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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Land of Thor, by J. Ross Browne
+
+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 Land of Thor
+
+Author: J. Ross Browne
+
+Release Date: March 15, 2009 [EBook #28329]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF THOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Sam W. and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         THE
+                    LAND OF THOR.
+
+                         BY
+
+                   J. ROSS BROWNE,
+
+                      AUTHOR OF
+  "YUSEF," "CRUSOE'S ISLAND," "AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN
+                    GERMANY," ETC.
+
+
+              Illustrated by the Author.
+
+
+                      NEW YORK:
+            HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+                   FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+                        1867.
+
+
+
+
+  BY J. ROSS BROWNE.
+
+    AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN GERMANY. Illustrated by the
+    Author. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00.
+
+    THE LAND OF THOR. Illustrated by the Author. 12mo,
+    Cloth, $2 00.
+
+    CRUSOE'S ISLAND: A Ramble in the Footsteps of Alexander
+    Selkirk. With Sketches of Adventure in California and
+    Washoe. Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth. $1 75.
+
+    YUSEF; or, The Journey of the Frangi. A Crusade in the
+    East. With Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75.
+
+  Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
+
+
+
+
+Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
+hundred and sixty-seven, by HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office
+of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                             PAGE
+
+          I. IMPRESSIONS OF ST. PETERSBURG                 9
+
+         II. A PLEASANT EXCURSION                         25
+
+        III. VIEWS ON THE MOSCOW RAILWAY                  39
+
+         IV. MOSCOW                                       52
+
+          V. TEA-DRINKING                                 60
+
+         VI. THE PETERSKOI GARDENS                        65
+
+        VII. THE "LITTLE WATER"                           73
+
+       VIII. THE MARKETS OF MOSCOW                        77
+
+         IX. THE NOSE REGIMENT                            88
+
+          X. THE EMPEROR'S BEAR-HUNT                      92
+
+         XI. RUSSIAN HUMOR                                97
+
+        XII. A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE                      104
+
+       XIII. THE DENOUEMENT                              125
+
+        XIV. THE KREMLIN                                 134
+
+         XV. RUSSIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS                 155
+
+        XVI. DESPOTISM _versus_ SERFDOM                  165
+
+       XVII. REFORM IN RUSSIA                            170
+
+      XVIII. A BOND OF SYMPATHY                          185
+
+        XIX. CIVILIZATION IN RUSSIA                      193
+
+         XX. PASSAGE TO REVEL                            209
+
+        XXI. REVEL AND HELSINGFORS                       218
+
+       XXII. A BATHING SCENE                             227
+
+      XXIII. ABO--FINLAND                                236
+
+       XXIV. STOCKHOLM                                   248
+
+        XXV. WALKS ABOUT STOCKHOLM                       262
+
+       XXVI. THE GOTHA CANAL                             272
+
+      XXVII. VOYAGE TO CHRISTIANA                        291
+
+     XXVIII. FROM CHRISTIANIA TO LILLEHAMMER             302
+
+       XXIX. HOW THEY TRAVEL IN NORWAY                   310
+
+        XXX. A NORWEGIAN GIRL                            317
+
+       XXXI. HOW THEY LIVE                               335
+
+      XXXII. JOHN BULL ABROAD                            354
+
+     XXXIII. WOMEN IN NORWAY AND GERMANY                 361
+
+      XXXIV. DOWN THE DRIVSDAL                           368
+
+       XXXV. A NORWEGIAN HORSE-JOCKEY                    372
+
+      XXXVI. OUT OF MONEY                                381
+
+     XXXVII. ICELANDIC TRAVEL                            383
+
+    XXXVIII. HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN                     387
+
+      XXXIX. VOYAGE TO SCOTLAND                          398
+
+         XL. THE JOLLY BLOODS                            404
+
+        XLI. THE FAROE ISLANDS                           408
+
+       XLII. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ICELAND                426
+
+      XLIII. REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND           431
+
+       XLIV. GEIR ZÖEGA                                  440
+
+        XLV. THE ENGLISH TOURISTS                        445
+
+       XLVI. THE ROAD TO THINGVALLA                      449
+
+      XLVII. THE ALMANNAJAU                              465
+
+     XLVIII. THINGVALLA                                  476
+
+       XLIX. THE ROAD TO THE GEYSERS                     490
+
+          L. THE GEYSERS                                 503
+
+         LI. THE ENGLISH SPORTS IN TROUBLE               527
+
+        LII. A FRIGHTFUL ADVENTURE                       537
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                        PAGE
+
+    Laborers and Shipwrights                              10
+
+    Russian and Finn                                      11
+
+    Cooper's Shop and Residence                           15
+
+    Merchant, Peddlers and Coachman                       18
+
+    Istrovoschiks                                         21
+
+    Fish Peddler                                          29
+
+    Young Peasants                                        31
+
+    Dvornick and Postman                                  35
+
+    Glazier, Painter, Carpenters                          37
+
+    Hay Gatherers                                         46
+
+    Prisoners for Siberia                                 58
+
+    Tea-sellers                                           61
+
+    Mujiks at Tea                                         63
+
+    Russian Theatre                                       68
+
+    The Peterskoi Gardens                                 72
+
+    Vodka                                                 75
+
+    Old-clothes' Market                                   78
+
+    Cabinet-makers                                        84
+
+    Pigs, Pups, and Pans                                  87
+
+    Imperial Nosegay                                      90
+
+    Skinned and Stuffed Man                              100
+
+    Frozen Animals in the Market                         101
+
+    Mujik and Cats                                       103
+
+    Effects of "Little Water"                            111
+
+    Russian Beggars                                      115
+
+    Gambling Saloon                                      122
+
+    A Passage of Politeness                              157
+
+    Serfs                                                168
+
+    In Norseland                                         292
+
+    The Steamer entering the Fjord                       295
+
+    Coast of Norway                                      297
+
+    The Islands                                          299
+
+    Approach to Christiania                              303
+
+    Station-house, Logen Valley                          313
+
+    Station-boy                                          321
+
+    "Good-by--Many Thanks!"                              322
+
+    Norwegian Peasant Family                             324
+
+    The Post-girl                                        330
+
+    Waiting for a Nibble                                 341
+
+    Snow-plow                                            344
+
+    A Drinking Bout                                      345
+
+    A Norwegian Farm                                     347
+
+    Norwegian Church                                     348
+
+    Parish Schoolmaster                                  349
+
+    Dovre Fjeld                                          353
+
+    Playing him out                                      356
+
+    English Sportsman                                    358
+
+    Bear Chase                                           359
+
+    Peasant Women at Work                                360
+
+    Wheeling Girls                                       363
+
+    Justice of the Peace                                 365
+
+    Model Landlord                                       367
+
+    Drivsdal Valley                                      369
+
+    Passage on the Driv                                  371
+
+    The Prize                                            375
+
+    Traveling on Foot                                    382
+
+    The great Geyser                                     385
+
+    Hans Christian Andersen                              394
+
+    A Dandy Tourist                                      406
+
+    Thorshavn                                            407
+
+    View in Faroe Islands                                409
+
+    Faroese Children                                     412
+
+    Faroese Islanders                                    414
+
+    Kirk Göboe                                           421
+
+    Farm-house and Ruins                                 423
+
+    Faroese on Horseback                                 425
+
+    Natural Bridge                                       427
+
+    Coast of Iceland                                     429
+
+    The Meal-sack                                        430
+
+    Reykjavik, the Capital of Iceland                    432
+
+    Governor's Residence, Reykjavik                      434
+
+    Icelandic Houses                                     435
+
+    Church at Reykjavik                                  436
+
+    Icelanders at Work                                   438
+
+    Geir Zöega                                           441
+
+    Icelandic Horses                                     443
+
+    English Party at Reykjavik                           447
+
+    A Rough Road                                         451
+
+    Taking Snuff                                         454
+
+    An Icelandic Bog                                     459
+
+    Geir Zöega and Brusa                                 463
+
+    Entrance to the Almannajau                           466
+
+    The Almannajau                                       467
+
+    Skeleton View of the Almannajau                      469
+
+    Outline View of Thingvalla                           470
+
+    Fall of the Almannajau                               472
+
+    Icelandic Shepherd-girl                              473
+
+    Church at Thingvalla                                 477
+
+    The Pastor's House                                   479
+
+    The Pastor of Thingvalla                             485
+
+    Skeleton View of the Lögberg                         488
+
+    Thingvalla, Lögberg, Almannajau                      489
+
+    Diagram of the Lögberg                               490
+
+    An Artist at Home                                    492
+
+    Lava-fjelds                                          494
+
+    Effigy in Lava                                       495
+
+    The Hrafnajau                                        497
+
+    The Tintron Rock                                     499
+
+    Bridge River                                         502
+
+    Shepherd and Family                                  506
+
+    The Strokhr                                          516
+
+    Side-saddle                                          519
+
+    Great Geyser and Receiver                            525
+
+    Strokhr and Receiver                                 525
+
+    "Oh-o-o-ah!"                                         529
+
+    The English Party                                    533
+
+    Interior of Icelandic Hut                            536
+
+    An Awkward Predicament                               540
+
+
+
+
+THE LAND OF THOR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+IMPRESSIONS OF ST. PETERSBURG.
+
+
+I landed at St. Petersburg with a knapsack on my back and a hundred
+dollars in my pocket. An extensive tour along the borders of the
+Arctic Circle was before me, and it was necessary I should husband my
+resources.
+
+In my search for a cheap German gasthaus I walked nearly all over the
+city. My impressions were probably tinctured by the circumstances of
+my position, but it seemed to me I had never seen so strange a place.
+
+  [Illustration: LABORERS AND SHIPWRIGHTS.]
+
+  [Illustration: RUSSIAN AND FINN.]
+
+The best streets of St. Petersburg resemble on an inferior scale the
+best parts of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. Nothing in the architecture
+conveys any idea of national taste except the glittering cupolas of
+the churches, the showy colors of the houses, and the vast extent and
+ornamentation of the palaces. The general aspect of the city is that
+of immense level space. Built upon islands, cut up into various
+sections by the branches of the Neva, intersected by canals, destitute
+of eminent points of observation, the whole city has a scattered and
+incongruous effect--an incomprehensible remoteness about it, as if one
+might continually wander about without finding the centre. Some parts,
+of course, are better than others; some streets are indicative of
+wealth and luxury; but without a guide it is extremely difficult to
+determine whether there are not still finer buildings and quarters in
+the main part of the city--if you could only get at it. The eye
+wanders continually in search of heights and prominent objects. Even
+the Winter Palace, the Admiralty, and the Izaak Church lose much of
+their grandeur in the surrounding deserts of space from the absence of
+contrast with familiar and tangible objects. It is only by a careful
+examination in detail that one can become fully sensible of their
+extraordinary magnificence. Vast streets of almost interminable
+length, lined by insignificant two-story houses with green roofs and
+yellow walls; vast open squares or ploschads; palaces, public
+buildings, and churches, dwindled down to mere toy-work in the deserts
+of space intervening; countless throngs of citizens and carriages
+scarcely bigger than ants to the eye; broad sheets of water, dotted
+with steamers, brigs, barks, wood-barges and row-boats, still
+infinitesimal in the distance; long rows of trees, forming a foliage
+to some of the principal promenades, with glimpses of gardens and
+shrubbery at remote intervals; canals and dismal green swamps--not all
+at one sweep of the eye, but visible from time to time in the course
+of an afternoon's ramble, are the most prominent characteristics of
+this wonderful city. A vague sense of loneliness impresses the
+traveler from a distant land--as if in his pilgrimage through foreign
+climes he had at length wandered into the midst of a strange and
+peculiar civilization--a boundless desert of wild-looking streets, a
+waste of colossal palaces, of gilded churches and glistening waters,
+all perpetually dwindling away before him in the infinity of space. He
+sees a people strange and unfamiliar in costume and expression;
+fierce, stern-looking officers, rigid in features, closely shaved, and
+dressed in glittering uniforms; grave, long-bearded priests, with
+square-topped black turbans, their flowing black drapery trailing in
+the dust; pale women richly and elegantly dressed, gliding unattended
+through mazes of the crowd; rough, half-savage serfs, in dirty pink
+shirts, loose trowsers, and big boots, bowing down before the shrines
+on the bridges and public places; the drosky drivers, with their long
+beards, small bell-shaped hats, long blue coats and fire-bucket boots,
+lying half asleep upon their rusty little vehicles awaiting a
+customer, or dashing away at a headlong pace over the rough
+cobble-paved streets, and so on of every class and kind. The traveler
+wanders about from place to place, gazing into the strange faces he
+meets, till the sense of loneliness becomes oppressive. An invisible
+but impassable barrier seems to stand between him and the moving
+multitude. He hears languages that fall without a meaning upon his
+ear; wonders at the soft inflections of the voices; vainly seeks some
+familiar look or word; thinks it strange that he alone should be cut
+off from all communion with the souls of men around him; and then
+wonders if they have souls like other people, and why there is no
+kindred expression in their faces--no visible consciousness of a
+common humanity. It is natural that every stranger in a strange city
+should experience this feeling to some extent, but I know of no place
+where it seems so strikingly the case as in St. Petersburg. Accustomed
+as I was to strange cities and strange languages, I never felt utterly
+lonely until I reached this great mart of commerce and civilization.
+The costly luxury of the palaces; the wild Tartaric glitter of the
+churches; the tropical luxuriance of the gardens; the brilliant
+equipages of the nobility; the display of military power; the strange
+and restless throngs forever moving through the haunts of business and
+pleasure; the uncouth costumes of the lower classes, and the wonderful
+commingling of sumptuous elegance and barbarous filth, visible in
+almost every thing, produced a singular feeling of mingled wonder and
+isolation--as if the solitary traveler were the only person in the
+world who was not permitted to comprehend the spirit and import of the
+scene, or take a part in the great drama of life in which all others
+seemed to be engaged. I do not know if plain, practical men are
+generally so easily impressed by external objects, but I must confess
+that when I trudged along the streets with my knapsack on my back,
+looking around in every direction for a gasthaus; when I spoke to
+people in my peculiar style of French and German, and received
+unintelligible answers in Russian; when I got lost among palaces and
+grand military establishments, instead of finding the gasthaus, and
+finally attracted the attention of the surly-looking guards, who were
+stationed about every where, by the anxious pertinacity with which I
+examined every building, a vague notion began to get possession of me
+that I was a sort of outlaw, and would sooner or later be seized and
+dragged before the Czar for daring to enter such a magnificent city in
+such an uncouth and unbecoming manner. When I cast my eyes up at the
+sign-boards, and read about grand fabrications and steam-companies,
+and walked along the quays of the Neva, and saw wood enough piled up
+in big broad-bottomed boats to satisfy the wants of myself and family
+for ten thousand years; when I strolled into the Nevskoi, and jostled
+my way through crowds of nobles, officers, soldiers, dandies, and
+commoners, stopping suddenly at every picture-shop, gazing dreamily
+into the gorgeous millinery establishments, pondering thoughtfully
+over the glittering wares of the jewelers, lagging moodily by the
+grand cafés, and snuffing reflectively the odors that came from the
+grand restaurations--when all this occurred, and I went down into a
+beer-cellar and made acquaintance with a worthy German, and he asked
+me if I had any meerschaums to sell, the notion that I had no
+particular business in so costly and luxurious a place began to grow
+stronger than ever. A kind of dread came over me that the mighty
+spirit of Peter the Great would come riding through the scorching hot
+air on a gale of snowflakes, at the head of a bloody phalanx of
+Muscovites, and, rising in his stirrups as he approached, would demand
+of me in a voice of thunder, "Stranger, how much money have you got?"
+to which I could only answer, "Sublime and potent Czar, taking the
+average value of my Roaring Grizzly, Dead Broke, Gone Case, and
+Sorrowful Countenance, and placing it against the present value of
+Russian securities, I consider it within the bounds of reason to say
+that I hold about a million of rubles!" But if he should insist upon
+an exhibit of ready cash--there was the rub! It absolutely made me
+feel weak in the knees to think of it. Indeed, a horrid suspicion
+seized me, after I had crossed the bridge and begun to renew my search
+for a cheap gasthaus on the Vassoli Ostrou, that every fat,
+neatly-shaved man I met, with small gray eyes, a polished hat on his
+head drawn a little over his brow, his lips compressed, and his coat
+buttoned closely around his body, was a rich banker, and that he was
+saying to himself as I passed, "That fellow with the slouched hat and
+the knapsack is a suspicious character, to say the least of him. It
+becomes my duty to warn the police of his movements. I suspect him
+to be a Hungarian refugee."
+
+  [Illustration: COOPER'S SHOP AND RESIDENCE.]
+
+With some difficulty, I succeeded at length in finding just such a
+place as I desired--clean and comfortable enough, considering the
+circumstances, and not unusually fertile in vermin for a city like St.
+Petersburg, which produces all kinds of troublesome insects
+spontaneously. There was this advantage in my quarters, in addition to
+their cheapness--that the proprietor and attendants spoke several of
+the Christian languages, including German, which, of all languages in
+the world, is the softest and most euphonious to my ear--when I am
+away from Frankfort. Besides, my room was very advantageously arranged
+for a solitary traveler. Being about eight feet square, with only one
+small window overlooking the back yard, and effectually secured by
+iron fastenings, so that nobody could open it, there was no
+possibility of thieves getting in and robbing me when the door was
+shut and locked on the inside. Its closeness presented an effectual
+barrier against the night air, which in these high northern latitudes
+is considered extremely unwholesome to sleep in. With the thermometer
+at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the atmosphere, to be sure, was a little
+sweltering during the day, and somewhat thick by night, but that was
+an additional advantage, inasmuch as it forced the occupant to stay
+out most of the time and see a great deal more of the town than he
+could possibly see in his room.
+
+Having deposited my knapsack and put my extra shirt in the wash, you
+will now be kind enough to consider me the shade of Virgil, ready to
+lead you, after the fashion of Dante, through the infernal regions or
+any where else within the bounds of justice, even through St.
+Petersburg, where the climate in summer is hot enough to satisfy
+almost any body. The sun shines here, in June and July, for twenty
+hours a day, and even then scarcely disappears beneath the horizon. I
+never experienced such sweltering weather in any part of the world
+except Aspinwall. One is fairly boiled with the heat, and might be
+wrung out like a wet rag. Properly speaking, the day commences for
+respectable people, and men of enterprising spirit--tourists,
+pleasure-seekers, gamblers, vagabonds, and the like--about nine or ten
+o'clock at night, and continues till about four or five o'clock the
+next morning. It is then St. Petersburg fairly turns out; then the
+beauty and fashion of the city unfold their wings and flit through the
+streets, or float in Russian gondolas upon the glistening waters of
+the Neva; then it is the little steamers skim about from island to
+island, freighted with a population just waked up to a realizing sense
+of the pleasures of existence; then is the atmosphere balmy, and the
+light wonderfully soft and richly tinted; then come the sweet witching
+hours, when
+
+                    "Shady nooks
+    Patiently give up their quiet being."
+
+None but the weary, labor-worn serf, who has toiled through the long
+day in the fierce rays of the sun, can sleep such nights as these. I
+call them nights, yet what a strange mistake. The sunshine still
+lingers in the heavens with a golden glow; the evening vanishes
+dreamily in the arms of the morning; there is nothing to mark the
+changes--all is soft, gradual, and illusory. A peculiar and almost
+supernatural light glistens upon the gilded domes of the churches; the
+glaring waters of the Neva are alive with gondolas; miniature steamers
+are flying through the winding channels of the islands; strains of
+music float upon the air; gay and festive throngs move along the
+promenades of the Nevskoi; gilded and glittering equipages pass over
+the bridges and disappear in the shadowy recesses of the islands.
+Whatever may be unseemly in life is covered by a rich and mystic
+drapery of twilight. The floating bath-houses of the Neva, with their
+variegated tressel-work and brilliant colors, resemble fairy palaces;
+and the plashing of the bathers falls upon the ear like the gambols
+of water-spirits. Not far from the Izaak Bridge, the equestrian
+statue of Peter the Great stands out in bold relief on a pedestal of
+granite; the mighty Czar, casting an eagle look over the waters of the
+Neva, while his noble steed rears over the yawning precipice in front,
+crushing a serpent beneath his hoof. The spirit of Peter the Great
+still lives throughout Russia; but it is better understood in the
+merciless blasts of winter than in the soft glow of the summer nights.
+
+  [Illustration: MERCHANT, PEDDLERS, AND COACHMAN.]
+
+Wander with me now, and let us take a look at the Winter Palace--the
+grandest pile, perhaps, ever built by human hands. Six thousand people
+occupy it during the long winter months, and well they may, for it is
+a city of palaces in itself. Fronting the Neva, it occupies a space of
+several acres, its massive walls richly decorated with ornamental
+designs, a forest of chimneys on top--the whole pile forming an
+immense oblong square so grand, so massive, so wonderfully rich and
+varied in its details, that the imagination is lost in a colossal
+wilderness of architectural beauties. Standing in the open plozchad,
+we may gaze at this magnificent pile for hours, and dream over it, and
+picture to our minds the scenes of splendor its inner walls have
+witnessed; the royal _fêtes_ of the Czars; the courtly throngs that
+have filled its halls; the vast treasures expended in erecting it; the
+enslaved multitudes, now low in the dust, who have left this monument
+to speak of human pride, and the sweat and toil that pride must feed
+upon; and while we gaze and dream thus, a mellow light comes down from
+the firmament, and the mighty Czars, and their palaces, and armies,
+and navies, and worldly strifes, what are they in the presence of the
+everlasting Power? For "it is he that sitteth upon the circle of the
+earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers."
+
+But these dreamings and these wanderings through this city of palaces
+would be endless. We may feast our eyes upon the Admiralty, the Winter
+Palace, the Marble Palace, the Senate-house, the palace of the
+Grand-duke Michael, the Column of Alexander, the colleges,
+universities, imperial gardens and summer-houses, and, after all, we
+can only feel that they are built upon the necks of an enslaved
+people; that the mightiest Czars of Russia, in common with the poorest
+serfs, are but "as grasshoppers upon the earth."
+
+The _istrovoschik_ (sneeze and you have the word)--in plain English,
+the drosky drivers--are a notable feature in St. Petersburg. When I
+saw them for the first time on the quay of the Wassaly Ostrow, where
+the steamer from Stettin lands her passengers, the idea naturally
+impressed my mind that I had fallen among a brotherhood of Pilgrims or
+Druids. Nothing could be more unique than the incongruity of their
+costume and occupation. Every man looked like a priest; his long
+beard, his grave expression of countenance, his little black hat and
+flowing blue coat, gathered around the waist by means of a sash, his
+glazed boots reaching above the knees, his slow and measured motions,
+and the sublime indifference with which he regarded his customers,
+were singularly impressive. Even the filth and rustiness which formed
+the most prominent characteristics of the class contributed to the
+delusion that they might have sprung from a Druidical source, and
+gathered their dust of travel on the pilgrimage from remote ages down
+to the present period. It is really something novel, in the line of
+hackery, to see those sedate fellows sitting on their little droskys
+awaiting a customer. The force of competition, however, has of late
+years committed sad inroads upon their dignity, and now they are
+getting to be about as enterprising and pertinacious as any of their
+kindred in other parts of the world. The drosky is in itself a
+curiosity as a means of locomotion. Like the driver, it is generally
+dirty and dilapidated; but here the similitude ends; for, while the
+former is often high, his drosky is always low. The wheels are not
+bigger than those of an ordinary dog-cart, and the seat is only
+designed for one person, though on a pinch it can accommodate two.
+Generally it consists of a plank covered with a cushion, extending
+lengthwise in the same direction as the horse, so that the rider sits
+astride of it as if riding on horseback; some, however, have been
+modernized so as to afford a more convenient seat in the usual way.
+Night and day these droskys are every where to be seen, sometimes
+drawn up by the sidewalk, the driver asleep, awaiting a customer, but
+more frequently rattling full tilt over the pavements (the roughest
+in the world) with a load, consisting, in nine cases out of ten, of a
+fat old gentleman in military uniform, a very ugly old lady with a
+lapdog, or a very dashy young lady glittering with jewels, on her way,
+perhaps, to the Confiseur's or somewhere else. But in a city like St.
+Petersburg, where it is at least two or three miles from one place to
+another, every body with twenty kopecks in his pocket uses the drosky.
+It is the most convenient and economical mode of locomotion for all
+ordinary purposes, hence the number of them is very large. On some of
+the principal streets it is marvelous how they wind their way at such
+a rattling pace through the crowd. To a stranger unacquainted with
+localities, they are a great convenience. And here, you see, commences
+the gist of the story.
+
+  [Illustration: ISTROVOSCHIKS.]
+
+On a certain occasion I called a drosky-man and directed him to drive
+me to the United States Consulate. Having never been there myself, I
+depended solely upon the intelligence and enterprise of the
+istrovoschik. My knowledge of the Russian consisted of three
+words--the name of the street and _dratzall kopeck_, the latter being
+the stipulated fare of twenty kopecks. By an affirmative signal the
+driver gave me to understand that he fully comprehended my wishes,
+and, with a flourish of his whip, away we started. After driving me
+nearly all over the city of St. Petersburg--a pretty extensive city,
+as any body will find who undertakes to walk through it--this adroit
+and skillful whipster, who had never uttered a word from the time of
+starting, now deliberately drew up his drosky on the corner of a
+principal street and began a conversation. I repeated the name of the
+street in which the consulate was located, and _dratzall kopeck_. The
+driver gazed in my face with a grave and placid countenance, stroked
+his long beard, tucked the skirts of his long blue coat under him, and
+drove on again. After rattling over a series of the most frightful
+cobble-stone pavements ever designed as an improvement in a great
+city, through several new quarters, he again stopped and treated me
+to some more remarks in his native language. I answered as before, the
+name of the street. He shook his head with discouraging gravity. I
+then remarked _dratzall kopeck_. From the confused answer he made,
+which occupied at least ten minutes of his time, and of which I was
+unable to comprehend a single word, it was apparent that he was as
+ignorant of his own language as he was of the city. In this extremity
+he called another driver to his aid, who spoke just the words of
+English, "Gooda-morkig!" "Good-morning," said I. From this the
+conversation lapsed at once into remote depths of Russian. In despair
+I got out of the drosky and walked along the street, looking up at all
+the signs--the driver after me with his drosky, apparently watching to
+see that I did not make my escape. At length I espied a German name on
+a bakery sign. How familiar it looked in that desert of unintelligible
+Russian--like a favorite quotation in a page of metaphysics. I went in
+and spoke German--_vie gaetz?_ You are aware, perhaps, that I excel in
+that language. I asked the way to the United States Consulate. The
+baker had probably forgotten his native tongue, if ever he knew it at
+all, for I could get nothing out of him but a shake of the head and
+_nicht furstay_. However, he had the goodness, seeing my perplexity,
+to put on his hat and undertake to find the consul's, which, by dint
+of inquiry, he at length ascertained to be about half a mile distant.
+We walked all the way, this good old baker and I, he refusing to ride
+because there was only room for one, and I not liking to do so and let
+him walk. The drosky-man followed in the rear, driving along very
+leisurely, and with great apparent comfort to himself. He leaned back
+in his seat with much gusto, and seemed rather amused than otherwise
+at our movements. At length we reached the consulate. It was about
+three hundred yards from my original point of departure. Any other man
+in existence than my istrovoschik would have sunk into the earth upon
+seeing me make this astounding discovery. I knew it by certain
+landmarks--a church and a garden. But he did not sink into the earth.
+He merely sat on his drosky as cool as a cucumber. I felt so grateful
+to the worthy baker, who was a fat old gentleman, and perspired freely
+after his walk, that I gave him thirty kopecks. The drosky-man claimed
+forty kopecks, just double his fare. I called in the services of an
+interpreter, and protested against this imposition. The interpreter
+and the drosky-man got into an animated dispute on the question, and
+must have gone clear back to the fundamental principles of droskyism,
+for they seemed likely never to come to an end. The weather was warm,
+and both kept constantly wiping their faces, and turning the whole
+subject over and over again, without the slightest probability of an
+equitable conclusion. At length my interpreter said, "Perhaps, sir,
+you had better pay it. The man says you kept him running about for
+over two hours; and since you have no proof to the contrary, it would
+only give you trouble to have him punished." This view accorded
+entirely with my own, and I cheerfully paid the forty kopecks; also
+ten kopecks drink-geld, and a small douceur of half a ruble (fifty
+kopecks) to the gentleman who had so kindly settled the difficulty for
+me. After many years' experience of travel, I am satisfied, as before
+stated, that a man may be born naturally honest, but can not long
+retain his integrity in the hack business. He must sooner or later
+take to swindling, otherwise he can never keep his horses fat, or make
+the profession respectable and remunerative. Such, at least, has been
+my experience of men in this line of business, not excepting the
+istrovoschik of St. Petersburg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A PLEASANT EXCURSION.
+
+
+I had the good fortune, during my ramble, to meet with a couple of
+fellow-passengers from Stettin. One of them was a rough, weather-beaten
+man of middle age, with rather marked features, but not an unkindly
+expression. His mysterious conduct during the voyage had frequently
+attracted my attention. There was something curious about his motions, as
+if an invisible companion, to whom he was bound in some strange way,
+continually accompanied him. He drank enormous quantities of beer, and
+smoked from morning till night a tremendous meerschaum, which must have
+held at least a pint of tobacco. When not engaged in drinking beer and
+smoking, he usually walked rapidly up and down the decks, with his hands
+behind him and his head bent down, talking in a guttural voice to himself
+about "hemp." He slept--or rather lay down, for I don't think he ever
+slept--with his head close to mine on a bench in the cabin, and it was a
+continued source of trouble to me the way he puffed, and groaned, and
+talked about "hemp." Sometimes he was half the night arguing with himself
+about the various prices and qualities of this useful article, but I did
+not understand enough of his _blat deutsch_ to gather the drift of the
+argument. All I could make out was "_Zweimal zwei macht vier_--(a
+puff)--_sechs und vierzig_--(a groan)--_acht und sechzig macht ein
+hundert_--(a snort)--_sieben tausend_--_acht tausend fünf und dreissig
+thaler_--(a sigh)--_schilling_--_kopeck_--_ruble_--_hemphf! Mein Gott!
+Zwei und dreissig tausend_--_hemphf_--_ruble_--(a terrible gritting of
+the teeth)--_sechs und fünfzig_--_Gott im Himmel!_--_Ich kann nicht
+schlafen!_" Here he would jump up and shout "Kellner! Kellner! _ein
+flask bier!_--_sechs und zechzig_--_zweimal acht und vierzig! Kellner,
+flask bier!_--_Liebe Gott_--_was ist das?_--_Nine und sechzig_--_flask
+bier!_ _Kleich! Kleich!_" When the beer came he would drink off three
+bottles without stopping, then light his pipe, fill the cabin with smoke,
+and after he had done that go on deck to get the fresh air. I could hear
+him for hours walking up and down over my head, and thought I could
+occasionally detect the words. "_Hemphf_--_ruble_--_thaler_--_fünfmal
+sechs und zwanzig_--_mein Gott!_" It was evident the man was laboring
+under some dreadful internal excitement about the price of hemp. What
+could it be? Was he going to hang himself? Did he contemplate buying some
+Russian hemp for that purpose especially? The mystery was heightened by
+the fact that he was frequently in close conversation with the young man
+whom I have already mentioned as my other fellow-passenger, and they both
+talked about nothing else but hemp. What in the name of sense were they
+going to do with hemp in Mechlenberg, their native country, where people
+were beheaded--unless they meant to hang themselves? The mystery troubled
+me so much that I finally made bold to ask the young man if his friend
+had committed any serious crime, and whether that was the reason he
+talked so much about hemp? These North Germans are a queer people. I
+don't think they ever suspect any body to be joking. They take the most
+outrageous proposition literally, and never seem to understand that there
+can be two meanings to any thing. As Sydney Smith says of the Scotch, it
+would take a surgical operation to get a joke well into their
+understanding. When I propounded this question to my young
+fellow-passenger--a very amiable and intelligent young man--he looked
+distressed and horror-stricken, and replied with great earnestness, "Oh
+no, he is a very respectable man. I am certain he never committed a crime
+in his life." "But," said I, "if he doesn't intend to hang somebody, why
+should he rave about hemp all night?" "Oh, he is a rope-maker. He is
+going to Russia to buy a cargo of hemp, and he's afraid prices will go up
+unless he gets there soon. The head wind and chopping sea keep us back a
+good deal." "Yes, yes, I understand it all now. Suppose, my young friend,
+you and I go to work and help the steamer along a little? It would be
+doing a great service to the cause of hemp, and enable me to sleep
+besides." The Mechlenberger looked incredulous. "How are we to do it?" he
+asked at length. "Oh, nothing easier!" I answered. "Just put a couple of
+these handspikes in the lee scuppers--so! and hold her steady!" At this
+the Mechlenberger, who was a very genial and good-natured fellow, could
+scarcely help laughing, the absurdity of the idea struck him so forcibly.
+Seeing, however, that I looked perfectly in earnest, he was kind enough
+to explain the erroneous basis of my calculation, and accordingly entered
+into an elaborate mathematical demonstration to prove that what we gained
+by lifting we would lose by the additional pressure of our feet upon the
+decks! After this I was prepared to believe the story of the old
+Nuremberger, who, when about to set out on his travels, got on top of his
+trunk and took hold of each end for the purpose of carrying it to the
+post station. The question about the hemp was too good to be lost, and my
+young friend had too strong a business head not to perceive the
+delightful verdancy of my character. He accordingly took the earliest
+opportunity to mention it to his comrade, Herr Batz, the rope-maker, who
+never stopped laughing about the mistake I had made till we got to St.
+Petersburg. They were both very genial, pleasant fellows, and took a
+great fancy to the Herr American who thought Herr Batz was going to hang
+himself, and who had proposed to steady the steamer by means of a
+handspike. Such primitive simplicity was absolutely refreshing to them;
+and, since they enjoyed it, of course I did, and we were the best of
+friends.
+
+On the present occasion, after we had passed the usual compliments it
+was proposed that we should hire a boat, as the night was fine, and
+take a trip down to the Kamennoi Island. I was delighted to have two
+such agreeable companions, and readily acceded to the proposition. A
+young Russian in the hemp business accompanied us, and altogether we
+made a very lively and humorous party. I was sorry, however, to be
+prejudiced in the estimation of the Russian by having the hemp and
+handspike story repeated in my presence, but finally got over that,
+and changed the current of the conversation by asking if the Emperor
+Alexander would send me to Siberia in case I smoked a cigar in the
+boat? To which the Russian responded somewhat gravely that I could
+smoke as many cigars on the water as I pleased, although it was
+forbidden in the streets on account of the danger of fire; but that,
+in any event, I would merely have to pay a fine, as people were only
+sent to Siberia for capital crimes and political offenses.
+
+We got a boat down near the Custom-house, at a point of the Vassoli
+Ostrou, called the Strelka, and were soon skimming along through a
+small branch of the Neva, toward the island of Krestofskoi. The water
+was literally alive with boats, all filled with gay parties of
+pleasure-seekers, some on their way to the different islands, some to
+the bath-houses which abound in every direction, and all apparently
+enjoying a delightful time of it. Passing to the right of the
+Petrofskoi Island, whose grass-covered shores slope down to the water
+like a green carpet outspread under the trees, we soon reached the
+Little Nevka, about three miles from our starting-point. We
+disembarked on the Krestofskoi Island, near the bridge which crosses
+from Petrofskoi. On the right is a beautiful palace belonging to some
+of the royal family, the gardens of which sweep down to the waters of
+the Nevka, and present a charming scene of floral luxuriance.
+Gondolas, richly carved and curiously shaped, lay moored near the
+stone steps; the trestled bowers were filled with gay parties;
+pleasant sounds of voices and music floated upon the air, and over
+all a soft twilight gave a mystic fascination to the scene. I thought
+of the terrible arctic winters that for six months in the year cast
+their cold death-pall over the scene of glowing and tropical
+luxuriance, and wondered how it could ever come to life again; how the
+shrubs could bloom, and the birds sing, and the soft air of the summer
+nights come back and linger where such dreary horrors were wont to
+desolate the earth.
+
+  [Illustration: FISH PEDDLER.]
+
+The constant dread of infringing upon the police regulations; the
+extraordinary deference with which men in uniform are regarded; the
+circumspect behavior at public places; the nice and well-regulated
+mirthfulness, never overstepping the strict bounds of prudence, which
+I had so often noticed in the northern states of Germany, and which
+may in part be attributed to the naturally conservative and orderly
+character of the people, are not the prominent features of the
+population of St. Petersburg. It appeared to me that in this respect
+at least they are more like Americans than any people I had seen in
+Europe; they do pretty much as they please; follow such trades and
+occupations as they like best; become noisy and uproarious when it
+suits them; get drunk occasionally; fight now and then; lie about on
+the grass and under the trees when they feel tired; enjoy themselves
+to their heart's content at all the public places; and care nothing
+about the police as long as the police let them alone. I rather
+fancied there must be a natural democratic streak in these people, for
+they are certainly more free and easy in their manners, rougher in
+their dress, more independent in their general air, and a good deal
+dirtier than most of the people I had met with in the course of my
+travels. I do not mean to say that rowdyism and democracy are
+synonymous, but I consider it a good sign of innate manliness and a
+natural spirit of independence when men are not afraid to dress like
+vagabonds and behave a little extravagantly, if it suits their taste.
+It must be said, however, that the police regulations or St.
+Petersburg, without being onerous or vexatious, are quite as good as
+those of any large city in Europe. When men are deprived of their
+political liberties, the least that can be done for them is to let
+them enjoy as much municipal freedom as may be consistent with public
+peace. I should never have suspected, from any thing I saw in the city
+or neighborhood of St. Petersburg, that I was within the limits of an
+absolute despotism. If one desires to satisfy himself on this point he
+must visit the interior.
+
+  [Illustration: YOUNG PEASANTS.]
+
+I was led into this train of reflection partly by the scenes I had
+witnessed during my rambles through the city and on the way down the
+river, and partly by what we now saw on the island of Krestofskoi. A
+bridge unites this island with the Petrofskoi, and two other bridges
+with the islands of Kamennoi and Elaghinskoi. It was eleven o'clock at
+night, yet the twilight was so rich and glowing that one might readily
+read a newspaper in any of the open spaces. The main avenues were
+crowded with carriages of every conceivable description--the grandly
+decorated coach of the noble, glittering with armorial bearings and
+drawn by four richly-caparisoned horses; the barouche, easy and
+elegant, filled with a gay company of foreigners; the drosky, whirling
+along at a rapid pace, with its solitary occupant; the kareta, plain,
+neat, and substantial, carrying on its ample seats some worthy
+merchant and his family; the nondescript little vehicle, without top,
+bottom, or sides--nothing but four small wheels and a cushioned seat
+perched on springs, with an exquisite perched astride upon the street,
+driving a magnificent blood horse at the rate of 2.40; and English
+boxes with stiff Englishmen in them; and French chaises with loose
+Frenchmen in them; and a New York buggy with a New York fancy man in
+it; and hundreds of fine horses with dashing Russian officers in
+uniform mounted on them, and hundreds of other horses with secretaries
+and various young sprigs of nobility struggling painfully to stay
+mounted on them; and, in short, every thing grand, fanciful, and
+entertaining in the way of locomotion that the most fertile
+imagination can conceive. Don't do me the injustice, I pray you, to
+consider me envious of the good fortune of others in being able to
+ride when I had to walk, for it does me an amazing deal of good to see
+people enjoy themselves. Nothing pleases me better than to see a fat
+old lady, glittering all over with fine silks and jewels, leaning back
+in her cushioned carriage, with her beloved little lapdog in her
+arms--two elegant drivers, four prancing horses, and a splendid little
+postillion in front; two stalwart footmen, in plush breeches, behind,
+with variegated yellow backs like a pair of wasps. Can any thing be
+more picturesque? It always makes me think of a large June-bug dragged
+about by an accommodating crowd of fancy-colored flies! And what can
+be more imposing than a Russian grandee? See that terrific old
+gentleman, sitting all alone in a gorgeous carriage, large enough to
+carry himself and half a dozen of his friends. Orders and disorders
+cover him from head to foot. He is the exact picture of a ferocious
+bullfrog, with a tremendous mustache and a horribly malignant
+expression of eye, and naturally enough expects every body to get out
+of his way. That man must have had greatness thrust upon him, for he
+never could have achieved it by the brilliancy of his intellect.
+Doubtless he spends much of his time at the springs, but they don't
+seem to have purified his body, or subdued the natural ferocity of his
+temper. His wife must have a pleasant time. I wonder if he sleeps
+well, or enjoys Herzain's essays on Russian aristocracy? But make way,
+ye pedestrian rabble, for here comes a secretary of legation on
+horseback--make way, or he will tumble off and inflict some bodily
+injury upon you with the points of his waxed mustache! I know he must
+be a secretary of legation by the enormous polished boots he wears
+over his tight breeches, the dandy parting of his hair, the
+supercilious stupidity of his countenance, and the horrible tortures
+he suffers in trying to stick on the back of his horse. Nobody else in
+the world could make such an ass of himself by such frantic attempts
+to show off and keep on at the same time. I'll bet my life he thinks
+he is the most beautiful and accomplished gentleman ever produced by a
+beneficent Creator. Well, it is a happy thing for some of us that we
+don't see ourselves as others see us; if we did, my friends in the
+hemp business and myself would fare badly. Beregrissa! Padi!
+Padi!--have a care! make way, for here comes a cloud of dust, and in
+that cloud of dust is a kibitka, drawn by three wild horses, and in
+that kibitka, half sitting, half clinging to the side, is an official
+courier. Crack goes the whip of the _yamtschick_; the three fiery
+horses fly through the dust; the courier waves his hand to an officer
+on horseback, and with a whirl and a whisk they disappear. _Pashol!_ I
+hope they won't break their necks before they get through.
+
+  [Illustration: DVORNICK AND POSTMAN.]
+
+Soon the main road branches out in various directions, and we strike
+off with the diverging streams of pedestrians, families of the middle
+and lower classes, young men of the town, gay young damsels with their
+beaux, burly tradesmen, tinkers, tailors, and hatters, waiters and
+apprentices, sailors and soldiers, until we find ourselves in the
+midst of a grand old forest. Open glades, pavilions, and tables are
+visible at intervals; but for the most part we are in a labyrinthian
+wilderness of trees, rich in foliage, and almost oppressive in their
+umbrageous density, while
+
+    "Deep velvet verdure clothes the turf beneath,
+    And trodden flowers their richest odors breathe."
+
+Insects flit through the still atmosphere; the hum of human voices,
+softened by distance, falls soothingly upon the ear; and as we look,
+and listen, and loiter on our way, we wonder if this can be the
+dreamland of the arctic regions? Can there ever be snow-storms and
+scathing frosts in such a land of tropical luxuriance? Thus, as we
+lounge along in the mellow twilight amid the groves of Katrofskoi,
+what charming pictures of sylvan enjoyment are revealed to us at every
+turn! Rustic tables under the great wide-spreading trees are
+surrounded by family groups--old patriarchs, and their children, and
+great-grandchildren; the steaming urn of tea in the middle; the old
+people chatting and gossiping; the young people laughing merrily; the
+children tumbling about over the green sward. Passing on we come to a
+group of Mujiks lying camp-fashion on the grass, eating their black
+bread, drinking their vodka, and sleeping whenever they please--for
+this is their summer home, and this grass is their bed. Next we come
+to a group of officers, their rich uniforms glittering in the soft
+twilight, their horses tied to the trees, or held at a little distance
+by some attendant soldiers. Dominoes, cards, Champagne, and cakes are
+scattered in tempting profusion upon the table, and if they are not
+enjoying their military career, it is not for want of congenial
+accompaniments and plenty of leisure. A little farther on we meet a
+jovial party of Germans seated under a tree, with a goodly supply of
+bread and sausages before them, singing in fine accord a song of their
+faderland. Next we hear the familiar strains of an organ, and soon
+come in sight of an Italian who is exhibiting an accomplished monkey
+to an enraptured crowd of children. The monkey has been thoroughly
+trained in the school of adversity, and makes horrible grimaces at his
+cruel and cadaverous master, who in ferocious tones, and without the
+least appearance of enjoying the sport, commands this miniature man to
+dance, fire a small gun, go through the sword exercise, play on a
+small fiddle, smoke a cigar, turn a somersault, bow to the company,
+and hold out his hat for an unlimited number of kopecks. Herr Batz
+suggests that such a monkey as that might be taught to spin ropes, and
+our younger Mechlenberger laughs, and says he once read a story of a
+monkey that shaved a cat, and then cut off his own or the cat's tail,
+he could not remember which. This reminds the Russian of a countess in
+Moscow who owned a beautiful little dog, to which she was greatly
+attached. She required her serfs to call it "My noble Prince," and had
+them well flogged with the knout whenever they approached it without
+bowing. One day a cat got hold of the noble Prince, and gave him a
+good scratching. The countess, being unable to soothe her afflicted
+poodle, caused the cat's paws to be cut off, and served up on a plate
+for his unhappy highness to play with--after which the noble pug was
+perfectly satisfied! Of course, we all laughed at the Russian's story,
+but he assured us it was a well authenticated fact, and was generally
+regarded as a most delicate _jeu d'esprit_. Not to be behindhand in
+the line of cats and monkeys, I was obliged to tell an anecdote of a
+Frenchman, who, on his arrival in Algiers, ordered a ragout at one of
+the most fashionable restaurants. It was duly served up, and
+pronounced excellent, though rather strongly flavored. "Pray," said
+the Frenchman to the _maître d'hotel_, "of what species of cat do you
+make ragouts in Algiers?" "Pardon, monsieur," replied the polite host,
+"we use nothing but monkeys in Africa!" Disgusted at this colonial
+barbarism, the Frenchman immediately returned to Paris, where he
+remained forever after, that he might enjoy his customary and more
+civilized dish of cat. Herr Batz had not before heard of such a
+thing, neither had the young Mechlenberger, and they both agreed that
+cats must be a very disgusting article of food. The Russian, however,
+seemed to regard it as nothing uncommon, and gave us some very
+entertaining accounts of various curious dishes in the interior of
+Russia, to which cats were not a circumstance.
+
+  [Illustration: GLAZIER, PAINTER, CARPENTERS.]
+
+With such flimsy conversation as this we entertain ourselves till we
+reach a village of summer residences on the Kamennoi Island. Here we
+pause a while to enjoy the varied scenes of amusement that tempt the
+loiterer at every step; the tea-drinking parties out on the porticoes,
+the gambling saloons, the dancing pavilions, the cafés, the
+confectioneries, with their gay throngs of customers, their gaudy
+colors, their music, and sounds of joy and revelry. A little farther
+on we come to a stand of carriages, and near by a gate and a large
+garden. For thirty kopecks apiece we procure tickets of admission.
+This is the Vauxhall of Kamennoi. We jostle in with the crowd, and
+soon find ourselves in front of an open theatre.
+
+So passes away the time till the whistle of a little steamer warns us
+of an opportunity to get back to the city. Hurrying down to the wharf,
+we secure places on the stern-sheets of a screw-wheeled craft not much
+bigger than a good-sized yawl. It is crowded to overflowing--in front,
+on top of the machinery, in the rear, over the sides--not a square
+inch of space left for man or beast. The whistle blows again; the
+fiery little monster of an engine shivers and screams with excess of
+steam; the grim, black-looking engineer gives the irons a pull, and
+away we go at a rate of speed that threatens momentary destruction
+against some bridge or bath-house. It is now two o'clock A.M. The rays
+of the rising sun are already reflected upon the glowing waters of the
+Neva. Barges and row-boats are hurrying toward the city. Carriages are
+rolling along the shady avenues of the islands. Crowds are gathered at
+every pier and landing-place awaiting some conveyance homeward. Ladies
+are waving their handkerchiefs to the little steamer to stop, and
+gentlemen are flourishing their hats. The captain blows the whistle,
+and the engineer stops the boat with such a sudden reversion of our
+screw that we are pitched forward out of the seats. Some of the
+passengers clamber up at the landing-places, and others clamber down
+and take their places. The little engine sets up its terrific scream
+again; the hot steam hisses and fizzes all over the boat; involuntary
+thoughts of maimed limbs and scalded skins are palpably impressed upon
+every face; but the little steamer keeps on--she is used to it, like
+the eels, and never bursts up. Winding through the varied channels of
+the Neva, under bridges, through narrow passes, among wood-boats,
+row-boats, and shipping, we at length reach the landing on the Russian
+Quay, above the Admiralty. Here we disembark, well satisfied to be
+safely over all the enjoyments and hazards of the evening.
+
+Evening, did I say? The morning sun is blazing out in all his glory!
+We have had no evening--no night. It has been all a wild, strange,
+glowing freak of fancy. The light of day has been upon us all the
+time. And now, should we go to bed, when the sun is shining over the
+city, glistening upon the domes of the churches, illuminating the
+windows of the palaces, awaking the drowsy sailors of the Neva? Shall
+we hide ourselves away in suffocating rooms when the morning breeze is
+floating in from the Gulf of Finland, bearing upon its wings the
+invigorating brine of ocean, or shall we,
+
+              "Pleased to feel the air,
+    Still wander in the luxury of light?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+VIEWS ON THE MOSCOW RAILWAY.
+
+
+The St. Petersburg and Moscow Railroad has been in operation some
+eight or ten years, and has contributed much to the internal
+prosperity of the country. In the summer of 1862 it was extended as
+far as Vladimir, and now connects St. Petersburg with Nijni Novgorod,
+one of the most important points in the empire, where the great annual
+fair is held, where tea-merchants and others from all parts of Tartary
+and China meet to exchange the products of those countries with those
+of the merchants of Russia. During the present year (1862) it is
+expected that the line of railway connection will be completed from
+St. Petersburg to the Prussian frontier, and connect with the
+railroads of Prussia, so that within twelve months it will be
+practicable to travel by rail all the way from Marseilles or Bordeaux
+to Nijni Novgorod.
+
+The Moscow and St. Petersburg Railway is something over four hundred
+miles in length, and consists of a double track, broad, well graded,
+and substantially constructed. The whole business of running the line,
+keeping the cars and track in repair, working the machine-shops, etc.,
+embracing all the practical details of the operative department, is
+let out by contract to an American company, while the government
+supervises the financial department, and reserves to itself the
+municipal control.[A] It is a remarkable fact, characteristic of the
+Russians, that while they possess uncommon capacity to acquire all the
+details of engineering, and are by no means lacking in mechanical
+skill, they are utterly deficient in management and administrative
+capacity. Wasteful, improvident, and short-sighted, they can never do
+any thing without the aid of more sagacious and economical heads to
+keep them within the bounds of reason. Thus, at one time, when they
+undertook to run this line on their own account, although they started
+with an extraordinary surplus of material, they soon ran the cars off
+their wheels, forgetting to keep up a supply of new ones as they went
+along; ran the engines out of working order; kept nothing in repair;
+provided against no contingency; and were finally likely to break down
+entirely, when they determined that it would be better to give this
+branch of the business out by contract. One great fault with them is,
+they labor under an idea that nothing can be done without an
+extraordinary number of officers, soldiers, policemen, and employés of
+every description--upon the principle, I suppose, that if two heads
+are better than one, the ignorance or inefficiency of a small number
+of employés can be remedied by having a very great number of the same
+kind. In other words, they seem to think that if five hundred men can
+not be industrious, skillful, and economical, five thousand trained in
+exactly the same schools, and with precisely the same propensities,
+must be ten times better. Even now there is not a station, and
+scarcely a foot of the railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow, that is
+not infested with an extraordinary surplus of useless men in uniform.
+At the great dépôts in each of these cities the traveler is fairly
+confused with the crowds of officers and employés through which he is
+obliged to make his way. Before he enters the doorways, liveried
+porters outside offer to take his baggage; then he passes by guards,
+who look at him carefully and let him go in; then he finds guards who
+show him where to find the ticket-office; when he arrives at the
+ticket-office, he finds a guard or two outside, and half a dozen
+clerks inside; then he buys his ticket, and an officer examines it as
+he goes into the wirthsaal; there he finds other officers stationed to
+preserve order; when the bell rings the doors are opened; numerous
+officers outside show him where to find the cars, and which car he
+must get into; and when he gets into a car he sits for a quarter of an
+hour, and sees officers going up and down outside all the time, and
+thinks to himself that people certainly can not be supposed to have
+very good eyes, ears, or understanding of their own in this country,
+since nobody is deemed capable of using them on his individual
+responsibility. I only wonder that they don't eat, drink, sleep, and
+travel for a man at once by proxy, and thereby save him the trouble of
+living or moving at all. In fact, I had some thought of asking one of
+these licensed gentlemen if the regulations could not be stretched a
+point so as to embrace the payment of my expenses; but it occurred to
+me that if I were relieved of that responsibility, they might
+undertake at the same time to write these letters for me, which would
+be likely to alter the tone and thereby destroy my individuality. But
+it must be admitted that good order, convenience, politeness, and
+comfort are the predominant characteristics of railway travel in
+Russia. The conductors usually speak French, German, and English, and
+are exceedingly attentive to the comfort of the passengers. The hours
+of starting and stopping are punctually observed--so punctually that
+you can calculate to the exact minute when you will arrive at any
+given point. Having no watch, I always knew the time by looking at my
+ticket. Between St. Petersburg and Moscow there are thirty-three
+stations, seven of which are the grand stations of Lubanskaia,
+Malovischerskaia, Okoulourskaia, Bologovskaia, Spirovskaia, Tver, and
+Klinskaia. The rest are small intermediate stations. At every
+seventy-five versts--about fifty miles--the cars stop twenty minutes,
+and refreshments may be had by paying a pretty heavy price for them.
+At the points above-named there are large and substantial edifices
+built by the company, containing various offices, spacious
+eating-saloons, ante-chambers, etc., and attached to which are
+extensive machine-shops, and various outbuildings required by the
+service. Occasionally towns may be seen in the vicinity of these
+stations, but for the most part they stand out desolate and alone in
+the dreary waste of country lying between the two great cities. At
+every twenty-five versts are sub-stations, where the cars stop for a
+few minutes. These are also large and very substantial edifices, but
+not distinguished for architectural beauty, like many of the stations
+in France and Germany. Usually the Russian station consists of an
+immense plain circular building, constructed of brick, with very
+thick walls, and a plain zinc roof, the outside painted red, the roof
+green; wings or flanges built of the same material extending along the
+track; a broad wooden esplanade in front, upon which the passengers
+can amuse themselves promenading, and a neat garden, with other
+accommodations, at one end. Some of the large stations are not only
+massive and of enormous extent, but present rather a striking and
+picturesque appearance as they are approached from the distance,
+standing as they do in the great deserts of space like solitary
+sentinels of civilization. The passengers rush out at every
+stopping-place just as they do in other parts of the world, some to
+stretch their limbs, others to replenish the waste that seems to be
+constantly going on in the stomachs of the traveling public. I don't
+know how it is, but it appears to me that people who travel by railway
+are always either tired, thirsty, or hungry. The voracity with which
+plates of soup, cutlets, sandwiches, salad, scalding hot tea, wine,
+beer, and brandy are swallowed down by these hungry and thirsty
+Russians, is quite as striking as any thing I ever saw done in the
+same line at Washoe. But it is not a feature confined to Russia. I
+notice the same thing every where all over the world; and what vexes
+me about it is that I never get tired myself, and rarely hungry or
+thirsty. Here, in midsummer, with a sweltering hot sun, and an
+atmosphere that would almost smother a salamander, were whole legions
+of officers, elegantly-dressed ladies, and a rabble of miscellaneous
+second and third class passengers like myself, puffing, blowing,
+eating, drinking, sweating, and toiling, as if their very existence
+depended upon keeping up the internal fires and blowing them off
+again. It is dreadful to see people so hard pushed to live. I really
+can't conjecture what sort of a commotion they will make when they
+come to die. A sandwich or two and a glass of tea lasted me all the
+way to Moscow--a journey of eighteen hours, and I never suffered from
+hunger, thirst, or fatigue the whole way. If I had "gone in" like
+other people, I would certainly have been a dead man before I got half
+way; and yet, I think, two sandwiches more would have lasted me to the
+Ural Mountains. It continually bothers me to know how the human
+stomach can bear to be tormented in this frightful way. Per Baccho! I
+would as soon be shot in the hand with an escopette ball as drink the
+quantity of wine and eat the quantity of food that I have seen even
+women and children dispose of, as if it were mere pastime, on these
+railway journeys. I think it must be either this or the frost that
+accounts for the extraordinary prevalence of red noses in Russia, and
+it even occurred to me that the stations are painted a fiery red, so
+that when travelers come within range of the refracted color their
+noses may look pale by contrast, and thereby remind them that it is
+time to renew the caloric.
+
+  [A] This contract terminated last year (1865).
+
+With the exception of the seventy-five versts between Moscow and Tver,
+I can not remember that I ever traveled over so desolate and
+uninteresting a stretch of country as that lying between St.
+Petersburg and Moscow. For a short distance out of St. Petersburg
+there are some few villas and farms to relieve the monotony of the
+gloomy pine forests; then the country opens out into immense
+undulating plains, marshy meadows, scrubby groves of young pine,
+without any apparent limit; here and there a bleak and solitary
+village of log huts; a herd of cattle in the meadows; a wretched,
+sterile-looking farm, with plowed fields, at remote intervals, and so
+on hour after hour, the scene offering but little variety the whole
+way to Tver. The villages are wholly destitute of picturesque effect.
+Such rude and miserable hovels as they are composed of could scarcely
+be found in the wildest frontier region of the United States. These
+cabins or hovels are built of logs, and are very low and small,
+generally consisting of only one or two rooms. I saw none that were
+whitewashed or painted, and nothing like order or regularity was
+perceptible about them, all seeming to be huddled together as if they
+happened there by accident, and were obliged to keep at close quarters
+in order to avoid freezing during the terrible winters. Some of them
+are not unlike the city of Eden in Martin Chuzzlewit. The entire
+absence of every thing approaching taste, comfort, or rural beauty in
+the appearance of these villages; the weird and desolate aspect of the
+boggy and grass-grown streets; the utter want of interest in progress
+or improvement on the part of the peasantry who inhabit them, are well
+calculated to produce a melancholy impression of the condition of
+these poor people. How can it be otherwise, held in bondage as they
+have been for centuries, subject to be taxed at the discretion of
+their owners; the results of their labors wrested from them; no
+advance made by the most enterprising and intelligent of them without
+in some way subjecting them to new burdens? Whatever may be the result
+of the movement now made for their emancipation, it certainly can not
+be more depressing than the existing system of serfage. Looking back
+over the scenes of village life I had witnessed in France and
+Germany--the neat vine-covered cottages, the little flower-gardens,
+the orchards and green lanes, the festive days, when the air resounded
+to the merry voices of laughing damsels and village beaux--
+
+    "The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
+    For talking age and whispering lovers made"--
+
+the joyous dancers out on the village green, the flaunting banners and
+wreaths of flowers hung in rich profusion over the cross-roads--with
+such scenes as these flitting through my memory, I could well
+understand that there is an absolute physical servitude to which men
+can be reduced, that, in the progress of generations, must crush down
+the human soul, and make life indeed a dreary struggle. In the
+splendor of large cities, amid the glitter and magnificence of palaces
+and churches, the varied paraphernalia of aristocracy and wealth, and
+all the excitements, allurements, and novelties apparent to the
+superficial eye, the real condition of the masses is not perceptible.
+They must be seen in the country--in their far-off villages and homes
+throughout the broad land; there you find no disguise to cover the
+horrible deformities of their bruised and crushed life; there you see
+the full measure of their civilization. In the huts of these poor
+people there is little or no comfort. Many of them have neither beds
+nor chairs, and the occupants spend a sort of camp life within doors,
+cooking their food like Indians, and huddling round the earthen stove
+or fireplace in winter, where they lie down on the bare ground and
+sleep in a mass, like a nest of animals, to keep each other warm.
+Their clothing is of the coarsest material, but reasonably good, and
+well suited to the climate. The men are a much finer-looking race,
+physically, than their masters. I saw some serfs in Moscow who, in
+stature, strong athletic forms, and bold and manly features, would
+compare favorably with the best specimens of men in any country. It
+was almost incredible that such noble-looking fellows, with their
+blue, piercing eyes and manly air, should be reduced to such a state
+of abject servitude as to kiss the tails of their master's coats! Many
+of them had features as bold and forms as brawny as our own California
+miners; and more than once, when I saw them lounging about in their
+big boots, with their easy, reckless air, and looked at their
+weather-beaten faces and vigorous, sunburnt beards, I could almost
+imagine that they were genuine Californians. But here the resemblance
+ceased. No sooner did an officer of high standing pass, than they
+manifested some abject sign of their degraded condition.
+
+  [Illustration: HAY GATHERERS.]
+
+Some of the agricultural implements that one sees in this country
+would astonish a Californian. The plows are patterned very much after
+those that were used by Boaz and other large farmers in the days of
+the Patriarchs; the scythes are the exact originals of the old
+pictures in which Death is represented as mowing down mankind; the
+hoes, rakes, and shovels would be an ornament to any museum, but are
+entirely indescribable; and as for the wagons and harnesses--herein
+lies the superior genius of the Russians over all the races of earth,
+ancient or modern, for never were such wagons and such harnesses seen
+on any other part of the globe. To be accurate and methodical, each
+wagon has four wheels, and each wheel is roughly put together of rough
+wood, and then roughly bound up in an iron band about four inches
+wide, and thick in proportion. Logs of wood, skillfully hewed with
+broad-axes, answer for the axle-tree; and as they don't weigh over
+half a ton each, they are sometimes braced in the middle to keep them
+from breaking. Upon the top of this is a big basket, about the shape
+of a bath-tub, in which the load is carried. Sometimes the body is
+made of planks tied together with bullock's hide, or no body at all
+is used, as convenience may require. The wagon being thus completed,
+braced and thorough-braced with old ropes, iron bands, and leather
+straps, we come to the horses, which stand generally in front. The
+middle horse is favored with a pair of shafts of enormous durability
+and strength. He stands between these shafts, and is fastened in them
+by means of ropes; but, to prevent him from jumping out overhead, a
+wooden arch is out over him, which is the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of
+ornamentation. This is called the _duga_, and is the most prominent
+object to be seen about every wagon, drosky, and kibitka in Russia. I
+am not sure but a species of veneration is attached to it. Often it is
+highly decorated with gilding, painted figures, and every vagary of
+artistic genius, and must cost nearly as much as the entire wagon.
+Some of the _dugas_ even carry saintly images upon them, so that the
+devout driver may perform his devotions as he drives through life. To
+suppose that a horse could pull a wagon in Russia without this wooden
+arch, the utility of which no human eye but that of a Russian can see,
+is to suppose an impossibility. Now, the shafts being spread out so as
+to give the horse plenty of room at each side, it becomes necessary,
+since they are rather loosely hung on at the but-ends, to keep them
+from swaying. How do you think this is done? Nothing easier. By
+running a rope from the end of each shaft to the projecting end of the
+fore axle, outside of the wheels. For this purpose the axle is made to
+project a foot beyond the wheels, and the only trouble about it is
+that two wagons on a narrow road often find it difficult to pass. It
+is very curious to see these primitive-looking objects lumbering about
+through the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The horses are most
+commonly placed three abreast. In the ordinary kibitka or traveling
+wagon the outside horses are merely fastened by ropes, and strike out
+in any direction they please, the whip and a small rein serving to
+keep them within bounds. It is perfectly astonishing with what
+reckless and headlong speed these animals dash over the rough
+pavements. Just imagine the luxury of a warm day's journey in such a
+vehicle, which has neither springs nor backed seats--three fiery
+horses fastened to it, and each pulling, plunging, and pirouetting on
+his own account; a ferocious yamtschick cracking his whip and
+shrieking "Shivar! shivar!"--faster! faster!--the wagon, rattling all
+over, plunging into ruts, jumping over stones, ripping its way through
+bogs and mud-banks; your bones shaken nearly out of their sockets;
+your vertebræ partially dislocated; your mouth filled with dust; your
+tongue swollen and parched; your eyes blinded with grit; your
+_yamtschick_ reeling drunk with _vodka_, and bound to draw to the
+destined station--or some worse place; your confidence in men and
+horses shaken with your bones; your views of the future circumscribed
+by every turn of the road--oh! it is charming; it is the very climax
+of human enjoyment. Wouldn't you like to travel in Russia?
+
+In addition to the villages which are scattered at frequent intervals
+along the route, the gilded dome of a church is occasionally seen in
+the distance, indicating the existence of a town; but one seldom
+catches more than a glimpse of the green-covered roofs of the houses,
+over the interminable patches of scrubby pine. It is not a country
+that presents such attractive features as to induce the mere tourist
+to get out and spend a few days rambling through it. In these dreary
+solitudes of marshes and pines, the inhabitants speak no other
+language than their own, and that not very well; but well or ill, it
+is all Greek--or rather Russian--to the majority of people from other
+countries.
+
+But, as I said before, this habit of digression will be the death of
+me. Like a rocket, I start off splendidly, but explode and fall to
+pieces in every direction before I get half way on my journey. If the
+scintillations are varied and gayly colored, to be sure, the powder is
+not utterly lost; but the trouble of it is, if one keeps going off
+like rockets all the time, he will never get any where, and in the
+end will leave nothing but smoke and darkness to the gaping multitude.
+
+If my memory serves me, I was talking of the Emperor Alexander's convoy
+of private railway carriages--the most magnificent affair of the kind,
+perhaps, in existence. It was made purposely for his use, at a cost of
+more than a hundred thousand dollars, and presented to him by the
+American company, Winans and Company. Nothing so magnificent in
+decoration, and so admirably adapted to the convenience, comfort, and
+enjoyment of a royal party has ever been seen in Europe. The main
+carriage--for there are several in the suite--called, _par excellence_,
+the emperor's own, is eighty-five feet long, and something over the
+usual width. It rests upon two undivided sleepers of such elastic and
+well-grained wood that they would bear the entire weight of the
+carriage, without the necessity of a support in the middle, forming a
+single stretch or arch, from axle to axle, of about seventy feet. The
+springs, wheels, brakes, and various kinds of iron-work, are of the
+finest and most select material, and highly finished in every detail,
+combining strength and durability with artistic beauty. The interior of
+the main or imperial carriage is a masterpiece of sumptuous
+ornamentation. Here are the richest of carvings; the most gorgeous
+hangings of embroidered velvet; mirrors and pictures in profusion;
+carpets and rugs that seem coaxing the feet to linger upon them;
+tables, cushioned sofas, and luxurious arm-chairs; divans and lounges
+of rare designs, covered with the richest damask; exquisite Pompeian
+vases and brilliant chandeliers--all, in short, that ingenuity could
+devise and wealth procure to charm the senses, and render this a
+traveling palace worthy the imperial presence. Connected with the main
+saloon is the royal bedchamber, with adjoining bathing and dressing
+rooms, equally sumptuous in all their appointments. Besides which,
+there are smoking-rooms, private offices, magnificent chambers for the
+camarilla, the secretaries, and body-guard of the emperor. The whole
+is admirably arranged for convenience and comfort; and it is said that
+the motion, when the convoy is under way, is so soft and dreamy that it
+is scarcely possible to feel a vibration, the effect being as if the
+cars were floating through the air, or drawn over tracks of down. Fully
+equal to this, yet more subdued and delicate in the drapery and
+coloring, are the apartments of the empress. Here it may truly be said
+is "the poetry of motion" realized--saloons fit for the angels that
+flit through them, of whom the chiefest ornament is the empress
+herself--the beautiful and beloved Maria Alexandrina, the charm of
+whose presence is felt like a pleasant glow of sunshine wherever she
+goes. Here are drawing-rooms, boudoirs, apartments for the beautiful
+maids of honor, reading-rooms, and even a dancing-saloon, from which it
+may well be inferred that the royal party enjoy themselves. If the
+emperor fails to make himself agreeable in this branch of his
+establishment, he deserves to be put out at the very first station. But
+he has the ladies at a disadvantage, which probably compels them to be
+very tolerant of his behavior; that is to say, he can detach their
+branch of the establishment from his own, and leave them on the road at
+any time he pleases by pulling a string; but I believe there is no
+instance yet on record of his having availed himself of this autocratic
+privilege. It is usually understood at the start whether the excursion
+is to be in partnership or alone. When the emperor goes out on a
+hunting expedition, he is accompanied by a select company of gentlemen,
+and of course is compelled to deprive himself of the pleasure of the
+more attractive and intoxicating society of ladies, which would be
+calculated to unsteady his nerves, and render him unfit for those
+terrific encounters with the bears of the forest upon which his fame as
+a hunter is chiefly founded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MOSCOW.
+
+
+What the great Napoleon thought when he gazed for the first time
+across the broad valley that lay at his feet, and caught the first
+dazzling light that flashed from the walls and golden cupolas of the
+Kremlin--whether some shadowy sense of the wondrous beauties of the
+scene did not enter his soul--is more than I can say with certainty;
+but this much I know, that neither he nor his legions could have
+enjoyed the view from Sparrow Hill more than I did the first glimpse
+of the grand old city of the Czars as I stepped from the railroad
+dépôt, with my knapsack on my back, and stood, a solitary and
+bewildered waif, uncertain if it could all be real; for never yet had
+I, in the experience of many years' travel, seen such a magnificent
+sight, so wildly Tartaric, so strange, glowing, and incomprehensible.
+This was Moscow at last--the Moscow I had read of when a child--the
+Moscow I had so often seen burnt up in panoramas by an excited and
+patriotic populace--the Moscow ever flashing through memory in fitful
+gleams, half buried in smoke, and flames, and toppling ruins, now
+absolutely before me, a gorgeous reality in the bright noonday sun,
+with its countless churches, its domes and cupolas, and mighty
+Kremlin.
+
+Stand with me, reader, on the first eminence, and let us take a
+bird's-eye view of the city, always keeping in mind that the Kremlin
+is the great nucleus from which it all radiates. What a vast, wavy
+ocean of golden cupolas and fancy-colored domes, green-roofed houses
+and tortuous streets circle around this magic pile! what a combination
+of wild, barbaric splendors! nothing within the sweep of vision that
+is not glowing and Oriental. Never was a city so fashioned for scenic
+effects. From the banks of the Moskwa the Kremlin rears its glittering
+crest, surrounded by green-capped towers and frowning embattlements,
+its umbrageous gardens and massive white walls conspicuous over the
+vast sea of green-roofed houses, while high above all, grand and
+stern, like some grim old Czar of the North, rises the magnificent
+tower of Ivan Veliki. Within these walls stand the chief glories of
+Moscow--the palaces of the Emperor, the Cathedral of the Assumption,
+the House of the Holy Synod, the Treasury, the Arsenal, and the Czar
+Kolokol, the great king of bells. All these gorgeous edifices, and
+many more, crown the eminence which forms the sacred grounds,
+clustering in a magic maze of beauty around the tower of Ivan the
+Terrible. Beyond the walls are numerous open spaces occupied by booths
+and markets; then come the principal streets and buildings of the
+city, encircled by the inner boulevards; then the suburbs, around
+which wind the outer boulevards; then a vast tract of beautiful and
+undulating country, dotted with villas, lakes, convents, and public
+buildings, inclosed in the far distance by the great outer wall, which
+forms a circuit of twenty miles around the city. The Moskwa River
+enters near the Presnerski Lake, and, taking a circuitous route,
+washes the base of the Kremlin, and passes out near the convent of St.
+Daniel. If you undertake, however, to trace out any plan of the city
+from the confused maze of streets that lie outspread before you, it
+will be infinitely worse than an attempt to solve the mysteries of a
+woman's heart; for there is no apparent plan about it; the whole thing
+is an unintelligible web of accidents. There is no accounting for its
+irregularity, unless upon the principle that it became distorted in a
+perpetual struggle to keep within reach of the Kremlin.
+
+It is sometimes rather amusing to compare one's preconceived ideas of
+a place with the reality. A city like Moscow is very difficult to
+recognize from any written description. From some cause wholly
+inexplicable, I had pictured to my mind a vast gathering of tall,
+massive houses, elaborately ornamented; long lines of narrow and
+gloomy streets; many great palaces, dingy with age; and a population
+composed chiefly of Russian nabobs and their retinues of serfs. The
+reality is almost exactly the reverse of all these preconceived ideas.
+The houses for the most part are low--not over one or two stories
+high--painted with gay and fanciful colors, chiefly yellow, red, or
+blue; the roofs of tin or zinc, and nearly all of a bright green,
+giving them a very lively effect in the sun; nothing grand or imposing
+about them in detail, and but little pretension to architectural
+beauty. Very nearly such houses may be seen every day on any of the
+four continents.
+
+Still, every indication of life presents a very different aspect from
+any thing in our own country. The people have a slow, slouching,
+shabby appearance; and the traveler is forcibly reminded, by the
+strange costumes he meets at every turn--the thriftless and degenerate
+aspect of the laboring classes--the great lumbering wagons that roll
+over the stone-paved streets--the droskies rattling hither and thither
+with their grave, priest-like drivers and wild horses--the squads of
+filthy soldiers lounging idly at every corner--the markets and
+market-places, and all that gives interest to the scene, that he is in
+a foreign land--a wild land of fierce battles between the elements,
+and fiercer still between men--where civilization is ever struggling
+between Oriental barbarism and European profligacy.
+
+The most interesting feature in the population of Moscow is their
+constant and extraordinary displays of religious enthusiasm. This
+seems to be confined to no class or sect, but is the prevailing
+characteristic. No less than three hundred churches are embraced
+within the limits of the city. Some writers estimate the number as
+high as five hundred; nor does the discrepancy show so much a want of
+accuracy as the difficulty of determining precisely what constitutes
+a distinct church. Many of these remarkable edifices are built in
+clusters, with a variety of domes and cupolas, with different names,
+and contain distinct places of worship--as in the Cathedral of St.
+Basil, for instance, which is distinguished by a vast number of
+variegated domes, and embraces within its limits at least five or six
+separate churches, each church being still farther subdivided into
+various chapels. Of the extraordinary architectural style of these
+edifices, their many-shaped and highly-colored domes, representing all
+the lines of the rainbow, the gilding so lavishly bestowed upon them,
+their wonderfully picturesque effect from every point of view, it
+would be impossible to convey any adequate idea without entering into
+a more elaborate description than I can at present attempt.
+
+But it is not only in the numberless churches scattered throughout the
+city that the devotional spirit of the inhabitants is manifested.
+Moscow is the Mecca of Russia, where all are devotees. The external
+forms of religion are every where apparent--in the palaces, the
+barracks, the institutions of learning, the traktirs, the
+bath-houses--even in the drinking cellars and gambling-hells. Scarcely
+a bridge or corner of a street is without its shrine, its pictured
+saint and burning taper, before which every by-passer of high or low
+degree bows down and worships. It may be said with truth that one is
+never out of sight of devotees baring their heads and prostrating
+themselves before these sacred images. All distinctions of rank seem
+lost in this universal passion for prayer. The nobleman, in his gilded
+carriage with liveried servants, stops and pays the tribute of an
+uncovered head to some saintly image by the bridge or the roadside;
+the peasant, in his shaggy sheepskin capote, doffs his greasy cap,
+and, while devoutly crossing himself, utters a prayer; the soldier,
+grim and warlike, marches up in his rattling armor, grounds his
+musket, and forgets for the time his mission of blood; the tradesman,
+with his leather apron and labor-worn hands, lays down his tools and
+does homage to the shrine; the drosky-driver, noted for his petty
+villainies, checks his horse, and, standing up in his drosky, bows low
+and crosses himself before he crosses the street or the bridge; even
+my guide, the saturnine Dominico--and every body knows what guides are
+all over the world--halted at every corner, regardless of time, and
+uttered an elaborate form of adjurations for our mutual salvation.
+
+Pictures of a devotional character are offered for sale in almost
+every booth, alley, and passage-way, where the most extraordinary
+daubs may be seen pinned up to the walls. Saints and dragons,
+fiery-nosed monsters, and snakes, and horrid creeping things, gilded
+and decorated in the most gaudy style, attract idle crowds from
+morning till night.
+
+It is marvelous with what profound reverence the Russians will gaze at
+these extraordinary specimens of art. Often you see a hardened-looking
+ruffian--his face covered with beard and filth; his great, brawny form
+resembling that of a prize-fighter; his costume a ragged blouse, with
+loose trowsers thrust in his boots; such a wretch, in short, as you
+would select for an unmitigated ruffian if you were in want of a model
+for that character--take off his cap, and, with superstitious awe and
+an expression of profound humility, bow down before some picture of a
+dragon with seven heads or a chubby little baby of saintly parentage.
+
+That these poor people are sincere in their devotion there can be no
+doubt. Their sincerity, indeed, is attested by the strongest proofs of
+self-sacrifice. A Russian will not hesitate to lie, rob, murder, or
+suffer starvation for the preservation of his religion. Bigoted though
+he may be, he is true to his faith and devoted to his forms of
+worship, whatever may be his short-comings in other respects. It is a
+part of his nature; it permeates his entire being. Hence no city in
+the world, perhaps--Jerusalem not excepted--presents so strange a
+spectacle of religious enthusiasm, genuine and universal, mingled with
+moral turpitude; monkish asceticism and utter abandonment to vice;
+self-sacrifice and loose indulgence. It may be said that this is not
+true religion--not even what these people profess. Perhaps not; but it
+is what they are accustomed to from infancy, and it certainly develops
+some of their best traits of character--charity to each other,
+earnestness, constancy, and self-sacrifice.
+
+On the morning after my arrival in Moscow I witnessed from the window
+of my hotel a very impressive and melancholy spectacle--the departure
+of a gang of prisoners for Siberia. The number amounted to some two or
+three hundred. Every year similar trains are dispatched, yet the
+parting scene always attracts a sympathizing crowd. These poor
+creatures were chained in pairs, and guarded by a strong detachment of
+soldiers. Their appearance, as they stood in the street awaiting the
+order to march, was very sad. Most of them were miserably clad, and
+some scarcely clad at all. A degraded, forlorn set they were--filthy
+and ragged--their downcast features expressive of an utter absence of
+hope. Few of them seemed to have any friends or relatives in the crowd
+of by-standers; but in two or three instances I noticed some very
+touching scenes of separation--where wives came to bid good-by to
+their husbands, and children to their fathers. Nearly every body gave
+them something to help them on their way--a few kopecks, a loaf of
+bread, or some cast-off article of clothing. I saw a little child
+timidly approach the gang, and, dropping a small coin into the hand of
+one poor wretch, run back again into the crowd, weeping bitterly.
+These prisoners are condemned to exile for three, four, or five
+years--often for life. It requires from twelve to eighteen months of
+weary travel, all the way on foot, through barren wastes and
+inhospitable deserts, to enable them to reach their desolate place of
+exile. Many of them fall sick on the way from fatigue and
+privation--many die. Few ever live to return. In some instances the
+whole term of exile is served out on the journey to and from Siberia.
+On their arrival they are compelled to labor in the government mines
+or on the public works. Occasionally the most skillful and industrious
+are rewarded by appointments to positions of honor and trust, and
+become in the course of time leading men.
+
+  [Illustration: PRISONERS FOR SIBERIA.]
+
+In contemplating the dreary journey of these poor creatures--a journey
+of some fifteen hundred or two thousand miles--I was insensibly
+reminded of that touching little story of filial affection, "Elizabeth
+of Siberia," a story drawn from nature, and known in all civilized
+languages.
+
+Not long after the departure of the Siberian prisoners, I witnessed,
+in passing along one of the principal streets, a grand funeral
+procession. The burial of the dead is a picturesque and interesting
+ceremony in Moscow. A body of priests, dressed in black robes and
+wearing long beards, take the lead in the funeral cortége, bearing in
+their hands shrines and burning tapers. The hearse follows, drawn by
+four horses. Black plumes wave from the heads of the horses, and
+flowing black drapery covers their bodies and legs. Even their heads
+are draped in black, nothing being perceptible but their eyes. The
+coffin lies exposed on the top of the hearse, and is also similarly
+draped. This combination of sombre plumage and drapery has a
+singularly mournful appearance. Priests stand on steps attached to the
+hearse holding images of the Savior over the coffin; others follow in
+the rear, comforting the friends and relatives of the deceased. A
+wild, monotonous chant is sung from time to time by the chief mourners
+as the procession moves toward the burial-ground. The people cease
+their occupations in the streets through which the funeral passes,
+uncover their heads, and, bowing down before the images borne by the
+priests, utter prayers for the repose of the dead. The rich and the
+poor of both sexes stand upon the sidewalks and offer up their humble
+petitions. The deep-tongued bells of the Kremlin ring out solemn
+peals, and the wild and mournful chant of the priests mingles with the
+grand knell of death that sweeps through the air. All is profoundly
+impressive: the procession of priests, with their burning tapers; the
+drapery of black on the horses; the coffin with its dead; the weeping
+mourners; the sepulchral chant; the sudden cessation of all the
+business of life, and the rapt attention of the multitude; the deep,
+grand, death-knell of the bells; the glitter of domes and cupolas on
+every side; the green-roofed sea of houses; the winding streets, and
+the costumes of the people--form a spectacle wonderfully wild,
+strange, and mournful. In every thing that comes within the sweep of
+the eye there is a mixed aspect of Tartaric barbarism and European
+civilization. Yet even the stranger from a far-distant clime, speaking
+another language, accustomed to other forms, must feel, in gazing upon
+such a scene, that death levels all distinctions of race--that our
+common mortality brings us nearer together. Every where we are
+pilgrims on the same journey. Wherever we sojourn among men,
+
+    "The dead around us lie,
+      And the death-bell tolls."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+TEA-DRINKING.
+
+
+The _traktirs_, or tea-houses, are prominent among the remarkable
+institutions of Russia. In Moscow they abound in every street, lane,
+and by-alley. That situated near the Katai Gorod is said to be the
+best. Though inferior to the ordinary cafés of Paris or Marseilles in
+extent and decoration, it is nevertheless pretty stylish in its way,
+and is interesting to strangers from the fact that it represents a
+prominent feature in Russian life--the drinking of _tchai_.
+
+  [Illustration: TEA-SELLERS.]
+
+Who has not heard of Russian tea?--the tea that comes all the way
+across the steppes of Tartary and over the Ural Mountains?--the tea
+that never loses its flavor by admixture with the salt of the ocean,
+but is delivered over at the great fair of Nijni Novgorod as pure and
+fragrant as when it started? He who has never heard of Russian tea has
+heard nothing, and he who has never enjoyed a glass of it may have
+been highly favored in other respects, but I contend that he has
+nevertheless led a very benighted existence. All epicures in the
+delicate leaf unite in pronouncing it far superior to the nectar with
+which the gods of old were wont to quench their thirst. It is truly
+one of the luxuries of life--so soft; so richly yet delicately
+flavored; so bright, glowing, and transparent as it flashes through
+the crystal glasses; nothing acrid, gross, or earthly about it--a
+heavenly compound that "cheers but not inebriates."
+
+    "A balm for the sickness of care,
+      A bliss for a bosom unbless'd."
+
+Come with me, friend, and let us take a seat in the traktir. Every
+body here is a tea-drinker. Coffee is never good in Russia. Besides,
+it is gross and villainous stuff compared with the _tchai_ of Moscow.
+At all hours of the day we find the saloons crowded with Russians,
+French, Germans, and the representatives of various other nations--all
+worshipers before the burnished shrine of _Tchai_. A little saint in
+the corner presides especially over this department. The devout
+Russians take off their hats and make a profound salam to this
+accommodating little patron, whose corpulent stomach and smiling
+countenance betoken an appreciation of all the good things of life.
+Now observe how these wonderful Russians--the strangest and most
+incomprehensible of beings--cool themselves this sweltering hot day.
+Each stalwart son of the North calls for a portion of _tchai_, not a
+tea-cupful or a glassful, but a genuine Russian portion--a tea-potful.
+The tea-pot is small, but the tea is strong enough to bear an
+unlimited amount of dilution; and it is one of the glorious privileges
+of the tea-drinker in this country that he may have as much hot water
+as he pleases. Sugar is more sparingly supplied. The adept remedies
+this difficulty by placing a lump of sugar in his mouth and sipping
+his tea through it--a great improvement upon the custom said to exist
+in some parts of Holland, where a lump of sugar is hung by a string
+over the table and swung around from mouth to mouth, so that each
+guest may take a pull at it after swallowing his tea. A portion would
+be quite enough for a good-sized family in America. The Russian makes
+nothing of it. Filling and swilling hour after hour, he seldom rises
+before he gets through ten or fifteen tumblersful, and, if he happens
+to be thirsty, will double it--enough, one would think, to founder a
+horse. But the Russian stomach is constructed upon some physiological
+principles unknown to the rest of mankind--perhaps lined with
+gutta-percha and riveted to a diaphragm of sheet-iron. Grease and
+scalding-hot tea; _quass_ and cabbage soup; raw cucumbers; cold fish;
+lumps of ice; decayed cheese and black bread, seem to have no other
+effect upon it than to provoke an appetite. In warm weather it is
+absolutely marvelous to see the quantities of fiery-hot liquids these
+people pour down their throats. Just cast your eye upon that bearded
+giant in the corner, with his hissing urn of tea before him, his
+_batvina_ and his _shtshie_! What a spectacle of physical enjoyment!
+His throat is bare; his face a glowing carbuncle; his body a monstrous
+cauldron, seething and dripping with overflowing juices. Shade of
+Hebe! how he swills the tea--how glass after glass of the steaming-hot
+liquid flows into his capacious maw, and diffuses itself over his
+entire person! It oozes from every pore of his skin; drops in globules
+from his forehead; smokes through his shirt; makes a piebald chart of
+seas and islands over his back; streams down and simmers in his boots!
+He is saturated with tea, inside and out--a living sponge overflowing
+at every pore. You might wring him out, and there would still be a
+heavy balance left in him.
+
+  [Illustration: MUJIKS AT TEA.]
+
+These traktirs are the general places of meeting, where matters of
+business or pleasure are discussed; accounts settled and bargains
+made. Here the merchant, the broker, the banker, and the votary of
+pleasure meet in common. Here all the pursuits of human life are
+represented, and the best qualities of men drawn out with the drawing
+of the tea. Enmities are forgotten and friendships cemented in tea. In
+short, the traktir is an institution, and its influence extends
+through all the ramifications of society.
+
+But it is in the gardens and various places of suburban resort that
+the universal passion for tea is displayed in its most pleasing and
+romantic phases. Surrounded by the beauties of nature, lovers make
+their avowals over the irrepressible tea-pot; the hearts of fair
+damsels are won in the intoxication of love and tea; quarrels between
+man and wife are made up, and children weaned--I had almost said
+baptized--in tea. The traveler must see the families seated under the
+trees, with the burnished urn before them--the children romping about
+over the grass; joy beaming upon every face; the whole neighborhood a
+repetition of family groups and steaming urns, bound together by the
+mystic tie of sympathy, before he can fully appreciate the important
+part that tea performs in the great drama of Russian life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE PETERSKOI GARDENS.
+
+
+This draws me insensibly toward the beautiful gardens of the
+Peterskoi--a favorite place of resort for the Moskovites, and famous
+for its chateau built by the Empress Elizabeth, in which Napoleon
+sought refuge during the burning of Moscow. It is here the rank and
+fashion of the city may be seen to the greatest advantage of a fine
+summer afternoon. In these gardens all that is brilliant, beautiful,
+and poetical in Russian life finds a congenial atmosphere.
+
+I spent an evening at the Peterskoi which I shall long remember as one
+of the most interesting I ever spent at any place of popular
+amusement. The weather was charming--neither too warm nor too cold,
+but of that peculiarly soft and dreamy temperature which predisposes
+one for the enjoyment of music, flowers, the prattle of children, the
+fascinations of female loveliness, the luxuries of idleness. In such
+an atmosphere no man of sentiment can rack his brain with troublesome
+problems. These witching hours, when the sun lingers dreamily on the
+horizon; when the long twilight weaves a web of purple and gold that
+covers the transition from night to morning; when nature, wearied of
+the dazzling glare of day, puts on her silver-spangled robes, and
+receives her worshipers with celestial smiles, are surely enough to
+soften the most stubborn heart. We must make love, sweet ladies, or
+die. There is no help for it. Resistance is an abstract impossibility.
+The best man in the world could not justly be censured for practicing
+a little with his eyes, when away from home, merely as I do, you know,
+to keep up the expression.
+
+The gardens of the Peterskoi are still a dream to me. For a distance
+of three versts from the gate of St. Petersburg the road was thronged
+with carriages and droskies, and crowds of gayly-dressed citizens, all
+wending their way toward the scene of entertainment. The pressure for
+tickets at the porter's lodge was so great that it required
+considerable patience and good-humor to get through at all. Officers
+in dashing uniforms rode on spirited chargers up and down the long
+rows of vehicles, and with drawn swords made way for the
+foot-passengers. Guards in imperial livery, glittering from head to
+foot with embroidery, stood at the grand portals of the gate, and with
+many profound and elegant bows ushered in the company. Policeman with
+cocked hats and shining epaulets were stationed at intervals along the
+leading thoroughfares to preserve order.
+
+The scene inside the gates was wonderfully imposing. Nothing could be
+more fanciful. In every aspect it presented some striking combination
+of natural and artificial beauties, admirably calculated to fascinate
+the imagination. I have a vague recollection of shady and undulating
+walks, winding over sweeping lawns dotted with masses of flowers and
+copses of shrubbery, and overhung by wide-spreading trees, sometimes
+gradually rising over gentle acclivities or points of rock overhung
+with moss and fern. Rustic cottages, half hidden by the luxuriant
+foliage, crowned each prominent eminence, and little by-ways branched
+off into cool, umbrageous recesses, where caves, glittering with
+sea-shells and illuminated stalactites, invited the wayfarer to linger
+a while and rest. Far down in deep glens and grottoes were retired
+nooks, where lovers, hidden from the busy throng, might mingle their
+vows to the harmony of falling waters; where the very flowers seemed
+whispering love to each other, and the lights and shadows fell, by
+some intuitive sense of fitness, into the form of bridal wreaths.
+Marble statues representing the Graces, winged Mercuries and Cupids,
+are so cunningly displayed in relief against the green banks of
+foliage that they seem the natural inhabitants of the place.
+Snow-spirits, too, with outspread wings, hover in the air, as if to
+waft cooling zephyrs through the soft summer night. In the open spaces
+fountains dash their sparkling waters high into the moonlight,
+spreading a mystic spray over the sward. Through vistas of shrubbery
+gleam the bright waters of a lake, on the far side of which the
+embattled towers of a castle rise in bold relief over the intervening
+groups of trees.
+
+On an elevated plateau, near the centre of the garden, stands a series
+of Asiatic temples and pagodas, in which the chief entertainments are
+held. The approaching avenues are illuminated with many-colored lights
+suspended from the branches of the trees, and wind under triumphal
+archways, festooned with flowers. The theatres present open fronts,
+and abound in all the tinsel of the stage, both inside and out. The
+grounds are crowded to their utmost capacity with the rank and fashion
+of the city, in all the glory of jeweled head-dresses and decorations
+of order. Festoons of variegated lights swing from the trees over the
+audience, and painted figures of dragons and genii are dimly seen in
+the background.
+
+  [Illustration: RUSSIAN THEATRE.]
+
+Attracted by sounds of applause at one of these theatres, I edged my
+way through the crowd, and succeeded, after many apologies, in
+securing a favorable position. Amid a motley gathering of Russians,
+Poles, Germans, and French--for here all nations and classes are
+represented--my ears were stunned by the clapping of hands and
+vociferous cries _Bis! Bis!_ The curtain was down, but in answer to
+the call for a repetition of the last scene it soon rose again, and
+afforded me an opportunity of witnessing a characteristic performance.
+A wild Mujik has the impudence to make love to the maid-servant of
+his master, who appears to be rather a crusty old gentleman, not
+disposed to favor matrimonial alliances of that kind. Love gets the
+better of the lover's discretion, and he is surprised in the kitchen.
+The bull-dog is let loose upon him; master and mistress and
+subordinate members of the family rush after him, armed with
+saucepans, tongs, shovels, and broomsticks. The affrighted Mujik runs
+all round the stage bellowing fearfully; the bull-dog seizes him by
+the nether extremities and hangs on with the tenacity of a vice. Round
+and round they run, Mujik roaring for help, bull-dog swinging out
+horizontally. The audience applauds; the master flings down his
+broomstick and seizes the dog by the tail; the old woman seizes master
+by the skirts of his coat; and all three are dragged around the stage
+at a terrific rate, while the younger members of the family shower
+down miscellaneous blows with their sticks and cudgels, which always
+happen to fall on the old people, to the great satisfaction of the
+audience. Shouts, and shrieks, and clapping of hands but faintly
+express the popular appreciation of the joke. Finally the faithful
+maid, taking advantage of the confusion, flings a bunch of
+fire-crackers at her oppressors and blows them up, and the Mujik,
+relieved of their weight, makes a brilliant dash through the door,
+carrying with him the tenacious bull-dog, which it is reasonable to
+suppose he subsequently takes to market and sells for a good price.
+The curtain falls, the music strikes up, and the whole performance is
+greeted with the most enthusiastic applause. Such are the
+entertainments that delight these humorous people--a little broad to
+be sure, but not deficient in grotesque spirit.
+
+From the theatre I wandered to the pavilion of Zingalee gipsies, where
+a band of these wild sons of Hagar were creating a perfect furor by
+the shrillness and discord of their voices. Never was such terrific
+music inflicted upon mortal ears. It went through and through you,
+quivering and vibrating like a rapier; but the common classes of
+Russians delight in it above all earthly sounds. They deem it the very
+finest kind of music. It is only the dilettante who have visited Paris
+who profess to hold it in contempt.
+
+Very soon surfeited with these piercing strains, I rambled away till I
+came upon a party of rope-dancers, and after seeing a dozen or so of
+stout fellows hang themselves by the chins, turn back somersaults in
+the air, and swing by one foot at a dizzy height from the ground, left
+them standing upon each other's heads to the depth of six or eight,
+and turned aside into a grotto to enjoy a few glasses of tea. Here
+were German girls singing and buffoons reciting humorous stories
+between the pauses, and thirsty Russians pouring down whole oceans of
+their favorite beverage.
+
+Again I wandered forth through the leafy mazes of the garden. The
+gorgeous profusion of lights and glittering ornaments, the endless
+variety of colors, the novel and Asiatic appearance of the temples,
+the tropical luxuriance of the foliage, the gleaming white statuary,
+the gay company, the wild strains of music, all combined to form a
+scene of peculiar interest. High overhead, dimly visible through the
+tops of the trees, the sky wears an almost supernatural aspect during
+these long summer nights. A soft golden glow flushes upward from the
+horizon, and, lying outspread over the firmament, gives a spectral
+effect to the gentler and more delicate sheen of the moon; the stars
+seem to shrink back into the dim infinity, as if unable to contend
+with the grosser effulgence of the great orbs that rule the day and
+the night. Unconscious whether the day is waning into the night, or
+the night into the morning, the rapt spectator gazes and dreams till
+lost in the strange enchantment of the scene.
+
+At a late hour a signal was given, and the company wandered down to
+the lake, along the shores of which rustic seats and divans,
+overshadowed by shrubbery, afforded the weary an opportunity of
+resting. Here we were to witness the crowning entertainment of the
+evening--a grand display of fire-works. A miniature steam-boat, gayly
+decorated with flags, swept to and fro, carrying passengers to the
+different landing-places. Gondolas, with peaked prows and variegated
+canopies, lay floating upon the still water, that lovers might quench
+their flames in the contemplation of its crystal depths, or draw fresh
+inspiration from the blaze of artificial fires. Soon a wild outburst
+of music was heard; then from the opposite shore the whole heavens
+were lighted up with a flood of rockets, and the ears were stunned by
+their explosions. Down through the depths of ether came showers of
+colored balls, illuminating the waters of the lake with inverted
+streams of light scarcely less bright and glowing. Anon all was dark;
+then from out the darkness flashed whirling and seething fires,
+gradually assuming the grotesque forms of monsters and genii, till
+with a deafening explosion they were scattered to the winds. From the
+blackened mass of ruins stood forth illuminated statues of the
+imperial family, in all the paraphernalia of royalty, their crowns
+glittering with jewels, their robes of light resplendent with precious
+gems and tracery of gold. A murmur of admiration ran through the
+crowd. The imperial figures vanished as if by magic, and suddenly a
+stream of fire flashed from a mass of dark undefined objects on the
+opposite shore, and lo! the waters were covered with fiery swans,
+sailing majestically among the gondolas, their necks moving slowly as
+if inspired by life. Hither and thither they swept, propelled by
+streams of fire, till, wearied with their sport, they gradually lay
+motionless, yet glowing with an augmented brilliancy. While the eyes
+of all were fixed in amazement and admiration upon these beautiful
+swans, they exploded with a series of deafening reports, and were
+scattered in confused volumes of smoke. Out of the chaos swept
+innumerable hosts of whirling little monsters, whizzing and boring
+through the water like infernal spirits of the deep. These again burst
+with a rattle of explosions like an irregular fire of musketry, and
+shot high into the air in a perfect maze of scintillating stars of
+every imaginable color. When the shower of stars was over, and silence
+and darkness once more reigned, a magnificent barge, that might well
+have represented that of the Egyptian queen--its gay canopies
+resplendent with the glow of many-colored lamps--swept out into the
+middle of the lake, and
+
+              "Like a burnished throne
+    Burn'd on the water."
+
+  [Illustration: THE PETERSKOI GARDENS.]
+
+And when the rowers had ceased, and the barge lay motionless, soft
+strains of music arose from its curtained recesses, swelling up
+gradually till the air was filled with the floods of rich, wild
+harmony, and the senses were ravished with their sweetness.
+
+Was it a wild Oriental dream? Could it all be real--the glittering
+fires, the gayly-costumed crowds, the illuminated barge, the
+voluptuous strains of music? Might it not be some gorgeous freak of
+the emperor, such as the sultan in the Arabian Nights enjoyed at the
+expense of the poor traveler? Surely there could be nothing real like
+it since the days of the califs of Bagdad!
+
+A single night's entertainment such as this must cost many thousand
+rubles. When it is considered that there are but few months in the
+year when such things can be enjoyed, some idea may be formed of the
+characteristic passion of the Russians for luxurious amusements. It is
+worthy of mention, too, that the decorations, the lamps, the actors
+and operators, the material of nearly every description, are imported
+from various parts of the world, and very little is contributed in any
+way by the native Russians, save the means by which these costly
+luxuries are obtained.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE "LITTLE WATER."
+
+
+On the fundamental principles of association the intelligent reader
+will at once comprehend how it came to pass that, of all the traits I
+discovered in the Russian people, none impressed me so favorably as
+their love of vodka, or native brandy, signifying the "little water."
+I admired their long and filthy beards and matted heads of hair,
+because there was much in them to remind me of my beloved Washoe; but
+in nothing did I experience a greater fellowship with them than in
+their constitutional thirst for intoxicating liquors. It was
+absolutely refreshing, after a year's travel over the Continent of
+Europe, to come across a genuine lover of the "tarantula"--to meet at
+every corner of the street a great bearded fellow staggering along
+blind drunk, or attempting to steady the town by hugging a post.
+Rarely had I enjoyed such a sight since my arrival in the Old World.
+In Germany I had seen a few cases of stupefaction arising from
+overdoses of beer; in France the red nose of the _bon vivant_ is not
+uncommon; in England some muddled heads are to be found; and in
+Scotland there are temperance societies enough to give rise to the
+suspicion that there is a cause for them; but, generally speaking, the
+sight of an intoxicated man is somewhat rare in the principal cities
+of the Continent. It will, therefore, be conceded that there was
+something very congenial in the spectacle that greeted me on the very
+first day of my arrival in Moscow. A great giant of a Mujik, with a
+ferocious beard and the general aspect of a wild beast, came toward me
+with a heel and a lurch to port that was very expressive of his
+condition. As he staggered up and tried to balance himself, he blurted
+out some unmeaning twaddle in his native language which I took to be a
+species of greeting. His expression was absolutely inspiring--the
+great blear eyes rolling foolishly in his head; his tongue lolling
+helplessly from his mouth; his under jaw hanging down; his greasy cap
+hung on one side on a tuft of dirty hair--all so familiar, so
+characteristic of something I had seen before! Where could it have
+been? What potent spell was there about this fellow to attract me? In
+what was it that I, an embassador from Washoe, a citizen of
+California, a resident of Oakland, could thus be drawn toward this
+hideous wretch? A word in your ear, reader. It was all the effect of
+association! The unbidden tears flowed to my eyes as I caught a whiff
+of the fellow's breath. It was so like the free-lunch breaths of San
+Francisco, and even suggested thoughts of the Legislative Assembly in
+Sacramento. Only think what a genuine Californian must suffer in being
+a whole year without a glass of whisky--nay, without as much as a
+smell of it! How delightful it is to see a brother human downright
+soggy drunk; drunk all over; drunk in the eyes, in the mouth, in the
+small of his back, in his knees, in his boots, clear down to his toes!
+How one's heart is drawn toward him by this common bond of human
+infirmity! How it recalls the camp, the one-horse mining town, the
+social gathering of the "boys" at Dan's, or Jim's, or Jack's; and the
+clink of dimes and glasses at the bar; how distances are annihilated
+and time set back! Of a verity, when I saw that man, with reason
+dethroned and the garb of self-respect thrown aside, I was once again
+in my own beloved state!
+
+    "What a beauty dwelt in each familiar face,
+      What music hung on every voice!"
+
+  [Illustration: VODKA.]
+
+Since reading is not a very general accomplishment among the lower
+classes, a system of signs answers in some degree as a substitute. The
+irregularity of the streets would of itself present no very remarkable
+feature but for the wonderful variety of small shops and the oddity of
+the signs upon which their contents are pictured. What these symbols
+of trade lack in artistic style they make up in grotesque effects.
+Thus, the tobacco shops are ornamented outside with various
+highly-colored pictures, drawn by artists of the most florid genius,
+representing cigar-boxes, pipes, meerschaums, narghillas, bunches of
+cigars, snuffboxes, plugs and twists of tobacco, and all that the most
+fastidious smoker, chewer, or snuffer can expect to find in any
+tobacco shop, besides a good many things that he never will find in
+any of these shops. Prominent among these symbolical displays is the
+counterfeit presentment of a jet-black Indian of African descent--his
+woolly head adorned with a crown of pearls and feathers; in his right
+hand an uplifted tomahawk, with which he is about to kill some
+invisible enemy; in his left a meerschaum, supposed to be the pipe of
+peace; a tobacco plantation in the background, and a group of warriors
+smoking profusely around a camp-fire, located under one of the tobacco
+plants; the whole having a very fine allegorical effect, fully
+understood, no doubt, by the artist, but very difficult to explain
+upon any known principle of art. The butchers' shops are equally
+prolific in external adornments. On the sign-boards you see every
+animal fit to be eaten, and many of questionable aspect, denuded of
+their skins and reduced to every conceivable degree of butchery; so
+that if you want a veal cutlet of any particular pattern, all you have
+to do is to select your pattern, and the cutlet will be chopped
+accordingly. The bakeries excel in their artistic displays. Here you
+have painted bread from black-moon down to double-knotted twist;
+cakes, biscuit, rolls, and crackers, and as many other varieties as
+the genius of the artist may be capable of suggesting. The bakers of
+Moscow are mostly French or German; and it is a notable fact that the
+bread is quite equal to any made in France or Germany. The
+wine-stores, of which there are many, are decorated with pictures of
+bottles, and bas-reliefs of gilded grapes--a great improvement upon
+the ordinary grape produced by nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE MARKETS OF MOSCOW.
+
+
+If there is nothing new under the sun, there are certainly a good many
+old things to interest a stranger in Moscow. A favorite resort of mine
+during my sojourn in that strange old city of the Czars was in the
+markets of the Katai Gorod. Those of the Riadi and Gostovini Dvor
+present the greatest attractions, perhaps, in the way of shops and
+merchandise; for there, by the aid of time, patience, and money, you
+can get any thing you want, from saints' armlets and devils down to
+candlesticks and cucumbers. Singing-birds, Kazan-work, and Siberian
+diamonds are its most attractive features. But if you have a passion
+for human oddities rather than curiosities of merchandise, you must
+visit the second-hand markets extending along the walls of the Katai
+Gorod, where you will find not only every conceivable variety of old
+clothes, clocks, cooking utensils, and rubbish of all sorts, but the
+queerest imaginable conglomeration of human beings from the far East
+to the far West. It would be a fruitless task to attempt a description
+of the motley assemblage. Pick out all the strangest, most ragged,
+most uncouth figures you ever saw in old pictures, from childhood up
+to the present day; select from every theatrical representation
+within the range of your experience the most monstrous and absurd
+caricatures upon humanity; bring to your aid all the masquerades and
+burlesque fancy-balls you ever visited, tumble them together in the
+great bag of your imagination, and pour them out over a vague
+wilderness of open spaces, dirty streets, high walls, and rickety
+little booths, and you have no idea at all of the queer old markets of
+the Katai Gorod. You will be just as much puzzled to make any thing of
+the scene as when you started, if not more so.
+
+  [Illustration: OLD-CLOTHES' MARKET.]
+
+No mortal man can picture to another all these shaggy-faced Russians,
+booted up to the knees, their long, loose robes flaunting idly around
+their legs, their red sashes twisted around their waists; brawny
+fellows with a reckless, independent swagger about them, stalking like
+grim savages of the North through the crowd. Then there are the sallow
+and cadaverous Jew peddlers, covered all over with piles of ragged old
+clothes, and mountains of old hats and caps; and leathery-faced old
+women--witches of Endor--dealing out horrible mixtures of _quass_ (the
+national drink); and dirty, dingy-looking soldiers, belonging to the
+imperial service, peddling off old boots and cast-off shirts; and
+Zingalee gipsies, dark, lean, and wiry, offering strings of beads and
+armlets for sale with shrill cries; and so on without limit.
+
+Here you see the rich and the poor in all the extremes of affluence
+and poverty; the robust and the decrepit; the strong, the lame, and
+the blind; the noble, with his star and orders of office; the Mujik in
+his shaggy sheepskin capote or tattered blouse; the Mongolian, the
+Persian, and the Caucasian; the Greek and the Turk; the Armenian and
+the Californian, all intent upon something, buying, selling, or
+looking on.
+
+Being the only representative from the Golden State, I was anxious to
+offer some Washoe stock for sale--twenty or thirty feet in the Gone
+Case; but Dominico, my interpreter, informed me that these traders had
+never heard of Washoe, and were mostly involved in Russian
+securities--old breeches, boots, stockings, and the like. He did not
+think my "Gone Case" would bring an old hat; and as for my "Sorrowful
+Countenance" and "Ragged End," he was persuaded I could not dispose of
+my entire interest in them for a pint of grease.
+
+I was very much taken with the soldiers who infested these old
+markets. It was something new in military economy to see the
+representatives of an imperial army supporting themselves in this way;
+dark, lazy fellows in uniform, lounging about with old boots, and
+suspenders hanging all over them, crying out the merits of their wares
+in stentorian voices, thus, as it were, patriotically relieving the
+national treasury of a small fraction of its burden. They have much
+the appearance, in the crowd, of raisins in a plum-pudding.
+
+The peasant women, who flock in from the country with immense burdens
+of vegetables and other products of the farms, are a very striking, if
+not a very pleasing feature in the markets. Owing to the hard labor
+imposed upon them, they are exceedingly rough and brawny, and have a
+hard, dreary, and unfeminine expression of countenance, rather
+inconsistent with one's notions of the delicacy and tenderness of
+woman. Few of them are even passably well-looking. All the natural
+playfulness of the gentler sex seems to be crushed out of them; and
+while their manners are uncouth, their voices are the wildest and most
+unmusical that ever fell upon the ear from a feminine source. When
+dressed in their best attire they usually wear a profusion of red
+handkerchiefs about their heads and shoulders; and from an
+unpicturesque habit they have of making an upper waist immediately
+under their arms by a ligature of some sort, and tying their
+apron-strings about a foot below, they have the singular appearance of
+being double-waisted or three-story women. They carry their children
+on their backs, much after the fashion of Digger Indians, and suckle
+them through an opening in the second or middle story. Doubtless this
+is a convenient arrangement, but it presents the curious anomaly of a
+poor peasant living in a one-story house with a three-story wife.
+According to the prevailing style of architecture in well-wooded
+countries, these women ought to wear their hair shingled; but they
+generally tie it up in a knot behind, or cover it with a fancy-colored
+handkerchief, on the presumption, I suppose, that they look less
+barbarous in that way than they would with shingled heads. You may
+suspect me of story-telling, but upon my word I think three-story
+women are extravagant enough without adding another to them. I only
+hope their garrets contain a better quality of furniture than that
+which afflicts the male members of the Mujik community. No wonder
+those poor women have families of children like steps of stairs! It is
+said that their husbands are often very cruel to them, and think
+nothing of knocking them down and beating them; but even that does not
+surprise me. How can a man be expected to get along with a three-story
+wife unless he floors her occasionally?
+
+Ragged little boys, prematurely arrested in their growth, you see too,
+in myriads--shovel-nosed and bare-legged urchins of hideously
+eccentric manners, carrying around big bottles of _sbiteen_ (a kind of
+mead), which they are continually pouring out into glasses, to appease
+the chronic thirst with which the public seem to be afflicted; and
+groups of the natives gathered around a cucumber stand, devouring
+great piles of unwholesome-looking cucumbers, which skinny old women
+are dipping up out of wooden buckets. The voracity with which all
+classes stow away these vicious edibles in their stomachs is amazing,
+and suggests a melancholy train of reflections on the subject of
+cholera morbus. It was a continual matter of wonder to me how the
+lower classes of Russians survived the horrid messes with which they
+tortured their digestive apparatus. Only think of thousands of men
+dining every day on black bread, heavy enough for bullets, a pound or
+two of grease, and half a peck of raw cucumbers per man, and then
+expecting to live until next morning! And yet they do live, and grow
+fat, and generally die at a good old age, in case they are not killed
+in battle, or frozen up in the wilds of Siberia.
+
+Outside the walls of the Katai Gorod, in an open square, or plaza, are
+rows of wooden booths, in which innumerable varieties of living stock
+are offered for sale--geese, ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigeons, and
+birds of various sorts. I sometimes went down here and bargained for
+an hour or so over a fat goose or a Muscovy duck, not with any
+ultimate idea of purchasing it, but merely because it was offered to
+me at a reduced price. It was amusing, also, to study the manners and
+customs of the dealer, and enjoy their amazement when, after causing
+them so much loss of time, I would hand over five kopeks and walk off.
+Some of them, I verily believe, will long entertain serious doubts as
+to the sanity of the Californian public; for Dominico, my guide,
+always took particular pride in announcing that I was from that great
+country, and was the richest man in it, being, to the best of his
+knowledge, the only one who had money enough to spare to travel all
+the way to Moscow, merely for the fun of the thing.
+
+I may as well mention, parenthetically, that Dominico was rather an
+original in his way. His father was an Italian and his mother a
+Russian. I believe he was born in Moscow. How he came to adopt the
+profession of guide I don't know, unless it was on account of some
+natural proclivity for an easy life. A grave, lean, saturnine man was
+Dominico--something of a cross between Machiavelli and Paganini. If he
+knew any thing about the wonders and curiosities of Moscow he kept it
+a profound secret. It was only by the most rigid inquiry and an adroit
+system of cross-examination that I could get any thing out of him, and
+then his information was vague and laconic, sometimes a little
+sarcastic, but never beyond what I knew myself. Yet he was polite,
+dignified, and gentlemanly--never refused to drink a glass of beer
+with me, and always knew the way to a traktir. To the public
+functionaries with whom we came in contact during the course of our
+rambles his air was grand and imposing; and on the subject of money he
+was sublimely nonchalant, caring no more for rubles than I did for
+kopeks. Once or twice he hinted to me that he was of noble blood, but
+laid no particular stress upon that, since it was his misfortune at
+present to be in rather reduced circumstances. Some time or other he
+would go to Italy and resume his proper position there. In justice to
+Dominico, I must add that he never neglected an opportunity of praying
+for me before any of the public shrines; and at the close of our
+acquaintance he let me off pretty easily, all things considered. Upon
+my explaining to him that a draft for five hundred thousand rubles,
+which ought to be on the way, had failed to reach me, owing,
+doubtless, to some irregularity in the mail service, or some sudden
+depression in my Washoe stocks, he merely shrugged his shoulders, took
+a pinch of snuff, and accepted with profound indifference a fee
+amounting to three times the value of his services.
+
+I was particularly interested in the dog-market. The display of living
+dog-flesh here must be very tempting to one who has a taste for poodle
+soup or fricasseed pup. Dominico repudiated the idea that the Russians
+are addicted to this article of diet; but the very expression of his
+eye as he took up a fat little innocent, smoothed down its skin,
+squeezed its ribs, pinched its loins, and smelled it, satisfied me
+that a litter of pups would stand but a poor chance of ever arriving
+at maturity if they depended upon forbearance upon his part as a
+national virtue. The Chinese quarter of San Francisco affords some
+curious examples of the art of compounding sustenance for man out of
+odd materials--rats, snails, dried frogs, star-fish, polypi, and the
+like; but any person who wishes to indulge a morbid appetite for the
+most disgusting dishes over devised by human ingenuity must visit
+Moscow. I adhere to it that the dog-market supplies a large portion of
+the population with fancy meats. No other use could possibly be made
+of the numberless squads of fat, hairless dogs tied together and
+hawked about by the traders in this article of traffic. I saw one
+man--he had the teeth of an ogre and a fearfully carnivorous
+expression of eye--carry around a bunch of pups on each arm, and cry
+aloud something in his native tongue, which I am confident had
+reference to the tenderness and juiciness of their flesh. Dominico
+declared the man was only talking about the breed--that they were fine
+rat-dogs; but I know that was a miserable subterfuge. Such dogs never
+caught a rat in this world; and if they did, it must have been with a
+view to the manufacture of sausages.
+
+  [Illustration: CABINET-MAKERS.]
+
+A Russian peasant is not particular about the quality of his food, as
+may well be supposed from this general summary. Quantity is the main
+object. Grease of all kinds is his special luxury. The upper classes,
+who have plenty of money to spare, may buy fish from the Volga at its
+weight in gold, and mutton from Astrakan at fabulous prices; but give
+the Mujik his _batvina_ (salt grease and honey boiled together), a
+loaf of black bread, and a peck of raw cucumbers, and he is happy.
+Judging by external appearances, very little grease seems to be wasted
+in the manufacture of soap. Indeed, I would not trust one of these
+Mujiks to carry a pound of soap any where for me, any more than I
+would a gallon of oil or a pound of candles. Once I saw a fellow
+grease his boots with a lump of dirty fat which he had picked up out
+of the gutter, but he took good care first to extract from it the
+richest part of its essence by sucking it, and then greasing his
+beard. The boots came last. In all probability he had just dined, or
+he would have pocketed his treasure for another occasion, instead of
+throwing the remnant, as he did, to the nearest cat.
+
+In respect to the language, one might as well be dropped down in
+Timbuctoo as in a village or country town of Russia, for all the good
+the gift of speech would do him. It is not harsh, as might be
+supposed, yet wonderfully like an East India jungle when you attempt
+to penetrate it. I could make better headway through a boulder of
+solid quartz, or the title to my own house and lot in Oakland. Now I
+profess to be able to see as far into a millstone as most people, but
+I can't see in what respect the Russians behaved any worse than other
+people of the Tower of Babel, that they should be afflicted with a
+language which nobody can hope to understand before his beard becomes
+grizzled, and the top of his head entirely bald. Many of the better
+classes, to be sure, speak French and German; but even in the streets
+of Moscow I could seldom find any body who could discover a ray of
+meaning in my French or German, which is almost as plain as English.
+
+Some people know what you want by instinct, whether they understand
+your language or not. Not so the Russians. Ask for a horse, and they
+will probably offer you a fat goose; inquire the way to your
+lodgings, and they are just as likely as not to show you the Foundling
+Hospital or a livery-stable; go into an old variety shop, and express
+a desire to purchase an Astrakan breast-pin for your sweet-heart, and
+the worthy trader hands you a pair of bellows or an old blunderbuss;
+cast your eye upon any old market-woman, and she divines at once that
+you are in search of a bunch of chickens or a bucket of raw cucumbers,
+and offers them to you at the lowest market-price; hint to a
+picture-dealer that you would like to have an authentic portrait of
+his imperial majesty, and he hands you a picture of the Iberian
+Mother, or St. George slaying the dragon, or the devil and all his
+imps; in short, you can get any thing that you don't want, and nothing
+that you do. If these people are utterly deficient in any one quality,
+it is a sense of fitness in things. They take the most inappropriate
+times for offering you the most inappropriate articles of human use
+that the imagination can possibly conceive. I was more than once
+solicited by the dealers in the markets of Moscow to carry with me a
+bunch of live dogs, or a couple of freshly-scalded pigs, and on one
+occasion was pressed very hard to take a brass skillet and a pair of
+tongs. What could these good people have supposed I wanted with
+articles of this kind on my travels? Is there any thing in my dress or
+the expression of my countenance--I leave it to all who know me--any
+thing in the mildness of my speech or the gravity of my manner, to
+indicate that I am suffering particularly for bunches of dogs or
+scalded pigs, brass skillets or pairs of tongs? Do I look like a man
+who labors under a chronic destitution of dogs, pigs, skillets, and
+tongs?
+
+  [Illustration: PIGS, PUPS, AND PANS.]
+
+It is quite natural that the traveler who finds himself for the first
+time within the limits of a purely despotic government should look
+around him with some vague idea that he must see the effects strongly
+marked upon the external life of the people; that the restraints
+imposed upon popular liberty must be every where apparent. So far as
+any thing of this kind may exist in Moscow or St. Petersburg, it is a
+notable fact that there are few cities in the world where it is less
+visible, or where the people seem more unrestrained in the exercise of
+their popular freedom. Indeed, it struck me rather forcibly, after my
+experience in Vienna and Berlin, that the Russians enjoy quite as
+large a share of practical independence as most of their neighbors. I
+was particularly impressed by the bold and independent air of the
+middle classes, the politeness with which even the lower orders
+address each other, and the absence of those petty and vexatious
+restraints which prevail in some of the German states. The constant
+dread of infringing upon the police regulations; the extraordinary
+deference with which men in uniform are regarded; the circumspect
+behavior at public places; the nice and well-regulated mirthfulness,
+never overstepping the strict bounds of prudence, which I had so often
+noticed in the northern parts of Germany, and which may in part be
+attributed to the naturally orderly and conservative character of the
+people, are by no means prominent features in the principal cities of
+Russia.
+
+Soldiers, indeed, there are in abundance every where throughout the
+dominions of the Czar, and the constant rattle of musketry and clang
+of arms show that the liberty of the people is not altogether without
+limit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE NOSE REGIMENT.
+
+
+I saw nothing in the line of military service that interested me more
+than the Imperial Guard. Without vouching for the truth of the whole
+story connected with the history of this famous regiment, I give it as
+related to me by Dominico, merely stating as a fact within my own
+observation that there is no question whatever about the peculiarity
+of their features. It seems that the Emperor Nicholas, shortly before
+the Crimean War, discovered by some means that the best fighting men
+in his dominions belonged to a certain wild tribe from the north,
+distinguished for the extreme ugliness of their faces. The most
+remarkable feature was the nose, which stood straight out from the
+base of the forehead in the form of a triangle, presenting in front
+the appearance of a double-barreled pistol. A stiff grizzly mustache
+underneath gave them a peculiarly ferocious expression, so that brave
+men quailed, and women and children fled from them in terror. The
+emperor gave orders that all men in the ranks possessed of these
+frightful noses should be brought before him. Finding, when they were
+mustered together, that there was not over one company, he caused a
+general average of the noses to be taken, from which he had a diagram
+carefully prepared and disseminated throughout the empire, calling
+upon the military commanders of the provinces to send him recruits
+corresponding with the prescribed formula.
+
+In due time he was enabled to muster a thousand of these ferocious
+barbarians, whom he caused to be carefully drilled and disciplined. He
+kept them in St. Petersburg under his own immediate supervision till
+some time after the attack upon Sebastopol, when, finding the fortunes
+of war likely to go against him, he sent them down to the Crimea, with
+special instructions to the commander-in-chief to rely upon them in
+any emergency. In compliance with the imperial order, they were at
+once placed in the front ranks, and in a very few days had occasion to
+display their fighting qualities. At the very first onslaught of the
+enemy they stood their ground manfully till the French troops had
+approached within ten feet, when, with one accord, they took to their
+heels, and never stopped running till they were entirely out of sight.
+It was a disastrous day for the Russians. The commander-in-chief was
+overwhelmed with shame and mortification. A detachment of cavalry was
+dispatched in pursuit of the fugitives, who were finally arrested in
+their flight and brought back. "Cowards!" thundered the enraged
+commander, as they stood drawn up before him; "miserable poltroons!
+dastards! is this the way you do honor to your imperial master? Am I
+to report to his most potent majesty that, without striking one blow
+in his defense, you ran like sheep? Wretches, what have you to say for
+yourselves?"
+
+  [Illustration: IMPERIAL NOSEGAY.]
+
+"May it please your excellency," responded the men, firmly and with
+unblenched faces, "we ran away, it is true; but we are not cowards. On
+the contrary, sire, we are brave men, and fear neither man nor beast.
+But your excellency is aware that nature has gifted us with noses
+peculiarly open to unusual impressions. We have smelled all the
+smells known from the far North to the far South, from the stewed rats
+of Moscow to the carrion that lies mouldering upon the plains of the
+Crimea; but, if it please your highness, we never smelled Frenchmen
+before. There was an unearthly odor about them that filled our
+nostrils, and struck a mysterious terror into our souls."
+
+"Fools!" roared the commander-in-chief, bursting with rage, "what you
+smelled was nothing more than garlic, to which these Frenchmen are
+addicted."
+
+"Call it as you will," firmly responded the men with the noses, "it
+was too horrible to be endured. We are willing to die by the natural
+casualties of war, but not by unseen blasts of garlic, against which
+no human power can contend."
+
+"Then," cried the commander, in tones of thunder, "I'll see that you
+die to-morrow by the natural casualties of war. You shall be put in
+the very front rank, and care shall be taken to have every man of you
+shot down the moment you undertake to run."
+
+On the following day this rigorous order was carried into effect. The
+nose regiment was placed in front, and the battle opened with great
+spirit. The French troops swept down upon them like an avalanche. For
+an instant they looked behind, but, finding no hope of escape in that
+direction, each man of them suddenly grasped up a handful of mud, and,
+dashing it over his nostrils, shouted "Death, to the garlic-eaters!"
+and rushed against the enemy with indescribable ferocity. Never before
+were such prodigies of valor performed on the field of battle. The
+French went down like stricken reeds before the ferocious onslaught of
+the Imperial Guard. Their dead bodies lay piled in heaps on the bloody
+field. The fortunes of the day were saved, and, panting and bleeding,
+the men of Noses stood triumphantly in the presence of their chief. In
+an ecstasy of pride and delight he complimented them upon their valor,
+and pronounced them the brightest nosegay in his imperial majesty's
+service, which name they have borne ever since.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE EMPEROR'S BEAR-HUNT.
+
+
+The present emperor, Alexander III., is more distinguished for his
+liberal views respecting the rights of his subjects than for his
+military proclivities. In private life he is much beloved, and is said
+to be a man of very genial social qualities. His predominating passion
+in this relation is a love of hunting. I have been told that he is
+especially great on bears. With all your experience of this manly
+pastime in America, I doubt if you can form any conception of the
+bear-hunts in which the Autocrat of all the Russias has distinguished
+himself. Any body with nerve enough can kill a grizzly, but it
+requires both nerve and money to kill bears of any kind in the genuine
+autocratic style. By an imperial ukase it has been ordered that when
+any of the peasants or serfs discover a bear within twenty versts of
+the Moscow and St. Petersburg Railway, they must make known the fact
+to the proprietor of the estate, whose duty it is to communicate
+official information of the discovery to the corresponding secretary
+of the Czar. With becoming humility the secretary announces the
+tidings to his royal master, who directs him to advise the distant
+party that his majesty is much pleased, and will avail himself of his
+earliest leisure to proceed to the scene of action. In the mean time
+the entire available force of the estate is set to work to watch the
+bear, and from three to five hundred men, armed with cudgels, tin
+pans, old kettles, drums, etc., are stationed in a circle around him.
+Dogs also are employed upon this important service. The advance
+trains, under the direction of the master hunter, having deposited
+their stores of wines, cordials, and provisions, and telegraphic
+communications being transmitted to head-quarters from time to time,
+it is at length privately announced that his imperial majesty has
+condescended to honor the place with his presence, and, should the
+saints not prove averse, will be there with his royal party at the
+hour and on the day specified in the imperial dispatch. The grand
+convoy is then put upon the track; dispatches are transmitted to all
+the stations; officers, soldiers, and guards are required to be in
+attendance to do honor to their sovereign master--privately, of
+course, as this is simply an unofficial affair which nobody is
+supposed to know any thing about. The emperor, having selected his
+chosen few--that is to say, half a dozen princes, a dozen dukes, a
+score or two of counts and barons--all fine fellows and genuine
+bloods--proceeds unostentatiously to the dépôt in his hunting-carriage
+(a simple little affair, manufactured at a cost of only forty thousand
+rubles or so), where he is astonished to see a large concourse of
+admiring subjects, gayly interspersed with soldiers, all accidentally
+gathered there to see him off. Now hats are removed, bows are made,
+suppressed murmurs of delight run through the crowd; the locomotive
+whizzes and fizzes with impatience; bells are rung, arms are grounded;
+the princes, dukes, and barons--jolly fellows as they are--laugh and
+joke just like common people; bells ring again and whistles blow; a
+signal is made, and the Autocrat of all the Russias is off on his
+bear-hunt!
+
+In an hour, or two or three hours, as the case may be, the royal
+hunters arrive at the destined station. Should the public business be
+pressing, it is not improbable the emperor, availing himself of the
+conveniences provided for him by Winans and Co., in whose magnificent
+present of a railway carriage he travels, has in the mean time
+dispatched a fleet of vessels to Finland, ten or a dozen extra
+regiments of Cossacks to Warsaw, closed upon terms for a loan of fifty
+millions, banished various objectionable parties to the deserts of
+Siberia, and partaken of a game or two of whist with his camarilla.
+
+But now the important affair of the day is at hand--the bear--the
+terrible black bear, which every body is fully armed and equipped to
+kill, but which every body knows by instinct is going to be killed by
+the emperor, because of his majesty's superior skill and courage on
+trying occasions of this sort. What a blessing it is to possess such
+steadiness of nerve! I would not hesitate one moment to attack the
+most ferocious grizzly in existence if I felt half as much confidence
+in my ability to kill it. But the carriages are waiting; the horses
+are prancing; the hunters are blowing their bugles; the royal party
+are mounting on horseback or in their carriages, as best may suit
+their taste, and the signal is given! A salute is fired by the Guard,
+huzzas ring through the air, and the Czar of all the Russias is fairly
+off on his hunt. Trees fly by; desert patches of ground whirl from
+under; versts are as nothing to these spirited steeds and their
+spirited masters, and in an hour or so the grand scene of action is
+reached. Here couriers stand ready to conduct the imperial hunters
+into the very jaws of death. The noble proprietor himself, bareheaded,
+greets the royal pageant; the serfs bow down in Oriental fashion; the
+dashing young Czar touches his hunting-cap in military style and waves
+his hand gallantly to the ladies of the household, who are peeping at
+him from their carriages in the distance. Once more the bugle is
+sounded, and away they dash--knights, nobles, and all--the handsome
+and gallant Czar leading the way by several lengths. Soon the terrific
+cry is heard--"Halt! the bear! the bear! Halt!" Shut your eyes,
+reader, for you never can stand such a sight as that--a full-grown
+black bear, not two hundred yards off, in the middle of an open space,
+surrounded by five hundred men hidden behind trees and driving him
+back from every point where he attempts to escape. You don't see the
+men, but you hear them shouting and banging upon their pots, pans, and
+kettles. Now just open one eye and see the emperor dismount from his
+famous charger, and deliver the rein to a dozen domestics,
+deliberately cock his rifle, and fearlessly get behind the nearest
+tree within the range of the bear. By this time you perceive that
+Bruin is dancing a _pas seul_ on his hind legs, utterly confounded
+with the noises around him. Shut your eyes again, for the emperor is
+taking his royal aim, and will presently crack away with his royal
+rifle. Hist! triggers are clicking around you in every direction, but
+you needn't be the least afraid, for, although the bear is covered by
+a reserve of forty rifles, not one of the hunters has nerve enough to
+shoot unless officially authorized or personally desirous of visiting
+the silver-mines of Siberia. Crack! thug! The smoke clears away. By
+Jove! his imperial majesty has done it cleverly; hit the brute plumb
+on the os frontis, or through the heart, it makes no difference which.
+Down drops Bruin, kicking and tearing up the earth at a dreadful rate;
+cheers rend the welkin; pots, pans, and kettles are banged. High above
+all rises the stern voice of the autocrat, calling for another rifle,
+which is immediately handed to him. Humanity requires that he should
+at once put an end to the poor animal's sufferings, and he does it
+with his accustomed skill.
+
+Now the bear having kicked his last, an intrepid hunter charges up to
+the spot on horseback, whirls around it two or three times, carefully
+examines the body with an opera-glass, returns, and, approaching the
+royal presence with uncovered head, delivers himself according to this
+formula: "May it please your most gallant and imperial majesty, THE
+BEAR IS DEAD!" The emperor sometimes responds, "Is he?" but usually
+contents himself by waving his hand in an indifferent manner, puffing
+his cigar, and calling for his horse. Sixteen grooms immediately rush
+forward with his majesty's horse; and, being still young and vigorous,
+he mounts without difficulty, unaided except by Master of Stirrups.
+Next he draws an ivory-handled revolver--a present from Colt, of New
+York--and, dashing fearlessly upon the bear, fires six shots into the
+dead body; upon which he coolly dismounts, and pulling forth from the
+breast of his hunting-coat an Arkansas bowie-knife--a present from the
+poet Albert Pike, of Little Rock--plunges that dangerous weapon into
+the bowels of the dead bear; then rising to his full height, with a
+dark and stern countenance, he holds the blood-dripping blade high in
+the air, so that all may see it, and utters one wild stentorian and
+terrific shout, "Harasho! harasho!" signifying in English, "Good! very
+well!" The cry is caught up by the princes and nobles, who, with
+uncovered heads, now crowd around their gallant emperor, and waving
+their hats, likewise shout "Harasho! harasho!"--"Good! very well!"
+Then the five hundred peasants rush in with their tin pans, kettles,
+and drums, and amid the most amazing din catch up the inspiring
+strain, and deafen every ear with their wild shouts of "Harasho!
+harasho!"--"Good! very well!" Upon which the emperor, rapidly
+mounting, places a finger in each ear, and, still puffing his cigar,
+rides triumphantly away.
+
+The bear is hastily gutted and dressed with flowers. When all is ready
+the royal party return to the railroad dépôt in a long procession,
+headed by his majesty, and brought up in the rear by the dead body of
+Bruin borne on poles by six-and-twenty powerful serfs. Refreshments in
+the mean time have been administered to every body of high and low
+degree, and by the time they reach the dépôt there are but two sober
+individuals in the entire procession--his royal majesty and the bear.
+Farther refreshments are administered all round during the journey
+back to St. Petersburg, and, notwithstanding he is rigidly prohibited
+by his physician from the use of stimulating beverages, it is supposed
+that a reaction has now taken place, which renders necessary a
+modification of the medical ukase. At all events, I am told the bear
+is sometimes the only really steady member of the party by the time
+the imperial pageant reaches the palace. When the usual ceremonies of
+congratulation are over, a merry dance winds up the evening. After
+this the company disperses to prayer and slumber, and thus ends the
+great bear-hunt of his majesty the Autocrat of all the Russias.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+RUSSIAN HUMOR.
+
+
+The Russians have little or no humor, though they are not deficient in
+a certain grotesque savagery bordering on the humorous. There is
+something fearfully vicious in the royal freaks of fancy of which
+Russian history furnishes us so many examples. We read with a shudder
+of the facetious compliment paid to the Italian architect by Ivan the
+Terrible, who caused the poor man's eyes to be put out that he might
+never see to build another church so beautiful as that of St. Basil.
+We can not but smile at the grim humor of Peter the Great, who, upon
+seeing a crowd of men with wigs and gowns at Westminster Hall, and
+being informed that they were lawyers, observed that he had but two in
+his whole empire, and he believed he would hang one of them as soon as
+he got home. A still more striking though less ghastly freak of fancy
+was that perpetrated by the Empress Anne of Courland, who, on the
+occasion of the marriage of her favorite buffoon, Galitzin, caused a
+palace of ice to be built, with a bed of the same material, in which
+she compelled the happy pair to pass their wedding night. The Empress
+Catharine II., a Pomeranian by birth, but thoroughly Russian in her
+morals, possessed a more ardent temperament. What time she did not
+spend in gratifying her ambition by slaughtering men, she spent in
+loving them:
+
+        "For, though she would widow all
+    Nations, she liked man as an individual."
+
+She never dismissed an old admirer until she had secured several new
+ones, and generally consoled those who had served her by a present of
+twenty or thirty thousand serfs. On the death of Lanskoi, it is
+recorded of her that "she gave herself up to the most poignant grief,
+and remained three months without going out of her palace of Czarsko
+Selo," thus perpetrating a very curious practical satire upon the
+holiest of human affections. Her grenadier lover Potemkin, according
+to the character given of him by the Count Ségur, was little better
+than a gigantic and savage buffoon--licentious and superstitious, bold
+and timid by turns--sometimes desiring to be King of Poland, at others
+a bishop or a monk. Of him we read that "he put out an eye to free it
+from a blemish which diminished his beauty. Banished by his rival, he
+ran to meet death in battle, and returned with glory." Another
+pleasant little jest was that perpetrated by Suwarrow, who, after the
+bloody battle of Tourtourskaya, announced the result to his mistress
+in an epigram of two doggerel lines. This was the terrible warrior who
+used to sleep almost naked in a room of suffocating heat, and rush out
+to review his troops in a linen jacket, with the thermometer of
+Reaumur ten degrees below freezing point. Of the Emperor Paul, the son
+of Catharine, we read that he issued a ukase against the use of
+shoe-strings and round hats; caused all the watch-boxes, gates, and
+bridges throughout the empire to be painted in the most glaring and
+fantastic colors, and passed a considerable portion of his time riding
+on a wooden rocking-horse--a degenerate practice for a scion of the
+bold Catharine, who used to dress herself in men's clothes, and ride
+a-straddle on the back of a live horse to review her troops. Alexander
+I., in his ukase of September, 1827, perpetrated a very fine piece of
+Russian humor. The period of military service for serfs is fixed at
+twenty years in the Imperial Guard, and twenty-two in other branches
+of the service. It is stated in express terms that the moment a serf
+becomes enrolled in the ranks of the army he is free! But he must not
+desert, for if he does he becomes a slave again. This idea of freedom
+is really refreshing. Only twenty or twenty-two years of the gentle
+restraints of Russian military discipline to be enjoyed after becoming
+a free agent! Then he may go off (at the age of fifty or sixty, say),
+unless disease or gunpowder has carried him off long before, to enjoy
+the sweets of hard labor in some agreeable desert, or the position of
+a watchman on the frontiers of Siberia, where the climate is probably
+considered salubrious.
+
+These may be considered royal or princely vagaries, in which great
+people are privileged to indulge; but I think it will be found that
+the same capricious savagery of humor--if I may so call it--prevails
+to some extent among all classes of Russians. In some instances it can
+scarcely be associated with any idea of mirthfulness, yet in the love
+of strange, startling, and incongruous ideas there is something
+bordering on the humorous. On Recollection Monday, for example, the
+mass of the people go out into the grave-yards, and, spreading
+table-cloths on the mounds that cover the dead bodies of their
+relatives, drink quass and vodka to the health of the deceased,
+saying, "Since the dead are unable to drink, the living must drink for
+them!" Rather a grave excuse, one must think, for intoxication.
+
+In the museum of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg stands the stuffed
+skin of his favorite servant--a gigantic Holsteiner--one of the most
+ghastly of all the grotesque and ghastly relics in that remarkable
+institution. It is not a very agreeable subject for the pencil of an
+artist, yet there is something so original in the idea of stuffing a
+human being and putting him up for exhibition before the public that I
+am constrained to introduce the following sketch of this strange
+spectacle.
+
+In one of the arsenals is an eagle made of gun-flints, with swords for
+wings, daggers for feathers, and the mouths of cannons for eyes. A
+painting of the Strelitzes, in another, represents heaven as
+containing the Russian priests and all the faithful; while the other
+place--a region of fire and brimstone--contains Jews, Tartars,
+Germans, and negroes!
+
+  [Illustration: SKINNED AND STUFFED MAN.]
+
+The winter markets of Moscow and St. Petersburg present some of the
+most cadaverous specimens of the startling humor in which the Russians
+delight. Here you find frozen oxen, calves, sheep, rabbits, geese,
+ducks, and all manner of animals and birds, once animate with life,
+now stiff and stark in death. The oxen stand staring at you with their
+fixed eyes and gory carcasses; the calves are jumping or frisking in
+skinless innocence; the sheep ba-a at you with open mouths, or cast
+sheep's-eyes at the by-passers; the rabbits, having traveled hundreds
+of miles, are jumping, or running, or turning somersaults in frozen
+tableaux to keep themselves warm, and so on with every variety of
+flesh, fowl, and even fish. The butchers cut short these expressive
+practical witticisms by means of saws, as one might saw a block of
+wood; and the saw-dust, which is really frozen flesh and blood in a
+powdered state, is gathered up in baskets and carried away by the
+children and ragamuffins to be made into soup.
+
+  [Illustration: FROZEN ANIMALS IN THE MARKET.]
+
+I can conceive of nothing humorous in these people which is not
+associated in some way with the cruel and the grotesque. They have
+many noble and generous traits, but lack delicacy of feeling. Where
+the range of the thermometer is from a hundred to a hundred and fifty
+degrees of Fahrenheit, their character must partake in some sort of
+the qualities of the climate--fierce, rigorous, and pitiless in its
+wintry aspect, and without the compensating and genial tenderness of
+spring; fitful and passionate as the scorching heats of summer, and
+dark, stormy, and dreary as the desolation of autumn.
+
+I could not but marvel, as I sat in some of the common traktirs, at
+the extraordinary affection manifested by the Russians for cats. It
+appeared to me that the proprietors must keep a feline corps expressly
+for the amusement of their customers. At one of these places I saw at
+least forty cats, of various breeds, from the confines of Tartary to
+the city of Paris. They were up on the tables, on the benches, on the
+floor, under the benches, on the backs of the tea-drinkers, in their
+laps, in their arms--every where. I strongly suspected that they
+answered the purpose of waiters, and that the owner relied upon them
+to keep the plates clean. Possibly, too, they were made available as
+musicians. I have a notion the Russians entertain the same
+superstitious devotion to cats that the Banyans of India do to cows,
+and the French and Germans to nasty little poodles. To see a great
+shaggy boor, his face dripping with grease, his eyes swimming in
+vodka, sit all doubled up, fondling and caressing these feline pets;
+holding them in his hands; pressing their velvety fur to his eyes,
+cheeks, even his lips; listening with delight to their screams and
+squalls, is indeed a curious spectacle.
+
+  [Illustration: MUJIK AND CATS.]
+
+Now I have no unchristian feeling toward any of the brute creation,
+but I don't affect cats. Nor can I say that I greatly enjoy their
+music. I heard the very best bands of tom-cats every night during my
+sojourn in Moscow, and consider them utterly deficient in style and
+execution. It belongs, I think, to the Music of Futurity, so much
+discussed by the critics of Europe during the past few years--a
+peculiar school of anti-melody that requires people yet to be born to
+appreciate it thoroughly. The discords may be very fine, and the
+passion very striking and tempestuous, but it is worse than thrown
+away on an uncultivated ear like mine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE.
+
+
+The police of Moscow are not an attractive class of men, considering
+them in the light of guardians of the law. With a good deal of
+pomposity and laziness, they mingle much filth and rascality. The
+emperor may have great confidence in them, based upon some knowledge
+of their talents and virtues not shared by casual tourists; but if he
+would trust one of them with ten kopeks, or agree to place the life of
+any intimate personal friend in their keeping, in any of the dark
+alleys of Moscow, his faith in their integrity and humanity must be
+greater than mine. Indeed, upon casting around me in search of a
+parallel, I am not quite sure that I ever saw such a scurvy set of
+vagabonds employed to preserve the public peace in any other country,
+except, perhaps, in Spain. The guardians of the law in Cadiz and
+Seville are dark and forbidding enough in all conscience, and
+unscrupulous enough to turn a penny in any way not requiring the
+exercise of personal energy; and the police of Barcelona are not
+inferior in all that constitutes moral turpitude, but they can not
+surpass the Moscovites in filthiness of person or any of the essential
+attributes of villainy.
+
+I have it upon good authority that they are the very worst set of
+thieves in the place, and that they will not hesitate to unite with
+any midnight prowler for the purpose of robbing a stranger. True, they
+did not rob me, but the reason of that is obvious. I gave them to
+understand at the start that I was connected with the press. You
+seldom hear of a writer for newspapers being robbed; and if such a
+thing ever does happen, the amount taken is never large.
+
+As a consequence of this proclivity for ill-gotten gains on the part
+of the guardians of the law, it is unsafe for a stranger to go through
+the less frequented streets of Moscow at night. Should he chance to be
+stopped by two or three footpads and call for help, he will doubtless
+wake up some drowsy guardian of the law, but the help will be all
+against him. Instances have been related to me of robberies in which
+the police were the most active assailants, the robbers merely
+standing by for their share of the plunder. Should the unfortunate
+victim knock down a footpad or two in self-defense, it is good ground
+for an arrest, and both robbers and policemen become witnesses against
+him. A man had better get involved in a question of title to his
+property before the courts of California than be arrested for assault
+and battery, and carried before any of the civil tribunals in Russia.
+There is no end of the law's delays in these institutions, and his
+only chance of justice is to get his case before the emperor, who is
+practically the Supreme Court of the empire. Otherwise the really
+aggrieved party must pay a fine for defending himself, and support the
+assaulted man, whose nose he may have battered, during an unlimited
+period at the hospital, together with physician's fees for all the
+real or imaginary injuries inflicted. I met with a young American who
+was followed by a stalwart ruffian one night in returning from one of
+the public gardens. The man dogged his footsteps for some time. At
+length, there being nobody near to render aid, the robber mustered
+courage enough to seize hold and attempt to intimidate his supposed
+victim by brandishing a knife. He came from a country where they were
+not uncommon, and, besides, was an adept on the shoulder. With a
+sudden jerk he freed himself, and, hauling off a little, gave his
+assailant a note of hand that knocked him down. I am not versed in the
+classics of the ring, or I would make something out of this fight. The
+pad dropped like a stricken ox, his knife flying picturesquely through
+the silvery rays of the moon. Next moment he was on his feet again,
+the claret shining beautifully on his cheeks and beard. Throwing out
+his claws like a huge grizzly, he rushed in, gnashing his teeth and
+swearing horribly. This time our friend was fairly aroused, and the
+wretch promptly measured his length on the ground. Thinking he had
+scattered it on rather heavy, the American stooped down to see how
+matters stood, when the fellow grasped him by the coat and commenced
+shouting with all his might for the police--"Help! help! murder!
+murder!" There was no remedy but to silence him, which our friend
+dexterously accomplished by a blow on the os frontis. Hearing the
+approaching footsteps of the police, he then concluded it was best to
+make his escape, and accordingly took to his heels. Chase was given,
+but he was as good at running as he was at the noble art of
+self-defense, and soon distanced his pursuers. Fortunately, he reached
+his quarters without being recognised. This was all that saved him
+from arrest and imprisonment, or the payment of a fine for the
+assault.
+
+A common practice, as I was informed, is to arrest a stranger for some
+alleged breach of the law, such as smoking a cigar in the streets, or
+using disrespectful language toward the constituted authorities. Not
+being accustomed to the intricacies of a Russian judiciary, it is
+difficult, when once the matter comes before a tribunal of justice,
+for a foreigner to rebut the testimony brought against him; and if he
+be in a hurry to get away, his only course is to bribe the parties
+interested in his detention. It would be unjust to say that this
+system prevails universally throughout Russia. There is a small
+circle around the imperial presence said to be exempt from corruption;
+and there may possibly be a few dignitaries of the government, in
+remote parts of the empire, who will not tell an untruth unless in
+their official correspondence, or steal except to make up what they
+consider due to them for public services; but the circle of immaculate
+ones is very small, and commences very near the Czar, and the other
+exceptions referred to are exceedingly rare. Thieving may be said to
+begin within gunshot of the capital, and to attain its culminating
+excellences on the confines of Tartary. The difference is only in
+degree between the higher and the lower grades of officers. Hence,
+although it is quite possible to obtain full reparation for an injury
+before the Czar, through the intervention of a consul or a minister,
+it is a vexatious and expensive mode of proceeding, and would only
+result at last in the transportation of some miserable wretch to the
+mines of Siberia. Of course no man with a spark of feeling would like
+to see a poor fellow-creature go there. For my part, I would rather
+suffer any amount of injustice than be the cause of sending a
+fellow-mortal on so long and dreary a journey.
+
+The whole bearing of which you will presently discover. I am going to
+tell you a very singular adventure that befell me in Moscow. Do not be
+impatient; it will all come in due time. A few dashes of preliminary
+description will be necessary, by way of introduction, otherwise it
+would be impossible to comprehend the full scope and purpose of my
+narrative. If you be of the rougher mould, cherished reader, just cast
+yourself back somewhere at your ease, take this most excellently
+printed book deftly between your fingers, with a good cigar between
+your teeth; throw your legs over your desk, a gunny-bag, a fence-rail,
+or the mantel-piece of the bar-room, as the case may be; give me the
+benefit of your friendship and confidence, and read away at your
+leisure. But if you be one of those gentle beings placed upon earth to
+diffuse joy and happiness over the desert of life, I pray you
+consider me a serf at your imperial foot-stool; bend on me those
+tender eyes; and with the mingled respect and admiration due by all
+men to female loveliness, I shall proceed at once to tell you
+(confidentially of course)
+
+
+A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE
+
+It so happened in Moscow that I fell in with a very pleasant and
+sociable party of Americans, several of whom were in the railway
+service, and therefore might reasonably be regarded as fast young
+gentlemen, though far be it from me to imply any thing injurious to
+their reputation. Beyond an excessive passion for tea, acquired by
+long residence in Moscow, I do not know that a single one of them was
+at all dissipated. When I first called at the rooms of these lively
+countrymen, they immediately got out their tea-urns, and assured me
+that it would be impossible to comprehend any thing of Russian life
+till I had partaken freely of Russian tea, therefore I was obliged to
+drink five or six glasses by way of a beginning. Having freely
+discussed the affairs of the American nation at one room, we adjourned
+to another, where we had a fresh supply of tea; and then, after
+settling the rebellion to our common satisfaction, adjourned to
+another, and so on throughout the best part of the day. Sometimes we
+stopped in at a _traktir_ and had a portion or two, dashed with a
+little Cognac, which my friends assured me would prevent it from
+having any injurious effect upon the nervous system. In this way,
+within a period of twelve hours, owing to the kindness and hospitality
+of these agreeable Americans, who insisted upon treating me to tea, in
+public and in private, at every turn of our rambles, I must have
+swallowed a gallon or two of this delicious beverage. The weather was
+exceedingly warm, but these experienced gentlemen insisted upon it
+that Russian tea was a sovereign antidote for warm weather, especially
+when dashed with Cognac, as it drove all the caloric out of the body
+through the pores of the skin. "Don't be afraid!" said they,
+encouragingly; "drink just as much as you please--it will cool you!
+See how the Russians drink it. Nothing else enables them to stand
+these fiery hot summers after their polar winters!" Well, I didn't
+feel exactly cool, with thirty or forty tumblers of boiling hot tea,
+dashed with Cognac, in my veins, but what was the use of
+remonstrating? They _lived_ in Moscow--they _knew_ better than I did
+what was good for strangers--so I kept on swallowing a little more,
+just to oblige them, till I verily believe, had any body stuck a pin
+in me, or had I undertaken to make a speech, I would have spouted
+Russian tea.
+
+Why is it that the moment any body wants to render you a service, or
+manifest some token of friendship, he commences by striking at the
+very root of your digestive functions? Is it not exacting a little too
+much of human nature to require a man to consider himself a large
+sponge, in order that hospitality may be poured into him by the
+gallon? When a person of pliant and amiable disposition visits a set
+of good fellows, and they take some trouble to entertain him; when
+they think they are delighting him internally and externally--not to
+say infernally--with such tea as he never drank before, it is hard to
+refuse. The moral courage necessary for the peremptory rejection of
+such advances would make a hero. Thus it has ever been with me--I am
+the victim of misplaced hospitality. It has been the besetting trouble
+of my life. I remember once eating a Nantucket pudding to oblige a
+lady. It was made of corn-meal and molasses, with some diabolical
+compound in the way of sauce--possibly whale-oil and tar. I had just
+eaten a hearty dinner; but the lady insisted upon it that the pudding
+was a great dish in Nantucket, and I must try it. Well, I stuffed and
+gagged at it, out of pure politeness, till every morsel on the plate
+was gone, declaring all the time that it was perfectly delicious. The
+lady was charmed, and, in the face of every denial, instantly filled
+the plate again. What could I do but eat it? And after eating till I
+verily believe one half of me was composed of Nantucket pudding, and
+the other half of whale-oil and tar, what could I do but praise it
+again? The third attempt upon my life was made by this most excellent
+and hospitable lady; but I gave way, and had to beg off. Human nature
+could stand it no longer. The consequence was, I wounded her feelings.
+She regretted very much that I disliked Nantucket pudding, and I don't
+think ever quite forgave me for my prejudice against that article of
+diet, though her kindness laid me up sick for two weeks. Nor is this
+an isolated case. I might relate a thousand others in illustration of
+the melancholy fact that hospitality has been the bane of my life.
+When I think of all the sufferings I have endured out of mere
+politeness--though by no means accounted a polite person--tears of
+grief and indignation spring to my eyes. Old John Rogers at the stake
+never suffered such martyrdom. But there is an end of it! The _tchai_
+of Moscow finished all this sort of thing--so far, at least, as the
+male sex is concerned. I would still eat a coyote or a weasel to
+oblige a lady, but as to drinking two gallons of strong tea per day,
+dashed with Cognac to reduce its temperature, to oblige any man that
+ever wore a beard, I solemnly declare I'll die first. The thing is an
+imposition--an outrage. Every man has a right to my time, my purse, my
+real estate in Oakland, my coat, my boots, or my razor--nay, in a case
+of emergency, my tooth-brush--but no man has a right to deluge my
+diaphragm with slops, or make a ditch of Mundus of my stomach.
+
+  [Illustration: EFFECTS OF "LITTLE WATER."]
+
+At the Peterskoi Gardens we had a little more tea, dashed with
+_vodka_, to keep out the night air. As soon as the fire-works were
+over we adjourned to the pavilion, and refreshed ourselves with a
+little more tea slightly impregnated with some more _vodka_. Now I
+don't know exactly what this vodka is made of, but I believe it is an
+extract of corn. In the Russian language _voda_ is water, and _vodka_
+means "little water." There certainly was very little in what we got,
+or the tea must have been stronger than usual, for, notwithstanding
+these agreeable young gentlemen protested a gallon of such stuff would
+not produce the slightest effect, it seemed to me--though there might
+have been some delusion in the idea, arising from ignorance of Russian
+customs--that my head went round like a whirligig; and by the time I
+took my leave of these experienced young friends and retired to my
+room at the _Hotel de Venise_, it did likewise occur to me--though
+that too may have been a mere notion--that there was a hive of bees in
+each ear. Upon due consideration of all the facts, I thought it best
+to turn in, and resume any inquiries that might be necessary for the
+elucidation of these phenomena in the morning.
+
+[Here, you perceive, I am gradually verging toward the adventure. The
+heroine of the romance has not yet made her appearance, but depend
+upon it she is getting ready. You should never hurry the female
+characters; besides, it is not proper, even if this were all fiction
+instead of sober truth, that the heroine should be brought upon the
+stage just as the hero is tumbling into bed.]
+
+But to proceed. Sleep was effectually banished from my eyes, and no
+wonder. Who in the name of sense could sleep with forty tumblers of
+Russian tea--to say nothing of the dashes that were put in
+it--simmering through every nook and cranny of his body, and boiling
+over in his head? There I lay, twisting and tumbling, the pillow
+continually descending into the depths of infinity, but never getting
+any where--the bed rolling like a dismantled hulk upon a stormy
+sea--the room filled with steaming and hissing urns--a fearful thirst
+parching my throat, while myriads of horrid bearded Russians were
+torturing me with tumblers of boiling-hot tea dashed with
+_vodka_--thus I lay a perfect victim of tea. I could even see Chinamen
+with long queues picking tea-leaves off endless varieties of shrubs
+that grew upon the papered walls; and Kalmuck Tartars, with their long
+caravans, traversing the dreary steppes of Tartary laden with
+inexhaustible burdens of the precious leaf; and the great fair of
+Nijni Novgorod, with its booths, and tents, and countless boxes of
+tea, and busy throngs of traders and tea-merchants, all passing like a
+panorama before me, and all growing naturally out of an indefinite
+background of tea.
+
+I can not distinctly remember how long I tossed about in this way,
+beset by all sorts of vagaries. Sometimes I fancied sleep had come,
+and that the whole matter was a ridiculous freak of fancy, including
+my visit to Moscow--that Russian tea was all a fiction, and _vodka_ a
+mere nightmare; but with a nervous start I would find myself awake,
+the palpable reality of my extraordinary condition staring me in the
+face. Unable to endure such an anomalous frame of mind and body any
+longer, I at length resolved to go down and take an airing in the
+streets, believing, if any thing would have a beneficial effect, it
+would be the fresh air. Acting upon this idea, I hastily dressed
+myself and descended to the front door. The _Hotel de Venise_ is
+situated in a central part of the city, at no great distance from the
+Kremlin. It stands back in a large open yard, with a very pretty
+garden to the right as you enter from the main street. The proprietor
+is a Russian, but the hotel is conducted in the French style, and,
+although not more conspicuous for cleanliness than other
+establishments of the same class in Moscow, it is nevertheless
+tolerably free from vermin. The fleas in it were certainly neither so
+lively nor so entertaining as I have found them at many of the Spanish
+ranches in California, and the bugs, I am sure, are nothing like so
+corpulent as some I have seen in Washington City. I throw this in
+gratis, as a sort of puff, in consideration of an understanding with
+the landlord, that if he would refrain from cheating me I would
+recommend his hotel to American travelers. It is very good of its
+kind, and no person fond of veal, as a standard dish, can suffer from
+hunger at this establishment so long as calves continue to be born any
+where in the neighborhood of Moscow.
+
+The porter, a drowsy old fellow in livery, whose only business, so far
+as I could discover, was to bow to the guests as they passed in and
+out during the day, at the expense of a kopek to each one of them for
+every bow, napping on a lounge close by the front door. Hearing my
+footsteps, he awoke, rubbed his eyes, bowed habitually, and then
+stared at me with a vacant and somewhat startled expression. It was
+not a common thing evidently for lodgers to go out of the hotel at
+that time of night, or rather morning--it must have been nearly two
+o'clock--for, after gazing a while at what he doubtless took to be an
+apparition or an absconding boarder whose bill had not been settled,
+he grumbled out something like a dissent, and stood between me and the
+door. A small fee of ten kopeks, which I placed in his hand, aided him
+in grasping at the mysteries of the case, and he unlocked the door and
+let me out, merely shaking his head gravely, as if he divined my
+purpose, but did not altogether approve of it in one of my age and
+sedate appearance. In that, however, he was mistaken: I had no
+disposition to form any tender alliances in Moscow.
+
+  [Illustration: RUSSIAN BEGGARS.]
+
+The streets were almost deserted. An occasional drosky, carrying home
+some belated pleasure-seeker, was all that disturbed the silence. I
+walked some distance in the direction of the Kremlin. The air was
+deliciously cool and refreshing, and the sky wore a still richer glow
+than I had noticed a few hours before at the gardens of the Peterskoi.
+The moon had not yet gone down, but the first glowing blushes of the
+early morning were stealing over the heavens, mingled with its silvery
+light. I took off my hat to enjoy the fresh air, and wandered along
+quite enchanted with the richness and variety of the scene. Every turn
+of the silent streets brought me in view of some gilded pile of
+cupolas, standing in glowing relief against the sky. Churches of
+strange Asiatic form, the domes richly and fancifully colored; golden
+stars glittering upon a groundwork of blue, green, or yellow; shrines
+with burning tapers over the massive doors and gateways, were
+scattered in every direction in the most beautiful profusion.
+Sometimes I saw a solitary beggar kneeling devoutly before some gilded
+saint, and mourning over the weariness of life. Once I was startled
+by the apparition of a poor wretch lying asleep--I thought he was
+dead--a crippled wreck upon the stone steps--his eyes closed in brief
+oblivion of the world and its sorrows, his furrowed and pallid
+features a ghastly commentary upon the glittering temples and idols
+that surround him. For above all these things that are "decked with
+silver and with gold, and fastened with nails and with hammers that
+they move not," there is One who hath "made the earth by His power and
+established the world by His wisdom;" man is but brutish in his
+knowledge; "every founder is confounded by the graven image; for his
+molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them." Such
+extremes every where abound in Moscow--magnificence and filth; wealth
+and poverty; a superstitious belief in the power of images in the
+midst of abject proofs of their impotence. And yet, is it not better
+that men should believe in something rather than in nothing? The
+glittering idol can not touch the crippled beggar and put health and
+strength in his limbs, but if the poor sufferer can sleep better upon
+the cold stones in the presence of his patron saint than elsewhere, in
+charity's name let him,
+
+        "O'erlabored with his being's strife
+    Shrink to that sweet forgetfulness of life."
+
+I wandered on. Soon the cupolas of the mighty Kremlin were in sight,
+all aglow with the bright sheen of the morn. Passing along its
+embattled walls, which now seemed of snowy whiteness, I reached the
+grand plaza of the Krasnoi Ploschod. Standing out in the open space, I
+gazed at the wondrous pile of gold-covered domes till my eyes rested
+on the highest point--the majestic tower of Ivan Veliki. And then I
+could but think of the terrible Czar--the fourth of the fierce race of
+Ivans, who ruled the destinies of Russia; he who killed his own son in
+a fit of rage, yet never shook hands with a foreign embassador without
+washing his own immediately after; the patron of monasteries, and the
+conqueror of Kazan, Astrakan, and Siberia. This was the most cruel yet
+most enlightened of his name. I am not sure whether the tower was
+built to commemorate his fame or that of his grandfather, Ivan the
+Third, also called "the Terrible," of whom Karasmin says that, "when
+excited with anger, his glance would make a timid woman swoon; that
+petitioners dreaded to approach his throne, and that even at his table
+the boyars, his grandees, trembled before him." A terrible fellow, no
+doubt, and thoroughly Russian by the testimony of this Russian
+historian, for where else will you find men so terrible as to make
+timid women swoon by a single glance of their eye? Not in California,
+surely! If I were a Czar this soft summer night (such was the idea
+that naturally occurred to me), I would gaze upon the fair flowers of
+creation with an entirely different expression of countenance. They
+should neither wilt nor swoon unless overcome by the delicacy and
+tenderness of my admiration.
+
+From the green towers of the Holy Gate, where neither Czar nor serf
+can enter without uncovering his head, I turned toward the Vassoli
+Blagennoi--the wondrous maze of churches that gathers around the
+Cathedral of St. Basil. Not in all Moscow is there a sight so strange
+and gorgeous as this. The globular domes, all striped with the varied
+colors of the rainbow; the glittering gold-gilt cupolas; the rare and
+fanciful minarets; the shrines, and crosses, and stars; the massive
+steps; the iron railing, with shining gold-capped points--surely, in
+the combination of striking and picturesque forms and colors, lights
+and shades, must ever remain unequaled. The comparison may seem
+frivolous, yet it resembled more, to my eye, some gigantic cactus of
+the tropics, with its needles and rich colors, its round, prickly
+domes and fantastic cupolas, than any thing I had ever seen before in
+the shape of a church or group of churches. While I gazed in wonder at
+the strange fabric, I could not but think again of Ivan the Terrible;
+by whose order it was built; and how, when the architect (an Italian)
+was brought before him, trembling with awe, the mighty Ivan expressed
+his approval of the performance, and demanded if he, the architect,
+could build another equally strange and beautiful; to which the poor
+Italian, elated with joy, answered that he could build another even
+stranger and more beautiful than this; and then how the ferocious and
+unprincipled Czar had the poor fellow's eyes put out to prevent him
+from building another.
+
+But this is not the adventure. I have nothing to do at present with
+the Church of St. Basil or Ivan the Terrible except in so far as they
+affected my imagination. The business on hand is to tell you how the
+dire catastrophe happened.
+
+Bewildered at length with gazing at all these wonderful sights, I
+turned to retrace my steps to the hotel. A few droskies were still
+plying on the principal thoroughfares, and now and then I met gay
+parties trudging homeward after their night's dissipation; but I soon
+struck into the less frequented streets, where a dreary silence
+reigned. There was something very sad and solitary in the
+reverberation of my footsteps. For the first time it occurred to me
+that there was not much security here for life, in case of a covert
+attack from some of those footpads said to infest the city. I began to
+reflect upon the experience of my young American friend, and regret
+that it had not occurred to me before I left the hotel. You may think
+this very weak and foolish, good friends, surrounded as you are by all
+the safeguards of law and order, and living in a country where men are
+never knocked on the head of nights--with occasional exceptions; but I
+can assure you it is a very natural feeling in a strange,
+half-barbarous city like Moscow, where one doesn't understand the
+language. Had I been well versed in Russian, the probability is I
+should not have felt the least alarmed; but a man experiences a
+terrible sensation of loneliness when he expects every moment to be
+knocked on the head without being able to say a word in his own
+defense. Had my guide, Dominico, been with me, I should not have felt
+quite so helpless--though I never had much confidence in his
+courage--for he could at least have demanded an explanation, or, if
+the worst came to the worst, helped me to run away. The fact is--and
+there is no use attempting to disguise it--I began to feel a nervous
+apprehension that something was going to happen. I was startled at my
+own shadow, and was even afraid to whistle with any view of keeping up
+my spirits, lest something unusually florid in my style of whistling
+might lead to the supposition that I was from California, and
+therefore a good subject for robbery.
+
+Which, by the way, puts me in mind of a remarkable fact, well worth
+mentioning. The State of California owes me, at the least calculation,
+two hundred dollars, paid in sums varying from six kreutzers up to a
+pound sterling to hotel-keepers, porters, lackeys, and professional
+gentlemen throughout Europe, exclusively on the ground of my
+citizenship in that state. In Paris--in Spain--in Africa--in Germany
+(with the exceptions of the beer-houses and country inns), I had to
+pay a heavy percentage upon the capital invested in my gold mines
+solely on the presumption that no man could come from so rich a
+country without carrying off a good deal of treasure on his person,
+like the carcass that carried the diamonds out of the rich valley for
+Sinbad the Sailor. Yet I never could forego the pleasure of announcing
+myself as an embassador to foreign parts from that noble state,
+commissioned by the sovereigns generally to furnish them with the
+latest improvements in morals, fashions, and manners for the public
+benefit--an extremely onerous and responsible duty, which I have
+executed, and shall continue to execute, with the most rigid fidelity.
+
+After walking quite far enough to have reached the hotel, I became
+confused at the winding of the streets. The neighborhood was strange.
+I could not discover any familiar sign or object. The houses were low,
+mean, and dark looking; the street was narrow and roughly paved. I
+walked a little farther, then turned into another street still more
+obscure, and, following that for some distance, brought up amid a pile
+of ruined walls. There could no longer be a doubt that I had missed
+the way, and was not likely to find it in this direction. It was a
+very suspicious quarter into which I had strayed. Every thing about it
+betokened poverty and crime. I began to feel rather uneasy, but it
+would not do to stand here among the ruins as a mark for any midnight
+prowler who might be lurking around. Turning off in a new direction, I
+took a by-street, which appeared to lead to an open space. As I picked
+my way over the masses of rubbish, a dark figure crossed in front, and
+disappeared in the shadow of a wall. I was entirely unarmed. What was
+to be done? Perhaps the man might be able to tell me the way to my
+lodgings; but I could not speak a word of Russian, as before stated,
+and, besides, was rather averse to making acquaintance with strangers.
+After a moment's reflection, I walked on, cautiously and distrustfully
+enough, for the notion was uppermost in my mind that this fellow was
+not there for any good purpose. As I passed the spot where he had
+disappeared, I looked suspiciously around, but he did not make his
+appearance. With a few hasty strides I readied the open space--a
+vacant lot, it seemed, caused by a recent fire. The houses were burnt
+down, and nothing but a blackened mass of beams, rafters, and ashes
+covered the ground. The only exit was through a narrow alley. Before
+entering this, I looked back and saw the same figure stealthily
+following me. On I went as rapidly as I could walk. Closer and closer
+came the figure. He was a man of gigantic stature, and was probably
+armed. Soon I heard the heavy tramp of his feet within a few paces. It
+was evident I must either run or stand my ground. Perhaps, if I had
+known what direction to take, or could have placed more reliance upon
+my knees, which were greatly weakened by tea, I might have chosen the
+former alternative, inglorious as it may seem; but, under the
+circumstances, I resolved to stand. Facing around suddenly, with my
+back to the wall, I called to the ruffian to stand off, as he valued
+his life. He halted within a few feet, evidently a little disconcerted
+at my sudden determination to make battle. His face was the most
+brutal I had over seen; a filthy mass of beard nearly covered it; two
+piercing white eyes glistened beneath the leaf of his greasy cap; a
+coarse blouse, gathered around the waist by a leather belt, and boots
+that reached nearly to his hips, were the most striking articles of
+his costume. For a moment he gazed at me, as if uncertain what to do;
+then brushed slowly past, with the design, no doubt, of ascertaining
+if I was armed. I could not see whether he carried any deadly weapons
+himself; but a man of his gigantic stature needed none to be a very
+unequal opponent in a struggle with one whose most sanguinary
+conflicts had hitherto been on paper, and who had never wielded a
+heavier weapon than a pen.
+
+Proceeding on his way, however, the ruffian, after going about a
+hundred yards, disappeared in some dark recess in among the houses on
+one side. I continued on, taking care to keep in the middle of the
+alley. As I approached the spot where the man had disappeared, I heard
+several voices, and then the terrible truth flashed upon me that there
+must be a gang of them. I now saw no alternative but to turn back and
+run for my life. It was an inglorious thing to do, no doubt, but which
+of you, my friends, would not have done the same thing?
+
+  [Illustration: GAMBLING SALOON.]
+
+Scarcely had I started under full headway when three or four men
+rushed out in pursuit. I will not attempt to disguise the fact that
+the ground passed under my feet pretty rapidly; and the probability
+is, the hostile party would have been distanced in less than ten
+minutes but for an unfortunate accident. It was necessary to cross the
+ruins already described. Here, in the recklessness of my flight, I
+stumbled over a beam, and fell prostrate in a pile of ashes. Before I
+could regain my feet the ruffians were upon me. While two of them held
+my arms, the third clapped his dirty hand over my mouth, and in this
+way they dragged me back into the alley. As soon as they had reached
+the dark archway from which they had originally started, they knocked
+at a door on one side. This was quickly opened, and I was thrust into
+a large room, dimly lighted with rude lamps of grease hung upon the
+walls. When they first got hold of me, I confess the sensation was not
+pleasant. What would the Emperor Alexander say when he heard that a
+citizen of California had been murdered in this cold-blooded manner?
+My next thought was, in what terms would this sad affair be noticed in
+the columns of the Sacramento _Union_? Would it not be regarded by the
+editor as an unprovoked disaster inflicted upon society? My fears,
+however, were somewhat dispelled upon looking around the saloon into
+which I had been so strangely introduced. Several tables were ranged
+along the walls, at each of which sat a group of the most
+horrible-looking savages that probably ever were seen out of jail--the
+very dregs and offscourings of Moscow. Their faces were mostly covered
+with coarse, greasy beards, reaching half way down their bodies; some
+wore dirty blue or gray blouses, tied around the waist with ropes, or
+fastened with leather belts; others, long blue coats, reaching nearly
+to their feet; and all, or nearly all, had caps on their heads, and
+great heavy boots reaching up to their knees, in which their
+pantaloons were thrust, giving them a rakish and ruffianly appearance.
+A few sat in their shirt-sleeves; and, judging by the color of their
+shirts, as well as their skins, did not reckon soap among the luxuries
+of life. Several of these savage-looking Mujiks were smoking some
+abominable weed, intended, perhaps, for tobacco, but very much unlike
+that delightful narcotic in the foul and tainted odor which it
+diffused over the room. They were all filthy and brutish in the
+extreme, and talked in some wretched jargon, which, even to my
+inexperienced ear, had but little of the gentle flow of the Russian in
+it. The tables were dotted with dice, cards, fragments of black bread,
+plates of grease, and cabbage soup, and glasses of vodka and tea; and
+the business of gambling, eating, and drinking was carried on with
+such earnestness that my entrance attracted no farther attention than
+a rude stare from the nearest group. No wonder they were a little
+puzzled, for I was covered with ashes, and must have presented rather
+a singular appearance. The three ruffians who had brought me in closed
+the door, and motioned me to a seat at a vacant table. They then
+called for tea, vodka, and quass, together with a great dish of raw
+cucumbers, which they set to work devouring with amazing voracity.
+During a pause in the feast they held a low conversation with the man
+who served them, who went out and presently returned with a small
+tea-pot full of tea and a glass, which he set before me. They motioned
+to me, in rather a friendly way, to drink. I was parched with thirst,
+and was not sorry to get a draught of any thing--even the villainous
+compound the traktir had set before me; so I drank off a tumblerfull
+at once. Soon I began to experience a whirling sensation in the head.
+A cold tremor ran through my limbs. Dim and confused visions of the
+company rose before me, and a strange and spectral light seemed shed
+over the room. The murmur of voices sounded like rushing waters in my
+ears. I gradually lost all power of volition, while my consciousness
+remained unimpaired, or, if any thing, became more acute than ever.
+The guests, if such they were, broke up their carousal about this
+time, and began to drop off one by one, each bowing profoundly to the
+landlord, and crossing himself devoutly, and bowing three times again
+before the shrine of the patron saint as he passed out. It was really
+marvelous to see some of these ruffians, so besotted with strong drink
+that they were scarcely able to see the way to the door, stagger up
+before the burnished shrine, and, steadying themselves the best they
+could, gravely and solemnly go through their devotions.
+
+But I see you are beginning to yawn, and, notwithstanding the most
+exciting part of the adventure is about to commence, it would be
+extremely injudicious in me to force it upon you under circumstances
+so disadvantageous to both parties. You will therefore oblige me by
+finishing your nap, and, with your permission, we will proceed with
+our narrative as soon as it may be mutually agreeable. In the mean
+time, I beg you will regard what I have already told you as strictly
+confidential. My reputation, both for veracity and general good
+character, is involved in this very extraordinary affair, and it would
+be unfair that either the one or the other should be prejudiced by a
+partial exposition of the facts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE DENOUEMENT.
+
+
+I noticed that the traktir, in settling accounts with his customers,
+made use of a peculiar instrument commonly seen in the shops and
+market-places throughout the city. Behind a sort of bar or counter at
+the head of the room he kept what is called a _schot_, upon which he
+made his calculations. This is a frame about a foot square, across
+which run numerous wires. On each wire is a string of colored pieces
+of wood somewhat resembling billiard-counters, only smaller. The
+merchant, trader, traktir, or craftsman engaged in pecuniary
+transactions uses this instrument with wonderful dexterity in making
+his calculations. He believes it to be the only thing in the world
+that will not lie or steal. If you have purchased to the amount of
+thirty kopeks, you would naturally conclude that out of a ruble (one
+hundred kopeks) your change would amount to seventy. Not so the
+sagacious and wary Russian. He takes nothing for granted in the way of
+trade. Your calculations may be erroneous--figures obtained through
+the medium of mental arithmetic may lie, but the schot never. The
+experience of a lifetime goes for nothing. He must have proof
+positive. Taking his schot between his knees, he counts off thirty
+balls out of a hundred. Of course there is no mistake about that.
+Neither you nor he can dispute it. Then he counts the remainder, and
+finds that it amounts to seventy--therefore your change is seventy
+kopeks! Do you dispute it? Then you can count for yourself. You might
+cover pages with written calculations, or demonstrate the problem by
+the four cardinal rules of arithmetic; you might express the numbers
+by sticks, stones, beans, or grains of coffee, but it would be all
+the same to this astute and cautious calculator--facts can only reach
+his understanding through the colored balls of his beloved schot. I
+don't think he would rely with certainty upon the loose verbal
+statement that two and two make four without resorting to the schot
+for a verification. But to proceed:
+
+A few of the guests, too far gone with "little water" to get up and
+perform their devotions, rolled over on the floor and went to sleep.
+The lights grew dim. A gloomy silence began to settle over the room,
+interrupted only by the occasional grunting or snoring of the
+sleepers. The ruffians who sat at the table with me had been nodding
+for some time; but, roused by the cessation of noises, they called to
+the man of the house, and in a low voice gave him some orders. He got
+a light and opened a small door in a recess at one side of the room. I
+was then lifted up by the others and carried into an adjoining
+passage, and thence up a narrow stairway. In a large dingy room
+overhead I could see by the flickering rays of the lamp a bed in one
+corner. It was not very clean--none of the Russian beds are--but they
+laid me in it, nevertheless, for I could offer no remonstrance. What
+they had hitherto done was bad enough, but this capped the climax of
+outrages. Were the cowardly villains afraid to murder me, and was this
+their plan of getting it done, and at the same time getting rid of the
+body? Great heavens! was I to be devoured piecemeal by a rapacious
+horde of the wild beasts that are said to infest the Russian beds! And
+utterly helpless, too, without the power to grapple with as much as a
+single flea--the least formidable, perhaps, of the entire gang! It was
+absolutely fearful to contemplate such an act of premeditated
+barbarity; yet what could I do, unable to speak a word or move a limb.
+
+I am reminded by this that the Russians derive the most striking
+features of their civilization from the French and Germans. Their
+fashions, their tailors, their confectioners, their perfumeries, their
+barbers, are nearly all French or Germans; but their baths are a
+national institution, derived originally, perhaps, from the Orientals.
+We hear a good deal of Russian baths, especially from enthusiastic
+travelers, and are apt to suppose that where such a thorough system of
+scrubbing and boiling prevails, the human cuticle must present a very
+extraordinary aspect of cleanliness. Perhaps this is so in certain
+cases, but it is not a national characteristic. A Russian bath, in the
+genuine style, is rather a costly luxury. There are, to be sure, in
+St. Petersburg and Moscow, public bath-houses for the rabble, where
+the filthiest beggar can be boiled out and scrubbed for a few kopeks;
+but people who wear a coating of dirt habitually must become attached
+to it in the course of time, and hate very much to dispose of it at
+any price. At least there seemed to be a prejudice of this kind in
+Moscow, where the affection with which this sort of overlining is
+preserved is quite equal to that with which the Germans adhere to
+their old household furniture. It may be, perhaps, that the few summer
+months which they enjoy are insufficient for the removal of all the
+strange things that accumulate upon the body during the long winters.
+The poorer classes seldom remove their furs or change their clothing
+till warm weather and the natural wear and tear of all perishable
+things cause them to drop off of their own accord. I have seen on a
+scorching hot day men wrapped in long woolen coats, doubled over the
+breast and securely fastened around the waist, and great boots,
+capacious enough and thick enough for fire-buckets, in which they were
+half buried, strolling lazily along in the sun, as if they absolutely
+enjoyed its warmth; and yet these very articles of clothing, with but
+little addition, must have borne the piercing winds of midwinter. A
+suspicion crossed my mind that they were trying in this way to bag a
+little heat for winter use, as the old burghers of Schilda bagged the
+light to put in their town hall because they had no windows. These
+strange habits must have something to do with the number of ferocious
+little animals--I will not degrade their breed and variety by calling
+them, vermin--which infest the rooms and beds. But the Russian skin is
+like Russian leather--the best and toughest in the world. Something in
+the climate is good for the production of thick and lasting cuticles.
+It is doubtless a wise provision of nature, based upon the extremes of
+heat and cold to which these people are exposed. There is no good
+reason why animals with four feet should be more favored in this
+respect than bipeds. I doubt if an ordinary Russian would suffer the
+slightest inconvenience if a needle were run into the small of his
+back. All those physical torments which disturb thin-skinned people
+from other countries are no torments at all to him; and I incline to
+the opinion that it is the constant experience he enjoys in a small
+way that enables him to endure the wounds received in battle with such
+wonderful stoicism. A man can carry a bull if he only commences when
+the animal is young. Why not, on the same principle, accustom himself
+to being stabbed every night till he can quietly endure to be run
+through with a bayonet? The Russian soldiers possess wonderful powers
+of passive endurance. Being stabbed or cut to pieces is second nature
+to them--they have been accustomed to it, in a degree, from early
+infancy. Who does not remember how they were hewed and hacked down in
+the Crimean War, and yet came to life again by thousands after they
+were given up for dead? Perhaps no other soldiers in the world possess
+such stoicism under the inflictions of pain. They stand an enormous
+amount of killing; more so, I think, than any other people, unless it
+may be the Irish, who, at the battle of Vinegar Hill, in the rebellion
+of '98, were nearly all cut to pieces and left for dead on the field,
+but got up in a day or two after and went at it again as lively as
+ever. This, however, was not owing to the same early experience, but
+to the healthy blood made of potatoes, with a slight sprinkling of
+Irish whisky. In fine, I don't think a genuine Muscovite could sleep
+without a bountiful supply of vermin to titillate his skin any more
+than a miller bereft of the customary noise of his hoppers.
+
+Which brings me back again to the adventure. On that filthy bed the
+ruffians laid me down to be devoured by the wild beasts by which it
+was infested. Then they turned about to a shrine that stood in a
+corner of the room, and each one bowed down before it three times and
+crossed himself, after which they all left the room and quietly closed
+the door behind them. I was penetrated with horror at the thought of
+the terrible death before me, but not so much as to avoid noticing
+that the chief furniture of the room consisted of a stove in one
+corner, of cylindrical form, made of terra-cotta or burnt clay, and
+glazed outside. It was colored in rather a fanciful way, like
+queensware, and made a conspicuous appearance, reaching from the floor
+to the ceiling. This was the genuine Russian stove, with which these
+people no doubt kept themselves warm during the winter. The windows
+are composed of double glasses, and between the sashes the space is
+filled with sand to keep out the air, so that to be hermetically
+sealed up is one of necessities of existence in this rigorous climate.
+While I was pondering over the marvelous fact that people can live by
+breathing so many thousand gallons of air over and over so many
+thousand times, a whole legion of fleas, chinches, and other animals
+of a still more forbidding aspect commenced their horrid work, and
+would probably soon have made an end of me but for a new turn in this
+most extraordinary affair. The door gently opened. A figure glided in
+on tiptoe. It was that of a female, I knew by the grace and elegance
+of her motions, even before I could see her face or trace the
+undulating outline of her form in the dim light that pervaded the
+room. My senses were acutely alive to every movement, yet I was
+utterly unable to move, owing to the infernal drug with which they had
+dosed me. The woman, or rather girl--for she could not have been over
+eighteen or nineteen--cautiously approached the bed, with her finger
+to her lips, as if warning me not to speak. She was very beautiful--I
+was not insensible to that fact. Her features were wonderfully
+aristocratic for one in her position, and there was something in the
+expression of her dark, gleaming eyes peculiarly earnest and pathetic.
+Her hair was tossed wildly and carelessly back over her shoulders--she
+had evidently just risen from bed, for her costume consisted of
+nothing more than a loose night-wrapper, which fell in graceful folds
+around her limbs, revealing to great advantage the exquisite symmetry
+of her form. I was certain she did not belong to the house.
+Approaching timidly, yet with a certain air of determination, she bent
+down and gazed a moment in my face, and then hurriedly whispered in
+French, "Now is the time--let us escape! They lie sleeping by the
+door. A servant whom I bribed has disclosed the fact of your capture
+to me; I also am a prisoner in this horrid den. Will you save me? Oh,
+will you fly with me?" Of course, being unable to move a muscle,
+except those of my eyes, I could not open my mouth to utter a word in
+reply. The unhappy young woman looked profoundly distressed that I
+should thus gaze at her in silence. "Oh, what am I to do? Who will
+save me?" she cried, wringing her hands in the deepest anguish: "I
+have not a friend upon earth!" Then, clasping me by the hand, she
+looked in my face appealingly, and said, "Monsieur, I know you are a
+Frenchman. I see it in the chivalrous lines of your countenance. Ah!
+have pity on a friendless young girl, and do not gaze at her with such
+chilling indifference. I also am French. These wretches have waylaid
+and imprisoned me, and they hope to obtain a ransom by my detention.
+My friends are ignorant of my miserable fate. What can I do, monsieur,
+unless you assist me?"
+
+Utterly helpless--drugged--yet perfectly conscious of all the lovely
+creature was saying, I was truly in a most deplorable situation. Again
+and again she begged me, if there was a spark of French chivalry left
+in my nature, not to respond to her appeals by such a look of
+unutterable disdain. She was thrillingly beautiful; and beauty in
+tears is enough to melt the hardest heart that ever was put in the
+breast of man. I could feel her balmy breath upon my face, and the
+warmth of her delicate hand in mine, as she struggled to arouse me;
+and I declare it is my honest conviction that, had I been simply a
+corpse, life would have come back to my assistance; but this
+diabolical drug possessed some extraordinary power against which not
+even the fascinations of beauty could successfully contend. Under
+other circumstances, indeed, there is no telling--but why talk of
+other circumstances? There I lay like a log, completely paralyzed from
+head to foot. At length, unable to elicit an answer, a flush of
+mingled indignation and scorn illuminated her beautiful features, and,
+drawing herself back with a haughty air, she said, "If this be the
+boasted chivalry of my countrymen, then the sooner it meets with a
+merited reward the better. Allow me to say, monsieur, that while I
+admire your prudence, I scorn the spirit that prompts it!" and, with a
+glance of fierce disdain, she swept with queenly strides out of the
+room. A moment after I heard some voices in the passage, and scarcely
+five minutes had elapsed before the door was opened again. To my
+horror I saw the ruffian who had first followed me enter stealthily
+with a darkened lantern, and approach toward my bed. He carried in his
+right hand a heavy bar of iron. Stopping a moment opposite a shrine on
+one side of the room, he laid down his lamp and bar, and, bowing down
+three times, crossed himself devoutly, and then proceeded to
+accomplish his fiendish work. No conception can be formed of the agony
+with which I now regarded my fate. Crouching low as he approached, the
+wretch soon reached my bedside, peered a moment into my face with his
+hideous white eyes, laid down the lamp, then grasped the bar of iron
+firmly in both hands, and raised himself up to his full height. I made
+a desperate effort to cry out for help. My voice was utterly gone. I
+could not even move my lips. But why prolong the dreadful scene? One
+more glance with the fierce white eyes, a deep grating malediction,
+and the ruffian braced himself for his deadly job. He tightened his
+grip upon the bar, swung it high over his head, and with one fell
+blow--DASHED MY BRAINS OUT!!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Don't believe it, eh?
+
+Well, sir, you would insist upon my telling you the adventure, and now
+I stand by it! If it be your deliberate opinion that my statement is
+not to be relied upon, nothing remains between us but to arrange the
+preliminaries. I have no disposition to deprive my publishers of a
+valuable contributor, or society of an ornament; but, sir, the great
+principles of truth must be maintained. As it will not be convenient
+for me to attend to this matter in person, you will be pleased to
+select any friend of mine in California who may desire to stand up for
+my honor; place him before you at the usual distance of ten paces;
+then name any friend of yours at present in Europe as a similar
+substitute for yourself--the principals only to use pistols--notify me
+by the Icelandic telegraph when you are ready, and then, upon return
+of signal, pop away at my friend. But, since it is not my wish to
+proceed to such an extremity unnecessarily, if you will admit that I
+may possibly have been deceived--that there may have been some
+hallucination about the adventure--that strong tea and nervous
+excitement may have had something to do with it, then, sir, I am
+willing to leave the matter open to future negotiation.
+
+It is true I found myself in my room at the _Hotel de Venise_ when I
+recovered from the stunning effects of the blow; also, that the door
+was locked on the inside; but I am by no means prepared to give up the
+point on such flimsy evidence as that. Should the physiological fact
+be developed in the course of these sketches that there is still any
+portion of the brain left, and that it performs its legitimate
+functions, of course I shall be forced to admit that the case is at
+least doubtful; yet even then it can not be regarded in the light of a
+pure fabrication. Has not Dickens given us, in his "Dreams of Venice,"
+the most vivid and truthful description of the City of the Sea ever
+written; and what have I done, at the worst, but try in my humble way
+to give you a general idea of Moscow in the pleasing form of a
+midnight adventure, ending in an assassination? You have seen the
+Kremlin and the Church of St. Basil, and the by-streets and alleys,
+and the interior of a low traktir, and the cats, and the Russian beds,
+and many other interesting features of this wonderful city, in a
+striking and peculiar point of view, and I hold that you have no right
+to complain because, like Louis Philippe, I sacrificed my crown for
+the benefit of my subject. Besides, has not my friend Bayard Taylor
+given to the world his wonderful experiences of the Hasheesh of
+Damascus; his varied and extraordinary hallucinations of intellect
+during the progress of its operations? And why should not I my humble
+experiences of the tchai of Moscow?
+
+_Reader._ Slightly sprinkled with _vodka_, or "the little water."
+
+Oh, that was just thrown in to give additional effect to the tea!
+
+_Reader._ It won't do, sir--it won't do! The deception was too
+transparent throughout.
+
+Well, then, since you saw through it from the beginning, there is no
+harm done, and you can readily afford to make an apology for impugning
+my voracity.
+
+_Lady Reader._ But who was the heroine? What became of her?
+
+Ah! my dear madam, there you have me! I suspect she was a French
+countess, or more likely an actress engaged in the line of tragedy.
+Her style, at all events, was tragical.
+
+_Lady Reader_ (elevating her lovely eyebrows superciliously). She was
+rather demonstrative, it must be admitted. You brought her in
+apparently to fulfill your promise, but sent her off the stage very
+suddenly. You should, at least, have restored her to her friends, and
+not left her in that den of robbers.
+
+That, dear madam, was my natural inclination; but the fact is, d'ye
+see, I was drugged--
+
+_Lady Reader_ (sarcastically). It won't do, Mr. Butterfield--your
+heroine was a failure! In future you had better confine yourself to
+facts--or fresh water.
+
+Madam, I'd confine myself to the Rock of Gibraltar or an iceberg to
+oblige you; therefore, with your permission, I shall proceed to give
+you, in my next, a reliable description of the Kremlin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE KREMLIN.
+
+
+Not the least of the evils resulting from this harum-scarum way of
+traveling and writing is the fact that one's impressions become sadly
+tumbled together and very soon lose their most salient failures. To be
+whirled about the world by land and sea, as I have been for the last
+year, is enough to turn one's brain into a curiosity shop. When I
+undertake to pick out of the pile of rubbish some picture that must
+have been originally worth a great deal of money, I find it so
+disfigured by the sheer force of friction that it looks no better than
+an old daub. The pity of it is, too, that the very best of my
+gatherings are apt to get lost or ruined; and sometimes it happens
+that when I varnish up what appears to be valuable it turns out not a
+groat. Want of method would ruin a Zingalee gipsy or a Bedouin Arab.
+No doubt you have already discovered to your sorrow that when we start
+on a visit to the Kremlin, it is no sure indication that we will not
+spend the day in the Riadi or the old-clothes market. If either you or
+I ever reach our destination, it will be by the sheerest accident. And
+yet one might as well undertake to see Rome without the Capitoline
+Hill, or Athena without the Acropolis, as Moscow without the Kremlin.
+We have had several glimpses of it, to be sure, in the course of our
+rambles, but you must admit that they were very vague and
+indefinite--especially the last, when, if you remember, we were
+laboring under some strange mental hallucination.
+
+The Kremlin has been fully described by many learned and accomplished
+travelers. Coxe, Atkinson, Kohl, and various others, have given
+elaborate accounts of it; yet why despair of presenting, in a homely
+way, some general idea of it, such as one might gather in the course
+of an afternoon's ramble? After reading all we find about it in books
+of travel, our conceptions are still vague and unsatisfactory.
+Probably the reason is, that minute details of history and
+architecture afford one but a very faint and inadequate idea of the
+appearance of any place. Like the pictures of old Dennen, they may
+give you every wrinkle with the accuracy of a daguerreotype, but they
+fail in the general effect, or resemble the corpse of the subject
+rather than the living reality. I must confess that all I had read on
+Russia previous to my visit afforded me a much less vivid idea of the
+actual appearance of the country, the people, or the principal cities,
+than the rough crayon sketches of Timm and Mitreuter, which I had seen
+in the shop windows of Paris. This may not be the fault of the
+writers, who, of course, are not bound to furnish their own eyes or
+their own understanding to other people, but it seems to me that
+elaborate detail is inimical to strong general impressions. I would
+not give two hours' personal observation of any place or city in the
+world for a hundred volumes of the best books of travel ever written
+upon it; and next to that comes the conversation of a friend who
+possesses, even in an ordinary degree, the faculty of conveying to
+another his own impressions. A word, a hint, a gesture, or some
+grotesque comparison, may give you a more vivid picture of the reality
+than you can obtain by a year's study. Now, if you will just consider
+me that friend, and resign yourself in a genial and confiding spirit
+to the trouble of listening; if you will fancy that I mean a great
+deal more than I say, and could be very learned and eloquent if I
+chose; if you will take it for granted that what you don't see is
+there nevertheless, the Kremlin will sooner or later loom out of the
+fogs of romance and mystery that surround it, and stand before you,
+with its embattled walls and towers, as it stood before me in the
+blaze of the noonday sun, when Dominico, the melancholy guide, led the
+way to the Holy Gate. You will then discover that the reality is quite
+wonderful enough in its natural aspect, without the colored spectacles
+of fancy or the rigid asperities of photographic detail to give it
+effect.
+
+Like many of the old cities of Europe, Moscow probably had its origin
+in the nucleus of a citadel built upon the highest point, and
+commanding an extensive sweep of the neighborhood. Around this houses
+gathered by degrees for protection against the invasions of the
+hostile tribes that roamed through Russia at an early period of its
+history. The first object of the Kremlin was doubtless to form a
+military strong-hold. It was originally constructed of wood, with
+ramparts thrown up around it for purposes of defense, but, in common
+with the rest of Moscow, was destroyed by the Tartars in the
+fourteenth century. Under the reign of Dimitri it was rebuilt of
+stone, and strongly fortified with walls and ditches, since which
+period it has sustained, without any great injury, the assaults of
+war, the ravages of fire, and the wear and tear of time. Kief and
+Vladimir, prior to that reign, had each served in turn as the capital
+of the empire. After the removal of the capital to Moscow, that city
+was besieged and ravaged by Tamerlane, and suffered from time to time
+during every succeeding century all the horrors of war, fire,
+pestilence, and famine, till 1812, when it was laid in ashes by the
+Russians themselves, who by this great national sacrifice secured the
+destruction of the French army under Napoleon.
+
+During the almost perpetual wars by which Moscow was assailed for a
+period of four centuries, the Kremlin seems to have borne almost a
+charmed existence. With the exception of the Grand Palace, the Bolshoi
+Drovetz, built by the Emperor Alexander I., and the Maloi Drovetz, or
+Little Palace, built by the Emperor Nicholas, and the Arsenal, it has
+undergone but little change since the time of the early Czars. In
+1812, when the French, after despoiling it of whatever they could lay
+their hands upon, attempted, in the rage of disappointment, to blow up
+the walls, the powder, as the Russians confidently assert, was
+possessed by the devil of water, and refused to explode; and when they
+planted a heavily-loaded cannon before the Holy Gate, and built a fire
+on top of the touch-hole to make it go off, it went off at the breech,
+and blew a number of Frenchmen into the infernal regions, after which
+the remainder of them thought it best to let it alone.
+
+The Kremlin, as it now stands, is a large collection of palaces,
+public buildings, and churches, situated on the crown of a high bank
+or eminence on the left side of the Moskwa River, nearly in the centre
+of the city. It is surrounded by a high embattled wall, forming
+something of a triangle, about a mile in circumference, through which
+are several massive gateways. This wall is very strongly constructed
+of stone, and is about twenty-five or thirty feet in height. It forms
+many irregular sub-angles, and is diversified in effect by numerous
+towers, with green pyramidal roofs; abutments and buttresses; and a
+series of guard-houses at intervals along the top. The general color
+is white, making rather a striking contrast with the green-roofed
+towers, and the gilded domes and many-colored cupolas of the interior
+churches. Outside of this wall, on the upper side of the main angle,
+are some very pleasant gardens, handsomely laid out, with fine shady
+walks, in which many of the citizens spend their summer evenings,
+strolling about, enjoying the fresh air. Other parts of the exterior
+spaces are devoted to drosky stands, markets, and large vacant spaces
+for public gatherings on festa days and great occasions of military
+display. From every point streets diverge irregularly, winding outward
+till they intersect the inner and outer boulevards. These boulevards
+are large circular thoroughfares, crossing the Moskwa River above and
+below. They are well planted with trees, and have spacious sidewalks
+on each side; but, unlike the boulevards of Paris, are only dotted at
+irregular intervals with houses. To the eastward lies the Katai Gorod,
+or Chinese City, and to the westward the Beloi Gorod, or White City.
+
+Isolated in a great measure from the various quarters of the city,
+Russian and Tartaric, by the gardens, the large open spaces, the
+markets, and the river, the Kremlin looms up high over all in solitary
+grandeur--a mass of churches, palaces, and fortifications, surmounted
+by the tower of Ivan Veliki, which stands out in bold octagonal relief
+against the one with its numerous bells swung in the openings of the
+different stages, thundering forth the hours of the day, or tolling a
+grand chorus to the chanting of innumerable priests in the churches
+below. Approaching the Spass Vorota, or Gate of the Redeemer, through
+which none can enter save with uncovered heads--such is the veneration
+in which this Holy Gate is held by all classes--we witness a strange
+and impressive spectacle. Over this wonderful gate, incased in a frame
+covered with glass, stands the holiest of all the pictured relics of
+this sacred place, a painted figure of the Savior, emblazoned with
+gilding, and with a lamp swung in front, which burns night and day, as
+it has burnt since the days of Ivan the Terrible. Before this sacred
+image all true believers bow down and worship. While the great bells
+of the tower are booming out their grand and solemn strains, it is a
+profoundly impressive spectacle to witness the crowds that gather
+before this holy shrine, and bend themselves to the earth--the rich
+and the poor, the decorated noble and the ragged beggar--all alike
+glowing with an all-pervading zeal; no pretense about it, but an
+intense, eager, almost frantic devotion. Many a poor cripple casts his
+crutches aside, and prostrates himself on the paved stoneway, in the
+abandonment of his pious enthusiasm. Men and women, old and young,
+kneel on the open highway, and implore the intercession of the
+Redeemer. From the highest officer of state to the lowest criminal, it
+is all the same. The whole crowd are bowing down in abject
+humiliation, all muttering in earnest tones some prayer or appeal for
+their future salvation. And now, as we enter the gate, the stranger,
+whatever may be his persuasion or condition, whether a true believer
+or a heretic of high or low degree, must join in the general torrent
+of veneration so far as to uncover his head as he walks beneath that
+sacred portal; for, as I said before, none can pass through the Spass
+Vorota without this token of respect for its sacred character. The
+greatest of the Czars have done it through a series of centuries. The
+conqueror of Kazan, Astrakan, and Siberia has here bared his imperial
+head; Romanoff, Peter the Great, even the voluptuous Catharine, have
+here done reverence to this holy portal; and all the later sovereigns
+of Russia, Alexander I., Nicholas, and Alexander II., ere they
+received their kingly crowns, have passed bareheaded through the Spass
+Vorota. Need we hesitate, then, profane scoffers as we may be, when
+such precedents lie before us? Apart from the fact that I always found
+it convenient to do in Rome as the Romans do, and in Moscow to conform
+as far as practicable to the customs of the Moscovites, I really have
+no prejudice on any subject connected with the religious observances
+of other people. In pleasant weather I would walk a mile bareheaded to
+oblige any man who conscientiously thought it would do him the least
+good; more especially in a case like this, where, if one fails to doff
+his shlapa, a soldier stands ready to remind his "brother" or "little
+friend," or possibly "little father," that he (the brother, little
+friend, or little father) has forgotten his "beaver."
+
+We have now, thanks to Dominico, who has touched us up on all these
+points, gotten safely and becomingly through the Holy Gate without
+committing the sin of irreverence toward any of the saints, living or
+dead. We have passed through a high archway, about twenty paces in
+length, roughly paved with stones, and now put on our hat again as we
+ascend the sloping way that leads to the grand esplanade in front of
+the palaces and churches. This is a broad paved space, walled on the
+outer edge, forming a grand promenade overlooking the Moskwa River,
+and from which a magnificent view is had of the lower city, that
+sweeps over the valley of the south. Standing here, we have a grand
+_coup d'oeil_ of the river above and below, its bridges covered with
+moving crowds, its barges and wood-boats, and many-colored
+bath-houses, glittering in the sun; farther off, a dazzling wilderness
+of the innumerable churches of the lower city, with their green,
+yellow, red, and gilded cupolas and domes; still beyond, the trees and
+shrubberies of the outer boulevards; to the left, the great Foundling
+Asylum, fronting on the river, with its vast gardens in the rear; to
+the right, the Military Hospital, the Barracks, and, far in the
+distance, over the gleaming waters of the river, the Sparrow Hills,
+from which Napoleon caught the first glimpse of Moscow; and then the
+grand Convent of the Douskoi, within the outer wall, near the Kalonga
+Road; from which, sweeping over toward the right, once more we catch a
+glimpse of the wooded shade of the Race-course, the Hospital of St.
+Paul, and the Convent of St. Daniel; and to the left, beyond the outer
+wall, of various grand convents and fortifications, till the eye is no
+longer able to encompass all the wondrous and varied features of the
+scene. Turning now toward the north, after we have feasted upon this
+brilliant and glittering series of views, each one of which we might
+linger over for hours with increased delight, we stand facing the
+principal palaces and churches of the Kremlin--the Terema, containing
+the audience chambers, and the Granovitaya Palata, the coronation
+halls of the Czars; the new palaces; the Cathedral of the Assumption;
+the tower of Ivan Veliki; the Treasury and Arsenal; with innumerable
+glimpses of other and scarcely less prominent buildings, which unite
+in forming this wonderful maze of sacred and royal edifices. It would
+be very difficult, if at all practicable, to convey by mere verbal
+description a correct and comprehensive idea of the strange mingling
+of architectural styles here prevailing. The churches present, no
+doubt, the most picturesque effects, but this is not owing to any
+grandeur in their proportions. None of them are either very large or
+very high; but they are singularly varied in form, as if thrown
+together in bunches, without regard to order; some with Gothic gables,
+some round, some acutely angular, and all very rudely and roughly
+constructed, even the perpendicular lines being irregular. The walls
+are whitewashed, and in many places stained with age. The roofs are
+for the most part of earthen tiles, imburnt with strong prismatic
+colors, and shining like the inner surfaces of abalone shells. The
+domes are white, green, red, and yellow, and each church has a number
+of gilded or striped cupolas, rising irregularly from the roofs,
+shaped like bunches of globular cactus, such as one sees on the
+hill-sides of San Diego. If the comparison were not a little
+disparaging to their picturesque beauty, I should say that some of the
+cupolas--especially those of a golden cast--reminded me of mammoth
+pumpkins perched on the top of a Mexican Mission-house, for even the
+buildings themselves have something of a rude Mexican aspect about
+them. The new palace of the Bolshoi Dvoretz, built by the Emperor
+Alexander over a portion of the site of the old Tartar palace, is a
+large, square, uninteresting building, with nothing beyond its vast
+extent and grand façade to recommend it. The Terema and the
+Granovitaya Palata--both remains of the old Tartar palace--are highly
+ornamented with trellised work, and are interesting as well from
+their style of architecture as their contents. It was from the
+terraced roof of the Terema that Napoleon took his first grand view of
+the city of Moscow, after entering the gates of the Kremlin. The one
+contains a fine collection of curiosities, including various portraits
+of the Czars; the other the royal chamber, magnificently decorated
+with embroidered velvet hangings, candelabras, frescoes, gildings, and
+carved eagles bearing thunderbolts, and the great chair of state, in
+which the emperors sit enthroned to receive the homage of their
+vassals after the imposing ceremony of the coronation. But it would be
+an endless task to undertake an account of even a day's ramble through
+the interior of these vast palaces and public buildings. I paid five
+rubles for tickets and fees to porters, and, with the aid of
+Dominico's enlightened conversation, came out after my grand tour of
+exploration perfectly bewildered with jeweled crowns, imperial
+thrones, gilded bedsteads, slippery floors, liveried servants, stuffed
+horses, old guns, swords, and pistols, glassware and brassware,
+emeralds and other precious stones, and altogether disgusted with the
+childish gimcrackery of royalty. Great Alexander, I thought to myself,
+who would be a Czar of Russia, and have to make his living at the
+expense of all this sort of tom-foolery? Who would abide even for a
+day in a bazar of curiosity-shops, bothered out of his wits by
+servants and soldiers, and the flare and glitter of jewelry? It
+certainly all looked very shallow and troublesome to a plain man,
+destitute by nature of kingly aspirations. To confess the truth, I was
+utterly unable to appreciate any thing but the absurdity of these
+things. I can not discover much difference, save in degree, between
+barbaric show on the part of savages and on that of civilized people.
+For what, after all, do these coronation halls and gewgaws amount to?
+Who is truly king upon earth, when there is "an everlasting King at
+whose breath the earth shall tremble?"
+
+Strange, indeed, and not calculated to exalt one's impression of
+royalty, is the fact that, after purchasing a ticket to see all these
+relics of the great Czars of Russia, a horde of officers, servants,
+and lackeys, in imperial livery, must be feed at every turn. It is a
+perfect system of plunder from beginning to end. At the door of the
+new palace I was stopped by some functionary in white stockings,
+polished slippers, plush breeches and plush coat, actually blazing
+with golden embroidery; his head brushed and oiled to the intensest
+limits of foppery, and his hands adorned with white kid gloves, who
+refused to permit me to enter until he had arranged some infernal
+compact of pay with my guide, Dominico. After showing me through the
+grand chambers, pointing out the beds, bed-quilts, writing-desks,
+chairs, and wash-basins of the Czars, he finished up his half hour's
+labor by making a profound bow and holding out his hand, beggar
+fashion, for his fee. I gave him half a ruble (about 87½ cents), at
+which his countenance assumed an expression of extreme pity and
+contempt. Dominico had informed him that I was a stranger from
+California, which had the effect of eliciting from him various
+passages of exceeding politeness up to that moment. But he now came
+out in his true colors, and demanded haughtily, "Was this the pitiful
+sum what the gentleman intended as a recompense for his services?"
+Dominico shrugged his shoulders. The liveried gentleman became excited
+and insolent--assuring me, through the guide, that no stranger of any
+pretensions to gentility ever offered him less than a ruble. I must
+confess I was a little nettled at the fellow's manner, and directed
+Dominico to tell him that, having no pretensions to gentility, I must
+close my acquaintance with him, and therefore bid him good-morning.
+There never was an instance in which I disappointed any beggar with so
+much good will. I have no doubt, if he has read any thing of
+California, he labors under the impression that I am an escaped
+convict from San Quentin.
+
+O most potent Alexander, Czar of all the Russias, is this the only
+way you have of paying your servants? Do you thus make a raree-show of
+the palace of your forefathers, and require every man who enters it
+for the purpose of enlightening his benighted understanding to pay
+your imperial lackeys the sum of three bits? Is it not enough that
+your soldiers and retainers should hawk old clothes through the
+markets of the Riadi for a decent living, without making a small
+speculation out of the beds and wash-stands in which your noble
+fathers slept and (possibly) washed their faces?
+
+One of the most remarkable objects of interest within the walls of the
+Kremlin is the Tzar Kolokol, or King of Bells, cast in 1730 by order
+of the Empress Anne, and said to be not only the largest bell, but the
+largest metal casting in existence. This wonderful bell is formed
+chiefly of contributions of precious metals, bestowed as religious
+offerings by the people from all parts of the Russian empire. Spoons,
+plates, coins, and trinkets were thrown by the devout inhabitants into
+the melting mass, and thus, each having a share in it, the monarch
+bell is regarded with feelings of peculiar affection and veneration
+throughout Russia. Writers differ as to its original use and location,
+some contending that it was first hung in a tower, which was destroyed
+by fire in 1737, and that the large fragment was broken out of it in
+the fall, which is now exhibited by the side of the bell; others that
+it never was hung at all, but that this fragment resulted from a
+failure in the casting. Be that as it may, it was all dug out of the
+ground in 1837, and placed in its present position on a pedestal of
+granite, close by the tower of Ivan Veliki.
+
+Standing in an open space, where the eye necessarily takes in many
+larger objects, including the great tower, but a very inadequate idea
+can be formed of the extraordinary dimensions of this bell. Cast in
+the usual form, its appearance at the distance of fifty or a hundred
+yards is not at all striking; but when you draw near and compare the
+height of the groups of figures usually gathered around it with that
+of the bell, it is easy to form some conception of its gigantic
+proportions. The fragment placed upright against the granite pedestal
+looks at a little distance scarcely three feet high, but as you
+approach you perceive that it is at least six. The bell itself is
+twenty-one feet three inches high, by twenty-two feet five inches in
+diameter, and varies from three feet to three inches in thickness.
+Underneath this immense metallic canopy is a chapel, in which is a
+shrine at which many thousands of the Russians every year offer up
+their devotions. The entrance to this is through an iron gateway, and
+the visitor descends several stone steps before he stands upon the
+paved floor of the chapel. Looking upward and around him, he then for
+the first time realizes the vast magnitude of this wonderful casting.
+It is almost impossible to conceive that such a prodigious body of
+metal was ever at one time a molten mass, seething over vast furnaces.
+Imagine a circular room more than twenty feet in diameter, and of
+proportionate height, and you have some faint idea of the interior of
+the Tzar Kolokol. It is said that it required ten strong men to draw
+the clapper from the centre to the inner rim, by means of ropes, so as
+to produce the ordinary sounds of which the bell was capable. This I
+can very well credit; for the great bell of the Ivan Tower, not a
+third of the size of this, has an iron tongue which requires the
+strength of three men to strike against the rim. The tremendous depth
+and volume of the tones sent forth for many leagues around by the
+monarch bell must have been sublime beyond conception, judging by this
+single fact, that while in Moscow, the largest bell I heard sounded
+was far inferior in size and weight to that of the Ivan Tower, which
+is rung only on state occasions, yet the sounds were so deep and
+powerful that they produced a reverberation in the air resembling the
+distant roar of thunder, mingled with the wailing of the winds in a
+storm. When all the bells of the tower, save the largest, were tolled
+together, the effect was absolutely sublime, surpassing in the
+grandeur and majesty of their harmony any thing I had ever heard
+produced through human agency. Judge, then, what must have been the
+effect when the Tzar Kolokol rolled forth a jubilee or a death-knell
+from his iron tongue!
+
+I do not wonder that the Russians regard this bell with such peculiar
+feelings of reverence. There is something to arouse the most profound
+and reverential emotions of our nature in the simple, grand, and
+mysterious melody of all great bells--something of the infinite that
+exalts our thoughts and aspirations from the earth. In my
+recollections of travel I have few purer or more endearing pleasures
+than the impressions produced by sounds like these. Often the grand
+old strains of the bells of Lima, Mexico, and Spain seem still to
+linger on my ear, and I never dream the wild and varied dream of my
+travels over without feeling that these mysterious voices from many
+lands have not spoken without a meaning, that "Life, with all its
+dreams, shall be but as the passing bell."
+
+From the Tzar Kolokol I took my way, under the guidance of Dominico,
+to the tower of Ivan Veliki, which we ascended by the winding stairway
+of stone. The view from the top of this tower is incomparably the
+finest to be had from any point within the limits of Moscow. Here,
+outspread before us in one vast circle, lay the whole wondrous city of
+the Tzars--a perfect sea of green roofs, dotted over with innumerable
+spires and cupolas. The predominant features are Asiatic, though in
+the quarter to the west, called the Beloi Gorod, or White City, are
+the evidences of a more advanced civilization. Apart from the
+churches, which give the city its chief interest and most picturesque
+effect, the public buildings, such as the theatres, hospitals,
+military barracks, colleges, and riding-school possess no great
+attractions in point of architectural display, and add but little to
+the scenic beauties of the view. In gazing over this bewildering maze
+of habitations and temples of worship, I was again strongly impressed
+with some two or three leading characteristics, which, being directly
+opposed to the idea I had formed of Moscow before seeing it, may be
+worthy of repetition. The general colors of the buildings, roofs, and
+churches are light, gay, and sparkling, so that the whole, taken in
+one sweep of the eye, presents an exceedingly brilliant appearance,
+more like some well-contrived and highly-wrought optical illusions in
+a theatre--such, for example, as the fairy scenery of the
+"Prophete"--than any thing I can now remember. The vast extent of the
+city, compared with its population (the circuit of its outer wall
+being twenty miles, while the population is but little over 300,000),
+is another characteristic feature; but this is in some measure
+accounted for by the great average of small houses, the amount of
+ground occupied by the Kremlin, the inner and outer boulevards, and
+the suburbs within the outer wall, the number of gardens and vacant
+lots, and the large spaces occupied by the ploschads or public
+squares.
+
+Looking beyond the city and its immediate suburbs, a series of
+undulating plains lies outstretched toward the eastward and southward,
+while toward the northward and westward the horizon is bounded by low
+pine-covered hills and occasional forests of birch. No high mountains
+or abrupt outlines are any where visible--all is broad and sweeping,
+conveying some premonition of the vastness of the steppes that divide
+this region from the Ural Mountains. Waving fields of grain, pastures
+of almost boundless extent, and solitary farm-houses lie dim in the
+distance, while in the immediate vicinity of the city cultivation has
+been carried to considerable perfection, and the villas and estates of
+the nobility present something more of the appearance of civilization
+than perhaps any thing of a similar kind to be seen in Russia.
+Contrasted with the country around St. Petersburg, and the desert of
+scrubby pines and marshes lying for a distance of nearly five hundred
+miles along the line of the railway between the two great cities, the
+neighborhood of Moscow is wonderfully rich in rural and pastoral
+beauties. Viewing it in connection with the city from the tower of
+Ivan Veliki, I certainly derived the most exquisite sensations of
+pleasure from the novelty, extent, and variety of the whole scene.
+Yet, calmly and peacefully as it now slumbers in the genial sunshine
+of a summer's afternoon, what visions it conjures up of bloodshed and
+rapine, plague, pestilence, and famine, and of all the calamities
+wrought by human hands, and all the appalling visitations of a divine
+power by which this ill-fated spot has been afflicted. Looking back
+through the wide waste of years, the mighty hosts of Tamerlane uprise
+before us, pouring through the passes of the Ural, and sweeping over
+the plains with their glittering and bloodstained crests like demons
+of destruction carrying death and desolation before them. Then the
+giant Czars, half saints, half devils, loom through the flames of the
+ill-fated city, with their myriads of fierce and defiant warriors
+stemming the torrent of invasion with the bodies of the dying and the
+dead. Then are the streets choked with blackened ruins and putrid
+masses, and the days of sorrow and wailing come, when the living are
+unable to bury the dead. Again, a great famine has come upon the city
+after the days of its early tribulations have passed away, and strong
+men, driven to desperation by the pangs of hunger, slay their wives
+and children, and feed upon the dead bodies, and mothers devour the
+sucking babes in their arms; and horror grows upon horror, till, amid
+the slaughter, ruin, and madness wrought by this unparalleled
+calamity, a hundred thousand corpses lie rotting in the streets in a
+single day, and the city is decimated of its inhabitants! The scene
+changes again. Centuries roll on; a dreary day has come, when the
+foreign invader once more holds possession of the citadel. With the
+prize in his hands, fires burst from every roof in every quarter.
+Three hundred thousand of the inhabitants have fled; a wind arises and
+fans the devouring flame; churches and houses, temples and palaces,
+are wrapped in its relentless embraces; the convicts and the rabble
+run like demons through the streets, drunk with wine and reveling in
+excesses; soldiers, slaves, and prostitutes pillage the burning ruins,
+all wild and mad with the unholy lust of gain. Soon nothing is left
+but blackened and smoking masses, the ruins of palaces, temples, and
+hospitals, and the seared and mutilated corpses of the dead who have
+been crushed by the falling walls or burnt in the flames. Then the
+invading hosts, stricken with dismay, fly from this fated and
+ill-starred city to darken the snows of Lithuania with their bodies;
+and of five hundred thousand men--the flower of French chivalry--but
+forty thousand cross the Beresina to tell the tale! Surely Moscow,
+like Jerusalem, hath "wept sore in the night."
+
+While lounging about through the gilded and glittering mazes of the
+Uspenski Saber, almost wearied by the perpetual glare of burnished
+shrines, my attention was attracted by a curious yet characteristic
+ceremony within these sacred precincts. In a gold-cased frame, placed
+in a horizontal position in one of the alcoves or small chapels, was a
+picture of a saint whose cheeks and robes were resplendent with gaudy
+colors. This must have been St. Nicholas or some other popular
+personage belonging to the holy phalanx. His mouth was very nearly
+obliterated by the labial caresses of the worshipers who came there to
+bestow upon him their devotions. A stone step, raised about a foot
+from the flagged pavement, was nearly worn through by the knees of the
+penitents, who were forever dropping down to snatch a kiss from his
+sacred lips--or at least what was left of them, for his mouth was now
+little more than a dirty blotch, without the semblance of its original
+outline. While pondering over the marvelous ways in which men strive
+to cast off the burden of their sins, I observed a very graceful and
+elegantly-dressed female approach, and with an air of profound
+humility kneel in the accustomed place. As she drew back her veil she
+displayed a remarkably pretty face, and there was something quite
+enchanting in the coquetry with which she ignored the presence of a
+stranger. Of course she could have had no idea that any person of the
+opposite sex would dare to think of female loveliness in such a place,
+and the charming unconsciousness of her manner, as she adjusted the
+folds of her dress, and revealed the exquisitely rounded contour of
+her form, was the very best proof of that fact. A perfect withdrawal
+of self from the world and all its vanities was her ruling expression.
+Thrice did this lovely creature gracefully incline her head and kiss
+the blotched countenance of that inanimate saint. Ah me! what a luxury
+it must be to be a saint! What a lucky fellow is St. Nicholas, to be
+kissed by such honeyed and pouting lips as these! Chaste and pious
+kisses they may be, but, notwithstanding that, it must be very hard to
+keep cool, under the circumstances. Who would not suffer a life of
+martyrdom, and be turned into a picture or an image on such terms?
+Surely this bewitching damsel must have committed some dreadful sin to
+be thus soliciting the saintly intercession of a little picture with a
+dirty mouth! Perhaps she had recently suffered her own delectable lips
+to be pressed by the bearded mouth-piece of some tender and persuasive
+lover, and now sought to make atonement by kissing St. Nicholas! By
+all the powers of beauty, I'll forswear sack, Dominico, and try--ha!
+here comes a devotee of another sort. Let us wait a while. For, as I
+live, it is a great puncheon of a woman, weighing over three hundred
+pounds--puffing and steaming as she waddles toward the shrine--a
+perfect Falstaff in petticoats. Shade of Venus! what a face and
+figure! Carbuncled with wine, and bloated with quass and cabbage soup,
+I'll bet my head, Dominico, she's a countess! How the juices of high
+living roll from her brow as she stoops down, and gives the
+unfortunate St. Nicholas a greasy dish-cloth of her fat lips! Faugh!
+I'll consider about my course of life, Dominico. There are some
+inconveniences in being a saint. Next comes an old and toothless
+crone, all draggled with dirt, limping on crutches--a most pitiful
+object to look upon. She hobbles slowly and painfully up to the place
+just vacated--puts her crutches aside, kneels down, and, bowing low
+her palsied head, presses a dry, shriveled, and leathery kiss upon the
+grease-spot left by the fat woman. Thrice she performed this ceremony,
+mumbling over in her guttural way the prescribed formula; and then
+rising, regained her crutches, and begged for alms. Well, of course I
+gave the alms; but the other part of the performance suggested some
+painful thoughts. It was surely enough to moderate the ardor of one's
+aspirations toward a saintly life. Yet, after all, Dominico, every
+sweet must have its bitter. Let us not despair yet. Next comes a great
+bearded Mujik, all tattered and torn--a regular grizzly bear on his
+hind legs, and drunk at that. This horrid monster has evidently not
+known the use of either soap or water for many a long day. His
+accustomed beverage must be vodka, and grease the only application
+ever used to purify his skin. He, too, kneels down and gives the image
+three cordial smacks--a pretty heavy penalty to endure on the part of
+any saint. Upon my word, Dominico, I don't think it would be possible
+for me to stand that! But hold--here comes a fellow who caps the
+climax. A bilious, yellow-skinned, black-eyed fop, dressed in the
+height of fashion, with frizzled black hair, divided behind, and
+smelling strong of pomatum, a well-oiled mustache, and a simpering,
+supercilious expression--one of those nasty creatures that old Kit
+North says never can be washed clean. He looks conceited and silly
+enough to be an attache to the court of his imperial highness the
+emperor. When this fellow knelt before the picture and slavered it
+with his ugly mouth, a dizzy sensation of disgust came over me. Upon a
+general review of all the circumstances, Dominico, I have concluded
+that it might not be so pleasant, after all, to be a saint--in Russia.
+
+It must not be supposed from this little sketch of a characteristic
+scene that I wish to ridicule any form of religion. I saw precisely
+what I state, and am in no way responsible for it. If people imagine
+this sort of thing does them any good, they are quite welcome to enjoy
+it; but they must not expect every body else to be impressed with the
+profound sensations of solemnity which they feel themselves. The
+Russians may kiss the heads off every saint in Moscow without the
+slightest concern or opposition on my part. The Romans have kissed a
+pound of brass off the big toe of St. Peter, in the grand Cathedral at
+Rome, and I see no reason why other races should not enjoy similar
+privileges, only it does not produce the same effect upon every body.
+
+Yet, in some sense, such scenes are not without an aspect of sadness.
