, too, must thank you for that famous hat, Mr. +Erle, for I wore it in a hard rain, day before yesterday, when I had to +go out to train my colt for the coming races.' + +"She said this very simply, in a sweet, almost singing tone, not unlike +her father's, looking me full in the face meanwhile. I will try to tell +you what she was like,--for I can remember her, after all these years, +just as she stood, a saddler's awl in her hand, by the great table at +Darrow. She was tall and broad and perfectly symmetrical in figure. I +have never seen a woman who at the first glance gave the idea of elastic +strength as she did, and yet she was by no means what you would call a +large woman. Her face was like her brother's, really handsome, and full +of sweetness,--the eyes so blue and living that no one could disbelieve +their story of a great soul beneath. And, like her brother, she was +crowned with a golden glory of hair. It was half brushed from her face, +and clung thickly to her head, then wound in shining braids at the +back,--waving and rippling just like Jack's. I never saw such wonderful +heads as these four Burtons had. I can give you no idea of them. Her +mouth was what I should call abrupt,--that is, shapely, deep-cut at the +corners,--the lips smiling without opening widely, or showing more than +a white flash of teeth. She so smiled as she spoke to me that first +evening, and impressed me even then as no other woman ever had. + +"'I am glad my hat has been so honored, Miss Burton,' I answered. 'I +hope the colt for whom you take such trouble may win his race.' + +"'Help me, then, by taking an interest in this saddle,' she said. 'I +have an idea about the girths which these dear brothers of mine will not +understand.' + +"We all gathered round the table while Lillie explained her theory. The +saddle was an old one, and smelt strongly of the stable; but they all +handled it as if it were a nice, interesting toy; and when the girth +question was finally decided by my strong approval, Lillie and the +brother George went to work with awl and needle like experienced +saddlers, and soon had the necessary alterations made. + +"She looked up at me as she sewed, and said: 'You may think these are +strange ways, but we do all such things for ourselves, especially this +week, when we live for our horses. We are thorough yeomen, you know.' + +"We talked on until supper was announced. Old Burton opened a small door +at his end of the room, and waited with his hand on the latch while we +went through, when, to my surprise, I found we were in the kitchen, +surrounded by a large number of servants. We sat down at a long table by +the fire, and then the servants took their places at the lower end, +leaving two to serve us all. Burton stood at the head of the table until +all were seated, then bowed, and said in the same gentle tone he had +used in greeting us, 'You are welcome,' and sat down himself. No grace +was said, but each person silently crossed himself. + +"I was placed at the host's right hand, and we talked during supper of +the races, and of horses generally, while Satterlee and Lillie Burton, +on the other side of the table, did the same. It was the one subject +which interested the Darrow household just then, and the servants even +listened, eagerly and silently, to all that was said. Lillie's colt, it +seemed, was entered for one of the races, and she had been training him +herself with intense assiduity; but there was great difficulty in +finding a rider, now he was trained. + +"'I know he would win,' she cried, shaking her head disconsolately, 'but +you are all so heavy.' + +"'Ride him yourself, Miss Burton,' Dick suggested. + +"'They won't let me.' + +"'Who won't let you?' + +"'O, the Earl. He gives the races, you know, and is a perfect dragon +about them.' + +"'I can't offer my own services,' Satterlee went on, 'for you know you +wouldn't have me.' + +"The Burtons all smiled at this, and Dick explained to me: 'I was on a +horse of Miss Burton's a year or two ago, and didn't want to put him +over a horrid rough gully; but she, on the farther side, cried out, +"Let him break his knees if he is so clumsy," and so he did.' + +"'It was your fault, though,' the frank young lady answered. + +"I remember that at the end of the meat the servants rose and bowed to +their master, he acknowledging the courtesy sitting. Then we did the +same, and all went to the other room. After half an hour's talk round +old Mr. Burton's chair, a peal of bells sounded in some distant part of +the house, to my intense surprise, and we thereupon marched off down a +long, long corridor to I could not imagine what. Satterlee whispered, +'Philip Burton is in orders,--this is Even-Song,' just as we entered a +little chapel. There were kneeling-chairs for all, and the beautiful +Burton heads sank devoutly upon them. It was a choral service, Lillie +playing a small organ, and Philip chanting with the family and servants. + +"As we went out, old Mr. Burton wished each good night; then some one +showed me where my room was, and I found myself alone. I was really +confused. Where was I, and what had I been doing? Did all the people in +this part of the country have such strange ways? I looked at my watch, +and found it was but just nine o'clock, and yet I seemed to have lived +years since the morning. The evening service, so beautifully sung, had +quite upset me. It was months since I had been in a church, and this had +come so unexpectedly,--the dim light, the low, peculiar voices, the +simple fervor. I began to think Darrow was a dream from beginning to +end, when Satterlee put his head in at the door with a grin, and said, +'Well, how is my Gerry?' + +"'A little dazed,' I answered; 'but come in, man, and prepare me for the +morning.' + +"'No,' he whispered, 'not allowable. Bedtime is bedtime here. Good +night.' + +"I went to bed in self-defence, and half dreamed, half thought, of +horses, and choral services, and golden heads, until sound sleep came +to my relief. It could not have been more than seven o'clock when I +awoke, and yet on going to the window it was evident that the +inhabitants of Darrow had been long up and about, for the farm-yard was +in order for the day, the carts gone a-field, and the cattle-sheds +empty. George and Philip Burton were busily engaged near the barn door, +the one in turning a grindstone, the other in sharpening an axe; and +from the barn itself came the melodious voices of Lillie and her brother +Jack. Presently they came out, she leading a long-legged horse which I +immediately recognized as answering to the description of the colt. He +was of a dull gray color, and at the first glance I set him down as +about the ugliest horse I had ever seen, his only good points being a +very decent chest, and striding hind-legs of extraordinary length and +muscle; otherwise he was utterly commonplace. But evidently there was +some great fascination in the beast, for the four Burtons gathered round +him and looked him over with that anxious scrutiny we always display +when examining our horses, then patted him admiringly, and, as I judged +from the expression of their faces, were well pleased with his morning +looks. + +"As I turned from my window, I glanced beyond the farm-yard to see what +kind of a country I was in, and my eyes were greeted with as fair a +prospect as rural England can afford. Imagine a green, rolling valley, +some five miles broad, shut in on three sides by low hills, and sloping +gently to the sea on the fourth. The water was perhaps three miles from +Darrow House, but I could see that two little friths ran up far into the +meadow-land. One other large farm-house was in sight, and some twenty or +thirty cottages, all looking so bright and cosey in the clear October +sunlight, that my heart was filled with joy at the sight, and I began my +toilet actually singing a merry old song. I was soon down stairs, and +out in the fragrant barnyard. + +"Lillie sat upon a pile of logs, one hand half hidden in her hair, as +she leaned lazily back on her elbow, looking at her brothers, who were +making the air resound with mighty strokes as they hewed away at a tree +which stood near the house door. 'Well done, Philip; you're none the +worse woodman for being parson too,' she cried; then, seeing me, she +rose with a bright color in her cheeks, and held out her hand in hearty +morning greeting. 'We did not know when you would be rested from your +journey,' she said, 'and so did not have you called. Will you come in to +breakfast now?' + +"The three brothers stopped their work as we went in, and bade me a +cheerful good-morrow. I have never since seen such men,--so big, so +handsome, so modest, with such bright, healthy faces. None of them +talked a great deal, not even my favorite Jack; but I felt then as I +should feel now if I met one of them anywhere, that their friendship +meant trust and loyalty and service more than most men's. + +"Jack went with us to a little room at the side of the house where +breakfast was laid for two; but when Satterlee joined us, Jack said with +a laugh, 'I will leave you to tell all about everything, Lillie, and go +back to my chopping,' and so went out. + +"'If I must tell about everything,' Lillie began, 'I must tell about the +races first, for they are more important than anything else just now. +Thursday is the great day, and all the farmers in the neighborhood will +have horses there. It is the grand gathering of the year for us, and the +gentry come down and walk about among the horses, and are as kind and +gracious as can be. They always buy some of the best; and happy is the +man who can sell a beast to the Earl, or to Sir Francis Gilmor, for they +are great judges, and have the best stables in the county. There are +five races during the day, the first being for ponies, the second for +colts, and so on; and in the evening we have a ball at the Earl's, and +the five riders who win are given presents by the Countess herself. O, +it is a great day!' she went on, more and more enthusiastically; 'there +is no other time so pleasant in all the year. George has in his bay +mare, and I have entered my colt. Have you seen my colt?' + +"'Yes,' I answered, 'I saw him from the window this morning.' + +"Lillie looked me straight in the face a moment, and then said, with a +little plaintive shake of the head: 'Ah, I see! You will laugh at him +like all the rest. But you must see him go,--he is almost handsome +then.' + +"'I should think he might be,' I answered, trying to console her for my +lack of admiration. + +"'They are so mean about him,' she went on, smiling. 'When he was two +years old they were going to give him away because he was so ugly and +stupid; but I begged hard that he might stay at Darrow, and my father +gave him to me for my own. I have had him now four years. You don't know +how much I have suffered for that horse. But I have never despaired, and +have trained him so well that he has great speed already, though they +may laugh at his rough looks. O, if I can only win this race! It will be +such a feather in my cap!' + +"Satterlee laughed merrily at this. 'As zealous a racer as ever, I see, +Miss Lillie. How I wish you would let me ride for you!' + +"'Perhaps I may,' she answered. 'There is no knowing to what straits I +may be driven.' + +"Already something in this woman attracted me, dead as I supposed my +heart to be. There was an indescribable freshness and vigor about +everything she said and did, so different from the manner of the ladies +I had lately seen,--a merry, defiant way which invited battle, and made +one feel bright and springy. How can I tell what it was? I loved the +woman from that very morning, and I love the memory of her now,--she +stood so unembarrassed, so full of life, as we two ate our breakfast in +the little, sunny room,--she was so lithe, so symmetrical. When we rose +she said, 'My father thought you would like to fish with him, Mr. +Satterlee, and Mr. Erle is to ride with me, if he so pleases.' I +murmured a few words of compliment, and she went on: 'Come out to the +barn and choose a horse, and Mr. Satterlee may have a look at the colt.' +We followed her out of doors, just as we were,--hatless, like herself. + +"'It is no fine stable we have at Darrow, but the horses are well off, +and I pass so much time with them that I love the old, dingy place,' she +said, as we crossed the yard. + +"It was a great country barn, in truth, low and warm, with places for +cows and sheep as well as horses. A broad floor ran from one great door +to the other, covered with loose wisps of hay and straw, and above our +heads was the winter's store of both. A red rush-bottomed chair and a +table stood at one end,--two little pieces of furniture around which +cluster the pleasantest memories of my life,--Lillie's chair and +Lillie's table, where she sat to sew and sing among her animals. What +happy mornings I spent there by her side. + +"As we went in she began to talk to her colt, as a woman generally talks +to babies. 'Why, my sweet one, my own lamb, my coltikins, was he glad to +hear his granny coming to see him?'--and so on. + +"The colt, who was in a box at the end of the barn, acknowledged all +this tenderness by putting his heavy head over the rail and half +pricking up one ear; but Lillie seemed to think this slight sign of +intellect all that could be desired, and went up to him with a thousand +caresses. + +"'How like a woman to love that horse, now,' said Satterlee. + +"Lillie turned towards him with a brilliant smile. 'I sha'n't take up +arms about it, for why should I be ashamed that I have a woman's heart, +and love my own things more because they are unfortunate, and other +people make fun of them?' + +"From that moment I resolved the colt should win, if it was in mortal +riding to make him. + +"'Miss Burton,' I said boldly, '_I_ see great qualities in your horse. +May I ride him for you on Thursday?' + +"She seemed a little startled by the suddenness of the proposal, but +answered quickly, 'I shall be so much obliged! Will you think it rude if +I ask you to ride him two or three times first?' + +"'Of course not. Do you ride him yourself this morning?' + +"'Yes, and which horse will you take? There are three or four there for +you to choose from.' + +"I walked down the row of stalls, and decided on an old hunter who +turned the whites of his eyes round at me as if he longed for a gallop. +Lillie called a man in from the yard, and said, 'Saddle the roan and +Nathan, and bring them to the east door.' + +"'Eh, Miss Lillie,' cried Satterlee, 'what name was that I heard? +Nathan?' + +"'Well, why not?' she answered. 'Father named him so in fun, and I keep +it to show I don't care how much they laugh at him.' + +"Satterlee seemed intensely amused. 'Nathan, Nathan!' he repeated. +'Winner of the Earl's race! Nathan, Nathan!' + +"I went into the house for my hat and spurs, and on coming out found +that Dick had gone off with old Mr. Burton, leaving his best wishes for +the colt's success. Presently Lillie came out, clad in a dark habit, +with a knot of blue ribbon at the throat, holding in her hand a whip so +formidable that I was involuntarily reminded of the knouts of Russia. I +suppose the thought was visible in my face, for she said quickly, 'I +don't always carry this; but when Nathan is to do his best, I have to +urge him to it, for if I depended on his own ambition we should soon be +left behind.' + +"'Indeed,' I answered. 'Then you must let me practise well before +Thursday.' + +"As I said these words the horses were brought to the door, and, before +I could offer any assistance, Lillie had swung herself from the stump of +the felled tree into her saddle. I remembered Satterlee's words about +her perfect horsemanship, and glanced at her as I mounted. Even in that +moment, as she sat perfectly still on the awkward colt's back, I saw how +truly he had spoken. She was merely sitting there, without any of the +fascination which motion gives, and yet I had never seen such a rider +among women. You will think I exaggerate, but, as I am a man of honor, I +assure you that an exact copy in marble of Lillie Burton, as she waited +for my mounting on that autumn morning, would be a more beautiful +equestrian statue than the world has ever seen. Such ease and strength +and grace--Ah well! I shall not let you smile at my enthusiasm by any +attempt at describing her. We started, unattended, our faces towards the +sea. + +"'Do you want to look at the race-course?' Lillie said. + +"'Yes.' + +"'Then follow me,'--and with the word she called cheerily to her horse, +and swung her whip with such effect that what was a canter became a +gallop, and then a run, so long, so fierce, so reckless, that I held my +breath as I looked at her. We went right across country, over fences and +ditches by the dozen, and never drew rein until we reached the shore. + +"Then she turned in her saddle as I came up, and nodded triumphantly, +her face a thousand times brighter and more bewitching than I had seen +it yet. + +"'Well, what do you think of Nathan now?' she asked. + +"'He is wonderful,' I answered. + +"'But that is by no means his best. You wait here, and I will put him +round the course once as well as I can. We are to go down the beach to +that white post, then up through the big field, over a bad hedge, which +we must leap at a particular spot, then across the lane and through +these four last fields home, and then over it all again. You shall try +the ground this afternoon if you will.' + +"She said all this rapidly, as if the business of the day had begun, and +cantered down the sloping field. Arrived near the starting-point, I +heard her give what seemed almost a yell, and lethargic Nathan, well +awake, burst into the same tremendous pace, going faster and faster +every moment, until he attained a speed which seemed positively +terrific, a woman being in the saddle, and then Lillie ceased urging +him, and rode unflaggingly, as she only could, over all obstacles, until +she reached my side. + +"'How can there be any doubt of your winning?" I asked. + +"'I sometimes think there is none when Nathan has been going so well; +but'--and a cloud came over her face--'there is one colt I am really +afraid of,--a little black mare of Harry Dunn's. O, how that creature +flies over the ground!' + +"'I am not afraid,' I answered. 'You shall win, Miss Burton, if I die +for it.' + +"She laughed at my eager way of saying this, and we rode towards home, +she talking all the way of Darrow and of the neighbors, of farming and +of sailing,--for she was as much at home in a boat as on horseback. Ah, +what a contrast to the dark-eyed, proud Miss Ferrers! I wondered how I +could have been in love with any other than Lillie Burton, whose ways +were so unaffected, whose whole nature was so healthy. What cared I for +the languid accomplishments of city belles? Here was a real woman, kind +and strong, and unhurt by the world's ways. Even in the excitement of +the hardest gallop I saw no trace of vulgarity, no sign of unwomanly +jockeyship, only a true, unconcealed interest in her horse and his +performances,--an interest worthy of her English heart. We rode home in +high spirits, feeling sure that the race would be ours, even Nathan +entering into the gayety of the moment, and actually shying at a boy who +lay asleep by the roadside. Lillie yielded so lithely to the sudden +jump, that I could not help saying, 'How did you learn to ride so well?' +and she answered, laughing: 'O, it is born in us; and then I rode +recklessly for years before I got a good seat. I mean that I folded my +arms, and galloped anywhere with tied reins, and half the time no +stirrup. That is the best thing to do. Your old roan there has carried +me at his own will for many a mile. He was as fast as Nathan at his age, +and twice as spirited.' + +"So we chatted as we rode home through the low lanes. The midday sun +shone down on us as we came to Darrow House; and as I left Lillie at the +door, to go up and dress for the farm dinner, I felt a new man, warmed +with the bright day, and with the new hope which rose so sweetly in my +tired heart. + +"I will not weary you with the details of my days at the Burtons'. The +old father ruled over his household like a king, and all yielded him +loving obedience. Jack and his two stalwart brothers came and went, busy +with all sorts of farming operations, and Lillie and I devoted ourselves +to Nathan's further education. On Sunday the farmers and peasants came +to church at the chapel in the house, and Philip Burton did for them all +a true priest should. On every other day in the week, too, he held +school for the children, instructing them just so far and no farther, +'Let them know how to read and write and do simple sums,' he said, 'but +don't let's stuff their heads with learning beyond their station. It +only makes them discontented, and would upset society in the end.' And +so he let them come until he thought they knew enough, were the time +longer or shorter, and after that the door was shut. + +"In the mornings, Lillie and I, and often Satterlee, sat in the barn for +hours, she sewing and talking with us, stopping sometimes to give +directions to a workman, or to listen to some poor neighbor's tale of +woe. For she seemed to attract every one, and, as surely as a child was +sick or a cow lost, the whole story must be told to 'Darrow Lillie,' as +they called her. She listened with ready sympathy, and always gave some +quick, personal aid. I never saw a more charming picture than that which +greeted me one morning as I came in at the barn door;--Lillie seated at +her little table, close by the colt's stall, two dogs at her feet, and a +soft black kitten in her hands, held lovingly against her cheek; beside +her stood a peasant woman in a red cloak, wringing her hands, and +telling how her husband had deserted her; a big-eyed calf looked in at +the door behind, doubtful if he might come in as usual; and, over all, +the October sunlight, mellow with barn-dust. I remember Lillie asked the +woman where her husband was, and, learning he was at Plashy, Sir Francis +Gilmor's seat, said she would see him that very day. And I am sure she +did, for after dinner she went off alone on the roan hunter, and the +next day I saw the same woman, with far happier mien, trudging along the +lane by the side of her sheep-faced husband. + +"So the days passed by, and Wednesday evening was come. We sat before +the fire, and counted the chances for and against my winning the race, +for it was a settled thing now that I should be Nathan's rider. I was as +interested as any Burton of them all, and more so perhaps, for I felt +that on my success the next day depended my success in what my whole +heart was now determined on,--the winning of Lillie Burton's hand. I was +quick at my conclusions at twenty-four, you see. Satterlee was still +incredulous, and really annoyed me by his way of speaking,--offering to +pick the yellow hairs out of Nathan's coat so as to make it shine a +little, and otherwise employing his wit at our expense. Lillie laughed +good-naturedly, and said they only made her love the horse the more by +their unkind remarks. + +"'Do you really love him,' Jack asked. + +"'Certainly I do,' she answered. 'I have a deep affection for him.' + +"'And I hope you will bestow some kind regard on his rider also,' I +whispered, bending over her chair. + +"She looked up in her own quick way, and, as our eyes met, I thought +hers were bright with love, as well as mine. As you would say, +now-a-days, our souls met; and from that moment a strange, triumphant +happiness filled my heart. The short Darrow evening wore to its close, +and I neither spoke to Lillie again nor looked at her, but sat silent, +rejoicing, until at even-song I poured out my thankfulness to God, and +praised him for this great gift,--Lillie Burton, my peerless, truthful +Lillie, mine until death should part us, mine in all joy and sorrow, +always my own! With what certainty of peace I went to my rest that +night,--with what instinct of some great joy I woke in the morning,--the +bright autumn morning which held my fate! + +"The races were to begin at noon, and by eleven o'clock we all set forth +from Darrow House, well mounted and gallantly arrayed. There was no +unnecessary coddling of the horses. I rode Nathan, and George rode the +horse he had entered for the third race; and the only unusual thing was, +that we eschewed fences, and slowly wended our way through the lanes, to +the little knoll by the beach, where the rude judge's stand was erected. + +"Already a crowd of farmers had assembled, some coming in carts with +their wives and daughters, some riding rough plough-horses, and some on +foot. Not a few children had come too,--red-cheeked boys and girls, +mounted on the wiry ponies of the country, riding about and making the +air resound with their merry laughter. Every one seemed to know every +one else, to judge by the hearty greetings exchanged On all sides, and +every one was in the best possible humor. After all these years, the +impression I received at this rustic gathering is undimmed. There were +only these people. There was no set race-course, no eager betting, but +never before or since have I seen a race assemblage so full of honest, +interested faces, or showing so thorough an enjoyment of the day. + +"As we came up, the little crowd separated, that we might ride to the +top of the knoll, for Burton of Darrow was held in high respect, and way +was made for him everywhere. We were now the centre of attention, and I +was beginning to feel my city assurance giving way under the glance of +honest interest directed towards me and my colt, when a murmur arose, +'Here come the gentry,' and, looking up the lane, I saw an open carriage +full of ladies, and half a dozen gentlemen on horseback, approaching us. +'It is the party from Plashy,' Lillie said, 'and there is the Earl in +the North Lane,' pointing out two or three more carriages. All was +bustle now, for the horses which were to run must be ridden to a certain +part of the field, and ranged side by side for the Earl's inspection. I +found myself between a little fellow on a bay horse, and a handsome, +curly-headed young farmer who sat a beautiful black mare like another +Prince Hal. + +"He bowed politely, and said, 'You ride the Darrow colt, then, sir.' + +"'Yes,' I answered, 'and you are Harry Dunn, are you not?' + +"'At your service, sir. It will be a hard race between us two.' + +"Just then the Earl came up to look at the horses, as his custom was. We +had met in London, and he recognized me with some surprise in my novel, +situation as jockey; but a few words explained the case, and he turned +to young Dunn, saying, with a smile, 'She's very handsome, my man; but +it's an awful temper, if I know a horse's eye,'--and indeed the words +were hardly out of his Lordship's mouth when the Witch, as she was +called, kicked out savagely at a passing boy, and then reared so high +and so long that I feared she would fall back on her rider; but Harry +Dunn was no novice, and in a few minutes she was standing quietly +enough, with dilated nostril and glowing eyes. + +"'He'll ride her in before you, if he kills her,' the Earl whispered, +turning to me. 