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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 87,
+January, 1865, 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: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 87, January, 1865
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: July 13, 2008 [EBook #26047]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JANUARY, 1865 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+ATLANTIC MONTHLY,
+
+A MAGAZINE OF
+
+_Literature, Art, and Politics._
+
+VOLUME XV.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+BOSTON:
+
+TICKNOR AND FIELDS,
+
+135 WASHINGTON STREET.
+
+LONDON: TRÜBNER AND COMPANY.
+
+1865.
+
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
+
+TICKNOR AND FIELDS,
+
+in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of
+Massachusetts.
+
+
+UNIVERSITY PRESS:
+
+ELECTROTYPED BY WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO.,
+
+CAMBRIDGE.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                   Page
+
+American Metropolis, The        _Fitz-Hugh Ludlow_                   73
+Andersonville, At                                                   285
+Anno Domini                     _Gail Hamilton_                     116
+Authors, Memories of            _Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall_
+                                                      97, 223, 330, 477
+
+Battle-Laureate, Our            _Oliver Wendell Holmes_             589
+Birds, With the                 _John Burroughs_                    513
+
+Chimney-Corner, The             _Mrs. H. B. Stowe_
+                                           109, 221, 353, 490, 602, 732
+Cobden, Richard                 _M. C. Conway_                      724
+Cruikshank, George, in Mexico                                        54
+
+Dely's Cow                      _Rose Terry_                        665
+Doctor Johns                    _Donald G. Mitchell_
+                                                141, 296, 449, 591, 681
+Dolliver Romance,
+  Another Scene from the        _Nathaniel Hawthorne_                 1
+
+England, A Letter about         _John Weiss_                        641
+Europe and Asia, Between        _Bayard Taylor_                       8
+Everett, Edward                 _E. E. Hale_                        342
+
+Fair Play the Best Policy       _T. W. Higginson_                   623
+Five Sisters Court at Christmas-Tide                                 22
+Foreign Enmity to the United States,
+  Causes of                     _E. P. Whipple_                     372
+
+Great Lakes, The                _Samuel C. Clarke_                  693
+Grit                            _E. P. Whipple_                     407
+
+Hofwyl, My Student-Life at      _Robert Dale Owen_                  550
+
+Ice and Esquimaux               _D. A. Wasson_
+                                                      39, 201, 437, 564
+"If Massa put Guns into our Han's"
+                                _Fitz-Hugh Ludlow_                  504
+
+John Brown's Raid               _John G. Rosengarten_               711
+
+Lecture, The Popular            _J. G. Holland_                     362
+Lincoln, Abraham,
+  The Place of, in History      _George Bancroft_                   757
+Lone Woman, Adventures of a     _Jane G. Austin_                    385
+
+Mining, Ancient,
+  on the Shores of Lake Superior _Albert D. Hagar_                  308
+Modern Improvements and our National Debt
+                                 _E. B. Bigelow_                    729
+
+Needle and Garden                           88, 165, 316, 464, 613, 673
+
+Officer's Journal, Leaves from  _T. W. Higginson_                    65
+Out of the Sea                  _Author of "Life in the Iron-Mills"_
+                                                                    533
+
+Painter,
+  Our First Great, and his Works _Sarah Clarke_                     129
+Pettibone Lineage, The                                              419
+Pianist, Notes of a             _Louis M. Gottschalk_
+                                                          177, 350, 573
+Pleiades of Connecticut, The    _F. Sheldon_                        187
+Prose Henriade, A               _Gail Hamilton_                     653
+
+Regnard                         _F. Sheldon_                        700
+Revolution, Diplomacy of the    _Prof. George W. Greene_            576
+Richmond, Late Scenes in        _C. C. Coffin_                      744
+
+St. Mary's, Up the              _T. W. Higginson_                   422
+Sanitary, A Fortnight with the  _G. Reynolds_                       233
+Schumann's Quintette in E Flat Major
+                                _Anne M. Brewster_                  718
+
+Taney, Roger Brooke             _Charles M. Ellis_                  151
+
+Year, The Story of a            _Henry James, Jr._                  257
+
+
+POETRY.
+
+Autumn Walt, My                 _W. C. Bryant_                       20
+
+Carolina Coronado, To                                               698
+Castles                         _T. B. Aldrich_                     622
+
+Down!                           _Henry H. Brownell_                 756
+
+First Citizen, Our              _Oliver Wendell Holmes_             462
+Frozen Harbor, The              _J. T. Trowbridge_                  281
+
+Garnaut Hall                    _T. B. Aldrich_                     182
+God Save the Flag               _O. W. Holmes_                      115
+Going to Sleep                  _Elizabeth A. C. Akers_             680
+Gold Egg.--A Dream Fantasy      _James Russell Lowell_              528
+Grave by the lake, The          _John G. Whittier_                  561
+
+Harpocrates                     _Bayard Taylor_                     662
+Hour of Victory, The                                                371
+
+Jaguar Hunt, The                _J. T. Trowbridge_                  742
+
+Kallundborg Church              _John G. Whittier_                   51
+
+Mantle of St. John de Matha, The
+                                _John G. Whittier_                  162
+Mr. Hosea Biglow to the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly
+                                _James Russell Lowell_              501
+
+Oldest Friend, Our              _O. W. Holmes_                      340
+Old House, The                  _Alice Cary_                        213
+
+Poet, To a, on his Birthday,                                        315
+Pro Patria                      _Epes Sargent_                      232
+
+Rubin Badfellow                 _T. B. Aldrich_                     437
+
+Seventy-Six, On Board the       _James Russell Lowell_              107
+Spaniards' Graves at the Isles of Shoals, The                       406
+
+Wind over the Chimney, The      _Henry W. Longfellow_                 7
+
+
+ART.
+
+Harriet Hosmer's Zenobia        _Fitz-Hugh Ludlow_                  248
+
+
+REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+Beecher's Autobiography                                             631
+Bushnell's Christ and His Salvation                                 377
+Chamberlain's Autobiography of a New England Farm-House             255
+Child's Looking toward Sunset                                       255
+Cobbe's Broken Lights                                               124
+De Vries, Collection. German Series                                 379
+Dewey's Lowell Lectures                                             286
+Frothingham's Philosophy                                            251
+Hodde's Cradle of Rebellions                                        380
+Hosmer's Morrisons                                                  378
+Hunt's Seer                                                         376
+Ingelow's Studies for Stories                                       378
+Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Letters                                     126
+Murdoch's Patriotism in Poetry and Prose                            250
+Reynard the Fox                                                     380
+Russell's Review of Todleben's History                              638
+Sabine's Loyalists of the American Revolution                       123
+Seaside and Fireside Fairies                                        640
+Thackeray's Vanity Fair                                             639
+Thoreau's Cape Cod                                                  381
+Tuckerman's America and her Commentators                            122
+
+RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS                         128, 382, 640, 764
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
+
+_A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics._
+
+
+VOL. XV.--JANUARY, 1865.--NO. LXXXVII.
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by TICKNOR AND
+FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
+Massachusetts.
+
+
+
+
+ANOTHER SCENE FROM THE DOLLIVER ROMANCE.[A]
+
+
+We may now suppose Grandsir Dolliver to have finished his breakfast,
+with a better appetite and sharper perception of the qualities of his
+food than he has generally felt of late years, whether it were due to
+old Martha's cookery or to the cordial of the night before. Little
+Pansie had also made an end of her bread and milk with entire
+satisfaction, and afterwards nibbled a crust, greatly enjoying its
+resistance to her little white teeth.
+
+How this child came by the odd name of Pansie, and whether it was really
+her baptismal name, I have not ascertained. More probably it was one of
+those pet appellations that grow out of a child's character, or out of
+some keen thrill of affection in the parents, an unsought-for and
+unconscious felicity, a kind of revelation, teaching them the true name
+by which the child's guardian angel would know it,--a name with
+playfulness and love in it, that we often observe to supersede, in the
+practice of those who love the child best, the name that they carefully
+selected, and caused the clergyman to plaster indelibly on the poor
+little forehead at the font,--the love-name, whereby, if the child
+lives, the parents know it in their hearts, or by which, if it dies, God
+seems to have called it away, leaving the sound lingering faintly and
+sweetly through the house. In Pansie's case, it may have been a certain
+pensiveness which was sometimes seen under her childish frolic, and so
+translated itself into French, (_pensée_,) her mother having been of
+Acadian kin; or, quite as probably, it alluded merely to the color of
+her eyes, which, in some lights, were very like the dark petals of a
+tuft of pansies in the Doctor's garden. It might well be, indeed, on
+account of the suggested pensiveness; for the child's gayety had example
+to sustain it, no sympathy of other children or grown people,--and her
+melancholy, had it been so dark a feeling, was but the shadow of the
+house and of the old man. If brighter sunshine came, she would brighten
+with it. This morning, surely, as the three companions, Pansie, puss,
+and Grandsir Dolliver, emerged from the shadow of the house into the
+small adjoining enclosure, they seemed all frolicsome alike.
+
+The Doctor, however, was intent over something that had reference to
+his life-long business of drugs. This little spot was the place where he
+was wont to cultivate a variety of herbs supposed to be endowed with
+medicinal virtue. Some of them had been long known in the
+pharmacopoeia of the Old World; and others, in the early days of the
+country, had been adopted by the first settlers from the Indian
+medicine-men, though with fear and even contrition, because these wild
+doctors were supposed to draw their pharmaceutic knowledge from no
+gracious source, the Black Man himself being the principal professor in
+their medical school. From his own experience, however, Dr. Dolliver had
+long since doubted, though he was not bold enough quite to come to the
+conclusion, that Indian shrubs, and the remedies prepared from them,
+were much less perilous than those so freely used in European practice,
+and singularly apt to be followed by results quite as propitious. Into
+such heterodoxy our friend was the more liable to fall because it had
+been taught him early in life by his old master, Dr. Swinnerton, who, at
+those not infrequent times when he indulged a certain unhappy
+predilection for strong waters, had been accustomed to inveigh in terms
+of the most cynical contempt and coarsest ridicule against the practice
+by which he lived, and, as he affirmed, inflicted death on his
+fellow-men. Our old apothecary, though too loyal to the learned
+profession with which he was connected fully to believe this bitter
+judgment, even when pronounced by his revered master, was still so far
+influenced that his conscience was possibly a little easier when making
+a preparation from forest herbs and roots than in the concoction of half
+a score of nauseous poisons into a single elaborate drug, as the fashion
+of that day was.
+
+But there were shrubs in the garden of which he had never ventured to
+make a medical use, nor, indeed, did he know their virtue, although from
+year to year he had tended and fertilized, weeded and pruned them, with
+something like religious care. They were of the rarest character, and
+had been planted by the learned and famous Dr. Swinnerton, who on his
+death-bed, when he left his dwelling and all his abstruse manuscripts to
+his favorite pupil, had particularly directed his attention to this row
+of shrubs. They had been collected by himself from remote countries, and
+had the poignancy of torrid climes in them; and he told him, that,
+properly used, they would be worth all the rest of the legacy a
+hundred-fold. As the apothecary, however, found the manuscripts, in
+which he conjectured there was a treatise on the subject of these
+shrubs, mostly illegible, and quite beyond his comprehension in such
+passages as he succeeded in puzzling out, (partly, perhaps, owing to his
+very imperfect knowledge of Latin, in which language they were written,)
+he had never derived from them any of the promised benefit. And to say
+the truth, remembering that Dr. Swinnerton himself never appeared to
+triturate or decoct or do anything else with the mysterious herbs, our
+old friend was inclined to imagine the weighty commendation of their
+virtues to have been the idly solemn utterance of mental aberration at
+the hour of death. So, with the integrity that belonged to his
+character, he had nurtured them as tenderly as was possible in the
+ungenial climate and soil of New England, putting some of them into pots
+for the winter; but they had rather dwindled than flourished, and he had
+reaped no harvests from them, nor observed them with any degree of
+scientific interest.
+
+His grandson, however, while yet a school-boy, had listened to the old
+man's legend of the miraculous virtues of these plants; and it took so
+firm a hold of his mind, that the row of outlandish vegetables seemed
+rooted in it, and certainly flourished there with richer luxuriance than
+in the soil where they actually grew. The story, acting thus early upon
+his imagination, may be said to have influenced his brief career in
+life, and, perchance, brought about its early close. The young man, in
+the opinion of competent judges, was endowed with remarkable abilities,
+and according to the rumor of the people had wonderful gifts, which
+were proved by the cures he had wrought with remedies of his own
+invention. His talents lay in the direction of scientific analysis and
+inventive combination of chemical powers. While under the pupilage of
+his grandfather, his progress had rapidly gone quite beyond his
+instructor's hope,--leaving him even to tremble at the audacity with
+which he overturned and invented theories, and to wonder at the depth at
+which he wrought beneath the superficialness and mock-mystery of the
+medical science of those days, like a miner sinking his shaft and
+running a hideous peril of the earth caving in above him. Especially did
+he devote himself to these plants; and under his care they had thriven
+beyond all former precedent, bursting into luxuriance of bloom, and most
+of them bearing beautiful flowers, which, however, in two or three
+instances, had the sort of natural repulsiveness that the serpent has in
+its beauty, compelled against its will, as it were, to warn the beholder
+of an unrevealed danger. The young man had long ago, it must be added,
+demanded of his grandfather the documents included in the legacy of
+Professor Swinnerton, and had spent days and nights upon them, growing
+pale over their mystic lore, which seemed the fruit not merely of the
+Professor's own labors, but of those of more ancient sages than he; and
+often a whole volume seemed to be compressed within the limits of a few
+lines of crabbed manuscript, judging from the time which it cost even
+the quick-minded student to decipher them.
+
+Meantime these abstruse investigations had not wrought such disastrous
+effects as might have been feared, in causing Edward Dolliver to neglect
+the humble trade, the conduct of which his grandfather had now
+relinquished almost entirely into his hands. On the contrary, with the
+mere side results of his study, or what may be called the chips and
+shavings of his real work, he created a prosperity quite beyond anything
+that his simple-minded predecessor had ever hoped for, even at the most
+sanguine epoch of his life. The young man's adventurous endowments were
+miraculously alive, and connecting themselves with his remarkable
+ability for solid research, and perhaps his conscience being as yet
+imperfectly developed, (as it sometimes lies dormant in the young,) he
+spared not to produce compounds which, if the names were anywise to be
+trusted, would supersede all other remedies, and speedily render any
+medicine a needless thing, making the trade of apothecary an untenable
+one, and the title of Doctor obsolete. Whether there was real efficacy
+in these nostrums, and whether their author himself had faith in them,
+is more than can safely be said; but at all events, the public believed
+in them, and thronged to the old and dim sign of the Brazen Serpent,
+which, though hitherto familiar to them and their forefathers, now
+seemed to shine with auspicious lustre, as if its old Scriptural virtues
+were renewed. If any faith was to be put in human testimony, many
+marvellous cures were really performed, the fame of which spread far and
+wide, and caused demands for these medicines to come in from places far
+beyond the precincts of the little town. Our old apothecary, now
+degraded by the overshadowing influence of his grandson's character to a
+position not much above that of a shop-boy, stood behind the counter
+with a face sad and distrustful, and yet with an odd kind of fitful
+excitement in it, as if he would have liked to enjoy this new
+prosperity, had he dared. Then his venerable figure was to be seen
+dispensing these questionable compounds by the single bottle and by the
+dozen, wronging his simple conscience as he dealt out what he feared was
+trash or worse, shrinking from the reproachful eyes of every ancient
+physician who might chance to be passing by, but withal examining
+closely the silver or the New England coarsely printed bills which he
+took in payment, as if apprehensive that the delusive character of the
+commodity which he sold might be balanced by equal counterfeiting in the
+money received, or as if his faith in all things were shaken.
+
+Is it not possible that this gifted young man had indeed found out those
+remedies which Nature has provided and laid away for the cure of every
+ill?
+
+The disastrous termination of the most brilliant epoch that ever came to
+the Brazen Serpent must be told in a few words. One night, Edward
+Dolliver's young wife awoke, and, seeing the gray dawn creeping into the
+chamber, while her husband, it should seem, was still engaged in his
+laboratory, arose in her night-dress, and went to the door of the room
+to put in her gentle remonstrance against such labor. There she found
+him dead,--sunk down out of his chair upon the hearth, where were some
+ashes, apparently of burnt manuscripts, which appeared to comprise most
+of those included in Doctor Swinnerton's legacy, though one or two had
+fallen near the heap, and lay merely scorched beside it. It seemed as if
+he had thrown them into the fire, under a sudden impulse, in a great
+hurry and passion. It may be that he had come to the perception of
+something fatally false and deceptive in the successes which he had
+appeared to win, and was too proud and too conscientious to survive it.
+Doctors were called in, but had no power to revive him. An inquest was
+held, at which the jury, under the instruction, perhaps, of those same
+revengeful doctors, expressed the opinion that the poor young man, being
+given to strange contrivances with poisonous drugs, had died by
+incautiously tasting them himself. This verdict, and the terrible event
+itself, at once deprived the medicines of all their popularity; and the
+poor old apothecary was no longer under any necessity of disturbing his
+conscience by selling them. They at once lost their repute, and ceased
+to be in any demand. In the few instances in which they were tried the
+experiment was followed by no good results; and even those individuals
+who had fancied themselves cured, and had been loudest in spreading the
+praises of these beneficent compounds, now, as if for the utter
+demolition of the poor youth's credit, suffered under a recurrence of
+the worst symptoms, and, in more than one case, perished miserably:
+insomuch (for the days of witchcraft were still within the memory of
+living men and women) it was the general opinion that Satan had been
+personally concerned in this affliction, and that the Brazen Serpent, so
+long honored among them, was really the type of his subtle malevolence
+and perfect iniquity. It was rumored even that all preparations that
+came from the shop were harmful,--that teeth decayed that had been made
+pearly white by the use of the young chemist's dentifrice,--that cheeks
+were freckled that had been changed to damask roses by his
+cosmetics,--that hair turned gray or fell off that had become black,
+glossy, and luxuriant from the application of his mixtures,--that breath
+which his drugs had sweetened had now a sulphurous smell. Moreover, all
+the money heretofore amassed by the sale of them had been exhausted by
+Edward Dolliver in his lavish expenditure for the processes of his
+study; and nothing was left for Pansie, except a few valueless and
+unsalable bottles of medicine, and one or two others, perhaps more
+recondite than their inventor had seen fit to offer to the public.
+Little Pansie's mother lived but a short time after the shock of the
+terrible catastrophe; and, as we began our story with saying, she was
+left with no better guardianship or support than might be found in the
+efforts of a long superannuated man.
+
+Nothing short of the simplicity, integrity, and piety of Grandsir
+Dolliver's character, known and acknowledged as far back as the oldest
+inhabitants remembered anything, and inevitably discoverable by the
+dullest and most prejudiced observers, in all its natural
+manifestations, could have protected him in still creeping about the
+streets. So far as he was personally concerned, however, all bitterness
+and suspicion had speedily passed away; and there remained still the
+careless and neglectful good-will, and the prescriptive reverence, not
+altogether reverential, which the world heedlessly awards to the
+unfortunate individual who outlives his generation.
+
+And now that we have shown the reader sufficiently, or at least to the
+best of our knowledge, and perhaps at tedious length, what was the
+present position of Grandsir Dolliver, we may let our story pass onward,
+though at such a pace as suits the feeble gait of an old man.
+
+The peculiarly brisk sensation of this morning, to which we have more
+than once alluded, enabled the Doctor to toil pretty vigorously at his
+medicinal herbs,--his catnip, his vervain, and the like; but he did not
+turn his attention to the row of mystic plants, with which so much of
+trouble and sorrow either was, or appeared to be, connected. In truth,
+his old soul was sick of them, and their very fragrance, which the warm
+sunshine made strongly perceptible, was odious to his nostrils. But the
+spicy, homelike scent of his other herbs, the English simples, was
+grateful to him, and so was the earth-smell, as he turned up the soil
+about their roots, and eagerly snuffed it in. Little Pansie, on the
+other hand, perhaps scandalized at great-grandpapa's neglect of the
+prettiest plants in his garden, resolved to do her small utmost towards
+balancing his injustice; so, with an old shingle, fallen from the roof,
+which she had appropriated as her agricultural tool, she began to dig
+about them, pulling up the weeds, as she saw grandpapa doing. The
+kitten, too, with a look of elfish sagacity, lent her assistance, plying
+her paws with vast haste and efficiency at the roots of one of the
+shrubs. This particular one was much smaller than the rest, perhaps
+because it was a native of the torrid zone, and required greater care
+than the others to make it nourish; so that, shrivelled, cankered, and
+scarcely showing a green leaf, both Pansie and the kitten probably
+mistook it for a weed. After their joint efforts had made a pretty big
+trench about it, the little girl seized the shrub with both hands,
+bestriding it with her plump little legs, and giving so vigorous a pull,
+that, long accustomed to be transplanted annually, it came up by the
+roots, and little Pansie came down in a sitting posture, making a broad
+impress on the soft earth. "See, see, Doctor!" cries Pansie, comically
+enough giving him his title of courtesy,--"look, grandpapa, the big,
+naughty weed!"
+
+Now the Doctor had at once a peculiar dread and a peculiar value for
+this identical shrub, both because his grandson's investigations had
+been applied more ardently to it than to all the rest, and because it
+was associated in his mind with an ancient and sad recollection. For he
+had never forgotten that his wife, the early lost, had once taken a
+fancy to wear its flowers, day after day, through the whole season of
+their bloom, in her bosom, where they glowed like a gem, and deepened
+her somewhat pallid beauty with a richness never before seen in it. At
+least such was the effect which this tropical flower imparted to the
+beloved form in his memory, and thus it somehow both brightened and
+wronged her. This had happened not long before her death; and whenever,
+in the subsequent years, this plant had brought its annual flower, it
+had proved a kind of talisman to bring up the image of Bessie, radiant
+with this glow that did not really belong to her naturally passive
+beauty, quickly interchanging with another image of her form, with the
+snow of death on cheek and forehead. This reminiscence had remained
+among the things of which the Doctor was always conscious, but had never
+breathed a word, through the whole of his long life,--a sprig of
+sensibility that perhaps helped to keep him tenderer and purer than
+other men, who entertain no such follies. And the sight of the shrub
+often brought back the faint, golden gleam of her hair, as if her spirit
+were in the sun-lights of the garden, quivering into view and out of it.
+And therefore, when he saw what Pansie had done, he sent forth a
+strange, inarticulate, hoarse, tremulous exclamation, a sort of aged and
+decrepit cry of mingled emotion. "Naughty Pansie, to pull up grandpapa's
+flower!" said he, as soon as he could speak. "Poison, Pansie, poison!
+Fling it away, child!"
+
+And dropping his spade, the old gentleman scrambled towards the little
+girl as quickly as his rusty joints would let him,--while Pansie, as
+apprehensive and quick of motion as a fawn, started up with a shriek of
+mirth and fear to escape him. It so happened that the garden-gate was
+ajar; and a puff of wind blowing it wide open, she escaped through this
+fortuitous avenue, followed by great-grandpapa and the kitten.
+
+"Stop, naughty Pansie, stop!" shouted our old friend. "You will tumble
+into the grave!" The kitten, with the singular sensitiveness that seems
+to affect it at every kind of excitement, was now on her back.
+
+And, indeed, this portentous warning was better grounded and had a more
+literal meaning than might be supposed; for the swinging gate
+communicated with the burial-ground, and almost directly in little
+Pansie's track there was a newly dug grave, ready to receive its tenant
+that afternoon. Pansie, however, fled onward with outstretched arms,
+half in fear, half in fun, plying her round little legs with wonderful
+promptitude, as if to escape Time or Death, in the person of Grandsir
+Dolliver, and happily avoiding the ominous pitfall that lies in every
+person's path, till, hearing a groan from her pursuer, she looked over
+her shoulder, and saw that poor grandpapa had stumbled over one of the
+many hillocks. She then suddenly wrinkled up her little visage, and sent
+forth a full-breathed roar of sympathy and alarm.
+
+"Grandpapa has broken his neck now!" cried little Pansie, amid her sobs.
+
+"Kiss grandpapa, and make it well, then," said the old gentleman,
+recollecting her remedy, and scrambling up more readily than could be
+expected. "Well," he murmured to himself, "a hair's-breadth more, and I
+should have been tumbled into yonder grave. Poor little Pansie! what
+wouldst thou have done then?"
+
+"Make the grass grow over grandpapa," answered Pansie, laughing up in
+his face.
+
+"Poh, poh, child, that is not a pretty thing to say," said grandpapa,
+pettishly and disappointed, as people are apt to be when they try to
+calculate on the fitful sympathies of childhood. "Come, you must go in
+to old Martha now."
+
+The poor old gentleman was in the more haste to leave the spot because
+he found himself standing right in front of his own peculiar row of
+gravestones, consisting of eight or nine slabs of slate, adorned with
+carved borders rather rudely cut, and the earliest one, that of his
+Bessie, bending aslant, because the frost of so many winters had slowly
+undermined it. Over one grave of the row, that of his gifted grandson,
+there was no memorial. He felt a strange repugnance, stronger than he
+had ever felt before, to linger by these graves, and had none of the
+tender sorrow mingled with high and tender hopes that had sometimes made
+it seem good to him to be there. Such moods, perhaps, often come to the
+aged, when the hardened earth-crust over their souls shuts them out from
+spiritual influences.
+
+Taking the child by the hand,--her little effervescence of infantile fun
+having passed into a downcast humor, though not well knowing as yet what
+a dusky cloud of disheartening fancies arose from these green
+hillocks,--he went heavily toward the garden-gate. Close to its
+threshold, so that one who was issuing forth or entering must needs step
+upon it or over it, lay a small flat stone, deeply imbedded in the
+ground, and partly covered with grass, inscribed with the name of "Dr.
+John Swinnerton, Physician."
+
+"Ay," said the old man, as the well-remembered figure of his ancient
+instructor seemed to rise before him in his grave-apparel, with beard
+and gold-headed cane, black velvet doublet and cloak, "here lies a man
+who, as people have thought, had it in his power to avoid the grave! He
+had no little grandchild to tease him. He had the choice to die, and
+chose it."
+
+So the old gentleman led Pansie over the stone, and carefully closed
+the gate; and, as it happened, he forgot the uprooted shrub, which
+Pansie, as she ran, had flung away, and which had fallen into the open
+grave; and when the funeral came that afternoon, the coffin was let down
+upon it, so that its bright, inauspicious flower never bloomed again.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] See July number, 1864, of this Magazine, for the first chapter of
+the story. The portion now published was not revised by the author, but
+is printed from his first draught.
+
+
+
+
+THE WIND OVER THE CHIMNEY.
+
+
+    See, the fire is sinking low,
+    Dusky red the embers glow,
+      While above them still I cower,--
+    While a moment more I linger,
+    Though the clock, with lifted finger,
+      Points beyond the midnight hour.
+
+    Sings the blackened log a tune
+    Learned in some forgotten June
+      From a school-boy at his play,
+    When they both were young together,
+    Heart of youth and summer weather
+      Making all their holiday.
+
+    And the night-wind rising, hark!
+    How above there in the dark,
+      In the midnight and the snow,
+    Ever wilder, fiercer, grander,
+    Like the trumpets of Iskander,
+      All the noisy chimneys blow!
+
+    Every quivering tongue of flame
+    Seems to murmur some great name,
+      Seems to say to me, "Aspire!"
+    But the night-wind answers,--"Hollow
+    Are the visions that you follow,
+      Into darkness sinks your fire!"
+
+    Then the flicker of the blaze
+    Gleams on volumes of old days,
+      Written by masters of the art,
+    Loud through whose majestic pages
+    Rolls the melody of ages,
+      Throb the harp-strings of the heart.
+
+    And again the tongues of flame
+    Start exulting and exclaim,--
+      "These are prophets, bards, and seers;
+    In the horoscope of nations,
+    Like ascendant constellations,
+      They control the coming years."
+
+    But the night-wind cries,--"Despair!
+    Those who walk with feet of air
+      Leave no long-enduring marks;
+    At God's forges incandescent
+    Mighty hammers beat incessant,
+      These are but the flying sparks.
+
+    "Dust are all the hands that wrought;
+    Books are sepulchres of thought;
+      The dead laurels of the dead
+    Rustle for a moment only,
+    Like the withered leaves in lonely
+      Church-yards at some passing tread."
+
+    Suddenly the flame sinks down;
+    Sink the rumors of renown;
+      And alone the night-wind drear
+    Clamors louder, wilder, vaguer,--
+    "'T is the brand of Meleager
+      Dying on the hearth-stone here!"
+
+    And I answer,--"Though it be,
+    Why should that discomfort me?
+      No endeavor is in vain;
+    Its reward is in the doing,
+    And the rapture of pursuing
+      Is the prize the vanquished gain?"
+
+
+
+
+BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA.
+
+    "Pushed off from one shore, and not yet landed on the other."
+                                         _Russian Proverb._
+
+
+The railroad from Moscow to Nijni-Novgorod had been opened but a
+fortnight before. It was scarcely finished, indeed; for, in order to
+facilitate travel during the continuance of the Great Fair at the latter
+place, the gaps in the line, left by unbuilt bridges, were filled up
+with temporary trestle-work. The one daily express-train was so thronged
+that it required much exertion, and the freest use of the envoy's
+prestige, to secure a private carriage for our party. The sun was
+sinking over the low, hazy ridge of the Sparrow Hills as we left Moscow;
+and we enjoyed one more glimpse of the inexhaustible splendor of the
+city's thousand golden domes and pinnacles, softened by luminous smoke
+and transfigured dust, before the dark woods of fir intervened, and the
+twilight sank down on cold and lonely landscapes.
+
+Thence, until darkness, there was nothing more to claim attention.
+Whoever has seen one landscape of Central Russia is familiar with three
+fourths of the whole region. Nowhere else--not even on the levels of
+Illinois--are the same features so constantly reproduced. One long, low
+swell of earth succeeds to another; it is rare that any other woods
+than birch and fir are seen; the cleared land presents a continuous
+succession of pasture, rye, wheat, potatoes, and cabbages; and the
+villages are as like as peas, in their huts of unpainted logs,
+clustering around a white church with five green domes. It is a monotony
+which nothing but the richest culture can prevent from becoming
+tiresome. Culture is to Nature what good manners are to man, rendering
+poverty of character endurable.
+
+Stationing a servant at the door to prevent intrusion at the
+way-stations, we let down the curtains before our windows, and secured a
+comfortable privacy for the night, whence we issued only once, during a
+halt for supper. I entered the refreshment-room with very slender
+expectations, but was immediately served with plump partridges, tender
+cutlets, and green peas. The Russians made a rush for the great
+_samovar_ (tea-urn) of brass, which shone from one end of the long
+table; and presently each had his tumbler of scalding tea, with a slice
+of lemon floating on the top. These people drink beverages of a
+temperature which would take the skin off Anglo-Saxon mouths. My tongue
+was more than once blistered, on beginning to drink after they had
+emptied their glasses. There is no station without its steaming samovar;
+and some persons, I verily believe, take their thirty-three hot teas
+between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
+
+There is not much choice of dishes in the interior of Russia; but what
+one does get is sure to be tolerably good. Even on the Beresina and the
+Dnieper I have always fared better than at most of the places in our
+country where "Ten minutes for refreshments!" is announced day by day
+and year by year. Better a single beef-steak, where tenderness is, than
+a stalled ox, all gristle and grease. But then our cooking (for the
+public at least) is notoriously the worst in the civilized world; and I
+can safely pronounce the Russian better, without commending it very
+highly.
+
+Some time in the night we passed the large town of Vladimir, and with
+the rising sun were well on our way to the Volga. I pushed aside the
+curtains, and looked out, to see what changes a night's travel had
+wrought in the scenery. It was a pleasant surprise. On the right stood a
+large, stately residence, embowered in gardens and orchards; while
+beyond it, stretching away to the south-east, opened a broad, shallow
+valley. The sweeping hills on either side were dotted with shocks of
+rye; and their thousands of acres of stubble shone like gold in the
+level rays. Herds of cattle were pasturing in the meadows, and the
+peasants (serfs no longer) were straggling out of the villages to their
+labor in the fields. The crosses and polished domes of churches sparkled
+on the horizon. Here the patches of primitive forest were of larger
+growth, the trunks cleaner and straighter, than we had yet seen. Nature
+was half conquered, in spite of the climate, and, the first time since
+leaving St. Petersburg, wore a habitable aspect. I recognized some of
+the features of Russian country-life, which Puschkin describes so
+charmingly in his poem of "Eugene Onägin."
+
+The agricultural development of Russia has been greatly retarded by the
+indifference of the nobility, whose vast estates comprise the best land
+of the empire, in those provinces where improvements might be most
+easily introduced. Although a large portion of the noble families pass
+their summers in the country, they use the season as a period of
+physical and pecuniary recuperation from the dissipations of the past,
+and preparation for those of the coming winter. Their possessions are so
+large (those of Count Scheremetieff, for instance, contain one hundred
+and thirty thousand inhabitants) that they push each other too far apart
+for social intercourse; and they consequently live _en déshabillé_,
+careless of the great national interests in their hands. There is a
+class of our Southern planters which seems to have adopted a very
+similar mode of life,--families which shabbily starve for ten months, in
+order to make a lordly show at "the Springs" for the other two. A most
+accomplished Russian lady, the Princess D----, said to me,--"The want of
+an active, intelligent country society is our greatest misfortune. Our
+estates thus become a sort of exile. The few, here and there, who try to
+improve the condition of the people, through the improvement of the
+soil, are not supported by their neighbors, and lose heart. The more we
+gain in the life of the capital, the more we are oppressed by the
+solitude and stagnation of the life of the country."
+
+This open, cheerful region continued through the morning. The railroad
+was still a novelty; and the peasants everywhere dropped their scythes
+and shovels to see the train pass. Some bowed with the profoundest
+gravity. They were a fine, healthy, strapping race of men, only of
+medium height, but admirably developed in chest and limbs, and with
+shrewd, intelligent faces. Content, not stupidity, is the cause of their
+stationary condition. They are not yet a people, but the germ of one,
+and, as such, present a grand field for anthropological studies.
+
+Towards noon the road began to descend, by easy grades, from the fair,
+rolling uplands into a lower and wilder region. When the train stopped,
+women and children whose swarthy skin and black eyes betrayed a mixture
+of Tartar blood made their appearance, with wooden bowls of cherries and
+huckleberries for sale. These bowls were neatly carved and painted. They
+were evidently held in high value; for I had great difficulty in
+purchasing one. We moved slowly, on account of the many skeleton
+bridges; but presently a long blue ridge, which for an hour past had
+followed us in the south-east, began to curve around to our front. I now
+knew that it must mark the course of the Oka River, and that we were
+approaching Nijni-Novgorod.
+
+We soon saw the river itself; then houses and gardens scattered along
+the slope of the hill; then clusters of sparkling domes on the summit;
+then a stately, white-walled citadel; and the end of the ridge was
+levelled down in an even line to the Volga. We were three hundred miles
+from Moscow, on the direct road to Siberia.
+
+The city being on the farther side of the Oka, the railroad terminates
+at the Fair, which is a separate city, occupying the triangular level
+between the two rivers. Our approach to it was first announced by heaps
+of cotton-bales, bound in striped camel's-hair cloth, which had found
+their way hither from the distant valleys of Turkestan and the warm
+plains of Bukharia. Nearly fifty thousand camels are employed in the
+transportation of this staple across the deserts of the Aral to
+Orenburg,--a distance of a thousand miles. The increase of price had
+doubled the production since the previous year, and the amount which now
+reaches the factories of Russia through this channel cannot be less than
+seventy-five thousand bales. The advance of modern civilization has so
+intertwined the interests of all zones and races, that a civil war in
+the United States affects the industry of Central Asia!
+
+Next to these cotton-bales, which, to us, silently proclaimed the
+downfall of that arrogant monopoly which has caused all our present woe,
+came the representatives of those who produced them. Groups of
+picturesque Asians--Bashkirs, Persians, Bukharians, and Uzbeks--appeared
+on either side, staring impassively at the wonderful apparition. Though
+there was sand under their feet, they seemed out of place in the sharp
+north-wind and among the hills of fir and pine.
+
+The train stopped: we had reached the station. As I stepped upon the
+platform, I saw, over the level lines of copper roofs, the dragon-like
+pinnacles of Chinese buildings, and the white minaret of a mosque. Here
+was the certainty of a picturesque interest to balance the uncertainty
+of our situation. We had been unable to engage quarters in advance:
+there were two hundred thousand strangers before us, in a city the
+normal population of which is barely forty thousand; and four of our
+party were ladies. The envoy, indeed, might claim the Governor's
+hospitality; but our visit was to be so brief that we had no time to
+expend on ceremonies, and preferred rambling at will through the teeming
+bazaars to being led about under the charge of an official escort.
+
+A friend at Moscow, however, had considerately telegraphed in our behalf
+to a French resident of Nijni, and the latter gentleman met us at the
+station. He could give but slight hope of quarters for the night, but
+generously offered his services. Droshkies were engaged to convey us to
+the old city, on the hill beyond the Oka; and, crowded two by two into
+the shabby little vehicles, we set forth. The sand was knee-deep, and
+the first thing that happened was the stoppage of our procession by the
+tumbling down of the several horses. They were righted with the help of
+some obliging spectators; and with infinite labor we worked through this
+strip of desert into a region of mud, with a hard, stony bottom
+somewhere between us and the earth's centre. The street we entered,
+though on the outskirts of the Fair, resembled Broadway on a
+sensation-day. It was choked with a crowd, composed of the sweepings of
+Europe and Asia. Our horses thrust their heads between the shoulders of
+Christians, Jews, Moslem, and Pagans, slowly shoving their way towards
+the floating bridge, which was a jam of vehicles from end to end. At the
+corners of the streets, the wiry Don Cossacks, in their dashing blue
+uniforms and caps of black lamb's-wool, regulated, as best they could,
+the movements of the multitude. It was curious to notice how they, and
+their small, well-knit horses,--the equine counterparts of
+themselves,--controlled the fierce, fiery life which flashed from every
+limb and feature, and did their duty with wonderful patience and
+gentleness. They seemed so many spirits of Disorder tamed to the service
+of Order.
+
+It was nearly half an hour before we reached the other end of the
+bridge, and struck the superb inclined highway which leads to the top of
+the hill. We were unwashed and hungry; and neither the tumult of the
+lower town, nor the view of the Volga, crowded with vessels of all
+descriptions, had power to detain us. Our brave little horses bent
+themselves to the task; for task it really was,--the road rising between
+three and four hundred feet in less than half a mile. Advantage has been
+taken of a slight natural ravine, formed by a short, curving spur of the
+hill, which encloses a _pocket_ of the greenest and richest foliage,--a
+bit of unsuspected beauty, quite invisible from the other side of the
+river. Then, in order to reach the level of the Kremlin, the road is led
+through an artificial gap, a hundred feet in depth, to the open square
+in the centre of the city.
+
+Here, all was silent and deserted. There were broad, well-paved streets,
+substantial houses, the square towers and crenellated walls of the old
+Kremlin, and the glittering cupolas of twenty-six churches before us,
+and a lack of population which contrasted amazingly with the whirlpool
+of life below. Monsieur D., our new, but most faithful friend, took us
+to the hotel, every corner and cranny of which was occupied. There was a
+possibility of breakfast only, and water was obtained with great
+exertion. While we were lazily enjoying a tolerable meal, Monsieur D.
+was bestirring himself in all quarters, and came back to us radiant with
+luck. He had found four rooms in a neighboring street; and truly, if one
+were to believe De Custine or Dumas, such rooms are impossible in
+Russia. Charmingly clean, elegantly furnished, with sofas of green
+leather and beds of purest linen, they would hive satisfied the severe
+eye of an English housekeeper. We thanked both our good friend and St.
+Macarius (who presides over the Fair) for this fortune, took possession,
+and then hired fresh droshkies to descend the hill.
+
+On emerging from the ravine, we obtained a bird's-eye view of the whole
+scene. The waters of both rivers, near at hand, were scarcely visible
+through the shipping which covered them. Vessels from the Neva, the
+Caspian, and the rivers of the Ural, were here congregated; and they
+alone represented a floating population of between thirty and forty
+thousand souls. The Fair, from this point, resembled an immense flat
+city,--the streets of booths being of a uniform height,--out of which
+rose the great Greek church, the Tartar mosque, and the curious Chinese
+roofs. It was a vast, dark, humming plain, vanishing towards the west
+and north-west in clouds of sand. By this time there was a lull in the
+business, and we made our way to the central bazaar with less trouble
+than we had anticipated. It is useless to attempt an enumeration of the
+wares exposed for sale: they embraced everything grown, trapped, or
+manufactured, between Ireland and Japan. We sought, of course, the
+Asiatic elements, which first met us in the shape of melons from
+Astrachan, and grapes from the southern slopes of the Caucasus. Then
+came wondrous stuffs from the looms of Turkestan and Cashmere,
+turquoises from the Upper Oxus, and glittering strings of Siberian topaz
+and amethyst, side by side with Nuremberg toys, Lyons silks, and
+Sheffield cutlery. About one third of the population of the Fair was of
+Asiatic blood, embracing representatives from almost every tribe north
+and west of the Himalayas.
+
+This temporary city, which exists during only two months of the year,
+contained two hundred thousand inhabitants at the time of our visit.
+During the remaining ten months it is utterly depopulated, the bazaars
+are closed, and chains are drawn across the streets to prevent the
+passage of vehicles. A single statement will give an idea of its extent:
+the combined length of the streets is twenty-five miles. The Great
+Bazaar is substantially built of stone, after the manner of those in
+Constantinople, except that it encloses an open court, where a
+Government band performs every afternoon. Here the finer wares are
+displayed, and the shadowed air under the vaulted roofs is a very
+kaleidoscope for shifting color and sparkle. Tea, cotton, leather, wool,
+and the other heavier and coarser commodities, have their separate
+streets and quarters. The several nationalities are similarly divided,
+to some extent; but the stranger, of course, prefers to see them
+jostling together in the streets,--a Babel, not only of tongues, but of
+feature, character, and costume.
+
+Our ladies were eager to inspect the stock of jewelry, especially those
+heaps of exquisite color with which the Mohammedans very logically load
+the trees of Paradise; for they resemble fruit in a glorified state of
+existence. One can imagine virtuous grapes promoted to amethysts,
+blueberries to turquoises, cherries to rubies, and green-gages to
+aqua-marine. These, the secondary jewels, (with the exception of the
+ruby,) are brought in great quantities from Siberia, but most of them
+are marred by slight flaws or other imperfections, so that their
+cheapness is more apparent than real. An amethyst an inch long, throwing
+the most delicious purple light from its hundreds of facets, quite takes
+you captive, and you put your hand in your pocket for the fifteen
+dollars which shall make you its possessor; but a closer inspection is
+sure to show you either a broad transverse flaw, or a spot where the
+color fades into transparency. The white topaz, known as the "Siberian
+diamond," is generally flawless, and the purest specimens are scarcely
+to be distinguished from the genuine brilliant. A necklace of these,
+varying from a half to a quarter of an inch in diameter, may be had for
+about twenty-five dollars. There were also golden and smoky topaz and
+beryl, in great profusion.
+
+A princely Bashkir drew us to his booth, first by his beauty and then by
+his noble manners. He was the very incarnation of Boker's "Prince Adeb."
+
+    The girls of Damar paused to see me pass,
+    I walking in my rags, yet beautiful.
+    One maiden said, 'He has a prince's air!'
+    I am a prince; the air was all my own.
+
+This Bashkir, however, was not in rags; he was elegantly attired. His
+silken vest was bound with a girdle of gold-thread studded with jewels;
+and over it he wore a caftan, with wide sleeves, of the finest dark-blue
+cloth. The round cap of black lamb's-wool became his handsome head. His
+complexion was pale olive, through which the red of his cheeks shone, in
+the words of some Oriental poem, "like a rose-leaf through oil"; and his
+eyes, in their dark fire, were more lustrous than smoky topaz. His voice
+was mellow and musical, and his every movement and gesture a new
+revelation of human grace. Among thousands, yea, tens of thousands, of
+handsome men, he stood preëminent.
+
+As our acquaintance ripened, he drew a pocket-book from his bosom, and
+showed us his choicest treasures: turquoises, bits of wonderful blue
+heavenly forget-me-nots; a jacinth, burning like a live coal, in scarlet
+light; and lastly, a perfect ruby, which no sum less than twenty-five
+hundred dollars could purchase. From him we learned the curious
+fluctuations of fashion in regard to jewels. Turquoises were just then
+in the ascendant; and one of the proper tint, the size of a
+parsnip-seed, could not be had for a hundred dollars, the full value of
+a diamond of equal size. Amethysts of a deep plum-color, though less
+beautiful than the next paler shade, command very high prices; while
+jacinth, beryl, and aqua-marine--stones of exquisite hue and lustre--are
+cheap. But then, in this department, as in all others, Fashion and
+Beauty are not convertible terms.
+
+In the next booth there were two Persians, who unfolded before our eyes
+some of those marvellous shawls, where you forget the barbaric pattern
+in the exquisite fineness of the material and the triumphant harmony of
+the colors. Scarlet with palm-leaf border,--blue clasped by golden
+bronze, picked out with red,--browns, greens, and crimsons struggling
+for the mastery in a war of tints,--how should we choose between them?
+Alas! we were not able to choose: they were a thousand dollars apiece!
+But the Persians still went on unfolding, taking our admiration in pay
+for their trouble, and seeming even, by their pleasant smiles, to
+consider themselves well paid. When we came to the booths of European
+merchants, we were swiftly impressed with the fact that civilization, in
+following the sun westward, loses its grace in proportion as it
+advances. The gentle dignity, the serene patience, the soft, fraternal,
+affectionate demeanor of our Asiatic brethren vanished utterly when we
+encountered French and German salesmen; and yet these latter would have
+seemed gracious and courteous, had there been a few Yankee dealers
+beyond them. The fourth or fifth century, which still exists in Central
+Asia, was undoubtedly, in this particular, superior to the nineteenth.
+No gentleman, since his time, I suspect, has equalled Adam.
+
+Among these Asiatics Mr. Buckle would have some difficulty in
+maintaining his favorite postulate, that tolerance is the result of
+progressive intelligence. It is also the result of courtesy, as we may
+occasionally see in well-bred persons of limited intellect. Such,
+undoubtedly, is the basis of that tolerance which no one who has had
+much personal intercourse with the Semitic races can have failed to
+experience. The days of the sword and fagot are past; but it was
+reserved for Christians to employ them in the name of religion _alone_.
+Local or political jealousies are at the bottom of those troubles which
+still occur from time to time in Turkey: the traveller hears no
+insulting epithet, and the green-turbaned Imam will receive him as
+kindly and courteously as the sceptical Bey educated in Paris. I have
+never been so aggressively assailed, on religious grounds, as at
+home,--never so coarsely and insultingly treated, on account of a
+_presumed_ difference of opinion, as by those who claim descent from the
+Cavaliers. The bitter fierceness of some of our leading reformers is
+overlooked by their followers, because it springs from "earnest
+conviction"; but in the Orient intensest faith coexists with the most
+gracious and gentle manners.
+
+Be not impatient, beloved reader; for this digression brings me
+naturally to the next thing we saw at Novgorod. As we issued from the
+bazaar, the sunlit minaret greeted us through whirling dust and rising
+vapor, and I fancied I could hear the muezzin's musical cry. It was
+about time for the _asser_ prayer. Droshkies were found, and we rode
+slowly through the long, low warehouses of "caravan tea" and Mongolian
+wool to the mound near the Tartar encampment. The mosque was a plain,
+white, octagonal building, conspicuous only through its position. The
+turbaned faithful were already gathering; and we entered, and walked up
+the steps among them, without encountering an unfriendly glance. At the
+door stood two Cossack soldiers, specially placed there to prevent the
+worshippers from being insulted by curious Christians. (Those who have
+witnessed the wanton profanation of mosques in India by the English
+officers will please notice this fact.) If we had not put off our shoes
+before entering the hall of worship, the Cossacks would have performed
+that operation for us.
+
+I am happy to say that none of our party lacked a proper reverence for
+devotion, though it was offered through the channels of an alien creed.
+The ladies left their gaiters beside our boots, and we all stood in our
+stockings on the matting, a little in the rear of the kneeling crowd.
+The priest occupied a low dais in front, but he simply led the prayer,
+which was uttered by all. The windows were open, and the sun poured a
+golden flood into the room. Yonder gleamed the Kremlin of Novgorod,
+yonder rolled the Volga, all around were the dark forests of the
+North,--yet their faces were turned, and their thoughts went southward,
+to where Mecca sits among the burning hills, in the feathery shade of
+her palm-trees. And the tongue of Mecca came from their lips, _"Allah!"
+"Allah akhbar!"_ as the knee bent and the forehead touched the floor.
+
+At the second repetition of the prayers we quietly withdrew; and good
+Monsieur D., forgetful of nothing, suggested that preparations had been
+made for a dinner in the great cosmopolitan restaurant. So we drove back
+again through the Chinese street, with its red horned houses, the roofs
+terminating in gilded dragons' tails, and, after pressing through a
+dense multitude enveloped in tobacco-smoke and the steam of tea-urns,
+found ourselves at last in a low room with a shaky floor and muslin
+ceiling. It was an exact copy of the dining-room of a California hotel.
+If we looked blank a moment, Monsieur D.'s smile reassured us. He had
+given all the necessary orders, he said, and would step out and secure a
+box in the theatre before the _zakouski_ was served. During his absence,
+we looked out of the window on either side upon surging, whirling,
+humming pictures of the Great Fair, all vanishing in perspectives of
+dust and mist.
+
+In half an hour our friend returned, and with him entered the zakouski.
+I cannot remember half the appetizing ingredients of which it was
+composed: anchovies, sardines, herrings, capers, cheese, caviare, _paté
+de foie_, pickles, cherries, oranges, and olives, were among them.
+Instead of being a prelude to dinner, it was almost a dinner in itself.
+Then, after a Russian soup, which always contains as much solid
+nutriment as meat-biscuit or Arctic pemmican, came the glory of the
+repast, a mighty _sterlet_, which was swimming in Volga water when we
+took our seats at the table. This fish, the exclusive property of
+Russia, is, in times of scarcity, worth its weight in silver. Its
+unapproachable flavor is supposed to be as evanescent as the hues of a
+dying dolphin. Frequently, at grand dinner-parties, it is carried around
+the table in a little tank, and exhibited, _alive_, to the guests, when
+their soup is served, that its freshness, ten minutes afterwards, may be
+put beyond suspicion. The fish has the appearance of a small, lean
+sturgeon; but its flesh resembles the melting pulp of a fruit rather
+than the fibre of its watery brethren. It sinks into juice upon the
+tongue, like a perfectly ripe peach. In this quality no other fish in
+the world can approach it; yet I do not think the flavor quite so fine
+as that of a brook-trout. Our sterlet was nearly two feet long, and may
+have cost twenty or thirty dollars.
+
+With it appeared an astonishing salad, composed of watermelons,
+cantaloupes, pickled cherries, cucumbers, and certain spicy herbs. Its
+color and odor were enticing, and we had all applied the test of taste
+most satisfactorily before we detected the curious mixture of
+ingredients. After the second course,--a ragout of beef, accompanied
+with a rich, elaborate sauce,--three heavy tankards of chased silver,
+holding two quarts apiece, were placed upon the table. The first of
+these contained _kvass_, the second _kislischi_, and the third hydromel.
+Each one of these national drinks, when properly brewed, is very
+palatable and refreshing. I found the kislischi nearly identical with
+the ancient Scandinavian mead: no doubt it dates from the Varangian rule
+in Russia. The old custom of passing the tankards around the table, from
+mouth to mouth, is still observed, and will not be found objectionable,
+even in these days of excessive delicacy, when ladies and gentlemen are
+seated alternately at the banquet.
+
+The Russian element of the dinner here terminated. Cutlets and roast
+fowls made their appearance, with bottles of Rüdesheimer and Lafitte,
+followed by a dessert of superb Persian melons, from the southern shore
+of the Caspian Sea.
+
+By this time night had fallen, and Monsieur D. suggested an immediate
+adjournment to the theatre. What should be the entertainment? Dances of
+_almehs_, songs of gypsies, or Chinese jugglers? One of the Ivans
+brought a programme. It was not difficult to decipher the word
+"[Russian: MACBETH]," and to recognize, further, in the name of "Ira
+Aldridge" a distinguished mulatto tragedian, to whom Maryland has given
+birth (if I am rightly informed) and Europe fame. We had often heard of
+him, yea, seen his portrait in Germany, decorated with the orders
+conferred by half a dozen sovereigns; and his presence here, between
+Europe and Asia, was not the least characteristic feature of the Fair. A
+mulatto Macbeth, in a Russian theatre, with a Persian and Tartar
+audience!
+
+On arriving, we were ushered into two whitewashed boxes, which had been
+reserved for our party. The manager, having been informed of the envoy's
+presence in Nijni-Novgorod, had delayed the performance half an hour,
+but the audience bore this infliction patiently. The building was deep
+and narrow, with space for about eight hundred persons, and was filled
+from top to bottom. The first act was drawing to a close as we entered.
+King Duncan, with two or three shabby attendants, stood in the
+court-yard of the castle,--the latter represented by a handsome French
+door on the left, with a bit of Tartar wall beyond,--and made his
+observations on the "pleasant seat" of Macbeth's mansion. He spoke
+Russian, of course. Lady Macbeth now appeared, in a silk dress of the
+latest fashion, expanded by the amplest of crinolines. She was passably
+handsome, and nothing could be gentler than her face and voice. She
+received the royal party like a well-bred lady, and they all entered the
+French door together.
+
+There was no change of scene. With slow step and folded arms, Ira
+Macbeth entered and commenced the soliloquy, "If it were done," etc., to
+our astonishment, in English! He was a dark, strongly built mulatto, of
+about fifty, in a fancy tunic, and light stockings over Forrestian
+calves. His voice was deep and powerful; and it was very evident that
+Edmund Kean, once his master, was also the model which he carefully
+followed in the part. There were the same deliberate, over-distinct
+enunciation, the same prolonged pauses and gradually performed gestures,
+as I remember in imitations of Kean's manner. Except that the copy was a
+little too apparent, Mr. Aldridge's acting was really very fine. The
+Russians were enthusiastic in their applause, though very few of them,
+probably, understood the language of the part. The Oriental auditors
+were perfectly impassive, and it was impossible to guess how they
+regarded the performance.
+
+The second act was in some respects the most amusing thing I ever saw
+upon the stage. In the dagger-scene, Ira was, to my mind, quite equal to
+Forrest; it was impossible to deny him unusual dramatic talent; but his
+complexion, continually suggesting Othello, quite confounded me. The
+amiable Russian Lady Macbeth was much better adapted to the part of
+Desdemona: all softness and gentleness, she smiled as she lifted her
+languishing eyes, and murmured in the tenderest accents, "Infirm of
+purpose! give me the dagger!" At least, I took it for granted that these
+were her words, for Macbeth had just said, "Look on 't again I dare
+not." Afterwards, six Russian soldiers, in tan-colored shirts, loose
+trousers, and high boots, filed in, followed by Macduff and Malcolm, in
+the costume of Wallenstein's troopers. The dialogue--one voice English,
+and all the others Russian--proceeded smoothly enough, but the effect
+was like nothing which our stage can produce. Nevertheless, the audience
+was delighted, and when the curtain fell there were vociferous cries of
+"_Aïra! Aïra! Aldreetch! Aldreetch!_" until the swarthy hero made his
+appearance before the foot-lights.
+
+Monsieur D. conducted our friend P. into the green-room, where he was
+received by Macbeth in costume. He found the latter to be a dignified,
+imposing personage, who carried his tragic chest-tones into ordinary
+conversation. On being informed by P. that the American minister was
+present, he asked,--
+
+"Of what persuasion?"
+
+P. hastened to set him right, and Ira then remarked, in his gravest
+tone,--"I shall have the honor of waiting upon him to-morrow morning";
+which, however, he failed to do.
+
+This son of the South, no doubt, came legitimately (or, at least,
+naturally) by his dignity. His career, for a man of his blood and
+antecedents, has been wonderfully successful, and is justly due, I am
+convinced, since I have seen him, to his histrionic talents. Both black
+and yellow skins are sufficiently rare in Europe to excite a particular
+interest in those who wear them; and I had surmised, up to this time,
+that much of his popularity might be owing to his color. But he
+certainly deserves an honorable place among tragedians of the second
+rank.
+
+We left the theatre at the close of the third act, and crossed the river
+to our quarters on the hill. A chill mist hung over the Fair, but the
+lamps still burned, the streets were thronged, and the Don Cossacks kept
+patient guard at every corner. The night went by like one unconscious
+minute, in beds unmolested by bug or flea; and when I arose, thoroughly
+refreshed, I involuntarily called to mind a frightful chapter in De
+Custine's "Russia," describing the prevalence of an insect which he
+calls the _persica_, on the banks of the Volga. He was obliged to sleep
+on a table, the legs whereof were placed in basins of water, to escape
+their attacks. I made many inquiries about these terrible _persicas_,
+and finally discovered that they were neither more nor less
+than--cockroaches!--called _Prossaki_ (Prussians) by the Russians, as
+they are sometimes called _Schwaben_ (Suabians) by the Germans. Possibly
+they may be found in the huts of the serfs, but they are rare in decent
+houses.
+
+We devoted the first sunny hours of the morning to a visit to the
+citadel and a walk around the crest of the hill. On the highest point,
+just over the junction of the two rivers, there is a commemorative
+column to Minim, the patriotic butcher of Novgorod, but for whose
+eloquence, in the year 1610, the Russian might possibly now be the
+Polish Empire. Vladislas, son of Sigismund of Poland, had been called to
+the throne by the boyards, and already reigned in Moscow, when Minim
+appealed to the national spirit, persuaded General Pojarski to head an
+anti-Polish movement, which was successful, and thus cleared the way for
+the election of Michael Romanoff, the first sovereign of the present
+dynasty. Minim is therefore one of the historic names of Russia.
+
+When I stood beside his monument, and the finest landscape of European
+Russia was suddenly unrolled before my eyes, I could believe the
+tradition of his eloquence, for here was its inspiration. Thirty or
+forty miles away stretched the rolling swells of forest and grain-land,
+fading into dimmest blue to the westward and northward, dotted with
+villages and sparkling domes, and divided by shining reaches of the
+Volga. It was truly a superb and imposing view, changing with each spur
+of the hill as we made the circuit of the citadel. Eastward, the country
+rose into dark, wooded hills, between which the river forced its way in
+a narrower and swifter channel, until it disappeared behind a purple
+headland, hastening southward to find a warmer home in the unfrozen
+Caspian. By embarking on the steamers anchored below us, we might have
+reached Perm, among the Ural Mountains, or Astrachan, in less than a
+week; while a trip of ten days would have taken us past the Caucasus,
+even to the base of Ararat or Demavend. Such are the splendid
+possibilities of travel in these days.
+
+The envoy, who visited Europe for the first time, declared that this
+panorama from the hill of Novgorod was one of the finest things he had
+seen. There could, truly, be no better preparation to enjoy it than
+fifteen hundred miles of nearly unbroken level, after leaving the
+Russian frontier; but I think it would be a "show" landscape anywhere.
+Why it is not more widely celebrated I cannot guess. The only person in
+Russia whom I heard speak of it with genuine enthusiasm was Alexander
+II.
+
+Two hours upon the breezy parapet, beside the old Tartar walls, were all
+too little; but the droshkies waited in the river-street a quarter of a
+mile below us, our return to Moscow was ordered for the afternoon, there
+were amethysts and Persian silks yet to be bought, and so we sighed
+farewell to an enjoyment rare in Russia, and descended the steep
+footpath.
+
+P. and I left the rest of the party at the booth of the handsome
+Bashkir, and set out upon a special mission to the Tartar camp. I had
+ascertained that the national beverage of Central Asia might be found
+there,--the genuine _koumiss_, or fermented milk of the mares of the
+Uralian steppes. Having drunk palm-wine in India, _sam-shoo_ China,
+_saki_ in Japan, _pulque_ in Mexico, _bouza_ in Egypt, mead in
+Scandinavia, ale in England, _bock-bier_ in Germany, _mastic_ in Greece,
+_calabogus_ in Newfoundland, and--soda-water in the United States, I
+desired to complete the bibulous cosmos, in which _koumiss_ was still
+lacking. My friend did not share my curiosity, but was ready for an
+adventure, which our search for mare's milk seemed to promise.
+
+Beyond the mosques we found the Uzbeks and Kirghiz,--some in tents, some
+in rough shanties of boards. But they were without koumiss: they had had
+it, and showed us some empty kegs, in evidence of the fact. I fancied a
+gleam of diversion stole over their grave, swarthy faces, as they
+listened to our eager inquiries in broken Russian. Finally we came into
+an extemporized village, where some women, unveiled and ugly, advised us
+to apply to the traders in the khan, or caravansera. This was a great
+barn-like building, two stories high, with broken staircases and
+creaking floors. A corridor ran the whole length of the second floor,
+with some twenty or thirty doors opening into it from the separate rooms
+of the traders. We accosted the first Tartar whom we met; and he
+promised, with great readiness, to procure us what we wanted. He ushered
+us into his room, cleared away a pile of bags, saddles, camel-trappings,
+and other tokens of a nomadic life, and revealed a low divan covered
+with a ragged carpet. On a sack of barley sat his father, a blind
+graybeard, nearly eighty years old. On our way through the camp I had
+noticed that the Tartars saluted each other with the Arabic, "_Salaam
+aleikoom_!" and I therefore greeted the old man with the familiar
+words. He lifted his head: his face brightened, and he immediately
+answered, "_Aleikoom salaam_, my son!"
+
+"Do you speak Arabic?" I asked.
+
+"A little; I have forgotten it," said he. "But thine is a new voice. Of
+what tribe art thou?"
+
+"A tribe far away, beyond Bagdad and Syria," I answered.
+
+"It is the tribe of Damascus. I know it now, my son. I have heard the
+voice, many, many years ago."
+
+The withered old face looked so bright, as some pleasant memory shone
+through it, that I did not undeceive the man. His son came in with a
+glass, pulled a keg from under a pile of coarse caftans, and drew out
+the wooden peg. A gray liquid, with an odor at once sour and pungent,
+spirted into the glass, which he presently handed to me, filled to the
+brim. In such cases no hesitation is permitted. I thought of home and
+family, set the glass to my lips, and emptied it before the flavor made
+itself clearly manifest to my palate.
+
+"Well, what is it like?" asked my friend, who curiously awaited the
+result of the experiment.
+
+"Peculiar," I answered, with preternatural calmness,--"peculiar, but not
+unpleasant."
+
+The glass was filled a second time; and P., not to be behindhand,
+emptied it at a draught. Then he turned to me with tears (not of
+delight) in his eyes, swallowed nothing very hard two or three times,
+suppressed a convulsive shudder, and finally remarked, with the air of a
+martyr, "Very curious, indeed!"
+
+"Will your Excellencies have some more?" said the friendly Tartar.
+
+"Not before breakfast, if you please," I answered; "your koumiss is
+excellent, however, and we will take a bottle with us,"--which we did,
+in order to satisfy the possible curiosity of the ladies. I may here
+declare that the bottle was never emptied.
+
+The taste was that of aged buttermilk mixed with ammonia. We could
+detect no flavor of alcohol, yet were conscious of a light exhilaration
+from the small quantity we drank. The beverage is said, indeed, to be
+very intoxicating. Some German physician has established a
+"koumiss-cure" at Piatigorsk, at the northern base of the Caucasus, and
+invites invalids of certain kinds to come and be healed by its agency. I
+do not expect to be one of the number.
+
+There still remained a peculiar feature of the Fair, which I had not yet
+seen. This is the subterranean network of sewerage, which reproduces, in
+massive masonry, the streets on the surface. Without it, the annual city
+of two months would become uninhabitable. The peninsula between the two
+rivers being low and marshy,--frequently overflowed during the spring
+freshets,--pestilence would soon be bred from the immense concourse of
+people: hence a system of _cloacæ_, almost rivalling those of ancient
+Rome. At each street-corner there are wells containing spiral
+staircases, by which one can descend to the spacious subterranean
+passages, and there walk for miles under arches of hewn stone, lighted
+and aired by shafts at regular intervals. In St. Petersburg you are told
+that more than half the cost of the city is under the surface of the
+earth; at Nijni-Novgorod the statement is certainly true. Peter the
+Great at one time designed establishing his capital here. Could he have
+foreseen the existence of railroads, he would certainly have done so.
+Nijni-Novgorod is now nearer to Berlin than the Russian frontier was
+fifty years ago. St. Petersburg is an accidental city; Nature and the
+destiny of the empire are both opposed to its existence; and a time will
+come when its long lines of palaces shall be deserted for some new
+capital, in a locality at once more southern and more central.
+
+Another walk through the streets of the Fair enabled me to analyze the
+first confused impression, and separate the motley throng of life into
+its several elements. I shall not attempt, however, to catch and paint
+its ever-changing, fluctuating character. Our limited visit allowed us
+to see only the more central and crowded streets. Outside of these, for
+miles, extend suburbs of iron, of furs, wool, and other coarser
+products, brought together from the Ural, from the forests towards the
+Polar Ocean, and from the vast extent of Siberia. Here, from morning
+till night, the beloved _kvass_ flows in rivers, the strong stream of
+_shchi_ (cabbage-soup) sends up its perpetual incense, and the samovar
+of cheap tea is never empty. Here, although important interests are
+represented, the intercourse between buyers and sellers is less grave
+and methodical than in the bazaar. There are jokes, laughter, songs, and
+a constant play of that repartee in which even the serfs are masters.
+Here, too, jugglers and mountebanks of all sorts ply their trade;
+gypsies sing, dance, and tell fortunes; and other vocations, less
+respectable than these, flourish vigorously. For, whether the visitor be
+an Ostiak from the Polar Circle, an Uzbek from the Upper Oxus, a
+Crim-Tartar or Nogaï, a Georgian from Tiflis, a Mongolian from the Land
+of Grass, a Persian from Ispahan, a Jew from Hamburg, a Frenchman from
+Lyons, a Tyrolese, Swiss, Bohemian, or an Anglo-Saxon from either side
+of the Atlantic, he meets his fellow-visitors to the Great Fair on the
+common ground, not of human brotherhood, but of human appetite; and all
+the manifold nationalities succumb to the same allurements. If the
+various forms of indulgence could be so used as to propagate ideas, the
+world would speedily be regenerated; but as things go, "cakes and ale"
+have more force than the loftiest ideas, the noblest theories of
+improvement; and the impartial observer will make this discovery as
+readily at Nijni-Novgorod as anywhere else.
+
+Before taking leave of the Fair, let me give a word to the important
+subject of tea. It is a much-disputed question with the connoisseurs of
+that beverage which neither cheers nor inebriates, (though, I confess,
+it is more agreeable than koumiss,) whether the Russian "caravan tea" is
+really superior to that which is imported by sea. After much patient
+observation, combined with serious reflection, I incline to the opinion
+that the flavor of tea depends, not upon the method of transportation,
+but upon the price paid for the article. I have tasted bad caravan tea
+in Russia, and delicious tea in New York. In St. Petersburg you cannot
+procure a good article for less than three roubles ($2.25, _gold_) per
+pound; while the finer kinds bring twelve and even sixteen roubles.
+Whoever is willing to import at that price can no doubt procure tea of
+equal excellence. The fact is, that this land-transportation is slow,
+laborious, and expensive; hence the finer kinds of tea are always
+selected, a pound thereof costing no more for carriage than a pound of
+inferior quality; _whence_ the superior flavor of caravan tea. There is,
+however, one variety to be obtained in Russia which I have found nowhere
+else, not even in the Chinese sea-ports. It is called "imperial tea",
+and comes in elegant boxes of yellow silk emblazoned with the dragon of
+the Hang dynasty, at the rate of from six to twenty dollars a pound. It
+is yellow, and the decoction from it is almost colorless. A small pinch
+of it, added to ordinary black tea, gives an indescribably delicious
+flavor,--the very aroma of the tea-blossom; but one cup of it, unmixed,
+is said to deprive the drinker of sleep for three nights. We brought
+some home, and a dose thereof was administered to three unconscious
+guests during my absence; but I have not yet ascertained the effects
+which followed.
+
+Monsieur D. brought our last delightful stroll through the glittering
+streets to an untimely end. The train for Moscow was to leave at three
+o'clock; and he had ordered an early dinner at the restaurant. By the
+time this was concluded, it was necessary to drive at once to the
+station, in order to secure places. We were almost too late; the train,
+long as it was, was crammed to overflowing; and although both
+station-master and conductor assisted us, the eager passengers
+disregarded their authority. With great difficulty, one compartment was
+cleared for the ladies; in the adjoining one four merchants, in long
+caftans, with sacks of watermelons as provision for the journey, took
+their places, and would not be ejected. A scene of confusion ensued, in
+which station-master, conductor, Monsieur D., my friend P., and the
+Russian merchants were curiously mixed; but when we saw the sacks of
+watermelons rolling out of the door, we knew the day was ours. In two
+minutes more we were in full possession; the doors were locked, and the
+struggling throngs beat against them in vain.
+
+With a grateful farewell to our kind guide, whose rather severe duties
+for our sake were now over, we moved away from the station, past heaps
+of cotton-bales, past hills of drifting sand, and impassive groups of
+Persians, Tartars, and Bukharians, and slowly mounted the long grade to
+the level of the upland, leaving the Fair to hum and whirl in the hollow
+between the rivers, and the white walls and golden domes of Novgorod to
+grow dim on the crest of the receding hill.
+
+The next morning, at sunrise, we were again in Moscow.
+
+
+
+
+MY AUTUMN WALK.
+
+
+    On woodlands ruddy with autumn
+      The amber sunshine lies;
+    I look on the beauty round me,
+      And tears come into my eyes.
+
+    For the wind that sweeps the meadows
+      Blows out of the far South-west,
+    Where our gallant men are fighting,
+      And the gallant dead are at rest.
+
+    The golden-rod is leaning
+      And the purple aster waves
+    In a breeze from the land of battles,
+      A breath from the land of graves.
+
+    Full fast the leaves are dropping
+      Before that wandering breath;
+    As fast, on the field of battle,
+      Our brethren fall in death.
+
+    Beautiful over my pathway
+      The forest spoils are shed;
+    They are spotting the grassy hillocks
+      With purple and gold and red.
+
+    Beautiful is the death-sleep
+      Of those who bravely fight
+    In their country's holy quarrel,
+      And perish for the Right.
+
+    But who shall comfort the living,
+      The light of whose homes is gone:
+    The bride, that, early widowed,
+      Lives broken-hearted on;
+
+    The matron, whose sons are lying
+      In graves on a distant shore;
+    The maiden, whose promised husband
+      Comes back from the war no more?
+
+    I look on the peaceful dwellings
+      Whose windows glimmer in sight,
+    With croft and garden and orchard
+      That bask in the mellow light;
+
+    And I know, that, when our couriers
+      With news of victory come,
+    They will bring a bitter message
+      Of hopeless grief to some.
+
+    Again I turn to the woodlands,
+      And shudder as I see
+    The mock-grape's[B] blood-red banner
+      Hung out on the cedar-tree;
+
+    And I think of days of slaughter,
+      And the night-sky red with flames,
+    On the Chattahoochee's meadows,
+      And the wasted banks of the James.
+
+    Oh, for the fresh spring-season,
+      When the groves are in their prime,
+    And far away in the future
+      Is the frosty autumn-time!
+
+    Oh, for that better season,
+      When the pride of the foe shall yield,
+    And the hosts of God and freedom
+      March back from the well-won field;
+
+    And the matron shall clasp her first-born
+      With tears of joy and pride;
+    And the scarred and war-worn lover
+      Shall claim his promised bride!
+
+    The leaves are swept from the branches;
+      But the living buds are there,
+    With folded flower and foliage,
+      To sprout in a kinder air.
+
+October, 1864.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[B] _Ampelopsis_, mock-grape. I have here literally translated the
+botanical name of the Virginia creeper,--an appellation too cumbrous for
+verse.
+
+
+
+
+FIVE-SISTERS COURT AT CHRISTMAS-TIDE.
+
+
+For a business street Every Lane certainly is very lazy. It sets out
+just to make a short passage between two thoroughfares, but, though
+forced first to walk straight by the warehouses that wall in its
+entrance, it soon begins to loiter, staring down back alleys, yawning
+into courts, plunging into stable-yards, and at length standing
+irresolute at three ways of getting to the end of its journey. It passes
+by artisans' shops, and keeps two or three masons' cellars and
+carpenters' lofts, as if its slovenly buildings needed perpetual
+repairs. It has not at all the air of once knowing better days. It began
+life hopelessly; and though the mayor and common council and board of
+aldermen, with ten righteous men, should daily march through it, the
+broom of official and private virtue could not sweep it clean of its
+slovenliness. But one of its idle turnings does suddenly end in a
+virtuous court: here Every Lane may come, when it indulges in vain
+aspirations for a more respectable character, and take refuge in the
+quiet demeanor of Every Court. The court is shaped like the letter T
+with an L to it. The upright beam connects it with Every Lane, and
+maintains a non-committal character, since its sides are blank walls;
+upon one side of the cross-beam are four houses, while a fifth occupies
+the diminutive L of the court, esconcing itself in a snug corner, as if
+ready to rush out at the cry of "All in! all in!" Gardens fill the
+unoccupied sides, toy-gardens, but large enough to raise all the flowers
+needed for this toy-court. The five houses, built exactly alike, are two
+and a half stories high, and have each a dormer-window, curtained with
+white dimity, so that they look like five elderly dames in caps; and the
+court has gotten the name of Five-Sisters Court, to the despair of Every
+Lane, which felt its sole chance for respectability slip away when the
+court came to disown its patronymic.
+
+It was at dusk, the afternoon before Christmas, that a young man,
+Nicholas Judge by name, walking inquiringly down Every Lane, turned into
+Five-Sisters Court, and stood facing the five old ladies, apparently in
+some doubt as to which he should accost. There was a number on each
+door, but no name; and it was impossible to tell from the outside who or
+what sort of people lived in each. If one could only get round to the
+rear of the court, one might get some light, for the backs of houses are
+generally off their guard, and the Five Sisters who look alike in their
+dimity caps might possibly have more distinct characters when not
+dressed for company. Perhaps, after the caps are off, and the spectacles
+removed--But what outrageous sentiments are we drifting toward!
+
+There was a cause for Nicholas Judge's hesitation. In one of those
+houses he had good reason to believe lived an aunt of his, the only
+relation left to him in the world, so far as he knew, and by so slender
+a thread was he held to her that he knew only her maiden name. Through
+the labyrinth of possible widowhoods, one of which at least was actual,
+and the changes in condition which many years would effect, he was to
+feel his way to the Fair Rosamond by this thread. Nicholas was a wise
+young man, as will no doubt appear when we come to know him better, and,
+though a fresh country youth, visiting the city for the first time, was
+not so indiscreet as to ask bluntly at each door, until he got
+satisfaction, "Does my Aunt Eunice live here?" As the doors in the court
+were all shut and equally dumb, he resolved to take the houses in order,
+and proposing to himself the strategy of asking for a drink of water,
+and so opening the way for further parley, he stood before the door of
+Number One.
+
+He raised the knocker, (for there was no bell,) and tapped in a
+hesitating manner, as if he would take it all back in case of an
+egregious mistake. There was a shuffle in the entry; the door opened
+slowly, disclosing an old and tidy negro woman, who invited Nicholas in
+by a gesture, and saying, "You wish to see master?" led him on through a
+dark passage without waiting for an answer. "Certainly," he thought, "I
+want to see the master more than I want a drink of water: I will keep
+that device for the next house"; and, obeying the lead of the servant,
+he went up stairs, and was ushered into a room, where there was just
+enough dusky light to disclose tiers of books, a table covered with
+papers, and other indications of a student's abode.
+
+Nicholas's eye had hardly become accustomed to the dim light, when there
+entered the scholar himself, the master whom he was to see: a small old
+man, erect, with white hair and smooth forehead, beneath which projected
+two beads of eyes, that seemed, from their advanced position,
+endeavoring to take in what lay round the corner of the head as well as
+objects directly in front. His long palm-leaved study-gown and tasselled
+velvet cap lent him a reverend appearance; and he bore in his hand what
+seemed a curiously shaped dipper, as if he were some wise man coming to
+slake a disciple's thirst with water from the fountain-head of
+knowledge.
+
+"Has he guessed my pretended errand?" wondered Nicholas to himself,
+feeling a little ashamed of his innocent ruse, for he was not in the
+least thirsty; but the old man began at once to address him, after
+motioning him to a seat. He spoke abruptly, and with a restrained
+impatience of manner:--
+
+"So you received my letter appointing this hour for an interview. Well,
+what do you expect me to do for you? You compliment me, in a loose sort
+of way, on my contributions to philological science, and tell me that
+you are engaged in the same inquiries with myself"--
+
+"Sir," said Nicholas, in alarm,--"I ought to explain myself,--I"----
+
+But the old gentleman gave no heed to the interruption, and
+continued:----
+
+--"And that you have published an article on the Value of Words. You
+sent me the paper, but I didn't find anything in it. I have no great
+opinion of the efforts of young men in this direction. It contained
+commonplace generalities which I never heard questioned. You can't show
+the value of words by wasting them. I told you I should be plain. Now
+you want me to give you some hints, you say, as to the best method of
+pursuing philological researches. In a hasty moment I said you might
+come, though I don't usually allow visitors. You praise me for what I
+have accomplished in philology. Young man, that is because I have not
+given myself up to idle gadding and gossiping. Do you think, if I had
+been making calls, and receiving anybody who chose to force himself upon
+me, during the last forty years, that I should have been able to master
+the digamma, which you think my worthiest labor?"
+
+"Sir," interrupted Nicholas again, thinking that the question, though it
+admitted no answer, might give him a chance to stand on his own legs
+once more, "I really must ask your pardon."
+
+"The best method of pursuing philological researches!" continued the old
+scholar, deaf to Nicholas's remonstrance. "That is one of your foolish
+general questions, that show how little you know what you are about. But
+do as I have done. Work by yourself, and dig, dig. Give up your
+senseless gabbling in the magazines, get over your astonishment at
+finding that _coelum_ and _heaven_ contain the same idea
+etymologically, and that there was a large bread-bakery at Skolos,
+and make up your mind to believe nothing till you can't help it. You
+haven't begun to work yet. Wait till you have lived as I have, forty
+years in one house, with your library likely to turn you out of doors,
+and only an old black woman to speak to, before you begin to think of
+calling yourself a scholar. Eh?"
+
+And at this point the old gentleman adjusted the dipper, which was
+merely an ear-trumpet,--though for a moment more mysterious to
+Nicholas, in its new capacity, than when he had regarded it as a unique
+specimen of a familiar household-implement,--and thrust the bowl toward
+the embarrassed youth. In fact, having said all that he intended to say
+to his unwelcome supposed disciple, he showed enough churlish grace to
+permit him to make such reply or defence as seemed best.
+
+The old gentleman had pulled up so suddenly in his harangue, and called
+for an answer so authoritatively, and with such a singular flourish of
+his trumpet, that Nicholas, losing command of the studied explanation of
+his conduct, which a moment before had been at his tongue's end, caught
+at the last sentence spoken, and gained a perilous advantage by
+asking,--
+
+"Have you, indeed, lived in this house forty years, Sir?"
+
+"Eh! what?" said the old gentleman, impatiently, perceiving that he had
+spoken. "Here, speak into my trumpet. What is the use of a trumpet, if
+you don't speak into it?"
+
+"Oh," thought Nicholas to himself, "I see, he is excessively deaf"; and
+bending over the trumpet, where he saw a sieve-like frame, as if all
+speech were to be strained as it entered, he collected his force, and
+repeated the question, with measured and sonorous utterance, "Sir, have
+you lived in this house forty years?"
+
+"I just told you so," said the old man, not unnaturally starting back.
+"And if you were going to ask me such an unnecessary question at all,"
+he added, testily, "you needn't have roared it out at me. I could have
+heard that without my trumpet. Yes, I've lived here forty years, and so
+has black Maria, who opened the door for you; and I say again that I
+have accomplished what I have by uninterrupted study. I haven't gone
+about, bowing to every he, she, and it. I never knew who lived in any of
+the other houses in the court till to-day, when a woman came and asked
+me to go out for the evening to her house; and just because it was
+Christmas-eve, I was foolish enough to be wheedled by her into saying I
+would go. Miss ---- Miss ----, I can't remember her name now. I shall
+have to ask Maria. There, you haven't got much satisfaction out of me;
+but do you mind what I said to you, and it will be worth more than if I
+had told you what books to read. Eh?" And he invited Nicholas once more
+to drop his words into the trumpet.
+
+"Good afternoon," said Nicholas, hesitatingly,--"thank you,"--at a loss
+what pertinent reply to make, and in despair of clearing himself from
+the tangle in which he had become involved. It was plain, too, that he
+should get no satisfaction here, at least upon the search in which he
+was engaged. But the reply seemed quite satisfactory to the old
+gentleman, who cheerfully relinquished him to black Maria, who, in turn,
+passed him out of the house.
+
+Left to himself, and rid of his personal embarrassment, he began to feel
+uncomfortably guilty, as he considered the confusion which he had
+entailed upon the real philological disciple, and would fain comfort
+himself with the hope that he had acted as a sort of lightning-rod to
+conduct the old scholar's bolts, and so had secured some immunity for
+the one at whom the bolts were really shot. But his own situation
+demanded his attention; and leaving the to-be unhappy young man and the
+to-be perplexed old gentleman to settle the difficulty over the
+mediating ear-trumpet, he addressed himself again to his task, and
+proposed to take another survey of the court, with the vague hope that
+his aunt might show herself with such unmistakable signs of relationship
+as to bring his researches to an immediate and triumphant close.
+
+Just as he was turning away from the front of Number One, buttoning his
+overcoat with an air of self-abstraction, he was suddenly and
+unaccountably attacked in the chest with such violence as almost to
+throw him off his feet. At the next moment his ears were assailed by a
+profusion of apologetic explanations from a young man, who made out to
+tell him, that, coming out of his house with the intention of calling
+next door, he had leaped over the snow that lay between, and, not seeing
+the gentleman, had, most unintentionally, plunged headlong into him. He
+hoped he had not hurt him; he begged a thousand pardons; it was very
+careless in him; and then, perfect peace having succeeded this violent
+attack, the new-comer politely asked,--
+
+"Can you tell me whether Doctor Chocker is at home, and disengaged? I
+perceive that you have just left his house."
+
+"Do you mean the deaf old gentleman in Number One?" asked Nicholas.
+
+"I was not aware that he was deaf," said his companion.
+
+"And I did not know that his name was Doctor Chocker," said Nicholas,
+smiling. "But may I ask," said he, with a sudden thought, and blushing
+so hard that even the wintry red of his cheeks was outshone, "if you
+were just going to see him?"
+
+"I had an appointment to see him at this hour; and that is the reason
+why I asked you if he was disengaged."
+
+"He--he is not engaged, I believe," said Nicholas, stammering and
+blushing harder than ever; "but a word with you, Sir. I must--really--it
+was wholly unintentional--but unless I am mistaken, the old gentleman
+thought I was you."
+
+"Thought you were I?" said the other, screwing his eyebrows into a
+question, and letting his nose stand for an exclamation-point. "But
+come, it is cold here,--will you do me the honor to come up to my room?
+At any rate, I should like to hear something about the old fellow." And
+he turned towards the next house.
+
+"What--!" said Nicholas, "do you live in Number Two?"
+
+"Yes, I have rooms here," said his companion, jumping back over the
+snow. "You seem surprised."
+
+"It is extraordinary," muttered Nicholas to himself, as he entered the
+house and followed his new acquaintance up stairs.
+
+Their entrance seemed to create some confusion; for there was an
+indistinct sound as of a tumultuous retreat in every direction, a
+scuttling up and down stairs, and a whisking of dresses round corners,
+with still more indistinct and distant sound of suppressed chattering
+and a voice berating.
+
+"It is extremely provoking," said the young man, when they had entered
+his room and the door was shut; "but the people in this house seem to do
+nothing but watch my movements. You heard that banging about? Well, I
+seldom come in or go out, especially with a friend, but that just such a
+stampede takes place in the passage-ways and staircase. I have no idea
+who lives in the house, except a Mrs. Crimp, a very worthy woman, no
+doubt, but with too many children, I should guess. I only lodge here;
+and as I send my money down every month with the bill which I find on my
+table, I never see Mrs. Crimp. Now I don't see why they should be so
+curious about me. I'm sure I am very contented in my ignorance of the
+whole household. It's a little annoying, though, when I bring any one
+into the house. Will you excuse me a moment, while I ring for more
+coal?"
+
+While he disappeared for this purpose, seeming to keep the bell in some
+other part of the house, Nicholas took a hasty glance round the room,
+and, opening a book on the table, read on the fly-leaf, _Paul Le Clear_,
+a name which he tagged for convenience to the occupant of the room until
+he should find one more authentic. The room corresponded to that in
+which he had met Doctor Chocker, but the cheerful gleam of an open fire
+gave a brighter aspect to the interior. Here also were books; but while
+at the Doctor's the walls, tables, and even floor seemed bursting with
+the crowd that had found lodging there, so that he had made his way to a
+chair by a sort of footpath through a field of folios, here there was
+the nicest order and an evident attempt at artistic arrangement. Nor
+were books alone the possessors of the walls; for a few pictures and
+busts had places, and two or three ingenious cupboards excited
+curiosity. The room, in short, showed plainly the presence of a
+cultivated mind; and Nicholas, who, though unfamiliar with city-life,
+had received a capital intellectual training at the hands of a
+scholarly, but anchoret father, was delighted at the signs of culture in
+his new acquaintance.
+
+Mr. Le Clear reëntered the room, followed presently by the coal-scuttle
+in the hands of a small servant, and, remembering the occasion which had
+brought them together, invited Nicholas to finish the explanation which
+he had begun below. He, set at ease by the agreeable surroundings,
+opened his heart wide, and, for the sake of explicitness in his
+narration, proposed to begin back at the very beginning.
+
+"By all means begin at the beginning," said Mr. Le Clear, rubbing his
+hands in expectant pleasure; "but before you begin, my good Sir, let me
+suggest that we take a cup of tea together. I must take mine early
+to-night, as I am to spend the evening out, and there's something to
+tell you, Sir, when you are through,"--as if meeting his burst of
+confidence with a corresponding one,--"though it's a small matter,
+probably, compared with yours, but it has amused me. I can't make a
+great show on the table," he added, with an elegant humility, when
+Nicholas accepted his invitation; "but I like to take my tea in my room,
+though I go out for dinner."
+
+So saying, he brought from the cupboard a little table-cloth, and,
+bustling about, deposited on a tea-tray, one by one, various members of
+a tea-set, which had evidently been plucked from a tea-plant in China,
+since the forms and figures were all suggested by the flowery kingdom.
+The lids of the vessels were shaped like tea-leaves; and miniature China
+men and women picked their way about among the letters of the Chinese
+alphabet, as if they were playing at word-puzzles. Nicholas admired the
+service to its owner's content, establishing thus a new bond of sympathy
+between them; and both were soon seated near the table, sipping the tea
+with demure little spoons, that approached the meagreness of Chinese
+chop-sticks, and decorating white bread with brown marmalade.
+
+"Now," said the host, "since you share my salt, I ought to be introduced
+to you, an office which I will perform without ceremony. My name is Paul
+Le Clear," which Nicholas and we had already guessed correctly.
+
+"And mine," said Nicholas, "is Nicholas,--Nicholas Judge."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Judge; now let us have the story," said Paul, extending
+himself in an easy attitude; "and begin at the beginning."
+
+"The story begins with my birth," said Nicholas, with a reckless
+ingenuousness which was a large part of his host's entertainment.
+
+But it is unnecessary to recount in detail what Paul heard, beginning at
+that epoch, twenty-two years back. Enough to say in brief what Nicholas
+elaborated: that his mother had died at his birth, in a country home at
+the foot of a mountain; that in that home he had lived, with his father
+for almost solitary friend and teacher, until, his father dying, he had
+come to the city to live; that he had but just reached the place, and
+had made it his first object to find his mother's only sister, with
+whom, indeed, his father had kept up no acquaintance, and for finding
+whom he had but a slight clue, even if she were then living. Nicholas
+brought his narrative in regular order down to the point where Paul had
+so unexpectedly accosted him, stopping there, since subsequent facts
+were fully known to both.
+
+"And now," he concluded, warming with his subject, "I am in search of my
+aunt. What sort of woman she will prove to be I cannot tell; but if
+there is any virtue in sisterly blood, surely my Aunt Eunice cannot be
+without some of that noble nature which belonged to my mother, as I have
+heard her described, and as her miniature bids me believe in. How many
+times of late, in my solitariness, have I pictured to myself this one
+kinswoman receiving me for her sister's sake, and willing to befriend
+me for my own! True, I am strong, and able, I think, to make my way in
+the world unaided. It is not such help as would ease my necessary
+struggle that I ask, but the sympathy which only blood-relationship can
+bring. So I build great hopes on my success in the search; and I have
+chosen this evening as a fit time for the happy recognition. I cannot
+doubt that we shall keep our Christmas together. Do you know of any one,
+Mr. Le Clear, living in this court, who might prove to be my aunt?"
+
+"Upon my soul," said that gentleman, who had been sucking the juice of
+Nicholas's narrative, and had now reached the skin, "you have come to
+the last person likely to be able to tell you. It was only to-day that I
+learned by a correspondence with Doctor Chocker, whom all the world
+knows, that he was living just next door to me. Who lives on the other
+side I can't tell. Mrs. Crimp lives here; but she receipts her bills,
+Temperance A. Crimp; so there's no chance for a Eunice there. As for the
+other three houses, I know nothing, except just this: and here I come to
+my story, which is very short, and nothing like so entertaining as
+yours. Yesterday I was called upon by a jiggoty little woman,--I say
+jiggoty, because that expresses exactly my meaning,--a jiggoty little
+woman, who announced herself as Miss Pix, living in Number Five, and who
+brought an invitation in person to me to come to a small party at her
+house this Christmas-eve; and as she was jiggoty, I thought I would
+amuse myself by going. But she is _Miss_ Pix; and your aunt, according
+to your showing, should be _Mrs._"
+
+"That must be where the old gentleman, Doctor Chocker, is going," said
+Nicholas, who had forgotten to mention that part of the Doctor's
+remarks, and now did so.
+
+"Really, that is entertaining!" cried Paul. "I certainly shall go, if
+it's for nothing else than to see Miss Pix and Doctor Chocker together."
+
+"Pardon my ignorance, Mr. Le Clear," said Nicholas, with a smile; "but
+what do you mean by jiggoty?"
+
+"I mean," said Paul, "to express a certain effervescence of manner, as
+if one were corked against one's will, ending in a sudden pop of the
+cork and a general overflowing. I invented the word after seeing Miss
+Pix. She is an odd person; but I shouldn't wish to be so concerned about
+my neighbors as she appears to be. My philosophy of life," he continued,
+standing now before the fire, and receiving its entire radiation upon
+the superficies of his back, "is to extract sunshine from cucumbers.
+Think of living forty years, like Doctor Chocker, on the husks of the
+digamma! I am obliged to him for his advice, but I sha'n't follow it.
+Here are my books and prints; out of doors are people and Nature: I
+propose to extract sunshine from all these cucumbers. The world was made
+for us, and not we for the world. When I go to Miss Pix's this
+evening,--and, by the way, it's 'most time to go,--I presume I shall
+find one or two ripe cucumbers. Christmas, too, is a capital season for
+this chemical experiment. I find people are more off their guard, and
+offer special advantages for a curious observer and experimenter. Here
+is my room; you see how I live; and when I have no visitor at tea, I
+wind up my little musical box. You have no idea what a pretty picture I
+make, sitting in my chair, the tea-table by me, the fire in the grate,
+and the musical box for a cricket on the hearth"; and Mr. Le Clear
+laughed good-humoredly.
+
+Nicholas laughed, too. He had been smiling throughout the young
+philosopher's discourse; but he was conscious of a little feeling of
+uneasiness, as if he were being subjected to the cucumber-extract
+process. He had intended at first to deliver the scheme of life which he
+had adopted, but, on the whole, determined to postpone it. He rose to
+go, and shook hands with Paul, who wished him all success in finding his
+aunt; as for himself, he thought he got along better without aunts. The
+two went down stairs to the door, causing very much the same dispersion
+of the tribes as before; and Nicholas once more stood in Five-Sisters
+Court, while Paul Le Clear returned to his charming bower, to be tickled
+with the recollection of the adventure, and to prepare for Miss Pix's
+party.
+
+"On the whole, I think I won't disturb Doctor Chocker's mind by clearing
+it up," said he to himself. "It might, too, bring on a repetition of the
+fulmination against my paper which the young Judge seemed so to enjoy
+relating. An innocent youth, certainly! I wonder if he expected me to
+give him my autobiography."
+
+Nicholas Judge confessed to himself a slight degree of despondency, as
+he looked at the remaining two houses in the court, since Miss Pix's
+would have to be counted out, and reflected that his chances of success
+were dwindling. His recent conversation had left upon his mind, for some
+reason which he hardly stopped now to explain, a disagreeable
+impression; and he felt a trifle wearied of this very dubious
+enterprise. What likelihood was there, if his aunt had lived here a long
+time past, as he assumed in his calculations, that she would have failed
+to make herself known in some way to Doctor Chocker? since the vision
+which he had of this worthy lady was that of a kind-hearted and most
+neighborly soul. But he reflected that city life must differ greatly
+from that in the country, even more than he had conceded with all his _a
+priori_ reasonings; and he decided to draw no hasty inferences, but to
+proceed in the Baconian method by calling at Number Three. He was rather
+out of conceit with his strategy of thirst, which had so fallen below
+the actual modes of effecting an entrance, and now resolved to march
+boldly up with the irresistible engine of straight-forward inquiry,--as
+straight-forward, at least, as the circumstances would permit. He
+knocked at the door. After a little delay, enlivened for him by the
+interchange of voices within the house, apparently at opposite
+extremities, a light approached, and the door was opened, disclosing a
+large and florid-faced man, in his shirt-sleeves, holding a small and
+sleepy lamp in his hand. Nicholas moved at once upon the enemy's works.
+
+"Will you have the goodness to tell me, Sir, if a lady named Miss Eunice
+Brown lives here?"--that being his aunt's maiden name, and possibly good
+on demand thirty years after date. The reply came, after a moment's
+deliberation, as if the man wished to gain time for an excursion into
+some unexplored region of the house,--
+
+"Well, Sir, I won't say positively that she doesn't; and yet I can say,
+that, in one sense of the word, Miss Eunice Brown does not live here.
+Will you walk in, and we will talk further about it."
+
+Nicholas entered, though somewhat wondering how they were to settle Miss
+Brown's residence there by the most protracted conversation. The man in
+shirt-sleeves showed him into a sitting-room, and setting the lamp upon
+the top of a corner what-not, where it twinkled like a distant star, he
+gave Nicholas a seat, and took one opposite to him, first shutting the
+door behind them.
+
+"Will you give me your name, Sir?" said he.
+
+Nicholas hesitated, not quite liking to part with it to one who might
+misuse it.
+
+"I have no objection," said his companion, in a sonorous voice, "to
+giving my name to any one that asks it. My name is Soprian Manlius."
+
+"And mine," said Nicholas, not to be outdone in generosity, "is Nicholas
+Judge."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Judge. Now we understand each other, I think. I asked
+your name as a guaranty of good faith. Anonymous contributions cannot be
+received, et cetera,--as they say at the head of newspapers. And that's
+my rule of business, Sir. People come to me to ask the character of a
+girl, and I ask their names. If they don't want to give them, I say,
+'Very well; I can't intrust the girl's character to people without
+name.' And it brings them out, Sir, it brings them out," said Mr.
+Manlius, leaning back, and taking a distant view of his masterly
+diplomacy.
+
+"Do people come to you to inquire after persons' characters?" asked
+Nicholas, somewhat surprised at happening upon such an oracle.
+
+"Well, in a general way, no," said Mr. Manlius, smiling; "though I won't
+say but that they would succeed as well here as in most places. In a
+particular way, yes. I keep an intelligence-office. Here is my card,
+Sir,"--pulling one out of his waistcoat-pocket, and presenting it to
+Nicholas; "and you will see by the phraseology employed, that I have
+unrivalled means for securing the most valuable help from all parts of
+the world. Mr. Judge," he whispered, leaning forward, and holding up his
+forefinger to enforce strict secrecy, "I keep a paid agent in Nova
+Scotia." And once more Mr. Manlius retreated in his chair, to get the
+whole effect of the announcement upon his visitor.
+
+The internal economy of an office for obtaining and furnishing
+intelligence might have been further revealed to Nicholas; but at this
+moment a voice was heard on the outside of the door, calling, "S'prian!
+S'prian! we're 'most ready."
+
+"Coming, Caroline," replied Mr. Manlius, and, recalled to the object for
+which his visitor was there, he turned to Nicholas, and resumed,--
+
+"Well, Mr. Judge, about Miss Eunice Brown, whether she lives here or
+not. Are you personally acquainted with Miss Brown?"
+
+"No, Sir," said Nicholas, frankly. "I will tell you plainly my
+predicament. Miss Eunice Brown was my mother's sister; but after my
+mother's death, which took place at my birth, there was no intercourse
+with her on the part of our family, which consisted of my father and
+myself. My father, I ought to say, had no unfriendliness toward her, but
+his habits of life were those of a solitary student; and therefore he
+took no pains to keep up the acquaintance. He heard of her marriage, and
+the subsequent death of her husband; rumor reached him of a second
+marriage, but he never heard the name of the man she married in either
+case. My father lately died; but before his death he advised me to seek
+this aunt, if possible, since she was my only living near relation; and
+he told me that he had heard of her living in this court many years ago.
+So I have come here with faint hope of tracing her."
+
+Mr. Manlius listened attentively to this explanation; and then
+solemnly walking to the door, he called in a deep voice, as if
+he would have the summons start from the very bottom of the house for
+thoroughness,--"Caroline!"
+
+The call was answered immediately by the appearance of Mrs. Manlius, in
+a red dress, that put everything else in the room in the background.
+
+"Caroline," said he, more impressively than would seem necessary, and
+pointing to Nicholas, "this is Mr. Nicholas Judge. Mr. Judge, you see my
+wife."
+
+"But, my dear," said Mrs. Manlius, nervously, as soon as she had bowed,
+discovering the feeble lamp, which was saving its light by burning very
+dimly, "that lamp will be off the what-not in a moment. How could you
+put it right on the edge?" And she took it down from its pinnacle, and
+placed it firmly on the middle of a table, at a distance from anything
+inflammable. "Mr. Manlius is so absent-minded, Sir," said she, turning
+to Nicholas.
+
+"Caroline," said her husband, "this will be a memorable day in the
+history of our family. Eunice has found a dear sister's son."
+
+"Where?" she asked, turning for explanation to Nicholas, who at Mr.
+Manlius's words felt his heart beat quicker.
+
+Then Mr. Manlius, in as few words as his dignity and the occasion would
+deem suitable, stated the case to his wife, who looked admiringly upon
+Mr. Manlius's oratory, and interestingly upon Nicholas.
+
+"Shall I call Eunice down, S'prian?" said she, when her husband
+concluded, and conveying some mysterious information to him by means of
+private signals.
+
+"We have here," said Mr. Manlius, now turning the hose of his eloquence
+toward Nicholas, and playing upon him, "we have here a dear friend, who
+has abode in our house for many years. She came to us when she was in
+trouble, and here has she found a resting-place for the soles of her
+feet. Sir," with a darksome glance, "her relations had forgotten her."
+
+"I must say"----interrupted Nicholas; but Mr. Manlius waved him back,
+and continued:--
+
+"But she found true kinsfolk in the friends of her early days. We have
+cared for her tenderly, and now at last we have our reward in consigning
+her to the willing hands of a young scion of her house. She was Eunice
+Brown; she had a sister who married a Judge, as I have often heard her
+say; and she herself married Mr. Archibald Starkey, who is now no more.
+Caroline, I will call Eunice"; and Mr. Manlius went heavily out of the
+room.
+
+Nicholas was very much agitated, and Mrs. Manlius very much excited,
+over this sudden turn of affairs.
+
+"Eunice has lived with us fifteen years, come February; and she has been
+one of the family, coming in and going out like the rest of us. I found
+her on the doorstep one night, and wasn't going to bring her in at
+first, because, you see, I didn't know what she might be; when, lo and
+behold! she looked up, and said I, 'Eunice Brown!' 'Yes,' said she, and
+said she was cold and hungry; and I brought her in, and told Mr.
+Manlius, and he came and talked with her, and said he, 'Caroline, there
+is character in that woman'; for, Mr. Judge, Mr. Manlius can read
+character in a person wonderfully; he has a real gift that way; and,
+indeed, he needs it in his profession; and, as I tell him, he was born
+an intelligence-officer."
+
+Thus, and with more in the same strain, did Mrs. Manlius give vent to
+her feelings, though hardly in the ear of Nicholas, who paced the room
+in restless expectation of his aunt's approach. He heard enough to give
+a turn to his thoughts; and it was with unaffected sorrow that he
+reflected how the lonely woman had been dependent upon the charity, as
+it seemed, of others. He saw in her now no longer merely the motherly
+aunt who was to welcome him, but one whom he should care for, and take
+under his protection. He heard steps in the entry, and easily detected
+the ponderous tread of Mr. Manlius, who now opened the door, and
+reappeared in more careful toilet, since he was furbished and smoothed
+by the addition of proper touches, until he had quite the air of a man
+of society. He entered the room with great pomp and ceremony all by
+himself, and met Nicholas's disappointed look by saying, slowly,--
+
+"Mrs. Starkey, your beloved aunt, will appear presently"; and throwing a
+look about the room, as if he would call the attention of all the people
+in the dress-circle, boxes, and amphitheatre, he continued--"I have
+intimated to your aunt the nature of your relationship, and I need not
+say that she is quite agitated at the prospective meeting. She is a
+woman"----
+
+But Mr. Manlius's flow was suddenly turned off by the appearance of Mrs.
+Starkey herself. The introduction, too, which, as manager of this little
+scene, he had rehearsed to himself, was rendered unnecessary by the
+prompt action of Nicholas, who hastened forward, with tumultuous
+feelings, to greet his aunt. His honest nature had no sceptical reserve;
+and he saluted her affectionately, before the light of the feeble lamp,
+which seemed to have husbanded all its strength for this critical
+moment, could disclose to him anything of the personal appearance of his
+relative. At this moment the twinkling light, like a star at dawn, went
+out; and Mrs. Manlius, rushing off, reappeared with an astral, which
+turned the somewhat gloomy aspect of affairs into cheerful light.
+Perhaps it was symbolic of a sunrise upon the world which enclosed
+Nicholas and his aunt. Nicholas looked at Mrs. Starkey, who was indeed
+flurried, and saw a pinched and meagre woman, the flower of whose youth
+had long ago been pressed in the book of ill-fortune until it was
+colorless and scentless. She found words presently, even before Nicholas
+did; and sitting down with him in the encouraging presence of the
+Manlii, she uttered her thoughts in an incoherent way:--
+
+"Dear, dear! who would have said it? When Miss Pix came to invite us all
+to her party, and said, 'Mrs. Starkey, I'm sure I hope you will come,' I
+thought it might be too much for such a quiet body as I be. But that was
+nothing to this. Why, if here I haven't got a real nephew; and, to be
+sure, it's a great while since I saw your mother, but, I declare, you do
+look just like her, and a Judge's son you are, too. Did they say you
+looked like your father, Nickey? I was asking Caroline if she thought my
+bombazine would do, after all; and now I do think I ought to wear my
+India silk, and put on my pearl necklace, for I don't want my Nicky to
+be ashamed of me. You'll go with us, won't you, nephew, to Miss Pix's? I
+expect it's going to be a grand party; and I'll go round and introduce
+you to all the great people; and how did you leave your father,
+Nicholas?"
+
+"Why, aunt, did not Mr. Manlius tell you that he was dead?" said
+Nicholas. "Her memory's a little short," whispered Mrs. Manlius; but,
+hardly interrupted by this little answer and whisper, Mrs. Starkey was
+again plunging headlong into a current of words, and struggling among
+the eddies of various subjects. Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Manlius, having,
+as managers, set the little piece on the stage in good condition, were
+carrying on a private undertoned conversation, which resulted in Mrs.
+Manlius asking, in an engaging manner,--
+
+"Eunice, dear, would you prefer to stay at home this evening with your
+nephew? Because we will excuse you to Miss Pix, who would hardly expect
+you."
+
+Mrs. Starkey was in the midst of a voluble description of some private
+jewelry which she intended to show the astonished Nicholas; but she
+caught the last words, and veered round to Mrs. Manlius, saying,--
+
+"Indeed, she expects me; and she expects Nicholas, too. She will be very
+much gratified to see him, and I have no doubt she will give another
+party for him; and if she does, I mean to invite my friend the alderman
+to go. I shouldn't wonder if he was to be there to-night; and now I
+think of it, it must be time to be going. Caroline, have you got your
+things on?"
+
+Mrs. Starkey spoke with a determination that suffered no opposition, so
+that Nicholas and Mr. Manlius were left alone for a moment, while the
+two women should wrap themselves up.
+
+"Your aunt is unduly excited, Mr. Judge," said the intelligence-officer;
+"and it was for that reason that I advised she should not go. She has
+hardly been herself the last day or two. Our neighbor, Miss Pix,--a
+woman whose character is somewhat unsettled; no fixed principles. Sir, I
+fear," shaking his head regretfully; "too erratic, controlled by
+impulse, possessing an inquisitive temperament," telling off upon a
+separate finger each count in the charges against Miss Pix's character,
+and reserving for the thumb the final overwhelming accusation,--"Sir,
+she has not learned the great French economical principle of Lassy
+Fair." Miss Pix being thus stricken down, he helped her up again with an
+apology. "But her advantages have no doubt been few. She has not studied
+political economy; and how can she hope to walk unerringly?"--and Mr.
+Manlius gazed at an imaginary Miss Pix wandering without compass or
+guide over the desert of life. "She makes a party to-night. And why?
+Because it is Christmas-eve. That is a small foundation, Mr. Judge, on
+which to erect the structure of social intercourse. Society, Sir, should
+be founded on principles, not accidents. Because my house is
+accidentally contiguous to two others, shall I consider myself, and
+shall Mrs. Manlius consider herself, as necessarily bound by the
+ligaments of Nature--by the ligaments of Nature, Mr. Judge,--to the
+dwellers in those houses? No, Sir. I don't know who lives in this court
+beside Miss Pix. Nature brought your aunt and Mrs. Manlius together, and
+Nature brought you and your aunt together. We will go, however, to Miss
+Pix's. It will gratify her. But your aunt is excited about the, for her,
+unusual occasion. And now she has seen you. I feared this interview
+might overcome her. She is frail; but she is fair, Sir, if I may say so.
+She has character; very few have as much,--and I have seen many women.
+Did you ever happen to see Martha Jewmer, Mr. Judge?"
+
+Nicholas could not remember that he had.
+
+"Well, Sir, that woman has been in my office twelve times. I got a place
+for her each time. And why? Because she has character"; and Mr. Manlius
+leaned back to get a full view of character. Before he had satisfied
+himself enough to continue his reminiscences, his wife and Mrs. Starkey
+returned, bundled up as if they were going on a long sleigh-ride.
+
+"We're ready, S'prian," said Mrs. Manlius. "Eunice thinks she will go
+still,"--which was evident from the manner in which Mrs. Starkey had
+gathered about her a quantity of ill-assorted wrappers, out of the folds
+of which she delivered herself to each and all in a rapid and disjointed
+manner; and the party proceeded out of the house, Mrs. Manlius first
+shutting and opening various doors, according to some intricate system
+of ventilation and heating.
+
+Nicholas gave his arm to his aunt, and, though anxious to speak of many
+things, could hardly slip a word into the crevices of her conversation;
+nor then did his questions or answers bring much satisfactory response.
+He was confused with various thoughts, unable to explain the random talk
+of his companion, and yet getting such glimpses of the dreary life she
+had led as made him resolve to give her a home that should admit more
+sunshine into her daily experience.
+
+They were not kept waiting long at Miss Pix's door, for a ruddy German
+girl opened it at their summons; and once inside, Miss Pix herself came
+forward with beaming face to give them a Christmas-eve greeting. Mr.
+Manlius had intended making the official announcement of the arrival of
+the new nephew, but was no match for the ready Mrs. Starkey, who at once
+seized upon their hostess, and shook her warmly by the hand, pouring out
+a confused and not over-accurate account of her good-fortune, mixing in
+various details of her personal affairs. Miss Pix, however, made out the
+main fact, and turned to Nicholas, welcoming him with both hands, and in
+the same breath congratulating Mrs. Starkey, showing such honest,
+whole-souled delight that Nicholas for a moment let loose in his mind a
+half-wish that Miss Pix had proved to be his aunt, so much more nearly
+did she approach his ideal. The whole party stood basking for a moment
+in Miss Pix's Christmas greeting, then extricated themselves from their
+wrappers with the help of their bustling hostess, and were ushered into
+her little parlor, where they proved to be the first arrivals. It was
+almost like sitting down in an arbor: for walls and ceilings were quite
+put out of sight by the evergreen dressing; the candlesticks and
+picture-frames seemed to have budded; and even the poker had laid aside
+its constitutional stiffness, and unbent itself in a miraculous spiral
+of creeping vine. Mr. Manlius looked about him with the air of a
+connoisseur, and complimented Miss Pix.
+
+"A very pretty room, Miss Pix,--a very pretty room! Quite emblematical!"
+And he cocked his head at some new point.
+
+"Oh, I can't have my Christmas without greens!" said Miss Pix.
+"Christmas and greens, you know, is the best dish in the world. Isn't
+it, Mrs. Starkey?"
+
+But Mrs. Starkey had no need of a question; for she had already started
+on her career as a member of the party, and was galloping over a
+boundless field of observation.
+
+There was just then another ring; and Miss Pix started for the door, in
+her eagerness to greet her visitors, but recollected in season the
+tribute which she must pay to the by-laws of society, and hovered about
+the parlor-door till Gretchen could negotiate between the two parties.
+Gretchen's pleased exclamation in her native tongue at once indicated
+the nature of the arrival; and Miss Pix, whispering loudly to Mrs.
+Manlius, "My musical friends," again rushed forward, and received her
+friends almost noisily; for when they went stamping about the entry to
+shake off the snow from their feet against the inhospitable world
+outside, she also, in the excess of her sympathetic delight, caught
+herself stamping her little foot. There was a hurly-burly, and then they
+all entered the parlor in a procession, preceded by Miss Pix, who
+announced them severally to her guests as Mr. Pfeiffer, Mr. Pfeffendorf,
+Mr. Schmauker, and Mr. Windgraff. Everybody bowed at once, and rose to
+the surface, hopelessly ignorant of the name and condition of all the
+rest, except his or her immediate friends. The four musical gentlemen
+especially entirely lost their names in the confusion; and as they
+looked very much alike, it was hazardous to address them, except upon
+general and public grounds.
+
+Mrs. Starkey was the most bewildered, and also the most bent upon
+setting herself right,--a task which promised to occupy the entire
+evening. "Which is the fifer?" she asked Nicholas; but he could not tell
+her, and she appealed in vain to the others. Perhaps it was as well,
+since it served as an unfailing resource with her through the evening.
+When nothing else occupied her attention, she would fix her eyes upon
+one of the four, and walk round till she found some one disengaged
+enough to label him, if possible; and as the gentlemen had much in
+common, while Mrs. Starkey's memory was confused, there was always room
+for more light.
+
+Miss Pix meanwhile had disentangled Nicholas from Mrs. Starkey, and, as
+one newly arrived in the court, was recounting to him the origin of her
+party.
+
+"You see, Mr. Judge, I have only lived here a few weeks. I had to leave
+my old house; and I took a great liking to this little court, and
+especially to this little house in it. 'What a delightful little
+snuggery!' thought I. 'Here one can be right by the main streets, and
+yet be quiet all day and evening.' And that's what I want; because, you
+see, I have scholars to come and take music-lessons of me. 'And then,' I
+thought to myself, 'I can have four neighbors right in the same yard,
+you may say.' Well, here I came; but--do you believe it?--hardly anybody
+even looked out of the window when the furniture-carts came up, and I
+couldn't tell who lived in any house. Why, I was here three weeks, and
+nobody came to see me. I might have been sick, and nobody would have
+known it." Here little Miss Pix shook her head ruefully at the vision of
+herself sick and alone. "I've seen what that is," she added, with a
+mysterious look. "'Well, now,' I said to myself, 'I can't live like
+this. It isn't Christian. I don't believe but the people in the court
+could get along with me, if they knew me.' Well, they didn't come, and
+they didn't come; so I got tired, and one day I went round and saw them
+all,--no, I didn't see the old gentleman in Number One that time. Will
+you believe it? not a soul knew anybody else in any house but their own!
+I was amazed, and I said to myself, 'Betsey Pix, you've got a mission';
+and, Mr. Judge, I went on that mission. I made up my mind to ask all the
+people in the court, who could possibly come, to have a Christmas-eve
+gathering in my house. I got them all, except the Crimps, in Number Two,
+who would not, do what I could. Then I asked four of my friends to come
+and bring their instruments; for there's nothing like music to melt
+people together. But, oh, Mr. Judge, not one house knows that another
+house in the court is to be here; and, oh, Mr. Judge, I've got such a
+secret!" And here Miss Pix's cork flew to the ceiling, in the manner
+hinted at by Mr. Paul Le Clear; while Nicholas felt himself to have
+known Miss Pix from birth, and to be, in a special manner, her
+prime-minister on this evening.
+
+It was not long before there was another ring, and Mr. Le Clear
+appeared, who received the jiggoty Miss Pix's welcome in a smiling and
+well-bred manner, and suffered himself to be introduced to the various
+persons present, when all seized the new opportunity to discover the
+names of the musical gentlemen, and fasten them to the right owners.
+Paul laughed when he saw Nicholas, and spoke to him as an old
+acquaintance. Miss Pix was suddenly in great alarm, and, beckoning away
+Nicholas, whispered, "Don't for the world tell him where the others
+live." Like the prime-minister with a state-secret, Nicholas went back
+to Paul, and spent the next few minutes in the trying task of answering
+leading questions with misleading answers.
+
+"I see," said the acute Mr. Le Clear to himself; "the aunt is that
+marplotty dame who has turned our young Judge into a prisoner at the
+bar"; and he entered into conversation with Mrs. Starkey with great
+alacrity, finding her a very ripe cucumber. Mr. Manlius, who was
+talking, in easy words of two syllables, to the musical gentlemen,
+overheard some of Mrs. Starkey's revelations to Mr. Le Clear, and,
+watching his opportunity, got Paul into a corner, where he favored him
+with some confidences respecting the lady.
+
+"You may have thought, Sir," said he, in a whisper, "that Mrs. Starkey
+is--is,"--and he filled out the sentence with an expressive gesture
+toward his own well-balanced head.
+
+"Not at all," said Paul, politely.
+
+"She is periodically affected," continued Mr. Manlius, "with what I may
+perhaps call excessive and ill-balanced volubility. Mrs. Starkey, Sir,
+is a quiet person, rarely speaking; but once in five or six weeks,--the
+periods do not return with exact regularity,--she is subject to some
+hidden influence, which looses her tongue, as it were. I think she is
+under the influence now, and her words are not likely to--to correspond
+exactly with existing facts. You will not be surprised, then, at her
+words. They are only words, words. At other times she is a woman of
+action. She has a wonderful character, Sir."
+
+"Quite a phenomenon, indeed, I should say," said Paul, ready to return
+to so interesting a person, but politely suffering Mr. Manlius to flow
+on, which he did uninterruptedly.
+
+Doctor Chocker was the last to come. Miss Pix knew his infirmity, and
+contented herself with mute, but expressive signs, until the old
+gentleman could adjust his trumpet and receive her hearty
+congratulations. He jerked out a response, which Miss Pix received with
+as much delight as if he had flowed freely, like Mr. Manlius, who was
+now playing upon Mr. Le Clear an analysis of Nicholas's character, which
+he had read with unerring accuracy, as Mrs. Manlius testified by her
+continued, unreserved agreement. Indeed, the finding of his aunt by
+Nicholas in so unexpected a manner was the grand topic of the evening;
+and the four musical gentlemen, hearing the story in turn from each of
+the others, were now engaged in a sort of diatessaron, in which the four
+accounts were made to harmonize with considerable difficulty: Mr.
+Schmauker insisting upon his view, that Nicholas had arrived wet and
+hungry, was found on the doorstep, and dragged in by Mrs. Starkey; while
+Mr. Pfeffendorf and Mr. Pfeiffer substituted Mrs. Manlius for Mrs.
+Starkey; and Mr. Windgraff proposed an entirely new reading.
+
+Dr. Chocker's entrance created a lull; and the introduction, performed
+in a general way by the hostess, brought little information to the rest,
+who were hoping to revise their list of names,--and very little to the
+Doctor, who looked about inquisitively, as Miss Pix dropped the company
+in a heap into his ear-trumpet. His eye lighted on Nicholas, and he went
+forward to meet him, to the astonishment of the company, who looked upon
+Nicholas as belonging exclusively to them. A new theory was at once
+broached by Mr. Windgraff to his companions, that Dr. Chocker had
+brought about the recognition; but it lost credit as the Doctor began to
+question Nicholas, in an abrupt way, upon his presence there.
+
+"Didn't know I should meet you again, young man," said he. "But you
+don't take my advice, eh? or you wouldn't have been here. But I'm
+setting you a pretty example! This isn't the way to study the value of
+words, eh, Mr.--Mr.--Le Clear?"
+
+The real Mr. Le Clear and his fiction looked at each other, and by a
+rapid interchange of glances signified their inability to extricate
+themselves from the snarl, except by a dangerous cut, which Nicholas had
+not the courage at the moment to give. The rest of the company were
+mystified; and Mr. Manlius, pocketing the character which he had just
+been giving, free of charge, to his new acquaintance, turned to his
+wife, and whispered awfully, "An impostor, Caroline!" Mrs. Manlius
+looked anxiously and frightened back to him; but he again whispered,
+"Wait for further developments, Caroline!" and she sank into a state of
+terrified curiosity. Fortunately, Mrs. Starkey was at the moment
+confiding much that was irrelevant to Mr. Le Clear the actual, who did
+not call her attention to the words. The four musical gentlemen were
+divided upon the accuracy of their hearing.
+
+Miss Pix, who had been bustling about, unconscious of the mystery, now
+created a diversion by saying, somewhat flurried by the silence that
+followed her first words,--
+
+"Our musical friends have brought a pleasant little surprise for us;
+but, Mr. Pfeiffer, won't you explain the Children's Symphony to the
+performers?"
+
+Everybody at once made a note of Mr. Pfeiffer, and put a private mark on
+him for future reference; while he good-humoredly, and with embarrassing
+English, explained that Miss Pix had proposed that the company should
+produce Haydn's Children's Symphony, in which the principal parts were
+sustained by four stringed instruments, which he and his friends would
+play; while children's toy-instruments, which the other three were now
+busily taking out of a box, would be distributed among the rest of the
+company; and Miss Pix would act as leader, designating to each his or
+her part, and time of playing.
+
+The proposal created considerable confusion in the company, especially
+when the penny-trumpet, drum, cuckoo, night-owl, quail, rattle, and
+whistle were exhibited, and gleefully tried by the four musical friends.
+Mr. Manlius eyed the penny-trumpet which was offered him with a doubtful
+air, but concluded to sacrifice his dignity for the good of the company.
+Mrs. Manlius received her cuckoo nervously, as if it would break forth
+in spite of her, and looked askance at Nicholas to see if he would dare
+to take the night-owl into his perjured hands. He did take it with great
+good-humor, and, at Miss Pix's request, undertook to persuade Doctor
+Chocker to blow the whistle. He had first to give a digest of Mr.
+Pfeiffer's speech into the ear-trumpet, and, it is feared, would have
+failed to bring the Doctor round without Miss Pix, who came up at the
+critical moment, and told him that she knew he must have known how when
+he was a boy, accompanied with such persuasive frolicking that the
+Doctor at once signified his consent and his proficiency by blowing a
+blast into Nicholas's ear, whom he regarded as a special enemy on good
+terms with him, to the great merriment of all.
+
+The signal was given, and the company looked at Miss Pix, awaiting their
+turn with anxious solicitude. The symphony passed off quite well, though
+Mr. Le Clear, who managed the drum, was the only one who kept perfect
+time. Mrs. Starkey, who held the rattle aloft, sprung it at the first
+sound of the music, and continued to spring it in spite of the
+expostulations and laughter of the others. Mrs. Manlius, unable to
+follow Miss Pix's excited gestures, turned to her husband, and uttered
+the cuckoo's doleful note whenever he blew his trumpet, which he did
+deliberately at regular intervals. The effect, however, was admirable;
+and as the entire company was in the orchestra, the mutual satisfaction
+was perfect, and the piece was encored vociferously, to the delight of
+little Miss Pix, who enjoyed without limit the melting of her company,
+which was now going on rapidly. It continued even when the music had
+stopped, and Gretchen, very red, but intensely interested, brought in
+some coffee and cakes, which she distributed under Miss Pix's direction.
+Nicholas shared the good lady's pleasure, and addressed himself to his
+aunt with increased attention, taking good care to avoid Doctor Chocker,
+who submitted more graciously than would be supposed to a steady play
+from Mr. Manlius' hose. Mr. Pfeiffer and his three musical friends made
+themselves merry with Mrs. Manlius and Miss Pix, while Mr. Le Clear
+walked about performing chemical experiments upon the whole company.
+
+And now Miss Pix, who had been all the while glowing more and more with
+sunshine in her face, again addressed the company, and said:--
+
+"I think the best thing should be kept till toward the end; and I've got
+a scheme that I want you all to help me in. We're all neighbors
+here,"--and she looked round upon the company with a smile that grew
+broader, while they all looked surprised, and began to smile back in
+ignorant sympathy, except Doctor Chocker, who did not hear a word, and
+refused to smile till he knew what it was for. "Yes, we are all
+neighbors. Doctor Chocker lives in Number Two; Mr. and Mrs. Manlius,
+Mrs. Starkey, and Mr. Judge are from Number Three; my musical friends
+live within easy call; and I live in Number Five."
+
+Here she looked round again triumphantly, and found them all properly
+astonished, and apparently very contented, except Doctor Chocker, who
+was immovable. Nicholas expressed the most marked surprise, as became so
+hypocritical a prime-minister, causing Mr. Manlius to make a private
+note of some unrevealed perjury.
+
+"Now," said Miss Pix, pausing and arresting the profound attention of
+all, "now, who lives at Number Four?"
+
+If she expected an answer, it was plainly not locked up in the breast of
+any one before her. But she did not expect an answer; she was determined
+to give that herself, and she continued:--
+
+"There is a most excellent woman there, Mrs. Blake, whom I should have
+liked very much to introduce to you to-night, especially as it is her
+birthday. Isn't she fortunate to have been born on Christmas-eve? Well,
+I didn't ask her, because she is not able to leave her room. There she
+has sat, or lain, for fifteen years! She's a confirmed invalid; but she
+can see her friends. And now for my little scheme. I want to give her a
+surprise-party from all her neighbors, and I want to give it now. It's
+all right. Gretchen has seen her maid, and Mrs. Blake knows just enough
+to be willing to have me bring a few friends."
+
+Miss Pix looked about, with a little anxiety peeping out of her
+good-souled, eager face. But the company was so melted down that she
+could now mould it at pleasure, and no opposition was made. Mr. Manlius
+volunteered to enlighten Doctor Chocker; but he made so long a preamble
+that the old scholar turned, with considerable impatience, to Miss Pix,
+who soon put him in good-humor, and secured his coöperation, though not
+without his indulging in some sinful and unneighborly remarks to
+Nicholas.
+
+It proved unnecessary to go into the court, for these two housed
+happened to have a connection, which Miss Pix made use of, the door
+having been left open all the evening, that Mrs. Blake might catch some
+whiffs of the entertainment. Gretchen appeared in the doorway, bearing
+on a salver a great cake, made with her own hands, having Mrs. Blake's
+initials, in colored letters, on the frosting, and the whole surrounded
+by fifty little wax tapers, indicating her age, which all counted, and
+all counted differently, giving opportunity to the four musical friends
+to enter upon a fresh and lively discussion. The party was marshalled by
+Miss Pix in the order of houses, while she herself squeezed past them
+all on the staircase, to usher them into Mrs. Blake's presence.
+
+Mrs. Blake was sitting in her reclining-chair as Miss Pix entered with
+her retinue. The room was in perfect order, and had about it such an air
+of neatness and purity that one felt one's self in a haven of rest upon
+crossing the threshold. The invalid sat quiet and at ease, looking forth
+upon the scene before her as if so safely moored that no troubling of
+the elements could ever reach her. Here had she lived, year after year,
+almost alone with herself, though now the big-souled little
+music-teacher was her constant visitor; but the entrance of all her
+neighbors seemed in no wise to agitate her placid demeanor. She greeted
+Miss Pix with a pleased smile; and all being now in the room, the
+bustling little woman, at the very zenith of her sunny course, took her
+stand and said,--
+
+"This is my company, dear Mrs. Blake. These are all neighbors of ours,
+living in the court, or close by. We have been having a right merry
+time, and now we can't break up without bringing you our good
+wishes,--our Christmas good wishes, and our birthday good wishes," said
+Miss Pix, with a little oratorical flourish, which brought Gretchen to
+the front with her illuminated cake, which she positively could not have
+held another moment, so heavy had it grown, even for her stout arms.
+
+Mrs. Blake laughed gently, and with a delighted look examined the great
+cake, with her initials, and did not need to count the wax tapers. It
+was placed on a stand, and she said,--
+
+"Now I should like to entertain my guests, and, if you will let me, I
+will give you each a piece of my cake,--for it all belongs to me, after
+Miss Pix's graceful presentation; and if Miss Pix will be so good, I
+will ask her to make me personally acquainted with each of you."
+
+So a knife was brought, and Mrs. Blake cut a generous piece, when Doctor
+Chocker was introduced, with great gesticulation on the part of Miss
+Pix.
+
+"I am glad to see you, Doctor Chocker," said Mrs. Blake, distinctly, but
+quietly, into his trumpet. "Do you let your patients eat cake? Try this,
+and see if it isn't good for me."
+
+"If I were a doctor of medicine," said he, jerkily, "I should bring my
+patients to see you"; at which Miss Pix nodded to him most vehemently,
+and the Doctor wagged his ear-trumpet in delight at the retort which he
+thought he had made.
+
+Mr. Le Clear was introduced, and took his cake gracefully, saying, "I
+hope another year will see you at a Christmas-party of Miss Pix's"; but
+Mrs. Blake smiled, and said, "This is my little lot of earth, and I am
+sure there is a patch of stars above."
+
+Mr. Manlius and wife came up together, he somewhat lumbering, as if Mrs.
+Blake's character were too much for his discernment, and Mrs. Manlius
+not quite sure of herself when her husband seemed embarrassed.
+
+"This is really too funny," said Mrs. Blake, merrily; "as if I were a
+very benevolent person, doling out my charity of cake on Christmas-eve.
+Do, Mr. Manlius, take a large piece; and I am sure your wife will take
+some home to the children."
+
+"What wonderful insight!" said Mr. Manlius, turning about to Nicholas,
+and drawing in his breath. "We have children,--two. That woman has a
+deep character, Mr. Judge."
+
+"Mrs. Starkey, also of Number Three," said the mistress of ceremonies;
+"and Mr. Nicholas Judge, arrived only this evening."
+
+"Nicholas Judge!" said Mrs. Blake, losing the color which the excitement
+had brought, and dropping the knife.
+
+"My nephew," explained Mrs. Starkey. "Just came this evening, and found
+me at home. Never saw him before. Must tell you all about it." And she
+was plunging with alacrity into the delightful subject, with all its
+variations.
+
+Mrs. Blake looked at Nicholas, while the color came and went in her
+cheeks.
+
+"Stop!" said she, decisively, to Mrs. Starkey, and half rising, she
+leaned forward to Nicholas, and said rapidly, with an energy which
+seemed to be summoned from every part of her system,--
+
+"Are you the son of Alice Brown?"
+
+"Yes, yes," said Nicholas, tumultuously; "and you,--you are her sister.
+Here, take this miniature"; and he snatched one from his breast. "Is not
+this she? It is my mother. You are my Aunt Eunice," he exclaimed, as she
+sank back in her chair exhausted, but reaching out her arms to him.
+
+"That young man is a base impostor!" said Mr. Manlius aloud, with his
+hand in his waistcoat; while Mrs. Manlius looked on deprecatingly, but
+as if too, too aware of the sad fact. "I said so to my wife in
+private,--I read it in his face,--and now I declare it publicly. That
+man is a base impostor!"
+
+"Dear, dear, I don't understand it at all!" said the unfortunate Mrs.
+Starkey. "I thought, to be sure, that Nicholas was my nephew. Never saw
+him before, but he said he was; and now, now, I don't know what I shall
+do!" and the poor lady, suddenly bereft of her fortune, began to wipe
+her moist eyes; "but perhaps," she added, with a bright, though
+transient gleam of hope, "we are both aunts to him."
+
+"That cannot be," said Nicholas, kindly, who left his aunt to set the
+company right, if possible. "My dear friend," he said, taking Mrs.
+Starkey's hand, "it has been a mistake, brought on by my heedlessness. I
+knew only that my aunt's name had been Eunice Brown. It chanced that
+yours was the same name. I happened to come upon you first in my search,
+and did not dream it possible that there could be two in the same court.
+Everything seemed to tally; and I was too pleased at finding the only
+relation I had in the wide world to ask many questions. But when I saw
+that my aunt knew who I was, and I saw my mother's features in hers, I
+perceived my mistake at once. We will remain friends, though,--shall we
+not?"
+
+Mrs. Starkey was too much bewildered to refuse any compromise; but Mr.
+Manlius stepped forward, having his claim as a private officer of
+justice.
+
+"I must still demand an explanation, Sir, how it is that in this mixed
+assembly the learned Doctor Chocker addresses you as Mr. Le Clear, and
+you do not decline the title"; and Mr. Manlius looked, as if for a
+witness, to Doctor Chocker, who was eating his cake with great
+solemnity, holding his ear-trumpet in hopes of catching an occasional
+word.
+
+"That would require too long an explanation," said Nicholas, smiling;
+"but you shall have it some time in private. Mr. Le Clear himself will
+no doubt tell you"; which Mr. Le Clear, an amused spectator of the
+scene, cheerfully promised to do.
+
+The company had been so stirred up by this revelation, that they came
+near retreating at once to Miss Pix's to talk it over, to the dismay of
+the four musical gentlemen, who had not yet been presented, and
+especially who had not yet got any cake. Miss Pix, though in a transport
+of joy, had an eye for everything, and, discovering this, insisted on
+presenting them in a body to Mrs. Blake, in consideration of her
+fatigue. They bowed simultaneously, and stood before her like bashful
+schoolboys; while Nicholas assumed the knife in behalf of his aunt,
+distributing with equal liberality, when they retired in high glee over
+the new version of his history, which Mr. Windgraff, for the sake of
+displaying his acumen, stoutly declared to be spurious. Gretchen also
+was served with a monstrous slice; and then the company bade good-bye to
+the aunt and nephew, who began anew their glad recognition.
+
+It was a noisy set of people who left Miss Pix's house. That little lady
+stood in the doorway, and sent off each with such a merry blessing that
+it lasted long after the doors of the other houses were closed. Even the
+forlorn Mrs. Starkey seemed to go back almost as happy as when she had
+issued forth in the evening with her newly found nephew. The sudden
+gleam of hope which his unlooked-for coming had let in upon a toilsome
+and thankless life--for we know more about her position in Mr. Manlius's
+household than we have been at liberty to disclose--had, indeed, gone
+out in darkness; but the Christmas merriment, and the kindness which for
+one evening had flowed around her, had so fertilized one little spot in
+her life, that, however dreary her pilgrimage, nothing could destroy the
+bright oasis. It gave hope of others, too, no less verdant; and with
+this hope uppermost in her confused brain the lonely widow entered the
+land of Christmas dreams. Let us hope, too, that the pachydermatous Mr.
+Manlius felt the puncture of her disappointment, and that Miss Pix's
+genial warmth had made him cast off a little the cloak of selfishness in
+which he had wrapped himself; for what else could have made him say to
+his echoing wife that night, "Caroline, suppose we let Eunice take the
+children to the panorama to-morrow. It's a quarter more; but she was
+rather disappointed about that young fellow"? The learned Doctor
+Chocker, who had, in all his days, never found a place to compare with
+his crowded study for satisfaction to his soul, for the first time now,
+as he entered it, admitted to himself that Miss Pix's arbor-like parlor
+and Mrs. Blake's simple room had something that his lacked; and in the
+frozen little bedroom where he nightly shivered, in rigid obedience to
+some fancied laws of health, the old man was aware of some kindly
+influence thawing away the chill frost-work which he had suffered to
+sheathe his heart. Nor did Mr. Le Clear toast his slippered feet before
+his cheery fire without an uncomfortable misgiving that his philosophy
+hardly compassed the sphere of life.
+
+Christmas-eve in the court was over. Strange things had happened; and,
+for one night at least, the Five Sisters had acted as one family. Little
+Miss Pix, reviewing the evening, as she dropped off to sleep, could not
+help rubbing her hands together, and emitting little chuckles. Such a
+delightful evening as she had had! and meaning to surprise others, she
+had herself been taken into a better surprise still; and here,
+recollecting the happy union of the lone, but not lonely, Mrs. Blake
+with a child of her old age, as it were, Miss Pix must laugh aloud just
+as the midnight clock was sounding. Bless her neighborly soul, she has
+ushered in Christmas-day with her laugh of good-will toward men. The
+whole hymn of the angels is in her heart; and with it let her sleep till
+the glorious sunshine awakes her.
+
+
+
+
+ICE AND ESQUIMAUX.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE ICE IN ITS GLORY.
+
+_June 17._--On this anniversary of the Battle of Bunker's Hill we sailed
+from Sleupe Harbor. Little Mecatina, with its blue perspective and
+billowy surface, lifted itself up astern under flooding sunshine to tell
+us that this relentless coast could have a glory of its own; but we
+looked at it with dreamy, forgetful eyes, thinking of the dear land, now
+all tossed into wild surge and crimson spray of war, which, how far
+soever away, is ever present to the hearts of her true children.
+
+Next day we dropped into the harbor of Caribou Island, a
+mission-station, and left again on the 20th, after a quiet
+Sunday,--Bradford having gone with others to church, and come back much
+moved by the bronze-faced earnestness, and rough-voiced, deep-chested
+hymning of the fisherman congregation. Far ahead we saw the strait full
+of ice. Not that the ice itself could be seen; but the peculiar,
+blue-white, vertical striæ, which stuccoed the sky far along the
+horizon, told experienced eyes that ice was there. Away to the right
+towered the long heights of Newfoundland, intensely blue, save where,
+over large spaces, they shone white with snow. They surprised us by
+their great elevation, and by the sharp and straight escarpments with
+which they descended. Here and there was a gorge cut through as with a
+saw. We then took all this in good faith, on the fair testimony of our
+eyes. But experience brought instruction,--as it will in superficial
+matters, whether in deeper ones or no. In truth, this appearance was
+chiefly a mirage caused by ice.
+
+For, of all solemn prank-players, of all mystifiers and magicians, ice
+is the greatest. Coming out of its silent and sovereign dreamland in the
+North, it brings its wand, and goes wizard-working down the coast. A
+spell is about it; enchantment is upon it like a garment; weirdness and
+illusion are the breath of its nostrils. Above it, along the horizon, is
+a strange columned wall, an airy Giant's Causeway, pale blue, paling
+through ethereal gray into snow. Islands quit the sea, and become
+islands in the sky, sky-foam and spray seen along their bases. Hills
+shoot out from their summits airy capes and headlands, or assume upon
+their crowns a wide, smooth table, as if for the service of genii. Ships
+sail, bergs float, in the heavens. Here a vast obelisk of ice shoots
+aloft, half mountain high; you gaze at it amazed, ecstatic,--calculating
+the time it will take to come up with it,--whistling, if you are still
+capable of that levity, for a wind. But now it begins to waver, to dance
+slowly, to shoot up minarets and take them back, to put forth arms which
+change into wands, wave and disappear; and ere your wonder has found a
+voice, it rolls itself together like a scroll, drops nearly to the
+ocean-level, and is but a gigantic ice-floe after all!
+
+The day fell calm; a calm evening came; the sea lay in soft, shining
+undulation, not urgent enough to exasperate the drooping sails. The ship
+rose and declined like a sleeper's pulse. We were all under a spell.
+Soon the moon, then at her full, came up, elongating herself laterally
+into an oval, whose breadth was not more than three fifths its length;
+her shine on the water likewise stretching along the horizon, sweet and
+fair like childhood, not a ray touching the shadowed water between.
+Presently, as if she discerned and did not disdain us,--wiser than
+"positive philosophers" in her estimate of man,--she gathered together
+her spreading shine, and threw it down toward us in a glade of scarcely
+more than her own breadth, of even width, and sharply defined at the
+sides. It was a regular roadway on the water, intensest gold verging
+upon orange, edged with an exquisite, delicate tint of scarlet, running
+straight and firm as a Roman road all the way from the meeting-place of
+sky and sea to the ship. Or rather, not quite to the ship; for, when
+near at hand, it broke off into golden globes, which, under the
+influence of the light swell, came towards us by softly sudden leaps,
+deepening and deepening as they came, till at the last leap they
+disappeared, more shining than ever, far down in the liquid, lucent
+heart of the sea. It was impossible to feel that these had faded, so
+triumphant was their close. Rather, one felt that they had been elected
+to a more glorious office,--had gone, perhaps, to light some hall of
+Thetis, or some divine, spotless revel of sea-nymphs.
+
+I had gone below, when, at about ten o'clock, there was a hail from the
+deck.
+
+"Come up and see a crack in the water!"
+
+"A what?"
+
+"A crack in the water!"
+
+"Not joking?"
+
+"No, indeed; come and see."
+
+Up quickly! this is the day of wonders! It was a line of brilliant
+phosphorescence, exceedingly brilliant, about two inches wide, perfectly
+sharp at the edges, which extended along the side of the ship, and ahead
+and astern out of sight. "Crack in the water" is the seaman's name for
+it. I have been a full year on the water, but never saw it save this
+once, and had never heard of it before.
+
+At half past eleven, the Parson and I went on deck, and read ordinary
+print as rapidly as by daylight. It took some ten seconds to get
+accustomed to the light, being fresh from the glare of the kerosene
+lamp; but afterwards we read aloud to each other with entire ease and
+fluency.
+
+At a quarter past two, Captain Handy, a man made of fine material, with
+an eye for the beautiful as well as for right-whales, broke my sleep
+with a gentle touch, and whispered, "Come on deck, and see what a
+morning it is." What a morning, indeed! Thanks, old comrade! Call me
+next time, when there is such to see; and if I am too weak to get out of
+my berth, take me up in those strong arms, across that broad,
+billow-like chest of yours, and bear me to the deck!
+
+It was dead calm,--no, _live_ calm, rather; for never was calm so vivid.
+The swell had fallen; but the sea breathes and lives even in its sleep.
+Dawn was already blushing, "celestial rosy red, love's proper hue," in
+the--_east_, I was about to say, but _north_ would be truer. The centre
+of its roseate arch was not more than a point (by compass) east of
+north. The lofty shore rose clear, dark, and sharp against the morning
+red; the sea was white,--white as purity, and still as peace; the moon
+hung opposite, clothed and half hidden in a glorified mist; a schooner
+lay moveless, dark-sailed, transformed into a symbol of solitude and
+silence, beneath. I thought of the world's myriad sleepers, and would
+fain have played Captain Handy to them all. But Nature is infinitely
+rich, and can afford to draw costly curtains about the slumber of her
+darling. For, without man, she were a mother ever in anguish of travail,
+and ever wanting a child to nurse with entire joy at her breast. Sleep
+on, man, while, with shadows and stars, with dying and dawning of day,
+not forgetting sombreness of cloud and passion of storm, the eternal
+mother dignifies your slumber, and waits till her _two_ suns arise and
+shine together!
+
+Morning,--ice, worlds of it, the wide straits all full! A light wind had
+been fanning us for the last two or three hours; and now the ice lay
+fair in view, just ahead. We had not calculated upon meeting it here. At
+Port Mulgrave they told us that the last of it had passed through with a
+rush about a week before. Bradford was delighted, and quickly got out
+his photographic sickle to reap this unexpected harvest: for the wise
+man had brought along with him a fine apparatus and a skilful
+photographer. In an hour or two the schooner was up with it, and finding
+it tolerably open, while the wind was a zephyr, and the sea smooth as a
+pond, we entered into its midst. Water-fowl--puffins, murres, duck, and
+the like--hung about it, furnishing preliminary employment to those of
+our number who sought sport or specimens. It was a delightsome day, the
+whole of it: atmosphere rare, pure, perfect; sun-splendor in deluge;
+land, a cloud of blue and snow on one side, and a tossed and lofty
+paradise of glowing gray, purple, or brown, on the other. The day would
+have been hot but for being tempered by the ice. This seasoned its
+shining warmth with a crisp, exhilarating quality, making the sunshine
+and summer mildness like iced sherry or Madeira. It is unlike anything
+known in more southern climates. There are days in March that would
+resemble it, could you take out of them the damp, the laxness of nerve,
+and the spring melancholy. There are days in October that come nearer;
+but these differ by their delicious half-languors, while, by their
+gorgeousness of autumn foliage, and their relation to the oldening year,
+they are made quite unlike in spirit. This day warmed like summer and
+braced like winter.
+
+Once fairly taken into the bosom of the ice-field, we had eyes for
+little else. Its forms were a surprise, so varied and so beautiful. I
+had supposed that field-ice was made up of flat cakes,--and _cake_ of
+all kinds is among the flattest things I know! But here if was,
+simulating all shapes, even those of animated creatures, with the art of
+a mocking bird,--and simulating all in a material pure as amber, though
+more varied in color. One saw about him cliffs, basaltic columns, frozen
+down, arabesques, fretted traceries, sculptured urns, arches supporting
+broad tables or sloping roofs, lifted pinnacles, boulders, honey-combs,
+slanting strata of rock, gigantic birds, mastodons, maned lions,
+couching or rampant,--a fantasy of forms, and, between all, the shining,
+shining sea. In sunshine, these shapes were of a glistening white
+flecked with stars, where at points the white was lost in the glisten;
+in half shadow the color was gray, in full shadow aërial purple; while,
+wherever the upper portions projected over the sea, and took its
+reflection, they often did, the color was an infinite, emerald intensity
+of green; beneath all which, under water, was a base or shore of dead
+emerald, a green paled with chalk. Blue was not this day seen, perhaps
+because this was shore-ice rather than floe,--made, not like the floes,
+of frozen sea, but of compacted and saturated snow.
+
+Just before evening came, when the courteous breeze folded its light
+fans fell asleep, we left this field behind, and, seeing all clear
+ahead, supposed the whole had been passed. In truth, as had soon to
+learn, this twenty-mile strip of shore-ice was but the advance-guard of
+an immeasurable field or army of floe. For there came down the northern
+coast, in this summer of 1864, more than a thousand miles' length, with
+a breadth of about a hundred miles, of floe-ice in a field almost
+unbroken! More than a thousand miles, by accurate computation! The
+courtesy of the Westerner--who, having told of seeing a flock of pigeons
+nine miles long, so dense as to darken the sun at noonday, and meeting
+objections from a skeptical Yankee, magnanimously offered, as a personal
+favor, to "take out a quarter of a mile from the thinnest part"--cannot
+be imitated here. I must still say _more_ than a thousand miles,--and
+this, too, the second run of ice!
+
+Captain Linklater, master of the Moravian supply-ship, a man of acute
+observation and some science, had, as he afterwards told me at Hopedale,
+measured the rate of travel of the ice, and found it to be twenty-seven
+miles a day. Our passengers were sure they saw it going at the rate of
+three or four miles an hour. Captain Handy, looking with experienced
+eye, pronounced this estimate excessive, and said it went from one to
+one and a half miles an hour,--twenty-four to thirty-six miles a day.
+Captain Linklater, however, had not trusted the question to his
+judgment, but established the rate by accurate scientific observation.
+Now we were headed off by the ice and driven into as harbor on the 22d
+of June; we left Hopedale and began our return on the 4th of August; and
+between these two periods the ice never ceased running. The Moravian
+ship, which entered the harbor of Hopedale half a mile ahead of us, on
+the 31st of July, pushed through it, and found it eighty-five miles
+wide. Toward the last it was more scattered, and at times could not be
+seen from the coast. But it was there; and on the day before our
+departure from Hopedale, August 3, this cheering intelligence
+arrived:--"The ice is pressing in upon the islands outside, and an
+easterly wind would block us in!"
+
+What becomes of this ice? Had one lain in wait for it two hundred miles
+farther south, it is doubtful if he would have seen of it even a
+vestige. It cannot melt away so quickly: a day amidst it satisfies any
+one of so much. Whither does it go?
+
+Put that question to a sealer or fisherman, and he will answer, "_It
+sinks._"
+
+"But," replies that cheerful and confident gentleman, Mr. Current
+Impression, "ice doesn't sink; ice floats." Grave Science, too, says the
+same.
+
+I believe that Ignorance is right for once. You are becalmed in the
+midst of floating ice. The current bears you and it together; but next
+morning the ice has vanished! You rub your eyes, but the fact is one not
+to be rubbed out; the ice was, and isn't, there! No evidence exists that
+it can fly, like riches; therefore I think it sinks. I have seen it,
+too, not indeed in the very act of sinking, but so water-logged as
+barely to keep its nose out. A block four cubic feet in dimension lay at
+a subsequent time beside the ship, and there was not a portion bigger
+than a child's fist above water. Watching it, again, when it has been
+tolerably well sweltered, you will see air-bubbles incessantly escaping.
+Evidently, the air which it contains is giving place to water. Now it is
+this air, I judge, which keeps it afloat; and when the process of
+displacement has sufficiently gone on, what can it do but drown, as men
+do under the circumstances? This reasoning may be wrong; but the fact
+remains. The reasoning is chiefly a guess; yet, till otherwise informed,
+I shall say, the ice-_lungs_ get full of water, and it goes down.
+
+But we have wandered while the light waned, and now return. It was a
+gentle evening. That "day, so cool, so calm, so bright," died sweetly,
+as such a day should. The moon rose, not a globe, but a tall cone of
+silver,--silver that _blushed_; ice-magic again. But she recovered
+herself, and reigned in her true shape, queen of the slumber-courts; and
+the world slept, and we with it; and in our cabin the sleep-talk was
+quieted to ripples of murmur.
+
+_June 22._--Rush! Rush! The water was racing past the ship's side, close
+to my ear, as I awoke early. On deck: the strait ahead was packed from
+shore to shore with ice, like a boy's brain with fancies; and before a
+jolly gale we were skimming into the harbor of Belles Amours. Five days
+here: tedious. The main matters here were a sand-beach, a girl who read
+and loved Wordsworth, a wood-thrush, a seal-race, a "killer's" head, and
+a cascade.
+
+Item, sand-beach, with green grass, looking like a meadow, beyond. Not
+intrinsically much of an affair. The beach, on close inspection, proved
+soft and dirty, the grass sedge, the meadow a bog. In the distance,
+however, and as a variety in this unswarded cliff-coast, it was sweet, I
+laugh now to think how sweet, to the eyes.
+
+Item, girl. There was one house in the harbor; not another within three
+miles. Here dwelt a family who spoke English,--not a patois, but
+English,--rare in Labrador as politicians in heaven. The French
+Canadians found in Southern Labrador speak a kind of skim-milk French,
+with a little sour-milk English; the Newfoundland Labradorians say
+"Him's good for he," and in general use a very "scaly" lingo, learned
+from cod-fish, one would think. Here was a mother, acceptable to Lindley
+Murray, who had instructed her children. One of these--S----, our best
+social explorer, found her out--owned and read a volume of Plato, and
+had sent to L'anse du Loup, twenty-four miles, to borrow a copy of
+Wordsworth. This was her delight. She had copied considerable portions
+of it with her own hand, and could repeat from memory many and many a
+page.
+
+    "Full many a gem of purest ray serene
+      The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
+    Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
+      And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
+
+But Heaven has its own economies; and perhaps floral "sweetness" is
+quite as little wasted upon the desert as upon Beacon Street or Fifth
+Avenue.
+
+Item, a bird. We were seeking trout,--only to obtain a minnow tricked in
+trout-marks. The boat crept slowly up a deep, solemn cove, over which,
+on either side, hung craggy and precipitous hills; while at its head was
+a slope covered with Liliputian forest, through which came down a broad
+brook in a series of snowy terraces. It was a superb day, bright and
+bracing,--just bracing enough to set the nerves without urging them, and
+exalt one to a sense of vigorous repose. The oars lingered, yet not
+lazily, on the way; there seemed time enough for anything. At length we
+came, calm, wealthy in leisure, silently cheerful, to a bit of pleasant
+yellow beach between rocks. And just as our feet were touching the tawny
+sands,--
+
+              "The sweetest throat of Solitude
+    Unbarred her silver gates, and slowly hymned
+    To the great heart of Silence, till it beat
+    Response with all its echoes: for from out
+    That far, immortal orient, wherein
+    His soul abides 'mid morning skies and dews,
+    A wood-thrush, angel of the tree-top heaven,
+    Poured clear his pure soprano through the place,
+    Deepening the stillness with diviner calm,
+    That gave to Silence all her inmost heart
+    In melody."
+
+It was a regal welcome. What is like the note of the wood-thrush?--so
+full of royalty and psalm and sabbath! Regal in reserve, however, no
+less than utterance, the sovereign songster gave a welcome only, and
+then was silent; while a fine piping warbler caught up the theme, and
+discoursed upon it with liberal eloquence. The place to hear the song of
+the wood-thrush is wherever you can attain to that enjoyment by walking
+five or ten miles; the place so to hear it that the hearing shall be, by
+sober estimation, among the memorable events of your life, is at the
+head of a solemn, sunny cove, on three yards of tawny beach, in the
+harbor of Belles Amours, Labrador.
+
+Item, seal-race. The male seals fight with fury in the season of their
+rude loves. Two of these had had a battle; the vanquished was fleeing,
+the victor after him. They were bounding from the water like dolphins.
+For some time I thought them such, though I have seen dolphins by
+thousands. It was a surprise to see these leisurely and luxurious
+animals spattering the water in such an ecstasy of amative rage.
+
+Item, "killer." This is a savage cetacean, probably the same with the
+"thrasher," about fifteen feet in length, blunt-nosed, strong of jaw,
+with cruel teeth. On its back is a fin beginning about two thirds the
+way from tip to tail, running close to the latter, and then sloping away
+to a point, like the jib of a ship. In the largest this is some five
+feet long on the back, and eight or ten feet in height,--so large, that,
+when the creature is swimming on the surface, a strong side-wind will
+sometimes blow it over. It is a blue-fish on a big scale, or a Semmes in
+the sea, hungry as famine, fierce as plague, dainty as a Roman epicure,
+yet omnivorous as time. The seal is its South-Down mutton, the tongue of
+the whale its venison; for whenever its numbers are sufficient, it will
+attack this huge cetacean, and torture him till he submits and gives a
+horrible feast to their greed. Captain Handy had seen thirty or forty of
+them at this business. They fly with inconceivable fury at their victim,
+aiming chiefly at the lip, tearing great mouthfuls away, which they
+instantly reject while darting for another. The bleeding and bellowing
+monster goes down like a boulder from a cliff, shoots up like a shell
+from a mortar, beats the sea about him all into crimsoned spray with his
+tail; but plunge, leap, foam as he may, the finny pirates flesh their
+teeth in him still, still are fresh in pursuit, until at length, to end
+one torment by submitting to another, the helpless giant opens his
+mouth, and permits these sea-devils to devour the quivering morsel they
+covet. A big morsel; for the tongue of the full-sized right-whale weighs
+a ton and a half, and yields a ton of oil. The killer is sometimes
+confounded with the grampus. The latter is considerably larger, has a
+longer and slenderer jaw, less round at the muzzle, smaller teeth, and
+"isn't so clean a made fish"; for, in nautical parlance, cetaceans are
+still fish. Killers frequently try to rob whalers of their prize, and
+sometimes actually succeed in carrying it down, despite the lances and
+other weapons with which their attack is so strenuously resisted.
+
+Item, cascade. A snowy, broken stripe down a mountain-side; taken to be
+snow till the ear better informed the eye. Fine; but you need not go
+there to see.
+
+_June 26._--Off to Henley Harbor, sixty-five miles, at the head of the
+Strait of Belle Isle. Belle Isle itself--sandstone, rich, the Professor
+said, in ancient fossils--lay in view. The anchor went down in deep
+water, close beside the notable Castle Island.
+
+There were some considerable floes in the harbor, the largest one
+aground in a passage between the two islands by which it is formed. And
+now came the blue of pure floe-ice! There is nothing else like it on
+this earth, but the sapphire gem in its perfection; and this is removed
+from the comparison by its inferiority in magnitude. This incomparable
+hue appears wherever deep shadow is interposed between the eye and any
+intense, shining white. The floe in question contained two caverns
+excavated by the sea, both of which were partially open toward the ship.
+And out of these shone, shone on us, the cerulean and sapphire glory!
+Beyond this were the deep blue waters of York Bay; farther away, grouped
+and pushing down, headland behind headland, into the bay, rose the
+purple gneiss hills, broad and rounded, and flecked with party-colored
+moss; while nearer glowed this immortal blue eye, like the bliss of
+eternity looking into time!
+
+Next day we rowed close to this: I hardly know how we dared! Heavens!
+such blue! It grew, as we looked into the ice-cavern, deeper, intenser,
+more luminous, more awful in beauty, the farther inward, till in the
+depths it became not only a shrine to worship at, but a presence to bow
+and be silent before! It is said that angels sing and move in joy before
+the Eternal; but there I learned that silence is their only voice, and
+stillness their ecstatic motion!
+
+Meanwhile the portals of this sapphire sanctuary were of a warm rose
+hue, rich and delicate,--looking like the blush of mortal beauty at its
+nearness to the heavenly.
+
+Bradford is all right in painting the intensest blue possible,--due
+care, of course, being taken not to extend it uniformly over large
+surfaces. If he can secure any suggestion of the subtilty and
+luminousness,--if he can! As I come back, and utter a word, he says that
+the only way will be to glaze over a white ground. It had already struck
+me, that, as this is the method by which Nature obtains such effects, it
+must be the method for Art also. He is on the right track. And how the
+gentle soul works!
+
+But while outward Nature here assumed aspects of beauty so surpassing,
+man, as if to lend her the emphasis of contrast, appeared in the
+sorriest shape. I name him here, that I may vindicate his claim to
+remembrance, even when he is a blot upon the beauty around him. I will
+not forget him, even though I can think of him only with shame. To
+remember, however, is here enough. We will go back to Nature,--though
+she, too, can suckle "killers."
+
+On the evening before our departure,--for we remained several days, and
+had a snow-storm meanwhile,--there was a glorious going down of the sun
+over the hills beyond York Bay, with a tender golden mist filling all
+the western heavens, and tinting air and water between. So Nature
+renewed her charm. And with that sun setting on Henley Harbor, we leave
+for the present the miserable, magnificent place.
+
+_June 30._--Iceberg! An iceberg! The real thing at last! We left Henley
+at ten A. M., and were soon coming up with a noble berg. Its aspect, on
+our near approach, was that of a vast roof rising at one end, beside
+which, and about half its height, was the upper third of an enormous
+cylinder. Passing to the west, along one side of this roof, we beheld a
+vast cavernous depression, making a concave line in its ridge, and then
+dipping deep, beyond view, into the berg. The sharp upper rim of this
+depression came between us and the sky, with the bright shine of the
+forenoon sun beyond, and showed a skirt or fringe of infinitely delicate
+luminous green, whose contrast with the rich marble-white of the general
+structure was beautiful exceedingly. With the exception of this, and of
+a narrow blue seam, looking like lapis-lazuli, which ran diagonally from
+summit to base, the broad surface of this side had the look of
+snow-white marble lace or fretwork. Passing thence to the north face, we
+came apparently upon the part at which the berg separated from its
+parent glacier. Here was a new effect, and one of great beauty. In
+material it resembled the finest statuary marble,--but rather the
+crystalline marbles of Vermont, with their brilliant half-sparkle, than
+the dead polish of the Parian; while the form and character of this
+façade suggested some fascinating, supernatural consent of chance and
+art, of fracture with sculpturesque and architectural design.
+
+    "He works in rings, in magic rings, of chance,"--
+
+the subtlest thing ever said of Turner,--might have been spoken even
+more truly of the workman who wrought this. The apparent fineness of
+material cannot be overstated, so soft and powerful. "A porcelain
+fracture," said Ph----,--well. Yet such porcelain! It were the despair
+of China. On the eastern, or cylinder side, there was next the water a
+strip of intensely polished surface, surmounted by an elaborate level
+cornice, and above this the marble lace again.
+
+The schooner soon tacked, and returned. As again we pass the cathedral
+cliff on the north, and join the western side with this in one view, we
+are somewhat prepared by familiarity to mingle its majesty and beauty,
+and take from them a single impression. The long Cyclopean wall and vast
+Gothic roof of the side, including many an arched, rounded, and waving
+line, emphasized by straight lines of blue seam, are set off against the
+strange shining traceries of the façade; while the union of flower-like
+softness and eternal strength, the fretted silver of surface, the
+combination of peak and cave, the fringe of blazing emerald on the
+ridge, the glancing, flashing lights contrasting with twilight blues and
+purples of deep shadow, and over all the stainless azure, and beneath
+and around all a sea of beryl strown with sun-dust,--these associate to
+engrave on the soul an impression which even death and the tomb, I would
+fain believe, will be powerless to efface. And if Art study hard and
+labor long and vehemently aspire to publish the truth of this, she does
+well. Her task is worthy, but is not easy: I think a greater, of the
+kind, has never been attempted. The height of this berg was determined
+by instruments--but with a conjecture only of the distance--to be one
+hundred and eighteen feet. Captain Brown, however, who went aloft, and
+thence formed a judgment, pronounced it not less than one hundred and
+fifty feet. One naturally inclines to the more moderate computation.
+But, as subsequent experience showed me that judgments of distance in
+such cases are almost always below the mark, I am of opinion that here,
+as sometimes in politics and religion, seeming moderation may be less
+accurate than seeming excess.
+
+And, by the way, Noble's descriptions of icebergs, which, in the absence
+of personal observation, might seem excessive, are of real value.
+Finding a copy of his book on board, I read it with pleasure, having
+first fully made my own notes,--and refer to him any reader who may have
+appetite for more after concluding this chapter.
+
+Early this evening we entered between bold cliffs into Square Island
+Harbor, latitude about 53°. It is a deep and deeply sheltered dog's
+hole,--dogs and dirt could make it such,--but overhung by purple hills,
+which proved, on subsequent inspection, to be largely composed of an
+impure labradorite. Labradorite, the reader may know, is a crystallized
+feldspar, with traces of other minerals. In its pure state it is
+opalescent, exhibiting vivid gleams of blue, green, gold, and
+copper-color, and, more rarely, of rose,--and is then, and deservedly,
+reckoned a precious stone. The general character of the rock here is
+sienitic; but, besides this peculiar quality of feldspar, the hornblende
+appears as actinolite, (ray-stone,) so called from the form of its
+crystallization; while the quartz element is faintly present, or appears
+in separate masses. The purple of the hills is due not only to the
+labradorite, which has that as a stable color, but also to a purple
+lichen, which clothes much of the rock on this coast. I found also fine
+masses of mica imbedded in quartz, edge upwards, and so compact that
+its lamination was not perceptible. Indeed, I did not, with my novice
+eyes, immediately recognize it, for it appeared a handsome
+copper-colored rock, projecting slightly from the quartz, as if more
+enduring.
+
+Next day there was trouting, with a little, and but a little, better
+than the usual minnow result.
+
+And on the next, the floe-ice poured in and packed the harbor like a box
+of sardines. The scene became utterly Arctic,--rock above, and ice
+below. Rock, ice, and three imprisoned ships; which last, in their
+helpless isolation, gave less the sense of companionship than of a
+triple solitude. And when next day, Sunday, the third day of July, I
+walked ashore on the ice with a hundred feet of water beneath, summer
+seemed a worn-out tradition, and one felt that the frozen North had gone
+out over the world as to a lawful inheritance.
+
+But the new Czar reigned in beauty, if also in terror. Yard-wide spaces
+of emerald, amethyst, sapphire, yellow-green beryl, and rose-tinted
+crystal, grew as familiar to the eye as paving-blocks to the dwellers in
+cities. The shadows of the ice were also of a violet purple, so ethereal
+that it required a painter's eye at once to see it, though it was
+unmistakably there; and to represent it will task the finest painter's
+hand. Then the spaces of water between the floes, if not too large,
+appeared uniformly in deep wine-color,--an effect for which one must
+have more science than I to account. It is attributed to contrast; but
+if thus illusive, it is at least an illusion not to be looked out of
+countenance. No local color could assert itself more firmly. One
+marvellous morning, too, a dense, but translucent, mist hovered closely,
+beneath strong sunshine, over the ice, lending to its innumerable
+fantastic forms a new, weird, witching, indescribable, real-unreal
+strangeness, as if the ice and the ships it inclosed and we ourselves
+were all but embodied dreams, half come to consciousness, and rubbing
+our surprised moon-eyes to gaze upon each other. The power of this mist
+to multiply distance was not the least part of its witchery. A schooner
+ten rods off looked as far away as Cadmus and Abraham.
+
+P---- was made happy by finding here a grasshopper, which subsequently
+proved, however, a prize indeed,--but not quite so much of a prize as he
+hoped, being probably the young of a species previously known as Alpine,
+rather than an adult identical with one found on the summit of Mount
+Washington.
+
+During the latter part of our duress here we were driven below by raw,
+incessant rain, and the confinement became irksome. At length, during
+the day and night of July 14th, the ice finally made off with itself,
+and the next morning the schooner followed suit. The ice, however, had
+not done with us. It lingered near the land, while farther out it was
+seen in solid mass, making witch-work, as usual, on the northern and
+eastern sky; and we were soon dodging through the more open portion,
+still dense enough, close to the coast. It was dangerous business. A
+pretty breeze blew; and with anything of a wind our antelope of a
+schooner took to her heels with speed. Lightly built,--not, like vessels
+designed for this coast, double-planked and perhaps iron-prowed,--she
+would easily have been staved by a shock upon this adamantine ice. The
+mate stood at the bow, shouting, "Luff! Bear away! Hard up! Hard down!"
+And his voice wanting strength and his articulation distinctness, I was
+fain, at the pinch of the game, to come to his aid, and trumpet his
+orders after him with my best stentorship. The old pilot had taken the
+helm; but his nerves were unequal to his work; and a younger man was
+sent to take his place. Once or twice the ship struck smaller masses of
+ice, but at so sharp an angle as to push them and herself mutually
+aside, and slide past without a crash. But a wind from the land was
+steadily urging the floe-field away, and at length the sea before us lay
+clear.
+
+At ten A. M., we drew up to a majestic berg, and "came to,"--that is,
+brought the schooner close by the wind. The berg was one of the noblest.
+Picture to yourself two most immense Gothic churches without transepts,
+each with a tower in front. Place these side by side, but at a remove
+equal to about half their length. Build up now the space between the two
+towers, extending this connection back so that it shall embrace the
+front third or half of the churches, leaving an open _green_ court in
+the rear, and you have a general conception of this piece of Northern
+architecture. The rear of each church, however, instead of ascending
+vertically, sloped at an angle of about ten degrees, and, instead of
+having sharp corners, was exquisitely rounded. Elsewhere also were many
+rounded and waving lines, where the image of a church would suggest
+straightness. Nevertheless, you are to cling with force to that image in
+shaping to your mind's eye a picture of this astonishing cathedral.
+
+Since seeing the former berg, we had heard many tales of the danger of
+approaching them. The Newfoundlanders and natives have of them a mortal
+terror,--never going, if it can be avoided, nearer than half a mile, and
+then always on the leeward side. "They kill the wind," said these
+people, so that one in passing to windward is liable to be becalmed, and
+to drift down upon them,--to drift upon them, because there is always a
+tide setting in toward them. They chill the water, it descends, and
+other flows in to assume its place. These fears were not wholly
+groundless. Icebergs sometimes burst their hearts suddenly, with an
+awful explosion, going into a thousand pieces. After they begin to
+disintegrate, moreover, immense masses from time to time crush down from
+above or surge up from beneath; and on all such occasions, proximity to
+them is obviously not without its perils. "The Colonel," brave, and a
+Greenland voyager, was more nervous about them than anybody else. He
+declared, apparently on good authority, that the vibration imparted to
+the sea by a ship's motion, or even that communicated to the air by the
+human voice, would not unfrequently give these irritable monsters the
+hint required for a burst of ill-temper,--and averred also that our
+schooner, at the distance of three hundred yards, would be rolled over,
+like a child's play-boat, by the wave which an exploding or over-setting
+iceberg would cause. And it might, indeed, be supposed, that, did one of
+those prodigious creations take a notion to disport its billions of tons
+in a somersault, it would raise no trivial commotion.
+
+At a distance, these considerations weighed with me. I heard them
+respectfully, was convinced, and silently resolved not to urge, indeed,
+so far as I properly might, to discourage, nearness of approach. But
+here all these convictions vanished away. I knew that some icebergs were
+treacherous, but they were others, not this! There it stood in such
+majesty and magnificence of marble strength, that all question of its
+soundness was shamed out of me,--or rather, would have been shamed, had
+it arisen. This was not sentiment,--it was judgment,--_my_
+judgment,--perhaps erroneous, yet a judgment formed from the facts as I
+saw them. Therefore I determined to launch the light skiff which Ph----
+and I had bought at Sleupe Harbor, and row up to the berg, perhaps lay
+my hand upon it.
+
+As the skiff went over the gunwale, the Parson cried,--
+
+"Shall I go with you?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, if you wish."
+
+He seated himself in the stern; I assumed the oars, (I row cross-handed,
+with long oars, and among amateur oarsmen am a little vain of my skill)
+and pulled away. It was a longer pull than I had thought,--suggesting
+that our judgment of distances had been insufficient, and that the
+previous berg was higher than our measurement had made it.
+
+Our approach was to rear of the berg,--that is, to the court or little
+bay before mentioned. The temptation to enter was great, but I dared
+not; for the long, deep ocean-swell over which the skiff skimmed like a
+duck, not only without danger, but without the smallest perturbation,
+broke in and out here with such force that I knew the boat would
+instantly be swept out of my possession. The Parson, however, always
+reckless of peril in his enthusiasm, and less experienced, cried,--
+
+"In! in! Push the boat in!"
+
+"No, the swell is too heavy; it will not do."
+
+"Fie upon the swell! Never mind what will do! In!"
+
+I sympathized too much with him to answer otherwise than by laying my
+weight upon the oars, and pushing silently past. The water in this bit
+of bay was some six or eight feet deep, and the ice beneath it--for the
+berg was all solid below--showed in perfection that crystalline tawny
+green which belongs to it under such circumstances. I pulled around the
+curving rear of the eastern church, with its surface of marble lace,
+such as we had seen before, gazing upward and upward at the towering
+awfulness and magnificence of edifice, myself frozen in admiration. The
+Parson, under high excitement, rained his hortative oratory upon me.