+It is melancholy to look upon such a mingling of glitter and
+barbarism, wealth and poverty, sincerity, debasement, and crime. No
+human being is truly ridiculous, however grotesque may be the
+expression of his feelings, when they are the genuine outpouring of a
+contrite heart. These nobles, common citizens, and beggars, thus
+meeting upon common ground, in a country where the distinctions of
+rank are so rigidly observed, and for the time being disregarding all
+differences of condition; forgetting their ambitions, their
+jealousies, and animosities, and giving themselves up with such
+unselfish zeal to all the demands made upon them by their forms of
+religion, is, in itself, a touching and impressive sight. I confess
+that when the first shock of grotesqueness, so strikingly connected
+with all I saw, passed away, the feeling left was one of unutterable
+sadness. These people were all fellow-beings, and, right or wrong,
+they were profoundly in earnest; yet, while thinking thus, I could not
+but fancy the same divine strain of warning that was wafted to the
+house of Israel still lingered in the air: "Every man is brutish in
+his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image; for
+his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them; they
+are vanity and the work of errors; in the time of their visitation
+they shall perish."
+
+In reference to the interiors of the churches of the Kremlin, I can
+only find space to say, after having visited them all, that they
+present a confusion of gilded and glittering aisles, pillars, alcoves,
+chapels, and painted domes, which baffles any thing like accurate
+description. The Cathedral of the Assumption is literally lined with
+gilding, daubs of paintings representing scriptural scenes, figures
+and pictures of saints, dragons and devils of every conceivable color
+and oddity of design and costume, and burnished shrines and
+candelabras. Through the dazzling mazes of this sacred edifice crowds
+of devotees, priests, and penitents are continually wandering; here,
+casting themselves upon their knees, and bowing down before some
+gold-covered shrine; there standing in mute and rapt adoration before
+some pictured symbol of eternity--grandees, beggars, and all; the
+priests bearing tapers and chanting; the air filled with incense; the
+whole scene an indescribable combination of moving appeals to the
+senses. All the churches of the Kremlin partake, more or less, of this
+character. In some of them, the old bones and other relics held
+peculiarly sacred are inclosed within iron gratings or railings, and
+are only accessible to the visitor through the services of a priestly
+guide. Every visitor must, of course, pay for the gratification of his
+curiosity; so that the bones of the most venerated characters in the
+history of the Russian Church are turned into a considerable source of
+profit. It may well be said that every saint pays his own way, so long
+as there is a fragment of him left in this world. If one could be
+assured of the truth of all he learns during a tour of inspection
+through these receptacles of sacred relics, it would indeed confound
+all his previous impressions that the days of miracles had passed.
+There is a picture in the Uspenski Saber, the bare contemplation of
+which, combined with a fervent appeal, it is confidently asserted,
+recently effected a sudden and wonderful cure in the case of a
+crippled man, who was carried there from his bed, but after his
+devotions before this picture walked out of the door as well as ever;
+and every where about these sacred precincts pictures and carved
+images are abundant which at stated intervals shed tears and manifest
+other tokens of vitality.
+
+Outside, on the steps of those churches, the stranger encounters
+innumerable gangs of beggars, who watch his incoming and his outgoing
+with the most intense eagerness--rushing toward him with outstretched
+hands, calling upon all the saints to bless him and his issue forever
+and ever, and sometimes bowing down to the earth before him, in their
+accustomed way, as if he himself partook of some sacred attributes.
+Apart from the wretched aspect of these poor creatures, among which
+were the lame, the halt, and the blind from all the purlieus of
+Moscow, there was something very revolting in the debasement of their
+attitudes. To assist them all was impossible; and I often had to
+struggle through the crowds with feelings akin to remorse in being
+compelled to leave them thus vainly appealing to my charity. When
+alone, hours after, the weary and pathetic strain of their
+supplications would haunt me, bearing in its sorrowful intonations a
+weird warning that we are all bound together in the great fellowship
+of sin.
+
+And now, while we are taking our last lingering look at the Kremlin,
+the mighty bells of the tower toll forth a funeral knell. A priest
+lies dead in one of the churches, his coffin draped in the habiliments
+of woe. The chanting rises ever and anon above the death-knell that
+sweeps through the air. Standing aloof, we listen to the solemn sounds
+of mourning. The funeral cortége comes forth from the church. The
+hearse, with its plumed horses all draped in black, receives the
+coffin; priests and mourners, bearing lighted tapers, lead the way,
+chanting a requiem for the departed; and thus they pass before us--the
+living and the dead--till they reach the Holy Gate. Then the priests
+and the crowd bow down and pray; and when they have passed out from
+under the sacred arch, they turn before the image of the Savior and
+pray again; then rising, they cross themselves devoutly and pass on to
+the last earthly resting-place of their friend and brother.
+
+Surely death draws us nearer together in life. I thought no more of
+forms. What matters it if we are all true to our Creator and to our
+convictions of duty! Life is too short to spend in earthly
+contentions.
+
+"In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is
+cut down and withereth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+RUSSIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
+
+
+Rude and savage as the lower orders are in their external appearance,
+they certainly can not be considered deficient in politeness, if the
+habit of bowing be taken as an indication. In that branch of
+civilization they are well entitled to take rank with the Germans and
+French, from whom, doubtless, they have acquired many of their forms of
+etiquette. Something, however, of Asiatic gravity and courtliness
+mingles with whatever they may have adopted from the more sprightly and
+demonstrative races of the South; and a certain degree of dignity,
+accompanied though it may be with rags and filth, is always observable
+in their manners. The alacrity, good nature, and enthusiasm so
+characteristic of the Germans, and the dexterous play of muscles and
+vivacious suavity of the French, are wholly deficient in the
+Russians--such of them, at least, as have retained their nationality.
+The higher classes, of course, who frequently spend their summers at
+the watering-places of Germany and their winters in Paris, come home,
+like all traveled gentlemen, with a variety of elegant accomplishments,
+the chief of which is a disgust for their own language and customs.
+This, indeed, seems to be a characteristic of several other
+nations--an inordinate desire to become denationalized by imitating
+whatever is meretricious and absurd in other people; and you need not
+be surprised should you fail to recognize even your unpretending friend
+and correspondent on his return to California; for although I still
+pretend to write a little English, I no longer speak it except in
+broken accents. Having also worn out three good hats practicing the art
+of bowing on the boulevards of Paris and the glacis of Frankfort, I
+never pretend now to recognize any body without striking the top of my
+tile against the cap of my knee.
+
+  [Illustration: A PASSAGE OF POLITENESS.]
+
+This, you see, is all in the way of excuse for the Russians, and
+arises rather from an excess of good nature than an excess of egotism.
+Constant practice in the solemnities of street-worship--uncovering
+their heads and bowing low before their numerous saints and
+shrines--may have some influence upon the stateliness of Russian
+politeness. It is, however, a very prominent and characteristic trait,
+and in some of its phases rather astounding to a stranger. A common
+thing in the streets of Moscow is to see a couple of sturdy beggars,
+uncouth as grizzly bears, meet and stop before each other with the
+utmost and most punctilious gravity. Beggar number one takes his
+greasy cap from his head slowly and deliberately, gives it a graceful
+sweep through the air, and, with a most courtly obeisance, exhibits
+the matted tuft, or the bald spot on the top of his head, to his
+ragged friend. Beggar number two responds in a similar courteous
+style, neither uttering a word. Each then gravely replaces his cap,
+touches the brim of it once or twice by way of representing a few
+extra bows, and passes on his way with an expression of profound
+dignity, utterly unconscious of the grotesque effect of all this
+ceremony to a stranger. I have seen the most vagabond-looking
+istrovoschik, or drosky-drivers, jump out of their drosky and perform
+similar courtesies toward each other; and where men of this craft are
+given to politeness, one may rest assured that it must be a national
+characteristic. All seem to be the slaves of ceremony, from the Czar
+down to the Mujik. Porters, wagoners, water-carriers, butchers,
+bakers, and chimney-sweeps are equally skilled in the noble art of
+bowing. At first, judging by the uncouth faces and the grimy costumes
+of these interesting people, such passages of politeness have very
+much the effect of burlesque. It seems impossible that men of such
+rude aspect can be in earnest. One soon gets used to it, however, and
+regards it as a matter of course. I could not but think how strange it
+would look to see a couple of Sacramento or San Francisco hack-drivers
+meet in some populous part of the town, and each one take off his hat
+to the other, and, with a graceful flourish, make a courtly salaam; or
+a pair of draymen stop their drays, get down leisurely, approach each
+other in an attitude of impressive dignity, take off their hats, and
+double themselves up before an admiring audience. They would certainly
+be suspected in our rude country of poking fun at each other. I can
+very well understand why butchers and chimney-sweeps should be polite,
+since they are accustomed to scraping; and the custom looks
+appropriate enough with many other classes, including barbers, who are
+generally men of oily manners, and tailors and printers, who are
+naturally given to forms; but with men whose business is intimately
+associated with horse-flesh, I must say it has something of a
+satirical aspect. Never in this world can I force myself to believe
+that a hack-driver is in earnest in any thing short of his fare. Do
+not understand me as casting any injurious reflection upon this
+valuable class of men; but it is a melancholy feature in humanity--of
+which sad experience enables me to speak feelingly--that integrity and
+horse-flesh are antagonistical, and can never go together. For the
+hack-driver personally I have great respect. He is a man of the
+world--knows a thing or two about every body and every thing; is
+constitutionally addicted to cheating, and elevates that noble
+propensity into one of the fine arts; maintains his independent
+character, and pockets his extraordinary profits in the face of all
+municipal restrictions; scoffs at the reign of the law, and drinks his
+regular bitters. I consider him a persecuted and an injured man; but
+of such elastic stuff is he made that he rises above all persecutions
+and all injuries, and still is, and ever will be, master of that
+portion of the human race which travels and abounds in cities. He is
+given to humor, too, is the hackman. Nobody better understands how to
+give a joke, or to resent one. An adept in ridicule, he always enjoys
+it when not applied to himself. If he is deficient in any one quality,
+perhaps it is piety. Hack-drivers, as a class, are not pious men; they
+may be very good men in their way, but, strictly speaking, they are
+not pious. Neither are they much given to mutual courtesies,
+especially at steam-boat landings. Therefore I say that to see
+hack-drivers bow down before shrines and stop on public thoroughfares,
+and with the utmost gravity uncover their heads and interchange
+courtly salaams--nay, even kiss hands in certain cases--is a novel and
+peculiar spectacle, suggestive of improvements which might be
+beneficially imported into our country.
+
+There was an impassive, abstracted air about Dominico very difficult
+to describe, but very impressive to a stranger. All these
+peculiarities were developed the first or second day of our
+acquaintance. About the third he seemed to grow impatient, hummed over
+a few gems from unknown operas, and was less disposed than usual to
+unbend himself. There was evidently a coolness growing up between us.
+I suspected it originated in my hat, which was really very shabby; and
+fancied I detected a supercilious expression in his eye as it ranged
+over my coat and down to my boots. At length he said, "Monsieur, you
+appear to travel with very little baggage!"
+
+_Myself._ Yes, only a knapsack.
+
+_Dominico_ (after a pause). Pray what business may Monsieur be engaged
+in?
+
+_M._ None at all--just ranging about miscellaneously.
+
+_Dom._ May I be so bold as to ask what part of England does Monsieur
+come from?
+
+_M._ Oh, I didn't come from England at all!
+
+_Dom._ (puzzled). Pray where does Monsieur come from?
+
+_M._ Oh, just come from over the way there--California!
+
+_Dom._ (elevating his eyebrows and stopping suddenly). California? The
+great gold country? Where they dig gold out of the ground?
+
+_M._ Yes--that's my country.
+
+_Dom._ (admiringly). Oh, then, Monsieur is a gentleman of fortune,
+just traveling for pleasure?
+
+_M._ Precisely; for pleasure and information combined. My estates are
+situated in the city of Oakland.
+
+_Dom._ Is that a large city?
+
+_M._ Well, it covers a good deal of ground--as much, I think, as
+Moscow.
+
+_Dom._ If Monsieur pleases, we will take a drosky and visit some of
+the gardens?
+
+_M._ Agreed.
+
+And so ended the conversation. It was marvelous, the change it
+produced in Dominico; how his dignity evaporated; how vivacious he
+became; how frank and unreserved he was in his descriptions of the
+wonders of Moscow; how he scorned to take trifles of change, and how
+magnificently he disregarded expenses. Wherever we went, however grand
+the domestics, soldiers, or police, Dominico was always high above
+them, and I could hear him descanting constantly on the wonderful
+richness of California. Doubtless the strain of his conversation ran
+about thus: "Behold, gentlemen, I have brought before you a living
+Californian! Notwithstanding the shabbiness of his hat, and the
+strange and uncivilized aspect of his clothes, he is the richest man
+in that land of gold! Yes, gentlemen, his income can scarcely fall
+short of ten millions of rubles per annum. Make way, if you please!"
+
+All things considered, Dominico let me off pretty well at the close
+of our acquaintance, upon my explaining to him that a draft for five
+hundred thousand rubles which ought to be on the way had failed to
+reach me, owing doubtless to some irregularity in the mail service, or
+some sudden depression in my Washoe stocks.
+
+In the way of food the hotels are well supplied, and the fare is not
+bad in the principal cities. Fish and game are abundant, but veal is
+the standard dish. I called for a beefsteak at the hotel in St.
+Petersburg, and was furnished with veal. The soup was made of veal.
+After salad we had veal cutlets. Then came a veal stew; next in order
+was a veal pie; and before the courses were finished I think we had
+calf's head baked and stuffed. At a station-house on the way to Moscow
+I hurriedly purchased a sandwich. It was made of veal. I asked for
+mutton-chops at the hotel in Moscow, and got veal. In fact, I was
+surfeited with veal in every possible shape wherever I went.
+
+Now I am not particular in matters of diet. In a case of emergency I
+can relish buzzard, but if there is any one kind of food upon earth
+that I think never was designed to be eaten, it is veal. No very young
+meat is good, to my notion--not even young pig, so temptingly
+described by the gentle Elia; nor young dog, so much esteemed by
+Chinese and Russian epicures. It has neither the consistency nor the
+flavor of the mature animal, and somehow suggests unpleasant images of
+flabby innocence. There is something horribly repugnant to one's sense
+of humanity in killing and devouring a helpless little calf. Who but a
+cannibal can look the innocent creature in the face, with its soft
+confiding eyes, its gentle and baby-like manners, and calculate upon
+devouring its brains, or satisfying the cravings of hunger upon its
+tender ribs? Who can see the butcher, with his murderous knife in such
+a connection, without a sting of remorse at the idea of the mother's
+grief--her great eyes swimming in tears, her lowing cries haunting him
+for days? I never see a gang of these helpless little creatures
+driven to the shambles without thinking of that touching picture, the
+Murder of the Innocents.
+
+In vain I tried to escape this veal passion in Russia. Nay, even in
+Finland and Sweden it pursued me. I actually began to feel flabby, and
+felt ashamed to look the poor cows in the face. It was a marvel how
+the cattle, of which there seemed to be no lack, ever arrived at
+maturity. If the people kill all the calves, as appeared to be the
+case, in the name of wonder, where do the cows come from? This
+question puzzled me exceedingly for some time, and was only solved
+when I asked a Russian to explain it. "Oh," said he, smiling at my
+simplicity, "they only kill the male calves. They allow the cow calves
+to grow up!"
+
+Still, when I came to reflect upon the reason given, it occurred to me
+that they must be a very singular race of cows. Perhaps they were
+Amazonian cows.
+
+This leads me by an easy and not ungraceful transition to the
+Foundling Asylum of Moscow, one of the largest and most remarkable
+institutions of the kind in the world. In other public places
+throughout Europe, especially in picture-galleries and museums, the
+visitor is required to deliver up his walking-stick at the door, in
+return for which he receives a ticket corresponding with one fastened
+upon the article itself--as in baggage-cars upon the railway, so that
+he may redeem it when he thinks proper. But I had little thought, in
+my experience of foreign travel, that a similar system should prevail
+in regard to the deposit of living beings, as in the foundling
+establishment of Moscow. Here, any body with a surplus baby can carry
+it and have it labeled around the neck, receive a ticket in return
+corresponding in number with the deposit, and call for it at any
+future time, certain that it will be delivered up--if alive. The
+building is of immense extent, and is situated on the banks of the
+Moskwa River, near the lower part of the town. The grounds around it
+are tastefully laid out, and must occupy twenty or thirty acres, the
+whole being surrounded by a high wall, and comprising numerous and
+substantial outhouses, workshops, etc., for the use of the
+establishment. Many thousand children are annually taken in and nursed
+at this institution, no restriction being imposed upon the parents,
+who may be either married or single, to suit their own taste or
+condition. The regular force of wet-nurses employed is about six
+hundred, besides which there are numerous dry-nurses and teachers for
+the older children. It is estimated that the entire expense of
+conducting the establishment is not less than five or six hundred
+thousand rubles per annum, most of which is defrayed by voluntary
+contributions and interest received on loans.
+
+I spent a forenoon rambling through the various wards, and can safely
+say I never before saw such an extraordinary collection of human
+squabs within one inclosure. It was certainly one of the strangest and
+saddest spectacles I had ever witnessed--so many infant specimens of
+humanity, bundled up like little packages of merchandise, labeled,
+numbered, and nursed with a mathematical regularity fearfully
+inconsistent with one's notions of the softness and tenderness of
+babyhood. To be sure, they are well treated--kindly and gently
+treated, perhaps; but it is pitiful to see these helpless little
+creatures bereft of the gentle motherly touch; washed, physicked,
+nursed, and too often buried by hired and unsympathizing hands; and no
+more thought of them, save in the way of duty, than so many little
+animals destitute of souls. The very idea of attachments formed by
+nurses is of itself a painful subject of contemplation; for of what
+avail is it that a child should be loved by its nurse, or find in her
+a new mother, when by the rules of the establishment there must be
+constant separations. It is said that over twenty-five thousand
+children derive, either directly or indirectly, support from this
+establishment. About six thousand are taken in annually, of which
+perhaps one fourth die. Many of them are not far from dead when
+admitted; and it is only surprising, considering the deprivations they
+must endure in being so suddenly withdrawn from the mother's care,
+that so large a proportion should survive.
+
+If it be a wise child that knows its own father, it would be a very
+remarkable father who could recognize his own child among such a
+variegated collection as I saw here. Never upon earth was there a more
+astonishing mixture of baby flesh--big babies and little babies,
+pug-nosed, black-eyed, blue-eyed, fat and lean, red, yellow, and white
+babies--all sorts ever invented or brought to light in this curious
+world of ours. Yet the utmost order was observed, and the beds,
+nurses, cribs, and feeding apparatus looked wonderfully clean for a
+Russian institution, where cleanliness is not generally the prevailing
+characteristic. But, great guns! what music they must make when they
+all get started in one grand simultaneous chorus! five or six hundred
+babies, of both sexes, from one to two or three years old, in one
+department; as many girls from three to five in another; boys of the
+same age in another; older boys and older girls innumerable in
+another! What a luxury it must be to hear them all together! In
+general, however, they do not make as much noise as might be supposed.
+I only heard about forty or fifty small choruses while there; but,
+trifling as that was, it enabled me to form an idea of the style of
+music that might be made when five or six thousand gave their whole
+mind to it. I am personally acquainted with one small baby not over a
+couple of years old, who, when excited of nights, can very nearly
+raise the roof off the house, and am certain that five hundred of the
+same kind would burst the whole city of Moscow sky-high if ever they
+got at it together. These Russian foundlings, however, are generally
+heavy-faced, lymphatic babies, and fall naturally into the machine
+existence which becomes their fate; otherwise it would seem a hard
+life for the poor nurses, who are not always gifted with the patient
+endurance of mothers. I was told that the children only cried
+periodically, say at intervals of every four hours, but hardly credit
+that statement. Being for the most part soggy little animals, they
+spend a goodly portion of their time in sleep, and doubtless, when not
+sleeping, are much given to eating and drinking.
+
+During the summer months several thousand of these children are sent
+out in the country to nurse, after which they are returned in due
+order. As soon as they become old enough, they are taught reading and
+writing, and the most intelligent are selected to become teachers. The
+boys usually receive a military education, and a certain proportion of
+them furnish recruits for the imperial army.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+DESPOTISM _versus_ SERFDOM.
+
+
+The reader has probably discovered by this time that I have no great
+affection for the political institutions of Europe, and am pretty
+strong in my prejudices against despotic governments of all sorts. The
+fact is, I believe our own, with all its faults, is the best system of
+government ever devised by man.
+
+The Emperor Alexander II. is admitted on all hands to be a most
+estimable and enlightened sovereign. He possesses, in a greater
+degree, perhaps, than any of his predecessors, the confidence and
+affection of his people. All his labors since he ascended the throne
+in February, 1855, have been directed to the emancipation of the serfs
+and the general welfare of his country. No fault can be found with him
+by the most ardent advocate of human liberty. His sympathies are--as
+far as it is practicable for those of an autocrat, clothed with
+absolute powers, to be--in favor of freedom. Toward the people and the
+government of the United States he entertains the most kindly feeling,
+and would doubtless sincerely regret the overthrow of our republican
+system. He has, moreover, devoted himself with unceasing zeal to the
+abolition of many onerous and unnecessary restrictions upon the
+liberty of the press and the civil rights of his subjects; encouraged
+institutions of learning; prohibited to a considerable extent cruelty
+and oppression in the subordinate branches of the public service; and
+in all respects has proved himself equal to the great duty imposed
+upon him, and worthy the esteem and commendation of the civilized
+world. Yet I can not see what there is in a despotic form of
+government, under the very best circumstances, to enlist our
+admiration or win our sympathies. We may respect and appreciate a good
+ruler, but every autocrat is not good of his kind; nor is every
+country in a happy condition because it may be exempt from the horrors
+of commotion. But no sovereign power can ever attain a rank among the
+civilized nations of the earth--beyond the respect to which its brute
+force may entitle it--so long as the very germ of its existence is
+founded in the suppression of civil and political liberty among its
+subjects.
+
+What, after all, does the emancipation of the serfs amount to? They
+are only to be nominally free. The same power that accords them the
+poor privilege of tilling the earth for their own subsistence may at
+any time withdraw it. They are not to be owned by individual
+proprietors, and bought and sold like cattle; but they possess none of
+the privileges of freemen; have no voice in the laws that govern them;
+must pay any taxes imposed upon them; may be ordered, at any time, to
+abandon their homes and sacrifice their lives in foolish and
+unnecessary wars in which they have no interest; in short, are just as
+much slaves as they were before, with the exception that during the
+pleasure of the emperor they can not be sold. But will every emperor
+be equally humane? There is nothing to prevent the successor of
+Alexander the Second from restoring the system of serfage, with all
+its concomitant horrors. It will not be difficult to find a
+predominating influence among the nobles to accomplish that object;
+for this has been a long and severe struggle against their influence,
+and owes its success entirely to the unremitting labors of the
+sovereign. The next autocrat may labor with equal earnestness to undo
+this good work; but it matters little, save in name. Despotism and
+freedom are antipodes, and can not be brought together. It may be said
+that it would be difficult to enslave a people who had once even
+partially tasted the sweets of liberty, but the history of Russia does
+not furnish testimony to that effect.
+
+Since the publication of the ukase abolishing serfdom, there has been
+a great deal of trouble in the more remote districts between the serfs
+and their masters, arising chiefly from ignorance on the one side, and
+discontent and disaffection on the other. Every possible obstacle has
+been thrown in the way of a fair understanding of its terms. Some idea
+may be formed of the extreme ignorance and debased condition of the
+serfs when I mention that in many parts of the country, where the
+influence of the court is not so immediately felt by the proprietors,
+they have assumed such despotic powers over their dependents, and
+exercise to this day such an inexorable command over their lives,
+liberties, and persons, that the poor creatures have almost learned to
+regard them as demigods. When a nobleman of high position, owning
+large tracts of land and many serfs, visits his estates, it is not an
+uncommon thing to see the enslaved peasantry, who are taught to
+believe that they exist by his sufferance, cast themselves prostrate
+before him and kiss the ground, in the Oriental fashion, as he passes.
+It is a species of idolatry highly soothing to men in official
+position, who are themselves subjected to almost similar debasement
+before their imperial master. In some instances, especially at a
+distance from the capital, the acts of cruelty perpetrated by these
+cringing and venal nobles, as an offset to the arbitrary rule under
+which they themselves exist, are enough to make the blood curdle. The
+knout, a terrible instrument made of thick, heavy leather, and
+sometimes loaded with leaden balls, is freely used to punish the most
+trifling offense. Men and women, indiscriminately, are whipped at the
+pleasure of their masters, the only real restrictions being that if
+they die within twenty-four hours the owners are subjected to trial
+for murder; but even that is nearly always evaded. The present emperor
+has done much to meliorate these abuses; but his orders have to go a
+great way and through a great many unreliable hands, and it is very
+difficult to carry them into effect unless they accord with the views
+of a venal and corrupt bureaucracy and an unprincipled corps of
+subordinates.
+
+  [Illustration: SERFS.]
+
+In some of the districts where the serfs were purposely kept in
+ignorance of the true meaning and intention of the emperor's ukase, a
+vague idea took possession of their minds that they were free, and
+that the proprietors had no right to compel them to labor, or in any
+way curtail their liberty. Many of them left the estates to which they
+were attached, and sought occupation elsewhere on their own account;
+others refused to obey the orders given them by their seigneurs, and a
+great deal of trouble and bloodshed ensued. In some instances it
+became necessary to call in the military forces of the district to
+subdue the mutinous serfs and preserve order. Protests and
+remonstrances innumerable were addressed to the emperor, pointing out
+the absolute impracticability of carrying his beneficent scheme into
+effect, based chiefly on the ground that the serfs themselves were
+opposed to emancipation. This, of course, occasioned a great deal of
+anxiety and trouble at head-quarters. It was rather a hard state of
+things that the very peasants whom he was striving with all his power
+to serve should, by their insubordination--arising sometimes, it was
+true, from ignorance, but too often from willful misconduct--do even
+more than their masters to frustrate his beneficent designs. These
+troubles went on from time to time, till eventually a deputation of
+three hundred serfs made their way to St. Petersburg and solicited an
+audience of the emperor. His majesty, probably in no very amiable
+mood, called the deputation before him, and demanded what they
+desired. They answered that they wished an explanation in regard to
+his order of emancipation, which many of their people did not
+understand. Some thought they were to be free in two years, but many
+thought they were free from the date of the order, with the simple
+condition that they were to pay sixty rubles to their masters the
+first year, and thirty the second; others, again, that they were free
+without any condition whatever. All they wanted to know was, were they
+free or not? If free, why were they forced to labor for other people;
+and if not free, was there any prospect that they ever would be? The
+emperor asked, "Can you read?" Some answered that they could read,
+others that they could not. "Have you read my order?" demanded the
+emperor of those who could read. "Yes, your majesty," they replied,
+"we have read your order, but we don't understand it." All who could
+read and had read the order were removed on one side. "Now," said the
+emperor, turning to the others, "has this order been read to you?"
+"Yes, your majesty," they replied, "but we don't understand it." "Very
+well," observed the emperor; "you seem to be an intelligent set of
+men, capable of learning, and we shall see that the order is made
+intelligible. We had supposed it was perfectly clear in its terms;
+but, since you do not or will not comprehend it, all you who can read
+must be whipped." The literary portion of the deputation were then
+taken off by a file of soldiers, treated to a score or two of lashes
+each, and sent back to their people to explain the manifesto. "And all
+you," said the emperor, turning to the unlearned members of the
+deputation, "must serve three years as soldiers, during which time we
+shall see that you are taught to read." They were accordingly taken
+off, and furnished with a general outfit of uniforms, and are now
+serving their imperial master in a military capacity.
+
+Summary justice, that, one might say. It seems, at all events, a
+pretty prompt method of explaining official documents, and could
+probably be adopted beneficially in other countries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+REFORM IN RUSSIA.
+
+
+In my last chapter I took occasion to acknowledge, in terms of sincere
+respect and admiration, the noble efforts of the present emperor,
+Alexander II., in the great cause of human freedom. He has already
+gone very far beyond any of his predecessors in the extension of
+civil liberty among his subjects, but a great crisis has now arrived
+which will practically test his sincerity. What he has heretofore done
+will be worse than nothing unless he remains true to himself and the
+noble cause which he has espoused. History shows us that the
+sovereigns of Russia have not always been indifferent to public
+opinion; but, with one or two honorable exceptions, it also shows us
+that they have been more liberal in their professions than in their
+acts. I ventured the assertion that there are insuperable obstacles to
+a very high order of civilization in Russia. Perhaps this is too
+gloomy a view of the case, and, considering the wonderful natural
+capacities of the people, it may be thought rather illiberal for an
+American; but I must confess the difficulties strike me as very
+serious. The severity of the climate in the middle and northern parts
+of the empire, the vast proportion of desert and unavailable lands,
+and the diversity of fierce and ignorant races to be governed, are
+certainly obstacles not easily overcome, if we are to understand by
+civilization a predominance of moral and intellectual cultivation,
+combined with material prosperity and a reasonable share of liberty
+and happiness among the mass of the people. It is not that a few shall
+be learned, and intelligent, and privileged above all others, but that
+the broad fields of knowledge shall be open to all; that education
+shall be general, and the right of every class to the fruits of their
+labor and the enjoyment of civil, political, and religious liberty
+shall be recognized and protected by the laws of the land. In this
+view, it seems to me that the most serious obstacle to civilization in
+Russia is presented by the despotic nature of the government, and the
+difficulty, under the existing state of things, of substituting
+another for which the ignorant masses are prepared. The aristocracy
+are constantly clamoring for increased powers and privileges, but it
+is very certain they have no affinity, beyond pecuniary interest, with
+the middle and lower classes, and that their sole aim is to interpose
+every possible obstacle to the progress of freedom. The emperor is
+now practically the great conservative power who stands between them
+and their dependents. Any increase of authority to the aristocracy
+would deprive the masses of the limited protection which they now
+enjoy. Already the head and front of Russian despotism are the
+camarilla and the bureaucracy, who practically administer the affairs
+of the government. So long as they hold their power, they stand as a
+barrier to all progress on the part of the people. Thoroughly
+aristocratic and tyrannical in all their instincts, they have every
+thing to lose and nothing to hope from a constitutional form of
+government. Why, it may be asked, if the emperor is sincere in his
+professions of regard for freedom and civilization, does he not make
+use of the aristocratic powers vested in him, and cast away from him
+all these obstacles to the perfection of his plans? The question is
+easier asked than answered. We are but little enlightened upon the
+secret councils that prevail at the court of St. Petersburg. Whatever
+is done there is only known by its results; whatever finds its way
+into the public press is subject to a rigid censorship, and is worth
+little so far as it conveys the remotest idea of facts. What you see
+demonstrated you may possibly be safe in believing, but nothing else.
+It may be easier to speak of removing obstacles than to do it; or it
+may be that the emperor has no fixed policy for the future, and
+therefore hesitates to encounter difficulties through which he can not
+see his way without any adequate or well-defined object.
+
+No country in the world presents such an anomalous condition of
+affairs as that presented by Russia at this time. The preliminary
+steps have been taken to set free over twenty-three millions of white
+people, so accustomed to a condition of servitude, so generally
+ignorant, and so incapable of thinking or acting for themselves, that
+many, if not most of them, look with dread upon the movement made for
+their emancipation. The rights reserved to them are so little
+understood, and, indeed, so visionary under any circumstances--for
+two rights to the same land would be as impracticable in Russia
+between the proprietors and the peasant as in our country between the
+whites and the Indians--that they can see nothing beyond abandonment
+to increased oppressions and sufferings in the proposed movement.
+Degraded as they are, accustomed from infancy to obey their rulers,
+kept in a condition of brutish ignorance in order that they may be
+kept in subjection, it is natural they should be unable to realize the
+mysterious benefits about to be conferred upon them. In their present
+abject position they enjoy a certain kind of protection from their
+owners, who, if not always governed by motives of humanity, are at
+least generally susceptible of the influences of self-interest, and
+take care to feed and clothe them, and provide for them in cases of
+sickness; and although this is done at the expense of their labor, it
+relieves them from responsibilities which they are scarcely prepared
+to assume. To set them free against their own will, or even admitting
+that, in common with all mankind, they must have some general
+appreciation of liberty--to undertake so radical a change in their
+condition and future prospects without a practical definition of their
+rights and the substitution of some substantial benefits for the
+withdrawal of responsibilities now borne by their owners, is an
+anomalous movement attended by no ordinary difficulties. When we add
+to this the adverse influences of the landed proprietors; their
+determined hostility to the abrogation of rights and privileges which
+they have so long enjoyed; their entire conviction that, without
+direct powers of coercion, they can not depend upon the labor of the
+peasantry; that the natural tendency of free labor is to elevate the
+masses, and render them less subservient to the will of the
+aristocracy, then, indeed, it may well be conceived that the natural
+difficulties arising from the ignorance and improvident habits of the
+class now held in bondage will be greatly augmented. Believing,
+however, that all men have a right to their freedom; that such a
+right is the gift of the Creator, which can only be wrongfully
+withheld from them by any earthly power; that it is superior to any
+casual influences or considerations of policy, we can not but admire
+the moral courage of the movement, and the apparent zeal and constancy
+with which the emperor has labored, in the face of every obstacle, to
+carry it into effect. But the question now arises, is it to end before
+it assumes a substantial form? Is it to be a mere chimera gotten up to
+entertain and delude the world? If Alexander aspires to the approval
+of all enlightened people beyond the limits of his own empire, he must
+make good his claim to it by a determined policy, carrying in it the
+germ of civil and political liberty. It will not do to "tickle the
+ears of the groundlings" with high-sounding phrases of human progress,
+while he fetters their limbs with manacles of iron. There can be no
+such thing as a graduated despotism--a stringent form of controlling
+the ignorant and a mild form of controlling the intelligent--under one
+system of government. The ways to knowledge, to honorable distinction,
+to wealth and happiness, must be open to all; justice must be
+administered with impartiality, and wherever there is taxation there
+must be representation. There can not be one kind of justice for the
+rich and another for the weak; constitutions for some and despotisms
+for others. The machine must be complete in all its parts, and work
+with a common accord, or it will soon become deranged and break to
+pieces.
+
+Peter the Great did much toward the physical improvement of the
+country. He built up cities, created a navy, organized an army,
+extended his dominions, encouraged education, and fostered the
+mechanical arts; but he held a tight rein upon his subordinate
+officers, and suppressed what little freedom the masses enjoyed. He
+was ambitious, and liked to enjoy a reputation for enlightenment, but
+no regard for civilization beyond the power it gave him to extend his
+dominions. His subjects were merely his instruments. All he learned
+in other countries was to sharpen them and keep them in order, that he
+might use them to the best advantage. His ambition was not of the
+highest or noblest kind. The page he has left in history is
+interesting and instructive, but there is nothing in it to warrant the
+belief that it will be selected by a remote posterity to be bound up
+among the lives of truly great and good men. Catharine II. extended
+the privileges of the nobility, made wars upon inoffensive nations,
+corrupted the morals of her people, and manifested her regard for the
+serfs by giving large numbers of them away to her paramours. The
+Emperor Alexander I. was ambitious of distinction, as the most
+cultivated and enlightened sovereign of his time. He issued liberal
+edicts, but seldom observed them. He wished to be thought friendly to
+liberty, without sacrificing any of his despotic privileges. He gave a
+Constitution to the Poles, but surrounded it by such forms and
+influences that they could derive no advantage from it. He was weak,
+cunning, and conceited; given rather to the delicate evasions of
+diplomacy than to the bold straightforwardness of truth and honor. The
+Emperor Nicholas was utterly selfish and despotic in all his
+instincts. He professed to take a profound interest in the cause of
+emancipation, but it was purely a question of policy with him. He
+cared nothing about human rights. His dark and cruel nature was
+unsusceptible of a noble or generous impulse. While he preached
+liberal generalities, he ruled his subjects with an iron rod. He was
+bigoted, narrow-minded, and brutal. The sense of right was not in his
+nature. His ambition was to be an object of heathenish idolatry to his
+subjects--whether as a god or devil it mattered nothing; fear was the
+only incense he was capable of craving; and if such a nature can be
+susceptible of enjoyment, his consisted in the abasement of his
+fellow-creatures. The severity of his decrees, the rigor of his
+administration, and the attributes of infallibility which he cast
+around his person, caused him to be regarded with awe, but not with
+love. He could brook no opposition nor survive a failure. Few tears
+were shed when he was stricken down in his pride. He left but a small
+legacy of good deeds to endear him in the memory of his subjects. The
+haughty Czar lies dead in his sepulchre--cold, stern, and solitary as
+he lived.
+
+Nicholas left his country in a distracted and unhappy
+condition--deeply in debt; commerce deranged; the military service in
+the worst possible condition, and nearly every branch of the public
+service in the hands of corrupt and incapable men. Well might he say
+to his own son upon his dying bed, "Poor Alexander, my beloved son,
+where lie the ills of unhappy Russia?" Well might he endeavor to make
+atonement for his errors by recommending at his last hour the
+emancipation of the serfs.
+
+The milder spirit of Alexander reigns in his place. What future, then,
+does this humane young sovereign propose to himself and his country?
+He gives personal liberty to the serfs, but he can not allow them to
+become intelligent and responsible beings. If they do, they will no
+longer acknowledge his right to deprive them of political liberty. He
+removes various restrictions from the press, and the moment the light
+of intelligence strikes upon the minds of his subjects, they call for
+a constitution and the overthrow of a despotic camarilla. He
+undertakes to restrain a powerful, intelligent, and unscrupulous
+aristocracy, who by instinct, education, and self-interest hate the
+very name of freedom, and they turn against him, and provoke those
+whom he would serve to acts of rebellion against his authority. We can
+scarcely wonder that this is the case when we consider the interests
+they have at stake. It is not likely that they will quietly relinquish
+their accustomed source of revenue. On the other hand, the argument is
+advanced, and with a good share of reason, that the emancipation of
+the serfs is really a benefit to the owners. It relieves them of
+enormous responsibilities, and, by encouraging industry, increasing
+the intelligence, self-reliance, and capacity of the serfs themselves,
+makes their labor more profitable to the landed proprietors. This is a
+view of the case, however, in which they have no faith. Believing in
+nothing free except the free use of authority in their own persons,
+they can not be brought to understand the advantages of free labor.
+
+But these considerations do not, by any means, comprise all the
+difficulties in which Russia is now placed. The dependencies are
+constantly in revolt. Constant troubles are going on in the remote
+districts. Nine millions of the population--the old believers who do
+not profess the prevailing religion--have their secret conferences,
+their plans and purposes, all antagonistical to the existing form of
+government. A reign of terror exists in Poland. The Finns detest their
+rulers, and are only kept in a partial state of quietude by a total
+subversion of the liberties guaranteed to them under the Constitution.
+The municipal franchises existing in the various provinces of Russia
+are a mere mockery; mayors and corporate officers are imprisoned or
+banished without cause or process of law. The councils of the
+government are secret, and nobody can conjecture how long he may be
+permitted to enjoy his personal liberty. The exchequer is annually
+deficient from thirty to forty millions of rubles. Public credit is
+growing worse and worse every day, and the whole country is falling
+into a condition of bankruptcy. It is evident, even to the most
+superficial observer, that a great crisis is at hand. The Poles are
+united in their resistance to the despotic sway of the government.
+Witness the late bloody massacres in Warsaw (1862), against which the
+whole civilized world cries aloud in horror! They will not now be
+satisfied with empty professions and still emptier concessions. They
+demand a Constitution--not a mere paper Constitution, like that of
+1815, made to be violated by every lackey of the government sent to
+coerce them. They demand civil, political, and religious liberty. Can
+the emperor grant it to a dependency, and withhold it from the body of
+his people?
+
+This has been tried for nearly half a century--ever since 1815--and
+what has it resulted in? Are the Poles any better satisfied now than
+they were then? Are they benefited and enlightened by being cut down
+and hacked to pieces by a set of drunken and bloodthirsty Cossacks in
+the name of the great Russian government?
+
+The Emperor Alexander must adopt some other system. He will never
+reduce the Poles to submission in that way. Overpowered and cut to
+pieces they may be, but not conquered. They belong to the
+unconquerable races of mankind. The blood that heroes, and heroines,
+and martyrs are made of runs in the veins of every man, woman, and
+child of the Polish nation. If they can not govern themselves, it is
+equally certain they can not be governed by any despotic power. It is
+not by slaughtering defenseless women and children; not by forcing
+churches to be opened; not by sending savage and heartless minions to
+crush the people down in the dust, that Alexander II. is to win a
+reputation for humanity and liberality. It is not by issuing edicts of
+emancipation to his serfs, and then, at the instigation of a cruel and
+ruthless camarilla, deluging the country with their blood to keep them
+quiet, that he is going to do it. It is not by extending privileges to
+the press and the universities, and then, by a sudden and violent
+suppression of all liberty, undertake to arrest some abuses, that he
+is likely to achieve it. It is not by countenancing venal and
+unscrupulous writers to sustain every outrage that his nobles may
+choose to perpetrate, and banishing all who respectfully remonstrate
+against their misconduct, that he is to attain the highest eminence as
+a civilized sovereign. It is not by keeping up a system of foreign
+surveillance, by which Russians in other countries are watched and
+their lives threatened, that these glorious results are to be
+achieved. His secret police may (on their own responsibility or his,
+it matters little to the victims which) assassinate M. Herzain, the
+editor of the _Kolokol_, in London; but if they do, a thousand
+Herzains will rise in his place. No; it is by no such means as these
+that the name of Alexander II. is to be transmitted to posterity as
+the most liberal and enlightened sovereign of the age.
+
+If he would regenerate Russia--if he would avert the dismemberment of
+a great empire--if he would accomplish the noble mission upon which
+the world gives him the credit of having started, he must banish from
+his presence all evil councils; he must be true to himself and the
+great cause of humanity; he must give all his people, and all his
+dependencies, a liberal and equitable constitution, which will protect
+them from the despotic sway of military governors and the aristocracy.
+He must establish a constitutional government, complete in all its
+parts; abolish secret tribunals, and open the avenues of knowledge and
+justice to all. He must see that the laws are fairly and equitably
+administered. He must enlarge the liberty of the press, and proscribe
+no man for his opinions, unless in cases of treason, and under
+peculiar circumstances of civil commotion endangering the public
+safety. He must abolish the censorship of the colleges, universities,
+and places of public amusement, and leave them to be regulated by the
+municipal authorities. In short, he must cease to be a despot and
+become a constitutional monarch. Will he do it? Can he do it? Does he
+possess the moral courage to do it? Time alone can answer these
+questions. I sincerely believe the emperor is a good man, actuated by
+the best motives, but not always governed by the wisest counsels. I
+believe he now has an opportunity of earning a name that enlightened
+men will bless through all time to come. So far, it is to be regretted
+that he has not pursued the most consistent course, but it is not yet
+too late to retrieve his errors. One thing is certain--there can be
+no half-way measures of reform in Russia. The spirit of the age--the
+general increase of intelligence--requires a radical change. He can
+not be autocrat and king at the same time. He must be one or the
+other. If he tries both, the empire will be dismembered before many
+years.
+
+Whatever may be the extent and variety of those hidden restraints,
+which doubtless exist, and must, from the very nature of the
+government, be exempt from the scrutiny of a stranger as well as from
+popular discussion, it is beyond question that in the principal
+cities, at least, very little is visible in that respect which would
+be considered objectionable in the municipal regulations of any city
+in the United States. From this, of course, must be excepted the
+presence in every public place and thoroughfare of vast numbers of
+soldiers and officers; but that is a feature which St. Petersburg
+shares in common with all the cities of Europe, and the traveler can
+scarcely regard it as an indication of the depressed condition of
+Russian civilization. I think I have seen in the streets of Pesth,
+Vienna, Berlin, and Frankfort quite as many soldiers, according to the
+population, as in St. Petersburg. I would say something about Paris,
+but I expect to go there after a while, and would dislike very much to
+be placed in the position of Mr. Dick Swiveller, who was blockaded at
+his lodgings, and never could go out without calculating which of the
+public ways was still left open. But if there be officers enough of
+all kinds in Paris to keep the public peace and suppress objectionable
+correspondence and pamphlets against members of the reigning family,
+there are also enough in Lyons and Marseilles, as well as other cities
+of France, to prove that civilization and soldiers, however inimical
+to each other, may, by the force of circumstances, be reduced to a
+partnership. The question that troubles me most is to determine
+precisely what is the highest condition of civilization. It can not be
+to enjoy fine palaces and have a great many soldiers, for Marco Polo
+tells us that the great Kubla Khan had palaces of gold and precious
+stones of incredible extent and most sumptuous magnificence, such as
+the world has never seen from that day to this, and could number his
+troops by millions; yet nobody will undertake to say that the Tartars
+of the tenth century were in advance of the French of the nineteenth
+century. It can not consist in the enjoyment of freedom, and the
+general dissemination of education and intelligence among the people;
+for where will you find a freer or more intelligent people than those
+of the United States, who are rated by the Parisians as little better
+than savages? I think civilization must consist in the perfection of
+cookery, and a high order of tailoring and millinery. If the French
+excel in the manufacture of cannons and iron-cased ships, and devote a
+good deal of attention to surgery, it is a necessity imposed upon them
+by the presence of Great Britain and their natural propensity for
+strong governments; but I am disposed to believe that their genius
+lies in gastronomy and tailoring, and in the construction of hats and
+bonnets. Since the latter articles cover the heads of the best classes
+of mankind, they must be the climax or crowning feature of all human
+intelligence. I am greatly puzzled by the various opinions on this
+subject entertained by the most cultivated people of Europe. The
+English seem to think the perfection of civilization consists in
+preaching against slavery and then trying to perpetuate it, in order
+to get hold of some cotton; the French in suppressing family
+pamphlets, annulling the sacred contract of marriage, building
+iron-cast ships, cooking frogs, snails, and cats, making fancy coats,
+and topping off the human head with elegant hats and bonnets; the
+Austrians in the manufacture of shin-plasters for their soldiers, and
+the making and breaking of constitutions for ungovernable
+dependencies; the Prussians in the blasphemous necromancy of receiving
+crowns for their kings direct from God; and all in some shape or other
+professing devotion to human liberty, and doing every thing in their
+power to subvert it. Truly it is enough to puzzle one who seeks for
+truth amid the prevailing fogs of error that seem to have descended
+upon mankind. If there be any degree in honesty, I really think the
+Emperor of Russia is entitled to the palm of being the most sincere in
+his profession of regard for the advancement of human freedom. He
+imposes no restrictions upon his own subjects which he does not
+consider necessary for the maintenance of his despotic power, and,
+while struggling against the influence of a wealthy, intelligent, and
+refractory aristocracy to extend the boon of personal liberty to
+twenty-three millions of serfs, is the only sovereign who boldly and
+openly manifests a generous sympathy for the cause of freedom in the
+United States. While I can see nothing to admire in any form of
+despotism, or any thing in common between us and the government of
+Russia beyond the common bond of humanity that should connect the
+whole human race, I am forced to admit, with all my hatred of despotic
+institutions, that they are not always a sure indication of an
+illiberal and insincere spirit on the part of the rulers, or of a
+base, sordid, and groveling spirit on that of the subjects. It is a
+matter of regret, calculated to shake our faith in the beneficial
+effects of a high order of intelligence among men, that the course of
+England and France, since the commencement of our difficulties,
+presents a very unfavorable contrast with that of Russia; for,
+although self-interest has restrained them from actual participation
+in the overthrow of our government, they have given its enemies the
+full benefit of their sympathy.
+
+You will smile, perhaps, at the oddity of the idea, considering the
+roughness of our country, the scarcity of palaces, fine equipages,
+liveried servants with white kid gloves and cocked hats, and the
+absence of a perfect railroad system in our remote quarter of the
+world; but I am perfectly in earnest in saying that, if asked to lay
+my hand upon my heart and declare, in all sincerity, what country upon
+earth I do consider the most highly favored and enlightened at the
+present stage of the nineteenth century, I should not hesitate one
+moment to name the State of California. The idea has been growing in
+my head ever since I came to Europe. It is based upon considerations
+which are susceptible of the clearest demonstration. For example,
+assuming our population to be five hundred thousand, where will you
+find the same number of educated, enterprising, and intelligent men in
+any one district or state of Europe, not excepting any given part of
+France or England? If we have fewer learned and scientific men than
+older countries can boast, we have a greater number above mediocrity,
+according to our population, and a vastly higher average of general
+intelligence. If our laws are too often loosely administered, it is at
+least in the power of the people to remedy the difficulty by
+substituting good and faithful for corrupt and inefficient officers;
+and if any law should prove burdensome, it can be repealed at the will
+of the majority. So far as injustice is concerned, I have seen more of
+it in Europe, individual rights were concerned, than I ever saw in
+California. We have a public sentiment in favor of the right which can
+not be shaken by corrupt, factious, and transitory influences. If our
+governors and public men are not furnished with gilded palaces and
+fine equipages, the labor of the toiling poor is not taxed to supply
+them. If we are backward in the higher branches of literature and the
+fine arts, there is scarcely a mechanic or a miner in the state who
+does not know more of the history of his own country, possess a more
+accurate knowledge of its institutions, read more of the current
+intelligence of the day from all other countries--who, in short, is
+not better versed in every branch of practical knowledge applicable to
+the ordinary purposes of life, than the average of the most
+intelligent classes in Great Britain or France. If we are deficient in
+the dandyism of dress and the puppyism of manners, which so generally
+pass for refinement and politeness on the Continent of Europe, there
+is scarcely a boor among us who would not be hooted out of the lowest
+society for the indifference, rudeness, and disrespect toward women,
+which form the rule rather than the exception among the polished
+nations of Europe. I have seen more absolute selfishness, coarseness,
+and innate vulgarity under the guise of elegant manners, since my
+arrival on this side of the water, than I ever saw in California under
+any guise whatever. If that be civilization, I do not want to see it
+prevail in our country. It would be difficult, indeed, to say in what
+respect a comparison would not show a heavy balance in our favor.
+Wealth is more equally diffused, fortune is more accessible to all,
+the honors and emolument of political position are within the reach of
+every man, the press is unrestrained in its freedom save in so far as
+individual rights and the well-being of society may be concerned; no
+class is oppressed by inequitable burdens, and none endowed with
+exclusive privileges; a rich soil, a prolific mineral region, a
+climate unequaled for its salubrity, and a promising future, afford
+profitable occupation, health, and happiness to the whole community;
+none need suffer unless from their own misconduct, or the visitation
+of the Supreme Power by which all are ruled; and none need despond who
+possess energy of character and the capacity to appreciate the many
+blessings bestowed upon them. What nation in Europe possesses a future
+at all, much less such a future as that which lies before us? Russia
+may improve and prosper to a certain extent; beyond that, no human eye
+can discern the glimmerings of a higher and more enlarged
+civilization. England has reached her culminating point. The States of
+Germany--what future have they? Alas! the past and the present must
+answer. France--where is her future? Another revolution--another
+emperor--another and another bloody history of revolutions,
+barricades, kings, emperors, and demagogues, reaching, so far as human
+eye can penetrate, through the dim vistas of all time to come. If, on
+the one side, we see the type of human perfection and the maturity of
+all worldly knowledge, and if we see on the other only the presumption
+that springs from ignorance, want of cultivation, or want of reverence
+for the example of others, then I earnestly pray that we may forever
+remain in our present benighted condition, or, if we advance at all,
+that it may not be in the direction taken by any of the governments of
+Europe. As our present is unlike theirs, so I trust may be our future.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A BOND OF SYMPATHY.
+
+
+The Russians, doubtless, have a natural appetite for tobacco, in
+common with all races of mankind, whether Digger Indians, Caffirs,
+Hindoos, Persians, Turks, Americans, or Dutchmen; for I never yet have
+met with a people who did not take to the glorious weed, in some shape
+or other, as naturally as a babe to its mother's breast. _Vodka_, or
+native brandy, is their favorite beverage, when they can get it. In
+that respect, too, they share a very common attribute of humanity--a
+passion for strong drinks. Nevertheless, although the love of
+intoxicating liquors is pretty general in Russia, the habit of smoking
+which usually accompanies it is not so common as in the more southern
+parts of Europe. A reason for this may be found in the prohibitions
+established by the government against the general use of tobacco. It
+is true, any person who pleases may enjoy this luxury, but by a rigid
+ukase of the emperor the restrictions amount very nearly to an
+absolute prohibition, so far as the common people are concerned.
+Smoking is prohibited in the streets of every town and city throughout
+the empire, and any infraction of the law in this respect, whether by
+a native or foreigner, is visited by a heavy penalty. I hear of
+several instances in St. Petersburg and Moscow of arrests by the
+police for violations of the imperial decree. The reason given by the
+Russians themselves for this despotic regulation is, that the cities
+being built mostly of wood, extensive and disastrous conflagrations
+have arisen from carelessness in street-smoking. It is difficult to
+see how the risk is lessened in this way, for the prohibition does not
+extend to smoking within doors. A carpenter may indulge his propensity
+for cigars over a pile of shavings, provided it be in his workshop,
+but he must not carry a lighted cigar in his mouth on any of the
+public thoroughfares. The true reason perhaps is, that the emperor
+considers it a useless and expensive habit, and thus makes use of his
+imperial power to discountenance it, as far as practicable, among his
+subjects. They may drink _vodka_ if they please, because that only
+burns their insides out; but they must not smoke cigars, as a general
+rule, because that impairs their moral perceptions. Hence cigars are
+not permitted to be sold at any of the tobacco-shops in packages of
+less than ten. Few of the lower classes ever save up money enough to
+buy ten cigars at a time, so that if they desire to smoke they must go
+to a cheap groggery and indulge in cheap cigaritos. Owing to the want
+of opportunity, therefore, smoking is not a national characteristic,
+as in Germany and the United States.
+
+This, I must confess, gave me a rather gloomy impression of Russia,
+and accounted in some measure for the grave and uncongenial aspect of
+the people. One always likes to find some bond of sympathy between
+himself and the inhabitants of the country through which he travels. I
+remember reading somewhere of a Scotchman who had occasion to visit
+the United States on business connected with an establishment in
+Glasgow. He was disgusted with the manners and customs of the people;
+had no faith in their capacity for business; found nothing to approve;
+considered them vulgar, impertinent, irresponsible, and irreligious;
+and finally was about to take his departure with these unfavorable
+views, when he discovered, from some practical experience, that they
+possessed, in addition to all these traits, wonderful shrewdness in
+the art of swindling. New dodges that he had never dreamt of turned up
+in the line of debits and credits; he was interested--delighted! A
+familiar chord was touched. He retracted all he had said; formed the
+most exalted opinion of the people; reluctantly returned to Glasgow,
+and there made a fortune in the course of a few years! It is said that
+he now swears by the eternal Yankee nation--the only oath he was ever
+known to make use of--and expresses a desire to settle in the United
+States, if he can find a suitable part of the country abounding in
+fogs, rain, sleet, snow, and wind.
+
+Somewhat akin to this is the affection with which a traveler in a
+foreign land regards every mountain, tree, or flower that reminds him
+of his own country. The most pleasant parts of my experiences of
+mountain scenery are those that most resemble similar experiences at
+home. Some suggestion or hint of a familiar scene has often caused me
+to enjoy what would otherwise perhaps have attracted no particular
+attention. I remember once, while traveling in Brazil, near the Falls
+of Tejuca, some very pleasant scenes of early life came suddenly to
+mind, without any thing that I could perceive at the moment to give
+rise to such a train of thought. The aspect of the country was
+different from any I had ever seen before; and it was not till I
+discovered a bunch of violets close by my feet that I became aware
+that it was a familiar perfume which had so mysteriously carried me
+back to by-gone days. On another occasion, when at sea in the Indian
+Ocean, after many dreary months of absence from home, I one day
+accidentally found in the pocket of an old coat a paper of fine-cut
+chewing tobacco. With what delight I grasped the glittering treasure
+and applied it to my nose can only be conceived by a true lover of the
+weed--I speak not of your voracious chewers, who masticate this
+delectable narcotic as if it were food for the stomach instead of
+nutriment for the soul, but of the genuine devotee, who can appreciate
+the divinest essence, the rarest delicacies of tone and touch, the
+most exquisite shades of sentiment in this wondrous weed. What a
+luxury, after months of dreary longing--what an oasis in the desert of
+life! No attar of roses could be sweeter than that paper of fine-cut.
+I played with it--just titillating the nostrils--for hours before I
+dared to descend to the coarse process of chewing. And then--ah
+heavens! can mortal mixture ever equal that first chew again! How
+bright and beautiful the world looked! What happy remembrances I
+reveled in all that day, of serenades, and oyster-suppers, and pretty
+girls, and a thousand other fascinations of early youth, all of which
+grew out of a paper of fine-cut.
+
+My experiences in Sweden were even more delightful in this respect
+than in Russia. At Stockholm I saw drunken men every day, and at
+Gottenburg it was the prevailing trait. The trouble was to see a man
+who was not laboring under a pressure of bricks in his hat. On one
+occasion I must have seen in the course of a single afternoon several
+hundred reeling home in the highest possible condition of
+ecstasy--either that, or the streets were so badly paved, and the
+roads so devious and undulating, that they made people stagger to keep
+straight. It was on the occasion of a fair, and may perhaps have been
+an exception to the general rule. One thing is certain--it looked very
+natural, and made me cotton wonderfully to these good people. There
+was something really homelike in a reeling, staggering crowd--their
+shouts and uproarious songs, their boozy faces and tobacco-stained
+months. Every body seemed to be on a regular "bender." The only point
+of difference between the Swedish and the California "bender" was in
+the way the boys hugged and kissed the peasant-girls; but even in this
+respect a similitude may sometimes be found in the vicinity of the
+Indian Reservations, where I have seen Digger damsels treated quite as
+affectionately. However, it was all right, so long as both parties
+were willing. I rather liked the Gottenburg custom myself--as a
+spectator, of course.
+
+My last and perhaps most agreeable experience connected with the
+pleasures of sympathy occurred in Norway, on the road from Christiania
+to Trondhjem. With profound humiliation I make the confession that I
+have never yet been able to eradicate a natural passion for tobacco.
+Once, after reading the Rev. Dr. Cox's terrific book on the Horrors of
+Tobacco, in which it was conclusively shown that a single drop of the
+oil of this noxious weed put upon a cat's tongue killed the cat, I
+resolved to master this vicious propensity for poison. For six months
+I neither smoked, snuffed, nor chewed. But it came back somehow. Care,
+I think, revived it, and every body knows that care, as well as
+tobacco, killed a cat. A man might as well be killed one way as
+another. We must all eat our peck of dirt, and in some shape or other
+swallow our peck of poison. One learned gentleman proves that tobacco
+is poison; another, that coffee and tea are equally fatal; another,
+that meat is no better, and so on; our food and drink are pretty much
+composed of poison, so that we are constantly killing ourselves, and
+the result is, we die at last. Still, it is marvelous how long some
+people survive all these deadly stimulants; how fat and hearty the
+Germans are in spite of their meerschaums; how wonderfully the French
+survive their strong coffee; how the Russians deluge their stomachs
+with hot tea and yet still live; how the English get over their porter
+and brown stout; and how long it takes the various poisons to which
+the various nations of the earth are addicted to produce any sensible
+diminution in the population. Sometimes I am inclined to think people
+would die if they never ate a particle of any thing--either food or
+poison. It seems to be one of those debts that we incur on coming into
+the world, and can only discharge by going out of it.
+
+All of which leads you gradually to the main point--my experience in
+Norway. First, however, I must tell you that on my arrival in Europe,
+not being able to find a plug of genuine Cavendish, I was forced to
+satisfy the cravings of this morbid appetite by nibbling bad cigars.
+But a new difficulty soon became manifest--there was not a spot in all
+Germany where it was possible to get rid of a quid without attracting
+undue attention. No man likes to be stared at as an outlaw against the
+recognized decencies of life. One may smoke cigars under a lady's
+nose, dress like a popinjay, or kiss his bearded friend in most
+Continental cities, but he must not chew tobacco, because it is
+considered a barbarous and filthy habit. He may guzzle beer, take
+snuff, and wear dirty shirts, but if he would avoid reproach as an
+unclean animal he must abandon his quids. Now, as a general rule, I
+dislike to violate public sentiment, or inconvenience people with whom
+I associate. If they are nonsensical and inconsistent in their
+notions, I agree with them for the sake of harmony, if not for
+politeness. Nothing pleases me better than to annoy an Englishman by
+doing every thing that he most dislikes, because he makes it a point
+to be disagreeable and unmannerly; carries his nationality wherever he
+goes, and it does me good to furnish him with material for criticism.
+Out of pure good nature, I meet him half way; chew and spit that he
+may grumble, and put my legs over the back of the nearest chair to see
+him enjoy a good hearty fit of disgust, and talk loud that he may find
+material for ill-natured reflections on American manners--all of
+which, I know, is exactly what obliges him. It affords him such
+undeniable grounds for the depreciation of others, and the indulgence
+of his own weak vanity!
+
+In like manner I obliged my German friends, who, however, are
+altogether different in their exactions, and only require Americans to
+drop all their uncivilized habits, and become like themselves--quiet,
+decent, and respectable old fogies. Therefore I obeyed the laws,
+doffed my savage California costume, quit whisky, took to beer,
+avoided all passages of tenderness toward the female sex, and herded
+mostly with men. For a time, however, I held on to my beloved quid of
+cigar. It was such a solace in the midst of all these privations!
+But, alas! I had to give that up too; there was not a spot in all
+Germany suitable for the purpose of expectoration! The floors of the
+houses are so dreadfully clean--not a piece of carpet bigger than a
+rug to sit upon; the porcelain stoves so inaccessible; the windows
+always shut; every nook and corner blazing with little ornaments; the
+lady of the house so severely conscious of every movement; even the
+little earthen pans near the stove, filled with white sand nicely
+smoothed over to represent salt-cellars--the ostensible spittoons of
+the establishment--staring one in the face with a cold, steady gaze
+amounting to a positive prohibition--no, the thing was impossible! I
+saw plainly that a good, old-fashioned squirt of tobacco-juice would
+ruin such a country as this, where every room in every house was
+inimical to the habit, and every speck of ground throughout the length
+and breadth of the land adapted to some useful or ornamental purpose.
+Why, sir, I assure you that in the little duchy of Nassau--where it is
+said the grand-duke is unable to exercise his soldiers at
+target-shooting without obtaining permission to place the target in
+some neighboring state--I found the garden-walks and public roads so
+fearfully clean, every leaf and twig being swept up daily, and
+preserved to manure the duchy, that during a pedestrian tour of three
+days I was absolutely ashamed to spit any where. There was no possible
+chance of doing it without expunging a soldier or a policeman, or
+disfiguring the entire province. The result was, between
+tobacco-juice, salt water, iron water, sulphur water, soda-water, and
+all other sorts of water that came out of the earth from Brunnens of
+Nassau, I got home as thin as a snake, and was forced to deny myself
+even the poor consolation of a Frankfort cigar. So matters went on for
+nearly a year. I became a morose and melancholy man. This will account
+for all the bitter and ill-natured things I said of the Germans in
+some of my sketches, every word of which I now retract.
+
+But to come to the point of the narrative. In the due course of a
+vagabond life, after visiting Russia and Sweden, I found myself one
+day on the road from Lillehammer to the Dorre Fjeld in Norway. I sat
+in a little cariole--an old peasant behind. The scenery was sublime.
+Poetry crept over my inmost soul. The old man leaned over and said
+something. Great heavens! What a combination of luxuries! His breath
+smelled of whisky and tobacco. I was enchanted. I turned and gazed
+fondly and affectionately in his withered old face. Two streams of
+rich juice coursed down his furrowed chin. His leathery and wrinkled
+mouth was besmeared with the precious fluid; his eyes rolled foolishly
+in his head; he hung on to the cariole with a trembling and unsteady
+hand; a delicious odor pervaded the entire man. I saw that he was a
+congenial soul--cottoned to him at once--grasped him by the
+hand--swore he was the first civilized human I had met in all my
+travels through Europe--and called upon him, in the name of the great
+American brotherhood of chewers, to pass me a bite of his tobacco.
+From that moment we were the best of friends. The old man dived into
+the depths of a greasy pocket, pulled out a roll of black pigtail, and
+with joy beaming from every feature, saw me tear from it many a goodly
+mouthful. We talked--he in Norwegian, I in a mixture of German and
+English; we chewed; we spat; we laughed and joked; we forgot all the
+discrepancies of age, nativity, condition, and future prospects; in
+short, we were brothers, by the sublime and potent free-masonry of
+tobacco. All that day my senses were entranced. I saw nothing but
+familiar faces, gulches, cañons, bar-rooms, and boozy stage-drivers;
+smelt nothing but whisky and tobacco in every flower by the wayside;
+aspired to nothing but Congress and the suffrages of my
+fellow-citizens. I was once again in my own, my beloved California.
+
+    "Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
+    His first, best country ever is at home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+CIVILIZATION IN RUSSIA.
+
+
+It may be a little startling to set out with the general proposition
+that Russia is not only very far from being a civilized country, but
+that it never can be one in the highest sense of the term. The remark
+of Peter the Great, that distance was the only serious obstacle to be
+overcome in the civilization of Russia, was such as might well be made
+by a monarch of iron will and unparalleled energy, at whose bidding a
+great city arose out of the swamps of Courland, where Nature never
+intended a city to stand. But the remark is not true in point of fact.
+Distance can be annihilated, or nearly so; and although Peter the
+Great was probably aware of that fact, he might well have reasoned
+that facility of intercommunication is not so much the cause as the
+result of civilization. The wilderness may be made to blossom as the
+rose through human agency, but it can only be done by divine
+permission. I think that permission has been withheld in the case of a
+very considerable portion of Russia. No human power can successfully
+contend against the depressing influences of a climate scarcely
+paralleled for its rigor. Where there are four months of a summer, to
+which the scorching heats of Africa can scarcely bear a comparison,
+and from six to eight months of a polar winter, it is utterly
+impossible that the moral and intellectual faculties of man can be
+brought to the highest degree of perfection. There must, of course,
+always be exceptions to every general rule; but even in the dark and
+bloody history of Russia we find that the exceptions of superior
+intelligence and enlightenment have been chiefly confined to those who
+availed themselves of the advantages afforded by more temperate
+climes. Peter himself, the greatest of the Czars, and certainly the
+most gifted of his race in point of intellect, perfected his education
+in other countries, and in all his grand enterprises of improvement
+availed himself of the intellect and experience of other races. Every
+important improvement introduced into Russia during his reign was the
+product of some other country, executed under foreign supervision.
+This, perhaps, more than any thing else, may be said to afford the
+most striking evidence of the enlarged and progressive character of
+his mind. Yet the very same practice has been followed to a greater or
+less extent by all his successors, and still, with the exception of a
+railroad built by Americans, a telegraph system, a few French
+fashions, and a movement professing to have for its object the
+emancipation of the serfs, the country, beyond the limits of the
+sea-port districts and those parts bordering on the States of Germany,
+has advanced but little toward civilization since the reign of Peter.
+
+With such a vast extent of territory, and such a variety of climates
+as it must necessarily embrace, it may seem rather a broad assertion
+to say that climate can be any obstacle to Russian civilization; but
+let us glance for a moment at the general character of the country.
+Between the sixtieth and seventy-eighth degrees of north latitude,
+embracing a considerable portion of European and Asiatic Russia, the
+winters are exceedingly long and severe, the summers so short that but
+little dependence can be placed upon crops. The greater part of this
+region consists of lakes, swamps, forests of pine, and extensive and
+barren plains. The mines of Siberia may be regarded as the most
+valuable feature in this desolate region. The production of flax and
+hemp in the province of Petersburg, and the lumber products of the
+forests which are accessible to the capital, give some importance to
+such portions as border on the southern and European limit of this
+great belt; but its general features are opposed to agricultural
+progress. Whatever of civilization can exist within it must be of
+forced growth, and be maintained under the most adverse circumstances.
+South of this, between the fifty-fifth and sixtieth degrees of
+latitude, comes a still wider and more extensive region, comprising
+St. Petersburg, Riga, Moscow, Smolensk, and a portion of Irkutsk and
+Nijni Novgorod. Here the summers are longer and the winters not quite
+so severe; but a large portion of the country consists of forests,
+sterile plains, and extensive marshes, and much of it is entirely
+unfit for cultivation. The European portions are well settled, and
+corn, flax, and hemp are produced wherever the land is available, and
+large bands of cattle roam over many parts of the country. In its
+general aspect, however, considering the duration and severity of the
+winters, and the large proportion of unavailable lands, I do not think
+it can ever become very productive in an agricultural point of view.
+Between fifty and fifty-five degrees latitude, embracing the valley of
+the Volga, is a more favored region, abounding in fertile lands, and
+the summers are longer, but the winters are still severe, especially
+in the eastern portions. From latitude forty-three to fifty, embracing
+portions of Kief, the Caucasus, and other southern possessions of the
+empire, the winters are comparatively temperate, and the summers warm
+and long; but here, again, a great portion of this country consists of
+mountains, arid plains, and deserts, and it is subject to extreme and
+terrible droughts. Here is a vast extent of territory, comprising
+about one hundred and sixty-five degrees of longitude and thirty-five
+of latitude, which contains within its limits a greater variety of bad
+climates, and a greater amount of land unavailable for any purposes of
+human life, than any equal compass of territory upon the globe, if we
+except Africa, which is at least doubtful. Within the limits of this
+vast, and, for the most part, inhospitable region, we find nearly all
+the races who, as far back as the history of mankind dates, have been
+the most addicted to predatory wars, and the indulgence of every
+savage propensity growing out of an untamable nature--Tartars,
+Cossacks, gipsies, Turks, Circassians, Georgians, etc., and the
+Russians proper, whose wild Sclavonic blood contains very nearly all
+the vices and virtues that circulate through the veins of all these
+races, besides many enterprising and unscrupulous traits of character
+to which the inferior tribes could never aspire. Here we have a mixed
+population, estimated in 1856 at seventy-one millions, including North
+American possessions and tributary tribes, a great part of it composed
+of totally incongruous elements, and with a variety of religions,
+embracing about nine millions of Roman, Armenian, and irregular Greek
+Catholics, Lutherans, Mohammedans, Israelites, and Buddhists--the
+national creed being the Greco-Russe, which, it is estimated, is
+professed by about fifty millions of the inhabitants, including, of
+course, infants and young children, and many others who know nothing
+about it. To keep all these incongruous elements in order, and provide
+against foreign invasion, requires a standing army of 577,859 troops
+"for grand operations," as the last almanac expresses it, besides
+various _corps de reserve_, and a navy of 186 from steamers, 41 large
+sailing vessels, and numerous gun-boats and smaller vessels, in the
+Baltic, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the White Sea, and the Sea of
+Azof. More than seven eighths of these are frozen up and totally
+unavailable for six months every year. It is estimated that, after
+allowing for the forces necessary to protect the home possessions of
+the empire, of which Russian Poland is the most troublesome, the
+number of troops that can be brought into active offensive operation
+does not, under ordinary circumstances, exceed two hundred thousand
+men, and it must be obvious, considering that Russia has but little
+external sea-board, and must submit to the rigors of a climate which
+locks up the best part of her navy at least half of every year, that
+she can never attain any great strength as a naval power. I am
+inclined to believe, therefore, that while this great nation, or
+combination of nations, is, from the very nature of its climate and
+topography, almost impregnable to foreign invasion, it can never
+become a very formidable power at any great distance from home; and
+there are considerations connected with its form of government, and
+the difficulty or impracticability of changing it, which, in my
+opinion, forms an insuperable obstacle to the education of the people,
+and such general dissemination of intelligence among the masses as
+will entitle them to take the highest rank among civilized nations.
+Nor does the history of Russia during past ages afford much
+encouragement for a different view of the future. Democracy existed
+for several centuries before the country became subject to despotic
+rule, and from the ninth to the fifteenth century the aristocracy
+possessed no hereditary privileges; the offices of state were
+accessible to all, and the peasantry enjoyed personal liberty. It was
+not until the reign of Peter the Great--the high-priest of
+civilization--that the serfs became absolute slaves subject to sale,
+with or without the lands upon which they lived. In respect to
+political liberty, there has been little, if any advance since the
+reign of the Empress Catherine, who accorded some elective privileges
+to certain classes of her subjects in the provinces, and reduced the
+administration of the laws to something like a system. The absurd
+pretense of Alexander I. in according to the Senate the right of
+remonstrating against imperial decrees is perfectly in keeping with
+all grants of power made by the sovereigns of Russia to their
+subjects. There is not, and can not be in the nature of things, a
+limited despotism. As soon as the subjects possess constitutional
+rights at all binding upon the supreme authority, it becomes another
+form of government. The great difficulty in Russia is, that the
+sovereign can not divest himself of any substantial part of his power
+without adding to that of the nobles and the aristocracy, who are
+already, by birth, position, and instinct, the class most to be
+feared, and most inimical to the process of freedom. It is not
+altogether the ignorance of the masses, therefore, that forms an
+insuperable barrier to the introduction of more liberal institutions,
+but the wealth, intelligence, and influence of the higher classes, who
+neither toil nor spin, but derive their support from the labor of the
+masses whom they hold in subjection. It is natural enough they should
+oppose every reform tending to elevate these subordinate classes upon
+whom they are dependent for all the powers and luxuries of their
+position. Admitting that the present emperor may have a leaning toward
+free institutions, and possibly contemplate educating forty or fifty
+millions of his subjects to run him into the Presidency of Russia, it
+is obvious that the path is very thorny, and that the position will be
+well earned if ever he gets there. But these acts of sovereign
+condescension, although they read very well in newspapers, and serve
+to entertain mankind with vague ideas of the progress of freedom, are
+generally the essence of an intense egotism, and amount to nothing
+more than cunning devices to subvert what little of liberty their
+subjects may be likely to extort from them by the maintenance of their
+rights. I do not say that Alexander II. is governed by these motives,
+but, having no faith in kings or despots of any kind, however good
+they may be, I can see no reason why he should prove any better than
+his predecessors. Upon this point let me tell you an anecdote. You are
+aware, perhaps, that the Finns have a Constitution which allows them
+to do what they please, provided it be pleasing to the emperor. Like
+the ukase of Alexander I. to the Senate, and all similar grants of
+authority, it is not worth the parchment upon which it is written, and
+in its practical operation is no better than a practical joke. The
+Finns, however, are a brave, simple minded, and rather superstitious
+people, and take some pride in this Constitution. It is the ghost of
+liberty at all events, and they indulge in the hope that some day or
+other it will fish up the dead body. Not more than a few weeks ago, a
+small party of these worthy people, on their way to Stockholm for
+purposes of business or pleasure, were arrested and put in prison by
+the Russian authorities on the supposition that they differed from the
+emperor in his interpretation of this liberal Constitution, and were
+going to Sweden to lay their grievances before their old compatriots.
+It is quite possible that this was true. I heard complaints made when
+I was in Helsingfors that there was quite a difference of opinion on
+the subject. But it is a marvel how they could misunderstand their
+right under the Constitution, when there is a strong military force
+stationed at the principal cities of Finland to make it intelligible.
+So thought the emperor or his subordinates, and put them in jail to
+give them light. The point in the transaction which strikes me most
+forcibly is, that a power like that of Russia, after having wrested
+the province of Finland from Sweden, with an army and navy far
+inferior to what she now possesses, should be afraid that a handful of
+Finns should tell a pitiful tale to the King of Sweden, and prevail
+upon him to take their country back again. If this be the freedom
+granted under the free Constitution of Finland, the restraints upon
+personal liberty must be pretty stringent in dependencies where no
+Constitutions at all exist.
+
+By a natural law, the waves of despotism gather strength and volume as
+they spread from the central power. It is scarcely an exaggeration to
+say that the Autocrat of Russia is the least despotic of all the
+despots in authority. The landed proprietors in the remote provinces
+too often rule their dependents with an iron rod, and the strong arm
+of the supreme authority is more frequently exercised in the
+protection than in the oppression of the lower classes. The tribunals
+of justice in these districts are corrupt, and the laws, as they are
+administered by the subordinate officers of the government, afford but
+little chance of justice to the ignorant masses. The landed
+proprietors are subjected to various exactments and oppressions from
+the governors, and these again are at the mercy of the various
+colleges or departments above them, and so on up to the imperial
+council and imperial presence. Each class or grade becomes
+independent, despotic, and corrupt in proportion as they recede from
+the central authority, having a greater latitude of power, and being
+less apprehensive of punishment for its abuse. In truth, the nobles
+and aristocracy are the immediate oppressors of the ignorant masses,
+who are taught to regard them as demigods, and bow down before them in
+slavish abasement. Now and then, in extreme cases, where the autocrat
+discovers abuses which threaten to impair his authority, he sends some
+of these aspiring gentlemen on a tour of pleasure to Siberia, and thus
+practically demonstrates that there is a ruling power in the land. As
+all authority emanates from him, and all responsibility rests with
+him, so all justice, liberality, fair dealing, and humanity are apt to
+find in a good sovereign, under such a system, their best friend and
+most conscientious supporter. The success of his government, the
+prosperity and happiness of his people, even the perpetuity of the
+entire political system, depend upon the judicious and equitable use
+which he makes of his power. There are limits to human forbearance, as
+sovereigns have discovered by this time. The Czar is but a man, a mere
+mortal, after all, and can only hold his authority through the
+consent, indifference, or ignorance of his subjects; but should he
+oppress them by extraordinary punishments or exactions, or withdraw
+from them his protection against the petty tyranny of his
+subordinates, he would find, sooner or later, that the most degraded
+can be aroused to resentment. It is the belief on the part of the
+peasantry, of which the population of Russia is in so large a part
+formed, that the emperor is their friend--that he does not willingly
+or unnecessarily deprive them of their liberties. This tends to keep
+them in subjection. Indeed, they have but faint notions of liberty, if
+any at all, born as they are to a condition of servitude, and reared
+in abject submission to the governing authorities. They are generally
+well satisfied if they can get enough to eat; and, when they are not
+subjected to cruel and unusual abuses, are comparatively happy.
+
+The unreasonable assumptions of power on the part of their immediate
+governing authorities present a trait common to mankind. We know from
+experience in our own country that the negro-driver on a Southern
+plantation--a slave selected from slaves--is often more tyrannical in
+the use of authority than the overseer or owner. We know that there
+are hard and unfeeling overseers on many plantations, where the owner
+is comparatively mild and humane. So far as he knows any thing of the
+details of his own affairs, his natural disposition accords with his
+interest, and he is favorable to the kind treatment of his slaves. But
+he can not permit them to become intelligent beings. They may study
+all the mechanical arts which may be useful to him--become
+blacksmiths, carpenters, or machinists, but they must not learn that
+they are held in servitude, and that the Almighty has given him no
+natural right to live upon their earnings, or enjoy his pleasure or
+power at the expense of their labor and their freedom. The same
+condition of things, with some variation, of course, arising from
+differences of climate and races, exists in Russia, and the results
+are not altogether dissimilar. We find idleness, lack of principle,
+overbearing manners, ignorance, and sensualism a very common
+characteristic of the superior classes, mingled though it may be with
+a show of fine manners, and such trivial and superficial
+accomplishments as may be obtained without much labor. It is a great
+negro plantation on a large scale, in which the gradation of powers
+has a depressing tendency, causing them to increase in rigor as they
+descend, like a stone dropped from a height, which at first might be
+caught in the open hand, but soon acquires force enough to brain an
+ox.
+
+One of the effects of the strong coercive powers of the government is
+perceptible in this, that the greatest latitude prevails in every
+thing that does not interfere with the maintenance of political
+authority; and although it is difficult, in such a country, to find
+much that comes within that category, occasional exceptions may be
+found. Thus drunkenness, debauchery, indecency, and reckless,
+prodigal, and filthy habits, are but little regarded, while the
+slightest approach to the acquisition of a liberal education, or the
+expression of liberal opinions on any subject connected with public
+polity, is rigidly prohibited. Most of the English newspapers are
+excluded from the empire, although if admitted they would have but few
+general readers among the Russians--certainly not many among the
+middle or lower classes. No publication on political economy, no work
+of any kind relating to the science of government or the natural
+rights of man; nothing, in short, calculated to impair the faith of
+the people in the necessity of their political servitude, is permitted
+to enter the country without a most careful examination. A rigid
+censorship is exercised over the press, the libraries, the public
+colleges, the schools, and all institutions having in view the
+education of the people and the dissemination of intelligence. The
+Censorial Bureau is in itself an important branch of the government,
+having its representatives diffused throughout every province, in
+every public institution, and even extending its ramifications into
+the sacred realms of private life; for it is a well-known fact that a
+family can not employ a private tutor whose antecedents and political
+proclivities have not undergone the scrutiny and received the official
+sanction of the censorial authorities.
+
+How can a country, under such circumstances, be expected to take a
+high rank among the enlightened nations of the earth? The very germ of
+its existence is founded in the suppression of intelligence. It may
+enjoy a limited advancement, but there can be no great progress in any
+direction which does not tend at the same time to the subversion of a
+despotic rule. Even the theatres, operas, _cafés_, and all places of
+public amusement, are under the same rigid surveillance. No play can
+be performed, no opera given, no _café_ opened, no garden amusements
+offered to the public, unless under the supervision and with the
+sanction of the censorial authorities. In all well-regulated
+communities there must be, of course, some local or municipal
+restrictions respecting popular amusements, based upon a regard for
+public morals, but in this case the question of morality is not taken
+into much account. Provided there is nothing politically objectionable
+in the performance, and it has no tendency to make the people better
+acquainted with the rottenness of courts, the selfishness, wickedness,
+and insincerity of men in authority, and their own rights as human
+beings--provided the theme be _Jishn za Zara_--"Your life for your
+Czar," or the exhibition a voluptuous display--provided it be merely a
+matter of abject adulation or fashionable sensation, the most
+fastidious censor can find no fault with it. What, then, does the
+education of the masses amount to? We read of lectures for the
+diffusion of knowledge among the people; of colleges for young men; of
+various institutions of learning; of a liberal system of common
+schools for the poor. All this is very well in its way. A little light
+is better than none when the road is crooked, and the country abounds
+in ruts and deep pitfalls. But the lights shed by these institutions
+are much obscured by the official glasses through which they shine.
+The building of fortifications; the manufacture of gunpowder; the use
+of guns and swords; the beauties of rhetoric abounding in the drill
+manual; the eloquence of batteries and broadsides; the poetry of
+ditching and draining; the ethics of primary obedience to the
+authorities, and afterward to God and reason; all that pertains to
+rapine, bloodshed, and wholesale murder--the noble art of mutilating
+men in the most effective manner, and the best method of cutting them
+up or putting them together again when that is done; the horrid sin of
+using one's own lights on any internal problem of right or wrong,
+religion or public policy, when the emperor, in the plenitude of his
+generosity, furnishes light enough out of his individual head for
+sixty-five millions of people--these are the principal themes upon
+which the intellects of the rising generation of Russia are nourished.
+In the primary schools a select and authorized few are taught reading,
+writing, and arithmetic, but they seldom get much farther, and not
+always that far, before subordinate positions in the army or navy are
+found for them. Their education is indeed very limited, and may be set
+down as an exception to the general ignorance.
+
+It will thus be seen that the whole system of education has but one
+object in view, the maintenance of a military despotism. In this it
+would scarcely be reasonable to search for cause of complaint.
+Doubtless the acquisition of knowledge is encouraged as far as may be
+consistent with public security and public peace. But it is obvious
+that under such a system these people can never emerge from their
+condition of semi-barbarism. They must continue behind the spirit of
+the age in all that pertains to the highest order of civilization.
+Science, in a limited sense, may find a few votaries; the arts may be
+cultivated to a certain degree; a feeble school of literature may
+attain the eminence of a national feature; but there can be no general
+expansion of the intellectual faculties, no enlarged and comprehensive
+views of life and of human affairs. Whatever these people do must be
+subservient to military rule; beyond that there can be little advance
+save in what is palpable to the grosser senses, or what panders to the
+savagery of their nature. A statesman or a philosopher, with
+independence enough to think and speak the truth if his views differed
+from those of the constituted authorities, would be a very dangerous
+character, and be very apt to pursue his career, in company with all
+who have hitherto aspired to distinction in that way, beyond the
+confines of Siberia. Russia may produce many Karasmins to write
+glowing histories of her wars and conquests, but her Burkes, her
+Pitts, and her Foxes will be few, and her Shakspeares and her Bacons
+fewer still. Her Pascal's Reflections will be tinged with Siberian
+horrors; her Young's Night Thoughts will be of the dancing damsels of
+St. Petersburg; her Vicars of Wakefield will abound in the genial
+humor of devils and dragons, saints and tortures; and the wit of her
+Sidney Smiths will have a crack of the knout about it, skinning men's
+back's rather than their backslidings; effective only when it draws
+human blood, and best approved by the censors when it strikes at human
+freedom.
+
+We find the results of such a system strongly marked upon the general
+character. While equals are jealous of each other, inferiors are
+slavish and superiors tyrannical. It is often the case that
+overbearing manners and abject humility are centred in the same class
+or person. Thus the Camarilla are overbearing to the bureaucracy, the
+bureaucracy to the provincial nobility, and the provincial nobility to
+the inferior classes. As I said before, it is a sliding-scale of
+despotism. The worst feature of it is seen in the treatment of women.
+Among the better classes conventionality has, doubtless, somewhat
+meliorated their condition. Absolute physical cruelty would be,
+perhaps, a violation of etiquette and good breeding; but neglect,
+selfishness, innate coarseness of thought, and a general want of
+chivalrous appreciation, are too common in the treatment of Russian
+women not to strike the most casual observer. Certainly the
+impressions of one who has been taught from infancy to regard the
+gentler sex as entitled to the most profound respect and chivalrous
+devotion--to look upon them as beings of a more delicate essence than
+man, yet infinitely superior in those moral attributes which rise so
+high above intellect or physical power--are not favorable to the
+assumptions of Russian civilization. Yet, since the condition of woman
+is but little better in any part of Europe, it may be that this is one
+of the fashions imported from France or Germany, and since these two
+claim to be the most polite and cultivated nations in existence, it is
+even possible that the Americans--a rude people, who have not yet had
+time to polish their manners or perfect their customs--may be mistaken
+in their estimate of the ladies, and will, some day or other, become
+more Europeanized.
+
+But, in all fairness, if the Russians be a little uncouth in their
+way, they possess, like bears, a wonderful aptness in learning to
+dance; if the brutal element is strong in their nature, so also is the
+capacity to acquire frivolous and meretricious accomplishments. Like
+all races in which the savage naturally predominates, they delight in
+the glitter of personal decoration, the allurements of music, dancing,
+and the gambling-table, and all the luxuries of idleness and sensuous
+folly--traits which they share pretty generally with the rest of
+mankind. Tropical gardens, where the thermometer is twenty degrees
+below zero; feasts and frolics that in a single night may leave them
+beggars for life; military shows; the smoke and carnage of battle; the
+worship of their saints and Czars--these are their chief pleasures and
+most genial occupations.
+
+But, with all this folly and prodigality, there is really a great deal
+of native generosity in the Russian character. Liberal to a fault in
+every thing but the affairs of government, they freely bestow their
+wealth upon charitable institutions, and, whether rich or poor, are
+ever ready to extend the hand of relief to the distresses of their
+fellow-creatures. It is rarely they hoard their gains. There are few
+who do not live up to the full measure of their incomes, and most of
+them very far beyond. Whether they spend their means for good or for
+evil, they are at least free from the groveling sin of stinginess. I
+never met more than one stingy Russian to my knowledge; but let him
+go. He reaped his reward in the dislike of all who knew him. Toward
+each other, even the beggars are liberal. There is nothing little or
+contemptible in the Russian character. Overbearing and despotic they
+may be; deficient in the gentler traits which grace a more cultivated
+people; but meanness is not one of their failings. In this they
+present a striking contrast to a large and influential portion of
+their North German neighbors, for whose sordid souls Beelzebub might
+search in vain through the desert wastes that lie upon the little end
+of a cambric needle.
+
+In some respects the Russians evince a more enlarged appreciation of
+the world's progress than many of their European neighbors. They have
+no fixed prejudices against mechanical improvements of any kind. Quick
+to appreciate every advance in the useful arts, they are ever ready to
+accept and put in practical operation whatever they see in other
+countries better than the product of their own. Thus they adopt
+English and American machinery, railways, telegraphs, improvements in
+artillery, and whatever else they deem beneficial, or calculated to
+augment their prosperity and power as a nation. While in Germany it
+would be almost an impossibility to introduce the commonest and most
+obvious improvement in the mechanical arts--if we except railways and
+telegraphs, which have become a military and political necessity,
+growing out of the progress of neighboring powers--while many of their
+fabrics are still made by hand, and their mints, presses, and
+fire-engines are of almost primeval clumsiness, the Russians eagerly
+grasp at all novelties, and are wonderfully quick in the comprehension
+of their uses and advantages. A similar comparison might be made in
+reference to the freedom of internal trade, and the encouragement
+given to every industrial pursuit among the people, being the exact
+reverse of the policy pursued by the German governments. Thus, while
+we find them backward in the refinements of literature and
+intellectual culture, it is beyond doubt that they possess wonderful
+natural capacity to learn. They lack steadiness and perseverance, and
+are not always governed by the best motives; but in boldness of
+spirit, disregard of narrow prejudice, ability to conceive and
+execute what they desire to accomplish, they have few equals and no
+superiors. Combined with these admirable traits, their wild Sclavonic
+blood abounds in elements which, upon great occasions, arise to the
+eminence of a sublime heroism. Brave and patriotic, devoted to their
+country and their religion, we search the pages of history in vain for
+a parallel to their sacrifices in the defense of both. Not even the
+wars of the Greeks and Romans can produce such an example of heroic
+devotion to the maintenance of national integrity as the burning of
+Moscow. When an entire people, devoted to their religion, gave up
+their churches and their shrines to the devouring element; when
+princes and nobles placed the burning brands to their palaces; when
+bankers, merchants, and tradesmen freely yielded up their hard-earned
+gains; when women and children joined the great work of destruction to
+deliver their country from the hands of a ruthless invader, it may
+well be said of that sublime flame--
+
+    "Thou stand'st alone unrivall'd, till the fire,
+    To come, in which all empires shall expire."
+
+Truly, when we glance back at the national career of the Russians,
+they can not but strike us as a wonderful people. While we must
+condemn their cruelty and rapacity; while we can see nothing to excuse
+in their ferocious persecution of the Turks; while the greater part of
+their history is a bloody record of injustice to weaker nations, we
+can not but admire their indomitable courage, their intense and
+unalterable attachment to their brave old Czars, and their sublime
+devotion to their religion and their nationality.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+PASSAGE TO REVEL.
+
+
+It was not without a feeling of regret that I took my departure from
+St. Petersburg. Short as my visit to Russia had been, it was full of
+interest. Not a single day had been idly or unprofitably spent.
+Indeed, I know of no country that presents so many attractions to the
+traveler who takes pleasure in novelties of character and
+peculiarities of manners and customs. The lovers of picturesque
+scenery will find little to gratify his taste in a mere railroad
+excursion to Moscow; but with ample time and means at his disposal, a
+journey to the Ural Mountains, or a voyage down the Volga to the
+Caspian Sea, would doubtless be replete with interest. For my part,
+much as I enjoy the natural beauties of a country through which I
+travel, they never afford me as much pleasure as the study of a
+peculiar race of people. Mere scenery, however beautiful, becomes
+monotonous, unless it be associated with something that gives it a
+varied and striking human interest. The mountains and lakes of
+Scotland derive their chief attractions from the wild legends of
+romance and chivalry so inseparably connected with them; and
+Switzerland would be but a dreary desert of glaciers without its
+history. In Russia, Nature has been less prodigal in her gifts; and
+the real interest of the country centres in its public institutions,
+the religious observances of the people, and the progress of
+civilization under a despotic system of government. Of these I have
+endeavored to give you such impressions as may be derived from a
+sojourn of a few weeks in Moscow and St. Petersburg--necessarily
+imperfect and superficial, but I trust not altogether destitute of
+amusing features.
+
+On a pleasant morning in August, I called for my "rechnung" at the
+German gasthaus on the Wasseli-Ostrow. The bill was complicated in
+proportion to its length. There was an extra charge of fifteen kopeks
+a day for the room over and above the amount originally specified.
+That was conscientious cheating, so I made no complaint. Then there
+was a charge for two candles when I saw but one, and always went to
+bed by daylight. That was customary cheating, and could not be
+disputed. Next came an item for beefsteaks, when, to the best of my
+knowledge and belief, nothing but veal cutlets, which were also duly
+specified, ever passed my lips in any part of Russia. Upon that I
+ventured a remonstrance, but gave in on the assurance that it was
+Russian beefsteak. I was too glad to have any ground for believing
+that it was not Russian dog. Next came an item for police commissions.
+All that work I had done myself, and therefore was entitled to demur.
+It appeared that a man was kept for that purpose, and when he was not
+employed he expected remuneration for the disappointment. Then there
+was an item for domestic service, when the only service rendered was
+to black my boots, for which I had already paid. No matter; it was
+customary, so I gave in. Then came sundry bottles of wine. I never
+drink wine. "But," said the proprietor, "it was on the table." Not
+being able to dispute that, I abandoned the question of wine. Various
+ices were in the bill. I had asked for a lump of ice in a glass of
+water on several occasions, supposing it to be a common article in a
+country on the edge of the Arctic circle, but for every lump of ice
+the charge was ten kopeks. Upon this principle, I suppose they attach
+an exorbitant value to thawed water during six months of the year,
+when the Neva is a solid block of ice. I find that ice is an
+uncommonly costly luxury in Northern Europe, where there is a great
+deal of it. In Germany it is ranked with fresh water and other deadly
+poisons; in Russia it costs too much for general use; and in Norway
+and Sweden, where the snow-capped mountains are always in sight, the
+people seem to be unacquainted with the use of iced water, or, indeed,
+any other kind of water as a beverage in summer. They drink brandy and
+schnapps to keep themselves cool. However, I got through the bill at
+last, without loss of temper, being satisfied it was very reasonable
+for St. Petersburg. Having paid for every article real and imaginary;
+paid each servant individually for looking at me; then paid for
+domestic services generally; paid the proprietor for speaking his
+native language, which was German, and the commissioner for wearing a
+brass band on his cap, and bowing several times as I passed out, the
+whole matter was amicably concluded, and, with my knapsack on my back,
+I wended my way down to the steam-boat landing of the Wasseli-Ostrow.
+As I was about to step on board the Russian steamer bound for
+Revel--an eager crowd of passengers pressing in on the plankway from
+all sides--I was forcibly seized by the arm. Supposing it to be an
+arrest for some unconscious violation of the police regulations, a
+ghastly vision of Siberia flashed upon my mind as I turned to demand
+an explanation. But it was not a policeman who arrested me--it was
+only my friend, Herr Batz, the rope-maker, who, with a flushed face
+and starting eyes, gazed at me. "Where are you going?" said he. "To
+Revel," said I. Almost breathless from his struggle to get at me, he
+forcibly pulled me aside from the crowd, drew me close up to him, and
+in a hoarse whisper uttered these remarkable words: "_Hempf is up!_ It
+took a rise yesterday--_Zweimal zwey macht vier, und sechsmal vier
+macht vier und zwanzig! verstehen sie?_" "Gott im Himmel!" said I,
+"you don't say so?" "_Ya, freilich!_" groaned Herr Batz, hoarsely:
+"_Zwey tausent rubles! verstehen sie? Sechs und dreissig, und acht und
+vierzig._" "Ya! ya!" said I, grasping him cordially by the hand, for I
+was afraid the steamer would leave--"_Adjeu, mein Herr! adjeu!_" and I
+darted away into the crowd. The last I saw of the unfortunate
+rope-maker, he was standing on the quay, waving his red cotton
+handkerchief at me. As the lines were cast loose, and the steamer
+swung out into the river, he put both hands to his mouth, and shouted
+out something which the confusion of sounds prevented me from hearing
+distinctly. I was certain, however, that the last word that fell upon
+my ear was "_hempf_!"
+
+The Neva at this season of the year presents a most animated and
+picturesque appearance. A little above the landing-place of the Baltic
+steamers, a magnificent bridge connects the Wasseli-Ostrow with the
+main part of the city, embracing the Winter Palace, the Admiralty, and
+the Nevskoi, generally known as the Bolshaia, or Great Side. Below
+this bridge, as far as the eye can reach in the direction of the Gulf
+of Finland, the glittering waters of the Neva are alive with various
+kinds of shipping--merchant vessels from all parts of the world;
+fishing smacks from Finland and Riga; lumber vessels from Tornea;
+wood-boats from the interior; Russian and Prussian steamers;
+row-boats, skiffs, and fancy colored canoes, with crews and passengers
+representing many nations of the earth, are in perpetual motion; and
+while the sight is bewildered by the variety of moving objects, the
+ears are confounded by the strange medley of languages.
+
+Through this confused web of obstacles, the little steamer in which I
+had taken passage worked her way cautiously and systematically,
+catching a rope here and there for a sudden swing to the right or to
+the left, stopping and backing from time to time, and feeling with her
+nose for the narrow channels of the river, till she was fairly out of
+danger, when, with a blast of the whistle and a heavy pressure of
+steam, she dashed forth into the open waters of the gulf.
+
+As we gradually receded, I turned to take a last look at the mighty
+Venice of the North. The gold-covered domes of the churches, rising
+high above the massive ranges of palaces, were glittering brilliantly
+in the sunlight; the variegated shipping of the Neva was growing dim
+in the distance; the masses of foliage that crowned the islands were
+of tropical luxuriance, and the whole city, with its palaces,
+fortifications, and churches, seemed to rest upon the surface of the
+waters. It was a sight not soon to be forgotten. I turned toward the
+dark and stern fortresses of Cronstadt, now breaking in strong outline
+through the golden haze of the morning, and thought of the grim old
+Czar who had thus battled with Nature, and planted a mighty city in
+the wilderness; and thus musing, sighed to think that such a man
+should have lacked the warmth divine which sheds the only true and
+enduring lustre upon human greatness.
+
+After the usual detention at Cronstadt for the examination of
+passports, the steamer once more started on her way, and in a few
+hours nothing was in sight save the shores of the gulf dim on the
+horizon, and the sails of distant vessels looming up in the haze.
+
+I now, for the first time, had leisure to look at my
+fellow-passengers.
+
+A Russian steamer during the pleasure season is a floating Babel.
+Here, within the limits of a few dozen feet, were the representatives
+of almost every nation from the Arctic circle to the tropics--Finns
+and Swedes, Norwegians and Danes, Tartars and Russians, Poles and
+Germans, Frenchmen and Englishmen, South Americans, and--I was going
+to say North Americans, of which, however, I was the sole
+representative.
+
+It was a motley assemblage--a hodge-podge of humanity, a kind of
+living pot-pourri of dirty faces and dirty shirts, military uniforms,
+slouched hats, blowses, and big boots. There was a Russian general,
+who always stood at the cabin door to show himself to the rest of the
+passengers. I don't know for the life of me what he was angry about,
+but his face wore a perpetual frown of indignation, scorn, and
+contempt; his black brows were constitutionally knit; his eyes seemed
+to be always trying to overpower and knock somebody under; his lips
+were firmly compressed, and his mustaches stood out like a dagger on
+each side, with the handles wrapped in a bundle of dirty hair under
+his nose. So tight was his uniform around the body and neck that it
+forced all the blood up into his face, and wouldn't let it get back
+again; and it seemed a miracle that the veins in his forehead did not
+burst and carry away the top of his head, brains and all. Opposite to
+this great man, in an attitude of profound humility, stood his
+liveried servant--a very gentlemanly-looking person, with an
+intellectual baldness covering the entire top of his cranium. This
+deferential individual wore a coat beautifully variegated before and
+behind with gold lace; a pair of plush knee-breeches, white stockings,
+and white kid gloves; and was continually engaged in bowing to the
+great man, and otherwise anticipating his wants. When the great man
+looked at a trunk, or a carpet sack, or any thing else in the line of
+baggage or traveling equipments, the liveried servant bowed very low,
+looked nervously about him, and then darted off and seized hold of the
+article in question, gave it a pull or a push, put it down again,
+looked nervously around him, hurried back and bowed again to his
+august master, who by that time was generally looking in some other
+direction with an air of great indifference--as much as to say that he
+was accustomed to that species of homage, and did not attach any
+particular value to it. The passengers regarded him with profound awe
+and admiration, and seemed to be very much afraid he would, upon some
+trifling provocation, draw his sword and attack them. I was
+determined, if ever he undertook such a demonstration of authority as
+that, to resent it with the true spirit of a Californian, and cast
+about me for some weapon of personal defense, but saw nothing likely
+to be available in an emergency of that kind except a small bucket of
+slush, with which, however, it would be practicable to "douse his
+glim." This great man, with his attendant, was bound for the sea-baths
+of Revel, where he would doubtless soon be buffeting the waves like a
+porpoise--or possibly, in virtue of the commanding powers vested in
+him by nature and the Czar of Russia, would sit down by the sea-shore
+like Hardicanute the Dane, and order the waves to retire.
+
+Then there was an old lady and her three daughters who sat on the
+camp-stools by the step-ladder; the same fat old lady, bedizened with
+finery, and the same three young ladies, with strong features and
+dismal dresses, which the traveler encounters all over the Continent
+of Europe. The old lady was in a state of chronic agony lest the young
+ladies should be forcibly seized and carried away by some daring youth
+of the male sex; and the young ladies were conscious that such was the
+general purpose of mankind, and that they were in imminent danger of
+being preyed upon in that way, and, consequently, must always hold
+down their heads and look at the seams in the deck upon the approach
+of any gallant-looking cavalier with a handsome face and a fine
+figure, to say nothing of the expressive tenderness of his eyes and
+the gracefulness of his manner, and many other fascinating features in
+the young gentleman's appearance, of which they could not be otherwise
+than entirely unconscious, since they had not taken the slightest
+notice of him, and never contemplated encouraging his advances. The
+old lady was a very discreet and proper old lady, and the young ladies
+were very discreet and proper young ladies, and they were going to the
+baths of Revel after their last winter's campaign in the fashionable
+circles of St. Petersburg; and any body could see at a glance that
+they were of a distinguished and fashionable family, because they had
+a courier and two lapdogs, and carried a coat of arms on their trunks
+and bandboxes, and were taken with violent headaches soon after
+leaving Cronstadt, and used smelling-salts.
+
+Next was the man who belongs to no particular nation, speaks every
+language, and knows every body--a shabby-genteel, middle-aged man, of
+no ostensible occupation, but always occupied. "Sare," said he, "I
+perceive you are an Englishman. I always very glad am to meet with
+Englishmen. I two years spent in London." "Indeed!" said I; "you speak
+English very well, considering you learned it in England!" "Yes,
+sare--in London--I was in business there." "Mercantile?" said I. "No,
+sare; I attended to mi-lor Granby's 'orses." "Oh! that indeed!" "Yes,
+sare;" and so the conversation went on in a manner both entertaining
+and instructive. In the course of it, I gathered that my
+shabby-genteel friend was going to Revel to attend a 'orse-race.
+
+Another conspicuous group on the deck soon after attracted my
+attention--the hungry people. This group consisted of some six or
+eight persons, male and female, of a very Jewish cast of features,
+well-dressed and lively, evidently Germans, since they spoke in the
+German language. Scarcely had the steamer cast loose from the quay
+when they opened the pile of baskets, boxes, and packages by which
+they were surrounded, and, taking out sundry loaves of bread, lumps of
+cheese, sausages, and wine-bottles, began to eat and drink with a
+voracity perfectly amazing. I was certain I had seen them a thousand
+times before. Every feature was familiar; and even their
+constitutional appetite was nothing new to me. I had never seen this
+group, or their prototype, in any public conveyance, or in any part of
+the world, without a feeling of envy at the extraordinary vigor of
+their digestive functions. Here were pale, cadaverous-looking men, and
+sallow women, who never stopped eating from morning till night, in
+rough or calm weather, in sunshine or storm; ever hungry, ever
+thirsty, ever cramming and guzzling with a degree of zest that the
+sturdiest laborer in the field could never experience; and yet they
+neither burst nor dropped down dead, nor suffered from sea-sickness.
+Doubtless they had just breakfasted before they came aboard; but, to
+make sure of it, they immediately breakfasted again. As soon as they
+were through that, they lunched; then they dined; after dinner they
+drank coffee and ate cakes; after coffee and cakes they lunched again;
+then they ate a hearty supper, and after supper whetted their
+appetites on tea and cakes; and before bedtime appeased the cravings
+of hunger with a heavy meal of sausages, brown bread, and cheese,
+which they washed down with several bottles of wine. I don't know how
+many times they got up to eat in the night, but suppose it could not
+have been more than twice or three times, since they were at it again
+by daylight in the morning as vigorously as ever. I am inclined to
+think that some people are physically so organized as to be insensible
+to the difference between a pound of food and ten pounds, as others
+are unconscious of the difference between wit and stupidity, sense and
+nonsense; such, for instance, as the humorous group, who sit by the
+companion-way, and keep themselves and every body around them in a
+continued roar of laughter. It is good to be merry; but I must confess
+it is not within the bounds of my capacity to discover a source of
+merriment in such pranks of wit as these people enjoy. A young fellow
+makes a face like an owl--every body roars laughing, the idea is so
+exquisitely comical. Another pulls his comrades by the hair, and every
+body shouts with uproarious merriment. One sly chap shoves another off
+his seat and takes possession of it--a feat so humorous that the whole
+crowd is convulsed. A bad orange, pitched across the deck, strikes an
+elderly gentleman on the bald pate--well, I had to laugh at that
+myself. By-and-by, a stout, florid young gentleman turns pale and
+groans; three or four officious friends, with twinkling eyes, seize
+him by the arms, and drag him over to the lee-scuppers, where he
+manifests still more decided symptoms of sea-sickness. His friends
+hold him, rub him, chafe him, and pat him on the back; one offers him
+a meerschaum pipe to smoke; another, a bunch of cigars; a third, a
+piece of fat meat; while a fourth tempts him with a bottle of some
+wine, all of which is uncommon fun to every body but the unfortunate
+victim. Thus the time passes away pleasantly enough, after all, taking
+into view the variety of incidents and scenes which constantly occupy
+the attention of a looker-on. I had taken a deck-passage for
+cheapness, and made out to get through the night by bundling myself up
+on a pile of baggage, and catching a few cat-naps whenever the noise
+created by these lively young gentlemen would permit of such a feat.
+
+By seven o'clock in the morning we were steering into the harbor of
+Revel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+REVEL AND HELSINGFORS.
+
+
+Few cities within the limits of the Russian dominions possess greater
+historic interest than Revel. Although its commerce is limited to a
+few annual shipments of hemp, flax, and tallow, produced in the
+province of Esthonia, and the importation of such articles of domestic
+consumption as the peasants require, it occupies a prominent position
+as a naval dépôt for Russian vessels of war, and is much frequented in
+summer by the citizens of St. Petersburg as a bathing-place and
+general resort of pleasure. A steamer leaves daily for Revel and
+Helsingfors, which, during the bathing season, is crowded with
+passengers, as in the case of my own trip, of which I have already
+given you a sketch. The approach to the harbor, in the bright morning
+sun, is exceedingly picturesque. Beyond the forest of masts and spars,
+with gayly-colored flags and streamers spread to the breeze, rises a
+group of ancient buildings on the rocky eminence called the Domberg,
+comprising the castle, the residences of the governor and commandant,
+and various palaces and quarters of the nobility, surrounded by Gothic
+walls and strong fortifications. This ancient and picturesque pile has
+been termed the Acropolis of Revel, though beyond the fact that it
+overlooks the lower town and forms a prominent feature in the scenic
+beauties of the place, it is difficult to determine in what respect it
+can bear a comparison with the famous Acropolis of Athens. However, I
+have observed that travelers find it convenient to discover
+resemblances of this kind where none exist, as a means of rounding off
+their descriptions; and since the Kremlin is styled the Acropolis of
+Moscow, I see no reason why Revel should not enjoy the same sort of
+classic association. It is to be hoped that when Russian travelers
+visit San Francisco, they will, upon the principle adopted by tourists
+in their country, do us the justice to designate Russian Hill as the
+Acropolis of San Francisco; and should they visit Sacramento during
+the existence of a flood, I have no doubt they can find a pile of
+bricks or a whisky barrel sufficiently elevated above the general
+level to merit the distinctive appellation of an Acropolis. Revel has
+suffered more frequent changes of government, and passed through the
+hands of a greater variety of rulers, than any city, perhaps, in the
+whole of Northern Europe. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it
+was a province of Denmark; subsequently it fell into the hands of the
+Swedes, and in 1347 became a possession of the Livonian Knights, a
+chivalrous and warlike order, who built castles, lived in a style of
+great luxuriance, killed, robbed, and plundered the people of the
+surrounding countries, and otherwise distinguished themselves as
+gentlemen of the first families, not one of them having ever been
+known to perform a day's useful labor in his life. Such, indeed, was
+the heroic character of these doughty knights, that, having plunged
+the whole country into ruin and distress, the peasants, driven to
+desperation, rose upon them in 1560, and completely routed and
+destroyed them, killing many, and compelling the remainder to seek
+some other occupation. This was rough treatment for gentlemen, but it
+happens from time to time in the course of history, and shows to what
+trials chivalrous blood is exposed when it can't have its own way.
+Finally Esthonia and Livonia fell into the hands of Charles II. of
+Sweden, from whom they were wrested by Peter the Great. Since that
+period these provinces have continued under the Russian dominion. From
+the time of Peter to the reign of the present emperor, Revel has been
+a favorite summer resort of the Czars. It has been rebuilt, patched,
+fortified, and improved to such an extent that it now represents
+almost every style of architecture known in Northern Europe since the
+Middle Ages. The people partake of the same characteristics, being a
+mixture of every Northern race by which the place has been inhabited
+since the reign of Eric XIV. of Denmark. I spent some hours visiting
+the churches and other objects of interest, a detailed description of
+which would scarcely be practicable within the brief limits of a
+letter. The Ritterschaftshaus, containing the armorial bearings of the
+nobility, is a place of great historical interest; but I saw nothing
+that afforded me so much amusement as the scenes in the Jahrmarket,
+where the annual summer fair is held. Here were booths and tents, and
+all sorts of wares, much in the style of the markets of the Riadi in
+Moscow, of which I have already given a description. The crowds
+gathered around those places of barter and trade appeared to enjoy a
+very free-and-easy sort of life. I could see nothing about them
+indicative of an oppressed condition. Most of them were reeling drunk,
+and such as were not drunk seemed in a fair way of speedily arriving
+at that condition of beatitude.
+
+From the Jahrmarket I strolled out to the Cathermthal, a favorite
+resort of the citizens during the heat of the day. The shady
+promenades of this magnificent garden, its natural beauties, and the
+display of equipages and costumes, render it an exceedingly agreeable
+lounging-place for a stranger. Every thing is in the Russian
+style--the pavilions, the music, the theatrical exhibitions, and the
+predominance of naval and military uniforms throughout the grounds.
+The scarcity of flowers is remedied to some extent by the profusion
+of epaulettes and brass buttons, which the emperor seems to regard as
+superior to any thing in nature. No garden that I have yet seen in
+Russia is destitute of ornaments of this kind.
+
+Gambling was going on every where--at every tea-table and in every
+pavilion. This department of civilization is well represented in Revel
+by the Russians. Horse-racing, cards, dominoes, and other amusements
+and games of hazard, are their ruling passion. A Russian who will not
+bet his head after he has lost all his valuable possessions must be a
+very poor representative of his country indeed. I have rarely seen
+such a passionate devotion to the gaming-table, even in California,
+which is not usually behind the nations of Europe in all that pertains
+to the cultivation of the human mind. Revel must be a heaven to a
+genuine Russian. All is free and unreserved, and morals are said to be
+unknown, save to a few of the old-fashioned citizens and gentry.
+Visitors usually leave their own behind them, and depend upon chance
+for a fresh supply in case of necessity.
+
+The afternoon was warm, and it occurred to me that a stroll on the
+beach would be pleasant. Accompanied by my friend the horse-jockey,
+who seemed determined to hold on to me as long as I remained in Revel,
+under the conviction, no doubt, that I was secretly engaged in the
+horse business, and would come out in my true character before long, I
+sauntered down in the direction of some bathing tents, scattered along
+the beach a little below the port. My jockey friend was continually
+trying to pump out of me upon which of the horses in the approaching
+race it was my intention to bet, urging me as a friend not to throw
+away my money on the roan or chestnut, although appearances were in
+their favor, but to go in heavy on the black mare; and notwithstanding
+I assured him it was not my intention to risk any portion of my
+capital on this race, he was pertinacious in giving me his advice, and
+could not be convinced that I know nothing about the horses, and
+never bet on races of any kind. "Sare," said he, "you are a stranger.
+These Russians are great rascals. They will cheat you out of your
+eyes. I speakee English. I am your friend." I thanked him very
+cordially, but assured him there was no danger of my being cheated. He
+then went into a dissertation on the relative merits of the horses, to
+prove that it was impossible for me, a perfect stranger, to escape
+bankruptcy among so many sharpers. "But," said I, "the horse-race
+takes place to-morrow, does it not?" "Yes, sare, to-morrow at three
+o'clock! You will be there? I shall also be there!" "But, my good
+friend, I leave to-night in the steamer; therefore all your kindness
+is thrown away!" "Oh! you must not leave to-night. You must see the
+horse-race!" In vain I assured him it was impossible for me to remain.
+He was not to be put off on any pretext, and, having made up his mind
+that I must remain, I was forced to drop the subject and let him have
+his way. While he was enlarging upon the merits of the black mare, my
+attention was attracted by a group of bathers--ladies, as I judged by
+their voices, though, as they were dressed in rather a fantastic
+style, I could not perceive any other indication of the sex. One of
+the party--a lively young girl of sixteen or seventeen--seemed to be a
+perfect mermaid. She plunged and swam, ducked and dived, kicked up her
+delicate little feet, and disappeared under the surf in a way that
+struck me with awe and admiration. Never was there such an enchanting
+picture of perfect abandonment to the enjoyment of the occasion. A
+poetic feeling I took possession of me. Visions of grottoes under the
+deep sea waves, and beautiful princesses and maidens, filled my soul.
+I thought of Gulnare in the Arabian Nights, and felt disposed, like
+Mirza, the King of Persia, to "embrace her with great tenderness." It
+was really a very pretty sight. "Sare," said my companion,
+confidentially, "take my advice. She is blind of one eye, and has a
+strain in the fore leg, but you may bet on her! I jockeyed her for
+six months before the last race." He was still talking about the black
+mare. I turned away to hide my impatience. After a few words of
+desultory conversation, I excused myself on the plea of sickness, and
+bade him good-evening.
+
+At 8 P.M. I took my departure from Revel. A new batch of passengers
+had come on board. We were soon steaming our way across the Gulf of
+Finland. I had rarely spent a more pleasant day, and, if time had
+permitted, would gladly have prolonged my sojourn in the quaint old
+city of Revel. The summer nights were still incomparably beautiful. A
+glow of sunshine was visible in the sky as late as eleven o'clock. At
+two, the rays of the rising sun began to illuminate the horizon. A
+dead calm gave to the sleeping waters of the Gulf the appearance of a
+lake; and as we approached the shores of Helsingfors, the illusion was
+heightened by innumerable little islands, clothed with verdant slopes
+of grass and groves of pine. The harbor of Helsingfors derives a
+peculiar interest from its system of fortifications. Nature seems to
+have done much to render it impregnable; and what Nature has not done
+has been accomplished by the military genius of the Russians. Immense
+masses of rock rise from the water in every direction, leaving deep
+narrow passages between for vessels. Every rock is a fortress. The
+steamer passed through a perfect maze of fortifications. Guns bore
+upon us from all sides--out of the forts, out of holes in the
+rocks--in short, out of every conceivable nook and crevice in the bay.
+The very rocks seemed to be alive with sentinels and to bustle with
+armories. Probably there is no part of the Russian dominions, except
+Cronstadt, more thoroughly fortified than Sweaborg. The system of
+engineering displayed upon this point evinces the highest order of
+military genius. The fortifications embrace a series of forts,
+castles, barracks, and military establishments of various kinds,
+situated on seven islands of solid rock, forming the different
+channels of approach to the harbor. Count Ehrensuerd, Field-marshal
+of Sweden, is entitled to the credit of having devised the original
+system of fortifications, afterward so successfully carried out by the
+Czars of Russia. This was the last rallying-point of the Swedes during
+the war with Russia. In 1808, Admiral Cronstadt, the commander of the
+Swedish forces, who had hitherto proved himself a brave and patriotic
+officer, submitted to terms of capitulation and delivered over the
+forts to the Russians. History scarcely furnishes a parallel to such a
+wanton and unaccountable act of treachery. Cronstadt had fifteen
+hundred men, two frigates, and all the munitions of war to hold his
+position against any force that could be brought against him; while
+the Russians were reduced to great extremities, and, it is said, had
+scarcely force enough left to man the forts after they were evacuated
+by the Swedes. Sufficient testimony has been gathered by historians to
+show that Cronstadt bartered his honor for money; yet, strange to say,
+such is the high estimation in which he was originally held by the
+Swedes, that many of them to this day profess to disbelieve that he
+was capable of such an infamous crime. It is thought by some that he
+must have been laboring under some mental hallucination at the time of
+the capitulation. Be that as it may, the success of the Russian arms
+was doubtless greatly facilitated by this act of treason. Cronstadt,
+like Benedict Arnold, died an isolated and broken-hearted man. His
+ill-gotten gains were but a poor recompense for the infamy entailed
+upon his name. Such, indeed, as all history shows, has been and must
+ever be the fate of all traitors to their country.
+
+Helsingfors was founded by Gustavus Vasa in the sixteenth century. A
+portion of the old town is still visible, though there is little about
+it beyond a few ruined walls possessing much historical interest.
+After the Russians obtained possession they enlarged and improved the
+city upon its present site, and in 1819 it became the capital of
+Finland. In 1827 Abo suffered from a general conflagration, after
+which the grand University of that city was removed to Helsingfors,
+which now comprises the most important public buildings and
+institutions in Finland. Among these are the senate-house, the palace
+of the governor, the Museum, the Botanical Garden, the Observatory,
+etc. The streets in the lower parts of the city are broad and regular,
+and many of the houses are quite as good as the generality of private
+residences in Moscow or St. Petersburg. The principal church, which is
+built in the form of a Greek cross, is a conspicuous and imposing
+edifice, standing near the centre of the town on a rocky eminence,
+presenting on the approach up the harbor a peculiarly Russian effect
+with its gilded domes and crosses. The green roofs of the houses also
+remind one that he is still within the dominions of Russia; and if any
+doubt on that point should remain after landing from the steamer, it
+is speedily dispelled by the vast numbers of Russian soldiers and
+officers constantly marching about the streets.
+
+I had two days to devote to the objects of interest in and around
+Helsingfors. For convenience and economy, I took a room in a Finnish
+hotel, on one of the back streets. Having deposited my knapsack, my
+first visit was to the Observatory, from which a beautiful view is to
+be had of the harbor and fortifications. From this point of
+observation a very good idea may be formed of the extent and general
+character of the town. It covers a large area of solid rocks, the
+entire foundation consisting of immense round boulders, forming a
+succession of ups and downs singularly varied in outline and
+picturesque at every point of view. Beyond the main part of the town,
+toward the interior, the country is mountainous, and covered for the
+most part with dense forests of pine. Cultivation has made but little
+progress beyond the immediate suburbs. A few miles from the waters of
+the bay the eye rests upon an apparently untrodden wilderness of rocky
+heights and pine forests, and toward the Gulf nothing can exceed the
+desolate grandeur of the scene. Rock-bound islands, upon which the
+surf breaks with an unceasing moan; points and promontories covered
+with dark forests; a rugged coast, dimly looming through the mist;
+innumerable sea-gulls whirling and screaming over the dizzy pinnacles,
+are its principal features. While I was seated on a bank of moss near
+the Observatory, enjoying the beauties of the scene, strains of music
+were wafted up on the breeze from the shady recesses of the Botanical
+Gardens, toward which I saw that the citizens were wending their way.
+It was Sunday, which here as well as in Germany is a day of
+recreation. I took a by-path and speedily joined the crowd. The people
+of every degree are well dressed and respectable, and I was somewhat
+surprised to find so much politeness, cultivation, and intelligence in
+such an out-of-the-way part of the world. The music was excellent, and
+the display of style and fashion in the gardens was quite equal to any
+thing I had seen in my European travels. From what little I saw of the
+Finns, I was greatly prepossessed in their favor. They seem to me to
+be a primitive, substantial, and reliable race, strong in their
+affections, kind and hospitable toward strangers, amiable and
+inoffensive, yet brave and patriotic--hating the Russians with a
+cordiality truly refreshing. I formed a casual acquaintance with
+several of them during my rambles about the Garden. No sooner did they
+discern my nationality than they gave me to understand that their
+Constitution had been violated, their liberties trampled under foot,
+their rights disregarded, and their patience under all these injuries
+misconstrued. "We only await an opportunity," they said, "to prove to
+the world that we are still a free-born people. The time is not
+distant. In the heart of every Finn burns the spirit of a freeman and
+a patriot! We are not a race doomed to slavery. You who are an
+American can understand us! We only want a chance to cast off the
+chains of despotism which now oppress us. It is coming: we are
+overpowered now, but not conquered! We hate the Russians! No true
+Finn can ever amalgamate with such a race!"
+
+This was the strain in which I was constantly addressed.
+Notwithstanding the electoral privileges guaranteed to the Finns under
+their Constitution, and the fact that many of the municipal offices
+are filled by themselves, there is no more community of interest
+between them and their rulers than between the Italians and the
+Austrians. Their hatred of the government and of all its concomitants
+is implacable. It seemed a luxury to some of these poor people to find
+a sympathizing listener. I met many intelligent Finns, both in
+Helsingfors and Abo, who spoke good English, and never conversed with
+one for five minutes without hearing the same strong expressions of
+dislike to the present condition of affairs, and sanguine hopes for
+the future. There is only hope for them, that I can see--that the
+emancipation of the serfs may lead to the establishment of a more
+liberal system of government throughout the Russian dominions. All
+hopes based upon isolated revolutions are futile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+A BATHING SCENE.
+
+
+I devoted the afternoon to a stroll on the sea-shore, which presents
+many interesting features in the neighborhood of Helsingfors. A
+considerable portion of the town, as already stated, is built upon
+immense boulders of solid rock, and some of the streets are entirely
+impracticable for wheeled vehicles, owing to the rugged masses of
+stone with which Nature has thought proper to pave them. Indeed, it is
+no easy task for a pedestrian to make his way through the suburbs,
+over the tremendous slippery boulders that lie scattered over the
+earth in every direction, the trail being in some instances higher
+than the houses. I can not conceive how people can travel over such
+streets in wet weather; it seems a task only fit for goats under
+favorable circumstances; but the Finns are an ingenious people, and
+probably ride on the backs of the goats when walking is impracticable.
+Passing the straggling lines of fishermen's huts forming the outskirts
+of the town, I rambled over two or three miles of rocky fields till I
+found myself on the shores of the gulf, at a point sufficiently
+lonesome and desolate to be a thousand miles from any inhabited
+portion of the globe. Taking possession of a natural chair, worn in
+the rocks by the rains of many centuries, I seated myself upon its
+mossy cushion, and, baring my head to the pleasant sea-breeze, quietly
+enjoyed the scene. Perhaps this very seat was the throne of an old
+viking! Here were sea-shells, and glittering pebbles, and tufts of
+moss for his crown; and here were sea-gulls to make music for him, and
+the spray from the wild waves to keep him cool; and a thousand
+rock-bound islands, lying outspread to the north, with grottoes in
+them for his ships; and piles upon piles of rocky palaces all around,
+covered with golden roofs of moss; and every thing, in short, that
+could make glad the heart of a grim old viking residing on the edge of
+the arctic circle. And if this summer scene, with its blue sea, and
+wood-capped islands, and warm sun, and balmy breeze, could not make
+glad his heart, it would not be difficult to imagine what changes
+winter could bring over it, and how the old viking, sitting on his
+throne by the sea-shore, could enjoy the dead and icy waste before
+him; and how the winter drifts would whistle through his hair; and how
+cheery the jagged rocks would look peeping up out of the snow-drifts;
+and how balmy would be the night-air at sixty degrees below
+freezing-point; and how the old viking would shake his beard with
+laughter as he warmed his hands in a midday sun, only ten feet above
+the horizon, and make the icicles rattle on his chin; and sit thus
+laughing and blowing his fingers, and rattling his icy beard, and
+saying to himself, "What a blessing to be a Finlander! How horribly
+the natives of Spain and Italy must suffer from bad climate! What a
+pity it is Finland is not large enough to accommodate the whole human
+race." With such thoughts as these I amused myself for some time,
+soothed and charmed by the pleasant sea-breeze and the music of the
+waves upon the rocks. The air was deliciously pure, and the odor of
+the sea-weeds had something in it so healthful and inspiring that I
+was insensibly carried back to by-gone days. How short a time it
+seemed since I was a wanderer upon the rock-bound shores of Juan
+Fernandez, yet how many strange scenes I had passed through since
+then--how much of the world I had seen, with its toils, and troubles,
+and vicissitudes! Here I was now, after years of travel in every
+clime, among the various nations of the earth, sitting solitary and
+alone upon an isolated rock on the shores of Finland! Whither was I
+going? What was the object? Where was the result? When was it to end?
+Years were creeping over me; I was no longer in the heyday of youth,
+yet the vague aspirations of boyhood still clung to me--the insatiable
+craving to see more and more of the world--the undefined hope that I
+would yet live to be cast away upon a desolate island, and become a
+worthy disciple of the immortal Robinson Crusoe! Ah me! What a
+lonesome feeling it is to be a visionary, enthusiastic boy all one's
+life, in this practical world of dollars and cents, where other boys
+are men, and men forget that they ever were young! But this, you say,
+is all sentimental nonsense. Of course it is. I admit the full folly
+of such thoughts. It would be a pitiable spectacle indeed to see every
+body inspired by the vagabond spirit of Robinson Crusoe. No doubt, if
+you were sitting upon a rock on the Gulf of Finland, my respected
+Californian friend, you would be hammering off the croppings and
+trying to discover the indications. You consider that the true
+philosophy of life--to dig, and delve, and burrow in the ground, and
+get gold and silver out of it, and suffer rheumatism in your bones and
+cramps in your stomach, and wear out your life in a practical way,
+while we visionaries are dreaming sentimental nonsense! But, after
+all, does the one pay any better than the other in the long run? Will
+gold or silver make you see farther into a millstone, or give you a
+better appetite, or put youth and health into your veins, or cause you
+to sleep more soundly of nights, or prolong your life to an indefinite
+period beyond the span allotted to the average of mankind? Will you
+never be convinced of the truth of these inspired words, which can not
+be repeated too often: As you brought nothing into the world, so you
+can take nothing out of it?
+
+Come, then, let us be young again, and dash into the blue waters of
+Finland, and buffet the sparkling brine as it seethes and boils over
+the rocks! Away with your gold and your silver, and your toils and
+cares, and let us play Robinson Crusoe and Friday here in this
+solitary little glen, where "our right there is none to
+dispute"--unless it may be the Czar of Russia. Off with your shirt,
+your boots, your drawers, your all, and be for once a genuine
+savage--be my man Friday, and I'll teach you how to enjoy life. Ye
+gods! doesn't it feel fine--that plunge in the foaming brine! Why, you
+look like a boiled lobster already; the glow of health is all over
+you; your eyes sparkle, your skin glistens; you shoot out the salt
+sea-spray from your nostrils in a manner that would surprise any
+porpoise; you whoop and you yell like a young devil let loose! Never
+in the world would I take you to be a hard, money-making, lucre-loving
+man! Why, my dear Friday, you are a perfect jewel of a savage! I
+didn't know it was you, and doubt if you knew it yourself! Isn't it
+glorious? I feel a thousand years younger! Don't you hear me singing,
+
+    "Oh, poor Robinson Crusoe!
+      Tinky ting tang, tinky ting tang,
+    Oh, poor Robinson Crusoe!"
+
+But the water is rather fresh--considering how much salt there is in
+it. We had better take a race over the rocks. Run, Friday, for your
+life. If I catch you, overboard you go into the sea again. Run, you
+savage, run! Voices? you say, human voices?
+
+Great Heavens! Where are you, Friday? Gone! disappeared behind that
+projecting ledge of rocks. And here am I, all alone, up to my arm-pits
+in the water, with a group of Finnish ladies standing there, not a
+hundred yards off, looking at me!--ay, gazing steadfastly at me, and,
+what is worse, splitting their sides laughing at my confusion! What in
+the world is to be done? The water seems to be growing colder and
+colder. I am chilled through. My jaws begin to chatter. Suppose a
+shark should seize me by the leg--or a sudden and violent cramp should
+take possession of me? My gracious! what are those women doing now?
+Actually seating themselves on the rocks, within ten steps of my
+clothes, and spreading several packages of bread, cheese, and cakes
+around them! They are going to enjoy a picnic while I enjoy my bath! I
+hear their merry voices; I can imagine the general drift of their
+jokes. How innocently they eat, and drink, and laugh. Possibly they
+take me for a seal or a walrus! Certainly nothing is visible but my
+head, on the crown of which, I regret to say, is a bald spot about the
+size of your hand. It may be very funny to see it dodging up and down
+among the breakers--but I can't stand it much longer. Already the
+spray has wellnigh strangled me; I shiver all over; a horrible
+presentiment is uppermost in my mind that polypi, and sea-leeches, and
+shiny jelly-fish are fastening their suckers upon my legs; I jump, and
+kick, and plunge in an agony of apprehension, while those fair
+creatures on the rock imagine, no doubt, that I am disporting myself
+in sheer exuberance of joy. If they only knew that I had been full
+half an hour in the water before they appeared, there might be some
+hope of a release; but that does not seem to have entered their heads.
+
+Never in all my experience, reader, was I in such a predicament. This
+is no fancy sketch. It is true, every word of it. Had the picnickers
+been old ladies, I might have shut my eyes, and made a break out of
+the water for my clothes; but three of them, at least, were young,
+and, worse than that, very pretty! The courage for so daring and
+monstrous an act was not in me. I felt that it would be easier to die;
+and yet to die in this way is pretty hard when it comes to a practical
+test. What the deuce was to be done? I could not speak a word of
+Finnish, otherwise I might have implored them to retire a few hundred
+yards and let me get my clothes. With a shirt, or even a
+pocket-handkerchief, I might have charged upon the enemy; but I had
+nothing--not even a hat--as a shield against the battery of sparkling
+eyes that bore down upon me! A thousand expedients flashed through my
+mind in the extremity of my sufferings. I would slip out of the water
+on all-fours, and creep over the rocks like a seal, but that would be
+an extremely ungraceful way of approaching a bevy of strange ladies.
+Then it occurred to me if I could get hold of a bunch of sea-weeds, it
+might serve as a temporary substitute for a costume; but the weeds had
+all drifted away by this time, and not a patch was in sight. Even a
+large oyster-shell might have afforded some assistance; but who ever
+heard of oyster-shells in the Gulf of Finland? Nothing remained save
+to dive down and seize a big rock, detach it from the bottom, and,
+holding it up before me, make a break for the pile of clothes; yet
+when I came to consider the preposterous spectacle that a middle-aged
+man would present in a state of nudity charging full tilt upon a party
+of ladies, with a big rock in his hands and a gleam of desperation in
+his eye, the idea seemed too monstrous to be entertained, and I was
+forced to give it up. The difficulty was becoming really serious.
+Doubtless it appears very funny to my California friends, but I can
+assure them it was pretty near death to me. I would have given ten
+dollars for the poorest cotton shirt that was ever dealt out by an
+Indian agent to a Reservation Digger; nay, transparent as the blankets
+are, I might have made one serve my purpose by doubling it three or
+four times and holding it up front.
+
+All this, however, though very well in its way, did not relieve me
+from my embarrassing predicament. Something must be done, and that
+very speedily. I was rapidly wilting under the chilling influence of
+the water. Ten minutes more would render me a fit subject for a
+coroner's inquest. I saw but one alternative: to work my course a few
+hundred yards up the shore, and then creep out the best way I could,
+and run for my life till I found some friendly nook among the rocks in
+which I could conceal myself till these fair Finns took a notion to
+depart.
+
+Acting upon this idea, I ducked down as low as possible, and crept
+over the jagged and slippery rocks, in mortal dread all the time that
+some receding wave would leave me a dripping spectacle for these fair
+damsels to laugh at; till, bruised and scarified beyond farther
+endurance, I worked my way to a landing-place, where I paused in a
+recumbent position--that is to say, on all-fours--to take an
+observation. They must have perceived something ludicrous in my
+attitude. A wild scream of laughter saluted my ears. I could stand no
+more. What little warmth was left in my blood forced itself into my
+head and face as I sprang to my feet. With a groan of shame and
+mortification, I took to my heels; and never before, so help me
+Jupiter! did I run so fast in my life. Scream after scream of laughter
+followed me! It is impossible for me to conjecture how I looked, but I
+felt dreadfully destitute of sail as I scudded over the rough pathway
+that wound around the shore. Blushing, panting, and utterly
+overwhelmed with conflicting emotions of modesty and despair, I darted
+behind the friendly shelter of a rock, and inwardly resolved that if
+ever I went bathing in Finland again, I would at least perform my
+ablutions in a more appropriate costume than Nature had bestowed upon
+me.
+
+The next question was, how long were these people going to enjoy
+themselves at my expense? Was I to be blockaded from my clothes all
+the rest of the afternoon? I could not, upon any principle of
+international law, undertake to break the blockade on the ground that
+it was not effectual, and yet it was pretty hard to do without my
+cotton. What I had suffered from the cold while in the water was
+nothing to what I now began to experience from the unobstructed rays
+of the sun. My skin was rapidly assuming every variety of color
+supposed to exist in the rainbow, and a painful consciousness
+possessed me that in half an hour more I would be blistered from head
+to foot. There was no shade on my side of the rock, and nothing any
+where in sight that could afford the least protection. Racked with
+renewed anguish, I peeped out to see if there was any earthly prospect
+reaching my clothes. Horror upon horror! what were they doing now? Did
+my eyes deceive me? As sure as fate, they were all quietly undressing
+themselves! Hats, scarves, parasols and dresses were scattered all
+around them; there they sat, on the moss-covered rocks, their
+alabaster necks and limbs glistening in the sun, looking for all the
+world like a bevy of mermaids, laughing and chattering in the highest
+glee, perfectly indifferent to my presence! I saw no more. A dizziness
+came over me. Consternation seized my inmost soul. Drawing back behind
+the rock. I held my face close up to it and shut both my eyes. Don't
+talk to me about courage! Every man is a coward by nature. Of what
+avail was it that I had killed whales and chased grizzly bears? Here I
+was now, hiding my face, shutting my eyes, trembling in the hot sun
+like a man with an ague, both knees knocking together, and my heart
+ready to pop out of my mouth from abject fear! Strange--wasn't
+it?--especially after having made the grand tour of Europe, in many
+parts of which live men and women are ranked with statuary. What harm
+is there, after all, in discarding those artificial trappings which
+disfigure the human form divine? Many a man who looks like an Apollo
+Belvidere in his natural condition, becomes a very commonplace fellow
+the moment he steps into his conventional disguise. He is no longer
+heroic; he may be a very vulgar-looking mortal, not at all calculated
+to produce classical impressions on any body. His form divine has
+fallen into the hands of a tailor, who may be neither an artist or a
+poet. And since we can admire an Apollo Belvidere, why not a Venus de
+Medici, or, still more, the living, breathing impersonation of beauty
+buffeting the waves with
+
+    "Shapely limb and lubricated joint."
+
+But, hang it all! though not an ill-shaped man, I don't flatter myself
+there was any thing in my personal appearance, as I crouched behind
+the rock, shutting both eyes as hard as I could, to remind the most
+enthusiastic artist of the Apollo Belvidere! Nay, the gifted Hawthorne
+himself could scarcely have made a Marble Faun out of so unpromising a
+subject. And as for the fair bathers, who by this time were plunging
+about in the water like naiads, it would of course be impossible for
+me to say how far they were improved by lack of costume, since I
+looked in another direction, and kept my eyes faithfully closed from
+the very beginning. The question now occurred to me, Would I not be
+justified by the law of nations in breaking the blockade? It was now
+or never. If they once commenced dressing, farewell to hope! Well, I
+did it. Heaven only knows how I got through the terrible ordeal. I
+only remember that desperation gave strength and speed to my limbs,
+and I ran with incredible velocity. A moment of terrible confusion
+ensued as I grasped at my scattered habiliments. There came a scream
+of laughter from the wicked naiads who were sporting in the waves. I
+fled over the hills--my bundle in my arms--and never once stopped till
+I reached a small valley about half a mile distant. Breathless,
+mortified, and bewildered at the oddity of the adventure. I hurriedly
+dressed, and walked back to town. Arrived at my hotel, I called for a
+bottle of schnapps, retired to my room, locked the door, and
+fervently ejaculated, "'All's well that ends well!' Here's to the
+ladies of Helsingfors! But if ever you catch me in such a scrape
+again, my name's not Browne!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+ABO--FINLAND.
+
+
+I was strongly inclined to spend several weeks in Helsingfors. The
+bathing is delightful, and the manners and customs of the people are
+primitive and interesting. My adventure on the sea-shore, as I soon
+discovered, was nothing uncommon. I mentioned the matter to my
+landlady--a Finnish woman of very sociable manners, who spoke a little
+English. I asked her if it was customary for the ladies to dispense
+with bathing-dresses. She said they generally wore something when they
+bathed in public, but beyond the limits of the regular bath-houses, at
+the end of the Botanical Gardens, they seldom troubled themselves
+about matters of that kind; in fact, they preferred going in without
+any obstruction, because "they could swim so much better."
+
+Having procured my passport at the Bureau of the Police, I took
+passage in a Swedish steamer bound for Abo and Stockholm. Next morning
+by daylight the steamer arrived from St. Petersburg. I went on board,
+and in a few hours more the fortifications of Sweaborg were dim in the
+distance.
+
+The accommodations on board the Swedish steamers are excellent. I took
+passage in the second cabin, for the sake of economy, and found every
+thing as clean and comfortable as I could desire. The waiters are
+polite and attentive, the fare is good, and the company quiet and
+respectable. The difference in this respect is very striking between
+first and second class passengers on board of American and Swedish
+steamers. In the latter there is no rowdyism--no incivility from
+officers or servants; and, so far as the passengers are concerned, I
+could not perceive that they were debarred from any of the privileges
+enjoyed by passengers of the first class. They had the entire range of
+the vessel, and were treated with the same respect and consideration
+shown to others who possessed the means of indulgence in a little more
+style. I have been particularly pleased with this trait in the
+management of public conveyances throughout Europe. In Sweden and
+Norway it is especially characteristic. The commonest deck-passenger
+on board a Swedish or Norwegian steamer is treated with courtesy.
+Indeed, I have seen instances of care and tenderness toward the poorer
+classes, whose circumstances compelled them to travel in this way,
+that I regret to say would excite astonishment in our own democratic
+country. I can scarcely understand why it is that the captain and
+officers of a steam-ship on our side of the water consider it their
+duty to harass passengers who do not pay the highest price with all
+sorts of vexatious restrictions, and to render their condition as
+uncomfortable as possible. To be overbearing, insolent, and
+ungentlemanly seems to be the only aim of these important
+functionaries, and, so far as my experience goes, they succeed so well
+in this respect that if they do not actually prove themselves brutes
+and blackguards during the passage, they are usually rewarded for
+their forbearance, on reaching the port of destination, by a card of
+thanks. I have seen no such insolence on the part of officers and
+slavishness on that of passengers on board of any Swedish or Norwegian
+steamer, as I have often seen on the Panama and California coast
+steamers. Yet cards of thanks are not common in Europe. In fact, they
+would be regarded as a reflection upon the officers rather than an
+evidence of complimentary appreciation.
+
+The coast of Finland from Helsingfors to Abo abounds in small rocky
+islands, covered, for the most part, with a stunted growth of pine.
+The outline of the main land is extremely rugged and irregular,
+presenting a succession of promontories, bays, and inlets,
+weather-beaten cliffs of granite, and gloomy pine forests. No sign of
+habitation is to be seen during the entire voyage, with the exception
+of an occasional group of fishermen's huts or a custom-house station.
+The whole country has the appearance of an unbroken wilderness. The
+steamer plows her way, hour after hour, through the narrow and winding
+passages that lie between the islands--sometimes so close to the
+overhanging cliffs and rugged boulders of granite as almost to
+touch--and often apparently land-locked amid the maze of islands and
+promontories. While there is nothing grand or imposing in the scenery,
+the coast of Finland is certainly one of the most interesting portions
+of the world, in a geological point of view. The singular formation of
+the rocks, their rich and varied colors, and the strange manner in
+which Nature has grouped them together, afford an endless variety of
+interesting studies. The utter isolation of the inhabitants from the
+busy world, their rude and primitive mode of life, their simplicity,
+hardihood, and daring; the rigors of climate to which they are
+subject, and their strong attachment to their sea-girt homes and
+perilous pursuits, render the trip interesting to the general tourist,
+who, though not skilled in geology, may be supposed to possess, like
+myself, a fancy for gathering up odds and ends touching the condition
+of his fellow-beings.
+
+The people of this coast region are a hardy race, whose wild habits of
+life and isolation from the great outer world develop in them many
+striking and peculiar traits of character. During the long winters,
+when the bays, inlets, and harbors are blocked with ice, they become
+wood-choppers or lumbermen, and spend their time chiefly in the
+forests. Upon the breaking up of winter they prepare their nets and
+fishing-gear, and, as soon as the season permits, set forth in their
+little smacks, and devote the principal part of the summer to catching
+and curing fish, for which they find a ready sale at the stations
+along the shore, frequented by traders from St. Petersburg. They live
+in small cabins, built of pine logs, rarely consisting of more than
+two rooms. Each family owns a small patch of ground, with an unlimited
+range of forest. A few cows or goats, a vegetable garden, and some
+chickens or ducks, constitute all they require for domestic use, and
+these are usually attended by the women and children during the
+absence of the men on their fishing expeditions. Education is at a low
+ebb among them, though the rudimental branches are not altogether
+neglected. They are a simple, hospitable, and kind-hearted people,
+ignorant and superstitious, yet by no means deficient in natural
+capacity. No better sailors than the Finns are to be found in any part
+of the world, and there is scarcely a sea throughout the arctic
+regions which has not been visited by their vessels. Although the
+climate is rigorous during a considerable portion of the year, the
+Finns prefer it to any other in the world, and conscientiously believe
+the garden of Paradise must have been originally located in Finland.
+The lower classes are contented and happy, caring little for affairs
+of government, unless they happen to be subjected to some peculiar or
+oppressive restraints. As the traveler approaches the Gulf of Bothnia,
+they assimilate very closely to the same classes in Sweden, and but
+little difference is perceptible either in their language or costume.
+The educated classes, such as the professional men, merchants,
+bankers, traders, etc., are as polished as most people throughout the
+North of Europe, and many of them are distinguished for their
+cultivated manners and general intelligence. Such of these as I
+conversed with on board the steamer impressed me very favorably. I
+found them liberal in their sentiments, and devoted admirers of our
+American institutions. Yet, strange to say, the only secessionist I
+met in the course of my wanderings in this region was a Finn. Hearing
+me speak English, he immediately opened a conversation on the subject
+of the revolutionary movement in the United States. He did not know
+what we were fighting for; thought the North was acting very badly;
+regarded the people of the South as an oppressed and persecuted race;
+believed in slavery; considered the Lincoln government a perfect
+despotism, etc. In short, his views were a general epitome of the
+speeches, proclamations, and messages of the leading rebels throughout
+the South. I listened to him with great patience. He had an
+interesting family on board, all of whom spoke English; and what
+struck me as peculiar, a species of negro English common in the
+Southern States. "Sir," said I, at length, "you surprise me! I had not
+expected to meet so strong an advocate of slavery and slave
+institutions in this latitude. Can it be possible that you are a
+Finn?" "Yes, sir," he answered, "a genuine Finn--now on a visit to my
+native country after an absence of twenty-five years." "Then you must
+have lived in the South?" "Yes, sir; in Montgomery, Alabama. I have
+property there. It was getting pretty bad there for a family, and I
+thought I had better pay a visit to Finland while the war was going
+on." This accounted for the peculiar sentiments of my fellow-traveler!
+He seemed to be a very nice old gentleman, and I was sorry to find him
+tinctured with the heresies of rebellion. Farther conversation with
+him satisfied me that if he could get his property out of Montgomery,
+and put it in Massachusetts, he would be a very respectable Union man.
+I don't think his heart was in the movement, though his pocket,
+doubtless, felt a considerable interest in it.
+
+The town of Abo, formerly the capital of Finland--now a place of no
+great importance except as a custom-house and military station--is
+beautifully situated on the banks of a river called the Aurajoki,
+about three miles above its mouth. Vessels of medium draught,
+including the coasting steamers, have no difficulty in ascending as
+far as the bridge, where they lie alongside the wharves and receive or
+discharge freight. Those of larger draught usually anchor off the
+village of Boxholm, a picturesque gathering of red cottages, with
+high peaked roofs, situated at the entrance of the river. Above the
+village, on the summit of a rocky cliff, stands the fort of Abohus,
+ready at a moment's notice to pour a broadside into any enemy of
+Imperial Russia that may undertake to pass up the river.
+
+Abo, since the removal of the capital and University to Helsingfors
+and the great conflagration of 1827, which destroyed two thirds of the
+town, has fallen into decay, and now does not contain a population of
+more than ten or twelve thousand souls. Spread over an area of several
+miles square, with a sufficient number of houses to accommodate twice
+or three times the population, its broad, stone-paved thoroughfares
+and numerous untenanted buildings have a peculiarly desolate
+appearance. Back a little from the river the pedestrian may walk half
+a mile at midday without meeting a single soul in the streets. A dead
+silence reigns over these deserted quarters, as if the prevailing
+lethargy had fallen upon the few inhabitants that remain. Grass grows
+on the sidewalks, and the basement walls of the houses are covered
+with moss. A dank, chilly mildew seems to hang in the air. One might
+become green all over, like a neglected tomb-stone, should he forget
+himself and stand too long in one spot. I spent a considerable portion
+of the day rambling through these melancholy by-ways, and must admit
+that the effect upon my spirits was not cheering. Now and then the
+apparition of some cadaverous old woman, wrinkled with age--a greenish
+hue upon her features--would appear unexpectedly at some unexpected
+opening in one of the ruinous old houses, and startle me by a gaze of
+wonder or some unintelligible speech addressed to herself. Probably a
+human being had not been seen in that vicinity for the last month.
+Sometimes a slatternly servant-girl would appear in the distance, her
+dress bedraggled with slops, a tub of water on the pavement close by,
+and a long-handled mop in her hand, with which she seemed to be
+vigorously engaged in scrubbing the green slime and tufts of moss off
+the window-sills; but catching a sight of the strangers, down would
+go the mop, and then the usual hasty attempt would be made at fixing
+her hair and otherwise increasing her personal charms. As I drew near,
+this useful member of society would naturally take a sidelong glance
+at the strange gentleman, and perceiving that he was uncommonly
+attractive in personal appearance, it was quite natural she should
+make a neat little courtesy and say "_Got Aften!_" to which, of
+course, I always responded in the most affable manner, not forgetting
+to say to myself, in an audible tone, "Sken Jumfru!"--a pretty girl.
+No harm in that, is there?
+
+In the afternoon I walked out to a public garden about two miles from
+town, where there are some very pleasant promenades, a large building
+containing a ballroom, and numerous pavilions for refreshments. It was
+a festive occasion, and the élite and fashion of Abo were assembled
+there in their best attire. The music was inspiring. Dancing seemed
+contagious. The ballroom was crowded, and old and young were whirling
+about on the light fantastic toe with a zest and spirit truly
+inspiring. Old gentlemen with bald heads seemed to have forgotten
+their age and infirmities, and whirled the blooming damsels around in
+the dizzy mazes of the waltz as dexterously as the youngest; and young
+gentlemen hopped about quite frantic with joy, and altogether
+bewildered with the beauty of their partners. It was really a pretty
+sight. Rarely had I seen so many pleasant faces of both sexes,
+especially those of the ladies. Good-humor, simplicity, and frankness
+were their predominant traits. All ceremony seemed to be cast aside,
+and every body participated in the dance as if it were one great
+family frolic. The formality of introduction was dispensed with, or
+probably most of the guests were already acquainted. The fiddlers
+scraped louder and louder; wilder and faster blew the horns, and on
+went the dance with increasing vigor. I was getting excited--the
+spirit of the thing was contagious. Though not much of a dancer, yet
+I had occasionally in my life filled a place in a reel or a cotillon.
+Waltzing, to be sure, was a little beyond my experience, but I had a
+general idea of the figure, and could not perceive that there was any
+thing very difficult about it. Most of the waltzers here whirled
+around with great ease, and I could see no reason why it would not be
+entirely practicable for an active man like myself, who thought
+nothing of climbing high mountains or jumping across small rivers, to
+do the same. Besides, these people were strangers; it would be a good
+opportunity to try my skill. Doubtless, any of the young ladies would
+oblige me if I asked them to dance. They seemed to oblige every body
+that asked them, and showed no signs of fatigue. Indeed, they looked
+fresher and more vigorous after every bout. I was particularly charmed
+with the appearance of one young lady. Her complexion was florid, and
+her figure absolutely magnificent. At a rough guess she must have
+weighed a hundred and eighty pounds. Every time she whirled past me I
+could feel the floor give way. Her partner was rather small, and
+revolved around her like a planet round the sun. When she laughed,
+which was nearly all the time, her beautiful mouth opened at least two
+thirds of the way across her face, revealing a set of teeth to which
+flakes of snow, pearls, or any thing of that kind could bear no
+comparison. The extraordinary vigor of this girl, her tremendous
+powers of endurance, her weight, beauty, and good-humor, rendered her
+a general favorite. She was, in fact, the belle of the room. To dance
+with her would be an honorable distinction. Now I am naturally a
+modest man, but of late years that defect has been gradually
+disappearing from my character. I resolved to dance with this girl--if
+she would consent. As soon as there was a pause, therefore, I made
+bold to go up to her, and, with a very polite bow, solicited her
+hand--in English. She didn't understand English, but she understood
+dancing, and answered me very politely in Swedish, "Ja!" I think my
+dress and manner, together with my ignorance of the Swedish language,
+had rather a favorable effect. She certainly looked complimented and
+gratified. I saw her turn round her head as we stood up, and laugh at
+the other girls, which I interpreted to mean that she, of all in the
+room, had succeeded in catching the distinguished stranger. Well, the
+music started--it was a German waltz. I stood holding on to my partner
+as the ivy clings to the solid oak. Never did I feel so firm a girl.
+Had she been formed of lead she could not have felt more substantial.
+Now, thought I, away we'll spin over the floor, a living duet,
+altogether accidental, but beautiful to behold--
+
+    "Like the sweet tunes that wandering meet,
+    And so harmoniously they run,
+    The hearer dreams they are but one."
+
+There was only one consideration that gave me any particular anxiety.
+Being of a light and slender figure, I had some apprehensions that in
+the giddy whirl of the waltz this powerful young lady might
+accidentally throw me out of balance and create an unpleasant scene.
+However, there was no time for reflection. At a given signal, away she
+started with tremendous energy. I did my best to whirl her round, and
+don't think it would be possible for any body to do any better under
+the circumstances; but she didn't keep time--or I didn't. Round and
+round the room we flew, to the inspiring strains of the music, with an
+undulating motion very difficult to conceive, and still more difficult
+to execute without danger to the other dancers. The warm blood rushed
+to my face; my head grew dizzy: the only thing I saw was that this
+style of waltzing must end in destruction to myself or somebody else.
+I was fairly lifted off my feet at every turn, and found myself
+absolutely hanging on to my partner to keep from falling. She never
+relaxed in her vigorous movements one moment; but as the music
+increased in spirit, so did she. The room was filled with waltzers. It
+was impossible to be flying about in this way without hitting
+somebody. I knew it from the very beginning, but what could I do? The
+first man down was an old gentleman. I begged his pardon, and helped
+him up again. Next I was dashed against a young lady. She and her
+partner both went down. I helped them up, and begged pardon again,
+which was granted with great good-humor. After that, most of the
+waltzers began to get out of the way, so that we presently had a more
+enlarged scope of operations. I fancy there was something uncommon in
+my style of waltzing that attracted attention. It was not long before
+we had the entire circle to ourselves, the crowd standing around and
+manifesting the most intense appreciation of our efforts. All went on
+very well for a while. Up and down the room, and round and round we
+whirled, and at every whirl there was a murmur of admiration and
+applause. My beautiful partner shook her sides as if convulsed with an
+earthquake--I could feel the motion, but was unable to conjecture the
+cause. Possibly she was getting agitated--or it might be that
+sentiments of tenderness were stealing over her heart. That idea, or
+something else, confused me. I struck out one foot a little awkwardly.
+She tripped against it, whirled me half round in attempting to gain
+her balance, and then we fell. It was very awkward. What rendered it
+still more unpleasant, every body began to laugh. People always do
+laugh at the misfortunes of others. I would have picked the young lady
+up at once, or at least tried it (for she was rather heavy), but the
+fact is, I fell underneath, and was utterly unable to move. Had I been
+pinned and riveted to the floor, I could not have been in a more
+helpless position. A man whose natural instincts are polite is surely
+a subject of sympathy and commiseration under such a pressure of
+difficulties as this. I breathed hard, but was unable to get out a
+single word of apology, till, with, a laugh and a bound, my fair
+partner regained her feet, and then she very good-naturedly assisted
+me in regaining mine. Mortified beyond measure, I conducted her to a
+seat. As I was passing out of the room soon after, a new waltz struck
+up. The dancers went at it again as lively as ever. I turned to see
+what had become of my partner. She was whirling over the floor with
+undiminished energy in the arms of a young gentleman in military
+uniform. He may have been more accustomed to waltzing than I was, but
+I think any person present--not excepting the young lady
+herself--would have been willing to admit that his style did not
+compare with mine in force and individuality. It certainly produced no
+such effect upon the audience.
+
+I walked back to town a sober and thoughtful man. This dancing
+business is a very foolish pastime. It may do very well for giddy and
+thoughtless young persons, but for men of mature years it is the
+height of folly. I am surprised that they should be led aside from
+their customary propriety by the fascinations of beauty.
+
+The sun was just setting. Its last rays rested upon the ruined walls
+of the Observatory. I followed a crowd of citizens who were slowly
+toiling up the stone steps, and, after a pretty hard climb, was
+rewarded with a magnificent view of the city and surrounding country.
+The rocky pinnacle upon which the Observatory stands rises some three
+hundred feet above the banks of the river, and overlooks a large
+portion of the valley of the Aurajoki. The winding waters of the
+river; the green fields; patches of woodland, villas, and gardens; the
+blue mountains in the distance, and the silent city lying like a
+mouldering corpse beneath, presented a scene singularly picturesque
+and impressive. I sat down upon the ruined walls and thought of Abo in
+its glory--the ancient head-quarters of Christianity in Finland; the
+last abiding-place of the beautiful Caroline Morsson, the peasant
+queen of Sweden, wife of Eric XII., who died here, and whose remains
+lie in the Cathedral--the city of the mighty hosts of warlike Finns
+who fought under the banner of Charles XII., and made a funeral pyre
+of their bodies upon the bloody field of Puttara. The present Finns
+are of this heroic race. Not less brave, yet less fortunate than the
+Spartans of Thermopylæ, they have lost their country and their
+freedom, and now groan under the oppression of a despotic government.
+
+While thus musing on the past, a strain of delicious music broke the
+stillness. I rambled over the granite cliffs in the direction of the
+sound, and soon came to a grove of trees, with an open space in the
+middle, occupied by a band of musicians, who were surrounded by a
+group of citizens, thus pleasantly passing the summer evening. Booths
+and tents were scattered about in every direction, in which cakes and
+refreshments were to be had; and gay parties of young people were
+seated on long planks so arranged as to make a kind of spring seats,
+upon which they bounced up and down to the time of the music. Children
+were playing upon the grass, their merry shouts of laughter mingling
+pleasantly with the national air performed by the band. On the
+moss-covered rocks sat groups of young ladies, guarded by their
+amiable mothers or discreet duennas, as the case might be, trying hard
+not to see any of the young gentlemen who lounged about in the same
+vicinity; and young gentlemen prowled about puffing cigars as if they
+didn't care a straw whether the young ladies looked at them or
+not--both being, of course, according to the established usages of
+society, natural enemies of each other. For the life of me, I can't
+tell why it is that young ladies and gentlemen should be thus
+everlastingly at war. Would it not be better to kiss and make it up,
+and try, if possible, to get along peaceably through the world?
+
+But the steamer blows her whistle--the bell rings--I must hurry on
+board. Good-by, dear Finns, big and little, I like you all. God bless
+you! Good-by old Abo, with your ancient church, and your moss-grown
+streets, and deserts of houses--I feel sorry for you, but I can't help
+it! Good-by, Russia! If I don't call again, attribute it to no want of
+interest in the great cause of civilization. Just drop me a line and
+let me know when the serfs are free and a constitutional government is
+established, and I will strain a point to pay my respects to Alexander
+II. I rather like the young man, and have an idea that he is capable
+of noble deeds and heroic sacrifices. But he must abolish his secret
+police, punish them for whipping women, open universities upon a
+liberal basis, throw the camarilla and the aristocracy overboard, quit
+murdering the poor Poles at Warsaw, and do several other things before
+he can have my support. Should he accomplish these beneficial reforms,
+and at any future time think proper to settle in my neighborhood,
+where the climate is more genial, I shall cheerfully vote for him as
+mayor of the city of Oakland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+STOCKHOLM.
+
+
+The passage from Abo to Stockholm occupies about eighteen hours, and
+in fine weather affords a constant succession of agreeable scenes.
+With the exception of about four hours of open sea in crossing the
+Gulf of Bothnia, the steamer is constantly surrounded by islands, many
+of them highly picturesque, and all interesting from their peculiar
+geological formation. Occasionally the island winds like a snake
+through a wilderness of naked granite boulders, round and slippery,
+and barely high enough out of the water to afford a foundation for a
+few fishermen's huts, which from time to time break the monotony of
+their solitude. Sometimes the channel opens out into broad lakes,
+apparently hemmed in on all sides by pine-covered cliffs; then passing
+between a series of frightful crags, upthrown, as it were, out of the
+water by some convulsion of nature, the surging waves lash their way
+through the narrow passages, and threaten each moment to ingulf the
+frail vessel, or dash it to atoms against the rocks. The greatest
+danger in making this trip arises from the number of sunken rocks,
+which often approach to within a few feet of the surface without being
+visible. The depth is usually marked by poles or buoys, and it often
+happens that the steamer plies her way for hours between these
+water-marks, where there is no other indication of danger. The Swedish
+and Finnish pilots are proverbially among the best in the world. We
+had an old Finn on board--a shaggy old sea-dog, rough and
+weather-beaten as any of the rocks on his own rock-bound coast, who, I
+venture to say, never slept a wink during the entire passage, or if he
+did, it was all the same. He knew every rock, big and little, visible
+and invisible, that lay on the entire route between Abo and Stockholm,
+and could see them all with his eyes shut. An uncouth, hardy, honest
+old monster was this Finn--a Caliban of a fellow, half human, half
+fish--with a great sou'wester on his head, a rough monkey-jacket
+buttoned around his body, and a pair of boots on his legs that must
+have been designed for wading over coral reefs, through seas of
+swordfish, shovel-nosed sharks, and unicorns. His broad, honest face
+looked for all the world like a granite boulder covered with barnacles
+and sea-weed, and ornamented by a bunch of mussels for a nose, and a
+pair of shining blue pebbles by way of eyes; and when he spoke, which
+was not often, his voice sounded like the keel of a fishing-smack
+grating over a bank of gravel. I strongly suspect his father was a
+sea-lion and his mother a grampus or scragg whale, and that he was
+fished up out of the sea when young by some hardy son of Neptune, and
+subsequently trained up in the ways of humanity on board a
+fishing-smack, where the food consisted of polypi, lobsters, and black
+bread. Yet there was something wonderfully genial about this old
+pilot. He chewed enormous quantities of tobacco, the stains of which
+around his mouth greatly improved the beauty of his countenance; and
+when he was not chewing pigtail he was smoking it, which equally
+contributed to soften the asperities of his features. Having sailed
+in many seas, he spoke many languages, but none very intelligibly,
+owing to some radical defect in the muscles of his mouth. As to the
+channel between Abo and Stockholm, which lies partly through the Aland
+Islands and numerous adjacent rocks, above and below water, I believe
+he had traveled over it so often that he could steer a vessel through
+it standing backward as readily as box the compass, or shut both his
+eyes and tell where the deepest water lay by the smell of the air and
+the taste of his tobacco.
+
+The passage across the Gulf of Bothnia was somewhat rough, and most of
+the passengers were sea-sick, owing, no doubt, to the short chopping
+motion which prevails on board of all kinds of sea-going vessels in
+these inland seas. Having performed various voyages in various parts
+of the world, I was, of course, exempt from this annoyance; but my
+digestion had been impaired in Russia by the vast quantity of tea,
+cucumbers, veal, cabbage-soup, and other horrible mixtures which I had
+been forced to consume while there, and which now began to tell on my
+constitution. Notwithstanding repeated doses of cognac, taken from
+time to time as I walked the decks, the sea began to whirl all round,
+the clouds overhead to swing about at random through the rigging, and
+the odor of the machinery to produce the strongest and most
+disagreeable sensations. I went below to see how things looked there;
+but, finding the atmosphere dense and the prospect gloomy, returned in
+great haste and looked over the bulwarks to see how fast we were going
+through the water. While thus engaged, an amusing thought occurred to
+me. Suppose the mermaids who lie down in the briny depths form their
+ideas of the beauty of the human countenance from the casual glimpses
+thus afforded of our features, would it be possible for the most
+susceptible of them to fall in love with us? The idea was so droll
+that I was almost convulsed with laughter; but, not wishing to attract
+attention by laughing aloud at my own thoughts, I merely clung to the
+bulwarks and doubled myself up, trying to avoid the appearance of
+eccentricity. At or about the same moment, the old Finnish pilot, with
+whom I had formed an acquaintance, came along, and said
+good-naturedly, "Hello, sir! I dink you pe sea-sick." "Sea-sick?" said
+I, a little nettled. "Oh no, Herr Pilot, I'm an old sailor, and never
+get sea-sick." "Vel, I dought you was sick--you look bad, sir,"
+answered the good old pilot; "de sea is very rough, sir." Here the
+steamer took a notion to pitch down into the water and jump up again
+suddenly, and then rolled on one side and then on the other, and at
+the same time a number of the passengers began to make grotesque and
+disagreeable noises, which amused me so much that I had to turn away
+my face and look at the water again to avoid laughing. "Sir," said the
+old pilot, who observed the contortions of mirth by which I was moved,
+"vil you have some schnapps? I dink schnapps is goot for de sea-sick."
+"Thank you," said I, the tears streaming from my eyes, "I won't have
+any just now." "Vel, 'twon't last long, any how," suggested the
+good-natured monster. "By'm-by we be up to Vaxholm--in pout two hours.
+Dere's land! Don't you see it?" I saw it, and right glad I was too,
+for it is always refreshing to see land from the deck of a steamer. In
+half an hour more we entered a smooth stretch of water, and soon the
+wood-covered islands and shores of Sweden were close ahead.
+
+Passing the fortress of Waxholm, we entered the magnificent fjord or
+arm of the sea which extends for a distance of ten or twelve miles up
+to the city. The scenery on this part of the route is very fine. All
+along the shores of the main land and adjacent islands rugged cliffs
+of granite reared their hoary crests over the waters of the fjord.
+Forests of oak and pine cover the rolling background, and beautiful
+villas, with parterres and blooming gardens, peep from every glen.
+Sometimes for miles the solitude of the forests and rock-bound shores
+is unbroken, save by an occasional fisherman's hut or an open patch
+of green pasture; then suddenly, upon turning a point, a group of
+red-roofed villas glimmer through the foliage; sail-boats are seen
+gliding over the water with gay companies of ladies and gentlemen from
+the city enjoying the fresh breeze that sweeps up from the Gulf; now a
+hay-boat or a clumsy lugger laden with wood drifts along lazily toward
+the grand centre of trade; and as we approach nearer to the dim
+smoke-cloud that hangs over the city, big and little craft gather
+thicker and thicker before us, till the whole fjord seems alive with
+masts and sails. Soon the outlines of the churches and castles break
+through the dim distance, and, like some grand optical illusion, the
+whole city gradually opens up before us.
+
+To say that I was charmed with the first view of Stockholm would but
+faintly express the feelings with which I gazed upon this beautiful
+metropolis of the North. Though different in almost every essential
+particular, it has been not unaptly compared to Venice; and certainly,
+if the sparkling waters from which it seems to rise, the wood-covered
+islands, the rich and varied outlines of its churches and castles, the
+forests of shipping at its wharves, the many-colored sail-boats and
+gondolas sweeping hither and thither, the glowing atmosphere, and
+surrounding gardens, villas, temples, and pavilions, can entitle it to
+that distinction, Stockholm well deserves to rank with the Queen City
+of the Adriatic.
+
+The landing for the Baltic steamers is at the head quay called the
+Skepsbron, which in summer is well lined with shipping, and presents
+rather an animated appearance. Very little formality is observed in
+regard to the baggage of passengers, and passports are not required, or
+at least no demand was made upon me for mine. All I had to do was to
+show my knapsack to the custom-house officer, who put a chalk-mark upon
+it, signifying, no doubt, that it contained nothing contraband; after
+which I stepped ashore, and, aided by a friendly fellow-passenger,
+found lodgings at a dirty little hotel close by, called the "Stadt
+Frankfort." If there is any worse place to be found in Stockholm, it
+must be the very worst on the face of the earth, for the "Stadt
+Frankfort" is next thing to it. Being dirty and foul of smell, and
+abounding in vermin, of course the charges are, as usual in such cases,
+proportionally high, for which reason I recommend it to any gentleman
+traveling in this direction whose main object is to get rid of his
+money for an equivalent of filth, fleas, bugs, bad bread, and worse
+coffee. The main part of the city, embracing the King's Palace, the
+Bourse, the Church of St. Nicholas, the Barracks and public buildings,
+is built upon an island fronting the Baltic on the one side and the
+Malar Lake on the other. This is the most populous and interesting
+part, though the streets are narrow and irregular, and the houses
+generally old and dilapidated, with dark, gloomy fronts, and a very
+fishy and primitive expression of countenance. The new parts of the
+city, called the Normalm to the north and the Sodmalm to the south,
+which are connected with the island by bridges, have some fine streets
+and handsome rows of buildings in the modern style, especially the
+Normalm, which contains the King's Garden, the Arsenal, the
+Opera-house, and the principal hotels and residences of the foreign
+ministers. This part of Stockholm will compare favorably with second or
+third-rate cities in Germany; for it must be borne in mind that,
+striking as the external aspect of Stockholm is, the interior is very
+far from sustaining the illusion of grandeur cast around it by the
+scenic beauties of its position. In nothing is the traveler more
+disappointed than the almost total absence of business excitement. With
+the exception of a few stevedores at work on the wharves and a trifling
+jostle at the market-places, the whole city seems to be sitting down in
+its Northern solitude, waiting, like Mr. Micawber, for something to
+turn up. In some parts one may walk half a mile without hearing a sound
+save the echo of his own footsteps. It is, emphatically, a "slow"
+place--so slow, indeed, compared with the marts of commerce to which I
+had been accustomed in California (especially the city of Oakland),
+that I was constantly impressed with the idea that every body was fast
+asleep, and that if three or four of them should happen to wake at the
+same time, it would be fearfully startling to hear their eyelids crack
+open and the hollow streets echo to their yawns.
+
+But don't understand this as a reflection upon the Swedish race. They
+are industrious and energetic when occasion requires, but, like all
+people who live at the extreme North, acquire tropical habits of
+indolence from the climate. During the tedious winters, when the days
+are but six hours long, all who can afford it become torpid, like
+frogs, and lie up in their houses till the summer sun thaws them out.
+Balls, parties, and sleigh-riding occasionally rouse them up, but
+lethargy is the general rule. The warm weather comes very suddenly,
+and then the days are eighteen hours long. This being the season of
+outdoor pleasure, it is spent in visits to the country or lounging
+about the gardens, sitting on spring benches and enjoying the
+sunshine.
+
+The Swedish soldiers are a fine-looking race of men, far superior in
+stature and general appearance to the soldiers of Russia. They are
+well drilled, bold, and manly, and have fine faces, full of spirit and
+intelligence. Wherever these men are led, they will now, as in past
+times, give the enemies of their country some trouble. I consider them
+the finest soldiers in Northern Europe.
+
+The general aspect of the citizens of Stockholm is that of extreme
+plainness and simplicity. I take them to be an honest, substantial,
+and reliable people, well educated and intelligent; satisfied with
+themselves and the world, and proud of their country and its history.
+Politeness is a national characteristic. Every person, of high and low
+degree, upon entering a shop, takes off his hat, and remains with
+uncovered head while making his purchase. Gentlemen who meet on the
+street knock the tops of their "tiles" against their knees, and
+continue to bow at each other long after they have passed. In feature
+and general appearance the Swedes are handsomer than the southern
+races of Europe, and for that reason wear a nearer resemblance to the
+Americans. I saw several men in Stockholm who would not have done
+discredit to California, in point of fine faces and commanding
+figures. The Swedish ladies are proverbially beautiful. It was really
+refreshing, after my visit to Russia, to see so many pretty women as I
+met here. Light hair, oval features, sparkling blue eyes, and forms of
+intoxicating grace and beauty--ah me! why should such dangers be
+permitted to threaten the defenseless traveler with instant
+destruction, when the law provides for his protection against other
+disasters by land and sea, assault and battery, false imprisonment and
+highway robbery? Yet here were lovely creatures, gliding about at
+large, shooting mutilation and death out of their bright blue eyes,
+and apparently as indifferent to the slaughter they committed as if it
+were the finest fun in the world! Talk of your French beauties, your
+Italian beauties, your Spanish beauties! Give me, for the
+impersonation of soul expressed in the human form divine--for features
+"woven from the music of the spheres and painted with the hues of the
+aurora borealis"--a Swedish beauty, the nearest approach upon earth to
+an American beauty, which, being altogether angelic, must ever remain
+the highest type of perfection known to mankind.
+
+I don't wonder Swedenborg made so many heavens for his female
+characters. His "conjugal felicity" required at least seven. One small
+heaven, constructed upon the Swedish plan, would certainly afford but
+limited accommodations for all the beauties of Stockholm.
+
+A day or two after my arrival in Stockholm I called to Mr. Fristadius,
+the American consul, from whom I obtained the latest news in reference
+to the progress of the rebellion. Accustomed as we are in the United
+States to read the newspapers every morning, wherever we may happen
+to be, the deprivations in this respect to which an American traveler
+in Europe is subjected must be experienced to be fully appreciated.
+Even in the principal cities of Germany it is difficult to find a
+newspaper that contains any thing more than a notice of the price of
+stocks, a few telegraphic items about the petty court movements of
+neighboring cities, a rehash of slander upon our country from the
+London _Times_, or an item of news about the war, in which the states
+are misplaced, the names misspelled, and the most important points
+omitted. I do not think there is a village press in California that
+would not be ashamed to turn out such trashy little sheets as are
+issued in Frankfort; and as for the matter of fairness and honesty, it
+is rare to find an independent newspaper in any part of Europe. To
+suppress truth and subserve some military or financial interest is the
+business for which they are paid. Making due allowance for party
+prejudices, you may guess at the truth in most of our American
+journals, but it would be a waste of time to search for it in the
+newspapers published on this side of the water. While they studiously
+refrain from indecorous language, they are corrupt and unreliable
+beyond any thing known in California, and have not even the merit of
+being energetic and entertaining liars. This is the case in Russia and
+Finland as well as in Germany. Where the press is subjected to a rigid
+censorship, it is of course useless to look for reliable information,
+and as for late intelligence, it does not travel through official
+bureaus. Before leaving Frankfort I had news to the 28th of June. A
+week after my arrival at St. Petersburg the same news was promulgated
+in that city. On my return from Moscow I had the pleasure of reading
+the details in an American newspaper. One or two mutilated telegraphic
+dispatches seemed to sharpen my appetite during the trip to Revel,
+Helsingfors, Abo, and Stockholm; and now, arrived at the head-quarters
+of Swedish civilization, after searching in vain for a late English or
+American newspaper at the principal cafés, I was compelled to make
+application to our consul, in the faint hope that he might be an
+occasional reader of that ephemeral species of literature.
+Fortunately, Mr. Fristadius had spent some time in the United States,
+and learned to appreciate the magnitude and importance of the struggle
+in which we were engaged.
+
+I had the pleasure, during my sojourn in Stockholm, of getting a
+glimpse of Swedish social life in one of its most agreeable phases.
+Mr. Fristadius, who is a Swede by birth and education, and occupies a
+prominent position as one of the leading iron-merchants of Stockholm,
+was kind enough to invite me to an entertainment at his villa,
+situated about four miles from the city, on one of the prettiest
+little islands in the Malar Lake.
+
+At an early hour in the afternoon, the company, which consisted of
+thirty or forty ladies and gentlemen, assembled by appointment at a
+wharf near one of the principal bridges, where a small steam-boat
+belonging to Mr. Fristadius was in waiting. I was a little astonished,
+not to say taken aback, at the display of elegant dresses, liveried
+servants, and white kid gloves that graced the occasion, and looked at
+my dusty and travel-worn coat, slouched hat, and sunburnt hands--for
+which there was no remedy--with serious thoughts of a hasty retreat.
+One doesn't like to be a savage among civilized people; yet, if one
+undertakes to travel with little baggage and less money, what can he
+do, unless he holds himself aloof from the world altogether, which is
+not the best way of seeing it? There was no time for reflection,
+however; the whistle was blowing, and we were hurried on board by our
+kind host, who seemed determined to make every body as happy as
+possible. The trip down the lake was delightful. On either side the
+hills and islands were dotted with villas and gardens; sail-boats were
+skimming over the water with gay parties intent on pleasure; the views
+of the city from every turn were picturesque beyond description, and
+the weather was quite enchanting. As we swept along on our course, the
+gentlemen of the party, who were nearly all Swedes, united in a wild
+and beautiful Scandinavian glee, the mellow strains of which swept
+over the water, and were echoed from the wooded islands and shores of
+the lake with a magnificent effect. Whether it was the scenery, the
+weather, or the singing, or all combined, I could scarcely tell, but
+this little trip was certainly an episode in life to be remembered
+with pleasure in after years. In about half an hour we drew near a
+perfect little Paradise of an island, upon which, half hidden in
+shrubbery and flowers, stood the villa of our friend, Mr. Fristadius.
+Here were winding graveled walks overhung by rich foliage; beds of
+flowers in full bloom; grottoes of rock laved by the waters of the
+lake; immense boulders of granite surmounted by rustic pavilions;
+hedges of privet and hawthorn to mark the by-paths; a miniature bridge
+from the main island across to a smaller island, upon which stood an
+aquatic temple for the fishing-boats and gondolas; with a wharf
+jutting out into the deep water at which the little steam-boat landed.
+Nothing could be more unique than the whole place. Nature and art
+seemed to have united to give it the most captivating effects of
+wildness, seclusion, comfort, and elegance. It was Crusoe-life
+idealized. As we approached the landing-place, the interesting family
+of our host, surrounded by numerous friends, stood upon a little
+eminence awaiting our arrival. While we gazed with pleasurable
+emotions at the pretty scene before us, a most delicate and
+appropriate compliment was paid to our excellent minister, Mr.
+Haldeman, and his accomplished wife, who were of the party. The
+American flag was hoisted upon a pole near the landing by Mrs.
+Fristadius, and the company with one accord arose and greeted with
+three cheers this glorious emblem of liberty. I shall never forget the
+mingled feelings of pride and pleasure with which I looked upon the
+stars and stripes once more, after months of dreary depression in
+countries where freedom is but a glimmering hope in the human heart.
+But here in Sweden the spirit of our institutions is appreciated;
+here I found myself surrounded by noble and trusty friends of the
+American Union, loyal to their own liberal government, yet devoted to
+the great cause of human freedom wherever it can exist consistently
+with the progress of the times and the capacity of the people for
+self-government. As the flag waved in the breeze, an inspiring song of
+liberty burst from the joyous company--one of those soul-stirring
+songs of Belman, which find a response in the breast of every
+Swede--wild, impassioned, and patriotic, breathing in every word and
+intonation the chivalrous spirit of men whose ancestry had fought
+under the glorious banners of Gustavus Adolphus.
+
+As soon as the song was concluded the little steam-boat drew up to the
+wharf, where we were most kindly and cordially greeted by the family
+of our host. After a pleasant ramble about the grounds we proceeded to
+the house, which is situated on a picturesque eminence overlooking the
+lake, and the adjacent shores and islands. Here, in a large and
+elegant saloon, opening on all sides upon a spacious veranda, a
+sumptuous collation was spread. The company lounged about without
+ceremony, eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves as they pleased;
+wit and wine flowed together, unrestrained by the slightest formality.
+In the midst of our "feast of reason and flow of soul," Mr. Fristadius
+made a neat and appropriate little speech of "welcome to all his
+friends," which was followed by a song from the musical gentlemen;
+after which he proposed a toast to a young married couple present.
+This was followed by another song. Then there was a toast to the
+American flag, another speech and a song, to which Mr. Haldeman, our
+minister, responded in such terms of enthusiasm and complimentary
+allusion to the Swedish nation that there was a general outburst of
+applause. I had hoped, in view of my rustic garb, to escape notice,
+and was snugly barricaded in a corner behind a table, looking on
+quietly and enjoying the scene, when, to my great astonishment, a
+toast was proposed "to the DISTINGUISHED TRAVELER FROM CALIFORNIA!"
+In vain I looked about me to see if any prominent gentleman of my
+acquaintance from California would step forward and answer to the
+summons, when I was gently but firmly captured by our host, and duly
+brought forth to respond to the charge! Never having made a speech in
+my life, I could only seize hold of a wine-glass (which I think
+belonged to somebody else), and in the confusion of the moment drink
+spontaneously to the great traveler from California! Then there was an
+inspiring glee from the lively young gentlemen who did the music.
+
+Thus passed the time till dinner was over, when we adjourned to the
+garden for coffee and cigars. Seated under the wide-spreading trees,
+in the balmy air of this summer evening, we had songs and recitations
+of Scandinavian poetry, anecdotes, and humorous dissertations till
+nearly midnight. I do not remember that I ever participated in a more
+rational or delightful entertainment. After a farewell glee to our
+host we marched down to the wharf, where the boat was in waiting, and
+embarked for Stockholm. I can only add that I was charmed with the
+refinement and intelligence of Swedish society, as far as I could
+judge of it by this casual glimpse. From many of the guests I received
+cordial invitations to prolong my sojourn, and the next morning found
+two or three of the gentlemen in readiness to show me every thing of
+interest about the city.
+
+We visited the Museum, where there is an interesting assortment of
+Scandinavian antiquities, and the palace, and some half a dozen other
+places, all of which came in the regular routine of sight-seeing; but
+the fact is, I am getting dreadfully tired of this systematic way of
+lionizing the cities of Europe. I turn pale at the sight of a museum,
+shudder at a church, feel weak in the knees at the bare thought of a
+picture-gallery, and as for antiquities, they make my flesh creep.
+Between you and myself, dear reader, I wouldn't give a sou-markee for
+all the old bones gathered up during the last eighteen centuries,
+unless to start a bone-mill and sell the dust at a remunerative
+profit.
+
+After all, the more I saw of Stockholm the more the blues began to
+creep over me. It is depressingly slow in these far Northern cities;
+so slow, indeed, I don't wonder every thing has a mildewed and
+sepulchral aspect. The houses look like slimy tombs in a grave-yard;
+the atmosphere, when the sun does not happen to shine--which is more
+than half the time--is dank and flat, and hangs upon one's spirits
+like a nightmare, crushing out by degrees the very germ of vitality. I
+am not surprised that paralysis and hip-disease are frightfully
+prevalent in Stockholm.
+
+Give me California forever--the land of sunshine and progress. I have
+seen no country like it yet. When I think of old times there, a
+terrible home-sickness takes possession of me. So help me, friends and
+fellow-citizens, I'd sooner be a pack-mule in California with a raw
+back, and be owned by a Mexican greaser, employed week in and week out
+in carrying barrels of whisky over the Downieville trail, fed on three
+grains of barley per day, and turned out to browse on quartz rock and
+sage-bushes every night--I'd rather be a miserable little burro,
+kicked and cuffed by a Mariposa Chinaman--I'd rather be a dog and bay
+the moon in the city of Oakland, or a toad and feed upon the vapors of
+a dungeon at San Quentin--I'd rather be a lamp-post on the corner of
+Montgomery Street, San Francisco, and be leaned against, and hugged,
+and kissed alternately by every loafer out of the Montgomery
+saloon--I'd rather be any of these than a human being compelled to
+live permanently in Europe, with a palace in every city, town, and
+village, and an income of fifty thousand dollars a day to defray
+expenses; so don't be surprised if I should turn up again one of these
+fine mornings on the Pacific coast. The only difficulty at present
+is--a collapse in the financial department.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+WALKS ABOUT STOCKHOLM.
+
+
+If you expect any very lively or striking pictures of Stockholm from a
+tourist like myself, whose besetting trouble in life is a
+constitutional melancholy, I am afraid you will be disappointed. It is
+beyond doubt one of the most agreeable cities in the North, and, so
+far as public institutions are concerned, affords a fine field of
+research for the antiquarian and the naturalist. Any enterprising
+gentleman who desires to improve his mind by the study of Puffendorf
+can here find the original. Linnæus, Berzelius, and others will
+materially assist him in grasping at the mysteries of animated
+creation; and if he be of a poetical turn, he can enjoy Belman in the
+unadulterated Scandinavian metre. For me, however, the public museums
+and libraries possessed only an external interest. I would gladly have
+devoted the remainder of my life to Scandinavian researches, but,
+having several other important matters to attend to, I was reluctantly
+forced to give up the idea. The main object at present was to escape
+from "an eternal lethargy of woe," which seemed to grow worse and
+worse every day. I really had nothing particular to afflict me, yet I
+both felt and looked like "a man sore acquaint with grief." Day after
+day I wandered about the streets in search of excitement. All in vain;
+such a luxury is unknown to strangers in Stockholm. I visited the
+fruit-markets, jostled about among the simple and kind-hearted
+peasants, bought bunches of cherries and baskets of raspberries from
+the pretty peasant-girls, and then stood eating my way into their
+acquaintance, while they laughed, and talked, and wondered where in
+the world such a strange man came from, and when I told them I came
+from California they looked incredulous, having probably never of such
+a country. Then I strolled down through the fish-market, where there
+were a great many queer fish exposed for sale by ancient and slimy old
+men and women, whose hands and aprons were covered with fish-scales,
+and whose faces had a very fishy expression. They offered me fish in
+every shape--skinned, gutted, chopped up, or whole, just as I pleased
+to buy them. One wrinkled old woman, with a voice much broken by
+shouting against the Gulf storms from high rocks, or some such cause,
+called my attention to a monster fish that must have weighed at least
+sixty pounds, and insisted upon letting me have it at a reduced price.
+I shook my head and smiled. In that smile I suppose the sagacious old
+fishwoman discovered the pliancy of my disposition, for she
+immediately commenced a wild harangue on the merits of the fish,
+scarcely a word of which I understood. Two or three times I started to
+leave, but each time she made a motion to detain me. The fact is, I
+was afraid she would get hold of me with her fishy hands, and was
+considerably embarrassed what to do. The price of the fish was
+reasonable enough--only two marks (about forty cents); but I had no
+use for it, and did not like to carry it to my hotel. The worst of it
+was, the old woman thought the price was the only obstacle, and
+finally came down to a mark and a half. What was to be done? From
+Billingsgate to Stockholm, it is notorious that a disappointed
+fishwoman is a very dangerous and uncertain foe to be encountered by
+any man, however brave. She began to get excited at the bare prospect
+of having taken so much trouble for nothing. Several of her friends
+began to gather round. A cold tremor ran through my frame. There
+seemed to be no possible way of evading the purchase without creating
+an unpleasant scene. To make an end of it, I bought the fish. With a
+bunch of grass wrapped around its tail, I made my way through the
+crowd. To be sure, I felt a little ashamed to be perambulating the
+streets of a strange city with a big fish in my hand, yet I could not
+well throw it down on the sidewalk, and was afraid, if I offered it to
+some little boy, he might stick his tongue in his cheek, and ask me if
+I saw any thing green in the corner of his eye. The case was getting
+worse and worse every moment. People stopped and looked at me as I
+passed. My arm was getting tired. Fortunately, I was close to the
+quay. A happy thought struck me; I walked over to the water's edge and
+cast the fish into his native element. "Go," said I, in the language
+of my uncle Toby; "there's room enough in the world for you and me."
+What the by-standers thought of the act I did not wait to see. It was
+enough that I was clear of a very unpleasant companion, though an
+ancient and fish-like odor remained with me for some time after. As
+for the fish, I doubt if he ever came to life; he must have been dead
+for several days when I bought him, judging by a taint upon my hands,
+which the best soap could not eradicate.
+
+After this I rambled gloomily along the quays, and wondered what every
+body was waiting for. There were small vessels enough lying at the
+wharves, but every body on board seemed to be taking it easy. Cooks
+were lying asleep on the galleys; skippers were sitting on the poop,
+smoking socially with their crews; small boys, with red night-caps on
+their heads, were stretched out upon the hatchways, playing push-pin,
+and eating crusts of black bread; stevedores, with dusty sacks on
+their shoulders, were lounging about on the wharf, waiting for
+something in the way of trade to turn up; shabby citizens, who seemed
+to be out of profitable employment, were sitting on the loose timbers
+overlooking the water, bobbing for fish, and never catching any so far
+as I could perceive; and scattering crowds of idlers were strolling
+idly along like myself, in search of something particular to look at,
+but, failing to discover it, they looked about at things generally,
+and then strolled on to look at something else. I sighed at the
+stagnation of business, and hoped it would never be my fate to be
+engaged in mercantile affairs in Stockholm. Before the Gotha Canal was
+completed this was a very brisk city; but since that period,
+Gottenburg, being more accessible, has monopolized much of the
+European trade. The principal trade of Stockholm now consists of
+exports of iron, and imports of sugar, coffee, and liquors. Throughout
+the interior the peasantry manufacture most of the articles required
+for their own use, such as clothing, implements of husbandry, etc., so
+that they are not large consumers of foreign commodities. Finding it
+very dull in town, I walked out in the suburbs, which are pretty and
+picturesque, though primitive enough to be a thousand miles from a
+commercial city. The houses are chiefly constructed of wood, painted
+yellow, with red roofs, and neatly ornamented with verandas; and the
+people have a quaint and simple look, as if they knew but little of
+the world, and did not care much to trouble their heads about the
+progress of events. Here as well as elsewhere, children continue to be
+born in great numbers, and groups of them were to be seen before every
+house playing in the mud just as little cotton-headed children play
+all over the world. I say cotton-headed, because these were of the
+blue-eyed, white-haired race who have a natural affinity for muddy
+places, and whose cheeks have a natural propensity to gather bloom and
+dirt at the same time.
+
+I struck out on the high points of the Normalm, and on one of them
+discovered an old church, surrounded by trees, with benches
+conveniently placed beneath their shade for weary pedestrians. Here
+were family groups quietly enjoying the fresh air, the men smoking and
+drinking, while the women and girls economized time by knitting and
+sewing. I took a vacant seat and looked down over the city. Surely a
+prettier prospect could not exist upon earth. There lay the city of
+the sea outspread beneath, its irregular streets, quaint old houses
+and churches covering every available space; the numerous wooded
+islands in the vicinity dotted with villas; sloops and boats floating
+dreamily on the Malar Lake, and larger vessels gliding over the waters
+of the Baltic; dense forests of pine dim in the distance; and over all
+a strangely colored Northern light, that gave the scene something of a
+spectral aspect. Yet the spirit of repose that seemed cast over this
+fair scene was absolutely oppressive to one like myself, accustomed to
+an active life. From the high points I wandered down into the low
+places, through narrow and tortuous streets; gazed into the stables
+and cow-houses; watched the tinners, and coppersmiths, and shoemakers
+as they wound up the labors of the day in their dingy little shops;
+peered into the greasy little meatshops and antiquated grocery-stores;
+studied the faces of the good people who slowly wended their way
+homeward, and bowed to several old ladies out of pure kindliness and
+good feeling; then wandered back into the public places, still pursued
+by a green and yellow melancholy. I gazed steadfastly at the statues
+of Gustavus Vasa, Charles XII., and Berzelius, and tried in vain to
+remember something of their history. I went into the picture-shops,
+took off my hat to small boys behind the counter, looked at the
+pictures, and bought several, for which I had no earthly use; then I
+went to the café on the bridge, drank coffee and cognac, and attempted
+to read the Swedish newspapers, of which I understood every letter,
+but not a word; after which I heard the whistle of a small steam-boat
+at the end of the café garden, and ran down in a hurry to get on
+board. The steam-boat was about equal to a good-sized yawl, and was
+bound for some port unknown to me; but that made no difference. I
+never see a boat of any kind going any where, or a locomotive, or a
+carriage, or any thing that moves by steam, sails, horse-power, or
+electricity, without feeling an unconquerable desire to be off too, so
+that I very much fear, if I should come across a convict vessel bound
+for Van Diemen's Land, it would be impossible for me to avoid jumping
+on board and going with the crowd. In the present case it was
+essentially necessary that I should keep moving. I was almost sinking
+under the oppressive loneliness of the place. Rather than remain
+another hour within the limits of such a dreary old city, I would have
+taken passage in a tread-mill, and relied upon the force of
+imagination to carry me to some other place. Nay, a hangman's cart on
+the way to the gallows would have presented a strong temptation. In
+saying this I mean nothing disrespectful to Birger Jarl, who founded
+Stockholm, and made it his place of residence in 1260; nor to
+Christina Gyllenstierna, who so heroically defended it against
+Christian II. of Denmark in the sixteenth century; nor to Gustavus
+Vasa, the brave liberator of Sweden; nor his noble and heroic
+grandson, Gustavus Adolphus; nor any body else famous in Swedish
+history; but the truth of it is, Sweden at the present day is
+essentially a home country, and the people are too domestic in their
+habits and modes of thought to afford any peculiar interest to a
+casual tourist. I like their simple and genial manners, and respect
+them for their sterling integrity, yet these are traits of no great
+value to one who travels so far out of the world in search of objects
+of more stirring interest. The ordinary traveler, who has no time to
+dive very deep beneath the surface of human life, is not satisfied to
+find things nearly as he finds them at home; streets, shops, and
+houses undistinguished by any peculiarity save the inconveniences and
+oddities of age; people every where around him who dress like all
+other civilized people, and possess the standard virtues and
+weaknesses of humanity; the proprieties of life decently observed, and
+loyalty to forms and time-honored usages a national characteristic. A
+Swede would no more violate a rule of etiquette, smile or bow out of
+place, eat a beefsteak or drink his schnapps at an unusual hour, or
+strike out any thing novel or original in the way of pleasure, profit,
+or enterprise, than a German. The court circle is the most formal in
+Europe, and the upper classes of society are absolute slaves to
+conventionality. A presentation at court is an event of such signal
+importance that weeks of preparation are required for the impressive
+ordeal; and when the tailor, and shoemaker, and the jeweler have done
+their part, and the unhappy victim, all bedeviled with finery and
+befrogged with lace, is brought into the presence of royalty, it is a
+miracle if he gets through without committing some dire offense
+against the laws of etiquette. Fine carriages, coats of arms,
+uniforms, and badges of office, are held in high veneration; and while
+the government is liberal and the people profess to be independent,
+their slavish devotion to rank, dress, and etiquette surpasses any
+thing I saw in Russia. With this, to be sure, is mingled a certain
+simplicity of manner and kindliness of expression toward inferiors
+which sometimes lead the stranger to believe that he is among a
+democratic people, but they are as far from democracy as the Prussians
+or the Austrians. The very affability of the superior to the inferior
+is the best evidence of the inseparable gulf that lies between them.
+In Russia there is the charm of barbarism, savagery, filth, and show;
+the people are loose, ferocious, daring, and wild; here in Sweden, the
+quiet, decent, home-aspect of the people, their rigid observance of
+the rules of etiquette, their devotion to royalty, law, and order, are
+absolutely depressing. In the abstract, many traits in their character
+are worthy of admiration, but as a traveler I detest this kind of
+civilization. Give me a devil or a savage at all times, who outrages
+the rules of society and carries an advertisement of character on his
+back. As an artist I can make something of him, either in the way of
+copy or pencil-sketches.
+
+Which brings me back to my situation, in the natural course of events.
+The whistle blows. The little steam-boat is about to stop at the
+landing-place of the Djurgaard. The engineer, smutty and oily with
+hard service, gives a turn to the crank, pulls an iron bar with a
+polished handle, and then pushes it; the tea-kettle boiler fizzes and
+whizzes, and lets off steam; the paddles stop paddling; the gentlemen
+passengers stand up and adjust their shirt collars; the ladies gather
+their shawls around them, and pick up their scattered bundles; with a
+whirl and a jerk we are alongside the wharf, and the captain jumps
+from the bow with a rope in his hand, and makes all fast to a
+logger-head. And now step ashore, if you please, ladies and gentlemen,
+and let us take a stroll through the deer garden, where
+
+        "The ash and warrior oak
+    Cast anchor in the rifted rock."
+
+The walks through this beautiful park (said to be the finest attached
+to any capital in Europe) are broad, and handsomely graded. Grand old
+forest-trees on either side make "a boundless contiguity of shade"
+over the greensward. Pavilions and rustic summer-houses stand on the
+high points of rock, commanding magnificent views of the adjacent
+islands and waters of the lake. Flower-gardens are numerous, and every
+nook and dell contains some place of refreshment, where the gay
+company who frequent these delightful grounds in the long summer
+evenings can drink their tea and enjoy the varied beauties of the
+scene. Wandering through these sylvan glades, the eye is continually
+charmed with the rare combinations of natural and artificial beauties
+scattered around in every direction with such wonderful prodigality.
+At one moment you imagine yourself in a wilderness, hundreds of miles
+from any human habitation, so dense are the shades of the grand old
+forest-trees, and so wild and rugged the moss-covered rocks; a few
+steps bring you suddenly upon some fairy scene, where palaces and
+temples, gilded carriages, gayly-dressed companies of ladies and
+gentlemen, and groups of children sporting upon the grass, dispel the
+illusion. Ascending to the highest points by the narrow and tortuous
+by-paths, I could almost fancy myself in the midst of the Coast Range,
+so perfect was the isolation; then coming out suddenly upon some
+projecting cliff, the change of scene from rugged grandeur to the
+perfection of civilization was absolutely magical. Vegetation in this
+northern region, where the summer are so short and warm, flourishes
+with an almost tropical luxuriance. The melting of the snows in
+spring, followed by heavy rains and sudden heat, causes the earth to
+give forth its products with a prodigality that compensates in some
+degree for the long and dreary winters. Trees burst into leaf as if by
+magic; flowers shoot up and bloom in a few weeks; the grass, enriched
+by the snows, springs forth and covers the earth like a gorgeous
+carpet of velvet. All nature rejoices in the coming of the long summer
+days. The birds sing in the groves; the bees hum merrily around the
+flowers; the gay butterflies flit through the sunbeams; and day and
+night are an almost continued period of revelry for all those
+beautiful and ephemeral creatures that droop and die with the flowers.
+I have nowhere seen such a profusion of intensely rich green and such
+wonderfully deep shades as in the neighborhood of Stockholm. It is
+almost oppressive to one accustomed to California scenery, where the
+whole face of the country wears a dry red-and-yellowish hue in summer.
+Strange how one's tastes change by association! I well remember when I
+first entered the Golden Gate, in August, 1849, after a long and
+dreary voyage round Cape Horn. Glad as I was to see land once more, it
+struck me that I had never looked upon so barren and desolate a
+country. The hill-sides had the appearance of parched and sodless
+deserts. Yet I soon learned to like that warm glow. I slept upon those
+parched hills, breathed the invigorating air, and felt the inspiration
+of California life. I would not now exchange the summer drapery of our
+hills and valleys for the deepest green upon earth. To my present
+frame of mind there is something flat and chilling in this redundancy
+of verdure that reminds one of death and the grave-yard. The
+moss-covered rocks jutting from the cold, grassy earth; the dripping
+fern; the pale, flitting gleams of sunshine struggling through the
+depths of foliage; the mould that seems to hang in the air--all these
+strike me as death-like. I long for the vital glow of a more genial
+sun, whose all-pervading light is reflected from the rich golden
+earth, shooting health and vigor through every fibre of the frame,
+permeating body and soul with its effulgence. Such intensity of light,
+such warmth of colors, fill the dullest mind with inspiration; the
+blood is quickened in its circulation; the respiration is full and
+free; the intellect becomes clearer and sharper; the whole man is
+quickened into the highest condition of mental and physical vitality.
+Is it a matter of wonder, then, that the people of California should
+be brave, generous, and loyal--that they should have a high sense of
+right, and an undying scorn of wrong? I hold that the species is
+improved by the climate and the country--that stronger men and better
+men are now undergoing the process of development in California than
+in any other country on the face of the earth. If we live fast and die
+suddenly, it is the natural consequence of increased bodily and mental
+vigor, which too often leads to excesses, but which, under proper
+training, must eventually lead to the highest moral and intellectual
+achievements. The fault does not lie in our climate. I have yet seen
+none to equal it North or South--not even in Italy. I do not think the
+climate of Sweden is conducive to longevity, or extraordinary mental
+or bodily vigor. Indeed, the same may be said of any climate abounding
+in such rigorous extremes. The Swedes, it is true, lead a placid and
+easy life, content with ordinary comforts, and worried by no exciting
+or disquieting ambitions; hence they enjoy good health, and generally
+get through the usual span allotted to man. If the same sanitary rules
+were observed in our country, there would be less sickness and fewer
+untimely deaths. Dissipation is not rare in Sweden, especially in the
+capital cities, but it is more methodical with us. The people have
+certain times and occasions for getting drunk; they make a regular
+business of it. Virulent and disgusting diseases are also prevalent
+among them, so that between the rigors of climate and other causes
+less excusable, they frequently appear old and decrepit before their
+time. That among the middle classes there are fine-looking men and
+beautiful women, is true; that in literature, science, and music, they
+can boast names that will go down to posterity, is a fact that can not
+be denied; but I think such a climate and the habits engendered by it
+are inimical to the highest order of physical and mental development
+among the masses. Hence we find throughout the country many diseased
+and deformed persons of both sexes; many weakly and not a few
+imbecile. The peasants are not so hardy and robust as I expected to
+find them; and I was told by competent judges, better informed than I
+could hope to become during so brief a sojourn, that they are
+progressively degenerating year after year, and can not now compare
+with the peasants of former times.
+
+To say that I was charmed with my ramble through the Djurgaard would
+but faintly express the pleasure I derived from my visit to this
+beautiful park. Of all the resorts for recreation that I have yet seen
+in Northern Europe, I give it the palm for natural beauty and tasteful
+cultivation. In this the Swedes excel. Their villas, gardens, and
+parks are unsurpassed, and no people in the world better understand
+how to enjoy them.
+
+Late in the evening I returned to my hotel, delighted with all I had
+seen. I was anxious to extend my rambles to Upsala, and to visit more
+in detail the various beautiful islands and places of interest in the
+vicinity of Stockholm; but the season was advancing, and I was
+reluctantly compelled to push on toward Norway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE GOTHA CANAL.
+
+
+On a pleasant morning in August I called for my bill at the "Stadt
+Frankfort." The landlady, a blooming young woman of rather vivacious
+and persuasive manners, wished me such a delightful journey, and
+looked so sorry I was going, that I could not muster resolution enough
+to complain of the various candles that were never burnt, and the
+numerous services that were never rendered, except in the bill; and
+had she charged me for washing my own face and putting on my own
+boots, I fear the result would have been the same. Wishing her a happy
+future, I shouldered my knapsack, which by this time contained only
+two shirts, an old pair of stockings, and some few flowers and stones
+from celebrated places, and, thus accoutred for the journey, made my
+way down to Riddarholm Quay. In a dingy old office, abounding in
+cobwebs, a dingy old gentleman, who spoke English, sold me a
+second-class ticket for Gottenburg. The little steamer upon which I
+had the good fortune to secure a passage was called the Admiral Von
+Platten, a name famous in the history of Swedish enterprise. It was
+Von Platten who, in 1808, took charge of the great work of internal
+improvement known as the West Gotha Canal, and by the aid of Telford,
+the celebrated English engineer, carried it into successful operation
+in 1822. The project of connecting the lakes of Wenern and Wettern,
+and forming a water communication all the way between Stockholm and
+Gottenburg, was entertained at a very early day by the different
+sovereigns and scientific men of Sweden. Bishop Brask in 1516,
+Gustavus I., Charles IX., Swedenborg, Gustavus Adolphus, and others,
+took particular interest in it, and some progress was made in the
+building of locks and opening of short passages up to the beginning of
+the present century. Daniel Thunberg contributed materially to the
+opening of the route between Wenern and the Baltic; and Colonel N.
+Eriksson, the celebrated engineer whose reputation stands so high in
+the United States, had the direction of the work for many years. It
+was not, however, till 1844 that the entire work was fully completed,
+although some years prior to that time the two seas were connected and
+open to navigation. The immense expense of this enterprise; the
+extraordinary natural obstacles that have been overcome; the patience
+and perseverance with which it has been carried into practical
+operation; the magnitude and durability of the work, can only be
+appreciated by one who has made the trip through Sweden by this route.
+It is certainly the grandest triumph recorded in Swedish history. It
+will exist and benefit generations to come, when the names of her
+kings, warriors, and statesmen shall be known only to antiquarians.
+
+The steamers now plying on this route are small, but well arranged for
+the accommodation of passengers. There is a first and second cabin,
+and a restaurant at which the traveler can call for what he desires,
+and, provided his tastes are not eccentric, generally get what he
+calls for. The waiters are simple-minded, kind-hearted, and sociable;
+sit down and gossip with the passengers (at least those of the second
+class), and, what seems rather novel and amusing to a stranger, leave
+the bill to be made out and summed up by the passengers themselves. A
+general account-book is left open in the cabin, in which it is
+expected every traveler will set down his name and keep his own
+account. At the end of the trip, the head waiter goes the rounds of
+the cabin and deck, book in hand, and asks the passengers to designate
+their names and sum up their accounts. Nobody seems to think of
+cheating or being cheated. There is something so primitive in this way
+of dealing on a public highway between two commercial cities, that I
+was quite charmed with it, and have some thoughts of recommending it
+to the California Steam Navigation Company. Just think what a pleasure
+it would be to travel from San Francisco to Sacramento, and keep the
+record of your own bitters and cigars, to say nothing of your supper
+and berth! I am certain the plan would be approved by a majority of
+the traveling public throughout the state.
+
+The company on board these little Swedish steamers is generally plain,
+sociable, and intelligent. Among the passengers I met many who spoke
+English and German, and few who did not speak at least one language
+in addition to their own. In midsummer the trip from Stockholm to
+Gottenburg usually takes three days, though it is sometimes
+accomplished in two. The distance is about three hundred and seventy
+miles by the shortest route, through the Wettern and Wenern lakes.
+Time, however, is no great object in Sweden, and a day or two more or
+less makes no great difference. The beauty of the scenery, and the
+diversity of land and water, render the trip one of the most agreeable
+in Northern Europe, and for one I can safely say it would have pleased
+me all the better had it lasted longer.
+
+Leaving the Riddarholm Quay, our route lay for the first four hours
+through the Malar Lake. The weather was delightful, and there was
+scarcely a ripple on the water. Sloops and wood-boats lay floating
+upon its glassy surface without perceptible motion. All along on
+either side beautiful villas peeped from the umbrageous shores and
+islands. Behind us, the city loomed up in all its queenly beauty, the
+numerous churches and public buildings presented in majestic outline
+against the sky, while the forest of shipping at the quays added a
+more stirring and vital interest to the scene. As we turned the last
+promontory to the right, and took a lingering look at this charming
+"city of the sea," I thought I had never enjoyed a more enchanting
+_coup d'oeil_. The suburbs of Stockholm; the numerous little islands,
+with their rich green shrubbery; the villas and gardens; the sparkling
+vistas of water, form a combination of beauties rarely to be met with
+in any other part of the world. No wonder the Swedes regard their
+capital as a paradise. I fully agree with them that in summer it
+deserves all their praise; but I should prefer a warmer and more
+genial paradise for winter quarters. Earthen stoves and hot-air
+furnaces are not in any of the seven heavens that occur in my
+imagination.
+
+Before many hours we passed a point somewhat celebrated in Swedish
+history. On a high peak of rock, hanging upon a pole, is a prodigious
+iron hat, said to be the identical "stove-pipe" worn by one of the old
+Swedish kings--a terrible fellow, who was in the habit of slaying
+hundreds of his enemies with his own hand. This famous old king must
+have been a giant in stature. Judging by his hat, as Professor Agassiz
+judges of fish by their scales, he must have been forty feet high, by
+about ten or fifteen broad; and if his strength corresponded with his
+gigantic proportions, I fancy he could have knocked the gable-end off
+a house with a single blow of his fist, or kicked the head out of a
+puncheon of rum, and swallowed the contents at a single draught,
+without the least difficulty. His hat probably weighs a hundred
+pounds--enough to give any ordinary man a severe headache. Here it has
+stood for centuries, in commemoration of his last struggle. Besieged
+by an overwhelming force of his enemies, as the chronicle goes, he
+slew some thousands of them, but, being finally hard pressed, he lost
+his iron hat in the fight, and then plunged headlong into the lake.
+Some historians assert that he took to water to avoid capture; but I
+incline to the opinion myself that he did it to cool his head. At all
+events, the record ends at this point. We are unable to learn any
+thing more of his fate. These Northern races are strong believers in
+their own aboriginal history, and although there may be much in this
+that would require the very best kind of testimony before a California
+jury, the slightest hint of a doubt as to its truth would probably be
+taken as a personal offense by any public spirited Swede. In that
+respect, thank fortune, I am gifted with a most accommodating
+disposition. I can believe almost any thing under the sun. Giants and
+genii are nothing to what my credulity is capable of; and as for
+fairies and hobgoblins, I can swallow them by wholesale. There is only
+one thing in this world that I entertain the least doubt about--the
+title to my house and lot in Oakland. Upon that point I question if it
+ever will be possible for human evidence to satisfy me. Three times I
+paid for it, and each time every body considered it perfect except
+myself. I expect daily to hear of another title, of which I trust some
+enterprising gentleman in want of funds will advise me. It will be a
+source of consolation to know that I was not mistaken.
+
+Situated near the entrance of the canal, on the left bank, is the
+beautiful little town of Soderkoping, celebrated for its mineral
+springs, to which the people of Stockholm resort in great numbers
+during the summer for health and recreation. The scene as we
+approached was very pretty. Pine and oak forests cover the granite
+hills for many miles around, relieved by occasional openings dotted
+with villas, gardens, and farms; and the dark red wooden houses of the
+town have a singularly pleasant effect glimmering in the sunbeams
+through the rich masses of foliage by which they are surrounded.
+Groups of visitors stood at the locks awaiting the news from the city,
+or anxiously looking out for the familiar faces of relatives and
+friends, while the lock-men slowly and methodically performed their
+accustomed routine of labors. Soderkoping is a very ancient town, and
+in former times enjoyed considerable importance as a mart of commerce.
+Passing through a narrow stretch of canal, some miles in length,
+overhung by trees and rocks on the right, and affording some pleasant
+views of the rich valley to the left, the banks gradually widened till
+we entered a beautiful little lake, leading, after a short passage, to
+the waters of the Roxen. The narrow parts of the canal are difficult
+of navigation, owing to the various turns and the solid masses of rock
+through which it is cut; and the steamer sometimes proceeds very
+slowly, carefully feeling her way along, till an open space affords an
+opportunity of going ahead at a more rapid rate. In the mean time the
+passengers are all out on the decks, shaded by an awning, enjoying
+themselves in the most unceremonious manner, laughing and talking in
+groups, sipping their coffee, or promenading up and down to enjoy the
+sweet-scented breeze from the neighboring hills. The Roxen Lake,
+through which we next passed, is some seventeen miles long by seven
+broad, and is justly regarded as one of the loveliest sheets of water
+in all Sweden. The shores are neither very high nor very grand, but it
+would be difficult to find any thing more charming than the rich
+coloring of the rocks, their varied outlines, the luxuriance of the
+forests, and the crystal clearness of the water. Villages and farms
+are seen at occasional intervals in the distance, and sloops, with
+their sails hanging idly against their masts, float upon the placid
+surface of the lake as upon a mirror. Indeed, so perfect is the
+inversion, that the eye can scarcely determine how much is real and
+how much the result of optical illusion. Passing in sight of the town
+of Linkoping, which lies to the left, we soon reached the entrance of
+the West Gotha Canal, which here makes a direct ascent from the waters
+of the Roxen of seventy-five feet. At this point there are eleven
+locks, seven of which are closely connected, and the remainder
+separated by short stretches of canal. Near at hand is a pretty little
+village to the left, famous for its church, the Vretakloster, built in
+the Gothic style in 1128, by Inge II., one of the early kings of
+Sweden. While the steamer was slowly toiling through the locks, a
+party of the passengers, including myself, paid a visit to the church,
+and, aided by a venerable sacristan, saw all that was to be seen in
+it, chief among which are the tombs of the kings and the arms of the
+Douglas family, those warlike Scots who took such an active part in
+the military exploits of Sweden during the Thirty Years' War. The walk
+was a pleasant relief after our trip across the lake, and on our
+return by a short cut to the upper locks we had a splendid view of the
+wood-covered shore and glistening waters of the Roxen, now fading away
+in the rich twilight. The steamer occupies about an hour and a half in
+getting through the locks, and most of the passengers take advantage
+of the delay to stroll about among the neighboring cottages and
+gardens, and enjoy the various refreshments offered for sale at the
+pavilions and tents erected near the upper extremity for the
+accommodation of travelers. Fresh milk, raspberries, coffee, sweet
+cakes, and ale are the principal articles furnished at these places.
+Notwithstanding there was an abundant supply of luxuries on board,
+every body seemed to be hungry and thirsty on getting ashore. The
+rapidity with which the plates, cups, and glasses were emptied was
+really surprising, and would have done credit to a crowd of
+Californians, who, I think, can eat more and drink more in a given
+time than any race of men upon the earth.
+
+The canal for some distance beyond the locks is quite narrow--often
+barely wide enough for two steamers to pass. On the left the banks
+rise to a considerable height, and then gradually decline till the
+canal passes along a ridge, high above the surrounding country. The
+effect in these places is very peculiar. The overhanging trees almost
+unite their branches over the chimney of the steamer as she wends her
+way slowly and steadily along; deep ravines extend downward into an
+impenetrable abyss on either side; the sky glimmers through the
+foliage in a horizontal line with the eye, and one can almost fancy
+the world has been left below somewhere, and that a new highway has
+been entered, upon which passengers steam their way to the stars. I am
+quite certain, if we had kept a direct course long enough, we would
+have reached the moon or some of the heavenly bodies.
+
+It was late at night when we reached the Boren Lake, another of those
+natural highways that lie between the Baltic and the North Sea. This
+lake is comparatively small, but it abounds in rocky islands and
+shoals which render the navigation through it rather intricate. A
+pilot is taken on board at the entrance of each lake, and discharged
+upon reaching the next canal station.
+
+I remained on deck until midnight, enjoying the strange and beautiful
+lights spread over the heavens in this latitude, and was reluctant
+even then to lose the views during any part of the journey. Nature,
+however, can not be defrauded of her legitimate demands even by the
+beauties of scenery, and I went below to sleep out the remainder of
+the night. My berth was in the forward cabin, where twenty or thirty
+passengers were already stretched out--some on the tables, some on the
+floor, and as many as could find room were snoring away in the
+temporary berths erected on the seats for their accommodation. Toward
+morning I was suddenly aroused by a strange and jarring motion of the
+boat, accompanied by a grating sound. It seemed as if an earthquake
+were throwing us up out of the water; yet the shocks were more sudden
+and violent than any I had ever before experienced. Many of the
+passengers were cast out of their berths, and the glass and crockery
+in the pantry went crashing over the floor. Scarcely conscious whether
+I was dreaming or awake, I grasped a post, and sprang out on a pile of
+baggage, but was immediately precipitated across the cabin.
+Fortunately I fell against the chambermaid, and suffered no injury.
+Amid the confusion worse confounded, the screams of the women down
+below, the crash of broken glasses, and the general struggle to get to
+the cabin door, a German Jew sprang from his berth, and in frantic
+accents begged that his life might be spared. "Take my money!" cried
+he; "take it all, but for God's sake don't murder me!" The poor fellow
+had evidently been aroused out of some horrible dream, and between
+actual and imaginary dangers was now quite bewildered with terror. I
+could not help but be amused at the grotesque expression of his face,
+even at such a moment. It would have provoked a smile had we been
+going to the bottom. There was no fear of that, however, as I quickly
+ascertained. We were already hard and fast on the bottom. We had run
+upon a sunken rock, and were so firmly wedged between its crevices
+that it seemed likely we should remain there some time. As soon as all
+was still, I quietly dressed myself and went on deck to take an
+observation. It was just daylight. We were in the middle of a lake,
+surrounded by small rocky islands. One of these was only a stone's
+throw distant on our starboard. The stakes between which our course
+lay were close by on the larboard. We had missed the channel by some
+twenty or thirty yards, and run upon a bed of solid boulders. The
+pilot, it seemed, had been drinking a little too freely of schnapps,
+and had fallen asleep at the helm. It was a miracle that we were not
+all dashed to pieces. A few yards to the right stood a sharp rock,
+which, had we run against it, would have crushed in the entire bow of
+the boat, and probably many of us would have perished.
+
+Although there was no fear of our sinking any deeper unless the bed of
+rocks gave way, it was not a pleasant prospect to be detained here,
+perhaps for several days. The main shore was some five or six miles
+distant, and presented an almost unbroken line of granite boulders and
+dense pine forests. Most of the passengers were on deck, in a state of
+high excitement; the gentlemen running about in their shirt sleeves
+and drawers, and the ladies in those indescribable costumes which
+ladies usually wear when they go to sleep. The captain was mounted on
+the poop-deck, with his pipe in his mouth, giving orders to the men,
+who were pulling and tugging at big ropes, and trying to be very busy
+knocking things about; the pilot stood a little apart from the
+captain, pale and moody, having in a single moment destroyed his
+prospects for life. I felt very sorry for the poor fellow, though
+there was really no excuse for him. Every now and then the captain
+turned to him and gave him a broadside of curses, which he bore very
+meekly.
+
+In vain the engineer put on additional steam; in vain the captain
+shouted "Back!" "Ahead!" "Stop!" We did nothing but stop. It was stop
+all the time. As there is no tide in these inland waters, the prospect
+was that we would continue to stop as long as the rocks remained
+stationary.
+
+All hope of progress being at an end, the engineer slackened down the
+fires; the deck-hands went to breakfast, and the passengers went down
+below to dress and talk over their misfortune. The sun rose as usual,
+and the sky was as clear and the lake as placid as if nothing had
+happened. I had been trying all my life to get shipwrecked on a
+desolate island; now there seemed a fair prospect of success. The only
+difficulty was, that there was no heavy sea to break the vessel to
+pieces, and she was too substantial to go to pieces of her own
+account. The nearest island was little more than a barren rock. A few
+birds wheeled about over it, or sat perched upon its rugged points,
+but with that exception I doubt if it furnished a foothold for a
+living creature.
+
+After a good breakfast of sausages and veal cutlets, brown bread and
+coffee, we again turned out on deck. This time the joyful tidings
+reached us from aloft that a Gottenburg steamer was approaching. Soon
+the smoke of her chimneys was perceptible from the deck, and in an
+hour or so she was alongside. A stout hawser was bent on to her, and
+after another hour of pulling and tugging, backing and filling, we
+slipped off the rocks, and floated out into the channel. I was
+destined, after all, never to be decently shipwrecked. We had suffered
+but little injury, and proceeded on our way as quietly as if nothing
+had interrupted our course. On our arrival at the next pilot station
+the captain put the pilot ashore, with a parting malediction in the
+Swedish vernacular.
+
+The next place of importance on our route was the pretty little town
+of Motala, at which we stopped for some hours to take in freight and
+passengers. The neighborhood is undulating and picturesque, and
+abounds in rich farms. Motala is an old-fashioned place, with paved
+streets and wooden houses, much like the suburbs of Stockholm. It is
+celebrated chiefly for its manufactures of iron. The founderies are
+numerous, and cutlery of a very good quality is manufactured here.
+Besides these, it possesses many other objects of interest. The
+churches are well worth visiting, and the ruins of the fortifications
+erected in 1567, to resist the Danes, are among the finest in Sweden.
+From Motala, after another narrow stretch of canal, we soon reached
+the Wettern Lake, the next largest to the Wenern, and the waters of
+which are three hundred and four feet above the level of the sea.
+
+In my recollections of travel I can scarcely call to mind any
+experience more pleasant than I enjoyed during this part of the trip.
+The lake scenery of Sweden, although not very grand compared with that
+of the Norwegian fjords, is certainly unsurpassed in the softness and
+beauty of its coloring, the crystal clearness of the water, the
+luxuriance of the surrounding forests, the varied labyrinths of
+charming little islands through which the channel winds, and the
+delicate atmospheric tints cast on the distant shores. By this time,
+too, the passengers have become better acquainted. The wonderful
+sights that we have seen together; the perils and dangers through
+which we have passed; the breakfasts, dinners, and suppers that we
+have eaten at the same board; the amount of solid sleeping that we
+have done in the same little cabin; the promenades we have had up and
+down the decks, and the rambles we have enjoyed together, have bound
+us together as one family, and now we come out with our individual
+histories and experiences, our accomplishments and humors. We (the
+gentlemen) drink schnapps together, smoke cigars, talk all the
+languages under the sun, tell our best anecdotes, and sing glees under
+the awning. The ladies look more beautiful than ever, and although
+they are still a little shy of us, as ladies in Europe generally are
+of the male sex, they sometimes favor us with a smile or a pleasant
+word, and thus contribute to our happiness. I don't know, for the life
+of me, what dire offense the man who founded European society was
+guilty of; but it is certain his successors, from Algeria to the North
+Pole, are sadly mistrusted by the unmarried ladies. This, I regret to
+say, is the case in Sweden, as well as in Germany and France. A
+gentleman is generally regarded as a ferocious cannibal, ready
+without the slightest provocation to devour and swallow up
+defenseless maidens. The married ladies are free and easy enough,
+having discovered probably that men are not half so dangerous as they
+are reported to be. But, all things considered, the Swedish ladies are
+exceedingly polite and affable, and on occasions of this kind seem
+well disposed toward our rapacious sex.