'Darrow Lillie is looking on.' + +"'He loves her, then?' I asked, as calmly as I could. + +"'I should rather think he did,' the old gentleman answered, shrugging +his shoulders, and walking off to some other horses. + +"I looked round to see where Lillie was, and felt reassured when I saw +she had not even turned in her saddle while her lover's life was in +danger, but was still talking with Sir Francis Gilmor. I heard him say, +'I doubt whether I shall make an offer for that gray colt of yours'; and +she answered, laughing, 'You shall have the first chance after the race, +Sir Francis. It will break my heart if he does not win.' + +"The pony race was soon called, and I dismounted to stand by Lillie's +side and watch it. As I stood, my hand upon the roan's shoulder, ready +to seize the reins if he became excited, for Lillie had flung them, as +usual, upon his neck, and sat carelessly in the saddle, her hands +crossed on her knee,--as I stood there, I say, I heard suddenly, above +the loud talk of the farmers, a voice the sound of which made my heart +leap up into my throat,--a woman's voice, cold and clear,--the words +merely, 'Yes, a perfect day,' but they were full of horrible meaning to +me. I felt that my week's dream of happiness was at an end, and that my +old life personified had come to take me away. My presence of mind +enabled me not to turn round at the moment; but as I mounted for the +race, half an hour afterwards, I glanced towards the Earl's carriage, +and there, at the Countess's side, sat Selina Ferrers. At the same +instant I was aware of a stifled scream, and the sound of my name; but I +paid no heed, and rode slowly down the field to where Harry Dunn and the +other waited my coming at the starting-post. Imagine my feelings as I +listened for the signal. Win! Why I would have won if I had died at +Lillie's feet the moment afterwards. + +"We were well away, we three men, but Harry and I soon got ahead, and +flew with the speed of Browning's couriers over the flashing sand. I +obeyed Lillie's last orders, and spared neither whip nor spur; but the +black mare, almost uncontrolled, gained inch by inch, and leaped the +last ditch fully three lengths ahead. We were to go round once again, +and I lifted my whip for a desperate blow, just as we reached the bottom +of the knoll, knowing that unless I got the colt into his best pace then +all was lost; but he, stupid brute, thought the run was over, and +swerved with a heavy plunge almost to his mistress's side. Before I +could recover my control, I heard Lillie cry, her voice trembling with +vexation, 'O, what riding!' and I saw tears in her eyes, as she pulled +the frightened roan up on his haunches to make way for me. + +"It was enough. Even Nathan felt there was to be no more trifling, and +as I tore his side with my heel he broke at last into his great, fearful +stride, and before we reached the lane Harry Dunn's black mare was +straining every nerve lengths and lengths behind, and in three minutes +more I stood humbly by Lillie's side, winner of the Earl's race. I +scarcely heard the shouts of the crowd, or even the questions addressed +to myself. Once again I was secure. No danger now from Harry Dunn on the +one side, or Selina Ferrers on the other. The certain peace of the +morning was mine again. It all seems so foolish, as I look back upon it +now; but as I stood for those few brief moments by Flury Beach, +surrounded by the golden-headed Burtons, the blue sea before me, and the +fair green pastures behind, I was a happy man,--happier than I have ever +been since. + +"As the crowd separated, while the horses were got ready for the next +race, I heard again the voice of Selina Ferrers; but it did not move me, +for just then Lillie bent her beautiful head close by mine, and in her +own low, singing tones, so much truer and more touching than the London +belle's, said, 'Mr. Erle, what can I do to thank you?' + +"I looked up frankly and gladly. 'May I tell you when we are at home +to-night?' + +"'Not till then?' + +"'No, not till then,' I answered. And from my very heart I believe she +had no idea what I meant, for she turned to Sir Francis Gilmor with an +ease she could not have affected, and began to talk with him of Nathan. + +"I stood looking at the racers, with real interest, for George Burton +was riding, and I could see his hair shining in the wind far down the +beach, and I was thinking of Lillie and Lillie's happiness, when a +servant in livery came up, and said the Countess wished to speak with +me. Had he presented a pistol at my head, the shock would not have been +greater. As I approached the carriage I looked Selina Ferrers full in +the face, and what did I read there? Great God! I cannot think of it +with calmness even now. + +"I bowed as coldly as politeness would allow, but the Countess put our +her hand in cordial greeting, and begged me to take a seat with them for +the rest of the morning. I murmured something about owing my time to the +Burtons, and, after a few indifferent remarks (explaining how Miss +Ferrers had decided not to go to Spain), was on the point of +withdrawing, when the Countess said, 'At least, Mr. Erle, we shall see +you at the castle'; and not until I had promised to come to her the next +day would she let me go. As I turned, a light hand was laid upon my arm +for an instant, and I heard an eager whisper, 'Gerald! what does this +mean? I am here for your sake;--but I kept on my way as if I had not +heard, and breathed freely again at Lillie's bridle-rein. + +"Why should I describe the rest of the day to you? You see already how +it had to end. I was with Lillie all day long, as happy as a king, +though a little shocked when I heard at dinner that Nathan was sold to +Sir Francis. But the day had been full of joy; and when all its +festivities were over, and we drove home from the ball, it seemed as if +no cloud hung over me. + +"The Burtons went to the barn to care for the horses, and I was alone +with Lillie by the great table. I asked her very simply if she would be +my wife, and she told me that I asked in vain. + +"'Even if I loved you, Mr. Erle,' she went on,--'even if I loved you, I +could not be your wife. You are a gentleman, and I am a farmer's +daughter; and you know even better than I do that we could not be happy +very long. You will be glad some day that I did not lead you into such +sore trial.' + +"Some such words as these were the last words I ever heard from Lillie +Burton's mouth, for the men came in, and she left the room; and as she +passed me that night, dressed in a gown of softest white, her exquisite +head bent in sorrow and tenderness, her eyes radiant through their +tears, I saw her for the last time. We have never met, even for an +instant, since." + + * * * * * + +Mr. Erle ceased speaking, and I gave a great sigh of relief. His last +words had been uttered with so much feeling that neither my grandfather +nor I could interrupt the long silence, as he sat looking dreamily into +the fire. When at length he spoke, it was of an entirely different +subject, and, after half an hour's conversation, he drank a last glass +of the old wine, and bade us good night, wringing my grandfather's hand +with more than usual warmth. + +I waited almost impatiently until I heard the house-door close, and +then, "Who is Mrs. Erle?" I asked. + +"Who do you suppose?" my grandfather answered. + +"No one. How should I?" + +"And yet you heard Mr. Erle tell the part about the Countess?" + +"Yes." + +"And you do not guess what happened?" + +"No. I dare say I am very stupid; but do tell me," I begged. + +"Well, then, my dear, the morning after the races, Erle went to the +castle, and the Countess was very kind, as great ladies often are, and +he stayed for a week, since she pressed the matter so; and then there +was an excursion into Wales, where most untoward things occurred, and +the grand finale was a wedding at Lord West's in London." + +"Then he married Miss Ferrers!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, my dear, even so. You have never seen the lady, I believe?" + +"No, never. Is anything the matter with her?" + +"Anything the matter with her? Yes, she is insane. Quite harmless, you +know; but having been made with the worst temper in England, this +climate has developed it into positive insanity." + +"And she lives at home?" I asked, sadly, for it came over me what a +tragedy Mr. Erle's life must be. + +"Yes, Gerald is more than faithful to her. Ah, Thesta, child, we do not +know all the patient endurance of God's men and women in this nineteenth +century." + +The bells of St. Mary's rang midnight as I lighted my bedroom candle, +and kissed the smooth brow of my white-haired hero. "You do not ask what +became of Lillie Burton," he said. + +"Did you ever hear of her?" + +"Yes, Satterlee was there years afterwards, and found her Lillie Dunn, +with three children clinging to her skirts." + +"And Nathan?" + +"O, Nathan turned out splendidly, and led the Flury hunt for years. They +say his memory is green in ----shire yet." + +"Poor Mr. Erle!" I said, summing up the whole story, as I went off to +bed. + + + + +THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. + + +The traveller who first reaches the Lake of Constance at Lindau, or +crosses that sheet of pale green water to one of the ports on the +opposite Swiss shore, cannot fail to notice the bold heights to the +southward, which thrust themselves between the opening of the Rhine +Valley and the long, undulating ridges of the Canton Thurgau. These +heights, broken by many a dimly hinted valley and ravine, appear to be +the front of an Alpine table-land. Houses and villages, scattered over +the steep ascending plane, present themselves distinctly to the eye; the +various green of forest and pasture land is rarely interrupted by the +gray of rocky walls; and the afternoon sun touches the topmost edge of +each successive elevation with a sharp outline of golden light, through +the rich gloom of the shaded slopes. Behind and over this region rise +the serrated peaks of the Sentis Alp, standing in advance of the farther +ice-fields of Glarus, like an outer fortress, garrisoned in summer by +the merest forlorn hope of snow. + +The green fronts nearest the lake, and the lower lands falling away to +the right and left, belong to the Canton of St. Gall; but all aloft, +beyond that frontier marked by the sinking sun, lies the _Appenzeller +Laendli_, as it is called in the endearing diminutive of the Swiss-German +tongue,--the Little Land of Appenzell. + +If, leaving the Lake of Constance by the Rhine valley, you ascend to +Ragatz and the Baths of Pfeffers, thence turn westward to the Lake of +Wallenstatt, cross into the valley of the Toggenburg, and so make your +way northward and eastward around the base of the mountains back to the +starting-point, you will have passed only through the territory of St. +Gall. Appenzell is an Alpine island, wholly surrounded by the former +canton. From whatever side you approach, you must climb in order to get +into it. It is a nearly circular tract, failing from the south towards +the north, but lifted, at almost every point, over the adjoining lands. +This altitude and isolation is an historical as well as a physical +peculiarity. When the Abbots of St. Gall, after having reduced the +entire population of what is now two Cantons to serfdom, became more +oppressive as their power increased, it was the mountain shepherds who, +in the year 1403, struck the first blow for liberty. Once free, they +kept their freedom, and established a rude democracy on the heights, +similar in form and spirit to the league which the Forest Cantons had +founded nearly a century before. An echo from the meadow of Gruetli +reached the wild valleys around the Sentis, and Appenzell, by the middle +of the fifteenth century, became one of the original states out of which +Switzerland has grown. + +I find something very touching and admirable in this fragment of hardly +noticed history. The people isolated themselves by their own act, held +together, organized a simple yet sufficient government, and maintained +their sturdy independence, while their brethren on every side, in the +richer lands below them, were fast bound in the gyves of a priestly +despotism. Individual liberty seems to be a condition inseparable from +mountain life; that once attained, all other influences are conservative +in their character. The Cantons of Unterwalden, Schwytz, Glarus, and +Appenzell retain to-day the simple, primitive forms of democracy which +had their origin in the spirit of the people nearly six hundred years +ago. + +Twice had I looked up to the little mountain republic from the lower +lands to the northward, with the desire and the determination to climb +one day the green buttresses which support it on every side; so, when I +left St. Gall on a misty morning, in a little open carriage, bound for +Trogen, it was with the pleasant knowledge that a land almost unknown to +tourists lay before me. The only summer visitors are invalids, mostly +from Eastern Switzerland and Germany, who go up to drink the whey of +goats' milk; and, although the fabrics woven by the people are known to +the world of fashion in all countries, few indeed are the travellers who +turn aside from the near highways. The landlord in St. Gall told me that +his guests were almost wholly commercial travellers, and my subsequent +experience among an unspoiled people convinced me that I was almost a +pioneer in the paths I traversed. + +It was the last Saturday in April, and at least a month too soon for the +proper enjoyment of the journey; but on the following day the +_Landsgemeinde_, or Assembly of the People, was to be held at Hundwyl, +in the manner and with the ceremonies which have been annually observed +for the last three or four hundred years. This circumstance determined +the time of my visit. I wished to study the character of an Alpine +democracy, so pure that it has not yet adopted even the representative +principle,--to be with and among a portion of the Swiss people at a time +when they are most truly themselves, rather than look at them through +the medium of conventional guides, on lines of travel which have now +lost everything of Switzerland except the scenery. + +There was bad weather behind, and, I feared, bad weather before me. "The +sun will soon drive away these mists," said the postilion, "and when we +get up yonder, you will see what a prospect there will be." In the rich +valley of St. Gall, out of which we mounted, the scattered houses and +cloud-like belts of blossoming cherry-trees almost hid the green; but it +sloped up and down, on either side of the rising road, glittering with +flowers and dew, in the flying gleams of sunshine. Over us hung masses +of gray cloud, which stretched across the valley, hooded the opposite +hills, and sank into a dense mass over the Lake of Constance. As we +passed through this belt, and rejoiced in the growing clearness of the +upper sky, I saw that my only prospect would be in cloud-land. After +many windings, along which the blossoms and buds of the fruit-trees +indicated the altitude as exactly as any barometer, we finally reached +the crest of the topmost height, the frontier of Appenzell and the +battle-field of Voeglisegg, where the herdsman first measured his +strength with the soldier and the monk, and was victorious. + +"Whereabouts was the battle fought?" I asked the postilion. + +"Up and down, and all around here," said he, stopping the carriage at +the summit. + +I stood up and looked to the north. Seen from above, the mist had +gathered into dense, rounded clouds, touched with silver on their upper +edges. They hung over the lake, rolling into every bay and spreading +from shore to shore, so that not a gleam of water was visible; but over +their heaving and tossing silence rose, far away, the mountains of the +four German states beyond the lake. An Alp in Vorarlberg made a shining +island in the sky. The postilion was loud in his regrets, yet I thought +the picture best as it was. On the right lay the land of Appenzell,--not +a table-land, but a region of mountain ridge and summit, of valley and +deep, dark gorge, green as emerald up to the line of snow, and so +thickly studded with dwellings, grouped or isolated, that there seemed +to be one scattered village as far as the eye could reach. To the south, +over forests of fir, the Sentis lifted his huge towers of rock, crowned +with white, wintry pyramids. + +"Here, where we are," said the postilion, "was the first battle; but +there was another, two years afterwards, over there, the other side of +Trogen, where the road goes down to the Rhine. Stoss is the place, and +there's a chapel built on the very spot. Duke Frederick of Austria came +to help the Abbot Kuno, and the Appenzellers were only one to ten +against them. It was a great fight, they say, and the women helped,--not +with pikes and guns, but in this way: they put on white shirts, and came +out of the woods, above where the fighting was going on. Now, when the +Austrians and the Abbot's people saw them, they thought there were +spirits helping the Appenzellers, (the women were all white, you see, +and too far off to show plainly,) and so they gave up the fight, after +losing nine hundred knights and troopers. After that, it was ordered +that the women should go first to the sacrament, so that no man might +forget the help they gave in that battle. And the people go every year +to the chapel, on the same day when it took place." + +I looked, involuntarily, to find some difference in the population after +passing the frontier. But I had not counted upon the levelling influence +which the same kind of labor exercises, whether upon mountain or in +valley. So long as Appenzell was a land of herdsmen, many peculiarities +of costume, features, and manners must have remained. For a long time, +however, Outer-Rhoden, as this part of the Canton is called, shares with +that part of St. Gall which lies below it the manufacture of fine +muslins and embroideries. There are looms in almost every house, and +this fact explains the density of population and the signs of wealth on +every hand, which would otherwise puzzle the stranger. The houses are +not only so near together that almost every man can call to his +neighbors and be heard, but they are large, stately, and even luxurious, +in contrast to the dwellings of other country people in Europe. The +average population of Outer-Rhoden amounts to four hundred and +seventy-five persons to the square mile, being nearly double that of the +most thickly settled portions of Holland. + +If one could only transport a few of these houses to the United States! +Our country architecture is not only hideous, but frequently +unpractical, being at worst shanties, and at best city residences set in +the fields. An Appenzell farmer lives in a house from forty to sixty +feet square, and rarely less than four stories in height. The two upper +stories, however, are narrowed by the high, steep roof, so that the true +front of the house is one of the gables. The roof projects at least four +feet on all sides, giving shelter to balconies of carved wood, which +cross the front under each row of windows. The outer walls are covered +with upright, overlapping shingles, not more than two or three inches +broad, and rounded at the ends, suggesting the scale armor of ancient +times. This covering secures the greatest warmth; and when the shingles +have acquired from age that rich burnt-sienna tint which no paint could +exactly imitate, the effect is exceedingly beautiful. The lowest story +is generally of stone, plastered and whitewashed. The stories are low +(seven to eight feet), but the windows are placed side by side, and each +room is thoroughly lighted. Such a house is very warm, very durable, +and, without any apparent expenditure of ornament, is externally so +picturesque that no ornament could improve it. + +Many of the dwellings, I was told, could not be built with the present +means of the population, at the present prices of labor and material. +They date from the palmy days of Appenzell industry, before machinery +had reduced the cost of the finer fabrics. Then, one successful +manufacturer competed with another in the erection of showy houses, and +fifty thousand francs (a large sum for the times) were frequently +expended on a single dwelling. The view of a broad Alpine landscape, +dotted all over with such beautiful homes, from the little shelf of +green hanging on the sides of a rocky gorge and the strips of sunny +pasture between the ascending forests, to the very summits of the lower +heights and the saddles between them, was something quite new in my +experience. + +Turning around the point of Voeglisegg, we made for Trogen, one of the +two capitals of Outer-Rhoden, which lay before us, across the head of +the deep and wild St. Martin's Tobel. (_Tobel_ is an Appenzell word, +corresponding precisely to the _gulch_ of California.) My postilion +mounted, and the breathed horse trotted merrily along the winding level. +One stately house after another, with a clump of fruit-trees on the +sheltered side, and a row of blooming hyacinths and wall-flowers on the +balcony, passed by on either side. The people we met were sunburnt and +ugly, but there was a rough air of self-reliance about them, and they +gave me a hearty "God greet you!" one and all. Just before reaching +Trogen, the postilion pointed to an old, black, tottering platform of +masonry, rising out of a green slope of turf on the right. The grass +around it seemed ranker than elsewhere. + +This was the place of execution, where capital criminals are still +beheaded with the sword, in the sight of the people. The postilion gave +me an account, with all the horrible details, of the last execution, +only three years ago,--how the murderer would not confess until he was +brought out of prison to hear the bells tolling for his victim's +funeral,--how thereupon he was sentenced, and--but I will not relate +further. I have always considered the death penalty a matter of policy +rather than principle; but the sight of that blood-stained platform, the +blood-fed weeds around it, and the vision of the headsman, in his red +mantle, looking down upon the bared neck stretched upon the block, gave +me more horror of the custom than all the books and speeches which have +been said and written against it. + +At Trogen I stopped at the principal inn, two centuries old, the quaint +front painted in fresco, the interior neat and fresh as a new toy,--a +very gem of a house! The floor upon which I entered from the street was +paved with flat stones; a solid wooden staircase, dark with age, led to +the guests' room in the second story. One side of this room was given up +to the windows, and there was a charming hexagonal oriel in the corner. +The low ceiling was of wood, in panels, the stove a massive tower, faced +with porcelain tiles, the floor polished nearly into whiteness, and all +the doors, cupboards, and tables, made of brown nutwood, gave an air of +warmth and elegance to the apartment. All other parts of the house were +equally neat and orderly. The hostess greeted me with, "Be you +welcome!" and set about preparing dinner, as it was now nearly noon. In +the pauses of her work she came into the room to talk, and was very +ready to give information concerning the country and people. + +There were already a little table and three plates in the oriel, and +while I was occupied with my own dinner I did not particularly notice +the three persons who sat down to theirs. The coarseness and harshness +of their dialect, however, presently struck my ear. It was pure +Appenzell, a German made up of singular and puzzling elisions, and with +a very strong guttural _k_ and _g_, in addition to the _ch_. Some +knowledge of the Alemannic dialect of the Black Forest enabled me to +understand the subject of conversation, which, to my surprise, was--the +study of the classics! It was like hearing an Irishman talk of Shelley's +"Witch of Atlas" in the broadest Tipperary brogue. I turned and looked +at the persons. They were well-dressed young men, evidently the best +class of Appenzellers,--possibly tutors in the schools of Trogen. Their +speech in no wise differed from that of the common herdsmen, except that +they were now and then obliged to use words which, being unknown to the +people, had escaped mutilation. I entered into conversation, to +ascertain whether true German was not possible to them, since they must +needs read and write the language; but, although they understood me, +they could only partly, and with evident difficulty, lay aside their own +patois. I found this to be the case everywhere throughout the Canton. It +is a circumstance so unusual, that, in spite of myself, associating a +rude dialect with ignorance, I was always astonished when those who +spoke it showed culture and knowledge of the world. + +The hostess provided me with a guide and pack-bearer, and I set out on +foot across the country towards Hundwyl. This guide, Jakob by name, made +me imagine that I had come among a singular people. He was so short that +he could easily walk under my arm; his gait was something between a +roll and a limp, although he stoutly disclaimed lameness; he laughed +whenever I spoke to him, and answered in a voice which seemed the +cuneiform character put into sound. First, there was an explosion of +gutturals, and then came a loud trumpet-tone, something like the _Honk! +honk!