+
+"Nearer! Nearer! Let's touch it! Let's lay our hands upon it! Don't be
+faint-hearted now. It's now or never!"
+
+I heard him as one under the influence of chloroform hears his
+attendants. He exhorted a stone. His words only seemed to beat and
+flutter faintly against me, like storm-driven birds against a cliff at
+night. My brain was only in my eyeballs; and the arms that worked
+mechanically at the oars belonged rather to the boat than to me.
+
+Saturated at last, if not satiated, with seeing, I glanced at the
+water-level, and said,--
+
+"But see how the surge is heaving against it!"
+
+But now it was I that spoke to stone, though not to a silent one.
+
+"Hang the surge! I'm here for an iceberg, not to be balked by a bit of
+surf! It's not enough to see; I must have my hand on it! I wish to touch
+the veritable North Pole!"
+
+It was pleasant to see the ever-genial Parson so peremptory; and I
+lingered half wilfully, not unwilling to mingle the relieving flavor of
+this pleasure with the more awful delight of other impressions: said,
+however, at length,--
+
+"I intend to go up to it, when I have found a suitable place."
+
+"Place! What better place do you desire than this?"
+
+I could but smile and pull on.
+
+Caution was not unnecessary. The sea rose and fell a number of feet
+beside the berg, beating heavily against it with boom and hiss; and I
+knew well, that, if our boat struck fairly, especially if it struck
+sidewise, it would be whirled over and over in two seconds. Besides,
+where we then were, there was a cut of a foot or more into the berg at
+the water-level,--or rather, it was excavated below, with this
+projection above; and had the skiff caught under that, we would drown. I
+had come there not to drown, nor to run any risk, but to get some more
+intimate acquaintance with an iceberg. Rowing along, therefore, despite
+the Parson's moving hortatives, I at length found a spot where this
+projection did not appear. Turning now the skiff head on, I drove it
+swiftly toward the berg; then, when its headway was sufficient, shipped
+the oars quickly, slipped into the bow, and, reaching forth my hand and
+striking the berg, sent the boat in the same instant back with all my
+force, not suffering it to touch.
+
+"Now me! Now me!" shouted the Parson, brow hot, and eyes blazing.
+"You're going to give me a chance, too? I would not miss it for a
+kingdom!"
+
+"Yes; wait, wait."
+
+I took the oars, got sea-room, then turned its stern, where the Parson
+sat, toward the iceberg, and backed gently in.
+
+"Put your hand behind you; reach out as far as you can; sit in the
+middle; keep cool, cool; don't turn your body."
+
+"Cool, oh, yes! I'm cool as November," he said, with a face misty as a
+hot July morning with evaporating dew. As his hand struck the ice, I
+bent the oars, and we shot safely away.
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" he shouted, making the little boat rock and
+tremble,--"hurrah! This, now, is the 'adventurous travel' we were
+promised. Now I am content, if we get no more."
+
+"Cool; you'll have us over."
+
+"Pooh! Who's cooler?"
+
+We went leisurely around this glacial cathedral. The current set with
+force about it, running against us on the eastern side. At the front we
+found the "cornice" again, about twenty feet up, sloping to the water,
+and dipping beneath it on either side; below it, a crystal surface;
+above, marble fretwork. This cornice indicates a former sea-level,
+showing that the berg has risen or changed position. This must have
+taken place, probably, by the detachment of masses; so an occurrence of
+this kind was not wholly out of question, after all. There is always,
+however,--so I suspect,--some preliminary warning, some audible crack or
+visible vibration. I had kept in mind the possibility of such changes,
+and at the slightest intimation should have darted away,--a movement
+favored by the lightness of the skiff, and the extreme ease with which,
+under the advantage of a beautiful model, she was rowed.
+
+A sense of awe, almost of fear, crept over me now that the adventure was
+over, and I looked up to the mighty towers of the façade with a somewhat
+humbled eye; and so, pulling slowly and respectfully along the western
+side, made away, solemn and satisfied, to the ship.
+
+I expected a storm of criticism on our return, but found calm. The boat
+was hoisted in silently, and I hurried below, to lie down and enjoy the
+very peculiar entertainment which vigorous rowing was sure to afford me.
+
+Released after a half-hour's toasting on the gridiron, I went on deck
+and found the Parson surrounded by a cloud of censure. The words "boyish
+foolhardiness," catching my ear, flushed me with some anger,--to which
+emotion I am not, perhaps, of all men least liable. So I stumped a
+little stiffly to the group, and said,--
+
+"I don't feel myself altogether a boy, and foolhardiness is not my
+forte."
+
+"Well, success is wisdom," said the Colonel, placably. "You have
+succeeded, and now have criticism at a disadvantage, I own."
+
+Another, however,--not a braver man on board,--stood to his guns.
+
+"Experienced men say that it is dangerous; I hear to them till I have
+experience myself."
+
+"Right, if so it stands in your mind. You judge thus: you follow your
+judgment. I judge partly so, and partly otherwise, and I follow my
+judgment. Mere experience is but a purblind wisdom, after all. When I do
+not at all see my own way, I follow that, still aware of its
+imperfections; where eyes are of service, I use them, learning from
+experience caution, not submission. The real danger in this case was
+that of being dashed against the berg; with coolness and some skill"
+(was there a little emphasis on this word _skill_?) "that danger could
+be disarmed. For any other danger I was ready, but did not fear it.
+'Boyish?' The boyish thing, I take it, is always to be a pendant upon
+other people's alarms. I prefer rather to be kite than its tail only."
+
+"Well, each of us _does_ follow his own judgment," replied Candor; "you
+act as you think; I think you are wrong. If it were shooting a Polar
+bear now,--there's pleasure in that, and it were worth the while to run
+some risk."
+
+We had tried for a bear together. I seized my advantage.
+
+"It is a pleasure to you to shoot a bear. So to me also. But I would
+rather get into intimacy with an iceberg than freight the ship with
+bears."
+
+He smiled an end to the colloquy. As I went below, Captain Handy, the
+Arctic whaler, met me with,--
+
+"I would as lief as not spend a week on that berg! I have made fast to
+such, and lain for days. All depends on the character of the berg. If
+it's rotting, look out! If it's sound as that one, you may go to sleep
+on it."
+
+I hastened up to proclaim my new ally. "You heed experience; hear
+Captain Handy." And I launched his bolt at the head of Censure, and saw
+it duck, if no more.
+
+We saw after this, going and returning, many bergs, hundreds in all.
+With one of the finest, a little more broken and varied than those
+previously described, we came up at a little past noon, and the schooner
+stood off and on while Bradford went in the boat to sketch it in
+color,--Captain Handy's steady and skilful hand upon the sculling-oar.
+Bradford worked at it like a beaver all the afternoon, and then directed
+the schooner to lie to through the night, that he might resume his task
+in the morning,--coveting especially the effects of early light The
+ardent man was off before three o'clock. Nature was kind to him; he
+sketched the berg under a dawn of amber and scarlet, followed by floods
+on floods of morning gold; and returned to breakfast, after five hours'
+work, half in rapture and half in despair. The colors, above all, the
+purples, were inconceivable, he said, and there was no use trying to
+render them. I reminded him of Ruskin's brave words:--"He that is not
+appalled by his tasks will do nothing great." But his was an April
+despair, after all, with rifted clouds and spring sunshine pouring
+through.
+
+Another memorable one was seen outside while we were in harbor,
+storm-bound. A vast arch went through the very heart of it, while each
+end rose to a pinnacle,--the arch blue, blue! We were going out to it;
+but, during the second night of storm, its strength broke, and beneath
+blinding snow there remained only a mad dance of waves over the wreck of
+its majesty.
+
+There was another, curiously striped with diagonal dirt-bands, whose
+fellowship, however, the greens and purples did not disdain.
+
+Another had the shape of three immense towers, seeming to _stand on the
+water_, more than a hundred feet of sea rolling between. The tallest
+tower could not be much less than two hundred feet in height; the others
+slightly, just perceptibly, lower. This was seen in rain, and the
+purples here were more crystalline and shining than any others which I
+observed.
+
+These towers were seen on our last day among the bergs. In my memory
+they are monumental. They stand there, a purple trinity, to commemorate
+the terrors and glories that I shall behold no more.
+
+
+
+
+KALLUNDBORG CHURCH.
+
+                    "Tie stille, barn min!
+                    Imorgen kommer Fin,
+                    Fa'er din,
+    Og gi'er dig Esbern Snares öine og hjerte at lege med!"
+
+                                     _Zealand Rhyme._
+
+
+    "Build at Kallundborg by the sea
+    A church as stately as church may be,
+    And there shalt thou wed my daughter fair,"
+    Said the Lord of Nesvek to Esbern Snare.
+
+    And the Baron laughed. But Esbern said,
+    "Though I lose my soul, I will Helva wed!"
+    And off he strode, in his pride of will,
+    To the Troll who dwelt in Ulshoi hill.
+
+    "Build, O Troll, a church for me
+    At Kallundborg by the mighty sea;
+    Build it stately, and build it fair,
+    Build it quickly," said Esbern Snare.
+
+    But the sly Dwarf said, "No work is wrought
+    By Trolls of the Hills, O man, for nought.
+    What wilt thou give for thy church so fair?"
+    "Set thy own price," quoth Esbern Snare.
+
+    "When Kallundborg church is builded well,
+    Thou must the name of its builder tell,
+    Or thy heart and thy eyes must be my boon."
+    "Build," said Esbern, "and build it soon."
+
+    By night and by day the Troll wrought on;
+    He hewed the timbers, he piled the stone;
+    But day by day, as the walls rose fair,
+    Darker and sadder grew Esbern Snare.
+
+    He listened by night, he watched by day,
+    He sought and thought, but he dared not pray;
+    In vain he called on the Elle-maids shy,
+    And the Neck and the Nis gave no reply.
+
+    Of his evil bargain far and wide
+    A rumor ran through the country-side;
+    And Helva of Nesvek, young and fair,
+    Prayed for the soul of Esbern Snare.
+
+    And now the church was wellnigh done;
+    One pillar it lacked, and one alone;
+    And the grim Troll muttered, "Fool thou art!
+    To-morrow gives me thy eyes and heart!"
+
+    By Kallundborg in black despair,
+    Through wood and meadow, walked Esbern Snare,
+    Till, worn and weary, the strong man sank
+    Under the birches on Ulshoi bank.
+
+    At his last day's work he heard the Troll
+    Hammer and delve in the quarry's hole;
+    Before him the church stood large and fair:
+    "I have builded my tomb," said Esbern Snare.
+
+    And he closed his eyes the sight to hide,
+    When he heard a light step at his side:
+    "O Esbern Snare!" a sweet voice said,
+    "Would I might die now in thy stead!"
+
+    With a grasp by love and by fear made strong,
+    He held her fast, and he held her long;
+    With the beating heart of a bird afeard,
+    She hid her face in his flame-red beard.
+
+    "O love!" he cried, "let me look to-day
+    In thine eyes ere mine are plucked away;
+    Let me hold thee close, let me feel thy heart
+    Ere mine by the Troll is torn apart!
+
+    "I sinned, O Helva, for love of thee!
+    Pray that the Lord Christ pardon me!"
+    But fast as she prayed, and faster still,
+    Hammered the Troll in Ulshoi hill.
+
+    He knew, as he wrought, that a loving heart
+    Was somehow baffling his evil art;
+    For more than spell of Elf or Troll
+    Is a maiden's prayer for her lover's soul.
+
+    And Esbern listened, and caught the sound
+    Of a Troll-wife singing underground:
+    "To-morrow comes Fine, father thine:
+    Lie still and hush thee, baby mine!
+
+    "Lie still, my darling! next sunrise
+    Thou'lt play with Esbern Snare's heart and eyes!"
+    "Ho! ho!" quoth Esbern, "is that your game?
+    Thanks to the Troll-wife, I know his name!"
+
+    The Troll he heard him, and hurried on
+    To Kallundborg church with the lacking stone.
+    "Too late, Gaffer Fine!" cried Esbern Snare;
+    And Troll and pillar vanished in air!
+
+    That night the harvesters heard the sound
+    Of a woman sobbing underground,
+    And the voice of the Hill-Troll loud with blame
+    Of the careless singer who told his name.
+
+    Of the Troll of the Church they sing the rune
+    By the Northern Sea in the harvest moon;
+    And the fishers of Zealand hear him still
+    Scolding his wife in Ulshoi hill.
+
+    And seaward over its groves of birch
+    Still looks the tower of Kallundborg church,
+    Where, first at its altar, a wedded pair,
+    Stood Helva of Nesvek and Esbern Snare!
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE CRUIKSHANK IN MEXICO.
+
+
+And first, let it be on record that his name is GEORGE CRUIKSHANK, and
+not CRUICKSHANK. The good old man is seventy years of age, if not more,
+(the earliest drawing I have seen of his bears the date of 1799, and he
+could scarcely have begun to limn in his long-clothes,) yet, with a
+persistence of perversity wellnigh astonishing,--although his name has
+been before the public for considerably more than half a
+century,--although he has published nothing anonymously, but has
+appended his familiar signature in full to the minutest scratchings of
+his etching-needle,--although he has been the conductor of two
+magazines, and of late years has been one of the foremost agitators and
+platform-orators in the English temperance movement,--the vast majority
+of his countrymen have always spelt his surname "Cruickshank," and will
+continue so to spell it, I suppose, even should he live as long as
+Cornaro. I hope he may, I am sure, with or without the additional _c_
+for his age and his country can ill spare him.
+
+But George Cruikshank in Mexico! What on earth can the most stay-at-home
+of British artists have to do with that out-of-the-way old
+curiosity-shop of the American continent? One might fancy him now--but
+that it is growing late--in the United States. He might be invited to
+attend a Total Abstinence Convention. He might run Mr. J.B. Gough hard
+on his favorite stump. He might be tempted, perchance, to cross the
+ocean in the evening of his days, to note down, with his inimitable and
+still unfaltering pencil, some of the humors of Yankee-land. I am
+certain, that, were George Cruikshank or Dicky Doyle to come this way
+and give a pictorial history of a tour through the States, somewhat
+after the immortal Brown, Jones, and Robinson pattern, the Americans
+would be in a better temper with their brothers in Old England than
+after reading some long spun-out book of travels by brainless Cockneys
+or cynical dyspeptics. The laugh awakened by a droll picture hurts
+nobody. It is that ugly letter-press which smarts and rankles, and
+festers at last into a gangrene of hatred. The Patriarch of Uz wished
+that his enemy had written a book. He could have added ten thousand fold
+to the venom of the aspiration, had he likewise expressed a wish that
+the book had been printed.
+
+You will be pleased to understand, then, that the name of the gentleman
+who serves as text for this essay is Cruikshank, and not Cruickshank.
+There is an old Scottish family, I believe, of that ilk, which spells
+its name with a _c_ before the _k_. Perhaps the admirers of our George
+wished to give something like an aristocratic smack to his patronymic,
+and so interpolated the objectionable consonant. There is no Cruikshank
+to be found in the "Court Guide," but Cruickshanks abound. As for our
+artist, he is a burgess among burgesses,--a man of the people _par
+excellence_, and an Englishman above all. His travels have been of the
+most limited nature. Once, in the course of his long life, and with what
+intent you shall presently hear, he went to France, as Hogarth did; but
+France didn't please him, and he came home again, like Hogarth, with all
+convenient speed,--fortunately, without being clapped up in jail for
+sketching the gates of Calais. I believe that he has not crossed the
+Straits of Dover since George IV. was king. I have heard, on good
+authority, that he protested strongly, while in foreign parts, against
+the manner in which the French ate new-laid eggs, and against the
+custom, then common among the peasantry, of wearing wooden shoes. I am
+afraid even, that, were George hard pressed, he would own to a dim
+persuasion that _all_ Frenchmen wear wooden shoes; also pigtails;
+likewise cocked hats. He does not say so in society; but those who have
+his private ear assert that his faith or his delusion goes even farther
+than this, and that he believes that all Frenchmen eat frogs,--that nine
+tenths of the population earn their living as dancing-masters, and that
+the late Napoleon Buonaparte (George Cruikshank always spells the
+Corsican Ogre's name with a _u_) was first cousin to Apollyon, and was
+not, upon occasion, averse to the consumption of human flesh,---babies
+of British extraction preferred. Can you show me an oak that ever took
+so strong a root as prejudice?
+
+Not that George Cruikshank belongs in any way to the species known as
+"Fossil Tories." He is rather a fossil Liberal. He was a Whig Radical,
+and more, when the slightest suspicion of Radicalism exposed an
+Englishman to contumely, to obloquy, to poverty, to fines, to stripes,
+to gyves, and to the jail. He was quite as advanced a politician as
+William Cobbett, and a great deal honester as a man. He was the fast
+friend of William Hone, who, for his famous "Political Catechism,"--a
+lampoon on the borough-mongers and their bloated king,--was tried three
+times on three successive days, before the cruel Ellenborough, but as
+many times acquitted. George Cruikshank inveighed ardently, earnestly,
+and at last successfully, with pencil and with etching-point, against
+the atrocious blood-thirstiness of the penal laws,--the laws that strung
+up from six to a dozen unfortunates on a gallows in front of Newgate
+every Monday morning, often for no direr offence than passing a
+counterfeit one-pound note. When the good old Tories wore top-boots and
+buckskins, George Cruikshank was conspicuous for a white hat and
+Hessians,--the distinguishing outward signs of ultra-liberalism. He was,
+of course, a Parliamentary Reformer in the year '30; and he has been a
+social reformer, and a most useful one, ever since. Still is there
+something about this brave old English worthy that approaches the fossil
+type. His droll dislike to the French--a hearty, good-humored disfavor,
+differing widely from the polished malevolence of Mr. John Leech, who
+never missed an opportunity to represent the airy Gaul as something
+repulsive, degraded, and ungentlemanly--I have already noticed. Then
+George Cruikshank has never been able to surmount a vague notion that
+steamboats and steam-engines are, generically speaking, a humbug, and
+that the old English sailing craft and the old English stage-coach are,
+after all, the only modes of conveyance worthy the patronage of Britons.
+Against exaggerated hoop-skirts he has all along set his face, and
+seldom, if ever, condescends to delineate a lady in crinoline. His
+beau-ideal of female beauty is comprised in an hour-glass waist, a skirt
+that fits close to the form, a sandalled shoe, and very long ringlets;
+whereas tight lacing, narrow skirts, sandalled shoes, and ringlets have
+been banished from the English _modes_ any time these fifteen years.
+Those among George's critics, too, who are sticklers for exactitude in
+the "abstract and brief chronicle of the time" complain that his dandies
+always wear straps to their tight pantaloons in lieu of pegtops; that
+their vests are too short and their coat-collars too high; that they
+wear bell-crowned hats, and carry gold-knobbed canes with long tassels;
+and that they are dressed, in short, after the fashion of the year one,
+when Brummell or Pea-Green Haynes commanded the _ton_. It is obvious
+that the works of an artist who has refused to be indoctrinated with the
+perpetual changes of a capricious code of dress would never be very
+popular with the readers of "Punch,"--a periodical which, pictorially,
+owes its very existence to the readiness and skill displayed by its
+draughtsmen in shooting folly as it flies and catching the manners
+living as they rise, and pillorying the madness of the moment. Were
+George Cruikshank called upon, for instance, to depict a lady fording a
+puddle on a rainy day, and were he averse (for he is the modestest of
+artists) to displaying too much of her ankle, he would assuredly make
+manifest, beneath her upraised skirts, some antediluvian pantalet,
+bordered by a pre-Adamite frill. But the keen-eyed Mr. Leech would be
+guilty of no such anachronism. He would discover that the mysterious
+garments in question were ofttimes encircled by open-worked embroidery.
+_He would find out that the ladies sometimes wore Knickerbockers._ And
+this is what the ladies like. Exaggerate their follies as much as you
+please; but woe be to you, if you wrongfully accuse them! You may sneer
+at, you may censure, you may castigate them for what they really do, but
+beware of reprehending them for that which they have never done. Even
+Sir John Falstaff revolted at the imputation of having kissed the
+keeper's daughter. A sermon against crinoline, be it ever so
+fulminating, finds ever an attentive and smiling congregation; but
+venture to preach against coal-scuttle bonnets--until the ladies have
+really taken to wearing them--and your hearers would pull down the
+pulpit and hang the preacher.
+
+Thus, although foreigners may express wonder that a designer, who for so
+many years has been in the front rank of English humorous artists,
+should never have contributed to the pages of our leading humorous
+periodical, astonishment may be abated, when the real state of the case,
+as I have endeavored to put it, is known. George Cruikshank is at once
+too good for, and not quite up to the mark of "Punch." His best works
+have always been his etchings on steel and copper; and wonderful
+examples of chalcographic brilliance and skill those etchings are,--many
+of them surpassing Callot, and not a few of them (notably the
+illustrations to Ainsworth's "Tower of London") rivalling Rembrandt.
+From the nature of these engravings, it would be impossible to print
+them at a machine-press for a weekly issue of fifty or sixty thousand
+copies. George has drawn much on wood, and his wondrous
+wood-cuts--xylographs, if you wish a more pretentious word--to "Three
+Courses and a Dessert," "The Odd Volume," "The Gentleman in Black,"
+Grimm's "Fairy Tales," "Philosophy in Sport," and "The Table-Book," will
+be long remembered, and are now highly prized by amateurs; but his
+minute and delicate pencil-drawings have taxed the energies of the very
+best engravers of whom England can boast,--of Vizetelly, of Landells, of
+Jackson, of Thompson, and of Thurston. George Cruikshank would never
+suffer his drawings on wood to be slashed and chopped about by hasty or
+incompetent gravers; and although the ateliers of "Punch" are supplied
+with a first-rate staff of wood-cutters, very great haste and very
+little care must often be apparent in the weekly pabulum of cuts; nor
+should such an appearance excite surprise, when the exigencies of a
+weekly publication are remembered. The "Punch" artists, indeed, draw
+with a special reference to that which they know their engravers can or
+cannot do. Mr. Tenniel's cartoons are put on wood precisely as they are
+meant to be cut, in broad, firm, sweeping lines, and the wood-engraver
+has only to scoop out the white interstices between the network of
+lines; whereas Mr. Leech dashed in a bold pen-and-ink-like sketch and
+trusted to the xylographer, who knew his style well and of old, to
+produce an engraving, _tant bien que mal_, but as bold and as dashing as
+the original. The secession, for reasons theological, from "Punch" of
+Mr. Richard Doyle, an event which took place some fifteen years since,
+(how quickly time passes, to be sure!) was very bitterly regretted by
+his literary and artistic comrades; and the young man who calmly gave up
+something like a thousand pounds a year for conscience' sake lost
+nothing, but gained rather in the respect and admiration of society. But
+the wood-engravers must have held high carousal over the defection of
+Mr. Doyle. To cut one of his drawings was a crucial experiment. His hand
+was not sure in its touch; he always drew six lines instead of one; and
+in the portrait of a lady from his pencil, the agonized engraver had to
+hunt through a Cretan labyrinth of faces before he found the particular
+countenance which Mr. Doyle wished to be engraved.
+
+I have strayed away, perhaps unpardonably, from George Cruikshank. To
+those whose only ludicrous prophet is "Punch" he may be comparatively
+little known. But in the great world of pictorial art, both in England
+and on the Continent, he worthily holds an illustrious place. His name
+is a household word with his countrymen; and whenever a young hopeful
+displays ever so crude an aptitude for caricaturing his schoolmaster, or
+giving with slate and pencil the facetious side of his grandmother's cap
+and spectacles, he is voted by the unanimous suffrage of fireside
+critics to be a "regular Cruikshank." In this connection I have heard
+him sometimes called "Crookshanks," which is taking, I apprehend, even a
+grosser liberty with his name than in the case of the additional
+_c_,--"Crookshanks" having seemingly a reference, and not a
+complimentary one, to George's legs.
+
+This admirable artist and good man was the son of old Isaac Cruikshank,
+in his day a famous engraver of lottery-tickets, securities in which the
+British public are now no longer by law permitted to invest, but which,
+fifty years since, made as constant a demand on the engraver's art as,
+in our time and in America, is made by the thousand and one joint-stock
+banks whose pictorial promises-to-pay fill, or should properly fill, our
+pocket-books. The abilities of Isaac were not entirely devoted to the
+lottery; and I have at home, from his hand, a very rare and curious
+etching of the execution of Louis XVI., with an explanatory diagram
+beneath of the working of the guillotine. George Cruikshank's earliest
+pencil-drawings are dated, as I have remarked, before the present
+century drew breath; but he must have begun to gain reputation as a
+caricaturist upon copper towards the end of the career of Napoleon
+I.,--the "Boney" to whom he has adhered with such constant, albeit
+jocular, animosity. He was the natural successor of James Gillray, the
+renowned delineator of "Farmer George and Little Nap," and "Pitt and
+Boney at Dinner," and hundreds of political cartoons, eagerly bought in
+their day, but now to be found only in old print-shops. Gillray was
+a man of vast, but misapplied talents. Although he etched
+caricatures for a livelihood, his drawing was splendid,--wellnigh
+Michel-Angelesque,--but always careless and _outré_. He was continually
+betting crown-bowls of punch that he would design, etch, and bite in so
+many plates within a given time, and, with the assistance of a private
+bowl, he almost always won his bets; but the punch was too much for him
+in the long run. He went mad and died miserably. George Cruikshank was
+never his pupil; nor did he ever attain the freedom and mastery of
+outline which the crazy old reprobate, who made the fortune of Mr.
+Humphries, the St. James's Street print-seller, undeniably possessed;
+but his handling was grounded upon Gillray's style; and from early and
+attentive study of his works he must have acquired that boldness of
+treatment, that rotundity of light and shade, and that general
+"fatness," or _morbidezza_, of touch, which make the works of Gillray
+and Cruikshank stand out from the coarse scrawls of Rowlandson, and the
+bald and meagre scratches of Sir Charles Bunbury. Unless I am much
+mistaken, one of the first works that brought George into notice was an
+etching published in 1815, having reference to the exile of the detested
+Corsican to St. Helena. But it was in 1821 that he first made a decided
+mark. For William Hone--a man who was in perpetual opposition to the
+powers that were--he drew on wood a remarkable series of illustrations
+to the scurrilous, but perhaps not undeserved, satires against King
+George IV., called, "The Political House that Jack Built," "The Green
+Bag," "A Slap at Slop," and the like,--all of them having direct and
+most caustic reference to the scandalous prosecution instituted against
+a woman of whom it is difficult to say whether she was bad or mad or
+both, but who was assuredly most miserable,--the unhappy Caroline of
+Brunswick. George Cruikshank's sketch of the outraged husband, the
+finest and stoutest gentleman in Europe, being lowered by means of a
+crane into a pair of white kid pantaloons suspended between the posts of
+his bed, was inimitably droll, and clearly disloyal. But disloyalty was
+fashionable in the year '21.
+
+For twenty years afterwards the history of the artist's career is but
+the history of his works, of his innumerable illustrations to books, and
+the sketchbooks, comic panoramas, and humorous cartoons he published on
+his own account. Besides, I am not writing a life of George Cruikshank,
+and all this time I have been keeping him on the threshold of the city
+of Mexico. Let it suffice to say, briefly, that in 1841 came a
+stand-point in his life, through the establishment of a monthly magazine
+entitled "George Cruikshank's Omnibus." Of this he was the sole
+illustrator. The literary editor was Laman Blanchard; and in the
+"Omnibus," William Makepeace Thackeray, then a gaunt young man, not much
+over thirty, and quite unknown to fame,--although he had published
+"Yellowplush" in "Fraser,"--wrote his quaint and touching ballad of "The
+King of Brentford's Testament." The "Omnibus" did not run long, nor was
+its running very prosperous. George Cruikshank seemed for a while
+wearied with the calling of a caricaturist; and the large etchings on
+steel, with which between '40 and '45 he illustrated Ainsworth's gory
+romances, indicated a power of grouping, a knowledge of composition, a
+familiarity with mediæval costume, and a command over chiaroscuro, which
+astonished and delighted those who had been accustomed to regard him
+only as a funny fellow,--one of infinite whim, to be sure, but still a
+jester of jests, and nothing more. Unfortunately, or fortunately, as the
+case might be,--for the rumor ran that George intended to abandon
+caricaturing altogether, and to set up in earnest as an historical
+painter,--there came from beyond the sea, to assist in illustrating
+"Windsor Castle," a Frenchman named Tony Johannot. Who but he, in fact,
+was the famous master of the grotesque who illustrated "Don Quixote" and
+the "Diable Boiteux" of Le Sage? To his dismay, George Cruikshank found
+a competitor as eccentric as himself, as skilful a manipulator _rem
+acu_, the etching-point, and who drew incomparably better than he,
+George Cruikshank, did. He gave up the mediæval in disgust; but he must
+have hugged himself with the thought that he had already illustrated
+Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist," and that the Frenchman, powerful as he
+was, could never hope to come near him in that terrific etching of
+"Fagin in the Condemned Cell."
+
+Again nearly twenty years have passed, and George Cruikshank still waves
+his Ithuriel's spear of well-ground steel, and still dabbles in
+aquafortis. An old, old man, he is still strong and hale. If you ask him
+a reason for his thus rivalling Fontenelle in his patriarchal greenness,
+for his being able at threescore and ten to paint pictures, (witness
+that colossal oil-painting of the "Triumph of Bacchus,") to make
+speeches, and to march at the head of his company as a captain of
+volunteers, he will give you at once the why and because. He is the most
+zealous, the most conscientious, and the most invulnerable of total
+abstainers. There were days when he took tobacco: witness that portrait
+of himself, smoking a very long meerschaum pipe in "Love's Triumph,"
+etched about 1845. There were times when he heard the chimes at
+midnight, and partook of that "richt gude willie waucht" which tipsy
+Scotchmen, when they have formed in a ring, standing upon chairs, each
+with one foot on the table, hiccoughingly declare that we are bound to
+take for the sake of "auld lang syne." But George Cruikshank has done
+with willie wauchts as with bird's-eye and Killikinick. For many years
+he has neither drunk nor smoked. He is more than a confessor, he is an
+apostle of temperance. His strange, wild, grand performances, "The
+Bottle" and "The Drunkard's Children,"--the first quite Hogarthian in
+its force and pungency,--fell like thunderbolts among the gin-shops. I
+am afraid that George Cruikshank would not be a very welcome guest at
+Felix Booth's distillery, or at Barclay and Perkins's brewery. For, it
+must be granted, the sage is a little intolerant. "No peace with the
+Fiery Moloch!" "_Écrasons l'infâme!_" These are his mottoes. He would
+deprive the poor man of the scantiest drop of beer. You begin with a sip
+of "the right stuff," he teaches us in "The Bottle," and you end by
+swigging a gallon of vitriol, jumping on your wife, and dying in Bedlam
+of _delirium tremens_. I have not heard his opinions concerning cider,
+or root-beer, or effervescing sarsaparilla, or ginger-pop; but I imagine
+that each and every one of those reputed harmless beverages would enter
+into his _Index Expurgatorius_. "Water, water, everywhere, and not a
+drop [of alcohol] to drink." 'Tis thus he would quote Coleridge. He is
+as furious against tobacco as ever was King James in his "Counterblast."
+He is of the mind of the old divine, that "he who plays with the Devil's
+rattles will soon learn to draw his sword." In his pious rage against
+intemperance, and with a view to the instruction of the rising
+generation, he has even published teetotal versions of "Cinderella" and
+"Jack the Giant-Killer,"--a proceeding which Charles Dickens indignantly
+reprobated in an article in "Household Words," called "Frauds upon the
+Fairies." Nearly the last time I met George Cruikshank in London was at
+a dinner given in honor of Washington's birthday. He had just been
+gazetted captain of his rifle company, and was good enough to ask me if
+I knew any genteel young men, of strictly temperance principles, who
+would like commissions in his corps. I replied, that, so far as
+principles were concerned, I could recommend him five hundred
+postulants; but that, as regarded practice, most of the young men of my
+acquaintance, who had manifested an ambition for a military career,
+drank hard.
+
+The which, oddly enough, leads me at last to Mexico.--We had had, on the
+whole, rather a hard morning of it. The Don, who was my host in the
+_siempre leal y insigne ciudad de Méjico_,--and a most munificent and
+hospitable Don he was,--took me out one day in the month of March last
+to visit a _hacienda_ or farm which he possessed, called, if I remember
+aright, La Escalera. I repeat, we had a hard morning of it. We rose at
+six,--and in mountainous Mexico the ground at early morn, even during
+summer, is often covered with a frosty rime. I looked out of the window,
+and when I saw the leaves of the trees glistening with something which
+was _not_ dew, and Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl mantled with eternal
+snows in the distance, I shivered. A cup of chocolate, a _tortilla_ or
+thin griddle-cake of Indian meal, and a paper cigar, just to break your
+fast, and then to horse. To horse! Do you know what it is, being a poor
+horseman, to bestride a full-blood, full-bred white Arab, worth ever so
+many hundred _pesos de oro_, and, with his flowing mane and tail, and
+small, womanly, vixenish head, beautiful to look upon, but which in
+temper, like many other beauteous creatures I have known, is an
+incarnate fiend? The Arab they gave me had been the property of a French
+general. I vehemently suspect that he had been dismissed from the
+Imperial army for biting a _chef d'escadron_ through one of his
+jackboots, or kicking in three of the ribs of a _maréchal des logis_.
+That was hard enough, to begin with. Then the streets of Mexico are
+execrably paved, and the roads leading out of the city are full of what
+in Ireland are termed "curiosities," to wit, holes; and my Arab had a
+habit, whenever he met an equine brother, and especially an equine
+sister, on the way, of screaming like a possessed Pythoness, and then of
+essaying to stand on his hind legs. However, with a Mexican saddle,--out
+of which you can scarcely fall, even though you had a mind to it,--and
+Mexican stirrups, and a pair of spurs nearly as big as Catharine-wheels,
+the Arab and I managed to reach the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
+five miles out, and thence, over tolerably good roads, another five
+miles, to the Escalera. I wish they would make Mexican saddles of
+something else besides wood very thinly covered with leather. How
+devoutly did I long for the well-stuffed pig-skin of Hyde Park! We had
+an hour or two more hard work riding about the fields, when we reached
+the farm, watching the process of extracting _pulque_ from the _maguey_
+or cactus,--and a very nasty process it is,--inspecting the granaries
+belonging to the _hacienda_, and dodging between the rows of Indian
+corn, which grows here to so prodigious a height as to rival the famous
+grain which is said to grow somewhere down South, and to attain such an
+altitude that a Comanche perched upon the head of a giraffe is invisible
+between the rows. About noon we had breakfast, and that was the hardest
+work of all. _Item_, we had mutton-chops, beefsteaks, veal cutlets,
+omelets, rice, hominy, fried tomatoes, and an infinity of Mexican hashes
+and stews seasoned with _chiles_ or red-pepper pods. _Item_, we had a
+huge _pavo_, a turkey,--a wild turkey; and then, for the first time, did
+I understand that the bird we Englishmen consume only at Christmas, and
+then declare to be tough and flavorless, is to be eaten to perfection
+only in the central regions of the American continent. The flesh of this
+_pavo_ was like softened ivory, and his fat like unto clotted cream.
+There were some pretty little tiny kickshaws in the way of pine-apples,
+musk-melons, bananas, papaws, and custard-apples, and many other
+tropical fruits whose names I have forgotten. I think, too, that we had
+some stewed _iguana_ or lizard; but I remember, that, after inflicting
+exemplary punishment on a bowl of sour cream, we wound up by an attack
+on an _albacor_, a young kid roasted whole, or rather baked in a lump of
+clay with wood-ashes heaped over him, and brought to table on a
+tea-tray! Shade of Gargantua, how we ate! I blessed that fiery Arab for
+giving me such an appetite. There was a good deal of smoking going on at
+odd times during breakfast; but nobody ventured beyond a _cigarro_ of
+paper and fine-cut before we attacked the _albacor_. When coffee was
+served, each man lighted a _puro_, one of the biggest of Cabaña's
+Regalias; and serious and solemn puffing then set in. It was a memorable
+breakfast. The _Administrador_, or steward of the estate, had evidently
+done his best to entertain his patron the Don with becoming
+magnificence, nor were potables as dainty as the edibles wanting to
+furnish forth the feast. There was _pulque_ for those who chose to drink
+it. I never could stomach that fermented milk of human unkindness, which
+combines the odor of a dairy that has been turned into a grogshop with
+the flavor of rotten eggs. There was wine of Burgundy and wine of
+Bordeaux; there was Champagne: these three from the Don's cellar in
+Mexico, and the last cooled, not with vulgar ice, but with snow from the
+summit of Popocatepetl,--snow that had been there from the days of
+Montezuma and Guatimozin; while as _chasse_ and _pousse_ to the
+exquisitely flavored Mexican coffee, grown, ground, and roasted on the
+_hacienda_, we had some very ripe old French Cognac, (1804, I think, was
+the brand,) and some Peruvian _pisco_, a strong white cordial, somewhat
+resembling _kirsch-wasser_, and exceeding toothsome. We talked and
+laughed till we grew sleepy, (the edibles and potables had of course
+nothing to do with our somnolence,) and then, the farm-house of the
+_hacienda_ having seemingly as many rooms as the Vatican, each man hied
+him to a cool chamber, where he found a trundle-bed, or a hammock, or a
+sofa, and gravely laid himself out for an hour's _siesta_. Then the
+Administrador woke us all up, and gleefully presented us with an
+enormous bowl of sangaree, made of the remains of the Bordeaux and the
+brandy and the pisco, and plenty of ice,--ice this time,--and sugar, and
+limes, and slices of pineapple, Madam,--the which he had concocted
+during our slumber. We drained this,--one gets so thirsty after
+breakfast in Mexico,--and then to horse again for a twelve miles' ride
+back to the city. I omitted to mention two or three little circumstances
+which gave a zest and piquancy to the entertainment. When we arrived at
+the _hacienda_, although servitors were in plenty, each cavalier
+unsaddled and fed his own steed; and when we addressed ourselves to our
+_siesta_, every one who didn't find a double-barrelled gun at the head
+of his bed took care to place a loaded revolver under his pillow. For
+accidents will happen in the best-regulated families; and in Mexico you
+can never tell at what precise moment Cacus may be upon you.
+
+Riding back to the _siempre leal y insigne ciudad_ at about three
+o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was at its hottest, was no joke.
+Baking is not precisely the word, nor boiling, nay, nor frying;
+something which is a compound of all these might express the sensation
+I, for one, felt. Fortunately, the Don had insisted on my assuming the
+orthodox Mexican riding-costume: cool linen drawers, cut Turkish
+fashion; over these, and with just sufficient buttons in their
+respective holes to swear by, the leathern _chapareros_ or overalls;
+morocco slippers, to which were strapped the Catharine-wheel spurs; no
+vest; no neckerchief; a round jacket, with quarter doubloons for
+buttons; and a low-crowned felt hat, with an enormous brim, a brim which
+might have made a Quaker envious, and have stricken mortification to the
+soul of a Chinese mandarin. This brim kept the sun out of your eyes; and
+then, by way of hatband, there was a narrow, but thick turban or
+"pudding," which prevented the rays of Sol from piercing through your
+skull, and boiling your brains into batter. The fact of the whole of
+this costume, and the accoutrements of your horse to boot, being
+embroidered with silver and embellished with golden bosses, thus
+affording a thousand tangents for Phoebus to fly off from, rather
+detracted from the coolness of your array; but one must not expect
+perfection here below. In a stove-pipe hat, a shooting-coat, and
+riding-cords, I should have suffered much more from the heat. As it was,
+I confess, that, when I reached home, in the Calle San Francisco,
+Mexico, I was exceedingly thankful. I am not used to riding twenty-four
+miles in one day. I think I had a warm bath in the interval between
+doffing the _chapareros_ and donning the pantaloons of every-day life. I
+think I went to sleep on a sofa for about an hour, and, waking up,
+called for a cocktail as a restorative. Yes, Madam, there are cocktails
+in Mexico, and our Don's body-servant made them most scientifically. I
+think also that I declined, with thanks, the Don's customary invitation
+to a drive before dinner in the Paseo. Nor barouche, nor mail-phaëton,
+nay, nor soft-cushioned brougham delighted me. I felt very lazy and
+thoroughly knocked up.
+
+The Don, however, went out for his drive, smiling at my woful plight. Is
+it only after hard riding that remorse succeeds enjoyment? I was left
+alone in his great caravansary of a mansion. I wandered from room to
+room, from corridor to corridor,--now glancing through the
+window-_jalousies_, and peeping at the _chinas_ in their _ribosos_, and
+the shovel-hatted priests in the street below creeping along on the
+shady side of the way,--now hanging over the gallery in the inner
+court-yard, listening to the horses stamping in their stables or
+rattling their tethers against the mangers, listening now to the English
+grooms as they whistled the familiar airs of home while they rubbed
+their charges down, and now to the sleepy, plaintive drone of the Indian
+servants loitering over their work in the kitchens. Then I wandered back
+again,--from drawing-room to dining-room, from bedchamber to boudoir.
+And at last I found that I had crossed a bridge over another court-yard,
+and gotten into another house, abutting on another street. The Don was
+still lord here, and I was free to ramble. More drawing-rooms, more
+bedchambers, more boudoirs, a chapel, and at last a library. Libraries
+are not plentiful in Mexico. Here, on many shelves, was a goodly store
+of standard literature in many languages. Here was Prescott's History of
+the Conquest, translated into choice Castilian, and Señor Ramirez his
+comments thereupon. Here was Don Lucas Alaman his History of Mexico,
+and works by Jesuit fathers innumerable. How ever did they get printed?
+Who ever bought, who ever read, those cloudy tomes in dog Latin? Here
+was Lord Kingsborough's vast work on Mexican Antiquities,--the work his
+Lordship is reported to have ruined himself in producing; and Macaulay,
+and Dickens, and Washington Irving, and the British Essayists, and the
+Waverley Novels, and Shakspeare, and Soyer's Cookery, and one little
+book of mine own writing: a very well-chosen library indeed.
+
+What have we here? A fat, comely, gilt-lettered volume, bound in red
+morocco, and that might, externally, have passed for my grandmother's
+edition of Dr. Doddridge's Sermons. As I live, 't is a work illustrated
+by George Cruikshank,--a work hitherto unknown to me, albeit I fancied
+myself rich, even to millionnairism, in Cruikshankiana. It is a rare
+book, a precious book, a book that is not in the British Museum, a book
+for which collectors would gladly give more doubloons than I lost at
+_monte_ last night; for here the most moral people play _monte_. It is
+_un costumbre del pais_,--a custom of the country; and, woe is me! I
+lost a pile 'twixt midnight and cock-crow.
+
+"Life in Paris; or the Rambles, Sprees, and Amours of Dick Wildfire,
+Squire Jenkins, and Captain O'Shuffleton, with the Whimsical Adventures
+of the Halibut Family, and Other Eccentric Characters in the French
+Metropolis. Embellished with Twenty-One Comic Vignettes and Twenty-One
+Colored Engravings of Scenes from Real Life, by George Cruikshank.
+London: Printed for John Cumberland. 1828." This "Life in Paris" was
+known to me by dim literary repute; but I had never seen, the actual
+volume before. Its publication was a disastrous failure. Emboldened by
+the prodigious success of "Life in London,"--the adventures in the Great
+Metropolis of Corinthian Tom and Jerry--Somebody--and Bob Logic,
+Esquire, written by Pierce Egan, once a notorious chronicler of the
+prize-ring, the compiler of a Slang Dictionary, and whose proficiency in
+_argot_ and flash-patter was honored by poetic celebration from Byron,
+Moore, and Christopher North, but whom I remember, when I was first
+climbing into public life, a decrepit, broken-down old man,--Mr. John
+Cumberland, of Ludgate Hill, (the publisher, by the way, of that series
+of the "Acting Drama" to which, over the initials of D--G, and the
+figure of a hand pointing, some of the most remarkable dramatic
+criticisms in the English language are appended,) thought, not
+unreasonably, that "Life in Paris" might attain a vogue as extensive as
+that achieved by "Life in London." I don't know who wrote the French
+"Life." Pierce Egan could scarcely have been the author; for he was then
+at the height of a vicious and ephemeral popularity; and any book,
+however trashy, with his name to it, would have been sure to sell. This
+"Life in Paris" was very probably the work of some obscure hack, who,
+when he was describing the "eccentric characters in the French
+metropolis," may not impossibly have been vegetating in the Rules of the
+King's Bench Prison. But crafty Mr. Cumberland, to insure the success of
+his enterprise, secured the services of George Cruikshank as
+illustrator. George had a brother Robert, who had caught something of
+his touch and manner, but nothing of his humorous genius, and who
+assisted him in illustrating "Life in London"; but "Life in Paris" was
+to be all his own; and he undertook a journey to France in order to
+study Gallic life and make sketches. The results were now before me in
+twenty-one small vignettes on wood, (of not much account,) and of as
+many large aquatint engravings, (George can aquatint as well as etch,)
+crowded with figures, and displaying the unmistakable and inimitable
+Cruikshankian _vim_ and point. There is Dick Wildfire being attired,
+with the aid of the _friseur_ and the tailor, and under the sneering
+inspection of Sam Sharp, his Yorkshire valet, according to the latest
+Parisian fashions. Next we have Dick and Captain O'Shuffleton (an Irish
+adventurer) "promenading in the Gardens of the Tuileries"; next, "real
+life" in the galleries of the Palais Royal; next, Dick, the Captain,
+Lady Halibut, and Lydia "enjoying a lounge on the Italian Boulevard." To
+these succeed a representation of a dinner at Véry's; Dick and his
+companions "smashing the glim on a spree by lamplight"; Dick and the
+Captain "paying their respects to the Fair _Limonadière_ at the Café des
+Mille Colonnes"; Dick introduced by the Captain to a _Rouge et Noir_
+table; the same and his valet "_showing fight in a Caveau_"; "Life
+behind the Curtain of the Grand Opera, or Dick and the Squire larking
+with the _Figurantes_"; Dick and the Squire "enjoying the sport at the
+Combat of Animals, or Duck Lane of Paris"; Dick and Jenkins "in a
+Theatrical Pandemonium, or the Café de la Paix in all its glory"; "Life
+among the Dead, or the Halibut Family in the Catacombs"; "Life among the
+Connoisseurs," or Dick and his friends "in the Grand Gallery of the
+Louvre"; "a Frolic in the _Café d'Enfer_, or Infernal Cellar"; "Life on
+Tiptoe, or Dick quadrilling it in the Salons de Mars in the Champs
+Élysées"; the "_Entrée_ to the Italian Opera"; the "Morning of the Fête
+of St. Louis"; the "Evening of the same, with Dick, Jenkins, and the
+Halibuts witnessing the _Canaille_ in all their glory"; and, finally,
+"Life in a Billiard-Room, or Dick and the Squire _au fait_ to the
+Parisian Sharpers."
+
+I have said that these illustrations are full of point and drollery.
+They certainly lack that round, full touch so distinctive of George
+Cruikshank, and which he learned from Gillray; but such a touch can be
+given only when the shadows as well as the outlines of a plate are
+etched; and the intent of an aquatint engraving is, as the reader may or
+may not know, to produce the effect of a drawing in Indian ink.[C] Still
+there is much in these pictures to delight the Cruikshankian
+connoisseur,--infinite variety in physiognomy, wonderful minuteness and
+accuracy in detail, and here and there sparkles of the true Hogarthian
+satire.
+
+But a banquet in which the plates only are good is but a Barmecide
+feast, after all. The letter-press to this "Life in Paris" is the vilest
+rubbish imaginable,--a farrago of St. Giles's slang, Tottenham Court
+Road doggerel, ignorance, lewdness, and downright dulness. Mr. John
+Cumberland, of Ludgate Hill, took, accordingly, very little by his
+motion. The "Life" fell almost stillborn from the press; and George
+Cruikshank must have regretted that he ever had anything to do with it.
+The major part of the impression must years ago have been used to line
+trunks, inwrap pies, and singe geese; but to our generation, and to
+those which are to come, this sorry volume will be more than a
+curiosity: it will be literarily and artistically an object of great and
+constantly increasing value. By the amateur of Cruikshankiana it will be
+prized for the reason that the celebrated Latin pamphlet proving that
+Edward VI. never had the toothache was prized, although the first and
+last leaves were wanting, by Theodore Hook's Tom Hill. It will be
+treasured for its scarcity. To the student of social history it will be
+of even greater value, as the record of a state of manners, both in
+England and France, which has wholly and forever passed away. The
+letter-press portraits, drawn by the hack author, of a party of English
+tourists are but foul and stupid libels; but their aquatint portraits,
+as bitten in by George Cruikshank, are, albeit exaggerated, true in many
+respects to Nature. In fact, we _were_ used, when George IV. was king,
+to send abroad these overdressed and under-bred clowns and
+Mohawks,--whelps of the squirarchy and hobbledehoys of the
+universities,--Squire Gawkies and Squire Westerns and Tony Lumpkins,
+Mrs. Malaprops and Lydia Languishes, by the hundred and the thousand.
+"The Fudge Family in Paris" and the letters of Mrs. Ramsbotham read
+nowadays like the most outrageous of caricatures; but they failed not to
+hit many a blot in the times which gave them birth. It was really
+reckoned fashionable in 1828 to make a visit to Paris the occasion for
+the coarsest of "sprees,"--to get tipsy at Véry's,--to "smash the
+glims,"--to parade those infamous _Galeries de Bois_ in the Palais Royal
+which were the common haunt of abandoned women,--to beat the gendarmes,
+and, indeed, the first Frenchman who happened to turn up, merely on the
+ground that he _was_ a Frenchman. But France and the French have changed
+since then, as well as England and the English. Are these the only
+countries in the world whose people and whose manners have turned
+_volte-face_ within less than half a century? I declare that I read from
+beginning to end, the other day, a work called "Salmagundi," and that I
+could not recognize in one single page anything to remind me of the New
+York of the present day. Thus in the engravings to "Life in Paris" are
+there barely three which any modern Parisian would admit to possess any
+direct or truthful reference to Paris life as it is. People certainly
+continue to dine at Véry's; but Englishmen no longer get tipsy there, no
+longer smash the plates or kick the waiters. In lieu of dusky
+billiard-rooms, the resort of duskier sharpers, there are magnificent
+saloons, containing five, ten, and sometimes twenty billiard-tables. The
+_Galeries de Bois_ have been knocked to pieces these thirty years. The
+public gaming-houses have been shut up. There are no longer any brutal
+dog-and-bear-baitings at the Barrière du Combat. There is no longer a
+_Belle Limonadière_ at the Café des Mille Colonnes. _Belles
+Limonadières_ (if I may be permitted to use one of the most inelegant,
+but the most expressive, of American colloquialisms) are "played out."
+The Catacombs have long since been shut to strangers. The _Caveau_
+exists no more. Old reprobates scarcely remember the _Café d'Enfer_. The
+_Fête_ of St. Louis is as dead as Louis XVIII., as dead as the _Fêtes_
+of July, as the _Fêtes_ of the Republic. There is but one national
+festival now,--and that is on the 15th of August, and in honor of St.
+Napoleon. There are no more "glims" to smash; the old oil _reverbères_
+have been replaced by showy gas-lamps, and the _sergents de ville_ would
+make short work of any roisterers who attempted to take liberties with
+them. The old Paris of the Restoration and the Monarchy is dead; but the
+Thane of Cawdor--I mean George Cruikshank--lives, a prosperous
+gentleman.
+
+I brought the book away with me from Mexico, all the way down to Vera
+Cruz, and so on to Cuba, and thence to New York; and it is in Boston
+with me now. But it is not mine. The Don did not even lend it to me. I
+had only his permission to take it from the library to my room, and turn
+it over there; but when I was coming away, that same body-servant,
+thinking it was my property, carefully packed it among the clothes in my
+portmanteau; and I did not discover his mistake and my temporary gain
+until I was off. I mention this in all candor; for I am conscious that
+there never was a book-collector yet who did not, at some period or
+other of his life, at least meditate the commission of a felony. But the
+Don is coming to the States this autumn, and I must show him that I have
+not been a fraudulent bailee. I shall have taken, at all events, my fill
+of pleasure from the book; and I hope that George Cruikshank will live
+to read what I have written; and God bless his honest old heart,
+anyhow!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[C] Aquatint engraving in England is all but a dead art. It is now
+employed only in portraits of race-horses, which are never sold
+uncolored, and in plates of the fashions. The present writer had the
+honor, twelve years since, of producing the last "great" work (so far as
+size was concerned) undertaken in England. It was a monster panorama,
+some sixty feet long, representing the funeral procession of the Duke of
+Wellington. It was published by the well-known house of Ackermann, in
+the Strand; and the writer regrets to say that the house went bankrupt
+very shortly afterwards.
+
+
+
+
+LEAVES FROM AN OFFICER'S JOURNAL.
+
+
+III.
+
+    CAMP SAXTON, NEAR BEAUFORT, S. C.
+              January 3, 1864.
+
+Once, and once only, thus far, the water has frozen in my tent; and the
+next morning showed a dense white frost outside. We have still
+mocking-birds and crickets and rosebuds and occasional noonday baths in
+the river, though the butterflies have vanished, as I remember to have
+observed in Fayal, after December. I have been here nearly six weeks
+without a rainy day; one or two slight showers there have been, once
+interrupting a drill, but never dress parade. For climate, by day, we
+might be among the isles of Greece,--though it may be my constant
+familiarity with the names of her sages which suggests that impression.
+For instance, a voice just now called, near my tent,--"Cato, whar's
+Plato?"
+
+The men have somehow got the impression that it is essential to the
+validity of a marriage that they should come to me for permission, just
+as they used to go to the master; and I rather encourage these little
+confidences, because it is so entertaining to hear them. "Now, Cunnel,"
+said a faltering swain the other day, "I want for get me one good lady,"
+which I approved, especially the limitation as to number. Afterwards I
+asked one of the bridegroom's friends whether he thought it a good
+match. "Oh, yes, Cunnel," said he, in all the cordiality of friendship,
+"John's gwine for marry Venus." I trust the goddess prove herself a
+better lady than she appeared during her previous career upon this
+planet. But this naturally suggests the isles of Greece again.
+
+_January 7._--On first arriving, I found a good deal of anxiety among
+the officers as to the increase of desertions, that being the rock on
+which the "Hunter Regiment" split. Now this evil is very nearly stopped,
+and we are every day recovering the older absentees. One of the very
+best things that have happened to us was a half-accidental shooting of a
+man who had escaped from the guard-house, and was wounded by a squad
+sent in pursuit. He has since died; and this very evening, another man,
+who escaped with him, came and opened the door of my tent, after being
+five days in the woods, almost without food. His clothes were in rags,
+and he was nearly starved, poor foolish fellow, so that we can almost
+dispense with further punishment. Severe penalties would be wasted on
+these people, accustomed as they have been to the most violent passions
+on the part of white men; but a mild inexorableness tells on them, just
+as it does on any other children. It is something utterly new to them,
+and it is thus far perfectly efficacious. They have a great deal of
+pride as soldiers, and a very little of severity goes a great way, if it
+be firm and consistent. This is very encouraging.
+
+The single question which I asked of some of the
+plantation-superintendents, on the voyage, was, "Do these people
+appreciate _justice_?" If they did, it was evident that all the rest
+would be easy. When a race is degraded beyond that point, it must be
+very hard to deal with them; they must mistake all kindness for
+indulgence, all strictness for cruelty. With these freed slaves there is
+no such trouble, not a particle: let an officer be only just and firm,
+with a cordial, kindly nature, and he has no sort of difficulty. The
+plantation-superintendents and teachers have the same experience, they
+say; but we have an immense advantage in the military organization,
+which helps in two ways: it increases their self-respect, and it gives
+us an admirable machinery for discipline, thus improving both the
+fulcrum and the lever.
+
+The wounded man died in the hospital, and the general verdict seemed to
+be, "Him brought it on heself." Another soldier died of pneumonia on the
+same day, and we had the funerals in the evening. It was very
+impressive. A dense mist came up, with a moon behind it, and we had only
+the light of pine-splinters, as the procession wound along beneath the
+mighty moss-hung branches of the ancient grove. The groups around the
+grave, the dark faces, the red garments, the scattered lights, the misty
+boughs, were weird and strange. The men sang one of their own wild
+chants. Two crickets sang also, one on either side, and did not cease
+their little monotone, even when the three volleys were fired above the
+graves. Just before the coffins were lowered, an old man whispered to me
+that I must have their position altered,--the heads must be towards the
+west; so it was done,--though they are in a place so veiled in woods
+that either rising or setting sun will find it hard to spy them.
+
+We have now a good regimental hospital, admirably arranged in a deserted
+gin-house,--a fine well of our own within the camp-lines,--a
+ful-allowance of tents, all floored,--a wooden cook-house to every
+company, with sometimes a palmetto mess-house beside,--a substantial
+wooden guard-house, with a fireplace five feet "in de clar," where the
+men off duty can dry themselves and sleep comfortably in bunks
+afterwards. We have also a great circular school-tent, made of condemned
+canvas, thirty feet in diameter, and looking like some of the Indian
+lodges I saw in Kansas. We now meditate a regimental bakery. Our
+aggregate has increased from four hundred and ninety to seven hundred
+and forty, besides a hundred recruits now waiting at St. Augustine, and
+we have practised through all the main movements in battalion drill.
+
+Affairs being thus prosperous, and yesterday having been six weeks since
+my last and only visit to Beaufort, I rode in, glanced at several camps,
+and dined with the General. It seemed absolutely like reëntering the
+world; and I did not fully estimate my past seclusion till it occurred
+to me, as a strange and novel phenomenon, that the soldiers at the other
+camps were white.
+
+_January 8._--This morning I went to Beaufort again, on necessary
+business, and by good luck happened upon a review and drill of the white
+regiments. The thing that struck me most was that same absence of
+uniformity, in minor points, that I noticed at first in my own officers.
+The best regiments in the Department are represented among my captains
+and lieutenants, and very well represented, too; yet it has cost much
+labor to bring them to any uniformity in their drill. There is no need
+of this, for the prescribed "Tactics" approach perfection: it is never
+left discretionary in what place an officer shall stand, or in what
+words he shall give his order. All variation would seem to imply
+negligence. Yet even West Point occasionally varies from the
+"Tactics,"--as, for instance, in requiring the line officers to face
+down the line, when each is giving the order to his company. In our
+strictest Massachusetts regiments this is not done.
+
+It needs an artist's eye to make a perfect drill-master. Yet the small
+points are not merely a matter of punctilio; for, the more perfectly a
+battalion is drilled on the parade-ground, the more quietly it can be
+handled in action. Moreover, the great need of uniformity is this: that,
+in the field, soldiers of different companies, and even of different
+regiments, are liable to be intermingled, and a diversity of orders may
+throw everything into confusion. Confusion means Bull Run.
+
+I wished my men at the review to-day; for, amidst all the rattling and
+noise of artillery and the galloping of cavalry, there was only one
+infantry movement that we have not practised, and that was done by only
+one regiment, and apparently considered quite a novelty, though it is
+easily taught,--forming square by Casey's method: forward on centre.
+
+It is really just as easy to drill a regiment as a company,--perhaps
+easier, because one has more time to think; but it is just as essential
+to be sharp and decisive, perfectly clear-headed, and to put life into
+the men. A regiment seems small when one has learned how to handle it,
+a mere handful of men; and I have no doubt that a brigade or a
+division would soon appear equally small. But to handle either
+_judiciously_,--ah, that is another affair!
+
+So of governing: it is as easy to govern a regiment as a school or a
+factory, and needs like qualities,--system, promptness, patience, tact;
+moreover, in a regiment one has the aid of the admirable machinery of
+the army, so that I see very ordinary men who succeed very tolerably.
+
+Reports of a six months' armistice are rife here, and the thought is
+deplored by all. I cannot believe it, yet sometimes one feels very
+anxious about the ultimate fate of these poor people. After the
+experience of Hungary, one sees that revolutions may go backward; and
+the habit of injustice seems so deeply impressed upon the whites, that
+it is hard to believe in the possibility of anything better. I dare not
+yet hope that the promise of the President's Proclamation will be kept.
+For myself I can be indifferent, for the experience here has been its
+own daily and hourly reward; and the adaptedness of the freed slaves for
+drill and discipline is now thoroughly demonstrated and must soon be
+universally acknowledged. But it would be terrible to see this regiment
+disbanded or defrauded.
+
+_January 12._--Many things glide by without time to narrate them. On
+Saturday we had a mail with the President's Second Message of
+Emancipation, and the next day it was read to the men. The words
+themselves did not stir them very much, because they have been often
+told that they were free, especially on New-Year's Day, and, being
+unversed in politics, they do not understand, as well as we do, the
+importance of each additional guaranty. But the chaplain spoke to them
+afterwards very effectively, as usual; and then I proposed to them to
+hold up their hands and pledge themselves to be faithful to those still
+in bondage. They entered heartily into this, and the scene was quite
+impressive, beneath the great oak-branches. I heard afterwards that only
+one man refused to raise his hand, saying bluntly that his wife was out
+of slavery with him, and he did not care to fight. The other soldiers of
+his company were very indignant, and shoved him about among them while
+marching back to their quarters, calling him "Coward." I was glad of
+their exhibition of feeling, though it is very possible that the one who
+had thus the moral courage to stand alone among his comrades might be
+more reliable, on a pinch, than some who yielded a more ready assent.
+But the whole response, on their part, was very hearty, and will be a
+good thing to which to hold them hereafter, at any time of
+discouragement or demoralization,--which was my chief reason for
+proposing it. With their simple natures, it is a great thing to tie them
+to some definite committal; they never forget a marked occurrence, and
+never seem disposed to evade a pledge.
+
+It is this capacity of honor and fidelity which gives me such entire
+faith in them as soldiers. Without it, all their religious demonstration
+would be mere sentimentality. For instance, every one who visits the
+camp is struck with their bearing as sentinels. They exhibit, in this
+capacity, not an upstart conceit, but a steady, conscientious devotion
+to duty. They would stop their idolized General Saxton, if he attempted
+to cross their beat contrary to orders: I have seen them. No feeble or
+incompetent race could do this. The officers tell many amusing instances
+of this fidelity, but I think mine the best.
+
+It was very dark the other night,--an unusual thing here,--and the rain
+fell in torrents; so I put on my India-rubber suit, and went the rounds
+of the sentinels, incognito, to test them. I can only say that I shall
+never try such an experiment again, and have cautioned my officers
+against it. 'T is a wonder I escaped with life and limb,--such a
+charging of bayonets and clicking of gun-locks. Sometimes I tempted
+them by refusing to give any countersign, but offering them a piece of
+tobacco, which they could not accept without allowing me nearer than the
+prescribed bayonet's distance. Tobacco is more than gold to them, and it
+was touching to watch the struggle in their minds; but they always did
+their duty at last, and I never could persuade them. One man, as if
+wishing to crush all his inward vacillations at one fell stroke, told me
+stoutly that he never used tobacco, though I found next day that he
+loved it as much as any one of them. It seemed wrong thus to tamper with
+their fidelity; yet it was a vital matter to me to know how far it could
+be trusted, out of my sight. It was so intensely dark that not more than
+one or two knew me, even after I had talked with the very next sentinel,
+especially as they had never seen me in India-rubber clothing, and I can
+always disguise my voice. It was easy to distinguish those who did make
+the discovery; they were always conscious and simpering when their turn
+came; while the others were stout and irreverent till I revealed myself,
+and then rather cowed and anxious, fearing to have offended.
+
+It rained harder and harder, and when I had nearly made the rounds, I
+had had enough of it, and, simply giving the countersign to the
+challenging sentinel, undertook to pass within the lines.
+
+"Halt!" exclaimed this dusky man and brother, bringing down his
+bayonet,--"de countersign not correck."
+
+Now the magic word, in this case, was "Vicksburg," in honor of a rumored
+victory. But as I knew that these hard names became quite transformed
+upon their lips, "Carthage" being familiarized into Cartridge, and
+"Concord" into Corn-cob, how could I possibly tell what shade of
+pronunciation my friend might prefer for this particular proper name?
+
+"Vicksburg," I repeated, blandly, but authoritatively, endeavoring, as
+zealously as one of Christy's Minstrels, to assimilate my speech to any
+supposed predilection of the Ethiop vocal organs.
+
+"Halt dar! Countersign not correck," was the only answer.
+
+The bayonet still maintained a position which, in a military point of
+view, was impressive.
+
+I tried persuasion, orthography, threats, tobacco, all in vain. I could
+not pass in. Of course my pride was up; for was I to defer to an
+untutored African on a point of pronunciation? Classic shades of
+Harvard, forbid! Affecting scornful indifference, I tried to edge away,
+proposing to myself to enter the camp at some other point, where my
+elocution would be better appreciated. Not a step could I stir.
+
+"Halt!" shouted my gentleman again, still holding me at his bayonet's
+point, and I wincing and halting.
+
+I explained to him the extreme absurdity of this proceeding, called his
+attention to the state of the weather, which, indeed, spoke for itself
+so loudly that we could hardly hear each other speak, and requested
+permission to withdraw. The bayonet, with mute eloquence, refused the
+application.
+
+There flashed into my mind, with more enjoyment in the retrospect than I
+had experienced at the time, an adventure on a lecturing tour in other
+years, when I had spent an hour in trying to scramble into a country
+tavern, after bed-time, on the coldest night of winter. On that occasion
+I ultimately found myself stuck midway in the window, with my head in a
+temperature of 80°, and my heels in a temperature of -10°, with a heavy
+window-sash pinioning the small of my back. However, I had got safe out
+of that dilemma, and it was time to put an end to this one.
+
+"Call the corporal of the guard," said I, at last, with dignity,
+unwilling either to make a night of it or to yield my incognito.
+
+"Corporal ob de guard!" he shouted, lustily,--"Post Number Two!" while I
+could hear another sentinel chuckling with laughter. This last was a
+special guard, placed over a tent, with a prisoner in charge. Presently
+he broke silence.
+
+"Who am dat?" he asked, in a stage whisper. "Am he a buckra [white
+man]?"
+
+"Dunno whether he been a buckra or not," responded, doggedly, my
+Cerberus in uniform; "but I's bound to keep him here till de corporal ob
+de guard come."
+
+Yet, when that dignitary arrived, and I revealed myself, poor Number Two
+appeared utterly transfixed with terror, and seemed to look for nothing
+less than immediate execution. Of course I praised his fidelity, and the
+next day complimented him before the guard, and mentioned him to his
+captain; and the whole affair was very good for them all. Hereafter, if
+Satan himself should approach them in darkness and storm, they will take
+him for "de Cunnel," and treat him with special severity.
+
+_January 13._--In many ways the childish nature of this people shows
+itself. I have just had to make a change of officers in a company which
+has constantly complained, and with good reason, of neglect and improper
+treatment. Two excellent officers have been assigned to them; and yet
+they sent a deputation to me in the evening, in a state of utter
+wretchedness. "We's bery grieved dis evening, Cunnel; 'pears like we
+couldn't bear it, to lose de Cap'n and de Lieutenant, all two togeder."
+Argument was useless; and I could only fall back on the general theory,
+that I knew what was best for them, which had much more effect; and I
+also could cite the instance of another company, which had been much
+improved by a new captain, as they readily admitted. So with the promise
+that the new officers should not be "savage to we," which was the one
+thing they deprecated, I assuaged their woes. Twenty-four hours have
+passed, and I hear them singing most merrily all down that
+company-street.
+
+I often notice how their griefs may be dispelled, like those of
+children, merely by permission to utter them: if they can tell their
+sorrows, they go away happy, even without asking to have anything done
+about them. I observe also a peculiar dislike of all _intermediate_
+control: they always wish to pass by the company officer, and deal with
+me personally for everything. General Saxton notices the same thing with
+the people on the plantations as regards himself. I suppose this
+proceeds partly from the old habit of appealing to the master against
+the overseer. Kind words would cost the master nothing, and he could
+easily put off any non-fulfilment upon the overseer. Moreover, the
+negroes have acquired such constitutional distrust of white people, that
+it is perhaps as much as they can do to trust more than one person at a
+time. Meanwhile this constant personal intercourse is out of the
+question in a well-ordered regiment; and the remedy for it is to
+introduce by degrees more and more of system, so that their immediate
+officers will become all-sufficient for the daily routine.
+
+It is perfectly true (as I find everybody takes for granted) that the
+first essential for an officer of colored troops is to gain their
+confidence. But it is equally true, though many persons do not
+appreciate it, that the admirable methods and proprieties of the regular
+army are equally available for all troops, and that the sublimest
+philanthropist, if he does not appreciate this, is unfit to command
+them.
+
+Another childlike attribute in these men, which is less agreeable, is a
+sort of blunt insensibility to giving physical pain. If they are cruel
+to animals, for instance, it always reminds me of children pulling off
+flies' legs, in a sort of pitiless, untaught, experimental way. Yet I
+should not fear any wanton outrage from them. After all their wrongs,
+they are not really revengeful; and I would far rather enter a captured
+city with them than with white troops, for they would be more
+subordinate. But for mere physical suffering they would have no fine
+sympathies. The cruel things they have seen and undergone have helped to
+blunt them; and if I ordered them to put to death a dozen prisoners, I
+think they would do it without remonstrance.
+
+Yet their religious spirit grows more beautiful to me in living longer
+with them: it is certainly far more so than at first, when it seemed
+rather a matter of phrase and habit. It influences them both on the
+negative and the positive side. That is, it cultivates the feminine
+virtues first,--makes them patient, meek, resigned. This is very evident
+in the hospital; there is nothing of the restless, defiant habit of
+white invalids. Perhaps, if they had more of this, they would resist
+disease better. Imbued from childhood with the habit of submission,
+drinking in through every pore that other-world trust which is the one
+spirit of their songs, they can endure everything. This I expected; but
+I am relieved to find that their religion strengthens them on the
+positive side also,--gives zeal, energy, daring. They could easily be
+made fanatics, if I chose; but I do not choose. Their whole mood is
+essentially Mohammedan, perhaps, in its strength and its weakness; and I
+feel the same degree of sympathy that I should, if I had a Turkish
+command,--that is, a sort of sympathetic admiration, not tending towards
+agreement, but towards coöperation. Their philosophizing is often the
+highest form of mysticism; and our dear surgeon declares that they are
+all natural transcendentalists. The white camps seem rough and secular,
+after this; and I hear our men talk about "a religious army," "a Gospel
+army," in their prayer-meetings. They are certainly evangelizing the
+chaplain, who was rather a heretic at the beginning; at least, this is
+his own admission. We have recruits on their way from St. Augustine,
+where the negroes are chiefly Roman Catholics; and it will be
+interesting to see how their type of character combines with that elder
+creed.
+
+It is time for rest; and I have just looked out into the night, where
+the eternal stars shut down, in concave protection, over the yet
+glimmering camp, and Orion hangs above my tent-door, giving to me the
+sense of strength and assurance which these simple children obtain from
+their Moses and the Prophets. Yet external Nature does its share in
+their training; witness that most poetic of all their songs, which
+always reminds me of the "Lyke-Wake Dirge" in the "Scottish Border
+Minstrelsy":--
+
+    "I know moon-rise, I know star-rise;
+      Lay dis body down.
+    I walk in de moonlight, I walk in de starlight,
+      To lay dis body down.
+    I'll walk in de graveyard, I'll walk through the graveyard,
+      To lay dis body down.
+    I'll lie in de grave and stretch out my arms;
+      Lay dis body down.
+    I go to de Judgment in de evening ob de day
+      When I lay dis body down;
+    And my soul and your soul will meet in de day
+      When I lay dis body down."
+
+_January 14._--In speaking of the military qualities of the blacks, I
+should add, that the only point where I am disappointed is one I have
+never seen raised by the most incredulous newspaper critics,--namely
+their physical condition. They often look magnificently to my
+gymnasium-trained eye; and I always like to observe them when
+bathing,--such splendid muscular development, set off by that smooth
+coating of adipose tissue which makes them, like the South-Sea
+Islanders, appear even more muscular than they are. Their skins are also
+of finer grain than those of whites, the surgeons say, and certainly are
+smoother and far more free from hair. Their weakness is pulmonary;
+pneumonia and pleurisy are their besetting ailments; they are easily
+made ill,--and easily cured, if promptly treated: childish organization
+again. Guard-duty injures them more than whites, apparently; and
+double-quick movements, in choking dust, set them coughing badly. But
+then it is to be remembered that this is their sickly season, from
+January to March, and that their healthy season will come in summer,
+when the whites break down. Still my conviction of the physical
+superiority of more highly civilized races is strengthened on the whole,
+not weakened, by observing them. As to availability for military drill
+and duty in other respects, the only question I ever hear debated among
+the officers is, whether they are equal or superior to whites. I have
+never heard it suggested that they were inferior, although I expected
+frequently to hear such complaints from hasty or unsuccessful officers.
+
+Of one thing I am sure, that their best qualities will be wasted by
+merely keeping them for garrison duty. They seem peculiarly fitted for
+offensive operations, and especially for partisan warfare; they have so
+much dash and such abundant resources, combined with such an Indian-like
+knowledge of the country and its ways. These traits have been often
+illustrated in expeditions sent after deserters. For instance, I
+despatched one of my best lieutenants and my best sergeant with a squad
+of men to search a certain plantation, where there were two separate
+negro villages. They went by night, and the force was divided. The
+lieutenant took one set of huts, the sergeant the other. Before the
+lieutenant had reached his first house, every man in the village was in
+the woods, innocent and guilty alike. But the sergeant's mode of
+operation was thus described by a corporal from a white regiment who
+happened to be in one of the negro houses. He said that not a sound was
+heard until suddenly a red leg appeared in the open doorway, and a voice
+outside said, "Rally." Going to the door, he observed a similar pair of
+red legs before every hut, and not a person was allowed to go out, until
+the quarters had been thoroughly searched, and the three deserters
+found. This was managed by Sergeant Prince Rivers, our color-sergeant,
+who is provost-sergeant also, and has entire charge of the prisoners and
+of the daily policing of the camp. He is a man of distinguished
+appearance, and in old times was the crack coachman of Beaufort, in
+which capacity he once drove Beauregard from this plantation to
+Charleston, I believe. They tell me that he was once allowed to present
+a petition to the Governor of South Carolina in behalf of slaves, for
+the redress of certain grievances; and that a placard, offering two
+thousand dollars for his recapture, is still to be seen by the wayside
+between here and Charleston. He was a sergeant in the old "Hunter
+Regiment," and was taken by General Hunter to New York last spring,
+where the _chevrons_ on his arm brought a mob upon him in Broadway, whom
+he kept off till the police interfered. There is not a white officer in
+this regiment who has more administrative ability, or more absolute
+authority over the men; they do not love him, but his mere presence has
+controlling power over them. He writes well enough to prepare for me a
+daily report of his duties in the camp: if his education reached a
+higher point, I see no reason why he should not command the Army of the
+Potomac. He is jet-black, or rather, I should say, _wine-black_; his
+complexion, like that of others of my darkest men, having a sort of
+rich, clear depth, without a trace of sootiness, and to my eye very
+handsome. His features are tolerably regular, and full of command, and
+his figure superior to that of any of our white officers,--being six
+feet high, perfectly proportioned, and of apparently inexhaustible
+strength and activity. His gait is like a panther's; I never saw such a
+tread. No anti-slavery novel has described a man of such marked ability.
+He makes Toussaint perfectly intelligible; and if there should ever be a
+black monarchy in South Carolina, he will be its king.
+
+_January 15._--This morning is like May. Yesterday I saw bluebirds and a
+butterfly; so this winter of a fortnight is over. I fancy a trifle less
+coughing in the camp. We hear of other stations in the Department where
+the mortality, chiefly from yellow fever, has been frightful. Dr. ----
+is rubbing his hands professionally over the fearful tales of the
+surgeon of a New York regiment, just from Key West, who has had two
+hundred cases of the fever. "I suppose he is a skilful, highly educated
+man," said I; "Yes," he responded with enthusiasm. "Why, he had seventy
+deaths!"--as if that proved his superiority past question.
+
+                                   _January 19._
+
+    "And first, sitting proud as a king on his throne,
+    At the head of them all rode Sir Richard Tyrone."
+
+But I fancy that Sir Richard felt not much better satisfied with his
+following than I to-day. J. R. L. said once that nothing was quite so
+good as turtle-soup, except mock-turtle; and I have heard officers
+declare that nothing was so stirring as real war, except some exciting
+parade. To-day, for the first time, I marched the whole regiment through
+Beaufort and back,--the first appearance of such a novelty on any stage.
+They did march splendidly: this all admit. M----'s prediction was
+fulfilled:
+
+"Will not ---- be in bliss? A thousand men, every one black as a coal!"
+I confess it. To look back on twenty broad double-ranks of men, (for
+they marched by platoons,)--every polished musket having a black face
+beside it, and every face set steadily to the front,--a regiment of
+freed slaves marching on into the future,--it was something to remember;
+and when they returned through the same streets, marching by the flank,
+with guns at a "support," and each man covering his file-leader
+handsomely, the effect on the eye was almost as fine. The band of the
+Eighth Maine joined us at the entrance of the town, and escorted us in.
+Sergeant Rivers said ecstatically afterwards, in describing the
+affair,--"And when dat band wheel in before us, and march on,--my God! I
+quit dis world altogeder." I wonder if he pictured to himself the many
+dusky regiments, now unformed, which I seemed to see marching up behind
+us, gathering shape out of the dim air.
+
+I had cautioned the men, before leaving camp, not to be staring about
+them as they marched, but to look straight to the front, every man; and
+they did it with their accustomed fidelity, aided by the sort of
+spontaneous eye-for-effect which is in all their melodramatic natures.
+One of them was heard to say exultingly afterwards,--"We didn't look to
+de right nor to de leff. I didn't see notin' in Beaufort. Eb'ry step was
+worth a half-a-dollar." And they all marched as if it were so. They knew
+well that they were marching through throngs of officers and soldiers
+who had drilled as many months as we had drilled weeks, and whose eyes
+would readily spy out every defect. And I must say, that, on the whole,
+with a few trivial exceptions, those spectators behaved in a manly and
+courteous manner, and I do not care to write down all the handsome
+things that were said. Whether said or not, they were deserved; and
+there is no danger that our men will not take sufficient satisfaction in
+their good appearance. I was especially amused at one of our recruits,
+who did not march in the ranks, and who said, after watching the
+astonishment of some white soldiers,--"De buckra sojers look like a man
+who been-a-steal a sheep,"--that is, I suppose, sheepish.
+
+After passing and repassing through the town, we marched to the
+parade-ground and went through an hour's drill, forming squares and
+reducing them, and doing other things which look hard on paper and are
+perfectly easy in fact; and we were to have been reviewed by General
+Saxton, but he had been unexpectedly called to Ladies Island, and did
+not see us at all, which was the only thing to mar the men's enjoyment.
+Then we marched back to camp, (three miles,) the men singing the "John
+Brown Song," and all manner of things,--as happy creatures as one can
+well conceive.
+
+It is worth mentioning, before I close, that we have just received an
+article about "Negro Troops," from the London "Spectator," which is so
+admirably true to our experience that it seems as if written by one of
+us. I am confident that there never has been, in any American newspaper,
+a treatment of the subject so discriminating and so wise.
+
+_January 21._--To-day brought a visit from Major-General Hunter and his
+staff, by General Saxton's invitation,--the former having just arrived
+in the Department. I expected them at dress parade, but they came during
+battalion drill, rather to my dismay, and we were caught in our old
+clothes. It was our first review, and I dare say we did tolerably; but
+of course it seemed to me that the men never appeared so ill
+before,--just as one always thinks a party at one's own house a failure,
+even if the guests seem to enjoy it, because one is so keenly sensitive
+to every little thing that goes wrong. After review and drill, General
+Hunter made the men a little speech, at my request, and told them that
+he wished there were fifty thousand of them. General Saxton spoke to
+them afterwards, and said that fifty thousand muskets were on their way
+for colored troops. The men cheered both the Generals lustily; and they
+were complimentary afterwards, though I knew that the regiment could not
+have appeared nearly so well as on its visit to Beaufort. I suppose I
+felt like some anxious mamma whose children have accidentally appeared
+at dancing-school in their old clothes.
+
+General Hunter promises us all we want,--pay when the funds arrive,
+Springfield rifled muskets, and blue trousers. Moreover, he has
+graciously consented that we should go on an expedition along the coast,
+to pick up cotton, lumber, and, above all, recruits. I declined an offer
+like this just after my arrival, because the regiment was not drilled or
+disciplined, not even the officers; but it is all we wish for now.
+
+    "What care I how black I be?
+    Forty pounds will marry me,"
+
+quoth Mother Goose. Forty _rounds_ will marry us to the American Army,
+past divorcing, if we can only use them well. Our success or failure may
+make or mar the prospects of colored troops. But it is well to remember
+in advance that military success is really less satisfactory than any
+other, because it may depend on a moment's turn of events, and that may
+be determined by some trivial thing, neither to be anticipated nor
+controlled. Napoleon ought to have won at Waterloo by all reasonable
+calculations; but who cares? All that one can expect is, to do one's
+best, and to take with equanimity the fortune of war.[D]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[D] In coming to the record of more active service, the Journal form
+must be abandoned. The next chapter will give some account of an
+expedition up the St. Mary's River.
+
+
+
+
+THE AMERICAN METROPOLIS.
+
+
+A little more than two centuries ago the site of New York City was
+bought by its first white owners for twenty-four dollars. The following
+tabular statement exhibits the steps of its progressive settlement since
+then.
+
+Year.      Population.       Year.      Population.
+1656          1,000          1820         123,706
+1673          2,500          1825         166,089
+1696          4,302          1830         202,589
+1731          8,628          1835         270,068
+1756         10,381          1840         312,852
+1773         21,876          1845         371,223
+1786         23,614          1850         515,394
+1790         33,131          1855         629,810
+1800         60,489          1860         814,254
+1810         96,373          1864       1,000,000+
+
+Taking the first census as a point of departure, the population of New
+York doubled itself in about eleven years. During the first century it
+increased a little more than tenfold. It was doubled again in less than
+twenty years; the next thirty years quadrupled it; and another period of
+twenty years doubled it once more. Its next duplication consumed the
+shorter term of eighteen years. It more than doubled again during the
+fifteen years preceding the last census; and the four years since that
+census have witnessed an increase of nearly twenty-three per cent. This
+final estimate is of course liable to correction by next year's census,
+but its error will be found on the side of under-statement, rather than
+of exaggeration.
+
+The property on the north-west corner of Broadway and Chamber Street,
+now occupied in part by one of Delmonico's restaurants, was purchased
+by a New York citizen, but lately deceased, for the sum of $1,000: its
+present value is $125,000. A single Broadway lot, surveyed out of an
+estate which cost the late John Jay $500 per acre, was recently sold at
+auction for $80,000, and the purchaser has refused a rent of $16,000 per
+annum, or twenty per cent on his purchase-money, for the store which he
+has erected on the property. In 1826, the estimated total value of real
+estate in the city of New York was $64,804,050. In 1863, it had reached
+a total of $402,196,652, thus increasing more than sixfold within the
+lifetime of an ordinary business-generation. In 1826, the personal
+estate of New York City, so far as could be arrived at for official
+purposes, amounted to $42,434,981. In 1863, the estimate of this class
+of property-values was $192,000,161. It had thus more than quadrupled in
+a generation.
+
+But statistics are most eloquent through illustration. Let us look
+discursively about the city of New York at various periods of her career
+since the opening of the present century. I shall assume that a map of
+the city is everywhere attainable, and that the reader has a general
+acquaintance with the physical and political geography of the United
+States.
+
+Not far from the beginning of the century, Wall Street, as its name
+implies, was the northern boundary of the city of New York. The present
+north boundary of civilized settlement is almost identical with the
+statutory limit of the city, or that of the island itself. There is no
+perceptible break, though there are gradations of compactness, in the
+settled district between the foot of the island and Central Park. Beyond
+the Park, Haarlem Lane, Manhattanville, and Carmansville take up the
+thread of civic population, and carry it, among metropolitan houses and
+lamp-posts, quite to the butment of High Bridge. It has been seriously
+proposed to legislate for the annexation of a portion of Westchester to
+the bills of mortality, and this measure cannot fail to be demanded by
+the next generation; but for the present we will consider High Bridge as
+the north end of the city. Let us compare the boundary remembered by our
+veterans with that to which metropolitan settlement has been pushed by
+them and their children. In the lifetime of our oldest business-men, the
+advance wave of civic refinement, convenience, luxury, and population
+has travelled a distance greater than that from the Westminster Palaces
+to the hulks at the Isle of Dogs. When we consider that the population
+of the American Metropolis lives better, on the average, than that of
+any earthly capital, and that ninety-nine hundredths of all our
+suffering poor are the overflow of Great Britain's pauperism running
+into our grand channels a little faster than we can direct its current
+to the best advantage,--under these circumstances the advance made by
+New York in less than a century toward the position of the world's
+metropolis is a more important one than has been gained by London
+between the time of Julius Cæsar and the present century.
+
+I know an excellent business-man who was born in his father's
+aristocratic residence in Beaver Street. Holborn is as aristocratic now.
+Another friend of mine still living, the freshest of sexagenarians, told
+me lately of a walk he took in boyhood which so much fatigued him, that,
+when he was a long way out in the fields, he sat down to rest on the
+steps of a suburban hospital. I guessed Bellevue; but he replied that it
+was the New York Hospital, standing in what we now call the lower part
+of Broadway, just opposite North Pearl Street. No part of the Strand or
+of the Boulevards is less rural than the vast settled district about the
+New York Hospital at this day. It stands at least four times farther
+within than it then did beyond the circumference of New York
+civilization. I remember another illustration of its relative situation
+early in the century,--a story of good old Doctor Stone, who excused
+himself from his position of manager by saying, that, as the infirmities
+of age grew on him, he found the New York Hospital so far out in the
+country that he should be obliged, if he stayed, to keep "a horse and
+_cheer_."
+
+Many New-Yorkers, recognized among our young and active men, can
+recollect when Houston Street was called North Street because it was
+practically the northern boundary of the settled district. Middle-aged
+men remember the swamp of Lispenard's Meadow, which is now the dryest
+part of Canal Street; some recall how they crossed other parts of the
+swamp on boards, and how tide-water practically made a separate island
+of what is now the northern and much the larger portion of the city.
+Young men recollect making Saturday-afternoon appointments with their
+schoolfellows (there was no time on any other day) to go "clear out into
+the country," bathe in the rural cove at the foot of East Thirteenth
+Street, and, refreshed by their baths, proceed to bird's-nesting on the
+wilderness of the Stuyvesant Farm, where is now situate Stuyvesant Park,
+one of the loveliest and most elegant pleasure-grounds open to the New
+York public, surrounded by one of the best-settled portions of the city,
+in every sense of the word. Still younger men remember Fourteenth Street
+as the utmost northern limit of the wave of civilization; and
+comparative boys have seen Franconi's Hippodrome pitched in a vacant lot
+of the suburbs, where now the Fifth Avenue Hotel stands, at the entrance
+to a double mile of palaces, in the northern, southern, and western
+directions.
+
+We may safely affirm, that, since the organization of the science of
+statistics, no city in the world has ever multiplied its population,
+wealth, and internal resources of livelihood with a rapidity approaching
+that shown by New York. London has of late years made great progress
+quantitively, but her means of accommodating a healthy and happy
+population have kept no adequate pace with the increase of numbers.
+During the year 1862, 75,000 immigrants landed at the port of New York;
+in 1863, 150,000 more; and thus far in 1864 (we write in November)
+200,000 have debarked here. Of these 425,000 immigrants, 40 per cent
+have stayed in the city. Of the 170,000 thus staying, 90 per cent, or
+153,000, are British subjects; and of these, it is not understating to
+say that five eighths are dependent for their livelihood on physical
+labor of the most elementary kind. By comparing these estimates with the
+tax-list, it will appear that we have pushed our own inherent vitality
+to an extent of forty millions increase in our taxable property, and
+contributed to the support of the most gigantic war in human annals,
+during the period that we received into our grand civic digestion a city
+of British subjects as large as Bristol, and incorporated them into our
+own body politic with more comfort both to mass and particles than
+either had enjoyed at home.
+
+There are still some people who regard the settlement of countries and
+the selection of great capitals as a matter of pure romantic accident.
+Philosophers know, that, if, at the opening of the Adamic period, any
+man had existed with a perfect knowledge of the world's physical
+geography and the laws of national development, he would have been able
+to foretell _a priori_ the situations of all the greatest capitals. It
+is a law as fixed as that defining the course of matter in the line of
+least resistance, that population flows to the level where the best
+livelihood is most easily obtained. The brute motives of food and
+raiment must govern in their selection of residence nine tenths of the
+human race. A few noble enthusiasts, like those of Plymouth Colony, may
+leave immortal footprints on a rugged coast, exchanging old civilization
+for a new battle with savagery, and abandoning comfort with conformity
+for a good conscience with privation. Still, had there been back of
+Plymouth none of the timber, the quarries, the running streams, the
+natural avenues of inland communication, and to some extent the
+agricultural capabilities which make good subsistence possible, there
+would have been no Boston, no Lynn, no Lowell, no New Bedford, no
+healthy or wealthy civilization of any kind, until the Pilgrim
+civilization had changed its base. It may be generally laid down that
+the men who leave home for truth's sake exile themselves as much for the
+privilege to mere opportunity of living truly.
+
+New York was not even in the first place settled by enthusiasts. Trade
+with the savages, nice little farms at Haarlem, a seat among the
+burgomasters, the feast of St. Nicholas, pipes and Schiedam, a vessel
+now and then in the year bringing over letters of affection ripened by a
+six months' voyage, some little ventures, and two or three new
+colonists,--these were the joys which allured the earliest New-Yorkers
+to the island now swarming from end to end with almost national
+vitalities. Not until 1836, when the Italian Opera was first domiciled
+in New York, on the corner of Leonard and Church Streets, could the
+second era of metropolitan life be said fully to have set in there,--the
+era when people flow toward a city for the culture as well as the
+livelihood which it offers them. About the same time American studios
+began to be thronged with American picture-buyers; and there is no need
+of referring to the rapid advance of American literature, and the wide
+popularization of luxuries, dating from that period.
+
+Long prior to that, New York was growing with giant vitality. She
+possesses, as every great city must possess preëminent advantages for
+the support of a vast population and the employment of immense
+industries. If she could not feed a million of men better than Norfolk,
+Norfolk would be New York and New York Norfolk. If the products of the
+world were not more economically exchanged across her counter than over
+that of Baltimore, Baltimore would need to set about building shelter
+for half a million more heads than sleep there to-night. Perth Amboy was
+at one time a prominent rival of New York in the struggle for the
+position of the American Metropolis, and is not New York only because
+Nature said No!
+
+Let us invite the map to help us in our investigation of New York's
+claim to the metropolitan rank. There are three chief requisites for the
+chief city of every nation. It must be the city in easiest communication
+with other countries,--on the sea-coast, if there be a good harbor
+there, or on some stream debouching into the best harbor that there is.
+It must be the city in easiest communication with the interior, either
+by navigable streams, or valleys and mountain-passes, and thus the most
+convenient rendezvous for the largest number of national interests,--the
+place where Capital and Brains, Import and Export, Buyer and Seller,
+Doers and Things to be Done, shall most naturally make their
+appointments to meet for exchange. Last, (and least, too,--for even
+cautious England will people jungles for money's sake,) the metropolis
+must enjoy at least a moderate sanitary reputation; otherwise men who
+love Fortune well enough to die for her will not be reinforced by
+another large class who care to die on no account whatever.
+
+New York answers all these requisites better than any metropolis in the
+world. She has a harbor capable of accommodating all the fleets of
+Christendom, both commercial and belligerent. That harbor has a western
+ramification, extending from the Battery to the mouth of Spuyten Duyvil
+Creek,--a distance of fifteen miles; an eastern ramification, reaching
+from the Battery to the mouth of Haarlem River,--seven miles; and a main
+trunk, interrupted by three small islands, extending from the Battery to
+the Narrows,--a distance of about eight miles more. It is rather
+under-estimating the capacity of the East River branch to average its
+available width as low as eighty rods; a mile and a half will be a
+proportionately moderate estimate for the Hudson River branch; the
+greatest available width of the Upper Bay is about four miles, in a line
+from the Long Island to the Staten Island side. If we add to these
+combined areas the closely adjacent waters in hourly communication with
+New York by her tugs and lighters, her harbor will further include a
+portion of the channel running west of Staten Island, and of the rivers
+emptying into Newark Bay, with the whole magnificent and sheltered
+roadstead of the Lower Bay, the mouth of Shrewsbury Inlet, and a portion
+of Raritan Bay.
+
+As this paper must deal to a sufficient extent with statistics in
+matters of practical necessity, we will at this stage leave the reader
+to complete for himself the calculation of such a harbor's capacity. In
+this respect, in that of shelter, of contour of water-front, of
+accessibility from the high seas, New York Harbor has no rival on the
+continent. The Bay of San Francisco more nearly equals it than any
+other; but that is on the Pacific side, for the present much farther
+from the axis of national civilization, and backed by a much narrower
+agricultural tract. We will not refer to disadvantages of commercial
+exchange, since San Francisco may at any time be relieved of these by a
+Pacific Railroad. On our Atlantic side there is certainly no harbor
+which will compare for area and convenience with that of New York.
+
+It is not only the best harbor on our coast, but that in easiest
+communication with other parts of the country. To the other portions of
+the coast it is as nearly central as it could be without losing fatally
+in other respects. Delaware and Chesapeake Bays afford fine roadsteads;
+but the low sand barrens and wet alluvial flats which form their shores
+compelled Philadelphia and Baltimore to retire their population such a
+distance up the chief communicating rivers as to deprive them of many
+important advantages proper to a seaport. Under the influence of free
+ideas may be expected a wonderful development of the advantages of
+Chesapeake Bay. Good husbandry and unshackled enterprise throughout
+Maryland and Virginia will astonish Baltimore by an increase of her
+population and commerce beyond the brightest speculative dreams. The
+full resources of Delaware Bay are far from being developed. Yet
+Philadelphia and Baltimore are forever precluded from competing with New
+York, both by their greater distance from open water and the comparative
+inferiority of the interior tracts with which they have ready
+communication. Below Chesapeake Bay the coast system of great
+river-estuaries gives way to the Sea-Island system, in which the
+main-land is flanked by a series of bars or sandbanks, separated from it
+by tortuous and difficult lagoons. The rivers which empty into this
+network of channels are comparatively difficult of entrance, and but
+imperfectly navigable. The isolation of the Sea Islands is enough to
+make them still more inconvenient situations than any on the main-land
+for the foundation of a metropolis. Before we have gone far down this
+system, we have passed the centre where, on mathematical principles, a
+metropolis should stand.
+
+Considered with regard to the tributary interior, New York occupies a
+position no less central than with respect to the coast. It is
+impossible to study a map of our country without momently increasing
+surprise at the multiplicity of natural avenues which converge in New
+York from the richest producing districts of the world. The entire
+result of the country's labor seems to seek New York by inevitable
+channels. Products run down to the managing, disbursing, and balancing
+hand of New York as naturally as the thoughts of a man run down to the
+hand which must embody them. From the north it takes tribute through the
+Hudson River. This magnificent water-course, permitting the ascent of
+the largest ships for a hundred miles, and of river-craft for fifty
+miles farther, has upon its eastern side a country averaging about
+thirty miles in width to the Taconic range, consisting chiefly of the
+richest grazing, grain, and orchard land in the Atlantic States. Above
+the Highlands, the west side of the river becomes a fertile, though
+narrower and more broken agricultural tract; and at the head of
+navigation, the Hudson opens into another valley of exhaustless
+fertility,--that of the Mohawk,--coming eastward from the centre of the
+State.
+
+Thus, independent of her system of railroads, New York City possesses
+uninterrupted natural connection with the interior of the State, whence
+a new system of communications is given off by the Lakes to the extreme
+west and north of our whole territory.
+
+To the northeast, New York extends her relations by the sheltered avenue
+of Long Island Sound,--alluring through a strait of comparatively smooth
+water not only the agricultural products which seek export along a
+double water-front of two hundred miles, but the larger results of that
+colossal manufacturing system on which is based the prosperity of New
+England. To a great part of this class of values Long Island Sound
+stands like a weir emptying into the net of New York.
+
+The maritime position of New York makes her as easy an entrepôt for
+Southern as for foreign products; and in any case her share in our
+Northern national commerce gives her the control of all trade which must
+pay the North a balance of exchange.
+
+The Hudson, the Sound, and the line of Southern coasting traffic are the
+three main radii of supply which meet in New York. Another important
+district paying its chief subsidy to New York is drained by the Delaware
+River, and this great avenue is reached with ease from the metropolis by
+a direct natural route across the Jersey level. Though unavailable to
+New York as a navigable conduit, it still offers a means of penetrating
+to the southern counties of the State, and a passage to the Far West, of
+which New York capital has been prompt to avail itself by the Erie
+Railroad, with its Atlantic and Great Western continuation to St. Louis.
+This uniform broad-gauge of twelve hundred miles, which has just been
+opened by the energy and talents of Messrs. McHenry and Kennard,
+apparently decides the main channel by which the West is to discharge
+her riches into New York.--But we are trenching on the subject the
+capital's artificial advantages.
+
+Finally, New York has been prevented only by disgraceful civic
+mismanagement from becoming long ago the healthiest city in the world.
+In spite of jobbed contracts for street-cleaning, and various corrupt
+tamperings with the city water-front, by which the currents are
+obstructed, and injury is done the sewage as well as the channels of the
+harbor, New York is now undoubtedly a healthier city than any other
+approaching it in size. Its natural sanitary advantages must be evident.
+The crying need of a great city is good drainage. To effect this for New
+York, the civil engineer has no struggle with his material. He need only
+avail himself dexterously of the original contour of his ground.
+Manhattan Island is a low outcrop of gneiss and mica-schist, sloping
+from an irregular, but practically continuous crest, to the Hudson and
+East Rivers, with a nearly uniform southerly incline from its
+precipitous north face on the Haarlem and Spuyten Duyvil to high-water
+mark at the foot of Whitehall Street. Its natural system of drainage
+might be roughly illustrated by radii drawn to the circumference of a
+very eccentric ellipse from its northern focus. Wherever the waste of
+the entire island may descend, it is met by a seaward tide twice in the
+twenty-four hours. On the East River side the velocity of this tide in
+the narrow passages is rather that of a mill-stream than of the entrance
+to a sound. Though less apparent, owing to its area, the tide and
+current of the Hudson are practically as irresistible. The two branches
+of the city-sewage, uniting at the Battery, are deflected a little to
+the westward by Governor's Island, and thus thrown out into the middle
+of the bay, where they receive the full force of the tidal impulse,
+retarded by the Narrows only long enough to disengage and drop their
+finer silt on the flats between Robin's Reef and the Jersey shore. The
+depurating process of the New World's grandest community lies ready for
+use in this natural drainage-system. If there be a standing pool, a
+festering ditch, a choked gutter, a malarious sink within the scope of
+the city bills of mortality, there is official crime somewhere. Nature
+must have been fraudulently obstructed in the benignest arrangements
+she ever made for removing the effete material of a vast city's vital
+processes. In the matter of climate, New York experiences such
+comparative freedom from sudden changes as belongs to her position in
+the midst of large masses of water. She enjoys nearly entire immunity
+from fogs and damp or chilly winds. Her weather is decided, and her
+population are liable to no one local and predominant class of disease.
+So far as her hygienic condition depends upon quantity and quality of
+food, her communications with the interior give her an exceptional
+guaranty. Despite the poverty which her lower classes share in kind,
+though to a much less degree, with those of other commercial capitals,
+there is no metropolis in the world where the general average of comfort
+and luxury stands higher through all the social grades. It is further to
+be recollected that health and the chief comforts of life are
+correlative,--that the squalid family is the unhealthy family, and that,
+as we import our squalor, so also we import the materials and conditions
+of our disease. This _a priori_ view is amply sustained by the
+statistics of our charitable institutions. Dr. Alanson S. Jones, whose
+position as President of the Board of Surgeons attached to the
+Metropolitan Police Commission combines with his minute culture in the
+sciences ministering to his profession to make him a first-class
+authority upon the sanitary statistics of New York, states that the
+large majority of deaths, and cases of disease, occur in that city among
+the recent foreign immigrants,--and that the same source furnishes the
+vast proportion of inmates of our hospitals, almshouses, asylums, and
+other institutions of charity; furthermore, that two thirds of all the
+deaths in New York City occur among children,--a class to which
+metropolitan conditions are decidedly unfavorable; and that, while the
+seven hundred thousand inhabitants of Philadelphia are distributed over
+an area of one hundred and thirty square miles, the one million
+inhabitants of New York are included within the limit of thirty-five
+square miles, yet the excess of proportionate mortality in the latter
+city by no means corresponds to its density of settlement. It is safe to
+affirm, that, taking all the elements into calculation, there is no city
+in the civilized world with an equal population and an equal sanitary
+rank.
+
+Hydrographically speaking, either Liverpool or Bristol surpasses London
+in its claims to be the British metropolis. But as England's chief
+commerce flows from the eastward, to accommodate it she must select for
+her metropolis the shores of the most accessible, capacious, and
+sheltered water on that side of the island. The result is London,--a
+city backed by an almost imperceptible fraction of the vast interior
+which pays tribute to New York,--having a harbor of far less
+capacity than New York, and without any of its far-reaching
+ramifications,--provided with a totally inadequate drainage-system,
+operating by a river which New-Yorkers would shudder to accept for the
+purposes of a single ward,--and supporting a population of three million
+souls upon her brokerage in managing the world's commerce. New York has
+every physical advantage over her in site, together with an agricultural
+constituency of which she can never dream, and every opportunity for
+eventually surpassing her as a depot of domestic manufactures. London
+can never add arable acres to her suite, while only the destruction of
+the American people can prevent us from building ten up-country mills to
+every one which manufactures for her market. She has merely the start of
+us in time; she has advanced rapidly during the last fifty years, but
+New York has even more rapidly diminished the gap. No wonder that
+British capitalists will sacrifice much to see us perish,--for it is
+pleasanter to receive than to pay balance of exchange, even in the
+persons of one's prospective great-grandchildren.
+
+Turning to the second great power of the Old World, we may assert that
+there is not a harbor on the entire French coast of capacity or
+convenience proportionate to the demands of a national emporium. Though
+the site of Paris was chosen by a nation in no sense commercial, and the
+constitutional prejudices of the people are of that semi-barbarous kind
+which affect at the same time pleasure and a contempt of the enterprises
+which pay for it, there has been a decided anxiety among the foremost
+Frenchmen since the time of Colbert to see France occupying an
+influential position among the national fortune-hunters of the world.
+Napoleon III. shares this solicitude to an extent which his uncle's
+hatred of England would never permit him to confess, though he felt it
+deeply. The millions which the present Emperor has spent on Cherbourg
+afford a mere titillation to his ambitious spirit. Their result is a
+handsome parade-place,--a pretty stone toy,--an unpickable lock to an
+inclosure nobody wants to enter,--a navy-yard for the creation of an
+armament which has no commerce to protect. No wonder that the
+discontented despot seeks to eke out the quality of his ports by their
+plenteous quantity,--seizing Algiers,--looking wistfully at the Red
+Sea,--overjoyed at any bargain which would get him Nice,--striking madly
+out for empire in Cochin China, Siam, and the Pacific islands,--playing
+Shylock to Mexico on Jecker's forged bond, that his own inconvenient
+vessels might have an American port to trim their yards in. Meanwhile,
+to forget the utter unfitness of Paris for the capital of any imaginary
+Commercial France, he plays ship with Eugénie on the gentle Seine, or
+amuses himself with the marine romance of the Parisian civic escutcheon.
+
+No one will think for an instant of comparing Paris with New York in
+respect to natural advantages. The capitals of the other Continental
+nations are still less susceptible of being brought into the
+competition. The vast cities of China are possible only in the lowest
+condition of individual liberty,--class servitude, sumptuary and travel
+restrictions, together with all the other complicated enginery of an
+artificial barbarism, being the only substitute for natural cohesion in
+a community whose immense mass can procure nothing but the rudest
+necessaries of life from the area within which it is confined.
+
+_A priori_, therefore, we might expect that the metropolis of America
+would arise on New York Island, and in process of time become one of the
+greatest capitals of the world.
+
+The natural advantages which allured New York's first population have
+been steadily developed and reinforced by artificial ones. For the ships
+of the world she has built about her water-front more than three hundred
+piers and bulkheads. Allowing berth-room for four ships in each
+bulkhead, and for one at the end of each pier, (decidedly an
+under-estimate, considering the extent of some of these
+structures,)--the island water-front already offers accommodation for
+the simultaneous landing of eight hundred first-class foreign cargoes.
+The docks of Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Hoboken may accommodate at least
+as many more. Something like a quarter of all New York imports go in the
+first instance to the bonded warehouse; and this part, not being wanted
+for immediate consumption within the metropolis proper, quite as
+conveniently occupies the Long Island or Jersey warehouses as those on
+the New York shore. The warehouses properly belonging to New York
+commerce--containing her property and living on her business--received
+during 1861 imports to the value of $41,811,664; during 1862,
+$46,939,451; and during 1863, $61,350,432. During the year 1861, the
+total imports of New York amounted to $161,684,499,--paying an aggregate
+of duties of $21,714,981. During the year 1862, the imports amounted to
+$172,486,453, and the duties to $52,254,318. During 1863, the imports
+reached a value of $184,016,350, the duties on which amounted to
+$58,885,853. For the same years the exports amounted respectively to
+$142,903,689, $216,416,070, and $219,256,203,--the rapid increase
+between 1861 and 1862 being no doubt partly stimulated by the
+disappearance of specie from circulation under the pressure of our
+unparalleled war-expenses, and the consequent necessity of substituting
+in foreign markets our home products for the ordinary basis of exchange.
+In 1861, 965 vessels entered New York from foreign ports, and 966
+cleared for foreign ports. In 1862, the former class numbered 5,406, and
+the latter 5,014. In 1863, they were respectively 4,983 and 4,466. These
+statistics, from which the immense wharfage and warehouse accommodation
+of New York may be inferred, are exhibited to better advantage in the
+following tabular statement, kindly furnished by Mr. Ogden, First
+Auditor of the New York Custom-House.
+
+_Statistics of the Port of New York._
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|  |                       |    1861.     |    1862.     |    1863.     |
+|--+-----------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------|
+|  |                       |      $       |      $       |      $       |
+|1 |Total value of Exports |142,903,689   |216,416,070   |219,256,203   |
+|2 |Total value of Imports |161,684,499   |172,486,453   |184,016,350   |
+|3 |Value of Goods         |              |              |              |
+|  | warehoused during     |              |              |              |
+|  | the entire year       | 41,811,664   | 46,939,451   | 61,350,432   |
+|4 |Amount of Drawback     |              |              |              |
+|  | allowed during the    |              |              |              |
+|  | entire year           |     57,326.55|    275,953.92|    414,041.44|
+|5 |Total amount of Duties |              |              |              |
+|  | paid during year      | 21,714,981.10| 52,254,317.92| 58,885,853.42|
+|6 |No. of Vessels entered |              |              |              |
+|  | from Foreign Ports    |              |              |              |
+|  | during year           |        965   |      5,406   |      4,983   |
+|7 |No. of Vessels cleared |              |              |              |
+|  | to foreign Ports      |              |              |              |
+|  | during year           |        966   |      5,014   |      4,666   |
+|--+-----------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
+
+Besides the various berths or anchorages and the warehouses of New York,
+commerce is still further waited on in our metropolis by one of the most
+perfect systems of pilot-boat, steam-tug, and lighter service which have
+ever been devised for a harbor. No vessel can bring so poor a foreign
+cargo to New York as not to justify the expense of a pilot to keep its
+insurance valid, a tug to carry it to its moorings, and a lighter to
+discharge it, if the harbor be crowded or time press. Indeed, the first
+two items are matters of course; and not one of them costs enough to be
+called a luxury.
+
+The American river-steamboat--the palatial American _steamboat_, as
+distinguished from the dingy, clumsy English _steamer_--is another of
+the means by which Art has supplemented New York's gifts of Nature. This
+magnificent triumph of sculpturesque beauty, wedded to the highest grade
+of mechanical skill, must be from two hundred and fifty to four hundred
+feet long,--must accommodate from five hundred to two thousand
+passengers,--must run its mile in three minutes,--must be as _rococo_ in
+its upholsterings as a bedchamber of Versailles,--must gratify every
+sense, consult every taste, and meet every convenience. Such a boat as
+this runs daily to every principal city on the Sound or the Hudson, to
+Albany, to Boston, to Philadelphia. A more venturous class of coasting
+steamers in peaceful times are constantly leaving for Baltimore,
+Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Key West, Mobile, New Orleans, and
+Galveston. The immense commerce of the Erie Canal, with all its sources
+and tributaries, is practically transacted by New York City. Nearly
+everything intended for export, plus New York's purchases for her own
+consumption, is forwarded from the Erie Canal terminus in a series of
+_tows_, each of these being a rope-bound fleet, averaging perhaps fifty
+canal-boats and barges, propelled by a powerful steamer intercalated
+near the centre. The traveller new to Hudson River scenery will be
+startled, any summer day on which he may choose to take a steamboat trip
+to Albany, by the apparition, at distances varying from one to three
+miles all the way, of floating islands, settled by a large commercial
+population, who like their dinner off the top of a hogshead, and follow
+the laundry business to such an extent that they quite effloresce with
+wet shirts, and are seen through a lattice of clothes-lines. Let him
+know that these floating islands are but little drops of vital blood
+from the great heart of the West, coming down the nation's main artery
+to nurse some small tissue of the metropolis; that these are "Hudson
+River tows"; and that, novel as that phenomenon may appear to him, every
+other fresh traveller has been equally startled by it since March, and
+will be startled by it till December. Another ministry to New York is
+performed by the _night-tows_, consisting of a few cattle, produce, and
+passenger barges attached to a steamer, made up semi-weekly or
+tri-weekly at every town of any importance on the Hudson and the Sound.
+We will not include the large fleet of Sound and River sloops, brigs,
+and schooners in the list of New York's artificial advantages.
+
+Turning to New York's land communication with the interior, we find the
+following railroads radiating from the metropolitan centre.
+
+1.  A Railroad to Philadelphia.
+2.  A Railroad to the Pennsylvania Coal Region.
+3.  A Railroad to Piermont on the Hudson.
+4.  A Railroad to Bloomfield in New Jersey.
+5.  A Railroad to Morristown in New Jersey.
+6.  A Railroad to Hackensack in New Jersey.
+7.  A Railroad to Buffalo.
+8.  A Railroad to Albany, running along the Hudson.
+9.  Another Railroad to Albany, by an interior route.
+10. A Railroad to New Haven.
+11. A Railroad to the chief eastern port of Long Island.
+12. The Delaware and Raritan Road to Philadelphia, connecting with New
+York by daily transports from pier.
+13. The Camden and Amboy Railroad, connecting similarly.
+14. The Railroad to Elizabeth, New Jersey.
+
+The chief eastern radius throws out ramifications to the principal
+cities of New England, thus affording liberal choice of routes to
+Boston, New Bedford, Providence, and Portland, as well as an entrance to
+New Hampshire and Vermont. To all of these towns, except the more
+southerly, the Hudson River Road leads as well, connecting besides with
+railroads in every direction to the northern and western parts of the
+State, and with the Far West by a number of routes. The main avenue to
+the Far West is, however, the Atlantic and Great Western Road, with its
+twelve hundred miles of uniform broad-gauge. Along this line the whole
+riches of the interior may reasonably be expected to flow eastward as in
+a trough; for its position is axial, and its connection perfect. All the
+chief New Jersey railroads open avenues to the richest mineral region of
+the Atlantic States,--to the Far South and the Far West of the country.
+Two or three may be styled commuters' roads, running chiefly for the
+accommodation of city business-men with suburban residences. The Long
+Island Road is a road without important branches; but the majority of
+all the roads subsidiary to New York are avenues to some broad and
+typical tract of the interior.
+
+Let us turn to consider how New York has provided for the people as well
+as the goods that enter her precincts by all the ways we have rehearsed.
+She draws them up Broadway in twenty thousand horse-vehicles per day, on
+an average, and from that magnificent avenue, crowded for nearly five
+miles with elegant commercial structures, over two hundred miles more of
+paved street, in all directions. She lights them at night with eight
+hundred miles of gas-pipe; she washes them and slakes their thirst from
+two hundred and ninety-one miles of Croton main; she has constructed for
+their drainage one hundred and seventy-six miles of sewer. She
+victimizes them with nearly two thousand licensed hackmen; she licenses
+twenty-two hundred car- and omnibus-drivers to carry them over
+twenty-nine different stage-routes and ten horse-railroads, in six
+hundred and seventy-one omnibuses and nearly as many cars, connecting
+intimately with every part of the city, and averaging ten up-and-down
+trips per day. She connects them with the adjoining cities of the
+main-land and with Staten and Long Island by twenty ferries, running, on
+the average, one boat each way every ten minutes during the twenty-four
+hours. She offers for her guests' luxurious accommodation at least a
+score of hotels, where good living is made as much the subject of high
+art as in the Hôtel du Louvre, besides minor houses of rest and
+entertainment, to the number of more than five thousand. She attends to
+their religion in about four hundred places of public worship. She
+gives them breathing-room in a dozen civic parks, the largest of which
+both Nature and Art destine to be the noblest popular pleasure-ground of
+the civilized world, as it is the amplest of all save the Bois de
+Boulogne. Central Park covers an area of 843 acres, and, though only in
+the fifth year of its existence, already contains twelve miles of
+beautifully planned and scientifically constructed carriage-road, seven
+miles of similar bridle-path, four sub-ways for the passage of
+trade-vehicles across the Park, with an aggregate length of two miles,
+and twenty-one miles of walk. As an item of city property, Central Park
+is at present valued at six million dollars; but this, of course, is
+quite a nominal and unstable valuation. The worth of the Park to New
+York property in general is altogether beyond calculation.
+
+New York feeds her people with about two million slaughter-animals per
+annum. How these are classified, and what periodical changes their
+supply undergoes, may be conveniently seen by the following tabular view
+of the New York butchers' receiving-yards during the twelve months of
+the year 1863. I am indebted for it to the experience and courtesy of
+Mr. Solon Robinson, agricultural editor of the "New York Tribune."
+
+_Receipts of Butchers' Animals in New York during 1863._
+
++-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+
+|Month. | Beeves. |  Cows.  | Calves. |  Sheep. |  Swine.  |
+|-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+
+|Jan.   |  16,349 |     393 |   1,318 |  25,352 |  138,413 |
+|Feb.   |  19,930 |     474 |   1,207 |  24,877 |   98,099 |
+|March  |  22,187 |     843 |   2,594 |  29,645 |   79,320 |
+|April  |  18,921 |     636 |   3,182 |  18,311 |   56,516 |
+|May    |  16,739 |     440 |   3,510 |  20,338 |   39,305 |
+|June   |  23,785 |     718 |   5,516 |  44,808 |   56,612 |
+|July   |  20,224 |     396 |   2,993 |  41,614 |   40,716 |
+|August |  20,347 |     496 |   3,040 |  49,900 |   36,725 |
+|Sept.  |  30,847 |     524 |   3,654 |  79,078 |   68,646 |
+|Oct.   |  24,397 |     475 |   3,283 |  64,144 |  112,265 |
+|Nov.   |  23,991 |     557 |   3,378 |  61,082 |  183,359 |
+|Dec.   |  26,374 |     518 |   2,034 |  60,167 |  191,641 |
+|-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+
+|Total  |         |         |         |         |          |
+|of each| 264,091 |   6,470 |  35,709 | 519,316 |1,101,617 |
+|kind,  |         |         |         |         |          |
+|-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+
+|                                                          |
+|Total of all kinds,    1,927,203.                         |
++----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+Of the total number of beeves which came into the New York market in
+1863, those whose origin could be ascertained were furnished from their
+several States in the following proportions:--
+
+    Illinois contributed 118,692
+    New York     "        28,985
+    Ohio         "        19,369
+    Indiana      "        14,232
+    Michigan     "         9,074
+    Kentucky     "         6,782
+
+Averaging the weight of the cattle which came to New York market in 1863
+at the moderate estimate of 700 lbs., the metropolitan supply of beef
+for that year amounted to 189,392,700 lbs. This, at the average price of
+nine and a quarter cents per pound, was worth $17,518,825.
+Proportionably with these estimates, the average weekly expenditure by
+butchers at the New York yards during the year 1863 was $328,865.
+
+It is an astonishing, but indubitable fact, that, while the population
+of New York has increased sixty-six per cent during the last decade, the
+consumption of _beef_ has in the same time increased sixty-five per
+cent. This increment might be ascribed to the great advance of late
+years in the price of pork,--that traditional main stay of the poor
+man's housekeeping,--were it not that the importation of swine has
+increased almost as surprisingly. We are therefore obliged to
+acknowledge that during a period when the chief growth of our population
+was due to emigration from the lowest ranks of foreign nationalities,
+during three years of a devastating war, and inclusive of the great
+financial crisis of 1857, the increase in consumption of the most costly
+and healthful article of animal food lacked but one per cent of the
+increase of the population. These statistics bear eloquent witness to
+the rapid diffusion of luxury among the New York people.
+
+From the table of classification by States we may draw another
+interesting inference. It will be seen that by far the largest
+proportion of the bullocks came into the New York market from the most
+remote of the Western States contributing. In other words, New York City
+has so perfected her connection with all the sources of supply, that
+distance has become an unimportant element in her calculations of
+expense; and she can make all the best grazing land of the country
+tributary to her market, without regard to the question whether it be
+one or twelve hundred miles off.
+
+The foregoing butchers' estimates are as exact as our present means of
+information can make them. Large numbers of uncounted sheep are consumed
+within the city limits, and the unreported calves are many more than
+come to light in statistics. Besides these main staples of the market
+which have been mentioned, there is consumed in New York an incalculable
+quantity of game and poultry, preserved meats and fish, cheese, butter,
+and eggs.
+
+Mr. James Boughton, clerk of the New York Produce Exchange, has been
+good enough to furnish me with a tabular statement of the city's
+receipts of produce for the year ending April 30, 1864. Such portions of
+it as may show the amount of staples, exclusive of fresh meat, required
+for the regular supply of the New York market, are presented in the
+opposite column.
+
+A less important, but still very interesting, class of products entered
+New York during the same period, in the following amounts:--
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------+
+|  COTTON.  |   SEED.   |   ASHES.  | WHISKEY.  | OIL CAKE. |
+|-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
+|  _Bales._ |   _Bush._ |   _Pkgs._ |   _Bbls._ |  _Sacks._ |
+|   18,193  |    7,343  |    1,401  |   21,838  |    2,329  |
+|   16,299  |    3,196  |    1,657  |   26,925  |   14,040  |
+|   13,080  |      901  |    1,175  |   19,627  |   20,120  |
+|   11,043  |      892  |    1,551  |   18,083  |   19,583  |
+|   12,874  |    2,082  |      884  |   15,781  |    4,810  |
+|   19,332  |    1,189  |      790  |   17,656  |   17,500  |
+|   26,902  |    2,318  |    1,280  |   20,098  |   10,441  |
+|   24,870  |    8,193  |    1,393  |   39,594  |    4,973  |
+|   22,010  |    8,441  |    1,163  |   32,346  |    2,676  |
+|   28,242  |   24,216  |    1,498  |   34,475  |    2,115  |
+|   39,302  |   31,765  |    1,457  |   35,575  |    2,963  |
+|   33,538  |    5,686  |    1,044  |   22,873  |    4,536  |
+|-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
+|  265,685  |   96,222  |   15,293  |  304,871  |  106,356  |
++-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+New York, during the same period, exported,--
+
+    Of Flour       2,571,744 bbls.
+     " Wheat      15,842,836 bushels.
+     " Corn        5,576,836   "
+     " Cured Beef    113,061 pkgs.
+     "   "   Pork    189,757 bbls.
+     " Cotton         27,561 bales.
+
+Deducting from the total supply of each of these six staples such
+amounts as were exported during the year, we
+
++----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|     MONTH.       |   FLOUR.  |  CORN   |  CORN   |   WHEAT.   |   CORN.    |
+|                  |           |  MEAL.  |  MEAL.  |            |            |
+|------------------+-----------+---------+---------+------------+------------|
+|                  |  _Bbls._  | _Bbls._ | _Bags._ |   _Bush._  |  _Bush._   |
+| 1863.--May       |   454,363 |  10,331 |  18,614 |  1,789,952 |  1,914,490 |
+|        June      |   636,501 |  19,283 |   7,989 |  2,853,755 |  2,262,825 |
+|        July      |   451,004 |   9,995 |  10,480 |  2,409,184 |  3,049,126 |
+|        August    |   298,097 |   9,875 |   9,226 |  1,989,839 |  2,343,899 |
+|        September |   319,923 |  10,481 |   4,715 |  1,132,588 |  2,196,157 |
+|        October   |   451,762 |   8,673 |  13,020 |  3,052,968 |  1,265,793 |
+|        November  |   530,096 |   8,883 |  22,835 |  3,164,750 |    295,398 |
+|        December  |   429,641 |  16,301 |  45,627 |  1,396,608 |    135,907 |
+| 1864.--January   |   266,240 |   7,987 |  43,990 |     10,244 |    145,557 |
+|        February  |   233,822 |  12,489 |  47,137 |     45,283 |    108,751 |
+|        March     |   190,785 |  14,135 |  40,510 |    108,407 |    259,547 |
+|        April     |   218,181 |  10,889 |  27,097 |    166,506 |    120,272 |
+|------------------+-----------+---------+---------+------------+------------+
+|     Total        | 4,480,415 | 145,272 | 291,190 | 18,119,993 | 14,098,262 |
++----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
++-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|     MONTHS.      |   OATS.    |  RYE.   |  MALT.  |  BARLEY.  |   BEEF. |
+|------------------+------------+---------+---------+-----------+---------|
+|                  |   _Bush._  | _Bush._ | _Bush._ |   _Bush._ | _Bbls._ |
+| 1863.--May       |    808,233 |  28,034 |  24,034 |     4,672 |   9,428 |
+|        June      |  1,442,979 |  23,038 |  22,508 |     1,643 |   2,386 |
+|        July      |    849,831 |  52,759 |  16,710 |     none. |   1,285 |
+|        August    |  1,097,223 |  68,035 |  55,453 |      .... |     892 |
+|        September |    307,025 |   9,721 |  47,048 |     7,941 |     718 |
+|        October   |  1,319,985 |  41,912 |  13,461 |   753,893 |   7,420 |
+|        November  |  2,189,719 |  36,731 |  44,322 |   441,479 |  68,391 |
+|        December  |  1,882,344 |  45,727 |  59,494 |   275,568 |  74,031 |
+| 1864.--January   |    305,690 |   6,532 |  42,608 |     6,972 |  22,988 |
+|        February  |    209,080 |   3,554 |  63,064 |     5,105 |   6,358 |
+|        March     |    258,685 |   5,308 |  69,578 |    18,386 |   4,319 |
+|        April     |    238,344 |   6,373 |  44,383 |    41,914 |   4,654 |
+|------------------+------------+---------+---------+-----------+---------+
+|     Total        | 10,909,238 | 328,619 | 502,693 | 1,557,573 | 203,270 |
++-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------+
+|     MONTHS.      |  PORK.  |  CUT    |  LARD.   | DRESSED |
+|                  |         | MEATS.  |          |  HOGS.  |
+|------------------+---------+---------+----------+---------|
+|                  | _Bbls._ | _Pkgs._ |100 _lbs._|  _No._
+| 1863.--May       | 119,302 |  38,587 | 149,966  |    .... |
+|        June      | 112,343 |  21,401 |  75,966  |    .... |
+|        July      |  10,155 |   6,633 |  15,396  |    .... |
+|        August    |   6,879 |   2,870 |   3,784  |    .... |
+|        September |   7,115 |   3,967 |   5,233  |    .... |
+|        October   |   6,921 |   4,501 |  35,128  |     881 |
+|        November  |   6,916 |  11,066 |  35,997  |     755 |
+|        December  |  21,864 |  18,843 |  31,775  |  21,208 |
+| 1864.--January   |  39,364 |  34,469 |  25,145  |  48,276 |
+|        February  |  32,144 |  42,593 |  43,245  |  59,894 |
+|        March     |  33,687 |  92,710 |  83,122  |   4,600 |
+|        April     |  12,346 |  49,399 |  90,496  |      67 |
+|------------------+---------+---------+----------+---------|
+|     Total        | 409,036 | 327,129 | 594,853  | 135,481 |
++-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+find a remainder, for annual metropolitan consumption, amounting, in the
+case of
+
+    Flour      to  1,908,671 bbls.
+    Wheat      "   2,276,257 bushels.
+    Corn       "   8,540,490   "
+    Cured Beef "      89,209 pkgs.
+      "   Pork "     209,279 bbls.
+    Cotton     "     238,124 bales.
+
+We have no room for the details--which would embarrass us, if we should
+attempt a statement--of the cost of clothing the New York people. We
+will merely remark, in passing, that one of the largest retail stores in
+the New York dry-goods trade sells at its counters ten million dollars'
+worth of fabrics per annum, and that another concern in the wholesale
+branch of the same trade does a yearly business of between thirty and
+forty millions. As for tailors' shops, New York is their
+fairy-land,--many eminent examples among them resembling, in cost, size,
+and elegance, rather a European palace than a republican place of
+traffic.
+
+The most comprehensive generalization by which we may hope to arrive at
+an idea of the business of New York is that which includes in tabular
+form the statistics of the chief institutions which employ and insure
+property.
+
+On the 24th of September, 1864, sixty-three banks made a quarterly
+statement of their condition, under the general banking law of the
+State. These banks are at present the only ones in New York whose
+condition can be definitely ascertained, and their reported capital
+amounts to $69,219,763. The national banks will go far toward increasing
+the total metropolitan banking capital to one hundred millions. The
+largest of the State banks doing business in the city is the Bank of
+Commerce, (about being reorganized on the national plan,) with a capital
+of ten millions; and the smallest possess capital to the amount of two
+hundred thousand dollars.
+
+Mr. Camp, now at the head of the New York Clearing-House, has been kind
+enough to furnish the following interesting statistics in regard to the
+total amount of business transactions managed by the New York banks in
+connection with the Clearing-House during the two years ending on the
+30th of last September. Figures can scarcely be made more eloquent by
+illustration than they are of themselves, I therefore leave them without
+other comment than the remark that the weekly exchanges at the
+Clearing-House during the past year have repeatedly amounted to more
+than the entire expenses of the United States Government for the same
+period.
+
+_Clearing-House Transactions._
+
++-----------------------------------------------------++
+|  1862.   |      EXCHANGES.      |     BALANCES.     ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|October   |  $ 1,081,243,214.07  |  $ 54,632,410.57  ||
+|November  |      874,966,873.15  |    47,047,576.93  ||
+|December  |      908,135,090.29  |    44,630,405.43  ||
+|          |                      |                   ||
+|  1863.   |                      |                   ||
+|January   |    1,251,408,362.76  |    58,792,544.70  ||
+|February  |    1,199,249,050.07  |    51,583,913.88  ||
+|March     |    1,313,908,804.14  |    60,456,505.45  ||
+|April     |    1,138,218,267.90  |    53,539,812.46  ||
+|May       |    1,535,484,281.78  |    70,328,306.25  ||
+|June      |    1,252,116,400.20  |    59,803,975.44  ||
+|July      |    1,261,668,342.87  |    62,387,857.44  ||
+|August    |    1,466,803,012.90  |    53,120,821.99  ||
+|September |    1,584,396,148.47  |    61,302,352.35  ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|          |  $14,867,597,848.60  |  $677,626,482.61  ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|                                                     ||
+|  306 Business days.                                 ||
+|                                                     ||
+|    _Average for day_, 1862-3.                       ||
+|                                                     ||
+|  Exchanges               $48,586,921.07             ||
+|  Balances                  2,214,415.63             ||
++-----------------------------------------------------++
+
++-----------------------------------------------------++
+|  1863.   |      EXCHANGES.      |     BALANCES.     ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|October   |  $ 1,900,210,522.77  |  $ 74,088,419.08  ||
+|November  |    1,778,800,987.95  |    66,895,452.49  ||
+|December  |    1,745,436,325.73  |    60,577,884.19  ||
+|          |                      |                   ||
+|  1864.   |                      |                   ||
+|January   |    1,770,312,694.43  |    63,689,950.88  ||
+|February  |    2,088,170,989.48  |    65,744,935.13  ||
+|March     |    2,753,323,948.53  |    84,938,940.37  ||
+|April     |    2,644,732,826.34  |    93,363,526.16  ||
+|May       |    1,877,653,131.37  |    76,328,462.88  ||
+|June      |    1,902,029,181.42  |    88,187,658.93  ||
+|July      |    1,777,753,537.53  |    73,343,903.49  ||
+|August    |    1,776,018,141.53  |    69,071,237.16  ||
+|September |    2,082,754,368.84  |    69,288,834.17  ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|          |  $24,097,196,655.92  |  $885,719,204.93  ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|                                                     ||
+|  306 Business days.                                 ||
+|                                                     ||
+|    _Average for day_, 1863-4.                       ||
+|                                                     ||
+|  Exchanges               $77,984,455.20             ||
+|  Balances                  2,866,405.19             ||
++-----------------------------------------------------++
+
++------------------------------------------------------------+
+|                                                            |
+|Aggregate Exchanges for Eleven Years     $95,540,602,384.53 |
+|    "     Balances   "    "      "         4,678,311,016.79 |
+|                                        ------------------- |
+|    Total Transactions                  $101,218,913,401.32 |
+|                                                            |
++------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+On the 31st day of December, 1863, there were 101 joint-stock companies
+for the underwriting of fire-risks, with an aggregate capital of
+$23,632,860; net assets to the amount of $29,269,423; net cash receipts
+from premiums amounting to $10,181,031; and an average percentage of
+assets to risks in force equalling 2.995. Besides these 101 joint-stock
+concerns, there existed at the same date twenty-one mutual
+fire-insurance companies, with an aggregate balance in their favor of
+$674,042. The rapidity with which mutual companies have yielded to the
+compacter and more efficient form of the joint-stock concern will be
+comprehended when it is known that just twice the number now in being
+have gone out of existence during the last decade. There are twelve
+marine insurance companies in the metropolis, with assets amounting to
+$24,947,559. The life-insurance companies number thirteen, with an
+aggregate capital of $1,885,000. We may safely set down the property
+invested in New York insurance companies of all sorts at $51,139,461.
+Add this sum to the aggregate banking capital above stated, and we have
+a total of $120,359,224. This vast sum merely represents New York's
+interest in the management of other people's money. The bank is employed
+as an engine for operating debt and credit. Its capital is the necessary
+fuel for running the machine; and that fuel ought certainly not to cost
+more than a fair interest on the products of the engine. The insurance
+companies guard the business-man's fortune from surprise, as the banks
+relieve him from drudgery; they put property and livelihood beyond the
+reach of accident: in other words, they manage the estates of the
+community so as to secure them from deterioration, and charge a
+commission for their stewardship.
+
+It is a legitimate assumption in this part of the country that the money
+employed in managing property bears to the property itself an average
+proportion of about seven per cent. Hence it follows that the
+above-stated aggregate banking and insurance capital of $120,359,224
+must represent and be backed by values to more than fourteen times that
+amount. In other words, and in round numbers, we may assert that the
+bank and insurance interests of New York are in relations of commerce
+and control with at least $1,685,029,136. This measure of metropolitan
+influence, it must be remembered, is based on the statistics attainable
+mainly outside of cash sales, and through only two of the metropolitan
+agencies of commerce.
+
+I do not know how much I may assist any reader's further comprehension
+of the energies of the metropolis by stating that it issues fifteen
+daily newspapers, one hundred and thirty-three weekly or semi-weekly
+journals, and seventy-four monthly, semi-monthly, or weekly
+magazines,--that it has ten good and three admirable public
+libraries,--a dozen large hospitals, exclusive of the military,--thirty
+benevolent societies, (and we are in that respect far behind London,
+where every man below an attorney belongs to some "union" or other, that
+he may have his neighbors' guaranty against the ever-impending British
+poor-house,)--twenty-one savings-banks,--one theatre where French is
+spoken, a German theatre, an Italian opera-house, and eleven theatres
+where they speak English. In a general magazine-article, it is
+impossible to review the hundreds of studios where our own Art is
+painting itself into the century with a vigor which has no rival abroad.
+We can treat neither the æsthetic nor the social life of New York with as
+delicate a pencil as we would. Our paper has had to deal with broad
+facts; and upon these we are willing to rest the cause of New York in
+any contest for metropolitan honors. We believe that New York is
+destined to be the permanent emporium not only of this country, but of
+the entire world,--and likewise the political capital of the nation. Had
+the White House (or, pray Heaven! some comelier structure) stood on
+Washington Heights, and the Capitol been erected at Fanwood, there would
+never have been a Proslavery Rebellion. This is a subject which
+business-men are coming to ponder pretty seriously.
+
+After all, New York's essential charm to a New-Yorker cannot express
+itself in figures, nor, indeed, in any adequate manner. It is the city
+of his soul. He loves it with a passionate dignity which will not let
+him swagger like the Cockney or twitter like the Parisian. His love for
+New York goes frequently unacknowledged even to himself, until a
+necessary absence of unusual length teaches him how hard it would be to
+lose the city of his affections forever.
+
+It is a bath of other souls. It will not let a man harden in his own
+epidermis. He must affect and be affected by multitudinous varieties of
+temperament, race, character. He avoids grooves, because New York will
+not tolerate grooviness. He knows that he must be able, on demand, to
+bowl anywhere over the field of human tastes and sympathies.
+Professionally he may be a specialist, but in New York his specialty
+must be only the axis around which are grouped encyclopædic learning,
+faultless skill, and catholic intuitions. Nobody will waste a Saturday
+afternoon riding on his hobby-horse. He must be a broad-natured person,
+or he will be a mere imperceptible line on the general background of
+obscure citizens. He feels that he is surrounded by people who will help
+him do his best, yes, who will make him do it, or drive him out to
+install such as will. If he think of a good thing to do, he knows that
+the market for all good things is close around him. Whatever surplus of
+himself he has for communication, that he knows to be absolutely sure of
+a recipient before the day is done. New York, like Goethe's Olympus,
+says to every man with capacity and self-faith,--
+
+    "Here is all fulness, ye brave, to reward you:
+        Work, and despair not!"
+
+Moreover, the moral air of New York City is in certain respects the
+purest air a man can breathe. This may seem a paradox. New York City is
+not often quoted as an example of purity. To the philosopher her
+atmosphere is cleaner than that of a country village. As the air of a
+contracted space may grow poisonous by respiration, while pure air rests
+over the entire surface of the earth in virtue of being the final
+solvent to all terrestrial decompositions, so it is possible that a few
+good, but narrow people may get alone together in the country, and hatch
+a social organism far more morbid than the metropolitan. In the latter
+instance, aberrations counterbalance each other, and the body politic,
+cursed though it be with bad officials, has more vitality in it than
+could be excited by any conclave of excellent men with one idea,
+meeting, however, solemnly, to feed it with legislative pap.
+
+While no man can ride into metropolitan success on a hobby-horse,
+popular dissent will still take no stronger form than a quiet withdrawal
+and the permission to rock by himself. No amount of eccentricity
+surprises a New-Yorker, or makes him uncourteous. It is difficult to
+attract even a crowd of boys on Broadway by an odd figure, face, manner,
+or costume. This has the result of making New York an asylum for all who
+love their neighbor as themselves, but would a little rather not have
+him looking through the key-hole. In New York I share no dreadful
+secrets with the man next door. I am not in his power any more than if I
+lived in Philadelphia,--nor so much, for he might get somebody to spy me
+there. There is no other place but New York where my next-door neighbor
+never feels the slightest hesitation about cutting me dead, because he
+knows that on such conditions rests that broad individual liberty which
+is the glory of the citizen.
+
+In fine, if we seek the capital of well-paid labor,--the capital of
+broad congenialities and infinite resources,--the capital of most widely
+diffused comfort, luxury, and taste,--the capital which to the eye of
+the plain businessman deserves to be the nation's senate-seat,--the
+capital which, as the man of forecast sees, must eventually be the
+world's Bourse and market-place,--in any case we turn and find our quest
+in the city of New York.
+
+To-day, she might claim Jersey City, Hoboken, Brooklyn, and all the
+settled districts facing the island shore, with as good a grace as
+London includes her multitudinous districts on both sides of the Thames.
+Were all the population who live by her, and legitimately belong to her,
+now united with her, as some day they must be by absorption, New York
+would now contain more than 1,300,000 people. For this union New York
+need make no effort. The higher organization always controls and
+incorporates the lower.
+
+The release of New York commerce from the last shackles of the Southern
+"long-paper" system, combined with the progressive restoration of its
+moral freedom from the dungeon of Southern political despotism, has
+left, for the first time since she was born, our metropolitan giantess
+unhampered. Let us throw away the poor results of our last decade! New
+York thought she was growing then; but the future has a stature for her
+which shall lift her up where she can see and summon all the nations.[E]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[E] In addition to the obligations elsewhere recognised, an
+acknowledgment is due to the well-known archæologist and statistician of
+New York,--Mr. Valentine,--who furnished for the purpose of this article
+the latest edition of his Manual, in advance of its general publication,
+and to the great convenience of the writer.
+
+
+
+
+NEEDLE AND GARDEN.
+
+THE STORY OF A SEAMSTRESS WHO LAID DOWN HER NEEDLE AND BECAME A
+STRAWBERRY-GIRL.
+
+WRITTEN BY HERSELF.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+I am very sure that nothing was ever farther from my thoughts than the
+writing of a book. The pages which follow were never intended for
+publication, but were written as an amusement, sometimes in long winter
+evenings, when it was pleasanter to be indoors, and sometimes in summer
+days, when most of the circumstances mentioned in them occurred. I was a
+long time in writing them, as they were done little by little. There was
+a point in them at which I stopped entirely. Then I lent the manuscript
+to several of my acquaintances to read. Some of these kept it only a few
+days, and I feel quite sure soon tired of it, as it afterwards appeared
+that they had read very little of it: they must have thought it
+extremely dull. But these probably borrowed it only out of compliment,
+and so I was neither surprised nor mortified. The only surprise was,
+that now and then there was one who did have patience to go over it all,
+as it was written in a common copy-book, not in a very nice hand, and
+with a great many erasures and alterations. But when one has a favorite,
+it is grateful to find even a single admirer for it. So it was with me.
+I wrote from love of the subject; and when any one was kind enough to
+give his approval, I felt exceedingly pleased, not because I had a high
+opinion of the matter myself, but only because I had written it. Then it
+must be acknowledged that my small circle of acquaintances comprised
+more workers than readers. Those who had a taste for reading found their
+time so occupied by the labor necessary to their support that but little
+was left to them for indulging in books; and the few who had leisure
+were probably such indifferent readers as to make the task of going over
+a blotted manuscript too great for their patience, unless it were more
+interesting than mine.
+
+At last, after a very long time, and a great many strange experiences,
+the manuscript fell into the hands of one who was an entire stranger to
+me, but who has since proved himself the dearest friend I ever had. He
+read it, and said it must be published. But the thought of publication
+so frightened me that it almost deprived me of sleep. Still, after very
+long persuasion, I consented, and the whole was written over again, with
+a great many things added. When it was all ready, he told me I must
+write a preface. So I was persuaded even to this, though that was a new
+alarm, and I had scarcely recovered from the first. I have always been
+retiring,--indeed, quite out of sight; and nothing has reconciled me to
+this publicity but the knowledge that no one will be able to discover
+me, unless it be the very few who had patience to read my manuscript.
+Even they will find it so altered and enlarged as scarcely to remember
+it.
+
+Yet there is another consideration which ought to reconcile me to coming
+forward in a way so contrary to what I had ever contemplated. I think
+the story of my quiet life may lead others to reflect more seriously on
+the griefs, the trials, and the hardships to which so many of my sex are
+constantly subjected. It may lead some of the other sex either to think
+more of these trials, or to view them in a new and different light from
+any in which they have heretofore regarded them. They may even think
+that I have suggested a new remedy for an old evil. I know that many
+such have labored to remove the wrongs of which poor and friendless
+women are the victims. But while they have already done much toward that
+humane end, as much remains to do. I make no studied effort to influence
+or direct them. The contrast between my first and last experience was so
+great, that, in rewriting, I added some facts from the experience of
+others to give force to the recital of my own. My hope is, that humane
+minds may be gratified by a narrative so uneventful, and that they,
+fortified by position and means, will be led to do for others, in a new
+direction, as much as I, comparatively unaided, have been able to do for
+myself.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Having always had a great fondness for reading, I have gone through
+every book to which my very limited circle of acquaintance gave me
+access. Even this small literary experience was sufficient to impress
+upon my mind the superior value of personal memoirs. Of all my reading,
+they most interested me; and I have learned from others that such books
+have most interested them. Indeed, biography, and personal narrative of
+all kinds, seem to command a general popularity. Moreover, we like to
+know from the person himself what he does, how he thinks and feels, what
+fortunes or vicissitudes he encounters, how he begins his career, and
+how it ends. All biography gives us most of these particulars, but they
+are never so vividly recited as by the subject of the narrative himself.
+Accordingly what was once a kind of diary of the most unimportant events
+I have transformed into a personal history. I know the transformation
+will not give them any importance they did not originally possess, but
+it gives me at least one chance of making my recital interesting.
+
+All who have any knowledge of the city of Philadelphia will remember
+that on its southern boundary there is a large district known as the
+township of Moyamensing. Much of it is now incorporated with the
+recently enlarged city, but the old name still clings to it. There are
+many thousand acres in this district, which stretches from the Delaware
+to the Schuylkill. The junction of the two rivers at its lower end makes
+it a peninsula, which has long been known as "The Neck." When the city
+was founded by William Penn, much of this and the adjoining land was in
+possession of the Swedes, who came first to Pennsylvania. They had
+settled on tracts of different sizes, some very large, and some very
+small, according to their ability to purchase. It was then covered by a
+dense forest, which required great labor to clear it.
+
+My ancestors were among these early Swedes. They were so poor in this
+world's goods as to be able to purchase only forty acres of this
+extremely cheap land. Even that was not paid for in money, but in labor.
+In time they cleared it up, built a small brick house after the quaint
+fashion of those early days, the material for which was furnished from a
+superior kind of clay underlying the land all around them, and
+thenceforward maintained themselves from the products of the soil, then,
+as now, proverbial for its fruitfulness. It descended to their children,
+most of whom were equally plodding and unambitious with themselves. All
+continued the old occupation of looking to the soil for subsistence; and
+so long as the forty acres were kept together, they lived well. But as
+descendants multiplied, and one generation succeeded to another, so the
+little farm became subdivided among numerous heirs, all of whom sold to
+strangers, except my father, who considered himself happy in being able
+to secure, as his portion, the quaint old homestead, with its then
+well-stocked garden, and a lot large enough to make his whole domain an
+acre and a half.
+
+I have many times heard him relate the particulars of this acquisition,
+and say how lucky it was for all of us that he secured it. The other
+heirs, who had turned their acres into money, went into trade or
+speculation and came out poor. With the homestead of the first settler
+my father seemed to have inherited all his unambitious and plodding
+character. His whole habit was quiet, domestic, and home-loving. He was
+content to cultivate his land with the spade, raising many kinds of
+fruits and vegetables for the family and for market, and working
+likewise in the fields and gardens of his neighbors; while in winter he
+employed himself in making nets for the fishermen.
+
+But much of this work for others was done for gentlemen who had fine old
+houses, built at least a hundred years ago. The land in Moyamensing is
+so beautifully level, and is so very rich by nature, that at an early
+day in the settlement of the country a great many remarkably fine
+dwellings were built upon it, to which extensive gardens were attached.
+Father had been in and all over many of these mansions, and was fond of
+describing their wonders to us. They were finished inside with great
+expense. Some had curiously carved door-frames and mantels, with parlors
+wainscoted clear up to the ceiling, and heavy mouldings wherever they
+could be put in. These old-time mansions were scattered thickly over
+this beautiful piece of land. Such of them as were built nearest the
+city have long since been swept away by the extension of streets and
+long rows of new houses; but all through the remoter portion of the
+district there are many still left, with their fine gardens filled with
+the best fruits that modern horticulture has enabled the wealthy to
+gather around them.
+
+I remember many of those that have been torn down. One or two of them
+were famous in Revolutionary history. The owners of such as remained in
+my father's time were glad to have him take charge of their gardens. He
+knew how to bud or graft a tree, to trim grapevines, and to raise the
+best and earliest vegetables. In all that was to be done in a
+gentleman's garden he was so neat, so successful, so quiet and
+industrious, that whatever time he had to spare from his own was always
+in demand, and at the highest wages.
+
+When not otherwise occupied, my mother also worked at the art of
+net-making. At times she was employed in making up clothing for what
+some years ago were popularly called the slop-shops, mostly situated in
+the lower section of the city. These were shops which kept supplies of
+ready-made clothing for sailors and other transient people who harbored
+along the wharves. It was coarse work, and was made up as cheaply as
+possible. At that time the shipping of the port was much of it
+congregated in the lower part of the city, not far from our house.
+
+When a little girl, I have often gone with my mother when she went on
+her errands to these shops, doing what I could to help her in carrying
+her heavy bundles to and fro; and more than once I heard her rudely
+spoken to by the pert young tailor who received her work, and who
+examined it as carefully as if the material had been silk or cambric,
+instead of the coarse fabric which constitutes the staple of such
+establishments. I thus learned, at a very early age, to know something
+of the duties of needle-women, as well as of the mortifications and
+impositions to which their vocation frequently subjects them.
+
+My mother was a beautiful sewer, and I am sure she never turned in a
+garment that had in any way been slighted. She knew how rude and
+exacting this class of employers were, and was nice and careful in
+consequence, so as to be sure of giving satisfaction. But all this care
+availed nothing, in many cases, to prevent rudeness, and sometimes a
+refusal to pay the pitiful price she had been promised. Her disposition
+was too gentle and yielding for her to resent these impositions; she was
+unable to contend and argue with the rough creatures behind the counter;
+she therefore submitted in silence, sometimes even in tears. Twice, I
+can distinctly remember, when these heartless men compelled her to leave
+her work at less than the low price stipulated, I have seen her tears
+fall in big drops as she took up the mite thus grudgingly thrown down to
+her, and leave the shop, leading me by the hand. I could feel, young as
+I was, the hard nature of this treatment. I heard the rough language,
+though unable to know how harshly it must have grated on the soft
+feelings of the best mother that child was ever blessed with.
+
+But I comprehended nothing beyond what I saw and heard,--nothing of the
+merits of the case,--nothing of the nature and bearings of the
+business,--nothing of the severe laws of trade which govern the conduct
+of buyer and seller. I did not know that in a large city there are
+always hundreds of sewing-women begging from these hard employers the
+privilege of toiling all day, and half-way into the night, in an
+occupation which never brings even a reasonable compensation, while many
+times the severity of their labors, the confinement and privation, break
+down the most robust constitutions, and hurry the weaker into a
+premature grave.
+
+I was too young to reason on these subjects, though quick enough to feel
+for my dear mother. When I saw her full heart overflow in tears, I cried
+from sympathy. When we got into the street, and her tears dried up, and
+her habitual cheerfulness returned, I also ceased weeping, and soon
+forgot the cause. The memory of a child is blissfully fugitive. Indeed,
+among the blessings that lie everywhere scattered along our pathway, is
+the readiness with which we all forget sorrows that nearly broke down
+the spirit when first they fell upon us. For if the griefs of an entire
+life were to be remembered, all that we suffer from childhood to mature
+age, the accumulation would be greater than we could bear.
+
+On one occasion, when with my mother at the slop-shop, we found a
+sewing-woman standing at the counter, awaiting payment for the making of
+a dozen summer vests. We came up to the counter and stood beside
+her,--for there were no chairs on which a sewing-woman might rest
+herself, however fatigued from carrying a heavy bundle for a mile or two
+in a hot day. And even had there been such grateful conveniences, we
+should not have been invited to sit down; and unless invited, no
+sewing-woman would risk a provocation of the wrath of an ill-mannered
+shopman by presuming to occupy one. Few employers bestow even a thought
+upon the comfort of their sewing-women. They seldom think how tired they
+become with overwork at home, before leaving it with a heavy load for
+the shop, nor that the bundle grows heavier and heavier with every step
+that it is carried, or that the weak and over-strained body of the
+exhausted woman needs rest the moment she sets foot within the door.
+
+The woman whom we found at the counter was in the prime of life,
+plainly, but neatly dressed,--no doubt in her best attire, as she was to
+be seen in public, and she knew that her whole capital lay in her
+appearance. I judged her to be an educated lady. Though a stranger to my
+mother, yet she accosted her so politely, and in a voice so musical,
+that the gracefulness of her manner and the softness of her tones still
+linger in my memory. Looking down to me, then less than ten years old,
+and addressing my mother, she asked,--
+
+"How many of them have you?"
+
+"Only three, Ma'am," was the reply.
+
+"I have six of them to struggle for," she said,--adding, after a
+moment's pause, "and it is hard to be obliged to do it all."
+
+I saw that she was dressed in newly made mourning. I knew what mourning
+was,--but not then what it was to be a widow. My mother afterwards told
+me she was such, and was therefore in black. Other conversation passed
+between the two, during which I looked up into the widow's face with the
+unreflecting intensity of childish interest. Her voice was so
+remarkable, so kind, so gentle, so full of conciliation, that it won my
+heart. There was a sadness in her face which struck me most forcibly and
+painfully. There was an expression of care, of overwork, and great
+privation. Yet, for all this, the lines of her countenance were
+beautiful even in their painfulness.
+
+While I thus stood gazing up into the widow's face, the shopkeeper came
+forward from a distant window, by whose light he had been examining the
+vests, threw them roughly down upon the counter in front of her, and
+exclaimed in a sharp voice,--
+
+"Can't pay for such work as this,--don't want it in the shop,--never had
+the like of it,--look at that!"
+
+He tossed a vest toward my mother, who took it up, and examined it. One
+end of it hung down low enough for me to catch, and I also undertook the
+business of inspection. I scanned it closely, and was a sufficient judge
+of sewing to see that it was made up with a stitch as neat and regular
+as that of my mother. She must have thought so, too; for, on returning
+it to the man, she said to him,--
+
+"The work is equal to anything of _mine_."
+
+Hearing a new voice, he then discovered, that, instead of tossing the
+vest to the poor widow, he had inadvertently thrown it to my mother.
+Then, addressing the former, he said, in the same sharp tone,--
+
+"Can't pay but half price for this kind of work; don't want any more
+like it. There's your money; do you want more work?"
+
+He threw down the silver on the counter. The whole price, or even
+double, would have been a mere pittance, the widow's mite indeed; but
+here was robbery of even that. What, in such a case, was this poor
+creature to do? She had six young and helpless children at home,--no
+husband to defend her,--no friend to stand between her and the man who
+thus robbed her. A resort to law were futile. What had she wherewith to
+pay either lawyer or magistrate? and was not continued employment a
+necessity? All these thoughts must have flashed across her mind. But in
+the terrible silence which she kept for some minutes, still standing at
+the counter, how many others must have succeeded them! What happy images
+of former comfort came knocking at her heart! what an agonizing sense of
+present destitution! what a contrast between the brightness of the one
+and the gloom of the other! and then the cries of hungry children
+ringing importunately in her ears! I noticed her all the time, and,
+child that I was, did so merely because she stood still and made no
+reply,--utterly unconscious that emotions of any kind were racking her
+grief-smitten heart. I felt no such emotions myself,--how should I
+suppose that they had even an existence?
+
+She made no answer to the man who had thus wantonly outraged her, but,
+turning to my mother, looked up into her face as if for pity and advice.
+Were they not equally helpless victims on the altar of a like domestic
+necessity, and should not common trials knit them together in the bonds
+of a common sympathy? A new sadness came over her yet beautiful
+countenance; but no tear gushed gratefully to relieve her
+swelling heart. She took up the money,--I saw that her hand was
+trembling,--placed it in her purse, lifted from the counter a bundle
+containing a second dozen of vests, and, bidding my mother a graceful
+farewell, left the scene of this cruel imposition on one utterly
+powerless either to prevent it or to obtain redress. I have never
+forgotten the incident.
+
+These labors of my mother were at no time necessary to the support of
+the family; but, though quiet and retiring in her habits, she had
+ambitious aspirations for supplying herself with pocket-money by the
+work of her own hands. As I said before, she was a beautiful sewer on
+the finest kinds of work, such as, if obtained from the families in
+which it is worn, would have yielded her remunerative wages. But we
+lived away beyond the thickly settled portion of the city, had no
+influential acquaintances from whom it could be procured, and hence my
+mother, with thousands who were really necessitous, resorted to the
+tailors, to the meanest as well as to the honorable. When my father
+heard of the indignities they practised on us, and of the shamefully low
+prices they paid us, he forbade my mother ever going to them again. He
+said their whole business was to grow rich by defrauding of their just
+dues the poor women who were thus competing with each other for work,
+and that we should do no more for any of them, until we could find an
+honest man and a gentleman to deal with.
+
+But my father, always busy in his garden or in that of some wealthy
+neighbor, knew nothing even of the little outside world into which we
+had penetrated. His generous, unsuspecting nature thus led him to feel
+sure that the honest and the gentlemanly were to be found in abundance;
+but he overlooked the fact that it was only his quiet wife upon whom was
+devolved the task of discovering them, as well as that her explorations
+had never yet been rewarded with success.
+
+Notwithstanding these discouragements, my mother was firmly of opinion
+that the needle was a woman's only sure dependence against all the
+vicissitudes of life. She believed, in a general way, that a good
+needlewoman would never come to want. The idea of diversifying
+employment for the sex had never crossed her mind; the vocation of woman
+was to sew. All must not only do it, but they must depend on it. She
+considered it of little use to think of anything beyond the needle. She
+could not see, that, if all the women of the country did the same thing,
+there must inevitably be more laborers than could find employment,--that
+the competition would be so great among them as to depress prices to a
+point so low that many women could not live on them,--and that those who
+did would drag out only a miserable existence.
+
+Though a woman of excellent sense, with a tolerable education, and fond
+of all the reading she could find time to do, still she continued to
+plead for this supremacy of the needle, even after her humiliating
+experience at the slop-shops. She was the most industrious sewer I have
+ever known,--and not only industrious, but neat, conscientious, and
+rapid. Machines, with iron frames and wheels, had not then been
+invented; but since they have, I have never seen a better one than my
+mother. Her frame, if not of iron, seemed quite as indestructible, even
+if it did turn out fewer stitches. Times without number has she sat up
+till midnight, plying her needle by the dull light of a common candle:
+for there was no gas in our suburban district. While we children were
+sound asleep, there she sat, not from necessity, but from pure love of
+work. Yet she was up early, long before any of the dull sleepers of the
+household had stirred, and had more trouble to get us down to breakfast
+than to get up the meal itself. I scarcely thought of these things
+during the young years of my life, when they were occurring; but as I am
+writing this, they all come thronging before my memory with the
+freshness of yesterday. They will no doubt seem dull to others; but the
+recollection is very precious to me.
+
+With this conviction of its being almost the sole mission of a woman to
+sew, she made the needle a vital point in my education, as well as in
+that of my sister. There were two girls of us, and a brother. I was the
+eldest, and my sister the youngest of the three. Thus, when I was quite
+a child, I learned to use the needle; and as I grew older, the utmost
+pains were taken to teach me every branch of sewing, from the commonest
+to the most difficult. My sister went through the same course of
+instruction.
+
+At a very early age we were able to make and dress our own dolls, hem
+our handkerchiefs and aprons, and in due time were promoted to the
+darning of father's stockings and the patching of his working-clothes.
+We thought the being able to do these things for him a very great
+affair, and mother praised us for our work. But when sister Jane once
+put a patch over a hole in the knee of father's pantaloons, without
+covering all the rent,--she had let the patch slip down a
+little,--mother required her to rip it off and put it in the right
+place: but there was not a word of scolding for Jane; it was all
+softness, all kindness; she knew that Jane was a child. I think father,
+however, would never have noticed that the patch was a little out of
+place; and, indeed, I think it very likely he didn't care about having a
+patch of any kind put on, for his mind was on work, and not on
+appearances. But then it was my dear mother's way. We were taught that
+the needle was to be the staff of our future lives. Whatever we
+undertook must be done right; and then she had a just pride in making
+father always look respectable.
+
+Thus in time we came to feel as much pride in being good seamstresses as
+did our mother. It was natural we should, for we believed all she taught
+us, and there was no one to controvert her positions,--except sometimes,
+when father heard her impressing her favorite dogma on our minds, he put
+in a word of doubt, saying, that, before the needle could be made so
+sure a dependence for poor women, there must be found a better market
+for female labor than the slop-shops, and a more honorable race of
+employers. To this questioning of her doctrine she made no reply,
+knowing that she had us all to herself, and that a doubt from father,
+only now and then uttered, would make no impression. But I remember it
+all now.
+
+I can remember, too, how proud I felt when mother called me to her, one
+day, and gave me a piece of cotton cloth, of which she said I was to
+make father a shirt. It was of unbleached stuff, heavy and strong, but
+still nice and smooth. Father wore only one kind; and as it was to serve
+for best as well as for common wear, I was to make it as nicely as I
+could.
+
+That afternoon all of us children were to go on a little
+fishing-excursion to the meadows on the Delaware, among the ditches
+which run all round the inside of the great embankment that has been
+thrown up to keep out the river. There was a vast expanse of beautiful
+green meadow inclosed by this embankment, on which great numbers of
+cattle were annually fatted. As viewed from the bank, it was luxuriant
+in the extreme; in fact, it was a prairie containing hundreds of acres,
+trimmed up and cared for with the utmost skill and watchfulness, and
+intersected with clean, open ditches, to secure drainage. Into these
+ditches the tide flowed through sluices in the bank, and thus they were
+always full of fish.
+
+These beautiful meadows were the resort of thousands who resided in the
+lower section of the city, for picnics and excursions. The roads through
+them were as level as could possibly be, and upon them were continual
+trotting-matches. In summer, the wide flats outside the embankment were
+over-grown with reeds, among which gunners congregated in numbers
+dangerous to themselves, shooting rail and reed-birds. On Sundays and
+other holidays, the wide footpath on the high embankment was a moving
+procession of people, who came out of the city to enjoy the fresh breeze
+from the river. All who lived near resorted to these favorite grounds.
+
+Several other little boys and girls were to come to our house and go
+with us. We had long been in the habit of going to the meadows to fish
+and play, where we had the merriest and happiest of times. Sometimes,
+though the meadows were only half a mile from us, we took a slice or two
+of bread-and-butter in a little basket, to serve for dinner, so that we
+could stay all day; for the meadows and ditches extended several miles
+below the city, and we wandered and played all the way down to the Point
+House. On these trips we caught sun-fish, roach, cat-fish, and sometimes
+perch, and always brought them home. We generally got prodigiously
+hungry from the exercise we took, and sat down on the thick grass under
+a tree to eat our scanty dinners. These dinner-times came very early in
+the day; and long before it was time to go home in the afternoon, we
+became even more hungry than we had been in the morning,--but our
+baskets had been emptied.
+
+I think these young days, with these innocent sports and recreations,
+were among the happiest of my life. I do not think the fish we caught
+were of much account, though father was always glad to see them; and I
+remember how he took each one of our baskets, as we came into the
+kitchen, looked into it, and turned over and counted the fishes it
+contained. My brother Fred generally had the most, and I had the fewest:
+but it seems that even for other things than fishes I never had a taking
+way about me. Father was very fond of them, for mother had a way of
+frying their little thin bodies into a nice brown crisp, which made us
+all a good breakfast. So father had made us lines, with corks and hooks,
+tied them to nice little poles, and showed us how to use them and keep
+them in order, and had a corner in the shed in which he taught us to set
+them up out of harm's way. Occasionally he even went with us to the
+meadows himself.
+
+But while I am speaking of these dear times, I must say that we always
+came home happy, though tired and dirty. Sometimes we got into great
+mud-holes along the ditch-bank, so deep as to leave a shoe sticking
+fast, compelling us to trudge home with only one. Then, when we found a
+place where the fish bit sharply, all of us rushed to the spot, and
+pushed into the wild rose-bushes that grew in clumps upon the bank: for
+I generally noticed, that, where the bushes overhung the water and made
+a little shade, the fish were most abundant. In the scramble to secure a
+good foothold, the briers tore our clothes and bonnets, sometimes so as
+to make us fairly ragged, besides scratching our hands and faces
+terribly. Occasionally one of us slipped into the ditch, and was helped
+out dripping wet; but we never mentioned such an incident at home. Then
+more than once we were caught in a heavy shower, with nothing but a
+rose-bush or a willow-tree for shelter; and there were often so many of
+us that it was like a hen with an unreasonably large brood of
+chickens,--some must stay out in the wet, and all such surplusage got
+soaked to the skin.
+
+But we cared nothing for any of these things. Indeed, I am inclined to
+think that we were happy in proportion as we got tired, hungry, wet, and
+dirty. Mother never scolded us when we came home in this condition.
+Though we smelt terribly of mud and fish, and were often smeared over
+with the dried slime of a great slippery eel which had swallowed the
+hook, and coiled himself in knots all over our lines, and required three
+or four of the boys to cut off his head and get the hook out, yet all
+she did was to make us wash ourselves clean, after which she gave us a
+supper that tasted better than all the suppers we get now, and then put
+us to bed. We were tired enough to go right to sleep; but it was the
+fatigue of absolute happiness,--light hearts, light consciences, no
+care, nothing but the perfect enjoyment of childhood, such as never
+comes to us but once.
+
+This is a long digression, but it could not be avoided. I said, that,
+when mother told me I was to make a shirt for father, we were that very
+afternoon to go down among these dear old meadows and dirty ditches to
+fish and play. Our lines were all in order, and a new hook had been put
+on mine, as on the last excursion the old one had caught in what the
+boys call a "blind eel," that is, a sunken log,--and there it probably
+remains to this day. Fred had dug worms for us, and they had coiled
+themselves up into a huge ball in the shell of an old cocoa-nut, ready
+to be impaled on our hooks. Everything was prepared for a start, and we
+were only waiting for dinner to be over: though I can remember, that,
+whenever we had such an afternoon before us, we had very little appetite
+to satisfy. The anticipation and glee were such that the pervading
+desire was not to eat, but to be off.
+
+But when mother gave me the shirt to make, I felt so proud of the trust,
+that all desire to go to the meadows left me. I felt a new sensation, a
+new ambition, a new pride. It was very strange that I should thus
+suddenly give up the ditches, the fishing, the scratching, and the dirt;
+for none of us loved them more dearly than myself. But they were old and
+familiar, and father's shirt was a novelty; and novelty is one of the
+great attractions for the young. So they went without me, and after
+dinner I sat down to make my first shirt.
+
+It was to be made in the plainest way; for father had no pride about his
+dress. I cut it out myself, basted it together, then sewed it with my
+utmost care. There was to be no nice work about collar or wristband,--no
+troublesome plaits or gussets,--no machine-made bosom to set in,--only a
+few gathers,--and all plain work throughout. My mother looked at me
+occasionally as the shirt progressed, but found no fault. She did not
+once stop me to examine it; but I feel sure she must have scrutinized it
+carefully after I had gone to bed. I was so particular in this, my first
+grand effort to secure the honors of a needlewoman, that quite two days
+were occupied in doing it.
+
+When all done, I took it to mother, proud of my achievement, telling
+her, that, if she had more cotton, I was ready to begin another. She
+looked over it with a slowness that I am sure was intentional, and not
+at all necessary. The wristbands were all right, the buttons in the
+proper places, the hemming she said was done well. Then, taking it up by
+the collar, and holding the garment at full length before her, so that I
+could see it all, she asked me if I saw anything wrong. I looked
+closely, but could see no mistake. At last she exclaimed,--
+
+"Why, my dear Lizzie, this is only a bag with arms to it! How is your
+father to get into it?"
+
+She turned it all round before me, and showed me that I had left no
+opening at the bosom and neck,--father could never get it over his head!
+I cannot tell how astonished and mortified I felt. I cried as only such
+a child could cry. I sobbed and begged her not to show it to father, and
+promised to alter it immediately, if she would only tell me how. But,
+oh, how kind my dear mother was in soothing my excited feelings! There
+was not a word of blame. She made me comparatively calm by immediately
+opening the bosom as it should have been done, and showing me how to
+finish it. I hurried up to my chamber to be alone and out of sight. They
+called me to dinner, but my appetite had gone. Though my little heart
+was full, and my hand trembled, yet long before night the work was done.
+
+Oh, how the burden rose from my spirits when my dear mother took me in
+her arms, kissed me tenderly, and said that my mistake was nothing but a
+trifle that I would be sure to remember, and that the shirt was far
+better made than she had expected! When father came in to supper, I took
+it to him and told him that _I_ had made it. He looked both surprised
+and pleased, kissed me with even more than his usual kindness,--I think
+mother must have privately told him of my blunder,--and said that he
+would surely remember me at Christmas.
+
+I know that incidents like these can be of little interest to any but
+myself. But what more exciting ones are to be expected in such a history
+as mine? If they are related here, it is because I am requested to
+record them. Still, every poor sewing-girl will consider that the making
+of her first shirt is an event in her career, a difficulty to be
+surmounted,--and that, even when successfully accomplished, it is in
+reality only the beginning of a long career of toil.
+
+
+
+
+MEMORIES OF AUTHORS.
+
+A SERIES OF PORTRAITS FROM PERSONAL ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+
+THOMAS MOORE.
+
+More than forty years have passed since I first conversed with the poet
+Thomas Moore. Afterwards it was my privilege to know him intimately. He
+seldom, of late years, visited London without spending an evening at our
+house; and in 1845 we passed a happy week at his cottage, Sloperton, in
+the county of Wilts:--
+
+            "In my calendar
+    There are no whiter days!"
+
+The poet has himself noted the time in his diary (November, 1845).
+
+It was in the year 1822 I made his acquaintance in Dublin. He was in the
+full ripeness of middle age,--then, as ever, "the poet of all circles,
+and the idol of his own." As his visits to his native city were few and
+far between, the power to see him, and especially to _hear_ him, was a
+boon of magnitude. It was, indeed, a treat, when, seated at the piano,
+he gave voice to the glorious "Melodies" that are justly regarded as the
+most valuable of his legacies to mankind. I can recall that evening as
+vividly as if it were not a sennight old: the graceful man, small and
+slim in figure, his upturned eyes and eloquent features giving force to
+the music that accompanied the songs, or rather to the songs that
+accompanied the music.
+
+Dublin was then the home of much of the native talent that afterwards
+found its way to England; and there were some, Lady Morgan especially,
+whose "evenings" drew together the wit and genius for which that city
+has always been famous. To such an evening I make reference. It was at
+the house of a Mr. Steele, then High Sheriff of the County of Dublin,
+and I was introduced there by the Rev. Charles Maturin. The name is not
+widely known, yet Maturin was famous in his day--and for a day--as the
+author of two successful tragedies, "Bertram" and "Manuel," (in which
+the elder Kean sustained the leading parts,) and of several popular
+novels. Moreover, he was an eloquent preacher, although probably he
+mistook his calling when he entered the Church. Among his many
+eccentricities I remember one: it was his habit to compose while walking
+about his large and scantily furnished house; and always on such
+occasions he placed a wafer on his forehead,--a sign that none of his
+family or servants were to address him then, to endanger the loss of a
+thought that might enlighten a world. He was always in "difficulties."