+
+The next important point in our route was the fortress of Wanas, which
+commands the channel entering the lake on the eastern side. This is
+considered a work of great importance in view of invasion by any
+foreign power. We did not stop long enough to examine it in detail,
+merely touching to put the mail ashore and take in a few passengers.
+Leaving the Wettern Lake, our route lay through a series of smaller
+lakes, beautifully diversified with wood-covered islands, till we
+entered the Viken, another magnificent stretch of water of less extent
+than the Wettern, but still more beautiful than any we had yet seen.
+Here the rocks and islands are innumerable, rising from the water in
+every direction; the smaller ones covered with moss, lichens,
+shrubbery, and flowers; and the larger darkened with a dense growth of
+fir, pine, and other evergreens, while the oak, elm, and ash
+occasionally enliven the masses of shade with their more lively
+foliage.
+
+At the end of the Viken, which is some fifteen miles in length, the
+West Gotha Canal commences, and continues through a rich and beautiful
+farming country to the waters of the great Wenern Lake, some twenty
+miles distant. The passage through this portion of the route is less
+interesting than others through which we had passed--so far, at least,
+as the scenery is concerned. The country is undulating, but not
+sufficiently diversified for fine scenic effects. Farms and meadows
+extend nearly all the way to the shores of the Wenern; and the canal
+passes at frequent intervals through farming districts, which, in
+point of cultivation, are quite equal to any thing I had seen in more
+southern parts of Europe. The peasants' houses along the route are
+neat and comfortable, and reminded me occasionally of our New England
+farm-houses. Villages enliven the route at intervals of a few miles,
+but generally they are of inconsiderable size, and may properly be
+regarded as mere gatherings of farm-houses around the nucleus of a
+church or post station. In this respect, I was struck with the
+difference between Sweden and Germany. The German peasantry, as a
+general thing, live in villages, and carry on their farming outside,
+sometimes at a distance of several miles. In the Thuringenwald, the
+Schwartzwald, the Spessart, and some other mountainous districts, it
+is true, exceptions may be found to this rule; but throughout the best
+cultivated districts of Germany there are but comparatively few
+farm-houses in which isolated families live. Hence villages, and, in
+many cases, large towns, form the head-quarters of each agricultural
+parish. The pedestrian, in traveling through Germany, is scarcely ever
+more than a "halp-stund" from one town or village to another. I think
+the longest stretch I ever made between two villages was two hours, or
+six and a half miles. In Sweden (and the same may be said of Norway)
+the farming districts have more of an American aspect. The houses are
+scattered about on the different farms, and the peasants do not seem
+to be so gregarious in their habits as those of Germany. This arises
+in part from the fact that the population is not so dense in Sweden as
+in the more central parts of Europe, and in part from the greater
+abundance of wood and pasture, and the predominance of the lumbering,
+mining, and stock-raising interests. Many of the farmers are also
+lumbermen and miners, and nearly all have a good supply of blood
+cattle. The extent of arable land in Sweden is comparatively small. It
+presents few attractions as an agricultural country. Its chief wealth
+consists in its vast forests and mines. The climate is too severe and
+the production of cereal crops too uncertain to render farming on a
+large scale a profitable pursuit. This is especially the case in the
+northern parts. South of Stockholm, between the lakes of Wettern and
+Wenern, and along the banks of the Gota River, farming is carried to
+considerable perfection; but with this exception, and some small and
+sheltered valleys to the north, in which the peasants manage with
+great care and labor to raise a sufficient supply of grain and
+potatoes for domestic consumption, but little is produced for
+exportation. The land generally throughout Sweden is barren and rocky,
+and it is only by great labor and constant manuring that fair crops
+can be produced. In the populous districts, where the soil possesses
+some natural advantages, the farms are mostly small, averaging from
+ten to seventy-five acres. A tract of forest is usually attached to
+these farming-lands, from which the peasants derive their supplies of
+lumber and fuel. Saw-mills are numerous on all the rivers, and a large
+trade in lumber is carried on in the lake regions. The main lumber
+region lies north of Stockholm, on the various small rivers emptying
+into the Gulf of Bothnia. Sundswall, Umea, Lulea, and Haparanda are
+the principal places of exportation on the eastern shore, and
+Gottenburg on the west. The fisheries are also an important branch of
+industry, and large quantities of stromung and herrings are exported.
+Salmon abound in the rivers, and the lakes and mountain streams
+furnish a very fine quality of trout. Game is more abundant in the
+densely wooded regions of Sweden than in Norway, being less accessible
+to English sportsmen. Of late years Norway has become the favorite
+hunting and fishing ground of the English, and every summer they swarm
+all over the country with their guns and fishing-rods. In Sweden,
+however, comparatively few have yet made their appearance. Bear, elk,
+red deer, ptarmigan, and wild-fowl abound in the forests and along the
+shores of the lakes. The Swedes themselves are not so much given to
+this kind of recreation as the English. Their chief amusements consist
+in Sunday afternoon recreations, such as theatrical representations,
+dancing, singing, drinking, and carousing. In their religious
+observances they are very strict, but after church they consider
+themselves privileged to enjoy a little dissipation in the Continental
+style. It too often happens that their frolics are carried to an
+excess. More brandy and other strong liquors are consumed in Sweden,
+according to the population, than in New Orleans or San Francisco,
+which is saying a good deal for the civilization of the people.
+Another good sign is that they chew tobacco. The better classes
+usually smoke this delightful weed, but the peasants both smoke it and
+chew it, showing conclusively that they are advancing rapidly toward
+emancipation from the narrow prejudices of European society. I saw
+drunken men and tobacco-chewers in Sweden who would have done credit
+to any little mining district in California. The habit of drinking is
+almost universal. The peasants drink to get drunk, the better classes
+drink for excitement, and all drink because they like it. At the
+principal restaurants in Stockholm and Gottenburg there is usually an
+anteroom opening into the main saloon. Here every gentleman who enters
+deposits his hat and cane. In the centre of the room stands a small
+table, upon which are several decanters containing "schnapps," a pile
+of brown bread sliced, various plates of biscuit and thin flour-cake,
+butter, and pickled fish. Around this the customers gather to acquire
+an appetite, which they accomplish by drinking one or two glasses of
+schnapps, eating a few small fish (stromung) spread upon their bread
+and butter, and then drinking some schnapps. They then go in to
+dinner, and call for what they want, including the various wines
+necessary for the process of digestion. Having eaten heartily and
+emptied a few bottles of wine, they wind up with coffee and cognac or
+maraschino. One would think such a process every day would burn the
+lining off the best stomach in the world; but the Swedes, like the
+Russians, have gutta-percha stomachs. The same system, it is true,
+prevails in San Francisco, only in a different form, and the same
+consequences generally ensue. People are very apt to get up from the
+table with a rush of blood to the head, a general obliquity of vision,
+and a peculiar weakness in the knees. I tried it myself by way of
+experiment, and was sick of a headache for three days after. Somehow I
+can travel a long distance on foot without getting tired, but my
+stomach is not lined with sheet iron. I have seen women and children
+drink at a single sitting enough of intoxicating beverages, since my
+arrival in Europe, to have capsized me for a month. This, I think,
+will account for the prevalence of bloated bodies and red noses in
+these highly civilized countries.
+
+I had read somewhere, before visiting Sweden, that the Swedes are not
+very sociable toward strangers. Perhaps in this respect they do not
+produce so favorable an impression as the Germans, but my experience
+has been such as to give me a very pleasant idea of their social
+qualities. It is true they are not so demonstrative in their manners
+as the French, or so enthusiastic as the Germans; but I found no
+difficulty in becoming acquainted with them, and was invariably
+treated with kindness and hospitality. When a Swede manifests an
+interest in your behalf, it is pretty certain that he feels it. If you
+become acquainted with one respectable family, you have a general
+entree into the entire social circle. No pains are spared to render
+your visit agreeable; and although the demonstrations of kindness are
+never intrusive, you feel that they are cordial and sincere. There may
+be among the more polished classes a certain degree of formality which
+to a stranger bears the appearance of reserve; but this quickly passes
+away, and the pleasure is all the greater in finding that there is
+really very little reserve about them. With all their adhesion to
+forms and ceremonies, they are simple and unaffected in their manners,
+and have a natural repugnance to whatever is meretricious. In a word,
+the Swedes are an honest, straightforward, sterling people, resembling
+more, in certain points of character, the English than any of their
+Continental neighbors, though I must do them the justice to say that
+they rarely have so unpleasant a way of manifesting their best traits.
+I can readily believe that the longer they are known the better they
+may be liked. It is true I saw nothing of Swedish society beyond what
+a casual tourist can see in passing rapidly through the country, yet
+that little impressed me very favorably, and disposes me to rely with
+confidence upon what I gathered from others who have enjoyed a more
+extended experience.
+
+The home sketches of Fredrika Bremer give a more thorough insight of
+Swedish life and manners than perhaps those of any other writer. Of
+late years, however, Miss Bremer does not appear to have maintained
+her early popularity. She is said to have written some things which
+have given offense and provoked severe criticism, and I was surprised
+to hear her productions mentioned by several of her countrymen in
+somewhat disparaging terms. This was a source of disappointment to me,
+for I had supposed she was the most popular writer in Sweden; and I
+could not easily forget the pleasure I had derived from the perusal of
+"The H---- Family," "Nina," "The Professor," and other of her
+charming delineations of domestic life. As no man is a prophet in his
+own valley, I suppose the same may be said of women. To this, however,
+Jenny Lind is an exception.
+
+But, as usual, I find myself steering out of the channel. We were now
+in the great Wenern Lake, a vast sheet of water fifty miles broad by
+one hundred in length. The elevation of this lake is 147 feet above
+the sea level. Its shores are densely wooded, and it abounds in
+islands, many of which are inhabited and cultivated. Several rivers of
+considerable size empty their waters into the Wenern, among which is
+the Klar, a large and rapid stream having its source in the mountains
+of Norway, at a distance of two hundred and fifty miles to the north.
+Fishing and lumbering are the principal occupations of the inhabitants
+living on the islands and shores. All these interior waters are frozen
+over in winter, and communication is carried on by means of sledges.
+The winters are very severe; and it is said that great numbers of
+wolves, driven from their usual haunts by starvation, prowl along the
+public highways during the winter months in search of prey. Traveling
+parties are sometimes attacked, and it is considered dangerous for
+children to go from one farm-house to another. The government,
+however, by a system of rewards for the destruction of these vicious
+animals, has succeeded of late years in greatly reducing their
+numbers.
+
+In speaking of the severity of Swedish winters, it may be well to
+state that the cold is uniform, and consequently more easily endured
+than if the temperature were subject to sudden variations. There is,
+of course, considerable difference between the northern and southern
+parts of the country; but, taking the average or central parts, the
+winters may be considered as lasting about five months. During that
+period the snow covers the earth, and the lakes and rivers are frozen.
+At Stockholm the thermometer averages in summer about 70 degrees
+above, and in winter 29 degrees below zero, of Fahrenheit. At
+Gottenburg the summers are not quite so warm and the winters not so
+cold. The temperature of the Norwegian coast facing the Atlantic is
+less rigorous than that of the Swedish coast on the Baltic, arising
+from the influence of the Gulf Stream, and partly from the proximity
+of the open sea. Even at Wammerfest, which lies within the arctic
+circle, the winters are comparatively mild. At Bergen it rains over
+two hundred days in the year, and the fjords are seldom frozen over.
+
+Passing along the eastern shore of the Wenern, we passed a series of
+rocky islands, well wooded till we reached the town of Wenersberg--an
+important dépôt for the commerce and products of the lake. At this
+place a brisk trade in iron and lumber is carried on during the summer
+months, and the wharves present quite a lively appearance, with their
+shipping, and piles of lumber and merchandise. The population of
+Wenersberg is about 2500; the houses are neat, and the general
+appearance of the town is thrifty. We stopped long enough to enjoy a
+ramble through the streets, and take a look at the inhabitants, after
+which our little steamer proceeded on her way through the Wassbottom
+Lake. At the end of this we entered the Carls Graf, or that portion of
+the canal built by Charles IX., to avoid the upper falls of the Gota
+River. The canal is here cut through solid masses of rock, and must
+have been a work of great difficulty and expense.
+
+Late in the evening we arrived at the Falls of Trolhætta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+VOYAGE TO CHRISTIANIA.
+
+
+I shall not stop to describe the Falls of Trolhætta. Better
+word-painters have so often pictured the beauties of this region that
+there is nothing left for an unimaginative tourist like myself.
+
+A few hours' travel by the river steamer brought me to Gottenburg,
+where, for the first time since my arrival in Europe, I really began
+to enjoy life. Not that Gottenburg is a very lively or fascinating
+place, for it abounds in abominations and smells of fish, and is
+inhabited by a race of men whose chief aim in life appears to be
+directed toward pickled herring, mackerel, and codfish. There was much
+in it, however, to remind me of that homeland on the Pacific for which
+my troubled heart was pining. A grand fair was going on. All the
+peasants from the surrounding country were gathered in, and I met very
+few of them, at the close of evening, who were not reeling drunk.
+Besides, they chewed tobacco--an additional sign of civilization to
+which I had long been unaccustomed.
+
+  [Illustration: IN NORSELAND.]
+
+At Gottenburg, in the absence of something better to do, I made up my
+mind to visit Norway. The steamer from Copenhagen touches on her way
+to Christiania. She has an unpleasant habit of waking people up in the
+middle of the night; and I was told that if I wanted to make sure of
+getting on board, I must sit up and watch for her. This is abominable
+in a mercantile community; but what can be expected of a people whose
+noblest aspirations are wrapped up in layers of dried codfish? By
+contract with the kellner at my hotel the difficulty was finally
+arranged. For the sum of two marks, Swedish currency, he agreed to
+notify me of the approach of the Copenhagen steamer. I thought he was
+doing all this solely on my account, but afterward discovered that he
+had made contracts at a quarter the price with about a dozen others.
+
+It was very late in the night, or very early in the morning, when I
+was roused up, and duly put on board the steamer. Of the remainder of
+that night the least said the better. A cabinful of sea-sick
+passengers is not a pleasant subject of contemplation. When the light
+of day found its way into our dreary abode of misery, I went on deck.
+The weather was thick, and nothing was to be seen in any direction but
+a rough, chopping sea and flakes of drifting fog. A few
+doleful-looking tourists were searching for the land through their
+opera-glasses. They appeared to be sorry they ever undertook such a
+stormy and perilous voyage, and evidently had misgivings that they
+might never again see their native country. Some of them peeped over
+the bulwarks from time to time, with a faint hope, perhaps, of seeing
+something new in that direction; but from the singular noises they
+made, and the convulsive motions of their bodies, I had reason to
+suspect they were heaving some very heavy sighs at their forlorn fate.
+The waiters were continually running about with cups of coffee, which
+served to fortify the stomachs of these hardy adventurers against
+sea-sickness. I may here mention as a curious fact that in all my
+travels I have rarely met a sea-going gentleman who could be induced
+to acknowledge that he suffered the least inconvenience from the
+motion of the vessel. A headache, a fit of indigestion, the remains of
+a recent attack of gout, a long-standing rheumatism, a bilious colic
+to which he had been subject for years, a sudden and unaccountable
+shock of vertigo, a disorganized condition of the liver--something, in
+short, entirely foreign to the known and recognized laws of motion,
+disturbed his equilibrium, but rarely an out-and-out case of
+sea-sickness. That is a weakness of human nature fortunately confined
+to the ladies. Indeed, I don't know what the gentler sex would do if
+it were not for the kindness of Providence in exempting the ruder
+portion of humanity from this unpleasant accompaniment of sea-life,
+only it unfortunately happens that the gentlemen are usually afflicted
+with some other dire and disabling visitation about the same time.
+
+  [Illustration: THE STEAMER ENTERING THE FJORD.]
+
+Toward noon the fog broke away, and we sighted the rocky headlands of
+the Christiania Fjord. In a few hours more we were steaming our way
+into this magnificent sheet of water at a dashing rate, and the decks
+were crowded with a gay and happy company. No more the pangs of
+despised love, indigestion, gout, and bilious colic disturbed the
+gentlemen of this lively party; no more the fair ladies of Hamburg and
+Copenhagen hid themselves away in their state-rooms, and called in
+vain to their natural protectors for assistance. The sea was smooth;
+the sun shot forth through the whirling rain-clouds his brightest
+August beams. All along the shores of the Fjord, the rocky points,
+jutting abruptly from the water, rose like embattled towers, crowned
+with a variegated covering of moss, grim and hoary with the wild winds
+and scathing winters of the North. Beautiful little valleys, ravines,
+and slopes of woodland of such rich and glittering green opened out to
+us on either side, as we swept past the headlands, that the vision was
+dazzled with the profusion and variety of the charms bestowed upon
+this wilderness of romantic scenery. A group of fishermen's huts,
+behind a bold and jagged point of rocks--a rude lugger or
+fishing-smack, manned by a hardy crew of Norskmen, rough and
+weather-beaten as the ocean monsters of their stormy coast, gliding
+out of some nook among the rocky inlets--here the cozy little cottage
+of some well-to-do sea-captain, half fisher, half farmer, with a gang
+of white-headed little urchins running out over the cliffs to take a
+peep at the passing steamer, the frugal matron standing in the door
+resplendent in her red woolen petticoat and fanciful head-dress,
+knitting a pair of stockings, or some such token of love, for her
+absent lord--there, a pretty little village, with a church, a wharf,
+and a few store-houses, shrinking back behind the protecting wing of
+some huge and rugged citadel of rocks, the white cottages glittering
+pleasantly in the rays of the evening sun, and the smoke curling up
+peacefully over the surrounding foliage, and floating off till it
+vanished in the rich glow of the sky--all so calm, so dreamy in colors
+and outline that the imagination is absolutely bewildered with the
+varied feast of beauties: such are the characteristic features of this
+noble sheet of water.
+
+The Christiania Fjord is one of the largest in Norway. Commencing at
+Frederickstadt on the one side and Sandesund on the other, it extends
+into the interior a distance of seventy or eighty miles, making one of
+the finest natural harbors in the world. The water is deep, and the
+shores are almost rock-bound. In many places the navigation is
+somewhat intricate, owing to the numerous rocky islands and rugged
+headlands; but the Norwegian pilots are thoroughly experienced in
+their business, and know every foot of the way as familiarly as they
+know their own snug little cabins perched up among the rocks.
+
+  [Illustration: COAST OF NORWAY.]
+
+Touching at the picturesque little town of Horten on the left, we
+discharged some passengers and took in others, after which we
+proceeded without farther incident to the town of Drobak on the right.
+Here the Fjord is narrow, presenting something the appearance of a
+river. A group of fortifications on the cliffs protects this
+passage. The view on leaving Drobak is inexpressibly beautiful. The
+Fjord widens gradually till it assumes the form of an immense lake,
+the shores of which rise abruptly from the water, covered with forests
+of pine. Moss-covered rocks, green wooded islands, and innumerable
+fishing-craft, give variety and animation to the scene. Range upon
+range of wild and rugged mountains extend back through the dim
+distance on either side till their vague and fanciful outlines are
+mingled with the clouds. Nothing can exceed the richness and beauty of
+the atmospheric tints. A golden glow, mingled with deep shades of
+purple, illuminates the sky. In the distance the snowy peaks of the
+vast interior ranges of mountains glisten in the evening sun. The deep
+green of the foliage which decks the islands and promontories of the
+Fjord casts its reflected hues upon the surface of the sleeping
+waters. In the valleys, which from time to time open out as we sweep
+along on our way, rich yellow fields of grain make a brilliant and
+striking contrast to the sombre tints of the pine forests in the rear.
+
+It was long after sunset, but still light enough to enjoy all the
+beauties of the Fjord, when we saw before us the numerous and
+picturesque villas that adorn the neighborhood of Christiania. Passing
+the fine old castle of Aggershuus on the left, we rounded a point, and
+then came in full view of the town and harbor.
+
+Surely there is nothing like this in the whole world, I thought, as I
+gazed for the first time upon this charming scene. The strange
+old-fashioned buildings, the castle, the palace on the hill-top, the
+shipping at the wharves, the gardens on every slope, the varied
+outlines of the neighboring cliffs and hills, covered with groves and
+green slopes of rich sward; every nook glimmering with beautiful
+villas; the whole reflected in the glowing waters that sweep through
+the maze of islands and headlands in every direction; can there be any
+thing more beautiful in all the world?
+
+  [Illustration: THE ISLANDS.]
+
+The steamer was soon hauled alongside the wharf, where a crowd of
+citizens was gathered to see us land. Here again was a scene
+characteristic of Norway. No hurry, no confusion, no shouting and
+clamoring for passengers, but all quiet, primitive, and good-humored.
+How different from a landing at New York or San Francisco! Three or
+four sturdy hack-drivers stood smoking their pipes, watching the
+proceedings with an air of philosophical indifference truly
+refreshing. Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and cousins of
+various parties on board, waved their handkerchiefs and nodded
+affectionately to their friends and relatives, but kept their
+enthusiasm within limits till the plank was put out, when they came on
+board, and kissed and hugged every body of their acquaintance in the
+most affectionate manner. The officers of the customs, good easy
+souls! also came on board, books in hand, and made a kind of
+examination of the baggage. It was neither severe nor formal, and I
+felt an absolute friendship for the chief officer on account of the
+jolly manner in which he looked at me, and asked me if I had any thing
+contraband in my little knapsack. I offered to open it, but with a
+wave of his hand he chalked a pass upon it and I walked ashore. For
+the first time in my life I here felt the inconvenience of not being
+persecuted by porters and hack-drivers. The few who were on hand
+seemed to be particular friends or relatives of parties on board, and
+were already engaged. I walked up the queer, grass-grown old streets,
+looking around in the dim twilight for a hotel; and after stumbling
+into half a dozen odd-looking shops and store-houses, contrived to
+make my way to the Hotel Victoria, said to be the best in Christiania.
+
+As it is no part of my purpose to write a book on Christiania, I shall
+only say that for the next three days I rambled about enjoying all the
+objects of interest in this quaint northern city--the churches, the
+museum, the castle, the palace, the ups and downs of the streets, the
+market-places, wharves, and gardens, and the magic beauties of the
+neighborhood. There is a plainness and simplicity about the people of
+Christiania, a good-humor of expression, a kindliness of manner and
+natural politeness that impressed me very favorably. The society is
+said to be genial and cultivated. I have no doubt of the fact, though
+my stay was too short to afford an opportunity of making many
+acquaintances.
+
+At the Hotel Victoria I met Ole Bull, who was on a tour through his
+native land. He sat near me at the _table d'hôte_, and I had an
+opportunity of noticing the changes which time has made in his
+appearance. The last time I had seen him was in Columbus, Ohio, in
+1844. He was then in the very prime of life, slender and graceful, yet
+broad of shoulder and powerful of limb; with light straight hair,
+clear blue eyes, and a healthy Northern complexion. He is now quite
+altered, and I am not sure that I would have recognized him had he not
+been pointed out to me. In form he is much stouter, though not so
+erect as he was in former years. His hair is sprinkled with gray. He
+retains the same noble cast of features, and deep, dreamy, and genial
+expression of eye as of old, but his complexion is sallow, and his
+face is marked by lines of care. There is something sad and touching
+in his manner. I do not know what his misfortunes in America may have
+to do with his present dejected expression, but he seems to me to be a
+man who has met with great disappointments in life. Although I sat
+beside him at the table, and might have claimed acquaintance as one of
+his most ardent American admirers, I was deterred from speaking to him
+by something peculiar in his manner--not coldness, for that is not in
+his nature--but an apparent withdrawal from the outer world into
+himself. A feeling that it might be intrusive to address him kept me
+silent. I afterward sent him a few lines, expressing a desire to renew
+my early acquaintance with him; but he left town while I was absent on
+an excursion to the Frogner-assen, and, much to my regret, I missed
+seeing him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+FROM CHRISTIANIA TO LILLEHAMMER.
+
+
+The population of Christiania is something over 40,000, and of late
+years it has become quite a place of resort for tourists on the way to
+the interior of Norway. The houses built since the fire of 1858, which
+destroyed a considerable portion of the town, are large and
+substantial, built of stone and covered with cement. The streets for
+the most part are broad and roughly paved. Very little of
+characteristic style is observable in the costume of the citizens.
+Plainness of dress, simple and primitive manners, and good nature, are
+the leading traits of the Norwegians. Christiania is the modern
+capital of Norway, and was founded by Christian IV. of Denmark, near
+the site of the ancient capital of Osloe, which was founded in 1058 by
+King Harold Hardraade. Some of the old buildings still remain in a
+state of good preservation; but the chief interest of the city
+consists in its castle, university, library, and museum of Northern
+antiquities. A traveler from the busy cities of America is struck with
+the quiet aspect of the streets, and the almost death-like silence
+that reigns in them after dark. In many places the sidewalks are
+overgrown with grass, and the houses are green with moss. Stagnation
+broods in the very atmosphere. Christiania is in all respects the
+antipodes of San Francisco. A Californian could scarcely endure an
+existence in such a place for six weeks. He would go stark mad from
+sheer inanity. Beautiful as the scenery is, and pleasantly as the time
+passed during my brief sojourn, it was not without a feeling of relief
+that I took my departure in the cars for Eidsvold.
+
+  [Illustration: APPROACH TO CHRISTIANIA.]
+
+The railway from Christiania to Eidsvold is the only one yet in
+operation in Norway. It was a pretty heavy undertaking, considering
+the rough country and the limited resources of the people; but it was
+finally completed, and is now considered a great feature in Norwegian
+civilization. Some idea may be formed of the backwardness of
+facilities for internal communication throughout this country when I
+mention the fact that beyond the distance of forty miles to Eidsvold
+and the Lake of Miösen, the traveler is dependent upon such vehicles
+as he takes with him, unless he chooses to incur the risk of procuring
+a conveyance at Hamar or Lillehammer. The whole country is a series of
+rugged mountains, narrow valleys, desolate fjelds, rivers, and fjords.
+There are no regular communications between one point and another on
+any of the public highways, and the interior districts are supplied
+with such commodities as they require from the sea-board solely by
+means of heavy wagons, sledges, boats, and such other primitive modes
+of transportation as the nature of the country and the season may
+render most available.
+
+Like every thing else in Norway, the cars on the Eidsvold railway have
+rather more of a rustic than a metropolitan appearance. They are
+extremely simple in construction and rural in decoration; and as for
+the road, it may be very good compared with a trail over the Sierra
+Nevada Mountains, but it is absolutely frightful to travel over it by
+steam. Three hours is the allowance of time for forty miles. If I
+remember correctly, we stretched it out to four, on account of a
+necessary stoppage on the way, caused by the tumbling down of some
+rocks from an overhanging cliff. The jolting is enough to dislocate
+one's vertebræ; and I had a vague feeling all the time during the trip
+that the locomotive would jump off the track, and dash her brains out
+against some of the terrible boulders of granite that stood frowning
+at us on either side as we worried our way along from station to
+station.
+
+It was nearly dark when we came to a saw-mill by the roadside. The
+scenery is pretty all the way from Christiania, but not very striking
+till the train passes the narrow gorge in which the saw-mill is
+situated, where there is a tunnel of a few hundred feet that
+penetrates a bluff on the left. Emerging from this, we are close upon
+the charming little village of Eidsvold, one of the loveliest spots in
+this land of beauty. A few minutes more brought us to the
+station-house, where the railway ends. Here we found ourselves at a
+good hotel, picturesquely situated on the bank of the Wormen, a river
+flowing from the Miösen Lake.
+
+At eleven o'clock on a fine Sunday forenoon I took my departure from
+Eidsvold on board one of the little lake steamers. These vessels are
+well managed, and not inconveniently arranged, but they are so very
+small that on particular occasions, when there is an unusual pressure
+of travelers, it is difficult to find room for a seat. Owing to the
+facilities afforded by the railway from Christiania, an excursion to
+Lillehammer is the most popular way of passing a Sunday during the
+summer months, and this being the height of the season, the crowd was
+unusually great. It also happened that two hundred soldiers, who had
+served out their time, were returning to their homes in the interior,
+so that there was no lack of company on board. If the soldiers were
+somewhat lively and frolicsome, it was nothing more than natural under
+the circumstances. A good many were intoxicated--at the idea, perhaps,
+of getting home once more, and their songs and merry shouts of
+laughter kept every body in a good humor. I am unable to account for a
+curious fact, which I may as well mention in this connection. Whenever
+the authorities of any country through which I chance to travel have
+occasion to send their troops from one point to another, they
+invariably send them upon the same boat or in the same railway train
+upon which I have the fortune to take passage. There must be something
+military in my appearance, or some natural propensity for bloodshed in
+my nature, that causes this affinity to exist between us, for it has
+happened altogether too often to be accidental. The King of Sicily,
+some years ago, sent a party of troops to keep me company to Palermo.
+Subsequently the King of Greece favored me with a large military
+convoy to one of the Greek islands. After that I had an independent
+supervision of various bodies of Turkish soldiers on board of
+different vessels within the Turkish dominions. Recently Napoleon III.
+sent down by the same train of cars, from Paris to Marseilles, about
+four hundred of his troops for Algiers. Being detained at Marseilles
+by some unforeseen circumstance, I had the pleasure of seeing these
+men shipped off on the first steamer. I took passage in the next. By
+some extraordinary fatality, for which there is no accounting, there
+were upward of five hundred additional troops shipped on this vessel.
+It was a consolation to know that a storm was brewing, and that they
+would soon be all sea-sick. Before we got out of the Gulf of Lyons I
+could have slain every man of them with a pocket-knife. It was
+therefore with a spirit of resignation that I saw the Norwegian
+soldiers come on board at Eidsvold. Fate had ordained that we should
+travel together, and it was no use to complain. Besides, I liked their
+looks. As stalwart, blue-eyed, jovial, and hearty-looking a set of
+fellows they were as ever I saw in any country--men of far higher
+intelligence and physical capacity than the average of soldiers in
+Continental Europe. That these were the right sort of men to fight for
+their country there could be no doubt. I have rarely seen finer troops
+any where than those of Norway.
+
+The Miösen Lake is sixty-three miles in length, extending from Minde
+to Lillehammer, and varies in width from five to ten miles. The
+broadest part is opposite to Hamar, nearly at the centre, and not far
+from the island of Helgeö. The shores embrace some of the finest
+farming lands in Norway; and after passing Minde, the sloping
+hill-sides are dotted with pretty little farm-houses, and beautifully
+variegated with fields and orchards. In many places, so numerous are
+the cottages of the thrifty farmers hung in this favored region, that
+they resemble a continuous village, extending for many miles along the
+hill-sides. There is not much in the natural aspect of the country to
+attract the lover of bold mountain scenery. The beauties of the shores
+of Miösen are of a gentle and pastoral character, and become
+monotonous after a few hours. Near Hamar, on the right, there are the
+ruins of an old cathedral, burned and plundered by the Swedes in 1567.
+
+Apart from the ordinary interest of the Miösen Lake, arising from the
+quiet, pastoral character of its shores, it possessed a peculiar charm
+to me, owing to the fact that, in 1755, when the great earthquake
+occurred at Lisbon, its waters rose twenty feet, and suddenly
+retreated. Only a few months previously I had visited the city of
+Lisbon, and stood upon the very spot, where, in six minutes, over
+sixty thousand souls had been buried beneath the ruins. I was now, so
+to speak, following up an earthquake.
+
+It was late at night when we arrived at the pretty little town of
+Lillehammer, at the head of the lake. Leaving the steamer here, I
+found myself, for the first time, beyond the limits of the English
+language. A Norwegian with whom I had become acquainted on board the
+boat was kind enough to walk up town with me and show me the way to
+the post station, where I had some difficulty in procuring
+accommodations, owing to the number of recent arrivals.
+
+The town of Lillehammer contains twelve or fifteen hundred
+inhabitants, whose principal industry consists in the lumber business.
+Immense rafts are towed down the lake every day by the returning
+steamers, and carried by rail from Eidsvold to Christiania. The logs
+are drifted down the Logen River from the interior, and cut up at
+Lillehammer and Eidsvold. Such as are designed for spars are dressed
+and stripped at the latter place. There are many other points on the
+lake from which supplies of timber are also transferred to
+Christiania, so that, between farming, fishing, and lumbering, the
+inhabitants of this region make out a very comfortable subsistence,
+and generally own the lands upon which they reside. Many of them are
+wealthy--for this part of the world.
+
+Lillehammer is prettily situated on an eminence, and consists of log
+and frame houses, presenting much the appearance of a Western lake
+village in the United States. The view of the Miösen and its verdant
+shores is very fine from the top of the hill. It was ten o'clock at
+night when I arrived, although the sky was still lighted up with a
+purple glow from the departed sun. Something of the wonderful scenic
+beauties of the country were still visible. A party of French
+tourists, who had come to Norway to make a three days' visit, set off
+at this late hour to see the torrent which breaks from the side of the
+mountain, about half a mile beyond the town. I was solicited to join
+them; but my passion for sight-seeing was rather obscured by the
+passion of hunger and thirst. At such times I am practical enough to
+prefer a good supper to the best waterfall in the world. Waterfalls
+can be postponed. Hunger must be promptly satisfied. Thirst makes one
+dry. A distant view of falling water is a poor substitute for a glass
+of good ale. There is no fear that any ordinary cataract will run
+itself out before morning.
+
+This was my first experience of a post station, and very pleasant I
+found it. The inns of Norway are plain, cheap, and comfortable; not
+very elegant in appearance, but as good in all respects as a plain
+traveler could desire. I had a capital supper at Lillehammer,
+consisting of beefsteak, eggs, bread, butter, and coffee--enough to
+satisfy any reasonable man. The rooms are clean, the beds and bedding
+neat and comfortable, and the charge for supper, lodging, and
+breakfast not exceeding an average of about fifty cents. At some of
+the interior stations I was charged only about twenty-five cents, and
+in no instance was I imposed upon. The inn-keepers are so generally
+obliging and good-natured that there is very little difficulty in
+getting along with them. A few words always sufficed to make my wants
+understood, and the greatest kindness and alacrity were invariably
+shown in supplying them. But I anticipate my journey.
+
+After a pleasant night's rest I arose bright and early; and here,
+being for the first time thrown completely upon my own resources in
+the way of language, was obliged to have recourse to my vocabulary to
+get at the means of asking for breakfast and a horse and cariole.
+Fancy a lean and hungry man standing before a substantial landlord,
+trying to spell out a breakfast from his book in some such way as
+this:
+
+"Jeg vil Spise [I will eat]!"
+
+"Ya, min Herr!" the landlord politely answers.
+
+"Jeg vil Frokost [I will breakfast]!"
+
+"Ya, min Herr;" and the landlord runs off into a perfect labyrinth of
+birds, fish, eggs, beefsteak, hot cakes, and other luxuries, which the
+inexperienced traveler is vainly attempting to follow up in his book.
+In despair, he at length calls out,
+
+"Ja! Ja!--that's all right! any thing you say, my fine old gentleman!"
+
+At which the landlord scratches his head, for he doesn't understand
+precisely what you have selected. Now you take your book, and explain
+slowly and systematically:
+
+"Kaffee!"
+
+"Ja."
+
+"Oegg!"
+
+"Ja."
+
+"Fisk!"
+
+"Ja."
+
+"Smör og Brod!"
+
+Here the landlord is staggered, and scratches his head again. _Smör_
+he gets a glimmering of, but the bread stuns him. You try it in a
+dozen different ways--broad, breyd, breed, brode, braid. At length a
+light flashes upon his mind. You want bread! Simple as the word is,
+and though he pronounces it precisely according to one of your own
+methods, as you suppose, it is difficult to get the peculiar
+intonation that renders it intelligible.
+
+"Ja!" And thus you lay the foundation of your breakfast; after which,
+having progressed so far in the language, there is no great difficulty
+in asking for a "Heste og Cariole" [a horse and cariole].
+
+A little practice in this way soon enables the traveler to acquire a
+sufficient knowledge of the language for the ordinary purposes of
+communication along the road. With a smattering of the German it comes
+very readily to one who speaks English, being something of a mixture
+between these two languages. I was really astonished to find how well
+I could understand it, and make myself understood, in the course of a
+few days, though candor obliges me to say that if there is any one
+thing in the world for which nature never intended me it is a
+linguist.
+
+I was in hopes of finding at Lillehammer a party of tourists bound
+over the Dovre Fjeld to Trondhjem, of whom I had heard in Christiania.
+In this I was disappointed. They had started a few days previously. An
+omnibus was advertised to run as far as Elstad, some thirty-five miles
+up the valley of Gudbransdalen, which would be so much gained on my
+route. It seemed, however, that it only ran whenever a sufficient
+number of passengers offered--so I was obliged to give up that
+prospect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+HOW THEY TRAVEL IN NORWAY.
+
+
+Nothing can be more characteristic of Norwegian seclusion from the
+world than the rude means of inland communication between the
+principal cities. Here was a public highway between two of the most
+important sea-ports in the country--Christiania and Trondhjem--without
+as much as a stage to carry passengers. Every traveler has to depend
+upon his own vehicle, or upon such rude and casual modes of conveyance
+as he can find at the stations by the wayside. I asked the reason of
+this backward state of things, and was informed that the amount of
+travel is insufficient to support any regular stage line. The season
+for tourists lasts only about three months, and during the remainder
+of the year very few strangers have occasion to pass over the roads.
+In winter--which, of course, lasts very long in this latitude--the
+whole country is covered with snow, and sledges are altogether used,
+both for purposes of traveling and the transportation of merchandise
+from the sea-board. The products of the country--such as logs, spars,
+and boards--are prepared during these months for rafting down the
+rivers during the spring floods. Once, as I was told, an enterprising
+Englishman had started a regular stage-line from Christiania to
+Trondhjem, in consequence of the repeated complaints of the traveling
+public, who objected to the delays to which they were subject; but he
+was soon obliged to discontinue it for want of patronage. When
+travelers had a convenient way of getting over, they grumbled at being
+hurried through, and preferred taking the usual conveyances of the
+country, which afforded them an opportunity of enjoying the scenery
+and stopping wherever they pleased. People did not come all the way to
+Norway, they said, to fly through it without seeing any of its wonders
+and beauties. There was some philosophy in this, as well as a touch of
+human nature. It reminded me of the Frenchman in Paris who lived to be
+eighty years of age without ever leaving the city; when the king, for
+the sake of experiment, positively forbid him from doing so during the
+remainder of his life. The poor fellow was immediately seized with an
+inordinate desire to see something of the outside world, and
+petitioned so hard for the privilege of leaving the city that the
+king, unable to resist his importunities, granted him the privilege,
+after which the man was perfectly satisfied, and remained in Paris to
+the day of his death.
+
+By reference to a copy of the laws on the subject of post-travel,
+which I had procured in Christiania from a Mr. Bennett, I discovered
+that the system is singularly complicated and hazardous, as well as a
+little curious in some of its details. The stations are situated along
+the road about every eight or ten miles (counted in Norwegian by so
+many hours). Nothing that we could call a village is to be seen in any
+part of the interior, unless the few straggling farm-houses
+occasionally huddled together, with a church in the centre, may be
+considered in that light. The stations usually stand alone, in some
+isolated spot on the wayside, and consist of a little log or frame
+tavern, a long shambling stable, innumerable odds and ends of cribs,
+store-houses, and outbuildings, forming a kind of court or
+stable-yard; a rickety medley of old carts and carioles lying about
+basking in the sun; a number of old white-headed men smoking their
+pipes, and leathery-faced women on household duties intent, with a
+score or so of little cotton-headed children running about over the
+manure pile in the neighborhood of the barn, to keep the pigs company;
+here and there a strapping lout of a boy swinging on a gate and
+whistling for his own amusement; while cows, sheep, goats, chickens,
+and other domestic animals and birds browse, nibble, and peck all over
+the yard in such a lazy and rural manner as would delight an artist.
+This is the ordinary Norwegian station.
+
+  [Illustration: STATION-HOUSE, LOGEN VALLEY.]
+
+There is always a good room for the traveler, and plenty of excellent
+homely fare to eat. At some few places along the route the
+station-houses aspire to the style and dignity of hotels, but they are
+not always the best or most comfortable. Then there are "fast" and
+"slow" stations--so called in the book of laws. At the fast stations
+the traveler can procure a horse and cariole without delay--fifteen
+minutes being the legal limit. At the slow stations he must wait till
+the neighborhood, for a distance of three or four miles perhaps, is
+searched for a horse--sometimes for both horse and cariole. If he
+chooses to incur the expense he can send forward a _Forbad_, or notice
+in advance, requiring horses to be ready at each station at a
+specified time; but if he is not there according to notice, he must
+pay so much per hour for the delay. A day-book is kept at each of
+these post-houses, in which the traveler must enter his name, stating
+the time of his arrival and departure, where he came from, his
+destination, how many horses he requires, etc. In this formidable book
+he may also specify any complaint he has to make against the
+station-holder, boy, horse, cariole, or any body, animal, or thing
+that maltreats him, cheats him, or in any way misuses him on the
+journey; but he must take care to have the inn-keeper or some such
+disinterested person as a witness in his behalf, so that when the
+matter comes before the Amtmand, or grand tribunal of justice, it may
+be fairly considered and disposed of according to law. When the
+inn-keeper, station-holder, posting-master, alderman, or other proper
+functionary on the premises, fails to present this book and require
+the traveler to sign his name in it, he (the arrant violator of laws)
+is fined; but the traveler need not flatter himself that the rule does
+not work both ways, for he also is fined if he refuses or
+intentionally neglects to write his name in the said book. The number
+of horses to be kept at fast stations is fixed by law, and no traveler
+is to be detained more than a quarter of an hour, unless in certain
+cases, when he may be detained half an hour. At a slow station he must
+not be detained over three hours--such is the utmost stretch of the
+law. Think of that, ye Gothamites, who complain if you are detained
+any where on the face of the earth three minutes--only detained three
+hours every eight or ten miles! But for delay occasioned by any
+insuperable impediment, says the Norwegian law-book--such as a storm
+at sea, or too great a distance between the inns--no liability is
+incurred on either side. A Philadelphia lawyer could drive
+six-and-thirty coaches-and-four, all abreast, through such a law as
+that, and then leave room enough for a Stockton wagon and mule-team
+on each side. Who is to judge of the weather or the distance between
+the inns? When the traveler holds the reins he is responsible for the
+horse, but when the post-boy does the holding, he, the said boy, is
+the responsible party. Should any post-horse be ill treated or
+overdriven when the traveler holds the reins, so that, in the language
+of the law, "the station-holder, inn-keeper, or two men at the next
+station can perceive this to be the case, the traveler shall pay for
+the injury according to the estimation of these men, and he shall not
+be allowed to be sent on until the payment is made." The traveler pays
+all tolls and ferry charges. "When the road is very hilly, or is in
+out-of-the-way districts where there are but few horses in proportion
+to the travel, and the distance between the stations is unusually
+long, or under other circumstances where the burden on the people
+obligated to find horses is evidently very oppressive, etc.," "it may
+be ordered by the king, after a declaration to that effect has been
+procured by the authorities, that payment for posting may be reckoned
+according to a greater distance, in proportion to the circumstances,
+as far as double the actual distance."
+
+In addition to all these formidable regulations--against which it
+seems to me it would be impossible for any ordinary man to
+contend--the tariff fixes the price of posting for fast and slow
+stations in the country, the only difficulty being to find where the
+towns are after you get into them, or to know at what stage of the
+journey you leave them. The Amtmand, by letter to all the authorities,
+likewise requires the tariff to be hung conspicuously in all the inns;
+which tariff, says the law, "is altered according to the rise and fall
+of provisions."
+
+When I came to study out all this, and consider the duties and
+obligations imposed on me as a traveler going a journey of three or
+four hundred miles; that I was to be subject to contingencies and
+liabilities depending upon the elements both by land and sea; that
+serious responsibilities fell upon me if I held the reins of the
+post-horse, and probably heavy risks of life and limb if the post-boy
+held them; that the inn-keeper, station-holder, alderman, or two men
+chosen miscellaneously from the ranks of society, were to judge of
+damages that might be inflicted upon the horse; that I must register
+my name in a day-book, and enter formal complaints against the
+authorities on the way about every ten miles; that the tariff might
+rise and fall five hundred times during the journey, for aught I knew,
+according to the rise and fall of provisions or the pleasure of the
+Amtmand; that conspiracies might be entered into against me to make me
+pay for all the lame, halt, blind, and spavined horses in the country,
+and my liberty restrained in some desolate region of the mountains;
+that I could not speak a dozen words of the language, and had no other
+means of personal defense against imposition than a small pen-knife
+and the natural ferocity of my countenance--when all these
+considerations occurred to me, I confess they made me hesitate a
+little before launching out from Lillehammer.
+
+However, the landlord of the post, a jolly and good-natured old
+gentleman, relieved my apprehensions by providing such a breakfast of
+coffee, eggs, beefsteak, fish, and bread, that my sunken spirits were
+soon thoroughly aroused, and I felt equal to any emergency. When I
+looked out on the bright hill-sides, and saw the sun glistening on the
+dewy sod, and heard the post-boys in the yard whistling merrily to the
+horses, I was prepared to face the great Amtmand itself. In a little
+while the horse and cariole designed for my use were brought up before
+the door, and the landlord informed me that all was "_fertig_."
+
+Now, was there ever such a vehicle for a full-grown man to travel in?
+A little thing, with a body like the end of a canoe, perched up on two
+long shafts, with a pair of wheels in the rear; no springs, and only a
+few straps of leather for a harness; a board behind for the
+skydskaarl, or post-boy, to sit upon; and a horse not bigger than a
+large mountain goat to drag me over the road! It was positively
+absurd. After enjoying the spectacle for a moment, and making a
+hurried sketch of it, wondering what manner of man had first contrived
+such a vehicle, I bounced in, and stretched my legs out on each side,
+bracing my feet against a pair of iron catches, made expressly for
+that purpose. Fortunately, I am a capital driver. If nature ever
+intended me for any one profession above all others, it must have been
+for a stage-driver. I have driven buggies, wagons, and carts in
+California hundreds of miles, and never yet killed any body. Like the
+Irishman, I can drive within two inches of a precipice without going
+over. Usually, however, I let the horse take his own way, which, after
+all, is the grand secret of skillful driving.
+
+My baggage consisted of a knapsack containing two shirts and an extra
+pair of stockings, a sketch-book and some pencils, and such other
+trifling knick-knacks as a tourist usually requires in this country. I
+carried no more outside clothing than what common decency required: a
+rough hunting-coat, a pair of stout cloth pantaloons, and an old pair
+of boots--which is as much as any traveler needs on a Norwegian tour,
+though it is highly recommended by an English writer that every
+traveler should provide himself with two suits of clothes, a
+Mackintosh, a portable desk, an India-rubber pillow, a few blankets,
+an opera-glass, a musquito-net, a thermometer, some dried beef, and a
+dozen boxes of sardines, besides a stock of white bread, and two
+bottles of English pickles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+A NORWEGIAN GIRL.
+
+
+With a crack of the whip that must have astonished the landlord, and
+caused him some misgivings for the fate of his horse and cariole, I
+took my departure from Lillehammer. About half a mile beyond the town
+we (the skydskaarl, myself, horse, and cariole) passed the falls--a
+roaring torrent of water tumbling down from the mountain side on the
+right. Several extensive saw-mills are located at this point. The
+piles of lumber outside, and the familiar sounds of the saws and
+wheels, reminded me of home. The scene was pretty and picturesque, but
+rather disfigured by the progress of Norwegian civilization. Passing
+numerous thriving farms in the full season of harvest, the road
+winding pleasantly along the hill-side to the right, the foaming
+waters of the Logen deep down in the valley to the left, we at length
+reached the entrance of the Gudbransdalen--that beautiful and fertile
+valley, which stretches all the way up the course of the Logen to the
+Dovre Fjeld, a distance of a hundred and sixty-eight miles from
+Lillehammer. It would be an endless task to undertake a description of
+the beauties of this valley. From station to station it is a continued
+panorama of dashing waterfalls, towering mountains, green slopes, pine
+forests overtopping the cliffs, rich and thriving farms, with
+innumerable log cottages perched up among the cliffs, and wild and
+rugged defiles through which the road passes, sometimes overhung by
+shrubbery for miles at a stretch. Flying along the smoothly-graded
+highway at a rapid rate; independent of all the world except your
+horse and boy; the bright sunshine glimmering through the trees; the
+music of the wild waters falling pleasantly on your ear; each turn of
+the road opening out something rich, new, and strange; the fresh
+mountain air invigorating every fibre of your frame; renewed youth and
+health beginning to glow upon your cheeks; digestion performing its
+functions without a pang or a hint of remonstrance; kind, genial,
+open-hearted people wherever you stop--is it not an episode in life
+worth enjoying? The valley of the Logen must surely be a paradise (in
+summer) for invalids.
+
+At each station the traveler is furnished with a stunted little boy
+called the skydskaarl, usually clothed in the cast-off rags of his
+great-grandfather; his head ornamented by a flaming red night-cap, and
+his feet either bare or the next thing to it; his hair standing out in
+every direction like a mop dyed in whitewash and yellow ochre, and his
+face and hands freckled and sunburned, and not very clean, while his
+manners are any thing but cultivated. This remarkable boy sits on a
+board behind the cariole, and drives it back to the station from which
+it starts. He is regarded somewhat in the light of a high public
+functionary by his contemporary ragamuffins, having been promoted from
+the fields or the barn-yard to the honorable position of skydskaarl.
+His countenance is marked by the lines of premature care and
+responsibility, but varies in expression according to circumstances.
+The sum of four cents at the end of an hour's journey gives it an
+extremely amiable and intelligent cast. Some boys are constitutionally
+knowing, and have a quick, sharp look; others again are dull and
+stolid, as naturally happens wherever there is a variety of boys born
+of different parents. For the most part, they are exceedingly bright
+and lively little fellows. Mounted on their seat of honor at the back
+of the cariole, they greatly enliven the way by whistling and singing,
+and asking questions in their native tongue, which it is sometimes
+very difficult to answer when one is not familiar with the language.
+
+I had at Moshuus a communicative little boy, who talked to me
+incessantly all the way to Holmen without ever discovering, so far as
+I could perceive, that I did not understand a single word he said.
+Another, after repeated efforts to draw me out, fell into a fit of
+moody silence, and from that into a profound slumber, which was only
+broken off toward the end of our journey by an accident. The cariole
+struck against a stone and tilted him out on the road. He was a good
+deal surprised, but said nothing.
+
+Another little fellow, not more than six or seven years of age--a
+pretty fair-haired child--was sent with me over a very wild and
+broken stage of the journey. He was newly dressed in a suit of gray
+frieze with brass buttons, and was evidently a shining light at home.
+On the road a dog ran out from the bushes and barked at us. The poor
+little skydskaarl was frantic with terror, and cried so lustily that I
+had to take him into the cariole, and put him under my legs to keep
+him from going into fits. He bellowed all the way to the next station,
+where I endeavored to make the inn-keeper understand that it was cruel
+to send so small a boy on such a hazardous journey. The man laughed
+and said "Ja! he is too little!" which was all I could get out of him.
+I felt unhappy about this poor child all day.
+
+On another occasion I had a bright, lively little fellow about twelve
+years of age, who was so pleased to find that I was an American that
+he stopped every body on the road to tell them this important piece of
+news, so that it took me about three hours to go a distance of seven
+or eight miles. There was a light of intelligence in the boy's face
+that enabled me to comprehend him almost by instinct, and the
+quickness with which he caught at my half-formed words, and gathered
+my meaning when I told him of the wonders of California, were really
+surprising. This boy was a natural genius. He will leave his mountain
+home some day or other and make a leading citizen of the United
+States. Already he was eager to dash out upon the world and see some
+of its novelties and wonders.
+
+  [Illustration: STATION-BOY.]
+
+At Laurgaard I was favored with a small urchin who must have been
+modeled upon one of Hogarth's pictures. He was a fixed laugh all over.
+His mouth, nose, ears, eyes, hair, and chin were all turned up in a
+broad grin. Even the elbows of his coat and the knees of his trowsers
+were wide open with ill-concealed laughter. He laughed when he saw me,
+and laughed more than ever when he heard me "_tale Norsk_." There was
+something uncommonly amusing to this little shaver in the cut of a
+man's jib who could not speak good Norwegian. All the way up the hill
+he whistled, sang lively snatches of song, joked with the horse, and
+when the horse nickered laughed a young horse-laugh to keep him
+company. It did me good to see the rascal so cheery. I gave him an
+extra shilling at Braendhagen for his lively spirit, at which he
+grinned all over wider than ever, put the small change in his pocket,
+and with his red night-cap in one hand made a dodge of his head at me,
+as if snapping at a fly, and then held out his spare hand to give me
+a shake. Of course I shook hands with him.
+
+  [Illustration: GOOD-BY--MANY THANKS!]
+
+Shaking hands with small boys, however, is nothing uncommon in Norway.
+Every boy on the entire route shook hands with me. Whenever I settled
+the fare the skydskaarl invariably pulled off his cap, or, if he had
+none, gave a pull at the most prominent bunch of hair, and holding
+forth a flipper, more or less like a lump of raw beef, required me, by
+all the laws of politeness, to give it a shake. The simplicity with
+which they did this, and the awkward kindliness of their manner, as
+they wished me a pleasant trip, always formed an agreeable episode in
+the day's travel. I have shaken a greater variety of boys' hands in
+Norway--of every size, kind, and quality, fat, lean, clean, and dirty,
+dry and wet--than ever I shook all over the world before.
+Notwithstanding the amount of water in the country, I must have
+carried away from Trondhjem about a quarter of a pound of the native
+soil. Between the contortions of body and limb acquired by a brief
+residence in Paris, the battering out of several hats against my knee
+in the process of bowing throughout the cities of Germany, and the
+shaking of various boys' hands on my trip through Norway, I consider
+that my politeness now qualifies me for any society.
+
+  [Illustration: NORWEGIAN PEASANT FAMILY.]
+
+It must not be understood, however, that I was always favored with the
+society of little boys. At one of the stations, which, for obvious
+reasons, it would be indiscreet to name, there was no boy visible
+except the ragamuffin who had accompanied me. He, of course, was
+obliged to return with the horse and cariole. Three white-headed old
+men were sitting on a log near the stable basking in the sun, and
+gossiping pleasantly about by-gone times or the affairs of state, I
+could not understand which. Each of these venerable worthies wore a
+red night-cap, which in this country answers likewise for a day-cap,
+and smoked a massive wooden pipe. It was a very pleasant picture of
+rural content. As I approached they nodded a smiling "_God Aften!_"
+and rose to unharness the horse. An elderly lady, of very neat
+appearance and pleasing expression, came to the door and bade me a
+kindly welcome. Then the three old men all began to talk to me
+together, and when they said what they had to say about the fine
+weather, and the road, and the quality of the horse, and whatever else
+came into their antiquated heads, they led the horse off to the
+stable and proceeded to get me a fresh one. While they were doing that
+the elderly lady went back into the house and called aloud for some
+person within. Presently a fine buxom young girl, about seventeen
+years of age, made her appearance at the door. I flattered myself she
+wore rather a pleased expression when she saw me; but that might have
+been the customary cast of her features, or vanity on my part. At all
+events, there was a glowing bloom in her cheeks, and a penetrating
+brilliancy in her large blue eyes, wonderfully fascinating to one who
+had not recently looked upon any thing very attractive in the line of
+female loveliness. She was certainly a model of rustic beauty--I had
+rarely seen her equal in any country. Nothing could be more lithe and
+graceful than her form, which was advantageously set off by a tight
+bodice and a very scanty petticoat. A pair of red woolen stockings
+conspicuously displayed the fine contour of her--ankles I suppose is
+the conventional expression, though I mean a great deal more than
+that. As she sprang down the steps with a light and elastic bound, and
+took hold of the horse, which by this time the three old men were
+fumbling at to harness in the cariole, I unconsciously thought of
+Diana Vernon. She had all the daring grace and delicacy of the Scotch
+heroine--only in a rustic way. Seizing the horse by the bridle, she
+backed him up in a jiffy between the shafts of the cariole, and
+pushing the old gray-heads aside with a merry laugh, proceeded to
+arrange the harness. Having paid the boy who had come over from the
+last station, and put my name and destination in the day-book,
+according to law, I refreshed myself by a glass of ale, and then came
+out to see if all was ready. The girl nodded to me smilingly to get in
+and be off.
+
+I looked around for the boy who was to accompany me. Nobody in the
+shape of a boy was to be seen. The three old men had returned to their
+log by the stable, and now sat smoking their pipes and gossiping as
+usual, and the good-natured old landlady stood smiling and nodding in
+the doorway. Who was to take charge of the cariole? that was the
+question. Was I to go alone? Suppose I should miss the road and get
+lost in some awful wilderness? However, these questions were too much
+for my limited vocabulary of Norsk on the spur of the moment. So I
+mounted the cariole, resolved to abide whatever fate Providence might
+have in store for me. The girl put the reins in my hand and off I
+started, wondering why these good people left me to travel alone. I
+thought that they would naturally feel some solicitude about their
+property. Scarcely was I under way, when, with a bound like a deer,
+the girl was up on the cariole behind, hanging on to the back of the
+seat with both hands. Perfectly aghast with astonishment, I pulled the
+reins and stopped. "What!" I exclaimed, in the best Norsk I could
+muster, "is the _Jomfru_ going with me?" "_Ja!_" answered the laughing
+damsel, in a merry, ringing voice--"_Ja! Ja! Jeg vil vise de
+Veien!_--I will show you the way!"
+
+Here was a predicament! A handsome young girl going to take charge of
+me through a perfectly wild and unknown country! I turned to the old
+lady at the door with something of a remonstrating expression, no
+doubt, for I felt confused and alarmed. How the deuce was I, a
+solitary and inexperienced traveler from California, to defend myself
+against such eyes, such blooming cheeks, such honeyed lips and pearly
+teeth as these, to say nothing of a form all grace and ability, a
+voice that was the very essence of melody, and the fascinating smiles
+and blandishments of this wild young creature! It was enough to puzzle
+and confound any man of ordinary susceptibility, much less one who had
+a natural terror of the female sex. But I suppose it was all right.
+The old lady nodded approvingly; and the three old men smoked their
+pipes, and, touching their red night-caps, bid me--_Farrel! meget god
+reise!_--a pleasant trip! So, without more ado, I cracked the whip,
+and off we started. It was not my fault, that was certain. My
+conscience was clear of any bad intentions.
+
+We were soon out of sight of the station, and then came a steep hill.
+While the pony was pulling and tugging with all his might, the girl
+bounced off, landing like a wood-nymph about six feet in the rear of
+the cariole; when, with strides that perfectly astonished me, she
+began to march up the hill, singing a lively Norwegian ditty as she
+sprang over the ruts and ridges of the road. I halted in amazement.
+This would never do. Respect for the gentler sex would not permit me
+to ride up the hill while so lovely a creature was taking it on foot.
+Governed by those high principles of gallantry, augmented and
+cultivated by long residence in California, I jumped out of the
+cariole, and with persuasive eloquence begged the fair damsel to get
+in and drive up the hill on my account; that I greatly preferred
+walking; the exercise was congenial--I liked it. At this she looked
+astonished, if not suspicious. I fancied she was not used to that
+species of homage. At all events, she stoutly declined getting in; and
+since it was impossible for me to ride under the circumstances, I
+walked by her side to the top of the hill. A coolness was evidently
+growing up between us, for she never spoke a word all the way; and I
+was too busy trying to keep the horse in the middle of the road and
+save my breath to make any farther attempts at conversation.
+
+Having at length reached the summit, the girl directed me to take my
+place, which I did at once with great alacrity. With another active
+bound she was up behind, holding on as before with both hands to the
+back of the seat. Then she whistled to the horse in a style he seemed
+to understand perfectly well, for away he dashed down the hill at a
+rate of speed that I was certain would very soon result in utter
+destruction to the whole party. It was awful to think of being pitched
+out and rolling down the precipice, in the arms perhaps of this
+dashing young damsel, who, being accustomed to the road, would
+doubtless exert herself to save me.
+
+"_Nu! Reise! Reise!_--travel!" cried this extraordinary girl; and
+away we went, over rocks, into ruts, against roots and bushes;
+bouncing, springing, splashing, and dashing through mud-holes; down
+hill and still down; whirling past terrific pits, jagged pinnacles of
+rock, and yawning gulfs of darkness; through gloomy patches of pine,
+out again into open spaces, and along the brinks of fearful
+precipices; over rickety wooden bridges, and through foaming torrents
+that dashed out over the road, the wild girl clinging fast behind, the
+little pony flying along madly in front, the cariole creaking and
+rattling as if going to pieces, myself hanging on to the reins in a
+perfect agony of doubt whether each moment would not be our last. I
+declare, on the faith of a traveler, it beat all the dangers I had
+hitherto encountered summed up together. Trees whirled by, waterfalls
+flashed upon my astonished eyes, streaks of sunshine fretted the gloom
+with a net-work of light that dazzled and confounded me. I could see
+nothing clearly. There was a horrible jumble in my mind of black rocks
+and blue eyes, pine forests and flaming red stockings, flying clouds
+and flying petticoats, the roar of torrents and the ringing voice of
+the maiden as she cried "_Flue! Gaae! Reise!_--Fly! Go it! Travel!"
+Only one thought was uppermost--the fear of being dashed to pieces.
+Great heavens, what a fate! If I could only stop this infernal little
+pony, we might yet be saved! But I dared not attempt it. The slightest
+pull at the reins would throw him upon his haunches, and cariole and
+all would go spinning over him into some horrible abyss. All this time
+the wild damsel behind was getting more and more excited. Now she
+whistled, now she shouted "_Skynde pa!_--Faster! faster!" till, fairly
+carried away by enthusiasm, she begged me to give her the whip, which
+I did, with a faint attempt at prayer. Again she whistled, and shouted
+"_Skynde pa!_--Faster! faster!" and then she cracked the most
+startling and incomprehensible Norwegian melodies with the whip,
+absolutely stunning my ears, while she shouted "_Gaae! Flue!
+Reise!_--Go it! Fly! Travel!" Faster and still faster we flew down the
+frightful hill. The pony caught the infection of enthusiasm, and now
+broke into a frantic run. "Faster! faster!" shrieked the wild girl in
+a paroxysm of delight.
+
+By this time I was positively beside myself with terror. No longer
+able to distinguish the flying trees, waterfalls, and precipices, I
+closed my eyes and gasped for breath. Soon the fearful bouncing of the
+cariole aroused me to something like consciousness. We had struck a
+rock, and were now spinning along the edge of a mighty abyss on one
+wheel, the other performing a sort of balance in the air. I looked
+ahead, but there was neither shape nor meaning in the country. It was
+all a wild chaos of destructive elements--trees, precipices, red
+stockings, and whirling petticoats--toward which we were madly flying.
+
+But there is an end to all troubles upon earth. With thanks to a kind
+Providence, I at length caught sight of a long stretch of level road.
+Although there were several short turns to be made before reaching it,
+there was still hope that it might be gained without any more serious
+disaster than the breaking of a leg or an arm. Upon such a casualty as
+that I should have compromised at once. If this extraordinary creature
+behind would only stop whistling and cracking the whip, and driving
+the little pony crazy by her inspiring cries, I might yet succeed in
+steering safely into the level road; but the nearer we approached the
+bottom of the hill the wilder she became--now actually dancing on the
+little board with delight, now leaning over to get a cut at the pony's
+tail with the whip, while she whistled more fiercely than ever, and
+cried out, from time to time, "_Flue! Gaae! Reise!_" Already the poor
+animal was reeking with sweat, and it was a miracle he did not drop
+dead on the road.
+
+  [Illustration: THE POST-GIRL.]
+
+However, by great good fortune, aided by my skill in driving, we made
+the turns, and in a few minutes more were safely jogging along the
+level road. Almost breathless, and quite bewildered, I instinctively
+turned round to see what manner of wild being this girl behind was. If
+you believe me, she was leaning over my shoulder, shaking her sides
+laughing at me, her sparkling blue eyes now all ablaze with
+excitement, her cheeks glowing like peonies, her lips wide apart,
+displaying the most exquisite set of teeth I ever beheld, while her
+long golden tresses, bursting from the red handkerchief which served
+as a sort of crowning glory to her head, floated in wavy ringlets over
+her shoulders. Hermosa! it was enough to thaw an anchorite! She was
+certainly very pretty--there was no doubt of that; full of life,
+overflowing with health and vitality, and delighted at the confusion
+and astonishment of the strange gentleman she had taken in charge.
+
+Can any body tell me what it is that produces such a singular
+sensation when one looks over his shoulder and discovers the face of a
+pretty and innocent young girl within a few inches of his own, her
+beautiful eyes sparkling like a pair of stars, and shooting magic
+scintillations through and through him, body and soul, while her
+breath falls like a zephyr upon his cheek? Tell me, ye who deal in
+metaphysics, what is it? There is certainly a kind of charm in it,
+against which no mortal man is proof. Though naturally prejudiced
+against the female sex, and firmly convinced that we could get along
+in the world much better without them, I was not altogether insensible
+to beauty in an artistical point of view, otherwise I should never
+have been able to grace the pages of HARPER with the above likeness of
+this Norwegian sylph. After all, it must be admitted that they have a
+way about them which makes us feel overpowered and irresponsible in
+their presence. Doubtless this fair damsel was unconscious of the
+damage she was inflicting upon a wayworn and defenseless traveler. Her
+very innocence was itself her chiefest charm. Either she was the most
+innocent or the most designing of her sex. She thought nothing of
+holding on to my shoulder, and talked as glibly and pleasantly, with
+her beaming face close to my ear, as if I had been her brother or her
+cousin, or possibly her uncle, though I did not exactly like to regard
+it in that point of view. What she was saying I could not conjecture,
+save by her roguish expression and her merry peals of laughter.
+
+"_Jag kan ikke tale Norsk!_--I can't speak Norwegian"--was all I could
+say, at which she laughed more joyously than ever, and rattled off a
+number of excellent jokes, no doubt at my helpless condition. Indeed,
+I strongly suspected, from a familiar word here and there, that she
+was making love to me out of mere sport, though she was guarded enough
+not to make any intelligible demonstration to that effect. At last I
+got out my vocabulary, and as we jogged quietly along the road, by
+catching a word now and then, and making her repeat what she said very
+slowly, got so far as to construct something of a conversation.
+
+"What is your name, _skën Jumfru_?" I asked.
+
+"Maria," was the answer.
+
+"A pretty name; and Maria is a very pretty girl."
+
+She tossed her head a little scornfully, as much as to say Maria was
+not to be fooled by flattery.
+
+"What is _your_ name?" said Maria, after a pause.
+
+"Mine? Oh, I have forgotten mine."
+
+"Are you an Englishman?"
+
+"No."
+
+"A Frenchman?"
+
+"No."
+
+"A Dutchman?"
+
+"No--I am an American."
+
+"I like Americans--I don't like Englishmen," said the girl.
+
+"Have you a lover?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you going to be married to him?"
+
+"Yes, in about six months."
+
+"I wish you joy."
+
+"Thank you!"
+
+At this moment a carriage drawn by two horses hove in sight. It was an
+English traveling party--an old gentleman and two ladies, evidently
+his wife and daughter. As they drew near they seemed to be a little
+perplexed at the singular equipage before them--a small horse, nearly
+dead and lathered all over with foam; a cariole bespattered with mud;
+a dashing fine girl behind, with flaunting hair, a short petticoat,
+and a flaming pair of red stockings; myself in the body of the
+cariole, covered from head to foot with mire, my beard flying out in
+every direction, and my hair still standing on end from the effects of
+recent fright--a very singular spectacle to meet in the middle of a
+public highway, even in Norway. The road was very narrow at the point
+of meeting. It became necessary for one of the vehicles to pull up the
+side of the hill a little in order to allow room for the other to
+pass. Being the lighter party as well as under obligations of
+gallantry, I at once gave way. While endeavoring to make a passage,
+the old gentleman gruffly observed to the public generally,
+
+"What an excessively bad road!"
+
+"Very!" said I.
+
+"Beastly!" growled the Englishman.
+
+"Abominable!" said I.
+
+"Oh, you are an Englishman?" said the elderly lady.
+
+"No, madam--an American," I answered, with great suavity.
+
+"Oh, an American!" said the young lady, taking out her note-book;
+"dear me, how very interesting!"
+
+"From California," I added, with a smile of pride.
+
+"How very interesting!" exclaimed the young lady.
+
+"A great country," said I.
+
+"Gray," observed the elderly lady, in an under tone, looking very hard
+at the girl, who was still standing on the little board at the back of
+the cariole, and who coolly and saucily surveyed the traveling party,
+"Gray, is that a Norwegian girl?"
+
+"Yes, madam; she is my postillion, only she rides behind, according
+to the Norwegian custom."
+
+"Dear me!" cried the young lady, "how very interesting!"
+
+"And dangerous too," I observed.
+
+The lady looked puzzled. She was thinking of dangers to which I had no
+reference.
+
+"Dangerous?" exclaimed the young lady.
+
+"Yes; she came near breaking my neck down that hill;" and here I gave
+the party a brief synopsis of the adventure.
+
+"Devilish odd!" growled the old Englishman, impatiently. "Good-day,
+sir. Come, get up!"
+
+The elderly lady said nothing, but looked suspicious.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed the young lady, as they drove off; "how very--"
+This was the last I heard, but I suppose she considered it
+interesting. The whole affair, no doubt, stands fully recorded in her
+note-book.
+
+The way being now clear, we proceeded on our journey. In a little
+while the station-house was in sight, and after a few minutes' drive I
+was obliged to part from my interesting companion. At first I
+hesitated about proffering the usual fee of four shillings; but, upon
+reflection, it occurred to me that I had no right to consider her any
+thing more than a post-boy. It was worth something extra to travel
+with one so lively and entertaining, so I handed her double the usual
+allowance, at which she made a very polite courtesy and greatly
+relieved my embarrassment by giving a hearty shake of the hand and
+wishing me a pleasant journey. This was the last I saw of my Norwegian
+Diana. She is a young damsel of great beauty and vivacity, not to say
+a little wild. I trust she is now happily married to the object of her
+affections.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+HOW THEY LIVE.
+
+
+Every where on the route through the interior I found the peasants
+kind, hospitable, and simple-hearted. Sometimes I made a detour of
+several miles from the main road for the purpose of catching a glimpse
+of the home-life of the farmers; and, imperfect as my means of
+communication were, I never had any difficulty in making acquaintance
+with them after announcing myself as a traveler from California. They
+had all heard, more or less, of that wonderful land of gold, and
+entertained the most vague and exaggerated notions of its mineral
+resources. It was not uncommon to find men who believed that the whole
+country was yellow with gold; that such quantities of that ore
+abounded in it as to be of little or no value. When I told them that
+the country was very rich in the precious metals, but that every hill
+was not a mass of gold, nor the bed of every river lined with rocks
+and pebbles of the same material, they looked a little incredulous,
+not to say disappointed. Many of them seemed surprised that a
+Californian should be traveling through a distant land like Norway
+merely for amusement, and few seemed to be entirely satisfied when I
+assured them, in answer to their questions, that I was not very rich;
+that I was neither a merchant, nor a speculator, nor the owner of gold
+mines, but simply an indifferent artist making sketches of their
+country for pastime. French, German, and English artists they could
+believe in, for they saw plenty of them in the wilds of Norway every
+summer; but what use would such a poor business be in California, they
+said, where every man could make a thousand dollars a day digging for
+gold? I even fancied they looked at my rough and dusty costume as if
+they thought it concealed a glittering uniform, such as the rich men
+of my country must naturally wear when they go abroad to visit foreign
+lands. It was impossible to convince them that I was not extravagantly
+wealthy. On any other point there might be room for doubt, but the
+pertinacity with which they insisted upon that afforded me much
+amusement; and since I could not dispel the illusion, it generally
+cost me a few extra shillings when I had any thing to pay to avoid the
+stigma of meanness. Not that my extraordinary wealth ever gave them a
+plea for imposition or extortion. Such an idea never entered their
+heads. On the contrary, their main purpose seemed to be to show every
+possible kindness to the distinguished stranger; and more than once,
+at some of the post-stations, I had to remind them of things which
+they had omitted in the charge. For this very reason I was in a
+measure compelled to be rather more profuse than travelers usually
+are, so that the state from which I have the honor to hail owes me a
+considerable amount of money by this time for the handsome manner in
+which I have sustained its reputation. At some of the stopping-places
+on the road, where I obtained lodgings for the night, it was not
+uncommon to find intelligent and educated families of cultivated
+manners. Education of late years has made considerable progress in
+Norway; and the rising generation, owing to the facilities afforded by
+the excellent school system established throughout the country, but
+especially in the principal towns, will not be in any respect behind
+the times, so far as regards intellectual progress. It is the
+simplicity and honesty of these good people, however, that form their
+principal and most charming characteristic. To one long accustomed to
+sharp dealing and unscrupulous trickery, it is really refreshing their
+confidence in the integrity of a stranger. Usually they left the
+settlement of accounts to myself, merely stating that I must determine
+what I owed by adding up the items according to the tariff; and,
+although my knowledge of the language was so limited, I nowhere had
+the slightest approach to a dispute about the payment of expenses. On
+one occasion, not wishing to forfeit this confidence, I was obliged to
+ride back half a mile to pay for two cigars which I had forgotten in
+making up the reckoning, and of which the inn-keeper had not thought
+proper to remind me, or had forgotten to keep any account himself. No
+surprise was manifested at this conscientious act--the inn-keeper
+merely nodding good-naturedly when I handed him the money, with the
+remark that it was "all right."
+
+In the districts remote from the sea-ports, the peasants, as may well
+be supposed, are extremely ignorant of the great outside world. Sweden
+and Denmark are the only countries known to them besides their own
+"Gamle Norge," save such vague notions of other lands as they pick up
+from occasional travelers. To them "Amerika" is a terra incognita. A
+letter once or twice a year from some emigrant to the members of his
+family goes the rounds of the district, and gives them all the
+knowledge they have of that distant land of promise; and when they
+listen, with gaping eyes and open mouths, to the wonderful stories of
+adventure, life, enterprise, and wealth detailed by the enthusiastic
+rover, it is no wonder they shake their heads and say that Christian,
+or Hans, or Olé (as the case may be), "always was a capital fellow at
+drawing a long bow." They firmly believe in ghosts and supernatural
+visitations of all sorts, but are very incredulous about any country
+in the world being equal to "Gamle Norge." Naturally enough, they
+consider their climate the most genial, their barren rocks the most
+fertile, their government the best and most liberal on the face of the
+earth, and themselves the most highly favored of the human race.
+Goldsmith must have had special reference to the Norwegians when he
+sang of "that happiest spot below:"
+
+    "The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone
+    Boldly proclaims the happiest spot his own."
+
+And why should they be otherwise than contented--if such a thing as
+contentment can exist upon earth? They have few wants and many
+children; a country free from internal commotion, and too far removed
+from the great scenes of European strife to excite the jealousy of
+external powers; sufficient food and raiment to satisfy the ordinary
+necessities of life, and no great extremes of wealth or poverty to
+militate against their independence, either in a political or social
+point of view. With good laws, an excellent Constitution, and a fair
+representation in the Storthing, they are justly proud of their
+freedom, and deeply imbued with the spirit of patriotism.
+
+Very little of poverty or beggary is to be seen by the wayside during
+a tour through Norway. Only at one point between Kringelen and
+Laurgaard--a wild and barren district exceedingly savage in its
+aspect, situated in a narrow gorge of the mountains near the head of
+the Logen--was I solicited for alms. A portion of this route, after
+passing Sinclair's Monument, is rudely fenced in, so as to render
+available every foot of the narrow valley. The road passes directly
+through the little farms, which at this stage of the journey are poor
+and unproductive. The climate is said to be very severe in this
+district, in consequence of its altitude, and the sharp winds which
+sweep down from the mountain gorges. At every gateway a gang of ragged
+little children always stood ready to open the gate, for which, of
+course, they expected a few shillings; and as these gates occur at
+intervals of every few hundred yards for some distance, it produces a
+sensible effect upon one's purse to get through. Passing through some
+wretched hamlets in this vicinity, crowds of old women hobbled out to
+beg alms, and I did not get clear of the regiments of children who ran
+along behind the cariole to receive the remainder of my small change
+for several miles. Strange to say, this was the only place during my
+rambles through the interior in which I saw any thing like beggary.
+Generally speaking, the farming lands are sufficiently productive to
+supply all the wants of the peasants, and many of the farmers are
+even comfortably situated.
+
+The houses in which these country people reside are not altogether
+unlike the small log cabins of the early settlers on our Western
+frontier. I have seen many such on the borders of Missouri and Kansas.
+Built in the most primitive style of pine logs, they stand upon stumps
+or columns of stone, elevated some two or three feet from the ground,
+in order to allow a draft of air underneath, which in this humid
+climate is considered necessary for health. They seldom consist of
+more than two or three rooms, but make up in number what they lack in
+size. Thus a single farming establishment often comprises some ten or
+a dozen little cabins, besides the large barn, which is the nucleus
+around which they all centre; with smaller cribs for pigs, chickens,
+etc., and here and there a shed for the cows and sheep, all huddled
+together among the rocks or on some open hill-side, without the least
+apparent regard to direction or architectural effect. The roofs are
+covered with sod, upon which it is not uncommon to see patches of
+oats, weeds, moss, flowers, or whatever comes most convenient to form
+roots and give consistency and strength to this singular overtopping.
+The object, I suppose, is to prevent the transmission of heat during
+the severe season of winter. Approaching some of these hamlets or
+farming establishments during the summer months, the traveler is
+frequently at a loss to distinguish their green-sodded roofs from the
+natural sod of the hill-sides, so that one is liable at any time to
+plunge into the midst of a settlement before he is aware of its
+existence. Something of a damp, earthy look about them, the weedy or
+grass-covered tops, the logs green and moss-grown, the dripping eaves,
+the veins of water oozing out of the rocks, give them a peculiarly
+Northern and chilling effect, and fill the mind with visions of long
+and dreary winters, rheumatisms, colds, coughs, and consumptions, to
+which it is said these people are subject. Nothing so wild and
+primitive is to be seen in any other part of Europe. A silence almost
+death-like hangs over these little hamlets during a great part of the
+day, when the inhabitants are out in the hills attending their flocks
+or cultivating their small patches of ground. I passed many groups of
+cabins without seeing the first sign of life, save now and then a few
+chickens or pigs rooting about the barn-yard. The constant impression
+was that it was Sunday, or at least a holiday, and that the people
+were either at church or asleep. For one who seeks retirement from the
+busy haunts of life, where he can indulge in uninterrupted reflection,
+I know of no country that can equal Norway. There are places in the
+interior where I am sure he would be astonished at the sound of his
+own voice. The deserts of Africa can scarcely present a scene of such
+utter isolation. With a rod in his hand, he can, if given to the
+gentle art, sit and dream upon some mossy bank,
+
+    "In close covert by some brook,
+    Where no profaner eye may look,
+    And hide him from day's garish noon."
+
+Thus you often come upon an English sportsman waiting for a nibble.
+
+  [Illustration: WAITING FOR A NIBBLE.]
+
+The food of the peasants consists principally of black bread, milk,
+butter, and cheese. Meat is too expensive for very general use, though
+at certain seasons of the year they indulge in it once or twice a
+week. Coffee is a luxury to which they are much addicted. Even the
+poorest classes strain a point to indulge in this favorite narcotic,
+and in no part of Norway did I fail to get a good cup of coffee. It is
+a very curious fact that the best coffee to be had at the most
+fashionable hotels on the Continent of Europe--always excepting
+Paris--is inferior to that furnished to the traveler at the commonest
+station-house in Norway. This is indeed one of the luxuries of a tour
+through this part of Scandinavia. The cream is rich and pure, and it
+is a rare treat to get a large bowlful of it for breakfast, with as
+much milk as you please, and no limit to bread and butter. Your
+appetite is not measured by infinitesimal bits and scraps as in
+Germany. A good wholesome meal is spread before you in the genuine
+backwoods style, and you may eat as much as you please, which is a
+rare luxury to one who has been stinted and starved at the hotels on
+the Continent. I remember, at one station beyond the Dovre Fjeld,
+Bennett's Hand-book says, "Few rooms, but food supplied in first-rate
+style when Miss Marit is at home. She will be much offended if you do
+not prove that you have a good appetite." On my arrival at this place,
+not wishing to offend Miss Marit--for whom I entertained the highest
+respect in consequence of her hospitable reputation--I called for
+every thing I could think of, and when it was placed upon the table
+by that accomplished young lady (a very pleasant, pretty young woman,
+by-the-way), fell to work and made it vanish at a most astonishing
+rate. Miss Marit stood by approvingly. During a pause in my heavy
+labors I called the attention of this estimable person to her own name
+in the printed pamphlet, at which she blushed and looked somewhat
+confused. Possibly there might be a mistake about it.
+
+"Your name is Miss Marit?" I asked, very politely.
+
+"Ja."
+
+"And this is Miss Marit in print?"
+
+"Ja."
+
+She took the book and tried to read it.
+
+"Nikka Forstoe!"--she didn't understand.
+
+"What does it say?" she asked, rather gravely.
+
+Here was a job--to translate the paragraph into Norwegian! Besides, it
+would not do to translate it literally, so I made a sort of impromptu
+paraphrase upon it.
+
+"Oh! it says Miss Marit is a very pretty young lady."
+
+"Ja!"--blushing and looking somewhat astonished.
+
+"And Miss Marit is a very nice housekeeper."
+
+"Ja."
+
+"And Miss Marit makes splendid coffee, and thoroughly understands how
+to cook a beefsteak."
+
+"Ja!"
+
+"And Miss Marit would make a most excellent wife for any young
+gentleman who could succeed in winning her affections!"
+
+"Nei!" said the young lady, blushing again, and looking more
+astonished than ever.
+
+"Ja," said I, "it is all in print"--adding, with an internal
+reservation, "or ought to be."
+
+Who can blame me for paying tribute to Miss Marit's kindness and
+hospitality? She is certainly deserving of much higher praise than
+that bestowed upon her, and I hope Mr. Bennett will pardon me for the
+liberal style of my translation. If he didn't mean all I said, let the
+responsibility rest upon me, for I certainly meant every word of it.
+
+The farming districts are limited chiefly to the valleys along the
+river-courses, and such portions of arable lands as lie along the
+shores of the Fjords. A large proportion of the country is extremely
+wild and rugged, and covered, for the most part, with dense pine
+forests. The peasants generally own their own farms, which are small,
+and cut up into patches of pasture, grain-lands, and tracts of forest.
+Even the most unpromising nooks among the rocks, in many parts of the
+Gudbransdalen Valley, where plows are wholly unavailable, are rooted
+up by means of hoes, and planted with oats and other grain. I
+sometimes saw as many as forty or fifty of these little arable patches
+perched up among the rocks, hundreds of feet above the roofs of the
+houses, where it would seem dangerous for goats to browse. The log
+cabins peep out from among the rocks and pine-clad cliffs all along
+the course of the Logen, giving the country a singular speckled
+appearance. This, it must be remembered, is one of the best districts
+in the interior. The richest agricultural region is said to be that
+bordering on the shores of the Miösen. One of the comforts enjoyed by
+the peasants, and without which it would scarcely be possible for them
+to exist in such a rigorous climate, consists in the unlimited
+quantity of fuel to which they have such easy access. This is an
+inconceivable luxury during the long winter months; and their large
+open fireplaces and blazing fires, even in the cool summer evenings,
+constantly remind one of the homes of the settlers in the Far West.
+When the roads are covered with snow the true season of internal
+communication commences. Then the means of transportation and travel
+are greatly facilitated, and the clumsy wagons used in summer are put
+aside for the lighter and more convenient sledges with which every
+farmer is abundantly provided. All along the route the snow-plows may
+be seen turned up against the rocks, ready to be used during the
+winter to clear and level the roads. In summer the means of
+transportation are little better than those existing between
+Placerville and Carson Valley.
+
+  [Illustration: SNOW-PLOW.]
+
+It was during the height of the harvesting season that I passed
+through the Gudbransdalen. One of the most characteristic sights at
+this time of the year is the extraordinary amount of labor imposed
+upon the women, who seem really to do most of the heavy work. I
+thought I had seen the last of that in the Thuringenwald, Odenwald,
+and Schwartzwald, while on a foot-tour through Germany; but even the
+Germans are not so far advanced in civilization in this respect as the
+Norwegians, who do not hesitate to make their women cut wood, haul
+logs, pull carts, row boats, fish, and perform various other kinds of
+labor usually allotted to the stronger sex, which even a German would
+consider rather heavy for his "frow." The men, in addition to this
+ungallant trait, are much addicted to the use of tobacco and native
+corn-brandy--which, however, I can not but regard as a sign of
+civilization, since the same habits exist, to some extent, in our own
+country. Chewing and drinking are just as common as in California, the
+most enlightened country in the world. Wherever I saw a set of
+drunken fellows roaring and rollicking at some wayside inn, their
+faces smeared with tobacco, and their eyes rolling in their heads, I
+naturally felt drawn toward them by the great free-masonry of familiar
+customs.
+
+  [Illustration: A DRINKING BOUT.]
+
+The system of farming followed by the peasants is exceedingly
+primitive, though doubtless well adapted to the climate and soil.
+Nothing can be more striking to a stranger than the odd shapes of the
+wagons and carts, and the rudeness of the agricultural implements,
+which must be patterned upon those in vogue during the time of Odin,
+the founder of the Norwegian race. Owing to the humidity of the
+climate, it is necessary in harvest time to dry the hay and grain by
+staking it out in the fields on long poles, so that the sun and air
+may penetrate every part of it. The appearance of a farm is thus
+rendered unique as well as picturesque. In the long twilight nights of
+summer these ghostly stokes present the appearance of a gang of
+heathenish spirits standing about in the fields, with their long
+beards waving in the air, and their dusky robes trailing over the
+stubbles. The figures thus seen at every turn of the road often assume
+the most striking spectral forms, well calculated to augment those
+wild superstitions which prevail throughout the country. It was
+impossible for me ever to get quite rid of the idea that they were
+descendants of the old Scandinavian gods, holding counsel over the
+affairs of the nation, especially when some passing breeze caused
+their arms and robes to flutter in the twilight, and their heads to
+swing to and fro, as if in the enthusiasm of their ghostly
+deliberations.
+
+  [Illustration: A NORWEGIAN FARM.]
+
+  [Illustration: NORWEGIAN CHURCH.]
+
+Mingled with the wild superstitions of the people their piety is a
+prominent trait. Their prevailing religion is Episcopal Lutheran,
+though Catholicism and other religions are tolerated by an act of the
+Storthing, with the exception of Mormonism, which is prohibited by
+law. A considerable number of proselytes to that sect have emigrated
+to Salt Lake. This prevailing spirit of piety is observable even in
+the wildest parts of the country, where every little hamlet has its
+church, and neither old nor young neglect their religious services.
+Most of these churches are built of wood, with a steeple of the same
+material, shingled over and painted black, so as to present the most
+striking contrast to the snows which cover the face of the country
+during the greater part of the year.
+
+  [Illustration: PARISH SCHOOLMASTER.]
+
+The parish schoolmaster is a most important personage in these rural
+districts. He it is who trains up the rising generation, teaches the
+young idea how to shoot, and
+
+    "Out of great things and small draweth the secrets of
+    the universe."
+
+He is greatly revered by the simple-minded old farmers, is cherished
+and respected by the mothers of families, enthusiastically admired and
+generally aspired to by the village belles, and held in profound awe
+by all the little urchins of the neighborhood. He speaketh unknown
+tongues; he diveth into the depths of abstruse sciences; he talketh
+with the air of one burdened with much learning; he "argueth the
+cycles of the stars from a pebble flung by a child;" he likewise
+teacheth reading, writing, and arithmetic, and applieth the rod to the
+juvenile seat of understanding, as shown on the preceding page.
+
+Soon after leaving Storkterstad, a station about two days' journey
+from Lillehammer, on the main road to Trondhjem, I passed through a
+very steep and rugged defile in the mountains, with jagged rocks on
+the right and the foaming waters of the Logen on the left, where my
+attention was called by the skydskaarl to a small monument by the
+roadside hearing an inscription commemorative of the death of Colonel
+Sinclair. If I remember correctly, a fine description is given of this
+celebrated passage by Mögge, whose graphic sketches of Norwegian
+scenery I had frequent occasion to admire, during my tour, for their
+beauty and accuracy. I fully agree with my friend Bayard Taylor, that
+the traveler can find no better guide to the Fjelds and Fjords of this
+wild country than "Afraja" and "Life and Love in Norway." Laing has
+also given an interesting account of the massacre of Colonel
+Sinclair's party. From his version of this famous incident in
+Norwegian history it appears that, during the war between Christian
+the Fourth of Denmark and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, while the Danes
+held the western coast of Norway, Colonel Sinclair, a Scotchman,
+desiring to render assistance to the Swedes, landed at Romsdalen, on
+the coast, with a party of nine hundred followers. Another detachment
+of his forces landed at Trondhjem. It was their intention to fight
+their way across the mountains and join the Swedish forces on the
+frontier. Sinclair's party met with no resistance till they arrived at
+the pass of Kringelen, where three hundred peasants, hearing of their
+approach, had prepared an ambush. Every thing was arranged with the
+utmost secrecy. An abrupt mountain on the right, abounding in immense
+masses of loose rock, furnished the means of a terrible revenge for
+the ravages committed by the Scotch on their march from Romsdalen. The
+road winds around the foot of this mountain, making a narrow pass,
+hemmed in by the roaring torrents of the Logen on the one side and
+abrupt cliffs on the other. Across the river, which here dashes with
+frightful rapidity through the narrow gorge of the mountains, the
+country wears an exceedingly weird and desolate aspect; the ravines
+and summits of the mountains are darkened by gloomy forests of pine,
+relieved only by hoary and moss-covered cliffs overhanging the rushing
+waters of the Logen. On the precipitous slopes of the pass, hundreds
+of feet above the road, the peasants gathered enormous masses of rock,
+logs of wood, and even trunks of trees, which they fixed in such a way
+that, at a moment's notice, they could precipitate the whole terrible
+avalanche upon the heads of the enemy.
+
+Such was the secrecy with which the peasants managed the whole affair,
+that the Scotch, ignorant even of the existence of a foe, marched
+along in imaginary security till they reached the middle of the narrow
+pass, when they were suddenly overwhelmed and crushed beneath the
+masses of rocks and loose timbers launched upon them by the
+Norwegians. Rushing from their ambush, the infuriated peasants soon
+slaughtered the maimed and wounded, leaving, according to some
+authorities, only two of the enemy to tell the tale. Others, however,
+say that as many as sixty escaped, but were afterward caught and
+massacred. Attached to this fearful story of retribution, Laing
+mentions a romantic incident, which is still currently told in the
+neighborhood. A young peasant was prevented from joining in the attack
+by his sweet-heart, to whom he was to be married the next day. She,
+learning that the wife of Colonel Sinclair was among the party, sent
+her lover to offer his assistance; but the Scotch lady, mistaking his
+purpose, shot him dead. Such is the tragic history that casts over
+this wild region a mingled interest of horror and romance.
+
+The road from Laurgaard beyond the pass of the Kringelen ascends a
+high mountain. On the right is a series of foaming cataracts, and
+nothing can surpass the rugged grandeur of the view as you reach the
+highest eminence before descending toward Braendhagen. Here the
+country is one vast wilderness of pine-clad mountains, green winding
+valleys, and raging torrents of water dashing down over the jagged
+rocks thousands of feet below. It was nearly night when I reached
+Dombaas, the last station before ascending the Dovre Fjeld.
+
+A telegraphic station at Dombaas gives something of a civilized aspect
+to this stopping-place, otherwise rather a primitive-looking
+establishment. The people, however, are very kind and hospitable, and
+somewhat noted for their skill in carving bone and wooden
+knife-handles. I should have mentioned that, wild as this part of the
+country is, the traveler is constantly reminded by the telegraphic
+poles all along the route that he is never quite beyond the limits of
+civilization. Such is the force of habit that I was strongly tempted
+to send a message to somebody from Dombaas; but, upon turning the
+matter over in my mind, could think of nobody within the limits of
+Norway who felt sufficient interest in my explorations to be likely to
+derive much satisfaction from the announcement that I had reached the
+edge of the Dovre Fjeld in safety. The name of a waiter who was good
+enough to black my boots at the Victoria Hotel occurred to me, but it
+was hardly possible he would appreciate a telegraphic dispatch from
+one who had no more pressing claims to his attention. I thought of
+sending a few lines of remembrance to the Wild Girl who had come so
+near breaking my neck. This notion, however, I gave over upon
+reflecting that she might attach undue weight to my expressions of
+friendship, and possibly take it into her head that I was making love
+to her--than which nothing could be farther from my intention. I had a
+social chat with the telegraph-man, however--a very respectable and
+intelligent person--who gave me the latest news; and with this, and
+good supper and bed, I was obliged to rest content.
+
+  [Illustration: DOVRE FJELD.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+JOHN BULL ABROAD.
+
+
+Leaving Dombaas at an early hour, I soon began to ascend a long slope,
+reaching, by a gradual elevation, to the Dovre Fjeld. The vegetation
+began to grow more and more scanty on the wayside, consisting mostly
+of lichens and reindeer moss. I passed through some stunted groves of
+pine, which, however, were bleached and almost destitute of foliage.
+The ground on either side of the road was soft, black, and boggy,
+abounding in springs and scarcely susceptible of cultivation. At this
+elevation grain is rarely planted, though I was told potatoes and
+other esculents are not difficult to raise. On the left of the road,
+approaching the summit, lies a range of snow-capped mountains between
+the Dovre Fjeld and Molde; on the right a series of rocky and barren
+hills of sweeping outline, presenting an exceedingly desolate aspect.
+In the course of an hour after leaving Dombaas, having walked most of
+the way, I fairly reached the grand plateau of the Dovre Fjeld. The
+scene at this point of the journey is inexpressibly desolate.
+
+Bare, whitish-colored hills bound the horizon on the right; in front
+is a dreary waste, through which the road winds like a thread till
+lost in the dim haze of the distance; and to the left the everlasting
+snows of Snaehatten. A few wretched cabins are scattered at remote
+intervals over the desert plains, in which the shepherds seek shelter
+from the inclemency of the weather, which even in midsummer is often
+piercingly raw. Herds of rattle, sheep, and goats were grazing over
+the rocky wastes of the Fjeld. Reindeer are sometimes seen in this
+vicinity, but not often within sight of the road. The only vegetation
+produced here is reindeer moss, and a coarse sort of grass growing in
+bunches over the plain. I met several shepherds on the way dressed in
+something like a characteristic costume--frieze jackets with brass
+buttons, black knee-breeches, a red night-cap, and armed with the
+usual staff or shepherd's crook, represented in pictures, and much
+discoursed of by poets:
+
+            "Methinks it were a happy life
+    To be no better than a homely swain;"
+
+but not on the Dovre Fjelds of Norway. It must be rather a dull
+business in that region, taking into consideration the barren plains,
+the bleak winds, and desolate aspect of the country. No sweet hawthorn
+bushes are there, beneath which these rustic philosophers can sit,
+
+    "Looking on their silly sheep."
+
+Shepherd life must be a very dismal reality indeed. And yet there is
+no accounting for tastes. At one point of the road, beyond Folkstuen,
+where a sluggish lagoon mingles its waters with the barren slopes of
+the Fjeld, I saw an Englishman standing up to his knees in a dismal
+marsh fishing for trout.
+
+The weather was cold enough to strike a chill into one's very marrow;
+yet this indefatigable sportsman had come more than a thousand miles
+from his native country to enjoy himself in this way. He was a genuine
+specimen of an English snob--self-sufficient, conceited, and
+unsociable; looking neither to the right nor the left, and terribly
+determined not to commit himself by making acquaintance with casual
+travelers speaking the English tongue. I stopped my cariole within a
+few paces and asked him "what luck?" One would think the sound of his
+native tongue would have been refreshing to him in this dreary
+wilderness; but, without deigning to raise his head, he merely
+answered in a gruff tone, "Don't know, sir--don't know!" I certainly
+did not suspect him of knowing much, but thought that question at
+least would not be beyond the limits of his intelligence. Finding him
+insensible to the approaches of humanity, I revenged myself for his
+rudeness by making a sketch of his person, which I hope will be
+recognized by his friends in England should he meet with any
+misfortune in the wilds of Norway. They will at least know where to
+search for his body, and be enabled to recognize it when they find it.
+This man's sense of enjoyment reminded me of the anecdote told by
+Longfellow in Hyperion, of an Englishman who sat in a tub of cold
+water every morning while he ate his breakfast and read the
+newspapers.
+
+  [Illustration: PLAYING HIM OUT.]
+
+I met with many such in the course of my tour. Is it not a little
+marvelous what hardships people will encounter for pleasure? Here was
+a man of mature age, in the enjoyment perhaps of a comfortable
+income, who had left his country, with all its attractions, for a
+dreary desert in which he was utterly isolated from the world. He was
+not traveling--not reading, not surrounded by a few congenial friends
+who could make a brief exile pleasant, but utterly alone; ignorant, no
+doubt, of the language spoken by the few shepherds in the
+neighborhood; up to his knees in a pool of cold water; stubbornly
+striving against the most adverse circumstances of wind and weather to
+torture out of the water a few miserable little fish! Of what material
+can such a man's brain be composed, if he be gifted with brain at all?
+Is it mud, clay, or water; or is it all a bog? Possibly he was a lover
+of nature; but if you examine his portrait you will perceive that
+there is nothing in his personal appearance to warrant that suspicion.
+Even if such were the case, this was not the charming region described
+by the quaint old Walton, where the scholar can turn aside "toward the
+high honeysuckle hedge," or "sit and sing while the shower falls upon
+the teeming earth, viewing the silver streams glide silently toward
+their centre, the tempestuous sea," beguiled by the harmless lambs
+till, with a soul possessed with content, he feels "lifted above the
+earth." Nor was the solitary angler of the Dovre Fjeld a man likely to
+be lifted from the earth by any thing so fragile as the beauties of
+nature. His weight--sixteen stone at least--would be much more likely
+to sink him into it.
+
+As I approached the neighborhood of Djerkin on the Dovre Fjeld, famous
+as a central station for hunting expeditions, I met several English
+sportsmen armed with rifles, double-barreled guns, pistols, and other
+deadly weapons, on their way to the defiles of the adjacent mountains
+in search of the black bears which are said to infest that region. One
+of these enthusiastic gentlemen was seated in a cariole, and traveled
+for some distance in front of me. Taking into view the rotundity of
+his person, which overhung the little vehicle on every side, I could
+not but picture to myself the extraordinary spectacle that would be
+presented to any observant eye in case this ponderous individual
+should suddenly come in contact with one of those ferocious animals.
+
+  [Illustration: ENGLISH SPORTSMAN.]
+
+Here you have him, just as he sat before me--a back view, to be sure,
+but the only one I could get in the emergency of the moment. It will
+be easy to imagine, from the dexterous grace of his figure, how he
+will bound over the rocks, climb up the rugged points of the
+precipices, hang by the roots and branches of trees, dodge the attacks
+of the enemy, crawl through the brush, and, in the event of an
+unfavorable turn in the battle, retreat to some position of security.
+
+No man can be blamed for running when he is sure to be worsted in an
+encounter of this kind. Many a brave Californian has taken to his
+heels when pursued by a grizzly, and I have scarcely a doubt that I
+would pursue the same course myself under similar circumstances. Only
+it must look a little ludicrous to see a fat Englishman, a
+representative of the British Lion, forced to adopt this mortifying
+alternative rather than suffer himself to be torn into beefsteaks. It
+may be, however, that in this instance our Nimrod has suddenly
+discovered that it is about dinner-time, and is hurrying back to camp
+lest the beef should be overdone.
+
+  [Illustration: BEAR CHASE.]
+
+These bear-hunting Englishmen take care to have as many chances on
+their own side as possible. Hence they usually go into the mountains
+well provided with guides, ammunition, provisions, etc., and prepare
+the way by first securing the bear in some favored locality. This is
+done by killing a calf or hog, and placing the carcass in the required
+position. A hired attendant lies in wait until he discovers the bear,
+when he comes down to the station or camp, and notifies the hunter
+that it is time to start out. Thus the risk of life is greatly
+reduced, and the prospect of securing some game proportionally
+augmented. The black bears of Norway are not very dangerous, however,
+and, hunted in this manner, it requires no great skill to kill them.
+They are generally to be found in the higher mountains and defiles, a
+few miles from some farming settlement. In winter, when their
+customary food is scarce, they often commit serious depredations upon
+the stock of the farmers. Every facility is freely afforded by the
+peasants for their destruction, and every bear killed is considered so
+many cattle saved.
+
+  [Illustration: PEASANT WOMEN AT WORK.]
+
+It was late in the afternoon when I descended a rocky and pine-covered
+hill, and came in sight of the station called Djerkin, celebrated as
+one of the best in the interior of Norway. This place is kept by an
+old Norwegian peasant family of considerable wealth, and is a favorite
+resort of English sportsmen bound on fishing and hunting excursions
+throughout the wilds of the Dovre Fjeld. The main buildings and
+outhouses are numerous and substantial, and stand on the slope of the
+hill which forms the highest point of the Fjeld on the road from
+Christiania to Trondhjem. The appearance of this isolated group of
+buildings on the broad and barren face of the hill had much in it to
+remind me of some of the old missionary establishments in California;
+and the resemblance was increased by the scattered herds of cattle
+browsing upon the parched and barren slopes of the Fjeld, which in
+this vicinity are as much like the old ranch lands of San Diego County
+as one region of country wholly different in climate can be like
+another. A few cultivated patches of ground near the station, upon
+which the peasants were at work gathering in the scanty harvest,
+showed that even in this rigorous region the attempts at agriculture
+were not altogether unsuccessful. As usual, the principal burden of
+labor seemed to fall upon the women, who were digging, hoeing, and
+raking with a lusty will that would have done credit to the men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+WOMEN IN NORWAY AND GERMANY.
+
+
+I must say that of all the customs prevailing in the different parts
+of Europe, not excepting the most civilized states of Germany, this
+one of making the women do all the heavy work strikes me as the
+nearest approximation to the perfection of domestic discipline. The
+Diggers of California and the Kaffres of Africa understand this thing
+exactly, and no man of any spirit belonging to those tribes would any
+more think of performing the drudgery which he imposes upon his wife
+and daughters than a German or Norwegian. What is the use of having
+wives and children if they don't relieve us of our heavy work? In that
+respect we Americans are very much behind the times. We pay such
+absurd devotion to the weakness of woman that they rule us with a
+despotism unknown in any other country. Their smiles are threats, and
+their tears are despotic manifestoes, against which the bravest of us
+dare not rebel. It is absolutely horrible to think of the condition of
+servitude in which we are placed by the extraordinary powers vested
+in, and so relentlessly exercised by, the women of America. I, for
+one, am in favor of a revival of the old laws of Nuremberg, by which
+female tyranny was punished. By a decree of the famous Council of
+Eight, any woman convicted of beating her husband or otherwise
+maltreating him was forced to wear a dragon's head for the period of
+three days; and if she did not, at the expiration of that date, ask
+his pardon, she was compelled to undergo a regimen of bread and water
+for the space of three weeks, or until effectually reduced to
+submission. Something must be done, or we shall be compelled sooner or
+later to adopt a clause in the Constitution prohibiting from admission
+the State of Matrimony. What would the ladies do then? I think that
+would bring them to their senses.
+
+Not only in the matter of domestic discipline, but of business and
+pleasure, are the people of Europe infinitely ahead of us. In France
+many of the railway stations are attended by female clerks, and in
+Germany the beer-saloons are ornamented by pretty girls, who carry
+around the foaming schoppens, having a spare smile and a joke for
+every customer. Of opera-singers, dancers, and female fiddlers, the
+most famous are produced in Europe. The wheeling girls of Hamburg, who
+roll after the omnibuses in circus fashion, are the only specimens in
+the line of popular attractions that I have not yet seen in the
+streets or public resorts of New York.
+
+  [Illustration: WHEELING GIRLS.]
+
+What would be thought of half a dozen of these street acrobats
+rolling down Broadway or the Fifth Avenue? Doubtless they would
+attract considerable attention, and probably turn many a good penny. I
+fancy the Bowery boys would enjoy this sort of thing. A pretty girl of
+sixteen or seventeen, with her crinoline securely bundled up between
+her ankles, wheeling merrily along after an omnibus at the rate of
+five miles an hour, would be an attractive as well as extraordinary
+spectacle. For my part, I would greatly prefer it to our best female
+lectures on phrenology or physiology. I think a girl who can roll in
+that way must be possessed of uncommon genius. The wheeling boys of
+London are but clumsy spectacle compared with this. No man of
+sensibility can witness such a sight without regarding it as the very
+poetry of motion.
+
+But this digression has led me a little out of the way. I was on the
+road to Djerkin. A sharp pull of half a mile up the hill brought me to
+the door of the station, where I was kindly greeted by the family.
+Descending from my cariole a little stiff after the last long stage, I
+entered the general sitting-room, where there was a goodly assemblage
+of customers smoking and drinking, and otherwise enjoying themselves.
+The landlady, however, would not permit me to stop in such rude
+quarters, but hurried me at once into the fine room of the
+establishment. While she was preparing a venison steak and some
+coffee, I took a survey of the room, which was certainly ornamented in
+a very artistical manner. The sofa was covered with little scraps of
+white net-work; the bureau was dotted all over with little angels made
+of gauze, highly-colored pin-cushions, and fanciful paper boxes and
+card-stands. The walls were decorated with paintings of cows, stags,
+rocks, waterfalls, and other animals, and gems of Norwegian scenery,
+the productions of the genius of the family--the oldest son, a Justice
+of the Peace for the District, now absent on business at Christiania.
+They were very tolerably executed. The old lady was so proud of them
+that she took care to call my attention to their merits immediately
+upon entering the room, informing me, with much warmth of manner, that
+her son was a highly respectable man, of wonderful talents, who had
+held the honorable position of Justice of the Peace for the past ten
+years, and that there was something in my face that reminded her of
+her dear boy. In fact, she thought our features bore a striking
+resemblance--only Hansen had rather a more melancholy expression, his
+wife having unfortunately died about three years ago (here the poor
+old lady heaved a profound sigh). But I could judge for myself. There
+was his portrait, painted by a German artist who spent some months at
+this place last summer. I looked at the portrait with some curiosity.
+It was that of a man about forty years of age, with a black skull-cap
+on his head, a long queue behind, and a pair of spectacles on his
+nose--his face very thin and of a cadaverous expression; just such a
+man as you would expect to find upon a justice's bench of a country
+district in Norway. Was it possible I bore any resemblance to this
+learned man? The very idea was so startling, not to say flattering,
+that I could hardly preserve my composure. I mumbled over something to
+the effect that it was a good face--for scenic purposes; but every
+time I tried to acknowledge the likeness to myself the words stuck in
+my throat. Finally, I was forced to ask the landlady if she would be
+so kind as to bring me a glass of brandy-wine, for I was afraid she
+would discover the internal convulsions which threatened every moment
+to rend my ribs asunder. While she was looking after the brandy-wine I
+made a hasty copy of the portrait, and I now leave it to the impartial
+reader to decide upon the supposed resemblance. It may be like me, but
+I confess the fact never would have impressed itself upon my mind from
+any personal observation of my own countenance taken in front of a
+looking-glass.
+
+  [Illustration: JUSTICE OF THE PEACE.]
+
+There was something so genial and cozy about the inn at Djerkin that I
+partially resolved to stop all night. At dinner-time the landlord made
+his appearance steaming hot from the kitchen. I no longer hesitated
+about staying. I am a great believer in the physiognomy of inns as
+well as of landlords. Traveling through a wild country like Norway,
+where there is little beyond the scenery to attract attention, the
+unpretending stations by the wayside assume a degree of importance
+equaled only by the largest cities in other countries. The approach,
+the aspect of the place, the physiognomy of the house, become matters
+of the deepest interest to the solitary wayfarer, who clings to these
+episodes in the day's journey as the connecting links that bind him to
+the great family of man. I claim to be able to tell from the general
+expression of an inn, commencing at the chimney-top and ending at the
+steps of the front door, exactly what sort of cheer is to be had
+within--whether the family are happily bound together in bonds of
+affection; how often the landlord indulges in a bout of hard drinking;
+and the state of control under which he is kept by the female head of
+the establishment; nay, I can almost guess, from the general aspect of
+the house, the exact weight and digestive capacity of mine host; for
+if the inn promise well for the creature comforts, so will the
+inn-keeper. And what can be more cheering to a tired wayfarer than to
+be met at the door by a jolly red-faced old fellow--
+
+    "His fair round belly with fat capon lined"--
+
+beefsteaks in the expression of his eye; his bald pate the fac-simile
+of a rump of mutton; plum-puddings and apple-dumplings in every curve
+of his chin; his body the living embodiment of a cask of beer
+supported by two pipes of generous wine; the whole man overflowing
+with rich juices and essences, gravies, and strong drinks--a
+breathing incarnation of all the good things of life, whom to look
+upon is to feel good-natured and happy in the present, and hopeful for
+the future; such a man, in short, as mine host of the Golden Crown,
+whose portrait I have endeavored to present.
+
+  [Illustration: MODEL LANDLORD.]
+
+If there be any likeness between myself and the son, it certainly does
+not extend to the father. He carries in his hands a steaming hot
+plum-pudding; he is a model landlord, and delights in feeding his
+customers. His voice is greasy like his face. When he laughs it is
+from his capacious stomach the sounds come. His best jokes are based
+upon his digestive organs. He gets a little boozy toward evening, but
+that is merely a hospitable habit of his to prove that his liquors are
+good. You commit yourself at once to his keeping with a delightful
+consciousness that in his hands you are safe. He is not a man to
+suffer an honest customer to starve. Nature, in her prodigality,
+formed him upon a generous pattern. Whatever does other people good
+likewise does him good. May he live a thousand years--mine host of the
+Golden Crown!--and may his shadow never be less!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+DOWN THE DRIVSDAL.
+
+
+The next morning I proceeded on my way, resolved, if ever I came this
+route again, to spend a week at Djerkin. A withered old man
+accompanied me on the back of the cariole. After half an hour's hard
+climbing up a very steep hill we reached the highest point of the
+Dovre Fjeld, 4594 feet above the level of the sea. From this point the
+view is exceedingly weird and desolate. Owing to the weather, however,
+which was dark and threatening, I did not stop long to enjoy the view
+of the barren wastes that lay behind, but was soon dashing at a
+slapping pace down into the valley of the Drivsdal--one of the most
+rugged and picturesque in Norway.
+
+  [Illustration: DRIVSDAL VALLEY.]
+
+My journey down the valley of the Drivsdal was both pleasant and
+interesting. A beautiful new road commences at Kongsvold, the last
+station on the Dovre Fjeld, after passing Djerkin, and follows the
+winding of the river through the narrow gorges of the mountains all
+the way to Ny Orne. On each side towering and pine-covered mountains
+rear their rugged crests, sometimes approaching so close to the river
+as to overhang the road, which for miles on a stretch is hewn from the
+solid rock.
+
+The innumerable clefts and fissures that mark the rugged fronts of the
+cliffs; the overhanging trees and shrubbery; the toppling boulders of
+granite, balanced in mid-air; the rushing torrents that dash from the
+moss-covered rocks; the seething and foaming waters of the Driv,
+whirling through the narrow gorges hundreds of feet below the road;
+the bright blue sky overhead, and the fitful gleams of sunshine
+darting through the masses of pine and circling into innumerable
+rainbows in the spray of the river, all combine to form a scene of
+incomparable beauty and grandeur such as I have rarely seen equaled in
+any part of the world, and only surpassed by the Siskiyon Mountains in
+the northern part of California.
+
+About midway down the valley, after passing the settlement of Rise, I
+stopped to examine a curious passage of the river in the neighborhood
+of the Drivstuklere, where it dashes down between two solid walls of
+rocks, which at this point approach so as to form a passage of not
+more than fifteen feet in width. Securing my cariole horse to a tree
+by the side of the road, I descended a steep bank under the guidance
+of my skydskaarl, a bright little fellow about ten years of age, who
+first called my attention to this remarkable phenomenon. I was soon
+compelled to follow his example, and crawl over the rocks like a
+caterpillar to avoid falling into the frightful abyss below. For a
+distance of fifty or sixty yards, the river, compressed within a limit
+of fifteen feet, dashes with fearful velocity through its rugged and
+tortuous boundaries, filling the air with spray, and making an angry
+moan, as if threatening momentarily to tear the rocks from their solid
+beds, and sweep them, into the broad and sullen pool below.
+
+The trembling of the massive boulder upon which I lay outstretched
+peering into the raging abyss, the fierce surging of the waters, the
+whirling clouds of spray, and gorgeous prismatic colors that flashed
+through them, created an impression that the whole was some wild, mad
+freak of the elements, gotten up to furnish the traveler with a
+startling idea of the wonders and beauties of Norwegian scenery.
+
+  [Illustration: PASSAGE ON THE DRIV.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+A NORWEGIAN HORSE-JOCKEY.
+
+
+Late one evening I arrived at a lonely little station by the wayside,
+not far beyond the valley of the Drivsdal. I was cold and hungry, and
+well disposed to enjoy whatever good cheer the honest people who kept
+the inn might have in store for me. The house and outbuildings were
+such as belong to an ordinary farming establishment, and did not
+promise much in the way of entertainment. Upon entering the rustic
+doorway I was kindly greeted by the host--a simple, good-natured
+looking man--who, as usual, showed me into the best room. Now I am not
+aware of any thing in my appearance that entitles me to this
+distinction, but it has generally been my fate, in this sort of
+travel, to be set apart and isolated from the common herd in the fancy
+room of the establishment, which I have always found to be
+correspondingly the coldest and most uncomfortable. It is a great
+annoyance in Norway to be treated as a gentleman. The commonest lout
+can enjoy the cozy glow and social gossip of the kitchen or ordinary
+sitting-room, but the traveler whom these good people would honor must
+sit shivering and alone in some great barn of a room because it
+contains a sofa, a bureau, a looking-glass, a few mantle-piece
+ornaments, and an occasional picture of the king or some member of the
+royal family. I have walked up and down these dismal chambers for
+hours at a time, staring at the daubs on the walls, and picking up
+little odds and ends of ornaments, and gazing vacantly at them, till I
+felt a numbness steal all over me, accompanied by a vague presentiment
+that I was imprisoned for life. The progress of time is a matter of no
+importance in Norway. To an American, accustomed to see every thing
+done with energy and promptness, it is absolutely astounding--the
+indifference of these people to the waste of hours. They seem to be
+forever asleep, or doing something that bears no possible reference to
+their ostensible business. If you are hungry and want something to eat
+in a few minutes, the probability is you will be left alone in the
+fine room for several hours, at the expiration of which you discover
+that the inn-keeper is out in the stable feeding his horses, his wife
+in the back yard looking after the chickens, and his children sitting
+at a table in the kitchen devouring a dish of porridge. Upon
+expressing your astonishment that nothing is ready, the good man of
+the house says "Ja! it will be ready directly, min Herr!" and if you
+are lucky it comes in another hour--a cup of coffee and some bread
+perhaps, which you could just as well have had in ten minutes.
+Patience may be a virtue in other countries, but it is an absolute
+necessity in Norway. I believe, after the few weeks' experience I had
+on the road to Trondhjem, I could without difficulty sit upon a
+monument and smile at grief.
+
+  [Illustration: THE PRIZE.]
+
+Perceiving through the cracks of the door that there was a good fire
+in the kitchen, and hearing the cheerful voices of the man and his
+wife, varied by the merry whistle my skydskaarl, I made bold to go in
+and ask leave to stand by the fire. The good people seemed a little
+astonished at first that a person of quality like myself should prefer
+the kitchen to the fine room with the sofa and bureau, the
+mantle-piece ornaments and pictures of the royal family; but, by dint
+of good-humored gossip about the horses, and an extravagant compliment
+thrown in about the beauty of the landlady's children--for which I
+hope to be pardoned--I secured a comfortable seat by the fire, and was
+soon quite at home. The great open fireplace, the blazing pine logs,
+the well-smoked hobs, the simmering pots and steaming kettles, had
+something indescribably cheerful about them; and lighting my pipe, I
+puffed away cozily during the pauses in the conversation, having a
+delightful consciousness that nature had peculiarly adapted me for the
+vulgar enjoyments of life, and that every thing approaching the
+refinements of civilization was a great bore. It was doubtless this
+taint of the savage in my disposition that made me look with such
+horror upon neat rooms and civilized furniture, and fall back with
+such zest upon the primitive comforts of savage life. When I told the
+people of the house that I was all the way from California--that I had
+come expressly to see their country--there was no end to the interest
+and excitement. "Dear me!" they cried, "and you have traveled a long
+way! You must be very tired! And you must be very rich to travel so
+far! Ah Gott--how wonderful!" "Did you come all the way in a cariole?"
+inquired the simple-minded host. "No; I came part of the way by sea,
+in a great ship." "How wonderful!" "And what sort of horses had they
+in California?" I told some tough stories about the mustang horses, in
+which the landlord was profoundly interested, for I soon discovered
+that horses were his great hobby. Whatever we talked of, he invariably
+came back to horse-flesh. His head was overrunning with horses. I
+praised his cariole horses, and he was enchanted. He gave me the
+pedigree of every horse in his stable, scarcely a word of which I
+understood, and then wound up by telling me he was considered the best
+judge of horses in all Norway. I did not think there was much in his
+appearance indicative of the shrewd horse-jockey, but was soon
+convinced of his shrewdness, for he informed me confidentially he had
+drawn the great prize at the last annual horse-fair at Christiania,
+and if I didn't believe it he would show it to me! I tried to make him
+understand that I had no doubt at all what he said was strictly true;
+but, not satisfied at this expression of faith in his word, he went to
+a big wooden chest in the corner and took out a bag of money, which he
+placed upon the middle of the table with a proud smile of triumph.
+"That," said he, "is the prize! A hundred and fifty silver
+dollars--_silver_, mind you--all SILVER!" But perhaps I didn't
+believe it was a prize? Well, he would convince me of that. So he left
+the bag of money on the table and went into a back room to get the
+certificate of the society, in which it was all duly written out, with
+his name in large letters, the paper being neatly framed in a carved
+frame, the work of his own hands. There it was; I could read for
+myself! I tried to read it to oblige him, and as I blundered over the
+words he took it into his head that I was still incredulous. "Nai!
+nai!" said he, "you shall see the money! You shall count it for
+yourself!" In vain I strove to convince him that I was entirely
+satisfied on the subject--that he must not go to so much trouble on my
+account. "Nai! nai!" cried the enthusiastic dealer in horse-flesh, "it
+is no trouble. You shall see the money WITH YOUR OWN EYES!" And
+forthwith he untied the string of the bag, and poured out the shining
+dollars in a pile on the middle of the table. His good wife stood by,
+professing to smile, but I suspected, from the watchful expression of
+her eye, that she did not feel quite at ease. The skydskaarl leaned
+over with a general expression of the most profound astonishment and
+admiration. "See!" cried the old man; "this is the prize--every dollar
+of it. But you must count it--I'll help you--so!" As there was no
+getting over the task imposed upon me without hurting his feelings, I
+had to sit down and help to count the money--no very pleasant job for
+a hungry man. After summing up our respective piles, there appeared to
+be only a hundred and forty-nine dollars--just a dollar short. "Lieb
+Gott!" cried the man, "there must be a mistake! Let us count it
+again!" I felt that there was a necessity for counting it very
+carefully this time, for the landlady's eye was on me with a very
+searching expression. "Een, to, tre, five, fem, sex," and so on for
+nearly half an hour, when we summed up our counts again. This time it
+was only a hundred and forty-eight dollars--just two dollars short!
+The old man scratched his head and looked bewildered. The landlady
+moved about nervously, and stared very hard at me. It was getting to
+be rather an embarrassing affair. I blamed myself for being so
+foolishly drawn into it. Wishing to know if there really was a
+mistake, I begged my host to let me count it alone, which I did by
+making fifteen piles of ten dollars each, carefully counting every
+pile. It was all right; the whole amount was there, a hundred and
+fifty dollars. "All right!" said I, much relieved; "don't you see,
+every pile is exactly the same height!" "Ja! Ja!" said the man; "but I
+don't understand it. Here, wife, you and I must count it!" So the wife
+sat down, and they both began counting the money, varying every time
+they compared notes from two to ten dollars. Once they had it a
+hundred and sixty dollars. "The devil is in the money!" exclaimed the
+horse-dealer; "I'm certain I counted right." "And so am I!" said the
+woman; "I can not be mistaken. It is you who have made the mistake.
+You always were a stupid old fool about money!" This she said with
+some degree of asperity, for she was evidently displeased at the whole
+proceeding. "A fool, eh? A fool!" muttered the old man; "you do well
+to call me a fool before strangers!" "Ja, that's the way! I always
+told you so!" screamed the woman, in rising tones of anger; "you'll
+lose all your money yet!" "Lose it!" retorted the man; "don't you see
+I have made ten dollars by counting it to-night! There! count it
+yourself, and hold your peace, woman!" Here the wife, suppressing her
+wrath, made a careful and deliberate count, which resulted in the
+exact sum of a hundred and fifty dollars! I was much relieved; but by
+this time the old man, unable to bear the torrent of reproaches heaped
+upon him by his good wife for his stupidity, swore she must have made
+a mistake. He was sure he had counted a hundred and sixty; therefore
+he would count it again, all alone, which he proceeded to do, very
+slowly and cautiously. This time the result was a hundred and
+fifty-five dollars. "The devil's in it!" cried the astonished dealer;
+"there's some magic about it! I don't understand it. I must count it
+again!" The woman, however, being satisfied that it was all right, I
+now thought it best to return to my seat by the fire, where she soon
+began to busy herself preparing the supper, turning round now and then
+of course to let off a broadside at her old man. She took occasion to
+inform me, during the progress of her culinary labors, that he was a
+very good sort of man, but was somewhat addicted to brandy-wine, of
+which he had partaken a little too freely on the present occasion. I
+must excuse him. She would send him to bed presently. And now, if I
+pleased, supper was ready.
+
+I could not help thinking, as I lay in bed that night, how lucky it
+was for these simple-minded people that they lived in the interior of
+Norway. Even in California, where public and private integrity is the
+prevailing trait of the people, it would hardly be considered safe to
+pull out a bag of money at a wayside inn and show it to every passing
+stranger. I have known men there in high public positions whom I would
+scarcely like to tempt in that way, especially if there was money
+enough in the bag to make robbery respectable.
+
+All along the route during the next day the scenery was a continued
+feast of enjoyment. In looking back over it now, however, after the
+lapse of several months, it would be difficult to recall any thing
+beyond its general features--pine-covered mountains, green valleys,
+dark rocky glens, foaming torrents of water, and groups of farm-houses
+by the wayside. At Bjerkager I reached the first of the
+"slow-stations;" that is to say, the established post-houses, where a
+margin of three hours is allowed for a change of horses. I had
+supposed that in a country, and on a public route, where during the
+summer there must be considerable travel, it would hardly be possible
+that so long a delay could take place; but in this I was mistaken. The
+slow-stations are emphatically slow; the keepers are slow, the horses
+are slow, the whole concern is slow. From Bjerkager to Garlid, and
+from Garlid to Hov, including all delays, a distance of three hours
+and a half ordinary time, it took me all day. No entreaties, no offers
+of extra compensation, no expressions of impatience produced the
+slightest effect. The people at these places were not to be hurried.
+Kind and good-natured as they were in appearance and expression, I
+found them the most bull-headed and intractable race of beings on the
+face of the earth.
+
+I was particularly struck with the depressing lethargy that hung over
+a wretched little place called Soknaes, which I made out to reach the
+next morning. A dead silence reigned over the miserable huddle of
+buildings by the roadside. The houses looked green and mildewed. A few
+forlorn chickens in the stable-yard, and a half-starved dog crouching
+under the door-steps, too poor to bark and too lazy to move, were the
+only signs of life that greeted me as I approached. I knocked at the
+door, but no answer was made to the summons. Not a living soul was to
+be seen around the place. I attempted to whistle and shout. Still the
+terrible silence remained unbroken save by the dismal echoes of my own
+melancholy music. At length I went to a rickety shed under which some
+carts were drawn up for shelter from the weather. In one of the carts,
+half-covered in a bundle of straw, was a bundle of clothes. It moved
+as I drew near; it thrust a boot out over the tail-board; it shook
+itself; it emitted a curious sound between a grunt and a yawn; it
+raised itself up and shook off a portion of the straw; it thrust a red
+night-cap out of the mass of shapeless rubbish; the night-cap
+contained a head and a matted shock of hair; there was a withered,
+old-fashioned little face on the front part of the head, underneath
+the shock of hair, which opened its mouth and eyes, and gazed at me
+vacantly; it was an old man or a boy, I could not tell which till it
+spoke, when I discovered that it was something between the two, and
+was the skydskaarl or hostler of this remarkable establishment. He
+rubbed his eyes and stared again. "Hello!" said I. He grunted out
+something. "Heste og Cariole!" said I. "Ja! Ja!" grunted the hostler,
+and then he began to get out of the cart. I suppose he creaked, though
+I do not pretend that the sounds were audible. First one leg came out;
+slowly it was followed by the other. When they both got to the ground,
+he pushed his body gradually over the tail-board, and in about five
+minutes was standing before me.
+
+"A horse and cariole," said I; "let me have them quick!"
+
+"Ja! Ja!"
+
+"_Strax!_" [directly!] said I.
+
+"Ja! Ja!"
+
+"How long will it be?"
+
+"Ach!"--here he yawned.
+
+"An hour?"
+
+"Ja! Ja!"
+
+"Two hours?"
+
+"Ja! Ja!"
+
+"Three hours?"
+
+"Ja! Ja!"
+
+"Sacramento! I can't stand that, I must have one
+STRAX--directly--forstöede?"
+
+"Ja! Ja!" and the fellow rubbed his eyes and yawned again.
+
+"Look here! my friend," said I, "if you'll get me a horse and cariole
+in half an hour, I'll give you two marks extra--forstöe?"
+
+"Ja! Ja! twa mark" (still yawning).
+
+"Half an hour, mind you!"
+
+"_Tre time_--three hours!" grunted the incorrigible dunderhead.
+
+"Then good-by--I must travel on foot!" and, with rage and indignation
+depicted in every feature, I flung my knapsack over my shoulder and
+made a feint to start.
+
+"Adieu! farvel!" said the sleepy lout, good-naturedly holding out his
+hand to give me a parting shake. "Farvel, min Herr! May your journey
+be pleasant! God take care of you!"
+
+The perfect sincerity of the fellow completely dissipated my rage,
+and, giving him a friendly shake, I proceeded on my way. As I turned
+the corner of the main building and struck into the road, I cast a
+look back. He was still standing by the cart, yawning and rubbing his
+eyes as before. That man would make money in California--if money
+could be made by a bet on laziness. He is lazier than the old Dutch
+skipper who was too lazy to go below, and gave orders to the man at
+the helm to follow the sun so as to keep him in the shade of the
+main-sail, by reason of which he sailed round the horizon till his
+tobacco gave out, and he had to return home for a fresh supply. I call
+that a strong case of laziness, but scarcely stronger than the
+traveler meets with every day in Norway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+OUT OF MONEY.
+
+
+I now began to enjoy the real pleasures of Norwegian travel. No longer
+compelled to endure the vexatious delays to which I had lately been
+subject, I bowled along the road, with my knapsack on my back, at the
+rate of four miles an hour, whistling merrily from sheer exuberance of
+health and lack of thought. The weather was charming. A bright sun
+shed its warm rays over hill and dale; the air was fresh and
+invigorating; the richest tints adorned the whole face of the country,
+which from Soknaes to Trondhjem gradually increases in fertility and
+breadth of outline, till it becomes almost unrivaled in the profusion
+of its pastoral beauties. Nothing can surpass the gorgeous splendor of
+the autumnal sunsets in this part of Norway. At an earlier period of
+the year there is perpetual daylight for several weeks, and for three
+days the sun does not descend below the horizon. The light, however,
+is too strong during that period to produce the rich and glowing tints
+which cover the sky and mountain-tops at a later season of the year. I
+was fortunate in being just in time to enjoy the full measure of its
+beauties, and surely it is not too much to say that such an experience
+is of itself worth a trip to Norway. I shall not attempt a description
+of Norwegian skies, however, after the glowing picture of the North
+Cape at midnight drawn by the pen of my friend Bayard Taylor, the most
+faithful and enthusiastic of all the travelers who have given their
+experience of this interesting region.
+
+  [Illustration: TRAVELING ON FOOT.]
+
+Keeping along the banks of the Gula, the road winds around the sides
+of the hills, sometimes crossing open valleys, and occasionally
+penetrating the shady recesses of the pine forests, till it diverges
+from the river at Meelhus. Soon after leaving this station the views
+from the higher points over which the road passes are of great beauty
+and extent, embracing a glimpse, from time to time, of the great
+Trondhjem Fjord.
+
+Night overtook me at the pretty little station of Esp. Next morning I
+was up bright and early, and, after a cup of coffee and some rolls,
+shouldered my knapsack and pushed on to Trondhjem.
+
+Finding my purse growing lighter every day, I was compelled at this
+point to cut short my intended journey to the North Cape, and take the
+first steamer down the coast for Christiansund and Hamburg.
+
+Arrived once more at the family head-quarters in
+Frankfort-on-the-Main, I spent a few months writing up the loose
+material I had thus gathered, and making foot-tours through the
+Odenwald, the Spessart, and the Schwartzwald. But I was not satisfied
+with what I had seen of the North. There was still a wild region, far
+beyond any explorations I had yet made, which constantly loomed up in
+my imagination--the chaotic land of frost and fire, where dwelt in
+ancient times the mighty Thor, the mystic deity of the Scandinavians.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+ICELANDIC TRAVEL.
+
+
+Not many years have passed since it was considered something of an
+achievement to visit Iceland. The traveler who had the hardihood to
+penetrate the chilly fogs of the North, and journey by the compass
+through a region of everlasting snows and desolating fires, could well
+afford to stay at home during the remainder of his life, satisfied
+with the reputation generally accorded him by his fellow-men. It was
+something to have plunged into rivers of unknown depth, and traversed
+treacherous bogs and desert fjelds of lava--something to be able to
+speak knowingly of the learned Sagas, and verify the wonders of the
+Burned Njal.
+
+An isolated spot of earth, bordering on the Arctic Circle, and cut off
+by icebergs and frozen seas from all intercourse with the civilized
+world during half the year, once the seat of an enlightened republic,
+and still inhabited by the descendants of men who had worshiped Odin
+and Thor, must surely have presented rare attractions to the
+enterprising traveler before it became a beaten track for modern
+tourists. A simple narrative of facts was then sufficient to enlist
+attention. Even the unlearned adventurer could obtain a reputation by
+an unvarnished recital of what he saw and heard. He could describe the
+Lögberg upon which the republican Parliament held its sittings, and
+attest from personal observation that this was the exact spot where
+judgments were pronounced by the _Thing_. He could speak familiarly of
+heathen gods and vikings after a brief intercourse with the
+inhabitants, who are still tinctured with the spirit of their early
+civilization. He could tell of frightful volcanoes, that fill the air
+with clouds of ashes, and desolate the earth with burning floods of
+lava, and of scalding hot water shot up out of subterranean boilers,
+and gaping fissures that emit sulphurous vapors, and strange sounds
+heard beneath the earth's surface, and all the marvelous experiences
+of Icelandic travel, including ghosts and hobgoblins that ramble over
+the icy wastes by night, and hide themselves in gloomy caverns by
+day--these he could dwell upon in earnest and homely language with the
+pleasing certainty of an appreciative audience. But times have sadly
+changed within the past few years. A trip to Iceland nowadays is
+little more than a pleasant summer excursion, brought within the
+capacity of every tyro in travel through the leveling agency of steam.
+When a Parisian lady of rank visits Spitzbergen, and makes the
+overland journey from the North Cape to the Gulf of Bothnia, of what
+avail is it for any gentleman of elegant leisure to leave his
+comfortable fireside? We tourists who are ambitious to see the world
+in an easy way need but sit in our cushioned chair, cosily smoking our
+cigar, while some enterprising lady puts a girdle round about the
+earth; for we may depend upon it she will reappear ere leviathan can
+swim a league, and present us with a bouquet of wonderful
+experiences, neatly pressed between the pages of an entertaining
+volume. The icebergs of the Arctic, the bananas of the tropics, the
+camels of the East, the buffaloes of the West, and the cannibals of
+the South, are equally at our service. We can hold the mountains,
+rivers, seas, and human races between our finger and thumb, and thus,
+as we gently dally with care, we may see the wonders of the world as
+in a pleasant dream. Thus may we enjoy the perils and hardships of
+travel at a very small sacrifice of personal comfort.
+
+  [Illustration: THE GREAT GEYSER.]
+
+It was somewhat in this style that I reasoned when the idea occurred
+to me of making a trip to Iceland. From all accounts it was a very
+uncomfortable country, deficient in roads, destitute of hotels, and
+subject to various eccentricities of climate. Neither fame nor money
+was to be gained by such a trip--unless, indeed, I succeeded in
+catching the great auk, for which, it is said, the directors of the
+British Museum have offered a reward of a hundred pounds. This was a
+chance, to be sure. I might possibly be able to get hold of the auk,
+and thereby secure money enough to pay expenses, and make certain a
+niche in the temple of fame. It would be something to rank with the
+great men who had devoted their lives to the pursuit of the dodo and
+the roc. But there was a deplorable lack of information about the
+haunts and habits of the auk. I was not even satisfied of its
+existence, by the fact that two Englishmen visited Iceland a few years
+ago for the purpose of securing a specimen of this wonderful bird,
+and, after six weeks of unavailing search, wrote a book to prove that
+there was still reason to hope for success.
+
+Upon the whole, I thought it would not do to depend upon the auk.
+There was but one opening left--to visit Iceland, sketch-book in hand,
+and faithfully do what others had left undone--make accurate sketches
+of the mountains, rivers, lava-fjelds, geysers, people, and costumes.
+In nothing is Iceland so deficient as in pictorial representation. It
+has been very minutely surveyed by the Danes, and Olsen has left
+nothing to wish for in the way of topographical delineation, but
+artists do not seem to have found it an attractive field for the
+exercise of their talent. At least I could obtain no good pictures of
+Iceland in Copenhagen. The few indifferent sketches published there,
+and in the journals of late English and German tourists, afford no
+adequate idea of the country. I have seen nothing of the kind any
+where that impressed my mind with the slightest notion of that land of
+fire, or the spirit and genius of Icelandic life. It would therefore
+be some gain to the cause of knowledge if I could present to five
+hundred thousand of my fellow-citizens, who do their traveling through
+these illuminated pages, a reasonably fair delineation of the country
+and the people, with such simple record of my own experiences as would
+render the sketches generally intelligible.
+
+So one fine morning in May I shouldered my knapsack, and bade a
+temporary adieu to my friends in Frankfort. By night I was in Hamburg.
+The next day was agreeably spent in rambling about the gardens across
+the Alster Basin, and at 5 P.M. I left Altona for Kiel, a journey of
+three hours by rail across a flat and not very interesting tract of
+country within the limits of Schleswig-Holstein. From Kiel a steamer
+leaves for Korsör, on the island of Zealand, the terminus of the
+Copenhagen Railway. This is the most direct route between Hamburg and
+Copenhagen, though the trip may be very pleasantly varied by taking a
+steamer to Taars, and passing by diligence through the islands of
+Lalland, Falster, and Möen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.
+
+
+A few days after my arrival in Copenhagen I had the pleasure of making
+the acquaintance of Professor Andersen, of the Scandinavian Museum, a
+native Icelander, who very kindly showed me the chief objects of
+curiosity obtained from the Danish possessions in the North,
+consisting mostly of fish and geological specimens. The Minister of
+the Judiciary obligingly gave me a letter to the governor and
+principal amtmen of Iceland, and many other gentlemen of influence
+manifested the most friendly interest in my proposed undertaking. I
+was especially indebted to Captain Södring, late owner of the _Fox_,
+of Arctic celebrity, for much valuable information respecting the
+Northern seas, as well as for his cordial hospitality and
+indefatigable efforts to make my sojourn in Copenhagen both agreeable
+and profitable. Indeed, I was delighted with the place and the people.
+The Danes are exceedingly genial in their manners, distinguished alike
+for their simplicity and intelligence. There is no trouble to which
+they will not put themselves to oblige a stranger. In my rambles
+through the public libraries and museums I was always accompanied by
+some professor attached to the institution, who took the greatest
+pains to explain every thing, and impress me with a favorable idea of
+the value of the collection. This was not a mere formal matter of
+duty; many of them spent hours and even days in the performance of
+their friendly labors, omitting nothing that might contribute to my
+enjoyment as a stranger. The visitor who can not spend his time
+agreeably in such society, surrounded by such institutions as
+Thorwaldsen's Museum and the National Collection of Scandinavian
+Antiquities, must be difficult to please indeed. The Tivoli or the
+Dyrhave, an evening at Fredericksberg, or a trip to "Hamlet's Grave"
+at Elsineur, would surely fill the measure of his contentment. Whether
+in the way of beautiful gardens, public amusements, charming
+excursions, or agreeable and intelligent society, I know of no
+European capital that can surpass Copenhagen. Our excellent minister,
+Mr. Wood, with whom I had the pleasure of spending an evening at
+Elsineur, speaks in the most complimentary terms of the Danes and
+their customs, and expresses some surprise, considering the general
+increase of European travel from our country, that so few American
+tourists visit Denmark.
+
+I could not do myself the injustice to leave Copenhagen without
+forming the personal acquaintance of a man to whom a debt of gratitude
+is due by the young and the old in all countries--the ramblers in
+fairy-land, the lovers of romance, and the friends of humanity--all
+who can feel the divine influence of genius, and learn, through the
+teachings of a kindly heart, that the inhabitants of earth are
+
+    "Kindred by one holy tie"--
+
+the quaint, pathetic, genial Hans Christian Andersen. Not wishing to
+impose any obligation of courtesy on him by a letter of introduction
+or the obliging services of my Danish friends, I called at his house
+unattended, and merely sent in my name and address. Unfortunately he
+was out taking his morning walk, and would not be back till the
+afternoon. By calling at three o'clock, the servant said, I would be
+very likely to find him at home. I then added to my card the simple
+fact that I was an American traveler on my way to Iceland for the
+purpose of making some sketches of the country, and would take the
+liberty of calling at the appointed hour. It may be a matter of
+interest to an American reader to have some idea of the peculiar
+neighborhood and style of house in which a great Danish author has
+chosen to take up his abode. The city of Copenhagen, it should be
+borne in mind, is intersected by canals which, during the summer
+months, are crowded with small trading vessels from Sweden and
+Jutland, and fishing-smacks from the neighboring islands and coast of
+Norway. The wharves bordering on these canals present an exceedingly
+animated appearance. Peasants, sailors, traders, and fishermen, in
+every variety of costume, are gathered in groups, enjoying a social
+gossip, or interchanging their various products and wares, and
+strawberries from Amak and fish from the Skager-Rack mingle their
+odors. In the second story of a dingy and dilapidated house, fronting
+one of these unsavory canals, a confused pile of dirty, shambling old
+tenements in the rear, and a curious medley of fish and fishermen,
+sloops and schooners, mud-scows and skiffs in front, lives the
+world-renowned author, Hans Christian Andersen. I say he lives there,
+but, properly speaking, he only lodges. It seems to be a peculiarity
+of his nature to move about from time to time into all the queer and
+uninviting places possible to be discovered within the limits of
+Copenhagen--not where
+
+                  "The mantling vine
+    Lays forth her grape and gently creeps
+    Luxuriant,"
+
+but where the roughest, noisiest, busiest, and fishiest of an
+amphibious population is to be found. Here it is, apparently amid the
+most incongruous elements, that he draws from all around him the most
+delicate traits of human nature, and matures for the great outer world
+the most exquisite creations of his fancy. It is purely a labor of
+love in which he spends his life. The products of his pen have
+furnished him with ample means to live in elegant style, surrounded by
+all the allurements of rank and fashion, but he prefers the obscurity
+of a plain lodging amid the haunts of those classes whose lives and
+pursuits he so well portrays. Here he cordially receives all who call
+upon him, and they are not few. Pilgrims of every condition in life
+and from all nations do homage to his genius, yet, valuable as his
+time is, he finds enough to spare for the kindly reception of his
+visitors. His only household companions appear to be two old peasant
+women, whom he employs as domestics; weather-beaten and decrepit old
+creatures, with faces and forms very much like a pair of antiquated
+nut-crackers. He occupies only two or three rooms plainly furnished,
+and apparently lives in the simplest and most abstemious style.
+
+When I called according to directions, one of the ancient nut-crackers
+merely pointed to the door, and said she thought Herr Andersen was in,
+but didn't know. I could knock there and try; so I knocked. Presently
+I heard a rapid step, and the door was thrown open. Before me stood
+the tall, thin, shambling, raw-boned figure of a man a little beyond
+the prime of life, but not yet old, with a pair of dancing gray eyes
+and a hatchet-face, all alive with twists, and wrinkles, and muscles;
+a long, lean face, upon which stood out prominently a great nose,
+diverted by a freak of nature a little to one side, and flanked by a
+tremendous pair of cheek-bones, with great hollows underneath.
+Innumerable ridges and furrows swept semicircularly downward around
+the corners of a great mouth--a broad, deep, rugged fissure across the
+face, that might have been mistaken for the dreadful child-trap of an
+ogre but for the sunny beams of benevolence that lurked around the
+lips, and the genial humanity that glimmered from every nook and turn.
+Neither mustache nor beard obscured the strong individuality of this
+remarkable face, which for the most part was of a dull granite color,
+a little mixed with limestone and spotted with patches of porphyry. A
+dented gutta-percha forehead, very prominent about the brows, and
+somewhat resembling in its general topography a raised map of
+Switzerland, sloped upward and backward to the top of the head; not a
+very large head, but wonderfully bumped and battered by the operations
+of the brain, and partially covered by a mop of dark wavy hair, a
+little thin in front and somewhat grizzled behind; a long, bony pair
+of arms, with long hands on them; a long, lank body, with a long black
+coat on it; a long, loose pair of legs, with long boots on the feet,
+all in motion at the same time--all shining, and wriggling, and
+working with an indescribable vitality, a voice bubbling up from the
+vast depths below with cheery, spasmodic, and unintelligible words of
+welcome--this was the wonderful man that stood before me, the great
+Danish improvisator, the lover of little children, the gentle Caliban
+who dwells among fairies and holds sweet converse with fishes, and
+frogs, and beetles! I would have picked him out from among a thousand
+men at the first glance as a candidate for Congress, or the
+proprietor of a tavern, if I had met him any where in the United
+States. But the resemblance was only momentary. In the quaint
+awkwardness of his gestures and the simplicity of his speech there was
+a certain refinement not usually found among men of that class.
+Something in the spontaneous and almost childlike cordiality of his
+greeting; the unworldly impulsiveness of his nature, as he grasped
+both my hands in his, patted me affectionately on the shoulder, and
+bade me welcome, convinced me in a moment that this was no other, and
+could be no other, than Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+"Come in! come in!" he said, in a gush of broken English; "come in and
+sit down. You are very welcome. Thank you--thank you very much. I am
+very glad to see you. It is a rare thing to meet a traveler all the
+way from California--quite a surprise. Sit down! Thank you!"
+
+And then followed a variety of friendly compliments and remarks about
+the Americans. He liked them; he was sorry they were so unfortunate as
+to be engaged in a civil war, but hoped it would soon be over. Did I
+speak French? he asked, after a pause. Not very well. Or German? Still
+worse, was my answer. "What a pity!" he exclaimed; "it must trouble
+you to understand my English, I speak it so badly. It is only within a
+few years that I have learned to speak it at all." Of course I
+complimented him upon his English, which was really better than I had
+been led to expect. "Can you understand it?" he asked, looking
+earnestly in my face. "Certainly," I answered, "almost every word."
+"Oh, thank you--thank you. You are very good," he cried, grasping me
+by the hand. "I am very much obliged to you for understanding me." I
+naturally thanked him for being obliged to me, and we shook hands
+cordially, and mutually thanked one another over again for being so
+amiable. The conversation, if such it could be called, flew from
+subject to subject with a rapidity that almost took my breath away.
+The great improvisator dashed recklessly into every thing that he
+thought would be interesting to an American traveler, but with the
+difficulty of his utterance in English, and the absence of any
+knowledge on his part of my name or history, it was evident he was a
+little embarrassed in what way to oblige me most; and the trouble on
+my side was, that I was too busy listening to find time for talking.
+
+"Dear! dear! And you are going to Iceland!" he continued. "A long way
+from California! I would like to visit America, but it is very
+dangerous to travel by sea. A vessel was burned up not long since, and
+many of my friends were lost. It was a dreadful affair."
+
+From this he diverged to a trip he then had in contemplation through
+Switzerland and Spain. He was sitting for his statuette, which he
+desired to leave as a memento to his friends prior to his departure. A
+young Danish sculptor was making it. Would I like to see it? and
+forthwith I was introduced to the young Danish sculptor. The likeness
+was very good, and my comments upon it elicited many additional thanks
+and several squeezes of the hand--it was so kind of me to be pleased
+with it! "He is a young student," said Andersen, approvingly; "a very
+good young man. I want to encourage him. He will be a great artist
+some day or other."
+
+Talking of likenesses reminded me of a photograph which I had
+purchased a few days before, and to which I now asked the addition of
+an autograph.
+
+  [Illustration: [Signature: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN]]
+
+"Oh, you have a libel on me here!" cried the poet, laughing
+joyously--"a very bad likeness. Wait! I have several much better; here
+they are--" And he rushed into the next room, tumbled over a lot of
+papers, and ransacked a number of drawers till he found the desired
+package--"here's a dozen of them; take your choice; help yourself--as
+many as you please!" While looking over the collection, I said the
+likeness of one who had done so much to promote the happiness of some
+little friends I had at home would be valued beyond measure; that I
+knew at least half a dozen youngsters who were as well acquainted with
+the "Little Match Girl," and the "Ugly Duck," and the "Poor Idiot
+Boy," as he was himself, and his name was as familiar in California as
+it was in Denmark. At this he grasped both my hands, and looking
+straight in my face with a kind of ecstatic expression, said, "Oh, is
+it possible? Do they really read my books in California? so far away!
+Oh! I thank you very much. Some of my stories, I am aware, have been
+published in New York, but I did not think they had found their way to
+the Pacific Coast. Dear me! Thank you! thank you! Have you seen my
+last--the--what do you call it in English?--a little animal--"
+
+"Mouse," I suggested.
+
+"No, not a mouse; a little animal with wings."
+
+"Oh, a bat!"
+
+"Nay, nay, a little animal with wings and many legs. Dear me! I forget
+the name in English, but you certainly know it in America--a very
+small animal!"
+
+In vain I tried to make a selection from all the little animals of my
+acquaintance with wings and many legs. The case was getting both
+embarrassing and vexatious. At length a light broke upon me.
+
+"A musquito!" I exclaimed, triumphantly.
+
+"Nay, nay!" cried the bothered poet; "a little animal with a hard skin
+on its back. Dear me, I can't remember the name!"
+
+"Oh, I have it now," said I, really desirous of relieving his mind--"a
+flea!"
+
+At this the great improvisator scratched his head, looked at the
+ceiling and then at the floor, after which he took several rapid
+strides up and down the room, and struck himself repeatedly on the
+forehead. Suddenly grasping up a pen, he exclaimed, somewhat
+energetically, "Here! I'll draw it for you;" and forthwith he drew on
+a scrap of paper a diagram, of which the accompanying engraving is a
+fac-simile.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+"A tumble-bug!" I shouted, astonished at my former stupidity.
+
+The poet looked puzzled and distressed. Evidently I had not yet
+succeeded. What could it be?
+
+"A beetle!" I next ventured to suggest, rather disappointed at the
+result of my previous guess.
+
+"A beetle! A beetle!--that's it; now I remember--a beetle!" and the
+delighted author of "The Beetle" patted me approvingly on the back,
+and chuckled gleefully at his own adroit method of explanation. "I'll
+give you 'The Beetle,'" he said; "you shall have the only copy in my
+possession. But you don't read Danish! What are we to do? There is a
+partial translation in French--a mere notice."
+
+"No matter," I answered. "A specimen of the Danish language will be
+very acceptable, and the book will be a pleasant souvenir of my
+visit."
+
+He then darted into the next room, tumbled over a dozen piles of
+books, then out again, ransacked the desks, and drawers, and heaps of
+old papers and rubbish, talking all the time in his joyous, cheery way
+about his books and his travels in Jutland, and his visit to Charles
+Dickens, and his intended journey through Spain, and his delight at
+meeting a traveler all the way from California, and whatever else came
+into his head--all in such mixed-up broken English that the meaning
+must have been utterly lost but for the wonderful expressiveness of
+his face and the striking oddity of his motions. It came to me
+mesmerically. He seemed like one who glowed all over with bright and
+happy thoughts, which permeated all around him with a new
+intelligence. His presence shed a light upon others like the rays that
+beamed from the eyes of "Little Sunshine." The book was found at last,
+and when he had written his name in it, with a friendly inscription,
+and pressed both my hands on the gift, and patted me once more on the
+shoulder, and promised to call at Frankfort on his return from
+Switzerland to see his little friends who knew all about the "Ugly
+Duck" and the "Little Match Girl," I took my leave, more delighted, if
+possible, with the author than I had ever before been with his books.
+Such a man, the brightest, happiest, simplest, most genial of human
+beings, is Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+The steamer _Arcturus_ was advertised to sail for Reykjavik on the 4th
+of June, so it behooved me to be laying in some sort of an outfit for
+the voyage during the few days that intervened. A knapsack, containing
+a change of linen and my sketching materials, was all I possessed.
+This would have been sufficient but for the probability of rain and
+cold weather. I wanted a sailor's monkey-jacket and an overall. My
+friend Captain Södring would not hear of my buying any thing in that
+way. He had enough on hand from his old whaling voyages, he said, to
+fit out a dozen men of my pattern. Just come up to the house and take
+a look at them, and if there wasn't too much oil on them, I was
+welcome to the whole lot; but the oil, he thought, would be an
+advantage--it would keep out the water. In vain I protested--it was no
+use--the captain was an old whaler, and so was I, and when two old
+whalers met, it was a pity if they couldn't act like shipmates on the
+voyage of life. There was no resisting this appeal, so I agreed to
+accept the old clothes. When we arrived at the captain's house he
+disappeared in the garret, but presently returned bearing a terrific
+pile of rubbish on his shoulders, and accompanied by a stout
+servant-girl also heavily laden with marine curiosities. There were
+sou'westers, and tarpaulins, and skull-caps; frieze jackets, and
+overalls, and hickory shirts; tarpaulin coats, and heavy sea-boots,
+and duck blouses with old bunches of oakum sticking out of the
+pockets; there were coils of rope-yarn well tarred, and jack-knives in
+leather cases, still black with whale-gurry: and a few telescopes and
+log-glasses. "Take 'em all," said the captain. "They smell a little
+fishy, but no matter. It's all the better for a voyage to Iceland.
+You'll be used to the smell before you get to Reykjavik; and it's
+wholesome--very wholesome! Nothing makes a man so fat." I made a small
+selection--a rough jacket and a few other essential articles.
+"Nonsense, man!" roared the captain, "take 'em all! You'll find them
+useful; and if you don't, you can heave them overboard or give them to
+the sailors." And thus was I fitted out for the voyage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+VOYAGE TO SCOTLAND.
+
+
+The _Arcturus_ is a small screw steamer owned by Messrs. Koch and
+Henderson, and now some six years on the route between Copenhagen and
+Reykjavik. The Danish government pays them an annual sum for carrying
+the mails, and they control a considerable trade in fish and wool.
+This vessel makes six trips every year, touching at a port in Scotland
+both on the outer and return voyage. At first she made Leith her
+stopping-place; but, owing to superior facilities for her business at
+Grangemouth, she now stops at that port. The cost of passage is
+extremely moderate--only 45 Danish dollars, about $28 American, living
+on board 75 cents a day, and a small fee to the steward, making for
+the voyage out or back, which usually occupies about eleven days,
+inclusive of stoppages, something less than $40. I mention this for
+the benefit of my friends at home, who may think proper to make a very
+interesting trip at a very small expense; though, as will hereafter
+appear, the most considerable part of the expenditure occurs in
+Iceland. Captain Andersen (they are all Andersens, or Jonasens, or
+Hansens, or Petersens in Denmark), a very active and obliging little
+Dane, commands the _Arcturus_. He speaks English fluently, and is an
+experienced seaman; and if the tourist is not unusually fastidious
+about accommodations, there will be no difficulty in making an
+agreeable voyage. I found every thing on board excellent; the fare
+abundant and wholesome, and the sleeping-quarters not more like
+coffins than they usually are on board small steamers. A few inches
+cut off the passengers' legs or added to the length of the berths, and
+a few extra handspikes in the lee scuppers to steady the vessel, would
+be an improvement; but then one can't have every thing to suit him.
+Some grumbling took place, to be sure, after our departure from
+Scotland. A young Scotchman wanted a berth for a big dog in the same
+cabin with the rest of his friends, which the captain would not
+permit; an Englishman was disgusted with the "beastly fare;" and an
+old Danish merchant would persist in shaving himself at the public
+table every day--all of which caused an under-current of
+dissatisfaction during the early part of the voyage. Sea-sickness,
+however, put an end to it before long, and things went on all right
+after that.
+
+But I must not anticipate my narrative. The scene upon leaving the
+wharf at Copenhagen was amusing and characteristic. For some hours
+before our departure the decks were crowded with the friends of the
+passengers. Every person had to kiss and hug every other person, and
+shake hands, and laugh and cry a little, and then hug and kiss again,
+without regard to age and not much distinction of sex. Some natural
+tears, of course, must always be shed on occasions of this kind. It
+was rather a melancholy reflection, as I stood aloof looking on at all
+these demonstrations of affection, that there was nobody present to
+grieve over my departure--not even a lapdog to bestow upon me a
+parting kiss. Waving of handkerchiefs, messages to friends in Iceland,
+and parting benedictions, took place long before we left the wharf. At
+length the last bells were rung, the lingering loved ones were handed
+ashore, and the inexorable voice of the captain was heard ordering the
+sailors to cast loose the ropes. We were fairly off for Iceland!
+
+In a few hours we passed, near Elsineur, the fine old Castle of
+Kronberg, built in the time of Tycho Brahe, once the prison of the
+unfortunate Caroline Matilda, queen of Christian VII., and in the
+great vaults of which it is said the Danish Roland, Holger Dansk,
+still lives, his long white beard grown fast to a stone table. We were
+soon out of the Sound, plowing our way toward the famous Skager-Rack.
+The weather had been showery and threatening for some time. It now
+began to rain and blow in good earnest.
+
+We had on board only thirteen passengers, chiefly Danes and
+Icelanders. Among them was a newly-appointed amtman for the district
+of Reykjaness, with a very accomplished young wife. He was going to
+spend the honey-moon amid the glaciers and lava-fjelds of Iceland. It
+seemed a dreary prospect for so young and tender a bride, but she was
+cheerful and happy, except when the inevitable hour of sea-sickness
+came. Love, I suppose, can make the wilderness blossom as the rose,
+and shed a warmth over ice-covered mountains and a pleasant verdure
+over deserts of lava. A very agreeable and intelligent young man, Mr.
+Jonasen, son of the governor, was also on board. I saw but little of
+him during the passage--only his head over the side of his berth; but
+I heard from him frequently after the weather became rough. If there
+was any inside left in that young man by the time we arrived at
+Reykjavik, it must have been badly strained. As a son of Iona he
+completely reversed the scriptural order of things; for, instead of
+being swallowed by a great fish, and remaining in the belly thereof
+three days and nights, he swallowed numerous sprats and sardines
+himself, yet would never allow them internal accommodations for the
+space of three minutes. My room-mate was a young Icelandic student,
+who had been to the college at Copenhagen, and was now returning to
+his native land to die. There was something very sad in his case. He
+had left home a few years before with the brightest prospects of
+success. Ambitious and talented, he had devoted himself with unwearied
+assiduity to his studies, but the activity of his mind was too much
+for a naturally feeble constitution. Consumption set its seal upon
+him. Given up by the physicians in Copenhagen, he was returning to
+breathe his last in the arms of a loving mother.
+
+On the second morning after leaving the Sound we passed close along
+the Downs of Jutland, a barren shore, singularly diversified by great
+mounds of sand. The wind sweeping in from the ocean casts up the loose
+sands that lie upon this low peninsula, and drifts them against some
+bush or other obstacle sufficiently firm to form a nucleus. In the
+course of a few years, by constant accumulations, this becomes a vast
+mound, sometimes over a hundred feet high. Nearly the whole of
+Northern Jutland is diversified with sand-plains, heaths, and
+ever-changing mounds, among which wandering bands of gipsies still
+roam. The shores along the Skagen are surrounded by dangerous reefs of
+quicksand, stretching for many miles out into the ocean. Navigation at
+this point is very difficult, especially in the winter, when terrific
+gales prevail from the northwest. The numerous stakes, buoys, and
+other water-marks by which the channel is designated, the frequency of
+light-houses and signal telegraphs, and the wrecks that lie strewn
+along the beach, over which the surging foam breaks like a perpetual
+dirge, afford striking indication of the dangers to which mariners are
+subject in this wild region. Hans Christian Andersen, in one of his
+most delightful works, has thrown a romantic interest over the scenery
+of Jutland, giving a charm to its very desolation, and investing with
+all the beauty of a genial humanity the rude lives of the gipsies and
+fishermen who inhabit this wild region of drifting sands and wintry
+tempests. Steen Blicher has also cast over it the spell of his poetic
+genius; and Von Buch, in his graphic narrative, has given a memorable
+interest to its sea-girt shores, where "masts and skeletons of vessels
+stand like a range of palisades."
+
+During our passage through the Skager-Rack we passed innumerable
+fleets of fishing-smacks, and often encountered the diminutive skiffs
+of the fishermen, with two or three amphibious occupants, buffeting
+about among the waves many miles from the shore. The weather had been
+steadily growing worse ever since our departure from Copenhagen. As we
+entered the North Sea it began to blow fiercer than ever, and for two
+days we experienced all the discomforts of chopping seas that
+drenched our decks fore and aft, and chilling gales mingled with fogs
+and heavy rains. It was cold enough for midwinter, yet here we were on
+the verge of midsummer. Our little craft was rendered somewhat
+unmanageable by a deck-load of coal and a heavy cargo of freight, and
+there were periods when I would have thought myself fortunate in being
+once more off Cape Horn in the good ship _Pacific_. The amtman and his
+young bride spent this portion of their honey-moon performing a kind
+of duet that reminded me of my friend Ross Wallace's lines in
+"Perdita:"
+
+    "Like two sweet tunes that wandering met,
+    And so harmoniously they run,
+    The hearer deems they are but one."
+
+At least the harmony was perfect, whatever might be thought of the
+music in other respects. Young Jonasen swallowed a few more sardines
+about this period of the voyage, which he vainly attempted to secure
+by sudden and violent contractions of the diaphragm. In short, there
+were but two persons in the cabin besides Captain Andersen and myself
+who had the temerity to appear at table--one an old Danish merchant,
+who generally received advices, midway through the meal, requiring his
+immediate presence on deck; and the other a gentleman from Holstein,
+who always lost his appetite after the soup, and had to jump up and
+run to his state-room for exercise.
+
+In due time we sighted the shores of Scotland. A pilot came on board
+inside the Frith of Forth, and, as we steamed rapidly on our course,
+all the passengers forgot their afflictions, and gazed with delight on
+the sloping sward and woodland, the picturesque villages, and romantic
+old castles that decorate the shores of this magnificent sheet of
+water.
+
+Our destination was Grangemouth, where we arrived early on Sunday
+morning. A few sailors belonging to some vessels in the docks, a
+custom-house inspector, and three small boys, comprised the entire
+visible population of the place. Judging by the manner in which the
+Sabbath is kept in Scotland, the Scotch must be a profoundly moral
+people. The towns are like grave-yards, and the inhabitants bear a
+striking resemblance to sextons, or men who spend much of their lives
+in burying the dead.
+
+I was very anxious to get a newspaper containing the latest
+intelligence from America, but was informed that none could be had on
+Sunday. I wanted to go up to Edinburg: it was not possible on Sunday.
+I asked a man where could I get some cigars? he didna ken; it was
+Sunday. The depressed expression of the few people I met began to prey
+like a nightmare on my spirits. Doubtless it is a very good thing to
+pay a decent regard to the Sabbath, but can any body tell me where we
+are commanded to look gloomy? The contrast was certainly very striking
+between the Scotch and the Danes. Of course there is no such thing as
+drunkenness in Scotland, no assaults and batteries, no robberies and
+murders, no divorces, no cheating among the merchants of Glasgow or
+the bankers of Edinburg, no sympathizing with rebellion and the
+institution of slavery--for the Scotch are a sober and righteous
+people, much given to sackcloth and ashes, manufactures of iron, and
+societies for the insurance of property against fire.
+
+The _Arcturus_ was detained several days discharging and taking in
+freight. I availed myself of the first train to visit Edinburg. A day
+there, and an excursion to Glasgow and Loch Lomond, agreeably occupied
+the time. I must confess the scenery--beautiful as it is, and fraught
+with all the interest that history and genius can throw over
+it--disappointed me. It was not what I expected. It was a damp, moist,
+uncomfortable reality, as Mantalini would say--not very grand or
+striking in any respect. A subsequent excursion to the Trosachs, Loch
+Katrine, Loch Long, and the Clyde, afforded me a better opportunity of
+judging, yet it all seemed tame and commonplace compared with the
+scenery of California and Norway. If I enjoyed a fair specimen of the
+climate--rain, wind, and fog, varied by sickly gleams of sunshine--it
+strikes me it would be a congenial country for snails and frogs to
+reside in. The Highlands are like all other wild places within the
+limits of Europe, very gentle in their wildness compared with the
+rugged slopes of the Sierra Nevada. The Lady of the Lake must have
+possessed an uncommonly strong constitution, if she made her nocturnal
+excursions on Loch Katrine in a thin white robe without suffering any
+bad consequences, for I found a stout overcoat insufficient to keep
+the chilling mists of that region from seeking in my bones a suitable
+location for rheumatism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+THE JOLLY BLOODS.
+
+
+I was quietly sitting in my state-room, awaiting the departure of the
+steamer, when a tremendous racket on the cabin steps, followed by a
+rush of feet up and down the saloon, startled me out of a pleasant
+home-dream.
+
+"Hello! What the devil! I say! Where's every body! Stoord! Blast the
+fellow! Here, Bowser! What'r ye abeaout! Ho there! Where the dooce are
+our berths? By Jove! Ha! ha! This is jolly!"
+
+Other voices joined in, with a general chorus of complaints and
+exclamations--"Egad! it's a _do_! No berths, no state-rooms! Ho,
+Stoord! Where's my trunk? I say, Stoord, where's my fishing-rod? Hey!
+hey! did you 'appen to see my overalls? I've lost my gun! 'Pon my
+word, this is a pretty do! Let's go see the Agent?" "Come on!
+Certainly!" "Oh, hang it, no!" "Oh yes!" "Here, Bowser! What the
+devil! Where's Bowser? Gone ashore, by Jove! A pretty kettle of fish!"
+Here there was a sudden and general stampede, and amid loud
+exclamations of "Beastly!" and "Disgusting!" the party left the
+cabin. I barely had time to see that it consisted of some four or five
+fashionable tourists--spirited young bloods of sporting proclivities,
+who had taken passage for Iceland. The prospect of having some company
+was pleasant enough, and from the specimen I had seen there could be
+no doubt it would be lively and entertaining.
+
+Once more during the night I was aroused by a repetition of the noises
+and exclamations already described. The steamer was moving off. The
+passengers were all on board. We were battering our way through the
+canal. Soon the heaving waters of the ocean began to subdue the
+enthusiasm of the sportsmen, and before morning my ears were saluted
+by sounds and observations of a very different character.
+
+I shall only add at present, in reference to this lively party of
+young "Britishers," that I found them very good fellows in their
+way--a little boisterous and inexperienced, but well-educated and
+intelligent. The young chap with the dog was what we would call in
+America a "regular bird." He and his dog afforded us infinite
+diversion during the whole passage--racing up and down the decks, into
+and out of the cabin, and all over each other. There was something so
+fresh and sprightly about the fellow, something so good-natured, that
+I could readily excuse his roughness of manner. One of the others, a
+quiet, scholastic-looking person, who did not really belong to the
+party, having only met them on board, was a young collegian well
+versed in Icelandic literature. He was going to Iceland to perfect
+himself in the language of the country, and make some translations of
+the learned Sagas.
+
+A favorable wind enabled us to sight the Orkneys on the afternoon
+following our departure from the Frith of Forth. Next day we passed
+the Shetlands, of which we had a good view. The rocky shores of these
+islands, all rugged and surf-beaten, with myriads of wild-fowl
+darkening the air around them, presented a most tempting field of
+exploration. I longed to take a ramble in the footsteps of Dr.
+Johnson; but to see the Shetlands would be to lose Iceland, and of the
+two I preferred seeing the latter. After a pleasant passage of two
+days and a half from Grangemouth we made the Faroe Islands, and had
+the good fortune to secure, without the usual loss of time occasioned
+by fogs, an anchorage in the harbor of Thorshavn.
+
+  [Illustration: A DANDY TOURIST.]
+
+  [Illustration: THORSHAVN.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+THE FAROE ISLANDS.
+
+
+The Faroe Islands lie about midway between Scotland and Iceland, and
+belong to Denmark. The whole group consists of thirty-five small
+islands, some of which are little more than naked rocks jutting up out
+of the sea. About twenty are inhabited. The rest are too barren and
+precipitous to afford a suitable place of abode even for the hardy
+Faroese. The entire population is estimated at something over six
+thousand, of which the greater part are shepherds, fishermen, and
+bird-catchers. Owing to the situation of these islands, surrounded by
+the open sea and within the influence of the Gulf Stream, the climate
+is very mild, although they lie in the sixty-second degree of north
+latitude. The winters are never severe, and frost and snow rarely last
+over two months. They are subject, however, at that season to frequent
+and terrible gales from the north, and during the summer are often
+inaccessible for days and even weeks, owing to dense fogs. The
+humidity of the climate is favorable to the growth of grass, which
+covers the hills with a brilliant coating of green wherever there is
+the least approach to soil; and where there is no soil, as in many
+places along the shores, the rocks are beautifully draped with moss
+and lichens. The highest point in the group is 2800 feet above the
+level of the sea, and the general aspect of them all is wild and
+rugged in the extreme. Prodigious cliffs, a thousand feet high, stand
+like a wall out of the sea on the southern side of the Stromoe. The
+Mygenaes-holm, a solitary rock, guards, like a sentinel, one of the
+passages, and forms a terrific precipice of 1500 feet on one side,
+against which the waves break with an everlasting roar. Here the
+solan-goose, the eider-duck, and innumerable varieties of gulls and
+other sea-fowl, build their nests and breed.
+
+  [Illustration: VIEW IN FAROE ISLANDS.]
+
+At certain seasons of the year the intrepid bird-hunters suspend
+themselves from the cliffs by means of ropes, and feather their own
+nests by robbing the nests of their neighbors. Enormous quantities of
+eggs are taken in this way. The eider-down, of which the nests of the
+eider-duck are composed, is one of the most profitable articles of
+Faroese traffic. The mode of life to which these men devote
+themselves, and their habitual contact with dangers, render them
+reckless, and many perish every year by falling from the rocks. Widows
+and orphans are numerous throughout the islands.
+
+The few scattering farms to be seen on the slopes of the hills and in
+the arable valleys are conducted on the most primitive principles. A
+small patch of potatoes and vegetables, and in certain exposures a few
+acres of grain, comprise the extent of their agricultural operations.
+Sheep-raising is the most profitable of their pursuits. The climate
+appears to be more congenial to the growth of wool than of cereal
+productions. The Faroese sheep are noted for the fineness and
+luxuriance of their fleece, and it always commands a high price in
+market. A considerable portion of it is manufactured by the
+inhabitants, who are quite skillful in weaving and knitting. They make
+a kind of thick woolen shirt, something like that known as the
+Guernsey, which for durability and warmth is unsurpassed. Sailors and
+fishermen all over the Northern seas consider themselves fortunate if
+they can get possession of a Faroese shirt. The costume of the men,
+which is chiefly home-made, consists of a rough, thick jacket of brown
+wool; a coarse woolen shirt; a knitted bag-shaped cap on the head; a
+pair of knee-breeches of the same material as the coat; a pair of
+thick woolen stockings, and sheepskin shoes, generally covered with
+mud--all of the same brown or rather burnt-umber color. Exposure to
+the weather gives their skins, naturally of a leathery texture,
+something of the same dull and dingy aspect, so that a genuine
+Faroese enjoys one advantage--he can never look much more dirty at one
+time than another.
+
+The women wear dresses of the same material, without much attempt at
+shape or ornament. A colored handkerchief tied around the head, a
+silver breast-pin, and a pair of ear-rings of domestic manufacture,
+comprise their only personal decorations. As in all countries where
+the burden of heavy labor is thrown upon the women, they lose their
+comely looks at an early age, and become withered, ill-shaped, and
+hard-featured long before they reach the prime of life. The Faroese
+women doubtless make excellent wives for lazy men; they do all the
+labors of the house, and share largely in those of the field. I do not
+know that they are more prolific than good and loving wives in other
+parts of the world, but they certainty enjoy the possession of as many
+little cotton-heads with dirty faces, turned up noses, ragged elbows,
+and tattered frocks, as one usually meets in the course of his
+travels. Two fair specimens of the rising generation, a little boy and
+girl, made an excellent speculation on the occasion of my visit to
+Thorshavn. Knowing by instinct, if not by my dress, that I was a
+stranger, they followed me about wherever I rambled, looking curiously
+and cautiously into my face, and mutually commenting upon the oddity
+of my appearance--which, by-the-way, would have been slightly odd even
+in the streets of New York, wrapped, as I was, in the voluminous folds
+of Captain Södring's old whaling coat, with a sketch-book in my hand
+and a pair of spectacles on my nose. However, no man likes to be
+regarded as an object of curiosity even by two small ragamuffins
+belonging to a strange race, so I just held up suddenly, and requested
+these children of Faroe to state explicitly the grounds of their
+interest in my behalf. What they said in reply it would be impossible
+for me to translate, since the Faroese language is quite as
+impenetrable as the Icelandic. They looked so startled and alarmed
+withal that a gleam of pity must have manifested its appearance in
+the corner of my eyes. The next moment their faces broke into a broad
+grin, and each held out a hand audaciously, as much as to say, "My
+dear sir, if you'll put a small copper in this small hand, we'll
+retract all injurious criticisms, and ever after regard you as a
+gentleman of extraordinary personal beauty!" Somehow my hand slipped
+unconsciously into my pocket, but, before handing them the desired
+change, it occurred to me to secure their likenesses for publication
+as a warning to the children of all nations not to undertake a similar
+experiment with any hope of success.
+
+  [Illustration: FAROESE CHILDREN.]
+
+Thorshavn, so named after the old god Thor, is a small town of some
+five or six hundred inhabitants, situated on the southeastern side of
+the island of Stromoe. In front lies a harbor, indifferently protected
+by a small island and two rocky points. The anchorage is insecure at
+all times, especially during the prevalence of southerly and easterly
+gales, when it often becomes necessary to heave up and put to sea; and
+the dense fogs by which the approach to land is generally obscured
+render navigation about these islands extremely perilous. Of the town
+of Thorshavn little need be said. Its chief interest lies in the
+almost primeval construction of the houses and the rustic simplicity
+of its inhabitants. The few streets that run between the straggling
+lines of sheds and sod-covered huts scattered over the rocks are
+narrow and tortuous, winding up steep, stony precipices, and into
+deep, boggy hollows; around rugged points, and over scraggy mounds of
+gravel and grit. The public edifices, consisting of two or three small
+churches and the amtman's residence, are little better than
+martin-boxes. For some reason best known to the people in these
+Northern climes, they paint their houses black, except where the roofs
+are covered with sod, which nature paints green. I think it must be
+from some notion that it gives them a cheerful aspect, though the
+darkness of the paint and the chilly luxuriance of the green did not
+strike me with joyous impressions. If Scotland can claim some
+advantages as a place of residence for snails, Thorshavn must surely
+be a paradise for toads accustomed to feed upon the vapors of a
+dungeon. The wharves--loose masses of rock at the boat-landing--are
+singularly luxuriant in the article of fish. Prodigious piles of
+fish lie about in every direction. The shambling old store-houses are
+crammed with fish, and the heads of fish and the back-bones of fish
+lie bleaching on the rocks. The gravelly patches of beach are slimy
+with the entrails of fresh fish, and the air is foul with the odor of
+decayed fish. The boatmen that lounge about waiting for a job are
+saturated with fish inside and out--like their boats. The cats, crows,
+and ravens mingle in social harmony over the dreadful carnival of
+fish. In fine, the impression produced upon the stranger who lands for
+the first time is that he has accidentally turned up in some
+piscatorial hell, where the tortures of skinning, drying, and
+disemboweling are performed by the unrelenting hands of man.
+
+  [Illustration: FAROESE ISLANDERS.]
+
+In addition to the standing population of Thorshavn, the
+fortifications--an abandoned mud-bank, a flag-staff, and a board
+shanty--are subject, in times of great public peril, to be defended by
+a standing army and navy of twenty-four soldiers, one small boat, one
+corporal, and the governor of the islands, who takes the field himself
+at the head of this bloody phalanx of Danes still reeking with the
+gore of slaughtered fish. Upon the occasion of the arrival of the
+_Arcturus_--the only steamer that ever touches here--the principal
+amtman, upon perceiving the vessel in the distance, immediately
+proceeds to organize the army and navy for a grand display. First he
+shaves and puts on his uniform; then calling together the troops, who
+are also sailors, he carefully inspects them, and selecting from the
+number the darkest, dirtiest, and most bloody-looking, he causes them
+to buckle on their swords. This done, he delivers a brief address,
+recommending them to abstain from the use of schnapps and other
+intoxicating beverages till the departure of the steamer. The dignity
+of official position requires that he should remain on shore for the
+space of one hour after the dropping of the anchor. He then musters
+his forces, marches them down to his war-skiff, from the stern of
+which waves the Danish flag, and, placing an oar in the hands of each
+man, he gives the order to advance and board the steamer. On his
+arrival alongside he touches his cap to the passengers in a grave and
+dignified manner, and expresses a desire to see our commander, Captain
+Andersen, who, during this period of the ceremony, is down below,
+busily occupied in arranging the brandy and crackers. The appearance
+of Captain Andersen on deck is politely acknowledged by the amtman,
+who thereupon orders his men to pull alongside, when the two
+cabin-boys and the cook kindly assist him over the gangway. Descending
+into the cabin, he carefully examines the ship's papers, pronounces
+them all right, and joins Captain Andersen in a social "smile." Then,
+having delivered himself of the latest intelligence on the subject of
+wool and codfish, he returns to his boat and proceeds to his quarters
+on shore. All this is done with a quiet and dignified formality both
+pleasing and impressive.
+
+As an illustration of the severity of the laws that govern the Faroe
+Islands, and the upright and inexorable character of the governor and
+principal amtman, I must relate an incident that occurred under my own
+observation.
+
+Shortly after the _Arcturus_ had cast anchor, the party of British
+sportsmen already mentioned went ashore with their dogs and guns, and
+began an indiscriminate slaughter of all the game within two miles of
+Thorshavn, consisting of three plovers, a snipe, and some half a dozen
+sparrows. The captain had warned them that such a proceeding was
+contrary to law, and a citizen of Thorshavn had gently remonstrated
+with them as they passed through the town. When the slaughter
+commenced, the proprietors of the bog, in which the game abounded,
+rushed to the doors of their cabins to see what was going on, and
+perceiving that it was a party of Englishmen engaged in the
+destructive pastime of firing shotguns about and among the flocks of
+sheep that browsed on the premises, they straightway laid a complaint
+before the governor. The independent sons of Britain were not to be
+baffled of their sport in this manner. They cracked away as long as
+they pleased, by-Joved and blawsted the island for not having more
+game, and then came aboard. The steamer hove up anchor and sailed that
+night. Nothing farther took place to admonish us of the consequences
+of the trespass till our return from Iceland, when the principal
+amtman came on board with a formidable placard, neatly written, and
+translated into the three court languages of the place--Danish,
+French, and English. The contents of this document were as follows:
+that whereas, in the year 1763, a law had been passed for the
+protection of game on the Faroe Islands, which law had not since been
+rescinded; and whereas a subsequent law of 1786 had been passed for
+the protection of sheep and other stock ranging at large on the said
+islands, which law had not since been rescinded; and whereas it had
+been represented to the governor of the said islands that certain
+persons, supposed to be Englishmen, had lately come on shore, armed
+with shotguns, and, in violation of the said laws of the country, had
+shot at, maimed, and killed several birds, and caused serious
+apprehensions of injury to the flocks of sheep which were peaceably
+grazing on their respective ranges; now, therefore, this was earnestly
+to request that all such persons would reflect upon the penalties that
+would attach to similar acts in their own country, and be thus enabled
+to perceive the impropriety of pursuing such a course in other
+countries. Should they fail to observe the aforesaid laws after this
+warning, they would only have themselves to blame for the unpleasant
+consequences that must assuredly ensue, etc., etc. [Officially signed
+and sealed.]
+
+Great formality was observed in carrying this important document on
+board. It was neatly folded and carefully done up, with various seals
+and blue ribbons, in a package about six inches wide by eighteen in
+length, and was guarded by the select half of the Faroese army and
+navy, being exactly twelve men, and delivered by the amtman of the
+island with a few appropriate and impressive remarks, after which it
+was hung up over the cabin gangway by the captain as a solemn warning
+to all future passengers. There can be no doubt that it produced the
+most salutary effects upon the sporting gentlemen. I was really glad
+the affair had taken place, as it evidently afforded his excellency a
+favorable opportunity of promulgating a most excellent state paper,
+cautiously conceived and judiciously worded. The preparation of it
+must have occupied his time advantageously to himself and his country
+during the entire period of our absence.
+
+I must now turn back a little to say that, while my comrades were
+engaged in their unlawful work of killing the sparrows and frightening
+the sheep, I deemed it a matter of personal safety to keep out of
+range of their guns. Apart from the danger of arrest, the probable
+loss of an eye or disfigurement of some ornamental feature was a
+sufficient consideration to satisfy me of the policy of this course.
+
+Taking a path across the rugged desert of rocks and bogs, extending
+for some miles back of Thorshavn, I quickly began to ascend a barren
+range of hills, abounding in greenstone trap-rock and zoolites, from
+the summit of which there is a magnificent view of the whole
+surrounding country, with glimpses of the cloud-capped summits of the
+neighboring islands. Beautiful little valleys, dotted with the
+sod-covered huts of the shepherds and fishermen, sweep down to the
+water's edge a thousand feet below; weird black bogs, and fields of
+scoria and burned earth, lie on the slopes of the distant hills to the
+right; and to the left are rugged cliffs, jutting out of the sea like
+huge castles, around which myriads of birds continually hover,
+piercing the air with their wild screams. The wind blew in such fierce
+gusts over the bleak and desolate range of crags on which I stood that
+I was glad enough to seek shelter down on the leeside.
+
+It now occurred to me to go in search of a ruined church of which I
+had read in some traveler's journal said to be within four or five
+miles of Thorshavn. Some artificial piles of stones, near the ledge
+upon which I had descended, indicated the existence of a trail. On my
+way down, a legion of birds, about the size of puffins, began to
+gather around, with fierce cries and warning motions, as if determined
+to dispute my progress. They flew backward and forward within a few
+feet of my head, flapping their wings furiously, and uttering the most
+terrific cries of rage and alarm, so that I was sorely puzzled to know
+what was the matter. It was not long before I came upon some of their
+nests, which of course explained the difficulty. Having no immediate
+use for eggs or feathers, I left the nests unmolested and proceeded on
+my way. In about an hour I came suddenly upon a small green valley
+that lay some five hundred feet below, directly on the water's edge.
+By some mischance I had lost the trail, and, in order to descend, was
+obliged to slide and scramble down the cliffs--an experiment that I
+presently discovered would probably cost me a broken neck if persisted
+in; for when there seemed to be no farther obstruction, I came all at
+once upon a precipice at least sixty feet deep, without a single
+foothold or other means of descent than a clear jump to the bottom.
+Not disposed to follow the example of Sam Patch on dry land, I
+reluctantly turned back. By dint of scrambling and climbing, and
+slipping down various cliffs and slopes, I at length reached a point
+from which I had a view of some ruins and farm-houses still some
+distance below. Following the line of the regular trail till it struck
+into the cliffs, I had no farther difficulty in reaching the valley.
+
+The good people at the farm-house--a family by the name of
+Petersen--received me in the kindest manner, with many expressions of
+wonder at the risk I had run in crossing the mountain without a guide.
+It was with considerable difficulty we made ourselves understood. None
+of the family spoke any language except their own. The son, indeed, a
+fine young man of twenty, understood a few words of English, but that
+was all. There is something, nevertheless, in genuine kindness and
+hospitality that makes itself intelligible without the aid of language.
+I was immediately invited into the house, and while young Petersen
+entertained me with old prints and Faroese books, his mother prepared
+an excellent lunch. Tired and worried after my trip, I could offer no
+objection. Never shall I forget the coffee and cream, and the butter
+and bread, and delicate fruit-tarts placed on the nice white
+table-cloth by the good Mrs. Petersen. I ate and drank, and glowed all
+over with a childlike relish of the good things, while the whole family
+gathered round and tried to make me understand that they had a relative
+in California, who lived in the mines at a place called Six-mile-bar,
+and that they were glad to see a Californian, and wanted to know all
+about California. It is wonderful with how few words we can communicate
+our ideas when necessity compels us to depend upon our ingenuity.
+Before I had parted from that family the whole matter was perfectly
+explained; the history of their absent relative was quite clear to me,
+and they had a very fair conception of the kind of country in which he
+lived. Upon no consideration would they receive compensation for the
+lunch, and they even seemed offended when I endeavored to press it upon
+them. This, from people whom I had never seen before--a plain country
+family living in a wilderness where such luxuries as sugar and coffee
+could only be had at considerable expense--was absolutely refreshing.
+For the first time since my arrival in Europe, after having traversed
+the whole Continent, I had encountered a specimen of the human race
+capable of refusing money. Subsequently I learned that this was the
+common practice in the Faroe Islands. The poorest shepherd freely
+offers to the stranger the hospitality of his hut; and it is a creed
+among these worthy people not to accept pay for coffee and bread, or
+indeed any thing else they may have to offer in the way of
+entertainment. My fellow-passengers were similarly treated in
+Thorshavn, where visitors are more frequent and the customs of the
+country less primitive.
+
+  [Illustration: KIRK GÖBOE.]
+
+The great object of interest at Kirk Göboe is the ancient church, from
+which the place derives its name; a long, low stone building,
+whitewashed and covered with a sod roof, but, owing to repeated
+repairs, now presenting no particular traces of antiquity, although
+reported to have been built in the eighth century. I have no data in
+reference to this interesting relic, and am not aware that
+antiquarians have ever attempted to trace out its origin. The
+probability is that it was built by some of those Culdee anchorites of
+whom Dasent speaks as the first settlers of Iceland.
+
+The interior of the church contains an altar, and some wooden carvings
+on the head-boards of the pews, evidently of great antiquity. It is
+impossible to conjecture from their appearance whether they are five
+hundred or a thousand years old--at least without more research than a
+casual tourist can bestow upon them.
+
+There is also within a few steps of the farm-house a much larger and
+more picturesque ruin of a church, built in a later style of
+architecture. The only information I could get about this ruin was
+that it dates back as far as the fifteenth century. The walls are of
+rough stone well put together, and now stand roofless and
+moss-covered, inhabited only by crows and swallows. The doors and
+windows are in the Gothic style. A sketch made from the door of the
+old church first mentioned, embracing the residence of the Petersen
+family, with a glimpse of the cliffs and rugged ledges behind upon
+which their flocks graze, will give the best idea of the whole
+premises.
+
+  [Illustration: FARM-HOUSE AND RUINS.]
+
+Having thus pleasantly occupied a few hours at Kirk Göboe, I bade
+adieu to the worthy family who had so hospitably entertained me, and
+was about to set out for Thorshavn, when young Petersen, not content
+with the directions he had given me, announced his intention of seeing
+me safe over the mountain. In vain I assured him that, however
+pleasant his company would be, I had no apprehension of losing the way
+this time. Go he would, and go he did; and when we parted on the top
+of the mountain, in plain sight of Thorshavn, he cordially shook me by
+the hand, and said many kind words, which I could only interpret to
+mean that he and all his kith and kin wished me a pleasant voyage to
+Iceland, and many years of health and happiness.
+
+When I now recall the fine, intelligent face of this young man, his
+bright dark eyes, healthy complexion, and strong, well-knit frame, the
+latent energy in all his movements, the genial simplicity of his
+manners, and his evident thirst for knowledge, I can not help feeling
+something akin to regret that so much good material should be wasted
+in the obscurity of a shepherd's life. So gifted by nature, what might
+not such a youth achieve in an appropriate sphere of action? And yet,
+perhaps, it is better for him that he should spend his life among the
+barren cliffs of Stromoe, with no more companions than his dog and his
+sheep, than jostle among men in the great outer world, to learn at
+last the bitter lesson that the eye is not satisfied with riches, nor
+the understanding with knowledge.
+
+On the way down to the Valley of Thorshavn I met a man mounted on a
+shaggy little monster, which in almost any other country would have
+been mistaken for a species of sheep. As this was a fair specimen of a
+Faroese horse and his rider, I sat down on a rock after they had
+passed and took the best view of them I could get.
+
+Late in the afternoon the scattered passengers were gathered together,
+and the good people of Thorshavn came down to the wharf to bid us
+farewell. In half an hour more we were all on board. "Up anchor!" was
+the order, and once more we went steaming on our way.
+
+Short as our sojourn had been among these primitive people, it
+furnished us with many pleasant reminiscences. Their genial
+hospitality and simple good-nature, together with their utter
+ignorance of the outer world, formed the theme of various amusing
+anecdotes during the remainder of the passage. Favored by a southerly
+wind and a stock of good coal, we made the southeastern point of
+Iceland in a little over two days from Thorshavn.
+
+  [Illustration: FAROESE ON HORSEBACK.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ICELAND.
+
+
+It would be difficult to conceive any thing more impressive than this
+first view of the land of snow and fire. A low stretch of black boggy
+coast to the right; dark cliffs of lava in front; far in the
+background, range after range of bleak, snow-capped mountains, the
+fiery Jokuls dimly visible through drifting masses of fog; to the left
+a broken wall of red, black, and blue rocks, weird and surf-beaten,
+stretching as far as the eye could reach--this was Iceland! All along
+the grim rifted coast the dread marks of fire, and flood, and
+desolation were visible. Detached masses of lava, gnarled and scraggy
+like huge clinkers, seemed tossed out into the sea; towers,
+buttresses, and battlements, shaped by the very elements of
+destruction, reared their stern crests against the waves; glaciers lay
+glittering upon the blackened slopes behind; and foaming torrents of
+snow-water burst through the rifted crags in front, and mingled their
+rage with the wild rage of the surf--all was battle, and ruin, and
+desolation.
+
+As we approached the point called Portland, a colossal bridge opened
+into view, so symmetrical in its outline that it was difficult to
+believe it was not of artificial construction. The arch is about fifty
+feet high by thirty in width, and affords shelter to innumerable
+flocks of birds, whose nests are built in the crevices underneath.
+Solan-geese, eider-ducks, and sea-gulls cover the dizzy heights
+overhead, and whales have been known to pass through the passage
+below. Great numbers of blackfish and porpoises abound in this
+vicinity. From time to time, as we swept along on our way, we could
+discern a lonesome hut high up on the shore, with a few sheep and
+cattle on the slopes of the adjacent hills, but for the most part
+the coast was barren and desolate.
+
+  [Illustration: NATURAL BRIDGE.]
+
+Early on the following morning the sun-capped peaks of Mount Hecla
+were visible. There has been no eruption from this mountain since
+1845. The principal crater lies 5210 feet above the level of the sea,
+and is distant fifteen miles from the shore.
+
+Toward noon we made the Westmann Isles, a small rocky group some ten
+miles distant from the main island. A fishing and trading
+establishment, owned by a company of Danes, is located on one of these
+islands. The _Arcturus_ touches twice a year to deliver and receive a
+mail. On the occasion of our visit, a boat came out with a
+hardy-looking crew of Danes to receive the mail-bag. It was doubtless
+a matter of great rejoicing to them to obtain news from home. I had
+barely time to make a rough outline of the islands as we lay off the
+settlement.
+
+The chief interest attached to the Westmann group is, that it is
+supposed to have been visited by Columbus in 1477, fifteen years prior
+to his voyage of discovery to the shores of America. It is now
+generally conceded that the Icelanders were the original discoverers
+of the American continent. Recent antiquarian researches tend to
+establish the fact that they had advanced as far to the southward as
+Massachusetts in the tenth century. They held colonies on the coasts
+of Greenland and Labrador, and must have had frequent intercourse with
+the Indians farther south. Columbus in all probability obtained some
+valuable data from these hardy adventurers. The date of his visit to
+Iceland is well authenticated by Beamish, Rafn, and other eminent
+writers on the early discoveries of the Northmen.
+
+  [Illustration: COAST OF ICELAND.]
+
+Nothing could surpass the desolate grandeur of the coast as we
+approached the point of Reykjaness. It was of an almost infernal
+blackness. The whole country seemed uptorn, rifted, shattered, and
+scattered about in a vast chaos of ruin. Huge cliffs of lava split
+down to their bases toppled over the surf. Rocks of every
+conceivable shape, scorched and blasted with fire, wrested from the
+main and hurled into the sea, battled with the waves, their black
+scraggy points piercing the mist like giant hands upthrown to smite or
+sink in a fierce death-struggle. The wild havoc wrought in the
+conflict of elements was appalling. Birds screamed over the fearful
+wreck of matter. The surf from the inrolling waves broke against the
+charred and shattered desert of ruin with a terrific roar. Columns of
+spray shot up over the blackened fragments of lava, while in every
+opening the lashed waters, discolored by the collision, seethed and
+surged as in a huge caldron. Verily there is One whose "fury is poured
+out like fire; the rocks are thrown down by him; the mountains quake,
+and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence."
+
+  [Illustration: THE MEAL-SACK.]
+
+Passing a singular rock standing alone some twenty miles off the land,
+called the _Meal-sack_, we soon changed our course and bore up for the
+harbor of Reykjavik. By the time we reached the anchorage our voyage
+from Thorshavn had occupied exactly three days and six hours.
+
+Trusting that the reader will pardon me for the frequent delays to
+which I have subjected him since we joined our fortunes at Copenhagen,
+I shall now proceed to the important labors of the enterprise with
+this solemn understanding--that the journey before us is pretty rough,
+and the prospect is strong that, in our random dash at the wonders of
+Iceland, we will encounter some perilous adventures by flood and
+field; but if I don't carry him safely and satisfactorily through them
+all, he must console himself by the reflection that many a good man
+has been sacrificed in the pursuit of knowledge, and that he will
+suffer in excellent company.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND.
+
+
+My first view of the capital of Iceland was through a chilling rain. A
+more desolate-looking place I had rarely if ever seen, though, like
+Don Quixote's market-woman on the ass, it was susceptible of
+improvement under the influence of an ardent imagination. As a subject
+for the pencil of an artist, it was at least peculiar, if not
+picturesque. A tourist whose glowing fancies had not been nipped in
+the bud by the vigors of an extended experience might have been able
+to invest it with certain weird charms, but to me it was only the
+fag-end of civilization, abounding in horrible odors of decayed polypi
+and dried fish. A cutting wind from the distant Jokuls and a searching
+rain did not tend to soften the natural asperities of its features. In
+no point of view did it impress me as a cheerful place of residence
+except for wild ducks and sea-gulls. The whole country for miles
+around is a black desert of bogs and lava. Scarcely an arable spot is
+to be seen save on the tops of the fishermen's huts, where the sod
+produces an abundance of grass and weeds. A dark gravelly slope in
+front of the town, dotted with boats, oars, nets, and piles of fish; a
+long row of shambling old store-houses built of wood, and painted a
+dismal black, varied by patches of dirty yellow; a general
+hodge-podge of frame shanties behind, constructed of old boards and
+patched up with drift-wood; a few straggling streets, paved with
+broken lava and reeking with offal from the doors of the houses; some
+dozens of idle citizens and drunken boatmen lounging around the
+grog-shops; a gang of women, brawny and weather-beaten, carrying loads
+of codfish down to the landing; a drove of shaggy little ponies, each
+tied to the tail of the pony in front; a pack of mangy dogs prowling
+about in dirty places looking for something to eat, and fighting when
+they got it--this was all I could see of Reykjavik, the famous
+Icelandic capital.
+
+  [Illustration: REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND.]
+
+The town lies on a strip of land between the harbor and a lagoon in
+the rear. It is said to contain a population of two thousand, and if
+the dogs and fleas be taken into consideration, I have no doubt it
+does. Where two thousand human beings can stow themselves in a place
+containing but one hotel, and that a very poor one, is a matter of
+wonder to the stranger. The houses generally are but one story high,
+and seldom contain more than two or three rooms. Some half a dozen
+stores, it is true, of better appearance than the average, have been
+built by the Danish merchants within the past few years; and the
+residence of the governor and the public University are not without
+some pretensions to style.
+
+The only stone building in Reykjavik of any importance is the
+"Cathedral;" so called, perhaps, more in honor of its great antiquity
+than any thing imposing about its style or dimensions. At present it
+shows no indications of age, having been patched, plastered, and
+painted into quite a neat little church of modern appearance.
+
+  [Illustration: GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE, REYKJAVIK.]
+
+  [Illustration: ICELANDIC HOUSES.]
+
+At each end of the town is a small gathering of sod-covered huts,
+where the fishermen and their families live like rabbits in a burrow.
+That these poor people are not all devoured by snails or crippled with
+rheumatism is a marvel to any stranger who takes a peep into their
+filthy and cheerless little cabins. The oozy slime of fish and smoke
+mingles with the green mould of the rocks; barnacles cover the walls,
+and puddles make a soft carpeting for the floors. The earth is
+overhead, and their heads are under the earth, and the light of day
+has no light job of it to get in edgewise, through the windows. The
+beaver-huts and badger-holes of California, taking into consideration
+the difference of climate, are palatial residences compared with the
+dismal hovels of these Icelandic fishermen. At a short distance they
+look for all the world like mounds in a grave-yard. The inhabitants,
+worse off than the dead, are buried alive. No gardens, no cultivated
+patches, no attempt at any thing ornamental relieves the dreary
+monotony of the premises. Dark patches of lava, all littered with the
+heads and entrails of fish; a pile of turf from some neighboring bog;
+a rickety shed in which the fish are hung up to dry; a gang of
+wolfish-looking curs, horribly lean and voracious; a few prowling
+cats, and possibly a chicken deeply depressed in spirits--these are
+the most prominent objects visible in the vicinity. Sloth and filth go
+hand in hand.
+
+  [Illustration: CHURCH AT REYKJAVIK.]
+
+The women are really the only class of inhabitants, except the fleas,
+who possess any vitality. Rude, slatternly, and ignorant as they are,
+they still evince some sign of life and energy compared with the men.
+Overtaxed by domestic cares, they go down upon the wharves when a
+vessel comes in, and by hard labor earn enough to purchase a few rags
+of clothing for their children. The men are too lazy even to carry the
+fish out of their own boats. At home they lie about the doors, smoking
+and gossiping, and too often drunk. Some are too lazy to get drunk,
+and go to sleep over the effort. In truth, the prevailing indolence
+among all classes is so striking that one can almost imagine himself
+in a Southern clime. There is much about Reykjavik to remind a
+Californian traveler of San Diego. The drunken fellows about the
+stores, and the racing of horses up and down the streets, under the
+stimulus of liquor rather than natural energy, sometimes made me feel
+quite at home.
+
+  [Illustration: ICELANDERS AT WORK.]
+
+On the morning after my arrival I called to see my young friend
+Jonasen, the governor's son, and was most hospitably entertained by
+the family. I had a letter of introduction to the governor from the
+Minister of the Judiciary at Copenhagen, but thought it unnecessary to
+present it. His excellency is a good specimen of the better class of
+Icelanders--simple, kind-hearted, and polite. My casual acquaintance
+with his son was sufficient to enlist his warmest sympathies. I
+thought he would destroy his equilibrium as well as my own by
+repeatedly drinking my health and wishing me a hearty welcome to
+Iceland. He said he had never seen a Californian before, and seemed
+astonished to find that they had noses, mouths, ears, and skins like
+other people. In one respect he paid me a practical compliment that I
+have rarely enjoyed in the course of my travels--he spoke nearly as
+bad French as I did. Now I take it that a man who speaks bad French,
+after years of travel on the Continent of Europe, is worthy of some
+consideration. He is at least entitled to the distinction of having
+well preserved his nationality; and when any foreigner tries to speak
+it worse, but doesn't succeed, I can not but regard it as a tribute of
+respect.
+
+Young Jonasen, I was glad to see, had gotten over his struggle with
+the sardines, and was now in a fair way to enjoy life. His sister,
+Miss Jonasen, is a very charming young lady, well educated and
+intelligent. She speaks English quite fluently, and does the honors of
+the executive mansion with an easy grace scarcely to be expected in
+this remote part of the world. Both are natives of Iceland.
+
+I should be sorry to be understood as intimating, in my brief sketch
+of Reykjavik, that it is destitute of refined society. There are
+families of as cultivated manners here as in any other part of the
+world; and on the occasion of a ball or party, a stranger would be
+surprised at the display of beauty and style. The University and
+public library attract students from all parts of the island, and
+several of the professors and literary men have obtained a European
+reputation. Two semi-monthly newspapers are published at Reykjavik, in
+the Icelandic language. They are well printed, and said to be edited
+with ability. I looked over them very carefully from beginning to end,
+and could see nothing to object to in any portion of the contents.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+GEIR ZÖEGA.
+
+
+Wishing to see as much of the island as possible during the short time
+at my disposal, I made application to young Jonasen for information in
+regard to a guide, and through his friendly aid secured the services
+of Geir Zöega, a man of excellent reputation.
+
+A grave, dignified man is Geir Zöega, large of frame and strong of
+limb; a light-haired, blue-eyed, fresh, honest-faced native, warm of
+heart and trusty of hand; a jewel of a guide, who knows every rook,
+bog, and mud-puddle between Reykjavik and the Geysers; a gentleman by
+nature, born in all probability of an iceberg and a volcano; a
+believer in ghosts and ghouls, and a devout member of the Church. All
+hail to thee, Geir Zöega! I have traveled many a rough mile with thee,
+used up thy brandy and smoked thy cigars, covered my chilled body with
+thy coat, listened to thy words of comfort pronounced in broken
+English, received thy last kind wishes at parting, and now I say, in
+heartfelt sincerity, all hail to thee, Geir Zöega! A better man never
+lived, or if he did, he could be better spared at Reykjavik.
+
+To my great discontent, I found it indispensable to have five horses,
+although I proposed making the trip entirely without baggage. It
+seemed that two were necessary for myself, two for the guide, and one
+to carry the provisions and tent, without which it would be very
+difficult to travel, since there are no hotels in any part of the
+interior. Lodgings may be had at the huts of the peasants, and such
+rude fare as they can furnish; but the tourist had better rely upon
+his own tent and provisions, unless he has a craving to be fed on
+black bread and curds, and to be buried alive under a dismal pile of
+sods.
+
+  [Illustration: GEIR ZÖEGA.]
+
+The reason why so many horses are required is plain enough. At this
+time of the year (June) they are still very poor after their winter's
+starvation, the pasturage is not yet good, and, in order to make a
+rapid journey of any considerable length, frequent changes are
+necessary. Philosophy and humanity combined to satisfy me that the
+trip could not well be made with a smaller number. I was a little
+inquisitive on that point, partly on the score of expense, and partly
+on account of the delay and trouble that might arise in taking care
+of so many animals.
+
+If there is any one trait common among all the nations of the earth,
+it is a natural sharpness in the traffic of horse-flesh. My experience
+has been wonderfully uniform in this respect wherever it has been my
+fortune to travel. I have had the misfortune to be the victim of
+horse-jockeys in Syria, Africa, Russia, Norway, and even California,
+where the people are proverbially honest. I have weighed the
+horse-jockeys of the four continents in the balance, and never found
+them wanting in natural shrewdness. It is a mistake, however, to call
+them unprincipled. They are men of most astonishing tenacity of
+principle, but unfortunately they have but one governing principle in
+life--to get good prices for bad horses.
+
+On the arrival of the steamer at Reykjavik the competition among the
+horse-traders is really the only lively feature in the place.
+Immediately after the passengers get ashore they are beset by offers
+of accommodation in the line of horse-flesh. Vagabonds and idlers of
+every kind, if they possess nothing else in the world, are at least
+directly or indirectly interested in this species of property. The
+roughest specimens of humanity begin to gather in from the country
+around the corners of the streets near the hotel, with all the
+worn-out, lame, halt, blind, and spavined horses that can be raked up
+by hook or crook in the neighborhood. Such a medley was never seen in
+any other country. Barnum's woolly horse was nothing to these shaggy,
+stunted, raw-backed, bow-legged, knock-kneed little monsters, offered
+to the astonished traveler with unintelligible pedigrees in the
+Icelandic, which, if literally translated, must surely mean that they
+are a mixed product of codfish and brushwood. The size has but little
+to do with the age, and all rules applicable as a test in other parts
+of the world fail here. I judged some of them to be about four months
+old, and was not at all astonished when informed by disinterested
+spectators that they ranged from twelve to fifteen years. Nothing,
+in fact, could astonish me after learning that the horses in Iceland
+are fed during the winter on dried fish. This is a literal fact. Owing
+to the absence of grain and the scarcity of grass, it becomes
+necessary to keep life in the poor animals during the severest months
+of the season by giving them the refuse of the fisheries; and, what is
+very surprising, they relish it in preference to any other species of
+food. Shade of Ceres! what an article of diet for horses! Only think
+of it--riding on the back of a horse partly constructed of fish! No
+wonder some of them blow like whales.
+
+  [Illustration: ICELANDIC HORSES.]
+
+In one respect the traveler can not be cheated to any great extent; he
+can not well lose more than twelve specie dollars on any one horse,
+that being the average price. To do the animals justice, they are like
+singed cats--a great deal better than they look. If they are not much
+for beauty, they are at least hardy, docile, and faithful; and, what
+is better, in a country where forage is sometimes difficult to find,
+will eat any thing on the face of the earth short of very hard lava or
+very indigestible trap-rock. Many of them, in consequence of these
+valuable qualities, are exported every year to Scotland and Copenhagen
+for breeding purposes. Two vessels were taking in cargoes of them
+during our stay at Reykjavik.
+
+I was saved the trouble of bargaining for my animals by Geir Zöega,
+who agreed to furnish me with the necessary number at five Danish
+dollars apiece the round trip; that is, about two dollars and a half
+American, which was not at all unreasonable. For his own services he
+only charged a dollar a day, with whatever _buono mano_ I might choose
+to give him. These items I mention for the benefit of my friends at
+home who may take a notion to make the trip.
+
+I was anxious to get off at once, but the horses were in the country
+and had to be brought up. Two days were lost in consequence of the
+heavy rains, and the trail was said to be in very bad condition. On
+the morning of the third day all was to be ready; and having
+purchased a few pounds of crackers, half a pound of tea, some sugar
+and cheese, I was prepared to encounter the perils of the wilderness.
+This was all the provision I took. Of other baggage I had none, save
+my overcoat and sketch-book, which, for a journey of five days, did
+not seem unreasonable. Zöega promised me any amount of suffering; but
+I told him Californians rather enjoyed that sort of thing than
+otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+THE ENGLISH TOURISTS.
+
+
+My English friends were so well provided with funds and equipments
+that they found it impossible to get ready. They had patent tents,
+sheets, bedsteads, mattresses, and medicine-boxes. They had guns, too,
+in handsome gun-cases; and compasses, and chronometers, and pocket
+editions of the poets. They had portable kitchens packed in tin boxes,
+which they emptied out, but never could get in again, comprising a
+general assortment of pots, pans, kettles, skillets, frying-pans,
+knives and forks, and pepper-castors. They had demijohns of brandy and
+kegs of Port wine; baskets of bottled porter and a dozen of Champagne;
+vinegar by the gallon and French mustard in patent pots; likewise
+collodium for healing bruises, and musquito-nets for keeping out
+snakes. They had improved oil-lamps to assist the daylight which
+prevails in this latitude during the twenty-four hours, and shaving
+apparatus and nail-brushes, and cold cream for cracked lips, and
+dentifrice for the teeth, and patent preparations for the removal of
+dandruff from the hair; likewise lint and splints for mending broken
+legs. One of them carried a theodolite for drawing inaccessible
+mountains within a reasonable distance; another a photographic
+apparatus for taking likenesses of the natives and securing
+fac-similes of the wild beasts; while a third was provided with a
+brass thief-defender for running under doors and keeping them shut
+against persons of evil character. They had bags, boxes, and bales of
+crackers, preserved meats, vegetables, and pickles; jellies and
+sweet-cake; concentrated coffee, and a small apparatus for the
+manufacture of ice-cream. In addition to all these, they had patent
+overcoats and undercoats, patent hats and patent boots, gum-elastic
+bed-covers, and portable gutta-percha floors for tents; ropes, cords,
+horse-shoes, bits, saddles and bridles, bags of oats, fancy packs for
+horses, and locomotive pegs for hanging guns on, besides many other
+articles commonly deemed useful in foreign countries by gentlemen of
+the British Islands who go abroad to rough it. This was roughing it
+with a vengeance! It would surely be rough work for me, an uncivilized
+Californian, to travel in Iceland or any other country under such a
+dreadful complication of conveniences.
+
+When all these things were unpacked and scattered over the beds and
+floors of the hotel, nothing could excel the enthusiasm of the whole
+party--including myself, for I really had seen nothing in the course
+of my travels half so amusing. As an old stager in the camping
+business, I was repeatedly appealed to for advice and assistance,
+which of course I gave with the natural politeness belonging to all
+Californians, suggesting many additions. Warming-pans for the sheets,
+pads of eider-down to wear on the saddles, and bathing-tubs to sit in
+after a hard ride, would, I thought, be an improvement; but as such
+things were difficult to be had in Reykjavik, the hope of obtaining
+them was abandoned after some consideration. "In fact," said they, "we
+are merely roughing it, and, by Jove, a fellow must put up with some
+inconveniences in a country like this!"
+
+  [Illustration: ENGLISH PARTY AT REYKJAVIK.]
+
+To carry all these burdens, which, when tied up in packs, occupied an
+extra room, required exactly eighteen horses, inclusive of the riders,
+and to bargain for eighteen horses was no small job. The last I saw of
+the Englishmen they were standing in the street surrounded by a
+large portion of the population of Reykjavik, who had every possible
+variety of horses to sell--horses shaggy and horses shaved, horses
+small and horses smaller, into the mouths of which the sagacious
+travelers were intently peering in search of teeth--occasionally
+punching the poor creatures on the ribs, probing their backs, pulling
+them up by the legs, or tickling them under the tail to ascertain if
+they kicked.
+
+At the appointed hour, 6 A.M., Zöega was ready at the door of the
+hotel with his shaggy cavalcade, which surely was the most
+extraordinary spectacle I had ever witnessed. The horned horses of
+Africa would have been commonplace objects in comparison with these
+remarkable animals destined to carry me to the Geysers of Iceland.
+Each one of them looked at me through a stack of mane containing hair
+enough to have stuffed half a dozen chairs; and as for their tails,
+they hung about the poor creatures like huge bunches of wool. Some of
+them were piebald and had white eyes--others had no eyes at all.
+Seeing me look at them rather apprehensively, Zöega remarked,
+
+"Oh, sir, you needn't be afraid. They are perfectly gentle!"
+
+"Don't they bite?" said I.
+
+"Oh no, sir, not at all."
+
+"Nor kick?"
+
+"No, sir, never."
+
+"Nor lie down on the way?"
+
+"No, sir, not at all."
+
+"Answer me one more question, Zöega, and I'm done." [This I said with
+great earnestness.] "Do these horses ever eat cats or porcupines, or
+swallow heavy brooms with crooked handles?"
+
+"Oh no, sir!" answered my guide, with a look of some surprise; "they
+are too well trained for that."
+
+"Then I suppose they subsist on train-oil as well as codfish?"
+
+"Yes, sir, when they can get it. They are very fond of oil."
+
+I thought to myself, No wonder they are so poor and small. Horses
+addicted to the use of oil must expect to be of light construction.
+But it was time to be off.
+
+A cup of excellent coffee and a few biscuit were amply sufficient to
+prepare me for the journey. Our pack-horse carried two boxes and a
+small tent--all we required. Before starting Zöega performed the
+Icelandic ceremony of tying the horses in a row, each one's head to
+the tail of the horse in front. This, he said, was the general
+practice. If it were not done they would scatter outside of town, and
+it would probably take two hours to catch them again. I had some fear
+that if one of the number should tumble over a precipice he would
+carry several of his comrades with him, or their heads and tails.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+THE ROAD TO THINGVALLA.
+
+
+It was a gray, gloomy morning when we sallied forth from the silent
+streets of Reykjavik. A chilly fog covered the country, and little
+more was to be seen than the jagged outline of the lava-hills, and the
+boggy sinks and morasses on either side of the trail. The weird,
+fire-blasted, and flood-scourged wilderness on all sides was as silent
+as death, save when we approached some dark lagoon, and startled up
+the flocks of water-fowl that dwelt in its sedgy borders. Then the air
+was pierced with wild screams and strange cries, and the rocks
+resounded to the flapping of many wings. To me there was a peculiar
+charm in all this. It was different from any thing I had recently
+experienced. The roughness of the trail, the absence of cultivated
+fields, the entire exemption from the restraints of civilization, were
+perfectly delightful after a dreary residence of nearly a year in
+Germany. Here, at least, there were no passport bureaus, no
+meddlesome police, no conceited and disagreeable habitués of public
+places with fierce dogs running at their heels, no _Verbotener Wegs_
+staring one in the face at every turn. Here all ways possible to be
+traveled were open to the public; here was plenty of fresh air and no
+lack of elbow-room; here an unsophisticated American could travel
+without being persecuted every ten minutes by applications from
+distinguished officers in livery for six kreutzers; here an honest
+Californian could chew tobacco when he felt disposed, and relieve his
+mind by an occasional oath when he considered it essential to a
+vigorous expression of his thoughts.
+
+It seemed very strange to be traveling in Iceland, actually plodding
+my way over deserts of lava, and breathing blasts of air fresh from
+the summit of Mount Hecla! I was at last in the land of the Sagas--the
+land of fire, and brimstone, and boiling fountains!--the land which,
+as a child, I had been accustomed to look upon as the _ultima Thule_,
+where men, and fish, and fire, and water were pitted against each
+other in everlasting strife. How often had the fascinating vision of
+Icelandic travel crossed my mind; and how often had I dismissed it
+with a sigh as too much happiness to hope for in this world! And now
+it was all realized. Was I any the happier? Was it what I expected?
+Well, we won't probe these questions too far. It was a very strange
+reality, at all events.
+
+For the first eight miles the weather was thick and rainy; after that
+the sun began to dissipate the gloom, and we had a very pleasant
+journey. Though a little chilly in consequence of the moisture, the
+air was not really cold. As well as I could judge, the thermometer
+ranged about 54° Fahrenheit. It frequently rises to 76° at Thingvalla
+during the months of July and August; and at the Geysers, and in some
+of the adjacent valleys, the heat is said to be quite oppressive.
+
+  [Illustration: A ROUGH ROAD.]
+
+Notwithstanding the roughness of the trail, which in many places
+passed for miles over rugged fields of lava, full of sharp, jagged
+points and dangerous fissures, we traveled with considerable speed,
+seldom slackening from a lope. Zöega untied the horses from each
+other's tails soon after passing the road to Hafuarfiord, as there was
+no farther danger of their separating, and then, with many flourishes
+of his whip and strange cries, well understood by our animals, led the
+way. I must confess that, in spite of some pretty hard experience of
+bad roads in the coast range of California, there were times during
+our mad career over the lava-beds when visions of maimed limbs and a
+mutilated head crossed my mind. Should my horse stumble on a stray
+spike of lava, what possible chance of escape would there be? Falling
+head foremost on harrows and rakes would be fun to a fall here, where
+all the instruments capable of human destruction, from razors, saws,
+and meat-axes down to spike-nails and punches, were duly represented.
+
+In the course of our journey we frequently overtook pack-trains laden
+with dried fish from the sea-shore. The main dependence of the people
+throughout the country, during the winter, is upon the fish caught
+during the summer. When dried it is done up in packs and fastened on
+each side of the horse, something in the Mexican style; and each train
+is attended by three or four men, and sometimes by women. About the
+month of June the farmers and shepherds go down to Reykjavik, or some
+other convenient fishing-station on the sea-shore, and lay in their
+supplies of fish and groceries, which they purchase from the traders
+by exchanges of wool, butter, and other domestic products. After a few
+days of novelty and excitement they go back to their quiet homes,
+where they live in an almost dormant state until the next season,
+rarely receiving any news from the great outer world, or troubling
+their heads about the affairs which concern the rest of mankind. Those
+whom we met had in all probability not seen a stranger for a year.
+They are an honest, primitive people, decently but very coarsely clad
+in rough woolen garments manufactured by themselves, and shaped much
+in the European style. On their feet they wear moccasins made of
+sheepskin. Whenever we met these pack-trains in any convenient place,
+the drivers stopped to have a talk with Zöega, often riding back a
+mile or two to enjoy the novelty of his conversation. Being fresh from
+the capital, he naturally abounded in stirring news about the price of
+codfish, and the value of lard and butter, wool, stockings, mittens,
+etc., and such other articles of traffic as they felt interested in.
+He could also give them the latest intelligence by the steamer, which
+always astonished them, no matter whether it concerned the throwing
+overboard of three ponies on the last voyage, or the possible
+resumption of operations on the Icelandic telegraph. In every way
+Zöega was kind and obliging, and, being well known every where, was
+highly appreciated as a man possessed of a remarkable fund of
+information. At parting they generally stopped to kiss hands and take
+a pinch of snuff.
+
+The first time I witnessed the favorite ceremony of snuff-taking I was
+at a loss to understand what it meant. A man with a small horn flask,
+which it was reasonable to suppose was filled with powder and only
+used for loading guns or pistols, drew the plug from it, and, stopping
+quite still in the middle of the road, threw his head back and applied
+the tube to his nose. Surely the fellow was not trying to blow his
+brains out with the powder-flask! Two or three times he repeated this
+strange proceeding, snorting all the time as if in the agonies of
+suffocation. The gravity of his countenance was extraordinary. I could
+not believe my eyes.
+
+"What an absurd way of committing suicide!" I remarked to Zöega.
+
+"Oh, sir, he is only taking snuff!" was the reply.
+
+"But if he stops up both nostrils, how is he going to breathe?" was my
+natural inquiry.
+
+  [Illustration: TAKING SNUFF.]
+
+Zöega kindly explained that, when the man's nose was full he would
+naturally open his mouth, and as the snuff was very fine and strong
+it would eventually cause him to sneeze. In this way it was quite
+practicable to blow out the load.
+
+"But don't they ever hang fire and burst their heads?" I asked, with
+some concern.
+
+"Why no, sir, I've never heard of a case," answered Zöega, in his
+usual grave manner; "in this country every body takes snuff, but I
+never knew it to burst any body's head."
+
+It was really refreshing the matter-of-fact manner in which my guide
+regarded all the affairs of life. He took every thing in a literal
+sense, and was of so obliging a disposition that he would spend hours
+in the vain endeavor to satisfy my curiosity on any doubtful point.
+
+"Why, Zöega," said I, "this is a monstrous practice. I never saw any
+thing like it. Are you quite sure that fellow won't kick when he tries
+to blow his nose?"
+
+"Yes, sir, they never kick."
+
+"Tell me, Zöega, are their breeches strong?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir."
+
+"That's lucky." I was thinking of an accident that once occurred to a
+young man of my acquaintance. Owing to a defect in the breech of his
+gun, the whole load entered his head and killed him instantaneously.
+
+The gravity of these good people in their forms of politeness is one
+of the most striking features in their social intercourse. The
+commonest peasant takes off his cap to another when they meet, and
+shaking hands and snuff-taking are conducted on the most ceremonious
+principles. They do not, however, wholly confine themselves to
+stimulants for the nose. As soon as they get down to Reykjavik and
+finish their business, they are very apt to indulge in what we call in
+California "a bender;" that is to say, they drink a little too much
+whisky, and hang around the stores and streets for a day or two in a
+state of intoxication. At other times their habits are temperate, and
+they pass the greater part of their lives among their flocks, free
+from excitement, and as happy as people can be with such limited means
+of comfort. The uniformity of their lives would of course be painful
+to a people possessed of more energy and a higher order of
+intelligence; but the Icelanders are well satisfied if they can keep
+warm during the dreary winters, and obtain their usual supplies during
+the summer. Sometimes a plague sets in among their sheep and reduces
+them to great distress. Fire, pestilence, and famine have from time to
+time devastated the island. Still, where their wants are so few, they
+can bear with great patience the calamities inflicted upon them by an
+all-wise Providence. Owing perhaps to their isolated mode of life,
+they are a grave and pious people, simple in their manners,
+superstitious, and credulous. They attend church regularly, and are
+much devoted to religious books and evening prayers. No family goes to
+bed without joining in thanksgiving for all the benefits conferred
+upon them during the day. Living as they do amid the grandest
+phenomena of nature, and tinctured with the wild traditions of the old
+Norsemen, it is not surprising that they should implicitly believe in
+wandering spirits of fire and flood, and clothe the desolate wastes of
+lava with a poetic imagery peculiarly their own. Every rock, and
+river, and bog is invested with a legend or story, to the truth of
+which they can bear personal witness. Here a ghost was overtaken by
+the light of the moon and turned to stone; there voices were heard
+crying for help, and because no help came a farmer's house was burned
+the next day; here a certain man saw a wild woman, with long hair, who
+lived in a cave, and never came out to seek for food save in the midst
+of a storm, when she was seen chasing the birds; there a great many
+sheep disappeared one night, and it was thought they were killed and
+devoured by a prodigious animal with two heads--and so on, without
+end. Nothing is too marvelous for their credulity. One of my most
+pleasant experiences was to talk with these good people, through the
+aid of my guide, and hear them tell of the wonderful sights they had
+seen with their own eyes. Nor do I believe that they had the remotest
+intention of stretching the truth. Doubtless they imagined the reality
+of whatever they said. It was very strange to one who had lived so
+long among a sharp and rather incredulous race of men to hear
+full-grown people talk with the simplicity of little children.