_ of wild geese. Yet, when he placed his squat figure behind a +tavern table, and looked at me quietly with his mouth shut, he was both +handsome and distinguished in appearance. We walked two miles together +before I guessed how to unravel his speech. It is almost as difficult to +learn a dialect as a new language, and but for the key which the +Alemannic gave me, I should have been utterly at sea. Who, for instance, +could ever guess that _a' Ma' g'si_, pronounced "ama_x_i" (the _x_ +representing a desperate guttural), really stands for _einen Mann +gewesen_? + +The road was lively with country people, many of whom were travelling in +our own direction. Those we met invariably addressed us with "God greet +you!" or "_Guaet-ti!_" which it was easy to translate into "Good day!" +Some of the men were brilliant in scarlet jackets, with double rows of +square silver buttons, and carried swords under their arms; they were +bound for the _Landsgemeinde_, whither the law of the Middle Ages still +obliges them to go armed. When I asked Jakob if he would accompany me as +far as Hundwyl, he answered, "I can't; I daren't go there without a +black dress, and my sword, and a cylinder hat." + +The wild _Tobels_, opening downward to the Lake of Constance, which now +shimmered afar through the gaps, were left behind us, and we passed +westward along a broken, irregular valley. The vivid turf was sown with +all the flowers of spring,--primrose, violet, buttercup, anemone, and +veronica,--faint, but sweetest-odored, and the heralds of spring in all +lands. So I gave little heed to the weird lines of cloud, twisting +through and between the severed pyramids of the Sentis, as if weaving +the woof of storms. The scenery was entirely lovely, and so novel in +its population and the labor which, in the long course of time, had +effaced its own hard traces, turning the mountains into lifted lawns and +parks of human delight, that my own slow feet carried me through it too +rapidly. We must have passed a slight water-shed somewhere, though I +observed none; for the road gradually fell towards another region of +deeply cloven _Tobels_, with snowy mountains beyond. The green of the +landscape was so brilliant and uniform, under the cold gray sky, that it +almost destroyed the perspective, which rather depended on the houses +and the scattered woods of fir. + +On a ridge, overlooking all this region, was the large village of +Teufen, nearly as grand as Trogen in its architecture. Here Jakob, whose +service went no further, conducted me to the "Pike" inn, and begged the +landlady to furnish me with "_a' Ma'_" in his place. We had refreshments +together, and took leave with many shakings of the hand and mutual +wishes of good luck. The successor was an old fellow of seventy, who had +been a soldier in Holland, and who with proper exertion could make his +speech intelligible. The people nowhere inquired after my business or +nationality. When the guide made the latter known, they almost +invariably said, "But, of course, you were born in Appenzell?" The idea +of a traveller coming among them, at least during this season of the +year, did not enter their heads. In Teufen, the large and handsome +houses, the church and schools, led me, foolishly, to hope for a less +barbarous dialect; but no, it was the same thing everywhere. + +The men in black, with swords under their arms, increased in number as +we left the village. They were probably from the farthest parts of the +Canton, and were thus abridging the morrow's journey. The most of them, +however, turned aside from the road, and made their way to one +farm-house or another. I was tempted to follow their example, as I +feared that the little village of Hundwyl would be crowded. But there +was still time to claim private hospitality, even if this should be the +case, so we marched steadily down the valley. The Sitter, a stream fed +by the Sentis, now roared below us, between high, rocky walls, which are +spanned by an iron bridge, two hundred feet above the water. The roads +of Outer-Rhoden, built and kept in order by the people, are most +admirable. This little population of forty-eight thousand souls has +within the last fifteen years expended seven hundred thousand dollars on +means of communication. Since the people govern themselves, and regulate +their expenses, and consequently their taxation, their willingness to +bear such a burden is a lesson to other lands. + +After crossing the airy bridge, our road climbed along the opposite side +of the _Tobel_, to a village on a ridge thrust out from the foot of the +Hundwyl Alp, beyond which we lost sight of Teufen and the beautiful +valley of the Sitter. We were now in the valley of the Urnaesch, and a +walk of two miles more brought us to the village of Hundwyl. I was +encouraged, on approaching the little place, by seeing none except the +usual signs of occupation. There was a great new tank before the +fountain, and two or three fellows in scarlet vests were filling their +portable tubs for the evening's supply; a few children came to the doors +to stare at me, but there was no sign that any other stranger had +arrived. + +"I'll take you to the Crown," said the guide; "all the Landamaenner will +be there in the morning, and the music; and you'll see what our +Appenzell government is." The landlady gave me a welcome, and the +promise of a lodging, whereupon I sat down in peace, received the +greetings of all the members of the family, as they came and went, and +made myself familiar with their habits. There was only one other guest +in the house,--a man of dignified face and intellectual head, who +carried a sword tied up with an umbrella, and must be, I supposed, one +of the chief officials. He had so much the air of a reformer or a +philosopher, that the members of a certain small faction at home might +have taken him for their beloved W. P.; others might have detected in +him a resemblance to that true philanthropist and gentleman, W. L. G.; +and the believers in the divinity of slavery would have accepted him as +Bishop ----. As no introductions are required in Appenzell, I addressed +myself to him, hoping to open a profitable acquaintance; but it was +worse than Coleridge's experience with the lover of dumplings. His +sentiments may have been elevated and refined, for aught I knew, but +what were they? My trumpeter Jakob was more intelligible than he; his +upper teeth were gone, and the mutilated words were mashed out of all +remaining shape against his gums. Then he had the singular habit of +ejaculating the word _Ja!_ (Yes!) in three different ways, after +answering each of my questions. First, a decided, confirmatory _Ja!_ +then a pause, followed by a slow, interrogative _Ja?_ as if it were the +echo of some mental doubt; and finally, after a much longer pause, a +profoundly melancholy, desponding, conclusive _Ja-a-a!_ sighed forth +from the very bottom of his lungs. Even when I only said, "Good +morning!" the next day, these ejaculations followed, in the same order +of succession. + +One may find a counterpart to this habit in the _Wa'al_ of the Yankee, +except that the latter never is, nor could it well be, so depressing to +hear as the _Ja_ of Appenzell. + +In the evening a dozen persons gathered around one of the long tables, +and drank a pale, weak cider, made of apples and pears, and called +"Most." I gave to one, with whom I found I could converse most easily, a +glass of red wine, whereupon he said, "It is very impudent in me to take +it." + +Upon asking the same person how it was that I could understand him so +much more readily than the others, he answered, "O, I can talk the +written language when I try, but these others can't." + +"Here," said I, pointing to the philosopher, "is one who is quite +incomprehensible." + +"So he is to me." + +They were all anxious to know whether our American troubles were nearly +over; whether the President had the power to do further harm (he had too +much power, they all thought); and whether our Congress could carry out +its plan of reconstruction. Lincoln, they said, was the best man we ever +had; when the play of "Lincoln's Death" was performed in the theatre at +St. Gall, a great many Appenzellers hired omnibuses and went down from +the mountains to see it. + +I was aroused at daybreak by the chiming of bells, and soon afterwards +muskets began to crack, near and far. Then there were noises all over +the house, and presently what seemed to be a procession of horses or +elephants began to thunder up and down the wooden stairs. In vain I +tried to snatch the last and best morning nap; there was no end to the +racket. So I arose, dressed, and went forth to observe. The inn was +already transformed, from top to bottom, into a vast booth for meat and +drink. Bedding and all other furniture had disappeared; every room, and +even the open hall on each story, was filled with tables, benches, and +chairs. My friend of the previous evening, who was going about with a +white apron on and sleeves rolled up, said to me: "I am to be one of the +waiters to-day. We have already made places for six hundred." + +There were at least a dozen other amateur waiters on hand and busy. The +landlord wore a leathern apron, and went from room to room, blowing into +the hole of a wooden top which he carried in his hand, as if thereby to +collect his ideas. A barrel of red and a barrel of white wine stood on +trestles in the guests' room, and they were already filling the +schoppins by hundreds and ranging them on shelves,--honestly filling, +not as lager-bier is filled in New York, one third foam, but waiting +until the froth subsided, and then pouring to the very brim. In the +kitchen there were three fires blazing, stacks of _Bratwurst_ on the +tables, great kettles for the sour-krout and potatoes, and eggs, +lettuce, and other finer viands, for the dignitaries, on the shelves. +"Good morning," said the landlady, as I looked into this sanctuary, "you +see we are ready for them." + +While I was taking my coffee, the landlord called the waiters together, +gave each a bag of small money for change, and then delivered a short, +practical address concerning their duties for the day,--who were to be +trusted and who not, how to keep order and prevent impatience, and, +above all, how to preserve a proper circulation, in order that the +greatest possible number of persons might be entertained. He closed +with: "Once again, take notice and don't forget, every one of +you,--_Most_ 10 rappen (2 cents), bread 10, _Wurst_ 15, tongue 10, wine +25 and 40," etc. + +In the village there were signs of preparation, but not a dozen +strangers had arrived. Wooden booths had been built against some of the +houses, and the owners thereof were arranging their stores of +gingerbread and coarse confectionery; on the open, grassy square, in +front of the parsonage, stood a large platform, with a handsome railing +around it, but the green slope of the hill in front was as deserted as +an Alpine pasture. Looking westward over the valley, however, I could +already see dark figures moving along the distant paths. The morning was +overcast, but the Hundwyl Alp, streaked with snow, stood clear, and +there was a prospect of good weather for the important day. As I +loitered about the village, talking with the people, who, busy as they +were, always found time for a friendly word, the movement in the +landscape increased. Out of fir-woods, and over the ridges and out of +the foldings of the hills, came the Appenzellers, growing into groups, +and then into lines, until steady processions began to enter Hundwyl by +every road. Every man was dressed in black, with a rusty stove-pipe hat +on his head, and a sword and umbrella in his hand or under his arm. + +From time to time the church bells chimed; a brass band played the old +melodies of the Canton; on each side of the governing Landamman's place +on the platform stood a huge two-handed sword, centuries old, and the +temper of the gathering crowd became earnest and solemn. Six old men, +armed with pikes, walked about with an air of importance: their duty was +to preserve order, but they had nothing to do. Policeman other than +these, or soldier, was not to be seen; each man was a part of the +government, and felt his responsibility. Carriages, light carts, and hay +wagons, the latter filled with patriotic singers, now began to arrive, +and I took my way to the Crown, in order to witness the arrival of the +members of the Council. + +In order to make the proceedings of the day more intelligible, I must +first briefly sketch certain features of this little democracy, which it +possesses in common with three other mountain Cantons,--the primitive +forms which the republican principle assumed in Switzerland. In the +first place the government is only representative so far as is required +for its permanent, practical operation. The highest power in the land is +the _Landsgemeinde_, or General Assembly of the People, by whom the +members of the Executive Council are elected, and who alone can change, +adopt, or abolish any law. All citizens above the age of eighteen, and +all other Swiss citizens after a year's residence in the Canton, are not +only allowed, but required, to attend the _Landsgemeinde_. There is a +penalty for non-attendance. Outer-Rhoden contains forty-eight thousand +inhabitants, of whom eleven thousand are under obligations to be present +and vote, from beginning to end of the deliberations. + +In Glarus and Unterwalden, where the population is smaller, the right of +discussion is still retained by these assemblies, but in Appenzell it +has been found expedient to abolish it. Any change in the law, however, +is first discussed in public meetings in the several communities, then +put into form by the Council, published, read from all the pulpits for a +month previous to the coming together of the _Landsgemeinde_, and then +voted upon. But if the Council refuses to act upon the suggestion of any +citizen whomsoever, and he honestly considers the matter one of +importance, he is allowed to propose it directly to the people, provided +he do so briefly and in an orderly manner. The Council, which may be +called the executive power, consists of the governing Landamman and six +associates, one of whom has the functions of treasurer, another of +military commander,--in fact, a ministry on a small scale. The service +of the persons elected to the Council is obligatory, and they receive no +salaries. There is, it is true, a secondary Council, composed of the +first, and representatives of the communities, one for every thousand +inhabitants, in order to administer more intelligently the various +departments of education, religion, justice, roads, the militia system, +the poor, etc.; but the Assembly of the People can at any time reject or +reverse its action. All citizens are not only equal before the law, but +are assured liberty of conscience, of speech, and of labor. The right of +support only belongs to those who are born citizens of the Canton. The +old restriction of the _Heimathsrecht_,--the claim to be supported at +the expense of the community in case of need,--narrow and illiberal as +it seems to us, prevails all over Switzerland. In Appenzell a stranger +can only acquire the right, which is really the right of citizenship, by +paying twelve hundred francs into the cantonal treasury. + +The governing Landamman is elected for two years, but the other members +of the Council may be re-elected from year to year, as often as the +people see fit. The obligation to serve, therefore, may sometimes +seriously incommode the person chosen; he cannot resign, and his only +chance of escape lies in leaving the Canton temporarily, and publishing +his intention of quitting it altogether in case the people refuse to +release him from office! This year, it happened that two members of the +Council had already taken this step, while three others had appealed to +the people not to re-elect them. The _Landsgemeinde_ at Hundwyl was to +decide upon all these applications, and therefore promised to be of more +than usual interest. The people had had time to consider the matter, +and, it was supposed, had generally made up their minds; yet I found no +one willing to give me a hint of their action in advance. + +The two remaining members presently made their appearance, accompanied +by the Chancellor, to whom I was recommended. The latter kindly offered +to accompany me to the parsonage, the windows of which, directly in the +rear of the platform, would enable me to hear, as well as see, the +proceedings. The clergyman, who was preparing for the service which +precedes the opening of the _Landsgemeinde_, showed me the nail upon +which hung the key of the study, and gave me liberty to take possession +at any time. The clock now struck nine, and a solemn peal of bells +announced the time of service. A little procession formed in front of +the inn; first the music, then the clergyman and the few members of the +government, bareheaded, and followed by the two _Weibels_ (apparitors), +who wore long mantles, the right half white and the left half black. The +old pikemen walked on either side. The people uncovered as they took +their way around the church to the chancel door; then as many as could +be accommodated entered at the front. + +I entered with them, taking my place on the men's side,--the sexes being +divided, as is usual in Germany. After the hymn, in which boys' voices +were charmingly heard, and the prayer, the clergyman took a text from +Corinthians, and proceeded to preach a good, sound political sermon, +which, nevertheless, did not in the least shock the honest piety of his +hearers. I noticed with surprise that most of the men put on their hats +at the close of the prayer. Only once did they remove them +afterwards,--when the clergyman, after describing the duties before +them, and the evils and difficulties which beset every good work, +suddenly said, "Let us pray to God to help and direct us!" and +interpolated a short prayer in the midst of his sermon. The effect was +all the more impressive, because, though so unexpected, it was entirely +simple and natural. These democrats of Appenzell have not yet made the +American discovery that pulpits are profaned by any utterance of +national sentiment, or any application of Christian doctrine to +politics. They even hold their municipal elections in the churches, and +consider that the act of voting is thereby solemnized, not that the holy +building is desecrated! But then, you will say, this is the democracy of +the Middle Ages. + +When the service was over, I could scarcely make my way through the +throng which had meanwhile collected. The sun had come out hot above the +Hundwyl Alp, and turned the sides of the valley into slopes of dazzling +sheen. Already every table in the inns was filled, every window crowded +with heads, the square a dark mass of voters of all ages and classes, +lawyers and clergymen being packed together with grooms and brown Alpine +herdsmen; and, after the government had been solemnly escorted to its +private chamber, four musicians in antique costume announced, with drum +and fife, the speedy opening of the Assembly. But first came the singing +societies of Herisau, and forced their way into the centre of the +throng, where they sang, simply yet grandly, the songs of Appenzell. The +people listened with silent satisfaction; not a man seemed to think of +applauding. + +I took my place in the pastor's study, and inspected the crowd. On the +steep slope of the village square and the rising field beyond, more than +ten thousand men were gathered, packed as closely as they could stand. +The law requires them to appear armed and "respectably dressed." The +short swords, very much like our marine cutlasses, which they carried, +were intended for show rather than service. Very few wore them: +sometimes they were tied up with umbrellas, but generally carried loose +in the hand or under the arm. The rich manufacturers of Trogen and +Herisau and Teufen had belts and silver-mounted dress-swords. With +scarce an exception, every man was habited in black, and wore a +stove-pipe hat, but the latter was in most cases brown and battered. +Both circumstances were thus explained to me: as the people vote with +the uplifted hand, the hat must be of a dark color, as a background, to +bring out the hands more distinctly; then, since rain would spoil a good +hat (and it rains much at this season), they generally take an old one. +I could now understand the advertisements of "secondhand cylinder hats +for sale," which I had noticed, the day before, in the newspapers of the +Canton. The slope of the hill was such that the hats of the lower ranks +concealed the faces of those immediately behind, and the assembly was +the darkest and densest I ever beheld. Here and there the top of a +scarlet waistcoat flashed out of the cloud with astonishing brilliancy. + +With solemn music, and attended by the apparitors, in their two-colored +mantles, and the ancient pikemen, the few officials ascended the +platform. The chief of the two Landammaenner present took his station in +front, between the two-handed swords, and began to address the assembly. +Suddenly a dark cloud seemed to roll away from the faces of the people; +commencing in front of the platform, and spreading rapidly to the edges +of the compact throng, the hats disappeared, and the ten thousand faces, +in the full light of the sun, blended into a ruddy mass. But no; each +head retained its separate character, and the most surprising +circumstance of the scene was the distinctness with which each human +being held fast to his individuality in the multitude. Nature has drawn +no object with so firm a hand, nor painted it with such tenacious +clearness of color, as the face of man. The inverted crescent of sharp +light had a different curve on each individual brow before me; the +little illuminated dot on the end of the nose under it hinted at the +form of the nostrils in shadow. As the hats had before concealed the +faces, so now each face was relieved against the breast of the man +beyond, and in front of me were thousands of heads to be seen, touching +each other like so many ovals drawn on a dark plane. + +The address was neither so brief nor so practical as it might have been. +Earnest, well meant, and apparently well received, there was +nevertheless much in it which the plain, semi-educated weavers and +Alpadores in the assembly could not possibly have comprehended; as, for +instance, "May a garland of confidence be twined around your +deliberations!" At the close, the speaker said, "Let us pray!" and for a +few moments there were bowed heads and utter silence. The first business +was the financial report for the year, which had been printed and +distributed among the people weeks before. They were now asked whether +they would appoint a commission to test its accuracy, but they +unanimously declined to do so. The question was put by one of the +apparitors, who first removed his cocked hat, and cried, in a tremendous +voice, "Faithful and beloved fellow-citizens, and brethren of the +Union!" + +Now came the question of releasing the tired Landammaenner of the +previous year from office. The first application in order was that of +the governing Landamman, Dr. Zuercher. The people voted directly +thereupon; there was a strong division of sentiment, but the majority +allowed him to resign. His place was therefore to be filled at once. The +names of candidates were called out by the crowd. There were six in all; +and as both the members of the Council were among them, the latter +summoned six well-known citizens upon the platform, to decide the +election. The first vote reduced the number of candidates to two, and +the voting was then repeated until one of these received an undoubted +majority. Dr. Roth, of Teufen, was the fortunate man. As soon as the +decision was announced, several swords were held up in the crowd to +indicate where the new governor was to be found. The musicians and +pikemen made a lane to him through the multitude, and he was conducted +to the platform with the sound of fife and drum. He at once took his +place between the swords, and made a brief address, which the people +heard with uncovered heads. He did not yet, however, assume the black +silk mantle which belongs to his office. He was a man of good presence, +prompt, and self-possessed in manner, and conducted the business of the +day very successfully. + +The election of the remaining members occupied much more time. All the +five applicants were released from service, and with scarcely a +dissenting hand: wherein, I thought, the people showed very good sense. +The case of one of these officials, Herr Euler, was rather hard. He was +the _Landessaeckelmeister_ (Treasurer), and the law makes him personally +responsible for every farthing which passes through his hands. Having, +with the consent of the Council, invested thirty thousand francs in a +banking-house at Rheineck, the failure of the house obliged him to pay +this sum out of his own pocket. He did so, and then made preparations to +leave the Canton in case his resignation was not accepted. + +For most of the places from ten to fourteen candidates were named, and +when these were reduced to two, nearly equally balanced in popular +favor, the voting became very spirited. The apparitor, who was chosen on +account of his strength of voice (the candidates for that office must be +tested in this respect), had hard work that day. The same formula must +be repeated before every vote, in this wise: "Herr Landamman, +gentlemen, faithful and beloved fellow-citizens and brethren of the +Union, if it seems good to you to choose so-and-so as your treasurer for +the coming year, so lift up your hands!" Then, all over the dark mass, +thousands of hands flew into the sunshine, rested a moment, and +gradually sank with a