+In Lady Morgan's Memoirs it is stated that Sir Charles Morgan raised a
+subscription for Maturin, and supplied him with fifty pounds. "The first
+use he made of the money was to give a grand party. There was little
+furniture in the reception-room, but at one end of it there had been
+erected an old theatrical-property throne, and under a canopy of crimson
+velvet sat Mr. and Mrs. Maturin!"
+
+Among the guests at Mr. Steele's were the poet's father, mother, and
+sister,--the sister to whom he was so fervently attached. The father was
+a plain, homely man,--nothing more, and assuming to be nothing more,
+than a Dublin tradesman.[F] The mother evidently possessed a far higher
+mind. She, too, was retiring and unpretending,--like her son in
+features,--with the same gentle, yet sparkling eye, flexible and smiling
+mouth, and kindly and conciliating manners. It was to be learned long
+afterwards how deep was the affection that existed in the poet's heart
+for these humble relatives,--how fervid the love he bore them,--how
+earnest the respect with which he invariably treated them,--nay, how
+elevated was the pride with which he regarded them from first to last.
+
+The sister, Ellen, was, I believe, slightly deformed; at least, the
+memory to me is that of a small, delicate woman, with one shoulder
+"out." The expression of her countenance betokened suffering, having
+that peculiar "sharpness" which usually accompanies severe and
+continuous bodily ailment.[G] I saw more of her some years afterwards,
+and knew that her mind and disposition were essentially lovable.
+
+To the mother--Anastasia Moore, _née_ Codd, a humbly descended, homely,
+and almost uneducated woman[H]--Moore gave intense respect and devoted
+affection, from the time that reason dawned upon him to the hour of her
+death. To her he wrote his first letter, (in 1793,) ending with these
+lines--
+
+    "Your absence all but ill endure,
+    And none so ill as--THOMAS MOORE."
+
+And in the zenith of his fame, when society drew largely on his time,
+and the highest and best of the land coveted a portion of his leisure,
+with her he corresponded so regularly that at her death she possessed
+(it has been so told me by Mrs. Moore) four thousand of his letters.
+Never, according to the statement of Earl Russell, did he pass a week
+without writing to her _twice_, except during his absence in Bermuda,
+when franks were not to be obtained, and postages were costly.
+
+When a world had tendered to him its homage, still the homely woman was
+his "darling mother," to whom he transmitted a record of his cares and
+his triumphs, his anxieties and his hopes, as if he considered--as I
+verily believe he did consider--that to give her pleasure was the chief
+enjoyment of his life. His sister--"excellent Nell"--occupied only a
+second place in his heart; while his father received as much of his
+respect as if he had been the hereditary representative of a line of
+kings.
+
+All his life long, "he continued," according to one of the most valued
+of his correspondents, "amidst the pleasures of the world, to preserve
+his home fireside affections true and genuine, as they were when a boy."
+
+To his mother he writes of all his facts and fancies; to her he opens
+his heart in its natural and innocent fulness; tells her of each thing,
+great or small, that, interesting him, must interest her,--from his
+introduction to the Prince, and his visit to Niagara, to the acquisition
+of a pencil-case, and the purchase of a new pocket-handkerchief. "You,
+my sweet mother," he writes, "can see neither frivolity nor egotism in
+these details."
+
+In 1806, Moore's father received, through the interest of Lord Moira,
+the post of Barrack-Master in Dublin, and thus became independent. In
+1815, "Retrenchment" deprived him of this office, and he was placed on
+half-pay. The family had to seek aid from the son, who entreated them
+not to despond, but rather to thank Providence for having permitted them
+to enjoy the fruits of office so long, till he (the son) was "in a
+situation to keep them in comfort without it." "Thank Heaven," he writes
+afterwards of his father, "I have been able to make his latter days
+tranquil and comfortable." When sitting beside his death-bed, (in 1825,)
+he was relieved by a burst of tears and prayers, and by "a sort of
+confidence that the Great and Pure Spirit above us could not be
+otherwise than pleased at what He saw passing in my mind."
+
+When Lord Wellesley, (Lord-Lieutenant,) after the death of the father,
+proposed to continue the half-pay to the sister, Moore declined the
+offer, although, he adds,--"God knows how useful such aid would be to
+me, as God alone knows how I am to support all the burdens now heaped
+upon me"; and his wife at home was planning how "they might be able to
+do with one servant," in order that they might be the better able to
+assist his mother.
+
+The poet was born at the corner of Aungier Street, Dublin, on the 28th
+of May, 1779, and died at Sloperton, on the 25th of February,[I] 1852,
+at the age of seventy-two. What a full life it was! Industry a
+fellow-worker with Genius for nearly sixty years!
+
+He was a sort of "show-child" almost from his birth, and could barely
+walk when it was jestingly said of him, he passed all his nights with
+fairies on the hills. Almost his earliest memory was having been crowned
+king of a castle by some of his playfellows. At his first school he was
+the show-boy of the schoolmaster: at thirteen years old he had written
+poetry that attracted and justified admiration. In 1797 he was "a man of
+mark"; at the University,[J] in 1798, at the age of nineteen, he had
+made "considerable progress" in translating the Odes of Anacreon; and in
+1800 he was "patronized" and flattered by the Prince of Wales, who was
+"happy to know a man of his abilities," and "hoped they might have many
+opportunities of enjoying each other's society."
+
+His earliest printed work, "Poems by Thomas Little," has been the
+subject of much, and perhaps merited, condemnation. Of Moore's own
+feeling in reference to these compositions of his mere, and thoughtless,
+boyhood, it may be right to quote two of the dearest of his friends.
+Thus writes Lisle Bowles of Thomas Moore, in allusion to these early
+poems:--
+
+    "'----Like Israel's incense laid
+    Upon unholy earthly shrines':--
+
+Who, if, in the unthinking gayety of premature genius, he joined the
+sirens, has made ample amends by a life of the strictest virtuous
+propriety, equally exemplary as the husband, the father, and the
+man,--and as far as the muse is concerned, _more_ ample amends, by
+melodies as sweet as Scriptural and sacred, and by weaving a tale of the
+richest Oriental colors, which faithful affection and pity's tear have
+consecrated to all ages." This is the statement of his friend
+Rogers:--"So heartily has Moore repented of having published 'Little's
+Poems,' that I have seen him shed tears,--tears of deep
+contrition,--when we were talking of them."
+
+I allude to his early triumphs only to show, that, while they would have
+spoiled nine men out of ten, they failed to taint the character of
+Moore. His modest estimate of himself was from first to last a leading
+feature in his character. Success never engendered egotism; honors never
+seemed to him only the recompense of desert; he largely magnified the
+favors he received, and seemed to consider as mere "nothings" the
+services he rendered and the benefits he conferred. That was his great
+characteristic, all his life. We have ourselves ample evidence to adduce
+on this head. I copy the following letter from Mr. Moore. It is dated
+"Sloperton, November 29, 1843."
+
+     "MY DEAR MR. HALL,--
+
+     "I am really and truly ashamed of myself for having let so
+     many acts of kindness on your part remain unnoticed and
+     unacknowledged on mine. But the world seems determined to
+     make me a man of letters in more senses than one, and almost
+     every day brings me such an influx of epistles from mere
+     strangers that friends hardly ever get a line from me. My
+     friend Washington Irving used to say, 'It is much easier to
+     get a book from Moore than a letter.' But this has not been
+     the case, I am sorry to say, of late; for the penny-post has
+     become the sole channel of my inspirations. How _am_ I to
+     thank you sufficiently for all your and Mrs. Hall's kindness
+     to me? She must come down here, when the summer arrives, and
+     be thanked _a quattr' occhi_,--far better way of thanking
+     than at such a cold distance. Your letter to the mad
+     Repealers was far too good and wise and gentle to have much
+     effect on such rantipoles."[K]
+
+The house in Aungier Street I visited so recently as 1864. It was then,
+and still is, as it was in 1779, the dwelling of a grocer,--altered only
+so far as that a bust of the poet is placed over the door, and the fact
+that he was born there is recorded at the side. May no modern
+"improvement" ever touch it!
+
+      "The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
+    The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
+    Went to the ground."
+
+This humble dwelling of the humble tradesman is the house of which the
+poet speaks in so many of his early letters and memoranda. Here, when a
+child in years, he arranged a debating society, consisting of himself
+and his father's two "clerks." Here he picked up a little Italian from a
+kindly old priest who had passed some time in Italy, and obtained a
+"smattering of French" from an intelligent _émigré_, named La Frosse.
+Here his tender mother watched over his boyhood, proud of his opening
+promise, and hopeful, yet apprehensive, of his future. Here he and his
+sister, "excellent Nell," acquired music, first upon an old harpsichord,
+obtained by his father in discharge of a debt, and afterwards on a
+piano, to buy which his loving mother had saved up all superfluous
+pence. Hence he issued to lake country walks with unhappy Robert Emmet.
+Hither he came--not less proudly, yet as fondly as ever--when college
+magnates had given him honor, and the King's Viceroy had received him as
+a guest.
+
+In 1835 he records "a visit to No. 12, Aungier Street, where I was
+born." "Visited every part of the house; the small old yard and its
+appurtenances; the small, dark kitchen, where I used to have my bread
+and milk; the front and back drawing-rooms; the bedrooms and
+garrets,--murmuring, 'Only think, a grocer's still!'" "The many thoughts
+that came rushing upon me, while thus visiting the house where the first
+nineteen or twenty years of my life were passed, may be more easily
+conceived than told." He records, with greater unction than he did his
+visit to the Prince, his sitting with the grocer and his wife at their
+table, and drinking in a glass of their wine her and her husband's "good
+health." Thence he went, with all his "recollections of the old shop
+about him," to a grand dinner at the Viceregal Lodge!
+
+I spring with a single line from the year 1822, when I knew him first,
+to the year 1845, when circumstances enabled us to enjoy the
+long-looked-for happiness of visiting Moore and his beloved wife in
+their home at Sloperton.
+
+The poet was then in his sixty-fifth year, and had in a great measure
+retired from actual labor; indeed, it soon became evident to us that the
+faculty for enduring and continuous toil no longer existed. Happily, it
+was not absolutely needed; for, with very limited wants, there was a
+sufficiency,--a bare sufficiency, however, for there were no means to
+procure either the elegances or the luxuries which so frequently become
+the necessities of man, and a longing for which might have been excused
+in one who had been the friend of peers and the associate of princes.
+
+The forests and fields that surround Bowood, the mansion of the Marquis
+of Lansdowne, neighbor the poet's humble dwelling. The spire of the
+village church, beside the portals of which the poet now sleeps, is seen
+above adjacent trees. Laborers' cottages are scattered all about. They
+are a heavy and unimaginative race, those peasants of Wiltshire; and,
+knowing their neighbor had written books, they could by no means get rid
+of the idea that he was the writer of _Moore's Almanac_, and
+perpetually, greeted him with a salutation, in hopes to receive in
+return some prognostic of the weather, which might guide them in
+arrangements for seedtime and harvest. Once, when he had lost his
+way,--wandering till midnight,--he roused up the inmates of a cottage,
+in search of a guide to Sloperton, and, to his astonishment, found he
+was close to his own gate. "Ah, Sir," said the peasant, "that comes of
+yer skyscraping!"
+
+He was fond of telling of himself such simple anecdotes as this; indeed,
+I remember his saying that no applause he ever obtained gave him so much
+pleasure as a compliment from a half-wild countryman, who stood right in
+his path on a quay in Dublin, and exclaimed, slightly altering the words
+of Byron,--"Three cheers for Tommy Moore, the pote of all circles, and
+the _darlint_ of his own!"
+
+I recall him at this moment,--his small form and intellectual face, rich
+in expression, and that expression the sweetest, the most gentle, and
+the kindliest. He had still in age the same bright and clear eye, the
+same gracious smile, the same suave and winning manner I had noticed as
+the attributes of his comparative youth; a forehead not remarkably broad
+or high, but singularly impressive, firm, and full,--with the organ of
+gayety large, and those of benevolence and veneration greatly
+preponderating. Ternerani, when making his bust, praised the form of his
+ears. The nose, as observed in all his portraits, was somewhat upturned.
+Standing or sitting, his head was invariably upraised, owing, perhaps,
+mainly to his shortness of stature, with so much bodily activity as to
+give him the character of restlessness; and no doubt that usual
+accompaniment of genius was eminently his. His hair, at the time I speak
+of, was thin and very gray; and he wore his hat with the jaunty air that
+has been often remarked as a peculiarity of the Irish. In dress,
+although far from slovenly, he was by no means particular. Leigh Hunt,
+speaking of him in the prime of life, says,--"His forehead is bony and
+full of character, with 'bumps' of wit large and radiant enough to
+transport a phrenologist. His eyes are as dark and fine as you would
+wish to see under a set of vine-leaves; his mouth generous and
+good-humored, with dimples." He adds,--"He was lively, polite, bustling,
+full of amenities and acquiescences, into which he contrived to throw a
+sort of roughening cordiality, like the crust of old Port. It seemed a
+happiness to him to say 'Yes.'" Jeffrey, in one of his letters, says of
+him,--"He is the sweetest-blooded, warmest-hearted, happiest,
+hopefullest creature that ever set Fortune at defiance"; he speaks also
+of "the buoyancy of his spirits and the inward light of his mind"; and
+adds,--"There is nothing gloomy or bitter in his ordinary talk, but,
+rather, a wild, rough, boyish pleasantry, much more like Nature than his
+poetry."
+
+    "The light that surrounds him is all from within."
+
+He had but little voice; yet he sang with a depth of sweetness that
+charmed all hearers: it was true melody, and told upon the heart as well
+as the ear. No doubt much of this charm was derived from association;
+for it was only his own "Melodies" he sang. It would be difficult to
+describe the effect of his singing. I remember some one saying to me, it
+conveyed an idea of what a mermaid's song might be. Thrice I heard him
+sing, "As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow,"--once in 1822,
+once at Lady Blessington's, and once in my own house. Those who can
+recall the touching words of that song, and unite them with the deep,
+yet tender pathos of the music, will be at no loss to conceive the
+intense delight of his auditors.
+
+I occasionally met Moore in public, and once or twice at public dinners.
+One of the most agreeable evenings I ever passed was in 1830, at a
+dinner given to him by the members of "The Literary Union." This club
+was founded in 1829 by the poet Campbell. I shall have to speak of it
+when I write a "Memory" of him. Moore was in strong health at that time,
+and in the zenith of his fame. There were many men of mark about
+him,--leading wits and men of letters of the age. He was full of life,
+sparkling and brilliant in all he said, rising every now and then to say
+something that gave the hearers delight, and looking as if "dull care"
+had been ever powerless to check the overflowing of his soul. But
+although no bard of any age knew better how to
+
+    "Wreathe the bowl with flowers of the soul,"
+
+he had acquired the power of self-restraint, and could stop when the
+glass was circulating too freely. At the memorable dinner of the
+Literary Fund, at which the good Prince Albert presided, (on the 11th of
+May, 1842,) the two poets, Campbell and Moore, had to make speeches. The
+author of the "Pleasures of Hope," heedless of the duty that devolved
+upon him, had "confused his brain." Moore came in the evening of that
+day to our house; and I well remember the terms of true sorrow and
+bitter reproach in which he spoke of the lamentable impression that one
+of the great authors of the age and country must have left on the mind
+of the royal chairman, then new among us.
+
+It is gratifying to record, that the temptations to which the great
+lyric poet, Thomas Moore, was so often and so peculiarly exposed, were
+ever powerless for wrong.
+
+Moore sat for his portrait to Shee, Lawrence, Newton, Maclise, Mulvany,
+and Richmond, and to the sculptors Ternerani, Chantrey, Kirk, and Moore.
+On one occasion of his sitting, he says,--"Having nothing in my round
+potato face but what painters cannot catch,--mobility of character,--the
+consequence is, that a portrait of me can be only one or other of two
+disagreeable things,--_caput mortuum_, or a caricature." Richmond's
+portrait was taken in 1843. Moore says of it,--"The artist has worked
+wonders with unmanageable faces such as mine." Of all his portraits,
+this is the one that pleases me best, and most forcibly recalls him to
+my remembrance.
+
+I soon learned to love the man. It was easy to do so; for Nature had
+endowed him with that rare, but happy gift,--to have pleasure in giving
+pleasure, and pain in giving pain; while his life was, or at all events
+seemed to be, a practical comment on his own lines:--
+
+    "They may rail at this life; from the hour I began it,
+    I've found it a life full of kindness and bliss."
+
+I had daily walks with him at Sloperton,--along his
+"terrace-walk,"--during our brief visit; I listening, he talking; he now
+and then asking questions, but rarely speaking of himself or his books.
+Indeed, the only one of his poems to which he made any special reference
+was his "Lines on the Death of Sheridan," of which he said,--"That is
+one of the few things I have written of which I am really proud." And I
+remember startling him one evening by quoting several of his poems in
+which he had said "hard things" of women,--then, suddenly changing,
+repeating passages of an opposite character, and his saying, "You know
+far more of my poems than I do myself."
+
+The anecdotes he told me were all of the class of those I have
+related,--simple, unostentatious. He has been frequently charged with
+the weakness of undue respect for the aristocracy. I never heard him,
+during the whole of our intercourse, speak of great people with whom he
+had been intimate, never a word of the honors accorded to him; and,
+certainly, he never uttered a sentence of satire or censure or harshness
+concerning any one of his contemporaries. I cannot recall any
+conversation with him in which he spoke of intimacy with the great, and
+certainly no anecdote of his familiarity with men or women of the upper
+orders; although he conversed with me often of those who are called the
+lower classes. I remember his describing with proud warmth his visit to
+his friend Boyse, at Bannow, in the County of Wexford: the delight he
+enjoyed at receiving the homage of bands of the peasantry, gathered to
+greet him; the arches of green leaves under which he passed; and the
+dances with the pretty peasant-girls,--one in particular, with whom he
+led off a country-dance.[L] Would that those who fancied him a
+tuft-hunter could have heard him! They would have seen how really humble
+was his heart. Indeed, a reference to his Journal will show that of all
+his contemporaries, whenever he spoke of them, he had ever something
+kindly to say. There is no evidence of ill-nature in any case,--not a
+shadow of envy or jealousy. The sturdiest Scottish grazier could not
+have been better pleased than he was to see the elegant home at
+Abbotsford, or have felt prouder to know that a poet had been created a
+baronet. When speaking of Wordsworth's absorption of all the talk at a
+dinner-table, Moore says,--"But I was well pleased to be a listener."
+And he records, that General Peachey, "who is a neighbor of Southey,
+mentions some amiable traits of him."
+
+The house at Sloperton is a small, neat, but comparatively poor cottage,
+for which Moore paid originally the princely sum of forty pounds a year,
+"furnished." Subsequently, however, he became its tenant under a
+repairing-lease at eighteen pounds annual rent. He took possession of it
+in November, 1817. Bessy was "not only satisfied, but delighted with it,
+which shows the humility of her taste," writes Moore to his mother; "for
+it is a small thatched cottage, and we get it furnished for forty pounds
+a year." "It has a small garden and lawn in front, and a kitchen-garden
+behind. Along two of the sides of this kitchen-garden is a raised
+bank,"--the poet's "terrace-walk," so he loved to call it. Here a small
+deal table stood through all weathers; for it was his custom to compose
+as he walked, and at this table to pause and write down his thoughts.
+Hence he had always a view of the setting sun; and I believe nothing on
+earth gave him more intense pleasure than practically to realize the
+line,--
+
+    "How glorious the sun looked in sinking!"--
+
+for, as Mrs. Moore has since told us, he very rarely missed this sight.
+
+In 1811, the year of his marriage, he lived at York Terrace, Queen's
+Elm, Brompton. Mrs. Moore tells me it was a pretty house: the Terrace
+was then isolated, and opposite nursery-gardens. Long afterwards (in
+1824) he went to Brompton to "indulge himself with a sight of that
+house." In 1812 he was settled at Kegworth; and in 1813, at Mayfield
+Cottage, near Ashbourne, in Derbyshire. Of Mayfield, one of his friends,
+who twenty years afterwards accompanied him there to see it, remarks on
+the small, solitary, and now wretched-looking cottage, where all the
+fine "orientalism" and "sentimentalism" had been engendered. Of this
+cottage he himself writes,--"It was a poor place, little better than a
+barn; but we at once took it and set about making it habitable."
+
+As Burns was made a gauger because he was partial to whiskey, Moore was
+made Colonial Secretary at Bermuda, where his principal duty was to
+"overhaul the accounts of skippers and their mates." Being called to
+England, his affairs were placed in charge of a superintendent, who
+betrayed him, and left him answerable for a heavy debt, which rendered
+necessary a temporary residence in Paris. That debt, however, was paid,
+not by the aid of friends, some of whom would have gladly relieved him
+of it, but literally by "the sweat of his brow." Exactly so it was when
+the MS. "Life of Byron" was burned: it was by Moore, and not by the
+relatives of Byron, (neither was it by aid of friends,) the money he had
+received was returned to the publisher who had advanced it. "The
+glorious privilege of being independent" was, indeed, essentially
+his,--in his boyhood, throughout his manhood, and in advanced
+age,--always!
+
+In 1799 he came to London to enter at the Middle Temple. (His first
+lodging was at 44, George Street, Portman Square.) Very soon afterwards
+we find him declining a loan of money proffered him by Lady Donegal. He
+thanked God for the many sweet things of this kind God threw in his way,
+yet at that moment he was "terribly puzzled how to pay his tailor." In
+1811, his friend Douglas, who had just received a large legacy, handed
+him a blank check, that he might fill it up for any sum he needed. "I
+did not accept the offer," writes Moore to his mother; "but you may
+guess my feelings." Yet just then he had been compelled to draw on his
+publisher, Power, for a sum of thirty pounds, "to be repaid partly in
+songs," and was sending his mother a second-day paper, which he was
+enabled "to purchase at rather a cheap rate." Even in 1842 he was
+"haunted worryingly," not knowing how to meet his son Russell's draft
+for one hundred pounds; and a year afterwards he utterly drained his
+banker to send fifty pounds to his son Tom. Once, being anxious that
+Bessy should have some money for the poor at Bromham, he sent a friend
+five pounds, requesting him to forward it to Bessy as from himself; and
+when urged by some thoughtless person to make a larger allowance to his
+son Tom, in order that he might "live like a gentleman," he writes,--"If
+_I_ had thought but of living like a gentleman, what would have become
+of my dear father and mother, of my sweet sister Nell, of my admirable
+Bessy's mother?" He declined to represent Limerick in Parliament, on the
+ground that his "circumstances were not such as to justify coming into
+Parliament at all, because to the labor of the day I am indebted for my
+daily support." His must be a miserable soul who could sneer at the poet
+studying how he could manage to recompense the doctor who would "take no
+fees," and at his amusement when Bessy was "calculating whether they
+could afford the expense of a fly to Devizes."
+
+As with his mother, so with his wife. From the year 1811, the year of
+his marriage,[M] to that of his death, in 1852, she received from him
+the continual homage of a lover; away from her, no matter what were his
+allurements, he was ever longing to be at home. Those who love as he did
+wife, children, and friends will appreciate, although the worldling
+cannot, such commonplace sentences as these:--"Pulled some heath on
+Ronan's Island (Killarney) to send to my dear Bessy"; when in Italy,
+"got letters from my sweet Bessy, more precious to me than all the
+wonders I can see"; while in Paris, "sending for Bessy and my little
+ones; wherever they are will be home, and a happy home to me." When
+absent, (which was rarely for more than a week,) no matter where or in
+what company, seldom a day passed that he did not write a letter to
+Bessy. The home enjoyments, reading to her, making her the depositary of
+all his thoughts and hopes,--they were his deep delights, compensations
+for time spent amid scenes and with people who had no space in his
+heart. Even when in "terrible request," his thoughts and his heart were
+there,--in
+
+    "That dear Home, that saving Ark,
+      Where love's true light at last I've found,
+    Cheering within, when all grows dark
+      And comfortless and stormy round."
+
+This is the tribute of Earl Russell to the wife of the poet Moore:--"The
+excellence of his wife's moral character, her energy and courage, her
+persevering economy, made her a better and even a richer partner to
+Moore than an heiress of ten thousand a year would have been, with less
+devotion to her duty, and less steadiness of conduct." Moore speaks of
+his wife's "democratic pride." It was the pride that was ever above a
+mean action, and which sustained him in the proud independence that
+marked his character from birth to death.
+
+In March, 1846, his diary contains this sad passage:--"The last of my
+five children is gone, and we are left desolate and alone. Not a single
+relation have I in this world." His father had died in 1825; his sweet
+mother in 1832; "excellent Nell" in 1846; and his children one after
+another, three of them in youth, and two grown up to manhood,--his two
+boys, Tom and Russell, the first-named of whom died in Africa in 1846,
+an officer in the French service; the other at Sloperton in 1842, soon
+after his return from India, having been compelled by ill-health to
+resign his commission as a lieutenant in the Twenty-Fifth Regiment.
+
+In 1835 the influence of Lord Lansdowne obtained for Moore a pension of
+three hundred pounds a year from Lord Melbourne's government,--"as due
+from any government, but much more from one some of the members of which
+are proud to think themselves your friends." The "wolf, poverty,"
+therefore, in his latter years, did not prowl so continually about his
+door. But there was no fund for luxuries, none for the extra comforts
+that old age requires. Mrs. Moore now lives on a crown pension of one
+hundred pounds a year, and the interest of the sum of three thousand
+pounds,--the sum advanced by the ever-liberal friends of the poet, the
+Longmans, for the Memoirs and Journal edited by Lord John, now Earl,
+Russell,--a lord whom the poet dearly loved.
+
+When his diary was published, as from time to time volumes of it
+appeared, slander was busy with the fame of one of the best and most
+upright of all the men that God ennobled by the gift of genius.[N] For
+my own part, I seek in vain through the eight thick volumes of that
+diary for any evidence that can lessen the poet in this high estimate. I
+find, perhaps, too many passages fitted only for the eye of love or the
+ear of sympathy; but I read _no one_ that shows the poet other than the
+devoted and loving husband, the thoughtful and affectionate parent, the
+considerate and generous friend.
+
+It was said of him by Leigh Hunt, that Lord Byron summed up his
+character in a sentence,--"Tommy loves a lord!" Perhaps he did; but if
+he did, only such lords as Lansdowne and Russell were his friends. He
+loved also those who are "lords of humankind" in a far other sense; and,
+as I have shown, there is nothing in his character that stands out in
+higher relief than his entire _freedom from dependence_. To which of the
+great did he apply during seasons of difficulty approaching poverty?
+Which of them did he use for selfish purposes? Whose patronage among
+them all was profitable? To what Baäl did the poet Moore ever bend the
+knee?
+
+He had a large share of domestic sorrows; one after another, his five
+beloved children died; I have quoted his words, "We are left--alone."
+His admirable and devoted wife survives him. I visited, a short time
+ago, the home that is now desolate. If ever man was adored where
+adoration, so far as earth is concerned, is most to be hoped for and
+valued, it is in the cottage where the poet's widow lives, and will die.
+
+Let it be inscribed on his tomb, that ever, amid privations and
+temptations, the allurements of grandeur and the suggestions of poverty,
+he preserved his self-respect; bequeathing no property, but leaving no
+debts; having had no "testimonial" of acknowledgment or reward,--seeking
+none, nay, avoiding any; making millions his debtors for intense
+delight, and acknowledging himself paid by the poet's meed, "the tribute
+of a smile"; never truckling to power; laboring ardently and honestly
+for his political faith, but never lending to party that which was meant
+for mankind; proud, and rightly proud, of his self-obtained position,
+but neither scorning nor slighting the humble root from which he sprang.
+
+He was born and bred a Roman Catholic; but his creed was entirely and
+purely catholic. Charity was the outpouring of his heart; its pervading
+essence was that which he expressed in one of his Melodies,--
+
+    "Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights by my side,
+      In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?
+    Shall I give up the friend I have valued and tried,
+      If he kneel not before the same altar with me?"
+
+His children were all baptized and educated members of the Church of
+England. He attended the parish church, and according to the ritual of
+the Church of England he was buried.
+
+It was not any outward change of religion, but homage to a purer and
+holier faith, that induced him to have his children baptized and brought
+up as members of the English Church. "For myself," he says, "my having
+married a Protestant wife gave me opportunity of choosing a religion, at
+least for my children; and if my marriage had no other advantage, I
+should think this quite sufficient to be grateful for."
+
+Moore was the eloquent advocate of his country, when it was oppressed,
+goaded, and socially enthralled; but when time and enlightened policy
+removed all distinctions between the Irishman and the Englishman,
+between the Protestant and the Roman Catholic, his muse was silent,
+because content; nay, he protested in impressive verse against a
+continued agitation that retarded her progress, when her claims were
+admitted, her rights acknowledged, and her wrongs redressed.
+
+Reference to the genius of Moore is needless. My object in this "Memory"
+is to offer homage to his moral and social worth. The world that obtains
+intense delight from his poems, and willingly acknowledges its debt to
+the poet, has been less ready to estimate the high and estimable
+character, the loving and faithful nature of the man. There are,
+however, many--may this humble tribute augment the number!--by whom the
+memory of Thomas Moore is cherished in the heart of hearts; to whom the
+cottage at Sloperton will be a shrine while they live,--that grave
+beside the village church a monument better loved than that of any other
+of the men of genius by whom the world is delighted, enlightened, and
+refined.
+
+"That God is love," writes his friend and biographer, Earl Russell, "was
+the summary of his belief; that a man should love his neighbor as
+himself seems to have been the rule of his life." The Earl of Carlisle,
+inaugurating the statue of the poet,[O] bore testimony to his moral and
+social worth "in all the holy relations of life,--as son, as brother, as
+husband, as father, as friend"; and on the same occasion, Mr. O'Hagan,
+Q.C., thus expressed himself:--"He was faithful to all the sacred
+obligations and all the dear charities of domestic life,--he was the
+idol of a household."
+
+Perhaps a better, though a far briefer, summary of the character of
+Thomas Moore than any of these may be given in the words of Dr. Parr,
+who bequeathed to him a ring:--
+
+"To one who stands high in my estimation for original genius, for his
+exquisite sensibility, for his independent spirit, and incorruptible
+integrity."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[F] Mrs. Moore--writing to me in May, 1864--tells me I have a wrong
+impression as to Moore's father; that he was "handsome, full of fun, and
+with good manners." Moore himself calls him "one of Nature's gentlemen."
+
+[G] Mrs. Moore write me, that I am here also wrong in my impression.
+"She was only a little grown out in one shoulder, but with good health;
+her expression was feeling, not suffering." "Dear Ellen," she adds, "was
+the delight of every one that knew her,--sang sweetly,--her voice very
+like her brother's. She died suddenly, to the grief of my loving heart."
+
+[H] She was born in Wexford, where her father kept a "general shop."
+Moore used to say playfully, that he was called, in order to dignify his
+occupation, "a provision merchant." When on his way to Bannow in 1835 to
+spend a few days with his friend Thomas Boyse,--a genuine gentleman of
+the good old school,--he records his visit to the house of his maternal
+grandfather. "Nothing," he says, "could be more humble and mean than the
+little low house that remains to tell of his whereabouts."
+
+I visited this house in the summer of 1864. It is still a small "general
+shop," situate in the old corn-market of Wexford. The rooms are more
+than usually quaint. Here Mrs. Moore lived until within a few weeks of
+the birth of her illustrious son. We are gratified to record, that, at
+our suggestion, a tablet has been placed over the entrance-door, stating
+in few words the fact that there the mother was born and lived, and that
+to this house the poet came, on the 26th of August, 1835, when in the
+zenith of his fame, to render homage to her memory. He thus writes of
+her and her birthplace in his "Notes" of that year:--"One of the
+noblest-minded, as well as most warm-hearted, of all God's creatures was
+born under that lowly roof."
+
+[I] I find in Earl Russell's memoir the date given as the 26th of
+February; but Mrs. Moore altered it in my MSS. to February 25.
+
+[J] Trinity College, Dublin.--Thomas Moore, son of John Moore, merchant,
+of Dublin, aged 14, pensioner, entered 2d June, 1794. Tutor, Dr.
+Burrows.
+
+[K] Alluding to a pamphlet-letter I had printed, addressed to Repealers,
+when the insanity of Repeal (now happily dead) was at fever-heat.
+
+[L] "One of them (my chief muse) was a remarkably pretty girl; when I
+turned round to her, as she accompanied my triumphal ear, and said,
+'This is a long journey for you,' she answered, with a smile that would
+have done your heart good, 'Oh, I only wish, Sir, it was three hundred
+miles!' There's for you! What was Petrarch in the Capitol to
+that?"--_Journal_, &c.--This "pretty girl's" name is ----, and, strange
+to say, she still keeps it.
+
+[M] Moore was married to Miss Elizabeth Dyke, at St. Martin's Church, on
+the 25th of March, 1811.
+
+[N] There were two who sought to throw filth upon the poet's grave, and
+they were his own countrymen,--Charles Phillips and John Wilson Croker.
+The former had written a wretched and unmeaning pamphlet, which he
+suppressed when a few copies only were issued; and I am proud to believe
+it was in consequence of some remarks upon it written by me, for which
+he commenced, but subsequently abandoned, proceedings against me for
+libel. The atrocious attack on Moore in the "Quarterly Review" was
+written by John Wilson Croker. It was the old illustration of the dead
+lion and the living dog. Yet Croker could at that time be scarcely
+described as living; it was from his death-bed he shot the poisoned
+arrow. And what brought out the venom? Merely a few careless words of
+Moore's, in which he described Croker "as a scribbler of all work,"
+words that Earl Russell would have erased, if it had occurred to him to
+do so. Another countryman, Thomas Crofton Croker, assailed after his
+death the man whose shoe-latchets he would have been proud to unloose
+during his life. Moreover, his earliest slanderer was also of his own
+country,--an author named Quin. Of a truth it has been well said, A
+prophet is never without honor save in his own country. The proverb is
+especially true as regards Irish prophets. Assuredly, Moore was, and is,
+more popular in every part of the world than he was or is in Ireland.
+The reason is plain: he was, so to speak, of two parties, yet of
+neither: the one could not forgive his early aspirations for liberty,
+uttered in imperishable verse; the other could not pardon what they
+called his desertion of their cause, when he saw that England was
+willing to do, and was doing, justice to Ireland.
+
+[O] A bronze statue of Moore has been erected in College Street, Dublin.
+It is a poor affair, the production of his namesake, the sculptor. Bad
+as it is, it is made worse by contrast with its neighbor, Goldsmith,--a
+work by the great Irish artist, Foley,--a work rarely surpassed by the
+art of the sculptor at any period in any country.
+
+
+
+
+ON BOARD THE SEVENTY-SIX
+
+[Written for Bryant's Seventieth Birthday.]
+
+
+    Our ship lay tumbling in an angry sea,
+    Her rudder gone, her mainmast o'er the side;
+    Her scuppers, from the waves' clutch staggering free,
+    Trailed threads of priceless crimson through the tide;
+    Sails, shrouds, and spars with pirate cannon torn,
+    We lay, awaiting morn.
+
+    Awaiting morn, such morn as mocks despair;
+    And she that bore the promise of the world
+    Within her sides, now hopeless, helmless, bare,
+    At random o'er the wildering waters hurled;
+    The reek of battle drifting slow a-lee
+    Not sullener than we.
+
+    Morn came at last to peer into our woe,
+    When lo, a sail! Now surely help is nigh;
+    The red cross flames aloft, Christ's pledge; but no,
+    Her black guns grinning hate, she rushes by
+    And hails us:--"Gains the leak? Ah, so we thought!
+    Sink, then, with curses fraught!"
+
+    I leaned against my gun still angry-hot,
+    And my lids tingled with the tears held back;
+    This scorn methought was crueller than shot;
+    The manly death-grip in the battle-wrack,
+    Yard-arm to yard-arm, were more friendly far
+    Than such fear-smothered war.
+
+    There our foe wallowed like a wounded brute,
+    The fiercer for his hurt. What now were best?
+    Once more tug bravely at the peril's root.
+    Though death come with it? Or evade the test
+    If right or wrong in this God's world of ours
+    Be leagued with higher powers?
+
+    Some, faintly loyal, felt their pulses lag
+    With the slow beat that doubts and then despairs;
+    Some, caitiff, would have struck the starry flag
+    That knits us with our past, and makes us heirs
+    Of deeds high-hearted as were ever done
+    'Neath the all-seeing sun.
+
+    But one there was, the Singer of our crew,
+    Upon whose head Age waved his peaceful sign,
+    But whose red heart's-blood no surrender knew;
+    And couchant under brows of massive line,
+    The eyes, like guns beneath a parapet,
+    Watched, charged with lightnings yet.
+
+    The voices of the hills did his obey;
+    The torrents flashed and tumbled in his song;
+    He brought our native fields from far away,
+    Or set us 'mid the innumerable throng
+    Of dateless woods, or where we heard the calm
+    Old homestead's evening psalm.
+
+    But now he sang of faith to things unseen,
+    Of freedom's birthright given to us in trust;
+    And words of doughty cheer he spoke between,
+    That made all earthly fortune seem as dust,
+    Matched with that duty, old as time and new,
+    Of being brave and true.
+
+    We, listening, learned what makes the might of words,--
+    Manhood to back them, constant as a star;
+    His voice rammed home our cannon, edged our swords,
+    And sent our boarders shouting; shroud and spar
+    Heard him and stiffened; the sails heard and wooed
+    The winds with loftier mood.
+
+    In our dark hour he manned our guns again;
+    Remanned ourselves from his own manhood's store;
+    Pride, honor, country throbbed through all his strain;
+    And shall we praise? God's praise was his before;
+    And on our futile laurels he looks down;
+    Himself our bravest crown.
+
+
+
+
+THE CHIMNEY-CORNER.
+
+
+I.
+
+Here comes the First of January, Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-Five, and we
+are all settled comfortably into our winter places, with our winter
+surroundings and belongings; all cracks and openings are calked and
+listed, the double windows are in, the furnace dragon in the cellar is
+ruddy and in good liking, sending up his warming respirations through
+every pipe and register in the house; and yet, though an artificial
+summer reigns everywhere, like bees, we have our swarming-place,--in my
+library. There is my chimney-corner, and my table permanently
+established on one side of the hearth; and each of the female genus has,
+so to speak, pitched her own winter-tent within sight of the blaze of my
+camp-fire. I discerned to-day that Jennie had surreptitiously
+appropriated one of the drawers of my study-table to knitting-needles
+and worsted; and wicker work-baskets and stands of various heights and
+sizes seem to be planted here and there for permanence among the
+bookcases. The canary-bird has a sunny window, and the plants spread out
+their leaves and unfold their blossoms as if there were no ice and snow
+in the street, and Rover makes a hearth-rug of himself in winking
+satisfaction in front of my fire, except when Jennie is taken with a fit
+of discipline, when he beats a retreat, and secretes himself under my
+table.
+
+Peaceable, ah, how peaceable, home and quiet and warmth in winter! And
+how, when we hear the wind whistle, we think of you, O our brave
+brothers, our saviours and defenders, who for our sake have no home but
+the muddy camp, the hard pillow of the barrack, the weary march, the
+uncertain fare,--you, the rank and file, the thousand unnoticed ones,
+who have left warm fires, dear wives, loving little children, without
+even the hope of glory or fame,--without even the hope of doing anything
+remarkable or perceptible for the cause you love,--resigned only to fill
+the ditch or bridge the chasm over which your country shall walk to
+peace and joy! Good men and true, brave unknown hearts, we salute you,
+and feel that we, in our soft peace and security, are not worthy of you!
+When we think of you, our simple comforts seem luxuries all too good for
+us, who give so little when you give all!
+
+But there are others to whom from our bright homes, our cheerful
+firesides, we would fain say a word, if we dared.
+
+Think of a mother receiving a letter with such a passage as this in it!
+It is extracted from one we have just seen, written by a private in the
+army of Sheridan, describing the death of a private. "He fell instantly,
+gave a peculiar smile and look, and then closed his eyes. We laid him
+down gently at the foot of a large tree. I crossed his hands over his
+breast, closed his eyelids down, but the smile was still on his face. I
+wrapped him in his tent, spread my pocket-handkerchief over his face,
+wrote his name on a piece of paper, and pinned it on his breast, and
+there we left him: we could not find pick or shovel to dig a grave."
+There it is!--a history that is multiplying itself by hundreds daily,
+the substance of what has come to so many homes, and must come to so
+many more before the great price of our ransom is paid!
+
+What can we say to you, in those many, many homes where the light has
+gone out forever?--you, O fathers, mothers, wives, sisters, haunted by a
+name that has ceased to be spoken on earth,--you, for whom there is no
+more news from the camp, no more reading of lists, no more tracing of
+maps, no more letters, but only a blank, dead silence! The battle-cry
+goes on, but for you it is passed by! the victory comes, but, oh, never
+more to bring him back to you! your offering to this great cause has
+been made, and been taken; you have thrown into it _all_ your living,
+even all that you had, and from henceforth your house is left unto you
+desolate! O ye watchers of the cross, ye waiters by the sepulchre, what
+can be said to you? We could almost extinguish our own home-fires, that
+seem too bright when we think of your darkness; the laugh dies on our
+lip, the lamp burns dim through our tears, and we seem scarcely worthy
+to speak words of comfort, lest we seem as those who mock a grief they
+cannot know.
+
+But is there no consolation? Is it nothing to have had such a treasure
+to give, and to have given it freely for the noblest cause for which
+ever battle was set,--for the salvation of your country, for the freedom
+of all mankind? Had he died a fruitless death, in the track of common
+life, blasted by fever, smitten or rent by crushing accident, then might
+his most precious life seem to be as water spilled upon the ground; but
+now it has been given for a cause and a purpose worthy even the anguish
+of your loss and sacrifice. He has been counted worthy to be numbered
+with those who stood with precious incense between the living and the
+dead, that the plague which was consuming us might be stayed. The blood
+of these young martyrs shall be the seed of the future church of
+liberty, and from every drop shall spring up flowers of healing. O
+widow! O mother! blessed among bereaved women! there remains to you a
+treasure that belongs not to those who have lost in any other wise,--the
+power to say, "He died for his country." In all the good that comes of
+this anguish you shall have a right and share by virtue of this
+sacrifice. The joy of freedmen bursting from chains, the glory of a
+nation new-born, the assurance of a triumphant future for your country
+and the world,--all these become yours by the purchase-money of that
+precious blood.
+
+Besides this, there are other treasures that come through sorrow, and
+sorrow alone. There are celestial plants of root so long and so deep
+that the land must be torn and furrowed, ploughed up from the very
+foundation, before they can strike and flourish; and when we see how
+God's plough is driving backward and forward and across this nation,
+rending, tearing up tender shoots, and burying soft wild-flowers, we ask
+ourselves, What is He going to plant?
+
+Not the first year, nor the second, after the ground has been broken up,
+does the purpose of the husbandman appear. At first we see only what is
+uprooted and ploughed in,--the daisy drabbled, and the violet
+crushed,--and the first trees planted amid the unsightly furrows stand
+dumb and disconsolate, irresolute in leaf, and without flower or fruit.
+Their work is under the ground. In darkness and silence they are putting
+forth long fibres, searching hither and thither under the black soil for
+the strength that years hence shall burst into bloom and bearing.
+
+What is true of nations is true of individuals. It may seem now winter
+and desolation with you. Your hearts have been ploughed and harrowed and
+are now frozen up. There is not a flower left, not a blade of grass, not
+a bird to sing,--and it is hard to believe that any brighter flowers,
+any greener herbage, shall spring up, than those which have been torn
+away: and yet there will. Nature herself teaches you to-day. Out-doors
+nothing but bare branches and shrouding snow; and yet you know that
+there is not a tree that is not patiently holding out at the end of its
+boughs next year's buds, frozen indeed, but unkilled. The rhododendron
+and the lilac have their blossoms all ready, wrapped in cere-cloth,
+waiting in patient faith. Under the frozen ground the crocus and the
+hyacinth and the tulip hide in their hearts the perfect forms of future
+flowers. And it is even so with you: your leaf-buds of the future are
+frozen, but not killed; the soil of your heart has many flowers under it
+cold and still now, but they will yet come up and bloom.
+
+The dear old book of comfort tells of no present healing for sorrow.
+_No_ chastening for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous, but
+_afterwards_ it yieldeth peaceable fruits of righteousness. We, as
+individuals, as a nation, need to have faith in that AFTERWARDS. It is
+sure to come,--sure as spring and summer to follow winter.
+
+There is a certain amount of suffering which must follow the rending of
+the great chords of life, suffering which is natural and inevitable; it
+cannot be argued down; it cannot be stilled; it can no more be soothed
+by any effort of faith and reason than the pain of a fractured limb, or
+the agony of fire on the living flesh. All that we can do is to brace
+ourselves to bear it, calling on God, as the martyrs did in the fire,
+and resigning ourselves to let it burn on. We must be willing to suffer,
+since God so wills. There are just so many waves to go over us, just so
+many arrows of stinging thought to be shot into our soul, just so many
+faintings and sinkings and revivings only to suffer again, belonging to
+and inherent in our portion of sorrow; and there is a work of healing
+that God has placed in the hands of Time alone.
+
+Time heals all things at last; yet it depends much on us in our
+suffering, whether time shall send us forth healed, indeed, but maimed
+and crippled and callous, or whether, looking to the great Physician of
+sorrows, and coworking with him, we come forth stronger and fairer even
+for our wounds.
+
+We call ourselves a Christian people, and the peculiarity of
+Christianity is that it is a worship and doctrine of sorrow. The five
+wounds of Jesus, the instruments of the passion, the cross, the
+sepulchre,--these are its emblems and watchwords. In thousands of
+churches, amid gold and gems and altars fragrant with perfume, are seen
+the crown of thorns, the nails, the spear, the cup of vinegar mingled
+with gall, the sponge that could not slake that burning death-thirst;
+and in a voice choked with anguish the Church in many lands and divers
+tongues prays from age to age,--"By thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy
+cross and passion, by thy precious death and burial!"--mighty words of
+comfort, whose meaning reveals itself only to souls fainting in the cold
+death-sweat of mortal anguish! They tell all Christians that by
+uttermost distress alone was the Captain of their salvation made perfect
+as a Saviour.
+
+Sorrow brings us into the true unity of the Church,--that unity which
+underlies all external creeds, and unites all hearts that have suffered
+deeply enough to know that when sorrow is at its utmost there is but one
+kind of sorrow, and but one remedy. What matter, _in extremis_, whether
+we be called Romanist, or Protestant, or Greek, or Calvinist?
+
+We suffer, and Christ suffered; we die, and Christ died; he conquered
+suffering and death, he rose and lives and reigns,--and we shall
+conquer, rise, live, and reign; the hours on the cross were long, the
+thirst was bitter, the darkness and horror real,--_but they ended_.
+After the wail, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" came the calm, "It
+is finished"; pledge to us all that our "It is finished" shall come
+also.
+
+Christ arose, fresh, joyous, no more to die; and it is written, that,
+when the disciples were gathered together in fear and sorrow, he stood
+in the midst of them, and showed unto them his hands and his side; and
+then were they glad. Already had the healed wounds of Jesus become
+pledges of consolation to innumerable thousands; and those who, like
+Christ, have suffered the weary struggles, the dim horrors of the
+cross,--who have lain, like him, cold and chilled in the hopeless
+sepulchre,--if his spirit wakes them to life, shall come forth with
+healing power for others who have suffered and are suffering.
+
+Count the good and beautiful ministrations that have been wrought in
+this world of need and labor, and how many of them have been wrought by
+hands wounded and scarred, by hearts that had scarcely ceased to bleed!
+
+How many priests of consolation is God now ordaining by the fiery
+imposition of sorrow! how many Sisters of the Bleeding Heart, Daughters
+of Mercy, Sisters of Charity, are receiving their first vocation in
+tears and blood!
+
+The report of every battle strikes into some home; and heads fall low,
+and hearts are shattered, and only God sees the joy that is set before
+them, and that shall come out of their sorrow. He sees our morning at
+the same moment that He sees our night,--sees us comforted, healed,
+risen to a higher life, at the same moment that He sees us crushed and
+broken in the dust; and so, though tenderer than we, He bears our great
+sorrows for the joy that is set before us.
+
+After the Napoleonic wars had desolated Europe, the country was, like
+all countries after war, full of shattered households, of widows and
+orphans and homeless wanderers. A nobleman of Silesia, the Baron von
+Kottwitz, who had lost his wife and all his family in the reverses and
+sorrows of the times, found himself alone in the world, which looked
+more dreary and miserable through the multiplying lenses of his own
+tears. But he was one of those whose heart had been quickened in its
+death anguish by the resurrection voice of Christ; and he came forth to
+life and comfort. He bravely resolved to do all that one man could to
+lessen the great sum of misery. He sold his estates in Silesia, bought
+in Berlin a large building that had been used as barracks for the
+soldiers, and, fitting it up in plain commodious apartments, formed
+there a great family-establishment, into which he received the wrecks
+and fragments of families that had been broken up by the war,--orphan
+children, widowed and helpless women, decrepit old people, disabled
+soldiers. These he mad his family, and constituted himself their father
+and chief. He above with them, and cared for them as a parent. He had
+schools for the children; the more advanced he put to trades and
+employments; he set up a hospital for the sick; and for all he had the
+priestly ministrations of his own Christ-like heart. The celebrated
+Professor Tholuck, one of the most learned men of modern Germany, was an
+early _protégé_ of the old Baron's, who, discerning his talents, put him
+in the way of a liberal education. In his earlier years, like many
+others of the young who play with life, ignorant of its needs, Tholuck
+piqued himself on a lordly skepticism with regard to the commonly
+received Christianity, and even wrote an essay to prove the superiority
+of the Mohammedan to the Christian religion. In speaking of his
+conversion, he says,--"What moved me was no argument, nor any spoken
+reproof, but simply that divine image of the old Baron walking before my
+soul. That life was an argument always present to me, and which I never
+could answer; and so I became a Christian." In the life of this man we
+see the victory over sorrow. How many with means like his, when
+desolated by like bereavements, have lain coldly and idly gazing on the
+miseries of life, and weaving around themselves icy tissues of doubt and
+despair,--doubting the being of a God, doubting the reality of a
+Providence, doubting the divine love, embittered and rebellious against
+the power which they could not resist, yet to which they would not
+submit! In such a chill heart-freeze lies the danger of sorrow. And it
+is a mortal danger. It is a torpor that must be resisted, as the man in
+the whirling snows must bestir himself, or he will perish. The apathy of
+melancholy must be broken by an effort of religion and duty. The
+stagnant blood must be made to flow by active work, and the cold hand
+warmed by clasping the hands outstretched towards it in sympathy or
+supplication. One orphan child taken in, to be fed, clothed, and
+nurtured, may save a heart from freezing to death: and God knows this
+war is making but too many orphans!
+
+It is easy to subscribe to an orphan asylum, and go on in one's despair
+and loneliness. Such ministries may do good to the children who are
+thereby saved from the street, but they impart little warmth and comfort
+to the giver. One destitute child housed, taught, cared for, and tended
+personally, will bring more solace to a suffering heart than a dozen
+maintained in an asylum. Not that the child will probably prove an
+angel, or even an uncommonly interesting mortal. It is a prosaic work,
+this bringing-up of children, and there can be little rosewater in it.
+The child may not appreciate what is done for him, may not be
+particularly grateful, may have disagreeable faults, and continue to
+have them after much pains on your part to eradicate them,--and yet it
+is a fact, that to redeem one human being from destitution and ruin,
+even in some homely every-day course of ministrations, is one of the
+best possible tonics and alteratives to a sick and wounded spirit.
+
+But this is not the only avenue to beneficence which the war opens. We
+need but name the service of hospitals, the care and education of the
+freedmen,--for these are charities that have long been before the eyes
+of the community, and have employed thousands of busy hands: thousands
+of sick and dying beds to tend, a race to be educated, civilized, and
+Christianized, surely were work enough for one age; and yet this is not
+all. War shatters everything, and it is hard to say what in society will
+not need rebuilding and binding up and strengthening anew. Not the least
+of the evils of war are the vices which a great army engenders wherever
+it moves,--vices peculiar to military life, as others are peculiar to
+peace. The poor soldier perils for us not merely his body, but his soul.
+He leads a life of harassing and exhausting toil and privation, of
+violent strain on the nervous energies, alternating with sudden
+collapse, creating a craving for stimulants, and endangering the
+formation of fatal habits. What furies and harpies are those that follow
+the army, and that seek out the soldier in his tent, far from home,
+mother, wife, and sister, tired, disheartened, and tempt him to forget
+his troubles in a momentary exhilaration, that burns only to chill and
+to destroy! Evil angels are always active and indefatigable, and there
+must be good angels enlisted to face them; and here is employment for
+the slack hand of grief. Ah, we have known mothers bereft of sons in
+this war, who have seemed at once to open wide their hearts, and to
+become mothers to every brave soldier in the field. They have lived only
+to work,--and in place of one lost, their sons have been counted by
+thousands.
+
+And not least of all the fields for exertion and Christian charity
+opened by this war is that presented by womanhood. The war is
+abstracting from the community its protecting and sheltering elements,
+and leaving the helpless and dependent in vast disproportion. For years
+to come, the average of lone women will be largely increased; and the
+demand, always great, for some means by which they may provide for
+themselves, in the rude jostle of the world, will become more urgent and
+imperative.
+
+Will any one sit pining away in inert grief, when two streets off are
+the midnight dance-houses, where girls of twelve, thirteen, and fourteen
+are being lured into the way of swift destruction? How many of these are
+daughters of soldiers who have given their hearts' blood for us and our
+liberties!
+
+Two noble women of the Society of Friends have lately been taking the
+gauge of suffering and misery in our land, visiting the hospitals at
+every accessible point, pausing in our great cities, and going in their
+purity to those midnight orgies where mere children are being trained
+for a life of vice and infamy. They have talked with these poor
+bewildered souls, entangled in toils as terrible and inexorable as those
+of the slave-market, and many of whom are frightened and distressed at
+the life they are beginning to lead, and earnestly looking for the means
+of escape. In the judgment of these holy women, at least one third of
+those with whom they have talked are children so recently entrapped, and
+so capable of reformation, that there would be the greatest hope in
+efforts for their salvation. While such things are to be done in our
+land, is there any reason why any one should die of grief? One soul
+redeemed will do more to lift the burden of sorrow than all the
+blandishments and diversions of art, all the alleviations of luxury, all
+the sympathy of friends.
+
+In the Roman Catholic Church there is an order of women called the
+Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who have renounced the world to devote
+themselves, their talents and property, entirely to the work of seeking
+out and saving the fallen of their own sex; and the wonders worked by
+their self-denying love on the hearts and lives of even the most
+depraved are credible only to those who know that the Good Shepherd
+Himself ever lives and works with such spirits engaged in such a work. A
+similar order of women exists in New York, under the direction of the
+Episcopal Church, in connection with St. Luke's Hospital; and another in
+England, who tend the "House of Mercy" of Clewer.
+
+Such benevolent associations offer objects of interest to that class
+which most needs something to fill the void made by bereavement. The
+wounds of grief are less apt to find a cure in that rank of life where
+the sufferer has wealth and leisure. The _poor_ widow, whose husband was
+her all, _must_ break the paralysis of grief. The hard necessities of
+life are her physicians; they send her out to unwelcome, yet friendly
+toil, which, hard as it seems, has yet its healing power. But the
+sufferer surrounded by the appliances of wealth and luxury may long
+indulge the baleful apathy, and remain in the damp shadows of the valley
+of death till strength and health are irrecoverably lost. How
+Christ-like is the thought of a woman, graceful, elegant, cultivated,
+refined, whose voice has been trained to melody, whose fingers can make
+sweet harmony with every touch, whose pencil and whose needle can awake
+the beautiful creations of art, devoting all these powers to the work of
+charming back to the sheepfold those wandering and bewildered lambs whom
+the Good Shepherd still calls his own! Jenny Lind, once, when she sang
+at a concert for destitute children, exclaimed in her enthusiasm, "Is it
+not beautiful that I can sing so?" And so may not every woman feel, when
+her graces and accomplishments draw the wanderer, and charm away evil
+demons, and soothe the sore and sickened spirit, and make the Christian
+fold more attractive than the dizzy gardens of false pleasure?
+
+In such associations, and others of kindred nature, how many of the
+stricken and bereaved women of our country might find at once a home and
+an object in life! Motherless hearts might be made glad in a better and
+higher motherhood; and the stock of earthly life that seemed cut off at
+the root, and dead past recovery, may be grafted upon with a shoot from
+the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.
+
+So the beginning of this eventful 1865, which finds us still treading
+the wine-press of our great conflict, should bring with it a serene and
+solemn hope, a joy such as those had with whom in the midst of the fiery
+furnace there walked one like unto the Son of God.
+
+The great affliction that has come upon our country is so evidently the
+purifying chastening of a Father, rather than the avenging anger of a
+Destroyer, that all hearts may submit themselves in a solemn and holy
+calm still to bear the burning that shall make us clean from dross and
+bring us forth to a higher national life. Never, in the whole course of
+our history, have such teachings of the pure abstract Right been so
+commended and forced upon us by Providence. Never have public men been
+so constrained to humble themselves before God, and to acknowledge that
+there is a Judge that ruleth in the earth. Verily His inquisition for
+blood has been strict and awful; and for every stricken household of the
+poor and lowly, hundreds of households of the oppressor have been
+scattered. The land where the family of the slave was first annihilated,
+and the negro, with all the loves and hopes of a man, was proclaimed to
+be a beast to be bred and sold in market with the horse and the
+swine,--that land, with its fair name, Virginia, has been made a
+desolation so signal, so wonderful, that the blindest passer-by cannot
+but ask for what sin so awful a doom has been meted out. The prophetic
+visions of Nat Turner, who saw the leaves drop blood and the land
+darkened, have been fulfilled. The work of justice which he predicted is
+being executed to the uttermost.
+
+But when this strange work of judgment and justice is consummated, when
+our country, through a thousand battles and ten thousands of precious
+deaths, shall have come forth from this long agony, redeemed and
+regenerated, then God Himself shall return and dwell with us, and the
+Lord God shall wipe away all tears from all faces, and the rebuke of His
+people shall He utterly take away.
+
+
+
+
+GOD SAVE THE FLAG!
+
+
+    Washed in the blood of the brave and the blooming,
+      Snatched from the altars of insolent foes,
+    Burning with star-fires, but never consuming,
+      Flash its broad ribands of lily and rose.
+
+    Vainly the prophets of Baäl would rend it,
+      Vainly his worshippers pray for its fall;
+    Thousands have died for it, millions defend it,
+      Emblem of justice and mercy to all:
+
+    Justice that reddens the sky with her terrors,
+      Mercy that comes with her white-handed train,
+    Soothing all passions, redeeming all errors,
+      Sheathing the sabre and breaking the chain.
+
+    Borne on the deluge of old usurpations,
+      Drifted our Ark o'er the desolate seas;
+    This was the rainbow of hope to the nations,
+      Torn from the storm-cloud and flung to the breeze!
+
+    God bless the Flag and its loyal defenders.
+      While its broad folds o'er the battle-field wave,
+    Till the dim star-wreath rekindle its splendors,
+      Washed from its stains in the blood of the brave!
+
+
+
+
+ANNO DOMINI.
+
+
+It is right and fitting that this nation should enter upon the new year
+with peculiar gratitude and thanksgiving to the Most High. Through all
+its existence it has rejoiced in the sunshine of divine favor; but never
+has that favor been so benignly and bountifully bestowed as in these
+latter days. For the unexampled material prosperity which has waited
+upon our steps,--for blessings in city and field, in basket and store,
+in all that we have set our hand unto, it is meet that we should render
+thanks to the Good Giver; but for the especial blessings of these last
+four years,--for the sudden uprising of manhood,--for the great revival
+of justice and truth and love, without which material prosperity is but
+a second death,--for the wisdom to do, the courage to dare, the patience
+to endure, and the godlike strength to sacrifice all in a righteous
+cause, let us give thanks to-day; for in these consists a people's life.
+
+To every nation there comes an hour whereon hang trembling the issues of
+its fate. Has it vitality to withstand the shock of conflict and the
+turmoil of surprise? Will it slowly gather itself up for victorious
+onset? or will it sink unresisting into darkness and the grave?
+
+To this nation, as to all, the question came: Ease or honor, death or
+life? Subtle and savage, with a bribe in his hand, and a threat on his
+tongue, the tempter stood. Let it be remembered with lasting gratitude
+that there was neither pause nor parley when once his purpose was
+revealed. The answer came,--the voice of millions like the voice of one.
+From city and village, from mountain and prairie, from the granite coast
+of the Atlantic to the golden gate of the Pacific, the answer came. It
+roared from a thousand cannon, it flashed from a million muskets. The
+sudden gleam of uplifted swords revealed it, the quiver of bristling
+bayonets wrote it in blood. A knell to the despot, a pæan to the slave,
+it thundered round the world.
+
+Then the thing which we had greatly feared came upon us, and that
+spectre which we had been afraid of came unto us, and, behold, length of
+days was in its right hand, and in its left hand riches and honor. What
+the lion-hearted warrior of England was to the children of the Saracens,
+that had the gaunt mystery of Secession been to the little ones of this
+generation, an evening phantom and a morning fear, at the mere mention
+of whose name many had been but too ready to fall at the feet of
+opposition and cry imploringly, "Take any form but that!" The phantom
+approached, put off its shadowy outlines, assumed a definite purpose,
+loomed up in horrid proportions,--to come to perpetual end. In its
+actual presence all fear vanished. The contest waxed hot, but it wanes
+forever. Shadow and substance drag slowly down their bloody path to
+disappear in eternal infamy. The war rolls on to its close; and when it
+closes, the foul blot of secession stains our historic page no more.
+Another book shall be opened.
+
+Remembering all the way which these battling years have led us, we can
+only say, "It is the Lord's, doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
+Who dreamed of the grand, stately patience, the heroic strength, that
+lay dormant in the hearts of this impulsive, mercurial people? It was
+always capable of magnanimity. Who suspected its sublime self-poise?
+Rioting in a reckless, childish freedom, who would have dared to
+prophesy that calm, clear foresight by which it voluntarily assumed the
+yoke, voiced all its strong individual wills in one central controlling
+will, and bent with haughty humility to every restraint that looked to
+the rescue of its endangered liberty? The cannon that smote the walls of
+Sumter did a wild work. Its voice of insult and of sacrilege roused the
+fire of a blood too brave to know its courage, too proud to boast its
+source. All the heroism inherited from an honored ancestry, all the
+inborn wrath of justice against iniquity, all that was true to truth
+sprang up instinctively to wrest our Holy Land from the clutch of its
+worse than infidels.
+
+But that was not the final test. The final test came afterwards. The
+passion of indignation flamed out as passion must. The war that had been
+welcomed as a relief bore down upon the land with an ever-increasing
+weight, became an ever-darkening shadow. Its romance and poetry did not
+fade out, but their colors were lost under the sable hues of reality.
+The cloud hung over every hamlet; it darkened every doorway. Even
+success must have been accompanied with sharpest sorrow; and we had not
+success to soften sorrow. Disaster followed close upon delay, and delay
+upon disaster, and still the nation's heart was strong. The cloud became
+a pall, but there was no faltering. Men said to one another,
+anxiously,--"This cannot last. We must have victory. The people will not
+stand these delays. The summer must achieve results, or all is lost."
+The summer came and went, results were not achieved, and still the
+patient country waited,--waited not supinely, not indifferently, but
+with a still determination, with a painful longing, with an eager
+endeavor, with a resolute will, less demonstrative, but no less
+definite, than that which Sumter roused. Moments of sadness, of gloom,
+of bitter disappointment and deep indignation there have been; but never
+from the first moment of the Rebellion to this its dying hour has there
+been a time when the purpose of the people to crush out treason and save
+the nation has for a single instant wavered. And never has their power
+lagged behind their purpose. Never have they withheld men or money, but
+always they have pressed on, more eager, more generous, more forward to
+give than their leaders have been to ask. Truly, it is not in man that
+walketh thus to direct his steps!
+
+And side by side, with no unequal step, the great charities have
+attended the great conflict. Out of the strong has come forth sweetness.
+From the helmeted brow of War has sprung a fairer than Minerva,
+panoplied not for battle, but for the tenderest ministrations of Peace.
+Wherever the red hand of War has been raised to strike, there the white
+hand of Pity has been stretched forth to solace. Wherever else there may
+have been division, here there has been no division. Love, the essence
+of Christianity, self-sacrifice, the life of God, have forgotten their
+names, have left the beaten ways, have embodied themselves in
+institutions, and lifted the whole nation to the heights of a divine
+beneficence. Old and young, rich and poor, bond and free, have joined in
+offering an offering to the Lord in the persons of his wounded brethren.
+The woman that was tender and very delicate has brought her finest
+handiwork; the slave, whose just unmanacled hands were hardly yet deft
+enough to fashion a freedman's device, has proffered his painful hoards;
+the criminal in his cell has felt the mysterious brotherhood stirring in
+his heart, and has pressed his skill and cunning into the service of his
+countrymen. Hands trembling with age have steadied themselves to new
+effort; little fingers that had hardly learned their uses have bent with
+unwonted patience to the novelty of tasks. The fashion and elegance of
+great cities, the thrift and industry of rural villages, have combined
+to relieve the suffering and comfort the sorrowful. Science has wrought
+her mysteries, art has spread her beauties, and learning and eloquence
+and poetry have lavished their free-will offerings. The ancient blood of
+Massachusetts and the youthful vigor of California have throbbed high
+with one desire to give deserved meed to those heroic men who wear their
+badge of honor in scarred brow and maimed limb. The wonders of the Old
+World, the treasures of tropical seas, the boundless wealth of our own
+fertile inland, all that the present has of marvellous, all that the
+past has bequeathed most precious,--all has been poured into the lap of
+this sweet charity, and blesseth alike him that gives and him that
+takes. It is the old convocation of the Jews, when they brought the
+Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation: "And
+they came, both men and women, and brought bracelets, and ear-rings, and
+rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold; and every man that offered
+offered an offering of gold unto the Lord. And every man with whom was
+found blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen and goats' hair and red
+skins of rams and badgers' skins brought them. And all the women that
+were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they
+had spun, both of blue and of purple and of scarlet and of fine linen.
+And the rulers brought onyx-stones, and stones to be set, and spice, and
+oil for the light. The children of Israel brought a willing offering
+unto the Lord, every man and woman."
+
+Truly, not the least of the compensations of this war is the new spirit
+which it has set astir in human life, this acknowledged brotherhood
+which makes all things common, which moves health and wealth and leisure
+and learning to brave the dangers of the battle-field and the horrors of
+the hospital for the comfort of its needy comrade. And inasmuch as he
+who hath done it unto one of the least of these his brethren has done it
+unto the Master, is not this, in very deed and truth, Anno Domini, the
+Year of our Lord?
+
+And let all devout hearts render praises to God for the hope we are
+enabled to cherish that He will speedily save this people from their
+national sin. From the days of our fathers, the land groaned under its
+weight of woe and crime; but none saw from what quarter deliverance
+should come. Apostles and prophets arose in North and South, prophesying
+the wrath of God against a nation that dared to hold its great truth of
+human brotherhood in unrighteousness, and the smile of God only on him
+who should do justly and love mercy and walk humbly before Him; but they
+died in faith, not having obtained the promises. That faith in God, and
+consequently in the ultimate triumph of right over wrong, never failed;
+but few, even of the most sanguine, dared to hope that their eyes should
+see the salvation of the Lord. Upright men spent their lives in
+unyielding and indignant protest, not so much for any immediate result
+as because they could do no otherwise,--because the constant violation
+of sacred right, the constant defilement and degradation of country,
+wrought so fiercely and painfully in their hearts that they could not
+hold their peace. Though they expected no sudden reform, they believed
+in the indestructibility of truth, and knew, therefore, that their word
+should not return unto them void, but waited for some far future day
+when happier harvesters should come bringing their sheaves with them.
+How looks the promise now? A beneficent Providence has outstripped our
+laggard hopes. The work which we had so summarily given over to the
+wiser generations behind us is rapidly approaching completion beneath
+the strokes of a few sharp, short years of our own. Slavery, which was
+apologized for by the South, tolerated by the North, half recognized as
+an evil, half accepted as a compromise, but with every conscientious
+concession and every cowardly expedient sinking ever deeper and deeper
+into the nation's life, stands forth at last in its real character, and
+meets its righteous doom. Public opinion, rapidly sublimed in the white
+heat of this fierce war, is everywhere crystallizing. Men are learning
+to know precisely what they believe, and, knowing, dare maintain. There
+is no more speaking with bated breath, no more counselling of
+forbearance and non-intervention. It is no longer a chosen few who dare
+openly to denounce the sum of all villainies; but loud and long and deep
+goes up the execration of a people,--the tenfold hate and horror of men
+who have seen the foul fiend's work, who have felt his fangs fastened in
+their own flesh, his poison working in their own hearts' blood.
+Hundreds of thousands of thinking men have gone down into his loathsome
+prison-house, have looked upon his obscene features, have grappled,
+shuddering, with his slimy strength; and thousands of thousands,
+watching them from far-off Northern homes, have felt the chill of
+disgust that crept through their souls. The inmost abhorrence of slavery
+that fills the heart of this people it is impossible for language to
+exaggerate. It is so strong, so wide-spread, so uncompromising, so fixed
+in its determination to destroy, root and branch, the accursed thing,
+that even the forces of evil and self-seeking, awed and overpowered, are
+swept into the line of its procession. Good men and bad men, lovers of
+country and lovers only of lucre, men who will fight to the death for a
+grand idea and men who fight only for some low ambition, worshippers of
+God and worshippers of Mammon, are alike putting their hands to the
+plough which is to overturn and overturn till the ancient evil is
+uprooted. The very father of lies is, perforce, become the servant of
+truth. That old enemy which is the Devil, the malignant messenger of all
+evil, finds himself,--somewhat amazed and enraged, we must believe, at
+his unexpected situation,--with all his executive ability undiminished,
+all his spiritual strength unimpaired, finds himself harnessed to the
+chariot of human freedom and human progress, and working in his own
+despite the beneficent will of God. So He maketh the wrath of men and
+devils to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain.
+
+Unspeakably cheering, both as a sign of the sincerity of our leaders in
+this great day and as a pledge of what the nation means to do when its
+hands are free, are the little Christian colonies planted in the rear of
+our victorious armies. In the heart of woods are often seen large tracts
+of open country gay with a brilliant purple bloom which the people call
+"fire-weed," because it springs up on spots that have been stripped by
+fire. So, where the old plantations of sloth and servitude have been
+consumed by the desolating flames of war, spring up the tender growths
+of Christian civilization. The filthy hovel is replaced by the decent
+cottage. The squalor of slavery is succeeded by the little adornments of
+ownership. The thrift of self-possession supplants the recklessness of
+irresponsibility. For the slave-pen we have the school-house. Where the
+lash labored to reduce men to the level of brutes, the Bible leads them
+up to the heights of angels. We are as yet but in the beginning, but we
+have begun right. With his staff the slave passes over the Jordan of his
+deliverance; but through the manly nurture and Christian training which
+we owe him, and which we shall pay, he shall become two bands. The
+people did not set themselves to combat prejudices with words alone,
+when the time was ripe for deeds; but while the Government was yet
+hesitating whether to put the musket into his hand for war, Christian
+men and women hastened to give him the primer for peace. Not waiting for
+legislative enactments, they took the freedman as he came all panting
+from the house of bondage; they ministered to his wants, strengthened
+his heart, and set him rejoicing on his way to manhood. The Proclamation
+of Emancipation may or may not be revoked; but whom knowledge has made a
+man, and discipline a soldier, no edict can make again a slave.
+
+While the people have been working in their individual capacity to right
+the wrongs of generations, our constituted authorities have been moving
+on steadfastly to the same end. Military necessity has emancipated
+thousands of slaves, and civil power has pressed ever nearer and nearer
+to the abolition of slavery. In all the confusion of war, the
+trumpet-tones of justice have rung through our national halls with no
+uncertain sound. With a pertinacity most exasperating to tyrants and
+infidels, but most welcome to the friends of human rights, Northern
+Senators and Representatives have presented the claims of the African
+race. With many a momentary recession, the tide has swept irresistibly
+onward. Hopes have been baffled only to be strengthened. Measures have
+been defeated only to be renewed. Defeat has been accepted but as the
+stepping-stone to new endeavor. Cautiously, warily, Freedom has lain in
+wait to rescue her wronged children. Her watchful eyes have fastened
+upon every weakness in her foe: her ready hand has been upraised
+wherever there was a chance to strike. Quietly, almost unheard amid the
+loud-resounding clash of arms, her decrees have gone forth, instinct
+with the enfranchisement of a race. The war began with old customs and
+prejudices under full headway, but the new necessities soon met them
+with fierce collision. The first shock was felt when the escaping slaves
+of Rebel masters were pronounced free, and our soldiers were forbidden
+to return them. Then the blows came fast and furious, and the whole
+edifice, reared on that crumbling corner-stone of Slavery, reeled
+through all its heaven-defying heights. The gates of Liberty opened to
+the slave, on golden hinges turning. The voice of promise rang through
+Rebel encampments, and penetrated to the very fastnesses of Rebellion.
+The ranks of the army called the freedman to the rescue of his race. The
+courts of justice received him in witness of his manhood. Before every
+foreign court he was acknowledged as a citizen of his country, and as
+entitled to her protection. The capital of our nation was purged of the
+foul stain that dishonored her in the eyes of the nations, and that gave
+the lie direct to our most solemn Declaration. The fugitive-slave
+acts that disfigured our statute-book were blotted out, and
+fugitive-slave-stealer acts filled their vacant places. The seal of
+freedom, unconditional, perpetual, and immediate, was set upon the broad
+outlying lands of the republic, and from the present Congress we
+confidently await the crowning act which shall make slavery forever
+impossible, and liberty the one supreme, universal, unchangeable law in
+every part of our domains.
+
+What we have done is an earnest of what we mean to do. After nearly four
+years of war, and war on such a scale as the world has never before
+seen, the people have once more, and in terms too emphatic to be
+misunderstood, proclaimed their undying purpose. With a unanimity rarely
+equalled, a people that had fought eight years against a tax of
+threepence on the pound, and that was rapidly advancing to the front
+rank of nations through the victories of peace,--a people jealous of its
+liberties and proud of its prosperity, has reëlected to the chief
+magistracy a man under whose administration burdensome taxes have been
+levied, immense armies marshalled, imperative drafts ordered, and
+fearful sufferings endured. They have done this because, in spite of
+possible mistakes and short-comings, they have seen his grasp ever
+tightening around the throat of Slavery, his weapons ever seeking the
+vital point of the Rebellion. They have beheld him standing always at
+his post, calm in the midst of peril, hopeful when all was dark, patient
+under every obloquy, courteous to his bitterest foes, conciliatory where
+conciliation was possible, inflexible where to yield was dishonor. Never
+have the passions of civil war betrayed him into cruelty or hurried him
+into revenge; nor has any hope of personal benefit or any fear of
+personal detriment stayed him when occasion beckoned. If he has erred,
+it has been on the side of leniency. If he has hesitated, it has been to
+assure himself of the right. Where there was censure, he claimed it for
+himself; where there was praise, he has lavished it on his subordinates.
+The strong he has braved, and the weak sheltered. He has rejected the
+counsels of his friends when they were inspired by partisanship, and
+adopted the suggestions of opponents when they were founded on wisdom.
+His ear has always been open to the people's voice, yet he has never
+suffered himself to be blindly driven by the storm of popular fury. He
+has consulted public opinion, as the public servant should; but he has
+not pandered to public prejudice, as only demagogues do. Not weakly
+impatient to secure the approval of the country, he has not scorned to
+explain his measures to the understanding of the common people. Never
+bewildered by the solicitations of party, nor terrified by the menace of
+opposition, he has controlled with moderation, and yielded with dignity,
+as the exigencies of the time demanded. Entering upon office with his
+full share of the common incredulity, perceiving no more than his
+fellow-citizens the magnitude of the crisis, he has steadily risen to
+the height of the great argument. No suspicion of self-seeking stains
+his fair fame; but ever mindful of his solemn oath, he seeks with clean
+hands and a pure heart the welfare of the whole country. Future
+generations alone can do justice to his ability; his integrity is firmly
+established in the convictions of the present age. His reward is with
+him, though his work lies still before him.
+
+Only less significant than the fact is the manner of his reflection. All
+sections of a continental country, with interests as diverse as latitude
+and longitude can make them, came up to secure, not any man's
+continuance in power, but the rule of law. The East called with her
+thousands, and the West answered with her tens of thousands. Baltimore
+that day washed out the blood-stains from her pavement, and free
+Maryland girded herself for a new career. Men who had voted for
+Washington came forward with the snows of a hundred winters on their
+brows, and amid the silence and tears of assembled throngs deposited
+their ballot for Abraham Lincoln. Daughters led their infirm fathers to
+the polls to be sure that no deception should mock their failing sight.
+Armless men dropped their votes from between their teeth. Sick men and
+wounded men, wounded on the battle-fields of their country, were borne
+on litters to give their dying testimony to the righteous cause.
+Dilettanteism, that would not soil its dainty hands with politics, dared
+no longer stand aloof, but gave its voice for national honor and
+national existence. Old party ties snapped asunder, and local prejudices
+shrivelled in the fire of newly kindled patriotism. Turbulence and
+violence, awed by the supreme majesty of a resolute nation, slunk away
+and hid their shame from the indignant day. Calmly, in the midst of
+raging war, in despite of threats and cajolery, with a lofty, unspoken
+contempt for those false men who would urge to anarchy and infamy, this
+great people went up to the ballot-box, and gave in its adhesion to
+human equality, civil liberty, and universal freedom. And as the good
+tidings of great joy flashed over the wires from every quarter, men
+recognized the finger of God, and, laying aside all lower exultation,
+gathered in the public places, and, standing reverently with uncovered
+heads, poured forth their rapturous thanksgiving in that sublime
+doxology which has voiced for centuries the adoration of the human
+soul:--
+
+    "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!
+    Praise Him, all creatures here below!
+    Praise Him above, ye heavenly host!
+    Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!"
+
+So America to the world gives greeting. So a free people meets and
+masters the obstacles that bar its progress. So this young republic
+speaks warning to the old despotisms, and hope to the struggling
+peoples. Thus with the sword she seeks peace under liberty. Striking off
+the shackles that fettered her own limbs, emerging from the thick of her
+deadly conflict, with many a dint on her armor, but with no shame on her
+brow, she starts on her victorious career, and bids the suffering
+nations take heart. With the old lie torn from her banner, the old life
+shall come back to her symbols. Her children shall no longer blush at
+the taunts of foreign tyrannies, but shall boldly proclaim her to be
+indeed the land of the free, as she has always been the home of the
+brave. Men's minds shall no longer be confused by distinctions between
+higher and lower law, to the infinite detriment of moral character, but
+all her laws shall be emanations from the infinite source of justice.
+Marshalling thus all her forces on the Lord's side, she may inscribe,
+without mockery, on her silver and gold, "In God we trust." She may hope
+for purity in her homes, and honesty in her councils. She may front her
+growing grandeur without misgiving, knowing that it comes not by earthly
+might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts; and the only
+voice of her victory, the song of her thanksgiving, and her watchword to
+the nations shall be, "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace,
+good-will toward men."
+
+
+
+
+REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+
+     _America and her Commentators:_ With a Critical Sketch of
+     Travel in the United States. By HENRY T. TUCKERMAN. New
+     York: Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. 460.
+
+If a little late, we are none the less sincere in extending to this
+timely and excellent work a hearty welcome. It is full of varied
+interest and valuable instruction. It is equally adapted to attract and
+edify our own citizens, and to guide and inform those foreigners who
+wish to know the history and facts of American society. The object of
+the work is to present a general view of the traits and transitions of
+our country, as they are reflected in the records made at different
+periods by writers of various nationalities, and to discuss, in
+connection with this exhibition, the temper and value of the principal
+critics of our civilization, emphasizing and indorsing their correct
+observations, pointing out and rectifying their erroneous ones. There
+are obviously many great advantages in thus reverting to the past and
+examining the present of American institutions and life by the help of
+the literature of travel in America,--a literature so richly suggestive,
+because so constantly modified by the national peculiarities and
+personal points of view of the writers. Mr. Tuckerman has improved these
+advantages with care and tact. In the preface and introduction,
+characterized by an ample command of the resources of the subject, easy
+discursiveness and lively criticism, he puts the reader in possession of
+such preliminary information as he will like or need to have. The body
+of the work begins with a portrayal of America as it appeared to its
+earliest discoverers and explorers. The second chapter is devoted to the
+Jesuit missionaries, who, reviving the spirit of the Crusades, plunged
+into the wilderness to convert the aborigines to Christianity, and,
+inspired by the wonders of the virgin solitude, became the pioneer
+writers of American travels. Chapters third and fourth deal with the
+French travellers who have visited and written on our country, from
+Chastellux to Laboulaye. The similar list of British travellers and
+writers is presented and discussed in the fifth and sixth chapters.
+Chapter seventh is taken up with "English Abuse of America"; and the
+subject has rarely been treated so fitly and firmly, with such a
+blending of just severity and moderation. "Cockneyism," Mr. Tuckerman
+says, "may seem not worthy of analysis, far less of refutation; but, as
+Sydney Smith remarked, 'In a country surrounded by dikes, a rat may
+inundate a province'; and it is the long-continued gnawing of the tooth
+of detraction, that, at a momentous crisis, let in the cold flood at
+last upon the nation's heart, and quenched its traditional love." The
+eighth chapter depicts the views and characterizes the qualities of the
+Northern European authors who have travelled in America and written
+concerning us. In the ninth chapter our Italian visitors and critics are
+treated in like manner. And in the tenth chapter the same task is
+performed for the Americans themselves who have journeyed through and
+written on their own country. Then follows the conclusion,
+recapitulating and applying the results of the whole survey. And the
+work properly closes with an index, furnishing the reader facilities for
+immediate reference to any passage, topic, or name he wishes to find.
+
+For the task he has here undertaken Mr. Tuckerman is well qualified by
+the varied and comprehensive range of his knowledge and culture, the
+devotion of his life to travel, art, and study. His pages not only
+illustrate, they also vindicate, the character and claims of American
+nationality. He shows that "there never was a populous land about which
+the truth has been more generalized and less discriminated." His
+descriptions of local scenery and historic incidents recognize all that
+is lovely and sublime in our national landscapes, all that is romantic
+or distinctive in our national life. His humane and ethical sympathies
+are ready, discriminating, and generous; his approbations and rebukes,
+vivid and generally rightly applied. These and other associated
+qualities lend interest and value to the biographic sketches he presents
+of the numerous travellers and authors whose works pass in review. The
+pictures of many of these persons--such as Marquette, Volney,
+D'Allessandro, Bartram--are psychological studies of much freshness and
+force.
+
+
+     _Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American
+     Revolution:_ With an Historical Essay. By LORENZO SABINE.
+     Two Volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 8vo. pp. 608, 600.
+
+Mr. Sabine has attempted in these volumes to present in a judicial
+spirit a chapter of our Revolutionary history which usually bears the
+most of passion in its recital,--believing, as he does, that
+impartiality is identical with charity, in dealing with his theme. The
+first edition of his work, in a single volume, has been before the
+public seventeen years. The zeal and fidelity of his labor have been
+well appreciated. So far as his purpose has involved a plea or an
+apology for the Loyalists of the American Revolution, his critics who
+have at all abated their commendation of him have challenged him on the
+side where he might most willingly have been supposed to err, that of an
+excess of leniency. As to the class of men with whom he deals generally
+in his introductory essay, and individually in the elaborate
+biographical sketches which follow, the same difficulty presents itself
+which is encountered in all attempts to canvass the faults or the
+characteristics of any body of men who bear a common party-name or share
+a common opinion, while in the staple of real virtue or vice, of honor
+or baseness, of sincerity or hypocrisy, they may represent the poles of
+difference. The contemporary estimate of the Tories, and in large part
+the treatment of them which was thought to be just, were, in the main,
+adjusted with reference to the meanest and most malignant portion. Mr.
+Sabine, while by no means espousing the championship even of the best of
+them, would have the whole body judged with the candor which comes of
+looking at their general fellowship in the light of its natural
+prejudices, prepossessions, and embarrassments. It is to be considered
+also that the best of the class were a sort of warrant for the worst.
+
+Those who are tolerably well read in the biographies and histories of
+our Revolutionary period are aware that Dr. Franklin, who, about most
+exciting and passion-stirring subjects, was a man of remarkably moderate
+and tolerant spirit, was eminently a hater of the Tories, unrelenting in
+his animosity towards them, and sternly set against all the measures
+proposed at the Peace for their relief, either by the British Government
+to enforce our remuneration of their losses, or by our own General or
+State Governments to soften the penalties visited upon them. The origin
+and the explanation of this intense feeling of animosity toward the
+Loyalists in the breast of that philosopher of moderation are easily
+traced to one of the most interesting incidents in his residence near
+the British Court as agent for Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The
+incident is connected with the still unexplained mystery of his getting
+possession of the famous letters of Hutchinson, Oliver, etc. Franklin
+was living and directing all his practical efforts for enlightening and
+influencing those whom he supposed to be simply the ignorant plotters of
+mischief against the Colonists, under the full and most confident belief
+that those plotters were merely the stupid and conceited members of the
+British Cabinet. He never had dreamed that he was to look either above
+them to the King, or behind them to any unknown instigators of their
+mischief. With perfect good faith on his own part, he gave them the
+benefit of their own supposed ignorance, wrong-headedness, wilfulness,
+and ingenuity, such as it was, in inventing irritating and oppressive
+measures which, he warned them, would inevitably alienate the hearts and
+the allegiance of the Colonists. He records, that, while he had never
+had a thought but such as this imagined state of the facts had favored,
+a Liberal member of Parliament, an intimate friend of his, coming to
+him for a private interview, had told him that the Ministry were not the
+prime movers in this mischief, but were instigated to it by parties whom
+Franklin little suspected of such an agency. When the Doctor expressed
+his incredulity, the friend promised to give him decisive evidence of
+the full truth of his assertion. It came to Franklin in a form which
+astounded him, while it opened his eyes and fixed his indignation upon a
+class of men who from that moment onward were to him the exponents of
+all malignity and baseness. The evidence came in the shape of the
+originals, the autographs, of the above-named letters, written by
+natives of the American soil, office-holders under the Crown, who, while
+pampered and trusted by their constituents on this side of the water,
+were actually dictating, advising, and inspiriting the measures of the
+British Ministry most hateful to the Colonists. Franklin never overcame
+the impression from that shock. When he was negotiating the treaty of
+peace, he set his face and heart most resolutely against all the efforts
+and propositions made by the representatives of the Crown to secure to
+the Tories redress or compensation. He insisted that Britain, in
+espousing their alleged wrongs, indicated that she herself ought to
+remunerate their losses; that they, in fact, had been her agents and
+instruments, as truly as were her Crown officials and troops. Their
+malignant hostility toward their fellow-Colonists, and the sufferings
+and losses entailed on America by their open assertion of the rights of
+the Crown, and by the direct or indirect help which oppressive measures
+had received from them, had deprived them of all claim even on the pity
+of those who had triumphed in spite of them. At any rate, Franklin
+insisted, and it was the utmost to which he would assent,--his irony and
+sarcasm in making the offer showing the depth of his bitterness on the
+subject,--that a balance should be struck between the losses of the
+Loyalists and those of the Colonists in the conflagration of their
+sea-ports and the outrages on the property of individual patriots.
+
+The views and feelings of Franklin have been essentially those which
+have since prevailed popularly among us regarding the old Tories. Of
+course, when hard-pressed, he was willing to recognize a difference in
+the motives which prompted individuals and in the degrees of their
+turpitude. Mr. Sabine gives us in his introductory essay a most
+admirable analysis of the whole subject-matter, with an accurate and
+instructive array of all the facts bearing upon it. No man has given
+more thorough or patient inquiry to it, or has had better opportunities
+for gathering materials of prime authority and perfect authenticity for
+the treatment of it. In the biographical sketches which crowd his
+volumes will be found matter of varied and profound interest,
+alternately engaging the tender sympathy and firing the indignation of
+the reader. One can hardly fail of bethinking himself that the moral and
+judicial reflections which come from perusing this work will by and by,
+under some slight modifications, attach to the review of the characters
+and course of some men who are in antagonism to their country's cause in
+these days.
+
+
+     _Broken Lights: An Inquiry into the Present Condition and
+     Future Prospects of Religious Faith._ By FRANCES POWER
+     COBBE. Boston: J. E. Tilton & Co.
+
+Among the countless errors of faith which have misled mankind, there is
+none more dangerous, or more common, than that of confounding the forms
+of religion with religion itself. Too often, alike to believer and
+unbeliever, this has proved the one fatal mistake. Many an honest and
+earnest soul, feeling the deep needs of a spiritual life, but unable to
+separate those things which the heart would accept from those against
+which the reason revolts, has rejected all together, and turned away
+sorrowful, if not scoffing. On the other hand, the state of that man,
+who, because his mind has settled down upon certain externals of
+religion, deems that he has secured its essentials also, is worse than
+that of the skeptic. The freezing traveller, who is driven by the rocks
+(of hard doctrine) and the thorns (of doubt) to keep his limbs in
+motion, stands a far better chance of finding his way out of the
+wilderness than he who lies down on the softest bed of snow, flatters
+himself that all is well, and dreams of home, whilst the deadly torpor
+creeps over him.
+
+If help and guidance and good cheer for all such be not found in this
+little volume, it is certainly no fault of the writer's intention. She
+brings to her task the power of profound conviction, inspiring a devout
+wish to lead others into the way of truth. Beneath the multiform systems
+of theology she finds generally the same firm foundations of
+faith,--"faith in the existence of a righteous God, faith in the eternal
+Law of Morality, faith in an Immortal Life." None enjoys a monopoly of
+truth, although all are based upon it. Each is a lighthouse, more or
+less lofty, and more or less illumined by the glory that burns within;
+yet their purest rays are only "broken lights." The glory itself is
+infinite: it is only through human narrowness and imperfection that it
+appears narrow and imperfect. The lighthouse is good in its place: it
+beckons home, with its "wheeling arms of dark and bright," many a
+benighted voyager; but we must remember that it is a structure made with
+hands, and not confound the stone and iron of human contrivance with the
+great Source and Fountain of Light.
+
+The writer does not grope with uncertain purpose among these imperfect
+rays, and she is never confused by them. To each she freely gives credit
+for what it is or has been; but all fade at last before the unspeakable
+brightness of the rising sun. She discerns the dawn of that day when all
+our little candles may be safely extinguished: for it is not in any
+church, nor in any creed, nor yet in any book, that all of God's law is
+contained; but the light of His countenance shines primarily on the
+souls of men, out of which all religions have proceeded, and into which
+we must look for the ever new and ever vital faith, which is to the
+unclouded conscience what the sunshine is to sight.
+
+Such is the conclusion the author arrives at through an array of
+arguments of which we shall not attempt a summary. It is not necessary
+to admit what these are designed to prove, in order to derive
+refreshment and benefit from the pure tone of morality, the fervent
+piety, and the noble views of practical religion which animate her
+pages. It is not a book to be afraid of. No violent hand is here laid
+upon the temple; but only the scaffoldings, which, as she perceives,
+obscure the beauty of the temple, are taken away. Not only those who
+have rejected religion because they could not receive its dogmas, but
+all who have struggled with their doubts and mastered them, or thought
+they mastered them, nay, any sincere seeker for the truth, will find
+Miss Cobbe's unpretending treatise exceedingly valuable and suggestive;
+while to any one interested in modern theological discussions we would
+recommend it as containing the latest, and perhaps the clearest and most
+condensed, statement of the questions at issue which these discussions
+have called out.
+
+The spirit of the book is admirable. Both the skeptic who sneers and the
+bigot who denounces might learn a beautiful lesson from its calm, yet
+earnest pages. It is free from the brilliant shallowness of Renan, and
+the bitterness which sometimes marred the teachings of Parker. It is a
+generous, tender, noble book,--enjoying, indeed, over most works of its
+class a peculiar advantage; for, while its logic has everywhere a
+masculine strength and clearness, there glows through all an element too
+long wanting to our hard systems of theology,--an element which only
+woman's heart can supply.
+
+Yet, notwithstanding the lofty reason, the fine intuition, the
+philanthropy and hope, which inspire its pages, we close the book with a
+sense of something wanting. The author points out the danger there
+always is of a faith which is intellectually demonstrable becoming, with
+many, a faith of the intellect merely,--and frankly avows that "there is
+a cause why Theism, even in warmer and better natures, too often fails
+to draw out that fervent piety" which is characteristic of narrower and
+intenser beliefs. This cause she traces to the neglect of prayer, and
+the consequent removal afar off, to vague confines of consciousness, of
+the Personality and Fatherhood of God. Her observations on this
+important subject are worthy of serious consideration, from those
+rationalists especially whose cold theories do not admit anything so
+"unphilosophical" as prayer. Yet we find in the book itself a want. The
+author--like nearly all writers from her point of view--ignores the
+power of miracle. Because physical impossibilities, or what seem such,
+have been so readily accepted as facts owing their origin to divine
+interposition, they fall to the opposite extreme of denying the
+occurrence of any events out of the common course of Nature's
+operations. Of the positive and powerful ministration of angels in human
+affairs they make no account whatever, or accept it as a pleasing dream;
+and they forget that what we call a miracle may be as truly an offspring
+of immutable law as the dew and the sunshine,--failing to learn of the
+loadstone, which attracts to itself splinters of steel contrary to all
+the commonly observed laws of gravitation, the simple truth that man
+also may become a magnet, and, by the power of the divine currents
+passing through him, do many things astonishing to every-day experience.
+The feats of a vulgar thaumaturgy, designed to make the ignorant stare,
+may well be dispensed with. But the fact that "spiritualism," with all
+its crudities of doctrine and errors of practice, has spread over
+Christendom with a rapidity to which the history of religious beliefs
+affords no parallel, shows that the realization of supernatural
+influences is an absolute need of the human heart. The soul of the
+earlier forms of worship dies out of them, as this faith dies out, or
+becomes merely traditional; and no new system can look to fill their
+places without it.
+
+
+     _Letters of_ FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY _from 1833 to
+     1847._ Two Volumes. Philadelphia: F. Leypoldt.
+
+There are many people who make very little discrimination between one
+musician and another,--who discern no great gulf between Mendelssohn and
+Meyerbeer, between Rossini and Romberg, between Spohr and Spontini: not
+in respect of music, but of character; of character in itself, and not
+as it may develop itself in chaste or florid, sentimental, gay,
+devotional or dramatic musical forms. And as yet we have very little
+help in our efforts to gain insight into the inner nature of our great
+musical artists. Of Meyerbeer the world knows that he was vain, proud,
+and fond of money,--but whether he had soul or not we do not know; the
+profound religiousness of Handel, who spent his best years on
+second-rate operas, and devoted his declining energies to oratorio, we
+have to guess at rather than reach by direct disclosure; and till Mr.
+Thayer shall take away the mantle which yet covers his Beethoven, we
+shall know but little of the interior nature of that wonderful man. But
+Mendelssohn now stands before us, disclosed by the most searching of all
+processes, his own letters to his own friends. And how graceful, how
+winning, how true, tender, noble is the man! We have not dared to write
+a notice of these two volumes while we were fresh from their perusal,
+lest the fascination of that genial, Christian presence should lead us
+into the same frame which prompted not only the rhapsodies of "Charles
+Auchester," but the same passionate admiration which all England felt,
+while Mendelssohn lived, and which Elizabeth Sheppard shared, not led.
+We lay down these volumes after the third perusal, blessing God for the
+rich gift of such a life,--a life, sweet, gentle, calm, nowise intense
+nor passionate, yet swift, stirring, and laborious even to the point of
+morbidness. A Christian without cant; a friend, not clinging to a few
+and rejecting the many, nor diffusing his love over the many with no
+dominating affection for a few near ones, but loving his own with a
+tenacity almost unparalleled, yet reaching out a free, generous sympathy
+and kindly devotion even to the hundreds who could give him nothing but
+their love. It is thought that his grief over his sister Fanny was the
+occasion of the rupture of a blood-vessel in his head, and that it was
+the proximate cause of his own death; and yet he who loved with this
+idolatrous affection gave his hand to many whose names he hardly knew.
+The reader will not overlook, in the second series of letters, the plea
+in behalf of an old Swiss guide for remembrance in "Murray," nor that
+long letter to Mr. Simrock, the music-publisher, enjoining the utmost
+secrecy, and then urging the claims of a man whom he was most desirous
+to help.
+
+The letters from Italy and Switzerland were written during the two years
+with which he prefaced his quarter-century of labor as composer,
+director, and virtuoso. They relate much to Italian painting, the music
+of Passion Week, Swiss scenery, his stay with Goethe, and his brilliant
+reception in England on his return. They disclose a youth of glorious
+promise.
+
+The second series does not disappoint that promise. The man is the youth
+a little less exuberant, a little more mature, but no less buoyant,
+tender, and loving. The letters are as varied as the claims of one's
+family differ from those of the outside world, but are always
+Mendelssohnian,--free, pure, unworldly, yet deep and wise. They continue
+down to the very close of his life. They are edited by his brother Paul,
+and another near relative. Yet unauthorized publications of other
+letters will follow, for Mendelssohn was a prolific letter-writer; and
+Lampadius, a warm admirer of the composer, has recently announced such a
+volume. The public may rejoice in this; for Mendelssohn was not only
+purity, but good sense itself; he needs no critical editing; and if we
+may yet have more strictly musical letters from his pen, the influence
+of the two volumes now under notice will be largely increased.
+
+It is not enough to say of these volumes that they are bright, piquant,
+genial, affectionate; nor is it enough to speak of their artistic
+worth, the subtile appreciation of painting in the first series, and of
+music in the second; it is not enough to refer to the glimpses which
+they give of eminent artists,--Chopin, Rossini, Donizetti, Hiller, and
+Moscheles,--nor the side-glances at Thorwaldsen, Bunsen, the late
+scholarly and art-loving King of Prussia, Schadow, Overbeck, Cornelius,
+and the Düsseldorf painters; nor is it enough to dwell upon that
+delightful homage to father and mother, that confiding trust in brother
+and sisters, that loyalty to friends. The salient feature of these
+charming books is the unswerving devotion to a great purpose; the
+careless disregard, nay, the abrupt refusal, of fame, unless it came in
+an honest channel; the naïve modesty that made him wonder, even in the
+very last years of his life, that _he_ could be the man whose entrance
+into the crowded halls of London and Birmingham should be the signal of
+ten minutes' protracted cheering; the refusal to set art over against
+money; the unwillingness to undertake the mandates of a king, unless
+with the cordial acquiescence of his artistic conscience; and the
+immaculate purity, not alone of his life, but of his thought. How he
+castigates Donizetti's love of money and his sloth! how his whip
+scourges the immorality of the French opera, and his whole soul abhors
+the sensuality of that stage! how steadfastly he refuses to undertake
+the composition of an opera till the faultless libretto for which he
+patiently waited year after year could be prepared! We wish our
+religious societies would call out a few of the letters of this man and
+scatter them broadcast over the land: they would indeed be "leaves for
+the healing of the nations."
+
+There is one lesson which may be learned from Mendelssohn's career,
+which is exceptionably rare: it is that Providence does _sometimes_
+bless a man every way,--giving him all good and no evil. Where shall we
+look in actual or historic experience to find a parallel to Mendelssohn
+in this? He had beauty: Chorley says he never looked upon a handsomer
+face. He had grace and elegance. He spoke four languages with perfect
+ease, read Greek and Latin with facility, drew skilfully, was familiar
+with the sciences, and never found himself at a loss with professed
+naturalists. He was a member of one of the most distinguished families
+of Germany: his grandfather being Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher;
+his father, a leading banker; his uncle Bartholdy, a great patron of art
+in Rome, while he was Prussian minister there; his brother-in-law
+Hensel, Court painter; both his sisters and his brother Paul occupying
+leading social positions. He was heir-apparent to a great estate. He was
+greeted with the applause of England from the outset of his career;
+"awoke famous," after the production of the "Midsummer Overture," while
+almost a boy; never had a piece fall short of triumphant success; in
+fact, so commanding prestige that he could find not one who would
+rationally blame or criticize him,--a "most wearying" thing, he writes,
+that every piece he brought out was always "wonderfully fine." He was
+loved by all, and envied by none; the pet and joy of Goethe, who lived
+to see his expectation of Mendelssohn on the road to ample fulfilment;
+blessed entirely in his family, "the course of true love" running
+"smooth" from beginning to end; well, agile, strong; and more than all
+this, having a childlike religious faith in Christ, and as happy as a
+child in his piety. His life was cloudless; those checks and
+compensations with which Providence breaks up others' lot were wanting
+to his. We never knew any one like him in this, but the childlike, sunny
+Carl Ritter.
+
+We still lack a biography of Mendelssohn which shall portray him from
+without, as these volumes do from within. We learn that one is in
+preparation; and when that is given to the public, one more rich life
+will be embalmed in the memories of all good men.
+
+We ought not to overlook the unique elegance of these two volumes. Like
+all the publications of Mr. Leypoldt, they are printed in small, round
+letter; and the whole appearance is creditable to the publisher's taste.
+The American edition entirely eclipses the English in this regard.
+Though not advertised profusely, the merit of these Letters has already
+given them entrance and welcome into our most cultivated circles: but we
+bespeak for them a larger audience still; for they are books which our
+young men, our young women, our pastors, our whole thoughtful and
+aspiring community, ought to read and circulate.
+
+
+
+
+RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.
+
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+Familiar Letters from Europe. By Cornelius Conway Felton, late President
+of Harvard University. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 392. $1.50.
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+Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellen, Major-General U.S. Army. By
+G. S. Hillard. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 396. $1.50.
+
+The Classification of the Sciences: To which are added Reasons for
+dissenting from the Philosophy of M. Comte. By Herbert Spencer, Author
+of "Illustrations of Universal Progress," etc. New York. D. Appleton &
+Co. 16mo. paper, pp. 48. 25 cts.
+
+The Trial: More Links of the Daisy Chain. By the Author of "The Heir of
+Redclyffe." Two Volumes in One. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 16mo. paper.
+pp. 389. $1.75.
+
+Fireside Travels. By James Russell Lowell. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.
+16mo. pp. 324. $1.75.
+
+Memoir of Mrs. Caroline P. Keith, Missionary of the Protestant Episcopal
+Church to China. Edited by her Brother, William C. Tenney. New York, D.
+Appleton & Co. 16mo. pp. x., 392. $2.00.
+
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+
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+
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+its Elements. Ten Lectures, delivered at the Brooklyn Institute,
+Brooklyn, N.Y., on the Graham Foundation. By Josiah P. Cooke, Jr.,
+Erving Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Harvard University. New
+York. Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. viii., 348. $3.50.
+
+Poems of the War. By George H. Baker. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo.
+pp. vi., 202. $1.50.
+
+Modern Philology: Its Discoveries, History, and Influence. By Benjamin
+W. Dwight. Second Series. New York. Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. xviii.,
+554. $6.00.
+
+The Ocean Waifs. A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea. By Captain Mayne
+Reid. With Illustrations. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 367.
+$1.50.
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+Philosophy as Absolute Science, founded in the Universal Laws of Being,
+and including Ontology, Theology, and Psychology, made One, as Spirit,
+Soul, and Body. By E. L. and A. L. Frothingham. Volume I. Boston.
+Walker, Wise, & Co. 8vo. pp. xxxiv., 453. $3.50.
+
+Life of Jean Paul Frederic Richter: Compiled from Various Sources.
+Preceded by his Autobiography. By Eliza Buckminster Lee. Boston. Ticknor
+& Fields. 12mo. pp. xvi., 539. $2.00.
+
+The Winthrops. A Novel. New York, Carleton. 16mo. pp. 319. $1.75.
+
+The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United
+States of America, 1860-1864: its Causes, Incidents, and Results:
+intended to exhibit especially its Moral and Political Phases, with the
+Drift and Progress of American Opinion respecting Human Slavery, from
+1776 to the Close of the War for the Union. By Horace Greeley.
+Illustrated by Portraits on Steel of Generals, Statesmen, and other
+Eminent Men; Views of Places of Historic Interest, Maps, Diagrams of
+Battle-Fields, Naval Actions, etc.: from Official Sources. Volume I.
+Hartford. A. D. Case & Co. 8vo. pp. 648. $3.00.
+
+The Voice of Blood, in the Sphere of Nature and of the Spirit World. By
+Rev. Samuel Phillips, A.M. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 12mo. pp.
+xvi., 384.
+
+The Suppressed Book about Slavery. Prepared for Publication in
+1857,--never published until the Present Time. New York. Carleton. 16mo.
+pp. 432. $2.00.
+
+Nearer and Dearer. A Novelette. By Cuthbert Bede, B.A., Author of
+"Verdant Green." New York, Carleton. 16mo. pp. xi., 225. $1.50.
+
+Annals of the English Stage, from Thomas Betterton to Edmund Kean. By
+Dr. Doran, F.S.A., Author of "Table Traits," etc. New York. W. J.
+Widdleton. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 424, 422. $4.50.
+
+A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the
+Conference Convention, for proposing Amendments to the Constitution of
+the United States, held at Washington, D.C., in February, A.D. 1861. By
+L. E. Chittenden, One of the Delegates. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo.
+pp. 626. $5.00.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No.
+87, January, 1865, by Various
+
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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 873, January, 1865.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
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+
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+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 87,
+January, 1865, 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: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 87, January, 1865
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: July 13, 2008 [EBook #26047]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JANUARY, 1865 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h4>THE</h4>
+
+<h1>ATLANTIC MONTHLY,</h1>
+
+<h2>A MAGAZINE OF</h2>
+
+<h2><i>Literature, Art, and Politics.</i></h2>
+
+<h3>VOLUME XV.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 299px;">
+<img src="images/ill1.jpg" width="299" height="300" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">BOSTON:</p>
+
+<p class="center">TICKNOR AND FIELDS,</p>
+
+<p class="center">135 <span class="smcap">Washington Street</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="center">LONDON: TR&Uuml;BNER AND COMPANY.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1865.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by</p>
+
+<p class="center">TICKNOR AND FIELDS,</p>
+
+<p class="center">in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of
+Massachusetts.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">University Press</span>:</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Electrotyped by Welch, Bigelow, &amp; Co</span>.,</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Cambridge</span>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Page</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>American Metropolis, The</td><td align='left'><i>Fitz-Hugh Ludlow</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Andersonville, At</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>285</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Anno Domini</td><td align='left'><i>Gail Hamilton</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Authors, Memories of</td><td align='left'><i>Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_97">97</a>, 223, 330, 477</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Battle-Laureate, Our</td><td align='left'><i>Oliver Wendell Holmes</i></td><td align='right'>589</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Birds, With the</td><td align='left'><i>John Burroughs</i></td><td align='right'>513</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Chimney-Corner, The</td><td align='left'><i>Mrs. H. B. Stowe</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_109">109</a>, 221, 353, 490, 602, 732</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cobden, Richard</td><td align='left'><i>M. C. Conway</i></td><td align='right'>724</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cruikshank, George, in Mexico</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Dely's Cow</td><td align='left'><i>Rose Terry</i></td><td align='right'>665</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Doctor Johns</td><td align='left'><i>Donald G. Mitchell</i></td><td align='right'>141, 296, 449, 591, 681</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Dolliver Romance, Another Scene from the</td><td align='left'><i>Nathaniel Hawthorne</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>England, A Letter about</td><td align='left'><i>John Weiss</i></td><td align='right'>641</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Europe and Asia, Between</td><td align='left'><i>Bayard Taylor</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Everett, Edward</td><td align='left'><i>E. E. Hale</i></td><td align='right'>342</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Fair Play the Best Policy</td><td align='left'><i>T. W. Higginson</i></td><td align='right'>623</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Five Sisters Court at Christmas-Tide</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Foreign Enmity to the United States, Causes of</td><td align='left'><i>E. P. Whipple</i></td><td align='right'>372</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Great Lakes, The</td><td align='left'><i>Samuel C. Clarke</i></td><td align='right'>693</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Grit</td><td align='left'><i>E. P. Whipple</i></td><td align='right'>407</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hofwyl, My Student-Life at</td><td align='left'><i>Robert Dale Owen</i></td><td align='right'>550</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Ice and Esquimaux</td><td align='left'><i>D. A. Wasson</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_39">39</a>, 201, 437, 564</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"If Massa put Guns into our Han's"</td><td align='left'><i>Fitz-Hugh Ludlow</i></td><td align='right'>504</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>John Brown's Raid</td><td align='left'><i>John G. Rosengarten</i></td><td align='right'>711</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lecture, The Popular</td><td align='left'><i>J. G. Holland</i></td><td align='right'>362</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lincoln, Abraham, The Place of, in History</td><td align='left'><i>George Bancroft</i></td><td align='right'>757</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lone Woman, Adventures of a</td><td align='left'><i>Jane G. Austin</i></td><td align='right'>385</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mining, Ancient, on the Shores of Lake Superior</td><td align='left'><i>Albert D. Hagar</i></td><td align='right'>308</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Modern Improvements and our National Debt</td><td align='left'><i>E. B. Bigelow</i></td><td align='right'>729</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Needle and Garden</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_88">88</a>, 165, 316, 464, 613, 673</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Officer's Journal, Leaves from</td><td align='left'><i>T. W. Higginson</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Out of the Sea</td><td align='left'><i>Author of "Life in the Iron-Mills"</i></td><td align='right'>533</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Painter, Our First Great, and his Works</td><td align='left'><i>Sarah Clarke</i></td><td align='right'>129</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Pettibone Lineage, The</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>419</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Pianist, Notes of a</td><td align='left'><i>Louis M. Gottschalk</i></td><td align='right'>177, 350, 573</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Pleiades of Connecticut, The</td><td align='left'><i>F. Sheldon</i></td><td align='right'>187</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Prose Henriade, A</td><td align='left'><i>Gail Hamilton</i></td><td align='right'>653</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Regnard</td><td align='left'><i>F. Sheldon</i></td><td align='right'>700</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Revolution, Diplomacy of the</td><td align='left'><i>Prof. George W. Greene</i></td><td align='right'>576</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Richmond, Late Scenes in</td><td align='left'><i>C. C. Coffin</i></td><td align='right'>744</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>St. Mary's, Up the</td><td align='left'><i>T. W. Higginson</i></td><td align='right'>422</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sanitary, A Fortnight with the</td><td align='left'><i>G. Reynolds</i></td><td align='right'>233</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Schumann's Quintette in E Flat Major</td><td align='left'><i>Anne M. Brewster</i></td><td align='right'>718</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Taney, Roger Brooke</td><td align='left'><i>Charles M. Ellis</i></td><td align='right'>151</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Year, The Story of a</td><td align='left'><i>Henry James, Jr.</i></td><td align='right'>257</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Poetry.</span></h4>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Autumn Walt, My</td><td align='left'><i>W. C. Bryant</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Carolina Coronado, To</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>698</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Castles</td><td align='left'><i>T. B. Aldrich</i></td><td align='right'>622</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Down!</td><td align='left'><i>Henry H. Brownell</i></td><td align='right'>756</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>First Citizen, Our</td><td align='left'><i>Oliver Wendell Holmes</i></td><td align='right'>462</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Frozen Harbor, The</td><td align='left'><i>J. T. Trowbridge</i></td><td align='right'>281</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Garnaut Hall</td><td align='left'><i>T. B. Aldrich</i></td><td align='right'>182</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>God Save the Flag</td><td align='left'><i>O. W. Holmes</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Going to Sleep</td><td align='left'><i>Elizabeth A. C. Akers</i></td><td align='right'>680</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Gold Egg.&mdash;A Dream Fantasy</td><td align='left'><i>James Russell Lowell</i></td><td align='right'>528</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Grave by the lake, The</td><td align='left'><i>John G. Whittier</i></td><td align='right'>561</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Harpocrates</td><td align='left'><i>Bayard Taylor</i></td><td align='right'>662</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hour of Victory, The</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>371</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Jaguar Hunt, The</td><td align='left'><i>J. T. Trowbridge</i></td><td align='right'>742</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Kallundborg Church</td><td align='left'><i>John G. Whittier</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mantle of St. John de Matha, The</td><td align='left'><i>John G. Whittier</i></td><td align='right'>162</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Hosea Biglow to the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly</td><td align='left'><i>James Russell Lowell</i></td><td align='left'>501</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Oldest Friend, Our</td><td align='left'><i>O. W. Holmes</i></td><td align='right'>340</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Old House, The</td><td align='left'><i>Alice Cary</i></td><td align='right'>213</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Poet, To a, on his Birthday,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>315</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Pro Patria</td><td align='left'><i>Epes Sargent</i></td><td align='right'>232</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Rubin Badfellow</td><td align='left'><i>T. B. Aldrich</i></td><td align='right'>437</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Seventy-Six, On Board the</td><td align='left'><i>James Russell Lowell</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Spaniards' Graves at the Isles of Shoals, The</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>406</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Wind over the Chimney, The</td><td align='left'><i>Henry W. Longfellow</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Art.</span></h4>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Harriet Hosmer's Zenobia</td><td align='left'><i>Fitz-Hugh Ludlow</i></td><td align='right'>248</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Reviews and Literary Notices.</span></h4>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Beecher's Autobiography</td><td align='right'>631</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Bushnell's Christ and His Salvation</td><td align='right'>377</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Chamberlain's Autobiography of a New England Farm-House</td><td align='right'>255</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Child's Looking toward Sunset</td><td align='right'>255</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cobbe's Broken Lights</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>De Vries, Collection. German Series</td><td align='right'>379</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Dewey's Lowell Lectures</td><td align='right'>286</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Frothingham's Philosophy</td><td align='right'>251</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hodde's Cradle of Rebellions</td><td align='right'>380</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hosmer's Morrisons</td><td align='right'>378</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hunt's Seer</td><td align='right'>376</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Ingelow's Studies for Stories</td><td align='right'>378</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Letters</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Murdoch's Patriotism in Poetry and Prose</td><td align='right'>250</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Reynard the Fox</td><td align='right'>380</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Russell's Review of Todleben's History</td><td align='right'>638</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sabine's Loyalists of the American Revolution</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Seaside and Fireside Fairies</td><td align='right'>640</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Thackeray's Vanity Fair</td><td align='right'>639</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Thoreau's Cape Cod</td><td align='right'>381</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Tuckerman's America and her Commentators</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Recent American Publications</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_128">128</a>, 382, 640, 764</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h4>THE</h4>
+
+<h1>ATLANTIC MONTHLY.</h1>
+
+<h2><i>A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics.</i></h2>
+
+
+<h3>VOL. XV.&mdash;JANUARY, 1865.&mdash;NO. LXXXVII.</h3>
+
+<p>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by <span class="smcap">Ticknor and
+Fields</span>, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
+Massachusetts.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ANOTHER SCENE FROM THE DOLLIVER ROMANCE.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>We may now suppose Grandsir Dolliver to have finished his breakfast,
+with a better appetite and sharper perception of the qualities of his
+food than he has generally felt of late years, whether it were due to
+old Martha's cookery or to the cordial of the night before. Little
+Pansie had also made an end of her bread and milk with entire
+satisfaction, and afterwards nibbled a crust, greatly enjoying its
+resistance to her little white teeth.</p>
+
+<p>How this child came by the odd name of Pansie, and whether it was really
+her baptismal name, I have not ascertained. More probably it was one of
+those pet appellations that grow out of a child's character, or out of
+some keen thrill of affection in the parents, an unsought-for and
+unconscious felicity, a kind of revelation, teaching them the true name
+by which the child's guardian angel would know it,&mdash;a name with
+playfulness and love in it, that we often observe to supersede, in the
+practice of those who love the child best, the name that they carefully
+selected, and caused the clergyman to plaster indelibly on the poor
+little forehead at the font,&mdash;the love-name, whereby, if the child
+lives, the parents know it in their hearts, or by which, if it dies, God
+seems to have called it away, leaving the sound lingering faintly and
+sweetly through the house. In Pansie's case, it may have been a certain
+pensiveness which was sometimes seen under her childish frolic, and so
+translated itself into French, (<i>pens&eacute;e</i>,) her mother having been of
+Acadian kin; or, quite as probably, it alluded merely to the color of
+her eyes, which, in some lights, were very like the dark petals of a
+tuft of pansies in the Doctor's garden. It might well be, indeed, on
+account of the suggested pensiveness; for the child's gayety had example
+to sustain it, no sympathy of other children or grown people,&mdash;and her
+melancholy, had it been so dark a feeling, was but the shadow of the
+house and of the old man. If brighter sunshine came, she would brighten
+with it. This morning, surely, as the three companions, Pansie, puss,
+and Grandsir Dolliver, emerged from the shadow of the house into the
+small adjoining enclosure, they seemed all frolicsome alike.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor, however, was intent over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> something that had reference to
+his life-long business of drugs. This little spot was the place where he
+was wont to cultivate a variety of herbs supposed to be endowed with
+medicinal virtue. Some of them had been long known in the
+pharmacop&oelig;ia of the Old World; and others, in the early days of the
+country, had been adopted by the first settlers from the Indian
+medicine-men, though with fear and even contrition, because these wild
+doctors were supposed to draw their pharmaceutic knowledge from no
+gracious source, the Black Man himself being the principal professor in
+their medical school. From his own experience, however, Dr. Dolliver had
+long since doubted, though he was not bold enough quite to come to the
+conclusion, that Indian shrubs, and the remedies prepared from them,
+were much less perilous than those so freely used in European practice,
+and singularly apt to be followed by results quite as propitious. Into
+such heterodoxy our friend was the more liable to fall because it had
+been taught him early in life by his old master, Dr. Swinnerton, who, at
+those not infrequent times when he indulged a certain unhappy
+predilection for strong waters, had been accustomed to inveigh in terms
+of the most cynical contempt and coarsest ridicule against the practice
+by which he lived, and, as he affirmed, inflicted death on his
+fellow-men. Our old apothecary, though too loyal to the learned
+profession with which he was connected fully to believe this bitter
+judgment, even when pronounced by his revered master, was still so far
+influenced that his conscience was possibly a little easier when making
+a preparation from forest herbs and roots than in the concoction of half
+a score of nauseous poisons into a single elaborate drug, as the fashion
+of that day was.</p>
+
+<p>But there were shrubs in the garden of which he had never ventured to
+make a medical use, nor, indeed, did he know their virtue, although from
+year to year he had tended and fertilized, weeded and pruned them, with
+something like religious care. They were of the rarest character, and
+had been planted by the learned and famous Dr. Swinnerton, who on his
+death-bed, when he left his dwelling and all his abstruse manuscripts to
+his favorite pupil, had particularly directed his attention to this row
+of shrubs. They had been collected by himself from remote countries, and
+had the poignancy of torrid climes in them; and he told him, that,
+properly used, they would be worth all the rest of the legacy a
+hundred-fold. As the apothecary, however, found the manuscripts, in
+which he conjectured there was a treatise on the subject of these
+shrubs, mostly illegible, and quite beyond his comprehension in such
+passages as he succeeded in puzzling out, (partly, perhaps, owing to his
+very imperfect knowledge of Latin, in which language they were written,)
+he had never derived from them any of the promised benefit. And to say
+the truth, remembering that Dr. Swinnerton himself never appeared to
+triturate or decoct or do anything else with the mysterious herbs, our
+old friend was inclined to imagine the weighty commendation of their
+virtues to have been the idly solemn utterance of mental aberration at
+the hour of death. So, with the integrity that belonged to his
+character, he had nurtured them as tenderly as was possible in the
+ungenial climate and soil of New England, putting some of them into pots
+for the winter; but they had rather dwindled than flourished, and he had
+reaped no harvests from them, nor observed them with any degree of
+scientific interest.</p>
+
+<p>His grandson, however, while yet a school-boy, had listened to the old
+man's legend of the miraculous virtues of these plants; and it took so
+firm a hold of his mind, that the row of outlandish vegetables seemed
+rooted in it, and certainly flourished there with richer luxuriance than
+in the soil where they actually grew. The story, acting thus early upon
+his imagination, may be said to have influenced his brief career in
+life, and, perchance, brought about its early close. The young man, in
+the opinion of competent judges, was endowed with remarkable abilities,
+and according to the rumor of the people had wonderful gifts,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> which
+were proved by the cures he had wrought with remedies of his own
+invention. His talents lay in the direction of scientific analysis and
+inventive combination of chemical powers. While under the pupilage of
+his grandfather, his progress had rapidly gone quite beyond his
+instructor's hope,&mdash;leaving him even to tremble at the audacity with
+which he overturned and invented theories, and to wonder at the depth at
+which he wrought beneath the superficialness and mock-mystery of the
+medical science of those days, like a miner sinking his shaft and
+running a hideous peril of the earth caving in above him. Especially did
+he devote himself to these plants; and under his care they had thriven
+beyond all former precedent, bursting into luxuriance of bloom, and most
+of them bearing beautiful flowers, which, however, in two or three
+instances, had the sort of natural repulsiveness that the serpent has in
+its beauty, compelled against its will, as it were, to warn the beholder
+of an unrevealed danger. The young man had long ago, it must be added,
+demanded of his grandfather the documents included in the legacy of
+Professor Swinnerton, and had spent days and nights upon them, growing
+pale over their mystic lore, which seemed the fruit not merely of the
+Professor's own labors, but of those of more ancient sages than he; and
+often a whole volume seemed to be compressed within the limits of a few
+lines of crabbed manuscript, judging from the time which it cost even
+the quick-minded student to decipher them.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime these abstruse investigations had not wrought such disastrous
+effects as might have been feared, in causing Edward Dolliver to neglect
+the humble trade, the conduct of which his grandfather had now
+relinquished almost entirely into his hands. On the contrary, with the
+mere side results of his study, or what may be called the chips and
+shavings of his real work, he created a prosperity quite beyond anything
+that his simple-minded predecessor had ever hoped for, even at the most
+sanguine epoch of his life. The young man's adventurous endowments were
+miraculously alive, and connecting themselves with his remarkable
+ability for solid research, and perhaps his conscience being as yet
+imperfectly developed, (as it sometimes lies dormant in the young,) he
+spared not to produce compounds which, if the names were anywise to be
+trusted, would supersede all other remedies, and speedily render any
+medicine a needless thing, making the trade of apothecary an untenable
+one, and the title of Doctor obsolete. Whether there was real efficacy
+in these nostrums, and whether their author himself had faith in them,
+is more than can safely be said; but at all events, the public believed
+in them, and thronged to the old and dim sign of the Brazen Serpent,
+which, though hitherto familiar to them and their forefathers, now
+seemed to shine with auspicious lustre, as if its old Scriptural virtues
+were renewed. If any faith was to be put in human testimony, many
+marvellous cures were really performed, the fame of which spread far and
+wide, and caused demands for these medicines to come in from places far
+beyond the precincts of the little town. Our old apothecary, now
+degraded by the overshadowing influence of his grandson's character to a
+position not much above that of a shop-boy, stood behind the counter
+with a face sad and distrustful, and yet with an odd kind of fitful
+excitement in it, as if he would have liked to enjoy this new
+prosperity, had he dared. Then his venerable figure was to be seen
+dispensing these questionable compounds by the single bottle and by the
+dozen, wronging his simple conscience as he dealt out what he feared was
+trash or worse, shrinking from the reproachful eyes of every ancient
+physician who might chance to be passing by, but withal examining
+closely the silver or the New England coarsely printed bills which he
+took in payment, as if apprehensive that the delusive character of the
+commodity which he sold might be balanced by equal counterfeiting in the
+money received, or as if his faith in all things were shaken.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Is it not possible that this gifted young man had indeed found out those
+remedies which Nature has provided and laid away for the cure of every
+ill?</p>
+
+<p>The disastrous termination of the most brilliant epoch that ever came to
+the Brazen Serpent must be told in a few words. One night, Edward
+Dolliver's young wife awoke, and, seeing the gray dawn creeping into the
+chamber, while her husband, it should seem, was still engaged in his
+laboratory, arose in her night-dress, and went to the door of the room
+to put in her gentle remonstrance against such labor. There she found
+him dead,&mdash;sunk down out of his chair upon the hearth, where were some
+ashes, apparently of burnt manuscripts, which appeared to comprise most
+of those included in Doctor Swinnerton's legacy, though one or two had
+fallen near the heap, and lay merely scorched beside it. It seemed as if
+he had thrown them into the fire, under a sudden impulse, in a great
+hurry and passion. It may be that he had come to the perception of
+something fatally false and deceptive in the successes which he had
+appeared to win, and was too proud and too conscientious to survive it.
+Doctors were called in, but had no power to revive him. An inquest was
+held, at which the jury, under the instruction, perhaps, of those same
+revengeful doctors, expressed the opinion that the poor young man, being
+given to strange contrivances with poisonous drugs, had died by
+incautiously tasting them himself. This verdict, and the terrible event
+itself, at once deprived the medicines of all their popularity; and the
+poor old apothecary was no longer under any necessity of disturbing his
+conscience by selling them. They at once lost their repute, and ceased
+to be in any demand. In the few instances in which they were tried the
+experiment was followed by no good results; and even those individuals
+who had fancied themselves cured, and had been loudest in spreading the
+praises of these beneficent compounds, now, as if for the utter
+demolition of the poor youth's credit, suffered under a recurrence of
+the worst symptoms, and, in more than one case, perished miserably:
+insomuch (for the days of witchcraft were still within the memory of
+living men and women) it was the general opinion that Satan had been
+personally concerned in this affliction, and that the Brazen Serpent, so
+long honored among them, was really the type of his subtle malevolence
+and perfect iniquity. It was rumored even that all preparations that
+came from the shop were harmful,&mdash;that teeth decayed that had been made
+pearly white by the use of the young chemist's dentifrice,&mdash;that cheeks
+were freckled that had been changed to damask roses by his
+cosmetics,&mdash;that hair turned gray or fell off that had become black,
+glossy, and luxuriant from the application of his mixtures,&mdash;that breath
+which his drugs had sweetened had now a sulphurous smell. Moreover, all
+the money heretofore amassed by the sale of them had been exhausted by
+Edward Dolliver in his lavish expenditure for the processes of his
+study; and nothing was left for Pansie, except a few valueless and
+unsalable bottles of medicine, and one or two others, perhaps more
+recondite than their inventor had seen fit to offer to the public.
+Little Pansie's mother lived but a short time after the shock of the
+terrible catastrophe; and, as we began our story with saying, she was
+left with no better guardianship or support than might be found in the
+efforts of a long superannuated man.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing short of the simplicity, integrity, and piety of Grandsir
+Dolliver's character, known and acknowledged as far back as the oldest
+inhabitants remembered anything, and inevitably discoverable by the
+dullest and most prejudiced observers, in all its natural
+manifestations, could have protected him in still creeping about the
+streets. So far as he was personally concerned, however, all bitterness
+and suspicion had speedily passed away; and there remained still the
+careless and neglectful good-will, and the prescriptive reverence, not
+altogether reverential, which the world heedlessly awards to the
+unfortunate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> individual who outlives his generation.</p>
+
+<p>And now that we have shown the reader sufficiently, or at least to the
+best of our knowledge, and perhaps at tedious length, what was the
+present position of Grandsir Dolliver, we may let our story pass onward,
+though at such a pace as suits the feeble gait of an old man.</p>
+
+<p>The peculiarly brisk sensation of this morning, to which we have more
+than once alluded, enabled the Doctor to toil pretty vigorously at his
+medicinal herbs,&mdash;his catnip, his vervain, and the like; but he did not
+turn his attention to the row of mystic plants, with which so much of
+trouble and sorrow either was, or appeared to be, connected. In truth,
+his old soul was sick of them, and their very fragrance, which the warm
+sunshine made strongly perceptible, was odious to his nostrils. But the
+spicy, homelike scent of his other herbs, the English simples, was
+grateful to him, and so was the earth-smell, as he turned up the soil
+about their roots, and eagerly snuffed it in. Little Pansie, on the
+other hand, perhaps scandalized at great-grandpapa's neglect of the
+prettiest plants in his garden, resolved to do her small utmost towards
+balancing his injustice; so, with an old shingle, fallen from the roof,
+which she had appropriated as her agricultural tool, she began to dig
+about them, pulling up the weeds, as she saw grandpapa doing. The
+kitten, too, with a look of elfish sagacity, lent her assistance, plying
+her paws with vast haste and efficiency at the roots of one of the
+shrubs. This particular one was much smaller than the rest, perhaps
+because it was a native of the torrid zone, and required greater care
+than the others to make it nourish; so that, shrivelled, cankered, and
+scarcely showing a green leaf, both Pansie and the kitten probably
+mistook it for a weed. After their joint efforts had made a pretty big
+trench about it, the little girl seized the shrub with both hands,
+bestriding it with her plump little legs, and giving so vigorous a pull,
+that, long accustomed to be transplanted annually, it came up by the
+roots, and little Pansie came down in a sitting posture, making a broad
+impress on the soft earth. "See, see, Doctor!" cries Pansie, comically
+enough giving him his title of courtesy,&mdash;"look, grandpapa, the big,
+naughty weed!"</p>
+
+<p>Now the Doctor had at once a peculiar dread and a peculiar value for
+this identical shrub, both because his grandson's investigations had
+been applied more ardently to it than to all the rest, and because it
+was associated in his mind with an ancient and sad recollection. For he
+had never forgotten that his wife, the early lost, had once taken a
+fancy to wear its flowers, day after day, through the whole season of
+their bloom, in her bosom, where they glowed like a gem, and deepened
+her somewhat pallid beauty with a richness never before seen in it. At
+least such was the effect which this tropical flower imparted to the
+beloved form in his memory, and thus it somehow both brightened and
+wronged her. This had happened not long before her death; and whenever,
+in the subsequent years, this plant had brought its annual flower, it
+had proved a kind of talisman to bring up the image of Bessie, radiant
+with this glow that did not really belong to her naturally passive
+beauty, quickly interchanging with another image of her form, with the
+snow of death on cheek and forehead. This reminiscence had remained
+among the things of which the Doctor was always conscious, but had never
+breathed a word, through the whole of his long life,&mdash;a sprig of
+sensibility that perhaps helped to keep him tenderer and purer than
+other men, who entertain no such follies. And the sight of the shrub
+often brought back the faint, golden gleam of her hair, as if her spirit
+were in the sun-lights of the garden, quivering into view and out of it.
+And therefore, when he saw what Pansie had done, he sent forth a
+strange, inarticulate, hoarse, tremulous exclamation, a sort of aged and
+decrepit cry of mingled emotion. "Naughty Pansie, to pull up grandpapa's
+flower!" said he, as soon as he could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> speak. "Poison, Pansie, poison!
+Fling it away, child!"</p>
+
+<p>And dropping his spade, the old gentleman scrambled towards the little
+girl as quickly as his rusty joints would let him,&mdash;while Pansie, as
+apprehensive and quick of motion as a fawn, started up with a shriek of
+mirth and fear to escape him. It so happened that the garden-gate was
+ajar; and a puff of wind blowing it wide open, she escaped through this
+fortuitous avenue, followed by great-grandpapa and the kitten.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, naughty Pansie, stop!" shouted our old friend. "You will tumble
+into the grave!" The kitten, with the singular sensitiveness that seems
+to affect it at every kind of excitement, was now on her back.</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, this portentous warning was better grounded and had a more
+literal meaning than might be supposed; for the swinging gate
+communicated with the burial-ground, and almost directly in little
+Pansie's track there was a newly dug grave, ready to receive its tenant
+that afternoon. Pansie, however, fled onward with outstretched arms,
+half in fear, half in fun, plying her round little legs with wonderful
+promptitude, as if to escape Time or Death, in the person of Grandsir
+Dolliver, and happily avoiding the ominous pitfall that lies in every
+person's path, till, hearing a groan from her pursuer, she looked over
+her shoulder, and saw that poor grandpapa had stumbled over one of the
+many hillocks. She then suddenly wrinkled up her little visage, and sent
+forth a full-breathed roar of sympathy and alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"Grandpapa has broken his neck now!" cried little Pansie, amid her sobs.</p>
+
+<p>"Kiss grandpapa, and make it well, then," said the old gentleman,
+recollecting her remedy, and scrambling up more readily than could be
+expected. "Well," he murmured to himself, "a hair's-breadth more, and I
+should have been tumbled into yonder grave. Poor little Pansie! what
+wouldst thou have done then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Make the grass grow over grandpapa," answered Pansie, laughing up in
+his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Poh, poh, child, that is not a pretty thing to say," said grandpapa,
+pettishly and disappointed, as people are apt to be when they try to
+calculate on the fitful sympathies of childhood. "Come, you must go in
+to old Martha now."</p>
+
+<p>The poor old gentleman was in the more haste to leave the spot because
+he found himself standing right in front of his own peculiar row of
+gravestones, consisting of eight or nine slabs of slate, adorned with
+carved borders rather rudely cut, and the earliest one, that of his
+Bessie, bending aslant, because the frost of so many winters had slowly
+undermined it. Over one grave of the row, that of his gifted grandson,
+there was no memorial. He felt a strange repugnance, stronger than he
+had ever felt before, to linger by these graves, and had none of the
+tender sorrow mingled with high and tender hopes that had sometimes made
+it seem good to him to be there. Such moods, perhaps, often come to the
+aged, when the hardened earth-crust over their souls shuts them out from
+spiritual influences.</p>
+
+<p>Taking the child by the hand,&mdash;her little effervescence of infantile fun
+having passed into a downcast humor, though not well knowing as yet what
+a dusky cloud of disheartening fancies arose from these green
+hillocks,&mdash;he went heavily toward the garden-gate. Close to its
+threshold, so that one who was issuing forth or entering must needs step
+upon it or over it, lay a small flat stone, deeply imbedded in the
+ground, and partly covered with grass, inscribed with the name of "Dr.
+John Swinnerton, Physician."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay," said the old man, as the well-remembered figure of his ancient
+instructor seemed to rise before him in his grave-apparel, with beard
+and gold-headed cane, black velvet doublet and cloak, "here lies a man
+who, as people have thought, had it in his power to avoid the grave! He
+had no little grandchild to tease him. He had the choice to die, and
+chose it."</p>
+
+<p>So the old gentleman led Pansie over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> the stone, and carefully closed
+the gate; and, as it happened, he forgot the uprooted shrub, which
+Pansie, as she ran, had flung away, and which had fallen into the open
+grave; and when the funeral came that afternoon, the coffin was let down
+upon it, so that its bright, inauspicious flower never bloomed again.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> See July number, 1864, of this Magazine, for the first
+chapter of the story. The portion now published was not revised by the
+author, but is printed from his first draught.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE WIND OVER THE CHIMNEY.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">See, the fire is sinking low,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dusky red the embers glow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">While above them still I cower,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While a moment more I linger,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though the clock, with lifted finger,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Points beyond the midnight hour.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sings the blackened log a tune<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Learned in some forgotten June<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From a school-boy at his play,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When they both were young together,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Heart of youth and summer weather<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Making all their holiday.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And the night-wind rising, hark!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How above there in the dark,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In the midnight and the snow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ever wilder, fiercer, grander,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like the trumpets of Iskander,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">All the noisy chimneys blow!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Every quivering tongue of flame<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seems to murmur some great name,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Seems to say to me, "Aspire!"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But the night-wind answers,&mdash;"Hollow<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Are the visions that you follow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Into darkness sinks your fire!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then the flicker of the blaze<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gleams on volumes of old days,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Written by masters of the art,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Loud through whose majestic pages<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rolls the melody of ages,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Throb the harp-strings of the heart.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And again the tongues of flame<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Start exulting and exclaim,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"These are prophets, bards, and seers;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the horoscope of nations,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like ascendant constellations,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">They control the coming years."<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But the night-wind cries,&mdash;"Despair!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Those who walk with feet of air<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Leave no long-enduring marks;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At God's forges incandescent<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mighty hammers beat incessant,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">These are but the flying sparks.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Dust are all the hands that wrought;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Books are sepulchres of thought;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The dead laurels of the dead<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rustle for a moment only,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like the withered leaves in lonely<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Church-yards at some passing tread."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Suddenly the flame sinks down;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sink the rumors of renown;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And alone the night-wind drear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Clamors louder, wilder, vaguer,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"'T is the brand of Meleager<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Dying on the hearth-stone here!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And I answer,&mdash;"Though it be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why should that discomfort me?<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">No endeavor is in vain;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Its reward is in the doing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the rapture of pursuing<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is the prize the vanquished gain?"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Pushed off from one shore, and not yet landed on the other."<br /></span>
+<span class="i37"><i>Russian Proverb.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>The railroad from Moscow to Nijni-Novgorod had been opened but a
+fortnight before. It was scarcely finished, indeed; for, in order to
+facilitate travel during the continuance of the Great Fair at the latter
+place, the gaps in the line, left by unbuilt bridges, were filled up
+with temporary trestle-work. The one daily express-train was so thronged
+that it required much exertion, and the freest use of the envoy's
+prestige, to secure a private carriage for our party. The sun was
+sinking over the low, hazy ridge of the Sparrow Hills as we left Moscow;
+and we enjoyed one more glimpse of the inexhaustible splendor of the
+city's thousand golden domes and pinnacles, softened by luminous smoke
+and transfigured dust, before the dark woods of fir intervened, and the
+twilight sank down on cold and lonely landscapes.</p>
+
+<p>Thence, until darkness, there was nothing more to claim attention.
+Whoever has seen one landscape of Central Russia is familiar with three
+fourths of the whole region. Nowhere else&mdash;not even on the levels of
+Illinois&mdash;are the same features so constantly reproduced. One long, low
+swell of earth succeeds to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> another; it is rare that any other woods
+than birch and fir are seen; the cleared land presents a continuous
+succession of pasture, rye, wheat, potatoes, and cabbages; and the
+villages are as like as peas, in their huts of unpainted logs,
+clustering around a white church with five green domes. It is a monotony
+which nothing but the richest culture can prevent from becoming
+tiresome. Culture is to Nature what good manners are to man, rendering
+poverty of character endurable.</p>
+
+<p>Stationing a servant at the door to prevent intrusion at the
+way-stations, we let down the curtains before our windows, and secured a
+comfortable privacy for the night, whence we issued only once, during a
+halt for supper. I entered the refreshment-room with very slender
+expectations, but was immediately served with plump partridges, tender
+cutlets, and green peas. The Russians made a rush for the great
+<i>samovar</i> (tea-urn) of brass, which shone from one end of the long
+table; and presently each had his tumbler of scalding tea, with a slice
+of lemon floating on the top. These people drink beverages of a
+temperature which would take the skin off Anglo-Saxon mouths. My tongue
+was more than once blistered, on beginning to drink after they had
+emptied their glasses. There is no station without its steaming samovar;
+and some persons, I verily believe, take their thirty-three hot teas
+between Moscow and St. Petersburg.</p>
+
+<p>There is not much choice of dishes in the interior of Russia; but what
+one does get is sure to be tolerably good. Even on the Beresina and the
+Dnieper I have always fared better than at most of the places in our
+country where "Ten minutes for refreshments!" is announced day by day
+and year by year. Better a single beef-steak, where tenderness is, than
+a stalled ox, all gristle and grease. But then our cooking (for the
+public at least) is notoriously the worst in the civilized world; and I
+can safely pronounce the Russian better, without commending it very
+highly.</p>
+
+<p>Some time in the night we passed the large town of Vladimir, and with
+the rising sun were well on our way to the Volga. I pushed aside the
+curtains, and looked out, to see what changes a night's travel had
+wrought in the scenery. It was a pleasant surprise. On the right stood a
+large, stately residence, embowered in gardens and orchards; while
+beyond it, stretching away to the south-east, opened a broad, shallow
+valley. The sweeping hills on either side were dotted with shocks of
+rye; and their thousands of acres of stubble shone like gold in the
+level rays. Herds of cattle were pasturing in the meadows, and the
+peasants (serfs no longer) were straggling out of the villages to their
+labor in the fields. The crosses and polished domes of churches sparkled
+on the horizon. Here the patches of primitive forest were of larger
+growth, the trunks cleaner and straighter, than we had yet seen. Nature
+was half conquered, in spite of the climate, and, the first time since
+leaving St. Petersburg, wore a habitable aspect. I recognized some of
+the features of Russian country-life, which Puschkin describes so
+charmingly in his poem of "Eugene On&auml;gin."</p>
+
+<p>The agricultural development of Russia has been greatly retarded by the
+indifference of the nobility, whose vast estates comprise the best land
+of the empire, in those provinces where improvements might be most
+easily introduced. Although a large portion of the noble families pass
+their summers in the country, they use the season as a period of
+physical and pecuniary recuperation from the dissipations of the past,
+and preparation for those of the coming winter. Their possessions are so
+large (those of Count Scheremetieff, for instance, contain one hundred
+and thirty thousand inhabitants) that they push each other too far apart
+for social intercourse; and they consequently live <i>en d&eacute;shabill&eacute;</i>,
+careless of the great national interests in their hands. There is a
+class of our Southern planters which seems to have adopted a very
+similar mode of life,&mdash;families which shabbily starve for ten months, in
+order to make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> a lordly show at "the Springs" for the other two. A most
+accomplished Russian lady, the Princess D&mdash;&mdash;, said to me,&mdash;"The want of
+an active, intelligent country society is our greatest misfortune. Our
+estates thus become a sort of exile. The few, here and there, who try to
+improve the condition of the people, through the improvement of the
+soil, are not supported by their neighbors, and lose heart. The more we
+gain in the life of the capital, the more we are oppressed by the
+solitude and stagnation of the life of the country."</p>
+
+<p>This open, cheerful region continued through the morning. The railroad
+was still a novelty; and the peasants everywhere dropped their scythes
+and shovels to see the train pass. Some bowed with the profoundest
+gravity. They were a fine, healthy, strapping race of men, only of
+medium height, but admirably developed in chest and limbs, and with
+shrewd, intelligent faces. Content, not stupidity, is the cause of their
+stationary condition. They are not yet a people, but the germ of one,
+and, as such, present a grand field for anthropological studies.</p>
+
+<p>Towards noon the road began to descend, by easy grades, from the fair,
+rolling uplands into a lower and wilder region. When the train stopped,
+women and children whose swarthy skin and black eyes betrayed a mixture
+of Tartar blood made their appearance, with wooden bowls of cherries and
+huckleberries for sale. These bowls were neatly carved and painted. They
+were evidently held in high value; for I had great difficulty in
+purchasing one. We moved slowly, on account of the many skeleton
+bridges; but presently a long blue ridge, which for an hour past had
+followed us in the south-east, began to curve around to our front. I now
+knew that it must mark the course of the Oka River, and that we were
+approaching Nijni-Novgorod.</p>
+
+<p>We soon saw the river itself; then houses and gardens scattered along
+the slope of the hill; then clusters of sparkling domes on the summit;
+then a stately, white-walled citadel; and the end of the ridge was
+levelled down in an even line to the Volga. We were three hundred miles
+from Moscow, on the direct road to Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>The city being on the farther side of the Oka, the railroad terminates
+at the Fair, which is a separate city, occupying the triangular level
+between the two rivers. Our approach to it was first announced by heaps
+of cotton-bales, bound in striped camel's-hair cloth, which had found
+their way hither from the distant valleys of Turkestan and the warm
+plains of Bukharia. Nearly fifty thousand camels are employed in the
+transportation of this staple across the deserts of the Aral to
+Orenburg,&mdash;a distance of a thousand miles. The increase of price had
+doubled the production since the previous year, and the amount which now
+reaches the factories of Russia through this channel cannot be less than
+seventy-five thousand bales. The advance of modern civilization has so
+intertwined the interests of all zones and races, that a civil war in
+the United States affects the industry of Central Asia!</p>
+
+<p>Next to these cotton-bales, which, to us, silently proclaimed the
+downfall of that arrogant monopoly which has caused all our present woe,
+came the representatives of those who produced them. Groups of
+picturesque Asians&mdash;Bashkirs, Persians, Bukharians, and Uzbeks&mdash;appeared
+on either side, staring impassively at the wonderful apparition. Though
+there was sand under their feet, they seemed out of place in the sharp
+north-wind and among the hills of fir and pine.</p>
+
+<p>The train stopped: we had reached the station. As I stepped upon the
+platform, I saw, over the level lines of copper roofs, the dragon-like
+pinnacles of Chinese buildings, and the white minaret of a mosque. Here
+was the certainty of a picturesque interest to balance the uncertainty
+of our situation. We had been unable to engage quarters in advance:
+there were two hundred thousand strangers before us, in a city the
+normal population of which is barely forty thousand; and four of our
+party<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> were ladies. The envoy, indeed, might claim the Governor's
+hospitality; but our visit was to be so brief that we had no time to
+expend on ceremonies, and preferred rambling at will through the teeming
+bazaars to being led about under the charge of an official escort.</p>
+
+<p>A friend at Moscow, however, had considerately telegraphed in our behalf
+to a French resident of Nijni, and the latter gentleman met us at the
+station. He could give but slight hope of quarters for the night, but
+generously offered his services. Droshkies were engaged to convey us to
+the old city, on the hill beyond the Oka; and, crowded two by two into
+the shabby little vehicles, we set forth. The sand was knee-deep, and
+the first thing that happened was the stoppage of our procession by the
+tumbling down of the several horses. They were righted with the help of
+some obliging spectators; and with infinite labor we worked through this
+strip of desert into a region of mud, with a hard, stony bottom
+somewhere between us and the earth's centre. The street we entered,
+though on the outskirts of the Fair, resembled Broadway on a
+sensation-day. It was choked with a crowd, composed of the sweepings of
+Europe and Asia. Our horses thrust their heads between the shoulders of
+Christians, Jews, Moslem, and Pagans, slowly shoving their way towards
+the floating bridge, which was a jam of vehicles from end to end. At the
+corners of the streets, the wiry Don Cossacks, in their dashing blue
+uniforms and caps of black lamb's-wool, regulated, as best they could,
+the movements of the multitude. It was curious to notice how they, and
+their small, well-knit horses,&mdash;the equine counterparts of
+themselves,&mdash;controlled the fierce, fiery life which flashed from every
+limb and feature, and did their duty with wonderful patience and
+gentleness. They seemed so many spirits of Disorder tamed to the service
+of Order.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly half an hour before we reached the other end of the
+bridge, and struck the superb inclined highway which leads to the top of
+the hill. We were unwashed and hungry; and neither the tumult of the
+lower town, nor the view of the Volga, crowded with vessels of all
+descriptions, had power to detain us. Our brave little horses bent
+themselves to the task; for task it really was,&mdash;the road rising between
+three and four hundred feet in less than half a mile. Advantage has been
+taken of a slight natural ravine, formed by a short, curving spur of the
+hill, which encloses a <i>pocket</i> of the greenest and richest foliage,&mdash;a
+bit of unsuspected beauty, quite invisible from the other side of the
+river. Then, in order to reach the level of the Kremlin, the road is led
+through an artificial gap, a hundred feet in depth, to the open square
+in the centre of the city.</p>
+
+<p>Here, all was silent and deserted. There were broad, well-paved streets,
+substantial houses, the square towers and crenellated walls of the old
+Kremlin, and the glittering cupolas of twenty-six churches before us,
+and a lack of population which contrasted amazingly with the whirlpool
+of life below. Monsieur D., our new, but most faithful friend, took us
+to the hotel, every corner and cranny of which was occupied. There was a
+possibility of breakfast only, and water was obtained with great
+exertion. While we were lazily enjoying a tolerable meal, Monsieur D.
+was bestirring himself in all quarters, and came back to us radiant with
+luck. He had found four rooms in a neighboring street; and truly, if one
+were to believe De Custine or Dumas, such rooms are impossible in
+Russia. Charmingly clean, elegantly furnished, with sofas of green
+leather and beds of purest linen, they would hive satisfied the severe
+eye of an English housekeeper. We thanked both our good friend and St.
+Macarius (who presides over the Fair) for this fortune, took possession,
+and then hired fresh droshkies to descend the hill.</p>
+
+<p>On emerging from the ravine, we obtained a bird's-eye view of the whole
+scene. The waters of both rivers, near at hand, were scarcely visible
+through the shipping which covered them. Vessels<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> from the Neva, the
+Caspian, and the rivers of the Ural, were here congregated; and they
+alone represented a floating population of between thirty and forty
+thousand souls. The Fair, from this point, resembled an immense flat
+city,&mdash;the streets of booths being of a uniform height,&mdash;out of which
+rose the great Greek church, the Tartar mosque, and the curious Chinese
+roofs. It was a vast, dark, humming plain, vanishing towards the west
+and north-west in clouds of sand. By this time there was a lull in the
+business, and we made our way to the central bazaar with less trouble
+than we had anticipated. It is useless to attempt an enumeration of the
+wares exposed for sale: they embraced everything grown, trapped, or
+manufactured, between Ireland and Japan. We sought, of course, the
+Asiatic elements, which first met us in the shape of melons from
+Astrachan, and grapes from the southern slopes of the Caucasus. Then
+came wondrous stuffs from the looms of Turkestan and Cashmere,
+turquoises from the Upper Oxus, and glittering strings of Siberian topaz
+and amethyst, side by side with Nuremberg toys, Lyons silks, and
+Sheffield cutlery. About one third of the population of the Fair was of
+Asiatic blood, embracing representatives from almost every tribe north
+and west of the Himalayas.</p>
+
+<p>This temporary city, which exists during only two months of the year,
+contained two hundred thousand inhabitants at the time of our visit.
+During the remaining ten months it is utterly depopulated, the bazaars
+are closed, and chains are drawn across the streets to prevent the
+passage of vehicles. A single statement will give an idea of its extent:
+the combined length of the streets is twenty-five miles. The Great
+Bazaar is substantially built of stone, after the manner of those in
+Constantinople, except that it encloses an open court, where a
+Government band performs every afternoon. Here the finer wares are
+displayed, and the shadowed air under the vaulted roofs is a very
+kaleidoscope for shifting color and sparkle. Tea, cotton, leather, wool,
+and the other heavier and coarser commodities, have their separate
+streets and quarters. The several nationalities are similarly divided,
+to some extent; but the stranger, of course, prefers to see them
+jostling together in the streets,&mdash;a Babel, not only of tongues, but of
+feature, character, and costume.</p>
+
+<p>Our ladies were eager to inspect the stock of jewelry, especially those
+heaps of exquisite color with which the Mohammedans very logically load
+the trees of Paradise; for they resemble fruit in a glorified state of
+existence. One can imagine virtuous grapes promoted to amethysts,
+blueberries to turquoises, cherries to rubies, and green-gages to
+aqua-marine. These, the secondary jewels, (with the exception of the
+ruby,) are brought in great quantities from Siberia, but most of them
+are marred by slight flaws or other imperfections, so that their
+cheapness is more apparent than real. An amethyst an inch long, throwing
+the most delicious purple light from its hundreds of facets, quite takes
+you captive, and you put your hand in your pocket for the fifteen
+dollars which shall make you its possessor; but a closer inspection is
+sure to show you either a broad transverse flaw, or a spot where the
+color fades into transparency. The white topaz, known as the "Siberian
+diamond," is generally flawless, and the purest specimens are scarcely
+to be distinguished from the genuine brilliant. A necklace of these,
+varying from a half to a quarter of an inch in diameter, may be had for
+about twenty-five dollars. There were also golden and smoky topaz and
+beryl, in great profusion.</p>
+
+<p>A princely Bashkir drew us to his booth, first by his beauty and then by
+his noble manners. He was the very incarnation of Boker's "Prince Adeb."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The girls of Damar paused to see me pass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I walking in my rags, yet beautiful.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One maiden said, 'He has a prince's air!'<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I am a prince; the air was all my own.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This Bashkir, however, was not in rags; he was elegantly attired. His
+silken vest was bound with a girdle of gold-thread<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> studded with jewels;
+and over it he wore a caftan, with wide sleeves, of the finest dark-blue
+cloth. The round cap of black lamb's-wool became his handsome head. His
+complexion was pale olive, through which the red of his cheeks shone, in
+the words of some Oriental poem, "like a rose-leaf through oil"; and his
+eyes, in their dark fire, were more lustrous than smoky topaz. His voice
+was mellow and musical, and his every movement and gesture a new
+revelation of human grace. Among thousands, yea, tens of thousands, of
+handsome men, he stood pre&euml;minent.</p>
+
+<p>As our acquaintance ripened, he drew a pocket-book from his bosom, and
+showed us his choicest treasures: turquoises, bits of wonderful blue
+heavenly forget-me-nots; a jacinth, burning like a live coal, in scarlet
+light; and lastly, a perfect ruby, which no sum less than twenty-five
+hundred dollars could purchase. From him we learned the curious
+fluctuations of fashion in regard to jewels. Turquoises were just then
+in the ascendant; and one of the proper tint, the size of a
+parsnip-seed, could not be had for a hundred dollars, the full value of
+a diamond of equal size. Amethysts of a deep plum-color, though less
+beautiful than the next paler shade, command very high prices; while
+jacinth, beryl, and aqua-marine&mdash;stones of exquisite hue and lustre&mdash;are
+cheap. But then, in this department, as in all others, Fashion and
+Beauty are not convertible terms.</p>
+
+<p>In the next booth there were two Persians, who unfolded before our eyes
+some of those marvellous shawls, where you forget the barbaric pattern
+in the exquisite fineness of the material and the triumphant harmony of
+the colors. Scarlet with palm-leaf border,&mdash;blue clasped by golden
+bronze, picked out with red,&mdash;browns, greens, and crimsons struggling
+for the mastery in a war of tints,&mdash;how should we choose between them?
+Alas! we were not able to choose: they were a thousand dollars apiece!
+But the Persians still went on unfolding, taking our admiration in pay
+for their trouble, and seeming even, by their pleasant smiles, to
+consider themselves well paid. When we came to the booths of European
+merchants, we were swiftly impressed with the fact that civilization, in
+following the sun westward, loses its grace in proportion as it
+advances. The gentle dignity, the serene patience, the soft, fraternal,
+affectionate demeanor of our Asiatic brethren vanished utterly when we
+encountered French and German salesmen; and yet these latter would have
+seemed gracious and courteous, had there been a few Yankee dealers
+beyond them. The fourth or fifth century, which still exists in Central
+Asia, was undoubtedly, in this particular, superior to the nineteenth.
+No gentleman, since his time, I suspect, has equalled Adam.</p>
+
+<p>Among these Asiatics Mr. Buckle would have some difficulty in
+maintaining his favorite postulate, that tolerance is the result of
+progressive intelligence. It is also the result of courtesy, as we may
+occasionally see in well-bred persons of limited intellect. Such,
+undoubtedly, is the basis of that tolerance which no one who has had
+much personal intercourse with the Semitic races can have failed to
+experience. The days of the sword and fagot are past; but it was
+reserved for Christians to employ them in the name of religion <i>alone</i>.
+Local or political jealousies are at the bottom of those troubles which
+still occur from time to time in Turkey: the traveller hears no
+insulting epithet, and the green-turbaned Imam will receive him as
+kindly and courteously as the sceptical Bey educated in Paris. I have
+never been so aggressively assailed, on religious grounds, as at
+home,&mdash;never so coarsely and insultingly treated, on account of a
+<i>presumed</i> difference of opinion, as by those who claim descent from the
+Cavaliers. The bitter fierceness of some of our leading reformers is
+overlooked by their followers, because it springs from "earnest
+conviction"; but in the Orient intensest faith coexists with the most
+gracious and gentle manners.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Be not impatient, beloved reader; for this digression brings me
+naturally to the next thing we saw at Novgorod. As we issued from the
+bazaar, the sunlit minaret greeted us through whirling dust and rising
+vapor, and I fancied I could hear the muezzin's musical cry. It was
+about time for the <i>asser</i> prayer. Droshkies were found, and we rode
+slowly through the long, low warehouses of "caravan tea" and Mongolian
+wool to the mound near the Tartar encampment. The mosque was a plain,
+white, octagonal building, conspicuous only through its position. The
+turbaned faithful were already gathering; and we entered, and walked up
+the steps among them, without encountering an unfriendly glance. At the
+door stood two Cossack soldiers, specially placed there to prevent the
+worshippers from being insulted by curious Christians. (Those who have
+witnessed the wanton profanation of mosques in India by the English
+officers will please notice this fact.) If we had not put off our shoes
+before entering the hall of worship, the Cossacks would have performed
+that operation for us.</p>
+
+<p>I am happy to say that none of our party lacked a proper reverence for
+devotion, though it was offered through the channels of an alien creed.
+The ladies left their gaiters beside our boots, and we all stood in our
+stockings on the matting, a little in the rear of the kneeling crowd.
+The priest occupied a low dais in front, but he simply led the prayer,
+which was uttered by all. The windows were open, and the sun poured a
+golden flood into the room. Yonder gleamed the Kremlin of Novgorod,
+yonder rolled the Volga, all around were the dark forests of the
+North,&mdash;yet their faces were turned, and their thoughts went southward,
+to where Mecca sits among the burning hills, in the feathery shade of
+her palm-trees. And the tongue of Mecca came from their lips, <i>"Allah!"
+"Allah akhbar!"</i> as the knee bent and the forehead touched the floor.</p>
+
+<p>At the second repetition of the prayers we quietly withdrew; and good
+Monsieur D., forgetful of nothing, suggested that preparations had been
+made for a dinner in the great cosmopolitan restaurant. So we drove back
+again through the Chinese street, with its red horned houses, the roofs
+terminating in gilded dragons' tails, and, after pressing through a
+dense multitude enveloped in tobacco-smoke and the steam of tea-urns,
+found ourselves at last in a low room with a shaky floor and muslin
+ceiling. It was an exact copy of the dining-room of a California hotel.
+If we looked blank a moment, Monsieur D.'s smile reassured us. He had
+given all the necessary orders, he said, and would step out and secure a
+box in the theatre before the <i>zakouski</i> was served. During his absence,
+we looked out of the window on either side upon surging, whirling,
+humming pictures of the Great Fair, all vanishing in perspectives of
+dust and mist.</p>
+
+<p>In half an hour our friend returned, and with him entered the zakouski.
+I cannot remember half the appetizing ingredients of which it was
+composed: anchovies, sardines, herrings, capers, cheese, caviare, <i>pat&eacute;
+de foie</i>, pickles, cherries, oranges, and olives, were among them.
+Instead of being a prelude to dinner, it was almost a dinner in itself.
+Then, after a Russian soup, which always contains as much solid
+nutriment as meat-biscuit or Arctic pemmican, came the glory of the
+repast, a mighty <i>sterlet</i>, which was swimming in Volga water when we
+took our seats at the table. This fish, the exclusive property of
+Russia, is, in times of scarcity, worth its weight in silver. Its
+unapproachable flavor is supposed to be as evanescent as the hues of a
+dying dolphin. Frequently, at grand dinner-parties, it is carried around
+the table in a little tank, and exhibited, <i>alive</i>, to the guests, when
+their soup is served, that its freshness, ten minutes afterwards, may be
+put beyond suspicion. The fish has the appearance of a small, lean
+sturgeon; but its flesh resembles the melting pulp of a fruit rather
+than the fibre of its watery brethren. It sinks into juice upon the
+tongue, like a perfectly ripe peach. In this quality no other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> fish in
+the world can approach it; yet I do not think the flavor quite so fine
+as that of a brook-trout. Our sterlet was nearly two feet long, and may
+have cost twenty or thirty dollars.</p>
+
+<p>With it appeared an astonishing salad, composed of watermelons,
+cantaloupes, pickled cherries, cucumbers, and certain spicy herbs. Its
+color and odor were enticing, and we had all applied the test of taste
+most satisfactorily before we detected the curious mixture of
+ingredients. After the second course,&mdash;a ragout of beef, accompanied
+with a rich, elaborate sauce,&mdash;three heavy tankards of chased silver,
+holding two quarts apiece, were placed upon the table. The first of
+these contained <i>kvass</i>, the second <i>kislischi</i>, and the third hydromel.
+Each one of these national drinks, when properly brewed, is very
+palatable and refreshing. I found the kislischi nearly identical with
+the ancient Scandinavian mead: no doubt it dates from the Varangian rule
+in Russia. The old custom of passing the tankards around the table, from
+mouth to mouth, is still observed, and will not be found objectionable,
+even in these days of excessive delicacy, when ladies and gentlemen are
+seated alternately at the banquet.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian element of the dinner here terminated. Cutlets and roast
+fowls made their appearance, with bottles of R&uuml;desheimer and Lafitte,
+followed by a dessert of superb Persian melons, from the southern shore
+of the Caspian Sea.</p>
+
+<p>By this time night had fallen, and Monsieur D. suggested an immediate
+adjournment to the theatre. What should be the entertainment? Dances of
+<i>almehs</i>, songs of gypsies, or Chinese jugglers? One of the Ivans
+brought a programme. It was not difficult to decipher the word "&#1052;&#1040;&#1050;&#1041;&#1045;&#1058;&#1066;,"
+and to recognize, further, in the name of "Ira
+Aldridge" a distinguished mulatto tragedian, to whom Maryland has given
+birth (if I am rightly informed) and Europe fame. We had often heard of
+him, yea, seen his portrait in Germany, decorated with the orders
+conferred by half a dozen sovereigns; and his presence here, between
+Europe and Asia, was not the least characteristic feature of the Fair. A
+mulatto Macbeth, in a Russian theatre, with a Persian and Tartar
+audience!</p>
+
+<p>On arriving, we were ushered into two whitewashed boxes, which had been
+reserved for our party. The manager, having been informed of the envoy's
+presence in Nijni-Novgorod, had delayed the performance half an hour,
+but the audience bore this infliction patiently. The building was deep
+and narrow, with space for about eight hundred persons, and was filled
+from top to bottom. The first act was drawing to a close as we entered.
+King Duncan, with two or three shabby attendants, stood in the
+court-yard of the castle,&mdash;the latter represented by a handsome French
+door on the left, with a bit of Tartar wall beyond,&mdash;and made his
+observations on the "pleasant seat" of Macbeth's mansion. He spoke
+Russian, of course. Lady Macbeth now appeared, in a silk dress of the
+latest fashion, expanded by the amplest of crinolines. She was passably
+handsome, and nothing could be gentler than her face and voice. She
+received the royal party like a well-bred lady, and they all entered the
+French door together.</p>
+
+<p>There was no change of scene. With slow step and folded arms, Ira
+Macbeth entered and commenced the soliloquy, "If it were done," etc., to
+our astonishment, in English! He was a dark, strongly built mulatto, of
+about fifty, in a fancy tunic, and light stockings over Forrestian
+calves. His voice was deep and powerful; and it was very evident that
+Edmund Kean, once his master, was also the model which he carefully
+followed in the part. There were the same deliberate, over-distinct
+enunciation, the same prolonged pauses and gradually performed gestures,
+as I remember in imitations of Kean's manner. Except that the copy was a
+little too apparent, Mr. Aldridge's acting was really very fine. The
+Russians were enthusiastic in their applause, though very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> few of them,
+probably, understood the language of the part. The Oriental auditors
+were perfectly impassive, and it was impossible to guess how they
+regarded the performance.</p>
+
+<p>The second act was in some respects the most amusing thing I ever saw
+upon the stage. In the dagger-scene, Ira was, to my mind, quite equal to
+Forrest; it was impossible to deny him unusual dramatic talent; but his
+complexion, continually suggesting Othello, quite confounded me. The
+amiable Russian Lady Macbeth was much better adapted to the part of
+Desdemona: all softness and gentleness, she smiled as she lifted her
+languishing eyes, and murmured in the tenderest accents, "Infirm of
+purpose! give me the dagger!" At least, I took it for granted that these
+were her words, for Macbeth had just said, "Look on 't again I dare
+not." Afterwards, six Russian soldiers, in tan-colored shirts, loose
+trousers, and high boots, filed in, followed by Macduff and Malcolm, in
+the costume of Wallenstein's troopers. The dialogue&mdash;one voice English,
+and all the others Russian&mdash;proceeded smoothly enough, but the effect
+was like nothing which our stage can produce. Nevertheless, the audience
+was delighted, and when the curtain fell there were vociferous cries of
+"<i>A&iuml;ra! A&iuml;ra! Aldreetch! Aldreetch!</i>" until the swarthy hero made his
+appearance before the foot-lights.</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur D. conducted our friend P. into the green-room, where he was
+received by Macbeth in costume. He found the latter to be a dignified,
+imposing personage, who carried his tragic chest-tones into ordinary
+conversation. On being informed by P. that the American minister was
+present, he asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Of what persuasion?"</p>
+
+<p>P. hastened to set him right, and Ira then remarked, in his gravest
+tone,&mdash;"I shall have the honor of waiting upon him to-morrow morning";
+which, however, he failed to do.</p>
+
+<p>This son of the South, no doubt, came legitimately (or, at least,
+naturally) by his dignity. His career, for a man of his blood and
+antecedents, has been wonderfully successful, and is justly due, I am
+convinced, since I have seen him, to his histrionic talents. Both black
+and yellow skins are sufficiently rare in Europe to excite a particular
+interest in those who wear them; and I had surmised, up to this time,
+that much of his popularity might be owing to his color. But he
+certainly deserves an honorable place among tragedians of the second
+rank.</p>
+
+<p>We left the theatre at the close of the third act, and crossed the river
+to our quarters on the hill. A chill mist hung over the Fair, but the
+lamps still burned, the streets were thronged, and the Don Cossacks kept
+patient guard at every corner. The night went by like one unconscious
+minute, in beds unmolested by bug or flea; and when I arose, thoroughly
+refreshed, I involuntarily called to mind a frightful chapter in De
+Custine's "Russia," describing the prevalence of an insect which he
+calls the <i>persica</i>, on the banks of the Volga. He was obliged to sleep
+on a table, the legs whereof were placed in basins of water, to escape
+their attacks. I made many inquiries about these terrible <i>persicas</i>,
+and finally discovered that they were neither more nor less
+than&mdash;cockroaches!&mdash;called <i>Prossaki</i> (Prussians) by the Russians, as
+they are sometimes called <i>Schwaben</i> (Suabians) by the Germans. Possibly
+they may be found in the huts of the serfs, but they are rare in decent
+houses.</p>
+
+<p>We devoted the first sunny hours of the morning to a visit to the
+citadel and a walk around the crest of the hill. On the highest point,
+just over the junction of the two rivers, there is a commemorative
+column to Minim, the patriotic butcher of Novgorod, but for whose
+eloquence, in the year 1610, the Russian might possibly now be the
+Polish Empire. Vladislas, son of Sigismund of Poland, had been called to
+the throne by the boyards, and already reigned in Moscow, when Minim
+appealed to the national spirit, persuaded General Pojarski to head an
+anti-Polish movement, which was successful, and thus cleared the way for
+the election of Michael<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> Romanoff, the first sovereign of the present
+dynasty. Minim is therefore one of the historic names of Russia.</p>
+
+<p>When I stood beside his monument, and the finest landscape of European
+Russia was suddenly unrolled before my eyes, I could believe the
+tradition of his eloquence, for here was its inspiration. Thirty or
+forty miles away stretched the rolling swells of forest and grain-land,
+fading into dimmest blue to the westward and northward, dotted with
+villages and sparkling domes, and divided by shining reaches of the
+Volga. It was truly a superb and imposing view, changing with each spur
+of the hill as we made the circuit of the citadel. Eastward, the country
+rose into dark, wooded hills, between which the river forced its way in
+a narrower and swifter channel, until it disappeared behind a purple
+headland, hastening southward to find a warmer home in the unfrozen
+Caspian. By embarking on the steamers anchored below us, we might have
+reached Perm, among the Ural Mountains, or Astrachan, in less than a
+week; while a trip of ten days would have taken us past the Caucasus,
+even to the base of Ararat or Demavend. Such are the splendid
+possibilities of travel in these days.</p>
+
+<p>The envoy, who visited Europe for the first time, declared that this
+panorama from the hill of Novgorod was one of the finest things he had
+seen. There could, truly, be no better preparation to enjoy it than
+fifteen hundred miles of nearly unbroken level, after leaving the
+Russian frontier; but I think it would be a "show" landscape anywhere.