+
+About half way on our journey toward Thingvalla it was necessary to
+cross a bog, which is never a very agreeable undertaking in Iceland,
+especially after heavy rains. This was not the worst specimen of its
+kind, though; we afterward passed through others that would be
+difficult to improve upon without entirely removing the bottom. A
+considerable portion of Iceland is intersected by these treacherous
+stretches of land and water, through which the traveler must make his
+way or relinquish his journey. Often it becomes a much more difficult
+matter to find the way out than to get in. Along the sea-coast, to the
+southward and eastward, some of these vast bogs are quite impassable
+without the assistance of a guide thoroughly acquainted with every
+spot capable of bearing a horse. On the route to the Geysers we
+generally contrived to avoid the worst places by making a detour
+around the edges of the hills, but this is not always practicable. In
+many places the hills themselves abound in boggy ground.
+
+The formation of the Icelandic bog is peculiar. I have seen something
+similar on the Pacific coast near Cape Mendocino, but by no means so
+extensive and well-defined. In Iceland it consists of innumerable
+tufts of earth from two to three feet high, interwoven with vegetable
+fibres which render them elastic when pressed by the foot. These tufts
+stand out in relief from the main ground at intervals of a few feet
+from each other, and frequently cover a large extent of country. The
+tops are covered with grass of a very fine texture, furnishing a good
+pasture for sheep and other stock. So regular and apparently
+artificial is the appearance of these grassy tufts, that I was at
+first inclined to think they must be the remains of cultivated
+fields--probably potato-hills, or places where corn had grown in
+former times. Nor was it altogether unreasonable to suppose that
+groves of wood might once have covered these singular patches of
+country, and that they had been uprooted and destroyed by some of
+those violent convulsions of nature which from time to time have
+devastated the island. Dr. Dasent produces ample testimony to show
+that, in old times, not only corn grew in Iceland, but wood
+sufficiently large to be used in building vessels. Now it is with
+great difficulty that a few potatoes can be raised in some of the
+warmest spots, and there is not a single tree to be found on the
+entire island. The largest bushes I saw were only six or eight feet
+high.
+
+A singular fact connected with the bog-formation is that it is often
+found in dry places--on the slopes of mountains, for example, in
+certain localities where the water never settles and where the ground
+is perpetually dry. I was greatly puzzled by this, and was scarcely
+satisfied by the explanation given by Zöega, my guide, who said it was
+caused by the action of the frost. In proof of the fact that they are
+not of artificial formation, and that the process by which they are
+developed is always going on, he stated that in many places where they
+had been leveled down for sheep-corrals or some such purpose, a
+similar formation of tufted hillocks had grown up in the course of a
+few years.
+
+I was continually troubled by the circuits made by Zöega to avoid
+certain tracts of this kind which to me did not look at all
+impracticable. Once I thought it would be a good joke to show him that
+a Californian could find his way through the strange country even
+better than a native; and watching a chance when he was not on the
+look-out--for I suspected what his objection would be--I suddenly
+turned my horse toward the bog, and urged him to take the short cut.
+It was such a capital idea, that of beating my own guide about two
+miles in a journey of little more than half a mile! But, strange to
+say, the horse was of Zöega's opinion respecting roads through
+Iceland. He would not budge into the bog till I inflicted some rather
+strong arguments upon him, and then he went in with great reluctance.
+Before we had proceeded a dozen yards he sank up to his belly in the
+mire, and left me perched up on two matted tufts about four feet
+apart. Any disinterested spectator would have supposed at once that I
+was attempting to favor my guide with a representation of the colossal
+statue at Rhodes, or the Natural Bridge in Virginia. Zöega, however,
+was too warmly interested in my behalf to take it in this way. As soon
+as he missed me he turned about, and, perceiving my critical position,
+shouted at the top of his voice,
+
+"Sir, you can't go that way!"
+
+  [Illustration: AN ICELANDIC BOG.]
+
+"No," said I, in rather a desponding tone, "I see I can't."
+
+"Don't try it, sir!" cried Zöega; "you'll certainly sink if you do!"
+
+"I'll promise you that, Zöega," I answered, looking gloomily toward
+the dry land, toward which my horse was now headed, plunging
+frantically in a labyrinth of tufts, his head just above the ground.
+
+"Sir, it's very dangerous!" shouted Zöega.
+
+"Any sharks in it?" I asked.
+
+"No, sir; but I don't see your horse!"
+
+"Neither do I, Zöega. Just sing out when he blows!"
+
+But the honest Icelander saw a better method than that, which was to
+dismount from his own horse, and jump from tuft to tuft until he got
+hold of my bridle. With it of course came the poor animal, which by
+hard pulling my trusty guide soon succeeded in getting on dry land.
+Meantime I discovered a way of getting out myself by a complicated
+system of jumps, and presently we all stood in a group, Zöega scraping
+the mud off the sides of my trembling steed, while I ventured to
+remark that it was "a little boggy in that direction."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Zöega; "that was the reason I was going round."
+
+And a very sensible reason it was too, as I now cheerfully admitted.
+After a medicinal pull at the brandy we once more proceeded on our
+way.
+
+I mentioned the fact that there are dry bog-formations on the sides of
+some of the hills. It should also be noted that the wet bogs are not
+always in the lowest places. Frequently they are found on elevated
+grounds, and even high up in the mountains. Approaching a region of
+this kind, when the tufts are nearly on a level with the eye, the
+effect is very peculiar. It looks as if an army of grim old Norsemen,
+on their march through the wilderness, had suddenly sunk to their
+necks in the treacherous earth, and still stood in that position with
+their shaggy heads bared to the tempests. Often the traveler detects
+something like features, and it would not be at all difficult, of a
+moonlight night, to mistake them for ghostly warriors struggling to
+get out on dry land. Indeed, the simple-minded peasants, with their
+accustomed fertility of imagination, have invested them with life, and
+relate many wonderful stories about their pranks of dark and stormy
+nights, when it is said they are seen plunging about in the water.
+Hoarse cries are heard through the gusts of the tempest; and solitary
+travelers on their journey retreat in dismay, lest they should be
+dragged into the treacherous abode of these ghostly old Norsemen.
+
+Not long after our unpleasant adventure we ascended an eminence or
+dividing ridge of lava, from which we had a fine view of the Lake of
+Thingvalla. Descending by a series of narrow defiles, we reached a
+sandy cañon winding for several miles nearly parallel with the shores
+of the lake. The sides of the hills now began to exhibit a scanty
+vegetation, and sometimes we crossed a moist patch of pasture covered
+with a fine grass of most brilliant and beautiful green. A few huts,
+with sod walls or fences around the arable patches in the vicinity,
+were to be seen from time to time, but in general the country was very
+thinly populated. Flocks of sheep, and occasionally a few horses,
+grazed on the hill-sides.
+
+The great trouble of our lives in the neighborhood of these
+settlements was a little dog belonging to my guide. Brusa was his
+name, and the management of our loose horses was his legitimate
+occupation. A bright, lively, officious little fellow was Brusa, very
+much like a wolf in appearance, and not unlike a human being in
+certain traits of his character. Montaigne says that great fault was
+found with him, when he was mayor of his native town, because he was
+always satisfied to let things go along smoothly; and though the
+citizens admitted that they had never been so free from trouble, they
+could not see the use of a mayor who never issued any ordinances or
+created any public commotion. Our little dog was of precisely the
+same way of thinking. He could see no use in holding office in our
+train without doing something, whether necessary or not. So, when the
+horses were going along all right, he felt it incumbent upon him to
+give chase to the sheep. Stealing away quietly, so that Zöega might
+not see him at the start, he would suddenly dart off after the poor
+animals, with his shaggy hair all erect, and never stop barking,
+snapping, and biting their legs till they were scattered over miles of
+territory. He was particularly severe upon the cowardly ewes and
+lambs, actually driving them frantic with terror; but the old rams
+that stood to make fight he always passed with quiet disdain. It was
+in vain Zöega would hold up, and utter the most fearful cries and
+threats of punishment: "Hur-r-r-r! Brusa! B-r-r-r-usa!! you
+B-r-r-usa!!!" Never a bit could Brusa be stopped once he got fairly
+under way. Up hill, and down hill, and over the wild gorges he would
+fly till entirely out of sight. In about half an hour he generally
+joined the train again, looking, to say the least of it, very
+sheepish. I have already spoken of the gravity and dignity of Zöega's
+manner. On occasions of this kind it assumed a parental severity truly
+impressive. Slowly dismounting from his horse, as if a great duty
+devolved upon him, he would unlock one of the boxes on the pack-horse,
+take therefrom a piece of bread, deliberately grease the same with
+butter, and then holding it forth, more in sorrow than in anger,
+invite Brusa to refresh himself after his fatiguing chase of the
+sheep. The struggle between a guilty conscience and a sharp appetite
+would now become painfully perceptible on the countenance of Brusa as
+well as in the relaxation of his tail. As he approached the tempting
+morsel nothing could be more abject than his manner--stealing furtive
+glances at the eyes of his master, and trying to conciliate him by
+wagging the downcast tail between his legs. Alas, poor Brusa! I
+suspected it from the beginning. What do you think of yourself now?
+Grabbed by the back of the neck in the powerful hands of Geir Zöega!
+Not a particle of use for you to whine, and yelp, and try to beg off.
+You have been a very bad fellow, and must suffer the consequences.
+With dreadful deliberation Zöega draws forth his whip, which has been
+carefully hidden in the folds of his coat all this time, and, holding
+the victim of his displeasure in mid-air, thus, as I take it,
+apostrophizes him in his native language: "O Brusa! have I not fed
+thee and cherished thee with parental care? (Whack! yelp! and whack
+again.) Have I not been to thee tender and true? (Whack! whack!
+accompanied by heart-rending yelps and cries.) And this is thy
+ingratitude! This is thy return for all my kindness! O how sharper
+than a serpent's tooth is the sting of ingratitude! (Whack.) I warned
+thee about those sheep--those harmless and tender little lambs! I
+begged thee with tears in my eyes not to run after them; but thou wert
+stubborn in thine iniquity; and now what can I do but--(whack)--but
+punish thee according to my promise? Wilt thou ever do it again? O
+say, Brusa, will thou ever again be guilty of this disreputable
+conduct? (A melancholy howl.) It pains me to do it (whack), but it is
+(whack) for thine own good! Now hear and repent, and henceforth let
+thy ways be the ways of the virtuous and the just!" It was absolutely
+delightful to witness the joy of Brusa when the whipping was over.
+Without one word of comment Zöega would throw him the bread, and then
+gravely mount his horse and ride on. For hours after the victim of his
+displeasure would run, and jump, and bark, and caper with excess of
+delight. I really thought it was a kindness to whip him, he enjoyed it
+so much afterward.
+
+  [Illustration: GEIR ZÖEGA AND BRUSA.]
+
+Whenever our loose horses got off the trail or lagged behind, the
+services of our dog were invaluable. Zöega had a particular way of
+directing his attention to the errant animal. "Hur-r-r-r!--(a roll of
+the tongue)--Hur-r-r-r Brusa!" and off Brusa would dash, his hair on
+end with rage, till within a few feet of the horse, when he would
+commence a series of terrific demonstrations, barking and snapping at
+the heels of the vagrant. Backing of ears to frighten him, or kicks at
+his head, had no terrors for him; he was altogether too sagacious to
+be caught within reach of dangerous weapons.
+
+I know of nothing to equal the sagacity of these Icelandic dogs save
+that of the sheep-dogs of France and Germany. They are often sent out
+in the pastures to gather up the horses, and will remain by them and
+keep them within bounds for days at a time. They are also much used in
+the management of sheep. Unlike the regular shepherd-dog of Europe,
+however, they are sometimes thievish and treacherous, owing to their
+wolfish origin. I do not think we could have made ten miles a day
+without Brusa. In the driving of pack-trains a good dog is
+indispensable. I always gave the poor fellow something to eat when we
+stopped in consideration of his services.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+THE ALMANNAJAU.
+
+
+We rode for some time along an elevated plateau of very barren aspect
+till something like a break in the outline became visible a few
+hundred yards ahead. I had a kind of feeling that we were approaching
+a crisis in our journey, but said nothing. Neither did Zöega, for he
+was not a man to waste words. He always answered my questions
+politely, but seldom volunteered a remark. Presently we entered a
+great gap between two enormous cliffs of lava.
+
+"What's this, Zöega?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, this is the Almannajau."
+
+"What! the great Almannajau, where the Icelandic Parliament used to
+camp!"
+
+"Yes, sir; you see the exact spot down there below."
+
+And, in good truth, there it was, some hundreds of feet below, in a
+beautiful little green valley that lay at the bottom of the gap. Never
+had my eyes witnessed so strange and wild a sight. A great fissure in
+the earth nearly a hundred feet deep, walled up with prodigious
+fragments of lava, dark and perpendicular, the bases strewn with
+molten masses, scattered about in the strangest disorder; a valley of
+the brightest green, over a hundred feet wide, stretching like a river
+between the fire-blasted cliffs; the trail winding through it in
+snake-like undulation--all now silent as death under the grim leaden
+sky, yet eloquent of terrible convulsions in by-gone centuries and of
+the voices of men long since mingled with the dust. Upon entering the
+gorge between the shattered walls of lava on either side, the trail
+makes a rapid descent of a few hundred yards till it strikes into the
+valley. I waited till my guide had descended with the horses, and then
+took a position a little below the entrance, so as to command a view
+out through the gorge and up the entire range of the Almannajau.
+
+  [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE ALMANNAJAU.]
+
+The appended sketch, imperfect as it is, will convey some idea of
+the scene; yet to comprise within the brief compass of a sheet of
+paper the varied wonders of this terrible gap, the wild disorder of
+the fragments cast loose over the earth, the utter desolation of the
+whole place would be simply impossible. No artist has ever yet done
+justice to the scene, and certainly no mere amateur can hope to attain
+better success.
+
+  [Illustration: THE ALMANNAJAU.]
+
+Looking up the range of the fissure, it resembles an immense walled
+alley, high on one side, and low, broken, and irregular on the other.
+The main or left side forms a fearful precipice of more than eighty
+feet, and runs in a direct line toward the mountains, a distance of
+four or five miles. On the right, toward the plain of Thingvalla, the
+inferior side forms nearly a parallel line of rifted and irregular
+masses of lava, perpendicular in front and receding behind. The
+greater wall presents a dark, rugged face, composed of immense pillars
+and blocks of lava, defined by horizontal and vertical fissures,
+strangely irregular in detail, but showing a dark, compact, and solid
+front. In places it is not unlike a vast library of books, shaken into
+the wildest confusion by some resistless power. Whole ranges of
+ink-colored blocks are wrenched from their places, and scattered about
+between the ledges. Well may they represent the law-books of the old
+Icelandic Sagas and judges, who held their councils near this fearful
+gorge! Corresponding in face, but less regular and of inferior height,
+is the opposite wall. In its molten state the whole once formed a
+burning flood, of such vast extent and depth that it is estimated by
+geologists nearly half a century must have elapsed before it became
+cool. The bottom of this tremendous crack in the sea of lava is almost
+a dead level, and forms a valley of about a hundred feet in width,
+which extends, with occasional breaks and irregularities, entirely up
+to the base of the mountain. This valley is for the most part covered
+with a beautiful carpeting of fine green grass, but is sometimes
+diversified by fragments of lava shivered off and cast down from the
+walls on either side.
+
+The gorge by which we entered must have been impracticable for horses
+in its original state. Huge masses of lava, which doubtless once
+jammed up the way, must have been hurled over into the gaping fissures
+at each side, and something like a road-way cleared out from the chaos
+of ruin. Pavements and side-stones are still visible, where it is more
+than probable the old Icelanders did many a hard day's work. Eight or
+nine centuries have not yet obliterated the traces of the hammer and
+chisel; and there were stones cast a little on one side that still
+bear the marks of horses' hoofs--the very horses in all probability
+ridden by old Sagas and lawgivers. Through this wild gorge they made
+their way into the sheltered solitudes of the Almannajau, where they
+pitched their tents and held their feasts previous to their councils
+on the Lögberg. Here passed the members of the Althing; here the
+victims of the Lögberg never repassed again.
+
+  [Illustration: SKELETON VIEW OF THE ALMANNAJAU.]
+
+There are various theories concerning the original formation of this
+wonderful fissure. It is supposed by some that the flood of lava by
+which Thingvalla was desolated in times of which history presents no
+record must have cooled irregularly, owing to the variation of
+thickness in different parts of the valley; that at this point, where
+its depth was great, the contracting mass separated, and the inferior
+portion gradually settled downward toward the point of greatest
+depression.
+
+Others, again, hold the theory that there was a liquid drain of the
+molten lava underneath toward the lake, by means of which a great
+subterranean cavity was formed as far back as the mountain; that the
+crust on top, being of insufficient strength to bear its own great
+weight, must have fallen in as the whole mass cooled, and thus created
+this vast crack in the earth.
+
+  [Illustration: OUTLINE VIEW OF THINGVALLA.]
+
+I incline to the first of these theories myself, as the most
+conformable to the contractile laws of heat. There is also something
+like practical evidence to sustain it. A careful examination of the
+elevations and depressions on each wall of the gap satisfied me that
+they bear at least a very striking analogy. Points on one side are
+frequently represented by hollows on the other, and even complicated
+figures occasionally find a counterpart, the configuration being
+always relatively convex or concave. This would seem to indicate very
+clearly that the mass had been forcibly rent asunder, either by the
+contractile process of heat, or a convulsion of the earth. The most
+difficult point to determine is why the bottom should be so flat and
+regular, and what kept the great mass on each side so far intact as to
+form one clearly-defined fissure a hundred feet wide and nearly five
+miles in length? This, however, is not for an unlearned tourist like
+myself to go into very deeply.
+
+How many centuries have passed away since all this happened the first
+man who "gazed through the rent of ruin" has failed to leave on
+record--if he ever knew it. The great walls of the fissure stood grim
+and black before the old Icelandic Sagas, just as they now stand
+before the astonished eyes of the tourist. History records no material
+change in its aspect. It may be older than the Pyramids of Egypt; yet
+it looks as if the eruption by which it was caused might have happened
+within a lifetime, so little is there to indicate the progress of
+ages. I could not but experience the strangest sensations in being
+carried so far back toward the beginning of the world.
+
+At the distance of about a mile up the "Jau" a river tumbles over the
+upper wall of lava, and rushes down the main fissure for a few hundred
+yards, when it suddenly diverges and breaks through a gap in the
+inferior wall, and comes down the valley on the outside toward the
+lake.
+
+During my stay at Thingvalla I walked up to this part of the
+Almannajau, and made a rough sketch of the waterfall.
+
+From the point of rocks upon which I stood the effect was peculiar.
+The course of the river, which lies behind the Jau, on the opposite
+side, is entirely hidden by the great wall in front, and nothing of it
+is visible till the whole river bursts over the dark precipice, and
+tumbles, foaming and roaring, into the tremendous depths below, where
+it dashes down wildly among the shattered fragments of lava till it
+reaches the outlet into the main valley. A mist rises up from the
+falling water, and whirls around the base of the cataract in clouds,
+forming in the rays of the sun a series of beautiful rainbows. The
+grim, jagged rocks, blackened and rifted with fire, make a strange
+contrast with the delicate prismatic colors of the rainbows, and their
+sharp and rugged outline with the soft, ever-changing clouds of spray.
+
+  [Illustration: FALL OF THE ALMANNAJAU.]
+
+The flocks of the good pastor of Thingvalla were quietly browsing
+among the rugged declivities where I stood. Here were violence and
+peace in striking contrast; the tremendous concussion of the falling
+water; the fearful marks of convulsion on the one hand, and on the
+other
+
+    "The gentle flocks that play upon the green."
+
+As I put away my imperfect sketch, and sauntered back toward the
+hospitable cabin of the pastor, a figure emerged from the rocks, and I
+stood face to face with an Icelandic shepherdess.
+
+  [Illustration: ICELANDIC SHEPHERD-GIRL.]
+
+Well, it is no use to grow poetical over this matter. To be sure, we
+were alone in a great wilderness, and she was very pretty, and looked
+uncommonly coquettish with her tasseled cap, neat blue bodice, and
+short petticoats, to say nothing of a well-turned pair of ankles; but
+then, you see, I couldn't speak a word of Icelandic, and if I could,
+what had I, a responsible man, to say to a pretty young shepherdess?
+At most I could only tell her she was extremely captivating, and
+looked for all the world like a flower in the desert, born to blush
+unseen, etc. As she skipped shyly away from me over the rocks I was
+struck with admiration at the graceful sprightliness of her movements,
+and wondered why so much beauty should be wasted upon silly sheep,
+when the world is so full of stout, brave young fellows who would fall
+dead in love with her at the first sight. But I had better drop the
+subject. There is a young man of my acquaintance already gone up to
+Norway to look for the post-girl that drove me over the road to
+Trondhjem, and at least two of my friends are now on the way to
+Hamburg for the express purpose of witnessing the gyrations of the
+celebrated wheeling girls. All I hope is, that when they meet with
+those enterprising damsels they will follow my example, and behave
+with honor and discretion.
+
+Standing upon an eminence overlooking the valley, I was struck with
+wonder at the vast field of lava outspread before me. Here is an area
+at least eight miles square, all covered with a stony crust, varying
+from fifty to a hundred feet in thickness, rent into gaping fissures
+and tossed about in tremendous fragments; once a burning flood,
+covering the earth with ruin and desolation wherever it flowed; now a
+cold, weird desert, whose gloomy monotony is only relieved by stunted
+patches of brushwood and dark pools of water--all wrapped in a
+death-like silence. Where could this terrible flood have come from?
+The mountains in the distance look so peaceful in their snowy robes,
+so incapable of the rage from which all this desolation must have
+sprung, that I could scarcely reconcile such terrible results with an
+origin so apparently inadequate.
+
+I questioned Zöega on this point, but not with much success. How was
+it possible, I asked, that millions and billions of tons of lava could
+be vomited forth from the crater of any mountain within sight? Here
+was a solid bed of lava spread over the valley, and many miles beyond,
+which, if piled up, shrunken and dried as it was, would of itself make
+a mountain larger than the Skjaldbraid Jokul, from which it is
+supposed to have been ejected.
+
+"Now, Zöega," said I, "how do you make it out that this came from the
+Skjaldbraid Jokul?"
+
+"Well, sir, I don't know, but I think it came from the inside of the
+world."
+
+"Why, Zöega, the world is only a shell--a mere egg-shell in Iceland I
+should fancy--filled with fiery gases."
+
+"Is that possible, sir?" cried Zöega, in undisguised astonishment.
+
+"Yes, quite possible--a mere egg-shell!"
+
+"Dear me, I didn't know that! It is a wonderful world, sir."
+
+"Very--especially in Iceland."
+
+"Then, sir, I don't know how this could have happened, unless it was
+done by spirits that live in the ground. Some people say they are
+great monsters, and live on burnt stones."
+
+"Do you believe in spirits, Zöega?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir; and don't you? I've seen them many a time. I once saw a
+spirit nearly as large as the Skjaldbraid. It came up out of the earth
+directly before me where I was traveling, and shook its head as if
+warning me to go back. I was badly frightened, and turned my horse
+around and went back. Then I heard that my best friend was dying. When
+he was dead I married his wife. She's a very good woman, sir, and, if
+you please, I'll get her to make you some coffee when we get back to
+Reykjavik."
+
+So goes the world, thought I, from the Skjaldbraid Jokul to a cup of
+coffee! Why bother our heads about these troublesome questions, which
+can only result in proving us all equally ignorant. The wisest has
+learned nothing save his own ignorance. He "meets with darkness in the
+daytime, and gropes in the noonday as in the night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+THINGVALLA.
+
+
+The extensive valley called Thingvalla, or the Valley of the "Thing,"
+lies at the head of a lake of the same name, some fifteen miles in
+length by six or seven in width. The waters of this lake are
+beautifully clear, and the scenery around it is of the wildest and
+most picturesque character. Rugged mountains rise from its shores in
+various directions, and islands reflect their varied outlines in its
+glassy surface. Cranes, wild ducks, plovers, and occasionally swans,
+abound in the lagoons that open into it from Thingvalla. The bed of
+this fine sheet of water corresponds in its configuration with the
+surrounding country. It is of volcanic formation throughout, and the
+rifts and fissures in the lava can be traced as far as it is
+practicable to see through the water.
+
+On passing out of the Almannajau near the lower fall, where the river
+breaks out into the main valley, the view toward the lake is extensive
+and imposing. Along the course of the river is a succession of
+beautiful little green flats, upon which the horses and cattle of the
+good pastor graze; and farther down, on the left, lies the church and
+farm-house. Still beyond are vast plains of lava, gradually merging
+into the waters of the lake; and in the far distance mountain upon
+mountain, till the view is lost in the snowy Jokuls of the far
+interior.
+
+Descending into this valley we soon crossed the river, which is
+fordable at this season, and in a few minutes entered a lane between
+the low stone walls that surround the station.
+
+  [Illustration: CHURCH AT THINGVALLA.]
+
+The church is of modern construction, and, like all I saw in the
+interior, is made of wood, painted a dark color, and roofed with
+boards covered with sheets of tarred canvas. It is a very primitive
+little affair, only one story high, and not more than fifteen by
+twenty feet in dimensions. From the date on the weather-cock it
+appears to have been built in 1858.
+
+The congregation is supplied by the few sheep-ranches in the
+neighborhood, consisting at most of half a dozen families. These
+unpretending little churches are to be seen in the vicinity of every
+settlement throughout the whole island. Simple and homely as they are,
+they speak well for the pious character of the people.
+
+The pastor of Thingvalla and his family reside in a group of
+sod-covered huts close by the church. These cheerless little hovels
+are really a curiosity, none of them being over ten or fifteen feet
+high, and all huddled together without the slightest regard to
+latitude or longitude, like a parcel of sheep in a storm. Some have
+windows in the roof, and some have chimneys; grass and weeds grow all
+over them, and crooked by-ways and dark alleys run among them and
+through them. At the base they are walled up with big lumps of lava,
+and two of them have board fronts, painted black, while the remainder
+are patched up with turf and rubbish of all sorts, very much in the
+style of a stork's nest. A low stone wall encircles the premises, but
+seems to be of little use as a barrier against the encroachments of
+live-stock, being broken up in gaps every few yards. In front of the
+group some attempt has been made at a pavement, which, however, must
+have been abandoned soon after the work was commenced. It is now
+littered all over with old tubs, pots, dish-cloths, and other articles
+of domestic use.
+
+  [Illustration: THE PASTOR'S HOUSE.]
+
+The interior of this strange abode is even more complicated than one
+would be led to expect from the exterior. Passing through a
+dilapidated doorway in one of the smaller cabins, which you would
+hardly suppose to be the main entrance, you find yourself in a long
+dark passage-way, built of rough stone, and roofed with wooden rafters
+and brushwood covered with sod. The sides are ornamented with pegs
+stuck in the crevices between the stones, upon which hang saddles,
+bridles, horse-shoes, bunches of herbs, dried fish, and various
+articles of cast-off clothing, including old shoes and sheepskins.
+Wide or narrow, straight or crooked, to suit the sinuosities of the
+different cabins into which it forms the entrance, it seems to have
+been originally located upon the track of a blind boa-constrictor,
+though Bishop Hatton denies the existence of snakes in Iceland. The
+best room, or rather house--for every room is a house--is set apart
+for the accommodation of travelers. Another cabin is occupied by some
+members of the pastor's family, who bundle about like a lot of
+rabbits. The kitchen is also the dog-kennel, and occasionally the
+sheep-house. A pile of stones in one corner of it, upon which a few
+twigs or scraps of sheep-manure serve to make the fire, constitute the
+cooking department. The beams overhead are decorated with pots and
+kettles, dried fish, stockings, petticoats, and the remains of a pair
+of boots that probably belonged to the pastor in his younger days. The
+dark turf walls are pleasantly diversified with bags of oil hung on
+pegs, scraps of meat, old bottles and jars, and divers rusty-looking
+instruments for shearing sheep and cleaning their hoofs. The floor
+consists of the original lava-bed, and artificial puddles composed of
+slops and offal of divers unctuous kinds. Smoke fills all the cavities
+in the air not already occupied by foul odors, and the beams, and
+posts, and rickety old bits of furniture are dyed to the core with the
+dense and variegated atmosphere around them. This is a fair specimen
+of the whole establishment, with the exception of the travelers' room.
+The beds in these cabins are the chief articles of luxury. Feathers
+being abundant, they are sewed up in prodigious ticks, which are
+tumbled topsy-turvy into big boxes on legs that serve for bedsteads,
+and then covered over with piles of all the loose blankets,
+petticoats, and cast-off rags possible to be gathered up about the
+premises. Into these comfortable nests the sleepers dive every night,
+and, whether in summer or winter, cover themselves up under the
+odorous mountain of rags, and snooze away till morning. During the
+long winter nights they spend on an average about sixteen hours out of
+the twenty-four in this agreeable manner. When it is borne in mind
+that every crevice in the house is carefully stopped up in order to
+keep out the cold air, and that whole families frequently occupy a
+single apartment not over ten by twelve, the idea of being able to cut
+through the atmosphere with a cleaver seems perfectly preposterous. A
+night's respiration in such a hole is quite sufficient to saturate the
+whole family with the substance of all the fish and sheepskins in the
+vicinity; and the marvel of it is that they don't come out next day
+wagging their fins or bleating like sheep. I wonder they ever have any
+occasion to eat. Absorption must supply them with a large amount of
+nutriment; but I suppose what is gained in that way is lost in the
+fattening of certain other members of the household. Warmth seems to
+be the principal object, and certainly it is no small consideration in
+a country where fuel is so scarce.
+
+I can not conceive of more wretched abodes for human beings. They are,
+indeed, very little better than fox-holes--certainly not much sweeter.
+Yet in such rude habitations as these the priests of Iceland study the
+classical languages, and perfect themselves in the early literature of
+their country. Many of them become learned, and devote much of their
+lives to the pursuits of science. In the northern part of the country
+the houses are said to be better and more capacious; but the example I
+have given is a fair average of what I saw.
+
+The passionate devotion of the Icelanders to their homes is almost
+inconceivable. I have never seen any thing like it. The most favored
+nations of the earth can not furnish examples of such intense and
+all-absorbing love of home and country. I traveled with a native of
+Reykjavik some weeks after my visit to Thingvalla, and had an
+opportunity of judging what his impressions were of other countries.
+He was a very intelligent man, well versed in Icelandic literature,
+and spoke English remarkably well. Both himself and wife were fellow
+passengers on the _Arcturus_ from Reykjavik to Grangemouth. I was
+curious to know what a well-educated man would think of a civilized
+country, and watched him very closely. He had never seen a railway,
+locomotive, or carriage of any kind, not even a tree or a good-sized
+house. We stopped at Leith, where we took passage by the train to
+Edinburg. As soon as the locomotive started he began to laugh
+heartily, and by the time we reached Edinburg he and his wife, though
+naturally grave people, were nearly in convulsions of laughter. I had
+no idea that the emotion of wonder would be manifested in that way by
+civilized beings. Of course I laughed to see them laugh, and
+altogether it was very funny. We took rooms at the same hotel,
+opposite to Sir Walter Scott's monument. Now it is needless to say
+that Edinburg is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Even
+Constantinople can scarcely surpass it in picturesque beauty. The
+worthy Icelander, be it remembered, had never seen even a town, except
+Reykjavik, of which I have already attempted a description. It was
+night when we arrived at Edinburg, so that I had no opportunity of
+judging what his impressions would be at that time. Next morning I
+knocked at his room door. His wife opened it, looking very sad, as I
+thought. At the window, gazing out over the magnificent scene,
+embracing the Monument, the Castle, and many of the finest of the
+public buildings, stood her husband, the big tears coursing down his
+face.
+
+"Well," said I, "what do you think of Edinburg?"
+
+"Oh!" he cried, "oh, I am so home-sick! Oh, my dear, dear native land!
+Oh, my own beautiful Iceland! Oh that I were back in my beloved
+Reykjavik! Oh, I shall die in this desert of houses! Oh that I could
+once more breathe the pure fresh air of my own dear, dear island
+home!"
+
+Such were literally his expressions. Not one word had he to say about
+the beauties of Edinburg! To him it was a hideous nightmare. The fishy
+little huts of Reykjavik, the bleak lava-deserts of the neighborhood,
+and the raw blasts from the Jokuls, were all he could realize of a
+Paradise upon earth. Yet he was a highly-cultivated and intelligent
+man, not destitute of refined tastes. Truly, I thought to myself,
+
+    "The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone
+    Boldly proclaims the happiest spot his own."
+
+While I waited outside the pastor's house, enjoying the oddity of the
+scene, Zöega busied himself unsaddling the horses. I sat down on a
+pile of fagots, and, with some trouble and a little assistance from my
+guide, succeeded in getting off my overalls, which had been thoroughly
+drenched with rain and saturated with mud. The occasional duckings we
+had experienced in crossing the rivers did not add to my comfort. I
+was chilled and wet, and would have given a Danish dollar for the
+privilege of sitting at a fire. All this time there was no sign of
+life about the premises save the barking of an ill-favored little dog
+that was energetically disclaiming any acquaintance with Brusa. I
+regret to say that Brusa lost much of his bravado air in the presence
+of this insignificant cur, but it was quite natural; the cur was at
+home and Brusa wasn't. At first our dog seemed disposed to stand his
+ground, but upon the near approach of the house-dog he dropped his
+tail between his legs and ingloriously sneaked between the legs of the
+horses, which of course gave the gentleman of the house a high opinion
+of his own prowess--so much so, indeed, that the craven spirit of
+Brusa never before appeared in such a despicable light. He cringed and
+howled with terror, which so flattered the vanity of the other that a
+ferocious attack was the immediate consequence. Fortunately, a kick
+from one of the horses laid Brusa's aggressor yelping in the mud, an
+advantage of which Brusa promptly availed himself, and the pastor's
+dog would have fared badly in the issue but for the interference of
+Zöega, who separated the contending parties, and administered a grave
+rebuke to the party of our part respecting the impropriety of his
+conduct.
+
+Though it occurred to me that I had seen the retreating figure of a
+man as we rode up, I was at a loss to understand why nobody appeared
+to ask us in or bid us welcome, and suggested to Zöega that I thought
+this rather an unfriendly reception. Now, upon this point of Icelandic
+hospitality Zöega was peculiarly sensitive. He always maintained that
+the people, though poor, are very hospitable--so much so that they
+made no complaint when a certain Englishman, whose name he could
+mention, stopped with them for days, ate up all their food and drank
+up all their coffee, and then went off without offering them even a
+small present. "No wonder," said Zöega, "this man told a great many
+lies about them, and laughed at them for refusing money, when the
+truth was he never offered them money or any thing else. It was
+certainly a very cheap way of traveling."
+
+"But what about the pastor, Zöega? I'm certain I caught a glimpse of
+him as he darted behind the door."
+
+"Oh, he'll be here directly; he always runs away when strangers come."
+
+"What does he run away for?"
+
+"Why, you see, sir, he is generally a little dirty, and must go wash
+himself and put on some decent clothes."
+
+While we were talking the pastor made his appearance, looking somewhat
+damp about the face and hair, and rather embarrassed about the shape
+of his coat, which was much too large for him, and hung rather low
+about his heels. With an awkward shuffling gait he approached us, and,
+having shaken hands with Zöega, looked askant at me, and said
+something, which my guide interpreted as follows:
+
+"He bids you welcome, sir, and says his house is at your service. It
+is a very poor house, but it is the best he has. He wishes to know if
+you will take some coffee, and asks what part of the world you are
+from. I tell him you are from California, and he says it is a great
+way off, clear down on the other side of the world, and may God's
+blessing be upon you. Walk in, sir."
+
+  [Illustration: THE PASTOR OF THINGVALLA.]
+
+Pleased with these kind words, I stepped up to the good pastor and
+cordially shook him by the hand, at the same time desiring Zöega to
+say that I thanked him very much, and hoped he would make it
+convenient to call and see me some time or other in California, which,
+I regret to add, caused him to look both alarmed and embarrassed. A
+queer, shy man was this pastor--a sort of living mummy, dried up and
+bleached by Icelandic snows. His manner was singularly bashful. There
+was something of the recluse in it--a mixture of shyness, awkwardness,
+and intelligence, as if his life had been spent chiefly among sheep
+and books, which very likely was the case. All the time I was trying
+to say something agreeable he was looking about him as if he desired
+to make his escape into some Icelandic bog, and there hide himself
+during my stay. I followed him through the passage-way already
+mentioned into the travelers' room, where he beckoned me to take a
+seat, and then, awkwardly seating himself on the edge of a chair as
+far away as he could get without backing through the wall, addressed
+me in Danish. Finding me not very proficient in that tongue, he
+branched off into Latin, which he spoke as fluently as if it had been
+his native language. Here again I was at fault. I had gone as far as
+_Quosque tandem_ when a boy, but the vicissitudes of time and travel
+had knocked it all out of my head. I tried him on the German, and
+there, to use a familiar phrase, had the "dead-wood on him." He
+couldn't understand a word of that euphonious language. However, a
+slight knowledge of the Spanish, picked up in Mexico and California,
+enabled me to guess at some of his Latin, and in this way we struggled
+into something of conversation. The effort, however, was too great for
+the timid recluse. After several pauses and lapses into long fits of
+silence, he got up and took his leave. Meantime Zöega was enjoying
+himself by the fire in the kitchen, surrounded by the female members
+of the family, who no doubt were eagerly listening to the latest news
+from Reykjavik. Whenever their voices became audible I strongly
+suspected that the ladies were asking whether the steamer had brought
+any crinoline from Copenhagen.
+
+The pastor's family appeared to be composed entirely of females. Like
+all the Icelandic women I had seen, they do all the work of the
+establishment, attend to the cows, make the cheese, cut the hay, carry
+the heavy burdens, and perform the manual labor generally. This I
+found to be the case at all the farm-houses. Sometimes the men assist,
+but they prefer riding about the country or lying idle about the doors
+of their cabins. At Reykjavik, it is true, there is a population of
+Danish sailors and fishermen, and it would be scarcely fair to form an
+opinion from the lazy and thriftless habits of the people there. But I
+think the civilization of Iceland is very much like that of Germany in
+respect to women. They are not rated very high in the scale of
+humanity. Still, overworked and degraded as they are, the natural
+proclivities of the sex are not altogether obliterated. In former
+times their costume was picturesque and becoming, and some traces of
+the old style are yet to be seen throughout the pastoral districts; a
+close body, a jaunty little cap on the head, with a heavy tassel,
+ornamented with gold or silver bands, silver clasps to their belts,
+and filigree buttons down the front, give them a very pleasing
+appearance. Of late years, however, fashion has begun to assert her
+sway, even in this isolated part of the world, and the native costume
+is gradually becoming modernized.
+
+The pastor having joined the more congenial circle of which Zöega was
+the admired centre, I was left alone in the chilly little room
+allotted to travelers to meditate upon the comforts of Icelandic life.
+It was rather a gloomy condition of affairs to be wet to the skin,
+shivering with cold, and not a soul at hand to sympathize with me in
+my misery. Then the everlasting day--when would it end? Already I had
+been awake and traveling some fourteen hours, and it was as broad
+daylight as ever. Nothing could be more wearying than the everlasting
+daylight that surrounded me--not bright and sunshiny, but dreary and
+lead-colored, showing scarcely any perceptible difference between
+morning, noon, and night.
+
+The coffee soon came to my relief, and the pastor followed it to wish
+me a good appetite and ask if I wanted any thing else. I again renewed
+the attempt at conversation, but it was too much for his nervous
+temperament and shrinking modesty. He always managed, after a few
+words, to slip stealthily away up into the loft or out among the rocks
+to avoid the appearance of intrusion, or the labor of understanding
+what I said, or communicating his ideas--I could not tell which.
+
+  [Illustration: SKELETON VIEW OF THE LÖGBERG.]
+
+After a slight repast I walked out to take a look at the Lögberg, or
+Rock of Laws, which is situated about half a mile from the church.
+This is, perhaps, of all the objects of historical association in
+Iceland, the most interesting. It was here the judges tried criminals,
+pronounced judgments, and executed their stern decrees. On a small
+plateau of lava, separated from the general mass by a profound abyss
+on every side, save a narrow neck barely wide enough for a foothold,
+the famous "Thing" assembled once a year, and, secured from intrusion
+in their deliberations by the terrible chasm around, passed laws for
+the weal or woe of the people. It was only necessary to guard the
+causeway by which they entered; all other sides were well protected by
+the encircling moat, which varies from thirty to forty feet in width,
+and is half filled with water. The total depth to the bottom, which
+is distinctly visible through the crystal pool, must be sixty or
+seventy feet. Into this yawning abyss the unhappy criminals were cast,
+with stones around their necks, and many a long day did they lie
+beneath the water, a ghastly spectacle for the crowd that peered at
+them over the precipice.
+
+  [Illustration: THINGVALLA, LÖGBERG, ALMANNAJAU.]
+
+All was now as silent as the grave. Eight centuries had passed, and
+yet the strange scenes that had taken place here were vividly before
+me. I could imagine the gathering crowds, the rising hum of voices;
+the pause, the shriek, and plunge; the low murmur of horror, and then
+the stern warning of the lawgivers and the gradual dispersing of the
+multitude.
+
+The dimensions of the plateau are four or five hundred feet in length
+by an average of sixty or eighty in width. A diagram, taken from an
+elevated point beyond, will give some idea of its form. The surface is
+now covered with a fine coating of sod and grass, and furnishes good
+pasturage for the sheep belonging to the pastor.
+
+  [Illustration: DIAGRAM OF THE LÖGBERG.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+THE ROAD TO THE GEYSERS.
+
+
+It was ten o'clock at night when I reached the parsonage. In addition
+to my rough ride from Reykjavik, and the various trying adventures on
+the way, I had walked over nearly the whole range of the Almannajau,
+sketched the principal points of interest, visited the Lögberg, and
+made some sketches and diagrams of that, besides accomplishing a
+considerable amount of work about the premises of the good pastor, all
+of which is now submitted to the kind indulgence of the reader. Surely
+if there is a country upon earth abounding in obstacles to the pursuit
+of the fine arts, it is Iceland. The climate is the most variable in
+existence--warm and cold, wet and dry by turns, seldom the same thing
+for half a day. Such, at least, was my experience in June. Wild and
+desolate scenery there is in abundance, and no lack of interesting
+objects any where for the pencil of an artist; but it is difficult to
+conceive the amount of physical discomfort that must be endured by one
+who faithfully adheres to his purpose. Only think of sitting down on a
+jagged piece of lava, wet to the skin and shivering with cold; a raw,
+drizzling rain running down your back and dropping from the brim of
+your hat, making rivers on your paper where none are intended to be;
+hints of rheumatism shooting through your bones, and visions of a
+solitary grave in the wilderness crossing your mind; then, of a
+sudden, a wind that scatters your papers far and wide, and sends your
+only hat whirling into an abyss from which it is doubtful whether you
+will ever recover it--think of these, ye summer tourists who wander,
+sketch-book in hand, through the "warbling woodland" and along "the
+resounding shore," and talk about being enterprising followers of the
+fine arts! Try it in Iceland a while, and see how long your
+inspiration will last! Take my word for it, unless you be terribly in
+earnest, you will postpone your labors till the next day, and then the
+next, and so on to the day that never comes.
+
+Not the least of my troubles was the difficulty of getting a good
+night's rest after the fatiguing adventures of the day. There was no
+fault to be found with the bed, save that it was made for somebody who
+had never attained the average growth of an American; and one might do
+without a night-cap, but how in the world could any body be expected
+to sleep when there was no night? At twelve o'clock, when it ought to
+be midnight and the ghosts stirring about, I looked out, and it was
+broad day; at half past one I looked out again, and the sun was
+shining; at two I got up and tried to read some of the pastor's books,
+which were written in Icelandic, and therefore not very entertaining;
+at three I went to work and finished some of my sketches; and at four
+I gave up all farther hope of sleeping, and sallied forth to take
+another look at the Almannajau.
+
+  [Illustration: AN ARTIST AT HOME.]
+
+On my return Zöega was saddling up the horses. A cup of coffee and a
+dry biscuit put me in traveling order, and we were soon on our way up
+the valley.
+
+For the first few miles we followed the range of the "Jau," from which
+we then diverged across the great lava-beds of Thingvalla. It was not
+long before we struck into a region of such blasted and barren aspect
+that the imagination was bewildered with the dreary desolation of the
+scene. The whole country, as far as the eye could reach, was torn up
+and rent to pieces. Great masses of lava seemed to have been wrested
+forcibly from the original bed, and hurled at random over the face of
+the country. Prodigious fissures opened on every side, and for miles
+the trail wound through a maze of sharp points and brittle crusts of
+lava, with no indication of the course save at occasional intervals a
+pile of stones on some prominent point, erected by the peasants as a
+way-mark for travelers. Sometimes our hardy little horses climbed like
+goats up the rugged sides of a slope, where it seemed utterly
+impossible to find a foothold, so tortured and chaotic was the face of
+the earth; and not unfrequently we became involved in a labyrinth of
+fearful sinks, where the upper stratum had given way and fallen into
+the yawning depths below. Between these terrible traps the trail was
+often not over a few feet wide. It was no pleasant thing to
+contemplate the results of a probable slip or a misstep. The whole
+country bore the aspect of baffled rage--as if imbued with a demoniac
+spirit, it had received a crushing stroke from the Almighty hand that
+blasted and shivered it to fragments.
+
+  [Illustration: LAVA-FJELDS.]
+
+There were masses that looked as if they had turned cold while running
+in a fiery flood from the crater--wavy, serrated, frothy, like tar
+congealed or stiffened on a flat surface. One piece that I sketched
+was of the shape of a large leaf, upon which all the fibres were
+marked. It measured ten feet by four. Another bore a resemblance to a
+great conch-shell. Many were impressed with the roots of shrubs and
+the images of various surrounding objects--snail-shells, pebbles,
+twigs, and the like. On a larger scale, bubbling brooks, waterfalls,
+and whirlpools were represented--now no longer a burning flood, but
+stiff, stark, and motionless. One sketch, which is reproduced, bore a
+startling resemblance to some of the marble effigies on the tombs of
+medieval knights.
+
+  [Illustration: EFFIGY IN LAVA.]
+
+The distant mountains were covered with their perpetual mantles of
+snow. Nearer, on the verge of the valley, were the red peaks of the
+foot-hills. To the right lay the quiet waters of the lake glistening
+in the sunbeams. In front, a great black fissure stretched from the
+shores of the lake to the base of the mountains, presenting to the eye
+an impassable barrier. This was the famous Hrafnajau--the uncouth and
+terrible twin-brother of the Almannajau.
+
+A toilsome ride of eight miles brought us to the edge of the Pass,
+which in point of rugged grandeur far surpasses the Almannajau, though
+it lacks the extent and symmetry which give the latter such a
+remarkable effect. Here was a tremendous gap in the earth, over a
+hundred feet deep, hacked and shivered into a thousand fantastic
+shapes; the sides a succession of the wildest accidents; the bottom a
+chaos of broken lava, all tossed about in the most terrific confusion.
+It is not, however, the extraordinary desolation of the scene that
+constitutes its principal interest. The resistless power which had
+rent the great lava-bed asunder, as if touched with pity at the ruin,
+had also flung from the tottering cliffs a causeway across the gap,
+which now forms the only means of passing over the great Hrafnajau. No
+human hands could have created such a colossal work as this; the
+imagination is lost in its massive grandeur; and when we reflect that
+miles of an almost impassable country would otherwise have to be
+traversed in order to reach the opposite side of the gap, the
+conclusion is irresistible that in the battle of the elements Nature
+still had a kindly remembrance of man.
+
+  [Illustration: THE HRAFNAJAU.]
+
+Five or six miles beyond the Hrafnajau, near the summit of a
+dividing ridge, we came upon a very singular volcanic formation called
+the Tintron. It stands, a little to the right of the trail, on a rise
+of scoria and burned earth, from which it juts up in rugged relief to
+the height of twenty or thirty feet. This is, strictly speaking, a
+huge clinker not unlike what comes out of a grate--hard, glassy in
+spots, and scraggy all over. The top part is shaped like a shell; in
+the centre is a hole about three feet in diameter, which opens into a
+vast subterranean cavity of unknown depth. Whether the Tintron is an
+extinct crater, through which fires shot out of the earth in by-gone
+times, or an isolated mass of lava, whirled through the air out of
+some distant volcano, is a question that geologists must determine.
+The probability is that it is one of those natural curiosities so
+common in Iceland which defy research. The whole country is full of
+anomalies--bogs where one would expect to find dry land, and parched
+deserts where it would not seem strange to see bogs; fire where water
+ought to be, and water in the place of fire.
+
+While the pack-train followed the trail, Zöega suggested that the
+Tintron had never been sketched, and if I felt disposed to "take it
+down"--as he expressed it--he would wait for me in the valley below;
+so I took it down.
+
+During this day's journey we crossed many small rivers which had been
+much swollen by the recent rains. The fording-places, however, were
+generally good, and we got over them without being obliged to swim our
+horses. One river, the Brúará, gave me some uneasiness. When we
+arrived at the banks it presented a very formidable obstacle. At the
+only place where it was practicable to reach the water it was a raging
+torrent over fifty yards wide, dashing furiously over a bed of lava
+with a velocity and volume that bade apparent defiance to any attempt
+at crossing. In the middle was a great fissure running parallel with
+the course of the water, into which the current converged from each
+side, forming a series of cataracts that shook the earth, and made a
+loud reverberation from the depths below.
+
+  [Illustration: THE TINTRON ROCK.]
+
+I stopped on an elevated bank to survey the route before us. There
+seemed to be no possible way of getting over. It was all a wild
+roaring flood plunging madly down among the rocks. While I was
+thinking what was to be done, Zöega, with a crack of his whip, drove
+the animals into the water and made a bold dash after them. It then
+occurred to me that there was a good deal of prudence in the advice
+given by an Icelandic traveler: "_Never go into a river till your
+guide has tried it._" Should Zöega be swept down over the cataract, as
+appeared quite probable, there would be no necessity for me to follow
+him. I had a genuine regard for the poor fellow, and it would pain me
+greatly to lose him; but then he was paid so much per day for risking
+his life, and how could I help it if he chose to pursue such a
+perilous career? Doubtless he had come near being drowned many a time
+before; he seemed to be used to it. All I could do for him in the
+present instance would be to break the melancholy intelligence to his
+wife as tenderly as possible. While thus philosophizing, Zöega plunged
+in deeper and deeper till he was surrounded by the raging torrent on
+the very verge of the great fissure. Was it possible he was going to
+force his horse into it? Surely the man must be crazy.
+
+"Stop, Zöega! stop!" I shouted, at the top of my voice; "you'll be
+swept over the precipice. There's a great gap in the river just before
+you."
+
+"All right, sir!" cried Zöega. "Come on, sir!"
+
+Again and again I called to him to stop but he seemed to lose my voice
+in the roar of the falling waters. Dashing about after the scattered
+animals, he whipped them all up to the brink of the precipice, and
+then quietly walked his own horse across on what looked to me like a
+streak of foam. The others followed, and in a few minutes they all
+stood safely on the opposite bank. I thought this was very strange. A
+remote suspicion flashed across my mind that Zöega was in league with
+some of those water-spirits which are said to infest the rivers of
+Iceland. Wondering what they would say to a live Californian, I
+plunged in and followed the route taken by my guide. Upon approaching
+the middle of the river I discovered that what appeared to be a streak
+of foam was in reality a wooden platform stretched across the chasm
+and covered by a thin sheet of water. It was pinned down to the rocks
+at each end, and was well braced with rafters underneath. From this
+the river derives its name--Brúará, or the Bridge.
+
+The general aspect of the country differed but little from what I have
+already attempted to describe. Vast deserts of lava, snow-capped
+mountains in the distance, a few green spots here and there, and no
+apparent sign of habitation--these were its principal features. Below
+the falls the scene was peculiarly wild and characteristic. Tremendous
+masses of lava cast at random amid the roaring waters; great fissures
+splitting the earth asunder in all directions; every where marks of
+violent convulsion. In the following sketch I have endeavored to
+depict some of these salient points. When it is taken into
+consideration that the wind blew like a hurricane through the craggy
+ravines; that the rain and spray whirled over, and under, and almost
+through me; that it was difficult to stand on any elevated spot
+without danger of being blown over, I hope some allowance will be made
+for the imperfections of the performance.
+
+  [Illustration: BRIDGE RIVER.]
+
+About midway between Thingvalla and the Geysers we descended into a
+beautiful little valley, covered with a fine growth of grass, where we
+stopped to change horses and refresh ourselves with a lunch. While
+Zöega busied himself arranging the packs and saddles, our
+indefatigable little dog Brusa availed himself of the opportunity to
+give chase to a flock of sheep. Zöega shouted at him as usual, and as
+usual Brusa only barked the louder and ran the faster. The sheep
+scattered over the valley, Brusa pursuing all the loose members of the
+flock with a degree of energy and enthusiasm that would have done
+credit to a better cause. Upon the lambs he was particularly severe.
+Many of them must have been stunted in their growth for life by the
+fright they received; and it was not until he had tumbled half a dozen
+of them heels over head, and totally dispersed the remainder, that he
+saw fit to return to head-quarters. The excitement once over, he of
+course began to consider the consequences, and I must say he looked as
+mean as it was possible for an intelligent dog to look. Zöega took him
+by the nape of the neck with a relentless hand, and heaving a profound
+sigh, addressed a pathetic remonstrance to him in the Icelandic
+language, giving it weight and emphasis by a sharp cut of his whip
+after every sentence. This solemn duty performed to his satisfaction,
+and greatly to Brusa's satisfaction when it was over, we mounted our
+horses once more and proceeded on our journey.
+
+A considerable portion of this day's ride was over a rolling country,
+somewhat resembling the foot-hills in certain parts of California. On
+the right was an extensive plain, generally barren, but showing
+occasional green patches; and on the left a rugged range of mountains,
+not very high, but strongly marked by volcanic signs. We passed
+several lonely little huts, the occupants of which rarely made their
+appearance. Sheep, goats, and sometimes horses, dotted the
+pasture-lands. There was not much vegetation of any kind save patches
+of grass and brushwood. A species of white moss covered the rocks in
+places, presenting the appearance of hoar-frost at a short distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+THE GEYSERS.
+
+
+Upon turning the point of a hill where our trail was a little elevated
+above the great valley, Zöega called my attention to a column of vapor
+that seemed to rise out of the ground about ten miles distant. For all
+I could judge, it was smoke from some settler's cabin situated in a
+hollow of the slope.
+
+"What's that, Zöega?" I asked.
+
+"That's the Geysers, sir," he replied, as coolly as if it were the
+commonest thing in the world to see the famous Geysers of Iceland.
+
+"The Geysers! That little thing the Geysers?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Dear me! who would ever have thought it?"
+
+I may as well confess at once that I was sadly disappointed. It was a
+pleasure, of course, to see what I had read of and pictured to my
+mind, from early boyhood; but this contemptible little affair looked
+very much like a humbug. A vague idea had taken possession of my mind
+that I would see a whole district of country shooting up hot water and
+sulphurous vapors--a kind of hell upon earth; but that thing ahead of
+us--that little curl of smoke on the horizon looked so peaceful, so
+inadequate a result of great subterranean fires, that I could not but
+feel some resentment toward the travelers who had preceded me, and
+whose glowing accounts of the Geysers had deceived me. At this point
+of view it was not at all equal to the Geysers of California. I had a
+distinct recollection of the great cañon between Russian River Valley
+and Clear Lake, the magnificent hills on the route, the first glimpse
+of the infernal scene far down in the bed of the cañon, the boiling,
+hissing waters, and clouds of vapor whirling up among the rocks, the
+towering crags on the opposite side, and the noble forests of oak and
+pine that spread "a boundless contiguity of shade" over the wearied
+traveler, and I must say a patriotic pride took possession of my soul.
+We had beaten the world in the production of gold; our fruits were
+finer and our vegetables larger than any ever produced in other
+countries; our men taller and stronger, our women prettier and more
+prolific, our lawsuits more extensive, our fights the best ever gotten
+up, our towns the most rapidly built and rapidly burned--in short,
+every thing was on a grand, wide, broad, tall, fast, overwhelming
+scale, that bid defiance to competition, and now I was satisfied we
+could even beat old Iceland in the matters of Geysers. I really felt
+a contempt for that little streak of smoke. Perhaps something in the
+expression of my eye may have betrayed my thoughts, for Zöega, as if
+he felt a natural pride in the wonders of Iceland and wished them to
+be properly appreciated, hastily added, "But you must not judge of the
+Geysers by what you now see, sir! That is only the little Geyser. He
+don't blow up much. The others are behind the first rise of ground."
+
+"That may be, Zöega. I have no doubt they are very fine, but it is not
+within the bounds of possibility that they should equal the Geysers of
+California."
+
+"Indeed, sir! I didn't know you had Geysers there."
+
+"Didn't know it! Never heard of the Geysers of California?"
+
+"Never, sir."
+
+"Well, Zöega, that is remarkable. Our Geysers are the finest, the
+bitterest, the smokiest, the noisiest, the most infernal in the world;
+and as for mountains, our Shasta Bute would knock your Mount Hecla
+into a cocked hat!"
+
+"Is it possible!"
+
+"Of course it is."
+
+"And have you great lava-beds covering whole valleys as we have here?"
+
+"Certainly--only they are made of gold. We call them Placers--Gold
+Placers."
+
+"A wonderful country, sir!"
+
+"Would you like to go there, Zöega?"
+
+"No, sir; I'd rather stay here."
+
+  [Illustration: SHEPHERD AND FAMILY.]
+
+And so we talked, Zöega and I, as we jogged along pleasantly on our
+way. Our ride, after we caught the first sight of the smoke,
+continued for some two hours over a series of low hills, with little
+green valleys lying between, till we came to an extensive bog that
+skirts the base of the Langarfjal, a volcanic bluff forming the
+background of the Geysers. It was now becoming interesting. Half an
+hour more would settle the matter conclusively between California
+and Iceland. Crossing the bog where it was not very wet, we soon came
+to a group of huts at the turning-point of the hill, where we were
+met by a shepherd and his family. All turned out, big and little, to
+see the strangers. The man and his wife were fair specimens of
+Icelandic peasantry--broad-faced, blue-eyed, and good-natured, with
+yellowish hair, and a sort of mixed costume, between the civilized
+and the barbarous. The children, of which there must have been over a
+dozen, were of the usual cotton-head species found in all Northern
+countries, and wore any thing apparently they could get, from the
+cast-off rags of their parents to sheepskins and raw hide. Nothing
+could surpass the friendly interest of the old shepherd. He asked
+Zöega a thousand questions about the "gentleman," and begged that we
+would dismount and do him the honor to take a cup of coffee, which
+his wife would prepare for us in five minutes. Knowing by experience
+that five minutes in Iceland means any time within five hours, I was
+reluctantly obliged to decline the invitation. The poor fellow seemed
+much disappointed, and evidently was sincere in his offers of
+hospitality. To compromise the matter, we borrowed a spade from him,
+and requested him to send some milk down to our camp as soon as the
+cows were milked.
+
+Although these worthy people lived not over half a mile from the
+Geysers, they could not tell us when the last eruption had taken
+place--a most important thing for us to know, as the success of the
+trip depended almost entirely upon the length of time which had
+elapsed since that event. The man said he never took notice of the
+eruptions. He saw the water shooting up every few days, but paid no
+particular attention to it. There might have been an eruption
+yesterday, or this morning, for all he knew; it was impossible for him
+to say positively. "In truth, good friend," said he to Zöega, "my head
+is filled with sheep, and they give me trouble enough." It was
+evidently filled with something, for he kept scratching it all the
+time he was talking.
+
+Many travelers have been compelled to wait a week for an eruption of
+the Great Geyser, though the interval between the eruptions is not
+usually more than three days. A good deal depends upon the previous
+state of the weather, whether it has been wet or dry. Sometimes the
+eruptions take place within twenty-four hours, but not often. The
+Great Geyser is a very capricious old gentleman, take him as you will.
+He goes up or keeps quiet just to suit himself, and will not put
+himself the least out of the way to oblige anybody. Even the Prince
+Napoleon, who visited this region a few years ago, spent two days
+trying to coax the grumbling old fellow to favor him with a
+performance, but all to no purpose. The prince was no more to a Great
+Geyser than the commonest shepherd--not so much, in fact, for his
+finest displays are said to be made when nobody but some poor shepherd
+of the neighborhood is about. In former times the eruptions were much
+more frequent than they are now, occurring at least every six hours,
+and often at periods of only three or four. Gradually they have been
+diminishing in force and frequency, and it is not improbable they will
+cease altogether before the lapse of another century. According to the
+measurements given by various travelers, among whom may be mentioned
+Dr. Henderson, Sir George Mackenzie, Forbes, Metcalfe, and Lord
+Dufferin, the height to which the water is ejected varies from eighty
+to two hundred feet. It is stated that these Geysers did not exist
+prior to the fifteenth century; and one eruption--that of 1772--is
+estimated by Olsen and Paulsen to have reached the extraordinary
+height of three hundred and sixty feet. All these measurements appear
+to me to be exaggerated.
+
+Ascending a slope of dry incrusted earth of a red and yellowish color,
+we first came upon the Little Geyser, a small orifice in the ground,
+from which a column of steam arose. A bubbling sound as of boiling
+water issued from the depths below, but otherwise it presented no
+remarkable phenomena. In a few minutes more we stood in the middle of
+a sloping plateau of some half a mile in circuit, which declines into
+an extensive valley on the right. Within the limits of this area there
+are some forty springs and fissures which emit hot water and vapors.
+None of them are of any considerable size, except the Great Geyser,
+the Strokhr, and the Little Geyser. The earth seems to be a mere crust
+of sulphurous deposits, and burnt clay, and rotten trap-rock, and is
+destitute of vegetation except in a few spots, where patches of grass
+and moss present a beautiful contrast to the surrounding barrenness.
+In its quiescent state the scene was not so striking as I had
+expected, though the whirling volumes of smoke that filled the air,
+and the strange sounds that issued from the ground in every direction,
+filled my mind with strong premonitions of what might take place at
+any moment. I did not yet relinquish my views in reference to the
+superiority of the California Geysers; still, I began to feel some
+misgiving about it when I looked around and saw the vastness of the
+scale upon which the fixtures were arranged here for hydraulic
+entertainments. If we could beat Iceland in the beauty of our scenery,
+it was quite apparent that the advantage lay here in the breadth and
+extent of the surrounding desolation--the great lava-fields, the
+snow-capped Jokuls, and the distant peaks of Mount Hecla.
+
+We rode directly toward the Great Geyser, which we approached within
+about fifty yards. Here was the camping-ground--a pleasant little
+patch of green sod, where the various travelers who had preceded us
+had pitched their tents. Zöega knew every spot. He had accompanied
+most of the distinguished gentlemen who had honored the place with
+their presence, and had something to say in his grave, simple way
+about each of them. Here stood Lord Dufferin's tent. A lively young
+gentleman he was; a very nice young man; told some queer stories about
+the Icelanders; didn't see much of the country, but made a very nice
+book about what he saw; had a great time at the governor's, and drank
+every body drunk under the table, etc. Here, close by, the Prince
+Napoleon pitched his tent--a large tent, very handsomely decorated;
+room for all his officers; very fine gentleman the prince; had lots of
+money; drank plenty of Champagne; a fat gentleman, not very tall; had
+blackish hair, and talked French; didn't see the Great Geyser go up,
+but saw the Strokhr, etc. Here was Mr. Metcalfe's tent; a queer
+gentleman, Mr. Metcalfe; rather rough in his dress; wrote a funny book
+about Iceland; told some hard things on the priests; they didn't like
+it at all; didn't know what to make of Mr. Metcalfe, etc. Here was Mr.
+Chambers's camp--a Scotch gentleman; very nice man, plain and
+sensible; wrote a pamphlet, etc. And here was an old tent-mark, almost
+rubbed out, where an American gentleman camped about ten years ago;
+thought his name was Mr. Miles. This traveler also wrote a book, and
+told some funny stories.
+
+"Was it Pliny Miles?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, sir, that was his name. I was with him all the time."
+
+"Have you his book?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I have his book at home. A very queer gentleman, Mr. Miles;
+saw a great many things that I didn't see; says he came near getting
+drowned in a river."
+
+"And didn't he?"
+
+"Well, sir, I don't know. I didn't see him when he was near being
+drowned. You crossed the river, sir, yourself, and know whether it is
+dangerous."
+
+"Was it the Brúará?"
+
+"No, sir; one of the other little rivers, about knee-deep."
+
+Here was food for reflection. Zöega, with his matter-of-fact eyes,
+evidently saw things in an entirely different light from that in which
+they presented themselves to the enthusiastic tourists who accompanied
+him. Perhaps he would some time or other be pointing out my tent to
+some inquisitive visitor, and giving him a running criticism upon my
+journal of experiences in Iceland. I deemed it judicious, therefore,
+to explain to him that gentlemen who traveled all the way to Iceland
+were bound to see something and meet with some thrilling adventures.
+If they didn't tell of very remarkable things, nobody would care
+about reading their books. This was the great art of travel; it was
+not exactly lying, but putting on colors to give the picture effect.
+
+"For my part, Zöega," said I, "having no great skill as an artist, and
+being a very plain, unimaginative man, as you know, I shall confine
+myself strictly to facts. Perhaps there will be novelty enough in
+telling the truth to attract attention."
+
+"The truth is always the best, sir," replied Zöega, gravely and
+piously.
+
+"Of course it is, Zöega. This country is sufficiently curious in
+itself. It does not require the aid of fiction to give it effect.
+Therefore, should you come across any thing in my narrative which may
+have escaped your notice, depend upon it I thought it was true--or
+ought to be."
+
+"Yes, sir; I know you would never lie like some of these gentlemen."
+
+"Never! never, Zöega! I scorn a lying traveler above all things on
+earth."
+
+But these digressions, however amusing they were at the time, can
+scarcely be of much interest to the reader.
+
+Even after the lapse of several years the marks around the
+camping-ground were quite fresh. The sod is of very fine texture, and
+the grass never grows very rank, so that wherever a trench is cut to
+let off the rain, it remains, with very little alteration, for a great
+length of time.
+
+On the principle that a sovereign of the United States ought never to
+rank himself below a prince of any other country, I selected a spot a
+little above the camping-ground of his excellency the Prince Napoleon.
+By the aid of my guide I soon had the tent pitched. It was a small
+affair--only an upright pole, a few yards of canvas, and four wooden
+pins. The whole concern did not weigh twenty pounds, and only covered
+an area of ground about four feet by six. Zöega then took the horses
+to a pasture up the valley. I amused myself making a few sketches of
+the surrounding objects, and thinking how strange it was to be here
+all alone at the Geysers of Iceland. How many of my friends knew where
+I was? Not one, perhaps. And should all the Geysers blow up together
+and boil me on the spot, what would people generally think of it? Or
+suppose the ground were to give way and swallow me up, what difference
+would it make in the price of consols or the temperature of the ocean?
+
+When Zöega came back, he said, if I pleased, we would now go to work
+and cut sods for the Strokhr. It was a favorable time "to see him
+heave up." The way to make him do that was to make him sick. Sods
+always made him sick. They didn't agree with his stomach. Every
+gentleman who came here made it a point to stir him up. He was called
+the Strokhr because he churned things that were thrown down his
+throat; and Strokhr means _churn_. I was very anxious to see the
+performance suggested by Zöega, and readily consented to assist him in
+getting the sods.
+
+The Strokhr lay about a hundred yards from our tent, nearly in a line
+between the Great and Little Geysers. Externally it presents no very
+remarkable feature, being nothing more than a hole in the bed of
+rocks, about five feet in diameter, and slightly funnel-shaped at the
+orifice. Standing upon the edge, one can see the water boiling up and
+whirling over about twenty feet below. A hollow, growling noise is
+heard, varied by an occasional hiss and rush, as if the contents were
+struggling to get out. It emits hot vapors, and a slight smell of
+sulphur; otherwise it maintains rather a peaceful aspect, considering
+the infernal temper it gets into when disturbed.
+
+Zöega and I worked hard cutting and carrying the sods for nearly half
+an hour, by which time we had a large pile on the edge of the orifice.
+Zöega said there was enough. I insisted on getting more. "Let us give
+him a dose that he won't forget." "Oh, sir, nobody ever puts more than
+that in; it is quite enough." "No; I mean to make him deadly sick.
+Come on, Zöega." And at it we went again, cutting the sod, and
+carrying it over and piling it up in a great heap by the hole. When we
+had about a ton all ready, I said to Zöega, "Now, Zöega, fire away,
+and I'll stand here and see how it works." Then Zöega pushed it all
+over, and it went slapping and dashing down into the steaming shaft.
+For a little while it whirled about, and surged, and boiled, and
+tumbled over and over in the depths of the churn with a hollow,
+swashing noise terribly ominous of what was to come. I peeped over the
+edge to try if I could detect the first symptoms of the approaching
+eruption. Zöega walked quietly away about twenty steps, saying he
+preferred not to be too close. There was a sudden growl and a rumble,
+a terrible plunging about and swashing of the sods below, and fierce,
+whirling clouds of steam flew up, almost blinding me as they passed.
+
+"Sir," said Zöega, gravely, "you had better stand away. It comes up
+very suddenly when it once starts."
+
+"Don't be afraid, Zöega; I'll keep a sharp look-out for it. You may
+depend there's not a Geyser in Iceland can catch me when I make a
+break."
+
+"Very well, sir; but I'd advise you to be careful."
+
+Notwithstanding this good counsel, I could not resist the fascination
+of looking in. There was another tremendous commotion going on--a
+roar, a whirling over of the sods, and clouds of steam flying up. This
+time I ran back a few steps. But it was a false alarm. Nothing came of
+it. The heaving mass seemed to be producing the desired effect,
+however. The Strokhr was evidently getting very sick. I looked over
+once more. All below was a rumbling, tumbling black mass, dashing over
+and over against the sides of the churn. Soon a threatening roar not
+to be mistaken startled me. "Look out, sir!" shouted Zöega; "look
+out!" Unlike the Frenchman who looked out when he should have looked
+in, I unconsciously looked in when I should have looked out. With a
+suddenness that astonished me, up shot the seething mass almost in my
+face. One galvanic jump--an involuntary shout of triumph--and I was
+rolling heels over head on the crust of earth about ten feet off, the
+hot water and clumps of sod tumbling down about me in every direction.
+Another scramble brought me to my feet, of which I made such good use
+that I was forty yards beyond Zöega before I knew distinctly what had
+happened. The poor fellow came running toward me in great
+consternation.
+
+"Are you hurt, sir? I hope you're not hurt!" he cried, in accents of
+great concern.
+
+"Hurt!" I answered. "Didn't you see me rolling over on the ground
+laughing at it? Why, Zöega, I never saw any thing so absurd as that in
+my life; any decent Geyser would have given at least an hour's notice.
+This miserable little wretch went off half cocked. I was just laughing
+to think how sick we made him all of a sudden!"
+
+"Oh, that was it, sir! I thought you were badly hurt."
+
+"Not a bit of it. You never saw a man who had suffered serious bodily
+injury run and jump with joy, and roll with laughter as I did."
+
+"No, sir, never, now that I come to think of it."
+
+Somehow it was always pleasant to talk with Zöega, his simplicity was
+so refreshing.
+
+The display was really magnificent. An immense dark column shot into
+the air to the height of sixty or seventy feet, composed of
+innumerable jets of water and whirling masses of sod. It resembled a
+thousand fountains joined together, each with a separate source of
+expulsion. The hissing hot water, blackened by the boiled clay and
+turf, spurted up in countless revolving circlets, spreading out in
+every direction and falling in torrents over the earth, which was
+deluged for fifty feet around with the dark, steaming flood. This,
+again sweeping into the mouth of the funnel, fell in thick streams
+into the churn, carrying with it the sods that were scattered within
+its vortex, and once more heaved and surged about in the huge caldron
+below.
+
+The eruption continued for about five minutes without any apparent
+diminution of force. It then subsided into fitful and convulsive jets,
+as if making a last effort, and finally disappeared with a deep growl
+of disappointment. All was now quiet save the gurgling of the murky
+water as it sought its way back. Zöega said it was not done yet--that
+this was only a beginning. I took my sketch-book and resolved to seize
+the next opportunity for a good view of the eruption, taking, in the
+mean time, a general outline of the locality, including a glimpse of
+the Langarfjal. Just as I had finished up to the orifice the same
+angry roar which had first startled me was repeated, and up shot the
+dark, boiling flood in grander style than ever. This time it was
+absolutely fearful. There could be no doubt the dose of sods we had
+tumbled into the stomach of the old gentleman was making him not only
+dreadfully sick, but furiously angry.
+
+At this moment, as if the elements sympathized in his distress, fierce
+gusts of wind began to blow down from the Langarfjal. So sudden and
+violent were they that it was difficult to maintain a foothold in our
+exposed position; and the tall column of fountains, struck with the
+full violence of the wind, presented a splendid spectacle of strength
+and rage--surging, and swaying, and battling to maintain its erect
+position, and showing in every motion the irresistible power with
+which it was ejected. Steam, and water, and sods went whirling down
+into the valley; the very air was darkened with the shriven and
+scattered currents; and a black deluge fell to the leeward, hundreds
+of yards beyond the orifice. The weird and barren aspect of the
+surrounding scenery was never more impressive.
+
+"What do you think of the Strokhr, sir?" asked Zöega, with some pride.
+"Is it equal to the Geysers of California?"
+
+  [Illustration: THE STROKHR.]
+
+I was rather taken aback at the honest bluntness of this question,
+and must admit that I felt a little crest-fallen when I came to
+compare the respective performances. Therefore I could only answer, in
+rather a casual way,
+
+"Well, Zöega, to tell you the truth, ours don't get quite so sick as
+this, owing, no doubt, to the superior salubrity of our climate. You
+might throw sods into them all day, and they wouldn't make such a fuss
+about it as the Strokhr makes about a mere handful. Their digestion,
+you see, is a great deal stronger."
+
+"Oh, but wait, sir, till you see the Great Geyser; that's much better
+than the Strokhr."
+
+"Doubtless it is very fine, Zöega. Still I can't help but think our
+California Geysers are in a superior condition of health. It is true
+they smoke a good deal, but I don't think they impair their digestion
+by such stimulating food as the Geysers of Iceland. Judging by the
+eruptions of the Strokhr, I should say he feeds exclusively on fire
+and water, which would ruin the best stomach in the world."
+
+Zöega looked troubled. He evidently did not comprehend my figurative
+style of speech. So the conversation dropped.
+
+The column of water ejected from the Strokhr, unlike that of the Great
+Geyser, is tall and slender, and of almost inky blackness. In the case
+of the Great Geyser no artificial means interrupt its operations; in
+that of the Strokhr the pressure of foreign substances produces
+results not natural to it.
+
+After the two eruptions which I have attempted to describe, the waters
+of the Strokhr again subsided into sobs and convulsive throes. Some
+half an hour now elapsed before any thing more took place. Then there
+was another series of growls, and a terrible swashing about down in
+the churn, as if all the demons under earth were trying to drown one
+another, and up shot the murky flood for the third time. Thus it
+continued at intervals more and more remote, till a late hour in the
+night, making desperate efforts to disgorge the sods that were swept
+back after every ejection, and to rid itself of the foul water that
+remained. Those attempts gradually grow fainter and fainter, subsiding
+at last into mere grumblings. I looked into the orifice the next
+morning, and was surprised to find the water yet discolored. It was
+evident, from the uneasy manner in which it surged about, that the
+dose still produced unpleasant effects.
+
+Having finished my sketch, I returned to the tent, in front of which
+Zöega had meantime spread a cloth, with some bread and cheese on it,
+and such other scraps of provisions as we had. A little boy from the
+neighboring sheep-ranch brought us down some milk and cream, and I
+thought if we only had a cup of tea on to warm us up after the chilly
+wind our supper would be luxurious.
+
+"Just in time, sir," said Zöega; "I'll make the tea in a minute."
+
+"Where's your fire."
+
+"Oh, we don't need fire here--the hot water is always ready. There's
+the big boiler up yonder!"
+
+I looked where Zöega pointed, and saw, about a hundred yards off, a
+boiling caldron. This was our grand tea-kettle. Upon a nearer
+inspection, I found that it consisted of two great holes in the rocks,
+close together, the larger of which was about thirty feet in
+circumference, and of great depth. The water was as clear as crystal.
+It was easy to trace the white stratum of rocks, of which the sides
+were formed, down to the neck of the great shaft through which the
+water was ejected. Flakes of steam floated off from the surface of the
+crystal pool, which was generally placid. Only at occasional intervals
+did it show any symptoms of internal commotion. By dipping my finger
+down a little way I found that it was boiling hot. Five minutes
+immersion would be sufficient to skin and boil an entire man.
+
+Nature has bountifully put these boilers here for the use of
+travelers. Not a stick or twig of wood grows within a circuit of many
+miles, and without fuel of course it would be impossible to cook
+food. Here a leg of mutton submerged in a pot can be beautifully
+boiled; plum-puddings cooked; eggs, fish, or any thing you please,
+done to a nicety. All this I knew before, but I had no idea that the
+water was pure enough for drinking purposes. Such, however, is the
+fact. No better water ever came out of the earth--in a boiled
+condition. To make a pot of tea, you simply put your tea in your pot,
+hold on to the handle, dip the whole concern down into the water, keep
+it there a while to draw, and your tea is made.
+
+I found it excellent, and did not, as I apprehended, discover any
+unpleasant flavor in the water. It may be slightly impregnated with
+sulphur, though that gives it rather a wholesome smack. To me,
+however, it tasted very much like any other hot water.
+
+  [Illustration: SIDE-SADDLE.]
+
+When I returned to the tent, and sat down to my frugal repast, and ate
+my bread and cheese, and quaffed the fragrant tea, Zöega sitting near
+by respectfully assisting me, something of the old California feeling
+came over me, and I enjoyed life once more after years of travel
+through the deserts of civilization in Europe. What a glorious thing
+it is to be a natural barbarian! This was luxury! this was joy! this
+was Paradise upon earth! Ah me! where is the country that can equal
+California? Brightest of the bright lands of sunshine; richest,
+rarest, loveliest of earth's beauties! like Phædra to the mistress of
+his soul, I love you by day and by night, behave in the company of
+others as if I were absent; want you; dream of you; think of you; wish
+for you; delight in you--in short, I am wholly yours, body and soul!
+If ever I leave you again on a wild-goose chase through Europe, may
+the Elector of Hesse-Cassel appoint me his prime minister, or the Duke
+of Baden his principal butler!
+
+Very little indication of the time was apparent in the sky. The sun
+still shone brightly, although it was nearly ten o'clock. I did not
+feel much inclined to sleep, with so many objects of interest around.
+Apart from that, there was something in this everlasting light that
+disturbed my nervous system. It becomes really terrible in the course
+of a few days. The whole order of nature seems reversed. Night has
+disappeared altogether. Nothing but day remains--dreary, monotonous,
+perpetual day. You crave the relief of darkness; your spirits, at
+first exuberant, go down, and still down, till they are below zero;
+the novelty wears away, and the very light becomes gloomy.
+
+People must sleep, nevertheless. With me it was a duty I owed to an
+overtaxed body. Our tent was rather small for two, and Zöega asked
+permission to sleep with an acquaintance who lived in a cabin about
+two miles distant. This I readily granted. It was something of a
+novelty to be left in charge of two such distinguished characters as
+the Great Geyser and the Strokhr. Possibly they might favor me with
+some extraordinary freaks of humor, such as no other traveler had yet
+enjoyed. So, bidding Zöega a kindly farewell for the present, I closed
+the front of the tent, and tried to persuade myself that it was night.
+
+With the light streaming in through the crevices of the tent, it was
+no easy matter to imagine that this was an appropriate time to "steep
+the senses in forgetfulness." I was badly provided with covering, and
+the weather, though not absolutely cold, was damp and chilly. In my
+hurry to get off, I had forgotten even the small outfit with which I
+originally thought of making the journey. All I now had in the way of
+bedding was a thin shawl, and an old overall belonging to Captain
+Andersen, of the steamer. I put one on the ground and the other over
+my body, and with a bag of hard bread under my head by way of a
+pillow, strove to banish the notion that it was at all uncomfortable.
+There was something in this method of sleeping to remind me of my
+California experience. To be sure there was a lack of blankets, and
+fire, and pleasant company, and balmy air, and many other luxuries;
+but the general principle was the same, except that it was impossible
+to sleep. The idea of being utterly alone, in such an outlandish part
+of the world, may have had something to do with the singular activity
+of my nervous system. It seemed to me that somebody was thrusting
+cambric needles into my skin in a sudden and violent manner, and at
+the most unexpected places; and strange sounds were continually
+buzzing in my ears. I began to reflect seriously upon the condition of
+affairs down underneath my bed. Doubtless it was a very fiery and
+restless region, or all these smokes and simmering pools would not
+disfigure the face of the country. How thick was the shell of the
+earth at this particular spot? It sounded very thin all over--a mere
+crust, through which one might break at any moment. Here was boiling
+water fizzing and gurgling all around, and the air was impregnated
+with strong odors of sulphur. Suppose the whole thing should burst up
+of a sudden? It was by no means impossible. What would become of my
+sketches of Iceland in the event of such a catastrophe as that? What
+sort of a notice would my editorial friends give of the curious manner
+in which I had disappeared? And what would Zöega think in the
+morning, when he came down from the farm-house, and saw that his tent
+and provision-boxes were gone down in a great hole, and that an
+American gentleman, in whom he had the greatest confidence, had not
+only carried them with him, but failed to pay his liabilities before
+starting? Here, too, was the sun only slightly dipped below the
+horizon at midnight, and the moon shining overhead at the same time.
+Every thing was twisted inside out and turned upside down. It was
+truly a strange country.
+
+Having tossed and tumbled about for an indefinite length of time, I
+must have fallen into an uneasy doze. During the day I had been
+thinking of the rebellion at home, and now gloomy visions disturbed my
+mind. I thought I saw moving crowds dressed in black, and heard
+wailing sounds. Funerals passed before me, and women and children wept
+for the dead. The scene changed, and I saw hosts of men on the
+battle-field, rushing upon each other and falling in deadly strife. A
+dreary horror came over me. It was like some dreadful play, in which
+the stake was human life. Blood was upon the faces of the dying and
+the dead. In the effort to disentangle the right from the wrong--to
+seek out a cause for the calamity which had fallen upon us--a racking
+anguish tortured me, and I vainly strove to regain my scattered
+senses. Then, in the midst of this confused dream, I heard the booming
+of cannon--at first far down in the earth, but gradually growing
+nearer, till, with a start, I awoke. Still the guns boomed! Surely the
+sounds were real. I could not be deceived. Starting to my feet, I
+listened. Splashing and surging waters, and dull, heavy reports,
+sounded in the air. I dashed aside the lining of the tent and looked
+out. Never shall I forget that sight--the Great Geyser in full
+eruption! A tremendous volume of water stood in bold relief against
+the sky, like a tall weeping willow in winter swaying before the wind,
+and shaking the white frost from its drooping branches. Whirling
+vapors and white wreaths floated off toward the valley. All was clear
+overhead. A spectral light, which was neither of day nor of night,
+shone upon the dark, lava-covered earth. The rush and plashing of the
+fountain and the booming of the subterranean guns fell with a
+startling distinctness upon the solitude. Streams of glittering white
+water swept the surface of the great basin on all sides, and dashed
+hissing and steaming into the encircling fissures. A feathery spray
+sparkled through the air. The earth trembled, and sudden gusts of wind
+whirled down with a moaning sound from the wild gorges of the
+Langarfjal.
+
+It did not appear to me that the height of the fountain was so great
+as it is generally represented. So far as I could judge, the greatest
+altitude at any time from the commencement of the eruption was not
+over sixty feet. Its volume, however, greatly exceeded my
+expectations, and the beauty of its form surpassed all description. I
+had never before seen, and never again expect to see, any thing equal
+to it. This magnificent display lasted, altogether, about ten minutes.
+The eruption was somewhat spasmodic in its operation, increasing or
+diminishing in force at each moment, till, with a sudden dash, all the
+water that remained was ejected, and then, after a few gurgling
+throes, all was silent.
+
+I no longer attempted to sleep. My mind was bewildered with the
+wonders of the scene I had just witnessed. All I could do was to make
+a cup of tea at the big boiler on the slope above my tent, and walk
+about, after drinking it, to keep my feet warm. Soon the sun's rays
+appeared upon the distant mountains. A strange time of the night for
+the sun to be getting up--only half past one--when people in most
+other parts of the world are snug in bed, and don't expect to see a
+streak of sunshine for at least four or five hours. How different from
+any thing I had ever before seen was the sunrise in Iceland! No
+crowing of the cock; no singing of the birds; no merry plow-boys
+whistling up the horses in the barn-yard; no cherry-cheeked
+milk-maids singing love-ditties as they tripped the green with their
+pails upon their heads. All was grim, silent, and death-like. And yet
+surely, for all that, the delicate tints of the snow-capped mountains,
+the peaks of which were now steeped in the rays of the rising sun, the
+broad valley slumbering in the shade, the clear, sparkling atmosphere,
+and the exquisite coloring of the Langarfjal--the mighty crag that
+towers over the Geysers--were beauties enough to redeem the solitude
+and imbue the deserts with a celestial glory.
+
+There are various theories concerning the cause of these eruptions of
+water in Iceland. That of Lyell, the geologist, seems the most
+reasonable. The earth, as it is well known, increases in heat at a
+certain ratio corresponding with the depth from the surface. There are
+cavities in many parts of it, arising from subterranean disturbances,
+into which the water percolates from the upper strata. In Iceland the
+probability is that these cavities are both numerous and extensive,
+owing to volcanic causes, and form large receivers for the water of
+the surrounding neighborhood. Wherever there is a natural outlet, as
+at the Geysers, this water, which is boiled by the heat of the earth,
+is forced to the surface by compression of steam, and remains at the
+mouth of the pipe, or shaft, until an accumulation of compressed steam
+drives it up in the form of a fountain. The periodical occurrence of
+these eruptions in some of the hot-springs and not in others may arise
+from a difference in the depth of the receiver, or more probably from
+the existence of several outlets for the escape of steam in some, and
+only one in others. A good illustration of this theory is presented in
+the boiling of an ordinary tea-kettle. When the compression of steam
+is great, the cover is lifted up and the water shoots from the spout,
+by which means the pressure is relieved and the water subsides. The
+same thing is repeated until the space within the kettle becomes
+sufficiently large to admit of a more rapid condensation of the steam.
+The action of the Strokhr, which, as I have shown, differs from that
+of the Great Geyser, may be accounted for on the same general
+principle. The foreign substances thrown in on top of the boiling
+water stops the escape of steam, which, under ordinary circumstances,
+is sufficiently great not to require the periodical relief of an
+eruption. An accumulation of compressed steam takes place in the
+reservoir below, and this continues until the obstruction is ejected.
+
+  [Illustration: GREAT GEYSER AND RECEIVER.]
+
+  [Illustration: STROKHR AND RECEIVER.]
+
+This, I believe, is substantially Lyell's theory; though, having no
+books by me at present, I quote entirely from memory, and it is
+possible I may be mistaken in some of the details. The preceding
+diagrams will enable the reader to understand more clearly the whole
+process by which these eruptions are produced.
+
+Six long hours remained till ordinary breakfast-time. What was to be
+done? It was getting terribly lonesome. I felt like one who had been
+to a theatre and seen all the performances. Zöega had promised to be
+back by eight o'clock; but eight o'clock in Iceland, on the 21st of
+June, is a late hour of the day. A treatise on trigonometry might be
+written between sunrise and that unapproachable hour. The only thing I
+could do was to make some more tea and eat a preliminary breakfast.
+When that was done nothing remained but to go to work in front of my
+little tent and finish up my rough sketches. This is a very absorbing
+business, as every body knows who has tried it, and I was deeply into
+it when Zöega made his appearance.
+
+"Well, sir," said he, "what success? Did he erupt?"
+
+"Of course he erupted, Zöega. You didn't suppose a Great Geyser would
+keep a gentleman all the way from California waiting here an entire
+night without showing him what he could do?"
+
+"No, sir; but he sometimes disappoints travelers. How do you like it?
+Does he compare with your California Geysers?"
+
+"Well, Zöega, he throws up more hot water, to be sure, because our
+Geysers don't erupt at all; but here is the grand difference. We
+Californians are a moral people; we don't live so near to (I pointed
+down below) as you do in Iceland."
+
+"I don't understand you, sir," said Zöega, with a puzzled expression.
+
+I called him over and whispered in his ear, "Zöega, I hope you're a
+good man. Do you say your prayers regularly?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then you are all right. Let us be going. I don't like this
+neighborhood."
+
+"Whenever you wish, sir. The horses are all ready."
+
+And Zöega proceeded to strike the tent and pack the animals, muttering
+to himself and shaking his head gravely, as if he thought the
+Californians were a very peculiar race of men, to say the least of
+them.
+
+Another cup of tea and a few biscuits served to brace us up for the
+journey, and we mounted our horses and turned their heads homeward.
+Brusa was so delighted at the idea of being _en route_ once more that
+he signalized our departure by giving chase to a flock of sheep, which
+he dispersed in a most miraculous manner, and then, of course,
+received the customary punishment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+THE ENGLISH SPORTS IN TROUBLE.
+
+
+Our ride back to Thingvalla was over the same trail which we had
+traveled on the preceding day, with the exception of a short cut to
+the right of the Tintron rock. We made very good speed, and reached
+the Parsonage early in the afternoon.
+
+During our absence a young Englishman had arrived from the North,
+where he had been living for a year. I found him in the travelers'
+room, surrounded by a confused medley of boxes, bags, books, and
+Icelandic curiosities, which he was endeavoring to reduce to some kind
+of order. Had I not been told he was an Englishman I should never have
+suspected it, either from his appearance or manner. When I entered the
+room he stood up and looked at me, and I must say, without intending
+him the slightest disrespect, that he was the most extraordinary
+looking man I ever saw in all my life, not excepting a tattooed
+African chief that I once met at Zanzibar. Whether he was young or old
+it was impossible to say--he might be twenty-five or just as likely
+fifty. Dirty and discolored with travel, his face was generally dark,
+though it was somewhat relieved by spots of yellow. His features were
+regular, and of almost feminine softness; his eyes were dark brown;
+and his hair, which was nearly black, hung down over his shoulders in
+lank straight locks, sunburnt or frostbitten at the ends. On his head
+he wore a tall, conical green wool hat, with a broad brim, and a brown
+band tied in a true lover's knot at one side. The remainder of his
+costume consisted of a black cloth roundabout, threadbare and dirty; a
+pair of black casimere pantaloons, very tight about the legs and burst
+open in several places; and a pair of moccasins on his feet, adorned
+with beads and patches of red flannel. If he wore a shirt it was not
+conspicuous for whiteness, for I failed to discover it. When he saw
+that a stranger stood before him, he looked quite overwhelmed with
+astonishment, and gasped out some inarticulate words, consisting
+principally of Icelandic interjections.
+
+"How do you do, sir?" said I, in the usual California style. "I'm glad
+to meet an Englishman in this wild country!"
+
+"Ye'ow-w-w!" (a prolonged exclamation.)
+
+"Just arrived, sir?"
+
+"Nay-y-y!" (a prolonged negative.)
+
+"You speak English, I believe, sir?"
+
+"Oh-h-h! Ya-a-a-s. Are--you--an--Englishman?"
+
+"No, sir. An American, from California."
+
+"De-e-e-a-r-r m-e-e!"
+
+  [Illustration: OH-O-O-AH!]
+
+Here there was a pause, for I really did not know what to make of the
+man. He looked at the ceiling, and at the floor, and out of the
+window, and started a remark several times, but always stopped before
+he got under way, or lost it in a prolonged "Oh-o-o-a!" Again and
+again he attempted to speak, never getting beyond a word or two. It
+seemed as if some new idea were continually crossing his mind and
+depriving him of his breath: he labored under a chronic astonishment.
+At first I supposed it might be the natural result of a year's absence
+in the interior of Iceland, but subsequent acquaintance with him
+satisfied me that it was constitutional. He was astonished all the
+way from Reykjavik to Scotland. When it rained he opened his eyes as
+if they would burst; looked up in the sky, and cried "Oh-h-h!" When it
+blew he tumbled into his berth, covered himself up in the blankets,
+peeped out in the most profound amazement, and ejaculated "Ah-h-h!
+Oh-h-h! Hay-y-y! Ye'ow-w-w!" When the weather was fine he came up on
+deck, peered over the bulwarks, up at the rigging, down into the
+engine-room, and was perfectly astounded at each object, exclaiming
+alternately "Oh-h-o-o-a-a-h!" "Ah-ha!" "H-a-y!" and "Ye'ow-w-w-w!" At
+Thingvalla his main food was curds and black bread, yet he had an
+abundance of the best provisions. He was a thorough Icelandic scholar,
+and spoke the language with ease and grace, only when interrupted by
+the novel ideas that so often struck him in the head. With all his
+oddity, he was a gentleman by birth and education, and was very
+amiable in his disposition. He had evidently spent much of his life
+over books; his knowledge of the world scarcely equaled that of a
+child. From all that I could gather of his winter's experiences in
+North Iceland, the climate was not very severe, except at occasional
+intervals when there was a press of ice-fields along the coast. The
+mean temperature was quite moderate. He suffered no inconvenience at
+all from the weather. At times it was very pleasant. He had the
+misfortune to break his leg in climbing over some lava-bergs, which
+crippled him for some weeks, but he was now getting all right again.
+This account of his experiences, which I obtained from him during the
+evening, took many divergences into the "Ohs!" and "Ahs!" and was
+really both instructive and entertaining. When he came to the breaking
+of his leg, I expressed my astonishment at the equanimity with which
+he bore it, which so astonished him, when he came to think of it in
+that light, that he cried "Oh-h-a-a! ya-a-s! It--was--very--bad!" as
+if he had entirely forgotten how bad it was, and now made a new and
+most singular discovery.
+
+As there was only the one small room we had to sleep at pretty close
+quarters, the Englishman on the sofa and I in the bed, which for some
+reason was awarded to me by the good pastor. Having no preference, I
+offered to exchange; but this only astonished my eccentric neighbor,
+and set him off into a labyrinth of interjections. Our heads were
+placed pretty close together, and it was some time before I could
+settle myself to sleep, owing to a variety of peculiar sounds he made
+in whispering to himself. He seemed to be telling himself some
+interminable story from one of the Sagas. Several times I dozed off,
+and was awakened by some extraordinary ejaculation.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said I, at length, rising up, and looking in the
+face of my neighbor, who was lying on his back, with his eyes wide
+open, "I beg your pardon, sir; did you speak to me?"
+
+"Oh-h-h-a!" shouted the Englishman, jumping up as if touched with a
+streak of electricity. "Dear me! ha--oh-o-o! How very odd!"
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Good-night, sir!" I said, and lay down again. The Englishman also
+composed himself to rest, but presently rose up, and looking over at
+me, exclaimed "Oh-o-o-ah!"
+
+This was all. Then we both composed ourselves to sleep. Tired as I was
+after my ride from the Geysers and the bad night I had passed there,
+it was no wonder I soon lost all consciousness of the proximity of my
+eccentric room-mate, and the probability is I would have gotten well
+through the night but for another singular and unexpected
+interruption.
+
+"Hello! What the devil! Who's here? By Jove, this is jolly! I say!
+Where the dooce is our American friend? Down, Bowser! Down! Blawst the
+dog! Ho! ho! Look there, Tompkins! I say! Here's a go!"
+
+There was a tramping of feet, a knocking about of loose things in the
+room, and a chorus of familiar voices in the adjoining passage. It is
+needless to say that the party of sporting Englishmen had arrived from
+Reykjavik.
+
+"Oh-h-a! Ye-o-w!" exclaimed my room-mate, starting up, and gazing
+wildly at the lively young gentleman with the dog. "Oh-o-o! How very
+odd!"
+
+The jolly sportsman looked at the apparition in perfect amazement.
+Both stared at each other for a moment, as if such an extraordinary
+sight had never been witnessed on either side before.
+
+"By Jove! this is jolly!" muttered the lively gentleman, turning on
+his heel and walking out; "a devilish rum-looking chap, that!"
+
+"Oh-o-o-o!" was all my astonished room-mate said, after which he
+turned over and composed himself to sleep. I had purposely refrained
+from manifesting any symptoms of wakefulness, well-knowing that there
+would be no farther rest that night if I once discovered myself to the
+traveling party.
+
+At a seasonable hour in the morning, however, I got up, and looked
+about in search of my fellow-passengers, whom I really liked, and in
+whose progress I felt a considerable interest. They were camped close
+by the church, under the lee of the front door. Two canvas tents
+covered what was left of them. A general wreck of equipments lay
+scattered all around--broken poles, boxes, tinware, etc. It was plain
+enough they had encountered incredible hardships.
+
+  [Illustration: THE ENGLISH PARTY.]
+
+The usual greetings over, I inquired how they had enjoyed the trip
+from Reykjavik. In reply they gave me a detailed and melancholy
+history of their experiences. Riley's Narrative of Shipwreck, and
+subsequent hardships on the coast of Africa, was nothing to it. Of the
+twenty-five horses with which they left Reykjavik only thirteen were
+sound of wind, and of these more than half were afflicted with raw
+backs. The pack-animals, eighteen in number, were every one lame. Then
+the packs were badly done up, and broke to pieces on the way.
+Sometimes the ropes cut the horses' backs, and sometimes the horses
+lay down on the road, and tried to travel with their feet in the air.
+Incredible difficulty was experienced in making twelve miles the first
+day. It rained all the time. The bread was soaked; the tea destroyed;
+the sugar melted; and the Champagne baskets smashed. When the packs
+were taken off it was discovered that some of them wore quite empty,
+and the contents, consisting originally of hair-brushes, flea-powder,
+lip-salve, and cold-cream, were strewn along the road probably all the
+way from Reykjavik. The cot-fixtures were swelled and wouldn't fit;
+the tea-kettle was jammed into a cocked-hat; the tent-pins were lost,
+and the hatchet nowhere to be found. It was a perfect series of jams,
+smashes, and scatterings. Even the sheets were filled with mud, and
+wholly unfit for use until they could be washed and done up. One horse
+lay down on the portable kitchen, and flattened it into a general
+pancake; another attempted to take an impression of his own body on
+the photographic apparatus, and reduced it (the apparatus) to
+fragments; another, wishing perhaps to see his face as others saw him,
+raked off the looking-glasses against a point of lava, and walked on
+them; and, lastly, one stupid beast contrived in some way to get his
+nose into a mustard-case which had fallen from a pack in front, and,
+snuffing up the mustard, got his nostrils burnt and went perfectly
+crazy, kicking, plunging, and charging at all the other horses till he
+drove them all as crazy as himself, whereby a prodigious amount of
+damage was done. In short, it was a series of disasters from beginning
+to end; and here they were now but two days' journey from Reykjavik (I
+had made the whole distance easily in seven hours), and, by Jove,
+there was no telling how much longer it would be possible to keep the
+guide. They had already quarreled with him several times, and
+threatened to discharge him. He was a stupid dunce, and a rascal and a
+cheat into the bargain. On the whole, it was a "rum" sort of a country
+to travel in. No game, no roads, no shops, no accommodations for man
+or beast! And who ever saw such houses for people to live in? Mere
+sheep-pens! Disgustingly filthy! A beastly set of ragamuffins! By
+Jove, sir, if it wasn't for the name of the thing, a fellow might as
+well be in the infernal regions at once! In truth, I must acknowledge
+that the interior of an Icelandic hut does not present a very
+attractive spectacle to a stranger.
+
+I deeply sympathized with my friends, and urged them to leave the
+remainder of their baggage. If there was any medicine left, a dose of
+quinine all around might do them good and prevent any ill effects from
+the rain; but, on the whole, I thought they would get along better
+with less baggage.
+
+"Less baggage!" cried all together. "Why, hang it, our baggage is
+scattered along the trail clear back to Reykjavik! It has been growing
+less ever since we started. By the time we reach the Geysers it is
+questionable if we'll have as much as a fine-tooth comb left!"
+
+"Then," said I, "you can travel. Sell a dozen of your horses on the
+way, and you'll be rid of another trouble!"
+
+"Sell them; they wouldn't bring a farthing. They're not worth a
+groat."
+
+"Then turn them loose."
+
+"That's a jolly idea," said the lively sportsman; "how the deuce are
+we to travel without pack-horses?"
+
+"Oh, nothing easier. You don't need pack-horses when you have no
+packs."
+
+"By Jove, there's something in that!" said the jolly gentleman. "Our
+American friend ought to know. He's seen the elephant before."
+
+This proposition gave rise to an animated discussion, during which I
+wished them a prosperous tour, and took my leave. Of their subsequent
+career I have heard nothing, save that they arrived safely in England,
+and published various letters in the newspapers giving glowing
+accounts of their Icelandic experience.
+
+  [Illustration: INTERIOR OF ICELANDIC HUT.]
+
+Nothing of importance occurred on the way back to Reykjavik. I
+arrived there early in the afternoon safe and sound, and greatly
+benefited by the trip. Like the beatings received by Brusa, the
+experience was delightful when it was over. I paid off my excellent
+guide Geir Zöega, and made him a present of the few articles that
+remained from the expedition. It is a great pleasure to be able to
+recommend a guide heartily and conscientiously. A worthier man than
+Geir Zöega does not exist, and I hereby certify that he afforded me
+entire satisfaction. No traveler who desires an honest, intelligent,
+and conscientious guide can do better than secure his services. Long
+life and happiness to you, Geir Zöega! May your shadow never be less;
+and may your invaluable little dog Brusa live to profit by your wise
+counsel and judicious administration of the rod.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+A FRIGHTFUL ADVENTURE.
+
+
+The _Arcturus_ had been delayed in discharging freight by a series of
+storms which prevailed at the bay, and was now down at Haparanda Fjord
+taking in ballast. The probability was that she would not leave for
+several days. Meantime I was extremely anxious to see a little more of
+domestic life in Iceland, and made several foot-expeditions to the
+farm-houses in the neighborhood of Reykjavik.
+
+At one of these I passed a night. In giving the details of an awkward
+adventure that befell me on that occasion, it is only necessary for me
+to say of the house that it was built in the usual primitive style,
+already described at some length. The people were farmers, and the
+family consisted of an old man and his wife, three or four stout sons,
+and a buxom daughter some twenty years of age. A few words of Danish
+enabled me to make them understand that I wished for a cup of coffee,
+some bread, and lodgings for the night. They were exceeding kind, and
+seemed greatly interested in the fact that I was an American--probably
+the first they had ever seen. The coffee was soon ready; a cloth was
+spread upon the table, and a very good supper of bread, cheese, and
+curds placed before me. I passed some hours very sociably, giving
+them, as well as I could by means of signs and diagrams, aided by a
+few words of Danish, a general idea of California, its position on the
+globe, and the enormous amount of gold which it yielded. Evidently
+they had heard some exaggerated rumors of the country. The name was
+familiar to them, but they had no idea where this El Dorado was, or
+whether there was any truth in the statement that the mountains were
+made of gold, and all the rocks in the valleys of pure silver. My
+efforts to enlighten them on these points were rather ludicrous. It
+was miraculous how far I made a few words go, and how quick they were
+to guess at my meaning.
+
+About eleven o'clock the old people began to manifest symptoms of
+drowsiness, and gave me to understand that whenever I felt disposed to
+go to bed the girl would show me my room. A walk of ten or twelve
+miles over the lava-bergs rendered this suggestion quite acceptable,
+so I bade the family a friendly good-night, and followed the girl to
+another part of the house. She took me into a small room with a bed in
+one corner. By a motion of her hand she intimated that I could rest
+there for the night. I sat down on the edge of the bed and said it was
+very good--that I was much obliged to her. She still lingered in the
+room, however, as if waiting to see if she could be of any farther
+assistance. I could not be insensible to the fact that she was a very
+florid and good-natured looking young woman; but, of course, that was
+none of my business. All I could do with propriety was to thank her
+again, and signify by taking off my overcoat that I was about to go to
+bed. Still she lingered, apparently disposed to be as friendly as
+circumstances would permit. It was somewhat awkward being alone in a
+strange room with a person of the opposite sex, young and rather
+pretty, without saying any thing particular. Her silence, as well as
+my own, was getting embarrassing. I attempted to carry on a
+conversation in Danish, of which I soon discovered she knew even less
+than I did myself. She answered my remarks, however, in her native
+tongue, with a very sweet voice, and in such a sociable way that I
+felt sure she meant to be kind and hospitable. In vain I waited for
+her to leave. It was getting late, and her parents might feel anxious
+about her. Still she manifested no disposition to go away. What could
+the girl mean? was a question that now began to enter my head.
+Probably I had taken possession of her room, and she had no other
+place to sleep. If so, it was not my fault. Nobody could hold me
+responsible for such a peculiar family arrangement. Seeing no
+alternative but to test the point, I gradually began to take off my
+coat. So far from being abashed at the movement, she seized hold of
+the sleeves and helped me off with it. I did the same with my vest,
+and still with the same result. Then I pulled off my boots, but with
+no better prospect of relief from my embarrassing dilemma. Finally I
+came to my pantaloons, at which I naturally hesitated. It was about
+time for the young woman to leave, if she had any regard for my
+feelings. I thanked her very cordially; but she showed no symptoms of
+leaving. It was plain that she meant to help me through with the
+business. I sat for some time longer before I could bring myself to
+this last trying ordeal. There was something so pure and innocent in
+the expression of the young woman's face--such an utter
+unconsciousness of any impropriety in our relative positions, that I
+scarcely knew what to do or think. "She wants to help me off with my
+pantaloons--that's plain!" said I to myself. "Perhaps it is the custom
+in Iceland; but it is very awkward, nevertheless." The fact is, you
+see, I was not quite old enough to be the girl's father, nor yet quite
+young enough to be put to bed like her youngest brother. Between the
+two extremes of the case I was considerably troubled. To reject her
+kind offers of service might be deemed rude, and nothing was farther
+from my intention than to offend this amiable young person. Allowing a
+reasonable time to elapse, I saw there was no getting over the
+difficulty, and began to remove the last article of my daily apparel.
+Doubtless she had long foreseen that it would eventually come to that.
+In a very accommodating manner, she took a position directly in front,
+and beckoned to me to elevate one of my legs, an order which I
+naturally obeyed. Then she seized hold of the pendent casimere and
+dragged away with a hearty good-will. I was quickly reduced to my
+natural state with the exception of a pair of drawers, which, to my
+horror, I discovered were in a very ragged condition, owing to the
+roughness of my travels in this wild region. However, by an adroit
+movement I whirled into bed, and the young woman covered me up and
+wished me a good night's sleep. I thanked her very cordially, and so
+ended this strange and rather awkward adventure.
+
+  [Illustration: AN AWKWARD PREDICAMENT.]
+
+Such primitive scenes are to be found only in the interior. In the
+towns the women are in dress and manners very like their sisters
+elsewhere. Hoops and crinoline are frequently to be seen not only
+among the Danes, who, as a matter of course, import them from
+Copenhagen, but among the native women, who can see no good reason why
+they should not be as much like pyramids or Jokuls as others of their
+sex. Bonnets and inverted pudding-bowls are common on the heads of the
+Reykjavik ladies, though as yet they have not found their way into the
+interior. All who can afford it indulge in a profusion of
+jewelry--silver clasps, breast-pins, tassel-bands, etc., and various
+articles of filigree made by native artists. These feminine traits I
+had not expected to find so fully developed in so out-of-the-way a
+country. But where is it that lovely woman will not make herself still
+more captivating? I once saw in Madagascar a belle of the first rank,
+as black as the ace of spades, and greased all over cocoa-nut oil,
+commit great havoc among her admirers by a necklace of shark's teeth
+and a pair of brass anklets, and nothing else. The rest of her
+costume, with a trifling exception, was purely imaginary; yet she was
+as vain of her superior style, and put on as many fine airs, as the
+most fashionable lady in any civilized country. After all, what is the
+difference between a finely-dressed savage and a finely-dressed
+Parisian? None at all that I can see, save in the color of the skin
+and the amount of labor performed by the manufacturer, the milliner,
+the tailor, or the schoolmaster. Intrinsically the constitution of the
+mind is identically the same. I speak now of men as well as women, for
+the most affected creatures I have seen in Europe are of the male sex.
+So pardon me, fair ladies, for any reflection upon your crinoline, and
+accept as my apology this candid avowal--that while you are naturally
+angelic, and always beautiful beyond comparison, in spite of what you
+do to disfigure your lovely persons, we men are naturally savages, and
+are driven to the barbarous expedient of adorning and beautifying our
+ugly bodies with gewgaws, tinsel, and jimcrackery, in order that they
+may be acceptable in your eyes.
+
+On my return to Reykjavik I found that the steamer was to sail next
+day. I was very anxious to visit Mount Hecla, but my time and means
+were limited, and would not permit of a farther sojourn in this
+interesting land. It was a great satisfaction to have seen any thing
+of it at all; and if I have given the reader even a slight glimpse of
+its wonders, my trip has not been entirely unsuccessful.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
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+each. The volumes may be obtained separately; or complete in neat
+case, for $5 40:
+
+    In New York; On the Erie Canal; In the Forests of Maine;
+    In Vermont; In Boston; At the Springfield Armory.
+
+
+Abbott's Stories of Rainbow and Lucky. Beautifully Illustrated. 5
+vols., 16mo, Cloth, 90 cents per Volume. The volumes may be obtained
+separately; or complete in neat case, $4 50:
+
+    Hardie; Rainbow's Journey; Selling Lucky; Up the River;
+    The Three Pines.
+
+
+Abbott's Illustrated Histories. Illustrated with numerous Engravings.
+16mo, Cloth, $1 20 per Volume. The volumes may be obtained separately;
+or the Set complete in box, $33 60:
+
+    Cyrus the Great; Darius the great; Xerxes; Alexander the
+    Great; Romulus; Hannibal; Pyrrhus; Julius Cæsar;
+    Cleopatra; Nero; Alfred the Great; William the
+    Conqueror; Richard I.; Richard II.; Richard III.; Mary
+    Queen of Scots; Queen Elizabeth; Charles I.; Charles
+    II.; Josephine; Marie Antoinette; Madame Roland; Henry
+    IV.; Margaret of Anjou; Peter the Great; Genghis Khan;
+    King Philip; Hernando Cortez.
+
+
+Abbott's Young Christian Series. Very greatly improved and enlarged.
+Numerous Engravings. The Volumes sold separately. Complete in 4 vols.,
+12mo, Cloth, $1 75 each:
+
+    The Young Christian; The Corner-Stone; The Way to do
+    Good; Hoary-head and M'Donner.
+
+
+Aikin's Evenings at Home; or, The Juvenile Budget Opened. By Dr. Aikin
+and Mrs. Barbauld. With 34 Engravings by Adams. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50.
+
+
+Child's History of England. By Charles Dickens. 2 vols., 16mo, Cloth,
+$2 00.
+
+
+Child's History of the United States. By John Bonner. 3 vols., 16mo,
+Cloth, $3 75.
+
+
+Child's History of Rome. By John Bonner. With Illustrations. 2 vols.,
+16mo, Cloth, $2 50.
+
+
+Child's History of Greece. By John Bonner. With Illustrations. 16mo,
+$2 50.
+
+
+Edgar's Boyhood of Great Men. By John G. Edgar. With Illustrations.
+16mo, Cloth, $1 20.
+
+
+Edgar's Footprints of Famous Men. By John G. Edgar. With
+Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1 20.
+
+
+Edgar's History for Boys; or, Annals of the Nations of Modern Europe.
+By John G. Edgar. Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1 20.
+
+
+Edgar's Sea-Kings and Naval Heroes. A Book for Boys. By John G. Edgar.
+Illustrated by C. Keene and E. K. Johnson. 16mo, Cloth, $1 20.
+
+
+Edgar's Wars of the Roses. By John G. Edgar. Illustrations. 16mo,
+Cloth, $1 20.
+
+
+Nineteen Beautiful Years; or, Sketches of a Girl's Life. Written by
+her Sister. With an Introduction by Rev. R. S. Foster, D.D. 16mo,
+Cloth, $1 00.
+
+
+Harper's Boys' and Girls' Library. 32 Volumes. Numerous Engravings.
+18mo, Cloth. Sold separately at 75 cents a Volume:
+
+    Lives of the Apostles and Early Martyrs.
+    The Swiss Family Robinson. 2 vols.
+    Sunday Evenings. Comprising Scripture Stories. 3 vols.
+    Mrs. Hofland's Son of a Genius.
+    Thatcher's Indian Traits. 2 vols.
+    Thatcher's Tales of the American Revolution.
+    Miss Eliza Robins's Tales from American History. 3 vols.
+    Mrs. Hofland's Young Crusoe; or, The Shipwrecked Boy.
+    Perils of the Sea.
+    Lives of Distinguished Females.
+    Mrs. Phelps's Caroline Westerley.
+    Mrs. Hughs's Ornaments Discovered.
+    The Clergyman's Orphan; the Infidel Reclaimed.
+    Uncle Philip's Natural History.
+    Uncle Philip's Evidences of Christianity.
+    Uncle Philip's History of Virginia.
+    Uncle Philip's American Forest.
+    Uncle Philip's History of New York. 2 vols.
+    Uncle Philip's Whale Fishery and the Polar Seas. 2 vols.
+    Uncle Philip's History of the Lost Colonies of Greenland.
+    Uncle Philip's History of Massachusetts. 2 vols.
+    Uncle Philip's History of New Hampshire 2 vols.
+
+
+Harper's Fireside Library; expressly adapted to the Domestic Circle,
+Sunday-Schools, &c. Cloth, Seventy-five cents each:
+
+    Alden's Alice Gordon.
+    Alden's Lawyer's Daughter.
+    Alden's Young Schoolmistress.
+    Burdett's Arthur Martin.
+    The Dying Robin.
+    Ellen Herbert; or, Family Changes.
+    Mayhew's Good Genius that turned every thing into Gold.
+    William the Cottager.
+    Mayhew's Magic of Kindness.
+
+
+Harper's Story Books. Narratives, Biographies, and Tales for the
+Young. By Jacob Abbott. With more than 1000 beautiful Engravings.
+
+    "HARPER'S STORY BOOKS" can be obtained complete in
+    Twelve Volumes, each one containing Three Stories, at
+    the price of $21 00; or in Thirty-six Thin Volumes, each
+    containing One Story, at the price of $32 40. The
+    volumes sold separately.
+
+    Vol. I. Bruno; Willie and the Mortgage; The Strait Gate.
+    Vol II. The Little Louvre; Prank; Emma. Vol. III.
+    Virginia; Timboo and Joliba; Timboo and Fanny. Vol. IV.
+    The Harper Establishment; Franklin; The Studio. Vol. V.
+    The Story of Ancient History; The Story of English
+    History; The Story of American History. Vol. VI. John
+    True; Elfred; The Museum. Vol. VII. The Engineer;
+    Rambles among the Alps; The Three Gold Dollars. Vol.
+    VIII. The Gibraltar Gallery; The Alcove; Dialogues. Vol.
+    IX. The Great Elm; Aunt Margaret; Vernon. Vol. X. Carl
+    and Jocko; Lapstone; Orkney the Peacemaker. Vol. XI.
+    Judge Justin; Minigo; Jasper. Vol. XII. Congo; Viola;
+    Little Paul.
+
+    Some of the Story Books are written particularly for
+    Girls, some for Boys; and the different volumes are
+    adapted to various ages, so that the Series forms a
+    complete Library of Story Books for Children of the
+    Family and the Sunday-School.
+
+
+Miss Mulock's Our Year. A Child's Book in Prose and Verse. Illustrated
+by Clarence Dobell. 16mo, Cloth, gilt edges, $1 00.
+
+
+Children's Picture-Books. Square 4to, about 300 pages each,
+beautifully printed on Tinted Paper, with many Illustrations by Weir,
+Steinle, Overbeck, Veit, Schnorr, Harvey, &c., bound in Cloth, gilt,
+$1 50 a volume; or the Series complete in neat case, $7 50:
+
+    The Children's Bible Picture-Book; The Children's
+    Picture Fable-Book; The Children's Picture-Book of
+    Quadrupeds, and other Mammalia; The Children's
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+
+
+Mayhew's Boyhood of Martin Luther; or, The Sufferings of the Little
+Beggar-boy who afterward became the Great German Reformer. By Henry
+Mayhew. Beautifully Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Mayhew's Peasant-Boy Philosopher. The Story of the Peasant-Boy
+Philosopher; or, "A Child gathering Pebbles on the Sea-Shore."
+(Founded on the Early Life of Ferguson, The Shepherd-Boy Astronomer,
+and intended to show how a Poor Lad became acquainted with the
+Principles of Natural Science.) By Henry Mayhew. Illustrations. 16mo,
+Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Mayhew's Wonders of Science; or, Young Humphrey Davy (The Cornish
+Apothecary's Boy, who taught himself Natural Philosophy and eventually
+became President of the Royal Society). The Life of a Wonderful Boy
+written for Boys. By Henry Mayhew. Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Mayhew's Young Benjamin Franklin; or, the Right Road through Life. A
+Story to show how Young Benjamin Learned the Principles which Raised
+him from a Printer's Boy to the First Embassador of the American
+Republic. A Boy's Book on a Boy's Own Subject. By Henry Mayhew. With
+Illustrations by John Gilbert. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Mr. Wind and Madam Rain. By Paul De Musset. Translated by Emily
+Makepeace. Illustrated by Charles Bennett. Square 4to, Cloth, 75
+cents.
+
+
+Mrs. Mortimer's Reading without Tears; or, A Pleasant Mode of Learning
+to Read. Beautifully Illustrated. Small 4to, Cloth, 75 cents.
+
+
+Mrs. Mortimer's Reading without Tears, Part II. Beautifully
+Illustrated. Small 4to, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Mrs. Mortimer's Lines Left Out; or, Some of the Histories left out in
+"Line upon Line." The First Part relates Events in the Times of the
+Patriarchs and the Judges. By the Author of "Line upon Line," "Reading
+without Tears," "More about Jesus," "Streaks of Light," &c. With
+Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents.
+
+
+Mrs. Mortimer's More about Jesus. With Illustrations and a Map. By the
+author of "Peep of Day," "Reading without Tears," &c. 16mo, Cloth, 75
+cents.
+
+
+Mrs. Mortimer's Streaks of Light; or Fifty-two Facts from the Bible
+for Fifty-two Sundays of the Year. By the Author of "Reading without
+Tears," &c. Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, gilt, 75 cents.
+
+
+Harry's Ladder to Learning. With 250 Illustrations. Square 4to, Cloth,
+75 cents.
+
+
+Harry's Summer in Ashcroft. Illustrations. Square 4to, Cloth, 75
+cents.
+
+
+Kingston's Fred Markham in Russia; or, The Boy Travellers in the Land
+of the Czar. By W. H. G. Kingston. Profusely and elegantly
+illustrated. Small 4to, Cloth, gilt, 75 cents.
+
+
+Reid's Odd People. Being a Popular Description of Singular Races of
+Men. By Captain Mayne Reid. With Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents.
+
+
+Reuben Davidger. The Adventures of Reuben Davidger, Seventeen Years
+and Four Months Captive among the Dyaks of Borneo. By James Greenwood.
+With Engravings. 8vo, Cloth, $1 75.
+
+
+Seymour's Self-Made Men. By Charles C. B. Seymour. Many Portraits.
+12mo, 588 pages, Cloth, $1 75.
+
+
+Smiles's Self-Help: with Illustrations of Character and Conduct. By
+Samuel Smiles. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Thackeray's Rose and the Ring; or, The History of Prince Giglio and
+Prince Bulbo. A Fireside Pantomime for Great and Small Children. By
+Mr. M. A. Titmarsh. Numerous Illustrations. Small 4to, Cloth, $1 00.
+
+
+Wood's Homes without Hands: Being a Description of the Habitations of
+Animals, classed according to their Principle of Construction. By
+J. G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S., Author of "Illustrated Natural History."
+With about 140 Illustrations, engraved on Wood by G. Pearson, from
+Original Designs made by F. W. Keyl and E. A. Smith, under the
+Author's Superintendence. 8vo, Cloth, Beveled, $4 50.
+
+
+
+
+"They do honor to American Literature, and would do honor to the
+Literature of any Country in the World."
+
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC.
+
+A History
+
+BY JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY.
+
+
+New Edition. With a Portrait of William of Orange. 3 vols. 8vo,
+Muslin, $9 00.
+
+
+We regard this work as the best contribution to modern history that
+has yet been made by an American.--_Methodist Quarterly Review._
+
+The "History of the Dutch Republic" is a great gift to us; but the
+heart and earnestness that beat through all its pages are greater, for
+they give us most timely inspiration to vindicate the true ideas of
+our country, and to compose an able history of our own.--_Christian
+Examiner_ (Boston).
+
+This work bears on its face the evidences of scholarship and research.
+The arrangement is clear and effective; the style energetic, lively,
+and often brilliant. * * * Mr. Motley's instructive volumes will, we
+trust, have a circulation commensurate with their interest and
+value.--_Protestant Episcopal Quarterly Review._
+
+To the illustration of this most interesting period Mr. Motley has
+brought the matured powers of a vigorous and brilliant mind, and the
+abundant fruits of patient and judicious study and deep reflection.
+The result is, one of the most important contributions to historical
+literature that have been made in this country.--_North American
+Review._
+
+We would conclude this notice by earnestly recommending our readers to
+procure for themselves this truly great and admirable work, by the
+production of which the author has conferred no less honor upon his
+country than he has won praise and fame for himself, and than which,
+we can assure them, they can find nothing more attractive or
+interesting within the compass of modern literature.--_Evangelical
+Review._
+
+It is not often that we have the pleasure of commending to the
+attention of the lover of books a work of such extraordinary and
+unexceptionable excellence as this one.--_Universalist Quarterly
+Review._
+
+There are an elevation and a classic polish in these volumes, and a
+felicity of grouping and of portraiture, which invest the subject with
+the attractions of a living and stirring episode in the grand historic
+drama.--_Southern Methodist Quarterly Review._
+
+The author writes with a genial glow and love of his
+subject.--_Presbyterian Quarterly Review._
+
+Mr. Motley is a sturdy Republican and a hearty Protestant. His style
+is lively and picturesque, and his work is an honor and an important
+accession to our national literature.--_Church Review._
+
+Mr. Motley's work is an important one, the result of profound
+research, sincere convictions, sound principles, and manly sentiments;
+and even those who are most familiar with the history of the period
+will find it a fresh and vivid addition to their previous knowledge.
+It does honor to American Literature, and would do honor to the
+literature of any country in the world.--_Edinburgh Review._
+
+A serious chasm in English historical literature has been (by this
+book) very remarkably filled. * * * A history as complete as industry
+and genius can make it now lies before us, of the first twenty years
+of the revolt of the United Provinces. * * * All the essentials of a
+great writer Mr. Motley eminently possesses. His mind is broad, his
+industry unwearied. In power of dramatic description no modern
+historian, except, perhaps, Mr. Carlyle, surpasses him, and in
+analysis of character he is elaborate and distinct.--_Westminster
+Review._
+
+It is a work of real historical value, the result of accurate
+criticism, written in a liberal spirit, and from first to last deeply
+interesting.--_Athenæum._
+
+The style is excellent, clear, vivid, eloquent; and the industry with
+which original sources have been investigated, and through which new
+light has been shed over perplexed incidents and characters, entitles
+Mr. Motley to a high rank in the literature of an age peculiarly rich
+in history.--_North British Review._
+
+It abounds in new information, and, as a first work, commands a very
+cordial recognition, not merely of the promise it gives, but of the
+extent and importance of the labor actually performed on it.--_London
+Examiner._
+
+Mr. Motley's "History" is a work of which any country might be
+proud.--_Press_ (London).
+
+Mr. Motley's History will be a standard book of reference in
+historical literature.--_London Literary Gazette._
+
+Mr. Motley has searched the whole range of historical documents
+necessary to the composition of his work.--_London Leader._
+
+This is a really great work. It belongs to the class of books in
+which we range our Grotes, Milmans, Merivales, and Macaulays, as the
+glories of English literature in the department of history. * * * Mr.
+Motley's gifts as a historical writer are among the highest and
+rarest.--_Nonconformist_ (London).
+
+Mr. Motley's volumes will well repay perusal. * * * For his learning,
+his liberal tone, and his generous enthusiasm, we heartily commend
+him, and bid him good speed for the remainder of his interesting and
+heroic narrative.--_Saturday Review._
+
+The story is a noble one, and is worthily treated. * * * Mr. Motley has
+had the patience to unravel, with unfailing perseverance, the thousand
+intricate plots of the adversaries of the Prince of Orange; but the
+details and the literal extracts which he has derived from original
+documents, and transferred to his pages, give a truthful color and a
+picturesque effect, which are especially charming.--_London Daily
+News._
+
+M. Lothrop Motley dans son magnifique tableau de la formation de notre
+République.--G. Groen Van Prinsterer.
+
+Our accomplished countryman, Mr. J. Lothrop Motley, who, during the
+last five years, for the better prosecution of his labors, has
+established his residence in the neighborhood of the scenes of his
+narrative. No one acquainted with the fine powers of mind possessed by
+this scholar, and the earnestness with which he has devoted himself to
+the task, can doubt that he will do full justice to his important but
+difficult subject.--W. H. Prescott.
+
+The production of such a work as this astonishes, while it gratifies
+the pride of the American reader.--_N. Y. Observer._
+
+The "Rise of the Dutch Republic" at once, and by acclimation, takes
+its place by the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," as a work
+which, whether for research, substance, or style, will never be
+superseded.--_N. Y. Albion._
+
+A work upon which all who read the English language may congratulate
+themselves.--_New Yorker Handels Zeitung._
+
+Mr. Motley's place is now (alluding to this book) with Hallam and Lord
+Mahon, Alison and Macaulay in the Old Country, and with Washington
+Irving, Prescott, and Bancroft in this.--_N. Y. Times._
+
+The authority, in the English tongue, for the history of the period
+and people to which it refers.--_N. Y. Courier and Enquirer._
+
+This work at once places the author on the list of American historians
+which has been so signally illustrated by the names of Irving,
+Prescott, Bancroft, and Hildreth.--_Boston Times._
+
+The work is a noble one, and a most desirable acquisition to our
+historical literature.--_Mobile Advertiser._
+
+Such a work is an honor to its author, to his country, and to the age
+in which it was written.--_Ohio Farmer._
+
+
+_Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, New York._
+
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS will send the above Work by Mail postage paid (for
+any distance in the United States under 3000 miles), on receipt of the
+Money.
+
+
+
+
+_Mr. Motley, the American historian of the United Netherlands--we owe
+him English homage._--LONDON TIMES.
+
+"_As interesting as a romance, and as reliable as a proposition of
+Euclid._"
+
+
+History of The United Netherlands.
+
+FROM THE DEATH OF WILLIAM THE SILENT TO THE SYNOD OF DORT. WITH A FULL
+VIEW OF THE ENGLISH-DUTCH STRUGGLE AGAINST SPAIN, AND OF THE ORIGIN
+AND DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.
+
+BY JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, LL.D., D.C.L.,
+
+Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, Author of "The Rise
+of the Dutch Republic."
+
+With Portraits and Map.
+
+2 vols. 8vo, Muslin, $6 00.
+
+
+_Critical Notices._
+
+His living and truthful picture of events.--_Quarterly Review_
+(London), Jan., 1861.
+
+Fertile as the present age has been in historical works of the highest
+merit, none of them can be ranked above these volumes in the grand
+qualities of interest, accuracy, and truth.--_Edinburgh Quarterly
+Review_, Jan., 1861.
+
+This noble work.--_Westminster Review_ (London).
+
+One of the most fascinating as well as important histories of the
+century.--_Cor. N. Y. Evening Post._
+
+The careful study of these volumes will infallibly afford a feast both
+rich and rare.--_Baltimore Republican._
+
+Already takes a rank among standard works of history.--_London
+Critic._
+
+Mr. Motley's prose epic.--_London Spectator._
+
+Its pages are pregnant with instruction.--_London Literary Gazette._
+
+We may profit by almost every page of his narrative. All the topics
+which agitate us now are more or less vividly presented in the History
+of the United Netherlands.--_New York Times._
+
+Bears on every page marks of the same vigorous mind that produced "The
+Rise of the Dutch Republic;" but the new work is riper, mellower, and
+though equally racy of the soil, softer flavored. The inspiring idea
+which breathes through Mr. Motley's histories and colors the whole
+texture of his narrative, is the grandeur of that memorable struggle
+in the 16th century by which the human mind broke the thraldom of
+religious intolerance and achieved its independence.--_The World,
+N. Y._
+
+The name of Motley now stands in the very front rank of living
+historians. His _Dutch Republic_ took the world by surprise; but the
+favorable verdict then given is now only the more deliberately
+confirmed on the publication of the continued story under the title of
+the _History of the United Netherlands_. All the nerve, and power, and
+substance of juicy life are there, lending a charm to every
+page.--_Church Journal, N. Y._
+
+Motley indeed, has produced a prose epic, and his fighting scenes are
+as real, spirited, and life-like as the combats in the Iliad.--_The
+Press_ (Phila.).
+
+His history is as interesting as a romance, and as reliable as a
+proposition of Euclid. Clio never had a more faithful disciple. We
+advise every reader whose means will permit to become the owner of
+these fascinating volumes, assuring him that he will never regret the
+investment.--_Christian Intelligencer, N. Y._
+
+
+Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, New York.
+
+
+--> HARPER & BROTHERS will send the above Work by Mail, postage
+prepaid (for any distance in the United States under 3000 miles), on
+receipt of the Money.
+
+
+
+
+BY MRS. GASKELL.
+
+
+CRANFORD. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+COUSIN PHILLIS. 8vo, Paper, 25 cents.
+
+A DARK NIGHT'S WORK. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.
+
+MARY BARTON. A Tale of Manchester Life. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.
+
+THE MOORLAND COTTAGE. 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents.
+
+MY LADY LUDLOW. 8vo, Paper, 25 cents.
+
+NORTH AND SOUTH. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.
+
+RIGHT AT LAST, and Other Tales. 12mo. Cloth, $1 50.
+
+SYLVIA'S LOVERS. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents.
+
+WIVES AND DAUGHTERS. With Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $2 00; Paper,
+$1 50.
+
+
+_From the London Examiner._
+
+That tender pathos, which could sink so deep--that gentle humor, which
+could soar so lightly--that delicate perception, which nothing could
+escape--that wide sympathy, which ranged so far--those sweet
+moralities, which rang so true; it is indeed hard and sad to feel that
+these must be silent for us henceforth forever.
+
+Let us be grateful, however, that we have still those writings of hers
+which England will not willingly let die, and that she has given us no
+less an example of conscientious work and careful pains, by which we
+all alike may profit. For Mrs. Gaskell had not only genius of a high
+order, but she had also the true feeling of the artist, that grows
+impatient at whatever is unfinished or imperfect. Whether describing
+with touching skill the charities of poor to poor, or painting, with
+an art which Miss Austin might have envied, the daily round of common
+life, or merely telling, in her graphic way, some wild or simple tale:
+whatever the work, she did it with all her power, sparing nothing,
+scarcely sparing herself enough, if only the work were well and
+completely done.
+
+
+_From the New York Evening Post._
+
+It is said that George Sand remarked to an English friend: "Mrs.
+Gaskell has done what neither I nor other female writers in France can
+accomplish--she has written novels which excite the deepest interest
+in men of the world, and which every girl will be the better for
+reading."
+
+
+Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
+
+
+--> _Sent by Mail to any part of the United States, postage free, on
+receipt of the Price._
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+Minor typographic errors in punctuation and spelling (omitted or
+transposed letters, etc.) have been repaired. Hyphenation has been
+made consistent where there was a prevalence of one form over another.
+
+Archaic and variant spelling has been preserved as printed, where
+reference to the alternate spelling could be established from other
+sources, e.g. the Frith of Forth, gambling-hells, feed referring to
+the paying of a fee. If alternate spelling of proper nouns could not
+be established, it has been made consistent within the text. The
+spelling of other words and phrases in languages other than English
+has been preserved as printed.
+
+Illustrations have been moved if necessary so that they were not in
+the middle of a paragraph.
+
+A small pointing hand symbol is used in two places, and has been
+rendered as --> in this e-text.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Land of Thor, by J. Ross Browne
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF THOR ***
+
+***** This file should be named 28329-8.txt or 28329-8.zip *****
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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Land of Thor, by J. Ross Browne.
+    </title>
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+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Land of Thor, by J. Ross Browne
+
+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 Land of Thor
+
+Author: J. Ross Browne
+
+Release Date: March 15, 2009 [EBook #28329]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF THOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Sam W. and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1 class="padtop"><small>THE</small><br />
+<br />
+<span class="lrgfont">LAND OF THOR.</span></h1>
+
+<p class="center padtop">BY</p>
+
+<h2 class="padtop">J. ROSS BROWNE,</h2>
+
+<p class="center">AUTHOR OF</p>
+
+<p class="center">&ldquo;YUSEF,&rdquo; &ldquo;CRUSOE&rsquo;S ISLAND,&rdquo; &ldquo;AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN<br />
+GERMANY,&rdquo; ETC.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center padtop">Illustrated by the Author.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center padtop">NEW YORK:<br />
+<span class="smlfont">HARPER &amp; BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,</span><br />
+<small>FRANKLIN SQUARE.</small><br />
+1867.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="center padtop"><span class="smcap">By</span> J. ROSS BROWNE.</p>
+
+<div class="frontads">
+<p class="hang">AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN GERMANY. Illustrated by the
+Author. 12mo, Cloth, $2&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE LAND OF THOR. Illustrated by the Author. 12mo,
+Cloth, $2&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CRUSOE&rsquo;S ISLAND: A Ramble in the Footsteps of Alexander
+Selkirk. With Sketches of Adventure in California and Washoe.
+Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth. $1&nbsp;75.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">YUSEF; or, The Journey of the Frangi. A Crusade in the East.
+With Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;75.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center smcap padbase">Published by HARPER &amp; BROTHERS, New York.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+
+<div class="frontads">
+<p class="padtop padbase">Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
+hundred and sixty-seven, by <span class="smcap">Harper &amp; Brothers</span>, in the Clerk&rsquo;s Office of
+the District Court of the Southern District of New York.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="60%" summary="Table of contents">
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrb"><small>CHAPTER</small></td>
+    <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><small>PAGE</small></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">I.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">IMPRESSIONS OF ST. PETERSBURG</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">9</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">II.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">A PLEASANT EXCURSION</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">25</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">III.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">VIEWS ON THE MOSCOW RAILWAY</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">39</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">IV.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">MOSCOW</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">52</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">V.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">TEA-DRINKING</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">60</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">VI.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE PETERSKOI GARDENS</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">65</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">VII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE &ldquo;LITTLE WATER&rdquo;</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">73</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">VIII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE MARKETS OF MOSCOW</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">77</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">IX.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE NOSE REGIMENT</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">88</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">X.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE EMPEROR&rsquo;S BEAR-HUNT</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">92</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XI.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">RUSSIAN HUMOR</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">97</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">104</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XIII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE DENOUEMENT</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">125</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XIV.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE KREMLIN</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">134</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XV.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">RUSSIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">155</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XVI.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">DESPOTISM <i>versus</i> SERFDOM</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">165</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XVII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">REFORM IN RUSSIA</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">170</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XVIII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">A BOND OF SYMPATHY</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">185</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XIX.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">CIVILIZATION IN RUSSIA</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">193</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XX.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">PASSAGE TO REVEL</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">209</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXI.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">REVEL AND HELSINGFORS</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">218</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">A BATHING SCENE</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">227</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXIII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">ABO&mdash;FINLAND</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">236</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXIV.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">STOCKHOLM</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">248</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXV.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">WALKS ABOUT STOCKHOLM</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">262</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXVI.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE GOTHA CANAL</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">272</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXVII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">VOYAGE TO CHRISTIANA</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">291</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXVIII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">FROM CHRISTIANIA TO LILLEHAMMER</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">302</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXIX.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">HOW THEY TRAVEL IN NORWAY</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">310</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXX.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">A NORWEGIAN GIRL</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">317</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXXI.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">HOW THEY LIVE</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">335</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXXII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">JOHN BULL ABROAD</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">354</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXXIII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">WOMEN IN NORWAY AND GERMANY</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">361</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXXIV.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">DOWN THE DRIVSDAL</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">368</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXXV.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">A NORWEGIAN HORSE-JOCKEY</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">372</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span>XXXVI.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">OUT OF MONEY</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">381</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXXVII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">ICELANDIC TRAVEL</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">383</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXXVIII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">387</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XXXIX.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">VOYAGE TO SCOTLAND</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">398</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XL.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE JOLLY BLOODS</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XL">404</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XLI.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE FAROE ISLANDS</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">408</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XLII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ICELAND</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII">426</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XLIII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII">431</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XLIV.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">GEIR Z&Ouml;EGA</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV">440</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XLV.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE ENGLISH TOURISTS</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLV">445</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XLVI.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE ROAD TO THINGVALLA</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI">449</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XLVII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE ALMANNAJAU</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII">465</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XLVIII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THINGVALLA</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII">476</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">XLIX.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE ROAD TO THE GEYSERS</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIX">490</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">L.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE GEYSERS</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_L">503</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">LI.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">THE ENGLISH SPORTS IN TROUBLE</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_LI">527</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdrt">LII.</td>
+    <td class="tdl">A FRIGHTFUL ADVENTURE</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#CHAPTER_LII">537</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="60%" summary="List of illustrations">
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><small>PAGE</small></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Laborers and Shipwrights</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#laborers_and_shipwrights">10</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Russian and Finn</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#russian_and_finn">11</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Cooper&rsquo;s Shop and Residence</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#coopers_shop_and_residence">15</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Merchant, Peddlers and Coachman</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#merchant_peddlers_and_coachman">18</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Istrovoschiks</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#istrovoschiks">21</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Fish Peddler</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#fish_peddler">29</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Young Peasants</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#young_peasants">31</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Dvornick and Postman</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#dvornick_and_postman">35</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Glazier, Painter, Carpenters</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#glazier_painter_carpenters">37</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Hay Gatherers</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#hay_gatherers">46</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Prisoners for Siberia</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#prisoners_for_siberia">58</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Tea-sellers</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#tea_sellers">61</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Mujiks at Tea</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#mujiks_at_tea">63</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Russian Theatre</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#russian_theatre">68</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Peterskoi Gardens</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_peterskoi_gardens">72</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Vodka</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#vodka">75</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Old-clothes&rsquo; Market</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#old_clothes_market">78</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Cabinet-makers</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#cabinet_makers">84</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Pigs, Pups, and Pans</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#pigs_pups_and_pans">87</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Imperial Nosegay</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#imperial_nosegay">90</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Skinned and Stuffed Man</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#skinned_and_stuffed_man">100</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Frozen Animals in the Market</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#frozen_animals_in_the_market">101</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Mujik and Cats</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#mujik_and_cats">103</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Effects of &ldquo;Little Water&rdquo;</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#effects_of_little_water">111</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Russian Beggars</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#russian_beggars">115</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Gambling Saloon</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#gambling_saloon">122</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">A Passage of Politeness</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#a_passage_of_politeness">157</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Serfs</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#serfs">168</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">In Norseland</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#in_norseland">292</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Steamer entering the Fjord</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_steamer_entering_the_fjord">295</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Coast of Norway</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#coast_of_norway">297</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Islands</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_islands">299</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Approach to Christiania</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#approach_to_christiania">303</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Station-house, Logen Valley</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#station_house_logen_valley">313</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Station-boy</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#station_boy">321</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span>&ldquo;Good-by&mdash;Many Thanks!&rdquo;</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#good_by_many_thanks">322</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Norwegian Peasant Family</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#norwegian_peasant_family">324</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Post-girl</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_post_girl">330</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Waiting for a Nibble</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#waiting_for_a_nibble">341</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Snow-plow</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#snow_plow">344</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">A Drinking Bout</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#a_drinking_bout">345</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">A Norwegian Farm</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#a_norwegian_farm">347</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Norwegian Church</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#norwegian_church">348</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Parish Schoolmaster</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#parish_schoolmaster">349</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Dovre Fjeld</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#dovre_fjeld">353</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Playing him out</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#playing_him_out">356</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">English Sportsman</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#english_sportsman">358</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Bear Chase</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#bear_chase">359</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Peasant Women at Work</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#peasant_women_at_work">360</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Wheeling Girls</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#wheeling_girls">363</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Justice of the Peace</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#justice_of_the_peace">365</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Model Landlord</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#model_landlord">367</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Drivsdal Valley</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#drivsdal_valley">369</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Passage on the Driv</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#passage_on_the_driv">371</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Prize</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_prize">375</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Traveling on Foot</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#traveling_on_foot">382</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The great Geyser</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_great_geyser">385</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Hans Christian Andersen</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#hans_christian_andersen">394</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">A Dandy Tourist</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#a_dandy_tourist">406</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Thorshavn</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#thorshavn">407</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">View in Faroe Islands</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#view_in_faroe_islands">409</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Faroese Children</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#faroese_children">412</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Faroese Islanders</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#faroese_islanders">414</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Kirk G&ouml;boe</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#kirk_goboe">421</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Farm-house and Ruins</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#farm_house_and_ruins">423</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Faroese on Horseback</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#faroese_on_horseback">425</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Natural Bridge</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#natural_bridge">427</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Coast of Iceland</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#coast_of_iceland">429</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Meal-sack</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_meal_sack">430</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Reykjavik, the Capital of Iceland</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#reykjavik_the_capital_of_iceland">432</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Governor&rsquo;s Residence, Reykjavik</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#governors_residence_reykjavik">434</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Icelandic Houses</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#icelandic_houses">435</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Church at Reykjavik</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#church_at_reykjavik">436</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Icelanders at Work</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#icelanders_at_work">438</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Geir Z&ouml;ega</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#geir_zoega">441</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Icelandic Horses</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#icelandic_horses">443</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">English Party at Reykjavik</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#english_party_at_reykjavik">447</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">A Rough Road</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#a_rough_road">451</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Taking Snuff</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#taking_snuff">454</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">An Icelandic Bog</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#an_icelandic_bog">459</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span>Geir Z&ouml;ega and Brusa</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#geir_zoega_and_brusa">463</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Entrance to the Almannajau</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#entrance_to_the_almannajau">466</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Almannajau</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_almannajau">467</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Skeleton View of the Almannajau</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#skeleton_view_of_the_almannajau">469</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Outline View of Thingvalla</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#outline_view_of_thingvalla">470</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Fall of the Almannajau</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#fall_of_the_almannajau">472</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Icelandic Shepherd-girl</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#icelandic_shepherd_girl">473</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Church at Thingvalla</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#church_at_thingvalla">477</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Pastor&rsquo;s House</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_pastors_house">479</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Pastor of Thingvalla</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_pastor_of_thingvalla">485</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Skeleton View of the L&ouml;gberg</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#skeleton_view_of_the_logberg">488</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Thingvalla, L&ouml;gberg, Almannajau</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#thingvalla_logberg_almannajau">489</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Diagram of the L&ouml;gberg</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#diagram_of_the_logberg">490</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">An Artist at Home</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#an_artist_at_home">492</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Lava-fjelds</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#lava_fjelds">494</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Effigy in Lava</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#effigy_in_lava">495</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Hrafnajau</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_hrafnajau">497</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Tintron Rock</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_tintron_rock">499</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Bridge River</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#bridge_river">502</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Shepherd and Family</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#shepherd_and_family">506</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The Strokhr</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_strokhr">516</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Side-saddle</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#side_saddle">519</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Great Geyser and Receiver</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#geysers_and_receivers">525</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Strokhr and Receiver</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#geysers_and_receivers">525</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">&ldquo;Oh-o-o-ah!&rdquo;</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#oh_o_o_ah">529</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">The English Party</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#the_english_party">533</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">Interior of Icelandic Hut</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#interior_of_icelandic_hut">536</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">An Awkward Predicament</td>
+    <td class="tdrb"><a href="#an_awkward_predicament">540</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1 class="padtop">THE LAND OF THOR.</h1>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="padtop"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>IMPRESSIONS OF ST. PETERSBURG.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I landed at St. Petersburg with a knapsack on my
+back and a hundred dollars in my pocket. An extensive
+tour along the borders of the Arctic Circle was before
+me, and it was necessary I should husband my resources.</p>
+
+<p>In my search for a cheap German gasthaus I walked
+nearly all over the city. My impressions were probably
+tinctured by the circumstances of my position, but it
+seemed to me I had never seen so strange a place.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="laborers_and_shipwrights" id="laborers_and_shipwrights"></a>
+<img src="images/thor001.png" width="600" height="402"
+alt="Four men gather around a table; a couple sit at another table nearby" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">LABORERS AND SHIPWRIGHTS.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 317px;">
+<a name="russian_and_finn" id="russian_and_finn"></a>
+<img src="images/thor002.png" width="317" height="400"
+alt="Two men talk in the street" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">RUSSIAN AND FINN.</p>
+
+<p>The best streets of St. Petersburg resemble on an inferior
+scale the best parts of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna.
+Nothing in the architecture conveys any idea of national
+taste except the glittering cupolas of the churches, the
+showy colors of the houses, and the vast extent and ornamentation
+of the palaces. The general aspect of the
+city is that of immense level space. Built upon islands,
+cut up into various sections by the branches of the Neva,
+intersected by canals, destitute of eminent points of observation,
+the whole city has a scattered and incongruous
+effect&mdash;an incomprehensible remoteness about it, as
+if one might continually wander about without finding
+the centre. Some parts, of course, are better than others;
+some streets are indicative of wealth and luxury;
+but without a guide it is extremely difficult to determine
+whether there are not still finer buildings and quarters
+in the main part of the city&mdash;if you could only get at it.
+The eye wanders continually in search of heights and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+prominent objects. Even the Winter Palace, the Admiralty,
+and the Izaak Church lose much of their grandeur
+in the surrounding deserts of space from the absence of
+contrast with familiar and tangible objects. It is only
+by a careful examination in detail that one can become
+fully sensible of their extraordinary magnificence. Vast
+streets of almost interminable length, lined by insignificant
+two-story houses with green roofs and yellow walls;
+vast open squares or ploschads; palaces, public buildings,
+and churches, dwindled down to mere toy-work in the
+deserts of space intervening; countless throngs of citizens
+and carriages scarcely bigger than ants to the eye;
+broad sheets of water, dotted with steamers, brigs, barks,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+wood-barges and row-boats, still infinitesimal in the distance;
+long rows of trees, forming a foliage to some of
+the principal promenades, with glimpses of gardens and
+shrubbery at remote intervals; canals and dismal green
+swamps&mdash;not all at one sweep of the eye, but visible from
+time to time in the course of an afternoon&rsquo;s ramble, are
+the most prominent characteristics of this wonderful city.
+A vague sense of loneliness impresses the traveler from
+a distant land&mdash;as if in his pilgrimage through foreign
+climes he had at length wandered into the midst of a
+strange and peculiar civilization&mdash;a boundless desert of
+wild-looking streets, a waste of colossal palaces, of gilded
+churches and glistening waters, all perpetually dwindling
+away before him in the infinity of space. He sees
+a people strange and unfamiliar in costume and expression;
+fierce, stern-looking officers, rigid in features, closely
+shaved, and dressed in glittering uniforms; grave,
+long-bearded priests, with square-topped black turbans,
+their flowing black drapery trailing in the dust; pale
+women richly and elegantly dressed, gliding unattended
+through mazes of the crowd; rough, half-savage serfs, in
+dirty pink shirts, loose trowsers, and big boots, bowing
+down before the shrines on the bridges and public
+places; the drosky drivers, with their long beards, small
+bell-shaped hats, long blue coats and fire-bucket boots,
+lying half asleep upon their rusty little vehicles awaiting
+a customer, or dashing away at a headlong pace over the
+rough cobble-paved streets, and so on of every class and
+kind. The traveler wanders about from place to place,
+gazing into the strange faces he meets, till the sense of
+loneliness becomes oppressive. An invisible but impassable
+barrier seems to stand between him and the moving
+multitude. He hears languages that fall without a meaning
+upon his ear; wonders at the soft inflections of the
+voices; vainly seeks some familiar look or word; thinks
+it strange that he alone should be cut off from all communion
+with the souls of men around him; and then
+wonders if they have souls like other people, and why
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+there is no kindred expression in their faces&mdash;no visible
+consciousness of a common humanity. It is natural that
+every stranger in a strange city should experience this
+feeling to some extent, but I know of no place where it
+seems so strikingly the case as in St. Petersburg. Accustomed
+as I was to strange cities and strange languages,
+I never felt utterly lonely until I reached this great mart
+of commerce and civilization. The costly luxury of the
+palaces; the wild Tartaric glitter of the churches; the
+tropical luxuriance of the gardens; the brilliant equipages
+of the nobility; the display of military power; the
+strange and restless throngs forever moving through
+the haunts of business and pleasure; the uncouth costumes
+of the lower classes, and the wonderful commingling
+of sumptuous elegance and barbarous filth, visible
+in almost every thing, produced a singular feeling of mingled
+wonder and isolation&mdash;as if the solitary traveler
+were the only person in the world who was not permitted
+to comprehend the spirit and import of the scene, or
+take a part in the great drama of life in which all others
+seemed to be engaged. I do not know if plain, practical
+men are generally so easily impressed by external objects,
+but I must confess that when I trudged along the
+streets with my knapsack on my back, looking around in
+every direction for a gasthaus; when I spoke to people
+in my peculiar style of French and German, and received
+unintelligible answers in Russian; when I got lost among
+palaces and grand military establishments, instead of
+finding the gasthaus, and finally attracted the attention
+of the surly-looking guards, who were stationed about
+every where, by the anxious pertinacity with which I examined
+every building, a vague notion began to get possession
+of me that I was a sort of outlaw, and would
+sooner or later be seized and dragged before the Czar for
+daring to enter such a magnificent city in such an uncouth
+and unbecoming manner. When I cast my eyes
+up at the sign-boards, and read about grand fabrications
+and steam-companies, and walked along the quays of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+Neva, and saw wood enough piled up in big broad-bottomed
+boats to satisfy the wants of myself and family for ten
+thousand years; when I strolled into the Nevskoi, and jostled
+my way through crowds of nobles, officers, soldiers,
+dandies, and commoners, stopping suddenly at every picture-shop,
+gazing dreamily into the gorgeous millinery
+establishments, pondering thoughtfully over the glittering
+wares of the jewelers, lagging moodily by the grand
+caf&eacute;s, and snuffing reflectively the odors that came from
+the grand restaurations&mdash;when all this occurred, and I
+went down into a beer-cellar and made acquaintance with
+a worthy German, and he asked me if I had any meerschaums
+to sell, the notion that I had no particular business
+in so costly and luxurious a place began to grow
+stronger than ever. A kind of dread came over me that
+the mighty spirit of Peter the Great would come riding
+through the scorching hot air on a gale of snowflakes, at
+the head of a bloody phalanx of Muscovites, and, rising
+in his stirrups as he approached, would demand of me in
+a voice of thunder, &ldquo;Stranger, how much money have
+you got?&rdquo; to which I could only answer, &ldquo;Sublime and
+potent Czar, taking the average value of my Roaring
+Grizzly, Dead Broke, Gone Case, and Sorrowful Countenance,
+and placing it against the present value of Russian
+securities, I consider it within the bounds of reason
+to say that I hold about a million of rubles!&rdquo; But if he
+should insist upon an exhibit of ready cash&mdash;there was
+the rub! It absolutely made me feel weak in the knees
+to think of it. Indeed, a horrid suspicion seized me, after
+I had crossed the bridge and begun to renew my search
+for a cheap gasthaus on the Vassoli Ostrou, that every fat,
+neatly-shaved man I met, with small gray eyes, a polished
+hat on his head drawn a little over his brow, his lips
+compressed, and his coat buttoned closely around his
+body, was a rich banker, and that he was saying to himself
+as I passed, &ldquo;That fellow with the slouched hat and
+the knapsack is a suspicious character, to say the least
+of him. It becomes my duty to warn the police of his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+movements. I suspect him to be a Hungarian refugee.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="coopers_shop_and_residence" id="coopers_shop_and_residence"></a>
+<img src="images/thor003.png" width="600" height="431"
+alt="Women work at household chores while men make barrels" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">COOPER&rsquo;S SHOP AND RESIDENCE.</p>
+
+<p>With some difficulty, I succeeded at length in finding
+just such a place as I desired&mdash;clean and comfortable
+enough, considering the circumstances, and not unusually
+fertile in vermin for a city like St. Petersburg, which
+produces all kinds of troublesome insects spontaneously.
+There was this advantage in my quarters, in addition to
+their cheapness&mdash;that the proprietor and attendants spoke
+several of the Christian languages, including German,
+which, of all languages in the world, is the softest and
+most euphonious to my ear&mdash;when I am away from
+Frankfort. Besides, my room was very advantageously
+arranged for a solitary traveler. Being about eight feet
+square, with only one small window overlooking the back
+yard, and effectually secured by iron fastenings, so that
+nobody could open it, there was no possibility of thieves
+getting in and robbing me when the door was shut and
+locked on the inside. Its closeness presented an effectual
+barrier against the night air, which in these high
+northern latitudes is considered extremely unwholesome
+to sleep in. With the thermometer at 100 degrees Fahrenheit,
+the atmosphere, to be sure, was a little sweltering
+during the day, and somewhat thick by night, but
+that was an additional advantage, inasmuch as it forced
+the occupant to stay out most of the time and see a great
+deal more of the town than he could possibly see in his
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Having deposited my knapsack and put my extra shirt
+in the wash, you will now be kind enough to consider
+me the shade of Virgil, ready to lead you, after the
+fashion of Dante, through the infernal regions or any
+where else within the bounds of justice, even through
+St. Petersburg, where the climate in summer is hot
+enough to satisfy almost any body. The sun shines
+here, in June and July, for twenty hours a day, and
+even then scarcely disappears beneath the horizon. I
+never experienced such sweltering weather in any part
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+of the world except Aspinwall. One is fairly boiled with
+the heat, and might be wrung out like a wet rag. Properly
+speaking, the day commences for respectable people,
+and men of enterprising spirit&mdash;tourists, pleasure-seekers,
+gamblers, vagabonds, and the like&mdash;about nine
+or ten o&rsquo;clock at night, and continues till about four or
+five o&rsquo;clock the next morning. It is then St. Petersburg
+fairly turns out; then the beauty and fashion of the city
+unfold their wings and flit through the streets, or float
+in Russian gondolas upon the glistening waters of the
+Neva; then it is the little steamers skim about from
+island to island, freighted with a population just waked
+up to a realizing sense of the pleasures of existence;
+then is the atmosphere balmy, and the light wonderfully
+soft and richly tinted; then come the sweet witching
+hours, when</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">&ldquo;Shady nooks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Patiently give up their quiet being.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>None but the weary, labor-worn serf, who has toiled
+through the long day in the fierce rays of the sun, can
+sleep such nights as these. I call them nights, yet
+what a strange mistake. The sunshine still lingers in
+the heavens with a golden glow; the evening vanishes
+dreamily in the arms of the morning; there is nothing
+to mark the changes&mdash;all is soft, gradual, and illusory.
+A peculiar and almost supernatural light glistens upon
+the gilded domes of the churches; the glaring waters of
+the Neva are alive with gondolas; miniature steamers
+are flying through the winding channels of the islands;
+strains of music float upon the air; gay and festive
+throngs move along the promenades of the Nevskoi;
+gilded and glittering equipages pass over the bridges
+and disappear in the shadowy recesses of the islands.
+Whatever may be unseemly in life is covered by a rich
+and mystic drapery of twilight. The floating bath-houses
+of the Neva, with their variegated tressel-work
+and brilliant colors, resemble fairy palaces; and the plashing
+of the bathers falls upon the ear like the gambols
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+of water-spirits. Not far from the Izaak Bridge, the
+equestrian statue of Peter the Great stands out in bold
+relief on a pedestal of granite; the mighty Czar, casting
+an eagle look over the waters of the Neva, while his
+noble steed rears over the yawning precipice in front,
+crushing a serpent beneath his hoof. The spirit of Peter
+the Great still lives throughout Russia; but it is better
+understood in the merciless blasts of winter than in the
+soft glow of the summer nights.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="merchant_peddlers_and_coachman" id="merchant_peddlers_and_coachman"></a>
+<img src="images/thor004.png" width="600" height="487"
+alt="Three men look on as two others play a card game" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">MERCHANT, PEDDLERS, AND COACHMAN.</p>
+
+<p>Wander with me now, and let us take a look at the
+Winter Palace&mdash;the grandest pile, perhaps, ever built by
+human hands. Six thousand people occupy it during the
+long winter months, and well they may, for it is a city of
+palaces in itself. Fronting the Neva, it occupies a space
+of several acres, its massive walls richly decorated with
+ornamental designs, a forest of chimneys on top&mdash;the
+whole pile forming an immense oblong square so grand,
+so massive, so wonderfully rich and varied in its details,
+that the imagination is lost in a colossal wilderness of
+architectural beauties. Standing in the open plozchad,
+we may gaze at this magnificent pile for hours, and
+dream over it, and picture to our minds the scenes of
+splendor its inner walls have witnessed; the royal <i>f&ecirc;tes</i>
+of the Czars; the courtly throngs that have filled its
+halls; the vast treasures expended in erecting it; the
+enslaved multitudes, now low in the dust, who have left
+this monument to speak of human pride, and the sweat
+and toil that pride must feed upon; and while we gaze
+and dream thus, a mellow light comes down from the
+firmament, and the mighty Czars, and their palaces, and
+armies, and navies, and worldly strifes, what are they in
+the presence of the everlasting Power? For &ldquo;it is he
+that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants
+thereof are as grasshoppers.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But these dreamings and these wanderings through
+this city of palaces would be endless. We may feast our
+eyes upon the Admiralty, the Winter Palace, the Marble
+Palace, the Senate-house, the palace of the Grand-duke
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+Michael, the Column of Alexander, the colleges, universities,
+imperial gardens and summer-houses, and, after
+all, we can only feel that they are built upon the necks
+of an enslaved people; that the mightiest Czars of Russia,
+in common with the poorest serfs, are but &ldquo;as grasshoppers
+upon the earth.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The <i>istrovoschik</i> (sneeze and you have the word)&mdash;in
+plain English, the drosky drivers&mdash;are a notable feature
+in St. Petersburg. When I saw them for the first time
+on the quay of the Wassaly Ostrow, where the steamer
+from Stettin lands her passengers, the idea naturally impressed
+my mind that I had fallen among a brotherhood
+of Pilgrims or Druids. Nothing could be more unique
+than the incongruity of their costume and occupation.
+Every man looked like a priest; his long beard, his grave
+expression of countenance, his little black hat and flowing
+blue coat, gathered around the waist by means of a sash,
+his glazed boots reaching above the knees, his slow and
+measured motions, and the sublime indifference with
+which he regarded his customers, were singularly impressive.
+Even the filth and rustiness which formed the
+most prominent characteristics of the class contributed
+to the delusion that they might have sprung from a
+Druidical source, and gathered their dust of travel on
+the pilgrimage from remote ages down to the present
+period. It is really something novel, in the line of hackery,
+to see those sedate fellows sitting on their little
+droskys awaiting a customer. The force of competition,
+however, has of late years committed sad inroads upon
+their dignity, and now they are getting to be about as
+enterprising and pertinacious as any of their kindred in
+other parts of the world. The drosky is in itself a curiosity
+as a means of locomotion. Like the driver, it is
+generally dirty and dilapidated; but here the similitude
+ends; for, while the former is often high, his drosky is
+always low. The wheels are not bigger than those of
+an ordinary dog-cart, and the seat is only designed for
+one person, though on a pinch it can accommodate two.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+Generally it consists of a plank covered with a cushion,
+extending lengthwise in the same direction as the horse,
+so that the rider sits astride of it as if riding on horseback;
+some, however, have been modernized so as to
+afford a more convenient seat in the usual way. Night
+and day these droskys are every where to be seen, sometimes
+drawn up by the sidewalk, the driver asleep, awaiting
+a customer, but more frequently rattling full tilt over
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+the pavements (the roughest in the world) with a load,
+consisting, in nine cases out of ten, of a fat old gentleman
+in military uniform, a very ugly old lady with
+a lapdog, or a very dashy young lady glittering with
+jewels, on her way, perhaps, to the Confiseur&rsquo;s or somewhere
+else. But in a city like St. Petersburg, where it
+is at least two or three miles from one place to another,
+every body with twenty kopecks in his pocket uses the
+drosky. It is the most convenient and economical mode
+of locomotion for all ordinary purposes, hence the number
+of them is very large. On some of the principal
+streets it is marvelous how they wind their way at such
+a rattling pace through the crowd. To a stranger unacquainted
+with localities, they are a great convenience.
+And here, you see, commences the gist of the story.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 397px;">
+<a name="istrovoschiks" id="istrovoschiks"></a>
+<img src="images/thor005.png" width="397" height="500"
+alt="Two drosky drivers stand and talk together" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">ISTROVOSCHIKS.</p>
+
+<p>On a certain occasion I called a drosky-man and directed
+him to drive me to the United States Consulate.
+Having never been there myself, I depended solely upon
+the intelligence and enterprise of the istrovoschik. My
+knowledge of the Russian consisted of three words&mdash;the
+name of the street and <i>dratzall kopeck</i>, the latter being
+the stipulated fare of twenty kopecks. By an affirmative
+signal the driver gave me to understand that he
+fully comprehended my wishes, and, with a flourish of
+his whip, away we started. After driving me nearly all
+over the city of St. Petersburg&mdash;a pretty extensive city,
+as any body will find who undertakes to walk through it&mdash;this
+adroit and skillful whipster, who had never uttered
+a word from the time of starting, now deliberately
+drew up his drosky on the corner of a principal street
+and began a conversation. I repeated the name of the
+street in which the consulate was located, and <i>dratzall
+kopeck</i>. The driver gazed in my face with a grave and
+placid countenance, stroked his long beard, tucked the
+skirts of his long blue coat under him, and drove on
+again. After rattling over a series of the most frightful
+cobble-stone pavements ever designed as an improvement
+in a great city, through several new quarters, he again
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+stopped and treated me to some more remarks in his
+native language. I answered as before, the name of the
+street. He shook his head with discouraging gravity.
+I then remarked <i>dratzall kopeck</i>. From the confused
+answer he made, which occupied at least ten minutes of
+his time, and of which I was unable to comprehend a
+single word, it was apparent that he was as ignorant of
+his own language as he was of the city. In this extremity
+he called another driver to his aid, who spoke just
+the words of English, &ldquo;Gooda-morkig!&rdquo; &ldquo;Good-morning,&rdquo;
+said I. From this the conversation lapsed at once
+into remote depths of Russian. In despair I got out of
+the drosky and walked along the street, looking up at
+all the signs&mdash;the driver after me with his drosky, apparently
+watching to see that I did not make my escape.
+At length I espied a German name on a bakery sign.
+How familiar it looked in that desert of unintelligible
+Russian&mdash;like a favorite quotation in a page of metaphysics.
+I went in and spoke German&mdash;<i>vie gaetz?</i> You
+are aware, perhaps, that I excel in that language. I asked
+the way to the United States Consulate. The baker had
+probably forgotten his native tongue, if ever he knew it
+at all, for I could get nothing out of him but a shake of
+the head and <i>nicht furstay</i>. However, he had the goodness,
+seeing my perplexity, to put on his hat and undertake
+to find the consul&rsquo;s, which, by dint of inquiry, he at
+length ascertained to be about half a mile distant. We
+walked all the way, this good old baker and I, he refusing
+to ride because there was only room for one, and I
+not liking to do so and let him walk. The drosky-man
+followed in the rear, driving along very leisurely, and
+with great apparent comfort to himself. He leaned back
+in his seat with much gusto, and seemed rather amused
+than otherwise at our movements. At length we reached
+the consulate. It was about three hundred yards
+from my original point of departure. Any other man
+in existence than my istrovoschik would have sunk into
+the earth upon seeing me make this astounding
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+discovery. I knew it by certain landmarks&mdash;a church and
+a garden. But he did not sink into the earth. He merely
+sat on his drosky as cool as a cucumber. I felt so
+grateful to the worthy baker, who was a fat old gentleman,
+and perspired freely after his walk, that I gave him
+thirty kopecks. The drosky-man claimed forty kopecks,
+just double his fare. I called in the services of an interpreter,
+and protested against this imposition. The interpreter
+and the drosky-man got into an animated dispute
+on the question, and must have gone clear back to
+the fundamental principles of droskyism, for they seemed
+likely never to come to an end. The weather was
+warm, and both kept constantly wiping their faces, and
+turning the whole subject over and over again, without
+the slightest probability of an equitable conclusion. At
+length my interpreter said, &ldquo;Perhaps, sir, you had better
+pay it. The man says you kept him running about
+for over two hours; and since you have no proof to the
+contrary, it would only give you trouble to have him
+punished.&rdquo; This view accorded entirely with my own,
+and I cheerfully paid the forty kopecks; also ten kopecks
+drink-geld, and a small douceur of half a ruble (fifty kopecks)
+to the gentleman who had so kindly settled the
+difficulty for me. After many years&rsquo; experience of travel,
+I am satisfied, as before stated, that a man may be born
+naturally honest, but can not long retain his integrity
+in the hack business. He must sooner or later take to
+swindling, otherwise he can never keep his horses fat,
+or make the profession respectable and remunerative.
+Such, at least, has been my experience of men in this line
+of business, not excepting the istrovoschik of St. Petersburg.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>A PLEASANT EXCURSION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I had the good fortune, during my ramble, to meet
+with a couple of fellow-passengers from Stettin. One
+of them was a rough, weather-beaten man of middle
+age, with rather marked features, but not an unkindly
+expression. His mysterious conduct during the voyage
+had frequently attracted my attention. There was something
+curious about his motions, as if an invisible companion,
+to whom he was bound in some strange way,
+continually accompanied him. He drank enormous quantities
+of beer, and smoked from morning till night a tremendous
+meerschaum, which must have held at least
+a pint of tobacco. When not engaged in drinking
+beer and smoking, he usually walked rapidly up and
+down the decks, with his hands behind him and his head
+bent down, talking in a guttural voice to himself about
+&ldquo;hemp.&rdquo; He slept&mdash;or rather lay down, for I don&rsquo;t
+think he ever slept&mdash;with his head close to mine on a
+bench in the cabin, and it was a continued source of
+trouble to me the way he puffed, and groaned, and talked
+about &ldquo;hemp.&rdquo; Sometimes he was half the night arguing
+with himself about the various prices and qualities
+of this useful article, but I did not understand enough of
+his <i>blat deutsch</i> to gather the drift of the argument. All I
+could make out was &ldquo;<i>Zweimal zwei macht vier</i>&mdash;(a puff)&mdash;<i>sechs
+und vierzig</i>&mdash;(a groan)&mdash;<i>acht und sechzig macht
+ein hundert</i>&mdash;(a snort)&mdash;<i>sieben tausend</i>&mdash;<i>acht tausend
+f&uuml;nf und dreissig thaler</i>&mdash;(a sigh)&mdash;<i>schilling</i>&mdash;<i>kopeck</i>&mdash;<i>ruble</i>&mdash;<i>hemphf!
+Mein Gott! Zwei und dreissig tausend</i>&mdash;<i>hemphf</i>&mdash;<i>ruble</i>&mdash;(a
+terrible gritting of the teeth)&mdash;<i>sechs
+und f&uuml;nfzig</i>&mdash;<i>Gott im Himmel!</i>&mdash;<i>Ich kann nicht
+schlafen!</i>&rdquo; Here he would jump up and shout &ldquo;Kellner!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+Kellner! <i>ein flask bier!</i>&mdash;<i>sechs und zechzig</i>&mdash;<i>zweimal
+acht und vierzig! Kellner, flask bier!</i>&mdash;<i>Liebe Gott</i>&mdash;<i>was
+ist das?</i>&mdash;<i>Nine und sechzig</i>&mdash;<i>flask bier!</i> <i>Kleich!
+Kleich!</i>&rdquo; When the beer came he would drink off three
+bottles without stopping, then light his pipe, fill the cabin
+with smoke, and after he had done that go on deck to
+get the fresh air. I could hear him for hours walking
+up and down over my head, and thought I could occasionally
+detect the words. &ldquo;<i>Hemphf</i>&mdash;<i>ruble</i>&mdash;<i>thaler</i>&mdash;<i>f&uuml;nfmal
+sechs und zwanzig</i>&mdash;<i>mein Gott!</i>&rdquo; It was evident
+the man was laboring under some dreadful internal
+excitement about the price of hemp. What could it
+be? Was he going to hang himself? Did he contemplate
+buying some Russian hemp for that purpose especially?
+The mystery was heightened by the fact that
+he was frequently in close conversation with the young
+man whom I have already mentioned as my other fellow-passenger,
+and they both talked about nothing else
+but hemp. What in the name of sense were they going
+to do with hemp in Mechlenberg, their native country,
+where people were beheaded&mdash;unless they meant to
+hang themselves? The mystery troubled me so much
+that I finally made bold to ask the young man if his
+friend had committed any serious crime, and whether
+that was the reason he talked so much about hemp?
+These North Germans are a queer people. I don&rsquo;t think
+they ever suspect any body to be joking. They take the
+most outrageous proposition literally, and never seem to
+understand that there can be two meanings to any thing.
+As Sydney Smith says of the Scotch, it would take a surgical
+operation to get a joke well into their understanding.
+When I propounded this question to my young
+fellow-passenger&mdash;a very amiable and intelligent young
+man&mdash;he looked distressed and horror-stricken, and replied
+with great earnestness, &ldquo;Oh no, he is a very respectable
+man. I am certain he never committed a crime
+in his life.&rdquo; &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;if he doesn&rsquo;t intend to hang
+somebody, why should he rave about hemp all night?&rdquo;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+&ldquo;Oh, he is a rope-maker. He is going to Russia to buy a
+cargo of hemp, and he&rsquo;s afraid prices will go up unless he
+gets there soon. The head wind and chopping sea keep
+us back a good deal.&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, yes, I understand it all
+now. Suppose, my young friend, you and I go to work
+and help the steamer along a little? It would be doing
+a great service to the cause of hemp, and enable me to
+sleep besides.&rdquo; The Mechlenberger looked incredulous.
+&ldquo;How are we to do it?&rdquo; he asked at length. &ldquo;Oh,
+nothing easier!&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;Just put a couple of
+these handspikes in the lee scuppers&mdash;so! and hold her
+steady!&rdquo; At this the Mechlenberger, who was a very
+genial and good-natured fellow, could scarcely help
+laughing, the absurdity of the idea struck him so forcibly.
+Seeing, however, that I looked perfectly in earnest,
+he was kind enough to explain the erroneous basis
+of my calculation, and accordingly entered into an elaborate
+mathematical demonstration to prove that what
+we gained by lifting we would lose by the additional
+pressure of our feet upon the decks! After this I was
+prepared to believe the story of the old Nuremberger,
+who, when about to set out on his travels, got on top
+of his trunk and took hold of each end for the purpose
+of carrying it to the post station. The question about
+the hemp was too good to be lost, and my young friend
+had too strong a business head not to perceive the delightful
+verdancy of my character. He accordingly took
+the earliest opportunity to mention it to his comrade,
+Herr Batz, the rope-maker, who never stopped laughing
+about the mistake I had made till we got to St. Petersburg.
+They were both very genial, pleasant fellows,
+and took a great fancy to the Herr American who
+thought Herr Batz was going to hang himself, and who
+had proposed to steady the steamer by means of a handspike.
+Such primitive simplicity was absolutely refreshing
+to them; and, since they enjoyed it, of course I did,
+and we were the best of friends.</p>
+
+<p>On the present occasion, after we had passed the usual
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+compliments it was proposed that we should hire a boat,
+as the night was fine, and take a trip down to the Kamennoi
+Island. I was delighted to have two such agreeable
+companions, and readily acceded to the proposition.
+A young Russian in the hemp business accompanied
+us, and altogether we made a very lively and humorous
+party. I was sorry, however, to be prejudiced
+in the estimation of the Russian by having the hemp and
+handspike story repeated in my presence, but finally got
+over that, and changed the current of the conversation
+by asking if the Emperor Alexander would send me to
+Siberia in case I smoked a cigar in the boat? To which
+the Russian responded somewhat gravely that I could
+smoke as many cigars on the water as I pleased, although
+it was forbidden in the streets on account of the danger
+of fire; but that, in any event, I would merely have to
+pay a fine, as people were only sent to Siberia for capital
+crimes and political offenses.</p>
+
+<p>We got a boat down near the Custom-house, at a point
+of the Vassoli Ostrou, called the Strelka, and were soon
+skimming along through a small branch of the Neva, toward
+the island of Krestofskoi. The water was literally
+alive with boats, all filled with gay parties of pleasure-seekers,
+some on their way to the different islands,
+some to the bath-houses which abound in every direction,
+and all apparently enjoying a delightful time of it.
+Passing to the right of the Petrofskoi Island, whose
+grass-covered shores slope down to the water like a green
+carpet outspread under the trees, we soon reached the
+Little Nevka, about three miles from our starting-point.
+We disembarked on the Krestofskoi Island, near the
+bridge which crosses from Petrofskoi. On the right is
+a beautiful palace belonging to some of the royal family,
+the gardens of which sweep down to the waters of the
+Nevka, and present a charming scene of floral luxuriance.
+Gondolas, richly carved and curiously shaped, lay
+moored near the stone steps; the trestled bowers were
+filled with gay parties; pleasant sounds of voices and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+music floated upon the air, and over all a soft twilight
+gave a mystic fascination to the scene. I thought of
+the terrible arctic winters that for six months in the
+year cast their cold death-pall over the scene of glowing
+and tropical luxuriance, and wondered how it could ever
+come to life again; how the shrubs could bloom, and the
+birds sing, and the soft air of the summer nights come
+back and linger where such dreary horrors were wont
+to desolate the earth.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="fish_peddler" id="fish_peddler"></a>
+<img src="images/thor006.png" width="600" height="465"
+alt="A fish peddler shows off his wares" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">FISH PEDDLER.</p>
+
+<p>The constant dread of infringing upon the police regulations;
+the extraordinary deference with which men in
+uniform are regarded; the circumspect behavior at public
+places; the nice and well-regulated mirthfulness,
+never overstepping the strict bounds of prudence, which
+I had so often noticed in the northern states of Germany,
+and which may in part be attributed to the naturally
+conservative and orderly character of the people, are not
+the prominent features of the population of St. Petersburg.
+It appeared to me that in this respect at least
+they are more like Americans than any people I had seen
+in Europe; they do pretty much as they please; follow
+such trades and occupations as they like best; become
+noisy and uproarious when it suits them; get drunk occasionally;
+fight now and then; lie about on the grass
+and under the trees when they feel tired; enjoy themselves
+to their heart&rsquo;s content at all the public places;
+and care nothing about the police as long as the police
+let them alone. I rather fancied there must be a natural
+democratic streak in these people, for they are certainly
+more free and easy in their manners, rougher in their
+dress, more independent in their general air, and a good
+deal dirtier than most of the people I had met with in
+the course of my travels. I do not mean to say that
+rowdyism and democracy are synonymous, but I consider
+it a good sign of innate manliness and a natural spirit
+of independence when men are not afraid to dress like
+vagabonds and behave a little extravagantly, if it suits
+their taste. It must be said, however, that the police
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+regulations or St. Petersburg, without being onerous or
+vexatious, are quite as good as those of any large city in
+Europe. When men are deprived of their political liberties,
+the least that can be done for them is to let them
+enjoy as much municipal freedom as may be consistent
+with public peace. I should never have suspected, from
+any thing I saw in the city or neighborhood of St. Petersburg,
+that I was within the limits of an absolute despotism.
+If one desires to satisfy himself on this point he
+must visit the interior.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 324px;">
+<a name="young_peasants" id="young_peasants"></a>
+<img src="images/thor007.png" width="324" height="400"
+alt="A young man plays a string instrument while a young woman looks on" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">YOUNG PEASANTS.</p>
+
+<p>I was led into this train of reflection partly by the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+scenes I had witnessed during my rambles through the
+city and on the way down the river, and partly by what
+we now saw on the island of Krestofskoi. A bridge
+unites this island with the Petrofskoi, and two other
+bridges with the islands of Kamennoi and Elaghinskoi.
+It was eleven o&rsquo;clock at night, yet the twilight was so
+rich and glowing that one might readily read a newspaper
+in any of the open spaces. The main avenues were
+crowded with carriages of every conceivable description&mdash;the
+grandly decorated coach of the noble, glittering
+with armorial bearings and drawn by four richly-caparisoned
+horses; the barouche, easy and elegant, filled with
+a gay company of foreigners; the drosky, whirling along
+at a rapid pace, with its solitary occupant; the kareta,
+plain, neat, and substantial, carrying on its ample seats
+some worthy merchant and his family; the nondescript
+little vehicle, without top, bottom, or sides&mdash;nothing but
+four small wheels and a cushioned seat perched on springs,
+with an exquisite perched astride upon the street, driving
+a magnificent blood horse at the rate of 2.40; and
+English boxes with stiff Englishmen in them; and French
+chaises with loose Frenchmen in them; and a New York
+buggy with a New York fancy man in it; and hundreds
+of fine horses with dashing Russian officers in uniform
+mounted on them, and hundreds of other horses with
+secretaries and various young sprigs of nobility struggling
+painfully to stay mounted on them; and, in short,
+every thing grand, fanciful, and entertaining in the way
+of locomotion that the most fertile imagination can conceive.
+Don&rsquo;t do me the injustice, I pray you, to consider
+me envious of the good fortune of others in being able
+to ride when I had to walk, for it does me an amazing
+deal of good to see people enjoy themselves. Nothing
+pleases me better than to see a fat old lady, glittering all
+over with fine silks and jewels, leaning back in her cushioned
+carriage, with her beloved little lapdog in her arms&mdash;two
+elegant drivers, four prancing horses, and a splendid
+little postillion in front; two stalwart footmen, in plush
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+breeches, behind, with variegated yellow backs like a pair
+of wasps. Can any thing be more picturesque? It always
+makes me think of a large June-bug dragged about
+by an accommodating crowd of fancy-colored flies! And
+what can be more imposing than a Russian grandee?
+See that terrific old gentleman, sitting all alone in a gorgeous
+carriage, large enough to carry himself and half
+a dozen of his friends. Orders and disorders cover him
+from head to foot. He is the exact picture of a ferocious
+bullfrog, with a tremendous mustache and a horribly malignant
+expression of eye, and naturally enough expects
+every body to get out of his way. That man must have
+had greatness thrust upon him, for he never could have
+achieved it by the brilliancy of his intellect. Doubtless
+he spends much of his time at the springs, but they don&rsquo;t
+seem to have purified his body, or subdued the natural
+ferocity of his temper. His wife must have a pleasant
+time. I wonder if he sleeps well, or enjoys Herzain&rsquo;s essays
+on Russian aristocracy? But make way, ye pedestrian
+rabble, for here comes a secretary of legation on
+horseback&mdash;make way, or he will tumble off and inflict
+some bodily injury upon you with the points of his waxed
+mustache! I know he must be a secretary of legation
+by the enormous polished boots he wears over his
+tight breeches, the dandy parting of his hair, the supercilious
+stupidity of his countenance, and the horrible tortures
+he suffers in trying to stick on the back of his
+horse. Nobody else in the world could make such an
+ass of himself by such frantic attempts to show off and
+keep on at the same time. I&rsquo;ll bet my life he thinks he
+is the most beautiful and accomplished gentleman ever
+produced by a beneficent Creator. Well, it is a happy
+thing for some of us that we don&rsquo;t see ourselves as others
+see us; if we did, my friends in the hemp business
+and myself would fare badly. Beregrissa! Padi! Padi!&mdash;have
+a care! make way, for here comes a cloud of dust,
+and in that cloud of dust is a kibitka, drawn by three
+wild horses, and in that kibitka, half sitting, half clinging
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+to the side, is an official courier. Crack goes the
+whip of the <i>yamtschick</i>; the three fiery horses fly through
+the dust; the courier waves his hand to an officer on
+horseback, and with a whirl and a whisk they disappear.
+<i>Pashol!</i> I hope they won&rsquo;t break their necks before
+they get through.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 290px;">
+<a name="dvornick_and_postman" id="dvornick_and_postman"></a>
+<img src="images/thor008.png" width="290" height="400"
+alt="A man with a broom holds his hand in the air; a postman with a letter stands in front of him" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">DVORNICK AND POSTMAN.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the main road branches out in various directions,
+and we strike off with the diverging streams of pedestrians,
+families of the middle and lower classes, young
+men of the town, gay young damsels with their beaux,
+burly tradesmen, tinkers, tailors, and hatters, waiters and
+apprentices, sailors and soldiers, until we find ourselves
+in the midst of a grand old forest. Open glades, pavilions,
+and tables are visible at intervals; but for the most
+part we are in a labyrinthian wilderness of trees, rich in
+foliage, and almost oppressive in their umbrageous density,
+while</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Deep velvet verdure clothes the turf beneath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And trodden flowers their richest odors breathe.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Insects flit through the still atmosphere; the hum of
+human voices, softened by distance, falls soothingly upon
+the ear; and as we look, and listen, and loiter on our
+way, we wonder if this can be the dreamland of the arctic
+regions? Can there ever be snow-storms and scathing
+frosts in such a land of tropical luxuriance? Thus,
+as we lounge along in the mellow twilight amid the
+groves of Katrofskoi, what charming pictures of sylvan
+enjoyment are revealed to us at every turn! Rustic tables
+under the great wide-spreading trees are surrounded
+by family groups&mdash;old patriarchs, and their children,
+and great-grandchildren; the steaming urn of tea in the
+middle; the old people chatting and gossiping; the
+young people laughing merrily; the children tumbling
+about over the green sward. Passing on we come to a
+group of Mujiks lying camp-fashion on the grass, eating
+their black bread, drinking their vodka, and sleeping
+whenever they please&mdash;for this is their summer home,
+and this grass is their bed. Next we come to a group
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+of officers, their rich uniforms glittering in the soft twilight,
+their horses tied to the trees, or held at a little distance
+by some attendant soldiers. Dominoes, cards,
+Champagne, and cakes are scattered in tempting profusion
+upon the table, and if they are not enjoying their
+military career, it is not for want of congenial accompaniments
+and plenty of leisure. A little farther on we meet
+a jovial party of Germans seated under a tree, with a
+goodly supply of bread and sausages before them, singing
+in fine accord a song of their faderland. Next we
+hear the familiar strains of an organ, and soon come in
+sight of an Italian who is exhibiting an accomplished
+monkey to an enraptured crowd of children. The monkey
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+has been thoroughly trained in the school of adversity,
+and makes horrible grimaces at his cruel and cadaverous
+master, who in ferocious tones, and without the least
+appearance of enjoying the sport, commands this miniature
+man to dance, fire a small gun, go through the
+sword exercise, play on a small fiddle, smoke a cigar,
+turn a somersault, bow to the company, and hold out his
+hat for an unlimited number of kopecks. Herr Batz suggests
+that such a monkey as that might be taught to
+spin ropes, and our younger Mechlenberger laughs, and
+says he once read a story of a monkey that shaved a
+cat, and then cut off his own or the cat&rsquo;s tail, he could
+not remember which. This reminds the Russian of a
+countess in Moscow who owned a beautiful little dog, to
+which she was greatly attached. She required her serfs
+to call it &ldquo;My noble Prince,&rdquo; and had them well flogged
+with the knout whenever they approached it without
+bowing. One day a cat got hold of the noble Prince,
+and gave him a good scratching. The countess, being
+unable to soothe her afflicted poodle, caused the cat&rsquo;s
+paws to be cut off, and served up on a plate for his unhappy
+highness to play with&mdash;after which the noble pug
+was perfectly satisfied! Of course, we all laughed at
+the Russian&rsquo;s story, but he assured us it was a well authenticated
+fact, and was generally regarded as a most
+delicate <i>jeu d&rsquo;esprit</i>. Not to be behindhand in the line
+of cats and monkeys, I was obliged to tell an anecdote
+of a Frenchman, who, on his arrival in Algiers, ordered a
+ragout at one of the most fashionable restaurants. It
+was duly served up, and pronounced excellent, though
+rather strongly flavored. &ldquo;Pray,&rdquo; said the Frenchman
+to the <i>ma&icirc;tre d&rsquo;hotel</i>, &ldquo;of what species of cat do you
+make ragouts in Algiers?&rdquo; &ldquo;Pardon, monsieur,&rdquo; replied
+the polite host, &ldquo;we use nothing but monkeys in Africa!&rdquo;
+Disgusted at this colonial barbarism, the Frenchman immediately
+returned to Paris, where he remained forever
+after, that he might enjoy his customary and more civilized
+dish of cat. Herr Batz had not before heard of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+such a thing, neither had the young Mechlenberger, and
+they both agreed that cats must be a very disgusting
+article of food. The Russian, however, seemed to regard
+it as nothing uncommon, and gave us some very entertaining
+accounts of various curious dishes in the interior
+of Russia, to which cats were not a circumstance.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="glazier_painter_carpenters" id="glazier_painter_carpenters"></a>
+<img src="images/thor009.png" width="600" height="451"
+alt="A group of craftsmen work at their trades" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">GLAZIER, PAINTER, CARPENTERS.</p>
+
+<p>With such flimsy conversation as this we entertain
+ourselves till we reach a village of summer residences on
+the Kamennoi Island. Here we pause a while to enjoy
+the varied scenes of amusement that tempt the loiterer
+at every step; the tea-drinking parties out on the porticoes,
+the gambling saloons, the dancing pavilions, the
+caf&eacute;s, the confectioneries, with their gay throngs of customers,
+their gaudy colors, their music, and sounds of joy
+and revelry. A little farther on we come to a stand of
+carriages, and near by a gate and a large garden. For
+thirty kopecks apiece we procure tickets of admission.
+This is the Vauxhall of Kamennoi. We jostle in with the
+crowd, and soon find ourselves in front of an open theatre.</p>
+
+<p>So passes away the time till the whistle of a little
+steamer warns us of an opportunity to get back to the
+city. Hurrying down to the wharf, we secure places on
+the stern-sheets of a screw-wheeled craft not much bigger
+than a good-sized yawl. It is crowded to overflowing&mdash;in
+front, on top of the machinery, in the rear, over
+the sides&mdash;not a square inch of space left for man or
+beast. The whistle blows again; the fiery little monster
+of an engine shivers and screams with excess of steam;
+the grim, black-looking engineer gives the irons a pull,
+and away we go at a rate of speed that threatens momentary
+destruction against some bridge or bath-house.
+It is now two o&rsquo;clock&nbsp;A.M. The rays of the rising sun
+are already reflected upon the glowing waters of the
+Neva. Barges and row-boats are hurrying toward the
+city. Carriages are rolling along the shady avenues of
+the islands. Crowds are gathered at every pier and landing-place
+awaiting some conveyance homeward. Ladies
+are waving their handkerchiefs to the little steamer to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+stop, and gentlemen are flourishing their hats. The captain
+blows the whistle, and the engineer stops the boat
+with such a sudden reversion of our screw that we are
+pitched forward out of the seats. Some of the passengers
+clamber up at the landing-places, and others clamber
+down and take their places. The little engine sets up
+its terrific scream again; the hot steam hisses and fizzes
+all over the boat; involuntary thoughts of maimed limbs
+and scalded skins are palpably impressed upon every
+face; but the little steamer keeps on&mdash;she is used to it,
+like the eels, and never bursts up. Winding through
+the varied channels of the Neva, under bridges, through
+narrow passes, among wood-boats, row-boats, and shipping,
+we at length reach the landing on the Russian
+Quay, above the Admiralty. Here we disembark, well
+satisfied to be safely over all the enjoyments and hazards
+of the evening.</p>
+
+<p>Evening, did I say? The morning sun is blazing out
+in all his glory! We have had no evening&mdash;no night.
+It has been all a wild, strange, glowing freak of fancy.
+The light of day has been upon us all the time. And
+now, should we go to bed, when the sun is shining over
+the city, glistening upon the domes of the churches, illuminating
+the windows of the palaces, awaking the
+drowsy sailors of the Neva? Shall we hide ourselves
+away in suffocating rooms when the morning breeze is
+floating in from the Gulf of Finland, bearing upon its
+wings the invigorating brine of ocean, or shall we,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">&ldquo;Pleased to feel the air,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still wander in the luxury of light?&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>VIEWS ON THE MOSCOW RAILWAY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The St. Petersburg and Moscow Railroad has been in
+operation some eight or ten years, and has contributed
+much to the internal prosperity of the country. In the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+summer of 1862 it was extended as far as Vladimir, and
+now connects St. Petersburg with Nijni Novgorod, one
+of the most important points in the empire, where the
+great annual fair is held, where tea-merchants and others
+from all parts of Tartary and China meet to exchange
+the products of those countries with those of the
+merchants of Russia. During the present year (1862)
+it is expected that the line of railway connection will be
+completed from St. Petersburg to the Prussian frontier,
+and connect with the railroads of Prussia, so that within
+twelve months it will be practicable to travel by rail all
+the way from Marseilles or Bordeaux to Nijni Novgorod.</p>
+
+<p>The Moscow and St. Petersburg Railway is something
+over four hundred miles in length, and consists of a double
+track, broad, well graded, and substantially constructed.
+The whole business of running the line, keeping the
+cars and track in repair, working the machine-shops, etc.,
+embracing all the practical details of the operative department,
+is let out by contract to an American company,
+while the government supervises the financial department,
+and reserves to itself the municipal control.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a>
+It is a remarkable fact, characteristic of the Russians,
+that while they possess uncommon capacity to acquire
+all the details of engineering, and are by no means lacking
+in mechanical skill, they are utterly deficient in management
+and administrative capacity. Wasteful, improvident,
+and short-sighted, they can never do any thing
+without the aid of more sagacious and economical heads
+to keep them within the bounds of reason. Thus, at one
+time, when they undertook to run this line on their own
+account, although they started with an extraordinary
+surplus of material, they soon ran the cars off their
+wheels, forgetting to keep up a supply of new ones as
+they went along; ran the engines out of working order;
+kept nothing in repair; provided against no contingency;
+and were finally likely to break down entirely, when
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+they determined that it would be better to give this
+branch of the business out by contract. One great fault
+with them is, they labor under an idea that nothing can
+be done without an extraordinary number of officers,
+soldiers, policemen, and employ&eacute;s of every description&mdash;upon
+the principle, I suppose, that if two heads are better
+than one, the ignorance or inefficiency of a small
+number of employ&eacute;s can be remedied by having a very
+great number of the same kind. In other words, they
+seem to think that if five hundred men can not be industrious,
+skillful, and economical, five thousand trained in
+exactly the same schools, and with precisely the same
+propensities, must be ten times better. Even now there
+is not a station, and scarcely a foot of the railway from
+St. Petersburg to Moscow, that is not infested with an
+extraordinary surplus of useless men in uniform. At
+the great d&eacute;p&ocirc;ts in each of these cities the traveler is
+fairly confused with the crowds of officers and employ&eacute;s
+through which he is obliged to make his way. Before
+he enters the doorways, liveried porters outside offer to
+take his baggage; then he passes by guards, who look
+at him carefully and let him go in; then he finds guards
+who show him where to find the ticket-office; when he
+arrives at the ticket-office, he finds a guard or two outside,
+and half a dozen clerks inside; then he buys his
+ticket, and an officer examines it as he goes into the
+wirthsaal; there he finds other officers stationed to preserve
+order; when the bell rings the doors are opened;
+numerous officers outside show him where to find the
+cars, and which car he must get into; and when he gets
+into a car he sits for a quarter of an hour, and sees officers
+going up and down outside all the time, and thinks
+to himself that people certainly can not be supposed to
+have very good eyes, ears, or understanding of their own
+in this country, since nobody is deemed capable of using
+them on his individual responsibility. I only wonder
+that they don&rsquo;t eat, drink, sleep, and travel for a man at
+once by proxy, and thereby save him the trouble of living
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+or moving at all. In fact, I had some thought of
+asking one of these licensed gentlemen if the regulations
+could not be stretched a point so as to embrace the payment
+of my expenses; but it occurred to me that if I were
+relieved of that responsibility, they might undertake at
+the same time to write these letters for me, which would
+be likely to alter the tone and thereby destroy my individuality.
+But it must be admitted that good order,
+convenience, politeness, and comfort are the predominant
+characteristics of railway travel in Russia. The
+conductors usually speak French, German, and English,
+and are exceedingly attentive to the comfort of the passengers.
+The hours of starting and stopping are punctually
+observed&mdash;so punctually that you can calculate to
+the exact minute when you will arrive at any given
+point. Having no watch, I always knew the time by
+looking at my ticket. Between St. Petersburg and
+Moscow there are thirty-three stations, seven of which
+are the grand stations of Lubanskaia, Malovischerskaia,
+Okoulourskaia, Bologovskaia, Spirovskaia, Tver, and
+Klinskaia. The rest are small intermediate stations.
+At every seventy-five versts&mdash;about fifty miles&mdash;the cars
+stop twenty minutes, and refreshments may be had by
+paying a pretty heavy price for them. At the points
+above-named there are large and substantial edifices
+built by the company, containing various offices, spacious
+eating-saloons, ante-chambers, etc., and attached to
+which are extensive machine-shops, and various outbuildings
+required by the service. Occasionally towns
+may be seen in the vicinity of these stations, but for the
+most part they stand out desolate and alone in the
+dreary waste of country lying between the two great
+cities. At every twenty-five versts are sub-stations,
+where the cars stop for a few minutes. These are also
+large and very substantial edifices, but not distinguished
+for architectural beauty, like many of the stations in
+France and Germany. Usually the Russian station consists
+of an immense plain circular building, constructed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+of brick, with very thick walls, and a plain zinc roof, the
+outside painted red, the roof green; wings or flanges
+built of the same material extending along the track; a
+broad wooden esplanade in front, upon which the passengers
+can amuse themselves promenading, and a neat
+garden, with other accommodations, at one end. Some
+of the large stations are not only massive and of enormous
+extent, but present rather a striking and picturesque
+appearance as they are approached from the distance,
+standing as they do in the great deserts of space
+like solitary sentinels of civilization. The passengers
+rush out at every stopping-place just as they do in other
+parts of the world, some to stretch their limbs, others
+to replenish the waste that seems to be constantly going
+on in the stomachs of the traveling public. I don&rsquo;t
+know how it is, but it appears to me that people who
+travel by railway are always either tired, thirsty, or
+hungry. The voracity with which plates of soup, cutlets,
+sandwiches, salad, scalding hot tea, wine, beer, and
+brandy are swallowed down by these hungry and thirsty
+Russians, is quite as striking as any thing I ever saw
+done in the same line at Washoe. But it is not a feature
+confined to Russia. I notice the same thing every
+where all over the world; and what vexes me about it
+is that I never get tired myself, and rarely hungry or
+thirsty. Here, in midsummer, with a sweltering hot sun,
+and an atmosphere that would almost smother a salamander,
+were whole legions of officers, elegantly-dressed
+ladies, and a rabble of miscellaneous second and third
+class passengers like myself, puffing, blowing, eating,
+drinking, sweating, and toiling, as if their very existence
+depended upon keeping up the internal fires and blowing
+them off again. It is dreadful to see people so hard
+pushed to live. I really can&rsquo;t conjecture what sort of
+a commotion they will make when they come to die. A
+sandwich or two and a glass of tea lasted me all the way
+to Moscow&mdash;a journey of eighteen hours, and I never
+suffered from hunger, thirst, or fatigue the whole way.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+If I had &ldquo;gone in&rdquo; like other people, I would certainly
+have been a dead man before I got half way; and yet, I
+think, two sandwiches more would have lasted me to the
+Ural Mountains. It continually bothers me to know
+how the human stomach can bear to be tormented in
+this frightful way. Per Baccho! I would as soon be
+shot in the hand with an escopette ball as drink the quantity
+of wine and eat the quantity of food that I have
+seen even women and children dispose of, as if it were
+mere pastime, on these railway journeys. I think it
+must be either this or the frost that accounts for the extraordinary
+prevalence of red noses in Russia, and it
+even occurred to me that the stations are painted a fiery
+red, so that when travelers come within range of the
+refracted color their noses may look pale by contrast,
+and thereby remind them that it is time to renew the
+caloric.</p>
+
+<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> This contract terminated last year (1865).</p></div>
+
+<p>With the exception of the seventy-five versts between
+Moscow and Tver, I can not remember that I ever traveled
+over so desolate and uninteresting a stretch of country
+as that lying between St. Petersburg and Moscow. For
+a short distance out of St. Petersburg there are some few
+villas and farms to relieve the monotony of the gloomy
+pine forests; then the country opens out into immense
+undulating plains, marshy meadows, scrubby groves of
+young pine, without any apparent limit; here and there
+a bleak and solitary village of log huts; a herd of cattle
+in the meadows; a wretched, sterile-looking farm, with
+plowed fields, at remote intervals, and so on hour after
+hour, the scene offering but little variety the whole way
+to Tver. The villages are wholly destitute of picturesque
+effect. Such rude and miserable hovels as they
+are composed of could scarcely be found in the wildest
+frontier region of the United States. These cabins or
+hovels are built of logs, and are very low and small, generally
+consisting of only one or two rooms. I saw none
+that were whitewashed or painted, and nothing like order
+or regularity was perceptible about them, all seeming
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+to be huddled together as if they happened there by
+accident, and were obliged to keep at close quarters in
+order to avoid freezing during the terrible winters.
+Some of them are not unlike the city of Eden in Martin
+Chuzzlewit. The entire absence of every thing approaching
+taste, comfort, or rural beauty in the appearance of
+these villages; the weird and desolate aspect of the boggy
+and grass-grown streets; the utter want of interest
+in progress or improvement on the part of the peasantry
+who inhabit them, are well calculated to produce a melancholy
+impression of the condition of these poor people.
+How can it be otherwise, held in bondage as they have
+been for centuries, subject to be taxed at the discretion
+of their owners; the results of their labors wrested from
+them; no advance made by the most enterprising and
+intelligent of them without in some way subjecting them
+to new burdens? Whatever may be the result of the
+movement now made for their emancipation, it certainly
+can not be more depressing than the existing system of
+serfage. Looking back over the scenes of village life I
+had witnessed in France and Germany&mdash;the neat vine-covered
+cottages, the little flower-gardens, the orchards
+and green lanes, the festive days, when the air resounded
+to the merry voices of laughing damsels and village
+beaux&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For talking age and whispering lovers made&rdquo;&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>the joyous dancers out on the village green, the flaunting
+banners and wreaths of flowers hung in rich profusion
+over the cross-roads&mdash;with such scenes as these flitting
+through my memory, I could well understand that there
+is an absolute physical servitude to which men can be
+reduced, that, in the progress of generations, must crush
+down the human soul, and make life indeed a dreary
+struggle. In the splendor of large cities, amid the glitter
+and magnificence of palaces and churches, the varied
+paraphernalia of aristocracy and wealth, and all the excitements,
+allurements, and novelties apparent to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+superficial eye, the real condition of the masses is not perceptible.
+They must be seen in the country&mdash;in their
+far-off villages and homes throughout the broad land;
+there you find no disguise to cover the horrible deformities
+of their bruised and crushed life; there you see the
+full measure of their civilization. In the huts of these
+poor people there is little or no comfort. Many of them
+have neither beds nor chairs, and the occupants spend a
+sort of camp life within doors, cooking their food like
+Indians, and huddling round the earthen stove or fireplace
+in winter, where they lie down on the bare ground
+and sleep in a mass, like a nest of animals, to keep each
+other warm. Their clothing is of the coarsest material,
+but reasonably good, and well suited to the climate. The
+men are a much finer-looking race, physically, than their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+masters. I saw some serfs in Moscow who, in stature,
+strong athletic forms, and bold and manly features, would
+compare favorably with the best specimens of men in any
+country. It was almost incredible that such noble-looking
+fellows, with their blue, piercing eyes and manly air,
+should be reduced to such a state of abject servitude as
+to kiss the tails of their master&rsquo;s coats! Many of them
+had features as bold and forms as brawny as our own
+California miners; and more than once, when I saw them
+lounging about in their big boots, with their easy, reckless
+air, and looked at their weather-beaten faces and
+vigorous, sunburnt beards, I could almost imagine that
+they were genuine Californians. But here the resemblance
+ceased. No sooner did an officer of high standing
+pass, than they manifested some abject sign of their
+degraded condition.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 375px;">
+<a name="hay_gatherers" id="hay_gatherers"></a>
+<img src="images/thor010.png" width="375" height="400"
+alt="Two women gather and stack hay" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">HAY GATHERERS.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the agricultural implements that one sees in
+this country would astonish a Californian. The plows
+are patterned very much after those that were used by
+Boaz and other large farmers in the days of the Patriarchs;
+the scythes are the exact originals of the old pictures
+in which Death is represented as mowing down
+mankind; the hoes, rakes, and shovels would be an ornament
+to any museum, but are entirely indescribable; and
+as for the wagons and harnesses&mdash;herein lies the superior
+genius of the Russians over all the races of earth, ancient
+or modern, for never were such wagons and such harnesses
+seen on any other part of the globe. To be accurate
+and methodical, each wagon has four wheels, and
+each wheel is roughly put together of rough wood, and
+then roughly bound up in an iron band about four inches
+wide, and thick in proportion. Logs of wood, skillfully
+hewed with broad-axes, answer for the axle-tree; and as
+they don&rsquo;t weigh over half a ton each, they are sometimes
+braced in the middle to keep them from breaking.
+Upon the top of this is a big basket, about the shape of
+a bath-tub, in which the load is carried. Sometimes the
+body is made of planks tied together with bullock&rsquo;s hide,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+or no body at all is used, as convenience may require.
+The wagon being thus completed, braced and thorough-braced
+with old ropes, iron bands, and leather straps, we
+come to the horses, which stand generally in front. The
+middle horse is favored with a pair of shafts of enormous
+durability and strength. He stands between these shafts,
+and is fastened in them by means of ropes; but, to prevent
+him from jumping out overhead, a wooden arch is
+out over him, which is the <i>chef-d&rsquo;&oelig;uvre</i> of ornamentation.
+This is called the <i>duga</i>, and is the most prominent
+object to be seen about every wagon, drosky, and kibitka
+in Russia. I am not sure but a species of veneration
+is attached to it. Often it is highly decorated with gilding,
+painted figures, and every vagary of artistic genius,
+and must cost nearly as much as the entire wagon.
+Some of the <i>dugas</i> even carry saintly images upon them,
+so that the devout driver may perform his devotions as
+he drives through life. To suppose that a horse could
+pull a wagon in Russia without this wooden arch, the
+utility of which no human eye but that of a Russian can
+see, is to suppose an impossibility. Now, the shafts being
+spread out so as to give the horse plenty of room at
+each side, it becomes necessary, since they are rather
+loosely hung on at the but-ends, to keep them from
+swaying. How do you think this is done? Nothing
+easier. By running a rope from the end of each shaft to
+the projecting end of the fore axle, outside of the wheels.
+For this purpose the axle is made to project a foot beyond
+the wheels, and the only trouble about it is that
+two wagons on a narrow road often find it difficult to
+pass. It is very curious to see these primitive-looking
+objects lumbering about through the streets of Moscow
+and St. Petersburg. The horses are most commonly
+placed three abreast. In the ordinary kibitka or traveling
+wagon the outside horses are merely fastened by
+ropes, and strike out in any direction they please, the
+whip and a small rein serving to keep them within bounds.
+It is perfectly astonishing with what reckless and headlong
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+speed these animals dash over the rough pavements.
+Just imagine the luxury of a warm day&rsquo;s journey in such
+a vehicle, which has neither springs nor backed seats&mdash;three
+fiery horses fastened to it, and each pulling, plunging,
+and pirouetting on his own account; a ferocious
+yamtschick cracking his whip and shrieking &ldquo;Shivar!
+shivar!&rdquo;&mdash;faster! faster!&mdash;the wagon, rattling all over,
+plunging into ruts, jumping over stones, ripping its way
+through bogs and mud-banks; your bones shaken nearly
+out of their sockets; your vertebr&aelig; partially dislocated;
+your mouth filled with dust; your tongue swollen and
+parched; your eyes blinded with grit; your <i>yamtschick</i>
+reeling drunk with <i>vodka</i>, and bound to draw to the destined
+station&mdash;or some worse place; your confidence in
+men and horses shaken with your bones; your views of
+the future circumscribed by every turn of the road&mdash;oh!
+it is charming; it is the very climax of human enjoyment.
+Wouldn&rsquo;t you like to travel in Russia?</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the villages which are scattered at frequent
+intervals along the route, the gilded dome of a
+church is occasionally seen in the distance, indicating the
+existence of a town; but one seldom catches more than
+a glimpse of the green-covered roofs of the houses, over
+the interminable patches of scrubby pine. It is not a
+country that presents such attractive features as to induce
+the mere tourist to get out and spend a few days
+rambling through it. In these dreary solitudes of marshes
+and pines, the inhabitants speak no other language
+than their own, and that not very well; but well or ill,
+it is all Greek&mdash;or rather Russian&mdash;to the majority of
+people from other countries.</p>
+
+<p>But, as I said before, this habit of digression will be
+the death of me. Like a rocket, I start off splendidly,
+but explode and fall to pieces in every direction before I
+get half way on my journey. If the scintillations are
+varied and gayly colored, to be sure, the powder is not
+utterly lost; but the trouble of it is, if one keeps going
+off like rockets all the time, he will never get any where,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+and in the end will leave nothing but smoke and darkness
+to the gaping multitude.</p>
+
+<p>If my memory serves me, I was talking of the Emperor
+Alexander&rsquo;s convoy of private railway carriages&mdash;the
+most magnificent affair of the kind, perhaps, in existence.
+It was made purposely for his use, at a cost of
+more than a hundred thousand dollars, and presented to
+him by the American company, Winans and Company.
+Nothing so magnificent in decoration, and so admirably
+adapted to the convenience, comfort, and enjoyment of a
+royal party has ever been seen in Europe. The main
+carriage&mdash;for there are several in the suite&mdash;called, <i>par
+excellence</i>, the emperor&rsquo;s own, is eighty-five feet long,
+and something over the usual width. It rests upon two
+undivided sleepers of such elastic and well-grained wood
+that they would bear the entire weight of the carriage,
+without the necessity of a support in the middle, forming
+a single stretch or arch, from axle to axle, of about
+seventy feet. The springs, wheels, brakes, and various
+kinds of iron-work, are of the finest and most select material,
+and highly finished in every detail, combining
+strength and durability with artistic beauty. The interior
+of the main or imperial carriage is a masterpiece of
+sumptuous ornamentation. Here are the richest of carvings;
+the most gorgeous hangings of embroidered velvet;
+mirrors and pictures in profusion; carpets and rugs
+that seem coaxing the feet to linger upon them; tables,
+cushioned sofas, and luxurious arm-chairs; divans and
+lounges of rare designs, covered with the richest damask;
+exquisite Pompeian vases and brilliant chandeliers&mdash;all,
+in short, that ingenuity could devise and wealth
+procure to charm the senses, and render this a traveling
+palace worthy the imperial presence. Connected with
+the main saloon is the royal bedchamber, with adjoining
+bathing and dressing rooms, equally sumptuous in all
+their appointments. Besides which, there are smoking-rooms,
+private offices, magnificent chambers for the camarilla,
+the secretaries, and body-guard of the emperor.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+The whole is admirably arranged for convenience and
+comfort; and it is said that the motion, when the convoy
+is under way, is so soft and dreamy that it is scarcely
+possible to feel a vibration, the effect being as if the cars
+were floating through the air, or drawn over tracks of
+down. Fully equal to this, yet more subdued and delicate
+in the drapery and coloring, are the apartments of
+the empress. Here it may truly be said is &ldquo;the poetry
+of motion&rdquo; realized&mdash;saloons fit for the angels that flit
+through them, of whom the chiefest ornament is the empress
+herself&mdash;the beautiful and beloved Maria Alexandrina,
+the charm of whose presence is felt like a pleasant
+glow of sunshine wherever she goes. Here are drawing-rooms,
+boudoirs, apartments for the beautiful maids of
+honor, reading-rooms, and even a dancing-saloon, from
+which it may well be inferred that the royal party enjoy
+themselves. If the emperor fails to make himself agreeable
+in this branch of his establishment, he deserves to
+be put out at the very first station. But he has the
+ladies at a disadvantage, which probably compels them
+to be very tolerant of his behavior; that is to say, he can
+detach their branch of the establishment from his own,
+and leave them on the road at any time he pleases by
+pulling a string; but I believe there is no instance yet
+on record of his having availed himself of this autocratic
+privilege. It is usually understood at the start whether
+the excursion is to be in partnership or alone. When
+the emperor goes out on a hunting expedition, he is accompanied
+by a select company of gentlemen, and of
+course is compelled to deprive himself of the pleasure
+of the more attractive and intoxicating society of ladies,
+which would be calculated to unsteady his nerves, and
+render him unfit for those terrific encounters with the
+bears of the forest upon which his fame as a hunter is
+chiefly founded.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>MOSCOW.</h3>
+
+
+<p>What the great Napoleon thought when he gazed for
+the first time across the broad valley that lay at his feet,
+and caught the first dazzling light that flashed from the
+walls and golden cupolas of the Kremlin&mdash;whether some
+shadowy sense of the wondrous beauties of the scene
+did not enter his soul&mdash;is more than I can say with certainty;
+but this much I know, that neither he nor his
+legions could have enjoyed the view from Sparrow Hill
+more than I did the first glimpse of the grand old city
+of the Czars as I stepped from the railroad d&eacute;p&ocirc;t, with
+my knapsack on my back, and stood, a solitary and bewildered
+waif, uncertain if it could all be real; for never
+yet had I, in the experience of many years&rsquo; travel, seen
+such a magnificent sight, so wildly Tartaric, so strange,
+glowing, and incomprehensible. This was Moscow at
+last&mdash;the Moscow I had read of when a child&mdash;the Moscow
+I had so often seen burnt up in panoramas by an
+excited and patriotic populace&mdash;the Moscow ever flashing
+through memory in fitful gleams, half buried in smoke,
+and flames, and toppling ruins, now absolutely before
+me, a gorgeous reality in the bright noonday sun, with
+its countless churches, its domes and cupolas, and mighty
+Kremlin.</p>
+
+<p>Stand with me, reader, on the first eminence, and let
+us take a bird&rsquo;s-eye view of the city, always keeping in
+mind that the Kremlin is the great nucleus from which
+it all radiates. What a vast, wavy ocean of golden cupolas
+and fancy-colored domes, green-roofed houses and
+tortuous streets circle around this magic pile! what a
+combination of wild, barbaric splendors! nothing within
+the sweep of vision that is not glowing and Oriental.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+Never was a city so fashioned for scenic effects. From
+the banks of the Moskwa the Kremlin rears its glittering
+crest, surrounded by green-capped towers and frowning
+embattlements, its umbrageous gardens and massive
+white walls conspicuous over the vast sea of green-roofed
+houses, while high above all, grand and stern,
+like some grim old Czar of the North, rises the magnificent
+tower of Ivan Veliki. Within these walls stand
+the chief glories of Moscow&mdash;the palaces of the Emperor,
+the Cathedral of the Assumption, the House of
+the Holy Synod, the Treasury, the Arsenal, and the Czar
+Kolokol, the great king of bells. All these gorgeous
+edifices, and many more, crown the eminence which
+forms the sacred grounds, clustering in a magic maze
+of beauty around the tower of Ivan the Terrible. Beyond
+the walls are numerous open spaces occupied by
+booths and markets; then come the principal streets and
+buildings of the city, encircled by the inner boulevards;
+then the suburbs, around which wind the outer boulevards;
+then a vast tract of beautiful and undulating
+country, dotted with villas, lakes, convents, and public
+buildings, inclosed in the far distance by the great outer
+wall, which forms a circuit of twenty miles around the
+city. The Moskwa River enters near the Presnerski
+Lake, and, taking a circuitous route, washes the base of
+the Kremlin, and passes out near the convent of St.
+Daniel. If you undertake, however, to trace out any
+plan of the city from the confused maze of streets that
+lie outspread before you, it will be infinitely worse than
+an attempt to solve the mysteries of a woman&rsquo;s heart;
+for there is no apparent plan about it; the whole thing
+is an unintelligible web of accidents. There is no accounting
+for its irregularity, unless upon the principle
+that it became distorted in a perpetual struggle to keep
+within reach of the Kremlin.</p>
+
+<p>It is sometimes rather amusing to compare one&rsquo;s preconceived
+ideas of a place with the reality. A city like
+Moscow is very difficult to recognize from any written
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+description. From some cause wholly inexplicable, I
+had pictured to my mind a vast gathering of tall, massive
+houses, elaborately ornamented; long lines of narrow
+and gloomy streets; many great palaces, dingy with
+age; and a population composed chiefly of Russian nabobs
+and their retinues of serfs. The reality is almost
+exactly the reverse of all these preconceived ideas. The
+houses for the most part are low&mdash;not over one or two
+stories high&mdash;painted with gay and fanciful colors, chiefly
+yellow, red, or blue; the roofs of tin or zinc, and nearly
+all of a bright green, giving them a very lively effect
+in the sun; nothing grand or imposing about them in
+detail, and but little pretension to architectural beauty.
+Very nearly such houses may be seen every day on any
+of the four continents.</p>
+
+<p>Still, every indication of life presents a very different
+aspect from any thing in our own country. The people
+have a slow, slouching, shabby appearance; and the
+traveler is forcibly reminded, by the strange costumes
+he meets at every turn&mdash;the thriftless and degenerate
+aspect of the laboring classes&mdash;the great lumbering wagons
+that roll over the stone-paved streets&mdash;the droskies
+rattling hither and thither with their grave, priest-like
+drivers and wild horses&mdash;the squads of filthy soldiers
+lounging idly at every corner&mdash;the markets and market-places,
+and all that gives interest to the scene, that he is
+in a foreign land&mdash;a wild land of fierce battles between
+the elements, and fiercer still between men&mdash;where civilization
+is ever struggling between Oriental barbarism
+and European profligacy.</p>
+
+<p>The most interesting feature in the population of Moscow
+is their constant and extraordinary displays of religious
+enthusiasm. This seems to be confined to no
+class or sect, but is the prevailing characteristic. No
+less than three hundred churches are embraced within
+the limits of the city. Some writers estimate the number
+as high as five hundred; nor does the discrepancy
+show so much a want of accuracy as the difficulty of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+determining precisely what constitutes a distinct church.
+Many of these remarkable edifices are built in clusters,
+with a variety of domes and cupolas, with different
+names, and contain distinct places of worship&mdash;as in the
+Cathedral of St. Basil, for instance, which is distinguished
+by a vast number of variegated domes, and embraces
+within its limits at least five or six separate churches,
+each church being still farther subdivided into various
+chapels. Of the extraordinary architectural style of
+these edifices, their many-shaped and highly-colored
+domes, representing all the lines of the rainbow, the gilding
+so lavishly bestowed upon them, their wonderfully
+picturesque effect from every point of view, it would be
+impossible to convey any adequate idea without entering
+into a more elaborate description than I can at present
+attempt.</p>
+
+<p>But it is not only in the numberless churches scattered
+throughout the city that the devotional spirit of the
+inhabitants is manifested. Moscow is the Mecca of Russia,
+where all are devotees. The external forms of religion
+are every where apparent&mdash;in the palaces, the barracks,
+the institutions of learning, the traktirs, the bath-houses&mdash;even
+in the drinking cellars and gambling-hells.
+Scarcely a bridge or corner of a street is without its
+shrine, its pictured saint and burning taper, before which
+every by-passer of high or low degree bows down and
+worships. It may be said with truth that one is never
+out of sight of devotees baring their heads and prostrating
+themselves before these sacred images. All distinctions
+of rank seem lost in this universal passion for
+prayer. The nobleman, in his gilded carriage with liveried
+servants, stops and pays the tribute of an uncovered
+head to some saintly image by the bridge or the roadside;
+the peasant, in his shaggy sheepskin capote, doffs
+his greasy cap, and, while devoutly crossing himself, utters
+a prayer; the soldier, grim and warlike, marches
+up in his rattling armor, grounds his musket, and forgets
+for the time his mission of blood; the tradesman, with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+his leather apron and labor-worn hands, lays down his
+tools and does homage to the shrine; the drosky-driver,
+noted for his petty villainies, checks his horse, and, standing
+up in his drosky, bows low and crosses himself before
+he crosses the street or the bridge; even my guide,
+the saturnine Dominico&mdash;and every body knows what
+guides are all over the world&mdash;halted at every corner,
+regardless of time, and uttered an elaborate form of adjurations
+for our mutual salvation.</p>
+
+<p>Pictures of a devotional character are offered for sale
+in almost every booth, alley, and passage-way, where the
+most extraordinary daubs may be seen pinned up to the
+walls. Saints and dragons, fiery-nosed monsters, and
+snakes, and horrid creeping things, gilded and decorated
+in the most gaudy style, attract idle crowds from morning
+till night.</p>
+
+<p>It is marvelous with what profound reverence the
+Russians will gaze at these extraordinary specimens of
+art. Often you see a hardened-looking ruffian&mdash;his face
+covered with beard and filth; his great, brawny form
+resembling that of a prize-fighter; his costume a ragged
+blouse, with loose trowsers thrust in his boots; such a
+wretch, in short, as you would select for an unmitigated
+ruffian if you were in want of a model for that character&mdash;take
+off his cap, and, with superstitious awe and an
+expression of profound humility, bow down before some
+picture of a dragon with seven heads or a chubby little
+baby of saintly parentage.</p>
+
+<p>That these poor people are sincere in their devotion
+there can be no doubt. Their sincerity, indeed, is attested
+by the strongest proofs of self-sacrifice. A Russian
+will not hesitate to lie, rob, murder, or suffer starvation
+for the preservation of his religion. Bigoted though
+he may be, he is true to his faith and devoted to his
+forms of worship, whatever may be his short-comings in
+other respects. It is a part of his nature; it permeates
+his entire being. Hence no city in the world, perhaps&mdash;Jerusalem
+not excepted&mdash;presents so strange a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+spectacle of religious enthusiasm, genuine and universal,
+mingled with moral turpitude; monkish asceticism and
+utter abandonment to vice; self-sacrifice and loose indulgence.
+It may be said that this is not true religion&mdash;not
+even what these people profess. Perhaps not;
+but it is what they are accustomed to from infancy, and
+it certainly develops some of their best traits of character&mdash;charity
+to each other, earnestness, constancy, and
+self-sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning after my arrival in Moscow I witnessed
+from the window of my hotel a very impressive and
+melancholy spectacle&mdash;the departure of a gang of prisoners
+for Siberia. The number amounted to some two
+or three hundred. Every year similar trains are dispatched,
+yet the parting scene always attracts a sympathizing
+crowd. These poor creatures were chained in
+pairs, and guarded by a strong detachment of soldiers.