fluttering motion, which made me think of leaves +flying from a hillside forest in the autumn winds. As each election was +decided, and the choice was announced, swords were lifted to show the +location of the new official in the crowd, and he was then brought upon +the platform with fife and drum. Nearly two hours elapsed before the +gaps were filled, and the government was again complete. + +Then followed the election of judges for the judicial districts, which, +in most cases, were almost unanimous re-elections. These are repeated +from year to year, so long as the people are satisfied. Nearly all the +citizens of Outer-Rhoden were before me; I could distinctly see three +fourths of their faces, and I detected no expression except that of a +grave, conscientious interest in the proceedings. Their patience was +remarkable. Closely packed, man against man, in the hot, still sunshine, +they stood quietly for nearly three hours, and voted upwards of two +hundred and seven times before the business of the day was completed. A +few old men on the edges of the crowd slipped away for a quarter of an +hour, in order, as one of them told me, "to keep their stomachs from +giving way entirely," and some of the younger fellows took a schoppin of +_Most_ for the same purpose; but they generally returned and resumed +their places as soon as refreshed. + +The close of the _Landsgemeinde_ was one of the most impressive +spectacles I ever witnessed. When the elections were over, and no +further duty remained, the Parson Etter of Hundwyl ascended the +platform. The governing Landamman assumed his black mantle of office, +and, after a brief prayer, took the oath of inauguration from the +clergyman. He swore to further the prosperity and honor of the land, to +ward off misfortune from it, to uphold the Constitution and laws, to +protect the widows and orphans, and to secure the equal rights of all, +nor through favor, hostility, gifts, or promises to be turned aside from +doing the same. The clergyman repeated the oath sentence by sentence, +both holding up the oath-fingers of the right hand, the people looking +on silent and uncovered. + +The governing Landamman now turned to the assembly, and read them their +oath, that they likewise should further the honor and prosperity of the +land, preserve its freedom and its equal rights, obey the laws, protect +the Council and the judges, take no gift or favor from any prince or +potentate, and that each one should accept and perform, to the best of +his ability, any service to which he might be chosen. After this had +been read, the Landamman lifted his right hand, with the oath-fingers +extended; his colleagues on the platform, and every man of the ten or +eleven thousand present, did the same. The silence was so profound that +the chirp of a bird on the hillside took entire possession of the air. +Then the Landamman slowly and solemnly spoke these words: "I have well +understood that--which has been read to me;--I will always and exactly +observe it,--faithfully and without reservation,--so truly as I wish and +pray--that God help me!" At each pause, the same words were repeated by +every man, in a low, subdued tone. The hush was else so complete, the +words were spoken with such measured firmness, that I caught each as it +came, not as from the lips of men, but from a vast, supernatural murmur +in the air. The effect was indescribable. Far off on the horizon was the +white vision of an Alp, but all the hidden majesty of those supreme +mountains was nothing to the scene before me. When the last words had +been spoken, the hands sank slowly, and the crowd stood a moment locked +together, with grave faces and gleaming eyes, until the spirit that had +descended upon them passed. Then they dissolved; the _Landsgemeinde_ was +over. + +In my inn, I should think more than the expected six hundred had found +place. From garret to cellar, every corner was occupied; bread, wine, +and steamy dishes passed in a steady whirl from kitchen and tap-room +into all the roaring chambers. In the other inns it was the same, and +many took their drink and provender in the open air. I met my +philosopher of the previous evening, who said, "Now, what do you think +of our _Landsgemeinde_?" and followed my answer with his three _Ja's_, +the last a more desponding sigh than ever. Since the business was over, +I judged that the people would be less reserved,--which, indeed, was the +case. Nearly all with whom I spoke expressed their satisfaction with the +day's work. I walked through the crowds in all directions, vainly +seeking for personal beauty. There were few women present, but a +handsome man is only less beautiful than a beautiful woman, and I like +to look at the former when the latter is absent. I was surprised at the +great proportion of under-sized men; only weaving, in close rooms, for +several generations, could have produced so many squat bodies and short +legs. The Appenzellers are neither a handsome nor a picturesque race, +and their language harmonizes with their features; but I learned, during +that day at Hundwyl, to like and to respect them. + +Pastor Etter insisted on my dining with him; two younger clergymen were +also guests, and my friend the Chancellor Engwiller came to make further +kind offers of service. The people of each parish, I learned, elect +their own pastor, and pay him his salary. In municipal matters the same +democratic system prevails as in the cantonal government. Education is +well provided for, and the morals of the community are watched and +guarded by a committee consisting of the pastor and two officials +elected by the people. Outer-Rhoden is almost exclusively Protestant, +while Inner-Rhoden--the mountain region around the Sentis--is Catholic. +Although thus geographically and politically connected, there was +formerly little intercourse between the inhabitants of the two parts of +the Canton, owing to their religious differences; but now they come +together in a friendly way, and are beginning to intermarry. + +After dinner, the officials departed in carriages, to the sound of +trumpets, and thousands of the people followed. Again the roads and +paths leading away over the green hills were dark with lines of +pedestrians; but a number of those whose homes lay nearest to Hundwyl +lingered to drink and gossip out the day. A group of herdsmen, over +whose brown faces the high stove-pipe hat looked doubly absurd, gathered +in a ring, and while one of them _yodelled_ the _Ranz des Vaches_ of +Appenzell, the others made an accompaniment with their voices, imitating +the sound of cow-bells. They were lusty, jolly fellows, and their songs +hardly came to an end. I saw one man who might be considered as +positively drunk, but no other who was more than affectionately and +socially excited. Towards sunset they all dropped off, and when the +twilight settled down heavy, and threatening rain, there was no stranger +but myself in the little village. "I have done tolerably well," said the +landlord, "but I can't count my gains until day after to-morrow, when +the scores run up to-day must be paid off." Considering that in my own +bill lodging was set down at six, and breakfast at twelve cents, even +the fifteen hundred guests whom he entertained during the day could not +have given him a very splendid profit. + +Taking a weaver of the place as guide, I set off early the next morning +for the village of Appenzell, the capital of Inner-Rhoden. The way led +me back into the valley of the Sitter, thence up towards the Sentis Alp, +winding around and over a multitude of hills. The same smooth, even, +velvety carpet of grass was spread upon the landscape, covering every +undulation of the surface, except where the rocks had frayed themselves +through. There is no greener land upon the earth. The grass, from +centuries of cultivation, has become so rich and nutritious, that the +inhabitants can no longer spare even a little patch of ground for a +vegetable garden, for the reason that the same space produces more +profit in hay. The green comes up to their very doors, and they grudge +even the foot-paths which connect them with their neighbors. Their +vegetables are brought up from the lower valleys of Thurgau. The first +mowing had commenced at the time of my visit, and the farmers were +employing irrigation and manure to bring on the second crop. By this +means they are enabled to mow the same fields every five or six weeks. +The process gives the whole region a smoothness, a mellow splendor of +color, such as I never saw elsewhere, not even in England. + +A walk of two hours through such scenery brought me out of the Sitter +Tobel, and in sight of the little Alpine basin in which lies Appenzell. +It was raining slowly and dismally, and the broken, snow-crowned peaks +of the Kamor and the Hohe Kasten stood like livid spectres of mountains +against the stormy sky. I made haste to reach the compact, picturesque +little town, and shelter myself in an inn, where a landlady with rippled +golden hair and features like one of Dante Rossetti's women, offered me +trout for dinner. Out of the back window I looked for the shattered +summits of the Sentis, which rise five thousand feet above the valley, +but they were invisible. The vertical walls of the Ebenalp, in which are +the grotto and chapel of Wildkirchli, towered over the nearer hills, and +I saw with regret that they were still above the snow line. It was +impossible to penetrate much farther without better weather; but I +decided, while enjoying my trout, to make another trial,--to take the +road to Urnaesch, and thence pass westward into the renowned valley of +the Toggenburg. + +The people of Inner-Rhoden are the most picturesque of the Appenzellers. +The men wear a round skull-cap of leather, sometimes brilliantly +embroidered, a jacket of coarse drilling, drawn on over the head, and +occasionally knee-breeches. Early in May the herdsmen leave their winter +homes in the valleys and go with their cattle to the _Matten_, or lofty +mountain pastures. The most intelligent cows, selected as leaders for +the herd, march in advance, with enormous bells, sometimes a foot in +diameter, suspended to their necks by bands of embroidered leather; then +follow the others, and the bull, who, singularly enough, carries the +milking-pail, garlanded with flowers, between his horns, brings up the +rear. The Alpadores are in their finest Sunday costume, and the sound of +yodel-songs--the very voice of Alpine landscapes--echoes from every +hill. Such a picture as this, under the cloudless blue of a fortunate +May day, makes the heart of the Appenzeller light. He goes joyously up +to his summer labor, and makes his herb-cheese on the heights, while his +wife weaves and embroiders muslin in the valley until his return. + +In the afternoon I set out for Urnaesch, with a bright boy as guide. Hot +gleams of sunshine now and then struck like fire across the green +mountains, and the Sentis partly unveiled his stubborn forehead of rock. +Behind him, however, lowered inky thunder-clouds, and long before the +afternoon's journey was made it was raining below and snowing aloft. The +scenery grew more broken and abrupt the farther I penetrated into the +country, but it was everywhere as thickly peopled and as wonderfully +cultivated. At Gonten, there is a large building for the whey-cure of +overfed people of the world. A great many such, I was told, come to +Appenzell for the summer. Many of the persons we met not only said, "God +greet you!" but immediately added, "Adieu!"--like the _Salve et vale_! +of classical times. + +Beyond Gonten the road dropped into a wild ravine, the continual +windings of which rendered it very attractive. I found enough to admire +in every farm-house by the wayside, with its warm wood-color, its quaint +projecting balconies, and coat of shingle mail. When the ravine opened, +and the deep valley of Urnaesch, before me, appeared between cloven +heights of snow, disclosing six or eight square miles of perfect +emerald, over which the village is scattered, I was fully repaid for +having pressed farther into the heart of the land. There were still two +hours until night, and I might have gone on to the Rossfall,--a cascade +three or four miles higher up the valley,--but the clouds were +threatening, and the distant mountain-sides already dim under the rain. + +At the village inn I found several herdsmen and mechanics, each with a +bottle of Rheinthaler wine before him. They were ready and willing to +give me all the information I needed. In order to reach the Toggenburg, +they said, I must go over the Kraetzernwald. It was sometimes a dangerous +journey; the snow was many cubits deep, and at this time of the year it +was frequently so soft that a man would sink to his hips. To-day, +however, there had been thunder, and after thunder the snow is always +hard-packed, so that you can walk on it; but to cross the Kraetzernwald +without a guide,--never! For two hours you were in a wild forest, not a +house, nor even a '_Sennhuett_' (herdsman's cabin) to be seen, and no +proper path, but a clambering hither and thither, in snow and mud; with +this weather,--yes, one _could_ get into Toggenburg that way, they said, +but not alone, and only because there had been thunder on the +mountains. + +But all night the rain beat against my chamber window, and in the +morning the lower slopes of the mountains were gray with new snow, which +no thunder had packed. Indigo-colored clouds lay heavily on all the +Alpine peaks; the air was raw and chilly, and the roads slippery. In +such weather the scenery is not only shrouded, but the people are shut +up in their homes,--wherefore further travel would not have been repaid. +I had already seen the greater part of the little land, and so gave up +my thwarted plans the more cheerfully. When the post-omnibus for Herisau +came to the inn door, I took my seat therein, saying, like Schiller's +_Sennbub', "Ihr Matten, lebtwohl, Ihr sonnigen Weiden_!" + +The country became softer and lovelier as the road gradually fell +towards Herisau, which is the richest and stateliest town of the Canton. +I saw little of it except the hospitable home of my friend the +Chancellor, for we had brought the Alpine weather with us. The +architecture of the place, nevertheless, is charming, the town being +composed of country-houses, balconied and shingled, and set down +together in the most irregular way, every street shooting off at a +different angle. A mile beyond, I reached the edge of the mountain +region, and again looked down upon the prosperous valley of St. Gall. +Below me was the railway, and as I sped towards Zurich that afternoon, +the top of the Sentis, piercing through a mass of dark rain-clouds, was +my last glimpse of the Little Land of Appenzell. + + + + +THE LOST GENIUS. + + + A giant came to me, when I was young, + My instant will to ask,-- + My earthly Servant, from the earth he sprung + Eager for any task! + + "What wilt thou, O my Master?" he began; + "Whatever can be," I. + "Say but thy wish,--whate'er thou wilt I can," + The strong Slave made reply. + + "Enter the earth and bring its riches forth, + For pearls explore the sea.' + He brought from East and West, and South and North, + All treasures back to me! + + "Build me a palace wherein I may dwell." + "Awake, and see it done," + Spake his great voice at dawn. O miracle, + That glittered in the sun! + + "Find me the princess fit for my embrace, + The vision of my breast,-- + For her search every clime and every race." + My yearning arms were blessed! + + "Get me all knowledge." Sages with their lore, + And poets with their songs, + Crowded my palace halls at every door, + In mute obedient throngs! + + "Now bring me wisdom." Long ago he went; + (The cold task harder seems;) + He did not hasten with the last content,-- + The rest, meanwhile, were dreams! + + Houseless and poor, on many a trackless road, + Without a guide, I found + A white-haired phantom with the world his load + Bending him to the ground! + + "I bring thee wisdom, Master." Is it he, + I marvelled then, in sooth? + "Thy palace-builder, beauty-seeker see!" + I saw the Ghost of Youth! + + + + +CINCINNATI. + + +The French possessors of the Western country used to call the Ohio the +Beautiful River; and they might well think it beautiful who came into it +from the flat-shored, mountainous Mississippi, and found themselves +winding about among lofty, steep, and picturesque hills, covered with +foliage, and fringed at the bottom with a strip of brilliant grass. But +travellers from the Atlantic States, accustomed as they are to the +clear, sparkling waters and to the brimming fulness of such rivers as +the James, the Delaware, and the Hudson, do not at once perceive the +fitness of the old French name, _La Belle Riviere_. The water of the +Ohio is yellow, and there is usually a wide slope of yellow earth on +each side of the stream, from which the water has receded, and over +which it will flow again at the next "rise." It is always rising or +falling. As at the South the item of most interest in the newspapers is +the price of cotton, and in New York the price of gold, so in the West +the special duty of the news-gatherer is to keep the public advised of +the depth of the rivers. The Ohio, during the rainy seasons, is forty +feet deeper than it is during the dry. Between the notch which marks the +lowest point to which the river has ever fallen at Cincinnati and that +which records the point of its highest rise, the distance is sixty-four +feet. If our Eastern rivers were capable of such vacillation as this, +our large cities would go under once or twice a year. + +In truth, those great and famous Western rivers are ditches dug by +Nature as part of the drainage system of the continent,--mere means of +carrying off the surplus water when it rains. At the East, the water +plays a part in the life, in the pleasures, in the imagination and +memories of the people. We go down to Coney Island of a hot afternoon; +we take a trip to Cape May; we sail in Boston Harbor; we go upon +moonlight excursions, attended by a cotillon band; we spend a day at the +fishing banks; we go up the Erie Railroad for a week's trout-fishing; we +own a share in a small schooner; we have yacht clubs and boat races; we +build villas which command a water view. There is little of this in the +Western country; for the rivers are not very inviting, and the great +lakes are dangerous. They tried yachting at Chicago a few years ago, but +on the experimental trip a squall capsized the vessel, and the crew had +the ignominy of spending several hours upon the keel, from which a +passing craft rescued them. Then, as to excursions, there is upon the +lakes the deadly peril of sea-sickness; upon the rivers there is no +great relief from the heat; and upon neither are there convenient places +to visit. All you can do is, to go a certain distance, turn round, and +come back; which is a flat, uncheering, pointless sort of thing. Upon +the whole, therefore, the Western waters contribute little to the relief +and enjoyment of the people who live near them. We noticed at the large +town of Erie, some years ago, that not one house had been placed so as +to afford its inmates a view of the lake, though the shores offered most +convenient sites; nor did the people ever come down to see the lake, +apparently, as there was no path worn upon the grassy bluff overlooking +it. + +The Ohio River has another inconvenience. The bottom-land, as it is +called, between the water's edge and the hills, is generally low and +narrow. Nowhere is there room for a large city; nor can the hills be dug +away except by paring down a great part of Ohio and Kentucky. When the +traveller has climbed to the top of those winding mountains, he has only +reached the average summit of the country; for it is not the banks of +the river that are high, but the river itself which is low. It is an +error to say that the Ohio is a river with lofty banks. Those continuous +hills, around which this river winds and curls and bends and loops, are +simply the hills of the country through which the river had to find its +way. We were astonished, in getting to the top of Cincinnati, after a +panting walk up a zigzag road, to discover that we had only mounted to +the summit of one billow in an ocean of hills. + +There is always a reason why a city is just where it is. Nothing is more +controlled by law than the planting, the growth, and the decline of +cities. Even the particular site is not a thing of chance, as we can see +in the sites of Paris, London, Constantinople, and every other great +city of the world. A town exists by supplying to the country about it +the commodities which the country cannot procure for itself. In the +infancy of the Ohio settlements, when it was still to be determined +which of them would take the lead, the commodity most in request and +hardest to be obtained was _safety_; and it was Cincinnati that was +soonest able to supply this most universal object of desire. In +December, 1788, fifteen or twenty men floated down the Ohio among the +masses of moving ice, and, landing upon the site of Cincinnati, built +cabins, and marked out a town. Matthias Denman of New Jersey had bought +eight hundred acres of land there, at fifteen-pence an acre, and this +party of adventurers planted themselves upon it with his assistance and +in his interest. Jerseymen and Pennsylvanians were finding their way +down the Ohio, and founding settlements here and there, whenever a +sufficient number of pioneers could be gathered to defend themselves +against the Indians. President Washington sent a few companies of troops +for their protection, and the great question was where those troops +should be posted. The major in command was at first disposed to +establish them at North Bend; but while he was selecting a place there +for his fort, he fell in with a pair of brilliant black eyes,--the +property of one of the settler's wives. He paid such assiduous court to +the lady, that her husband deemed it best to remove his family to +another settlement, and pitched upon Cincinnati. The major then began to +doubt whether, after all, North Bend _was_ the proper place for a +military work, and deemed it best to examine Cincinnati first. He was +delighted with Cincinnati. He removed the troops thither, built a fort, +and thus rendered the neighborhood the safest spot below Pittsburg. This +event was decisive: Cincinnati took the lead of the Ohio towns, and kept +it. + +In all the history of Cincinnati, this is the only incident we have +found that savors of the romantic. + +Those black eyes lured Major Doughty to the only site on the Ohio upon +which one hundred thousand people could conveniently live without +climbing a very steep and high hill. It is also about midway between the +source of the river and its mouth; the Ohio being nine hundred and +fifty-nine miles long, and Cincinnati five hundred and one miles from +the Mississippi. The city is nearly the centre of the great valley of +the Ohio; it is, indeed, exactly where it should be, and exactly where +the metropolis of the valley might have been even if Major Doughty had +not been susceptible to the charms of lovely woman. It is superfluous to +say that Cincinnati is situated on a "bend" of the Ohio, since the Ohio +is nothing but bends, and anything that is situated upon it must be upon +a bend. This river employs itself continually in writing the letter S +upon the surface of the earth. At Cincinnati, the hills recede from the +shore on each side of the river about a mile and a half, leaving space +enough for a large town, but not for the great city of two hundred and +fifty thousand inhabitants to which it has grown. + +Cincinnati is an odd name for a town, whether we regard it as a genitive +singular, or as a nominative plural. The story goes, that the first +settlers appointed a committee of one to name the place. The gentleman +selected for this duty had been a schoolmaster, and he brought to bear +upon the task all the learning appertaining to his former vocation. He +desired to express in the name of the future city the fact that it was +situated opposite the mouth of the Licking River. He was aware that +_ville_ was French for "city," that _os_ was Latin for "mouth"; that +_anti_ in composition could mean "opposite to"; and that the first +letter of Licking was L. By combining these various fragments of +knowledge, he produced at length the word LOSANTIVILLE, which his +comrades accepted as the name of their little cluster of log huts, and +by this name it appears on some of the earliest maps of the Ohio. But +the glory of the schoolmaster was short-lived. When the village had +attained the respectable age of fifteen months, General St. Clair +visited it on a tour of inspection, and laughed the name to scorn. +Having laid out a county of which this village was the only inhabited +spot, he named the county Hamilton, and insisted upon calling the +village Cincinnati, after the society of which both himself and Colonel +Hamilton were members. In that summer of 1790 Cincinnati consisted of +forty log cabins, two small frame houses, and a fort garrisoned by a +company or two of troops. + +We sometimes speak of "the Western cities," as though the word "Western" +was sufficiently descriptive, and as though the cities west of the +Alleghany Mountains were all alike. This is far from being the case. +Every city in the Western country, as well as every State, county, and +neighborhood, has a character of its own, derived chiefly from the +people who settled it. Berlin is not more different from Vienna, Lyons +is not more different from Marseilles, Birmingham is not more different +from Liverpool, than Cincinnati is from Chicago or St. Louis; and all +these differences date back to the origin of those cities. The Ohio, +formed by the junction of two Pennsylvania rivers, is the natural +western outlet for the redundant population of Pennsylvania and New +Jersey, and consequently the first twenty thousand inhabitants of +Cincinnati were chiefly from those States,--honest, plodding, saving +Protestants, with less knowledge and less public spirit than the people +of New England. The Swedes, the