+Why it is not more widely celebrated I cannot guess. The only person in
+Russia whom I heard speak of it with genuine enthusiasm was Alexander
+II.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours upon the breezy parapet, beside the old Tartar walls, were all
+too little; but the droshkies waited in the river-street a quarter of a
+mile below us, our return to Moscow was ordered for the afternoon, there
+were amethysts and Persian silks yet to be bought, and so we sighed
+farewell to an enjoyment rare in Russia, and descended the steep
+footpath.</p>
+
+<p>P. and I left the rest of the party at the booth of the handsome
+Bashkir, and set out upon a special mission to the Tartar camp. I had
+ascertained that the national beverage of Central Asia might be found
+there,&mdash;the genuine <i>koumiss</i>, or fermented milk of the mares of the
+Uralian steppes. Having drunk palm-wine in India, <i>sam-shoo</i> China,
+<i>saki</i> in Japan, <i>pulque</i> in Mexico, <i>bouza</i> in Egypt, mead in
+Scandinavia, ale in England, <i>bock-bier</i> in Germany, <i>mastic</i> in Greece,
+<i>calabogus</i> in Newfoundland, and&mdash;soda-water in the United States, I
+desired to complete the bibulous cosmos, in which <i>koumiss</i> was still
+lacking. My friend did not share my curiosity, but was ready for an
+adventure, which our search for mare's milk seemed to promise.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the mosques we found the Uzbeks and Kirghiz,&mdash;some in tents, some
+in rough shanties of boards. But they were without koumiss: they had had
+it, and showed us some empty kegs, in evidence of the fact. I fancied a
+gleam of diversion stole over their grave, swarthy faces, as they
+listened to our eager inquiries in broken Russian. Finally we came into
+an extemporized village, where some women, unveiled and ugly, advised us
+to apply to the traders in the khan, or caravansera. This was a great
+barn-like building, two stories high, with broken staircases and
+creaking floors. A corridor ran the whole length of the second floor,
+with some twenty or thirty doors opening into it from the separate rooms
+of the traders. We accosted the first Tartar whom we met; and he
+promised, with great readiness, to procure us what we wanted. He ushered
+us into his room, cleared away a pile of bags, saddles, camel-trappings,
+and other tokens of a nomadic life, and revealed a low divan covered
+with a ragged carpet. On a sack of barley sat his father, a blind
+graybeard, nearly eighty years old. On our way through the camp I had
+noticed that the Tartars saluted each other with the Arabic, "<i>Salaam
+aleikoom</i>!" and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> I therefore greeted the old man with the familiar
+words. He lifted his head: his face brightened, and he immediately
+answered, "<i>Aleikoom salaam</i>, my son!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you speak Arabic?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"A little; I have forgotten it," said he. "But thine is a new voice. Of
+what tribe art thou?"</p>
+
+<p>"A tribe far away, beyond Bagdad and Syria," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the tribe of Damascus. I know it now, my son. I have heard the
+voice, many, many years ago."</p>
+
+<p>The withered old face looked so bright, as some pleasant memory shone
+through it, that I did not undeceive the man. His son came in with a
+glass, pulled a keg from under a pile of coarse caftans, and drew out
+the wooden peg. A gray liquid, with an odor at once sour and pungent,
+spirted into the glass, which he presently handed to me, filled to the
+brim. In such cases no hesitation is permitted. I thought of home and
+family, set the glass to my lips, and emptied it before the flavor made
+itself clearly manifest to my palate.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is it like?" asked my friend, who curiously awaited the
+result of the experiment.</p>
+
+<p>"Peculiar," I answered, with preternatural calmness,&mdash;"peculiar, but not
+unpleasant."</p>
+
+<p>The glass was filled a second time; and P., not to be behindhand,
+emptied it at a draught. Then he turned to me with tears (not of
+delight) in his eyes, swallowed nothing very hard two or three times,
+suppressed a convulsive shudder, and finally remarked, with the air of a
+martyr, "Very curious, indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will your Excellencies have some more?" said the friendly Tartar.</p>
+
+<p>"Not before breakfast, if you please," I answered; "your koumiss is
+excellent, however, and we will take a bottle with us,"&mdash;which we did,
+in order to satisfy the possible curiosity of the ladies. I may here
+declare that the bottle was never emptied.</p>
+
+<p>The taste was that of aged buttermilk mixed with ammonia. We could
+detect no flavor of alcohol, yet were conscious of a light exhilaration
+from the small quantity we drank. The beverage is said, indeed, to be
+very intoxicating. Some German physician has established a
+"koumiss-cure" at Piatigorsk, at the northern base of the Caucasus, and
+invites invalids of certain kinds to come and be healed by its agency. I
+do not expect to be one of the number.</p>
+
+<p>There still remained a peculiar feature of the Fair, which I had not yet
+seen. This is the subterranean network of sewerage, which reproduces, in
+massive masonry, the streets on the surface. Without it, the annual city
+of two months would become uninhabitable. The peninsula between the two
+rivers being low and marshy,&mdash;frequently overflowed during the spring
+freshets,&mdash;pestilence would soon be bred from the immense concourse of
+people: hence a system of <i>cloac&aelig;</i>, almost rivalling those of ancient
+Rome. At each street-corner there are wells containing spiral
+staircases, by which one can descend to the spacious subterranean
+passages, and there walk for miles under arches of hewn stone, lighted
+and aired by shafts at regular intervals. In St. Petersburg you are told
+that more than half the cost of the city is under the surface of the
+earth; at Nijni-Novgorod the statement is certainly true. Peter the
+Great at one time designed establishing his capital here. Could he have
+foreseen the existence of railroads, he would certainly have done so.
+Nijni-Novgorod is now nearer to Berlin than the Russian frontier was
+fifty years ago. St. Petersburg is an accidental city; Nature and the
+destiny of the empire are both opposed to its existence; and a time will
+come when its long lines of palaces shall be deserted for some new
+capital, in a locality at once more southern and more central.</p>
+
+<p>Another walk through the streets of the Fair enabled me to analyze the
+first confused impression, and separate the motley throng of life into
+its several elements. I shall not attempt, however, to catch and paint
+its ever-changing, fluctuating character. Our limited visit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> allowed us
+to see only the more central and crowded streets. Outside of these, for
+miles, extend suburbs of iron, of furs, wool, and other coarser
+products, brought together from the Ural, from the forests towards the
+Polar Ocean, and from the vast extent of Siberia. Here, from morning
+till night, the beloved <i>kvass</i> flows in rivers, the strong stream of
+<i>shchi</i> (cabbage-soup) sends up its perpetual incense, and the samovar
+of cheap tea is never empty. Here, although important interests are
+represented, the intercourse between buyers and sellers is less grave
+and methodical than in the bazaar. There are jokes, laughter, songs, and
+a constant play of that repartee in which even the serfs are masters.
+Here, too, jugglers and mountebanks of all sorts ply their trade;
+gypsies sing, dance, and tell fortunes; and other vocations, less
+respectable than these, flourish vigorously. For, whether the visitor be
+an Ostiak from the Polar Circle, an Uzbek from the Upper Oxus, a
+Crim-Tartar or Noga&iuml;, a Georgian from Tiflis, a Mongolian from the Land
+of Grass, a Persian from Ispahan, a Jew from Hamburg, a Frenchman from
+Lyons, a Tyrolese, Swiss, Bohemian, or an Anglo-Saxon from either side
+of the Atlantic, he meets his fellow-visitors to the Great Fair on the
+common ground, not of human brotherhood, but of human appetite; and all
+the manifold nationalities succumb to the same allurements. If the
+various forms of indulgence could be so used as to propagate ideas, the
+world would speedily be regenerated; but as things go, "cakes and ale"
+have more force than the loftiest ideas, the noblest theories of
+improvement; and the impartial observer will make this discovery as
+readily at Nijni-Novgorod as anywhere else.</p>
+
+<p>Before taking leave of the Fair, let me give a word to the important
+subject of tea. It is a much-disputed question with the connoisseurs of
+that beverage which neither cheers nor inebriates, (though, I confess,
+it is more agreeable than koumiss,) whether the Russian "caravan tea" is
+really superior to that which is imported by sea. After much patient
+observation, combined with serious reflection, I incline to the opinion
+that the flavor of tea depends, not upon the method of transportation,
+but upon the price paid for the article. I have tasted bad caravan tea
+in Russia, and delicious tea in New York. In St. Petersburg you cannot
+procure a good article for less than three roubles ($2.25, <i>gold</i>) per
+pound; while the finer kinds bring twelve and even sixteen roubles.
+Whoever is willing to import at that price can no doubt procure tea of
+equal excellence. The fact is, that this land-transportation is slow,
+laborious, and expensive; hence the finer kinds of tea are always
+selected, a pound thereof costing no more for carriage than a pound of
+inferior quality; <i>whence</i> the superior flavor of caravan tea. There is,
+however, one variety to be obtained in Russia which I have found nowhere
+else, not even in the Chinese sea-ports. It is called "imperial tea",
+and comes in elegant boxes of yellow silk emblazoned with the dragon of
+the Hang dynasty, at the rate of from six to twenty dollars a pound. It
+is yellow, and the decoction from it is almost colorless. A small pinch
+of it, added to ordinary black tea, gives an indescribably delicious
+flavor,&mdash;the very aroma of the tea-blossom; but one cup of it, unmixed,
+is said to deprive the drinker of sleep for three nights. We brought
+some home, and a dose thereof was administered to three unconscious
+guests during my absence; but I have not yet ascertained the effects
+which followed.</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur D. brought our last delightful stroll through the glittering
+streets to an untimely end. The train for Moscow was to leave at three
+o'clock; and he had ordered an early dinner at the restaurant. By the
+time this was concluded, it was necessary to drive at once to the
+station, in order to secure places. We were almost too late; the train,
+long as it was, was crammed to overflowing; and although both
+station-master and conductor assisted us, the eager passengers
+disregarded their authority. With great difficulty, one compartment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> was
+cleared for the ladies; in the adjoining one four merchants, in long
+caftans, with sacks of watermelons as provision for the journey, took
+their places, and would not be ejected. A scene of confusion ensued, in
+which station-master, conductor, Monsieur D., my friend P., and the
+Russian merchants were curiously mixed; but when we saw the sacks of
+watermelons rolling out of the door, we knew the day was ours. In two
+minutes more we were in full possession; the doors were locked, and the
+struggling throngs beat against them in vain.</p>
+
+<p>With a grateful farewell to our kind guide, whose rather severe duties
+for our sake were now over, we moved away from the station, past heaps
+of cotton-bales, past hills of drifting sand, and impassive groups of
+Persians, Tartars, and Bukharians, and slowly mounted the long grade to
+the level of the upland, leaving the Fair to hum and whirl in the hollow
+between the rivers, and the white walls and golden domes of Novgorod to
+grow dim on the crest of the receding hill.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, at sunrise, we were again in Moscow.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>MY AUTUMN WALK.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">On woodlands ruddy with autumn<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The amber sunshine lies;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I look on the beauty round me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And tears come into my eyes.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For the wind that sweeps the meadows<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Blows out of the far South-west,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where our gallant men are fighting,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the gallant dead are at rest.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The golden-rod is leaning<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the purple aster waves<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In a breeze from the land of battles,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A breath from the land of graves.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Full fast the leaves are dropping<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Before that wandering breath;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As fast, on the field of battle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Our brethren fall in death.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Beautiful over my pathway<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The forest spoils are shed;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They are spotting the grassy hillocks<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With purple and gold and red.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Beautiful is the death-sleep<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of those who bravely fight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In their country's holy quarrel,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And perish for the Right.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But who shall comfort the living,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The light of whose homes is gone:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The bride, that, early widowed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Lives broken-hearted on;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The matron, whose sons are lying<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In graves on a distant shore;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The maiden, whose promised husband<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Comes back from the war no more?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I look on the peaceful dwellings<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Whose windows glimmer in sight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With croft and garden and orchard<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That bask in the mellow light;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And I know, that, when our couriers<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With news of victory come,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They will bring a bitter message<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of hopeless grief to some.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again I turn to the woodlands,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And shudder as I see<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The mock-grape's<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> blood-red banner<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Hung out on the cedar-tree;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And I think of days of slaughter,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the night-sky red with flames,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On the Chattahoochee's meadows,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the wasted banks of the James.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh, for the fresh spring-season,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When the groves are in their prime,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And far away in the future<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is the frosty autumn-time!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh, for that better season,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When the pride of the foe shall yield,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the hosts of God and freedom<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">March back from the well-won field;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And the matron shall clasp her first-born<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With tears of joy and pride;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the scarred and war-worn lover<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Shall claim his promised bride!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The leaves are swept from the branches;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But the living buds are there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With folded flower and foliage,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To sprout in a kinder air.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>October, 1864.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> <i>Ampelopsis</i>, mock-grape. I have here literally translated
+the botanical name of the Virginia creeper,&mdash;an appellation too cumbrous
+for verse.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+<h2>FIVE-SISTERS COURT AT CHRISTMAS-TIDE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>For a business street Every Lane certainly is very lazy. It sets out
+just to make a short passage between two thoroughfares, but, though
+forced first to walk straight by the warehouses that wall in its
+entrance, it soon begins to loiter, staring down back alleys, yawning
+into courts, plunging into stable-yards, and at length standing
+irresolute at three ways of getting to the end of its journey. It passes
+by artisans' shops, and keeps two or three masons' cellars and
+carpenters' lofts, as if its slovenly buildings needed perpetual
+repairs. It has not at all the air of once knowing better days. It began
+life hopelessly; and though the mayor and common council and board of
+aldermen, with ten righteous men, should daily march through it, the
+broom of official and private virtue could not sweep it clean of its
+slovenliness. But one of its idle turnings does suddenly end in a
+virtuous court: here Every Lane may come, when it indulges in vain
+aspirations for a more respectable character, and take refuge in the
+quiet demeanor of Every Court. The court is shaped like the letter <b>T</b>
+with an <b>L</b> to it. The upright beam connects it with Every Lane, and
+maintains a non-committal character, since its sides are blank walls;
+upon one side of the cross-beam are four houses, while a fifth occupies
+the diminutive <b>L</b> of the court, esconcing itself in a snug corner, as if
+ready to rush out at the cry of "All in! all in!" Gardens fill the
+unoccupied sides, toy-gardens, but large enough to raise all the flowers
+needed for this toy-court. The five houses, built exactly alike, are two
+and a half stories high, and have each a dormer-window, curtained with
+white dimity, so that they look like five elderly dames in caps; and the
+court has gotten the name of Five-Sisters Court, to the despair of Every
+Lane, which felt its sole chance for respectability slip away when the
+court came to disown its patronymic.</p>
+
+<p>It was at dusk, the afternoon before Christmas, that a young man,
+Nicholas Judge by name, walking inquiringly down Every Lane, turned into
+Five-Sisters Court, and stood facing the five old ladies, apparently in
+some doubt as to which he should accost. There was a number on each
+door, but no name; and it was impossible to tell from the outside who or
+what sort of people lived in each. If one could only get round to the
+rear of the court, one might get some light, for the backs of houses are
+generally off their guard, and the Five Sisters who look alike in their
+dimity caps might possibly have more distinct characters when not
+dressed for company. Perhaps, after the caps are off, and the spectacles
+removed&mdash;But what outrageous sentiments are we drifting toward!</p>
+
+<p>There was a cause for Nicholas Judge's hesitation. In one of those
+houses he had good reason to believe lived an aunt of his, the only
+relation left to him in the world, so far as he knew, and by so slender
+a thread was he held to her that he knew only her maiden name. Through
+the labyrinth of possible widowhoods, one of which at least was actual,
+and the changes in condition which many years would effect, he was to
+feel his way to the Fair Rosamond by this thread. Nicholas was a wise
+young man, as will no doubt appear when we come to know him better, and,
+though a fresh country youth, visiting the city for the first time, was
+not so indiscreet as to ask bluntly at each door, until he got
+satisfaction, "Does my Aunt Eunice live here?" As the doors in the court
+were all shut and equally dumb, he resolved to take the houses in order,
+and proposing to himself the strategy of asking for a drink of water,
+and so opening the way for further parley, he stood before the door of
+Number One.</p>
+
+<p>He raised the knocker, (for there was no bell,) and tapped in a
+hesitating manner, as if he would take it all back in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> case of an
+egregious mistake. There was a shuffle in the entry; the door opened
+slowly, disclosing an old and tidy negro woman, who invited Nicholas in
+by a gesture, and saying, "You wish to see master?" led him on through a
+dark passage without waiting for an answer. "Certainly," he thought, "I
+want to see the master more than I want a drink of water: I will keep
+that device for the next house"; and, obeying the lead of the servant,
+he went up stairs, and was ushered into a room, where there was just
+enough dusky light to disclose tiers of books, a table covered with
+papers, and other indications of a student's abode.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas's eye had hardly become accustomed to the dim light, when there
+entered the scholar himself, the master whom he was to see: a small old
+man, erect, with white hair and smooth forehead, beneath which projected
+two beads of eyes, that seemed, from their advanced position,
+endeavoring to take in what lay round the corner of the head as well as
+objects directly in front. His long palm-leaved study-gown and tasselled
+velvet cap lent him a reverend appearance; and he bore in his hand what
+seemed a curiously shaped dipper, as if he were some wise man coming to
+slake a disciple's thirst with water from the fountain-head of
+knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"Has he guessed my pretended errand?" wondered Nicholas to himself,
+feeling a little ashamed of his innocent ruse, for he was not in the
+least thirsty; but the old man began at once to address him, after
+motioning him to a seat. He spoke abruptly, and with a restrained
+impatience of manner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"So you received my letter appointing this hour for an interview. Well,
+what do you expect me to do for you? You compliment me, in a loose sort
+of way, on my contributions to philological science, and tell me that
+you are engaged in the same inquiries with myself"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said Nicholas, in alarm,&mdash;"I ought to explain myself,&mdash;I"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>But the old gentleman gave no heed to the interruption, and
+continued:&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;"And that you have published an article on the Value of Words. You
+sent me the paper, but I didn't find anything in it. I have no great
+opinion of the efforts of young men in this direction. It contained
+commonplace generalities which I never heard questioned. You can't show
+the value of words by wasting them. I told you I should be plain. Now
+you want me to give you some hints, you say, as to the best method of
+pursuing philological researches. In a hasty moment I said you might
+come, though I don't usually allow visitors. You praise me for what I
+have accomplished in philology. Young man, that is because I have not
+given myself up to idle gadding and gossiping. Do you think, if I had
+been making calls, and receiving anybody who chose to force himself upon
+me, during the last forty years, that I should have been able to master
+the digamma, which you think my worthiest labor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," interrupted Nicholas again, thinking that the question, though it
+admitted no answer, might give him a chance to stand on his own legs
+once more, "I really must ask your pardon."</p>
+
+<p>"The best method of pursuing philological researches!" continued the old
+scholar, deaf to Nicholas's remonstrance. "That is one of your foolish
+general questions, that show how little you know what you are about. But
+do as I have done. Work by yourself, and dig, dig. Give up your
+senseless gabbling in the magazines, get over your astonishment at
+finding that <i>c&oelig;lum</i> and <i>heaven</i> contain the same idea
+etymologically, and that there was a large bread-bakery at Sk&#333;los,
+and make up your mind to believe nothing till you can't help it. You
+haven't begun to work yet. Wait till you have lived as I have, forty
+years in one house, with your library likely to turn you out of doors,
+and only an old black woman to speak to, before you begin to think of
+calling yourself a scholar. Eh?"</p>
+
+<p>And at this point the old gentleman adjusted the dipper, which was
+merely an ear-trumpet,&mdash;though for a moment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> more mysterious to
+Nicholas, in its new capacity, than when he had regarded it as a unique
+specimen of a familiar household-implement,&mdash;and thrust the bowl toward
+the embarrassed youth. In fact, having said all that he intended to say
+to his unwelcome supposed disciple, he showed enough churlish grace to
+permit him to make such reply or defence as seemed best.</p>
+
+<p>The old gentleman had pulled up so suddenly in his harangue, and called
+for an answer so authoritatively, and with such a singular flourish of
+his trumpet, that Nicholas, losing command of the studied explanation of
+his conduct, which a moment before had been at his tongue's end, caught
+at the last sentence spoken, and gained a perilous advantage by
+asking,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Have you, indeed, lived in this house forty years, Sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh! what?" said the old gentleman, impatiently, perceiving that he had
+spoken. "Here, speak into my trumpet. What is the use of a trumpet, if
+you don't speak into it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," thought Nicholas to himself, "I see, he is excessively deaf"; and
+bending over the trumpet, where he saw a sieve-like frame, as if all
+speech were to be strained as it entered, he collected his force, and
+repeated the question, with measured and sonorous utterance, "Sir, have
+you lived in this house forty years?"</p>
+
+<p>"I just told you so," said the old man, not unnaturally starting back.
+"And if you were going to ask me such an unnecessary question at all,"
+he added, testily, "you needn't have roared it out at me. I could have
+heard that without my trumpet. Yes, I've lived here forty years, and so
+has black Maria, who opened the door for you; and I say again that I
+have accomplished what I have by uninterrupted study. I haven't gone
+about, bowing to every he, she, and it. I never knew who lived in any of
+the other houses in the court till to-day, when a woman came and asked
+me to go out for the evening to her house; and just because it was
+Christmas-eve, I was foolish enough to be wheedled by her into saying I
+would go. Miss &mdash;&mdash; Miss &mdash;&mdash;, I can't remember her name now. I shall
+have to ask Maria. There, you haven't got much satisfaction out of me;
+but do you mind what I said to you, and it will be worth more than if I
+had told you what books to read. Eh?" And he invited Nicholas once more
+to drop his words into the trumpet.</p>
+
+<p>"Good afternoon," said Nicholas, hesitatingly,&mdash;"thank you,"&mdash;at a loss
+what pertinent reply to make, and in despair of clearing himself from
+the tangle in which he had become involved. It was plain, too, that he
+should get no satisfaction here, at least upon the search in which he
+was engaged. But the reply seemed quite satisfactory to the old
+gentleman, who cheerfully relinquished him to black Maria, who, in turn,
+passed him out of the house.</p>
+
+<p>Left to himself, and rid of his personal embarrassment, he began to feel
+uncomfortably guilty, as he considered the confusion which he had
+entailed upon the real philological disciple, and would fain comfort
+himself with the hope that he had acted as a sort of lightning-rod to
+conduct the old scholar's bolts, and so had secured some immunity for
+the one at whom the bolts were really shot. But his own situation
+demanded his attention; and leaving the to-be unhappy young man and the
+to-be perplexed old gentleman to settle the difficulty over the
+mediating ear-trumpet, he addressed himself again to his task, and
+proposed to take another survey of the court, with the vague hope that
+his aunt might show herself with such unmistakable signs of relationship
+as to bring his researches to an immediate and triumphant close.</p>
+
+<p>Just as he was turning away from the front of Number One, buttoning his
+overcoat with an air of self-abstraction, he was suddenly and
+unaccountably attacked in the chest with such violence as almost to
+throw him off his feet. At the next moment his ears were assailed by a
+profusion of apologetic explanations from a young man, who made out to
+tell him, that, coming out of his house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> with the intention of calling
+next door, he had leaped over the snow that lay between, and, not seeing
+the gentleman, had, most unintentionally, plunged headlong into him. He
+hoped he had not hurt him; he begged a thousand pardons; it was very
+careless in him; and then, perfect peace having succeeded this violent
+attack, the new-comer politely asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me whether Doctor Chocker is at home, and disengaged? I
+perceive that you have just left his house."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean the deaf old gentleman in Number One?" asked Nicholas.</p>
+
+<p>"I was not aware that he was deaf," said his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"And I did not know that his name was Doctor Chocker," said Nicholas,
+smiling. "But may I ask," said he, with a sudden thought, and blushing
+so hard that even the wintry red of his cheeks was outshone, "if you
+were just going to see him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had an appointment to see him at this hour; and that is the reason
+why I asked you if he was disengaged."</p>
+
+<p>"He&mdash;he is not engaged, I believe," said Nicholas, stammering and
+blushing harder than ever; "but a word with you, Sir. I must&mdash;really&mdash;it
+was wholly unintentional&mdash;but unless I am mistaken, the old gentleman
+thought I was you."</p>
+
+<p>"Thought you were I?" said the other, screwing his eyebrows into a
+question, and letting his nose stand for an exclamation-point. "But
+come, it is cold here,&mdash;will you do me the honor to come up to my room?
+At any rate, I should like to hear something about the old fellow." And
+he turned towards the next house.</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;!" said Nicholas, "do you live in Number Two?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have rooms here," said his companion, jumping back over the
+snow. "You seem surprised."</p>
+
+<p>"It is extraordinary," muttered Nicholas to himself, as he entered the
+house and followed his new acquaintance up stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Their entrance seemed to create some confusion; for there was an
+indistinct sound as of a tumultuous retreat in every direction, a
+scuttling up and down stairs, and a whisking of dresses round corners,
+with still more indistinct and distant sound of suppressed chattering
+and a voice berating.</p>
+
+<p>"It is extremely provoking," said the young man, when they had entered
+his room and the door was shut; "but the people in this house seem to do
+nothing but watch my movements. You heard that banging about? Well, I
+seldom come in or go out, especially with a friend, but that just such a
+stampede takes place in the passage-ways and staircase. I have no idea
+who lives in the house, except a Mrs. Crimp, a very worthy woman, no
+doubt, but with too many children, I should guess. I only lodge here;
+and as I send my money down every month with the bill which I find on my
+table, I never see Mrs. Crimp. Now I don't see why they should be so
+curious about me. I'm sure I am very contented in my ignorance of the
+whole household. It's a little annoying, though, when I bring any one
+into the house. Will you excuse me a moment, while I ring for more
+coal?"</p>
+
+<p>While he disappeared for this purpose, seeming to keep the bell in some
+other part of the house, Nicholas took a hasty glance round the room,
+and, opening a book on the table, read on the fly-leaf, <i>Paul Le Clear</i>,
+a name which he tagged for convenience to the occupant of the room until
+he should find one more authentic. The room corresponded to that in
+which he had met Doctor Chocker, but the cheerful gleam of an open fire
+gave a brighter aspect to the interior. Here also were books; but while
+at the Doctor's the walls, tables, and even floor seemed bursting with
+the crowd that had found lodging there, so that he had made his way to a
+chair by a sort of footpath through a field of folios, here there was
+the nicest order and an evident attempt at artistic arrangement. Nor
+were books alone the possessors of the walls; for a few pictures and
+busts had places, and two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> or three ingenious cupboards excited
+curiosity. The room, in short, showed plainly the presence of a
+cultivated mind; and Nicholas, who, though unfamiliar with city-life,
+had received a capital intellectual training at the hands of a
+scholarly, but anchoret father, was delighted at the signs of culture in
+his new acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Le Clear re&euml;ntered the room, followed presently by the coal-scuttle
+in the hands of a small servant, and, remembering the occasion which had
+brought them together, invited Nicholas to finish the explanation which
+he had begun below. He, set at ease by the agreeable surroundings,
+opened his heart wide, and, for the sake of explicitness in his
+narration, proposed to begin back at the very beginning.</p>
+
+<p>"By all means begin at the beginning," said Mr. Le Clear, rubbing his
+hands in expectant pleasure; "but before you begin, my good Sir, let me
+suggest that we take a cup of tea together. I must take mine early
+to-night, as I am to spend the evening out, and there's something to
+tell you, Sir, when you are through,"&mdash;as if meeting his burst of
+confidence with a corresponding one,&mdash;"though it's a small matter,
+probably, compared with yours, but it has amused me. I can't make a
+great show on the table," he added, with an elegant humility, when
+Nicholas accepted his invitation; "but I like to take my tea in my room,
+though I go out for dinner."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he brought from the cupboard a little table-cloth, and,
+bustling about, deposited on a tea-tray, one by one, various members of
+a tea-set, which had evidently been plucked from a tea-plant in China,
+since the forms and figures were all suggested by the flowery kingdom.
+The lids of the vessels were shaped like tea-leaves; and miniature China
+men and women picked their way about among the letters of the Chinese
+alphabet, as if they were playing at word-puzzles. Nicholas admired the
+service to its owner's content, establishing thus a new bond of sympathy
+between them; and both were soon seated near the table, sipping the tea
+with demure little spoons, that approached the meagreness of Chinese
+chop-sticks, and decorating white bread with brown marmalade.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said the host, "since you share my salt, I ought to be introduced
+to you, an office which I will perform without ceremony. My name is Paul
+Le Clear," which Nicholas and we had already guessed correctly.</p>
+
+<p>"And mine," said Nicholas, "is Nicholas,&mdash;Nicholas Judge."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Mr. Judge; now let us have the story," said Paul, extending
+himself in an easy attitude; "and begin at the beginning."</p>
+
+<p>"The story begins with my birth," said Nicholas, with a reckless
+ingenuousness which was a large part of his host's entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>But it is unnecessary to recount in detail what Paul heard, beginning at
+that epoch, twenty-two years back. Enough to say in brief what Nicholas
+elaborated: that his mother had died at his birth, in a country home at
+the foot of a mountain; that in that home he had lived, with his father
+for almost solitary friend and teacher, until, his father dying, he had
+come to the city to live; that he had but just reached the place, and
+had made it his first object to find his mother's only sister, with
+whom, indeed, his father had kept up no acquaintance, and for finding
+whom he had but a slight clue, even if she were then living. Nicholas
+brought his narrative in regular order down to the point where Paul had
+so unexpectedly accosted him, stopping there, since subsequent facts
+were fully known to both.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," he concluded, warming with his subject, "I am in search of my
+aunt. What sort of woman she will prove to be I cannot tell; but if
+there is any virtue in sisterly blood, surely my Aunt Eunice cannot be
+without some of that noble nature which belonged to my mother, as I have
+heard her described, and as her miniature bids me believe in. How many
+times of late, in my solitariness, have I pictured to myself this one
+kinswoman receiving me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> for her sister's sake, and willing to befriend
+me for my own! True, I am strong, and able, I think, to make my way in
+the world unaided. It is not such help as would ease my necessary
+struggle that I ask, but the sympathy which only blood-relationship can
+bring. So I build great hopes on my success in the search; and I have
+chosen this evening as a fit time for the happy recognition. I cannot
+doubt that we shall keep our Christmas together. Do you know of any one,
+Mr. Le Clear, living in this court, who might prove to be my aunt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my soul," said that gentleman, who had been sucking the juice of
+Nicholas's narrative, and had now reached the skin, "you have come to
+the last person likely to be able to tell you. It was only to-day that I
+learned by a correspondence with Doctor Chocker, whom all the world
+knows, that he was living just next door to me. Who lives on the other
+side I can't tell. Mrs. Crimp lives here; but she receipts her bills,
+Temperance A. Crimp; so there's no chance for a Eunice there. As for the
+other three houses, I know nothing, except just this: and here I come to
+my story, which is very short, and nothing like so entertaining as
+yours. Yesterday I was called upon by a jiggoty little woman,&mdash;I say
+jiggoty, because that expresses exactly my meaning,&mdash;a jiggoty little
+woman, who announced herself as Miss Pix, living in Number Five, and who
+brought an invitation in person to me to come to a small party at her
+house this Christmas-eve; and as she was jiggoty, I thought I would
+amuse myself by going. But she is <i>Miss</i> Pix; and your aunt, according
+to your showing, should be <i>Mrs.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"That must be where the old gentleman, Doctor Chocker, is going," said
+Nicholas, who had forgotten to mention that part of the Doctor's
+remarks, and now did so.</p>
+
+<p>"Really, that is entertaining!" cried Paul. "I certainly shall go, if
+it's for nothing else than to see Miss Pix and Doctor Chocker together."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon my ignorance, Mr. Le Clear," said Nicholas, with a smile; "but
+what do you mean by jiggoty?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," said Paul, "to express a certain effervescence of manner, as
+if one were corked against one's will, ending in a sudden pop of the
+cork and a general overflowing. I invented the word after seeing Miss
+Pix. She is an odd person; but I shouldn't wish to be so concerned about
+my neighbors as she appears to be. My philosophy of life," he continued,
+standing now before the fire, and receiving its entire radiation upon
+the superficies of his back, "is to extract sunshine from cucumbers.
+Think of living forty years, like Doctor Chocker, on the husks of the
+digamma! I am obliged to him for his advice, but I sha'n't follow it.
+Here are my books and prints; out of doors are people and Nature: I
+propose to extract sunshine from all these cucumbers. The world was made
+for us, and not we for the world. When I go to Miss Pix's this
+evening,&mdash;and, by the way, it's 'most time to go,&mdash;I presume I shall
+find one or two ripe cucumbers. Christmas, too, is a capital season for
+this chemical experiment. I find people are more off their guard, and
+offer special advantages for a curious observer and experimenter. Here
+is my room; you see how I live; and when I have no visitor at tea, I
+wind up my little musical box. You have no idea what a pretty picture I
+make, sitting in my chair, the tea-table by me, the fire in the grate,
+and the musical box for a cricket on the hearth"; and Mr. Le Clear
+laughed good-humoredly.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas laughed, too. He had been smiling throughout the young
+philosopher's discourse; but he was conscious of a little feeling of
+uneasiness, as if he were being subjected to the cucumber-extract
+process. He had intended at first to deliver the scheme of life which he
+had adopted, but, on the whole, determined to postpone it. He rose to
+go, and shook hands with Paul, who wished him all success in finding his
+aunt; as for himself, he thought he got along better without aunts. The
+two went down stairs to the door, causing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> very much the same dispersion
+of the tribes as before; and Nicholas once more stood in Five-Sisters
+Court, while Paul Le Clear returned to his charming bower, to be tickled
+with the recollection of the adventure, and to prepare for Miss Pix's
+party.</p>
+
+<p>"On the whole, I think I won't disturb Doctor Chocker's mind by clearing
+it up," said he to himself. "It might, too, bring on a repetition of the
+fulmination against my paper which the young Judge seemed so to enjoy
+relating. An innocent youth, certainly! I wonder if he expected me to
+give him my autobiography."</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas Judge confessed to himself a slight degree of despondency, as
+he looked at the remaining two houses in the court, since Miss Pix's
+would have to be counted out, and reflected that his chances of success
+were dwindling. His recent conversation had left upon his mind, for some
+reason which he hardly stopped now to explain, a disagreeable
+impression; and he felt a trifle wearied of this very dubious
+enterprise. What likelihood was there, if his aunt had lived here a long
+time past, as he assumed in his calculations, that she would have failed
+to make herself known in some way to Doctor Chocker? since the vision
+which he had of this worthy lady was that of a kind-hearted and most
+neighborly soul. But he reflected that city life must differ greatly
+from that in the country, even more than he had conceded with all his <i>a
+priori</i> reasonings; and he decided to draw no hasty inferences, but to
+proceed in the Baconian method by calling at Number Three. He was rather
+out of conceit with his strategy of thirst, which had so fallen below
+the actual modes of effecting an entrance, and now resolved to march
+boldly up with the irresistible engine of straight-forward inquiry,&mdash;as
+straight-forward, at least, as the circumstances would permit. He
+knocked at the door. After a little delay, enlivened for him by the
+interchange of voices within the house, apparently at opposite
+extremities, a light approached, and the door was opened, disclosing a
+large and florid-faced man, in his shirt-sleeves, holding a small and
+sleepy lamp in his hand. Nicholas moved at once upon the enemy's works.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you have the goodness to tell me, Sir, if a lady named Miss Eunice
+Brown lives here?"&mdash;that being his aunt's maiden name, and possibly good
+on demand thirty years after date. The reply came, after a moment's
+deliberation, as if the man wished to gain time for an excursion into
+some unexplored region of the house,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Sir, I won't say positively that she doesn't; and yet I can say,
+that, in one sense of the word, Miss Eunice Brown does not live here.
+Will you walk in, and we will talk further about it."</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas entered, though somewhat wondering how they were to settle Miss
+Brown's residence there by the most protracted conversation. The man in
+shirt-sleeves showed him into a sitting-room, and setting the lamp upon
+the top of a corner what-not, where it twinkled like a distant star, he
+gave Nicholas a seat, and took one opposite to him, first shutting the
+door behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you give me your name, Sir?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas hesitated, not quite liking to part with it to one who might
+misuse it.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no objection," said his companion, in a sonorous voice, "to
+giving my name to any one that asks it. My name is Soprian Manlius."</p>
+
+<p>"And mine," said Nicholas, not to be outdone in generosity, "is Nicholas
+Judge."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Mr. Judge. Now we understand each other, I think. I asked
+your name as a guaranty of good faith. Anonymous contributions cannot be
+received, et cetera,&mdash;as they say at the head of newspapers. And that's
+my rule of business, Sir. People come to me to ask the character of a
+girl, and I ask their names. If they don't want to give them, I say,
+'Very well; I can't intrust the girl's character to people without
+name.' And it brings them out, Sir, it brings them out," said Mr.
+Manlius,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> leaning back, and taking a distant view of his masterly
+diplomacy.</p>
+
+<p>"Do people come to you to inquire after persons' characters?" asked
+Nicholas, somewhat surprised at happening upon such an oracle.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in a general way, no," said Mr. Manlius, smiling; "though I won't
+say but that they would succeed as well here as in most places. In a
+particular way, yes. I keep an intelligence-office. Here is my card,
+Sir,"&mdash;pulling one out of his waistcoat-pocket, and presenting it to
+Nicholas; "and you will see by the phraseology employed, that I have
+unrivalled means for securing the most valuable help from all parts of
+the world. Mr. Judge," he whispered, leaning forward, and holding up his
+forefinger to enforce strict secrecy, "I keep a paid agent in Nova
+Scotia." And once more Mr. Manlius retreated in his chair, to get the
+whole effect of the announcement upon his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>The internal economy of an office for obtaining and furnishing
+intelligence might have been further revealed to Nicholas; but at this
+moment a voice was heard on the outside of the door, calling, "S'prian!
+S'prian! we're 'most ready."</p>
+
+<p>"Coming, Caroline," replied Mr. Manlius, and, recalled to the object for
+which his visitor was there, he turned to Nicholas, and resumed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Judge, about Miss Eunice Brown, whether she lives here or
+not. Are you personally acquainted with Miss Brown?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Sir," said Nicholas, frankly. "I will tell you plainly my
+predicament. Miss Eunice Brown was my mother's sister; but after my
+mother's death, which took place at my birth, there was no intercourse
+with her on the part of our family, which consisted of my father and
+myself. My father, I ought to say, had no unfriendliness toward her, but
+his habits of life were those of a solitary student; and therefore he
+took no pains to keep up the acquaintance. He heard of her marriage, and
+the subsequent death of her husband; rumor reached him of a second
+marriage, but he never heard the name of the man she married in either
+case. My father lately died; but before his death he advised me to seek
+this aunt, if possible, since she was my only living near relation; and
+he told me that he had heard of her living in this court many years ago.
+So I have come here with faint hope of tracing her."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Manlius listened attentively to this explanation; and then solemnly
+walking to the door, he called in a deep voice, as if he would have the
+summons start from the very bottom of the house for
+thoroughness,&mdash;"Caroline!"</p>
+
+<p>The call was answered immediately by the appearance of Mrs. Manlius, in
+a red dress, that put everything else in the room in the background.</p>
+
+<p>"Caroline," said he, more impressively than would seem necessary, and
+pointing to Nicholas, "this is Mr. Nicholas Judge. Mr. Judge, you see my
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear," said Mrs. Manlius, nervously, as soon as she had bowed,
+discovering the feeble lamp, which was saving its light by burning very
+dimly, "that lamp will be off the what-not in a moment. How could you
+put it right on the edge?" And she took it down from its pinnacle, and
+placed it firmly on the middle of a table, at a distance from anything
+inflammable. "Mr. Manlius is so absent-minded, Sir," said she, turning
+to Nicholas.</p>
+
+<p>"Caroline," said her husband, "this will be a memorable day in the
+history of our family. Eunice has found a dear sister's son."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" she asked, turning for explanation to Nicholas, who at Mr.
+Manlius's words felt his heart beat quicker.</p>
+
+<p>Then Mr. Manlius, in as few words as his dignity and the occasion would
+deem suitable, stated the case to his wife, who looked admiringly upon
+Mr. Manlius's oratory, and interestingly upon Nicholas.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I call Eunice down, S'prian?" said she, when her husband
+concluded, and conveying some mysterious information to him by means of
+private signals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We have here," said Mr. Manlius, now turning the hose of his eloquence
+toward Nicholas, and playing upon him, "we have here a dear friend, who
+has abode in our house for many years. She came to us when she was in
+trouble, and here has she found a resting-place for the soles of her
+feet. Sir," with a darksome glance, "her relations had forgotten her."</p>
+
+<p>"I must say"&mdash;&mdash;interrupted Nicholas; but Mr. Manlius waved him back,
+and continued:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But she found true kinsfolk in the friends of her early days. We have
+cared for her tenderly, and now at last we have our reward in consigning
+her to the willing hands of a young scion of her house. She was Eunice
+Brown; she had a sister who married a Judge, as I have often heard her
+say; and she herself married Mr. Archibald Starkey, who is now no more.
+Caroline, I will call Eunice"; and Mr. Manlius went heavily out of the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas was very much agitated, and Mrs. Manlius very much excited,
+over this sudden turn of affairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Eunice has lived with us fifteen years, come February; and she has been
+one of the family, coming in and going out like the rest of us. I found
+her on the doorstep one night, and wasn't going to bring her in at
+first, because, you see, I didn't know what she might be; when, lo and
+behold! she looked up, and said I, 'Eunice Brown!' 'Yes,' said she, and
+said she was cold and hungry; and I brought her in, and told Mr.
+Manlius, and he came and talked with her, and said he, 'Caroline, there
+is character in that woman'; for, Mr. Judge, Mr. Manlius can read
+character in a person wonderfully; he has a real gift that way; and,
+indeed, he needs it in his profession; and, as I tell him, he was born
+an intelligence-officer."</p>
+
+<p>Thus, and with more in the same strain, did Mrs. Manlius give vent to
+her feelings, though hardly in the ear of Nicholas, who paced the room
+in restless expectation of his aunt's approach. He heard enough to give
+a turn to his thoughts; and it was with unaffected sorrow that he
+reflected how the lonely woman had been dependent upon the charity, as
+it seemed, of others. He saw in her now no longer merely the motherly
+aunt who was to welcome him, but one whom he should care for, and take
+under his protection. He heard steps in the entry, and easily detected
+the ponderous tread of Mr. Manlius, who now opened the door, and
+reappeared in more careful toilet, since he was furbished and smoothed
+by the addition of proper touches, until he had quite the air of a man
+of society. He entered the room with great pomp and ceremony all by
+himself, and met Nicholas's disappointed look by saying, slowly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Starkey, your beloved aunt, will appear presently"; and throwing a
+look about the room, as if he would call the attention of all the people
+in the dress-circle, boxes, and amphitheatre, he continued&mdash;"I have
+intimated to your aunt the nature of your relationship, and I need not
+say that she is quite agitated at the prospective meeting. She is a
+woman"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Manlius's flow was suddenly turned off by the appearance of Mrs.
+Starkey herself. The introduction, too, which, as manager of this little
+scene, he had rehearsed to himself, was rendered unnecessary by the
+prompt action of Nicholas, who hastened forward, with tumultuous
+feelings, to greet his aunt. His honest nature had no sceptical reserve;
+and he saluted her affectionately, before the light of the feeble lamp,
+which seemed to have husbanded all its strength for this critical
+moment, could disclose to him anything of the personal appearance of his
+relative. At this moment the twinkling light, like a star at dawn, went
+out; and Mrs. Manlius, rushing off, reappeared with an astral, which
+turned the somewhat gloomy aspect of affairs into cheerful light.
+Perhaps it was symbolic of a sunrise upon the world which enclosed
+Nicholas and his aunt. Nicholas looked at Mrs. Starkey, who was indeed
+flurried, and saw a pinched and meagre woman, the flower of whose youth
+had long ago been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> pressed in the book of ill-fortune until it was
+colorless and scentless. She found words presently, even before Nicholas
+did; and sitting down with him in the encouraging presence of the
+Manlii, she uttered her thoughts in an incoherent way:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, dear! who would have said it? When Miss Pix came to invite us all
+to her party, and said, 'Mrs. Starkey, I'm sure I hope you will come,' I
+thought it might be too much for such a quiet body as I be. But that was
+nothing to this. Why, if here I haven't got a real nephew; and, to be
+sure, it's a great while since I saw your mother, but, I declare, you do
+look just like her, and a Judge's son you are, too. Did they say you
+looked like your father, Nickey? I was asking Caroline if she thought my
+bombazine would do, after all; and now I do think I ought to wear my
+India silk, and put on my pearl necklace, for I don't want my Nicky to
+be ashamed of me. You'll go with us, won't you, nephew, to Miss Pix's? I
+expect it's going to be a grand party; and I'll go round and introduce
+you to all the great people; and how did you leave your father,
+Nicholas?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, aunt, did not Mr. Manlius tell you that he was dead?" said
+Nicholas. "Her memory's a little short," whispered Mrs. Manlius; but,
+hardly interrupted by this little answer and whisper, Mrs. Starkey was
+again plunging headlong into a current of words, and struggling among
+the eddies of various subjects. Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Manlius, having,
+as managers, set the little piece on the stage in good condition, were
+carrying on a private undertoned conversation, which resulted in Mrs.
+Manlius asking, in an engaging manner,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Eunice, dear, would you prefer to stay at home this evening with your
+nephew? Because we will excuse you to Miss Pix, who would hardly expect
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Starkey was in the midst of a voluble description of some private
+jewelry which she intended to show the astonished Nicholas; but she
+caught the last words, and veered round to Mrs. Manlius, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, she expects me; and she expects Nicholas, too. She will be very
+much gratified to see him, and I have no doubt she will give another
+party for him; and if she does, I mean to invite my friend the alderman
+to go. I shouldn't wonder if he was to be there to-night; and now I
+think of it, it must be time to be going. Caroline, have you got your
+things on?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Starkey spoke with a determination that suffered no opposition, so
+that Nicholas and Mr. Manlius were left alone for a moment, while the
+two women should wrap themselves up.</p>
+
+<p>"Your aunt is unduly excited, Mr. Judge," said the intelligence-officer;
+"and it was for that reason that I advised she should not go. She has
+hardly been herself the last day or two. Our neighbor, Miss Pix,&mdash;a
+woman whose character is somewhat unsettled; no fixed principles. Sir, I
+fear," shaking his head regretfully; "too erratic, controlled by
+impulse, possessing an inquisitive temperament," telling off upon a
+separate finger each count in the charges against Miss Pix's character,
+and reserving for the thumb the final overwhelming accusation,&mdash;"Sir,
+she has not learned the great French economical principle of Lassy
+Fair." Miss Pix being thus stricken down, he helped her up again with an
+apology. "But her advantages have no doubt been few. She has not studied
+political economy; and how can she hope to walk unerringly?"&mdash;and Mr.
+Manlius gazed at an imaginary Miss Pix wandering without compass or
+guide over the desert of life. "She makes a party to-night. And why?
+Because it is Christmas-eve. That is a small foundation, Mr. Judge, on
+which to erect the structure of social intercourse. Society, Sir, should
+be founded on principles, not accidents. Because my house is
+accidentally contiguous to two others, shall I consider myself, and
+shall Mrs. Manlius consider herself, as necessarily bound by the
+ligaments of Nature&mdash;by the ligaments of Nature, Mr. Judge,&mdash;to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> the
+dwellers in those houses? No, Sir. I don't know who lives in this court
+beside Miss Pix. Nature brought your aunt and Mrs. Manlius together, and
+Nature brought you and your aunt together. We will go, however, to Miss
+Pix's. It will gratify her. But your aunt is excited about the, for her,
+unusual occasion. And now she has seen you. I feared this interview
+might overcome her. She is frail; but she is fair, Sir, if I may say so.
+She has character; very few have as much,&mdash;and I have seen many women.
+Did you ever happen to see Martha Jewmer, Mr. Judge?"</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas could not remember that he had.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Sir, that woman has been in my office twelve times. I got a place
+for her each time. And why? Because she has character"; and Mr. Manlius
+leaned back to get a full view of character. Before he had satisfied
+himself enough to continue his reminiscences, his wife and Mrs. Starkey
+returned, bundled up as if they were going on a long sleigh-ride.</p>
+
+<p>"We're ready, S'prian," said Mrs. Manlius. "Eunice thinks she will go
+still,"&mdash;which was evident from the manner in which Mrs. Starkey had
+gathered about her a quantity of ill-assorted wrappers, out of the folds
+of which she delivered herself to each and all in a rapid and disjointed
+manner; and the party proceeded out of the house, Mrs. Manlius first
+shutting and opening various doors, according to some intricate system
+of ventilation and heating.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas gave his arm to his aunt, and, though anxious to speak of many
+things, could hardly slip a word into the crevices of her conversation;
+nor then did his questions or answers bring much satisfactory response.
+He was confused with various thoughts, unable to explain the random talk
+of his companion, and yet getting such glimpses of the dreary life she
+had led as made him resolve to give her a home that should admit more
+sunshine into her daily experience.</p>
+
+<p>They were not kept waiting long at Miss Pix's door, for a ruddy German
+girl opened it at their summons; and once inside, Miss Pix herself came
+forward with beaming face to give them a Christmas-eve greeting. Mr.
+Manlius had intended making the official announcement of the arrival of
+the new nephew, but was no match for the ready Mrs. Starkey, who at once
+seized upon their hostess, and shook her warmly by the hand, pouring out
+a confused and not over-accurate account of her good-fortune, mixing in
+various details of her personal affairs. Miss Pix, however, made out the
+main fact, and turned to Nicholas, welcoming him with both hands, and in
+the same breath congratulating Mrs. Starkey, showing such honest,
+whole-souled delight that Nicholas for a moment let loose in his mind a
+half-wish that Miss Pix had proved to be his aunt, so much more nearly
+did she approach his ideal. The whole party stood basking for a moment
+in Miss Pix's Christmas greeting, then extricated themselves from their
+wrappers with the help of their bustling hostess, and were ushered into
+her little parlor, where they proved to be the first arrivals. It was
+almost like sitting down in an arbor: for walls and ceilings were quite
+put out of sight by the evergreen dressing; the candlesticks and
+picture-frames seemed to have budded; and even the poker had laid aside
+its constitutional stiffness, and unbent itself in a miraculous spiral
+of creeping vine. Mr. Manlius looked about him with the air of a
+connoisseur, and complimented Miss Pix.</p>
+
+<p>"A very pretty room, Miss Pix,&mdash;a very pretty room! Quite emblematical!"
+And he cocked his head at some new point.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can't have my Christmas without greens!" said Miss Pix.
+"Christmas and greens, you know, is the best dish in the world. Isn't
+it, Mrs. Starkey?"</p>
+
+<p>But Mrs. Starkey had no need of a question; for she had already started
+on her career as a member of the party, and was galloping over a
+boundless field of observation.</p>
+
+<p>There was just then another ring; and Miss Pix started for the door, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+her eagerness to greet her visitors, but recollected in season the
+tribute which she must pay to the by-laws of society, and hovered about
+the parlor-door till Gretchen could negotiate between the two parties.
+Gretchen's pleased exclamation in her native tongue at once indicated
+the nature of the arrival; and Miss Pix, whispering loudly to Mrs.
+Manlius, "My musical friends," again rushed forward, and received her
+friends almost noisily; for when they went stamping about the entry to
+shake off the snow from their feet against the inhospitable world
+outside, she also, in the excess of her sympathetic delight, caught
+herself stamping her little foot. There was a hurly-burly, and then they
+all entered the parlor in a procession, preceded by Miss Pix, who
+announced them severally to her guests as Mr. Pfeiffer, Mr. Pfeffendorf,
+Mr. Schmauker, and Mr. Windgraff. Everybody bowed at once, and rose to
+the surface, hopelessly ignorant of the name and condition of all the
+rest, except his or her immediate friends. The four musical gentlemen
+especially entirely lost their names in the confusion; and as they
+looked very much alike, it was hazardous to address them, except upon
+general and public grounds.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Starkey was the most bewildered, and also the most bent upon
+setting herself right,&mdash;a task which promised to occupy the entire
+evening. "Which is the fifer?" she asked Nicholas; but he could not tell
+her, and she appealed in vain to the others. Perhaps it was as well,
+since it served as an unfailing resource with her through the evening.
+When nothing else occupied her attention, she would fix her eyes upon
+one of the four, and walk round till she found some one disengaged
+enough to label him, if possible; and as the gentlemen had much in
+common, while Mrs. Starkey's memory was confused, there was always room
+for more light.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Pix meanwhile had disentangled Nicholas from Mrs. Starkey, and, as
+one newly arrived in the court, was recounting to him the origin of her
+party.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Mr. Judge, I have only lived here a few weeks. I had to leave
+my old house; and I took a great liking to this little court, and
+especially to this little house in it. 'What a delightful little
+snuggery!' thought I. 'Here one can be right by the main streets, and
+yet be quiet all day and evening.' And that's what I want; because, you
+see, I have scholars to come and take music-lessons of me. 'And then,' I
+thought to myself, 'I can have four neighbors right in the same yard,
+you may say.' Well, here I came; but&mdash;do you believe it?&mdash;hardly anybody
+even looked out of the window when the furniture-carts came up, and I
+couldn't tell who lived in any house. Why, I was here three weeks, and
+nobody came to see me. I might have been sick, and nobody would have
+known it." Here little Miss Pix shook her head ruefully at the vision of
+herself sick and alone. "I've seen what that is," she added, with a
+mysterious look. "'Well, now,' I said to myself, 'I can't live like
+this. It isn't Christian. I don't believe but the people in the court
+could get along with me, if they knew me.' Well, they didn't come, and
+they didn't come; so I got tired, and one day I went round and saw them
+all,&mdash;no, I didn't see the old gentleman in Number One that time. Will
+you believe it? not a soul knew anybody else in any house but their own!
+I was amazed, and I said to myself, 'Betsey Pix, you've got a mission';
+and, Mr. Judge, I went on that mission. I made up my mind to ask all the
+people in the court, who could possibly come, to have a Christmas-eve
+gathering in my house. I got them all, except the Crimps, in Number Two,
+who would not, do what I could. Then I asked four of my friends to come
+and bring their instruments; for there's nothing like music to melt
+people together. But, oh, Mr. Judge, not one house knows that another
+house in the court is to be here; and, oh, Mr. Judge, I've got such a
+secret!" And here Miss Pix's cork flew to the ceiling, in the manner
+hinted at by Mr. Paul Le Clear; while Nicholas felt himself to have
+known Miss Pix from birth, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> to be, in a special manner, her
+prime-minister on this evening.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before there was another ring, and Mr. Le Clear
+appeared, who received the jiggoty Miss Pix's welcome in a smiling and
+well-bred manner, and suffered himself to be introduced to the various
+persons present, when all seized the new opportunity to discover the
+names of the musical gentlemen, and fasten them to the right owners.
+Paul laughed when he saw Nicholas, and spoke to him as an old
+acquaintance. Miss Pix was suddenly in great alarm, and, beckoning away
+Nicholas, whispered, "Don't for the world tell him where the others
+live." Like the prime-minister with a state-secret, Nicholas went back
+to Paul, and spent the next few minutes in the trying task of answering
+leading questions with misleading answers.</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said the acute Mr. Le Clear to himself; "the aunt is that
+marplotty dame who has turned our young Judge into a prisoner at the
+bar"; and he entered into conversation with Mrs. Starkey with great
+alacrity, finding her a very ripe cucumber. Mr. Manlius, who was
+talking, in easy words of two syllables, to the musical gentlemen,
+overheard some of Mrs. Starkey's revelations to Mr. Le Clear, and,
+watching his opportunity, got Paul into a corner, where he favored him
+with some confidences respecting the lady.</p>
+
+<p>"You may have thought, Sir," said he, in a whisper, "that Mrs. Starkey
+is&mdash;is,"&mdash;and he filled out the sentence with an expressive gesture
+toward his own well-balanced head.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said Paul, politely.</p>
+
+<p>"She is periodically affected," continued Mr. Manlius, "with what I may
+perhaps call excessive and ill-balanced volubility. Mrs. Starkey, Sir,
+is a quiet person, rarely speaking; but once in five or six weeks,&mdash;the
+periods do not return with exact regularity,&mdash;she is subject to some
+hidden influence, which looses her tongue, as it were. I think she is
+under the influence now, and her words are not likely to&mdash;to correspond
+exactly with existing facts. You will not be surprised, then, at her
+words. They are only words, words. At other times she is a woman of
+action. She has a wonderful character, Sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite a phenomenon, indeed, I should say," said Paul, ready to return
+to so interesting a person, but politely suffering Mr. Manlius to flow
+on, which he did uninterruptedly.</p>
+
+<p>Doctor Chocker was the last to come. Miss Pix knew his infirmity, and
+contented herself with mute, but expressive signs, until the old
+gentleman could adjust his trumpet and receive her hearty
+congratulations. He jerked out a response, which Miss Pix received with
+as much delight as if he had flowed freely, like Mr. Manlius, who was
+now playing upon Mr. Le Clear an analysis of Nicholas's character, which
+he had read with unerring accuracy, as Mrs. Manlius testified by her
+continued, unreserved agreement. Indeed, the finding of his aunt by
+Nicholas in so unexpected a manner was the grand topic of the evening;
+and the four musical gentlemen, hearing the story in turn from each of
+the others, were now engaged in a sort of diatessaron, in which the four
+accounts were made to harmonize with considerable difficulty: Mr.
+Schmauker insisting upon his view, that Nicholas had arrived wet and
+hungry, was found on the doorstep, and dragged in by Mrs. Starkey; while
+Mr. Pfeffendorf and Mr. Pfeiffer substituted Mrs. Manlius for Mrs.
+Starkey; and Mr. Windgraff proposed an entirely new reading.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Chocker's entrance created a lull; and the introduction, performed
+in a general way by the hostess, brought little information to the rest,
+who were hoping to revise their list of names,&mdash;and very little to the
+Doctor, who looked about inquisitively, as Miss Pix dropped the company
+in a heap into his ear-trumpet. His eye lighted on Nicholas, and he went
+forward to meet him, to the astonishment of the company, who looked upon
+Nicholas as belonging exclusively to them. A new theory was at once
+broached by Mr. Windgraff to his companions, that Dr. Chocker had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+brought about the recognition; but it lost credit as the Doctor began to
+question Nicholas, in an abrupt way, upon his presence there.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't know I should meet you again, young man," said he. "But you
+don't take my advice, eh? or you wouldn't have been here. But I'm
+setting you a pretty example! This isn't the way to study the value of
+words, eh, Mr.&mdash;Mr.&mdash;Le Clear?"</p>
+
+<p>The real Mr. Le Clear and his fiction looked at each other, and by a
+rapid interchange of glances signified their inability to extricate
+themselves from the snarl, except by a dangerous cut, which Nicholas had
+not the courage at the moment to give. The rest of the company were
+mystified; and Mr. Manlius, pocketing the character which he had just
+been giving, free of charge, to his new acquaintance, turned to his
+wife, and whispered awfully, "An impostor, Caroline!" Mrs. Manlius
+looked anxiously and frightened back to him; but he again whispered,
+"Wait for further developments, Caroline!" and she sank into a state of
+terrified curiosity. Fortunately, Mrs. Starkey was at the moment
+confiding much that was irrelevant to Mr. Le Clear the actual, who did
+not call her attention to the words. The four musical gentlemen were
+divided upon the accuracy of their hearing.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Pix, who had been bustling about, unconscious of the mystery, now
+created a diversion by saying, somewhat flurried by the silence that
+followed her first words,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Our musical friends have brought a pleasant little surprise for us;
+but, Mr. Pfeiffer, won't you explain the Children's Symphony to the
+performers?"</p>
+
+<p>Everybody at once made a note of Mr. Pfeiffer, and put a private mark on
+him for future reference; while he good-humoredly, and with embarrassing
+English, explained that Miss Pix had proposed that the company should
+produce Haydn's Children's Symphony, in which the principal parts were
+sustained by four stringed instruments, which he and his friends would
+play; while children's toy-instruments, which the other three were now
+busily taking out of a box, would be distributed among the rest of the
+company; and Miss Pix would act as leader, designating to each his or
+her part, and time of playing.</p>
+
+<p>The proposal created considerable confusion in the company, especially
+when the penny-trumpet, drum, cuckoo, night-owl, quail, rattle, and
+whistle were exhibited, and gleefully tried by the four musical friends.
+Mr. Manlius eyed the penny-trumpet which was offered him with a doubtful
+air, but concluded to sacrifice his dignity for the good of the company.
+Mrs. Manlius received her cuckoo nervously, as if it would break forth
+in spite of her, and looked askance at Nicholas to see if he would dare
+to take the night-owl into his perjured hands. He did take it with great
+good-humor, and, at Miss Pix's request, undertook to persuade Doctor
+Chocker to blow the whistle. He had first to give a digest of Mr.
+Pfeiffer's speech into the ear-trumpet, and, it is feared, would have
+failed to bring the Doctor round without Miss Pix, who came up at the
+critical moment, and told him that she knew he must have known how when
+he was a boy, accompanied with such persuasive frolicking that the
+Doctor at once signified his consent and his proficiency by blowing a
+blast into Nicholas's ear, whom he regarded as a special enemy on good
+terms with him, to the great merriment of all.</p>
+
+<p>The signal was given, and the company looked at Miss Pix, awaiting their
+turn with anxious solicitude. The symphony passed off quite well, though
+Mr. Le Clear, who managed the drum, was the only one who kept perfect
+time. Mrs. Starkey, who held the rattle aloft, sprung it at the first
+sound of the music, and continued to spring it in spite of the
+expostulations and laughter of the others. Mrs. Manlius, unable to
+follow Miss Pix's excited gestures, turned to her husband, and uttered
+the cuckoo's doleful note whenever he blew his trumpet, which he did
+deliberately at regular intervals. The effect, however, was admirable;
+and as the entire company was in the orchestra, the mutual satisfaction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+was perfect, and the piece was encored vociferously, to the delight of
+little Miss Pix, who enjoyed without limit the melting of her company,
+which was now going on rapidly. It continued even when the music had
+stopped, and Gretchen, very red, but intensely interested, brought in
+some coffee and cakes, which she distributed under Miss Pix's direction.
+Nicholas shared the good lady's pleasure, and addressed himself to his
+aunt with increased attention, taking good care to avoid Doctor Chocker,
+who submitted more graciously than would be supposed to a steady play
+from Mr. Manlius' hose. Mr. Pfeiffer and his three musical friends made
+themselves merry with Mrs. Manlius and Miss Pix, while Mr. Le Clear
+walked about performing chemical experiments upon the whole company.</p>
+
+<p>And now Miss Pix, who had been all the while glowing more and more with
+sunshine in her face, again addressed the company, and said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I think the best thing should be kept till toward the end; and I've got
+a scheme that I want you all to help me in. We're all neighbors
+here,"&mdash;and she looked round upon the company with a smile that grew
+broader, while they all looked surprised, and began to smile back in
+ignorant sympathy, except Doctor Chocker, who did not hear a word, and
+refused to smile till he knew what it was for. "Yes, we are all
+neighbors. Doctor Chocker lives in Number Two; Mr. and Mrs. Manlius,
+Mrs. Starkey, and Mr. Judge are from Number Three; my musical friends
+live within easy call; and I live in Number Five."</p>
+
+<p>Here she looked round again triumphantly, and found them all properly
+astonished, and apparently very contented, except Doctor Chocker, who
+was immovable. Nicholas expressed the most marked surprise, as became so
+hypocritical a prime-minister, causing Mr. Manlius to make a private
+note of some unrevealed perjury.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Miss Pix, pausing and arresting the profound attention of
+all, "now, who lives at Number Four?"</p>
+
+<p>If she expected an answer, it was plainly not locked up in the breast of
+any one before her. But she did not expect an answer; she was determined
+to give that herself, and she continued:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There is a most excellent woman there, Mrs. Blake, whom I should have
+liked very much to introduce to you to-night, especially as it is her
+birthday. Isn't she fortunate to have been born on Christmas-eve? Well,
+I didn't ask her, because she is not able to leave her room. There she
+has sat, or lain, for fifteen years! She's a confirmed invalid; but she
+can see her friends. And now for my little scheme. I want to give her a
+surprise-party from all her neighbors, and I want to give it now. It's
+all right. Gretchen has seen her maid, and Mrs. Blake knows just enough
+to be willing to have me bring a few friends."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Pix looked about, with a little anxiety peeping out of her
+good-souled, eager face. But the company was so melted down that she
+could now mould it at pleasure, and no opposition was made. Mr. Manlius
+volunteered to enlighten Doctor Chocker; but he made so long a preamble
+that the old scholar turned, with considerable impatience, to Miss Pix,
+who soon put him in good-humor, and secured his co&ouml;peration, though not
+without his indulging in some sinful and unneighborly remarks to
+Nicholas.</p>
+
+<p>It proved unnecessary to go into the court, for these two housed
+happened to have a connection, which Miss Pix made use of, the door
+having been left open all the evening, that Mrs. Blake might catch some
+whiffs of the entertainment. Gretchen appeared in the doorway, bearing
+on a salver a great cake, made with her own hands, having Mrs. Blake's
+initials, in colored letters, on the frosting, and the whole surrounded
+by fifty little wax tapers, indicating her age, which all counted, and
+all counted differently, giving opportunity to the four musical friends
+to enter upon a fresh and lively discussion. The party was marshalled by
+Miss Pix in the order of houses, while she herself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> squeezed past them
+all on the staircase, to usher them into Mrs. Blake's presence.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Blake was sitting in her reclining-chair as Miss Pix entered with
+her retinue. The room was in perfect order, and had about it such an air
+of neatness and purity that one felt one's self in a haven of rest upon
+crossing the threshold. The invalid sat quiet and at ease, looking forth
+upon the scene before her as if so safely moored that no troubling of
+the elements could ever reach her. Here had she lived, year after year,
+almost alone with herself, though now the big-souled little
+music-teacher was her constant visitor; but the entrance of all her
+neighbors seemed in no wise to agitate her placid demeanor. She greeted
+Miss Pix with a pleased smile; and all being now in the room, the
+bustling little woman, at the very zenith of her sunny course, took her
+stand and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"This is my company, dear Mrs. Blake. These are all neighbors of ours,
+living in the court, or close by. We have been having a right merry
+time, and now we can't break up without bringing you our good
+wishes,&mdash;our Christmas good wishes, and our birthday good wishes," said
+Miss Pix, with a little oratorical flourish, which brought Gretchen to
+the front with her illuminated cake, which she positively could not have
+held another moment, so heavy had it grown, even for her stout arms.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Blake laughed gently, and with a delighted look examined the great
+cake, with her initials, and did not need to count the wax tapers. It
+was placed on a stand, and she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now I should like to entertain my guests, and, if you will let me, I
+will give you each a piece of my cake,&mdash;for it all belongs to me, after
+Miss Pix's graceful presentation; and if Miss Pix will be so good, I
+will ask her to make me personally acquainted with each of you."</p>
+
+<p>So a knife was brought, and Mrs. Blake cut a generous piece, when Doctor
+Chocker was introduced, with great gesticulation on the part of Miss
+Pix.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to see you, Doctor Chocker," said Mrs. Blake, distinctly, but
+quietly, into his trumpet. "Do you let your patients eat cake? Try this,
+and see if it isn't good for me."</p>
+
+<p>"If I were a doctor of medicine," said he, jerkily, "I should bring my
+patients to see you"; at which Miss Pix nodded to him most vehemently,
+and the Doctor wagged his ear-trumpet in delight at the retort which he
+thought he had made.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Le Clear was introduced, and took his cake gracefully, saying, "I
+hope another year will see you at a Christmas-party of Miss Pix's"; but
+Mrs. Blake smiled, and said, "This is my little lot of earth, and I am
+sure there is a patch of stars above."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Manlius and wife came up together, he somewhat lumbering, as if Mrs.
+Blake's character were too much for his discernment, and Mrs. Manlius
+not quite sure of herself when her husband seemed embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"This is really too funny," said Mrs. Blake, merrily; "as if I were a
+very benevolent person, doling out my charity of cake on Christmas-eve.
+Do, Mr. Manlius, take a large piece; and I am sure your wife will take
+some home to the children."</p>
+
+<p>"What wonderful insight!" said Mr. Manlius, turning about to Nicholas,
+and drawing in his breath. "We have children,&mdash;two. That woman has a
+deep character, Mr. Judge."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Starkey, also of Number Three," said the mistress of ceremonies;
+"and Mr. Nicholas Judge, arrived only this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Nicholas Judge!" said Mrs. Blake, losing the color which the excitement
+had brought, and dropping the knife.</p>
+
+<p>"My nephew," explained Mrs. Starkey. "Just came this evening, and found
+me at home. Never saw him before. Must tell you all about it." And she
+was plunging with alacrity into the delightful subject, with all its
+variations.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Blake looked at Nicholas, while the color came and went in her
+cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" said she, decisively, to Mrs. Starkey, and half rising, she
+leaned forward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> to Nicholas, and said rapidly, with an energy which
+seemed to be summoned from every part of her system,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Are you the son of Alice Brown?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," said Nicholas, tumultuously; "and you,&mdash;you are her sister.
+Here, take this miniature"; and he snatched one from his breast. "Is not
+this she? It is my mother. You are my Aunt Eunice," he exclaimed, as she
+sank back in her chair exhausted, but reaching out her arms to him.</p>
+
+<p>"That young man is a base impostor!" said Mr. Manlius aloud, with his
+hand in his waistcoat; while Mrs. Manlius looked on deprecatingly, but
+as if too, too aware of the sad fact. "I said so to my wife in
+private,&mdash;I read it in his face,&mdash;and now I declare it publicly. That
+man is a base impostor!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, dear, I don't understand it at all!" said the unfortunate Mrs.
+Starkey. "I thought, to be sure, that Nicholas was my nephew. Never saw
+him before, but he said he was; and now, now, I don't know what I shall
+do!" and the poor lady, suddenly bereft of her fortune, began to wipe
+her moist eyes; "but perhaps," she added, with a bright, though
+transient gleam of hope, "we are both aunts to him."</p>
+
+<p>"That cannot be," said Nicholas, kindly, who left his aunt to set the
+company right, if possible. "My dear friend," he said, taking Mrs.
+Starkey's hand, "it has been a mistake, brought on by my heedlessness. I
+knew only that my aunt's name had been Eunice Brown. It chanced that
+yours was the same name. I happened to come upon you first in my search,
+and did not dream it possible that there could be two in the same court.
+Everything seemed to tally; and I was too pleased at finding the only
+relation I had in the wide world to ask many questions. But when I saw
+that my aunt knew who I was, and I saw my mother's features in hers, I
+perceived my mistake at once. We will remain friends, though,&mdash;shall we
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Starkey was too much bewildered to refuse any compromise; but Mr.
+Manlius stepped forward, having his claim as a private officer of
+justice.</p>
+
+<p>"I must still demand an explanation, Sir, how it is that in this mixed
+assembly the learned Doctor Chocker addresses you as Mr. Le Clear, and
+you do not decline the title"; and Mr. Manlius looked, as if for a
+witness, to Doctor Chocker, who was eating his cake with great
+solemnity, holding his ear-trumpet in hopes of catching an occasional
+word.</p>
+
+<p>"That would require too long an explanation," said Nicholas, smiling;
+"but you shall have it some time in private. Mr. Le Clear himself will
+no doubt tell you"; which Mr. Le Clear, an amused spectator of the
+scene, cheerfully promised to do.</p>
+
+<p>The company had been so stirred up by this revelation, that they came
+near retreating at once to Miss Pix's to talk it over, to the dismay of
+the four musical gentlemen, who had not yet been presented, and
+especially who had not yet got any cake. Miss Pix, though in a transport
+of joy, had an eye for everything, and, discovering this, insisted on
+presenting them in a body to Mrs. Blake, in consideration of her
+fatigue. They bowed simultaneously, and stood before her like bashful
+schoolboys; while Nicholas assumed the knife in behalf of his aunt,
+distributing with equal liberality, when they retired in high glee over
+the new version of his history, which Mr. Windgraff, for the sake of
+displaying his acumen, stoutly declared to be spurious. Gretchen also
+was served with a monstrous slice; and then the company bade good-bye to
+the aunt and nephew, who began anew their glad recognition.</p>
+
+<p>It was a noisy set of people who left Miss Pix's house. That little lady
+stood in the doorway, and sent off each with such a merry blessing that
+it lasted long after the doors of the other houses were closed. Even the
+forlorn Mrs. Starkey seemed to go back almost as happy as when she had
+issued forth in the evening with her newly found nephew. The sudden
+gleam of hope which his unlooked-for coming had let in upon a toilsome<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+and thankless life&mdash;for we know more about her position in Mr. Manlius's
+household than we have been at liberty to disclose&mdash;had, indeed, gone
+out in darkness; but the Christmas merriment, and the kindness which for
+one evening had flowed around her, had so fertilized one little spot in
+her life, that, however dreary her pilgrimage, nothing could destroy the
+bright oasis. It gave hope of others, too, no less verdant; and with
+this hope uppermost in her confused brain the lonely widow entered the
+land of Christmas dreams. Let us hope, too, that the pachydermatous Mr.
+Manlius felt the puncture of her disappointment, and that Miss Pix's
+genial warmth had made him cast off a little the cloak of selfishness in
+which he had wrapped himself; for what else could have made him say to
+his echoing wife that night, "Caroline, suppose we let Eunice take the
+children to the panorama to-morrow. It's a quarter more; but she was
+rather disappointed about that young fellow"? The learned Doctor
+Chocker, who had, in all his days, never found a place to compare with
+his crowded study for satisfaction to his soul, for the first time now,
+as he entered it, admitted to himself that Miss Pix's arbor-like parlor
+and Mrs. Blake's simple room had something that his lacked; and in the
+frozen little bedroom where he nightly shivered, in rigid obedience to
+some fancied laws of health, the old man was aware of some kindly
+influence thawing away the chill frost-work which he had suffered to
+sheathe his heart. Nor did Mr. Le Clear toast his slippered feet before
+his cheery fire without an uncomfortable misgiving that his philosophy
+hardly compassed the sphere of life.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas-eve in the court was over. Strange things had happened; and,
+for one night at least, the Five Sisters had acted as one family. Little
+Miss Pix, reviewing the evening, as she dropped off to sleep, could not
+help rubbing her hands together, and emitting little chuckles. Such a
+delightful evening as she had had! and meaning to surprise others, she
+had herself been taken into a better surprise still; and here,
+recollecting the happy union of the lone, but not lonely, Mrs. Blake
+with a child of her old age, as it were, Miss Pix must laugh aloud just
+as the midnight clock was sounding. Bless her neighborly soul, she has
+ushered in Christmas-day with her laugh of good-will toward men. The
+whole hymn of the angels is in her heart; and with it let her sleep till
+the glorious sunshine awakes her.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ICE AND ESQUIMAUX.</h2>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE ICE IN ITS GLORY.</h4>
+
+<p><i>June 17.</i>&mdash;On this anniversary of the Battle of Bunker's Hill we sailed
+from Sleupe Harbor. Little Mecatina, with its blue perspective and
+billowy surface, lifted itself up astern under flooding sunshine to tell
+us that this relentless coast could have a glory of its own; but we
+looked at it with dreamy, forgetful eyes, thinking of the dear land, now
+all tossed into wild surge and crimson spray of war, which, how far
+soever away, is ever present to the hearts of her true children.</p>
+
+<p>Next day we dropped into the harbor of Caribou Island, a
+mission-station, and left again on the 20th, after a quiet
+Sunday,&mdash;Bradford having gone with others to church, and come back much
+moved by the bronze-faced earnestness, and rough-voiced, deep-chested
+hymning of the fisherman congregation. Far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> ahead we saw the strait full
+of ice. Not that the ice itself could be seen; but the peculiar,
+blue-white, vertical stri&aelig;, which stuccoed the sky far along the
+horizon, told experienced eyes that ice was there. Away to the right
+towered the long heights of Newfoundland, intensely blue, save where,
+over large spaces, they shone white with snow. They surprised us by
+their great elevation, and by the sharp and straight escarpments with
+which they descended. Here and there was a gorge cut through as with a
+saw. We then took all this in good faith, on the fair testimony of our
+eyes. But experience brought instruction,&mdash;as it will in superficial
+matters, whether in deeper ones or no. In truth, this appearance was
+chiefly a mirage caused by ice.</p>
+
+<p>For, of all solemn prank-players, of all mystifiers and magicians, ice
+is the greatest. Coming out of its silent and sovereign dreamland in the
+North, it brings its wand, and goes wizard-working down the coast. A
+spell is about it; enchantment is upon it like a garment; weirdness and
+illusion are the breath of its nostrils. Above it, along the horizon, is
+a strange columned wall, an airy Giant's Causeway, pale blue, paling
+through ethereal gray into snow. Islands quit the sea, and become
+islands in the sky, sky-foam and spray seen along their bases. Hills
+shoot out from their summits airy capes and headlands, or assume upon
+their crowns a wide, smooth table, as if for the service of genii. Ships
+sail, bergs float, in the heavens. Here a vast obelisk of ice shoots
+aloft, half mountain high; you gaze at it amazed, ecstatic,&mdash;calculating
+the time it will take to come up with it,&mdash;whistling, if you are still
+capable of that levity, for a wind. But now it begins to waver, to dance
+slowly, to shoot up minarets and take them back, to put forth arms which
+change into wands, wave and disappear; and ere your wonder has found a
+voice, it rolls itself together like a scroll, drops nearly to the
+ocean-level, and is but a gigantic ice-floe after all!</p>
+
+<p>The day fell calm; a calm evening came; the sea lay in soft, shining
+undulation, not urgent enough to exasperate the drooping sails. The ship
+rose and declined like a sleeper's pulse. We were all under a spell.
+Soon the moon, then at her full, came up, elongating herself laterally
+into an oval, whose breadth was not more than three fifths its length;
+her shine on the water likewise stretching along the horizon, sweet and
+fair like childhood, not a ray touching the shadowed water between.
+Presently, as if she discerned and did not disdain us,&mdash;wiser than
+"positive philosophers" in her estimate of man,&mdash;she gathered together
+her spreading shine, and threw it down toward us in a glade of scarcely
+more than her own breadth, of even width, and sharply defined at the
+sides. It was a regular roadway on the water, intensest gold verging
+upon orange, edged with an exquisite, delicate tint of scarlet, running
+straight and firm as a Roman road all the way from the meeting-place of
+sky and sea to the ship. Or rather, not quite to the ship; for, when
+near at hand, it broke off into golden globes, which, under the
+influence of the light swell, came towards us by softly sudden leaps,
+deepening and deepening as they came, till at the last leap they
+disappeared, more shining than ever, far down in the liquid, lucent
+heart of the sea. It was impossible to feel that these had faded, so
+triumphant was their close. Rather, one felt that they had been elected
+to a more glorious office,&mdash;had gone, perhaps, to light some hall of
+Thetis, or some divine, spotless revel of sea-nymphs.</p>
+
+<p>I had gone below, when, at about ten o'clock, there was a hail from the
+deck.</p>
+
+<p>"Come up and see a crack in the water!"</p>
+
+<p>"A what?"</p>
+
+<p>"A crack in the water!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not joking?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed; come and see."</p>
+
+<p>Up quickly! this is the day of wonders! It was a line of brilliant
+phosphorescence, exceedingly brilliant, about two inches wide, perfectly
+sharp at the edges, which extended along the side of the ship, and ahead
+and astern out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> sight. "Crack in the water" is the seaman's name for
+it. I have been a full year on the water, but never saw it save this
+once, and had never heard of it before.</p>
+
+<p>At half past eleven, the Parson and I went on deck, and read ordinary
+print as rapidly as by daylight. It took some ten seconds to get
+accustomed to the light, being fresh from the glare of the kerosene
+lamp; but afterwards we read aloud to each other with entire ease and
+fluency.</p>
+
+<p>At a quarter past two, Captain Handy, a man made of fine material, with
+an eye for the beautiful as well as for right-whales, broke my sleep
+with a gentle touch, and whispered, "Come on deck, and see what a
+morning it is." What a morning, indeed! Thanks, old comrade! Call me
+next time, when there is such to see; and if I am too weak to get out of
+my berth, take me up in those strong arms, across that broad,
+billow-like chest of yours, and bear me to the deck!</p>
+
+<p>It was dead calm,&mdash;no, <i>live</i> calm, rather; for never was calm so vivid.
+The swell had fallen; but the sea breathes and lives even in its sleep.
+Dawn was already blushing, "celestial rosy red, love's proper hue," in
+the&mdash;<i>east</i>, I was about to say, but <i>north</i> would be truer. The centre
+of its roseate arch was not more than a point (by compass) east of
+north. The lofty shore rose clear, dark, and sharp against the morning
+red; the sea was white,&mdash;white as purity, and still as peace; the moon
+hung opposite, clothed and half hidden in a glorified mist; a schooner
+lay moveless, dark-sailed, transformed into a symbol of solitude and
+silence, beneath. I thought of the world's myriad sleepers, and would
+fain have played Captain Handy to them all. But Nature is infinitely
+rich, and can afford to draw costly curtains about the slumber of her
+darling. For, without man, she were a mother ever in anguish of travail,
+and ever wanting a child to nurse with entire joy at her breast. Sleep
+on, man, while, with shadows and stars, with dying and dawning of day,
+not forgetting sombreness of cloud and passion of storm, the eternal
+mother dignifies your slumber, and waits till her <i>two</i> suns arise and
+shine together!</p>
+
+<p>Morning,&mdash;ice, worlds of it, the wide straits all full! A light wind had
+been fanning us for the last two or three hours; and now the ice lay
+fair in view, just ahead. We had not calculated upon meeting it here. At
+Port Mulgrave they told us that the last of it had passed through with a
+rush about a week before. Bradford was delighted, and quickly got out
+his photographic sickle to reap this unexpected harvest: for the wise
+man had brought along with him a fine apparatus and a skilful
+photographer. In an hour or two the schooner was up with it, and finding
+it tolerably open, while the wind was a zephyr, and the sea smooth as a
+pond, we entered into its midst. Water-fowl&mdash;puffins, murres, duck, and
+the like&mdash;hung about it, furnishing preliminary employment to those of
+our number who sought sport or specimens. It was a delightsome day, the
+whole of it: atmosphere rare, pure, perfect; sun-splendor in deluge;
+land, a cloud of blue and snow on one side, and a tossed and lofty
+paradise of glowing gray, purple, or brown, on the other. The day would
+have been hot but for being tempered by the ice. This seasoned its
+shining warmth with a crisp, exhilarating quality, making the sunshine
+and summer mildness like iced sherry or Madeira. It is unlike anything
+known in more southern climates. There are days in March that would
+resemble it, could you take out of them the damp, the laxness of nerve,
+and the spring melancholy. There are days in October that come nearer;
+but these differ by their delicious half-languors, while, by their
+gorgeousness of autumn foliage, and their relation to the oldening year,
+they are made quite unlike in spirit. This day warmed like summer and
+braced like winter.</p>
+
+<p>Once fairly taken into the bosom of the ice-field, we had eyes for
+little else. Its forms were a surprise, so varied and so beautiful. I
+had supposed that field-ice was made up of flat cakes,&mdash;and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> <i>cake</i> of
+all kinds is among the flattest things I know! But here if was,
+simulating all shapes, even those of animated creatures, with the art of
+a mocking bird,&mdash;and simulating all in a material pure as amber, though
+more varied in color. One saw about him cliffs, basaltic columns, frozen
+down, arabesques, fretted traceries, sculptured urns, arches supporting
+broad tables or sloping roofs, lifted pinnacles, boulders, honey-combs,
+slanting strata of rock, gigantic birds, mastodons, maned lions,
+couching or rampant,&mdash;a fantasy of forms, and, between all, the shining,
+shining sea. In sunshine, these shapes were of a glistening white
+flecked with stars, where at points the white was lost in the glisten;
+in half shadow the color was gray, in full shadow a&euml;rial purple; while,
+wherever the upper portions projected over the sea, and took its
+reflection, they often did, the color was an infinite, emerald intensity
+of green; beneath all which, under water, was a base or shore of dead
+emerald, a green paled with chalk. Blue was not this day seen, perhaps
+because this was shore-ice rather than floe,&mdash;made, not like the floes,
+of frozen sea, but of compacted and saturated snow.</p>
+
+<p>Just before evening came, when the courteous breeze folded its light
+fans fell asleep, we left this field behind, and, seeing all clear
+ahead, supposed the whole had been passed. In truth, as had soon to
+learn, this twenty-mile strip of shore-ice was but the advance-guard of
+an immeasurable field or army of floe. For there came down the northern
+coast, in this summer of 1864, more than a thousand miles' length, with
+a breadth of about a hundred miles, of floe-ice in a field almost
+unbroken! More than a thousand miles, by accurate computation! The
+courtesy of the Westerner&mdash;who, having told of seeing a flock of pigeons
+nine miles long, so dense as to darken the sun at noonday, and meeting
+objections from a skeptical Yankee, magnanimously offered, as a personal
+favor, to "take out a quarter of a mile from the thinnest part"&mdash;cannot
+be imitated here. I must still say <i>more</i> than a thousand miles,&mdash;and
+this, too, the second run of ice!</p>
+
+<p>Captain Linklater, master of the Moravian supply-ship, a man of acute
+observation and some science, had, as he afterwards told me at Hopedale,
+measured the rate of travel of the ice, and found it to be twenty-seven
+miles a day. Our passengers were sure they saw it going at the rate of
+three or four miles an hour. Captain Handy, looking with experienced
+eye, pronounced this estimate excessive, and said it went from one to
+one and a half miles an hour,&mdash;twenty-four to thirty-six miles a day.
+Captain Linklater, however, had not trusted the question to his
+judgment, but established the rate by accurate scientific observation.
+Now we were headed off by the ice and driven into as harbor on the 22d
+of June; we left Hopedale and began our return on the 4th of August; and
+between these two periods the ice never ceased running. The Moravian
+ship, which entered the harbor of Hopedale half a mile ahead of us, on
+the 31st of July, pushed through it, and found it eighty-five miles
+wide. Toward the last it was more scattered, and at times could not be
+seen from the coast. But it was there; and on the day before our
+departure from Hopedale, August 3, this cheering intelligence
+arrived:&mdash;"The ice is pressing in upon the islands outside, and an
+easterly wind would block us in!"</p>
+
+<p>What becomes of this ice? Had one lain in wait for it two hundred miles
+farther south, it is doubtful if he would have seen of it even a
+vestige. It cannot melt away so quickly: a day amidst it satisfies any
+one of so much. Whither does it go?</p>
+
+<p>Put that question to a sealer or fisherman, and he will answer, "<i>It
+sinks.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"But," replies that cheerful and confident gentleman, Mr. Current
+Impression, "ice doesn't sink; ice floats." Grave Science, too, says the
+same.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that Ignorance is right for once. You are becalmed in the
+midst of floating ice. The current bears you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> and it together; but next
+morning the ice has vanished! You rub your eyes, but the fact is one not
+to be rubbed out; the ice was, and isn't, there! No evidence exists that
+it can fly, like riches; therefore I think it sinks. I have seen it,
+too, not indeed in the very act of sinking, but so water-logged as
+barely to keep its nose out. A block four cubic feet in dimension lay at
+a subsequent time beside the ship, and there was not a portion bigger
+than a child's fist above water. Watching it, again, when it has been
+tolerably well sweltered, you will see air-bubbles incessantly escaping.
+Evidently, the air which it contains is giving place to water. Now it is
+this air, I judge, which keeps it afloat; and when the process of
+displacement has sufficiently gone on, what can it do but drown, as men
+do under the circumstances? This reasoning may be wrong; but the fact
+remains. The reasoning is chiefly a guess; yet, till otherwise informed,
+I shall say, the ice-<i>lungs</i> get full of water, and it goes down.</p>
+
+<p>But we have wandered while the light waned, and now return. It was a
+gentle evening. That "day, so cool, so calm, so bright," died sweetly,
+as such a day should. The moon rose, not a globe, but a tall cone of
+silver,&mdash;silver that <i>blushed</i>; ice-magic again. But she recovered
+herself, and reigned in her true shape, queen of the slumber-courts; and
+the world slept, and we with it; and in our cabin the sleep-talk was
+quieted to ripples of murmur.</p>
+
+<p><i>June 22.</i>&mdash;Rush! Rush! The water was racing past the ship's side, close
+to my ear, as I awoke early. On deck: the strait ahead was packed from
+shore to shore with ice, like a boy's brain with fancies; and before a
+jolly gale we were skimming into the harbor of Belles Amours. Five days
+here: tedious. The main matters here were a sand-beach, a girl who read
+and loved Wordsworth, a wood-thrush, a seal-race, a "killer's" head, and
+a cascade.</p>
+
+<p>Item, sand-beach, with green grass, looking like a meadow, beyond. Not
+intrinsically much of an affair. The beach, on close inspection, proved
+soft and dirty, the grass sedge, the meadow a bog. In the distance,
+however, and as a variety in this unswarded cliff-coast, it was sweet, I
+laugh now to think how sweet, to the eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Item, girl. There was one house in the harbor; not another within three
+miles. Here dwelt a family who spoke English,&mdash;not a patois, but
+English,&mdash;rare in Labrador as politicians in heaven. The French
+Canadians found in Southern Labrador speak a kind of skim-milk French,
+with a little sour-milk English; the Newfoundland Labradorians say
+"Him's good for he," and in general use a very "scaly" lingo, learned
+from cod-fish, one would think. Here was a mother, acceptable to Lindley
+Murray, who had instructed her children. One of these&mdash;S&mdash;&mdash;, our best
+social explorer, found her out&mdash;owned and read a volume of Plato, and
+had sent to L'anse du Loup, twenty-four miles, to borrow a copy of
+Wordsworth. This was her delight. She had copied considerable portions
+of it with her own hand, and could repeat from memory many and many a
+page.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Full many a gem of purest ray serene<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And waste its sweetness on the desert air."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But Heaven has its own economies; and perhaps floral "sweetness" is
+quite as little wasted upon the desert as upon Beacon Street or Fifth
+Avenue.</p>
+
+<p>Item, a bird. We were seeking trout,&mdash;only to obtain a minnow tricked in
+trout-marks. The boat crept slowly up a deep, solemn cove, over which,
+on either side, hung craggy and precipitous hills; while at its head was
+a slope covered with Liliputian forest, through which came down a broad
+brook in a series of snowy terraces. It was a superb day, bright and
+bracing,&mdash;just bracing enough to set the nerves without urging them, and
+exalt one to a sense of vigorous repose. The oars lingered, yet not
+lazily, on the way; there seemed time enough for anything. At length we
+came, calm, wealthy in leisure, silently cheerful, to a bit of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> pleasant
+yellow beach between rocks. And just as our feet were touching the tawny
+sands,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">"The sweetest throat of Solitude<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unbarred her silver gates, and slowly hymned<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To the great heart of Silence, till it beat<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Response with all its echoes: for from out<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That far, immortal orient, wherein<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His soul abides 'mid morning skies and dews,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A wood-thrush, angel of the tree-top heaven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Poured clear his pure soprano through the place,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Deepening the stillness with diviner calm,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That gave to Silence all her inmost heart<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In melody."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It was a regal welcome. What is like the note of the wood-thrush?&mdash;so
+full of royalty and psalm and sabbath! Regal in reserve, however, no
+less than utterance, the sovereign songster gave a welcome only, and
+then was silent; while a fine piping warbler caught up the theme, and
+discoursed upon it with liberal eloquence. The place to hear the song of
+the wood-thrush is wherever you can attain to that enjoyment by walking
+five or ten miles; the place so to hear it that the hearing shall be, by
+sober estimation, among the memorable events of your life, is at the
+head of a solemn, sunny cove, on three yards of tawny beach, in the
+harbor of Belles Amours, Labrador.</p>
+
+<p>Item, seal-race. The male seals fight with fury in the season of their
+rude loves. Two of these had had a battle; the vanquished was fleeing,
+the victor after him. They were bounding from the water like dolphins.
+For some time I thought them such, though I have seen dolphins by
+thousands. It was a surprise to see these leisurely and luxurious
+animals spattering the water in such an ecstasy of amative rage.</p>
+
+<p>Item, "killer." This is a savage cetacean, probably the same with the
+"thrasher," about fifteen feet in length, blunt-nosed, strong of jaw,
+with cruel teeth. On its back is a fin beginning about two thirds the
+way from tip to tail, running close to the latter, and then sloping away
+to a point, like the jib of a ship. In the largest this is some five
+feet long on the back, and eight or ten feet in height,&mdash;so large, that,
+when the creature is swimming on the surface, a strong side-wind will
+sometimes blow it over. It is a blue-fish on a big scale, or a Semmes in
+the sea, hungry as famine, fierce as plague, dainty as a Roman epicure,
+yet omnivorous as time. The seal is its South-Down mutton, the tongue of
+the whale its venison; for whenever its numbers are sufficient, it will
+attack this huge cetacean, and torture him till he submits and gives a
+horrible feast to their greed. Captain Handy had seen thirty or forty of
+them at this business. They fly with inconceivable fury at their victim,
+aiming chiefly at the lip, tearing great mouthfuls away, which they
+instantly reject while darting for another. The bleeding and bellowing
+monster goes down like a boulder from a cliff, shoots up like a shell
+from a mortar, beats the sea about him all into crimsoned spray with his
+tail; but plunge, leap, foam as he may, the finny pirates flesh their
+teeth in him still, still are fresh in pursuit, until at length, to end
+one torment by submitting to another, the helpless giant opens his
+mouth, and permits these sea-devils to devour the quivering morsel they
+covet. A big morsel; for the tongue of the full-sized right-whale weighs
+a ton and a half, and yields a ton of oil. The killer is sometimes
+confounded with the grampus. The latter is considerably larger, has a
+longer and slenderer jaw, less round at the muzzle, smaller teeth, and
+"isn't so clean a made fish"; for, in nautical parlance, cetaceans are
+still fish. Killers frequently try to rob whalers of their prize, and
+sometimes actually succeed in carrying it down, despite the lances and
+other weapons with which their attack is so strenuously resisted.</p>
+
+<p>Item, cascade. A snowy, broken stripe down a mountain-side; taken to be
+snow till the ear better informed the eye. Fine; but you need not go
+there to see.</p>
+
+<p><i>June 26.</i>&mdash;Off to Henley Harbor, sixty-five miles, at the head of the
+Strait of Belle Isle. Belle Isle itself&mdash;sandstone, rich, the Professor
+said, in ancient fossils&mdash;lay in view. The anchor went down in deep
+water, close beside the notable Castle Island.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There were some considerable floes in the harbor, the largest one
+aground in a passage between the two islands by which it is formed. And
+now came the blue of pure floe-ice! There is nothing else like it on
+this earth, but the sapphire gem in its perfection; and this is removed
+from the comparison by its inferiority in magnitude. This incomparable
+hue appears wherever deep shadow is interposed between the eye and any
+intense, shining white. The floe in question contained two caverns
+excavated by the sea, both of which were partially open toward the ship.
+And out of these shone, shone on us, the cerulean and sapphire glory!
+Beyond this were the deep blue waters of York Bay; farther away, grouped
+and pushing down, headland behind headland, into the bay, rose the
+purple gneiss hills, broad and rounded, and flecked with party-colored
+moss; while nearer glowed this immortal blue eye, like the bliss of
+eternity looking into time!</p>
+
+<p>Next day we rowed close to this: I hardly know how we dared! Heavens!
+such blue! It grew, as we looked into the ice-cavern, deeper, intenser,
+more luminous, more awful in beauty, the farther inward, till in the
+depths it became not only a shrine to worship at, but a presence to bow
+and be silent before! It is said that angels sing and move in joy before
+the Eternal; but there I learned that silence is their only voice, and
+stillness their ecstatic motion!</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the portals of this sapphire sanctuary were of a warm rose
+hue, rich and delicate,&mdash;looking like the blush of mortal beauty at its
+nearness to the heavenly.</p>
+
+<p>Bradford is all right in painting the intensest blue possible,&mdash;due
+care, of course, being taken not to extend it uniformly over large
+surfaces. If he can secure any suggestion of the subtilty and
+luminousness,&mdash;if he can! As I come back, and utter a word, he says that
+the only way will be to glaze over a white ground. It had already struck
+me, that, as this is the method by which Nature obtains such effects, it
+must be the method for Art also. He is on the right track. And how the
+gentle soul works!</p>
+
+<p>But while outward Nature here assumed aspects of beauty so surpassing,
+man, as if to lend her the emphasis of contrast, appeared in the
+sorriest shape. I name him here, that I may vindicate his claim to
+remembrance, even when he is a blot upon the beauty around him. I will
+not forget him, even though I can think of him only with shame. To
+remember, however, is here enough. We will go back to Nature,&mdash;though
+she, too, can suckle "killers."</p>
+
+<p>On the evening before our departure,&mdash;for we remained several days, and
+had a snow-storm meanwhile,&mdash;there was a glorious going down of the sun
+over the hills beyond York Bay, with a tender golden mist filling all
+the western heavens, and tinting air and water between. So Nature
+renewed her charm. And with that sun setting on Henley Harbor, we leave
+for the present the miserable, magnificent place.</p>
+
+<p><i>June 30.</i>&mdash;Iceberg! An iceberg! The real thing at last! We left Henley
+at ten <span class="smcap">a. m.</span>, and were soon coming up with a noble berg. Its aspect, on
+our near approach, was that of a vast roof rising at one end, beside
+which, and about half its height, was the upper third of an enormous
+cylinder. Passing to the west, along one side of this roof, we beheld a
+vast cavernous depression, making a concave line in its ridge, and then
+dipping deep, beyond view, into the berg. The sharp upper rim of this
+depression came between us and the sky, with the bright shine of the
+forenoon sun beyond, and showed a skirt or fringe of infinitely delicate
+luminous green, whose contrast with the rich marble-white of the general
+structure was beautiful exceedingly. With the exception of this, and of
+a narrow blue seam, looking like lapis-lazuli, which ran diagonally from
+summit to base, the broad surface of this side had the look of
+snow-white marble lace or fretwork. Passing thence to the north face, we
+came apparently upon the part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> at which the berg separated from its
+parent glacier. Here was a new effect, and one of great beauty. In
+material it resembled the finest statuary marble,&mdash;but rather the
+crystalline marbles of Vermont, with their brilliant half-sparkle, than
+the dead polish of the Parian; while the form and character of this
+fa&ccedil;ade suggested some fascinating, supernatural consent of chance and
+art, of fracture with sculpturesque and architectural design.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"He works in rings, in magic rings, of chance,"&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>the subtlest thing ever said of Turner,&mdash;might have been spoken even
+more truly of the workman who wrought this. The apparent fineness of
+material cannot be overstated, so soft and powerful. "A porcelain
+fracture," said Ph&mdash;&mdash;,&mdash;well. Yet such porcelain! It were the despair
+of China. On the eastern, or cylinder side, there was next the water a
+strip of intensely polished surface, surmounted by an elaborate level
+cornice, and above this the marble lace again.</p>
+
+<p>The schooner soon tacked, and returned. As again we pass the cathedral
+cliff on the north, and join the western side with this in one view, we
+are somewhat prepared by familiarity to mingle its majesty and beauty,
+and take from them a single impression. The long Cyclopean wall and vast
+Gothic roof of the side, including many an arched, rounded, and waving
+line, emphasized by straight lines of blue seam, are set off against the
+strange shining traceries of the fa&ccedil;ade; while the union of flower-like
+softness and eternal strength, the fretted silver of surface, the
+combination of peak and cave, the fringe of blazing emerald on the
+ridge, the glancing, flashing lights contrasting with twilight blues and
+purples of deep shadow, and over all the stainless azure, and beneath
+and around all a sea of beryl strown with sun-dust,&mdash;these associate to
+engrave on the soul an impression which even death and the tomb, I would
+fain believe, will be powerless to efface. And if Art study hard and
+labor long and vehemently aspire to publish the truth of this, she does
+well. Her task is worthy, but is not easy: I think a greater, of the
+kind, has never been attempted. The height of this berg was determined
+by instruments&mdash;but with a conjecture only of the distance&mdash;to be one
+hundred and eighteen feet. Captain Brown, however, who went aloft, and
+thence formed a judgment, pronounced it not less than one hundred and
+fifty feet. One naturally inclines to the more moderate computation.
+But, as subsequent experience showed me that judgments of distance in
+such cases are almost always below the mark, I am of opinion that here,
+as sometimes in politics and religion, seeming moderation may be less
+accurate than seeming excess.</p>
+
+<p>And, by the way, Noble's descriptions of icebergs, which, in the absence
+of personal observation, might seem excessive, are of real value.
+Finding a copy of his book on board, I read it with pleasure, having
+first fully made my own notes,&mdash;and refer to him any reader who may have
+appetite for more after concluding this chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Early this evening we entered between bold cliffs into Square Island
+Harbor, latitude about 53&deg;. It is a deep and deeply sheltered dog's
+hole,&mdash;dogs and dirt could make it such,&mdash;but overhung by purple hills,
+which proved, on subsequent inspection, to be largely composed of an
+impure labradorite. Labradorite, the reader may know, is a crystallized
+feldspar, with traces of other minerals. In its pure state it is
+opalescent, exhibiting vivid gleams of blue, green, gold, and
+copper-color, and, more rarely, of rose,&mdash;and is then, and deservedly,
+reckoned a precious stone. The general character of the rock here is
+sienitic; but, besides this peculiar quality of feldspar, the hornblende
+appears as actinolite, (ray-stone,) so called from the form of its
+crystallization; while the quartz element is faintly present, or appears
+in separate masses. The purple of the hills is due not only to the
+labradorite, which has that as a stable color, but also to a purple
+lichen, which clothes much of the rock on this coast. I found also fine
+masses of mica imbedded in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> quartz, edge upwards, and so compact that
+its lamination was not perceptible. Indeed, I did not, with my novice
+eyes, immediately recognize it, for it appeared a handsome
+copper-colored rock, projecting slightly from the quartz, as if more
+enduring.</p>
+
+<p>Next day there was trouting, with a little, and but a little, better
+than the usual minnow result.</p>
+
+<p>And on the next, the floe-ice poured in and packed the harbor like a box
+of sardines. The scene became utterly Arctic,&mdash;rock above, and ice
+below. Rock, ice, and three imprisoned ships; which last, in their
+helpless isolation, gave less the sense of companionship than of a
+triple solitude. And when next day, Sunday, the third day of July, I
+walked ashore on the ice with a hundred feet of water beneath, summer
+seemed a worn-out tradition, and one felt that the frozen North had gone
+out over the world as to a lawful inheritance.</p>
+
+<p>But the new Czar reigned in beauty, if also in terror. Yard-wide spaces
+of emerald, amethyst, sapphire, yellow-green beryl, and rose-tinted
+crystal, grew as familiar to the eye as paving-blocks to the dwellers in
+cities. The shadows of the ice were also of a violet purple, so ethereal
+that it required a painter's eye at once to see it, though it was
+unmistakably there; and to represent it will task the finest painter's
+hand. Then the spaces of water between the floes, if not too large,
+appeared uniformly in deep wine-color,&mdash;an effect for which one must
+have more science than I to account. It is attributed to contrast; but
+if thus illusive, it is at least an illusion not to be looked out of
+countenance. No local color could assert itself more firmly. One
+marvellous morning, too, a dense, but translucent, mist hovered closely,
+beneath strong sunshine, over the ice, lending to its innumerable
+fantastic forms a new, weird, witching, indescribable, real-unreal
+strangeness, as if the ice and the ships it inclosed and we ourselves
+were all but embodied dreams, half come to consciousness, and rubbing
+our surprised moon-eyes to gaze upon each other. The power of this mist
+to multiply distance was not the least part of its witchery. A schooner
+ten rods off looked as far away as Cadmus and Abraham.</p>
+
+<p>P&mdash;&mdash; was made happy by finding here a grasshopper, which subsequently
+proved, however, a prize indeed,&mdash;but not quite so much of a prize as he
+hoped, being probably the young of a species previously known as Alpine,
+rather than an adult identical with one found on the summit of Mount
+Washington.</p>
+
+<p>During the latter part of our duress here we were driven below by raw,
+incessant rain, and the confinement became irksome. At length, during
+the day and night of July 14th, the ice finally made off with itself,
+and the next morning the schooner followed suit. The ice, however, had
+not done with us. It lingered near the land, while farther out it was
+seen in solid mass, making witch-work, as usual, on the northern and
+eastern sky; and we were soon dodging through the more open portion,
+still dense enough, close to the coast. It was dangerous business. A
+pretty breeze blew; and with anything of a wind our antelope of a
+schooner took to her heels with speed. Lightly built,&mdash;not, like vessels
+designed for this coast, double-planked and perhaps iron-prowed,&mdash;she
+would easily have been staved by a shock upon this adamantine ice. The
+mate stood at the bow, shouting, "Luff! Bear away! Hard up! Hard down!"
+And his voice wanting strength and his articulation distinctness, I was
+fain, at the pinch of the game, to come to his aid, and trumpet his
+orders after him with my best stentorship. The old pilot had taken the
+helm; but his nerves were unequal to his work; and a younger man was
+sent to take his place. Once or twice the ship struck smaller masses of
+ice, but at so sharp an angle as to push them and herself mutually
+aside, and slide past without a crash. But a wind from the land was
+steadily urging the floe-field away, and at length the sea before us lay
+clear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At ten <span class="smcap">a. m.</span>, we drew up to a majestic berg, and "came to,"&mdash;that is,
+brought the schooner close by the wind. The berg was one of the noblest.
+Picture to yourself two most immense Gothic churches without transepts,
+each with a tower in front. Place these side by side, but at a remove
+equal to about half their length. Build up now the space between the two
+towers, extending this connection back so that it shall embrace the
+front third or half of the churches, leaving an open <i>green</i> court in
+the rear, and you have a general conception of this piece of Northern
+architecture. The rear of each church, however, instead of ascending
+vertically, sloped at an angle of about ten degrees, and, instead of
+having sharp corners, was exquisitely rounded. Elsewhere also were many
+rounded and waving lines, where the image of a church would suggest
+straightness. Nevertheless, you are to cling with force to that image in
+shaping to your mind's eye a picture of this astonishing cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>Since seeing the former berg, we had heard many tales of the danger of
+approaching them. The Newfoundlanders and natives have of them a mortal
+terror,&mdash;never going, if it can be avoided, nearer than half a mile, and
+then always on the leeward side. "They kill the wind," said these
+people, so that one in passing to windward is liable to be becalmed, and
+to drift down upon them,&mdash;to drift upon them, because there is always a
+tide setting in toward them. They chill the water, it descends, and
+other flows in to assume its place. These fears were not wholly
+groundless. Icebergs sometimes burst their hearts suddenly, with an
+awful explosion, going into a thousand pieces. After they begin to
+disintegrate, moreover, immense masses from time to time crush down from
+above or surge up from beneath; and on all such occasions, proximity to
+them is obviously not without its perils. "The Colonel," brave, and a
+Greenland voyager, was more nervous about them than anybody else. He
+declared, apparently on good authority, that the vibration imparted to
+the sea by a ship's motion, or even that communicated to the air by the
+human voice, would not unfrequently give these irritable monsters the
+hint required for a burst of ill-temper,&mdash;and averred also that our
+schooner, at the distance of three hundred yards, would be rolled over,
+like a child's play-boat, by the wave which an exploding or over-setting
+iceberg would cause. And it might, indeed, be supposed, that, did one of
+those prodigious creations take a notion to disport its billions of tons
+in a somersault, it would raise no trivial commotion.</p>
+
+<p>At a distance, these considerations weighed with me. I heard them
+respectfully, was convinced, and silently resolved not to urge, indeed,
+so far as I properly might, to discourage, nearness of approach. But
+here all these convictions vanished away. I knew that some icebergs were
+treacherous, but they were others, not this! There it stood in such
+majesty and magnificence of marble strength, that all question of its
+soundness was shamed out of me,&mdash;or rather, would have been shamed, had
+it arisen. This was not sentiment,&mdash;it was judgment,&mdash;<i>my</i>
+judgment,&mdash;perhaps erroneous, yet a judgment formed from the facts as I
+saw them. Therefore I determined to launch the light skiff which Ph&mdash;&mdash;
+and I had bought at Sleupe Harbor, and row up to the berg, perhaps lay
+my hand upon it.</p>
+
+<p>As the skiff went over the gunwale, the Parson cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I go with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, if you wish."</p>
+
+<p>He seated himself in the stern; I assumed the oars, (I row cross-handed,
+with long oars, and among amateur oarsmen am a little vain of my skill)
+and pulled away. It was a longer pull than I had thought,&mdash;suggesting
+that our judgment of distances had been insufficient, and that the
+previous berg was higher than our measurement had made it.</p>
+
+<p>Our approach was to rear of the berg,&mdash;that is, to the court or little
+bay before mentioned. The temptation to enter was great, but I dared
+not; for the long,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> deep ocean-swell over which the skiff skimmed like a
+duck, not only without danger, but without the smallest perturbation,
+broke in and out here with such force that I knew the boat would
+instantly be swept out of my possession. The Parson, however, always
+reckless of peril in his enthusiasm, and less experienced, cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In! in! Push the boat in!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, the swell is too heavy; it will not do."</p>
+
+<p>"Fie upon the swell! Never mind what will do! In!"</p>
+
+<p>I sympathized too much with him to answer otherwise than by laying my
+weight upon the oars, and pushing silently past. The water in this bit
+of bay was some six or eight feet deep, and the ice beneath it&mdash;for the
+berg was all solid below&mdash;showed in perfection that crystalline tawny
+green which belongs to it under such circumstances. I pulled around the
+curving rear of the eastern church, with its surface of marble lace,
+such as we had seen before, gazing upward and upward at the towering
+awfulness and magnificence of edifice, myself frozen in admiration. The
+Parson, under high excitement, rained his hortative oratory upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"Nearer! Nearer! Let's touch it! Let's lay our hands upon it! Don't be
+faint-hearted now. It's now or never!"</p>
+
+<p>I heard him as one under the influence of chloroform hears his
+attendants. He exhorted a stone. His words only seemed to beat and
+flutter faintly against me, like storm-driven birds against a cliff at
+night. My brain was only in my eyeballs; and the arms that worked
+mechanically at the oars belonged rather to the boat than to me.</p>
+
+<p>Saturated at last, if not satiated, with seeing, I glanced at the
+water-level, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But see how the surge is heaving against it!"</p>
+
+<p>But now it was I that spoke to stone, though not to a silent one.</p>
+
+<p>"Hang the surge! I'm here for an iceberg, not to be balked by a bit of
+surf! It's not enough to see; I must have my hand on it! I wish to touch
+the veritable North Pole!"</p>
+
+<p>It was pleasant to see the ever-genial Parson so peremptory; and I
+lingered half wilfully, not unwilling to mingle the relieving flavor of
+this pleasure with the more awful delight of other impressions: said,
+however, at length,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I intend to go up to it, when I have found a suitable place."</p>
+
+<p>"Place! What better place do you desire than this?"</p>
+
+<p>I could but smile and pull on.</p>
+
+<p>Caution was not unnecessary. The sea rose and fell a number of feet
+beside the berg, beating heavily against it with boom and hiss; and I
+knew well, that, if our boat struck fairly, especially if it struck
+sidewise, it would be whirled over and over in two seconds. Besides,
+where we then were, there was a cut of a foot or more into the berg at
+the water-level,&mdash;or rather, it was excavated below, with this
+projection above; and had the skiff caught under that, we would drown. I
+had come there not to drown, nor to run any risk, but to get some more
+intimate acquaintance with an iceberg. Rowing along, therefore, despite
+the Parson's moving hortatives, I at length found a spot where this
+projection did not appear. Turning now the skiff head on, I drove it
+swiftly toward the berg; then, when its headway was sufficient, shipped
+the oars quickly, slipped into the bow, and, reaching forth my hand and
+striking the berg, sent the boat in the same instant back with all my
+force, not suffering it to touch.</p>
+
+<p>"Now me! Now me!" shouted the Parson, brow hot, and eyes blazing.
+"You're going to give me a chance, too? I would not miss it for a
+kingdom!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; wait, wait."</p>
+
+<p>I took the oars, got sea-room, then turned its stern, where the Parson
+sat, toward the iceberg, and backed gently in.</p>
+
+<p>"Put your hand behind you; reach out as far as you can; sit in the
+middle; keep cool, cool; don't turn your body."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Cool, oh, yes! I'm cool as November," he said, with a face misty as a
+hot July morning with evaporating dew. As his hand struck the ice, I
+bent the oars, and we shot safely away.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah! hurrah!" he shouted, making the little boat rock and
+tremble,&mdash;"hurrah! This, now, is the 'adventurous travel' we were
+promised. Now I am content, if we get no more."</p>
+
+<p>"Cool; you'll have us over."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! Who's cooler?"</p>
+
+<p>We went leisurely around this glacial cathedral. The current set with
+force about it, running against us on the eastern side. At the front we
+found the "cornice" again, about twenty feet up, sloping to the water,
+and dipping beneath it on either side; below it, a crystal surface;
+above, marble fretwork. This cornice indicates a former sea-level,
+showing that the berg has risen or changed position. This must have
+taken place, probably, by the detachment of masses; so an occurrence of
+this kind was not wholly out of question, after all. There is always,
+however,&mdash;so I suspect,&mdash;some preliminary warning, some audible crack or
+visible vibration. I had kept in mind the possibility of such changes,
+and at the slightest intimation should have darted away,&mdash;a movement
+favored by the lightness of the skiff, and the extreme ease with which,
+under the advantage of a beautiful model, she was rowed.</p>
+
+<p>A sense of awe, almost of fear, crept over me now that the adventure was
+over, and I looked up to the mighty towers of the fa&ccedil;ade with a somewhat
+humbled eye; and so, pulling slowly and respectfully along the western
+side, made away, solemn and satisfied, to the ship.</p>
+
+<p>I expected a storm of criticism on our return, but found calm. The boat
+was hoisted in silently, and I hurried below, to lie down and enjoy the
+very peculiar entertainment which vigorous rowing was sure to afford me.</p>
+
+<p>Released after a half-hour's toasting on the gridiron, I went on deck
+and found the Parson surrounded by a cloud of censure. The words "boyish
+foolhardiness," catching my ear, flushed me with some anger,&mdash;to which
+emotion I am not, perhaps, of all men least liable. So I stumped a
+little stiffly to the group, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I don't feel myself altogether a boy, and foolhardiness is not my
+forte."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, success is wisdom," said the Colonel, placably. "You have
+succeeded, and now have criticism at a disadvantage, I own."</p>
+
+<p>Another, however,&mdash;not a braver man on board,&mdash;stood to his guns.</p>
+
+<p>"Experienced men say that it is dangerous; I hear to them till I have
+experience myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Right, if so it stands in your mind. You judge thus: you follow your
+judgment. I judge partly so, and partly otherwise, and I follow my
+judgment. Mere experience is but a purblind wisdom, after all. When I do
+not at all see my own way, I follow that, still aware of its
+imperfections; where eyes are of service, I use them, learning from
+experience caution, not submission. The real danger in this case was
+that of being dashed against the berg; with coolness and some skill"
+(was there a little emphasis on this word <i>skill</i>?) "that danger could
+be disarmed. For any other danger I was ready, but did not fear it.
+'Boyish?' The boyish thing, I take it, is always to be a pendant upon
+other people's alarms. I prefer rather to be kite than its tail only."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, each of us <i>does</i> follow his own judgment," replied Candor; "you
+act as you think; I think you are wrong. If it were shooting a Polar
+bear now,&mdash;there's pleasure in that, and it were worth the while to run
+some risk."</p>
+
+<p>We had tried for a bear together. I seized my advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pleasure to you to shoot a bear. So to me also. But I would
+rather get into intimacy with an iceberg than freight the ship with
+bears."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled an end to the colloquy. As I went below, Captain Handy, the
+Arctic whaler, met me with,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I would as lief as not spend a week on that berg! I have made fast to
+such, and lain for days. All depends<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> on the character of the berg. If
+it's rotting, look out! If it's sound as that one, you may go to sleep
+on it."</p>
+
+<p>I hastened up to proclaim my new ally. "You heed experience; hear
+Captain Handy." And I launched his bolt at the head of Censure, and saw
+it duck, if no more.</p>
+
+<p>We saw after this, going and returning, many bergs, hundreds in all.
+With one of the finest, a little more broken and varied than those
+previously described, we came up at a little past noon, and the schooner
+stood off and on while Bradford went in the boat to sketch it in
+color,&mdash;Captain Handy's steady and skilful hand upon the sculling-oar.
+Bradford worked at it like a beaver all the afternoon, and then directed
+the schooner to lie to through the night, that he might resume his task
+in the morning,&mdash;coveting especially the effects of early light The
+ardent man was off before three o'clock. Nature was kind to him; he
+sketched the berg under a dawn of amber and scarlet, followed by floods
+on floods of morning gold; and returned to breakfast, after five hours'
+work, half in rapture and half in despair. The colors, above all, the
+purples, were inconceivable, he said, and there was no use trying to
+render them. I reminded him of Ruskin's brave words:&mdash;"He that is not
+appalled by his tasks will do nothing great." But his was an April
+despair, after all, with rifted clouds and spring sunshine pouring
+through.</p>
+
+<p>Another memorable one was seen outside while we were in harbor,
+storm-bound. A vast arch went through the very heart of it, while each
+end rose to a pinnacle,&mdash;the arch blue, blue! We were going out to it;
+but, during the second night of storm, its strength broke, and beneath
+blinding snow there remained only a mad dance of waves over the wreck of
+its majesty.</p>
+
+<p>There was another, curiously striped with diagonal dirt-bands, whose
+fellowship, however, the greens and purples did not disdain.</p>
+
+<p>Another had the shape of three immense towers, seeming to <i>stand on the
+water</i>, more than a hundred feet of sea rolling between. The tallest
+tower could not be much less than two hundred feet in height; the others
+slightly, just perceptibly, lower. This was seen in rain, and the
+purples here were more crystalline and shining than any others which I
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>These towers were seen on our last day among the bergs. In my memory
+they are monumental. They stand there, a purple trinity, to commemorate
+the terrors and glories that I shall behold no more.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>KALLUNDBORG CHURCH.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i16">"Tie stille, barn min!<br /></span>
+<span class="i16">Imorgen kommer Fin,<br /></span>
+<span class="i16">Fa'er din,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Og gi'er dig Esbern Snares &ouml;ine og hjerte at lege med!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i33"><i>Zealand Rhyme.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Build at Kallundborg by the sea<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A church as stately as church may be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And there shalt thou wed my daughter fair,"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Said the Lord of Nesvek to Esbern Snare.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And the Baron laughed. But Esbern said,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Though I lose my soul, I will Helva wed!"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And off he strode, in his pride of will,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To the Troll who dwelt in Ulshoi hill.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Build, O Troll, a church for me<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At Kallundborg by the mighty sea;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Build it stately, and build it fair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Build it quickly," said Esbern Snare.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But the sly Dwarf said, "No work is wrought<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By Trolls of the Hills, O man, for nought.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What wilt thou give for thy church so fair?"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Set thy own price," quoth Esbern Snare.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"When Kallundborg church is builded well,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou must the name of its builder tell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or thy heart and thy eyes must be my boon."<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Build," said Esbern, "and build it soon."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">By night and by day the Troll wrought on;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He hewed the timbers, he piled the stone;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But day by day, as the walls rose fair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Darker and sadder grew Esbern Snare.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He listened by night, he watched by day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He sought and thought, but he dared not pray;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In vain he called on the Elle-maids shy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the Neck and the Nis gave no reply.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Of his evil bargain far and wide<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A rumor ran through the country-side;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Helva of Nesvek, young and fair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Prayed for the soul of Esbern Snare.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And now the church was wellnigh done;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One pillar it lacked, and one alone;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the grim Troll muttered, "Fool thou art!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To-morrow gives me thy eyes and heart!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">By Kallundborg in black despair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through wood and meadow, walked Esbern Snare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till, worn and weary, the strong man sank<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Under the birches on Ulshoi bank.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">At his last day's work he heard the Troll<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hammer and delve in the quarry's hole;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Before him the church stood large and fair:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"I have builded my tomb," said Esbern Snare.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And he closed his eyes the sight to hide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When he heard a light step at his side:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"O Esbern Snare!" a sweet voice said,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Would I might die now in thy stead!"<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With a grasp by love and by fear made strong,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He held her fast, and he held her long;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With the beating heart of a bird afeard,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She hid her face in his flame-red beard.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"O love!" he cried, "let me look to-day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In thine eyes ere mine are plucked away;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let me hold thee close, let me feel thy heart<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere mine by the Troll is torn apart!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I sinned, O Helva, for love of thee!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pray that the Lord Christ pardon me!"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But fast as she prayed, and faster still,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hammered the Troll in Ulshoi hill.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He knew, as he wrought, that a loving heart<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was somehow baffling his evil art;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For more than spell of Elf or Troll<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is a maiden's prayer for her lover's soul.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And Esbern listened, and caught the sound<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of a Troll-wife singing underground:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"To-morrow comes Fine, father thine:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lie still and hush thee, baby mine!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Lie still, my darling! next sunrise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou'lt play with Esbern Snare's heart and eyes!"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Ho! ho!" quoth Esbern, "is that your game?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thanks to the Troll-wife, I know his name!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Troll he heard him, and hurried on<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To Kallundborg church with the lacking stone.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Too late, Gaffer Fine!" cried Esbern Snare;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Troll and pillar vanished in air!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">That night the harvesters heard the sound<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of a woman sobbing underground,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the voice of the Hill-Troll loud with blame<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the careless singer who told his name.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Of the Troll of the Church they sing the rune<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By the Northern Sea in the harvest moon;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the fishers of Zealand hear him still<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Scolding his wife in Ulshoi hill.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And seaward over its groves of birch<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still looks the tower of Kallundborg church,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where, first at its altar, a wedded pair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stood Helva of Nesvek and Esbern Snare!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+<h2>GEORGE CRUIKSHANK IN MEXICO.</h2>
+
+
+<p>And first, let it be on record that his name is <span class="smcap">George Cruikshank</span>, and
+not <span class="smcap">Cruickshank</span>. The good old man is seventy years of age, if not more,
+(the earliest drawing I have seen of his bears the date of 1799, and he
+could scarcely have begun to limn in his long-clothes,) yet, with a
+persistence of perversity wellnigh astonishing,&mdash;although his name has
+been before the public for considerably more than half a
+century,&mdash;although he has published nothing anonymously, but has
+appended his familiar signature in full to the minutest scratchings of
+his etching-needle,&mdash;although he has been the conductor of two
+magazines, and of late years has been one of the foremost agitators and
+platform-orators in the English temperance movement,&mdash;the vast majority
+of his countrymen have always spelt his surname "Cruickshank," and will
+continue so to spell it, I suppose, even should he live as long as
+Cornaro. I hope he may, I am sure, with or without the additional <i>c</i>
+for his age and his country can ill spare him.</p>
+
+<p>But George Cruikshank in Mexico! What on earth can the most stay-at-home
+of British artists have to do with that out-of-the-way old
+curiosity-shop of the American continent? One might fancy him now&mdash;but
+that it is growing late&mdash;in the United States. He might be invited to
+attend a Total Abstinence Convention. He might run Mr. J.B. Gough hard
+on his favorite stump. He might be tempted, perchance, to cross the
+ocean in the evening of his days, to note down, with his inimitable and
+still unfaltering pencil, some of the humors of Yankee-land. I am
+certain, that, were George Cruikshank or Dicky Doyle to come this way
+and give a pictorial history of a tour through the States, somewhat
+after the immortal Brown, Jones, and Robinson pattern, the Americans
+would be in a better temper with their brothers in Old England than
+after reading some long spun-out book of travels by brainless Cockneys
+or cynical dyspeptics. The laugh awakened by a droll picture hurts
+nobody. It is that ugly letter-press which smarts and rankles, and
+festers at last into a gangrene of hatred. The Patriarch of Uz wished
+that his enemy had written a book. He could have added ten thousand fold
+to the venom of the aspiration, had he likewise expressed a wish that
+the book had been printed.</p>
+
+<p>You will be pleased to understand, then, that the name of the gentleman
+who serves as text for this essay is Cruikshank, and not Cruickshank.
+There is an old Scottish family, I believe, of that ilk, which spells
+its name with a <i>c</i> before the <i>k</i>. Perhaps the admirers of our George
+wished to give something like an aristocratic smack to his patronymic,
+and so interpolated the objectionable consonant. There is no Cruikshank
+to be found in the "Court Guide," but Cruickshanks abound. As for our
+artist, he is a burgess among burgesses,&mdash;a man of the people <i>par
+excellence</i>, and an Englishman above all. His travels have been of the
+most limited nature. Once, in the course of his long life, and with what
+intent you shall presently hear, he went to France, as Hogarth did; but
+France didn't please him, and he came home again, like Hogarth, with all
+convenient speed,&mdash;fortunately, without being clapped up in jail for
+sketching the gates of Calais. I believe that he has not crossed the
+Straits of Dover since George IV. was king. I have heard, on good
+authority, that he protested strongly, while in foreign parts, against
+the manner in which the French ate new-laid eggs, and against the
+custom, then common among the peasantry, of wearing wooden shoes. I am
+afraid even, that, were George hard pressed, he would own to a dim
+persuasion that <i>all</i> Frenchmen wear wooden shoes; also pigtails;
+likewise cocked hats. He does not say so in society; but those who have
+his private<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> ear assert that his faith or his delusion goes even farther
+than this, and that he believes that all Frenchmen eat frogs,&mdash;that nine
+tenths of the population earn their living as dancing-masters, and that
+the late Napoleon Buonaparte (George Cruikshank always spells the
+Corsican Ogre's name with a <i>u</i>) was first cousin to Apollyon, and was
+not, upon occasion, averse to the consumption of human flesh,&mdash;-babies
+of British extraction preferred. Can you show me an oak that ever took
+so strong a root as prejudice?</p>
+
+<p>Not that George Cruikshank belongs in any way to the species known as
+"Fossil Tories." He is rather a fossil Liberal. He was a Whig Radical,
+and more, when the slightest suspicion of Radicalism exposed an
+Englishman to contumely, to obloquy, to poverty, to fines, to stripes,
+to gyves, and to the jail. He was quite as advanced a politician as
+William Cobbett, and a great deal honester as a man. He was the fast
+friend of William Hone, who, for his famous "Political Catechism,"&mdash;a
+lampoon on the borough-mongers and their bloated king,&mdash;was tried three
+times on three successive days, before the cruel Ellenborough, but as
+many times acquitted. George Cruikshank inveighed ardently, earnestly,
+and at last successfully, with pencil and with etching-point, against
+the atrocious blood-thirstiness of the penal laws,&mdash;the laws that strung
+up from six to a dozen unfortunates on a gallows in front of Newgate
+every Monday morning, often for no direr offence than passing a
+counterfeit one-pound note. When the good old Tories wore top-boots and
+buckskins, George Cruikshank was conspicuous for a white hat and
+Hessians,&mdash;the distinguishing outward signs of ultra-liberalism. He was,
+of course, a Parliamentary Reformer in the year '30; and he has been a
+social reformer, and a most useful one, ever since. Still is there
+something about this brave old English worthy that approaches the fossil
+type. His droll dislike to the French&mdash;a hearty, good-humored disfavor,
+differing widely from the polished malevolence of Mr. John Leech, who
+never missed an opportunity to represent the airy Gaul as something
+repulsive, degraded, and ungentlemanly&mdash;I have already noticed. Then
+George Cruikshank has never been able to surmount a vague notion that
+steamboats and steam-engines are, generically speaking, a humbug, and
+that the old English sailing craft and the old English stage-coach are,
+after all, the only modes of conveyance worthy the patronage of Britons.
+Against exaggerated hoop-skirts he has all along set his face, and
+seldom, if ever, condescends to delineate a lady in crinoline. His
+beau-ideal of female beauty is comprised in an hour-glass waist, a skirt
+that fits close to the form, a sandalled shoe, and very long ringlets;
+whereas tight lacing, narrow skirts, sandalled shoes, and ringlets have
+been banished from the English <i>modes</i> any time these fifteen years.
+Those among George's critics, too, who are sticklers for exactitude in
+the "abstract and brief chronicle of the time" complain that his dandies
+always wear straps to their tight pantaloons in lieu of pegtops; that
+their vests are too short and their coat-collars too high; that they
+wear bell-crowned hats, and carry gold-knobbed canes with long tassels;
+and that they are dressed, in short, after the fashion of the year one,
+when Brummell or Pea-Green Haynes commanded the <i>ton</i>. It is obvious
+that the works of an artist who has refused to be indoctrinated with the
+perpetual changes of a capricious code of dress would never be very
+popular with the readers of "Punch,"&mdash;a periodical which, pictorially,
+owes its very existence to the readiness and skill displayed by its
+draughtsmen in shooting folly as it flies and catching the manners
+living as they rise, and pillorying the madness of the moment. Were
+George Cruikshank called upon, for instance, to depict a lady fording a
+puddle on a rainy day, and were he averse (for he is the modestest of
+artists) to displaying too much of her ankle, he would assuredly make
+manifest, beneath her upraised skirts, some antediluvian pantalet,
+bordered by a pre-Adamite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> frill. But the keen-eyed Mr. Leech would be
+guilty of no such anachronism. He would discover that the mysterious
+garments in question were ofttimes encircled by open-worked embroidery.
+<i>He would find out that the ladies sometimes wore Knickerbockers.</i> And
+this is what the ladies like. Exaggerate their follies as much as you
+please; but woe be to you, if you wrongfully accuse them! You may sneer
+at, you may censure, you may castigate them for what they really do, but
+beware of reprehending them for that which they have never done. Even
+Sir John Falstaff revolted at the imputation of having kissed the
+keeper's daughter. A sermon against crinoline, be it ever so
+fulminating, finds ever an attentive and smiling congregation; but
+venture to preach against coal-scuttle bonnets&mdash;until the ladies have
+really taken to wearing them&mdash;and your hearers would pull down the
+pulpit and hang the preacher.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, although foreigners may express wonder that a designer, who for so
+many years has been in the front rank of English humorous artists,
+should never have contributed to the pages of our leading humorous
+periodical, astonishment may be abated, when the real state of the case,
+as I have endeavored to put it, is known. George Cruikshank is at once
+too good for, and not quite up to the mark of "Punch." His best works
+have always been his etchings on steel and copper; and wonderful
+examples of chalcographic brilliance and skill those etchings are,&mdash;many
+of them surpassing Callot, and not a few of them (notably the
+illustrations to Ainsworth's "Tower of London") rivalling Rembrandt.
+From the nature of these engravings, it would be impossible to print
+them at a machine-press for a weekly issue of fifty or sixty thousand
+copies. George has drawn much on wood, and his wondrous
+wood-cuts&mdash;xylographs, if you wish a more pretentious word&mdash;to "Three
+Courses and a Dessert," "The Odd Volume," "The Gentleman in Black,"
+Grimm's "Fairy Tales," "Philosophy in Sport," and "The Table-Book," will
+be long remembered, and are now highly prized by amateurs; but his
+minute and delicate pencil-drawings have taxed the energies of the very
+best engravers of whom England can boast,&mdash;of Vizetelly, of Landells, of
+Jackson, of Thompson, and of Thurston. George Cruikshank would never
+suffer his drawings on wood to be slashed and chopped about by hasty or
+incompetent gravers; and although the ateliers of "Punch" are supplied
+with a first-rate staff of wood-cutters, very great haste and very
+little care must often be apparent in the weekly pabulum of cuts; nor
+should such an appearance excite surprise, when the exigencies of a
+weekly publication are remembered. The "Punch" artists, indeed, draw
+with a special reference to that which they know their engravers can or
+cannot do. Mr. Tenniel's cartoons are put on wood precisely as they are
+meant to be cut, in broad, firm, sweeping lines, and the wood-engraver
+has only to scoop out the white interstices between the network of
+lines; whereas Mr. Leech dashed in a bold pen-and-ink-like sketch and
+trusted to the xylographer, who knew his style well and of old, to
+produce an engraving, <i>tant bien que mal</i>, but as bold and as dashing as
+the original. The secession, for reasons theological, from "Punch" of
+Mr. Richard Doyle, an event which took place some fifteen years since,
+(how quickly time passes, to be sure!) was very bitterly regretted by
+his literary and artistic comrades; and the young man who calmly gave up
+something like a thousand pounds a year for conscience' sake lost
+nothing, but gained rather in the respect and admiration of society. But
+the wood-engravers must have held high carousal over the defection of
+Mr. Doyle. To cut one of his drawings was a crucial experiment. His hand
+was not sure in its touch; he always drew six lines instead of one; and
+in the portrait of a lady from his pencil, the agonized engraver had to
+hunt through a Cretan labyrinth of faces before he found the particular
+countenance which Mr. Doyle wished to be engraved.</p>
+
+<p>I have strayed away, perhaps unpardonably,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> from George Cruikshank. To
+those whose only ludicrous prophet is "Punch" he may be comparatively
+little known. But in the great world of pictorial art, both in England
+and on the Continent, he worthily holds an illustrious place. His name
+is a household word with his countrymen; and whenever a young hopeful
+displays ever so crude an aptitude for caricaturing his schoolmaster, or
+giving with slate and pencil the facetious side of his grandmother's cap
+and spectacles, he is voted by the unanimous suffrage of fireside
+critics to be a "regular Cruikshank." In this connection I have heard
+him sometimes called "Crookshanks," which is taking, I apprehend, even a
+grosser liberty with his name than in the case of the additional
+<i>c</i>,&mdash;"Crookshanks" having seemingly a reference, and not a
+complimentary one, to George's legs.</p>
+
+<p>This admirable artist and good man was the son of old Isaac Cruikshank,
+in his day a famous engraver of lottery-tickets, securities in which the
+British public are now no longer by law permitted to invest, but which,
+fifty years since, made as constant a demand on the engraver's art as,
+in our time and in America, is made by the thousand and one joint-stock
+banks whose pictorial promises-to-pay fill, or should properly fill, our
+pocket-books. The abilities of Isaac were not entirely devoted to the
+lottery; and I have at home, from his hand, a very rare and curious
+etching of the execution of Louis XVI., with an explanatory diagram
+beneath of the working of the guillotine. George Cruikshank's earliest
+pencil-drawings are dated, as I have remarked, before the present
+century drew breath; but he must have begun to gain reputation as a
+caricaturist upon copper towards the end of the career of Napoleon
+I.,&mdash;the "Boney" to whom he has adhered with such constant, albeit
+jocular, animosity. He was the natural successor of James Gillray, the
+renowned delineator of "Farmer George and Little Nap," and "Pitt and
+Boney at Dinner," and hundreds of political cartoons, eagerly bought in
+their day, but now to be found only in old print-shops. Gillray was a
+man of vast, but misapplied talents. Although he etched caricatures for
+a livelihood, his drawing was splendid,&mdash;wellnigh
+Michel-Angelesque,&mdash;but always careless and <i>outr&eacute;</i>. He was continually
+betting crown-bowls of punch that he would design, etch, and bite in so
+many plates within a given time, and, with the assistance of a private
+bowl, he almost always won his bets; but the punch was too much for him
+in the long run. He went mad and died miserably. George Cruikshank was
+never his pupil; nor did he ever attain the freedom and mastery of
+outline which the crazy old reprobate, who made the fortune of Mr.
+Humphries, the St. James's Street print-seller, undeniably possessed;
+but his handling was grounded upon Gillray's style; and from early and
+attentive study of his works he must have acquired that boldness of
+treatment, that rotundity of light and shade, and that general
+"fatness," or <i>morbidezza</i>, of touch, which make the works of Gillray
+and Cruikshank stand out from the coarse scrawls of Rowlandson, and the
+bald and meagre scratches of Sir Charles Bunbury. Unless I am much
+mistaken, one of the first works that brought George into notice was an
+etching published in 1815, having reference to the exile of the detested
+Corsican to St. Helena. But it was in 1821 that he first made a decided
+mark. For William Hone&mdash;a man who was in perpetual opposition to the
+powers that were&mdash;he drew on wood a remarkable series of illustrations
+to the scurrilous, but perhaps not undeserved, satires against King
+George IV., called, "The Political House that Jack Built," "The Green
+Bag," "A Slap at Slop," and the like,&mdash;all of them having direct and
+most caustic reference to the scandalous prosecution instituted against
+a woman of whom it is difficult to say whether she was bad or mad or
+both, but who was assuredly most miserable,&mdash;the unhappy Caroline of
+Brunswick. George Cruikshank's sketch of the outraged husband, the
+finest and stoutest gentleman in Europe, being lowered by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> means of a
+crane into a pair of white kid pantaloons suspended between the posts of
+his bed, was inimitably droll, and clearly disloyal. But disloyalty was
+fashionable in the year '21.</p>
+
+<p>For twenty years afterwards the history of the artist's career is but
+the history of his works, of his innumerable illustrations to books, and
+the sketchbooks, comic panoramas, and humorous cartoons he published on
+his own account. Besides, I am not writing a life of George Cruikshank,
+and all this time I have been keeping him on the threshold of the city
+of Mexico. Let it suffice to say, briefly, that in 1841 came a
+stand-point in his life, through the establishment of a monthly magazine
+entitled "George Cruikshank's Omnibus." Of this he was the sole
+illustrator. The literary editor was Laman Blanchard; and in the
+"Omnibus," William Makepeace Thackeray, then a gaunt young man, not much
+over thirty, and quite unknown to fame,&mdash;although he had published
+"Yellowplush" in "Fraser,"&mdash;wrote his quaint and touching ballad of "The
+King of Brentford's Testament." The "Omnibus" did not run long, nor was
+its running very prosperous. George Cruikshank seemed for a while
+wearied with the calling of a caricaturist; and the large etchings on
+steel, with which between '40 and '45 he illustrated Ainsworth's gory
+romances, indicated a power of grouping, a knowledge of composition, a
+familiarity with medi&aelig;val costume, and a command over chiaroscuro, which
+astonished and delighted those who had been accustomed to regard him
+only as a funny fellow,&mdash;one of infinite whim, to be sure, but still a
+jester of jests, and nothing more. Unfortunately, or fortunately, as the
+case might be,&mdash;for the rumor ran that George intended to abandon
+caricaturing altogether, and to set up in earnest as an historical
+painter,&mdash;there came from beyond the sea, to assist in illustrating
+"Windsor Castle," a Frenchman named Tony Johannot. Who but he, in fact,
+was the famous master of the grotesque who illustrated "Don Quixote" and
+the "Diable Boiteux" of Le Sage? To his dismay, George Cruikshank found
+a competitor as eccentric as himself, as skilful a manipulator <i>rem
+acu</i>, the etching-point, and who drew incomparably better than he,
+George Cruikshank, did. He gave up the medi&aelig;val in disgust; but he must
+have hugged himself with the thought that he had already illustrated
+Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist," and that the Frenchman, powerful as he
+was, could never hope to come near him in that terrific etching of
+"Fagin in the Condemned Cell."</p>
+
+<p>Again nearly twenty years have passed, and George Cruikshank still waves
+his Ithuriel's spear of well-ground steel, and still dabbles in
+aquafortis. An old, old man, he is still strong and hale. If you ask him
+a reason for his thus rivalling Fontenelle in his patriarchal greenness,
+for his being able at threescore and ten to paint pictures, (witness
+that colossal oil-painting of the "Triumph of Bacchus,") to make
+speeches, and to march at the head of his company as a captain of
+volunteers, he will give you at once the why and because. He is the most
+zealous, the most conscientious, and the most invulnerable of total
+abstainers. There were days when he took tobacco: witness that portrait
+of himself, smoking a very long meerschaum pipe in "Love's Triumph,"
+etched about 1845. There were times when he heard the chimes at
+midnight, and partook of that "richt gude willie waucht" which tipsy
+Scotchmen, when they have formed in a ring, standing upon chairs, each
+with one foot on the table, hiccoughingly declare that we are bound to
+take for the sake of "auld lang syne." But George Cruikshank has done
+with willie wauchts as with bird's-eye and Killikinick. For many years
+he has neither drunk nor smoked. He is more than a confessor, he is an
+apostle of temperance. His strange, wild, grand performances, "The
+Bottle" and "The Drunkard's Children,"&mdash;the first quite Hogarthian in
+its force and pungency,&mdash;fell like thunderbolts among the gin-shops. I
+am afraid that George Cruikshank would not be a very welcome<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> guest at
+Felix Booth's distillery, or at Barclay and Perkins's brewery. For, it
+must be granted, the sage is a little intolerant. "No peace with the
+Fiery Moloch!" "<i>&Eacute;crasons l'inf&acirc;me!</i>" These are his mottoes. He would
+deprive the poor man of the scantiest drop of beer. You begin with a sip
+of "the right stuff," he teaches us in "The Bottle," and you end by
+swigging a gallon of vitriol, jumping on your wife, and dying in Bedlam
+of <i>delirium tremens</i>. I have not heard his opinions concerning cider,
+or root-beer, or effervescing sarsaparilla, or ginger-pop; but I imagine
+that each and every one of those reputed harmless beverages would enter
+into his <i>Index Expurgatorius</i>. "Water, water, everywhere, and not a
+drop [of alcohol] to drink." 'Tis thus he would quote Coleridge. He is
+as furious against tobacco as ever was King James in his "Counterblast."
+He is of the mind of the old divine, that "he who plays with the Devil's
+rattles will soon learn to draw his sword." In his pious rage against
+intemperance, and with a view to the instruction of the rising
+generation, he has even published teetotal versions of "Cinderella" and
+"Jack the Giant-Killer,"&mdash;a proceeding which Charles Dickens indignantly
+reprobated in an article in "Household Words," called "Frauds upon the
+Fairies." Nearly the last time I met George Cruikshank in London was at
+a dinner given in honor of Washington's birthday. He had just been
+gazetted captain of his rifle company, and was good enough to ask me if
+I knew any genteel young men, of strictly temperance principles, who
+would like commissions in his corps. I replied, that, so far as
+principles were concerned, I could recommend him five hundred
+postulants; but that, as regarded practice, most of the young men of my
+acquaintance, who had manifested an ambition for a military career,
+drank hard.</p>
+
+<p>The which, oddly enough, leads me at last to Mexico.&mdash;We had had, on the
+whole, rather a hard morning of it. The Don, who was my host in the
+<i>siempre leal y insigne ciudad de M&eacute;jico</i>,&mdash;and a most munificent and
+hospitable Don he was,&mdash;took me out one day in the month of March last
+to visit a <i>hacienda</i> or farm which he possessed, called, if I remember
+aright, La Escalera. I repeat, we had a hard morning of it. We rose at
+six,&mdash;and in mountainous Mexico the ground at early morn, even during
+summer, is often covered with a frosty rime. I looked out of the window,
+and when I saw the leaves of the trees glistening with something which
+was <i>not</i> dew, and Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl mantled with eternal
+snows in the distance, I shivered. A cup of chocolate, a <i>tortilla</i> or
+thin griddle-cake of Indian meal, and a paper cigar, just to break your
+fast, and then to horse. To horse! Do you know what it is, being a poor
+horseman, to bestride a full-blood, full-bred white Arab, worth ever so
+many hundred <i>pesos de oro</i>, and, with his flowing mane and tail, and
+small, womanly, vixenish head, beautiful to look upon, but which in
+temper, like many other beauteous creatures I have known, is an
+incarnate fiend? The Arab they gave me had been the property of a French
+general. I vehemently suspect that he had been dismissed from the
+Imperial army for biting a <i>chef d'escadron</i> through one of his
+jackboots, or kicking in three of the ribs of a <i>mar&eacute;chal des logis</i>.
+That was hard enough, to begin with. Then the streets of Mexico are
+execrably paved, and the roads leading out of the city are full of what
+in Ireland are termed "curiosities," to wit, holes; and my Arab had a
+habit, whenever he met an equine brother, and especially an equine
+sister, on the way, of screaming like a possessed Pythoness, and then of
+essaying to stand on his hind legs. However, with a Mexican saddle,&mdash;out
+of which you can scarcely fall, even though you had a mind to it,&mdash;and
+Mexican stirrups, and a pair of spurs nearly as big as Catharine-wheels,
+the Arab and I managed to reach the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
+five miles out, and thence, over tolerably good roads, another five
+miles, to the Escalera. I wish they would make Mexican saddles of
+something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> else besides wood very thinly covered with leather. How
+devoutly did I long for the well-stuffed pig-skin of Hyde Park! We had
+an hour or two more hard work riding about the fields, when we reached
+the farm, watching the process of extracting <i>pulque</i> from the <i>maguey</i>
+or cactus,&mdash;and a very nasty process it is,&mdash;inspecting the granaries
+belonging to the <i>hacienda</i>, and dodging between the rows of Indian
+corn, which grows here to so prodigious a height as to rival the famous
+grain which is said to grow somewhere down South, and to attain such an
+altitude that a Comanche perched upon the head of a giraffe is invisible
+between the rows. About noon we had breakfast, and that was the hardest
+work of all. <i>Item</i>, we had mutton-chops, beefsteaks, veal cutlets,
+omelets, rice, hominy, fried tomatoes, and an infinity of Mexican hashes
+and stews seasoned with <i>chiles</i> or red-pepper pods. <i>Item</i>, we had a
+huge <i>pavo</i>, a turkey,&mdash;a wild turkey; and then, for the first time, did
+I understand that the bird we Englishmen consume only at Christmas, and
+then declare to be tough and flavorless, is to be eaten to perfection
+only in the central regions of the American continent. The flesh of this
+<i>pavo</i> was like softened ivory, and his fat like unto clotted cream.
+There were some pretty little tiny kickshaws in the way of pine-apples,
+musk-melons, bananas, papaws, and custard-apples, and many other
+tropical fruits whose names I have forgotten. I think, too, that we had
+some stewed <i>iguana</i> or lizard; but I remember, that, after inflicting
+exemplary punishment on a bowl of sour cream, we wound up by an attack
+on an <i>albacor</i>, a young kid roasted whole, or rather baked in a lump of
+clay with wood-ashes heaped over him, and brought to table on a
+tea-tray! Shade of Gargantua, how we ate! I blessed that fiery Arab for
+giving me such an appetite. There was a good deal of smoking going on at
+odd times during breakfast; but nobody ventured beyond a <i>cigarro</i> of
+paper and fine-cut before we attacked the <i>albacor</i>. When coffee was
+served, each man lighted a <i>puro</i>, one of the biggest of Caba&ntilde;a's
+Regalias; and serious and solemn puffing then set in. It was a memorable
+breakfast. The <i>Administrador</i>, or steward of the estate, had evidently
+done his best to entertain his patron the Don with becoming
+magnificence, nor were potables as dainty as the edibles wanting to
+furnish forth the feast. There was <i>pulque</i> for those who chose to drink
+it. I never could stomach that fermented milk of human unkindness, which
+combines the odor of a dairy that has been turned into a grogshop with
+the flavor of rotten eggs. There was wine of Burgundy and wine of
+Bordeaux; there was Champagne: these three from the Don's cellar in
+Mexico, and the last cooled, not with vulgar ice, but with snow from the
+summit of Popocatepetl,&mdash;snow that had been there from the days of
+Montezuma and Guatimozin; while as <i>chasse</i> and <i>pousse</i> to the
+exquisitely flavored Mexican coffee, grown, ground, and roasted on the
+<i>hacienda</i>, we had some very ripe old French Cognac, (1804, I think, was
+the brand,) and some Peruvian <i>pisco</i>, a strong white cordial, somewhat
+resembling <i>kirsch-wasser</i>, and exceeding toothsome. We talked and
+laughed till we grew sleepy, (the edibles and potables had of course
+nothing to do with our somnolence,) and then, the farm-house of the
+<i>hacienda</i> having seemingly as many rooms as the Vatican, each man hied
+him to a cool chamber, where he found a trundle-bed, or a hammock, or a
+sofa, and gravely laid himself out for an hour's <i>siesta</i>. Then the
+Administrador woke us all up, and gleefully presented us with an
+enormous bowl of sangaree, made of the remains of the Bordeaux and the
+brandy and the pisco, and plenty of ice,&mdash;ice this time,&mdash;and sugar, and
+limes, and slices of pineapple, Madam,&mdash;the which he had concocted
+during our slumber. We drained this,&mdash;one gets so thirsty after
+breakfast in Mexico,&mdash;and then to horse again for a twelve miles' ride
+back to the city. I omitted to mention two or three little circumstances
+which gave a zest and piquancy to the entertainment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> When we arrived at
+the <i>hacienda</i>, although servitors were in plenty, each cavalier
+unsaddled and fed his own steed; and when we addressed ourselves to our
+<i>siesta</i>, every one who didn't find a double-barrelled gun at the head
+of his bed took care to place a loaded revolver under his pillow. For
+accidents will happen in the best-regulated families; and in Mexico you
+can never tell at what precise moment Cacus may be upon you.</p>
+
+<p>Riding back to the <i>siempre leal y insigne ciudad</i> at about three
+o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was at its hottest, was no joke.
+Baking is not precisely the word, nor boiling, nay, nor frying;
+something which is a compound of all these might express the sensation
+I, for one, felt. Fortunately, the Don had insisted on my assuming the
+orthodox Mexican riding-costume: cool linen drawers, cut Turkish
+fashion; over these, and with just sufficient buttons in their
+respective holes to swear by, the leathern <i>chapareros</i> or overalls;
+morocco slippers, to which were strapped the Catharine-wheel spurs; no
+vest; no neckerchief; a round jacket, with quarter doubloons for
+buttons; and a low-crowned felt hat, with an enormous brim, a brim which
+might have made a Quaker envious, and have stricken mortification to the
+soul of a Chinese mandarin. This brim kept the sun out of your eyes; and
+then, by way of hatband, there was a narrow, but thick turban or
+"pudding," which prevented the rays of Sol from piercing through your
+skull, and boiling your brains into batter. The fact of the whole of
+this costume, and the accoutrements of your horse to boot, being
+embroidered with silver and embellished with golden bosses, thus
+affording a thousand tangents for Ph&oelig;bus to fly off from, rather
+detracted from the coolness of your array; but one must not expect
+perfection here below. In a stove-pipe hat, a shooting-coat, and
+riding-cords, I should have suffered much more from the heat. As it was,
+I confess, that, when I reached home, in the Calle San Francisco,
+Mexico, I was exceedingly thankful. I am not used to riding twenty-four
+miles in one day. I think I had a warm bath in the interval between
+doffing the <i>chapareros</i> and donning the pantaloons of every-day life. I
+think I went to sleep on a sofa for about an hour, and, waking up,
+called for a cocktail as a restorative. Yes, Madam, there are cocktails
+in Mexico, and our Don's body-servant made them most scientifically. I
+think also that I declined, with thanks, the Don's customary invitation
+to a drive before dinner in the Paseo. Nor barouche, nor mail-pha&euml;ton,
+nay, nor soft-cushioned brougham delighted me. I felt very lazy and
+thoroughly knocked up.</p>
+
+<p>The Don, however, went out for his drive, smiling at my woful plight. Is
+it only after hard riding that remorse succeeds enjoyment? I was left
+alone in his great caravansary of a mansion. I wandered from room to
+room, from corridor to corridor,&mdash;now glancing through the
+window-<i>jalousies</i>, and peeping at the <i>chinas</i> in their <i>ribosos</i>, and
+the shovel-hatted priests in the street below creeping along on the
+shady side of the way,&mdash;now hanging over the gallery in the inner
+court-yard, listening to the horses stamping in their stables or
+rattling their tethers against the mangers, listening now to the English
+grooms as they whistled the familiar airs of home while they rubbed
+their charges down, and now to the sleepy, plaintive drone of the Indian
+servants loitering over their work in the kitchens. Then I wandered back
+again,&mdash;from drawing-room to dining-room, from bedchamber to boudoir.
+And at last I found that I had crossed a bridge over another court-yard,
+and gotten into another house, abutting on another street. The Don was
+still lord here, and I was free to ramble. More drawing-rooms, more
+bedchambers, more boudoirs, a chapel, and at last a library. Libraries
+are not plentiful in Mexico. Here, on many shelves, was a goodly store
+of standard literature in many languages. Here was Prescott's History of
+the Conquest, translated into choice Castilian, and Se&ntilde;or Ramirez his
+comments thereupon. Here was Don Lucas Alaman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> his History of Mexico,
+and works by Jesuit fathers innumerable. How ever did they get printed?
+Who ever bought, who ever read, those cloudy tomes in dog Latin? Here
+was Lord Kingsborough's vast work on Mexican Antiquities,&mdash;the work his
+Lordship is reported to have ruined himself in producing; and Macaulay,
+and Dickens, and Washington Irving, and the British Essayists, and the
+Waverley Novels, and Shakspeare, and Soyer's Cookery, and one little
+book of mine own writing: a very well-chosen library indeed.</p>
+
+<p>What have we here? A fat, comely, gilt-lettered volume, bound in red
+morocco, and that might, externally, have passed for my grandmother's
+edition of Dr. Doddridge's Sermons. As I live, 't is a work illustrated
+by George Cruikshank,&mdash;a work hitherto unknown to me, albeit I fancied
+myself rich, even to millionnairism, in Cruikshankiana. It is a rare
+book, a precious book, a book that is not in the British Museum, a book
+for which collectors would gladly give more doubloons than I lost at
+<i>monte</i> last night; for here the most moral people play <i>monte</i>. It is
+<i>un costumbre del pais</i>,&mdash;a custom of the country; and, woe is me! I
+lost a pile 'twixt midnight and cock-crow.</p>
+
+<p>"Life in Paris; or the Rambles, Sprees, and Amours of Dick Wildfire,
+Squire Jenkins, and Captain O'Shuffleton, with the Whimsical Adventures
+of the Halibut Family, and Other Eccentric Characters in the French
+Metropolis. Embellished with Twenty-One Comic Vignettes and Twenty-One
+Colored Engravings of Scenes from Real Life, by George Cruikshank.
+London: Printed for John Cumberland. 1828." This "Life in Paris" was
+known to me by dim literary repute; but I had never seen, the actual
+volume before. Its publication was a disastrous failure. Emboldened by
+the prodigious success of "Life in London,"&mdash;the adventures in the Great
+Metropolis of Corinthian Tom and Jerry&mdash;Somebody&mdash;and Bob Logic,
+Esquire, written by Pierce Egan, once a notorious chronicler of the
+prize-ring, the compiler of a Slang Dictionary, and whose proficiency in
+<i>argot</i> and flash-patter was honored by poetic celebration from Byron,
+Moore, and Christopher North, but whom I remember, when I was first
+climbing into public life, a decrepit, broken-down old man,&mdash;Mr. John
+Cumberland, of Ludgate Hill, (the publisher, by the way, of that series
+of the "Acting Drama" to which, over the initials of D&mdash;G, and the
+figure of a hand pointing, some of the most remarkable dramatic
+criticisms in the English language are appended,) thought, not
+unreasonably, that "Life in Paris" might attain a vogue as extensive as
+that achieved by "Life in London." I don't know who wrote the French
+"Life." Pierce Egan could scarcely have been the author; for he was then
+at the height of a vicious and ephemeral popularity; and any book,
+however trashy, with his name to it, would have been sure to sell. This
+"Life in Paris" was very probably the work of some obscure hack, who,
+when he was describing the "eccentric characters in the French
+metropolis," may not impossibly have been vegetating in the Rules of the
+King's Bench Prison. But crafty Mr. Cumberland, to insure the success of
+his enterprise, secured the services of George Cruikshank as
+illustrator. George had a brother Robert, who had caught something of
+his touch and manner, but nothing of his humorous genius, and who
+assisted him in illustrating "Life in London"; but "Life in Paris" was
+to be all his own; and he undertook a journey to France in order to
+study Gallic life and make sketches. The results were now before me in
+twenty-one small vignettes on wood, (of not much account,) and of as
+many large aquatint engravings, (George can aquatint as well as etch,)
+crowded with figures, and displaying the unmistakable and inimitable
+Cruikshankian <i>vim</i> and point. There is Dick Wildfire being attired,
+with the aid of the <i>friseur</i> and the tailor, and under the sneering
+inspection of Sam Sharp, his Yorkshire valet, according to the latest
+Parisian fashions. Next we have Dick and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> Captain O'Shuffleton (an Irish
+adventurer) "promenading in the Gardens of the Tuileries"; next, "real
+life" in the galleries of the Palais Royal; next, Dick, the Captain,
+Lady Halibut, and Lydia "enjoying a lounge on the Italian Boulevard." To
+these succeed a representation of a dinner at V&eacute;ry's; Dick and his
+companions "smashing the glim on a spree by lamplight"; Dick and the
+Captain "paying their respects to the Fair <i>Limonadi&egrave;re</i> at the Caf&eacute; des
+Mille Colonnes"; Dick introduced by the Captain to a <i>Rouge et Noir</i>
+table; the same and his valet "<i>showing fight in a Caveau</i>"; "Life
+behind the Curtain of the Grand Opera, or Dick and the Squire larking
+with the <i>Figurantes</i>"; Dick and the Squire "enjoying the sport at the
+Combat of Animals, or Duck Lane of Paris"; Dick and Jenkins "in a
+Theatrical Pandemonium, or the Caf&eacute; de la Paix in all its glory"; "Life
+among the Dead, or the Halibut Family in the Catacombs"; "Life among the
+Connoisseurs," or Dick and his friends "in the Grand Gallery of the
+Louvre"; "a Frolic in the <i>Caf&eacute; d'Enfer</i>, or Infernal Cellar"; "Life on
+Tiptoe, or Dick quadrilling it in the Salons de Mars in the Champs
+&Eacute;lys&eacute;es"; the "<i>Entr&eacute;e</i> to the Italian Opera"; the "Morning of the F&ecirc;te
+of St. Louis"; the "Evening of the same, with Dick, Jenkins, and the
+Halibuts witnessing the <i>Canaille</i> in all their glory"; and, finally,
+"Life in a Billiard-Room, or Dick and the Squire <i>au fait</i> to the
+Parisian Sharpers."</p>
+
+<p>I have said that these illustrations are full of point and drollery.
+They certainly lack that round, full touch so distinctive of George
+Cruikshank, and which he learned from Gillray; but such a touch can be
+given only when the shadows as well as the outlines of a plate are
+etched; and the intent of an aquatint engraving is, as the reader may or
+may not know, to produce the effect of a drawing in Indian ink.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> Still
+there is much in these pictures to delight the Cruikshankian
+connoisseur,&mdash;infinite variety in physiognomy, wonderful minuteness and
+accuracy in detail, and here and there sparkles of the true Hogarthian
+satire.</p>
+
+<p>But a banquet in which the plates only are good is but a Barmecide
+feast, after all. The letter-press to this "Life in Paris" is the vilest
+rubbish imaginable,&mdash;a farrago of St. Giles's slang, Tottenham Court
+Road doggerel, ignorance, lewdness, and downright dulness. Mr. John
+Cumberland, of Ludgate Hill, took, accordingly, very little by his
+motion. The "Life" fell almost stillborn from the press; and George
+Cruikshank must have regretted that he ever had anything to do with it.
+The major part of the impression must years ago have been used to line
+trunks, inwrap pies, and singe geese; but to our generation, and to
+those which are to come, this sorry volume will be more than a
+curiosity: it will be literarily and artistically an object of great and
+constantly increasing value. By the amateur of Cruikshankiana it will be
+prized for the reason that the celebrated Latin pamphlet proving that
+Edward VI. never had the toothache was prized, although the first and
+last leaves were wanting, by Theodore Hook's Tom Hill. It will be
+treasured for its scarcity. To the student of social history it will be
+of even greater value, as the record of a state of manners, both in
+England and France, which has wholly and forever passed away. The
+letter-press portraits, drawn by the hack author, of a party of English
+tourists are but foul and stupid libels; but their aquatint portraits,
+as bitten in by George Cruikshank, are, albeit exaggerated, true in many
+respects to Nature. In fact, we <i>were</i> used, when George IV. was king,
+to send abroad these overdressed and under-bred clowns and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+Mohawks,&mdash;whelps of the squirarchy and hobbledehoys of the
+universities,&mdash;Squire Gawkies and Squire Westerns and Tony Lumpkins,
+Mrs. Malaprops and Lydia Languishes, by the hundred and the thousand.
+"The Fudge Family in Paris" and the letters of Mrs. Ramsbotham read
+nowadays like the most outrageous of caricatures; but they failed not to
+hit many a blot in the times which gave them birth. It was really
+reckoned fashionable in 1828 to make a visit to Paris the occasion for
+the coarsest of "sprees,"&mdash;to get tipsy at V&eacute;ry's,&mdash;to "smash the
+glims,"&mdash;to parade those infamous <i>Galeries de Bois</i> in the Palais Royal
+which were the common haunt of abandoned women,&mdash;to beat the gendarmes,
+and, indeed, the first Frenchman who happened to turn up, merely on the
+ground that he <i>was</i> a Frenchman. But France and the French have changed
+since then, as well as England and the English. Are these the only
+countries in the world whose people and whose manners have turned
+<i>volte-face</i> within less than half a century? I declare that I read from
+beginning to end, the other day, a work called "Salmagundi," and that I
+could not recognize in one single page anything to remind me of the New
+York of the present day. Thus in the engravings to "Life in Paris" are
+there barely three which any modern Parisian would admit to possess any
+direct or truthful reference to Paris life as it is. People certainly
+continue to dine at V&eacute;ry's; but Englishmen no longer get tipsy there, no
+longer smash the plates or kick the waiters. In lieu of dusky
+billiard-rooms, the resort of duskier sharpers, there are magnificent
+saloons, containing five, ten, and sometimes twenty billiard-tables. The
+<i>Galeries de Bois</i> have been knocked to pieces these thirty years. The
+public gaming-houses have been shut up. There are no longer any brutal
+dog-and-bear-baitings at the Barri&egrave;re du Combat. There is no longer a
+<i>Belle Limonadi&egrave;re</i> at the Caf&eacute; des Mille Colonnes. <i>Belles
+Limonadi&egrave;res</i> (if I may be permitted to use one of the most inelegant,
+but the most expressive, of American colloquialisms) are "played out."
+The Catacombs have long since been shut to strangers. The <i>Caveau</i>
+exists no more. Old reprobates scarcely remember the <i>Caf&eacute; d'Enfer</i>. The
+<i>F&ecirc;te</i> of St. Louis is as dead as Louis XVIII., as dead as the <i>F&ecirc;tes</i>
+of July, as the <i>F&ecirc;tes</i> of the Republic. There is but one national
+festival now,&mdash;and that is on the 15th of August, and in honor of St.
+Napoleon. There are no more "glims" to smash; the old oil <i>reverb&egrave;res</i>
+have been replaced by showy gas-lamps, and the <i>sergents de ville</i> would
+make short work of any roisterers who attempted to take liberties with
+them. The old Paris of the Restoration and the Monarchy is dead; but the
+Thane of Cawdor&mdash;I mean George Cruikshank&mdash;lives, a prosperous
+gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>I brought the book away with me from Mexico, all the way down to Vera
+Cruz, and so on to Cuba, and thence to New York; and it is in Boston
+with me now. But it is not mine. The Don did not even lend it to me. I
+had only his permission to take it from the library to my room, and turn
+it over there; but when I was coming away, that same body-servant,
+thinking it was my property, carefully packed it among the clothes in my
+portmanteau; and I did not discover his mistake and my temporary gain
+until I was off. I mention this in all candor; for I am conscious that
+there never was a book-collector yet who did not, at some period or
+other of his life, at least meditate the commission of a felony. But the
+Don is coming to the States this autumn, and I must show him that I have
+not been a fraudulent bailee. I shall have taken, at all events, my fill
+of pleasure from the book; and I hope that George Cruikshank will live
+to read what I have written; and God bless his honest old heart,
+anyhow!</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> Aquatint engraving in England is all but a dead art. It is
+now employed only in portraits of race-horses, which are never sold
+uncolored, and in plates of the fashions. The present writer had the
+honor, twelve years since, of producing the last "great" work (so far as
+size was concerned) undertaken in England. It was a monster panorama,
+some sixty feet long, representing the funeral procession of the Duke of
+Wellington. It was published by the well-known house of Ackermann, in
+the Strand; and the writer regrets to say that the house went bankrupt
+very shortly afterwards.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+<h2>LEAVES FROM AN OFFICER'S JOURNAL.</h2>
+
+
+<h3>III.</h3>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Camp Saxton, near Beaufort, S. C.</span><br />
+January 3, 1864.</p>
+
+
+<p>Once, and once only, thus far, the water has frozen in my tent; and the
+next morning showed a dense white frost outside. We have still
+mocking-birds and crickets and rosebuds and occasional noonday baths in
+the river, though the butterflies have vanished, as I remember to have
+observed in Fayal, after December. I have been here nearly six weeks
+without a rainy day; one or two slight showers there have been, once
+interrupting a drill, but never dress parade. For climate, by day, we
+might be among the isles of Greece,&mdash;though it may be my constant
+familiarity with the names of her sages which suggests that impression.