+Their appearance, as they stood in the street awaiting
+the order to march, was very sad. Most of them were
+miserably clad, and some scarcely clad at all. A degraded,
+forlorn set they were&mdash;filthy and ragged&mdash;their
+downcast features expressive of an utter absence of hope.
+Few of them seemed to have any friends or relatives in
+the crowd of by-standers; but in two or three instances
+I noticed some very touching scenes of separation&mdash;where
+wives came to bid good-by to their husbands, and
+children to their fathers. Nearly every body gave them
+something to help them on their way&mdash;a few kopecks, a
+loaf of bread, or some cast-off article of clothing. I saw
+a little child timidly approach the gang, and, dropping a
+small coin into the hand of one poor wretch, run back
+again into the crowd, weeping bitterly. These prisoners
+are condemned to exile for three, four, or five years&mdash;often
+for life. It requires from twelve to eighteen
+months of weary travel, all the way on foot, through
+barren wastes and inhospitable deserts, to enable them
+to reach their desolate place of exile. Many of them
+fall sick on the way from fatigue and privation&mdash;many
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+die. Few ever live to return. In some instances the
+whole term of exile is served out on the journey to and
+from Siberia. On their arrival they are compelled to
+labor in the government mines or on the public works.
+Occasionally the most skillful and industrious are rewarded
+by appointments to positions of honor and trust,
+and become in the course of time leading men.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="prisoners_for_siberia" id="prisoners_for_siberia"></a>
+<img src="images/thor011.png" width="600" height="472"
+alt="Prisoners shackled in pairs are escorted through the street by guards" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">PRISONERS FOR SIBERIA.</p>
+
+<p>In contemplating the dreary journey of these poor
+creatures&mdash;a journey of some fifteen hundred or two
+thousand miles&mdash;I was insensibly reminded of that
+touching little story of filial affection, &ldquo;Elizabeth of Siberia,&rdquo;
+a story drawn from nature, and known in all civilized
+languages.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after the departure of the Siberian prisoners,
+I witnessed, in passing along one of the principal streets,
+a grand funeral procession. The burial of the dead is
+a picturesque and interesting ceremony in Moscow. A
+body of priests, dressed in black robes and wearing long
+beards, take the lead in the funeral cort&eacute;ge, bearing in
+their hands shrines and burning tapers. The hearse follows,
+drawn by four horses. Black plumes wave from
+the heads of the horses, and flowing black drapery covers
+their bodies and legs. Even their heads are draped in
+black, nothing being perceptible but their eyes. The
+coffin lies exposed on the top of the hearse, and is also
+similarly draped. This combination of sombre plumage
+and drapery has a singularly mournful appearance.
+Priests stand on steps attached to the hearse holding
+images of the Savior over the coffin; others follow in
+the rear, comforting the friends and relatives of the deceased.
+A wild, monotonous chant is sung from time
+to time by the chief mourners as the procession moves
+toward the burial-ground. The people cease their occupations
+in the streets through which the funeral passes,
+uncover their heads, and, bowing down before the
+images borne by the priests, utter prayers for the repose
+of the dead. The rich and the poor of both sexes stand
+upon the sidewalks and offer up their humble petitions.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+The deep-tongued bells of the Kremlin ring out solemn
+peals, and the wild and mournful chant of the priests
+mingles with the grand knell of death that sweeps
+through the air. All is profoundly impressive: the procession
+of priests, with their burning tapers; the drapery
+of black on the horses; the coffin with its dead;
+the weeping mourners; the sepulchral chant; the sudden
+cessation of all the business of life, and the rapt attention
+of the multitude; the deep, grand, death-knell
+of the bells; the glitter of domes and cupolas on every
+side; the green-roofed sea of houses; the winding
+streets, and the costumes of the people&mdash;form a spectacle
+wonderfully wild, strange, and mournful. In every
+thing that comes within the sweep of the eye there is a
+mixed aspect of Tartaric barbarism and European civilization.
+Yet even the stranger from a far-distant clime,
+speaking another language, accustomed to other forms,
+must feel, in gazing upon such a scene, that death levels
+all distinctions of race&mdash;that our common mortality
+brings us nearer together. Every where we are pilgrims
+on the same journey. Wherever we sojourn
+among men,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;The dead around us lie,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the death-bell tolls.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>TEA-DRINKING.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The <i>traktirs</i>, or tea-houses, are prominent among the
+remarkable institutions of Russia. In Moscow they
+abound in every street, lane, and by-alley. That situated
+near the Katai Gorod is said to be the best.
+Though inferior to the ordinary caf&eacute;s of Paris or Marseilles
+in extent and decoration, it is nevertheless pretty
+stylish in its way, and is interesting to strangers from
+the fact that it represents a prominent feature in Russian
+life&mdash;the drinking of <i>tchai</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 374px;">
+<a name="tea_sellers" id="tea_sellers"></a>
+<img src="images/thor012.png" width="374" height="400"
+alt="Tea-sellers converse in the street" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">TEA-SELLERS.</p>
+
+<p>Who has not heard of Russian tea?&mdash;the tea that
+comes all the way across the steppes of Tartary and over
+the Ural Mountains?&mdash;the tea that never loses its flavor
+by admixture with the salt of the ocean, but is delivered
+over at the great fair of Nijni Novgorod as pure and
+fragrant as when it started? He who has never heard
+of Russian tea has heard nothing, and he who has never
+enjoyed a glass of it may have been highly favored in
+other respects, but I contend that he has nevertheless
+led a very benighted existence. All epicures in the delicate
+leaf unite in pronouncing it far superior to the nectar
+with which the gods of old were wont to quench their
+thirst. It is truly one of the luxuries of life&mdash;so soft;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+so richly yet delicately flavored; so bright, glowing, and
+transparent as it flashes through the crystal glasses;
+nothing acrid, gross, or earthly about it&mdash;a heavenly
+compound that &ldquo;cheers but not inebriates.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;A balm for the sickness of care,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">A bliss for a bosom unbless&rsquo;d.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Come with me, friend, and let us take a seat in the
+traktir. Every body here is a tea-drinker. Coffee is
+never good in Russia. Besides, it is gross and villainous
+stuff compared with the <i>tchai</i> of Moscow. At all
+hours of the day we find the saloons crowded with
+Russians, French, Germans, and the representatives of
+various other nations&mdash;all worshipers before the burnished
+shrine of <i>Tchai</i>. A little saint in the corner presides
+especially over this department. The devout Russians
+take off their hats and make a profound salam to
+this accommodating little patron, whose corpulent stomach
+and smiling countenance betoken an appreciation of
+all the good things of life. Now observe how these
+wonderful Russians&mdash;the strangest and most incomprehensible
+of beings&mdash;cool themselves this sweltering hot
+day. Each stalwart son of the North calls for a portion
+of <i>tchai</i>, not a tea-cupful or a glassful, but a genuine
+Russian portion&mdash;a tea-potful. The tea-pot is small, but
+the tea is strong enough to bear an unlimited amount of
+dilution; and it is one of the glorious privileges of the
+tea-drinker in this country that he may have as much
+hot water as he pleases. Sugar is more sparingly supplied.
+The adept remedies this difficulty by placing a
+lump of sugar in his mouth and sipping his tea through
+it&mdash;a great improvement upon the custom said to exist
+in some parts of Holland, where a lump of sugar is hung
+by a string over the table and swung around from mouth
+to mouth, so that each guest may take a pull at it after
+swallowing his tea. A portion would be quite enough
+for a good-sized family in America. The Russian makes
+nothing of it. Filling and swilling hour after hour, he
+seldom rises before he gets through ten or fifteen
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+tumblersful, and, if he happens to be thirsty, will double it&mdash;enough,
+one would think, to founder a horse. But the
+Russian stomach is constructed upon some physiological
+principles unknown to the rest of mankind&mdash;perhaps
+lined with gutta-percha and riveted to a diaphragm of
+sheet-iron. Grease and scalding-hot tea; <i>quass</i> and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+cabbage soup; raw cucumbers; cold fish; lumps of ice; decayed
+cheese and black bread, seem to have no other effect
+upon it than to provoke an appetite. In warm
+weather it is absolutely marvelous to see the quantities
+of fiery-hot liquids these people pour down their throats.
+Just cast your eye upon that bearded giant in the corner,
+with his hissing urn of tea before him, his <i>batvina</i>
+and his <i>shtshie</i>! What a spectacle of physical enjoyment!
+His throat is bare; his face a glowing carbuncle;
+his body a monstrous cauldron, seething and
+dripping with overflowing juices. Shade of Hebe! how
+he swills the tea&mdash;how glass after glass of the steaming-hot
+liquid flows into his capacious maw, and diffuses itself
+over his entire person! It oozes from every pore of
+his skin; drops in globules from his forehead; smokes
+through his shirt; makes a piebald chart of seas and
+islands over his back; streams down and simmers in his
+boots! He is saturated with tea, inside and out&mdash;a living
+sponge overflowing at every pore. You might wring
+him out, and there would still be a heavy balance left in
+him.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 383px;">
+<a name="mujiks_at_tea" id="mujiks_at_tea"></a>
+<img src="images/thor013.png" width="383" height="500"
+alt="Two bearded mujiks drink tea and talk" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">MUJIKS AT TEA.</p>
+
+<p>These traktirs are the general places of meeting, where
+matters of business or pleasure are discussed; accounts
+settled and bargains made. Here the merchant, the
+broker, the banker, and the votary of pleasure meet in
+common. Here all the pursuits of human life are represented,
+and the best qualities of men drawn out with the
+drawing of the tea. Enmities are forgotten and friendships
+cemented in tea. In short, the traktir is an institution,
+and its influence extends through all the ramifications
+of society.</p>
+
+<p>But it is in the gardens and various places of suburban
+resort that the universal passion for tea is displayed
+in its most pleasing and romantic phases. Surrounded
+by the beauties of nature, lovers make their avowals over
+the irrepressible tea-pot; the hearts of fair damsels are
+won in the intoxication of love and tea; quarrels between
+man and wife are made up, and children weaned&mdash;I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+had almost said baptized&mdash;in tea. The traveler must
+see the families seated under the trees, with the burnished
+urn before them&mdash;the children romping about
+over the grass; joy beaming upon every face; the whole
+neighborhood a repetition of family groups and steaming
+urns, bound together by the mystic tie of sympathy,
+before he can fully appreciate the important part that
+tea performs in the great drama of Russian life.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PETERSKOI GARDENS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>This draws me insensibly toward the beautiful gardens
+of the Peterskoi&mdash;a favorite place of resort for the
+Moskovites, and famous for its chateau built by the Empress
+Elizabeth, in which Napoleon sought refuge during
+the burning of Moscow. It is here the rank and fashion
+of the city may be seen to the greatest advantage of a
+fine summer afternoon. In these gardens all that is brilliant,
+beautiful, and poetical in Russian life finds a congenial
+atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>I spent an evening at the Peterskoi which I shall long
+remember as one of the most interesting I ever spent
+at any place of popular amusement. The weather was
+charming&mdash;neither too warm nor too cold, but of that peculiarly
+soft and dreamy temperature which predisposes
+one for the enjoyment of music, flowers, the prattle of
+children, the fascinations of female loveliness, the luxuries
+of idleness. In such an atmosphere no man of sentiment
+can rack his brain with troublesome problems.
+These witching hours, when the sun lingers dreamily on
+the horizon; when the long twilight weaves a web of
+purple and gold that covers the transition from night to
+morning; when nature, wearied of the dazzling glare of
+day, puts on her silver-spangled robes, and receives her
+worshipers with celestial smiles, are surely enough to
+soften the most stubborn heart. We must make love,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+sweet ladies, or die. There is no help for it. Resistance
+is an abstract impossibility. The best man in the
+world could not justly be censured for practicing a little
+with his eyes, when away from home, merely as I do, you
+know, to keep up the expression.</p>
+
+<p>The gardens of the Peterskoi are still a dream to me.
+For a distance of three versts from the gate of St. Petersburg
+the road was thronged with carriages and droskies,
+and crowds of gayly-dressed citizens, all wending their
+way toward the scene of entertainment. The pressure
+for tickets at the porter&rsquo;s lodge was so great that it
+required considerable patience and good-humor to get
+through at all. Officers in dashing uniforms rode on
+spirited chargers up and down the long rows of vehicles,
+and with drawn swords made way for the foot-passengers.
+Guards in imperial livery, glittering from head to
+foot with embroidery, stood at the grand portals of the
+gate, and with many profound and elegant bows ushered
+in the company. Policeman with cocked hats and shining
+epaulets were stationed at intervals along the leading
+thoroughfares to preserve order.</p>
+
+<p>The scene inside the gates was wonderfully imposing.
+Nothing could be more fanciful. In every aspect it presented
+some striking combination of natural and artificial
+beauties, admirably calculated to fascinate the imagination.
+I have a vague recollection of shady and undulating
+walks, winding over sweeping lawns dotted with
+masses of flowers and copses of shrubbery, and overhung
+by wide-spreading trees, sometimes gradually rising over
+gentle acclivities or points of rock overhung with moss
+and fern. Rustic cottages, half hidden by the luxuriant
+foliage, crowned each prominent eminence, and little by-ways
+branched off into cool, umbrageous recesses, where
+caves, glittering with sea-shells and illuminated stalactites,
+invited the wayfarer to linger a while and rest.
+Far down in deep glens and grottoes were retired nooks,
+where lovers, hidden from the busy throng, might mingle
+their vows to the harmony of falling waters; where the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+very flowers seemed whispering love to each other, and
+the lights and shadows fell, by some intuitive sense of
+fitness, into the form of bridal wreaths. Marble statues
+representing the Graces, winged Mercuries and Cupids,
+are so cunningly displayed in relief against the green
+banks of foliage that they seem the natural inhabitants
+of the place. Snow-spirits, too, with outspread wings,
+hover in the air, as if to waft cooling zephyrs through the
+soft summer night. In the open spaces fountains dash
+their sparkling waters high into the moonlight, spreading
+a mystic spray over the sward. Through vistas of
+shrubbery gleam the bright waters of a lake, on the far
+side of which the embattled towers of a castle rise in bold
+relief over the intervening groups of trees.</p>
+
+<p>On an elevated plateau, near the centre of the garden,
+stands a series of Asiatic temples and pagodas, in which
+the chief entertainments are held. The approaching avenues
+are illuminated with many-colored lights suspended
+from the branches of the trees, and wind under triumphal
+archways, festooned with flowers. The theatres
+present open fronts, and abound in all the tinsel of the
+stage, both inside and out. The grounds are crowded
+to their utmost capacity with the rank and fashion of the
+city, in all the glory of jeweled head-dresses and decorations
+of order. Festoons of variegated lights swing from
+the trees over the audience, and painted figures of dragons
+and genii are dimly seen in the background.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 385px;">
+<a name="russian_theatre" id="russian_theatre"></a>
+<img src="images/thor014.png" width="385" height="500"
+alt="A crowd stand watching a theatre performance" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">RUSSIAN THEATRE.</p>
+
+<p>Attracted by sounds of applause at one of these theatres,
+I edged my way through the crowd, and succeeded,
+after many apologies, in securing a favorable position.
+Amid a motley gathering of Russians, Poles, Germans,
+and French&mdash;for here all nations and classes are represented&mdash;my
+ears were stunned by the clapping of hands
+and vociferous cries <i>Bis! Bis!</i> The curtain was
+down, but in answer to the call for a repetition of the last
+scene it soon rose again, and afforded me an opportunity
+of witnessing a characteristic performance. A wild Mujik
+has the impudence to make love to the maid-servant
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+of his master, who appears to be rather a crusty old
+gentleman, not disposed to favor matrimonial alliances
+of that kind. Love gets the better of the lover&rsquo;s discretion,
+and he is surprised in the kitchen. The bull-dog is
+let loose upon him; master and mistress and subordinate
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+members of the family rush after him, armed with saucepans,
+tongs, shovels, and broomsticks. The affrighted
+Mujik runs all round the stage bellowing fearfully; the
+bull-dog seizes him by the nether extremities and hangs
+on with the tenacity of a vice. Round and round they
+run, Mujik roaring for help, bull-dog swinging out horizontally.
+The audience applauds; the master flings down
+his broomstick and seizes the dog by the tail; the old
+woman seizes master by the skirts of his coat; and all
+three are dragged around the stage at a terrific rate,
+while the younger members of the family shower down
+miscellaneous blows with their sticks and cudgels, which
+always happen to fall on the old people, to the great
+satisfaction of the audience. Shouts, and shrieks, and
+clapping of hands but faintly express the popular appreciation
+of the joke. Finally the faithful maid, taking advantage
+of the confusion, flings a bunch of fire-crackers
+at her oppressors and blows them up, and the Mujik, relieved
+of their weight, makes a brilliant dash through the
+door, carrying with him the tenacious bull-dog, which it
+is reasonable to suppose he subsequently takes to market
+and sells for a good price. The curtain falls, the music
+strikes up, and the whole performance is greeted with
+the most enthusiastic applause. Such are the entertainments
+that delight these humorous people&mdash;a little broad
+to be sure, but not deficient in grotesque spirit.</p>
+
+<p>From the theatre I wandered to the pavilion of Zingalee
+gipsies, where a band of these wild sons of Hagar
+were creating a perfect furor by the shrillness and discord
+of their voices. Never was such terrific music inflicted
+upon mortal ears. It went through and through
+you, quivering and vibrating like a rapier; but the common
+classes of Russians delight in it above all earthly
+sounds. They deem it the very finest kind of music. It
+is only the dilettante who have visited Paris who profess
+to hold it in contempt.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon surfeited with these piercing strains, I rambled
+away till I came upon a party of rope-dancers, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+after seeing a dozen or so of stout fellows hang themselves
+by the chins, turn back somersaults in the air, and
+swing by one foot at a dizzy height from the ground, left
+them standing upon each other&rsquo;s heads to the depth of
+six or eight, and turned aside into a grotto to enjoy a
+few glasses of tea. Here were German girls singing and
+buffoons reciting humorous stories between the pauses,
+and thirsty Russians pouring down whole oceans of their
+favorite beverage.</p>
+
+<p>Again I wandered forth through the leafy mazes of
+the garden. The gorgeous profusion of lights and glittering
+ornaments, the endless variety of colors, the novel
+and Asiatic appearance of the temples, the tropical luxuriance
+of the foliage, the gleaming white statuary, the
+gay company, the wild strains of music, all combined to
+form a scene of peculiar interest. High overhead, dimly
+visible through the tops of the trees, the sky wears an
+almost supernatural aspect during these long summer
+nights. A soft golden glow flushes upward from the
+horizon, and, lying outspread over the firmament, gives
+a spectral effect to the gentler and more delicate sheen
+of the moon; the stars seem to shrink back into the dim
+infinity, as if unable to contend with the grosser effulgence
+of the great orbs that rule the day and the night.
+Unconscious whether the day is waning into the night,
+or the night into the morning, the rapt spectator gazes
+and dreams till lost in the strange enchantment of the
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>At a late hour a signal was given, and the company
+wandered down to the lake, along the shores of which
+rustic seats and divans, overshadowed by shrubbery, afforded
+the weary an opportunity of resting. Here we
+were to witness the crowning entertainment of the evening&mdash;a
+grand display of fire-works. A miniature steam-boat,
+gayly decorated with flags, swept to and fro, carrying
+passengers to the different landing-places. Gondolas,
+with peaked prows and variegated canopies, lay
+floating upon the still water, that lovers might quench
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+their flames in the contemplation of its crystal depths,
+or draw fresh inspiration from the blaze of artificial fires.
+Soon a wild outburst of music was heard; then from the
+opposite shore the whole heavens were lighted up with
+a flood of rockets, and the ears were stunned by their
+explosions. Down through the depths of ether came
+showers of colored balls, illuminating the waters of the
+lake with inverted streams of light scarcely less bright
+and glowing. Anon all was dark; then from out the
+darkness flashed whirling and seething fires, gradually
+assuming the grotesque forms of monsters and genii, till
+with a deafening explosion they were scattered to the
+winds. From the blackened mass of ruins stood forth
+illuminated statues of the imperial family, in all the paraphernalia
+of royalty, their crowns glittering with jewels,
+their robes of light resplendent with precious gems and
+tracery of gold. A murmur of admiration ran through
+the crowd. The imperial figures vanished as if by magic,
+and suddenly a stream of fire flashed from a mass of dark
+undefined objects on the opposite shore, and lo! the waters
+were covered with fiery swans, sailing majestically
+among the gondolas, their necks moving slowly as if inspired
+by life. Hither and thither they swept, propelled
+by streams of fire, till, wearied with their sport, they gradually
+lay motionless, yet glowing with an augmented
+brilliancy. While the eyes of all were fixed in amazement
+and admiration upon these beautiful swans, they exploded
+with a series of deafening reports, and were scattered
+in confused volumes of smoke. Out of the chaos swept
+innumerable hosts of whirling little monsters, whizzing
+and boring through the water like infernal spirits of the
+deep. These again burst with a rattle of explosions like
+an irregular fire of musketry, and shot high into the air
+in a perfect maze of scintillating stars of every imaginable
+color. When the shower of stars was over, and
+silence and darkness once more reigned, a magnificent
+barge, that might well have represented that of the
+Egyptian queen&mdash;its gay canopies resplendent with the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+glow of many-colored lamps&mdash;swept out into the middle
+of the lake, and</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">&ldquo;Like a burnished throne<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Burn&rsquo;d on the water.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_peterskoi_gardens" id="the_peterskoi_gardens"></a>
+<img src="images/thor015.png" width="600" height="451"
+alt="Crowds watch as barges on the lake are illuminated by a fireworks display" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE PETERSKOI GARDENS.</p>
+
+<p>And when the rowers had ceased, and the barge lay
+motionless, soft strains of music arose from its curtained
+recesses, swelling up gradually till the air was filled with
+the floods of rich, wild harmony, and the senses were
+ravished with their sweetness.</p>
+
+<p>Was it a wild Oriental dream? Could it all be real&mdash;the
+glittering fires, the gayly-costumed crowds, the illuminated
+barge, the voluptuous strains of music? Might
+it not be some gorgeous freak of the emperor, such as
+the sultan in the Arabian Nights enjoyed at the expense
+of the poor traveler? Surely there could be nothing real
+like it since the days of the califs of Bagdad!</p>
+
+<p>A single night&rsquo;s entertainment such as this must cost
+many thousand rubles. When it is considered that there
+are but few months in the year when such things can be
+enjoyed, some idea may be formed of the characteristic
+passion of the Russians for luxurious amusements. It is
+worthy of mention, too, that the decorations, the lamps,
+the actors and operators, the material of nearly every
+description, are imported from various parts of the world,
+and very little is contributed in any way by the native
+Russians, save the means by which these costly luxuries
+are obtained.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE &ldquo;LITTLE WATER.&rdquo;</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the fundamental principles of association the intelligent
+reader will at once comprehend how it came to
+pass that, of all the traits I discovered in the Russian
+people, none impressed me so favorably as their love of
+vodka, or native brandy, signifying the &ldquo;little water.&rdquo; I
+admired their long and filthy beards and matted heads
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+of hair, because there was much in them to remind me
+of my beloved Washoe; but in nothing did I experience
+a greater fellowship with them than in their constitutional
+thirst for intoxicating liquors. It was absolutely
+refreshing, after a year&rsquo;s travel over the Continent of
+Europe, to come across a genuine lover of the &ldquo;tarantula&rdquo;&mdash;to
+meet at every corner of the street a great
+bearded fellow staggering along blind drunk, or attempting
+to steady the town by hugging a post. Rarely
+had I enjoyed such a sight since my arrival in the Old
+World. In Germany I had seen a few cases of stupefaction
+arising from overdoses of beer; in France the
+red nose of the <i>bon vivant</i> is not uncommon; in England
+some muddled heads are to be found; and in Scotland
+there are temperance societies enough to give rise
+to the suspicion that there is a cause for them; but, generally
+speaking, the sight of an intoxicated man is somewhat
+rare in the principal cities of the Continent. It
+will, therefore, be conceded that there was something
+very congenial in the spectacle that greeted me on the
+very first day of my arrival in Moscow. A great giant
+of a Mujik, with a ferocious beard and the general aspect
+of a wild beast, came toward me with a heel and a lurch
+to port that was very expressive of his condition. As he
+staggered up and tried to balance himself, he blurted out
+some unmeaning twaddle in his native language which I
+took to be a species of greeting. His expression was
+absolutely inspiring&mdash;the great blear eyes rolling foolishly
+in his head; his tongue lolling helplessly from his
+mouth; his under jaw hanging down; his greasy cap
+hung on one side on a tuft of dirty hair&mdash;all so familiar,
+so characteristic of something I had seen before! Where
+could it have been? What potent spell was there about
+this fellow to attract me? In what was it that I, an
+embassador from Washoe, a citizen of California, a resident
+of Oakland, could thus be drawn toward this hideous
+wretch? A word in your ear, reader. It was all
+the effect of association! The unbidden tears flowed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+to my eyes as I caught a whiff of the fellow&rsquo;s
+breath. It was so like the free-lunch breaths of San
+Francisco, and even suggested thoughts of the Legislative
+Assembly in Sacramento. Only think what a
+genuine Californian must suffer in being a whole year
+without a glass of whisky&mdash;nay, without as much as a
+smell of it! How delightful it is to see a brother human
+downright soggy drunk; drunk all over; drunk
+in the eyes, in the mouth, in the small of his back, in his
+knees, in his boots, clear down to his toes! How one&rsquo;s
+heart is drawn toward him by this common bond of human
+infirmity! How it recalls the camp, the one-horse
+mining town, the social gathering of the &ldquo;boys&rdquo; at
+Dan&rsquo;s, or Jim&rsquo;s, or Jack&rsquo;s; and the clink of dimes and
+glasses at the bar; how distances are annihilated and
+time set back! Of a verity, when I saw that man, with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+reason dethroned and the garb of self-respect thrown
+aside, I was once again in my own beloved state!</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;What a beauty dwelt in each familiar face,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">What music hung on every voice!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 399px;">
+<a name="vodka" id="vodka"></a>
+<img src="images/thor016.png" width="399" height="400"
+alt="Two young men wrestle in the street" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">VODKA.</p>
+
+<p>Since reading is not a very general accomplishment
+among the lower classes, a system of signs answers in
+some degree as a substitute. The irregularity of the
+streets would of itself present no very remarkable feature
+but for the wonderful variety of small shops and the
+oddity of the signs upon which their contents are pictured.
+What these symbols of trade lack in artistic style
+they make up in grotesque effects. Thus, the tobacco
+shops are ornamented outside with various highly-colored
+pictures, drawn by artists of the most florid genius,
+representing cigar-boxes, pipes, meerschaums, narghillas,
+bunches of cigars, snuffboxes, plugs and twists of tobacco,
+and all that the most fastidious smoker, chewer, or
+snuffer can expect to find in any tobacco shop, besides a
+good many things that he never will find in any of these
+shops. Prominent among these symbolical displays is
+the counterfeit presentment of a jet-black Indian of African
+descent&mdash;his woolly head adorned with a crown of
+pearls and feathers; in his right hand an uplifted tomahawk,
+with which he is about to kill some invisible enemy;
+in his left a meerschaum, supposed to be the pipe
+of peace; a tobacco plantation in the background, and a
+group of warriors smoking profusely around a camp-fire,
+located under one of the tobacco plants; the whole having
+a very fine allegorical effect, fully understood, no
+doubt, by the artist, but very difficult to explain upon
+any known principle of art. The butchers&rsquo; shops are
+equally prolific in external adornments. On the sign-boards
+you see every animal fit to be eaten, and many
+of questionable aspect, denuded of their skins and reduced
+to every conceivable degree of butchery; so that
+if you want a veal cutlet of any particular pattern, all
+you have to do is to select your pattern, and the cutlet
+will be chopped accordingly. The bakeries excel in their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+artistic displays. Here you have painted bread from
+black-moon down to double-knotted twist; cakes, biscuit,
+rolls, and crackers, and as many other varieties as
+the genius of the artist may be capable of suggesting.
+The bakers of Moscow are mostly French or German;
+and it is a notable fact that the bread is quite equal to
+any made in France or Germany. The wine-stores, of
+which there are many, are decorated with pictures of
+bottles, and bas-reliefs of gilded grapes&mdash;a great improvement
+upon the ordinary grape produced by nature.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MARKETS OF MOSCOW.</h3>
+
+
+<p>If there is nothing new under the sun, there are certainly
+a good many old things to interest a stranger in
+Moscow. A favorite resort of mine during my sojourn
+in that strange old city of the Czars was in the markets
+of the Katai Gorod. Those of the Riadi and Gostovini
+Dvor present the greatest attractions, perhaps, in the
+way of shops and merchandise; for there, by the aid of
+time, patience, and money, you can get any thing you
+want, from saints&rsquo; armlets and devils down to candlesticks
+and cucumbers. Singing-birds, Kazan-work, and
+Siberian diamonds are its most attractive features. But
+if you have a passion for human oddities rather than
+curiosities of merchandise, you must visit the second-hand
+markets extending along the walls of the Katai
+Gorod, where you will find not only every conceivable
+variety of old clothes, clocks, cooking utensils, and rubbish
+of all sorts, but the queerest imaginable conglomeration
+of human beings from the far East to the far
+West. It would be a fruitless task to attempt a description
+of the motley assemblage. Pick out all the strangest,
+most ragged, most uncouth figures you ever saw in old
+pictures, from childhood up to the present day; select
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+from every theatrical representation within the range of
+your experience the most monstrous and absurd caricatures
+upon humanity; bring to your aid all the masquerades
+and burlesque fancy-balls you ever visited, tumble
+them together in the great bag of your imagination, and
+pour them out over a vague wilderness of open spaces,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+dirty streets, high walls, and rickety little booths, and
+you have no idea at all of the queer old markets of the
+Katai Gorod. You will be just as much puzzled to make
+any thing of the scene as when you started, if not more so.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 388px;">
+<a name="old_clothes_market" id="old_clothes_market"></a>
+<img src="images/thor017.png" width="388" height="500"
+alt="Three men stand by a stall piled high with hats" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">OLD-CLOTHES&rsquo; MARKET.</p>
+
+<p>No mortal man can picture to another all these shaggy-faced
+Russians, booted up to the knees, their long,
+loose robes flaunting idly around their legs, their red
+sashes twisted around their waists; brawny fellows with
+a reckless, independent swagger about them, stalking like
+grim savages of the North through the crowd. Then
+there are the sallow and cadaverous Jew peddlers, covered
+all over with piles of ragged old clothes, and mountains
+of old hats and caps; and leathery-faced old women&mdash;witches
+of Endor&mdash;dealing out horrible mixtures of
+<i>quass</i> (the national drink); and dirty, dingy-looking soldiers,
+belonging to the imperial service, peddling off old
+boots and cast-off shirts; and Zingalee gipsies, dark,
+lean, and wiry, offering strings of beads and armlets for
+sale with shrill cries; and so on without limit.</p>
+
+<p>Here you see the rich and the poor in all the extremes
+of affluence and poverty; the robust and the decrepit;
+the strong, the lame, and the blind; the noble, with his
+star and orders of office; the Mujik in his shaggy sheepskin
+capote or tattered blouse; the Mongolian, the Persian,
+and the Caucasian; the Greek and the Turk; the
+Armenian and the Californian, all intent upon something,
+buying, selling, or looking on.</p>
+
+<p>Being the only representative from the Golden State,
+I was anxious to offer some Washoe stock for sale&mdash;twenty
+or thirty feet in the Gone Case; but Dominico,
+my interpreter, informed me that these traders had never
+heard of Washoe, and were mostly involved in Russian
+securities&mdash;old breeches, boots, stockings, and the like.
+He did not think my &ldquo;Gone Case&rdquo; would bring an old
+hat; and as for my &ldquo;Sorrowful Countenance&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ragged
+End,&rdquo; he was persuaded I could not dispose of my
+entire interest in them for a pint of grease.</p>
+
+<p>I was very much taken with the soldiers who infested
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+these old markets. It was something new in military
+economy to see the representatives of an imperial army
+supporting themselves in this way; dark, lazy fellows in
+uniform, lounging about with old boots, and suspenders
+hanging all over them, crying out the merits of their
+wares in stentorian voices, thus, as it were, patriotically
+relieving the national treasury of a small fraction of its
+burden. They have much the appearance, in the crowd,
+of raisins in a plum-pudding.</p>
+
+<p>The peasant women, who flock in from the country
+with immense burdens of vegetables and other products
+of the farms, are a very striking, if not a very pleasing
+feature in the markets. Owing to the hard labor imposed
+upon them, they are exceedingly rough and brawny,
+and have a hard, dreary, and unfeminine expression
+of countenance, rather inconsistent with one&rsquo;s notions of
+the delicacy and tenderness of woman. Few of them
+are even passably well-looking. All the natural playfulness
+of the gentler sex seems to be crushed out of them;
+and while their manners are uncouth, their voices are the
+wildest and most unmusical that ever fell upon the ear
+from a feminine source. When dressed in their best attire
+they usually wear a profusion of red handkerchiefs
+about their heads and shoulders; and from an unpicturesque
+habit they have of making an upper waist immediately
+under their arms by a ligature of some sort, and
+tying their apron-strings about a foot below, they have
+the singular appearance of being double-waisted or three-story
+women. They carry their children on their backs,
+much after the fashion of Digger Indians, and suckle
+them through an opening in the second or middle story.
+Doubtless this is a convenient arrangement, but it presents
+the curious anomaly of a poor peasant living in a
+one-story house with a three-story wife. According to
+the prevailing style of architecture in well-wooded countries,
+these women ought to wear their hair shingled;
+but they generally tie it up in a knot behind, or cover it
+with a fancy-colored handkerchief, on the presumption, I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+suppose, that they look less barbarous in that way than
+they would with shingled heads. You may suspect me
+of story-telling, but upon my word I think three-story
+women are extravagant enough without adding another
+to them. I only hope their garrets contain a better quality
+of furniture than that which afflicts the male members
+of the Mujik community. No wonder those poor
+women have families of children like steps of stairs! It
+is said that their husbands are often very cruel to them,
+and think nothing of knocking them down and beating
+them; but even that does not surprise me. How can a
+man be expected to get along with a three-story wife
+unless he floors her occasionally?</p>
+
+<p>Ragged little boys, prematurely arrested in their
+growth, you see too, in myriads&mdash;shovel-nosed and
+bare-legged urchins of hideously eccentric manners, carrying
+around big bottles of <i>sbiteen</i> (a kind of mead),
+which they are continually pouring out into glasses, to
+appease the chronic thirst with which the public seem to
+be afflicted; and groups of the natives gathered around
+a cucumber stand, devouring great piles of unwholesome-looking
+cucumbers, which skinny old women are dipping
+up out of wooden buckets. The voracity with which all
+classes stow away these vicious edibles in their stomachs
+is amazing, and suggests a melancholy train of reflections
+on the subject of cholera morbus. It was a continual
+matter of wonder to me how the lower classes of Russians
+survived the horrid messes with which they tortured
+their digestive apparatus. Only think of thousands
+of men dining every day on black bread, heavy enough
+for bullets, a pound or two of grease, and half a peck of
+raw cucumbers per man, and then expecting to live until
+next morning! And yet they do live, and grow fat, and
+generally die at a good old age, in case they are not killed
+in battle, or frozen up in the wilds of Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the walls of the Katai Gorod, in an open
+square, or plaza, are rows of wooden booths, in which innumerable
+varieties of living stock are offered for sale&mdash;geese,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigeons, and birds of various
+sorts. I sometimes went down here and bargained
+for an hour or so over a fat goose or a Muscovy duck,
+not with any ultimate idea of purchasing it, but merely
+because it was offered to me at a reduced price. It was
+amusing, also, to study the manners and customs of the
+dealer, and enjoy their amazement when, after causing
+them so much loss of time, I would hand over five kopeks
+and walk off. Some of them, I verily believe, will
+long entertain serious doubts as to the sanity of the Californian
+public; for Dominico, my guide, always took
+particular pride in announcing that I was from that great
+country, and was the richest man in it, being, to the best
+of his knowledge, the only one who had money enough
+to spare to travel all the way to Moscow, merely for the
+fun of the thing.</p>
+
+<p>I may as well mention, parenthetically, that Dominico
+was rather an original in his way. His father was an
+Italian and his mother a Russian. I believe he was born
+in Moscow. How he came to adopt the profession of
+guide I don&rsquo;t know, unless it was on account of some
+natural proclivity for an easy life. A grave, lean, saturnine
+man was Dominico&mdash;something of a cross between
+Machiavelli and Paganini. If he knew any thing about
+the wonders and curiosities of Moscow he kept it a profound
+secret. It was only by the most rigid inquiry and
+an adroit system of cross-examination that I could get
+any thing out of him, and then his information was vague
+and laconic, sometimes a little sarcastic, but never beyond
+what I knew myself. Yet he was polite, dignified, and
+gentlemanly&mdash;never refused to drink a glass of beer with
+me, and always knew the way to a traktir. To the public
+functionaries with whom we came in contact during
+the course of our rambles his air was grand and imposing;
+and on the subject of money he was sublimely nonchalant,
+caring no more for rubles than I did for kopeks.
+Once or twice he hinted to me that he was of noble
+blood, but laid no particular stress upon that, since it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+was his misfortune at present to be in rather reduced
+circumstances. Some time or other he would go to Italy
+and resume his proper position there. In justice to Dominico,
+I must add that he never neglected an opportunity
+of praying for me before any of the public shrines;
+and at the close of our acquaintance he let me off pretty
+easily, all things considered. Upon my explaining to
+him that a draft for five hundred thousand rubles, which
+ought to be on the way, had failed to reach me, owing,
+doubtless, to some irregularity in the mail service, or
+some sudden depression in my Washoe stocks, he merely
+shrugged his shoulders, took a pinch of snuff, and accepted
+with profound indifference a fee amounting to three
+times the value of his services.</p>
+
+<p>I was particularly interested in the dog-market. The
+display of living dog-flesh here must be very tempting
+to one who has a taste for poodle soup or fricasseed pup.
+Dominico repudiated the idea that the Russians are addicted
+to this article of diet; but the very expression of
+his eye as he took up a fat little innocent, smoothed
+down its skin, squeezed its ribs, pinched its loins, and
+smelled it, satisfied me that a litter of pups would stand
+but a poor chance of ever arriving at maturity if they
+depended upon forbearance upon his part as a national
+virtue. The Chinese quarter of San Francisco affords
+some curious examples of the art of compounding sustenance
+for man out of odd materials&mdash;rats, snails, dried
+frogs, star-fish, polypi, and the like; but any person who
+wishes to indulge a morbid appetite for the most disgusting
+dishes over devised by human ingenuity must visit
+Moscow. I adhere to it that the dog-market supplies a
+large portion of the population with fancy meats. No
+other use could possibly be made of the numberless
+squads of fat, hairless dogs tied together and hawked
+about by the traders in this article of traffic. I saw one
+man&mdash;he had the teeth of an ogre and a fearfully carnivorous
+expression of eye&mdash;carry around a bunch of pups
+on each arm, and cry aloud something in his native
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+tongue, which I am confident had reference to the tenderness
+and juiciness of their flesh. Dominico declared
+the man was only talking about the breed&mdash;that they
+were fine rat-dogs; but I know that was a miserable
+subterfuge. Such dogs never caught a rat in this world;
+and if they did, it must have been with a view to the
+manufacture of sausages.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 377px;">
+<a name="cabinet_makers" id="cabinet_makers"></a>
+<img src="images/thor018.png" width="377" height="400"
+alt="The craftsmen at their work" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">CABINET-MAKERS.</p>
+
+<p>A Russian peasant is not particular about the quality
+of his food, as may well be supposed from this general
+summary. Quantity is the main object. Grease of all
+kinds is his special luxury. The upper classes, who have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+plenty of money to spare, may buy fish from the Volga
+at its weight in gold, and mutton from Astrakan at fabulous
+prices; but give the Mujik his <i>batvina</i> (salt grease
+and honey boiled together), a loaf of black bread, and a
+peck of raw cucumbers, and he is happy. Judging by external
+appearances, very little grease seems to be wasted
+in the manufacture of soap. Indeed, I would not trust
+one of these Mujiks to carry a pound of soap any where
+for me, any more than I would a gallon of oil or a pound
+of candles. Once I saw a fellow grease his boots with a
+lump of dirty fat which he had picked up out of the gutter,
+but he took good care first to extract from it the richest
+part of its essence by sucking it, and then greasing
+his beard. The boots came last. In all probability he
+had just dined, or he would have pocketed his treasure
+for another occasion, instead of throwing the remnant,
+as he did, to the nearest cat.</p>
+
+<p>In respect to the language, one might as well be dropped
+down in Timbuctoo as in a village or country town
+of Russia, for all the good the gift of speech would do
+him. It is not harsh, as might be supposed, yet wonderfully
+like an East India jungle when you attempt to penetrate
+it. I could make better headway through a boulder
+of solid quartz, or the title to my own house and lot
+in Oakland. Now I profess to be able to see as far into
+a millstone as most people, but I can&rsquo;t see in what respect
+the Russians behaved any worse than other people
+of the Tower of Babel, that they should be afflicted with
+a language which nobody can hope to understand before
+his beard becomes grizzled, and the top of his head entirely
+bald. Many of the better classes, to be sure, speak
+French and German; but even in the streets of Moscow
+I could seldom find any body who could discover a ray
+of meaning in my French or German, which is almost as
+plain as English.</p>
+
+<p>Some people know what you want by instinct, whether
+they understand your language or not. Not so the
+Russians. Ask for a horse, and they will probably offer
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+you a fat goose; inquire the way to your lodgings, and
+they are just as likely as not to show you the Foundling
+Hospital or a livery-stable; go into an old variety shop,
+and express a desire to purchase an Astrakan breast-pin
+for your sweet-heart, and the worthy trader hands you
+a pair of bellows or an old blunderbuss; cast your eye
+upon any old market-woman, and she divines at once
+that you are in search of a bunch of chickens or a bucket
+of raw cucumbers, and offers them to you at the lowest
+market-price; hint to a picture-dealer that you would
+like to have an authentic portrait of his imperial majesty,
+and he hands you a picture of the Iberian Mother, or St.
+George slaying the dragon, or the devil and all his imps;
+in short, you can get any thing that you don&rsquo;t want, and
+nothing that you do. If these people are utterly deficient
+in any one quality, it is a sense of fitness in things.
+They take the most inappropriate times for offering you
+the most inappropriate articles of human use that the
+imagination can possibly conceive. I was more than
+once solicited by the dealers in the markets of Moscow
+to carry with me a bunch of live dogs, or a couple of
+freshly-scalded pigs, and on one occasion was pressed
+very hard to take a brass skillet and a pair of tongs.
+What could these good people have supposed I wanted
+with articles of this kind on my travels? Is there any
+thing in my dress or the expression of my countenance&mdash;I
+leave it to all who know me&mdash;any thing in the mildness
+of my speech or the gravity of my manner, to indicate
+that I am suffering particularly for bunches of dogs
+or scalded pigs, brass skillets or pairs of tongs? Do I
+look like a man who labors under a chronic destitution
+of dogs, pigs, skillets, and tongs?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 391px;">
+<a name="pigs_pups_and_pans" id="pigs_pups_and_pans"></a>
+<img src="images/thor019.png" width="391" height="500"
+alt="Street sellers press their wares on a reluctant customer" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">PIGS, PUPS, AND PANS.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite natural that the traveler who finds himself
+for the first time within the limits of a purely despotic
+government should look around him with some vague
+idea that he must see the effects strongly marked upon
+the external life of the people; that the restraints imposed
+upon popular liberty must be every where apparent.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+So far as any thing of this kind may exist in Moscow
+or St. Petersburg, it is a notable fact that there are
+few cities in the world where it is less visible, or where
+the people seem more unrestrained in the exercise of
+their popular freedom. Indeed, it struck me rather forcibly,
+after my experience in Vienna and Berlin, that the
+Russians enjoy quite as large a share of practical
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+independence as most of their neighbors. I was particularly
+impressed by the bold and independent air of the middle
+classes, the politeness with which even the lower orders
+address each other, and the absence of those petty and
+vexatious restraints which prevail in some of the German
+states. The constant dread of infringing upon the police
+regulations; the extraordinary deference with which men
+in uniform are regarded; the circumspect behavior at
+public places; the nice and well-regulated mirthfulness,
+never overstepping the strict bounds of prudence, which
+I had so often noticed in the northern parts of Germany,
+and which may in part be attributed to the naturally orderly
+and conservative character of the people, are by
+no means prominent features in the principal cities of
+Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Soldiers, indeed, there are in abundance every where
+throughout the dominions of the Czar, and the constant
+rattle of musketry and clang of arms show that the liberty
+of the people is not altogether without limit.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NOSE REGIMENT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I saw nothing in the line of military service that interested
+me more than the Imperial Guard. Without
+vouching for the truth of the whole story connected with
+the history of this famous regiment, I give it as related
+to me by Dominico, merely stating as a fact within my
+own observation that there is no question whatever
+about the peculiarity of their features. It seems that
+the Emperor Nicholas, shortly before the Crimean War,
+discovered by some means that the best fighting men in
+his dominions belonged to a certain wild tribe from the
+north, distinguished for the extreme ugliness of their
+faces. The most remarkable feature was the nose, which
+stood straight out from the base of the forehead in the
+form of a triangle, presenting in front the appearance of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+a double-barreled pistol. A stiff grizzly mustache underneath
+gave them a peculiarly ferocious expression, so
+that brave men quailed, and women and children fled
+from them in terror. The emperor gave orders that all
+men in the ranks possessed of these frightful noses should
+be brought before him. Finding, when they were mustered
+together, that there was not over one company, he
+caused a general average of the noses to be taken, from
+which he had a diagram carefully prepared and disseminated
+throughout the empire, calling upon the military
+commanders of the provinces to send him recruits corresponding
+with the prescribed formula.</p>
+
+<p>In due time he was enabled to muster a thousand of
+these ferocious barbarians, whom he caused to be carefully
+drilled and disciplined. He kept them in St. Petersburg
+under his own immediate supervision till some
+time after the attack upon Sebastopol, when, finding the
+fortunes of war likely to go against him, he sent them
+down to the Crimea, with special instructions to the
+commander-in-chief to rely upon them in any emergency.
+In compliance with the imperial order, they were
+at once placed in the front ranks, and in a very few days
+had occasion to display their fighting qualities. At the
+very first onslaught of the enemy they stood their ground
+manfully till the French troops had approached within
+ten feet, when, with one accord, they took to their heels,
+and never stopped running till they were entirely out of
+sight. It was a disastrous day for the Russians. The
+commander-in-chief was overwhelmed with shame and
+mortification. A detachment of cavalry was dispatched
+in pursuit of the fugitives, who were finally arrested in
+their flight and brought back. &ldquo;Cowards!&rdquo; thundered
+the enraged commander, as they stood drawn up before
+him; &ldquo;miserable poltroons! dastards! is this the way
+you do honor to your imperial master? Am I to report
+to his most potent majesty that, without striking one
+blow in his defense, you ran like sheep? Wretches,
+what have you to say for yourselves?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 388px;">
+<a name="imperial_nosegay" id="imperial_nosegay"></a>
+<img src="images/thor020.png" width="388" height="500"
+alt="Some of the Imperial Guard lined up and at attention" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">IMPERIAL NOSEGAY.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;May it please your excellency,&rdquo; responded the men,
+firmly and with unblenched faces, &ldquo;we ran away, it is
+true; but we are not cowards. On the contrary, sire,
+we are brave men, and fear neither man nor beast. But
+your excellency is aware that nature has gifted us with
+noses peculiarly open to unusual impressions. We have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+smelled all the smells known from the far North to the
+far South, from the stewed rats of Moscow to the carrion
+that lies mouldering upon the plains of the Crimea;
+but, if it please your highness, we never smelled Frenchmen
+before. There was an unearthly odor about them
+that filled our nostrils, and struck a mysterious terror
+into our souls.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Fools!&rdquo; roared the commander-in-chief, bursting with
+rage, &ldquo;what you smelled was nothing more than garlic,
+to which these Frenchmen are addicted.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Call it as you will,&rdquo; firmly responded the men with
+the noses, &ldquo;it was too horrible to be endured. We are
+willing to die by the natural casualties of war, but not
+by unseen blasts of garlic, against which no human power
+can contend.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then,&rdquo; cried the commander, in tones of thunder,
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll see that you die to-morrow by the natural casualties
+of war. You shall be put in the very front rank,
+and care shall be taken to have every man of you shot
+down the moment you undertake to run.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>On the following day this rigorous order was carried
+into effect. The nose regiment was placed in front, and
+the battle opened with great spirit. The French troops
+swept down upon them like an avalanche. For an instant
+they looked behind, but, finding no hope of escape
+in that direction, each man of them suddenly grasped up
+a handful of mud, and, dashing it over his nostrils, shouted
+&ldquo;Death, to the garlic-eaters!&rdquo; and rushed against the
+enemy with indescribable ferocity. Never before were
+such prodigies of valor performed on the field of battle.
+The French went down like stricken reeds before the
+ferocious onslaught of the Imperial Guard. Their dead
+bodies lay piled in heaps on the bloody field. The fortunes
+of the day were saved, and, panting and bleeding,
+the men of Noses stood triumphantly in the presence of
+their chief. In an ecstasy of pride and delight he complimented
+them upon their valor, and pronounced them
+the brightest nosegay in his imperial majesty&rsquo;s service,
+which name they have borne ever since.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EMPEROR&rsquo;S BEAR-HUNT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The present emperor, Alexander III., is more distinguished
+for his liberal views respecting the rights of his
+subjects than for his military proclivities. In private life
+he is much beloved, and is said to be a man of very genial
+social qualities. His predominating passion in this
+relation is a love of hunting. I have been told that he
+is especially great on bears. With all your experience
+of this manly pastime in America, I doubt if you can
+form any conception of the bear-hunts in which the Autocrat
+of all the Russias has distinguished himself. Any
+body with nerve enough can kill a grizzly, but it requires
+both nerve and money to kill bears of any kind in the
+genuine autocratic style. By an imperial ukase it has
+been ordered that when any of the peasants or serfs discover
+a bear within twenty versts of the Moscow and St.
+Petersburg Railway, they must make known the fact to
+the proprietor of the estate, whose duty it is to communicate
+official information of the discovery to the corresponding
+secretary of the Czar. With becoming humility
+the secretary announces the tidings to his royal master,
+who directs him to advise the distant party that his
+majesty is much pleased, and will avail himself of his
+earliest leisure to proceed to the scene of action. In the
+mean time the entire available force of the estate is set
+to work to watch the bear, and from three to five hundred
+men, armed with cudgels, tin pans, old kettles, drums,
+etc., are stationed in a circle around him. Dogs also are
+employed upon this important service. The advance
+trains, under the direction of the master hunter, having
+deposited their stores of wines, cordials, and provisions,
+and telegraphic communications being transmitted to
+head-quarters from time to time, it is at length privately
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+announced that his imperial majesty has condescended
+to honor the place with his presence, and, should the
+saints not prove averse, will be there with his royal party
+at the hour and on the day specified in the imperial
+dispatch. The grand convoy is then put upon the track;
+dispatches are transmitted to all the stations; officers,
+soldiers, and guards are required to be in attendance to
+do honor to their sovereign master&mdash;privately, of course,
+as this is simply an unofficial affair which nobody is supposed
+to know any thing about. The emperor, having
+selected his chosen few&mdash;that is to say, half a dozen
+princes, a dozen dukes, a score or two of counts and
+barons&mdash;all fine fellows and genuine bloods&mdash;proceeds
+unostentatiously to the d&eacute;p&ocirc;t in his hunting-carriage (a
+simple little affair, manufactured at a cost of only forty
+thousand rubles or so), where he is astonished to see a
+large concourse of admiring subjects, gayly interspersed
+with soldiers, all accidentally gathered there to see him
+off. Now hats are removed, bows are made, suppressed
+murmurs of delight run through the crowd; the locomotive
+whizzes and fizzes with impatience; bells are rung,
+arms are grounded; the princes, dukes, and barons&mdash;jolly
+fellows as they are&mdash;laugh and joke just like common
+people; bells ring again and whistles blow; a signal
+is made, and the Autocrat of all the Russias is off on
+his bear-hunt!</p>
+
+<p>In an hour, or two or three hours, as the case may be,
+the royal hunters arrive at the destined station. Should
+the public business be pressing, it is not improbable the
+emperor, availing himself of the conveniences provided
+for him by Winans and Co., in whose magnificent present
+of a railway carriage he travels, has in the mean time
+dispatched a fleet of vessels to Finland, ten or a dozen
+extra regiments of Cossacks to Warsaw, closed upon
+terms for a loan of fifty millions, banished various objectionable
+parties to the deserts of Siberia, and partaken
+of a game or two of whist with his camarilla.</p>
+
+<p>But now the important affair of the day is at hand&mdash;the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+bear&mdash;the terrible black bear, which every body is
+fully armed and equipped to kill, but which every body
+knows by instinct is going to be killed by the emperor,
+because of his majesty&rsquo;s superior skill and courage on
+trying occasions of this sort. What a blessing it is to
+possess such steadiness of nerve! I would not hesitate
+one moment to attack the most ferocious grizzly in existence
+if I felt half as much confidence in my ability to
+kill it. But the carriages are waiting; the horses are
+prancing; the hunters are blowing their bugles; the
+royal party are mounting on horseback or in their carriages,
+as best may suit their taste, and the signal is
+given! A salute is fired by the Guard, huzzas ring
+through the air, and the Czar of all the Russias is fairly
+off on his hunt. Trees fly by; desert patches of ground
+whirl from under; versts are as nothing to these spirited
+steeds and their spirited masters, and in an hour or so
+the grand scene of action is reached. Here couriers
+stand ready to conduct the imperial hunters into the
+very jaws of death. The noble proprietor himself, bareheaded,
+greets the royal pageant; the serfs bow down
+in Oriental fashion; the dashing young Czar touches his
+hunting-cap in military style and waves his hand gallantly
+to the ladies of the household, who are peeping at him
+from their carriages in the distance. Once more the
+bugle is sounded, and away they dash&mdash;knights, nobles,
+and all&mdash;the handsome and gallant Czar leading the way
+by several lengths. Soon the terrific cry is heard&mdash;&ldquo;Halt!
+the bear! the bear! Halt!&rdquo; Shut your eyes,
+reader, for you never can stand such a sight as that&mdash;a
+full-grown black bear, not two hundred yards off, in the
+middle of an open space, surrounded by five hundred
+men hidden behind trees and driving him back from every
+point where he attempts to escape. You don&rsquo;t see
+the men, but you hear them shouting and banging upon
+their pots, pans, and kettles. Now just open one eye
+and see the emperor dismount from his famous charger,
+and deliver the rein to a dozen domestics, deliberately
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+cock his rifle, and fearlessly get behind the nearest tree
+within the range of the bear. By this time you perceive
+that Bruin is dancing a <i>pas seul</i> on his hind legs, utterly
+confounded with the noises around him. Shut your eyes
+again, for the emperor is taking his royal aim, and will
+presently crack away with his royal rifle. Hist! triggers
+are clicking around you in every direction, but you
+needn&rsquo;t be the least afraid, for, although the bear is covered
+by a reserve of forty rifles, not one of the hunters
+has nerve enough to shoot unless officially authorized or
+personally desirous of visiting the silver-mines of Siberia.
+Crack! thug! The smoke clears away. By Jove! his
+imperial majesty has done it cleverly; hit the brute
+plumb on the os frontis, or through the heart, it makes
+no difference which. Down drops Bruin, kicking and
+tearing up the earth at a dreadful rate; cheers rend the
+welkin; pots, pans, and kettles are banged. High above
+all rises the stern voice of the autocrat, calling for another
+rifle, which is immediately handed to him. Humanity
+requires that he should at once put an end to the
+poor animal&rsquo;s sufferings, and he does it with his accustomed
+skill.</p>
+
+<p>Now the bear having kicked his last, an intrepid hunter
+charges up to the spot on horseback, whirls around it
+two or three times, carefully examines the body with an
+opera-glass, returns, and, approaching the royal presence
+with uncovered head, delivers himself according to this
+formula: &ldquo;May it please your most gallant and imperial
+majesty, <small>THE BEAR IS DEAD</small>!&rdquo; The emperor sometimes
+responds, &ldquo;Is he?&rdquo; but usually contents himself by waving
+his hand in an indifferent manner, puffing his cigar,
+and calling for his horse. Sixteen grooms immediately
+rush forward with his majesty&rsquo;s horse; and, being still
+young and vigorous, he mounts without difficulty, unaided
+except by Master of Stirrups. Next he draws an
+ivory-handled revolver&mdash;a present from Colt, of New
+York&mdash;and, dashing fearlessly upon the bear, fires six
+shots into the dead body; upon which he coolly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+dismounts, and pulling forth from the breast of his hunting-coat
+an Arkansas bowie-knife&mdash;a present from the poet
+Albert Pike, of Little Rock&mdash;plunges that dangerous
+weapon into the bowels of the dead bear; then rising to
+his full height, with a dark and stern countenance, he
+holds the blood-dripping blade high in the air, so that all
+may see it, and utters one wild stentorian and terrific
+shout, &ldquo;Harasho! harasho!&rdquo; signifying in English, &ldquo;Good!
+very well!&rdquo; The cry is caught up by the princes and
+nobles, who, with uncovered heads, now crowd around
+their gallant emperor, and waving their hats, likewise
+shout &ldquo;Harasho! harasho!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Good! very well!&rdquo;
+Then the five hundred peasants rush in with their tin
+pans, kettles, and drums, and amid the most amazing din
+catch up the inspiring strain, and deafen every ear with
+their wild shouts of &ldquo;Harasho! harasho!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Good!
+very well!&rdquo; Upon which the emperor, rapidly mounting,
+places a finger in each ear, and, still puffing his cigar,
+rides triumphantly away.</p>
+
+<p>The bear is hastily gutted and dressed with flowers.
+When all is ready the royal party return to the railroad
+d&eacute;p&ocirc;t in a long procession, headed by his majesty, and
+brought up in the rear by the dead body of Bruin borne
+on poles by six-and-twenty powerful serfs. Refreshments
+in the mean time have been administered to every
+body of high and low degree, and by the time they reach
+the d&eacute;p&ocirc;t there are but two sober individuals in the entire
+procession&mdash;his royal majesty and the bear. Farther
+refreshments are administered all round during the
+journey back to St. Petersburg, and, notwithstanding he
+is rigidly prohibited by his physician from the use of
+stimulating beverages, it is supposed that a reaction has
+now taken place, which renders necessary a modification
+of the medical ukase. At all events, I am told the bear
+is sometimes the only really steady member of the party
+by the time the imperial pageant reaches the palace.
+When the usual ceremonies of congratulation are over,
+a merry dance winds up the evening. After this the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+company disperses to prayer and slumber, and thus ends
+the great bear-hunt of his majesty the Autocrat of all
+the Russias.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>RUSSIAN HUMOR.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The Russians have little or no humor, though they
+are not deficient in a certain grotesque savagery bordering
+on the humorous. There is something fearfully
+vicious in the royal freaks of fancy of which Russian
+history furnishes us so many examples. We read with
+a shudder of the facetious compliment paid to the Italian
+architect by Ivan the Terrible, who caused the poor
+man&rsquo;s eyes to be put out that he might never see to
+build another church so beautiful as that of St. Basil.
+We can not but smile at the grim humor of Peter the
+Great, who, upon seeing a crowd of men with wigs and
+gowns at Westminster Hall, and being informed that
+they were lawyers, observed that he had but two in his
+whole empire, and he believed he would hang one of
+them as soon as he got home. A still more striking
+though less ghastly freak of fancy was that perpetrated
+by the Empress Anne of Courland, who, on the occasion
+of the marriage of her favorite buffoon, Galitzin, caused
+a palace of ice to be built, with a bed of the same material,
+in which she compelled the happy pair to pass
+their wedding night. The Empress Catharine II., a
+Pomeranian by birth, but thoroughly Russian in her
+morals, possessed a more ardent temperament. What
+time she did not spend in gratifying her ambition by
+slaughtering men, she spent in loving them:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">&ldquo;For, though she would widow all<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nations, she liked man as an individual.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>She never dismissed an old admirer until she had secured
+several new ones, and generally consoled those
+who had served her by a present of twenty or thirty
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+thousand serfs. On the death of Lanskoi, it is recorded
+of her that &ldquo;she gave herself up to the most poignant
+grief, and remained three months without going out of
+her palace of Czarsko Selo,&rdquo; thus perpetrating a very curious
+practical satire upon the holiest of human affections.
+Her grenadier lover Potemkin, according to the
+character given of him by the Count S&eacute;gur, was little
+better than a gigantic and savage buffoon&mdash;licentious
+and superstitious, bold and timid by turns&mdash;sometimes
+desiring to be King of Poland, at others a bishop or a
+monk. Of him we read that &ldquo;he put out an eye to free
+it from a blemish which diminished his beauty. Banished
+by his rival, he ran to meet death in battle, and returned
+with glory.&rdquo; Another pleasant little jest was
+that perpetrated by Suwarrow, who, after the bloody
+battle of Tourtourskaya, announced the result to his
+mistress in an epigram of two doggerel lines. This was
+the terrible warrior who used to sleep almost naked in
+a room of suffocating heat, and rush out to review his
+troops in a linen jacket, with the thermometer of Reaumur
+ten degrees below freezing point. Of the Emperor
+Paul, the son of Catharine, we read that he issued
+a ukase against the use of shoe-strings and round hats;
+caused all the watch-boxes, gates, and bridges throughout
+the empire to be painted in the most glaring and
+fantastic colors, and passed a considerable portion of his
+time riding on a wooden rocking-horse&mdash;a degenerate
+practice for a scion of the bold Catharine, who used to
+dress herself in men&rsquo;s clothes, and ride a-straddle on the
+back of a live horse to review her troops. Alexander I.,
+in his ukase of September, 1827, perpetrated a very fine
+piece of Russian humor. The period of military service
+for serfs is fixed at twenty years in the Imperial Guard,
+and twenty-two in other branches of the service. It is
+stated in express terms that the moment a serf becomes
+enrolled in the ranks of the army he is free! But he
+must not desert, for if he does he becomes a slave again.
+This idea of freedom is really refreshing. Only twenty
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+or twenty-two years of the gentle restraints of Russian
+military discipline to be enjoyed after becoming a free
+agent! Then he may go off (at the age of fifty or sixty,
+say), unless disease or gunpowder has carried him off
+long before, to enjoy the sweets of hard labor in some
+agreeable desert, or the position of a watchman on the
+frontiers of Siberia, where the climate is probably considered
+salubrious.</p>
+
+<p>These may be considered royal or princely vagaries,
+in which great people are privileged to indulge; but I
+think it will be found that the same capricious savagery
+of humor&mdash;if I may so call it&mdash;prevails to some extent
+among all classes of Russians. In some instances it can
+scarcely be associated with any idea of mirthfulness, yet
+in the love of strange, startling, and incongruous ideas
+there is something bordering on the humorous. On
+Recollection Monday, for example, the mass of the people
+go out into the grave-yards, and, spreading table-cloths
+on the mounds that cover the dead bodies of
+their relatives, drink quass and vodka to the health of
+the deceased, saying, &ldquo;Since the dead are unable to
+drink, the living must drink for them!&rdquo; Rather a grave
+excuse, one must think, for intoxication.</p>
+
+<p>In the museum of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg
+stands the stuffed skin of his favorite servant&mdash;a gigantic
+Holsteiner&mdash;one of the most ghastly of all the grotesque
+and ghastly relics in that remarkable institution. It is
+not a very agreeable subject for the pencil of an artist,
+yet there is something so original in the idea of stuffing
+a human being and putting him up for exhibition before
+the public that I am constrained to introduce the following
+sketch of this strange spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the arsenals is an eagle made of gun-flints,
+with swords for wings, daggers for feathers, and the
+mouths of cannons for eyes. A painting of the Strelitzes,
+in another, represents heaven as containing the Russian
+priests and all the faithful; while the other place&mdash;a region
+of fire and brimstone&mdash;contains Jews, Tartars, Germans,
+and negroes!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 298px;">
+<a name="skinned_and_stuffed_man" id="skinned_and_stuffed_man"></a>
+<img src="images/thor021.png" width="298" height="500"
+alt="The man, dressed smartly, stands on display" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">SKINNED AND STUFFED MAN.</p>
+
+<p>The winter markets of Moscow and St. Petersburg
+present some of the most cadaverous specimens of the
+startling humor in which the Russians delight. Here
+you find frozen oxen, calves, sheep, rabbits, geese, ducks,
+and all manner of animals and birds, once animate with
+life, now stiff and stark in death. The oxen stand staring
+at you with their fixed eyes and gory carcasses; the
+calves are jumping or frisking in skinless innocence; the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+sheep ba-a at you with open mouths, or cast sheep&rsquo;s-eyes
+at the by-passers; the rabbits, having traveled hundreds
+of miles, are jumping, or running, or turning somersaults
+in frozen tableaux to keep themselves warm, and so on
+with every variety of flesh, fowl, and even fish. The
+butchers cut short these expressive practical witticisms
+by means of saws, as one might saw a block of wood;
+and the saw-dust, which is really frozen flesh and blood
+in a powdered state, is gathered up in baskets and carried
+away by the children and ragamuffins to be made
+into soup.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="frozen_animals_in_the_market" id="frozen_animals_in_the_market"></a>
+<img src="images/thor022.png" width="600" height="467"
+alt="Meat sellers and customers, surrounded by the frozen creatures" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">FROZEN ANIMALS IN THE MARKET.</p>
+
+<p>I can conceive of nothing humorous in these people
+which is not associated in some way with the cruel and
+the grotesque. They have many noble and generous
+traits, but lack delicacy of feeling. Where the range of
+the thermometer is from a hundred to a hundred and fifty
+degrees of Fahrenheit, their character must partake in
+some sort of the qualities of the climate&mdash;fierce, rigorous,
+and pitiless in its wintry aspect, and without the
+compensating and genial tenderness of spring; fitful and
+passionate as the scorching heats of summer, and dark,
+stormy, and dreary as the desolation of autumn.</p>
+
+<p>I could not but marvel, as I sat in some of the common
+traktirs, at the extraordinary affection manifested
+by the Russians for cats. It appeared to me that the
+proprietors must keep a feline corps expressly for the
+amusement of their customers. At one of these places
+I saw at least forty cats, of various breeds, from the confines
+of Tartary to the city of Paris. They were up
+on the tables, on the benches, on the floor, under the
+benches, on the backs of the tea-drinkers, in their laps,
+in their arms&mdash;every where. I strongly suspected that
+they answered the purpose of waiters, and that the
+owner relied upon them to keep the plates clean. Possibly,
+too, they were made available as musicians. I
+have a notion the Russians entertain the same superstitious
+devotion to cats that the Banyans of India do to
+cows, and the French and Germans to nasty little
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+poodles. To see a great shaggy boor, his face dripping
+with grease, his eyes swimming in vodka, sit all doubled
+up, fondling and caressing these feline pets; holding
+them in his hands; pressing their velvety fur to his
+eyes, cheeks, even his lips; listening with delight to
+their screams and squalls, is indeed a curious spectacle.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 390px;">
+<a name="mujik_and_cats" id="mujik_and_cats"></a>
+<img src="images/thor023.png" width="390" height="500"
+alt="A mujik with at least seven cats climbing, playing and sitting around him" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">MUJIK AND CATS.</p>
+
+<p>Now I have no unchristian feeling toward any of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+brute creation, but I don&rsquo;t affect cats. Nor can I say
+that I greatly enjoy their music. I heard the very best
+bands of tom-cats every night during my sojourn in
+Moscow, and consider them utterly deficient in style and
+execution. It belongs, I think, to the Music of Futurity,
+so much discussed by the critics of Europe during the
+past few years&mdash;a peculiar school of anti-melody that
+requires people yet to be born to appreciate it thoroughly.
+The discords may be very fine, and the passion very
+striking and tempestuous, but it is worse than thrown
+away on an uncultivated ear like mine.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The police of Moscow are not an attractive class of
+men, considering them in the light of guardians of the law.
+With a good deal of pomposity and laziness, they mingle
+much filth and rascality. The emperor may have great
+confidence in them, based upon some knowledge of their
+talents and virtues not shared by casual tourists; but if
+he would trust one of them with ten kopeks, or agree
+to place the life of any intimate personal friend in their
+keeping, in any of the dark alleys of Moscow, his faith in
+their integrity and humanity must be greater than mine.
+Indeed, upon casting around me in search of a parallel, I
+am not quite sure that I ever saw such a scurvy set of
+vagabonds employed to preserve the public peace in any
+other country, except, perhaps, in Spain. The guardians
+of the law in Cadiz and Seville are dark and forbidding
+enough in all conscience, and unscrupulous enough to
+turn a penny in any way not requiring the exercise of
+personal energy; and the police of Barcelona are not inferior
+in all that constitutes moral turpitude, but they
+can not surpass the Moscovites in filthiness of person or
+any of the essential attributes of villainy.</p>
+
+<p>I have it upon good authority that they are the very
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+worst set of thieves in the place, and that they will not
+hesitate to unite with any midnight prowler for the purpose
+of robbing a stranger. True, they did not rob me,
+but the reason of that is obvious. I gave them to understand
+at the start that I was connected with the
+press. You seldom hear of a writer for newspapers being
+robbed; and if such a thing ever does happen, the
+amount taken is never large.</p>
+
+<p>As a consequence of this proclivity for ill-gotten gains
+on the part of the guardians of the law, it is unsafe for a
+stranger to go through the less frequented streets of
+Moscow at night. Should he chance to be stopped by
+two or three footpads and call for help, he will doubtless
+wake up some drowsy guardian of the law, but the help
+will be all against him. Instances have been related to
+me of robberies in which the police were the most active
+assailants, the robbers merely standing by for their share
+of the plunder. Should the unfortunate victim knock
+down a footpad or two in self-defense, it is good ground
+for an arrest, and both robbers and policemen become
+witnesses against him. A man had better get involved
+in a question of title to his property before the courts of
+California than be arrested for assault and battery, and
+carried before any of the civil tribunals in Russia. There
+is no end of the law&rsquo;s delays in these institutions, and his
+only chance of justice is to get his case before the emperor,
+who is practically the Supreme Court of the empire.
+Otherwise the really aggrieved party must pay a
+fine for defending himself, and support the assaulted man,
+whose nose he may have battered, during an unlimited
+period at the hospital, together with physician&rsquo;s fees for
+all the real or imaginary injuries inflicted. I met with a
+young American who was followed by a stalwart ruffian
+one night in returning from one of the public gardens.
+The man dogged his footsteps for some time. At length,
+there being nobody near to render aid, the robber mustered
+courage enough to seize hold and attempt to intimidate
+his supposed victim by brandishing a knife.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+He came from a country where they were not uncommon,
+and, besides, was an adept on the shoulder. With
+a sudden jerk he freed himself, and, hauling off a little,
+gave his assailant a note of hand that knocked him down.
+I am not versed in the classics of the ring, or I would
+make something out of this fight. The pad dropped like
+a stricken ox, his knife flying picturesquely through the
+silvery rays of the moon. Next moment he was on his
+feet again, the claret shining beautifully on his cheeks and
+beard. Throwing out his claws like a huge grizzly, he
+rushed in, gnashing his teeth and swearing horribly.
+This time our friend was fairly aroused, and the wretch
+promptly measured his length on the ground. Thinking
+he had scattered it on rather heavy, the American stooped
+down to see how matters stood, when the fellow
+grasped him by the coat and commenced shouting with
+all his might for the police&mdash;&ldquo;Help! help! murder!
+murder!&rdquo; There was no remedy but to silence him,
+which our friend dexterously accomplished by a blow on
+the os frontis. Hearing the approaching footsteps of
+the police, he then concluded it was best to make his
+escape, and accordingly took to his heels. Chase was
+given, but he was as good at running as he was at the
+noble art of self-defense, and soon distanced his pursuers.
+Fortunately, he reached his quarters without being recognised.
+This was all that saved him from arrest and
+imprisonment, or the payment of a fine for the assault.</p>
+
+<p>A common practice, as I was informed, is to arrest a
+stranger for some alleged breach of the law, such as
+smoking a cigar in the streets, or using disrespectful language
+toward the constituted authorities. Not being accustomed
+to the intricacies of a Russian judiciary, it is difficult,
+when once the matter comes before a tribunal of
+justice, for a foreigner to rebut the testimony brought
+against him; and if he be in a hurry to get away, his
+only course is to bribe the parties interested in his detention.
+It would be unjust to say that this system prevails
+universally throughout Russia. There is a small
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+circle around the imperial presence said to be exempt
+from corruption; and there may possibly be a few dignitaries
+of the government, in remote parts of the empire,
+who will not tell an untruth unless in their official correspondence,
+or steal except to make up what they consider
+due to them for public services; but the circle of
+immaculate ones is very small, and commences very near
+the Czar, and the other exceptions referred to are exceedingly
+rare. Thieving may be said to begin within
+gunshot of the capital, and to attain its culminating excellences
+on the confines of Tartary. The difference is
+only in degree between the higher and the lower grades
+of officers. Hence, although it is quite possible to obtain
+full reparation for an injury before the Czar, through
+the intervention of a consul or a minister, it is a vexatious
+and expensive mode of proceeding, and would only
+result at last in the transportation of some miserable
+wretch to the mines of Siberia. Of course no man with
+a spark of feeling would like to see a poor fellow-creature
+go there. For my part, I would rather suffer any
+amount of injustice than be the cause of sending a fellow-mortal
+on so long and dreary a journey.</p>
+
+<p>The whole bearing of which you will presently discover.
+I am going to tell you a very singular adventure
+that befell me in Moscow. Do not be impatient; it will
+all come in due time. A few dashes of preliminary description
+will be necessary, by way of introduction, otherwise
+it would be impossible to comprehend the full
+scope and purpose of my narrative. If you be of the
+rougher mould, cherished reader, just cast yourself back
+somewhere at your ease, take this most excellently printed
+book deftly between your fingers, with a good cigar
+between your teeth; throw your legs over your desk, a
+gunny-bag, a fence-rail, or the mantel-piece of the bar-room,
+as the case may be; give me the benefit of your
+friendship and confidence, and read away at your leisure.
+But if you be one of those gentle beings placed upon
+earth to diffuse joy and happiness over the desert of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+life, I pray you consider me a serf at your imperial foot-stool;
+bend on me those tender eyes; and with the
+mingled respect and admiration due by all men to female
+loveliness, I shall proceed at once to tell you (confidentially
+of course)</p>
+
+
+<p class="center smlpadt">A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE</p>
+
+<p>It so happened in Moscow that I fell in with a very
+pleasant and sociable party of Americans, several of
+whom were in the railway service, and therefore might
+reasonably be regarded as fast young gentlemen, though
+far be it from me to imply any thing injurious to their
+reputation. Beyond an excessive passion for tea, acquired
+by long residence in Moscow, I do not know that
+a single one of them was at all dissipated. When I first
+called at the rooms of these lively countrymen, they immediately
+got out their tea-urns, and assured me that it
+would be impossible to comprehend any thing of Russian
+life till I had partaken freely of Russian tea, therefore
+I was obliged to drink five or six glasses by way
+of a beginning. Having freely discussed the affairs of
+the American nation at one room, we adjourned to another,
+where we had a fresh supply of tea; and then,
+after settling the rebellion to our common satisfaction,
+adjourned to another, and so on throughout the best
+part of the day. Sometimes we stopped in at a <i>traktir</i>
+and had a portion or two, dashed with a little Cognac,
+which my friends assured me would prevent it from
+having any injurious effect upon the nervous system.
+In this way, within a period of twelve hours, owing to
+the kindness and hospitality of these agreeable Americans,
+who insisted upon treating me to tea, in public and
+in private, at every turn of our rambles, I must have
+swallowed a gallon or two of this delicious beverage.
+The weather was exceedingly warm, but these experienced
+gentlemen insisted upon it that Russian tea was
+a sovereign antidote for warm weather, especially when
+dashed with Cognac, as it drove all the caloric out of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+the body through the pores of the skin. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be
+afraid!&rdquo; said they, encouragingly; &ldquo;drink just as much
+as you please&mdash;it will cool you! See how the Russians
+drink it. Nothing else enables them to stand these fiery
+hot summers after their polar winters!&rdquo; Well, I didn&rsquo;t
+feel exactly cool, with thirty or forty tumblers of boiling
+hot tea, dashed with Cognac, in my veins, but what
+was the use of remonstrating? They <em>lived</em> in Moscow&mdash;they
+<em>knew</em> better than I did what was good for strangers&mdash;so
+I kept on swallowing a little more, just to
+oblige them, till I verily believe, had any body stuck a
+pin in me, or had I undertaken to make a speech, I would
+have spouted Russian tea.</p>
+
+<p>Why is it that the moment any body wants to render
+you a service, or manifest some token of friendship,
+he commences by striking at the very root of your digestive
+functions? Is it not exacting a little too much
+of human nature to require a man to consider himself a
+large sponge, in order that hospitality may be poured
+into him by the gallon? When a person of pliant and
+amiable disposition visits a set of good fellows, and they
+take some trouble to entertain him; when they think
+they are delighting him internally and externally&mdash;not
+to say infernally&mdash;with such tea as he never drank before,
+it is hard to refuse. The moral courage necessary
+for the peremptory rejection of such advances would
+make a hero. Thus it has ever been with me&mdash;I am
+the victim of misplaced hospitality. It has been the besetting
+trouble of my life. I remember once eating a
+Nantucket pudding to oblige a lady. It was made of
+corn-meal and molasses, with some diabolical compound
+in the way of sauce&mdash;possibly whale-oil and tar. I had
+just eaten a hearty dinner; but the lady insisted upon
+it that the pudding was a great dish in Nantucket, and
+I must try it. Well, I stuffed and gagged at it, out of
+pure politeness, till every morsel on the plate was gone,
+declaring all the time that it was perfectly delicious.
+The lady was charmed, and, in the face of every denial,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+instantly filled the plate again. What could I do but
+eat it? And after eating till I verily believe one half
+of me was composed of Nantucket pudding, and the
+other half of whale-oil and tar, what could I do but
+praise it again? The third attempt upon my life was
+made by this most excellent and hospitable lady; but I
+gave way, and had to beg off. Human nature could
+stand it no longer. The consequence was, I wounded
+her feelings. She regretted very much that I disliked
+Nantucket pudding, and I don&rsquo;t think ever quite forgave
+me for my prejudice against that article of diet, though
+her kindness laid me up sick for two weeks. Nor is this
+an isolated case. I might relate a thousand others in
+illustration of the melancholy fact that hospitality has
+been the bane of my life. When I think of all the sufferings
+I have endured out of mere politeness&mdash;though
+by no means accounted a polite person&mdash;tears of grief
+and indignation spring to my eyes. Old John Rogers
+at the stake never suffered such martyrdom. But there
+is an end of it! The <i>tchai</i> of Moscow finished all this
+sort of thing&mdash;so far, at least, as the male sex is concerned.
+I would still eat a coyote or a weasel to oblige
+a lady, but as to drinking two gallons of strong tea per
+day, dashed with Cognac to reduce its temperature, to
+oblige any man that ever wore a beard, I solemnly declare
+I&rsquo;ll die first. The thing is an imposition&mdash;an outrage.
+Every man has a right to my time, my purse, my
+real estate in Oakland, my coat, my boots, or my razor&mdash;nay,
+in a case of emergency, my tooth-brush&mdash;but no
+man has a right to deluge my diaphragm with slops, or
+make a ditch of Mundus of my stomach.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 409px;">
+<a name="effects_of_little_water" id="effects_of_little_water"></a>
+<img src="images/thor024.png" width="409" height="500"
+alt="Two men support each other as they walk" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">EFFECTS OF &ldquo;LITTLE WATER.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At the Peterskoi Gardens we had a little more tea,
+dashed with <i>vodka</i>, to keep out the night air. As soon
+as the fire-works were over we adjourned to the pavilion,
+and refreshed ourselves with a little more tea
+slightly impregnated with some more <i>vodka</i>. Now I
+don&rsquo;t know exactly what this vodka is made of, but I
+believe it is an extract of corn. In the Russian
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+language <i>voda</i> is water, and <i>vodka</i> means &ldquo;little water.&rdquo;
+There certainly was very little in what we got, or the
+tea must have been stronger than usual, for, notwithstanding
+these agreeable young gentlemen protested a
+gallon of such stuff would not produce the slightest effect,
+it seemed to me&mdash;though there might have been
+some delusion in the idea, arising from ignorance of
+Russian customs&mdash;that my head went round like a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+whirligig; and by the time I took my leave of these
+experienced young friends and retired to my room at
+the <i>Hotel de Venise</i>, it did likewise occur to me&mdash;though
+that too may have been a mere notion&mdash;that there was
+a hive of bees in each ear. Upon due consideration of
+all the facts, I thought it best to turn in, and resume
+any inquiries that might be necessary for the elucidation
+of these phenomena in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>[Here, you perceive, I am gradually verging toward
+the adventure. The heroine of the romance has not yet
+made her appearance, but depend upon it she is getting
+ready. You should never hurry the female characters;
+besides, it is not proper, even if this were all fiction instead
+of sober truth, that the heroine should be brought
+upon the stage just as the hero is tumbling into bed.]</p>
+
+<p>But to proceed. Sleep was effectually banished from
+my eyes, and no wonder. Who in the name of sense
+could sleep with forty tumblers of Russian tea&mdash;to say
+nothing of the dashes that were put in it&mdash;simmering
+through every nook and cranny of his body, and boiling
+over in his head? There I lay, twisting and tumbling,
+the pillow continually descending into the depths of infinity,
+but never getting any where&mdash;the bed rolling like
+a dismantled hulk upon a stormy sea&mdash;the room filled
+with steaming and hissing urns&mdash;a fearful thirst parching
+my throat, while myriads of horrid bearded Russians
+were torturing me with tumblers of boiling-hot tea dashed
+with <i>vodka</i>&mdash;thus I lay a perfect victim of tea. I
+could even see Chinamen with long queues picking tea-leaves
+off endless varieties of shrubs that grew upon the
+papered walls; and Kalmuck Tartars, with their long
+caravans, traversing the dreary steppes of Tartary laden
+with inexhaustible burdens of the precious leaf; and the
+great fair of Nijni Novgorod, with its booths, and tents,
+and countless boxes of tea, and busy throngs of traders
+and tea-merchants, all passing like a panorama before
+me, and all growing naturally out of an indefinite background
+of tea.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+I can not distinctly remember how long I tossed about
+in this way, beset by all sorts of vagaries. Sometimes I
+fancied sleep had come, and that the whole matter was
+a ridiculous freak of fancy, including my visit to Moscow&mdash;that
+Russian tea was all a fiction, and <i>vodka</i> a mere
+nightmare; but with a nervous start I would find myself
+awake, the palpable reality of my extraordinary condition
+staring me in the face. Unable to endure such an
+anomalous frame of mind and body any longer, I at
+length resolved to go down and take an airing in the
+streets, believing, if any thing would have a beneficial
+effect, it would be the fresh air. Acting upon this idea,
+I hastily dressed myself and descended to the front door.
+The <i>Hotel de Venise</i> is situated in a central part of the
+city, at no great distance from the Kremlin. It stands
+back in a large open yard, with a very pretty garden to
+the right as you enter from the main street. The proprietor
+is a Russian, but the hotel is conducted in the
+French style, and, although not more conspicuous for
+cleanliness than other establishments of the same class
+in Moscow, it is nevertheless tolerably free from vermin.
+The fleas in it were certainly neither so lively nor so entertaining
+as I have found them at many of the Spanish
+ranches in California, and the bugs, I am sure, are nothing
+like so corpulent as some I have seen in Washington
+City. I throw this in gratis, as a sort of puff, in consideration
+of an understanding with the landlord, that if he
+would refrain from cheating me I would recommend his
+hotel to American travelers. It is very good of its kind,
+and no person fond of veal, as a standard dish, can suffer
+from hunger at this establishment so long as calves continue
+to be born any where in the neighborhood of Moscow.</p>
+
+<p>The porter, a drowsy old fellow in livery, whose only
+business, so far as I could discover, was to bow to the
+guests as they passed in and out during the day, at the
+expense of a kopek to each one of them for every bow,
+napping on a lounge close by the front door. Hearing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+my footsteps, he awoke, rubbed his eyes, bowed
+habitually, and then stared at me with a vacant and
+somewhat startled expression. It was not a common
+thing evidently for lodgers to go out of the hotel at that
+time of night, or rather morning&mdash;it must have been
+nearly two o&rsquo;clock&mdash;for, after gazing a while at what he
+doubtless took to be an apparition or an absconding
+boarder whose bill had not been settled, he grumbled
+out something like a dissent, and stood between me and
+the door. A small fee of ten kopeks, which I placed in
+his hand, aided him in grasping at the mysteries of the
+case, and he unlocked the door and let me out, merely
+shaking his head gravely, as if he divined my purpose,
+but did not altogether approve of it in one of my age
+and sedate appearance. In that, however, he was mistaken:
+I had no disposition to form any tender alliances
+in Moscow.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="russian_beggars" id="russian_beggars"></a>
+<img src="images/thor025.png" width="400" height="398"
+alt="A young boy and an older man hold out their hats" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">RUSSIAN BEGGARS.</p>
+
+<p>The streets were almost deserted. An occasional drosky,
+carrying home some belated pleasure-seeker, was all
+that disturbed the silence. I walked some distance in
+the direction of the Kremlin. The air was deliciously
+cool and refreshing, and the sky wore a still richer glow
+than I had noticed a few hours before at the gardens of
+the Peterskoi. The moon had not yet gone down, but
+the first glowing blushes of the early morning were stealing
+over the heavens, mingled with its silvery light. I
+took off my hat to enjoy the fresh air, and wandered
+along quite enchanted with the richness and variety of
+the scene. Every turn of the silent streets brought me
+in view of some gilded pile of cupolas, standing in glowing
+relief against the sky. Churches of strange Asiatic
+form, the domes richly and fancifully colored; golden
+stars glittering upon a groundwork of blue, green, or
+yellow; shrines with burning tapers over the massive
+doors and gateways, were scattered in every direction
+in the most beautiful profusion. Sometimes I saw a solitary
+beggar kneeling devoutly before some gilded saint,
+and mourning over the weariness of life. Once I was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+startled by the apparition of a poor wretch lying asleep&mdash;I
+thought he was dead&mdash;a crippled wreck upon the
+stone steps&mdash;his eyes closed in brief oblivion of the
+world and its sorrows, his furrowed and pallid features
+a ghastly commentary upon the glittering temples and
+idols that surround him. For above all these things
+that are &ldquo;decked with silver and with gold, and fastened
+with nails and with hammers that they move not,&rdquo;
+there is One who hath &ldquo;made the earth by His power
+and established the world by His wisdom;&rdquo; man is
+but brutish in his knowledge; &ldquo;every founder is confounded
+by the graven image; for his molten image is
+falsehood, and there is no breath in them.&rdquo; Such extremes
+every where abound in Moscow&mdash;magnificence
+and filth; wealth and poverty; a superstitious belief in
+the power of images in the midst of abject proofs of
+their impotence. And yet, is it not better that men
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+should believe in something rather than in nothing?
+The glittering idol can not touch the crippled beggar
+and put health and strength in his limbs, but if the poor
+sufferer can sleep better upon the cold stones in the presence
+of his patron saint than elsewhere, in charity&rsquo;s name
+let him,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">&ldquo;O&rsquo;erlabored with his being&rsquo;s strife<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shrink to that sweet forgetfulness of life.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>I wandered on. Soon the cupolas of the mighty Kremlin
+were in sight, all aglow with the bright sheen of the
+morn. Passing along its embattled walls, which now
+seemed of snowy whiteness, I reached the grand plaza
+of the Krasnoi Ploschod. Standing out in the open
+space, I gazed at the wondrous pile of gold-covered
+domes till my eyes rested on the highest point&mdash;the
+majestic tower of Ivan Veliki. And then I could but
+think of the terrible Czar&mdash;the fourth of the fierce race
+of Ivans, who ruled the destinies of Russia; he who killed
+his own son in a fit of rage, yet never shook hands
+with a foreign embassador without washing his own immediately
+after; the patron of monasteries, and the conqueror
+of Kazan, Astrakan, and Siberia. This was the
+most cruel yet most enlightened of his name. I am not
+sure whether the tower was built to commemorate his
+fame or that of his grandfather, Ivan the Third, also called
+&ldquo;the Terrible,&rdquo; of whom Karasmin says that, &ldquo;when
+excited with anger, his glance would make a timid woman
+swoon; that petitioners dreaded to approach his throne,
+and that even at his table the boyars, his grandees, trembled
+before him.&rdquo; A terrible fellow, no doubt, and thoroughly
+Russian by the testimony of this Russian historian,
+for where else will you find men so terrible as to
+make timid women swoon by a single glance of their
+eye? Not in California, surely! If I were a Czar this
+soft summer night (such was the idea that naturally occurred
+to me), I would gaze upon the fair flowers of
+creation with an entirely different expression of countenance.
+They should neither wilt nor swoon unless
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+overcome by the delicacy and tenderness of my admiration.</p>
+
+<p>From the green towers of the Holy Gate, where neither
+Czar nor serf can enter without uncovering his
+head, I turned toward the Vassoli Blagennoi&mdash;the wondrous
+maze of churches that gathers around the Cathedral
+of St. Basil. Not in all Moscow is there a sight so
+strange and gorgeous as this. The globular domes, all
+striped with the varied colors of the rainbow; the glittering
+gold-gilt cupolas; the rare and fanciful minarets;
+the shrines, and crosses, and stars; the massive steps;
+the iron railing, with shining gold-capped points&mdash;surely,
+in the combination of striking and picturesque forms
+and colors, lights and shades, must ever remain unequaled.
+The comparison may seem frivolous, yet it resembled
+more, to my eye, some gigantic cactus of the tropics,
+with its needles and rich colors, its round, prickly
+domes and fantastic cupolas, than any thing I had ever
+seen before in the shape of a church or group of churches.
+While I gazed in wonder at the strange fabric, I could
+not but think again of Ivan the Terrible; by whose order
+it was built; and how, when the architect (an Italian)
+was brought before him, trembling with awe, the mighty
+Ivan expressed his approval of the performance, and demanded
+if he, the architect, could build another equally
+strange and beautiful; to which the poor Italian, elated
+with joy, answered that he could build another even
+stranger and more beautiful than this; and then how
+the ferocious and unprincipled Czar had the poor fellow&rsquo;s
+eyes put out to prevent him from building another.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not the adventure. I have nothing to do
+at present with the Church of St. Basil or Ivan the Terrible
+except in so far as they affected my imagination.
+The business on hand is to tell you how the dire catastrophe
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>Bewildered at length with gazing at all these wonderful
+sights, I turned to retrace my steps to the hotel. A
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+few droskies were still plying on the principal thoroughfares,
+and now and then I met gay parties trudging
+homeward after their night&rsquo;s dissipation; but I soon
+struck into the less frequented streets, where a dreary
+silence reigned. There was something very sad and
+solitary in the reverberation of my footsteps. For the
+first time it occurred to me that there was not much security
+here for life, in case of a covert attack from some
+of those footpads said to infest the city. I began to reflect
+upon the experience of my young American friend,
+and regret that it had not occurred to me before I left
+the hotel. You may think this very weak and foolish,
+good friends, surrounded as you are by all the safeguards
+of law and order, and living in a country where
+men are never knocked on the head of nights&mdash;with occasional
+exceptions; but I can assure you it is a very
+natural feeling in a strange, half-barbarous city like Moscow,
+where one doesn&rsquo;t understand the language. Had
+I been well versed in Russian, the probability is I should
+not have felt the least alarmed; but a man experiences a
+terrible sensation of loneliness when he expects every
+moment to be knocked on the head without being able
+to say a word in his own defense. Had my guide, Dominico,
+been with me, I should not have felt quite so
+helpless&mdash;though I never had much confidence in his
+courage&mdash;for he could at least have demanded an explanation,
+or, if the worst came to the worst, helped me
+to run away. The fact is&mdash;and there is no use attempting
+to disguise it&mdash;I began to feel a nervous apprehension
+that something was going to happen. I was startled
+at my own shadow, and was even afraid to whistle with
+any view of keeping up my spirits, lest something unusually
+florid in my style of whistling might lead to the
+supposition that I was from California, and therefore a
+good subject for robbery.</p>
+
+<p>Which, by the way, puts me in mind of a remarkable
+fact, well worth mentioning. The State of California
+owes me, at the least calculation, two hundred dollars,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+paid in sums varying from six kreutzers up to a pound
+sterling to hotel-keepers, porters, lackeys, and professional
+gentlemen throughout Europe, exclusively on the
+ground of my citizenship in that state. In Paris&mdash;in
+Spain&mdash;in Africa&mdash;in Germany (with the exceptions of
+the beer-houses and country inns), I had to pay a heavy
+percentage upon the capital invested in my gold mines
+solely on the presumption that no man could come from
+so rich a country without carrying off a good deal of
+treasure on his person, like the carcass that carried the
+diamonds out of the rich valley for Sinbad the Sailor.
+Yet I never could forego the pleasure of announcing
+myself as an embassador to foreign parts from that noble
+state, commissioned by the sovereigns generally to furnish
+them with the latest improvements in morals, fashions,
+and manners for the public benefit&mdash;an extremely
+onerous and responsible duty, which I have executed, and
+shall continue to execute, with the most rigid fidelity.</p>
+
+<p>After walking quite far enough to have reached the
+hotel, I became confused at the winding of the streets.
+The neighborhood was strange. I could not discover
+any familiar sign or object. The houses were low,
+mean, and dark looking; the street was narrow and
+roughly paved. I walked a little farther, then turned
+into another street still more obscure, and, following
+that for some distance, brought up amid a pile of ruined
+walls. There could no longer be a doubt that I had
+missed the way, and was not likely to find it in this direction.
+It was a very suspicious quarter into which I
+had strayed. Every thing about it betokened poverty
+and crime. I began to feel rather uneasy, but it would
+not do to stand here among the ruins as a mark for any
+midnight prowler who might be lurking around. Turning
+off in a new direction, I took a by-street, which appeared
+to lead to an open space. As I picked my way
+over the masses of rubbish, a dark figure crossed in front,
+and disappeared in the shadow of a wall. I was entirely
+unarmed. What was to be done? Perhaps the man
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+might be able to tell me the way to my lodgings; but I
+could not speak a word of Russian, as before stated,
+and, besides, was rather averse to making acquaintance
+with strangers. After a moment&rsquo;s reflection, I walked
+on, cautiously and distrustfully enough, for the notion
+was uppermost in my mind that this fellow was not
+there for any good purpose. As I passed the spot
+where he had disappeared, I looked suspiciously around,
+but he did not make his appearance. With a few hasty
+strides I readied the open space&mdash;a vacant lot, it seemed,
+caused by a recent fire. The houses were burnt
+down, and nothing but a blackened mass of beams, rafters,
+and ashes covered the ground. The only exit was
+through a narrow alley. Before entering this, I looked
+back and saw the same figure stealthily following me.
+On I went as rapidly as I could walk. Closer and closer
+came the figure. He was a man of gigantic stature, and
+was probably armed. Soon I heard the heavy tramp of
+his feet within a few paces. It was evident I must either
+run or stand my ground. Perhaps, if I had known what
+direction to take, or could have placed more reliance
+upon my knees, which were greatly weakened by tea, I
+might have chosen the former alternative, inglorious as
+it may seem; but, under the circumstances, I resolved to
+stand. Facing around suddenly, with my back to the
+wall, I called to the ruffian to stand off, as he valued his
+life. He halted within a few feet, evidently a little disconcerted
+at my sudden determination to make battle.
+His face was the most brutal I had over seen; a filthy
+mass of beard nearly covered it; two piercing white
+eyes glistened beneath the leaf of his greasy cap; a
+coarse blouse, gathered around the waist by a leather
+belt, and boots that reached nearly to his hips, were the
+most striking articles of his costume. For a moment he
+gazed at me, as if uncertain what to do; then brushed
+slowly past, with the design, no doubt, of ascertaining if
+I was armed. I could not see whether he carried any
+deadly weapons himself; but a man of his gigantic stature
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+needed none to be a very unequal opponent in a
+struggle with one whose most sanguinary conflicts had
+hitherto been on paper, and who had never wielded a
+heavier weapon than a pen.</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding on his way, however, the ruffian, after going
+about a hundred yards, disappeared in some dark recess
+in among the houses on one side. I continued on,
+taking care to keep in the middle of the alley. As I
+approached the spot where the man had disappeared, I
+heard several voices, and then the terrible truth flashed
+upon me that there must be a gang of them. I now saw
+no alternative but to turn back and run for my life. It
+was an inglorious thing to do, no doubt, but which of
+you, my friends, would not have done the same thing?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="gambling_saloon" id="gambling_saloon"></a>
+<img src="images/thor026.png" width="600" height="476"
+alt="Two men look on as two others play a card game" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">GAMBLING SALOON.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had I started under full headway when three
+or four men rushed out in pursuit. I will not attempt to
+disguise the fact that the ground passed under my feet
+pretty rapidly; and the probability is, the hostile party
+would have been distanced in less than ten minutes but
+for an unfortunate accident. It was necessary to cross
+the ruins already described. Here, in the recklessness
+of my flight, I stumbled over a beam, and fell prostrate
+in a pile of ashes. Before I could regain my feet the
+ruffians were upon me. While two of them held my
+arms, the third clapped his dirty hand over my mouth,
+and in this way they dragged me back into the alley.
+As soon as they had reached the dark archway from
+which they had originally started, they knocked at a
+door on one side. This was quickly opened, and I was
+thrust into a large room, dimly lighted with rude lamps
+of grease hung upon the walls. When they first got
+hold of me, I confess the sensation was not pleasant.
+What would the Emperor Alexander say when he heard
+that a citizen of California had been murdered in this
+cold-blooded manner? My next thought was, in what
+terms would this sad affair be noticed in the columns of
+the Sacramento <i>Union</i>? Would it not be regarded by
+the editor as an unprovoked disaster inflicted upon society?
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+My fears, however, were somewhat dispelled upon
+looking around the saloon into which I had been so
+strangely introduced. Several tables were ranged along
+the walls, at each of which sat a group of the most horrible-looking
+savages that probably ever were seen out of
+jail&mdash;the very dregs and offscourings of Moscow. Their
+faces were mostly covered with coarse, greasy beards,
+reaching half way down their bodies; some wore dirty
+blue or gray blouses, tied around the waist with ropes, or
+fastened with leather belts; others, long blue coats, reaching
+nearly to their feet; and all, or nearly all, had caps on
+their heads, and great heavy boots reaching up to their
+knees, in which their pantaloons were thrust, giving
+them a rakish and ruffianly appearance. A few sat in
+their shirt-sleeves; and, judging by the color of their
+shirts, as well as their skins, did not reckon soap among
+the luxuries of life. Several of these savage-looking
+Mujiks were smoking some abominable weed, intended,
+perhaps, for tobacco, but very much unlike that delightful
+narcotic in the foul and tainted odor which it diffused
+over the room. They were all filthy and brutish in the
+extreme, and talked in some wretched jargon, which,
+even to my inexperienced ear, had but little of the gentle
+flow of the Russian in it. The tables were dotted
+with dice, cards, fragments of black bread, plates of
+grease, and cabbage soup, and glasses of vodka and tea;
+and the business of gambling, eating, and drinking was
+carried on with such earnestness that my entrance attracted
+no farther attention than a rude stare from the
+nearest group. No wonder they were a little puzzled,
+for I was covered with ashes, and must have presented
+rather a singular appearance. The three ruffians who
+had brought me in closed the door, and motioned me to
+a seat at a vacant table. They then called for tea, vodka,
+and quass, together with a great dish of raw cucumbers,
+which they set to work devouring with amazing
+voracity. During a pause in the feast they held a low
+conversation with the man who served them, who went
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+out and presently returned with a small tea-pot full of
+tea and a glass, which he set before me. They motioned
+to me, in rather a friendly way, to drink. I was parched
+with thirst, and was not sorry to get a draught of any
+thing&mdash;even the villainous compound the traktir had set
+before me; so I drank off a tumblerfull at once. Soon I
+began to experience a whirling sensation in the head. A
+cold tremor ran through my limbs. Dim and confused
+visions of the company rose before me, and a strange
+and spectral light seemed shed over the room. The
+murmur of voices sounded like rushing waters in my
+ears. I gradually lost all power of volition, while my
+consciousness remained unimpaired, or, if any thing, became
+more acute than ever. The guests, if such they
+were, broke up their carousal about this time, and began
+to drop off one by one, each bowing profoundly to the
+landlord, and crossing himself devoutly, and bowing three
+times again before the shrine of the patron saint as he
+passed out. It was really marvelous to see some of
+these ruffians, so besotted with strong drink that they
+were scarcely able to see the way to the door, stagger
+up before the burnished shrine, and, steadying themselves
+the best they could, gravely and solemnly go
+through their devotions.</p>
+
+<p>But I see you are beginning to yawn, and, notwithstanding
+the most exciting part of the adventure is
+about to commence, it would be extremely injudicious
+in me to force it upon you under circumstances so
+disadvantageous to both parties. You will therefore
+oblige me by finishing your nap, and, with your permission,
+we will proceed with our narrative as soon as it
+may be mutually agreeable. In the mean time, I beg
+you will regard what I have already told you as strictly
+confidential. My reputation, both for veracity and general
+good character, is involved in this very extraordinary
+affair, and it would be unfair that either the one or
+the other should be prejudiced by a partial exposition
+of the facts.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DENOUEMENT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I noticed that the traktir, in settling accounts with
+his customers, made use of a peculiar instrument commonly
+seen in the shops and market-places throughout
+the city. Behind a sort of bar or counter at the head of
+the room he kept what is called a <i>schot</i>, upon which he
+made his calculations. This is a frame about a foot
+square, across which run numerous wires. On each wire
+is a string of colored pieces of wood somewhat resembling
+billiard-counters, only smaller. The merchant,
+trader, traktir, or craftsman engaged in pecuniary transactions
+uses this instrument with wonderful dexterity in
+making his calculations. He believes it to be the only
+thing in the world that will not lie or steal. If you have
+purchased to the amount of thirty kopeks, you would
+naturally conclude that out of a ruble (one hundred kopeks)
+your change would amount to seventy. Not so
+the sagacious and wary Russian. He takes nothing for
+granted in the way of trade. Your calculations may be
+erroneous&mdash;figures obtained through the medium of
+mental arithmetic may lie, but the schot never. The
+experience of a lifetime goes for nothing. He must have
+proof positive. Taking his schot between his knees, he
+counts off thirty balls out of a hundred. Of course there
+is no mistake about that. Neither you nor he can dispute
+it. Then he counts the remainder, and finds that
+it amounts to seventy&mdash;therefore your change is seventy
+kopeks! Do you dispute it? Then you can count for
+yourself. You might cover pages with written calculations,
+or demonstrate the problem by the four cardinal
+rules of arithmetic; you might express the numbers by
+sticks, stones, beans, or grains of coffee, but it would be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+all the same to this astute and cautious calculator&mdash;facts
+can only reach his understanding through the colored
+balls of his beloved schot. I don&rsquo;t think he would rely
+with certainty upon the loose verbal statement that two
+and two make four without resorting to the schot for a
+verification. But to proceed:</p>
+
+<p>A few of the guests, too far gone with &ldquo;little water&rdquo;
+to get up and perform their devotions, rolled over on
+the floor and went to sleep. The lights grew dim. A
+gloomy silence began to settle over the room, interrupted
+only by the occasional grunting or snoring of the
+sleepers. The ruffians who sat at the table with me had
+been nodding for some time; but, roused by the cessation
+of noises, they called to the man of the house, and
+in a low voice gave him some orders. He got a light
+and opened a small door in a recess at one side of the
+room. I was then lifted up by the others and carried
+into an adjoining passage, and thence up a narrow stairway.
+In a large dingy room overhead I could see by the
+flickering rays of the lamp a bed in one corner. It was
+not very clean&mdash;none of the Russian beds are&mdash;but they
+laid me in it, nevertheless, for I could offer no remonstrance.
+What they had hitherto done was bad enough,
+but this capped the climax of outrages. Were the cowardly
+villains afraid to murder me, and was this their
+plan of getting it done, and at the same time getting rid
+of the body? Great heavens! was I to be devoured
+piecemeal by a rapacious horde of the wild beasts that are
+said to infest the Russian beds! And utterly helpless,
+too, without the power to grapple with as much as a
+single flea&mdash;the least formidable, perhaps, of the entire
+gang! It was absolutely fearful to contemplate such an
+act of premeditated barbarity; yet what could I do, unable
+to speak a word or move a limb.</p>
+
+<p>I am reminded by this that the Russians derive the
+most striking features of their civilization from the
+French and Germans. Their fashions, their tailors, their
+confectioners, their perfumeries, their barbers, are nearly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+all French or Germans; but their baths are a national
+institution, derived originally, perhaps, from the Orientals.
+We hear a good deal of Russian baths, especially
+from enthusiastic travelers, and are apt to suppose that
+where such a thorough system of scrubbing and boiling
+prevails, the human cuticle must present a very extraordinary
+aspect of cleanliness. Perhaps this is so in
+certain cases, but it is not a national characteristic. A
+Russian bath, in the genuine style, is rather a costly luxury.
+There are, to be sure, in St. Petersburg and Moscow,
+public bath-houses for the rabble, where the filthiest
+beggar can be boiled out and scrubbed for a few kopeks;
+but people who wear a coating of dirt habitually
+must become attached to it in the course of time, and
+hate very much to dispose of it at any price. At least
+there seemed to be a prejudice of this kind in Moscow,
+where the affection with which this sort of overlining is
+preserved is quite equal to that with which the Germans
+adhere to their old household furniture. It may be, perhaps,
+that the few summer months which they enjoy are
+insufficient for the removal of all the strange things that
+accumulate upon the body during the long winters. The
+poorer classes seldom remove their furs or change their
+clothing till warm weather and the natural wear and tear
+of all perishable things cause them to drop off of their
+own accord. I have seen on a scorching hot day men
+wrapped in long woolen coats, doubled over the breast
+and securely fastened around the waist, and great boots,
+capacious enough and thick enough for fire-buckets, in
+which they were half buried, strolling lazily along in the
+sun, as if they absolutely enjoyed its warmth; and yet
+these very articles of clothing, with but little addition,
+must have borne the piercing winds of midwinter. A
+suspicion crossed my mind that they were trying in this
+way to bag a little heat for winter use, as the old burghers
+of Schilda bagged the light to put in their town hall
+because they had no windows. These strange habits
+must have something to do with the number of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+ferocious little animals&mdash;I will not degrade their breed and
+variety by calling them, vermin&mdash;which infest the rooms
+and beds. But the Russian skin is like Russian leather&mdash;the
+best and toughest in the world. Something in the
+climate is good for the production of thick and lasting
+cuticles. It is doubtless a wise provision of nature, based
+upon the extremes of heat and cold to which these people
+are exposed. There is no good reason why animals
+with four feet should be more favored in this respect
+than bipeds. I doubt if an ordinary Russian would suffer
+the slightest inconvenience if a needle were run into
+the small of his back. All those physical torments which
+disturb thin-skinned people from other countries are no
+torments at all to him; and I incline to the opinion that
+it is the constant experience he enjoys in a small way
+that enables him to endure the wounds received in battle
+with such wonderful stoicism. A man can carry a bull
+if he only commences when the animal is young. Why
+not, on the same principle, accustom himself to being
+stabbed every night till he can quietly endure to be run
+through with a bayonet? The Russian soldiers possess
+wonderful powers of passive endurance. Being stabbed
+or cut to pieces is second nature to them&mdash;they have
+been accustomed to it, in a degree, from early infancy.
+Who does not remember how they were hewed and
+hacked down in the Crimean War, and yet came to life
+again by thousands after they were given up for dead?
+Perhaps no other soldiers in the world possess such stoicism
+under the inflictions of pain. They stand an enormous
+amount of killing; more so, I think, than any other
+people, unless it may be the Irish, who, at the battle of
+Vinegar Hill, in the rebellion of &rsquo;98, were nearly all cut
+to pieces and left for dead on the field, but got up in a
+day or two after and went at it again as lively as ever.
+This, however, was not owing to the same early experience,
+but to the healthy blood made of potatoes, with a
+slight sprinkling of Irish whisky. In fine, I don&rsquo;t think
+a genuine Muscovite could sleep without a bountiful
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+supply of vermin to titillate his skin any more than a
+miller bereft of the customary noise of his hoppers.</p>
+
+<p>Which brings me back again to the adventure. On
+that filthy bed the ruffians laid me down to be devoured
+by the wild beasts by which it was infested. Then they
+turned about to a shrine that stood in a corner of the
+room, and each one bowed down before it three times
+and crossed himself, after which they all left the room
+and quietly closed the door behind them. I was penetrated
+with horror at the thought of the terrible death
+before me, but not so much as to avoid noticing that the
+chief furniture of the room consisted of a stove in one
+corner, of cylindrical form, made of terra-cotta or burnt
+clay, and glazed outside. It was colored in rather a fanciful
+way, like queensware, and made a conspicuous appearance,
+reaching from the floor to the ceiling. This
+was the genuine Russian stove, with which these people
+no doubt kept themselves warm during the winter. The
+windows are composed of double glasses, and between
+the sashes the space is filled with sand to keep out the
+air, so that to be hermetically sealed up is one of necessities
+of existence in this rigorous climate. While I
+was pondering over the marvelous fact that people can
+live by breathing so many thousand gallons of air over
+and over so many thousand times, a whole legion of
+fleas, chinches, and other animals of a still more forbidding
+aspect commenced their horrid work, and would
+probably soon have made an end of me but for a new
+turn in this most extraordinary affair. The door gently
+opened. A figure glided in on tiptoe. It was that of a
+female, I knew by the grace and elegance of her motions,
+even before I could see her face or trace the undulating
+outline of her form in the dim light that pervaded
+the room. My senses were acutely alive to every movement,
+yet I was utterly unable to move, owing to the infernal
+drug with which they had dosed me. The woman,
+or rather girl&mdash;for she could not have been over
+eighteen or nineteen&mdash;cautiously approached the bed,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+with her finger to her lips, as if warning me not to speak.
+She was very beautiful&mdash;I was not insensible to that fact.
+Her features were wonderfully aristocratic for one in her
+position, and there was something in the expression of
+her dark, gleaming eyes peculiarly earnest and pathetic.
+Her hair was tossed wildly and carelessly back over her
+shoulders&mdash;she had evidently just risen from bed, for
+her costume consisted of nothing more than a loose night-wrapper,
+which fell in graceful folds around her limbs,
+revealing to great advantage the exquisite symmetry of
+her form. I was certain she did not belong to the house.
+Approaching timidly, yet with a certain air of determination,
+she bent down and gazed a moment in my face,
+and then hurriedly whispered in French, &ldquo;Now is the
+time&mdash;let us escape! They lie sleeping by the door. A
+servant whom I bribed has disclosed the fact of your
+capture to me; I also am a prisoner in this horrid den.
+Will you save me? Oh, will you fly with me?&rdquo; Of
+course, being unable to move a muscle, except those of
+my eyes, I could not open my mouth to utter a word in
+reply. The unhappy young woman looked profoundly
+distressed that I should thus gaze at her in silence. &ldquo;Oh,
+what am I to do? Who will save me?&rdquo; she cried, wringing
+her hands in the deepest anguish: &ldquo;I have not a
+friend upon earth!&rdquo; Then, clasping me by the hand, she
+looked in my face appealingly, and said, &ldquo;Monsieur, I
+know you are a Frenchman. I see it in the chivalrous
+lines of your countenance. Ah! have pity on a friendless
+young girl, and do not gaze at her with such chilling
+indifference. I also am French. These wretches
+have waylaid and imprisoned me, and they hope to obtain
+a ransom by my detention. My friends are ignorant
+of my miserable fate. What can I do, monsieur, unless
+you assist me?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Utterly helpless&mdash;drugged&mdash;yet perfectly conscious of
+all the lovely creature was saying, I was truly in a most
+deplorable situation. Again and again she begged me,
+if there was a spark of French chivalry left in my nature,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+not to respond to her appeals by such a look of unutterable
+disdain. She was thrillingly beautiful; and beauty in
+tears is enough to melt the hardest heart that ever was
+put in the breast of man. I could feel her balmy breath
+upon my face, and the warmth of her delicate hand in
+mine, as she struggled to arouse me; and I declare it is
+my honest conviction that, had I been simply a corpse,
+life would have come back to my assistance; but this diabolical
+drug possessed some extraordinary power against
+which not even the fascinations of beauty could successfully
+contend. Under other circumstances, indeed, there
+is no telling&mdash;but why talk of other circumstances?
+There I lay like a log, completely paralyzed from head
+to foot. At length, unable to elicit an answer, a flush
+of mingled indignation and scorn illuminated her beautiful
+features, and, drawing herself back with a haughty
+air, she said, &ldquo;If this be the boasted chivalry of my
+countrymen, then the sooner it meets with a merited reward
+the better. Allow me to say, monsieur, that while
+I admire your prudence, I scorn the spirit that prompts
+it!&rdquo; and, with a glance of fierce disdain, she swept with
+queenly strides out of the room. A moment after I
+heard some voices in the passage, and scarcely five minutes
+had elapsed before the door was opened again. To
+my horror I saw the ruffian who had first followed me
+enter stealthily with a darkened lantern, and approach
+toward my bed. He carried in his right hand a heavy
+bar of iron. Stopping a moment opposite a shrine on
+one side of the room, he laid down his lamp and bar,
+and, bowing down three times, crossed himself devoutly,
+and then proceeded to accomplish his fiendish work. No
+conception can be formed of the agony with which I now
+regarded my fate. Crouching low as he approached, the
+wretch soon reached my bedside, peered a moment into
+my face with his hideous white eyes, laid down the lamp,
+then grasped the bar of iron firmly in both hands, and
+raised himself up to his full height. I made a desperate
+effort to cry out for help. My voice was utterly gone.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+I could not even move my lips. But why prolong the
+dreadful scene? One more glance with the fierce white
+eyes, a deep grating malediction, and the ruffian braced
+himself for his deadly job. He tightened his grip upon
+the bar, swung it high over his head, and with one fell
+blow&mdash;<small>DASHED MY BRAINS OUT</small>!!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+
+<p>Don&rsquo;t believe it, eh?</p>
+
+<p>Well, sir, you would insist upon my telling you the
+adventure, and now I stand by it! If it be your deliberate
+opinion that my statement is not to be relied upon,
+nothing remains between us but to arrange the preliminaries.
+I have no disposition to deprive my publishers
+of a valuable contributor, or society of an ornament; but,
+sir, the great principles of truth must be maintained. As
+it will not be convenient for me to attend to this matter
+in person, you will be pleased to select any friend of
+mine in California who may desire to stand up for my
+honor; place him before you at the usual distance of ten
+paces; then name any friend of yours at present in Europe
+as a similar substitute for yourself&mdash;the principals
+only to use pistols&mdash;notify me by the Icelandic telegraph
+when you are ready, and then, upon return of signal, pop
+away at my friend. But, since it is not my wish to proceed
+to such an extremity unnecessarily, if you will admit
+that I may possibly have been deceived&mdash;that there may
+have been some hallucination about the adventure&mdash;that
+strong tea and nervous excitement may have had something
+to do with it, then, sir, I am willing to leave the
+matter open to future negotiation.</p>
+
+<p>It is true I found myself in my room at the <i>Hotel de
+Venise</i> when I recovered from the stunning effects of the
+blow; also, that the door was locked on the inside; but
+I am by no means prepared to give up the point on such
+flimsy evidence as that. Should the physiological fact
+be developed in the course of these sketches that there
+is still any portion of the brain left, and that it performs
+its legitimate functions, of course I shall be forced to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+admit that the case is at least doubtful; yet even then it
+can not be regarded in the light of a pure fabrication.
+Has not Dickens given us, in his &ldquo;Dreams of Venice,&rdquo;
+the most vivid and truthful description of the City of the
+Sea ever written; and what have I done, at the worst,
+but try in my humble way to give you a general idea of
+Moscow in the pleasing form of a midnight adventure,
+ending in an assassination? You have seen the Kremlin
+and the Church of St. Basil, and the by-streets and alleys,
+and the interior of a low traktir, and the cats, and the
+Russian beds, and many other interesting features of
+this wonderful city, in a striking and peculiar point of
+view, and I hold that you have no right to complain because,
+like Louis Philippe, I sacrificed my crown for the
+benefit of my subject. Besides, has not my friend Bayard
+Taylor given to the world his wonderful experiences
+of the Hasheesh of Damascus; his varied and extraordinary
+hallucinations of intellect during the progress of its
+operations? And why should not I my humble experiences
+of the tchai of Moscow?</p>
+
+<p><i>Reader.</i> Slightly sprinkled with <i>vodka</i>, or &ldquo;the little
+water.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Oh, that was just thrown in to give additional effect
+to the tea!</p>
+
+<p><i>Reader.</i> It won&rsquo;t do, sir&mdash;it won&rsquo;t do! The deception
+was too transparent throughout.</p>
+
+<p>Well, then, since you saw through it from the beginning,
+there is no harm done, and you can readily afford
+to make an apology for impugning my voracity.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady Reader.</i> But who was the heroine? What became
+of her?</p>
+
+<p>Ah! my dear madam, there you have me! I suspect
+she was a French countess, or more likely an actress engaged
+in the line of tragedy. Her style, at all events,
+was tragical.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady Reader</i> (elevating her lovely eyebrows superciliously).
+She was rather demonstrative, it must be admitted.
+You brought her in apparently to fulfill your promise,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+but sent her off the stage very suddenly. You
+should, at least, have restored her to her friends, and
+not left her in that den of robbers.</p>
+
+<p>That, dear madam, was my natural inclination; but
+the fact is, d&rsquo;ye see, I was drugged&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Lady Reader</i> (sarcastically). It won&rsquo;t do, Mr. Butterfield&mdash;your
+heroine was a failure! In future you had
+better confine yourself to facts&mdash;or fresh water.</p>
+
+<p>Madam, I&rsquo;d confine myself to the Rock of Gibraltar
+or an iceberg to oblige you; therefore, with your permission,
+I shall proceed to give you, in my next, a reliable
+description of the Kremlin.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE KREMLIN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Not the least of the evils resulting from this harum-scarum
+way of traveling and writing is the fact that
+one&rsquo;s impressions become sadly tumbled together and
+very soon lose their most salient failures. To be whirled
+about the world by land and sea, as I have been for
+the last year, is enough to turn one&rsquo;s brain into a curiosity
+shop. When I undertake to pick out of the pile of
+rubbish some picture that must have been originally
+worth a great deal of money, I find it so disfigured by
+the sheer force of friction that it looks no better than an
+old daub. The pity of it is, too, that the very best of
+my gatherings are apt to get lost or ruined; and sometimes
+it happens that when I varnish up what appears to
+be valuable it turns out not a groat. Want of method
+would ruin a Zingalee gipsy or a Bedouin Arab. No
+doubt you have already discovered to your sorrow that
+when we start on a visit to the Kremlin, it is no sure indication
+that we will not spend the day in the Riadi or
+the old-clothes market. If either you or I ever reach
+our destination, it will be by the sheerest accident. And
+yet one might as well undertake to see Rome without
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+the Capitoline Hill, or Athena without the Acropolis, as
+Moscow without the Kremlin. We have had several
+glimpses of it, to be sure, in the course of our rambles,
+but you must admit that they were very vague and indefinite&mdash;especially
+the last, when, if you remember, we
+were laboring under some strange mental hallucination.</p>
+
+<p>The Kremlin has been fully described by many learned
+and accomplished travelers. Coxe, Atkinson, Kohl, and
+various others, have given elaborate accounts of it; yet
+why despair of presenting, in a homely way, some general
+idea of it, such as one might gather in the course of
+an afternoon&rsquo;s ramble? After reading all we find about
+it in books of travel, our conceptions are still vague and
+unsatisfactory. Probably the reason is, that minute details
+of history and architecture afford one but a very
+faint and inadequate idea of the appearance of any place.
+Like the pictures of old Dennen, they may give you every
+wrinkle with the accuracy of a daguerreotype, but
+they fail in the general effect, or resemble the corpse of
+the subject rather than the living reality. I must confess
+that all I had read on Russia previous to my visit
+afforded me a much less vivid idea of the actual appearance
+of the country, the people, or the principal cities,
+than the rough crayon sketches of Timm and Mitreuter,
+which I had seen in the shop windows of Paris. This
+may not be the fault of the writers, who, of course, are
+not bound to furnish their own eyes or their own understanding
+to other people, but it seems to me that elaborate
+detail is inimical to strong general impressions. I would
+not give two hours&rsquo; personal observation of any place
+or city in the world for a hundred volumes of the best
+books of travel ever written upon it; and next to that
+comes the conversation of a friend who possesses, even
+in an ordinary degree, the faculty of conveying to another
+his own impressions. A word, a hint, a gesture,
+or some grotesque comparison, may give you a more
+vivid picture of the reality than you can obtain by a
+year&rsquo;s study. Now, if you will just consider me that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+friend, and resign yourself in a genial and confiding spirit
+to the trouble of listening; if you will fancy that I
+mean a great deal more than I say, and could be very
+learned and eloquent if I chose; if you will take it for
+granted that what you don&rsquo;t see is there nevertheless,
+the Kremlin will sooner or later loom out of the fogs of
+romance and mystery that surround it, and stand before
+you, with its embattled walls and towers, as it stood before
+me in the blaze of the noonday sun, when Dominico,
+the melancholy guide, led the way to the Holy Gate.
+You will then discover that the reality is quite wonderful
+enough in its natural aspect, without the colored spectacles
+of fancy or the rigid asperities of photographic
+detail to give it effect.</p>
+
+<p>Like many of the old cities of Europe, Moscow probably
+had its origin in the nucleus of a citadel built upon
+the highest point, and commanding an extensive sweep
+of the neighborhood. Around this houses gathered by
+degrees for protection against the invasions of the hostile
+tribes that roamed through Russia at an early period
+of its history. The first object of the Kremlin was
+doubtless to form a military strong-hold. It was originally
+constructed of wood, with ramparts thrown up
+around it for purposes of defense, but, in common with
+the rest of Moscow, was destroyed by the Tartars in the
+fourteenth century. Under the reign of Dimitri it was
+rebuilt of stone, and strongly fortified with walls and
+ditches, since which period it has sustained, without any
+great injury, the assaults of war, the ravages of fire, and
+the wear and tear of time. Kief and Vladimir, prior to
+that reign, had each served in turn as the capital of the
+empire. After the removal of the capital to Moscow,
+that city was besieged and ravaged by Tamerlane, and
+suffered from time to time during every succeeding century
+all the horrors of war, fire, pestilence, and famine,
+till 1812, when it was laid in ashes by the Russians
+themselves, who by this great national sacrifice secured
+the destruction of the French army under Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+During the almost perpetual wars by which Moscow
+was assailed for a period of four centuries, the Kremlin
+seems to have borne almost a charmed existence. With
+the exception of the Grand Palace, the Bolshoi Drovetz,
+built by the Emperor Alexander I., and the Maloi
+Drovetz, or Little Palace, built by the Emperor Nicholas,
+and the Arsenal, it has undergone but little change
+since the time of the early Czars. In 1812, when the
+French, after despoiling it of whatever they could lay
+their hands upon, attempted, in the rage of disappointment,
+to blow up the walls, the powder, as the Russians
+confidently assert, was possessed by the devil of water,
+and refused to explode; and when they planted a heavily-loaded
+cannon before the Holy Gate, and built a fire
+on top of the touch-hole to make it go off, it went off at
+the breech, and blew a number of Frenchmen into the
+infernal regions, after which the remainder of them
+thought it best to let it alone.</p>
+
+<p>The Kremlin, as it now stands, is a large collection of
+palaces, public buildings, and churches, situated on the
+crown of a high bank or eminence on the left side of the
+Moskwa River, nearly in the centre of the city. It is
+surrounded by a high embattled wall, forming something
+of a triangle, about a mile in circumference, through
+which are several massive gateways. This wall is very
+strongly constructed of stone, and is about twenty-five
+or thirty feet in height. It forms many irregular sub-angles,
+and is diversified in effect by numerous towers,
+with green pyramidal roofs; abutments and buttresses;
+and a series of guard-houses at intervals along the top.
+The general color is white, making rather a striking contrast
+with the green-roofed towers, and the gilded domes
+and many-colored cupolas of the interior churches. Outside
+of this wall, on the upper side of the main angle, are
+some very pleasant gardens, handsomely laid out, with
+fine shady walks, in which many of the citizens spend
+their summer evenings, strolling about, enjoying the
+fresh air. Other parts of the exterior spaces are devoted
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+to drosky stands, markets, and large vacant spaces
+for public gatherings on festa days and great occasions
+of military display. From every point streets diverge
+irregularly, winding outward till they intersect the inner
+and outer boulevards. These boulevards are large circular
+thoroughfares, crossing the Moskwa River above
+and below. They are well planted with trees, and have
+spacious sidewalks on each side; but, unlike the boulevards
+of Paris, are only dotted at irregular intervals
+with houses. To the eastward lies the Katai Gorod, or
+Chinese City, and to the westward the Beloi Gorod, or
+White City.</p>
+
+<p>Isolated in a great measure from the various quarters
+of the city, Russian and Tartaric, by the gardens, the
+large open spaces, the markets, and the river, the Kremlin
+looms up high over all in solitary grandeur&mdash;a mass
+of churches, palaces, and fortifications, surmounted by
+the tower of Ivan Veliki, which stands out in bold octagonal
+relief against the one with its numerous bells
+swung in the openings of the different stages, thundering
+forth the hours of the day, or tolling a grand chorus
+to the chanting of innumerable priests in the churches
+below. Approaching the Spass Vorota, or Gate of the
+Redeemer, through which none can enter save with uncovered
+heads&mdash;such is the veneration in which this
+Holy Gate is held by all classes&mdash;we witness a strange
+and impressive spectacle. Over this wonderful gate, incased
+in a frame covered with glass, stands the holiest
+of all the pictured relics of this sacred place, a painted
+figure of the Savior, emblazoned with gilding, and with
+a lamp swung in front, which burns night and day, as it
+has burnt since the days of Ivan the Terrible. Before
+this sacred image all true believers bow down and worship.
+While the great bells of the tower are booming
+out their grand and solemn strains, it is a profoundly
+impressive spectacle to witness the crowds that gather
+before this holy shrine, and bend themselves to the earth&mdash;the
+rich and the poor, the decorated noble and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+ragged beggar&mdash;all alike glowing with an all-pervading
+zeal; no pretense about it, but an intense, eager, almost
+frantic devotion. Many a poor cripple casts his crutches
+aside, and prostrates himself on the paved stoneway, in
+the abandonment of his pious enthusiasm. Men and
+women, old and young, kneel on the open highway, and
+implore the intercession of the Redeemer. From the
+highest officer of state to the lowest criminal, it is all the
+same. The whole crowd are bowing down in abject humiliation,
+all muttering in earnest tones some prayer or
+appeal for their future salvation. And now, as we enter
+the gate, the stranger, whatever may be his persuasion
+or condition, whether a true believer or a heretic of high
+or low degree, must join in the general torrent of veneration
+so far as to uncover his head as he walks beneath
+that sacred portal; for, as I said before, none can pass
+through the Spass Vorota without this token of respect
+for its sacred character. The greatest of the Czars have
+done it through a series of centuries. The conqueror of
+Kazan, Astrakan, and Siberia has here bared his imperial
+head; Romanoff, Peter the Great, even the voluptuous
+Catharine, have here done reverence to this holy portal;
+and all the later sovereigns of Russia, Alexander I., Nicholas,
+and Alexander II., ere they received their kingly
+crowns, have passed bareheaded through the Spass Vorota.
+Need we hesitate, then, profane scoffers as we
+may be, when such precedents lie before us? Apart
+from the fact that I always found it convenient to do
+in Rome as the Romans do, and in Moscow to conform
+as far as practicable to the customs of the Moscovites, I
+really have no prejudice on any subject connected with
+the religious observances of other people. In pleasant
+weather I would walk a mile bareheaded to oblige any
+man who conscientiously thought it would do him the
+least good; more especially in a case like this, where, if
+one fails to doff his shlapa, a soldier stands ready to remind
+his &ldquo;brother&rdquo; or &ldquo;little friend,&rdquo; or possibly &ldquo;little
+father,&rdquo; that he (the brother, little friend, or little father)
+has forgotten his &ldquo;beaver.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+We have now, thanks to Dominico, who has touched
+us up on all these points, gotten safely and becomingly
+through the Holy Gate without committing the sin of
+irreverence toward any of the saints, living or dead.
+We have passed through a high archway, about twenty
+paces in length, roughly paved with stones, and now
+put on our hat again as we ascend the sloping way that
+leads to the grand esplanade in front of the palaces and
+churches. This is a broad paved space, walled on the
+outer edge, forming a grand promenade overlooking the
+Moskwa River, and from which a magnificent view is
+had of the lower city, that sweeps over the valley of the
+south. Standing here, we have a grand <i>coup d&rsquo;&oelig;il</i> of
+the river above and below, its bridges covered with
+moving crowds, its barges and wood-boats, and many-colored
+bath-houses, glittering in the sun; farther off, a
+dazzling wilderness of the innumerable churches of the
+lower city, with their green, yellow, red, and gilded cupolas
+and domes; still beyond, the trees and shrubberies
+of the outer boulevards; to the left, the great Foundling
+Asylum, fronting on the river, with its vast gardens in
+the rear; to the right, the Military Hospital, the Barracks,
+and, far in the distance, over the gleaming waters
+of the river, the Sparrow Hills, from which Napoleon
+caught the first glimpse of Moscow; and then the grand
+Convent of the Douskoi, within the outer wall, near the
+Kalonga Road; from which, sweeping over toward the
+right, once more we catch a glimpse of the wooded
+shade of the Race-course, the Hospital of St. Paul, and
+the Convent of St. Daniel; and to the left, beyond the
+outer wall, of various grand convents and fortifications,
+till the eye is no longer able to encompass all the wondrous
+and varied features of the scene. Turning now
+toward the north, after we have feasted upon this brilliant
+and glittering series of views, each one of which
+we might linger over for hours with increased delight,
+we stand facing the principal palaces and churches of
+the Kremlin&mdash;the Terema, containing the audience
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+chambers, and the Granovitaya Palata, the coronation
+halls of the Czars; the new palaces; the Cathedral of
+the Assumption; the tower of Ivan Veliki; the Treasury
+and Arsenal; with innumerable glimpses of other
+and scarcely less prominent buildings, which unite in
+forming this wonderful maze of sacred and royal edifices.
+It would be very difficult, if at all practicable, to convey
+by mere verbal description a correct and comprehensive
+idea of the strange mingling of architectural styles here
+prevailing. The churches present, no doubt, the most
+picturesque effects, but this is not owing to any grandeur
+in their proportions. None of them are either very
+large or very high; but they are singularly varied in
+form, as if thrown together in bunches, without regard
+to order; some with Gothic gables, some round, some
+acutely angular, and all very rudely and roughly constructed,
+even the perpendicular lines being irregular.
+The walls are whitewashed, and in many places stained
+with age. The roofs are for the most part of earthen
+tiles, imburnt with strong prismatic colors, and shining
+like the inner surfaces of abalone shells. The domes
+are white, green, red, and yellow, and each church has a
+number of gilded or striped cupolas, rising irregularly
+from the roofs, shaped like bunches of globular cactus,
+such as one sees on the hill-sides of San Diego. If the
+comparison were not a little disparaging to their picturesque
+beauty, I should say that some of the cupolas&mdash;especially
+those of a golden cast&mdash;reminded me of mammoth
+pumpkins perched on the top of a Mexican Mission-house,
+for even the buildings themselves have something
+of a rude Mexican aspect about them. The new
+palace of the Bolshoi Dvoretz, built by the Emperor Alexander
+over a portion of the site of the old Tartar palace,
+is a large, square, uninteresting building, with nothing
+beyond its vast extent and grand fa&ccedil;ade to recommend
+it. The Terema and the Granovitaya Palata&mdash;both
+remains of the old Tartar palace&mdash;are highly ornamented
+with trellised work, and are interesting as well
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+from their style of architecture as their contents. It
+was from the terraced roof of the Terema that Napoleon
+took his first grand view of the city of Moscow, after
+entering the gates of the Kremlin. The one contains a
+fine collection of curiosities, including various portraits
+of the Czars; the other the royal chamber, magnificently
+decorated with embroidered velvet hangings, candelabras,
+frescoes, gildings, and carved eagles bearing thunderbolts,
+and the great chair of state, in which the emperors
+sit enthroned to receive the homage of their vassals
+after the imposing ceremony of the coronation. But
+it would be an endless task to undertake an account of
+even a day&rsquo;s ramble through the interior of these vast
+palaces and public buildings. I paid five rubles for tickets
+and fees to porters, and, with the aid of Dominico&rsquo;s
+enlightened conversation, came out after my grand tour
+of exploration perfectly bewildered with jeweled crowns,
+imperial thrones, gilded bedsteads, slippery floors, liveried
+servants, stuffed horses, old guns, swords, and pistols,
+glassware and brassware, emeralds and other precious
+stones, and altogether disgusted with the childish gimcrackery
+of royalty. Great Alexander, I thought to myself,
+who would be a Czar of Russia, and have to make
+his living at the expense of all this sort of tom-foolery?
+Who would abide even for a day in a bazar of curiosity-shops,
+bothered out of his wits by servants and soldiers,
+and the flare and glitter of jewelry? It certainly all
+looked very shallow and troublesome to a plain man,
+destitute by nature of kingly aspirations. To confess
+the truth, I was utterly unable to appreciate any thing
+but the absurdity of these things. I can not discover
+much difference, save in degree, between barbaric show
+on the part of savages and on that of civilized people.
+For what, after all, do these coronation halls and gewgaws
+amount to? Who is truly king upon earth, when
+there is &ldquo;an everlasting King at whose breath the earth
+shall tremble?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Strange, indeed, and not calculated to exalt one&rsquo;s
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+impression of royalty, is the fact that, after purchasing a
+ticket to see all these relics of the great Czars of Russia,
+a horde of officers, servants, and lackeys, in imperial livery,
+must be feed at every turn. It is a perfect system
+of plunder from beginning to end. At the door of the
+new palace I was stopped by some functionary in white
+stockings, polished slippers, plush breeches and plush
+coat, actually blazing with golden embroidery; his head
+brushed and oiled to the intensest limits of foppery, and
+his hands adorned with white kid gloves, who refused
+to permit me to enter until he had arranged some infernal
+compact of pay with my guide, Dominico. After
+showing me through the grand chambers, pointing out
+the beds, bed-quilts, writing-desks, chairs, and wash-basins
+of the Czars, he finished up his half hour&rsquo;s labor by
+making a profound bow and holding out his hand, beggar
+fashion, for his fee. I gave him half a ruble (about
+87&frac12; cents), at which his countenance assumed an expression
+of extreme pity and contempt. Dominico had informed
+him that I was a stranger from California, which
+had the effect of eliciting from him various passages of
+exceeding politeness up to that moment. But he now
+came out in his true colors, and demanded haughtily,
+&ldquo;Was this the pitiful sum what the gentleman intended as a
+recompense for his services?&rdquo; Dominico shrugged his
+shoulders. The liveried gentleman became excited and
+insolent&mdash;assuring me, through the guide, that no stranger
+of any pretensions to gentility ever offered him less
+than a ruble. I must confess I was a little nettled at
+the fellow&rsquo;s manner, and directed Dominico to tell him
+that, having no pretensions to gentility, I must close my
+acquaintance with him, and therefore bid him good-morning.
+There never was an instance in which I disappointed
+any beggar with so much good will. I have no doubt,
+if he has read any thing of California, he labors under
+the impression that I am an escaped convict from San
+Quentin.</p>
+
+<p>O most potent Alexander, Czar of all the Russias, is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+this the only way you have of paying your servants?
+Do you thus make a raree-show of the palace of your
+forefathers, and require every man who enters it for the
+purpose of enlightening his benighted understanding to
+pay your imperial lackeys the sum of three bits? Is it
+not enough that your soldiers and retainers should hawk
+old clothes through the markets of the Riadi for a decent
+living, without making a small speculation out of
+the beds and wash-stands in which your noble fathers
+slept and (possibly) washed their faces?</p>
+
+<p>One of the most remarkable objects of interest within
+the walls of the Kremlin is the Tzar Kolokol, or King of
+Bells, cast in 1730 by order of the Empress Anne, and
+said to be not only the largest bell, but the largest metal
+casting in existence. This wonderful bell is formed
+chiefly of contributions of precious metals, bestowed as
+religious offerings by the people from all parts of the
+Russian empire. Spoons, plates, coins, and trinkets were
+thrown by the devout inhabitants into the melting mass,
+and thus, each having a share in it, the monarch bell is
+regarded with feelings of peculiar affection and veneration
+throughout Russia. Writers differ as to its original
+use and location, some contending that it was first
+hung in a tower, which was destroyed by fire in 1737,
+and that the large fragment was broken out of it in the
+fall, which is now exhibited by the side of the bell; others
+that it never was hung at all, but that this fragment
+resulted from a failure in the casting. Be that as it may,
+it was all dug out of the ground in 1837, and placed in
+its present position on a pedestal of granite, close by the
+tower of Ivan Veliki.</p>
+
+<p>Standing in an open space, where the eye necessarily
+takes in many larger objects, including the great tower,
+but a very inadequate idea can be formed of the extraordinary
+dimensions of this bell. Cast in the usual form,
+its appearance at the distance of fifty or a hundred yards
+is not at all striking; but when you draw near and compare
+the height of the groups of figures usually gathered
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+around it with that of the bell, it is easy to form some
+conception of its gigantic proportions. The fragment
+placed upright against the granite pedestal looks at a
+little distance scarcely three feet high, but as you approach
+you perceive that it is at least six. The bell itself
+is twenty-one feet three inches high, by twenty-two
+feet five inches in diameter, and varies from three feet
+to three inches in thickness. Underneath this immense
+metallic canopy is a chapel, in which is a shrine at which
+many thousands of the Russians every year offer up
+their devotions. The entrance to this is through an iron
+gateway, and the visitor descends several stone steps
+before he stands upon the paved floor of the chapel.
+Looking upward and around him, he then for the first
+time realizes the vast magnitude of this wonderful casting.
+It is almost impossible to conceive that such a
+prodigious body of metal was ever at one time a molten
+mass, seething over vast furnaces. Imagine a circular
+room more than twenty feet in diameter, and of proportionate
+height, and you have some faint idea of the interior
+of the Tzar Kolokol. It is said that it required
+ten strong men to draw the clapper from the centre to
+the inner rim, by means of ropes, so as to produce the
+ordinary sounds of which the bell was capable. This I
+can very well credit; for the great bell of the Ivan
+Tower, not a third of the size of this, has an iron tongue
+which requires the strength of three men to strike
+against the rim. The tremendous depth and volume of
+the tones sent forth for many leagues around by the
+monarch bell must have been sublime beyond conception,
+judging by this single fact, that while in Moscow,
+the largest bell I heard sounded was far inferior in size
+and weight to that of the Ivan Tower, which is rung
+only on state occasions, yet the sounds were so deep
+and powerful that they produced a reverberation in the
+air resembling the distant roar of thunder, mingled with
+the wailing of the winds in a storm. When all the bells
+of the tower, save the largest, were tolled together, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+effect was absolutely sublime, surpassing in the grandeur
+and majesty of their harmony any thing I had ever heard
+produced through human agency. Judge, then, what
+must have been the effect when the Tzar Kolokol rolled
+forth a jubilee or a death-knell from his iron tongue!</p>
+
+<p>I do not wonder that the Russians regard this bell
+with such peculiar feelings of reverence. There is something
+to arouse the most profound and reverential emotions
+of our nature in the simple, grand, and mysterious
+melody of all great bells&mdash;something of the infinite that
+exalts our thoughts and aspirations from the earth. In
+my recollections of travel I have few purer or more endearing
+pleasures than the impressions produced by
+sounds like these. Often the grand old strains of the
+bells of Lima, Mexico, and Spain seem still to linger on
+my ear, and I never dream the wild and varied dream
+of my travels over without feeling that these mysterious
+voices from many lands have not spoken without a
+meaning, that &ldquo;Life, with all its dreams, shall be but as
+the passing bell.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>From the Tzar Kolokol I took my way, under the
+guidance of Dominico, to the tower of Ivan Veliki, which
+we ascended by the winding stairway of stone. The
+view from the top of this tower is incomparably the
+finest to be had from any point within the limits of Moscow.
+Here, outspread before us in one vast circle, lay
+the whole wondrous city of the Tzars&mdash;a perfect sea of
+green roofs, dotted over with innumerable spires and
+cupolas. The predominant features are Asiatic, though
+in the quarter to the west, called the Beloi Gorod, or
+White City, are the evidences of a more advanced civilization.
+Apart from the churches, which give the city
+its chief interest and most picturesque effect, the public
+buildings, such as the theatres, hospitals, military barracks,
+colleges, and riding-school possess no great attractions
+in point of architectural display, and add but little
+to the scenic beauties of the view. In gazing over this
+bewildering maze of habitations and temples of worship,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+I was again strongly impressed with some two or three
+leading characteristics, which, being directly opposed to
+the idea I had formed of Moscow before seeing it, may
+be worthy of repetition. The general colors of the
+buildings, roofs, and churches are light, gay, and sparkling,
+so that the whole, taken in one sweep of the eye,
+presents an exceedingly brilliant appearance, more like
+some well-contrived and highly-wrought optical illusions
+in a theatre&mdash;such, for example, as the fairy scenery of
+the &ldquo;Prophete&rdquo;&mdash;than any thing I can now remember.
+The vast extent of the city, compared with its population
+(the circuit of its outer wall being twenty miles,
+while the population is but little over 300,000), is another
+characteristic feature; but this is in some measure accounted
+for by the great average of small houses, the
+amount of ground occupied by the Kremlin, the inner
+and outer boulevards, and the suburbs within the outer
+wall, the number of gardens and vacant lots, and the
+large spaces occupied by the ploschads or public squares.</p>
+
+<p>Looking beyond the city and its immediate suburbs,
+a series of undulating plains lies outstretched toward
+the eastward and southward, while toward the northward
+and westward the horizon is bounded by low pine-covered
+hills and occasional forests of birch. No high
+mountains or abrupt outlines are any where visible&mdash;all
+is broad and sweeping, conveying some premonition of
+the vastness of the steppes that divide this region from
+the Ural Mountains. Waving fields of grain, pastures
+of almost boundless extent, and solitary farm-houses lie
+dim in the distance, while in the immediate vicinity of
+the city cultivation has been carried to considerable perfection,
+and the villas and estates of the nobility present
+something more of the appearance of civilization than
+perhaps any thing of a similar kind to be seen in Russia.
+Contrasted with the country around St. Petersburg, and
+the desert of scrubby pines and marshes lying for a distance
+of nearly five hundred miles along the line of the
+railway between the two great cities, the neighborhood
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+of Moscow is wonderfully rich in rural and pastoral
+beauties. Viewing it in connection with the city from
+the tower of Ivan Veliki, I certainly derived the most
+exquisite sensations of pleasure from the novelty, extent,
+and variety of the whole scene. Yet, calmly and peacefully
+as it now slumbers in the genial sunshine of a summer&rsquo;s
+afternoon, what visions it conjures up of bloodshed
+and rapine, plague, pestilence, and famine, and of
+all the calamities wrought by human hands, and all the
+appalling visitations of a divine power by which this ill-fated
+spot has been afflicted. Looking back through
+the wide waste of years, the mighty hosts of Tamerlane
+uprise before us, pouring through the passes of the Ural,
+and sweeping over the plains with their glittering and
+bloodstained crests like demons of destruction carrying
+death and desolation before them. Then the giant
+Czars, half saints, half devils, loom through the flames
+of the ill-fated city, with their myriads of fierce and defiant
+warriors stemming the torrent of invasion with the
+bodies of the dying and the dead. Then are the streets
+choked with blackened ruins and putrid masses, and the
+days of sorrow and wailing come, when the living are
+unable to bury the dead. Again, a great famine has
+come upon the city after the days of its early tribulations
+have passed away, and strong men, driven to desperation
+by the pangs of hunger, slay their wives and
+children, and feed upon the dead bodies, and mothers
+devour the sucking babes in their arms; and horror
+grows upon horror, till, amid the slaughter, ruin, and
+madness wrought by this unparalleled calamity, a hundred
+thousand corpses lie rotting in the streets in a single
+day, and the city is decimated of its inhabitants!
+The scene changes again. Centuries roll on; a dreary
+day has come, when the foreign invader once more holds
+possession of the citadel. With the prize in his hands,
+fires burst from every roof in every quarter. Three
+hundred thousand of the inhabitants have fled; a wind
+arises and fans the devouring flame; churches and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+houses, temples and palaces, are wrapped in its relentless
+embraces; the convicts and the rabble run like demons
+through the streets, drunk with wine and reveling
+in excesses; soldiers, slaves, and prostitutes pillage the
+burning ruins, all wild and mad with the unholy lust of
+gain. Soon nothing is left but blackened and smoking
+masses, the ruins of palaces, temples, and hospitals, and
+the seared and mutilated corpses of the dead who have
+been crushed by the falling walls or burnt in the flames.
+Then the invading hosts, stricken with dismay, fly from
+this fated and ill-starred city to darken the snows of
+Lithuania with their bodies; and of five hundred thousand
+men&mdash;the flower of French chivalry&mdash;but forty
+thousand cross the Beresina to tell the tale! Surely
+Moscow, like Jerusalem, hath &ldquo;wept sore in the night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>While lounging about through the gilded and glittering
+mazes of the Uspenski Saber, almost wearied by the
+perpetual glare of burnished shrines, my attention was
+attracted by a curious yet characteristic ceremony within
+these sacred precincts. In a gold-cased frame, placed
+in a horizontal position in one of the alcoves or small
+chapels, was a picture of a saint whose cheeks and robes
+were resplendent with gaudy colors. This must have
+been St. Nicholas or some other popular personage belonging
+to the holy phalanx. His mouth was very nearly
+obliterated by the labial caresses of the worshipers
+who came there to bestow upon him their devotions. A
+stone step, raised about a foot from the flagged pavement,
+was nearly worn through by the knees of the penitents,
+who were forever dropping down to snatch a kiss
+from his sacred lips&mdash;or at least what was left of them,
+for his mouth was now little more than a dirty blotch,
+without the semblance of its original outline. While
+pondering over the marvelous ways in which men strive
+to cast off the burden of their sins, I observed a very
+graceful and elegantly-dressed female approach, and with
+an air of profound humility kneel in the accustomed place.
+As she drew back her veil she displayed a remarkably
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+pretty face, and there was something quite enchanting
+in the coquetry with which she ignored the presence of
+a stranger. Of course she could have had no idea that
+any person of the opposite sex would dare to think of
+female loveliness in such a place, and the charming unconsciousness
+of her manner, as she adjusted the folds of
+her dress, and revealed the exquisitely rounded contour
+of her form, was the very best proof of that fact. A perfect
+withdrawal of self from the world and all its vanities
+was her ruling expression. Thrice did this lovely creature
+gracefully incline her head and kiss the blotched
+countenance of that inanimate saint. Ah me! what a
+luxury it must be to be a saint! What a lucky fellow
+is St. Nicholas, to be kissed by such honeyed and pouting
+lips as these! Chaste and pious kisses they may be, but,
+notwithstanding that, it must be very hard to keep cool,
+under the circumstances. Who would not suffer a life
+of martyrdom, and be turned into a picture or an image
+on such terms? Surely this bewitching damsel must
+have committed some dreadful sin to be thus soliciting
+the saintly intercession of a little picture with a dirty
+mouth! Perhaps she had recently suffered her own delectable
+lips to be pressed by the bearded mouth-piece
+of some tender and persuasive lover, and now sought to
+make atonement by kissing St. Nicholas! By all the
+powers of beauty, I&rsquo;ll forswear sack, Dominico, and try&mdash;ha!
+here comes a devotee of another sort. Let us
+wait a while. For, as I live, it is a great puncheon of a
+woman, weighing over three hundred pounds&mdash;puffing
+and steaming as she waddles toward the shrine&mdash;a perfect
+Falstaff in petticoats. Shade of Venus! what a face
+and figure! Carbuncled with wine, and bloated with
+quass and cabbage soup, I&rsquo;ll bet my head, Dominico,
+she&rsquo;s a countess! How the juices of high living roll from
+her brow as she stoops down, and gives the unfortunate
+St. Nicholas a greasy dish-cloth of her fat lips! Faugh!
+I&rsquo;ll consider about my course of life, Dominico. There
+are some inconveniences in being a saint. Next comes
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+an old and toothless crone, all draggled with dirt, limping
+on crutches&mdash;a most pitiful object to look upon.
+She hobbles slowly and painfully up to the place just
+vacated&mdash;puts her crutches aside, kneels down, and,
+bowing low her palsied head, presses a dry, shriveled,
+and leathery kiss upon the grease-spot left by the fat
+woman. Thrice she performed this ceremony, mumbling
+over in her guttural way the prescribed formula; and
+then rising, regained her crutches, and begged for alms.
+Well, of course I gave the alms; but the other part of
+the performance suggested some painful thoughts. It
+was surely enough to moderate the ardor of one&rsquo;s aspirations
+toward a saintly life. Yet, after all, Dominico,
+every sweet must have its bitter. Let us not despair
+yet. Next comes a great bearded Mujik, all tattered and
+torn&mdash;a regular grizzly bear on his hind legs, and drunk
+at that. This horrid monster has evidently not known
+the use of either soap or water for many a long day.
+His accustomed beverage must be vodka, and grease the
+only application ever used to purify his skin. He, too,
+kneels down and gives the image three cordial smacks&mdash;a
+pretty heavy penalty to endure on the part of any
+saint. Upon my word, Dominico, I don&rsquo;t think it would
+be possible for me to stand that! But hold&mdash;here
+comes a fellow who caps the climax. A bilious, yellow-skinned,
+black-eyed fop, dressed in the height of fashion,
+with frizzled black hair, divided behind, and smelling
+strong of pomatum, a well-oiled mustache, and a simpering,
+supercilious expression&mdash;one of those nasty creatures
+that old Kit North says never can be washed clean.
+He looks conceited and silly enough to be an attache to
+the court of his imperial highness the emperor. When
+this fellow knelt before the picture and slavered it with
+his ugly mouth, a dizzy sensation of disgust came over
+me. Upon a general review of all the circumstances,
+Dominico, I have concluded that it might not be so pleasant,
+after all, to be a saint&mdash;in Russia.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be supposed from this little sketch of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+characteristic scene that I wish to ridicule any form of
+religion. I saw precisely what I state, and am in no way
+responsible for it. If people imagine this sort of thing
+does them any good, they are quite welcome to enjoy it;
+but they must not expect every body else to be impressed
+with the profound sensations of solemnity which they
+feel themselves. The Russians may kiss the heads off
+every saint in Moscow without the slightest concern or
+opposition on my part. The Romans have kissed a
+pound of brass off the big toe of St. Peter, in the grand
+Cathedral at Rome, and I see no reason why other races
+should not enjoy similar privileges, only it does not produce
+the same effect upon every body.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, in some sense, such scenes are not without an aspect
+of sadness. It is melancholy to look upon such a
+mingling of glitter and barbarism, wealth and poverty,
+sincerity, debasement, and crime. No human being is
+truly ridiculous, however grotesque may be the expression
+of his feelings, when they are the genuine outpouring
+of a contrite heart. These nobles, common citizens,
+and beggars, thus meeting upon common ground, in a
+country where the distinctions of rank are so rigidly
+observed, and for the time being disregarding all differences
+of condition; forgetting their ambitions, their jealousies,
+and animosities, and giving themselves up with
+such unselfish zeal to all the demands made upon them
+by their forms of religion, is, in itself, a touching and impressive
+sight. I confess that when the first shock of
+grotesqueness, so strikingly connected with all I saw,
+passed away, the feeling left was one of unutterable sadness.
+These people were all fellow-beings, and, right
+or wrong, they were profoundly in earnest; yet, while
+thinking thus, I could not but fancy the same divine
+strain of warning that was wafted to the house of Israel
+still lingered in the air: &ldquo;Every man is brutish in his
+knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven
+image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is
+no breath in them; they are vanity and the work of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+errors; in the time of their visitation they shall perish.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In reference to the interiors of the churches of the
+Kremlin, I can only find space to say, after having visited
+them all, that they present a confusion of gilded and
+glittering aisles, pillars, alcoves, chapels, and painted
+domes, which baffles any thing like accurate description.
+The Cathedral of the Assumption is literally lined with
+gilding, daubs of paintings representing scriptural scenes,
+figures and pictures of saints, dragons and devils of every
+conceivable color and oddity of design and costume,
+and burnished shrines and candelabras. Through the
+dazzling mazes of this sacred edifice crowds of devotees,
+priests, and penitents are continually wandering; here,
+casting themselves upon their knees, and bowing down
+before some gold-covered shrine; there standing in mute
+and rapt adoration before some pictured symbol of eternity&mdash;grandees,
+beggars, and all; the priests bearing tapers
+and chanting; the air filled with incense; the whole
+scene an indescribable combination of moving appeals to
+the senses. All the churches of the Kremlin partake,
+more or less, of this character. In some of them, the old
+bones and other relics held peculiarly sacred are inclosed
+within iron gratings or railings, and are only accessible
+to the visitor through the services of a priestly guide.
+Every visitor must, of course, pay for the gratification
+of his curiosity; so that the bones of the most venerated
+characters in the history of the Russian Church are turned
+into a considerable source of profit. It may well be
+said that every saint pays his own way, so long as there
+is a fragment of him left in this world. If one could be
+assured of the truth of all he learns during a tour of inspection
+through these receptacles of sacred relics, it
+would indeed confound all his previous impressions that
+the days of miracles had passed. There is a picture in
+the Uspenski Saber, the bare contemplation of which,
+combined with a fervent appeal, it is confidently asserted,
+recently effected a sudden and wonderful cure in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+case of a crippled man, who was carried there from his
+bed, but after his devotions before this picture walked
+out of the door as well as ever; and every where about
+these sacred precincts pictures and carved images are
+abundant which at stated intervals shed tears and manifest
+other tokens of vitality.</p>
+
+<p>Outside, on the steps of those churches, the stranger
+encounters innumerable gangs of beggars, who watch
+his incoming and his outgoing with the most intense
+eagerness&mdash;rushing toward him with outstretched hands,
+calling upon all the saints to bless him and his issue forever
+and ever, and sometimes bowing down to the earth
+before him, in their accustomed way, as if he himself
+partook of some sacred attributes. Apart from the
+wretched aspect of these poor creatures, among which
+were the lame, the halt, and the blind from all the purlieus
+of Moscow, there was something very revolting in
+the debasement of their attitudes. To assist them all
+was impossible; and I often had to struggle through
+the crowds with feelings akin to remorse in being compelled
+to leave them thus vainly appealing to my charity.
+When alone, hours after, the weary and pathetic
+strain of their supplications would haunt me, bearing in
+its sorrowful intonations a weird warning that we are
+all bound together in the great fellowship of sin.</p>
+
+<p>And now, while we are taking our last lingering look
+at the Kremlin, the mighty bells of the tower toll forth
+a funeral knell. A priest lies dead in one of the churches,
+his coffin draped in the habiliments of woe. The
+chanting rises ever and anon above the death-knell
+that sweeps through the air. Standing aloof, we listen
+to the solemn sounds of mourning. The funeral cort&eacute;ge
+comes forth from the church. The hearse, with its
+plumed horses all draped in black, receives the coffin;
+priests and mourners, bearing lighted tapers, lead the
+way, chanting a requiem for the departed; and thus
+they pass before us&mdash;the living and the dead&mdash;till they
+reach the Holy Gate. Then the priests and the crowd
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+bow down and pray; and when they have passed out
+from under the sacred arch, they turn before the image
+of the Savior and pray again; then rising, they cross
+themselves devoutly and pass on to the last earthly resting-place
+of their friend and brother.</p>
+
+<p>Surely death draws us nearer together in life. I
+thought no more of forms. What matters it if we are
+all true to our Creator and to our convictions of duty!
+Life is too short to spend in earthly contentions.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in
+the evening it is cut down and withereth.&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>RUSSIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Rude and savage as the lower orders are in their external
+appearance, they certainly can not be considered
+deficient in politeness, if the habit of bowing be taken
+as an indication. In that branch of civilization they are
+well entitled to take rank with the Germans and French,
+from whom, doubtless, they have acquired many of their
+forms of etiquette. Something, however, of Asiatic gravity
+and courtliness mingles with whatever they may
+have adopted from the more sprightly and demonstrative
+races of the South; and a certain degree of dignity, accompanied
+though it may be with rags and filth, is always
+observable in their manners. The alacrity, good
+nature, and enthusiasm so characteristic of the Germans,
+and the dexterous play of muscles and vivacious suavity
+of the French, are wholly deficient in the Russians&mdash;such
+of them, at least, as have retained their nationality.
+The higher classes, of course, who frequently spend their
+summers at the watering-places of Germany and their
+winters in Paris, come home, like all traveled gentlemen,
+with a variety of elegant accomplishments, the chief of
+which is a disgust for their own language and customs.
+This, indeed, seems to be a characteristic of several other
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+nations&mdash;an inordinate desire to become denationalized
+by imitating whatever is meretricious and absurd in
+other people; and you need not be surprised should you
+fail to recognize even your unpretending friend and correspondent
+on his return to California; for although I
+still pretend to write a little English, I no longer speak
+it except in broken accents. Having also worn out
+three good hats practicing the art of bowing on the
+boulevards of Paris and the glacis of Frankfort, I never
+pretend now to recognize any body without striking the
+top of my tile against the cap of my knee.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="a_passage_of_politeness" id="a_passage_of_politeness"></a>
+<img src="images/thor027.png" width="600" height="457"
+alt="Three beggars bow to one another" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">A PASSAGE OF POLITENESS.</p>
+
+<p>This, you see, is all in the way of excuse for the Russians,
+and arises rather from an excess of good nature
+than an excess of egotism. Constant practice in the solemnities
+of street-worship&mdash;uncovering their heads and
+bowing low before their numerous saints and shrines&mdash;may
+have some influence upon the stateliness of Russian
+politeness. It is, however, a very prominent and
+characteristic trait, and in some of its phases rather astounding
+to a stranger. A common thing in the streets
+of Moscow is to see a couple of sturdy beggars, uncouth
+as grizzly bears, meet and stop before each other with
+the utmost and most punctilious gravity. Beggar number
+one takes his greasy cap from his head slowly and
+deliberately, gives it a graceful sweep through the air,
+and, with a most courtly obeisance, exhibits the matted
+tuft, or the bald spot on the top of his head, to his
+ragged friend. Beggar number two responds in a similar
+courteous style, neither uttering a word. Each then
+gravely replaces his cap, touches the brim of it once or
+twice by way of representing a few extra bows, and
+passes on his way with an expression of profound dignity,
+utterly unconscious of the grotesque effect of all this
+ceremony to a stranger. I have seen the most vagabond-looking
+istrovoschik, or drosky-drivers, jump out
+of their drosky and perform similar courtesies toward
+each other; and where men of this craft are given to
+politeness, one may rest assured that it must be a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+national characteristic. All seem to be the slaves of ceremony,
+from the Czar down to the Mujik. Porters,
+wagoners, water-carriers, butchers, bakers, and chimney-sweeps
+are equally skilled in the noble art of bowing.
+At first, judging by the uncouth faces and the grimy costumes
+of these interesting people, such passages of politeness
+have very much the effect of burlesque. It
+seems impossible that men of such rude aspect can be in
+earnest. One soon gets used to it, however, and regards
+it as a matter of course. I could not but think how
+strange it would look to see a couple of Sacramento or
+San Francisco hack-drivers meet in some populous part
+of the town, and each one take off his hat to the other,
+and, with a graceful flourish, make a courtly salaam; or
+a pair of draymen stop their drays, get down leisurely,
+approach each other in an attitude of impressive dignity,
+take off their hats, and double themselves up before an
+admiring audience. They would certainly be suspected
+in our rude country of poking fun at each other. I can
+very well understand why butchers and chimney-sweeps
+should be polite, since they are accustomed to scraping;
+and the custom looks appropriate enough with many
+other classes, including barbers, who are generally men
+of oily manners, and tailors and printers, who are naturally
+given to forms; but with men whose business is
+intimately associated with horse-flesh, I must say it has
+something of a satirical aspect. Never in this world
+can I force myself to believe that a hack-driver is in
+earnest in any thing short of his fare. Do not understand
+me as casting any injurious reflection upon this
+valuable class of men; but it is a melancholy feature in
+humanity&mdash;of which sad experience enables me to speak
+feelingly&mdash;that integrity and horse-flesh are antagonistical,
+and can never go together. For the hack-driver
+personally I have great respect. He is a man of the
+world&mdash;knows a thing or two about every body and
+every thing; is constitutionally addicted to cheating,
+and elevates that noble propensity into one of the fine
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+arts; maintains his independent character, and pockets
+his extraordinary profits in the face of all municipal restrictions;
+scoffs at the reign of the law, and drinks his
+regular bitters. I consider him a persecuted and an injured
+man; but of such elastic stuff is he made that he
+rises above all persecutions and all injuries, and still is,
+and ever will be, master of that portion of the human
+race which travels and abounds in cities. He is given
+to humor, too, is the hackman. Nobody better understands
+how to give a joke, or to resent one. An adept
+in ridicule, he always enjoys it when not applied to himself.
+If he is deficient in any one quality, perhaps it is
+piety. Hack-drivers, as a class, are not pious men; they
+may be very good men in their way, but, strictly speaking,
+they are not pious. Neither are they much given
+to mutual courtesies, especially at steam-boat landings.
+Therefore I say that to see hack-drivers bow down before
+shrines and stop on public thoroughfares, and with
+the utmost gravity uncover their heads and interchange
+courtly salaams&mdash;nay, even kiss hands in certain cases&mdash;is
+a novel and peculiar spectacle, suggestive of improvements
+which might be beneficially imported into our
+country.</p>
+
+<p>There was an impassive, abstracted air about Dominico
+very difficult to describe, but very impressive to
+a stranger. All these peculiarities were developed the
+first or second day of our acquaintance. About the
+third he seemed to grow impatient, hummed over a few
+gems from unknown operas, and was less disposed than
+usual to unbend himself. There was evidently a coolness
+growing up between us. I suspected it originated
+in my hat, which was really very shabby; and fancied I
+detected a supercilious expression in his eye as it ranged
+over my coat and down to my boots. At length he
+said, &ldquo;Monsieur, you appear to travel with very little
+baggage!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><i>Myself.</i> Yes, only a knapsack.</p>
+
+<p><i>Dominico</i> (after a pause). Pray what business may
+Monsieur be engaged in?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+<i>M.</i> None at all&mdash;just ranging about miscellaneously.</p>
+
+<p><i>Dom.</i> May I be so bold as to ask what part of England
+does Monsieur come from?</p>
+
+<p><i>M.</i> Oh, I didn&rsquo;t come from England at all!</p>
+
+<p><i>Dom.</i> (puzzled). Pray where does Monsieur come
+from?</p>
+
+<p><i>M.</i> Oh, just come from over the way there&mdash;California!</p>
+
+<p><i>Dom.</i> (elevating his eyebrows and stopping suddenly).
+California? The great gold country? Where they
+dig gold out of the ground?</p>
+
+<p><i>M.</i> Yes&mdash;that&rsquo;s my country.</p>
+
+<p><i>Dom.</i> (admiringly). Oh, then, Monsieur is a gentleman
+of fortune, just traveling for pleasure?</p>
+
+<p><i>M.</i> Precisely; for pleasure and information combined.
+My estates are situated in the city of Oakland.</p>
+
+<p><i>Dom.</i> Is that a large city?</p>
+
+<p><i>M.</i> Well, it covers a good deal of ground&mdash;as much, I
+think, as Moscow.</p>
+
+<p><i>Dom.</i> If Monsieur pleases, we will take a drosky and
+visit some of the gardens?</p>
+
+<p><i>M.</i> Agreed.</p>
+
+<p>And so ended the conversation. It was marvelous,
+the change it produced in Dominico; how his dignity
+evaporated; how vivacious he became; how frank and
+unreserved he was in his descriptions of the wonders of
+Moscow; how he scorned to take trifles of change, and
+how magnificently he disregarded expenses. Wherever
+we went, however grand the domestics, soldiers, or police,
+Dominico was always high above them, and I could
+hear him descanting constantly on the wonderful richness
+of California. Doubtless the strain of his conversation
+ran about thus: &ldquo;Behold, gentlemen, I have brought
+before you a living Californian! Notwithstanding the
+shabbiness of his hat, and the strange and uncivilized
+aspect of his clothes, he is the richest man in that land
+of gold! Yes, gentlemen, his income can scarcely fall
+short of ten millions of rubles per annum. Make way,
+if you please!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+All things considered, Dominico let me off pretty well
+at the close of our acquaintance, upon my explaining to
+him that a draft for five hundred thousand rubles which
+ought to be on the way had failed to reach me, owing
+doubtless to some irregularity in the mail service, or
+some sudden depression in my Washoe stocks.</p>
+
+<p>In the way of food the hotels are well supplied, and
+the fare is not bad in the principal cities. Fish and
+game are abundant, but veal is the standard dish. I
+called for a beefsteak at the hotel in St. Petersburg, and
+was furnished with veal. The soup was made of veal.
+After salad we had veal cutlets. Then came a veal
+stew; next in order was a veal pie; and before the
+courses were finished I think we had calf&rsquo;s head baked
+and stuffed. At a station-house on the way to Moscow
+I hurriedly purchased a sandwich. It was made of veal.
+I asked for mutton-chops at the hotel in Moscow, and
+got veal. In fact, I was surfeited with veal in every
+possible shape wherever I went.</p>
+
+<p>Now I am not particular in matters of diet. In a case
+of emergency I can relish buzzard, but if there is any one
+kind of food upon earth that I think never was designed
+to be eaten, it is veal. No very young meat is good, to
+my notion&mdash;not even young pig, so temptingly described
+by the gentle Elia; nor young dog, so much esteemed
+by Chinese and Russian epicures. It has neither the consistency
+nor the flavor of the mature animal, and somehow
+suggests unpleasant images of flabby innocence.
+There is something horribly repugnant to one&rsquo;s sense of
+humanity in killing and devouring a helpless little calf.
+Who but a cannibal can look the innocent creature in
+the face, with its soft confiding eyes, its gentle and baby-like
+manners, and calculate upon devouring its brains, or
+satisfying the cravings of hunger upon its tender ribs?
+Who can see the butcher, with his murderous knife in
+such a connection, without a sting of remorse at the idea
+of the mother&rsquo;s grief&mdash;her great eyes swimming in tears,
+her lowing cries haunting him for days? I never see a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+gang of these helpless little creatures driven to the
+shambles without thinking of that touching picture, the
+Murder of the Innocents.</p>
+
+<p>In vain I tried to escape this veal passion in Russia.
+Nay, even in Finland and Sweden it pursued me. I
+actually began to feel flabby, and felt ashamed to look
+the poor cows in the face. It was a marvel how the cattle,
+of which there seemed to be no lack, ever arrived at
+maturity. If the people kill all the calves, as appeared
+to be the case, in the name of wonder, where do the
+cows come from? This question puzzled me exceedingly
+for some time, and was only solved when I asked
+a Russian to explain it. &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; said he, smiling at my
+simplicity, &ldquo;they only kill the male calves. They allow
+the cow calves to grow up!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Still, when I came to reflect upon the reason given, it
+occurred to me that they must be a very singular race
+of cows. Perhaps they were Amazonian cows.</p>
+
+<p>This leads me by an easy and not ungraceful transition
+to the Foundling Asylum of Moscow, one of the
+largest and most remarkable institutions of the kind in
+the world. In other public places throughout Europe,
+especially in picture-galleries and museums, the visitor is
+required to deliver up his walking-stick at the door, in
+return for which he receives a ticket corresponding with
+one fastened upon the article itself&mdash;as in baggage-cars
+upon the railway, so that he may redeem it when he
+thinks proper. But I had little thought, in my experience
+of foreign travel, that a similar system should prevail
+in regard to the deposit of living beings, as in the
+foundling establishment of Moscow. Here, any body
+with a surplus baby can carry it and have it labeled
+around the neck, receive a ticket in return corresponding
+in number with the deposit, and call for it at any
+future time, certain that it will be delivered up&mdash;if alive.
+The building is of immense extent, and is situated on
+the banks of the Moskwa River, near the lower part of
+the town. The grounds around it are tastefully laid out,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+and must occupy twenty or thirty acres, the whole being
+surrounded by a high wall, and comprising numerous
+and substantial outhouses, workshops, etc., for the use
+of the establishment. Many thousand children are annually
+taken in and nursed at this institution, no restriction
+being imposed upon the parents, who may be either
+married or single, to suit their own taste or condition.
+The regular force of wet-nurses employed is about six
+hundred, besides which there are numerous dry-nurses
+and teachers for the older children. It is estimated that
+the entire expense of conducting the establishment is
+not less than five or six hundred thousand rubles per
+annum, most of which is defrayed by voluntary contributions
+and interest received on loans.</p>
+
+<p>I spent a forenoon rambling through the various wards,
+and can safely say I never before saw such an extraordinary
+collection of human squabs within one inclosure.
+It was certainly one of the strangest and saddest spectacles
+I had ever witnessed&mdash;so many infant specimens
+of humanity, bundled up like little packages of merchandise,
+labeled, numbered, and nursed with a mathematical
+regularity fearfully inconsistent with one&rsquo;s notions of the
+softness and tenderness of babyhood. To be sure, they
+are well treated&mdash;kindly and gently treated, perhaps;
+but it is pitiful to see these helpless little creatures bereft
+of the gentle motherly touch; washed, physicked,
+nursed, and too often buried by hired and unsympathizing
+hands; and no more thought of them, save in the
+way of duty, than so many little animals destitute of
+souls. The very idea of attachments formed by nurses
+is of itself a painful subject of contemplation; for of
+what avail is it that a child should be loved by its nurse,
+or find in her a new mother, when by the rules of the
+establishment there must be constant separations. It is
+said that over twenty-five thousand children derive,
+either directly or indirectly, support from this establishment.
+About six thousand are taken in annually, of
+which perhaps one fourth die. Many of them are not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+far from dead when admitted; and it is only surprising,
+considering the deprivations they must endure in being
+so suddenly withdrawn from the mother&rsquo;s care, that so
+large a proportion should survive.</p>
+
+<p>If it be a wise child that knows its own father, it
+would be a very remarkable father who could recognize
+his own child among such a variegated collection as I
+saw here. Never upon earth was there a more astonishing
+mixture of baby flesh&mdash;big babies and little babies,
+pug-nosed, black-eyed, blue-eyed, fat and lean, red, yellow,
+and white babies&mdash;all sorts ever invented or brought
+to light in this curious world of ours. Yet the utmost
+order was observed, and the beds, nurses, cribs, and feeding
+apparatus looked wonderfully clean for a Russian
+institution, where cleanliness is not generally the prevailing
+characteristic. But, great guns! what music
+they must make when they all get started in one grand
+simultaneous chorus! five or six hundred babies, of both
+sexes, from one to two or three years old, in one department;
+as many girls from three to five in another; boys
+of the same age in another; older boys and older girls
+innumerable in another! What a luxury it must be to
+hear them all together! In general, however, they do
+not make as much noise as might be supposed. I only
+heard about forty or fifty small choruses while there;
+but, trifling as that was, it enabled me to form an idea
+of the style of music that might be made when five or
+six thousand gave their whole mind to it. I am personally
+acquainted with one small baby not over a couple
+of years old, who, when excited of nights, can very nearly
+raise the roof off the house, and am certain that five
+hundred of the same kind would burst the whole city of
+Moscow sky-high if ever they got at it together. These
+Russian foundlings, however, are generally heavy-faced,
+lymphatic babies, and fall naturally into the machine existence
+which becomes their fate; otherwise it would
+seem a hard life for the poor nurses, who are not always
+gifted with the patient endurance of mothers. I was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+told that the children only cried periodically, say at intervals
+of every four hours, but hardly credit that statement.
+Being for the most part soggy little animals, they
+spend a goodly portion of their time in sleep, and doubtless,
+when not sleeping, are much given to eating and
+drinking.</p>
+
+<p>During the summer months several thousand of these
+children are sent out in the country to nurse, after which
+they are returned in due order. As soon as they become
+old enough, they are taught reading and writing, and the
+most intelligent are selected to become teachers. The
+boys usually receive a military education, and a certain
+proportion of them furnish recruits for the imperial
+army.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>DESPOTISM <i>versus</i> SERFDOM.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The reader has probably discovered by this time that
+I have no great affection for the political institutions of
+Europe, and am pretty strong in my prejudices against
+despotic governments of all sorts. The fact is, I believe
+our own, with all its faults, is the best system of government
+ever devised by man.</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor Alexander II. is admitted on all hands
+to be a most estimable and enlightened sovereign. He
+possesses, in a greater degree, perhaps, than any of his
+predecessors, the confidence and affection of his people.
+All his labors since he ascended the throne in February,
+1855, have been directed to the emancipation of the serfs
+and the general welfare of his country. No fault can be
+found with him by the most ardent advocate of human
+liberty. His sympathies are&mdash;as far as it is practicable
+for those of an autocrat, clothed with absolute powers,
+to be&mdash;in favor of freedom. Toward the people and the
+government of the United States he entertains the most
+kindly feeling, and would doubtless sincerely regret the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+overthrow of our republican system. He has, moreover,
+devoted himself with unceasing zeal to the abolition of
+many onerous and unnecessary restrictions upon the liberty
+of the press and the civil rights of his subjects; encouraged
+institutions of learning; prohibited to a considerable
+extent cruelty and oppression in the subordinate
+branches of the public service; and in all respects
+has proved himself equal to the great duty imposed upon
+him, and worthy the esteem and commendation of the
+civilized world. Yet I can not see what there is in a
+despotic form of government, under the very best circumstances,
+to enlist our admiration or win our sympathies.
+We may respect and appreciate a good ruler, but
+every autocrat is not good of his kind; nor is every
+country in a happy condition because it may be exempt
+from the horrors of commotion. But no sovereign power
+can ever attain a rank among the civilized nations of
+the earth&mdash;beyond the respect to which its brute force
+may entitle it&mdash;so long as the very germ of its existence
+is founded in the suppression of civil and political liberty
+among its subjects.</p>
+
+<p>What, after all, does the emancipation of the serfs
+amount to? They are only to be nominally free. The
+same power that accords them the poor privilege of tilling
+the earth for their own subsistence may at any time
+withdraw it. They are not to be owned by individual
+proprietors, and bought and sold like cattle; but they
+possess none of the privileges of freemen; have no voice
+in the laws that govern them; must pay any taxes imposed
+upon them; may be ordered, at any time, to abandon
+their homes and sacrifice their lives in foolish and
+unnecessary wars in which they have no interest; in
+short, are just as much slaves as they were before, with
+the exception that during the pleasure of the emperor
+they can not be sold. But will every emperor be equally
+humane? There is nothing to prevent the successor of
+Alexander the Second from restoring the system of serfage,
+with all its concomitant horrors. It will not be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+difficult to find a predominating influence among the
+nobles to accomplish that object; for this has been a
+long and severe struggle against their influence, and
+owes its success entirely to the unremitting labors of
+the sovereign. The next autocrat may labor with equal
+earnestness to undo this good work; but it matters
+little, save in name. Despotism and freedom are antipodes,
+and can not be brought together. It may be
+said that it would be difficult to enslave a people who
+had once even partially tasted the sweets of liberty, but
+the history of Russia does not furnish testimony to that
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>Since the publication of the ukase abolishing serfdom,
+there has been a great deal of trouble in the more remote
+districts between the serfs and their masters, arising
+chiefly from ignorance on the one side, and discontent
+and disaffection on the other. Every possible obstacle
+has been thrown in the way of a fair understanding
+of its terms. Some idea may be formed of the extreme
+ignorance and debased condition of the serfs when
+I mention that in many parts of the country, where the
+influence of the court is not so immediately felt by the
+proprietors, they have assumed such despotic powers
+over their dependents, and exercise to this day such an
+inexorable command over their lives, liberties, and persons,
+that the poor creatures have almost learned to regard
+them as demigods. When a nobleman of high position,
+owning large tracts of land and many serfs, visits
+his estates, it is not an uncommon thing to see the enslaved
+peasantry, who are taught to believe that they
+exist by his sufferance, cast themselves prostrate before
+him and kiss the ground, in the Oriental fashion, as he
+passes. It is a species of idolatry highly soothing to
+men in official position, who are themselves subjected to
+almost similar debasement before their imperial master.
+In some instances, especially at a distance from the capital,
+the acts of cruelty perpetrated by these cringing and
+venal nobles, as an offset to the arbitrary rule under
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+which they themselves exist, are enough to make the
+blood curdle. The knout, a terrible instrument made of
+thick, heavy leather, and sometimes loaded with leaden
+balls, is freely used to punish the most trifling offense.
+Men and women, indiscriminately, are whipped at the
+pleasure of their masters, the only real restrictions being
+that if they die within twenty-four hours the owners are
+subjected to trial for murder; but even that is nearly
+always evaded. The present emperor has done much
+to meliorate these abuses; but his orders have to go a
+great way and through a great many unreliable hands,
+and it is very difficult to carry them into effect unless
+they accord with the views of a venal and corrupt bureaucracy
+and an unprincipled corps of subordinates.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 397px;">
+<a name="serfs" id="serfs"></a>
+<img src="images/thor028.png" width="397" height="400"
+alt="Two serfs, one seated, talk together" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">SERFS.</p>
+
+<p>In some of the districts where the serfs were purposely
+kept in ignorance of the true meaning and intention
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+of the emperor&rsquo;s ukase, a vague idea took possession of
+their minds that they were free, and that the proprietors
+had no right to compel them to labor, or in any way
+curtail their liberty. Many of them left the estates to
+which they were attached, and sought occupation elsewhere
+on their own account; others refused to obey the
+orders given them by their seigneurs, and a great deal
+of trouble and bloodshed ensued. In some instances it
+became necessary to call in the military forces of the district
+to subdue the mutinous serfs and preserve order.
+Protests and remonstrances innumerable were addressed
+to the emperor, pointing out the absolute impracticability
+of carrying his beneficent scheme into effect, based
+chiefly on the ground that the serfs themselves were
+opposed to emancipation. This, of course, occasioned a
+great deal of anxiety and trouble at head-quarters. It
+was rather a hard state of things that the very peasants
+whom he was striving with all his power to serve should,
+by their insubordination&mdash;arising sometimes, it was true,
+from ignorance, but too often from willful misconduct&mdash;do
+even more than their masters to frustrate his beneficent
+designs. These troubles went on from time to time,
+till eventually a deputation of three hundred serfs made
+their way to St. Petersburg and solicited an audience of
+the emperor. His majesty, probably in no very amiable
+mood, called the deputation before him, and demanded
+what they desired. They answered that they wished
+an explanation in regard to his order of emancipation,
+which many of their people did not understand. Some
+thought they were to be free in two years, but many
+thought they were free from the date of the order, with
+the simple condition that they were to pay sixty rubles
+to their masters the first year, and thirty the second;
+others, again, that they were free without any condition
+whatever. All they wanted to know was, were they
+free or not? If free, why were they forced to labor for
+other people; and if not free, was there any prospect
+that they ever would be? The emperor asked, &ldquo;Can
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+you read?&rdquo; Some answered that they could read, others
+that they could not. &ldquo;Have you read my order?&rdquo;
+demanded the emperor of those who could read. &ldquo;Yes,
+your majesty,&rdquo; they replied, &ldquo;we have read your order,
+but we don&rsquo;t understand it.&rdquo; All who could read and
+had read the order were removed on one side. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo;
+said the emperor, turning to the others, &ldquo;has this order
+been read to you?&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, your majesty,&rdquo; they replied,
+&ldquo;but we don&rsquo;t understand it.&rdquo; &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; observed
+the emperor; &ldquo;you seem to be an intelligent set
+of men, capable of learning, and we shall see that the
+order is made intelligible. We had supposed it was
+perfectly clear in its terms; but, since you do not or
+will not comprehend it, all you who can read must be
+whipped.&rdquo; The literary portion of the deputation were
+then taken off by a file of soldiers, treated to a score or
+two of lashes each, and sent back to their people to explain
+the manifesto. &ldquo;And all you,&rdquo; said the emperor,
+turning to the unlearned members of the deputation,
+&ldquo;must serve three years as soldiers, during which time
+we shall see that you are taught to read.&rdquo; They were
+accordingly taken off, and furnished with a general outfit
+of uniforms, and are now serving their imperial master
+in a military capacity.</p>
+
+<p>Summary justice, that, one might say. It seems, at
+all events, a pretty prompt method of explaining official
+documents, and could probably be adopted beneficially
+in other countries.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>REFORM IN RUSSIA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In my last chapter I took occasion to acknowledge, in
+terms of sincere respect and admiration, the noble efforts
+of the present emperor, Alexander II., in the great cause
+of human freedom. He has already gone very far beyond
+any of his predecessors in the extension of civil
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+liberty among his subjects, but a great crisis has now arrived
+which will practically test his sincerity. What he
+has heretofore done will be worse than nothing unless
+he remains true to himself and the noble cause which he
+has espoused. History shows us that the sovereigns of
+Russia have not always been indifferent to public opinion;
+but, with one or two honorable exceptions, it also
+shows us that they have been more liberal in their professions
+than in their acts. I ventured the assertion
+that there are insuperable obstacles to a very high order
+of civilization in Russia. Perhaps this is too gloomy a
+view of the case, and, considering the wonderful natural
+capacities of the people, it may be thought rather illiberal
+for an American; but I must confess the difficulties
+strike me as very serious. The severity of the climate
+in the middle and northern parts of the empire, the vast
+proportion of desert and unavailable lands, and the diversity
+of fierce and ignorant races to be governed, are
+certainly obstacles not easily overcome, if we are to understand
+by civilization a predominance of moral and
+intellectual cultivation, combined with material prosperity
+and a reasonable share of liberty and happiness among
+the mass of the people. It is not that a few shall be
+learned, and intelligent, and privileged above all others,
+but that the broad fields of knowledge shall be open to
+all; that education shall be general, and the right of
+every class to the fruits of their labor and the enjoyment
+of civil, political, and religious liberty shall be recognized
+and protected by the laws of the land. In this view, it
+seems to me that the most serious obstacle to civilization
+in Russia is presented by the despotic nature of the
+government, and the difficulty, under the existing state
+of things, of substituting another for which the ignorant
+masses are prepared. The aristocracy are constantly
+clamoring for increased powers and privileges, but it is
+very certain they have no affinity, beyond pecuniary interest,
+with the middle and lower classes, and that their
+sole aim is to interpose every possible obstacle to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+progress of freedom. The emperor is now practically
+the great conservative power who stands between them
+and their dependents. Any increase of authority to the
+aristocracy would deprive the masses of the limited protection
+which they now enjoy. Already the head and
+front of Russian despotism are the camarilla and the
+bureaucracy, who practically administer the affairs of
+the government. So long as they hold their power,
+they stand as a barrier to all progress on the part of the
+people. Thoroughly aristocratic and tyrannical in all
+their instincts, they have every thing to lose and nothing
+to hope from a constitutional form of government.
+Why, it may be asked, if the emperor is sincere in his
+professions of regard for freedom and civilization, does
+he not make use of the aristocratic powers vested in
+him, and cast away from him all these obstacles to the
+perfection of his plans? The question is easier asked
+than answered. We are but little enlightened upon the
+secret councils that prevail at the court of St. Petersburg.
+Whatever is done there is only known by its results;
+whatever finds its way into the public press is
+subject to a rigid censorship, and is worth little so far
+as it conveys the remotest idea of facts. What you see
+demonstrated you may possibly be safe in believing, but
+nothing else. It may be easier to speak of removing
+obstacles than to do it; or it may be that the emperor
+has no fixed policy for the future, and therefore hesitates
+to encounter difficulties through which he can not see
+his way without any adequate or well-defined object.</p>
+
+<p>No country in the world presents such an anomalous
+condition of affairs as that presented by Russia at this
+time. The preliminary steps have been taken to set free
+over twenty-three millions of white people, so accustomed
+to a condition of servitude, so generally ignorant, and
+so incapable of thinking or acting for themselves, that
+many, if not most of them, look with dread upon the
+movement made for their emancipation. The rights reserved
+to them are so little understood, and, indeed, so
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+visionary under any circumstances&mdash;for two rights to
+the same land would be as impracticable in Russia between
+the proprietors and the peasant as in our country
+between the whites and the Indians&mdash;that they can see
+nothing beyond abandonment to increased oppressions
+and sufferings in the proposed movement. Degraded
+as they are, accustomed from infancy to obey their rulers,
+kept in a condition of brutish ignorance in order that
+they may be kept in subjection, it is natural they should
+be unable to realize the mysterious benefits about to be
+conferred upon them. In their present abject position
+they enjoy a certain kind of protection from their owners,
+who, if not always governed by motives of humanity,
+are at least generally susceptible of the influences of
+self-interest, and take care to feed and clothe them, and
+provide for them in cases of sickness; and although this
+is done at the expense of their labor, it relieves them
+from responsibilities which they are scarcely prepared
+to assume. To set them free against their own will, or
+even admitting that, in common with all mankind, they
+must have some general appreciation of liberty&mdash;to undertake
+so radical a change in their condition and future
+prospects without a practical definition of their rights
+and the substitution of some substantial benefits for the
+withdrawal of responsibilities now borne by their owners,
+is an anomalous movement attended by no ordinary
+difficulties. When we add to this the adverse influences
+of the landed proprietors; their determined hostility
+to the abrogation of rights and privileges which
+they have so long enjoyed; their entire conviction that,
+without direct powers of coercion, they can not depend
+upon the labor of the peasantry; that the natural tendency
+of free labor is to elevate the masses, and render
+them less subservient to the will of the aristocracy,
+then, indeed, it may well be conceived that the natural
+difficulties arising from the ignorance and improvident
+habits of the class now held in bondage will be greatly
+augmented. Believing, however, that all men have a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+right to their freedom; that such a right is the gift
+of the Creator, which can only be wrongfully withheld
+from them by any earthly power; that it is superior
+to any casual influences or considerations of policy, we
+can not but admire the moral courage of the movement,
+and the apparent zeal and constancy with which the
+emperor has labored, in the face of every obstacle, to
+carry it into effect. But the question now arises, is it
+to end before it assumes a substantial form? Is it to
+be a mere chimera gotten up to entertain and delude
+the world? If Alexander aspires to the approval of all
+enlightened people beyond the limits of his own empire,
+he must make good his claim to it by a determined policy,
+carrying in it the germ of civil and political liberty.
+It will not do to &ldquo;tickle the ears of the groundlings&rdquo;
+with high-sounding phrases of human progress, while he
+fetters their limbs with manacles of iron. There can be
+no such thing as a graduated despotism&mdash;a stringent
+form of controlling the ignorant and a mild form of controlling
+the intelligent&mdash;under one system of government.
+The ways to knowledge, to honorable distinction,
+to wealth and happiness, must be open to all; justice
+must be administered with impartiality, and wherever
+there is taxation there must be representation.
+There can not be one kind of justice for the rich and
+another for the weak; constitutions for some and despotisms
+for others. The machine must be complete in
+all its parts, and work with a common accord, or it will
+soon become deranged and break to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Peter the Great did much toward the physical improvement
+of the country. He built up cities, created
+a navy, organized an army, extended his dominions, encouraged
+education, and fostered the mechanical arts;
+but he held a tight rein upon his subordinate officers,
+and suppressed what little freedom the masses enjoyed.
+He was ambitious, and liked to enjoy a reputation for
+enlightenment, but no regard for civilization beyond the
+power it gave him to extend his dominions. His
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+subjects were merely his instruments. All he learned in
+other countries was to sharpen them and keep them in
+order, that he might use them to the best advantage.
+His ambition was not of the highest or noblest kind.
+The page he has left in history is interesting and instructive,
+but there is nothing in it to warrant the belief
+that it will be selected by a remote posterity to be
+bound up among the lives of truly great and good men.
+Catharine II. extended the privileges of the nobility,
+made wars upon inoffensive nations, corrupted the morals
+of her people, and manifested her regard for the serfs
+by giving large numbers of them away to her paramours.
+The Emperor Alexander I. was ambitious of distinction,
+as the most cultivated and enlightened sovereign of his
+time. He issued liberal edicts, but seldom observed
+them. He wished to be thought friendly to liberty,
+without sacrificing any of his despotic privileges. He
+gave a Constitution to the Poles, but surrounded it by
+such forms and influences that they could derive no advantage
+from it. He was weak, cunning, and conceited;
+given rather to the delicate evasions of diplomacy than
+to the bold straightforwardness of truth and honor. The
+Emperor Nicholas was utterly selfish and despotic in all
+his instincts. He professed to take a profound interest
+in the cause of emancipation, but it was purely a question
+of policy with him. He cared nothing about human
+rights. His dark and cruel nature was unsusceptible of
+a noble or generous impulse. While he preached liberal
+generalities, he ruled his subjects with an iron rod. He
+was bigoted, narrow-minded, and brutal. The sense of
+right was not in his nature. His ambition was to be an
+object of heathenish idolatry to his subjects&mdash;whether as
+a god or devil it mattered nothing; fear was the only
+incense he was capable of craving; and if such a nature
+can be susceptible of enjoyment, his consisted in the
+abasement of his fellow-creatures. The severity of his
+decrees, the rigor of his administration, and the attributes
+of infallibility which he cast around his person,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+caused him to be regarded with awe, but not with love.
+He could brook no opposition nor survive a failure.
+Few tears were shed when he was stricken down in his
+pride. He left but a small legacy of good deeds to endear
+him in the memory of his subjects. The haughty
+Czar lies dead in his sepulchre&mdash;cold, stern, and solitary
+as he lived.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas left his country in a distracted and unhappy
+condition&mdash;deeply in debt; commerce deranged; the
+military service in the worst possible condition, and
+nearly every branch of the public service in the hands
+of corrupt and incapable men. Well might he say to
+his own son upon his dying bed, &ldquo;Poor Alexander, my
+beloved son, where lie the ills of unhappy Russia?&rdquo;
+Well might he endeavor to make atonement for his errors
+by recommending at his last hour the emancipation
+of the serfs.</p>
+
+<p>The milder spirit of Alexander reigns in his place.
+What future, then, does this humane young sovereign
+propose to himself and his country? He gives personal
+liberty to the serfs, but he can not allow them to become
+intelligent and responsible beings. If they do, they will
+no longer acknowledge his right to deprive them of political
+liberty. He removes various restrictions from the
+press, and the moment the light of intelligence strikes
+upon the minds of his subjects, they call for a constitution
+and the overthrow of a despotic camarilla. He undertakes
+to restrain a powerful, intelligent, and unscrupulous
+aristocracy, who by instinct, education, and self-interest
+hate the very name of freedom, and they turn against
+him, and provoke those whom he would serve to acts of
+rebellion against his authority. We can scarcely wonder
+that this is the case when we consider the interests
+they have at stake. It is not likely that they will quietly
+relinquish their accustomed source of revenue. On the
+other hand, the argument is advanced, and with a good
+share of reason, that the emancipation of the serfs is really
+a benefit to the owners. It relieves them of enormous
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+responsibilities, and, by encouraging industry, increasing
+the intelligence, self-reliance, and capacity of the
+serfs themselves, makes their labor more profitable to
+the landed proprietors. This is a view of the case, however,
+in which they have no faith. Believing in nothing
+free except the free use of authority in their own persons,
+they can not be brought to understand the advantages
+of free labor.</p>
+
+<p>But these considerations do not, by any means, comprise
+all the difficulties in which Russia is now placed.
+The dependencies are constantly in revolt. Constant
+troubles are going on in the remote districts. Nine millions
+of the population&mdash;the old believers who do not
+profess the prevailing religion&mdash;have their secret conferences,
+their plans and purposes, all antagonistical to the
+existing form of government. A reign of terror exists
+in Poland. The Finns detest their rulers, and are only
+kept in a partial state of quietude by a total subversion
+of the liberties guaranteed to them under the Constitution.
+The municipal franchises existing in the various
+provinces of Russia are a mere mockery; mayors and
+corporate officers are imprisoned or banished without
+cause or process of law. The councils of the government
+are secret, and nobody can conjecture how long
+he may be permitted to enjoy his personal liberty. The
+exchequer is annually deficient from thirty to forty millions
+of rubles. Public credit is growing worse and
+worse every day, and the whole country is falling into a
+condition of bankruptcy. It is evident, even to the most
+superficial observer, that a great crisis is at hand. The
+Poles are united in their resistance to the despotic sway
+of the government. Witness the late bloody massacres
+in Warsaw (1862), against which the whole civilized
+world cries aloud in horror! They will not now be satisfied
+with empty professions and still emptier concessions.
+They demand a Constitution&mdash;not a mere paper
+Constitution, like that of 1815, made to be violated by
+every lackey of the government sent to coerce them.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+They demand civil, political, and religious liberty. Can
+the emperor grant it to a dependency, and withhold it
+from the body of his people?</p>
+
+<p>This has been tried for nearly half a century&mdash;ever
+since 1815&mdash;and what has it resulted in? Are the
+Poles any better satisfied now than they were then?
+Are they benefited and enlightened by being cut down
+and hacked to pieces by a set of drunken and bloodthirsty
+Cossacks in the name of the great Russian government?</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor Alexander must adopt some other system.
+He will never reduce the Poles to submission in
+that way. Overpowered and cut to pieces they may be,
+but not conquered. They belong to the unconquerable
+races of mankind. The blood that heroes, and heroines,
+and martyrs are made of runs in the veins of every man,
+woman, and child of the Polish nation. If they can not
+govern themselves, it is equally certain they can not be
+governed by any despotic power. It is not by slaughtering
+defenseless women and children; not by forcing
+churches to be opened; not by sending savage and
+heartless minions to crush the people down in the dust,
+that Alexander II. is to win a reputation for humanity
+and liberality. It is not by issuing edicts of emancipation
+to his serfs, and then, at the instigation of a cruel
+and ruthless camarilla, deluging the country with their
+blood to keep them quiet, that he is going to do it. It
+is not by extending privileges to the press and the universities,
+and then, by a sudden and violent suppression
+of all liberty, undertake to arrest some abuses, that he
+is likely to achieve it. It is not by countenancing venal
+and unscrupulous writers to sustain every outrage that
+his nobles may choose to perpetrate, and banishing all
+who respectfully remonstrate against their misconduct,
+that he is to attain the highest eminence as a civilized
+sovereign. It is not by keeping up a system of foreign
+surveillance, by which Russians in other countries are
+watched and their lives threatened, that these glorious
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+results are to be achieved. His secret police may (on
+their own responsibility or his, it matters little to the
+victims which) assassinate M. Herzain, the editor of the
+<i>Kolokol</i>, in London; but if they do, a thousand Herzains
+will rise in his place. No; it is by no such means
+as these that the name of Alexander II. is to be transmitted
+to posterity as the most liberal and enlightened
+sovereign of the age.</p>
+
+<p>If he would regenerate Russia&mdash;if he would avert the
+dismemberment of a great empire&mdash;if he would accomplish
+the noble mission upon which the world gives him
+the credit of having started, he must banish from his
+presence all evil councils; he must be true to himself
+and the great cause of humanity; he must give all his
+people, and all his dependencies, a liberal and equitable
+constitution, which will protect them from the despotic
+sway of military governors and the aristocracy. He
+must establish a constitutional government, complete in
+all its parts; abolish secret tribunals, and open the avenues
+of knowledge and justice to all. He must see that
+the laws are fairly and equitably administered. He must
+enlarge the liberty of the press, and proscribe no man
+for his opinions, unless in cases of treason, and under peculiar
+circumstances of civil commotion endangering the
+public safety. He must abolish the censorship of the
+colleges, universities, and places of public amusement,
+and leave them to be regulated by the municipal authorities.
+In short, he must cease to be a despot and become
+a constitutional monarch. Will he do it? Can
+he do it? Does he possess the moral courage to do it?
+Time alone can answer these questions. I sincerely believe
+the emperor is a good man, actuated by the best
+motives, but not always governed by the wisest counsels.
+I believe he now has an opportunity of earning a name
+that enlightened men will bless through all time to come.
+So far, it is to be regretted that he has not pursued the
+most consistent course, but it is not yet too late to retrieve
+his errors. One thing is certain&mdash;there can be no
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+half-way measures of reform in Russia. The spirit of
+the age&mdash;the general increase of intelligence&mdash;requires a
+radical change. He can not be autocrat and king at the
+same time. He must be one or the other. If he tries
+both, the empire will be dismembered before many years.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever may be the extent and variety of those hidden
+restraints, which doubtless exist, and must, from the
+very nature of the government, be exempt from the
+scrutiny of a stranger as well as from popular discussion,
+it is beyond question that in the principal cities, at
+least, very little is visible in that respect which would
+be considered objectionable in the municipal regulations
+of any city in the United States. From this, of course,
+must be excepted the presence in every public place and
+thoroughfare of vast numbers of soldiers and officers;
+but that is a feature which St. Petersburg shares in common
+with all the cities of Europe, and the traveler can
+scarcely regard it as an indication of the depressed condition
+of Russian civilization. I think I have seen in
+the streets of Pesth, Vienna, Berlin, and Frankfort quite
+as many soldiers, according to the population, as in St.
+Petersburg. I would say something about Paris, but I
+expect to go there after a while, and would dislike very
+much to be placed in the position of Mr. Dick Swiveller,
+who was blockaded at his lodgings, and never could go
+out without calculating which of the public ways was
+still left open. But if there be officers enough of all
+kinds in Paris to keep the public peace and suppress objectionable
+correspondence and pamphlets against members
+of the reigning family, there are also enough in Lyons
+and Marseilles, as well as other cities of France, to
+prove that civilization and soldiers, however inimical to
+each other, may, by the force of circumstances, be reduced
+to a partnership. The question that troubles me
+most is to determine precisely what is the highest condition
+of civilization. It can not be to enjoy fine palaces
+and have a great many soldiers, for Marco Polo tells us
+that the great Kubla Khan had palaces of gold and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+precious stones of incredible extent and most sumptuous
+magnificence, such as the world has never seen from that
+day to this, and could number his troops by millions;
+yet nobody will undertake to say that the Tartars of the
+tenth century were in advance of the French of the nineteenth
+century. It can not consist in the enjoyment of
+freedom, and the general dissemination of education and
+intelligence among the people; for where will you find
+a freer or more intelligent people than those of the
+United States, who are rated by the Parisians as little
+better than savages? I think civilization must consist
+in the perfection of cookery, and a high order of tailoring
+and millinery. If the French excel in the manufacture
+of cannons and iron-cased ships, and devote a good deal
+of attention to surgery, it is a necessity imposed upon
+them by the presence of Great Britain and their natural
+propensity for strong governments; but I am disposed
+to believe that their genius lies in gastronomy and tailoring,
+and in the construction of hats and bonnets.
+Since the latter articles cover the heads of the best
+classes of mankind, they must be the climax or crowning
+feature of all human intelligence. I am greatly puzzled
+by the various opinions on this subject entertained
+by the most cultivated people of Europe. The English
+seem to think the perfection of civilization consists in
+preaching against slavery and then trying to perpetuate
+it, in order to get hold of some cotton; the French in
+suppressing family pamphlets, annulling the sacred contract
+of marriage, building iron-cast ships, cooking frogs,
+snails, and cats, making fancy coats, and topping off
+the human head with elegant hats and bonnets; the Austrians
+in the manufacture of shin-plasters for their soldiers,
+and the making and breaking of constitutions for
+ungovernable dependencies; the Prussians in the blasphemous
+necromancy of receiving crowns for their kings
+direct from God; and all in some shape or other professing
+devotion to human liberty, and doing every thing
+in their power to subvert it. Truly it is enough to puzzle
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+one who seeks for truth amid the prevailing fogs of
+error that seem to have descended upon mankind. If
+there be any degree in honesty, I really think the Emperor
+of Russia is entitled to the palm of being the most
+sincere in his profession of regard for the advancement
+of human freedom. He imposes no restrictions upon his
+own subjects which he does not consider necessary for
+the maintenance of his despotic power, and, while struggling
+against the influence of a wealthy, intelligent, and
+refractory aristocracy to extend the boon of personal
+liberty to twenty-three millions of serfs, is the only sovereign
+who boldly and openly manifests a generous
+sympathy for the cause of freedom in the United States.
+While I can see nothing to admire in any form of despotism,
+or any thing in common between us and the
+government of Russia beyond the common bond of humanity
+that should connect the whole human race, I am
+forced to admit, with all my hatred of despotic institutions,
+that they are not always a sure indication of an illiberal
+and insincere spirit on the part of the rulers, or
+of a base, sordid, and groveling spirit on that of the subjects.
+It is a matter of regret, calculated to shake our
+faith in the beneficial effects of a high order of intelligence
+among men, that the course of England and
+France, since the commencement of our difficulties, presents
+a very unfavorable contrast with that of Russia;
+for, although self-interest has restrained them from actual
+participation in the overthrow of our government,
+they have given its enemies the full benefit of their sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>You will smile, perhaps, at the oddity of the idea, considering
+the roughness of our country, the scarcity of
+palaces, fine equipages, liveried servants with white kid
+gloves and cocked hats, and the absence of a perfect railroad
+system in our remote quarter of the world; but I
+am perfectly in earnest in saying that, if asked to lay my
+hand upon my heart and declare, in all sincerity, what
+country upon earth I do consider the most highly favored
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+and enlightened at the present stage of the nineteenth
+century, I should not hesitate one moment to name the
+State of California. The idea has been growing in my
+head ever since I came to Europe. It is based upon considerations
+which are susceptible of the clearest demonstration.
+For example, assuming our population to be
+five hundred thousand, where will you find the same
+number of educated, enterprising, and intelligent men in
+any one district or state of Europe, not excepting any
+given part of France or England? If we have fewer
+learned and scientific men than older countries can boast,
+we have a greater number above mediocrity, according
+to our population, and a vastly higher average of general
+intelligence. If our laws are too often loosely administered,
+it is at least in the power of the people to remedy
+the difficulty by substituting good and faithful for corrupt
+and inefficient officers; and if any law should prove
+burdensome, it can be repealed at the will of the majority.
+So far as injustice is concerned, I have seen more
+of it in Europe, individual rights were concerned,
+than I ever saw in California. We have a public sentiment
+in favor of the right which can not be shaken by
+corrupt, factious, and transitory influences. If our governors
+and public men are not furnished with gilded palaces
+and fine equipages, the labor of the toiling poor is
+not taxed to supply them. If we are backward in the
+higher branches of literature and the fine arts, there is
+scarcely a mechanic or a miner in the state who does not
+know more of the history of his own country, possess a
+more accurate knowledge of its institutions, read more
+of the current intelligence of the day from all other countries&mdash;who,
+in short, is not better versed in every branch
+of practical knowledge applicable to the ordinary purposes
+of life, than the average of the most intelligent
+classes in Great Britain or France. If we are deficient
+in the dandyism of dress and the puppyism of manners,
+which so generally pass for refinement and politeness on
+the Continent of Europe, there is scarcely a boor among
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+us who would not be hooted out of the lowest society
+for the indifference, rudeness, and disrespect toward
+women, which form the rule rather than the exception
+among the polished nations of Europe. I have seen
+more absolute selfishness, coarseness, and innate vulgarity
+under the guise of elegant manners, since my arrival
+on this side of the water, than I ever saw in California
+under any guise whatever. If that be civilization, I do
+not want to see it prevail in our country. It would be
+difficult, indeed, to say in what respect a comparison
+would not show a heavy balance in our favor. Wealth
+is more equally diffused, fortune is more accessible to all,
+the honors and emolument of political position are within
+the reach of every man, the press is unrestrained in its
+freedom save in so far as individual rights and the well-being
+of society may be concerned; no class is oppressed
+by inequitable burdens, and none endowed with exclusive
+privileges; a rich soil, a prolific mineral region, a
+climate unequaled for its salubrity, and a promising future,
+afford profitable occupation, health, and happiness
+to the whole community; none need suffer unless from
+their own misconduct, or the visitation of the Supreme
+Power by which all are ruled; and none need despond
+who possess energy of character and the capacity to appreciate
+the many blessings bestowed upon them. What
+nation in Europe possesses a future at all, much less such
+a future as that which lies before us? Russia may improve
+and prosper to a certain extent; beyond that, no
+human eye can discern the glimmerings of a higher and
+more enlarged civilization. England has reached her
+culminating point. The States of Germany&mdash;what future
+have they? Alas! the past and the present must
+answer. France&mdash;where is her future? Another revolution&mdash;another
+emperor&mdash;another and another bloody
+history of revolutions, barricades, kings, emperors, and
+demagogues, reaching, so far as human eye can penetrate,
+through the dim vistas of all time to come. If, on
+the one side, we see the type of human perfection and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+the maturity of all worldly knowledge, and if we see on
+the other only the presumption that springs from ignorance,
+want of cultivation, or want of reverence for the
+example of others, then I earnestly pray that we may
+forever remain in our present benighted condition, or,
+if we advance at all, that it may not be in the direction
+taken by any of the governments of Europe. As our
+present is unlike theirs, so I trust may be our future.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A BOND OF SYMPATHY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The Russians, doubtless, have a natural appetite for
+tobacco, in common with all races of mankind, whether
+Digger Indians, Caffirs, Hindoos, Persians, Turks, Americans,
+or Dutchmen; for I never yet have met with a
+people who did not take to the glorious weed, in some
+shape or other, as naturally as a babe to its mother&rsquo;s
+breast. <i>Vodka</i>, or native brandy, is their favorite beverage,
+when they can get it. In that respect, too, they
+share a very common attribute of humanity&mdash;a passion
+for strong drinks. Nevertheless, although the love of
+intoxicating liquors is pretty general in Russia, the habit
+of smoking which usually accompanies it is not so common
+as in the more southern parts of Europe. A reason
+for this may be found in the prohibitions established by
+the government against the general use of tobacco. It
+is true, any person who pleases may enjoy this luxury,
+but by a rigid ukase of the emperor the restrictions
+amount very nearly to an absolute prohibition, so far as
+the common people are concerned. Smoking is prohibited
+in the streets of every town and city throughout
+the empire, and any infraction of the law in this respect,
+whether by a native or foreigner, is visited by a heavy
+penalty. I hear of several instances in St. Petersburg
+and Moscow of arrests by the police for violations of the
+imperial decree. The reason given by the Russians
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+themselves for this despotic regulation is, that the cities
+being built mostly of wood, extensive and disastrous
+conflagrations have arisen from carelessness in street-smoking.
+It is difficult to see how the risk is lessened
+in this way, for the prohibition does not extend to smoking
+within doors. A carpenter may indulge his propensity
+for cigars over a pile of shavings, provided it be in
+his workshop, but he must not carry a lighted cigar in
+his mouth on any of the public thoroughfares. The true
+reason perhaps is, that the emperor considers it a useless
+and expensive habit, and thus makes use of his imperial
+power to discountenance it, as far as practicable, among
+his subjects. They may drink <i>vodka</i> if they please, because
+that only burns their insides out; but they must
+not smoke cigars, as a general rule, because that impairs
+their moral perceptions. Hence cigars are not permitted
+to be sold at any of the tobacco-shops in packages of less
+than ten. Few of the lower classes ever save up money
+enough to buy ten cigars at a time, so that if they desire
+to smoke they must go to a cheap groggery and indulge
+in cheap cigaritos. Owing to the want of opportunity,
+therefore, smoking is not a national characteristic, as in
+Germany and the United States.</p>
+
+<p>This, I must confess, gave me a rather gloomy impression
+of Russia, and accounted in some measure for the
+grave and uncongenial aspect of the people. One always
+likes to find some bond of sympathy between himself
+and the inhabitants of the country through which he
+travels. I remember reading somewhere of a Scotchman
+who had occasion to visit the United States on
+business connected with an establishment in Glasgow.
+He was disgusted with the manners and customs of
+the people; had no faith in their capacity for business;
+found nothing to approve; considered them vulgar, impertinent,
+irresponsible, and irreligious; and finally was
+about to take his departure with these unfavorable views,
+when he discovered, from some practical experience, that
+they possessed, in addition to all these traits, wonderful
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+shrewdness in the art of swindling. New dodges that
+he had never dreamt of turned up in the line of debits
+and credits; he was interested&mdash;delighted! A familiar
+chord was touched. He retracted all he had said;
+formed the most exalted opinion of the people; reluctantly
+returned to Glasgow, and there made a fortune in
+the course of a few years! It is said that he now swears
+by the eternal Yankee nation&mdash;the only oath he was ever
+known to make use of&mdash;and expresses a desire to settle
+in the United States, if he can find a suitable part of the
+country abounding in fogs, rain, sleet, snow, and wind.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat akin to this is the affection with which a
+traveler in a foreign land regards every mountain, tree,
+or flower that reminds him of his own country. The
+most pleasant parts of my experiences of mountain scenery
+are those that most resemble similar experiences at
+home. Some suggestion or hint of a familiar scene has
+often caused me to enjoy what would otherwise perhaps
+have attracted no particular attention. I remember
+once, while traveling in Brazil, near the Falls of Tejuca,
+some very pleasant scenes of early life came suddenly to
+mind, without any thing that I could perceive at the
+moment to give rise to such a train of thought. The
+aspect of the country was different from any I had ever
+seen before; and it was not till I discovered a bunch of
+violets close by my feet that I became aware that it was
+a familiar perfume which had so mysteriously carried me
+back to by-gone days. On another occasion, when at
+sea in the Indian Ocean, after many dreary months of
+absence from home, I one day accidentally found in the
+pocket of an old coat a paper of fine-cut chewing tobacco.
+With what delight I grasped the glittering treasure
+and applied it to my nose can only be conceived by a
+true lover of the weed&mdash;I speak not of your voracious
+chewers, who masticate this delectable narcotic as if it
+were food for the stomach instead of nutriment for the
+soul, but of the genuine devotee, who can appreciate the
+divinest essence, the rarest delicacies of tone and touch,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+the most exquisite shades of sentiment in this wondrous
+weed. What a luxury, after months of dreary longing&mdash;what
+an oasis in the desert of life! No attar of roses
+could be sweeter than that paper of fine-cut. I played
+with it&mdash;just titillating the nostrils&mdash;for hours before I
+dared to descend to the coarse process of chewing. And
+then&mdash;ah heavens! can mortal mixture ever equal that
+first chew again! How bright and beautiful the world
+looked! What happy remembrances I reveled in all that
+day, of serenades, and oyster-suppers, and pretty girls,
+and a thousand other fascinations of early youth, all of
+which grew out of a paper of fine-cut.</p>
+
+<p>My experiences in Sweden were even more delightful
+in this respect than in Russia. At Stockholm I saw
+drunken men every day, and at Gottenburg it was the
+prevailing trait. The trouble was to see a man who
+was not laboring under a pressure of bricks in his hat.
+On one occasion I must have seen in the course of a single
+afternoon several hundred reeling home in the highest
+possible condition of ecstasy&mdash;either that, or the
+streets were so badly paved, and the roads so devious
+and undulating, that they made people stagger to keep
+straight. It was on the occasion of a fair, and may perhaps
+have been an exception to the general rule. One
+thing is certain&mdash;it looked very natural, and made me
+cotton wonderfully to these good people. There was
+something really homelike in a reeling, staggering crowd&mdash;their
+shouts and uproarious songs, their boozy faces
+and tobacco-stained months. Every body seemed to be
+on a regular &ldquo;bender.&rdquo; The only point of difference
+between the Swedish and the California &ldquo;bender&rdquo; was
+in the way the boys hugged and kissed the peasant-girls;
+but even in this respect a similitude may sometimes be
+found in the vicinity of the Indian Reservations, where
+I have seen Digger damsels treated quite as affectionately.
+However, it was all right, so long as both parties
+were willing. I rather liked the Gottenburg custom
+myself&mdash;as a spectator, of course.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+My last and perhaps most agreeable experience connected
+with the pleasures of sympathy occurred in Norway,
+on the road from Christiania to Trondhjem. With
+profound humiliation I make the confession that I have
+never yet been able to eradicate a natural passion for
+tobacco. Once, after reading the Rev. Dr. Cox&rsquo;s terrific
+book on the Horrors of Tobacco, in which it was conclusively
+shown that a single drop of the oil of this noxious
+weed put upon a cat&rsquo;s tongue killed the cat, I resolved
+to master this vicious propensity for poison. For
+six months I neither smoked, snuffed, nor chewed. But
+it came back somehow. Care, I think, revived it, and
+every body knows that care, as well as tobacco, killed a
+cat. A man might as well be killed one way as another.
+We must all eat our peck of dirt, and in some shape or
+other swallow our peck of poison. One learned gentleman
+proves that tobacco is poison; another, that coffee
+and tea are equally fatal; another, that meat is no better,
+and so on; our food and drink are pretty much composed
+of poison, so that we are constantly killing ourselves,
+and the result is, we die at last. Still, it is marvelous
+how long some people survive all these deadly
+stimulants; how fat and hearty the Germans are in spite
+of their meerschaums; how wonderfully the French survive
+their strong coffee; how the Russians deluge their
+stomachs with hot tea and yet still live; how the English
+get over their porter and brown stout; and how
+long it takes the various poisons to which the various
+nations of the earth are addicted to produce any sensible
+diminution in the population. Sometimes I am inclined
+to think people would die if they never ate a particle of
+any thing&mdash;either food or poison. It seems to be one
+of those debts that we incur on coming into the world,
+and can only discharge by going out of it.</p>
+
+<p>All of which leads you gradually to the main point&mdash;my
+experience in Norway. First, however, I must tell
+you that on my arrival in Europe, not being able to find
+a plug of genuine Cavendish, I was forced to satisfy the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+cravings of this morbid appetite by nibbling bad cigars.
+But a new difficulty soon became manifest&mdash;there was
+not a spot in all Germany where it was possible to get
+rid of a quid without attracting undue attention. No
+man likes to be stared at as an outlaw against the recognized
+decencies of life. One may smoke cigars under
+a lady&rsquo;s nose, dress like a popinjay, or kiss his bearded
+friend in most Continental cities, but he must not chew
+tobacco, because it is considered a barbarous and filthy
+habit. He may guzzle beer, take snuff, and wear dirty
+shirts, but if he would avoid reproach as an unclean animal
+he must abandon his quids. Now, as a general rule,
+I dislike to violate public sentiment, or inconvenience
+people with whom I associate. If they are nonsensical
+and inconsistent in their notions, I agree with them for
+the sake of harmony, if not for politeness. Nothing
+pleases me better than to annoy an Englishman by doing
+every thing that he most dislikes, because he makes it a
+point to be disagreeable and unmannerly; carries his
+nationality wherever he goes, and it does me good to
+furnish him with material for criticism. Out of pure
+good nature, I meet him half way; chew and spit that
+he may grumble, and put my legs over the back of the
+nearest chair to see him enjoy a good hearty fit of disgust,
+and talk loud that he may find material for ill-natured
+reflections on American manners&mdash;all of which,
+I know, is exactly what obliges him. It affords him
+such undeniable grounds for the depreciation of others,
+and the indulgence of his own weak vanity!</p>
+
+<p>In like manner I obliged my German friends, who,
+however, are altogether different in their exactions, and
+only require Americans to drop all their uncivilized habits,
+and become like themselves&mdash;quiet, decent, and respectable
+old fogies. Therefore I obeyed the laws,
+doffed my savage California costume, quit whisky, took
+to beer, avoided all passages of tenderness toward the
+female sex, and herded mostly with men. For a time,
+however, I held on to my beloved quid of cigar. It was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+such a solace in the midst of all these privations! But,
+alas! I had to give that up too; there was not a spot in
+all Germany suitable for the purpose of expectoration!
+The floors of the houses are so dreadfully clean&mdash;not a
+piece of carpet bigger than a rug to sit upon; the porcelain
+stoves so inaccessible; the windows always shut;
+every nook and corner blazing with little ornaments;
+the lady of the house so severely conscious of every
+movement; even the little earthen pans near the stove,
+filled with white sand nicely smoothed over to represent
+salt-cellars&mdash;the ostensible spittoons of the establishment&mdash;staring
+one in the face with a cold, steady gaze amounting
+to a positive prohibition&mdash;no, the thing was impossible!
+I saw plainly that a good, old-fashioned squirt of
+tobacco-juice would ruin such a country as this, where
+every room in every house was inimical to the habit,
+and every speck of ground throughout the length and
+breadth of the land adapted to some useful or ornamental
+purpose. Why, sir, I assure you that in the little
+duchy of Nassau&mdash;where it is said the grand-duke is unable
+to exercise his soldiers at target-shooting without
+obtaining permission to place the target in some neighboring
+state&mdash;I found the garden-walks and public roads
+so fearfully clean, every leaf and twig being swept up
+daily, and preserved to manure the duchy, that during
+a pedestrian tour of three days I was absolutely ashamed
+to spit any where. There was no possible chance of
+doing it without expunging a soldier or a policeman, or
+disfiguring the entire province. The result was, between
+tobacco-juice, salt water, iron water, sulphur water, soda-water,
+and all other sorts of water that came out of the
+earth from Brunnens of Nassau, I got home as thin as a
+snake, and was forced to deny myself even the poor consolation
+of a Frankfort cigar. So matters went on for
+nearly a year. I became a morose and melancholy man.
+This will account for all the bitter and ill-natured things
+I said of the Germans in some of my sketches, every
+word of which I now retract.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+But to come to the point of the narrative. In the due
+course of a vagabond life, after visiting Russia and Sweden,
+I found myself one day on the road from Lillehammer
+to the Dorre Fjeld in Norway. I sat in a little
+cariole&mdash;an old peasant behind. The scenery was sublime.
+Poetry crept over my inmost soul. The old man
+leaned over and said something. Great heavens! What
+a combination of luxuries! His breath smelled of whisky
+and tobacco. I was enchanted. I turned and gazed
+fondly and affectionately in his withered old face. Two
+streams of rich juice coursed down his furrowed chin.
+His leathery and wrinkled mouth was besmeared with
+the precious fluid; his eyes rolled foolishly in his head;
+he hung on to the cariole with a trembling and unsteady
+hand; a delicious odor pervaded the entire man. I saw
+that he was a congenial soul&mdash;cottoned to him at once&mdash;grasped
+him by the hand&mdash;swore he was the first civilized
+human I had met in all my travels through Europe&mdash;and
+called upon him, in the name of the great American
+brotherhood of chewers, to pass me a bite of his tobacco.