Danes, the Germans, the Protestant +Irish, who poured into Pennsylvania and New Jersey in Franklin's time, +attracted by the perfect toleration established by William Penn, were +excellent people; but they had not the activity of mind nor the +spiritual life of the English Puritans. Shrewd calculators and of +indomitable industry, they were more able to accumulate property than +disposed to risk it in bold, far-reaching enterprises, and took more +pride in possessing than in displaying wealth,--in having a large barn +than an attractive residence. They were more certain to build a church +than a school-house, and few of them wanted anything of the book-pedler +except an almanac. The descendants of such men founded Cincinnati, and +made it a thriving, bustling, dull, unintellectual place. Then came in a +spice of Yankees to enliven the mass, to introduce some quickening +heresies, to promote schools, to found libraries, to establish new +manufactures and stimulate public improvements. That wondrous tide of +Germans followed that has made in each of the cities of the West a +populous German quarter,--a town within a town. Meanwhile, young men +from the Southern States, in considerable numbers, settled in +Cincinnati, between whom and the daughters of the rich "Hunkers" of the +town marriages were frequent, and the families thus created were, from +1830 to 1861, the reigning power in the city. + +Perhaps there was no town of its size and wealth in Christendom which +had less of the higher intellectual life and less of an enlightened +public spirit than Cincinnati before the war. It had become exceedingly +rich. Early in its career the great difficulty and expense of +transporting goods across the mountains and down the winding Ohio had +forced the people into manufacturing, and Cincinnati became the great +workshop, as well as the exchange, of the vast and populous valley of +the Ohio. Its wealth was legitimately earned. It was Cincinnati which +originated and perfected the system which packs fifteen bushels of corn +into a pig, and packs that pig into a barrel, and sends him over the +mountains and over the ocean to feed mankind. Cincinnati imported or +made nearly all that the people of three or four States could afford to +buy, and received from them nearly all that they could spare in return, +and made a profit on both transactions. This business, upon the whole, +was done honestly and well. Immense fortunes were made. Nicholas +Longworth died worth twelve millions, and there are now in that young +city sixty-four persons whose estate is rated at a million dollars or +more. But, with all this wealth and this talent for business, the people +of Cincinnati displayed little of that spirit of improvement which has +converted Chicago, in thirty years, from a quagmire into a beautiful +city, and made it accessible to all the people of the prairies. There +was too much ballast, as it were, for so little sail. People were intent +on their own affairs, and were satisfied if their own business +prospered. Such a thing even as a popular lecture was rare, and a +well-sustained course of lectures was felt to be out of the question. +Books of the higher kind were in little demand (that is, little, +considering the size and great wealth of the place); there was little +taste for art; few concerts were given, and there was no drama fit to +entertain intellectual persons. Cincinnati was the Old Hunkers' +paradise. Separated from a Slave State only by a river one third of a +mile wide, with her leading families connected by marriage with those of +Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland, and her business men having important +relations with the South, there was no city--not even Baltimore--that +was more saturated with the spirit of Hunkerism,--that horrid blending +of vanity and avarice which made the Northern people equal sharers in +the guilt of slavery, while taking the lion's share of the profit. It +was at Cincinnati, in 1836, that a mob of most respectable citizens, +having first "resolved" in public meeting that "Abolition papers" should +neither be "published nor distributed" in the town, broke into the +office of James G. Birney's "Philanthropist," and scattered the types, +and threw the press into the river. It was at Cincinnati, in 1841, that +the authorities were compelled to fill the prisons with negroes to +protect them from massacre. Similar scenes have occurred in other +cities, but violence of this kind meant more at Cincinnati than in most +places, for the people here have always been noted for their orderly +habits and their regard for law. + +The war regenerated Cincinnati. We do not say _began_ to regenerate it, +because the word "regeneration" means but the beginning of a new life. +There were few of the leading families which did not furnish to the +Rebellion one adherent, and all men, of whatever class, were compelled +to choose between their country and its foes. The great mass of the +people knew not a moment of hesitation, and a tide of patriotic feeling +set in which silenced, expelled, or converted the adherents of the +Rebellion. The old business relations with the South, so profitable and +so corrupting, were broken up, and Cincinnati found better occupation in +supplying the government with gunboats and military stores. The prestige +of the old "aristocracy" was lost; its power was broken; it no longer +controlled elections, nor monopolized offices, nor lowered the tone of +public feeling. Cincinnati was born again,--_began_ a new life. There is +now prevalent among the rulers of the city that noblest trait of +freemen, that supreme virtue of the citizen,--PUBLIC SPIRIT; the blessed +fruits of which are already apparent, and which is about to render the +city a true metropolis to the valley of the Ohio, the fostering mother +of all that aids and adorns civilization. + +Cincinnati, like New York, is a cluster of towns and cities, bearing +various names, and situated in different States. Persons ambitious of +municipal offices would do well to remove to this place; since, within +the limits of what is really Cincinnati, there are seven mayors, seven +boards of aldermen, seven distinct and completely organized cities. A +citizen of New York might well stand aghast at the announcement of such +a fact as this, and only recover his consciousness to try mentally an +impossible sum in the double rule of three: If one mayor and +corporation, in a city of a million and a half of inhabitants, steal ten +millions of dollars per annum, how much will seven mayors and seven +corporations "appropriate" in a city of three hundred thousand +inhabitants? The reader is excused from "doing" this hard sum, and we +hasten to assure him that Cincinnati is governed by and for her own +citizens, who take the same care of the public money as of their own +private store. We looked into the Council Chamber of Cincinnati one +morning, and we can testify that the entire furniture of that apartment, +though it is substantial and sufficient, cost about as much as some +single articles in the councilmen's room of the New York City Hall,--say +the clock, the chandelier, or the chairman's throne. The people of +Cincinnati are so primitive in their ideas, that they would regard the +man who should steal the public money as a baser thief than he who +should merely pick a private pocket. They have actually carried "this +sort of thing" so far as to elect and re-elect as Mayor of the city +proper that honest, able, generous Republican, CHARLES F. WILSTACH, a +member of the great publishing house of Moore, Wilstach, and Baldwin,--a +gentleman who, though justly proud of the confidence of his +fellow-citizens, and enjoying the honor they have conferred upon him, +uses the entire power, influence, and income of his office in promoting +the higher welfare of the city. He is the great patron of the +Mechanics' Institute, which gave instruction last winter to two hundred +and fifty evening pupils in drawing, mathematics, and engineering, at +three dollars each for four months, besides affording them access to a +library and pleasant rooms. Charles Wilstach, in short, is what Mr. +Joseph Hoxie would call "a Peter Cooper sort of man." Imagine New York +electing Peter Cooper mayor! It was like going back to the primitive +ages,--to that remote period when Benjamin Franklin was printer and +public servant, and when Samuel Adams served the State,--to see the +Mayor of Cincinnati performing his full share of the labor of conducting +a business that employs a hundred and fifty persons, and yet punctual at +his office in the City Hall, and strictly attentive to its duties during +five of the best hours of the day. + +There are seven mayors about Cincinnati for the reasons following. On +the southern bank of the Ohio, opposite the city, many large +manufactories have found convenient sites, and thus the city of +Covington has grown up, divided into two towns by the river Licking. +Then there are five clusters of villas in the suburbs of Cincinnati, +over the hill, each of which has deemed it best to organize itself into +a city, in order to keep itself select and exclusive, and to make its +own little laws and regulations. The mayors and aldermen of these minute +rural villages are business men of Cincinnati, who drive in to their +stores every morning, and home again in the evening. Thus you may meet +aldermen at every corner, and buy something in a store from a mayor, and +get his autograph at the end of a bill, without being aware of the honor +done you. No autographs are more valued in Cincinnati than the +signatures of these municipal magnates. + +But let us look at the city. The river presents a novel and animated +scene. On the Kentucky shore lies Covington, dark and low, a mass of +brick factories and tall chimneys, from which the blackest smoke is +always ascending, and spreading over the valley, and filling it with +smoke. Over Cincinnati, too, a dense cloud of smoke usually hangs, every +chimney contributing its quota to the mass. The universal use of the +cheap bituminous coal (seventeen cents a bushel,--twenty-five bushels to +a ton) is making these Western cities almost as dingy as London. Smoke +pervades every house in Cincinnati, begrimes the carpets, blackens the +curtains, soils the paint, and worries the ladies. Housekeepers assured +us that the all-pervading smoke nearly doubles the labor of keeping a +house tolerably clean, and absolutely prevents the spotless cleanliness +of a Boston or Philadelphia house. A lady who wears light-colored +garments, ribbons, or gloves in Cincinnati must be either very young, +very rich, or very extravagant: ladies of good sense or experience never +think of wearing them. Clean hearts abound in Cincinnati, but not clean +hands. The smoke deposits upon all surfaces a fine soot, especially upon +men's woollen clothes, so that a man cannot touch his own coat without +blackening his fingers. The stranger, for a day or two, keeps up a +continual washing of his hands, but he soon sees the folly of it, and +abandons them to their fate. A letter written at Cincinnati on a damp +day, when the Stygian pall lies low upon the town, carries with it the +odor of bituminous smoke to cheer the homesick son of Ohio at Calcutta +or Canton. This universal smoke is a tax upon every inhabitant, which +can be estimated in money, and the sum total of which is millions per +annum. Is there no remedy? Did not Dr. Franklin invent a smoke-consuming +stove? Are there no Yankees in the West? + +Before the traveller loitering along the levee has done wondering at the +smoke, his eye is caught by the new wire suspension bridge, which +springs out from the summit of the broad, steep levee to a lofty tower +(two hundred feet high) near the water's edge, and then, at one leap, +clears the whole river, and lands upon another tower upon the Covington +side. From tower to tower the distance is one thousand and fifty-seven +feet; the entire length of the bridge is two thousand two hundred and +fifty-two feet; and it is hung one hundred feet above low-water mark by +two cables of wire. Seen from below and at a little distance, it looks +like gossamer work, and as though the wind could blow it away, and waft +its filmy fragments out of sight. But the tread of a drove of elephants +would not bend nor jar it. The Rock of Gibraltar does not feel firmer +under foot than this spider's web of a bridge, over which trains of cars +pass one another, as well as ceaseless tides of vehicles and +pedestrians. It is estimated that, besides its own weight of six hundred +tons, it will sustain a burden of sixteen thousand tons. In other words, +the whole population of Cincinnati might get upon it without danger of +being let down into the river. This remarkable work, constructed at a +cost of one million and three quarters, was begun nine years ago, and +has tasked the patience and the faith of the two cities severely; but +now that it is finished, Cincinnati looks forward with confidence to the +time when it will be a connecting link between Lake Erie and the Gulf of +Mexico, and when Cincinnati will be only thirty hours from Mobile. + +The levee, which now extends five or six miles around the large "bend" +upon which the city stands, exhibits all the varieties of Western +steamboats. It exhilarated the childish mind of the stranger to discover +that the makers of school-books were practising no imposition upon the +infant mind when they put down in the geography such names as the "Big +Sandy." It was cheering, also, to know that one could actually go to +Maysville, and see how General Jackson's veto had affected it. A +traveller must indeed be difficult to please who cannot find upon the +Cincinnati levee a steamboat bound to a place he would like to visit. +From far back in the coal mines of the Youghiogheny (pronounced +Yok-a-_gau_-ny) to high up the Red River,--from St. Paul to New +Orleans, and all intermediate ports,--we have but to pay our money and +take our choice of the towns upon sixteen thousand miles of navigable +water. Among the rest we observed a steamboat about as large as an +omnibus, fitted up like a pedler's wagon, and full of the miscellaneous +wares which pedlers sell. Such little boats, it appears, steam from +village to village along the shores of those interminable rivers, and, +by renewing their supplies at the large towns, make their way for +thousands of miles, returning home only at the end of the season. They +can ascend higher up the streams than the large boats, and scarcely any +"stage" of water is too low for them. Often as we had admired the +four-horse pedlers' wagons of New England, with their plated harness and +gorgeous paint, we resolved that, when we turned pedler, it should be in +such a snug little steamboat upon the rivers of the West. Other +steamboats, as probably the reader is aware, are fitted up as theatres, +museums, circuses, and moral menageries, and go from town to town, +announcing their arrival by that terrific combination of steam-whistles +which is called in the West a Cally-_ope_. What an advance upon the old +system of strolling players and the barn! "Then came each actor on his +ass." On the Ohio he comes in a comfortable stateroom, to which when the +performance is over he retires, waking the next morning at the scene of +new triumphs. + +Along the summit of the steep levee, close to the line of stores, there +is a row of massive posts--three feet thick and twenty high--which +puzzle the stranger. The swelling of the river brings the steamboats up +to the very doors of the houses facing the river, and to these huge +posts they are fastened to keep them from being swept away by the +rushing flood. From the summit of the levee we advance into the town, +always going up hill, unless we turn to the right or left. + +Here is Philadelphia again, with its numbered streets parallel to the +river, and the cross-streets named after the trees which William Penn +found growing upon the banks of the Delaware,--"Walnut," "Locust," +"Sycamore." Here are long blocks of wholesale stores in the streets near +the river, of Philadelphian plainness and solidity; and as we ascend, we +reach the showier retail streets, all in the modern style of subdued +Philadelphian elegance. It is a solid, handsome town,--the newer +buildings of light-colored stone, very lofty, and well built; the +streets paved with the small pebbles ground smooth by the rushing Ohio, +and as clean as Boston. In Fourth Street there is a dry-goods store +nearly as large, and five times as handsome, as Stewart's in New York, +and several other establishments on the greatest scale, equal in every +respect to those of the Atlantic cities. The only difference is, that in +New York we have more of them. By the time we have passed Fifth Street, +which is about half a mile from the river, we have reached the end of +the elegant and splendid part of the city; all beyond and around is +shabby Philadelphia, begrimed with soot, and "blended in a common +element" of smoke. The extensive and swarming German quarter is +precisely like the German quarter of Philadelphia, (though the +Cincinnati lager-bier is better,) and the wide, square, spacious old +mansions are exactly such as the older houses of Philadelphia would be +if Philadelphia burned bituminous coal. + +Every New-Yorker supposes, of course, that there must be in a large and +wealthy city one pre-eminent and illustrious street like his own Fifth +Avenue, where he is wont either to survey mankind from a club window, +or, _as_ mankind, be surveyed. There is no such street in Cincinnati, +and for a reason which becomes apparent during the first long walk. When +the stranger has panted up the slope on which the city is built, to a +point one mile from the river, he sees looming up before him an almost +precipitous hill, four hundred and sixty-two feet high, which has been +dug into, and pared down, until it has about as much beauty as an +immense heap of gravel. Around the base of this unsightly mountain are +slaughter-houses and breweries, incensing it with black smoke, and +extensive pens filled with the living material of barrelled pork. The +traveller, who has already, as he thinks, done a fair share of climbing +for one day, naturally regards this hill as the end of all things in +Cincinnati; but upon coming up to it he discovers the zigzag road to +which allusion has before been made, and which leads by an easy ascent +to the summit. + +Behold the Fifth Avenue of Cincinnati! It is not merely the pleasant +street of villas and gardens along the brow of the hill, though that is +part of it. Mount to the cupola of the Mount Auburn Young Ladies' +School, which stands near the highest point, and look out over a sea of +beautifully formed, umbrageous hills, steep enough to be picturesque, +but not too steep to be convenient, and observe that upon each summit, +as far as the eye can reach, is an elegant cottage or mansion, or +cluster of tasteful villas, surrounded by groves, gardens, and lawns. +_This_ is Cincinnati's Fifth Avenue. Here reside the families enriched +by the industry of the low, smoky town. Here, upon these enchanting +hills, and in these inviting valleys, will finally gather the greater +part of the population, leaving the city to its smoke and heat when the +labors of the day are done. As far as we have seen or read, no inland +city in the world surpasses Cincinnati in the beauty of its environs. +They present as perfect a combination of the picturesque and the +accessible as can anywhere be found; and there are still the primeval +forests, and the virgin soil, to favor the plans of the artist in +"capabilities." The Duke of Newcastle's party, one of whom was the +Prince of Wales, were not flattering their entertainers when they +pronounced the suburbs of Cincinnati the finest they had anywhere seen. + +The groups of villas, each upon its little hill, are the _cities_ +before mentioned, five of which are within sight of the young ladies who +attend the liberally conducted seminary of Mount Auburn. The stranger is +continually astonished at the magnitude and costliness of these +residences. Our impression was, that they are not inferior, either in +number or in elegance, to those of Staten Island or Jamaica Plain; while +a few of them, we presume, are unequalled in America. The residence of +Mr. Probasco is the most famous of these. Externally, it is a rather +plain-looking stone house, something between a cottage and a mansion; +but the interior is highly interesting, as showing how much money to the +square inch can be spent in the decoration of a house, provided the +proprietor has unlimited resources and gives himself up to the work. For +seven long years, we were informed, the owner of this house toiled at +his experiment. Every room was a separate study. All the walls are +wainscoted with oak, most exquisitely carved and polished, and the +ceilings were painted by artists brought from Italy. It is impossible to +conceive an interior more inviting, elegant, and harmonious than this. +Thirty years ago the proprietor of this beautiful abode was an +errand-boy in the establishment of which he was afterwards the head; and +when we had the impudence to look into his house, he was absent in +Europe in quest of health! The moral is obvious even here at the end of +this poor paragraph, but it was staggering upon the spot. How absurd to +be sick, owning such a house! How ridiculous the idea of dying in it! + +In this enchanting region is Lane Theological Seminary, of which Dr. +Lyman Beecher was once President, and in which Henry Ward Beecher spent +three years in acquiring the knowledge it cost him so much trouble to +forget. Coming to this seat of theology from the beautiful city of +Clifton, of which Mr. Probasco's house is an ornament, and which +consists of a few other mansions of similar elegance, the Seminary +buildings looked rather dismal, though they are better than the old +barracks in which the students of Yale and Harvard reside. Thirty +cheerful and athletic young gentlemen, and half a dozen polite and +learned professors, constitute at present the theological family. The +room in which Mr. Beecher lived is still about fifteen feet by ten, but +it does not present the bare and forlorn appearance it did when he +inhabited it. It is carpeted now, and has more furniture than the pine +table and arm-chair which, tradition informs us, contented him, and +which were the only articles he could contribute towards the furnishing +of his first establishment. + +Cincinnati justly boasts of its Spring Grove Cemetery, which now +encloses five hundred acres of this beautiful, undulating land. The +present superintendent has introduced a very simple improvement, which +enhances the beauty of the ground tenfold, and might well be universally +imitated. He has caused the fences around the lots to be removed, and +the boundaries to be marked by sunken stone posts, one at each corner, +which just suffice for the purpose, but do not disfigure the scene. This +change has given to the ground the harmony and pleasantness of a park. +The monuments, too, are remarkable for their variety, moderation, and +good taste. There is very little, if any, of that hideous ostentation, +that _mere_ expenditure of money, which renders Greenwood so melancholy +a place, exciting far more compassion for the folly of the living, than +sorrow for the dead who have escaped their society. We would earnestly +recommend the managers of other cemeteries not to pass within a hundred +miles of Cincinnati without stepping aside to see for themselves how +much the beauty of a burial-ground is increased by the mere removal of +the fences round the lots. It took the superintendent of Spring Grove +several years to induce the proprietors to consent to the removal of +costly fences; but one after another they yielded, and each removal +exhibited more clearly the propriety of the change, and made converts to +the new system. In the same taste he recommends the levelling of the +mounds over the graves, and his advice has been generally followed. + +It is very pleasant for the rich people of Cincinnati to live in the +lovely country over the hill, away from the heat and smoke of the town; +but it has its inconveniences also. It is partly because the rich people +are so far away that the public entertainments of the city are so low in +quality and so unfrequent. We made the tour of the theatres and shows +one evening,--glad to escape the gloom and dinginess of the hotel, once +the pride of the city, but now its reproach. Surely there is no other +city of two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants that is so miserably +provided with the means of public amusement as Cincinnati. At the first +theatre we stumbled into, where Mr. Owens was performing in the +Bourcicault version of "The Cricket on the Hearth," there was a large +audience, composed chiefly of men. It was the very dirtiest theatre we +ever saw. The hands of the ticket-taker were not grimy,--they were +black. The matting on the floor, the paint, and all the interior, were +thoroughly unclean; and not a person in the audience seemed to have +thought it necessary to show respect to the place, or to the presence of +a thousand of his fellow-citizens, by making any change in his dress. +The ventilation was bad, of course. No fresh air could be admitted +without exposing some of the audience to draughts. The band consisted of +seven musicians. The play, which is very pleasing and simple, was +disfigured in every scene by the interpolation of what the actors call +"gags,"--that is, vulgar and stupid additions to the text by the actors +themselves,--in which we were sorry to hear the "star" of the occasion +setting a bad example. Actors ought to know that when Charles Dickens +and Dion Bourcicault unite their admirable talents in the production of +a play, no one else can add a line without marring the work. They might +at least be aware that Western colloquialisms, amusing as they are, do +not harmonize with the conversation of an English cottage. Yet this +Cincinnati audience was delighted with the play, in spite of all these +drawbacks, so exquisitely adapted is the drama to move and entertain +human