+For instance, a voice just now called, near my tent,&mdash;"Cato, whar's
+Plato?"</p>
+
+<p>The men have somehow got the impression that it is essential to the
+validity of a marriage that they should come to me for permission, just
+as they used to go to the master; and I rather encourage these little
+confidences, because it is so entertaining to hear them. "Now, Cunnel,"
+said a faltering swain the other day, "I want for get me one good lady,"
+which I approved, especially the limitation as to number. Afterwards I
+asked one of the bridegroom's friends whether he thought it a good
+match. "Oh, yes, Cunnel," said he, in all the cordiality of friendship,
+"John's gwine for marry Venus." I trust the goddess prove herself a
+better lady than she appeared during her previous career upon this
+planet. But this naturally suggests the isles of Greece again.</p>
+
+<p><i>January 7.</i>&mdash;On first arriving, I found a good deal of anxiety among
+the officers as to the increase of desertions, that being the rock on
+which the "Hunter Regiment" split. Now this evil is very nearly stopped,
+and we are every day recovering the older absentees. One of the very
+best things that have happened to us was a half-accidental shooting of a
+man who had escaped from the guard-house, and was wounded by a squad
+sent in pursuit. He has since died; and this very evening, another man,
+who escaped with him, came and opened the door of my tent, after being
+five days in the woods, almost without food. His clothes were in rags,
+and he was nearly starved, poor foolish fellow, so that we can almost
+dispense with further punishment. Severe penalties would be wasted on
+these people, accustomed as they have been to the most violent passions
+on the part of white men; but a mild inexorableness tells on them, just
+as it does on any other children. It is something utterly new to them,
+and it is thus far perfectly efficacious. They have a great deal of
+pride as soldiers, and a very little of severity goes a great way, if it
+be firm and consistent. This is very encouraging.</p>
+
+<p>The single question which I asked of some of the
+plantation-superintendents, on the voyage, was, "Do these people
+appreciate <i>justice</i>?" If they did, it was evident that all the rest
+would be easy. When a race is degraded beyond that point, it must be
+very hard to deal with them; they must mistake all kindness for
+indulgence, all strictness for cruelty. With these freed slaves there is
+no such trouble, not a particle: let an officer be only just and firm,
+with a cordial, kindly nature, and he has no sort of difficulty. The
+plantation-superintendents and teachers have the same experience, they
+say; but we have an immense advantage in the military organization,
+which helps in two ways: it increases their self-respect, and it gives
+us an admirable machinery for discipline, thus improving both the
+fulcrum and the lever.</p>
+
+<p>The wounded man died in the hospital, and the general verdict seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+be, "Him brought it on heself." Another soldier died of pneumonia on the
+same day, and we had the funerals in the evening. It was very
+impressive. A dense mist came up, with a moon behind it, and we had only
+the light of pine-splinters, as the procession wound along beneath the
+mighty moss-hung branches of the ancient grove. The groups around the
+grave, the dark faces, the red garments, the scattered lights, the misty
+boughs, were weird and strange. The men sang one of their own wild
+chants. Two crickets sang also, one on either side, and did not cease
+their little monotone, even when the three volleys were fired above the
+graves. Just before the coffins were lowered, an old man whispered to me
+that I must have their position altered,&mdash;the heads must be towards the
+west; so it was done,&mdash;though they are in a place so veiled in woods
+that either rising or setting sun will find it hard to spy them.</p>
+
+<p>We have now a good regimental hospital, admirably arranged in a deserted
+gin-house,&mdash;a fine well of our own within the camp-lines,&mdash;a
+ful-allowance of tents, all floored,&mdash;a wooden cook-house to every
+company, with sometimes a palmetto mess-house beside,&mdash;a substantial
+wooden guard-house, with a fireplace five feet "in de clar," where the
+men off duty can dry themselves and sleep comfortably in bunks
+afterwards. We have also a great circular school-tent, made of condemned
+canvas, thirty feet in diameter, and looking like some of the Indian
+lodges I saw in Kansas. We now meditate a regimental bakery. Our
+aggregate has increased from four hundred and ninety to seven hundred
+and forty, besides a hundred recruits now waiting at St. Augustine, and
+we have practised through all the main movements in battalion drill.</p>
+
+<p>Affairs being thus prosperous, and yesterday having been six weeks since
+my last and only visit to Beaufort, I rode in, glanced at several camps,
+and dined with the General. It seemed absolutely like re&euml;ntering the
+world; and I did not fully estimate my past seclusion till it occurred
+to me, as a strange and novel phenomenon, that the soldiers at the other
+camps were white.</p>
+
+<p><i>January 8.</i>&mdash;This morning I went to Beaufort again, on necessary
+business, and by good luck happened upon a review and drill of the white
+regiments. The thing that struck me most was that same absence of
+uniformity, in minor points, that I noticed at first in my own officers.
+The best regiments in the Department are represented among my captains
+and lieutenants, and very well represented, too; yet it has cost much
+labor to bring them to any uniformity in their drill. There is no need
+of this, for the prescribed "Tactics" approach perfection: it is never
+left discretionary in what place an officer shall stand, or in what
+words he shall give his order. All variation would seem to imply
+negligence. Yet even West Point occasionally varies from the
+"Tactics,"&mdash;as, for instance, in requiring the line officers to face
+down the line, when each is giving the order to his company. In our
+strictest Massachusetts regiments this is not done.</p>
+
+<p>It needs an artist's eye to make a perfect drill-master. Yet the small
+points are not merely a matter of punctilio; for, the more perfectly a
+battalion is drilled on the parade-ground, the more quietly it can be
+handled in action. Moreover, the great need of uniformity is this: that,
+in the field, soldiers of different companies, and even of different
+regiments, are liable to be intermingled, and a diversity of orders may
+throw everything into confusion. Confusion means Bull Run.</p>
+
+<p>I wished my men at the review to-day; for, amidst all the rattling and
+noise of artillery and the galloping of cavalry, there was only one
+infantry movement that we have not practised, and that was done by only
+one regiment, and apparently considered quite a novelty, though it is
+easily taught,&mdash;forming square by Casey's method: forward on centre.</p>
+
+<p>It is really just as easy to drill a regiment as a company,&mdash;perhaps
+easier,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> because one has more time to think; but it is just as essential
+to be sharp and decisive, perfectly clear-headed, and to put life into
+the men. A regiment seems small when one has learned how to handle it, a
+mere handful of men; and I have no doubt that a brigade or a division
+would soon appear equally small. But to handle either
+<i>judiciously</i>,&mdash;ah, that is another affair!</p>
+
+<p>So of governing: it is as easy to govern a regiment as a school or a
+factory, and needs like qualities,&mdash;system, promptness, patience, tact;
+moreover, in a regiment one has the aid of the admirable machinery of
+the army, so that I see very ordinary men who succeed very tolerably.</p>
+
+<p>Reports of a six months' armistice are rife here, and the thought is
+deplored by all. I cannot believe it, yet sometimes one feels very
+anxious about the ultimate fate of these poor people. After the
+experience of Hungary, one sees that revolutions may go backward; and
+the habit of injustice seems so deeply impressed upon the whites, that
+it is hard to believe in the possibility of anything better. I dare not
+yet hope that the promise of the President's Proclamation will be kept.
+For myself I can be indifferent, for the experience here has been its
+own daily and hourly reward; and the adaptedness of the freed slaves for
+drill and discipline is now thoroughly demonstrated and must soon be
+universally acknowledged. But it would be terrible to see this regiment
+disbanded or defrauded.</p>
+
+<p><i>January 12.</i>&mdash;Many things glide by without time to narrate them. On
+Saturday we had a mail with the President's Second Message of
+Emancipation, and the next day it was read to the men. The words
+themselves did not stir them very much, because they have been often
+told that they were free, especially on New-Year's Day, and, being
+unversed in politics, they do not understand, as well as we do, the
+importance of each additional guaranty. But the chaplain spoke to them
+afterwards very effectively, as usual; and then I proposed to them to
+hold up their hands and pledge themselves to be faithful to those still
+in bondage. They entered heartily into this, and the scene was quite
+impressive, beneath the great oak-branches. I heard afterwards that only
+one man refused to raise his hand, saying bluntly that his wife was out
+of slavery with him, and he did not care to fight. The other soldiers of
+his company were very indignant, and shoved him about among them while
+marching back to their quarters, calling him "Coward." I was glad of
+their exhibition of feeling, though it is very possible that the one who
+had thus the moral courage to stand alone among his comrades might be
+more reliable, on a pinch, than some who yielded a more ready assent.
+But the whole response, on their part, was very hearty, and will be a
+good thing to which to hold them hereafter, at any time of
+discouragement or demoralization,&mdash;which was my chief reason for
+proposing it. With their simple natures, it is a great thing to tie them
+to some definite committal; they never forget a marked occurrence, and
+never seem disposed to evade a pledge.</p>
+
+<p>It is this capacity of honor and fidelity which gives me such entire
+faith in them as soldiers. Without it, all their religious demonstration
+would be mere sentimentality. For instance, every one who visits the
+camp is struck with their bearing as sentinels. They exhibit, in this
+capacity, not an upstart conceit, but a steady, conscientious devotion
+to duty. They would stop their idolized General Saxton, if he attempted
+to cross their beat contrary to orders: I have seen them. No feeble or
+incompetent race could do this. The officers tell many amusing instances
+of this fidelity, but I think mine the best.</p>
+
+<p>It was very dark the other night,&mdash;an unusual thing here,&mdash;and the rain
+fell in torrents; so I put on my India-rubber suit, and went the rounds
+of the sentinels, incognito, to test them. I can only say that I shall
+never try such an experiment again, and have cautioned my officers
+against it. 'T is a wonder I escaped with life and limb,&mdash;such a
+charging of bayonets and clicking of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> gun-locks. Sometimes I tempted
+them by refusing to give any countersign, but offering them a piece of
+tobacco, which they could not accept without allowing me nearer than the
+prescribed bayonet's distance. Tobacco is more than gold to them, and it
+was touching to watch the struggle in their minds; but they always did
+their duty at last, and I never could persuade them. One man, as if
+wishing to crush all his inward vacillations at one fell stroke, told me
+stoutly that he never used tobacco, though I found next day that he
+loved it as much as any one of them. It seemed wrong thus to tamper with
+their fidelity; yet it was a vital matter to me to know how far it could
+be trusted, out of my sight. It was so intensely dark that not more than
+one or two knew me, even after I had talked with the very next sentinel,
+especially as they had never seen me in India-rubber clothing, and I can
+always disguise my voice. It was easy to distinguish those who did make
+the discovery; they were always conscious and simpering when their turn
+came; while the others were stout and irreverent till I revealed myself,
+and then rather cowed and anxious, fearing to have offended.</p>
+
+<p>It rained harder and harder, and when I had nearly made the rounds, I
+had had enough of it, and, simply giving the countersign to the
+challenging sentinel, undertook to pass within the lines.</p>
+
+<p>"Halt!" exclaimed this dusky man and brother, bringing down his
+bayonet,&mdash;"de countersign not correck."</p>
+
+<p>Now the magic word, in this case, was "Vicksburg," in honor of a rumored
+victory. But as I knew that these hard names became quite transformed
+upon their lips, "Carthage" being familiarized into Cartridge, and
+"Concord" into Corn-cob, how could I possibly tell what shade of
+pronunciation my friend might prefer for this particular proper name?</p>
+
+<p>"Vicksburg," I repeated, blandly, but authoritatively, endeavoring, as
+zealously as one of Christy's Minstrels, to assimilate my speech to any
+supposed predilection of the Ethiop vocal organs.</p>
+
+<p>"Halt dar! Countersign not correck," was the only answer.</p>
+
+<p>The bayonet still maintained a position which, in a military point of
+view, was impressive.</p>
+
+<p>I tried persuasion, orthography, threats, tobacco, all in vain. I could
+not pass in. Of course my pride was up; for was I to defer to an
+untutored African on a point of pronunciation? Classic shades of
+Harvard, forbid! Affecting scornful indifference, I tried to edge away,
+proposing to myself to enter the camp at some other point, where my
+elocution would be better appreciated. Not a step could I stir.</p>
+
+<p>"Halt!" shouted my gentleman again, still holding me at his bayonet's
+point, and I wincing and halting.</p>
+
+<p>I explained to him the extreme absurdity of this proceeding, called his
+attention to the state of the weather, which, indeed, spoke for itself
+so loudly that we could hardly hear each other speak, and requested
+permission to withdraw. The bayonet, with mute eloquence, refused the
+application.</p>
+
+<p>There flashed into my mind, with more enjoyment in the retrospect than I
+had experienced at the time, an adventure on a lecturing tour in other
+years, when I had spent an hour in trying to scramble into a country
+tavern, after bed-time, on the coldest night of winter. On that occasion
+I ultimately found myself stuck midway in the window, with my head in a
+temperature of 80&deg;, and my heels in a temperature of -10&deg;, with a heavy
+window-sash pinioning the small of my back. However, I had got safe out
+of that dilemma, and it was time to put an end to this one.</p>
+
+<p>"Call the corporal of the guard," said I, at last, with dignity,
+unwilling either to make a night of it or to yield my incognito.</p>
+
+<p>"Corporal ob de guard!" he shouted, lustily,&mdash;"Post Number Two!" while I
+could hear another sentinel chuckling with laughter. This last was a
+special guard, placed over a tent, with a prisoner in charge. Presently
+he broke silence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Who am dat?" he asked, in a stage whisper. "Am he a buckra [white
+man]?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dunno whether he been a buckra or not," responded, doggedly, my
+Cerberus in uniform; "but I's bound to keep him here till de corporal ob
+de guard come."</p>
+
+<p>Yet, when that dignitary arrived, and I revealed myself, poor Number Two
+appeared utterly transfixed with terror, and seemed to look for nothing
+less than immediate execution. Of course I praised his fidelity, and the
+next day complimented him before the guard, and mentioned him to his
+captain; and the whole affair was very good for them all. Hereafter, if
+Satan himself should approach them in darkness and storm, they will take
+him for "de Cunnel," and treat him with special severity.</p>
+
+<p><i>January 13.</i>&mdash;In many ways the childish nature of this people shows
+itself. I have just had to make a change of officers in a company which
+has constantly complained, and with good reason, of neglect and improper
+treatment. Two excellent officers have been assigned to them; and yet
+they sent a deputation to me in the evening, in a state of utter
+wretchedness. "We's bery grieved dis evening, Cunnel; 'pears like we
+couldn't bear it, to lose de Cap'n and de Lieutenant, all two togeder."
+Argument was useless; and I could only fall back on the general theory,
+that I knew what was best for them, which had much more effect; and I
+also could cite the instance of another company, which had been much
+improved by a new captain, as they readily admitted. So with the promise
+that the new officers should not be "savage to we," which was the one
+thing they deprecated, I assuaged their woes. Twenty-four hours have
+passed, and I hear them singing most merrily all down that
+company-street.</p>
+
+<p>I often notice how their griefs may be dispelled, like those of
+children, merely by permission to utter them: if they can tell their
+sorrows, they go away happy, even without asking to have anything done
+about them. I observe also a peculiar dislike of all <i>intermediate</i>
+control: they always wish to pass by the company officer, and deal with
+me personally for everything. General Saxton notices the same thing with
+the people on the plantations as regards himself. I suppose this
+proceeds partly from the old habit of appealing to the master against
+the overseer. Kind words would cost the master nothing, and he could
+easily put off any non-fulfilment upon the overseer. Moreover, the
+negroes have acquired such constitutional distrust of white people, that
+it is perhaps as much as they can do to trust more than one person at a
+time. Meanwhile this constant personal intercourse is out of the
+question in a well-ordered regiment; and the remedy for it is to
+introduce by degrees more and more of system, so that their immediate
+officers will become all-sufficient for the daily routine.</p>
+
+<p>It is perfectly true (as I find everybody takes for granted) that the
+first essential for an officer of colored troops is to gain their
+confidence. But it is equally true, though many persons do not
+appreciate it, that the admirable methods and proprieties of the regular
+army are equally available for all troops, and that the sublimest
+philanthropist, if he does not appreciate this, is unfit to command
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Another childlike attribute in these men, which is less agreeable, is a
+sort of blunt insensibility to giving physical pain. If they are cruel
+to animals, for instance, it always reminds me of children pulling off
+flies' legs, in a sort of pitiless, untaught, experimental way. Yet I
+should not fear any wanton outrage from them. After all their wrongs,
+they are not really revengeful; and I would far rather enter a captured
+city with them than with white troops, for they would be more
+subordinate. But for mere physical suffering they would have no fine
+sympathies. The cruel things they have seen and undergone have helped to
+blunt them; and if I ordered them to put to death a dozen prisoners, I
+think they would do it without remonstrance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Yet their religious spirit grows more beautiful to me in living longer
+with them: it is certainly far more so than at first, when it seemed
+rather a matter of phrase and habit. It influences them both on the
+negative and the positive side. That is, it cultivates the feminine
+virtues first,&mdash;makes them patient, meek, resigned. This is very evident
+in the hospital; there is nothing of the restless, defiant habit of
+white invalids. Perhaps, if they had more of this, they would resist
+disease better. Imbued from childhood with the habit of submission,
+drinking in through every pore that other-world trust which is the one
+spirit of their songs, they can endure everything. This I expected; but
+I am relieved to find that their religion strengthens them on the
+positive side also,&mdash;gives zeal, energy, daring. They could easily be
+made fanatics, if I chose; but I do not choose. Their whole mood is
+essentially Mohammedan, perhaps, in its strength and its weakness; and I
+feel the same degree of sympathy that I should, if I had a Turkish
+command,&mdash;that is, a sort of sympathetic admiration, not tending towards
+agreement, but towards co&ouml;peration. Their philosophizing is often the
+highest form of mysticism; and our dear surgeon declares that they are
+all natural transcendentalists. The white camps seem rough and secular,
+after this; and I hear our men talk about "a religious army," "a Gospel
+army," in their prayer-meetings. They are certainly evangelizing the
+chaplain, who was rather a heretic at the beginning; at least, this is
+his own admission. We have recruits on their way from St. Augustine,
+where the negroes are chiefly Roman Catholics; and it will be
+interesting to see how their type of character combines with that elder
+creed.</p>
+
+<p>It is time for rest; and I have just looked out into the night, where
+the eternal stars shut down, in concave protection, over the yet
+glimmering camp, and Orion hangs above my tent-door, giving to me the
+sense of strength and assurance which these simple children obtain from
+their Moses and the Prophets. Yet external Nature does its share in
+their training; witness that most poetic of all their songs, which
+always reminds me of the "Lyke-Wake Dirge" in the "Scottish Border
+Minstrelsy":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I know moon-rise, I know star-rise;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Lay dis body down.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I walk in de moonlight, I walk in de starlight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To lay dis body down.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I'll walk in de graveyard, I'll walk through the graveyard,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To lay dis body down.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I'll lie in de grave and stretch out my arms;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Lay dis body down.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I go to de Judgment in de evening ob de day<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When I lay dis body down;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And my soul and your soul will meet in de day<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When I lay dis body down."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><i>January 14.</i>&mdash;In speaking of the military qualities of the blacks, I
+should add, that the only point where I am disappointed is one I have
+never seen raised by the most incredulous newspaper critics,&mdash;namely
+their physical condition. They often look magnificently to my
+gymnasium-trained eye; and I always like to observe them when
+bathing,&mdash;such splendid muscular development, set off by that smooth
+coating of adipose tissue which makes them, like the South-Sea
+Islanders, appear even more muscular than they are. Their skins are also
+of finer grain than those of whites, the surgeons say, and certainly are
+smoother and far more free from hair. Their weakness is pulmonary;
+pneumonia and pleurisy are their besetting ailments; they are easily
+made ill,&mdash;and easily cured, if promptly treated: childish organization
+again. Guard-duty injures them more than whites, apparently; and
+double-quick movements, in choking dust, set them coughing badly. But
+then it is to be remembered that this is their sickly season, from
+January to March, and that their healthy season will come in summer,
+when the whites break down. Still my conviction of the physical
+superiority of more highly civilized races is strengthened on the whole,
+not weakened, by observing them. As to availability for military drill
+and duty in other respects, the only question I ever hear debated among
+the officers is,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> whether they are equal or superior to whites. I have
+never heard it suggested that they were inferior, although I expected
+frequently to hear such complaints from hasty or unsuccessful officers.</p>
+
+<p>Of one thing I am sure, that their best qualities will be wasted by
+merely keeping them for garrison duty. They seem peculiarly fitted for
+offensive operations, and especially for partisan warfare; they have so
+much dash and such abundant resources, combined with such an Indian-like
+knowledge of the country and its ways. These traits have been often
+illustrated in expeditions sent after deserters. For instance, I
+despatched one of my best lieutenants and my best sergeant with a squad
+of men to search a certain plantation, where there were two separate
+negro villages. They went by night, and the force was divided. The
+lieutenant took one set of huts, the sergeant the other. Before the
+lieutenant had reached his first house, every man in the village was in
+the woods, innocent and guilty alike. But the sergeant's mode of
+operation was thus described by a corporal from a white regiment who
+happened to be in one of the negro houses. He said that not a sound was
+heard until suddenly a red leg appeared in the open doorway, and a voice
+outside said, "Rally." Going to the door, he observed a similar pair of
+red legs before every hut, and not a person was allowed to go out, until
+the quarters had been thoroughly searched, and the three deserters
+found. This was managed by Sergeant Prince Rivers, our color-sergeant,
+who is provost-sergeant also, and has entire charge of the prisoners and
+of the daily policing of the camp. He is a man of distinguished
+appearance, and in old times was the crack coachman of Beaufort, in
+which capacity he once drove Beauregard from this plantation to
+Charleston, I believe. They tell me that he was once allowed to present
+a petition to the Governor of South Carolina in behalf of slaves, for
+the redress of certain grievances; and that a placard, offering two
+thousand dollars for his recapture, is still to be seen by the wayside
+between here and Charleston. He was a sergeant in the old "Hunter
+Regiment," and was taken by General Hunter to New York last spring,
+where the <i>chevrons</i> on his arm brought a mob upon him in Broadway, whom
+he kept off till the police interfered. There is not a white officer in
+this regiment who has more administrative ability, or more absolute
+authority over the men; they do not love him, but his mere presence has
+controlling power over them. He writes well enough to prepare for me a
+daily report of his duties in the camp: if his education reached a
+higher point, I see no reason why he should not command the Army of the
+Potomac. He is jet-black, or rather, I should say, <i>wine-black</i>; his
+complexion, like that of others of my darkest men, having a sort of
+rich, clear depth, without a trace of sootiness, and to my eye very
+handsome. His features are tolerably regular, and full of command, and
+his figure superior to that of any of our white officers,&mdash;being six
+feet high, perfectly proportioned, and of apparently inexhaustible
+strength and activity. His gait is like a panther's; I never saw such a
+tread. No anti-slavery novel has described a man of such marked ability.
+He makes Toussaint perfectly intelligible; and if there should ever be a
+black monarchy in South Carolina, he will be its king.</p>
+
+<p><i>January 15.</i>&mdash;This morning is like May. Yesterday I saw bluebirds and a
+butterfly; so this winter of a fortnight is over. I fancy a trifle less
+coughing in the camp. We hear of other stations in the Department where
+the mortality, chiefly from yellow fever, has been frightful. Dr. &mdash;&mdash;
+is rubbing his hands professionally over the fearful tales of the
+surgeon of a New York regiment, just from Key West, who has had two
+hundred cases of the fever. "I suppose he is a skilful, highly educated
+man," said I; "Yes," he responded with enthusiasm. "Why, he had seventy
+deaths!"&mdash;as if that proved his superiority past question.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<i>January 19.</i>
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"And first, sitting proud as a king on his throne,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At the head of them all rode Sir Richard Tyrone."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But I fancy that Sir Richard felt not much better satisfied with his
+following than I to-day. J. R. L. said once that nothing was quite so
+good as turtle-soup, except mock-turtle; and I have heard officers
+declare that nothing was so stirring as real war, except some exciting
+parade. To-day, for the first time, I marched the whole regiment through
+Beaufort and back,&mdash;the first appearance of such a novelty on any stage.
+They did march splendidly: this all admit. M&mdash;&mdash;'s prediction was
+fulfilled:</p>
+
+<p>"Will not &mdash;&mdash; be in bliss? A thousand men, every one black as a coal!"
+I confess it. To look back on twenty broad double-ranks of men, (for
+they marched by platoons,)&mdash;every polished musket having a black face
+beside it, and every face set steadily to the front,&mdash;a regiment of
+freed slaves marching on into the future,&mdash;it was something to remember;
+and when they returned through the same streets, marching by the flank,
+with guns at a "support," and each man covering his file-leader
+handsomely, the effect on the eye was almost as fine. The band of the
+Eighth Maine joined us at the entrance of the town, and escorted us in.
+Sergeant Rivers said ecstatically afterwards, in describing the
+affair,&mdash;"And when dat band wheel in before us, and march on,&mdash;my God! I
+quit dis world altogeder." I wonder if he pictured to himself the many
+dusky regiments, now unformed, which I seemed to see marching up behind
+us, gathering shape out of the dim air.</p>
+
+<p>I had cautioned the men, before leaving camp, not to be staring about
+them as they marched, but to look straight to the front, every man; and
+they did it with their accustomed fidelity, aided by the sort of
+spontaneous eye-for-effect which is in all their melodramatic natures.
+One of them was heard to say exultingly afterwards,&mdash;"We didn't look to
+de right nor to de leff. I didn't see notin' in Beaufort. Eb'ry step was
+worth a half-a-dollar." And they all marched as if it were so. They knew
+well that they were marching through throngs of officers and soldiers
+who had drilled as many months as we had drilled weeks, and whose eyes
+would readily spy out every defect. And I must say, that, on the whole,
+with a few trivial exceptions, those spectators behaved in a manly and
+courteous manner, and I do not care to write down all the handsome
+things that were said. Whether said or not, they were deserved; and
+there is no danger that our men will not take sufficient satisfaction in
+their good appearance. I was especially amused at one of our recruits,
+who did not march in the ranks, and who said, after watching the
+astonishment of some white soldiers,&mdash;"De buckra sojers look like a man
+who been-a-steal a sheep,"&mdash;that is, I suppose, sheepish.</p>
+
+<p>After passing and repassing through the town, we marched to the
+parade-ground and went through an hour's drill, forming squares and
+reducing them, and doing other things which look hard on paper and are
+perfectly easy in fact; and we were to have been reviewed by General
+Saxton, but he had been unexpectedly called to Ladies Island, and did
+not see us at all, which was the only thing to mar the men's enjoyment.
+Then we marched back to camp, (three miles,) the men singing the "John
+Brown Song," and all manner of things,&mdash;as happy creatures as one can
+well conceive.</p>
+
+<p>It is worth mentioning, before I close, that we have just received an
+article about "Negro Troops," from the London "Spectator," which is so
+admirably true to our experience that it seems as if written by one of
+us. I am confident that there never has been, in any American newspaper,
+a treatment of the subject so discriminating and so wise.</p>
+
+<p><i>January 21.</i>&mdash;To-day brought a visit from Major-General Hunter and his
+staff, by General Saxton's invitation,&mdash;the former having just arrived
+in the Department. I expected them at dress parade, but they came during
+battalion drill, rather to my dismay, and we were caught in our old
+clothes. It was our first review,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> and I dare say we did tolerably; but
+of course it seemed to me that the men never appeared so ill
+before,&mdash;just as one always thinks a party at one's own house a failure,
+even if the guests seem to enjoy it, because one is so keenly sensitive
+to every little thing that goes wrong. After review and drill, General
+Hunter made the men a little speech, at my request, and told them that
+he wished there were fifty thousand of them. General Saxton spoke to
+them afterwards, and said that fifty thousand muskets were on their way
+for colored troops. The men cheered both the Generals lustily; and they
+were complimentary afterwards, though I knew that the regiment could not
+have appeared nearly so well as on its visit to Beaufort. I suppose I
+felt like some anxious mamma whose children have accidentally appeared
+at dancing-school in their old clothes.</p>
+
+<p>General Hunter promises us all we want,&mdash;pay when the funds arrive,
+Springfield rifled muskets, and blue trousers. Moreover, he has
+graciously consented that we should go on an expedition along the coast,
+to pick up cotton, lumber, and, above all, recruits. I declined an offer
+like this just after my arrival, because the regiment was not drilled or
+disciplined, not even the officers; but it is all we wish for now.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"What care I how black I be?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forty pounds will marry me,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>quoth Mother Goose. Forty <i>rounds</i> will marry us to the American Army,
+past divorcing, if we can only use them well. Our success or failure may
+make or mar the prospects of colored troops. But it is well to remember
+in advance that military success is really less satisfactory than any
+other, because it may depend on a moment's turn of events, and that may
+be determined by some trivial thing, neither to be anticipated nor
+controlled. Napoleon ought to have won at Waterloo by all reasonable
+calculations; but who cares? All that one can expect is, to do one's
+best, and to take with equanimity the fortune of war.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> In coming to the record of more active service, the Journal
+form must be abandoned. The next chapter will give some account of an
+expedition up the St. Mary's River.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE AMERICAN METROPOLIS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>A little more than two centuries ago the site of New York City was
+bought by its first white owners for twenty-four dollars. The following
+tabular statement exhibits the steps of its progressive settlement since
+then.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Year.</td><td align='left'>Population.</td><td align='left'>Year.</td><td align='left'>Population.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1656</td><td align='left'>1,000</td><td align='left'>1820</td><td align='right'>123,706&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1673</td><td align='left'>2,500</td><td align='left'>1825</td><td align='right'>166,089&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1696</td><td align='left'>4,302</td><td align='left'>1830</td><td align='right'>202,589&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1731</td><td align='left'>8,628</td><td align='left'>1835</td><td align='right'>270,068&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1756</td><td align='left'>10,381</td><td align='left'>1840</td><td align='right'>312,852&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1773</td><td align='left'>21,876</td><td align='left'>1845</td><td align='right'>371,223&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1786</td><td align='left'>23,614</td><td align='left'>1850</td><td align='right'>515,394&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1790</td><td align='left'>33,131</td><td align='left'>1855</td><td align='right'>629,810&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1800</td><td align='left'>60,489</td><td align='left'>1860</td><td align='right'>814,254&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1810</td><td align='left'>96,373</td><td align='left'>1864</td><td align='right'>1,000,000+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>Taking the first census as a point of departure, the population of New
+York doubled itself in about eleven years. During the first century it
+increased a little more than tenfold. It was doubled again in less than
+twenty years; the next thirty years quadrupled it; and another period of
+twenty years doubled it once more. Its next duplication consumed the
+shorter term of eighteen years. It more than doubled again during the
+fifteen years preceding the last census; and the four years since that
+census have witnessed an increase of nearly twenty-three per cent. This
+final estimate is of course liable to correction by next year's census,
+but its error will be found on the side of under-statement, rather than
+of exaggeration.</p>
+
+<p>The property on the north-west corner of Broadway and Chamber Street,
+now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> occupied in part by one of Delmonico's restaurants, was purchased
+by a New York citizen, but lately deceased, for the sum of $1,000: its
+present value is $125,000. A single Broadway lot, surveyed out of an
+estate which cost the late John Jay $500 per acre, was recently sold at
+auction for $80,000, and the purchaser has refused a rent of $16,000 per
+annum, or twenty per cent on his purchase-money, for the store which he
+has erected on the property. In 1826, the estimated total value of real
+estate in the city of New York was $64,804,050. In 1863, it had reached
+a total of $402,196,652, thus increasing more than sixfold within the
+lifetime of an ordinary business-generation. In 1826, the personal
+estate of New York City, so far as could be arrived at for official
+purposes, amounted to $42,434,981. In 1863, the estimate of this class
+of property-values was $192,000,161. It had thus more than quadrupled in
+a generation.</p>
+
+<p>But statistics are most eloquent through illustration. Let us look
+discursively about the city of New York at various periods of her career
+since the opening of the present century. I shall assume that a map of
+the city is everywhere attainable, and that the reader has a general
+acquaintance with the physical and political geography of the United
+States.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the beginning of the century, Wall Street, as its name
+implies, was the northern boundary of the city of New York. The present
+north boundary of civilized settlement is almost identical with the
+statutory limit of the city, or that of the island itself. There is no
+perceptible break, though there are gradations of compactness, in the
+settled district between the foot of the island and Central Park. Beyond
+the Park, Haarlem Lane, Manhattanville, and Carmansville take up the
+thread of civic population, and carry it, among metropolitan houses and
+lamp-posts, quite to the butment of High Bridge. It has been seriously
+proposed to legislate for the annexation of a portion of Westchester to
+the bills of mortality, and this measure cannot fail to be demanded by
+the next generation; but for the present we will consider High Bridge as
+the north end of the city. Let us compare the boundary remembered by our
+veterans with that to which metropolitan settlement has been pushed by
+them and their children. In the lifetime of our oldest business-men, the
+advance wave of civic refinement, convenience, luxury, and population
+has travelled a distance greater than that from the Westminster Palaces
+to the hulks at the Isle of Dogs. When we consider that the population
+of the American Metropolis lives better, on the average, than that of
+any earthly capital, and that ninety-nine hundredths of all our
+suffering poor are the overflow of Great Britain's pauperism running
+into our grand channels a little faster than we can direct its current
+to the best advantage,&mdash;under these circumstances the advance made by
+New York in less than a century toward the position of the world's
+metropolis is a more important one than has been gained by London
+between the time of Julius C&aelig;sar and the present century.</p>
+
+<p>I know an excellent business-man who was born in his father's
+aristocratic residence in Beaver Street. Holborn is as aristocratic now.
+Another friend of mine still living, the freshest of sexagenarians, told
+me lately of a walk he took in boyhood which so much fatigued him, that,
+when he was a long way out in the fields, he sat down to rest on the
+steps of a suburban hospital. I guessed Bellevue; but he replied that it
+was the New York Hospital, standing in what we now call the lower part
+of Broadway, just opposite North Pearl Street. No part of the Strand or
+of the Boulevards is less rural than the vast settled district about the
+New York Hospital at this day. It stands at least four times farther
+within than it then did beyond the circumference of New York
+civilization. I remember another illustration of its relative situation
+early in the century,&mdash;a story of good old Doctor Stone, who excused
+himself from his position of manager by saying, that, as the infirmities
+of age grew on him, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> found the New York Hospital so far out in the
+country that he should be obliged, if he stayed, to keep "a horse and
+<i>cheer</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Many New-Yorkers, recognized among our young and active men, can
+recollect when Houston Street was called North Street because it was
+practically the northern boundary of the settled district. Middle-aged
+men remember the swamp of Lispenard's Meadow, which is now the dryest
+part of Canal Street; some recall how they crossed other parts of the
+swamp on boards, and how tide-water practically made a separate island
+of what is now the northern and much the larger portion of the city.
+Young men recollect making Saturday-afternoon appointments with their
+schoolfellows (there was no time on any other day) to go "clear out into
+the country," bathe in the rural cove at the foot of East Thirteenth
+Street, and, refreshed by their baths, proceed to bird's-nesting on the
+wilderness of the Stuyvesant Farm, where is now situate Stuyvesant Park,
+one of the loveliest and most elegant pleasure-grounds open to the New
+York public, surrounded by one of the best-settled portions of the city,
+in every sense of the word. Still younger men remember Fourteenth Street
+as the utmost northern limit of the wave of civilization; and
+comparative boys have seen Franconi's Hippodrome pitched in a vacant lot
+of the suburbs, where now the Fifth Avenue Hotel stands, at the entrance
+to a double mile of palaces, in the northern, southern, and western
+directions.</p>
+
+<p>We may safely affirm, that, since the organization of the science of
+statistics, no city in the world has ever multiplied its population,
+wealth, and internal resources of livelihood with a rapidity approaching
+that shown by New York. London has of late years made great progress
+quantitively, but her means of accommodating a healthy and happy
+population have kept no adequate pace with the increase of numbers.
+During the year 1862, 75,000 immigrants landed at the port of New York;
+in 1863, 150,000 more; and thus far in 1864 (we write in November)
+200,000 have debarked here. Of these 425,000 immigrants, 40 per cent
+have stayed in the city. Of the 170,000 thus staying, 90 per cent, or
+153,000, are British subjects; and of these, it is not understating to
+say that five eighths are dependent for their livelihood on physical
+labor of the most elementary kind. By comparing these estimates with the
+tax-list, it will appear that we have pushed our own inherent vitality
+to an extent of forty millions increase in our taxable property, and
+contributed to the support of the most gigantic war in human annals,
+during the period that we received into our grand civic digestion a city
+of British subjects as large as Bristol, and incorporated them into our
+own body politic with more comfort both to mass and particles than
+either had enjoyed at home.</p>
+
+<p>There are still some people who regard the settlement of countries and
+the selection of great capitals as a matter of pure romantic accident.
+Philosophers know, that, if, at the opening of the Adamic period, any
+man had existed with a perfect knowledge of the world's physical
+geography and the laws of national development, he would have been able
+to foretell <i>a priori</i> the situations of all the greatest capitals. It
+is a law as fixed as that defining the course of matter in the line of
+least resistance, that population flows to the level where the best
+livelihood is most easily obtained. The brute motives of food and
+raiment must govern in their selection of residence nine tenths of the
+human race. A few noble enthusiasts, like those of Plymouth Colony, may
+leave immortal footprints on a rugged coast, exchanging old civilization
+for a new battle with savagery, and abandoning comfort with conformity
+for a good conscience with privation. Still, had there been back of
+Plymouth none of the timber, the quarries, the running streams, the
+natural avenues of inland communication, and to some extent the
+agricultural capabilities which make good subsistence possible, there
+would have been no Boston, no Lynn, no Lowell, no New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> Bedford, no
+healthy or wealthy civilization of any kind, until the Pilgrim
+civilization had changed its base. It may be generally laid down that
+the men who leave home for truth's sake exile themselves as much for the
+privilege to mere opportunity of living truly.</p>
+
+<p>New York was not even in the first place settled by enthusiasts. Trade
+with the savages, nice little farms at Haarlem, a seat among the
+burgomasters, the feast of St. Nicholas, pipes and Schiedam, a vessel
+now and then in the year bringing over letters of affection ripened by a
+six months' voyage, some little ventures, and two or three new
+colonists,&mdash;these were the joys which allured the earliest New-Yorkers
+to the island now swarming from end to end with almost national
+vitalities. Not until 1836, when the Italian Opera was first domiciled
+in New York, on the corner of Leonard and Church Streets, could the
+second era of metropolitan life be said fully to have set in there,&mdash;the
+era when people flow toward a city for the culture as well as the
+livelihood which it offers them. About the same time American studios
+began to be thronged with American picture-buyers; and there is no need
+of referring to the rapid advance of American literature, and the wide
+popularization of luxuries, dating from that period.</p>
+
+<p>Long prior to that, New York was growing with giant vitality. She
+possesses, as every great city must possess pre&euml;minent advantages for
+the support of a vast population and the employment of immense
+industries. If she could not feed a million of men better than Norfolk,
+Norfolk would be New York and New York Norfolk. If the products of the
+world were not more economically exchanged across her counter than over
+that of Baltimore, Baltimore would need to set about building shelter
+for half a million more heads than sleep there to-night. Perth Amboy was
+at one time a prominent rival of New York in the struggle for the
+position of the American Metropolis, and is not New York only because
+Nature said No!</p>
+
+<p>Let us invite the map to help us in our investigation of New York's
+claim to the metropolitan rank. There are three chief requisites for the
+chief city of every nation. It must be the city in easiest communication
+with other countries,&mdash;on the sea-coast, if there be a good harbor
+there, or on some stream debouching into the best harbor that there is.
+It must be the city in easiest communication with the interior, either
+by navigable streams, or valleys and mountain-passes, and thus the most
+convenient rendezvous for the largest number of national interests,&mdash;the
+place where Capital and Brains, Import and Export, Buyer and Seller,
+Doers and Things to be Done, shall most naturally make their
+appointments to meet for exchange. Last, (and least, too,&mdash;for even
+cautious England will people jungles for money's sake,) the metropolis
+must enjoy at least a moderate sanitary reputation; otherwise men who
+love Fortune well enough to die for her will not be reinforced by
+another large class who care to die on no account whatever.</p>
+
+<p>New York answers all these requisites better than any metropolis in the
+world. She has a harbor capable of accommodating all the fleets of
+Christendom, both commercial and belligerent. That harbor has a western
+ramification, extending from the Battery to the mouth of Spuyten Duyvil
+Creek,&mdash;a distance of fifteen miles; an eastern ramification, reaching
+from the Battery to the mouth of Haarlem River,&mdash;seven miles; and a main
+trunk, interrupted by three small islands, extending from the Battery to
+the Narrows,&mdash;a distance of about eight miles more. It is rather
+under-estimating the capacity of the East River branch to average its
+available width as low as eighty rods; a mile and a half will be a
+proportionately moderate estimate for the Hudson River branch; the
+greatest available width of the Upper Bay is about four miles, in a line
+from the Long Island to the Staten Island side. If we add to these
+combined areas the closely adjacent waters in hourly communication with
+New York by her tugs and lighters,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> her harbor will further include a
+portion of the channel running west of Staten Island, and of the rivers
+emptying into Newark Bay, with the whole magnificent and sheltered
+roadstead of the Lower Bay, the mouth of Shrewsbury Inlet, and a portion
+of Raritan Bay.</p>
+
+<p>As this paper must deal to a sufficient extent with statistics in
+matters of practical necessity, we will at this stage leave the reader
+to complete for himself the calculation of such a harbor's capacity. In
+this respect, in that of shelter, of contour of water-front, of
+accessibility from the high seas, New York Harbor has no rival on the
+continent. The Bay of San Francisco more nearly equals it than any
+other; but that is on the Pacific side, for the present much farther
+from the axis of national civilization, and backed by a much narrower
+agricultural tract. We will not refer to disadvantages of commercial
+exchange, since San Francisco may at any time be relieved of these by a
+Pacific Railroad. On our Atlantic side there is certainly no harbor
+which will compare for area and convenience with that of New York.</p>
+
+<p>It is not only the best harbor on our coast, but that in easiest
+communication with other parts of the country. To the other portions of
+the coast it is as nearly central as it could be without losing fatally
+in other respects. Delaware and Chesapeake Bays afford fine roadsteads;
+but the low sand barrens and wet alluvial flats which form their shores
+compelled Philadelphia and Baltimore to retire their population such a
+distance up the chief communicating rivers as to deprive them of many
+important advantages proper to a seaport. Under the influence of free
+ideas may be expected a wonderful development of the advantages of
+Chesapeake Bay. Good husbandry and unshackled enterprise throughout
+Maryland and Virginia will astonish Baltimore by an increase of her
+population and commerce beyond the brightest speculative dreams. The
+full resources of Delaware Bay are far from being developed. Yet
+Philadelphia and Baltimore are forever precluded from competing with New
+York, both by their greater distance from open water and the comparative
+inferiority of the interior tracts with which they have ready
+communication. Below Chesapeake Bay the coast system of great
+river-estuaries gives way to the Sea-Island system, in which the
+main-land is flanked by a series of bars or sandbanks, separated from it
+by tortuous and difficult lagoons. The rivers which empty into this
+network of channels are comparatively difficult of entrance, and but
+imperfectly navigable. The isolation of the Sea Islands is enough to
+make them still more inconvenient situations than any on the main-land
+for the foundation of a metropolis. Before we have gone far down this
+system, we have passed the centre where, on mathematical principles, a
+metropolis should stand.</p>
+
+<p>Considered with regard to the tributary interior, New York occupies a
+position no less central than with respect to the coast. It is
+impossible to study a map of our country without momently increasing
+surprise at the multiplicity of natural avenues which converge in New
+York from the richest producing districts of the world. The entire
+result of the country's labor seems to seek New York by inevitable
+channels. Products run down to the managing, disbursing, and balancing
+hand of New York as naturally as the thoughts of a man run down to the
+hand which must embody them. From the north it takes tribute through the
+Hudson River. This magnificent water-course, permitting the ascent of
+the largest ships for a hundred miles, and of river-craft for fifty
+miles farther, has upon its eastern side a country averaging about
+thirty miles in width to the Taconic range, consisting chiefly of the
+richest grazing, grain, and orchard land in the Atlantic States. Above
+the Highlands, the west side of the river becomes a fertile, though
+narrower and more broken agricultural tract; and at the head of
+navigation, the Hudson opens into another valley of exhaustless
+fertility,&mdash;that of the Mohawk,&mdash;coming eastward from the centre of the
+State.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Thus, independent of her system of railroads, New York City possesses
+uninterrupted natural connection with the interior of the State, whence
+a new system of communications is given off by the Lakes to the extreme
+west and north of our whole territory.</p>
+
+<p>To the northeast, New York extends her relations by the sheltered avenue
+of Long Island Sound,&mdash;alluring through a strait of comparatively smooth
+water not only the agricultural products which seek export along a
+double water-front of two hundred miles, but the larger results of that
+colossal manufacturing system on which is based the prosperity of New
+England. To a great part of this class of values Long Island Sound
+stands like a weir emptying into the net of New York.</p>
+
+<p>The maritime position of New York makes her as easy an entrep&ocirc;t for
+Southern as for foreign products; and in any case her share in our
+Northern national commerce gives her the control of all trade which must
+pay the North a balance of exchange.</p>
+
+<p>The Hudson, the Sound, and the line of Southern coasting traffic are the
+three main radii of supply which meet in New York. Another important
+district paying its chief subsidy to New York is drained by the Delaware
+River, and this great avenue is reached with ease from the metropolis by
+a direct natural route across the Jersey level. Though unavailable to
+New York as a navigable conduit, it still offers a means of penetrating
+to the southern counties of the State, and a passage to the Far West, of
+which New York capital has been prompt to avail itself by the Erie
+Railroad, with its Atlantic and Great Western continuation to St. Louis.
+This uniform broad-gauge of twelve hundred miles, which has just been
+opened by the energy and talents of Messrs. McHenry and Kennard,
+apparently decides the main channel by which the West is to discharge
+her riches into New York.&mdash;But we are trenching on the subject the
+capital's artificial advantages.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, New York has been prevented only by disgraceful civic
+mismanagement from becoming long ago the healthiest city in the world.
+In spite of jobbed contracts for street-cleaning, and various corrupt
+tamperings with the city water-front, by which the currents are
+obstructed, and injury is done the sewage as well as the channels of the
+harbor, New York is now undoubtedly a healthier city than any other
+approaching it in size. Its natural sanitary advantages must be evident.
+The crying need of a great city is good drainage. To effect this for New
+York, the civil engineer has no struggle with his material. He need only
+avail himself dexterously of the original contour of his ground.
+Manhattan Island is a low outcrop of gneiss and mica-schist, sloping
+from an irregular, but practically continuous crest, to the Hudson and
+East Rivers, with a nearly uniform southerly incline from its
+precipitous north face on the Haarlem and Spuyten Duyvil to high-water
+mark at the foot of Whitehall Street. Its natural system of drainage
+might be roughly illustrated by radii drawn to the circumference of a
+very eccentric ellipse from its northern focus. Wherever the waste of
+the entire island may descend, it is met by a seaward tide twice in the
+twenty-four hours. On the East River side the velocity of this tide in
+the narrow passages is rather that of a mill-stream than of the entrance
+to a sound. Though less apparent, owing to its area, the tide and
+current of the Hudson are practically as irresistible. The two branches
+of the city-sewage, uniting at the Battery, are deflected a little to
+the westward by Governor's Island, and thus thrown out into the middle
+of the bay, where they receive the full force of the tidal impulse,
+retarded by the Narrows only long enough to disengage and drop their
+finer silt on the flats between Robin's Reef and the Jersey shore. The
+depurating process of the New World's grandest community lies ready for
+use in this natural drainage-system. If there be a standing pool, a
+festering ditch, a choked gutter, a malarious sink within the scope of
+the city bills of mortality, there is official crime somewhere. Nature
+must have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> fraudulently obstructed in the benignest arrangements
+she ever made for removing the effete material of a vast city's vital
+processes. In the matter of climate, New York experiences such
+comparative freedom from sudden changes as belongs to her position in
+the midst of large masses of water. She enjoys nearly entire immunity
+from fogs and damp or chilly winds. Her weather is decided, and her
+population are liable to no one local and predominant class of disease.
+So far as her hygienic condition depends upon quantity and quality of
+food, her communications with the interior give her an exceptional
+guaranty. Despite the poverty which her lower classes share in kind,
+though to a much less degree, with those of other commercial capitals,
+there is no metropolis in the world where the general average of comfort
+and luxury stands higher through all the social grades. It is further to
+be recollected that health and the chief comforts of life are
+correlative,&mdash;that the squalid family is the unhealthy family, and that,
+as we import our squalor, so also we import the materials and conditions
+of our disease. This <i>a priori</i> view is amply sustained by the
+statistics of our charitable institutions. Dr. Alanson S. Jones, whose
+position as President of the Board of Surgeons attached to the
+Metropolitan Police Commission combines with his minute culture in the
+sciences ministering to his profession to make him a first-class
+authority upon the sanitary statistics of New York, states that the
+large majority of deaths, and cases of disease, occur in that city among
+the recent foreign immigrants,&mdash;and that the same source furnishes the
+vast proportion of inmates of our hospitals, almshouses, asylums, and
+other institutions of charity; furthermore, that two thirds of all the
+deaths in New York City occur among children,&mdash;a class to which
+metropolitan conditions are decidedly unfavorable; and that, while the
+seven hundred thousand inhabitants of Philadelphia are distributed over
+an area of one hundred and thirty square miles, the one million
+inhabitants of New York are included within the limit of thirty-five
+square miles, yet the excess of proportionate mortality in the latter
+city by no means corresponds to its density of settlement. It is safe to
+affirm, that, taking all the elements into calculation, there is no city
+in the civilized world with an equal population and an equal sanitary
+rank.</p>
+
+<p>Hydrographically speaking, either Liverpool or Bristol surpasses London
+in its claims to be the British metropolis. But as England's chief
+commerce flows from the eastward, to accommodate it she must select for
+her metropolis the shores of the most accessible, capacious, and
+sheltered water on that side of the island. The result is London,&mdash;a
+city backed by an almost imperceptible fraction of the vast interior
+which pays tribute to New York,&mdash;having a harbor of far less capacity
+than New York, and without any of its far-reaching
+ramifications,&mdash;provided with a totally inadequate drainage-system,
+operating by a river which New-Yorkers would shudder to accept for the
+purposes of a single ward,&mdash;and supporting a population of three million
+souls upon her brokerage in managing the world's commerce. New York has
+every physical advantage over her in site, together with an agricultural
+constituency of which she can never dream, and every opportunity for
+eventually surpassing her as a depot of domestic manufactures. London
+can never add arable acres to her suite, while only the destruction of
+the American people can prevent us from building ten up-country mills to
+every one which manufactures for her market. She has merely the start of
+us in time; she has advanced rapidly during the last fifty years, but
+New York has even more rapidly diminished the gap. No wonder that
+British capitalists will sacrifice much to see us perish,&mdash;for it is
+pleasanter to receive than to pay balance of exchange, even in the
+persons of one's prospective great-grandchildren.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to the second great power of the Old World, we may assert that
+there is not a harbor on the entire French<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> coast of capacity or
+convenience proportionate to the demands of a national emporium. Though
+the site of Paris was chosen by a nation in no sense commercial, and the
+constitutional prejudices of the people are of that semi-barbarous kind
+which affect at the same time pleasure and a contempt of the enterprises
+which pay for it, there has been a decided anxiety among the foremost
+Frenchmen since the time of Colbert to see France occupying an
+influential position among the national fortune-hunters of the world.
+Napoleon III. shares this solicitude to an extent which his uncle's
+hatred of England would never permit him to confess, though he felt it
+deeply. The millions which the present Emperor has spent on Cherbourg
+afford a mere titillation to his ambitious spirit. Their result is a
+handsome parade-place,&mdash;a pretty stone toy,&mdash;an unpickable lock to an
+inclosure nobody wants to enter,&mdash;a navy-yard for the creation of an
+armament which has no commerce to protect. No wonder that the
+discontented despot seeks to eke out the quality of his ports by their
+plenteous quantity,&mdash;seizing Algiers,&mdash;looking wistfully at the Red
+Sea,&mdash;overjoyed at any bargain which would get him Nice,&mdash;striking madly
+out for empire in Cochin China, Siam, and the Pacific islands,&mdash;playing
+Shylock to Mexico on Jecker's forged bond, that his own inconvenient
+vessels might have an American port to trim their yards in. Meanwhile,
+to forget the utter unfitness of Paris for the capital of any imaginary
+Commercial France, he plays ship with Eug&eacute;nie on the gentle Seine, or
+amuses himself with the marine romance of the Parisian civic escutcheon.</p>
+
+<p>No one will think for an instant of comparing Paris with New York in
+respect to natural advantages. The capitals of the other Continental
+nations are still less susceptible of being brought into the
+competition. The vast cities of China are possible only in the lowest
+condition of individual liberty,&mdash;class servitude, sumptuary and travel
+restrictions, together with all the other complicated enginery of an
+artificial barbarism, being the only substitute for natural cohesion in
+a community whose immense mass can procure nothing but the rudest
+necessaries of life from the area within which it is confined.</p>
+
+<p><i>A priori</i>, therefore, we might expect that the metropolis of America
+would arise on New York Island, and in process of time become one of the
+greatest capitals of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The natural advantages which allured New York's first population have
+been steadily developed and reinforced by artificial ones. For the ships
+of the world she has built about her water-front more than three hundred
+piers and bulkheads. Allowing berth-room for four ships in each
+bulkhead, and for one at the end of each pier, (decidedly an
+under-estimate, considering the extent of some of these
+structures,)&mdash;the island water-front already offers accommodation for
+the simultaneous landing of eight hundred first-class foreign cargoes.
+The docks of Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Hoboken may accommodate at least
+as many more. Something like a quarter of all New York imports go in the
+first instance to the bonded warehouse; and this part, not being wanted
+for immediate consumption within the metropolis proper, quite as
+conveniently occupies the Long Island or Jersey warehouses as those on
+the New York shore. The warehouses properly belonging to New York
+commerce&mdash;containing her property and living on her business&mdash;received
+during 1861 imports to the value of $41,811,664; during 1862,
+$46,939,451; and during 1863, $61,350,432. During the year 1861, the
+total imports of New York amounted to $161,684,499,&mdash;paying an aggregate
+of duties of $21,714,981. During the year 1862, the imports amounted to
+$172,486,453, and the duties to $52,254,318. During 1863, the imports
+reached a value of $184,016,350, the duties on which amounted to
+$58,885,853. For the same years the exports amounted respectively to
+$142,903,689, $216,416,070, and $219,256,203,&mdash;the rapid increase
+between 1861 and 1862 being no doubt partly stimulated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> by the
+disappearance of specie from circulation under the pressure of our
+unparalleled war-expenses, and the consequent necessity of substituting
+in foreign markets our home products for the ordinary basis of exchange.
+In 1861, 965 vessels entered New York from foreign ports, and 966
+cleared for foreign ports. In 1862, the former class numbered 5,406, and
+the latter 5,014. In 1863, they were respectively 4,983 and 4,466. These
+statistics, from which the immense wharfage and warehouse accommodation
+of New York may be inferred, are exhibited to better advantage in the
+following tabular statement, kindly furnished by Mr. Ogden, First
+Auditor of the New York Custom-House.</p>
+
+<h4><i>Statistics of the Port of New York.</i></h4>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'> 1861.</td><td align='left'> 1862.</td><td align='left'> 1863.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'> $</td><td align='left'> $</td><td align='left'> $</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>Total value of Exports</td><td align='left'>142,903,689</td><td align='left'>216,416,070</td><td align='left'>219,256,203</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>Total value of Imports</td><td align='left'>161,684,499</td><td align='left'>172,486,453</td><td align='left'>184,016,350</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>Value of Goods warehoused during the entire year</td><td align='left'> 41,811,664</td><td align='left'> 46,939,451</td><td align='left'> 61,350,432</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>Amount of Drawback allowed during the entire year</td><td align='left'> 57,326.55</td><td align='left'> 275,953.92</td><td align='left'> 414,041.44</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>5</td><td align='left'>Total amount of Duties paid during year</td><td align='left'> 21,714,981.10</td><td align='left'> 52,254,317.92</td><td align='left'> 58,885,853.42</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>No. of Vessels entered from Foreign Ports during year</td><td align='left'> 965</td><td align='left'> 5,406</td><td align='left'> 4,983</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>7</td><td align='left'>No. of Vessels cleared to foreign Ports during year</td><td align='left'> 966</td><td align='left'> 5,014</td><td align='left'> 4,666</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>Besides the various berths or anchorages and the warehouses of New York,
+commerce is still further waited on in our metropolis by one of the most
+perfect systems of pilot-boat, steam-tug, and lighter service which have
+ever been devised for a harbor. No vessel can bring so poor a foreign
+cargo to New York as not to justify the expense of a pilot to keep its
+insurance valid, a tug to carry it to its moorings, and a lighter to
+discharge it, if the harbor be crowded or time press. Indeed, the first
+two items are matters of course; and not one of them costs enough to be
+called a luxury.</p>
+
+<p>The American river-steamboat&mdash;the palatial American <i>steamboat</i>, as
+distinguished from the dingy, clumsy English <i>steamer</i>&mdash;is another of
+the means by which Art has supplemented New York's gifts of Nature. This
+magnificent triumph of sculpturesque beauty, wedded to the highest grade
+of mechanical skill, must be from two hundred and fifty to four hundred
+feet long,&mdash;must accommodate from five hundred to two thousand
+passengers,&mdash;must run its mile in three minutes,&mdash;must be as <i>rococo</i> in
+its upholsterings as a bedchamber of Versailles,&mdash;must gratify every
+sense, consult every taste, and meet every convenience. Such a boat as
+this runs daily to every principal city on the Sound or the Hudson, to
+Albany, to Boston, to Philadelphia. A more venturous class of coasting
+steamers in peaceful times are constantly leaving for Baltimore,
+Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Key West, Mobile, New Orleans, and
+Galveston. The immense commerce of the Erie Canal, with all its sources
+and tributaries, is practically transacted by New York City. Nearly
+everything intended for export, plus New York's purchases for her own
+consumption, is forwarded from the Erie Canal terminus in a series of
+<i>tows</i>, each of these being a rope-bound fleet, averaging perhaps fifty
+canal-boats and barges, propelled by a powerful steamer intercalated
+near the centre. The traveller new to Hudson River scenery will be
+startled, any summer day on which he may choose to take a steamboat trip
+to Albany, by the apparition, at distances varying from one to three
+miles all the way, of floating islands, settled by a large commercial
+population, who like their dinner off the top of a hogshead, and follow
+the laundry business to such an extent that they quite effloresce with
+wet shirts, and are seen through a lattice of clothes-lines. Let him
+know that these floating islands are but little drops of vital blood
+from the great heart of the West, coming down the nation's main artery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+to nurse some small tissue of the metropolis; that these are "Hudson
+River tows"; and that, novel as that phenomenon may appear to him, every
+other fresh traveller has been equally startled by it since March, and
+will be startled by it till December. Another ministry to New York is
+performed by the <i>night-tows</i>, consisting of a few cattle, produce, and
+passenger barges attached to a steamer, made up semi-weekly or
+tri-weekly at every town of any importance on the Hudson and the Sound.
+We will not include the large fleet of Sound and River sloops, brigs,
+and schooners in the list of New York's artificial advantages.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to New York's land communication with the interior, we find the
+following railroads radiating from the metropolitan centre.</p>
+
+<p>
+1.  A Railroad to Philadelphia.<br />
+2.  A Railroad to the Pennsylvania Coal Region.<br />
+3.  A Railroad to Piermont on the Hudson.<br />
+4.  A Railroad to Bloomfield in New Jersey.<br />
+5.  A Railroad to Morristown in New Jersey.<br />
+6.  A Railroad to Hackensack in New Jersey.<br />
+7.  A Railroad to Buffalo.<br />
+8.  A Railroad to Albany, running along the Hudson.<br />
+9.  Another Railroad to Albany, by an interior route.<br />
+10. A Railroad to New Haven.<br />
+11. A Railroad to the chief eastern port of Long Island.<br />
+12. The Delaware and Raritan Road to Philadelphia, connecting with New
+York by daily transports from pier.<br />
+13. The Camden and Amboy Railroad, connecting similarly.<br />
+14. The Railroad to Elizabeth, New Jersey.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The chief eastern radius throws out ramifications to the principal
+cities of New England, thus affording liberal choice of routes to
+Boston, New Bedford, Providence, and Portland, as well as an entrance to
+New Hampshire and Vermont. To all of these towns, except the more
+southerly, the Hudson River Road leads as well, connecting besides with
+railroads in every direction to the northern and western parts of the
+State, and with the Far West by a number of routes. The main avenue to
+the Far West is, however, the Atlantic and Great Western Road, with its
+twelve hundred miles of uniform broad-gauge. Along this line the whole
+riches of the interior may reasonably be expected to flow eastward as in
+a trough; for its position is axial, and its connection perfect. All the
+chief New Jersey railroads open avenues to the richest mineral region of
+the Atlantic States,&mdash;to the Far South and the Far West of the country.
+Two or three may be styled commuters' roads, running chiefly for the
+accommodation of city business-men with suburban residences. The Long
+Island Road is a road without important branches; but the majority of
+all the roads subsidiary to New York are avenues to some broad and
+typical tract of the interior.</p>
+
+<p>Let us turn to consider how New York has provided for the people as well
+as the goods that enter her precincts by all the ways we have rehearsed.
+She draws them up Broadway in twenty thousand horse-vehicles per day, on
+an average, and from that magnificent avenue, crowded for nearly five
+miles with elegant commercial structures, over two hundred miles more of
+paved street, in all directions. She lights them at night with eight
+hundred miles of gas-pipe; she washes them and slakes their thirst from
+two hundred and ninety-one miles of Croton main; she has constructed for
+their drainage one hundred and seventy-six miles of sewer. She
+victimizes them with nearly two thousand licensed hackmen; she licenses
+twenty-two hundred car- and omnibus-drivers to carry them over
+twenty-nine different stage-routes and ten horse-railroads, in six
+hundred and seventy-one omnibuses and nearly as many cars, connecting
+intimately with every part of the city, and averaging ten up-and-down
+trips per day. She connects them with the adjoining cities of the
+main-land and with Staten and Long Island by twenty ferries, running, on
+the average, one boat each way every ten minutes during the twenty-four
+hours. She offers for her guests' luxurious accommodation at least a
+score of hotels, where good living is made as much the subject of high
+art as in the H&ocirc;tel du Louvre, besides minor houses of rest and
+entertainment, to the number of more than five thousand. She attends to
+their religion in about four hundred places of public worship.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> She
+gives them breathing-room in a dozen civic parks, the largest of which
+both Nature and Art destine to be the noblest popular pleasure-ground of
+the civilized world, as it is the amplest of all save the Bois de
+Boulogne. Central Park covers an area of 843 acres, and, though only in
+the fifth year of its existence, already contains twelve miles of
+beautifully planned and scientifically constructed carriage-road, seven
+miles of similar bridle-path, four sub-ways for the passage of
+trade-vehicles across the Park, with an aggregate length of two miles,
+and twenty-one miles of walk. As an item of city property, Central Park
+is at present valued at six million dollars; but this, of course, is
+quite a nominal and unstable valuation. The worth of the Park to New
+York property in general is altogether beyond calculation.</p>
+
+<p>New York feeds her people with about two million slaughter-animals per
+annum. How these are classified, and what periodical changes their
+supply undergoes, may be conveniently seen by the following tabular view
+of the New York butchers' receiving-yards during the twelve months of
+the year 1863. I am indebted for it to the experience and courtesy of
+Mr. Solon Robinson, agricultural editor of the "New York Tribune."</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Receipts of Butchers' Animals in New York during 1863.</i></h4>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Month.</td><td align='left'> Beeves.</td><td align='left'> Cows.</td><td align='left'> Calves.</td><td align='left'> Sheep.</td><td align='left'> Swine.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Jan.</td><td align='left'> 16,349</td><td align='left'> 393</td><td align='left'> 1,318</td><td align='left'> 25,352</td><td align='left'> 138,413</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Feb.</td><td align='left'> 19,930</td><td align='left'> 474</td><td align='left'> 1,207</td><td align='left'> 24,877</td><td align='left'> 98,099</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>March</td><td align='left'> 22,187</td><td align='left'> 843</td><td align='left'> 2,594</td><td align='left'> 29,645</td><td align='left'> 79,320</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>April</td><td align='left'> 18,921</td><td align='left'> 636</td><td align='left'> 3,182</td><td align='left'> 18,311</td><td align='left'> 56,516</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>May</td><td align='left'> 16,739</td><td align='left'> 440</td><td align='left'> 3,510</td><td align='left'> 20,338</td><td align='left'> 39,305</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>June</td><td align='left'> 23,785</td><td align='left'> 718</td><td align='left'> 5,516</td><td align='left'> 44,808</td><td align='left'> 56,612</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>July</td><td align='left'> 20,224</td><td align='left'> 396</td><td align='left'> 2,993</td><td align='left'> 41,614</td><td align='left'> 40,716</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>August</td><td align='left'> 20,347</td><td align='left'> 496</td><td align='left'> 3,040</td><td align='left'> 49,900</td><td align='left'> 36,725</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sept.</td><td align='left'> 30,847</td><td align='left'> 524</td><td align='left'> 3,654</td><td align='left'> 79,078</td><td align='left'> 68,646</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Oct.</td><td align='left'> 24,397</td><td align='left'> 475</td><td align='left'> 3,283</td><td align='left'> 64,144</td><td align='left'> 112,265</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Nov.</td><td align='left'> 23,991</td><td align='left'> 557</td><td align='left'> 3,378</td><td align='left'> 61,082</td><td align='left'> 183,359</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Dec.</td><td align='left'> 26,374</td><td align='left'> 518</td><td align='left'> 2,034</td><td align='left'> 60,167</td><td align='left'> 191,641</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Total of each kind,</td><td align='left'> 264,091</td><td align='left'> 6,470</td><td align='left'> 35,709</td><td align='left'> 519,316</td><td align='left'>1,101,617</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Total of all kinds,</td><td colspan="5">1,927,203.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>Of the total number of beeves which came into the New York market in
+1863, those whose origin could be ascertained were furnished from their
+several States in the following proportions:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Illinois</td><td align='center'>contributed</td><td align='right'>118,692</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>New York</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>28,985</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Ohio</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>19,369</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Indiana</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>14,232</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Michigan</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>9,074</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Kentucky</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>6,782</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>Averaging the weight of the cattle which came to New York market in 1863
+at the moderate estimate of 700 lbs., the metropolitan supply of beef
+for that year amounted to 189,392,700 lbs. This, at the average price of
+nine and a quarter cents per pound, was worth $17,518,825.
+Proportionably with these estimates, the average weekly expenditure by
+butchers at the New York yards during the year 1863 was $328,865.</p>
+
+<p>It is an astonishing, but indubitable fact, that, while the population
+of New York has increased sixty-six per cent during the last decade, the
+consumption of <i>beef</i> has in the same time increased sixty-five per
+cent. This increment might be ascribed to the great advance of late
+years in the price of pork,&mdash;that traditional main stay of the poor
+man's housekeeping,&mdash;were it not that the importation of swine has
+increased almost as surprisingly. We are therefore obliged to
+acknowledge that during a period when the chief growth of our population
+was due to emigration from the lowest ranks of foreign nationalities,
+during three years of a devastating war, and inclusive of the great
+financial crisis of 1857, the increase in consumption of the most costly
+and healthful article of animal food lacked but one per cent of the
+increase of the population. These statistics bear eloquent witness to
+the rapid diffusion of luxury among the New York people.</p>
+
+<p>From the table of classification by States we may draw another
+interesting inference. It will be seen that by far the largest
+proportion of the bullocks came into the New York market from the most
+remote of the Western States contributing. In other words, New York City
+has so perfected her connection with all the sources of supply, that
+distance has become an unimportant element<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> in her calculations of
+expense; and she can make all the best grazing land of the country
+tributary to her market, without regard to the question whether it be
+one or twelve hundred miles off.</p>
+
+<p>The foregoing butchers' estimates are as exact as our present means of
+information can make them. Large numbers of uncounted sheep are consumed
+within the city limits, and the unreported calves are many more than
+come to light in statistics. Besides these main staples of the market
+which have been mentioned, there is consumed in New York an incalculable
+quantity of game and poultry, preserved meats and fish, cheese, butter,
+and eggs.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. James Boughton, clerk of the New York Produce Exchange, has been
+good enough to furnish me with a tabular statement of the city's
+receipts of produce for the year ending April 30, 1864. Such portions of
+it as may show the amount of staples, exclusive of fresh meat, required
+for the regular supply of the New York market, are presented in the
+opposite column.</p>
+
+<p>A less important, but still very interesting, class of products entered
+New York during the same period, in the following amounts:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Cotton.</span></td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">Seed.</span></td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">Ashes.</span></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Whiskey.</span></td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">Oil Cake.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><i>Bales.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>Bush.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>Pkgs.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>Bbls.</i></td><td align='left'><i>Sacks.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>18,193</td><td align='left'> 7,343</td><td align='left'> 1,401</td><td align='left'> 21,838</td><td align='left'> 2,329</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>16,299</td><td align='left'> 3,196</td><td align='left'> 1,657</td><td align='left'> 26,925</td><td align='left'> 14,040</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>13,080</td><td align='left'> 901</td><td align='left'> 1,175</td><td align='left'> 19,627</td><td align='left'> 20,120</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>11,043</td><td align='left'> 892</td><td align='left'> 1,551</td><td align='left'> 18,083</td><td align='left'> 19,583</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>12,874</td><td align='left'> 2,082</td><td align='left'> 884</td><td align='left'> 15,781</td><td align='left'> 4,810</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>19,332</td><td align='left'> 1,189</td><td align='left'> 790</td><td align='left'> 17,656</td><td align='left'> 17,500</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>26,902</td><td align='left'> 2,318</td><td align='left'> 1,280</td><td align='left'> 20,098</td><td align='left'> 10,441</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>24,870</td><td align='left'> 8,193</td><td align='left'> 1,393</td><td align='left'> 39,594</td><td align='left'> 4,973</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>22,010</td><td align='left'> 8,441</td><td align='left'> 1,163</td><td align='left'> 32,346</td><td align='left'> 2,676</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>28,242</td><td align='left'> 24,216</td><td align='left'> 1,498</td><td align='left'> 34,475</td><td align='left'> 2,115</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>39,302</td><td align='left'> 31,765</td><td align='left'> 1,457</td><td align='left'> 35,575</td><td align='left'> 2,963</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>33,538</td><td align='left'> 5,686</td><td align='left'> 1,044</td><td align='left'> 22,873</td><td align='left'> 4,536</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>265,685</td><td align='left'> 96,222</td><td align='left'> 15,293</td><td align='left'> 304,871</td><td align='left'> 106,356</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>New York, during the same period, exported,&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Of</td><td align='left'>Flour</td><td align='left'>2,571,744 bbls.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"</td><td align='left'>Wheat</td><td align='left'>15,842,836 bushels.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"</td><td align='left'>Corn</td><td align='left'>5,576,836&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"</td><td align='left'>Cured Beef</td><td align='left'>113,061 pkgs.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Pork</td><td align='left'>189,757 bbls.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"</td><td align='left'>Cotton</td><td align='left'>27,561 bales.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Month.</td><td align='left'> Flour.</td><td align='left'> Corn Meal.</td><td align='left'> Corn Meal.</td><td align='left'>Wheat.</td><td align='left'> Corn.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'> <i>Bbls.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>Bbls.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>Bags.</i></td><td align='left'><i>Bush.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>Bush.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1863.&mdash;May</td><td align='left'> 454,363</td><td align='left'> 10,331</td><td align='left'> 18,614</td><td align='left'> 1,789,952</td><td align='left'> 1,914,490</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>June</td><td align='left'> 636,501</td><td align='left'> 19,283</td><td align='left'> 7,989</td><td align='left'> 2,853,755</td><td align='left'> 2,262,825</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>July</td><td align='left'> 451,004</td><td align='left'> 9,995</td><td align='left'> 10,480</td><td align='left'> 2,409,184</td><td align='left'> 3,049,126</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>August</td><td align='left'> 298,097</td><td align='left'> 9,875</td><td align='left'> 9,226</td><td align='left'> 1,989,839</td><td align='left'> 2,343,899</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>September</td><td align='left'> 319,923</td><td align='left'> 10,481</td><td align='left'> 4,715</td><td align='left'> 1,132,588</td><td align='left'> 2,196,157</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>October</td><td align='left'> 451,762</td><td align='left'> 8,673</td><td align='left'> 13,020</td><td align='left'> 3,052,968</td><td align='left'> 1,265,793</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>November</td><td align='left'> 530,096</td><td align='left'> 8,883</td><td align='left'> 22,835</td><td align='left'> 3,164,750</td><td align='left'> 295,398</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>December</td><td align='left'> 429,641</td><td align='left'> 16,301</td><td align='left'> 45,627</td><td align='left'> 1,396,608</td><td align='left'> 135,907</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1864.&mdash;January</td><td align='left'> 266,240</td><td align='left'> 7,987</td><td align='left'> 43,990</td><td align='left'> 10,244</td><td align='left'> 145,557</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>February</td><td align='left'> 233,822</td><td align='left'> 12,489</td><td align='left'> 47,137</td><td align='left'> 45,283</td><td align='left'> 108,751</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>March</td><td align='left'> 190,785</td><td align='left'> 14,135</td><td align='left'> 40,510</td><td align='left'> 108,407</td><td align='left'> 259,547</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>April</td><td align='left'> 218,181</td><td align='left'> 10,889</td><td align='left'> 27,097</td><td align='left'> 166,506</td><td align='left'> 120,272</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Total</td><td align='left'> 4,480,415</td><td align='left'> 145,272</td><td align='left'> 291,190</td><td align='left'> 18,119,993</td><td align='left'> 14,098,262</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Months.</td><td align='left'> Oats.</td><td align='left'> Rye.</td><td align='left'>Malt.</td><td align='left'> Barley.</td><td align='left'> Beef.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'> <i>Bush.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>Bush.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>Bush.</i></td><td align='left'><i>Bush.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>Bbls.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1863.&mdash;May</td><td align='left'> 808,233</td><td align='left'> 28,034</td><td align='left'> 24,034</td><td align='left'> 4,672</td><td align='left'> 9,428</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>June</td><td align='left'> 1,442,979</td><td align='left'> 23,038</td><td align='left'> 22,508</td><td align='left'> 1,643</td><td align='left'> 2,386</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>July</td><td align='left'> 849,831</td><td align='left'> 52,759</td><td align='left'> 16,710</td><td align='left'> none.</td><td align='left'> 1,285</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>August</td><td align='left'> 1,097,223</td><td align='left'> 68,035</td><td align='left'> 55,453</td><td align='left'> ....</td><td align='left'> 892</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>September</td><td align='left'> 307,025</td><td align='left'> 9,721</td><td align='left'> 47,048</td><td align='left'> 7,941</td><td align='left'> 718</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>October</td><td align='left'> 1,319,985</td><td align='left'> 41,912</td><td align='left'> 13,461</td><td align='left'> 753,893</td><td align='left'> 7,420</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>November</td><td align='left'> 2,189,719</td><td align='left'> 36,731</td><td align='left'> 44,322</td><td align='left'> 441,479</td><td align='left'> 68,391</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>December</td><td align='left'> 1,882,344</td><td align='left'> 45,727</td><td align='left'> 59,494</td><td align='left'> 275,568</td><td align='left'> 74,031</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1864.&mdash;January</td><td align='left'> 305,690</td><td align='left'> 6,532</td><td align='left'> 42,608</td><td align='left'> 6,972</td><td align='left'> 22,988</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>February</td><td align='left'> 209,080</td><td align='left'> 3,554</td><td align='left'> 63,064</td><td align='left'> 5,105</td><td align='left'> 6,358</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>March</td><td align='left'> 258,685</td><td align='left'> 5,308</td><td align='left'> 69,578</td><td align='left'> 18,386</td><td align='left'> 4,319</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>April</td><td align='left'> 238,344</td><td align='left'> 6,373</td><td align='left'> 44,383</td><td align='left'> 41,914</td><td align='left'> 4,654</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Total</td><td align='left'> 10,909,238</td><td align='left'> 328,619</td><td align='left'> 502,693</td><td align='left'> 1,557,573</td><td align='left'> 203,270</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Months.</td><td align='left'> Pork.</td><td align='left'> Cut Meats.</td><td align='left'> Lard.</td><td align='left'> Dressed Hogs.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'> <i>Bbls.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>Pkgs.</i></td><td align='left'>100 <i>lbs.</i></td><td align='left'> <i>No.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1863.&mdash;May</td><td align='left'> 119,302</td><td align='left'> 38,587</td><td align='left'> 149,966</td><td align='left'> ....</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>June</td><td align='left'> 112,343</td><td align='left'> 21,401</td><td align='left'> 75,966</td><td align='left'> ....</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>July</td><td align='left'> 10,155</td><td align='left'> 6,633</td><td align='left'> 15,396</td><td align='left'> ....</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>August</td><td align='left'> 6,879</td><td align='left'> 2,870</td><td align='left'> 3,784</td><td align='left'> ....</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>September</td><td align='left'> 7,115</td><td align='left'> 3,967</td><td align='left'> 5,233</td><td align='left'> ....</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>October</td><td align='left'> 6,921</td><td align='left'> 4,501</td><td align='left'> 35,128</td><td align='left'> 881</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>November</td><td align='left'> 6,916</td><td align='left'> 11,066</td><td align='left'> 35,997</td><td align='left'> 755</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>December</td><td align='left'> 21,864</td><td align='left'> 18,843</td><td align='left'> 31,775</td><td align='left'> 21,208</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1864.&mdash;January</td><td align='left'> 39,364</td><td align='left'> 34,469</td><td align='left'> 25,145</td><td align='left'> 48,276</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>February</td><td align='left'> 32,144</td><td align='left'> 42,593</td><td align='left'> 43,245</td><td align='left'> 59,894</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>March</td><td align='left'> 33,687</td><td align='left'> 92,710</td><td align='left'> 83,122</td><td align='left'> 4,600</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>April</td><td align='left'> 12,346</td><td align='left'> 49,399</td><td align='left'> 90,496</td><td align='left'> 67</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Total</td><td align='left'> 409,036</td><td align='left'> 327,129</td><td align='left'> 594,853</td><td align='left'> 135,481</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>Deducting from the total supply of each of these six staples such
+amounts as were exported during the year, we find a remainder, for annual metropolitan consumption, amounting, in the
+case of</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Flour</td><td align='center'>to</td><td align='right'>1,908,671 bbls.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Wheat</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>2,276,257 bushels.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Corn</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>8,540,490&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cured Beef</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>89,209 pkgs.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Pork</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>209,279 bbls.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cotton</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>238,124 bales.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>We have no room for the details&mdash;which would embarrass us, if we should
+attempt a statement&mdash;of the cost of clothing the New York people. We
+will merely remark, in passing, that one of the largest retail stores in
+the New York dry-goods trade sells at its counters ten million dollars'
+worth of fabrics per annum, and that another concern in the wholesale
+branch of the same trade does a yearly business of between thirty and
+forty millions. As for tailors' shops, New York is their
+fairy-land,&mdash;many eminent examples among them resembling, in cost, size,
+and elegance, rather a European palace than a republican place of
+traffic.</p>
+
+<p>The most comprehensive generalization by which we may hope to arrive at
+an idea of the business of New York is that which includes in tabular
+form the statistics of the chief institutions which employ and insure
+property.</p>
+
+<p>On the 24th of September, 1864, sixty-three banks made a quarterly
+statement of their condition, under the general banking law of the
+State. These banks are at present the only ones in New York whose
+condition can be definitely ascertained, and their reported capital
+amounts to $69,219,763. The national banks will go far toward increasing
+the total metropolitan banking capital to one hundred millions. The
+largest of the State banks doing business in the city is the Bank of
+Commerce, (about being reorganized on the national plan,) with a capital
+of ten millions; and the smallest possess capital to the amount of two
+hundred thousand dollars.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Camp, now at the head of the New York Clearing-House, has been kind
+enough to furnish the following interesting statistics in regard to the
+total amount of business transactions managed by the New York banks in
+connection with the Clearing-House during the two years ending on the
+30th of last September. Figures can scarcely be made more eloquent by
+illustration than they are of themselves, I therefore leave them without
+other comment than the remark that the weekly exchanges at the
+Clearing-House during the past year have repeatedly amounted to more
+than the entire expenses of the United States Government for the same
+period.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Clearing-House Transactions.</i></h4>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>1862.</td><td align='left'> Exchanges.</td><td align='left'> Balances.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>October</td><td align='left'> $ 1,081,243,214.07</td><td align='left'> $ 54,632,410.57</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>November</td><td align='left'> 874,966,873.15</td><td align='left'> 47,047,576.93</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>December</td><td align='left'> 908,135,090.29</td><td align='left'> 44,630,405.43</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1863.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>January</td><td align='left'> 1,251,408,362.76</td><td align='left'> 58,792,544.70</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>February</td><td align='left'> 1,199,249,050.07</td><td align='left'> 51,583,913.88</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>March</td><td align='left'> 1,313,908,804.14</td><td align='left'> 60,456,505.45</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>April</td><td align='left'> 1,138,218,267.90</td><td align='left'> 53,539,812.46</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>May</td><td align='left'> 1,535,484,281.78</td><td align='left'> 70,328,306.25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>June</td><td align='left'> 1,252,116,400.20</td><td align='left'> 59,803,975.44</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>July</td><td align='left'> 1,261,668,342.87</td><td align='left'> 62,387,857.44</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>August</td><td align='left'> 1,466,803,012.90</td><td align='left'> 53,120,821.99</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>September</td><td align='left'> 1,584,396,148.47</td><td align='left'> 61,302,352.35</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'> $14,867,597,848.60</td><td align='left'> $677,626,482.61</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">306 Business days.</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3"><i>Average for day</i>, 1862-3.</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">Exchanges $48,586,921.07</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">Balances 2,214,415.63</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>1863.</td><td align='left'> Exchanges.</td><td align='left'> Balances.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>October</td><td align='left'> $ 1,900,210,522.77</td><td align='left'> $ 74,088,419.08</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>November</td><td align='left'> 1,778,800,987.95</td><td align='left'> 66,895,452.49</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>December</td><td align='left'> 1,745,436,325.73</td><td align='left'> 60,577,884.19</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1864.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>January</td><td align='left'> 1,770,312,694.43</td><td align='left'> 63,689,950.88</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>February</td><td align='left'> 2,088,170,989.48</td><td align='left'> 65,744,935.13</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>March</td><td align='left'> 2,753,323,948.53</td><td align='left'> 84,938,940.37</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>April</td><td align='left'> 2,644,732,826.34</td><td align='left'> 93,363,526.16</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>May</td><td align='left'> 1,877,653,131.37</td><td align='left'> 76,328,462.88</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>June</td><td align='left'> 1,902,029,181.42</td><td align='left'> 88,187,658.93</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>July</td><td align='left'> 1,777,753,537.53</td><td align='left'> 73,343,903.49</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>August</td><td align='left'> 1,776,018,141.53</td><td align='left'> 69,071,237.16</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>September</td><td align='left'> 2,082,754,368.84</td><td align='left'> 69,288,834.17</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'> $24,097,196,655.92</td><td align='left'> $885,719,204.93</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">306 Business days.</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3"><i>Average for day</i>, 1863-4.</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">Exchanges $77,984,455.20</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">Balances 2,866,405.19</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Aggregate Exchanges for Eleven Years&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>$95,540,602,384.53</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Balances &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>4,678,311,016.79</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Total Transactions</td><td align='right'>$101,218,913,401.32</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the 31st day of December, 1863, there were 101 joint-stock companies
+for the underwriting of fire-risks, with an aggregate capital of
+$23,632,860; net assets to the amount of $29,269,423; net cash receipts
+from premiums amounting to $10,181,031; and an average percentage of
+assets to risks in force equalling 2.995. Besides these 101 joint-stock
+concerns, there existed at the same date twenty-one mutual
+fire-insurance companies, with an aggregate balance in their favor of
+$674,042. The rapidity with which mutual companies have yielded to the
+compacter and more efficient form of the joint-stock concern will be
+comprehended when it is known that just twice the number now in being
+have gone out of existence during the last decade. There are twelve
+marine insurance companies in the metropolis, with assets amounting to
+$24,947,559. The life-insurance companies number thirteen, with an
+aggregate capital of $1,885,000. We may safely set down the property
+invested in New York insurance companies of all sorts at $51,139,461.
+Add this sum to the aggregate banking capital above stated, and we have
+a total of $120,359,224. This vast sum merely represents New York's
+interest in the management of other people's money. The bank is employed
+as an engine for operating debt and credit. Its capital is the necessary
+fuel for running the machine; and that fuel ought certainly not to cost
+more than a fair interest on the products of the engine. The insurance
+companies guard the business-man's fortune from surprise, as the banks
+relieve him from drudgery; they put property and livelihood beyond the
+reach of accident: in other words, they manage the estates of the
+community so as to secure them from deterioration, and charge a
+commission for their stewardship.</p>
+
+<p>It is a legitimate assumption in this part of the country that the money
+employed in managing property bears to the property itself an average
+proportion of about seven per cent. Hence it follows that the
+above-stated aggregate banking and insurance capital of $120,359,224
+must represent and be backed by values to more than fourteen times that
+amount. In other words, and in round numbers, we may assert that the
+bank and insurance interests of New York are in relations of commerce
+and control with at least $1,685,029,136. This measure of metropolitan
+influence, it must be remembered, is based on the statistics attainable
+mainly outside of cash sales, and through only two of the metropolitan
+agencies of commerce.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know how much I may assist any reader's further comprehension
+of the energies of the metropolis by stating that it issues fifteen
+daily newspapers, one hundred and thirty-three weekly or semi-weekly
+journals, and seventy-four monthly, semi-monthly, or weekly
+magazines,&mdash;that it has ten good and three admirable public
+libraries,&mdash;a dozen large hospitals, exclusive of the military,&mdash;thirty
+benevolent societies, (and we are in that respect far behind London,
+where every man below an attorney belongs to some "union" or other, that
+he may have his neighbors' guaranty against the ever-impending British
+poor-house,)&mdash;twenty-one savings-banks,&mdash;one theatre where French is
+spoken, a German theatre, an Italian opera-house, and eleven theatres
+where they speak English. In a general magazine-article, it is
+impossible to review the hundreds of studios where our own Art is
+painting itself into the century with a vigor which has no rival abroad.
+We can treat neither the &aelig;sthetic nor the social life of New York with as
+delicate a pencil as we would. Our paper has had to deal with broad
+facts; and upon these we are willing to rest the cause of New York in
+any contest for metropolitan honors. We believe that New York is
+destined to be the permanent emporium not only of this country, but of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+the entire world,&mdash;and likewise the political capital of the nation. Had
+the White House (or, pray Heaven! some comelier structure) stood on
+Washington Heights, and the Capitol been erected at Fanwood, there would
+never have been a Proslavery Rebellion. This is a subject which
+business-men are coming to ponder pretty seriously.</p>
+
+<p>After all, New York's essential charm to a New-Yorker cannot express
+itself in figures, nor, indeed, in any adequate manner. It is the city
+of his soul. He loves it with a passionate dignity which will not let
+him swagger like the Cockney or twitter like the Parisian. His love for
+New York goes frequently unacknowledged even to himself, until a
+necessary absence of unusual length teaches him how hard it would be to
+lose the city of his affections forever.</p>
+
+<p>It is a bath of other souls. It will not let a man harden in his own
+epidermis. He must affect and be affected by multitudinous varieties of
+temperament, race, character. He avoids grooves, because New York will
+not tolerate grooviness. He knows that he must be able, on demand, to
+bowl anywhere over the field of human tastes and sympathies.
+Professionally he may be a specialist, but in New York his specialty
+must be only the axis around which are grouped encyclop&aelig;dic learning,
+faultless skill, and catholic intuitions. Nobody will waste a Saturday
+afternoon riding on his hobby-horse. He must be a broad-natured person,
+or he will be a mere imperceptible line on the general background of
+obscure citizens. He feels that he is surrounded by people who will help
+him do his best, yes, who will make him do it, or drive him out to
+install such as will. If he think of a good thing to do, he knows that
+the market for all good things is close around him. Whatever surplus of
+himself he has for communication, that he knows to be absolutely sure of
+a recipient before the day is done. New York, like Goethe's Olympus,
+says to every man with capacity and self-faith,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Here is all fulness, ye brave, to reward you:<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Work, and despair not!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Moreover, the moral air of New York City is in certain respects the
+purest air a man can breathe. This may seem a paradox. New York City is
+not often quoted as an example of purity. To the philosopher her
+atmosphere is cleaner than that of a country village. As the air of a
+contracted space may grow poisonous by respiration, while pure air rests
+over the entire surface of the earth in virtue of being the final
+solvent to all terrestrial decompositions, so it is possible that a few
+good, but narrow people may get alone together in the country, and hatch
+a social organism far more morbid than the metropolitan. In the latter
+instance, aberrations counterbalance each other, and the body politic,
+cursed though it be with bad officials, has more vitality in it than
+could be excited by any conclave of excellent men with one idea,
+meeting, however, solemnly, to feed it with legislative pap.</p>
+
+<p>While no man can ride into metropolitan success on a hobby-horse,
+popular dissent will still take no stronger form than a quiet withdrawal
+and the permission to rock by himself. No amount of eccentricity
+surprises a New-Yorker, or makes him uncourteous. It is difficult to
+attract even a crowd of boys on Broadway by an odd figure, face, manner,
+or costume. This has the result of making New York an asylum for all who
+love their neighbor as themselves, but would a little rather not have
+him looking through the key-hole. In New York I share no dreadful
+secrets with the man next door. I am not in his power any more than if I
+lived in Philadelphia,&mdash;nor so much, for he might get somebody to spy me
+there. There is no other place but New York where my next-door neighbor
+never feels the slightest hesitation about cutting me dead, because he
+knows that on such conditions rests that broad individual liberty which
+is the glory of the citizen.</p>
+
+<p>In fine, if we seek the capital of well-paid labor,&mdash;the capital of
+broad congenialities and infinite resources,&mdash;the capital of most widely
+diffused comfort, luxury, and taste,&mdash;the capital which to the eye of
+the plain businessman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> deserves to be the nation's senate-seat,&mdash;the
+capital which, as the man of forecast sees, must eventually be the
+world's Bourse and market-place,&mdash;in any case we turn and find our quest
+in the city of New York.</p>
+
+<p>To-day, she might claim Jersey City, Hoboken, Brooklyn, and all the
+settled districts facing the island shore, with as good a grace as
+London includes her multitudinous districts on both sides of the Thames.
+Were all the population who live by her, and legitimately belong to her,
+now united with her, as some day they must be by absorption, New York
+would now contain more than 1,300,000 people. For this union New York
+need make no effort. The higher organization always controls and
+incorporates the lower.</p>
+
+<p>The release of New York commerce from the last shackles of the Southern
+"long-paper" system, combined with the progressive restoration of its
+moral freedom from the dungeon of Southern political despotism, has
+left, for the first time since she was born, our metropolitan giantess
+unhampered. Let us throw away the poor results of our last decade! New
+York thought she was growing then; but the future has a stature for her
+which shall lift her up where she can see and summon all the nations.<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> In addition to the obligations elsewhere recognised, an
+acknowledgment is due to the well-known arch&aelig;olgist and statistician of
+New York,&mdash;Mr. Valentine,&mdash;who furnished for the purpose of this article
+the latest edition of his Manual, in advance of its general publication,
+and to the great convenience of the writer.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>NEEDLE AND GARDEN.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE STORY OF A SEAMSTRESS WHO LAID DOWN HER NEEDLE AND BECAME A
+STRAWBERRY-GIRL.</h3>
+
+<h4>WRITTEN BY HERSELF.</h4>
+
+
+<h3>INTRODUCTION.</h3>
+
+<p>I am very sure that nothing was ever farther from my thoughts than the
+writing of a book. The pages which follow were never intended for
+publication, but were written as an amusement, sometimes in long winter
+evenings, when it was pleasanter to be indoors, and sometimes in summer
+days, when most of the circumstances mentioned in them occurred. I was a
+long time in writing them, as they were done little by little. There was
+a point in them at which I stopped entirely. Then I lent the manuscript
+to several of my acquaintances to read. Some of these kept it only a few
+days, and I feel quite sure soon tired of it, as it afterwards appeared
+that they had read very little of it: they must have thought it
+extremely dull. But these probably borrowed it only out of compliment,
+and so I was neither surprised nor mortified. The only surprise was,
+that now and then there was one who did have patience to go over it all,
+as it was written in a common copy-book, not in a very nice hand, and
+with a great many erasures and alterations. But when one has a favorite,
+it is grateful to find even a single admirer for it. So it was with me.
+I wrote from love of the subject; and when any one was kind enough to
+give his approval, I felt exceedingly pleased, not because I had a high
+opinion of the matter myself, but only because I had written it. Then it
+must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> be acknowledged that my small circle of acquaintances comprised
+more workers than readers. Those who had a taste for reading found their
+time so occupied by the labor necessary to their support that but little
+was left to them for indulging in books; and the few who had leisure
+were probably such indifferent readers as to make the task of going over
+a blotted manuscript too great for their patience, unless it were more
+interesting than mine.</p>
+
+<p>At last, after a very long time, and a great many strange experiences,
+the manuscript fell into the hands of one who was an entire stranger to
+me, but who has since proved himself the dearest friend I ever had. He
+read it, and said it must be published. But the thought of publication
+so frightened me that it almost deprived me of sleep. Still, after very
+long persuasion, I consented, and the whole was written over again, with
+a great many things added. When it was all ready, he told me I must
+write a preface. So I was persuaded even to this, though that was a new
+alarm, and I had scarcely recovered from the first. I have always been
+retiring,&mdash;indeed, quite out of sight; and nothing has reconciled me to
+this publicity but the knowledge that no one will be able to discover
+me, unless it be the very few who had patience to read my manuscript.
+Even they will find it so altered and enlarged as scarcely to remember
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there is another consideration which ought to reconcile me to coming
+forward in a way so contrary to what I had ever contemplated. I think
+the story of my quiet life may lead others to reflect more seriously on
+the griefs, the trials, and the hardships to which so many of my sex are
+constantly subjected. It may lead some of the other sex either to think
+more of these trials, or to view them in a new and different light from
+any in which they have heretofore regarded them. They may even think
+that I have suggested a new remedy for an old evil. I know that many
+such have labored to remove the wrongs of which poor and friendless
+women are the victims. But while they have already done much toward that
+humane end, as much remains to do. I make no studied effort to influence
+or direct them. The contrast between my first and last experience was so
+great, that, in rewriting, I added some facts from the experience of
+others to give force to the recital of my own. My hope is, that humane
+minds may be gratified by a narrative so uneventful, and that they,
+fortified by position and means, will be led to do for others, in a new
+direction, as much as I, comparatively unaided, have been able to do for
+myself.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+<p>Having always had a great fondness for reading, I have gone through
+every book to which my very limited circle of acquaintance gave me
+access. Even this small literary experience was sufficient to impress
+upon my mind the superior value of personal memoirs. Of all my reading,
+they most interested me; and I have learned from others that such books
+have most interested them. Indeed, biography, and personal narrative of
+all kinds, seem to command a general popularity. Moreover, we like to
+know from the person himself what he does, how he thinks and feels, what
+fortunes or vicissitudes he encounters, how he begins his career, and
+how it ends. All biography gives us most of these particulars, but they
+are never so vividly recited as by the subject of the narrative himself.
+Accordingly what was once a kind of diary of the most unimportant events
+I have transformed into a personal history. I know the transformation
+will not give them any importance they did not originally possess, but
+it gives me at least one chance of making my recital interesting.</p>
+
+<p>All who have any knowledge of the city of Philadelphia will remember
+that on its southern boundary there is a large district known as the
+township of Moyamensing. Much of it is now incorporated with the
+recently enlarged city, but the old name still clings to it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> There are
+many thousand acres in this district, which stretches from the Delaware
+to the Schuylkill. The junction of the two rivers at its lower end makes
+it a peninsula, which has long been known as "The Neck." When the city
+was founded by William Penn, much of this and the adjoining land was in
+possession of the Swedes, who came first to Pennsylvania. They had
+settled on tracts of different sizes, some very large, and some very
+small, according to their ability to purchase. It was then covered by a
+dense forest, which required great labor to clear it.</p>
+
+<p>My ancestors were among these early Swedes. They were so poor in this
+world's goods as to be able to purchase only forty acres of this
+extremely cheap land. Even that was not paid for in money, but in labor.
+In time they cleared it up, built a small brick house after the quaint
+fashion of those early days, the material for which was furnished from a
+superior kind of clay underlying the land all around them, and
+thenceforward maintained themselves from the products of the soil, then,
+as now, proverbial for its fruitfulness. It descended to their children,
+most of whom were equally plodding and unambitious with themselves. All
+continued the old occupation of looking to the soil for subsistence; and
+so long as the forty acres were kept together, they lived well. But as
+descendants multiplied, and one generation succeeded to another, so the
+little farm became subdivided among numerous heirs, all of whom sold to
+strangers, except my father, who considered himself happy in being able
+to secure, as his portion, the quaint old homestead, with its then
+well-stocked garden, and a lot large enough to make his whole domain an
+acre and a half.</p>
+
+<p>I have many times heard him relate the particulars of this acquisition,
+and say how lucky it was for all of us that he secured it. The other
+heirs, who had turned their acres into money, went into trade or
+speculation and came out poor. With the homestead of the first settler
+my father seemed to have inherited all his unambitious and plodding
+character. His whole habit was quiet, domestic, and home-loving. He was
+content to cultivate his land with the spade, raising many kinds of
+fruits and vegetables for the family and for market, and working
+likewise in the fields and gardens of his neighbors; while in winter he
+employed himself in making nets for the fishermen.</p>
+
+<p>But much of this work for others was done for gentlemen who had fine old
+houses, built at least a hundred years ago. The land in Moyamensing is
+so beautifully level, and is so very rich by nature, that at an early
+day in the settlement of the country a great many remarkably fine
+dwellings were built upon it, to which extensive gardens were attached.
+Father had been in and all over many of these mansions, and was fond of
+describing their wonders to us. They were finished inside with great
+expense. Some had curiously carved door-frames and mantels, with parlors
+wainscoted clear up to the ceiling, and heavy mouldings wherever they
+could be put in. These old-time mansions were scattered thickly over
+this beautiful piece of land. Such of them as were built nearest the
+city have long since been swept away by the extension of streets and
+long rows of new houses; but all through the remoter portion of the
+district there are many still left, with their fine gardens filled with
+the best fruits that modern horticulture has enabled the wealthy to
+gather around them.</p>
+
+<p>I remember many of those that have been torn down. One or two of them
+were famous in Revolutionary history. The owners of such as remained in
+my father's time were glad to have him take charge of their gardens. He
+knew how to bud or graft a tree, to trim grapevines, and to raise the
+best and earliest vegetables. In all that was to be done in a
+gentleman's garden he was so neat, so successful, so quiet and
+industrious, that whatever time he had to spare from his own was always
+in demand, and at the highest wages.</p>
+
+<p>When not otherwise occupied, my mother also worked at the art of
+net-making. At times she was employed in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> making up clothing for what
+some years ago were popularly called the slop-shops, mostly situated in
+the lower section of the city. These were shops which kept supplies of
+ready-made clothing for sailors and other transient people who harbored
+along the wharves. It was coarse work, and was made up as cheaply as
+possible. At that time the shipping of the port was much of it
+congregated in the lower part of the city, not far from our house.</p>
+
+<p>When a little girl, I have often gone with my mother when she went on
+her errands to these shops, doing what I could to help her in carrying
+her heavy bundles to and fro; and more than once I heard her rudely
+spoken to by the pert young tailor who received her work, and who
+examined it as carefully as if the material had been silk or cambric,
+instead of the coarse fabric which constitutes the staple of such
+establishments. I thus learned, at a very early age, to know something
+of the duties of needle-women, as well as of the mortifications and
+impositions to which their vocation frequently subjects them.</p>
+
+<p>My mother was a beautiful sewer, and I am sure she never turned in a
+garment that had in any way been slighted. She knew how rude and
+exacting this class of employers were, and was nice and careful in
+consequence, so as to be sure of giving satisfaction. But all this care
+availed nothing, in many cases, to prevent rudeness, and sometimes a
+refusal to pay the pitiful price she had been promised. Her disposition
+was too gentle and yielding for her to resent these impositions; she was
+unable to contend and argue with the rough creatures behind the counter;
+she therefore submitted in silence, sometimes even in tears. Twice, I
+can distinctly remember, when these heartless men compelled her to leave
+her work at less than the low price stipulated, I have seen her tears
+fall in big drops as she took up the mite thus grudgingly thrown down to
+her, and leave the shop, leading me by the hand. I could feel, young as
+I was, the hard nature of this treatment. I heard the rough language,
+though unable to know how harshly it must have grated on the soft
+feelings of the best mother that child was ever blessed with.</p>
+
+<p>But I comprehended nothing beyond what I saw and heard,&mdash;nothing of the
+merits of the case,&mdash;nothing of the nature and bearings of the
+business,&mdash;nothing of the severe laws of trade which govern the conduct
+of buyer and seller. I did not know that in a large city there are
+always hundreds of sewing-women begging from these hard employers the
+privilege of toiling all day, and half-way into the night, in an
+occupation which never brings even a reasonable compensation, while many
+times the severity of their labors, the confinement and privation, break
+down the most robust constitutions, and hurry the weaker into a
+premature grave.</p>
+
+<p>I was too young to reason on these subjects, though quick enough to feel
+for my dear mother. When I saw her full heart overflow in tears, I cried
+from sympathy. When we got into the street, and her tears dried up, and
+her habitual cheerfulness returned, I also ceased weeping, and soon
+forgot the cause. The memory of a child is blissfully fugitive. Indeed,
+among the blessings that lie everywhere scattered along our pathway, is
+the readiness with which we all forget sorrows that nearly broke down
+the spirit when first they fell upon us. For if the griefs of an entire
+life were to be remembered, all that we suffer from childhood to mature
+age, the accumulation would be greater than we could bear.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion, when with my mother at the slop-shop, we found a
+sewing-woman standing at the counter, awaiting payment for the making of
+a dozen summer vests. We came up to the counter and stood beside
+her,&mdash;for there were no chairs on which a sewing-woman might rest
+herself, however fatigued from carrying a heavy bundle for a mile or two
+in a hot day. And even had there been such grateful conveniences, we
+should not have been invited to sit down; and unless invited, no
+sewing-woman would risk a provocation of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> the wrath of an ill-mannered
+shopman by presuming to occupy one. Few employers bestow even a thought
+upon the comfort of their sewing-women. They seldom think how tired they
+become with overwork at home, before leaving it with a heavy load for
+the shop, nor that the bundle grows heavier and heavier with every step
+that it is carried, or that the weak and over-strained body of the
+exhausted woman needs rest the moment she sets foot within the door.</p>
+
+<p>The woman whom we found at the counter was in the prime of life,
+plainly, but neatly dressed,&mdash;no doubt in her best attire, as she was to
+be seen in public, and she knew that her whole capital lay in her
+appearance. I judged her to be an educated lady. Though a stranger to my
+mother, yet she accosted her so politely, and in a voice so musical,
+that the gracefulness of her manner and the softness of her tones still
+linger in my memory. Looking down to me, then less than ten years old,
+and addressing my mother, she asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"How many of them have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only three, Ma'am," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I have six of them to struggle for," she said,&mdash;adding, after a
+moment's pause, "and it is hard to be obliged to do it all."</p>
+
+<p>I saw that she was dressed in newly made mourning. I knew what mourning
+was,&mdash;but not then what it was to be a widow. My mother afterwards told
+me she was such, and was therefore in black. Other conversation passed
+between the two, during which I looked up into the widow's face with the
+unreflecting intensity of childish interest. Her voice was so
+remarkable, so kind, so gentle, so full of conciliation, that it won my
+heart. There was a sadness in her face which struck me most forcibly and
+painfully. There was an expression of care, of overwork, and great
+privation. Yet, for all this, the lines of her countenance were
+beautiful even in their painfulness.</p>
+
+<p>While I thus stood gazing up into the widow's face, the shopkeeper came
+forward from a distant window, by whose light he had been examining the
+vests, threw them roughly down upon the counter in front of her, and
+exclaimed in a sharp voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Can't pay for such work as this,&mdash;don't want it in the shop,&mdash;never had
+the like of it,&mdash;look at that!"</p>
+
+<p>He tossed a vest toward my mother, who took it up, and examined it. One
+end of it hung down low enough for me to catch, and I also undertook the
+business of inspection. I scanned it closely, and was a sufficient judge
+of sewing to see that it was made up with a stitch as neat and regular
+as that of my mother. She must have thought so, too; for, on returning
+it to the man, she said to him,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The work is equal to anything of <i>mine</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Hearing a new voice, he then discovered, that, instead of tossing the
+vest to the poor widow, he had inadvertently thrown it to my mother.
+Then, addressing the former, he said, in the same sharp tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Can't pay but half price for this kind of work; don't want any more
+like it. There's your money; do you want more work?"</p>
+
+<p>He threw down the silver on the counter. The whole price, or even
+double, would have been a mere pittance, the widow's mite indeed; but
+here was robbery of even that. What, in such a case, was this poor
+creature to do? She had six young and helpless children at home,&mdash;no
+husband to defend her,&mdash;no friend to stand between her and the man who
+thus robbed her. A resort to law were futile. What had she wherewith to
+pay either lawyer or magistrate? and was not continued employment a
+necessity? All these thoughts must have flashed across her mind. But in
+the terrible silence which she kept for some minutes, still standing at
+the counter, how many others must have succeeded them! What happy images
+of former comfort came knocking at her heart! what an agonizing sense of
+present destitution! what a contrast between the brightness of the one
+and the gloom of the other! and then the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> cries of hungry children
+ringing importunately in her ears! I noticed her all the time, and,
+child that I was, did so merely because she stood still and made no
+reply,&mdash;utterly unconscious that emotions of any kind were racking her
+grief-smitten heart. I felt no such emotions myself,&mdash;how should I
+suppose that they had even an existence?</p>
+
+<p>She made no answer to the man who had thus wantonly outraged her, but,
+turning to my mother, looked up into her face as if for pity and advice.
+Were they not equally helpless victims on the altar of a like domestic
+necessity, and should not common trials knit them together in the bonds
+of a common sympathy? A new sadness came over her yet beautiful
+countenance; but no tear gushed gratefully to relieve her swelling
+heart. She took up the money,&mdash;I saw that her hand was
+trembling,&mdash;placed it in her purse, lifted from the counter a bundle
+containing a second dozen of vests, and, bidding my mother a graceful
+farewell, left the scene of this cruel imposition on one utterly
+powerless either to prevent it or to obtain redress. I have never
+forgotten the incident.</p>
+
+<p>These labors of my mother were at no time necessary to the support of
+the family; but, though quiet and retiring in her habits, she had
+ambitious aspirations for supplying herself with pocket-money by the
+work of her own hands. As I said before, she was a beautiful sewer on
+the finest kinds of work, such as, if obtained from the families in
+which it is worn, would have yielded her remunerative wages. But we
+lived away beyond the thickly settled portion of the city, had no
+influential acquaintances from whom it could be procured, and hence my
+mother, with thousands who were really necessitous, resorted to the
+tailors, to the meanest as well as to the honorable. When my father
+heard of the indignities they practised on us, and of the shamefully low
+prices they paid us, he forbade my mother ever going to them again. He
+said their whole business was to grow rich by defrauding of their just
+dues the poor women who were thus competing with each other for work,
+and that we should do no more for any of them, until we could find an
+honest man and a gentleman to deal with.</p>
+
+<p>But my father, always busy in his garden or in that of some wealthy
+neighbor, knew nothing even of the little outside world into which we
+had penetrated. His generous, unsuspecting nature thus led him to feel
+sure that the honest and the gentlemanly were to be found in abundance;
+but he overlooked the fact that it was only his quiet wife upon whom was
+devolved the task of discovering them, as well as that her explorations
+had never yet been rewarded with success.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding these discouragements, my mother was firmly of opinion
+that the needle was a woman's only sure dependence against all the
+vicissitudes of life. She believed, in a general way, that a good
+needlewoman would never come to want. The idea of diversifying
+employment for the sex had never crossed her mind; the vocation of woman
+was to sew. All must not only do it, but they must depend on it. She
+considered it of little use to think of anything beyond the needle. She
+could not see, that, if all the women of the country did the same thing,
+there must inevitably be more laborers than could find employment,&mdash;that
+the competition would be so great among them as to depress prices to a
+point so low that many women could not live on them,&mdash;and that those who
+did would drag out only a miserable existence.</p>
+
+<p>Though a woman of excellent sense, with a tolerable education, and fond
+of all the reading she could find time to do, still she continued to
+plead for this supremacy of the needle, even after her humiliating
+experience at the slop-shops. She was the most industrious sewer I have
+ever known,&mdash;and not only industrious, but neat, conscientious, and
+rapid. Machines, with iron frames and wheels, had not then been
+invented; but since they have, I have never seen a better one than my
+mother. Her frame, if not of iron, seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> quite as indestructible, even
+if it did turn out fewer stitches. Times without number has she sat up
+till midnight, plying her needle by the dull light of a common candle:
+for there was no gas in our suburban district. While we children were
+sound asleep, there she sat, not from necessity, but from pure love of
+work. Yet she was up early, long before any of the dull sleepers of the
+household had stirred, and had more trouble to get us down to breakfast
+than to get up the meal itself. I scarcely thought of these things
+during the young years of my life, when they were occurring; but as I am
+writing this, they all come thronging before my memory with the
+freshness of yesterday. They will no doubt seem dull to others; but the
+recollection is very precious to me.</p>
+
+<p>With this conviction of its being almost the sole mission of a woman to
+sew, she made the needle a vital point in my education, as well as in
+that of my sister. There were two girls of us, and a brother. I was the
+eldest, and my sister the youngest of the three. Thus, when I was quite
+a child, I learned to use the needle; and as I grew older, the utmost
+pains were taken to teach me every branch of sewing, from the commonest
+to the most difficult. My sister went through the same course of
+instruction.</p>
+
+<p>At a very early age we were able to make and dress our own dolls, hem
+our handkerchiefs and aprons, and in due time were promoted to the
+darning of father's stockings and the patching of his working-clothes.
+We thought the being able to do these things for him a very great
+affair, and mother praised us for our work. But when sister Jane once
+put a patch over a hole in the knee of father's pantaloons, without
+covering all the rent,&mdash;she had let the patch slip down a
+little,&mdash;mother required her to rip it off and put it in the right
+place: but there was not a word of scolding for Jane; it was all
+softness, all kindness; she knew that Jane was a child. I think father,
+however, would never have noticed that the patch was a little out of
+place; and, indeed, I think it very likely he didn't care about having a
+patch of any kind put on, for his mind was on work, and not on
+appearances. But then it was my dear mother's way. We were taught that
+the needle was to be the staff of our future lives. Whatever we
+undertook must be done right; and then she had a just pride in making
+father always look respectable.</p>
+
+<p>Thus in time we came to feel as much pride in being good seamstresses as
+did our mother. It was natural we should, for we believed all she taught
+us, and there was no one to controvert her positions,&mdash;except sometimes,
+when father heard her impressing her favorite dogma on our minds, he put
+in a word of doubt, saying, that, before the needle could be made so
+sure a dependence for poor women, there must be found a better market
+for female labor than the slop-shops, and a more honorable race of
+employers. To this questioning of her doctrine she made no reply,
+knowing that she had us all to herself, and that a doubt from father,
+only now and then uttered, would make no impression. But I remember it
+all now.</p>
+
+<p>I can remember, too, how proud I felt when mother called me to her, one
+day, and gave me a piece of cotton cloth, of which she said I was to
+make father a shirt. It was of unbleached stuff, heavy and strong, but
+still nice and smooth. Father wore only one kind; and as it was to serve
+for best as well as for common wear, I was to make it as nicely as I
+could.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon all of us children were to go on a little
+fishing-excursion to the meadows on the Delaware, among the ditches
+which run all round the inside of the great embankment that has been
+thrown up to keep out the river. There was a vast expanse of beautiful
+green meadow inclosed by this embankment, on which great numbers of
+cattle were annually fatted. As viewed from the bank, it was luxuriant
+in the extreme; in fact, it was a prairie containing hundreds of acres,
+trimmed up and cared for with the utmost skill and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> watchfulness, and
+intersected with clean, open ditches, to secure drainage. Into these
+ditches the tide flowed through sluices in the bank, and thus they were
+always full of fish.</p>
+
+<p>These beautiful meadows were the resort of thousands who resided in the
+lower section of the city, for picnics and excursions. The roads through
+them were as level as could possibly be, and upon them were continual
+trotting-matches. In summer, the wide flats outside the embankment were
+over-grown with reeds, among which gunners congregated in numbers
+dangerous to themselves, shooting rail and reed-birds. On Sundays and
+other holidays, the wide footpath on the high embankment was a moving
+procession of people, who came out of the city to enjoy the fresh breeze
+from the river. All who lived near resorted to these favorite grounds.</p>
+
+<p>Several other little boys and girls were to come to our house and go
+with us. We had long been in the habit of going to the meadows to fish
+and play, where we had the merriest and happiest of times. Sometimes,
+though the meadows were only half a mile from us, we took a slice or two
+of bread-and-butter in a little basket, to serve for dinner, so that we
+could stay all day; for the meadows and ditches extended several miles
+below the city, and we wandered and played all the way down to the Point
+House. On these trips we caught sun-fish, roach, cat-fish, and sometimes
+perch, and always brought them home. We generally got prodigiously
+hungry from the exercise we took, and sat down on the thick grass under
+a tree to eat our scanty dinners. These dinner-times came very early in
+the day; and long before it was time to go home in the afternoon, we
+became even more hungry than we had been in the morning,&mdash;but our
+baskets had been emptied.</p>
+
+<p>I think these young days, with these innocent sports and recreations,
+were among the happiest of my life. I do not think the fish we caught
+were of much account, though father was always glad to see them; and I
+remember how he took each one of our baskets, as we came into the
+kitchen, looked into it, and turned over and counted the fishes it
+contained. My brother Fred generally had the most, and I had the fewest:
+but it seems that even for other things than fishes I never had a taking
+way about me. Father was very fond of them, for mother had a way of
+frying their little thin bodies into a nice brown crisp, which made us
+all a good breakfast. So father had made us lines, with corks and hooks,
+tied them to nice little poles, and showed us how to use them and keep
+them in order, and had a corner in the shed in which he taught us to set
+them up out of harm's way. Occasionally he even went with us to the
+meadows himself.</p>
+
+<p>But while I am speaking of these dear times, I must say that we always
+came home happy, though tired and dirty. Sometimes we got into great
+mud-holes along the ditch-bank, so deep as to leave a shoe sticking
+fast, compelling us to trudge home with only one. Then, when we found a
+place where the fish bit sharply, all of us rushed to the spot, and
+pushed into the wild rose-bushes that grew in clumps upon the bank: for
+I generally noticed, that, where the bushes overhung the water and made
+a little shade, the fish were most abundant. In the scramble to secure a
+good foothold, the briers tore our clothes and bonnets, sometimes so as
+to make us fairly ragged, besides scratching our hands and faces
+terribly. Occasionally one of us slipped into the ditch, and was helped
+out dripping wet; but we never mentioned such an incident at home. Then
+more than once we were caught in a heavy shower, with nothing but a
+rose-bush or a willow-tree for shelter; and there were often so many of
+us that it was like a hen with an unreasonably large brood of
+chickens,&mdash;some must stay out in the wet, and all such surplusage got
+soaked to the skin.</p>
+
+<p>But we cared nothing for any of these things. Indeed, I am inclined to
+think that we were happy in proportion as we got tired, hungry, wet, and
+dirty. Mother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> never scolded us when we came home in this condition.
+Though we smelt terribly of mud and fish, and were often smeared over
+with the dried slime of a great slippery eel which had swallowed the
+hook, and coiled himself in knots all over our lines, and required three
+or four of the boys to cut off his head and get the hook out, yet all
+she did was to make us wash ourselves clean, after which she gave us a
+supper that tasted better than all the suppers we get now, and then put
+us to bed. We were tired enough to go right to sleep; but it was the
+fatigue of absolute happiness,&mdash;light hearts, light consciences, no
+care, nothing but the perfect enjoyment of childhood, such as never
+comes to us but once.</p>
+
+<p>This is a long digression, but it could not be avoided. I said, that,
+when mother told me I was to make a shirt for father, we were that very
+afternoon to go down among these dear old meadows and dirty ditches to
+fish and play. Our lines were all in order, and a new hook had been put
+on mine, as on the last excursion the old one had caught in what the
+boys call a "blind eel," that is, a sunken log,&mdash;and there it probably
+remains to this day. Fred had dug worms for us, and they had coiled
+themselves up into a huge ball in the shell of an old cocoa-nut, ready
+to be impaled on our hooks. Everything was prepared for a start, and we
+were only waiting for dinner to be over: though I can remember, that,
+whenever we had such an afternoon before us, we had very little appetite
+to satisfy. The anticipation and glee were such that the pervading
+desire was not to eat, but to be off.</p>
+
+<p>But when mother gave me the shirt to make, I felt so proud of the trust,
+that all desire to go to the meadows left me. I felt a new sensation, a
+new ambition, a new pride. It was very strange that I should thus
+suddenly give up the ditches, the fishing, the scratching, and the dirt;
+for none of us loved them more dearly than myself. But they were old and
+familiar, and father's shirt was a novelty; and novelty is one of the
+great attractions for the young. So they went without me, and after
+dinner I sat down to make my first shirt.</p>
+
+<p>It was to be made in the plainest way; for father had no pride about his
+dress. I cut it out myself, basted it together, then sewed it with my
+utmost care. There was to be no nice work about collar or wristband,&mdash;no
+troublesome plaits or gussets,&mdash;no machine-made bosom to set in,&mdash;only a
+few gathers,&mdash;and all plain work throughout. My mother looked at me
+occasionally as the shirt progressed, but found no fault. She did not
+once stop me to examine it; but I feel sure she must have scrutinized it
+carefully after I had gone to bed. I was so particular in this, my first
+grand effort to secure the honors of a needlewoman, that quite two days
+were occupied in doing it.</p>
+
+<p>When all done, I took it to mother, proud of my achievement, telling
+her, that, if she had more cotton, I was ready to begin another. She
+looked over it with a slowness that I am sure was intentional, and not
+at all necessary. The wristbands were all right, the buttons in the
+proper places, the hemming she said was done well. Then, taking it up by
+the collar, and holding the garment at full length before her, so that I
+could see it all, she asked me if I saw anything wrong. I looked
+closely, but could see no mistake. At last she exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why, my dear Lizzie, this is only a bag with arms to it! How is your
+father to get into it?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned it all round before me, and showed me that I had left no
+opening at the bosom and neck,&mdash;father could never get it over his head!
+I cannot tell how astonished and mortified I felt. I cried as only such
+a child could cry. I sobbed and begged her not to show it to father, and
+promised to alter it immediately, if she would only tell me how. But,
+oh, how kind my dear mother was in soothing my excited feelings! There
+was not a word of blame. She made me comparatively calm by immediately
+opening the bosom as it should have been done, and showing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> me how to
+finish it. I hurried up to my chamber to be alone and out of sight. They
+called me to dinner, but my appetite had gone. Though my little heart
+was full, and my hand trembled, yet long before night the work was done.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how the burden rose from my spirits when my dear mother took me in
+her arms, kissed me tenderly, and said that my mistake was nothing but a
+trifle that I would be sure to remember, and that the shirt was far
+better made than she had expected! When father came in to supper, I took
+it to him and told him that <i>I</i> had made it. He looked both surprised
+and pleased, kissed me with even more than his usual kindness,&mdash;I think
+mother must have privately told him of my blunder,&mdash;and said that he
+would surely remember me at Christmas.</p>
+
+<p>I know that incidents like these can be of little interest to any but
+myself. But what more exciting ones are to be expected in such a history
+as mine? If they are related here, it is because I am requested to
+record them. Still, every poor sewing-girl will consider that the making
+of her first shirt is an event in her career, a difficulty to be
+surmounted,&mdash;and that, even when successfully accomplished, it is in
+reality only the beginning of a long career of toil.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>MEMORIES OF AUTHORS.</h2>
+
+<h4>A SERIES OF PORTRAITS FROM PERSONAL ACQUAINTANCE.</h4>
+
+
+<h3>THOMAS MOORE.</h3>
+
+<p>More than forty years have passed since I first conversed with the poet
+Thomas Moore. Afterwards it was my privilege to know him intimately. He
+seldom, of late years, visited London without spending an evening at our
+house; and in 1845 we passed a happy week at his cottage, Sloperton, in
+the county of Wilts:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">"In my calendar<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There are no whiter days!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The poet has himself noted the time in his diary (November, 1845).</p>
+
+<p>It was in the year 1822 I made his acquaintance in Dublin. He was in the
+full ripeness of middle age,&mdash;then, as ever, "the poet of all circles,
+and the idol of his own." As his visits to his native city were few and
+far between, the power to see him, and especially to <i>hear</i> him, was a
+boon of magnitude. It was, indeed, a treat, when, seated at the piano,
+he gave voice to the glorious "Melodies" that are justly regarded as the
+most valuable of his legacies to mankind. I can recall that evening as
+vividly as if it were not a sennight old: the graceful man, small and
+slim in figure, his upturned eyes and eloquent features giving force to
+the music that accompanied the songs, or rather to the songs that
+accompanied the music.</p>
+
+<p>Dublin was then the home of much of the native talent that afterwards
+found its way to England; and there were some, Lady Morgan especially,
+whose "evenings" drew together the wit and genius for which that city
+has always been famous. To such an evening I make reference. It was at
+the house of a Mr. Steele, then High Sheriff of the County of Dublin,
+and I was introduced there by the Rev. Charles Maturin. The name is not
+widely known, yet Maturin was famous in his day&mdash;and for a day&mdash;as the
+author of two successful tragedies, "Bertram" and "Manuel," (in which
+the elder Kean sustained the leading parts,) and of several popular
+novels. Moreover, he was an eloquent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> preacher, although probably he
+mistook his calling when he entered the Church. Among his many
+eccentricities I remember one: it was his habit to compose while walking
+about his large and scantily furnished house; and always on such
+occasions he placed a wafer on his forehead,&mdash;a sign that none of his
+family or servants were to address him then, to endanger the loss of a
+thought that might enlighten a world. He was always in "difficulties."
+In Lady Morgan's Memoirs it is stated that Sir Charles Morgan raised a
+subscription for Maturin, and supplied him with fifty pounds. "The first
+use he made of the money was to give a grand party. There was little
+furniture in the reception-room, but at one end of it there had been
+erected an old theatrical-property throne, and under a canopy of crimson
+velvet sat Mr. and Mrs. Maturin!"</p>
+
+<p>Among the guests at Mr. Steele's were the poet's father, mother, and
+sister,&mdash;the sister to whom he was so fervently attached. The father was
+a plain, homely man,&mdash;nothing more, and assuming to be nothing more,
+than a Dublin tradesman.<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> The mother evidently possessed a far higher
+mind. She, too, was retiring and unpretending,&mdash;like her son in
+features,&mdash;with the same gentle, yet sparkling eye, flexible and smiling
+mouth, and kindly and conciliating manners. It was to be learned long
+afterwards how deep was the affection that existed in the poet's heart
+for these humble relatives,&mdash;how fervid the love he bore them,&mdash;how
+earnest the respect with which he invariably treated them,&mdash;nay, how
+elevated was the pride with which he regarded them from first to last.</p>
+
+<p>The sister, Ellen, was, I believe, slightly deformed; at least, the
+memory to me is that of a small, delicate woman, with one shoulder
+"out." The expression of her countenance betokened suffering, having
+that peculiar "sharpness" which usually accompanies severe and
+continuous bodily ailment.<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> I saw more of her some years afterwards,
+and knew that her mind and disposition were essentially lovable.</p>
+
+<p>To the mother&mdash;Anastasia Moore, <i>n&eacute;e</i> Codd, a humbly descended, homely,
+and almost uneducated woman<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a>&mdash;Moore gave intense respect and devoted
+affection, from the time that reason dawned upon him to the hour of her
+death. To her he wrote his first letter, (in 1793,) ending with these
+lines&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Your absence all but ill endure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And none so ill as&mdash;<span class="smcap">Thomas Moore</span>."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And in the zenith of his fame, when society drew largely on his time,
+and the highest and best of the land coveted a portion of his leisure,
+with her he corresponded so regularly that at her death she possessed
+(it has been so told me by Mrs. Moore) four thousand of his letters.
+Never, according to the statement of Earl Russell, did he pass a week
+without writing to her <i>twice</i>, except during his absence in Bermuda,
+when franks were not to be obtained, and postages were costly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p><p>When a world had tendered to him its homage, still the homely woman was
+his "darling mother," to whom he transmitted a record of his cares and
+his triumphs, his anxieties and his hopes, as if he considered&mdash;as I
+verily believe he did consider&mdash;that to give her pleasure was the chief
+enjoyment of his life. His sister&mdash;"excellent Nell"&mdash;occupied only a
+second place in his heart; while his father received as much of his
+respect as if he had been the hereditary representative of a line of
+kings.</p>
+
+<p>All his life long, "he continued," according to one of the most valued
+of his correspondents, "amidst the pleasures of the world, to preserve
+his home fireside affections true and genuine, as they were when a boy."</p>
+
+<p>To his mother he writes of all his facts and fancies; to her he opens
+his heart in its natural and innocent fulness; tells her of each thing,
+great or small, that, interesting him, must interest her,&mdash;from his
+introduction to the Prince, and his visit to Niagara, to the acquisition
+of a pencil-case, and the purchase of a new pocket-handkerchief. "You,
+my sweet mother," he writes, "can see neither frivolity nor egotism in
+these details."</p>
+
+<p>In 1806, Moore's father received, through the interest of Lord Moira,
+the post of Barrack-Master in Dublin, and thus became independent. In
+1815, "Retrenchment" deprived him of this office, and he was placed on
+half-pay. The family had to seek aid from the son, who entreated them
+not to despond, but rather to thank Providence for having permitted them
+to enjoy the fruits of office so long, till he (the son) was "in a
+situation to keep them in comfort without it." "Thank Heaven," he writes
+afterwards of his father, "I have been able to make his latter days
+tranquil and comfortable." When sitting beside his death-bed, (in 1825,)
+he was relieved by a burst of tears and prayers, and by "a sort of
+confidence that the Great and Pure Spirit above us could not be
+otherwise than pleased at what He saw passing in my mind."</p>
+
+<p>When Lord Wellesley, (Lord-Lieutenant,) after the death of the father,
+proposed to continue the half-pay to the sister, Moore declined the
+offer, although, he adds,&mdash;"God knows how useful such aid would be to
+me, as God alone knows how I am to support all the burdens now heaped
+upon me"; and his wife at home was planning how "they might be able to
+do with one servant," in order that they might be the better able to
+assist his mother.</p>
+
+<p>The poet was born at the corner of Aungier Street, Dublin, on the 28th
+of May, 1779, and died at Sloperton, on the 25th of February,<a name="FNanchor_I_9" id="FNanchor_I_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_9" class="fnanchor">[I]</a> 1852,
+at the age of seventy-two. What a full life it was! Industry a
+fellow-worker with Genius for nearly sixty years!</p>
+
+<p>He was a sort of "show-child" almost from his birth, and could barely
+walk when it was jestingly said of him, he passed all his nights with
+fairies on the hills. Almost his earliest memory was having been crowned
+king of a castle by some of his playfellows. At his first school he was
+the show-boy of the schoolmaster: at thirteen years old he had written
+poetry that attracted and justified admiration. In 1797 he was "a man of
+mark"; at the University,<a name="FNanchor_J_10" id="FNanchor_J_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_J_10" class="fnanchor">[J]</a> in 1798, at the age of nineteen, he had
+made "considerable progress" in translating the Odes of Anacreon; and in
+1800 he was "patronized" and flattered by the Prince of Wales, who was
+"happy to know a man of his abilities," and "hoped they might have many
+opportunities of enjoying each other's society."</p>
+
+<p>His earliest printed work, "Poems by Thomas Little," has been the
+subject of much, and perhaps merited, condemnation. Of Moore's own
+feeling in reference to these compositions of his mere, and thoughtless,
+boyhood, it may be right to quote two of the dearest of his friends.
+Thus writes Lisle Bowles of Thomas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Moore, in allusion to these early
+poems:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'&mdash;&mdash;Like Israel's incense laid<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon unholy earthly shrines':&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Who, if, in the unthinking gayety of premature genius, he joined the
+sirens, has made ample amends by a life of the strictest virtuous
+propriety, equally exemplary as the husband, the father, and the
+man,&mdash;and as far as the muse is concerned, <i>more</i> ample amends, by
+melodies as sweet as Scriptural and sacred, and by weaving a tale of the
+richest Oriental colors, which faithful affection and pity's tear have
+consecrated to all ages." This is the statement of his friend
+Rogers:&mdash;"So heartily has Moore repented of having published 'Little's
+Poems,' that I have seen him shed tears,&mdash;tears of deep
+contrition,&mdash;when we were talking of them."</p>
+
+<p>I allude to his early triumphs only to show, that, while they would have
+spoiled nine men out of ten, they failed to taint the character of
+Moore. His modest estimate of himself was from first to last a leading
+feature in his character. Success never engendered egotism; honors never
+seemed to him only the recompense of desert; he largely magnified the
+favors he received, and seemed to consider as mere "nothings" the
+services he rendered and the benefits he conferred. That was his great
+characteristic, all his life. We have ourselves ample evidence to adduce
+on this head. I copy the following letter from Mr. Moore. It is dated
+"Sloperton, November 29, 1843."</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Mr. Hall</span>,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am really and truly ashamed of myself for having let so
+many acts of kindness on your part remain unnoticed and
+unacknowledged on mine. But the world seems determined to
+make me a man of letters in more senses than one, and almost
+every day brings me such an influx of epistles from mere
+strangers that friends hardly ever get a line from me. My
+friend Washington Irving used to say, 'It is much easier to
+get a book from Moore than a letter.' But this has not been
+the case, I am sorry to say, of late; for the penny-post has
+become the sole channel of my inspirations. How <i>am</i> I to
+thank you sufficiently for all your and Mrs. Hall's kindness
+to me? She must come down here, when the summer arrives, and
+be thanked <i>a quattr' occhi</i>,&mdash;far better way of thanking
+than at such a cold distance. Your letter to the mad
+Repealers was far too good and wise and gentle to have much
+effect on such rantipoles."<a name="FNanchor_K_11" id="FNanchor_K_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_K_11" class="fnanchor">[K]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>The house in Aungier Street I visited so recently as 1864. It was then,
+and still is, as it was in 1779, the dwelling of a grocer,&mdash;altered only
+so far as that a bust of the poet is placed over the door, and the fact
+that he was born there is recorded at the side. May no modern
+"improvement" ever touch it!</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"The great Emathian conqueror bid spare<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Went to the ground."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This humble dwelling of the humble tradesman is the house of which the
+poet speaks in so many of his early letters and memoranda. Here, when a
+child in years, he arranged a debating society, consisting of himself
+and his father's two "clerks." Here he picked up a little Italian from a
+kindly old priest who had passed some time in Italy, and obtained a
+"smattering of French" from an intelligent <i>&eacute;migr&eacute;</i>, named La Frosse.
+Here his tender mother watched over his boyhood, proud of his opening
+promise, and hopeful, yet apprehensive, of his future. Here he and his
+sister, "excellent Nell," acquired music, first upon an old harpsichord,
+obtained by his father in discharge of a debt, and afterwards on a
+piano, to buy which his loving mother had saved up all superfluous
+pence. Hence he issued to lake country walks with unhappy Robert Emmet.
+Hither he came&mdash;not less proudly, yet as fondly as ever&mdash;when college
+magnates had given him honor, and the King's Viceroy had received him as
+a guest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In 1835 he records "a visit to No. 12, Aungier Street, where I was
+born." "Visited every part of the house; the small old yard and its
+appurtenances; the small, dark kitchen, where I used to have my bread
+and milk; the front and back drawing-rooms; the bedrooms and
+garrets,&mdash;murmuring, 'Only think, a grocer's still!'" "The many thoughts
+that came rushing upon me, while thus visiting the house where the first
+nineteen or twenty years of my life were passed, may be more easily
+conceived than told." He records, with greater unction than he did his
+visit to the Prince, his sitting with the grocer and his wife at their
+table, and drinking in a glass of their wine her and her husband's "good
+health." Thence he went, with all his "recollections of the old shop
+about him," to a grand dinner at the Viceregal Lodge!</p>
+
+<p>I spring with a single line from the year 1822, when I knew him first,
+to the year 1845, when circumstances enabled us to enjoy the
+long-looked-for happiness of visiting Moore and his beloved wife in
+their home at Sloperton.</p>
+
+<p>The poet was then in his sixty-fifth year, and had in a great measure
+retired from actual labor; indeed, it soon became evident to us that the
+faculty for enduring and continuous toil no longer existed. Happily, it
+was not absolutely needed; for, with very limited wants, there was a
+sufficiency,&mdash;a bare sufficiency, however, for there were no means to
+procure either the elegances or the luxuries which so frequently become
+the necessities of man, and a longing for which might have been excused
+in one who had been the friend of peers and the associate of princes.</p>
+
+<p>The forests and fields that surround Bowood, the mansion of the Marquis
+of Lansdowne, neighbor the poet's humble dwelling. The spire of the
+village church, beside the portals of which the poet now sleeps, is seen
+above adjacent trees. Laborers' cottages are scattered all about. They
+are a heavy and unimaginative race, those peasants of Wiltshire; and,
+knowing their neighbor had written books, they could by no means get rid
+of the idea that he was the writer of <i>Moore's Almanac</i>, and
+perpetually, greeted him with a salutation, in hopes to receive in
+return some prognostic of the weather, which might guide them in
+arrangements for seedtime and harvest. Once, when he had lost his
+way,&mdash;wandering till midnight,&mdash;he roused up the inmates of a cottage,
+in search of a guide to Sloperton, and, to his astonishment, found he
+was close to his own gate. "Ah, Sir," said the peasant, "that comes of
+yer skyscraping!"</p>
+
+<p>He was fond of telling of himself such simple anecdotes as this; indeed,
+I remember his saying that no applause he ever obtained gave him so much
+pleasure as a compliment from a half-wild countryman, who stood right in
+his path on a quay in Dublin, and exclaimed, slightly altering the words
+of Byron,&mdash;"Three cheers for Tommy Moore, the pote of all circles, and
+the <i>darlint</i> of his own!"</p>
+
+<p>I recall him at this moment,&mdash;his small form and intellectual face, rich
+in expression, and that expression the sweetest, the most gentle, and
+the kindliest. He had still in age the same bright and clear eye, the
+same gracious smile, the same suave and winning manner I had noticed as
+the attributes of his comparative youth; a forehead not remarkably broad
+or high, but singularly impressive, firm, and full,&mdash;with the organ of
+gayety large, and those of benevolence and veneration greatly
+preponderating. Ternerani, when making his bust, praised the form of his
+ears. The nose, as observed in all his portraits, was somewhat upturned.
+Standing or sitting, his head was invariably upraised, owing, perhaps,
+mainly to his shortness of stature, with so much bodily activity as to
+give him the character of restlessness; and no doubt that usual
+accompaniment of genius was eminently his. His hair, at the time I speak
+of, was thin and very gray; and he wore his hat with the jaunty air that
+has been often remarked as a peculiarity of the Irish. In dress,
+although far from slovenly, he was by no means particular.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> Leigh Hunt,
+speaking of him in the prime of life, says,&mdash;"His forehead is bony and
+full of character, with 'bumps' of wit large and radiant enough to
+transport a phrenologist. His eyes are as dark and fine as you would
+wish to see under a set of vine-leaves; his mouth generous and
+good-humored, with dimples." He adds,&mdash;"He was lively, polite, bustling,
+full of amenities and acquiescences, into which he contrived to throw a
+sort of roughening cordiality, like the crust of old Port. It seemed a
+happiness to him to say 'Yes.'" Jeffrey, in one of his letters, says of
+him,&mdash;"He is the sweetest-blooded, warmest-hearted, happiest,
+hopefullest creature that ever set Fortune at defiance"; he speaks also
+of "the buoyancy of his spirits and the inward light of his mind"; and
+adds,&mdash;"There is nothing gloomy or bitter in his ordinary talk, but,
+rather, a wild, rough, boyish pleasantry, much more like Nature than his
+poetry."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The light that surrounds him is all from within."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He had but little voice; yet he sang with a depth of sweetness that
+charmed all hearers: it was true melody, and told upon the heart as well
+as the ear. No doubt much of this charm was derived from association;
+for it was only his own "Melodies" he sang. It would be difficult to
+describe the effect of his singing. I remember some one saying to me, it
+conveyed an idea of what a mermaid's song might be. Thrice I heard him
+sing, "As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow,"&mdash;once in 1822,
+once at Lady Blessington's, and once in my own house. Those who can
+recall the touching words of that song, and unite them with the deep,
+yet tender pathos of the music, will be at no loss to conceive the
+intense delight of his auditors.</p>
+
+<p>I occasionally met Moore in public, and once or twice at public dinners.
+One of the most agreeable evenings I ever passed was in 1830, at a
+dinner given to him by the members of "The Literary Union." This club
+was founded in 1829 by the poet Campbell. I shall have to speak of it
+when I write a "Memory" of him. Moore was in strong health at that time,
+and in the zenith of his fame. There were many men of mark about
+him,&mdash;leading wits and men of letters of the age. He was full of life,
+sparkling and brilliant in all he said, rising every now and then to say
+something that gave the hearers delight, and looking as if "dull care"
+had been ever powerless to check the overflowing of his soul. But
+although no bard of any age knew better how to</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Wreathe the bowl with flowers of the soul,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>he had acquired the power of self-restraint, and could stop when the
+glass was circulating too freely. At the memorable dinner of the
+Literary Fund, at which the good Prince Albert presided, (on the 11th of
+May, 1842,) the two poets, Campbell and Moore, had to make speeches. The
+author of the "Pleasures of Hope," heedless of the duty that devolved
+upon him, had "confused his brain." Moore came in the evening of that
+day to our house; and I well remember the terms of true sorrow and
+bitter reproach in which he spoke of the lamentable impression that one
+of the great authors of the age and country must have left on the mind
+of the royal chairman, then new among us.</p>
+
+<p>It is gratifying to record, that the temptations to which the great
+lyric poet, Thomas Moore, was so often and so peculiarly exposed, were
+ever powerless for wrong.</p>
+
+<p>Moore sat for his portrait to Shee, Lawrence, Newton, Maclise, Mulvany,
+and Richmond, and to the sculptors Ternerani, Chantrey, Kirk, and Moore.
+On one occasion of his sitting, he says,&mdash;"Having nothing in my round
+potato face but what painters cannot catch,&mdash;mobility of character,&mdash;the
+consequence is, that a portrait of me can be only one or other of two
+disagreeable things,&mdash;<i>caput mortuum</i>, or a caricature." Richmond's
+portrait was taken in 1843. Moore says of it,&mdash;"The artist has worked
+wonders with unmanageable faces such as mine." Of all his portraits,
+this is the one that pleases<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> me best, and most forcibly recalls him to
+my remembrance.</p>
+
+<p>I soon learned to love the man. It was easy to do so; for Nature had
+endowed him with that rare, but happy gift,&mdash;to have pleasure in giving
+pleasure, and pain in giving pain; while his life was, or at all events
+seemed to be, a practical comment on his own lines:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"They may rail at this life; from the hour I began it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I've found it a life full of kindness and bliss."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I had daily walks with him at Sloperton,&mdash;along his
+"terrace-walk,"&mdash;during our brief visit; I listening, he talking; he now
+and then asking questions, but rarely speaking of himself or his books.
+Indeed, the only one of his poems to which he made any special reference
+was his "Lines on the Death of Sheridan," of which he said,&mdash;"That is
+one of the few things I have written of which I am really proud." And I
+remember startling him one evening by quoting several of his poems in
+which he had said "hard things" of women,&mdash;then, suddenly changing,
+repeating passages of an opposite character, and his saying, "You know
+far more of my poems than I do myself."</p>
+
+<p>The anecdotes he told me were all of the class of those I have
+related,&mdash;simple, unostentatious. He has been frequently charged with
+the weakness of undue respect for the aristocracy. I never heard him,
+during the whole of our intercourse, speak of great people with whom he
+had been intimate, never a word of the honors accorded to him; and,
+certainly, he never uttered a sentence of satire or censure or harshness
+concerning any one of his contemporaries. I cannot recall any
+conversation with him in which he spoke of intimacy with the great, and
+certainly no anecdote of his familiarity with men or women of the upper
+orders; although he conversed with me often of those who are called the
+lower classes. I remember his describing with proud warmth his visit to
+his friend Boyse, at Bannow, in the County of Wexford: the delight he
+enjoyed at receiving the homage of bands of the peasantry, gathered to
+greet him; the arches of green leaves under which he passed; and the
+dances with the pretty peasant-girls,&mdash;one in particular, with whom he
+led off a country-dance.<a name="FNanchor_L_12" id="FNanchor_L_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_L_12" class="fnanchor">[L]</a> Would that those who fancied him a
+tuft-hunter could have heard him! They would have seen how really humble
+was his heart. Indeed, a reference to his Journal will show that of all
+his contemporaries, whenever he spoke of them, he had ever something
+kindly to say. There is no evidence of ill-nature in any case,&mdash;not a
+shadow of envy or jealousy. The sturdiest Scottish grazier could not
+have been better pleased than he was to see the elegant home at
+Abbotsford, or have felt prouder to know that a poet had been created a
+baronet. When speaking of Wordsworth's absorption of all the talk at a
+dinner-table, Moore says,&mdash;"But I was well pleased to be a listener."
+And he records, that General Peachey, "who is a neighbor of Southey,
+mentions some amiable traits of him."</p>
+
+<p>The house at Sloperton is a small, neat, but comparatively poor cottage,
+for which Moore paid originally the princely sum of forty pounds a year,
+"furnished." Subsequently, however, he became its tenant under a
+repairing-lease at eighteen pounds annual rent. He took possession of it
+in November, 1817. Bessy was "not only satisfied, but delighted with it,
+which shows the humility of her taste," writes Moore to his mother; "for
+it is a small thatched cottage, and we get it furnished for forty pounds
+a year." "It has a small garden and lawn in front, and a kitchen-garden
+behind. Along two of the sides of this kitchen-garden is a raised
+bank,"&mdash;the poet's "terrace-walk," so he loved to call it. Here a small
+deal table stood through all weathers; for it was his custom to compose
+as he walked, and at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> this table to pause and write down his thoughts.
+Hence he had always a view of the setting sun; and I believe nothing on
+earth gave him more intense pleasure than practically to realize the
+line,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"How glorious the sun looked in sinking!"&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>for, as Mrs. Moore has since told us, he very rarely missed this sight.</p>
+
+<p>In 1811, the year of his marriage, he lived at York Terrace, Queen's
+Elm, Brompton. Mrs. Moore tells me it was a pretty house: the Terrace
+was then isolated, and opposite nursery-gardens. Long afterwards (in
+1824) he went to Brompton to "indulge himself with a sight of that
+house." In 1812 he was settled at Kegworth; and in 1813, at Mayfield
+Cottage, near Ashbourne, in Derbyshire. Of Mayfield, one of his friends,
+who twenty years afterwards accompanied him there to see it, remarks on
+the small, solitary, and now wretched-looking cottage, where all the
+fine "orientalism" and "sentimentalism" had been engendered. Of this
+cottage he himself writes,&mdash;"It was a poor place, little better than a
+barn; but we at once took it and set about making it habitable."</p>
+
+<p>As Burns was made a gauger because he was partial to whiskey, Moore was
+made Colonial Secretary at Bermuda, where his principal duty was to
+"overhaul the accounts of skippers and their mates." Being called to
+England, his affairs were placed in charge of a superintendent, who
+betrayed him, and left him answerable for a heavy debt, which rendered
+necessary a temporary residence in Paris. That debt, however, was paid,
+not by the aid of friends, some of whom would have gladly relieved him
+of it, but literally by "the sweat of his brow." Exactly so it was when
+the MS. "Life of Byron" was burned: it was by Moore, and not by the
+relatives of Byron, (neither was it by aid of friends,) the money he had
+received was returned to the publisher who had advanced it. "The
+glorious privilege of being independent" was, indeed, essentially
+his,&mdash;in his boyhood, throughout his manhood, and in advanced
+age,&mdash;always!</p>
+
+<p>In 1799 he came to London to enter at the Middle Temple. (His first
+lodging was at 44, George Street, Portman Square.) Very soon afterwards
+we find him declining a loan of money proffered him by Lady Donegal. He
+thanked God for the many sweet things of this kind God threw in his way,
+yet at that moment he was "terribly puzzled how to pay his tailor." In
+1811, his friend Douglas, who had just received a large legacy, handed
+him a blank check, that he might fill it up for any sum he needed. "I
+did not accept the offer," writes Moore to his mother; "but you may
+guess my feelings." Yet just then he had been compelled to draw on his
+publisher, Power, for a sum of thirty pounds, "to be repaid partly in
+songs," and was sending his mother a second-day paper, which he was
+enabled "to purchase at rather a cheap rate." Even in 1842 he was
+"haunted worryingly," not knowing how to meet his son Russell's draft
+for one hundred pounds; and a year afterwards he utterly drained his
+banker to send fifty pounds to his son Tom. Once, being anxious that
+Bessy should have some money for the poor at Bromham, he sent a friend
+five pounds, requesting him to forward it to Bessy as from himself; and
+when urged by some thoughtless person to make a larger allowance to his
+son Tom, in order that he might "live like a gentleman," he writes,&mdash;"If
+<i>I</i> had thought but of living like a gentleman, what would have become
+of my dear father and mother, of my sweet sister Nell, of my admirable
+Bessy's mother?" He declined to represent Limerick in Parliament, on the
+ground that his "circumstances were not such as to justify coming into
+Parliament at all, because to the labor of the day I am indebted for my
+daily support." His must be a miserable soul who could sneer at the poet
+studying how he could manage to recompense the doctor who would "take no
+fees," and at his amusement when Bessy was "calculating whether they
+could afford the expense of a fly to Devizes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As with his mother, so with his wife. From the year 1811, the year of
+his marriage,<a name="FNanchor_M_13" id="FNanchor_M_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_M_13" class="fnanchor">[M]</a> to that of his death, in 1852, she received from him
+the continual homage of a lover; away from her, no matter what were his
+allurements, he was ever longing to be at home. Those who love as he did
+wife, children, and friends will appreciate, although the worldling
+cannot, such commonplace sentences as these:&mdash;"Pulled some heath on
+Ronan's Island (Killarney) to send to my dear Bessy"; when in Italy,
+"got letters from my sweet Bessy, more precious to me than all the
+wonders I can see"; while in Paris, "sending for Bessy and my little
+ones; wherever they are will be home, and a happy home to me." When
+absent, (which was rarely for more than a week,) no matter where or in
+what company, seldom a day passed that he did not write a letter to
+Bessy. The home enjoyments, reading to her, making her the depositary of
+all his thoughts and hopes,&mdash;they were his deep delights, compensations
+for time spent amid scenes and with people who had no space in his
+heart. Even when in "terrible request," his thoughts and his heart were
+there,&mdash;in</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"That dear Home, that saving Ark,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where love's true light at last I've found,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Cheering within, when all grows dark<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And comfortless and stormy round."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This is the tribute of Earl Russell to the wife of the poet Moore:&mdash;"The
+excellence of his wife's moral character, her energy and courage, her
+persevering economy, made her a better and even a richer partner to
+Moore than an heiress of ten thousand a year would have been, with less
+devotion to her duty, and less steadiness of conduct." Moore speaks of
+his wife's "democratic pride." It was the pride that was ever above a
+mean action, and which sustained him in the proud independence that
+marked his character from birth to death.</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1846, his diary contains this sad passage:&mdash;"The last of my
+five children is gone, and we are left desolate and alone. Not a single
+relation have I in this world." His father had died in 1825; his sweet
+mother in 1832; "excellent Nell" in 1846; and his children one after
+another, three of them in youth, and two grown up to manhood,&mdash;his two
+boys, Tom and Russell, the first-named of whom died in Africa in 1846,
+an officer in the French service; the other at Sloperton in 1842, soon
+after his return from India, having been compelled by ill-health to
+resign his commission as a lieutenant in the Twenty-Fifth Regiment.</p>
+
+<p>In 1835 the influence of Lord Lansdowne obtained for Moore a pension of
+three hundred pounds a year from Lord Melbourne's government,&mdash;"as due
+from any government, but much more from one some of the members of which
+are proud to think themselves your friends." The "wolf, poverty,"
+therefore, in his latter years, did not prowl so continually about his
+door. But there was no fund for luxuries, none for the extra comforts
+that old age requires. Mrs. Moore now lives on a crown pension of one
+hundred pounds a year, and the interest of the sum of three thousand
+pounds,&mdash;the sum advanced by the ever-liberal friends of the poet, the
+Longmans, for the Memoirs and Journal edited by Lord John, now Earl,
+Russell,&mdash;a lord whom the poet dearly loved.</p>
+
+<p>When his diary was published, as from time to time volumes of it
+appeared, slander was busy with the fame of one of the best and most
+upright of all the men that God ennobled by the gift of genius.<a name="FNanchor_N_14" id="FNanchor_N_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_N_14" class="fnanchor">[N]</a> For
+my own part,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> I seek in vain through the eight thick volumes of that
+diary for any evidence that can lessen the poet in this high estimate. I
+find, perhaps, too many passages fitted only for the eye of love or the
+ear of sympathy; but I read <i>no one</i> that shows the poet other than the
+devoted and loving husband, the thoughtful and affectionate parent, the
+considerate and generous friend.</p>
+
+<p>It was said of him by Leigh Hunt, that Lord Byron summed up his
+character in a sentence,&mdash;"Tommy loves a lord!" Perhaps he did; but if
+he did, only such lords as Lansdowne and Russell were his friends. He
+loved also those who are "lords of humankind" in a far other sense; and,
+as I have shown, there is nothing in his character that stands out in
+higher relief than his entire <i>freedom from dependence</i>. To which of the
+great did he apply during seasons of difficulty approaching poverty?
+Which of them did he use for selfish purposes? Whose patronage among
+them all was profitable? To what Ba&auml;l did the poet Moore ever bend the
+knee?</p>
+
+<p>He had a large share of domestic sorrows; one after another, his five
+beloved children died; I have quoted his words, "We are left&mdash;alone."
+His admirable and devoted wife survives him. I visited, a short time
+ago, the home that is now desolate. If ever man was adored where
+adoration, so far as earth is concerned, is most to be hoped for and
+valued, it is in the cottage where the poet's widow lives, and will die.</p>
+
+<p>Let it be inscribed on his tomb, that ever, amid privations and
+temptations, the allurements of grandeur and the suggestions of poverty,
+he preserved his self-respect; bequeathing no property, but leaving no
+debts; having had no "testimonial" of acknowledgment or reward,&mdash;seeking
+none, nay, avoiding any; making millions his debtors for intense
+delight, and acknowledging himself paid by the poet's meed, "the tribute
+of a smile"; never truckling to power; laboring ardently and honestly
+for his political faith, but never lending to party that which was meant
+for mankind; proud, and rightly proud, of his self-obtained position,
+but neither scorning nor slighting the humble root from which he sprang.</p>
+
+<p>He was born and bred a Roman Catholic; but his creed was entirely and
+purely catholic. Charity was the outpouring of his heart; its pervading
+essence was that which he expressed in one of his Melodies,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights by my side,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall I give up the friend I have valued and tried,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">If he kneel not before the same altar with me?"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>His children were all baptized and educated members of the Church of
+England. He attended the parish church, and according to the ritual of
+the Church of England he was buried.</p>
+
+<p>It was not any outward change of religion, but homage to a purer and
+holier faith, that induced him to have his children baptized and brought
+up as members of the English Church. "For myself," he says, "my having
+married a Protestant wife gave me opportunity of choosing a religion, at
+least for my children; and if my marriage had no other advantage, I
+should think this quite sufficient to be grateful for."</p>
+
+<p>Moore was the eloquent advocate of his country, when it was oppressed,
+goaded, and socially enthralled; but when time and enlightened policy
+removed all distinctions between the Irishman and the Englishman,
+between the Protestant and the Roman Catholic, his muse was silent,
+because content; nay, he protested in impressive verse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> against a
+continued agitation that retarded her progress, when her claims were
+admitted, her rights acknowledged, and her wrongs redressed.</p>
+
+<p>Reference to the genius of Moore is needless. My object in this "Memory"
+is to offer homage to his moral and social worth. The world that obtains
+intense delight from his poems, and willingly acknowledges its debt to
+the poet, has been less ready to estimate the high and estimable
+character, the loving and faithful nature of the man. There are,
+however, many&mdash;may this humble tribute augment the number!&mdash;by whom the
+memory of Thomas Moore is cherished in the heart of hearts; to whom the
+cottage at Sloperton will be a shrine while they live,&mdash;that grave
+beside the village church a monument better loved than that of any other
+of the men of genius by whom the world is delighted, enlightened, and
+refined.</p>
+
+<p>"That God is love," writes his friend and biographer, Earl Russell, "was
+the summary of his belief; that a man should love his neighbor as
+himself seems to have been the rule of his life." The Earl of Carlisle,
+inaugurating the statue of the poet,<a name="FNanchor_O_15" id="FNanchor_O_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_O_15" class="fnanchor">[O]</a> bore testimony to his moral and
+social worth "in all the holy relations of life,&mdash;as son, as brother, as
+husband, as father, as friend"; and on the same occasion, Mr. O'Hagan,
+Q.C., thus expressed himself:&mdash;"He was faithful to all the sacred
+obligations and all the dear charities of domestic life,&mdash;he was the
+idol of a household."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps a better, though a far briefer, summary of the character of
+Thomas Moore than any of these may be given in the words of Dr. Parr,
+who bequeathed to him a ring:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To one who stands high in my estimation for original genius, for his
+exquisite sensibility, for his independent spirit, and incorruptible
+integrity."</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> Mrs. Moore&mdash;writing to me in May, 1864&mdash;tells me I have a
+wrong impression as to Moore's father; that he was "handsome, full of
+fun, and with good manners." Moore himself calls him "one of Nature's
+gentlemen."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> Mrs. Moore write me, that I am here also wrong in my
+impression. "She was only a little grown out in one shoulder, but with
+good health; her expression was feeling, not suffering." "Dear Ellen,"
+she adds, "was the delight of every one that knew her,&mdash;sang
+sweetly,&mdash;her voice very like her brother's. She died suddenly, to the
+grief of my loving heart."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> She was born in Wexford, where her father kept a "general
+shop." Moore used to say playfully, that he was called, in order to
+dignify his occupation, "a provision merchant." When on his way to
+Bannow in 1835 to spend a few days with his friend Thomas Boyse,&mdash;a
+genuine gentleman of the good old school,&mdash;he records his visit to the
+house of his maternal grandfather. "Nothing," he says, "could be more
+humble and mean than the little low house that remains to tell of his
+whereabouts."
+</p><p>
+I visited this house in the summer of 1864. It is still a small "general
+shop," situate in the old corn-market of Wexford. The rooms are more
+than usually quaint. Here Mrs. Moore lived until within a few weeks of
+the birth of her illustrious son. We are gratified to record, that, at
+our suggestion, a tablet has been placed over the entrance-door, stating
+in few words the fact that there the mother was born and lived, and that
+to this house the poet came, on the 26th of August, 1835, when in the
+zenith of his fame, to render homage to her memory. He thus writes of
+her and her birthplace in his "Notes" of that year:&mdash;"One of the
+noblest-minded, as well as most warm-hearted, of all God's creatures was
+born under that lowly roof."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_9" id="Footnote_I_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_9"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> I find in Earl Russell's memoir the date given as the 26th
+of February; but Mrs. Moore altered it in my MSS. to February 25.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_10" id="Footnote_J_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_J_10"><span class="label">[J]</span></a> Trinity College, Dublin.&mdash;Thomas Moore, son of John Moore,
+merchant, of Dublin, aged 14, pensioner, entered 2d June, 1794. Tutor,
+Dr. Burrows.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_K_11" id="Footnote_K_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_K_11"><span class="label">[K]</span></a> Alluding to a pamphlet-letter I had printed, addressed to
+Repealers, when the insanity of Repeal (now happily dead) was at
+fever-heat.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_L_12" id="Footnote_L_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_L_12"><span class="label">[L]</span></a> "One of them (my chief muse) was a remarkably pretty girl;
+when I turned round to her, as she accompanied my triumphal ear, and
+said, 'This is a long journey for you,' she answered, with a smile that
+would have done your heart good, 'Oh, I only wish, Sir, it was three
+hundred miles!' There's for you! What was Petrarch in the Capitol to
+that?"&mdash;<i>Journal</i>, &amp;c.&mdash;This "pretty girl's" name is &mdash;&mdash;, and, strange
+to say, she still keeps it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_M_13" id="Footnote_M_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_M_13"><span class="label">[M]</span></a> Moore was married to Miss Elizabeth Dyke, at St. Martin's
+Church, on the 25th of March, 1811.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_N_14" id="Footnote_N_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_N_14"><span class="label">[N]</span></a> There were two who sought to throw filth upon the poet's
+grave, and they were his own countrymen,&mdash;Charles Phillips and John
+Wilson Croker. The former had written a wretched and unmeaning pamphlet,
+which he suppressed when a few copies only were issued; and I am proud
+to believe it was in consequence of some remarks upon it written by me,
+for which he commenced, but subsequently abandoned, proceedings against
+me for libel. The atrocious attack on Moore in the "Quarterly Review"
+was written by John Wilson Croker. It was the old illustration of the
+dead lion and the living dog. Yet Croker could at that time be scarcely
+described as living; it was from his death-bed he shot the poisoned
+arrow. And what brought out the venom? Merely a few careless words of
+Moore's, in which he described Croker "as a scribbler of all work,"
+words that Earl Russell would have erased, if it had occurred to him to
+do so. Another countryman, Thomas Crofton Croker, assailed after his
+death the man whose shoe-latchets he would have been proud to unloose
+during his life. Moreover, his earliest slanderer was also of his own
+country,&mdash;an author named Quin. Of a truth it has been well said, A
+prophet is never without honor save in his own country. The proverb is
+especially true as regards Irish prophets. Assuredly, Moore was, and is,
+more popular in every part of the world than he was or is in Ireland.
+The reason is plain: he was, so to speak, of two parties, yet of
+neither: the one could not forgive his early aspirations for liberty,
+uttered in imperishable verse; the other could not pardon what they
+called his desertion of their cause, when he saw that England was
+willing to do, and was doing, justice to Ireland.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_O_15" id="Footnote_O_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_O_15"><span class="label">[O]</span></a> A bronze statue of Moore has been erected in College
+Street, Dublin. It is a poor affair, the production of his namesake, the
+sculptor. Bad as it is, it is made worse by contrast with its neighbor,
+Goldsmith,&mdash;a work by the great Irish artist, Foley,&mdash;a work rarely
+surpassed by the art of the sculptor at any period in any country.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ON BOARD THE SEVENTY-SIX</h2>
+
+<h3>[Written for Bryant's Seventieth Birthday.]</h3>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Our ship lay tumbling in an angry sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her rudder gone, her mainmast o'er the side;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her scuppers, from the waves' clutch staggering free,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Trailed threads of priceless crimson through the tide;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sails, shrouds, and spars with pirate cannon torn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We lay, awaiting morn.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Awaiting morn, such morn as mocks despair;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And she that bore the promise of the world<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Within her sides, now hopeless, helmless, bare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At random o'er the wildering waters hurled;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The reek of battle drifting slow a-lee<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not sullener than we.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Morn came at last to peer into our woe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When lo, a sail! Now surely help is nigh;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The red cross flames aloft, Christ's pledge; but no,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her black guns grinning hate, she rushes by<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And hails us:&mdash;"Gains the leak? Ah, so we thought!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sink, then, with curses fraught!"<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I leaned against my gun still angry-hot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And my lids tingled with the tears held back;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This scorn methought was crueller than shot;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The manly death-grip in the battle-wrack,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yard-arm to yard-arm, were more friendly far<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than such fear-smothered war.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There our foe wallowed like a wounded brute,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fiercer for his hurt. What now were best?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Once more tug bravely at the peril's root.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though death come with it? Or evade the test<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If right or wrong in this God's world of ours<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Be leagued with higher powers?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Some, faintly loyal, felt their pulses lag<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With the slow beat that doubts and then despairs;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some, caitiff, would have struck the starry flag<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That knits us with our past, and makes us heirs<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of deeds high-hearted as were ever done<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'Neath the all-seeing sun.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But one there was, the Singer of our crew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon whose head Age waved his peaceful sign,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But whose red heart's-blood no surrender knew;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And couchant under brows of massive line,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The eyes, like guns beneath a parapet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Watched, charged with lightnings yet.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The voices of the hills did his obey;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The torrents flashed and tumbled in his song;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He brought our native fields from far away,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or set us 'mid the innumerable throng<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of dateless woods, or where we heard the calm<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Old homestead's evening psalm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But now he sang of faith to things unseen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of freedom's birthright given to us in trust;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And words of doughty cheer he spoke between,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That made all earthly fortune seem as dust,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Matched with that duty, old as time and new,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of being brave and true.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We, listening, learned what makes the might of words,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Manhood to back them, constant as a star;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His voice rammed home our cannon, edged our swords,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sent our boarders shouting; shroud and spar<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Heard him and stiffened; the sails heard and wooed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The winds with loftier mood.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In our dark hour he manned our guns again;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Remanned ourselves from his own manhood's store;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pride, honor, country throbbed through all his strain;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And shall we praise? God's praise was his before;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And on our futile laurels he looks down;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Himself our bravest crown.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE CHIMNEY-CORNER.</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+
+<p>Here comes the First of January, Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-Five, and we
+are all settled comfortably into our winter places, with our winter
+surroundings and belongings; all cracks and openings are calked and
+listed, the double windows are in, the furnace dragon in the cellar is
+ruddy and in good liking, sending up his warming respirations through
+every pipe and register in the house; and yet, though an artificial
+summer reigns everywhere, like bees, we have our swarming-place,&mdash;in my
+library. There is my chimney-corner, and my table permanently
+established on one side of the hearth; and each of the female genus has,
+so to speak, pitched her own winter-tent within sight of the blaze of my
+camp-fire. I discerned to-day that Jennie had surreptitiously
+appropriated one of the drawers of my study-table to knitting-needles
+and worsted; and wicker work-baskets and stands of various heights and
+sizes seem to be planted here and there for permanence among the
+bookcases. The canary-bird has a sunny window, and the plants spread out
+their leaves and unfold their blossoms as if there were no ice and snow
+in the street, and Rover makes a hearth-rug of himself in winking
+satisfaction in front of my fire, except when Jennie is taken with a fit
+of discipline, when he beats a retreat, and secretes himself under my
+table.</p>
+
+<p>Peaceable, ah, how peaceable, home and quiet and warmth in winter! And
+how, when we hear the wind whistle, we think of you, O our brave
+brothers, our saviours and defenders, who for our sake have no home but
+the muddy camp, the hard pillow of the barrack, the weary march, the
+uncertain fare,&mdash;you, the rank and file, the thousand unnoticed ones,
+who have left warm fires, dear wives, loving little children, without
+even the hope of glory or fame,&mdash;without even the hope of doing anything
+remarkable or perceptible for the cause you love,&mdash;resigned only to fill
+the ditch or bridge the chasm over which your country shall walk to
+peace and joy! Good men and true, brave unknown hearts, we salute you,
+and feel that we, in our soft peace and security, are not worthy of you!
+When we think of you, our simple comforts seem luxuries all too good for
+us, who give so little when you give all!</p>
+
+<p>But there are others to whom from our bright homes, our cheerful
+firesides, we would fain say a word, if we dared.</p>
+
+<p>Think of a mother receiving a letter with such a passage as this in it!
+It is extracted from one we have just seen, written by a private in the
+army of Sheridan, describing the death of a private. "He fell instantly,
+gave a peculiar smile and look, and then closed his eyes. We laid him
+down gently at the foot of a large tree. I crossed his hands over his
+breast, closed his eyelids down, but the smile was still on his face. I
+wrapped him in his tent, spread my pocket-handkerchief over his face,
+wrote his name on a piece of paper, and pinned it on his breast, and
+there we left him: we could not find pick or shovel to dig a grave."
+There it is!&mdash;a history that is multiplying itself by hundreds daily,
+the substance of what has come to so many homes, and must come to so
+many more before the great price of our ransom is paid!</p>
+
+<p>What can we say to you, in those many, many homes where the light has
+gone out forever?&mdash;you, O fathers, mothers, wives, sisters, haunted by a
+name that has ceased to be spoken on earth,&mdash;you, for whom there is no
+more news from the camp, no more reading of lists, no more tracing of
+maps, no more letters, but only a blank, dead silence! The battle-cry
+goes on,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> but for you it is passed by! the victory comes, but, oh, never
+more to bring him back to you! your offering to this great cause has
+been made, and been taken; you have thrown into it <i>all</i> your living,
+even all that you had, and from henceforth your house is left unto you
+desolate! O ye watchers of the cross, ye waiters by the sepulchre, what
+can be said to you? We could almost extinguish our own home-fires, that
+seem too bright when we think of your darkness; the laugh dies on our
+lip, the lamp burns dim through our tears, and we seem scarcely worthy
+to speak words of comfort, lest we seem as those who mock a grief they
+cannot know.</p>
+
+<p>But is there no consolation? Is it nothing to have had such a treasure
+to give, and to have given it freely for the noblest cause for which
+ever battle was set,&mdash;for the salvation of your country, for the freedom
+of all mankind? Had he died a fruitless death, in the track of common
+life, blasted by fever, smitten or rent by crushing accident, then might
+his most precious life seem to be as water spilled upon the ground; but
+now it has been given for a cause and a purpose worthy even the anguish
+of your loss and sacrifice. He has been counted worthy to be numbered
+with those who stood with precious incense between the living and the
+dead, that the plague which was consuming us might be stayed. The blood
+of these young martyrs shall be the seed of the future church of
+liberty, and from every drop shall spring up flowers of healing. O
+widow! O mother! blessed among bereaved women! there remains to you a
+treasure that belongs not to those who have lost in any other wise,&mdash;the
+power to say, "He died for his country." In all the good that comes of
+this anguish you shall have a right and share by virtue of this
+sacrifice. The joy of freedmen bursting from chains, the glory of a
+nation new-born, the assurance of a triumphant future for your country
+and the world,&mdash;all these become yours by the purchase-money of that
+precious blood.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this, there are other treasures that come through sorrow, and
+sorrow alone. There are celestial plants of root so long and so deep
+that the land must be torn and furrowed, ploughed up from the very
+foundation, before they can strike and flourish; and when we see how
+God's plough is driving backward and forward and across this nation,
+rending, tearing up tender shoots, and burying soft wild-flowers, we ask
+ourselves, What is He going to plant?</p>
+
+<p>Not the first year, nor the second, after the ground has been broken up,
+does the purpose of the husbandman appear. At first we see only what is
+uprooted and ploughed in,&mdash;the daisy drabbled, and the violet
+crushed,&mdash;and the first trees planted amid the unsightly furrows stand
+dumb and disconsolate, irresolute in leaf, and without flower or fruit.
+Their work is under the ground. In darkness and silence they are putting
+forth long fibres, searching hither and thither under the black soil for
+the strength that years hence shall burst into bloom and bearing.</p>
+
+<p>What is true of nations is true of individuals. It may seem now winter
+and desolation with you. Your hearts have been ploughed and harrowed and
+are now frozen up. There is not a flower left, not a blade of grass, not
+a bird to sing,&mdash;and it is hard to believe that any brighter flowers,
+any greener herbage, shall spring up, than those which have been torn
+away: and yet there will. Nature herself teaches you to-day. Out-doors
+nothing but bare branches and shrouding snow; and yet you know that
+there is not a tree that is not patiently holding out at the end of its
+boughs next year's buds, frozen indeed, but unkilled. The rhododendron
+and the lilac have their blossoms all ready, wrapped in cere-cloth,
+waiting in patient faith. Under the frozen ground the crocus and the
+hyacinth and the tulip hide in their hearts the perfect forms of future
+flowers. And it is even so with you: your leaf-buds of the future are
+frozen, but not killed; the soil of your heart has many flowers under it
+cold and still now, but they will yet come up and bloom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The dear old book of comfort tells of no present healing for sorrow.