+From that moment we were the best of friends.
+The old man dived into the depths of a greasy pocket,
+pulled out a roll of black pigtail, and with joy beaming
+from every feature, saw me tear from it many a goodly
+mouthful. We talked&mdash;he in Norwegian, I in a mixture
+of German and English; we chewed; we spat; we laughed
+and joked; we forgot all the discrepancies of age,
+nativity, condition, and future prospects; in short, we
+were brothers, by the sublime and potent free-masonry
+of tobacco. All that day my senses were entranced. I
+saw nothing but familiar faces, gulches, ca&ntilde;ons, bar-rooms,
+and boozy stage-drivers; smelt nothing but whisky
+and tobacco in every flower by the wayside; aspired
+to nothing but Congress and the suffrages of my fellow-citizens.
+I was once again in my own, my beloved California.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Such is the patriot&rsquo;s boast, where&rsquo;er we roam,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His first, best country ever is at home.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>CIVILIZATION IN RUSSIA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It may be a little startling to set out with the general
+proposition that Russia is not only very far from being
+a civilized country, but that it never can be one in the
+highest sense of the term. The remark of Peter the
+Great, that distance was the only serious obstacle to be
+overcome in the civilization of Russia, was such as might
+well be made by a monarch of iron will and unparalleled
+energy, at whose bidding a great city arose out of the
+swamps of Courland, where Nature never intended a
+city to stand. But the remark is not true in point of
+fact. Distance can be annihilated, or nearly so; and although
+Peter the Great was probably aware of that fact,
+he might well have reasoned that facility of intercommunication
+is not so much the cause as the result of civilization.
+The wilderness may be made to blossom as
+the rose through human agency, but it can only be done
+by divine permission. I think that permission has been
+withheld in the case of a very considerable portion of
+Russia. No human power can successfully contend
+against the depressing influences of a climate scarcely
+paralleled for its rigor. Where there are four months
+of a summer, to which the scorching heats of Africa can
+scarcely bear a comparison, and from six to eight months
+of a polar winter, it is utterly impossible that the moral
+and intellectual faculties of man can be brought to the
+highest degree of perfection. There must, of course, always
+be exceptions to every general rule; but even in
+the dark and bloody history of Russia we find that the
+exceptions of superior intelligence and enlightenment
+have been chiefly confined to those who availed themselves
+of the advantages afforded by more temperate
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+climes. Peter himself, the greatest of the Czars, and
+certainly the most gifted of his race in point of intellect,
+perfected his education in other countries, and in all his
+grand enterprises of improvement availed himself of the
+intellect and experience of other races. Every important
+improvement introduced into Russia during his
+reign was the product of some other country, executed
+under foreign supervision. This, perhaps, more than
+any thing else, may be said to afford the most striking
+evidence of the enlarged and progressive character of
+his mind. Yet the very same practice has been followed
+to a greater or less extent by all his successors, and still,
+with the exception of a railroad built by Americans, a
+telegraph system, a few French fashions, and a movement
+professing to have for its object the emancipation
+of the serfs, the country, beyond the limits of the sea-port
+districts and those parts bordering on the States
+of Germany, has advanced but little toward civilization
+since the reign of Peter.</p>
+
+<p>With such a vast extent of territory, and such a variety
+of climates as it must necessarily embrace, it may
+seem rather a broad assertion to say that climate can be
+any obstacle to Russian civilization; but let us glance
+for a moment at the general character of the country.
+Between the sixtieth and seventy-eighth degrees of north
+latitude, embracing a considerable portion of European
+and Asiatic Russia, the winters are exceedingly long and
+severe, the summers so short that but little dependence
+can be placed upon crops. The greater part of this region
+consists of lakes, swamps, forests of pine, and extensive
+and barren plains. The mines of Siberia may be
+regarded as the most valuable feature in this desolate
+region. The production of flax and hemp in the province
+of Petersburg, and the lumber products of the forests
+which are accessible to the capital, give some importance
+to such portions as border on the southern and
+European limit of this great belt; but its general features
+are opposed to agricultural progress. Whatever
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+of civilization can exist within it must be of forced
+growth, and be maintained under the most adverse circumstances.
+South of this, between the fifty-fifth and
+sixtieth degrees of latitude, comes a still wider and more
+extensive region, comprising St. Petersburg, Riga, Moscow,
+Smolensk, and a portion of Irkutsk and Nijni Novgorod.
+Here the summers are longer and the winters
+not quite so severe; but a large portion of the country
+consists of forests, sterile plains, and extensive marshes,
+and much of it is entirely unfit for cultivation. The
+European portions are well settled, and corn, flax, and
+hemp are produced wherever the land is available, and
+large bands of cattle roam over many parts of the country.
+In its general aspect, however, considering the duration
+and severity of the winters, and the large proportion
+of unavailable lands, I do not think it can ever
+become very productive in an agricultural point of
+view. Between fifty and fifty-five degrees latitude, embracing
+the valley of the Volga, is a more favored region,
+abounding in fertile lands, and the summers are longer,
+but the winters are still severe, especially in the eastern
+portions. From latitude forty-three to fifty, embracing
+portions of Kief, the Caucasus, and other southern possessions
+of the empire, the winters are comparatively
+temperate, and the summers warm and long; but here,
+again, a great portion of this country consists of mountains,
+arid plains, and deserts, and it is subject to extreme
+and terrible droughts. Here is a vast extent of territory,
+comprising about one hundred and sixty-five degrees
+of longitude and thirty-five of latitude, which contains
+within its limits a greater variety of bad climates, and a
+greater amount of land unavailable for any purposes of
+human life, than any equal compass of territory upon
+the globe, if we except Africa, which is at least doubtful.
+Within the limits of this vast, and, for the most part,
+inhospitable region, we find nearly all the races who, as
+far back as the history of mankind dates, have been the
+most addicted to predatory wars, and the indulgence of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+every savage propensity growing out of an untamable
+nature&mdash;Tartars, Cossacks, gipsies, Turks, Circassians,
+Georgians, etc., and the Russians proper, whose wild
+Sclavonic blood contains very nearly all the vices and
+virtues that circulate through the veins of all these
+races, besides many enterprising and unscrupulous traits
+of character to which the inferior tribes could never aspire.
+Here we have a mixed population, estimated in
+1856 at seventy-one millions, including North American
+possessions and tributary tribes, a great part of it composed
+of totally incongruous elements, and with a variety
+of religions, embracing about nine millions of Roman,
+Armenian, and irregular Greek Catholics, Lutherans,
+Mohammedans, Israelites, and Buddhists&mdash;the national
+creed being the Greco-Russe, which, it is estimated,
+is professed by about fifty millions of the inhabitants,
+including, of course, infants and young children,
+and many others who know nothing about it. To keep
+all these incongruous elements in order, and provide
+against foreign invasion, requires a standing army of
+577,859 troops &ldquo;for grand operations,&rdquo; as the last almanac
+expresses it, besides various <i>corps de reserve</i>, and a
+navy of 186 from steamers, 41 large sailing vessels, and
+numerous gun-boats and smaller vessels, in the Baltic,
+the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the White Sea, and the
+Sea of Azof. More than seven eighths of these are
+frozen up and totally unavailable for six months every
+year. It is estimated that, after allowing for the forces
+necessary to protect the home possessions of the empire,
+of which Russian Poland is the most troublesome, the
+number of troops that can be brought into active offensive
+operation does not, under ordinary circumstances, exceed
+two hundred thousand men, and it must be obvious,
+considering that Russia has but little external sea-board,
+and must submit to the rigors of a climate which
+locks up the best part of her navy at least half of every
+year, that she can never attain any great strength as a
+naval power. I am inclined to believe, therefore, that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+while this great nation, or combination of nations, is,
+from the very nature of its climate and topography, almost
+impregnable to foreign invasion, it can never become
+a very formidable power at any great distance from
+home; and there are considerations connected with its
+form of government, and the difficulty or impracticability
+of changing it, which, in my opinion, forms an insuperable
+obstacle to the education of the people, and
+such general dissemination of intelligence among the
+masses as will entitle them to take the highest rank
+among civilized nations. Nor does the history of Russia
+during past ages afford much encouragement for a
+different view of the future. Democracy existed for
+several centuries before the country became subject to
+despotic rule, and from the ninth to the fifteenth century
+the aristocracy possessed no hereditary privileges;
+the offices of state were accessible to all, and the peasantry
+enjoyed personal liberty. It was not until the reign
+of Peter the Great&mdash;the high-priest of civilization&mdash;that
+the serfs became absolute slaves subject to sale, with or
+without the lands upon which they lived. In respect to
+political liberty, there has been little, if any advance
+since the reign of the Empress Catherine, who accorded
+some elective privileges to certain classes of her subjects
+in the provinces, and reduced the administration of the
+laws to something like a system. The absurd pretense
+of Alexander I. in according to the Senate the right of
+remonstrating against imperial decrees is perfectly in
+keeping with all grants of power made by the sovereigns
+of Russia to their subjects. There is not, and can
+not be in the nature of things, a limited despotism. As
+soon as the subjects possess constitutional rights at all
+binding upon the supreme authority, it becomes another
+form of government. The great difficulty in Russia is,
+that the sovereign can not divest himself of any substantial
+part of his power without adding to that of the nobles
+and the aristocracy, who are already, by birth, position,
+and instinct, the class most to be feared, and most
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+inimical to the process of freedom. It is not altogether
+the ignorance of the masses, therefore, that forms an
+insuperable barrier to the introduction of more liberal
+institutions, but the wealth, intelligence, and influence
+of the higher classes, who neither toil nor spin, but derive
+their support from the labor of the masses whom
+they hold in subjection. It is natural enough they
+should oppose every reform tending to elevate these
+subordinate classes upon whom they are dependent for
+all the powers and luxuries of their position. Admitting
+that the present emperor may have a leaning toward
+free institutions, and possibly contemplate educating
+forty or fifty millions of his subjects to run him into
+the Presidency of Russia, it is obvious that the path is
+very thorny, and that the position will be well earned if
+ever he gets there. But these acts of sovereign condescension,
+although they read very well in newspapers,
+and serve to entertain mankind with vague ideas of the
+progress of freedom, are generally the essence of an intense
+egotism, and amount to nothing more than cunning
+devices to subvert what little of liberty their subjects
+may be likely to extort from them by the maintenance
+of their rights. I do not say that Alexander II.
+is governed by these motives, but, having no faith in
+kings or despots of any kind, however good they may
+be, I can see no reason why he should prove any better
+than his predecessors. Upon this point let me tell you
+an anecdote. You are aware, perhaps, that the Finns
+have a Constitution which allows them to do what they
+please, provided it be pleasing to the emperor. Like
+the ukase of Alexander I. to the Senate, and all similar
+grants of authority, it is not worth the parchment upon
+which it is written, and in its practical operation is no
+better than a practical joke. The Finns, however, are a
+brave, simple minded, and rather superstitious people,
+and take some pride in this Constitution. It is the
+ghost of liberty at all events, and they indulge in the
+hope that some day or other it will fish up the dead
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+body. Not more than a few weeks ago, a small party
+of these worthy people, on their way to Stockholm for
+purposes of business or pleasure, were arrested and put
+in prison by the Russian authorities on the supposition
+that they differed from the emperor in his interpretation
+of this liberal Constitution, and were going to Sweden
+to lay their grievances before their old compatriots. It
+is quite possible that this was true. I heard complaints
+made when I was in Helsingfors that there was quite a
+difference of opinion on the subject. But it is a marvel
+how they could misunderstand their right under the
+Constitution, when there is a strong military force stationed
+at the principal cities of Finland to make it intelligible.
+So thought the emperor or his subordinates,
+and put them in jail to give them light. The point in
+the transaction which strikes me most forcibly is, that a
+power like that of Russia, after having wrested the province
+of Finland from Sweden, with an army and navy
+far inferior to what she now possesses, should be afraid
+that a handful of Finns should tell a pitiful tale to the
+King of Sweden, and prevail upon him to take their
+country back again. If this be the freedom granted under
+the free Constitution of Finland, the restraints upon
+personal liberty must be pretty stringent in dependencies
+where no Constitutions at all exist.</p>
+
+<p>By a natural law, the waves of despotism gather
+strength and volume as they spread from the central
+power. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the
+Autocrat of Russia is the least despotic of all the despots
+in authority. The landed proprietors in the remote
+provinces too often rule their dependents with an iron
+rod, and the strong arm of the supreme authority is more
+frequently exercised in the protection than in the oppression
+of the lower classes. The tribunals of justice in
+these districts are corrupt, and the laws, as they are administered
+by the subordinate officers of the government,
+afford but little chance of justice to the ignorant masses.
+The landed proprietors are subjected to various exactments
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+and oppressions from the governors, and these
+again are at the mercy of the various colleges or departments
+above them, and so on up to the imperial council
+and imperial presence. Each class or grade becomes independent,
+despotic, and corrupt in proportion as they
+recede from the central authority, having a greater latitude
+of power, and being less apprehensive of punishment
+for its abuse. In truth, the nobles and aristocracy
+are the immediate oppressors of the ignorant masses,
+who are taught to regard them as demigods, and bow
+down before them in slavish abasement. Now and then,
+in extreme cases, where the autocrat discovers abuses
+which threaten to impair his authority, he sends some of
+these aspiring gentlemen on a tour of pleasure to Siberia,
+and thus practically demonstrates that there is a ruling
+power in the land. As all authority emanates from him,
+and all responsibility rests with him, so all justice, liberality,
+fair dealing, and humanity are apt to find in a good
+sovereign, under such a system, their best friend and
+most conscientious supporter. The success of his government,
+the prosperity and happiness of his people, even
+the perpetuity of the entire political system, depend upon
+the judicious and equitable use which he makes of his
+power. There are limits to human forbearance, as sovereigns
+have discovered by this time. The Czar is but
+a man, a mere mortal, after all, and can only hold his authority
+through the consent, indifference, or ignorance of
+his subjects; but should he oppress them by extraordinary
+punishments or exactions, or withdraw from them
+his protection against the petty tyranny of his subordinates,
+he would find, sooner or later, that the most degraded
+can be aroused to resentment. It is the belief
+on the part of the peasantry, of which the population of
+Russia is in so large a part formed, that the emperor is
+their friend&mdash;that he does not willingly or unnecessarily
+deprive them of their liberties. This tends to keep them
+in subjection. Indeed, they have but faint notions of
+liberty, if any at all, born as they are to a condition of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+servitude, and reared in abject submission to the governing
+authorities. They are generally well satisfied if they
+can get enough to eat; and, when they are not subjected
+to cruel and unusual abuses, are comparatively happy.</p>
+
+<p>The unreasonable assumptions of power on the part
+of their immediate governing authorities present a trait
+common to mankind. We know from experience in our
+own country that the negro-driver on a Southern plantation&mdash;a
+slave selected from slaves&mdash;is often more tyrannical
+in the use of authority than the overseer or owner.
+We know that there are hard and unfeeling overseers
+on many plantations, where the owner is comparatively
+mild and humane. So far as he knows any thing of the
+details of his own affairs, his natural disposition accords
+with his interest, and he is favorable to the kind treatment
+of his slaves. But he can not permit them to become
+intelligent beings. They may study all the mechanical
+arts which may be useful to him&mdash;become blacksmiths,
+carpenters, or machinists, but they must not learn
+that they are held in servitude, and that the Almighty
+has given him no natural right to live upon their earnings,
+or enjoy his pleasure or power at the expense of
+their labor and their freedom. The same condition of
+things, with some variation, of course, arising from differences
+of climate and races, exists in Russia, and the
+results are not altogether dissimilar. We find idleness,
+lack of principle, overbearing manners, ignorance, and
+sensualism a very common characteristic of the superior
+classes, mingled though it may be with a show of fine
+manners, and such trivial and superficial accomplishments
+as may be obtained without much labor. It is a
+great negro plantation on a large scale, in which the
+gradation of powers has a depressing tendency, causing
+them to increase in rigor as they descend, like a stone
+dropped from a height, which at first might be caught
+in the open hand, but soon acquires force enough to
+brain an ox.</p>
+
+<p>One of the effects of the strong coercive powers of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+government is perceptible in this, that the greatest latitude
+prevails in every thing that does not interfere with
+the maintenance of political authority; and although it
+is difficult, in such a country, to find much that comes
+within that category, occasional exceptions may be found.
+Thus drunkenness, debauchery, indecency, and reckless,
+prodigal, and filthy habits, are but little regarded, while
+the slightest approach to the acquisition of a liberal education,
+or the expression of liberal opinions on any subject
+connected with public polity, is rigidly prohibited.
+Most of the English newspapers are excluded from the
+empire, although if admitted they would have but few
+general readers among the Russians&mdash;certainly not many
+among the middle or lower classes. No publication on
+political economy, no work of any kind relating to the
+science of government or the natural rights of man;
+nothing, in short, calculated to impair the faith of the
+people in the necessity of their political servitude, is permitted
+to enter the country without a most careful examination.
+A rigid censorship is exercised over the
+press, the libraries, the public colleges, the schools, and
+all institutions having in view the education of the people
+and the dissemination of intelligence. The Censorial
+Bureau is in itself an important branch of the government,
+having its representatives diffused throughout every
+province, in every public institution, and even extending
+its ramifications into the sacred realms of private
+life; for it is a well-known fact that a family can
+not employ a private tutor whose antecedents and political
+proclivities have not undergone the scrutiny and received
+the official sanction of the censorial authorities.</p>
+
+<p>How can a country, under such circumstances, be expected
+to take a high rank among the enlightened nations
+of the earth? The very germ of its existence is
+founded in the suppression of intelligence. It may enjoy
+a limited advancement, but there can be no great progress
+in any direction which does not tend at the same
+time to the subversion of a despotic rule. Even the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+theatres, operas, <i>caf&eacute;s</i>, and all places of public amusement,
+are under the same rigid surveillance. No play
+can be performed, no opera given, no <i>caf&eacute;</i> opened, no
+garden amusements offered to the public, unless under
+the supervision and with the sanction of the censorial
+authorities. In all well-regulated communities there
+must be, of course, some local or municipal restrictions
+respecting popular amusements, based upon a regard for
+public morals, but in this case the question of morality
+is not taken into much account. Provided there is nothing
+politically objectionable in the performance, and it
+has no tendency to make the people better acquainted
+with the rottenness of courts, the selfishness, wickedness,
+and insincerity of men in authority, and their own rights
+as human beings&mdash;provided the theme be <i>Jishn za Zara</i>&mdash;&ldquo;Your
+life for your Czar,&rdquo; or the exhibition a voluptuous
+display&mdash;provided it be merely a matter of abject
+adulation or fashionable sensation, the most fastidious
+censor can find no fault with it. What, then, does the
+education of the masses amount to? We read of lectures
+for the diffusion of knowledge among the people;
+of colleges for young men; of various institutions of
+learning; of a liberal system of common schools for the
+poor. All this is very well in its way. A little light
+is better than none when the road is crooked, and the
+country abounds in ruts and deep pitfalls. But the
+lights shed by these institutions are much obscured by
+the official glasses through which they shine. The building
+of fortifications; the manufacture of gunpowder;
+the use of guns and swords; the beauties of rhetoric
+abounding in the drill manual; the eloquence of batteries
+and broadsides; the poetry of ditching and draining;
+the ethics of primary obedience to the authorities,
+and afterward to God and reason; all that pertains to
+rapine, bloodshed, and wholesale murder&mdash;the noble art
+of mutilating men in the most effective manner, and the
+best method of cutting them up or putting them together
+again when that is done; the horrid sin of using one&rsquo;s
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+own lights on any internal problem of right or wrong,
+religion or public policy, when the emperor, in the plenitude
+of his generosity, furnishes light enough out of his
+individual head for sixty-five millions of people&mdash;these
+are the principal themes upon which the intellects of the
+rising generation of Russia are nourished. In the primary
+schools a select and authorized few are taught
+reading, writing, and arithmetic, but they seldom get
+much farther, and not always that far, before subordinate
+positions in the army or navy are found for them.
+Their education is indeed very limited, and may be set
+down as an exception to the general ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>It will thus be seen that the whole system of education
+has but one object in view, the maintenance of a military
+despotism. In this it would scarcely be reasonable to
+search for cause of complaint. Doubtless the acquisition
+of knowledge is encouraged as far as may be consistent
+with public security and public peace. But it is obvious
+that under such a system these people can never emerge
+from their condition of semi-barbarism. They must continue
+behind the spirit of the age in all that pertains to
+the highest order of civilization. Science, in a limited
+sense, may find a few votaries; the arts may be cultivated
+to a certain degree; a feeble school of literature
+may attain the eminence of a national feature; but there
+can be no general expansion of the intellectual faculties,
+no enlarged and comprehensive views of life and of human
+affairs. Whatever these people do must be subservient
+to military rule; beyond that there can be little
+advance save in what is palpable to the grosser senses,
+or what panders to the savagery of their nature. A
+statesman or a philosopher, with independence enough
+to think and speak the truth if his views differed from
+those of the constituted authorities, would be a very
+dangerous character, and be very apt to pursue his career,
+in company with all who have hitherto aspired to
+distinction in that way, beyond the confines of Siberia.
+Russia may produce many Karasmins to write glowing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+histories of her wars and conquests, but her Burkes, her
+Pitts, and her Foxes will be few, and her Shakspeares
+and her Bacons fewer still. Her Pascal&rsquo;s Reflections will
+be tinged with Siberian horrors; her Young&rsquo;s Night
+Thoughts will be of the dancing damsels of St. Petersburg;
+her Vicars of Wakefield will abound in the genial
+humor of devils and dragons, saints and tortures; and
+the wit of her Sidney Smiths will have a crack of the
+knout about it, skinning men&rsquo;s back&rsquo;s rather than their
+backslidings; effective only when it draws human blood,
+and best approved by the censors when it strikes at human
+freedom.</p>
+
+<p>We find the results of such a system strongly marked
+upon the general character. While equals are jealous
+of each other, inferiors are slavish and superiors tyrannical.
+It is often the case that overbearing manners and
+abject humility are centred in the same class or person.
+Thus the Camarilla are overbearing to the bureaucracy,
+the bureaucracy to the provincial nobility, and the provincial
+nobility to the inferior classes. As I said before,
+it is a sliding-scale of despotism. The worst feature of
+it is seen in the treatment of women. Among the better
+classes conventionality has, doubtless, somewhat meliorated
+their condition. Absolute physical cruelty would
+be, perhaps, a violation of etiquette and good breeding;
+but neglect, selfishness, innate coarseness of thought, and
+a general want of chivalrous appreciation, are too common
+in the treatment of Russian women not to strike
+the most casual observer. Certainly the impressions of
+one who has been taught from infancy to regard the
+gentler sex as entitled to the most profound respect and
+chivalrous devotion&mdash;to look upon them as beings of a
+more delicate essence than man, yet infinitely superior in
+those moral attributes which rise so high above intellect
+or physical power&mdash;are not favorable to the assumptions
+of Russian civilization. Yet, since the condition of woman
+is but little better in any part of Europe, it may be
+that this is one of the fashions imported from France or
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+Germany, and since these two claim to be the most polite
+and cultivated nations in existence, it is even possible
+that the Americans&mdash;a rude people, who have not
+yet had time to polish their manners or perfect their customs&mdash;may
+be mistaken in their estimate of the ladies,
+and will, some day or other, become more Europeanized.</p>
+
+<p>But, in all fairness, if the Russians be a little uncouth
+in their way, they possess, like bears, a wonderful aptness
+in learning to dance; if the brutal element is strong
+in their nature, so also is the capacity to acquire frivolous
+and meretricious accomplishments. Like all races in
+which the savage naturally predominates, they delight
+in the glitter of personal decoration, the allurements of
+music, dancing, and the gambling-table, and all the luxuries
+of idleness and sensuous folly&mdash;traits which they
+share pretty generally with the rest of mankind. Tropical
+gardens, where the thermometer is twenty degrees
+below zero; feasts and frolics that in a single night may
+leave them beggars for life; military shows; the smoke
+and carnage of battle; the worship of their saints and
+Czars&mdash;these are their chief pleasures and most genial
+occupations.</p>
+
+<p>But, with all this folly and prodigality, there is really
+a great deal of native generosity in the Russian character.
+Liberal to a fault in every thing but the affairs of government,
+they freely bestow their wealth upon charitable
+institutions, and, whether rich or poor, are ever ready
+to extend the hand of relief to the distresses of their
+fellow-creatures. It is rarely they hoard their gains.
+There are few who do not live up to the full measure
+of their incomes, and most of them very far beyond.
+Whether they spend their means for good or for evil,
+they are at least free from the groveling sin of stinginess.
+I never met more than one stingy Russian to my knowledge;
+but let him go. He reaped his reward in the dislike
+of all who knew him. Toward each other, even the
+beggars are liberal. There is nothing little or contemptible
+in the Russian character. Overbearing and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+despotic they may be; deficient in the gentler traits which
+grace a more cultivated people; but meanness is not
+one of their failings. In this they present a striking contrast
+to a large and influential portion of their North
+German neighbors, for whose sordid souls Beelzebub
+might search in vain through the desert wastes that lie
+upon the little end of a cambric needle.</p>
+
+<p>In some respects the Russians evince a more enlarged
+appreciation of the world&rsquo;s progress than many of their
+European neighbors. They have no fixed prejudices
+against mechanical improvements of any kind. Quick
+to appreciate every advance in the useful arts, they are
+ever ready to accept and put in practical operation whatever
+they see in other countries better than the product
+of their own. Thus they adopt English and American
+machinery, railways, telegraphs, improvements in artillery,
+and whatever else they deem beneficial, or calculated
+to augment their prosperity and power as a nation.
+While in Germany it would be almost an impossibility
+to introduce the commonest and most obvious improvement
+in the mechanical arts&mdash;if we except railways and
+telegraphs, which have become a military and political
+necessity, growing out of the progress of neighboring
+powers&mdash;while many of their fabrics are still made by
+hand, and their mints, presses, and fire-engines are of
+almost primeval clumsiness, the Russians eagerly grasp
+at all novelties, and are wonderfully quick in the comprehension
+of their uses and advantages. A similar
+comparison might be made in reference to the freedom
+of internal trade, and the encouragement given to every
+industrial pursuit among the people, being the exact reverse
+of the policy pursued by the German governments.
+Thus, while we find them backward in the refinements
+of literature and intellectual culture, it is beyond doubt
+that they possess wonderful natural capacity to learn.
+They lack steadiness and perseverance, and are not always
+governed by the best motives; but in boldness of
+spirit, disregard of narrow prejudice, ability to conceive
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+and execute what they desire to accomplish, they have
+few equals and no superiors. Combined with these admirable
+traits, their wild Sclavonic blood abounds in elements
+which, upon great occasions, arise to the eminence
+of a sublime heroism. Brave and patriotic, devoted to
+their country and their religion, we search the pages of
+history in vain for a parallel to their sacrifices in the defense
+of both. Not even the wars of the Greeks and
+Romans can produce such an example of heroic devotion
+to the maintenance of national integrity as the burning
+of Moscow. When an entire people, devoted to their
+religion, gave up their churches and their shrines to the
+devouring element; when princes and nobles placed the
+burning brands to their palaces; when bankers, merchants,
+and tradesmen freely yielded up their hard-earned
+gains; when women and children joined the great work
+of destruction to deliver their country from the hands
+of a ruthless invader, it may well be said of that sublime
+flame&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Thou stand&rsquo;st alone unrivall&rsquo;d, till the fire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To come, in which all empires shall expire.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Truly, when we glance back at the national career of
+the Russians, they can not but strike us as a wonderful
+people. While we must condemn their cruelty and rapacity;
+while we can see nothing to excuse in their ferocious
+persecution of the Turks; while the greater part
+of their history is a bloody record of injustice to weaker
+nations, we can not but admire their indomitable courage,
+their intense and unalterable attachment to their
+brave old Czars, and their sublime devotion to their religion
+and their nationality.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>PASSAGE TO REVEL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was not without a feeling of regret that I took my
+departure from St. Petersburg. Short as my visit to
+Russia had been, it was full of interest. Not a single
+day had been idly or unprofitably spent. Indeed, I know
+of no country that presents so many attractions to the
+traveler who takes pleasure in novelties of character and
+peculiarities of manners and customs. The lovers of picturesque
+scenery will find little to gratify his taste in a
+mere railroad excursion to Moscow; but with ample
+time and means at his disposal, a journey to the Ural
+Mountains, or a voyage down the Volga to the Caspian
+Sea, would doubtless be replete with interest. For my
+part, much as I enjoy the natural beauties of a country
+through which I travel, they never afford me as much
+pleasure as the study of a peculiar race of people. Mere
+scenery, however beautiful, becomes monotonous, unless
+it be associated with something that gives it a varied
+and striking human interest. The mountains and lakes
+of Scotland derive their chief attractions from the wild
+legends of romance and chivalry so inseparably connected
+with them; and Switzerland would be but a dreary
+desert of glaciers without its history. In Russia, Nature
+has been less prodigal in her gifts; and the real interest
+of the country centres in its public institutions, the religious
+observances of the people, and the progress of
+civilization under a despotic system of government. Of
+these I have endeavored to give you such impressions
+as may be derived from a sojourn of a few weeks in
+Moscow and St. Petersburg&mdash;necessarily imperfect and
+superficial, but I trust not altogether destitute of amusing
+features.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+On a pleasant morning in August, I called for my
+&ldquo;rechnung&rdquo; at the German gasthaus on the Wasseli-Ostrow.
+The bill was complicated in proportion to its
+length. There was an extra charge of fifteen kopeks a
+day for the room over and above the amount originally
+specified. That was conscientious cheating, so I made
+no complaint. Then there was a charge for two candles
+when I saw but one, and always went to bed by
+daylight. That was customary cheating, and could not
+be disputed. Next came an item for beefsteaks, when,
+to the best of my knowledge and belief, nothing but
+veal cutlets, which were also duly specified, ever passed
+my lips in any part of Russia. Upon that I ventured a
+remonstrance, but gave in on the assurance that it was
+Russian beefsteak. I was too glad to have any ground
+for believing that it was not Russian dog. Next came
+an item for police commissions. All that work I had
+done myself, and therefore was entitled to demur. It
+appeared that a man was kept for that purpose, and
+when he was not employed he expected remuneration
+for the disappointment. Then there was an item for
+domestic service, when the only service rendered was to
+black my boots, for which I had already paid. No matter;
+it was customary, so I gave in. Then came sundry
+bottles of wine. I never drink wine. &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the
+proprietor, &ldquo;it was on the table.&rdquo; Not being able to
+dispute that, I abandoned the question of wine. Various
+ices were in the bill. I had asked for a lump of ice
+in a glass of water on several occasions, supposing it to
+be a common article in a country on the edge of the Arctic
+circle, but for every lump of ice the charge was ten
+kopeks. Upon this principle, I suppose they attach an
+exorbitant value to thawed water during six months of
+the year, when the Neva is a solid block of ice. I find
+that ice is an uncommonly costly luxury in Northern
+Europe, where there is a great deal of it. In Germany
+it is ranked with fresh water and other deadly poisons;
+in Russia it costs too much for general use; and in Norway
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+and Sweden, where the snow-capped mountains are
+always in sight, the people seem to be unacquainted
+with the use of iced water, or, indeed, any other kind of
+water as a beverage in summer. They drink brandy
+and schnapps to keep themselves cool. However, I got
+through the bill at last, without loss of temper, being
+satisfied it was very reasonable for St. Petersburg. Having
+paid for every article real and imaginary; paid each
+servant individually for looking at me; then paid for domestic
+services generally; paid the proprietor for speaking
+his native language, which was German, and the
+commissioner for wearing a brass band on his cap, and
+bowing several times as I passed out, the whole matter
+was amicably concluded, and, with my knapsack on my
+back, I wended my way down to the steam-boat landing
+of the Wasseli-Ostrow. As I was about to step on
+board the Russian steamer bound for Revel&mdash;an eager
+crowd of passengers pressing in on the plankway from
+all sides&mdash;I was forcibly seized by the arm. Supposing
+it to be an arrest for some unconscious violation of the
+police regulations, a ghastly vision of Siberia flashed
+upon my mind as I turned to demand an explanation.
+But it was not a policeman who arrested me&mdash;it was
+only my friend, Herr Batz, the rope-maker, who, with a
+flushed face and starting eyes, gazed at me. &ldquo;Where
+are you going?&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;To Revel,&rdquo; said I. Almost
+breathless from his struggle to get at me, he forcibly
+pulled me aside from the crowd, drew me close up to
+him, and in a hoarse whisper uttered these remarkable
+words: &ldquo;<em>Hempf is up!</em> It took a rise yesterday&mdash;<i>Zweimal
+zwey macht vier, und sechsmal vier macht vier und
+zwanzig! verstehen sie?</i>&rdquo; &ldquo;Gott im Himmel!&rdquo; said I,
+&ldquo;you don&rsquo;t say so?&rdquo; &ldquo;<i>Ya, freilich!</i>&rdquo; groaned Herr
+Batz, hoarsely: &ldquo;<i>Zwey tausent rubles! verstehen sie?
+Sechs und dreissig, und acht und vierzig.</i>&rdquo; &ldquo;Ya! ya!&rdquo;
+said I, grasping him cordially by the hand, for I was
+afraid the steamer would leave&mdash;&ldquo;<i>Adjeu, mein Herr!
+adjeu!</i>&rdquo; and I darted away into the crowd. The last I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+saw of the unfortunate rope-maker, he was standing on
+the quay, waving his red cotton handkerchief at me.
+As the lines were cast loose, and the steamer swung out
+into the river, he put both hands to his mouth, and
+shouted out something which the confusion of sounds
+prevented me from hearing distinctly. I was certain,
+however, that the last word that fell upon my ear was
+&ldquo;<i>hempf</i>!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Neva at this season of the year presents a most
+animated and picturesque appearance. A little above
+the landing-place of the Baltic steamers, a magnificent
+bridge connects the Wasseli-Ostrow with the main part
+of the city, embracing the Winter Palace, the Admiralty,
+and the Nevskoi, generally known as the Bolshaia, or
+Great Side. Below this bridge, as far as the eye can
+reach in the direction of the Gulf of Finland, the glittering
+waters of the Neva are alive with various kinds of
+shipping&mdash;merchant vessels from all parts of the world;
+fishing smacks from Finland and Riga; lumber vessels
+from Tornea; wood-boats from the interior; Russian
+and Prussian steamers; row-boats, skiffs, and fancy colored
+canoes, with crews and passengers representing
+many nations of the earth, are in perpetual motion; and
+while the sight is bewildered by the variety of moving
+objects, the ears are confounded by the strange medley
+of languages.</p>
+
+<p>Through this confused web of obstacles, the little
+steamer in which I had taken passage worked her way
+cautiously and systematically, catching a rope here and
+there for a sudden swing to the right or to the left,
+stopping and backing from time to time, and feeling with
+her nose for the narrow channels of the river, till she was
+fairly out of danger, when, with a blast of the whistle
+and a heavy pressure of steam, she dashed forth into the
+open waters of the gulf.</p>
+
+<p>As we gradually receded, I turned to take a last look
+at the mighty Venice of the North. The gold-covered
+domes of the churches, rising high above the massive
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+ranges of palaces, were glittering brilliantly in the sunlight;
+the variegated shipping of the Neva was growing
+dim in the distance; the masses of foliage that crowned
+the islands were of tropical luxuriance, and the whole
+city, with its palaces, fortifications, and churches, seemed
+to rest upon the surface of the waters. It was a sight
+not soon to be forgotten. I turned toward the dark and
+stern fortresses of Cronstadt, now breaking in strong
+outline through the golden haze of the morning, and
+thought of the grim old Czar who had thus battled with
+Nature, and planted a mighty city in the wilderness; and
+thus musing, sighed to think that such a man should
+have lacked the warmth divine which sheds the only
+true and enduring lustre upon human greatness.</p>
+
+<p>After the usual detention at Cronstadt for the examination
+of passports, the steamer once more started on
+her way, and in a few hours nothing was in sight save
+the shores of the gulf dim on the horizon, and the sails
+of distant vessels looming up in the haze.</p>
+
+<p>I now, for the first time, had leisure to look at my fellow-passengers.</p>
+
+<p>A Russian steamer during the pleasure season is a
+floating Babel. Here, within the limits of a few dozen
+feet, were the representatives of almost every nation from
+the Arctic circle to the tropics&mdash;Finns and Swedes, Norwegians
+and Danes, Tartars and Russians, Poles and Germans,
+Frenchmen and Englishmen, South Americans, and&mdash;I
+was going to say North Americans, of which, however,
+I was the sole representative.</p>
+
+<p>It was a motley assemblage&mdash;a hodge-podge of humanity,
+a kind of living pot-pourri of dirty faces and
+dirty shirts, military uniforms, slouched hats, blowses,
+and big boots. There was a Russian general, who always
+stood at the cabin door to show himself to the rest
+of the passengers. I don&rsquo;t know for the life of me what
+he was angry about, but his face wore a perpetual frown
+of indignation, scorn, and contempt; his black brows
+were constitutionally knit; his eyes seemed to be always
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+trying to overpower and knock somebody under; his
+lips were firmly compressed, and his mustaches stood
+out like a dagger on each side, with the handles wrapped
+in a bundle of dirty hair under his nose. So tight was
+his uniform around the body and neck that it forced all
+the blood up into his face, and wouldn&rsquo;t let it get back
+again; and it seemed a miracle that the veins in his forehead
+did not burst and carry away the top of his head,
+brains and all. Opposite to this great man, in an attitude
+of profound humility, stood his liveried servant&mdash;a
+very gentlemanly-looking person, with an intellectual
+baldness covering the entire top of his cranium. This
+deferential individual wore a coat beautifully variegated
+before and behind with gold lace; a pair of plush knee-breeches,
+white stockings, and white kid gloves; and was
+continually engaged in bowing to the great man, and
+otherwise anticipating his wants. When the great man
+looked at a trunk, or a carpet sack, or any thing else in
+the line of baggage or traveling equipments, the liveried
+servant bowed very low, looked nervously about him,
+and then darted off and seized hold of the article in question,
+gave it a pull or a push, put it down again, looked
+nervously around him, hurried back and bowed again to
+his august master, who by that time was generally looking
+in some other direction with an air of great indifference&mdash;as
+much as to say that he was accustomed to that
+species of homage, and did not attach any particular value
+to it. The passengers regarded him with profound
+awe and admiration, and seemed to be very much afraid
+he would, upon some trifling provocation, draw his sword
+and attack them. I was determined, if ever he undertook
+such a demonstration of authority as that, to resent
+it with the true spirit of a Californian, and cast about
+me for some weapon of personal defense, but saw nothing
+likely to be available in an emergency of that kind
+except a small bucket of slush, with which, however, it
+would be practicable to &ldquo;douse his glim.&rdquo; This great
+man, with his attendant, was bound for the sea-baths of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+Revel, where he would doubtless soon be buffeting the
+waves like a porpoise&mdash;or possibly, in virtue of the commanding
+powers vested in him by nature and the Czar
+of Russia, would sit down by the sea-shore like Hardicanute
+the Dane, and order the waves to retire.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was an old lady and her three daughters
+who sat on the camp-stools by the step-ladder; the same
+fat old lady, bedizened with finery, and the same three
+young ladies, with strong features and dismal dresses,
+which the traveler encounters all over the Continent of
+Europe. The old lady was in a state of chronic agony
+lest the young ladies should be forcibly seized and carried
+away by some daring youth of the male sex; and
+the young ladies were conscious that such was the general
+purpose of mankind, and that they were in imminent
+danger of being preyed upon in that way, and, consequently,
+must always hold down their heads and look
+at the seams in the deck upon the approach of any gallant-looking
+cavalier with a handsome face and a fine
+figure, to say nothing of the expressive tenderness of his
+eyes and the gracefulness of his manner, and many other
+fascinating features in the young gentleman&rsquo;s appearance,
+of which they could not be otherwise than entirely
+unconscious, since they had not taken the slightest notice
+of him, and never contemplated encouraging his advances.
+The old lady was a very discreet and proper
+old lady, and the young ladies were very discreet and
+proper young ladies, and they were going to the baths
+of Revel after their last winter&rsquo;s campaign in the fashionable
+circles of St. Petersburg; and any body could
+see at a glance that they were of a distinguished and
+fashionable family, because they had a courier and two
+lapdogs, and carried a coat of arms on their trunks and
+bandboxes, and were taken with violent headaches soon
+after leaving Cronstadt, and used smelling-salts.</p>
+
+<p>Next was the man who belongs to no particular nation,
+speaks every language, and knows every body&mdash;a
+shabby-genteel, middle-aged man, of no ostensible
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+occupation, but always occupied. &ldquo;Sare,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I perceive
+you are an Englishman. I always very glad am to
+meet with Englishmen. I two years spent in London.&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Indeed!&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;you speak English very well, considering
+you learned it in England!&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, sare&mdash;in
+London&mdash;I was in business there.&rdquo; &ldquo;Mercantile?&rdquo; said
+I. &ldquo;No, sare; I attended to mi-lor Granby&rsquo;s &rsquo;orses.&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Oh! that indeed!&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, sare;&rdquo; and so the conversation
+went on in a manner both entertaining and instructive.
+In the course of it, I gathered that my shabby-genteel
+friend was going to Revel to attend a &rsquo;orse-race.</p>
+
+<p>Another conspicuous group on the deck soon after attracted
+my attention&mdash;the hungry people. This group
+consisted of some six or eight persons, male and female,
+of a very Jewish cast of features, well-dressed and lively,
+evidently Germans, since they spoke in the German language.
+Scarcely had the steamer cast loose from the
+quay when they opened the pile of baskets, boxes, and
+packages by which they were surrounded, and, taking
+out sundry loaves of bread, lumps of cheese, sausages,
+and wine-bottles, began to eat and drink with a voracity
+perfectly amazing. I was certain I had seen them a
+thousand times before. Every feature was familiar; and
+even their constitutional appetite was nothing new to
+me. I had never seen this group, or their prototype, in
+any public conveyance, or in any part of the world, without
+a feeling of envy at the extraordinary vigor of their
+digestive functions. Here were pale, cadaverous-looking
+men, and sallow women, who never stopped eating from
+morning till night, in rough or calm weather, in sunshine
+or storm; ever hungry, ever thirsty, ever cramming
+and guzzling with a degree of zest that the sturdiest
+laborer in the field could never experience; and
+yet they neither burst nor dropped down dead, nor suffered
+from sea-sickness. Doubtless they had just breakfasted
+before they came aboard; but, to make sure of it,
+they immediately breakfasted again. As soon as they
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+were through that, they lunched; then they dined; after
+dinner they drank coffee and ate cakes; after coffee and
+cakes they lunched again; then they ate a hearty supper,
+and after supper whetted their appetites on tea and
+cakes; and before bedtime appeased the cravings of
+hunger with a heavy meal of sausages, brown bread, and
+cheese, which they washed down with several bottles
+of wine. I don&rsquo;t know how many times they got up to
+eat in the night, but suppose it could not have been
+more than twice or three times, since they were at it
+again by daylight in the morning as vigorously as ever.
+I am inclined to think that some people are physically
+so organized as to be insensible to the difference between
+a pound of food and ten pounds, as others are unconscious
+of the difference between wit and stupidity,
+sense and nonsense; such, for instance, as the humorous
+group, who sit by the companion-way, and keep
+themselves and every body around them in a continued
+roar of laughter. It is good to be merry; but I must
+confess it is not within the bounds of my capacity to
+discover a source of merriment in such pranks of wit as
+these people enjoy. A young fellow makes a face like
+an owl&mdash;every body roars laughing, the idea is so exquisitely
+comical. Another pulls his comrades by the
+hair, and every body shouts with uproarious merriment.
+One sly chap shoves another off his seat and takes possession
+of it&mdash;a feat so humorous that the whole crowd
+is convulsed. A bad orange, pitched across the deck,
+strikes an elderly gentleman on the bald pate&mdash;well, I
+had to laugh at that myself. By-and-by, a stout, florid
+young gentleman turns pale and groans; three or four
+officious friends, with twinkling eyes, seize him by the
+arms, and drag him over to the lee-scuppers, where he
+manifests still more decided symptoms of sea-sickness.
+His friends hold him, rub him, chafe him, and pat him
+on the back; one offers him a meerschaum pipe to
+smoke; another, a bunch of cigars; a third, a piece of fat
+meat; while a fourth tempts him with a bottle of some
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+wine, all of which is uncommon fun to every body but
+the unfortunate victim. Thus the time passes away
+pleasantly enough, after all, taking into view the variety
+of incidents and scenes which constantly occupy the attention
+of a looker-on. I had taken a deck-passage for
+cheapness, and made out to get through the night by
+bundling myself up on a pile of baggage, and catching a
+few cat-naps whenever the noise created by these lively
+young gentlemen would permit of such a feat.</p>
+
+<p>By seven o&rsquo;clock in the morning we were steering
+into the harbor of Revel.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>REVEL AND HELSINGFORS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Few cities within the limits of the Russian dominions
+possess greater historic interest than Revel. Although
+its commerce is limited to a few annual shipments of
+hemp, flax, and tallow, produced in the province of Esthonia,
+and the importation of such articles of domestic
+consumption as the peasants require, it occupies a prominent
+position as a naval d&eacute;p&ocirc;t for Russian vessels of
+war, and is much frequented in summer by the citizens
+of St. Petersburg as a bathing-place and general resort
+of pleasure. A steamer leaves daily for Revel and Helsingfors,
+which, during the bathing season, is crowded
+with passengers, as in the case of my own trip, of which
+I have already given you a sketch. The approach to
+the harbor, in the bright morning sun, is exceedingly
+picturesque. Beyond the forest of masts and spars,
+with gayly-colored flags and streamers spread to the
+breeze, rises a group of ancient buildings on the rocky
+eminence called the Domberg, comprising the castle, the
+residences of the governor and commandant, and various
+palaces and quarters of the nobility, surrounded by Gothic
+walls and strong fortifications. This ancient and picturesque
+pile has been termed the Acropolis of Revel,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+though beyond the fact that it overlooks the lower town
+and forms a prominent feature in the scenic beauties of
+the place, it is difficult to determine in what respect it
+can bear a comparison with the famous Acropolis of
+Athens. However, I have observed that travelers find
+it convenient to discover resemblances of this kind
+where none exist, as a means of rounding off their descriptions;
+and since the Kremlin is styled the Acropolis
+of Moscow, I see no reason why Revel should not enjoy
+the same sort of classic association. It is to be hoped
+that when Russian travelers visit San Francisco, they
+will, upon the principle adopted by tourists in their
+country, do us the justice to designate Russian Hill as
+the Acropolis of San Francisco; and should they visit
+Sacramento during the existence of a flood, I have no
+doubt they can find a pile of bricks or a whisky barrel
+sufficiently elevated above the general level to merit the
+distinctive appellation of an Acropolis. Revel has suffered
+more frequent changes of government, and passed
+through the hands of a greater variety of rulers, than
+any city, perhaps, in the whole of Northern Europe. In
+the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was a province
+of Denmark; subsequently it fell into the hands of the
+Swedes, and in 1347 became a possession of the Livonian
+Knights, a chivalrous and warlike order, who built castles,
+lived in a style of great luxuriance, killed, robbed,
+and plundered the people of the surrounding countries,
+and otherwise distinguished themselves as gentlemen of
+the first families, not one of them having ever been known
+to perform a day&rsquo;s useful labor in his life. Such, indeed,
+was the heroic character of these doughty knights, that,
+having plunged the whole country into ruin and distress,
+the peasants, driven to desperation, rose upon them in
+1560, and completely routed and destroyed them, killing
+many, and compelling the remainder to seek some other
+occupation. This was rough treatment for gentlemen,
+but it happens from time to time in the course of history,
+and shows to what trials chivalrous blood is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+exposed when it can&rsquo;t have its own way. Finally Esthonia
+and Livonia fell into the hands of Charles II. of Sweden,
+from whom they were wrested by Peter the Great.
+Since that period these provinces have continued under
+the Russian dominion. From the time of Peter to the
+reign of the present emperor, Revel has been a favorite
+summer resort of the Czars. It has been rebuilt, patched,
+fortified, and improved to such an extent that it now
+represents almost every style of architecture known in
+Northern Europe since the Middle Ages. The people
+partake of the same characteristics, being a mixture of
+every Northern race by which the place has been inhabited
+since the reign of Eric XIV. of Denmark. I spent
+some hours visiting the churches and other objects of interest,
+a detailed description of which would scarcely be
+practicable within the brief limits of a letter. The Ritterschaftshaus,
+containing the armorial bearings of the
+nobility, is a place of great historical interest; but I saw
+nothing that afforded me so much amusement as the
+scenes in the Jahrmarket, where the annual summer fair
+is held. Here were booths and tents, and all sorts of
+wares, much in the style of the markets of the Riadi in
+Moscow, of which I have already given a description.
+The crowds gathered around those places of barter and
+trade appeared to enjoy a very free-and-easy sort of life.
+I could see nothing about them indicative of an oppressed
+condition. Most of them were reeling drunk, and
+such as were not drunk seemed in a fair way of speedily
+arriving at that condition of beatitude.</p>
+
+<p>From the Jahrmarket I strolled out to the Cathermthal,
+a favorite resort of the citizens during the heat of
+the day. The shady promenades of this magnificent
+garden, its natural beauties, and the display of equipages
+and costumes, render it an exceedingly agreeable lounging-place
+for a stranger. Every thing is in the Russian
+style&mdash;the pavilions, the music, the theatrical exhibitions,
+and the predominance of naval and military uniforms
+throughout the grounds. The scarcity of flowers is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+remedied to some extent by the profusion of epaulettes
+and brass buttons, which the emperor seems to regard
+as superior to any thing in nature. No garden that I
+have yet seen in Russia is destitute of ornaments of this
+kind.</p>
+
+<p>Gambling was going on every where&mdash;at every tea-table
+and in every pavilion. This department of civilization
+is well represented in Revel by the Russians. Horse-racing,
+cards, dominoes, and other amusements and games
+of hazard, are their ruling passion. A Russian who will
+not bet his head after he has lost all his valuable possessions
+must be a very poor representative of his country
+indeed. I have rarely seen such a passionate devotion
+to the gaming-table, even in California, which is not usually
+behind the nations of Europe in all that pertains to
+the cultivation of the human mind. Revel must be a
+heaven to a genuine Russian. All is free and unreserved,
+and morals are said to be unknown, save to a few of the
+old-fashioned citizens and gentry. Visitors usually leave
+their own behind them, and depend upon chance for a
+fresh supply in case of necessity.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon was warm, and it occurred to me that a
+stroll on the beach would be pleasant. Accompanied by
+my friend the horse-jockey, who seemed determined to
+hold on to me as long as I remained in Revel, under the
+conviction, no doubt, that I was secretly engaged in the
+horse business, and would come out in my true character
+before long, I sauntered down in the direction of some
+bathing tents, scattered along the beach a little below
+the port. My jockey friend was continually trying to
+pump out of me upon which of the horses in the approaching
+race it was my intention to bet, urging me
+as a friend not to throw away my money on the roan or
+chestnut, although appearances were in their favor, but
+to go in heavy on the black mare; and notwithstanding
+I assured him it was not my intention to risk any portion
+of my capital on this race, he was pertinacious in
+giving me his advice, and could not be convinced that I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+know nothing about the horses, and never bet on races
+of any kind. &ldquo;Sare,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you are a stranger.
+These Russians are great rascals. They will cheat you
+out of your eyes. I speakee English. I am your friend.&rdquo;
+I thanked him very cordially, but assured him there was
+no danger of my being cheated. He then went into a
+dissertation on the relative merits of the horses, to prove
+that it was impossible for me, a perfect stranger, to escape
+bankruptcy among so many sharpers. &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said
+I, &ldquo;the horse-race takes place to-morrow, does it not?&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Yes, sare, to-morrow at three o&rsquo;clock! You will be
+there? I shall also be there!&rdquo; &ldquo;But, my good friend,
+I leave to-night in the steamer; therefore all your kindness
+is thrown away!&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh! you must not leave to-night.
+You must see the horse-race!&rdquo; In vain I assured
+him it was impossible for me to remain. He was
+not to be put off on any pretext, and, having made up
+his mind that I must remain, I was forced to drop the
+subject and let him have his way. While he was enlarging
+upon the merits of the black mare, my attention
+was attracted by a group of bathers&mdash;ladies, as I judged
+by their voices, though, as they were dressed in rather
+a fantastic style, I could not perceive any other indication
+of the sex. One of the party&mdash;a lively young girl
+of sixteen or seventeen&mdash;seemed to be a perfect mermaid.
+She plunged and swam, ducked and dived, kicked
+up her delicate little feet, and disappeared under the
+surf in a way that struck me with awe and admiration.
+Never was there such an enchanting picture of perfect
+abandonment to the enjoyment of the occasion. A poetic
+feeling I took possession of me. Visions of grottoes
+under the deep sea waves, and beautiful princesses and
+maidens, filled my soul. I thought of Gulnare in the
+Arabian Nights, and felt disposed, like Mirza, the King
+of Persia, to &ldquo;embrace her with great tenderness.&rdquo; It
+was really a very pretty sight. &ldquo;Sare,&rdquo; said my companion,
+confidentially, &ldquo;take my advice. She is blind of
+one eye, and has a strain in the fore leg, but you may
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+bet on her! I jockeyed her for six months before the
+last race.&rdquo; He was still talking about the black mare.
+I turned away to hide my impatience. After a few
+words of desultory conversation, I excused myself on
+the plea of sickness, and bade him good-evening.</p>
+
+<p>At 8&nbsp;P.M. I took my departure from Revel. A new
+batch of passengers had come on board. We were soon
+steaming our way across the Gulf of Finland. I had
+rarely spent a more pleasant day, and, if time had permitted,
+would gladly have prolonged my sojourn in the
+quaint old city of Revel. The summer nights were still
+incomparably beautiful. A glow of sunshine was visible
+in the sky as late as eleven o&rsquo;clock. At two, the rays of
+the rising sun began to illuminate the horizon. A dead
+calm gave to the sleeping waters of the Gulf the appearance
+of a lake; and as we approached the shores of Helsingfors,
+the illusion was heightened by innumerable
+little islands, clothed with verdant slopes of grass and
+groves of pine. The harbor of Helsingfors derives a peculiar
+interest from its system of fortifications. Nature
+seems to have done much to render it impregnable; and
+what Nature has not done has been accomplished by the
+military genius of the Russians. Immense masses of
+rock rise from the water in every direction, leaving deep
+narrow passages between for vessels. Every rock is a
+fortress. The steamer passed through a perfect maze
+of fortifications. Guns bore upon us from all sides&mdash;out
+of the forts, out of holes in the rocks&mdash;in short, out of
+every conceivable nook and crevice in the bay. The
+very rocks seemed to be alive with sentinels and to bustle
+with armories. Probably there is no part of the
+Russian dominions, except Cronstadt, more thoroughly
+fortified than Sweaborg. The system of engineering
+displayed upon this point evinces the highest order of
+military genius. The fortifications embrace a series of
+forts, castles, barracks, and military establishments of
+various kinds, situated on seven islands of solid rock,
+forming the different channels of approach to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+harbor. Count Ehrensuerd, Field-marshal of Sweden, is
+entitled to the credit of having devised the original system
+of fortifications, afterward so successfully carried
+out by the Czars of Russia. This was the last rallying-point
+of the Swedes during the war with Russia. In
+1808, Admiral Cronstadt, the commander of the Swedish
+forces, who had hitherto proved himself a brave and patriotic
+officer, submitted to terms of capitulation and delivered
+over the forts to the Russians. History scarcely
+furnishes a parallel to such a wanton and unaccountable
+act of treachery. Cronstadt had fifteen hundred men,
+two frigates, and all the munitions of war to hold his
+position against any force that could be brought against
+him; while the Russians were reduced to great extremities,
+and, it is said, had scarcely force enough left to
+man the forts after they were evacuated by the Swedes.
+Sufficient testimony has been gathered by historians to
+show that Cronstadt bartered his honor for money; yet,
+strange to say, such is the high estimation in which he
+was originally held by the Swedes, that many of them
+to this day profess to disbelieve that he was capable of
+such an infamous crime. It is thought by some that he
+must have been laboring under some mental hallucination
+at the time of the capitulation. Be that as it may,
+the success of the Russian arms was doubtless greatly
+facilitated by this act of treason. Cronstadt, like Benedict
+Arnold, died an isolated and broken-hearted man.
+His ill-gotten gains were but a poor recompense for the
+infamy entailed upon his name. Such, indeed, as all history
+shows, has been and must ever be the fate of all
+traitors to their country.</p>
+
+<p>Helsingfors was founded by Gustavus Vasa in the sixteenth
+century. A portion of the old town is still visible,
+though there is little about it beyond a few ruined
+walls possessing much historical interest. After the
+Russians obtained possession they enlarged and improved
+the city upon its present site, and in 1819 it became
+the capital of Finland. In 1827 Abo suffered from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+a general conflagration, after which the grand University
+of that city was removed to Helsingfors, which now
+comprises the most important public buildings and institutions
+in Finland. Among these are the senate-house,
+the palace of the governor, the Museum, the Botanical
+Garden, the Observatory, etc. The streets in the lower
+parts of the city are broad and regular, and many of the
+houses are quite as good as the generality of private residences
+in Moscow or St. Petersburg. The principal
+church, which is built in the form of a Greek cross, is a
+conspicuous and imposing edifice, standing near the centre
+of the town on a rocky eminence, presenting on the
+approach up the harbor a peculiarly Russian effect with
+its gilded domes and crosses. The green roofs of the
+houses also remind one that he is still within the dominions
+of Russia; and if any doubt on that point should
+remain after landing from the steamer, it is speedily dispelled
+by the vast numbers of Russian soldiers and officers
+constantly marching about the streets.</p>
+
+<p>I had two days to devote to the objects of interest in
+and around Helsingfors. For convenience and economy,
+I took a room in a Finnish hotel, on one of the back
+streets. Having deposited my knapsack, my first visit
+was to the Observatory, from which a beautiful view is
+to be had of the harbor and fortifications. From this
+point of observation a very good idea may be formed of
+the extent and general character of the town. It covers
+a large area of solid rocks, the entire foundation consisting
+of immense round boulders, forming a succession of
+ups and downs singularly varied in outline and picturesque
+at every point of view. Beyond the main part of
+the town, toward the interior, the country is mountainous,
+and covered for the most part with dense forests of
+pine. Cultivation has made but little progress beyond
+the immediate suburbs. A few miles from the waters
+of the bay the eye rests upon an apparently untrodden
+wilderness of rocky heights and pine forests, and toward
+the Gulf nothing can exceed the desolate grandeur of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+scene. Rock-bound islands, upon which the surf breaks
+with an unceasing moan; points and promontories covered
+with dark forests; a rugged coast, dimly looming
+through the mist; innumerable sea-gulls whirling and
+screaming over the dizzy pinnacles, are its principal features.
+While I was seated on a bank of moss near the
+Observatory, enjoying the beauties of the scene, strains
+of music were wafted up on the breeze from the shady
+recesses of the Botanical Gardens, toward which I saw
+that the citizens were wending their way. It was Sunday,
+which here as well as in Germany is a day of recreation.
+I took a by-path and speedily joined the crowd.
+The people of every degree are well dressed and respectable,
+and I was somewhat surprised to find so much politeness,
+cultivation, and intelligence in such an out-of-the-way
+part of the world. The music was excellent,
+and the display of style and fashion in the gardens was
+quite equal to any thing I had seen in my European
+travels. From what little I saw of the Finns, I was
+greatly prepossessed in their favor. They seem to me
+to be a primitive, substantial, and reliable race, strong
+in their affections, kind and hospitable toward strangers,
+amiable and inoffensive, yet brave and patriotic&mdash;hating
+the Russians with a cordiality truly refreshing. I formed
+a casual acquaintance with several of them during my
+rambles about the Garden. No sooner did they discern
+my nationality than they gave me to understand that
+their Constitution had been violated, their liberties
+trampled under foot, their rights disregarded, and their
+patience under all these injuries misconstrued. &ldquo;We
+only await an opportunity,&rdquo; they said, &ldquo;to prove to the
+world that we are still a free-born people. The time is
+not distant. In the heart of every Finn burns the spirit
+of a freeman and a patriot! We are not a race doomed
+to slavery. You who are an American can understand
+us! We only want a chance to cast off the chains of
+despotism which now oppress us. It is coming: we are
+overpowered now, but not conquered! We hate the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+Russians! No true Finn can ever amalgamate with
+such a race!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This was the strain in which I was constantly addressed.
+Notwithstanding the electoral privileges guaranteed
+to the Finns under their Constitution, and the fact
+that many of the municipal offices are filled by themselves,
+there is no more community of interest between
+them and their rulers than between the Italians and the
+Austrians. Their hatred of the government and of all
+its concomitants is implacable. It seemed a luxury to
+some of these poor people to find a sympathizing listener.
+I met many intelligent Finns, both in Helsingfors
+and Abo, who spoke good English, and never conversed
+with one for five minutes without hearing the same
+strong expressions of dislike to the present condition of
+affairs, and sanguine hopes for the future. There is only
+hope for them, that I can see&mdash;that the emancipation of
+the serfs may lead to the establishment of a more liberal
+system of government throughout the Russian dominions.
+All hopes based upon isolated revolutions are futile.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A BATHING SCENE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I devoted the afternoon to a stroll on the sea-shore,
+which presents many interesting features in the neighborhood
+of Helsingfors. A considerable portion of the
+town, as already stated, is built upon immense boulders
+of solid rock, and some of the streets are entirely impracticable
+for wheeled vehicles, owing to the rugged
+masses of stone with which Nature has thought proper
+to pave them. Indeed, it is no easy task for a pedestrian
+to make his way through the suburbs, over the tremendous
+slippery boulders that lie scattered over the earth in
+every direction, the trail being in some instances higher
+than the houses. I can not conceive how people can
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+travel over such streets in wet weather; it seems a task
+only fit for goats under favorable circumstances; but the
+Finns are an ingenious people, and probably ride on the
+backs of the goats when walking is impracticable. Passing
+the straggling lines of fishermen&rsquo;s huts forming the
+outskirts of the town, I rambled over two or three miles
+of rocky fields till I found myself on the shores of the
+gulf, at a point sufficiently lonesome and desolate to be a
+thousand miles from any inhabited portion of the globe.
+Taking possession of a natural chair, worn in the rocks
+by the rains of many centuries, I seated myself upon its
+mossy cushion, and, baring my head to the pleasant sea-breeze,
+quietly enjoyed the scene. Perhaps this very seat
+was the throne of an old viking! Here were sea-shells,
+and glittering pebbles, and tufts of moss for his crown;
+and here were sea-gulls to make music for him, and the
+spray from the wild waves to keep him cool; and a
+thousand rock-bound islands, lying outspread to the
+north, with grottoes in them for his ships; and piles upon
+piles of rocky palaces all around, covered with golden
+roofs of moss; and every thing, in short, that could make
+glad the heart of a grim old viking residing on the edge
+of the arctic circle. And if this summer scene, with its
+blue sea, and wood-capped islands, and warm sun, and
+balmy breeze, could not make glad his heart, it would
+not be difficult to imagine what changes winter could
+bring over it, and how the old viking, sitting on his
+throne by the sea-shore, could enjoy the dead and icy
+waste before him; and how the winter drifts would whistle
+through his hair; and how cheery the jagged rocks
+would look peeping up out of the snow-drifts; and how
+balmy would be the night-air at sixty degrees below
+freezing-point; and how the old viking would shake his
+beard with laughter as he warmed his hands in a midday
+sun, only ten feet above the horizon, and make the
+icicles rattle on his chin; and sit thus laughing and blowing
+his fingers, and rattling his icy beard, and saying to
+himself, &ldquo;What a blessing to be a Finlander! How
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+horribly the natives of Spain and Italy must suffer from bad
+climate! What a pity it is Finland is not large enough
+to accommodate the whole human race.&rdquo; With such
+thoughts as these I amused myself for some time, soothed
+and charmed by the pleasant sea-breeze and the music
+of the waves upon the rocks. The air was deliciously
+pure, and the odor of the sea-weeds had something in it
+so healthful and inspiring that I was insensibly carried
+back to by-gone days. How short a time it seemed since
+I was a wanderer upon the rock-bound shores of Juan
+Fernandez, yet how many strange scenes I had passed
+through since then&mdash;how much of the world I had seen,
+with its toils, and troubles, and vicissitudes! Here I
+was now, after years of travel in every clime, among the
+various nations of the earth, sitting solitary and alone
+upon an isolated rock on the shores of Finland! Whither
+was I going? What was the object? Where was
+the result? When was it to end? Years were creeping
+over me; I was no longer in the heyday of youth,
+yet the vague aspirations of boyhood still clung to me&mdash;the
+insatiable craving to see more and more of the world&mdash;the
+undefined hope that I would yet live to be cast
+away upon a desolate island, and become a worthy disciple
+of the immortal Robinson Crusoe! Ah me! What
+a lonesome feeling it is to be a visionary, enthusiastic
+boy all one&rsquo;s life, in this practical world of dollars and
+cents, where other boys are men, and men forget that
+they ever were young! But this, you say, is all sentimental
+nonsense. Of course it is. I admit the full folly
+of such thoughts. It would be a pitiable spectacle indeed
+to see every body inspired by the vagabond spirit
+of Robinson Crusoe. No doubt, if you were sitting upon
+a rock on the Gulf of Finland, my respected Californian
+friend, you would be hammering off the croppings and
+trying to discover the indications. You consider that
+the true philosophy of life&mdash;to dig, and delve, and burrow
+in the ground, and get gold and silver out of it, and
+suffer rheumatism in your bones and cramps in your
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+stomach, and wear out your life in a practical way, while
+we visionaries are dreaming sentimental nonsense! But,
+after all, does the one pay any better than the other in
+the long run? Will gold or silver make you see farther
+into a millstone, or give you a better appetite, or put
+youth and health into your veins, or cause you to sleep
+more soundly of nights, or prolong your life to an indefinite
+period beyond the span allotted to the average of
+mankind? Will you never be convinced of the truth of
+these inspired words, which can not be repeated too often:
+As you brought nothing into the world, so you can
+take nothing out of it?</p>
+
+<p>Come, then, let us be young again, and dash into the
+blue waters of Finland, and buffet the sparkling brine as
+it seethes and boils over the rocks! Away with your
+gold and your silver, and your toils and cares, and let us
+play Robinson Crusoe and Friday here in this solitary
+little glen, where &ldquo;our right there is none to dispute&rdquo;&mdash;unless
+it may be the Czar of Russia. Off with your shirt,
+your boots, your drawers, your all, and be for once a genuine
+savage&mdash;be my man Friday, and I&rsquo;ll teach you how
+to enjoy life. Ye gods! doesn&rsquo;t it feel fine&mdash;that plunge
+in the foaming brine! Why, you look like a boiled lobster
+already; the glow of health is all over you; your
+eyes sparkle, your skin glistens; you shoot out the salt
+sea-spray from your nostrils in a manner that would surprise
+any porpoise; you whoop and you yell like a young
+devil let loose! Never in the world would I take you
+to be a hard, money-making, lucre-loving man! Why,
+my dear Friday, you are a perfect jewel of a savage! I
+didn&rsquo;t know it was you, and doubt if you knew it yourself!
+Isn&rsquo;t it glorious? I feel a thousand years younger!
+Don&rsquo;t you hear me singing,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Oh, poor Robinson Crusoe!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Tinky ting tang, tinky ting tang,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, poor Robinson Crusoe!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>But the water is rather fresh&mdash;considering how much
+salt there is in it. We had better take a race over the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+rocks. Run, Friday, for your life. If I catch you, overboard
+you go into the sea again. Run, you savage, run!
+Voices? you say, human voices?</p>
+
+<p>Great Heavens! Where are you, Friday? Gone! disappeared
+behind that projecting ledge of rocks. And
+here am I, all alone, up to my arm-pits in the water, with
+a group of Finnish ladies standing there, not a hundred
+yards off, looking at me!&mdash;ay, gazing steadfastly at me,
+and, what is worse, splitting their sides laughing at my
+confusion! What in the world is to be done? The water
+seems to be growing colder and colder. I am chilled
+through. My jaws begin to chatter. Suppose a shark
+should seize me by the leg&mdash;or a sudden and violent
+cramp should take possession of me? My gracious!
+what are those women doing now? Actually seating
+themselves on the rocks, within ten steps of my clothes,
+and spreading several packages of bread, cheese, and
+cakes around them! They are going to enjoy a picnic
+while I enjoy my bath! I hear their merry voices; I
+can imagine the general drift of their jokes. How innocently
+they eat, and drink, and laugh. Possibly they
+take me for a seal or a walrus! Certainly nothing is visible
+but my head, on the crown of which, I regret to say,
+is a bald spot about the size of your hand. It may be
+very funny to see it dodging up and down among the
+breakers&mdash;but I can&rsquo;t stand it much longer. Already
+the spray has wellnigh strangled me; I shiver all over;
+a horrible presentiment is uppermost in my mind that
+polypi, and sea-leeches, and shiny jelly-fish are fastening
+their suckers upon my legs; I jump, and kick, and plunge
+in an agony of apprehension, while those fair creatures
+on the rock imagine, no doubt, that I am disporting myself
+in sheer exuberance of joy. If they only knew that
+I had been full half an hour in the water before they appeared,
+there might be some hope of a release; but that
+does not seem to have entered their heads.</p>
+
+<p>Never in all my experience, reader, was I in such a
+predicament. This is no fancy sketch. It is true, every
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+word of it. Had the picnickers been old ladies, I might
+have shut my eyes, and made a break out of the water
+for my clothes; but three of them, at least, were young,
+and, worse than that, very pretty! The courage for so
+daring and monstrous an act was not in me. I felt that
+it would be easier to die; and yet to die in this way is
+pretty hard when it comes to a practical test. What the
+deuce was to be done? I could not speak a word of
+Finnish, otherwise I might have implored them to retire
+a few hundred yards and let me get my clothes. With
+a shirt, or even a pocket-handkerchief, I might have
+charged upon the enemy; but I had nothing&mdash;not even
+a hat&mdash;as a shield against the battery of sparkling eyes
+that bore down upon me! A thousand expedients flashed
+through my mind in the extremity of my sufferings.
+I would slip out of the water on all-fours, and creep over
+the rocks like a seal, but that would be an extremely ungraceful
+way of approaching a bevy of strange ladies.
+Then it occurred to me if I could get hold of a bunch of
+sea-weeds, it might serve as a temporary substitute for a
+costume; but the weeds had all drifted away by this
+time, and not a patch was in sight. Even a large oyster-shell
+might have afforded some assistance; but who ever
+heard of oyster-shells in the Gulf of Finland? Nothing
+remained save to dive down and seize a big rock, detach
+it from the bottom, and, holding it up before me, make
+a break for the pile of clothes; yet when I came to consider
+the preposterous spectacle that a middle-aged man
+would present in a state of nudity charging full tilt upon
+a party of ladies, with a big rock in his hands and a
+gleam of desperation in his eye, the idea seemed too
+monstrous to be entertained, and I was forced to give it
+up. The difficulty was becoming really serious. Doubtless
+it appears very funny to my California friends, but
+I can assure them it was pretty near death to me. I
+would have given ten dollars for the poorest cotton shirt
+that was ever dealt out by an Indian agent to a Reservation
+Digger; nay, transparent as the blankets are, I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+might have made one serve my purpose by doubling it
+three or four times and holding it up front.</p>
+
+<p>All this, however, though very well in its way, did not
+relieve me from my embarrassing predicament. Something
+must be done, and that very speedily. I was rapidly
+wilting under the chilling influence of the water.
+Ten minutes more would render me a fit subject for a
+coroner&rsquo;s inquest. I saw but one alternative: to work
+my course a few hundred yards up the shore, and then
+creep out the best way I could, and run for my life till I
+found some friendly nook among the rocks in which I
+could conceal myself till these fair Finns took a notion to
+depart.</p>
+
+<p>Acting upon this idea, I ducked down as low as possible,
+and crept over the jagged and slippery rocks, in mortal
+dread all the time that some receding wave would
+leave me a dripping spectacle for these fair damsels to
+laugh at; till, bruised and scarified beyond farther endurance,
+I worked my way to a landing-place, where I
+paused in a recumbent position&mdash;that is to say, on all-fours&mdash;to
+take an observation. They must have perceived
+something ludicrous in my attitude. A wild scream of
+laughter saluted my ears. I could stand no more. What
+little warmth was left in my blood forced itself into my
+head and face as I sprang to my feet. With a groan of
+shame and mortification, I took to my heels; and never
+before, so help me Jupiter! did I run so fast in my life.
+Scream after scream of laughter followed me! It is impossible
+for me to conjecture how I looked, but I felt
+dreadfully destitute of sail as I scudded over the rough
+pathway that wound around the shore. Blushing, panting,
+and utterly overwhelmed with conflicting emotions
+of modesty and despair, I darted behind the friendly shelter
+of a rock, and inwardly resolved that if ever I went
+bathing in Finland again, I would at least perform my
+ablutions in a more appropriate costume than Nature
+had bestowed upon me.</p>
+
+<p>The next question was, how long were these people
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+going to enjoy themselves at my expense? Was I to
+be blockaded from my clothes all the rest of the afternoon?
+I could not, upon any principle of international
+law, undertake to break the blockade on the ground that
+it was not effectual, and yet it was pretty hard to do
+without my cotton. What I had suffered from the cold
+while in the water was nothing to what I now began to
+experience from the unobstructed rays of the sun. My
+skin was rapidly assuming every variety of color supposed
+to exist in the rainbow, and a painful consciousness
+possessed me that in half an hour more I would be
+blistered from head to foot. There was no shade on my
+side of the rock, and nothing any where in sight that
+could afford the least protection. Racked with renewed
+anguish, I peeped out to see if there was any earthly
+prospect reaching my clothes. Horror upon horror!
+what were they doing now? Did my eyes deceive me?
+As sure as fate, they were all quietly undressing themselves!
+Hats, scarves, parasols and dresses were scattered
+all around them; there they sat, on the moss-covered
+rocks, their alabaster necks and limbs glistening in the
+sun, looking for all the world like a bevy of mermaids,
+laughing and chattering in the highest glee, perfectly indifferent
+to my presence! I saw no more. A dizziness
+came over me. Consternation seized my inmost soul.
+Drawing back behind the rock. I held my face close up
+to it and shut both my eyes. Don&rsquo;t talk to me about
+courage! Every man is a coward by nature. Of what
+avail was it that I had killed whales and chased grizzly
+bears? Here I was now, hiding my face, shutting my
+eyes, trembling in the hot sun like a man with an ague,
+both knees knocking together, and my heart ready to
+pop out of my mouth from abject fear! Strange&mdash;wasn&rsquo;t
+it?&mdash;especially after having made the grand tour
+of Europe, in many parts of which live men and women
+are ranked with statuary. What harm is there, after all,
+in discarding those artificial trappings which disfigure
+the human form divine? Many a man who looks like
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
+an Apollo Belvidere in his natural condition, becomes a
+very commonplace fellow the moment he steps into his
+conventional disguise. He is no longer heroic; he may
+be a very vulgar-looking mortal, not at all calculated to
+produce classical impressions on any body. His form
+divine has fallen into the hands of a tailor, who may be
+neither an artist or a poet. And since we can admire
+an Apollo Belvidere, why not a Venus de Medici, or,
+still more, the living, breathing impersonation of beauty
+buffeting the waves with</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Shapely limb and lubricated joint.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>But, hang it all! though not an ill-shaped man, I don&rsquo;t
+flatter myself there was any thing in my personal appearance,
+as I crouched behind the rock, shutting both eyes
+as hard as I could, to remind the most enthusiastic artist
+of the Apollo Belvidere! Nay, the gifted Hawthorne
+himself could scarcely have made a Marble Faun out of
+so unpromising a subject. And as for the fair bathers,
+who by this time were plunging about in the water like
+naiads, it would of course be impossible for me to say
+how far they were improved by lack of costume, since I
+looked in another direction, and kept my eyes faithfully
+closed from the very beginning. The question now occurred
+to me, Would I not be justified by the law of nations
+in breaking the blockade? It was now or never.
+If they once commenced dressing, farewell to hope!
+Well, I did it. Heaven only knows how I got through
+the terrible ordeal. I only remember that desperation
+gave strength and speed to my limbs, and I ran with incredible
+velocity. A moment of terrible confusion ensued
+as I grasped at my scattered habiliments. There
+came a scream of laughter from the wicked naiads who
+were sporting in the waves. I fled over the hills&mdash;my
+bundle in my arms&mdash;and never once stopped till I reached
+a small valley about half a mile distant. Breathless,
+mortified, and bewildered at the oddity of the adventure.
+I hurriedly dressed, and walked back to town. Arrived
+at my hotel, I called for a bottle of schnapps, retired to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+my room, locked the door, and fervently ejaculated,
+&ldquo;&lsquo;All&rsquo;s well that ends well!&rsquo; Here&rsquo;s to the ladies of
+Helsingfors! But if ever you catch me in such a scrape
+again, my name&rsquo;s not Browne!&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>ABO&mdash;FINLAND.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I was strongly inclined to spend several weeks in Helsingfors.
+The bathing is delightful, and the manners and
+customs of the people are primitive and interesting. My
+adventure on the sea-shore, as I soon discovered, was
+nothing uncommon. I mentioned the matter to my landlady&mdash;a
+Finnish woman of very sociable manners, who
+spoke a little English. I asked her if it was customary
+for the ladies to dispense with bathing-dresses. She said
+they generally wore something when they bathed in public,
+but beyond the limits of the regular bath-houses, at
+the end of the Botanical Gardens, they seldom troubled
+themselves about matters of that kind; in fact, they preferred
+going in without any obstruction, because &ldquo;they
+could swim so much better.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Having procured my passport at the Bureau of the
+Police, I took passage in a Swedish steamer bound for
+Abo and Stockholm. Next morning by daylight the
+steamer arrived from St. Petersburg. I went on board,
+and in a few hours more the fortifications of Sweaborg
+were dim in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>The accommodations on board the Swedish steamers
+are excellent. I took passage in the second cabin, for the
+sake of economy, and found every thing as clean and
+comfortable as I could desire. The waiters are polite
+and attentive, the fare is good, and the company quiet
+and respectable. The difference in this respect is very
+striking between first and second class passengers on
+board of American and Swedish steamers. In the latter
+there is no rowdyism&mdash;no incivility from officers or
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+servants; and, so far as the passengers are concerned, I
+could not perceive that they were debarred from any of
+the privileges enjoyed by passengers of the first class.
+They had the entire range of the vessel, and were treated
+with the same respect and consideration shown to
+others who possessed the means of indulgence in a little
+more style. I have been particularly pleased with this
+trait in the management of public conveyances throughout
+Europe. In Sweden and Norway it is especially
+characteristic. The commonest deck-passenger on board
+a Swedish or Norwegian steamer is treated with courtesy.
+Indeed, I have seen instances of care and tenderness
+toward the poorer classes, whose circumstances
+compelled them to travel in this way, that I regret to
+say would excite astonishment in our own democratic
+country. I can scarcely understand why it is that the
+captain and officers of a steam-ship on our side of the
+water consider it their duty to harass passengers who
+do not pay the highest price with all sorts of vexatious
+restrictions, and to render their condition as uncomfortable
+as possible. To be overbearing, insolent, and ungentlemanly
+seems to be the only aim of these important
+functionaries, and, so far as my experience goes, they succeed
+so well in this respect that if they do not actually
+prove themselves brutes and blackguards during the passage,
+they are usually rewarded for their forbearance, on
+reaching the port of destination, by a card of thanks. I
+have seen no such insolence on the part of officers and
+slavishness on that of passengers on board of any Swedish
+or Norwegian steamer, as I have often seen on the
+Panama and California coast steamers. Yet cards of
+thanks are not common in Europe. In fact, they would
+be regarded as a reflection upon the officers rather than
+an evidence of complimentary appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>The coast of Finland from Helsingfors to Abo abounds
+in small rocky islands, covered, for the most part, with a
+stunted growth of pine. The outline of the main land
+is extremely rugged and irregular, presenting a succession
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+of promontories, bays, and inlets, weather-beaten
+cliffs of granite, and gloomy pine forests. No sign of
+habitation is to be seen during the entire voyage, with
+the exception of an occasional group of fishermen&rsquo;s huts
+or a custom-house station. The whole country has the
+appearance of an unbroken wilderness. The steamer
+plows her way, hour after hour, through the narrow and
+winding passages that lie between the islands&mdash;sometimes
+so close to the overhanging cliffs and rugged boulders
+of granite as almost to touch&mdash;and often apparently
+land-locked amid the maze of islands and promontories.
+While there is nothing grand or imposing in the scenery,
+the coast of Finland is certainly one of the most interesting
+portions of the world, in a geological point of view.
+The singular formation of the rocks, their rich and varied
+colors, and the strange manner in which Nature has
+grouped them together, afford an endless variety of interesting
+studies. The utter isolation of the inhabitants
+from the busy world, their rude and primitive mode of
+life, their simplicity, hardihood, and daring; the rigors
+of climate to which they are subject, and their strong attachment
+to their sea-girt homes and perilous pursuits,
+render the trip interesting to the general tourist, who,
+though not skilled in geology, may be supposed to possess,
+like myself, a fancy for gathering up odds and ends
+touching the condition of his fellow-beings.</p>
+
+<p>The people of this coast region are a hardy race, whose
+wild habits of life and isolation from the great outer
+world develop in them many striking and peculiar traits
+of character. During the long winters, when the bays,
+inlets, and harbors are blocked with ice, they become
+wood-choppers or lumbermen, and spend their time chiefly
+in the forests. Upon the breaking up of winter they
+prepare their nets and fishing-gear, and, as soon as the
+season permits, set forth in their little smacks, and devote
+the principal part of the summer to catching and
+curing fish, for which they find a ready sale at the stations
+along the shore, frequented by traders from St.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+Petersburg. They live in small cabins, built of pine logs,
+rarely consisting of more than two rooms. Each family
+owns a small patch of ground, with an unlimited range
+of forest. A few cows or goats, a vegetable garden, and
+some chickens or ducks, constitute all they require for
+domestic use, and these are usually attended by the women
+and children during the absence of the men on their
+fishing expeditions. Education is at a low ebb among
+them, though the rudimental branches are not altogether
+neglected. They are a simple, hospitable, and kind-hearted
+people, ignorant and superstitious, yet by no means
+deficient in natural capacity. No better sailors than the
+Finns are to be found in any part of the world, and there
+is scarcely a sea throughout the arctic regions which has
+not been visited by their vessels. Although the climate
+is rigorous during a considerable portion of the year, the
+Finns prefer it to any other in the world, and conscientiously
+believe the garden of Paradise must have been
+originally located in Finland. The lower classes are contented
+and happy, caring little for affairs of government,
+unless they happen to be subjected to some peculiar or
+oppressive restraints. As the traveler approaches the
+Gulf of Bothnia, they assimilate very closely to the same
+classes in Sweden, and but little difference is perceptible
+either in their language or costume. The educated classes,
+such as the professional men, merchants, bankers, traders,
+etc., are as polished as most people throughout the
+North of Europe, and many of them are distinguished
+for their cultivated manners and general intelligence.
+Such of these as I conversed with on board the steamer
+impressed me very favorably. I found them liberal in
+their sentiments, and devoted admirers of our American
+institutions. Yet, strange to say, the only secessionist I
+met in the course of my wanderings in this region was
+a Finn. Hearing me speak English, he immediately
+opened a conversation on the subject of the revolutionary
+movement in the United States. He did not know
+what we were fighting for; thought the North was acting
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+very badly; regarded the people of the South as an
+oppressed and persecuted race; believed in slavery;
+considered the Lincoln government a perfect despotism,
+etc. In short, his views were a general epitome of the
+speeches, proclamations, and messages of the leading rebels
+throughout the South. I listened to him with great
+patience. He had an interesting family on board, all of
+whom spoke English; and what struck me as peculiar,
+a species of negro English common in the Southern
+States. &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said I, at length, &ldquo;you surprise me! I
+had not expected to meet so strong an advocate of slavery
+and slave institutions in this latitude. Can it be
+possible that you are a Finn?&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; he answered,
+&ldquo;a genuine Finn&mdash;now on a visit to my native country
+after an absence of twenty-five years.&rdquo; &ldquo;Then you must
+have lived in the South?&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, sir; in Montgomery,
+Alabama. I have property there. It was getting pretty
+bad there for a family, and I thought I had better pay
+a visit to Finland while the war was going on.&rdquo; This
+accounted for the peculiar sentiments of my fellow-traveler!
+He seemed to be a very nice old gentleman, and
+I was sorry to find him tinctured with the heresies of rebellion.
+Farther conversation with him satisfied me that
+if he could get his property out of Montgomery, and put
+it in Massachusetts, he would be a very respectable Union
+man. I don&rsquo;t think his heart was in the movement,
+though his pocket, doubtless, felt a considerable interest
+in it.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Abo, formerly the capital of Finland&mdash;now
+a place of no great importance except as a custom-house
+and military station&mdash;is beautifully situated on
+the banks of a river called the Aurajoki, about three
+miles above its mouth. Vessels of medium draught, including
+the coasting steamers, have no difficulty in ascending
+as far as the bridge, where they lie alongside
+the wharves and receive or discharge freight. Those of
+larger draught usually anchor off the village of Boxholm,
+a picturesque gathering of red cottages, with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+high peaked roofs, situated at the entrance of the river.
+Above the village, on the summit of a rocky cliff, stands
+the fort of Abohus, ready at a moment&rsquo;s notice to pour
+a broadside into any enemy of Imperial Russia that may
+undertake to pass up the river.</p>
+
+<p>Abo, since the removal of the capital and University
+to Helsingfors and the great conflagration of 1827, which
+destroyed two thirds of the town, has fallen into decay,
+and now does not contain a population of more than ten
+or twelve thousand souls. Spread over an area of several
+miles square, with a sufficient number of houses to
+accommodate twice or three times the population, its
+broad, stone-paved thoroughfares and numerous untenanted
+buildings have a peculiarly desolate appearance.
+Back a little from the river the pedestrian may walk
+half a mile at midday without meeting a single soul in
+the streets. A dead silence reigns over these deserted
+quarters, as if the prevailing lethargy had fallen upon
+the few inhabitants that remain. Grass grows on the
+sidewalks, and the basement walls of the houses are covered
+with moss. A dank, chilly mildew seems to hang
+in the air. One might become green all over, like a neglected
+tomb-stone, should he forget himself and stand
+too long in one spot. I spent a considerable portion of
+the day rambling through these melancholy by-ways, and
+must admit that the effect upon my spirits was not cheering.
+Now and then the apparition of some cadaverous
+old woman, wrinkled with age&mdash;a greenish hue upon her
+features&mdash;would appear unexpectedly at some unexpected
+opening in one of the ruinous old houses, and startle
+me by a gaze of wonder or some unintelligible speech
+addressed to herself. Probably a human being had not
+been seen in that vicinity for the last month. Sometimes
+a slatternly servant-girl would appear in the distance,
+her dress bedraggled with slops, a tub of water
+on the pavement close by, and a long-handled mop in her
+hand, with which she seemed to be vigorously engaged
+in scrubbing the green slime and tufts of moss off the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+window-sills; but catching a sight of the strangers, down
+would go the mop, and then the usual hasty attempt
+would be made at fixing her hair and otherwise increasing
+her personal charms. As I drew near, this useful
+member of society would naturally take a sidelong glance
+at the strange gentleman, and perceiving that he was
+uncommonly attractive in personal appearance, it was
+quite natural she should make a neat little courtesy and
+say &ldquo;<i>Got Aften!</i>&rdquo; to which, of course, I always responded
+in the most affable manner, not forgetting to say to
+myself, in an audible tone, &ldquo;Sken Jumfru!&rdquo;&mdash;a pretty
+girl. No harm in that, is there?</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon I walked out to a public garden about
+two miles from town, where there are some very pleasant
+promenades, a large building containing a ballroom,
+and numerous pavilions for refreshments. It was a festive
+occasion, and the &eacute;lite and fashion of Abo were assembled
+there in their best attire. The music was inspiring.
+Dancing seemed contagious. The ballroom
+was crowded, and old and young were whirling about
+on the light fantastic toe with a zest and spirit truly inspiring.
+Old gentlemen with bald heads seemed to have
+forgotten their age and infirmities, and whirled the
+blooming damsels around in the dizzy mazes of the waltz
+as dexterously as the youngest; and young gentlemen
+hopped about quite frantic with joy, and altogether bewildered
+with the beauty of their partners. It was really
+a pretty sight. Rarely had I seen so many pleasant
+faces of both sexes, especially those of the ladies. Good-humor,
+simplicity, and frankness were their predominant
+traits. All ceremony seemed to be cast aside, and every
+body participated in the dance as if it were one great
+family frolic. The formality of introduction was dispensed
+with, or probably most of the guests were already
+acquainted. The fiddlers scraped louder and louder;
+wilder and faster blew the horns, and on went the dance
+with increasing vigor. I was getting excited&mdash;the spirit
+of the thing was contagious. Though not much of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+dancer, yet I had occasionally in my life filled a place in
+a reel or a cotillon. Waltzing, to be sure, was a little
+beyond my experience, but I had a general idea of the
+figure, and could not perceive that there was any thing
+very difficult about it. Most of the waltzers here whirled
+around with great ease, and I could see no reason
+why it would not be entirely practicable for an active
+man like myself, who thought nothing of climbing high
+mountains or jumping across small rivers, to do the
+same. Besides, these people were strangers; it would
+be a good opportunity to try my skill. Doubtless, any
+of the young ladies would oblige me if I asked them to
+dance. They seemed to oblige every body that asked
+them, and showed no signs of fatigue. Indeed, they
+looked fresher and more vigorous after every bout. I
+was particularly charmed with the appearance of one
+young lady. Her complexion was florid, and her figure
+absolutely magnificent. At a rough guess she must
+have weighed a hundred and eighty pounds. Every
+time she whirled past me I could feel the floor give way.
+Her partner was rather small, and revolved around her
+like a planet round the sun. When she laughed, which
+was nearly all the time, her beautiful mouth opened at
+least two thirds of the way across her face, revealing a
+set of teeth to which flakes of snow, pearls, or any thing
+of that kind could bear no comparison. The extraordinary
+vigor of this girl, her tremendous powers of endurance,
+her weight, beauty, and good-humor, rendered
+her a general favorite. She was, in fact, the belle of the
+room. To dance with her would be an honorable distinction.
+Now I am naturally a modest man, but of late
+years that defect has been gradually disappearing from
+my character. I resolved to dance with this girl&mdash;if she
+would consent. As soon as there was a pause, therefore,
+I made bold to go up to her, and, with a very polite
+bow, solicited her hand&mdash;in English. She didn&rsquo;t understand
+English, but she understood dancing, and answered
+me very politely in Swedish, &ldquo;Ja!&rdquo; I think my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+dress and manner, together with my ignorance of the
+Swedish language, had rather a favorable effect. She
+certainly looked complimented and gratified. I saw her
+turn round her head as we stood up, and laugh at the
+other girls, which I interpreted to mean that she, of all
+in the room, had succeeded in catching the distinguished
+stranger. Well, the music started&mdash;it was a German
+waltz. I stood holding on to my partner as the ivy
+clings to the solid oak. Never did I feel so firm a girl.
+Had she been formed of lead she could not have felt
+more substantial. Now, thought I, away we&rsquo;ll spin over
+the floor, a living duet, altogether accidental, but beautiful
+to behold&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Like the sweet tunes that wandering meet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And so harmoniously they run,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The hearer dreams they are but one.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>There was only one consideration that gave me any particular
+anxiety. Being of a light and slender figure, I
+had some apprehensions that in the giddy whirl of the
+waltz this powerful young lady might accidentally throw
+me out of balance and create an unpleasant scene. However,
+there was no time for reflection. At a given signal,
+away she started with tremendous energy. I did
+my best to whirl her round, and don&rsquo;t think it would be
+possible for any body to do any better under the circumstances;
+but she didn&rsquo;t keep time&mdash;or I didn&rsquo;t. Round
+and round the room we flew, to the inspiring strains of
+the music, with an undulating motion very difficult to
+conceive, and still more difficult to execute without danger
+to the other dancers. The warm blood rushed to
+my face; my head grew dizzy: the only thing I saw
+was that this style of waltzing must end in destruction
+to myself or somebody else. I was fairly lifted off my
+feet at every turn, and found myself absolutely hanging
+on to my partner to keep from falling. She never relaxed
+in her vigorous movements one moment; but as
+the music increased in spirit, so did she. The room was
+filled with waltzers. It was impossible to be flying
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+about in this way without hitting somebody. I knew it
+from the very beginning, but what could I do? The
+first man down was an old gentleman. I begged his
+pardon, and helped him up again. Next I was dashed
+against a young lady. She and her partner both went
+down. I helped them up, and begged pardon again,
+which was granted with great good-humor. After that,
+most of the waltzers began to get out of the way, so that
+we presently had a more enlarged scope of operations.
+I fancy there was something uncommon in my style of
+waltzing that attracted attention. It was not long before
+we had the entire circle to ourselves, the crowd
+standing around and manifesting the most intense appreciation
+of our efforts. All went on very well for a while.
+Up and down the room, and round and round we whirled,
+and at every whirl there was a murmur of admiration
+and applause. My beautiful partner shook her sides
+as if convulsed with an earthquake&mdash;I could feel the motion,
+but was unable to conjecture the cause. Possibly
+she was getting agitated&mdash;or it might be that sentiments
+of tenderness were stealing over her heart. That idea, or
+something else, confused me. I struck out one foot a
+little awkwardly. She tripped against it, whirled me
+half round in attempting to gain her balance, and then
+we fell. It was very awkward. What rendered it still
+more unpleasant, every body began to laugh. People
+always do laugh at the misfortunes of others. I would
+have picked the young lady up at once, or at least tried
+it (for she was rather heavy), but the fact is, I fell underneath,
+and was utterly unable to move. Had I been
+pinned and riveted to the floor, I could not have been
+in a more helpless position. A man whose natural instincts
+are polite is surely a subject of sympathy and
+commiseration under such a pressure of difficulties as
+this. I breathed hard, but was unable to get out a single
+word of apology, till, with, a laugh and a bound, my
+fair partner regained her feet, and then she very good-naturedly
+assisted me in regaining mine. Mortified
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+beyond measure, I conducted her to a seat. As I was
+passing out of the room soon after, a new waltz struck
+up. The dancers went at it again as lively as ever. I
+turned to see what had become of my partner. She
+was whirling over the floor with undiminished energy
+in the arms of a young gentleman in military uniform.
+He may have been more accustomed to waltzing than I
+was, but I think any person present&mdash;not excepting the
+young lady herself&mdash;would have been willing to admit
+that his style did not compare with mine in force and
+individuality. It certainly produced no such effect upon
+the audience.</p>
+
+<p>I walked back to town a sober and thoughtful man.
+This dancing business is a very foolish pastime. It may
+do very well for giddy and thoughtless young persons,
+but for men of mature years it is the height of folly. I
+am surprised that they should be led aside from their
+customary propriety by the fascinations of beauty.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was just setting. Its last rays rested upon
+the ruined walls of the Observatory. I followed a crowd
+of citizens who were slowly toiling up the stone steps,
+and, after a pretty hard climb, was rewarded with a
+magnificent view of the city and surrounding country.
+The rocky pinnacle upon which the Observatory stands
+rises some three hundred feet above the banks of the
+river, and overlooks a large portion of the valley of the
+Aurajoki. The winding waters of the river; the green
+fields; patches of woodland, villas, and gardens; the blue
+mountains in the distance, and the silent city lying like
+a mouldering corpse beneath, presented a scene singularly
+picturesque and impressive. I sat down upon the
+ruined walls and thought of Abo in its glory&mdash;the ancient
+head-quarters of Christianity in Finland; the last
+abiding-place of the beautiful Caroline Morsson, the peasant
+queen of Sweden, wife of Eric XII., who died here,
+and whose remains lie in the Cathedral&mdash;the city of the
+mighty hosts of warlike Finns who fought under the
+banner of Charles XII., and made a funeral pyre of their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+bodies upon the bloody field of Puttara. The present
+Finns are of this heroic race. Not less brave, yet less
+fortunate than the Spartans of Thermopyl&aelig;, they have
+lost their country and their freedom, and now groan under
+the oppression of a despotic government.</p>
+
+<p>While thus musing on the past, a strain of delicious
+music broke the stillness. I rambled over the granite
+cliffs in the direction of the sound, and soon came to a
+grove of trees, with an open space in the middle, occupied
+by a band of musicians, who were surrounded by a
+group of citizens, thus pleasantly passing the summer
+evening. Booths and tents were scattered about in every
+direction, in which cakes and refreshments were to be
+had; and gay parties of young people were seated on
+long planks so arranged as to make a kind of spring seats,
+upon which they bounced up and down to the time of
+the music. Children were playing upon the grass, their
+merry shouts of laughter mingling pleasantly with the
+national air performed by the band. On the moss-covered
+rocks sat groups of young ladies, guarded by their
+amiable mothers or discreet duennas, as the case might
+be, trying hard not to see any of the young gentlemen
+who lounged about in the same vicinity; and young gentlemen
+prowled about puffing cigars as if they didn&rsquo;t
+care a straw whether the young ladies looked at them or
+not&mdash;both being, of course, according to the established
+usages of society, natural enemies of each other. For the
+life of me, I can&rsquo;t tell why it is that young ladies and gentlemen
+should be thus everlastingly at war. Would it
+not be better to kiss and make it up, and try, if possible,
+to get along peaceably through the world?</p>
+
+<p>But the steamer blows her whistle&mdash;the bell rings&mdash;I
+must hurry on board. Good-by, dear Finns, big and little,
+I like you all. God bless you! Good-by old Abo,
+with your ancient church, and your moss-grown streets,
+and deserts of houses&mdash;I feel sorry for you, but I can&rsquo;t
+help it! Good-by, Russia! If I don&rsquo;t call again, attribute
+it to no want of interest in the great cause of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+civilization. Just drop me a line and let me know when the
+serfs are free and a constitutional government is established,
+and I will strain a point to pay my respects to Alexander
+II. I rather like the young man, and have an
+idea that he is capable of noble deeds and heroic sacrifices.
+But he must abolish his secret police, punish them
+for whipping women, open universities upon a liberal basis,
+throw the camarilla and the aristocracy overboard,
+quit murdering the poor Poles at Warsaw, and do several
+other things before he can have my support. Should
+he accomplish these beneficial reforms, and at any future
+time think proper to settle in my neighborhood, where
+the climate is more genial, I shall cheerfully vote for him
+as mayor of the city of Oakland.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>STOCKHOLM.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The passage from Abo to Stockholm occupies about
+eighteen hours, and in fine weather affords a constant
+succession of agreeable scenes. With the exception of
+about four hours of open sea in crossing the Gulf of
+Bothnia, the steamer is constantly surrounded by islands,
+many of them highly picturesque, and all interesting
+from their peculiar geological formation. Occasionally
+the island winds like a snake through a wilderness of
+naked granite boulders, round and slippery, and barely
+high enough out of the water to afford a foundation for
+a few fishermen&rsquo;s huts, which from time to time break
+the monotony of their solitude. Sometimes the channel
+opens out into broad lakes, apparently hemmed in on all
+sides by pine-covered cliffs; then passing between a series
+of frightful crags, upthrown, as it were, out of the
+water by some convulsion of nature, the surging waves
+lash their way through the narrow passages, and threaten
+each moment to ingulf the frail vessel, or dash it to
+atoms against the rocks. The greatest danger in making
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+this trip arises from the number of sunken rocks,
+which often approach to within a few feet of the surface
+without being visible. The depth is usually marked by
+poles or buoys, and it often happens that the steamer
+plies her way for hours between these water-marks,
+where there is no other indication of danger. The
+Swedish and Finnish pilots are proverbially among the
+best in the world. We had an old Finn on board&mdash;a
+shaggy old sea-dog, rough and weather-beaten as any of
+the rocks on his own rock-bound coast, who, I venture
+to say, never slept a wink during the entire passage, or
+if he did, it was all the same. He knew every rock, big
+and little, visible and invisible, that lay on the entire
+route between Abo and Stockholm, and could see them
+all with his eyes shut. An uncouth, hardy, honest old
+monster was this Finn&mdash;a Caliban of a fellow, half human,
+half fish&mdash;with a great sou&rsquo;wester on his head, a
+rough monkey-jacket buttoned around his body, and a
+pair of boots on his legs that must have been designed
+for wading over coral reefs, through seas of swordfish,
+shovel-nosed sharks, and unicorns. His broad, honest
+face looked for all the world like a granite boulder covered
+with barnacles and sea-weed, and ornamented by a
+bunch of mussels for a nose, and a pair of shining blue
+pebbles by way of eyes; and when he spoke, which was
+not often, his voice sounded like the keel of a fishing-smack
+grating over a bank of gravel. I strongly suspect
+his father was a sea-lion and his mother a grampus
+or scragg whale, and that he was fished up out of the
+sea when young by some hardy son of Neptune, and
+subsequently trained up in the ways of humanity on
+board a fishing-smack, where the food consisted of polypi,
+lobsters, and black bread. Yet there was something
+wonderfully genial about this old pilot. He chewed
+enormous quantities of tobacco, the stains of which
+around his mouth greatly improved the beauty of his
+countenance; and when he was not chewing pigtail he
+was smoking it, which equally contributed to soften the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+asperities of his features. Having sailed in many seas,
+he spoke many languages, but none very intelligibly,
+owing to some radical defect in the muscles of his mouth.
+As to the channel between Abo and Stockholm, which
+lies partly through the Aland Islands and numerous adjacent
+rocks, above and below water, I believe he had
+traveled over it so often that he could steer a vessel
+through it standing backward as readily as box the
+compass, or shut both his eyes and tell where the deepest
+water lay by the smell of the air and the taste of his
+tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>The passage across the Gulf of Bothnia was somewhat
+rough, and most of the passengers were sea-sick, owing,
+no doubt, to the short chopping motion which prevails
+on board of all kinds of sea-going vessels in these inland
+seas. Having performed various voyages in various
+parts of the world, I was, of course, exempt from this
+annoyance; but my digestion had been impaired in Russia
+by the vast quantity of tea, cucumbers, veal, cabbage-soup,
+and other horrible mixtures which I had been
+forced to consume while there, and which now began to
+tell on my constitution. Notwithstanding repeated doses
+of cognac, taken from time to time as I walked the decks,
+the sea began to whirl all round, the clouds overhead to
+swing about at random through the rigging, and the
+odor of the machinery to produce the strongest and
+most disagreeable sensations. I went below to see how
+things looked there; but, finding the atmosphere dense
+and the prospect gloomy, returned in great haste and
+looked over the bulwarks to see how fast we were going
+through the water. While thus engaged, an amusing
+thought occurred to me. Suppose the mermaids
+who lie down in the briny depths form their ideas of
+the beauty of the human countenance from the casual
+glimpses thus afforded of our features, would it be possible
+for the most susceptible of them to fall in love with us?
+The idea was so droll that I was almost convulsed with
+laughter; but, not wishing to attract attention by laughing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+aloud at my own thoughts, I merely clung to the
+bulwarks and doubled myself up, trying to avoid the appearance
+of eccentricity. At or about the same moment,
+the old Finnish pilot, with whom I had formed an acquaintance,
+came along, and said good-naturedly, &ldquo;Hello,
+sir! I dink you pe sea-sick.&rdquo; &ldquo;Sea-sick?&rdquo; said I, a little
+nettled. &ldquo;Oh no, Herr Pilot, I&rsquo;m an old sailor, and never
+get sea-sick.&rdquo; &ldquo;Vel, I dought you was sick&mdash;you
+look bad, sir,&rdquo; answered the good old pilot; &ldquo;de sea is
+very rough, sir.&rdquo; Here the steamer took a notion to
+pitch down into the water and jump up again suddenly,
+and then rolled on one side and then on the other, and
+at the same time a number of the passengers began to
+make grotesque and disagreeable noises, which amused
+me so much that I had to turn away my face and look
+at the water again to avoid laughing. &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said the
+old pilot, who observed the contortions of mirth by which
+I was moved, &ldquo;vil you have some schnapps? I dink
+schnapps is goot for de sea-sick.&rdquo; &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; said I,
+the tears streaming from my eyes, &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t have any
+just now.&rdquo; &ldquo;Vel, &rsquo;twon&rsquo;t last long, any how,&rdquo; suggested
+the good-natured monster. &ldquo;By&rsquo;m-by we be up to
+Vaxholm&mdash;in pout two hours. Dere&rsquo;s land! Don&rsquo;t you
+see it?&rdquo; I saw it, and right glad I was too, for it is always
+refreshing to see land from the deck of a steamer.
+In half an hour more we entered a smooth stretch of water,
+and soon the wood-covered islands and shores of
+Sweden were close ahead.</p>
+
+<p>Passing the fortress of Waxholm, we entered the magnificent
+fjord or arm of the sea which extends for a distance
+of ten or twelve miles up to the city. The scenery
+on this part of the route is very fine. All along the
+shores of the main land and adjacent islands rugged cliffs
+of granite reared their hoary crests over the waters of the
+fjord. Forests of oak and pine cover the rolling background,
+and beautiful villas, with parterres and blooming
+gardens, peep from every glen. Sometimes for miles the
+solitude of the forests and rock-bound shores is unbroken,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+save by an occasional fisherman&rsquo;s hut or an open
+patch of green pasture; then suddenly, upon turning a
+point, a group of red-roofed villas glimmer through the
+foliage; sail-boats are seen gliding over the water with
+gay companies of ladies and gentlemen from the city enjoying
+the fresh breeze that sweeps up from the Gulf;
+now a hay-boat or a clumsy lugger laden with wood
+drifts along lazily toward the grand centre of trade; and
+as we approach nearer to the dim smoke-cloud that hangs
+over the city, big and little craft gather thicker and thicker
+before us, till the whole fjord seems alive with masts
+and sails. Soon the outlines of the churches and castles
+break through the dim distance, and, like some grand
+optical illusion, the whole city gradually opens up before
+us.</p>
+
+<p>To say that I was charmed with the first view of Stockholm
+would but faintly express the feelings with which
+I gazed upon this beautiful metropolis of the North.
+Though different in almost every essential particular, it
+has been not unaptly compared to Venice; and certainly,
+if the sparkling waters from which it seems to rise,
+the wood-covered islands, the rich and varied outlines
+of its churches and castles, the forests of shipping at its
+wharves, the many-colored sail-boats and gondolas sweeping
+hither and thither, the glowing atmosphere, and surrounding
+gardens, villas, temples, and pavilions, can entitle
+it to that distinction, Stockholm well deserves to
+rank with the Queen City of the Adriatic.</p>
+
+<p>The landing for the Baltic steamers is at the head quay
+called the Skepsbron, which in summer is well lined with
+shipping, and presents rather an animated appearance.
+Very little formality is observed in regard to the baggage
+of passengers, and passports are not required, or at
+least no demand was made upon me for mine. All I had
+to do was to show my knapsack to the custom-house officer,
+who put a chalk-mark upon it, signifying, no doubt,
+that it contained nothing contraband; after which I
+stepped ashore, and, aided by a friendly fellow-passenger,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+found lodgings at a dirty little hotel close by, called the
+&ldquo;Stadt Frankfort.&rdquo; If there is any worse place to be
+found in Stockholm, it must be the very worst on the
+face of the earth, for the &ldquo;Stadt Frankfort&rdquo; is next thing
+to it. Being dirty and foul of smell, and abounding in
+vermin, of course the charges are, as usual in such cases,
+proportionally high, for which reason I recommend it
+to any gentleman traveling in this direction whose main
+object is to get rid of his money for an equivalent of filth,
+fleas, bugs, bad bread, and worse coffee. The main part
+of the city, embracing the King&rsquo;s Palace, the Bourse, the
+Church of St. Nicholas, the Barracks and public buildings,
+is built upon an island fronting the Baltic on the
+one side and the Malar Lake on the other. This is the
+most populous and interesting part, though the streets
+are narrow and irregular, and the houses generally old
+and dilapidated, with dark, gloomy fronts, and a very
+fishy and primitive expression of countenance. The new
+parts of the city, called the Normalm to the north and
+the Sodmalm to the south, which are connected with the
+island by bridges, have some fine streets and handsome
+rows of buildings in the modern style, especially the
+Normalm, which contains the King&rsquo;s Garden, the Arsenal,
+the Opera-house, and the principal hotels and residences
+of the foreign ministers. This part of Stockholm
+will compare favorably with second or third-rate cities
+in Germany; for it must be borne in mind that, striking
+as the external aspect of Stockholm is, the interior is
+very far from sustaining the illusion of grandeur cast
+around it by the scenic beauties of its position. In nothing
+is the traveler more disappointed than the almost
+total absence of business excitement. With the exception
+of a few stevedores at work on the wharves and a
+trifling jostle at the market-places, the whole city seems
+to be sitting down in its Northern solitude, waiting, like
+Mr. Micawber, for something to turn up. In some parts
+one may walk half a mile without hearing a sound save
+the echo of his own footsteps. It is, emphatically, a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+&ldquo;slow&rdquo; place&mdash;so slow, indeed, compared with the marts
+of commerce to which I had been accustomed in California
+(especially the city of Oakland), that I was constantly
+impressed with the idea that every body was fast
+asleep, and that if three or four of them should happen
+to wake at the same time, it would be fearfully startling
+to hear their eyelids crack open and the hollow streets
+echo to their yawns.</p>
+
+<p>But don&rsquo;t understand this as a reflection upon the
+Swedish race. They are industrious and energetic when
+occasion requires, but, like all people who live at the extreme
+North, acquire tropical habits of indolence from
+the climate. During the tedious winters, when the days
+are but six hours long, all who can afford it become torpid,
+like frogs, and lie up in their houses till the summer
+sun thaws them out. Balls, parties, and sleigh-riding occasionally
+rouse them up, but lethargy is the general
+rule. The warm weather comes very suddenly, and then
+the days are eighteen hours long. This being the season
+of outdoor pleasure, it is spent in visits to the country
+or lounging about the gardens, sitting on spring
+benches and enjoying the sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>The Swedish soldiers are a fine-looking race of men,
+far superior in stature and general appearance to the soldiers
+of Russia. They are well drilled, bold, and manly,
+and have fine faces, full of spirit and intelligence. Wherever
+these men are led, they will now, as in past times,
+give the enemies of their country some trouble. I consider
+them the finest soldiers in Northern Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The general aspect of the citizens of Stockholm is that
+of extreme plainness and simplicity. I take them to be
+an honest, substantial, and reliable people, well educated
+and intelligent; satisfied with themselves and the world,
+and proud of their country and its history. Politeness
+is a national characteristic. Every person, of high and
+low degree, upon entering a shop, takes off his hat, and
+remains with uncovered head while making his purchase.
+Gentlemen who meet on the street knock the tops of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+their &ldquo;tiles&rdquo; against their knees, and continue to bow at
+each other long after they have passed. In feature and
+general appearance the Swedes are handsomer than the
+southern races of Europe, and for that reason wear a
+nearer resemblance to the Americans. I saw several men
+in Stockholm who would not have done discredit to California,
+in point of fine faces and commanding figures.
+The Swedish ladies are proverbially beautiful. It was
+really refreshing, after my visit to Russia, to see so many
+pretty women as I met here. Light hair, oval features,
+sparkling blue eyes, and forms of intoxicating grace and
+beauty&mdash;ah me! why should such dangers be permitted
+to threaten the defenseless traveler with instant destruction,
+when the law provides for his protection against
+other disasters by land and sea, assault and battery, false
+imprisonment and highway robbery? Yet here were
+lovely creatures, gliding about at large, shooting mutilation
+and death out of their bright blue eyes, and apparently
+as indifferent to the slaughter they committed as
+if it were the finest fun in the world! Talk of your
+French beauties, your Italian beauties, your Spanish beauties!
+Give me, for the impersonation of soul expressed
+in the human form divine&mdash;for features &ldquo;woven from the
+music of the spheres and painted with the hues of the
+aurora borealis&rdquo;&mdash;a Swedish beauty, the nearest approach
+upon earth to an American beauty, which, being altogether
+angelic, must ever remain the highest type of
+perfection known to mankind.</p>
+
+<p>I don&rsquo;t wonder Swedenborg made so many heavens
+for his female characters. His &ldquo;conjugal felicity&rdquo; required
+at least seven. One small heaven, constructed
+upon the Swedish plan, would certainly afford but limited
+accommodations for all the beauties of Stockholm.</p>
+
+<p>A day or two after my arrival in Stockholm I called
+to Mr. Fristadius, the American consul, from whom
+I obtained the latest news in reference to the progress
+of the rebellion. Accustomed as we are in the United
+States to read the newspapers every morning, wherever
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+we may happen to be, the deprivations in this respect to
+which an American traveler in Europe is subjected must
+be experienced to be fully appreciated. Even in the
+principal cities of Germany it is difficult to find a newspaper
+that contains any thing more than a notice of the
+price of stocks, a few telegraphic items about the petty
+court movements of neighboring cities, a rehash of slander
+upon our country from the London <i>Times</i>, or an item
+of news about the war, in which the states are misplaced,
+the names misspelled, and the most important points
+omitted. I do not think there is a village press in California
+that would not be ashamed to turn out such trashy
+little sheets as are issued in Frankfort; and as for the
+matter of fairness and honesty, it is rare to find an independent
+newspaper in any part of Europe. To suppress
+truth and subserve some military or financial interest is
+the business for which they are paid. Making due allowance
+for party prejudices, you may guess at the truth in
+most of our American journals, but it would be a waste
+of time to search for it in the newspapers published on
+this side of the water. While they studiously refrain
+from indecorous language, they are corrupt and unreliable
+beyond any thing known in California, and have not
+even the merit of being energetic and entertaining liars.
+This is the case in Russia and Finland as well as in Germany.
+Where the press is subjected to a rigid censorship,
+it is of course useless to look for reliable information,
+and as for late intelligence, it does not travel through
+official bureaus. Before leaving Frankfort I had news
+to the 28th of June. A week after my arrival at St. Petersburg
+the same news was promulgated in that city.
+On my return from Moscow I had the pleasure of reading
+the details in an American newspaper. One or two
+mutilated telegraphic dispatches seemed to sharpen my
+appetite during the trip to Revel, Helsingfors, Abo, and
+Stockholm; and now, arrived at the head-quarters of
+Swedish civilization, after searching in vain for a late
+English or American newspaper at the principal caf&eacute;s, I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+was compelled to make application to our consul, in the
+faint hope that he might be an occasional reader of that
+ephemeral species of literature. Fortunately, Mr. Fristadius
+had spent some time in the United States, and
+learned to appreciate the magnitude and importance of
+the struggle in which we were engaged.</p>
+
+<p>I had the pleasure, during my sojourn in Stockholm,
+of getting a glimpse of Swedish social life in one of its
+most agreeable phases. Mr. Fristadius, who is a Swede
+by birth and education, and occupies a prominent position
+as one of the leading iron-merchants of Stockholm,
+was kind enough to invite me to an entertainment at his
+villa, situated about four miles from the city, on one of
+the prettiest little islands in the Malar Lake.</p>
+
+<p>At an early hour in the afternoon, the company, which
+consisted of thirty or forty ladies and gentlemen, assembled
+by appointment at a wharf near one of the principal
+bridges, where a small steam-boat belonging to Mr.
+Fristadius was in waiting. I was a little astonished, not
+to say taken aback, at the display of elegant dresses, liveried
+servants, and white kid gloves that graced the occasion,
+and looked at my dusty and travel-worn coat,
+slouched hat, and sunburnt hands&mdash;for which there was
+no remedy&mdash;with serious thoughts of a hasty retreat.
+One doesn&rsquo;t like to be a savage among civilized people;
+yet, if one undertakes to travel with little baggage and
+less money, what can he do, unless he holds himself aloof
+from the world altogether, which is not the best way of
+seeing it? There was no time for reflection, however;
+the whistle was blowing, and we were hurried on board
+by our kind host, who seemed determined to make every
+body as happy as possible. The trip down the lake was
+delightful. On either side the hills and islands were
+dotted with villas and gardens; sail-boats were skimming
+over the water with gay parties intent on pleasure;
+the views of the city from every turn were picturesque
+beyond description, and the weather was quite enchanting.
+As we swept along on our course, the gentlemen
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+of the party, who were nearly all Swedes, united in a
+wild and beautiful Scandinavian glee, the mellow strains
+of which swept over the water, and were echoed from
+the wooded islands and shores of the lake with a magnificent
+effect. Whether it was the scenery, the weather,
+or the singing, or all combined, I could scarcely tell, but
+this little trip was certainly an episode in life to be remembered
+with pleasure in after years. In about half
+an hour we drew near a perfect little Paradise of an island,
+upon which, half hidden in shrubbery and flowers,
+stood the villa of our friend, Mr. Fristadius. Here were
+winding graveled walks overhung by rich foliage; beds
+of flowers in full bloom; grottoes of rock laved by the
+waters of the lake; immense boulders of granite surmounted
+by rustic pavilions; hedges of privet and hawthorn
+to mark the by-paths; a miniature bridge from the
+main island across to a smaller island, upon which stood
+an aquatic temple for the fishing-boats and gondolas;
+with a wharf jutting out into the deep water at which
+the little steam-boat landed. Nothing could be more
+unique than the whole place. Nature and art seemed
+to have united to give it the most captivating effects of
+wildness, seclusion, comfort, and elegance. It was Crusoe-life
+idealized. As we approached the landing-place,
+the interesting family of our host, surrounded by numerous
+friends, stood upon a little eminence awaiting our
+arrival. While we gazed with pleasurable emotions at
+the pretty scene before us, a most delicate and appropriate
+compliment was paid to our excellent minister, Mr.
+Haldeman, and his accomplished wife, who were of the
+party. The American flag was hoisted upon a pole near
+the landing by Mrs. Fristadius, and the company with
+one accord arose and greeted with three cheers this glorious
+emblem of liberty. I shall never forget the mingled
+feelings of pride and pleasure with which I looked
+upon the stars and stripes once more, after months of
+dreary depression in countries where freedom is but a
+glimmering hope in the human heart. But here in Sweden
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+the spirit of our institutions is appreciated; here I
+found myself surrounded by noble and trusty friends of
+the American Union, loyal to their own liberal government,
+yet devoted to the great cause of human freedom
+wherever it can exist consistently with the progress of
+the times and the capacity of the people for self-government.
+As the flag waved in the breeze, an inspiring
+song of liberty burst from the joyous company&mdash;one of
+those soul-stirring songs of Belman, which find a response
+in the breast of every Swede&mdash;wild, impassioned,
+and patriotic, breathing in every word and intonation
+the chivalrous spirit of men whose ancestry had fought
+under the glorious banners of Gustavus Adolphus.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the song was concluded the little steam-boat
+drew up to the wharf, where we were most kindly
+and cordially greeted by the family of our host. After
+a pleasant ramble about the grounds we proceeded to
+the house, which is situated on a picturesque eminence
+overlooking the lake, and the adjacent shores and islands.
+Here, in a large and elegant saloon, opening on all sides
+upon a spacious veranda, a sumptuous collation was
+spread. The company lounged about without ceremony,
+eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves as they
+pleased; wit and wine flowed together, unrestrained by
+the slightest formality. In the midst of our &ldquo;feast of
+reason and flow of soul,&rdquo; Mr. Fristadius made a neat and
+appropriate little speech of &ldquo;welcome to all his friends,&rdquo;
+which was followed by a song from the musical gentlemen;
+after which he proposed a toast to a young married
+couple present. This was followed by another song.
+Then there was a toast to the American flag, another
+speech and a song, to which Mr. Haldeman, our minister,
+responded in such terms of enthusiasm and complimentary
+allusion to the Swedish nation that there was a general
+outburst of applause. I had hoped, in view of my
+rustic garb, to escape notice, and was snugly barricaded
+in a corner behind a table, looking on quietly and enjoying
+the scene, when, to my great astonishment, a toast
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+was proposed &ldquo;to the <span class="smcap">Distinguished Traveler from
+California</span>!&rdquo; In vain I looked about me to see if any
+prominent gentleman of my acquaintance from California
+would step forward and answer to the summons, when
+I was gently but firmly captured by our host, and duly
+brought forth to respond to the charge! Never having
+made a speech in my life, I could only seize hold of a
+wine-glass (which I think belonged to somebody else),
+and in the confusion of the moment drink spontaneously
+to the great traveler from California! Then there was
+an inspiring glee from the lively young gentlemen who
+did the music.</p>
+
+<p>Thus passed the time till dinner was over, when we
+adjourned to the garden for coffee and cigars. Seated
+under the wide-spreading trees, in the balmy air of this
+summer evening, we had songs and recitations of Scandinavian
+poetry, anecdotes, and humorous dissertations
+till nearly midnight. I do not remember that I ever
+participated in a more rational or delightful entertainment.
+After a farewell glee to our host we marched
+down to the wharf, where the boat was in waiting, and
+embarked for Stockholm. I can only add that I was
+charmed with the refinement and intelligence of Swedish
+society, as far as I could judge of it by this casual
+glimpse. From many of the guests I received cordial
+invitations to prolong my sojourn, and the next morning
+found two or three of the gentlemen in readiness to show
+me every thing of interest about the city.</p>
+
+<p>We visited the Museum, where there is an interesting
+assortment of Scandinavian antiquities, and the palace,
+and some half a dozen other places, all of which came in
+the regular routine of sight-seeing; but the fact is, I am
+getting dreadfully tired of this systematic way of lionizing
+the cities of Europe. I turn pale at the sight of a
+museum, shudder at a church, feel weak in the knees at
+the bare thought of a picture-gallery, and as for antiquities,
+they make my flesh creep. Between you and myself,
+dear reader, I wouldn&rsquo;t give a sou-markee for all the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+old bones gathered up during the last eighteen centuries,
+unless to start a bone-mill and sell the dust at a remunerative
+profit.</p>
+
+<p>After all, the more I saw of Stockholm the more the
+blues began to creep over me. It is depressingly slow
+in these far Northern cities; so slow, indeed, I don&rsquo;t
+wonder every thing has a mildewed and sepulchral aspect.
+The houses look like slimy tombs in a grave-yard;
+the atmosphere, when the sun does not happen
+to shine&mdash;which is more than half the time&mdash;is dank and
+flat, and hangs upon one&rsquo;s spirits like a nightmare, crushing
+out by degrees the very germ of vitality. I am not
+surprised that paralysis and hip-disease are frightfully
+prevalent in Stockholm.</p>
+
+<p>Give me California forever&mdash;the land of sunshine and
+progress. I have seen no country like it yet. When I
+think of old times there, a terrible home-sickness takes
+possession of me. So help me, friends and fellow-citizens,
+I&rsquo;d sooner be a pack-mule in California with a raw
+back, and be owned by a Mexican greaser, employed
+week in and week out in carrying barrels of whisky over
+the Downieville trail, fed on three grains of barley per
+day, and turned out to browse on quartz rock and sage-bushes
+every night&mdash;I&rsquo;d rather be a miserable little burro,
+kicked and cuffed by a Mariposa Chinaman&mdash;I&rsquo;d rather
+be a dog and bay the moon in the city of Oakland, or
+a toad and feed upon the vapors of a dungeon at San
+Quentin&mdash;I&rsquo;d rather be a lamp-post on the corner of
+Montgomery Street, San Francisco, and be leaned against,
+and hugged, and kissed alternately by every loafer out
+of the Montgomery saloon&mdash;I&rsquo;d rather be any of these
+than a human being compelled to live permanently in
+Europe, with a palace in every city, town, and village,
+and an income of fifty thousand dollars a day to defray
+expenses; so don&rsquo;t be surprised if I should turn up again
+one of these fine mornings on the Pacific coast. The
+only difficulty at present is&mdash;a collapse in the financial
+department.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>WALKS ABOUT STOCKHOLM.</h3>
+
+
+<p>If you expect any very lively or striking pictures of
+Stockholm from a tourist like myself, whose besetting
+trouble in life is a constitutional melancholy, I am afraid
+you will be disappointed. It is beyond doubt one of
+the most agreeable cities in the North, and, so far as
+public institutions are concerned, affords a fine field of
+research for the antiquarian and the naturalist. Any
+enterprising gentleman who desires to improve his mind
+by the study of Puffendorf can here find the original.
+Linn&aelig;us, Berzelius, and others will materially assist him
+in grasping at the mysteries of animated creation; and
+if he be of a poetical turn, he can enjoy Belman in the
+unadulterated Scandinavian metre. For me, however,
+the public museums and libraries possessed only an external
+interest. I would gladly have devoted the remainder
+of my life to Scandinavian researches, but, having
+several other important matters to attend to, I was
+reluctantly forced to give up the idea. The main object
+at present was to escape from &ldquo;an eternal lethargy of
+woe,&rdquo; which seemed to grow worse and worse every
+day. I really had nothing particular to afflict me, yet I
+both felt and looked like &ldquo;a man sore acquaint with
+grief.&rdquo; Day after day I wandered about the streets in
+search of excitement. All in vain; such a luxury is unknown
+to strangers in Stockholm. I visited the fruit-markets,
+jostled about among the simple and kind-hearted
+peasants, bought bunches of cherries and baskets of
+raspberries from the pretty peasant-girls, and then stood
+eating my way into their acquaintance, while they
+laughed, and talked, and wondered where in the world
+such a strange man came from, and when I told them I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>
+came from California they looked incredulous, having
+probably never of such a country. Then I strolled
+down through the fish-market, where there were a great
+many queer fish exposed for sale by ancient and slimy
+old men and women, whose hands and aprons were covered
+with fish-scales, and whose faces had a very fishy
+expression. They offered me fish in every shape&mdash;skinned,
+gutted, chopped up, or whole, just as I pleased to
+buy them. One wrinkled old woman, with a voice much
+broken by shouting against the Gulf storms from high
+rocks, or some such cause, called my attention to a monster
+fish that must have weighed at least sixty pounds,
+and insisted upon letting me have it at a reduced price.
+I shook my head and smiled. In that smile I suppose
+the sagacious old fishwoman discovered the pliancy of
+my disposition, for she immediately commenced a wild
+harangue on the merits of the fish, scarcely a word of
+which I understood. Two or three times I started to
+leave, but each time she made a motion to detain me.
+The fact is, I was afraid she would get hold of me with
+her fishy hands, and was considerably embarrassed what
+to do. The price of the fish was reasonable enough&mdash;only
+two marks (about forty cents); but I had no use
+for it, and did not like to carry it to my hotel. The
+worst of it was, the old woman thought the price was
+the only obstacle, and finally came down to a mark and
+a half. What was to be done? From Billingsgate to
+Stockholm, it is notorious that a disappointed fishwoman
+is a very dangerous and uncertain foe to be encountered
+by any man, however brave. She began to get excited
+at the bare prospect of having taken so much trouble for
+nothing. Several of her friends began to gather round.
+A cold tremor ran through my frame. There seemed
+to be no possible way of evading the purchase without
+creating an unpleasant scene. To make an end of it, I
+bought the fish. With a bunch of grass wrapped around
+its tail, I made my way through the crowd. To be sure,
+I felt a little ashamed to be perambulating the streets
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+of a strange city with a big fish in my hand, yet I could
+not well throw it down on the sidewalk, and was afraid,
+if I offered it to some little boy, he might stick his tongue
+in his cheek, and ask me if I saw any thing green in the
+corner of his eye. The case was getting worse and
+worse every moment. People stopped and looked at me
+as I passed. My arm was getting tired. Fortunately,
+I was close to the quay. A happy thought struck me;
+I walked over to the water&rsquo;s edge and cast the fish into
+his native element. &ldquo;Go,&rdquo; said I, in the language of my
+uncle Toby; &ldquo;there&rsquo;s room enough in the world for you
+and me.&rdquo; What the by-standers thought of the act I
+did not wait to see. It was enough that I was clear of
+a very unpleasant companion, though an ancient and fish-like
+odor remained with me for some time after. As for
+the fish, I doubt if he ever came to life; he must have
+been dead for several days when I bought him, judging
+by a taint upon my hands, which the best soap could not
+eradicate.</p>
+
+<p>After this I rambled gloomily along the quays, and
+wondered what every body was waiting for. There were
+small vessels enough lying at the wharves, but every
+body on board seemed to be taking it easy. Cooks were
+lying asleep on the galleys; skippers were sitting on the
+poop, smoking socially with their crews; small boys,
+with red night-caps on their heads, were stretched out
+upon the hatchways, playing push-pin, and eating crusts
+of black bread; stevedores, with dusty sacks on their
+shoulders, were lounging about on the wharf, waiting for
+something in the way of trade to turn up; shabby citizens,
+who seemed to be out of profitable employment,
+were sitting on the loose timbers overlooking the water,
+bobbing for fish, and never catching any so far as I could
+perceive; and scattering crowds of idlers were strolling
+idly along like myself, in search of something particular
+to look at, but, failing to discover it, they looked about
+at things generally, and then strolled on to look at something
+else. I sighed at the stagnation of business, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+hoped it would never be my fate to be engaged in mercantile
+affairs in Stockholm. Before the Gotha Canal
+was completed this was a very brisk city; but since that
+period, Gottenburg, being more accessible, has monopolized
+much of the European trade. The principal trade
+of Stockholm now consists of exports of iron, and imports
+of sugar, coffee, and liquors. Throughout the interior
+the peasantry manufacture most of the articles required
+for their own use, such as clothing, implements
+of husbandry, etc., so that they are not large consumers
+of foreign commodities. Finding it very dull in town, I
+walked out in the suburbs, which are pretty and picturesque,
+though primitive enough to be a thousand miles
+from a commercial city. The houses are chiefly constructed
+of wood, painted yellow, with red roofs, and neatly ornamented
+with verandas; and the people have a quaint
+and simple look, as if they knew but little of the world,
+and did not care much to trouble their heads about the
+progress of events. Here as well as elsewhere, children
+continue to be born in great numbers, and groups of them
+were to be seen before every house playing in the mud
+just as little cotton-headed children play all over the
+world. I say cotton-headed, because these were of the
+blue-eyed, white-haired race who have a natural affinity
+for muddy places, and whose cheeks have a natural propensity
+to gather bloom and dirt at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>I struck out on the high points of the Normalm, and
+on one of them discovered an old church, surrounded by
+trees, with benches conveniently placed beneath their
+shade for weary pedestrians. Here were family groups
+quietly enjoying the fresh air, the men smoking and
+drinking, while the women and girls economized time by
+knitting and sewing. I took a vacant seat and looked
+down over the city. Surely a prettier prospect could
+not exist upon earth. There lay the city of the sea outspread
+beneath, its irregular streets, quaint old houses
+and churches covering every available space; the numerous
+wooded islands in the vicinity dotted with villas;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+sloops and boats floating dreamily on the Malar Lake,
+and larger vessels gliding over the waters of the Baltic;
+dense forests of pine dim in the distance; and over all
+a strangely colored Northern light, that gave the scene
+something of a spectral aspect. Yet the spirit of repose
+that seemed cast over this fair scene was absolutely oppressive
+to one like myself, accustomed to an active life.
+From the high points I wandered down into the low
+places, through narrow and tortuous streets; gazed into
+the stables and cow-houses; watched the tinners, and coppersmiths,
+and shoemakers as they wound up the labors
+of the day in their dingy little shops; peered into the
+greasy little meatshops and antiquated grocery-stores;
+studied the faces of the good people who slowly wended
+their way homeward, and bowed to several old ladies out
+of pure kindliness and good feeling; then wandered back
+into the public places, still pursued by a green and yellow
+melancholy. I gazed steadfastly at the statues of
+Gustavus Vasa, Charles XII., and Berzelius, and tried in
+vain to remember something of their history. I went
+into the picture-shops, took off my hat to small boys behind
+the counter, looked at the pictures, and bought several,
+for which I had no earthly use; then I went to the
+caf&eacute; on the bridge, drank coffee and cognac, and attempted
+to read the Swedish newspapers, of which I understood
+every letter, but not a word; after which I heard
+the whistle of a small steam-boat at the end of the caf&eacute;
+garden, and ran down in a hurry to get on board. The
+steam-boat was about equal to a good-sized yawl, and was
+bound for some port unknown to me; but that made no
+difference. I never see a boat of any kind going any
+where, or a locomotive, or a carriage, or any thing that
+moves by steam, sails, horse-power, or electricity, without
+feeling an unconquerable desire to be off too, so that
+I very much fear, if I should come across a convict vessel
+bound for Van Diemen&rsquo;s Land, it would be impossible
+for me to avoid jumping on board and going with
+the crowd. In the present case it was essentially necessary
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+that I should keep moving. I was almost sinking
+under the oppressive loneliness of the place. Rather
+than remain another hour within the limits of such a
+dreary old city, I would have taken passage in a tread-mill,
+and relied upon the force of imagination to carry
+me to some other place. Nay, a hangman&rsquo;s cart on the
+way to the gallows would have presented a strong temptation.
+In saying this I mean nothing disrespectful to
+Birger Jarl, who founded Stockholm, and made it his
+place of residence in 1260; nor to Christina Gyllenstierna,
+who so heroically defended it against Christian II. of
+Denmark in the sixteenth century; nor to Gustavus Vasa,
+the brave liberator of Sweden; nor his noble and heroic
+grandson, Gustavus Adolphus; nor any body else famous
+in Swedish history; but the truth of it is, Sweden at the
+present day is essentially a home country, and the people
+are too domestic in their habits and modes of thought to
+afford any peculiar interest to a casual tourist. I like
+their simple and genial manners, and respect them for
+their sterling integrity, yet these are traits of no great
+value to one who travels so far out of the world in search
+of objects of more stirring interest. The ordinary traveler,
+who has no time to dive very deep beneath the surface
+of human life, is not satisfied to find things nearly
+as he finds them at home; streets, shops, and houses undistinguished
+by any peculiarity save the inconveniences
+and oddities of age; people every where around him
+who dress like all other civilized people, and possess the
+standard virtues and weaknesses of humanity; the proprieties
+of life decently observed, and loyalty to forms
+and time-honored usages a national characteristic. A
+Swede would no more violate a rule of etiquette, smile
+or bow out of place, eat a beefsteak or drink his schnapps
+at an unusual hour, or strike out any thing novel or original
+in the way of pleasure, profit, or enterprise, than a
+German. The court circle is the most formal in Europe,
+and the upper classes of society are absolute slaves to
+conventionality. A presentation at court is an event of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+such signal importance that weeks of preparation are required
+for the impressive ordeal; and when the tailor,
+and shoemaker, and the jeweler have done their part,
+and the unhappy victim, all bedeviled with finery and befrogged
+with lace, is brought into the presence of royalty,
+it is a miracle if he gets through without committing
+some dire offense against the laws of etiquette. Fine
+carriages, coats of arms, uniforms, and badges of office,
+are held in high veneration; and while the government
+is liberal and the people profess to be independent, their
+slavish devotion to rank, dress, and etiquette surpasses
+any thing I saw in Russia. With this, to be sure, is
+mingled a certain simplicity of manner and kindliness
+of expression toward inferiors which sometimes lead the
+stranger to believe that he is among a democratic people,
+but they are as far from democracy as the Prussians
+or the Austrians. The very affability of the superior to
+the inferior is the best evidence of the inseparable gulf
+that lies between them. In Russia there is the charm
+of barbarism, savagery, filth, and show; the people are
+loose, ferocious, daring, and wild; here in Sweden, the
+quiet, decent, home-aspect of the people, their rigid observance
+of the rules of etiquette, their devotion to royalty,
+law, and order, are absolutely depressing. In the abstract,
+many traits in their character are worthy of admiration,
+but as a traveler I detest this kind of civilization.
+Give me a devil or a savage at all times, who outrages
+the rules of society and carries an advertisement
+of character on his back. As an artist I can make something
+of him, either in the way of copy or pencil-sketches.</p>
+
+<p>Which brings me back to my situation, in the natural
+course of events. The whistle blows. The little steam-boat
+is about to stop at the landing-place of the Djurgaard.
+The engineer, smutty and oily with hard service,
+gives a turn to the crank, pulls an iron bar with a polished
+handle, and then pushes it; the tea-kettle boiler
+fizzes and whizzes, and lets off steam; the paddles stop
+paddling; the gentlemen passengers stand up and adjust
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+their shirt collars; the ladies gather their shawls around
+them, and pick up their scattered bundles; with a whirl
+and a jerk we are alongside the wharf, and the captain
+jumps from the bow with a rope in his hand, and makes
+all fast to a logger-head. And now step ashore, if you
+please, ladies and gentlemen, and let us take a stroll
+through the deer garden, where</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">&ldquo;The ash and warrior oak<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Cast anchor in the rifted rock.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>The walks through this beautiful park (said to be the
+finest attached to any capital in Europe) are broad, and
+handsomely graded. Grand old forest-trees on either
+side make &ldquo;a boundless contiguity of shade&rdquo; over the
+greensward. Pavilions and rustic summer-houses stand
+on the high points of rock, commanding magnificent
+views of the adjacent islands and waters of the lake.
+Flower-gardens are numerous, and every nook and dell
+contains some place of refreshment, where the gay company
+who frequent these delightful grounds in the long
+summer evenings can drink their tea and enjoy the varied
+beauties of the scene. Wandering through these
+sylvan glades, the eye is continually charmed with the
+rare combinations of natural and artificial beauties scattered
+around in every direction with such wonderful
+prodigality. At one moment you imagine yourself in a
+wilderness, hundreds of miles from any human habitation,
+so dense are the shades of the grand old forest-trees,
+and so wild and rugged the moss-covered rocks;
+a few steps bring you suddenly upon some fairy scene,
+where palaces and temples, gilded carriages, gayly-dressed
+companies of ladies and gentlemen, and groups of children
+sporting upon the grass, dispel the illusion. Ascending
+to the highest points by the narrow and tortuous
+by-paths, I could almost fancy myself in the midst
+of the Coast Range, so perfect was the isolation; then
+coming out suddenly upon some projecting cliff, the
+change of scene from rugged grandeur to the perfection
+of civilization was absolutely magical. Vegetation in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+this northern region, where the summer are so short
+and warm, flourishes with an almost tropical luxuriance.
+The melting of the snows in spring, followed by heavy
+rains and sudden heat, causes the earth to give forth its
+products with a prodigality that compensates in some
+degree for the long and dreary winters. Trees burst
+into leaf as if by magic; flowers shoot up and bloom in
+a few weeks; the grass, enriched by the snows, springs
+forth and covers the earth like a gorgeous carpet of velvet.
+All nature rejoices in the coming of the long summer
+days. The birds sing in the groves; the bees hum
+merrily around the flowers; the gay butterflies flit
+through the sunbeams; and day and night are an almost
+continued period of revelry for all those beautiful and
+ephemeral creatures that droop and die with the flowers.
+I have nowhere seen such a profusion of intensely rich
+green and such wonderfully deep shades as in the neighborhood
+of Stockholm. It is almost oppressive to one
+accustomed to California scenery, where the whole face
+of the country wears a dry red-and-yellowish hue in summer.
+Strange how one&rsquo;s tastes change by association!
+I well remember when I first entered the Golden Gate, in
+August, 1849, after a long and dreary voyage round Cape
+Horn. Glad as I was to see land once more, it struck
+me that I had never looked upon so barren and desolate
+a country. The hill-sides had the appearance of parched
+and sodless deserts. Yet I soon learned to like that
+warm glow. I slept upon those parched hills, breathed
+the invigorating air, and felt the inspiration of California
+life. I would not now exchange the summer drapery of
+our hills and valleys for the deepest green upon earth.
+To my present frame of mind there is something flat and
+chilling in this redundancy of verdure that reminds one
+of death and the grave-yard. The moss-covered rocks
+jutting from the cold, grassy earth; the dripping fern;
+the pale, flitting gleams of sunshine struggling through
+the depths of foliage; the mould that seems to hang in
+the air&mdash;all these strike me as death-like. I long for the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+vital glow of a more genial sun, whose all-pervading light
+is reflected from the rich golden earth, shooting health
+and vigor through every fibre of the frame, permeating
+body and soul with its effulgence. Such intensity of
+light, such warmth of colors, fill the dullest mind with
+inspiration; the blood is quickened in its circulation;
+the respiration is full and free; the intellect becomes
+clearer and sharper; the whole man is quickened into
+the highest condition of mental and physical vitality. Is
+it a matter of wonder, then, that the people of California
+should be brave, generous, and loyal&mdash;that they should
+have a high sense of right, and an undying scorn of
+wrong? I hold that the species is improved by the climate
+and the country&mdash;that stronger men and better
+men are now undergoing the process of development in
+California than in any other country on the face of the
+earth. If we live fast and die suddenly, it is the natural
+consequence of increased bodily and mental vigor,
+which too often leads to excesses, but which, under proper
+training, must eventually lead to the highest moral
+and intellectual achievements. The fault does not lie in
+our climate. I have yet seen none to equal it North or
+South&mdash;not even in Italy. I do not think the climate of
+Sweden is conducive to longevity, or extraordinary mental
+or bodily vigor. Indeed, the same may be said of
+any climate abounding in such rigorous extremes. The
+Swedes, it is true, lead a placid and easy life, content
+with ordinary comforts, and worried by no exciting or
+disquieting ambitions; hence they enjoy good health,
+and generally get through the usual span allotted to man.
+If the same sanitary rules were observed in our country,
+there would be less sickness and fewer untimely deaths.
+Dissipation is not rare in Sweden, especially in the capital
+cities, but it is more methodical with us. The people
+have certain times and occasions for getting drunk;
+they make a regular business of it. Virulent and disgusting
+diseases are also prevalent among them, so that
+between the rigors of climate and other causes less
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
+excusable, they frequently appear old and decrepit before
+their time. That among the middle classes there are
+fine-looking men and beautiful women, is true; that in
+literature, science, and music, they can boast names that
+will go down to posterity, is a fact that can not be denied;
+but I think such a climate and the habits engendered
+by it are inimical to the highest order of physical
+and mental development among the masses. Hence we
+find throughout the country many diseased and deformed
+persons of both sexes; many weakly and not a few
+imbecile. The peasants are not so hardy and robust as
+I expected to find them; and I was told by competent
+judges, better informed than I could hope to become
+during so brief a sojourn, that they are progressively degenerating
+year after year, and can not now compare
+with the peasants of former times.</p>
+
+<p>To say that I was charmed with my ramble through
+the Djurgaard would but faintly express the pleasure I
+derived from my visit to this beautiful park. Of all the
+resorts for recreation that I have yet seen in Northern
+Europe, I give it the palm for natural beauty and tasteful
+cultivation. In this the Swedes excel. Their villas,
+gardens, and parks are unsurpassed, and no people in the
+world better understand how to enjoy them.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the evening I returned to my hotel, delighted
+with all I had seen. I was anxious to extend my rambles
+to Upsala, and to visit more in detail the various
+beautiful islands and places of interest in the vicinity of
+Stockholm; but the season was advancing, and I was
+reluctantly compelled to push on toward Norway.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GOTHA CANAL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>On a pleasant morning in August I called for my bill
+at the &ldquo;Stadt Frankfort.&rdquo; The landlady, a blooming
+young woman of rather vivacious and persuasive
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
+manners, wished me such a delightful journey, and looked so
+sorry I was going, that I could not muster resolution
+enough to complain of the various candles that were
+never burnt, and the numerous services that were never
+rendered, except in the bill; and had she charged me
+for washing my own face and putting on my own boots,
+I fear the result would have been the same. Wishing
+her a happy future, I shouldered my knapsack, which by
+this time contained only two shirts, an old pair of stockings,
+and some few flowers and stones from celebrated
+places, and, thus accoutred for the journey, made my way
+down to Riddarholm Quay. In a dingy old office, abounding
+in cobwebs, a dingy old gentleman, who spoke English,
+sold me a second-class ticket for Gottenburg. The
+little steamer upon which I had the good fortune to secure
+a passage was called the Admiral Von Platten, a
+name famous in the history of Swedish enterprise. It
+was Von Platten who, in 1808, took charge of the great
+work of internal improvement known as the West Gotha
+Canal, and by the aid of Telford, the celebrated English
+engineer, carried it into successful operation in 1822.
+The project of connecting the lakes of Wenern and Wettern,
+and forming a water communication all the way between
+Stockholm and Gottenburg, was entertained at a
+very early day by the different sovereigns and scientific
+men of Sweden. Bishop Brask in 1516, Gustavus I.,
+Charles IX., Swedenborg, Gustavus Adolphus, and others,
+took particular interest in it, and some progress was
+made in the building of locks and opening of short passages
+up to the beginning of the present century. Daniel
+Thunberg contributed materially to the opening of
+the route between Wenern and the Baltic; and Colonel
+N. Eriksson, the celebrated engineer whose reputation
+stands so high in the United States, had the direction of
+the work for many years. It was not, however, till 1844
+that the entire work was fully completed, although some
+years prior to that time the two seas were connected
+and open to navigation. The immense expense of this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+enterprise; the extraordinary natural obstacles that have
+been overcome; the patience and perseverance with
+which it has been carried into practical operation; the
+magnitude and durability of the work, can only be appreciated
+by one who has made the trip through Sweden
+by this route. It is certainly the grandest triumph recorded
+in Swedish history. It will exist and benefit generations
+to come, when the names of her kings, warriors,
+and statesmen shall be known only to antiquarians.</p>
+
+<p>The steamers now plying on this route are small, but
+well arranged for the accommodation of passengers.
+There is a first and second cabin, and a restaurant at
+which the traveler can call for what he desires, and, provided
+his tastes are not eccentric, generally get what he
+calls for. The waiters are simple-minded, kind-hearted,
+and sociable; sit down and gossip with the passengers
+(at least those of the second class), and, what seems rather
+novel and amusing to a stranger, leave the bill to be
+made out and summed up by the passengers themselves.
+A general account-book is left open in the cabin, in which
+it is expected every traveler will set down his name and
+keep his own account. At the end of the trip, the head
+waiter goes the rounds of the cabin and deck, book in
+hand, and asks the passengers to designate their names
+and sum up their accounts. Nobody seems to think of
+cheating or being cheated. There is something so primitive
+in this way of dealing on a public highway between
+two commercial cities, that I was quite charmed with it,
+and have some thoughts of recommending it to the California
+Steam Navigation Company. Just think what a
+pleasure it would be to travel from San Francisco to Sacramento,
+and keep the record of your own bitters and
+cigars, to say nothing of your supper and berth! I am
+certain the plan would be approved by a majority of the
+traveling public throughout the state.</p>
+
+<p>The company on board these little Swedish steamers
+is generally plain, sociable, and intelligent. Among the
+passengers I met many who spoke English and German,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+and few who did not speak at least one language in addition
+to their own. In midsummer the trip from Stockholm
+to Gottenburg usually takes three days, though it
+is sometimes accomplished in two. The distance is about
+three hundred and seventy miles by the shortest route,
+through the Wettern and Wenern lakes. Time, however,
+is no great object in Sweden, and a day or two more
+or less makes no great difference. The beauty of the
+scenery, and the diversity of land and water, render the
+trip one of the most agreeable in Northern Europe, and
+for one I can safely say it would have pleased me all the
+better had it lasted longer.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the Riddarholm Quay, our route lay for the
+first four hours through the Malar Lake. The weather
+was delightful, and there was scarcely a ripple on the
+water. Sloops and wood-boats lay floating upon its
+glassy surface without perceptible motion. All along on
+either side beautiful villas peeped from the umbrageous
+shores and islands. Behind us, the city loomed up in all
+its queenly beauty, the numerous churches and public
+buildings presented in majestic outline against the sky,
+while the forest of shipping at the quays added a more
+stirring and vital interest to the scene. As we turned
+the last promontory to the right, and took a lingering
+look at this charming &ldquo;city of the sea,&rdquo; I thought I had
+never enjoyed a more enchanting <i>coup d&rsquo;&oelig;il</i>. The suburbs
+of Stockholm; the numerous little islands, with their
+rich green shrubbery; the villas and gardens; the sparkling
+vistas of water, form a combination of beauties rarely
+to be met with in any other part of the world. No
+wonder the Swedes regard their capital as a paradise. I
+fully agree with them that in summer it deserves all their
+praise; but I should prefer a warmer and more genial
+paradise for winter quarters. Earthen stoves and hot-air
+furnaces are not in any of the seven heavens that occur
+in my imagination.</p>
+
+<p>Before many hours we passed a point somewhat celebrated
+in Swedish history. On a high peak of rock,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
+hanging upon a pole, is a prodigious iron hat, said to be
+the identical &ldquo;stove-pipe&rdquo; worn by one of the old Swedish
+kings&mdash;a terrible fellow, who was in the habit of
+slaying hundreds of his enemies with his own hand.
+This famous old king must have been a giant in stature.
+Judging by his hat, as Professor Agassiz judges of fish
+by their scales, he must have been forty feet high, by
+about ten or fifteen broad; and if his strength corresponded
+with his gigantic proportions, I fancy he could
+have knocked the gable-end off a house with a single
+blow of his fist, or kicked the head out of a puncheon of
+rum, and swallowed the contents at a single draught,
+without the least difficulty. His hat probably weighs a
+hundred pounds&mdash;enough to give any ordinary man a
+severe headache. Here it has stood for centuries, in
+commemoration of his last struggle. Besieged by an
+overwhelming force of his enemies, as the chronicle goes,
+he slew some thousands of them, but, being finally hard
+pressed, he lost his iron hat in the fight, and then plunged
+headlong into the lake. Some historians assert that he
+took to water to avoid capture; but I incline to the opinion
+myself that he did it to cool his head. At all events,
+the record ends at this point. We are unable to learn any
+thing more of his fate. These Northern races are strong
+believers in their own aboriginal history, and although
+there may be much in this that would require the very
+best kind of testimony before a California jury, the slightest
+hint of a doubt as to its truth would probably be
+taken as a personal offense by any public spirited Swede.
+In that respect, thank fortune, I am gifted with a most
+accommodating disposition. I can believe almost any
+thing under the sun. Giants and genii are nothing to
+what my credulity is capable of; and as for fairies and
+hobgoblins, I can swallow them by wholesale. There is
+only one thing in this world that I entertain the least
+doubt about&mdash;the title to my house and lot in Oakland.
+Upon that point I question if it ever will be possible for
+human evidence to satisfy me. Three times I paid for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+it, and each time every body considered it perfect except
+myself. I expect daily to hear of another title, of which
+I trust some enterprising gentleman in want of funds
+will advise me. It will be a source of consolation to
+know that I was not mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>Situated near the entrance of the canal, on the left
+bank, is the beautiful little town of Soderkoping, celebrated
+for its mineral springs, to which the people of Stockholm
+resort in great numbers during the summer for
+health and recreation. The scene as we approached was
+very pretty. Pine and oak forests cover the granite hills
+for many miles around, relieved by occasional openings
+dotted with villas, gardens, and farms; and the dark red
+wooden houses of the town have a singularly pleasant
+effect glimmering in the sunbeams through the rich
+masses of foliage by which they are surrounded. Groups
+of visitors stood at the locks awaiting the news from the
+city, or anxiously looking out for the familiar faces of
+relatives and friends, while the lock-men slowly and methodically
+performed their accustomed routine of labors.
+Soderkoping is a very ancient town, and in former times
+enjoyed considerable importance as a mart of commerce.
+Passing through a narrow stretch of canal, some miles
+in length, overhung by trees and rocks on the right, and
+affording some pleasant views of the rich valley to the
+left, the banks gradually widened till we entered a beautiful
+little lake, leading, after a short passage, to the waters
+of the Roxen. The narrow parts of the canal are
+difficult of navigation, owing to the various turns and
+the solid masses of rock through which it is cut; and
+the steamer sometimes proceeds very slowly, carefully
+feeling her way along, till an open space affords an opportunity
+of going ahead at a more rapid rate. In the
+mean time the passengers are all out on the decks, shaded
+by an awning, enjoying themselves in the most unceremonious
+manner, laughing and talking in groups,
+sipping their coffee, or promenading up and down to enjoy
+the sweet-scented breeze from the neighboring hills.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+The Roxen Lake, through which we next passed, is some
+seventeen miles long by seven broad, and is justly regarded
+as one of the loveliest sheets of water in all Sweden.
+The shores are neither very high nor very grand,
+but it would be difficult to find any thing more charming
+than the rich coloring of the rocks, their varied outlines,
+the luxuriance of the forests, and the crystal clearness
+of the water. Villages and farms are seen at occasional
+intervals in the distance, and sloops, with their
+sails hanging idly against their masts, float upon the placid
+surface of the lake as upon a mirror. Indeed, so perfect
+is the inversion, that the eye can scarcely determine
+how much is real and how much the result of optical illusion.
+Passing in sight of the town of Linkoping, which
+lies to the left, we soon reached the entrance of the West
+Gotha Canal, which here makes a direct ascent from the
+waters of the Roxen of seventy-five feet. At this point
+there are eleven locks, seven of which are closely connected,
+and the remainder separated by short stretches
+of canal. Near at hand is a pretty little village to the
+left, famous for its church, the Vretakloster, built in the
+Gothic style in 1128, by Inge II., one of the early kings
+of Sweden. While the steamer was slowly toiling through
+the locks, a party of the passengers, including myself,
+paid a visit to the church, and, aided by a venerable sacristan,
+saw all that was to be seen in it, chief among
+which are the tombs of the kings and the arms of the
+Douglas family, those warlike Scots who took such an
+active part in the military exploits of Sweden during the
+Thirty Years&rsquo; War. The walk was a pleasant relief after
+our trip across the lake, and on our return by a short
+cut to the upper locks we had a splendid view of the
+wood-covered shore and glistening waters of the Roxen,
+now fading away in the rich twilight. The steamer occupies
+about an hour and a half in getting through the
+locks, and most of the passengers take advantage of the
+delay to stroll about among the neighboring cottages
+and gardens, and enjoy the various refreshments offered
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>
+for sale at the pavilions and tents erected near the upper
+extremity for the accommodation of travelers. Fresh
+milk, raspberries, coffee, sweet cakes, and ale are the principal
+articles furnished at these places. Notwithstanding
+there was an abundant supply of luxuries on board,
+every body seemed to be hungry and thirsty on getting
+ashore. The rapidity with which the plates, cups, and
+glasses were emptied was really surprising, and would
+have done credit to a crowd of Californians, who, I think,
+can eat more and drink more in a given time than any
+race of men upon the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The canal for some distance beyond the locks is quite
+narrow&mdash;often barely wide enough for two steamers to
+pass. On the left the banks rise to a considerable height,
+and then gradually decline till the canal passes along a
+ridge, high above the surrounding country. The effect
+in these places is very peculiar. The overhanging trees
+almost unite their branches over the chimney of the
+steamer as she wends her way slowly and steadily along;
+deep ravines extend downward into an impenetrable
+abyss on either side; the sky glimmers through the foliage
+in a horizontal line with the eye, and one can almost
+fancy the world has been left below somewhere, and that
+a new highway has been entered, upon which passengers
+steam their way to the stars. I am quite certain, if we
+had kept a direct course long enough, we would have
+reached the moon or some of the heavenly bodies.</p>
+
+<p>It was late at night when we reached the Boren Lake,
+another of those natural highways that lie between the
+Baltic and the North Sea. This lake is comparatively
+small, but it abounds in rocky islands and shoals which
+render the navigation through it rather intricate. A pilot
+is taken on board at the entrance of each lake, and
+discharged upon reaching the next canal station.</p>
+
+<p>I remained on deck until midnight, enjoying the
+strange and beautiful lights spread over the heavens in
+this latitude, and was reluctant even then to lose the
+views during any part of the journey. Nature, however,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+can not be defrauded of her legitimate demands even by
+the beauties of scenery, and I went below to sleep out
+the remainder of the night. My berth was in the forward
+cabin, where twenty or thirty passengers were already
+stretched out&mdash;some on the tables, some on the
+floor, and as many as could find room were snoring away
+in the temporary berths erected on the seats for their accommodation.
+Toward morning I was suddenly aroused
+by a strange and jarring motion of the boat, accompanied
+by a grating sound. It seemed as if an earthquake
+were throwing us up out of the water; yet the shocks
+were more sudden and violent than any I had ever before
+experienced. Many of the passengers were cast out
+of their berths, and the glass and crockery in the pantry
+went crashing over the floor. Scarcely conscious whether
+I was dreaming or awake, I grasped a post, and sprang
+out on a pile of baggage, but was immediately precipitated
+across the cabin. Fortunately I fell against the
+chambermaid, and suffered no injury. Amid the confusion
+worse confounded, the screams of the women down
+below, the crash of broken glasses, and the general struggle
+to get to the cabin door, a German Jew sprang from
+his berth, and in frantic accents begged that his life might
+be spared. &ldquo;Take my money!&rdquo; cried he; &ldquo;take it all,
+but for God&rsquo;s sake don&rsquo;t murder me!&rdquo; The poor fellow
+had evidently been aroused out of some horrible dream,
+and between actual and imaginary dangers was now
+quite bewildered with terror. I could not help but be
+amused at the grotesque expression of his face, even at
+such a moment. It would have provoked a smile had we
+been going to the bottom. There was no fear of that,
+however, as I quickly ascertained. We were already
+hard and fast on the bottom. We had run upon a sunken
+rock, and were so firmly wedged between its crevices
+that it seemed likely we should remain there some time.
+As soon as all was still, I quietly dressed myself and went
+on deck to take an observation. It was just daylight.
+We were in the middle of a lake, surrounded by small
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
+rocky islands. One of these was only a stone&rsquo;s throw
+distant on our starboard. The stakes between which
+our course lay were close by on the larboard. We had
+missed the channel by some twenty or thirty yards, and
+run upon a bed of solid boulders. The pilot, it seemed,
+had been drinking a little too freely of schnapps, and had
+fallen asleep at the helm. It was a miracle that we were
+not all dashed to pieces. A few yards to the right stood
+a sharp rock, which, had we run against it, would have
+crushed in the entire bow of the boat, and probably
+many of us would have perished.</p>
+
+<p>Although there was no fear of our sinking any deeper
+unless the bed of rocks gave way, it was not a pleasant
+prospect to be detained here, perhaps for several days.
+The main shore was some five or six miles distant, and
+presented an almost unbroken line of granite boulders
+and dense pine forests. Most of the passengers were on
+deck, in a state of high excitement; the gentlemen running
+about in their shirt sleeves and drawers, and the ladies
+in those indescribable costumes which ladies usually
+wear when they go to sleep. The captain was mounted
+on the poop-deck, with his pipe in his mouth, giving orders
+to the men, who were pulling and tugging at big
+ropes, and trying to be very busy knocking things about;
+the pilot stood a little apart from the captain, pale and
+moody, having in a single moment destroyed his prospects
+for life. I felt very sorry for the poor fellow, though
+there was really no excuse for him. Every now and then
+the captain turned to him and gave him a broadside of
+curses, which he bore very meekly.</p>
+
+<p>In vain the engineer put on additional steam; in vain
+the captain shouted &ldquo;Back!&rdquo; &ldquo;Ahead!&rdquo; &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; We
+did nothing but stop. It was stop all the time. As
+there is no tide in these inland waters, the prospect was
+that we would continue to stop as long as the rocks remained
+stationary.</p>
+
+<p>All hope of progress being at an end, the engineer
+slackened down the fires; the deck-hands went to breakfast,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+and the passengers went down below to dress and
+talk over their misfortune. The sun rose as usual, and
+the sky was as clear and the lake as placid as if nothing
+had happened. I had been trying all my life to get shipwrecked
+on a desolate island; now there seemed a fair
+prospect of success. The only difficulty was, that there
+was no heavy sea to break the vessel to pieces, and she
+was too substantial to go to pieces of her own account.
+The nearest island was little more than a barren rock.
+A few birds wheeled about over it, or sat perched upon
+its rugged points, but with that exception I doubt if it
+furnished a foothold for a living creature.</p>
+
+<p>After a good breakfast of sausages and veal cutlets,
+brown bread and coffee, we again turned out on deck.
+This time the joyful tidings reached us from aloft that a
+Gottenburg steamer was approaching. Soon the smoke
+of her chimneys was perceptible from the deck, and in
+an hour or so she was alongside. A stout hawser was
+bent on to her, and after another hour of pulling and
+tugging, backing and filling, we slipped off the rocks, and
+floated out into the channel. I was destined, after all,
+never to be decently shipwrecked. We had suffered but
+little injury, and proceeded on our way as quietly as if
+nothing had interrupted our course. On our arrival at
+the next pilot station the captain put the pilot ashore,
+with a parting malediction in the Swedish vernacular.</p>
+
+<p>The next place of importance on our route was the
+pretty little town of Motala, at which we stopped for
+some hours to take in freight and passengers. The
+neighborhood is undulating and picturesque, and abounds
+in rich farms. Motala is an old-fashioned place, with
+paved streets and wooden houses, much like the suburbs
+of Stockholm. It is celebrated chiefly for its manufactures
+of iron. The founderies are numerous, and cutlery
+of a very good quality is manufactured here. Besides
+these, it possesses many other objects of interest. The
+churches are well worth visiting, and the ruins of the
+fortifications erected in 1567, to resist the Danes, are
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+among the finest in Sweden. From Motala, after another
+narrow stretch of canal, we soon reached the Wettern
+Lake, the next largest to the Wenern, and the waters of
+which are three hundred and four feet above the level
+of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>In my recollections of travel I can scarcely call to mind
+any experience more pleasant than I enjoyed during this
+part of the trip. The lake scenery of Sweden, although
+not very grand compared with that of the Norwegian
+fjords, is certainly unsurpassed in the softness and beauty
+of its coloring, the crystal clearness of the water, the luxuriance
+of the surrounding forests, the varied labyrinths
+of charming little islands through which the channel
+winds, and the delicate atmospheric tints cast on the distant
+shores. By this time, too, the passengers have become
+better acquainted. The wonderful sights that we
+have seen together; the perils and dangers through which
+we have passed; the breakfasts, dinners, and suppers that
+we have eaten at the same board; the amount of solid
+sleeping that we have done in the same little cabin; the
+promenades we have had up and down the decks, and
+the rambles we have enjoyed together, have bound us
+together as one family, and now we come out with our
+individual histories and experiences, our accomplishments
+and humors. We (the gentlemen) drink schnapps
+together, smoke cigars, talk all the languages under the
+sun, tell our best anecdotes, and sing glees under the
+awning. The ladies look more beautiful than ever, and
+although they are still a little shy of us, as ladies in Europe
+generally are of the male sex, they sometimes favor
+us with a smile or a pleasant word, and thus contribute
+to our happiness. I don&rsquo;t know, for the life of me, what
+dire offense the man who founded European society was
+guilty of; but it is certain his successors, from Algeria
+to the North Pole, are sadly mistrusted by the unmarried
+ladies. This, I regret to say, is the case in Sweden,
+as well as in Germany and France. A gentleman is
+generally regarded as a ferocious cannibal, ready without
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+the slightest provocation to devour and swallow up
+defenseless maidens. The married ladies are free and
+easy enough, having discovered probably that men are
+not half so dangerous as they are reported to be. But,
+all things considered, the Swedish ladies are exceedingly
+polite and affable, and on occasions of this kind seem
+well disposed toward our rapacious sex.</p>
+
+<p>The next important point in our route was the fortress
+of Wanas, which commands the channel entering the lake
+on the eastern side. This is considered a work of great
+importance in view of invasion by any foreign power.
+We did not stop long enough to examine it in detail,
+merely touching to put the mail ashore and take in a few
+passengers. Leaving the Wettern Lake, our route lay
+through a series of smaller lakes, beautifully diversified
+with wood-covered islands, till we entered the Viken,
+another magnificent stretch of water of less extent than
+the Wettern, but still more beautiful than any we had
+yet seen. Here the rocks and islands are innumerable,
+rising from the water in every direction; the smaller
+ones covered with moss, lichens, shrubbery, and flowers;
+and the larger darkened with a dense growth of fir, pine,
+and other evergreens, while the oak, elm, and ash occasionally
+enliven the masses of shade with their more lively
+foliage.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the Viken, which is some fifteen miles in
+length, the West Gotha Canal commences, and continues
+through a rich and beautiful farming country to the waters
+of the great Wenern Lake, some twenty miles distant.
+The passage through this portion of the route is
+less interesting than others through which we had passed&mdash;so
+far, at least, as the scenery is concerned. The country
+is undulating, but not sufficiently diversified for fine
+scenic effects. Farms and meadows extend nearly all
+the way to the shores of the Wenern; and the canal
+passes at frequent intervals through farming districts,
+which, in point of cultivation, are quite equal to any
+thing I had seen in more southern parts of Europe. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>
+peasants&rsquo; houses along the route are neat and comfortable,
+and reminded me occasionally of our New England
+farm-houses. Villages enliven the route at intervals of
+a few miles, but generally they are of inconsiderable size,
+and may properly be regarded as mere gatherings of
+farm-houses around the nucleus of a church or post station.
+In this respect, I was struck with the difference
+between Sweden and Germany. The German peasantry,
+as a general thing, live in villages, and carry on their
+farming outside, sometimes at a distance of several miles.
+In the Thuringenwald, the Schwartzwald, the Spessart,
+and some other mountainous districts, it is true, exceptions
+may be found to this rule; but throughout the best
+cultivated districts of Germany there are but comparatively
+few farm-houses in which isolated families live.
+Hence villages, and, in many cases, large towns, form the
+head-quarters of each agricultural parish. The pedestrian,
+in traveling through Germany, is scarcely ever more
+than a &ldquo;halp-stund&rdquo; from one town or village to another.
+I think the longest stretch I ever made between two villages
+was two hours, or six and a half miles. In Sweden
+(and the same may be said of Norway) the farming districts
+have more of an American aspect. The houses are
+scattered about on the different farms, and the peasants
+do not seem to be so gregarious in their habits as those
+of Germany. This arises in part from the fact that the
+population is not so dense in Sweden as in the more central
+parts of Europe, and in part from the greater abundance
+of wood and pasture, and the predominance of the
+lumbering, mining, and stock-raising interests. Many
+of the farmers are also lumbermen and miners, and nearly
+all have a good supply of blood cattle. The extent
+of arable land in Sweden is comparatively small. It
+presents few attractions as an agricultural country. Its
+chief wealth consists in its vast forests and mines. The
+climate is too severe and the production of cereal crops
+too uncertain to render farming on a large scale a profitable
+pursuit. This is especially the case in the northern
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+parts. South of Stockholm, between the lakes of Wettern
+and Wenern, and along the banks of the Gota River,
+farming is carried to considerable perfection; but
+with this exception, and some small and sheltered valleys
+to the north, in which the peasants manage with great
+care and labor to raise a sufficient supply of grain and
+potatoes for domestic consumption, but little is produced
+for exportation. The land generally throughout Sweden
+is barren and rocky, and it is only by great labor and
+constant manuring that fair crops can be produced. In
+the populous districts, where the soil possesses some natural
+advantages, the farms are mostly small, averaging
+from ten to seventy-five acres. A tract of forest is usually
+attached to these farming-lands, from which the peasants
+derive their supplies of lumber and fuel. Saw-mills
+are numerous on all the rivers, and a large trade in lumber
+is carried on in the lake regions. The main lumber
+region lies north of Stockholm, on the various small rivers
+emptying into the Gulf of Bothnia. Sundswall,
+Umea, Lulea, and Haparanda are the principal places of
+exportation on the eastern shore, and Gottenburg on the
+west. The fisheries are also an important branch of industry,
+and large quantities of stromung and herrings are
+exported. Salmon abound in the rivers, and the lakes
+and mountain streams furnish a very fine quality of trout.
+Game is more abundant in the densely wooded regions
+of Sweden than in Norway, being less accessible to English
+sportsmen. Of late years Norway has become the
+favorite hunting and fishing ground of the English, and
+every summer they swarm all over the country with
+their guns and fishing-rods. In Sweden, however, comparatively
+few have yet made their appearance. Bear,
+elk, red deer, ptarmigan, and wild-fowl abound in the
+forests and along the shores of the lakes. The Swedes
+themselves are not so much given to this kind of recreation
+as the English. Their chief amusements consist in
+Sunday afternoon recreations, such as theatrical representations,
+dancing, singing, drinking, and carousing. In
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>
+their religious observances they are very strict, but after
+church they consider themselves privileged to enjoy a
+little dissipation in the Continental style. It too often
+happens that their frolics are carried to an excess. More
+brandy and other strong liquors are consumed in Sweden,
+according to the population, than in New Orleans
+or San Francisco, which is saying a good deal for the
+civilization of the people. Another good sign is that
+they chew tobacco. The better classes usually smoke
+this delightful weed, but the peasants both smoke it and
+chew it, showing conclusively that they are advancing
+rapidly toward emancipation from the narrow prejudices
+of European society. I saw drunken men and tobacco-chewers
+in Sweden who would have done credit to any
+little mining district in California. The habit of drinking
+is almost universal. The peasants drink to get drunk,
+the better classes drink for excitement, and all drink because
+they like it. At the principal restaurants in Stockholm
+and Gottenburg there is usually an anteroom opening
+into the main saloon. Here every gentleman who
+enters deposits his hat and cane. In the centre of the
+room stands a small table, upon which are several decanters
+containing &ldquo;schnapps,&rdquo; a pile of brown bread sliced,
+various plates of biscuit and thin flour-cake, butter, and
+pickled fish. Around this the customers gather to acquire
+an appetite, which they accomplish by drinking
+one or two glasses of schnapps, eating a few small fish
+(stromung) spread upon their bread and butter, and then
+drinking some schnapps. They then go in to dinner,
+and call for what they want, including the various wines
+necessary for the process of digestion. Having eaten
+heartily and emptied a few bottles of wine, they wind up
+with coffee and cognac or maraschino. One would think
+such a process every day would burn the lining off the
+best stomach in the world; but the Swedes, like the
+Russians, have gutta-percha stomachs. The same system,
+it is true, prevails in San Francisco, only in a different
+form, and the same consequences generally ensue.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+People are very apt to get up from the table with a rush
+of blood to the head, a general obliquity of vision, and a
+peculiar weakness in the knees. I tried it myself by
+way of experiment, and was sick of a headache for three
+days after. Somehow I can travel a long distance on
+foot without getting tired, but my stomach is not lined
+with sheet iron. I have seen women and children drink
+at a single sitting enough of intoxicating beverages, since
+my arrival in Europe, to have capsized me for a month.
+This, I think, will account for the prevalence of bloated
+bodies and red noses in these highly civilized countries.</p>
+
+<p>I had read somewhere, before visiting Sweden, that
+the Swedes are not very sociable toward strangers. Perhaps
+in this respect they do not produce so favorable an
+impression as the Germans, but my experience has been
+such as to give me a very pleasant idea of their social
+qualities. It is true they are not so demonstrative in
+their manners as the French, or so enthusiastic as the
+Germans; but I found no difficulty in becoming acquainted
+with them, and was invariably treated with kindness
+and hospitality. When a Swede manifests an interest in
+your behalf, it is pretty certain that he feels it. If you
+become acquainted with one respectable family, you have
+a general entree into the entire social circle. No pains
+are spared to render your visit agreeable; and although
+the demonstrations of kindness are never intrusive, you
+feel that they are cordial and sincere. There may be
+among the more polished classes a certain degree of
+formality which to a stranger bears the appearance of
+reserve; but this quickly passes away, and the pleasure
+is all the greater in finding that there is really very little
+reserve about them. With all their adhesion to forms
+and ceremonies, they are simple and unaffected in their
+manners, and have a natural repugnance to whatever is
+meretricious. In a word, the Swedes are an honest,
+straightforward, sterling people, resembling more, in certain
+points of character, the English than any of their
+Continental neighbors, though I must do them the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+justice to say that they rarely have so unpleasant a way of
+manifesting their best traits. I can readily believe that
+the longer they are known the better they may be liked.
+It is true I saw nothing of Swedish society beyond what
+a casual tourist can see in passing rapidly through the
+country, yet that little impressed me very favorably, and
+disposes me to rely with confidence upon what I gathered
+from others who have enjoyed a more extended experience.</p>
+
+<p>The home sketches of Fredrika Bremer give a more
+thorough insight of Swedish life and manners than perhaps
+those of any other writer. Of late years, however,
+Miss Bremer does not appear to have maintained her
+early popularity. She is said to have written some
+things which have given offense and provoked severe
+criticism, and I was surprised to hear her productions
+mentioned by several of her countrymen in somewhat
+disparaging terms. This was a source of disappointment
+to me, for I had supposed she was the most popular writer
+in Sweden; and I could not easily forget the pleasure
+I had derived from the perusal of &ldquo;The H&mdash;&mdash; Family,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Nina,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Professor,&rdquo; and other of her charming
+delineations of domestic life. As no man is a prophet
+in his own valley, I suppose the same may be said of
+women. To this, however, Jenny Lind is an exception.</p>
+
+<p>But, as usual, I find myself steering out of the channel.
+We were now in the great Wenern Lake, a vast sheet
+of water fifty miles broad by one hundred in length.
+The elevation of this lake is 147 feet above the sea level.
+Its shores are densely wooded, and it abounds in islands,
+many of which are inhabited and cultivated. Several
+rivers of considerable size empty their waters into the
+Wenern, among which is the Klar, a large and rapid
+stream having its source in the mountains of Norway,
+at a distance of two hundred and fifty miles to the north.
+Fishing and lumbering are the principal occupations of
+the inhabitants living on the islands and shores. All
+these interior waters are frozen over in winter, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+communication is carried on by means of sledges. The winters
+are very severe; and it is said that great numbers
+of wolves, driven from their usual haunts by starvation,
+prowl along the public highways during the winter
+months in search of prey. Traveling parties are sometimes
+attacked, and it is considered dangerous for children
+to go from one farm-house to another. The government,
+however, by a system of rewards for the destruction
+of these vicious animals, has succeeded of late
+years in greatly reducing their numbers.</p>
+
+<p>In speaking of the severity of Swedish winters, it may
+be well to state that the cold is uniform, and consequently
+more easily endured than if the temperature were subject
+to sudden variations. There is, of course, considerable
+difference between the northern and southern parts
+of the country; but, taking the average or central parts,
+the winters may be considered as lasting about five
+months. During that period the snow covers the earth,
+and the lakes and rivers are frozen. At Stockholm the
+thermometer averages in summer about 70 degrees above,
+and in winter 29 degrees below zero, of Fahrenheit. At
+Gottenburg the summers are not quite so warm and the
+winters not so cold. The temperature of the Norwegian
+coast facing the Atlantic is less rigorous than that of the
+Swedish coast on the Baltic, arising from the influence
+of the Gulf Stream, and partly from the proximity of the
+open sea. Even at Wammerfest, which lies within the
+arctic circle, the winters are comparatively mild. At Bergen
+it rains over two hundred days in the year, and the
+fjords are seldom frozen over.</p>
+
+<p>Passing along the eastern shore of the Wenern, we
+passed a series of rocky islands, well wooded till we
+reached the town of Wenersberg&mdash;an important d&eacute;p&ocirc;t
+for the commerce and products of the lake. At this
+place a brisk trade in iron and lumber is carried on during
+the summer months, and the wharves present quite
+a lively appearance, with their shipping, and piles of lumber
+and merchandise. The population of Wenersberg
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+is about 2500; the houses are neat, and the general appearance
+of the town is thrifty. We stopped long enough
+to enjoy a ramble through the streets, and take a look
+at the inhabitants, after which our little steamer proceeded
+on her way through the Wassbottom Lake. At
+the end of this we entered the Carls Graf, or that portion
+of the canal built by Charles IX., to avoid the upper
+falls of the Gota River. The canal is here cut through
+solid masses of rock, and must have been a work of great
+difficulty and expense.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the evening we arrived at the Falls of Trolh&aelig;tta.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>VOYAGE TO CHRISTIANIA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I shall not stop to describe the Falls of Trolh&aelig;tta.
+Better word-painters have so often pictured the beauties
+of this region that there is nothing left for an unimaginative
+tourist like myself.</p>
+
+<p>A few hours&rsquo; travel by the river steamer brought me
+to Gottenburg, where, for the first time since my arrival
+in Europe, I really began to enjoy life. Not that Gottenburg
+is a very lively or fascinating place, for it abounds
+in abominations and smells of fish, and is inhabited by a
+race of men whose chief aim in life appears to be directed
+toward pickled herring, mackerel, and codfish. There
+was much in it, however, to remind me of that homeland
+on the Pacific for which my troubled heart was
+pining. A grand fair was going on. All the peasants
+from the surrounding country were gathered in, and I
+met very few of them, at the close of evening, who were
+not reeling drunk. Besides, they chewed tobacco&mdash;an
+additional sign of civilization to which I had long been
+unaccustomed.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 410px;">
+<a name="in_norseland" id="in_norseland"></a>
+<img src="images/thor029.png" width="410" height="600"
+alt="Fishermen pull in their nets, the sun just visible over the horizon" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">IN NORSELAND.</p>
+
+<p>At Gottenburg, in the absence of something better to
+do, I made up my mind to visit Norway. The steamer
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+from Copenhagen touches on her way to Christiania.
+She has an unpleasant habit of waking people up in the
+middle of the night; and I was told that if I wanted to
+make sure of getting on board, I must sit up and watch
+for her. This is abominable in a mercantile community;
+but what can be expected of a people whose noblest aspirations
+are wrapped up in layers of dried codfish? By
+contract with the kellner at my hotel the difficulty was
+finally arranged. For the sum of two marks, Swedish
+currency, he agreed to notify me of the approach of the
+Copenhagen steamer. I thought he was doing all this
+solely on my account, but afterward discovered that he
+had made contracts at a quarter the price with about a
+dozen others.</p>
+
+<p>It was very late in the night, or very early in the morning,
+when I was roused up, and duly put on board the
+steamer. Of the remainder of that night the least said
+the better. A cabinful of sea-sick passengers is not a
+pleasant subject of contemplation. When the light of
+day found its way into our dreary abode of misery, I
+went on deck. The weather was thick, and nothing was
+to be seen in any direction but a rough, chopping sea
+and flakes of drifting fog. A few doleful-looking tourists
+were searching for the land through their opera-glasses.
+They appeared to be sorry they ever undertook
+such a stormy and perilous voyage, and evidently had
+misgivings that they might never again see their native
+country. Some of them peeped over the bulwarks from
+time to time, with a faint hope, perhaps, of seeing something
+new in that direction; but from the singular noises
+they made, and the convulsive motions of their bodies,
+I had reason to suspect they were heaving some very
+heavy sighs at their forlorn fate. The waiters were continually
+running about with cups of coffee, which served
+to fortify the stomachs of these hardy adventurers against
+sea-sickness. I may here mention as a curious fact that
+in all my travels I have rarely met a sea-going gentleman
+who could be induced to acknowledge that he suffered
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+the least inconvenience from the motion of the vessel.
+A headache, a fit of indigestion, the remains of a recent
+attack of gout, a long-standing rheumatism, a bilious colic
+to which he had been subject for years, a sudden and unaccountable
+shock of vertigo, a disorganized condition of
+the liver&mdash;something, in short, entirely foreign to the
+known and recognized laws of motion, disturbed his equilibrium,
+but rarely an out-and-out case of sea-sickness.
+That is a weakness of human nature fortunately confined
+to the ladies. Indeed, I don&rsquo;t know what the gentler
+sex would do if it were not for the kindness of Providence
+in exempting the ruder portion of humanity from
+this unpleasant accompaniment of sea-life, only it unfortunately
+happens that the gentlemen are usually afflicted
+with some other dire and disabling visitation about the
+same time.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_steamer_entering_the_fjord" id="the_steamer_entering_the_fjord"></a>
+<img src="images/thor030.png" width="600" height="454"
+alt="The steamer sails between rocks at the entrance" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE STEAMER ENTERING THE FJORD.</p>
+
+<p>Toward noon the fog broke away, and we sighted the
+rocky headlands of the Christiania Fjord. In a few
+hours more we were steaming our way into this magnificent
+sheet of water at a dashing rate, and the decks
+were crowded with a gay and happy company. No
+more the pangs of despised love, indigestion, gout, and
+bilious colic disturbed the gentlemen of this lively party;
+no more the fair ladies of Hamburg and Copenhagen
+hid themselves away in their state-rooms, and called in
+vain to their natural protectors for assistance. The sea
+was smooth; the sun shot forth through the whirling
+rain-clouds his brightest August beams. All along the
+shores of the Fjord, the rocky points, jutting abruptly
+from the water, rose like embattled towers, crowned
+with a variegated covering of moss, grim and hoary with
+the wild winds and scathing winters of the North.
+Beautiful little valleys, ravines, and slopes of woodland
+of such rich and glittering green opened out to us on
+either side, as we swept past the headlands, that the
+vision was dazzled with the profusion and variety of the
+charms bestowed upon this wilderness of romantic scenery.
+A group of fishermen&rsquo;s huts, behind a bold and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+jagged point of rocks&mdash;a rude lugger or fishing-smack,
+manned by a hardy crew of Norskmen, rough and
+weather-beaten as the ocean monsters of their stormy
+coast, gliding out of some nook among the rocky inlets&mdash;here
+the cozy little cottage of some well-to-do sea-captain,
+half fisher, half farmer, with a gang of white-headed
+little urchins running out over the cliffs to take
+a peep at the passing steamer, the frugal matron standing
+in the door resplendent in her red woolen petticoat
+and fanciful head-dress, knitting a pair of stockings, or
+some such token of love, for her absent lord&mdash;there, a
+pretty little village, with a church, a wharf, and a few
+store-houses, shrinking back behind the protecting wing
+of some huge and rugged citadel of rocks, the white cottages
+glittering pleasantly in the rays of the evening
+sun, and the smoke curling up peacefully over the surrounding
+foliage, and floating off till it vanished in the
+rich glow of the sky&mdash;all so calm, so dreamy in colors
+and outline that the imagination is absolutely bewildered
+with the varied feast of beauties: such are the characteristic
+features of this noble sheet of water.</p>
+
+<p>The Christiania Fjord is one of the largest in Norway.
+Commencing at Frederickstadt on the one side and Sandesund
+on the other, it extends into the interior a distance
+of seventy or eighty miles, making one of the finest
+natural harbors in the world. The water is deep, and
+the shores are almost rock-bound. In many places the
+navigation is somewhat intricate, owing to the numerous
+rocky islands and rugged headlands; but the Norwegian
+pilots are thoroughly experienced in their business, and
+know every foot of the way as familiarly as they know
+their own snug little cabins perched up among the rocks.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="coast_of_norway" id="coast_of_norway"></a>
+<img src="images/thor031.png" width="600" height="449"
+alt="Towering rocks and cliffs, a few boats, and some small houses" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">COAST OF NORWAY.</p>
+
+<p>Touching at the picturesque little town of Horten on
+the left, we discharged some passengers and took in
+others, after which we proceeded without farther incident
+to the town of Drobak on the right. Here the
+Fjord is narrow, presenting something the appearance
+of a river. A group of fortifications on the cliffs
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>
+protects this passage. The view on leaving Drobak is inexpressibly
+beautiful. The Fjord widens gradually till
+it assumes the form of an immense lake, the shores of
+which rise abruptly from the water, covered with forests
+of pine. Moss-covered rocks, green wooded islands, and
+innumerable fishing-craft, give variety and animation to
+the scene. Range upon range of wild and rugged
+mountains extend back through the dim distance on
+either side till their vague and fanciful outlines are mingled
+with the clouds. Nothing can exceed the richness
+and beauty of the atmospheric tints. A golden glow,
+mingled with deep shades of purple, illuminates the sky.
+In the distance the snowy peaks of the vast interior
+ranges of mountains glisten in the evening sun. The
+deep green of the foliage which decks the islands and
+promontories of the Fjord casts its reflected hues upon
+the surface of the sleeping waters. In the valleys, which
+from time to time open out as we sweep along on our
+way, rich yellow fields of grain make a brilliant and
+striking contrast to the sombre tints of the pine forests
+in the rear.</p>
+
+<p>It was long after sunset, but still light enough to enjoy
+all the beauties of the Fjord, when we saw before us
+the numerous and picturesque villas that adorn the
+neighborhood of Christiania. Passing the fine old castle
+of Aggershuus on the left, we rounded a point, and
+then came in full view of the town and harbor.</p>
+
+<p>Surely there is nothing like this in the whole world, I
+thought, as I gazed for the first time upon this charming
+scene. The strange old-fashioned buildings, the castle,
+the palace on the hill-top, the shipping at the wharves,
+the gardens on every slope, the varied outlines of the
+neighboring cliffs and hills, covered with groves and
+green slopes of rich sward; every nook glimmering with
+beautiful villas; the whole reflected in the glowing waters
+that sweep through the maze of islands and headlands
+in every direction; can there be any thing more
+beautiful in all the world?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_islands" id="the_islands"></a>
+<img src="images/thor032.png" width="600" height="443"
+alt="Small islands, some with a little house on them, and a few boats on the sea" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE ISLANDS.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+The steamer was soon hauled alongside the wharf,
+where a crowd of citizens was gathered to see us land.
+Here again was a scene characteristic of Norway. No
+hurry, no confusion, no shouting and clamoring for passengers,
+but all quiet, primitive, and good-humored.
+How different from a landing at New York or San Francisco!
+Three or four sturdy hack-drivers stood smoking
+their pipes, watching the proceedings with an air
+of philosophical indifference truly refreshing. Fathers,
+mothers, sisters, brothers, and cousins of various parties
+on board, waved their handkerchiefs and nodded affectionately
+to their friends and relatives, but kept their enthusiasm
+within limits till the plank was put out, when
+they came on board, and kissed and hugged every body
+of their acquaintance in the most affectionate manner.
+The officers of the customs, good easy souls! also came
+on board, books in hand, and made a kind of examination
+of the baggage. It was neither severe nor formal,
+and I felt an absolute friendship for the chief officer on
+account of the jolly manner in which he looked at me,
+and asked me if I had any thing contraband in my little
+knapsack. I offered to open it, but with a wave of his
+hand he chalked a pass upon it and I walked ashore.
+For the first time in my life I here felt the inconvenience
+of not being persecuted by porters and hack-drivers.
+The few who were on hand seemed to be particular
+friends or relatives of parties on board, and were already
+engaged. I walked up the queer, grass-grown
+old streets, looking around in the dim twilight for a hotel;
+and after stumbling into half a dozen odd-looking
+shops and store-houses, contrived to make my way to
+the Hotel Victoria, said to be the best in Christiania.</p>
+
+<p>As it is no part of my purpose to write a book on
+Christiania, I shall only say that for the next three days
+I rambled about enjoying all the objects of interest in
+this quaint northern city&mdash;the churches, the museum,
+the castle, the palace, the ups and downs of the streets,
+the market-places, wharves, and gardens, and the magic
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>
+beauties of the neighborhood. There is a plainness and
+simplicity about the people of Christiania, a good-humor
+of expression, a kindliness of manner and natural politeness
+that impressed me very favorably. The society is
+said to be genial and cultivated. I have no doubt of the
+fact, though my stay was too short to afford an opportunity
+of making many acquaintances.</p>
+
+<p>At the Hotel Victoria I met Ole Bull, who was on a
+tour through his native land. He sat near me at the
+<i>table d&rsquo;h&ocirc;te</i>, and I had an opportunity of noticing the
+changes which time has made in his appearance. The
+last time I had seen him was in Columbus, Ohio, in 1844.
+He was then in the very prime of life, slender and graceful,
+yet broad of shoulder and powerful of limb; with
+light straight hair, clear blue eyes, and a healthy Northern
+complexion. He is now quite altered, and I am not
+sure that I would have recognized him had he not been
+pointed out to me. In form he is much stouter, though
+not so erect as he was in former years. His hair is
+sprinkled with gray. He retains the same noble cast of
+features, and deep, dreamy, and genial expression of eye
+as of old, but his complexion is sallow, and his face is
+marked by lines of care. There is something sad and
+touching in his manner. I do not know what his misfortunes
+in America may have to do with his present dejected
+expression, but he seems to me to be a man who
+has met with great disappointments in life. Although
+I sat beside him at the table, and might have claimed
+acquaintance as one of his most ardent American admirers,
+I was deterred from speaking to him by something
+peculiar in his manner&mdash;not coldness, for that is
+not in his nature&mdash;but an apparent withdrawal from the
+outer world into himself. A feeling that it might be intrusive
+to address him kept me silent. I afterward sent
+him a few lines, expressing a desire to renew my early
+acquaintance with him; but he left town while I was absent
+on an excursion to the Frogner-assen, and, much to
+my regret, I missed seeing him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>FROM CHRISTIANIA TO LILLEHAMMER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The population of Christiania is something over
+40,000, and of late years it has become quite a place of
+resort for tourists on the way to the interior of Norway.
+The houses built since the fire of 1858, which destroyed
+a considerable portion of the town, are large and substantial,
+built of stone and covered with cement. The
+streets for the most part are broad and roughly paved.
+Very little of characteristic style is observable in the
+costume of the citizens. Plainness of dress, simple and
+primitive manners, and good nature, are the leading
+traits of the Norwegians. Christiania is the modern
+capital of Norway, and was founded by Christian IV.
+of Denmark, near the site of the ancient capital of Osloe,
+which was founded in 1058 by King Harold Hardraade.
+Some of the old buildings still remain in a state of good
+preservation; but the chief interest of the city consists
+in its castle, university, library, and museum of Northern
+antiquities. A traveler from the busy cities of America
+is struck with the quiet aspect of the streets, and the
+almost death-like silence that reigns in them after dark.
+In many places the sidewalks are overgrown with grass,
+and the houses are green with moss. Stagnation broods
+in the very atmosphere. Christiania is in all respects
+the antipodes of San Francisco. A Californian could
+scarcely endure an existence in such a place for six
+weeks. He would go stark mad from sheer inanity.
+Beautiful as the scenery is, and pleasantly as the time
+passed during my brief sojourn, it was not without a
+feeling of relief that I took my departure in the cars for
+Eidsvold.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="approach_to_christiania" id="approach_to_christiania"></a>
+<img src="images/thor033.png" width="600" height="444"
+alt="Boats sail between the cliffs towards the town" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">APPROACH TO CHRISTIANIA.</p>
+
+<p>The railway from Christiania to Eidsvold is the only
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
+one yet in operation in Norway. It was a pretty heavy
+undertaking, considering the rough country and the limited
+resources of the people; but it was finally completed,
+and is now considered a great feature in Norwegian
+civilization. Some idea may be formed of the backwardness
+of facilities for internal communication throughout
+this country when I mention the fact that beyond
+the distance of forty miles to Eidsvold and the Lake of
+Mi&ouml;sen, the traveler is dependent upon such vehicles as
+he takes with him, unless he chooses to incur the risk of
+procuring a conveyance at Hamar or Lillehammer. The
+whole country is a series of rugged mountains, narrow
+valleys, desolate fjelds, rivers, and fjords. There are no
+regular communications between one point and another
+on any of the public highways, and the interior districts
+are supplied with such commodities as they require from
+the sea-board solely by means of heavy wagons, sledges,
+boats, and such other primitive modes of transportation
+as the nature of the country and the season may render
+most available.</p>
+
+<p>Like every thing else in Norway, the cars on the Eidsvold
+railway have rather more of a rustic than a metropolitan
+appearance. They are extremely simple in construction
+and rural in decoration; and as for the road,
+it may be very good compared with a trail over the Sierra
+Nevada Mountains, but it is absolutely frightful
+to travel over it by steam. Three hours is the allowance
+of time for forty miles. If I remember correctly,
+we stretched it out to four, on account of a necessary
+stoppage on the way, caused by the tumbling down of
+some rocks from an overhanging cliff. The jolting is
+enough to dislocate one&rsquo;s vertebr&aelig;; and I had a vague
+feeling all the time during the trip that the locomotive
+would jump off the track, and dash her brains out against
+some of the terrible boulders of granite that stood frowning
+at us on either side as we worried our way along
+from station to station.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly dark when we came to a saw-mill by the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+roadside. The scenery is pretty all the way from Christiania,
+but not very striking till the train passes the narrow
+gorge in which the saw-mill is situated, where there
+is a tunnel of a few hundred feet that penetrates a bluff
+on the left. Emerging from this, we are close upon the
+charming little village of Eidsvold, one of the loveliest
+spots in this land of beauty. A few minutes more brought
+us to the station-house, where the railway ends. Here
+we found ourselves at a good hotel, picturesquely situated
+on the bank of the Wormen, a river flowing from
+the Mi&ouml;sen Lake.</p>
+
+<p>At eleven o&rsquo;clock on a fine Sunday forenoon I took my
+departure from Eidsvold on board one of the little lake
+steamers. These vessels are well managed, and not inconveniently
+arranged, but they are so very small that
+on particular occasions, when there is an unusual pressure
+of travelers, it is difficult to find room for a seat.
+Owing to the facilities afforded by the railway from
+Christiania, an excursion to Lillehammer is the most
+popular way of passing a Sunday during the summer
+months, and this being the height of the season, the
+crowd was unusually great. It also happened that two
+hundred soldiers, who had served out their time, were
+returning to their homes in the interior, so that there
+was no lack of company on board. If the soldiers were
+somewhat lively and frolicsome, it was nothing more
+than natural under the circumstances. A good many
+were intoxicated&mdash;at the idea, perhaps, of getting home
+once more, and their songs and merry shouts of laughter
+kept every body in a good humor. I am unable to account
+for a curious fact, which I may as well mention in
+this connection. Whenever the authorities of any country
+through which I chance to travel have occasion to
+send their troops from one point to another, they invariably
+send them upon the same boat or in the same railway
+train upon which I have the fortune to take passage.
+There must be something military in my appearance,
+or some natural propensity for bloodshed in my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
+nature, that causes this affinity to exist between us, for
+it has happened altogether too often to be accidental.
+The King of Sicily, some years ago, sent a party of
+troops to keep me company to Palermo. Subsequently
+the King of Greece favored me with a large military
+convoy to one of the Greek islands. After that I had
+an independent supervision of various bodies of Turkish
+soldiers on board of different vessels within the Turkish
+dominions. Recently Napoleon III. sent down by the
+same train of cars, from Paris to Marseilles, about four
+hundred of his troops for Algiers. Being detained at
+Marseilles by some unforeseen circumstance, I had the
+pleasure of seeing these men shipped off on the first
+steamer. I took passage in the next. By some extraordinary
+fatality, for which there is no accounting, there
+were upward of five hundred additional troops shipped
+on this vessel. It was a consolation to know that a
+storm was brewing, and that they would soon be all sea-sick.
+Before we got out of the Gulf of Lyons I could
+have slain every man of them with a pocket-knife. It
+was therefore with a spirit of resignation that I saw the
+Norwegian soldiers come on board at Eidsvold. Fate
+had ordained that we should travel together, and it was
+no use to complain. Besides, I liked their looks. As
+stalwart, blue-eyed, jovial, and hearty-looking a set of
+fellows they were as ever I saw in any country&mdash;men of
+far higher intelligence and physical capacity than the
+average of soldiers in Continental Europe. That these
+were the right sort of men to fight for their country
+there could be no doubt. I have rarely seen finer troops
+any where than those of Norway.</p>
+
+<p>The Mi&ouml;sen Lake is sixty-three miles in length, extending
+from Minde to Lillehammer, and varies in width
+from five to ten miles. The broadest part is opposite to
+Hamar, nearly at the centre, and not far from the island
+of Helge&ouml;. The shores embrace some of the finest farming
+lands in Norway; and after passing Minde, the sloping
+hill-sides are dotted with pretty little farm-houses,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>
+and beautifully variegated with fields and orchards. In
+many places, so numerous are the cottages of the thrifty
+farmers hung in this favored region, that they resemble
+a continuous village, extending for many miles along the
+hill-sides. There is not much in the natural aspect of
+the country to attract the lover of bold mountain scenery.
+The beauties of the shores of Mi&ouml;sen are of a gentle
+and pastoral character, and become monotonous after
+a few hours. Near Hamar, on the right, there are the
+ruins of an old cathedral, burned and plundered by the
+Swedes in 1567.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from the ordinary interest of the Mi&ouml;sen Lake,
+arising from the quiet, pastoral character of its shores, it
+possessed a peculiar charm to me, owing to the fact that,
+in 1755, when the great earthquake occurred at Lisbon,
+its waters rose twenty feet, and suddenly retreated. Only
+a few months previously I had visited the city of Lisbon,
+and stood upon the very spot, where, in six minutes, over
+sixty thousand souls had been buried beneath the ruins.
+I was now, so to speak, following up an earthquake.</p>
+
+<p>It was late at night when we arrived at the pretty little
+town of Lillehammer, at the head of the lake. Leaving
+the steamer here, I found myself, for the first time,
+beyond the limits of the English language. A Norwegian
+with whom I had become acquainted on board the
+boat was kind enough to walk up town with me and
+show me the way to the post station, where I had some
+difficulty in procuring accommodations, owing to the
+number of recent arrivals.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Lillehammer contains twelve or fifteen
+hundred inhabitants, whose principal industry consists in
+the lumber business. Immense rafts are towed down
+the lake every day by the returning steamers, and carried
+by rail from Eidsvold to Christiania. The logs are
+drifted down the Logen River from the interior, and cut
+up at Lillehammer and Eidsvold. Such as are designed
+for spars are dressed and stripped at the latter place.
+There are many other points on the lake from which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span>
+supplies of timber are also transferred to Christiania, so that,
+between farming, fishing, and lumbering, the inhabitants
+of this region make out a very comfortable subsistence,
+and generally own the lands upon which they reside.
+Many of them are wealthy&mdash;for this part of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Lillehammer is prettily situated on an eminence, and
+consists of log and frame houses, presenting much the appearance
+of a Western lake village in the United States.
+The view of the Mi&ouml;sen and its verdant shores is very
+fine from the top of the hill. It was ten o&rsquo;clock at night
+when I arrived, although the sky was still lighted up
+with a purple glow from the departed sun. Something
+of the wonderful scenic beauties of the country were still
+visible. A party of French tourists, who had come to
+Norway to make a three days&rsquo; visit, set off at this late
+hour to see the torrent which breaks from the side of the
+mountain, about half a mile beyond the town. I was solicited
+to join them; but my passion for sight-seeing was
+rather obscured by the passion of hunger and thirst. At
+such times I am practical enough to prefer a good supper
+to the best waterfall in the world. Waterfalls can
+be postponed. Hunger must be promptly satisfied.
+Thirst makes one dry. A distant view of falling water
+is a poor substitute for a glass of good ale. There is no
+fear that any ordinary cataract will run itself out before
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>This was my first experience of a post station, and very
+pleasant I found it. The inns of Norway are plain, cheap,
+and comfortable; not very elegant in appearance, but as
+good in all respects as a plain traveler could desire. I
+had a capital supper at Lillehammer, consisting of beefsteak,
+eggs, bread, butter, and coffee&mdash;enough to satisfy
+any reasonable man. The rooms are clean, the beds and
+bedding neat and comfortable, and the charge for supper,
+lodging, and breakfast not exceeding an average of
+about fifty cents. At some of the interior stations I was
+charged only about twenty-five cents, and in no instance
+was I imposed upon. The inn-keepers are so generally
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>
+obliging and good-natured that there is very little difficulty
+in getting along with them. A few words always
+sufficed to make my wants understood, and the greatest
+kindness and alacrity were invariably shown in supplying
+them. But I anticipate my journey.</p>
+
+<p>After a pleasant night&rsquo;s rest I arose bright and early;
+and here, being for the first time thrown completely upon
+my own resources in the way of language, was obliged
+to have recourse to my vocabulary to get at the means
+of asking for breakfast and a horse and cariole. Fancy
+a lean and hungry man standing before a substantial
+landlord, trying to spell out a breakfast from his book in
+some such way as this:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Jeg vil Spise [I will eat]!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ya, min Herr!&rdquo; the landlord politely answers.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Jeg vil Frokost [I will breakfast]!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ya, min Herr;&rdquo; and the landlord runs off into a perfect
+labyrinth of birds, fish, eggs, beefsteak, hot cakes,
+and other luxuries, which the inexperienced traveler is
+vainly attempting to follow up in his book. In despair,
+he at length calls out,</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja! Ja!&mdash;that&rsquo;s all right! any thing you say, my fine
+old gentleman!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At which the landlord scratches his head, for he doesn&rsquo;t
+understand precisely what you have selected. Now you
+take your book, and explain slowly and systematically:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Kaffee!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&OElig;gg!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Fisk!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sm&ouml;r og Brod!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here the landlord is staggered, and scratches his head
+again. <i>Sm&ouml;r</i> he gets a glimmering of, but the bread
+stuns him. You try it in a dozen different ways&mdash;broad,
+breyd, breed, brode, braid. At length a light flashes upon
+his mind. You want bread! Simple as the word is, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>
+though he pronounces it precisely according to one of
+your own methods, as you suppose, it is difficult to get
+the peculiar intonation that renders it intelligible.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja!&rdquo; And thus you lay the foundation of your
+breakfast; after which, having progressed so far in the
+language, there is no great difficulty in asking for a
+&ldquo;Heste og Cariole&rdquo; [a horse and cariole].</p>
+
+<p>A little practice in this way soon enables the traveler
+to acquire a sufficient knowledge of the language for the
+ordinary purposes of communication along the road.
+With a smattering of the German it comes very readily
+to one who speaks English, being something of a mixture
+between these two languages. I was really astonished
+to find how well I could understand it, and make myself
+understood, in the course of a few days, though candor
+obliges me to say that if there is any one thing in the
+world for which nature never intended me it is a linguist.</p>
+
+<p>I was in hopes of finding at Lillehammer a party of
+tourists bound over the Dovre Fjeld to Trondhjem, of
+whom I had heard in Christiania. In this I was disappointed.
+They had started a few days previously. An
+omnibus was advertised to run as far as Elstad, some
+thirty-five miles up the valley of Gudbransdalen, which
+would be so much gained on my route. It seemed, however,
+that it only ran whenever a sufficient number of
+passengers offered&mdash;so I was obliged to give up that
+prospect.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW THEY TRAVEL IN NORWAY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nothing can be more characteristic of Norwegian seclusion
+from the world than the rude means of inland
+communication between the principal cities. Here was
+a public highway between two of the most important
+sea-ports in the country&mdash;Christiania and Trondhjem&mdash;without
+as much as a stage to carry passengers. Every
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>
+traveler has to depend upon his own vehicle, or upon
+such rude and casual modes of conveyance as he can find
+at the stations by the wayside. I asked the reason of
+this backward state of things, and was informed that the
+amount of travel is insufficient to support any regular
+stage line. The season for tourists lasts only about three
+months, and during the remainder of the year very few
+strangers have occasion to pass over the roads. In winter&mdash;which,
+of course, lasts very long in this latitude&mdash;the
+whole country is covered with snow, and sledges are
+altogether used, both for purposes of traveling and the
+transportation of merchandise from the sea-board. The
+products of the country&mdash;such as logs, spars, and boards&mdash;are
+prepared during these months for rafting down
+the rivers during the spring floods. Once, as I was told,
+an enterprising Englishman had started a regular stage-line
+from Christiania to Trondhjem, in consequence of
+the repeated complaints of the traveling public, who objected
+to the delays to which they were subject; but he
+was soon obliged to discontinue it for want of patronage.
+When travelers had a convenient way of getting
+over, they grumbled at being hurried through, and preferred
+taking the usual conveyances of the country,
+which afforded them an opportunity of enjoying the
+scenery and stopping wherever they pleased. People
+did not come all the way to Norway, they said, to fly
+through it without seeing any of its wonders and beauties.
+There was some philosophy in this, as well as a
+touch of human nature. It reminded me of the Frenchman
+in Paris who lived to be eighty years of age without
+ever leaving the city; when the king, for the sake
+of experiment, positively forbid him from doing so during
+the remainder of his life. The poor fellow was immediately
+seized with an inordinate desire to see something
+of the outside world, and petitioned so hard for
+the privilege of leaving the city that the king, unable to
+resist his importunities, granted him the privilege, after
+which the man was perfectly satisfied, and remained in
+Paris to the day of his death.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>
+By reference to a copy of the laws on the subject of
+post-travel, which I had procured in Christiania from a
+Mr. Bennett, I discovered that the system is singularly
+complicated and hazardous, as well as a little curious in
+some of its details. The stations are situated along the
+road about every eight or ten miles (counted in Norwegian
+by so many hours). Nothing that we could call a
+village is to be seen in any part of the interior, unless
+the few straggling farm-houses occasionally huddled together,
+with a church in the centre, may be considered
+in that light. The stations usually stand alone, in some
+isolated spot on the wayside, and consist of a little log
+or frame tavern, a long shambling stable, innumerable
+odds and ends of cribs, store-houses, and outbuildings,
+forming a kind of court or stable-yard; a rickety medley
+of old carts and carioles lying about basking in the sun;
+a number of old white-headed men smoking their pipes,
+and leathery-faced women on household duties intent,
+with a score or so of little cotton-headed children running
+about over the manure pile in the neighborhood of
+the barn, to keep the pigs company; here and there a
+strapping lout of a boy swinging on a gate and whistling
+for his own amusement; while cows, sheep, goats, chickens,
+and other domestic animals and birds browse, nibble,
+and peck all over the yard in such a lazy and rural
+manner as would delight an artist. This is the ordinary
+Norwegian station.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="station_house_logen_valley" id="station_house_logen_valley"></a>
+<img src="images/thor034.png" width="600" height="446"
+alt="A small group of log buildings, the station-house in the foreground" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">STATION-HOUSE, LOGEN VALLEY.</p>
+
+<p>There is always a good room for the traveler, and
+plenty of excellent homely fare to eat. At some few
+places along the route the station-houses aspire to the
+style and dignity of hotels, but they are not always the
+best or most comfortable. Then there are &ldquo;fast&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;slow&rdquo; stations&mdash;so called in the book of laws. At the
+fast stations the traveler can procure a horse and cariole
+without delay&mdash;fifteen minutes being the legal limit.
+At the slow stations he must wait till the neighborhood,
+for a distance of three or four miles perhaps, is searched
+for a horse&mdash;sometimes for both horse and cariole. If
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>
+he chooses to incur the expense he can send forward a
+<i>Forbad</i>, or notice in advance, requiring horses to be
+ready at each station at a specified time; but if he is not
+there according to notice, he must pay so much per hour
+for the delay. A day-book is kept at each of these post-houses,
+in which the traveler must enter his name, stating
+the time of his arrival and departure, where he came from,
+his destination, how many horses he requires, etc. In
+this formidable book he may also specify any complaint
+he has to make against the station-holder, boy, horse,
+cariole, or any body, animal, or thing that maltreats him,
+cheats him, or in any way misuses him on the journey;
+but he must take care to have the inn-keeper or some
+such disinterested person as a witness in his behalf, so
+that when the matter comes before the Amtmand, or
+grand tribunal of justice, it may be fairly considered and
+disposed of according to law. When the inn-keeper,
+station-holder, posting-master, alderman, or other proper
+functionary on the premises, fails to present this book
+and require the traveler to sign his name in it, he (the
+arrant violator of laws) is fined; but the traveler need
+not flatter himself that the rule does not work both ways,
+for he also is fined if he refuses or intentionally neglects
+to write his name in the said book. The number of
+horses to be kept at fast stations is fixed by law, and no
+traveler is to be detained more than a quarter of an hour,
+unless in certain cases, when he may be detained half an
+hour. At a slow station he must not be detained over
+three hours&mdash;such is the utmost stretch of the law.
+Think of that, ye Gothamites, who complain if you are
+detained any where on the face of the earth three minutes&mdash;only
+detained three hours every eight or ten miles!
+But for delay occasioned by any insuperable impediment,
+says the Norwegian law-book&mdash;such as a storm at sea,
+or too great a distance between the inns&mdash;no liability is
+incurred on either side. A Philadelphia lawyer could
+drive six-and-thirty coaches-and-four, all abreast, through
+such a law as that, and then leave room enough for a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>
+Stockton wagon and mule-team on each side. Who is
+to judge of the weather or the distance between the
+inns? When the traveler holds the reins he is responsible
+for the horse, but when the post-boy does the holding,
+he, the said boy, is the responsible party. Should
+any post-horse be ill treated or overdriven when the
+traveler holds the reins, so that, in the language of the
+law, &ldquo;the station-holder, inn-keeper, or two men at the
+next station can perceive this to be the case, the traveler
+shall pay for the injury according to the estimation
+of these men, and he shall not be allowed to be sent on
+until the payment is made.&rdquo; The traveler pays all tolls
+and ferry charges. &ldquo;When the road is very hilly, or is
+in out-of-the-way districts where there are but few horses
+in proportion to the travel, and the distance between the
+stations is unusually long, or under other circumstances
+where the burden on the people obligated to find horses
+is evidently very oppressive, etc.,&rdquo; &ldquo;it may be ordered
+by the king, after a declaration to that effect has been
+procured by the authorities, that payment for posting
+may be reckoned according to a greater distance, in proportion
+to the circumstances, as far as double the actual
+distance.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In addition to all these formidable regulations&mdash;against
+which it seems to me it would be impossible for any ordinary
+man to contend&mdash;the tariff fixes the price of posting
+for fast and slow stations in the country, the only difficulty
+being to find where the towns are after you get
+into them, or to know at what stage of the journey you
+leave them. The Amtmand, by letter to all the authorities,
+likewise requires the tariff to be hung conspicuously
+in all the inns; which tariff, says the law, &ldquo;is altered according
+to the rise and fall of provisions.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>When I came to study out all this, and consider the
+duties and obligations imposed on me as a traveler going
+a journey of three or four hundred miles; that I was to
+be subject to contingencies and liabilities depending upon
+the elements both by land and sea; that serious
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>
+responsibilities fell upon me if I held the reins of the post-horse,
+and probably heavy risks of life and limb if the post-boy
+held them; that the inn-keeper, station-holder, alderman,
+or two men chosen miscellaneously from the ranks of
+society, were to judge of damages that might be inflicted
+upon the horse; that I must register my name in a day-book,
+and enter formal complaints against the authorities
+on the way about every ten miles; that the tariff might
+rise and fall five hundred times during the journey, for
+aught I knew, according to the rise and fall of provisions
+or the pleasure of the Amtmand; that conspiracies might
+be entered into against me to make me pay for all the
+lame, halt, blind, and spavined horses in the country, and
+my liberty restrained in some desolate region of the
+mountains; that I could not speak a dozen words of the
+language, and had no other means of personal defense
+against imposition than a small pen-knife and the natural
+ferocity of my countenance&mdash;when all these considerations
+occurred to me, I confess they made me hesitate a
+little before launching out from Lillehammer.</p>
+
+<p>However, the landlord of the post, a jolly and good-natured
+old gentleman, relieved my apprehensions by
+providing such a breakfast of coffee, eggs, beefsteak,
+fish, and bread, that my sunken spirits were soon thoroughly
+aroused, and I felt equal to any emergency.
+When I looked out on the bright hill-sides, and saw the
+sun glistening on the dewy sod, and heard the post-boys
+in the yard whistling merrily to the horses, I was prepared
+to face the great Amtmand itself. In a little while
+the horse and cariole designed for my use were brought
+up before the door, and the landlord informed me that
+all was &ldquo;<i>fertig</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Now, was there ever such a vehicle for a full-grown
+man to travel in? A little thing, with a body like the
+end of a canoe, perched up on two long shafts, with a
+pair of wheels in the rear; no springs, and only a few
+straps of leather for a harness; a board behind for the
+skydskaarl, or post-boy, to sit upon; and a horse not bigger
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span>
+than a large mountain goat to drag me over the
+road! It was positively absurd. After enjoying the
+spectacle for a moment, and making a hurried sketch of
+it, wondering what manner of man had first contrived
+such a vehicle, I bounced in, and stretched my legs out
+on each side, bracing my feet against a pair of iron
+catches, made expressly for that purpose. Fortunately,
+I am a capital driver. If nature ever intended me for
+any one profession above all others, it must have been
+for a stage-driver. I have driven buggies, wagons, and
+carts in California hundreds of miles, and never yet killed
+any body. Like the Irishman, I can drive within two
+inches of a precipice without going over. Usually, however,
+I let the horse take his own way, which, after all,
+is the grand secret of skillful driving.</p>
+
+<p>My baggage consisted of a knapsack containing two
+shirts and an extra pair of stockings, a sketch-book and
+some pencils, and such other trifling knick-knacks as a
+tourist usually requires in this country. I carried no
+more outside clothing than what common decency required:
+a rough hunting-coat, a pair of stout cloth pantaloons,
+and an old pair of boots&mdash;which is as much as
+any traveler needs on a Norwegian tour, though it is
+highly recommended by an English writer that every
+traveler should provide himself with two suits of clothes,
+a Mackintosh, a portable desk, an India-rubber pillow, a
+few blankets, an opera-glass, a musquito-net, a thermometer,
+some dried beef, and a dozen boxes of sardines,
+besides a stock of white bread, and two bottles of English
+pickles.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+<h3>A NORWEGIAN GIRL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>With a crack of the whip that must have astonished
+the landlord, and caused him some misgivings for the
+fate of his horse and cariole, I took my departure from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+Lillehammer. About half a mile beyond the town we
+(the skydskaarl, myself, horse, and cariole) passed the
+falls&mdash;a roaring torrent of water tumbling down from
+the mountain side on the right. Several extensive saw-mills
+are located at this point. The piles of lumber outside,
+and the familiar sounds of the saws and wheels, reminded
+me of home. The scene was pretty and picturesque,
+but rather disfigured by the progress of Norwegian
+civilization. Passing numerous thriving farms in
+the full season of harvest, the road winding pleasantly
+along the hill-side to the right, the foaming waters of the
+Logen deep down in the valley to the left, we at length
+reached the entrance of the Gudbransdalen&mdash;that beautiful
+and fertile valley, which stretches all the way up the
+course of the Logen to the Dovre Fjeld, a distance of a
+hundred and sixty-eight miles from Lillehammer. It
+would be an endless task to undertake a description of
+the beauties of this valley. From station to station it is
+a continued panorama of dashing waterfalls, towering
+mountains, green slopes, pine forests overtopping the
+cliffs, rich and thriving farms, with innumerable log cottages
+perched up among the cliffs, and wild and rugged
+defiles through which the road passes, sometimes overhung
+by shrubbery for miles at a stretch. Flying along
+the smoothly-graded highway at a rapid rate; independent
+of all the world except your horse and boy; the bright
+sunshine glimmering through the trees; the music of the
+wild waters falling pleasantly on your ear; each turn of
+the road opening out something rich, new, and strange;
+the fresh mountain air invigorating every fibre of your
+frame; renewed youth and health beginning to glow
+upon your cheeks; digestion performing its functions
+without a pang or a hint of remonstrance; kind, genial,
+open-hearted people wherever you stop&mdash;is it not an
+episode in life worth enjoying? The valley of the Logen
+must surely be a paradise (in summer) for invalids.</p>
+
+<p>At each station the traveler is furnished with a stunted
+little boy called the skydskaarl, usually clothed in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>
+cast-off rags of his great-grandfather; his head ornamented
+by a flaming red night-cap, and his feet either bare or
+the next thing to it; his hair standing out in every direction
+like a mop dyed in whitewash and yellow ochre,
+and his face and hands freckled and sunburned, and not
+very clean, while his manners are any thing but cultivated.
+This remarkable boy sits on a board behind the
+cariole, and drives it back to the station from which it
+starts. He is regarded somewhat in the light of a high
+public functionary by his contemporary ragamuffins,
+having been promoted from the fields or the barn-yard
+to the honorable position of skydskaarl. His countenance
+is marked by the lines of premature care and responsibility,
+but varies in expression according to circumstances.
+The sum of four cents at the end of an hour&rsquo;s
+journey gives it an extremely amiable and intelligent
+cast. Some boys are constitutionally knowing, and have
+a quick, sharp look; others again are dull and stolid, as
+naturally happens wherever there is a variety of boys
+born of different parents. For the most part, they are
+exceedingly bright and lively little fellows. Mounted
+on their seat of honor at the back of the cariole, they
+greatly enliven the way by whistling and singing, and
+asking questions in their native tongue, which it is sometimes
+very difficult to answer when one is not familiar
+with the language.</p>
+
+<p>I had at Moshuus a communicative little boy, who
+talked to me incessantly all the way to Holmen without
+ever discovering, so far as I could perceive, that I did
+not understand a single word he said. Another, after
+repeated efforts to draw me out, fell into a fit of moody
+silence, and from that into a profound slumber, which
+was only broken off toward the end of our journey by
+an accident. The cariole struck against a stone and tilted
+him out on the road. He was a good deal surprised,
+but said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Another little fellow, not more than six or seven years
+of age&mdash;a pretty fair-haired child&mdash;was sent with me over
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>
+a very wild and broken stage of the journey. He was
+newly dressed in a suit of gray frieze with brass buttons,
+and was evidently a shining light at home. On the road
+a dog ran out from the bushes and barked at us. The
+poor little skydskaarl was frantic with terror, and cried
+so lustily that I had to take him into the cariole, and put
+him under my legs to keep him from going into fits. He
+bellowed all the way to the next station, where I endeavored
+to make the inn-keeper understand that it was cruel
+to send so small a boy on such a hazardous journey. The
+man laughed and said &ldquo;Ja! he is too little!&rdquo; which was
+all I could get out of him. I felt unhappy about this
+poor child all day.</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion I had a bright, lively little fellow
+about twelve years of age, who was so pleased to find
+that I was an American that he stopped every body on
+the road to tell them this important piece of news, so
+that it took me about three hours to go a distance of
+seven or eight miles. There was a light of intelligence
+in the boy&rsquo;s face that enabled me to comprehend him almost
+by instinct, and the quickness with which he caught
+at my half-formed words, and gathered my meaning
+when I told him of the wonders of California, were really
+surprising. This boy was a natural genius. He will
+leave his mountain home some day or other and make a
+leading citizen of the United States. Already he was
+eager to dash out upon the world and see some of its
+novelties and wonders.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 278px;">
+<a name="station_boy" id="station_boy"></a>
+<img src="images/thor035.png" width="278" height="500"
+alt="A boy sits on a ledge at the back of a cariole" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">STATION-BOY.</p>
+
+<p>At Laurgaard I was favored with a small urchin who
+must have been modeled upon one of Hogarth&rsquo;s pictures.
+He was a fixed laugh all over. His mouth, nose, ears,
+eyes, hair, and chin were all turned up in a broad grin.
+Even the elbows of his coat and the knees of his trowsers
+were wide open with ill-concealed laughter. He laughed
+when he saw me, and laughed more than ever when he
+heard me &ldquo;<i>tale Norsk</i>.&rdquo; There was something uncommonly
+amusing to this little shaver in the cut of a man&rsquo;s
+jib who could not speak good Norwegian. All the way
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>
+up the hill he whistled, sang lively snatches of song,
+joked with the horse, and when the horse nickered laughed
+a young horse-laugh to keep him company. It did me
+good to see the rascal so cheery. I gave him an extra
+shilling at Braendhagen for his lively spirit, at which
+he grinned all over wider than ever, put the small change
+in his pocket, and with his red night-cap in one hand
+made a dodge of his head at me, as if snapping at a fly,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>
+and then held out his spare hand to give me a shake.