beings. + +At the West, along with much reckless and defiant unbelief in everything +high and good, there is also a great deal of that terror-stricken +pietism which refuses to attend the theatre unless it is very bad +indeed, and is called "Museum." This limits the business of the theatre; +and, as a good theatre is necessarily a very expensive institution, it +improves very slowly, although the Western people are in precisely that +stage of development and culture to which the drama is best adapted and +is most beneficial. We should naturally expect to find the human mind, +in the broad, magnificent West, rising superior to the prejudices +originating in the little sects of little lands. So it will rise in due +time. So it has risen, in some degree. But mere grandeur of nature has +no educating effect upon the soul of man; else, Switzerland would not +have supplied Paris with footmen, and the hackmen of Niagara would spare +the tourist. It is only a human mind that can instruct a human mind. +There is a man in Cincinnati, of small stature, and living in a small +house of a street not easy to find, who is doing more to raise, inform, +and ennoble Cincinnati than all her lovely hills and dales. It is the +truly Reverend A. D. MAYO, minister of the Unitarian Church of the +Redeemer. His walls are not wainscoted, and there is about his house no +umbrageous park nor verdant lawn. It has only pleased Heaven, so far, to +endow him with a fine understanding, a noble heart, and an eloquent +tongue. It is he, and half a dozen such as he, who constitute in great +degree the civilizing force of Cincinnati. + +Upon leaving the theatre, we were attracted by a loud beating of drums +to a building calling itself the "Sacred Museum." Such establishments +are usually content with the word "moral"; but this one was "sacred." +From a balcony in front, two bass-drums and one bugle were filling all +that part of the town with horrid noise, and in the entrance, behind the +ticket-office, a huge negro was grinding out discord from an organ as +big as an upright piano. We defy creation to produce another exhibition +so entirely and profoundly atrocious as this. It consisted chiefly of +wax figures of most appalling ugliness. There were Webster, Clay, +General Scott, and another, sitting bolt upright at a card-table, +staring hideously; the birth of Christ; the trial of Christ; Abraham +Lincoln, dead and ghastly, upon a bier; and other groups, all revolting +beyond description. The only decently executed thing in this Sacred +Museum was highly indecent; it was a young lady in wax, who, before +lying down, had forgotten to put on her night-gown. There was a most +miserable Happy Family; one or two monkeys, still and dejected; a +dismal, tired rooster, who wanted to go to roost, but could not in that +glare of gas, and stood motionless on the bottom of the cage; three or +four common white rabbits; and a mangy cat. Such was the Sacred Museum. +Such are the exhibitions to which well-intentioned parents will take +their children, while shrinking in affright from the theatre! It is +strange that this lucrative business of providing amusement for children +and country visitors should have been so long abandoned to the most +ignorant of the community. Every large town needs a place of amusement +to which children can be occasionally taken, and it would not be +difficult to arrange an establishment that would afford them great +delight and do them no harm. How monstrous to lure boys to such a place +as this "Sacred Museum,"--or to the "Museum" in New York, where a great +creature, in the form of a woman, performs, in flesh-colored tights, the +part of Mazeppa! + +In all the large Western cities there is a place of evening +entertainment called the "Varieties Theatre," which ladies never attend, +and in which three pleasures may be enjoyed at once,--smoking, drinking +lager-bier, and witnessing a performance upon the stage. The chief +patrons of these establishments are gentlemen connected with navigation, +and very young men who, for the price of a ticket, a cigar, and a glass +of beer, purchase the flattering delusion that they are "seeing life," +and "going it with a perfect looseness." The performances consist of +Ethiopian minstrelsy, comic songs, farces, and the dancing of "beauteous +Terpsichorean nymphs"; and these succeed one another with not a minute's +intermission for three or four hours. At St. Louis, where gentlemen +connected with navigation are numerous, the Varieties Theatre is large, +highly decorated, conducted at great expense, and yields a very large +revenue. To witness the performance, and to observe the rapture +expressed upon the shaggy and good-humored countenances of the boatmen, +was interesting, as showing what kind of banquet will delight a human +soul starved from its birth. It likes a comic song very much, if the +song refers to fashionable articles of ladies' costume, or holds up to +ridicule members of Congress, policemen, or dandies. It is not averse to +a sentimental song, in which "Mother, dear," is frequently +apostrophized. It delights in a farce from which most of the dialogue +has been cut away, while all the action is retained,--in which people +are continually knocked down, or run against one another with great +violence. It takes much pleasure in seeing Horace Greeley play a part in +a negro farce, and become the victim of designing colored brethren. But +what joy, when the beauteous Terpsichorean nymph bounds upon the scene, +rosy with paint, glistening with spangles, robust with cotton and cork, +and bewildering with a cloud of gauzy skirts! What a vision of beauty to +a man who has seen nothing for days and nights but the hold of a +steamboat and the dull shores of the Mississippi! + +The Varieties Theatre of St. Louis, therefore, is a highly flourishing +establishment, and the proprietor knows his business well enough to be +aware that indecency never pays expenses in the United States,--as all +will finally discover who try it. At Cincinnati there is also a +Varieties Theatre, but such a theatre! A vast and dirty barn, with +whitewashed walls and no ceiling, in which a minstrel band of five men +and two beauteous nymphs exerted themselves slightly to entertain an +audience of thirty men and boys. As the performers entered the building +in view of the spectators, we are able to state that beauteous +Terpsichorean nymphs go about the world disguised in dingy calico, and +only appear in their true colors upon the stage. + +Cincinnati, then, affords very slight and inferior facilities for +holiday-keeping. We chanced to be in the city on the last Thanksgiving +day, and were surprised to see seven tenths of all the stores open as +usual. In the German quarter there were no signs whatever of a public +holiday: every place of business was open, and no parties of pleasure +were going out. The wholesale stores and most of the American part of +the city exhibited the Sunday appearance which an Eastern city presents +on this day; but even there the cessation of industry was not universal. +And, after all, how should it be otherwise? Where were the people to go? +What could they do? There is no Park. There are no suburbs accessible +without a severe struggle with the attraction of gravitation. There are +no theatres fit to attend. There is no "Museum," no menagerie, no +gallery of art, no public gardens, no Fifth Avenue to stroll in, no +steamboat excursion, no Hoboken. There ought to be in Cincinnati a most +exceptionally good and high social life to atone for this singular +absence of the usual means of public enjoyment; but of that a stranger +can have little knowledge. + +When we turn to survey the industry of Cincinnati, we find a much more +advanced and promising state of things. Almost everything is made in +Cincinnati that is made by man. There are prodigious manufactories of +furniture, machinery, clothing, iron ware, and whatever else is +required by the six or eight millions of people who live within easy +reach of the city. The book-trade--especially the manufacturing of +school-books and other books of utility--has attained remarkable +development. Sargent, Wilson, and Hinkle employ about two hundred men, +chiefly in the making of school-books; of one series of "Readers," they +produce a million dollars' worth per annum,--the most profitable +literary property, perhaps, in the world. The house of Moore, Wilstach, +and Baldwin employ all their great resources in the manufacture of their +own publications, many of which are works of high character and great +cost. Recently they have invested one hundred thousand dollars in the +production of one work,--the history of Ohio's part in the late war. +Robert Clarke & Co. publish law books on a scale only equalled by two or +three of the largest law publishers of the Eastern cities. Cincinnati +ranks third among the manufacturing cities of the Union, and fourth in +the manufacture of books. Here, as everywhere in the United States, the +daily press supplies the people with the greater part of their daily +mental food, and nowhere else, except in New York, are the newspapers +conducted with so much expense. The "Cincinnati Commercial" telegraphed +from Washington fourteen columns of General Grant's Report, at an +expense of eleven hundred dollars, and thus gave it to its readers one +day before the New York papers had a word of it. A number of this paper +now before us contains original letters from Washington, New York, +Venice, London, and Frankfort, Ky., five columns of telegrams, and the +usual despatch by the Atlantic cable. The "Gazette" is not less spirited +and enterprising, and both are sound, patriotic, Republican journals. +The "Enquirer," of Democratic politics, very liberally conducted, is as +unreasonable as heart could wish, and supplies the Republican papers +with many a text. The "Times" is an evening paper, Republican, and +otherwise commendable. Gentlemen who have long resided in Cincinnati +assure us that the improvement in the tone and spirit of its daily press +since the late regenerating war is most striking. It is looked to now by +the men of public spirit to take the lead in the career of improvement +upon which the city is entering. The conductors of the press here are +astonishingly rich. Think of an _editor_ having the impudence to return +the value of his estate at five millions of dollars! + +Visitors to Cincinnati feel it, of course, to be a patriotic duty to +make inquiries respecting the native wine; and to facilitate the +performance of this duty, the landlord of the Burnet House publishes in +his daily bill of fare twelve varieties of American wine, from three +States, Ohio, Missouri, and California. The cheapest is the Ohio +Catawba, one dollar a bottle; the dearest is Missouri champagne, at +three dollars and a half. The wine culture, it appears, is somewhat out +of favor at present among the farmers of Ohio. A German family, +many-handed, patient, and economical, occupying a small vineyard and +paying no wages, finds the business profitable; but an American, who +lives freely, and depends upon hired assistance, is likely to fail. A +vineyard requires incessant and skilful labor. The costly preparation of +the soil, the endless prunings and hoeings, the great and watchful care +required in picking, sorting, and pressing the grapes, in making and +preserving the wine, the many perils to which the crop is exposed at +every moment of its growth and ripening, and the three years of waiting +before the vines begin to bear, all conspire to discourage and defeat +the ordinary cultivator. The "rot" is a very severe trial to human +patience. The vines look thrifty, the grapes are large and abundant, and +all goes well, until the time when the grapes, being fully grown, are +about to change color. Then a sudden blight occurs, and two thirds of +the whole crop of grapes, the result of the year's labor, wither and +spoil. The cause, probably, is the exhaustion of some elements in the +soil needful to the supreme effort of Nature to perfect her work. +Nevertheless, the patient Germans succeed in the business, and sell +their wine to good advantage to the large dealers and bottlers. + +The Longworth wine-cellar, one of the established lions of the city, +cheers the thirsty soul of man. There we had the pleasure of seeing, by +a candle's flickering light, two hundred thousand bottles of wine, and +of walking along subterranean streets lined with huge tuns, each of them +large enough to house a married Diogenes, or to drown a dozen Dukes of +Clarence, and some of them containing five thousand gallons of the still +unvexed Catawba. It was there that we made acquaintance with the "Golden +Wedding" champagne, the boast of the late proprietor,--an acquaintance +which we trust will ripen into an enduring friendship. If there is any +better wine than this attainable in the present state of existence, it +ought, in consideration of human weakness, to be all poured into the +briny deep. It is a very honest cellar, this. Except a little rock candy +to aid fermentation, no foreign ingredient is employed, and the whole +process of making and bottling the wine is conducted with the utmost +care. Nicholas Longworth was neither an enlightened nor a +public-spirited man; but, like most of his race, he was scrupulously +honest. Indeed, we may truly say, that there is in Cincinnati a general +spirit of fidelity. Work is generally done well there, promises are +kept, and representations accord with the facts. + +Every one thinks of pork in connection with Cincinnati. We had the +curiosity to visit one of the celebrated pork-making establishments, +"The Banner Slaughter and Pork-packing House," which, being the newest, +contains all the improved apparatus. In this establishment, hogs +weighing five or six hundred pounds are killed, scraped, dressed, cut +up, salted, and packed in a barrel, in _twenty seconds_, on an average; +and at this rate, the work is done, ten hours a day, during the season +of four months. The great secret of such rapidity is, that one man does +one thing only, and thus learns to do that one thing with perfect +dexterity. We saw a man there who, all day and every day, knocks pigs +down with a hammer; another who does nothing but "stick" them; another +who, with one clean, easy stroke of a broad, long-handled cleaver, +decapitates the hugest hog of Ohio. But let us begin at the beginning, +for, really, this Banner Pork-house is one of the most curious things in +the world, and claims the attention of the polite reader. + +It is a large, clean, new brick building, with extensive yards adjoining +it, filled with hogs from the forests and farms of Ohio, Indiana, and +Kentucky. From these yards to the third story of the house there is an +inclined plane, up which a procession of the animals march slowly to +their doom from morning until evening. Here is the first economy. The +thing to be done is, to transfer the pigs from those yards to the +basement of the building, and, on the way, convert them into salt pork. +They walk to the scene of massacre at the top of the building, and the +descent to the cellar accomplishes itself by the natural law which +causes everything to seek the centre of the earth. Arrived at the +summit, the fifteen foremost find themselves in "a tight +place,"--squeezed into a pen, in which they must remain standing from +lack of room to lie down. There are two of these pens, and two "pen +men"; so that the moment one pen is empty, there is another ready +filled, and the work thus goes on without interruption. The fifteen +animals which stand compressed, with their heads thrust upward, awaiting +the stroke of fate, express their emotions in the language natural to +them, and the noise is great. The executioner, armed with a +long-handled, slender hammer, and sitting astride of the fence, gives to +each of these yelling creatures his quietus by a blow upon the head. The +pig does not fall when he is struck; he cannot; he only stares and +becomes silent. The stranger who is unable to witness the execution has +an awful sense of the progress of the fell work by the gradual cessation +of the noise. We mention here, for the benefit of political economists, +that this knocker-down, who does the most disagreeable and laborious +part of the work, has the lowest wages paid to any man in the house. He +does not rank as an artist at all, but only as a laborer. Readers of +Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill know why. When silence within the pen +announces the surrender of its occupants, a door is opened, and the +senseless hogs are laid in a row up an inclined plane, at the bottom of +which is a long trough of hot water. One of the artists, called "the +Sticker," now appears, provided with a long, thin, pointed knife, and +approaches the pig nearest the steaming trough, gently lifts its fore +leg, and gives it one easy, delicate, and graceful thrust in the throat. +Along the trough, on each side of it, is a row of men, each with an +instrument in his hand, waiting to begin; and apart from them stands the +Head-Scalder, who ranks second in the corps, having a task of all but +the greatest difficulty to perform. Scald a pig ten seconds too long, or +in water twenty degrees too hot, and he comes out as red as a lobster; +let the water be too cool, or keep the animal in it too short a time, +and the labor of scraping is trebled. Into the hot water the hogs are +soused at intervals of twenty seconds, and the Scalder stands, watching +the clock, and occasionally trying the temperature of the water with his +finger, or the adherence of the hair on the creature first to be +handled. "Number One," he says, at length. By a machine for the purpose, +Number One is turned over upon a long, declining table, where he lies +smoking. At the same instant two men pull out his valuable bristles and +put them in a barrel, and two other men scrape one side of him with +scrapers. In a few seconds, these turn him over and pass him on to two +other scrapers, who scrape the other side, and then slide him along to +four other men, who trim and finish him, leaving not a hair upon his +soft and quivering body. Then he falls into the hands of two +"gamble-men," who insert a stick to keep the hind legs apart, and, by +the aid of a machine, hang him up with his head downward. Next, the +animal is consigned to the great artist of all, who performs upon him +the operation so much in favor among the nobility of Japan. This artist, +we regret to say, but will not conceal from a too fastidious public, is +called "the Gutter." One long, swift cut down the whole length of the +body,--two or three rapid, in-and-out cuts in the inside,--and the +entire respiratory and digestive apparatus lies smoking upon a table, +under the hands of men who are removing from it the material for lard. +This operation, here performed in twenty seconds, and which is +frequently done by the same man fifteen hundred times a day, takes an +ordinary butcher ten minutes. This man earns six dollars and a half a +day, while no one else receives more than four; and if he is absent from +his post, his substitute, who has _seen_ the thing done for years, can +only perform it one fifth as fast, and the day's work of the house is +reduced to one fifth of its ordinary production. + +The long room in which the creatures are put to death, scalded, and +japanned presents, as may be imagined, a most horrid scene of massacre +and blood,--of steaming water and flabby, naked, quivering hogs,--of men +in oil-skin suits all shining with wet and grease. The rest of the +establishment is perfectly clean and agreeable. The moment the body of +the animal is emptied, a boy inundates it from a hose, and then another +boy pushes it along the wire from which it hangs on a wheel, and takes +it to its place in the cooling-room, where it hangs all night. This +cooling-room is a curious spectacle. It contains two regiments of +suspended hogs, arranged in long, regular rows: one regiment, the result +of to-day's operations; the other, of yesterday's. The cutting up of +these huge carcasses is accomplished with the same easy and wonderful +rapidity. The first that we chanced to see cut to pieces was an enormous +fellow of six hundred pounds, and it was done in just one third of a +minute. Two men tumbled him over upon a wagon, wheeled him to the +scales, where his weight was instantly ascertained and recorded. Near by +was the cutting-table, upon which he was immediately flopped. Two +simultaneous blows with a cleaver severed his head and his hind quarters +from the trunk, and the subdivision of these was accomplished by three +or four masterly cuts with the same instrument. Near the table are the +open mouths of as many large wooden pipes as there are kinds of pieces +in a hog, and these lead to the various apartments below, where the +several pieces are to be further dealt with. Gently down their +well-greased pipe slip the hams to the smoking-department; away glide +the salting-pieces to the cellar; the lard-leaves slide softly down to +the trying-room; the trimmings of the hams vanish silently down their +pipe to the sausage-room; the tongue, the feet, and every atom of the +flesh, start on their journey to the places where they are wanted; and +thus, in the twenty seconds, the six-hundred-pounder has been cut to +pieces and distributed all over an extensive building. + +The delivery of three finished hogs a minute requires the following +force of men: two pen-men; one knocker-down; one sticker; two +bristle-snatchers; four scrapers; six shavers (who remove the hair from +parts not reached by the scrapers); two gamble-men; one gutter; one +hose-boy; one slide-boy; one splitter (who fastens the animal open to +facilitate cooling); two attendants upon the cutters; one weigher; two +cleaver-men; four knife-men; one ham-trimmer; one shoulder-trimmer; one +packer; six ham-salters; one weigher and brander; one lard-man; one +book-keeper; seven porters and laborers,--in all, fifty men. The system +therefore, enables one man to convert into pork thirty hogs a day. The +proprietors of these packing-houses pay the owners of the animals sixty +cents each for the privilege of killing them, and derive their profit +from the refuse. The bristles of a hog are worth seventeen cents; his +tongue, five cents; the hair and the fat of the intestines pay the +entire cost of killing, dressing, and packing. + +There is a moral in all this. In such establishments, a business which +in itself is disgusting, and perhaps barbarizing, almost ceases to be +so, and the part of it which cannot be deprived of its disgusting +circumstances is performed by a very few individuals. Twenty men, in +four months, do all that is disagreeable in the slaying of one hundred +and eighty thousand hogs, and those twenty men, by the operation of +well-known laws, are sure to be the persons to whom the work is least +offensive and least injurious. + +There are many other industrial establishments in Cincinnati that are +highly interesting, but we cannot dwell upon them. One thing surprises +the visitor from the Atlantic cities; and that is, the great +responsibilities assumed in the Western country by very young men. We +met a gentleman at Cincinnati, aged thirty-two, who is chief proprietor +and active manager of five extensive iron works in five different +cities, one of which--the one at Cincinnati--employs a hundred and +twenty men. He began life at fourteen, a poor boy,--was helped to two +thousand dollars at twenty-one,--started in iron,--prospered,--founded +similar works in other cities,--went to the war and contracted to supply +an army with biscuit,--took the camp fever,--lost twenty thousand +dollars,--came back to his iron,--throve as before,--gave away +twenty-five thousand dollars last year to benevolent operations,--and is +now as serene and smiling as though he had played all his life, and had +not a care in the world. And this reminds us to repeat that the man +wanted in the West is the man who knows how to _make_ and _do_, not the +man who can only buy and sell. This fine young fellow of whom we speak +makes nuts, bolts, and screws, and succeeds, in spite of Pittsburg, by +inventing quicker and better methods. + +Churches flourish in Cincinnati, and every shade of belief and unbelief +has its organization, or at least its expression. Credulity is daily +notified in the newspapers, that "Madame Draskouski, the Russian +_wizard_, foretells events by the aid of a Magic Pebble, a present from +the Emperor of China," and that "Madame Ross has a profound knowledge of +the rules of the Science of the Stars, and can beat the world in telling +the past, the present, and the future." To the opposite extreme of human +intelligence Mr. Mayo ministers in the Church of the Redeemer, and many +of his wise and timely discourses reach all the thinking public through +the daily press. The Protestant churches, here as everywhere, are +elegant and well filled. The clergy are men-of-all-work. A too busy and +somewhat unreasonable public looks to them to serve as school trustees, +school examiners, managers of public institutions, and, in short, to do +most of the work which, being "everybody's business," nobody is inclined +to do. Few of the Western clergy are indigenous; it is from the East +that the supply chiefly comes, and the clergy do not appear to feel +themselves at home in the West. In all Cincinnati there are but three +Protestant clergymen who have been there more than five years. The +Catholic churches are densely filled three or four times every Sunday, +and the institutions of that Church are conducted with the vigor which +we see everywhere in the United States. Fortunate, indeed, are the +Catholics of Cincinnati in having at their head that gentle, benignant, +and patriotic man, Archbishop Purcell. It was pleasant to hear this +excellent prelate, when he spoke of the forces of the United States in +the late war, use the expression, "_our_ army." Every bishop does not do +so. It was pleasant, too, to hear him say, in speaking of other sects, +"There are some things in which we all agree, thank goodness." The +Young Men's Christian Association is in great vigor at Cincinnati. It +provides