+<i>No</i> chastening for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous, but
+<i>afterwards</i> it yieldeth peaceable fruits of righteousness. We, as
+individuals, as a nation, need to have faith in that <span class="smcap">afterwards</span>. It is
+sure to come,&mdash;sure as spring and summer to follow winter.</p>
+
+<p>There is a certain amount of suffering which must follow the rending of
+the great chords of life, suffering which is natural and inevitable; it
+cannot be argued down; it cannot be stilled; it can no more be soothed
+by any effort of faith and reason than the pain of a fractured limb, or
+the agony of fire on the living flesh. All that we can do is to brace
+ourselves to bear it, calling on God, as the martyrs did in the fire,
+and resigning ourselves to let it burn on. We must be willing to suffer,
+since God so wills. There are just so many waves to go over us, just so
+many arrows of stinging thought to be shot into our soul, just so many
+faintings and sinkings and revivings only to suffer again, belonging to
+and inherent in our portion of sorrow; and there is a work of healing
+that God has placed in the hands of Time alone.</p>
+
+<p>Time heals all things at last; yet it depends much on us in our
+suffering, whether time shall send us forth healed, indeed, but maimed
+and crippled and callous, or whether, looking to the great Physician of
+sorrows, and coworking with him, we come forth stronger and fairer even
+for our wounds.</p>
+
+<p>We call ourselves a Christian people, and the peculiarity of
+Christianity is that it is a worship and doctrine of sorrow. The five
+wounds of Jesus, the instruments of the passion, the cross, the
+sepulchre,&mdash;these are its emblems and watchwords. In thousands of
+churches, amid gold and gems and altars fragrant with perfume, are seen
+the crown of thorns, the nails, the spear, the cup of vinegar mingled
+with gall, the sponge that could not slake that burning death-thirst;
+and in a voice choked with anguish the Church in many lands and divers
+tongues prays from age to age,&mdash;"By thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy
+cross and passion, by thy precious death and burial!"&mdash;mighty words of
+comfort, whose meaning reveals itself only to souls fainting in the cold
+death-sweat of mortal anguish! They tell all Christians that by
+uttermost distress alone was the Captain of their salvation made perfect
+as a Saviour.</p>
+
+<p>Sorrow brings us into the true unity of the Church,&mdash;that unity which
+underlies all external creeds, and unites all hearts that have suffered
+deeply enough to know that when sorrow is at its utmost there is but one
+kind of sorrow, and but one remedy. What matter, <i>in extremis</i>, whether
+we be called Romanist, or Protestant, or Greek, or Calvinist?</p>
+
+<p>We suffer, and Christ suffered; we die, and Christ died; he conquered
+suffering and death, he rose and lives and reigns,&mdash;and we shall
+conquer, rise, live, and reign; the hours on the cross were long, the
+thirst was bitter, the darkness and horror real,&mdash;<i>but they ended</i>.
+After the wail, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" came the calm, "It
+is finished"; pledge to us all that our "It is finished" shall come
+also.</p>
+
+<p>Christ arose, fresh, joyous, no more to die; and it is written, that,
+when the disciples were gathered together in fear and sorrow, he stood
+in the midst of them, and showed unto them his hands and his side; and
+then were they glad. Already had the healed wounds of Jesus become
+pledges of consolation to innumerable thousands; and those who, like
+Christ, have suffered the weary struggles, the dim horrors of the
+cross,&mdash;who have lain, like him, cold and chilled in the hopeless
+sepulchre,&mdash;if his spirit wakes them to life, shall come forth with
+healing power for others who have suffered and are suffering.</p>
+
+<p>Count the good and beautiful ministrations that have been wrought in
+this world of need and labor, and how many of them have been wrought by
+hands wounded and scarred, by hearts that had scarcely ceased to bleed!</p>
+
+<p>How many priests of consolation is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> God now ordaining by the fiery
+imposition of sorrow! how many Sisters of the Bleeding Heart, Daughters
+of Mercy, Sisters of Charity, are receiving their first vocation in
+tears and blood!</p>
+
+<p>The report of every battle strikes into some home; and heads fall low,
+and hearts are shattered, and only God sees the joy that is set before
+them, and that shall come out of their sorrow. He sees our morning at
+the same moment that He sees our night,&mdash;sees us comforted, healed,
+risen to a higher life, at the same moment that He sees us crushed and
+broken in the dust; and so, though tenderer than we, He bears our great
+sorrows for the joy that is set before us.</p>
+
+<p>After the Napoleonic wars had desolated Europe, the country was, like
+all countries after war, full of shattered households, of widows and
+orphans and homeless wanderers. A nobleman of Silesia, the Baron von
+Kottwitz, who had lost his wife and all his family in the reverses and
+sorrows of the times, found himself alone in the world, which looked
+more dreary and miserable through the multiplying lenses of his own
+tears. But he was one of those whose heart had been quickened in its
+death anguish by the resurrection voice of Christ; and he came forth to
+life and comfort. He bravely resolved to do all that one man could to
+lessen the great sum of misery. He sold his estates in Silesia, bought
+in Berlin a large building that had been used as barracks for the
+soldiers, and, fitting it up in plain commodious apartments, formed
+there a great family-establishment, into which he received the wrecks
+and fragments of families that had been broken up by the war,&mdash;orphan
+children, widowed and helpless women, decrepit old people, disabled
+soldiers. These he mad his family, and constituted himself their father
+and chief. He above with them, and cared for them as a parent. He had
+schools for the children; the more advanced he put to trades and
+employments; he set up a hospital for the sick; and for all he had the
+priestly ministrations of his own Christ-like heart. The celebrated
+Professor Tholuck, one of the most learned men of modern Germany, was an
+early <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i> of the old Baron's, who, discerning his talents, put him
+in the way of a liberal education. In his earlier years, like many
+others of the young who play with life, ignorant of its needs, Tholuck
+piqued himself on a lordly skepticism with regard to the commonly
+received Christianity, and even wrote an essay to prove the superiority
+of the Mohammedan to the Christian religion. In speaking of his
+conversion, he says,&mdash;"What moved me was no argument, nor any spoken
+reproof, but simply that divine image of the old Baron walking before my
+soul. That life was an argument always present to me, and which I never
+could answer; and so I became a Christian." In the life of this man we
+see the victory over sorrow. How many with means like his, when
+desolated by like bereavements, have lain coldly and idly gazing on the
+miseries of life, and weaving around themselves icy tissues of doubt and
+despair,&mdash;doubting the being of a God, doubting the reality of a
+Providence, doubting the divine love, embittered and rebellious against
+the power which they could not resist, yet to which they would not
+submit! In such a chill heart-freeze lies the danger of sorrow. And it
+is a mortal danger. It is a torpor that must be resisted, as the man in
+the whirling snows must bestir himself, or he will perish. The apathy of
+melancholy must be broken by an effort of religion and duty. The
+stagnant blood must be made to flow by active work, and the cold hand
+warmed by clasping the hands outstretched towards it in sympathy or
+supplication. One orphan child taken in, to be fed, clothed, and
+nurtured, may save a heart from freezing to death: and God knows this
+war is making but too many orphans!</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to subscribe to an orphan asylum, and go on in one's despair
+and loneliness. Such ministries may do good to the children who are
+thereby saved from the street, but they impart little warmth and comfort
+to the giver. One destitute child housed, taught, cared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> for, and tended
+personally, will bring more solace to a suffering heart than a dozen
+maintained in an asylum. Not that the child will probably prove an
+angel, or even an uncommonly interesting mortal. It is a prosaic work,
+this bringing-up of children, and there can be little rosewater in it.
+The child may not appreciate what is done for him, may not be
+particularly grateful, may have disagreeable faults, and continue to
+have them after much pains on your part to eradicate them,&mdash;and yet it
+is a fact, that to redeem one human being from destitution and ruin,
+even in some homely every-day course of ministrations, is one of the
+best possible tonics and alteratives to a sick and wounded spirit.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not the only avenue to beneficence which the war opens. We
+need but name the service of hospitals, the care and education of the
+freedmen,&mdash;for these are charities that have long been before the eyes
+of the community, and have employed thousands of busy hands: thousands
+of sick and dying beds to tend, a race to be educated, civilized, and
+Christianized, surely were work enough for one age; and yet this is not
+all. War shatters everything, and it is hard to say what in society will
+not need rebuilding and binding up and strengthening anew. Not the least
+of the evils of war are the vices which a great army engenders wherever
+it moves,&mdash;vices peculiar to military life, as others are peculiar to
+peace. The poor soldier perils for us not merely his body, but his soul.
+He leads a life of harassing and exhausting toil and privation, of
+violent strain on the nervous energies, alternating with sudden
+collapse, creating a craving for stimulants, and endangering the
+formation of fatal habits. What furies and harpies are those that follow
+the army, and that seek out the soldier in his tent, far from home,
+mother, wife, and sister, tired, disheartened, and tempt him to forget
+his troubles in a momentary exhilaration, that burns only to chill and
+to destroy! Evil angels are always active and indefatigable, and there
+must be good angels enlisted to face them; and here is employment for
+the slack hand of grief. Ah, we have known mothers bereft of sons in
+this war, who have seemed at once to open wide their hearts, and to
+become mothers to every brave soldier in the field. They have lived only
+to work,&mdash;and in place of one lost, their sons have been counted by
+thousands.</p>
+
+<p>And not least of all the fields for exertion and Christian charity
+opened by this war is that presented by womanhood. The war is
+abstracting from the community its protecting and sheltering elements,
+and leaving the helpless and dependent in vast disproportion. For years
+to come, the average of lone women will be largely increased; and the
+demand, always great, for some means by which they may provide for
+themselves, in the rude jostle of the world, will become more urgent and
+imperative.</p>
+
+<p>Will any one sit pining away in inert grief, when two streets off are
+the midnight dance-houses, where girls of twelve, thirteen, and fourteen
+are being lured into the way of swift destruction? How many of these are
+daughters of soldiers who have given their hearts' blood for us and our
+liberties!</p>
+
+<p>Two noble women of the Society of Friends have lately been taking the
+gauge of suffering and misery in our land, visiting the hospitals at
+every accessible point, pausing in our great cities, and going in their
+purity to those midnight orgies where mere children are being trained
+for a life of vice and infamy. They have talked with these poor
+bewildered souls, entangled in toils as terrible and inexorable as those
+of the slave-market, and many of whom are frightened and distressed at
+the life they are beginning to lead, and earnestly looking for the means
+of escape. In the judgment of these holy women, at least one third of
+those with whom they have talked are children so recently entrapped, and
+so capable of reformation, that there would be the greatest hope in
+efforts for their salvation. While such things are to be done in our
+land, is there any reason why any one should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> die of grief? One soul
+redeemed will do more to lift the burden of sorrow than all the
+blandishments and diversions of art, all the alleviations of luxury, all
+the sympathy of friends.</p>
+
+<p>In the Roman Catholic Church there is an order of women called the
+Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who have renounced the world to devote
+themselves, their talents and property, entirely to the work of seeking
+out and saving the fallen of their own sex; and the wonders worked by
+their self-denying love on the hearts and lives of even the most
+depraved are credible only to those who know that the Good Shepherd
+Himself ever lives and works with such spirits engaged in such a work. A
+similar order of women exists in New York, under the direction of the
+Episcopal Church, in connection with St. Luke's Hospital; and another in
+England, who tend the "House of Mercy" of Clewer.</p>
+
+<p>Such benevolent associations offer objects of interest to that class
+which most needs something to fill the void made by bereavement. The
+wounds of grief are less apt to find a cure in that rank of life where
+the sufferer has wealth and leisure. The <i>poor</i> widow, whose husband was
+her all, <i>must</i> break the paralysis of grief. The hard necessities of
+life are her physicians; they send her out to unwelcome, yet friendly
+toil, which, hard as it seems, has yet its healing power. But the
+sufferer surrounded by the appliances of wealth and luxury may long
+indulge the baleful apathy, and remain in the damp shadows of the valley
+of death till strength and health are irrecoverably lost. How
+Christ-like is the thought of a woman, graceful, elegant, cultivated,
+refined, whose voice has been trained to melody, whose fingers can make
+sweet harmony with every touch, whose pencil and whose needle can awake
+the beautiful creations of art, devoting all these powers to the work of
+charming back to the sheepfold those wandering and bewildered lambs whom
+the Good Shepherd still calls his own! Jenny Lind, once, when she sang
+at a concert for destitute children, exclaimed in her enthusiasm, "Is it
+not beautiful that I can sing so?" And so may not every woman feel, when
+her graces and accomplishments draw the wanderer, and charm away evil
+demons, and soothe the sore and sickened spirit, and make the Christian
+fold more attractive than the dizzy gardens of false pleasure?</p>
+
+<p>In such associations, and others of kindred nature, how many of the
+stricken and bereaved women of our country might find at once a home and
+an object in life! Motherless hearts might be made glad in a better and
+higher motherhood; and the stock of earthly life that seemed cut off at
+the root, and dead past recovery, may be grafted upon with a shoot from
+the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.</p>
+
+<p>So the beginning of this eventful 1865, which finds us still treading
+the wine-press of our great conflict, should bring with it a serene and
+solemn hope, a joy such as those had with whom in the midst of the fiery
+furnace there walked one like unto the Son of God.</p>
+
+<p>The great affliction that has come upon our country is so evidently the
+purifying chastening of a Father, rather than the avenging anger of a
+Destroyer, that all hearts may submit themselves in a solemn and holy
+calm still to bear the burning that shall make us clean from dross and
+bring us forth to a higher national life. Never, in the whole course of
+our history, have such teachings of the pure abstract Right been so
+commended and forced upon us by Providence. Never have public men been
+so constrained to humble themselves before God, and to acknowledge that
+there is a Judge that ruleth in the earth. Verily His inquisition for
+blood has been strict and awful; and for every stricken household of the
+poor and lowly, hundreds of households of the oppressor have been
+scattered. The land where the family of the slave was first annihilated,
+and the negro, with all the loves and hopes of a man, was proclaimed to
+be a beast to be bred and sold in market<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> with the horse and the
+swine,&mdash;that land, with its fair name, Virginia, has been made a
+desolation so signal, so wonderful, that the blindest passer-by cannot
+but ask for what sin so awful a doom has been meted out. The prophetic
+visions of Nat Turner, who saw the leaves drop blood and the land
+darkened, have been fulfilled. The work of justice which he predicted is
+being executed to the uttermost.</p>
+
+<p>But when this strange work of judgment and justice is consummated, when
+our country, through a thousand battles and ten thousands of precious
+deaths, shall have come forth from this long agony, redeemed and
+regenerated, then God Himself shall return and dwell with us, and the
+Lord God shall wipe away all tears from all faces, and the rebuke of His
+people shall He utterly take away.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>GOD SAVE THE FLAG!</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Washed in the blood of the brave and the blooming,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Snatched from the altars of insolent foes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Burning with star-fires, but never consuming,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Flash its broad ribands of lily and rose.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Vainly the prophets of Ba&auml;l would rend it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Vainly his worshippers pray for its fall;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thousands have died for it, millions defend it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Emblem of justice and mercy to all:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Justice that reddens the sky with her terrors,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Mercy that comes with her white-handed train,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Soothing all passions, redeeming all errors,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Sheathing the sabre and breaking the chain.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Borne on the deluge of old usurpations,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Drifted our Ark o'er the desolate seas;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This was the rainbow of hope to the nations,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Torn from the storm-cloud and flung to the breeze!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">God bless the Flag and its loyal defenders.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">While its broad folds o'er the battle-field wave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till the dim star-wreath rekindle its splendors,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Washed from its stains in the blood of the brave!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+<h2>ANNO DOMINI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is right and fitting that this nation should enter upon the new year
+with peculiar gratitude and thanksgiving to the Most High. Through all
+its existence it has rejoiced in the sunshine of divine favor; but never
+has that favor been so benignly and bountifully bestowed as in these
+latter days. For the unexampled material prosperity which has waited
+upon our steps,&mdash;for blessings in city and field, in basket and store,
+in all that we have set our hand unto, it is meet that we should render
+thanks to the Good Giver; but for the especial blessings of these last
+four years,&mdash;for the sudden uprising of manhood,&mdash;for the great revival
+of justice and truth and love, without which material prosperity is but
+a second death,&mdash;for the wisdom to do, the courage to dare, the patience
+to endure, and the godlike strength to sacrifice all in a righteous
+cause, let us give thanks to-day; for in these consists a people's life.</p>
+
+<p>To every nation there comes an hour whereon hang trembling the issues of
+its fate. Has it vitality to withstand the shock of conflict and the
+turmoil of surprise? Will it slowly gather itself up for victorious
+onset? or will it sink unresisting into darkness and the grave?</p>
+
+<p>To this nation, as to all, the question came: Ease or honor, death or
+life? Subtle and savage, with a bribe in his hand, and a threat on his
+tongue, the tempter stood. Let it be remembered with lasting gratitude
+that there was neither pause nor parley when once his purpose was
+revealed. The answer came,&mdash;the voice of millions like the voice of one.
+From city and village, from mountain and prairie, from the granite coast
+of the Atlantic to the golden gate of the Pacific, the answer came. It
+roared from a thousand cannon, it flashed from a million muskets. The
+sudden gleam of uplifted swords revealed it, the quiver of bristling
+bayonets wrote it in blood. A knell to the despot, a p&aelig;an to the slave,
+it thundered round the world.</p>
+
+<p>Then the thing which we had greatly feared came upon us, and that
+spectre which we had been afraid of came unto us, and, behold, length of
+days was in its right hand, and in its left hand riches and honor. What
+the lion-hearted warrior of England was to the children of the Saracens,
+that had the gaunt mystery of Secession been to the little ones of this
+generation, an evening phantom and a morning fear, at the mere mention
+of whose name many had been but too ready to fall at the feet of
+opposition and cry imploringly, "Take any form but that!" The phantom
+approached, put off its shadowy outlines, assumed a definite purpose,
+loomed up in horrid proportions,&mdash;to come to perpetual end. In its
+actual presence all fear vanished. The contest waxed hot, but it wanes
+forever. Shadow and substance drag slowly down their bloody path to
+disappear in eternal infamy. The war rolls on to its close; and when it
+closes, the foul blot of secession stains our historic page no more.
+Another book shall be opened.</p>
+
+<p>Remembering all the way which these battling years have led us, we can
+only say, "It is the Lord's, doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
+Who dreamed of the grand, stately patience, the heroic strength, that
+lay dormant in the hearts of this impulsive, mercurial people? It was
+always capable of magnanimity. Who suspected its sublime self-poise?
+Rioting in a reckless, childish freedom, who would have dared to
+prophesy that calm, clear foresight by which it voluntarily assumed the
+yoke, voiced all its strong individual wills in one central controlling
+will, and bent with haughty humility to every restraint that looked to
+the rescue of its endangered liberty? The cannon that smote the walls of
+Sumter did a wild work. Its voice of insult and of sacrilege roused the
+fire of a blood too brave to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> know its courage, too proud to boast its
+source. All the heroism inherited from an honored ancestry, all the
+inborn wrath of justice against iniquity, all that was true to truth
+sprang up instinctively to wrest our Holy Land from the clutch of its
+worse than infidels.</p>
+
+<p>But that was not the final test. The final test came afterwards. The
+passion of indignation flamed out as passion must. The war that had been
+welcomed as a relief bore down upon the land with an ever-increasing
+weight, became an ever-darkening shadow. Its romance and poetry did not
+fade out, but their colors were lost under the sable hues of reality.
+The cloud hung over every hamlet; it darkened every doorway. Even
+success must have been accompanied with sharpest sorrow; and we had not
+success to soften sorrow. Disaster followed close upon delay, and delay
+upon disaster, and still the nation's heart was strong. The cloud became
+a pall, but there was no faltering. Men said to one another,
+anxiously,&mdash;"This cannot last. We must have victory. The people will not
+stand these delays. The summer must achieve results, or all is lost."
+The summer came and went, results were not achieved, and still the
+patient country waited,&mdash;waited not supinely, not indifferently, but
+with a still determination, with a painful longing, with an eager
+endeavor, with a resolute will, less demonstrative, but no less
+definite, than that which Sumter roused. Moments of sadness, of gloom,
+of bitter disappointment and deep indignation there have been; but never
+from the first moment of the Rebellion to this its dying hour has there
+been a time when the purpose of the people to crush out treason and save
+the nation has for a single instant wavered. And never has their power
+lagged behind their purpose. Never have they withheld men or money, but
+always they have pressed on, more eager, more generous, more forward to
+give than their leaders have been to ask. Truly, it is not in man that
+walketh thus to direct his steps!</p>
+
+<p>And side by side, with no unequal step, the great charities have
+attended the great conflict. Out of the strong has come forth sweetness.
+From the helmeted brow of War has sprung a fairer than Minerva,
+panoplied not for battle, but for the tenderest ministrations of Peace.
+Wherever the red hand of War has been raised to strike, there the white
+hand of Pity has been stretched forth to solace. Wherever else there may
+have been division, here there has been no division. Love, the essence
+of Christianity, self-sacrifice, the life of God, have forgotten their
+names, have left the beaten ways, have embodied themselves in
+institutions, and lifted the whole nation to the heights of a divine
+beneficence. Old and young, rich and poor, bond and free, have joined in
+offering an offering to the Lord in the persons of his wounded brethren.
+The woman that was tender and very delicate has brought her finest
+handiwork; the slave, whose just unmanacled hands were hardly yet deft
+enough to fashion a freedman's device, has proffered his painful hoards;
+the criminal in his cell has felt the mysterious brotherhood stirring in
+his heart, and has pressed his skill and cunning into the service of his
+countrymen. Hands trembling with age have steadied themselves to new
+effort; little fingers that had hardly learned their uses have bent with
+unwonted patience to the novelty of tasks. The fashion and elegance of
+great cities, the thrift and industry of rural villages, have combined
+to relieve the suffering and comfort the sorrowful. Science has wrought
+her mysteries, art has spread her beauties, and learning and eloquence
+and poetry have lavished their free-will offerings. The ancient blood of
+Massachusetts and the youthful vigor of California have throbbed high
+with one desire to give deserved meed to those heroic men who wear their
+badge of honor in scarred brow and maimed limb. The wonders of the Old
+World, the treasures of tropical seas, the boundless wealth of our own
+fertile inland, all that the present has of marvellous, all that the
+past has bequeathed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> most precious,&mdash;all has been poured into the lap of
+this sweet charity, and blesseth alike him that gives and him that
+takes. It is the old convocation of the Jews, when they brought the
+Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation: "And
+they came, both men and women, and brought bracelets, and ear-rings, and
+rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold; and every man that offered
+offered an offering of gold unto the Lord. And every man with whom was
+found blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen and goats' hair and red
+skins of rams and badgers' skins brought them. And all the women that
+were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they
+had spun, both of blue and of purple and of scarlet and of fine linen.
+And the rulers brought onyx-stones, and stones to be set, and spice, and
+oil for the light. The children of Israel brought a willing offering
+unto the Lord, every man and woman."</p>
+
+<p>Truly, not the least of the compensations of this war is the new spirit
+which it has set astir in human life, this acknowledged brotherhood
+which makes all things common, which moves health and wealth and leisure
+and learning to brave the dangers of the battle-field and the horrors of
+the hospital for the comfort of its needy comrade. And inasmuch as he
+who hath done it unto one of the least of these his brethren has done it
+unto the Master, is not this, in very deed and truth, Anno Domini, the
+Year of our Lord?</p>
+
+<p>And let all devout hearts render praises to God for the hope we are
+enabled to cherish that He will speedily save this people from their
+national sin. From the days of our fathers, the land groaned under its
+weight of woe and crime; but none saw from what quarter deliverance
+should come. Apostles and prophets arose in North and South, prophesying
+the wrath of God against a nation that dared to hold its great truth of
+human brotherhood in unrighteousness, and the smile of God only on him
+who should do justly and love mercy and walk humbly before Him; but they
+died in faith, not having obtained the promises. That faith in God, and
+consequently in the ultimate triumph of right over wrong, never failed;
+but few, even of the most sanguine, dared to hope that their eyes should
+see the salvation of the Lord. Upright men spent their lives in
+unyielding and indignant protest, not so much for any immediate result
+as because they could do no otherwise,&mdash;because the constant violation
+of sacred right, the constant defilement and degradation of country,
+wrought so fiercely and painfully in their hearts that they could not
+hold their peace. Though they expected no sudden reform, they believed
+in the indestructibility of truth, and knew, therefore, that their word
+should not return unto them void, but waited for some far future day
+when happier harvesters should come bringing their sheaves with them.
+How looks the promise now? A beneficent Providence has outstripped our
+laggard hopes. The work which we had so summarily given over to the
+wiser generations behind us is rapidly approaching completion beneath
+the strokes of a few sharp, short years of our own. Slavery, which was
+apologized for by the South, tolerated by the North, half recognized as
+an evil, half accepted as a compromise, but with every conscientious
+concession and every cowardly expedient sinking ever deeper and deeper
+into the nation's life, stands forth at last in its real character, and
+meets its righteous doom. Public opinion, rapidly sublimed in the white
+heat of this fierce war, is everywhere crystallizing. Men are learning
+to know precisely what they believe, and, knowing, dare maintain. There
+is no more speaking with bated breath, no more counselling of
+forbearance and non-intervention. It is no longer a chosen few who dare
+openly to denounce the sum of all villainies; but loud and long and deep
+goes up the execration of a people,&mdash;the tenfold hate and horror of men
+who have seen the foul fiend's work, who have felt his fangs fastened in
+their own flesh, his poison working<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> in their own hearts' blood.
+Hundreds of thousands of thinking men have gone down into his loathsome
+prison-house, have looked upon his obscene features, have grappled,
+shuddering, with his slimy strength; and thousands of thousands,
+watching them from far-off Northern homes, have felt the chill of
+disgust that crept through their souls. The inmost abhorrence of slavery
+that fills the heart of this people it is impossible for language to
+exaggerate. It is so strong, so wide-spread, so uncompromising, so fixed
+in its determination to destroy, root and branch, the accursed thing,
+that even the forces of evil and self-seeking, awed and overpowered, are
+swept into the line of its procession. Good men and bad men, lovers of
+country and lovers only of lucre, men who will fight to the death for a
+grand idea and men who fight only for some low ambition, worshippers of
+God and worshippers of Mammon, are alike putting their hands to the
+plough which is to overturn and overturn till the ancient evil is
+uprooted. The very father of lies is, perforce, become the servant of
+truth. That old enemy which is the Devil, the malignant messenger of all
+evil, finds himself,&mdash;somewhat amazed and enraged, we must believe, at
+his unexpected situation,&mdash;with all his executive ability undiminished,
+all his spiritual strength unimpaired, finds himself harnessed to the
+chariot of human freedom and human progress, and working in his own
+despite the beneficent will of God. So He maketh the wrath of men and
+devils to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain.</p>
+
+<p>Unspeakably cheering, both as a sign of the sincerity of our leaders in
+this great day and as a pledge of what the nation means to do when its
+hands are free, are the little Christian colonies planted in the rear of
+our victorious armies. In the heart of woods are often seen large tracts
+of open country gay with a brilliant purple bloom which the people call
+"fire-weed," because it springs up on spots that have been stripped by
+fire. So, where the old plantations of sloth and servitude have been
+consumed by the desolating flames of war, spring up the tender growths
+of Christian civilization. The filthy hovel is replaced by the decent
+cottage. The squalor of slavery is succeeded by the little adornments of
+ownership. The thrift of self-possession supplants the recklessness of
+irresponsibility. For the slave-pen we have the school-house. Where the
+lash labored to reduce men to the level of brutes, the Bible leads them
+up to the heights of angels. We are as yet but in the beginning, but we
+have begun right. With his staff the slave passes over the Jordan of his
+deliverance; but through the manly nurture and Christian training which
+we owe him, and which we shall pay, he shall become two bands. The
+people did not set themselves to combat prejudices with words alone,
+when the time was ripe for deeds; but while the Government was yet
+hesitating whether to put the musket into his hand for war, Christian
+men and women hastened to give him the primer for peace. Not waiting for
+legislative enactments, they took the freedman as he came all panting
+from the house of bondage; they ministered to his wants, strengthened
+his heart, and set him rejoicing on his way to manhood. The Proclamation
+of Emancipation may or may not be revoked; but whom knowledge has made a
+man, and discipline a soldier, no edict can make again a slave.</p>
+
+<p>While the people have been working in their individual capacity to right
+the wrongs of generations, our constituted authorities have been moving
+on steadfastly to the same end. Military necessity has emancipated
+thousands of slaves, and civil power has pressed ever nearer and nearer
+to the abolition of slavery. In all the confusion of war, the
+trumpet-tones of justice have rung through our national halls with no
+uncertain sound. With a pertinacity most exasperating to tyrants and
+infidels, but most welcome to the friends of human rights, Northern
+Senators and Representatives have presented the claims of the African
+race. With many a momentary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> recession, the tide has swept irresistibly
+onward. Hopes have been baffled only to be strengthened. Measures have
+been defeated only to be renewed. Defeat has been accepted but as the
+stepping-stone to new endeavor. Cautiously, warily, Freedom has lain in
+wait to rescue her wronged children. Her watchful eyes have fastened
+upon every weakness in her foe: her ready hand has been upraised
+wherever there was a chance to strike. Quietly, almost unheard amid the
+loud-resounding clash of arms, her decrees have gone forth, instinct
+with the enfranchisement of a race. The war began with old customs and
+prejudices under full headway, but the new necessities soon met them
+with fierce collision. The first shock was felt when the escaping slaves
+of Rebel masters were pronounced free, and our soldiers were forbidden
+to return them. Then the blows came fast and furious, and the whole
+edifice, reared on that crumbling corner-stone of Slavery, reeled
+through all its heaven-defying heights. The gates of Liberty opened to
+the slave, on golden hinges turning. The voice of promise rang through
+Rebel encampments, and penetrated to the very fastnesses of Rebellion.
+The ranks of the army called the freedman to the rescue of his race. The
+courts of justice received him in witness of his manhood. Before every
+foreign court he was acknowledged as a citizen of his country, and as
+entitled to her protection. The capital of our nation was purged of the
+foul stain that dishonored her in the eyes of the nations, and that gave
+the lie direct to our most solemn Declaration. The fugitive-slave acts
+that disfigured our statute-book were blotted out, and
+fugitive-slave-stealer acts filled their vacant places. The seal of
+freedom, unconditional, perpetual, and immediate, was set upon the broad
+outlying lands of the republic, and from the present Congress we
+confidently await the crowning act which shall make slavery forever
+impossible, and liberty the one supreme, universal, unchangeable law in
+every part of our domains.</p>
+
+<p>What we have done is an earnest of what we mean to do. After nearly four
+years of war, and war on such a scale as the world has never before
+seen, the people have once more, and in terms too emphatic to be
+misunderstood, proclaimed their undying purpose. With a unanimity rarely
+equalled, a people that had fought eight years against a tax of
+threepence on the pound, and that was rapidly advancing to the front
+rank of nations through the victories of peace,&mdash;a people jealous of its
+liberties and proud of its prosperity, has re&euml;lected to the chief
+magistracy a man under whose administration burdensome taxes have been
+levied, immense armies marshalled, imperative drafts ordered, and
+fearful sufferings endured. They have done this because, in spite of
+possible mistakes and short-comings, they have seen his grasp ever
+tightening around the throat of Slavery, his weapons ever seeking the
+vital point of the Rebellion. They have beheld him standing always at
+his post, calm in the midst of peril, hopeful when all was dark, patient
+under every obloquy, courteous to his bitterest foes, conciliatory where
+conciliation was possible, inflexible where to yield was dishonor. Never
+have the passions of civil war betrayed him into cruelty or hurried him
+into revenge; nor has any hope of personal benefit or any fear of
+personal detriment stayed him when occasion beckoned. If he has erred,
+it has been on the side of leniency. If he has hesitated, it has been to
+assure himself of the right. Where there was censure, he claimed it for
+himself; where there was praise, he has lavished it on his subordinates.
+The strong he has braved, and the weak sheltered. He has rejected the
+counsels of his friends when they were inspired by partisanship, and
+adopted the suggestions of opponents when they were founded on wisdom.
+His ear has always been open to the people's voice, yet he has never
+suffered himself to be blindly driven by the storm of popular fury. He
+has consulted public opinion, as the public servant should; but he has
+not pandered to public prejudice, as only demagogues<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> do. Not weakly
+impatient to secure the approval of the country, he has not scorned to
+explain his measures to the understanding of the common people. Never
+bewildered by the solicitations of party, nor terrified by the menace of
+opposition, he has controlled with moderation, and yielded with dignity,
+as the exigencies of the time demanded. Entering upon office with his
+full share of the common incredulity, perceiving no more than his
+fellow-citizens the magnitude of the crisis, he has steadily risen to
+the height of the great argument. No suspicion of self-seeking stains
+his fair fame; but ever mindful of his solemn oath, he seeks with clean
+hands and a pure heart the welfare of the whole country. Future
+generations alone can do justice to his ability; his integrity is firmly
+established in the convictions of the present age. His reward is with
+him, though his work lies still before him.</p>
+
+<p>Only less significant than the fact is the manner of his reflection. All
+sections of a continental country, with interests as diverse as latitude
+and longitude can make them, came up to secure, not any man's
+continuance in power, but the rule of law. The East called with her
+thousands, and the West answered with her tens of thousands. Baltimore
+that day washed out the blood-stains from her pavement, and free
+Maryland girded herself for a new career. Men who had voted for
+Washington came forward with the snows of a hundred winters on their
+brows, and amid the silence and tears of assembled throngs deposited
+their ballot for Abraham Lincoln. Daughters led their infirm fathers to
+the polls to be sure that no deception should mock their failing sight.
+Armless men dropped their votes from between their teeth. Sick men and
+wounded men, wounded on the battle-fields of their country, were borne
+on litters to give their dying testimony to the righteous cause.
+Dilettanteism, that would not soil its dainty hands with politics, dared
+no longer stand aloof, but gave its voice for national honor and
+national existence. Old party ties snapped asunder, and local prejudices
+shrivelled in the fire of newly kindled patriotism. Turbulence and
+violence, awed by the supreme majesty of a resolute nation, slunk away
+and hid their shame from the indignant day. Calmly, in the midst of
+raging war, in despite of threats and cajolery, with a lofty, unspoken
+contempt for those false men who would urge to anarchy and infamy, this
+great people went up to the ballot-box, and gave in its adhesion to
+human equality, civil liberty, and universal freedom. And as the good
+tidings of great joy flashed over the wires from every quarter, men
+recognized the finger of God, and, laying aside all lower exultation,
+gathered in the public places, and, standing reverently with uncovered
+heads, poured forth their rapturous thanksgiving in that sublime
+doxology which has voiced for centuries the adoration of the human
+soul:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Praise Him, all creatures here below!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Praise Him above, ye heavenly host!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>So America to the world gives greeting. So a free people meets and
+masters the obstacles that bar its progress. So this young republic
+speaks warning to the old despotisms, and hope to the struggling
+peoples. Thus with the sword she seeks peace under liberty. Striking off
+the shackles that fettered her own limbs, emerging from the thick of her
+deadly conflict, with many a dint on her armor, but with no shame on her
+brow, she starts on her victorious career, and bids the suffering
+nations take heart. With the old lie torn from her banner, the old life
+shall come back to her symbols. Her children shall no longer blush at
+the taunts of foreign tyrannies, but shall boldly proclaim her to be
+indeed the land of the free, as she has always been the home of the
+brave. Men's minds shall no longer be confused by distinctions between
+higher and lower law, to the infinite detriment of moral character, but
+all her laws shall be emanations from the infinite source of justice.
+Marshalling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> thus all her forces on the Lord's side, she may inscribe,
+without mockery, on her silver and gold, "In God we trust." She may hope
+for purity in her homes, and honesty in her councils. She may front her
+growing grandeur without misgiving, knowing that it comes not by earthly
+might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts; and the only
+voice of her victory, the song of her thanksgiving, and her watchword to
+the nations shall be, "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace,
+good-will toward men."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>America and her Commentators:</i> With a Critical Sketch of
+Travel in the United States. By <span class="smcap">Henry T. Tuckerman</span>. New
+York: Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. 460.</p></div>
+
+<p>If a little late, we are none the less sincere in extending to this
+timely and excellent work a hearty welcome. It is full of varied
+interest and valuable instruction. It is equally adapted to attract and
+edify our own citizens, and to guide and inform those foreigners who
+wish to know the history and facts of American society. The object of
+the work is to present a general view of the traits and transitions of
+our country, as they are reflected in the records made at different
+periods by writers of various nationalities, and to discuss, in
+connection with this exhibition, the temper and value of the principal
+critics of our civilization, emphasizing and indorsing their correct
+observations, pointing out and rectifying their erroneous ones. There
+are obviously many great advantages in thus reverting to the past and
+examining the present of American institutions and life by the help of
+the literature of travel in America,&mdash;a literature so richly suggestive,
+because so constantly modified by the national peculiarities and
+personal points of view of the writers. Mr. Tuckerman has improved these
+advantages with care and tact. In the preface and introduction,
+characterized by an ample command of the resources of the subject, easy
+discursiveness and lively criticism, he puts the reader in possession of
+such preliminary information as he will like or need to have. The body
+of the work begins with a portrayal of America as it appeared to its
+earliest discoverers and explorers. The second chapter is devoted to the
+Jesuit missionaries, who, reviving the spirit of the Crusades, plunged
+into the wilderness to convert the aborigines to Christianity, and,
+inspired by the wonders of the virgin solitude, became the pioneer
+writers of American travels. Chapters third and fourth deal with the
+French travellers who have visited and written on our country, from
+Chastellux to Laboulaye. The similar list of British travellers and
+writers is presented and discussed in the fifth and sixth chapters.
+Chapter seventh is taken up with "English Abuse of America"; and the
+subject has rarely been treated so fitly and firmly, with such a
+blending of just severity and moderation. "Cockneyism," Mr. Tuckerman
+says, "may seem not worthy of analysis, far less of refutation; but, as
+Sydney Smith remarked, 'In a country surrounded by dikes, a rat may
+inundate a province'; and it is the long-continued gnawing of the tooth
+of detraction, that, at a momentous crisis, let in the cold flood at
+last upon the nation's heart, and quenched its traditional love." The
+eighth chapter depicts the views and characterizes the qualities of the
+Northern European authors who have travelled in America and written
+concerning us. In the ninth chapter our Italian visitors and critics are
+treated in like manner. And in the tenth chapter the same task is
+performed for the Americans themselves who have journeyed through and
+written on their own country. Then follows the conclusion,
+recapitulating and applying the results of the whole survey. And the
+work properly closes with an index, furnishing the reader facilities for
+immediate reference to any passage, topic, or name he wishes to find.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For the task he has here undertaken Mr. Tuckerman is well qualified by
+the varied and comprehensive range of his knowledge and culture, the
+devotion of his life to travel, art, and study. His pages not only
+illustrate, they also vindicate, the character and claims of American
+nationality. He shows that "there never was a populous land about which
+the truth has been more generalized and less discriminated." His
+descriptions of local scenery and historic incidents recognize all that
+is lovely and sublime in our national landscapes, all that is romantic
+or distinctive in our national life. His humane and ethical sympathies
+are ready, discriminating, and generous; his approbations and rebukes,
+vivid and generally rightly applied. These and other associated
+qualities lend interest and value to the biographic sketches he presents
+of the numerous travellers and authors whose works pass in review. The
+pictures of many of these persons&mdash;such as Marquette, Volney,
+D'Allessandro, Bartram&mdash;are psychological studies of much freshness and
+force.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American
+Revolution:</i> With an Historical Essay. By <span class="smcap">Lorenzo Sabine</span>.
+Two Volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, &amp; Co. 8vo. pp. 608, 600.</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Sabine has attempted in these volumes to present in a judicial
+spirit a chapter of our Revolutionary history which usually bears the
+most of passion in its recital,&mdash;believing, as he does, that
+impartiality is identical with charity, in dealing with his theme. The
+first edition of his work, in a single volume, has been before the
+public seventeen years. The zeal and fidelity of his labor have been
+well appreciated. So far as his purpose has involved a plea or an
+apology for the Loyalists of the American Revolution, his critics who
+have at all abated their commendation of him have challenged him on the
+side where he might most willingly have been supposed to err, that of an
+excess of leniency. As to the class of men with whom he deals generally
+in his introductory essay, and individually in the elaborate
+biographical sketches which follow, the same difficulty presents itself
+which is encountered in all attempts to canvass the faults or the
+characteristics of any body of men who bear a common party-name or share
+a common opinion, while in the staple of real virtue or vice, of honor
+or baseness, of sincerity or hypocrisy, they may represent the poles of
+difference. The contemporary estimate of the Tories, and in large part
+the treatment of them which was thought to be just, were, in the main,
+adjusted with reference to the meanest and most malignant portion. Mr.
+Sabine, while by no means espousing the championship even of the best of
+them, would have the whole body judged with the candor which comes of
+looking at their general fellowship in the light of its natural
+prejudices, prepossessions, and embarrassments. It is to be considered
+also that the best of the class were a sort of warrant for the worst.</p>
+
+<p>Those who are tolerably well read in the biographies and histories of
+our Revolutionary period are aware that Dr. Franklin, who, about most
+exciting and passion-stirring subjects, was a man of remarkably moderate
+and tolerant spirit, was eminently a hater of the Tories, unrelenting in
+his animosity towards them, and sternly set against all the measures
+proposed at the Peace for their relief, either by the British Government
+to enforce our remuneration of their losses, or by our own General or
+State Governments to soften the penalties visited upon them. The origin
+and the explanation of this intense feeling of animosity toward the
+Loyalists in the breast of that philosopher of moderation are easily
+traced to one of the most interesting incidents in his residence near
+the British Court as agent for Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The
+incident is connected with the still unexplained mystery of his getting
+possession of the famous letters of Hutchinson, Oliver, etc. Franklin
+was living and directing all his practical efforts for enlightening and
+influencing those whom he supposed to be simply the ignorant plotters of
+mischief against the Colonists, under the full and most confident belief
+that those plotters were merely the stupid and conceited members of the
+British Cabinet. He never had dreamed that he was to look either above
+them to the King, or behind them to any unknown instigators of their
+mischief. With perfect good faith on his own part, he gave them the
+benefit of their own supposed ignorance, wrong-headedness, wilfulness,
+and ingenuity, such as it was, in inventing irritating and oppressive
+measures which, he warned them, would inevitably alienate the hearts and
+the allegiance of the Colonists. He records, that, while he had never
+had a thought but such as this imagined state of the facts had favored,
+a Liberal member of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> Parliament, an intimate friend of his, coming to
+him for a private interview, had told him that the Ministry were not the
+prime movers in this mischief, but were instigated to it by parties whom
+Franklin little suspected of such an agency. When the Doctor expressed
+his incredulity, the friend promised to give him decisive evidence of
+the full truth of his assertion. It came to Franklin in a form which
+astounded him, while it opened his eyes and fixed his indignation upon a
+class of men who from that moment onward were to him the exponents of
+all malignity and baseness. The evidence came in the shape of the
+originals, the autographs, of the above-named letters, written by
+natives of the American soil, office-holders under the Crown, who, while
+pampered and trusted by their constituents on this side of the water,
+were actually dictating, advising, and inspiriting the measures of the
+British Ministry most hateful to the Colonists. Franklin never overcame
+the impression from that shock. When he was negotiating the treaty of
+peace, he set his face and heart most resolutely against all the efforts
+and propositions made by the representatives of the Crown to secure to
+the Tories redress or compensation. He insisted that Britain, in
+espousing their alleged wrongs, indicated that she herself ought to
+remunerate their losses; that they, in fact, had been her agents and
+instruments, as truly as were her Crown officials and troops. Their
+malignant hostility toward their fellow-Colonists, and the sufferings
+and losses entailed on America by their open assertion of the rights of
+the Crown, and by the direct or indirect help which oppressive measures
+had received from them, had deprived them of all claim even on the pity
+of those who had triumphed in spite of them. At any rate, Franklin
+insisted, and it was the utmost to which he would assent,&mdash;his irony and
+sarcasm in making the offer showing the depth of his bitterness on the
+subject,&mdash;that a balance should be struck between the losses of the
+Loyalists and those of the Colonists in the conflagration of their
+sea-ports and the outrages on the property of individual patriots.</p>
+
+<p>The views and feelings of Franklin have been essentially those which
+have since prevailed popularly among us regarding the old Tories. Of
+course, when hard-pressed, he was willing to recognize a difference in
+the motives which prompted individuals and in the degrees of their
+turpitude. Mr. Sabine gives us in his introductory essay a most
+admirable analysis of the whole subject-matter, with an accurate and
+instructive array of all the facts bearing upon it. No man has given
+more thorough or patient inquiry to it, or has had better opportunities
+for gathering materials of prime authority and perfect authenticity for
+the treatment of it. In the biographical sketches which crowd his
+volumes will be found matter of varied and profound interest,
+alternately engaging the tender sympathy and firing the indignation of
+the reader. One can hardly fail of bethinking himself that the moral and
+judicial reflections which come from perusing this work will by and by,
+under some slight modifications, attach to the review of the characters
+and course of some men who are in antagonism to their country's cause in
+these days.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Broken Lights: An Inquiry into the Present Condition and
+Future Prospects of Religious Faith.</i> By <span class="smcap">Frances Power
+Cobbe</span>. Boston: J. E. Tilton &amp; Co.</p></div>
+
+<p>Among the countless errors of faith which have misled mankind, there is
+none more dangerous, or more common, than that of confounding the forms
+of religion with religion itself. Too often, alike to believer and
+unbeliever, this has proved the one fatal mistake. Many an honest and
+earnest soul, feeling the deep needs of a spiritual life, but unable to
+separate those things which the heart would accept from those against
+which the reason revolts, has rejected all together, and turned away
+sorrowful, if not scoffing. On the other hand, the state of that man,
+who, because his mind has settled down upon certain externals of
+religion, deems that he has secured its essentials also, is worse than
+that of the skeptic. The freezing traveller, who is driven by the rocks
+(of hard doctrine) and the thorns (of doubt) to keep his limbs in
+motion, stands a far better chance of finding his way out of the
+wilderness than he who lies down on the softest bed of snow, flatters
+himself that all is well, and dreams of home, whilst the deadly torpor
+creeps over him.</p>
+
+<p>If help and guidance and good cheer for all such be not found in this
+little volume, it is certainly no fault of the writer's intention. She
+brings to her task the power of profound conviction, inspiring a devout
+wish to lead others into the way of truth. Beneath the multiform systems
+of theology<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> she finds generally the same firm foundations of
+faith,&mdash;"faith in the existence of a righteous God, faith in the eternal
+Law of Morality, faith in an Immortal Life." None enjoys a monopoly of
+truth, although all are based upon it. Each is a lighthouse, more or
+less lofty, and more or less illumined by the glory that burns within;
+yet their purest rays are only "broken lights." The glory itself is
+infinite: it is only through human narrowness and imperfection that it
+appears narrow and imperfect. The lighthouse is good in its place: it
+beckons home, with its "wheeling arms of dark and bright," many a
+benighted voyager; but we must remember that it is a structure made with
+hands, and not confound the stone and iron of human contrivance with the
+great Source and Fountain of Light.</p>
+
+<p>The writer does not grope with uncertain purpose among these imperfect
+rays, and she is never confused by them. To each she freely gives credit
+for what it is or has been; but all fade at last before the unspeakable
+brightness of the rising sun. She discerns the dawn of that day when all
+our little candles may be safely extinguished: for it is not in any
+church, nor in any creed, nor yet in any book, that all of God's law is
+contained; but the light of His countenance shines primarily on the
+souls of men, out of which all religions have proceeded, and into which
+we must look for the ever new and ever vital faith, which is to the
+unclouded conscience what the sunshine is to sight.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the conclusion the author arrives at through an array of
+arguments of which we shall not attempt a summary. It is not necessary
+to admit what these are designed to prove, in order to derive
+refreshment and benefit from the pure tone of morality, the fervent
+piety, and the noble views of practical religion which animate her
+pages. It is not a book to be afraid of. No violent hand is here laid
+upon the temple; but only the scaffoldings, which, as she perceives,
+obscure the beauty of the temple, are taken away. Not only those who
+have rejected religion because they could not receive its dogmas, but
+all who have struggled with their doubts and mastered them, or thought
+they mastered them, nay, any sincere seeker for the truth, will find
+Miss Cobbe's unpretending treatise exceedingly valuable and suggestive;
+while to any one interested in modern theological discussions we would
+recommend it as containing the latest, and perhaps the clearest and most
+condensed, statement of the questions at issue which these discussions
+have called out.</p>
+
+<p>The spirit of the book is admirable. Both the skeptic who sneers and the
+bigot who denounces might learn a beautiful lesson from its calm, yet
+earnest pages. It is free from the brilliant shallowness of Renan, and
+the bitterness which sometimes marred the teachings of Parker. It is a
+generous, tender, noble book,&mdash;enjoying, indeed, over most works of its
+class a peculiar advantage; for, while its logic has everywhere a
+masculine strength and clearness, there glows through all an element too
+long wanting to our hard systems of theology,&mdash;an element which only
+woman's heart can supply.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, notwithstanding the lofty reason, the fine intuition, the
+philanthropy and hope, which inspire its pages, we close the book with a
+sense of something wanting. The author points out the danger there
+always is of a faith which is intellectually demonstrable becoming, with
+many, a faith of the intellect merely,&mdash;and frankly avows that "there is
+a cause why Theism, even in warmer and better natures, too often fails
+to draw out that fervent piety" which is characteristic of narrower and
+intenser beliefs. This cause she traces to the neglect of prayer, and
+the consequent removal afar off, to vague confines of consciousness, of
+the Personality and Fatherhood of God. Her observations on this
+important subject are worthy of serious consideration, from those
+rationalists especially whose cold theories do not admit anything so
+"unphilosophical" as prayer. Yet we find in the book itself a want. The
+author&mdash;like nearly all writers from her point of view&mdash;ignores the
+power of miracle. Because physical impossibilities, or what seem such,
+have been so readily accepted as facts owing their origin to divine
+interposition, they fall to the opposite extreme of denying the
+occurrence of any events out of the common course of Nature's
+operations. Of the positive and powerful ministration of angels in human
+affairs they make no account whatever, or accept it as a pleasing dream;
+and they forget that what we call a miracle may be as truly an offspring
+of immutable law as the dew and the sunshine,&mdash;failing to learn of the
+loadstone, which attracts to itself splinters of steel contrary to all
+the commonly observed laws of gravitation, the simple truth that man
+also may become a magnet, and, by the power of the divine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> currents
+passing through him, do many things astonishing to every-day experience.
+The feats of a vulgar thaumaturgy, designed to make the ignorant stare,
+may well be dispensed with. But the fact that "spiritualism," with all
+its crudities of doctrine and errors of practice, has spread over
+Christendom with a rapidity to which the history of religious beliefs
+affords no parallel, shows that the realization of supernatural
+influences is an absolute need of the human heart. The soul of the
+earlier forms of worship dies out of them, as this faith dies out, or
+becomes merely traditional; and no new system can look to fill their
+places without it.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Letters of</i> <span class="smcap">Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy</span> <i>from 1833 to
+1847.</i> Two Volumes. Philadelphia: F. Leypoldt.</p></div>
+
+<p>There are many people who make very little discrimination between one
+musician and another,&mdash;who discern no great gulf between Mendelssohn and
+Meyerbeer, between Rossini and Romberg, between Spohr and Spontini: not
+in respect of music, but of character; of character in itself, and not
+as it may develop itself in chaste or florid, sentimental, gay,
+devotional or dramatic musical forms. And as yet we have very little
+help in our efforts to gain insight into the inner nature of our great
+musical artists. Of Meyerbeer the world knows that he was vain, proud,
+and fond of money,&mdash;but whether he had soul or not we do not know; the
+profound religiousness of Handel, who spent his best years on
+second-rate operas, and devoted his declining energies to oratorio, we
+have to guess at rather than reach by direct disclosure; and till Mr.
+Thayer shall take away the mantle which yet covers his Beethoven, we
+shall know but little of the interior nature of that wonderful man. But
+Mendelssohn now stands before us, disclosed by the most searching of all
+processes, his own letters to his own friends. And how graceful, how
+winning, how true, tender, noble is the man! We have not dared to write
+a notice of these two volumes while we were fresh from their perusal,
+lest the fascination of that genial, Christian presence should lead us
+into the same frame which prompted not only the rhapsodies of "Charles
+Auchester," but the same passionate admiration which all England felt,
+while Mendelssohn lived, and which Elizabeth Sheppard shared, not led.
+We lay down these volumes after the third perusal, blessing God for the
+rich gift of such a life,&mdash;a life, sweet, gentle, calm, nowise intense
+nor passionate, yet swift, stirring, and laborious even to the point of
+morbidness. A Christian without cant; a friend, not clinging to a few
+and rejecting the many, nor diffusing his love over the many with no
+dominating affection for a few near ones, but loving his own with a
+tenacity almost unparalleled, yet reaching out a free, generous sympathy
+and kindly devotion even to the hundreds who could give him nothing but
+their love. It is thought that his grief over his sister Fanny was the
+occasion of the rupture of a blood-vessel in his head, and that it was
+the proximate cause of his own death; and yet he who loved with this
+idolatrous affection gave his hand to many whose names he hardly knew.
+The reader will not overlook, in the second series of letters, the plea
+in behalf of an old Swiss guide for remembrance in "Murray," nor that
+long letter to Mr. Simrock, the music-publisher, enjoining the utmost
+secrecy, and then urging the claims of a man whom he was most desirous
+to help.</p>
+
+<p>The letters from Italy and Switzerland were written during the two years
+with which he prefaced his quarter-century of labor as composer,
+director, and virtuoso. They relate much to Italian painting, the music
+of Passion Week, Swiss scenery, his stay with Goethe, and his brilliant
+reception in England on his return. They disclose a youth of glorious
+promise.</p>
+
+<p>The second series does not disappoint that promise. The man is the youth
+a little less exuberant, a little more mature, but no less buoyant,
+tender, and loving. The letters are as varied as the claims of one's
+family differ from those of the outside world, but are always
+Mendelssohnian,&mdash;free, pure, unworldly, yet deep and wise. They continue
+down to the very close of his life. They are edited by his brother Paul,
+and another near relative. Yet unauthorized publications of other
+letters will follow, for Mendelssohn was a prolific letter-writer; and
+Lampadius, a warm admirer of the composer, has recently announced such a
+volume. The public may rejoice in this; for Mendelssohn was not only
+purity, but good sense itself; he needs no critical editing; and if we
+may yet have more strictly musical letters from his pen, the influence
+of the two volumes now under notice will be largely increased.</p>
+
+<p>It is not enough to say of these volumes that they are bright, piquant,
+genial, affectionate;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> nor is it enough to speak of their artistic
+worth, the subtile appreciation of painting in the first series, and of
+music in the second; it is not enough to refer to the glimpses which
+they give of eminent artists,&mdash;Chopin, Rossini, Donizetti, Hiller, and
+Moscheles,&mdash;nor the side-glances at Thorwaldsen, Bunsen, the late
+scholarly and art-loving King of Prussia, Schadow, Overbeck, Cornelius,
+and the D&uuml;sseldorf painters; nor is it enough to dwell upon that
+delightful homage to father and mother, that confiding trust in brother
+and sisters, that loyalty to friends. The salient feature of these
+charming books is the unswerving devotion to a great purpose; the
+careless disregard, nay, the abrupt refusal, of fame, unless it came in
+an honest channel; the na&iuml;ve modesty that made him wonder, even in the
+very last years of his life, that <i>he</i> could be the man whose entrance
+into the crowded halls of London and Birmingham should be the signal of
+ten minutes' protracted cheering; the refusal to set art over against
+money; the unwillingness to undertake the mandates of a king, unless
+with the cordial acquiescence of his artistic conscience; and the
+immaculate purity, not alone of his life, but of his thought. How he
+castigates Donizetti's love of money and his sloth! how his whip
+scourges the immorality of the French opera, and his whole soul abhors
+the sensuality of that stage! how steadfastly he refuses to undertake
+the composition of an opera till the faultless libretto for which he
+patiently waited year after year could be prepared! We wish our
+religious societies would call out a few of the letters of this man and
+scatter them broadcast over the land: they would indeed be "leaves for
+the healing of the nations."</p>
+
+<p>There is one lesson which may be learned from Mendelssohn's career,
+which is exceptionably rare: it is that Providence does <i>sometimes</i>
+bless a man every way,&mdash;giving him all good and no evil. Where shall we
+look in actual or historic experience to find a parallel to Mendelssohn
+in this? He had beauty: Chorley says he never looked upon a handsomer
+face. He had grace and elegance. He spoke four languages with perfect
+ease, read Greek and Latin with facility, drew skilfully, was familiar
+with the sciences, and never found himself at a loss with professed
+naturalists. He was a member of one of the most distinguished families
+of Germany: his grandfather being Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher;
+his father, a leading banker; his uncle Bartholdy, a great patron of art
+in Rome, while he was Prussian minister there; his brother-in-law
+Hensel, Court painter; both his sisters and his brother Paul occupying
+leading social positions. He was heir-apparent to a great estate. He was
+greeted with the applause of England from the outset of his career;
+"awoke famous," after the production of the "Midsummer Overture," while
+almost a boy; never had a piece fall short of triumphant success; in
+fact, so commanding prestige that he could find not one who would
+rationally blame or criticize him,&mdash;a "most wearying" thing, he writes,
+that every piece he brought out was always "wonderfully fine." He was
+loved by all, and envied by none; the pet and joy of Goethe, who lived
+to see his expectation of Mendelssohn on the road to ample fulfilment;
+blessed entirely in his family, "the course of true love" running
+"smooth" from beginning to end; well, agile, strong; and more than all
+this, having a childlike religious faith in Christ, and as happy as a
+child in his piety. His life was cloudless; those checks and
+compensations with which Providence breaks up others' lot were wanting
+to his. We never knew any one like him in this, but the childlike, sunny
+Carl Ritter.</p>
+
+<p>We still lack a biography of Mendelssohn which shall portray him from
+without, as these volumes do from within. We learn that one is in
+preparation; and when that is given to the public, one more rich life
+will be embalmed in the memories of all good men.</p>
+
+<p>We ought not to overlook the unique elegance of these two volumes. Like
+all the publications of Mr. Leypoldt, they are printed in small, round
+letter; and the whole appearance is creditable to the publisher's taste.
+The American edition entirely eclipses the English in this regard.
+Though not advertised profusely, the merit of these Letters has already
+given them entrance and welcome into our most cultivated circles: but we
+bespeak for them a larger audience still; for they are books which our
+young men, our young women, our pastors, our whole thoughtful and
+aspiring community, ought to read and circulate.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+<h2>RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Familiar Letters from Europe. By Cornelius Conway Felton, late President
+of Harvard University. Boston. Ticknor &amp; Fields. 16mo. pp. 392. $1.50.</p>
+
+<p>Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellen, Major-General U.S. Army. By
+G. S. Hillard. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott &amp; Co. 12mo. pp. 396. $1.50.</p>
+
+<p>The Classification of the Sciences: To which are added Reasons for
+dissenting from the Philosophy of M. Comte. By Herbert Spencer, Author
+of "Illustrations of Universal Progress," etc. New York. D. Appleton &amp;
+Co. 16mo. paper, pp. 48. 25 cts.</p>
+
+<p>The Trial: More Links of the Daisy Chain. By the Author of "The Heir of
+Redclyffe." Two Volumes in One. New York. D. Appleton &amp; Co. 16mo. paper.
+pp. 389. $1.75.</p>
+
+<p>Fireside Travels. By James Russell Lowell. Boston. Ticknor &amp; Fields.
+16mo. pp. 324. $1.75.</p>
+
+<p>Memoir of Mrs. Caroline P. Keith, Missionary of the Protestant Episcopal
+Church to China. Edited by her Brother, William C. Tenney. New York, D.
+Appleton &amp; Co. 16mo. pp. x., 392. $2.00.</p>
+
+<p>The Haunted Tower. By Mrs. Henry Wood. Philadelphia. T. B. Peterson &amp;
+Brothers. 8vo. paper. pp. 150. 50 cts.</p>
+
+<p>Emily Chester. A Novel. Boston. Ticknor &amp; Fields. 12mo. pp. 367. $1.75.</p>
+
+<p>Religion and Chemistry; or, Proofs of God's Plan in the Atmosphere and
+its Elements. Ten Lectures, delivered at the Brooklyn Institute,
+Brooklyn, N.Y., on the Graham Foundation. By Josiah P. Cooke, Jr.,
+Erving Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Harvard University. New
+York. Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. viii., 348. $3.50.</p>
+
+<p>Poems of the War. By George H. Baker. Boston. Ticknor &amp; Fields. 16mo.
+pp. vi., 202. $1.50.</p>
+
+<p>Modern Philology: Its Discoveries, History, and Influence. By Benjamin
+W. Dwight. Second Series. New York. Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. xviii.,
+554. $6.00.</p>
+
+<p>The Ocean Waifs. A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea. By Captain Mayne
+Reid. With Illustrations. Boston. Ticknor &amp; Fields. 16mo. pp. 367.
+$1.50.</p>
+
+<p>Philosophy as Absolute Science, founded in the Universal Laws of Being,
+and including Ontology, Theology, and Psychology, made One, as Spirit,
+Soul, and Body. By E. L. and A. L. Frothingham. Volume I. Boston.
+Walker, Wise, &amp; Co. 8vo. pp. xxxiv., 453. $3.50.</p>
+
+<p>Life of Jean Paul Frederic Richter: Compiled from Various Sources.
+Preceded by his Autobiography. By Eliza Buckminster Lee. Boston. Ticknor
+&amp; Fields. 12mo. pp. xvi., 539. $2.00.</p>
+
+<p>The Winthrops. A Novel. New York, Carleton. 16mo. pp. 319. $1.75.</p>
+
+<p>The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United
+States of America, 1860-1864: its Causes, Incidents, and Results:
+intended to exhibit especially its Moral and Political Phases, with the
+Drift and Progress of American Opinion respecting Human Slavery, from
+1776 to the Close of the War for the Union. By Horace Greeley.
+Illustrated by Portraits on Steel of Generals, Statesmen, and other
+Eminent Men; Views of Places of Historic Interest, Maps, Diagrams of
+Battle-Fields, Naval Actions, etc.: from Official Sources. Volume I.
+Hartford. A. D. Case &amp; Co. 8vo. pp. 648. $3.00.</p>
+
+<p>The Voice of Blood, in the Sphere of Nature and of the Spirit World. By
+Rev. Samuel Phillips, A.M. Philadelphia. Lindsay &amp; Blakiston. 12mo. pp.
+xvi., 384.</p>
+
+<p>The Suppressed Book about Slavery. Prepared for Publication in
+1857,&mdash;never published until the Present Time. New York. Carleton. 16mo.
+pp. 432. $2.00.</p>
+
+<p>Nearer and Dearer. A Novelette. By Cuthbert Bede, B.A., Author of
+"Verdant Green." New York, Carleton. 16mo. pp. xi., 225. $1.50.</p>
+
+<p>Annals of the English Stage, from Thomas Betterton to Edmund Kean. By
+Dr. Doran, F.S.A., Author of "Table Traits," etc. New York. W. J.
+Widdleton. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 424, 422. $4.50.</p>
+
+<p>A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the
+Conference Convention, for proposing Amendments to the Constitution of
+the United States, held at Washington, D.C., in February, A.D. 1861. By
+L. E. Chittenden, One of the Delegates. New York. D. Appleton &amp; Co. 8vo.
+pp. 626. $5.00.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No.
+87, January, 1865, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JANUARY, 1865 ***
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@@ -0,0 +1,9176 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 87,
+January, 1865, 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: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 87, January, 1865
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: July 13, 2008 [EBook #26047]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JANUARY, 1865 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+ATLANTIC MONTHLY,
+
+A MAGAZINE OF
+
+_Literature, Art, and Politics._
+
+VOLUME XV.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+BOSTON:
+
+TICKNOR AND FIELDS,
+
+135 WASHINGTON STREET.
+
+LONDON: TRUeBNER AND COMPANY.
+
+1865.
+
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
+
+TICKNOR AND FIELDS,
+
+in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of
+Massachusetts.
+
+
+UNIVERSITY PRESS:
+
+ELECTROTYPED BY WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO.,
+
+CAMBRIDGE.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                   Page
+
+American Metropolis, The        _Fitz-Hugh Ludlow_                   73
+Andersonville, At                                                   285
+Anno Domini                     _Gail Hamilton_                     116
+Authors, Memories of            _Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall_
+                                                      97, 223, 330, 477
+
+Battle-Laureate, Our            _Oliver Wendell Holmes_             589
+Birds, With the                 _John Burroughs_                    513
+
+Chimney-Corner, The             _Mrs. H. B. Stowe_
+                                           109, 221, 353, 490, 602, 732
+Cobden, Richard                 _M. C. Conway_                      724
+Cruikshank, George, in Mexico                                        54
+
+Dely's Cow                      _Rose Terry_                        665
+Doctor Johns                    _Donald G. Mitchell_
+                                                141, 296, 449, 591, 681
+Dolliver Romance,
+  Another Scene from the        _Nathaniel Hawthorne_                 1
+
+England, A Letter about         _John Weiss_                        641
+Europe and Asia, Between        _Bayard Taylor_                       8
+Everett, Edward                 _E. E. Hale_                        342
+
+Fair Play the Best Policy       _T. W. Higginson_                   623
+Five Sisters Court at Christmas-Tide                                 22
+Foreign Enmity to the United States,
+  Causes of                     _E. P. Whipple_                     372
+
+Great Lakes, The                _Samuel C. Clarke_                  693
+Grit                            _E. P. Whipple_                     407
+
+Hofwyl, My Student-Life at      _Robert Dale Owen_                  550
+
+Ice and Esquimaux               _D. A. Wasson_
+                                                      39, 201, 437, 564
+"If Massa put Guns into our Han's"
+                                _Fitz-Hugh Ludlow_                  504
+
+John Brown's Raid               _John G. Rosengarten_               711
+
+Lecture, The Popular            _J. G. Holland_                     362
+Lincoln, Abraham,
+  The Place of, in History      _George Bancroft_                   757
+Lone Woman, Adventures of a     _Jane G. Austin_                    385
+
+Mining, Ancient,
+  on the Shores of Lake Superior _Albert D. Hagar_                  308
+Modern Improvements and our National Debt
+                                 _E. B. Bigelow_                    729
+
+Needle and Garden                           88, 165, 316, 464, 613, 673
+
+Officer's Journal, Leaves from  _T. W. Higginson_                    65
+Out of the Sea                  _Author of "Life in the Iron-Mills"_
+                                                                    533
+
+Painter,
+  Our First Great, and his Works _Sarah Clarke_                     129
+Pettibone Lineage, The                                              419
+Pianist, Notes of a             _Louis M. Gottschalk_
+                                                          177, 350, 573
+Pleiades of Connecticut, The    _F. Sheldon_                        187
+Prose Henriade, A               _Gail Hamilton_                     653
+
+Regnard                         _F. Sheldon_                        700
+Revolution, Diplomacy of the    _Prof. George W. Greene_            576
+Richmond, Late Scenes in        _C. C. Coffin_                      744
+
+St. Mary's, Up the              _T. W. Higginson_                   422
+Sanitary, A Fortnight with the  _G. Reynolds_                       233
+Schumann's Quintette in E Flat Major
+                                _Anne M. Brewster_                  718
+
+Taney, Roger Brooke             _Charles M. Ellis_                  151
+
+Year, The Story of a            _Henry James, Jr._                  257
+
+
+POETRY.
+
+Autumn Walt, My                 _W. C. Bryant_                       20
+
+Carolina Coronado, To                                               698
+Castles                         _T. B. Aldrich_                     622
+
+Down!                           _Henry H. Brownell_                 756
+
+First Citizen, Our              _Oliver Wendell Holmes_             462
+Frozen Harbor, The              _J. T. Trowbridge_                  281
+
+Garnaut Hall                    _T. B. Aldrich_                     182
+God Save the Flag               _O. W. Holmes_                      115
+Going to Sleep                  _Elizabeth A. C. Akers_             680
+Gold Egg.--A Dream Fantasy      _James Russell Lowell_              528
+Grave by the lake, The          _John G. Whittier_                  561
+
+Harpocrates                     _Bayard Taylor_                     662
+Hour of Victory, The                                                371
+
+Jaguar Hunt, The                _J. T. Trowbridge_                  742
+
+Kallundborg Church              _John G. Whittier_                   51
+
+Mantle of St. John de Matha, The
+                                _John G. Whittier_                  162
+Mr. Hosea Biglow to the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly
+                                _James Russell Lowell_              501
+
+Oldest Friend, Our              _O. W. Holmes_                      340
+Old House, The                  _Alice Cary_                        213
+
+Poet, To a, on his Birthday,                                        315
+Pro Patria                      _Epes Sargent_                      232
+
+Rubin Badfellow                 _T. B. Aldrich_                     437
+
+Seventy-Six, On Board the       _James Russell Lowell_              107
+Spaniards' Graves at the Isles of Shoals, The                       406
+
+Wind over the Chimney, The      _Henry W. Longfellow_                 7
+
+
+ART.
+
+Harriet Hosmer's Zenobia        _Fitz-Hugh Ludlow_                  248
+
+
+REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+Beecher's Autobiography                                             631
+Bushnell's Christ and His Salvation                                 377
+Chamberlain's Autobiography of a New England Farm-House             255
+Child's Looking toward Sunset                                       255
+Cobbe's Broken Lights                                               124
+De Vries, Collection. German Series                                 379
+Dewey's Lowell Lectures                                             286
+Frothingham's Philosophy                                            251
+Hodde's Cradle of Rebellions                                        380
+Hosmer's Morrisons                                                  378
+Hunt's Seer                                                         376
+Ingelow's Studies for Stories                                       378
+Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Letters                                     126
+Murdoch's Patriotism in Poetry and Prose                            250
+Reynard the Fox                                                     380
+Russell's Review of Todleben's History                              638
+Sabine's Loyalists of the American Revolution                       123
+Seaside and Fireside Fairies                                        640
+Thackeray's Vanity Fair                                             639
+Thoreau's Cape Cod                                                  381
+Tuckerman's America and her Commentators                            122
+
+RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS                         128, 382, 640, 764
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
+
+_A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics._
+
+
+VOL. XV.--JANUARY, 1865.--NO. LXXXVII.
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by TICKNOR AND
+FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
+Massachusetts.
+
+
+
+
+ANOTHER SCENE FROM THE DOLLIVER ROMANCE.[A]
+
+
+We may now suppose Grandsir Dolliver to have finished his breakfast,
+with a better appetite and sharper perception of the qualities of his
+food than he has generally felt of late years, whether it were due to
+old Martha's cookery or to the cordial of the night before. Little
+Pansie had also made an end of her bread and milk with entire
+satisfaction, and afterwards nibbled a crust, greatly enjoying its
+resistance to her little white teeth.
+
+How this child came by the odd name of Pansie, and whether it was really
+her baptismal name, I have not ascertained. More probably it was one of
+those pet appellations that grow out of a child's character, or out of
+some keen thrill of affection in the parents, an unsought-for and
+unconscious felicity, a kind of revelation, teaching them the true name
+by which the child's guardian angel would know it,--a name with
+playfulness and love in it, that we often observe to supersede, in the
+practice of those who love the child best, the name that they carefully
+selected, and caused the clergyman to plaster indelibly on the poor
+little forehead at the font,--the love-name, whereby, if the child
+lives, the parents know it in their hearts, or by which, if it dies, God
+seems to have called it away, leaving the sound lingering faintly and
+sweetly through the house. In Pansie's case, it may have been a certain
+pensiveness which was sometimes seen under her childish frolic, and so
+translated itself into French, (_pensee_,) her mother having been of
+Acadian kin; or, quite as probably, it alluded merely to the color of
+her eyes, which, in some lights, were very like the dark petals of a
+tuft of pansies in the Doctor's garden. It might well be, indeed, on
+account of the suggested pensiveness; for the child's gayety had example
+to sustain it, no sympathy of other children or grown people,--and her
+melancholy, had it been so dark a feeling, was but the shadow of the
+house and of the old man. If brighter sunshine came, she would brighten
+with it. This morning, surely, as the three companions, Pansie, puss,
+and Grandsir Dolliver, emerged from the shadow of the house into the
+small adjoining enclosure, they seemed all frolicsome alike.
+
+The Doctor, however, was intent over something that had reference to
+his life-long business of drugs. This little spot was the place where he
+was wont to cultivate a variety of herbs supposed to be endowed with
+medicinal virtue. Some of them had been long known in the
+pharmacopoeia of the Old World; and others, in the early days of the
+country, had been adopted by the first settlers from the Indian
+medicine-men, though with fear and even contrition, because these wild
+doctors were supposed to draw their pharmaceutic knowledge from no
+gracious source, the Black Man himself being the principal professor in
+their medical school. From his own experience, however, Dr. Dolliver had
+long since doubted, though he was not bold enough quite to come to the
+conclusion, that Indian shrubs, and the remedies prepared from them,
+were much less perilous than those so freely used in European practice,
+and singularly apt to be followed by results quite as propitious. Into
+such heterodoxy our friend was the more liable to fall because it had
+been taught him early in life by his old master, Dr. Swinnerton, who, at
+those not infrequent times when he indulged a certain unhappy
+predilection for strong waters, had been accustomed to inveigh in terms
+of the most cynical contempt and coarsest ridicule against the practice
+by which he lived, and, as he affirmed, inflicted death on his
+fellow-men. Our old apothecary, though too loyal to the learned
+profession with which he was connected fully to believe this bitter
+judgment, even when pronounced by his revered master, was still so far
+influenced that his conscience was possibly a little easier when making
+a preparation from forest herbs and roots than in the concoction of half
+a score of nauseous poisons into a single elaborate drug, as the fashion
+of that day was.
+
+But there were shrubs in the garden of which he had never ventured to
+make a medical use, nor, indeed, did he know their virtue, although from
+year to year he had tended and fertilized, weeded and pruned them, with
+something like religious care. They were of the rarest character, and
+had been planted by the learned and famous Dr. Swinnerton, who on his
+death-bed, when he left his dwelling and all his abstruse manuscripts to
+his favorite pupil, had particularly directed his attention to this row
+of shrubs. They had been collected by himself from remote countries, and
+had the poignancy of torrid climes in them; and he told him, that,
+properly used, they would be worth all the rest of the legacy a
+hundred-fold. As the apothecary, however, found the manuscripts, in
+which he conjectured there was a treatise on the subject of these
+shrubs, mostly illegible, and quite beyond his comprehension in such
+passages as he succeeded in puzzling out, (partly, perhaps, owing to his
+very imperfect knowledge of Latin, in which language they were written,)
+he had never derived from them any of the promised benefit. And to say
+the truth, remembering that Dr. Swinnerton himself never appeared to
+triturate or decoct or do anything else with the mysterious herbs, our
+old friend was inclined to imagine the weighty commendation of their
+virtues to have been the idly solemn utterance of mental aberration at
+the hour of death. So, with the integrity that belonged to his
+character, he had nurtured them as tenderly as was possible in the
+ungenial climate and soil of New England, putting some of them into pots
+for the winter; but they had rather dwindled than flourished, and he had
+reaped no harvests from them, nor observed them with any degree of
+scientific interest.
+
+His grandson, however, while yet a school-boy, had listened to the old
+man's legend of the miraculous virtues of these plants; and it took so
+firm a hold of his mind, that the row of outlandish vegetables seemed
+rooted in it, and certainly flourished there with richer luxuriance than
+in the soil where they actually grew. The story, acting thus early upon
+his imagination, may be said to have influenced his brief career in
+life, and, perchance, brought about its early close. The young man, in
+the opinion of competent judges, was endowed with remarkable abilities,
+and according to the rumor of the people had wonderful gifts, which
+were proved by the cures he had wrought with remedies of his own
+invention. His talents lay in the direction of scientific analysis and
+inventive combination of chemical powers. While under the pupilage of
+his grandfather, his progress had rapidly gone quite beyond his
+instructor's hope,--leaving him even to tremble at the audacity with
+which he overturned and invented theories, and to wonder at the depth at
+which he wrought beneath the superficialness and mock-mystery of the
+medical science of those days, like a miner sinking his shaft and
+running a hideous peril of the earth caving in above him. Especially did
+he devote himself to these plants; and under his care they had thriven
+beyond all former precedent, bursting into luxuriance of bloom, and most
+of them bearing beautiful flowers, which, however, in two or three
+instances, had the sort of natural repulsiveness that the serpent has in
+its beauty, compelled against its will, as it were, to warn the beholder
+of an unrevealed danger. The young man had long ago, it must be added,
+demanded of his grandfather the documents included in the legacy of
+Professor Swinnerton, and had spent days and nights upon them, growing
+pale over their mystic lore, which seemed the fruit not merely of the
+Professor's own labors, but of those of more ancient sages than he; and
+often a whole volume seemed to be compressed within the limits of a few
+lines of crabbed manuscript, judging from the time which it cost even
+the quick-minded student to decipher them.
+
+Meantime these abstruse investigations had not wrought such disastrous
+effects as might have been feared, in causing Edward Dolliver to neglect
+the humble trade, the conduct of which his grandfather had now
+relinquished almost entirely into his hands. On the contrary, with the
+mere side results of his study, or what may be called the chips and
+shavings of his real work, he created a prosperity quite beyond anything
+that his simple-minded predecessor had ever hoped for, even at the most
+sanguine epoch of his life. The young man's adventurous endowments were
+miraculously alive, and connecting themselves with his remarkable
+ability for solid research, and perhaps his conscience being as yet
+imperfectly developed, (as it sometimes lies dormant in the young,) he
+spared not to produce compounds which, if the names were anywise to be
+trusted, would supersede all other remedies, and speedily render any
+medicine a needless thing, making the trade of apothecary an untenable
+one, and the title of Doctor obsolete. Whether there was real efficacy
+in these nostrums, and whether their author himself had faith in them,
+is more than can safely be said; but at all events, the public believed
+in them, and thronged to the old and dim sign of the Brazen Serpent,
+which, though hitherto familiar to them and their forefathers, now
+seemed to shine with auspicious lustre, as if its old Scriptural virtues
+were renewed. If any faith was to be put in human testimony, many
+marvellous cures were really performed, the fame of which spread far and
+wide, and caused demands for these medicines to come in from places far
+beyond the precincts of the little town. Our old apothecary, now
+degraded by the overshadowing influence of his grandson's character to a
+position not much above that of a shop-boy, stood behind the counter
+with a face sad and distrustful, and yet with an odd kind of fitful
+excitement in it, as if he would have liked to enjoy this new
+prosperity, had he dared. Then his venerable figure was to be seen
+dispensing these questionable compounds by the single bottle and by the
+dozen, wronging his simple conscience as he dealt out what he feared was
+trash or worse, shrinking from the reproachful eyes of every ancient
+physician who might chance to be passing by, but withal examining
+closely the silver or the New England coarsely printed bills which he
+took in payment, as if apprehensive that the delusive character of the
+commodity which he sold might be balanced by equal counterfeiting in the
+money received, or as if his faith in all things were shaken.
+
+Is it not possible that this gifted young man had indeed found out those
+remedies which Nature has provided and laid away for the cure of every
+ill?
+
+The disastrous termination of the most brilliant epoch that ever came to
+the Brazen Serpent must be told in a few words. One night, Edward
+Dolliver's young wife awoke, and, seeing the gray dawn creeping into the
+chamber, while her husband, it should seem, was still engaged in his
+laboratory, arose in her night-dress, and went to the door of the room
+to put in her gentle remonstrance against such labor. There she found
+him dead,--sunk down out of his chair upon the hearth, where were some
+ashes, apparently of burnt manuscripts, which appeared to comprise most
+of those included in Doctor Swinnerton's legacy, though one or two had
+fallen near the heap, and lay merely scorched beside it. It seemed as if
+he had thrown them into the fire, under a sudden impulse, in a great
+hurry and passion. It may be that he had come to the perception of
+something fatally false and deceptive in the successes which he had
+appeared to win, and was too proud and too conscientious to survive it.
+Doctors were called in, but had no power to revive him. An inquest was
+held, at which the jury, under the instruction, perhaps, of those same
+revengeful doctors, expressed the opinion that the poor young man, being
+given to strange contrivances with poisonous drugs, had died by
+incautiously tasting them himself. This verdict, and the terrible event
+itself, at once deprived the medicines of all their popularity; and the
+poor old apothecary was no longer under any necessity of disturbing his
+conscience by selling them. They at once lost their repute, and ceased
+to be in any demand. In the few instances in which they were tried the
+experiment was followed by no good results; and even those individuals
+who had fancied themselves cured, and had been loudest in spreading the
+praises of these beneficent compounds, now, as if for the utter
+demolition of the poor youth's credit, suffered under a recurrence of
+the worst symptoms, and, in more than one case, perished miserably:
+insomuch (for the days of witchcraft were still within the memory of
+living men and women) it was the general opinion that Satan had been
+personally concerned in this affliction, and that the Brazen Serpent, so
+long honored among them, was really the type of his subtle malevolence
+and perfect iniquity. It was rumored even that all preparations that
+came from the shop were harmful,--that teeth decayed that had been made
+pearly white by the use of the young chemist's dentifrice,--that cheeks
+were freckled that had been changed to damask roses by his
+cosmetics,--that hair turned gray or fell off that had become black,
+glossy, and luxuriant from the application of his mixtures,--that breath
+which his drugs had sweetened had now a sulphurous smell. Moreover, all
+the money heretofore amassed by the sale of them had been exhausted by
+Edward Dolliver in his lavish expenditure for the processes of his
+study; and nothing was left for Pansie, except a few valueless and
+unsalable bottles of medicine, and one or two others, perhaps more
+recondite than their inventor had seen fit to offer to the public.
+Little Pansie's mother lived but a short time after the shock of the
+terrible catastrophe; and, as we began our story with saying, she was
+left with no better guardianship or support than might be found in the
+efforts of a long superannuated man.
+
+Nothing short of the simplicity, integrity, and piety of Grandsir
+Dolliver's character, known and acknowledged as far back as the oldest
+inhabitants remembered anything, and inevitably discoverable by the
+dullest and most prejudiced observers, in all its natural
+manifestations, could have protected him in still creeping about the
+streets. So far as he was personally concerned, however, all bitterness
+and suspicion had speedily passed away; and there remained still the
+careless and neglectful good-will, and the prescriptive reverence, not
+altogether reverential, which the world heedlessly awards to the
+unfortunate individual who outlives his generation.
+
+And now that we have shown the reader sufficiently, or at least to the
+best of our knowledge, and perhaps at tedious length, what was the
+present position of Grandsir Dolliver, we may let our story pass onward,
+though at such a pace as suits the feeble gait of an old man.
+
+The peculiarly brisk sensation of this morning, to which we have more
+than once alluded, enabled the Doctor to toil pretty vigorously at his
+medicinal herbs,--his catnip, his vervain, and the like; but he did not
+turn his attention to the row of mystic plants, with which so much of
+trouble and sorrow either was, or appeared to be, connected. In truth,
+his old soul was sick of them, and their very fragrance, which the warm
+sunshine made strongly perceptible, was odious to his nostrils. But the
+spicy, homelike scent of his other herbs, the English simples, was
+grateful to him, and so was the earth-smell, as he turned up the soil
+about their roots, and eagerly snuffed it in. Little Pansie, on the
+other hand, perhaps scandalized at great-grandpapa's neglect of the
+prettiest plants in his garden, resolved to do her small utmost towards
+balancing his injustice; so, with an old shingle, fallen from the roof,
+which she had appropriated as her agricultural tool, she began to dig
+about them, pulling up the weeds, as she saw grandpapa doing. The
+kitten, too, with a look of elfish sagacity, lent her assistance, plying
+her paws with vast haste and efficiency at the roots of one of the
+shrubs. This particular one was much smaller than the rest, perhaps
+because it was a native of the torrid zone, and required greater care
+than the others to make it nourish; so that, shrivelled, cankered, and
+scarcely showing a green leaf, both Pansie and the kitten probably
+mistook it for a weed. After their joint efforts had made a pretty big
+trench about it, the little girl seized the shrub with both hands,
+bestriding it with her plump little legs, and giving so vigorous a pull,
+that, long accustomed to be transplanted annually, it came up by the
+roots, and little Pansie came down in a sitting posture, making a broad
+impress on the soft earth. "See, see, Doctor!" cries Pansie, comically
+enough giving him his title of courtesy,--"look, grandpapa, the big,
+naughty weed!"
+
+Now the Doctor had at once a peculiar dread and a peculiar value for
+this identical shrub, both because his grandson's investigations had
+been applied more ardently to it than to all the rest, and because it
+was associated in his mind with an ancient and sad recollection. For he
+had never forgotten that his wife, the early lost, had once taken a
+fancy to wear its flowers, day after day, through the whole season of
+their bloom, in her bosom, where they glowed like a gem, and deepened
+her somewhat pallid beauty with a richness never before seen in it. At
+least such was the effect which this tropical flower imparted to the
+beloved form in his memory, and thus it somehow both brightened and
+wronged her. This had happened not long before her death; and whenever,
+in the subsequent years, this plant had brought its annual flower, it
+had proved a kind of talisman to bring up the image of Bessie, radiant
+with this glow that did not really belong to her naturally passive
+beauty, quickly interchanging with another image of her form, with the
+snow of death on cheek and forehead. This reminiscence had remained
+among the things of which the Doctor was always conscious, but had never
+breathed a word, through the whole of his long life,--a sprig of
+sensibility that perhaps helped to keep him tenderer and purer than
+other men, who entertain no such follies. And the sight of the shrub
+often brought back the faint, golden gleam of her hair, as if her spirit
+were in the sun-lights of the garden, quivering into view and out of it.
+And therefore, when he saw what Pansie had done, he sent forth a
+strange, inarticulate, hoarse, tremulous exclamation, a sort of aged and
+decrepit cry of mingled emotion. "Naughty Pansie, to pull up grandpapa's
+flower!" said he, as soon as he could speak. "Poison, Pansie, poison!
+Fling it away, child!"
+
+And dropping his spade, the old gentleman scrambled towards the little
+girl as quickly as his rusty joints would let him,--while Pansie, as
+apprehensive and quick of motion as a fawn, started up with a shriek of
+mirth and fear to escape him. It so happened that the garden-gate was
+ajar; and a puff of wind blowing it wide open, she escaped through this
+fortuitous avenue, followed by great-grandpapa and the kitten.
+
+"Stop, naughty Pansie, stop!" shouted our old friend. "You will tumble
+into the grave!" The kitten, with the singular sensitiveness that seems
+to affect it at every kind of excitement, was now on her back.
+
+And, indeed, this portentous warning was better grounded and had a more
+literal meaning than might be supposed; for the swinging gate
+communicated with the burial-ground, and almost directly in little
+Pansie's track there was a newly dug grave, ready to receive its tenant
+that afternoon. Pansie, however, fled onward with outstretched arms,
+half in fear, half in fun, plying her round little legs with wonderful
+promptitude, as if to escape Time or Death, in the person of Grandsir
+Dolliver, and happily avoiding the ominous pitfall that lies in every
+person's path, till, hearing a groan from her pursuer, she looked over
+her shoulder, and saw that poor grandpapa had stumbled over one of the
+many hillocks. She then suddenly wrinkled up her little visage, and sent
+forth a full-breathed roar of sympathy and alarm.
+
+"Grandpapa has broken his neck now!" cried little Pansie, amid her sobs.
+
+"Kiss grandpapa, and make it well, then," said the old gentleman,
+recollecting her remedy, and scrambling up more readily than could be
+expected. "Well," he murmured to himself, "a hair's-breadth more, and I
+should have been tumbled into yonder grave. Poor little Pansie! what
+wouldst thou have done then?"
+
+"Make the grass grow over grandpapa," answered Pansie, laughing up in
+his face.
+
+"Poh, poh, child, that is not a pretty thing to say," said grandpapa,
+pettishly and disappointed, as people are apt to be when they try to
+calculate on the fitful sympathies of childhood. "Come, you must go in
+to old Martha now."
+
+The poor old gentleman was in the more haste to leave the spot because
+he found himself standing right in front of his own peculiar row of
+gravestones, consisting of eight or nine slabs of slate, adorned with
+carved borders rather rudely cut, and the earliest one, that of his
+Bessie, bending aslant, because the frost of so many winters had slowly
+undermined it. Over one grave of the row, that of his gifted grandson,
+there was no memorial. He felt a strange repugnance, stronger than he
+had ever felt before, to linger by these graves, and had none of the
+tender sorrow mingled with high and tender hopes that had sometimes made
+it seem good to him to be there. Such moods, perhaps, often come to the
+aged, when the hardened earth-crust over their souls shuts them out from
+spiritual influences.
+
+Taking the child by the hand,--her little effervescence of infantile fun
+having passed into a downcast humor, though not well knowing as yet what
+a dusky cloud of disheartening fancies arose from these green
+hillocks,--he went heavily toward the garden-gate. Close to its
+threshold, so that one who was issuing forth or entering must needs step
+upon it or over it, lay a small flat stone, deeply imbedded in the
+ground, and partly covered with grass, inscribed with the name of "Dr.
+John Swinnerton, Physician."
+
+"Ay," said the old man, as the well-remembered figure of his ancient
+instructor seemed to rise before him in his grave-apparel, with beard
+and gold-headed cane, black velvet doublet and cloak, "here lies a man
+who, as people have thought, had it in his power to avoid the grave! He
+had no little grandchild to tease him. He had the choice to die, and
+chose it."
+
+So the old gentleman led Pansie over the stone, and carefully closed
+the gate; and, as it happened, he forgot the uprooted shrub, which
+Pansie, as she ran, had flung away, and which had fallen into the open
+grave; and when the funeral came that afternoon, the coffin was let down
+upon it, so that its bright, inauspicious flower never bloomed again.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] See July number, 1864, of this Magazine, for the first chapter of
+the story. The portion now published was not revised by the author, but
+is printed from his first draught.
+
+
+
+
+THE WIND OVER THE CHIMNEY.
+
+
+    See, the fire is sinking low,
+    Dusky red the embers glow,
+      While above them still I cower,--
+    While a moment more I linger,
+    Though the clock, with lifted finger,
+      Points beyond the midnight hour.
+
+    Sings the blackened log a tune
+    Learned in some forgotten June
+      From a school-boy at his play,
+    When they both were young together,
+    Heart of youth and summer weather
+      Making all their holiday.
+
+    And the night-wind rising, hark!
+    How above there in the dark,
+      In the midnight and the snow,
+    Ever wilder, fiercer, grander,
+    Like the trumpets of Iskander,
+      All the noisy chimneys blow!
+
+    Every quivering tongue of flame
+    Seems to murmur some great name,
+      Seems to say to me, "Aspire!"
+    But the night-wind answers,--"Hollow
+    Are the visions that you follow,
+      Into darkness sinks your fire!"
+
+    Then the flicker of the blaze
+    Gleams on volumes of old days,
+      Written by masters of the art,
+    Loud through whose majestic pages
+    Rolls the melody of ages,
+      Throb the harp-strings of the heart.
+
+    And again the tongues of flame
+    Start exulting and exclaim,--
+      "These are prophets, bards, and seers;
+    In the horoscope of nations,
+    Like ascendant constellations,
+      They control the coming years."
+
+    But the night-wind cries,--"Despair!
+    Those who walk with feet of air
+      Leave no long-enduring marks;
+    At God's forges incandescent
+    Mighty hammers beat incessant,
+      These are but the flying sparks.
+
+    "Dust are all the hands that wrought;
+    Books are sepulchres of thought;
+      The dead laurels of the dead
+    Rustle for a moment only,
+    Like the withered leaves in lonely
+      Church-yards at some passing tread."
+
+    Suddenly the flame sinks down;
+    Sink the rumors of renown;
+      And alone the night-wind drear
+    Clamors louder, wilder, vaguer,--
+    "'T is the brand of Meleager
+      Dying on the hearth-stone here!"
+
+    And I answer,--"Though it be,
+    Why should that discomfort me?
+      No endeavor is in vain;
+    Its reward is in the doing,
+    And the rapture of pursuing
+      Is the prize the vanquished gain?"
+
+
+
+
+BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA.
+
+    "Pushed off from one shore, and not yet landed on the other."
+                                         _Russian Proverb._
+
+
+The railroad from Moscow to Nijni-Novgorod had been opened but a
+fortnight before. It was scarcely finished, indeed; for, in order to
+facilitate travel during the continuance of the Great Fair at the latter
+place, the gaps in the line, left by unbuilt bridges, were filled up
+with temporary trestle-work. The one daily express-train was so thronged
+that it required much exertion, and the freest use of the envoy's
+prestige, to secure a private carriage for our party. The sun was
+sinking over the low, hazy ridge of the Sparrow Hills as we left Moscow;
+and we enjoyed one more glimpse of the inexhaustible splendor of the
+city's thousand golden domes and pinnacles, softened by luminous smoke
+and transfigured dust, before the dark woods of fir intervened, and the
+twilight sank down on cold and lonely landscapes.
+
+Thence, until darkness, there was nothing more to claim attention.
+Whoever has seen one landscape of Central Russia is familiar with three
+fourths of the whole region. Nowhere else--not even on the levels of
+Illinois--are the same features so constantly reproduced. One long, low
+swell of earth succeeds to another; it is rare that any other woods
+than birch and fir are seen; the cleared land presents a continuous
+succession of pasture, rye, wheat, potatoes, and cabbages; and the
+villages are as like as peas, in their huts of unpainted logs,
+clustering around a white church with five green domes. It is a monotony
+which nothing but the richest culture can prevent from becoming
+tiresome. Culture is to Nature what good manners are to man, rendering
+poverty of character endurable.
+
+Stationing a servant at the door to prevent intrusion at the
+way-stations, we let down the curtains before our windows, and secured a
+comfortable privacy for the night, whence we issued only once, during a
+halt for supper. I entered the refreshment-room with very slender
+expectations, but was immediately served with plump partridges, tender
+cutlets, and green peas. The Russians made a rush for the great
+_samovar_ (tea-urn) of brass, which shone from one end of the long
+table; and presently each had his tumbler of scalding tea, with a slice
+of lemon floating on the top. These people drink beverages of a
+temperature which would take the skin off Anglo-Saxon mouths. My tongue
+was more than once blistered, on beginning to drink after they had
+emptied their glasses. There is no station without its steaming samovar;
+and some persons, I verily believe, take their thirty-three hot teas
+between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
+
+There is not much choice of dishes in the interior of Russia; but what
+one does get is sure to be tolerably good. Even on the Beresina and the
+Dnieper I have always fared better than at most of the places in our
+country where "Ten minutes for refreshments!" is announced day by day
+and year by year. Better a single beef-steak, where tenderness is, than
+a stalled ox, all gristle and grease. But then our cooking (for the
+public at least) is notoriously the worst in the civilized world; and I
+can safely pronounce the Russian better, without commending it very
+highly.
+
+Some time in the night we passed the large town of Vladimir, and with
+the rising sun were well on our way to the Volga. I pushed aside the
+curtains, and looked out, to see what changes a night's travel had
+wrought in the scenery. It was a pleasant surprise. On the right stood a
+large, stately residence, embowered in gardens and orchards; while
+beyond it, stretching away to the south-east, opened a broad, shallow
+valley. The sweeping hills on either side were dotted with shocks of
+rye; and their thousands of acres of stubble shone like gold in the
+level rays. Herds of cattle were pasturing in the meadows, and the
+peasants (serfs no longer) were straggling out of the villages to their
+labor in the fields. The crosses and polished domes of churches sparkled
+on the horizon. Here the patches of primitive forest were of larger
+growth, the trunks cleaner and straighter, than we had yet seen. Nature
+was half conquered, in spite of the climate, and, the first time since
+leaving St. Petersburg, wore a habitable aspect. I recognized some of
+the features of Russian country-life, which Puschkin describes so
+charmingly in his poem of "Eugene Onaegin."
+
+The agricultural development of Russia has been greatly retarded by the
+indifference of the nobility, whose vast estates comprise the best land
+of the empire, in those provinces where improvements might be most
+easily introduced. Although a large portion of the noble families pass
+their summers in the country, they use the season as a period of
+physical and pecuniary recuperation from the dissipations of the past,
+and preparation for those of the coming winter. Their possessions are so
+large (those of Count Scheremetieff, for instance, contain one hundred
+and thirty thousand inhabitants) that they push each other too far apart
+for social intercourse; and they consequently live _en deshabille_,
+careless of the great national interests in their hands. There is a
+class of our Southern planters which seems to have adopted a very
+similar mode of life,--families which shabbily starve for ten months, in
+order to make a lordly show at "the Springs" for the other two. A most
+accomplished Russian lady, the Princess D----, said to me,--"The want of
+an active, intelligent country society is our greatest misfortune. Our
+estates thus become a sort of exile. The few, here and there, who try to
+improve the condition of the people, through the improvement of the
+soil, are not supported by their neighbors, and lose heart. The more we
+gain in the life of the capital, the more we are oppressed by the
+solitude and stagnation of the life of the country."
+
+This open, cheerful region continued through the morning. The railroad
+was still a novelty; and the peasants everywhere dropped their scythes
+and shovels to see the train pass. Some bowed with the profoundest
+gravity. They were a fine, healthy, strapping race of men, only of
+medium height, but admirably developed in chest and limbs, and with
+shrewd, intelligent faces. Content, not stupidity, is the cause of their
+stationary condition. They are not yet a people, but the germ of one,
+and, as such, present a grand field for anthropological studies.
+
+Towards noon the road began to descend, by easy grades, from the fair,
+rolling uplands into a lower and wilder region. When the train stopped,
+women and children whose swarthy skin and black eyes betrayed a mixture
+of Tartar blood made their appearance, with wooden bowls of cherries and
+huckleberries for sale. These bowls were neatly carved and painted. They
+were evidently held in high value; for I had great difficulty in
+purchasing one. We moved slowly, on account of the many skeleton
+bridges; but presently a long blue ridge, which for an hour past had
+followed us in the south-east, began to curve around to our front. I now
+knew that it must mark the course of the Oka River, and that we were
+approaching Nijni-Novgorod.
+
+We soon saw the river itself; then houses and gardens scattered along
+the slope of the hill; then clusters of sparkling domes on the summit;
+then a stately, white-walled citadel; and the end of the ridge was
+levelled down in an even line to the Volga. We were three hundred miles
+from Moscow, on the direct road to Siberia.
+
+The city being on the farther side of the Oka, the railroad terminates
+at the Fair, which is a separate city, occupying the triangular level
+between the two rivers. Our approach to it was first announced by heaps
+of cotton-bales, bound in striped camel's-hair cloth, which had found
+their way hither from the distant valleys of Turkestan and the warm
+plains of Bukharia. Nearly fifty thousand camels are employed in the
+transportation of this staple across the deserts of the Aral to
+Orenburg,--a distance of a thousand miles. The increase of price had
+doubled the production since the previous year, and the amount which now
+reaches the factories of Russia through this channel cannot be less than
+seventy-five thousand bales. The advance of modern civilization has so
+intertwined the interests of all zones and races, that a civil war in
+the United States affects the industry of Central Asia!
+
+Next to these cotton-bales, which, to us, silently proclaimed the
+downfall of that arrogant monopoly which has caused all our present woe,
+came the representatives of those who produced them. Groups of
+picturesque Asians--Bashkirs, Persians, Bukharians, and Uzbeks--appeared
+on either side, staring impassively at the wonderful apparition. Though
+there was sand under their feet, they seemed out of place in the sharp
+north-wind and among the hills of fir and pine.
+
+The train stopped: we had reached the station. As I stepped upon the
+platform, I saw, over the level lines of copper roofs, the dragon-like
+pinnacles of Chinese buildings, and the white minaret of a mosque. Here
+was the certainty of a picturesque interest to balance the uncertainty
+of our situation. We had been unable to engage quarters in advance:
+there were two hundred thousand strangers before us, in a city the
+normal population of which is barely forty thousand; and four of our
+party were ladies. The envoy, indeed, might claim the Governor's
+hospitality; but our visit was to be so brief that we had no time to
+expend on ceremonies, and preferred rambling at will through the teeming
+bazaars to being led about under the charge of an official escort.
+
+A friend at Moscow, however, had considerately telegraphed in our behalf
+to a French resident of Nijni, and the latter gentleman met us at the
+station. He could give but slight hope of quarters for the night, but
+generously offered his services. Droshkies were engaged to convey us to
+the old city, on the hill beyond the Oka; and, crowded two by two into
+the shabby little vehicles, we set forth. The sand was knee-deep, and
+the first thing that happened was the stoppage of our procession by the
+tumbling down of the several horses. They were righted with the help of
+some obliging spectators; and with infinite labor we worked through this
+strip of desert into a region of mud, with a hard, stony bottom
+somewhere between us and the earth's centre. The street we entered,
+though on the outskirts of the Fair, resembled Broadway on a
+sensation-day. It was choked with a crowd, composed of the sweepings of
+Europe and Asia. Our horses thrust their heads between the shoulders of
+Christians, Jews, Moslem, and Pagans, slowly shoving their way towards
+the floating bridge, which was a jam of vehicles from end to end. At the
+corners of the streets, the wiry Don Cossacks, in their dashing blue
+uniforms and caps of black lamb's-wool, regulated, as best they could,
+the movements of the multitude. It was curious to notice how they, and
+their small, well-knit horses,--the equine counterparts of
+themselves,--controlled the fierce, fiery life which flashed from every
+limb and feature, and did their duty with wonderful patience and
+gentleness. They seemed so many spirits of Disorder tamed to the service
+of Order.
+
+It was nearly half an hour before we reached the other end of the
+bridge, and struck the superb inclined highway which leads to the top of
+the hill. We were unwashed and hungry; and neither the tumult of the
+lower town, nor the view of the Volga, crowded with vessels of all
+descriptions, had power to detain us. Our brave little horses bent
+themselves to the task; for task it really was,--the road rising between
+three and four hundred feet in less than half a mile. Advantage has been
+taken of a slight natural ravine, formed by a short, curving spur of the
+hill, which encloses a _pocket_ of the greenest and richest foliage,--a
+bit of unsuspected beauty, quite invisible from the other side of the
+river. Then, in order to reach the level of the Kremlin, the road is led
+through an artificial gap, a hundred feet in depth, to the open square
+in the centre of the city.
+
+Here, all was silent and deserted. There were broad, well-paved streets,
+substantial houses, the square towers and crenellated walls of the old
+Kremlin, and the glittering cupolas of twenty-six churches before us,
+and a lack of population which contrasted amazingly with the whirlpool
+of life below. Monsieur D., our new, but most faithful friend, took us
+to the hotel, every corner and cranny of which was occupied. There was a
+possibility of breakfast only, and water was obtained with great
+exertion. While we were lazily enjoying a tolerable meal, Monsieur D.
+was bestirring himself in all quarters, and came back to us radiant with
+luck. He had found four rooms in a neighboring street; and truly, if one
+were to believe De Custine or Dumas, such rooms are impossible in
+Russia. Charmingly clean, elegantly furnished, with sofas of green
+leather and beds of purest linen, they would hive satisfied the severe
+eye of an English housekeeper. We thanked both our good friend and St.
+Macarius (who presides over the Fair) for this fortune, took possession,
+and then hired fresh droshkies to descend the hill.
+
+On emerging from the ravine, we obtained a bird's-eye view of the whole
+scene. The waters of both rivers, near at hand, were scarcely visible
+through the shipping which covered them. Vessels from the Neva, the
+Caspian, and the rivers of the Ural, were here congregated; and they
+alone represented a floating population of between thirty and forty
+thousand souls. The Fair, from this point, resembled an immense flat
+city,--the streets of booths being of a uniform height,--out of which
+rose the great Greek church, the Tartar mosque, and the curious Chinese
+roofs. It was a vast, dark, humming plain, vanishing towards the west
+and north-west in clouds of sand. By this time there was a lull in the
+business, and we made our way to the central bazaar with less trouble
+than we had anticipated. It is useless to attempt an enumeration of the
+wares exposed for sale: they embraced everything grown, trapped, or
+manufactured, between Ireland and Japan. We sought, of course, the
+Asiatic elements, which first met us in the shape of melons from
+Astrachan, and grapes from the southern slopes of the Caucasus. Then
+came wondrous stuffs from the looms of Turkestan and Cashmere,
+turquoises from the Upper Oxus, and glittering strings of Siberian topaz
+and amethyst, side by side with Nuremberg toys, Lyons silks, and
+Sheffield cutlery. About one third of the population of the Fair was of
+Asiatic blood, embracing representatives from almost every tribe north
+and west of the Himalayas.
+
+This temporary city, which exists during only two months of the year,
+contained two hundred thousand inhabitants at the time of our visit.
+During the remaining ten months it is utterly depopulated, the bazaars
+are closed, and chains are drawn across the streets to prevent the
+passage of vehicles. A single statement will give an idea of its extent:
+the combined length of the streets is twenty-five miles. The Great
+Bazaar is substantially built of stone, after the manner of those in
+Constantinople, except that it encloses an open court, where a
+Government band performs every afternoon. Here the finer wares are
+displayed, and the shadowed air under the vaulted roofs is a very
+kaleidoscope for shifting color and sparkle. Tea, cotton, leather, wool,
+and the other heavier and coarser commodities, have their separate
+streets and quarters. The several nationalities are similarly divided,
+to some extent; but the stranger, of course, prefers to see them
+jostling together in the streets,--a Babel, not only of tongues, but of
+feature, character, and costume.
+
+Our ladies were eager to inspect the stock of jewelry, especially those
+heaps of exquisite color with which the Mohammedans very logically load
+the trees of Paradise; for they resemble fruit in a glorified state of
+existence. One can imagine virtuous grapes promoted to amethysts,
+blueberries to turquoises, cherries to rubies, and green-gages to
+aqua-marine. These, the secondary jewels, (with the exception of the
+ruby,) are brought in great quantities from Siberia, but most of them
+are marred by slight flaws or other imperfections, so that their
+cheapness is more apparent than real. An amethyst an inch long, throwing
+the most delicious purple light from its hundreds of facets, quite takes
+you captive, and you put your hand in your pocket for the fifteen
+dollars which shall make you its possessor; but a closer inspection is
+sure to show you either a broad transverse flaw, or a spot where the
+color fades into transparency. The white topaz, known as the "Siberian
+diamond," is generally flawless, and the purest specimens are scarcely
+to be distinguished from the genuine brilliant. A necklace of these,
+varying from a half to a quarter of an inch in diameter, may be had for
+about twenty-five dollars. There were also golden and smoky topaz and
+beryl, in great profusion.
+
+A princely Bashkir drew us to his booth, first by his beauty and then by
+his noble manners. He was the very incarnation of Boker's "Prince Adeb."
+
+    The girls of Damar paused to see me pass,
+    I walking in my rags, yet beautiful.
+    One maiden said, 'He has a prince's air!'
+    I am a prince; the air was all my own.
+
+This Bashkir, however, was not in rags; he was elegantly attired. His
+silken vest was bound with a girdle of gold-thread studded with jewels;
+and over it he wore a caftan, with wide sleeves, of the finest dark-blue
+cloth. The round cap of black lamb's-wool became his handsome head. His
+complexion was pale olive, through which the red of his cheeks shone, in
+the words of some Oriental poem, "like a rose-leaf through oil"; and his
+eyes, in their dark fire, were more lustrous than smoky topaz. His voice
+was mellow and musical, and his every movement and gesture a new
+revelation of human grace. Among thousands, yea, tens of thousands, of
+handsome men, he stood preeminent.
+
+As our acquaintance ripened, he drew a pocket-book from his bosom, and
+showed us his choicest treasures: turquoises, bits of wonderful blue
+heavenly forget-me-nots; a jacinth, burning like a live coal, in scarlet
+light; and lastly, a perfect ruby, which no sum less than twenty-five
+hundred dollars could purchase. From him we learned the curious
+fluctuations of fashion in regard to jewels. Turquoises were just then
+in the ascendant; and one of the proper tint, the size of a
+parsnip-seed, could not be had for a hundred dollars, the full value of
+a diamond of equal size. Amethysts of a deep plum-color, though less
+beautiful than the next paler shade, command very high prices; while
+jacinth, beryl, and aqua-marine--stones of exquisite hue and lustre--are
+cheap. But then, in this department, as in all others, Fashion and
+Beauty are not convertible terms.
+
+In the next booth there were two Persians, who unfolded before our eyes
+some of those marvellous shawls, where you forget the barbaric pattern
+in the exquisite fineness of the material and the triumphant harmony of
+the colors. Scarlet with palm-leaf border,--blue clasped by golden
+bronze, picked out with red,--browns, greens, and crimsons struggling
+for the mastery in a war of tints,--how should we choose between them?
+Alas! we were not able to choose: they were a thousand dollars apiece!
+But the Persians still went on unfolding, taking our admiration in pay
+for their trouble, and seeming even, by their pleasant smiles, to
+consider themselves well paid. When we came to the booths of European
+merchants, we were swiftly impressed with the fact that civilization, in
+following the sun westward, loses its grace in proportion as it
+advances. The gentle dignity, the serene patience, the soft, fraternal,
+affectionate demeanor of our Asiatic brethren vanished utterly when we
+encountered French and German salesmen; and yet these latter would have
+seemed gracious and courteous, had there been a few Yankee dealers
+beyond them. The fourth or fifth century, which still exists in Central
+Asia, was undoubtedly, in this particular, superior to the nineteenth.
+No gentleman, since his time, I suspect, has equalled Adam.
+
+Among these Asiatics Mr. Buckle would have some difficulty in
+maintaining his favorite postulate, that tolerance is the result of
+progressive intelligence. It is also the result of courtesy, as we may
+occasionally see in well-bred persons of limited intellect. Such,
+undoubtedly, is the basis of that tolerance which no one who has had
+much personal intercourse with the Semitic races can have failed to
+experience. The days of the sword and fagot are past; but it was
+reserved for Christians to employ them in the name of religion _alone_.
+Local or political jealousies are at the bottom of those troubles which
+still occur from time to time in Turkey: the traveller hears no
+insulting epithet, and the green-turbaned Imam will receive him as
+kindly and courteously as the sceptical Bey educated in Paris. I have
+never been so aggressively assailed, on religious grounds, as at
+home,--never so coarsely and insultingly treated, on account of a
+_presumed_ difference of opinion, as by those who claim descent from the
+Cavaliers. The bitter fierceness of some of our leading reformers is
+overlooked by their followers, because it springs from "earnest
+conviction"; but in the Orient intensest faith coexists with the most
+gracious and gentle manners.
+
+Be not impatient, beloved reader; for this digression brings me
+naturally to the next thing we saw at Novgorod. As we issued from the
+bazaar, the sunlit minaret greeted us through whirling dust and rising
+vapor, and I fancied I could hear the muezzin's musical cry. It was
+about time for the _asser_ prayer. Droshkies were found, and we rode
+slowly through the long, low warehouses of "caravan tea" and Mongolian
+wool to the mound near the Tartar encampment. The mosque was a plain,
+white, octagonal building, conspicuous only through its position. The
+turbaned faithful were already gathering; and we entered, and walked up
+the steps among them, without encountering an unfriendly glance. At the
+door stood two Cossack soldiers, specially placed there to prevent the
+worshippers from being insulted by curious Christians. (Those who have
+witnessed the wanton profanation of mosques in India by the English
+officers will please notice this fact.) If we had not put off our shoes
+before entering the hall of worship, the Cossacks would have performed
+that operation for us.
+
+I am happy to say that none of our party lacked a proper reverence for
+devotion, though it was offered through the channels of an alien creed.
+The ladies left their gaiters beside our boots, and we all stood in our
+stockings on the matting, a little in the rear of the kneeling crowd.
+The priest occupied a low dais in front, but he simply led the prayer,
+which was uttered by all. The windows were open, and the sun poured a
+golden flood into the room. Yonder gleamed the Kremlin of Novgorod,
+yonder rolled the Volga, all around were the dark forests of the
+North,--yet their faces were turned, and their thoughts went southward,
+to where Mecca sits among the burning hills, in the feathery shade of
+her palm-trees. And the tongue of Mecca came from their lips, _"Allah!"
+"Allah akhbar!"_ as the knee bent and the forehead touched the floor.
+
+At the second repetition of the prayers we quietly withdrew; and good
+Monsieur D., forgetful of nothing, suggested that preparations had been
+made for a dinner in the great cosmopolitan restaurant. So we drove back
+again through the Chinese street, with its red horned houses, the roofs
+terminating in gilded dragons' tails, and, after pressing through a
+dense multitude enveloped in tobacco-smoke and the steam of tea-urns,
+found ourselves at last in a low room with a shaky floor and muslin
+ceiling. It was an exact copy of the dining-room of a California hotel.
+If we looked blank a moment, Monsieur D.'s smile reassured us. He had
+given all the necessary orders, he said, and would step out and secure a
+box in the theatre before the _zakouski_ was served. During his absence,
+we looked out of the window on either side upon surging, whirling,
+humming pictures of the Great Fair, all vanishing in perspectives of
+dust and mist.
+
+In half an hour our friend returned, and with him entered the zakouski.
+I cannot remember half the appetizing ingredients of which it was
+composed: anchovies, sardines, herrings, capers, cheese, caviare, _pate
+de foie_, pickles, cherries, oranges, and olives, were among them.
+Instead of being a prelude to dinner, it was almost a dinner in itself.
+Then, after a Russian soup, which always contains as much solid
+nutriment as meat-biscuit or Arctic pemmican, came the glory of the
+repast, a mighty _sterlet_, which was swimming in Volga water when we
+took our seats at the table. This fish, the exclusive property of
+Russia, is, in times of scarcity, worth its weight in silver. Its
+unapproachable flavor is supposed to be as evanescent as the hues of a
+dying dolphin. Frequently, at grand dinner-parties, it is carried around
+the table in a little tank, and exhibited, _alive_, to the guests, when
+their soup is served, that its freshness, ten minutes afterwards, may be
+put beyond suspicion. The fish has the appearance of a small, lean
+sturgeon; but its flesh resembles the melting pulp of a fruit rather
+than the fibre of its watery brethren. It sinks into juice upon the
+tongue, like a perfectly ripe peach. In this quality no other fish in
+the world can approach it; yet I do not think the flavor quite so fine
+as that of a brook-trout. Our sterlet was nearly two feet long, and may
+have cost twenty or thirty dollars.
+
+With it appeared an astonishing salad, composed of watermelons,
+cantaloupes, pickled cherries, cucumbers, and certain spicy herbs. Its
+color and odor were enticing, and we had all applied the test of taste
+most satisfactorily before we detected the curious mixture of
+ingredients. After the second course,--a ragout of beef, accompanied
+with a rich, elaborate sauce,--three heavy tankards of chased silver,
+holding two quarts apiece, were placed upon the table. The first of
+these contained _kvass_, the second _kislischi_, and the third hydromel.
+Each one of these national drinks, when properly brewed, is very
+palatable and refreshing. I found the kislischi nearly identical with
+the ancient Scandinavian mead: no doubt it dates from the Varangian rule
+in Russia. The old custom of passing the tankards around the table, from
+mouth to mouth, is still observed, and will not be found objectionable,
+even in these days of excessive delicacy, when ladies and gentlemen are
+seated alternately at the banquet.
+
+The Russian element of the dinner here terminated. Cutlets and roast
+fowls made their appearance, with bottles of Ruedesheimer and Lafitte,
+followed by a dessert of superb Persian melons, from the southern shore
+of the Caspian Sea.
+
+By this time night had fallen, and Monsieur D. suggested an immediate
+adjournment to the theatre. What should be the entertainment? Dances of
+_almehs_, songs of gypsies, or Chinese jugglers? One of the Ivans
+brought a programme. It was not difficult to decipher the word
+"[Russian: MACBETH]," and to recognize, further, in the name of "Ira
+Aldridge" a distinguished mulatto tragedian, to whom Maryland has given
+birth (if I am rightly informed) and Europe fame. We had often heard of
+him, yea, seen his portrait in Germany, decorated with the orders
+conferred by half a dozen sovereigns; and his presence here, between
+Europe and Asia, was not the least characteristic feature of the Fair. A
+mulatto Macbeth, in a Russian theatre, with a Persian and Tartar
+audience!
+
+On arriving, we were ushered into two whitewashed boxes, which had been
+reserved for our party. The manager, having been informed of the envoy's
+presence in Nijni-Novgorod, had delayed the performance half an hour,
+but the audience bore this infliction patiently. The building was deep
+and narrow, with space for about eight hundred persons, and was filled
+from top to bottom. The first act was drawing to a close as we entered.
+King Duncan, with two or three shabby attendants, stood in the
+court-yard of the castle,--the latter represented by a handsome French
+door on the left, with a bit of Tartar wall beyond,--and made his
+observations on the "pleasant seat" of Macbeth's mansion. He spoke
+Russian, of course. Lady Macbeth now appeared, in a silk dress of the
+latest fashion, expanded by the amplest of crinolines. She was passably
+handsome, and nothing could be gentler than her face and voice. She
+received the royal party like a well-bred lady, and they all entered the
+French door together.
+
+There was no change of scene. With slow step and folded arms, Ira
+Macbeth entered and commenced the soliloquy, "If it were done," etc., to
+our astonishment, in English! He was a dark, strongly built mulatto, of
+about fifty, in a fancy tunic, and light stockings over Forrestian
+calves. His voice was deep and powerful; and it was very evident that
+Edmund Kean, once his master, was also the model which he carefully
+followed in the part. There were the same deliberate, over-distinct
+enunciation, the same prolonged pauses and gradually performed gestures,
+as I remember in imitations of Kean's manner. Except that the copy was a
+little too apparent, Mr. Aldridge's acting was really very fine. The
+Russians were enthusiastic in their applause, though very few of them,
+probably, understood the language of the part. The Oriental auditors
+were perfectly impassive, and it was impossible to guess how they
+regarded the performance.
+
+The second act was in some respects the most amusing thing I ever saw
+upon the stage. In the dagger-scene, Ira was, to my mind, quite equal to
+Forrest; it was impossible to deny him unusual dramatic talent; but his
+complexion, continually suggesting Othello, quite confounded me. The
+amiable Russian Lady Macbeth was much better adapted to the part of
+Desdemona: all softness and gentleness, she smiled as she lifted her
+languishing eyes, and murmured in the tenderest accents, "Infirm of
+purpose! give me the dagger!" At least, I took it for granted that these
+were her words, for Macbeth had just said, "Look on 't again I dare
+not." Afterwards, six Russian soldiers, in tan-colored shirts, loose
+trousers, and high boots, filed in, followed by Macduff and Malcolm, in
+the costume of Wallenstein's troopers. The dialogue--one voice English,
+and all the others Russian--proceeded smoothly enough, but the effect
+was like nothing which our stage can produce. Nevertheless, the audience
+was delighted, and when the curtain fell there were vociferous cries of
+"_Aira! Aira! Aldreetch! Aldreetch!_" until the swarthy hero made his
+appearance before the foot-lights.
+
+Monsieur D. conducted our friend P. into the green-room, where he was
+received by Macbeth in costume. He found the latter to be a dignified,
+imposing personage, who carried his tragic chest-tones into ordinary
+conversation. On being informed by P. that the American minister was
+present, he asked,--
+
+"Of what persuasion?"
+
+P. hastened to set him right, and Ira then remarked, in his gravest
+tone,--"I shall have the honor of waiting upon him to-morrow morning";
+which, however, he failed to do.
+
+This son of the South, no doubt, came legitimately (or, at least,
+naturally) by his dignity. His career, for a man of his blood and
+antecedents, has been wonderfully successful, and is justly due, I am
+convinced, since I have seen him, to his histrionic talents. Both black
+and yellow skins are sufficiently rare in Europe to excite a particular
+interest in those who wear them; and I had surmised, up to this time,
+that much of his popularity might be owing to his color. But he
+certainly deserves an honorable place among tragedians of the second
+rank.
+
+We left the theatre at the close of the third act, and crossed the river
+to our quarters on the hill. A chill mist hung over the Fair, but the
+lamps still burned, the streets were thronged, and the Don Cossacks kept
+patient guard at every corner. The night went by like one unconscious
+minute, in beds unmolested by bug or flea; and when I arose, thoroughly
+refreshed, I involuntarily called to mind a frightful chapter in De
+Custine's "Russia," describing the prevalence of an insect which he
+calls the _persica_, on the banks of the Volga. He was obliged to sleep
+on a table, the legs whereof were placed in basins of water, to escape
+their attacks. I made many inquiries about these terrible _persicas_,
+and finally discovered that they were neither more nor less
+than--cockroaches!--called _Prossaki_ (Prussians) by the Russians, as
+they are sometimes called _Schwaben_ (Suabians) by the Germans. Possibly
+they may be found in the huts of the serfs, but they are rare in decent
+houses.
+
+We devoted the first sunny hours of the morning to a visit to the
+citadel and a walk around the crest of the hill. On the highest point,
+just over the junction of the two rivers, there is a commemorative
+column to Minim, the patriotic butcher of Novgorod, but for whose
+eloquence, in the year 1610, the Russian might possibly now be the
+Polish Empire. Vladislas, son of Sigismund of Poland, had been called to
+the throne by the boyards, and already reigned in Moscow, when Minim
+appealed to the national spirit, persuaded General Pojarski to head an
+anti-Polish movement, which was successful, and thus cleared the way for
+the election of Michael Romanoff, the first sovereign of the present
+dynasty. Minim is therefore one of the historic names of Russia.
+
+When I stood beside his monument, and the finest landscape of European
+Russia was suddenly unrolled before my eyes, I could believe the
+tradition of his eloquence, for here was its inspiration. Thirty or
+forty miles away stretched the rolling swells of forest and grain-land,
+fading into dimmest blue to the westward and northward, dotted with
+villages and sparkling domes, and divided by shining reaches of the
+Volga. It was truly a superb and imposing view, changing with each spur
+of the hill as we made the circuit of the citadel. Eastward, the country
+rose into dark, wooded hills, between which the river forced its way in
+a narrower and swifter channel, until it disappeared behind a purple
+headland, hastening southward to find a warmer home in the unfrozen
+Caspian. By embarking on the steamers anchored below us, we might have
+reached Perm, among the Ural Mountains, or Astrachan, in less than a
+week; while a trip of ten days would have taken us past the Caucasus,
+even to the base of Ararat or Demavend. Such are the splendid
+possibilities of travel in these days.
+
+The envoy, who visited Europe for the first time, declared that this
+panorama from the hill of Novgorod was one of the finest things he had
+seen. There could, truly, be no better preparation to enjoy it than
+fifteen hundred miles of nearly unbroken level, after leaving the
+Russian frontier; but I think it would be a "show" landscape anywhere.
+Why it is not more widely celebrated I cannot guess. The only person in
+Russia whom I heard speak of it with genuine enthusiasm was Alexander
+II.
+
+Two hours upon the breezy parapet, beside the old Tartar walls, were all
+too little; but the droshkies waited in the river-street a quarter of a
+mile below us, our return to Moscow was ordered for the afternoon, there
+were amethysts and Persian silks yet to be bought, and so we sighed
+farewell to an enjoyment rare in Russia, and descended the steep
+footpath.
+
+P. and I left the rest of the party at the booth of the handsome
+Bashkir, and set out upon a special mission to the Tartar camp. I had
+ascertained that the national beverage of Central Asia might be found
+there,--the genuine _koumiss_, or fermented milk of the mares of the
+Uralian steppes. Having drunk palm-wine in India, _sam-shoo_ China,
+_saki_ in Japan, _pulque_ in Mexico, _bouza_ in Egypt, mead in
+Scandinavia, ale in England, _bock-bier_ in Germany, _mastic_ in Greece,
+_calabogus_ in Newfoundland, and--soda-water in the United States, I
+desired to complete the bibulous cosmos, in which _koumiss_ was still
+lacking. My friend did not share my curiosity, but was ready for an
+adventure, which our search for mare's milk seemed to promise.
+
+Beyond the mosques we found the Uzbeks and Kirghiz,--some in tents, some
+in rough shanties of boards. But they were without koumiss: they had had
+it, and showed us some empty kegs, in evidence of the fact. I fancied a
+gleam of diversion stole over their grave, swarthy faces, as they
+listened to our eager inquiries in broken Russian. Finally we came into
+an extemporized village, where some women, unveiled and ugly, advised us
+to apply to the traders in the khan, or caravansera. This was a great
+barn-like building, two stories high, with broken staircases and
+creaking floors. A corridor ran the whole length of the second floor,
+with some twenty or thirty doors opening into it from the separate rooms
+of the traders. We accosted the first Tartar whom we met; and he
+promised, with great readiness, to procure us what we wanted. He ushered
+us into his room, cleared away a pile of bags, saddles, camel-trappings,
+and other tokens of a nomadic life, and revealed a low divan covered
+with a ragged carpet. On a sack of barley sat his father, a blind
+graybeard, nearly eighty years old. On our way through the camp I had
+noticed that the Tartars saluted each other with the Arabic, "_Salaam
+aleikoom_!" and I therefore greeted the old man with the familiar
+words. He lifted his head: his face brightened, and he immediately
+answered, "_Aleikoom salaam_, my son!"
+
+"Do you speak Arabic?" I asked.
+
+"A little; I have forgotten it," said he. "But thine is a new voice. Of
+what tribe art thou?"
+
+"A tribe far away, beyond Bagdad and Syria," I answered.
+
+"It is the tribe of Damascus. I know it now, my son. I have heard the
+voice, many, many years ago."
+
+The withered old face looked so bright, as some pleasant memory shone
+through it, that I did not undeceive the man. His son came in with a
+glass, pulled a keg from under a pile of coarse caftans, and drew out
+the wooden peg. A gray liquid, with an odor at once sour and pungent,
+spirted into the glass, which he presently handed to me, filled to the
+brim. In such cases no hesitation is permitted. I thought of home and
+family, set the glass to my lips, and emptied it before the flavor made
+itself clearly manifest to my palate.
+
+"Well, what is it like?" asked my friend, who curiously awaited the
+result of the experiment.
+
+"Peculiar," I answered, with preternatural calmness,--"peculiar, but not
+unpleasant."
+
+The glass was filled a second time; and P., not to be behindhand,
+emptied it at a draught. Then he turned to me with tears (not of
+delight) in his eyes, swallowed nothing very hard two or three times,
+suppressed a convulsive shudder, and finally remarked, with the air of a
+martyr, "Very curious, indeed!"
+
+"Will your Excellencies have some more?" said the friendly Tartar.
+
+"Not before breakfast, if you please," I answered; "your koumiss is
+excellent, however, and we will take a bottle with us,"--which we did,
+in order to satisfy the possible curiosity of the ladies. I may here
+declare that the bottle was never emptied.
+
+The taste was that of aged buttermilk mixed with ammonia. We could
+detect no flavor of alcohol, yet were conscious of a light exhilaration
+from the small quantity we drank. The beverage is said, indeed, to be
+very intoxicating. Some German physician has established a
+"koumiss-cure" at Piatigorsk, at the northern base of the Caucasus, and
+invites invalids of certain kinds to come and be healed by its agency. I
+do not expect to be one of the number.
+
+There still remained a peculiar feature of the Fair, which I had not yet
+seen. This is the subterranean network of sewerage, which reproduces, in
+massive masonry, the streets on the surface. Without it, the annual city
+of two months would become uninhabitable. The peninsula between the two
+rivers being low and marshy,--frequently overflowed during the spring
+freshets,--pestilence would soon be bred from the immense concourse of
+people: hence a system of _cloacae_, almost rivalling those of ancient
+Rome. At each street-corner there are wells containing spiral
+staircases, by which one can descend to the spacious subterranean
+passages, and there walk for miles under arches of hewn stone, lighted
+and aired by shafts at regular intervals. In St. Petersburg you are told
+that more than half the cost of the city is under the surface of the
+earth; at Nijni-Novgorod the statement is certainly true. Peter the
+Great at one time designed establishing his capital here. Could he have
+foreseen the existence of railroads, he would certainly have done so.
+Nijni-Novgorod is now nearer to Berlin than the Russian frontier was
+fifty years ago. St. Petersburg is an accidental city; Nature and the
+destiny of the empire are both opposed to its existence; and a time will
+come when its long lines of palaces shall be deserted for some new
+capital, in a locality at once more southern and more central.
+
+Another walk through the streets of the Fair enabled me to analyze the
+first confused impression, and separate the motley throng of life into
+its several elements. I shall not attempt, however, to catch and paint
+its ever-changing, fluctuating character. Our limited visit allowed us
+to see only the more central and crowded streets. Outside of these, for
+miles, extend suburbs of iron, of furs, wool, and other coarser
+products, brought together from the Ural, from the forests towards the
+Polar Ocean, and from the vast extent of Siberia. Here, from morning
+till night, the beloved _kvass_ flows in rivers, the strong stream of
+_shchi_ (cabbage-soup) sends up its perpetual incense, and the samovar
+of cheap tea is never empty. Here, although important interests are
+represented, the intercourse between buyers and sellers is less grave
+and methodical than in the bazaar. There are jokes, laughter, songs, and
+a constant play of that repartee in which even the serfs are masters.
+Here, too, jugglers and mountebanks of all sorts ply their trade;
+gypsies sing, dance, and tell fortunes; and other vocations, less
+respectable than these, flourish vigorously. For, whether the visitor be
+an Ostiak from the Polar Circle, an Uzbek from the Upper Oxus, a
+Crim-Tartar or Nogai, a Georgian from Tiflis, a Mongolian from the Land
+of Grass, a Persian from Ispahan, a Jew from Hamburg, a Frenchman from
+Lyons, a Tyrolese, Swiss, Bohemian, or an Anglo-Saxon from either side
+of the Atlantic, he meets his fellow-visitors to the Great Fair on the
+common ground, not of human brotherhood, but of human appetite; and all
+the manifold nationalities succumb to the same allurements. If the
+various forms of indulgence could be so used as to propagate ideas, the
+world would speedily be regenerated; but as things go, "cakes and ale"
+have more force than the loftiest ideas, the noblest theories of
+improvement; and the impartial observer will make this discovery as
+readily at Nijni-Novgorod as anywhere else.
+
+Before taking leave of the Fair, let me give a word to the important
+subject of tea. It is a much-disputed question with the connoisseurs of
+that beverage which neither cheers nor inebriates, (though, I confess,
+it is more agreeable than koumiss,) whether the Russian "caravan tea" is
+really superior to that which is imported by sea. After much patient
+observation, combined with serious reflection, I incline to the opinion
+that the flavor of tea depends, not upon the method of transportation,
+but upon the price paid for the article. I have tasted bad caravan tea
+in Russia, and delicious tea in New York. In St. Petersburg you cannot
+procure a good article for less than three roubles ($2.25, _gold_) per
+pound; while the finer kinds bring twelve and even sixteen roubles.
+Whoever is willing to import at that price can no doubt procure tea of
+equal excellence. The fact is, that this land-transportation is slow,
+laborious, and expensive; hence the finer kinds of tea are always
+selected, a pound thereof costing no more for carriage than a pound of
+inferior quality; _whence_ the superior flavor of caravan tea. There is,
+however, one variety to be obtained in Russia which I have found nowhere
+else, not even in the Chinese sea-ports. It is called "imperial tea",
+and comes in elegant boxes of yellow silk emblazoned with the dragon of
+the Hang dynasty, at the rate of from six to twenty dollars a pound. It
+is yellow, and the decoction from it is almost colorless. A small pinch
+of it, added to ordinary black tea, gives an indescribably delicious
+flavor,--the very aroma of the tea-blossom; but one cup of it, unmixed,
+is said to deprive the drinker of sleep for three nights. We brought
+some home, and a dose thereof was administered to three unconscious
+guests during my absence; but I have not yet ascertained the effects
+which followed.
+
+Monsieur D. brought our last delightful stroll through the glittering
+streets to an untimely end. The train for Moscow was to leave at three
+o'clock; and he had ordered an early dinner at the restaurant. By the
+time this was concluded, it was necessary to drive at once to the
+station, in order to secure places. We were almost too late; the train,
+long as it was, was crammed to overflowing; and although both
+station-master and conductor assisted us, the eager passengers
+disregarded their authority. With great difficulty, one compartment was
+cleared for the ladies; in the adjoining one four merchants, in long
+caftans, with sacks of watermelons as provision for the journey, took
+their places, and would not be ejected. A scene of confusion ensued, in
+which station-master, conductor, Monsieur D., my friend P., and the
+Russian merchants were curiously mixed; but when we saw the sacks of
+watermelons rolling out of the door, we knew the day was ours. In two
+minutes more we were in full possession; the doors were locked, and the
+struggling throngs beat against them in vain.
+
+With a grateful farewell to our kind guide, whose rather severe duties
+for our sake were now over, we moved away from the station, past heaps
+of cotton-bales, past hills of drifting sand, and impassive groups of
+Persians, Tartars, and Bukharians, and slowly mounted the long grade to
+the level of the upland, leaving the Fair to hum and whirl in the hollow
+between the rivers, and the white walls and golden domes of Novgorod to
+grow dim on the crest of the receding hill.
+
+The next morning, at sunrise, we were again in Moscow.
+
+
+
+
+MY AUTUMN WALK.
+
+
+    On woodlands ruddy with autumn
+      The amber sunshine lies;
+    I look on the beauty round me,
+      And tears come into my eyes.
+
+    For the wind that sweeps the meadows
+      Blows out of the far South-west,
+    Where our gallant men are fighting,
+      And the gallant dead are at rest.
+
+    The golden-rod is leaning
+      And the purple aster waves
+    In a breeze from the land of battles,
+      A breath from the land of graves.
+
+    Full fast the leaves are dropping
+      Before that wandering breath;
+    As fast, on the field of battle,
+      Our brethren fall in death.
+
+    Beautiful over my pathway
+      The forest spoils are shed;
+    They are spotting the grassy hillocks
+      With purple and gold and red.
+
+    Beautiful is the death-sleep
+      Of those who bravely fight
+    In their country's holy quarrel,
+      And perish for the Right.
+
+    But who shall comfort the living,
+      The light of whose homes is gone:
+    The bride, that, early widowed,
+      Lives broken-hearted on;
+
+    The matron, whose sons are lying
+      In graves on a distant shore;
+    The maiden, whose promised husband
+      Comes back from the war no more?
+
+    I look on the peaceful dwellings
+      Whose windows glimmer in sight,
+    With croft and garden and orchard
+      That bask in the mellow light;
+
+    And I know, that, when our couriers
+      With news of victory come,
+    They will bring a bitter message
+      Of hopeless grief to some.
+
+    Again I turn to the woodlands,
+      And shudder as I see
+    The mock-grape's[B] blood-red banner
+      Hung out on the cedar-tree;
+
+    And I think of days of slaughter,
+      And the night-sky red with flames,
+    On the Chattahoochee's meadows,
+      And the wasted banks of the James.
+
+    Oh, for the fresh spring-season,
+      When the groves are in their prime,
+    And far away in the future
+      Is the frosty autumn-time!
+
+    Oh, for that better season,
+      When the pride of the foe shall yield,
+    And the hosts of God and freedom
+      March back from the well-won field;
+
+    And the matron shall clasp her first-born
+      With tears of joy and pride;
+    And the scarred and war-worn lover
+      Shall claim his promised bride!
+
+    The leaves are swept from the branches;
+      But the living buds are there,
+    With folded flower and foliage,
+      To sprout in a kinder air.
+
+October, 1864.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[B] _Ampelopsis_, mock-grape. I have here literally translated the
+botanical name of the Virginia creeper,--an appellation too cumbrous for
+verse.
+
+
+
+
+FIVE-SISTERS COURT AT CHRISTMAS-TIDE.
+
+
+For a business street Every Lane certainly is very lazy. It sets out
+just to make a short passage between two thoroughfares, but, though
+forced first to walk straight by the warehouses that wall in its
+entrance, it soon begins to loiter, staring down back alleys, yawning
+into courts, plunging into stable-yards, and at length standing
+irresolute at three ways of getting to the end of its journey. It passes
+by artisans' shops, and keeps two or three masons' cellars and
+carpenters' lofts, as if its slovenly buildings needed perpetual
+repairs. It has not at all the air of once knowing better days. It began
+life hopelessly; and though the mayor and common council and board of
+aldermen, with ten righteous men, should daily march through it, the
+broom of official and private virtue could not sweep it clean of its
+slovenliness. But one of its idle turnings does suddenly end in a
+virtuous court: here Every Lane may come, when it indulges in vain
+aspirations for a more respectable character, and take refuge in the
+quiet demeanor of Every Court. The court is shaped like the letter T
+with an L to it. The upright beam connects it with Every Lane, and
+maintains a non-committal character, since its sides are blank walls;
+upon one side of the cross-beam are four houses, while a fifth occupies
+the diminutive L of the court, esconcing itself in a snug corner, as if
+ready to rush out at the cry of "All in! all in!" Gardens fill the
+unoccupied sides, toy-gardens, but large enough to raise all the flowers
+needed for this toy-court. The five houses, built exactly alike, are two
+and a half stories high, and have each a dormer-window, curtained with
+white dimity, so that they look like five elderly dames in caps; and the
+court has gotten the name of Five-Sisters Court, to the despair of Every
+Lane, which felt its sole chance for respectability slip away when the
+court came to disown its patronymic.
+
+It was at dusk, the afternoon before Christmas, that a young man,
+Nicholas Judge by name, walking inquiringly down Every Lane, turned into
+Five-Sisters Court, and stood facing the five old ladies, apparently in
+some doubt as to which he should accost. There was a number on each
+door, but no name; and it was impossible to tell from the outside who or
+what sort of people lived in each. If one could only get round to the
+rear of the court, one might get some light, for the backs of houses are
+generally off their guard, and the Five Sisters who look alike in their
+dimity caps might possibly have more distinct characters when not
+dressed for company. Perhaps, after the caps are off, and the spectacles
+removed--But what outrageous sentiments are we drifting toward!
+
+There was a cause for Nicholas Judge's hesitation. In one of those
+houses he had good reason to believe lived an aunt of his, the only
+relation left to him in the world, so far as he knew, and by so slender
+a thread was he held to her that he knew only her maiden name. Through
+the labyrinth of possible widowhoods, one of which at least was actual,
+and the changes in condition which many years would effect, he was to
+feel his way to the Fair Rosamond by this thread. Nicholas was a wise
+young man, as will no doubt appear when we come to know him better, and,
+though a fresh country youth, visiting the city for the first time, was
+not so indiscreet as to ask bluntly at each door, until he got
+satisfaction, "Does my Aunt Eunice live here?" As the doors in the court
+were all shut and equally dumb, he resolved to take the houses in order,
+and proposing to himself the strategy of asking for a drink of water,
+and so opening the way for further parley, he stood before the door of
+Number One.
+
+He raised the knocker, (for there was no bell,) and tapped in a
+hesitating manner, as if he would take it all back in case of an
+egregious mistake. There was a shuffle in the entry; the door opened
+slowly, disclosing an old and tidy negro woman, who invited Nicholas in
+by a gesture, and saying, "You wish to see master?" led him on through a
+dark passage without waiting for an answer. "Certainly," he thought, "I
+want to see the master more than I want a drink of water: I will keep
+that device for the next house"; and, obeying the lead of the servant,
+he went up stairs, and was ushered into a room, where there was just
+enough dusky light to disclose tiers of books, a table covered with
+papers, and other indications of a student's abode.
+
+Nicholas's eye had hardly become accustomed to the dim light, when there
+entered the scholar himself, the master whom he was to see: a small old
+man, erect, with white hair and smooth forehead, beneath which projected
+two beads of eyes, that seemed, from their advanced position,
+endeavoring to take in what lay round the corner of the head as well as
+objects directly in front. His long palm-leaved study-gown and tasselled
+velvet cap lent him a reverend appearance; and he bore in his hand what
+seemed a curiously shaped dipper, as if he were some wise man coming to
+slake a disciple's thirst with water from the fountain-head of
+knowledge.
+
+"Has he guessed my pretended errand?" wondered Nicholas to himself,
+feeling a little ashamed of his innocent ruse, for he was not in the
+least thirsty; but the old man began at once to address him, after
+motioning him to a seat. He spoke abruptly, and with a restrained
+impatience of manner:--
+
+"So you received my letter appointing this hour for an interview. Well,
+what do you expect me to do for you? You compliment me, in a loose sort
+of way, on my contributions to philological science, and tell me that
+you are engaged in the same inquiries with myself"--
+
+"Sir," said Nicholas, in alarm,--"I ought to explain myself,--I"----
+
+But the old gentleman gave no heed to the interruption, and
+continued:----
+
+--"And that you have published an article on the Value of Words. You
+sent me the paper, but I didn't find anything in it. I have no great
+opinion of the efforts of young men in this direction. It contained
+commonplace generalities which I never heard questioned. You can't show
+the value of words by wasting them. I told you I should be plain. Now
+you want me to give you some hints, you say, as to the best method of
+pursuing philological researches. In a hasty moment I said you might
+come, though I don't usually allow visitors. You praise me for what I
+have accomplished in philology. Young man, that is because I have not
+given myself up to idle gadding and gossiping. Do you think, if I had
+been making calls, and receiving anybody who chose to force himself upon
+me, during the last forty years, that I should have been able to master
+the digamma, which you think my worthiest labor?"
+
+"Sir," interrupted Nicholas again, thinking that the question, though it
+admitted no answer, might give him a chance to stand on his own legs
+once more, "I really must ask your pardon."
+
+"The best method of pursuing philological researches!" continued the old
+scholar, deaf to Nicholas's remonstrance. "That is one of your foolish
+general questions, that show how little you know what you are about. But
+do as I have done. Work by yourself, and dig, dig. Give up your
+senseless gabbling in the magazines, get over your astonishment at
+finding that _coelum_ and _heaven_ contain the same idea
+etymologically, and that there was a large bread-bakery at Skolos,
+and make up your mind to believe nothing till you can't help it. You
+haven't begun to work yet. Wait till you have lived as I have, forty
+years in one house, with your library likely to turn you out of doors,
+and only an old black woman to speak to, before you begin to think of
+calling yourself a scholar. Eh?"
+
+And at this point the old gentleman adjusted the dipper, which was
+merely an ear-trumpet,--though for a moment more mysterious to
+Nicholas, in its new capacity, than when he had regarded it as a unique
+specimen of a familiar household-implement,--and thrust the bowl toward
+the embarrassed youth. In fact, having said all that he intended to say
+to his unwelcome supposed disciple, he showed enough churlish grace to
+permit him to make such reply or defence as seemed best.
+
+The old gentleman had pulled up so suddenly in his harangue, and called
+for an answer so authoritatively, and with such a singular flourish of
+his trumpet, that Nicholas, losing command of the studied explanation of
+his conduct, which a moment before had been at his tongue's end, caught
+at the last sentence spoken, and gained a perilous advantage by
+asking,--
+
+"Have you, indeed, lived in this house forty years, Sir?"
+
+"Eh! what?" said the old gentleman, impatiently, perceiving that he had
+spoken. "Here, speak into my trumpet. What is the use of a trumpet, if
+you don't speak into it?"
+
+"Oh," thought Nicholas to himself, "I see, he is excessively deaf"; and
+bending over the trumpet, where he saw a sieve-like frame, as if all
+speech were to be strained as it entered, he collected his force, and
+repeated the question, with measured and sonorous utterance, "Sir, have
+you lived in this house forty years?"
+
+"I just told you so," said the old man, not unnaturally starting back.
+"And if you were going to ask me such an unnecessary question at all,"
+he added, testily, "you needn't have roared it out at me. I could have
+heard that without my trumpet. Yes, I've lived here forty years, and so
+has black Maria, who opened the door for you; and I say again that I
+have accomplished what I have by uninterrupted study. I haven't gone
+about, bowing to every he, she, and it. I never knew who lived in any of
+the other houses in the court till to-day, when a woman came and asked
+me to go out for the evening to her house; and just because it was
+Christmas-eve, I was foolish enough to be wheedled by her into saying I
+would go. Miss ---- Miss ----, I can't remember her name now. I shall
+have to ask Maria. There, you haven't got much satisfaction out of me;
+but do you mind what I said to you, and it will be worth more than if I
+had told you what books to read. Eh?" And he invited Nicholas once more
+to drop his words into the trumpet.
+
+"Good afternoon," said Nicholas, hesitatingly,--"thank you,"--at a loss
+what pertinent reply to make, and in despair of clearing himself from
+the tangle in which he had become involved. It was plain, too, that he
+should get no satisfaction here, at least upon the search in which he
+was engaged. But the reply seemed quite satisfactory to the old
+gentleman, who cheerfully relinquished him to black Maria, who, in turn,
+passed him out of the house.
+
+Left to himself, and rid of his personal embarrassment, he began to feel
+uncomfortably guilty, as he considered the confusion which he had
+entailed upon the real philological disciple, and would fain comfort
+himself with the hope that he had acted as a sort of lightning-rod to
+conduct the old scholar's bolts, and so had secured some immunity for
+the one at whom the bolts were really shot. But his own situation
+demanded his attention; and leaving the to-be unhappy young man and the
+to-be perplexed old gentleman to settle the difficulty over the
+mediating ear-trumpet, he addressed himself again to his task, and
+proposed to take another survey of the court, with the vague hope that
+his aunt might show herself with such unmistakable signs of relationship
+as to bring his researches to an immediate and triumphant close.
+
+Just as he was turning away from the front of Number One, buttoning his
+overcoat with an air of self-abstraction, he was suddenly and
+unaccountably attacked in the chest with such violence as almost to
+throw him off his feet. At the next moment his ears were assailed by a
+profusion of apologetic explanations from a young man, who made out to
+tell him, that, coming out of his house with the intention of calling
+next door, he had leaped over the snow that lay between, and, not seeing
+the gentleman, had, most unintentionally, plunged headlong into him. He
+hoped he had not hurt him; he begged a thousand pardons; it was very
+careless in him; and then, perfect peace having succeeded this violent
+attack, the new-comer politely asked,--
+
+"Can you tell me whether Doctor Chocker is at home, and disengaged? I
+perceive that you have just left his house."
+
+"Do you mean the deaf old gentleman in Number One?" asked Nicholas.
+
+"I was not aware that he was deaf," said his companion.
+
+"And I did not know that his name was Doctor Chocker," said Nicholas,
+smiling. "But may I ask," said he, with a sudden thought, and blushing
+so hard that even the wintry red of his cheeks was outshone, "if you
+were just going to see him?"
+
+"I had an appointment to see him at this hour; and that is the reason
+why I asked you if he was disengaged."
+
+"He--he is not engaged, I believe," said Nicholas, stammering and
+blushing harder than ever; "but a word with you, Sir. I must--really--it
+was wholly unintentional--but unless I am mistaken, the old gentleman
+thought I was you."
+
+"Thought you were I?" said the other, screwing his eyebrows into a
+question, and letting his nose stand for an exclamation-point. "But
+come, it is cold here,--will you do me the honor to come up to my room?
+At any rate, I should like to hear something about the old fellow." And
+he turned towards the next house.
+
+"What--!" said Nicholas, "do you live in Number Two?"
+
+"Yes, I have rooms here," said his companion, jumping back over the
+snow. "You seem surprised."
+
+"It is extraordinary," muttered Nicholas to himself, as he entered the
+house and followed his new acquaintance up stairs.
+
+Their entrance seemed to create some confusion; for there was an
+indistinct sound as of a tumultuous retreat in every direction, a
+scuttling up and down stairs, and a whisking of dresses round corners,
+with still more indistinct and distant sound of suppressed chattering
+and a voice berating.
+
+"It is extremely provoking," said the young man, when they had entered
+his room and the door was shut; "but the people in this house seem to do
+nothing but watch my movements. You heard that banging about? Well, I
+seldom come in or go out, especially with a friend, but that just such a
+stampede takes place in the passage-ways and staircase. I have no idea
+who lives in the house, except a Mrs. Crimp, a very worthy woman, no
+doubt, but with too many children, I should guess. I only lodge here;
+and as I send my money down every month with the bill which I find on my
+table, I never see Mrs. Crimp. Now I don't see why they should be so
+curious about me. I'm sure I am very contented in my ignorance of the
+whole household. It's a little annoying, though, when I bring any one
+into the house. Will you excuse me a moment, while I ring for more
+coal?"
+
+While he disappeared for this purpose, seeming to keep the bell in some
+other part of the house, Nicholas took a hasty glance round the room,
+and, opening a book on the table, read on the fly-leaf, _Paul Le Clear_,
+a name which he tagged for convenience to the occupant of the room until
+he should find one more authentic. The room corresponded to that in
+which he had met Doctor Chocker, but the cheerful gleam of an open fire
+gave a brighter aspect to the interior. Here also were books; but while
+at the Doctor's the walls, tables, and even floor seemed bursting with
+the crowd that had found lodging there, so that he had made his way to a
+chair by a sort of footpath through a field of folios, here there was
+the nicest order and an evident attempt at artistic arrangement. Nor
+were books alone the possessors of the walls; for a few pictures and
+busts had places, and two or three ingenious cupboards excited
+curiosity. The room, in short, showed plainly the presence of a
+cultivated mind; and Nicholas, who, though unfamiliar with city-life,
+had received a capital intellectual training at the hands of a
+scholarly, but anchoret father, was delighted at the signs of culture in
+his new acquaintance.
+
+Mr. Le Clear reentered the room, followed presently by the coal-scuttle
+in the hands of a small servant, and, remembering the occasion which had
+brought them together, invited Nicholas to finish the explanation which
+he had begun below. He, set at ease by the agreeable surroundings,
+opened his heart wide, and, for the sake of explicitness in his
+narration, proposed to begin back at the very beginning.
+
+"By all means begin at the beginning," said Mr. Le Clear, rubbing his
+hands in expectant pleasure; "but before you begin, my good Sir, let me
+suggest that we take a cup of tea together. I must take mine early
+to-night, as I am to spend the evening out, and there's something to
+tell you, Sir, when you are through,"--as if meeting his burst of
+confidence with a corresponding one,--"though it's a small matter,
+probably, compared with yours, but it has amused me. I can't make a
+great show on the table," he added, with an elegant humility, when
+Nicholas accepted his invitation; "but I like to take my tea in my room,
+though I go out for dinner."
+
+So saying, he brought from the cupboard a little table-cloth, and,
+bustling about, deposited on a tea-tray, one by one, various members of
+a tea-set, which had evidently been plucked from a tea-plant in China,
+since the forms and figures were all suggested by the flowery kingdom.
+The lids of the vessels were shaped like tea-leaves; and miniature China
+men and women picked their way about among the letters of the Chinese
+alphabet, as if they were playing at word-puzzles. Nicholas admired the
+service to its owner's content, establishing thus a new bond of sympathy
+between them; and both were soon seated near the table, sipping the tea
+with demure little spoons, that approached the meagreness of Chinese
+chop-sticks, and decorating white bread with brown marmalade.
+
+"Now," said the host, "since you share my salt, I ought to be introduced
+to you, an office which I will perform without ceremony. My name is Paul
+Le Clear," which Nicholas and we had already guessed correctly.
+
+"And mine," said Nicholas, "is Nicholas,--Nicholas Judge."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Judge; now let us have the story," said Paul, extending
+himself in an easy attitude; "and begin at the beginning."
+
+"The story begins with my birth," said Nicholas, with a reckless
+ingenuousness which was a large part of his host's entertainment.
+
+But it is unnecessary to recount in detail what Paul heard, beginning at
+that epoch, twenty-two years back. Enough to say in brief what Nicholas
+elaborated: that his mother had died at his birth, in a country home at
+the foot of a mountain; that in that home he had lived, with his father
+for almost solitary friend and teacher, until, his father dying, he had
+come to the city to live; that he had but just reached the place, and
+had made it his first object to find his mother's only sister, with
+whom, indeed, his father had kept up no acquaintance, and for finding
+whom he had but a slight clue, even if she were then living. Nicholas
+brought his narrative in regular order down to the point where Paul had
+so unexpectedly accosted him, stopping there, since subsequent facts
+were fully known to both.
+
+"And now," he concluded, warming with his subject, "I am in search of my
+aunt. What sort of woman she will prove to be I cannot tell; but if
+there is any virtue in sisterly blood, surely my Aunt Eunice cannot be
+without some of that noble nature which belonged to my mother, as I have
+heard her described, and as her miniature bids me believe in. How many
+times of late, in my solitariness, have I pictured to myself this one
+kinswoman receiving me for her sister's sake, and willing to befriend
+me for my own! True, I am strong, and able, I think, to make my way in
+the world unaided. It is not such help as would ease my necessary
+struggle that I ask, but the sympathy which only blood-relationship can
+bring. So I build great hopes on my success in the search; and I have
+chosen this evening as a fit time for the happy recognition. I cannot
+doubt that we shall keep our Christmas together. Do you know of any one,
+Mr. Le Clear, living in this court, who might prove to be my aunt?"
+
+"Upon my soul," said that gentleman, who had been sucking the juice of
+Nicholas's narrative, and had now reached the skin, "you have come to
+the last person likely to be able to tell you. It was only to-day that I
+learned by a correspondence with Doctor Chocker, whom all the world
+knows, that he was living just next door to me. Who lives on the other
+side I can't tell. Mrs. Crimp lives here; but she receipts her bills,
+Temperance A. Crimp; so there's no chance for a Eunice there. As for the
+other three houses, I know nothing, except just this: and here I come to
+my story, which is very short, and nothing like so entertaining as
+yours. Yesterday I was called upon by a jiggoty little woman,--I say
+jiggoty, because that expresses exactly my meaning,--a jiggoty little
+woman, who announced herself as Miss Pix, living in Number Five, and who
+brought an invitation in person to me to come to a small party at her
+house this Christmas-eve; and as she was jiggoty, I thought I would
+amuse myself by going. But she is _Miss_ Pix; and your aunt, according
+to your showing, should be _Mrs._"
+
+"That must be where the old gentleman, Doctor Chocker, is going," said
+Nicholas, who had forgotten to mention that part of the Doctor's
+remarks, and now did so.
+
+"Really, that is entertaining!" cried Paul. "I certainly shall go, if
+it's for nothing else than to see Miss Pix and Doctor Chocker together."
+
+"Pardon my ignorance, Mr. Le Clear," said Nicholas, with a smile; "but
+what do you mean by jiggoty?"
+
+"I mean," said Paul, "to express a certain effervescence of manner, as
+if one were corked against one's will, ending in a sudden pop of the
+cork and a general overflowing. I invented the word after seeing Miss
+Pix. She is an odd person; but I shouldn't wish to be so concerned about
+my neighbors as she appears to be. My philosophy of life," he continued,
+standing now before the fire, and receiving its entire radiation upon
+the superficies of his back, "is to extract sunshine from cucumbers.
+Think of living forty years, like Doctor Chocker, on the husks of the
+digamma! I am obliged to him for his advice, but I sha'n't follow it.
+Here are my books and prints; out of doors are people and Nature: I
+propose to extract sunshine from all these cucumbers. The world was made
+for us, and not we for the world. When I go to Miss Pix's this
+evening,--and, by the way, it's 'most time to go,--I presume I shall
+find one or two ripe cucumbers. Christmas, too, is a capital season for
+this chemical experiment. I find people are more off their guard, and
+offer special advantages for a curious observer and experimenter. Here
+is my room; you see how I live; and when I have no visitor at tea, I
+wind up my little musical box. You have no idea what a pretty picture I
+make, sitting in my chair, the tea-table by me, the fire in the grate,
+and the musical box for a cricket on the hearth"; and Mr. Le Clear
+laughed good-humoredly.
+
+Nicholas laughed, too. He had been smiling throughout the young
+philosopher's discourse; but he was conscious of a little feeling of
+uneasiness, as if he were being subjected to the cucumber-extract
+process. He had intended at first to deliver the scheme of life which he
+had adopted, but, on the whole, determined to postpone it. He rose to
+go, and shook hands with Paul, who wished him all success in finding his
+aunt; as for himself, he thought he got along better without aunts. The
+two went down stairs to the door, causing very much the same dispersion
+of the tribes as before; and Nicholas once more stood in Five-Sisters
+Court, while Paul Le Clear returned to his charming bower, to be tickled
+with the recollection of the adventure, and to prepare for Miss Pix's
+party.
+
+"On the whole, I think I won't disturb Doctor Chocker's mind by clearing
+it up," said he to himself. "It might, too, bring on a repetition of the
+fulmination against my paper which the young Judge seemed so to enjoy
+relating. An innocent youth, certainly! I wonder if he expected me to
+give him my autobiography."
+
+Nicholas Judge confessed to himself a slight degree of despondency, as
+he looked at the remaining two houses in the court, since Miss Pix's
+would have to be counted out, and reflected that his chances of success
+were dwindling. His recent conversation had left upon his mind, for some
+reason which he hardly stopped now to explain, a disagreeable
+impression; and he felt a trifle wearied of this very dubious
+enterprise. What likelihood was there, if his aunt had lived here a long
+time past, as he assumed in his calculations, that she would have failed
+to make herself known in some way to Doctor Chocker? since the vision
+which he had of this worthy lady was that of a kind-hearted and most
+neighborly soul. But he reflected that city life must differ greatly
+from that in the country, even more than he had conceded with all his _a
+priori_ reasonings; and he decided to draw no hasty inferences, but to
+proceed in the Baconian method by calling at Number Three. He was rather
+out of conceit with his strategy of thirst, which had so fallen below
+the actual modes of effecting an entrance, and now resolved to march
+boldly up with the irresistible engine of straight-forward inquiry,--as
+straight-forward, at least, as the circumstances would permit. He
+knocked at the door. After a little delay, enlivened for him by the
+interchange of voices within the house, apparently at opposite
+extremities, a light approached, and the door was opened, disclosing a
+large and florid-faced man, in his shirt-sleeves, holding a small and
+sleepy lamp in his hand. Nicholas moved at once upon the enemy's works.
+
+"Will you have the goodness to tell me, Sir, if a lady named Miss Eunice
+Brown lives here?"--that being his aunt's maiden name, and possibly good
+on demand thirty years after date. The reply came, after a moment's
+deliberation, as if the man wished to gain time for an excursion into
+some unexplored region of the house,--
+
+"Well, Sir, I won't say positively that she doesn't; and yet I can say,
+that, in one sense of the word, Miss Eunice Brown does not live here.
+Will you walk in, and we will talk further about it."
+
+Nicholas entered, though somewhat wondering how they were to settle Miss
+Brown's residence there by the most protracted conversation. The man in
+shirt-sleeves showed him into a sitting-room, and setting the lamp upon
+the top of a corner what-not, where it twinkled like a distant star, he
+gave Nicholas a seat, and took one opposite to him, first shutting the
+door behind them.
+
+"Will you give me your name, Sir?" said he.
+
+Nicholas hesitated, not quite liking to part with it to one who might
+misuse it.
+
+"I have no objection," said his companion, in a sonorous voice, "to
+giving my name to any one that asks it. My name is Soprian Manlius."
+
+"And mine," said Nicholas, not to be outdone in generosity, "is Nicholas
+Judge."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Judge. Now we understand each other, I think. I asked
+your name as a guaranty of good faith. Anonymous contributions cannot be
+received, et cetera,--as they say at the head of newspapers. And that's
+my rule of business, Sir. People come to me to ask the character of a
+girl, and I ask their names. If they don't want to give them, I say,
+'Very well; I can't intrust the girl's character to people without
+name.' And it brings them out, Sir, it brings them out," said Mr.
+Manlius, leaning back, and taking a distant view of his masterly
+diplomacy.
+
+"Do people come to you to inquire after persons' characters?" asked
+Nicholas, somewhat surprised at happening upon such an oracle.
+
+"Well, in a general way, no," said Mr. Manlius, smiling; "though I won't
+say but that they would succeed as well here as in most places. In a
+particular way, yes. I keep an intelligence-office. Here is my card,
+Sir,"--pulling one out of his waistcoat-pocket, and presenting it to
+Nicholas; "and you will see by the phraseology employed, that I have
+unrivalled means for securing the most valuable help from all parts of
+the world. Mr. Judge," he whispered, leaning forward, and holding up his
+forefinger to enforce strict secrecy, "I keep a paid agent in Nova
+Scotia." And once more Mr. Manlius retreated in his chair, to get the
+whole effect of the announcement upon his visitor.
+
+The internal economy of an office for obtaining and furnishing
+intelligence might have been further revealed to Nicholas; but at this
+moment a voice was heard on the outside of the door, calling, "S'prian!
+S'prian! we're 'most ready."
+
+"Coming, Caroline," replied Mr. Manlius, and, recalled to the object for
+which his visitor was there, he turned to Nicholas, and resumed,--
+
+"Well, Mr. Judge, about Miss Eunice Brown, whether she lives here or
+not. Are you personally acquainted with Miss Brown?"
+
+"No, Sir," said Nicholas, frankly. "I will tell you plainly my
+predicament. Miss Eunice Brown was my mother's sister; but after my
+mother's death, which took place at my birth, there was no intercourse
+with her on the part of our family, which consisted of my father and
+myself. My father, I ought to say, had no unfriendliness toward her, but
+his habits of life were those of a solitary student; and therefore he
+took no pains to keep up the acquaintance. He heard of her marriage, and
+the subsequent death of her husband; rumor reached him of a second
+marriage, but he never heard the name of the man she married in either
+case. My father lately died; but before his death he advised me to seek
+this aunt, if possible, since she was my only living near relation; and
+he told me that he had heard of her living in this court many years ago.
+So I have come here with faint hope of tracing her."
+
+Mr. Manlius listened attentively to this explanation; and then
+solemnly walking to the door, he called in a deep voice, as if
+he would have the summons start from the very bottom of the house for
+thoroughness,--"Caroline!"
+
+The call was answered immediately by the appearance of Mrs. Manlius, in
+a red dress, that put everything else in the room in the background.
+
+"Caroline," said he, more impressively than would seem necessary, and
+pointing to Nicholas, "this is Mr. Nicholas Judge. Mr. Judge, you see my
+wife."
+
+"But, my dear," said Mrs. Manlius, nervously, as soon as she had bowed,
+discovering the feeble lamp, which was saving its light by burning very
+dimly, "that lamp will be off the what-not in a moment. How could you
+put it right on the edge?" And she took it down from its pinnacle, and
+placed it firmly on the middle of a table, at a distance from anything
+inflammable. "Mr. Manlius is so absent-minded, Sir," said she, turning
+to Nicholas.
+
+"Caroline," said her husband, "this will be a memorable day in the
+history of our family. Eunice has found a dear sister's son."
+
+"Where?" she asked, turning for explanation to Nicholas, who at Mr.
+Manlius's words felt his heart beat quicker.
+
+Then Mr. Manlius, in as few words as his dignity and the occasion would
+deem suitable, stated the case to his wife, who looked admiringly upon
+Mr. Manlius's oratory, and interestingly upon Nicholas.
+
+"Shall I call Eunice down, S'prian?" said she, when her husband
+concluded, and conveying some mysterious information to him by means of
+private signals.
+
+"We have here," said Mr. Manlius, now turning the hose of his eloquence
+toward Nicholas, and playing upon him, "we have here a dear friend, who
+has abode in our house for many years. She came to us when she was in
+trouble, and here has she found a resting-place for the soles of her
+feet. Sir," with a darksome glance, "her relations had forgotten her."
+
+"I must say"----interrupted Nicholas; but Mr. Manlius waved him back,
+and continued:--
+
+"But she found true kinsfolk in the friends of her early days. We have
+cared for her tenderly, and now at last we have our reward in consigning
+her to the willing hands of a young scion of her house. She was Eunice
+Brown; she had a sister who married a Judge, as I have often heard her
+say; and she herself married Mr. Archibald Starkey, who is now no more.
+Caroline, I will call Eunice"; and Mr. Manlius went heavily out of the
+room.
+
+Nicholas was very much agitated, and Mrs. Manlius very much excited,
+over this sudden turn of affairs.
+
+"Eunice has lived with us fifteen years, come February; and she has been
+one of the family, coming in and going out like the rest of us. I found
+her on the doorstep one night, and wasn't going to bring her in at
+first, because, you see, I didn't know what she might be; when, lo and
+behold! she looked up, and said I, 'Eunice Brown!' 'Yes,' said she, and
+said she was cold and hungry; and I brought her in, and told Mr.
+Manlius, and he came and talked with her, and said he, 'Caroline, there
+is character in that woman'; for, Mr. Judge, Mr. Manlius can read
+character in a person wonderfully; he has a real gift that way; and,
+indeed, he needs it in his profession; and, as I tell him, he was born
+an intelligence-officer."
+
+Thus, and with more in the same strain, did Mrs. Manlius give vent to
+her feelings, though hardly in the ear of Nicholas, who paced the room
+in restless expectation of his aunt's approach. He heard enough to give
+a turn to his thoughts; and it was with unaffected sorrow that he
+reflected how the lonely woman had been dependent upon the charity, as
+it seemed, of others. He saw in her now no longer merely the motherly
+aunt who was to welcome him, but one whom he should care for, and take
+under his protection. He heard steps in the entry, and easily detected
+the ponderous tread of Mr. Manlius, who now opened the door, and
+reappeared in more careful toilet, since he was furbished and smoothed
+by the addition of proper touches, until he had quite the air of a man
+of society. He entered the room with great pomp and ceremony all by
+himself, and met Nicholas's disappointed look by saying, slowly,--
+
+"Mrs. Starkey, your beloved aunt, will appear presently"; and throwing a
+look about the room, as if he would call the attention of all the people
+in the dress-circle, boxes, and amphitheatre, he continued--"I have
+intimated to your aunt the nature of your relationship, and I need not
+say that she is quite agitated at the prospective meeting. She is a
+woman"----
+
+But Mr. Manlius's flow was suddenly turned off by the appearance of Mrs.
+Starkey herself. The introduction, too, which, as manager of this little
+scene, he had rehearsed to himself, was rendered unnecessary by the
+prompt action of Nicholas, who hastened forward, with tumultuous
+feelings, to greet his aunt. His honest nature had no sceptical reserve;
+and he saluted her affectionately, before the light of the feeble lamp,
+which seemed to have husbanded all its strength for this critical
+moment, could disclose to him anything of the personal appearance of his
+relative. At this moment the twinkling light, like a star at dawn, went
+out; and Mrs. Manlius, rushing off, reappeared with an astral, which
+turned the somewhat gloomy aspect of affairs into cheerful light.
+Perhaps it was symbolic of a sunrise upon the world which enclosed
+Nicholas and his aunt. Nicholas looked at Mrs. Starkey, who was indeed
+flurried, and saw a pinched and meagre woman, the flower of whose youth
+had long ago been pressed in the book of ill-fortune until it was
+colorless and scentless. She found words presently, even before Nicholas
+did; and sitting down with him in the encouraging presence of the
+Manlii, she uttered her thoughts in an incoherent way:--
+
+"Dear, dear! who would have said it? When Miss Pix came to invite us all
+to her party, and said, 'Mrs. Starkey, I'm sure I hope you will come,' I
+thought it might be too much for such a quiet body as I be. But that was
+nothing to this. Why, if here I haven't got a real nephew; and, to be
+sure, it's a great while since I saw your mother, but, I declare, you do
+look just like her, and a Judge's son you are, too. Did they say you
+looked like your father, Nickey? I was asking Caroline if she thought my
+bombazine would do, after all; and now I do think I ought to wear my
+India silk, and put on my pearl necklace, for I don't want my Nicky to
+be ashamed of me. You'll go with us, won't you, nephew, to Miss Pix's? I
+expect it's going to be a grand party; and I'll go round and introduce
+you to all the great people; and how did you leave your father,
+Nicholas?"
+
+"Why, aunt, did not Mr. Manlius tell you that he was dead?" said
+Nicholas. "Her memory's a little short," whispered Mrs. Manlius; but,
+hardly interrupted by this little answer and whisper, Mrs. Starkey was
+again plunging headlong into a current of words, and struggling among
+the eddies of various subjects. Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Manlius, having,
+as managers, set the little piece on the stage in good condition, were
+carrying on a private undertoned conversation, which resulted in Mrs.
+Manlius asking, in an engaging manner,--
+
+"Eunice, dear, would you prefer to stay at home this evening with your
+nephew? Because we will excuse you to Miss Pix, who would hardly expect
+you."