+Of course I shook hands with him.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 390px;">
+<a name="good_by_many_thanks" id="good_by_many_thanks"></a>
+<img src="images/thor036.png" width="390" height="500"
+alt="A station-boy shakes hands with his customer" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">GOOD-BY&mdash;MANY THANKS!</p>
+
+<p>Shaking hands with small boys, however, is nothing
+uncommon in Norway. Every boy on the entire route
+shook hands with me. Whenever I settled the fare the
+skydskaarl invariably pulled off his cap, or, if he had
+none, gave a pull at the most prominent bunch of hair,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>
+and holding forth a flipper, more or less like a lump of
+raw beef, required me, by all the laws of politeness, to
+give it a shake. The simplicity with which they did this,
+and the awkward kindliness of their manner, as they
+wished me a pleasant trip, always formed an agreeable
+episode in the day&rsquo;s travel. I have shaken a greater variety
+of boys&rsquo; hands in Norway&mdash;of every size, kind, and
+quality, fat, lean, clean, and dirty, dry and wet&mdash;than ever
+I shook all over the world before. Notwithstanding the
+amount of water in the country, I must have carried away
+from Trondhjem about a quarter of a pound of the native
+soil. Between the contortions of body and limb acquired
+by a brief residence in Paris, the battering out of
+several hats against my knee in the process of bowing
+throughout the cities of Germany, and the shaking of
+various boys&rsquo; hands on my trip through Norway, I consider
+that my politeness now qualifies me for any society.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="norwegian_peasant_family" id="norwegian_peasant_family"></a>
+<img src="images/thor037.png" width="600" height="495"
+alt="An elderly couple, seated, with a younger man and woman and a little girl" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">NORWEGIAN PEASANT FAMILY.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be understood, however, that I was always
+favored with the society of little boys. At one of the
+stations, which, for obvious reasons, it would be indiscreet
+to name, there was no boy visible except the ragamuffin
+who had accompanied me. He, of course, was
+obliged to return with the horse and cariole. Three
+white-headed old men were sitting on a log near the stable
+basking in the sun, and gossiping pleasantly about
+by-gone times or the affairs of state, I could not understand
+which. Each of these venerable worthies wore a
+red night-cap, which in this country answers likewise for
+a day-cap, and smoked a massive wooden pipe. It was
+a very pleasant picture of rural content. As I approached
+they nodded a smiling &ldquo;<i>God Aften!</i>&rdquo; and rose to
+unharness the horse. An elderly lady, of very neat appearance
+and pleasing expression, came to the door and
+bade me a kindly welcome. Then the three old men all
+began to talk to me together, and when they said what
+they had to say about the fine weather, and the road, and
+the quality of the horse, and whatever else came into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>
+their antiquated heads, they led the horse off to the stable
+and proceeded to get me a fresh one. While they
+were doing that the elderly lady went back into the
+house and called aloud for some person within. Presently
+a fine buxom young girl, about seventeen years of
+age, made her appearance at the door. I flattered myself
+she wore rather a pleased expression when she saw
+me; but that might have been the customary cast of her
+features, or vanity on my part. At all events, there was
+a glowing bloom in her cheeks, and a penetrating brilliancy
+in her large blue eyes, wonderfully fascinating to
+one who had not recently looked upon any thing very
+attractive in the line of female loveliness. She was certainly
+a model of rustic beauty&mdash;I had rarely seen her
+equal in any country. Nothing could be more lithe and
+graceful than her form, which was advantageously set
+off by a tight bodice and a very scanty petticoat. A pair
+of red woolen stockings conspicuously displayed the fine
+contour of her&mdash;ankles I suppose is the conventional expression,
+though I mean a great deal more than that.
+As she sprang down the steps with a light and elastic
+bound, and took hold of the horse, which by this time
+the three old men were fumbling at to harness in the
+cariole, I unconsciously thought of Diana Vernon. She
+had all the daring grace and delicacy of the Scotch heroine&mdash;only
+in a rustic way. Seizing the horse by the bridle,
+she backed him up in a jiffy between the shafts of
+the cariole, and pushing the old gray-heads aside with a
+merry laugh, proceeded to arrange the harness. Having
+paid the boy who had come over from the last station,
+and put my name and destination in the day-book, according
+to law, I refreshed myself by a glass of ale, and
+then came out to see if all was ready. The girl nodded
+to me smilingly to get in and be off.</p>
+
+<p>I looked around for the boy who was to accompany
+me. Nobody in the shape of a boy was to be seen. The
+three old men had returned to their log by the stable,
+and now sat smoking their pipes and gossiping as usual,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>
+and the good-natured old landlady stood smiling and
+nodding in the doorway. Who was to take charge of
+the cariole? that was the question. Was I to go alone?
+Suppose I should miss the road and get lost in some awful
+wilderness? However, these questions were too much
+for my limited vocabulary of Norsk on the spur of the
+moment. So I mounted the cariole, resolved to abide
+whatever fate Providence might have in store for me.
+The girl put the reins in my hand and off I started, wondering
+why these good people left me to travel alone. I
+thought that they would naturally feel some solicitude
+about their property. Scarcely was I under way, when,
+with a bound like a deer, the girl was up on the cariole
+behind, hanging on to the back of the seat with both
+hands. Perfectly aghast with astonishment, I pulled the
+reins and stopped. &ldquo;What!&rdquo; I exclaimed, in the best
+Norsk I could muster, &ldquo;is the <i>Jomfru</i> going with me?&rdquo;
+&ldquo;<i>Ja!</i>&rdquo; answered the laughing damsel, in a merry, ringing
+voice&mdash;&ldquo;<i>Ja! Ja! Jeg vil vise de Veien!</i>&mdash;I will
+show you the way!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here was a predicament! A handsome young girl
+going to take charge of me through a perfectly wild and
+unknown country! I turned to the old lady at the door
+with something of a remonstrating expression, no doubt,
+for I felt confused and alarmed. How the deuce was I,
+a solitary and inexperienced traveler from California, to
+defend myself against such eyes, such blooming cheeks,
+such honeyed lips and pearly teeth as these, to say nothing
+of a form all grace and ability, a voice that was the
+very essence of melody, and the fascinating smiles and
+blandishments of this wild young creature! It was
+enough to puzzle and confound any man of ordinary
+susceptibility, much less one who had a natural terror
+of the female sex. But I suppose it was all right. The
+old lady nodded approvingly; and the three old men
+smoked their pipes, and, touching their red night-caps,
+bid me&mdash;<i>Farrel! meget god reise!</i>&mdash;a pleasant trip! So,
+without more ado, I cracked the whip, and off we started.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>
+It was not my fault, that was certain. My conscience
+was clear of any bad intentions.</p>
+
+<p>We were soon out of sight of the station, and then
+came a steep hill. While the pony was pulling and tugging
+with all his might, the girl bounced off, landing like
+a wood-nymph about six feet in the rear of the cariole;
+when, with strides that perfectly astonished me, she began
+to march up the hill, singing a lively Norwegian ditty
+as she sprang over the ruts and ridges of the road. I
+halted in amazement. This would never do. Respect
+for the gentler sex would not permit me to ride up the
+hill while so lovely a creature was taking it on foot.
+Governed by those high principles of gallantry, augmented
+and cultivated by long residence in California, I
+jumped out of the cariole, and with persuasive eloquence
+begged the fair damsel to get in and drive up the hill
+on my account; that I greatly preferred walking; the
+exercise was congenial&mdash;I liked it. At this she looked
+astonished, if not suspicious. I fancied she was not used
+to that species of homage. At all events, she stoutly
+declined getting in; and since it was impossible for me
+to ride under the circumstances, I walked by her side to
+the top of the hill. A coolness was evidently growing
+up between us, for she never spoke a word all the way;
+and I was too busy trying to keep the horse in the middle
+of the road and save my breath to make any farther
+attempts at conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Having at length reached the summit, the girl directed
+me to take my place, which I did at once with great
+alacrity. With another active bound she was up behind,
+holding on as before with both hands to the back of the
+seat. Then she whistled to the horse in a style he seemed
+to understand perfectly well, for away he dashed down
+the hill at a rate of speed that I was certain would very
+soon result in utter destruction to the whole party. It
+was awful to think of being pitched out and rolling down
+the precipice, in the arms perhaps of this dashing young
+damsel, who, being accustomed to the road, would doubtless
+exert herself to save me.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>
+&ldquo;<i>Nu! Reise! Reise!</i>&mdash;travel!&rdquo; cried this extraordinary
+girl; and away we went, over rocks, into ruts, against
+roots and bushes; bouncing, springing, splashing, and
+dashing through mud-holes; down hill and still down;
+whirling past terrific pits, jagged pinnacles of rock, and
+yawning gulfs of darkness; through gloomy patches of
+pine, out again into open spaces, and along the brinks of
+fearful precipices; over rickety wooden bridges, and
+through foaming torrents that dashed out over the road,
+the wild girl clinging fast behind, the little pony flying
+along madly in front, the cariole creaking and rattling
+as if going to pieces, myself hanging on to the reins in a
+perfect agony of doubt whether each moment would not
+be our last. I declare, on the faith of a traveler, it beat
+all the dangers I had hitherto encountered summed up
+together. Trees whirled by, waterfalls flashed upon my
+astonished eyes, streaks of sunshine fretted the gloom
+with a net-work of light that dazzled and confounded
+me. I could see nothing clearly. There was a horrible
+jumble in my mind of black rocks and blue eyes, pine
+forests and flaming red stockings, flying clouds and flying
+petticoats, the roar of torrents and the ringing voice
+of the maiden as she cried &ldquo;<i>Flue! Gaae! Reise!</i>&mdash;Fly!
+Go it! Travel!&rdquo; Only one thought was uppermost&mdash;the
+fear of being dashed to pieces. Great heavens, what
+a fate! If I could only stop this infernal little pony, we
+might yet be saved! But I dared not attempt it. The
+slightest pull at the reins would throw him upon his
+haunches, and cariole and all would go spinning over him
+into some horrible abyss. All this time the wild damsel
+behind was getting more and more excited. Now she
+whistled, now she shouted &ldquo;<i>Skynde pa!</i>&mdash;Faster! faster!&rdquo;
+till, fairly carried away by enthusiasm, she begged
+me to give her the whip, which I did, with a faint attempt
+at prayer. Again she whistled, and shouted
+&ldquo;<i>Skynde pa!</i>&mdash;Faster! faster!&rdquo; and then she cracked the
+most startling and incomprehensible Norwegian melodies
+with the whip, absolutely stunning my ears, while
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>
+she shouted &ldquo;<i>Gaae! Flue! Reise!</i>&mdash;Go it! Fly! Travel!&rdquo;
+Faster and still faster we flew down the frightful
+hill. The pony caught the infection of enthusiasm, and
+now broke into a frantic run. &ldquo;Faster! faster!&rdquo; shrieked
+the wild girl in a paroxysm of delight.</p>
+
+<p>By this time I was positively beside myself with terror.
+No longer able to distinguish the flying trees, waterfalls,
+and precipices, I closed my eyes and gasped for
+breath. Soon the fearful bouncing of the cariole aroused
+me to something like consciousness. We had struck a
+rock, and were now spinning along the edge of a mighty
+abyss on one wheel, the other performing a sort of balance
+in the air. I looked ahead, but there was neither
+shape nor meaning in the country. It was all a wild
+chaos of destructive elements&mdash;trees, precipices, red
+stockings, and whirling petticoats&mdash;toward which we
+were madly flying.</p>
+
+<p>But there is an end to all troubles upon earth. With
+thanks to a kind Providence, I at length caught sight of
+a long stretch of level road. Although there were several
+short turns to be made before reaching it, there was
+still hope that it might be gained without any more serious
+disaster than the breaking of a leg or an arm. Upon
+such a casualty as that I should have compromised at
+once. If this extraordinary creature behind would only
+stop whistling and cracking the whip, and driving the
+little pony crazy by her inspiring cries, I might yet succeed
+in steering safely into the level road; but the nearer
+we approached the bottom of the hill the wilder she
+became&mdash;now actually dancing on the little board with
+delight, now leaning over to get a cut at the pony&rsquo;s tail
+with the whip, while she whistled more fiercely than
+ever, and cried out, from time to time, &ldquo;<i>Flue! Gaae!
+Reise!</i>&rdquo; Already the poor animal was reeking with
+sweat, and it was a miracle he did not drop dead on the
+road.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_post_girl" id="the_post_girl"></a>
+<img src="images/thor038.png" width="600" height="444"
+alt="The post-girl, standing on the back ledge of the cariole, brandishes her whip" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE POST-GIRL.</p>
+
+<p>However, by great good fortune, aided by my skill in
+driving, we made the turns, and in a few minutes more
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>
+were safely jogging along the level road. Almost breathless,
+and quite bewildered, I instinctively turned round
+to see what manner of wild being this girl behind was.
+If you believe me, she was leaning over my shoulder,
+shaking her sides laughing at me, her sparkling blue eyes
+now all ablaze with excitement, her cheeks glowing like
+peonies, her lips wide apart, displaying the most exquisite
+set of teeth I ever beheld, while her long golden tresses,
+bursting from the red handkerchief which served as
+a sort of crowning glory to her head, floated in wavy
+ringlets over her shoulders. Hermosa! it was enough
+to thaw an anchorite! She was certainly very pretty&mdash;there
+was no doubt of that; full of life, overflowing with
+health and vitality, and delighted at the confusion and
+astonishment of the strange gentleman she had taken in
+charge.</p>
+
+<p>Can any body tell me what it is that produces such a
+singular sensation when one looks over his shoulder and
+discovers the face of a pretty and innocent young girl
+within a few inches of his own, her beautiful eyes sparkling
+like a pair of stars, and shooting magic scintillations
+through and through him, body and soul, while her breath
+falls like a zephyr upon his cheek? Tell me, ye who
+deal in metaphysics, what is it? There is certainly a
+kind of charm in it, against which no mortal man is
+proof. Though naturally prejudiced against the female
+sex, and firmly convinced that we could get along in the
+world much better without them, I was not altogether
+insensible to beauty in an artistical point of view, otherwise
+I should never have been able to grace the pages
+of <span class="smcap">Harper</span> with the above likeness of this Norwegian
+sylph. After all, it must be admitted that they have a
+way about them which makes us feel overpowered and
+irresponsible in their presence. Doubtless this fair damsel
+was unconscious of the damage she was inflicting
+upon a wayworn and defenseless traveler. Her very
+innocence was itself her chiefest charm. Either she was
+the most innocent or the most designing of her sex. She
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>
+thought nothing of holding on to my shoulder, and talked
+as glibly and pleasantly, with her beaming face close to
+my ear, as if I had been her brother or her cousin, or
+possibly her uncle, though I did not exactly like to regard
+it in that point of view. What she was saying I could
+not conjecture, save by her roguish expression and her
+merry peals of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Jag kan ikke tale Norsk!</i>&mdash;I can&rsquo;t speak Norwegian&rdquo;&mdash;was
+all I could say, at which she laughed more
+joyously than ever, and rattled off a number of excellent
+jokes, no doubt at my helpless condition. Indeed, I
+strongly suspected, from a familiar word here and there,
+that she was making love to me out of mere sport, though
+she was guarded enough not to make any intelligible
+demonstration to that effect. At last I got out my vocabulary,
+and as we jogged quietly along the road, by
+catching a word now and then, and making her repeat
+what she said very slowly, got so far as to construct
+something of a conversation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What is your name, <i>sk&euml;n Jumfru</i>?&rdquo; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Maria,&rdquo; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A pretty name; and Maria is a very pretty girl.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She tossed her head a little scornfully, as much as to
+say Maria was not to be fooled by flattery.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What is <em>your</em> name?&rdquo; said Maria, after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mine? Oh, I have forgotten mine.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are you an Englishman?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A Frenchman?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A Dutchman?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No&mdash;I am an American.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I like Americans&mdash;I don&rsquo;t like Englishmen,&rdquo; said the
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Have you a lover?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are you going to be married to him?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, in about six months.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span>
+&ldquo;I wish you joy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At this moment a carriage drawn by two horses hove
+in sight. It was an English traveling party&mdash;an old
+gentleman and two ladies, evidently his wife and daughter.
+As they drew near they seemed to be a little perplexed
+at the singular equipage before them&mdash;a small
+horse, nearly dead and lathered all over with foam; a
+cariole bespattered with mud; a dashing fine girl behind,
+with flaunting hair, a short petticoat, and a flaming pair
+of red stockings; myself in the body of the cariole, covered
+from head to foot with mire, my beard flying out
+in every direction, and my hair still standing on end
+from the effects of recent fright&mdash;a very singular spectacle
+to meet in the middle of a public highway, even in
+Norway. The road was very narrow at the point of
+meeting. It became necessary for one of the vehicles to
+pull up the side of the hill a little in order to allow room
+for the other to pass. Being the lighter party as well
+as under obligations of gallantry, I at once gave way.
+While endeavoring to make a passage, the old gentleman
+gruffly observed to the public generally,</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What an excessively bad road!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very!&rdquo; said I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Beastly!&rdquo; growled the Englishman.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Abominable!&rdquo; said I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, you are an Englishman?&rdquo; said the elderly lady.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, madam&mdash;an American,&rdquo; I answered, with great
+suavity.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, an American!&rdquo; said the young lady, taking out
+her note-book; &ldquo;dear me, how very interesting!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;From California,&rdquo; I added, with a smile of pride.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How very interesting!&rdquo; exclaimed the young lady.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A great country,&rdquo; said I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Gray,&rdquo; observed the elderly lady, in an under tone,
+looking very hard at the girl, who was still standing on
+the little board at the back of the cariole, and who coolly
+and saucily surveyed the traveling party, &ldquo;Gray, is
+that a Norwegian girl?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>
+&ldquo;Yes, madam; she is my postillion, only she rides behind,
+according to the Norwegian custom.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dear me!&rdquo; cried the young lady, &ldquo;how very interesting!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And dangerous too,&rdquo; I observed.</p>
+
+<p>The lady looked puzzled. She was thinking
+of dangers to which I had no reference.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dangerous?&rdquo; exclaimed the young lady.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes; she came near breaking my neck down that
+hill;&rdquo; and here I gave the party a brief synopsis of the
+adventure.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Devilish odd!&rdquo; growled the old Englishman, impatiently.
+&ldquo;Good-day, sir. Come, get up!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The elderly lady said nothing, but looked suspicious.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dear me!&rdquo; exclaimed the young lady, as they drove
+off; &ldquo;how very&mdash;&rdquo; This was the last I heard, but I suppose
+she considered it interesting. The whole affair, no
+doubt, stands fully recorded in her note-book.</p>
+
+<p>The way being now clear, we proceeded on our journey.
+In a little while the station-house was in sight, and
+after a few minutes&rsquo; drive I was obliged to part from my
+interesting companion. At first I hesitated about proffering
+the usual fee of four shillings; but, upon reflection,
+it occurred to me that I had no right to consider
+her any thing more than a post-boy. It was worth something
+extra to travel with one so lively and entertaining,
+so I handed her double the usual allowance, at which she
+made a very polite courtesy and greatly relieved my
+embarrassment by giving a hearty shake of the hand
+and wishing me a pleasant journey. This was the last
+I saw of my Norwegian Diana. She is a young damsel
+of great beauty and vivacity, not to say a little wild. I
+trust she is now happily married to the object of her
+affections.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW THEY LIVE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Every where on the route through the interior I found
+the peasants kind, hospitable, and simple-hearted. Sometimes
+I made a detour of several miles from the main
+road for the purpose of catching a glimpse of the home-life
+of the farmers; and, imperfect as my means of communication
+were, I never had any difficulty in making
+acquaintance with them after announcing myself as a
+traveler from California. They had all heard, more or
+less, of that wonderful land of gold, and entertained the
+most vague and exaggerated notions of its mineral resources.
+It was not uncommon to find men who believed
+that the whole country was yellow with gold;
+that such quantities of that ore abounded in it as to be
+of little or no value. When I told them that the country
+was very rich in the precious metals, but that every hill
+was not a mass of gold, nor the bed of every river lined
+with rocks and pebbles of the same material, they looked
+a little incredulous, not to say disappointed. Many of
+them seemed surprised that a Californian should be traveling
+through a distant land like Norway merely for
+amusement, and few seemed to be entirely satisfied when
+I assured them, in answer to their questions, that I was
+not very rich; that I was neither a merchant, nor a speculator,
+nor the owner of gold mines, but simply an indifferent
+artist making sketches of their country for pastime.
+French, German, and English artists they could
+believe in, for they saw plenty of them in the wilds of
+Norway every summer; but what use would such a poor
+business be in California, they said, where every man
+could make a thousand dollars a day digging for gold?
+I even fancied they looked at my rough and dusty
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span>
+costume as if they thought it concealed a glittering uniform,
+such as the rich men of my country must naturally wear
+when they go abroad to visit foreign lands. It was impossible
+to convince them that I was not extravagantly
+wealthy. On any other point there might be room for
+doubt, but the pertinacity with which they insisted upon
+that afforded me much amusement; and since I could
+not dispel the illusion, it generally cost me a few extra
+shillings when I had any thing to pay to avoid the stigma
+of meanness. Not that my extraordinary wealth ever
+gave them a plea for imposition or extortion. Such an
+idea never entered their heads. On the contrary, their
+main purpose seemed to be to show every possible kindness
+to the distinguished stranger; and more than once,
+at some of the post-stations, I had to remind them of
+things which they had omitted in the charge. For this
+very reason I was in a measure compelled to be rather
+more profuse than travelers usually are, so that the state
+from which I have the honor to hail owes me a considerable
+amount of money by this time for the handsome
+manner in which I have sustained its reputation. At
+some of the stopping-places on the road, where I obtained
+lodgings for the night, it was not uncommon to find
+intelligent and educated families of cultivated manners.
+Education of late years has made considerable progress
+in Norway; and the rising generation, owing to the
+facilities afforded by the excellent school system established
+throughout the country, but especially in the principal
+towns, will not be in any respect behind the times,
+so far as regards intellectual progress. It is the simplicity
+and honesty of these good people, however, that form
+their principal and most charming characteristic. To
+one long accustomed to sharp dealing and unscrupulous
+trickery, it is really refreshing their confidence in the integrity
+of a stranger. Usually they left the settlement
+of accounts to myself, merely stating that I must determine
+what I owed by adding up the items according to
+the tariff; and, although my knowledge of the language
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>
+was so limited, I nowhere had the slightest approach to
+a dispute about the payment of expenses. On one occasion,
+not wishing to forfeit this confidence, I was obliged
+to ride back half a mile to pay for two cigars which I
+had forgotten in making up the reckoning, and of which
+the inn-keeper had not thought proper to remind me, or
+had forgotten to keep any account himself. No surprise
+was manifested at this conscientious act&mdash;the inn-keeper
+merely nodding good-naturedly when I handed him the
+money, with the remark that it was &ldquo;all right.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In the districts remote from the sea-ports, the peasants,
+as may well be supposed, are extremely ignorant
+of the great outside world. Sweden and Denmark are
+the only countries known to them besides their own
+&ldquo;Gamle Norge,&rdquo; save such vague notions of other lands
+as they pick up from occasional travelers. To them
+&ldquo;Amerika&rdquo; is a terra incognita. A letter once or twice
+a year from some emigrant to the members of his family
+goes the rounds of the district, and gives them all the
+knowledge they have of that distant land of promise;
+and when they listen, with gaping eyes and open mouths,
+to the wonderful stories of adventure, life, enterprise, and
+wealth detailed by the enthusiastic rover, it is no wonder
+they shake their heads and say that Christian, or
+Hans, or Ol&eacute; (as the case may be), &ldquo;always was a capital
+fellow at drawing a long bow.&rdquo; They firmly believe
+in ghosts and supernatural visitations of all sorts, but
+are very incredulous about any country in the world
+being equal to &ldquo;Gamle Norge.&rdquo; Naturally enough, they
+consider their climate the most genial, their barren rocks
+the most fertile, their government the best and most liberal
+on the face of the earth, and themselves the most
+highly favored of the human race. Goldsmith must have
+had special reference to the Norwegians when he sang
+of &ldquo;that happiest spot below:&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Boldly proclaims the happiest spot his own.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>And why should they be otherwise than contented&mdash;if
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>
+such a thing as contentment can exist upon earth?
+They have few wants and many children; a country free
+from internal commotion, and too far removed from the
+great scenes of European strife to excite the jealousy
+of external powers; sufficient food and raiment to satisfy
+the ordinary necessities of life, and no great extremes
+of wealth or poverty to militate against their independence,
+either in a political or social point of view. With
+good laws, an excellent Constitution, and a fair representation
+in the Storthing, they are justly proud of their
+freedom, and deeply imbued with the spirit of patriotism.</p>
+
+<p>Very little of poverty or beggary is to be seen by the
+wayside during a tour through Norway. Only at one
+point between Kringelen and Laurgaard&mdash;a wild and
+barren district exceedingly savage in its aspect, situated
+in a narrow gorge of the mountains near the head of the
+Logen&mdash;was I solicited for alms. A portion of this route,
+after passing Sinclair&rsquo;s Monument, is rudely fenced in,
+so as to render available every foot of the narrow valley.
+The road passes directly through the little farms, which
+at this stage of the journey are poor and unproductive.
+The climate is said to be very severe in this district, in
+consequence of its altitude, and the sharp winds which
+sweep down from the mountain gorges. At every gateway
+a gang of ragged little children always stood ready
+to open the gate, for which, of course, they expected a
+few shillings; and as these gates occur at intervals of
+every few hundred yards for some distance, it produces
+a sensible effect upon one&rsquo;s purse to get through. Passing
+through some wretched hamlets in this vicinity,
+crowds of old women hobbled out to beg alms, and I did
+not get clear of the regiments of children who ran along
+behind the cariole to receive the remainder of my small
+change for several miles. Strange to say, this was the
+only place during my rambles through the interior in
+which I saw any thing like beggary. Generally speaking,
+the farming lands are sufficiently productive to supply
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span>
+all the wants of the peasants, and many of the farmers
+are even comfortably situated.</p>
+
+<p>The houses in which these country people reside are
+not altogether unlike the small log cabins of the early
+settlers on our Western frontier. I have seen many such
+on the borders of Missouri and Kansas. Built in the
+most primitive style of pine logs, they stand upon stumps
+or columns of stone, elevated some two or three feet from
+the ground, in order to allow a draft of air underneath,
+which in this humid climate is considered necessary for
+health. They seldom consist of more than two or three
+rooms, but make up in number what they lack in size.
+Thus a single farming establishment often comprises
+some ten or a dozen little cabins, besides the large barn,
+which is the nucleus around which they all centre; with
+smaller cribs for pigs, chickens, etc., and here and there
+a shed for the cows and sheep, all huddled together
+among the rocks or on some open hill-side, without the
+least apparent regard to direction or architectural effect.
+The roofs are covered with sod, upon which it is not uncommon
+to see patches of oats, weeds, moss, flowers, or
+whatever comes most convenient to form roots and give
+consistency and strength to this singular overtopping.
+The object, I suppose, is to prevent the transmission of
+heat during the severe season of winter. Approaching
+some of these hamlets or farming establishments during
+the summer months, the traveler is frequently at a loss
+to distinguish their green-sodded roofs from the natural
+sod of the hill-sides, so that one is liable at any time to
+plunge into the midst of a settlement before he is aware
+of its existence. Something of a damp, earthy look about
+them, the weedy or grass-covered tops, the logs green
+and moss-grown, the dripping eaves, the veins of water
+oozing out of the rocks, give them a peculiarly Northern
+and chilling effect, and fill the mind with visions of long
+and dreary winters, rheumatisms, colds, coughs, and consumptions,
+to which it is said these people are subject.
+Nothing so wild and primitive is to be seen in any other
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>
+part of Europe. A silence almost death-like hangs over
+these little hamlets during a great part of the day, when
+the inhabitants are out in the hills attending their flocks
+or cultivating their small patches of ground. I passed
+many groups of cabins without seeing the first sign of
+life, save now and then a few chickens or pigs rooting
+about the barn-yard. The constant impression was that
+it was Sunday, or at least a holiday, and that the people
+were either at church or asleep. For one who seeks retirement
+from the busy haunts of life, where he can indulge
+in uninterrupted reflection, I know of no country
+that can equal Norway. There are places in the interior
+where I am sure he would be astonished at the sound of
+his own voice. The deserts of Africa can scarcely present
+a scene of such utter isolation. With a rod in his
+hand, he can, if given to the gentle art, sit and dream
+upon some mossy bank,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;In close covert by some brook,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where no profaner eye may look,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And hide him from day&rsquo;s garish noon.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Thus you often come upon an English sportsman waiting
+for a nibble.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 260px;">
+<a name="waiting_for_a_nibble" id="waiting_for_a_nibble"></a>
+<img src="images/thor039.png" width="260" height="400"
+alt="A portly man, fishing rod in hand, dozes on the river bank" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">WAITING FOR A NIBBLE.</p>
+
+<p>The food of the peasants consists principally of black
+bread, milk, butter, and cheese. Meat is too expensive
+for very general use, though at certain seasons of the year
+they indulge in it once or twice a week. Coffee is a luxury
+to which they are much addicted. Even the poorest
+classes strain a point to indulge in this favorite narcotic,
+and in no part of Norway did I fail to get a good cup
+of coffee. It is a very curious fact that the best coffee
+to be had at the most fashionable hotels on the Continent
+of Europe&mdash;always excepting Paris&mdash;is inferior to
+that furnished to the traveler at the commonest station-house
+in Norway. This is indeed one of the luxuries of
+a tour through this part of Scandinavia. The cream is
+rich and pure, and it is a rare treat to get a large bowlful
+of it for breakfast, with as much milk as you please,
+and no limit to bread and butter. Your appetite is not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span>
+measured by infinitesimal bits and scraps as in Germany.
+A good wholesome meal is spread before you in the genuine
+backwoods style, and you may eat as much as you
+please, which is a rare luxury to one who has been stinted
+and starved at the hotels on the Continent. I remember,
+at one station beyond the Dovre Fjeld, Bennett&rsquo;s
+Hand-book says, &ldquo;Few rooms, but food supplied in first-rate
+style when Miss Marit is at home. She will be much
+offended if you do not prove that you have a good appetite.&rdquo;
+On my arrival at this place, not wishing to offend
+Miss Marit&mdash;for whom I entertained the highest respect
+in consequence of her hospitable reputation&mdash;I called for
+every thing I could think of, and when it was placed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>
+upon the table by that accomplished young lady (a very
+pleasant, pretty young woman, by-the-way), fell to work
+and made it vanish at a most astonishing rate. Miss
+Marit stood by approvingly. During a pause in my
+heavy labors I called the attention of this estimable person
+to her own name in the printed pamphlet, at which
+she blushed and looked somewhat confused. Possibly
+there might be a mistake about it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your name is Miss Marit?&rdquo; I asked, very politely.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And this is Miss Marit in print?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She took the book and tried to read it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nikka Forstoe!&rdquo;&mdash;she didn&rsquo;t understand.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What does it say?&rdquo; she asked, rather gravely.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a job&mdash;to translate the paragraph into Norwegian!
+Besides, it would not do to translate it literally,
+so I made a sort of impromptu paraphrase upon it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! it says Miss Marit is a very pretty young lady.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja!&rdquo;&mdash;blushing and looking somewhat astonished.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And Miss Marit is a very nice housekeeper.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And Miss Marit makes splendid coffee, and thoroughly
+understands how to cook a beefsteak.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And Miss Marit would make a most excellent wife
+for any young gentleman who could succeed in winning
+her affections!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nei!&rdquo; said the young lady, blushing again, and looking
+more astonished than ever.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;it is all in print&rdquo;&mdash;adding, with an internal
+reservation, &ldquo;or ought to be.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Who can blame me for paying tribute to Miss Marit&rsquo;s
+kindness and hospitality? She is certainly deserving
+of much higher praise than that bestowed upon her, and
+I hope Mr. Bennett will pardon me for the liberal style
+of my translation. If he didn&rsquo;t mean all I said, let the
+responsibility rest upon me, for I certainly meant every
+word of it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>
+The farming districts are limited chiefly to the valleys
+along the river-courses, and such portions of arable lands
+as lie along the shores of the Fjords. A large proportion
+of the country is extremely wild and rugged, and
+covered, for the most part, with dense pine forests. The
+peasants generally own their own farms, which are small,
+and cut up into patches of pasture, grain-lands, and tracts
+of forest. Even the most unpromising nooks among the
+rocks, in many parts of the Gudbransdalen Valley, where
+plows are wholly unavailable, are rooted up by means of
+hoes, and planted with oats and other grain. I sometimes
+saw as many as forty or fifty of these little arable
+patches perched up among the rocks, hundreds of feet
+above the roofs of the houses, where it would seem dangerous
+for goats to browse. The log cabins peep out
+from among the rocks and pine-clad cliffs all along the
+course of the Logen, giving the country a singular speckled
+appearance. This, it must be remembered, is one of
+the best districts in the interior. The richest agricultural
+region is said to be that bordering on the shores of
+the Mi&ouml;sen. One of the comforts enjoyed by the peasants,
+and without which it would scarcely be possible for
+them to exist in such a rigorous climate, consists in the
+unlimited quantity of fuel to which they have such easy
+access. This is an inconceivable luxury during the long
+winter months; and their large open fireplaces and blazing
+fires, even in the cool summer evenings, constantly
+remind one of the homes of the settlers in the Far West.
+When the roads are covered with snow the true season
+of internal communication commences. Then the means
+of transportation and travel are greatly facilitated, and
+the clumsy wagons used in summer are put aside for the
+lighter and more convenient sledges with which every
+farmer is abundantly provided. All along the route the
+snow-plows may be seen turned up against the rocks,
+ready to be used during the winter to clear and level the
+roads. In summer the means of transportation are little
+better than those existing between Placerville and Carson
+Valley.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<a name="snow_plow" id="snow_plow"></a>
+<img src="images/thor040.png" width="250" height="400"
+alt="A man with a scythe looks at the propped up snow-plow" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">SNOW-PLOW.</p>
+
+<p>It was during the height of the harvesting season that
+I passed through the Gudbransdalen. One of the most
+characteristic sights at this time of the year is the extraordinary
+amount of labor imposed upon the women,
+who seem really to do most of the heavy work. I thought
+I had seen the last of that in the Thuringenwald, Odenwald,
+and Schwartzwald, while on a foot-tour through
+Germany; but even the Germans are not so far advanced
+in civilization in this respect as the Norwegians, who do
+not hesitate to make their women cut wood, haul logs,
+pull carts, row boats, fish, and perform various other kinds
+of labor usually allotted to the stronger sex, which even
+a German would consider rather heavy for his &ldquo;frow.&rdquo;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>
+The men, in addition to this ungallant trait, are much
+addicted to the use of tobacco and native corn-brandy&mdash;which,
+however, I can not but regard as a sign of civilization,
+since the same habits exist, to some extent, in our own
+country. Chewing and drinking are just as common as in
+California, the most enlightened country in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span>
+world. Wherever I saw a set of drunken fellows roaring
+and rollicking at some wayside inn, their faces smeared
+with tobacco, and their eyes rolling in their heads, I
+naturally felt drawn toward them by the great free-masonry
+of familiar customs.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 386px;">
+<a name="a_drinking_bout" id="a_drinking_bout"></a>
+<img src="images/thor041.png" width="386" height="500"
+alt="Five men around a tavern table" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">A DRINKING BOUT.</p>
+
+<p>The system of farming followed by the peasants is exceedingly
+primitive, though doubtless well adapted to the
+climate and soil. Nothing can be more striking to a
+stranger than the odd shapes of the wagons and carts,
+and the rudeness of the agricultural implements, which
+must be patterned upon those in vogue during the time
+of Odin, the founder of the Norwegian race. Owing to
+the humidity of the climate, it is necessary in harvest
+time to dry the hay and grain by staking it out in the
+fields on long poles, so that the sun and air may penetrate
+every part of it. The appearance of a farm is thus
+rendered unique as well as picturesque. In the long twilight
+nights of summer these ghostly stokes present the
+appearance of a gang of heathenish spirits standing about
+in the fields, with their long beards waving in the air,
+and their dusky robes trailing over the stubbles. The
+figures thus seen at every turn of the road often assume
+the most striking spectral forms, well calculated to augment
+those wild superstitions which prevail throughout
+the country. It was impossible for me ever to get quite
+rid of the idea that they were descendants of the old
+Scandinavian gods, holding counsel over the affairs of
+the nation, especially when some passing breeze caused
+their arms and robes to flutter in the twilight, and their
+heads to swing to and fro, as if in the enthusiasm of
+their ghostly deliberations.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="a_norwegian_farm" id="a_norwegian_farm"></a>
+<img src="images/thor042.png" width="600" height="472"
+alt="A group of small log buildings on a hillside" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">A NORWEGIAN FARM.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 385px;">
+<a name="norwegian_church" id="norwegian_church"></a>
+<img src="images/thor043.png" width="385" height="500"
+alt="A few people gather outside the wooden church with the tall narrow spire" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">NORWEGIAN CHURCH.</p>
+
+<p>Mingled with the wild superstitions of the people their
+piety is a prominent trait. Their prevailing religion is
+Episcopal Lutheran, though Catholicism and other religions
+are tolerated by an act of the Storthing, with the
+exception of Mormonism, which is prohibited by law. A
+considerable number of proselytes to that sect have emigrated
+to Salt Lake. This prevailing spirit of piety
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span>
+is observable even in the wildest parts of the country,
+where every little hamlet has its church, and neither old
+nor young neglect their religious services. Most of these
+churches are built of wood, with a steeple of the same
+material, shingled over and painted black, so as to present
+the most striking contrast to the snows which cover
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span>
+the face of the country during the greater part of the
+year.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 259px;">
+<a name="parish_schoolmaster" id="parish_schoolmaster"></a>
+<img src="images/thor044.png" width="259" height="400"
+alt="The schoolmaster usesd a cane to punish a boy" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">PARISH SCHOOLMASTER.</p>
+
+<p>The parish schoolmaster is a most important personage
+in these rural districts. He it is who trains up the
+rising generation, teaches the young idea how to shoot,
+and</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;Out of great things and small draweth the secrets of the universe.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>He is greatly revered by the simple-minded old farmers,
+is cherished and respected by the mothers of families,
+enthusiastically admired and generally aspired to by the
+village belles, and held in profound awe by all the little
+urchins of the neighborhood. He speaketh unknown
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>
+tongues; he diveth into the depths of abstruse sciences;
+he talketh with the air of one burdened with much learning;
+he &ldquo;argueth the cycles of the stars from a pebble
+flung by a child;&rdquo; he likewise teacheth reading, writing,
+and arithmetic, and applieth the rod to the juvenile seat
+of understanding, as shown on the preceding page.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after leaving Storkterstad, a station about two
+days&rsquo; journey from Lillehammer, on the main road to
+Trondhjem, I passed through a very steep and rugged
+defile in the mountains, with jagged rocks on the right
+and the foaming waters of the Logen on the left, where
+my attention was called by the skydskaarl to a small
+monument by the roadside hearing an inscription commemorative
+of the death of Colonel Sinclair. If I remember
+correctly, a fine description is given of this celebrated
+passage by M&ouml;gge, whose graphic sketches of
+Norwegian scenery I had frequent occasion to admire,
+during my tour, for their beauty and accuracy. I fully
+agree with my friend Bayard Taylor, that the traveler
+can find no better guide to the Fjelds and Fjords of this
+wild country than &ldquo;Afraja&rdquo; and &ldquo;Life and Love in Norway.&rdquo;
+Laing has also given an interesting account of
+the massacre of Colonel Sinclair&rsquo;s party. From his version
+of this famous incident in Norwegian history it appears
+that, during the war between Christian the Fourth
+of Denmark and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, while
+the Danes held the western coast of Norway, Colonel
+Sinclair, a Scotchman, desiring to render assistance to
+the Swedes, landed at Romsdalen, on the coast, with a
+party of nine hundred followers. Another detachment
+of his forces landed at Trondhjem. It was their intention
+to fight their way across the mountains and join the
+Swedish forces on the frontier. Sinclair&rsquo;s party met with
+no resistance till they arrived at the pass of Kringelen,
+where three hundred peasants, hearing of their approach,
+had prepared an ambush. Every thing was arranged
+with the utmost secrecy. An abrupt mountain on the
+right, abounding in immense masses of loose rock,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span>
+furnished the means of a terrible revenge for the ravages
+committed by the Scotch on their march from Romsdalen.
+The road winds around the foot of this mountain,
+making a narrow pass, hemmed in by the roaring torrents
+of the Logen on the one side and abrupt cliffs on
+the other. Across the river, which here dashes with
+frightful rapidity through the narrow gorge of the
+mountains, the country wears an exceedingly weird and
+desolate aspect; the ravines and summits of the mountains
+are darkened by gloomy forests of pine, relieved
+only by hoary and moss-covered cliffs overhanging the
+rushing waters of the Logen. On the precipitous slopes
+of the pass, hundreds of feet above the road, the peasants
+gathered enormous masses of rock, logs of wood, and
+even trunks of trees, which they fixed in such a way that,
+at a moment&rsquo;s notice, they could precipitate the whole
+terrible avalanche upon the heads of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the secrecy with which the peasants managed
+the whole affair, that the Scotch, ignorant even of
+the existence of a foe, marched along in imaginary security
+till they reached the middle of the narrow pass,
+when they were suddenly overwhelmed and crushed beneath
+the masses of rocks and loose timbers launched
+upon them by the Norwegians. Rushing from their
+ambush, the infuriated peasants soon slaughtered the
+maimed and wounded, leaving, according to some authorities,
+only two of the enemy to tell the tale. Others,
+however, say that as many as sixty escaped, but were
+afterward caught and massacred. Attached to this fearful
+story of retribution, Laing mentions a romantic incident,
+which is still currently told in the neighborhood.
+A young peasant was prevented from joining in the attack
+by his sweet-heart, to whom he was to be married
+the next day. She, learning that the wife of Colonel Sinclair
+was among the party, sent her lover to offer his assistance;
+but the Scotch lady, mistaking his purpose, shot
+him dead. Such is the tragic history that casts over this
+wild region a mingled interest of horror and romance.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>
+The road from Laurgaard beyond the pass of the
+Kringelen ascends a high mountain. On the right is a
+series of foaming cataracts, and nothing can surpass the
+rugged grandeur of the view as you reach the highest
+eminence before descending toward Braendhagen. Here
+the country is one vast wilderness of pine-clad mountains,
+green winding valleys, and raging torrents of water
+dashing down over the jagged rocks thousands of feet
+below. It was nearly night when I reached Dombaas,
+the last station before ascending the Dovre Fjeld.</p>
+
+<p>A telegraphic station at Dombaas gives something of
+a civilized aspect to this stopping-place, otherwise rather
+a primitive-looking establishment. The people, however,
+are very kind and hospitable, and somewhat noted for
+their skill in carving bone and wooden knife-handles. I
+should have mentioned that, wild as this part of the
+country is, the traveler is constantly reminded by the
+telegraphic poles all along the route that he is never
+quite beyond the limits of civilization. Such is the force
+of habit that I was strongly tempted to send a message
+to somebody from Dombaas; but, upon turning the matter
+over in my mind, could think of nobody within the
+limits of Norway who felt sufficient interest in my explorations
+to be likely to derive much satisfaction from
+the announcement that I had reached the edge of the
+Dovre Fjeld in safety. The name of a waiter who was
+good enough to black my boots at the Victoria Hotel
+occurred to me, but it was hardly possible he would appreciate
+a telegraphic dispatch from one who had no
+more pressing claims to his attention. I thought of sending
+a few lines of remembrance to the Wild Girl who
+had come so near breaking my neck. This notion, however,
+I gave over upon reflecting that she might attach
+undue weight to my expressions of friendship, and possibly
+take it into her head that I was making love to her&mdash;than
+which nothing could be farther from my intention.
+I had a social chat with the telegraph-man, however&mdash;a
+very respectable and intelligent person&mdash;who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span>
+gave me the latest news; and with this, and good supper
+and bed, I was obliged to rest content.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="dovre_fjeld" id="dovre_fjeld"></a>
+<img src="images/thor045.png" width="600" height="454"
+alt="A road winds past a group of houses and on into Dovre Fjeld" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">DOVRE FJELD.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>JOHN BULL ABROAD.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Leaving Dombaas at an early hour, I soon began to
+ascend a long slope, reaching, by a gradual elevation, to
+the Dovre Fjeld. The vegetation began to grow more
+and more scanty on the wayside, consisting mostly of
+lichens and reindeer moss. I passed through some stunted
+groves of pine, which, however, were bleached and
+almost destitute of foliage. The ground on either side
+of the road was soft, black, and boggy, abounding in
+springs and scarcely susceptible of cultivation. At this
+elevation grain is rarely planted, though I was told potatoes
+and other esculents are not difficult to raise. On
+the left of the road, approaching the summit, lies a range
+of snow-capped mountains between the Dovre Fjeld and
+Molde; on the right a series of rocky and barren hills
+of sweeping outline, presenting an exceedingly desolate
+aspect. In the course of an hour after leaving Dombaas,
+having walked most of the way, I fairly reached the
+grand plateau of the Dovre Fjeld. The scene at this
+point of the journey is inexpressibly desolate.</p>
+
+<p>Bare, whitish-colored hills bound the horizon on the
+right; in front is a dreary waste, through which the road
+winds like a thread till lost in the dim haze of the distance;
+and to the left the everlasting snows of Snaehatten.
+A few wretched cabins are scattered at remote intervals
+over the desert plains, in which the shepherds
+seek shelter from the inclemency of the weather, which
+even in midsummer is often piercingly raw. Herds of
+rattle, sheep, and goats were grazing over the rocky
+wastes of the Fjeld. Reindeer are sometimes seen in
+this vicinity, but not often within sight of the road. The
+only vegetation produced here is reindeer moss, and a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span>
+coarse sort of grass growing in bunches over the plain.
+I met several shepherds on the way dressed in something
+like a characteristic costume&mdash;frieze jackets with brass
+buttons, black knee-breeches, a red night-cap, and armed
+with the usual staff or shepherd&rsquo;s crook, represented in
+pictures, and much discoursed of by poets:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i3">&ldquo;Methinks it were a happy life<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To be no better than a homely swain;&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>but not on the Dovre Fjelds of Norway. It must be
+rather a dull business in that region, taking into consideration
+the barren plains, the bleak winds, and desolate
+aspect of the country. No sweet hawthorn bushes are
+there, beneath which these rustic philosophers can sit,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Looking on their silly sheep.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Shepherd life must be a very dismal reality indeed. And
+yet there is no accounting for tastes. At one point of
+the road, beyond Folkstuen, where a sluggish lagoon
+mingles its waters with the barren slopes of the Fjeld, I
+saw an Englishman standing up to his knees in a dismal
+marsh fishing for trout.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was cold enough to strike a chill into
+one&rsquo;s very marrow; yet this indefatigable sportsman
+had come more than a thousand miles from his native
+country to enjoy himself in this way. He was a genuine
+specimen of an English snob&mdash;self-sufficient, conceited,
+and unsociable; looking neither to the right nor the
+left, and terribly determined not to commit himself by
+making acquaintance with casual travelers speaking the
+English tongue. I stopped my cariole within a few paces
+and asked him &ldquo;what luck?&rdquo; One would think the
+sound of his native tongue would have been refreshing
+to him in this dreary wilderness; but, without deigning
+to raise his head, he merely answered in a gruff tone,
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know, sir&mdash;don&rsquo;t know!&rdquo; I certainly did not suspect
+him of knowing much, but thought that question at
+least would not be beyond the limits of his intelligence.
+Finding him insensible to the approaches of humanity,
+I revenged myself for his rudeness by making a sketch
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span>
+of his person, which I hope will be recognized by his
+friends in England should he meet with any misfortune
+in the wilds of Norway. They will at least know where
+to search for his body, and be enabled to recognize it
+when they find it. This man&rsquo;s sense of enjoyment reminded
+me of the anecdote told by Longfellow in Hyperion,
+of an Englishman who sat in a tub of cold water every
+morning while he ate his breakfast and read the newspapers.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 261px;">
+<a name="playing_him_out" id="playing_him_out"></a>
+<img src="images/thor046.png" width="261" height="400"
+alt="A portly man stands up to his knees in water, fishing line wrapped round him" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">PLAYING HIM OUT.</p>
+
+<p>I met with many such in the course of my tour. Is
+it not a little marvelous what hardships people will encounter
+for pleasure? Here was a man of mature age,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span>
+in the enjoyment perhaps of a comfortable income, who
+had left his country, with all its attractions, for a dreary
+desert in which he was utterly isolated from the world.
+He was not traveling&mdash;not reading, not surrounded by
+a few congenial friends who could make a brief exile
+pleasant, but utterly alone; ignorant, no doubt, of the
+language spoken by the few shepherds in the neighborhood;
+up to his knees in a pool of cold water; stubbornly
+striving against the most adverse circumstances of
+wind and weather to torture out of the water a few miserable
+little fish! Of what material can such a man&rsquo;s
+brain be composed, if he be gifted with brain at all? Is
+it mud, clay, or water; or is it all a bog? Possibly he
+was a lover of nature; but if you examine his portrait
+you will perceive that there is nothing in his personal
+appearance to warrant that suspicion. Even if such were
+the case, this was not the charming region described by
+the quaint old Walton, where the scholar can turn aside
+&ldquo;toward the high honeysuckle hedge,&rdquo; or &ldquo;sit and sing
+while the shower falls upon the teeming earth, viewing
+the silver streams glide silently toward their centre, the
+tempestuous sea,&rdquo; beguiled by the harmless lambs till,
+with a soul possessed with content, he feels &ldquo;lifted above
+the earth.&rdquo; Nor was the solitary angler of the Dovre
+Fjeld a man likely to be lifted from the earth by any
+thing so fragile as the beauties of nature. His weight&mdash;sixteen
+stone at least&mdash;would be much more likely to
+sink him into it.</p>
+
+<p>As I approached the neighborhood of Djerkin on the
+Dovre Fjeld, famous as a central station for hunting expeditions,
+I met several English sportsmen armed with
+rifles, double-barreled guns, pistols, and other deadly
+weapons, on their way to the defiles of the adjacent
+mountains in search of the black bears which are said
+to infest that region. One of these enthusiastic gentlemen
+was seated in a cariole, and traveled for some distance
+in front of me. Taking into view the rotundity
+of his person, which overhung the little vehicle on every
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span>
+side, I could not but picture to myself the extraordinary
+spectacle that would be presented to any observant eye
+in case this ponderous individual should suddenly come
+in contact with one of those ferocious animals.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 253px;">
+<a name="english_sportsman" id="english_sportsman"></a>
+<img src="images/thor047.png" width="253" height="400"
+alt="A cariole, seen from the back, driven by a portly man, with a small boy hanging on behind" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">ENGLISH SPORTSMAN.</p>
+
+<p>Here you have him, just as he sat before me&mdash;a back
+view, to be sure, but the only one I could get in the emergency
+of the moment. It will be easy to imagine, from
+the dexterous grace of his figure, how he will bound over
+the rocks, climb up the rugged points of the precipices,
+hang by the roots and branches of trees, dodge the attacks
+of the enemy, crawl through the brush, and, in the
+event of an unfavorable turn in the battle, retreat to some
+position of security.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span>
+No man can be blamed for running when he is sure to
+be worsted in an encounter of this kind. Many a brave
+Californian has taken to his heels when pursued by a
+grizzly, and I have scarcely a doubt that I would pursue
+the same course myself under similar circumstances.
+Only it must look a little ludicrous to see a fat Englishman,
+a representative of the British Lion, forced to adopt
+this mortifying alternative rather than suffer himself to
+be torn into beefsteaks. It may be, however, that in
+this instance our Nimrod has suddenly discovered that
+it is about dinner-time, and is hurrying back to camp lest
+the beef should be overdone.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="bear_chase" id="bear_chase"></a>
+<img src="images/thor048.png" width="400" height="256"
+alt="A portly man trying to run from a bear, which grips his jacket in its teeth" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">BEAR CHASE.</p>
+
+<p>These bear-hunting Englishmen take care to have as
+many chances on their own side as possible. Hence they
+usually go into the mountains well provided with guides,
+ammunition, provisions, etc., and prepare the way by first
+securing the bear in some favored locality. This is done
+by killing a calf or hog, and placing the carcass in the
+required position. A hired attendant lies in wait until
+he discovers the bear, when he comes down to the station
+or camp, and notifies the hunter that it is time to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span>
+start out. Thus the risk of life is greatly reduced, and
+the prospect of securing some game proportionally augmented.
+The black bears of Norway are not very dangerous,
+however, and, hunted in this manner, it requires
+no great skill to kill them. They are generally to be
+found in the higher mountains and defiles, a few miles
+from some farming settlement. In winter, when their
+customary food is scarce, they often commit serious depredations
+upon the stock of the farmers. Every facility
+is freely afforded by the peasants for their destruction,
+and every bear killed is considered so many cattle saved.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 260px;">
+<a name="peasant_women_at_work" id="peasant_women_at_work"></a>
+<img src="images/thor049.png" width="260" height="400"
+alt="Four women at work in a field; one carries a long-handled shovel" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">PEASANT WOMEN AT WORK.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the afternoon when I descended a rocky
+and pine-covered hill, and came in sight of the station
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span>
+called Djerkin, celebrated as one of the best in the interior
+of Norway. This place is kept by an old Norwegian
+peasant family of considerable wealth, and is a favorite
+resort of English sportsmen bound on fishing and
+hunting excursions throughout the wilds of the Dovre
+Fjeld. The main buildings and outhouses are numerous
+and substantial, and stand on the slope of the hill which
+forms the highest point of the Fjeld on the road from
+Christiania to Trondhjem. The appearance of this isolated
+group of buildings on the broad and barren face of
+the hill had much in it to remind me of some of the old
+missionary establishments in California; and the resemblance
+was increased by the scattered herds of cattle
+browsing upon the parched and barren slopes of the
+Fjeld, which in this vicinity are as much like the old
+ranch lands of San Diego County as one region of country
+wholly different in climate can be like another. A
+few cultivated patches of ground near the station, upon
+which the peasants were at work gathering in the scanty
+harvest, showed that even in this rigorous region the attempts
+at agriculture were not altogether unsuccessful.
+As usual, the principal burden of labor seemed to fall
+upon the women, who were digging, hoeing, and raking
+with a lusty will that would have done credit to the men.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WOMEN IN NORWAY AND GERMANY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I must say that of all the customs prevailing in the
+different parts of Europe, not excepting the most civilized
+states of Germany, this one of making the women do
+all the heavy work strikes me as the nearest approximation
+to the perfection of domestic discipline. The Diggers
+of California and the Kaffres of Africa understand
+this thing exactly, and no man of any spirit belonging
+to those tribes would any more think of performing the
+drudgery which he imposes upon his wife and daughters
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span>
+than a German or Norwegian. What is the use of
+having wives and children if they don&rsquo;t relieve us of our
+heavy work? In that respect we Americans are very
+much behind the times. We pay such absurd devotion
+to the weakness of woman that they rule us with a despotism
+unknown in any other country. Their smiles are
+threats, and their tears are despotic manifestoes, against
+which the bravest of us dare not rebel. It is absolutely
+horrible to think of the condition of servitude in which
+we are placed by the extraordinary powers vested in, and
+so relentlessly exercised by, the women of America. I,
+for one, am in favor of a revival of the old laws of Nuremberg,
+by which female tyranny was punished. By a
+decree of the famous Council of Eight, any woman convicted
+of beating her husband or otherwise maltreating
+him was forced to wear a dragon&rsquo;s head for the period
+of three days; and if she did not, at the expiration of
+that date, ask his pardon, she was compelled to undergo
+a regimen of bread and water for the space of three
+weeks, or until effectually reduced to submission. Something
+must be done, or we shall be compelled sooner or
+later to adopt a clause in the Constitution prohibiting
+from admission the State of Matrimony. What would
+the ladies do then? I think that would bring them to
+their senses.</p>
+
+<p>Not only in the matter of domestic discipline, but of
+business and pleasure, are the people of Europe infinitely
+ahead of us. In France many of the railway stations
+are attended by female clerks, and in Germany the beer-saloons
+are ornamented by pretty girls, who carry around
+the foaming schoppens, having a spare smile and a joke
+for every customer. Of opera-singers, dancers, and female
+fiddlers, the most famous are produced in Europe.
+The wheeling girls of Hamburg, who roll after the omnibuses
+in circus fashion, are the only specimens in the
+line of popular attractions that I have not yet seen in the
+streets or public resorts of New York.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 263px;">
+<a name="wheeling_girls" id="wheeling_girls"></a>
+<img src="images/thor050.png" width="263" height="400"
+alt="Two girls perform handstands as a coach passes by" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">WHEELING GIRLS.</p>
+
+<p>What would be thought of half a dozen of these street
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span>
+acrobats rolling down Broadway or the Fifth Avenue?
+Doubtless they would attract considerable attention, and
+probably turn many a good penny. I fancy the Bowery
+boys would enjoy this sort of thing. A pretty girl of
+sixteen or seventeen, with her crinoline securely bundled
+up between her ankles, wheeling merrily along after an
+omnibus at the rate of five miles an hour, would be an
+attractive as well as extraordinary spectacle. For my
+part, I would greatly prefer it to our best female lectures
+on phrenology or physiology. I think a girl who can
+roll in that way must be possessed of uncommon genius.
+The wheeling boys of London are but clumsy spectacle
+compared with this. No man of sensibility can witness
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span>
+such a sight without regarding it as the very poetry of
+motion.</p>
+
+<p>But this digression has led me a little out of the way.
+I was on the road to Djerkin. A sharp pull of half a
+mile up the hill brought me to the door of the station,
+where I was kindly greeted by the family. Descending
+from my cariole a little stiff after the last long stage, I
+entered the general sitting-room, where there was a goodly
+assemblage of customers smoking and drinking, and
+otherwise enjoying themselves. The landlady, however,
+would not permit me to stop in such rude quarters, but
+hurried me at once into the fine room of the establishment.
+While she was preparing a venison steak and
+some coffee, I took a survey of the room, which was certainly
+ornamented in a very artistical manner. The sofa
+was covered with little scraps of white net-work; the
+bureau was dotted all over with little angels made of
+gauze, highly-colored pin-cushions, and fanciful paper
+boxes and card-stands. The walls were decorated with
+paintings of cows, stags, rocks, waterfalls, and other animals,
+and gems of Norwegian scenery, the productions
+of the genius of the family&mdash;the oldest son, a Justice of
+the Peace for the District, now absent on business at
+Christiania. They were very tolerably executed. The
+old lady was so proud of them that she took care to call
+my attention to their merits immediately upon entering
+the room, informing me, with much warmth of manner,
+that her son was a highly respectable man, of wonderful
+talents, who had held the honorable position of Justice
+of the Peace for the past ten years, and that there was
+something in my face that reminded her of her dear boy.
+In fact, she thought our features bore a striking resemblance&mdash;only
+Hansen had rather a more melancholy expression,
+his wife having unfortunately died about three
+years ago (here the poor old lady heaved a profound
+sigh). But I could judge for myself. There was his
+portrait, painted by a German artist who spent some
+months at this place last summer. I looked at the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span>
+portrait with some curiosity. It was that of a man about
+forty years of age, with a black skull-cap on his head, a
+long queue behind, and a pair of spectacles on his nose&mdash;his
+face very thin and of a cadaverous expression;
+just such a man as you would expect to find upon a justice&rsquo;s
+bench of a country district in Norway. Was it
+possible I bore any resemblance to this learned man?
+The very idea was so startling, not to say flattering, that
+I could hardly preserve my composure. I mumbled over
+something to the effect that it was a good face&mdash;for scenic
+purposes; but every time I tried to acknowledge the
+likeness to myself the words stuck in my throat. Finally,
+I was forced to ask the landlady if she would be so
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span>
+kind as to bring me a glass of brandy-wine, for I was
+afraid she would discover the internal convulsions which
+threatened every moment to rend my ribs asunder.
+While she was looking after the brandy-wine I made a
+hasty copy of the portrait, and I now leave it to the impartial
+reader to decide upon the supposed resemblance.
+It may be like me, but I confess the fact never would
+have impressed itself upon my mind from any personal
+observation of my own countenance taken in front of a
+looking-glass.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 258px;">
+<a name="justice_of_the_peace" id="justice_of_the_peace"></a>
+<img src="images/thor051.png" width="258" height="400"
+alt="A portrait in profile of the Justice holding a book" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">JUSTICE OF THE PEACE.</p>
+
+<p>There was something so genial and cozy about the inn
+at Djerkin that I partially resolved to stop all night. At
+dinner-time the landlord made his appearance steaming
+hot from the kitchen. I no longer hesitated about staying.
+I am a great believer in the physiognomy of inns
+as well as of landlords. Traveling through a wild country
+like Norway, where there is little beyond the scenery
+to attract attention, the unpretending stations by the
+wayside assume a degree of importance equaled only by
+the largest cities in other countries. The approach, the
+aspect of the place, the physiognomy of the house, become
+matters of the deepest interest to the solitary wayfarer,
+who clings to these episodes in the day&rsquo;s journey
+as the connecting links that bind him to the great family
+of man. I claim to be able to tell from the general expression
+of an inn, commencing at the chimney-top and
+ending at the steps of the front door, exactly what sort
+of cheer is to be had within&mdash;whether the family are
+happily bound together in bonds of affection; how often
+the landlord indulges in a bout of hard drinking; and
+the state of control under which he is kept by the female
+head of the establishment; nay, I can almost guess, from
+the general aspect of the house, the exact weight and digestive
+capacity of mine host; for if the inn promise well
+for the creature comforts, so will the inn-keeper. And
+what can be more cheering to a tired wayfarer than to
+be met at the door by a jolly red-faced old fellow&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;His fair round belly with fat capon lined&rdquo;&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span>
+beefsteaks in the expression of his eye; his bald pate the
+fac-simile of a rump of mutton; plum-puddings and apple-dumplings
+in every curve of his chin; his body the
+living embodiment of a cask of beer supported by two
+pipes of generous wine; the whole man overflowing with
+rich juices and essences, gravies, and strong drinks&mdash;a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>
+breathing incarnation of all the good things of life, whom
+to look upon is to feel good-natured and happy in the
+present, and hopeful for the future; such a man, in short,
+as mine host of the Golden Crown, whose portrait I have
+endeavored to present.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
+<a name="model_landlord" id="model_landlord"></a>
+<img src="images/thor052.png" width="252" height="500"
+alt="The landlord carries a plate piled high with food" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">MODEL LANDLORD.</p>
+
+<p>If there be any likeness between myself and the son,
+it certainly does not extend to the father. He carries
+in his hands a steaming hot plum-pudding; he is a model
+landlord, and delights in feeding his customers. His
+voice is greasy like his face. When he laughs it is from
+his capacious stomach the sounds come. His best jokes
+are based upon his digestive organs. He gets a little
+boozy toward evening, but that is merely a hospitable
+habit of his to prove that his liquors are good. You commit
+yourself at once to his keeping with a delightful consciousness
+that in his hands you are safe. He is not a
+man to suffer an honest customer to starve. Nature, in
+her prodigality, formed him upon a generous pattern.
+Whatever does other people good likewise does him
+good. May he live a thousand years&mdash;mine host of the
+Golden Crown!&mdash;and may his shadow never be less!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>DOWN THE DRIVSDAL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The next morning I proceeded on my way, resolved,
+if ever I came this route again, to spend a week at Djerkin.
+A withered old man accompanied me on the back
+of the cariole. After half an hour&rsquo;s hard climbing up a
+very steep hill we reached the highest point of the Dovre
+Fjeld, 4594 feet above the level of the sea. From this
+point the view is exceedingly weird and desolate. Owing
+to the weather, however, which was dark and threatening,
+I did not stop long to enjoy the view of the barren
+wastes that lay behind, but was soon dashing at a
+slapping pace down into the valley of the Drivsdal&mdash;one
+of the most rugged and picturesque in Norway.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 383px;">
+<a name="drivsdal_valley" id="drivsdal_valley"></a>
+<img src="images/thor053.png" width="383" height="500"
+alt="A cariole travels a high valley road, sheer rock walls above and below on both sides" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">DRIVSDAL VALLEY.</p>
+
+<p>My journey down the valley of the Drivsdal was both
+pleasant and interesting. A beautiful new road commences
+at Kongsvold, the last station on the Dovre Fjeld,
+after passing Djerkin, and follows the winding of the river
+through the narrow gorges of the mountains all the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span>
+way to Ny Orne. On each side towering and pine-covered
+mountains rear their rugged crests, sometimes approaching
+so close to the river as to overhang the road,
+which for miles on a stretch is hewn from the solid rock.</p>
+
+<p>The innumerable clefts and fissures that mark the rugged
+fronts of the cliffs; the overhanging trees and shrubbery;
+the toppling boulders of granite, balanced in mid-air;
+the rushing torrents that dash from the moss-covered
+rocks; the seething and foaming waters of the Driv,
+whirling through the narrow gorges hundreds of feet
+below the road; the bright blue sky overhead, and the
+fitful gleams of sunshine darting through the masses of
+pine and circling into innumerable rainbows in the spray
+of the river, all combine to form a scene of incomparable
+beauty and grandeur such as I have rarely seen equaled
+in any part of the world, and only surpassed by the Siskiyon
+Mountains in the northern part of California.</p>
+
+<p>About midway down the valley, after passing the settlement
+of Rise, I stopped to examine a curious passage
+of the river in the neighborhood of the Drivstuklere,
+where it dashes down between two solid walls of rocks,
+which at this point approach so as to form a passage of
+not more than fifteen feet in width. Securing my cariole
+horse to a tree by the side of the road, I descended
+a steep bank under the guidance of my skydskaarl, a
+bright little fellow about ten years of age, who first called
+my attention to this remarkable phenomenon. I was
+soon compelled to follow his example, and crawl over the
+rocks like a caterpillar to avoid falling into the frightful
+abyss below. For a distance of fifty or sixty yards, the
+river, compressed within a limit of fifteen feet, dashes
+with fearful velocity through its rugged and tortuous
+boundaries, filling the air with spray, and making an
+angry moan, as if threatening momentarily to tear the
+rocks from their solid beds, and sweep them, into the
+broad and sullen pool below.</p>
+
+<p>The trembling of the massive boulder upon which I
+lay outstretched peering into the raging abyss, the fierce
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span>
+surging of the waters, the whirling clouds of spray, and
+gorgeous prismatic colors that flashed through them,
+created an impression that the whole was some wild,
+mad freak of the elements, gotten up to furnish the traveler
+with a startling idea of the wonders and beauties
+of Norwegian scenery.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 386px;">
+<a name="passage_on_the_driv" id="passage_on_the_driv"></a>
+<img src="images/thor054.png" width="386" height="500"
+alt="A man lies on a rock outcrop, looking down at the rushing river" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">PASSAGE ON THE DRIV.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>A NORWEGIAN HORSE-JOCKEY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Late one evening I arrived at a lonely little station
+by the wayside, not far beyond the valley of the Drivsdal.
+I was cold and hungry, and well disposed to enjoy
+whatever good cheer the honest people who kept the inn
+might have in store for me. The house and outbuildings
+were such as belong to an ordinary farming establishment,
+and did not promise much in the way of entertainment.
+Upon entering the rustic doorway I was kindly
+greeted by the host&mdash;a simple, good-natured looking
+man&mdash;who, as usual, showed me into the best room.
+Now I am not aware of any thing in my appearance that
+entitles me to this distinction, but it has generally been
+my fate, in this sort of travel, to be set apart and isolated
+from the common herd in the fancy room of the establishment,
+which I have always found to be correspondingly
+the coldest and most uncomfortable. It is a
+great annoyance in Norway to be treated as a gentleman.
+The commonest lout can enjoy the cozy glow and
+social gossip of the kitchen or ordinary sitting-room, but
+the traveler whom these good people would honor must
+sit shivering and alone in some great barn of a room because
+it contains a sofa, a bureau, a looking-glass, a few
+mantle-piece ornaments, and an occasional picture of the
+king or some member of the royal family. I have walked
+up and down these dismal chambers for hours at a
+time, staring at the daubs on the walls, and picking up
+little odds and ends of ornaments, and gazing vacantly
+at them, till I felt a numbness steal all over me, accompanied
+by a vague presentiment that I was imprisoned
+for life. The progress of time is a matter of no importance
+in Norway. To an American, accustomed to see
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span>
+every thing done with energy and promptness, it is absolutely
+astounding&mdash;the indifference of these people to
+the waste of hours. They seem to be forever asleep, or
+doing something that bears no possible reference to their
+ostensible business. If you are hungry and want something
+to eat in a few minutes, the probability is you will
+be left alone in the fine room for several hours, at the
+expiration of which you discover that the inn-keeper is
+out in the stable feeding his horses, his wife in the back
+yard looking after the chickens, and his children sitting
+at a table in the kitchen devouring a dish of porridge.
+Upon expressing your astonishment that nothing is
+ready, the good man of the house says &ldquo;Ja! it will be
+ready directly, min Herr!&rdquo; and if you are lucky it comes
+in another hour&mdash;a cup of coffee and some bread perhaps,
+which you could just as well have had in ten minutes.
+Patience may be a virtue in other countries, but
+it is an absolute necessity in Norway. I believe, after
+the few weeks&rsquo; experience I had on the road to Trondhjem,
+I could without difficulty sit upon a monument
+and smile at grief.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 393px;">
+<a name="the_prize" id="the_prize"></a>
+<img src="images/thor055.png" width="393" height="500"
+alt="The man places the bag of prize money on the table" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE PRIZE.</p>
+
+<p>Perceiving through the cracks of the door that there
+was a good fire in the kitchen, and hearing the cheerful
+voices of the man and his wife, varied by the merry whistle
+my skydskaarl, I made bold to go in and ask leave
+to stand by the fire. The good people seemed a little
+astonished at first that a person of quality like myself
+should prefer the kitchen to the fine room with the sofa
+and bureau, the mantle-piece ornaments and pictures of
+the royal family; but, by dint of good-humored gossip
+about the horses, and an extravagant compliment thrown
+in about the beauty of the landlady&rsquo;s children&mdash;for which
+I hope to be pardoned&mdash;I secured a comfortable seat by
+the fire, and was soon quite at home. The great open
+fireplace, the blazing pine logs, the well-smoked hobs, the
+simmering pots and steaming kettles, had something indescribably
+cheerful about them; and lighting my pipe,
+I puffed away cozily during the pauses in the conversation,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span>
+having a delightful consciousness that nature had
+peculiarly adapted me for the vulgar enjoyments of life,
+and that every thing approaching the refinements of civilization
+was a great bore. It was doubtless this taint
+of the savage in my disposition that made me look with
+such horror upon neat rooms and civilized furniture, and
+fall back with such zest upon the primitive comforts of
+savage life. When I told the people of the house that
+I was all the way from California&mdash;that I had come expressly
+to see their country&mdash;there was no end to the interest
+and excitement. &ldquo;Dear me!&rdquo; they cried, &ldquo;and
+you have traveled a long way! You must be very tired!
+And you must be very rich to travel so far! Ah Gott&mdash;how
+wonderful!&rdquo; &ldquo;Did you come all the way in a cariole?&rdquo;
+inquired the simple-minded host. &ldquo;No; I came
+part of the way by sea, in a great ship.&rdquo; &ldquo;How wonderful!&rdquo;
+&ldquo;And what sort of horses had they in California?&rdquo;
+I told some tough stories about the mustang
+horses, in which the landlord was profoundly interested,
+for I soon discovered that horses were his great hobby.
+Whatever we talked of, he invariably came back to horse-flesh.
+His head was overrunning with horses. I praised
+his cariole horses, and he was enchanted. He gave me
+the pedigree of every horse in his stable, scarcely a word
+of which I understood, and then wound up by telling me
+he was considered the best judge of horses in all Norway.
+I did not think there was much in his appearance
+indicative of the shrewd horse-jockey, but was soon convinced
+of his shrewdness, for he informed me confidentially
+he had drawn the great prize at the last annual
+horse-fair at Christiania, and if I didn&rsquo;t believe it he would
+show it to me! I tried to make him understand that I
+had no doubt at all what he said was strictly true; but,
+not satisfied at this expression of faith in his word, he
+went to a big wooden chest in the corner and took out
+a bag of money, which he placed upon the middle of the
+table with a proud smile of triumph. &ldquo;That,&rdquo; said he,
+&ldquo;is the prize! A hundred and fifty silver dollars&mdash;<em>silver</em>,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span>
+mind you&mdash;all <small>SILVER</small>!&rdquo; But perhaps I didn&rsquo;t believe
+it was a prize? Well, he would convince me of
+that. So he left the bag of money on the table and went
+into a back room to get the certificate of the society, in
+which it was all duly written out, with his name in large
+letters, the paper being neatly framed in a carved frame,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span>
+the work of his own hands. There it was; I could read
+for myself! I tried to read it to oblige him, and as I
+blundered over the words he took it into his head that I
+was still incredulous. &ldquo;Nai! nai!&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you shall
+see the money! You shall count it for yourself!&rdquo; In
+vain I strove to convince him that I was entirely satisfied
+on the subject&mdash;that he must not go to so much
+trouble on my account. &ldquo;Nai! nai!&rdquo; cried the enthusiastic
+dealer in horse-flesh, &ldquo;it is no trouble. You shall
+see the money <small>WITH YOUR OWN EYES</small>!&rdquo; And forthwith
+he untied the string of the bag, and poured out the shining
+dollars in a pile on the middle of the table. His good
+wife stood by, professing to smile, but I suspected, from
+the watchful expression of her eye, that she did not feel
+quite at ease. The skydskaarl leaned over with a general
+expression of the most profound astonishment and admiration.
+&ldquo;See!&rdquo; cried the old man; &ldquo;this is the prize&mdash;every
+dollar of it. But you must count it&mdash;I&rsquo;ll help
+you&mdash;so!&rdquo; As there was no getting over the task imposed
+upon me without hurting his feelings, I had to sit
+down and help to count the money&mdash;no very pleasant
+job for a hungry man. After summing up our respective
+piles, there appeared to be only a hundred and forty-nine
+dollars&mdash;just a dollar short. &ldquo;Lieb Gott!&rdquo; cried
+the man, &ldquo;there must be a mistake! Let us count it
+again!&rdquo; I felt that there was a necessity for counting
+it very carefully this time, for the landlady&rsquo;s eye was on
+me with a very searching expression. &ldquo;Een, to, tre, five,
+fem, sex,&rdquo; and so on for nearly half an hour, when we
+summed up our counts again. This time it was only a
+hundred and forty-eight dollars&mdash;just two dollars short!
+The old man scratched his head and looked bewildered.
+The landlady moved about nervously, and stared very
+hard at me. It was getting to be rather an embarrassing
+affair. I blamed myself for being so foolishly drawn into
+it. Wishing to know if there really was a mistake, I
+begged my host to let me count it alone, which I did by
+making fifteen piles of ten dollars each, carefully counting
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>
+every pile. It was all right; the whole amount was
+there, a hundred and fifty dollars. &ldquo;All right!&rdquo; said I,
+much relieved; &ldquo;don&rsquo;t you see, every pile is exactly the
+same height!&rdquo; &ldquo;Ja! Ja!&rdquo; said the man; &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t
+understand it. Here, wife, you and I must count it!&rdquo;
+So the wife sat down, and they both began counting the
+money, varying every time they compared notes from
+two to ten dollars. Once they had it a hundred and sixty
+dollars. &ldquo;The devil is in the money!&rdquo; exclaimed the
+horse-dealer; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m certain I counted right.&rdquo; &ldquo;And so
+am I!&rdquo; said the woman; &ldquo;I can not be mistaken. It is
+you who have made the mistake. You always were a
+stupid old fool about money!&rdquo; This she said with some
+degree of asperity, for she was evidently displeased at
+the whole proceeding. &ldquo;A fool, eh? A fool!&rdquo; muttered
+the old man; &ldquo;you do well to call me a fool before
+strangers!&rdquo; &ldquo;Ja, that&rsquo;s the way! I always told you
+so!&rdquo; screamed the woman, in rising tones of anger;
+&ldquo;you&rsquo;ll lose all your money yet!&rdquo; &ldquo;Lose it!&rdquo; retorted
+the man; &ldquo;don&rsquo;t you see I have made ten dollars by
+counting it to-night! There! count it yourself, and hold
+your peace, woman!&rdquo; Here the wife, suppressing her
+wrath, made a careful and deliberate count, which resulted
+in the exact sum of a hundred and fifty dollars! I
+was much relieved; but by this time the old man, unable
+to bear the torrent of reproaches heaped upon him by
+his good wife for his stupidity, swore she must have made
+a mistake. He was sure he had counted a hundred and
+sixty; therefore he would count it again, all alone, which
+he proceeded to do, very slowly and cautiously. This
+time the result was a hundred and fifty-five dollars.
+&ldquo;The devil&rsquo;s in it!&rdquo; cried the astonished dealer; &ldquo;there&rsquo;s
+some magic about it! I don&rsquo;t understand it. I must
+count it again!&rdquo; The woman, however, being satisfied
+that it was all right, I now thought it best to return to
+my seat by the fire, where she soon began to busy herself
+preparing the supper, turning round now and then
+of course to let off a broadside at her old man. She took
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>
+occasion to inform me, during the progress of her culinary
+labors, that he was a very good sort of man, but was
+somewhat addicted to brandy-wine, of which he had partaken
+a little too freely on the present occasion. I must
+excuse him. She would send him to bed presently. And
+now, if I pleased, supper was ready.</p>
+
+<p>I could not help thinking, as I lay in bed that night,
+how lucky it was for these simple-minded people that
+they lived in the interior of Norway. Even in California,
+where public and private integrity is the prevailing
+trait of the people, it would hardly be considered safe to
+pull out a bag of money at a wayside inn and show it to
+every passing stranger. I have known men there in high
+public positions whom I would scarcely like to tempt in
+that way, especially if there was money enough in the
+bag to make robbery respectable.</p>
+
+<p>All along the route during the next day the scenery
+was a continued feast of enjoyment. In looking back
+over it now, however, after the lapse of several months,
+it would be difficult to recall any thing beyond its general
+features&mdash;pine-covered mountains, green valleys, dark
+rocky glens, foaming torrents of water, and groups of
+farm-houses by the wayside. At Bjerkager I reached
+the first of the &ldquo;slow-stations;&rdquo; that is to say, the established
+post-houses, where a margin of three hours is allowed
+for a change of horses. I had supposed that in a
+country, and on a public route, where during the summer
+there must be considerable travel, it would hardly
+be possible that so long a delay could take place; but in
+this I was mistaken. The slow-stations are emphatically
+slow; the keepers are slow, the horses are slow, the
+whole concern is slow. From Bjerkager to Garlid, and
+from Garlid to Hov, including all delays, a distance of
+three hours and a half ordinary time, it took me all day.
+No entreaties, no offers of extra compensation, no expressions
+of impatience produced the slightest effect.
+The people at these places were not to be hurried. Kind
+and good-natured as they were in appearance and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>
+expression, I found them the most bull-headed and intractable
+race of beings on the face of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>I was particularly struck with the depressing lethargy
+that hung over a wretched little place called Soknaes,
+which I made out to reach the next morning. A dead
+silence reigned over the miserable huddle of buildings
+by the roadside. The houses looked green and mildewed.
+A few forlorn chickens in the stable-yard, and a half-starved
+dog crouching under the door-steps, too poor to
+bark and too lazy to move, were the only signs of life
+that greeted me as I approached. I knocked at the door,
+but no answer was made to the summons. Not a living
+soul was to be seen around the place. I attempted to
+whistle and shout. Still the terrible silence remained
+unbroken save by the dismal echoes of my own melancholy
+music. At length I went to a rickety shed under
+which some carts were drawn up for shelter from the
+weather. In one of the carts, half-covered in a bundle
+of straw, was a bundle of clothes. It moved as I drew
+near; it thrust a boot out over the tail-board; it shook
+itself; it emitted a curious sound between a grunt and a
+yawn; it raised itself up and shook off a portion of the
+straw; it thrust a red night-cap out of the mass of shapeless
+rubbish; the night-cap contained a head and a matted
+shock of hair; there was a withered, old-fashioned
+little face on the front part of the head, underneath the
+shock of hair, which opened its mouth and eyes, and
+gazed at me vacantly; it was an old man or a boy, I could
+not tell which till it spoke, when I discovered that it was
+something between the two, and was the skydskaarl or
+hostler of this remarkable establishment. He rubbed his
+eyes and stared again. &ldquo;Hello!&rdquo; said I. He grunted
+out something. &ldquo;Heste og Cariole!&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;Ja! Ja!&rdquo;
+grunted the hostler, and then he began to get out of the
+cart. I suppose he creaked, though I do not pretend
+that the sounds were audible. First one leg came out;
+slowly it was followed by the other. When they both
+got to the ground, he pushed his body gradually over the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>
+tail-board, and in about five minutes was standing before
+me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A horse and cariole,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;let me have them
+quick!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja! Ja!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Strax!</i>&rdquo; [directly!] said I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja! Ja!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How long will it be?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ach!&rdquo;&mdash;here he yawned.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;An hour?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja! Ja!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Two hours?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja! Ja!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Three hours?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja! Ja!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sacramento! I can&rsquo;t stand that, I must have one
+<small>STRAX</small>&mdash;directly&mdash;forst&ouml;ede?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja! Ja!&rdquo; and the fellow rubbed his eyes and yawned
+again.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Look here! my friend,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;if you&rsquo;ll get me a
+horse and cariole in half an hour, I&rsquo;ll give you two marks
+extra&mdash;forst&ouml;e?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ja! Ja! twa mark&rdquo; (still yawning).</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Half an hour, mind you!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Tre time</i>&mdash;three hours!&rdquo; grunted the incorrigible
+dunderhead.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then good-by&mdash;I must travel on foot!&rdquo; and, with
+rage and indignation depicted in every feature, I flung
+my knapsack over my shoulder and made a feint to start.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Adieu! farvel!&rdquo; said the sleepy lout, good-naturedly
+holding out his hand to give me a parting shake. &ldquo;Farvel,
+min Herr! May your journey be pleasant! God
+take care of you!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The perfect sincerity of the fellow completely dissipated
+my rage, and, giving him a friendly shake, I proceeded
+on my way. As I turned the corner of the main
+building and struck into the road, I cast a look back. He
+was still standing by the cart, yawning and rubbing his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span>
+eyes as before. That man would make money in California&mdash;if
+money could be made by a bet on laziness.
+He is lazier than the old Dutch skipper who was too lazy
+to go below, and gave orders to the man at the helm to
+follow the sun so as to keep him in the shade of the
+main-sail, by reason of which he sailed round the horizon
+till his tobacco gave out, and he had to return home
+for a fresh supply. I call that a strong case of laziness,
+but scarcely stronger than the traveler meets with every
+day in Norway.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>OUT OF MONEY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I now began to enjoy the real pleasures of Norwegian
+travel. No longer compelled to endure the vexatious
+delays to which I had lately been subject, I bowled along
+the road, with my knapsack on my back, at the rate of
+four miles an hour, whistling merrily from sheer exuberance
+of health and lack of thought. The weather was
+charming. A bright sun shed its warm rays over hill
+and dale; the air was fresh and invigorating; the richest
+tints adorned the whole face of the country, which
+from Soknaes to Trondhjem gradually increases in fertility
+and breadth of outline, till it becomes almost unrivaled
+in the profusion of its pastoral beauties. Nothing
+can surpass the gorgeous splendor of the autumnal sunsets
+in this part of Norway. At an earlier period of the
+year there is perpetual daylight for several weeks, and
+for three days the sun does not descend below the horizon.
+The light, however, is too strong during that period
+to produce the rich and glowing tints which cover
+the sky and mountain-tops at a later season of the year.
+I was fortunate in being just in time to enjoy the full
+measure of its beauties, and surely it is not too much to
+say that such an experience is of itself worth a trip to
+Norway. I shall not attempt a description of Norwegian
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span>
+skies, however, after the glowing picture of the
+North Cape at midnight drawn by the pen of my friend
+Bayard Taylor, the most faithful and enthusiastic of all
+the travelers who have given their experience of this interesting
+region.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 263px;">
+<a name="traveling_on_foot" id="traveling_on_foot"></a>
+<img src="images/thor056.png" width="263" height="400"
+alt="A man hiking along" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">TRAVELING ON FOOT.</p>
+
+<p>Keeping along the banks of the Gula, the road winds
+around the sides of the hills, sometimes crossing open valleys,
+and occasionally penetrating the shady recesses of
+the pine forests, till it diverges from the river at Meelhus.
+Soon after leaving this station the views from the
+higher points over which the road passes are of great
+beauty and extent, embracing a glimpse, from time to
+time, of the great Trondhjem Fjord.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span>
+Night overtook me at the pretty little station of Esp.
+Next morning I was up bright and early, and, after a cup
+of coffee and some rolls, shouldered my knapsack and
+pushed on to Trondhjem.</p>
+
+<p>Finding my purse growing lighter every day, I was
+compelled at this point to cut short my intended journey
+to the North Cape, and take the first steamer down the
+coast for Christiansund and Hamburg.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived once more at the family head-quarters in
+Frankfort-on-the-Main, I spent a few months writing up
+the loose material I had thus gathered, and making foot-tours
+through the Odenwald, the Spessart, and the
+Schwartzwald. But I was not satisfied with what I had
+seen of the North. There was still a wild region, far beyond
+any explorations I had yet made, which constantly
+loomed up in my imagination&mdash;the chaotic land of frost
+and fire, where dwelt in ancient times the mighty Thor,
+the mystic deity of the Scandinavians.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>ICELANDIC TRAVEL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Not many years have passed since it was considered
+something of an achievement to visit Iceland. The traveler
+who had the hardihood to penetrate the chilly fogs
+of the North, and journey by the compass through a region
+of everlasting snows and desolating fires, could well
+afford to stay at home during the remainder of his life,
+satisfied with the reputation generally accorded him by
+his fellow-men. It was something to have plunged into
+rivers of unknown depth, and traversed treacherous bogs
+and desert fjelds of lava&mdash;something to be able to speak
+knowingly of the learned Sagas, and verify the wonders
+of the Burned Njal.</p>
+
+<p>An isolated spot of earth, bordering on the Arctic Circle,
+and cut off by icebergs and frozen seas from all intercourse
+with the civilized world during half the year, once
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span>
+the seat of an enlightened republic, and still inhabited
+by the descendants of men who had worshiped Odin and
+Thor, must surely have presented rare attractions to the
+enterprising traveler before it became a beaten track for
+modern tourists. A simple narrative of facts was then
+sufficient to enlist attention. Even the unlearned adventurer
+could obtain a reputation by an unvarnished recital
+of what he saw and heard. He could describe the
+L&ouml;gberg upon which the republican Parliament held its
+sittings, and attest from personal observation that this
+was the exact spot where judgments were pronounced
+by the <i>Thing</i>. He could speak familiarly of heathen
+gods and vikings after a brief intercourse with the inhabitants,
+who are still tinctured with the spirit of their early
+civilization. He could tell of frightful volcanoes, that
+fill the air with clouds of ashes, and desolate the earth
+with burning floods of lava, and of scalding hot water
+shot up out of subterranean boilers, and gaping fissures
+that emit sulphurous vapors, and strange sounds heard
+beneath the earth&rsquo;s surface, and all the marvelous experiences
+of Icelandic travel, including ghosts and hobgoblins
+that ramble over the icy wastes by night, and hide
+themselves in gloomy caverns by day&mdash;these he could
+dwell upon in earnest and homely language with the
+pleasing certainty of an appreciative audience. But times
+have sadly changed within the past few years. A trip
+to Iceland nowadays is little more than a pleasant summer
+excursion, brought within the capacity of every tyro
+in travel through the leveling agency of steam. When
+a Parisian lady of rank visits Spitzbergen, and makes the
+overland journey from the North Cape to the Gulf of
+Bothnia, of what avail is it for any gentleman of elegant
+leisure to leave his comfortable fireside? We tourists
+who are ambitious to see the world in an easy way need
+but sit in our cushioned chair, cosily smoking our cigar,
+while some enterprising lady puts a girdle round about
+the earth; for we may depend upon it she will reappear
+ere leviathan can swim a league, and present us with a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span>
+bouquet of wonderful experiences, neatly pressed between
+the pages of an entertaining volume. The icebergs of
+the Arctic, the bananas of the tropics, the camels of the
+East, the buffaloes of the West, and the cannibals of the
+South, are equally at our service. We can hold the
+mountains, rivers, seas, and human races between our
+finger and thumb, and thus, as we gently dally with care,
+we may see the wonders of the world as in a pleasant
+dream. Thus may we enjoy the perils and hardships of
+travel at a very small sacrifice of personal comfort.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_great_geyser" id="the_great_geyser"></a>
+<img src="images/thor057.png" width="600" height="434"
+alt="A small encampment of three men watch as the geyser spouts water" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE GREAT GEYSER.</p>
+
+<p>It was somewhat in this style that I reasoned when
+the idea occurred to me of making a trip to Iceland.
+From all accounts it was a very uncomfortable country,
+deficient in roads, destitute of hotels, and subject to various
+eccentricities of climate. Neither fame nor money
+was to be gained by such a trip&mdash;unless, indeed, I succeeded
+in catching the great auk, for which, it is said, the
+directors of the British Museum have offered a reward
+of a hundred pounds. This was a chance, to be sure. I
+might possibly be able to get hold of the auk, and thereby
+secure money enough to pay expenses, and make certain
+a niche in the temple of fame. It would be something
+to rank with the great men who had devoted their
+lives to the pursuit of the dodo and the roc. But there
+was a deplorable lack of information about the haunts
+and habits of the auk. I was not even satisfied of its
+existence, by the fact that two Englishmen visited Iceland
+a few years ago for the purpose of securing a specimen
+of this wonderful bird, and, after six weeks of unavailing
+search, wrote a book to prove that there was
+still reason to hope for success.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the whole, I thought it would not do to depend
+upon the auk. There was but one opening left&mdash;to visit
+Iceland, sketch-book in hand, and faithfully do what others
+had left undone&mdash;make accurate sketches of the
+mountains, rivers, lava-fjelds, geysers, people, and costumes.
+In nothing is Iceland so deficient as in pictorial
+representation. It has been very minutely surveyed by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span>
+the Danes, and Olsen has left nothing to wish for in the
+way of topographical delineation, but artists do not seem
+to have found it an attractive field for the exercise of
+their talent. At least I could obtain no good pictures
+of Iceland in Copenhagen. The few indifferent sketches
+published there, and in the journals of late English and
+German tourists, afford no adequate idea of the country.
+I have seen nothing of the kind any where that impressed
+my mind with the slightest notion of that land
+of fire, or the spirit and genius of Icelandic life. It would
+therefore be some gain to the cause of knowledge if I
+could present to five hundred thousand of my fellow-citizens,
+who do their traveling through these illuminated
+pages, a reasonably fair delineation of the country and the
+people, with such simple record of my own experiences
+as would render the sketches generally intelligible.</p>
+
+<p>So one fine morning in May I shouldered my knapsack,
+and bade a temporary adieu to my friends in Frankfort.
+By night I was in Hamburg. The next day was agreeably
+spent in rambling about the gardens across the Alster
+Basin, and at 5&nbsp;P.M. I left Altona for Kiel, a journey
+of three hours by rail across a flat and not very interesting
+tract of country within the limits of Schleswig-Holstein.
+From Kiel a steamer leaves for Kors&ouml;r, on the
+island of Zealand, the terminus of the Copenhagen Railway.
+This is the most direct route between Hamburg
+and Copenhagen, though the trip may be very pleasantly
+varied by taking a steamer to Taars, and passing by diligence
+through the islands of Lalland, Falster, and M&ouml;en.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A few days after my arrival in Copenhagen I had the
+pleasure of making the acquaintance of Professor Andersen,
+of the Scandinavian Museum, a native Icelander, who
+very kindly showed me the chief objects of curiosity
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span>
+obtained from the Danish possessions in the North, consisting
+mostly of fish and geological specimens. The Minister
+of the Judiciary obligingly gave me a letter to the
+governor and principal amtmen of Iceland, and many other
+gentlemen of influence manifested the most friendly
+interest in my proposed undertaking. I was especially
+indebted to Captain S&ouml;dring, late owner of the <i>Fox</i>, of
+Arctic celebrity, for much valuable information respecting
+the Northern seas, as well as for his cordial hospitality
+and indefatigable efforts to make my sojourn in Copenhagen
+both agreeable and profitable. Indeed, I was
+delighted with the place and the people. The Danes are
+exceedingly genial in their manners, distinguished alike
+for their simplicity and intelligence. There is no trouble
+to which they will not put themselves to oblige a stranger.
+In my rambles through the public libraries and
+museums I was always accompanied by some professor
+attached to the institution, who took the greatest pains
+to explain every thing, and impress me with a favorable
+idea of the value of the collection. This was not a mere
+formal matter of duty; many of them spent hours and
+even days in the performance of their friendly labors,
+omitting nothing that might contribute to my enjoyment
+as a stranger. The visitor who can not spend his time
+agreeably in such society, surrounded by such institutions
+as Thorwaldsen&rsquo;s Museum and the National Collection
+of Scandinavian Antiquities, must be difficult to
+please indeed. The Tivoli or the Dyrhave, an evening
+at Fredericksberg, or a trip to &ldquo;Hamlet&rsquo;s Grave&rdquo; at Elsineur,
+would surely fill the measure of his contentment.
+Whether in the way of beautiful gardens, public amusements,
+charming excursions, or agreeable and intelligent
+society, I know of no European capital that can surpass
+Copenhagen. Our excellent minister, Mr. Wood, with
+whom I had the pleasure of spending an evening at Elsineur,
+speaks in the most complimentary terms of the
+Danes and their customs, and expresses some surprise,
+considering the general increase of European travel from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span>
+our country, that so few American tourists visit Denmark.</p>
+
+<p>I could not do myself the injustice to leave Copenhagen
+without forming the personal acquaintance of a man
+to whom a debt of gratitude is due by the young and the
+old in all countries&mdash;the ramblers in fairy-land, the lovers
+of romance, and the friends of humanity&mdash;all who can
+feel the divine influence of genius, and learn, through the
+teachings of a kindly heart, that the inhabitants of earth
+are</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Kindred by one holy tie&rdquo;&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>the quaint, pathetic, genial Hans Christian Andersen.
+Not wishing to impose any obligation of courtesy on him
+by a letter of introduction or the obliging services of my
+Danish friends, I called at his house unattended, and
+merely sent in my name and address. Unfortunately he
+was out taking his morning walk, and would not be back
+till the afternoon. By calling at three o&rsquo;clock, the servant
+said, I would be very likely to find him at home. I
+then added to my card the simple fact that I was an
+American traveler on my way to Iceland for the purpose
+of making some sketches of the country, and would take
+the liberty of calling at the appointed hour. It may be
+a matter of interest to an American reader to have some
+idea of the peculiar neighborhood and style of house in
+which a great Danish author has chosen to take up his
+abode. The city of Copenhagen, it should be borne in
+mind, is intersected by canals which, during the summer
+months, are crowded with small trading vessels from
+Sweden and Jutland, and fishing-smacks from the neighboring
+islands and coast of Norway. The wharves bordering
+on these canals present an exceedingly animated
+appearance. Peasants, sailors, traders, and fishermen, in
+every variety of costume, are gathered in groups, enjoying
+a social gossip, or interchanging their various products
+and wares, and strawberries from Amak and fish
+from the Skager-Rack mingle their odors. In the second
+story of a dingy and dilapidated house, fronting one of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span>
+these unsavory canals, a confused pile of dirty, shambling
+old tenements in the rear, and a curious medley of fish
+and fishermen, sloops and schooners, mud-scows and skiffs
+in front, lives the world-renowned author, Hans Christian
+Andersen. I say he lives there, but, properly speaking,
+he only lodges. It seems to be a peculiarity of his nature
+to move about from time to time into all the queer
+and uninviting places possible to be discovered within
+the limits of Copenhagen&mdash;not where</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">&ldquo;The mantling vine<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lays forth her grape and gently creeps<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Luxuriant,&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>but where the roughest, noisiest, busiest, and fishiest of
+an amphibious population is to be found. Here it is, apparently
+amid the most incongruous elements, that he draws
+from all around him the most delicate traits of
+human nature, and matures for the great outer world the
+most exquisite creations of his fancy. It is purely a labor
+of love in which he spends his life. The products of his
+pen have furnished him with ample means to live in elegant
+style, surrounded by all the allurements of rank and
+fashion, but he prefers the obscurity of a plain lodging
+amid the haunts of those classes whose lives and pursuits
+he so well portrays. Here he cordially receives all who
+call upon him, and they are not few. Pilgrims of every
+condition in life and from all nations do homage to his
+genius, yet, valuable as his time is, he finds enough to
+spare for the kindly reception of his visitors. His only
+household companions appear to be two old peasant
+women, whom he employs as domestics; weather-beaten
+and decrepit old creatures, with faces and forms very
+much like a pair of antiquated nut-crackers. He occupies
+only two or three rooms plainly furnished, and apparently
+lives in the simplest and most abstemious style.</p>
+
+<p>When I called according to directions, one of the ancient
+nut-crackers merely pointed to the door, and said
+she thought Herr Andersen was in, but didn&rsquo;t know. I
+could knock there and try; so I knocked. Presently I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span>
+heard a rapid step, and the door was thrown open. Before
+me stood the tall, thin, shambling, raw-boned figure
+of a man a little beyond the prime of life, but not yet old,
+with a pair of dancing gray eyes and a hatchet-face, all
+alive with twists, and wrinkles, and muscles; a long, lean
+face, upon which stood out prominently a great nose, diverted
+by a freak of nature a little to one side, and flanked
+by a tremendous pair of cheek-bones, with great hollows
+underneath. Innumerable ridges and furrows swept
+semicircularly downward around the corners of a great
+mouth&mdash;a broad, deep, rugged fissure across the face, that
+might have been mistaken for the dreadful child-trap of
+an ogre but for the sunny beams of benevolence that
+lurked around the lips, and the genial humanity that
+glimmered from every nook and turn. Neither mustache
+nor beard obscured the strong individuality of this
+remarkable face, which for the most part was of a dull
+granite color, a little mixed with limestone and spotted
+with patches of porphyry. A dented gutta-percha forehead,
+very prominent about the brows, and somewhat
+resembling in its general topography a raised map of
+Switzerland, sloped upward and backward to the top of
+the head; not a very large head, but wonderfully bumped
+and battered by the operations of the brain, and partially
+covered by a mop of dark wavy hair, a little thin
+in front and somewhat grizzled behind; a long, bony
+pair of arms, with long hands on them; a long, lank body,
+with a long black coat on it; a long, loose pair of legs,
+with long boots on the feet, all in motion at the same
+time&mdash;all shining, and wriggling, and working with an
+indescribable vitality, a voice bubbling up from the vast
+depths below with cheery, spasmodic, and unintelligible
+words of welcome&mdash;this was the wonderful man that
+stood before me, the great Danish improvisator, the lover
+of little children, the gentle Caliban who dwells among
+fairies and holds sweet converse with fishes, and frogs,
+and beetles! I would have picked him out from among
+a thousand men at the first glance as a candidate for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span>
+Congress, or the proprietor of a tavern, if I had met him
+any where in the United States. But the resemblance
+was only momentary. In the quaint awkwardness of
+his gestures and the simplicity of his speech there was a
+certain refinement not usually found among men of that
+class. Something in the spontaneous and almost childlike
+cordiality of his greeting; the unworldly impulsiveness
+of his nature, as he grasped both my hands in his,
+patted me affectionately on the shoulder, and bade me
+welcome, convinced me in a moment that this was no
+other, and could be no other, than Hans Christian Andersen.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Come in! come in!&rdquo; he said, in a gush of broken
+English; &ldquo;come in and sit down. You are very welcome.
+Thank you&mdash;thank you very much. I am very
+glad to see you. It is a rare thing to meet a traveler all
+the way from California&mdash;quite a surprise. Sit down!
+Thank you!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And then followed a variety of friendly compliments
+and remarks about the Americans. He liked them; he
+was sorry they were so unfortunate as to be engaged in
+a civil war, but hoped it would soon be over. Did I
+speak French? he asked, after a pause. Not very well.
+Or German? Still worse, was my answer. &ldquo;What a
+pity!&rdquo; he exclaimed; &ldquo;it must trouble you to understand
+my English, I speak it so badly. It is only within
+a few years that I have learned to speak it at all.&rdquo; Of
+course I complimented him upon his English, which was
+really better than I had been led to expect. &ldquo;Can you
+understand it?&rdquo; he asked, looking earnestly in my face.
+&ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;almost every word.&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh,
+thank you&mdash;thank you. You are very good,&rdquo; he cried,
+grasping me by the hand. &ldquo;I am very much obliged to
+you for understanding me.&rdquo; I naturally thanked him
+for being obliged to me, and we shook hands cordially,
+and mutually thanked one another over again for being
+so amiable. The conversation, if such it could be called,
+flew from subject to subject with a rapidity that almost
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span>
+took my breath away. The great improvisator dashed
+recklessly into every thing that he thought would be interesting
+to an American traveler, but with the difficulty
+of his utterance in English, and the absence of any knowledge
+on his part of my name or history, it was evident
+he was a little embarrassed in what way to oblige me
+most; and the trouble on my side was, that I was too
+busy listening to find time for talking.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dear! dear! And you are going to Iceland!&rdquo; he
+continued. &ldquo;A long way from California! I would like
+to visit America, but it is very dangerous to travel by
+sea. A vessel was burned up not long since, and many
+of my friends were lost. It was a dreadful affair.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>From this he diverged to a trip he then had in contemplation
+through Switzerland and Spain. He was sitting
+for his statuette, which he desired to leave as a memento
+to his friends prior to his departure. A young
+Danish sculptor was making it. Would I like to see it?
+and forthwith I was introduced to the young Danish
+sculptor. The likeness was very good, and my comments
+upon it elicited many additional thanks and several
+squeezes of the hand&mdash;it was so kind of me to be
+pleased with it! &ldquo;He is a young student,&rdquo; said Andersen,
+approvingly; &ldquo;a very good young man. I want to
+encourage him. He will be a great artist some day or
+other.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Talking of likenesses reminded me of a photograph
+which I had purchased a few days before, and to which
+I now asked the addition of an autograph.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 351px; padding-bottom: 1em;">
+<a name="hans_christian_andersen" id="hans_christian_andersen"></a>
+<img src="images/thor058.png" width="351" height="600"
+alt="A pen portrait of Hans Christian Andersen, with his signature underneath" />
+</div>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, you have a libel on me here!&rdquo; cried the poet,
+laughing joyously&mdash;&ldquo;a very bad likeness. Wait! I have
+several much better; here they are&mdash;&rdquo; And he rushed
+into the next room, tumbled over a lot of papers, and
+ransacked a number of drawers till he found the desired
+package&mdash;&ldquo;here&rsquo;s a dozen of them; take your choice;
+help yourself&mdash;as many as you please!&rdquo; While looking
+over the collection, I said the likeness of one who had
+done so much to promote the happiness of some little
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span>
+friends I had at home would be valued beyond measure;
+that I knew at least half a dozen youngsters who were
+as well acquainted with the &ldquo;Little Match Girl,&rdquo; and the
+&ldquo;Ugly Duck,&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Poor Idiot Boy,&rdquo; as he was himself,
+and his name was as familiar in California as it was
+in Denmark. At this he grasped both my hands, and
+looking straight in my face with a kind of ecstatic expression,
+said, &ldquo;Oh, is it possible? Do they really read
+my books in California? so far away! Oh! I thank you
+very much. Some of my stories, I am aware, have been
+published in New York, but I did not think they had
+found their way to the Pacific Coast. Dear me! Thank
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span>
+you! thank you! Have you seen my last&mdash;the&mdash;what
+do you call it in English?&mdash;a little animal&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mouse,&rdquo; I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, not a mouse; a little animal with wings.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, a bat!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, nay, a little animal with wings and many legs.
+Dear me! I forget the name in English, but you certainly
+know it in America&mdash;a very small animal!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In vain I tried to make a selection from all the little
+animals of my acquaintance with wings and many legs.
+The case was getting both embarrassing and vexatious.
+At length a light broke upon me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A musquito!&rdquo; I exclaimed, triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, nay!&rdquo; cried the bothered poet; &ldquo;a little animal
+with a hard skin on its back. Dear me, I can&rsquo;t remember
+the name!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, I have it now,&rdquo; said I, really desirous of relieving
+his mind&mdash;&ldquo;a flea!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 116px;">
+<img src="images/thor059.png" width="116" height="150"
+alt="Andersen&#39;s creature" />
+</div>
+
+<p>At this the great improvisator scratched his head,
+looked at the ceiling and then at the
+floor, after which he took several rapid
+strides up and down the room, and
+struck himself repeatedly on the forehead.
+Suddenly grasping up a pen,
+he exclaimed, somewhat energetically,
+&ldquo;Here! I&rsquo;ll draw it for you;&rdquo; and
+forthwith he drew on a scrap of paper
+a diagram, of which the accompanying
+engraving is a fac-simile.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A tumble-bug!&rdquo; I shouted, astonished at my former
+stupidity.</p>
+
+<p>The poet looked puzzled and distressed. Evidently I
+had not yet succeeded. What could it be?</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A beetle!&rdquo; I next ventured to suggest, rather disappointed
+at the result of my previous guess.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A beetle! A beetle!&mdash;that&rsquo;s it; now I remember&mdash;a
+beetle!&rdquo; and the delighted author of &ldquo;The Beetle&rdquo;
+patted me approvingly on the back, and chuckled
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span>
+gleefully at his own adroit method of explanation. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll
+give you &lsquo;The Beetle,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;you shall have the
+only copy in my possession. But you don&rsquo;t read Danish!
+What are we to do? There is a partial translation in
+French&mdash;a mere notice.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No matter,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;A specimen of the Danish
+language will be very acceptable, and the book will
+be a pleasant souvenir of my visit.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He then darted into the next room, tumbled over a
+dozen piles of books, then out again, ransacked the desks,
+and drawers, and heaps of old papers and rubbish, talking
+all the time in his joyous, cheery way about his books
+and his travels in Jutland, and his visit to Charles Dickens,
+and his intended journey through Spain, and his delight
+at meeting a traveler all the way from California,
+and whatever else came into his head&mdash;all in such mixed-up
+broken English that the meaning must have been utterly
+lost but for the wonderful expressiveness of his face
+and the striking oddity of his motions. It came to me
+mesmerically. He seemed like one who glowed all over
+with bright and happy thoughts, which permeated all
+around him with a new intelligence. His presence shed
+a light upon others like the rays that beamed from the
+eyes of &ldquo;Little Sunshine.&rdquo; The book was found at last,
+and when he had written his name in it, with a friendly
+inscription, and pressed both my hands on the gift, and
+patted me once more on the shoulder, and promised to
+call at Frankfort on his return from Switzerland to see
+his little friends who knew all about the &ldquo;Ugly Duck&rdquo;
+and the &ldquo;Little Match Girl,&rdquo; I took my leave, more delighted,
+if possible, with the author than I had ever before
+been with his books. Such a man, the brightest,
+happiest, simplest, most genial of human beings, is Hans
+Christian Andersen.</p>
+
+<p>The steamer <i>Arcturus</i> was advertised to sail for Reykjavik
+on the 4th of June, so it behooved me to be laying
+in some sort of an outfit for the voyage during the few
+days that intervened. A knapsack, containing a change
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span>
+of linen and my sketching materials, was all I possessed.
+This would have been sufficient but for the probability
+of rain and cold weather. I wanted a sailor&rsquo;s monkey-jacket
+and an overall. My friend Captain S&ouml;dring would
+not hear of my buying any thing in that way. He had
+enough on hand from his old whaling voyages, he said,
+to fit out a dozen men of my pattern. Just come up to
+the house and take a look at them, and if there wasn&rsquo;t
+too much oil on them, I was welcome to the whole lot;
+but the oil, he thought, would be an advantage&mdash;it would
+keep out the water. In vain I protested&mdash;it was no use&mdash;the
+captain was an old whaler, and so was I, and when
+two old whalers met, it was a pity if they couldn&rsquo;t act
+like shipmates on the voyage of life. There was no resisting
+this appeal, so I agreed to accept the old clothes.
+When we arrived at the captain&rsquo;s house he disappeared
+in the garret, but presently returned bearing a terrific
+pile of rubbish on his shoulders, and accompanied by a
+stout servant-girl also heavily laden with marine curiosities.
+There were sou&rsquo;westers, and tarpaulins, and skull-caps;
+frieze jackets, and overalls, and hickory shirts; tarpaulin
+coats, and heavy sea-boots, and duck blouses with
+old bunches of oakum sticking out of the pockets; there
+were coils of rope-yarn well tarred, and jack-knives in
+leather cases, still black with whale-gurry: and a few
+telescopes and log-glasses. &ldquo;Take &rsquo;em all,&rdquo; said the captain.
+&ldquo;They smell a little fishy, but no matter. It&rsquo;s all
+the better for a voyage to Iceland. You&rsquo;ll be used to
+the smell before you get to Reykjavik; and it&rsquo;s wholesome&mdash;very
+wholesome! Nothing makes a man so fat.&rdquo;
+I made a small selection&mdash;a rough jacket and a few other
+essential articles. &ldquo;Nonsense, man!&rdquo; roared the captain,
+&ldquo;take &rsquo;em all! You&rsquo;ll find them useful; and if you
+don&rsquo;t, you can heave them overboard or give them to the
+sailors.&rdquo; And thus was I fitted out for the voyage.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>VOYAGE TO SCOTLAND.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The <i>Arcturus</i> is a small screw steamer owned by
+Messrs. Koch and Henderson, and now some six years
+on the route between Copenhagen and Reykjavik. The
+Danish government pays them an annual sum for carrying
+the mails, and they control a considerable trade in
+fish and wool. This vessel makes six trips every year,
+touching at a port in Scotland both on the outer and return
+voyage. At first she made Leith her stopping-place;
+but, owing to superior facilities for her business
+at Grangemouth, she now stops at that port. The cost
+of passage is extremely moderate&mdash;only 45 Danish dollars,
+about $28 American, living on board 75 cents a day,
+and a small fee to the steward, making for the voyage
+out or back, which usually occupies about eleven days,
+inclusive of stoppages, something less than $40. I mention
+this for the benefit of my friends at home, who may
+think proper to make a very interesting trip at a very
+small expense; though, as will hereafter appear, the most
+considerable part of the expenditure occurs in Iceland.
+Captain Andersen (they are all Andersens, or Jonasens,
+or Hansens, or Petersens in Denmark), a very active and
+obliging little Dane, commands the <i>Arcturus</i>. He speaks
+English fluently, and is an experienced seaman; and if
+the tourist is not unusually fastidious about accommodations,
+there will be no difficulty in making an agreeable
+voyage. I found every thing on board excellent; the
+fare abundant and wholesome, and the sleeping-quarters
+not more like coffins than they usually are on board small
+steamers. A few inches cut off the passengers&rsquo; legs or
+added to the length of the berths, and a few extra handspikes
+in the lee scuppers to steady the vessel, would be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span>
+an improvement; but then one can&rsquo;t have every thing to
+suit him. Some grumbling took place, to be sure, after
+our departure from Scotland. A young Scotchman wanted
+a berth for a big dog in the same cabin with the rest
+of his friends, which the captain would not permit; an
+Englishman was disgusted with the &ldquo;beastly fare;&rdquo; and
+an old Danish merchant would persist in shaving himself
+at the public table every day&mdash;all of which caused an
+under-current of dissatisfaction during the early part of
+the voyage. Sea-sickness, however, put an end to it before
+long, and things went on all right after that.</p>
+
+<p>But I must not anticipate my narrative. The scene
+upon leaving the wharf at Copenhagen was amusing and
+characteristic. For some hours before our departure the
+decks were crowded with the friends of the passengers.
+Every person had to kiss and hug every other person,
+and shake hands, and laugh and cry a little, and then hug
+and kiss again, without regard to age and not much distinction
+of sex. Some natural tears, of course, must always
+be shed on occasions of this kind. It was rather
+a melancholy reflection, as I stood aloof looking on at all
+these demonstrations of affection, that there was nobody
+present to grieve over my departure&mdash;not even a lapdog
+to bestow upon me a parting kiss. Waving of handkerchiefs,
+messages to friends in Iceland, and parting
+benedictions, took place long before we left the wharf.
+At length the last bells were rung, the lingering loved
+ones were handed ashore, and the inexorable voice of
+the captain was heard ordering the sailors to cast loose
+the ropes. We were fairly off for Iceland!</p>
+
+<p>In a few hours we passed, near Elsineur, the fine old
+Castle of Kronberg, built in the time of Tycho Brahe,
+once the prison of the unfortunate Caroline Matilda, queen
+of Christian VII., and in the great vaults of which it is
+said the Danish Roland, Holger Dansk, still lives, his long
+white beard grown fast to a stone table. We were soon
+out of the Sound, plowing our way toward the famous
+Skager-Rack. The weather had been showery and threatening
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span>
+for some time. It now began to rain and blow in
+good earnest.</p>
+
+<p>We had on board only thirteen passengers, chiefly
+Danes and Icelanders. Among them was a newly-appointed
+amtman for the district of Reykjaness, with a
+very accomplished young wife. He was going to spend
+the honey-moon amid the glaciers and lava-fjelds of Iceland.
+It seemed a dreary prospect for so young and
+tender a bride, but she was cheerful and happy, except
+when the inevitable hour of sea-sickness came. Love, I
+suppose, can make the wilderness blossom as the rose,
+and shed a warmth over ice-covered mountains and a
+pleasant verdure over deserts of lava. A very agreeable
+and intelligent young man, Mr. Jonasen, son of the governor,
+was also on board. I saw but little of him during
+the passage&mdash;only his head over the side of his berth;
+but I heard from him frequently after the weather became
+rough. If there was any inside left in that young
+man by the time we arrived at Reykjavik, it must have
+been badly strained. As a son of Iona he completely
+reversed the scriptural order of things; for, instead of
+being swallowed by a great fish, and remaining in the
+belly thereof three days and nights, he swallowed numerous
+sprats and sardines himself, yet would never allow
+them internal accommodations for the space of three
+minutes. My room-mate was a young Icelandic student,
+who had been to the college at Copenhagen, and was
+now returning to his native land to die. There was
+something very sad in his case. He had left home a few
+years before with the brightest prospects of success.
+Ambitious and talented, he had devoted himself with unwearied
+assiduity to his studies, but the activity of his
+mind was too much for a naturally feeble constitution.
+Consumption set its seal upon him. Given up by the
+physicians in Copenhagen, he was returning to breathe
+his last in the arms of a loving mother.</p>
+
+<p>On the second morning after leaving the Sound we
+passed close along the Downs of Jutland, a barren shore,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>
+singularly diversified by great mounds of sand. The
+wind sweeping in from the ocean casts up the loose sands
+that lie upon this low peninsula, and drifts them against
+some bush or other obstacle sufficiently firm to form a
+nucleus. In the course of a few years, by constant accumulations,
+this becomes a vast mound, sometimes over a
+hundred feet high. Nearly the whole of Northern Jutland
+is diversified with sand-plains, heaths, and ever-changing
+mounds, among which wandering bands of gipsies
+still roam. The shores along the Skagen are surrounded
+by dangerous reefs of quicksand, stretching for
+many miles out into the ocean. Navigation at this point
+is very difficult, especially in the winter, when terrific
+gales prevail from the northwest. The numerous
+stakes, buoys, and other water-marks by which the channel
+is designated, the frequency of light-houses and signal
+telegraphs, and the wrecks that lie strewn along the
+beach, over which the surging foam breaks like a perpetual
+dirge, afford striking indication of the dangers to
+which mariners are subject in this wild region. Hans
+Christian Andersen, in one of his most delightful works,
+has thrown a romantic interest over the scenery of Jutland,
+giving a charm to its very desolation, and investing
+with all the beauty of a genial humanity the rude lives
+of the gipsies and fishermen who inhabit this wild region
+of drifting sands and wintry tempests. Steen Blicher
+has also cast over it the spell of his poetic genius; and
+Von Buch, in his graphic narrative, has given a memorable
+interest to its sea-girt shores, where &ldquo;masts and skeletons
+of vessels stand like a range of palisades.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>During our passage through the Skager-Rack we passed
+innumerable fleets of fishing-smacks, and often encountered
+the diminutive skiffs of the fishermen, with
+two or three amphibious occupants, buffeting about
+among the waves many miles from the shore. The weather
+had been steadily growing worse ever since our departure
+from Copenhagen. As we entered the North
+Sea it began to blow fiercer than ever, and for two days
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span>
+we experienced all the discomforts of chopping seas that
+drenched our decks fore and aft, and chilling gales mingled
+with fogs and heavy rains. It was cold enough for
+midwinter, yet here we were on the verge of midsummer.
+Our little craft was rendered somewhat unmanageable
+by a deck-load of coal and a heavy cargo of
+freight, and there were periods when I would have
+thought myself fortunate in being once more off Cape
+Horn in the good ship <i>Pacific</i>. The amtman and his
+young bride spent this portion of their honey-moon performing
+a kind of duet that reminded me of my friend
+Ross Wallace&rsquo;s lines in &ldquo;Perdita:&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Like two sweet tunes that wandering met,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And so harmoniously they run,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The hearer deems they are but one.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>At least the harmony was perfect, whatever might be
+thought of the music in other respects. Young Jonasen
+swallowed a few more sardines about this period of the
+voyage, which he vainly attempted to secure by sudden
+and violent contractions of the diaphragm. In short,
+there were but two persons in the cabin besides Captain
+Andersen and myself who had the temerity to appear at
+table&mdash;one an old Danish merchant, who generally received
+advices, midway through the meal, requiring his
+immediate presence on deck; and the other a gentleman
+from Holstein, who always lost his appetite after the
+soup, and had to jump up and run to his state-room for
+exercise.</p>
+
+<p>In due time we sighted the shores of Scotland. A
+pilot came on board inside the Frith of Forth, and, as
+we steamed rapidly on our course, all the passengers forgot
+their afflictions, and gazed with delight on the sloping
+sward and woodland, the picturesque villages, and
+romantic old castles that decorate the shores of this magnificent
+sheet of water.</p>
+
+<p>Our destination was Grangemouth, where we arrived
+early on Sunday morning. A few sailors belonging to
+some vessels in the docks, a custom-house inspector, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span>
+three small boys, comprised the entire visible population
+of the place. Judging by the manner in which the Sabbath
+is kept in Scotland, the Scotch must be a profoundly
+moral people. The towns are like grave-yards, and
+the inhabitants bear a striking resemblance to sextons,
+or men who spend much of their lives in burying the
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>I was very anxious to get a newspaper containing the
+latest intelligence from America, but was informed that
+none could be had on Sunday. I wanted to go up to
+Edinburg: it was not possible on Sunday. I asked a
+man where could I get some cigars? he didna ken; it
+was Sunday. The depressed expression of the few people
+I met began to prey like a nightmare on my spirits.
+Doubtless it is a very good thing to pay a decent regard
+to the Sabbath, but can any body tell me where we are
+commanded to look gloomy? The contrast was certainly
+very striking between the Scotch and the Danes. Of
+course there is no such thing as drunkenness in Scotland,
+no assaults and batteries, no robberies and murders, no
+divorces, no cheating among the merchants of Glasgow
+or the bankers of Edinburg, no sympathizing with rebellion
+and the institution of slavery&mdash;for the Scotch are a
+sober and righteous people, much given to sackcloth and
+ashes, manufactures of iron, and societies for the insurance
+of property against fire.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arcturus</i> was detained several days discharging
+and taking in freight. I availed myself of the first train
+to visit Edinburg. A day there, and an excursion to
+Glasgow and Loch Lomond, agreeably occupied the time.
+I must confess the scenery&mdash;beautiful as it is, and fraught
+with all the interest that history and genius can throw
+over it&mdash;disappointed me. It was not what I expected.
+It was a damp, moist, uncomfortable reality, as Mantalini
+would say&mdash;not very grand or striking in any respect.
+A subsequent excursion to the Trosachs, Loch Katrine,
+Loch Long, and the Clyde, afforded me a better opportunity
+of judging, yet it all seemed tame and commonplace
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span>
+compared with the scenery of California and Norway.
+If I enjoyed a fair specimen of the climate&mdash;rain,
+wind, and fog, varied by sickly gleams of sunshine&mdash;it
+strikes me it would be a congenial country for snails and
+frogs to reside in. The Highlands are like all other wild
+places within the limits of Europe, very gentle in their
+wildness compared with the rugged slopes of the Sierra
+Nevada. The Lady of the Lake must have possessed an
+uncommonly strong constitution, if she made her nocturnal
+excursions on Loch Katrine in a thin white robe without
+suffering any bad consequences, for I found a stout
+overcoat insufficient to keep the chilling mists of that region
+from seeking in my bones a suitable location for
+rheumatism.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE JOLLY BLOODS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I was quietly sitting in my state-room, awaiting the
+departure of the steamer, when a tremendous racket on
+the cabin steps, followed by a rush of feet up and down
+the saloon, startled me out of a pleasant home-dream.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hello! What the devil! I say! Where&rsquo;s every
+body! Stoord! Blast the fellow! Here, Bowser!
+What&rsquo;r ye abeaout! Ho there! Where the dooce are
+our berths? By Jove! Ha! ha! This is jolly!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Other voices joined in, with a general chorus of complaints
+and exclamations&mdash;&ldquo;Egad! it&rsquo;s a <em>do</em>! No berths,
+no state-rooms! Ho, Stoord! Where&rsquo;s my trunk? I
+say, Stoord, where&rsquo;s my fishing-rod? Hey! hey! did
+you &rsquo;appen to see my overalls? I&rsquo;ve lost my gun! &rsquo;Pon
+my word, this is a pretty do! Let&rsquo;s go see the Agent?&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Come on! Certainly!&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh, hang it, no!&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh
+yes!&rdquo; &ldquo;Here, Bowser! What the devil! Where&rsquo;s
+Bowser? Gone ashore, by Jove! A pretty kettle of
+fish!&rdquo; Here there was a sudden and general stampede,
+and amid loud exclamations of &ldquo;Beastly!&rdquo; and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span>
+&ldquo;Disgusting!&rdquo; the party left the cabin. I barely had time to
+see that it consisted of some four or five fashionable tourists&mdash;spirited
+young bloods of sporting proclivities, who
+had taken passage for Iceland. The prospect of having
+some company was pleasant enough, and from the specimen
+I had seen there could be no doubt it would be lively
+and entertaining.</p>
+
+<p>Once more during the night I was aroused by a repetition
+of the noises and exclamations already described.
+The steamer was moving off. The passengers were all
+on board. We were battering our way through the
+canal. Soon the heaving waters of the ocean began to
+subdue the enthusiasm of the sportsmen, and before morning
+my ears were saluted by sounds and observations of
+a very different character.</p>
+
+<p>I shall only add at present, in reference to this lively
+party of young &ldquo;Britishers,&rdquo; that I found them very good
+fellows in their way&mdash;a little boisterous and inexperienced,
+but well-educated and intelligent. The young
+chap with the dog was what we would call in America
+a &ldquo;regular bird.&rdquo; He and his dog afforded us infinite
+diversion during the whole passage&mdash;racing up and down
+the decks, into and out of the cabin, and all over each
+other. There was something so fresh and sprightly
+about the fellow, something so good-natured, that I could
+readily excuse his roughness of manner. One of the others,
+a quiet, scholastic-looking person, who did not really
+belong to the party, having only met them on board, was
+a young collegian well versed in Icelandic literature.
+He was going to Iceland to perfect himself in the language
+of the country, and make some translations of the
+learned Sagas.</p>
+
+<p>A favorable wind enabled us to sight the Orkneys on
+the afternoon following our departure from the Frith of
+Forth. Next day we passed the Shetlands, of which we
+had a good view. The rocky shores of these islands, all
+rugged and surf-beaten, with myriads of wild-fowl darkening
+the air around them, presented a most tempting
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>
+field of exploration. I longed to take a ramble in the
+footsteps of Dr. Johnson; but to see the Shetlands would
+be to lose Iceland, and of the two I preferred seeing the
+latter. After a pleasant passage of two days and a half
+from Grangemouth we made the Faroe Islands, and had
+the good fortune to secure, without the usual loss of time
+occasioned by fogs, an anchorage in the harbor of Thorshavn.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 301px;">
+<a name="a_dandy_tourist" id="a_dandy_tourist"></a>
+<img src="images/thor060.png" width="301" height="500"
+alt="A fashionable young man leans on the rail of the steamer" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">A DANDY TOURIST.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="thorshavn" id="thorshavn"></a>
+<img src="images/thor061.png" width="600" height="338"
+alt="The harbor and town, surrounded by hills" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THORSHAVN.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI"></a>CHAPTER XLI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FAROE ISLANDS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The Faroe Islands lie about midway between Scotland
+and Iceland, and belong to Denmark. The whole
+group consists of thirty-five small islands, some of which
+are little more than naked rocks jutting up out of the
+sea. About twenty are inhabited. The rest are too barren
+and precipitous to afford a suitable place of abode
+even for the hardy Faroese. The entire population is
+estimated at something over six thousand, of which the
+greater part are shepherds, fishermen, and bird-catchers.
+Owing to the situation of these islands, surrounded by
+the open sea and within the influence of the Gulf Stream,
+the climate is very mild, although they lie in the sixty-second
+degree of north latitude. The winters are never
+severe, and frost and snow rarely last over two months.
+They are subject, however, at that season to frequent and
+terrible gales from the north, and during the summer are
+often inaccessible for days and even weeks, owing to
+dense fogs. The humidity of the climate is favorable to
+the growth of grass, which covers the hills with a brilliant
+coating of green wherever there is the least approach
+to soil; and where there is no soil, as in many
+places along the shores, the rocks are beautifully draped
+with moss and lichens. The highest point in the group
+is 2800 feet above the level of the sea, and the general
+aspect of them all is wild and rugged in the extreme.
+Prodigious cliffs, a thousand feet high, stand like a wall
+out of the sea on the southern side of the Stromoe. The
+Mygenaes-holm, a solitary rock, guards, like a sentinel,
+one of the passages, and forms a terrific precipice of 1500
+feet on one side, against which the waves break with an
+everlasting roar. Here the solan-goose, the eider-duck,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span>
+and innumerable varieties of gulls and other sea-fowl,
+build their nests and breed.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="view_in_faroe_islands" id="view_in_faroe_islands"></a>
+<img src="images/thor062.png" width="600" height="455"
+alt="A sheltered bay with a huge rock outcropping in the center, and two sailing boats" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">VIEW IN FAROE ISLANDS.</p>
+
+<p>At certain seasons of the year the intrepid bird-hunters
+suspend themselves from the cliffs by means of ropes,
+and feather their own nests by robbing the nests of their
+neighbors. Enormous quantities of eggs are taken in
+this way. The eider-down, of which the nests of the
+eider-duck are composed, is one of the most profitable
+articles of Faroese traffic. The mode of life to which
+these men devote themselves, and their habitual contact
+with dangers, render them reckless, and many perish every
+year by falling from the rocks. Widows and orphans
+are numerous throughout the islands.</p>
+
+<p>The few scattering farms to be seen on the slopes of
+the hills and in the arable valleys are conducted on the
+most primitive principles. A small patch of potatoes
+and vegetables, and in certain exposures a few acres of
+grain, comprise the extent of their agricultural operations.
+Sheep-raising is the most profitable of their pursuits.
+The climate appears to be more congenial to the
+growth of wool than of cereal productions. The Faroese
+sheep are noted for the fineness and luxuriance of their
+fleece, and it always commands a high price in market.
+A considerable portion of it is manufactured by the inhabitants,
+who are quite skillful in weaving and knitting.
+They make a kind of thick woolen shirt, something like
+that known as the Guernsey, which for durability and
+warmth is unsurpassed. Sailors and fishermen all over
+the Northern seas consider themselves fortunate if they
+can get possession of a Faroese shirt. The costume of
+the men, which is chiefly home-made, consists of a rough,
+thick jacket of brown wool; a coarse woolen shirt; a
+knitted bag-shaped cap on the head; a pair of knee-breeches
+of the same material as the coat; a pair of thick
+woolen stockings, and sheepskin shoes, generally covered
+with mud&mdash;all of the same brown or rather burnt-umber
+color. Exposure to the weather gives their skins,
+naturally of a leathery texture, something of the same
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span>
+dull and dingy aspect, so that a genuine Faroese enjoys
+one advantage&mdash;he can never look much more dirty at
+one time than another.</p>
+
+<p>The women wear dresses of the same material, without
+much attempt at shape or ornament. A colored
+handkerchief tied around the head, a silver breast-pin,
+and a pair of ear-rings of domestic manufacture, comprise
+their only personal decorations. As in all countries
+where the burden of heavy labor is thrown upon
+the women, they lose their comely looks at an early age,
+and become withered, ill-shaped, and hard-featured long
+before they reach the prime of life. The Faroese women
+doubtless make excellent wives for lazy men; they do all
+the labors of the house, and share largely in those of the
+field. I do not know that they are more prolific than
+good and loving wives in other parts of the world, but
+they certainty enjoy the possession of as many little cotton-heads
+with dirty faces, turned up noses, ragged elbows,
+and tattered frocks, as one usually meets in the
+course of his travels. Two fair specimens of the rising
+generation, a little boy and girl, made an excellent speculation
+on the occasion of my visit to Thorshavn. Knowing
+by instinct, if not by my dress, that I was a stranger,
+they followed me about wherever I rambled, looking curiously
+and cautiously into my face, and mutually commenting
+upon the oddity of my appearance&mdash;which, by-the-way,
+would have been slightly odd even in the streets
+of New York, wrapped, as I was, in the voluminous folds
+of Captain S&ouml;dring&rsquo;s old whaling coat, with a sketch-book
+in my hand and a pair of spectacles on my nose.
+However, no man likes to be regarded as an object of
+curiosity even by two small ragamuffins belonging to a
+strange race, so I just held up suddenly, and requested
+these children of Faroe to state explicitly the grounds
+of their interest in my behalf. What they said in reply
+it would be impossible for me to translate, since the
+Faroese language is quite as impenetrable as the Icelandic.
+They looked so startled and alarmed withal that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span>
+a gleam of pity must have manifested its appearance in
+the corner of my eyes. The next moment their faces
+broke into a broad grin, and each held out a hand audaciously,
+as much as to say, &ldquo;My dear sir, if you&rsquo;ll put a
+small copper in this small hand, we&rsquo;ll retract all injurious
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span>
+criticisms, and ever after regard you as a gentleman of
+extraordinary personal beauty!&rdquo; Somehow my hand
+slipped unconsciously into my pocket, but, before handing
+them the desired change, it occurred to me to secure
+their likenesses for publication as a warning to the children
+of all nations not to undertake a similar experiment
+with any hope of success.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 385px;">
+<a name="faroese_children" id="faroese_children"></a>
+<img src="images/thor063.png" width="385" height="500"
+alt="A young girl and boy" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">FAROESE CHILDREN.</p>
+
+<p>Thorshavn, so named after the old god Thor, is a small
+town of some five or six hundred inhabitants, situated on
+the southeastern side of the island of Stromoe. In front
+lies a harbor, indifferently protected by a small island
+and two rocky points. The anchorage is insecure at all
+times, especially during the prevalence of southerly and
+easterly gales, when it often becomes necessary to heave
+up and put to sea; and the dense fogs by which the approach
+to land is generally obscured render navigation
+about these islands extremely perilous. Of the town of
+Thorshavn little need be said. Its chief interest lies in
+the almost primeval construction of the houses and the
+rustic simplicity of its inhabitants. The few streets that
+run between the straggling lines of sheds and sod-covered
+huts scattered over the rocks are narrow and tortuous,
+winding up steep, stony precipices, and into deep,
+boggy hollows; around rugged points, and over scraggy
+mounds of gravel and grit. The public edifices, consisting
+of two or three small churches and the amtman&rsquo;s
+residence, are little better than martin-boxes. For some
+reason best known to the people in these Northern
+climes, they paint their houses black, except where the
+roofs are covered with sod, which nature paints green.
+I think it must be from some notion that it gives them a
+cheerful aspect, though the darkness of the paint and the
+chilly luxuriance of the green did not strike me with joyous
+impressions. If Scotland can claim some advantages
+as a place of residence for snails, Thorshavn must surely
+be a paradise for toads accustomed to feed upon the
+vapors of a dungeon. The wharves&mdash;loose masses of
+rock at the boat-landing&mdash;are singularly luxuriant in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span>
+article of fish. Prodigious piles of fish lie about in every
+direction. The shambling old store-houses are crammed
+with fish, and the heads of fish and the back-bones of
+fish lie bleaching on the rocks. The gravelly patches of
+beach are slimy with the entrails of fresh fish, and the
+air is foul with the odor of decayed fish. The boatmen
+that lounge about waiting for a job are saturated with
+fish inside and out&mdash;like their boats. The cats, crows,
+and ravens mingle in social harmony over the dreadful
+carnival of fish. In fine, the impression produced upon
+the stranger who lands for the first time is that he has
+accidentally turned up in some piscatorial hell, where the
+tortures of skinning, drying, and disemboweling are performed
+by the unrelenting hands of man.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="faroese_islanders" id="faroese_islanders"></a>
+<img src="images/thor064.png" width="600" height="450"
+alt="An older and younger man in a small shallow boat, the younger fending off from a rock" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">FAROESE ISLANDERS.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the standing population of Thorshavn,
+the fortifications&mdash;an abandoned mud-bank, a flag-staff,
+and a board shanty&mdash;are subject, in times of great public
+peril, to be defended by a standing army and navy of
+twenty-four soldiers, one small boat, one corporal, and
+the governor of the islands, who takes the field himself
+at the head of this bloody phalanx of Danes still reeking
+with the gore of slaughtered fish. Upon the occasion
+of the arrival of the <i>Arcturus</i>&mdash;the only steamer that ever
+touches here&mdash;the principal amtman, upon perceiving
+the vessel in the distance, immediately proceeds to organize
+the army and navy for a grand display. First he
+shaves and puts on his uniform; then calling together
+the troops, who are also sailors, he carefully inspects
+them, and selecting from the number the darkest, dirtiest,
+and most bloody-looking, he causes them to buckle on
+their swords. This done, he delivers a brief address,
+recommending them to abstain from the use of schnapps
+and other intoxicating beverages till the departure of
+the steamer. The dignity of official position requires
+that he should remain on shore for the space of one hour
+after the dropping of the anchor. He then musters his
+forces, marches them down to his war-skiff, from the
+stern of which waves the Danish flag, and, placing an
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span>
+oar in the hands of each man, he gives the order to advance
+and board the steamer. On his arrival alongside
+he touches his cap to the passengers in a grave and dignified
+manner, and expresses a desire to see our commander,
+Captain Andersen, who, during this period of the ceremony,
+is down below, busily occupied in arranging the
+brandy and crackers. The appearance of Captain Andersen
+on deck is politely acknowledged by the amtman,
+who thereupon orders his men to pull alongside, when
+the two cabin-boys and the cook kindly assist him over
+the gangway. Descending into the cabin, he carefully
+examines the ship&rsquo;s papers, pronounces them all right,
+and joins Captain Andersen in a social &ldquo;smile.&rdquo; Then,
+having delivered himself of the latest intelligence on the
+subject of wool and codfish, he returns to his boat and
+proceeds to his quarters on shore. All this is done with
+a quiet and dignified formality both pleasing and impressive.</p>
+
+<p>As an illustration of the severity of the laws that govern
+the Faroe Islands, and the upright and inexorable
+character of the governor and principal amtman, I must
+relate an incident that occurred under my own observation.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the <i>Arcturus</i> had cast anchor, the party
+of British sportsmen already mentioned went ashore
+with their dogs and guns, and began an indiscriminate
+slaughter of all the game within two miles of Thorshavn,
+consisting of three plovers, a snipe, and some half a dozen
+sparrows. The captain had warned them that such
+a proceeding was contrary to law, and a citizen of Thorshavn
+had gently remonstrated with them as they passed
+through the town. When the slaughter commenced, the
+proprietors of the bog, in which the game abounded,
+rushed to the doors of their cabins to see what was
+going on, and perceiving that it was a party of Englishmen
+engaged in the destructive pastime of firing shotguns
+about and among the flocks of sheep that browsed
+on the premises, they straightway laid a complaint before
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span>
+the governor. The independent sons of Britain were
+not to be baffled of their sport in this manner. They
+cracked away as long as they pleased, by-Joved and
+blawsted the island for not having more game, and then
+came aboard. The steamer hove up anchor and sailed
+that night. Nothing farther took place to admonish us
+of the consequences of the trespass till our return from
+Iceland, when the principal amtman came on board with
+a formidable placard, neatly written, and translated into
+the three court languages of the place&mdash;Danish, French,
+and English. The contents of this document were as
+follows: that whereas, in the year 1763, a law had been
+passed for the protection of game on the Faroe Islands,
+which law had not since been rescinded; and whereas
+a subsequent law of 1786 had been passed for the protection
+of sheep and other stock ranging at large on the
+said islands, which law had not since been rescinded;
+and whereas it had been represented to the governor of
+the said islands that certain persons, supposed to be
+Englishmen, had lately come on shore, armed with shotguns,
+and, in violation of the said laws of the country,
+had shot at, maimed, and killed several birds, and caused
+serious apprehensions of injury to the flocks of sheep
+which were peaceably grazing on their respective ranges;
+now, therefore, this was earnestly to request that all such
+persons would reflect upon the penalties that would attach
+to similar acts in their own country, and be thus
+enabled to perceive the impropriety of pursuing such a
+course in other countries. Should they fail to observe
+the aforesaid laws after this warning, they would only
+have themselves to blame for the unpleasant consequences
+that must assuredly ensue, etc., etc. [Officially signed
+and sealed.]</p>
+
+<p>Great formality was observed in carrying this important
+document on board. It was neatly folded and carefully
+done up, with various seals and blue ribbons, in a
+package about six inches wide by eighteen in length, and
+was guarded by the select half of the Faroese army and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span>
+navy, being exactly twelve men, and delivered by the
+amtman of the island with a few appropriate and impressive
+remarks, after which it was hung up over the cabin
+gangway by the captain as a solemn warning to all future
+passengers. There can be no doubt that it produced
+the most salutary effects upon the sporting gentlemen.
+I was really glad the affair had taken place, as it
+evidently afforded his excellency a favorable opportunity
+of promulgating a most excellent state paper, cautiously
+conceived and judiciously worded. The preparation
+of it must have occupied his time advantageously to himself
+and his country during the entire period of our absence.</p>
+
+<p>I must now turn back a little to say that, while my
+comrades were engaged in their unlawful work of killing
+the sparrows and frightening the sheep, I deemed it a
+matter of personal safety to keep out of range of their
+guns. Apart from the danger of arrest, the probable
+loss of an eye or disfigurement of some ornamental feature
+was a sufficient consideration to satisfy me of the
+policy of this course.</p>
+
+<p>Taking a path across the rugged desert of rocks and
+bogs, extending for some miles back of Thorshavn, I
+quickly began to ascend a barren range of hills, abounding
+in greenstone trap-rock and zoolites, from the summit
+of which there is a magnificent view of the whole
+surrounding country, with glimpses of the cloud-capped
+summits of the neighboring islands. Beautiful little valleys,
+dotted with the sod-covered huts of the shepherds
+and fishermen, sweep down to the water&rsquo;s edge a thousand
+feet below; weird black bogs, and fields of scoria
+and burned earth, lie on the slopes of the distant hills to
+the right; and to the left are rugged cliffs, jutting out
+of the sea like huge castles, around which myriads of
+birds continually hover, piercing the air with their wild
+screams. The wind blew in such fierce gusts over the
+bleak and desolate range of crags on which I stood that
+I was glad enough to seek shelter down on the leeside.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span>
+It now occurred to me to go in search of a ruined
+church of which I had read in some traveler&rsquo;s journal
+said to be within four or five miles of Thorshavn. Some
+artificial piles of stones, near the ledge upon which I had
+descended, indicated the existence of a trail. On my
+way down, a legion of birds, about the size of puffins, began
+to gather around, with fierce cries and warning motions,
+as if determined to dispute my progress. They
+flew backward and forward within a few feet of my head,
+flapping their wings furiously, and uttering the most terrific
+cries of rage and alarm, so that I was sorely puzzled
+to know what was the matter. It was not long before
+I came upon some of their nests, which of course explained
+the difficulty. Having no immediate use for eggs
+or feathers, I left the nests unmolested and proceeded on
+my way. In about an hour I came suddenly upon a small
+green valley that lay some five hundred feet below, directly
+on the water&rsquo;s edge. By some mischance I had
+lost the trail, and, in order to descend, was obliged to
+slide and scramble down the cliffs&mdash;an experiment that
+I presently discovered would probably cost me a broken
+neck if persisted in; for when there seemed to be no farther
+obstruction, I came all at once upon a precipice at
+least sixty feet deep, without a single foothold or other
+means of descent than a clear jump to the bottom. Not
+disposed to follow the example of Sam Patch on dry land,
+I reluctantly turned back. By dint of scrambling and
+climbing, and slipping down various cliffs and slopes, I
+at length reached a point from which I had a view of
+some ruins and farm-houses still some distance below.
+Following the line of the regular trail till it struck into
+the cliffs, I had no farther difficulty in reaching the valley.</p>
+
+<p>The good people at the farm-house&mdash;a family by the
+name of Petersen&mdash;received me in the kindest manner,
+with many expressions of wonder at the risk I had run
+in crossing the mountain without a guide. It was with
+considerable difficulty we made ourselves understood.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span>
+None of the family spoke any language except their own.
+The son, indeed, a fine young man of twenty, understood
+a few words of English, but that was all. There is
+something, nevertheless, in genuine kindness and hospitality
+that makes itself intelligible without the aid of
+language. I was immediately invited into the house,
+and while young Petersen entertained me with old prints
+and Faroese books, his mother prepared an excellent
+lunch. Tired and worried after my trip, I could offer
+no objection. Never shall I forget the coffee and cream,
+and the butter and bread, and delicate fruit-tarts placed
+on the nice white table-cloth by the good Mrs. Petersen.
+I ate and drank, and glowed all over with a childlike
+relish of the good things, while the whole family gathered
+round and tried to make me understand that they
+had a relative in California, who lived in the mines at a
+place called Six-mile-bar, and that they were glad to see
+a Californian, and wanted to know all about California.
+It is wonderful with how few words we can communicate
+our ideas when necessity compels us to depend
+upon our ingenuity. Before I had parted from that
+family the whole matter was perfectly explained; the
+history of their absent relative was quite clear to me, and
+they had a very fair conception of the kind of country
+in which he lived. Upon no consideration would they
+receive compensation for the lunch, and they even seemed
+offended when I endeavored to press it upon them.
+This, from people whom I had never seen before&mdash;a plain
+country family living in a wilderness where such luxuries
+as sugar and coffee could only be had at considerable
+expense&mdash;was absolutely refreshing. For the first
+time since my arrival in Europe, after having traversed
+the whole Continent, I had encountered a specimen of
+the human race capable of refusing money. Subsequently
+I learned that this was the common practice in the
+Faroe Islands. The poorest shepherd freely offers to
+the stranger the hospitality of his hut; and it is a creed
+among these worthy people not to accept pay for coffee
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span>
+and bread, or indeed any thing else they may have to
+offer in the way of entertainment. My fellow-passengers
+were similarly treated in Thorshavn, where visitors are
+more frequent and the customs of the country less primitive.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="kirk_goboe" id="kirk_goboe"></a>
+<img src="images/thor065.png" width="600" height="453"
+alt="A white-painted church with a small steeple-topped tower at one end" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">KIRK G&Ouml;BOE.</p>
+
+<p>The great object of interest at Kirk G&ouml;boe is the ancient
+church, from which the place derives its name; a
+long, low stone building, whitewashed and covered with
+a sod roof, but, owing to repeated repairs, now presenting
+no particular traces of antiquity, although reported
+to have been built in the eighth century. I have no
+data in reference to this interesting relic, and am not
+aware that antiquarians have ever attempted to trace
+out its origin. The probability is that it was built by
+some of those Culdee anchorites of whom Dasent speaks
+as the first settlers of Iceland.</p>
+
+<p>The interior of the church contains an altar, and some
+wooden carvings on the head-boards of the pews, evidently
+of great antiquity. It is impossible to conjecture
+from their appearance whether they are five hundred or
+a thousand years old&mdash;at least without more research
+than a casual tourist can bestow upon them.</p>
+
+<p>There is also within a few steps of the farm-house a
+much larger and more picturesque ruin of a church, built
+in a later style of architecture. The only information I
+could get about this ruin was that it dates back as far
+as the fifteenth century. The walls are of rough stone
+well put together, and now stand roofless and moss-covered,
+inhabited only by crows and swallows. The doors
+and windows are in the Gothic style. A sketch made
+from the door of the old church first mentioned, embracing
+the residence of the Petersen family, with a glimpse
+of the cliffs and rugged ledges behind upon which their
+flocks graze, will give the best idea of the whole premises.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="farm_house_and_ruins" id="farm_house_and_ruins"></a>
+<img src="images/thor066.png" width="600" height="447"
+alt="A wooden farm-house built next to the stone ruins of a much larger building" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">FARM-HOUSE AND RUINS.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus pleasantly occupied a few hours at Kirk
+G&ouml;boe, I bade adieu to the worthy family who had so
+hospitably entertained me, and was about to set out for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span>
+Thorshavn, when young Petersen, not content with the
+directions he had given me, announced his intention of
+seeing me safe over the mountain. In vain I assured him
+that, however pleasant his company would be, I had no
+apprehension of losing the way this time. Go he would,
+and go he did; and when we parted on the top of the
+mountain, in plain sight of Thorshavn, he cordially shook
+me by the hand, and said many kind words, which I could
+only interpret to mean that he and all his kith and kin
+wished me a pleasant voyage to Iceland, and many years
+of health and happiness.</p>
+
+<p>When I now recall the fine, intelligent face of this
+young man, his bright dark eyes, healthy complexion,
+and strong, well-knit frame, the latent energy in all his
+movements, the genial simplicity of his manners, and his
+evident thirst for knowledge, I can not help feeling something
+akin to regret that so much good material should
+be wasted in the obscurity of a shepherd&rsquo;s life. So gifted
+by nature, what might not such a youth achieve in an
+appropriate sphere of action? And yet, perhaps, it is
+better for him that he should spend his life among the
+barren cliffs of Stromoe, with no more companions than
+his dog and his sheep, than jostle among men in the
+great outer world, to learn at last the bitter lesson that
+the eye is not satisfied with riches, nor the understanding
+with knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>On the way down to the Valley of Thorshavn I met a
+man mounted on a shaggy little monster, which in almost
+any other country would have been mistaken for a species
+of sheep. As this was a fair specimen of a Faroese horse
+and his rider, I sat down on a rock after they had passed
+and took the best view of them I could get.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon the scattered passengers were
+gathered together, and the good people of Thorshavn
+came down to the wharf to bid us farewell. In half an
+hour more we were all on board. &ldquo;Up anchor!&rdquo; was
+the order, and once more we went steaming on our way.</p>
+
+<p>Short as our sojourn had been among these primitive
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span>
+people, it furnished us with many pleasant reminiscences.
+Their genial hospitality and simple good-nature, together
+with their utter ignorance of the outer world, formed the
+theme of various amusing anecdotes during the remainder
+of the passage. Favored by a southerly wind and a
+stock of good coal, we made the southeastern point of
+Iceland in a little over two days from Thorshavn.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 405px;">
+<a name="faroese_on_horseback" id="faroese_on_horseback"></a>
+<img src="images/thor067.png" width="405" height="500"
+alt="A man, his feet nearly touching the floor, riding a very small pony" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">FAROESE ON HORSEBACK.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id="CHAPTER_XLII"></a>CHAPTER XLII.</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ICELAND.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It would be difficult to conceive any thing more impressive
+than this first view of the land of snow and fire.
+A low stretch of black boggy coast to the right; dark
+cliffs of lava in front; far in the background, range after
+range of bleak, snow-capped mountains, the fiery Jokuls
+dimly visible through drifting masses of fog; to the left
+a broken wall of red, black, and blue rocks, weird and
+surf-beaten, stretching as far as the eye could reach&mdash;this
+was Iceland! All along the grim rifted coast the
+dread marks of fire, and flood, and desolation were visible.
+Detached masses of lava, gnarled and scraggy like
+huge clinkers, seemed tossed out into the sea; towers,
+buttresses, and battlements, shaped by the very elements
+of destruction, reared their stern crests against the waves;
+glaciers lay glittering upon the blackened slopes behind;
+and foaming torrents of snow-water burst through the
+rifted crags in front, and mingled their rage with the
+wild rage of the surf&mdash;all was battle, and ruin, and desolation.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached the point called Portland, a colossal
+bridge opened into view, so symmetrical in its outline
+that it was difficult to believe it was not of artificial construction.
+The arch is about fifty feet high by thirty in
+width, and affords shelter to innumerable flocks of birds,
+whose nests are built in the crevices underneath. Solan-geese,
+eider-ducks, and sea-gulls cover the dizzy heights
+overhead, and whales have been known to pass through
+the passage below. Great numbers of blackfish and porpoises
+abound in this vicinity. From time to time, as
+we swept along on our way, we could discern a lonesome
+hut high up on the shore, with a few sheep and cattle
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span>
+on the slopes of the adjacent hills, but for the most
+part the coast was barren and desolate.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="natural_bridge" id="natural_bridge"></a>
+<img src="images/thor068.png" width="600" height="307"
+alt="A natural stone arch formed by erosion from the sea" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">NATURAL BRIDGE.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the following morning the sun-capped peaks
+of Mount Hecla were visible. There has been no eruption
+from this mountain since 1845. The principal crater
+lies 5210 feet above the level of the sea, and is distant
+fifteen miles from the shore.</p>
+
+<p>Toward noon we made the Westmann Isles, a small
+rocky group some ten miles distant from the main island.
+A fishing and trading establishment, owned by a company
+of Danes, is located on one of these islands. The
+<i>Arcturus</i> touches twice a year to deliver and receive a
+mail. On the occasion of our visit, a boat came out with
+a hardy-looking crew of Danes to receive the mail-bag.
+It was doubtless a matter of great rejoicing to them to
+obtain news from home. I had barely time to make a
+rough outline of the islands as we lay off the settlement.</p>
+
+<p>The chief interest attached to the Westmann group is,
+that it is supposed to have been visited by Columbus in
+1477, fifteen years prior to his voyage of discovery to
+the shores of America. It is now generally conceded
+that the Icelanders were the original discoverers of the
+American continent. Recent antiquarian researches tend
+to establish the fact that they had advanced as far to the
+southward as Massachusetts in the tenth century. They
+held colonies on the coasts of Greenland and Labrador,
+and must have had frequent intercourse with the Indians
+farther south. Columbus in all probability obtained
+some valuable data from these hardy adventurers. The
+date of his visit to Iceland is well authenticated by Beamish,
+Rafn, and other eminent writers on the early discoveries
+of the Northmen.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="coast_of_iceland" id="coast_of_iceland"></a>
+<img src="images/thor069.png" width="600" height="448"
+alt="Strangely shaped rocks protrude from turbulent waves" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">COAST OF ICELAND.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could surpass the desolate grandeur of the
+coast as we approached the point of Reykjaness. It was
+of an almost infernal blackness. The whole country
+seemed uptorn, rifted, shattered, and scattered about in
+a vast chaos of ruin. Huge cliffs of lava split down to
+their bases toppled over the surf. Rocks of every
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span>
+conceivable shape, scorched and blasted with fire, wrested
+from the main and hurled into the sea, battled with the
+waves, their black scraggy points piercing the mist like
+giant hands upthrown to smite or sink in a fierce death-struggle.
+The wild havoc wrought in the conflict of
+elements was appalling. Birds screamed over the fearful
+wreck of matter. The surf from the inrolling waves
+broke against the charred and shattered desert of ruin
+with a terrific roar. Columns of spray shot up over the
+blackened fragments of lava, while in every opening the
+lashed waters, discolored by the collision, seethed and
+surged as in a huge caldron. Verily there is One whose
+&ldquo;fury is poured out like fire; the rocks are thrown down
+by him; the mountains quake, and the hills melt, and the
+earth is burned at his presence.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="the_meal_sack" id="the_meal_sack"></a>
+<img src="images/thor070.png" width="400" height="275"
+alt="A sack shaped rock, waves breaking at its base" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE MEAL-SACK.</p>
+
+<p>Passing a singular rock standing alone some twenty
+miles off the land, called the <i>Meal-sack</i>, we soon changed
+our course and bore up for the harbor of Reykjavik. By
+the time we reached the anchorage our voyage from
+Thorshavn had occupied exactly three days and six hours.</p>
+
+<p>Trusting that the reader will pardon me for the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span>
+frequent delays to which I have subjected him since we
+joined our fortunes at Copenhagen, I shall now proceed
+to the important labors of the enterprise with this solemn
+understanding&mdash;that the journey before us is pretty
+rough, and the prospect is strong that, in our random
+dash at the wonders of Iceland, we will encounter some
+perilous adventures by flood and field; but if I don&rsquo;t carry
+him safely and satisfactorily through them all, he must
+console himself by the reflection that many a good man
+has been sacrificed in the pursuit of knowledge, and that
+he will suffer in excellent company.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id="CHAPTER_XLIII"></a>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND.</h3>
+
+
+<p>My first view of the capital of Iceland was through a
+chilling rain. A more desolate-looking place I had rarely
+if ever seen, though, like Don Quixote&rsquo;s market-woman
+on the ass, it was susceptible of improvement under the
+influence of an ardent imagination. As a subject for the
+pencil of an artist, it was at least peculiar, if not picturesque.
+A tourist whose glowing fancies had not been
+nipped in the bud by the vigors of an extended experience
+might have been able to invest it with certain weird
+charms, but to me it was only the fag-end of civilization,
+abounding in horrible odors of decayed polypi and dried
+fish. A cutting wind from the distant Jokuls and a
+searching rain did not tend to soften the natural asperities
+of its features. In no point of view did it impress
+me as a cheerful place of residence except for wild ducks
+and sea-gulls. The whole country for miles around is a
+black desert of bogs and lava. Scarcely an arable spot
+is to be seen save on the tops of the fishermen&rsquo;s huts,
+where the sod produces an abundance of grass and weeds.
+A dark gravelly slope in front of the town, dotted with
+boats, oars, nets, and piles of fish; a long row of shambling
+old store-houses built of wood, and painted a dismal
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span>
+black, varied by patches of dirty yellow; a general hodge-podge
+of frame shanties behind, constructed of old boards
+and patched up with drift-wood; a few straggling streets,
+paved with broken lava and reeking with offal from the
+doors of the houses; some dozens of idle citizens and
+drunken boatmen lounging around the grog-shops; a gang
+of women, brawny and weather-beaten, carrying loads
+of codfish down to the landing; a drove of shaggy little
+ponies, each tied to the tail of the pony in front; a pack
+of mangy dogs prowling about in dirty places looking
+for something to eat, and fighting when they got it&mdash;this
+was all I could see of Reykjavik, the famous Icelandic
+capital.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="reykjavik_the_capital_of_iceland" id="reykjavik_the_capital_of_iceland"></a>
+<img src="images/thor071.png" width="600" height="431"
+alt="Boats are drawn up on the beach, the town nearby, mountains in the distance" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND.</p>
+
+<p>The town lies on a strip of land between the harbor
+and a lagoon in the rear. It is said to contain a population
+of two thousand, and if the dogs and fleas be taken
+into consideration, I have no doubt it does. Where two
+thousand human beings can stow themselves in a place
+containing but one hotel, and that a very poor one, is a
+matter of wonder to the stranger. The houses generally
+are but one story high, and seldom contain more than
+two or three rooms. Some half a dozen stores, it is true,
+of better appearance than the average, have been built
+by the Danish merchants within the past few years; and
+the residence of the governor and the public University
+are not without some pretensions to style.</p>
+
+<p>The only stone building in Reykjavik of any importance
+is the &ldquo;Cathedral;&rdquo; so called, perhaps, more in
+honor of its great antiquity than any thing imposing
+about its style or dimensions. At present it shows no
+indications of age, having been patched, plastered, and
+painted into quite a neat little church of modern appearance.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="governors_residence_reykjavik" id="governors_residence_reykjavik"></a>
+<img src="images/thor072.png" width="600" height="458"
+alt="A large white-painted wooden house, with neat lawns in front" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">GOVERNOR&rsquo;S RESIDENCE, REYKJAVIK.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="icelandic_houses" id="icelandic_houses"></a>
+<img src="images/thor073.png" width="600" height="457"
+alt="A cluster of small, rough sod-covered houses" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">ICELANDIC HOUSES.</p>
+
+<p>At each end of the town is a small gathering of sod-covered
+huts, where the fishermen and their families live
+like rabbits in a burrow. That these poor people are
+not all devoured by snails or crippled with rheumatism
+is a marvel to any stranger who takes a peep into their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span>
+filthy and cheerless little cabins. The oozy slime of fish
+and smoke mingles with the green mould of the rocks;
+barnacles cover the walls, and puddles make a soft carpeting
+for the floors. The earth is overhead, and their
+heads are under the earth, and the light of day has no
+light job of it to get in edgewise, through the windows.
+The beaver-huts and badger-holes of California, taking
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span>
+into consideration the difference of climate, are palatial
+residences compared with the dismal hovels of these Icelandic
+fishermen. At a short distance they look for all
+the world like mounds in a grave-yard. The inhabitants,
+worse off than the dead, are buried alive. No gardens,
+no cultivated patches, no attempt at any thing ornamental
+relieves the dreary monotony of the premises. Dark
+patches of lava, all littered with the heads and entrails
+of fish; a pile of turf from some neighboring bog; a rickety
+shed in which the fish are hung up to dry; a gang
+of wolfish-looking curs, horribly lean and voracious; a
+few prowling cats, and possibly a chicken deeply depressed
+in spirits&mdash;these are the most prominent objects visible
+in the vicinity. Sloth and filth go hand in hand.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 396px;">
+<a name="church_at_reykjavik" id="church_at_reykjavik"></a>
+<img src="images/thor074.png" width="396" height="500"
+alt="A stone church with a small roof tower at one end" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">CHURCH AT REYKJAVIK.</p>
+
+<p>The women are really the only class of inhabitants,
+except the fleas, who possess any vitality. Rude, slatternly,
+and ignorant as they are, they still evince some
+sign of life and energy compared with the men. Overtaxed
+by domestic cares, they go down upon the wharves
+when a vessel comes in, and by hard labor earn enough
+to purchase a few rags of clothing for their children.
+The men are too lazy even to carry the fish out of their
+own boats. At home they lie about the doors, smoking
+and gossiping, and too often drunk. Some are too lazy
+to get drunk, and go to sleep over the effort. In truth,
+the prevailing indolence among all classes is so striking
+that one can almost imagine himself in a Southern clime.
+There is much about Reykjavik to remind a Californian
+traveler of San Diego. The drunken fellows about the
+stores, and the racing of horses up and down the streets,
+under the stimulus of liquor rather than natural energy,
+sometimes made me feel quite at home.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="icelanders_at_work" id="icelanders_at_work"></a>
+<img src="images/thor075.png" width="600" height="466"
+alt="Two women carry a pallet of fish, while a man leans against a wall and smokes a pipe" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">ICELANDERS AT WORK.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning after my arrival I called to see my
+young friend Jonasen, the governor&rsquo;s son, and was most
+hospitably entertained by the family. I had a letter of
+introduction to the governor from the Minister of the
+Judiciary at Copenhagen, but thought it unnecessary to
+present it. His excellency is a good specimen of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span>
+better class of Icelanders&mdash;simple, kind-hearted, and polite.
+My casual acquaintance with his son was sufficient
+to enlist his warmest sympathies. I thought he would
+destroy his equilibrium as well as my own by repeatedly
+drinking my health and wishing me a hearty welcome
+to Iceland. He said he had never seen a Californian before,
+and seemed astonished to find that they had noses,
+mouths, ears, and skins like other people. In one respect
+he paid me a practical compliment that I have rarely
+enjoyed in the course of my travels&mdash;he spoke nearly
+as bad French as I did. Now I take it that a man who
+speaks bad French, after years of travel on the Continent
+of Europe, is worthy of some consideration. He is
+at least entitled to the distinction of having well preserved
+his nationality; and when any foreigner tries to
+speak it worse, but doesn&rsquo;t succeed, I can not but regard
+it as a tribute of respect.</p>
+
+<p>Young Jonasen, I was glad to see, had gotten over
+his struggle with the sardines, and was now in a fair way
+to enjoy life. His sister, Miss Jonasen, is a very charming
+young lady, well educated and intelligent. She
+speaks English quite fluently, and does the honors of the
+executive mansion with an easy grace scarcely to be expected
+in this remote part of the world. Both are natives
+of Iceland.</p>
+
+<p>I should be sorry to be understood as intimating, in
+my brief sketch of Reykjavik, that it is destitute of refined
+society. There are families of as cultivated manners
+here as in any other part of the world; and on the
+occasion of a ball or party, a stranger would be surprised
+at the display of beauty and style. The University and
+public library attract students from all parts of the island,
+and several of the professors and literary men have obtained
+a European reputation. Two semi-monthly newspapers
+are published at Reykjavik, in the Icelandic language.
+They are well printed, and said to be edited with
+ability. I looked over them very carefully from beginning
+to end, and could see nothing to object to in any
+portion of the contents.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id="CHAPTER_XLIV"></a>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>GEIR Z&Ouml;EGA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Wishing to see as much of the island as possible during
+the short time at my disposal, I made application to
+young Jonasen for information in regard to a guide, and
+through his friendly aid secured the services of Geir
+Z&ouml;ega, a man of excellent reputation.</p>
+
+<p>A grave, dignified man is Geir Z&ouml;ega, large of frame
+and strong of limb; a light-haired, blue-eyed, fresh, honest-faced
+native, warm of heart and trusty of hand; a
+jewel of a guide, who knows every rook, bog, and mud-puddle
+between Reykjavik and the Geysers; a gentleman
+by nature, born in all probability of an iceberg and
+a volcano; a believer in ghosts and ghouls, and a devout
+member of the Church. All hail to thee, Geir Z&ouml;ega!
+I have traveled many a rough mile with thee, used up
+thy brandy and smoked thy cigars, covered my chilled
+body with thy coat, listened to thy words of comfort
+pronounced in broken English, received thy last kind
+wishes at parting, and now I say, in heartfelt sincerity,
+all hail to thee, Geir Z&ouml;ega! A better man never lived,
+or if he did, he could be better spared at Reykjavik.</p>
+
+<p>To my great discontent, I found it indispensable to
+have five horses, although I proposed making the trip
+entirely without baggage. It seemed that two were
+necessary for myself, two for the guide, and one to carry
+the provisions and tent, without which it would be
+very difficult to travel, since there are no hotels in any
+part of the interior. Lodgings may be had at the huts
+of the peasants, and such rude fare as they can furnish;
+but the tourist had better rely upon his own tent and
+provisions, unless he has a craving to be fed on black
+bread and curds, and to be buried alive under a dismal
+pile of sods.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">
+<a name="geir_zoega" id="geir_zoega"></a>
+<img src="images/thor076.png" width="421" height="500"
+alt="The guide readies one of the pack horses for the trip" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">GEIR Z&Ouml;EGA.</p>
+
+<p>The reason why so many horses are required is plain
+enough. At this time of the year (June) they are still
+very poor after their winter&rsquo;s starvation, the pasturage
+is not yet good, and, in order to make a rapid journey
+of any considerable length, frequent changes are necessary.
+Philosophy and humanity combined to satisfy me
+that the trip could not well be made with a smaller number.
+I was a little inquisitive on that point, partly on
+the score of expense, and partly on account of the delay
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span>
+and trouble that might arise in taking care of so many
+animals.</p>
+
+<p>If there is any one trait common among all the nations
+of the earth, it is a natural sharpness in the traffic of
+horse-flesh. My experience has been wonderfully uniform
+in this respect wherever it has been my fortune to
+travel. I have had the misfortune to be the victim of
+horse-jockeys in Syria, Africa, Russia, Norway, and even
+California, where the people are proverbially honest. I
+have weighed the horse-jockeys of the four continents in
+the balance, and never found them wanting in natural
+shrewdness. It is a mistake, however, to call them unprincipled.
+They are men of most astonishing tenacity
+of principle, but unfortunately they have but one governing
+principle in life&mdash;to get good prices for bad horses.</p>
+
+<p>On the arrival of the steamer at Reykjavik the competition
+among the horse-traders is really the only lively
+feature in the place. Immediately after the passengers
+get ashore they are beset by offers of accommodation in
+the line of horse-flesh. Vagabonds and idlers of every
+kind, if they possess nothing else in the world, are at
+least directly or indirectly interested in this species of
+property. The roughest specimens of humanity begin
+to gather in from the country around the corners of the
+streets near the hotel, with all the worn-out, lame, halt,
+blind, and spavined horses that can be raked up by hook
+or crook in the neighborhood. Such a medley was never
+seen in any other country. Barnum&rsquo;s woolly horse
+was nothing to these shaggy, stunted, raw-backed, bow-legged,
+knock-kneed little monsters, offered to the astonished
+traveler with unintelligible pedigrees in the Icelandic,
+which, if literally translated, must surely mean
+that they are a mixed product of codfish and brushwood.
+The size has but little to do with the age, and all rules
+applicable as a test in other parts of the world fail here.
+I judged some of them to be about four months old, and
+was not at all astonished when informed by disinterested
+spectators that they ranged from twelve to fifteen years.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span>
+Nothing, in fact, could astonish me after learning that
+the horses in Iceland are fed during the winter on dried
+fish. This is a literal fact. Owing to the absence of
+grain and the scarcity of grass, it becomes necessary to
+keep life in the poor animals during the severest months
+of the season by giving them the refuse of the fisheries;
+and, what is very surprising, they relish it in preference
+to any other species of food. Shade of Ceres! what an
+article of diet for horses! Only think of it&mdash;riding on
+the back of a horse partly constructed of fish! No wonder
+some of them blow like whales.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="icelandic_horses" id="icelandic_horses"></a>
+<img src="images/thor077.png" width="600" height="450"
+alt="The guide with four horses, not yet loaded with equipment and supplies" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">ICELANDIC HORSES.</p>
+
+<p>In one respect the traveler can not be cheated to any
+great extent; he can not well lose more than twelve
+specie dollars on any one horse, that being the average
+price. To do the animals justice, they are like singed
+cats&mdash;a great deal better than they look. If they are
+not much for beauty, they are at least hardy, docile, and
+faithful; and, what is better, in a country where forage
+is sometimes difficult to find, will eat any thing on the
+face of the earth short of very hard lava or very indigestible
+trap-rock. Many of them, in consequence of
+these valuable qualities, are exported every year to Scotland
+and Copenhagen for breeding purposes. Two vessels
+were taking in cargoes of them during our stay at
+Reykjavik.</p>
+
+<p>I was saved the trouble of bargaining for my animals
+by Geir Z&ouml;ega, who agreed to furnish me with the necessary
+number at five Danish dollars apiece the round
+trip; that is, about two dollars and a half American,
+which was not at all unreasonable. For his own services
+he only charged a dollar a day, with whatever <i>buono
+mano</i> I might choose to give him. These items I mention
+for the benefit of my friends at home who may take
+a notion to make the trip.</p>
+
+<p>I was anxious to get off at once, but the horses were
+in the country and had to be brought up. Two days
+were lost in consequence of the heavy rains, and the trail
+was said to be in very bad condition. On the morning
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span>
+of the third day all was to be ready; and having purchased
+a few pounds of crackers, half a pound of tea, some
+sugar and cheese, I was prepared to encounter the perils
+of the wilderness. This was all the provision I took. Of
+other baggage I had none, save my overcoat and sketch-book,
+which, for a journey of five days, did not seem unreasonable.
+Z&ouml;ega promised me any amount of suffering;
+but I told him Californians rather enjoyed that sort
+of thing than otherwise.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id="CHAPTER_XLV"></a>CHAPTER XLV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ENGLISH TOURISTS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>My English friends were so well provided with funds
+and equipments that they found it impossible to get
+ready. They had patent tents, sheets, bedsteads, mattresses,
+and medicine-boxes. They had guns, too, in handsome
+gun-cases; and compasses, and chronometers, and
+pocket editions of the poets. They had portable kitchens
+packed in tin boxes, which they emptied out, but
+never could get in again, comprising a general assortment
+of pots, pans, kettles, skillets, frying-pans, knives
+and forks, and pepper-castors. They had demijohns of
+brandy and kegs of Port wine; baskets of bottled porter
+and a dozen of Champagne; vinegar by the gallon
+and French mustard in patent pots; likewise collodium
+for healing bruises, and musquito-nets for keeping out
+snakes. They had improved oil-lamps to assist the daylight
+which prevails in this latitude during the twenty-four
+hours, and shaving apparatus and nail-brushes, and
+cold cream for cracked lips, and dentifrice for the teeth,
+and patent preparations for the removal of dandruff from
+the hair; likewise lint and splints for mending broken
+legs. One of them carried a theodolite for drawing inaccessible
+mountains within a reasonable distance; another
+a photographic apparatus for taking likenesses of
+the natives and securing fac-similes of the wild beasts;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span>
+while a third was provided with a brass thief-defender
+for running under doors and keeping them shut against
+persons of evil character. They had bags, boxes, and
+bales of crackers, preserved meats, vegetables, and pickles;
+jellies and sweet-cake; concentrated coffee, and a
+small apparatus for the manufacture of ice-cream. In
+addition to all these, they had patent overcoats and undercoats,
+patent hats and patent boots, gum-elastic bed-covers,
+and portable gutta-percha floors for tents; ropes,
+cords, horse-shoes, bits, saddles and bridles, bags of oats,
+fancy packs for horses, and locomotive pegs for hanging
+guns on, besides many other articles commonly deemed
+useful in foreign countries by gentlemen of the British
+Islands who go abroad to rough it. This was roughing
+it with a vengeance! It would surely be rough work
+for me, an uncivilized Californian, to travel in Iceland or
+any other country under such a dreadful complication of
+conveniences.</p>
+
+<p>When all these things were unpacked and scattered
+over the beds and floors of the hotel, nothing could excel
+the enthusiasm of the whole party&mdash;including myself,
+for I really had seen nothing in the course of my
+travels half so amusing. As an old stager in the camping
+business, I was repeatedly appealed to for advice and
+assistance, which of course I gave with the natural politeness
+belonging to all Californians, suggesting many
+additions. Warming-pans for the sheets, pads of eider-down
+to wear on the saddles, and bathing-tubs to sit in
+after a hard ride, would, I thought, be an improvement;
+but as such things were difficult to be had in Reykjavik,
+the hope of obtaining them was abandoned after some
+consideration. &ldquo;In fact,&rdquo; said they, &ldquo;we are merely
+roughing it, and, by Jove, a fellow must put up with
+some inconveniences in a country like this!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="english_party_at_reykjavik" id="english_party_at_reykjavik"></a>
+<img src="images/thor078.png" width="600" height="454"
+alt="The English tourists inspect horses" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">ENGLISH PARTY AT REYKJAVIK.</p>
+
+<p>To carry all these burdens, which, when tied up in
+packs, occupied an extra room, required exactly eighteen
+horses, inclusive of the riders, and to bargain for eighteen
+horses was no small job. The last I saw of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span>
+Englishmen they were standing in the street surrounded by
+a large portion of the population of Reykjavik, who had
+every possible variety of horses to sell&mdash;horses shaggy
+and horses shaved, horses small and horses smaller, into
+the mouths of which the sagacious travelers were intently
+peering in search of teeth&mdash;occasionally punching
+the poor creatures on the ribs, probing their backs, pulling
+them up by the legs, or tickling them under the tail
+to ascertain if they kicked.</p>
+
+<p>At the appointed hour, 6&nbsp;A.M., Z&ouml;ega was ready at
+the door of the hotel with his shaggy cavalcade, which
+surely was the most extraordinary spectacle I had ever
+witnessed. The horned horses of Africa would have
+been commonplace objects in comparison with these remarkable
+animals destined to carry me to the Geysers
+of Iceland. Each one of them looked at me through a
+stack of mane containing hair enough to have stuffed
+half a dozen chairs; and as for their tails, they hung
+about the poor creatures like huge bunches of wool.
+Some of them were piebald and had white eyes&mdash;others
+had no eyes at all. Seeing me look at them rather apprehensively,
+Z&ouml;ega remarked,</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, sir, you needn&rsquo;t be afraid. They are perfectly
+gentle!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t they bite?&rdquo; said I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh no, sir, not at all.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nor kick?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir, never.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nor lie down on the way?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir, not at all.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Answer me one more question, Z&ouml;ega, and I&rsquo;m done.&rdquo;
+[This I said with great earnestness.] &ldquo;Do these horses
+ever eat cats or porcupines, or swallow heavy brooms
+with crooked handles?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh no, sir!&rdquo; answered my guide, with a look of some
+surprise; &ldquo;they are too well trained for that.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then I suppose they subsist on train-oil as well as
+codfish?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span>
+&ldquo;Yes, sir, when they can get it. They are very fond
+of oil.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I thought to myself, No wonder they are so poor and
+small. Horses addicted to the use of oil must expect to
+be of light construction. But it was time to be off.</p>
+
+<p>A cup of excellent coffee and a few biscuit were amply
+sufficient to prepare me for the journey. Our pack-horse
+carried two boxes and a small tent&mdash;all we required.
+Before starting Z&ouml;ega performed the Icelandic ceremony
+of tying the horses in a row, each one&rsquo;s head to the tail
+of the horse in front. This, he said, was the general
+practice. If it were not done they would scatter outside
+of town, and it would probably take two hours to
+catch them again. I had some fear that if one of the
+number should tumble over a precipice he would carry
+several of his comrades with him, or their heads and tails.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id="CHAPTER_XLVI"></a>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ROAD TO THINGVALLA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was a gray, gloomy morning when we sallied forth
+from the silent streets of Reykjavik. A chilly fog covered
+the country, and little more was to be seen than
+the jagged outline of the lava-hills, and the boggy sinks
+and morasses on either side of the trail. The weird, fire-blasted,
+and flood-scourged wilderness on all sides was
+as silent as death, save when we approached some dark
+lagoon, and startled up the flocks of water-fowl that
+dwelt in its sedgy borders. Then the air was pierced
+with wild screams and strange cries, and the rocks resounded
+to the flapping of many wings. To me there
+was a peculiar charm in all this. It was different from
+any thing I had recently experienced. The roughness
+of the trail, the absence of cultivated fields, the entire
+exemption from the restraints of civilization, were perfectly
+delightful after a dreary residence of nearly a year
+in Germany. Here, at least, there were no passport
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span>
+bureaus, no meddlesome police, no conceited and disagreeable
+habitu&eacute;s of public places with fierce dogs running
+at their heels, no <i>Verbotener Wegs</i> staring one in the
+face at every turn. Here all ways possible to be traveled
+were open to the public; here was plenty of fresh air
+and no lack of elbow-room; here an unsophisticated
+American could travel without being persecuted every
+ten minutes by applications from distinguished officers
+in livery for six kreutzers; here an honest Californian
+could chew tobacco when he felt disposed, and relieve
+his mind by an occasional oath when he considered it
+essential to a vigorous expression of his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed very strange to be traveling in Iceland, actually
+plodding my way over deserts of lava, and breathing
+blasts of air fresh from the summit of Mount Hecla!
+I was at last in the land of the Sagas&mdash;the land of fire,
+and brimstone, and boiling fountains!&mdash;the land which,
+as a child, I had been accustomed to look upon as the
+<i>ultima Thule</i>, where men, and fish, and fire, and water
+were pitted against each other in everlasting strife. How
+often had the fascinating vision of Icelandic travel crossed
+my mind; and how often had I dismissed it with a
+sigh as too much happiness to hope for in this world!
+And now it was all realized. Was I any the happier?
+Was it what I expected? Well, we won&rsquo;t probe these
+questions too far. It was a very strange reality, at all
+events.</p>
+
+<p>For the first eight miles the weather was thick and
+rainy; after that the sun began to dissipate the gloom,
+and we had a very pleasant journey. Though a little
+chilly in consequence of the moisture, the air was not
+really cold. As well as I could judge, the thermometer
+ranged about 54&deg; Fahrenheit. It frequently rises to 76&deg;
+at Thingvalla during the months of July and August;
+and at the Geysers, and in some of the adjacent valleys,
+the heat is said to be quite oppressive.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="a_rough_road" id="a_rough_road"></a>
+<img src="images/thor079.png" width="600" height="457"
+alt="Riders and pack horses travel down a rocky incline" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">A ROUGH ROAD.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the roughness of the trail, which in
+many places passed for miles over rugged fields of lava,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span>
+full of sharp, jagged points and dangerous fissures, we
+traveled with considerable speed, seldom slackening from
+a lope. Z&ouml;ega untied the horses from each other&rsquo;s tails
+soon after passing the road to Hafuarfiord, as there was
+no farther danger of their separating, and then, with
+many flourishes of his whip and strange cries, well understood
+by our animals, led the way. I must confess that,
+in spite of some pretty hard experience of bad roads in
+the coast range of California, there were times during
+our mad career over the lava-beds when visions of maimed
+limbs and a mutilated head crossed my mind. Should
+my horse stumble on a stray spike of lava, what possible
+chance of escape would there be? Falling head foremost
+on harrows and rakes would be fun to a fall here,
+where all the instruments capable of human destruction,
+from razors, saws, and meat-axes down to spike-nails and
+punches, were duly represented.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of our journey we frequently overtook
+pack-trains laden with dried fish from the sea-shore. The
+main dependence of the people throughout the country,
+during the winter, is upon the fish caught during the
+summer. When dried it is done up in packs and fastened
+on each side of the horse, something in the Mexican
+style; and each train is attended by three or four
+men, and sometimes by women. About the month of
+June the farmers and shepherds go down to Reykjavik,
+or some other convenient fishing-station on the sea-shore,
+and lay in their supplies of fish and groceries, which they
+purchase from the traders by exchanges of wool, butter,
+and other domestic products. After a few days of novelty
+and excitement they go back to their quiet homes,
+where they live in an almost dormant state until the
+next season, rarely receiving any news from the great
+outer world, or troubling their heads about the affairs
+which concern the rest of mankind. Those whom we
+met had in all probability not seen a stranger for a year.
+They are an honest, primitive people, decently but very
+coarsely clad in rough woolen garments manufactured
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span>
+by themselves, and shaped much in the European style.
+On their feet they wear moccasins made of sheepskin.
+Whenever we met these pack-trains in any convenient
+place, the drivers stopped to have a talk with Z&ouml;ega,
+often riding back a mile or two to enjoy the novelty of
+his conversation. Being fresh from the capital, he naturally
+abounded in stirring news about the price of codfish,
+and the value of lard and butter, wool, stockings,
+mittens, etc., and such other articles of traffic as they felt
+interested in. He could also give them the latest intelligence
+by the steamer, which always astonished them,
+no matter whether it concerned the throwing overboard
+of three ponies on the last voyage, or the possible resumption
+of operations on the Icelandic telegraph. In
+every way Z&ouml;ega was kind and obliging, and, being well
+known every where, was highly appreciated as a man
+possessed of a remarkable fund of information. At parting
+they generally stopped to kiss hands and take a pinch
+of snuff.</p>
+
+<p>The first time I witnessed the favorite ceremony of
+snuff-taking I was at a loss to understand what it meant.
+A man with a small horn flask, which it was reasonable
+to suppose was filled with powder and only used for loading
+guns or pistols, drew the plug from it, and, stopping
+quite still in the middle of the road, threw his head back
+and applied the tube to his nose. Surely the fellow was
+not trying to blow his brains out with the powder-flask!
+Two or three times he repeated this strange proceeding,
+snorting all the time as if in the agonies of suffocation.
+The gravity of his countenance was extraordinary. I
+could not believe my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What an absurd way of committing suicide!&rdquo; I remarked
+to Z&ouml;ega.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, sir, he is only taking snuff!&rdquo; was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But if he stops up both nostrils, how is he going to
+breathe?&rdquo; was my natural inquiry.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="taking_snuff" id="taking_snuff"></a>
+<img src="images/thor080.png" width="400" height="392"
+alt="A man takes snuff from a horn flask as another man stands nearby" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">TAKING SNUFF.</p>
+
+<p>Z&ouml;ega kindly explained that, when the man&rsquo;s nose was
+full he would naturally open his mouth, and as the snuff
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span>
+was very fine and strong it would eventually cause him
+to sneeze. In this way it was quite practicable to blow
+out the load.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But don&rsquo;t they ever hang fire and burst their heads?&rdquo;
+I asked, with some concern.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why no, sir, I&rsquo;ve never heard of a case,&rdquo; answered
+Z&ouml;ega, in his usual grave manner; &ldquo;in this country every
+body takes snuff, but I never knew it to burst any body&rsquo;s
+head.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was really refreshing the matter-of-fact manner in
+which my guide regarded all the affairs of life. He took
+every thing in a literal sense, and was of so obliging a
+disposition that he would spend hours in the vain endeavor
+to satisfy my curiosity on any doubtful point.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span>
+&ldquo;Why, Z&ouml;ega,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;this is a monstrous practice.
+I never saw any thing like it. Are you quite sure that
+fellow won&rsquo;t kick when he tries to blow his nose?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir, they never kick.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Tell me, Z&ouml;ega, are their breeches strong?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh yes, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s lucky.&rdquo; I was thinking of an accident that
+once occurred to a young man of my acquaintance.
+Owing to a defect in the breech of his gun, the whole
+load entered his head and killed him instantaneously.</p>
+
+<p>The gravity of these good people in their forms of politeness
+is one of the most striking features in their social
+intercourse. The commonest peasant takes off his cap
+to another when they meet, and shaking hands and snuff-taking
+are conducted on the most ceremonious principles.
+They do not, however, wholly confine themselves
+to stimulants for the nose. As soon as they get down
+to Reykjavik and finish their business, they are very apt
+to indulge in what we call in California &ldquo;a bender;&rdquo;
+that is to say, they drink a little too much whisky, and
+hang around the stores and streets for a day or two in
+a state of intoxication. At other times their habits are
+temperate, and they pass the greater part of their lives
+among their flocks, free from excitement, and as happy
+as people can be with such limited means of comfort.
+The uniformity of their lives would of course be painful
+to a people possessed of more energy and a higher order
+of intelligence; but the Icelanders are well satisfied if
+they can keep warm during the dreary winters, and obtain
+their usual supplies during the summer. Sometimes
+a plague sets in among their sheep and reduces them to
+great distress. Fire, pestilence, and famine have from
+time to time devastated the island. Still, where their
+wants are so few, they can bear with great patience the
+calamities inflicted upon them by an all-wise Providence.
+Owing perhaps to their isolated mode of life, they are a
+grave and pious people, simple in their manners, superstitious,
+and credulous. They attend church regularly,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span>
+and are much devoted to religious books and evening
+prayers. No family goes to bed without joining in thanksgiving
+for all the benefits conferred upon them during
+the day. Living as they do amid the grandest phenomena
+of nature, and tinctured with the wild traditions of
+the old Norsemen, it is not surprising that they should
+implicitly believe in wandering spirits of fire and flood,
+and clothe the desolate wastes of lava with a poetic imagery
+peculiarly their own. Every rock, and river, and
+bog is invested with a legend or story, to the truth of
+which they can bear personal witness. Here a ghost
+was overtaken by the light of the moon and turned to
+stone; there voices were heard crying for help, and because
+no help came a farmer&rsquo;s house was burned the next
+day; here a certain man saw a wild woman, with long
+hair, who lived in a cave, and never came out to seek for
+food save in the midst of a storm, when she was seen
+chasing the birds; there a great many sheep disappeared
+one night, and it was thought they were killed and devoured
+by a prodigious animal with two heads&mdash;and so
+on, without end. Nothing is too marvelous for their
+credulity. One of my most pleasant experiences was to
+talk with these good people, through the aid of my guide,
+and hear them tell of the wonderful sights they had seen
+with their own eyes. Nor do I believe that they had the
+remotest intention of stretching the truth. Doubtless
+they imagined the reality of whatever they said. It was
+very strange to one who had lived so long among a sharp
+and rather incredulous race of men to hear full-grown
+people talk with the simplicity of little children.</p>
+
+<p>About half way on our journey toward Thingvalla it
+was necessary to cross a bog, which is never a very agreeable
+undertaking in Iceland, especially after heavy rains.
+This was not the worst specimen of its kind, though; we
+afterward passed through others that would be difficult
+to improve upon without entirely removing the bottom.
+A considerable portion of Iceland is intersected by these
+treacherous stretches of land and water, through which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span>
+the traveler must make his way or relinquish his journey.
+Often it becomes a much more difficult matter to find
+the way out than to get in. Along the sea-coast, to the
+southward and eastward, some of these vast bogs are
+quite impassable without the assistance of a guide thoroughly
+acquainted with every spot capable of bearing a
+horse. On the route to the Geysers we generally contrived
+to avoid the worst places by making a detour
+around the edges of the hills, but this is not always practicable.
+In many places the hills themselves abound in
+boggy ground.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of the Icelandic bog is peculiar. I have
+seen something similar on the Pacific coast near Cape
+Mendocino, but by no means so extensive and well-defined.
+In Iceland it consists of innumerable tufts of earth
+from two to three feet high, interwoven with vegetable
+fibres which render them elastic when pressed by the
+foot. These tufts stand out in relief from the main
+ground at intervals of a few feet from each other, and
+frequently cover a large extent of country. The tops
+are covered with grass of a very fine texture, furnishing
+a good pasture for sheep and other stock. So regular
+and apparently artificial is the appearance of these grassy
+tufts, that I was at first inclined to think they must be
+the remains of cultivated fields&mdash;probably potato-hills, or
+places where corn had grown in former times. Nor was
+it altogether unreasonable to suppose that groves of wood
+might once have covered these singular patches of country,
+and that they had been uprooted and destroyed by
+some of those violent convulsions of nature which from
+time to time have devastated the island. Dr. Dasent
+produces ample testimony to show that, in old times, not
+only corn grew in Iceland, but wood sufficiently large to
+be used in building vessels. Now it is with great difficulty
+that a few potatoes can be raised in some of the
+warmest spots, and there is not a single tree to be found
+on the entire island. The largest bushes I saw were only
+six or eight feet high.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span>
+A singular fact connected with the bog-formation is
+that it is often found in dry places&mdash;on the slopes of
+mountains, for example, in certain localities where the
+water never settles and where the ground is perpetually
+dry. I was greatly puzzled by this, and was scarcely
+satisfied by the explanation given by Z&ouml;ega, my guide,
+who said it was caused by the action of the frost. In
+proof of the fact that they are not of artificial formation,
+and that the process by which they are developed is always
+going on, he stated that in many places where they
+had been leveled down for sheep-corrals or some such
+purpose, a similar formation of tufted hillocks had grown
+up in the course of a few years.</p>
+
+<p>I was continually troubled by the circuits made by
+Z&ouml;ega to avoid certain tracts of this kind which to me
+did not look at all impracticable. Once I thought it
+would be a good joke to show him that a Californian
+could find his way through the strange country even better
+than a native; and watching a chance when he was
+not on the look-out&mdash;for I suspected what his objection
+would be&mdash;I suddenly turned my horse toward the bog,
+and urged him to take the short cut. It was such a capital
+idea, that of beating my own guide about two miles
+in a journey of little more than half a mile! But, strange
+to say, the horse was of Z&ouml;ega&rsquo;s opinion respecting roads
+through Iceland. He would not budge into the bog till
+I inflicted some rather strong arguments upon him, and
+then he went in with great reluctance. Before we had
+proceeded a dozen yards he sank up to his belly in the
+mire, and left me perched up on two matted tufts about
+four feet apart. Any disinterested spectator would have
+supposed at once that I was attempting to favor my guide
+with a representation of the colossal statue at Rhodes, or
+the Natural Bridge in Virginia. Z&ouml;ega, however, was
+too warmly interested in my behalf to take it in this
+way. As soon as he missed me he turned about, and,
+perceiving my critical position, shouted at the top of his
+voice,</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span>
+&ldquo;Sir, you can&rsquo;t go that way!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="an_icelandic_bog" id="an_icelandic_bog"></a>
+<img src="images/thor081.png" width="600" height="459"
+alt="A man balances precariously on two tussocks, as his horse wades out from beneath him" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">AN ICELANDIC BOG.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said I, in rather a desponding tone, &ldquo;I see I
+can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t try it, sir!&rdquo; cried Z&ouml;ega; &ldquo;you&rsquo;ll certainly sink
+if you do!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll promise you that, Z&ouml;ega,&rdquo; I answered, looking
+gloomily toward the dry land, toward which my horse
+was now headed, plunging frantically in a labyrinth of
+tufts, his head just above the ground.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sir, it&rsquo;s very dangerous!&rdquo; shouted Z&ouml;ega.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Any sharks in it?&rdquo; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir; but I don&rsquo;t see your horse!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Neither do I, Z&ouml;ega. Just sing out when he blows!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But the honest Icelander saw a better method than
+that, which was to dismount from his own horse, and
+jump from tuft to tuft until he got hold of my bridle.
+With it of course came the poor animal, which by hard
+pulling my trusty guide soon succeeded in getting on
+dry land. Meantime I discovered a way of getting out
+myself by a complicated system of jumps, and presently
+we all stood in a group, Z&ouml;ega scraping the mud off the
+sides of my trembling steed, while I ventured to remark
+that it was &ldquo;a little boggy in that direction.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; said Z&ouml;ega; &ldquo;that was the reason I was
+going round.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And a very sensible reason it was too, as I now cheerfully
+admitted. After a medicinal pull at the brandy we
+once more proceeded on our way.</p>
+
+<p>I mentioned the fact that there are dry bog-formations
+on the sides of some of the hills. It should also be noted
+that the wet bogs are not always in the lowest places.
+Frequently they are found on elevated grounds, and even
+high up in the mountains. Approaching a region of this
+kind, when the tufts are nearly on a level with the eye,
+the effect is very peculiar. It looks as if an army of grim
+old Norsemen, on their march through the wilderness,
+had suddenly sunk to their necks in the treacherous earth,
+and still stood in that position with their shaggy heads
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span>
+bared to the tempests. Often the traveler detects something
+like features, and it would not be at all difficult, of
+a moonlight night, to mistake them for ghostly warriors
+struggling to get out on dry land. Indeed, the simple-minded
+peasants, with their accustomed fertility of imagination,
+have invested them with life, and relate many
+wonderful stories about their pranks of dark and stormy
+nights, when it is said they are seen plunging about in
+the water. Hoarse cries are heard through the gusts of
+the tempest; and solitary travelers on their journey retreat
+in dismay, lest they should be dragged into the
+treacherous abode of these ghostly old Norsemen.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after our unpleasant adventure we ascended
+an eminence or dividing ridge of lava, from which we
+had a fine view of the Lake of Thingvalla. Descending
+by a series of narrow defiles, we reached a sandy ca&ntilde;on
+winding for several miles nearly parallel with the shores
+of the lake. The sides of the hills now began to exhibit
+a scanty vegetation, and sometimes we crossed a moist
+patch of pasture covered with a fine grass of most brilliant
+and beautiful green. A few huts, with sod walls
+or fences around the arable patches in the vicinity, were
+to be seen from time to time, but in general the country
+was very thinly populated. Flocks of sheep, and occasionally
+a few horses, grazed on the hill-sides.</p>
+
+<p>The great trouble of our lives in the neighborhood of
+these settlements was a little dog belonging to my guide.
+Brusa was his name, and the management of our loose
+horses was his legitimate occupation. A bright, lively,
+officious little fellow was Brusa, very much like a wolf in
+appearance, and not unlike a human being in certain
+traits of his character. Montaigne says that great fault
+was found with him, when he was mayor of his native
+town, because he was always satisfied to let things go
+along smoothly; and though the citizens admitted that
+they had never been so free from trouble, they could not
+see the use of a mayor who never issued any ordinances
+or created any public commotion. Our little dog was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span>
+of precisely the same way of thinking. He could see no
+use in holding office in our train without doing something,
+whether necessary or not. So, when the horses
+were going along all right, he felt it incumbent upon him
+to give chase to the sheep. Stealing away quietly, so
+that Z&ouml;ega might not see him at the start, he would suddenly
+dart off after the poor animals, with his shaggy
+hair all erect, and never stop barking, snapping, and biting
+their legs till they were scattered over miles of territory.
+He was particularly severe upon the cowardly
+ewes and lambs, actually driving them frantic with terror;
+but the old rams that stood to make fight he always
+passed with quiet disdain. It was in vain Z&ouml;ega would
+hold up, and utter the most fearful cries and threats of
+punishment: &ldquo;Hur-r-r-r! Brusa! B-r-r-r-usa!! you B-r-r-usa!!!&rdquo;
+Never a bit could Brusa be stopped once he
+got fairly under way. Up hill, and down hill, and over
+the wild gorges he would fly till entirely out of sight.
+In about half an hour he generally joined the train again,
+looking, to say the least of it, very sheepish. I have already
+spoken of the gravity and dignity of Z&ouml;ega&rsquo;s manner.
+On occasions of this kind it assumed a parental severity
+truly impressive. Slowly dismounting from his
+horse, as if a great duty devolved upon him, he would
+unlock one of the boxes on the pack-horse, take therefrom
+a piece of bread, deliberately grease the same with
+butter, and then holding it forth, more in sorrow than in
+anger, invite Brusa to refresh himself after his fatiguing
+chase of the sheep. The struggle between a guilty conscience
+and a sharp appetite would now become painfully
+perceptible on the countenance of Brusa as well as in
+the relaxation of his tail. As he approached the tempting
+morsel nothing could be more abject than his manner&mdash;stealing
+furtive glances at the eyes of his master,
+and trying to conciliate him by wagging the downcast
+tail between his legs. Alas, poor Brusa! I suspected
+it from the beginning. What do you think of yourself
+now? Grabbed by the back of the neck in the powerful
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span>
+hands of Geir Z&ouml;ega! Not a particle of use for you
+to whine, and yelp, and try to beg off. You have been
+a very bad fellow, and must suffer the consequences.
+With dreadful deliberation Z&ouml;ega draws forth his whip,
+which has been carefully hidden in the folds of his coat
+all this time, and, holding the victim of his displeasure in
+mid-air, thus, as I take it, apostrophizes him in his native
+language: &ldquo;O Brusa! have I not fed thee and cherished
+thee with parental care? (Whack! yelp! and whack
+again.) Have I not been to thee tender and true?
+(Whack! whack! accompanied by heart-rending yelps
+and cries.) And this is thy ingratitude! This is thy
+return for all my kindness! O how sharper than a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span>
+serpent&rsquo;s tooth is the sting of ingratitude! (Whack.) I
+warned thee about those sheep&mdash;those harmless and tender
+little lambs! I begged thee with tears in my eyes
+not to run after them; but thou wert stubborn in thine
+iniquity; and now what can I do but&mdash;(whack)&mdash;but
+punish thee according to my promise? Wilt thou ever
+do it again? O say, Brusa, will thou ever again be guilty
+of this disreputable conduct? (A melancholy howl.) It
+pains me to do it (whack), but it is (whack) for thine
+own good! Now hear and repent, and henceforth let
+thy ways be the ways of the virtuous and the just!&rdquo; It
+was absolutely delightful to witness the joy of Brusa
+when the whipping was over. Without one word of
+comment Z&ouml;ega would throw him the bread, and then
+gravely mount his horse and ride on. For hours after
+the victim of his displeasure would run, and jump, and
+bark, and caper with excess of delight. I really thought
+it was a kindness to whip him, he enjoyed it so much
+afterward.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 261px;">
+<a name="geir_zoega_and_brusa" id="geir_zoega_and_brusa"></a>
+<img src="images/thor082.png" width="261" height="400"
+alt="The guide chastising his dog" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">GEIR Z&Ouml;EGA AND BRUSA.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever our loose horses got off the trail or lagged
+behind, the services of our dog were invaluable. Z&ouml;ega
+had a particular way of directing his attention to the errant
+animal. &ldquo;Hur-r-r-r!&mdash;(a roll of the tongue)&mdash;Hur-r-r-r
+Brusa!&rdquo; and off Brusa would dash, his hair on end
+with rage, till within a few feet of the horse, when he
+would commence a series of terrific demonstrations, barking
+and snapping at the heels of the vagrant. Backing
+of ears to frighten him, or kicks at his head, had no terrors
+for him; he was altogether too sagacious to be
+caught within reach of dangerous weapons.</p>
+
+<p>I know of nothing to equal the sagacity of these Icelandic
+dogs save that of the sheep-dogs of France and
+Germany. They are often sent out in the pastures to
+gather up the horses, and will remain by them and keep
+them within bounds for days at a time. They are also
+much used in the management of sheep. Unlike the
+regular shepherd-dog of Europe, however, they are sometimes
+thievish and treacherous, owing to their wolfish
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span>
+origin. I do not think we could have made ten miles a
+day without Brusa. In the driving of pack-trains a good
+dog is indispensable. I always gave the poor fellow
+something to eat when we stopped in consideration of
+his services.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id="CHAPTER_XLVII"></a>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ALMANNAJAU.</h3>
+
+
+<p>We rode for some time along an elevated plateau of
+very barren aspect till something like a break in the outline
+became visible a few hundred yards ahead. I had
+a kind of feeling that we were approaching a crisis in
+our journey, but said nothing. Neither did Z&ouml;ega, for
+he was not a man to waste words. He always answered
+my questions politely, but seldom volunteered a remark.
+Presently we entered a great gap between two enormous
+cliffs of lava.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s this, Z&ouml;ega?&rdquo; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, this is the Almannajau.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What! the great Almannajau, where the Icelandic
+Parliament used to camp!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir; you see the exact spot down there below.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And, in good truth, there it was, some hundreds of
+feet below, in a beautiful little green valley that lay at
+the bottom of the gap. Never had my eyes witnessed
+so strange and wild a sight. A great fissure in the earth
+nearly a hundred feet deep, walled up with prodigious
+fragments of lava, dark and perpendicular, the bases
+strewn with molten masses, scattered about in the strangest
+disorder; a valley of the brightest green, over a hundred
+feet wide, stretching like a river between the fire-blasted
+cliffs; the trail winding through it in snake-like
+undulation&mdash;all now silent as death under the grim leaden
+sky, yet eloquent of terrible convulsions in by-gone
+centuries and of the voices of men long since mingled
+with the dust. Upon entering the gorge between the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span>
+shattered walls of lava on either side, the trail makes a
+rapid descent of a few hundred yards till it strikes into
+the valley. I waited till my guide had descended with
+the horses, and then took a position a little below the
+entrance, so as to command a view out through the
+gorge and up the entire range of the Almannajau.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 397px;">
+<a name="entrance_to_the_almannajau" id="entrance_to_the_almannajau"></a>
+<img src="images/thor083.png" width="397" height="500"
+alt="A winding road passes between two huge outcrops of rock" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">ENTRANCE TO THE ALMANNAJAU.</p>
+
+<p>The appended sketch, imperfect as it is, will convey
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span>
+some idea of the scene; yet to comprise within the brief
+compass of a sheet of paper the varied wonders of this
+terrible gap, the wild disorder of the fragments cast loose
+over the earth, the utter desolation of the whole place
+would be simply impossible. No artist has ever yet done
+justice to the scene, and certainly no mere amateur can
+hope to attain better success.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_almannajau" id="the_almannajau"></a>
+<img src="images/thor084.png" width="600" height="452"
+alt="A bleak valley, with sheer rock sides" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE ALMANNAJAU.</p>
+
+<p>Looking up the range of the fissure, it resembles an
+immense walled alley, high on one side, and low, broken,
+and irregular on the other. The main or left side forms
+a fearful precipice of more than eighty feet, and runs in
+a direct line toward the mountains, a distance of four or
+five miles. On the right, toward the plain of Thingvalla,
+the inferior side forms nearly a parallel line of rifted and
+irregular masses of lava, perpendicular in front and receding
+behind. The greater wall presents a dark, rugged
+face, composed of immense pillars and blocks of lava, defined
+by horizontal and vertical fissures, strangely irregular
+in detail, but showing a dark, compact, and solid
+front. In places it is not unlike a vast library of books,
+shaken into the wildest confusion by some resistless power.
+Whole ranges of ink-colored blocks are wrenched
+from their places, and scattered about between the ledges.
+Well may they represent the law-books of the old Icelandic
+Sagas and judges, who held their councils near this
+fearful gorge! Corresponding in face, but less regular
+and of inferior height, is the opposite wall. In its molten
+state the whole once formed a burning flood, of such vast
+extent and depth that it is estimated by geologists nearly
+half a century must have elapsed before it became cool.
+The bottom of this tremendous crack in the sea of lava
+is almost a dead level, and forms a valley of about a hundred
+feet in width, which extends, with occasional breaks
+and irregularities, entirely up to the base of the mountain.
+This valley is for the most part covered with a
+beautiful carpeting of fine green grass, but is sometimes
+diversified by fragments of lava shivered off and cast
+down from the walls on either side.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span>
+The gorge by which we entered must have been impracticable
+for horses in its original state. Huge masses
+of lava, which doubtless once jammed up the way, must
+have been hurled over into the gaping fissures at each
+side, and something like a road-way cleared out from the
+chaos of ruin. Pavements and side-stones are still visible,
+where it is more than probable the old Icelanders
+did many a hard day&rsquo;s work. Eight or nine centuries
+have not yet obliterated the traces of the hammer and
+chisel; and there were stones cast a little on one side
+that still bear the marks of horses&rsquo; hoofs&mdash;the very horses
+in all probability ridden by old Sagas and lawgivers.
+Through this wild gorge they made their way into the
+sheltered solitudes of the Almannajau, where they pitched
+their tents and held their feasts previous to their councils
+on the L&ouml;gberg. Here passed the members of the
+Althing; here the victims of the L&ouml;gberg never repassed
+again.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="skeleton_view_of_the_almannajau" id="skeleton_view_of_the_almannajau"></a>
+<img src="images/thor085.png" width="400" height="192"
+alt="Showing the vertical sides of the fissure, higher on the left side" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">SKELETON VIEW OF THE ALMANNAJAU.</p>
+
+<p>There are various theories concerning the original formation
+of this wonderful fissure. It is supposed by some
+that the flood of lava by which Thingvalla was desolated
+in times of which history presents no record must have
+cooled irregularly, owing to the variation of thickness in
+different parts of the valley; that at this point, where
+its depth was great, the contracting mass separated, and
+the inferior portion gradually settled downward toward
+the point of greatest depression.</p>
+
+<p>Others, again, hold the theory that there was a liquid
+drain of the molten lava underneath toward the lake, by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span>
+means of which a great subterranean cavity was formed
+as far back as the mountain; that the crust on top,
+being of insufficient strength to bear its own great weight,
+must have fallen in as the whole mass cooled, and thus
+created this vast crack in the earth.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
+<a name="outline_view_of_thingvalla" id="outline_view_of_thingvalla"></a>
+<img src="images/thor086.png" width="700" height="152"
+alt="Showing left to right, Almannajau, a church, L&ouml;gberg and Hrafnajau" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">OUTLINE VIEW OF THINGVALLA.</p>
+
+<p>I incline to the first of these theories
+myself, as the most conformable
+to the contractile laws of heat.
+There is also something like practical
+evidence to sustain it. A careful
+examination of the elevations and
+depressions on each wall of the gap
+satisfied me that they bear at least
+a very striking analogy. Points on
+one side are frequently represented
+by hollows on the other, and even
+complicated figures occasionally find
+a counterpart, the configuration being
+always relatively convex or concave.
+This would seem to indicate
+very clearly that the mass had been
+forcibly rent asunder, either by the
+contractile process of heat, or a convulsion
+of the earth. The most difficult
+point to determine is why the
+bottom should be so flat and regular,
+and what kept the great mass on
+each side so far intact as to form
+one clearly-defined fissure a hundred
+feet wide and nearly five miles
+in length? This, however, is not
+for an unlearned tourist like myself
+to go into very deeply.</p>
+
+<p>How many centuries have passed
+away since all this happened the
+first man who &ldquo;gazed through the
+rent of ruin&rdquo; has failed to leave on record&mdash;if he ever
+knew it. The great walls of the fissure stood grim and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span>
+black before the old Icelandic Sagas, just as they now
+stand before the astonished eyes of the tourist. History
+records no material change in its aspect. It may be older
+than the Pyramids of Egypt; yet it looks as if the
+eruption by which it was caused might have happened
+within a lifetime, so little is there to indicate the progress
+of ages. I could not but experience the strangest
+sensations in being carried so far back toward the beginning
+of the world.</p>
+
+<p>At the distance of about a mile up the &ldquo;Jau&rdquo; a river
+tumbles over the upper wall of lava, and rushes down
+the main fissure for a few hundred yards, when it suddenly
+diverges and breaks through a gap in the inferior
+wall, and comes down the valley on the outside toward
+the lake.</p>
+
+<p>During my stay at Thingvalla I walked up to this part
+of the Almannajau, and made a rough sketch of the waterfall.</p>
+
+<p>From the point of rocks upon which I stood the effect
+was peculiar. The course of the river, which lies behind
+the Jau, on the opposite side, is entirely hidden by the
+great wall in front, and nothing of it is visible till the
+whole river bursts over the dark precipice, and tumbles,
+foaming and roaring, into the tremendous depths below,
+where it dashes down wildly among the shattered fragments
+of lava till it reaches the outlet into the main valley.
+A mist rises up from the falling water, and whirls
+around the base of the cataract in clouds, forming in the
+rays of the sun a series of beautiful rainbows. The grim,
+jagged rocks, blackened and rifted with fire, make a
+strange contrast with the delicate prismatic colors of the
+rainbows, and their sharp and rugged outline with the
+soft, ever-changing clouds of spray.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="fall_of_the_almannajau" id="fall_of_the_almannajau"></a>
+<img src="images/thor087.png" width="600" height="447"
+alt="A waterfall pours over the top of the cliff" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">FALL OF THE ALMANNAJAU.</p>
+
+<p>The flocks of the good pastor of Thingvalla were quietly
+browsing among the rugged declivities where I stood.
+Here were violence and peace in striking contrast; the
+tremendous concussion of the falling water; the fearful
+marks of convulsion on the one hand, and on the other
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;The gentle flocks that play upon the green.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>As I put away my imperfect sketch, and sauntered
+back toward the hospitable cabin of the pastor, a figure
+emerged from the rocks, and I stood face to face with an
+Icelandic shepherdess.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 389px;">
+<a name="icelandic_shepherd_girl" id="icelandic_shepherd_girl"></a>
+<img src="images/thor088.png" width="389" height="500"
+alt="A man encounters a shepherd-girl" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">ICELANDIC SHEPHERD-GIRL.</p>
+
+<p>Well, it is no use to grow poetical over this matter.
+To be sure, we were alone in a great wilderness, and she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span>
+was very pretty, and looked uncommonly coquettish with
+her tasseled cap, neat blue bodice, and short petticoats,
+to say nothing of a well-turned pair of ankles; but then,
+you see, I couldn&rsquo;t speak a word of Icelandic, and if I
+could, what had I, a responsible man, to say to a pretty
+young shepherdess? At most I could only tell her she
+was extremely captivating, and looked for all the world
+like a flower in the desert, born to blush unseen, etc.
+As she skipped shyly away from me over the rocks I
+was struck with admiration at the graceful sprightliness
+of her movements, and wondered why so much beauty
+should be wasted upon silly sheep, when the world is so
+full of stout, brave young fellows who would fall dead in
+love with her at the first sight. But I had better drop
+the subject. There is a young man of my acquaintance
+already gone up to Norway to look for the post-girl that
+drove me over the road to Trondhjem, and at least two
+of my friends are now on the way to Hamburg for the
+express purpose of witnessing the gyrations of the celebrated
+wheeling girls. All I hope is, that when they
+meet with those enterprising damsels they will follow
+my example, and behave with honor and discretion.</p>
+
+<p>Standing upon an eminence overlooking the valley, I
+was struck with wonder at the vast field of lava outspread
+before me. Here is an area at least eight miles
+square, all covered with a stony crust, varying from fifty
+to a hundred feet in thickness, rent into gaping fissures
+and tossed about in tremendous fragments; once a burning
+flood, covering the earth with ruin and desolation
+wherever it flowed; now a cold, weird desert, whose
+gloomy monotony is only relieved by stunted patches of
+brushwood and dark pools of water&mdash;all wrapped in a
+death-like silence. Where could this terrible flood have
+come from? The mountains in the distance look so
+peaceful in their snowy robes, so incapable of the rage
+from which all this desolation must have sprung, that I
+could scarcely reconcile such terrible results with an origin
+so apparently inadequate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span>
+I questioned Z&ouml;ega on this point, but not with much
+success. How was it possible, I asked, that millions and
+billions of tons of lava could be vomited forth from the
+crater of any mountain within sight? Here was a solid
+bed of lava spread over the valley, and many miles beyond,
+which, if piled up, shrunken and dried as it was,
+would of itself make a mountain larger than the Skjaldbraid
+Jokul, from which it is supposed to have been
+ejected.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Now, Z&ouml;ega,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;how do you make it out that
+this came from the Skjaldbraid Jokul?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, sir, I don&rsquo;t know, but I think it came from the
+inside of the world.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why, Z&ouml;ega, the world is only a shell&mdash;a mere egg-shell
+in Iceland I should fancy&mdash;filled with fiery gases.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Is that possible, sir?&rdquo; cried Z&ouml;ega, in undisguised
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, quite possible&mdash;a mere egg-shell!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dear me, I didn&rsquo;t know that! It is a wonderful
+world, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very&mdash;especially in Iceland.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then, sir, I don&rsquo;t know how this could have happened,
+unless it was done by spirits that live in the ground.
+Some people say they are great monsters, and live on
+burnt stones.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Do you believe in spirits, Z&ouml;ega?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh yes, sir; and don&rsquo;t you? I&rsquo;ve seen them many
+a time. I once saw a spirit nearly as large as the Skjaldbraid.
+It came up out of the earth directly before me
+where I was traveling, and shook its head as if warning
+me to go back. I was badly frightened, and turned my
+horse around and went back. Then I heard that my
+best friend was dying. When he was dead I married
+his wife. She&rsquo;s a very good woman, sir, and, if you please,
+I&rsquo;ll get her to make you some coffee when we get back
+to Reykjavik.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>So goes the world, thought I, from the Skjaldbraid Jokul
+to a cup of coffee! Why bother our heads about
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span>
+these troublesome questions, which can only result in
+proving us all equally ignorant. The wisest has learned
+nothing save his own ignorance. He &ldquo;meets with darkness
+in the daytime, and gropes in the noonday as in the
+night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THINGVALLA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The extensive valley called Thingvalla, or the Valley
+of the &ldquo;Thing,&rdquo; lies at the head of a lake of the same
+name, some fifteen miles in length by six or seven in
+width. The waters of this lake are beautifully clear, and
+the scenery around it is of the wildest and most picturesque
+character. Rugged mountains rise from its shores
+in various directions, and islands reflect their varied outlines
+in its glassy surface. Cranes, wild ducks, plovers,
+and occasionally swans, abound in the lagoons that open
+into it from Thingvalla. The bed of this fine sheet of
+water corresponds in its configuration with the surrounding
+country. It is of volcanic formation throughout, and
+the rifts and fissures in the lava can be traced as far as
+it is practicable to see through the water.</p>
+
+<p>On passing out of the Almannajau near the lower fall,
+where the river breaks out into the main valley, the view
+toward the lake is extensive and imposing. Along the
+course of the river is a succession of beautiful little green
+flats, upon which the horses and cattle of the good pastor
+graze; and farther down, on the left, lies the church
+and farm-house. Still beyond are vast plains of lava,
+gradually merging into the waters of the lake; and in
+the far distance mountain upon mountain, till the view is
+lost in the snowy Jokuls of the far interior.</p>
+
+<p>Descending into this valley we soon crossed the river,
+which is fordable at this season, and in a few minutes
+entered a lane between the low stone walls that surround
+the station.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="church_at_thingvalla" id="church_at_thingvalla"></a>
+<img src="images/thor089.png" width="600" height="453"
+alt="A wooden church with small rooftop tower at one end; the building surrounded with a stone wall" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">CHURCH AT THINGVALLA.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span>
+The church is of modern construction, and, like all I
+saw in the interior, is made of wood, painted a dark color,
+and roofed with boards covered with sheets of tarred
+canvas. It is a very primitive little affair, only one story
+high, and not more than fifteen by twenty feet in dimensions.
+From the date on the weather-cock it appears to
+have been built in 1858.</p>
+
+<p>The congregation is supplied by the few sheep-ranches
+in the neighborhood, consisting at most of half a dozen
+families. These unpretending little churches are to be
+seen in the vicinity of every settlement throughout the
+whole island. Simple and homely as they are, they speak
+well for the pious character of the people.</p>
+
+<p>The pastor of Thingvalla and his family reside in a
+group of sod-covered huts close by the church. These
+cheerless little hovels are really a curiosity, none of them
+being over ten or fifteen feet high, and all huddled together
+without the slightest regard to latitude or longitude,
+like a parcel of sheep in a storm. Some have windows
+in the roof, and some have chimneys; grass and
+weeds grow all over them, and crooked by-ways and
+dark alleys run among them and through them. At the
+base they are walled up with big lumps of lava, and two
+of them have board fronts, painted black, while the remainder
+are patched up with turf and rubbish of all sorts,
+very much in the style of a stork&rsquo;s nest. A low stone
+wall encircles the premises, but seems to be of little use
+as a barrier against the encroachments of live-stock,
+being broken up in gaps every few yards. In front of
+the group some attempt has been made at a pavement,
+which, however, must have been abandoned soon after
+the work was commenced. It is now littered all over
+with old tubs, pots, dish-cloths, and other articles of domestic
+use.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_pastors_house" id="the_pastors_house"></a>
+<img src="images/thor090.png" width="600" height="366"
+alt="A collection of sod-covered huts forming a single rambling house" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE PASTOR&rsquo;S HOUSE.</p>
+
+<p>The interior of this strange abode is even more complicated
+than one would be led to expect from the exterior.
+Passing through a dilapidated doorway in one of
+the smaller cabins, which you would hardly suppose to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span>
+be the main entrance, you find yourself in a long dark
+passage-way, built of rough stone, and roofed with wooden
+rafters and brushwood covered with sod. The sides
+are ornamented with pegs stuck in the crevices between
+the stones, upon which hang saddles, bridles, horse-shoes,
+bunches of herbs, dried fish, and various articles of cast-off
+clothing, including old shoes and sheepskins. Wide
+or narrow, straight or crooked, to suit the sinuosities of
+the different cabins into which it forms the entrance, it
+seems to have been originally located upon the track of
+a blind boa-constrictor, though Bishop Hatton denies the
+existence of snakes in Iceland. The best room, or rather
+house&mdash;for every room is a house&mdash;is set apart for the
+accommodation of travelers. Another cabin is occupied
+by some members of the pastor&rsquo;s family, who bundle
+about like a lot of rabbits. The kitchen is also the dog-kennel,
+and occasionally the sheep-house. A pile of stones
+in one corner of it, upon which a few twigs or scraps of
+sheep-manure serve to make the fire, constitute the cooking
+department. The beams overhead are decorated with
+pots and kettles, dried fish, stockings, petticoats, and the
+remains of a pair of boots that probably belonged to the
+pastor in his younger days. The dark turf walls are
+pleasantly diversified with bags of oil hung on pegs, scraps
+of meat, old bottles and jars, and divers rusty-looking instruments
+for shearing sheep and cleaning their hoofs.
+The floor consists of the original lava-bed, and artificial
+puddles composed of slops and offal of divers unctuous
+kinds. Smoke fills all the cavities in the air not already
+occupied by foul odors, and the beams, and posts, and
+rickety old bits of furniture are dyed to the core with
+the dense and variegated atmosphere around them. This
+is a fair specimen of the whole establishment, with the
+exception of the travelers&rsquo; room. The beds in these cabins
+are the chief articles of luxury. Feathers being abundant,
+they are sewed up in prodigious ticks, which are
+tumbled topsy-turvy into big boxes on legs that serve
+for bedsteads, and then covered over with piles of all the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span>
+loose blankets, petticoats, and cast-off rags possible to be
+gathered up about the premises. Into these comfortable
+nests the sleepers dive every night, and, whether in summer
+or winter, cover themselves up under the odorous
+mountain of rags, and snooze away till morning. During
+the long winter nights they spend on an average about
+sixteen hours out of the twenty-four in this agreeable
+manner. When it is borne in mind that every crevice
+in the house is carefully stopped up in order to keep out
+the cold air, and that whole families frequently occupy a
+single apartment not over ten by twelve, the idea of being
+able to cut through the atmosphere with a cleaver seems
+perfectly preposterous. A night&rsquo;s respiration in such a
+hole is quite sufficient to saturate the whole family with
+the substance of all the fish and sheepskins in the vicinity;
+and the marvel of it is that they don&rsquo;t come out
+next day wagging their fins or bleating like sheep. I
+wonder they ever have any occasion to eat. Absorption
+must supply them with a large amount of nutriment;
+but I suppose what is gained in that way is lost in the
+fattening of certain other members of the household.
+Warmth seems to be the principal object, and certainly
+it is no small consideration in a country where fuel is so
+scarce.</p>
+
+<p>I can not conceive of more wretched abodes for human
+beings. They are, indeed, very little better than fox-holes&mdash;certainly
+not much sweeter. Yet in such rude habitations
+as these the priests of Iceland study the classical
+languages, and perfect themselves in the early literature
+of their country. Many of them become learned, and
+devote much of their lives to the pursuits of science. In
+the northern part of the country the houses are said to
+be better and more capacious; but the example I have
+given is a fair average of what I saw.</p>
+
+<p>The passionate devotion of the Icelanders to their
+homes is almost inconceivable. I have never seen any
+thing like it. The most favored nations of the earth can
+not furnish examples of such intense and all-absorbing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span>
+love of home and country. I traveled with a native of
+Reykjavik some weeks after my visit to Thingvalla, and
+had an opportunity of judging what his impressions were
+of other countries. He was a very intelligent man, well
+versed in Icelandic literature, and spoke English remarkably
+well. Both himself and wife were fellow passengers
+on the <i>Arcturus</i> from Reykjavik to Grangemouth. I was
+curious to know what a well-educated man would think
+of a civilized country, and watched him very closely. He
+had never seen a railway, locomotive, or carriage of any
+kind, not even a tree or a good-sized house. We stopped
+at Leith, where we took passage by the train to Edinburg.