a reading-room, billiards, a gymnasium, bowling-alleys, and +many other nice things for young men, at the charge of one dollar per +annum. The Association here is said to be free from that provincial +bigotry which, at Chicago, refused to invite to the annual banquet +Robert Collyer and the young men of his church, because they were +Unitarians. + +And this leads naturally to the topic which interested us most at +Cincinnati,--the happy way in which the Jews are mingling there with +their fellow-citizens, and the good influence they are exerting. There +are twelve thousand Jews in the city. Some of the large manufactories +and mercantile houses have Jewish proprietors, who enjoy the social +consideration naturally belonging to their position. The Jews are +worthily represented in the government of the city, in the boards +controlling public institutions, and in those which administer private +charity. Several of the leading members of this respectable body belong +to the class of men whose aid is never solicited in vain for a suitable +object, and whose benefactions are limited only by their means or by +their duty,--never by unwillingness to bestow,--and who value wealth +only as a means of safety and education to their families, and of +opportunity to bestow those advantages upon others. Christians in +considerable numbers attend the beautiful synagogues, and Jews respond +by going to Christian churches. And, O most wonderful of all! Jewish +rabbis and Christian clergymen--Orthodox clergymen too, as they are +ridiculously called--"exchange pulpits"! Here we have before us the +report of a sermon delivered last March before a Congregational church +of Cincinnati by Dr. Max Lilienthal, one of the most eminent and learned +rabbis in the country. His sermon was an argument for perfect toleration +of beliefs,--even the most eccentric,--provided the conduct and the +disposition are what they should be. "Religion is right," said he; +"theology, in a great measure, wrong." Mr. Mayo and others preach +occasionally in the synagogues, and find that a good Christian sermon is +a good Jewish one also. We have, too, a lecture delivered by another +rabbi, Dr. Isidor Kalisch, before the Young Men's Literary and Social +Union of Indianapolis, which is bold even to audacity. He told the young +gentlemen that the prevalence of Christianity in the Roman Empire was +not an escape _from_ barbarism, but a lapse _into_ it. "As soon," said +he, "as Christianity began spreading over the Roman Empire, all +knowledge, arts, and sciences died away, and the development of +civilization was retarded and checked." Of course any attempt to express +the history of five centuries in twenty words must be unsuccessful. This +attempt is: but the boldness of the opinion does not appear to have +given offence. The learned Doctor further gave his hearers to +understand, that knowledge is "the source of all civilization," and +theology the chief obstacle in its way. + +The eyes of every stranger who walks about Cincinnati are caught by an +edifice ornamented with domes and minarets like a Turkish mosque. This +is the "Reformed Synagogue," of which Dr. Isaac M. Wise is pastor,--a +highly enlightened and gifted man. It is a truly beautiful building, +erected at a cost of three hundred thousand dollars by one of the best +architects in the West, Mr. James Keys Wilson, who also built the +Court-House and Post-Office of Cincinnati. The interior, for elegance +and convenience combined, is only equalled by the newest interiors of +Chicago, and even by them it is not surpassed. Except some slight +peculiarities about the altar, it is arranged precisely like one of our +Protestant churches, and the service approaches very nearly that of the +Unitarians who use a liturgy. It is the mission of Dr. Wise to assist in +delivering his people from the tyranny of ancient superstitions by +calling their attention to the weightier matters of the law. Upon some +of the cherished traditions of the Jews he makes open war, and prepares +the way for their not distant emancipation from all that is narrowing +and needlessly peculiar in their creed and customs. For the use of his +congregation he has prepared a little book entitled "The Essence of +Judaism," from which the following are a few sentences, gathered here +and there:-- + +"It is not the belief of this or that dogma, but generous actions from +noble motives, which the sacred Scripture calls the path of salvation." +"The noblest of all human motives is to do good for goodness' sake." +"The history of mankind teaches, that man was not as wicked as he was +foolish; his motives were better than his judgment." "Reward or +punishment is the _natural_ consequence of obedience or disobedience to +God's laws." "Great revolutions in history always resulted in the +progress of humanity." "The first duty a man owes himself is the +preservation of his life, health, and limbs." "The special laws of the +Sabbath are: 1. To rest from all labor; 2. To recruit our physical +energies by rest and innocent enjoyments; 3. To sanctify our moral +nature; 4. _To improve our intellect._" "The best maxim of conduct to +our parents is, treat them as you would wish to be treated by your +children." "No offensive words or actions afford a shadow of +justification for killing a human being, or injuring him in his limbs or +health." "Only self-defence with equal arms, defence of others, or the +defence of our country against invasion or rebellion, are exceptions to +the above law of the Lord." "Domestic happiness depends exclusively upon +the unadulterated affections and the inviolable chastity of parents and +children." _"Palestine is now defiled by barbarism and iniquity; it is +the holy land no more. The habitable earth must become one holy land."_ +"The sons and daughters of the covenant have the solemn duty to be +INTELLIGENT." "Punishment must be intended only to correct the criminal +and to protect society against crimes." + +In the same spirit he conducts "The Israelite," a weekly paper. "Liberty +of Conscience--Humanity the object of Religion," is the title of one +article in the number before us, and it expresses the whole aim and +tendency of the movement which the editor leads. Nothing is more +probable than that soon the observance of Saturday will be abolished, +and that of Sunday substituted. It is impossible that the enlightened +Jews of Cincinnati can continue to attach importance to a distinction +which is at once so trivial and so inconvenient. Indeed, we hear that +some of the Jews of Baltimore have begun the change by holding their +Sabbath schools on Sunday. Who knows but that some rabbi, bold and wise, +shall appear, who will lead his people to withdraw the bar from +intermarriage with Christians, and that at last this patient and +long-suffering race shall cease to be "peculiar," and merge themselves +in mankind? + +The golden rule seems to run in the very blood of the best Jews. One of +the publications of Dr. Lilienthal is a History of the Israelites from +the days of Alexander to the present time. He recounts the sufferings of +his ancestors from blind and merciless bigotry; and then states in a few +words the revenge which his people propose to take for fifteen hundred +years of infamy, isolation, and outrage. + +"We have accompanied," he says, "the poor exile through centuries of +agony and misery; we have heard his groaning and his lamentations. The +dark clouds of misery and persecution have passed away; the bloody axe +of the executioner, the rack and stake of a fanatic inquisition and +clergy, were compelled to give way to reason and humanity; the roar of +prejudice and blind hatred had to cease before the sweet voice of +justice and kindness. Israel stands, while his enemies have vanished +away from the arena of history; their endeavors to make Israel faithless +to his God and his creed have proved futile and abortive. Israel has +conquered politically and religiously. Day after day witnesses the +crumbling to pieces of the barriers that have secluded them from +intercourse with their fellow-citizens; the old code of laws has become +obsolete, and on the new pages is inscribed the name of the Jew, not +only enjoying all rights and privileges with his Christian brethren, but +fully deserving them, and excelling in every department of life in which +he now is allowed and willing to engage. And his religion--the holy +doctrine of an indivisible Unity of God, of man's creation in the image +of God, of our destination, to become by virtue, justice, and charity +contented in this, and happy in after life--is daily gaining more ground +as the only religion complying with the demands of reason and our +destination on earth. And Israel does not falter in the accomplishment +of its holy mission,--to be the redeeming Messiah to all mankind, to +become a nation of priests, teaching and preaching the truth." + +The noble rabbis of Cincinnati are an enlightening and civilizing power +in the city, and their fellow-citizens know it and are grateful for it. + +A place like Cincinnati needs the active aid of every man in her midst +who is capable of public spirit. There is a great sum of physical life +there, but much less than the proper proportion of cultivated +intelligence. The wealthy men of Cincinnati must beware of secluding +themselves in their beautiful villas on the other side of the hill, and +leaving the city to its smoke and ignorance. The question for +Cincinnati, and indeed for the United States, to consider, was well +stated by Mr. Mayo in his celebrated lecture upon "Health and Holiness +in Cincinnati," one of the most weighty, pathetic, eloquent, and wise +discourses we ever read:-- + + "Shall our Western city children be saved to lead the + civilization of America by their superior manhood and + womanhood? or shall they be buried out of sight, or mustered + into the 'invalid corps' before they are thirty years of age, + and hard-headed Patrick, slow and sturdy Hermann, and + irrepressible Sambo, walk in and administer the affairs of the + country over their graves?" + + + + +A LILIPUT PROVINCE. + + +Towards the close of summer, all well-feathered Londoners migrate, and +may at that season be observed flying from their native streets or +squares in large flocks, like wild geese, with outstretched necks, and +round, protruding eyes. Some settle on the Scotch moors, where they +industriously waddle themselves thin. Others take short flights to +neighboring bathing-places, where they splash in the water with their +goslings, strut proudly on the sands, display a tendency to pair, and +are often preyed upon by the foxes which also resort to those +localities. Many more cross the Channel, and may be heard during two +months cackling more or less loudly in every large hotel upon the +Continent. And in addition to all these there are the _stragglers_,--a +small and select race, which defy the great gregarious laws, and delight +in taking solitary, and, if possible, unprecedented flight. + +I must own that it is my weakness to pry into the untrodden nooks and +corners of life. I have wasted many precious hours in toiling through +black-letter folios and tracts which had no other merit than their +rarity. And I have put myself to the greatest pains and inconvenience to +arrive at a desert island out at sea, or some obscure village hid away +among mountains, simply for the pleasure of feeling that I had been +where few other civilized travellers had been. I have seldom received +any better reward than that, but once or twice I have fallen upon a +store of facts, which, however insignificant, had at least the charm of +being new, and which have answered the purpose of stimulating me to +fresh absurdities. + +A few months ago I was standing on the deck of a steamer bound from +London to Hamburg. It was midnight, and we were approaching the mouth of +the Elbe. Right ahead was a light of great brilliancy and power; this, +the captain informed me, shone from Heligoland, and was seen so clearly +because the island was about a hundred and fifty feet above the level of +the sea,--a great boon to navigators, the neighboring coasts being very +low. But my informant had been in the habit of regarding Heligoland as a +lighthouse and nothing more; he could tell me nothing about its +constitution, its manners, or its customs, and I determined to visit it +forthwith. + +By the late wars upon the Continent, the political geography of the Elbe +has been completely changed. Between the mouth of the river and Hamburg, +the right bank formerly belonged to Holstein, and the left to Hanover. +Now both are Prussian. Hamburg itself is under the wing of the Prussian +eagle, and may soon be under its claw. The feeling in that city is +anti-Prussian; but the citizens were wise enough to side with their +powerful neighbor, and to contribute troops. This has certainly saved +them from the fete of Frankfort, but it is not probable that Hamburg +will be allowed to remain a thoroughly independent state. Prussia will +probably abolish her diplomatic, and perhaps her consular service, and +permit her to retain certain important rights and privileges. It is, at +the present moment, an anxious crisis for the great merchants. In +Hamburg, fortunes are made with a rapidity, and to an extent, unequalled +in any Continental town; this is owing to the freedom of the port; but, +were the Prussian custom-house system to be introduced, Stettin and +Koenigsberg would spring into dangerous rivalry, and her commercial +interests would decline. + +Hamburg is the only city in Europe which bears much resemblance to New +York. It has no antiquities, for the old town was entirely burnt down +about twenty years ago. It has no treasure-house of art, it has not many +"historical associations." It is a city of business, and four thousand +persons meet together every day in its Exchange. Its river is crowded +with shipping; American cars rattle along its streets; and ferry-boats +built on the American principle steam to and fro across the Alster-Dam. +Its hospitals, sailors' home, libraries, and ornamental gardens are not +inferior to those of New York itself: in these two cities, if the dollar +does jingle too often in conversation, it is sometimes made to shine in +a worthy cause. After dusk, Hamburg becomes dissolute and gay. It is +difficult to pass through a single street without hearing a violin. +Lager-bier saloons, oyster-cellars, cafes, dancing-rooms, and +restaurants of every kind are lighted up, and quickly filled. Debauchery +runs riot, and yet, strange to say, there is very little crime. The +respectable classes are less well provided for as regards amusement. I +went to the opera, and heard William Tell. The performance was mediocre, +though far superior to anything that could be done upon the English +operatic stage. But I was chiefly amused in watching the habits of the +gentlemen who patronized the stalls. + +The custom of visiting and receiving at the opera was invented by the +Italians, to avoid the trouble and expense of receiving in their own +homes; from Italy it spread through Europe; and although the +opera-houses of London and Paris do not so closely resemble a public +drawing-room as those of Florence and Milan, yet the Italian opera could +scarcely exist in those cities unless it were supported as much by +people of fashion as by people of taste. But I was hardly prepared to +find in Hamburg a parody of polite life in this respect. During the +whole performance there was a continual interchange of social greetings +between corpulent ship-chandlers, their heads violently greased for the +occasion, and certain frowsy women sprinkled scantily through the house. +There was an old gentleman sitting next to me who turned the performance +to a nobler use; he had apparently brought his son there for the +purpose of tuition; holding the libretto between them, he translated +with great rapidity and in a clear voice the Italian words, at the +moment that they were sung, into one of the most guttural of German +dialects, thus playing the part of Dutch chorus to the entertainment, +and producing a conflict of sounds which it would be difficult to +describe. + + * * * * * + +I discovered, to my astonishment, that Heligoland, in summer at all +events, was by no means an isolated rock; that since 1840 it has been +blessed with a Season; that, celebrated for its waves, it has become the +Scarborough of Northern Germany, and is visited by thousands of +sea-bathers every year. + +I took my passage in the little steamer which runs from Hamburg, and +arrived at my destination at 10 P. M.. In the dim light of the moon and +stars the island bore a fantastic resemblance to the Monitor, a little +magnified; the lights of the village answering to those of the hull, and +the lighthouse to the lantern at the mast-head. The island presents this +appearance only at a distance and in a doubtful light. When I walked +over it the next morning I found that it was composed of a sand-bank +lying under a red cliff. The sand-bank was covered with houses, which +were divided by three or four streets; these were paved with wooden +boards. Every house was a shop, an inn, or a lodging-house. The cliff is +accessible on one side only, and is ascended by means of sinuous wooden +staircases. When the summit is reached, one stands upon the real island, +for the sand-bank below is an accident and an intruder. Heligoland +proper may be described as a precipice-plateau, containing a small +cluster of houses, a lighthouse, various pole-nets, springes, and other +contrivances for catching woodcocks in their migratory flights, and a +few miniature potato and corn fields. The extent of this plateau is not +quite equal to that of Hyde Park. As soon as I had made this discovery I +felt an intense compassion for all persons of the Teutonic race to whom +sea-bathing once a year happens to be indispensable. However, if dull, +it must at least be economical, I thought; but this illusion was +dispelled when I found that there was a roulette-table in the dingy +little Conversations-Haus, and when my landlord handed me in a bill +which would not have disgraced any hotel in Bond Street or the Fifth +Avenue. + +How on earth, thought I, can these poor deluded creatures pass their +time? They get up at some absurd hour in the morning; they sail to a +neighboring sand-bank where they bathe and then take coffee in a +whitewashed pavilion; they return to breakfast, and then--what can they +do? There is nowhere to walk; there is nothing to read; and in the +height of the season there must be a scarcity of elbow-room. Although +every house offers accommodation to visitors, it has not unfrequently +happened that persons have been obliged to sleep on board the steamers +which brought them, and to return to the main-land. Imagine an island +being full, like an omnibus! + +Then a thought came upon me which wrung my heart. _The Governor!_ How +could this unfortunate man exist? With a precipice on one side of his +house and a potato-field on the other, what could save him from despair +and self-destruction? This question was answered for me when I heard +that he was married. + +My eccentric wanderings have at least served to convince me of +this,--that a man's sole refuge from the evils of solitude is to be +found in the domestic sentiments. There is, it is true, a solitude of +genius; there are minds which must climb out of the common air and +breathe alone. There is also the solitude of enthusiasm, which is more +common, and which is found among a lower order of men, who become so +possessed with a single idea that it leaves them neither by day nor +night, but is their bride, their bosom friend, and their constant +occupier. But what becomes of the ordinary man, if he is excluded from +the busy regions of the world, and if his heart remains as solitary as +his life? Everything dries up in him; he becomes uncouth, bigoted, +selfish, egotistical, and usually ends by falling into a semi-torpid +state, and by hibernating into death. + +I remember that once I had contrived to creep into the centre of one of +the most remote of the Cape Verde Islands. My mule suddenly turned into +a by-path and broke into a cheerful amble. Experience has proved to me +that, when a mule has thoroughly made up its mind, resistance is out of +the question. I contented myself with asking my youthful companion what +the animal's probable intentions were. The boy said that the mule was +going to see the Judge, and pointed to a lovely little cottage which +came in view at that moment. Then I recollected that I had heard this +gentleman spoken of, and that I had a letter of introduction to him. The +mule carried me into the stable from which I was conducted into a +drawing-room. There, for the first time during many months, for I had +been travelling in strange lands, I saw a number of the _Revue de Deux +Mondes_. I plunged into it, and made an ineffectual effort to read every +article at once. The Judge came in, and I at once perceived that I was +in the presence of a remarkable man. After an hour's conversation we +began to interchange confidences. He told me about his student dreams at +Coimbra,--of the nights which he had passed in book-toil,--of his +aspirations, his poverty, and his exile. Perhaps he saw a little +compassion in my eyes when he had finished, for he added, "Those young +hopes have all been crushed, and yet I am happier in this desolate spot +than I have ever been in my life before." The door opened at that +moment, and a beautiful woman came in, leading two little children by +the hands. + +"This is my happiness, sir," he said, as he introduced me to his wife. +Then he looked at his children, and his eyes filled with unutterable +love. "And these," he said, "are my ambition." + +But before my visit to the island was concluded, I found that a +governorship of Heligoland was very far from being a tranquil retreat. +The present Governor, it seems, had founded a new constitution, and was +charged with having assumed despotic powers, and with having perpetrated +various acts of inhumanity. Governor Wall himself appeared in the light +of a philanthropist as compared with this military ogre, who, having +acquired a taste for blood in the Crimean War, had been sent to +Heligoland to gratify his ruthless propensities. He was as bad as Eyre, +for he had suspended a native politician from the Council. He was worse +than Sir Charles Darling, who had defied a constitution; for he had +destroyed one. + +My curiosity having been excited by these complaints, I went to the +proper sources of information, and in a few hours had mastered the +political history of Heligoland. + +In 1807 it was captured by Vice-Admiral Russell from the Danes. From +that time until 1864 the government of the colony consisted of a +Governor, six magistrates, and a closed popular body called the +_Vorsteherschaft_, containing, besides the magistrates aforesaid, eight +quartermasters and sixteen elders. The elders were the tribunes of the +people; the quartermasters acted as pilot officers, and superintended +all questions of pilotage and wreck; while the magistrates had the power +of nominating persons to fill vacancies in the _Vorsteherschaft_, and +appointed to them their own particular adherents, or else dangerous +political antagonists. The Governor was a Doge. + +A colony governed by pilots, lodging-house-keepers, and small tradesmen +could scarcely be expected to prove a success. In 1820 there was a debt +of L1,800; in 1864, of L7,200. Owing to the rapacity of the +quartermasters, the pilot-trade fell into the hands of the people of +Cuxhaven. And in the island itself the wildest anarchy prevailed. The +six magistrates were unable to execute their own decrees; there was no +prison in the island, and it seems to have been the custom for the +authorities to kidnap convicted criminals and deposit them on the +main-land. Petitions were being constantly presented to the Home +Government from the magistrates, asking for more power; and from the +people, demanding the right to elect their own representatives. + +So, in 1864, a new constitution was inaugurated, by an order of her +Majesty in Council. Its plan is similar to that extant in many other +British colonies, consisting of an executive council to advise the +Governor; of a legislative body, twelve members of whom are nominated by +the crown, and twelve others annually elected by the people, and forming +the so-called Combined Court, by whom all money ordinances have to be +passed. The right of franchise is exercised by all persons of sound mind +who have arrived at the age of twenty-one, and who have not been +convicted of felony,--the last proviso, by the by, might be introduced +with propriety in New York. The candidates for representation must be, +to a certain extent, men of property; that is, they must own land to the +value of L1 per annum; or the half of a boat; or the fourth part of a +fishing-vessel; or the tenth part of a decked vessel; or must have a +yearly income of L4; or must pay a house-rent of not less than thirty +shillings a year. + +The new constitution was at first popular enough. The Heligolanders were +willing to accept the benefits, but they soon began to complain of the +burdens, of civilization. The new Governor determined to strike at the +two great abuses of Heligoland,--the roulette-table, and the public +debt,--which were entangled together in a very embarrassing way. Were +the gaming-table at once abolished, the number of visitors would +decrease, and those who, on the security of the gaming-table, had +invested their money in the colonial funds, would suffer pecuniary loss. +It was therefore enacted that the table should be abolished at the +expiration of the lease (1871), and that in the interim every measure +should be taken to increase the revenue with a view to the reduction of +the debt. + +Heligoland, indeed, after a period of bungling and robbery, was placed +in the same financial position as the United States after a period of +war. In one case, as in the other, taxation was the only remedy. But the +Heligolanders did not like their medicine, and, like children, protested +that they were quite well. They refused to entertain a new and startling +idea,--still less, to pay for it. They had never heard of such a thing +before; their fathers and grandfathers had never paid taxes, and why +should they? It was no use telling them that other people paid taxes. +They were not other people. They were Heligolanders. This, it seems, +when spoken in their own patois, means a great deal; for they consider +themselves intellectually and morally superior to all the other nations +of the earth, whom they call, individually and collectively, _skit_,--a +word in their language signifying dirt. As soon as it was known that "an +ordinance enacting taxation on real and personal property" had been +"enacted by the Governor of Heligoland, with the advice and consent of +the Legislative Council, and the concurrence of the Combined Court," +there was a grand disturbance. A reactionary party immediately arose, +with the cry of _The old state of things, and no taxation!