+
+Mrs. Starkey was in the midst of a voluble description of some private
+jewelry which she intended to show the astonished Nicholas; but she
+caught the last words, and veered round to Mrs. Manlius, saying,--
+
+"Indeed, she expects me; and she expects Nicholas, too. She will be very
+much gratified to see him, and I have no doubt she will give another
+party for him; and if she does, I mean to invite my friend the alderman
+to go. I shouldn't wonder if he was to be there to-night; and now I
+think of it, it must be time to be going. Caroline, have you got your
+things on?"
+
+Mrs. Starkey spoke with a determination that suffered no opposition, so
+that Nicholas and Mr. Manlius were left alone for a moment, while the
+two women should wrap themselves up.
+
+"Your aunt is unduly excited, Mr. Judge," said the intelligence-officer;
+"and it was for that reason that I advised she should not go. She has
+hardly been herself the last day or two. Our neighbor, Miss Pix,--a
+woman whose character is somewhat unsettled; no fixed principles. Sir, I
+fear," shaking his head regretfully; "too erratic, controlled by
+impulse, possessing an inquisitive temperament," telling off upon a
+separate finger each count in the charges against Miss Pix's character,
+and reserving for the thumb the final overwhelming accusation,--"Sir,
+she has not learned the great French economical principle of Lassy
+Fair." Miss Pix being thus stricken down, he helped her up again with an
+apology. "But her advantages have no doubt been few. She has not studied
+political economy; and how can she hope to walk unerringly?"--and Mr.
+Manlius gazed at an imaginary Miss Pix wandering without compass or
+guide over the desert of life. "She makes a party to-night. And why?
+Because it is Christmas-eve. That is a small foundation, Mr. Judge, on
+which to erect the structure of social intercourse. Society, Sir, should
+be founded on principles, not accidents. Because my house is
+accidentally contiguous to two others, shall I consider myself, and
+shall Mrs. Manlius consider herself, as necessarily bound by the
+ligaments of Nature--by the ligaments of Nature, Mr. Judge,--to the
+dwellers in those houses? No, Sir. I don't know who lives in this court
+beside Miss Pix. Nature brought your aunt and Mrs. Manlius together, and
+Nature brought you and your aunt together. We will go, however, to Miss
+Pix's. It will gratify her. But your aunt is excited about the, for her,
+unusual occasion. And now she has seen you. I feared this interview
+might overcome her. She is frail; but she is fair, Sir, if I may say so.
+She has character; very few have as much,--and I have seen many women.
+Did you ever happen to see Martha Jewmer, Mr. Judge?"
+
+Nicholas could not remember that he had.
+
+"Well, Sir, that woman has been in my office twelve times. I got a place
+for her each time. And why? Because she has character"; and Mr. Manlius
+leaned back to get a full view of character. Before he had satisfied
+himself enough to continue his reminiscences, his wife and Mrs. Starkey
+returned, bundled up as if they were going on a long sleigh-ride.
+
+"We're ready, S'prian," said Mrs. Manlius. "Eunice thinks she will go
+still,"--which was evident from the manner in which Mrs. Starkey had
+gathered about her a quantity of ill-assorted wrappers, out of the folds
+of which she delivered herself to each and all in a rapid and disjointed
+manner; and the party proceeded out of the house, Mrs. Manlius first
+shutting and opening various doors, according to some intricate system
+of ventilation and heating.
+
+Nicholas gave his arm to his aunt, and, though anxious to speak of many
+things, could hardly slip a word into the crevices of her conversation;
+nor then did his questions or answers bring much satisfactory response.
+He was confused with various thoughts, unable to explain the random talk
+of his companion, and yet getting such glimpses of the dreary life she
+had led as made him resolve to give her a home that should admit more
+sunshine into her daily experience.
+
+They were not kept waiting long at Miss Pix's door, for a ruddy German
+girl opened it at their summons; and once inside, Miss Pix herself came
+forward with beaming face to give them a Christmas-eve greeting. Mr.
+Manlius had intended making the official announcement of the arrival of
+the new nephew, but was no match for the ready Mrs. Starkey, who at once
+seized upon their hostess, and shook her warmly by the hand, pouring out
+a confused and not over-accurate account of her good-fortune, mixing in
+various details of her personal affairs. Miss Pix, however, made out the
+main fact, and turned to Nicholas, welcoming him with both hands, and in
+the same breath congratulating Mrs. Starkey, showing such honest,
+whole-souled delight that Nicholas for a moment let loose in his mind a
+half-wish that Miss Pix had proved to be his aunt, so much more nearly
+did she approach his ideal. The whole party stood basking for a moment
+in Miss Pix's Christmas greeting, then extricated themselves from their
+wrappers with the help of their bustling hostess, and were ushered into
+her little parlor, where they proved to be the first arrivals. It was
+almost like sitting down in an arbor: for walls and ceilings were quite
+put out of sight by the evergreen dressing; the candlesticks and
+picture-frames seemed to have budded; and even the poker had laid aside
+its constitutional stiffness, and unbent itself in a miraculous spiral
+of creeping vine. Mr. Manlius looked about him with the air of a
+connoisseur, and complimented Miss Pix.
+
+"A very pretty room, Miss Pix,--a very pretty room! Quite emblematical!"
+And he cocked his head at some new point.
+
+"Oh, I can't have my Christmas without greens!" said Miss Pix.
+"Christmas and greens, you know, is the best dish in the world. Isn't
+it, Mrs. Starkey?"
+
+But Mrs. Starkey had no need of a question; for she had already started
+on her career as a member of the party, and was galloping over a
+boundless field of observation.
+
+There was just then another ring; and Miss Pix started for the door, in
+her eagerness to greet her visitors, but recollected in season the
+tribute which she must pay to the by-laws of society, and hovered about
+the parlor-door till Gretchen could negotiate between the two parties.
+Gretchen's pleased exclamation in her native tongue at once indicated
+the nature of the arrival; and Miss Pix, whispering loudly to Mrs.
+Manlius, "My musical friends," again rushed forward, and received her
+friends almost noisily; for when they went stamping about the entry to
+shake off the snow from their feet against the inhospitable world
+outside, she also, in the excess of her sympathetic delight, caught
+herself stamping her little foot. There was a hurly-burly, and then they
+all entered the parlor in a procession, preceded by Miss Pix, who
+announced them severally to her guests as Mr. Pfeiffer, Mr. Pfeffendorf,
+Mr. Schmauker, and Mr. Windgraff. Everybody bowed at once, and rose to
+the surface, hopelessly ignorant of the name and condition of all the
+rest, except his or her immediate friends. The four musical gentlemen
+especially entirely lost their names in the confusion; and as they
+looked very much alike, it was hazardous to address them, except upon
+general and public grounds.
+
+Mrs. Starkey was the most bewildered, and also the most bent upon
+setting herself right,--a task which promised to occupy the entire
+evening. "Which is the fifer?" she asked Nicholas; but he could not tell
+her, and she appealed in vain to the others. Perhaps it was as well,
+since it served as an unfailing resource with her through the evening.
+When nothing else occupied her attention, she would fix her eyes upon
+one of the four, and walk round till she found some one disengaged
+enough to label him, if possible; and as the gentlemen had much in
+common, while Mrs. Starkey's memory was confused, there was always room
+for more light.
+
+Miss Pix meanwhile had disentangled Nicholas from Mrs. Starkey, and, as
+one newly arrived in the court, was recounting to him the origin of her
+party.
+
+"You see, Mr. Judge, I have only lived here a few weeks. I had to leave
+my old house; and I took a great liking to this little court, and
+especially to this little house in it. 'What a delightful little
+snuggery!' thought I. 'Here one can be right by the main streets, and
+yet be quiet all day and evening.' And that's what I want; because, you
+see, I have scholars to come and take music-lessons of me. 'And then,' I
+thought to myself, 'I can have four neighbors right in the same yard,
+you may say.' Well, here I came; but--do you believe it?--hardly anybody
+even looked out of the window when the furniture-carts came up, and I
+couldn't tell who lived in any house. Why, I was here three weeks, and
+nobody came to see me. I might have been sick, and nobody would have
+known it." Here little Miss Pix shook her head ruefully at the vision of
+herself sick and alone. "I've seen what that is," she added, with a
+mysterious look. "'Well, now,' I said to myself, 'I can't live like
+this. It isn't Christian. I don't believe but the people in the court
+could get along with me, if they knew me.' Well, they didn't come, and
+they didn't come; so I got tired, and one day I went round and saw them
+all,--no, I didn't see the old gentleman in Number One that time. Will
+you believe it? not a soul knew anybody else in any house but their own!
+I was amazed, and I said to myself, 'Betsey Pix, you've got a mission';
+and, Mr. Judge, I went on that mission. I made up my mind to ask all the
+people in the court, who could possibly come, to have a Christmas-eve
+gathering in my house. I got them all, except the Crimps, in Number Two,
+who would not, do what I could. Then I asked four of my friends to come
+and bring their instruments; for there's nothing like music to melt
+people together. But, oh, Mr. Judge, not one house knows that another
+house in the court is to be here; and, oh, Mr. Judge, I've got such a
+secret!" And here Miss Pix's cork flew to the ceiling, in the manner
+hinted at by Mr. Paul Le Clear; while Nicholas felt himself to have
+known Miss Pix from birth, and to be, in a special manner, her
+prime-minister on this evening.
+
+It was not long before there was another ring, and Mr. Le Clear
+appeared, who received the jiggoty Miss Pix's welcome in a smiling and
+well-bred manner, and suffered himself to be introduced to the various
+persons present, when all seized the new opportunity to discover the
+names of the musical gentlemen, and fasten them to the right owners.
+Paul laughed when he saw Nicholas, and spoke to him as an old
+acquaintance. Miss Pix was suddenly in great alarm, and, beckoning away
+Nicholas, whispered, "Don't for the world tell him where the others
+live." Like the prime-minister with a state-secret, Nicholas went back
+to Paul, and spent the next few minutes in the trying task of answering
+leading questions with misleading answers.
+
+"I see," said the acute Mr. Le Clear to himself; "the aunt is that
+marplotty dame who has turned our young Judge into a prisoner at the
+bar"; and he entered into conversation with Mrs. Starkey with great
+alacrity, finding her a very ripe cucumber. Mr. Manlius, who was
+talking, in easy words of two syllables, to the musical gentlemen,
+overheard some of Mrs. Starkey's revelations to Mr. Le Clear, and,
+watching his opportunity, got Paul into a corner, where he favored him
+with some confidences respecting the lady.
+
+"You may have thought, Sir," said he, in a whisper, "that Mrs. Starkey
+is--is,"--and he filled out the sentence with an expressive gesture
+toward his own well-balanced head.
+
+"Not at all," said Paul, politely.
+
+"She is periodically affected," continued Mr. Manlius, "with what I may
+perhaps call excessive and ill-balanced volubility. Mrs. Starkey, Sir,
+is a quiet person, rarely speaking; but once in five or six weeks,--the
+periods do not return with exact regularity,--she is subject to some
+hidden influence, which looses her tongue, as it were. I think she is
+under the influence now, and her words are not likely to--to correspond
+exactly with existing facts. You will not be surprised, then, at her
+words. They are only words, words. At other times she is a woman of
+action. She has a wonderful character, Sir."
+
+"Quite a phenomenon, indeed, I should say," said Paul, ready to return
+to so interesting a person, but politely suffering Mr. Manlius to flow
+on, which he did uninterruptedly.
+
+Doctor Chocker was the last to come. Miss Pix knew his infirmity, and
+contented herself with mute, but expressive signs, until the old
+gentleman could adjust his trumpet and receive her hearty
+congratulations. He jerked out a response, which Miss Pix received with
+as much delight as if he had flowed freely, like Mr. Manlius, who was
+now playing upon Mr. Le Clear an analysis of Nicholas's character, which
+he had read with unerring accuracy, as Mrs. Manlius testified by her
+continued, unreserved agreement. Indeed, the finding of his aunt by
+Nicholas in so unexpected a manner was the grand topic of the evening;
+and the four musical gentlemen, hearing the story in turn from each of
+the others, were now engaged in a sort of diatessaron, in which the four
+accounts were made to harmonize with considerable difficulty: Mr.
+Schmauker insisting upon his view, that Nicholas had arrived wet and
+hungry, was found on the doorstep, and dragged in by Mrs. Starkey; while
+Mr. Pfeffendorf and Mr. Pfeiffer substituted Mrs. Manlius for Mrs.
+Starkey; and Mr. Windgraff proposed an entirely new reading.
+
+Dr. Chocker's entrance created a lull; and the introduction, performed
+in a general way by the hostess, brought little information to the rest,
+who were hoping to revise their list of names,--and very little to the
+Doctor, who looked about inquisitively, as Miss Pix dropped the company
+in a heap into his ear-trumpet. His eye lighted on Nicholas, and he went
+forward to meet him, to the astonishment of the company, who looked upon
+Nicholas as belonging exclusively to them. A new theory was at once
+broached by Mr. Windgraff to his companions, that Dr. Chocker had
+brought about the recognition; but it lost credit as the Doctor began to
+question Nicholas, in an abrupt way, upon his presence there.
+
+"Didn't know I should meet you again, young man," said he. "But you
+don't take my advice, eh? or you wouldn't have been here. But I'm
+setting you a pretty example! This isn't the way to study the value of
+words, eh, Mr.--Mr.--Le Clear?"
+
+The real Mr. Le Clear and his fiction looked at each other, and by a
+rapid interchange of glances signified their inability to extricate
+themselves from the snarl, except by a dangerous cut, which Nicholas had
+not the courage at the moment to give. The rest of the company were
+mystified; and Mr. Manlius, pocketing the character which he had just
+been giving, free of charge, to his new acquaintance, turned to his
+wife, and whispered awfully, "An impostor, Caroline!" Mrs. Manlius
+looked anxiously and frightened back to him; but he again whispered,
+"Wait for further developments, Caroline!" and she sank into a state of
+terrified curiosity. Fortunately, Mrs. Starkey was at the moment
+confiding much that was irrelevant to Mr. Le Clear the actual, who did
+not call her attention to the words. The four musical gentlemen were
+divided upon the accuracy of their hearing.
+
+Miss Pix, who had been bustling about, unconscious of the mystery, now
+created a diversion by saying, somewhat flurried by the silence that
+followed her first words,--
+
+"Our musical friends have brought a pleasant little surprise for us;
+but, Mr. Pfeiffer, won't you explain the Children's Symphony to the
+performers?"
+
+Everybody at once made a note of Mr. Pfeiffer, and put a private mark on
+him for future reference; while he good-humoredly, and with embarrassing
+English, explained that Miss Pix had proposed that the company should
+produce Haydn's Children's Symphony, in which the principal parts were
+sustained by four stringed instruments, which he and his friends would
+play; while children's toy-instruments, which the other three were now
+busily taking out of a box, would be distributed among the rest of the
+company; and Miss Pix would act as leader, designating to each his or
+her part, and time of playing.
+
+The proposal created considerable confusion in the company, especially
+when the penny-trumpet, drum, cuckoo, night-owl, quail, rattle, and
+whistle were exhibited, and gleefully tried by the four musical friends.
+Mr. Manlius eyed the penny-trumpet which was offered him with a doubtful
+air, but concluded to sacrifice his dignity for the good of the company.
+Mrs. Manlius received her cuckoo nervously, as if it would break forth
+in spite of her, and looked askance at Nicholas to see if he would dare
+to take the night-owl into his perjured hands. He did take it with great
+good-humor, and, at Miss Pix's request, undertook to persuade Doctor
+Chocker to blow the whistle. He had first to give a digest of Mr.
+Pfeiffer's speech into the ear-trumpet, and, it is feared, would have
+failed to bring the Doctor round without Miss Pix, who came up at the
+critical moment, and told him that she knew he must have known how when
+he was a boy, accompanied with such persuasive frolicking that the
+Doctor at once signified his consent and his proficiency by blowing a
+blast into Nicholas's ear, whom he regarded as a special enemy on good
+terms with him, to the great merriment of all.
+
+The signal was given, and the company looked at Miss Pix, awaiting their
+turn with anxious solicitude. The symphony passed off quite well, though
+Mr. Le Clear, who managed the drum, was the only one who kept perfect
+time. Mrs. Starkey, who held the rattle aloft, sprung it at the first
+sound of the music, and continued to spring it in spite of the
+expostulations and laughter of the others. Mrs. Manlius, unable to
+follow Miss Pix's excited gestures, turned to her husband, and uttered
+the cuckoo's doleful note whenever he blew his trumpet, which he did
+deliberately at regular intervals. The effect, however, was admirable;
+and as the entire company was in the orchestra, the mutual satisfaction
+was perfect, and the piece was encored vociferously, to the delight of
+little Miss Pix, who enjoyed without limit the melting of her company,
+which was now going on rapidly. It continued even when the music had
+stopped, and Gretchen, very red, but intensely interested, brought in
+some coffee and cakes, which she distributed under Miss Pix's direction.
+Nicholas shared the good lady's pleasure, and addressed himself to his
+aunt with increased attention, taking good care to avoid Doctor Chocker,
+who submitted more graciously than would be supposed to a steady play
+from Mr. Manlius' hose. Mr. Pfeiffer and his three musical friends made
+themselves merry with Mrs. Manlius and Miss Pix, while Mr. Le Clear
+walked about performing chemical experiments upon the whole company.
+
+And now Miss Pix, who had been all the while glowing more and more with
+sunshine in her face, again addressed the company, and said:--
+
+"I think the best thing should be kept till toward the end; and I've got
+a scheme that I want you all to help me in. We're all neighbors
+here,"--and she looked round upon the company with a smile that grew
+broader, while they all looked surprised, and began to smile back in
+ignorant sympathy, except Doctor Chocker, who did not hear a word, and
+refused to smile till he knew what it was for. "Yes, we are all
+neighbors. Doctor Chocker lives in Number Two; Mr. and Mrs. Manlius,
+Mrs. Starkey, and Mr. Judge are from Number Three; my musical friends
+live within easy call; and I live in Number Five."
+
+Here she looked round again triumphantly, and found them all properly
+astonished, and apparently very contented, except Doctor Chocker, who
+was immovable. Nicholas expressed the most marked surprise, as became so
+hypocritical a prime-minister, causing Mr. Manlius to make a private
+note of some unrevealed perjury.
+
+"Now," said Miss Pix, pausing and arresting the profound attention of
+all, "now, who lives at Number Four?"
+
+If she expected an answer, it was plainly not locked up in the breast of
+any one before her. But she did not expect an answer; she was determined
+to give that herself, and she continued:--
+
+"There is a most excellent woman there, Mrs. Blake, whom I should have
+liked very much to introduce to you to-night, especially as it is her
+birthday. Isn't she fortunate to have been born on Christmas-eve? Well,
+I didn't ask her, because she is not able to leave her room. There she
+has sat, or lain, for fifteen years! She's a confirmed invalid; but she
+can see her friends. And now for my little scheme. I want to give her a
+surprise-party from all her neighbors, and I want to give it now. It's
+all right. Gretchen has seen her maid, and Mrs. Blake knows just enough
+to be willing to have me bring a few friends."
+
+Miss Pix looked about, with a little anxiety peeping out of her
+good-souled, eager face. But the company was so melted down that she
+could now mould it at pleasure, and no opposition was made. Mr. Manlius
+volunteered to enlighten Doctor Chocker; but he made so long a preamble
+that the old scholar turned, with considerable impatience, to Miss Pix,
+who soon put him in good-humor, and secured his cooperation, though not
+without his indulging in some sinful and unneighborly remarks to
+Nicholas.
+
+It proved unnecessary to go into the court, for these two housed
+happened to have a connection, which Miss Pix made use of, the door
+having been left open all the evening, that Mrs. Blake might catch some
+whiffs of the entertainment. Gretchen appeared in the doorway, bearing
+on a salver a great cake, made with her own hands, having Mrs. Blake's
+initials, in colored letters, on the frosting, and the whole surrounded
+by fifty little wax tapers, indicating her age, which all counted, and
+all counted differently, giving opportunity to the four musical friends
+to enter upon a fresh and lively discussion. The party was marshalled by
+Miss Pix in the order of houses, while she herself squeezed past them
+all on the staircase, to usher them into Mrs. Blake's presence.
+
+Mrs. Blake was sitting in her reclining-chair as Miss Pix entered with
+her retinue. The room was in perfect order, and had about it such an air
+of neatness and purity that one felt one's self in a haven of rest upon
+crossing the threshold. The invalid sat quiet and at ease, looking forth
+upon the scene before her as if so safely moored that no troubling of
+the elements could ever reach her. Here had she lived, year after year,
+almost alone with herself, though now the big-souled little
+music-teacher was her constant visitor; but the entrance of all her
+neighbors seemed in no wise to agitate her placid demeanor. She greeted
+Miss Pix with a pleased smile; and all being now in the room, the
+bustling little woman, at the very zenith of her sunny course, took her
+stand and said,--
+
+"This is my company, dear Mrs. Blake. These are all neighbors of ours,
+living in the court, or close by. We have been having a right merry
+time, and now we can't break up without bringing you our good
+wishes,--our Christmas good wishes, and our birthday good wishes," said
+Miss Pix, with a little oratorical flourish, which brought Gretchen to
+the front with her illuminated cake, which she positively could not have
+held another moment, so heavy had it grown, even for her stout arms.
+
+Mrs. Blake laughed gently, and with a delighted look examined the great
+cake, with her initials, and did not need to count the wax tapers. It
+was placed on a stand, and she said,--
+
+"Now I should like to entertain my guests, and, if you will let me, I
+will give you each a piece of my cake,--for it all belongs to me, after
+Miss Pix's graceful presentation; and if Miss Pix will be so good, I
+will ask her to make me personally acquainted with each of you."
+
+So a knife was brought, and Mrs. Blake cut a generous piece, when Doctor
+Chocker was introduced, with great gesticulation on the part of Miss
+Pix.
+
+"I am glad to see you, Doctor Chocker," said Mrs. Blake, distinctly, but
+quietly, into his trumpet. "Do you let your patients eat cake? Try this,
+and see if it isn't good for me."
+
+"If I were a doctor of medicine," said he, jerkily, "I should bring my
+patients to see you"; at which Miss Pix nodded to him most vehemently,
+and the Doctor wagged his ear-trumpet in delight at the retort which he
+thought he had made.
+
+Mr. Le Clear was introduced, and took his cake gracefully, saying, "I
+hope another year will see you at a Christmas-party of Miss Pix's"; but
+Mrs. Blake smiled, and said, "This is my little lot of earth, and I am
+sure there is a patch of stars above."
+
+Mr. Manlius and wife came up together, he somewhat lumbering, as if Mrs.
+Blake's character were too much for his discernment, and Mrs. Manlius
+not quite sure of herself when her husband seemed embarrassed.
+
+"This is really too funny," said Mrs. Blake, merrily; "as if I were a
+very benevolent person, doling out my charity of cake on Christmas-eve.
+Do, Mr. Manlius, take a large piece; and I am sure your wife will take
+some home to the children."
+
+"What wonderful insight!" said Mr. Manlius, turning about to Nicholas,
+and drawing in his breath. "We have children,--two. That woman has a
+deep character, Mr. Judge."
+
+"Mrs. Starkey, also of Number Three," said the mistress of ceremonies;
+"and Mr. Nicholas Judge, arrived only this evening."
+
+"Nicholas Judge!" said Mrs. Blake, losing the color which the excitement
+had brought, and dropping the knife.
+
+"My nephew," explained Mrs. Starkey. "Just came this evening, and found
+me at home. Never saw him before. Must tell you all about it." And she
+was plunging with alacrity into the delightful subject, with all its
+variations.
+
+Mrs. Blake looked at Nicholas, while the color came and went in her
+cheeks.
+
+"Stop!" said she, decisively, to Mrs. Starkey, and half rising, she
+leaned forward to Nicholas, and said rapidly, with an energy which
+seemed to be summoned from every part of her system,--
+
+"Are you the son of Alice Brown?"
+
+"Yes, yes," said Nicholas, tumultuously; "and you,--you are her sister.
+Here, take this miniature"; and he snatched one from his breast. "Is not
+this she? It is my mother. You are my Aunt Eunice," he exclaimed, as she
+sank back in her chair exhausted, but reaching out her arms to him.
+
+"That young man is a base impostor!" said Mr. Manlius aloud, with his
+hand in his waistcoat; while Mrs. Manlius looked on deprecatingly, but
+as if too, too aware of the sad fact. "I said so to my wife in
+private,--I read it in his face,--and now I declare it publicly. That
+man is a base impostor!"
+
+"Dear, dear, I don't understand it at all!" said the unfortunate Mrs.
+Starkey. "I thought, to be sure, that Nicholas was my nephew. Never saw
+him before, but he said he was; and now, now, I don't know what I shall
+do!" and the poor lady, suddenly bereft of her fortune, began to wipe
+her moist eyes; "but perhaps," she added, with a bright, though
+transient gleam of hope, "we are both aunts to him."
+
+"That cannot be," said Nicholas, kindly, who left his aunt to set the
+company right, if possible. "My dear friend," he said, taking Mrs.
+Starkey's hand, "it has been a mistake, brought on by my heedlessness. I
+knew only that my aunt's name had been Eunice Brown. It chanced that
+yours was the same name. I happened to come upon you first in my search,
+and did not dream it possible that there could be two in the same court.
+Everything seemed to tally; and I was too pleased at finding the only
+relation I had in the wide world to ask many questions. But when I saw
+that my aunt knew who I was, and I saw my mother's features in hers, I
+perceived my mistake at once. We will remain friends, though,--shall we
+not?"
+
+Mrs. Starkey was too much bewildered to refuse any compromise; but Mr.
+Manlius stepped forward, having his claim as a private officer of
+justice.
+
+"I must still demand an explanation, Sir, how it is that in this mixed
+assembly the learned Doctor Chocker addresses you as Mr. Le Clear, and
+you do not decline the title"; and Mr. Manlius looked, as if for a
+witness, to Doctor Chocker, who was eating his cake with great
+solemnity, holding his ear-trumpet in hopes of catching an occasional
+word.
+
+"That would require too long an explanation," said Nicholas, smiling;
+"but you shall have it some time in private. Mr. Le Clear himself will
+no doubt tell you"; which Mr. Le Clear, an amused spectator of the
+scene, cheerfully promised to do.
+
+The company had been so stirred up by this revelation, that they came
+near retreating at once to Miss Pix's to talk it over, to the dismay of
+the four musical gentlemen, who had not yet been presented, and
+especially who had not yet got any cake. Miss Pix, though in a transport
+of joy, had an eye for everything, and, discovering this, insisted on
+presenting them in a body to Mrs. Blake, in consideration of her
+fatigue. They bowed simultaneously, and stood before her like bashful
+schoolboys; while Nicholas assumed the knife in behalf of his aunt,
+distributing with equal liberality, when they retired in high glee over
+the new version of his history, which Mr. Windgraff, for the sake of
+displaying his acumen, stoutly declared to be spurious. Gretchen also
+was served with a monstrous slice; and then the company bade good-bye to
+the aunt and nephew, who began anew their glad recognition.
+
+It was a noisy set of people who left Miss Pix's house. That little lady
+stood in the doorway, and sent off each with such a merry blessing that
+it lasted long after the doors of the other houses were closed. Even the
+forlorn Mrs. Starkey seemed to go back almost as happy as when she had
+issued forth in the evening with her newly found nephew. The sudden
+gleam of hope which his unlooked-for coming had let in upon a toilsome
+and thankless life--for we know more about her position in Mr. Manlius's
+household than we have been at liberty to disclose--had, indeed, gone
+out in darkness; but the Christmas merriment, and the kindness which for
+one evening had flowed around her, had so fertilized one little spot in
+her life, that, however dreary her pilgrimage, nothing could destroy the
+bright oasis. It gave hope of others, too, no less verdant; and with
+this hope uppermost in her confused brain the lonely widow entered the
+land of Christmas dreams. Let us hope, too, that the pachydermatous Mr.
+Manlius felt the puncture of her disappointment, and that Miss Pix's
+genial warmth had made him cast off a little the cloak of selfishness in
+which he had wrapped himself; for what else could have made him say to
+his echoing wife that night, "Caroline, suppose we let Eunice take the
+children to the panorama to-morrow. It's a quarter more; but she was
+rather disappointed about that young fellow"? The learned Doctor
+Chocker, who had, in all his days, never found a place to compare with
+his crowded study for satisfaction to his soul, for the first time now,
+as he entered it, admitted to himself that Miss Pix's arbor-like parlor
+and Mrs. Blake's simple room had something that his lacked; and in the
+frozen little bedroom where he nightly shivered, in rigid obedience to
+some fancied laws of health, the old man was aware of some kindly
+influence thawing away the chill frost-work which he had suffered to
+sheathe his heart. Nor did Mr. Le Clear toast his slippered feet before
+his cheery fire without an uncomfortable misgiving that his philosophy
+hardly compassed the sphere of life.
+
+Christmas-eve in the court was over. Strange things had happened; and,
+for one night at least, the Five Sisters had acted as one family. Little
+Miss Pix, reviewing the evening, as she dropped off to sleep, could not
+help rubbing her hands together, and emitting little chuckles. Such a
+delightful evening as she had had! and meaning to surprise others, she
+had herself been taken into a better surprise still; and here,
+recollecting the happy union of the lone, but not lonely, Mrs. Blake
+with a child of her old age, as it were, Miss Pix must laugh aloud just
+as the midnight clock was sounding. Bless her neighborly soul, she has
+ushered in Christmas-day with her laugh of good-will toward men. The
+whole hymn of the angels is in her heart; and with it let her sleep till
+the glorious sunshine awakes her.
+
+
+
+
+ICE AND ESQUIMAUX.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE ICE IN ITS GLORY.
+
+_June 17._--On this anniversary of the Battle of Bunker's Hill we sailed
+from Sleupe Harbor. Little Mecatina, with its blue perspective and
+billowy surface, lifted itself up astern under flooding sunshine to tell
+us that this relentless coast could have a glory of its own; but we
+looked at it with dreamy, forgetful eyes, thinking of the dear land, now
+all tossed into wild surge and crimson spray of war, which, how far
+soever away, is ever present to the hearts of her true children.
+
+Next day we dropped into the harbor of Caribou Island, a
+mission-station, and left again on the 20th, after a quiet
+Sunday,--Bradford having gone with others to church, and come back much
+moved by the bronze-faced earnestness, and rough-voiced, deep-chested
+hymning of the fisherman congregation. Far ahead we saw the strait full
+of ice. Not that the ice itself could be seen; but the peculiar,
+blue-white, vertical striae, which stuccoed the sky far along the
+horizon, told experienced eyes that ice was there. Away to the right
+towered the long heights of Newfoundland, intensely blue, save where,
+over large spaces, they shone white with snow. They surprised us by
+their great elevation, and by the sharp and straight escarpments with
+which they descended. Here and there was a gorge cut through as with a
+saw. We then took all this in good faith, on the fair testimony of our
+eyes. But experience brought instruction,--as it will in superficial
+matters, whether in deeper ones or no. In truth, this appearance was
+chiefly a mirage caused by ice.
+
+For, of all solemn prank-players, of all mystifiers and magicians, ice
+is the greatest. Coming out of its silent and sovereign dreamland in the
+North, it brings its wand, and goes wizard-working down the coast. A
+spell is about it; enchantment is upon it like a garment; weirdness and
+illusion are the breath of its nostrils. Above it, along the horizon, is
+a strange columned wall, an airy Giant's Causeway, pale blue, paling
+through ethereal gray into snow. Islands quit the sea, and become
+islands in the sky, sky-foam and spray seen along their bases. Hills
+shoot out from their summits airy capes and headlands, or assume upon
+their crowns a wide, smooth table, as if for the service of genii. Ships
+sail, bergs float, in the heavens. Here a vast obelisk of ice shoots
+aloft, half mountain high; you gaze at it amazed, ecstatic,--calculating
+the time it will take to come up with it,--whistling, if you are still
+capable of that levity, for a wind. But now it begins to waver, to dance
+slowly, to shoot up minarets and take them back, to put forth arms which
+change into wands, wave and disappear; and ere your wonder has found a
+voice, it rolls itself together like a scroll, drops nearly to the
+ocean-level, and is but a gigantic ice-floe after all!
+
+The day fell calm; a calm evening came; the sea lay in soft, shining
+undulation, not urgent enough to exasperate the drooping sails. The ship
+rose and declined like a sleeper's pulse. We were all under a spell.
+Soon the moon, then at her full, came up, elongating herself laterally
+into an oval, whose breadth was not more than three fifths its length;
+her shine on the water likewise stretching along the horizon, sweet and
+fair like childhood, not a ray touching the shadowed water between.
+Presently, as if she discerned and did not disdain us,--wiser than
+"positive philosophers" in her estimate of man,--she gathered together
+her spreading shine, and threw it down toward us in a glade of scarcely
+more than her own breadth, of even width, and sharply defined at the
+sides. It was a regular roadway on the water, intensest gold verging
+upon orange, edged with an exquisite, delicate tint of scarlet, running
+straight and firm as a Roman road all the way from the meeting-place of
+sky and sea to the ship. Or rather, not quite to the ship; for, when
+near at hand, it broke off into golden globes, which, under the
+influence of the light swell, came towards us by softly sudden leaps,
+deepening and deepening as they came, till at the last leap they
+disappeared, more shining than ever, far down in the liquid, lucent
+heart of the sea. It was impossible to feel that these had faded, so
+triumphant was their close. Rather, one felt that they had been elected
+to a more glorious office,--had gone, perhaps, to light some hall of
+Thetis, or some divine, spotless revel of sea-nymphs.
+
+I had gone below, when, at about ten o'clock, there was a hail from the
+deck.
+
+"Come up and see a crack in the water!"
+
+"A what?"
+
+"A crack in the water!"
+
+"Not joking?"
+
+"No, indeed; come and see."
+
+Up quickly! this is the day of wonders! It was a line of brilliant
+phosphorescence, exceedingly brilliant, about two inches wide, perfectly
+sharp at the edges, which extended along the side of the ship, and ahead
+and astern out of sight. "Crack in the water" is the seaman's name for
+it. I have been a full year on the water, but never saw it save this
+once, and had never heard of it before.
+
+At half past eleven, the Parson and I went on deck, and read ordinary
+print as rapidly as by daylight. It took some ten seconds to get
+accustomed to the light, being fresh from the glare of the kerosene
+lamp; but afterwards we read aloud to each other with entire ease and
+fluency.
+
+At a quarter past two, Captain Handy, a man made of fine material, with
+an eye for the beautiful as well as for right-whales, broke my sleep
+with a gentle touch, and whispered, "Come on deck, and see what a
+morning it is." What a morning, indeed! Thanks, old comrade! Call me
+next time, when there is such to see; and if I am too weak to get out of
+my berth, take me up in those strong arms, across that broad,
+billow-like chest of yours, and bear me to the deck!
+
+It was dead calm,--no, _live_ calm, rather; for never was calm so vivid.
+The swell had fallen; but the sea breathes and lives even in its sleep.
+Dawn was already blushing, "celestial rosy red, love's proper hue," in
+the--_east_, I was about to say, but _north_ would be truer. The centre
+of its roseate arch was not more than a point (by compass) east of
+north. The lofty shore rose clear, dark, and sharp against the morning
+red; the sea was white,--white as purity, and still as peace; the moon
+hung opposite, clothed and half hidden in a glorified mist; a schooner
+lay moveless, dark-sailed, transformed into a symbol of solitude and
+silence, beneath. I thought of the world's myriad sleepers, and would
+fain have played Captain Handy to them all. But Nature is infinitely
+rich, and can afford to draw costly curtains about the slumber of her
+darling. For, without man, she were a mother ever in anguish of travail,
+and ever wanting a child to nurse with entire joy at her breast. Sleep
+on, man, while, with shadows and stars, with dying and dawning of day,
+not forgetting sombreness of cloud and passion of storm, the eternal
+mother dignifies your slumber, and waits till her _two_ suns arise and
+shine together!
+
+Morning,--ice, worlds of it, the wide straits all full! A light wind had
+been fanning us for the last two or three hours; and now the ice lay
+fair in view, just ahead. We had not calculated upon meeting it here. At
+Port Mulgrave they told us that the last of it had passed through with a
+rush about a week before. Bradford was delighted, and quickly got out
+his photographic sickle to reap this unexpected harvest: for the wise
+man had brought along with him a fine apparatus and a skilful
+photographer. In an hour or two the schooner was up with it, and finding
+it tolerably open, while the wind was a zephyr, and the sea smooth as a
+pond, we entered into its midst. Water-fowl--puffins, murres, duck, and
+the like--hung about it, furnishing preliminary employment to those of
+our number who sought sport or specimens. It was a delightsome day, the
+whole of it: atmosphere rare, pure, perfect; sun-splendor in deluge;
+land, a cloud of blue and snow on one side, and a tossed and lofty
+paradise of glowing gray, purple, or brown, on the other. The day would
+have been hot but for being tempered by the ice. This seasoned its
+shining warmth with a crisp, exhilarating quality, making the sunshine
+and summer mildness like iced sherry or Madeira. It is unlike anything
+known in more southern climates. There are days in March that would
+resemble it, could you take out of them the damp, the laxness of nerve,
+and the spring melancholy. There are days in October that come nearer;
+but these differ by their delicious half-languors, while, by their
+gorgeousness of autumn foliage, and their relation to the oldening year,
+they are made quite unlike in spirit. This day warmed like summer and
+braced like winter.
+
+Once fairly taken into the bosom of the ice-field, we had eyes for
+little else. Its forms were a surprise, so varied and so beautiful. I
+had supposed that field-ice was made up of flat cakes,--and _cake_ of
+all kinds is among the flattest things I know! But here if was,
+simulating all shapes, even those of animated creatures, with the art of
+a mocking bird,--and simulating all in a material pure as amber, though
+more varied in color. One saw about him cliffs, basaltic columns, frozen
+down, arabesques, fretted traceries, sculptured urns, arches supporting
+broad tables or sloping roofs, lifted pinnacles, boulders, honey-combs,
+slanting strata of rock, gigantic birds, mastodons, maned lions,
+couching or rampant,--a fantasy of forms, and, between all, the shining,
+shining sea. In sunshine, these shapes were of a glistening white
+flecked with stars, where at points the white was lost in the glisten;
+in half shadow the color was gray, in full shadow aerial purple; while,
+wherever the upper portions projected over the sea, and took its
+reflection, they often did, the color was an infinite, emerald intensity
+of green; beneath all which, under water, was a base or shore of dead
+emerald, a green paled with chalk. Blue was not this day seen, perhaps
+because this was shore-ice rather than floe,--made, not like the floes,
+of frozen sea, but of compacted and saturated snow.
+
+Just before evening came, when the courteous breeze folded its light
+fans fell asleep, we left this field behind, and, seeing all clear
+ahead, supposed the whole had been passed. In truth, as had soon to
+learn, this twenty-mile strip of shore-ice was but the advance-guard of
+an immeasurable field or army of floe. For there came down the northern
+coast, in this summer of 1864, more than a thousand miles' length, with
+a breadth of about a hundred miles, of floe-ice in a field almost
+unbroken! More than a thousand miles, by accurate computation! The
+courtesy of the Westerner--who, having told of seeing a flock of pigeons
+nine miles long, so dense as to darken the sun at noonday, and meeting
+objections from a skeptical Yankee, magnanimously offered, as a personal
+favor, to "take out a quarter of a mile from the thinnest part"--cannot
+be imitated here. I must still say _more_ than a thousand miles,--and
+this, too, the second run of ice!
+
+Captain Linklater, master of the Moravian supply-ship, a man of acute
+observation and some science, had, as he afterwards told me at Hopedale,
+measured the rate of travel of the ice, and found it to be twenty-seven
+miles a day. Our passengers were sure they saw it going at the rate of
+three or four miles an hour. Captain Handy, looking with experienced
+eye, pronounced this estimate excessive, and said it went from one to
+one and a half miles an hour,--twenty-four to thirty-six miles a day.
+Captain Linklater, however, had not trusted the question to his
+judgment, but established the rate by accurate scientific observation.
+Now we were headed off by the ice and driven into as harbor on the 22d
+of June; we left Hopedale and began our return on the 4th of August; and
+between these two periods the ice never ceased running. The Moravian
+ship, which entered the harbor of Hopedale half a mile ahead of us, on
+the 31st of July, pushed through it, and found it eighty-five miles
+wide. Toward the last it was more scattered, and at times could not be
+seen from the coast. But it was there; and on the day before our
+departure from Hopedale, August 3, this cheering intelligence
+arrived:--"The ice is pressing in upon the islands outside, and an
+easterly wind would block us in!"
+
+What becomes of this ice? Had one lain in wait for it two hundred miles
+farther south, it is doubtful if he would have seen of it even a
+vestige. It cannot melt away so quickly: a day amidst it satisfies any
+one of so much. Whither does it go?
+
+Put that question to a sealer or fisherman, and he will answer, "_It
+sinks._"
+
+"But," replies that cheerful and confident gentleman, Mr. Current
+Impression, "ice doesn't sink; ice floats." Grave Science, too, says the
+same.
+
+I believe that Ignorance is right for once. You are becalmed in the
+midst of floating ice. The current bears you and it together; but next
+morning the ice has vanished! You rub your eyes, but the fact is one not
+to be rubbed out; the ice was, and isn't, there! No evidence exists that
+it can fly, like riches; therefore I think it sinks. I have seen it,
+too, not indeed in the very act of sinking, but so water-logged as
+barely to keep its nose out. A block four cubic feet in dimension lay at
+a subsequent time beside the ship, and there was not a portion bigger
+than a child's fist above water. Watching it, again, when it has been
+tolerably well sweltered, you will see air-bubbles incessantly escaping.
+Evidently, the air which it contains is giving place to water. Now it is
+this air, I judge, which keeps it afloat; and when the process of
+displacement has sufficiently gone on, what can it do but drown, as men
+do under the circumstances? This reasoning may be wrong; but the fact
+remains. The reasoning is chiefly a guess; yet, till otherwise informed,
+I shall say, the ice-_lungs_ get full of water, and it goes down.
+
+But we have wandered while the light waned, and now return. It was a
+gentle evening. That "day, so cool, so calm, so bright," died sweetly,
+as such a day should. The moon rose, not a globe, but a tall cone of
+silver,--silver that _blushed_; ice-magic again. But she recovered
+herself, and reigned in her true shape, queen of the slumber-courts; and
+the world slept, and we with it; and in our cabin the sleep-talk was
+quieted to ripples of murmur.
+
+_June 22._--Rush! Rush! The water was racing past the ship's side, close
+to my ear, as I awoke early. On deck: the strait ahead was packed from
+shore to shore with ice, like a boy's brain with fancies; and before a
+jolly gale we were skimming into the harbor of Belles Amours. Five days
+here: tedious. The main matters here were a sand-beach, a girl who read
+and loved Wordsworth, a wood-thrush, a seal-race, a "killer's" head, and
+a cascade.
+
+Item, sand-beach, with green grass, looking like a meadow, beyond. Not
+intrinsically much of an affair. The beach, on close inspection, proved
+soft and dirty, the grass sedge, the meadow a bog. In the distance,
+however, and as a variety in this unswarded cliff-coast, it was sweet, I
+laugh now to think how sweet, to the eyes.
+
+Item, girl. There was one house in the harbor; not another within three
+miles. Here dwelt a family who spoke English,--not a patois, but
+English,--rare in Labrador as politicians in heaven. The French
+Canadians found in Southern Labrador speak a kind of skim-milk French,
+with a little sour-milk English; the Newfoundland Labradorians say
+"Him's good for he," and in general use a very "scaly" lingo, learned
+from cod-fish, one would think. Here was a mother, acceptable to Lindley
+Murray, who had instructed her children. One of these--S----, our best
+social explorer, found her out--owned and read a volume of Plato, and
+had sent to L'anse du Loup, twenty-four miles, to borrow a copy of
+Wordsworth. This was her delight. She had copied considerable portions
+of it with her own hand, and could repeat from memory many and many a
+page.
+
+    "Full many a gem of purest ray serene
+      The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
+    Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
+      And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
+
+But Heaven has its own economies; and perhaps floral "sweetness" is
+quite as little wasted upon the desert as upon Beacon Street or Fifth
+Avenue.
+
+Item, a bird. We were seeking trout,--only to obtain a minnow tricked in
+trout-marks. The boat crept slowly up a deep, solemn cove, over which,
+on either side, hung craggy and precipitous hills; while at its head was
+a slope covered with Liliputian forest, through which came down a broad
+brook in a series of snowy terraces. It was a superb day, bright and
+bracing,--just bracing enough to set the nerves without urging them, and
+exalt one to a sense of vigorous repose. The oars lingered, yet not
+lazily, on the way; there seemed time enough for anything. At length we
+came, calm, wealthy in leisure, silently cheerful, to a bit of pleasant
+yellow beach between rocks. And just as our feet were touching the tawny
+sands,--
+
+              "The sweetest throat of Solitude
+    Unbarred her silver gates, and slowly hymned
+    To the great heart of Silence, till it beat
+    Response with all its echoes: for from out
+    That far, immortal orient, wherein
+    His soul abides 'mid morning skies and dews,
+    A wood-thrush, angel of the tree-top heaven,
+    Poured clear his pure soprano through the place,
+    Deepening the stillness with diviner calm,
+    That gave to Silence all her inmost heart
+    In melody."
+
+It was a regal welcome. What is like the note of the wood-thrush?--so
+full of royalty and psalm and sabbath! Regal in reserve, however, no
+less than utterance, the sovereign songster gave a welcome only, and
+then was silent; while a fine piping warbler caught up the theme, and
+discoursed upon it with liberal eloquence. The place to hear the song of
+the wood-thrush is wherever you can attain to that enjoyment by walking
+five or ten miles; the place so to hear it that the hearing shall be, by
+sober estimation, among the memorable events of your life, is at the
+head of a solemn, sunny cove, on three yards of tawny beach, in the
+harbor of Belles Amours, Labrador.
+
+Item, seal-race. The male seals fight with fury in the season of their
+rude loves. Two of these had had a battle; the vanquished was fleeing,
+the victor after him. They were bounding from the water like dolphins.
+For some time I thought them such, though I have seen dolphins by
+thousands. It was a surprise to see these leisurely and luxurious
+animals spattering the water in such an ecstasy of amative rage.
+
+Item, "killer." This is a savage cetacean, probably the same with the
+"thrasher," about fifteen feet in length, blunt-nosed, strong of jaw,
+with cruel teeth. On its back is a fin beginning about two thirds the
+way from tip to tail, running close to the latter, and then sloping away
+to a point, like the jib of a ship. In the largest this is some five
+feet long on the back, and eight or ten feet in height,--so large, that,
+when the creature is swimming on the surface, a strong side-wind will
+sometimes blow it over. It is a blue-fish on a big scale, or a Semmes in
+the sea, hungry as famine, fierce as plague, dainty as a Roman epicure,
+yet omnivorous as time. The seal is its South-Down mutton, the tongue of
+the whale its venison; for whenever its numbers are sufficient, it will
+attack this huge cetacean, and torture him till he submits and gives a
+horrible feast to their greed. Captain Handy had seen thirty or forty of
+them at this business. They fly with inconceivable fury at their victim,
+aiming chiefly at the lip, tearing great mouthfuls away, which they
+instantly reject while darting for another. The bleeding and bellowing
+monster goes down like a boulder from a cliff, shoots up like a shell
+from a mortar, beats the sea about him all into crimsoned spray with his
+tail; but plunge, leap, foam as he may, the finny pirates flesh their
+teeth in him still, still are fresh in pursuit, until at length, to end
+one torment by submitting to another, the helpless giant opens his
+mouth, and permits these sea-devils to devour the quivering morsel they
+covet. A big morsel; for the tongue of the full-sized right-whale weighs
+a ton and a half, and yields a ton of oil. The killer is sometimes
+confounded with the grampus. The latter is considerably larger, has a
+longer and slenderer jaw, less round at the muzzle, smaller teeth, and
+"isn't so clean a made fish"; for, in nautical parlance, cetaceans are
+still fish. Killers frequently try to rob whalers of their prize, and
+sometimes actually succeed in carrying it down, despite the lances and
+other weapons with which their attack is so strenuously resisted.
+
+Item, cascade. A snowy, broken stripe down a mountain-side; taken to be
+snow till the ear better informed the eye. Fine; but you need not go
+there to see.
+
+_June 26._--Off to Henley Harbor, sixty-five miles, at the head of the
+Strait of Belle Isle. Belle Isle itself--sandstone, rich, the Professor
+said, in ancient fossils--lay in view. The anchor went down in deep
+water, close beside the notable Castle Island.
+
+There were some considerable floes in the harbor, the largest one
+aground in a passage between the two islands by which it is formed. And
+now came the blue of pure floe-ice! There is nothing else like it on
+this earth, but the sapphire gem in its perfection; and this is removed
+from the comparison by its inferiority in magnitude. This incomparable
+hue appears wherever deep shadow is interposed between the eye and any
+intense, shining white. The floe in question contained two caverns
+excavated by the sea, both of which were partially open toward the ship.
+And out of these shone, shone on us, the cerulean and sapphire glory!
+Beyond this were the deep blue waters of York Bay; farther away, grouped
+and pushing down, headland behind headland, into the bay, rose the
+purple gneiss hills, broad and rounded, and flecked with party-colored
+moss; while nearer glowed this immortal blue eye, like the bliss of
+eternity looking into time!
+
+Next day we rowed close to this: I hardly know how we dared! Heavens!
+such blue! It grew, as we looked into the ice-cavern, deeper, intenser,
+more luminous, more awful in beauty, the farther inward, till in the
+depths it became not only a shrine to worship at, but a presence to bow
+and be silent before! It is said that angels sing and move in joy before
+the Eternal; but there I learned that silence is their only voice, and
+stillness their ecstatic motion!
+
+Meanwhile the portals of this sapphire sanctuary were of a warm rose
+hue, rich and delicate,--looking like the blush of mortal beauty at its
+nearness to the heavenly.
+
+Bradford is all right in painting the intensest blue possible,--due
+care, of course, being taken not to extend it uniformly over large
+surfaces. If he can secure any suggestion of the subtilty and
+luminousness,--if he can! As I come back, and utter a word, he says that
+the only way will be to glaze over a white ground. It had already struck
+me, that, as this is the method by which Nature obtains such effects, it
+must be the method for Art also. He is on the right track. And how the
+gentle soul works!
+
+But while outward Nature here assumed aspects of beauty so surpassing,
+man, as if to lend her the emphasis of contrast, appeared in the
+sorriest shape. I name him here, that I may vindicate his claim to
+remembrance, even when he is a blot upon the beauty around him. I will
+not forget him, even though I can think of him only with shame. To
+remember, however, is here enough. We will go back to Nature,--though
+she, too, can suckle "killers."
+
+On the evening before our departure,--for we remained several days, and
+had a snow-storm meanwhile,--there was a glorious going down of the sun
+over the hills beyond York Bay, with a tender golden mist filling all
+the western heavens, and tinting air and water between. So Nature
+renewed her charm. And with that sun setting on Henley Harbor, we leave
+for the present the miserable, magnificent place.
+
+_June 30._--Iceberg! An iceberg! The real thing at last! We left Henley
+at ten A. M., and were soon coming up with a noble berg. Its aspect, on
+our near approach, was that of a vast roof rising at one end, beside
+which, and about half its height, was the upper third of an enormous
+cylinder. Passing to the west, along one side of this roof, we beheld a
+vast cavernous depression, making a concave line in its ridge, and then
+dipping deep, beyond view, into the berg. The sharp upper rim of this
+depression came between us and the sky, with the bright shine of the
+forenoon sun beyond, and showed a skirt or fringe of infinitely delicate
+luminous green, whose contrast with the rich marble-white of the general
+structure was beautiful exceedingly. With the exception of this, and of
+a narrow blue seam, looking like lapis-lazuli, which ran diagonally from
+summit to base, the broad surface of this side had the look of
+snow-white marble lace or fretwork. Passing thence to the north face, we
+came apparently upon the part at which the berg separated from its
+parent glacier. Here was a new effect, and one of great beauty. In
+material it resembled the finest statuary marble,--but rather the
+crystalline marbles of Vermont, with their brilliant half-sparkle, than
+the dead polish of the Parian; while the form and character of this
+facade suggested some fascinating, supernatural consent of chance and
+art, of fracture with sculpturesque and architectural design.
+
+    "He works in rings, in magic rings, of chance,"--
+
+the subtlest thing ever said of Turner,--might have been spoken even
+more truly of the workman who wrought this. The apparent fineness of
+material cannot be overstated, so soft and powerful. "A porcelain
+fracture," said Ph----,--well. Yet such porcelain! It were the despair
+of China. On the eastern, or cylinder side, there was next the water a
+strip of intensely polished surface, surmounted by an elaborate level
+cornice, and above this the marble lace again.
+
+The schooner soon tacked, and returned. As again we pass the cathedral
+cliff on the north, and join the western side with this in one view, we
+are somewhat prepared by familiarity to mingle its majesty and beauty,
+and take from them a single impression. The long Cyclopean wall and vast
+Gothic roof of the side, including many an arched, rounded, and waving
+line, emphasized by straight lines of blue seam, are set off against the
+strange shining traceries of the facade; while the union of flower-like
+softness and eternal strength, the fretted silver of surface, the
+combination of peak and cave, the fringe of blazing emerald on the
+ridge, the glancing, flashing lights contrasting with twilight blues and
+purples of deep shadow, and over all the stainless azure, and beneath
+and around all a sea of beryl strown with sun-dust,--these associate to
+engrave on the soul an impression which even death and the tomb, I would
+fain believe, will be powerless to efface. And if Art study hard and
+labor long and vehemently aspire to publish the truth of this, she does
+well. Her task is worthy, but is not easy: I think a greater, of the
+kind, has never been attempted. The height of this berg was determined
+by instruments--but with a conjecture only of the distance--to be one
+hundred and eighteen feet. Captain Brown, however, who went aloft, and
+thence formed a judgment, pronounced it not less than one hundred and
+fifty feet. One naturally inclines to the more moderate computation.
+But, as subsequent experience showed me that judgments of distance in
+such cases are almost always below the mark, I am of opinion that here,
+as sometimes in politics and religion, seeming moderation may be less
+accurate than seeming excess.
+
+And, by the way, Noble's descriptions of icebergs, which, in the absence
+of personal observation, might seem excessive, are of real value.
+Finding a copy of his book on board, I read it with pleasure, having
+first fully made my own notes,--and refer to him any reader who may have
+appetite for more after concluding this chapter.
+
+Early this evening we entered between bold cliffs into Square Island
+Harbor, latitude about 53 deg.. It is a deep and deeply sheltered dog's
+hole,--dogs and dirt could make it such,--but overhung by purple hills,
+which proved, on subsequent inspection, to be largely composed of an
+impure labradorite. Labradorite, the reader may know, is a crystallized
+feldspar, with traces of other minerals. In its pure state it is
+opalescent, exhibiting vivid gleams of blue, green, gold, and
+copper-color, and, more rarely, of rose,--and is then, and deservedly,
+reckoned a precious stone. The general character of the rock here is
+sienitic; but, besides this peculiar quality of feldspar, the hornblende
+appears as actinolite, (ray-stone,) so called from the form of its
+crystallization; while the quartz element is faintly present, or appears
+in separate masses. The purple of the hills is due not only to the
+labradorite, which has that as a stable color, but also to a purple
+lichen, which clothes much of the rock on this coast. I found also fine
+masses of mica imbedded in quartz, edge upwards, and so compact that
+its lamination was not perceptible. Indeed, I did not, with my novice
+eyes, immediately recognize it, for it appeared a handsome
+copper-colored rock, projecting slightly from the quartz, as if more
+enduring.
+
+Next day there was trouting, with a little, and but a little, better
+than the usual minnow result.
+
+And on the next, the floe-ice poured in and packed the harbor like a box
+of sardines. The scene became utterly Arctic,--rock above, and ice
+below. Rock, ice, and three imprisoned ships; which last, in their
+helpless isolation, gave less the sense of companionship than of a
+triple solitude. And when next day, Sunday, the third day of July, I
+walked ashore on the ice with a hundred feet of water beneath, summer
+seemed a worn-out tradition, and one felt that the frozen North had gone
+out over the world as to a lawful inheritance.
+
+But the new Czar reigned in beauty, if also in terror. Yard-wide spaces
+of emerald, amethyst, sapphire, yellow-green beryl, and rose-tinted
+crystal, grew as familiar to the eye as paving-blocks to the dwellers in
+cities. The shadows of the ice were also of a violet purple, so ethereal
+that it required a painter's eye at once to see it, though it was
+unmistakably there; and to represent it will task the finest painter's
+hand. Then the spaces of water between the floes, if not too large,
+appeared uniformly in deep wine-color,--an effect for which one must
+have more science than I to account. It is attributed to contrast; but
+if thus illusive, it is at least an illusion not to be looked out of
+countenance. No local color could assert itself more firmly. One
+marvellous morning, too, a dense, but translucent, mist hovered closely,
+beneath strong sunshine, over the ice, lending to its innumerable
+fantastic forms a new, weird, witching, indescribable, real-unreal
+strangeness, as if the ice and the ships it inclosed and we ourselves
+were all but embodied dreams, half come to consciousness, and rubbing
+our surprised moon-eyes to gaze upon each other. The power of this mist
+to multiply distance was not the least part of its witchery. A schooner
+ten rods off looked as far away as Cadmus and Abraham.
+
+P---- was made happy by finding here a grasshopper, which subsequently
+proved, however, a prize indeed,--but not quite so much of a prize as he
+hoped, being probably the young of a species previously known as Alpine,
+rather than an adult identical with one found on the summit of Mount
+Washington.
+
+During the latter part of our duress here we were driven below by raw,
+incessant rain, and the confinement became irksome. At length, during
+the day and night of July 14th, the ice finally made off with itself,
+and the next morning the schooner followed suit. The ice, however, had
+not done with us. It lingered near the land, while farther out it was
+seen in solid mass, making witch-work, as usual, on the northern and
+eastern sky; and we were soon dodging through the more open portion,
+still dense enough, close to the coast. It was dangerous business. A
+pretty breeze blew; and with anything of a wind our antelope of a
+schooner took to her heels with speed. Lightly built,--not, like vessels
+designed for this coast, double-planked and perhaps iron-prowed,--she
+would easily have been staved by a shock upon this adamantine ice. The
+mate stood at the bow, shouting, "Luff! Bear away! Hard up! Hard down!"
+And his voice wanting strength and his articulation distinctness, I was
+fain, at the pinch of the game, to come to his aid, and trumpet his
+orders after him with my best stentorship. The old pilot had taken the
+helm; but his nerves were unequal to his work; and a younger man was
+sent to take his place. Once or twice the ship struck smaller masses of
+ice, but at so sharp an angle as to push them and herself mutually
+aside, and slide past without a crash. But a wind from the land was
+steadily urging the floe-field away, and at length the sea before us lay
+clear.
+
+At ten A. M., we drew up to a majestic berg, and "came to,"--that is,
+brought the schooner close by the wind. The berg was one of the noblest.
+Picture to yourself two most immense Gothic churches without transepts,
+each with a tower in front. Place these side by side, but at a remove
+equal to about half their length. Build up now the space between the two
+towers, extending this connection back so that it shall embrace the
+front third or half of the churches, leaving an open _green_ court in
+the rear, and you have a general conception of this piece of Northern
+architecture. The rear of each church, however, instead of ascending
+vertically, sloped at an angle of about ten degrees, and, instead of
+having sharp corners, was exquisitely rounded. Elsewhere also were many
+rounded and waving lines, where the image of a church would suggest
+straightness. Nevertheless, you are to cling with force to that image in
+shaping to your mind's eye a picture of this astonishing cathedral.
+
+Since seeing the former berg, we had heard many tales of the danger of
+approaching them. The Newfoundlanders and natives have of them a mortal
+terror,--never going, if it can be avoided, nearer than half a mile, and
+then always on the leeward side. "They kill the wind," said these
+people, so that one in passing to windward is liable to be becalmed, and
+to drift down upon them,--to drift upon them, because there is always a
+tide setting in toward them. They chill the water, it descends, and
+other flows in to assume its place. These fears were not wholly
+groundless. Icebergs sometimes burst their hearts suddenly, with an
+awful explosion, going into a thousand pieces. After they begin to
+disintegrate, moreover, immense masses from time to time crush down from
+above or surge up from beneath; and on all such occasions, proximity to
+them is obviously not without its perils. "The Colonel," brave, and a
+Greenland voyager, was more nervous about them than anybody else. He
+declared, apparently on good authority, that the vibration imparted to
+the sea by a ship's motion, or even that communicated to the air by the
+human voice, would not unfrequently give these irritable monsters the
+hint required for a burst of ill-temper,--and averred also that our
+schooner, at the distance of three hundred yards, would be rolled over,
+like a child's play-boat, by the wave which an exploding or over-setting
+iceberg would cause. And it might, indeed, be supposed, that, did one of
+those prodigious creations take a notion to disport its billions of tons
+in a somersault, it would raise no trivial commotion.
+
+At a distance, these considerations weighed with me. I heard them
+respectfully, was convinced, and silently resolved not to urge, indeed,
+so far as I properly might, to discourage, nearness of approach. But
+here all these convictions vanished away. I knew that some icebergs were
+treacherous, but they were others, not this! There it stood in such
+majesty and magnificence of marble strength, that all question of its
+soundness was shamed out of me,--or rather, would have been shamed, had
+it arisen. This was not sentiment,--it was judgment,--_my_
+judgment,--perhaps erroneous, yet a judgment formed from the facts as I
+saw them. Therefore I determined to launch the light skiff which Ph----
+and I had bought at Sleupe Harbor, and row up to the berg, perhaps lay
+my hand upon it.
+
+As the skiff went over the gunwale, the Parson cried,--
+
+"Shall I go with you?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, if you wish."
+
+He seated himself in the stern; I assumed the oars, (I row cross-handed,
+with long oars, and among amateur oarsmen am a little vain of my skill)
+and pulled away. It was a longer pull than I had thought,--suggesting
+that our judgment of distances had been insufficient, and that the
+previous berg was higher than our measurement had made it.
+
+Our approach was to rear of the berg,--that is, to the court or little
+bay before mentioned. The temptation to enter was great, but I dared
+not; for the long, deep ocean-swell over which the skiff skimmed like a
+duck, not only without danger, but without the smallest perturbation,
+broke in and out here with such force that I knew the boat would
+instantly be swept out of my possession. The Parson, however, always
+reckless of peril in his enthusiasm, and less experienced, cried,--
+
+"In! in! Push the boat in!"
+
+"No, the swell is too heavy; it will not do."
+
+"Fie upon the swell! Never mind what will do! In!"
+
+I sympathized too much with him to answer otherwise than by laying my
+weight upon the oars, and pushing silently past. The water in this bit
+of bay was some six or eight feet deep, and the ice beneath it--for the
+berg was all solid below--showed in perfection that crystalline tawny
+green which belongs to it under such circumstances. I pulled around the
+curving rear of the eastern church, with its surface of marble lace,
+such as we had seen before, gazing upward and upward at the towering
+awfulness and magnificence of edifice, myself frozen in admiration. The
+Parson, under high excitement, rained his hortative oratory upon me.
+
+"Nearer! Nearer! Let's touch it! Let's lay our hands upon it! Don't be
+faint-hearted now. It's now or never!"
+
+I heard him as one under the influence of chloroform hears his
+attendants. He exhorted a stone. His words only seemed to beat and
+flutter faintly against me, like storm-driven birds against a cliff at
+night. My brain was only in my eyeballs; and the arms that worked
+mechanically at the oars belonged rather to the boat than to me.
+
+Saturated at last, if not satiated, with seeing, I glanced at the
+water-level, and said,--
+
+"But see how the surge is heaving against it!"
+
+But now it was I that spoke to stone, though not to a silent one.
+
+"Hang the surge! I'm here for an iceberg, not to be balked by a bit of
+surf! It's not enough to see; I must have my hand on it! I wish to touch
+the veritable North Pole!"
+
+It was pleasant to see the ever-genial Parson so peremptory; and I
+lingered half wilfully, not unwilling to mingle the relieving flavor of
+this pleasure with the more awful delight of other impressions: said,
+however, at length,--
+
+"I intend to go up to it, when I have found a suitable place."
+
+"Place! What better place do you desire than this?"
+
+I could but smile and pull on.
+
+Caution was not unnecessary. The sea rose and fell a number of feet
+beside the berg, beating heavily against it with boom and hiss; and I
+knew well, that, if our boat struck fairly, especially if it struck
+sidewise, it would be whirled over and over in two seconds. Besides,
+where we then were, there was a cut of a foot or more into the berg at
+the water-level,--or rather, it was excavated below, with this
+projection above; and had the skiff caught under that, we would drown. I
+had come there not to drown, nor to run any risk, but to get some more
+intimate acquaintance with an iceberg. Rowing along, therefore, despite
+the Parson's moving hortatives, I at length found a spot where this
+projection did not appear. Turning now the skiff head on, I drove it
+swiftly toward the berg; then, when its headway was sufficient, shipped
+the oars quickly, slipped into the bow, and, reaching forth my hand and
+striking the berg, sent the boat in the same instant back with all my
+force, not suffering it to touch.
+
+"Now me! Now me!" shouted the Parson, brow hot, and eyes blazing.
+"You're going to give me a chance, too? I would not miss it for a
+kingdom!"
+
+"Yes; wait, wait."
+
+I took the oars, got sea-room, then turned its stern, where the Parson
+sat, toward the iceberg, and backed gently in.
+
+"Put your hand behind you; reach out as far as you can; sit in the
+middle; keep cool, cool; don't turn your body."
+
+"Cool, oh, yes! I'm cool as November," he said, with a face misty as a
+hot July morning with evaporating dew. As his hand struck the ice, I
+bent the oars, and we shot safely away.
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" he shouted, making the little boat rock and
+tremble,--"hurrah! This, now, is the 'adventurous travel' we were
+promised. Now I am content, if we get no more."
+
+"Cool; you'll have us over."
+
+"Pooh! Who's cooler?"
+
+We went leisurely around this glacial cathedral. The current set with
+force about it, running against us on the eastern side. At the front we
+found the "cornice" again, about twenty feet up, sloping to the water,
+and dipping beneath it on either side; below it, a crystal surface;
+above, marble fretwork. This cornice indicates a former sea-level,
+showing that the berg has risen or changed position. This must have
+taken place, probably, by the detachment of masses; so an occurrence of
+this kind was not wholly out of question, after all. There is always,
+however,--so I suspect,--some preliminary warning, some audible crack or
+visible vibration. I had kept in mind the possibility of such changes,
+and at the slightest intimation should have darted away,--a movement
+favored by the lightness of the skiff, and the extreme ease with which,
+under the advantage of a beautiful model, she was rowed.
+
+A sense of awe, almost of fear, crept over me now that the adventure was
+over, and I looked up to the mighty towers of the facade with a somewhat
+humbled eye; and so, pulling slowly and respectfully along the western
+side, made away, solemn and satisfied, to the ship.
+
+I expected a storm of criticism on our return, but found calm. The boat
+was hoisted in silently, and I hurried below, to lie down and enjoy the
+very peculiar entertainment which vigorous rowing was sure to afford me.
+
+Released after a half-hour's toasting on the gridiron, I went on deck
+and found the Parson surrounded by a cloud of censure. The words "boyish
+foolhardiness," catching my ear, flushed me with some anger,--to which
+emotion I am not, perhaps, of all men least liable. So I stumped a
+little stiffly to the group, and said,--
+
+"I don't feel myself altogether a boy, and foolhardiness is not my
+forte."
+
+"Well, success is wisdom," said the Colonel, placably. "You have
+succeeded, and now have criticism at a disadvantage, I own."
+
+Another, however,--not a braver man on board,--stood to his guns.
+
+"Experienced men say that it is dangerous; I hear to them till I have
+experience myself."
+
+"Right, if so it stands in your mind. You judge thus: you follow your
+judgment. I judge partly so, and partly otherwise, and I follow my
+judgment. Mere experience is but a purblind wisdom, after all. When I do
+not at all see my own way, I follow that, still aware of its
+imperfections; where eyes are of service, I use them, learning from
+experience caution, not submission. The real danger in this case was
+that of being dashed against the berg; with coolness and some skill"
+(was there a little emphasis on this word _skill_?) "that danger could
+be disarmed. For any other danger I was ready, but did not fear it.
+'Boyish?' The boyish thing, I take it, is always to be a pendant upon
+other people's alarms. I prefer rather to be kite than its tail only."
+
+"Well, each of us _does_ follow his own judgment," replied Candor; "you
+act as you think; I think you are wrong. If it were shooting a Polar
+bear now,--there's pleasure in that, and it were worth the while to run
+some risk."
+
+We had tried for a bear together. I seized my advantage.
+
+"It is a pleasure to you to shoot a bear. So to me also. But I would
+rather get into intimacy with an iceberg than freight the ship with
+bears."
+
+He smiled an end to the colloquy. As I went below, Captain Handy, the
+Arctic whaler, met me with,--
+
+"I would as lief as not spend a week on that berg! I have made fast to
+such, and lain for days. All depends on the character of the berg. If
+it's rotting, look out! If it's sound as that one, you may go to sleep
+on it."
+
+I hastened up to proclaim my new ally. "You heed experience; hear
+Captain Handy." And I launched his bolt at the head of Censure, and saw
+it duck, if no more.
+
+We saw after this, going and returning, many bergs, hundreds in all.
+With one of the finest, a little more broken and varied than those
+previously described, we came up at a little past noon, and the schooner
+stood off and on while Bradford went in the boat to sketch it in
+color,--Captain Handy's steady and skilful hand upon the sculling-oar.
+Bradford worked at it like a beaver all the afternoon, and then directed
+the schooner to lie to through the night, that he might resume his task
+in the morning,--coveting especially the effects of early light The
+ardent man was off before three o'clock. Nature was kind to him; he
+sketched the berg under a dawn of amber and scarlet, followed by floods
+on floods of morning gold; and returned to breakfast, after five hours'
+work, half in rapture and half in despair. The colors, above all, the
+purples, were inconceivable, he said, and there was no use trying to
+render them. I reminded him of Ruskin's brave words:--"He that is not
+appalled by his tasks will do nothing great." But his was an April
+despair, after all, with rifted clouds and spring sunshine pouring
+through.
+
+Another memorable one was seen outside while we were in harbor,
+storm-bound. A vast arch went through the very heart of it, while each
+end rose to a pinnacle,--the arch blue, blue! We were going out to it;
+but, during the second night of storm, its strength broke, and beneath
+blinding snow there remained only a mad dance of waves over the wreck of
+its majesty.
+
+There was another, curiously striped with diagonal dirt-bands, whose
+fellowship, however, the greens and purples did not disdain.
+
+Another had the shape of three immense towers, seeming to _stand on the
+water_, more than a hundred feet of sea rolling between. The tallest
+tower could not be much less than two hundred feet in height; the others
+slightly, just perceptibly, lower. This was seen in rain, and the
+purples here were more crystalline and shining than any others which I
+observed.
+
+These towers were seen on our last day among the bergs. In my memory
+they are monumental. They stand there, a purple trinity, to commemorate
+the terrors and glories that I shall behold no more.
+
+
+
+
+KALLUNDBORG CHURCH.
+
+                    "Tie stille, barn min!
+                    Imorgen kommer Fin,
+                    Fa'er din,
+    Og gi'er dig Esbern Snares oeine og hjerte at lege med!"
+
+                                     _Zealand Rhyme._
+
+
+    "Build at Kallundborg by the sea
+    A church as stately as church may be,
+    And there shalt thou wed my daughter fair,"
+    Said the Lord of Nesvek to Esbern Snare.
+
+    And the Baron laughed. But Esbern said,
+    "Though I lose my soul, I will Helva wed!"
+    And off he strode, in his pride of will,
+    To the Troll who dwelt in Ulshoi hill.
+
+    "Build, O Troll, a church for me
+    At Kallundborg by the mighty sea;
+    Build it stately, and build it fair,
+    Build it quickly," said Esbern Snare.
+
+    But the sly Dwarf said, "No work is wrought
+    By Trolls of the Hills, O man, for nought.
+    What wilt thou give for thy church so fair?"
+    "Set thy own price," quoth Esbern Snare.
+
+    "When Kallundborg church is builded well,
+    Thou must the name of its builder tell,
+    Or thy heart and thy eyes must be my boon."
+    "Build," said Esbern, "and build it soon."
+
+    By night and by day the Troll wrought on;
+    He hewed the timbers, he piled the stone;
+    But day by day, as the walls rose fair,
+    Darker and sadder grew Esbern Snare.
+
+    He listened by night, he watched by day,
+    He sought and thought, but he dared not pray;
+    In vain he called on the Elle-maids shy,
+    And the Neck and the Nis gave no reply.
+
+    Of his evil bargain far and wide
+    A rumor ran through the country-side;
+    And Helva of Nesvek, young and fair,
+    Prayed for the soul of Esbern Snare.
+
+    And now the church was wellnigh done;
+    One pillar it lacked, and one alone;
+    And the grim Troll muttered, "Fool thou art!
+    To-morrow gives me thy eyes and heart!"
+
+    By Kallundborg in black despair,
+    Through wood and meadow, walked Esbern Snare,
+    Till, worn and weary, the strong man sank
+    Under the birches on Ulshoi bank.
+
+    At his last day's work he heard the Troll
+    Hammer and delve in the quarry's hole;
+    Before him the church stood large and fair:
+    "I have builded my tomb," said Esbern Snare.
+
+    And he closed his eyes the sight to hide,
+    When he heard a light step at his side:
+    "O Esbern Snare!" a sweet voice said,
+    "Would I might die now in thy stead!"
+
+    With a grasp by love and by fear made strong,
+    He held her fast, and he held her long;
+    With the beating heart of a bird afeard,
+    She hid her face in his flame-red beard.
+
+    "O love!" he cried, "let me look to-day
+    In thine eyes ere mine are plucked away;
+    Let me hold thee close, let me feel thy heart
+    Ere mine by the Troll is torn apart!
+
+    "I sinned, O Helva, for love of thee!
+    Pray that the Lord Christ pardon me!"
+    But fast as she prayed, and faster still,
+    Hammered the Troll in Ulshoi hill.
+
+    He knew, as he wrought, that a loving heart
+    Was somehow baffling his evil art;
+    For more than spell of Elf or Troll
+    Is a maiden's prayer for her lover's soul.
+
+    And Esbern listened, and caught the sound
+    Of a Troll-wife singing underground:
+    "To-morrow comes Fine, father thine:
+    Lie still and hush thee, baby mine!
+
+    "Lie still, my darling! next sunrise
+    Thou'lt play with Esbern Snare's heart and eyes!"
+    "Ho! ho!" quoth Esbern, "is that your game?
+    Thanks to the Troll-wife, I know his name!"
+
+    The Troll he heard him, and hurried on
+    To Kallundborg church with the lacking stone.
+    "Too late, Gaffer Fine!" cried Esbern Snare;
+    And Troll and pillar vanished in air!
+
+    That night the harvesters heard the sound
+    Of a woman sobbing underground,
+    And the voice of the Hill-Troll loud with blame
+    Of the careless singer who told his name.
+
+    Of the Troll of the Church they sing the rune
+    By the Northern Sea in the harvest moon;
+    And the fishers of Zealand hear him still
+    Scolding his wife in Ulshoi hill.
+
+    And seaward over its groves of birch
+    Still looks the tower of Kallundborg church,
+    Where, first at its altar, a wedded pair,
+    Stood Helva of Nesvek and Esbern Snare!
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE CRUIKSHANK IN MEXICO.
+
+
+And first, let it be on record that his name is GEORGE CRUIKSHANK, and
+not CRUICKSHANK. The good old man is seventy years of age, if not more,
+(the earliest drawing I have seen of his bears the date of 1799, and he
+could scarcely have begun to limn in his long-clothes,) yet, with a
+persistence of perversity wellnigh astonishing,--although his name has
+been before the public for considerably more than half a
+century,--although he has published nothing anonymously, but has
+appended his familiar signature in full to the minutest scratchings of
+his etching-needle,--although he has been the conductor of two
+magazines, and of late years has been one of the foremost agitators and
+platform-orators in the English temperance movement,--the vast majority
+of his countrymen have always spelt his surname "Cruickshank," and will
+continue so to spell it, I suppose, even should he live as long as
+Cornaro. I hope he may, I am sure, with or without the additional _c_
+for his age and his country can ill spare him.
+
+But George Cruikshank in Mexico! What on earth can the most stay-at-home
+of British artists have to do with that out-of-the-way old
+curiosity-shop of the American continent? One might fancy him now--but
+that it is growing late--in the United States. He might be invited to
+attend a Total Abstinence Convention. He might run Mr. J.B. Gough hard
+on his favorite stump. He might be tempted, perchance, to cross the
+ocean in the evening of his days, to note down, with his inimitable and
+still unfaltering pencil, some of the humors of Yankee-land. I am
+certain, that, were George Cruikshank or Dicky Doyle to come this way
+and give a pictorial history of a tour through the States, somewhat
+after the immortal Brown, Jones, and Robinson pattern, the Americans
+would be in a better temper with their brothers in Old England than
+after reading some long spun-out book of travels by brainless Cockneys
+or cynical dyspeptics. The laugh awakened by a droll picture hurts
+nobody. It is that ugly letter-press which smarts and rankles, and
+festers at last into a gangrene of hatred. The Patriarch of Uz wished
+that his enemy had written a book. He could have added ten thousand fold
+to the venom of the aspiration, had he likewise expressed a wish that
+the book had been printed.
+
+You will be pleased to understand, then, that the name of the gentleman
+who serves as text for this essay is Cruikshank, and not Cruickshank.
+There is an old Scottish family, I believe, of that ilk, which spells
+its name with a _c_ before the _k_. Perhaps the admirers of our George
+wished to give something like an aristocratic smack to his patronymic,
+and so interpolated the objectionable consonant. There is no Cruikshank
+to be found in the "Court Guide," but Cruickshanks abound. As for our
+artist, he is a burgess among burgesses,--a man of the people _par
+excellence_, and an Englishman above all. His travels have been of the
+most limited nature. Once, in the course of his long life, and with what
+intent you shall presently hear, he went to France, as Hogarth did; but
+France didn't please him, and he came home again, like Hogarth, with all
+convenient speed,--fortunately, without being clapped up in jail for
+sketching the gates of Calais. I believe that he has not crossed the
+Straits of Dover since George IV. was king. I have heard, on good
+authority, that he protested strongly, while in foreign parts, against
+the manner in which the French ate new-laid eggs, and against the
+custom, then common among the peasantry, of wearing wooden shoes. I am
+afraid even, that, were George hard pressed, he would own to a dim
+persuasion that _all_ Frenchmen wear wooden shoes; also pigtails;
+likewise cocked hats. He does not say so in society; but those who have
+his private ear assert that his faith or his delusion goes even farther
+than this, and that he believes that all Frenchmen eat frogs,--that nine
+tenths of the population earn their living as dancing-masters, and that
+the late Napoleon Buonaparte (George Cruikshank always spells the
+Corsican Ogre's name with a _u_) was first cousin to Apollyon, and was
+not, upon occasion, averse to the consumption of human flesh,---babies
+of British extraction preferred. Can you show me an oak that ever took
+so strong a root as prejudice?
+
+Not that George Cruikshank belongs in any way to the species known as
+"Fossil Tories." He is rather a fossil Liberal. He was a Whig Radical,
+and more, when the slightest suspicion of Radicalism exposed an
+Englishman to contumely, to obloquy, to poverty, to fines, to stripes,
+to gyves, and to the jail. He was quite as advanced a politician as
+William Cobbett, and a great deal honester as a man. He was the fast
+friend of William Hone, who, for his famous "Political Catechism,"--a
+lampoon on the borough-mongers and their bloated king,--was tried three
+times on three successive days, before the cruel Ellenborough, but as
+many times acquitted. George Cruikshank inveighed ardently, earnestly,
+and at last successfully, with pencil and with etching-point, against
+the atrocious blood-thirstiness of the penal laws,--the laws that strung
+up from six to a dozen unfortunates on a gallows in front of Newgate
+every Monday morning, often for no direr offence than passing a
+counterfeit one-pound note. When the good old Tories wore top-boots and
+buckskins, George Cruikshank was conspicuous for a white hat and
+Hessians,--the distinguishing outward signs of ultra-liberalism. He was,
+of course, a Parliamentary Reformer in the year '30; and he has been a
+social reformer, and a most useful one, ever since. Still is there
+something about this brave old English worthy that approaches the fossil
+type. His droll dislike to the French--a hearty, good-humored disfavor,
+differing widely from the polished malevolence of Mr. John Leech, who
+never missed an opportunity to represent the airy Gaul as something
+repulsive, degraded, and ungentlemanly--I have already noticed. Then
+George Cruikshank has never been able to surmount a vague notion that
+steamboats and steam-engines are, generically speaking, a humbug, and
+that the old English sailing craft and the old English stage-coach are,
+after all, the only modes of conveyance worthy the patronage of Britons.
+Against exaggerated hoop-skirts he has all along set his face, and
+seldom, if ever, condescends to delineate a lady in crinoline. His
+beau-ideal of female beauty is comprised in an hour-glass waist, a skirt
+that fits close to the form, a sandalled shoe, and very long ringlets;
+whereas tight lacing, narrow skirts, sandalled shoes, and ringlets have
+been banished from the English _modes_ any time these fifteen years.
+Those among George's critics, too, who are sticklers for exactitude in
+the "abstract and brief chronicle of the time" complain that his dandies
+always wear straps to their tight pantaloons in lieu of pegtops; that
+their vests are too short and their coat-collars too high; that they
+wear bell-crowned hats, and carry gold-knobbed canes with long tassels;
+and that they are dressed, in short, after the fashion of the year one,
+when Brummell or Pea-Green Haynes commanded the _ton_. It is obvious
+that the works of an artist who has refused to be indoctrinated with the
+perpetual changes of a capricious code of dress would never be very
+popular with the readers of "Punch,"--a periodical which, pictorially,
+owes its very existence to the readiness and skill displayed by its
+draughtsmen in shooting folly as it flies and catching the manners
+living as they rise, and pillorying the madness of the moment. Were
+George Cruikshank called upon, for instance, to depict a lady fording a
+puddle on a rainy day, and were he averse (for he is the modestest of
+artists) to displaying too much of her ankle, he would assuredly make
+manifest, beneath her upraised skirts, some antediluvian pantalet,
+bordered by a pre-Adamite frill. But the keen-eyed Mr. Leech would be
+guilty of no such anachronism. He would discover that the mysterious
+garments in question were ofttimes encircled by open-worked embroidery.
+_He would find out that the ladies sometimes wore Knickerbockers._ And
+this is what the ladies like. Exaggerate their follies as much as you
+please; but woe be to you, if you wrongfully accuse them! You may sneer
+at, you may censure, you may castigate them for what they really do, but
+beware of reprehending them for that which they have never done. Even
+Sir John Falstaff revolted at the imputation of having kissed the
+keeper's daughter. A sermon against crinoline, be it ever so
+fulminating, finds ever an attentive and smiling congregation; but
+venture to preach against coal-scuttle bonnets--until the ladies have
+really taken to wearing them--and your hearers would pull down the
+pulpit and hang the preacher.
+
+Thus, although foreigners may express wonder that a designer, who for so
+many years has been in the front rank of English humorous artists,
+should never have contributed to the pages of our leading humorous
+periodical, astonishment may be abated, when the real state of the case,
+as I have endeavored to put it, is known. George Cruikshank is at once
+too good for, and not quite up to the mark of "Punch." His best works
+have always been his etchings on steel and copper; and wonderful
+examples of chalcographic brilliance and skill those etchings are,--many
+of them surpassing Callot, and not a few of them (notably the
+illustrations to Ainsworth's "Tower of London") rivalling Rembrandt.
+From the nature of these engravings, it would be impossible to print
+them at a machine-press for a weekly issue of fifty or sixty thousand
+copies. George has drawn much on wood, and his wondrous
+wood-cuts--xylographs, if you wish a more pretentious word--to "Three
+Courses and a Dessert," "The Odd Volume," "The Gentleman in Black,"
+Grimm's "Fairy Tales," "Philosophy in Sport," and "The Table-Book," will
+be long remembered, and are now highly prized by amateurs; but his
+minute and delicate pencil-drawings have taxed the energies of the very
+best engravers of whom England can boast,--of Vizetelly, of Landells, of
+Jackson, of Thompson, and of Thurston. George Cruikshank would never
+suffer his drawings on wood to be slashed and chopped about by hasty or
+incompetent gravers; and although the ateliers of "Punch" are supplied
+with a first-rate staff of wood-cutters, very great haste and very
+little care must often be apparent in the weekly pabulum of cuts; nor
+should such an appearance excite surprise, when the exigencies of a
+weekly publication are remembered. The "Punch" artists, indeed, draw
+with a special reference to that which they know their engravers can or
+cannot do. Mr. Tenniel's cartoons are put on wood precisely as they are
+meant to be cut, in broad, firm, sweeping lines, and the wood-engraver
+has only to scoop out the white interstices between the network of
+lines; whereas Mr. Leech dashed in a bold pen-and-ink-like sketch and
+trusted to the xylographer, who knew his style well and of old, to
+produce an engraving, _tant bien que mal_, but as bold and as dashing as
+the original. The secession, for reasons theological, from "Punch" of
+Mr. Richard Doyle, an event which took place some fifteen years since,
+(how quickly time passes, to be sure!) was very bitterly regretted by
+his literary and artistic comrades; and the young man who calmly gave up
+something like a thousand pounds a year for conscience' sake lost
+nothing, but gained rather in the respect and admiration of society. But
+the wood-engravers must have held high carousal over the defection of
+Mr. Doyle. To cut one of his drawings was a crucial experiment. His hand
+was not sure in its touch; he always drew six lines instead of one; and
+in the portrait of a lady from his pencil, the agonized engraver had to
+hunt through a Cretan labyrinth of faces before he found the particular
+countenance which Mr. Doyle wished to be engraved.
+
+I have strayed away, perhaps unpardonably, from George Cruikshank. To
+those whose only ludicrous prophet is "Punch" he may be comparatively
+little known. But in the great world of pictorial art, both in England
+and on the Continent, he worthily holds an illustrious place. His name
+is a household word with his countrymen; and whenever a young hopeful
+displays ever so crude an aptitude for caricaturing his schoolmaster, or
+giving with slate and pencil the facetious side of his grandmother's cap
+and spectacles, he is voted by the unanimous suffrage of fireside
+critics to be a "regular Cruikshank." In this connection I have heard
+him sometimes called "Crookshanks," which is taking, I apprehend, even a
+grosser liberty with his name than in the case of the additional
+_c_,--"Crookshanks" having seemingly a reference, and not a
+complimentary one, to George's legs.
+
+This admirable artist and good man was the son of old Isaac Cruikshank,
+in his day a famous engraver of lottery-tickets, securities in which the
+British public are now no longer by law permitted to invest, but which,
+fifty years since, made as constant a demand on the engraver's art as,
+in our time and in America, is made by the thousand and one joint-stock
+banks whose pictorial promises-to-pay fill, or should properly fill, our
+pocket-books. The abilities of Isaac were not entirely devoted to the
+lottery; and I have at home, from his hand, a very rare and curious
+etching of the execution of Louis XVI., with an explanatory diagram
+beneath of the working of the guillotine. George Cruikshank's earliest
+pencil-drawings are dated, as I have remarked, before the present
+century drew breath; but he must have begun to gain reputation as a
+caricaturist upon copper towards the end of the career of Napoleon
+I.,--the "Boney" to whom he has adhered with such constant, albeit
+jocular, animosity. He was the natural successor of James Gillray, the
+renowned delineator of "Farmer George and Little Nap," and "Pitt and
+Boney at Dinner," and hundreds of political cartoons, eagerly bought in
+their day, but now to be found only in old print-shops. Gillray was
+a man of vast, but misapplied talents. Although he etched
+caricatures for a livelihood, his drawing was splendid,--wellnigh
+Michel-Angelesque,--but always careless and _outre_. He was continually
+betting crown-bowls of punch that he would design, etch, and bite in so
+many plates within a given time, and, with the assistance of a private
+bowl, he almost always won his bets; but the punch was too much for him
+in the long run. He went mad and died miserably. George Cruikshank was
+never his pupil; nor did he ever attain the freedom and mastery of
+outline which the crazy old reprobate, who made the fortune of Mr.
+Humphries, the St. James's Street print-seller, undeniably possessed;
+but his handling was grounded upon Gillray's style; and from early and
+attentive study of his works he must have acquired that boldness of
+treatment, that rotundity of light and shade, and that general
+"fatness," or _morbidezza_, of touch, which make the works of Gillray
+and Cruikshank stand out from the coarse scrawls of Rowlandson, and the
+bald and meagre scratches of Sir Charles Bunbury. Unless I am much
+mistaken, one of the first works that brought George into notice was an
+etching published in 1815, having reference to the exile of the detested
+Corsican to St. Helena. But it was in 1821 that he first made a decided
+mark. For William Hone--a man who was in perpetual opposition to the
+powers that were--he drew on wood a remarkable series of illustrations
+to the scurrilous, but perhaps not undeserved, satires against King
+George IV., called, "The Political House that Jack Built," "The Green
+Bag," "A Slap at Slop," and the like,--all of them having direct and
+most caustic reference to the scandalous prosecution instituted against
+a woman of whom it is difficult to say whether she was bad or mad or
+both, but who was assuredly most miserable,--the unhappy Caroline of
+Brunswick. George Cruikshank's sketch of the outraged husband, the
+finest and stoutest gentleman in Europe, being lowered by means of a
+crane into a pair of white kid pantaloons suspended between the posts of
+his bed, was inimitably droll, and clearly disloyal. But disloyalty was
+fashionable in the year '21.
+
+For twenty years afterwards the history of the artist's career is but
+the history of his works, of his innumerable illustrations to books, and
+the sketchbooks, comic panoramas, and humorous cartoons he published on
+his own account. Besides, I am not writing a life of George Cruikshank,
+and all this time I have been keeping him on the threshold of the city
+of Mexico. Let it suffice to say, briefly, that in 1841 came a
+stand-point in his life, through the establishment of a monthly magazine
+entitled "George Cruikshank's Omnibus." Of this he was the sole
+illustrator. The literary editor was Laman Blanchard; and in the
+"Omnibus," William Makepeace Thackeray, then a gaunt young man, not much
+over thirty, and quite unknown to fame,--although he had published
+"Yellowplush" in "Fraser,"--wrote his quaint and touching ballad of "The
+King of Brentford's Testament." The "Omnibus" did not run long, nor was
+its running very prosperous. George Cruikshank seemed for a while
+wearied with the calling of a caricaturist; and the large etchings on
+steel, with which between '40 and '45 he illustrated Ainsworth's gory
+romances, indicated a power of grouping, a knowledge of composition, a
+familiarity with mediaeval costume, and a command over chiaroscuro, which
+astonished and delighted those who had been accustomed to regard him
+only as a funny fellow,--one of infinite whim, to be sure, but still a
+jester of jests, and nothing more. Unfortunately, or fortunately, as the
+case might be,--for the rumor ran that George intended to abandon
+caricaturing altogether, and to set up in earnest as an historical
+painter,--there came from beyond the sea, to assist in illustrating
+"Windsor Castle," a Frenchman named Tony Johannot. Who but he, in fact,
+was the famous master of the grotesque who illustrated "Don Quixote" and
+the "Diable Boiteux" of Le Sage? To his dismay, George Cruikshank found
+a competitor as eccentric as himself, as skilful a manipulator _rem
+acu_, the etching-point, and who drew incomparably better than he,
+George Cruikshank, did. He gave up the mediaeval in disgust; but he must
+have hugged himself with the thought that he had already illustrated
+Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist," and that the Frenchman, powerful as he
+was, could never hope to come near him in that terrific etching of
+"Fagin in the Condemned Cell."
+
+Again nearly twenty years have passed, and George Cruikshank still waves
+his Ithuriel's spear of well-ground steel, and still dabbles in
+aquafortis. An old, old man, he is still strong and hale. If you ask him
+a reason for his thus rivalling Fontenelle in his patriarchal greenness,
+for his being able at threescore and ten to paint pictures, (witness
+that colossal oil-painting of the "Triumph of Bacchus,") to make
+speeches, and to march at the head of his company as a captain of
+volunteers, he will give you at once the why and because. He is the most
+zealous, the most conscientious, and the most invulnerable of total
+abstainers. There were days when he took tobacco: witness that portrait
+of himself, smoking a very long meerschaum pipe in "Love's Triumph,"
+etched about 1845. There were times when he heard the chimes at
+midnight, and partook of that "richt gude willie waucht" which tipsy
+Scotchmen, when they have formed in a ring, standing upon chairs, each
+with one foot on the table, hiccoughingly declare that we are bound to
+take for the sake of "auld lang syne." But George Cruikshank has done
+with willie wauchts as with bird's-eye and Killikinick. For many years
+he has neither drunk nor smoked. He is more than a confessor, he is an
+apostle of temperance. His strange, wild, grand performances, "The
+Bottle" and "The Drunkard's Children,"--the first quite Hogarthian in
+its force and pungency,--fell like thunderbolts among the gin-shops. I
+am afraid that George Cruikshank would not be a very welcome guest at
+Felix Booth's distillery, or at Barclay and Perkins's brewery. For, it
+must be granted, the sage is a little intolerant. "No peace with the
+Fiery Moloch!" "_Ecrasons l'infame!_" These are his mottoes. He would
+deprive the poor man of the scantiest drop of beer. You begin with a sip
+of "the right stuff," he teaches us in "The Bottle," and you end by
+swigging a gallon of vitriol, jumping on your wife, and dying in Bedlam
+of _delirium tremens_. I have not heard his opinions concerning cider,
+or root-beer, or effervescing sarsaparilla, or ginger-pop; but I imagine
+that each and every one of those reputed harmless beverages would enter
+into his _Index Expurgatorius_. "Water, water, everywhere, and not a
+drop [of alcohol] to drink." 'Tis thus he would quote Coleridge. He is
+as furious against tobacco as ever was King James in his "Counterblast."
+He is of the mind of the old divine, that "he who plays with the Devil's
+rattles will soon learn to draw his sword." In his pious rage against
+intemperance, and with a view to the instruction of the rising
+generation, he has even published teetotal versions of "Cinderella" and
+"Jack the Giant-Killer,"--a proceeding which Charles Dickens indignantly
+reprobated in an article in "Household Words," called "Frauds upon the
+Fairies." Nearly the last time I met George Cruikshank in London was at
+a dinner given in honor of Washington's birthday. He had just been
+gazetted captain of his rifle company, and was good enough to ask me if
+I knew any genteel young men, of strictly temperance principles, who
+would like commissions in his corps. I replied, that, so far as
+principles were concerned, I could recommend him five hundred
+postulants; but that, as regarded practice, most of the young men of my
+acquaintance, who had manifested an ambition for a military career,
+drank hard.
+
+The which, oddly enough, leads me at last to Mexico.--We had had, on the
+whole, rather a hard morning of it. The Don, who was my host in the
+_siempre leal y insigne ciudad de Mejico_,--and a most munificent and
+hospitable Don he was,--took me out one day in the month of March last
+to visit a _hacienda_ or farm which he possessed, called, if I remember
+aright, La Escalera. I repeat, we had a hard morning of it. We rose at
+six,--and in mountainous Mexico the ground at early morn, even during
+summer, is often covered with a frosty rime. I looked out of the window,
+and when I saw the leaves of the trees glistening with something which
+was _not_ dew, and Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl mantled with eternal
+snows in the distance, I shivered. A cup of chocolate, a _tortilla_ or
+thin griddle-cake of Indian meal, and a paper cigar, just to break your
+fast, and then to horse. To horse! Do you know what it is, being a poor
+horseman, to bestride a full-blood, full-bred white Arab, worth ever so
+many hundred _pesos de oro_, and, with his flowing mane and tail, and
+small, womanly, vixenish head, beautiful to look upon, but which in
+temper, like many other beauteous creatures I have known, is an
+incarnate fiend? The Arab they gave me had been the property of a French
+general. I vehemently suspect that he had been dismissed from the
+Imperial army for biting a _chef d'escadron_ through one of his
+jackboots, or kicking in three of the ribs of a _marechal des logis_.
+That was hard enough, to begin with. Then the streets of Mexico are
+execrably paved, and the roads leading out of the city are full of what
+in Ireland are termed "curiosities," to wit, holes; and my Arab had a
+habit, whenever he met an equine brother, and especially an equine
+sister, on the way, of screaming like a possessed Pythoness, and then of
+essaying to stand on his hind legs. However, with a Mexican saddle,--out
+of which you can scarcely fall, even though you had a mind to it,--and
+Mexican stirrups, and a pair of spurs nearly as big as Catharine-wheels,
+the Arab and I managed to reach the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
+five miles out, and thence, over tolerably good roads, another five
+miles, to the Escalera. I wish they would make Mexican saddles of
+something else besides wood very thinly covered with leather. How
+devoutly did I long for the well-stuffed pig-skin of Hyde Park! We had
+an hour or two more hard work riding about the fields, when we reached
+the farm, watching the process of extracting _pulque_ from the _maguey_
+or cactus,--and a very nasty process it is,--inspecting the granaries
+belonging to the _hacienda_, and dodging between the rows of Indian
+corn, which grows here to so prodigious a height as to rival the famous
+grain which is said to grow somewhere down South, and to attain such an
+altitude that a Comanche perched upon the head of a giraffe is invisible
+between the rows. About noon we had breakfast, and that was the hardest
+work of all. _Item_, we had mutton-chops, beefsteaks, veal cutlets,
+omelets, rice, hominy, fried tomatoes, and an infinity of Mexican hashes
+and stews seasoned with _chiles_ or red-pepper pods. _Item_, we had a
+huge _pavo_, a turkey,--a wild turkey; and then, for the first time, did
+I understand that the bird we Englishmen consume only at Christmas, and
+then declare to be tough and flavorless, is to be eaten to perfection
+only in the central regions of the American continent. The flesh of this
+_pavo_ was like softened ivory, and his fat like unto clotted cream.
+There were some pretty little tiny kickshaws in the way of pine-apples,
+musk-melons, bananas, papaws, and custard-apples, and many other
+tropical fruits whose names I have forgotten. I think, too, that we had
+some stewed _iguana_ or lizard; but I remember, that, after inflicting
+exemplary punishment on a bowl of sour cream, we wound up by an attack
+on an _albacor_, a young kid roasted whole, or rather baked in a lump of
+clay with wood-ashes heaped over him, and brought to table on a
+tea-tray! Shade of Gargantua, how we ate! I blessed that fiery Arab for
+giving me such an appetite. There was a good deal of smoking going on at
+odd times during breakfast; but nobody ventured beyond a _cigarro_ of
+paper and fine-cut before we attacked the _albacor_. When coffee was
+served, each man lighted a _puro_, one of the biggest of Cabana's
+Regalias; and serious and solemn puffing then set in. It was a memorable
+breakfast. The _Administrador_, or steward of the estate, had evidently
+done his best to entertain his patron the Don with becoming
+magnificence, nor were potables as dainty as the edibles wanting to
+furnish forth the feast. There was _pulque_ for those who chose to drink
+it. I never could stomach that fermented milk of human unkindness, which
+combines the odor of a dairy that has been turned into a grogshop with
+the flavor of rotten eggs. There was wine of Burgundy and wine of
+Bordeaux; there was Champagne: these three from the Don's cellar in
+Mexico, and the last cooled, not with vulgar ice, but with snow from the
+summit of Popocatepetl,--snow that had been there from the days of
+Montezuma and Guatimozin; while as _chasse_ and _pousse_ to the
+exquisitely flavored Mexican coffee, grown, ground, and roasted on the
+_hacienda_, we had some very ripe old French Cognac, (1804, I think, was
+the brand,) and some Peruvian _pisco_, a strong white cordial, somewhat
+resembling _kirsch-wasser_, and exceeding toothsome. We talked and
+laughed till we grew sleepy, (the edibles and potables had of course
+nothing to do with our somnolence,) and then, the farm-house of the
+_hacienda_ having seemingly as many rooms as the Vatican, each man hied
+him to a cool chamber, where he found a trundle-bed, or a hammock, or a
+sofa, and gravely laid himself out for an hour's _siesta_. Then the
+Administrador woke us all up, and gleefully presented us with an
+enormous bowl of sangaree, made of the remains of the Bordeaux and the
+brandy and the pisco, and plenty of ice,--ice this time,--and sugar, and
+limes, and slices of pineapple, Madam,--the which he had concocted
+during our slumber. We drained this,--one gets so thirsty after
+breakfast in Mexico,--and then to horse again for a twelve miles' ride
+back to the city. I omitted to mention two or three little circumstances
+which gave a zest and piquancy to the entertainment. When we arrived at
+the _hacienda_, although servitors were in plenty, each cavalier
+unsaddled and fed his own steed; and when we addressed ourselves to our
+_siesta_, every one who didn't find a double-barrelled gun at the head
+of his bed took care to place a loaded revolver under his pillow. For
+accidents will happen in the best-regulated families; and in Mexico you
+can never tell at what precise moment Cacus may be upon you.
+
+Riding back to the _siempre leal y insigne ciudad_ at about three
+o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was at its hottest, was no joke.
+Baking is not precisely the word, nor boiling, nay, nor frying;
+something which is a compound of all these might express the sensation
+I, for one, felt. Fortunately, the Don had insisted on my assuming the
+orthodox Mexican riding-costume: cool linen drawers, cut Turkish
+fashion; over these, and with just sufficient buttons in their
+respective holes to swear by, the leathern _chapareros_ or overalls;
+morocco slippers, to which were strapped the Catharine-wheel spurs; no
+vest; no neckerchief; a round jacket, with quarter doubloons for
+buttons; and a low-crowned felt hat, with an enormous brim, a brim which
+might have made a Quaker envious, and have stricken mortification to the
+soul of a Chinese mandarin. This brim kept the sun out of your eyes; and
+then, by way of hatband, there was a narrow, but thick turban or
+"pudding," which prevented the rays of Sol from piercing through your
+skull, and boiling your brains into batter. The fact of the whole of
+this costume, and the accoutrements of your horse to boot, being
+embroidered with silver and embellished with golden bosses, thus
+affording a thousand tangents for Phoebus to fly off from, rather
+detracted from the coolness of your array; but one must not expect
+perfection here below. In a stove-pipe hat, a shooting-coat, and
+riding-cords, I should have suffered much more from the heat. As it was,
+I confess, that, when I reached home, in the Calle San Francisco,
+Mexico, I was exceedingly thankful. I am not used to riding twenty-four
+miles in one day. I think I had a warm bath in the interval between
+doffing the _chapareros_ and donning the pantaloons of every-day life. I
+think I went to sleep on a sofa for about an hour, and, waking up,
+called for a cocktail as a restorative. Yes, Madam, there are cocktails
+in Mexico, and our Don's body-servant made them most scientifically. I
+think also that I declined, with thanks, the Don's customary invitation
+to a drive before dinner in the Paseo. Nor barouche, nor mail-phaeton,
+nay, nor soft-cushioned brougham delighted me. I felt very lazy and
+thoroughly knocked up.
+
+The Don, however, went out for his drive, smiling at my woful plight. Is
+it only after hard riding that remorse succeeds enjoyment? I was left
+alone in his great caravansary of a mansion. I wandered from room to
+room, from corridor to corridor,--now glancing through the
+window-_jalousies_, and peeping at the _chinas_ in their _ribosos_, and
+the shovel-hatted priests in the street below creeping along on the
+shady side of the way,--now hanging over the gallery in the inner
+court-yard, listening to the horses stamping in their stables or
+rattling their tethers against the mangers, listening now to the English
+grooms as they whistled the familiar airs of home while they rubbed
+their charges down, and now to the sleepy, plaintive drone of the Indian
+servants loitering over their work in the kitchens. Then I wandered back
+again,--from drawing-room to dining-room, from bedchamber to boudoir.
+And at last I found that I had crossed a bridge over another court-yard,
+and gotten into another house, abutting on another street. The Don was
+still lord here, and I was free to ramble. More drawing-rooms, more
+bedchambers, more boudoirs, a chapel, and at last a library. Libraries
+are not plentiful in Mexico. Here, on many shelves, was a goodly store
+of standard literature in many languages. Here was Prescott's History of
+the Conquest, translated into choice Castilian, and Senor Ramirez his
+comments thereupon. Here was Don Lucas Alaman his History of Mexico,
+and works by Jesuit fathers innumerable. How ever did they get printed?
+Who ever bought, who ever read, those cloudy tomes in dog Latin? Here
+was Lord Kingsborough's vast work on Mexican Antiquities,--the work his
+Lordship is reported to have ruined himself in producing; and Macaulay,
+and Dickens, and Washington Irving, and the British Essayists, and the
+Waverley Novels, and Shakspeare, and Soyer's Cookery, and one little
+book of mine own writing: a very well-chosen library indeed.
+
+What have we here? A fat, comely, gilt-lettered volume, bound in red
+morocco, and that might, externally, have passed for my grandmother's
+edition of Dr. Doddridge's Sermons. As I live, 't is a work illustrated
+by George Cruikshank,--a work hitherto unknown to me, albeit I fancied
+myself rich, even to millionnairism, in Cruikshankiana. It is a rare
+book, a precious book, a book that is not in the British Museum, a book
+for which collectors would gladly give more doubloons than I lost at
+_monte_ last night; for here the most moral people play _monte_. It is
+_un costumbre del pais_,--a custom of the country; and, woe is me! I
+lost a pile 'twixt midnight and cock-crow.
+
+"Life in Paris; or the Rambles, Sprees, and Amours of Dick Wildfire,
+Squire Jenkins, and Captain O'Shuffleton, with the Whimsical Adventures
+of the Halibut Family, and Other Eccentric Characters in the French
+Metropolis. Embellished with Twenty-One Comic Vignettes and Twenty-One
+Colored Engravings of Scenes from Real Life, by George Cruikshank.
+London: Printed for John Cumberland. 1828." This "Life in Paris" was
+known to me by dim literary repute; but I had never seen, the actual
+volume before. Its publication was a disastrous failure. Emboldened by
+the prodigious success of "Life in London,"--the adventures in the Great
+Metropolis of Corinthian Tom and Jerry--Somebody--and Bob Logic,
+Esquire, written by Pierce Egan, once a notorious chronicler of the
+prize-ring, the compiler of a Slang Dictionary, and whose proficiency in
+_argot_ and flash-patter was honored by poetic celebration from Byron,
+Moore, and Christopher North, but whom I remember, when I was first
+climbing into public life, a decrepit, broken-down old man,--Mr. John
+Cumberland, of Ludgate Hill, (the publisher, by the way, of that series
+of the "Acting Drama" to which, over the initials of D--G, and the
+figure of a hand pointing, some of the most remarkable dramatic
+criticisms in the English language are appended,) thought, not
+unreasonably, that "Life in Paris" might attain a vogue as extensive as
+that achieved by "Life in London." I don't know who wrote the French
+"Life." Pierce Egan could scarcely have been the author; for he was then
+at the height of a vicious and ephemeral popularity; and any book,
+however trashy, with his name to it, would have been sure to sell. This
+"Life in Paris" was very probably the work of some obscure hack, who,
+when he was describing the "eccentric characters in the French
+metropolis," may not impossibly have been vegetating in the Rules of the
+King's Bench Prison. But crafty Mr. Cumberland, to insure the success of
+his enterprise, secured the services of George Cruikshank as
+illustrator. George had a brother Robert, who had caught something of
+his touch and manner, but nothing of his humorous genius, and who
+assisted him in illustrating "Life in London"; but "Life in Paris" was
+to be all his own; and he undertook a journey to France in order to
+study Gallic life and make sketches. The results were now before me in
+twenty-one small vignettes on wood, (of not much account,) and of as
+many large aquatint engravings, (George can aquatint as well as etch,)
+crowded with figures, and displaying the unmistakable and inimitable
+Cruikshankian _vim_ and point. There is Dick Wildfire being attired,
+with the aid of the _friseur_ and the tailor, and under the sneering
+inspection of Sam Sharp, his Yorkshire valet, according to the latest
+Parisian fashions. Next we have Dick and Captain O'Shuffleton (an Irish
+adventurer) "promenading in the Gardens of the Tuileries"; next, "real
+life" in the galleries of the Palais Royal; next, Dick, the Captain,
+Lady Halibut, and Lydia "enjoying a lounge on the Italian Boulevard." To
+these succeed a representation of a dinner at Very's; Dick and his
+companions "smashing the glim on a spree by lamplight"; Dick and the
+Captain "paying their respects to the Fair _Limonadiere_ at the Cafe des
+Mille Colonnes"; Dick introduced by the Captain to a _Rouge et Noir_
+table; the same and his valet "_showing fight in a Caveau_"; "Life
+behind the Curtain of the Grand Opera, or Dick and the Squire larking
+with the _Figurantes_"; Dick and the Squire "enjoying the sport at the
+Combat of Animals, or Duck Lane of Paris"; Dick and Jenkins "in a
+Theatrical Pandemonium, or the Cafe de la Paix in all its glory"; "Life
+among the Dead, or the Halibut Family in the Catacombs"; "Life among the
+Connoisseurs," or Dick and his friends "in the Grand Gallery of the
+Louvre"; "a Frolic in the _Cafe d'Enfer_, or Infernal Cellar"; "Life on
+Tiptoe, or Dick quadrilling it in the Salons de Mars in the Champs
+Elysees"; the "_Entree_ to the Italian Opera"; the "Morning of the Fete
+of St. Louis"; the "Evening of the same, with Dick, Jenkins, and the
+Halibuts witnessing the _Canaille_ in all their glory"; and, finally,
+"Life in a Billiard-Room, or Dick and the Squire _au fait_ to the
+Parisian Sharpers."
+
+I have said that these illustrations are full of point and drollery.
+They certainly lack that round, full touch so distinctive of George
+Cruikshank, and which he learned from Gillray; but such a touch can be
+given only when the shadows as well as the outlines of a plate are
+etched; and the intent of an aquatint engraving is, as the reader may or
+may not know, to produce the effect of a drawing in Indian ink.[C] Still
+there is much in these pictures to delight the Cruikshankian
+connoisseur,--infinite variety in physiognomy, wonderful minuteness and
+accuracy in detail, and here and there sparkles of the true Hogarthian
+satire.
+
+But a banquet in which the plates only are good is but a Barmecide
+feast, after all. The letter-press to this "Life in Paris" is the vilest
+rubbish imaginable,--a farrago of St. Giles's slang, Tottenham Court
+Road doggerel, ignorance, lewdness, and downright dulness. Mr. John
+Cumberland, of Ludgate Hill, took, accordingly, very little by his
+motion. The "Life" fell almost stillborn from the press; and George
+Cruikshank must have regretted that he ever had anything to do with it.
+The major part of the impression must years ago have been used to line
+trunks, inwrap pies, and singe geese; but to our generation, and to
+those which are to come, this sorry volume will be more than a
+curiosity: it will be literarily and artistically an object of great and
+constantly increasing value. By the amateur of Cruikshankiana it will be
+prized for the reason that the celebrated Latin pamphlet proving that
+Edward VI. never had the toothache was prized, although the first and
+last leaves were wanting, by Theodore Hook's Tom Hill. It will be
+treasured for its scarcity. To the student of social history it will be
+of even greater value, as the record of a state of manners, both in
+England and France, which has wholly and forever passed away. The
+letter-press portraits, drawn by the hack author, of a party of English
+tourists are but foul and stupid libels; but their aquatint portraits,
+as bitten in by George Cruikshank, are, albeit exaggerated, true in many
+respects to Nature. In fact, we _were_ used, when George IV. was king,
+to send abroad these overdressed and under-bred clowns and
+Mohawks,--whelps of the squirarchy and hobbledehoys of the
+universities,--Squire Gawkies and Squire Westerns and Tony Lumpkins,
+Mrs. Malaprops and Lydia Languishes, by the hundred and the thousand.
+"The Fudge Family in Paris" and the letters of Mrs. Ramsbotham read
+nowadays like the most outrageous of caricatures; but they failed not to
+hit many a blot in the times which gave them birth. It was really
+reckoned fashionable in 1828 to make a visit to Paris the occasion for
+the coarsest of "sprees,"--to get tipsy at Very's,--to "smash the
+glims,"--to parade those infamous _Galeries de Bois_ in the Palais Royal
+which were the common haunt of abandoned women,--to beat the gendarmes,
+and, indeed, the first Frenchman who happened to turn up, merely on the
+ground that he _was_ a Frenchman. But France and the French have changed
+since then, as well as England and the English. Are these the only
+countries in the world whose people and whose manners have turned
+_volte-face_ within less than half a century? I declare that I read from
+beginning to end, the other day, a work called "Salmagundi," and that I
+could not recognize in one single page anything to remind me of the New
+York of the present day. Thus in the engravings to "Life in Paris" are
+there barely three which any modern Parisian would admit to possess any
+direct or truthful reference to Paris life as it is. People certainly
+continue to dine at Very's; but Englishmen no longer get tipsy there, no
+longer smash the plates or kick the waiters. In lieu of dusky
+billiard-rooms, the resort of duskier sharpers, there are magnificent
+saloons, containing five, ten, and sometimes twenty billiard-tables. The
+_Galeries de Bois_ have been knocked to pieces these thirty years. The
+public gaming-houses have been shut up. There are no longer any brutal
+dog-and-bear-baitings at the Barriere du Combat. There is no longer a
+_Belle Limonadiere_ at the Cafe des Mille Colonnes. _Belles
+Limonadieres_ (if I may be permitted to use one of the most inelegant,
+but the most expressive, of American colloquialisms) are "played out."
+The Catacombs have long since been shut to strangers. The _Caveau_
+exists no more. Old reprobates scarcely remember the _Cafe d'Enfer_. The
+_Fete_ of St. Louis is as dead as Louis XVIII., as dead as the _Fetes_
+of July, as the _Fetes_ of the Republic. There is but one national
+festival now,--and that is on the 15th of August, and in honor of St.
+Napoleon. There are no more "glims" to smash; the old oil _reverberes_
+have been replaced by showy gas-lamps, and the _sergents de ville_ would
+make short work of any roisterers who attempted to take liberties with
+them. The old Paris of the Restoration and the Monarchy is dead; but the
+Thane of Cawdor--I mean George Cruikshank--lives, a prosperous
+gentleman.
+
+I brought the book away with me from Mexico, all the way down to Vera
+Cruz, and so on to Cuba, and thence to New York; and it is in Boston
+with me now. But it is not mine. The Don did not even lend it to me. I
+had only his permission to take it from the library to my room, and turn
+it over there; but when I was coming away, that same body-servant,
+thinking it was my property, carefully packed it among the clothes in my
+portmanteau; and I did not discover his mistake and my temporary gain
+until I was off. I mention this in all candor; for I am conscious that
+there never was a book-collector yet who did not, at some period or
+other of his life, at least meditate the commission of a felony. But the
+Don is coming to the States this autumn, and I must show him that I have
+not been a fraudulent bailee. I shall have taken, at all events, my fill
+of pleasure from the book; and I hope that George Cruikshank will live
+to read what I have written; and God bless his honest old heart,
+anyhow!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[C] Aquatint engraving in England is all but a dead art. It is now
+employed only in portraits of race-horses, which are never sold
+uncolored, and in plates of the fashions. The present writer had the
+honor, twelve years since, of producing the last "great" work (so far as
+size was concerned) undertaken in England. It was a monster panorama,
+some sixty feet long, representing the funeral procession of the Duke of
+Wellington. It was published by the well-known house of Ackermann, in
+the Strand; and the writer regrets to say that the house went bankrupt
+very shortly afterwards.
+
+
+
+
+LEAVES FROM AN OFFICER'S JOURNAL.
+
+
+III.
+
+    CAMP SAXTON, NEAR BEAUFORT, S. C.
+              January 3, 1864.
+
+Once, and once only, thus far, the water has frozen in my tent; and the
+next morning showed a dense white frost outside. We have still
+mocking-birds and crickets and rosebuds and occasional noonday baths in
+the river, though the butterflies have vanished, as I remember to have
+observed in Fayal, after December. I have been here nearly six weeks
+without a rainy day; one or two slight showers there have been, once
+interrupting a drill, but never dress parade. For climate, by day, we
+might be among the isles of Greece,--though it may be my constant
+familiarity with the names of her sages which suggests that impression.
+For instance, a voice just now called, near my tent,--"Cato, whar's
+Plato?"
+
+The men have somehow got the impression that it is essential to the
+validity of a marriage that they should come to me for permission, just
+as they used to go to the master; and I rather encourage these little
+confidences, because it is so entertaining to hear them. "Now, Cunnel,"
+said a faltering swain the other day, "I want for get me one good lady,"
+which I approved, especially the limitation as to number. Afterwards I
+asked one of the bridegroom's friends whether he thought it a good
+match. "Oh, yes, Cunnel," said he, in all the cordiality of friendship,
+"John's gwine for marry Venus." I trust the goddess prove herself a
+better lady than she appeared during her previous career upon this
+planet. But this naturally suggests the isles of Greece again.
+
+_January 7._--On first arriving, I found a good deal of anxiety among
+the officers as to the increase of desertions, that being the rock on
+which the "Hunter Regiment" split. Now this evil is very nearly stopped,
+and we are every day recovering the older absentees. One of the very
+best things that have happened to us was a half-accidental shooting of a
+man who had escaped from the guard-house, and was wounded by a squad
+sent in pursuit. He has since died; and this very evening, another man,
+who escaped with him, came and opened the door of my tent, after being
+five days in the woods, almost without food. His clothes were in rags,
+and he was nearly starved, poor foolish fellow, so that we can almost
+dispense with further punishment. Severe penalties would be wasted on
+these people, accustomed as they have been to the most violent passions
+on the part of white men; but a mild inexorableness tells on them, just
+as it does on any other children. It is something utterly new to them,
+and it is thus far perfectly efficacious. They have a great deal of
+pride as soldiers, and a very little of severity goes a great way, if it
+be firm and consistent. This is very encouraging.
+
+The single question which I asked of some of the
+plantation-superintendents, on the voyage, was, "Do these people
+appreciate _justice_?" If they did, it was evident that all the rest
+would be easy. When a race is degraded beyond that point, it must be
+very hard to deal with them; they must mistake all kindness for
+indulgence, all strictness for cruelty. With these freed slaves there is
+no such trouble, not a particle: let an officer be only just and firm,
+with a cordial, kindly nature, and he has no sort of difficulty. The
+plantation-superintendents and teachers have the same experience, they
+say; but we have an immense advantage in the military organization,
+which helps in two ways: it increases their self-respect, and it gives
+us an admirable machinery for discipline, thus improving both the
+fulcrum and the lever.
+
+The wounded man died in the hospital, and the general verdict seemed to
+be, "Him brought it on heself." Another soldier died of pneumonia on the
+same day, and we had the funerals in the evening. It was very
+impressive. A dense mist came up, with a moon behind it, and we had only
+the light of pine-splinters, as the procession wound along beneath the
+mighty moss-hung branches of the ancient grove. The groups around the
+grave, the dark faces, the red garments, the scattered lights, the misty
+boughs, were weird and strange. The men sang one of their own wild
+chants. Two crickets sang also, one on either side, and did not cease
+their little monotone, even when the three volleys were fired above the
+graves. Just before the coffins were lowered, an old man whispered to me
+that I must have their position altered,--the heads must be towards the
+west; so it was done,--though they are in a place so veiled in woods
+that either rising or setting sun will find it hard to spy them.
+
+We have now a good regimental hospital, admirably arranged in a deserted
+gin-house,--a fine well of our own within the camp-lines,--a
+ful-allowance of tents, all floored,--a wooden cook-house to every
+company, with sometimes a palmetto mess-house beside,--a substantial
+wooden guard-house, with a fireplace five feet "in de clar," where the
+men off duty can dry themselves and sleep comfortably in bunks
+afterwards. We have also a great circular school-tent, made of condemned
+canvas, thirty feet in diameter, and looking like some of the Indian
+lodges I saw in Kansas. We now meditate a regimental bakery. Our
+aggregate has increased from four hundred and ninety to seven hundred
+and forty, besides a hundred recruits now waiting at St. Augustine, and
+we have practised through all the main movements in battalion drill.
+
+Affairs being thus prosperous, and yesterday having been six weeks since
+my last and only visit to Beaufort, I rode in, glanced at several camps,
+and dined with the General. It seemed absolutely like reentering the
+world; and I did not fully estimate my past seclusion till it occurred
+to me, as a strange and novel phenomenon, that the soldiers at the other
+camps were white.
+
+_January 8._--This morning I went to Beaufort again, on necessary
+business, and by good luck happened upon a review and drill of the white
+regiments. The thing that struck me most was that same absence of
+uniformity, in minor points, that I noticed at first in my own officers.
+The best regiments in the Department are represented among my captains
+and lieutenants, and very well represented, too; yet it has cost much
+labor to bring them to any uniformity in their drill. There is no need
+of this, for the prescribed "Tactics" approach perfection: it is never
+left discretionary in what place an officer shall stand, or in what
+words he shall give his order. All variation would seem to imply
+negligence. Yet even West Point occasionally varies from the
+"Tactics,"--as, for instance, in requiring the line officers to face
+down the line, when each is giving the order to his company. In our
+strictest Massachusetts regiments this is not done.
+
+It needs an artist's eye to make a perfect drill-master. Yet the small
+points are not merely a matter of punctilio; for, the more perfectly a
+battalion is drilled on the parade-ground, the more quietly it can be
+handled in action. Moreover, the great need of uniformity is this: that,
+in the field, soldiers of different companies, and even of different
+regiments, are liable to be intermingled, and a diversity of orders may
+throw everything into confusion. Confusion means Bull Run.
+
+I wished my men at the review to-day; for, amidst all the rattling and
+noise of artillery and the galloping of cavalry, there was only one
+infantry movement that we have not practised, and that was done by only
+one regiment, and apparently considered quite a novelty, though it is
+easily taught,--forming square by Casey's method: forward on centre.
+
+It is really just as easy to drill a regiment as a company,--perhaps
+easier, because one has more time to think; but it is just as essential
+to be sharp and decisive, perfectly clear-headed, and to put life into
+the men. A regiment seems small when one has learned how to handle it,
+a mere handful of men; and I have no doubt that a brigade or a
+division would soon appear equally small. But to handle either
+_judiciously_,--ah, that is another affair!
+
+So of governing: it is as easy to govern a regiment as a school or a
+factory, and needs like qualities,--system, promptness, patience, tact;
+moreover, in a regiment one has the aid of the admirable machinery of
+the army, so that I see very ordinary men who succeed very tolerably.
+
+Reports of a six months' armistice are rife here, and the thought is
+deplored by all. I cannot believe it, yet sometimes one feels very
+anxious about the ultimate fate of these poor people. After the
+experience of Hungary, one sees that revolutions may go backward; and
+the habit of injustice seems so deeply impressed upon the whites, that
+it is hard to believe in the possibility of anything better. I dare not
+yet hope that the promise of the President's Proclamation will be kept.
+For myself I can be indifferent, for the experience here has been its
+own daily and hourly reward; and the adaptedness of the freed slaves for
+drill and discipline is now thoroughly demonstrated and must soon be
+universally acknowledged. But it would be terrible to see this regiment
+disbanded or defrauded.
+
+_January 12._--Many things glide by without time to narrate them. On
+Saturday we had a mail with the President's Second Message of
+Emancipation, and the next day it was read to the men. The words
+themselves did not stir them very much, because they have been often
+told that they were free, especially on New-Year's Day, and, being
+unversed in politics, they do not understand, as well as we do, the
+importance of each additional guaranty. But the chaplain spoke to them
+afterwards very effectively, as usual; and then I proposed to them to
+hold up their hands and pledge themselves to be faithful to those still
+in bondage. They entered heartily into this, and the scene was quite
+impressive, beneath the great oak-branches. I heard afterwards that only
+one man refused to raise his hand, saying bluntly that his wife was out
+of slavery with him, and he did not care to fight. The other soldiers of
+his company were very indignant, and shoved him about among them while
+marching back to their quarters, calling him "Coward." I was glad of
+their exhibition of feeling, though it is very possible that the one who
+had thus the moral courage to stand alone among his comrades might be
+more reliable, on a pinch, than some who yielded a more ready assent.
+But the whole response, on their part, was very hearty, and will be a
+good thing to which to hold them hereafter, at any time of
+discouragement or demoralization,--which was my chief reason for
+proposing it. With their simple natures, it is a great thing to tie them
+to some definite committal; they never forget a marked occurrence, and
+never seem disposed to evade a pledge.
+
+It is this capacity of honor and fidelity which gives me such entire
+faith in them as soldiers. Without it, all their religious demonstration
+would be mere sentimentality. For instance, every one who visits the
+camp is struck with their bearing as sentinels. They exhibit, in this
+capacity, not an upstart conceit, but a steady, conscientious devotion
+to duty. They would stop their idolized General Saxton, if he attempted
+to cross their beat contrary to orders: I have seen them. No feeble or
+incompetent race could do this. The officers tell many amusing instances
+of this fidelity, but I think mine the best.
+
+It was very dark the other night,--an unusual thing here,--and the rain
+fell in torrents; so I put on my India-rubber suit, and went the rounds
+of the sentinels, incognito, to test them. I can only say that I shall
+never try such an experiment again, and have cautioned my officers
+against it. 'T is a wonder I escaped with life and limb,--such a
+charging of bayonets and clicking of gun-locks. Sometimes I tempted
+them by refusing to give any countersign, but offering them a piece of
+tobacco, which they could not accept without allowing me nearer than the
+prescribed bayonet's distance. Tobacco is more than gold to them, and it
+was touching to watch the struggle in their minds; but they always did
+their duty at last, and I never could persuade them. One man, as if
+wishing to crush all his inward vacillations at one fell stroke, told me
+stoutly that he never used tobacco, though I found next day that he
+loved it as much as any one of them. It seemed wrong thus to tamper with
+their fidelity; yet it was a vital matter to me to know how far it could
+be trusted, out of my sight. It was so intensely dark that not more than
+one or two knew me, even after I had talked with the very next sentinel,
+especially as they had never seen me in India-rubber clothing, and I can
+always disguise my voice. It was easy to distinguish those who did make
+the discovery; they were always conscious and simpering when their turn
+came; while the others were stout and irreverent till I revealed myself,
+and then rather cowed and anxious, fearing to have offended.
+
+It rained harder and harder, and when I had nearly made the rounds, I
+had had enough of it, and, simply giving the countersign to the
+challenging sentinel, undertook to pass within the lines.
+
+"Halt!" exclaimed this dusky man and brother, bringing down his
+bayonet,--"de countersign not correck."
+
+Now the magic word, in this case, was "Vicksburg," in honor of a rumored
+victory. But as I knew that these hard names became quite transformed
+upon their lips, "Carthage" being familiarized into Cartridge, and
+"Concord" into Corn-cob, how could I possibly tell what shade of
+pronunciation my friend might prefer for this particular proper name?
+
+"Vicksburg," I repeated, blandly, but authoritatively, endeavoring, as
+zealously as one of Christy's Minstrels, to assimilate my speech to any
+supposed predilection of the Ethiop vocal organs.
+
+"Halt dar! Countersign not correck," was the only answer.
+
+The bayonet still maintained a position which, in a military point of
+view, was impressive.
+
+I tried persuasion, orthography, threats, tobacco, all in vain. I could
+not pass in. Of course my pride was up; for was I to defer to an
+untutored African on a point of pronunciation? Classic shades of
+Harvard, forbid! Affecting scornful indifference, I tried to edge away,
+proposing to myself to enter the camp at some other point, where my
+elocution would be better appreciated. Not a step could I stir.
+
+"Halt!" shouted my gentleman again, still holding me at his bayonet's
+point, and I wincing and halting.
+
+I explained to him the extreme absurdity of this proceeding, called his
+attention to the state of the weather, which, indeed, spoke for itself
+so loudly that we could hardly hear each other speak, and requested
+permission to withdraw. The bayonet, with mute eloquence, refused the
+application.
+
+There flashed into my mind, with more enjoyment in the retrospect than I
+had experienced at the time, an adventure on a lecturing tour in other
+years, when I had spent an hour in trying to scramble into a country
+tavern, after bed-time, on the coldest night of winter. On that occasion
+I ultimately found myself stuck midway in the window, with my head in a
+temperature of 80 deg., and my heels in a temperature of -10 deg., with a
+heavy window-sash pinioning the small of my back. However, I had got safe
+out of that dilemma, and it was time to put an end to this one.
+
+"Call the corporal of the guard," said I, at last, with dignity,
+unwilling either to make a night of it or to yield my incognito.
+
+"Corporal ob de guard!" he shouted, lustily,--"Post Number Two!" while I
+could hear another sentinel chuckling with laughter. This last was a
+special guard, placed over a tent, with a prisoner in charge. Presently
+he broke silence.
+
+"Who am dat?" he asked, in a stage whisper. "Am he a buckra [white
+man]?"
+
+"Dunno whether he been a buckra or not," responded, doggedly, my
+Cerberus in uniform; "but I's bound to keep him here till de corporal ob
+de guard come."
+
+Yet, when that dignitary arrived, and I revealed myself, poor Number Two
+appeared utterly transfixed with terror, and seemed to look for nothing
+less than immediate execution. Of course I praised his fidelity, and the
+next day complimented him before the guard, and mentioned him to his
+captain; and the whole affair was very good for them all. Hereafter, if
+Satan himself should approach them in darkness and storm, they will take
+him for "de Cunnel," and treat him with special severity.
+
+_January 13._--In many ways the childish nature of this people shows
+itself. I have just had to make a change of officers in a company which
+has constantly complained, and with good reason, of neglect and improper
+treatment. Two excellent officers have been assigned to them; and yet
+they sent a deputation to me in the evening, in a state of utter
+wretchedness. "We's bery grieved dis evening, Cunnel; 'pears like we
+couldn't bear it, to lose de Cap'n and de Lieutenant, all two togeder."
+Argument was useless; and I could only fall back on the general theory,
+that I knew what was best for them, which had much more effect; and I
+also could cite the instance of another company, which had been much
+improved by a new captain, as they readily admitted. So with the promise
+that the new officers should not be "savage to we," which was the one
+thing they deprecated, I assuaged their woes. Twenty-four hours have
+passed, and I hear them singing most merrily all down that
+company-street.
+
+I often notice how their griefs may be dispelled, like those of
+children, merely by permission to utter them: if they can tell their
+sorrows, they go away happy, even without asking to have anything done
+about them. I observe also a peculiar dislike of all _intermediate_
+control: they always wish to pass by the company officer, and deal with
+me personally for everything. General Saxton notices the same thing with
+the people on the plantations as regards himself. I suppose this
+proceeds partly from the old habit of appealing to the master against
+the overseer. Kind words would cost the master nothing, and he could
+easily put off any non-fulfilment upon the overseer. Moreover, the
+negroes have acquired such constitutional distrust of white people, that
+it is perhaps as much as they can do to trust more than one person at a
+time. Meanwhile this constant personal intercourse is out of the
+question in a well-ordered regiment; and the remedy for it is to
+introduce by degrees more and more of system, so that their immediate
+officers will become all-sufficient for the daily routine.
+
+It is perfectly true (as I find everybody takes for granted) that the
+first essential for an officer of colored troops is to gain their
+confidence. But it is equally true, though many persons do not
+appreciate it, that the admirable methods and proprieties of the regular
+army are equally available for all troops, and that the sublimest
+philanthropist, if he does not appreciate this, is unfit to command
+them.
+
+Another childlike attribute in these men, which is less agreeable, is a
+sort of blunt insensibility to giving physical pain. If they are cruel
+to animals, for instance, it always reminds me of children pulling off
+flies' legs, in a sort of pitiless, untaught, experimental way. Yet I
+should not fear any wanton outrage from them. After all their wrongs,
+they are not really revengeful; and I would far rather enter a captured
+city with them than with white troops, for they would be more
+subordinate. But for mere physical suffering they would have no fine
+sympathies. The cruel things they have seen and undergone have helped to
+blunt them; and if I ordered them to put to death a dozen prisoners, I
+think they would do it without remonstrance.
+
+Yet their religious spirit grows more beautiful to me in living longer
+with them: it is certainly far more so than at first, when it seemed
+rather a matter of phrase and habit. It influences them both on the
+negative and the positive side. That is, it cultivates the feminine
+virtues first,--makes them patient, meek, resigned. This is very evident
+in the hospital; there is nothing of the restless, defiant habit of
+white invalids. Perhaps, if they had more of this, they would resist
+disease better. Imbued from childhood with the habit of submission,
+drinking in through every pore that other-world trust which is the one
+spirit of their songs, they can endure everything. This I expected; but
+I am relieved to find that their religion strengthens them on the
+positive side also,--gives zeal, energy, daring. They could easily be
+made fanatics, if I chose; but I do not choose. Their whole mood is
+essentially Mohammedan, perhaps, in its strength and its weakness; and I
+feel the same degree of sympathy that I should, if I had a Turkish
+command,--that is, a sort of sympathetic admiration, not tending towards
+agreement, but towards cooperation. Their philosophizing is often the
+highest form of mysticism; and our dear surgeon declares that they are
+all natural transcendentalists. The white camps seem rough and secular,
+after this; and I hear our men talk about "a religious army," "a Gospel
+army," in their prayer-meetings. They are certainly evangelizing the
+chaplain, who was rather a heretic at the beginning; at least, this is
+his own admission. We have recruits on their way from St. Augustine,
+where the negroes are chiefly Roman Catholics; and it will be
+interesting to see how their type of character combines with that elder
+creed.
+
+It is time for rest; and I have just looked out into the night, where
+the eternal stars shut down, in concave protection, over the yet
+glimmering camp, and Orion hangs above my tent-door, giving to me the
+sense of strength and assurance which these simple children obtain from
+their Moses and the Prophets. Yet external Nature does its share in
+their training; witness that most poetic of all their songs, which
+always reminds me of the "Lyke-Wake Dirge" in the "Scottish Border
+Minstrelsy":--
+
+    "I know moon-rise, I know star-rise;
+      Lay dis body down.
+    I walk in de moonlight, I walk in de starlight,
+      To lay dis body down.
+    I'll walk in de graveyard, I'll walk through the graveyard,
+      To lay dis body down.
+    I'll lie in de grave and stretch out my arms;
+      Lay dis body down.
+    I go to de Judgment in de evening ob de day
+      When I lay dis body down;
+    And my soul and your soul will meet in de day
+      When I lay dis body down."
+
+_January 14._--In speaking of the military qualities of the blacks, I
+should add, that the only point where I am disappointed is one I have
+never seen raised by the most incredulous newspaper critics,--namely
+their physical condition. They often look magnificently to my
+gymnasium-trained eye; and I always like to observe them when
+bathing,--such splendid muscular development, set off by that smooth
+coating of adipose tissue which makes them, like the South-Sea
+Islanders, appear even more muscular than they are. Their skins are also
+of finer grain than those of whites, the surgeons say, and certainly are
+smoother and far more free from hair. Their weakness is pulmonary;
+pneumonia and pleurisy are their besetting ailments; they are easily
+made ill,--and easily cured, if promptly treated: childish organization
+again. Guard-duty injures them more than whites, apparently; and
+double-quick movements, in choking dust, set them coughing badly. But
+then it is to be remembered that this is their sickly season, from
+January to March, and that their healthy season will come in summer,
+when the whites break down. Still my conviction of the physical
+superiority of more highly civilized races is strengthened on the whole,
+not weakened, by observing them. As to availability for military drill
+and duty in other respects, the only question I ever hear debated among
+the officers is, whether they are equal or superior to whites. I have
+never heard it suggested that they were inferior, although I expected
+frequently to hear such complaints from hasty or unsuccessful officers.
+
+Of one thing I am sure, that their best qualities will be wasted by
+merely keeping them for garrison duty. They seem peculiarly fitted for
+offensive operations, and especially for partisan warfare; they have so
+much dash and such abundant resources, combined with such an Indian-like
+knowledge of the country and its ways. These traits have been often
+illustrated in expeditions sent after deserters. For instance, I
+despatched one of my best lieutenants and my best sergeant with a squad
+of men to search a certain plantation, where there were two separate
+negro villages. They went by night, and the force was divided. The
+lieutenant took one set of huts, the sergeant the other. Before the
+lieutenant had reached his first house, every man in the village was in
+the woods, innocent and guilty alike. But the sergeant's mode of
+operation was thus described by a corporal from a white regiment who
+happened to be in one of the negro houses. He said that not a sound was
+heard until suddenly a red leg appeared in the open doorway, and a voice
+outside said, "Rally." Going to the door, he observed a similar pair of
+red legs before every hut, and not a person was allowed to go out, until
+the quarters had been thoroughly searched, and the three deserters
+found. This was managed by Sergeant Prince Rivers, our color-sergeant,
+who is provost-sergeant also, and has entire charge of the prisoners and
+of the daily policing of the camp. He is a man of distinguished
+appearance, and in old times was the crack coachman of Beaufort, in
+which capacity he once drove Beauregard from this plantation to
+Charleston, I believe. They tell me that he was once allowed to present
+a petition to the Governor of South Carolina in behalf of slaves, for
+the redress of certain grievances; and that a placard, offering two
+thousand dollars for his recapture, is still to be seen by the wayside
+between here and Charleston. He was a sergeant in the old "Hunter
+Regiment," and was taken by General Hunter to New York last spring,
+where the _chevrons_ on his arm brought a mob upon him in Broadway, whom
+he kept off till the police interfered. There is not a white officer in
+this regiment who has more administrative ability, or more absolute
+authority over the men; they do not love him, but his mere presence has
+controlling power over them. He writes well enough to prepare for me a
+daily report of his duties in the camp: if his education reached a
+higher point, I see no reason why he should not command the Army of the
+Potomac. He is jet-black, or rather, I should say, _wine-black_; his
+complexion, like that of others of my darkest men, having a sort of
+rich, clear depth, without a trace of sootiness, and to my eye very
+handsome. His features are tolerably regular, and full of command, and
+his figure superior to that of any of our white officers,--being six
+feet high, perfectly proportioned, and of apparently inexhaustible
+strength and activity. His gait is like a panther's; I never saw such a
+tread. No anti-slavery novel has described a man of such marked ability.
+He makes Toussaint perfectly intelligible; and if there should ever be a
+black monarchy in South Carolina, he will be its king.
+
+_January 15._--This morning is like May. Yesterday I saw bluebirds and a
+butterfly; so this winter of a fortnight is over. I fancy a trifle less
+coughing in the camp. We hear of other stations in the Department where
+the mortality, chiefly from yellow fever, has been frightful. Dr. ----
+is rubbing his hands professionally over the fearful tales of the
+surgeon of a New York regiment, just from Key West, who has had two
+hundred cases of the fever. "I suppose he is a skilful, highly educated
+man," said I; "Yes," he responded with enthusiasm. "Why, he had seventy
+deaths!"--as if that proved his superiority past question.
+
+                                   _January 19._
+
+    "And first, sitting proud as a king on his throne,
+    At the head of them all rode Sir Richard Tyrone."
+
+But I fancy that Sir Richard felt not much better satisfied with his
+following than I to-day. J. R. L. said once that nothing was quite so
+good as turtle-soup, except mock-turtle; and I have heard officers
+declare that nothing was so stirring as real war, except some exciting
+parade. To-day, for the first time, I marched the whole regiment through
+Beaufort and back,--the first appearance of such a novelty on any stage.
+They did march splendidly: this all admit. M----'s prediction was
+fulfilled:
+
+"Will not ---- be in bliss? A thousand men, every one black as a coal!"
+I confess it. To look back on twenty broad double-ranks of men, (for
+they marched by platoons,)--every polished musket having a black face
+beside it, and every face set steadily to the front,--a regiment of
+freed slaves marching on into the future,--it was something to remember;
+and when they returned through the same streets, marching by the flank,
+with guns at a "support," and each man covering his file-leader
+handsomely, the effect on the eye was almost as fine. The band of the
+Eighth Maine joined us at the entrance of the town, and escorted us in.
+Sergeant Rivers said ecstatically afterwards, in describing the
+affair,--"And when dat band wheel in before us, and march on,--my God! I
+quit dis world altogeder." I wonder if he pictured to himself the many
+dusky regiments, now unformed, which I seemed to see marching up behind
+us, gathering shape out of the dim air.
+
+I had cautioned the men, before leaving camp, not to be staring about
+them as they marched, but to look straight to the front, every man; and
+they did it with their accustomed fidelity, aided by the sort of
+spontaneous eye-for-effect which is in all their melodramatic natures.
+One of them was heard to say exultingly afterwards,--"We didn't look to
+de right nor to de leff. I didn't see notin' in Beaufort. Eb'ry step was
+worth a half-a-dollar." And they all marched as if it were so. They knew
+well that they were marching through throngs of officers and soldiers
+who had drilled as many months as we had drilled weeks, and whose eyes
+would readily spy out every defect. And I must say, that, on the whole,
+with a few trivial exceptions, those spectators behaved in a manly and
+courteous manner, and I do not care to write down all the handsome
+things that were said. Whether said or not, they were deserved; and
+there is no danger that our men will not take sufficient satisfaction in
+their good appearance. I was especially amused at one of our recruits,
+who did not march in the ranks, and who said, after watching the
+astonishment of some white soldiers,--"De buckra sojers look like a man
+who been-a-steal a sheep,"--that is, I suppose, sheepish.
+
+After passing and repassing through the town, we marched to the
+parade-ground and went through an hour's drill, forming squares and
+reducing them, and doing other things which look hard on paper and are
+perfectly easy in fact; and we were to have been reviewed by General
+Saxton, but he had been unexpectedly called to Ladies Island, and did
+not see us at all, which was the only thing to mar the men's enjoyment.
+Then we marched back to camp, (three miles,) the men singing the "John
+Brown Song," and all manner of things,--as happy creatures as one can
+well conceive.
+
+It is worth mentioning, before I close, that we have just received an
+article about "Negro Troops," from the London "Spectator," which is so
+admirably true to our experience that it seems as if written by one of
+us. I am confident that there never has been, in any American newspaper,
+a treatment of the subject so discriminating and so wise.
+
+_January 21._--To-day brought a visit from Major-General Hunter and his
+staff, by General Saxton's invitation,--the former having just arrived
+in the Department. I expected them at dress parade, but they came during
+battalion drill, rather to my dismay, and we were caught in our old
+clothes. It was our first review, and I dare say we did tolerably; but
+of course it seemed to me that the men never appeared so ill
+before,--just as one always thinks a party at one's own house a failure,
+even if the guests seem to enjoy it, because one is so keenly sensitive
+to every little thing that goes wrong. After review and drill, General
+Hunter made the men a little speech, at my request, and told them that
+he wished there were fifty thousand of them. General Saxton spoke to
+them afterwards, and said that fifty thousand muskets were on their way
+for colored troops. The men cheered both the Generals lustily; and they
+were complimentary afterwards, though I knew that the regiment could not
+have appeared nearly so well as on its visit to Beaufort. I suppose I
+felt like some anxious mamma whose children have accidentally appeared
+at dancing-school in their old clothes.
+
+General Hunter promises us all we want,--pay when the funds arrive,
+Springfield rifled muskets, and blue trousers. Moreover, he has
+graciously consented that we should go on an expedition along the coast,
+to pick up cotton, lumber, and, above all, recruits. I declined an offer
+like this just after my arrival, because the regiment was not drilled or
+disciplined, not even the officers; but it is all we wish for now.
+
+    "What care I how black I be?
+    Forty pounds will marry me,"
+
+quoth Mother Goose. Forty _rounds_ will marry us to the American Army,
+past divorcing, if we can only use them well. Our success or failure may
+make or mar the prospects of colored troops. But it is well to remember
+in advance that military success is really less satisfactory than any
+other, because it may depend on a moment's turn of events, and that may
+be determined by some trivial thing, neither to be anticipated nor
+controlled. Napoleon ought to have won at Waterloo by all reasonable
+calculations; but who cares? All that one can expect is, to do one's
+best, and to take with equanimity the fortune of war.[D]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[D] In coming to the record of more active service, the Journal form
+must be abandoned. The next chapter will give some account of an
+expedition up the St. Mary's River.
+
+
+
+
+THE AMERICAN METROPOLIS.
+
+
+A little more than two centuries ago the site of New York City was
+bought by its first white owners for twenty-four dollars. The following
+tabular statement exhibits the steps of its progressive settlement since
+then.
+
+Year.      Population.       Year.      Population.
+1656          1,000          1820         123,706
+1673          2,500          1825         166,089
+1696          4,302          1830         202,589
+1731          8,628          1835         270,068
+1756         10,381          1840         312,852
+1773         21,876          1845         371,223
+1786         23,614          1850         515,394
+1790         33,131          1855         629,810
+1800         60,489          1860         814,254
+1810         96,373          1864       1,000,000+
+
+Taking the first census as a point of departure, the population of New
+York doubled itself in about eleven years. During the first century it
+increased a little more than tenfold. It was doubled again in less than
+twenty years; the next thirty years quadrupled it; and another period of
+twenty years doubled it once more. Its next duplication consumed the
+shorter term of eighteen years. It more than doubled again during the
+fifteen years preceding the last census; and the four years since that
+census have witnessed an increase of nearly twenty-three per cent. This
+final estimate is of course liable to correction by next year's census,
+but its error will be found on the side of under-statement, rather than
+of exaggeration.
+
+The property on the north-west corner of Broadway and Chamber Street,
+now occupied in part by one of Delmonico's restaurants, was purchased
+by a New York citizen, but lately deceased, for the sum of $1,000: its
+present value is $125,000. A single Broadway lot, surveyed out of an
+estate which cost the late John Jay $500 per acre, was recently sold at
+auction for $80,000, and the purchaser has refused a rent of $16,000 per
+annum, or twenty per cent on his purchase-money, for the store which he
+has erected on the property. In 1826, the estimated total value of real
+estate in the city of New York was $64,804,050. In 1863, it had reached
+a total of $402,196,652, thus increasing more than sixfold within the
+lifetime of an ordinary business-generation. In 1826, the personal
+estate of New York City, so far as could be arrived at for official
+purposes, amounted to $42,434,981. In 1863, the estimate of this class
+of property-values was $192,000,161. It had thus more than quadrupled in
+a generation.
+
+But statistics are most eloquent through illustration. Let us look
+discursively about the city of New York at various periods of her career
+since the opening of the present century. I shall assume that a map of
+the city is everywhere attainable, and that the reader has a general
+acquaintance with the physical and political geography of the United
+States.
+
+Not far from the beginning of the century, Wall Street, as its name
+implies, was the northern boundary of the city of New York. The present
+north boundary of civilized settlement is almost identical with the
+statutory limit of the city, or that of the island itself. There is no
+perceptible break, though there are gradations of compactness, in the
+settled district between the foot of the island and Central Park. Beyond
+the Park, Haarlem Lane, Manhattanville, and Carmansville take up the
+thread of civic population, and carry it, among metropolitan houses and
+lamp-posts, quite to the butment of High Bridge. It has been seriously
+proposed to legislate for the annexation of a portion of Westchester to
+the bills of mortality, and this measure cannot fail to be demanded by
+the next generation; but for the present we will consider High Bridge as
+the north end of the city. Let us compare the boundary remembered by our
+veterans with that to which metropolitan settlement has been pushed by
+them and their children. In the lifetime of our oldest business-men, the
+advance wave of civic refinement, convenience, luxury, and population
+has travelled a distance greater than that from the Westminster Palaces
+to the hulks at the Isle of Dogs. When we consider that the population
+of the American Metropolis lives better, on the average, than that of
+any earthly capital, and that ninety-nine hundredths of all our
+suffering poor are the overflow of Great Britain's pauperism running
+into our grand channels a little faster than we can direct its current
+to the best advantage,--under these circumstances the advance made by
+New York in less than a century toward the position of the world's
+metropolis is a more important one than has been gained by London
+between the time of Julius Caesar and the present century.
+
+I know an excellent business-man who was born in his father's
+aristocratic residence in Beaver Street. Holborn is as aristocratic now.
+Another friend of mine still living, the freshest of sexagenarians, told
+me lately of a walk he took in boyhood which so much fatigued him, that,
+when he was a long way out in the fields, he sat down to rest on the
+steps of a suburban hospital. I guessed Bellevue; but he replied that it
+was the New York Hospital, standing in what we now call the lower part
+of Broadway, just opposite North Pearl Street. No part of the Strand or
+of the Boulevards is less rural than the vast settled district about the
+New York Hospital at this day. It stands at least four times farther
+within than it then did beyond the circumference of New York
+civilization. I remember another illustration of its relative situation
+early in the century,--a story of good old Doctor Stone, who excused
+himself from his position of manager by saying, that, as the infirmities
+of age grew on him, he found the New York Hospital so far out in the
+country that he should be obliged, if he stayed, to keep "a horse and
+_cheer_."
+
+Many New-Yorkers, recognized among our young and active men, can
+recollect when Houston Street was called North Street because it was
+practically the northern boundary of the settled district. Middle-aged
+men remember the swamp of Lispenard's Meadow, which is now the dryest
+part of Canal Street; some recall how they crossed other parts of the
+swamp on boards, and how tide-water practically made a separate island
+of what is now the northern and much the larger portion of the city.
+Young men recollect making Saturday-afternoon appointments with their
+schoolfellows (there was no time on any other day) to go "clear out into
+the country," bathe in the rural cove at the foot of East Thirteenth
+Street, and, refreshed by their baths, proceed to bird's-nesting on the
+wilderness of the Stuyvesant Farm, where is now situate Stuyvesant Park,
+one of the loveliest and most elegant pleasure-grounds open to the New
+York public, surrounded by one of the best-settled portions of the city,
+in every sense of the word. Still younger men remember Fourteenth Street
+as the utmost northern limit of the wave of civilization; and
+comparative boys have seen Franconi's Hippodrome pitched in a vacant lot
+of the suburbs, where now the Fifth Avenue Hotel stands, at the entrance
+to a double mile of palaces, in the northern, southern, and western
+directions.
+
+We may safely affirm, that, since the organization of the science of
+statistics, no city in the world has ever multiplied its population,
+wealth, and internal resources of livelihood with a rapidity approaching
+that shown by New York. London has of late years made great progress
+quantitively, but her means of accommodating a healthy and happy
+population have kept no adequate pace with the increase of numbers.
+During the year 1862, 75,000 immigrants landed at the port of New York;
+in 1863, 150,000 more; and thus far in 1864 (we write in November)
+200,000 have debarked here. Of these 425,000 immigrants, 40 per cent
+have stayed in the city. Of the 170,000 thus staying, 90 per cent, or
+153,000, are British subjects; and of these, it is not understating to
+say that five eighths are dependent for their livelihood on physical
+labor of the most elementary kind. By comparing these estimates with the
+tax-list, it will appear that we have pushed our own inherent vitality
+to an extent of forty millions increase in our taxable property, and
+contributed to the support of the most gigantic war in human annals,
+during the period that we received into our grand civic digestion a city
+of British subjects as large as Bristol, and incorporated them into our
+own body politic with more comfort both to mass and particles than
+either had enjoyed at home.
+
+There are still some people who regard the settlement of countries and
+the selection of great capitals as a matter of pure romantic accident.
+Philosophers know, that, if, at the opening of the Adamic period, any
+man had existed with a perfect knowledge of the world's physical
+geography and the laws of national development, he would have been able
+to foretell _a priori_ the situations of all the greatest capitals. It
+is a law as fixed as that defining the course of matter in the line of
+least resistance, that population flows to the level where the best
+livelihood is most easily obtained. The brute motives of food and
+raiment must govern in their selection of residence nine tenths of the
+human race. A few noble enthusiasts, like those of Plymouth Colony, may
+leave immortal footprints on a rugged coast, exchanging old civilization
+for a new battle with savagery, and abandoning comfort with conformity
+for a good conscience with privation. Still, had there been back of
+Plymouth none of the timber, the quarries, the running streams, the
+natural avenues of inland communication, and to some extent the
+agricultural capabilities which make good subsistence possible, there
+would have been no Boston, no Lynn, no Lowell, no New Bedford, no
+healthy or wealthy civilization of any kind, until the Pilgrim
+civilization had changed its base. It may be generally laid down that
+the men who leave home for truth's sake exile themselves as much for the
+privilege to mere opportunity of living truly.
+
+New York was not even in the first place settled by enthusiasts. Trade
+with the savages, nice little farms at Haarlem, a seat among the
+burgomasters, the feast of St. Nicholas, pipes and Schiedam, a vessel
+now and then in the year bringing over letters of affection ripened by a
+six months' voyage, some little ventures, and two or three new
+colonists,--these were the joys which allured the earliest New-Yorkers
+to the island now swarming from end to end with almost national
+vitalities. Not until 1836, when the Italian Opera was first domiciled
+in New York, on the corner of Leonard and Church Streets, could the
+second era of metropolitan life be said fully to have set in there,--the
+era when people flow toward a city for the culture as well as the
+livelihood which it offers them. About the same time American studios
+began to be thronged with American picture-buyers; and there is no need
+of referring to the rapid advance of American literature, and the wide
+popularization of luxuries, dating from that period.
+
+Long prior to that, New York was growing with giant vitality. She
+possesses, as every great city must possess preeminent advantages for
+the support of a vast population and the employment of immense
+industries. If she could not feed a million of men better than Norfolk,
+Norfolk would be New York and New York Norfolk. If the products of the
+world were not more economically exchanged across her counter than over
+that of Baltimore, Baltimore would need to set about building shelter
+for half a million more heads than sleep there to-night. Perth Amboy was
+at one time a prominent rival of New York in the struggle for the
+position of the American Metropolis, and is not New York only because
+Nature said No!
+
+Let us invite the map to help us in our investigation of New York's
+claim to the metropolitan rank. There are three chief requisites for the
+chief city of every nation. It must be the city in easiest communication
+with other countries,--on the sea-coast, if there be a good harbor
+there, or on some stream debouching into the best harbor that there is.
+It must be the city in easiest communication with the interior, either
+by navigable streams, or valleys and mountain-passes, and thus the most
+convenient rendezvous for the largest number of national interests,--the
+place where Capital and Brains, Import and Export, Buyer and Seller,
+Doers and Things to be Done, shall most naturally make their
+appointments to meet for exchange. Last, (and least, too,--for even
+cautious England will people jungles for money's sake,) the metropolis
+must enjoy at least a moderate sanitary reputation; otherwise men who
+love Fortune well enough to die for her will not be reinforced by
+another large class who care to die on no account whatever.
+
+New York answers all these requisites better than any metropolis in the
+world. She has a harbor capable of accommodating all the fleets of
+Christendom, both commercial and belligerent. That harbor has a western
+ramification, extending from the Battery to the mouth of Spuyten Duyvil
+Creek,--a distance of fifteen miles; an eastern ramification, reaching
+from the Battery to the mouth of Haarlem River,--seven miles; and a main
+trunk, interrupted by three small islands, extending from the Battery to
+the Narrows,--a distance of about eight miles more. It is rather
+under-estimating the capacity of the East River branch to average its
+available width as low as eighty rods; a mile and a half will be a
+proportionately moderate estimate for the Hudson River branch; the
+greatest available width of the Upper Bay is about four miles, in a line
+from the Long Island to the Staten Island side. If we add to these
+combined areas the closely adjacent waters in hourly communication with
+New York by her tugs and lighters, her harbor will further include a
+portion of the channel running west of Staten Island, and of the rivers
+emptying into Newark Bay, with the whole magnificent and sheltered
+roadstead of the Lower Bay, the mouth of Shrewsbury Inlet, and a portion
+of Raritan Bay.
+
+As this paper must deal to a sufficient extent with statistics in
+matters of practical necessity, we will at this stage leave the reader
+to complete for himself the calculation of such a harbor's capacity. In
+this respect, in that of shelter, of contour of water-front, of
+accessibility from the high seas, New York Harbor has no rival on the
+continent. The Bay of San Francisco more nearly equals it than any
+other; but that is on the Pacific side, for the present much farther
+from the axis of national civilization, and backed by a much narrower
+agricultural tract. We will not refer to disadvantages of commercial
+exchange, since San Francisco may at any time be relieved of these by a
+Pacific Railroad. On our Atlantic side there is certainly no harbor
+which will compare for area and convenience with that of New York.
+
+It is not only the best harbor on our coast, but that in easiest
+communication with other parts of the country. To the other portions of
+the coast it is as nearly central as it could be without losing fatally
+in other respects. Delaware and Chesapeake Bays afford fine roadsteads;
+but the low sand barrens and wet alluvial flats which form their shores
+compelled Philadelphia and Baltimore to retire their population such a
+distance up the chief communicating rivers as to deprive them of many
+important advantages proper to a seaport. Under the influence of free
+ideas may be expected a wonderful development of the advantages of
+Chesapeake Bay. Good husbandry and unshackled enterprise throughout
+Maryland and Virginia will astonish Baltimore by an increase of her
+population and commerce beyond the brightest speculative dreams. The
+full resources of Delaware Bay are far from being developed. Yet
+Philadelphia and Baltimore are forever precluded from competing with New
+York, both by their greater distance from open water and the comparative
+inferiority of the interior tracts with which they have ready
+communication. Below Chesapeake Bay the coast system of great
+river-estuaries gives way to the Sea-Island system, in which the
+main-land is flanked by a series of bars or sandbanks, separated from it
+by tortuous and difficult lagoons. The rivers which empty into this
+network of channels are comparatively difficult of entrance, and but
+imperfectly navigable. The isolation of the Sea Islands is enough to
+make them still more inconvenient situations than any on the main-land
+for the foundation of a metropolis. Before we have gone far down this
+system, we have passed the centre where, on mathematical principles, a
+metropolis should stand.
+
+Considered with regard to the tributary interior, New York occupies a
+position no less central than with respect to the coast. It is
+impossible to study a map of our country without momently increasing
+surprise at the multiplicity of natural avenues which converge in New
+York from the richest producing districts of the world. The entire
+result of the country's labor seems to seek New York by inevitable
+channels. Products run down to the managing, disbursing, and balancing
+hand of New York as naturally as the thoughts of a man run down to the
+hand which must embody them. From the north it takes tribute through the
+Hudson River. This magnificent water-course, permitting the ascent of
+the largest ships for a hundred miles, and of river-craft for fifty
+miles farther, has upon its eastern side a country averaging about
+thirty miles in width to the Taconic range, consisting chiefly of the
+richest grazing, grain, and orchard land in the Atlantic States. Above
+the Highlands, the west side of the river becomes a fertile, though
+narrower and more broken agricultural tract; and at the head of
+navigation, the Hudson opens into another valley of exhaustless
+fertility,--that of the Mohawk,--coming eastward from the centre of the
+State.
+
+Thus, independent of her system of railroads, New York City possesses
+uninterrupted natural connection with the interior of the State, whence
+a new system of communications is given off by the Lakes to the extreme
+west and north of our whole territory.
+
+To the northeast, New York extends her relations by the sheltered avenue
+of Long Island Sound,--alluring through a strait of comparatively smooth
+water not only the agricultural products which seek export along a
+double water-front of two hundred miles, but the larger results of that
+colossal manufacturing system on which is based the prosperity of New
+England. To a great part of this class of values Long Island Sound
+stands like a weir emptying into the net of New York.
+
+The maritime position of New York makes her as easy an entrepot for
+Southern as for foreign products; and in any case her share in our
+Northern national commerce gives her the control of all trade which must
+pay the North a balance of exchange.
+
+The Hudson, the Sound, and the line of Southern coasting traffic are the
+three main radii of supply which meet in New York. Another important
+district paying its chief subsidy to New York is drained by the Delaware
+River, and this great avenue is reached with ease from the metropolis by
+a direct natural route across the Jersey level. Though unavailable to
+New York as a navigable conduit, it still offers a means of penetrating
+to the southern counties of the State, and a passage to the Far West, of
+which New York capital has been prompt to avail itself by the Erie
+Railroad, with its Atlantic and Great Western continuation to St. Louis.
+This uniform broad-gauge of twelve hundred miles, which has just been
+opened by the energy and talents of Messrs. McHenry and Kennard,
+apparently decides the main channel by which the West is to discharge
+her riches into New York.--But we are trenching on the subject the
+capital's artificial advantages.
+
+Finally, New York has been prevented only by disgraceful civic
+mismanagement from becoming long ago the healthiest city in the world.
+In spite of jobbed contracts for street-cleaning, and various corrupt
+tamperings with the city water-front, by which the currents are
+obstructed, and injury is done the sewage as well as the channels of the
+harbor, New York is now undoubtedly a healthier city than any other
+approaching it in size. Its natural sanitary advantages must be evident.
+The crying need of a great city is good drainage. To effect this for New
+York, the civil engineer has no struggle with his material. He need only
+avail himself dexterously of the original contour of his ground.
+Manhattan Island is a low outcrop of gneiss and mica-schist, sloping
+from an irregular, but practically continuous crest, to the Hudson and
+East Rivers, with a nearly uniform southerly incline from its
+precipitous north face on the Haarlem and Spuyten Duyvil to high-water
+mark at the foot of Whitehall Street. Its natural system of drainage
+might be roughly illustrated by radii drawn to the circumference of a
+very eccentric ellipse from its northern focus. Wherever the waste of
+the entire island may descend, it is met by a seaward tide twice in the
+twenty-four hours. On the East River side the velocity of this tide in
+the narrow passages is rather that of a mill-stream than of the entrance
+to a sound. Though less apparent, owing to its area, the tide and
+current of the Hudson are practically as irresistible. The two branches
+of the city-sewage, uniting at the Battery, are deflected a little to
+the westward by Governor's Island, and thus thrown out into the middle
+of the bay, where they receive the full force of the tidal impulse,
+retarded by the Narrows only long enough to disengage and drop their
+finer silt on the flats between Robin's Reef and the Jersey shore. The
+depurating process of the New World's grandest community lies ready for
+use in this natural drainage-system. If there be a standing pool, a
+festering ditch, a choked gutter, a malarious sink within the scope of
+the city bills of mortality, there is official crime somewhere. Nature
+must have been fraudulently obstructed in the benignest arrangements
+she ever made for removing the effete material of a vast city's vital
+processes. In the matter of climate, New York experiences such
+comparative freedom from sudden changes as belongs to her position in
+the midst of large masses of water. She enjoys nearly entire immunity
+from fogs and damp or chilly winds. Her weather is decided, and her
+population are liable to no one local and predominant class of disease.
+So far as her hygienic condition depends upon quantity and quality of
+food, her communications with the interior give her an exceptional
+guaranty. Despite the poverty which her lower classes share in kind,
+though to a much less degree, with those of other commercial capitals,
+there is no metropolis in the world where the general average of comfort
+and luxury stands higher through all the social grades. It is further to
+be recollected that health and the chief comforts of life are
+correlative,--that the squalid family is the unhealthy family, and that,
+as we import our squalor, so also we import the materials and conditions
+of our disease. This _a priori_ view is amply sustained by the
+statistics of our charitable institutions. Dr. Alanson S. Jones, whose
+position as President of the Board of Surgeons attached to the
+Metropolitan Police Commission combines with his minute culture in the
+sciences ministering to his profession to make him a first-class
+authority upon the sanitary statistics of New York, states that the
+large majority of deaths, and cases of disease, occur in that city among
+the recent foreign immigrants,--and that the same source furnishes the
+vast proportion of inmates of our hospitals, almshouses, asylums, and
+other institutions of charity; furthermore, that two thirds of all the
+deaths in New York City occur among children,--a class to which
+metropolitan conditions are decidedly unfavorable; and that, while the
+seven hundred thousand inhabitants of Philadelphia are distributed over
+an area of one hundred and thirty square miles, the one million
+inhabitants of New York are included within the limit of thirty-five
+square miles, yet the excess of proportionate mortality in the latter
+city by no means corresponds to its density of settlement. It is safe to
+affirm, that, taking all the elements into calculation, there is no city
+in the civilized world with an equal population and an equal sanitary
+rank.
+
+Hydrographically speaking, either Liverpool or Bristol surpasses London
+in its claims to be the British metropolis. But as England's chief
+commerce flows from the eastward, to accommodate it she must select for
+her metropolis the shores of the most accessible, capacious, and
+sheltered water on that side of the island. The result is London,--a
+city backed by an almost imperceptible fraction of the vast interior
+which pays tribute to New York,--having a harbor of far less
+capacity than New York, and without any of its far-reaching
+ramifications,--provided with a totally inadequate drainage-system,
+operating by a river which New-Yorkers would shudder to accept for the
+purposes of a single ward,--and supporting a population of three million
+souls upon her brokerage in managing the world's commerce. New York has
+every physical advantage over her in site, together with an agricultural
+constituency of which she can never dream, and every opportunity for
+eventually surpassing her as a depot of domestic manufactures. London
+can never add arable acres to her suite, while only the destruction of
+the American people can prevent us from building ten up-country mills to
+every one which manufactures for her market. She has merely the start of
+us in time; she has advanced rapidly during the last fifty years, but
+New York has even more rapidly diminished the gap. No wonder that
+British capitalists will sacrifice much to see us perish,--for it is
+pleasanter to receive than to pay balance of exchange, even in the
+persons of one's prospective great-grandchildren.
+
+Turning to the second great power of the Old World, we may assert that
+there is not a harbor on the entire French coast of capacity or
+convenience proportionate to the demands of a national emporium. Though
+the site of Paris was chosen by a nation in no sense commercial, and the
+constitutional prejudices of the people are of that semi-barbarous kind
+which affect at the same time pleasure and a contempt of the enterprises
+which pay for it, there has been a decided anxiety among the foremost
+Frenchmen since the time of Colbert to see France occupying an
+influential position among the national fortune-hunters of the world.
+Napoleon III. shares this solicitude to an extent which his uncle's
+hatred of England would never permit him to confess, though he felt it
+deeply. The millions which the present Emperor has spent on Cherbourg
+afford a mere titillation to his ambitious spirit. Their result is a
+handsome parade-place,--a pretty stone toy,--an unpickable lock to an
+inclosure nobody wants to enter,--a navy-yard for the creation of an
+armament which has no commerce to protect. No wonder that the
+discontented despot seeks to eke out the quality of his ports by their
+plenteous quantity,--seizing Algiers,--looking wistfully at the Red
+Sea,--overjoyed at any bargain which would get him Nice,--striking madly
+out for empire in Cochin China, Siam, and the Pacific islands,--playing
+Shylock to Mexico on Jecker's forged bond, that his own inconvenient
+vessels might have an American port to trim their yards in. Meanwhile,
+to forget the utter unfitness of Paris for the capital of any imaginary
+Commercial France, he plays ship with Eugenie on the gentle Seine, or
+amuses himself with the marine romance of the Parisian civic escutcheon.
+
+No one will think for an instant of comparing Paris with New York in
+respect to natural advantages. The capitals of the other Continental
+nations are still less susceptible of being brought into the
+competition. The vast cities of China are possible only in the lowest
+condition of individual liberty,--class servitude, sumptuary and travel
+restrictions, together with all the other complicated enginery of an
+artificial barbarism, being the only substitute for natural cohesion in
+a community whose immense mass can procure nothing but the rudest
+necessaries of life from the area within which it is confined.
+
+_A priori_, therefore, we might expect that the metropolis of America
+would arise on New York Island, and in process of time become one of the
+greatest capitals of the world.
+
+The natural advantages which allured New York's first population have
+been steadily developed and reinforced by artificial ones. For the ships
+of the world she has built about her water-front more than three hundred
+piers and bulkheads. Allowing berth-room for four ships in each
+bulkhead, and for one at the end of each pier, (decidedly an
+under-estimate, considering the extent of some of these
+structures,)--the island water-front already offers accommodation for
+the simultaneous landing of eight hundred first-class foreign cargoes.
+The docks of Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Hoboken may accommodate at least
+as many more. Something like a quarter of all New York imports go in the
+first instance to the bonded warehouse; and this part, not being wanted
+for immediate consumption within the metropolis proper, quite as
+conveniently occupies the Long Island or Jersey warehouses as those on
+the New York shore. The warehouses properly belonging to New York
+commerce--containing her property and living on her business--received
+during 1861 imports to the value of $41,811,664; during 1862,
+$46,939,451; and during 1863, $61,350,432. During the year 1861, the
+total imports of New York amounted to $161,684,499,--paying an aggregate
+of duties of $21,714,981. During the year 1862, the imports amounted to
+$172,486,453, and the duties to $52,254,318. During 1863, the imports
+reached a value of $184,016,350, the duties on which amounted to
+$58,885,853. For the same years the exports amounted respectively to
+$142,903,689, $216,416,070, and $219,256,203,--the rapid increase
+between 1861 and 1862 being no doubt partly stimulated by the
+disappearance of specie from circulation under the pressure of our
+unparalleled war-expenses, and the consequent necessity of substituting
+in foreign markets our home products for the ordinary basis of exchange.
+In 1861, 965 vessels entered New York from foreign ports, and 966
+cleared for foreign ports. In 1862, the former class numbered 5,406, and
+the latter 5,014. In 1863, they were respectively 4,983 and 4,466. These
+statistics, from which the immense wharfage and warehouse accommodation
+of New York may be inferred, are exhibited to better advantage in the
+following tabular statement, kindly furnished by Mr. Ogden, First
+Auditor of the New York Custom-House.
+
+_Statistics of the Port of New York._
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|  |                       |    1861.     |    1862.     |    1863.     |
+|--+-----------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------|
+|  |                       |      $       |      $       |      $       |
+|1 |Total value of Exports |142,903,689   |216,416,070   |219,256,203   |
+|2 |Total value of Imports |161,684,499   |172,486,453   |184,016,350   |
+|3 |Value of Goods         |              |              |              |
+|  | warehoused during     |              |              |              |
+|  | the entire year       | 41,811,664   | 46,939,451   | 61,350,432   |
+|4 |Amount of Drawback     |              |              |              |
+|  | allowed during the    |              |              |              |
+|  | entire year           |     57,326.55|    275,953.92|    414,041.44|
+|5 |Total amount of Duties |              |              |              |
+|  | paid during year      | 21,714,981.10| 52,254,317.92| 58,885,853.42|
+|6 |No. of Vessels entered |              |              |              |
+|  | from Foreign Ports    |              |              |              |
+|  | during year           |        965   |      5,406   |      4,983   |
+|7 |No. of Vessels cleared |              |              |              |
+|  | to foreign Ports      |              |              |              |
+|  | during year           |        966   |      5,014   |      4,666   |
+|--+-----------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
+
+Besides the various berths or anchorages and the warehouses of New York,
+commerce is still further waited on in our metropolis by one of the most
+perfect systems of pilot-boat, steam-tug, and lighter service which have
+ever been devised for a harbor. No vessel can bring so poor a foreign
+cargo to New York as not to justify the expense of a pilot to keep its
+insurance valid, a tug to carry it to its moorings, and a lighter to
+discharge it, if the harbor be crowded or time press. Indeed, the first
+two items are matters of course; and not one of them costs enough to be
+called a luxury.
+
+The American river-steamboat--the palatial American _steamboat_, as
+distinguished from the dingy, clumsy English _steamer_--is another of
+the means by which Art has supplemented New York's gifts of Nature. This
+magnificent triumph of sculpturesque beauty, wedded to the highest grade
+of mechanical skill, must be from two hundred and fifty to four hundred
+feet long,--must accommodate from five hundred to two thousand
+passengers,--must run its mile in three minutes,--must be as _rococo_ in
+its upholsterings as a bedchamber of Versailles,--must gratify every
+sense, consult every taste, and meet every convenience. Such a boat as
+this runs daily to every principal city on the Sound or the Hudson, to
+Albany, to Boston, to Philadelphia. A more venturous class of coasting
+steamers in peaceful times are constantly leaving for Baltimore,
+Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Key West, Mobile, New Orleans, and
+Galveston. The immense commerce of the Erie Canal, with all its sources
+and tributaries, is practically transacted by New York City. Nearly
+everything intended for export, plus New York's purchases for her own
+consumption, is forwarded from the Erie Canal terminus in a series of
+_tows_, each of these being a rope-bound fleet, averaging perhaps fifty
+canal-boats and barges, propelled by a powerful steamer intercalated
+near the centre. The traveller new to Hudson River scenery will be
+startled, any summer day on which he may choose to take a steamboat trip
+to Albany, by the apparition, at distances varying from one to three
+miles all the way, of floating islands, settled by a large commercial
+population, who like their dinner off the top of a hogshead, and follow
+the laundry business to such an extent that they quite effloresce with
+wet shirts, and are seen through a lattice of clothes-lines. Let him
+know that these floating islands are but little drops of vital blood
+from the great heart of the West, coming down the nation's main artery
+to nurse some small tissue of the metropolis; that these are "Hudson
+River tows"; and that, novel as that phenomenon may appear to him, every
+other fresh traveller has been equally startled by it since March, and
+will be startled by it till December. Another ministry to New York is
+performed by the _night-tows_, consisting of a few cattle, produce, and
+passenger barges attached to a steamer, made up semi-weekly or
+tri-weekly at every town of any importance on the Hudson and the Sound.
+We will not include the large fleet of Sound and River sloops, brigs,
+and schooners in the list of New York's artificial advantages.
+
+Turning to New York's land communication with the interior, we find the
+following railroads radiating from the metropolitan centre.
+
+1.  A Railroad to Philadelphia.
+2.  A Railroad to the Pennsylvania Coal Region.
+3.  A Railroad to Piermont on the Hudson.
+4.  A Railroad to Bloomfield in New Jersey.
+5.  A Railroad to Morristown in New Jersey.
+6.  A Railroad to Hackensack in New Jersey.
+7.  A Railroad to Buffalo.
+8.  A Railroad to Albany, running along the Hudson.
+9.  Another Railroad to Albany, by an interior route.
+10. A Railroad to New Haven.
+11. A Railroad to the chief eastern port of Long Island.
+12. The Delaware and Raritan Road to Philadelphia, connecting with New
+York by daily transports from pier.
+13. The Camden and Amboy Railroad, connecting similarly.
+14. The Railroad to Elizabeth, New Jersey.
+
+The chief eastern radius throws out ramifications to the principal
+cities of New England, thus affording liberal choice of routes to
+Boston, New Bedford, Providence, and Portland, as well as an entrance to
+New Hampshire and Vermont. To all of these towns, except the more
+southerly, the Hudson River Road leads as well, connecting besides with
+railroads in every direction to the northern and western parts of the
+State, and with the Far West by a number of routes. The main avenue to
+the Far West is, however, the Atlantic and Great Western Road, with its
+twelve hundred miles of uniform broad-gauge. Along this line the whole
+riches of the interior may reasonably be expected to flow eastward as in
+a trough; for its position is axial, and its connection perfect. All the
+chief New Jersey railroads open avenues to the richest mineral region of
+the Atlantic States,--to the Far South and the Far West of the country.
+Two or three may be styled commuters' roads, running chiefly for the
+accommodation of city business-men with suburban residences. The Long
+Island Road is a road without important branches; but the majority of
+all the roads subsidiary to New York are avenues to some broad and
+typical tract of the interior.
+
+Let us turn to consider how New York has provided for the people as well
+as the goods that enter her precincts by all the ways we have rehearsed.
+She draws them up Broadway in twenty thousand horse-vehicles per day, on
+an average, and from that magnificent avenue, crowded for nearly five
+miles with elegant commercial structures, over two hundred miles more of
+paved street, in all directions. She lights them at night with eight
+hundred miles of gas-pipe; she washes them and slakes their thirst from
+two hundred and ninety-one miles of Croton main; she has constructed for
+their drainage one hundred and seventy-six miles of sewer. She
+victimizes them with nearly two thousand licensed hackmen; she licenses
+twenty-two hundred car- and omnibus-drivers to carry them over
+twenty-nine different stage-routes and ten horse-railroads, in six
+hundred and seventy-one omnibuses and nearly as many cars, connecting
+intimately with every part of the city, and averaging ten up-and-down
+trips per day. She connects them with the adjoining cities of the
+main-land and with Staten and Long Island by twenty ferries, running, on
+the average, one boat each way every ten minutes during the twenty-four
+hours. She offers for her guests' luxurious accommodation at least a
+score of hotels, where good living is made as much the subject of high
+art as in the Hotel du Louvre, besides minor houses of rest and
+entertainment, to the number of more than five thousand. She attends to
+their religion in about four hundred places of public worship. She
+gives them breathing-room in a dozen civic parks, the largest of which
+both Nature and Art destine to be the noblest popular pleasure-ground of
+the civilized world, as it is the amplest of all save the Bois de
+Boulogne. Central Park covers an area of 843 acres, and, though only in
+the fifth year of its existence, already contains twelve miles of
+beautifully planned and scientifically constructed carriage-road, seven
+miles of similar bridle-path, four sub-ways for the passage of
+trade-vehicles across the Park, with an aggregate length of two miles,
+and twenty-one miles of walk. As an item of city property, Central Park
+is at present valued at six million dollars; but this, of course, is
+quite a nominal and unstable valuation. The worth of the Park to New
+York property in general is altogether beyond calculation.
+
+New York feeds her people with about two million slaughter-animals per
+annum. How these are classified, and what periodical changes their
+supply undergoes, may be conveniently seen by the following tabular view
+of the New York butchers' receiving-yards during the twelve months of
+the year 1863. I am indebted for it to the experience and courtesy of
+Mr. Solon Robinson, agricultural editor of the "New York Tribune."
+
+_Receipts of Butchers' Animals in New York during 1863._
+
++-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+
+|Month. | Beeves. |  Cows.  | Calves. |  Sheep. |  Swine.  |
+|-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+
+|Jan.   |  16,349 |     393 |   1,318 |  25,352 |  138,413 |
+|Feb.   |  19,930 |     474 |   1,207 |  24,877 |   98,099 |
+|March  |  22,187 |     843 |   2,594 |  29,645 |   79,320 |
+|April  |  18,921 |     636 |   3,182 |  18,311 |   56,516 |
+|May    |  16,739 |     440 |   3,510 |  20,338 |   39,305 |
+|June   |  23,785 |     718 |   5,516 |  44,808 |   56,612 |
+|July   |  20,224 |     396 |   2,993 |  41,614 |   40,716 |
+|August |  20,347 |     496 |   3,040 |  49,900 |   36,725 |
+|Sept.  |  30,847 |     524 |   3,654 |  79,078 |   68,646 |
+|Oct.   |  24,397 |     475 |   3,283 |  64,144 |  112,265 |
+|Nov.   |  23,991 |     557 |   3,378 |  61,082 |  183,359 |
+|Dec.   |  26,374 |     518 |   2,034 |  60,167 |  191,641 |
+|-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+
+|Total  |         |         |         |         |          |
+|of each| 264,091 |   6,470 |  35,709 | 519,316 |1,101,617 |
+|kind,  |         |         |         |         |          |
+|-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------+
+|                                                          |
+|Total of all kinds,    1,927,203.                         |
++----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+Of the total number of beeves which came into the New York market in
+1863, those whose origin could be ascertained were furnished from their
+several States in the following proportions:--
+
+    Illinois contributed 118,692
+    New York     "        28,985
+    Ohio         "        19,369
+    Indiana      "        14,232
+    Michigan     "         9,074
+    Kentucky     "         6,782
+
+Averaging the weight of the cattle which came to New York market in 1863
+at the moderate estimate of 700 lbs., the metropolitan supply of beef
+for that year amounted to 189,392,700 lbs. This, at the average price of
+nine and a quarter cents per pound, was worth $17,518,825.
+Proportionably with these estimates, the average weekly expenditure by
+butchers at the New York yards during the year 1863 was $328,865.
+
+It is an astonishing, but indubitable fact, that, while the population
+of New York has increased sixty-six per cent during the last decade, the
+consumption of _beef_ has in the same time increased sixty-five per
+cent. This increment might be ascribed to the great advance of late
+years in the price of pork,--that traditional main stay of the poor
+man's housekeeping,--were it not that the importation of swine has
+increased almost as surprisingly. We are therefore obliged to
+acknowledge that during a period when the chief growth of our population
+was due to emigration from the lowest ranks of foreign nationalities,
+during three years of a devastating war, and inclusive of the great
+financial crisis of 1857, the increase in consumption of the most costly
+and healthful article of animal food lacked but one per cent of the
+increase of the population. These statistics bear eloquent witness to
+the rapid diffusion of luxury among the New York people.
+
+From the table of classification by States we may draw another
+interesting inference. It will be seen that by far the largest
+proportion of the bullocks came into the New York market from the most
+remote of the Western States contributing. In other words, New York City
+has so perfected her connection with all the sources of supply, that
+distance has become an unimportant element in her calculations of
+expense; and she can make all the best grazing land of the country
+tributary to her market, without regard to the question whether it be
+one or twelve hundred miles off.
+
+The foregoing butchers' estimates are as exact as our present means of
+information can make them. Large numbers of uncounted sheep are consumed
+within the city limits, and the unreported calves are many more than
+come to light in statistics. Besides these main staples of the market
+which have been mentioned, there is consumed in New York an incalculable
+quantity of game and poultry, preserved meats and fish, cheese, butter,
+and eggs.
+
+Mr. James Boughton, clerk of the New York Produce Exchange, has been
+good enough to furnish me with a tabular statement of the city's
+receipts of produce for the year ending April 30, 1864. Such portions of
+it as may show the amount of staples, exclusive of fresh meat, required
+for the regular supply of the New York market, are presented in the
+opposite column.
+
+A less important, but still very interesting, class of products entered
+New York during the same period, in the following amounts:--
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------+
+|  COTTON.  |   SEED.   |   ASHES.  | WHISKEY.  | OIL CAKE. |
+|-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
+|  _Bales._ |   _Bush._ |   _Pkgs._ |   _Bbls._ |  _Sacks._ |
+|   18,193  |    7,343  |    1,401  |   21,838  |    2,329  |
+|   16,299  |    3,196  |    1,657  |   26,925  |   14,040  |
+|   13,080  |      901  |    1,175  |   19,627  |   20,120  |
+|   11,043  |      892  |    1,551  |   18,083  |   19,583  |
+|   12,874  |    2,082  |      884  |   15,781  |    4,810  |
+|   19,332  |    1,189  |      790  |   17,656  |   17,500  |
+|   26,902  |    2,318  |    1,280  |   20,098  |   10,441  |
+|   24,870  |    8,193  |    1,393  |   39,594  |    4,973  |
+|   22,010  |    8,441  |    1,163  |   32,346  |    2,676  |
+|   28,242  |   24,216  |    1,498  |   34,475  |    2,115  |
+|   39,302  |   31,765  |    1,457  |   35,575  |    2,963  |
+|   33,538  |    5,686  |    1,044  |   22,873  |    4,536  |
+|-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
+|  265,685  |   96,222  |   15,293  |  304,871  |  106,356  |
++-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+New York, during the same period, exported,--
+
+    Of Flour       2,571,744 bbls.
+     " Wheat      15,842,836 bushels.
+     " Corn        5,576,836   "
+     " Cured Beef    113,061 pkgs.
+     "   "   Pork    189,757 bbls.
+     " Cotton         27,561 bales.
+
+Deducting from the total supply of each of these six staples such
+amounts as were exported during the year, we
+
++----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|     MONTH.       |   FLOUR.  |  CORN   |  CORN   |   WHEAT.   |   CORN.    |
+|                  |           |  MEAL.  |  MEAL.  |            |            |
+|------------------+-----------+---------+---------+------------+------------|
+|                  |  _Bbls._  | _Bbls._ | _Bags._ |   _Bush._  |  _Bush._   |
+| 1863.--May       |   454,363 |  10,331 |  18,614 |  1,789,952 |  1,914,490 |
+|        June      |   636,501 |  19,283 |   7,989 |  2,853,755 |  2,262,825 |
+|        July      |   451,004 |   9,995 |  10,480 |  2,409,184 |  3,049,126 |
+|        August    |   298,097 |   9,875 |   9,226 |  1,989,839 |  2,343,899 |
+|        September |   319,923 |  10,481 |   4,715 |  1,132,588 |  2,196,157 |
+|        October   |   451,762 |   8,673 |  13,020 |  3,052,968 |  1,265,793 |
+|        November  |   530,096 |   8,883 |  22,835 |  3,164,750 |    295,398 |
+|        December  |   429,641 |  16,301 |  45,627 |  1,396,608 |    135,907 |
+| 1864.--January   |   266,240 |   7,987 |  43,990 |     10,244 |    145,557 |
+|        February  |   233,822 |  12,489 |  47,137 |     45,283 |    108,751 |
+|        March     |   190,785 |  14,135 |  40,510 |    108,407 |    259,547 |
+|        April     |   218,181 |  10,889 |  27,097 |    166,506 |    120,272 |
+|------------------+-----------+---------+---------+------------+------------+
+|     Total        | 4,480,415 | 145,272 | 291,190 | 18,119,993 | 14,098,262 |
++----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
++-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|     MONTHS.      |   OATS.    |  RYE.   |  MALT.  |  BARLEY.  |   BEEF. |
+|------------------+------------+---------+---------+-----------+---------|
+|                  |   _Bush._  | _Bush._ | _Bush._ |   _Bush._ | _Bbls._ |
+| 1863.--May       |    808,233 |  28,034 |  24,034 |     4,672 |   9,428 |
+|        June      |  1,442,979 |  23,038 |  22,508 |     1,643 |   2,386 |
+|        July      |    849,831 |  52,759 |  16,710 |     none. |   1,285 |
+|        August    |  1,097,223 |  68,035 |  55,453 |      .... |     892 |
+|        September |    307,025 |   9,721 |  47,048 |     7,941 |     718 |
+|        October   |  1,319,985 |  41,912 |  13,461 |   753,893 |   7,420 |
+|        November  |  2,189,719 |  36,731 |  44,322 |   441,479 |  68,391 |
+|        December  |  1,882,344 |  45,727 |  59,494 |   275,568 |  74,031 |
+| 1864.--January   |    305,690 |   6,532 |  42,608 |     6,972 |  22,988 |
+|        February  |    209,080 |   3,554 |  63,064 |     5,105 |   6,358 |
+|        March     |    258,685 |   5,308 |  69,578 |    18,386 |   4,319 |
+|        April     |    238,344 |   6,373 |  44,383 |    41,914 |   4,654 |
+|------------------+------------+---------+---------+-----------+---------+
+|     Total        | 10,909,238 | 328,619 | 502,693 | 1,557,573 | 203,270 |
++-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------+
+|     MONTHS.      |  PORK.  |  CUT    |  LARD.   | DRESSED |
+|                  |         | MEATS.  |          |  HOGS.  |
+|------------------+---------+---------+----------+---------|
+|                  | _Bbls._ | _Pkgs._ |100 _lbs._|  _No._
+| 1863.--May       | 119,302 |  38,587 | 149,966  |    .... |
+|        June      | 112,343 |  21,401 |  75,966  |    .... |
+|        July      |  10,155 |   6,633 |  15,396  |    .... |
+|        August    |   6,879 |   2,870 |   3,784  |    .... |
+|        September |   7,115 |   3,967 |   5,233  |    .... |
+|        October   |   6,921 |   4,501 |  35,128  |     881 |
+|        November  |   6,916 |  11,066 |  35,997  |     755 |
+|        December  |  21,864 |  18,843 |  31,775  |  21,208 |
+| 1864.--January   |  39,364 |  34,469 |  25,145  |  48,276 |
+|        February  |  32,144 |  42,593 |  43,245  |  59,894 |
+|        March     |  33,687 |  92,710 |  83,122  |   4,600 |
+|        April     |  12,346 |  49,399 |  90,496  |      67 |
+|------------------+---------+---------+----------+---------|
+|     Total        | 409,036 | 327,129 | 594,853  | 135,481 |
++-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+find a remainder, for annual metropolitan consumption, amounting, in the
+case of
+
+    Flour      to  1,908,671 bbls.
+    Wheat      "   2,276,257 bushels.
+    Corn       "   8,540,490   "
+    Cured Beef "      89,209 pkgs.
+      "   Pork "     209,279 bbls.
+    Cotton     "     238,124 bales.
+
+We have no room for the details--which would embarrass us, if we should
+attempt a statement--of the cost of clothing the New York people. We
+will merely remark, in passing, that one of the largest retail stores in
+the New York dry-goods trade sells at its counters ten million dollars'
+worth of fabrics per annum, and that another concern in the wholesale
+branch of the same trade does a yearly business of between thirty and
+forty millions. As for tailors' shops, New York is their
+fairy-land,--many eminent examples among them resembling, in cost, size,
+and elegance, rather a European palace than a republican place of
+traffic.
+
+The most comprehensive generalization by which we may hope to arrive at
+an idea of the business of New York is that which includes in tabular
+form the statistics of the chief institutions which employ and insure
+property.
+
+On the 24th of September, 1864, sixty-three banks made a quarterly
+statement of their condition, under the general banking law of the
+State. These banks are at present the only ones in New York whose
+condition can be definitely ascertained, and their reported capital
+amounts to $69,219,763. The national banks will go far toward increasing
+the total metropolitan banking capital to one hundred millions. The
+largest of the State banks doing business in the city is the Bank of
+Commerce, (about being reorganized on the national plan,) with a capital
+of ten millions; and the smallest possess capital to the amount of two
+hundred thousand dollars.
+
+Mr. Camp, now at the head of the New York Clearing-House, has been kind
+enough to furnish the following interesting statistics in regard to the
+total amount of business transactions managed by the New York banks in
+connection with the Clearing-House during the two years ending on the
+30th of last September. Figures can scarcely be made more eloquent by
+illustration than they are of themselves, I therefore leave them without
+other comment than the remark that the weekly exchanges at the
+Clearing-House during the past year have repeatedly amounted to more
+than the entire expenses of the United States Government for the same
+period.
+
+_Clearing-House Transactions._
+
++-----------------------------------------------------++
+|  1862.   |      EXCHANGES.      |     BALANCES.     ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|October   |  $ 1,081,243,214.07  |  $ 54,632,410.57  ||
+|November  |      874,966,873.15  |    47,047,576.93  ||
+|December  |      908,135,090.29  |    44,630,405.43  ||
+|          |                      |                   ||
+|  1863.   |                      |                   ||
+|January   |    1,251,408,362.76  |    58,792,544.70  ||
+|February  |    1,199,249,050.07  |    51,583,913.88  ||
+|March     |    1,313,908,804.14  |    60,456,505.45  ||
+|April     |    1,138,218,267.90  |    53,539,812.46  ||
+|May       |    1,535,484,281.78  |    70,328,306.25  ||
+|June      |    1,252,116,400.20  |    59,803,975.44  ||
+|July      |    1,261,668,342.87  |    62,387,857.44  ||
+|August    |    1,466,803,012.90  |    53,120,821.99  ||
+|September |    1,584,396,148.47  |    61,302,352.35  ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|          |  $14,867,597,848.60  |  $677,626,482.61  ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|                                                     ||
+|  306 Business days.                                 ||
+|                                                     ||
+|    _Average for day_, 1862-3.                       ||
+|                                                     ||
+|  Exchanges               $48,586,921.07             ||
+|  Balances                  2,214,415.63             ||
++-----------------------------------------------------++
+
++-----------------------------------------------------++
+|  1863.   |      EXCHANGES.      |     BALANCES.     ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|October   |  $ 1,900,210,522.77  |  $ 74,088,419.08  ||
+|November  |    1,778,800,987.95  |    66,895,452.49  ||
+|December  |    1,745,436,325.73  |    60,577,884.19  ||
+|          |                      |                   ||
+|  1864.   |                      |                   ||
+|January   |    1,770,312,694.43  |    63,689,950.88  ||
+|February  |    2,088,170,989.48  |    65,744,935.13  ||
+|March     |    2,753,323,948.53  |    84,938,940.37  ||
+|April     |    2,644,732,826.34  |    93,363,526.16  ||
+|May       |    1,877,653,131.37  |    76,328,462.88  ||
+|June      |    1,902,029,181.42  |    88,187,658.93  ||
+|July      |    1,777,753,537.53  |    73,343,903.49  ||
+|August    |    1,776,018,141.53  |    69,071,237.16  ||
+|September |    2,082,754,368.84  |    69,288,834.17  ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|          |  $24,097,196,655.92  |  $885,719,204.93  ||
+|----------+----------------------+-------------------||
+|                                                     ||
+|  306 Business days.                                 ||
+|                                                     ||
+|    _Average for day_, 1863-4.                       ||
+|                                                     ||
+|  Exchanges               $77,984,455.20             ||
+|  Balances                  2,866,405.19             ||
++-----------------------------------------------------++
+
++------------------------------------------------------------+
+|                                                            |
+|Aggregate Exchanges for Eleven Years     $95,540,602,384.53 |
+|    "     Balances   "    "      "         4,678,311,016.79 |
+|                                        ------------------- |
+|    Total Transactions                  $101,218,913,401.32 |
+|                                                            |
++------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+On the 31st day of December, 1863, there were 101 joint-stock companies
+for the underwriting of fire-risks, with an aggregate capital of
+$23,632,860; net assets to the amount of $29,269,423; net cash receipts
+from premiums amounting to $10,181,031; and an average percentage of
+assets to risks in force equalling 2.995. Besides these 101 joint-stock
+concerns, there existed at the same date twenty-one mutual
+fire-insurance companies, with an aggregate balance in their favor of
+$674,042. The rapidity with which mutual companies have yielded to the
+compacter and more efficient form of the joint-stock concern will be
+comprehended when it is known that just twice the number now in being
+have gone out of existence during the last decade. There are twelve
+marine insurance companies in the metropolis, with assets amounting to
+$24,947,559. The life-insurance companies number thirteen, with an
+aggregate capital of $1,885,000. We may safely set down the property
+invested in New York insurance companies of all sorts at $51,139,461.
+Add this sum to the aggregate banking capital above stated, and we have
+a total of $120,359,224. This vast sum merely represents New York's
+interest in the management of other people's money. The bank is employed
+as an engine for operating debt and credit. Its capital is the necessary
+fuel for running the machine; and that fuel ought certainly not to cost
+more than a fair interest on the products of the engine. The insurance
+companies guard the business-man's fortune from surprise, as the banks
+relieve him from drudgery; they put property and livelihood beyond the
+reach of accident: in other words, they manage the estates of the
+community so as to secure them from deterioration, and charge a
+commission for their stewardship.
+
+It is a legitimate assumption in this part of the country that the money
+employed in managing property bears to the property itself an average
+proportion of about seven per cent. Hence it follows that the
+above-stated aggregate banking and insurance capital of $120,359,224
+must represent and be backed by values to more than fourteen times that
+amount. In other words, and in round numbers, we may assert that the
+bank and insurance interests of New York are in relations of commerce
+and control with at least $1,685,029,136. This measure of metropolitan
+influence, it must be remembered, is based on the statistics attainable
+mainly outside of cash sales, and through only two of the metropolitan
+agencies of commerce.
+
+I do not know how much I may assist any reader's further comprehension
+of the energies of the metropolis by stating that it issues fifteen
+daily newspapers, one hundred and thirty-three weekly or semi-weekly
+journals, and seventy-four monthly, semi-monthly, or weekly
+magazines,--that it has ten good and three admirable public
+libraries,--a dozen large hospitals, exclusive of the military,--thirty
+benevolent societies, (and we are in that respect far behind London,
+where every man below an attorney belongs to some "union" or other, that
+he may have his neighbors' guaranty against the ever-impending British
+poor-house,)--twenty-one savings-banks,--one theatre where French is
+spoken, a German theatre, an Italian opera-house, and eleven theatres
+where they speak English. In a general magazine-article, it is
+impossible to review the hundreds of studios where our own Art is
+painting itself into the century with a vigor which has no rival abroad.
+We can treat neither the aesthetic nor the social life of New York with as
+delicate a pencil as we would. Our paper has had to deal with broad
+facts; and upon these we are willing to rest the cause of New York in
+any contest for metropolitan honors. We believe that New York is
+destined to be the permanent emporium not only of this country, but of
+the entire world,--and likewise the political capital of the nation. Had
+the White House (or, pray Heaven! some comelier structure) stood on
+Washington Heights, and the Capitol been erected at Fanwood, there would
+never have been a Proslavery Rebellion. This is a subject which
+business-men are coming to ponder pretty seriously.
+
+After all, New York's essential charm to a New-Yorker cannot express
+itself in figures, nor, indeed, in any adequate manner. It is the city
+of his soul. He loves it with a passionate dignity which will not let
+him swagger like the Cockney or twitter like the Parisian. His love for
+New York goes frequently unacknowledged even to himself, until a
+necessary absence of unusual length teaches him how hard it would be to
+lose the city of his affections forever.
+
+It is a bath of other souls. It will not let a man harden in his own
+epidermis. He must affect and be affected by multitudinous varieties of
+temperament, race, character. He avoids grooves, because New York will
+not tolerate grooviness. He knows that he must be able, on demand, to
+bowl anywhere over the field of human tastes and sympathies.
+Professionally he may be a specialist, but in New York his specialty
+must be only the axis around which are grouped encyclopaedic learning,
+faultless skill, and catholic intuitions. Nobody will waste a Saturday
+afternoon riding on his hobby-horse. He must be a broad-natured person,
+or he will be a mere imperceptible line on the general background of
+obscure citizens. He feels that he is surrounded by people who will help
+him do his best, yes, who will make him do it, or drive him out to
+install such as will. If he think of a good thing to do, he knows that
+the market for all good things is close around him. Whatever surplus of
+himself he has for communication, that he knows to be absolutely sure of
+a recipient before the day is done. New York, like Goethe's Olympus,
+says to every man with capacity and self-faith,--
+
+    "Here is all fulness, ye brave, to reward you:
+        Work, and despair not!"
+
+Moreover, the moral air of New York City is in certain respects the
+purest air a man can breathe. This may seem a paradox. New York City is
+not often quoted as an example of purity. To the philosopher her
+atmosphere is cleaner than that of a country village. As the air of a
+contracted space may grow poisonous by respiration, while pure air rests
+over the entire surface of the earth in virtue of being the final
+solvent to all terrestrial decompositions, so it is possible that a few
+good, but narrow people may get alone together in the country, and hatch
+a social organism far more morbid than the metropolitan. In the latter
+instance, aberrations counterbalance each other, and the body politic,
+cursed though it be with bad officials, has more vitality in it than
+could be excited by any conclave of excellent men with one idea,
+meeting, however, solemnly, to feed it with legislative pap.
+
+While no man can ride into metropolitan success on a hobby-horse,
+popular dissent will still take no stronger form than a quiet withdrawal
+and the permission to rock by himself. No amount of eccentricity
+surprises a New-Yorker, or makes him uncourteous. It is difficult to
+attract even a crowd of boys on Broadway by an odd figure, face, manner,
+or costume. This has the result of making New York an asylum for all who
+love their neighbor as themselves, but would a little rather not have
+him looking through the key-hole. In New York I share no dreadful
+secrets with the man next door. I am not in his power any more than if I
+lived in Philadelphia,--nor so much, for he might get somebody to spy me
+there. There is no other place but New York where my next-door neighbor
+never feels the slightest hesitation about cutting me dead, because he
+knows that on such conditions rests that broad individual liberty which
+is the glory of the citizen.
+
+In fine, if we seek the capital of well-paid labor,--the capital of
+broad congenialities and infinite resources,--the capital of most widely
+diffused comfort, luxury, and taste,--the capital which to the eye of
+the plain businessman deserves to be the nation's senate-seat,--the
+capital which, as the man of forecast sees, must eventually be the
+world's Bourse and market-place,--in any case we turn and find our quest
+in the city of New York.
+
+To-day, she might claim Jersey City, Hoboken, Brooklyn, and all the
+settled districts facing the island shore, with as good a grace as
+London includes her multitudinous districts on both sides of the Thames.
+Were all the population who live by her, and legitimately belong to her,
+now united with her, as some day they must be by absorption, New York
+would now contain more than 1,300,000 people. For this union New York
+need make no effort. The higher organization always controls and
+incorporates the lower.
+
+The release of New York commerce from the last shackles of the Southern
+"long-paper" system, combined with the progressive restoration of its
+moral freedom from the dungeon of Southern political despotism, has
+left, for the first time since she was born, our metropolitan giantess
+unhampered. Let us throw away the poor results of our last decade! New
+York thought she was growing then; but the future has a stature for her
+which shall lift her up where she can see and summon all the nations.[E]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[E] In addition to the obligations elsewhere recognised, an
+acknowledgment is due to the well-known archaeologist and statistician of
+New York,--Mr. Valentine,--who furnished for the purpose of this article
+the latest edition of his Manual, in advance of its general publication,
+and to the great convenience of the writer.
+
+
+
+
+NEEDLE AND GARDEN.
+
+THE STORY OF A SEAMSTRESS WHO LAID DOWN HER NEEDLE AND BECAME A
+STRAWBERRY-GIRL.
+
+WRITTEN BY HERSELF.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+I am very sure that nothing was ever farther from my thoughts than the
+writing of a book. The pages which follow were never intended for
+publication, but were written as an amusement, sometimes in long winter
+evenings, when it was pleasanter to be indoors, and sometimes in summer
+days, when most of the circumstances mentioned in them occurred. I was a
+long time in writing them, as they were done little by little. There was
+a point in them at which I stopped entirely. Then I lent the manuscript
+to several of my acquaintances to read. Some of these kept it only a few
+days, and I feel quite sure soon tired of it, as it afterwards appeared
+that they had read very little of it: they must have thought it
+extremely dull. But these probably borrowed it only out of compliment,
+and so I was neither surprised nor mortified. The only surprise was,
+that now and then there was one who did have patience to go over it all,
+as it was written in a common copy-book, not in a very nice hand, and
+with a great many erasures and alterations. But when one has a favorite,
+it is grateful to find even a single admirer for it. So it was with me.
+I wrote from love of the subject; and when any one was kind enough to
+give his approval, I felt exceedingly pleased, not because I had a high
+opinion of the matter myself, but only because I had written it. Then it
+must be acknowledged that my small circle of acquaintances comprised
+more workers than readers. Those who had a taste for reading found their
+time so occupied by the labor necessary to their support that but little
+was left to them for indulging in books; and the few who had leisure
+were probably such indifferent readers as to make the task of going over
+a blotted manuscript too great for their patience, unless it were more
+interesting than mine.
+
+At last, after a very long time, and a great many strange experiences,
+the manuscript fell into the hands of one who was an entire stranger to
+me, but who has since proved himself the dearest friend I ever had. He
+read it, and said it must be published. But the thought of publication
+so frightened me that it almost deprived me of sleep. Still, after very
+long persuasion, I consented, and the whole was written over again, with
+a great many things added. When it was all ready, he told me I must
+write a preface. So I was persuaded even to this, though that was a new
+alarm, and I had scarcely recovered from the first. I have always been
+retiring,--indeed, quite out of sight; and nothing has reconciled me to
+this publicity but the knowledge that no one will be able to discover
+me, unless it be the very few who had patience to read my manuscript.
+Even they will find it so altered and enlarged as scarcely to remember
+it.
+
+Yet there is another consideration which ought to reconcile me to coming
+forward in a way so contrary to what I had ever contemplated. I think
+the story of my quiet life may lead others to reflect more seriously on
+the griefs, the trials, and the hardships to which so many of my sex are
+constantly subjected. It may lead some of the other sex either to think
+more of these trials, or to view them in a new and different light from
+any in which they have heretofore regarded them. They may even think
+that I have suggested a new remedy for an old evil. I know that many
+such have labored to remove the wrongs of which poor and friendless
+women are the victims. But while they have already done much toward that
+humane end, as much remains to do. I make no studied effort to influence
+or direct them. The contrast between my first and last experience was so
+great, that, in rewriting, I added some facts from the experience of
+others to give force to the recital of my own. My hope is, that humane
+minds may be gratified by a narrative so uneventful, and that they,
+fortified by position and means, will be led to do for others, in a new
+direction, as much as I, comparatively unaided, have been able to do for
+myself.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Having always had a great fondness for reading, I have gone through
+every book to which my very limited circle of acquaintance gave me
+access. Even this small literary experience was sufficient to impress
+upon my mind the superior value of personal memoirs. Of all my reading,
+they most interested me; and I have learned from others that such books
+have most interested them. Indeed, biography, and personal narrative of
+all kinds, seem to command a general popularity. Moreover, we like to
+know from the person himself what he does, how he thinks and feels, what
+fortunes or vicissitudes he encounters, how he begins his career, and
+how it ends. All biography gives us most of these particulars, but they
+are never so vividly recited as by the subject of the narrative himself.
+Accordingly what was once a kind of diary of the most unimportant events
+I have transformed into a personal history. I know the transformation
+will not give them any importance they did not originally possess, but
+it gives me at least one chance of making my recital interesting.
+
+All who have any knowledge of the city of Philadelphia will remember
+that on its southern boundary there is a large district known as the
+township of Moyamensing. Much of it is now incorporated with the
+recently enlarged city, but the old name still clings to it. There are
+many thousand acres in this district, which stretches from the Delaware
+to the Schuylkill. The junction of the two rivers at its lower end makes
+it a peninsula, which has long been known as "The Neck." When the city
+was founded by William Penn, much of this and the adjoining land was in
+possession of the Swedes, who came first to Pennsylvania. They had
+settled on tracts of different sizes, some very large, and some very
+small, according to their ability to purchase. It was then covered by a
+dense forest, which required great labor to clear it.
+
+My ancestors were among these early Swedes. They were so poor in this
+world's goods as to be able to purchase only forty acres of this
+extremely cheap land. Even that was not paid for in money, but in labor.
+In time they cleared it up, built a small brick house after the quaint
+fashion of those early days, the material for which was furnished from a
+superior kind of clay underlying the land all around them, and
+thenceforward maintained themselves from the products of the soil, then,
+as now, proverbial for its fruitfulness. It descended to their children,
+most of whom were equally plodding and unambitious with themselves. All
+continued the old occupation of looking to the soil for subsistence; and
+so long as the forty acres were kept together, they lived well. But as
+descendants multiplied, and one generation succeeded to another, so the
+little farm became subdivided among numerous heirs, all of whom sold to
+strangers, except my father, who considered himself happy in being able
+to secure, as his portion, the quaint old homestead, with its then
+well-stocked garden, and a lot large enough to make his whole domain an
+acre and a half.
+
+I have many times heard him relate the particulars of this acquisition,
+and say how lucky it was for all of us that he secured it. The other
+heirs, who had turned their acres into money, went into trade or
+speculation and came out poor. With the homestead of the first settler
+my father seemed to have inherited all his unambitious and plodding
+character. His whole habit was quiet, domestic, and home-loving. He was
+content to cultivate his land with the spade, raising many kinds of
+fruits and vegetables for the family and for market, and working
+likewise in the fields and gardens of his neighbors; while in winter he
+employed himself in making nets for the fishermen.
+
+But much of this work for others was done for gentlemen who had fine old
+houses, built at least a hundred years ago. The land in Moyamensing is
+so beautifully level, and is so very rich by nature, that at an early
+day in the settlement of the country a great many remarkably fine
+dwellings were built upon it, to which extensive gardens were attached.
+Father had been in and all over many of these mansions, and was fond of
+describing their wonders to us. They were finished inside with great
+expense. Some had curiously carved door-frames and mantels, with parlors
+wainscoted clear up to the ceiling, and heavy mouldings wherever they
+could be put in. These old-time mansions were scattered thickly over
+this beautiful piece of land. Such of them as were built nearest the
+city have long since been swept away by the extension of streets and
+long rows of new houses; but all through the remoter portion of the
+district there are many still left, with their fine gardens filled with
+the best fruits that modern horticulture has enabled the wealthy to
+gather around them.
+
+I remember many of those that have been torn down. One or two of them
+were famous in Revolutionary history. The owners of such as remained in
+my father's time were glad to have him take charge of their gardens. He
+knew how to bud or graft a tree, to trim grapevines, and to raise the
+best and earliest vegetables. In all that was to be done in a
+gentleman's garden he was so neat, so successful, so quiet and
+industrious, that whatever time he had to spare from his own was always
+in demand, and at the highest wages.
+
+When not otherwise occupied, my mother also worked at the art of
+net-making. At times she was employed in making up clothing for what
+some years ago were popularly called the slop-shops, mostly situated in
+the lower section of the city. These were shops which kept supplies of
+ready-made clothing for sailors and other transient people who harbored
+along the wharves. It was coarse work, and was made up as cheaply as
+possible. At that time the shipping of the port was much of it
+congregated in the lower part of the city, not far from our house.
+
+When a little girl, I have often gone with my mother when she went on
+her errands to these shops, doing what I could to help her in carrying
+her heavy bundles to and fro; and more than once I heard her rudely
+spoken to by the pert young tailor who received her work, and who
+examined it as carefully as if the material had been silk or cambric,
+instead of the coarse fabric which constitutes the staple of such
+establishments. I thus learned, at a very early age, to know something
+of the duties of needle-women, as well as of the mortifications and
+impositions to which their vocation frequently subjects them.
+
+My mother was a beautiful sewer, and I am sure she never turned in a
+garment that had in any way been slighted. She knew how rude and
+exacting this class of employers were, and was nice and careful in
+consequence, so as to be sure of giving satisfaction. But all this care
+availed nothing, in many cases, to prevent rudeness, and sometimes a
+refusal to pay the pitiful price she had been promised. Her disposition
+was too gentle and yielding for her to resent these impositions; she was
+unable to contend and argue with the rough creatures behind the counter;
+she therefore submitted in silence, sometimes even in tears. Twice, I
+can distinctly remember, when these heartless men compelled her to leave
+her work at less than the low price stipulated, I have seen her tears
+fall in big drops as she took up the mite thus grudgingly thrown down to
+her, and leave the shop, leading me by the hand. I could feel, young as
+I was, the hard nature of this treatment. I heard the rough language,
+though unable to know how harshly it must have grated on the soft
+feelings of the best mother that child was ever blessed with.
+
+But I comprehended nothing beyond what I saw and heard,--nothing of the
+merits of the case,--nothing of the nature and bearings of the
+business,--nothing of the severe laws of trade which govern the conduct
+of buyer and seller. I did not know that in a large city there are
+always hundreds of sewing-women begging from these hard employers the
+privilege of toiling all day, and half-way into the night, in an
+occupation which never brings even a reasonable compensation, while many
+times the severity of their labors, the confinement and privation, break
+down the most robust constitutions, and hurry the weaker into a
+premature grave.
+
+I was too young to reason on these subjects, though quick enough to feel
+for my dear mother. When I saw her full heart overflow in tears, I cried
+from sympathy. When we got into the street, and her tears dried up, and
+her habitual cheerfulness returned, I also ceased weeping, and soon
+forgot the cause. The memory of a child is blissfully fugitive. Indeed,
+among the blessings that lie everywhere scattered along our pathway, is
+the readiness with which we all forget sorrows that nearly broke down
+the spirit when first they fell upon us. For if the griefs of an entire
+life were to be remembered, all that we suffer from childhood to mature
+age, the accumulation would be greater than we could bear.
+
+On one occasion, when with my mother at the slop-shop, we found a
+sewing-woman standing at the counter, awaiting payment for the making of
+a dozen summer vests. We came up to the counter and stood beside
+her,--for there were no chairs on which a sewing-woman might rest
+herself, however fatigued from carrying a heavy bundle for a mile or two
+in a hot day. And even had there been such grateful conveniences, we
+should not have been invited to sit down; and unless invited, no
+sewing-woman would risk a provocation of the wrath of an ill-mannered
+shopman by presuming to occupy one. Few employers bestow even a thought
+upon the comfort of their sewing-women. They seldom think how tired they
+become with overwork at home, before leaving it with a heavy load for
+the shop, nor that the bundle grows heavier and heavier with every step
+that it is carried, or that the weak and over-strained body of the
+exhausted woman needs rest the moment she sets foot within the door.
+
+The woman whom we found at the counter was in the prime of life,
+plainly, but neatly dressed,--no doubt in her best attire, as she was to
+be seen in public, and she knew that her whole capital lay in her
+appearance. I judged her to be an educated lady. Though a stranger to my
+mother, yet she accosted her so politely, and in a voice so musical,
+that the gracefulness of her manner and the softness of her tones still
+linger in my memory. Looking down to me, then less than ten years old,
+and addressing my mother, she asked,--
+
+"How many of them have you?"
+
+"Only three, Ma'am," was the reply.
+
+"I have six of them to struggle for," she said,--adding, after a
+moment's pause, "and it is hard to be obliged to do it all."
+
+I saw that she was dressed in newly made mourning. I knew what mourning
+was,--but not then what it was to be a widow. My mother afterwards told
+me she was such, and was therefore in black. Other conversation passed
+between the two, during which I looked up into the widow's face with the
+unreflecting intensity of childish interest. Her voice was so
+remarkable, so kind, so gentle, so full of conciliation, that it won my
+heart. There was a sadness in her face which struck me most forcibly and
+painfully. There was an expression of care, of overwork, and great
+privation. Yet, for all this, the lines of her countenance were
+beautiful even in their painfulness.
+
+While I thus stood gazing up into the widow's face, the shopkeeper came
+forward from a distant window, by whose light he had been examining the
+vests, threw them roughly down upon the counter in front of her, and
+exclaimed in a sharp voice,--
+
+"Can't pay for such work as this,--don't want it in the shop,--never had
+the like of it,--look at that!"
+
+He tossed a vest toward my mother, who took it up, and examined it. One
+end of it hung down low enough for me to catch, and I also undertook the
+business of inspection. I scanned it closely, and was a sufficient judge
+of sewing to see that it was made up with a stitch as neat and regular
+as that of my mother. She must have thought so, too; for, on returning
+it to the man, she said to him,--
+
+"The work is equal to anything of _mine_."
+
+Hearing a new voice, he then discovered, that, instead of tossing the
+vest to the poor widow, he had inadvertently thrown it to my mother.
+Then, addressing the former, he said, in the same sharp tone,--
+
+"Can't pay but half price for this kind of work; don't want any more
+like it. There's your money; do you want more work?"
+
+He threw down the silver on the counter. The whole price, or even
+double, would have been a mere pittance, the widow's mite indeed; but
+here was robbery of even that. What, in such a case, was this poor
+creature to do? She had six young and helpless children at home,--no
+husband to defend her,--no friend to stand between her and the man who
+thus robbed her. A resort to law were futile. What had she wherewith to
+pay either lawyer or magistrate? and was not continued employment a
+necessity? All these thoughts must have flashed across her mind. But in
+the terrible silence which she kept for some minutes, still standing at
+the counter, how many others must have succeeded them! What happy images
+of former comfort came knocking at her heart! what an agonizing sense of
+present destitution! what a contrast between the brightness of the one
+and the gloom of the other! and then the cries of hungry children
+ringing importunately in her ears! I noticed her all the time, and,
+child that I was, did so merely because she stood still and made no
+reply,--utterly unconscious that emotions of any kind were racking her
+grief-smitten heart. I felt no such emotions myself,--how should I
+suppose that they had even an existence?
+
+She made no answer to the man who had thus wantonly outraged her, but,
+turning to my mother, looked up into her face as if for pity and advice.
+Were they not equally helpless victims on the altar of a like domestic
+necessity, and should not common trials knit them together in the bonds
+of a common sympathy? A new sadness came over her yet beautiful
+countenance; but no tear gushed gratefully to relieve her
+swelling heart. She took up the money,--I saw that her hand was
+trembling,--placed it in her purse, lifted from the counter a bundle
+containing a second dozen of vests, and, bidding my mother a graceful
+farewell, left the scene of this cruel imposition on one utterly
+powerless either to prevent it or to obtain redress. I have never
+forgotten the incident.
+
+These labors of my mother were at no time necessary to the support of
+the family; but, though quiet and retiring in her habits, she had
+ambitious aspirations for supplying herself with pocket-money by the
+work of her own hands. As I said before, she was a beautiful sewer on
+the finest kinds of work, such as, if obtained from the families in
+which it is worn, would have yielded her remunerative wages. But we
+lived away beyond the thickly settled portion of the city, had no
+influential acquaintances from whom it could be procured, and hence my
+mother, with thousands who were really necessitous, resorted to the
+tailors, to the meanest as well as to the honorable. When my father
+heard of the indignities they practised on us, and of the shamefully low
+prices they paid us, he forbade my mother ever going to them again. He
+said their whole business was to grow rich by defrauding of their just
+dues the poor women who were thus competing with each other for work,
+and that we should do no more for any of them, until we could find an
+honest man and a gentleman to deal with.
+
+But my father, always busy in his garden or in that of some wealthy
+neighbor, knew nothing even of the little outside world into which we
+had penetrated. His generous, unsuspecting nature thus led him to feel
+sure that the honest and the gentlemanly were to be found in abundance;
+but he overlooked the fact that it was only his quiet wife upon whom was
+devolved the task of discovering them, as well as that her explorations
+had never yet been rewarded with success.
+
+Notwithstanding these discouragements, my mother was firmly of opinion
+that the needle was a woman's only sure dependence against all the
+vicissitudes of life. She believed, in a general way, that a good
+needlewoman would never come to want. The idea of diversifying
+employment for the sex had never crossed her mind; the vocation of woman
+was to sew. All must not only do it, but they must depend on it. She
+considered it of little use to think of anything beyond the needle. She
+could not see, that, if all the women of the country did the same thing,
+there must inevitably be more laborers than could find employment,--that
+the competition would be so great among them as to depress prices to a
+point so low that many women could not live on them,--and that those who
+did would drag out only a miserable existence.
+
+Though a woman of excellent sense, with a tolerable education, and fond
+of all the reading she could find time to do, still she continued to
+plead for this supremacy of the needle, even after her humiliating
+experience at the slop-shops. She was the most industrious sewer I have
+ever known,--and not only industrious, but neat, conscientious, and
+rapid. Machines, with iron frames and wheels, had not then been
+invented; but since they have, I have never seen a better one than my
+mother. Her frame, if not of iron, seemed quite as indestructible, even
+if it did turn out fewer stitches. Times without number has she sat up
+till midnight, plying her needle by the dull light of a common candle:
+for there was no gas in our suburban district. While we children were
+sound asleep, there she sat, not from necessity, but from pure love of
+work. Yet she was up early, long before any of the dull sleepers of the
+household had stirred, and had more trouble to get us down to breakfast
+than to get up the meal itself. I scarcely thought of these things
+during the young years of my life, when they were occurring; but as I am
+writing this, they all come thronging before my memory with the
+freshness of yesterday. They will no doubt seem dull to others; but the
+recollection is very precious to me.
+
+With this conviction of its being almost the sole mission of a woman to
+sew, she made the needle a vital point in my education, as well as in
+that of my sister. There were two girls of us, and a brother. I was the
+eldest, and my sister the youngest of the three. Thus, when I was quite
+a child, I learned to use the needle; and as I grew older, the utmost
+pains were taken to teach me every branch of sewing, from the commonest
+to the most difficult. My sister went through the same course of
+instruction.
+
+At a very early age we were able to make and dress our own dolls, hem
+our handkerchiefs and aprons, and in due time were promoted to the
+darning of father's stockings and the patching of his working-clothes.
+We thought the being able to do these things for him a very great
+affair, and mother praised us for our work. But when sister Jane once
+put a patch over a hole in the knee of father's pantaloons, without
+covering all the rent,--she had let the patch slip down a
+little,--mother required her to rip it off and put it in the right
+place: but there was not a word of scolding for Jane; it was all
+softness, all kindness; she knew that Jane was a child. I think father,
+however, would never have noticed that the patch was a little out of
+place; and, indeed, I think it very likely he didn't care about having a
+patch of any kind put on, for his mind was on work, and not on
+appearances. But then it was my dear mother's way. We were taught that
+the needle was to be the staff of our future lives. Whatever we
+undertook must be done right; and then she had a just pride in making
+father always look respectable.
+
+Thus in time we came to feel as much pride in being good seamstresses as
+did our mother. It was natural we should, for we believed all she taught
+us, and there was no one to controvert her positions,--except sometimes,
+when father heard her impressing her favorite dogma on our minds, he put
+in a word of doubt, saying, that, before the needle could be made so
+sure a dependence for poor women, there must be found a better market
+for female labor than the slop-shops, and a more honorable race of
+employers. To this questioning of her doctrine she made no reply,
+knowing that she had us all to herself, and that a doubt from father,
+only now and then uttered, would make no impression. But I remember it
+all now.
+
+I can remember, too, how proud I felt when mother called me to her, one
+day, and gave me a piece of cotton cloth, of which she said I was to
+make father a shirt. It was of unbleached stuff, heavy and strong, but
+still nice and smooth. Father wore only one kind; and as it was to serve
+for best as well as for common wear, I was to make it as nicely as I
+could.
+
+That afternoon all of us children were to go on a little
+fishing-excursion to the meadows on the Delaware, among the ditches
+which run all round the inside of the great embankment that has been
+thrown up to keep out the river. There was a vast expanse of beautiful
+green meadow inclosed by this embankment, on which great numbers of
+cattle were annually fatted. As viewed from the bank, it was luxuriant
+in the extreme; in fact, it was a prairie containing hundreds of acres,
+trimmed up and cared for with the utmost skill and watchfulness, and
+intersected with clean, open ditches, to secure drainage. Into these
+ditches the tide flowed through sluices in the bank, and thus they were
+always full of fish.
+
+These beautiful meadows were the resort of thousands who resided in the
+lower section of the city, for picnics and excursions. The roads through
+them were as level as could possibly be, and upon them were continual
+trotting-matches. In summer, the wide flats outside the embankment were
+over-grown with reeds, among which gunners congregated in numbers
+dangerous to themselves, shooting rail and reed-birds. On Sundays and
+other holidays, the wide footpath on the high embankment was a moving
+procession of people, who came out of the city to enjoy the fresh breeze
+from the river. All who lived near resorted to these favorite grounds.
+
+Several other little boys and girls were to come to our house and go
+with us. We had long been in the habit of going to the meadows to fish
+and play, where we had the merriest and happiest of times. Sometimes,
+though the meadows were only half a mile from us, we took a slice or two
+of bread-and-butter in a little basket, to serve for dinner, so that we
+could stay all day; for the meadows and ditches extended several miles
+below the city, and we wandered and played all the way down to the Point
+House. On these trips we caught sun-fish, roach, cat-fish, and sometimes
+perch, and always brought them home. We generally got prodigiously
+hungry from the exercise we took, and sat down on the thick grass under
+a tree to eat our scanty dinners. These dinner-times came very early in
+the day; and long before it was time to go home in the afternoon, we
+became even more hungry than we had been in the morning,--but our
+baskets had been emptied.
+
+I think these young days, with these innocent sports and recreations,
+were among the happiest of my life. I do not think the fish we caught
+were of much account, though father was always glad to see them; and I
+remember how he took each one of our baskets, as we came into the
+kitchen, looked into it, and turned over and counted the fishes it
+contained. My brother Fred generally had the most, and I had the fewest:
+but it seems that even for other things than fishes I never had a taking
+way about me. Father was very fond of them, for mother had a way of
+frying their little thin bodies into a nice brown crisp, which made us
+all a good breakfast. So father had made us lines, with corks and hooks,
+tied them to nice little poles, and showed us how to use them and keep
+them in order, and had a corner in the shed in which he taught us to set
+them up out of harm's way. Occasionally he even went with us to the
+meadows himself.
+
+But while I am speaking of these dear times, I must say that we always
+came home happy, though tired and dirty. Sometimes we got into great
+mud-holes along the ditch-bank, so deep as to leave a shoe sticking
+fast, compelling us to trudge home with only one. Then, when we found a
+place where the fish bit sharply, all of us rushed to the spot, and
+pushed into the wild rose-bushes that grew in clumps upon the bank: for
+I generally noticed, that, where the bushes overhung the water and made
+a little shade, the fish were most abundant. In the scramble to secure a
+good foothold, the briers tore our clothes and bonnets, sometimes so as
+to make us fairly ragged, besides scratching our hands and faces
+terribly. Occasionally one of us slipped into the ditch, and was helped
+out dripping wet; but we never mentioned such an incident at home. Then
+more than once we were caught in a heavy shower, with nothing but a
+rose-bush or a willow-tree for shelter; and there were often so many of
+us that it was like a hen with an unreasonably large brood of
+chickens,--some must stay out in the wet, and all such surplusage got
+soaked to the skin.
+
+But we cared nothing for any of these things. Indeed, I am inclined to
+think that we were happy in proportion as we got tired, hungry, wet, and
+dirty. Mother never scolded us when we came home in this condition.
+Though we smelt terribly of mud and fish, and were often smeared over
+with the dried slime of a great slippery eel which had swallowed the
+hook, and coiled himself in knots all over our lines, and required three
+or four of the boys to cut off his head and get the hook out, yet all
+she did was to make us wash ourselves clean, after which she gave us a
+supper that tasted better than all the suppers we get now, and then put
+us to bed. We were tired enough to go right to sleep; but it was the
+fatigue of absolute happiness,--light hearts, light consciences, no
+care, nothing but the perfect enjoyment of childhood, such as never
+comes to us but once.
+
+This is a long digression, but it could not be avoided. I said, that,
+when mother told me I was to make a shirt for father, we were that very
+afternoon to go down among these dear old meadows and dirty ditches to
+fish and play. Our lines were all in order, and a new hook had been put
+on mine, as on the last excursion the old one had caught in what the
+boys call a "blind eel," that is, a sunken log,--and there it probably
+remains to this day. Fred had dug worms for us, and they had coiled
+themselves up into a huge ball in the shell of an old cocoa-nut, ready
+to be impaled on our hooks. Everything was prepared for a start, and we
+were only waiting for dinner to be over: though I can remember, that,
+whenever we had such an afternoon before us, we had very little appetite
+to satisfy. The anticipation and glee were such that the pervading
+desire was not to eat, but to be off.
+
+But when mother gave me the shirt to make, I felt so proud of the trust,
+that all desire to go to the meadows left me. I felt a new sensation, a
+new ambition, a new pride. It was very strange that I should thus
+suddenly give up the ditches, the fishing, the scratching, and the dirt;
+for none of us loved them more dearly than myself. But they were old and
+familiar, and father's shirt was a novelty; and novelty is one of the
+great attractions for the young. So they went without me, and after
+dinner I sat down to make my first shirt.
+
+It was to be made in the plainest way; for father had no pride about his
+dress. I cut it out myself, basted it together, then sewed it with my
+utmost care. There was to be no nice work about collar or wristband,--no
+troublesome plaits or gussets,--no machine-made bosom to set in,--only a
+few gathers,--and all plain work throughout. My mother looked at me
+occasionally as the shirt progressed, but found no fault. She did not
+once stop me to examine it; but I feel sure she must have scrutinized it
+carefully after I had gone to bed. I was so particular in this, my first
+grand effort to secure the honors of a needlewoman, that quite two days
+were occupied in doing it.
+
+When all done, I took it to mother, proud of my achievement, telling
+her, that, if she had more cotton, I was ready to begin another. She
+looked over it with a slowness that I am sure was intentional, and not
+at all necessary. The wristbands were all right, the buttons in the
+proper places, the hemming she said was done well. Then, taking it up by
+the collar, and holding the garment at full length before her, so that I
+could see it all, she asked me if I saw anything wrong. I looked
+closely, but could see no mistake. At last she exclaimed,--
+
+"Why, my dear Lizzie, this is only a bag with arms to it! How is your
+father to get into it?"
+
+She turned it all round before me, and showed me that I had left no
+opening at the bosom and neck,--father could never get it over his head!
+I cannot tell how astonished and mortified I felt. I cried as only such
+a child could cry. I sobbed and begged her not to show it to father, and
+promised to alter it immediately, if she would only tell me how. But,
+oh, how kind my dear mother was in soothing my excited feelings! There
+was not a word of blame. She made me comparatively calm by immediately
+opening the bosom as it should have been done, and showing me how to
+finish it. I hurried up to my chamber to be alone and out of sight. They
+called me to dinner, but my appetite had gone. Though my little heart
+was full, and my hand trembled, yet long before night the work was done.
+
+Oh, how the burden rose from my spirits when my dear mother took me in
+her arms, kissed me tenderly, and said that my mistake was nothing but a
+trifle that I would be sure to remember, and that the shirt was far
+better made than she had expected! When father came in to supper, I took
+it to him and told him that _I_ had made it. He looked both surprised
+and pleased, kissed me with even more than his usual kindness,--I think
+mother must have privately told him of my blunder,--and said that he
+would surely remember me at Christmas.
+
+I know that incidents like these can be of little interest to any but
+myself. But what more exciting ones are to be expected in such a history
+as mine? If they are related here, it is because I am requested to
+record them. Still, every poor sewing-girl will consider that the making
+of her first shirt is an event in her career, a difficulty to be
+surmounted,--and that, even when successfully accomplished, it is in
+reality only the beginning of a long career of toil.
+
+
+
+
+MEMORIES OF AUTHORS.
+
+A SERIES OF PORTRAITS FROM PERSONAL ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+
+THOMAS MOORE.
+
+More than forty years have passed since I first conversed with the poet
+Thomas Moore. Afterwards it was my privilege to know him intimately. He
+seldom, of late years, visited London without spending an evening at our
+house; and in 1845 we passed a happy week at his cottage, Sloperton, in
+the county of Wilts:--
+
+            "In my calendar
+    There are no whiter days!"
+
+The poet has himself noted the time in his diary (November, 1845).
+
+It was in the year 1822 I made his acquaintance in Dublin. He was in the
+full ripeness of middle age,--then, as ever, "the poet of all circles,
+and the idol of his own." As his visits to his native city were few and
+far between, the power to see him, and especially to _hear_ him, was a
+boon of magnitude. It was, indeed, a treat, when, seated at the piano,
+he gave voice to the glorious "Melodies" that are justly regarded as the
+most valuable of his legacies to mankind. I can recall that evening as
+vividly as if it were not a sennight old: the graceful man, small and
+slim in figure, his upturned eyes and eloquent features giving force to
+the music that accompanied the songs, or rather to the songs that
+accompanied the music.
+
+Dublin was then the home of much of the native talent that afterwards
+found its way to England; and there were some, Lady Morgan especially,
+whose "evenings" drew together the wit and genius for which that city
+has always been famous. To such an evening I make reference. It was at
+the house of a Mr. Steele, then High Sheriff of the County of Dublin,
+and I was introduced there by the Rev. Charles Maturin. The name is not
+widely known, yet Maturin was famous in his day--and for a day--as the
+author of two successful tragedies, "Bertram" and "Manuel," (in which
+the elder Kean sustained the leading parts,) and of several popular
+novels. Moreover, he was an eloquent preacher, although probably he
+mistook his calling when he entered the Church. Among his many
+eccentricities I remember one: it was his habit to compose while walking
+about his large and scantily furnished house; and always on such
+occasions he placed a wafer on his forehead,--a sign that none of his
+family or servants were to address him then, to endanger the loss of a
+thought that might enlighten a world. He was always in "difficulties."
+In Lady Morgan's Memoirs it is stated that Sir Charles Morgan raised a
+subscription for Maturin, and supplied him with fifty pounds. "The first
+use he made of the money was to give a grand party. There was little
+furniture in the reception-room, but at one end of it there had been
+erected an old theatrical-property throne, and under a canopy of crimson
+velvet sat Mr. and Mrs. Maturin!"
+
+Among the guests at Mr. Steele's were the poet's father, mother, and
+sister,--the sister to whom he was so fervently attached. The father was
+a plain, homely man,--nothing more, and assuming to be nothing more,
+than a Dublin tradesman.[F] The mother evidently possessed a far higher
+mind. She, too, was retiring and unpretending,--like her son in
+features,--with the same gentle, yet sparkling eye, flexible and smiling
+mouth, and kindly and conciliating manners. It was to be learned long
+afterwards how deep was the affection that existed in the poet's heart
+for these humble relatives,--how fervid the love he bore them,--how
+earnest the respect with which he invariably treated them,--nay, how
+elevated was the pride with which he regarded them from first to last.
+
+The sister, Ellen, was, I believe, slightly deformed; at least, the
+memory to me is that of a small, delicate woman, with one shoulder
+"out." The expression of her countenance betokened suffering, having
+that peculiar "sharpness" which usually accompanies severe and
+continuous bodily ailment.[G] I saw more of her some years afterwards,
+and knew that her mind and disposition were essentially lovable.
+
+To the mother--Anastasia Moore, _nee_ Codd, a humbly descended, homely,
+and almost uneducated woman[H]--Moore gave intense respect and devoted
+affection, from the time that reason dawned upon him to the hour of her
+death. To her he wrote his first letter, (in 1793,) ending with these
+lines--
+
+    "Your absence all but ill endure,
+    And none so ill as--THOMAS MOORE."
+
+And in the zenith of his fame, when society drew largely on his time,
+and the highest and best of the land coveted a portion of his leisure,
+with her he corresponded so regularly that at her death she possessed
+(it has been so told me by Mrs. Moore) four thousand of his letters.
+Never, according to the statement of Earl Russell, did he pass a week
+without writing to her _twice_, except during his absence in Bermuda,
+when franks were not to be obtained, and postages were costly.
+
+When a world had tendered to him its homage, still the homely woman was
+his "darling mother," to whom he transmitted a record of his cares and
+his triumphs, his anxieties and his hopes, as if he considered--as I
+verily believe he did consider--that to give her pleasure was the chief
+enjoyment of his life. His sister--"excellent Nell"--occupied only a
+second place in his heart; while his father received as much of his
+respect as if he had been the hereditary representative of a line of
+kings.
+
+All his life long, "he continued," according to one of the most valued
+of his correspondents, "amidst the pleasures of the world, to preserve
+his home fireside affections true and genuine, as they were when a boy."
+
+To his mother he writes of all his facts and fancies; to her he opens
+his heart in its natural and innocent fulness; tells her of each thing,
+great or small, that, interesting him, must interest her,--from his
+introduction to the Prince, and his visit to Niagara, to the acquisition
+of a pencil-case, and the purchase of a new pocket-handkerchief. "You,
+my sweet mother," he writes, "can see neither frivolity nor egotism in
+these details."
+
+In 1806, Moore's father received, through the interest of Lord Moira,
+the post of Barrack-Master in Dublin, and thus became independent. In
+1815, "Retrenchment" deprived him of this office, and he was placed on
+half-pay. The family had to seek aid from the son, who entreated them
+not to despond, but rather to thank Providence for having permitted them
+to enjoy the fruits of office so long, till he (the son) was "in a
+situation to keep them in comfort without it." "Thank Heaven," he writes
+afterwards of his father, "I have been able to make his latter days
+tranquil and comfortable." When sitting beside his death-bed, (in 1825,)
+he was relieved by a burst of tears and prayers, and by "a sort of
+confidence that the Great and Pure Spirit above us could not be
+otherwise than pleased at what He saw passing in my mind."
+
+When Lord Wellesley, (Lord-Lieutenant,) after the death of the father,
+proposed to continue the half-pay to the sister, Moore declined the
+offer, although, he adds,--"God knows how useful such aid would be to
+me, as God alone knows how I am to support all the burdens now heaped
+upon me"; and his wife at home was planning how "they might be able to
+do with one servant," in order that they might be the better able to
+assist his mother.
+
+The poet was born at the corner of Aungier Street, Dublin, on the 28th
+of May, 1779, and died at Sloperton, on the 25th of February,[I] 1852,
+at the age of seventy-two. What a full life it was! Industry a
+fellow-worker with Genius for nearly sixty years!
+
+He was a sort of "show-child" almost from his birth, and could barely
+walk when it was jestingly said of him, he passed all his nights with
+fairies on the hills. Almost his earliest memory was having been crowned
+king of a castle by some of his playfellows. At his first school he was
+the show-boy of the schoolmaster: at thirteen years old he had written
+poetry that attracted and justified admiration. In 1797 he was "a man of
+mark"; at the University,[J] in 1798, at the age of nineteen, he had
+made "considerable progress" in translating the Odes of Anacreon; and in
+1800 he was "patronized" and flattered by the Prince of Wales, who was
+"happy to know a man of his abilities," and "hoped they might have many
+opportunities of enjoying each other's society."
+
+His earliest printed work, "Poems by Thomas Little," has been the
+subject of much, and perhaps merited, condemnation. Of Moore's own
+feeling in reference to these compositions of his mere, and thoughtless,
+boyhood, it may be right to quote two of the dearest of his friends.
+Thus writes Lisle Bowles of Thomas Moore, in allusion to these early
+poems:--
+
+    "'----Like Israel's incense laid
+    Upon unholy earthly shrines':--
+
+Who, if, in the unthinking gayety of premature genius, he joined the
+sirens, has made ample amends by a life of the strictest virtuous
+propriety, equally exemplary as the husband, the father, and the
+man,--and as far as the muse is concerned, _more_ ample amends, by
+melodies as sweet as Scriptural and sacred, and by weaving a tale of the
+richest Oriental colors, which faithful affection and pity's tear have
+consecrated to all ages." This is the statement of his friend
+Rogers:--"So heartily has Moore repented of having published 'Little's
+Poems,' that I have seen him shed tears,--tears of deep
+contrition,--when we were talking of them."
+
+I allude to his early triumphs only to show, that, while they would have
+spoiled nine men out of ten, they failed to taint the character of
+Moore. His modest estimate of himself was from first to last a leading
+feature in his character. Success never engendered egotism; honors never
+seemed to him only the recompense of desert; he largely magnified the
+favors he received, and seemed to consider as mere "nothings" the
+services he rendered and the benefits he conferred. That was his great
+characteristic, all his life. We have ourselves ample evidence to adduce
+on this head. I copy the following letter from Mr. Moore. It is dated
+"Sloperton, November 29, 1843."
+
+     "MY DEAR MR. HALL,--
+
+     "I am really and truly ashamed of myself for having let so
+     many acts of kindness on your part remain unnoticed and
+     unacknowledged on mine. But the world seems determined to
+     make me a man of letters in more senses than one, and almost
+     every day brings me such an influx of epistles from mere
+     strangers that friends hardly ever get a line from me. My
+     friend Washington Irving used to say, 'It is much easier to
+     get a book from Moore than a letter.' But this has not been
+     the case, I am sorry to say, of late; for the penny-post has
+     become the sole channel of my inspirations. How _am_ I to
+     thank you sufficiently for all your and Mrs. Hall's kindness
+     to me? She must come down here, when the summer arrives, and
+     be thanked _a quattr' occhi_,--far better way of thanking
+     than at such a cold distance. Your letter to the mad
+     Repealers was far too good and wise and gentle to have much
+     effect on such rantipoles."[K]
+
+The house in Aungier Street I visited so recently as 1864. It was then,
+and still is, as it was in 1779, the dwelling of a grocer,--altered only
+so far as that a bust of the poet is placed over the door, and the fact
+that he was born there is recorded at the side. May no modern
+"improvement" ever touch it!
+
+      "The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
+    The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
+    Went to the ground."
+
+This humble dwelling of the humble tradesman is the house of which the
+poet speaks in so many of his early letters and memoranda. Here, when a
+child in years, he arranged a debating society, consisting of himself
+and his father's two "clerks." Here he picked up a little Italian from a
+kindly old priest who had passed some time in Italy, and obtained a
+"smattering of French" from an intelligent _emigre_, named La Frosse.
+Here his tender mother watched over his boyhood, proud of his opening
+promise, and hopeful, yet apprehensive, of his future. Here he and his
+sister, "excellent Nell," acquired music, first upon an old harpsichord,
+obtained by his father in discharge of a debt, and afterwards on a
+piano, to buy which his loving mother had saved up all superfluous
+pence. Hence he issued to lake country walks with unhappy Robert Emmet.
+Hither he came--not less proudly, yet as fondly as ever--when college
+magnates had given him honor, and the King's Viceroy had received him as
+a guest.
+
+In 1835 he records "a visit to No. 12, Aungier Street, where I was
+born." "Visited every part of the house; the small old yard and its
+appurtenances; the small, dark kitchen, where I used to have my bread
+and milk; the front and back drawing-rooms; the bedrooms and
+garrets,--murmuring, 'Only think, a grocer's still!'" "The many thoughts
+that came rushing upon me, while thus visiting the house where the first
+nineteen or twenty years of my life were passed, may be more easily
+conceived than told." He records, with greater unction than he did his
+visit to the Prince, his sitting with the grocer and his wife at their
+table, and drinking in a glass of their wine her and her husband's "good
+health." Thence he went, with all his "recollections of the old shop
+about him," to a grand dinner at the Viceregal Lodge!
+
+I spring with a single line from the year 1822, when I knew him first,
+to the year 1845, when circumstances enabled us to enjoy the
+long-looked-for happiness of visiting Moore and his beloved wife in
+their home at Sloperton.
+
+The poet was then in his sixty-fifth year, and had in a great measure
+retired from actual labor; indeed, it soon became evident to us that the
+faculty for enduring and continuous toil no longer existed. Happily, it
+was not absolutely needed; for, with very limited wants, there was a
+sufficiency,--a bare sufficiency, however, for there were no means to
+procure either the elegances or the luxuries which so frequently become
+the necessities of man, and a longing for which might have been excused
+in one who had been the friend of peers and the associate of princes.
+
+The forests and fields that surround Bowood, the mansion of the Marquis
+of Lansdowne, neighbor the poet's humble dwelling. The spire of the
+village church, beside the portals of which the poet now sleeps, is seen
+above adjacent trees. Laborers' cottages are scattered all about. They
+are a heavy and unimaginative race, those peasants of Wiltshire; and,
+knowing their neighbor had written books, they could by no means get rid
+of the idea that he was the writer of _Moore's Almanac_, and
+perpetually, greeted him with a salutation, in hopes to receive in
+return some prognostic of the weather, which might guide them in
+arrangements for seedtime and harvest. Once, when he had lost his
+way,--wandering till midnight,--he roused up the inmates of a cottage,
+in search of a guide to Sloperton, and, to his astonishment, found he
+was close to his own gate. "Ah, Sir," said the peasant, "that comes of
+yer skyscraping!"
+
+He was fond of telling of himself such simple anecdotes as this; indeed,
+I remember his saying that no applause he ever obtained gave him so much
+pleasure as a compliment from a half-wild countryman, who stood right in
+his path on a quay in Dublin, and exclaimed, slightly altering the words
+of Byron,--"Three cheers for Tommy Moore, the pote of all circles, and
+the _darlint_ of his own!"
+
+I recall him at this moment,--his small form and intellectual face, rich
+in expression, and that expression the sweetest, the most gentle, and
+the kindliest. He had still in age the same bright and clear eye, the
+same gracious smile, the same suave and winning manner I had noticed as
+the attributes of his comparative youth; a forehead not remarkably broad
+or high, but singularly impressive, firm, and full,--with the organ of
+gayety large, and those of benevolence and veneration greatly
+preponderating. Ternerani, when making his bust, praised the form of his
+ears. The nose, as observed in all his portraits, was somewhat upturned.
+Standing or sitting, his head was invariably upraised, owing, perhaps,
+mainly to his shortness of stature, with so much bodily activity as to
+give him the character of restlessness; and no doubt that usual
+accompaniment of genius was eminently his. His hair, at the time I speak
+of, was thin and very gray; and he wore his hat with the jaunty air that
+has been often remarked as a peculiarity of the Irish. In dress,
+although far from slovenly, he was by no means particular. Leigh Hunt,
+speaking of him in the prime of life, says,--"His forehead is bony and
+full of character, with 'bumps' of wit large and radiant enough to
+transport a phrenologist. His eyes are as dark and fine as you would
+wish to see under a set of vine-leaves; his mouth generous and
+good-humored, with dimples." He adds,--"He was lively, polite, bustling,
+full of amenities and acquiescences, into which he contrived to throw a
+sort of roughening cordiality, like the crust of old Port. It seemed a
+happiness to him to say 'Yes.'" Jeffrey, in one of his letters, says of
+him,--"He is the sweetest-blooded, warmest-hearted, happiest,
+hopefullest creature that ever set Fortune at defiance"; he speaks also
+of "the buoyancy of his spirits and the inward light of his mind"; and
+adds,--"There is nothing gloomy or bitter in his ordinary talk, but,
+rather, a wild, rough, boyish pleasantry, much more like Nature than his
+poetry."
+
+    "The light that surrounds him is all from within."
+
+He had but little voice; yet he sang with a depth of sweetness that
+charmed all hearers: it was true melody, and told upon the heart as well
+as the ear. No doubt much of this charm was derived from association;
+for it was only his own "Melodies" he sang. It would be difficult to
+describe the effect of his singing. I remember some one saying to me, it
+conveyed an idea of what a mermaid's song might be. Thrice I heard him
+sing, "As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow,"--once in 1822,
+once at Lady Blessington's, and once in my own house. Those who can
+recall the touching words of that song, and unite them with the deep,
+yet tender pathos of the music, will be at no loss to conceive the
+intense delight of his auditors.
+
+I occasionally met Moore in public, and once or twice at public dinners.
+One of the most agreeable evenings I ever passed was in 1830, at a
+dinner given to him by the members of "The Literary Union." This club
+was founded in 1829 by the poet Campbell. I shall have to speak of it
+when I write a "Memory" of him. Moore was in strong health at that time,
+and in the zenith of his fame. There were many men of mark about
+him,--leading wits and men of letters of the age. He was full of life,
+sparkling and brilliant in all he said, rising every now and then to say
+something that gave the hearers delight, and looking as if "dull care"
+had been ever powerless to check the overflowing of his soul. But
+although no bard of any age knew better how to
+
+    "Wreathe the bowl with flowers of the soul,"
+
+he had acquired the power of self-restraint, and could stop when the
+glass was circulating too freely. At the memorable dinner of the
+Literary Fund, at which the good Prince Albert presided, (on the 11th of
+May, 1842,) the two poets, Campbell and Moore, had to make speeches. The
+author of the "Pleasures of Hope," heedless of the duty that devolved
+upon him, had "confused his brain." Moore came in the evening of that
+day to our house; and I well remember the terms of true sorrow and
+bitter reproach in which he spoke of the lamentable impression that one
+of the great authors of the age and country must have left on the mind
+of the royal chairman, then new among us.
+
+It is gratifying to record, that the temptations to which the great
+lyric poet, Thomas Moore, was so often and so peculiarly exposed, were
+ever powerless for wrong.
+
+Moore sat for his portrait to Shee, Lawrence, Newton, Maclise, Mulvany,
+and Richmond, and to the sculptors Ternerani, Chantrey, Kirk, and Moore.
+On one occasion of his sitting, he says,--"Having nothing in my round
+potato face but what painters cannot catch,--mobility of character,--the
+consequence is, that a portrait of me can be only one or other of two
+disagreeable things,--_caput mortuum_, or a caricature." Richmond's
+portrait was taken in 1843. Moore says of it,--"The artist has worked
+wonders with unmanageable faces such as mine." Of all his portraits,
+this is the one that pleases me best, and most forcibly recalls him to
+my remembrance.
+
+I soon learned to love the man. It was easy to do so; for Nature had
+endowed him with that rare, but happy gift,--to have pleasure in giving
+pleasure, and pain in giving pain; while his life was, or at all events
+seemed to be, a practical comment on his own lines:--
+
+    "They may rail at this life; from the hour I began it,
+    I've found it a life full of kindness and bliss."
+
+I had daily walks with him at Sloperton,--along his
+"terrace-walk,"--during our brief visit; I listening, he talking; he now
+and then asking questions, but rarely speaking of himself or his books.
+Indeed, the only one of his poems to which he made any special reference
+was his "Lines on the Death of Sheridan," of which he said,--"That is
+one of the few things I have written of which I am really proud." And I
+remember startling him one evening by quoting several of his poems in
+which he had said "hard things" of women,--then, suddenly changing,
+repeating passages of an opposite character, and his saying, "You know
+far more of my poems than I do myself."
+
+The anecdotes he told me were all of the class of those I have
+related,--simple, unostentatious. He has been frequently charged with
+the weakness of undue respect for the aristocracy. I never heard him,
+during the whole of our intercourse, speak of great people with whom he
+had been intimate, never a word of the honors accorded to him; and,
+certainly, he never uttered a sentence of satire or censure or harshness
+concerning any one of his contemporaries. I cannot recall any
+conversation with him in which he spoke of intimacy with the great, and
+certainly no anecdote of his familiarity with men or women of the upper
+orders; although he conversed with me often of those who are called the
+lower classes. I remember his describing with proud warmth his visit to
+his friend Boyse, at Bannow, in the County of Wexford: the delight he
+enjoyed at receiving the homage of bands of the peasantry, gathered to
+greet him; the arches of green leaves under which he passed; and the
+dances with the pretty peasant-girls,--one in particular, with whom he
+led off a country-dance.[L] Would that those who fancied him a
+tuft-hunter could have heard him! They would have seen how really humble
+was his heart. Indeed, a reference to his Journal will show that of all
+his contemporaries, whenever he spoke of them, he had ever something
+kindly to say. There is no evidence of ill-nature in any case,--not a
+shadow of envy or jealousy. The sturdiest Scottish grazier could not
+have been better pleased than he was to see the elegant home at
+Abbotsford, or have felt prouder to know that a poet had been created a
+baronet. When speaking of Wordsworth's absorption of all the talk at a
+dinner-table, Moore says,--"But I was well pleased to be a listener."
+And he records, that General Peachey, "who is a neighbor of Southey,
+mentions some amiable traits of him."
+
+The house at Sloperton is a small, neat, but comparatively poor cottage,
+for which Moore paid originally the princely sum of forty pounds a year,
+"furnished." Subsequently, however, he became its tenant under a
+repairing-lease at eighteen pounds annual rent. He took possession of it
+in November, 1817. Bessy was "not only satisfied, but delighted with it,
+which shows the humility of her taste," writes Moore to his mother; "for
+it is a small thatched cottage, and we get it furnished for forty pounds
+a year." "It has a small garden and lawn in front, and a kitchen-garden
+behind. Along two of the sides of this kitchen-garden is a raised
+bank,"--the poet's "terrace-walk," so he loved to call it. Here a small
+deal table stood through all weathers; for it was his custom to compose
+as he walked, and at this table to pause and write down his thoughts.
+Hence he had always a view of the setting sun; and I believe nothing on
+earth gave him more intense pleasure than practically to realize the
+line,--
+
+    "How glorious the sun looked in sinking!"--
+
+for, as Mrs. Moore has since told us, he very rarely missed this sight.
+
+In 1811, the year of his marriage, he lived at York Terrace, Queen's
+Elm, Brompton. Mrs. Moore tells me it was a pretty house: the Terrace
+was then isolated, and opposite nursery-gardens. Long afterwards (in
+1824) he went to Brompton to "indulge himself with a sight of that
+house." In 1812 he was settled at Kegworth; and in 1813, at Mayfield
+Cottage, near Ashbourne, in Derbyshire. Of Mayfield, one of his friends,
+who twenty years afterwards accompanied him there to see it, remarks on
+the small, solitary, and now wretched-looking cottage, where all the
+fine "orientalism" and "sentimentalism" had been engendered. Of this
+cottage he himself writes,--"It was a poor place, little better than a
+barn; but we at once took it and set about making it habitable."
+
+As Burns was made a gauger because he was partial to whiskey, Moore was
+made Colonial Secretary at Bermuda, where his principal duty was to
+"overhaul the accounts of skippers and their mates." Being called to
+England, his affairs were placed in charge of a superintendent, who
+betrayed him, and left him answerable for a heavy debt, which rendered
+necessary a temporary residence in Paris. That debt, however, was paid,
+not by the aid of friends, some of whom would have gladly relieved him
+of it, but literally by "the sweat of his brow." Exactly so it was when
+the MS. "Life of Byron" was burned: it was by Moore, and not by the
+relatives of Byron, (neither was it by aid of friends,) the money he had
+received was returned to the publisher who had advanced it. "The
+glorious privilege of being independent" was, indeed, essentially
+his,--in his boyhood, throughout his manhood, and in advanced
+age,--always!
+
+In 1799 he came to London to enter at the Middle Temple. (His first
+lodging was at 44, George Street, Portman Square.) Very soon afterwards
+we find him declining a loan of money proffered him by Lady Donegal. He
+thanked God for the many sweet things of this kind God threw in his way,
+yet at that moment he was "terribly puzzled how to pay his tailor." In
+1811, his friend Douglas, who had just received a large legacy, handed
+him a blank check, that he might fill it up for any sum he needed. "I
+did not accept the offer," writes Moore to his mother; "but you may
+guess my feelings." Yet just then he had been compelled to draw on his
+publisher, Power, for a sum of thirty pounds, "to be repaid partly in
+songs," and was sending his mother a second-day paper, which he was
+enabled "to purchase at rather a cheap rate." Even in 1842 he was
+"haunted worryingly," not knowing how to meet his son Russell's draft
+for one hundred pounds; and a year afterwards he utterly drained his
+banker to send fifty pounds to his son Tom. Once, being anxious that
+Bessy should have some money for the poor at Bromham, he sent a friend
+five pounds, requesting him to forward it to Bessy as from himself; and
+when urged by some thoughtless person to make a larger allowance to his
+son Tom, in order that he might "live like a gentleman," he writes,--"If
+_I_ had thought but of living like a gentleman, what would have become
+of my dear father and mother, of my sweet sister Nell, of my admirable
+Bessy's mother?" He declined to represent Limerick in Parliament, on the
+ground that his "circumstances were not such as to justify coming into
+Parliament at all, because to the labor of the day I am indebted for my
+daily support." His must be a miserable soul who could sneer at the poet
+studying how he could manage to recompense the doctor who would "take no
+fees," and at his amusement when Bessy was "calculating whether they
+could afford the expense of a fly to Devizes."
+
+As with his mother, so with his wife. From the year 1811, the year of
+his marriage,[M] to that of his death, in 1852, she received from him
+the continual homage of a lover; away from her, no matter what were his
+allurements, he was ever longing to be at home. Those who love as he did
+wife, children, and friends will appreciate, although the worldling
+cannot, such commonplace sentences as these:--"Pulled some heath on
+Ronan's Island (Killarney) to send to my dear Bessy"; when in Italy,
+"got letters from my sweet Bessy, more precious to me than all the
+wonders I can see"; while in Paris, "sending for Bessy and my little
+ones; wherever they are will be home, and a happy home to me." When
+absent, (which was rarely for more than a week,) no matter where or in
+what company, seldom a day passed that he did not write a letter to
+Bessy. The home enjoyments, reading to her, making her the depositary of
+all his thoughts and hopes,--they were his deep delights, compensations
+for time spent amid scenes and with people who had no space in his
+heart. Even when in "terrible request," his thoughts and his heart were
+there,--in
+
+    "That dear Home, that saving Ark,
+      Where love's true light at last I've found,
+    Cheering within, when all grows dark
+      And comfortless and stormy round."
+
+This is the tribute of Earl Russell to the wife of the poet Moore:--"The
+excellence of his wife's moral character, her energy and courage, her
+persevering economy, made her a better and even a richer partner to
+Moore than an heiress of ten thousand a year would have been, with less
+devotion to her duty, and less steadiness of conduct." Moore speaks of
+his wife's "democratic pride." It was the pride that was ever above a
+mean action, and which sustained him in the proud independence that
+marked his character from birth to death.
+
+In March, 1846, his diary contains this sad passage:--"The last of my
+five children is gone, and we are left desolate and alone. Not a single
+relation have I in this world." His father had died in 1825; his sweet
+mother in 1832; "excellent Nell" in 1846; and his children one after
+another, three of them in youth, and two grown up to manhood,--his two
+boys, Tom and Russell, the first-named of whom died in Africa in 1846,
+an officer in the French service; the other at Sloperton in 1842, soon
+after his return from India, having been compelled by ill-health to
+resign his commission as a lieutenant in the Twenty-Fifth Regiment.
+
+In 1835 the influence of Lord Lansdowne obtained for Moore a pension of
+three hundred pounds a year from Lord Melbourne's government,--"as due
+from any government, but much more from one some of the members of which
+are proud to think themselves your friends." The "wolf, poverty,"
+therefore, in his latter years, did not prowl so continually about his
+door. But there was no fund for luxuries, none for the extra comforts
+that old age requires. Mrs. Moore now lives on a crown pension of one
+hundred pounds a year, and the interest of the sum of three thousand
+pounds,--the sum advanced by the ever-liberal friends of the poet, the
+Longmans, for the Memoirs and Journal edited by Lord John, now Earl,
+Russell,--a lord whom the poet dearly loved.
+
+When his diary was published, as from time to time volumes of it
+appeared, slander was busy with the fame of one of the best and most
+upright of all the men that God ennobled by the gift of genius.[N] For
+my own part, I seek in vain through the eight thick volumes of that
+diary for any evidence that can lessen the poet in this high estimate. I
+find, perhaps, too many passages fitted only for the eye of love or the
+ear of sympathy; but I read _no one_ that shows the poet other than the
+devoted and loving husband, the thoughtful and affectionate parent, the
+considerate and generous friend.
+
+It was said of him by Leigh Hunt, that Lord Byron summed up his
+character in a sentence,--"Tommy loves a lord!" Perhaps he did; but if
+he did, only such lords as Lansdowne and Russell were his friends. He
+loved also those who are "lords of humankind" in a far other sense; and,
+as I have shown, there is nothing in his character that stands out in
+higher relief than his entire _freedom from dependence_. To which of the
+great did he apply during seasons of difficulty approaching poverty?
+Which of them did he use for selfish purposes? Whose patronage among
+them all was profitable? To what Baael did the poet Moore ever bend the
+knee?
+
+He had a large share of domestic sorrows; one after another, his five
+beloved children died; I have quoted his words, "We are left--alone."
+His admirable and devoted wife survives him. I visited, a short time
+ago, the home that is now desolate. If ever man was adored where
+adoration, so far as earth is concerned, is most to be hoped for and
+valued, it is in the cottage where the poet's widow lives, and will die.
+
+Let it be inscribed on his tomb, that ever, amid privations and
+temptations, the allurements of grandeur and the suggestions of poverty,
+he preserved his self-respect; bequeathing no property, but leaving no
+debts; having had no "testimonial" of acknowledgment or reward,--seeking
+none, nay, avoiding any; making millions his debtors for intense
+delight, and acknowledging himself paid by the poet's meed, "the tribute
+of a smile"; never truckling to power; laboring ardently and honestly
+for his political faith, but never lending to party that which was meant
+for mankind; proud, and rightly proud, of his self-obtained position,
+but neither scorning nor slighting the humble root from which he sprang.
+
+He was born and bred a Roman Catholic; but his creed was entirely and
+purely catholic. Charity was the outpouring of his heart; its pervading
+essence was that which he expressed in one of his Melodies,--
+
+    "Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights by my side,
+      In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?
+    Shall I give up the friend I have valued and tried,
+      If he kneel not before the same altar with me?"
+
+His children were all baptized and educated members of the Church of
+England. He attended the parish church, and according to the ritual of
+the Church of England he was buried.
+
+It was not any outward change of religion, but homage to a purer and
+holier faith, that induced him to have his children baptized and brought
+up as members of the English Church. "For myself," he says, "my having
+married a Protestant wife gave me opportunity of choosing a religion, at
+least for my children; and if my marriage had no other advantage, I
+should think this quite sufficient to be grateful for."
+
+Moore was the eloquent advocate of his country, when it was oppressed,
+goaded, and socially enthralled; but when time and enlightened policy
+removed all distinctions between the Irishman and the Englishman,
+between the Protestant and the Roman Catholic, his muse was silent,
+because content; nay, he protested in impressive verse against a
+continued agitation that retarded her progress, when her claims were
+admitted, her rights acknowledged, and her wrongs redressed.
+
+Reference to the genius of Moore is needless. My object in this "Memory"
+is to offer homage to his moral and social worth. The world that obtains
+intense delight from his poems, and willingly acknowledges its debt to
+the poet, has been less ready to estimate the high and estimable
+character, the loving and faithful nature of the man. There are,
+however, many--may this humble tribute augment the number!--by whom the
+memory of Thomas Moore is cherished in the heart of hearts; to whom the
+cottage at Sloperton will be a shrine while they live,--that grave
+beside the village church a monument better loved than that of any other
+of the men of genius by whom the world is delighted, enlightened, and
+refined.
+
+"That God is love," writes his friend and biographer, Earl Russell, "was
+the summary of his belief; that a man should love his neighbor as
+himself seems to have been the rule of his life." The Earl of Carlisle,
+inaugurating the statue of the poet,[O] bore testimony to his moral and
+social worth "in all the holy relations of life,--as son, as brother, as
+husband, as father, as friend"; and on the same occasion, Mr. O'Hagan,
+Q.C., thus expressed himself:--"He was faithful to all the sacred
+obligations and all the dear charities of domestic life,--he was the
+idol of a household."
+
+Perhaps a better, though a far briefer, summary of the character of
+Thomas Moore than any of these may be given in the words of Dr. Parr,
+who bequeathed to him a ring:--
+
+"To one who stands high in my estimation for original genius, for his
+exquisite sensibility, for his independent spirit, and incorruptible
+integrity."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[F] Mrs. Moore--writing to me in May, 1864--tells me I have a wrong
+impression as to Moore's father; that he was "handsome, full of fun, and
+with good manners." Moore himself calls him "one of Nature's gentlemen."
+
+[G] Mrs. Moore write me, that I am here also wrong in my impression.
+"She was only a little grown out in one shoulder, but with good health;
+her expression was feeling, not suffering." "Dear Ellen," she adds, "was
+the delight of every one that knew her,--sang sweetly,--her voice very
+like her brother's. She died suddenly, to the grief of my loving heart."
+
+[H] She was born in Wexford, where her father kept a "general shop."
+Moore used to say playfully, that he was called, in order to dignify his
+occupation, "a provision merchant." When on his way to Bannow in 1835 to
+spend a few days with his friend Thomas Boyse,--a genuine gentleman of
+the good old school,--he records his visit to the house of his maternal
+grandfather. "Nothing," he says, "could be more humble and mean than the
+little low house that remains to tell of his whereabouts."
+
+I visited this house in the summer of 1864. It is still a small "general
+shop," situate in the old corn-market of Wexford. The rooms are more
+than usually quaint. Here Mrs. Moore lived until within a few weeks of
+the birth of her illustrious son. We are gratified to record, that, at
+our suggestion, a tablet has been placed over the entrance-door, stating
+in few words the fact that there the mother was born and lived, and that
+to this house the poet came, on the 26th of August, 1835, when in the
+zenith of his fame, to render homage to her memory. He thus writes of
+her and her birthplace in his "Notes" of that year:--"One of the
+noblest-minded, as well as most warm-hearted, of all God's creatures was
+born under that lowly roof."
+
+[I] I find in Earl Russell's memoir the date given as the 26th of
+February; but Mrs. Moore altered it in my MSS. to February 25.
+
+[J] Trinity College, Dublin.--Thomas Moore, son of John Moore, merchant,
+of Dublin, aged 14, pensioner, entered 2d June, 1794. Tutor, Dr.
+Burrows.
+
+[K] Alluding to a pamphlet-letter I had printed, addressed to Repealers,
+when the insanity of Repeal (now happily dead) was at fever-heat.
+
+[L] "One of them (my chief muse) was a remarkably pretty girl; when I
+turned round to her, as she accompanied my triumphal ear, and said,
+'This is a long journey for you,' she answered, with a smile that would
+have done your heart good, 'Oh, I only wish, Sir, it was three hundred
+miles!' There's for you! What was Petrarch in the Capitol to
+that?"--_Journal_, &c.--This "pretty girl's" name is ----, and, strange
+to say, she still keeps it.
+
+[M] Moore was married to Miss Elizabeth Dyke, at St. Martin's Church, on
+the 25th of March, 1811.
+
+[N] There were two who sought to throw filth upon the poet's grave, and
+they were his own countrymen,--Charles Phillips and John Wilson Croker.
+The former had written a wretched and unmeaning pamphlet, which he
+suppressed when a few copies only were issued; and I am proud to believe
+it was in consequence of some remarks upon it written by me, for which
+he commenced, but subsequently abandoned, proceedings against me for
+libel. The atrocious attack on Moore in the "Quarterly Review" was
+written by John Wilson Croker. It was the old illustration of the dead
+lion and the living dog. Yet Croker could at that time be scarcely
+described as living; it was from his death-bed he shot the poisoned
+arrow. And what brought out the venom? Merely a few careless words of
+Moore's, in which he described Croker "as a scribbler of all work,"
+words that Earl Russell would have erased, if it had occurred to him to
+do so. Another countryman, Thomas Crofton Croker, assailed after his
+death the man whose shoe-latchets he would have been proud to unloose
+during his life. Moreover, his earliest slanderer was also of his own
+country,--an author named Quin. Of a truth it has been well said, A
+prophet is never without honor save in his own country. The proverb is
+especially true as regards Irish prophets. Assuredly, Moore was, and is,
+more popular in every part of the world than he was or is in Ireland.
+The reason is plain: he was, so to speak, of two parties, yet of
+neither: the one could not forgive his early aspirations for liberty,
+uttered in imperishable verse; the other could not pardon what they
+called his desertion of their cause, when he saw that England was
+willing to do, and was doing, justice to Ireland.
+
+[O] A bronze statue of Moore has been erected in College Street, Dublin.
+It is a poor affair, the production of his namesake, the sculptor. Bad
+as it is, it is made worse by contrast with its neighbor, Goldsmith,--a
+work by the great Irish artist, Foley,--a work rarely surpassed by the
+art of the sculptor at any period in any country.
+
+
+
+
+ON BOARD THE SEVENTY-SIX
+
+[Written for Bryant's Seventieth Birthday.]
+
+
+    Our ship lay tumbling in an angry sea,
+    Her rudder gone, her mainmast o'er the side;
+    Her scuppers, from the waves' clutch staggering free,
+    Trailed threads of priceless crimson through the tide;
+    Sails, shrouds, and spars with pirate cannon torn,
+    We lay, awaiting morn.
+
+    Awaiting morn, such morn as mocks despair;
+    And she that bore the promise of the world
+    Within her sides, now hopeless, helmless, bare,
+    At random o'er the wildering waters hurled;
+    The reek of battle drifting slow a-lee
+    Not sullener than we.
+
+    Morn came at last to peer into our woe,
+    When lo, a sail! Now surely help is nigh;
+    The red cross flames aloft, Christ's pledge; but no,
+    Her black guns grinning hate, she rushes by
+    And hails us:--"Gains the leak? Ah, so we thought!
+    Sink, then, with curses fraught!"
+
+    I leaned against my gun still angry-hot,
+    And my lids tingled with the tears held back;
+    This scorn methought was crueller than shot;
+    The manly death-grip in the battle-wrack,
+    Yard-arm to yard-arm, were more friendly far
+    Than such fear-smothered war.
+
+    There our foe wallowed like a wounded brute,
+    The fiercer for his hurt. What now were best?
+    Once more tug bravely at the peril's root.
+    Though death come with it? Or evade the test
+    If right or wrong in this God's world of ours
+    Be leagued with higher powers?
+
+    Some, faintly loyal, felt their pulses lag
+    With the slow beat that doubts and then despairs;
+    Some, caitiff, would have struck the starry flag
+    That knits us with our past, and makes us heirs
+    Of deeds high-hearted as were ever done
+    'Neath the all-seeing sun.
+
+    But one there was, the Singer of our crew,
+    Upon whose head Age waved his peaceful sign,
+    But whose red heart's-blood no surrender knew;
+    And couchant under brows of massive line,
+    The eyes, like guns beneath a parapet,
+    Watched, charged with lightnings yet.
+
+    The voices of the hills did his obey;
+    The torrents flashed and tumbled in his song;
+    He brought our native fields from far away,
+    Or set us 'mid the innumerable throng
+    Of dateless woods, or where we heard the calm
+    Old homestead's evening psalm.
+
+    But now he sang of faith to things unseen,
+    Of freedom's birthright given to us in trust;
+    And words of doughty cheer he spoke between,
+    That made all earthly fortune seem as dust,
+    Matched with that duty, old as time and new,
+    Of being brave and true.
+
+    We, listening, learned what makes the might of words,--
+    Manhood to back them, constant as a star;
+    His voice rammed home our cannon, edged our swords,
+    And sent our boarders shouting; shroud and spar
+    Heard him and stiffened; the sails heard and wooed
+    The winds with loftier mood.
+
+    In our dark hour he manned our guns again;
+    Remanned ourselves from his own manhood's store;
+    Pride, honor, country throbbed through all his strain;
+    And shall we praise? God's praise was his before;
+    And on our futile laurels he looks down;
+    Himself our bravest crown.
+
+
+
+
+THE CHIMNEY-CORNER.
+
+
+I.
+
+Here comes the First of January, Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-Five, and we
+are all settled comfortably into our winter places, with our winter
+surroundings and belongings; all cracks and openings are calked and
+listed, the double windows are in, the furnace dragon in the cellar is
+ruddy and in good liking, sending up his warming respirations through
+every pipe and register in the house; and yet, though an artificial
+summer reigns everywhere, like bees, we have our swarming-place,--in my
+library. There is my chimney-corner, and my table permanently
+established on one side of the hearth; and each of the female genus has,
+so to speak, pitched her own winter-tent within sight of the blaze of my
+camp-fire. I discerned to-day that Jennie had surreptitiously
+appropriated one of the drawers of my study-table to knitting-needles
+and worsted; and wicker work-baskets and stands of various heights and
+sizes seem to be planted here and there for permanence among the
+bookcases. The canary-bird has a sunny window, and the plants spread out
+their leaves and unfold their blossoms as if there were no ice and snow
+in the street, and Rover makes a hearth-rug of himself in winking
+satisfaction in front of my fire, except when Jennie is taken with a fit
+of discipline, when he beats a retreat, and secretes himself under my
+table.
+
+Peaceable, ah, how peaceable, home and quiet and warmth in winter! And
+how, when we hear the wind whistle, we think of you, O our brave
+brothers, our saviours and defenders, who for our sake have no home but
+the muddy camp, the hard pillow of the barrack, the weary march, the
+uncertain fare,--you, the rank and file, the thousand unnoticed ones,
+who have left warm fires, dear wives, loving little children, without
+even the hope of glory or fame,--without even the hope of doing anything
+remarkable or perceptible for the cause you love,--resigned only to fill
+the ditch or bridge the chasm over which your country shall walk to
+peace and joy! Good men and true, brave unknown hearts, we salute you,
+and feel that we, in our soft peace and security, are not worthy of you!
+When we think of you, our simple comforts seem luxuries all too good for
+us, who give so little when you give all!
+
+But there are others to whom from our bright homes, our cheerful
+firesides, we would fain say a word, if we dared.
+
+Think of a mother receiving a letter with such a passage as this in it!
+It is extracted from one we have just seen, written by a private in the
+army of Sheridan, describing the death of a private. "He fell instantly,
+gave a peculiar smile and look, and then closed his eyes. We laid him
+down gently at the foot of a large tree. I crossed his hands over his
+breast, closed his eyelids down, but the smile was still on his face. I
+wrapped him in his tent, spread my pocket-handkerchief over his face,
+wrote his name on a piece of paper, and pinned it on his breast, and
+there we left him: we could not find pick or shovel to dig a grave."
+There it is!--a history that is multiplying itself by hundreds daily,
+the substance of what has come to so many homes, and must come to so
+many more before the great price of our ransom is paid!
+
+What can we say to you, in those many, many homes where the light has
+gone out forever?--you, O fathers, mothers, wives, sisters, haunted by a
+name that has ceased to be spoken on earth,--you, for whom there is no
+more news from the camp, no more reading of lists, no more tracing of
+maps, no more letters, but only a blank, dead silence! The battle-cry
+goes on, but for you it is passed by! the victory comes, but, oh, never
+more to bring him back to you! your offering to this great cause has
+been made, and been taken; you have thrown into it _all_ your living,
+even all that you had, and from henceforth your house is left unto you
+desolate! O ye watchers of the cross, ye waiters by the sepulchre, what
+can be said to you? We could almost extinguish our own home-fires, that
+seem too bright when we think of your darkness; the laugh dies on our
+lip, the lamp burns dim through our tears, and we seem scarcely worthy
+to speak words of comfort, lest we seem as those who mock a grief they
+cannot know.
+
+But is there no consolation? Is it nothing to have had such a treasure
+to give, and to have given it freely for the noblest cause for which
+ever battle was set,--for the salvation of your country, for the freedom
+of all mankind? Had he died a fruitless death, in the track of common
+life, blasted by fever, smitten or rent by crushing accident, then might
+his most precious life seem to be as water spilled upon the ground; but
+now it has been given for a cause and a purpose worthy even the anguish
+of your loss and sacrifice. He has been counted worthy to be numbered
+with those who stood with precious incense between the living and the
+dead, that the plague which was consuming us might be stayed. The blood
+of these young martyrs shall be the seed of the future church of
+liberty, and from every drop shall spring up flowers of healing. O
+widow! O mother! blessed among bereaved women! there remains to you a
+treasure that belongs not to those who have lost in any other wise,--the
+power to say, "He died for his country." In all the good that comes of
+this anguish you shall have a right and share by virtue of this
+sacrifice. The joy of freedmen bursting from chains, the glory of a
+nation new-born, the assurance of a triumphant future for your country
+and the world,--all these become yours by the purchase-money of that
+precious blood.
+
+Besides this, there are other treasures that come through sorrow, and
+sorrow alone. There are celestial plants of root so long and so deep
+that the land must be torn and furrowed, ploughed up from the very
+foundation, before they can strike and flourish; and when we see how
+God's plough is driving backward and forward and across this nation,
+rending, tearing up tender shoots, and burying soft wild-flowers, we ask
+ourselves, What is He going to plant?
+
+Not the first year, nor the second, after the ground has been broken up,
+does the purpose of the husbandman appear. At first we see only what is
+uprooted and ploughed in,--the daisy drabbled, and the violet
+crushed,--and the first trees planted amid the unsightly furrows stand
+dumb and disconsolate, irresolute in leaf, and without flower or fruit.
+Their work is under the ground. In darkness and silence they are putting
+forth long fibres, searching hither and thither under the black soil for
+the strength that years hence shall burst into bloom and bearing.
+
+What is true of nations is true of individuals. It may seem now winter
+and desolation with you. Your hearts have been ploughed and harrowed and
+are now frozen up. There is not a flower left, not a blade of grass, not
+a bird to sing,--and it is hard to believe that any brighter flowers,
+any greener herbage, shall spring up, than those which have been torn
+away: and yet there will. Nature herself teaches you to-day. Out-doors
+nothing but bare branches and shrouding snow; and yet you know that
+there is not a tree that is not patiently holding out at the end of its
+boughs next year's buds, frozen indeed, but unkilled. The rhododendron
+and the lilac have their blossoms all ready, wrapped in cere-cloth,
+waiting in patient faith. Under the frozen ground the crocus and the
+hyacinth and the tulip hide in their hearts the perfect forms of future
+flowers. And it is even so with you: your leaf-buds of the future are
+frozen, but not killed; the soil of your heart has many flowers under it
+cold and still now, but they will yet come up and bloom.
+
+The dear old book of comfort tells of no present healing for sorrow.
+_No_ chastening for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous, but
+_afterwards_ it yieldeth peaceable fruits of righteousness. We, as
+individuals, as a nation, need to have faith in that AFTERWARDS. It is
+sure to come,--sure as spring and summer to follow winter.
+
+There is a certain amount of suffering which must follow the rending of
+the great chords of life, suffering which is natural and inevitable; it
+cannot be argued down; it cannot be stilled; it can no more be soothed
+by any effort of faith and reason than the pain of a fractured limb, or
+the agony of fire on the living flesh. All that we can do is to brace
+ourselves to bear it, calling on God, as the martyrs did in the fire,
+and resigning ourselves to let it burn on. We must be willing to suffer,
+since God so wills. There are just so many waves to go over us, just so
+many arrows of stinging thought to be shot into our soul, just so many
+faintings and sinkings and revivings only to suffer again, belonging to
+and inherent in our portion of sorrow; and there is a work of healing
+that God has placed in the hands of Time alone.
+
+Time heals all things at last; yet it depends much on us in our
+suffering, whether time shall send us forth healed, indeed, but maimed
+and crippled and callous, or whether, looking to the great Physician of
+sorrows, and coworking with him, we come forth stronger and fairer even
+for our wounds.
+
+We call ourselves a Christian people, and the peculiarity of
+Christianity is that it is a worship and doctrine of sorrow. The five
+wounds of Jesus, the instruments of the passion, the cross, the
+sepulchre,--these are its emblems and watchwords. In thousands of
+churches, amid gold and gems and altars fragrant with perfume, are seen
+the crown of thorns, the nails, the spear, the cup of vinegar mingled
+with gall, the sponge that could not slake that burning death-thirst;
+and in a voice choked with anguish the Church in many lands and divers
+tongues prays from age to age,--"By thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy
+cross and passion, by thy precious death and burial!"--mighty words of
+comfort, whose meaning reveals itself only to souls fainting in the cold
+death-sweat of mortal anguish! They tell all Christians that by
+uttermost distress alone was the Captain of their salvation made perfect
+as a Saviour.
+
+Sorrow brings us into the true unity of the Church,--that unity which
+underlies all external creeds, and unites all hearts that have suffered
+deeply enough to know that when sorrow is at its utmost there is but one
+kind of sorrow, and but one remedy. What matter, _in extremis_, whether
+we be called Romanist, or Protestant, or Greek, or Calvinist?
+
+We suffer, and Christ suffered; we die, and Christ died; he conquered
+suffering and death, he rose and lives and reigns,--and we shall
+conquer, rise, live, and reign; the hours on the cross were long, the
+thirst was bitter, the darkness and horror real,--_but they ended_.
+After the wail, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" came the calm, "It
+is finished"; pledge to us all that our "It is finished" shall come
+also.
+
+Christ arose, fresh, joyous, no more to die; and it is written, that,
+when the disciples were gathered together in fear and sorrow, he stood
+in the midst of them, and showed unto them his hands and his side; and
+then were they glad. Already had the healed wounds of Jesus become
+pledges of consolation to innumerable thousands; and those who, like
+Christ, have suffered the weary struggles, the dim horrors of the
+cross,--who have lain, like him, cold and chilled in the hopeless
+sepulchre,--if his spirit wakes them to life, shall come forth with
+healing power for others who have suffered and are suffering.
+
+Count the good and beautiful ministrations that have been wrought in
+this world of need and labor, and how many of them have been wrought by
+hands wounded and scarred, by hearts that had scarcely ceased to bleed!
+
+How many priests of consolation is God now ordaining by the fiery
+imposition of sorrow! how many Sisters of the Bleeding Heart, Daughters
+of Mercy, Sisters of Charity, are receiving their first vocation in
+tears and blood!
+
+The report of every battle strikes into some home; and heads fall low,
+and hearts are shattered, and only God sees the joy that is set before
+them, and that shall come out of their sorrow. He sees our morning at
+the same moment that He sees our night,--sees us comforted, healed,
+risen to a higher life, at the same moment that He sees us crushed and
+broken in the dust; and so, though tenderer than we, He bears our great
+sorrows for the joy that is set before us.
+
+After the Napoleonic wars had desolated Europe, the country was, like
+all countries after war, full of shattered households, of widows and
+orphans and homeless wanderers. A nobleman of Silesia, the Baron von
+Kottwitz, who had lost his wife and all his family in the reverses and
+sorrows of the times, found himself alone in the world, which looked
+more dreary and miserable through the multiplying lenses of his own
+tears. But he was one of those whose heart had been quickened in its
+death anguish by the resurrection voice of Christ; and he came forth to
+life and comfort. He bravely resolved to do all that one man could to
+lessen the great sum of misery. He sold his estates in Silesia, bought
+in Berlin a large building that had been used as barracks for the
+soldiers, and, fitting it up in plain commodious apartments, formed
+there a great family-establishment, into which he received the wrecks
+and fragments of families that had been broken up by the war,--orphan
+children, widowed and helpless women, decrepit old people, disabled
+soldiers. These he mad his family, and constituted himself their father
+and chief. He above with them, and cared for them as a parent. He had
+schools for the children; the more advanced he put to trades and
+employments; he set up a hospital for the sick; and for all he had the
+priestly ministrations of his own Christ-like heart. The celebrated
+Professor Tholuck, one of the most learned men of modern Germany, was an
+early _protege_ of the old Baron's, who, discerning his talents, put him
+in the way of a liberal education. In his earlier years, like many
+others of the young who play with life, ignorant of its needs, Tholuck
+piqued himself on a lordly skepticism with regard to the commonly
+received Christianity, and even wrote an essay to prove the superiority
+of the Mohammedan to the Christian religion. In speaking of his
+conversion, he says,--"What moved me was no argument, nor any spoken
+reproof, but simply that divine image of the old Baron walking before my
+soul. That life was an argument always present to me, and which I never
+could answer; and so I became a Christian." In the life of this man we
+see the victory over sorrow. How many with means like his, when
+desolated by like bereavements, have lain coldly and idly gazing on the
+miseries of life, and weaving around themselves icy tissues of doubt and
+despair,--doubting the being of a God, doubting the reality of a
+Providence, doubting the divine love, embittered and rebellious against
+the power which they could not resist, yet to which they would not
+submit! In such a chill heart-freeze lies the danger of sorrow. And it
+is a mortal danger. It is a torpor that must be resisted, as the man in
+the whirling snows must bestir himself, or he will perish. The apathy of
+melancholy must be broken by an effort of religion and duty. The
+stagnant blood must be made to flow by active work, and the cold hand
+warmed by clasping the hands outstretched towards it in sympathy or
+supplication. One orphan child taken in, to be fed, clothed, and
+nurtured, may save a heart from freezing to death: and God knows this
+war is making but too many orphans!
+
+It is easy to subscribe to an orphan asylum, and go on in one's despair
+and loneliness. Such ministries may do good to the children who are
+thereby saved from the street, but they impart little warmth and comfort
+to the giver. One destitute child housed, taught, cared for, and tended
+personally, will bring more solace to a suffering heart than a dozen
+maintained in an asylum. Not that the child will probably prove an
+angel, or even an uncommonly interesting mortal. It is a prosaic work,
+this bringing-up of children, and there can be little rosewater in it.
+The child may not appreciate what is done for him, may not be
+particularly grateful, may have disagreeable faults, and continue to
+have them after much pains on your part to eradicate them,--and yet it
+is a fact, that to redeem one human being from destitution and ruin,
+even in some homely every-day course of ministrations, is one of the
+best possible tonics and alteratives to a sick and wounded spirit.
+
+But this is not the only avenue to beneficence which the war opens. We
+need but name the service of hospitals, the care and education of the
+freedmen,--for these are charities that have long been before the eyes
+of the community, and have employed thousands of busy hands: thousands
+of sick and dying beds to tend, a race to be educated, civilized, and
+Christianized, surely were work enough for one age; and yet this is not
+all. War shatters everything, and it is hard to say what in society will
+not need rebuilding and binding up and strengthening anew. Not the least
+of the evils of war are the vices which a great army engenders wherever
+it moves,--vices peculiar to military life, as others are peculiar to
+peace. The poor soldier perils for us not merely his body, but his soul.
+He leads a life of harassing and exhausting toil and privation, of
+violent strain on the nervous energies, alternating with sudden
+collapse, creating a craving for stimulants, and endangering the
+formation of fatal habits. What furies and harpies are those that follow
+the army, and that seek out the soldier in his tent, far from home,
+mother, wife, and sister, tired, disheartened, and tempt him to forget
+his troubles in a momentary exhilaration, that burns only to chill and
+to destroy! Evil angels are always active and indefatigable, and there
+must be good angels enlisted to face them; and here is employment for
+the slack hand of grief. Ah, we have known mothers bereft of sons in
+this war, who have seemed at once to open wide their hearts, and to
+become mothers to every brave soldier in the field. They have lived only
+to work,--and in place of one lost, their sons have been counted by
+thousands.
+
+And not least of all the fields for exertion and Christian charity
+opened by this war is that presented by womanhood. The war is
+abstracting from the community its protecting and sheltering elements,
+and leaving the helpless and dependent in vast disproportion. For years
+to come, the average of lone women will be largely increased; and the
+demand, always great, for some means by which they may provide for
+themselves, in the rude jostle of the world, will become more urgent and
+imperative.
+
+Will any one sit pining away in inert grief, when two streets off are
+the midnight dance-houses, where girls of twelve, thirteen, and fourteen
+are being lured into the way of swift destruction? How many of these are
+daughters of soldiers who have given their hearts' blood for us and our
+liberties!
+
+Two noble women of the Society of Friends have lately been taking the
+gauge of suffering and misery in our land, visiting the hospitals at
+every accessible point, pausing in our great cities, and going in their
+purity to those midnight orgies where mere children are being trained
+for a life of vice and infamy. They have talked with these poor
+bewildered souls, entangled in toils as terrible and inexorable as those
+of the slave-market, and many of whom are frightened and distressed at
+the life they are beginning to lead, and earnestly looking for the means
+of escape. In the judgment of these holy women, at least one third of
+those with whom they have talked are children so recently entrapped, and
+so capable of reformation, that there would be the greatest hope in
+efforts for their salvation. While such things are to be done in our
+land, is there any reason why any one should die of grief? One soul
+redeemed will do more to lift the burden of sorrow than all the
+blandishments and diversions of art, all the alleviations of luxury, all
+the sympathy of friends.
+
+In the Roman Catholic Church there is an order of women called the
+Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who have renounced the world to devote
+themselves, their talents and property, entirely to the work of seeking
+out and saving the fallen of their own sex; and the wonders worked by
+their self-denying love on the hearts and lives of even the most
+depraved are credible only to those who know that the Good Shepherd
+Himself ever lives and works with such spirits engaged in such a work. A
+similar order of women exists in New York, under the direction of the
+Episcopal Church, in connection with St. Luke's Hospital; and another in
+England, who tend the "House of Mercy" of Clewer.
+
+Such benevolent associations offer objects of interest to that class
+which most needs something to fill the void made by bereavement. The
+wounds of grief are less apt to find a cure in that rank of life where
+the sufferer has wealth and leisure. The _poor_ widow, whose husband was
+her all, _must_ break the paralysis of grief. The hard necessities of
+life are her physicians; they send her out to unwelcome, yet friendly
+toil, which, hard as it seems, has yet its healing power. But the
+sufferer surrounded by the appliances of wealth and luxury may long
+indulge the baleful apathy, and remain in the damp shadows of the valley
+of death till strength and health are irrecoverably lost. How
+Christ-like is the thought of a woman, graceful, elegant, cultivated,
+refined, whose voice has been trained to melody, whose fingers can make
+sweet harmony with every touch, whose pencil and whose needle can awake
+the beautiful creations of art, devoting all these powers to the work of
+charming back to the sheepfold those wandering and bewildered lambs whom
+the Good Shepherd still calls his own! Jenny Lind, once, when she sang
+at a concert for destitute children, exclaimed in her enthusiasm, "Is it
+not beautiful that I can sing so?" And so may not every woman feel, when
+her graces and accomplishments draw the wanderer, and charm away evil
+demons, and soothe the sore and sickened spirit, and make the Christian
+fold more attractive than the dizzy gardens of false pleasure?
+
+In such associations, and others of kindred nature, how many of the
+stricken and bereaved women of our country might find at once a home and
+an object in life! Motherless hearts might be made glad in a better and
+higher motherhood; and the stock of earthly life that seemed cut off at
+the root, and dead past recovery, may be grafted upon with a shoot from
+the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.
+
+So the beginning of this eventful 1865, which finds us still treading
+the wine-press of our great conflict, should bring with it a serene and
+solemn hope, a joy such as those had with whom in the midst of the fiery
+furnace there walked one like unto the Son of God.
+
+The great affliction that has come upon our country is so evidently the
+purifying chastening of a Father, rather than the avenging anger of a
+Destroyer, that all hearts may submit themselves in a solemn and holy
+calm still to bear the burning that shall make us clean from dross and
+bring us forth to a higher national life. Never, in the whole course of
+our history, have such teachings of the pure abstract Right been so
+commended and forced upon us by Providence. Never have public men been
+so constrained to humble themselves before God, and to acknowledge that
+there is a Judge that ruleth in the earth. Verily His inquisition for
+blood has been strict and awful; and for every stricken household of the
+poor and lowly, hundreds of households of the oppressor have been
+scattered. The land where the family of the slave was first annihilated,
+and the negro, with all the loves and hopes of a man, was proclaimed to
+be a beast to be bred and sold in market with the horse and the
+swine,--that land, with its fair name, Virginia, has been made a
+desolation so signal, so wonderful, that the blindest passer-by cannot
+but ask for what sin so awful a doom has been meted out. The prophetic
+visions of Nat Turner, who saw the leaves drop blood and the land
+darkened, have been fulfilled. The work of justice which he predicted is
+being executed to the uttermost.
+
+But when this strange work of judgment and justice is consummated, when
+our country, through a thousand battles and ten thousands of precious
+deaths, shall have come forth from this long agony, redeemed and
+regenerated, then God Himself shall return and dwell with us, and the
+Lord God shall wipe away all tears from all faces, and the rebuke of His
+people shall He utterly take away.
+
+
+
+
+GOD SAVE THE FLAG!
+
+
+    Washed in the blood of the brave and the blooming,
+      Snatched from the altars of insolent foes,
+    Burning with star-fires, but never consuming,
+      Flash its broad ribands of lily and rose.
+
+    Vainly the prophets of Baael would rend it,
+      Vainly his worshippers pray for its fall;
+    Thousands have died for it, millions defend it,
+      Emblem of justice and mercy to all:
+
+    Justice that reddens the sky with her terrors,
+      Mercy that comes with her white-handed train,
+    Soothing all passions, redeeming all errors,
+      Sheathing the sabre and breaking the chain.
+
+    Borne on the deluge of old usurpations,
+      Drifted our Ark o'er the desolate seas;
+    This was the rainbow of hope to the nations,
+      Torn from the storm-cloud and flung to the breeze!
+
+    God bless the Flag and its loyal defenders.
+      While its broad folds o'er the battle-field wave,
+    Till the dim star-wreath rekindle its splendors,
+      Washed from its stains in the blood of the brave!
+
+
+
+
+ANNO DOMINI.
+
+
+It is right and fitting that this nation should enter upon the new year
+with peculiar gratitude and thanksgiving to the Most High. Through all
+its existence it has rejoiced in the sunshine of divine favor; but never
+has that favor been so benignly and bountifully bestowed as in these
+latter days. For the unexampled material prosperity which has waited
+upon our steps,--for blessings in city and field, in basket and store,
+in all that we have set our hand unto, it is meet that we should render
+thanks to the Good Giver; but for the especial blessings of these last
+four years,--for the sudden uprising of manhood,--for the great revival
+of justice and truth and love, without which material prosperity is but
+a second death,--for the wisdom to do, the courage to dare, the patience
+to endure, and the godlike strength to sacrifice all in a righteous
+cause, let us give thanks to-day; for in these consists a people's life.
+
+To every nation there comes an hour whereon hang trembling the issues of
+its fate. Has it vitality to withstand the shock of conflict and the
+turmoil of surprise? Will it slowly gather itself up for victorious
+onset? or will it sink unresisting into darkness and the grave?
+
+To this nation, as to all, the question came: Ease or honor, death or
+life? Subtle and savage, with a bribe in his hand, and a threat on his
+tongue, the tempter stood. Let it be remembered with lasting gratitude
+that there was neither pause nor parley when once his purpose was
+revealed. The answer came,--the voice of millions like the voice of one.
+From city and village, from mountain and prairie, from the granite coast
+of the Atlantic to the golden gate of the Pacific, the answer came. It
+roared from a thousand cannon, it flashed from a million muskets. The
+sudden gleam of uplifted swords revealed it, the quiver of bristling
+bayonets wrote it in blood. A knell to the despot, a paean to the slave,
+it thundered round the world.
+
+Then the thing which we had greatly feared came upon us, and that
+spectre which we had been afraid of came unto us, and, behold, length of
+days was in its right hand, and in its left hand riches and honor. What
+the lion-hearted warrior of England was to the children of the Saracens,
+that had the gaunt mystery of Secession been to the little ones of this
+generation, an evening phantom and a morning fear, at the mere mention
+of whose name many had been but too ready to fall at the feet of
+opposition and cry imploringly, "Take any form but that!" The phantom
+approached, put off its shadowy outlines, assumed a definite purpose,
+loomed up in horrid proportions,--to come to perpetual end. In its
+actual presence all fear vanished. The contest waxed hot, but it wanes
+forever. Shadow and substance drag slowly down their bloody path to
+disappear in eternal infamy. The war rolls on to its close; and when it
+closes, the foul blot of secession stains our historic page no more.
+Another book shall be opened.
+
+Remembering all the way which these battling years have led us, we can
+only say, "It is the Lord's, doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
+Who dreamed of the grand, stately patience, the heroic strength, that
+lay dormant in the hearts of this impulsive, mercurial people? It was
+always capable of magnanimity. Who suspected its sublime self-poise?
+Rioting in a reckless, childish freedom, who would have dared to
+prophesy that calm, clear foresight by which it voluntarily assumed the
+yoke, voiced all its strong individual wills in one central controlling
+will, and bent with haughty humility to every restraint that looked to
+the rescue of its endangered liberty? The cannon that smote the walls of
+Sumter did a wild work. Its voice of insult and of sacrilege roused the
+fire of a blood too brave to know its courage, too proud to boast its
+source. All the heroism inherited from an honored ancestry, all the
+inborn wrath of justice against iniquity, all that was true to truth
+sprang up instinctively to wrest our Holy Land from the clutch of its
+worse than infidels.
+
+But that was not the final test. The final test came afterwards. The
+passion of indignation flamed out as passion must. The war that had been
+welcomed as a relief bore down upon the land with an ever-increasing
+weight, became an ever-darkening shadow. Its romance and poetry did not
+fade out, but their colors were lost under the sable hues of reality.
+The cloud hung over every hamlet; it darkened every doorway. Even
+success must have been accompanied with sharpest sorrow; and we had not
+success to soften sorrow. Disaster followed close upon delay, and delay
+upon disaster, and still the nation's heart was strong. The cloud became
+a pall, but there was no faltering. Men said to one another,
+anxiously,--"This cannot last. We must have victory. The people will not
+stand these delays. The summer must achieve results, or all is lost."
+The summer came and went, results were not achieved, and still the
+patient country waited,--waited not supinely, not indifferently, but
+with a still determination, with a painful longing, with an eager
+endeavor, with a resolute will, less demonstrative, but no less
+definite, than that which Sumter roused. Moments of sadness, of gloom,
+of bitter disappointment and deep indignation there have been; but never
+from the first moment of the Rebellion to this its dying hour has there
+been a time when the purpose of the people to crush out treason and save
+the nation has for a single instant wavered. And never has their power
+lagged behind their purpose. Never have they withheld men or money, but
+always they have pressed on, more eager, more generous, more forward to
+give than their leaders have been to ask. Truly, it is not in man that
+walketh thus to direct his steps!
+
+And side by side, with no unequal step, the great charities have
+attended the great conflict. Out of the strong has come forth sweetness.
+From the helmeted brow of War has sprung a fairer than Minerva,
+panoplied not for battle, but for the tenderest ministrations of Peace.
+Wherever the red hand of War has been raised to strike, there the white
+hand of Pity has been stretched forth to solace. Wherever else there may
+have been division, here there has been no division. Love, the essence
+of Christianity, self-sacrifice, the life of God, have forgotten their
+names, have left the beaten ways, have embodied themselves in
+institutions, and lifted the whole nation to the heights of a divine
+beneficence. Old and young, rich and poor, bond and free, have joined in
+offering an offering to the Lord in the persons of his wounded brethren.
+The woman that was tender and very delicate has brought her finest
+handiwork; the slave, whose just unmanacled hands were hardly yet deft
+enough to fashion a freedman's device, has proffered his painful hoards;
+the criminal in his cell has felt the mysterious brotherhood stirring in
+his heart, and has pressed his skill and cunning into the service of his
+countrymen. Hands trembling with age have steadied themselves to new
+effort; little fingers that had hardly learned their uses have bent with
+unwonted patience to the novelty of tasks. The fashion and elegance of
+great cities, the thrift and industry of rural villages, have combined
+to relieve the suffering and comfort the sorrowful. Science has wrought
+her mysteries, art has spread her beauties, and learning and eloquence
+and poetry have lavished their free-will offerings. The ancient blood of
+Massachusetts and the youthful vigor of California have throbbed high
+with one desire to give deserved meed to those heroic men who wear their
+badge of honor in scarred brow and maimed limb. The wonders of the Old
+World, the treasures of tropical seas, the boundless wealth of our own
+fertile inland, all that the present has of marvellous, all that the
+past has bequeathed most precious,--all has been poured into the lap of
+this sweet charity, and blesseth alike him that gives and him that
+takes. It is the old convocation of the Jews, when they brought the
+Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation: "And
+they came, both men and women, and brought bracelets, and ear-rings, and
+rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold; and every man that offered
+offered an offering of gold unto the Lord. And every man with whom was
+found blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen and goats' hair and red
+skins of rams and badgers' skins brought them. And all the women that
+were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they
+had spun, both of blue and of purple and of scarlet and of fine linen.
+And the rulers brought onyx-stones, and stones to be set, and spice, and
+oil for the light. The children of Israel brought a willing offering
+unto the Lord, every man and woman."
+
+Truly, not the least of the compensations of this war is the new spirit
+which it has set astir in human life, this acknowledged brotherhood
+which makes all things common, which moves health and wealth and leisure
+and learning to brave the dangers of the battle-field and the horrors of
+the hospital for the comfort of its needy comrade. And inasmuch as he
+who hath done it unto one of the least of these his brethren has done it
+unto the Master, is not this, in very deed and truth, Anno Domini, the
+Year of our Lord?
+
+And let all devout hearts render praises to God for the hope we are
+enabled to cherish that He will speedily save this people from their
+national sin. From the days of our fathers, the land groaned under its
+weight of woe and crime; but none saw from what quarter deliverance
+should come. Apostles and prophets arose in North and South, prophesying
+the wrath of God against a nation that dared to hold its great truth of
+human brotherhood in unrighteousness, and the smile of God only on him
+who should do justly and love mercy and walk humbly before Him; but they
+died in faith, not having obtained the promises. That faith in God, and
+consequently in the ultimate triumph of right over wrong, never failed;
+but few, even of the most sanguine, dared to hope that their eyes should
+see the salvation of the Lord. Upright men spent their lives in
+unyielding and indignant protest, not so much for any immediate result
+as because they could do no otherwise,--because the constant violation
+of sacred right, the constant defilement and degradation of country,
+wrought so fiercely and painfully in their hearts that they could not
+hold their peace. Though they expected no sudden reform, they believed
+in the indestructibility of truth, and knew, therefore, that their word
+should not return unto them void, but waited for some far future day
+when happier harvesters should come bringing their sheaves with them.
+How looks the promise now? A beneficent Providence has outstripped our
+laggard hopes. The work which we had so summarily given over to the
+wiser generations behind us is rapidly approaching completion beneath
+the strokes of a few sharp, short years of our own. Slavery, which was
+apologized for by the South, tolerated by the North, half recognized as
+an evil, half accepted as a compromise, but with every conscientious
+concession and every cowardly expedient sinking ever deeper and deeper
+into the nation's life, stands forth at last in its real character, and
+meets its righteous doom. Public opinion, rapidly sublimed in the white
+heat of this fierce war, is everywhere crystallizing. Men are learning
+to know precisely what they believe, and, knowing, dare maintain. There
+is no more speaking with bated breath, no more counselling of
+forbearance and non-intervention. It is no longer a chosen few who dare
+openly to denounce the sum of all villainies; but loud and long and deep
+goes up the execration of a people,--the tenfold hate and horror of men
+who have seen the foul fiend's work, who have felt his fangs fastened in
+their own flesh, his poison working in their own hearts' blood.
+Hundreds of thousands of thinking men have gone down into his loathsome
+prison-house, have looked upon his obscene features, have grappled,
+shuddering, with his slimy strength; and thousands of thousands,
+watching them from far-off Northern homes, have felt the chill of
+disgust that crept through their souls. The inmost abhorrence of slavery
+that fills the heart of this people it is impossible for language to
+exaggerate. It is so strong, so wide-spread, so uncompromising, so fixed
+in its determination to destroy, root and branch, the accursed thing,
+that even the forces of evil and self-seeking, awed and overpowered, are
+swept into the line of its procession. Good men and bad men, lovers of
+country and lovers only of lucre, men who will fight to the death for a
+grand idea and men who fight only for some low ambition, worshippers of
+God and worshippers of Mammon, are alike putting their hands to the
+plough which is to overturn and overturn till the ancient evil is
+uprooted. The very father of lies is, perforce, become the servant of
+truth. That old enemy which is the Devil, the malignant messenger of all
+evil, finds himself,--somewhat amazed and enraged, we must believe, at
+his unexpected situation,--with all his executive ability undiminished,
+all his spiritual strength unimpaired, finds himself harnessed to the
+chariot of human freedom and human progress, and working in his own
+despite the beneficent will of God. So He maketh the wrath of men and
+devils to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain.
+
+Unspeakably cheering, both as a sign of the sincerity of our leaders in
+this great day and as a pledge of what the nation means to do when its
+hands are free, are the little Christian colonies planted in the rear of
+our victorious armies. In the heart of woods are often seen large tracts
+of open country gay with a brilliant purple bloom which the people call
+"fire-weed," because it springs up on spots that have been stripped by
+fire. So, where the old plantations of sloth and servitude have been
+consumed by the desolating flames of war, spring up the tender growths
+of Christian civilization. The filthy hovel is replaced by the decent
+cottage. The squalor of slavery is succeeded by the little adornments of
+ownership. The thrift of self-possession supplants the recklessness of
+irresponsibility. For the slave-pen we have the school-house. Where the
+lash labored to reduce men to the level of brutes, the Bible leads them
+up to the heights of angels. We are as yet but in the beginning, but we
+have begun right. With his staff the slave passes over the Jordan of his
+deliverance; but through the manly nurture and Christian training which
+we owe him, and which we shall pay, he shall become two bands. The
+people did not set themselves to combat prejudices with words alone,
+when the time was ripe for deeds; but while the Government was yet
+hesitating whether to put the musket into his hand for war, Christian
+men and women hastened to give him the primer for peace. Not waiting for
+legislative enactments, they took the freedman as he came all panting
+from the house of bondage; they ministered to his wants, strengthened
+his heart, and set him rejoicing on his way to manhood. The Proclamation
+of Emancipation may or may not be revoked; but whom knowledge has made a
+man, and discipline a soldier, no edict can make again a slave.
+
+While the people have been working in their individual capacity to right
+the wrongs of generations, our constituted authorities have been moving
+on steadfastly to the same end. Military necessity has emancipated
+thousands of slaves, and civil power has pressed ever nearer and nearer
+to the abolition of slavery. In all the confusion of war, the
+trumpet-tones of justice have rung through our national halls with no
+uncertain sound. With a pertinacity most exasperating to tyrants and
+infidels, but most welcome to the friends of human rights, Northern
+Senators and Representatives have presented the claims of the African
+race. With many a momentary recession, the tide has swept irresistibly
+onward. Hopes have been baffled only to be strengthened. Measures have
+been defeated only to be renewed. Defeat has been accepted but as the
+stepping-stone to new endeavor. Cautiously, warily, Freedom has lain in
+wait to rescue her wronged children. Her watchful eyes have fastened
+upon every weakness in her foe: her ready hand has been upraised
+wherever there was a chance to strike. Quietly, almost unheard amid the
+loud-resounding clash of arms, her decrees have gone forth, instinct
+with the enfranchisement of a race. The war began with old customs and
+prejudices under full headway, but the new necessities soon met them
+with fierce collision. The first shock was felt when the escaping slaves
+of Rebel masters were pronounced free, and our soldiers were forbidden
+to return them. Then the blows came fast and furious, and the whole
+edifice, reared on that crumbling corner-stone of Slavery, reeled
+through all its heaven-defying heights. The gates of Liberty opened to
+the slave, on golden hinges turning. The voice of promise rang through
+Rebel encampments, and penetrated to the very fastnesses of Rebellion.
+The ranks of the army called the freedman to the rescue of his race. The
+courts of justice received him in witness of his manhood. Before every
+foreign court he was acknowledged as a citizen of his country, and as
+entitled to her protection. The capital of our nation was purged of the
+foul stain that dishonored her in the eyes of the nations, and that gave
+the lie direct to our most solemn Declaration. The fugitive-slave
+acts that disfigured our statute-book were blotted out, and
+fugitive-slave-stealer acts filled their vacant places. The seal of
+freedom, unconditional, perpetual, and immediate, was set upon the broad
+outlying lands of the republic, and from the present Congress we
+confidently await the crowning act which shall make slavery forever
+impossible, and liberty the one supreme, universal, unchangeable law in
+every part of our domains.
+
+What we have done is an earnest of what we mean to do. After nearly four
+years of war, and war on such a scale as the world has never before
+seen, the people have once more, and in terms too emphatic to be
+misunderstood, proclaimed their undying purpose. With a unanimity rarely
+equalled, a people that had fought eight years against a tax of
+threepence on the pound, and that was rapidly advancing to the front
+rank of nations through the victories of peace,--a people jealous of its
+liberties and proud of its prosperity, has reelected to the chief
+magistracy a man under whose administration burdensome taxes have been
+levied, immense armies marshalled, imperative drafts ordered, and
+fearful sufferings endured. They have done this because, in spite of
+possible mistakes and short-comings, they have seen his grasp ever
+tightening around the throat of Slavery, his weapons ever seeking the
+vital point of the Rebellion. They have beheld him standing always at
+his post, calm in the midst of peril, hopeful when all was dark, patient
+under every obloquy, courteous to his bitterest foes, conciliatory where
+conciliation was possible, inflexible where to yield was dishonor. Never
+have the passions of civil war betrayed him into cruelty or hurried him
+into revenge; nor has any hope of personal benefit or any fear of
+personal detriment stayed him when occasion beckoned. If he has erred,
+it has been on the side of leniency. If he has hesitated, it has been to
+assure himself of the right. Where there was censure, he claimed it for
+himself; where there was praise, he has lavished it on his subordinates.
+The strong he has braved, and the weak sheltered. He has rejected the
+counsels of his friends when they were inspired by partisanship, and
+adopted the suggestions of opponents when they were founded on wisdom.
+His ear has always been open to the people's voice, yet he has never
+suffered himself to be blindly driven by the storm of popular fury. He
+has consulted public opinion, as the public servant should; but he has
+not pandered to public prejudice, as only demagogues do. Not weakly
+impatient to secure the approval of the country, he has not scorned to
+explain his measures to the understanding of the common people. Never
+bewildered by the solicitations of party, nor terrified by the menace of
+opposition, he has controlled with moderation, and yielded with dignity,
+as the exigencies of the time demanded. Entering upon office with his
+full share of the common incredulity, perceiving no more than his
+fellow-citizens the magnitude of the crisis, he has steadily risen to
+the height of the great argument. No suspicion of self-seeking stains
+his fair fame; but ever mindful of his solemn oath, he seeks with clean
+hands and a pure heart the welfare of the whole country. Future
+generations alone can do justice to his ability; his integrity is firmly
+established in the convictions of the present age. His reward is with
+him, though his work lies still before him.
+
+Only less significant than the fact is the manner of his reflection. All
+sections of a continental country, with interests as diverse as latitude
+and longitude can make them, came up to secure, not any man's
+continuance in power, but the rule of law. The East called with her
+thousands, and the West answered with her tens of thousands. Baltimore
+that day washed out the blood-stains from her pavement, and free
+Maryland girded herself for a new career. Men who had voted for
+Washington came forward with the snows of a hundred winters on their
+brows, and amid the silence and tears of assembled throngs deposited
+their ballot for Abraham Lincoln. Daughters led their infirm fathers to
+the polls to be sure that no deception should mock their failing sight.
+Armless men dropped their votes from between their teeth. Sick men and
+wounded men, wounded on the battle-fields of their country, were borne
+on litters to give their dying testimony to the righteous cause.
+Dilettanteism, that would not soil its dainty hands with politics, dared
+no longer stand aloof, but gave its voice for national honor and
+national existence. Old party ties snapped asunder, and local prejudices
+shrivelled in the fire of newly kindled patriotism. Turbulence and
+violence, awed by the supreme majesty of a resolute nation, slunk away
+and hid their shame from the indignant day. Calmly, in the midst of
+raging war, in despite of threats and cajolery, with a lofty, unspoken
+contempt for those false men who would urge to anarchy and infamy, this
+great people went up to the ballot-box, and gave in its adhesion to
+human equality, civil liberty, and universal freedom. And as the good
+tidings of great joy flashed over the wires from every quarter, men
+recognized the finger of God, and, laying aside all lower exultation,
+gathered in the public places, and, standing reverently with uncovered
+heads, poured forth their rapturous thanksgiving in that sublime
+doxology which has voiced for centuries the adoration of the human
+soul:--
+
+    "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!
+    Praise Him, all creatures here below!
+    Praise Him above, ye heavenly host!
+    Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!"
+
+So America to the world gives greeting. So a free people meets and
+masters the obstacles that bar its progress. So this young republic
+speaks warning to the old despotisms, and hope to the struggling
+peoples. Thus with the sword she seeks peace under liberty. Striking off
+the shackles that fettered her own limbs, emerging from the thick of her
+deadly conflict, with many a dint on her armor, but with no shame on her
+brow, she starts on her victorious career, and bids the suffering
+nations take heart. With the old lie torn from her banner, the old life
+shall come back to her symbols. Her children shall no longer blush at
+the taunts of foreign tyrannies, but shall boldly proclaim her to be
+indeed the land of the free, as she has always been the home of the
+brave. Men's minds shall no longer be confused by distinctions between
+higher and lower law, to the infinite detriment of moral character, but
+all her laws shall be emanations from the infinite source of justice.
+Marshalling thus all her forces on the Lord's side, she may inscribe,
+without mockery, on her silver and gold, "In God we trust." She may hope
+for purity in her homes, and honesty in her councils. She may front her
+growing grandeur without misgiving, knowing that it comes not by earthly
+might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts; and the only
+voice of her victory, the song of her thanksgiving, and her watchword to
+the nations shall be, "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace,
+good-will toward men."
+
+
+
+
+REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+
+     _America and her Commentators:_ With a Critical Sketch of
+     Travel in the United States. By HENRY T. TUCKERMAN. New
+     York: Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. 460.
+
+If a little late, we are none the less sincere in extending to this
+timely and excellent work a hearty welcome. It is full of varied
+interest and valuable instruction. It is equally adapted to attract and
+edify our own citizens, and to guide and inform those foreigners who
+wish to know the history and facts of American society. The object of
+the work is to present a general view of the traits and transitions of
+our country, as they are reflected in the records made at different
+periods by writers of various nationalities, and to discuss, in
+connection with this exhibition, the temper and value of the principal
+critics of our civilization, emphasizing and indorsing their correct
+observations, pointing out and rectifying their erroneous ones. There
+are obviously many great advantages in thus reverting to the past and
+examining the present of American institutions and life by the help of
+the literature of travel in America,--a literature so richly suggestive,
+because so constantly modified by the national peculiarities and
+personal points of view of the writers. Mr. Tuckerman has improved these
+advantages with care and tact. In the preface and introduction,
+characterized by an ample command of the resources of the subject, easy
+discursiveness and lively criticism, he puts the reader in possession of
+such preliminary information as he will like or need to have. The body
+of the work begins with a portrayal of America as it appeared to its
+earliest discoverers and explorers. The second chapter is devoted to the
+Jesuit missionaries, who, reviving the spirit of the Crusades, plunged
+into the wilderness to convert the aborigines to Christianity, and,
+inspired by the wonders of the virgin solitude, became the pioneer
+writers of American travels. Chapters third and fourth deal with the
+French travellers who have visited and written on our country, from
+Chastellux to Laboulaye. The similar list of British travellers and
+writers is presented and discussed in the fifth and sixth chapters.
+Chapter seventh is taken up with "English Abuse of America"; and the
+subject has rarely been treated so fitly and firmly, with such a
+blending of just severity and moderation. "Cockneyism," Mr. Tuckerman
+says, "may seem not worthy of analysis, far less of refutation; but, as
+Sydney Smith remarked, 'In a country surrounded by dikes, a rat may
+inundate a province'; and it is the long-continued gnawing of the tooth
+of detraction, that, at a momentous crisis, let in the cold flood at
+last upon the nation's heart, and quenched its traditional love." The
+eighth chapter depicts the views and characterizes the qualities of the
+Northern European authors who have travelled in America and written
+concerning us. In the ninth chapter our Italian visitors and critics are
+treated in like manner. And in the tenth chapter the same task is
+performed for the Americans themselves who have journeyed through and
+written on their own country. Then follows the conclusion,
+recapitulating and applying the results of the whole survey. And the
+work properly closes with an index, furnishing the reader facilities for
+immediate reference to any passage, topic, or name he wishes to find.
+
+For the task he has here undertaken Mr. Tuckerman is well qualified by
+the varied and comprehensive range of his knowledge and culture, the
+devotion of his life to travel, art, and study. His pages not only
+illustrate, they also vindicate, the character and claims of American
+nationality. He shows that "there never was a populous land about which
+the truth has been more generalized and less discriminated." His
+descriptions of local scenery and historic incidents recognize all that
+is lovely and sublime in our national landscapes, all that is romantic
+or distinctive in our national life. His humane and ethical sympathies
+are ready, discriminating, and generous; his approbations and rebukes,
+vivid and generally rightly applied. These and other associated
+qualities lend interest and value to the biographic sketches he presents
+of the numerous travellers and authors whose works pass in review. The
+pictures of many of these persons--such as Marquette, Volney,
+D'Allessandro, Bartram--are psychological studies of much freshness and
+force.
+
+
+     _Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American
+     Revolution:_ With an Historical Essay. By LORENZO SABINE.
+     Two Volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 8vo. pp. 608, 600.
+
+Mr. Sabine has attempted in these volumes to present in a judicial
+spirit a chapter of our Revolutionary history which usually bears the
+most of passion in its recital,--believing, as he does, that
+impartiality is identical with charity, in dealing with his theme. The
+first edition of his work, in a single volume, has been before the
+public seventeen years. The zeal and fidelity of his labor have been
+well appreciated. So far as his purpose has involved a plea or an
+apology for the Loyalists of the American Revolution, his critics who
+have at all abated their commendation of him have challenged him on the
+side where he might most willingly have been supposed to err, that of an
+excess of leniency. As to the class of men with whom he deals generally
+in his introductory essay, and individually in the elaborate
+biographical sketches which follow, the same difficulty presents itself
+which is encountered in all attempts to canvass the faults or the
+characteristics of any body of men who bear a common party-name or share
+a common opinion, while in the staple of real virtue or vice, of honor
+or baseness, of sincerity or hypocrisy, they may represent the poles of
+difference. The contemporary estimate of the Tories, and in large part
+the treatment of them which was thought to be just, were, in the main,
+adjusted with reference to the meanest and most malignant portion. Mr.
+Sabine, while by no means espousing the championship even of the best of
+them, would have the whole body judged with the candor which comes of
+looking at their general fellowship in the light of its natural
+prejudices, prepossessions, and embarrassments. It is to be considered
+also that the best of the class were a sort of warrant for the worst.
+
+Those who are tolerably well read in the biographies and histories of
+our Revolutionary period are aware that Dr. Franklin, who, about most
+exciting and passion-stirring subjects, was a man of remarkably moderate
+and tolerant spirit, was eminently a hater of the Tories, unrelenting in
+his animosity towards them, and sternly set against all the measures
+proposed at the Peace for their relief, either by the British Government
+to enforce our remuneration of their losses, or by our own General or
+State Governments to soften the penalties visited upon them. The origin
+and the explanation of this intense feeling of animosity toward the
+Loyalists in the breast of that philosopher of moderation are easily
+traced to one of the most interesting incidents in his residence near
+the British Court as agent for Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The
+incident is connected with the still unexplained mystery of his getting
+possession of the famous letters of Hutchinson, Oliver, etc. Franklin
+was living and directing all his practical efforts for enlightening and
+influencing those whom he supposed to be simply the ignorant plotters of
+mischief against the Colonists, under the full and most confident belief
+that those plotters were merely the stupid and conceited members of the
+British Cabinet. He never had dreamed that he was to look either above
+them to the King, or behind them to any unknown instigators of their
+mischief. With perfect good faith on his own part, he gave them the
+benefit of their own supposed ignorance, wrong-headedness, wilfulness,
+and ingenuity, such as it was, in inventing irritating and oppressive
+measures which, he warned them, would inevitably alienate the hearts and
+the allegiance of the Colonists. He records, that, while he had never
+had a thought but such as this imagined state of the facts had favored,
+a Liberal member of Parliament, an intimate friend of his, coming to
+him for a private interview, had told him that the Ministry were not the
+prime movers in this mischief, but were instigated to it by parties whom
+Franklin little suspected of such an agency. When the Doctor expressed
+his incredulity, the friend promised to give him decisive evidence of
+the full truth of his assertion. It came to Franklin in a form which
+astounded him, while it opened his eyes and fixed his indignation upon a
+class of men who from that moment onward were to him the exponents of
+all malignity and baseness. The evidence came in the shape of the
+originals, the autographs, of the above-named letters, written by
+natives of the American soil, office-holders under the Crown, who, while
+pampered and trusted by their constituents on this side of the water,
+were actually dictating, advising, and inspiriting the measures of the
+British Ministry most hateful to the Colonists. Franklin never overcame
+the impression from that shock. When he was negotiating the treaty of
+peace, he set his face and heart most resolutely against all the efforts
+and propositions made by the representatives of the Crown to secure to
+the Tories redress or compensation. He insisted that Britain, in
+espousing their alleged wrongs, indicated that she herself ought to
+remunerate their losses; that they, in fact, had been her agents and
+instruments, as truly as were her Crown officials and troops. Their
+malignant hostility toward their fellow-Colonists, and the sufferings
+and losses entailed on America by their open assertion of the rights of
+the Crown, and by the direct or indirect help which oppressive measures
+had received from them, had deprived them of all claim even on the pity
+of those who had triumphed in spite of them. At any rate, Franklin
+insisted, and it was the utmost to which he would assent,--his irony and
+sarcasm in making the offer showing the depth of his bitterness on the
+subject,--that a balance should be struck between the losses of the
+Loyalists and those of the Colonists in the conflagration of their
+sea-ports and the outrages on the property of individual patriots.
+
+The views and feelings of Franklin have been essentially those which
+have since prevailed popularly among us regarding the old Tories. Of
+course, when hard-pressed, he was willing to recognize a difference in
+the motives which prompted individuals and in the degrees of their
+turpitude. Mr. Sabine gives us in his introductory essay a most
+admirable analysis of the whole subject-matter, with an accurate and
+instructive array of all the facts bearing upon it. No man has given
+more thorough or patient inquiry to it, or has had better opportunities
+for gathering materials of prime authority and perfect authenticity for
+the treatment of it. In the biographical sketches which crowd his
+volumes will be found matter of varied and profound interest,
+alternately engaging the tender sympathy and firing the indignation of
+the reader. One can hardly fail of bethinking himself that the moral and
+judicial reflections which come from perusing this work will by and by,
+under some slight modifications, attach to the review of the characters
+and course of some men who are in antagonism to their country's cause in
+these days.
+
+
+     _Broken Lights: An Inquiry into the Present Condition and
+     Future Prospects of Religious Faith._ By FRANCES POWER
+     COBBE. Boston: J. E. Tilton & Co.
+
+Among the countless errors of faith which have misled mankind, there is
+none more dangerous, or more common, than that of confounding the forms
+of religion with religion itself. Too often, alike to believer and
+unbeliever, this has proved the one fatal mistake. Many an honest and
+earnest soul, feeling the deep needs of a spiritual life, but unable to
+separate those things which the heart would accept from those against
+which the reason revolts, has rejected all together, and turned away
+sorrowful, if not scoffing. On the other hand, the state of that man,
+who, because his mind has settled down upon certain externals of
+religion, deems that he has secured its essentials also, is worse than
+that of the skeptic. The freezing traveller, who is driven by the rocks
+(of hard doctrine) and the thorns (of doubt) to keep his limbs in
+motion, stands a far better chance of finding his way out of the
+wilderness than he who lies down on the softest bed of snow, flatters
+himself that all is well, and dreams of home, whilst the deadly torpor
+creeps over him.
+
+If help and guidance and good cheer for all such be not found in this
+little volume, it is certainly no fault of the writer's intention. She
+brings to her task the power of profound conviction, inspiring a devout
+wish to lead others into the way of truth. Beneath the multiform systems
+of theology she finds generally the same firm foundations of
+faith,--"faith in the existence of a righteous God, faith in the eternal
+Law of Morality, faith in an Immortal Life." None enjoys a monopoly of
+truth, although all are based upon it. Each is a lighthouse, more or
+less lofty, and more or less illumined by the glory that burns within;
+yet their purest rays are only "broken lights." The glory itself is
+infinite: it is only through human narrowness and imperfection that it
+appears narrow and imperfect. The lighthouse is good in its place: it
+beckons home, with its "wheeling arms of dark and bright," many a
+benighted voyager; but we must remember that it is a structure made with
+hands, and not confound the stone and iron of human contrivance with the
+great Source and Fountain of Light.
+
+The writer does not grope with uncertain purpose among these imperfect
+rays, and she is never confused by them. To each she freely gives credit
+for what it is or has been; but all fade at last before the unspeakable
+brightness of the rising sun. She discerns the dawn of that day when all
+our little candles may be safely extinguished: for it is not in any
+church, nor in any creed, nor yet in any book, that all of God's law is
+contained; but the light of His countenance shines primarily on the
+souls of men, out of which all religions have proceeded, and into which
+we must look for the ever new and ever vital faith, which is to the
+unclouded conscience what the sunshine is to sight.
+
+Such is the conclusion the author arrives at through an array of
+arguments of which we shall not attempt a summary. It is not necessary
+to admit what these are designed to prove, in order to derive
+refreshment and benefit from the pure tone of morality, the fervent
+piety, and the noble views of practical religion which animate her
+pages. It is not a book to be afraid of. No violent hand is here laid
+upon the temple; but only the scaffoldings, which, as she perceives,
+obscure the beauty of the temple, are taken away. Not only those who
+have rejected religion because they could not receive its dogmas, but
+all who have struggled with their doubts and mastered them, or thought
+they mastered them, nay, any sincere seeker for the truth, will find
+Miss Cobbe's unpretending treatise exceedingly valuable and suggestive;
+while to any one interested in modern theological discussions we would
+recommend it as containing the latest, and perhaps the clearest and most
+condensed, statement of the questions at issue which these discussions
+have called out.
+
+The spirit of the book is admirable. Both the skeptic who sneers and the
+bigot who denounces might learn a beautiful lesson from its calm, yet
+earnest pages. It is free from the brilliant shallowness of Renan, and
+the bitterness which sometimes marred the teachings of Parker. It is a
+generous, tender, noble book,--enjoying, indeed, over most works of its
+class a peculiar advantage; for, while its logic has everywhere a
+masculine strength and clearness, there glows through all an element too
+long wanting to our hard systems of theology,--an element which only
+woman's heart can supply.
+
+Yet, notwithstanding the lofty reason, the fine intuition, the
+philanthropy and hope, which inspire its pages, we close the book with a
+sense of something wanting. The author points out the danger there
+always is of a faith which is intellectually demonstrable becoming, with
+many, a faith of the intellect merely,--and frankly avows that "there is
+a cause why Theism, even in warmer and better natures, too often fails
+to draw out that fervent piety" which is characteristic of narrower and
+intenser beliefs. This cause she traces to the neglect of prayer, and
+the consequent removal afar off, to vague confines of consciousness, of
+the Personality and Fatherhood of God. Her observations on this
+important subject are worthy of serious consideration, from those
+rationalists especially whose cold theories do not admit anything so
+"unphilosophical" as prayer. Yet we find in the book itself a want. The
+author--like nearly all writers from her point of view--ignores the
+power of miracle. Because physical impossibilities, or what seem such,
+have been so readily accepted as facts owing their origin to divine
+interposition, they fall to the opposite extreme of denying the
+occurrence of any events out of the common course of Nature's
+operations. Of the positive and powerful ministration of angels in human
+affairs they make no account whatever, or accept it as a pleasing dream;
+and they forget that what we call a miracle may be as truly an offspring
+of immutable law as the dew and the sunshine,--failing to learn of the
+loadstone, which attracts to itself splinters of steel contrary to all
+the commonly observed laws of gravitation, the simple truth that man
+also may become a magnet, and, by the power of the divine currents
+passing through him, do many things astonishing to every-day experience.
+The feats of a vulgar thaumaturgy, designed to make the ignorant stare,
+may well be dispensed with. But the fact that "spiritualism," with all
+its crudities of doctrine and errors of practice, has spread over
+Christendom with a rapidity to which the history of religious beliefs
+affords no parallel, shows that the realization of supernatural
+influences is an absolute need of the human heart. The soul of the
+earlier forms of worship dies out of them, as this faith dies out, or
+becomes merely traditional; and no new system can look to fill their
+places without it.
+
+
+     _Letters of_ FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY _from 1833 to
+     1847._ Two Volumes. Philadelphia: F. Leypoldt.
+
+There are many people who make very little discrimination between one
+musician and another,--who discern no great gulf between Mendelssohn and
+Meyerbeer, between Rossini and Romberg, between Spohr and Spontini: not
+in respect of music, but of character; of character in itself, and not
+as it may develop itself in chaste or florid, sentimental, gay,
+devotional or dramatic musical forms. And as yet we have very little
+help in our efforts to gain insight into the inner nature of our great
+musical artists. Of Meyerbeer the world knows that he was vain, proud,
+and fond of money,--but whether he had soul or not we do not know; the
+profound religiousness of Handel, who spent his best years on
+second-rate operas, and devoted his declining energies to oratorio, we
+have to guess at rather than reach by direct disclosure; and till Mr.
+Thayer shall take away the mantle which yet covers his Beethoven, we
+shall know but little of the interior nature of that wonderful man. But
+Mendelssohn now stands before us, disclosed by the most searching of all
+processes, his own letters to his own friends. And how graceful, how
+winning, how true, tender, noble is the man! We have not dared to write
+a notice of these two volumes while we were fresh from their perusal,
+lest the fascination of that genial, Christian presence should lead us
+into the same frame which prompted not only the rhapsodies of "Charles
+Auchester," but the same passionate admiration which all England felt,
+while Mendelssohn lived, and which Elizabeth Sheppard shared, not led.
+We lay down these volumes after the third perusal, blessing God for the
+rich gift of such a life,--a life, sweet, gentle, calm, nowise intense
+nor passionate, yet swift, stirring, and laborious even to the point of
+morbidness. A Christian without cant; a friend, not clinging to a few
+and rejecting the many, nor diffusing his love over the many with no
+dominating affection for a few near ones, but loving his own with a
+tenacity almost unparalleled, yet reaching out a free, generous sympathy
+and kindly devotion even to the hundreds who could give him nothing but
+their love. It is thought that his grief over his sister Fanny was the
+occasion of the rupture of a blood-vessel in his head, and that it was
+the proximate cause of his own death; and yet he who loved with this
+idolatrous affection gave his hand to many whose names he hardly knew.
+The reader will not overlook, in the second series of letters, the plea
+in behalf of an old Swiss guide for remembrance in "Murray," nor that
+long letter to Mr. Simrock, the music-publisher, enjoining the utmost
+secrecy, and then urging the claims of a man whom he was most desirous
+to help.
+
+The letters from Italy and Switzerland were written during the two years
+with which he prefaced his quarter-century of labor as composer,
+director, and virtuoso. They relate much to Italian painting, the music
+of Passion Week, Swiss scenery, his stay with Goethe, and his brilliant
+reception in England on his return. They disclose a youth of glorious
+promise.
+
+The second series does not disappoint that promise. The man is the youth
+a little less exuberant, a little more mature, but no less buoyant,
+tender, and loving. The letters are as varied as the claims of one's
+family differ from those of the outside world, but are always
+Mendelssohnian,--free, pure, unworldly, yet deep and wise. They continue
+down to the very close of his life. They are edited by his brother Paul,
+and another near relative. Yet unauthorized publications of other
+letters will follow, for Mendelssohn was a prolific letter-writer; and
+Lampadius, a warm admirer of the composer, has recently announced such a
+volume. The public may rejoice in this; for Mendelssohn was not only
+purity, but good sense itself; he needs no critical editing; and if we
+may yet have more strictly musical letters from his pen, the influence
+of the two volumes now under notice will be largely increased.
+
+It is not enough to say of these volumes that they are bright, piquant,
+genial, affectionate; nor is it enough to speak of their artistic
+worth, the subtile appreciation of painting in the first series, and of
+music in the second; it is not enough to refer to the glimpses which
+they give of eminent artists,--Chopin, Rossini, Donizetti, Hiller, and
+Moscheles,--nor the side-glances at Thorwaldsen, Bunsen, the late
+scholarly and art-loving King of Prussia, Schadow, Overbeck, Cornelius,
+and the Duesseldorf painters; nor is it enough to dwell upon that
+delightful homage to father and mother, that confiding trust in brother
+and sisters, that loyalty to friends. The salient feature of these
+charming books is the unswerving devotion to a great purpose; the
+careless disregard, nay, the abrupt refusal, of fame, unless it came in
+an honest channel; the naive modesty that made him wonder, even in the
+very last years of his life, that _he_ could be the man whose entrance
+into the crowded halls of London and Birmingham should be the signal of
+ten minutes' protracted cheering; the refusal to set art over against
+money; the unwillingness to undertake the mandates of a king, unless
+with the cordial acquiescence of his artistic conscience; and the
+immaculate purity, not alone of his life, but of his thought. How he
+castigates Donizetti's love of money and his sloth! how his whip
+scourges the immorality of the French opera, and his whole soul abhors
+the sensuality of that stage! how steadfastly he refuses to undertake
+the composition of an opera till the faultless libretto for which he
+patiently waited year after year could be prepared! We wish our
+religious societies would call out a few of the letters of this man and
+scatter them broadcast over the land: they would indeed be "leaves for
+the healing of the nations."
+
+There is one lesson which may be learned from Mendelssohn's career,
+which is exceptionably rare: it is that Providence does _sometimes_
+bless a man every way,--giving him all good and no evil. Where shall we
+look in actual or historic experience to find a parallel to Mendelssohn
+in this? He had beauty: Chorley says he never looked upon a handsomer
+face. He had grace and elegance. He spoke four languages with perfect
+ease, read Greek and Latin with facility, drew skilfully, was familiar
+with the sciences, and never found himself at a loss with professed
+naturalists. He was a member of one of the most distinguished families
+of Germany: his grandfather being Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher;
+his father, a leading banker; his uncle Bartholdy, a great patron of art
+in Rome, while he was Prussian minister there; his brother-in-law
+Hensel, Court painter; both his sisters and his brother Paul occupying
+leading social positions. He was heir-apparent to a great estate. He was
+greeted with the applause of England from the outset of his career;
+"awoke famous," after the production of the "Midsummer Overture," while
+almost a boy; never had a piece fall short of triumphant success; in
+fact, so commanding prestige that he could find not one who would
+rationally blame or criticize him,--a "most wearying" thing, he writes,
+that every piece he brought out was always "wonderfully fine." He was
+loved by all, and envied by none; the pet and joy of Goethe, who lived
+to see his expectation of Mendelssohn on the road to ample fulfilment;
+blessed entirely in his family, "the course of true love" running
+"smooth" from beginning to end; well, agile, strong; and more than all
+this, having a childlike religious faith in Christ, and as happy as a
+child in his piety. His life was cloudless; those checks and
+compensations with which Providence breaks up others' lot were wanting
+to his. We never knew any one like him in this, but the childlike, sunny
+Carl Ritter.
+
+We still lack a biography of Mendelssohn which shall portray him from
+without, as these volumes do from within. We learn that one is in
+preparation; and when that is given to the public, one more rich life
+will be embalmed in the memories of all good men.
+
+We ought not to overlook the unique elegance of these two volumes. Like
+all the publications of Mr. Leypoldt, they are printed in small, round
+letter; and the whole appearance is creditable to the publisher's taste.
+The American edition entirely eclipses the English in this regard.
+Though not advertised profusely, the merit of these Letters has already
+given them entrance and welcome into our most cultivated circles: but we
+bespeak for them a larger audience still; for they are books which our
+young men, our young women, our pastors, our whole thoughtful and
+aspiring community, ought to read and circulate.
+
+
+
+
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+G. S. Hillard. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 396. $1.50.
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+The Classification of the Sciences: To which are added Reasons for
+dissenting from the Philosophy of M. Comte. By Herbert Spencer, Author
+of "Illustrations of Universal Progress," etc. New York. D. Appleton &
+Co. 16mo. paper, pp. 48. 25 cts.
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+The Trial: More Links of the Daisy Chain. By the Author of "The Heir of
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+pp. 389. $1.75.
+
+Fireside Travels. By James Russell Lowell. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.
+16mo. pp. 324. $1.75.
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+Memoir of Mrs. Caroline P. Keith, Missionary of the Protestant Episcopal
+Church to China. Edited by her Brother, William C. Tenney. New York, D.
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+York. Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. viii., 348. $3.50.
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+Poems of the War. By George H. Baker. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo.
+pp. vi., 202. $1.50.
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+Philosophy as Absolute Science, founded in the Universal Laws of Being,
+and including Ontology, Theology, and Psychology, made One, as Spirit,
+Soul, and Body. By E. L. and A. L. Frothingham. Volume I. Boston.
+Walker, Wise, & Co. 8vo. pp. xxxiv., 453. $3.50.
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+Life of Jean Paul Frederic Richter: Compiled from Various Sources.
+Preceded by his Autobiography. By Eliza Buckminster Lee. Boston. Ticknor
+& Fields. 12mo. pp. xvi., 539. $2.00.
+
+The Winthrops. A Novel. New York, Carleton. 16mo. pp. 319. $1.75.
+
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+intended to exhibit especially its Moral and Political Phases, with the
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+1776 to the Close of the War for the Union. By Horace Greeley.
+Illustrated by Portraits on Steel of Generals, Statesmen, and other
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+Battle-Fields, Naval Actions, etc.: from Official Sources. Volume I.
+Hartford. A. D. Case & Co. 8vo. pp. 648. $3.00.
+
+The Voice of Blood, in the Sphere of Nature and of the Spirit World. By
+Rev. Samuel Phillips, A.M. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 12mo. pp.
+xvi., 384.
+
+The Suppressed Book about Slavery. Prepared for Publication in
+1857,--never published until the Present Time. New York. Carleton. 16mo.
+pp. 432. $2.00.
+
+Nearer and Dearer. A Novelette. By Cuthbert Bede, B.A., Author of
+"Verdant Green." New York, Carleton. 16mo. pp. xi., 225. $1.50.
+
+Annals of the English Stage, from Thomas Betterton to Edmund Kean. By
+Dr. Doran, F.S.A., Author of "Table Traits," etc. New York. W. J.
+Widdleton. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 424, 422. $4.50.
+
+A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the
+Conference Convention, for proposing Amendments to the Constitution of
+the United States, held at Washington, D.C., in February, A.D. 1861. By
+L. E. Chittenden, One of the Delegates. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo.
+pp. 626. $5.00.
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No.
+87, January, 1865, by Various
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