_ When the +tax-collectors went round, the men laughed in their faces, and the women +called them names. It was in vain that the Governor summoned a meeting +of the inhabitants, and addressed them in very excellent German, and +gave them six months to turn the matter over in their minds. At the end +of that time they were still obstinate, the tax-collectors resigned, and +this victory was celebrated with festivities. But suddenly a British +man-of-war appeared; a file of marines marched on shore; the ringleaders +of the reactionists were put into durance vile--for an afternoon; and +the taxes were paid up with marvellous rapidity. + +The next move of the opposition was a petition, which was signed by +three hundred and fifty out of the two thousand islanders, and was sent +into the Colonial Office, protesting against the new constitution, and +requesting the abolition of all the ordinances which it had passed. +Since a certain occurrence which took place in the reign of George III., +the British government has been in the habit of paying most careful +attention to all popular petitions from the colonies, but this one, as +may well be imagined, was refused. The constitution being popular, and +the taxes being light, (there is but one person on the island who pays +as much as L3 a year,) and the population extracting considerable wealth +from their season visitors, they have no real grievance to complain of, +and when last I heard from the island I was informed that the public +debt was rapidly melting away, and that peace and good feeling had been +quite restored. + +This Liliput Province, in which the Governor is the only Englishman, and +his cow almost the only quadruped, deserves to be more frequently +visited by tourists, as it is perfectly unique in its way. It also +merits the study of English politicians. This island rock is the +Gibraltar of the North Sea. With a few companies of infantry and +casemated batteries, it might be held against any force, and it commands +the mouths of the Weser and the Elbe. The Heligolanders are not +Germans,--ethnology perhaps would rather class them with the Danes,--and +they have no German sympathies. There can be no excuse, therefore, for +giving up the island to Prussia, as has been seriously recommended in an +English journal; though the objection to this--that by so doing England +might lose _prestige_ upon the Continent--is a groundless fear: at the +present moment she has none to lose. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Early and Late Papers, hitherto uncollected._ By WILLIAM MAKEPEACE +THACKERAY. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. + +It appears to us that the graceful art of Thackeray was never more +happily employed than in the first paper of this series. The "Memorials +of Gormandizing" is a record of thrilling interest, and every good +dinner described has the effect upon the reader of a felicitous drama. +He goes from course to course, as from act to act of the play; he is +agonized with suspense concerning the fate of the dishes, as if they +were so many heroes and heroines; if the steak is not justly cooked, it +shall give him almost as great heart-break as a disappointment of +lovers; when all is fortunately ended, he takes a long breath, as when +the curtain falls upon the picture of the united young people, the +relenting uncle, and the baffled villain. As good as a novel? There are +mighty few novels that have so much of life and human nature in them as +that simple and affecting history, given in this book, of a dinner at +the Cafe de Foy, in Paris. But they make one hungry with an inappeasable +appetite, these "Memorials of Gormandizing," bringing to mind all the +beautiful dinners eaten in Latin countries, and filling the heart with +longing for the hotels that look out on the Louvre at Paris, the Villa +Reale at Naples, the Venetian sunsets, the Arno at Florence, and even +for the railway restaurants which so enchantingly diversify the flat, +monotonous, and desolate Flemish landscape. + +We travel with Mr. Titmarsh to Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp, through the +latter region, and we enjoy every one of those "Roadside Sketches," so +delicate, so unerring, and so suggestive. Thackeray is a delightful +traveller; for he, who can talk more wisely of old clothes than most +preachers of eternity, gets out of the nothings that tourists see the +very life and spirit of a country. Here is something also about modern +art and pictures in England and France, which comes as near not at all +boring as anything of that nature can; but we find the account of +"Dickens in France" so much more attractive, that we shall always read +it by preference hereafter. + +For this is a book to be read many times by those loving to feel the +conscious felicity of a writer who knows that every sentence shall +happily express his mind, and succeed in winning the reader to the next. +The security is tacit in the earlier papers here reprinted; in the later +ones it is more declared, and becomes somewhat careless, though it can +never beget slovenliness. It appears to this great master that what he +does so easily can scarcely be worth doing, and he mocks his own +facility. + +The spirit of the book is the same throughout. It is not different from +that of Thackeray's other books, and it is that of a man too sensible of +his own love of the advantages he enjoys from the existing state of +things ever to assail, with any great earnestness of purpose, the errors +and absurdities of the world,--who trusted, for example, in one of his +essays, never to be guilty of speaking harshly either of the South or +North of America, since friends in both sections had offered him equally +good claret. He is forever first in his art; and if we do not expect too +much from him, he gives us so much that we must rejoice over every line +of his preserved for our perusal. + + +_A Vindication of the Claim of Alexander M. W. Ball, of Elizabeth, N. +J., to the Authorship of the Poem, "Rock me to Sleep, Mother."_ By A. O. +MORSE, of Cherry Valley, N. Y. New York: M. W. Dodd. + +It is no great while since Miss Peck proved to her own satisfaction her +claim to what Mr. Morse would style the "maternity" of "Nothing to +Wear," and now hardly has Judge Holmes of Missouri determined that the +paternity of Shakespeare is due to Bacon, when the friends of Mr. Ball +of New Jersey spring another trouble upon mankind by declaring him the +author of Mrs. Akers's very graceful and touching poem, "Rock me to +Sleep, Mother," which we all know by heart. In the present pamphlet they +give what evidence they can in Mr. Ball's behalf, and, to tell the +truth, it is not much. It appears from this and other sources that Mr. +Ball is a person of independent property, and a member of the New +Jersey Legislature, who has written a great quantity of verses first and +last, but has become all but "proverbial" in his native State for his +carelessness of his own poetry; so that we suppose people say there of a +negligent parent, "His children are as unkempt as the Hon. Alexander M. +W. Ball's poems"; or of a heartless husband, "His wife is about as well +provided for as Mr. Ball's Muse." Still Mr. Ball is not altogether lost +to natural feeling, and he has not thrown away all his poetry, but has +even so far shown himself alive to its claims upon him as to read it now +and then to friends, who have keenly reproached him with his +indifference to fame. To such accidents we owe the preservation in this +pamphlet of several Christmas Carols and other lyrics, tending to prove +that Mr. Ball could have written "Rock me to Sleep" if he had wished, +and the much more important letters declaring that he did write it, and +that the subscribers of the letters heard him read it nearly three years +before its publication by Mrs. Akers. These letters are six in number, +including a postscript, and it is not Mr. Ball's fault if they all read +a good deal like the certificates of other days establishing the +identity of the Old Original Doctor Jacob Townsend. Two only of the six +are signed with the writers' names; but these two have a special +validity, from the fact that the writer of one is a very old friend, who +has more than once expressed his wish to be Mr. Ball's literary +executor, while the writer of the other is evidently a legal gent, for +he begins with "Relative to the controversy _in re_ the authorship," +etc., _like_ a legal gent, and he concludes with the statement that he +is able to fix the date when he heard Mr. Ball read "Rock me to Sleep" +by the date of a paper which he _thinks_ he called to draw up at Mr. +Ball's residence some time in the autumn of 1859. This is Mr. J. Burrows +Hyde. Mr. Lewis C. Grover, who would like to be Mr. Ball's literary +executor, is more definite, and says that he heard Mr. Ball read the +contested poem with others in 1857, during a call made to learn where +Mr. Ball bought his damask curtains. H. D. E. is sorry that he or she +cannot remember where he or she first heard Mr. Ball read it, but he or +she distinctly remembers that it was in 1857 or 1858. L. P. and I. E. S. +witness that they heard Mr. Ball read it in his study in 1856 or 1857, +and state that the date may be fixed by reference to the time "when Mrs. +Ball took Maria to Dr. Cox's, and placed her in the school in Leroy," +and the pamphleteer, turning to a bill rendered by the principal of the +Leroy school, "fixes the date called for by the writers in February, +1857," at which time, according to the pamphleteer himself, _Mr. Ball +was on his way to California in an ocean steamer_! The postscript +mentioned among the letters is said to be dated at Brooklyn in 1858, and +merely asks Mr. Ball to "send by the doctor"--not a dozen more bottles +of his invaluable Sarsaparilla, but--the poem entitled "Rock me to +Sleep," and this postscript has no signature, and is therefore +worthless. + +It appears, then, that these letters do not establish a great deal; the +legal gent fixes the time when he heard the poem by the date of a paper +which he thinks was drawn up at a certain period; H. D. E. is sorry that +he or she cannot remember, and then distinctly remembers; the postscript +is without signature; two other friends declare that they heard Mr. +Ball, in his own study, read "Rock me to Sleep, Mother;" at the moment +when the poet was probably very sea-sick on a California steamer. Mr. +Grover alone remains to persuade us, and we respectfully suggest to that +enthusiast whether it was not "Rock-a-by Baby" that he heard Mr. Ball +read? We do not think that he or the other writers of these letters +intend deceit; but we know the rapture with which people listen to poets +who read their own verses aloud, and we suspect that these listeners to +Mr. Ball were carried too far away by their feelings ever to get back to +their facts. They are good folks, but not critical, we judge, and might +easily mistake Mr. Ball's persistent assertion for an actual +recollection of their own. We think them one and all in error, and we do +not believe that any living soul heard Mr. Ball read the disputed poem +before 1860, for two reasons: Mrs. Akers did not write it before that +time, and Mr. Ball could never have written it after any number of +trials. + +Let us take one of Mr. Ball's "Christmas Carols,"--probably the poem +which his friends now recall as "Rock me to Sleep, Mother,"--for all +proof and comment upon this last fact:-- + + "CHRISTMAS, 1856. + + "And as time rolls us backward, we feel inclined to weep, + As the spirit of our mother comes, to rock our souls to sleep. + It raised my thoughts to heaven, and in converse with them there + I felt a joy unearthly, and lighter sat world's care; + For it opened up the vista of an echoless dim shore, + Where my mother kindly greets me, as in good days of yore." + +Here, then, is that quality of peculiarly hopeless poetasting which +strikes cold upon the stomach, and makes man turn sadly from his +drivelling brother. Do we not know this sort of thing? Out of the +rejected contributions in our waste-basket we could daily furnish the +inside and outside of a dozen Balls. It _is_ saddening, it _is_ +pathetic; it has gone on so long now, and must still continue for so +many ages; but we can just bear it as a negative quality. It is only +when such rubbish is put forward as proof that its author has a claim to +the name and fame of a poet, that we lose patience. The verses given in +this pamphlet would invalidate Mr. Ball's claim to the authorship of +Mrs. Akers's poem, even though the Seven Sleepers swore that he rocked +them asleep with it in the time of the Decian persecution. But beside +the irrefragable internal evidence afforded by the specimens given of +Mr. Ball's poetry, and by his "first draft" of the disputed poem, and by +his "completed copy" of the poem, there is the well-known fact that Mr. +Ball is a self-confessed plagiarist in one case, and a convicted +plagiarist in several others. He has lately allowed in a published +letter that he used a poem by Mrs. Whitman in "concocting" one of his +own. It was some years since proven that he had plagiarized other +poems,--even one from Mrs. Hemans. + +Mr. Ball has some claims to forbearance and interest as a curious +psychological study. Kleptomania is a well-known disorder. The unhappy +persons affected steal whatever they can, wherever they can, and come +home from evening parties with their pockets full of silver spoons, +which are usually sent home with the apologies of mortified friends. We +believe, however, this is the first instance of kleptomania of which the +victim not only steals, but turns upon the person plundered and makes +accusation that the stolen goods had been first filched from him. Mr. +Ball is phenomenal, but is a legislative assembly the place for this +sort of curiosity? If he is of sound mind, he is guilty of a very cruel +and shameless wrong, meriting expulsion from any body that makes laws +against larceny. If sane, let him go be elected to the New York Common +Council. + +Of this pamphlet, aside from Mr. Ball, we have merely to say that it +appears to be written by the most impudent and the most absurd man in +America. + + +_Literature and its Professors_. By THOMAS PURNELL. London: Bell and +Daldy. + +A cultivated intellect, a fair degree of shrewd perception, an +inviolable conscientiousness, a common sense frankly self-satisfied, are +some of the qualifications which Mr. Purnell brings to the discussion of +literature as seen in modern journalism, and in the lives of Giraldus +Cambrensis and Montaigne,--of Roger Williams, the literary +statesman,--of Steele, Sterne, and Swift, essayists,--of Mazzini, the +literary patriot. + +Many of the conditions of literary journalism alluded to in these essays +are unknown in our country, where literature has not yet become merely a +trade, and where we cannot see that literary men are sinking in popular +esteem, and deservedly sinking, as being no better informed, or better +qualified to control opinion, than their non-writing neighbors. We can +better understand Mr. Purnell when he speaks of the imperfections and +discrepancies of criticism, but are not better able to sympathize with +all his ideas. The trouble is not, we think, that "critics who conceive +themselves to be men of taste give their opinions fearlessly, having no +misgivings that they are right," and "if a book is bad, feel it is bad," +without being able to refer to a critical principle in proof, but that +many who write reviews have not formed opinions and have not _felt_ at +all, and have rather proceeded upon a prejudice, a supposed law of +aesthetics applicable to every exigency of literary development. A sense +of the inadequacy of criticism must trouble every honest man who sits +down to examine a new book; and it might almost be said, that no books +can be justly estimated by the critic except those which are unworthy of +criticism. Upon certain points and aspects of an author's work the +critic can justly give his convictions, and need have no misgivings +about them; but how to present a complete idea of it, and always to make +that appear characteristic which is characteristic, and that exceptional +which is exceptional, is the difficulty. Still, criticism must continue: +the perfect equipoise may never be attained, and yet we must employ the +balance, or nothing can be appraised, and traffic ceases. + +It appears to us that criticism would be even more inadequate than it +is, however, if, as Mr. Purnell desires, it should have "to do solely +with the disposal of the materials, and but incidentally with the +quality of the materials themselves." If the German critics whom we are +asked to imitate have taught us anything, it is to look through form at +the substance within, and to judge that. When criticism was supposed a +science, it declared with a mathematical absoluteness that no drama was +good or great which did not preserve the unities. Yet Shakespeare has +written since, and no critic in the world thinks his plays bad or +weak,--thanks, chiefly, to the German criticism, which is an art, and +not a science, as Mr. Purnell desires us to think it. In fact, criticism +is almost purely a matter of taste and experience, and there is hardly +any law established for criticism which has not been overthrown as often +as the French government. Upon one point--namely, that a critic should +judge an author solely by his work, and never by anything known of him +personally--we think no one will disagree with our essayist. + +We hardly know how much or how little to value the clever workmanship of +these essays, which is characteristic of a whole class of literature in +England, though we suspect it has not much greater claim to praise than +the art possessed by most Parisians of writing dramatic sketches of +Parisian society. It seems to come of a condition of things, rather than +from an individual faculty. Still, it is remarkable, and even admirable, +though in Mr. Purnell's case it is not inconsistent with dealing +somewhat prolixly with rather dry subjects, and being immensely +inconclusive upon all important matters, and very painfully conclusive +on trivial ones. Our essayist says little that is new of Montaigne, and +does not add to our knowledge of Steele, Swift, and Sterne, though he +speaks freshly and interestingly of Roger Williams as the first promoter +of religious toleration. He requires seventeen pages ("Literary +Hero-Worship") to declare that a great poet ought not to be thought +great because he is not a great soldier, and _vice versa_; he is neat +and cold, and generally doubtful of things accepted, and assured of +things doubted,--and, without being commonplace himself, he seems to +believe that he was born into the world to vindicate mediocrity of +feeling. + + +_The College, the Market, and the Court; or, Woman's Relation to +Education, Labor, and Law._ By CAROLINE H. DALL. Boston: Lee and +Shepard. + +Here is a woman's showing of women's wrongs, a woman's appeal to men for +simple justice. All the facts of the matter are grouped and presented +anew with emphasis and feeling; and a demand is finally made for the +right of suffrage as the protection for women from all kinds of +oppression. + +We do not care to discuss the wisdom of this conclusion; but from the +premises no man can dissent. It is unquestionably true that thousands of +women in America suffer an oppression little less cruel than slavery; +that they toil incessantly in shops and garrets for a pittance that half +sustains life, and at last drives them to guilt as the alternative of +starvation; it is true that women are shut out from the practice of the +liberal professions; it is true that in the trades to which they are +educated they often receive less pay than men for the same amount and +quality of work; it is true that the laws still bear unfairly upon them. +If the right of suffrage will open to them any means of earning bread +now forbidden them, if it will help in any way to give them an equal +chance with men in the world, they ought to have it. We are all alike +guilty of their wrongs, as long as they continue; it is not the wretch +who enslaves the needlewoman,--it is not the savage in whose "store" or +"emporium" the poorly paid shop-girl is forbidden to sit down for a +moment, and swoons away under the ordeal,--it is not the rogue who gives +a woman less wages than a man for a man's service,--it is not these and +their kind who are alone guilty, but society itself is guilty. The +reform of very great evils will be cheaply accomplished if women by +voting can right themselves. It must be confessed, to our shame, that we +have failed to right them; though it may at the same time be doubted +whether the elective franchise, which is claimed as the means of +justice, would not now belong to women, if it had been even generally +demanded. So far the responsibility is partly with woman herself, who +must also help to bear the blame for failure to ameliorate the condition +of her sex in the existing political state. Mrs. Dall is by no means +blind to this fact, and she speaks candidly to women, as she speaks +fearlessly to men. We think her arguments would have been more forcible +if they had been less complex. It is not worth while to argue the +intellectual capacity of women for the franchise in a country where it +is given to ignorant immigrants and freedmen. It was by no means +necessary to show woman's qualification for all the affairs of life, in +order to prove that she should not be hindered or limited in her +attempts to help herself. Indeed, Mrs. Dall's strength is mainly in her +facts concerning woman's general condition, and not in her researches to +prove the exceptional success of women in the arts and sciences. + + +_The Land of Thor._ By J. ROSS BROWNE. New York: Harper and Brothers. + +Mr. Browne's stories of what he saw in Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, +and Iceland have that variety ascribed by Mr. Tennyson to the imitations +of his poetry,-- + + "And some are pretty enough, + And some are poor indeed." + +It is this traveller's aim to keep his reader constantly amused, and to +produce broad grins and other broad effects at any cost. Naturally the +peoples whom he visits, his readers, and the author himself, all suffer +a good deal together, and do not so often combine in hearty, unforced +laughter as could be wished. This is the more a pity because Mr. Browne +is a genuine humorist, and must be very sorry to fatigue anybody. In his +less boisterous moments he is really charming, and, in spite of all his +liveliness, he does give some clear ideas of the lands he sees. It +appears to us that the travels through Iceland are the best in his book, +as the account of Russia is decidedly the dullest,--the Scandinavian +countries of the main-land lying midway between these extremes, as they +do on the map. Of solid information, such as the old-fashioned +travellers used to give us in honest figures and statistics, there is +very little in this book, which is the less to be regretted because we +already know everything now-a-days. The work is said to be "illustrated +by the author"; but as most of the illustrations bear the initials of +Mr. Stephens, we suppose this statement is also a joke. We confess that +we like such of Mr. Browne's sketches as are given the best: there at +least all animate life is not rendered with such a sentiment that cats +and dogs, and men and women, might well turn with mutual displeasure +from the idea of a common origin of their species. + + +_Half-Tints. Table d'Hote and Drawing-Room._ New York; D. Appleton & Co. + +Here is the side which our polygonous human nature presents to the +observer in a great New York hotel. Throngs of coming and going +strangers, snubbingly accommodated by the master of the caravansary, who +seeks to make it rather the home of the undomestic rich than the +sojourning-place of travel; the hard faces of the ladies in the +drawing-room; the business talk of the men of the gentlemen's parlor; +the twaddle of the jejune youngsters of either sex in the dining-room; +and individual characters among all these,--are the features of +hotel-life from which the author turns to sketch the exchange, the +street, the fashionable physician, and the modish divine, or to moralize +desultorily upon themes suggested by his walks between his hotel and his +office. The manner of the book is colloquial; and the author, addressing +an old friend, seeks a relief and contrast for the town atmosphere of +his work in recurring reminiscences of a youth and childhood passed in +the purer air of the country. Some of his sketches are caricatured, some +of his pictures rather crudely colored; but at other times he is very +skilful, and generally his tone is pleasant, and in the chapters, "Not a +Sermon," "And so forth," and "Out of the Window," there is shrewd +observation and sound thought. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, +August, 1867, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 19779.txt or 19779.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/7/7/19779/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + +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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