+As soon as the locomotive started he began to
+laugh heartily, and by the time we reached Edinburg he
+and his wife, though naturally grave people, were nearly
+in convulsions of laughter. I had no idea that the emotion
+of wonder would be manifested in that way by civilized
+beings. Of course I laughed to see them laugh,
+and altogether it was very funny. We took rooms at
+the same hotel, opposite to Sir Walter Scott&rsquo;s monument.
+Now it is needless to say that Edinburg is one of the
+most beautiful cities in the world. Even Constantinople
+can scarcely surpass it in picturesque beauty. The worthy
+Icelander, be it remembered, had never seen even a
+town, except Reykjavik, of which I have already attempted
+a description. It was night when we arrived at Edinburg,
+so that I had no opportunity of judging what his
+impressions would be at that time. Next morning I
+knocked at his room door. His wife opened it, looking
+very sad, as I thought. At the window, gazing out over
+the magnificent scene, embracing the Monument, the Castle,
+and many of the finest of the public buildings, stood
+her husband, the big tears coursing down his face.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;what do you think of Edinburg?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;oh, I am so home-sick! Oh, my dear,
+dear native land! Oh, my own beautiful Iceland! Oh
+that I were back in my beloved Reykjavik! Oh, I shall
+die in this desert of houses! Oh that I could once more
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></span>
+breathe the pure fresh air of my own dear, dear island
+home!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Such were literally his expressions. Not one word
+had he to say about the beauties of Edinburg! To him
+it was a hideous nightmare. The fishy little huts of
+Reykjavik, the bleak lava-deserts of the neighborhood,
+and the raw blasts from the Jokuls, were all he could
+realize of a Paradise upon earth. Yet he was a highly-cultivated
+and intelligent man, not destitute of refined
+tastes. Truly, I thought to myself,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Boldly proclaims the happiest spot his own.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>While I waited outside the pastor&rsquo;s house, enjoying
+the oddity of the scene, Z&ouml;ega busied himself unsaddling
+the horses. I sat down on a pile of fagots, and, with
+some trouble and a little assistance from my guide, succeeded
+in getting off my overalls, which had been thoroughly
+drenched with rain and saturated with mud. The
+occasional duckings we had experienced in crossing the
+rivers did not add to my comfort. I was chilled and
+wet, and would have given a Danish dollar for the privilege
+of sitting at a fire. All this time there was no sign
+of life about the premises save the barking of an ill-favored
+little dog that was energetically disclaiming any
+acquaintance with Brusa. I regret to say that Brusa
+lost much of his bravado air in the presence of this insignificant
+cur, but it was quite natural; the cur was at
+home and Brusa wasn&rsquo;t. At first our dog seemed disposed
+to stand his ground, but upon the near approach
+of the house-dog he dropped his tail between his legs
+and ingloriously sneaked between the legs of the horses,
+which of course gave the gentleman of the house a high
+opinion of his own prowess&mdash;so much so, indeed, that
+the craven spirit of Brusa never before appeared in such
+a despicable light. He cringed and howled with terror,
+which so flattered the vanity of the other that a ferocious
+attack was the immediate consequence. Fortunately,
+a kick from one of the horses laid Brusa&rsquo;s aggressor
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[484]</a></span>
+yelping in the mud, an advantage of which Brusa
+promptly availed himself, and the pastor&rsquo;s dog would
+have fared badly in the issue but for the interference of
+Z&ouml;ega, who separated the contending parties, and administered
+a grave rebuke to the party of our part respecting
+the impropriety of his conduct.</p>
+
+<p>Though it occurred to me that I had seen the retreating
+figure of a man as we rode up, I was at a loss to understand
+why nobody appeared to ask us in or bid us
+welcome, and suggested to Z&ouml;ega that I thought this
+rather an unfriendly reception. Now, upon this point
+of Icelandic hospitality Z&ouml;ega was peculiarly sensitive.
+He always maintained that the people, though poor, are
+very hospitable&mdash;so much so that they made no complaint
+when a certain Englishman, whose name he could
+mention, stopped with them for days, ate up all their food
+and drank up all their coffee, and then went off without
+offering them even a small present. &ldquo;No wonder,&rdquo; said
+Z&ouml;ega, &ldquo;this man told a great many lies about them, and
+laughed at them for refusing money, when the truth was
+he never offered them money or any thing else. It was
+certainly a very cheap way of traveling.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But what about the pastor, Z&ouml;ega? I&rsquo;m certain I
+caught a glimpse of him as he darted behind the door.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, he&rsquo;ll be here directly; he always runs away when
+strangers come.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What does he run away for?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why, you see, sir, he is generally a little dirty, and
+must go wash himself and put on some decent clothes.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>While we were talking the pastor made his appearance,
+looking somewhat damp about the face and hair,
+and rather embarrassed about the shape of his coat, which
+was much too large for him, and hung rather low about
+his heels. With an awkward shuffling gait he approached
+us, and, having shaken hands with Z&ouml;ega, looked askant
+at me, and said something, which my guide interpreted
+as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He bids you welcome, sir, and says his house is at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span>
+your service. It is a very poor house, but it is the best
+he has. He wishes to know if you will take some coffee,
+and asks what part of the world you are from. I
+tell him you are from California, and he says it is a great
+way off, clear down on the other side of the world, and
+may God&rsquo;s blessing be upon you. Walk in, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 240px;">
+<a name="the_pastor_of_thingvalla" id="the_pastor_of_thingvalla"></a>
+<img src="images/thor091.png" width="240" height="400"
+alt="A gaunt man, wearing a huge black coat and skullcap" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE PASTOR OF THINGVALLA.</p>
+
+<p>Pleased with these kind words, I stepped up to the
+good pastor and cordially shook him by the hand, at the
+same time desiring Z&ouml;ega to say that I thanked him very
+much, and hoped he would make it convenient to call and
+see me some time or other in California, which, I regret
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span>
+to add, caused him to look both alarmed and embarrassed.
+A queer, shy man was this pastor&mdash;a sort of living mummy,
+dried up and bleached by Icelandic snows. His manner
+was singularly bashful. There was something of the
+recluse in it&mdash;a mixture of shyness, awkwardness, and
+intelligence, as if his life had been spent chiefly among
+sheep and books, which very likely was the case. All
+the time I was trying to say something agreeable he was
+looking about him as if he desired to make his escape
+into some Icelandic bog, and there hide himself during
+my stay. I followed him through the passage-way already
+mentioned into the travelers&rsquo; room, where he beckoned
+me to take a seat, and then, awkwardly seating himself
+on the edge of a chair as far away as he could get
+without backing through the wall, addressed me in Danish.
+Finding me not very proficient in that tongue, he
+branched off into Latin, which he spoke as fluently as if
+it had been his native language. Here again I was at
+fault. I had gone as far as <i>Quosque tandem</i> when a boy,
+but the vicissitudes of time and travel had knocked it all
+out of my head. I tried him on the German, and there,
+to use a familiar phrase, had the &ldquo;dead-wood on him.&rdquo;
+He couldn&rsquo;t understand a word of that euphonious language.
+However, a slight knowledge of the Spanish,
+picked up in Mexico and California, enabled me to guess
+at some of his Latin, and in this way we struggled into
+something of conversation. The effort, however, was
+too great for the timid recluse. After several pauses
+and lapses into long fits of silence, he got up and took
+his leave. Meantime Z&ouml;ega was enjoying himself by the
+fire in the kitchen, surrounded by the female members
+of the family, who no doubt were eagerly listening to
+the latest news from Reykjavik. Whenever their voices
+became audible I strongly suspected that the ladies were
+asking whether the steamer had brought any crinoline
+from Copenhagen.</p>
+
+<p>The pastor&rsquo;s family appeared to be composed entirely
+of females. Like all the Icelandic women I had seen,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span>
+they do all the work of the establishment, attend to the
+cows, make the cheese, cut the hay, carry the heavy burdens,
+and perform the manual labor generally. This I
+found to be the case at all the farm-houses. Sometimes
+the men assist, but they prefer riding about the country
+or lying idle about the doors of their cabins. At Reykjavik,
+it is true, there is a population of Danish sailors
+and fishermen, and it would be scarcely fair to form an
+opinion from the lazy and thriftless habits of the people
+there. But I think the civilization of Iceland is very
+much like that of Germany in respect to women. They
+are not rated very high in the scale of humanity. Still,
+overworked and degraded as they are, the natural proclivities
+of the sex are not altogether obliterated. In
+former times their costume was picturesque and becoming,
+and some traces of the old style are yet to be seen
+throughout the pastoral districts; a close body, a jaunty
+little cap on the head, with a heavy tassel, ornamented
+with gold or silver bands, silver clasps to their belts, and
+filigree buttons down the front, give them a very pleasing
+appearance. Of late years, however, fashion has begun
+to assert her sway, even in this isolated part of the
+world, and the native costume is gradually becoming
+modernized.</p>
+
+<p>The pastor having joined the more congenial circle of
+which Z&ouml;ega was the admired centre, I was left alone in
+the chilly little room allotted to travelers to meditate
+upon the comforts of Icelandic life. It was rather a
+gloomy condition of affairs to be wet to the skin, shivering
+with cold, and not a soul at hand to sympathize with
+me in my misery. Then the everlasting day&mdash;when
+would it end? Already I had been awake and traveling
+some fourteen hours, and it was as broad daylight as
+ever. Nothing could be more wearying than the everlasting
+daylight that surrounded me&mdash;not bright and
+sunshiny, but dreary and lead-colored, showing scarcely
+any perceptible difference between morning, noon, and
+night.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[488]</a></span>
+The coffee soon came to my relief, and the pastor followed
+it to wish me a good appetite and ask if I wanted
+any thing else. I again renewed the attempt at conversation,
+but it was too much for his nervous temperament
+and shrinking modesty. He always managed, after a few
+words, to slip stealthily away up into the loft or out
+among the rocks to avoid the appearance of intrusion,
+or the labor of understanding what I said, or communicating
+his ideas&mdash;I could not tell which.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="skeleton_view_of_the_logberg" id="skeleton_view_of_the_logberg"></a>
+<img src="images/thor092.png" width="400" height="290"
+alt="Showing the narrow plateau and surrounding chasm" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">SKELETON VIEW OF THE L&Ouml;GBERG.</p>
+
+<p>After a slight repast I walked out to take a look at
+the L&ouml;gberg, or Rock of Laws, which is situated about
+half a mile from the church. This is, perhaps, of all the
+objects of historical association in Iceland, the most interesting.
+It was here the judges tried criminals, pronounced
+judgments, and executed their stern decrees.
+On a small plateau of lava, separated from the general
+mass by a profound abyss on every side, save a narrow
+neck barely wide enough for a foothold, the famous
+&ldquo;Thing&rdquo; assembled once a year, and, secured from intrusion
+in their deliberations by the terrible chasm around,
+passed laws for the weal or woe of the people. It was
+only necessary to guard the causeway by which they entered;
+all other sides were well protected by the encircling
+moat, which varies from thirty to forty feet in width,
+and is half filled with water. The total depth to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[490]</a></span>
+bottom, which is distinctly visible through the crystal
+pool, must be sixty or seventy feet. Into this yawning
+abyss the unhappy criminals were cast, with stones around
+their necks, and many a long day did they lie beneath
+the water, a ghastly spectacle for the crowd that peered
+at them over the precipice.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="thingvalla_logberg_almannajau" id="thingvalla_logberg_almannajau"></a>
+<img src="images/thor093.png" width="600" height="463"
+alt="A bleak landscape, with sheer rock cliffs and mountains in the distance" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THINGVALLA, L&Ouml;GBERG, ALMANNAJAU.</p>
+
+<p>All was now as silent as the grave. Eight centuries
+had passed, and yet the strange scenes that had taken
+place here were vividly before me. I could imagine the
+gathering crowds, the rising hum of voices; the pause,
+the shriek, and plunge; the low murmur of horror, and
+then the stern warning of the lawgivers and the gradual
+dispersing of the multitude.</p>
+
+<p>The dimensions of the plateau are four or five hundred
+feet in length by an average of sixty or eighty in width.
+A diagram, taken from an elevated point beyond, will
+give some idea of its form. The surface is now covered
+with a fine coating of sod and grass, and furnishes good
+pasturage for the sheep belonging to the pastor.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="diagram_of_the_logberg" id="diagram_of_the_logberg"></a>
+<img src="images/thor094.png" width="400" height="219"
+alt="Showing contours in the landscape" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">DIAGRAM OF THE L&Ouml;GBERG.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIX" id="CHAPTER_XLIX"></a>CHAPTER XLIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ROAD TO THE GEYSERS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was ten o&rsquo;clock at night when I reached the parsonage.
+In addition to my rough ride from Reykjavik,
+and the various trying adventures on the way, I had
+walked over nearly the whole range of the Almannajau,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span>
+sketched the principal points of interest, visited the L&ouml;gberg,
+and made some sketches and diagrams of that, besides
+accomplishing a considerable amount of work about
+the premises of the good pastor, all of which is now submitted
+to the kind indulgence of the reader. Surely if
+there is a country upon earth abounding in obstacles to
+the pursuit of the fine arts, it is Iceland. The climate
+is the most variable in existence&mdash;warm and cold, wet
+and dry by turns, seldom the same thing for half a day.
+Such, at least, was my experience in June. Wild and
+desolate scenery there is in abundance, and no lack of
+interesting objects any where for the pencil of an artist;
+but it is difficult to conceive the amount of physical discomfort
+that must be endured by one who faithfully adheres
+to his purpose. Only think of sitting down on a
+jagged piece of lava, wet to the skin and shivering with
+cold; a raw, drizzling rain running down your back and
+dropping from the brim of your hat, making rivers on
+your paper where none are intended to be; hints of
+rheumatism shooting through your bones, and visions
+of a solitary grave in the wilderness crossing your mind;
+then, of a sudden, a wind that scatters your papers far
+and wide, and sends your only hat whirling into an abyss
+from which it is doubtful whether you will ever recover
+it&mdash;think of these, ye summer tourists who wander,
+sketch-book in hand, through the &ldquo;warbling woodland&rdquo;
+and along &ldquo;the resounding shore,&rdquo; and talk about being
+enterprising followers of the fine arts! Try it in Iceland
+a while, and see how long your inspiration will last!
+Take my word for it, unless you be terribly in earnest,
+you will postpone your labors till the next day, and then
+the next, and so on to the day that never comes.</p>
+
+<p>Not the least of my troubles was the difficulty of getting
+a good night&rsquo;s rest after the fatiguing adventures
+of the day. There was no fault to be found with the
+bed, save that it was made for somebody who had never
+attained the average growth of an American; and one
+might do without a night-cap, but how in the world
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[492]</a></span>
+could any body be expected to sleep when there was no
+night? At twelve o&rsquo;clock, when it ought to be midnight
+and the ghosts stirring about, I looked out, and it
+was broad day; at half past one I looked out again, and
+the sun was shining; at two I got up and tried to read
+some of the pastor&rsquo;s books, which were written in Icelandic,
+and therefore not very entertaining; at three I
+went to work and finished some of my sketches; and at
+four I gave up all farther hope of sleeping, and sallied
+forth to take another look at the Almannajau.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 230px;">
+<a name="an_artist_at_home" id="an_artist_at_home"></a>
+<img src="images/thor095.png" width="230" height="400"
+alt="The artist, hands in pockets, stares at a sketch on an easel" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">AN ARTIST AT HOME.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></span>
+On my return Z&ouml;ega was saddling up the horses. A
+cup of coffee and a dry biscuit put me in traveling order,
+and we were soon on our way up the valley.</p>
+
+<p>For the first few miles we followed the range of the
+&ldquo;Jau,&rdquo; from which we then diverged across the great
+lava-beds of Thingvalla. It was not long before we struck
+into a region of such blasted and barren aspect that the
+imagination was bewildered with the dreary desolation
+of the scene. The whole country, as far as the eye could
+reach, was torn up and rent to pieces. Great masses of
+lava seemed to have been wrested forcibly from the original
+bed, and hurled at random over the face of the
+country. Prodigious fissures opened on every side, and
+for miles the trail wound through a maze of sharp points
+and brittle crusts of lava, with no indication of the course
+save at occasional intervals a pile of stones on some prominent
+point, erected by the peasants as a way-mark for
+travelers. Sometimes our hardy little horses climbed
+like goats up the rugged sides of a slope, where it seemed
+utterly impossible to find a foothold, so tortured and
+chaotic was the face of the earth; and not unfrequently
+we became involved in a labyrinth of fearful sinks, where
+the upper stratum had given way and fallen into the
+yawning depths below. Between these terrible traps
+the trail was often not over a few feet wide. It was no
+pleasant thing to contemplate the results of a probable
+slip or a misstep. The whole country bore the aspect
+of baffled rage&mdash;as if imbued with a demoniac spirit, it
+had received a crushing stroke from the Almighty hand
+that blasted and shivered it to fragments.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="lava_fjelds" id="lava_fjelds"></a>
+<img src="images/thor096.png" width="600" height="458"
+alt="Riders travel over an uneven landscape" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">LAVA-FJELDS.</p>
+
+<p>There were masses that looked as if they had turned
+cold while running in a fiery flood from the crater&mdash;wavy,
+serrated, frothy, like tar congealed or stiffened on
+a flat surface. One piece that I sketched was of the
+shape of a large leaf, upon which all the fibres were marked.
+It measured ten feet by four. Another bore a resemblance
+to a great conch-shell. Many were impressed
+with the roots of shrubs and the images of various
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></span>
+surrounding objects&mdash;snail-shells, pebbles, twigs, and the like.
+On a larger scale, bubbling brooks, waterfalls, and whirlpools
+were represented&mdash;now no longer a burning flood,
+but stiff, stark, and motionless. One sketch, which is reproduced,
+bore a startling resemblance to some of the
+marble effigies on the tombs of medieval knights.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="effigy_in_lava" id="effigy_in_lava"></a>
+<img src="images/thor097.png" width="600" height="280"
+alt="A lava piece resembling a human effigy" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">EFFIGY IN LAVA.</p>
+
+<p>The distant mountains were covered with their perpetual
+mantles of snow. Nearer, on the verge of the valley,
+were the red peaks of the foot-hills. To the right
+lay the quiet waters of the lake glistening in the sunbeams.
+In front, a great black fissure stretched from the
+shores of the lake to the base of the mountains, presenting
+to the eye an impassable barrier. This was the famous
+Hrafnajau&mdash;the uncouth and terrible twin-brother
+of the Almannajau.</p>
+
+<p>A toilsome ride of eight miles brought us to the edge
+of the Pass, which in point of rugged grandeur far surpasses
+the Almannajau, though it lacks the extent and
+symmetry which give the latter such a remarkable effect.
+Here was a tremendous gap in the earth, over a hundred
+feet deep, hacked and shivered into a thousand fantastic
+shapes; the sides a succession of the wildest accidents;
+the bottom a chaos of broken lava, all tossed about in
+the most terrific confusion. It is not, however, the extraordinary
+desolation of the scene that constitutes its
+principal interest. The resistless power which had rent
+the great lava-bed asunder, as if touched with pity at the
+ruin, had also flung from the tottering cliffs a causeway
+across the gap, which now forms the only means of passing
+over the great Hrafnajau. No human hands could
+have created such a colossal work as this; the imagination
+is lost in its massive grandeur; and when we reflect
+that miles of an almost impassable country would
+otherwise have to be traversed in order to reach the opposite
+side of the gap, the conclusion is irresistible that
+in the battle of the elements Nature still had a kindly
+remembrance of man.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_hrafnajau" id="the_hrafnajau"></a>
+<img src="images/thor098.png" width="600" height="466"
+alt="Riders cross the causeway spanning the chasm" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE HRAFNAJAU.</p>
+
+<p>Five or six miles beyond the Hrafnajau, near the summit
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span>
+of a dividing ridge, we came upon a very singular
+volcanic formation called the Tintron. It stands, a little
+to the right of the trail, on a rise of scoria and burned
+earth, from which it juts up in rugged relief to the height
+of twenty or thirty feet. This is, strictly speaking, a
+huge clinker not unlike what comes out of a grate&mdash;hard,
+glassy in spots, and scraggy all over. The top part is
+shaped like a shell; in the centre is a hole about three
+feet in diameter, which opens into a vast subterranean
+cavity of unknown depth. Whether the Tintron is an
+extinct crater, through which fires shot out of the earth
+in by-gone times, or an isolated mass of lava, whirled
+through the air out of some distant volcano, is a question
+that geologists must determine. The probability is that
+it is one of those natural curiosities so common in Iceland
+which defy research. The whole country is full of
+anomalies&mdash;bogs where one would expect to find dry
+land, and parched deserts where it would not seem
+strange to see bogs; fire where water ought to be, and
+water in the place of fire.</p>
+
+<p>While the pack-train followed the trail, Z&ouml;ega suggested
+that the Tintron had never been sketched, and if I felt
+disposed to &ldquo;take it down&rdquo;&mdash;as he expressed it&mdash;he
+would wait for me in the valley below; so I took it down.</p>
+
+<p>During this day&rsquo;s journey we crossed many small rivers
+which had been much swollen by the recent rains.
+The fording-places, however, were generally good, and
+we got over them without being obliged to swim our
+horses. One river, the Br&uacute;ar&aacute;, gave me some uneasiness.
+When we arrived at the banks it presented a very formidable
+obstacle. At the only place where it was practicable
+to reach the water it was a raging torrent over
+fifty yards wide, dashing furiously over a bed of lava
+with a velocity and volume that bade apparent defiance
+to any attempt at crossing. In the middle was a great
+fissure running parallel with the course of the water, into
+which the current converged from each side, forming a
+series of cataracts that shook the earth, and made a loud
+reverberation from the depths below.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_tintron_rock" id="the_tintron_rock"></a>
+<img src="images/thor099.png" width="600" height="451"
+alt="Men climb around the base of the Tintron rock" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE TINTRON ROCK.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[500]</a></span>
+I stopped on an elevated bank to survey the route before
+us. There seemed to be no possible way of getting
+over. It was all a wild roaring flood plunging madly
+down among the rocks. While I was thinking what
+was to be done, Z&ouml;ega, with a crack of his whip, drove
+the animals into the water and made a bold dash after
+them. It then occurred to me that there was a good
+deal of prudence in the advice given by an Icelandic traveler:
+&ldquo;<em>Never go into a river till your guide has tried it.</em>&rdquo;
+Should Z&ouml;ega be swept down over the cataract, as appeared
+quite probable, there would be no necessity for
+me to follow him. I had a genuine regard for the poor
+fellow, and it would pain me greatly to lose him; but
+then he was paid so much per day for risking his life, and
+how could I help it if he chose to pursue such a perilous
+career? Doubtless he had come near being drowned
+many a time before; he seemed to be used to it. All I
+could do for him in the present instance would be to
+break the melancholy intelligence to his wife as tenderly
+as possible. While thus philosophizing, Z&ouml;ega plunged
+in deeper and deeper till he was surrounded by the raging
+torrent on the very verge of the great fissure. Was it
+possible he was going to force his horse into it? Surely
+the man must be crazy.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Stop, Z&ouml;ega! stop!&rdquo; I shouted, at the top of my voice;
+&ldquo;you&rsquo;ll be swept over the precipice. There&rsquo;s a great
+gap in the river just before you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;All right, sir!&rdquo; cried Z&ouml;ega. &ldquo;Come on, sir!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Again and again I called to him to stop but he seemed
+to lose my voice in the roar of the falling waters. Dashing
+about after the scattered animals, he whipped them
+all up to the brink of the precipice, and then quietly walked
+his own horse across on what looked to me like a
+streak of foam. The others followed, and in a few minutes
+they all stood safely on the opposite bank. I thought
+this was very strange. A remote suspicion flashed across
+my mind that Z&ouml;ega was in league with some of those
+water-spirits which are said to infest the rivers of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[501]</a></span>
+Iceland. Wondering what they would say to a live Californian,
+I plunged in and followed the route taken by my
+guide. Upon approaching the middle of the river I discovered
+that what appeared to be a streak of foam was
+in reality a wooden platform stretched across the chasm
+and covered by a thin sheet of water. It was pinned
+down to the rocks at each end, and was well braced with
+rafters underneath. From this the river derives its name&mdash;Br&uacute;ar&aacute;,
+or the Bridge.</p>
+
+<p>The general aspect of the country differed but little
+from what I have already attempted to describe. Vast
+deserts of lava, snow-capped mountains in the distance,
+a few green spots here and there, and no apparent sign
+of habitation&mdash;these were its principal features. Below
+the falls the scene was peculiarly wild and characteristic.
+Tremendous masses of lava cast at random amid the roaring
+waters; great fissures splitting the earth asunder in
+all directions; every where marks of violent convulsion.
+In the following sketch I have endeavored to depict some
+of these salient points. When it is taken into consideration
+that the wind blew like a hurricane through the
+craggy ravines; that the rain and spray whirled over, and
+under, and almost through me; that it was difficult to
+stand on any elevated spot without danger of being blown
+over, I hope some allowance will be made for the imperfections
+of the performance.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="bridge_river" id="bridge_river"></a>
+<img src="images/thor100.png" width="600" height="443"
+alt="A winding river rushes its way through a valley" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">BRIDGE RIVER.</p>
+
+<p>About midway between Thingvalla and the Geysers
+we descended into a beautiful little valley, covered with
+a fine growth of grass, where we stopped to change
+horses and refresh ourselves with a lunch. While Z&ouml;ega
+busied himself arranging the packs and saddles, our indefatigable
+little dog Brusa availed himself of the opportunity
+to give chase to a flock of sheep. Z&ouml;ega shouted
+at him as usual, and as usual Brusa only barked the louder
+and ran the faster. The sheep scattered over the valley,
+Brusa pursuing all the loose members of the flock
+with a degree of energy and enthusiasm that would have
+done credit to a better cause. Upon the lambs he was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span>
+particularly severe. Many of them must have been stunted
+in their growth for life by the fright they received;
+and it was not until he had tumbled half a dozen of them
+heels over head, and totally dispersed the remainder,
+that he saw fit to return to head-quarters. The excitement
+once over, he of course began to consider the consequences,
+and I must say he looked as mean as it was
+possible for an intelligent dog to look. Z&ouml;ega took him
+by the nape of the neck with a relentless hand, and heaving
+a profound sigh, addressed a pathetic remonstrance
+to him in the Icelandic language, giving it weight and
+emphasis by a sharp cut of his whip after every sentence.
+This solemn duty performed to his satisfaction, and greatly
+to Brusa&rsquo;s satisfaction when it was over, we mounted
+our horses once more and proceeded on our journey.</p>
+
+<p>A considerable portion of this day&rsquo;s ride was over a
+rolling country, somewhat resembling the foot-hills in
+certain parts of California. On the right was an extensive
+plain, generally barren, but showing occasional green
+patches; and on the left a rugged range of mountains,
+not very high, but strongly marked by volcanic signs.
+We passed several lonely little huts, the occupants of
+which rarely made their appearance. Sheep, goats, and
+sometimes horses, dotted the pasture-lands. There was
+not much vegetation of any kind save patches of grass
+and brushwood. A species of white moss covered the
+rocks in places, presenting the appearance of hoar-frost
+at a short distance.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_L" id="CHAPTER_L"></a>CHAPTER L.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GEYSERS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Upon turning the point of a hill where our trail was
+a little elevated above the great valley, Z&ouml;ega called my
+attention to a column of vapor that seemed to rise out
+of the ground about ten miles distant. For all I could
+judge, it was smoke from some settler&rsquo;s cabin situated
+in a hollow of the slope.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s that, Z&ouml;ega?&rdquo; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the Geysers, sir,&rdquo; he replied, as coolly as if it
+were the commonest thing in the world to see the famous
+Geysers of Iceland.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Geysers! That little thing the Geysers?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dear me! who would ever have thought it?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I may as well confess at once that I was sadly disappointed.
+It was a pleasure, of course, to see what I had
+read of and pictured to my mind, from early boyhood;
+but this contemptible little affair looked very much like
+a humbug. A vague idea had taken possession of my
+mind that I would see a whole district of country shooting
+up hot water and sulphurous vapors&mdash;a kind of hell
+upon earth; but that thing ahead of us&mdash;that little curl
+of smoke on the horizon looked so peaceful, so inadequate
+a result of great subterranean fires, that I could not but
+feel some resentment toward the travelers who had preceded
+me, and whose glowing accounts of the Geysers
+had deceived me. At this point of view it was not at
+all equal to the Geysers of California. I had a distinct
+recollection of the great ca&ntilde;on between Russian River
+Valley and Clear Lake, the magnificent hills on the route,
+the first glimpse of the infernal scene far down in the bed
+of the ca&ntilde;on, the boiling, hissing waters, and clouds of
+vapor whirling up among the rocks, the towering crags
+on the opposite side, and the noble forests of oak and
+pine that spread &ldquo;a boundless contiguity of shade&rdquo; over
+the wearied traveler, and I must say a patriotic pride
+took possession of my soul. We had beaten the world
+in the production of gold; our fruits were finer and our
+vegetables larger than any ever produced in other countries;
+our men taller and stronger, our women prettier
+and more prolific, our lawsuits more extensive, our fights
+the best ever gotten up, our towns the most rapidly built
+and rapidly burned&mdash;in short, every thing was on a grand,
+wide, broad, tall, fast, overwhelming scale, that bid defiance
+to competition, and now I was satisfied we could
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span>
+even beat old Iceland in the matters of Geysers. I really
+felt a contempt for that little streak of smoke. Perhaps
+something in the expression of my eye may have betrayed
+my thoughts, for Z&ouml;ega, as if he felt a natural pride
+in the wonders of Iceland and wished them to be properly
+appreciated, hastily added, &ldquo;But you must not judge
+of the Geysers by what you now see, sir! That is only
+the little Geyser. He don&rsquo;t blow up much. The others
+are behind the first rise of ground.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That may be, Z&ouml;ega. I have no doubt they are very
+fine, but it is not within the bounds of possibility that
+they should equal the Geysers of California.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Indeed, sir! I didn&rsquo;t know you had Geysers there.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t know it! Never heard of the Geysers of
+California?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Never, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, Z&ouml;ega, that is remarkable. Our Geysers are
+the finest, the bitterest, the smokiest, the noisiest, the
+most infernal in the world; and as for mountains, our
+Shasta Bute would knock your Mount Hecla into a cocked
+hat!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Is it possible!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of course it is.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And have you great lava-beds covering whole valleys
+as we have here?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Certainly&mdash;only they are made of gold. We call
+them Placers&mdash;Gold Placers.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A wonderful country, sir!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Would you like to go there, Z&ouml;ega?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir; I&rsquo;d rather stay here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 399px;">
+<a name="shepherd_and_family" id="shepherd_and_family"></a>
+<img src="images/thor101.png" width="399" height="500"
+alt="An extended family, with at least seven adults and nine children" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">SHEPHERD AND FAMILY.</p>
+
+<p>And so we talked, Z&ouml;ega and I, as we jogged along
+pleasantly on our way. Our ride, after we caught the
+first sight of the smoke, continued for some two hours
+over a series of low hills, with little green valleys lying
+between, till we came to an extensive bog that skirts the
+base of the Langarfjal, a volcanic bluff forming the background
+of the Geysers. It was now becoming interesting.
+Half an hour more would settle the matter conclusively
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[506]</a></span>
+between California and Iceland. Crossing the bog
+where it was not very wet, we soon came to a group of
+huts at the turning-point of the hill, where we were met
+by a shepherd and his family. All turned out, big and
+little, to see the strangers. The man and his wife were
+fair specimens of Icelandic peasantry&mdash;broad-faced, blue-eyed,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[507]</a></span>
+and good-natured, with yellowish hair, and a sort
+of mixed costume, between the civilized and the barbarous.
+The children, of which there must have been over
+a dozen, were of the usual cotton-head species found in
+all Northern countries, and wore any thing apparently
+they could get, from the cast-off rags of their parents to
+sheepskins and raw hide. Nothing could surpass the
+friendly interest of the old shepherd. He asked Z&ouml;ega
+a thousand questions about the &ldquo;gentleman,&rdquo; and begged
+that we would dismount and do him the honor to take a
+cup of coffee, which his wife would prepare for us in five
+minutes. Knowing by experience that five minutes in
+Iceland means any time within five hours, I was reluctantly
+obliged to decline the invitation. The poor fellow
+seemed much disappointed, and evidently was sincere in
+his offers of hospitality. To compromise the matter, we
+borrowed a spade from him, and requested him to send
+some milk down to our camp as soon as the cows were
+milked.</p>
+
+<p>Although these worthy people lived not over half a
+mile from the Geysers, they could not tell us when the
+last eruption had taken place&mdash;a most important thing
+for us to know, as the success of the trip depended almost
+entirely upon the length of time which had elapsed
+since that event. The man said he never took notice of
+the eruptions. He saw the water shooting up every few
+days, but paid no particular attention to it. There might
+have been an eruption yesterday, or this morning, for all
+he knew; it was impossible for him to say positively.
+&ldquo;In truth, good friend,&rdquo; said he to Z&ouml;ega, &ldquo;my head is
+filled with sheep, and they give me trouble enough.&rdquo; It
+was evidently filled with something, for he kept scratching
+it all the time he was talking.</p>
+
+<p>Many travelers have been compelled to wait a week
+for an eruption of the Great Geyser, though the interval
+between the eruptions is not usually more than three
+days. A good deal depends upon the previous state of
+the weather, whether it has been wet or dry. Sometimes
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[508]</a></span>
+the eruptions take place within twenty-four hours, but
+not often. The Great Geyser is a very capricious old
+gentleman, take him as you will. He goes up or keeps
+quiet just to suit himself, and will not put himself the
+least out of the way to oblige anybody. Even the Prince
+Napoleon, who visited this region a few years ago, spent
+two days trying to coax the grumbling old fellow to favor
+him with a performance, but all to no purpose. The
+prince was no more to a Great Geyser than the commonest
+shepherd&mdash;not so much, in fact, for his finest displays
+are said to be made when nobody but some poor shepherd
+of the neighborhood is about. In former times the
+eruptions were much more frequent than they are now,
+occurring at least every six hours, and often at periods
+of only three or four. Gradually they have been diminishing
+in force and frequency, and it is not improbable
+they will cease altogether before the lapse of another
+century. According to the measurements given by various
+travelers, among whom may be mentioned Dr. Henderson,
+Sir George Mackenzie, Forbes, Metcalfe, and Lord
+Dufferin, the height to which the water is ejected varies
+from eighty to two hundred feet. It is stated that these
+Geysers did not exist prior to the fifteenth century; and
+one eruption&mdash;that of 1772&mdash;is estimated by Olsen and
+Paulsen to have reached the extraordinary height of three
+hundred and sixty feet. All these measurements appear
+to me to be exaggerated.</p>
+
+<p>Ascending a slope of dry incrusted earth of a red and
+yellowish color, we first came upon the Little Geyser, a
+small orifice in the ground, from which a column of steam
+arose. A bubbling sound as of boiling water issued from
+the depths below, but otherwise it presented no remarkable
+phenomena. In a few minutes more we stood in
+the middle of a sloping plateau of some half a mile in circuit,
+which declines into an extensive valley on the right.
+Within the limits of this area there are some forty springs
+and fissures which emit hot water and vapors. None of
+them are of any considerable size, except the Great
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[509]</a></span>
+Geyser, the Strokhr, and the Little Geyser. The earth seems
+to be a mere crust of sulphurous deposits, and burnt clay,
+and rotten trap-rock, and is destitute of vegetation except
+in a few spots, where patches of grass and moss present
+a beautiful contrast to the surrounding barrenness.
+In its quiescent state the scene was not so striking as I
+had expected, though the whirling volumes of smoke
+that filled the air, and the strange sounds that issued
+from the ground in every direction, filled my mind with
+strong premonitions of what might take place at any
+moment. I did not yet relinquish my views in reference
+to the superiority of the California Geysers; still, I began
+to feel some misgiving about it when I looked around
+and saw the vastness of the scale upon which the fixtures
+were arranged here for hydraulic entertainments. If we
+could beat Iceland in the beauty of our scenery, it was
+quite apparent that the advantage lay here in the breadth
+and extent of the surrounding desolation&mdash;the great lava-fields,
+the snow-capped Jokuls, and the distant peaks of
+Mount Hecla.</p>
+
+<p>We rode directly toward the Great Geyser, which we
+approached within about fifty yards. Here was the
+camping-ground&mdash;a pleasant little patch of green sod,
+where the various travelers who had preceded us had
+pitched their tents. Z&ouml;ega knew every spot. He had
+accompanied most of the distinguished gentlemen who
+had honored the place with their presence, and had something
+to say in his grave, simple way about each of them.
+Here stood Lord Dufferin&rsquo;s tent. A lively young gentleman
+he was; a very nice young man; told some queer
+stories about the Icelanders; didn&rsquo;t see much of the
+country, but made a very nice book about what he saw;
+had a great time at the governor&rsquo;s, and drank every body
+drunk under the table, etc. Here, close by, the Prince
+Napoleon pitched his tent&mdash;a large tent, very handsomely
+decorated; room for all his officers; very fine gentleman
+the prince; had lots of money; drank plenty of
+Champagne; a fat gentleman, not very tall; had blackish
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[510]</a></span>
+hair, and talked French; didn&rsquo;t see the Great Geyser
+go up, but saw the Strokhr, etc. Here was Mr. Metcalfe&rsquo;s
+tent; a queer gentleman, Mr. Metcalfe; rather
+rough in his dress; wrote a funny book about Iceland;
+told some hard things on the priests; they didn&rsquo;t like it
+at all; didn&rsquo;t know what to make of Mr. Metcalfe, etc.
+Here was Mr. Chambers&rsquo;s camp&mdash;a Scotch gentleman;
+very nice man, plain and sensible; wrote a pamphlet, etc.
+And here was an old tent-mark, almost rubbed out,
+where an American gentleman camped about ten years
+ago; thought his name was Mr. Miles. This traveler
+also wrote a book, and told some funny stories.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Was it Pliny Miles?&rdquo; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir, that was his name. I was with him all the
+time.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Have you his book?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir, I have his book at home. A very queer
+gentleman, Mr. Miles; saw a great many things that I
+didn&rsquo;t see; says he came near getting drowned in a river.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And didn&rsquo;t he?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, sir, I don&rsquo;t know. I didn&rsquo;t see him when he
+was near being drowned. You crossed the river, sir,
+yourself, and know whether it is dangerous.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Was it the Br&uacute;ar&aacute;?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir; one of the other little rivers, about knee-deep.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here was food for reflection. Z&ouml;ega, with his matter-of-fact
+eyes, evidently saw things in an entirely different
+light from that in which they presented themselves to
+the enthusiastic tourists who accompanied him. Perhaps
+he would some time or other be pointing out my
+tent to some inquisitive visitor, and giving him a running
+criticism upon my journal of experiences in Iceland.
+I deemed it judicious, therefore, to explain to him that
+gentlemen who traveled all the way to Iceland were
+bound to see something and meet with some thrilling adventures.
+If they didn&rsquo;t tell of very remarkable things,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[511]</a></span>
+nobody would care about reading their books. This was
+the great art of travel; it was not exactly lying, but putting
+on colors to give the picture effect.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;For my part, Z&ouml;ega,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;having no great skill
+as an artist, and being a very plain, unimaginative man,
+as you know, I shall confine myself strictly to facts. Perhaps
+there will be novelty enough in telling the truth to
+attract attention.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The truth is always the best, sir,&rdquo; replied Z&ouml;ega,
+gravely and piously.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of course it is, Z&ouml;ega. This country is sufficiently
+curious in itself. It does not require the aid of fiction
+to give it effect. Therefore, should you come across any
+thing in my narrative which may have escaped your notice,
+depend upon it I thought it was true&mdash;or ought to
+be.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir; I know you would never lie like some of
+these gentlemen.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Never! never, Z&ouml;ega! I scorn a lying traveler above
+all things on earth.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But these digressions, however amusing they were
+at the time, can scarcely be of much interest to the reader.</p>
+
+<p>Even after the lapse of several years the marks around
+the camping-ground were quite fresh. The sod is of very
+fine texture, and the grass never grows very rank, so
+that wherever a trench is cut to let off the rain, it remains,
+with very little alteration, for a great length of
+time.</p>
+
+<p>On the principle that a sovereign of the United States
+ought never to rank himself below a prince of any other
+country, I selected a spot a little above the camping-ground
+of his excellency the Prince Napoleon. By the
+aid of my guide I soon had the tent pitched. It was a
+small affair&mdash;only an upright pole, a few yards of canvas,
+and four wooden pins. The whole concern did not weigh
+twenty pounds, and only covered an area of ground about
+four feet by six. Z&ouml;ega then took the horses to a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[512]</a></span>
+pasture up the valley. I amused myself making a few sketches
+of the surrounding objects, and thinking how strange
+it was to be here all alone at the Geysers of Iceland.
+How many of my friends knew where I was? Not one,
+perhaps. And should all the Geysers blow up together
+and boil me on the spot, what would people generally
+think of it? Or suppose the ground were to give way
+and swallow me up, what difference would it make in the
+price of consols or the temperature of the ocean?</p>
+
+<p>When Z&ouml;ega came back, he said, if I pleased, we would
+now go to work and cut sods for the Strokhr. It was
+a favorable time &ldquo;to see him heave up.&rdquo; The way to
+make him do that was to make him sick. Sods always
+made him sick. They didn&rsquo;t agree with his stomach.
+Every gentleman who came here made it a point to stir
+him up. He was called the Strokhr because he churned
+things that were thrown down his throat; and Strokhr
+means <em>churn</em>. I was very anxious to see the performance
+suggested by Z&ouml;ega, and readily consented to assist
+him in getting the sods.</p>
+
+<p>The Strokhr lay about a hundred yards from our tent,
+nearly in a line between the Great and Little Geysers.
+Externally it presents no very remarkable feature, being
+nothing more than a hole in the bed of rocks, about five
+feet in diameter, and slightly funnel-shaped at the orifice.
+Standing upon the edge, one can see the water boiling
+up and whirling over about twenty feet below. A hollow,
+growling noise is heard, varied by an occasional hiss
+and rush, as if the contents were struggling to get out.
+It emits hot vapors, and a slight smell of sulphur;
+otherwise it maintains rather a peaceful aspect, considering
+the infernal temper it gets into when disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Z&ouml;ega and I worked hard cutting and carrying the
+sods for nearly half an hour, by which time we had a
+large pile on the edge of the orifice. Z&ouml;ega said there
+was enough. I insisted on getting more. &ldquo;Let us give
+him a dose that he won&rsquo;t forget.&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh, sir, nobody ever
+puts more than that in; it is quite enough.&rdquo; &ldquo;No; I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[513]</a></span>
+mean to make him deadly sick. Come on, Z&ouml;ega.&rdquo; And
+at it we went again, cutting the sod, and carrying it over
+and piling it up in a great heap by the hole. When we
+had about a ton all ready, I said to Z&ouml;ega, &ldquo;Now, Z&ouml;ega,
+fire away, and I&rsquo;ll stand here and see how it works.&rdquo;
+Then Z&ouml;ega pushed it all over, and it went slapping and
+dashing down into the steaming shaft. For a little while
+it whirled about, and surged, and boiled, and tumbled
+over and over in the depths of the churn with a hollow,
+swashing noise terribly ominous of what was to come.
+I peeped over the edge to try if I could detect the first
+symptoms of the approaching eruption. Z&ouml;ega walked
+quietly away about twenty steps, saying he preferred not
+to be too close. There was a sudden growl and a rumble,
+a terrible plunging about and swashing of the sods
+below, and fierce, whirling clouds of steam flew up, almost
+blinding me as they passed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said Z&ouml;ega, gravely, &ldquo;you had better stand
+away. It comes up very suddenly when it once starts.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be afraid, Z&ouml;ega; I&rsquo;ll keep a sharp look-out
+for it. You may depend there&rsquo;s not a Geyser in Iceland
+can catch me when I make a break.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very well, sir; but I&rsquo;d advise you to be careful.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding this good counsel, I could not resist
+the fascination of looking in. There was another tremendous
+commotion going on&mdash;a roar, a whirling over
+of the sods, and clouds of steam flying up. This time I
+ran back a few steps. But it was a false alarm. Nothing
+came of it. The heaving mass seemed to be producing
+the desired effect, however. The Strokhr was evidently
+getting very sick. I looked over once more. All
+below was a rumbling, tumbling black mass, dashing over
+and over against the sides of the churn. Soon a threatening
+roar not to be mistaken startled me. &ldquo;Look out,
+sir!&rdquo; shouted Z&ouml;ega; &ldquo;look out!&rdquo; Unlike the Frenchman
+who looked out when he should have looked in, I
+unconsciously looked in when I should have looked out.
+With a suddenness that astonished me, up shot the seething
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[514]</a></span>
+mass almost in my face. One galvanic jump&mdash;an involuntary
+shout of triumph&mdash;and I was rolling heels over
+head on the crust of earth about ten feet off, the hot water
+and clumps of sod tumbling down about me in every
+direction. Another scramble brought me to my feet, of
+which I made such good use that I was forty yards beyond
+Z&ouml;ega before I knew distinctly what had happened.
+The poor fellow came running toward me in great consternation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are you hurt, sir? I hope you&rsquo;re not hurt!&rdquo; he
+cried, in accents of great concern.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hurt!&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t you see me rolling
+over on the ground laughing at it? Why, Z&ouml;ega, I never
+saw any thing so absurd as that in my life; any decent
+Geyser would have given at least an hour&rsquo;s notice.
+This miserable little wretch went off half cocked. I was
+just laughing to think how sick we made him all of a
+sudden!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, that was it, sir! I thought you were badly
+hurt.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not a bit of it. You never saw a man who had suffered
+serious bodily injury run and jump with joy, and
+roll with laughter as I did.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir, never, now that I come to think of it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Somehow it was always pleasant to talk with Z&ouml;ega,
+his simplicity was so refreshing.</p>
+
+<p>The display was really magnificent. An immense dark
+column shot into the air to the height of sixty or seventy
+feet, composed of innumerable jets of water and whirling
+masses of sod. It resembled a thousand fountains joined
+together, each with a separate source of expulsion. The
+hissing hot water, blackened by the boiled clay and turf,
+spurted up in countless revolving circlets, spreading out
+in every direction and falling in torrents over the earth,
+which was deluged for fifty feet around with the dark,
+steaming flood. This, again sweeping into the mouth
+of the funnel, fell in thick streams into the churn, carrying
+with it the sods that were scattered within its
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[515]</a></span>
+vortex, and once more heaved and surged about in the huge
+caldron below.</p>
+
+<p>The eruption continued for about five minutes without
+any apparent diminution of force. It then subsided
+into fitful and convulsive jets, as if making a last effort,
+and finally disappeared with a deep growl of disappointment.
+All was now quiet save the gurgling of the
+murky water as it sought its way back. Z&ouml;ega said it
+was not done yet&mdash;that this was only a beginning. I
+took my sketch-book and resolved to seize the next opportunity
+for a good view of the eruption, taking, in the
+mean time, a general outline of the locality, including a
+glimpse of the Langarfjal. Just as I had finished up to
+the orifice the same angry roar which had first startled
+me was repeated, and up shot the dark, boiling flood in
+grander style than ever. This time it was absolutely
+fearful. There could be no doubt the dose of sods we
+had tumbled into the stomach of the old gentleman was
+making him not only dreadfully sick, but furiously angry.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment, as if the elements sympathized in his
+distress, fierce gusts of wind began to blow down from
+the Langarfjal. So sudden and violent were they that
+it was difficult to maintain a foothold in our exposed position;
+and the tall column of fountains, struck with the
+full violence of the wind, presented a splendid spectacle
+of strength and rage&mdash;surging, and swaying, and battling
+to maintain its erect position, and showing in every motion
+the irresistible power with which it was ejected.
+Steam, and water, and sods went whirling down into the
+valley; the very air was darkened with the shriven and
+scattered currents; and a black deluge fell to the leeward,
+hundreds of yards beyond the orifice. The weird
+and barren aspect of the surrounding scenery was never
+more impressive.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What do you think of the Strokhr, sir?&rdquo; asked Z&ouml;ega,
+with some pride. &ldquo;Is it equal to the Geysers of California?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_strokhr" id="the_strokhr"></a>
+<img src="images/thor102.png" width="600" height="456"
+alt="A huge geyser spews out water, steam and clods of earth" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE STROKHR.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather taken aback at the honest bluntness of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[517]</a></span>
+this question, and must admit that I felt a little crest-fallen
+when I came to compare the respective performances.
+Therefore I could only answer, in rather a casual way,</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, Z&ouml;ega, to tell you the truth, ours don&rsquo;t get
+quite so sick as this, owing, no doubt, to the superior salubrity
+of our climate. You might throw sods into them
+all day, and they wouldn&rsquo;t make such a fuss about it as
+the Strokhr makes about a mere handful. Their digestion,
+you see, is a great deal stronger.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, but wait, sir, till you see the Great Geyser; that&rsquo;s
+much better than the Strokhr.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Doubtless it is very fine, Z&ouml;ega. Still I can&rsquo;t help
+but think our California Geysers are in a superior condition
+of health. It is true they smoke a good deal, but I
+don&rsquo;t think they impair their digestion by such stimulating
+food as the Geysers of Iceland. Judging by the
+eruptions of the Strokhr, I should say he feeds exclusively
+on fire and water, which would ruin the best stomach
+in the world.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Z&ouml;ega looked troubled. He evidently did not comprehend
+my figurative style of speech. So the conversation
+dropped.</p>
+
+<p>The column of water ejected from the Strokhr, unlike
+that of the Great Geyser, is tall and slender, and of almost
+inky blackness. In the case of the Great Geyser
+no artificial means interrupt its operations; in that of
+the Strokhr the pressure of foreign substances produces
+results not natural to it.</p>
+
+<p>After the two eruptions which I have attempted to
+describe, the waters of the Strokhr again subsided into
+sobs and convulsive throes. Some half an hour now
+elapsed before any thing more took place. Then there
+was another series of growls, and a terrible swashing
+about down in the churn, as if all the demons under earth
+were trying to drown one another, and up shot the murky
+flood for the third time. Thus it continued at intervals
+more and more remote, till a late hour in the night,
+making desperate efforts to disgorge the sods that were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[518]</a></span>
+swept back after every ejection, and to rid itself of the
+foul water that remained. Those attempts gradually
+grow fainter and fainter, subsiding at last into mere grumblings.
+I looked into the orifice the next morning, and
+was surprised to find the water yet discolored. It was
+evident, from the uneasy manner in which it surged about,
+that the dose still produced unpleasant effects.</p>
+
+<p>Having finished my sketch, I returned to the tent, in
+front of which Z&ouml;ega had meantime spread a cloth, with
+some bread and cheese on it, and such other scraps of
+provisions as we had. A little boy from the neighboring
+sheep-ranch brought us down some milk and cream,
+and I thought if we only had a cup of tea on to warm
+us up after the chilly wind our supper would be luxurious.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Just in time, sir,&rdquo; said Z&ouml;ega; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll make the tea in
+a minute.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where&rsquo;s your fire.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, we don&rsquo;t need fire here&mdash;the hot water is always
+ready. There&rsquo;s the big boiler up yonder!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I looked where Z&ouml;ega pointed, and saw, about a hundred
+yards off, a boiling caldron. This was our grand
+tea-kettle. Upon a nearer inspection, I found that it
+consisted of two great holes in the rocks, close together,
+the larger of which was about thirty feet in circumference,
+and of great depth. The water was as clear as crystal.
+It was easy to trace the white stratum of rocks, of
+which the sides were formed, down to the neck of the
+great shaft through which the water was ejected. Flakes
+of steam floated off from the surface of the crystal pool,
+which was generally placid. Only at occasional intervals
+did it show any symptoms of internal commotion.
+By dipping my finger down a little way I found that it
+was boiling hot. Five minutes immersion would be sufficient
+to skin and boil an entire man.</p>
+
+<p>Nature has bountifully put these boilers here for the
+use of travelers. Not a stick or twig of wood grows
+within a circuit of many miles, and without fuel of course
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[519]</a></span>
+it would be impossible to cook food. Here a leg of mutton
+submerged in a pot can be beautifully boiled; plum-puddings
+cooked; eggs, fish, or any thing you please,
+done to a nicety. All this I knew before, but I had no
+idea that the water was pure enough for drinking purposes.
+Such, however, is the fact. No better water
+ever came out of the earth&mdash;in a boiled condition. To
+make a pot of tea, you simply put your tea in your pot,
+hold on to the handle, dip the whole concern down into
+the water, keep it there a while to draw, and your tea is
+made.</p>
+
+<p>I found it excellent, and did not, as I apprehended, discover
+any unpleasant flavor in the water. It may be
+slightly impregnated with sulphur, though that gives it
+rather a wholesome smack. To me, however, it tasted
+very much like any other hot water.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="side_saddle" id="side_saddle"></a>
+<img src="images/thor103.png" width="400" height="367"
+alt="A side-saddle, with low body support and a broad stirrup" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">SIDE-SADDLE.</p>
+
+<p>When I returned to the tent, and sat down to my frugal
+repast, and ate my bread and cheese, and quaffed the
+fragrant tea, Z&ouml;ega sitting near by respectfully assisting
+me, something of the old California feeling came over
+me, and I enjoyed life once more after years of travel
+through the deserts of civilization in Europe. What a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[520]</a></span>
+glorious thing it is to be a natural barbarian! This was
+luxury! this was joy! this was Paradise upon earth!
+Ah me! where is the country that can equal California?
+Brightest of the bright lands of sunshine; richest, rarest,
+loveliest of earth&rsquo;s beauties! like Ph&aelig;dra to the mistress
+of his soul, I love you by day and by night, behave in
+the company of others as if I were absent; want you;
+dream of you; think of you; wish for you; delight in
+you&mdash;in short, I am wholly yours, body and soul! If
+ever I leave you again on a wild-goose chase through
+Europe, may the Elector of Hesse-Cassel appoint me his
+prime minister, or the Duke of Baden his principal butler!</p>
+
+<p>Very little indication of the time was apparent in the
+sky. The sun still shone brightly, although it was nearly
+ten o&rsquo;clock. I did not feel much inclined to sleep, with
+so many objects of interest around. Apart from that,
+there was something in this everlasting light that disturbed
+my nervous system. It becomes really terrible
+in the course of a few days. The whole order of nature
+seems reversed. Night has disappeared altogether.
+Nothing but day remains&mdash;dreary, monotonous, perpetual
+day. You crave the relief of darkness; your spirits,
+at first exuberant, go down, and still down, till they are
+below zero; the novelty wears away, and the very light
+becomes gloomy.</p>
+
+<p>People must sleep, nevertheless. With me it was a
+duty I owed to an overtaxed body. Our tent was rather
+small for two, and Z&ouml;ega asked permission to sleep
+with an acquaintance who lived in a cabin about two
+miles distant. This I readily granted. It was something
+of a novelty to be left in charge of two such distinguished
+characters as the Great Geyser and the Strokhr.
+Possibly they might favor me with some extraordinary
+freaks of humor, such as no other traveler had yet enjoyed.
+So, bidding Z&ouml;ega a kindly farewell for the present,
+I closed the front of the tent, and tried to persuade myself
+that it was night.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[521]</a></span>
+With the light streaming in through the crevices of
+the tent, it was no easy matter to imagine that this was
+an appropriate time to &ldquo;steep the senses in forgetfulness.&rdquo;
+I was badly provided with covering, and the
+weather, though not absolutely cold, was damp and
+chilly. In my hurry to get off, I had forgotten even the
+small outfit with which I originally thought of making
+the journey. All I now had in the way of bedding was
+a thin shawl, and an old overall belonging to Captain
+Andersen, of the steamer. I put one on the ground and
+the other over my body, and with a bag of hard bread
+under my head by way of a pillow, strove to banish the
+notion that it was at all uncomfortable. There was
+something in this method of sleeping to remind me of my
+California experience. To be sure there was a lack of
+blankets, and fire, and pleasant company, and balmy air,
+and many other luxuries; but the general principle was
+the same, except that it was impossible to sleep. The
+idea of being utterly alone, in such an outlandish part
+of the world, may have had something to do with the
+singular activity of my nervous system. It seemed to
+me that somebody was thrusting cambric needles into
+my skin in a sudden and violent manner, and at the most
+unexpected places; and strange sounds were continually
+buzzing in my ears. I began to reflect seriously upon
+the condition of affairs down underneath my bed. Doubtless
+it was a very fiery and restless region, or all these
+smokes and simmering pools would not disfigure the face
+of the country. How thick was the shell of the earth
+at this particular spot? It sounded very thin all over&mdash;a
+mere crust, through which one might break at any
+moment. Here was boiling water fizzing and gurgling
+all around, and the air was impregnated with strong
+odors of sulphur. Suppose the whole thing should burst
+up of a sudden? It was by no means impossible. What
+would become of my sketches of Iceland in the event of
+such a catastrophe as that? What sort of a notice would
+my editorial friends give of the curious manner in which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[522]</a></span>
+I had disappeared? And what would Z&ouml;ega think in
+the morning, when he came down from the farm-house,
+and saw that his tent and provision-boxes were gone
+down in a great hole, and that an American gentleman,
+in whom he had the greatest confidence, had not only
+carried them with him, but failed to pay his liabilities
+before starting? Here, too, was the sun only slightly
+dipped below the horizon at midnight, and the moon
+shining overhead at the same time. Every thing was
+twisted inside out and turned upside down. It was truly
+a strange country.</p>
+
+<p>Having tossed and tumbled about for an indefinite
+length of time, I must have fallen into an uneasy doze.
+During the day I had been thinking of the rebellion at
+home, and now gloomy visions disturbed my mind. I
+thought I saw moving crowds dressed in black, and heard
+wailing sounds. Funerals passed before me, and women
+and children wept for the dead. The scene changed,
+and I saw hosts of men on the battle-field, rushing upon
+each other and falling in deadly strife. A dreary horror
+came over me. It was like some dreadful play, in which
+the stake was human life. Blood was upon the faces of
+the dying and the dead. In the effort to disentangle
+the right from the wrong&mdash;to seek out a cause for the
+calamity which had fallen upon us&mdash;a racking anguish
+tortured me, and I vainly strove to regain my scattered
+senses. Then, in the midst of this confused dream, I
+heard the booming of cannon&mdash;at first far down in the
+earth, but gradually growing nearer, till, with a start, I
+awoke. Still the guns boomed! Surely the sounds were
+real. I could not be deceived. Starting to my feet, I
+listened. Splashing and surging waters, and dull, heavy
+reports, sounded in the air. I dashed aside the lining
+of the tent and looked out. Never shall I forget that
+sight&mdash;the Great Geyser in full eruption! A tremendous
+volume of water stood in bold relief against the
+sky, like a tall weeping willow in winter swaying before
+the wind, and shaking the white frost from its drooping
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[523]</a></span>
+branches. Whirling vapors and white wreaths floated
+off toward the valley. All was clear overhead. A spectral
+light, which was neither of day nor of night, shone
+upon the dark, lava-covered earth. The rush and plashing
+of the fountain and the booming of the subterranean
+guns fell with a startling distinctness upon the solitude.
+Streams of glittering white water swept the surface of
+the great basin on all sides, and dashed hissing and steaming
+into the encircling fissures. A feathery spray sparkled
+through the air. The earth trembled, and sudden
+gusts of wind whirled down with a moaning sound from
+the wild gorges of the Langarfjal.</p>
+
+<p>It did not appear to me that the height of the fountain
+was so great as it is generally represented. So far as I
+could judge, the greatest altitude at any time from the
+commencement of the eruption was not over sixty feet.
+Its volume, however, greatly exceeded my expectations,
+and the beauty of its form surpassed all description. I
+had never before seen, and never again expect to see, any
+thing equal to it. This magnificent display lasted, altogether,
+about ten minutes. The eruption was somewhat
+spasmodic in its operation, increasing or diminishing
+in force at each moment, till, with a sudden dash, all
+the water that remained was ejected, and then, after a
+few gurgling throes, all was silent.</p>
+
+<p>I no longer attempted to sleep. My mind was bewildered
+with the wonders of the scene I had just witnessed.
+All I could do was to make a cup of tea at the big
+boiler on the slope above my tent, and walk about, after
+drinking it, to keep my feet warm. Soon the sun&rsquo;s rays
+appeared upon the distant mountains. A strange time
+of the night for the sun to be getting up&mdash;only half past
+one&mdash;when people in most other parts of the world are
+snug in bed, and don&rsquo;t expect to see a streak of sunshine
+for at least four or five hours. How different from any
+thing I had ever before seen was the sunrise in Iceland!
+No crowing of the cock; no singing of the birds; no
+merry plow-boys whistling up the horses in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[524]</a></span>
+barn-yard; no cherry-cheeked milk-maids singing love-ditties
+as they tripped the green with their pails upon their
+heads. All was grim, silent, and death-like. And yet
+surely, for all that, the delicate tints of the snow-capped
+mountains, the peaks of which were now steeped in the
+rays of the rising sun, the broad valley slumbering in the
+shade, the clear, sparkling atmosphere, and the exquisite
+coloring of the Langarfjal&mdash;the mighty crag that towers
+over the Geysers&mdash;were beauties enough to redeem the
+solitude and imbue the deserts with a celestial glory.</p>
+
+<p>There are various theories concerning the cause of
+these eruptions of water in Iceland. That of Lyell, the
+geologist, seems the most reasonable. The earth, as it is
+well known, increases in heat at a certain ratio corresponding
+with the depth from the surface. There are
+cavities in many parts of it, arising from subterranean
+disturbances, into which the water percolates from the
+upper strata. In Iceland the probability is that these
+cavities are both numerous and extensive, owing to volcanic
+causes, and form large receivers for the water of
+the surrounding neighborhood. Wherever there is a
+natural outlet, as at the Geysers, this water, which is boiled
+by the heat of the earth, is forced to the surface by
+compression of steam, and remains at the mouth of the
+pipe, or shaft, until an accumulation of compressed steam
+drives it up in the form of a fountain. The periodical
+occurrence of these eruptions in some of the hot-springs
+and not in others may arise from a difference in the depth
+of the receiver, or more probably from the existence of
+several outlets for the escape of steam in some, and only
+one in others. A good illustration of this theory is presented
+in the boiling of an ordinary tea-kettle. When
+the compression of steam is great, the cover is lifted up
+and the water shoots from the spout, by which means
+the pressure is relieved and the water subsides. The
+same thing is repeated until the space within the kettle
+becomes sufficiently large to admit of a more rapid condensation
+of the steam. The action of the Strokhr, which,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[525]</a></span>
+as I have shown, differs from that of the Great Geyser,
+may be accounted for on the same general principle.
+The foreign substances thrown in on top of the boiling
+water stops the escape of steam, which, under ordinary
+circumstances, is sufficiently great not to require the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[526]</a></span>
+periodical relief of an eruption. An accumulation of compressed
+steam takes place in the reservoir below, and
+this continues until the obstruction is ejected.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 386px;">
+<a name="geysers_and_receivers" id="geysers_and_receivers"></a>
+<img src="images/thor104.png" width="386" height="800"
+alt="Diagrams showing the formation of two different geysers" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">GREAT GEYSER AND RECEIVER.<br />
+STROKHR AND RECEIVER.</p>
+
+<p>This, I believe, is substantially Lyell&rsquo;s theory; though,
+having no books by me at present, I quote entirely from
+memory, and it is possible I may be mistaken in some of
+the details. The preceding diagrams will enable the
+reader to understand more clearly the whole process by
+which these eruptions are produced.</p>
+
+<p>Six long hours remained till ordinary breakfast-time.
+What was to be done? It was getting terribly lonesome.
+I felt like one who had been to a theatre and
+seen all the performances. Z&ouml;ega had promised to be
+back by eight o&rsquo;clock; but eight o&rsquo;clock in Iceland, on
+the 21st of June, is a late hour of the day. A treatise
+on trigonometry might be written between sunrise and
+that unapproachable hour. The only thing I could do
+was to make some more tea and eat a preliminary breakfast.
+When that was done nothing remained but to go
+to work in front of my little tent and finish up my rough
+sketches. This is a very absorbing business, as every
+body knows who has tried it, and I was deeply into it
+when Z&ouml;ega made his appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, sir,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;what success? Did he erupt?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of course he erupted, Z&ouml;ega. You didn&rsquo;t suppose a
+Great Geyser would keep a gentleman all the way from
+California waiting here an entire night without showing
+him what he could do?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir; but he sometimes disappoints travelers.
+How do you like it? Does he compare with your California
+Geysers?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, Z&ouml;ega, he throws up more hot water, to be
+sure, because our Geysers don&rsquo;t erupt at all; but here is
+the grand difference. We Californians are a moral people;
+we don&rsquo;t live so near to (I pointed down below) as
+you do in Iceland.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand you, sir,&rdquo; said Z&ouml;ega, with a puzzled
+expression.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[527]</a></span>
+I called him over and whispered in his ear, &ldquo;Z&ouml;ega, I
+hope you&rsquo;re a good man. Do you say your prayers regularly?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then you are all right. Let us be going. I don&rsquo;t
+like this neighborhood.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Whenever you wish, sir. The horses are all ready.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And Z&ouml;ega proceeded to strike the tent and pack the
+animals, muttering to himself and shaking his head gravely,
+as if he thought the Californians were a very peculiar
+race of men, to say the least of them.</p>
+
+<p>Another cup of tea and a few biscuits served to brace
+us up for the journey, and we mounted our horses and
+turned their heads homeward. Brusa was so delighted
+at the idea of being <i>en route</i> once more that he signalized
+our departure by giving chase to a flock of sheep,
+which he dispersed in a most miraculous manner, and
+then, of course, received the customary punishment.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LI" id="CHAPTER_LI"></a>CHAPTER LI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ENGLISH SPORTS IN TROUBLE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Our ride back to Thingvalla was over the same trail
+which we had traveled on the preceding day, with the
+exception of a short cut to the right of the Tintron rock.
+We made very good speed, and reached the Parsonage
+early in the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>During our absence a young Englishman had arrived
+from the North, where he had been living for a year. I
+found him in the travelers&rsquo; room, surrounded by a confused
+medley of boxes, bags, books, and Icelandic curiosities,
+which he was endeavoring to reduce to some kind
+of order. Had I not been told he was an Englishman I
+should never have suspected it, either from his appearance
+or manner. When I entered the room he stood up
+and looked at me, and I must say, without intending him
+the slightest disrespect, that he was the most extraordinary
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[528]</a></span>
+looking man I ever saw in all my life, not excepting
+a tattooed African chief that I once met at Zanzibar.
+Whether he was young or old it was impossible to say&mdash;he
+might be twenty-five or just as likely fifty. Dirty
+and discolored with travel, his face was generally dark,
+though it was somewhat relieved by spots of yellow.
+His features were regular, and of almost feminine softness;
+his eyes were dark brown; and his hair, which
+was nearly black, hung down over his shoulders in lank
+straight locks, sunburnt or frostbitten at the ends. On
+his head he wore a tall, conical green wool hat, with a
+broad brim, and a brown band tied in a true lover&rsquo;s knot
+at one side. The remainder of his costume consisted of
+a black cloth roundabout, threadbare and dirty; a pair
+of black casimere pantaloons, very tight about the legs
+and burst open in several places; and a pair of moccasins
+on his feet, adorned with beads and patches of red
+flannel. If he wore a shirt it was not conspicuous for
+whiteness, for I failed to discover it. When he saw that
+a stranger stood before him, he looked quite overwhelmed
+with astonishment, and gasped out some inarticulate
+words, consisting principally of Icelandic interjections.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How do you do, sir?&rdquo; said I, in the usual California
+style. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad to meet an Englishman in this wild
+country!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ye&rsquo;ow-w-w!&rdquo; (a prolonged exclamation.)</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Just arrived, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nay-y-y!&rdquo; (a prolonged negative.)</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You speak English, I believe, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh-h-h! Ya-a-a-s. Are&mdash;you&mdash;an&mdash;Englishman?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir. An American, from California.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;De-e-e-a-r-r m-e-e!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 389px;">
+<a name="oh_o_o_ah" id="oh_o_o_ah"></a>
+<img src="images/thor105.png" width="389" height="500"
+alt="The strange Englishman" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">OH-O-O-AH!</p>
+
+<p>Here there was a pause, for I really did not know what
+to make of the man. He looked at the ceiling, and at
+the floor, and out of the window, and started a remark
+several times, but always stopped before he got under
+way, or lost it in a prolonged &ldquo;Oh-o-o-a!&rdquo; Again and
+again he attempted to speak, never getting beyond a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[529]</a></span>
+word or two. It seemed as if some new idea were continually
+crossing his mind and depriving him of his breath:
+he labored under a chronic astonishment. At first I supposed
+it might be the natural result of a year&rsquo;s absence
+in the interior of Iceland, but subsequent acquaintance
+with him satisfied me that it was constitutional. He
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[530]</a></span>
+was astonished all the way from Reykjavik to Scotland.
+When it rained he opened his eyes as if they would
+burst; looked up in the sky, and cried &ldquo;Oh-h-h!&rdquo; When
+it blew he tumbled into his berth, covered himself up in
+the blankets, peeped out in the most profound amazement,
+and ejaculated &ldquo;Ah-h-h! Oh-h-h! Hay-y-y!
+Ye&rsquo;ow-w-w!&rdquo; When the weather was fine he came up
+on deck, peered over the bulwarks, up at the rigging,
+down into the engine-room, and was perfectly astounded
+at each object, exclaiming alternately &ldquo;Oh-h-o-o-a-a-h!&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Ah-ha!&rdquo; &ldquo;H-a-y!&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ye&rsquo;ow-w-w-w!&rdquo; At Thingvalla
+his main food was curds and black bread, yet he
+had an abundance of the best provisions. He was a
+thorough Icelandic scholar, and spoke the language with
+ease and grace, only when interrupted by the novel ideas
+that so often struck him in the head. With all his oddity,
+he was a gentleman by birth and education, and was
+very amiable in his disposition. He had evidently spent
+much of his life over books; his knowledge of the world
+scarcely equaled that of a child. From all that I could
+gather of his winter&rsquo;s experiences in North Iceland, the
+climate was not very severe, except at occasional intervals
+when there was a press of ice-fields along the coast.
+The mean temperature was quite moderate. He suffered
+no inconvenience at all from the weather. At times
+it was very pleasant. He had the misfortune to break
+his leg in climbing over some lava-bergs, which crippled
+him for some weeks, but he was now getting all right
+again. This account of his experiences, which I obtained
+from him during the evening, took many divergences
+into the &ldquo;Ohs!&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ahs!&rdquo; and was really both instructive
+and entertaining. When he came to the breaking
+of his leg, I expressed my astonishment at the equanimity
+with which he bore it, which so astonished him,
+when he came to think of it in that light, that he cried
+&ldquo;Oh-h-a-a! ya-a-s! It&mdash;was&mdash;very&mdash;bad!&rdquo; as if he had
+entirely forgotten how bad it was, and now made a new
+and most singular discovery.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[531]</a></span>
+As there was only the one small room we had to sleep
+at pretty close quarters, the Englishman on the sofa and
+I in the bed, which for some reason was awarded to me
+by the good pastor. Having no preference, I offered to
+exchange; but this only astonished my eccentric neighbor,
+and set him off into a labyrinth of interjections. Our
+heads were placed pretty close together, and it was some
+time before I could settle myself to sleep, owing to a variety
+of peculiar sounds he made in whispering to himself.
+He seemed to be telling himself some interminable
+story from one of the Sagas. Several times I dozed
+off, and was awakened by some extraordinary ejaculation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I beg your pardon,&rdquo; said I, at length, rising up, and
+looking in the face of my neighbor, who was lying on
+his back, with his eyes wide open, &ldquo;I beg your pardon,
+sir; did you speak to me?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh-h-h-a!&rdquo; shouted the Englishman, jumping up as
+if touched with a streak of electricity. &ldquo;Dear me! ha&mdash;oh-o-o!
+How very odd!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Eh?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Good-night, sir!&rdquo; I said, and lay down again. The
+Englishman also composed himself to rest, but presently
+rose up, and looking over at me, exclaimed &ldquo;Oh-o-o-ah!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This was all. Then we both composed ourselves to
+sleep. Tired as I was after my ride from the Geysers
+and the bad night I had passed there, it was no wonder
+I soon lost all consciousness of the proximity of my eccentric
+room-mate, and the probability is I would have
+gotten well through the night but for another singular
+and unexpected interruption.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hello! What the devil! Who&rsquo;s here? By Jove,
+this is jolly! I say! Where the dooce is our American
+friend? Down, Bowser! Down! Blawst the dog!
+Ho! ho! Look there, Tompkins! I say! Here&rsquo;s a go!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There was a tramping of feet, a knocking about of
+loose things in the room, and a chorus of familiar voices
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[532]</a></span>
+in the adjoining passage. It is needless to say that the
+party of sporting Englishmen had arrived from Reykjavik.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh-h-a! Ye-o-w!&rdquo; exclaimed my room-mate, starting
+up, and gazing wildly at the lively young gentleman
+with the dog. &ldquo;Oh-o-o! How very odd!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The jolly sportsman looked at the apparition in perfect
+amazement. Both stared at each other for a moment,
+as if such an extraordinary sight had never been
+witnessed on either side before.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;By Jove! this is jolly!&rdquo; muttered the lively gentleman,
+turning on his heel and walking out; &ldquo;a devilish
+rum-looking chap, that!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh-o-o-o!&rdquo; was all my astonished room-mate said,
+after which he turned over and composed himself to
+sleep. I had purposely refrained from manifesting any
+symptoms of wakefulness, well-knowing that there would
+be no farther rest that night if I once discovered myself
+to the traveling party.</p>
+
+<p>At a seasonable hour in the morning, however, I got
+up, and looked about in search of my fellow-passengers,
+whom I really liked, and in whose progress I felt a considerable
+interest. They were camped close by the church,
+under the lee of the front door. Two canvas tents covered
+what was left of them. A general wreck of equipments
+lay scattered all around&mdash;broken poles, boxes, tinware,
+etc. It was plain enough they had encountered
+incredible hardships.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="the_english_party" id="the_english_party"></a>
+<img src="images/thor106.png" width="600" height="462"
+alt="Seven men, looking bedraggled and downcast" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">THE ENGLISH PARTY.</p>
+
+<p>The usual greetings over, I inquired how they had enjoyed
+the trip from Reykjavik. In reply they gave me
+a detailed and melancholy history of their experiences.
+Riley&rsquo;s Narrative of Shipwreck, and subsequent hardships
+on the coast of Africa, was nothing to it. Of the
+twenty-five horses with which they left Reykjavik only
+thirteen were sound of wind, and of these more than half
+were afflicted with raw backs. The pack-animals, eighteen
+in number, were every one lame. Then the packs
+were badly done up, and broke to pieces on the way.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[534]</a></span>
+Sometimes the ropes cut the horses&rsquo; backs, and sometimes
+the horses lay down on the road, and tried to travel
+with their feet in the air. Incredible difficulty was
+experienced in making twelve miles the first day. It
+rained all the time. The bread was soaked; the tea destroyed;
+the sugar melted; and the Champagne baskets
+smashed. When the packs were taken off it was discovered
+that some of them wore quite empty, and the contents,
+consisting originally of hair-brushes, flea-powder,
+lip-salve, and cold-cream, were strewn along the road
+probably all the way from Reykjavik. The cot-fixtures
+were swelled and wouldn&rsquo;t fit; the tea-kettle was jammed
+into a cocked-hat; the tent-pins were lost, and the hatchet
+nowhere to be found. It was a perfect series of jams,
+smashes, and scatterings. Even the sheets were filled
+with mud, and wholly unfit for use until they could be
+washed and done up. One horse lay down on the portable
+kitchen, and flattened it into a general pancake;
+another attempted to take an impression of his own body
+on the photographic apparatus, and reduced it (the apparatus)
+to fragments; another, wishing perhaps to see
+his face as others saw him, raked off the looking-glasses
+against a point of lava, and walked on them; and, lastly,
+one stupid beast contrived in some way to get his nose
+into a mustard-case which had fallen from a pack in front,
+and, snuffing up the mustard, got his nostrils burnt and
+went perfectly crazy, kicking, plunging, and charging at
+all the other horses till he drove them all as crazy as himself,
+whereby a prodigious amount of damage was done.
+In short, it was a series of disasters from beginning to
+end; and here they were now but two days&rsquo; journey
+from Reykjavik (I had made the whole distance easily
+in seven hours), and, by Jove, there was no telling how
+much longer it would be possible to keep the guide.
+They had already quarreled with him several times, and
+threatened to discharge him. He was a stupid dunce,
+and a rascal and a cheat into the bargain. On the whole,
+it was a &ldquo;rum&rdquo; sort of a country to travel in. No game,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[535]</a></span>
+no roads, no shops, no accommodations for man or beast!
+And who ever saw such houses for people to live in?
+Mere sheep-pens! Disgustingly filthy! A beastly set
+of ragamuffins! By Jove, sir, if it wasn&rsquo;t for the name
+of the thing, a fellow might as well be in the infernal
+regions at once! In truth, I must acknowledge that the
+interior of an Icelandic hut does not present a very attractive
+spectacle to a stranger.</p>
+
+<p>I deeply sympathized with my friends, and urged them
+to leave the remainder of their baggage. If there was
+any medicine left, a dose of quinine all around might do
+them good and prevent any ill effects from the rain; but,
+on the whole, I thought they would get along better with
+less baggage.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Less baggage!&rdquo; cried all together. &ldquo;Why, hang it,
+our baggage is scattered along the trail clear back to
+Reykjavik! It has been growing less ever since we
+started. By the time we reach the Geysers it is questionable
+if we&rsquo;ll have as much as a fine-tooth comb left!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;you can travel. Sell a dozen of your
+horses on the way, and you&rsquo;ll be rid of another trouble!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sell them; they wouldn&rsquo;t bring a farthing. They&rsquo;re
+not worth a groat.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then turn them loose.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a jolly idea,&rdquo; said the lively sportsman; &ldquo;how
+the deuce are we to travel without pack-horses?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, nothing easier. You don&rsquo;t need pack-horses
+when you have no packs.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;By Jove, there&rsquo;s something in that!&rdquo; said the jolly
+gentleman. &ldquo;Our American friend ought to know. He&rsquo;s
+seen the elephant before.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This proposition gave rise to an animated discussion,
+during which I wished them a prosperous tour, and took
+my leave. Of their subsequent career I have heard nothing,
+save that they arrived safely in England, and published
+various letters in the newspapers giving glowing
+accounts of their Icelandic experience.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="interior_of_icelandic_hut" id="interior_of_icelandic_hut"></a>
+<img src="images/thor107.png" width="600" height="460"
+alt="Three adults, nine children, a cat and two dogs crammed into a small room" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">INTERIOR OF ICELANDIC HUT.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing of importance occurred on the way back to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[537]</a></span>
+Reykjavik. I arrived there early in the afternoon safe
+and sound, and greatly benefited by the trip. Like the
+beatings received by Brusa, the experience was delightful
+when it was over. I paid off my excellent guide
+Geir Z&ouml;ega, and made him a present of the few articles
+that remained from the expedition. It is a great pleasure
+to be able to recommend a guide heartily and conscientiously.
+A worthier man than Geir Z&ouml;ega does
+not exist, and I hereby certify that he afforded me entire
+satisfaction. No traveler who desires an honest, intelligent,
+and conscientious guide can do better than secure
+his services. Long life and happiness to you, Geir
+Z&ouml;ega! May your shadow never be less; and may your
+invaluable little dog Brusa live to profit by your wise
+counsel and judicious administration of the rod.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LII" id="CHAPTER_LII"></a>CHAPTER LII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A FRIGHTFUL ADVENTURE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The <i>Arcturus</i> had been delayed in discharging freight
+by a series of storms which prevailed at the bay, and was
+now down at Haparanda Fjord taking in ballast. The
+probability was that she would not leave for several days.
+Meantime I was extremely anxious to see a little more
+of domestic life in Iceland, and made several foot-expeditions
+to the farm-houses in the neighborhood of Reykjavik.</p>
+
+<p>At one of these I passed a night. In giving the details
+of an awkward adventure that befell me on that occasion,
+it is only necessary for me to say of the house
+that it was built in the usual primitive style, already described
+at some length. The people were farmers, and
+the family consisted of an old man and his wife, three or
+four stout sons, and a buxom daughter some twenty
+years of age. A few words of Danish enabled me to
+make them understand that I wished for a cup of coffee,
+some bread, and lodgings for the night. They were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[538]</a></span>
+exceeding kind, and seemed greatly interested in the fact
+that I was an American&mdash;probably the first they had
+ever seen. The coffee was soon ready; a cloth was
+spread upon the table, and a very good supper of bread,
+cheese, and curds placed before me. I passed some hours
+very sociably, giving them, as well as I could by means
+of signs and diagrams, aided by a few words of Danish,
+a general idea of California, its position on the globe, and
+the enormous amount of gold which it yielded. Evidently
+they had heard some exaggerated rumors of the
+country. The name was familiar to them, but they had
+no idea where this El Dorado was, or whether there was
+any truth in the statement that the mountains were made
+of gold, and all the rocks in the valleys of pure silver.
+My efforts to enlighten them on these points were rather
+ludicrous. It was miraculous how far I made a few
+words go, and how quick they were to guess at my meaning.</p>
+
+<p>About eleven o&rsquo;clock the old people began to manifest
+symptoms of drowsiness, and gave me to understand
+that whenever I felt disposed to go to bed the girl would
+show me my room. A walk of ten or twelve miles over
+the lava-bergs rendered this suggestion quite acceptable,
+so I bade the family a friendly good-night, and followed
+the girl to another part of the house. She took me into
+a small room with a bed in one corner. By a motion of
+her hand she intimated that I could rest there for the
+night. I sat down on the edge of the bed and said it
+was very good&mdash;that I was much obliged to her. She
+still lingered in the room, however, as if waiting to see
+if she could be of any farther assistance. I could not be
+insensible to the fact that she was a very florid and good-natured
+looking young woman; but, of course, that was
+none of my business. All I could do with propriety was
+to thank her again, and signify by taking off my overcoat
+that I was about to go to bed. Still she lingered,
+apparently disposed to be as friendly as circumstances
+would permit. It was somewhat awkward being alone
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[539]</a></span>
+in a strange room with a person of the opposite sex,
+young and rather pretty, without saying any thing particular.
+Her silence, as well as my own, was getting embarrassing.
+I attempted to carry on a conversation in
+Danish, of which I soon discovered she knew even less
+than I did myself. She answered my remarks, however,
+in her native tongue, with a very sweet voice, and in
+such a sociable way that I felt sure she meant to be kind
+and hospitable. In vain I waited for her to leave. It
+was getting late, and her parents might feel anxious about
+her. Still she manifested no disposition to go away.
+What could the girl mean? was a question that now
+began to enter my head. Probably I had taken possession
+of her room, and she had no other place to sleep.
+If so, it was not my fault. Nobody could hold me responsible
+for such a peculiar family arrangement. Seeing
+no alternative but to test the point, I gradually began
+to take off my coat. So far from being abashed at the
+movement, she seized hold of the sleeves and helped me
+off with it. I did the same with my vest, and still with
+the same result. Then I pulled off my boots, but with
+no better prospect of relief from my embarrassing dilemma.
+Finally I came to my pantaloons, at which I naturally
+hesitated. It was about time for the young woman
+to leave, if she had any regard for my feelings. I
+thanked her very cordially; but she showed no symptoms
+of leaving. It was plain that she meant to help me
+through with the business. I sat for some time longer
+before I could bring myself to this last trying ordeal.
+There was something so pure and innocent in the expression
+of the young woman&rsquo;s face&mdash;such an utter unconsciousness
+of any impropriety in our relative positions,
+that I scarcely knew what to do or think. &ldquo;She
+wants to help me off with my pantaloons&mdash;that&rsquo;s plain!&rdquo;
+said I to myself. &ldquo;Perhaps it is the custom in Iceland;
+but it is very awkward, nevertheless.&rdquo; The fact is, you
+see, I was not quite old enough to be the girl&rsquo;s father,
+nor yet quite young enough to be put to bed like her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540"><!-- Illustration page --></a></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[541]</a></span>
+youngest brother. Between the two extremes of the
+case I was considerably troubled. To reject her kind
+offers of service might be deemed rude, and nothing was
+farther from my intention than to offend this amiable
+young person. Allowing a reasonable time to elapse, I
+saw there was no getting over the difficulty, and began
+to remove the last article of my daily apparel. Doubtless
+she had long foreseen that it would eventually come
+to that. In a very accommodating manner, she took a
+position directly in front, and beckoned to me to elevate
+one of my legs, an order which I naturally obeyed. Then
+she seized hold of the pendent casimere and dragged
+away with a hearty good-will. I was quickly reduced
+to my natural state with the exception of a pair of drawers,
+which, to my horror, I discovered were in a very
+ragged condition, owing to the roughness of my travels
+in this wild region. However, by an adroit movement
+I whirled into bed, and the young woman covered me
+up and wished me a good night&rsquo;s sleep. I thanked her
+very cordially, and so ended this strange and rather awkward
+adventure.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="an_awkward_predicament" id="an_awkward_predicament"></a>
+<img src="images/thor108.png" width="600" height="463"
+alt="A young woman helps a man to get undressed" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">AN AWKWARD PREDICAMENT.</p>
+
+<p>Such primitive scenes are to be found only in the interior.
+In the towns the women are in dress and manners
+very like their sisters elsewhere. Hoops and crinoline
+are frequently to be seen not only among the Danes,
+who, as a matter of course, import them from Copenhagen,
+but among the native women, who can see no good
+reason why they should not be as much like pyramids
+or Jokuls as others of their sex. Bonnets and inverted
+pudding-bowls are common on the heads of the Reykjavik
+ladies, though as yet they have not found their way
+into the interior. All who can afford it indulge in a profusion
+of jewelry&mdash;silver clasps, breast-pins, tassel-bands,
+etc., and various articles of filigree made by native artists.
+These feminine traits I had not expected to find so
+fully developed in so out-of-the-way a country. But
+where is it that lovely woman will not make herself still
+more captivating? I once saw in Madagascar a belle
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[542]</a></span>
+of the first rank, as black as the ace of spades, and greased
+all over cocoa-nut oil, commit great havoc among
+her admirers by a necklace of shark&rsquo;s teeth and a pair
+of brass anklets, and nothing else. The rest of her costume,
+with a trifling exception, was purely imaginary;
+yet she was as vain of her superior style, and put on as
+many fine airs, as the most fashionable lady in any civilized
+country. After all, what is the difference between
+a finely-dressed savage and a finely-dressed Parisian?
+None at all that I can see, save in the color of the skin
+and the amount of labor performed by the manufacturer,
+the milliner, the tailor, or the schoolmaster. Intrinsically
+the constitution of the mind is identically the same.
+I speak now of men as well as women, for the most affected
+creatures I have seen in Europe are of the male
+sex. So pardon me, fair ladies, for any reflection upon
+your crinoline, and accept as my apology this candid
+avowal&mdash;that while you are naturally angelic, and always
+beautiful beyond comparison, in spite of what you do to
+disfigure your lovely persons, we men are naturally savages,
+and are driven to the barbarous expedient of adorning
+and beautifying our ugly bodies with gewgaws, tinsel,
+and jimcrackery, in order that they may be acceptable
+in your eyes.</p>
+
+<p>On my return to Reykjavik I found that the steamer
+was to sail next day. I was very anxious to visit Mount
+Hecla, but my time and means were limited, and would
+not permit of a farther sojourn in this interesting land.
+It was a great satisfaction to have seen any thing of it at
+all; and if I have given the reader even a slight glimpse
+of its wonders, my trip has not been entirely unsuccessful.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center padtop padbase">THE END.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="backads">
+<p class="center xlfont">THE NEW BOOKS</p>
+
+<p class="center lrgfont">OF THE SEASON</p>
+
+<p class="center smlfont">PUBLISHED BY</p>
+
+<p class="center">HARPER &amp; BROTHERS, <span class="smcap">New York</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i><span class="smcap">Harper &amp; Brothers</span> will send the following works by mail, postage prepaid, to any
+part of the United States, on receipt of the price.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i><span class="smcap">Harper&rsquo;s Catalogue</span> and <span class="smcap">Trade-List</span> may be obtained gratuitously on application
+to the Publishers personally, or will be sent by mail on receipt of Five Cents.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>McClintock and Strong&rsquo;s Cyclop&aelig;dia.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">A Cyclop&aelig;dia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical
+Literature. Prepared by the Rev. <span class="smcap">John McClintock</span>,
+D.D., and <span class="smcap">James Strong</span>, S.T.D. Vol. I.&mdash;A, B. Royal
+8vo, Cloth, $5&nbsp;00; Sheep, $6&nbsp;00; Half Mor., $8&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>Christie&rsquo;s Faith.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">By the Author of &ldquo;Mattie: a Stray,&rdquo; &ldquo;Carry&rsquo;s Confession,&rdquo;
+&amp;c. 12mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;75.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>Thrilling Adventures of Daniel Ellis.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">The great Union Guide of East Tennessee for a Period
+of nearly Four Years during the great Southern Rebellion.
+Written by Himself. Containing a Short Biography
+of the Author. With Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth,
+$2&nbsp;50.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>Trollope&rsquo;s Last Chronicle of Barset.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Last Chronicle of Barset. A Novel. By <span class="smcap">Anthony
+Trollope</span>, Author of &ldquo;Can You Forgive Her?&rdquo; &ldquo;The
+Small House at Allington,&rdquo; &ldquo;Doctor Thorne,&rdquo; &ldquo;Framley
+Parsonage,&rdquo; &amp;c. 8vo, Cloth and Paper. (<i>Just
+Ready.</i>)</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>Henry Winter Davis&rsquo;s Speeches and Addresses.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">Speeches and Addresses delivered in the Congress of
+the United States, and on several Public Occasions, by
+<span class="smcap">Henry Winter Davis</span>, of Maryland. Preceded by a
+Sketch of his Life, Public Services, and Character (being
+an Oration by the Hon. <span class="smcap">J.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;J. Creswell</span>, U.&nbsp;S.
+Senator from Maryland.) With Notes, Introductory
+and Explanatory. 8vo, Cloth, $4&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>Trollope&rsquo;s Claverings.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Claverings. A Novel. By <span class="smcap">Anthony Trollope</span>,
+Author of &ldquo;The Last Chronicle of Barset,&rdquo; &amp;c. With
+Illustrations. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents; Cloth, $1&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>American Leaves:</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">Familiar Notes of Thought and Life. By Rev. <span class="smcap">Samuel
+Osgood</span>, D.D. 12mo, Cloth, Beveled Edges, $1&nbsp;75.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>Played Out.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">A Novel. By <span class="smcap">Annie Thomas</span>, Author of &ldquo;On Guard,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Denis Donne,&rdquo; &ldquo;Playing for High Stakes,&rdquo; &ldquo;Walter
+Goring,&rdquo; &amp;c. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">A Novel. By <span class="smcap">George Macdonald</span>, M.A. 12mo, Cloth,
+$1&nbsp;75.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>Two Marriages.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">A Novel. By Miss <span class="smcap">Mulock</span>, Author of &ldquo;John Halifax,
+Gentleman,&rdquo; &ldquo;A Noble Life,&rdquo; &ldquo;Christian&rsquo;s Mistake,&rdquo;
+&amp;c., &amp;c. Large 12mo, Cloth, Beveled Edges, $1&nbsp;50.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>The Land of Thor.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">By <span class="smcap">J. Ross Browne</span>, Author of &ldquo;An American Family
+in Germany,&rdquo; &ldquo;Crusoe&rsquo;s Island,&rdquo; &ldquo;Yusef,&rdquo; &amp;c. Illustrations.
+12mo, Cloth, $2&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>The Village on the Cliff.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">A Novel. By Miss <span class="smcap">Thackeray</span>, Author of &ldquo;The Story
+of Elizabeth.&rdquo; Illustrated. 8vo, Paper, 25 cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>Partisan Life with Mosby;</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">Or, Three Years with Mosby and his Men. By <span class="smcap">John
+Scott</span>, of Fauquier, Author of &ldquo;The Lost Principle&rdquo;
+and &ldquo;Letters to an Officer in the Army.&rdquo; 8vo, Cloth.
+(<i>In Press.</i>)</p>
+
+
+<p class="lrgfont smlpadt"><i>Black Sheep.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent">A Novel. By <span class="smcap">Edmund Yates</span>, Author of &ldquo;Kissing the
+Rod,&rdquo; &ldquo;Land at Last,&rdquo; &amp;c. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="center lrgfont smcap">Valuable and Interesting</p>
+
+<p class="center xlfont">BOOKS,</p>
+
+<p class="center lrgfont"><i>SUITABLE FOR YOUNG PERSONS</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Harper &amp; Brothers</span> will send any of the following Works by Mail, postage
+paid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Harper&rsquo;s Catalogue</span> and <span class="smcap">Trade-List</span> may be had gratuitously on application
+to the Publishers personally, or sent by mail on receipt of Five Cents.</p>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Laboulaye&rsquo;s Fairy Book. Fairy Tales of all Nations.
+By <span class="smcap">Edouard Laboulaye</span>, Member of the Institute of France. Translated by
+<span class="smcap">Mary L. Booth</span>. Elegantly Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $2&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Miss Mulock&rsquo;s Fairy Book. The best Popular Fairy
+Stories selected and rendered anew. Engravings. 16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;50.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Fairy Book Illustrated. Containing Twelve New Stories,
+expressly translated for this Work. With 81 fine Engravings, by <span class="smcap">Adams</span>.
+16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;50.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Abbott&rsquo;s Franconia Stories. Numerous Illustrations.
+Complete in 10 vols., 16mo, Cloth, 90 cents each. The volumes may be obtained
+separately; or complete in neat case, $9&nbsp;00:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Malleville; Mary Belle; Ellen Linn; Wallace; Beechnut; Stuyvesant; Agnes;
+Mary Erskine; Rodolphus; Caroline.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Abbott&rsquo;s Little Learner Series. Harper&rsquo;s Picture-Books
+for the Nursery. Beautifully Illustrated. In 5 vols., 90 cents each. The
+Volumes complete in themselves, and sold separately; or the Set complete in
+case, for $4&nbsp;50:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Learning to Talk; To Think; To Read; About Common Things; About
+Right and Wrong.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Abbott&rsquo;s Marco Paul&rsquo;s Voyages and Travels in the
+Pursuit of Knowledge. Beautifully Illustrated. Complete in 6 vols., 16mo, Cloth,
+90 cents each. The volumes may be obtained separately; or complete in neat
+case, for $5&nbsp;40:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In New York; On the Erie Canal; In the Forests of Maine; In Vermont;
+In Boston; At the Springfield Armory.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Abbott&rsquo;s Stories of Rainbow and Lucky. Beautifully
+Illustrated. 5 vols., 16mo, Cloth, 90 cents per Volume. The volumes may be
+obtained separately; or complete in neat case, $4&nbsp;50:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hardie; Rainbow&rsquo;s Journey; Selling Lucky; Up the River; The Three
+Pines.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Abbott&rsquo;s Illustrated Histories. Illustrated with numerous
+Engravings. 16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;20 per Volume. The volumes may be obtained
+separately; or the Set complete in box, $33&nbsp;60:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Cyrus the Great; Darius the great; Xerxes; Alexander the Great; Romulus;
+Hannibal; Pyrrhus; Julius C&aelig;sar; Cleopatra; Nero; Alfred the Great;
+William the Conqueror; Richard I.; Richard II.; Richard III.; Mary Queen
+of Scots; Queen Elizabeth; Charles I.; Charles II.; Josephine; Marie Antoinette;
+Madame Roland; Henry IV.; Margaret of Anjou; Peter the Great;
+Genghis Khan; King Philip; Hernando Cortez.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Abbott&rsquo;s Young Christian Series. Very greatly improved
+and enlarged. Numerous Engravings. The Volumes sold separately.
+Complete in 4 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;75 each:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Young Christian; The Corner-Stone; The Way to do Good; Hoary-head
+and M&lsquo;Donner.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Aikin&rsquo;s Evenings at Home; or, The Juvenile Budget
+Opened. By Dr. <span class="smcap">Aikin</span> and Mrs. <span class="smcap">Barbauld</span>. With 34 Engravings by <span class="smcap">Adams</span>.
+12mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;50.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Child&rsquo;s History of England. By <span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>.
+2 vols., 16mo, Cloth, $2&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Child&rsquo;s History of the United States. By <span class="smcap">John Bonner</span>.
+3 vols., 16mo, Cloth, $3&nbsp;75.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Child&rsquo;s History of Rome. By <span class="smcap">John Bonner</span>. With
+Illustrations. 2 vols., 16mo, Cloth, $2&nbsp;50.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Child&rsquo;s History of Greece. By <span class="smcap">John Bonner</span>. With
+Illustrations. 16mo, $2&nbsp;50.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Edgar&rsquo;s Boyhood of Great Men. By <span class="smcap">John G. Edgar</span>.
+With Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;20.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Edgar&rsquo;s Footprints of Famous Men. By <span class="smcap">John G. Edgar</span>.
+With Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;20.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Edgar&rsquo;s History for Boys; or, Annals of the Nations
+of Modern Europe. By <span class="smcap">John G. Edgar</span>. Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;20.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Edgar&rsquo;s Sea-Kings and Naval Heroes. A Book for
+Boys. By <span class="smcap">John G. Edgar</span>. Illustrated by C. Keene and E.&nbsp;K. Johnson. 16mo,
+Cloth, $1&nbsp;20.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Edgar&rsquo;s Wars of the Roses. By <span class="smcap">John G. Edgar</span>. Illustrations.
+16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;20.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Nineteen Beautiful Years; or, Sketches of a Girl&rsquo;s
+Life. Written by her Sister. With an Introduction by Rev. <span class="smcap">R.&nbsp;S. Foster</span>, D.D.
+16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Harper&rsquo;s Boys&rsquo; and Girls&rsquo; Library. 32 Volumes. Numerous
+Engravings. 18mo, Cloth. Sold separately at 75 cents a Volume:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lives of the Apostles and Early Martyrs.<br />
+The Swiss Family Robinson. 2 vols.<br />
+Sunday Evenings. Comprising Scripture Stories. 3 vols.<br />
+Mrs. Hofland&rsquo;s Son of a Genius.<br />
+Thatcher&rsquo;s Indian Traits. 2 vols.<br />
+Thatcher&rsquo;s Tales of the American Revolution.<br />
+Miss Eliza Robins&rsquo;s Tales from American History. 3 vols.<br />
+Mrs. Hofland&rsquo;s Young Crusoe; or, The Shipwrecked Boy.<br />
+Perils of the Sea.<br />
+Lives of Distinguished Females.<br />
+Mrs. Phelps&rsquo;s Caroline Westerley.<br />
+Mrs. Hughs&rsquo;s Ornaments Discovered.<br />
+The Clergyman&rsquo;s Orphan; the Infidel Reclaimed.<br />
+Uncle Philip&rsquo;s Natural History.<br />
+Uncle Philip&rsquo;s Evidences of Christianity.<br />
+Uncle Philip&rsquo;s History of Virginia.<br />
+Uncle Philip&rsquo;s American Forest.<br />
+Uncle Philip&rsquo;s History of New York. 2 vols.<br />
+Uncle Philip&rsquo;s Whale Fishery and the Polar Seas. 2 vols.<br />
+Uncle Philip&rsquo;s History of the Lost Colonies of Greenland.<br />
+Uncle Philip&rsquo;s History of Massachusetts. 2 vols.<br />
+Uncle Philip&rsquo;s History of New Hampshire 2 vols.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Harper&rsquo;s Fireside Library; expressly adapted to the
+Domestic Circle, Sunday-Schools, &amp;c. Cloth, Seventy-five cents each:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Alden&rsquo;s Alice Gordon.<br />
+Alden&rsquo;s Lawyer&rsquo;s Daughter.<br />
+Alden&rsquo;s Young Schoolmistress.<br />
+Burdett&rsquo;s Arthur Martin.<br />
+The Dying Robin.<br />
+Ellen Herbert; or, Family Changes.<br />
+Mayhew&rsquo;s Good Genius that turned every thing into Gold.<br />
+William the Cottager.<br />
+Mayhew&rsquo;s Magic of Kindness.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Harper&rsquo;s Story Books. Narratives, Biographies, and
+Tales for the Young. By <span class="smcap">Jacob Abbott</span>. With more than 1000 beautiful Engravings.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&ldquo;<span class="smcap">Harper&rsquo;s Story Books</span>&rdquo; can be obtained complete in Twelve Volumes,
+each one containing Three Stories, at the price of $21&nbsp;00; or in Thirty-six Thin
+Volumes, each containing One Story, at the price of $32&nbsp;40. The volumes sold separately.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Vol. I. Bruno; Willie and the Mortgage; The Strait Gate. Vol II. The
+Little Louvre; Prank; Emma. Vol. III. Virginia; Timboo and Joliba; Timboo
+and Fanny. Vol. IV. The Harper Establishment; Franklin; The Studio.
+Vol. V. The Story of Ancient History; The Story of English History; The Story
+of American History. Vol. VI. John True; Elfred; The Museum. Vol.
+VII. The Engineer; Rambles among the Alps; The Three Gold Dollars. Vol.
+VIII. The Gibraltar Gallery; The Alcove; Dialogues. Vol. IX. The Great
+Elm; Aunt Margaret; Vernon. Vol. X. Carl and Jocko; Lapstone; Orkney
+the Peacemaker. Vol. XI. Judge Justin; Minigo; Jasper. Vol. XII. Congo;
+Viola; Little Paul.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Some of the Story Books are written particularly for Girls, some for Boys;
+and the different volumes are adapted to various ages, so that the Series forms
+a complete Library of Story Books for Children of the Family and the Sunday-School.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Miss Mulock&rsquo;s Our Year. A Child&rsquo;s Book in Prose
+and Verse. Illustrated by Clarence Dobell. 16mo, Cloth, gilt edges, $1&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Children&rsquo;s Picture-Books. Square 4to, about 300
+pages each, beautifully printed on Tinted Paper, with many Illustrations by Weir,
+Steinle, Overbeck, Veit, Schnorr, Harvey, &amp;c., bound in Cloth, gilt, $1&nbsp;50 a volume;
+or the Series complete in neat case, $7&nbsp;50:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Children&rsquo;s Bible Picture-Book; The Children&rsquo;s Picture Fable-Book;
+The Children&rsquo;s Picture-Book of Quadrupeds, and other Mammalia; The Children&rsquo;s
+Picture-Book of the Sagacity of Animals; The Children&rsquo;s Picture-Book
+of Birds.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Mayhew&rsquo;s Boyhood of Martin Luther; or, The Sufferings
+of the Little Beggar-boy who afterward became the Great German Reformer.
+By <span class="smcap">Henry Mayhew</span>. Beautifully Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;25.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Mayhew&rsquo;s Peasant-Boy Philosopher. The Story of the
+Peasant-Boy Philosopher; or, &ldquo;A Child gathering Pebbles on the Sea-Shore.&rdquo;
+(Founded on the Early Life of Ferguson, The Shepherd-Boy Astronomer, and intended
+to show how a Poor Lad became acquainted with the Principles of Natural
+Science.) By <span class="smcap">Henry Mayhew</span>. Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;25.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Mayhew&rsquo;s Wonders of Science; or, Young Humphrey
+Davy (The Cornish Apothecary&rsquo;s Boy, who taught himself Natural Philosophy
+and eventually became President of the Royal Society). The Life of a Wonderful
+Boy written for Boys. By <span class="smcap">Henry Mayhew</span>. Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;25.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Mayhew&rsquo;s Young Benjamin Franklin; or, the Right
+Road through Life. A Story to show how Young Benjamin Learned the Principles
+which Raised him from a Printer&rsquo;s Boy to the First Embassador of the American
+Republic. A Boy&rsquo;s Book on a Boy&rsquo;s Own Subject. By <span class="smcap">Henry Mayhew</span>.
+With Illustrations by John Gilbert. 16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;25.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Mr. Wind and Madam Rain. By <span class="smcap">Paul De Musset</span>.
+Translated by <span class="smcap">Emily Makepeace</span>. Illustrated by Charles Bennett. Square
+4to, Cloth, 75 cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Mrs. Mortimer&rsquo;s Reading without Tears; or, A Pleasant
+Mode of Learning to Read. Beautifully Illustrated. Small 4to, Cloth, 75
+cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Mrs. Mortimer&rsquo;s Reading without Tears, Part II.
+Beautifully Illustrated. Small 4to, Cloth, $1&nbsp;25.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Mrs. Mortimer&rsquo;s Lines Left Out; or, Some of the Histories
+left out in &ldquo;Line upon Line.&rdquo; The First Part relates Events in the Times
+of the Patriarchs and the Judges. By the Author of &ldquo;Line upon Line,&rdquo; &ldquo;Reading
+without Tears,&rdquo; &ldquo;More about Jesus,&rdquo; &ldquo;Streaks of Light,&rdquo; &amp;c. With Illustrations.
+16mo, Cloth, 75 cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Mrs. Mortimer&rsquo;s More about Jesus. With Illustrations
+and a Map. By the author of &ldquo;Peep of Day,&rdquo; &ldquo;Reading without Tears,&rdquo; &amp;c.
+16mo, Cloth, 75 cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Mrs. Mortimer&rsquo;s Streaks of Light; or Fifty-two Facts
+from the Bible for Fifty-two Sundays of the Year. By the Author of &ldquo;Reading
+without Tears,&rdquo; &amp;c. Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, gilt, 75 cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Harry&rsquo;s Ladder to Learning. With 250 Illustrations.
+Square 4to, Cloth, 75 cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Harry&rsquo;s Summer in Ashcroft. Illustrations. Square
+4to, Cloth, 75 cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Kingston&rsquo;s Fred Markham in Russia; or, The Boy
+Travellers in the Land of the Czar. By <span class="smcap">W.&nbsp;H.&nbsp;G. Kingston</span>. Profusely and elegantly
+illustrated. Small 4to, Cloth, gilt, 75 cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Reid&rsquo;s Odd People. Being a Popular Description of
+Singular Races of Men. By Captain <span class="smcap">Mayne Reid</span>. With Illustrations. 16mo,
+Cloth, 75 cents.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Reuben Davidger. The Adventures of Reuben Davidger,
+Seventeen Years and Four Months Captive among the Dyaks of Borneo.
+By <span class="smcap">James Greenwood</span>. With Engravings. 8vo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;75.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Seymour&rsquo;s Self-Made Men. By <span class="smcap">Charles C.&nbsp;B. Seymour</span>.
+Many Portraits. 12mo, 588 pages, Cloth, $1&nbsp;75.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Smiles&rsquo;s Self-Help: with Illustrations of Character and
+Conduct. By Samuel Smiles. 12mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;25.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Thackeray&rsquo;s Rose and the Ring; or, The History of
+Prince Giglio and Prince Bulbo. A Fireside Pantomime for Great and Small
+Children. By Mr. <span class="smcap">M.&nbsp;A. Titmarsh</span>. Numerous Illustrations. Small 4to, Cloth,
+$1&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">Wood&rsquo;s Homes without Hands: Being a Description
+of the Habitations of Animals, classed according to their Principle of Construction.
+By <span class="smcap">J.&nbsp;G. Wood</span>, M.A., F.L.S., Author of &ldquo;Illustrated Natural History.&rdquo;
+With about 140 Illustrations, engraved on Wood by G. Pearson, from Original Designs
+made by F.&nbsp;W. Keyl and E.&nbsp;A. Smith, under the Author&rsquo;s Superintendence.
+8vo, Cloth, Beveled, $4&nbsp;50.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="center"><b>&ldquo;They do honor to American Literature, and would do
+honor to the Literature of any Country in the World.&rdquo;</b></p>
+
+
+<p class="center xlfont smlpadt">THE RISE OF<br />
+THE DUTCH REPUBLIC.</p>
+
+<p class="center">A History</p>
+
+<p class="center lrgfont"><span class="smcap">By</span> JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">New Edition. With a Portrait of <span class="smcap">William of Orange</span>. 3 vols.
+8vo, Muslin, $9&nbsp;00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="smlpadt">We regard this work as the best contribution to modern history that has yet
+been made by an American.&mdash;<i>Methodist Quarterly Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;History of the Dutch Republic&rdquo; is a great gift to us; but the heart and
+earnestness that beat through all its pages are greater, for they give us most
+timely inspiration to vindicate the true ideas of our country, and to compose an
+able history of our own.&mdash;<i>Christian Examiner</i> (Boston).</p>
+
+<p>This work bears on its face the evidences of scholarship and research. The
+arrangement is clear and effective; the style energetic, lively, and often brilliant.
+*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* Mr. Motley&rsquo;s instructive volumes will, we trust, have a circulation commensurate
+with their interest and value.&mdash;<i>Protestant Episcopal Quarterly Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>To the illustration of this most interesting period Mr. Motley has brought the
+matured powers of a vigorous and brilliant mind, and the abundant fruits of patient
+and judicious study and deep reflection. The result is, one of the most
+important contributions to historical literature that have been made in this country.&mdash;<i>North
+American Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>We would conclude this notice by earnestly recommending our readers to procure
+for themselves this truly great and admirable work, by the production of
+which the author has conferred no less honor upon his country than he has won
+praise and fame for himself, and than which, we can assure them, they can find
+nothing more attractive or interesting within the compass of modern literature.&mdash;<i>Evangelical
+Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is not often that we have the pleasure of commending to the attention of the
+lover of books a work of such extraordinary and unexceptionable excellence as
+this one.&mdash;<i>Universalist Quarterly Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>There are an elevation and a classic polish in these volumes, and a felicity of
+grouping and of portraiture, which invest the subject with the attractions of a
+living and stirring episode in the grand historic drama.&mdash;<i>Southern Methodist
+Quarterly Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>The author writes with a genial glow and love of his subject.&mdash;<i>Presbyterian
+Quarterly Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Motley is a sturdy Republican and a hearty Protestant. His style is lively
+and picturesque, and his work is an honor and an important accession to our
+national literature.&mdash;<i>Church Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Motley&rsquo;s work is an important one, the result of profound research, sincere
+convictions, sound principles, and manly sentiments; and even those who are
+most familiar with the history of the period will find it a fresh and vivid addition
+to their previous knowledge. It does honor to American Literature, and
+would do honor to the literature of any country in the world.&mdash;<i>Edinburgh Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>A serious chasm in English historical literature has been (by this book) very
+remarkably filled. *&nbsp;*&nbsp;* A history as complete as industry and genius can make
+it now lies before us, of the first twenty years of the revolt of the United Provinces.
+*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* All the essentials of a great writer Mr. Motley eminently possesses.
+His mind is broad, his industry unwearied. In power of dramatic description
+no modern historian, except, perhaps, Mr. Carlyle, surpasses him, and in analysis
+of character he is elaborate and distinct.&mdash;<i>Westminster Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is a work of real historical value, the result of accurate criticism, written
+in a liberal spirit, and from first to last deeply interesting.&mdash;<i>Athen&aelig;um.</i></p>
+
+<p>The style is excellent, clear, vivid, eloquent; and the industry with which
+original sources have been investigated, and through which new light has been
+shed over perplexed incidents and characters, entitles Mr. Motley to a high rank
+in the literature of an age peculiarly rich in history.&mdash;<i>North British Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>It abounds in new information, and, as a first work, commands a very cordial
+recognition, not merely of the promise it gives, but of the extent and importance
+of the labor actually performed on it.&mdash;<i>London Examiner.</i></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Motley&rsquo;s &ldquo;History&rdquo; is a work of which any country might be proud.&mdash;<i>Press</i>
+(London).</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Motley&rsquo;s History will be a standard book of reference in historical literature.&mdash;<i>London
+Literary Gazette.</i></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Motley has searched the whole range of historical documents necessary to
+the composition of his work.&mdash;<i>London Leader.</i></p>
+
+<p>This is a really great work. It belongs to the class of books in which we
+range our Grotes, Milmans, Merivales, and Macaulays, as the glories of English
+literature in the department of history. *&nbsp;*&nbsp;* Mr. Motley&rsquo;s gifts as a historical
+writer are among the highest and rarest.&mdash;<i>Nonconformist</i> (London).</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Motley&rsquo;s volumes will well repay perusal. *&nbsp;*&nbsp;* For his learning, his liberal
+tone, and his generous enthusiasm, we heartily commend him, and bid him good
+speed for the remainder of his interesting and heroic narrative.&mdash;<i>Saturday Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>The story is a noble one, and is worthily treated. *&nbsp;*&nbsp;* Mr. Motley has had the
+patience to unravel, with unfailing perseverance, the thousand intricate plots of
+the adversaries of the Prince of Orange; but the details and the literal extracts
+which he has derived from original documents, and transferred to his pages,
+give a truthful color and a picturesque effect, which are especially charming.&mdash;<i>London
+Daily News.</i></p>
+
+<p>M. Lothrop Motley dans son magnifique tableau de la formation de notre R&eacute;publique.&mdash;<span class="smcap">G.
+Groen Van Prinsterer.</span></p>
+
+<p>Our accomplished countryman, Mr. J. Lothrop Motley, who, during the last
+five years, for the better prosecution of his labors, has established his residence
+in the neighborhood of the scenes of his narrative. No one acquainted with the
+fine powers of mind possessed by this scholar, and the earnestness with which he
+has devoted himself to the task, can doubt that he will do full justice to his important
+but difficult subject.&mdash;<span class="smcap">W.&nbsp;H. Prescott.</span></p>
+
+<p>The production of such a work as this astonishes, while it gratifies the pride
+of the American reader.&mdash;<i>N.&nbsp;Y. Observer.</i></p>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;Rise of the Dutch Republic&rdquo; at once, and by acclimation, takes its
+place by the &ldquo;Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,&rdquo; as a work which, whether
+for research, substance, or style, will never be superseded.&mdash;<i>N.&nbsp;Y. Albion.</i></p>
+
+<p>A work upon which all who read the English language may congratulate
+themselves.&mdash;<i>New Yorker Handels Zeitung.</i></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Motley&rsquo;s place is now (alluding to this book) with Hallam and Lord Mahon,
+Alison and Macaulay in the Old Country, and with Washington Irving,
+Prescott, and Bancroft in this.&mdash;<i>N.&nbsp;Y. Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>The authority, in the English tongue, for the history of the period and people
+to which it refers.&mdash;<i>N.&nbsp;Y. Courier and Enquirer.</i></p>
+
+<p>This work at once places the author on the list of American historians which
+has been so signally illustrated by the names of Irving, Prescott, Bancroft, and
+Hildreth.&mdash;<i>Boston Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>The work is a noble one, and a most desirable acquisition to our historical literature.&mdash;<i>Mobile
+Advertiser.</i></p>
+
+<p>Such a work is an honor to its author, to his country, and to the age in which
+it was written.&mdash;<i>Ohio Farmer.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="center xlfont smlpadt"><i>Published by HARPER &amp; BROTHERS,<br />
+<span style="padding-left: 12em;">Franklin Square, New York.</span></i></p>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Harper &amp; Brothers</span> will send the above Work by Mail postage paid (for any
+distance in the United States under 3000 miles), on receipt of the Money.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Mr. Motley, the American historian of the United Netherlands&mdash;we owe him
+English homage.</i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">London Times.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">&ldquo;<i>As interesting as a romance, and as reliable as a proposition of Euclid.</i>&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center xlfont">History of<br />
+The United Netherlands.</p>
+
+<p class="center smlfont">FROM THE DEATH OF WILLIAM THE SILENT TO THE SYNOD OF DORT. WITH A<br />
+FULL VIEW OF THE ENGLISH-DUTCH STRUGGLE AGAINST SPAIN, AND<br />
+OF THE ORIGIN AND DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH<br />
+ARMADA.</p>
+
+<p class="center lrgfont"><span class="smcap">By</span> JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, LL.D., D.C.L.,</p>
+
+<p class="center">Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, Author of &ldquo;The Rise of the
+Dutch Republic.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>With Portraits and Map.</b></p>
+
+<p class="center">2 vols. 8vo, Muslin, $6 00.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center smlpadt"><i>Critical Notices.</i></p>
+
+<p>His living and truthful picture of events.&mdash;<i>Quarterly Review</i> (London), Jan.,
+1861.</p>
+
+<p>Fertile as the present age has been in historical works of the highest merit,
+none of them can be ranked above these volumes in the grand qualities of interest,
+accuracy, and truth.&mdash;<i>Edinburgh Quarterly Review</i>, Jan., 1861.</p>
+
+<p>This noble work.&mdash;<i>Westminster Review</i> (London).</p>
+
+<p>One of the most fascinating as well as important histories of the century.&mdash;<i>Cor.
+N.&nbsp;Y. Evening Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>The careful study of these volumes will infallibly afford a feast both rich and
+rare.&mdash;<i>Baltimore Republican.</i></p>
+
+<p>Already takes a rank among standard works of history.&mdash;<i>London Critic.</i></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Motley&rsquo;s prose epic.&mdash;<i>London Spectator.</i></p>
+
+<p>Its pages are pregnant with instruction.&mdash;<i>London Literary Gazette.</i></p>
+
+<p>We may profit by almost every page of his narrative. All the topics which agitate
+us now are more or less vividly presented in the History of the United Netherlands.&mdash;<i>New
+York Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>Bears on every page marks of the same vigorous mind that produced &ldquo;The Rise
+of the Dutch Republic;&rdquo; but the new work is riper, mellower, and though equally
+racy of the soil, softer flavored. The inspiring idea which breathes through Mr.
+Motley&rsquo;s histories and colors the whole texture of his narrative, is the grandeur of
+that memorable struggle in the 16th century by which the human mind broke the
+thraldom of religious intolerance and achieved its independence.&mdash;<i>The World, N.&nbsp;Y.</i></p>
+
+<p>The name of Motley now stands in the very front rank of living historians. His
+<i>Dutch Republic</i> took the world by surprise; but the favorable verdict then given
+is now only the more deliberately confirmed on the publication of the continued
+story under the title of the <i>History of the United Netherlands</i>. All the nerve,
+and power, and substance of juicy life are there, lending a charm to every page.&mdash;<i>Church
+Journal, N.&nbsp;Y.</i></p>
+
+<p>Motley indeed, has produced a prose epic, and his fighting scenes are as real,
+spirited, and life-like as the combats in the Iliad.&mdash;<i>The Press</i> (Phila.).</p>
+
+<p>His history is as interesting as a romance, and as reliable as a proposition of Euclid.
+Clio never had a more faithful disciple. We advise every reader whose
+means will permit to become the owner of these fascinating volumes, assuring him
+that he will never regret the investment.&mdash;<i>Christian Intelligencer, N.&nbsp;Y.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="center lrgfont smlpadt">Published by HARPER &amp; BROTHERS,<br />
+<span style="padding-left: 8em;">Franklin Square, New York.</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><img src="images/finger.gif" width="30" height="13" alt="Hand, finger pointing right" />
+<span class="smcap">Harper &amp; Brothers</span> will send the above Work by Mail, postage prepaid
+(for any distance in the United States under 3000 miles), on receipt of the Money.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="center xlfont smcap">By Mrs. Gaskell.</p>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>CRANFORD. 16mo, Cloth, $1&nbsp;25.</p>
+
+<p>COUSIN PHILLIS. 8vo, Paper, 25 cents.</p>
+
+<p>A DARK NIGHT&rsquo;S WORK. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.</p>
+
+<p>MARY BARTON. A Tale of Manchester Life. 8vo,
+Paper, 50 cents.</p>
+
+<p>THE MOORLAND COTTAGE. 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents.</p>
+
+<p>MY LADY LUDLOW. 8vo, Paper, 25 cents.</p>
+
+<p>NORTH AND SOUTH. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.</p>
+
+<p>RIGHT AT LAST, and Other Tales. 12mo. Cloth, $1&nbsp;50.</p>
+
+<p>SYLVIA&rsquo;S LOVERS. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents.</p>
+
+<p>WIVES AND DAUGHTERS. With Illustrations. 8vo,
+Cloth, $2&nbsp;00; Paper, $1&nbsp;50.</p>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>From the London Examiner.</i></p>
+
+<p>That tender pathos, which could sink so deep&mdash;that gentle humor, which could
+soar so lightly&mdash;that delicate perception, which nothing could escape&mdash;that wide
+sympathy, which ranged so far&mdash;those sweet moralities, which rang so true; it
+is indeed hard and sad to feel that these must be silent for us henceforth forever.</p>
+
+<p>Let us be grateful, however, that we have still those writings of hers which
+England will not willingly let die, and that she has given us no less an example
+of conscientious work and careful pains, by which we all alike may profit. For
+Mrs. Gaskell had not only genius of a high order, but she had also the true feeling
+of the artist, that grows impatient at whatever is unfinished or imperfect.
+Whether describing with touching skill the charities of poor to poor, or painting,
+with an art which Miss Austin might have envied, the daily round of common
+life, or merely telling, in her graphic way, some wild or simple tale: whatever
+the work, she did it with all her power, sparing nothing, scarcely sparing herself
+enough, if only the work were well and completely done.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><i>From the New York Evening Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is said that George Sand remarked to an English friend: &ldquo;Mrs. Gaskell
+has done what neither I nor other female writers in France can accomplish&mdash;she
+has written novels which excite the deepest interest in men of the world, and
+which every girl will be the better for reading.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center lrgfont"><span class="smcap">Published by HARPER &amp; BROTHERS, New York.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center padbase"><img src="images/finger.gif" width="30" height="13" alt="Hand, finger pointing right" />
+<i>Sent by Mail to any part of the United States, postage free, on receipt of the
+Price.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<p><b>Transcriber's Note</b></p>
+
+<p>Minor typographic errors in punctuation and spelling (omitted or transposed
+letters, etc.) have been repaired. Hyphenation has been made consistent
+where there was a prevalence of one form over another.</p>
+
+<p>Archaic and variant spelling has been preserved as printed, where reference
+to the alternate spelling could be established from other sources, e.g.
+the Frith of Forth, gambling-hells, feed referring to the paying of a fee.
+If alternate spelling of proper nouns could not be established, it has
+been made consistent within the text. The spelling of other words and
+phrases in languages other than English has been preserved as printed.</p>
+
+<p>Omitted page numbers were the location of illustrations in the original
+book; these were moved so that they were not in the middle of a paragraph.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Land of Thor, by J. Ross Browne
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF THOR ***
+
+***** This file should be named 28329-h.htm or 28329-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Land of Thor, by J. Ross Browne
+
+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 Land of Thor
+
+Author: J. Ross Browne
+
+Release Date: March 15, 2009 [EBook #28329]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF THOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Sam W. and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         THE
+                    LAND OF THOR.
+
+                         BY
+
+                   J. ROSS BROWNE,
+
+                      AUTHOR OF
+  "YUSEF," "CRUSOE'S ISLAND," "AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN
+                    GERMANY," ETC.
+
+
+              Illustrated by the Author.
+
+
+                      NEW YORK:
+            HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+                   FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+                        1867.
+
+
+
+
+  BY J. ROSS BROWNE.
+
+    AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN GERMANY. Illustrated by the
+    Author. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00.
+
+    THE LAND OF THOR. Illustrated by the Author. 12mo,
+    Cloth, $2 00.
+
+    CRUSOE'S ISLAND: A Ramble in the Footsteps of Alexander
+    Selkirk. With Sketches of Adventure in California and
+    Washoe. Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth. $1 75.
+
+    YUSEF; or, The Journey of the Frangi. A Crusade in the
+    East. With Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75.
+
+  Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
+
+
+
+
+Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
+hundred and sixty-seven, by HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office
+of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                             PAGE
+
+          I. IMPRESSIONS OF ST. PETERSBURG                 9
+
+         II. A PLEASANT EXCURSION                         25
+
+        III. VIEWS ON THE MOSCOW RAILWAY                  39
+
+         IV. MOSCOW                                       52
+
+          V. TEA-DRINKING                                 60
+
+         VI. THE PETERSKOI GARDENS                        65
+
+        VII. THE "LITTLE WATER"                           73
+
+       VIII. THE MARKETS OF MOSCOW                        77
+
+         IX. THE NOSE REGIMENT                            88
+
+          X. THE EMPEROR'S BEAR-HUNT                      92
+
+         XI. RUSSIAN HUMOR                                97
+
+        XII. A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE                      104
+
+       XIII. THE DENOUEMENT                              125
+
+        XIV. THE KREMLIN                                 134
+
+         XV. RUSSIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS                 155
+
+        XVI. DESPOTISM _versus_ SERFDOM                  165
+
+       XVII. REFORM IN RUSSIA                            170
+
+      XVIII. A BOND OF SYMPATHY                          185
+
+        XIX. CIVILIZATION IN RUSSIA                      193
+
+         XX. PASSAGE TO REVEL                            209
+
+        XXI. REVEL AND HELSINGFORS                       218
+
+       XXII. A BATHING SCENE                             227
+
+      XXIII. ABO--FINLAND                                236
+
+       XXIV. STOCKHOLM                                   248
+
+        XXV. WALKS ABOUT STOCKHOLM                       262
+
+       XXVI. THE GOTHA CANAL                             272
+
+      XXVII. VOYAGE TO CHRISTIANA                        291
+
+     XXVIII. FROM CHRISTIANIA TO LILLEHAMMER             302
+
+       XXIX. HOW THEY TRAVEL IN NORWAY                   310
+
+        XXX. A NORWEGIAN GIRL                            317
+
+       XXXI. HOW THEY LIVE                               335
+
+      XXXII. JOHN BULL ABROAD                            354
+
+     XXXIII. WOMEN IN NORWAY AND GERMANY                 361
+
+      XXXIV. DOWN THE DRIVSDAL                           368
+
+       XXXV. A NORWEGIAN HORSE-JOCKEY                    372
+
+      XXXVI. OUT OF MONEY                                381
+
+     XXXVII. ICELANDIC TRAVEL                            383
+
+    XXXVIII. HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN                     387
+
+      XXXIX. VOYAGE TO SCOTLAND                          398
+
+         XL. THE JOLLY BLOODS                            404
+
+        XLI. THE FAROE ISLANDS                           408
+
+       XLII. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ICELAND                426
+
+      XLIII. REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND           431
+
+       XLIV. GEIR ZOEGA                                  440
+
+        XLV. THE ENGLISH TOURISTS                        445
+
+       XLVI. THE ROAD TO THINGVALLA                      449
+
+      XLVII. THE ALMANNAJAU                              465
+
+     XLVIII. THINGVALLA                                  476
+
+       XLIX. THE ROAD TO THE GEYSERS                     490
+
+          L. THE GEYSERS                                 503
+
+         LI. THE ENGLISH SPORTS IN TROUBLE               527
+
+        LII. A FRIGHTFUL ADVENTURE                       537
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                        PAGE
+
+    Laborers and Shipwrights                              10
+
+    Russian and Finn                                      11
+
+    Cooper's Shop and Residence                           15
+
+    Merchant, Peddlers and Coachman                       18
+
+    Istrovoschiks                                         21
+
+    Fish Peddler                                          29
+
+    Young Peasants                                        31
+
+    Dvornick and Postman                                  35
+
+    Glazier, Painter, Carpenters                          37
+
+    Hay Gatherers                                         46
+
+    Prisoners for Siberia                                 58
+
+    Tea-sellers                                           61
+
+    Mujiks at Tea                                         63
+
+    Russian Theatre                                       68
+
+    The Peterskoi Gardens                                 72
+
+    Vodka                                                 75
+
+    Old-clothes' Market                                   78
+
+    Cabinet-makers                                        84
+
+    Pigs, Pups, and Pans                                  87
+
+    Imperial Nosegay                                      90
+
+    Skinned and Stuffed Man                              100
+
+    Frozen Animals in the Market                         101
+
+    Mujik and Cats                                       103
+
+    Effects of "Little Water"                            111
+
+    Russian Beggars                                      115
+
+    Gambling Saloon                                      122
+
+    A Passage of Politeness                              157
+
+    Serfs                                                168
+
+    In Norseland                                         292
+
+    The Steamer entering the Fjord                       295
+
+    Coast of Norway                                      297
+
+    The Islands                                          299
+
+    Approach to Christiania                              303
+
+    Station-house, Logen Valley                          313
+
+    Station-boy                                          321
+
+    "Good-by--Many Thanks!"                              322
+
+    Norwegian Peasant Family                             324
+
+    The Post-girl                                        330
+
+    Waiting for a Nibble                                 341
+
+    Snow-plow                                            344
+
+    A Drinking Bout                                      345
+
+    A Norwegian Farm                                     347
+
+    Norwegian Church                                     348
+
+    Parish Schoolmaster                                  349
+
+    Dovre Fjeld                                          353
+
+    Playing him out                                      356
+
+    English Sportsman                                    358
+
+    Bear Chase                                           359
+
+    Peasant Women at Work                                360
+
+    Wheeling Girls                                       363
+
+    Justice of the Peace                                 365
+
+    Model Landlord                                       367
+
+    Drivsdal Valley                                      369
+
+    Passage on the Driv                                  371
+
+    The Prize                                            375
+
+    Traveling on Foot                                    382
+
+    The great Geyser                                     385
+
+    Hans Christian Andersen                              394
+
+    A Dandy Tourist                                      406
+
+    Thorshavn                                            407
+
+    View in Faroe Islands                                409
+
+    Faroese Children                                     412
+
+    Faroese Islanders                                    414
+
+    Kirk Goboe                                           421
+
+    Farm-house and Ruins                                 423
+
+    Faroese on Horseback                                 425
+
+    Natural Bridge                                       427
+
+    Coast of Iceland                                     429
+
+    The Meal-sack                                        430
+
+    Reykjavik, the Capital of Iceland                    432
+
+    Governor's Residence, Reykjavik                      434
+
+    Icelandic Houses                                     435
+
+    Church at Reykjavik                                  436
+
+    Icelanders at Work                                   438
+
+    Geir Zoega                                           441
+
+    Icelandic Horses                                     443
+
+    English Party at Reykjavik                           447
+
+    A Rough Road                                         451
+
+    Taking Snuff                                         454
+
+    An Icelandic Bog                                     459
+
+    Geir Zoega and Brusa                                 463
+
+    Entrance to the Almannajau                           466
+
+    The Almannajau                                       467
+
+    Skeleton View of the Almannajau                      469
+
+    Outline View of Thingvalla                           470
+
+    Fall of the Almannajau                               472
+
+    Icelandic Shepherd-girl                              473
+
+    Church at Thingvalla                                 477
+
+    The Pastor's House                                   479
+
+    The Pastor of Thingvalla                             485
+
+    Skeleton View of the Logberg                         488
+
+    Thingvalla, Logberg, Almannajau                      489
+
+    Diagram of the Logberg                               490
+
+    An Artist at Home                                    492
+
+    Lava-fjelds                                          494
+
+    Effigy in Lava                                       495
+
+    The Hrafnajau                                        497
+
+    The Tintron Rock                                     499
+
+    Bridge River                                         502
+
+    Shepherd and Family                                  506
+
+    The Strokhr                                          516
+
+    Side-saddle                                          519
+
+    Great Geyser and Receiver                            525
+
+    Strokhr and Receiver                                 525
+
+    "Oh-o-o-ah!"                                         529
+
+    The English Party                                    533
+
+    Interior of Icelandic Hut                            536
+
+    An Awkward Predicament                               540
+
+
+
+
+THE LAND OF THOR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+IMPRESSIONS OF ST. PETERSBURG.
+
+
+I landed at St. Petersburg with a knapsack on my back and a hundred
+dollars in my pocket. An extensive tour along the borders of the
+Arctic Circle was before me, and it was necessary I should husband my
+resources.
+
+In my search for a cheap German gasthaus I walked nearly all over the
+city. My impressions were probably tinctured by the circumstances of
+my position, but it seemed to me I had never seen so strange a place.
+
+  [Illustration: LABORERS AND SHIPWRIGHTS.]
+
+  [Illustration: RUSSIAN AND FINN.]
+
+The best streets of St. Petersburg resemble on an inferior scale the
+best parts of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. Nothing in the architecture
+conveys any idea of national taste except the glittering cupolas of
+the churches, the showy colors of the houses, and the vast extent and
+ornamentation of the palaces. The general aspect of the city is that
+of immense level space. Built upon islands, cut up into various
+sections by the branches of the Neva, intersected by canals, destitute
+of eminent points of observation, the whole city has a scattered and
+incongruous effect--an incomprehensible remoteness about it, as if one
+might continually wander about without finding the centre. Some parts,
+of course, are better than others; some streets are indicative of
+wealth and luxury; but without a guide it is extremely difficult to
+determine whether there are not still finer buildings and quarters in
+the main part of the city--if you could only get at it. The eye
+wanders continually in search of heights and prominent objects. Even
+the Winter Palace, the Admiralty, and the Izaak Church lose much of
+their grandeur in the surrounding deserts of space from the absence of
+contrast with familiar and tangible objects. It is only by a careful
+examination in detail that one can become fully sensible of their
+extraordinary magnificence. Vast streets of almost interminable
+length, lined by insignificant two-story houses with green roofs and
+yellow walls; vast open squares or ploschads; palaces, public
+buildings, and churches, dwindled down to mere toy-work in the deserts
+of space intervening; countless throngs of citizens and carriages
+scarcely bigger than ants to the eye; broad sheets of water, dotted
+with steamers, brigs, barks, wood-barges and row-boats, still
+infinitesimal in the distance; long rows of trees, forming a foliage
+to some of the principal promenades, with glimpses of gardens and
+shrubbery at remote intervals; canals and dismal green swamps--not all
+at one sweep of the eye, but visible from time to time in the course
+of an afternoon's ramble, are the most prominent characteristics of
+this wonderful city. A vague sense of loneliness impresses the
+traveler from a distant land--as if in his pilgrimage through foreign
+climes he had at length wandered into the midst of a strange and
+peculiar civilization--a boundless desert of wild-looking streets, a
+waste of colossal palaces, of gilded churches and glistening waters,
+all perpetually dwindling away before him in the infinity of space. He
+sees a people strange and unfamiliar in costume and expression;
+fierce, stern-looking officers, rigid in features, closely shaved, and
+dressed in glittering uniforms; grave, long-bearded priests, with
+square-topped black turbans, their flowing black drapery trailing in
+the dust; pale women richly and elegantly dressed, gliding unattended
+through mazes of the crowd; rough, half-savage serfs, in dirty pink
+shirts, loose trowsers, and big boots, bowing down before the shrines
+on the bridges and public places; the drosky drivers, with their long
+beards, small bell-shaped hats, long blue coats and fire-bucket boots,
+lying half asleep upon their rusty little vehicles awaiting a
+customer, or dashing away at a headlong pace over the rough
+cobble-paved streets, and so on of every class and kind. The traveler
+wanders about from place to place, gazing into the strange faces he
+meets, till the sense of loneliness becomes oppressive. An invisible
+but impassable barrier seems to stand between him and the moving
+multitude. He hears languages that fall without a meaning upon his
+ear; wonders at the soft inflections of the voices; vainly seeks some
+familiar look or word; thinks it strange that he alone should be cut
+off from all communion with the souls of men around him; and then
+wonders if they have souls like other people, and why there is no
+kindred expression in their faces--no visible consciousness of a
+common humanity. It is natural that every stranger in a strange city
+should experience this feeling to some extent, but I know of no place
+where it seems so strikingly the case as in St. Petersburg. Accustomed
+as I was to strange cities and strange languages, I never felt utterly
+lonely until I reached this great mart of commerce and civilization.
+The costly luxury of the palaces; the wild Tartaric glitter of the
+churches; the tropical luxuriance of the gardens; the brilliant
+equipages of the nobility; the display of military power; the strange
+and restless throngs forever moving through the haunts of business and
+pleasure; the uncouth costumes of the lower classes, and the wonderful
+commingling of sumptuous elegance and barbarous filth, visible in
+almost every thing, produced a singular feeling of mingled wonder and
+isolation--as if the solitary traveler were the only person in the
+world who was not permitted to comprehend the spirit and import of the
+scene, or take a part in the great drama of life in which all others
+seemed to be engaged. I do not know if plain, practical men are
+generally so easily impressed by external objects, but I must confess
+that when I trudged along the streets with my knapsack on my back,
+looking around in every direction for a gasthaus; when I spoke to
+people in my peculiar style of French and German, and received
+unintelligible answers in Russian; when I got lost among palaces and
+grand military establishments, instead of finding the gasthaus, and
+finally attracted the attention of the surly-looking guards, who were
+stationed about every where, by the anxious pertinacity with which I
+examined every building, a vague notion began to get possession of me
+that I was a sort of outlaw, and would sooner or later be seized and
+dragged before the Czar for daring to enter such a magnificent city in
+such an uncouth and unbecoming manner. When I cast my eyes up at the
+sign-boards, and read about grand fabrications and steam-companies,
+and walked along the quays of the Neva, and saw wood enough piled up
+in big broad-bottomed boats to satisfy the wants of myself and family
+for ten thousand years; when I strolled into the Nevskoi, and jostled
+my way through crowds of nobles, officers, soldiers, dandies, and
+commoners, stopping suddenly at every picture-shop, gazing dreamily
+into the gorgeous millinery establishments, pondering thoughtfully
+over the glittering wares of the jewelers, lagging moodily by the
+grand cafes, and snuffing reflectively the odors that came from the
+grand restaurations--when all this occurred, and I went down into a
+beer-cellar and made acquaintance with a worthy German, and he asked
+me if I had any meerschaums to sell, the notion that I had no
+particular business in so costly and luxurious a place began to grow
+stronger than ever. A kind of dread came over me that the mighty
+spirit of Peter the Great would come riding through the scorching hot
+air on a gale of snowflakes, at the head of a bloody phalanx of
+Muscovites, and, rising in his stirrups as he approached, would demand
+of me in a voice of thunder, "Stranger, how much money have you got?"
+to which I could only answer, "Sublime and potent Czar, taking the
+average value of my Roaring Grizzly, Dead Broke, Gone Case, and
+Sorrowful Countenance, and placing it against the present value of
+Russian securities, I consider it within the bounds of reason to say
+that I hold about a million of rubles!" But if he should insist upon
+an exhibit of ready cash--there was the rub! It absolutely made me
+feel weak in the knees to think of it. Indeed, a horrid suspicion
+seized me, after I had crossed the bridge and begun to renew my search
+for a cheap gasthaus on the Vassoli Ostrou, that every fat,
+neatly-shaved man I met, with small gray eyes, a polished hat on his
+head drawn a little over his brow, his lips compressed, and his coat
+buttoned closely around his body, was a rich banker, and that he was
+saying to himself as I passed, "That fellow with the slouched hat and
+the knapsack is a suspicious character, to say the least of him. It
+becomes my duty to warn the police of his movements. I suspect him
+to be a Hungarian refugee."
+
+  [Illustration: COOPER'S SHOP AND RESIDENCE.]
+
+With some difficulty, I succeeded at length in finding just such a
+place as I desired--clean and comfortable enough, considering the
+circumstances, and not unusually fertile in vermin for a city like St.
+Petersburg, which produces all kinds of troublesome insects
+spontaneously. There was this advantage in my quarters, in addition to
+their cheapness--that the proprietor and attendants spoke several of
+the Christian languages, including German, which, of all languages in
+the world, is the softest and most euphonious to my ear--when I am
+away from Frankfort. Besides, my room was very advantageously arranged
+for a solitary traveler. Being about eight feet square, with only one
+small window overlooking the back yard, and effectually secured by
+iron fastenings, so that nobody could open it, there was no
+possibility of thieves getting in and robbing me when the door was
+shut and locked on the inside. Its closeness presented an effectual
+barrier against the night air, which in these high northern latitudes
+is considered extremely unwholesome to sleep in. With the thermometer
+at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the atmosphere, to be sure, was a little
+sweltering during the day, and somewhat thick by night, but that was
+an additional advantage, inasmuch as it forced the occupant to stay
+out most of the time and see a great deal more of the town than he
+could possibly see in his room.
+
+Having deposited my knapsack and put my extra shirt in the wash, you
+will now be kind enough to consider me the shade of Virgil, ready to
+lead you, after the fashion of Dante, through the infernal regions or
+any where else within the bounds of justice, even through St.
+Petersburg, where the climate in summer is hot enough to satisfy
+almost any body. The sun shines here, in June and July, for twenty
+hours a day, and even then scarcely disappears beneath the horizon. I
+never experienced such sweltering weather in any part of the world
+except Aspinwall. One is fairly boiled with the heat, and might be
+wrung out like a wet rag. Properly speaking, the day commences for
+respectable people, and men of enterprising spirit--tourists,
+pleasure-seekers, gamblers, vagabonds, and the like--about nine or ten
+o'clock at night, and continues till about four or five o'clock the
+next morning. It is then St. Petersburg fairly turns out; then the
+beauty and fashion of the city unfold their wings and flit through the
+streets, or float in Russian gondolas upon the glistening waters of
+the Neva; then it is the little steamers skim about from island to
+island, freighted with a population just waked up to a realizing sense
+of the pleasures of existence; then is the atmosphere balmy, and the
+light wonderfully soft and richly tinted; then come the sweet witching
+hours, when
+
+                    "Shady nooks
+    Patiently give up their quiet being."
+
+None but the weary, labor-worn serf, who has toiled through the long
+day in the fierce rays of the sun, can sleep such nights as these. I
+call them nights, yet what a strange mistake. The sunshine still
+lingers in the heavens with a golden glow; the evening vanishes
+dreamily in the arms of the morning; there is nothing to mark the
+changes--all is soft, gradual, and illusory. A peculiar and almost
+supernatural light glistens upon the gilded domes of the churches; the
+glaring waters of the Neva are alive with gondolas; miniature steamers
+are flying through the winding channels of the islands; strains of
+music float upon the air; gay and festive throngs move along the
+promenades of the Nevskoi; gilded and glittering equipages pass over
+the bridges and disappear in the shadowy recesses of the islands.
+Whatever may be unseemly in life is covered by a rich and mystic
+drapery of twilight. The floating bath-houses of the Neva, with their
+variegated tressel-work and brilliant colors, resemble fairy palaces;
+and the plashing of the bathers falls upon the ear like the gambols
+of water-spirits. Not far from the Izaak Bridge, the equestrian
+statue of Peter the Great stands out in bold relief on a pedestal of
+granite; the mighty Czar, casting an eagle look over the waters of the
+Neva, while his noble steed rears over the yawning precipice in front,
+crushing a serpent beneath his hoof. The spirit of Peter the Great
+still lives throughout Russia; but it is better understood in the
+merciless blasts of winter than in the soft glow of the summer nights.
+
+  [Illustration: MERCHANT, PEDDLERS, AND COACHMAN.]
+
+Wander with me now, and let us take a look at the Winter Palace--the
+grandest pile, perhaps, ever built by human hands. Six thousand people
+occupy it during the long winter months, and well they may, for it is
+a city of palaces in itself. Fronting the Neva, it occupies a space of
+several acres, its massive walls richly decorated with ornamental
+designs, a forest of chimneys on top--the whole pile forming an
+immense oblong square so grand, so massive, so wonderfully rich and
+varied in its details, that the imagination is lost in a colossal
+wilderness of architectural beauties. Standing in the open plozchad,
+we may gaze at this magnificent pile for hours, and dream over it, and
+picture to our minds the scenes of splendor its inner walls have
+witnessed; the royal _fetes_ of the Czars; the courtly throngs that
+have filled its halls; the vast treasures expended in erecting it; the
+enslaved multitudes, now low in the dust, who have left this monument
+to speak of human pride, and the sweat and toil that pride must feed
+upon; and while we gaze and dream thus, a mellow light comes down from
+the firmament, and the mighty Czars, and their palaces, and armies,
+and navies, and worldly strifes, what are they in the presence of the
+everlasting Power? For "it is he that sitteth upon the circle of the
+earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers."
+
+But these dreamings and these wanderings through this city of palaces
+would be endless. We may feast our eyes upon the Admiralty, the Winter
+Palace, the Marble Palace, the Senate-house, the palace of the
+Grand-duke Michael, the Column of Alexander, the colleges,
+universities, imperial gardens and summer-houses, and, after all, we
+can only feel that they are built upon the necks of an enslaved
+people; that the mightiest Czars of Russia, in common with the poorest
+serfs, are but "as grasshoppers upon the earth."
+
+The _istrovoschik_ (sneeze and you have the word)--in plain English,
+the drosky drivers--are a notable feature in St. Petersburg. When I
+saw them for the first time on the quay of the Wassaly Ostrow, where
+the steamer from Stettin lands her passengers, the idea naturally
+impressed my mind that I had fallen among a brotherhood of Pilgrims or
+Druids. Nothing could be more unique than the incongruity of their
+costume and occupation. Every man looked like a priest; his long
+beard, his grave expression of countenance, his little black hat and
+flowing blue coat, gathered around the waist by means of a sash, his
+glazed boots reaching above the knees, his slow and measured motions,
+and the sublime indifference with which he regarded his customers,
+were singularly impressive. Even the filth and rustiness which formed
+the most prominent characteristics of the class contributed to the
+delusion that they might have sprung from a Druidical source, and
+gathered their dust of travel on the pilgrimage from remote ages down
+to the present period. It is really something novel, in the line of
+hackery, to see those sedate fellows sitting on their little droskys
+awaiting a customer. The force of competition, however, has of late
+years committed sad inroads upon their dignity, and now they are
+getting to be about as enterprising and pertinacious as any of their
+kindred in other parts of the world. The drosky is in itself a
+curiosity as a means of locomotion. Like the driver, it is generally
+dirty and dilapidated; but here the similitude ends; for, while the
+former is often high, his drosky is always low. The wheels are not
+bigger than those of an ordinary dog-cart, and the seat is only
+designed for one person, though on a pinch it can accommodate two.
+Generally it consists of a plank covered with a cushion, extending
+lengthwise in the same direction as the horse, so that the rider sits
+astride of it as if riding on horseback; some, however, have been
+modernized so as to afford a more convenient seat in the usual way.
+Night and day these droskys are every where to be seen, sometimes
+drawn up by the sidewalk, the driver asleep, awaiting a customer, but
+more frequently rattling full tilt over the pavements (the roughest
+in the world) with a load, consisting, in nine cases out of ten, of a
+fat old gentleman in military uniform, a very ugly old lady with a
+lapdog, or a very dashy young lady glittering with jewels, on her way,
+perhaps, to the Confiseur's or somewhere else. But in a city like St.
+Petersburg, where it is at least two or three miles from one place to
+another, every body with twenty kopecks in his pocket uses the drosky.
+It is the most convenient and economical mode of locomotion for all
+ordinary purposes, hence the number of them is very large. On some of
+the principal streets it is marvelous how they wind their way at such
+a rattling pace through the crowd. To a stranger unacquainted with
+localities, they are a great convenience. And here, you see, commences
+the gist of the story.
+
+  [Illustration: ISTROVOSCHIKS.]
+
+On a certain occasion I called a drosky-man and directed him to drive
+me to the United States Consulate. Having never been there myself, I
+depended solely upon the intelligence and enterprise of the
+istrovoschik. My knowledge of the Russian consisted of three
+words--the name of the street and _dratzall kopeck_, the latter being
+the stipulated fare of twenty kopecks. By an affirmative signal the
+driver gave me to understand that he fully comprehended my wishes,
+and, with a flourish of his whip, away we started. After driving me
+nearly all over the city of St. Petersburg--a pretty extensive city,
+as any body will find who undertakes to walk through it--this adroit
+and skillful whipster, who had never uttered a word from the time of
+starting, now deliberately drew up his drosky on the corner of a
+principal street and began a conversation. I repeated the name of the
+street in which the consulate was located, and _dratzall kopeck_. The
+driver gazed in my face with a grave and placid countenance, stroked
+his long beard, tucked the skirts of his long blue coat under him, and
+drove on again. After rattling over a series of the most frightful
+cobble-stone pavements ever designed as an improvement in a great
+city, through several new quarters, he again stopped and treated me
+to some more remarks in his native language. I answered as before, the
+name of the street. He shook his head with discouraging gravity. I
+then remarked _dratzall kopeck_. From the confused answer he made,
+which occupied at least ten minutes of his time, and of which I was
+unable to comprehend a single word, it was apparent that he was as
+ignorant of his own language as he was of the city. In this extremity
+he called another driver to his aid, who spoke just the words of
+English, "Gooda-morkig!" "Good-morning," said I. From this the
+conversation lapsed at once into remote depths of Russian. In despair
+I got out of the drosky and walked along the street, looking up at all
+the signs--the driver after me with his drosky, apparently watching to
+see that I did not make my escape. At length I espied a German name on
+a bakery sign. How familiar it looked in that desert of unintelligible
+Russian--like a favorite quotation in a page of metaphysics. I went in
+and spoke German--_vie gaetz?_ You are aware, perhaps, that I excel in
+that language. I asked the way to the United States Consulate. The
+baker had probably forgotten his native tongue, if ever he knew it at
+all, for I could get nothing out of him but a shake of the head and
+_nicht furstay_. However, he had the goodness, seeing my perplexity,
+to put on his hat and undertake to find the consul's, which, by dint
+of inquiry, he at length ascertained to be about half a mile distant.
+We walked all the way, this good old baker and I, he refusing to ride
+because there was only room for one, and I not liking to do so and let
+him walk. The drosky-man followed in the rear, driving along very
+leisurely, and with great apparent comfort to himself. He leaned back
+in his seat with much gusto, and seemed rather amused than otherwise
+at our movements. At length we reached the consulate. It was about
+three hundred yards from my original point of departure. Any other man
+in existence than my istrovoschik would have sunk into the earth upon
+seeing me make this astounding discovery. I knew it by certain
+landmarks--a church and a garden. But he did not sink into the earth.
+He merely sat on his drosky as cool as a cucumber. I felt so grateful
+to the worthy baker, who was a fat old gentleman, and perspired freely
+after his walk, that I gave him thirty kopecks. The drosky-man claimed
+forty kopecks, just double his fare. I called in the services of an
+interpreter, and protested against this imposition. The interpreter
+and the drosky-man got into an animated dispute on the question, and
+must have gone clear back to the fundamental principles of droskyism,
+for they seemed likely never to come to an end. The weather was warm,
+and both kept constantly wiping their faces, and turning the whole
+subject over and over again, without the slightest probability of an
+equitable conclusion. At length my interpreter said, "Perhaps, sir,
+you had better pay it. The man says you kept him running about for
+over two hours; and since you have no proof to the contrary, it would
+only give you trouble to have him punished." This view accorded
+entirely with my own, and I cheerfully paid the forty kopecks; also
+ten kopecks drink-geld, and a small douceur of half a ruble (fifty
+kopecks) to the gentleman who had so kindly settled the difficulty for
+me. After many years' experience of travel, I am satisfied, as before
+stated, that a man may be born naturally honest, but can not long
+retain his integrity in the hack business. He must sooner or later
+take to swindling, otherwise he can never keep his horses fat, or make
+the profession respectable and remunerative. Such, at least, has been
+my experience of men in this line of business, not excepting the
+istrovoschik of St. Petersburg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A PLEASANT EXCURSION.
+
+
+I had the good fortune, during my ramble, to meet with a couple of
+fellow-passengers from Stettin. One of them was a rough, weather-beaten
+man of middle age, with rather marked features, but not an unkindly
+expression. His mysterious conduct during the voyage had frequently
+attracted my attention. There was something curious about his motions, as
+if an invisible companion, to whom he was bound in some strange way,
+continually accompanied him. He drank enormous quantities of beer, and
+smoked from morning till night a tremendous meerschaum, which must have
+held at least a pint of tobacco. When not engaged in drinking beer and
+smoking, he usually walked rapidly up and down the decks, with his hands
+behind him and his head bent down, talking in a guttural voice to himself
+about "hemp." He slept--or rather lay down, for I don't think he ever
+slept--with his head close to mine on a bench in the cabin, and it was a
+continued source of trouble to me the way he puffed, and groaned, and
+talked about "hemp." Sometimes he was half the night arguing with himself
+about the various prices and qualities of this useful article, but I did
+not understand enough of his _blat deutsch_ to gather the drift of the
+argument. All I could make out was "_Zweimal zwei macht vier_--(a
+puff)--_sechs und vierzig_--(a groan)--_acht und sechzig macht ein
+hundert_--(a snort)--_sieben tausend_--_acht tausend fuenf und dreissig
+thaler_--(a sigh)--_schilling_--_kopeck_--_ruble_--_hemphf! Mein Gott!
+Zwei und dreissig tausend_--_hemphf_--_ruble_--(a terrible gritting of
+the teeth)--_sechs und fuenfzig_--_Gott im Himmel!_--_Ich kann nicht
+schlafen!_" Here he would jump up and shout "Kellner! Kellner! _ein
+flask bier!_--_sechs und zechzig_--_zweimal acht und vierzig! Kellner,
+flask bier!_--_Liebe Gott_--_was ist das?_--_Nine und sechzig_--_flask
+bier!_ _Kleich! Kleich!_" When the beer came he would drink off three
+bottles without stopping, then light his pipe, fill the cabin with smoke,
+and after he had done that go on deck to get the fresh air. I could hear
+him for hours walking up and down over my head, and thought I could
+occasionally detect the words. "_Hemphf_--_ruble_--_thaler_--_fuenfmal
+sechs und zwanzig_--_mein Gott!_" It was evident the man was laboring
+under some dreadful internal excitement about the price of hemp. What
+could it be? Was he going to hang himself? Did he contemplate buying some
+Russian hemp for that purpose especially? The mystery was heightened by
+the fact that he was frequently in close conversation with the young man
+whom I have already mentioned as my other fellow-passenger, and they both
+talked about nothing else but hemp. What in the name of sense were they
+going to do with hemp in Mechlenberg, their native country, where people
+were beheaded--unless they meant to hang themselves? The mystery troubled
+me so much that I finally made bold to ask the young man if his friend
+had committed any serious crime, and whether that was the reason he
+talked so much about hemp? These North Germans are a queer people. I
+don't think they ever suspect any body to be joking. They take the most
+outrageous proposition literally, and never seem to understand that there
+can be two meanings to any thing. As Sydney Smith says of the Scotch, it
+would take a surgical operation to get a joke well into their
+understanding. When I propounded this question to my young
+fellow-passenger--a very amiable and intelligent young man--he looked
+distressed and horror-stricken, and replied with great earnestness, "Oh
+no, he is a very respectable man. I am certain he never committed a crime
+in his life." "But," said I, "if he doesn't intend to hang somebody, why
+should he rave about hemp all night?" "Oh, he is a rope-maker. He is
+going to Russia to buy a cargo of hemp, and he's afraid prices will go up
+unless he gets there soon. The head wind and chopping sea keep us back a
+good deal." "Yes, yes, I understand it all now. Suppose, my young friend,
+you and I go to work and help the steamer along a little? It would be
+doing a great service to the cause of hemp, and enable me to sleep
+besides." The Mechlenberger looked incredulous. "How are we to do it?" he
+asked at length. "Oh, nothing easier!" I answered. "Just put a couple of
+these handspikes in the lee scuppers--so! and hold her steady!" At this
+the Mechlenberger, who was a very genial and good-natured fellow, could
+scarcely help laughing, the absurdity of the idea struck him so forcibly.
+Seeing, however, that I looked perfectly in earnest, he was kind enough
+to explain the erroneous basis of my calculation, and accordingly entered
+into an elaborate mathematical demonstration to prove that what we gained
+by lifting we would lose by the additional pressure of our feet upon the
+decks! After this I was prepared to believe the story of the old
+Nuremberger, who, when about to set out on his travels, got on top of his
+trunk and took hold of each end for the purpose of carrying it to the
+post station. The question about the hemp was too good to be lost, and my
+young friend had too strong a business head not to perceive the
+delightful verdancy of my character. He accordingly took the earliest
+opportunity to mention it to his comrade, Herr Batz, the rope-maker, who
+never stopped laughing about the mistake I had made till we got to St.
+Petersburg. They were both very genial, pleasant fellows, and took a
+great fancy to the Herr American who thought Herr Batz was going to hang
+himself, and who had proposed to steady the steamer by means of a
+handspike. Such primitive simplicity was absolutely refreshing to them;
+and, since they enjoyed it, of course I did, and we were the best of
+friends.
+
+On the present occasion, after we had passed the usual compliments it
+was proposed that we should hire a boat, as the night was fine, and
+take a trip down to the Kamennoi Island. I was delighted to have two
+such agreeable companions, and readily acceded to the proposition. A
+young Russian in the hemp business accompanied us, and altogether we
+made a very lively and humorous party. I was sorry, however, to be
+prejudiced in the estimation of the Russian by having the hemp and
+handspike story repeated in my presence, but finally got over that,
+and changed the current of the conversation by asking if the Emperor
+Alexander would send me to Siberia in case I smoked a cigar in the
+boat? To which the Russian responded somewhat gravely that I could
+smoke as many cigars on the water as I pleased, although it was
+forbidden in the streets on account of the danger of fire; but that,
+in any event, I would merely have to pay a fine, as people were only
+sent to Siberia for capital crimes and political offenses.
+
+We got a boat down near the Custom-house, at a point of the Vassoli
+Ostrou, called the Strelka, and were soon skimming along through a
+small branch of the Neva, toward the island of Krestofskoi. The water
+was literally alive with boats, all filled with gay parties of
+pleasure-seekers, some on their way to the different islands, some to
+the bath-houses which abound in every direction, and all apparently
+enjoying a delightful time of it. Passing to the right of the
+Petrofskoi Island, whose grass-covered shores slope down to the water
+like a green carpet outspread under the trees, we soon reached the
+Little Nevka, about three miles from our starting-point. We
+disembarked on the Krestofskoi Island, near the bridge which crosses
+from Petrofskoi. On the right is a beautiful palace belonging to some
+of the royal family, the gardens of which sweep down to the waters of
+the Nevka, and present a charming scene of floral luxuriance.
+Gondolas, richly carved and curiously shaped, lay moored near the
+stone steps; the trestled bowers were filled with gay parties;
+pleasant sounds of voices and music floated upon the air, and over
+all a soft twilight gave a mystic fascination to the scene. I thought
+of the terrible arctic winters that for six months in the year cast
+their cold death-pall over the scene of glowing and tropical
+luxuriance, and wondered how it could ever come to life again; how the
+shrubs could bloom, and the birds sing, and the soft air of the summer
+nights come back and linger where such dreary horrors were wont to
+desolate the earth.
+
+  [Illustration: FISH PEDDLER.]
+
+The constant dread of infringing upon the police regulations; the
+extraordinary deference with which men in uniform are regarded; the
+circumspect behavior at public places; the nice and well-regulated
+mirthfulness, never overstepping the strict bounds of prudence, which
+I had so often noticed in the northern states of Germany, and which
+may in part be attributed to the naturally conservative and orderly
+character of the people, are not the prominent features of the
+population of St. Petersburg. It appeared to me that in this respect
+at least they are more like Americans than any people I had seen in
+Europe; they do pretty much as they please; follow such trades and
+occupations as they like best; become noisy and uproarious when it
+suits them; get drunk occasionally; fight now and then; lie about on
+the grass and under the trees when they feel tired; enjoy themselves
+to their heart's content at all the public places; and care nothing
+about the police as long as the police let them alone. I rather
+fancied there must be a natural democratic streak in these people, for
+they are certainly more free and easy in their manners, rougher in
+their dress, more independent in their general air, and a good deal
+dirtier than most of the people I had met with in the course of my
+travels. I do not mean to say that rowdyism and democracy are
+synonymous, but I consider it a good sign of innate manliness and a
+natural spirit of independence when men are not afraid to dress like
+vagabonds and behave a little extravagantly, if it suits their taste.
+It must be said, however, that the police regulations or St.
+Petersburg, without being onerous or vexatious, are quite as good as
+those of any large city in Europe. When men are deprived of their
+political liberties, the least that can be done for them is to let
+them enjoy as much municipal freedom as may be consistent with public
+peace. I should never have suspected, from any thing I saw in the city
+or neighborhood of St. Petersburg, that I was within the limits of an
+absolute despotism. If one desires to satisfy himself on this point he
+must visit the interior.
+
+  [Illustration: YOUNG PEASANTS.]
+
+I was led into this train of reflection partly by the scenes I had
+witnessed during my rambles through the city and on the way down the
+river, and partly by what we now saw on the island of Krestofskoi. A
+bridge unites this island with the Petrofskoi, and two other bridges
+with the islands of Kamennoi and Elaghinskoi. It was eleven o'clock at
+night, yet the twilight was so rich and glowing that one might readily
+read a newspaper in any of the open spaces. The main avenues were
+crowded with carriages of every conceivable description--the grandly
+decorated coach of the noble, glittering with armorial bearings and
+drawn by four richly-caparisoned horses; the barouche, easy and
+elegant, filled with a gay company of foreigners; the drosky, whirling
+along at a rapid pace, with its solitary occupant; the kareta, plain,
+neat, and substantial, carrying on its ample seats some worthy
+merchant and his family; the nondescript little vehicle, without top,
+bottom, or sides--nothing but four small wheels and a cushioned seat
+perched on springs, with an exquisite perched astride upon the street,
+driving a magnificent blood horse at the rate of 2.40; and English
+boxes with stiff Englishmen in them; and French chaises with loose
+Frenchmen in them; and a New York buggy with a New York fancy man in
+it; and hundreds of fine horses with dashing Russian officers in
+uniform mounted on them, and hundreds of other horses with secretaries
+and various young sprigs of nobility struggling painfully to stay
+mounted on them; and, in short, every thing grand, fanciful, and
+entertaining in the way of locomotion that the most fertile
+imagination can conceive. Don't do me the injustice, I pray you, to
+consider me envious of the good fortune of others in being able to
+ride when I had to walk, for it does me an amazing deal of good to see
+people enjoy themselves. Nothing pleases me better than to see a fat
+old lady, glittering all over with fine silks and jewels, leaning back
+in her cushioned carriage, with her beloved little lapdog in her
+arms--two elegant drivers, four prancing horses, and a splendid little
+postillion in front; two stalwart footmen, in plush breeches, behind,
+with variegated yellow backs like a pair of wasps. Can any thing be
+more picturesque? It always makes me think of a large June-bug dragged
+about by an accommodating crowd of fancy-colored flies! And what can
+be more imposing than a Russian grandee? See that terrific old
+gentleman, sitting all alone in a gorgeous carriage, large enough to
+carry himself and half a dozen of his friends. Orders and disorders
+cover him from head to foot. He is the exact picture of a ferocious
+bullfrog, with a tremendous mustache and a horribly malignant
+expression of eye, and naturally enough expects every body to get out
+of his way. That man must have had greatness thrust upon him, for he
+never could have achieved it by the brilliancy of his intellect.
+Doubtless he spends much of his time at the springs, but they don't
+seem to have purified his body, or subdued the natural ferocity of his
+temper. His wife must have a pleasant time. I wonder if he sleeps
+well, or enjoys Herzain's essays on Russian aristocracy? But make way,
+ye pedestrian rabble, for here comes a secretary of legation on
+horseback--make way, or he will tumble off and inflict some bodily
+injury upon you with the points of his waxed mustache! I know he must
+be a secretary of legation by the enormous polished boots he wears
+over his tight breeches, the dandy parting of his hair, the
+supercilious stupidity of his countenance, and the horrible tortures
+he suffers in trying to stick on the back of his horse. Nobody else in
+the world could make such an ass of himself by such frantic attempts
+to show off and keep on at the same time. I'll bet my life he thinks
+he is the most beautiful and accomplished gentleman ever produced by a
+beneficent Creator. Well, it is a happy thing for some of us that we
+don't see ourselves as others see us; if we did, my friends in the
+hemp business and myself would fare badly. Beregrissa! Padi!
+Padi!--have a care! make way, for here comes a cloud of dust, and in
+that cloud of dust is a kibitka, drawn by three wild horses, and in
+that kibitka, half sitting, half clinging to the side, is an official
+courier. Crack goes the whip of the _yamtschick_; the three fiery
+horses fly through the dust; the courier waves his hand to an officer
+on horseback, and with a whirl and a whisk they disappear. _Pashol!_ I
+hope they won't break their necks before they get through.
+
+  [Illustration: DVORNICK AND POSTMAN.]
+
+Soon the main road branches out in various directions, and we strike
+off with the diverging streams of pedestrians, families of the middle
+and lower classes, young men of the town, gay young damsels with their
+beaux, burly tradesmen, tinkers, tailors, and hatters, waiters and
+apprentices, sailors and soldiers, until we find ourselves in the
+midst of a grand old forest. Open glades, pavilions, and tables are
+visible at intervals; but for the most part we are in a labyrinthian
+wilderness of trees, rich in foliage, and almost oppressive in their
+umbrageous density, while
+
+    "Deep velvet verdure clothes the turf beneath,
+    And trodden flowers their richest odors breathe."
+
+Insects flit through the still atmosphere; the hum of human voices,
+softened by distance, falls soothingly upon the ear; and as we look,
+and listen, and loiter on our way, we wonder if this can be the
+dreamland of the arctic regions? Can there ever be snow-storms and
+scathing frosts in such a land of tropical luxuriance? Thus, as we
+lounge along in the mellow twilight amid the groves of Katrofskoi,
+what charming pictures of sylvan enjoyment are revealed to us at every
+turn! Rustic tables under the great wide-spreading trees are
+surrounded by family groups--old patriarchs, and their children, and
+great-grandchildren; the steaming urn of tea in the middle; the old
+people chatting and gossiping; the young people laughing merrily; the
+children tumbling about over the green sward. Passing on we come to a
+group of Mujiks lying camp-fashion on the grass, eating their black
+bread, drinking their vodka, and sleeping whenever they please--for
+this is their summer home, and this grass is their bed. Next we come
+to a group of officers, their rich uniforms glittering in the soft
+twilight, their horses tied to the trees, or held at a little distance
+by some attendant soldiers. Dominoes, cards, Champagne, and cakes are
+scattered in tempting profusion upon the table, and if they are not
+enjoying their military career, it is not for want of congenial
+accompaniments and plenty of leisure. A little farther on we meet a
+jovial party of Germans seated under a tree, with a goodly supply of
+bread and sausages before them, singing in fine accord a song of their
+faderland. Next we hear the familiar strains of an organ, and soon
+come in sight of an Italian who is exhibiting an accomplished monkey
+to an enraptured crowd of children. The monkey has been thoroughly
+trained in the school of adversity, and makes horrible grimaces at his
+cruel and cadaverous master, who in ferocious tones, and without the
+least appearance of enjoying the sport, commands this miniature man to
+dance, fire a small gun, go through the sword exercise, play on a
+small fiddle, smoke a cigar, turn a somersault, bow to the company,
+and hold out his hat for an unlimited number of kopecks. Herr Batz
+suggests that such a monkey as that might be taught to spin ropes, and
+our younger Mechlenberger laughs, and says he once read a story of a
+monkey that shaved a cat, and then cut off his own or the cat's tail,
+he could not remember which. This reminds the Russian of a countess in
+Moscow who owned a beautiful little dog, to which she was greatly
+attached. She required her serfs to call it "My noble Prince," and had
+them well flogged with the knout whenever they approached it without
+bowing. One day a cat got hold of the noble Prince, and gave him a
+good scratching. The countess, being unable to soothe her afflicted
+poodle, caused the cat's paws to be cut off, and served up on a plate
+for his unhappy highness to play with--after which the noble pug was
+perfectly satisfied! Of course, we all laughed at the Russian's story,
+but he assured us it was a well authenticated fact, and was generally
+regarded as a most delicate _jeu d'esprit_. Not to be behindhand in
+the line of cats and monkeys, I was obliged to tell an anecdote of a
+Frenchman, who, on his arrival in Algiers, ordered a ragout at one of
+the most fashionable restaurants. It was duly served up, and
+pronounced excellent, though rather strongly flavored. "Pray," said
+the Frenchman to the _maitre d'hotel_, "of what species of cat do you
+make ragouts in Algiers?" "Pardon, monsieur," replied the polite host,
+"we use nothing but monkeys in Africa!" Disgusted at this colonial
+barbarism, the Frenchman immediately returned to Paris, where he
+remained forever after, that he might enjoy his customary and more
+civilized dish of cat. Herr Batz had not before heard of such a
+thing, neither had the young Mechlenberger, and they both agreed that
+cats must be a very disgusting article of food. The Russian, however,
+seemed to regard it as nothing uncommon, and gave us some very
+entertaining accounts of various curious dishes in the interior of
+Russia, to which cats were not a circumstance.
+
+  [Illustration: GLAZIER, PAINTER, CARPENTERS.]
+
+With such flimsy conversation as this we entertain ourselves till we
+reach a village of summer residences on the Kamennoi Island. Here we
+pause a while to enjoy the varied scenes of amusement that tempt the
+loiterer at every step; the tea-drinking parties out on the porticoes,
+the gambling saloons, the dancing pavilions, the cafes, the
+confectioneries, with their gay throngs of customers, their gaudy
+colors, their music, and sounds of joy and revelry. A little farther
+on we come to a stand of carriages, and near by a gate and a large
+garden. For thirty kopecks apiece we procure tickets of admission.
+This is the Vauxhall of Kamennoi. We jostle in with the crowd, and
+soon find ourselves in front of an open theatre.
+
+So passes away the time till the whistle of a little steamer warns us
+of an opportunity to get back to the city. Hurrying down to the wharf,
+we secure places on the stern-sheets of a screw-wheeled craft not much
+bigger than a good-sized yawl. It is crowded to overflowing--in front,
+on top of the machinery, in the rear, over the sides--not a square
+inch of space left for man or beast. The whistle blows again; the
+fiery little monster of an engine shivers and screams with excess of
+steam; the grim, black-looking engineer gives the irons a pull, and
+away we go at a rate of speed that threatens momentary destruction
+against some bridge or bath-house. It is now two o'clock A.M. The rays
+of the rising sun are already reflected upon the glowing waters of the
+Neva. Barges and row-boats are hurrying toward the city. Carriages are
+rolling along the shady avenues of the islands. Crowds are gathered at
+every pier and landing-place awaiting some conveyance homeward. Ladies
+are waving their handkerchiefs to the little steamer to stop, and
+gentlemen are flourishing their hats. The captain blows the whistle,
+and the engineer stops the boat with such a sudden reversion of our
+screw that we are pitched forward out of the seats. Some of the
+passengers clamber up at the landing-places, and others clamber down
+and take their places. The little engine sets up its terrific scream
+again; the hot steam hisses and fizzes all over the boat; involuntary
+thoughts of maimed limbs and scalded skins are palpably impressed upon
+every face; but the little steamer keeps on--she is used to it, like
+the eels, and never bursts up. Winding through the varied channels of
+the Neva, under bridges, through narrow passes, among wood-boats,
+row-boats, and shipping, we at length reach the landing on the Russian
+Quay, above the Admiralty. Here we disembark, well satisfied to be
+safely over all the enjoyments and hazards of the evening.
+
+Evening, did I say? The morning sun is blazing out in all his glory!
+We have had no evening--no night. It has been all a wild, strange,
+glowing freak of fancy. The light of day has been upon us all the
+time. And now, should we go to bed, when the sun is shining over the
+city, glistening upon the domes of the churches, illuminating the
+windows of the palaces, awaking the drowsy sailors of the Neva? Shall
+we hide ourselves away in suffocating rooms when the morning breeze is
+floating in from the Gulf of Finland, bearing upon its wings the
+invigorating brine of ocean, or shall we,
+
+              "Pleased to feel the air,
+    Still wander in the luxury of light?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+VIEWS ON THE MOSCOW RAILWAY.
+
+
+The St. Petersburg and Moscow Railroad has been in operation some
+eight or ten years, and has contributed much to the internal
+prosperity of the country. In the summer of 1862 it was extended as
+far as Vladimir, and now connects St. Petersburg with Nijni Novgorod,
+one of the most important points in the empire, where the great annual
+fair is held, where tea-merchants and others from all parts of Tartary
+and China meet to exchange the products of those countries with those
+of the merchants of Russia. During the present year (1862) it is
+expected that the line of railway connection will be completed from
+St. Petersburg to the Prussian frontier, and connect with the
+railroads of Prussia, so that within twelve months it will be
+practicable to travel by rail all the way from Marseilles or Bordeaux
+to Nijni Novgorod.
+
+The Moscow and St. Petersburg Railway is something over four hundred
+miles in length, and consists of a double track, broad, well graded,
+and substantially constructed. The whole business of running the line,
+keeping the cars and track in repair, working the machine-shops, etc.,
+embracing all the practical details of the operative department, is
+let out by contract to an American company, while the government
+supervises the financial department, and reserves to itself the
+municipal control.[A] It is a remarkable fact, characteristic of the
+Russians, that while they possess uncommon capacity to acquire all the
+details of engineering, and are by no means lacking in mechanical
+skill, they are utterly deficient in management and administrative
+capacity. Wasteful, improvident, and short-sighted, they can never do
+any thing without the aid of more sagacious and economical heads to
+keep them within the bounds of reason. Thus, at one time, when they
+undertook to run this line on their own account, although they started
+with an extraordinary surplus of material, they soon ran the cars off
+their wheels, forgetting to keep up a supply of new ones as they went
+along; ran the engines out of working order; kept nothing in repair;
+provided against no contingency; and were finally likely to break down
+entirely, when they determined that it would be better to give this
+branch of the business out by contract. One great fault with them is,
+they labor under an idea that nothing can be done without an
+extraordinary number of officers, soldiers, policemen, and employes of
+every description--upon the principle, I suppose, that if two heads
+are better than one, the ignorance or inefficiency of a small number
+of employes can be remedied by having a very great number of the same
+kind. In other words, they seem to think that if five hundred men can
+not be industrious, skillful, and economical, five thousand trained in
+exactly the same schools, and with precisely the same propensities,
+must be ten times better. Even now there is not a station, and
+scarcely a foot of the railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow, that is
+not infested with an extraordinary surplus of useless men in uniform.
+At the great depots in each of these cities the traveler is fairly
+confused with the crowds of officers and employes through which he is
+obliged to make his way. Before he enters the doorways, liveried
+porters outside offer to take his baggage; then he passes by guards,
+who look at him carefully and let him go in; then he finds guards who
+show him where to find the ticket-office; when he arrives at the
+ticket-office, he finds a guard or two outside, and half a dozen
+clerks inside; then he buys his ticket, and an officer examines it as
+he goes into the wirthsaal; there he finds other officers stationed to
+preserve order; when the bell rings the doors are opened; numerous
+officers outside show him where to find the cars, and which car he
+must get into; and when he gets into a car he sits for a quarter of an
+hour, and sees officers going up and down outside all the time, and
+thinks to himself that people certainly can not be supposed to have
+very good eyes, ears, or understanding of their own in this country,
+since nobody is deemed capable of using them on his individual
+responsibility. I only wonder that they don't eat, drink, sleep, and
+travel for a man at once by proxy, and thereby save him the trouble of
+living or moving at all. In fact, I had some thought of asking one of
+these licensed gentlemen if the regulations could not be stretched a
+point so as to embrace the payment of my expenses; but it occurred to
+me that if I were relieved of that responsibility, they might
+undertake at the same time to write these letters for me, which would
+be likely to alter the tone and thereby destroy my individuality. But
+it must be admitted that good order, convenience, politeness, and
+comfort are the predominant characteristics of railway travel in
+Russia. The conductors usually speak French, German, and English, and
+are exceedingly attentive to the comfort of the passengers. The hours
+of starting and stopping are punctually observed--so punctually that
+you can calculate to the exact minute when you will arrive at any
+given point. Having no watch, I always knew the time by looking at my
+ticket. Between St. Petersburg and Moscow there are thirty-three
+stations, seven of which are the grand stations of Lubanskaia,
+Malovischerskaia, Okoulourskaia, Bologovskaia, Spirovskaia, Tver, and
+Klinskaia. The rest are small intermediate stations. At every
+seventy-five versts--about fifty miles--the cars stop twenty minutes,
+and refreshments may be had by paying a pretty heavy price for them.
+At the points above-named there are large and substantial edifices
+built by the company, containing various offices, spacious
+eating-saloons, ante-chambers, etc., and attached to which are
+extensive machine-shops, and various outbuildings required by the
+service. Occasionally towns may be seen in the vicinity of these
+stations, but for the most part they stand out desolate and alone in
+the dreary waste of country lying between the two great cities. At
+every twenty-five versts are sub-stations, where the cars stop for a
+few minutes. These are also large and very substantial edifices, but
+not distinguished for architectural beauty, like many of the stations
+in France and Germany. Usually the Russian station consists of an
+immense plain circular building, constructed of brick, with very
+thick walls, and a plain zinc roof, the outside painted red, the roof
+green; wings or flanges built of the same material extending along the
+track; a broad wooden esplanade in front, upon which the passengers
+can amuse themselves promenading, and a neat garden, with other
+accommodations, at one end. Some of the large stations are not only
+massive and of enormous extent, but present rather a striking and
+picturesque appearance as they are approached from the distance,
+standing as they do in the great deserts of space like solitary
+sentinels of civilization. The passengers rush out at every
+stopping-place just as they do in other parts of the world, some to
+stretch their limbs, others to replenish the waste that seems to be
+constantly going on in the stomachs of the traveling public. I don't
+know how it is, but it appears to me that people who travel by railway
+are always either tired, thirsty, or hungry. The voracity with which
+plates of soup, cutlets, sandwiches, salad, scalding hot tea, wine,
+beer, and brandy are swallowed down by these hungry and thirsty
+Russians, is quite as striking as any thing I ever saw done in the
+same line at Washoe. But it is not a feature confined to Russia. I
+notice the same thing every where all over the world; and what vexes
+me about it is that I never get tired myself, and rarely hungry or
+thirsty. Here, in midsummer, with a sweltering hot sun, and an
+atmosphere that would almost smother a salamander, were whole legions
+of officers, elegantly-dressed ladies, and a rabble of miscellaneous
+second and third class passengers like myself, puffing, blowing,
+eating, drinking, sweating, and toiling, as if their very existence
+depended upon keeping up the internal fires and blowing them off
+again. It is dreadful to see people so hard pushed to live. I really
+can't conjecture what sort of a commotion they will make when they
+come to die. A sandwich or two and a glass of tea lasted me all the
+way to Moscow--a journey of eighteen hours, and I never suffered from
+hunger, thirst, or fatigue the whole way. If I had "gone in" like
+other people, I would certainly have been a dead man before I got half
+way; and yet, I think, two sandwiches more would have lasted me to the
+Ural Mountains. It continually bothers me to know how the human
+stomach can bear to be tormented in this frightful way. Per Baccho! I
+would as soon be shot in the hand with an escopette ball as drink the
+quantity of wine and eat the quantity of food that I have seen even
+women and children dispose of, as if it were mere pastime, on these
+railway journeys. I think it must be either this or the frost that
+accounts for the extraordinary prevalence of red noses in Russia, and
+it even occurred to me that the stations are painted a fiery red, so
+that when travelers come within range of the refracted color their
+noses may look pale by contrast, and thereby remind them that it is
+time to renew the caloric.
+
+  [A] This contract terminated last year (1865).
+
+With the exception of the seventy-five versts between Moscow and Tver,
+I can not remember that I ever traveled over so desolate and
+uninteresting a stretch of country as that lying between St.
+Petersburg and Moscow. For a short distance out of St. Petersburg
+there are some few villas and farms to relieve the monotony of the
+gloomy pine forests; then the country opens out into immense
+undulating plains, marshy meadows, scrubby groves of young pine,
+without any apparent limit; here and there a bleak and solitary
+village of log huts; a herd of cattle in the meadows; a wretched,
+sterile-looking farm, with plowed fields, at remote intervals, and so
+on hour after hour, the scene offering but little variety the whole
+way to Tver. The villages are wholly destitute of picturesque effect.
+Such rude and miserable hovels as they are composed of could scarcely
+be found in the wildest frontier region of the United States. These
+cabins or hovels are built of logs, and are very low and small,
+generally consisting of only one or two rooms. I saw none that were
+whitewashed or painted, and nothing like order or regularity was
+perceptible about them, all seeming to be huddled together as if they
+happened there by accident, and were obliged to keep at close quarters
+in order to avoid freezing during the terrible winters. Some of them
+are not unlike the city of Eden in Martin Chuzzlewit. The entire
+absence of every thing approaching taste, comfort, or rural beauty in
+the appearance of these villages; the weird and desolate aspect of the
+boggy and grass-grown streets; the utter want of interest in progress
+or improvement on the part of the peasantry who inhabit them, are well
+calculated to produce a melancholy impression of the condition of
+these poor people. How can it be otherwise, held in bondage as they
+have been for centuries, subject to be taxed at the discretion of
+their owners; the results of their labors wrested from them; no
+advance made by the most enterprising and intelligent of them without
+in some way subjecting them to new burdens? Whatever may be the result
+of the movement now made for their emancipation, it certainly can not
+be more depressing than the existing system of serfage. Looking back
+over the scenes of village life I had witnessed in France and
+Germany--the neat vine-covered cottages, the little flower-gardens,
+the orchards and green lanes, the festive days, when the air resounded
+to the merry voices of laughing damsels and village beaux--
+
+    "The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
+    For talking age and whispering lovers made"--
+
+the joyous dancers out on the village green, the flaunting banners and
+wreaths of flowers hung in rich profusion over the cross-roads--with
+such scenes as these flitting through my memory, I could well
+understand that there is an absolute physical servitude to which men
+can be reduced, that, in the progress of generations, must crush down
+the human soul, and make life indeed a dreary struggle. In the
+splendor of large cities, amid the glitter and magnificence of palaces
+and churches, the varied paraphernalia of aristocracy and wealth, and
+all the excitements, allurements, and novelties apparent to the
+superficial eye, the real condition of the masses is not perceptible.
+They must be seen in the country--in their far-off villages and homes
+throughout the broad land; there you find no disguise to cover the
+horrible deformities of their bruised and crushed life; there you see
+the full measure of their civilization. In the huts of these poor
+people there is little or no comfort. Many of them have neither beds
+nor chairs, and the occupants spend a sort of camp life within doors,
+cooking their food like Indians, and huddling round the earthen stove
+or fireplace in winter, where they lie down on the bare ground and
+sleep in a mass, like a nest of animals, to keep each other warm.
+Their clothing is of the coarsest material, but reasonably good, and
+well suited to the climate. The men are a much finer-looking race,
+physically, than their masters. I saw some serfs in Moscow who, in
+stature, strong athletic forms, and bold and manly features, would
+compare favorably with the best specimens of men in any country. It
+was almost incredible that such noble-looking fellows, with their
+blue, piercing eyes and manly air, should be reduced to such a state
+of abject servitude as to kiss the tails of their master's coats! Many
+of them had features as bold and forms as brawny as our own California
+miners; and more than once, when I saw them lounging about in their
+big boots, with their easy, reckless air, and looked at their
+weather-beaten faces and vigorous, sunburnt beards, I could almost
+imagine that they were genuine Californians. But here the resemblance
+ceased. No sooner did an officer of high standing pass, than they
+manifested some abject sign of their degraded condition.
+
+  [Illustration: HAY GATHERERS.]
+
+Some of the agricultural implements that one sees in this country
+would astonish a Californian. The plows are patterned very much after
+those that were used by Boaz and other large farmers in the days of
+the Patriarchs; the scythes are the exact originals of the old
+pictures in which Death is represented as mowing down mankind; the
+hoes, rakes, and shovels would be an ornament to any museum, but are
+entirely indescribable; and as for the wagons and harnesses--herein
+lies the superior genius of the Russians over all the races of earth,
+ancient or modern, for never were such wagons and such harnesses seen
+on any other part of the globe. To be accurate and methodical, each
+wagon has four wheels, and each wheel is roughly put together of rough
+wood, and then roughly bound up in an iron band about four inches
+wide, and thick in proportion. Logs of wood, skillfully hewed with
+broad-axes, answer for the axle-tree; and as they don't weigh over
+half a ton each, they are sometimes braced in the middle to keep them
+from breaking. Upon the top of this is a big basket, about the shape
+of a bath-tub, in which the load is carried. Sometimes the body is
+made of planks tied together with bullock's hide, or no body at all
+is used, as convenience may require. The wagon being thus completed,
+braced and thorough-braced with old ropes, iron bands, and leather
+straps, we come to the horses, which stand generally in front. The
+middle horse is favored with a pair of shafts of enormous durability
+and strength. He stands between these shafts, and is fastened in them
+by means of ropes; but, to prevent him from jumping out overhead, a
+wooden arch is out over him, which is the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of
+ornamentation. This is called the _duga_, and is the most prominent
+object to be seen about every wagon, drosky, and kibitka in Russia. I
+am not sure but a species of veneration is attached to it. Often it is
+highly decorated with gilding, painted figures, and every vagary of
+artistic genius, and must cost nearly as much as the entire wagon.
+Some of the _dugas_ even carry saintly images upon them, so that the
+devout driver may perform his devotions as he drives through life. To
+suppose that a horse could pull a wagon in Russia without this wooden
+arch, the utility of which no human eye but that of a Russian can see,
+is to suppose an impossibility. Now, the shafts being spread out so as
+to give the horse plenty of room at each side, it becomes necessary,
+since they are rather loosely hung on at the but-ends, to keep them
+from swaying. How do you think this is done? Nothing easier. By
+running a rope from the end of each shaft to the projecting end of the
+fore axle, outside of the wheels. For this purpose the axle is made to
+project a foot beyond the wheels, and the only trouble about it is
+that two wagons on a narrow road often find it difficult to pass. It
+is very curious to see these primitive-looking objects lumbering about
+through the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The horses are most
+commonly placed three abreast. In the ordinary kibitka or traveling
+wagon the outside horses are merely fastened by ropes, and strike out
+in any direction they please, the whip and a small rein serving to
+keep them within bounds. It is perfectly astonishing with what
+reckless and headlong speed these animals dash over the rough
+pavements. Just imagine the luxury of a warm day's journey in such a
+vehicle, which has neither springs nor backed seats--three fiery
+horses fastened to it, and each pulling, plunging, and pirouetting on
+his own account; a ferocious yamtschick cracking his whip and
+shrieking "Shivar! shivar!"--faster! faster!--the wagon, rattling all
+over, plunging into ruts, jumping over stones, ripping its way through
+bogs and mud-banks; your bones shaken nearly out of their sockets;
+your vertebrae partially dislocated; your mouth filled with dust; your
+tongue swollen and parched; your eyes blinded with grit; your
+_yamtschick_ reeling drunk with _vodka_, and bound to draw to the
+destined station--or some worse place; your confidence in men and
+horses shaken with your bones; your views of the future circumscribed
+by every turn of the road--oh! it is charming; it is the very climax
+of human enjoyment. Wouldn't you like to travel in Russia?
+
+In addition to the villages which are scattered at frequent intervals
+along the route, the gilded dome of a church is occasionally seen in
+the distance, indicating the existence of a town; but one seldom
+catches more than a glimpse of the green-covered roofs of the houses,
+over the interminable patches of scrubby pine. It is not a country
+that presents such attractive features as to induce the mere tourist
+to get out and spend a few days rambling through it. In these dreary
+solitudes of marshes and pines, the inhabitants speak no other
+language than their own, and that not very well; but well or ill, it
+is all Greek--or rather Russian--to the majority of people from other
+countries.
+
+But, as I said before, this habit of digression will be the death of
+me. Like a rocket, I start off splendidly, but explode and fall to
+pieces in every direction before I get half way on my journey. If the
+scintillations are varied and gayly colored, to be sure, the powder is
+not utterly lost; but the trouble of it is, if one keeps going off
+like rockets all the time, he will never get any where, and in the
+end will leave nothing but smoke and darkness to the gaping multitude.
+
+If my memory serves me, I was talking of the Emperor Alexander's convoy
+of private railway carriages--the most magnificent affair of the kind,
+perhaps, in existence. It was made purposely for his use, at a cost of
+more than a hundred thousand dollars, and presented to him by the
+American company, Winans and Company. Nothing so magnificent in
+decoration, and so admirably adapted to the convenience, comfort, and
+enjoyment of a royal party has ever been seen in Europe. The main
+carriage--for there are several in the suite--called, _par excellence_,
+the emperor's own, is eighty-five feet long, and something over the
+usual width. It rests upon two undivided sleepers of such elastic and
+well-grained wood that they would bear the entire weight of the
+carriage, without the necessity of a support in the middle, forming a
+single stretch or arch, from axle to axle, of about seventy feet. The
+springs, wheels, brakes, and various kinds of iron-work, are of the
+finest and most select material, and highly finished in every detail,
+combining strength and durability with artistic beauty. The interior of
+the main or imperial carriage is a masterpiece of sumptuous
+ornamentation. Here are the richest of carvings; the most gorgeous
+hangings of embroidered velvet; mirrors and pictures in profusion;
+carpets and rugs that seem coaxing the feet to linger upon them;
+tables, cushioned sofas, and luxurious arm-chairs; divans and lounges
+of rare designs, covered with the richest damask; exquisite Pompeian
+vases and brilliant chandeliers--all, in short, that ingenuity could
+devise and wealth procure to charm the senses, and render this a
+traveling palace worthy the imperial presence. Connected with the main
+saloon is the royal bedchamber, with adjoining bathing and dressing
+rooms, equally sumptuous in all their appointments. Besides which,
+there are smoking-rooms, private offices, magnificent chambers for the
+camarilla, the secretaries, and body-guard of the emperor. The whole
+is admirably arranged for convenience and comfort; and it is said that
+the motion, when the convoy is under way, is so soft and dreamy that it
+is scarcely possible to feel a vibration, the effect being as if the
+cars were floating through the air, or drawn over tracks of down. Fully
+equal to this, yet more subdued and delicate in the drapery and
+coloring, are the apartments of the empress. Here it may truly be said
+is "the poetry of motion" realized--saloons fit for the angels that
+flit through them, of whom the chiefest ornament is the empress
+herself--the beautiful and beloved Maria Alexandrina, the charm of
+whose presence is felt like a pleasant glow of sunshine wherever she
+goes. Here are drawing-rooms, boudoirs, apartments for the beautiful
+maids of honor, reading-rooms, and even a dancing-saloon, from which it
+may well be inferred that the royal party enjoy themselves. If the
+emperor fails to make himself agreeable in this branch of his
+establishment, he deserves to be put out at the very first station. But
+he has the ladies at a disadvantage, which probably compels them to be
+very tolerant of his behavior; that is to say, he can detach their
+branch of the establishment from his own, and leave them on the road at
+any time he pleases by pulling a string; but I believe there is no
+instance yet on record of his having availed himself of this autocratic
+privilege. It is usually understood at the start whether the excursion
+is to be in partnership or alone. When the emperor goes out on a
+hunting expedition, he is accompanied by a select company of gentlemen,
+and of course is compelled to deprive himself of the pleasure of the
+more attractive and intoxicating society of ladies, which would be
+calculated to unsteady his nerves, and render him unfit for those
+terrific encounters with the bears of the forest upon which his fame as
+a hunter is chiefly founded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MOSCOW.
+
+
+What the great Napoleon thought when he gazed for the first time
+across the broad valley that lay at his feet, and caught the first
+dazzling light that flashed from the walls and golden cupolas of the
+Kremlin--whether some shadowy sense of the wondrous beauties of the
+scene did not enter his soul--is more than I can say with certainty;
+but this much I know, that neither he nor his legions could have
+enjoyed the view from Sparrow Hill more than I did the first glimpse
+of the grand old city of the Czars as I stepped from the railroad
+depot, with my knapsack on my back, and stood, a solitary and
+bewildered waif, uncertain if it could all be real; for never yet had
+I, in the experience of many years' travel, seen such a magnificent
+sight, so wildly Tartaric, so strange, glowing, and incomprehensible.
+This was Moscow at last--the Moscow I had read of when a child--the
+Moscow I had so often seen burnt up in panoramas by an excited and
+patriotic populace--the Moscow ever flashing through memory in fitful
+gleams, half buried in smoke, and flames, and toppling ruins, now
+absolutely before me, a gorgeous reality in the bright noonday sun,
+with its countless churches, its domes and cupolas, and mighty
+Kremlin.
+
+Stand with me, reader, on the first eminence, and let us take a
+bird's-eye view of the city, always keeping in mind that the Kremlin
+is the great nucleus from which it all radiates. What a vast, wavy
+ocean of golden cupolas and fancy-colored domes, green-roofed houses
+and tortuous streets circle around this magic pile! what a combination
+of wild, barbaric splendors! nothing within the sweep of vision that
+is not glowing and Oriental. Never was a city so fashioned for scenic
+effects. From the banks of the Moskwa the Kremlin rears its glittering
+crest, surrounded by green-capped towers and frowning embattlements,
+its umbrageous gardens and massive white walls conspicuous over the
+vast sea of green-roofed houses, while high above all, grand and
+stern, like some grim old Czar of the North, rises the magnificent
+tower of Ivan Veliki. Within these walls stand the chief glories of
+Moscow--the palaces of the Emperor, the Cathedral of the Assumption,
+the House of the Holy Synod, the Treasury, the Arsenal, and the Czar
+Kolokol, the great king of bells. All these gorgeous edifices, and
+many more, crown the eminence which forms the sacred grounds,
+clustering in a magic maze of beauty around the tower of Ivan the
+Terrible. Beyond the walls are numerous open spaces occupied by booths
+and markets; then come the principal streets and buildings of the
+city, encircled by the inner boulevards; then the suburbs, around
+which wind the outer boulevards; then a vast tract of beautiful and
+undulating country, dotted with villas, lakes, convents, and public
+buildings, inclosed in the far distance by the great outer wall, which
+forms a circuit of twenty miles around the city. The Moskwa River
+enters near the Presnerski Lake, and, taking a circuitous route,
+washes the base of the Kremlin, and passes out near the convent of St.
+Daniel. If you undertake, however, to trace out any plan of the city
+from the confused maze of streets that lie outspread before you, it
+will be infinitely worse than an attempt to solve the mysteries of a
+woman's heart; for there is no apparent plan about it; the whole thing
+is an unintelligible web of accidents. There is no accounting for its
+irregularity, unless upon the principle that it became distorted in a
+perpetual struggle to keep within reach of the Kremlin.
+
+It is sometimes rather amusing to compare one's preconceived ideas of
+a place with the reality. A city like Moscow is very difficult to
+recognize from any written description. From some cause wholly
+inexplicable, I had pictured to my mind a vast gathering of tall,
+massive houses, elaborately ornamented; long lines of narrow and
+gloomy streets; many great palaces, dingy with age; and a population
+composed chiefly of Russian nabobs and their retinues of serfs. The
+reality is almost exactly the reverse of all these preconceived ideas.
+The houses for the most part are low--not over one or two stories
+high--painted with gay and fanciful colors, chiefly yellow, red, or
+blue; the roofs of tin or zinc, and nearly all of a bright green,
+giving them a very lively effect in the sun; nothing grand or imposing
+about them in detail, and but little pretension to architectural
+beauty. Very nearly such houses may be seen every day on any of the
+four continents.
+
+Still, every indication of life presents a very different aspect from
+any thing in our own country. The people have a slow, slouching,
+shabby appearance; and the traveler is forcibly reminded, by the
+strange costumes he meets at every turn--the thriftless and degenerate
+aspect of the laboring classes--the great lumbering wagons that roll
+over the stone-paved streets--the droskies rattling hither and thither
+with their grave, priest-like drivers and wild horses--the squads of
+filthy soldiers lounging idly at every corner--the markets and
+market-places, and all that gives interest to the scene, that he is in
+a foreign land--a wild land of fierce battles between the elements,
+and fiercer still between men--where civilization is ever struggling
+between Oriental barbarism and European profligacy.
+
+The most interesting feature in the population of Moscow is their
+constant and extraordinary displays of religious enthusiasm. This
+seems to be confined to no class or sect, but is the prevailing
+characteristic. No less than three hundred churches are embraced
+within the limits of the city. Some writers estimate the number as
+high as five hundred; nor does the discrepancy show so much a want of
+accuracy as the difficulty of determining precisely what constitutes
+a distinct church. Many of these remarkable edifices are built in
+clusters, with a variety of domes and cupolas, with different names,
+and contain distinct places of worship--as in the Cathedral of St.
+Basil, for instance, which is distinguished by a vast number of
+variegated domes, and embraces within its limits at least five or six
+separate churches, each church being still farther subdivided into
+various chapels. Of the extraordinary architectural style of these
+edifices, their many-shaped and highly-colored domes, representing all
+the lines of the rainbow, the gilding so lavishly bestowed upon them,
+their wonderfully picturesque effect from every point of view, it
+would be impossible to convey any adequate idea without entering into
+a more elaborate description than I can at present attempt.
+
+But it is not only in the numberless churches scattered throughout the
+city that the devotional spirit of the inhabitants is manifested.
+Moscow is the Mecca of Russia, where all are devotees. The external
+forms of religion are every where apparent--in the palaces, the
+barracks, the institutions of learning, the traktirs, the
+bath-houses--even in the drinking cellars and gambling-hells. Scarcely
+a bridge or corner of a street is without its shrine, its pictured
+saint and burning taper, before which every by-passer of high or low
+degree bows down and worships. It may be said with truth that one is
+never out of sight of devotees baring their heads and prostrating
+themselves before these sacred images. All distinctions of rank seem
+lost in this universal passion for prayer. The nobleman, in his gilded
+carriage with liveried servants, stops and pays the tribute of an
+uncovered head to some saintly image by the bridge or the roadside;
+the peasant, in his shaggy sheepskin capote, doffs his greasy cap,
+and, while devoutly crossing himself, utters a prayer; the soldier,
+grim and warlike, marches up in his rattling armor, grounds his
+musket, and forgets for the time his mission of blood; the tradesman,
+with his leather apron and labor-worn hands, lays down his tools and
+does homage to the shrine; the drosky-driver, noted for his petty
+villainies, checks his horse, and, standing up in his drosky, bows low
+and crosses himself before he crosses the street or the bridge; even
+my guide, the saturnine Dominico--and every body knows what guides are
+all over the world--halted at every corner, regardless of time, and
+uttered an elaborate form of adjurations for our mutual salvation.
+
+Pictures of a devotional character are offered for sale in almost
+every booth, alley, and passage-way, where the most extraordinary
+daubs may be seen pinned up to the walls. Saints and dragons,
+fiery-nosed monsters, and snakes, and horrid creeping things, gilded
+and decorated in the most gaudy style, attract idle crowds from
+morning till night.
+
+It is marvelous with what profound reverence the Russians will gaze at
+these extraordinary specimens of art. Often you see a hardened-looking
+ruffian--his face covered with beard and filth; his great, brawny form
+resembling that of a prize-fighter; his costume a ragged blouse, with
+loose trowsers thrust in his boots; such a wretch, in short, as you
+would select for an unmitigated ruffian if you were in want of a model
+for that character--take off his cap, and, with superstitious awe and
+an expression of profound humility, bow down before some picture of a
+dragon with seven heads or a chubby little baby of saintly parentage.
+
+That these poor people are sincere in their devotion there can be no
+doubt. Their sincerity, indeed, is attested by the strongest proofs of
+self-sacrifice. A Russian will not hesitate to lie, rob, murder, or
+suffer starvation for the preservation of his religion. Bigoted though
+he may be, he is true to his faith and devoted to his forms of
+worship, whatever may be his short-comings in other respects. It is a
+part of his nature; it permeates his entire being. Hence no city in
+the world, perhaps--Jerusalem not excepted--presents so strange a
+spectacle of religious enthusiasm, genuine and universal, mingled with
+moral turpitude; monkish asceticism and utter abandonment to vice;
+self-sacrifice and loose indulgence. It may be said that this is not
+true religion--not even what these people profess. Perhaps not; but it
+is what they are accustomed to from infancy, and it certainly develops
+some of their best traits of character--charity to each other,
+earnestness, constancy, and self-sacrifice.
+
+On the morning after my arrival in Moscow I witnessed from the window
+of my hotel a very impressive and melancholy spectacle--the departure
+of a gang of prisoners for Siberia. The number amounted to some two or
+three hundred. Every year similar trains are dispatched, yet the
+parting scene always attracts a sympathizing crowd. These poor
+creatures were chained in pairs, and guarded by a strong detachment of
+soldiers. Their appearance, as they stood in the street awaiting the
+order to march, was very sad. Most of them were miserably clad, and
+some scarcely clad at all. A degraded, forlorn set they were--filthy
+and ragged--their downcast features expressive of an utter absence of
+hope. Few of them seemed to have any friends or relatives in the crowd
+of by-standers; but in two or three instances I noticed some very
+touching scenes of separation--where wives came to bid good-by to
+their husbands, and children to their fathers. Nearly every body gave
+them something to help them on their way--a few kopecks, a loaf of
+bread, or some cast-off article of clothing. I saw a little child
+timidly approach the gang, and, dropping a small coin into the hand of
+one poor wretch, run back again into the crowd, weeping bitterly.
+These prisoners are condemned to exile for three, four, or five
+years--often for life. It requires from twelve to eighteen months of
+weary travel, all the way on foot, through barren wastes and
+inhospitable deserts, to enable them to reach their desolate place of
+exile. Many of them fall sick on the way from fatigue and
+privation--many die. Few ever live to return. In some instances the
+whole term of exile is served out on the journey to and from Siberia.
+On their arrival they are compelled to labor in the government mines
+or on the public works. Occasionally the most skillful and industrious
+are rewarded by appointments to positions of honor and trust, and
+become in the course of time leading men.
+
+  [Illustration: PRISONERS FOR SIBERIA.]
+
+In contemplating the dreary journey of these poor creatures--a journey
+of some fifteen hundred or two thousand miles--I was insensibly
+reminded of that touching little story of filial affection, "Elizabeth
+of Siberia," a story drawn from nature, and known in all civilized
+languages.
+
+Not long after the departure of the Siberian prisoners, I witnessed,
+in passing along one of the principal streets, a grand funeral
+procession. The burial of the dead is a picturesque and interesting
+ceremony in Moscow. A body of priests, dressed in black robes and
+wearing long beards, take the lead in the funeral cortege, bearing in
+their hands shrines and burning tapers. The hearse follows, drawn by
+four horses. Black plumes wave from the heads of the horses, and
+flowing black drapery covers their bodies and legs. Even their heads
+are draped in black, nothing being perceptible but their eyes. The
+coffin lies exposed on the top of the hearse, and is also similarly
+draped. This combination of sombre plumage and drapery has a
+singularly mournful appearance. Priests stand on steps attached to the
+hearse holding images of the Savior over the coffin; others follow in
+the rear, comforting the friends and relatives of the deceased. A
+wild, monotonous chant is sung from time to time by the chief mourners
+as the procession moves toward the burial-ground. The people cease
+their occupations in the streets through which the funeral passes,
+uncover their heads, and, bowing down before the images borne by the
+priests, utter prayers for the repose of the dead. The rich and the
+poor of both sexes stand upon the sidewalks and offer up their humble
+petitions. The deep-tongued bells of the Kremlin ring out solemn
+peals, and the wild and mournful chant of the priests mingles with the
+grand knell of death that sweeps through the air. All is profoundly
+impressive: the procession of priests, with their burning tapers; the
+drapery of black on the horses; the coffin with its dead; the weeping
+mourners; the sepulchral chant; the sudden cessation of all the
+business of life, and the rapt attention of the multitude; the deep,
+grand, death-knell of the bells; the glitter of domes and cupolas on
+every side; the green-roofed sea of houses; the winding streets, and
+the costumes of the people--form a spectacle wonderfully wild,
+strange, and mournful. In every thing that comes within the sweep of
+the eye there is a mixed aspect of Tartaric barbarism and European
+civilization. Yet even the stranger from a far-distant clime, speaking
+another language, accustomed to other forms, must feel, in gazing upon
+such a scene, that death levels all distinctions of race--that our
+common mortality brings us nearer together. Every where we are
+pilgrims on the same journey. Wherever we sojourn among men,
+
+    "The dead around us lie,
+      And the death-bell tolls."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+TEA-DRINKING.
+
+
+The _traktirs_, or tea-houses, are prominent among the remarkable
+institutions of Russia. In Moscow they abound in every street, lane,
+and by-alley. That situated near the Katai Gorod is said to be the
+best. Though inferior to the ordinary cafes of Paris or Marseilles in
+extent and decoration, it is nevertheless pretty stylish in its way,
+and is interesting to strangers from the fact that it represents a
+prominent feature in Russian life--the drinking of _tchai_.
+
+  [Illustration: TEA-SELLERS.]
+
+Who has not heard of Russian tea?--the tea that comes all the way
+across the steppes of Tartary and over the Ural Mountains?--the tea
+that never loses its flavor by admixture with the salt of the ocean,
+but is delivered over at the great fair of Nijni Novgorod as pure and
+fragrant as when it started? He who has never heard of Russian tea has
+heard nothing, and he who has never enjoyed a glass of it may have
+been highly favored in other respects, but I contend that he has
+nevertheless led a very benighted existence. All epicures in the
+delicate leaf unite in pronouncing it far superior to the nectar with
+which the gods of old were wont to quench their thirst. It is truly
+one of the luxuries of life--so soft; so richly yet delicately
+flavored; so bright, glowing, and transparent as it flashes through
+the crystal glasses; nothing acrid, gross, or earthly about it--a
+heavenly compound that "cheers but not inebriates."
+
+    "A balm for the sickness of care,
+      A bliss for a bosom unbless'd."
+
+Come with me, friend, and let us take a seat in the traktir. Every
+body here is a tea-drinker. Coffee is never good in Russia. Besides,
+it is gross and villainous stuff compared with the _tchai_ of Moscow.
+At all hours of the day we find the saloons crowded with Russians,
+French, Germans, and the representatives of various other nations--all
+worshipers before the burnished shrine of _Tchai_. A little saint in
+the corner presides especially over this department. The devout
+Russians take off their hats and make a profound salam to this
+accommodating little patron, whose corpulent stomach and smiling
+countenance betoken an appreciation of all the good things of life.
+Now observe how these wonderful Russians--the strangest and most
+incomprehensible of beings--cool themselves this sweltering hot day.
+Each stalwart son of the North calls for a portion of _tchai_, not a
+tea-cupful or a glassful, but a genuine Russian portion--a tea-potful.
+The tea-pot is small, but the tea is strong enough to bear an
+unlimited amount of dilution; and it is one of the glorious privileges
+of the tea-drinker in this country that he may have as much hot water
+as he pleases. Sugar is more sparingly supplied. The adept remedies
+this difficulty by placing a lump of sugar in his mouth and sipping
+his tea through it--a great improvement upon the custom said to exist
+in some parts of Holland, where a lump of sugar is hung by a string
+over the table and swung around from mouth to mouth, so that each
+guest may take a pull at it after swallowing his tea. A portion would
+be quite enough for a good-sized family in America. The Russian makes
+nothing of it. Filling and swilling hour after hour, he seldom rises
+before he gets through ten or fifteen tumblersful, and, if he happens
+to be thirsty, will double it--enough, one would think, to founder a
+horse. But the Russian stomach is constructed upon some physiological
+principles unknown to the rest of mankind--perhaps lined with
+gutta-percha and riveted to a diaphragm of sheet-iron. Grease and
+scalding-hot tea; _quass_ and cabbage soup; raw cucumbers; cold fish;
+lumps of ice; decayed cheese and black bread, seem to have no other
+effect upon it than to provoke an appetite. In warm weather it is
+absolutely marvelous to see the quantities of fiery-hot liquids these
+people pour down their throats. Just cast your eye upon that bearded
+giant in the corner, with his hissing urn of tea before him, his
+_batvina_ and his _shtshie_! What a spectacle of physical enjoyment!
+His throat is bare; his face a glowing carbuncle; his body a monstrous
+cauldron, seething and dripping with overflowing juices. Shade of
+Hebe! how he swills the tea--how glass after glass of the steaming-hot
+liquid flows into his capacious maw, and diffuses itself over his
+entire person! It oozes from every pore of his skin; drops in globules
+from his forehead; smokes through his shirt; makes a piebald chart of
+seas and islands over his back; streams down and simmers in his boots!
+He is saturated with tea, inside and out--a living sponge overflowing
+at every pore. You might wring him out, and there would still be a
+heavy balance left in him.
+
+  [Illustration: MUJIKS AT TEA.]
+
+These traktirs are the general places of meeting, where matters of
+business or pleasure are discussed; accounts settled and bargains
+made. Here the merchant, the broker, the banker, and the votary of
+pleasure meet in common. Here all the pursuits of human life are
+represented, and the best qualities of men drawn out with the drawing
+of the tea. Enmities are forgotten and friendships cemented in tea. In
+short, the traktir is an institution, and its influence extends
+through all the ramifications of society.
+
+But it is in the gardens and various places of suburban resort that
+the universal passion for tea is displayed in its most pleasing and
+romantic phases. Surrounded by the beauties of nature, lovers make
+their avowals over the irrepressible tea-pot; the hearts of fair
+damsels are won in the intoxication of love and tea; quarrels between
+man and wife are made up, and children weaned--I had almost said
+baptized--in tea. The traveler must see the families seated under the
+trees, with the burnished urn before them--the children romping about
+over the grass; joy beaming upon every face; the whole neighborhood a
+repetition of family groups and steaming urns, bound together by the
+mystic tie of sympathy, before he can fully appreciate the important
+part that tea performs in the great drama of Russian life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE PETERSKOI GARDENS.
+
+
+This draws me insensibly toward the beautiful gardens of the
+Peterskoi--a favorite place of resort for the Moskovites, and famous
+for its chateau built by the Empress Elizabeth, in which Napoleon
+sought refuge during the burning of Moscow. It is here the rank and
+fashion of the city may be seen to the greatest advantage of a fine
+summer afternoon. In these gardens all that is brilliant, beautiful,
+and poetical in Russian life finds a congenial atmosphere.
+
+I spent an evening at the Peterskoi which I shall long remember as one
+of the most interesting I ever spent at any place of popular
+amusement. The weather was charming--neither too warm nor too cold,
+but of that peculiarly soft and dreamy temperature which predisposes
+one for the enjoyment of music, flowers, the prattle of children, the
+fascinations of female loveliness, the luxuries of idleness. In such
+an atmosphere no man of sentiment can rack his brain with troublesome
+problems. These witching hours, when the sun lingers dreamily on the
+horizon; when the long twilight weaves a web of purple and gold that
+covers the transition from night to morning; when nature, wearied of
+the dazzling glare of day, puts on her silver-spangled robes, and
+receives her worshipers with celestial smiles, are surely enough to
+soften the most stubborn heart. We must make love, sweet ladies, or
+die. There is no help for it. Resistance is an abstract impossibility.
+The best man in the world could not justly be censured for practicing
+a little with his eyes, when away from home, merely as I do, you know,
+to keep up the expression.
+
+The gardens of the Peterskoi are still a dream to me. For a distance
+of three versts from the gate of St. Petersburg the road was thronged
+with carriages and droskies, and crowds of gayly-dressed citizens, all
+wending their way toward the scene of entertainment. The pressure for
+tickets at the porter's lodge was so great that it required
+considerable patience and good-humor to get through at all. Officers
+in dashing uniforms rode on spirited chargers up and down the long
+rows of vehicles, and with drawn swords made way for the
+foot-passengers. Guards in imperial livery, glittering from head to
+foot with embroidery, stood at the grand portals of the gate, and with
+many profound and elegant bows ushered in the company. Policeman with
+cocked hats and shining epaulets were stationed at intervals along the
+leading thoroughfares to preserve order.
+
+The scene inside the gates was wonderfully imposing. Nothing could be
+more fanciful. In every aspect it presented some striking combination
+of natural and artificial beauties, admirably calculated to fascinate
+the imagination. I have a vague recollection of shady and undulating
+walks, winding over sweeping lawns dotted with masses of flowers and
+copses of shrubbery, and overhung by wide-spreading trees, sometimes
+gradually rising over gentle acclivities or points of rock overhung
+with moss and fern. Rustic cottages, half hidden by the luxuriant
+foliage, crowned each prominent eminence, and little by-ways branched
+off into cool, umbrageous recesses, where caves, glittering with
+sea-shells and illuminated stalactites, invited the wayfarer to linger
+a while and rest. Far down in deep glens and grottoes were retired
+nooks, where lovers, hidden from the busy throng, might mingle their
+vows to the harmony of falling waters; where the very flowers seemed
+whispering love to each other, and the lights and shadows fell, by
+some intuitive sense of fitness, into the form of bridal wreaths.
+Marble statues representing the Graces, winged Mercuries and Cupids,
+are so cunningly displayed in relief against the green banks of
+foliage that they seem the natural inhabitants of the place.
+Snow-spirits, too, with outspread wings, hover in the air, as if to
+waft cooling zephyrs through the soft summer night. In the open spaces
+fountains dash their sparkling waters high into the moonlight,
+spreading a mystic spray over the sward. Through vistas of shrubbery
+gleam the bright waters of a lake, on the far side of which the
+embattled towers of a castle rise in bold relief over the intervening
+groups of trees.
+
+On an elevated plateau, near the centre of the garden, stands a series
+of Asiatic temples and pagodas, in which the chief entertainments are
+held. The approaching avenues are illuminated with many-colored lights
+suspended from the branches of the trees, and wind under triumphal
+archways, festooned with flowers. The theatres present open fronts,
+and abound in all the tinsel of the stage, both inside and out. The
+grounds are crowded to their utmost capacity with the rank and fashion
+of the city, in all the glory of jeweled head-dresses and decorations
+of order. Festoons of variegated lights swing from the trees over the
+audience, and painted figures of dragons and genii are dimly seen in
+the background.
+
+  [Illustration: RUSSIAN THEATRE.]
+
+Attracted by sounds of applause at one of these theatres, I edged my
+way through the crowd, and succeeded, after many apologies, in
+securing a favorable position. Amid a motley gathering of Russians,
+Poles, Germans, and French--for here all nations and classes are
+represented--my ears were stunned by the clapping of hands and
+vociferous cries _Bis! Bis!_ The curtain was down, but in answer to
+the call for a repetition of the last scene it soon rose again, and
+afforded me an opportunity of witnessing a characteristic performance.
+A wild Mujik has the impudence to make love to the maid-servant of
+his master, who appears to be rather a crusty old gentleman, not
+disposed to favor matrimonial alliances of that kind. Love gets the
+better of the lover's discretion, and he is surprised in the kitchen.
+The bull-dog is let loose upon him; master and mistress and
+subordinate members of the family rush after him, armed with
+saucepans, tongs, shovels, and broomsticks. The affrighted Mujik runs
+all round the stage bellowing fearfully; the bull-dog seizes him by
+the nether extremities and hangs on with the tenacity of a vice. Round
+and round they run, Mujik roaring for help, bull-dog swinging out
+horizontally. The audience applauds; the master flings down his
+broomstick and seizes the dog by the tail; the old woman seizes master
+by the skirts of his coat; and all three are dragged around the stage
+at a terrific rate, while the younger members of the family shower
+down miscellaneous blows with their sticks and cudgels, which always
+happen to fall on the old people, to the great satisfaction of the
+audience. Shouts, and shrieks, and clapping of hands but faintly
+express the popular appreciation of the joke. Finally the faithful
+maid, taking advantage of the confusion, flings a bunch of
+fire-crackers at her oppressors and blows them up, and the Mujik,
+relieved of their weight, makes a brilliant dash through the door,
+carrying with him the tenacious bull-dog, which it is reasonable to
+suppose he subsequently takes to market and sells for a good price.
+The curtain falls, the music strikes up, and the whole performance is
+greeted with the most enthusiastic applause. Such are the
+entertainments that delight these humorous people--a little broad to
+be sure, but not deficient in grotesque spirit.
+
+From the theatre I wandered to the pavilion of Zingalee gipsies, where
+a band of these wild sons of Hagar were creating a perfect furor by
+the shrillness and discord of their voices. Never was such terrific
+music inflicted upon mortal ears. It went through and through you,
+quivering and vibrating like a rapier; but the common classes of
+Russians delight in it above all earthly sounds. They deem it the very
+finest kind of music. It is only the dilettante who have visited Paris
+who profess to hold it in contempt.
+
+Very soon surfeited with these piercing strains, I rambled away till I
+came upon a party of rope-dancers, and after seeing a dozen or so of
+stout fellows hang themselves by the chins, turn back somersaults in
+the air, and swing by one foot at a dizzy height from the ground, left
+them standing upon each other's heads to the depth of six or eight,
+and turned aside into a grotto to enjoy a few glasses of tea. Here
+were German girls singing and buffoons reciting humorous stories
+between the pauses, and thirsty Russians pouring down whole oceans of
+their favorite beverage.
+
+Again I wandered forth through the leafy mazes of the garden. The
+gorgeous profusion of lights and glittering ornaments, the endless
+variety of colors, the novel and Asiatic appearance of the temples,
+the tropical luxuriance of the foliage, the gleaming white statuary,
+the gay company, the wild strains of music, all combined to form a
+scene of peculiar interest. High overhead, dimly visible through the
+tops of the trees, the sky wears an almost supernatural aspect during
+these long summer nights. A soft golden glow flushes upward from the
+horizon, and, lying outspread over the firmament, gives a spectral
+effect to the gentler and more delicate sheen of the moon; the stars
+seem to shrink back into the dim infinity, as if unable to contend
+with the grosser effulgence of the great orbs that rule the day and
+the night. Unconscious whether the day is waning into the night, or
+the night into the morning, the rapt spectator gazes and dreams till
+lost in the strange enchantment of the scene.
+
+At a late hour a signal was given, and the company wandered down to
+the lake, along the shores of which rustic seats and divans,
+overshadowed by shrubbery, afforded the weary an opportunity of
+resting. Here we were to witness the crowning entertainment of the
+evening--a grand display of fire-works. A miniature steam-boat, gayly
+decorated with flags, swept to and fro, carrying passengers to the
+different landing-places. Gondolas, with peaked prows and variegated
+canopies, lay floating upon the still water, that lovers might quench
+their flames in the contemplation of its crystal depths, or draw fresh
+inspiration from the blaze of artificial fires. Soon a wild outburst
+of music was heard; then from the opposite shore the whole heavens
+were lighted up with a flood of rockets, and the ears were stunned by
+their explosions. Down through the depths of ether came showers of
+colored balls, illuminating the waters of the lake with inverted
+streams of light scarcely less bright and glowing. Anon all was dark;
+then from out the darkness flashed whirling and seething fires,
+gradually assuming the grotesque forms of monsters and genii, till
+with a deafening explosion they were scattered to the winds. From the
+blackened mass of ruins stood forth illuminated statues of the
+imperial family, in all the paraphernalia of royalty, their crowns
+glittering with jewels, their robes of light resplendent with precious
+gems and tracery of gold. A murmur of admiration ran through the
+crowd. The imperial figures vanished as if by magic, and suddenly a
+stream of fire flashed from a mass of dark undefined objects on the
+opposite shore, and lo! the waters were covered with fiery swans,
+sailing majestically among the gondolas, their necks moving slowly as
+if inspired by life. Hither and thither they swept, propelled by
+streams of fire, till, wearied with their sport, they gradually lay
+motionless, yet glowing with an augmented brilliancy. While the eyes
+of all were fixed in amazement and admiration upon these beautiful
+swans, they exploded with a series of deafening reports, and were
+scattered in confused volumes of smoke. Out of the chaos swept
+innumerable hosts of whirling little monsters, whizzing and boring
+through the water like infernal spirits of the deep. These again burst
+with a rattle of explosions like an irregular fire of musketry, and
+shot high into the air in a perfect maze of scintillating stars of
+every imaginable color. When the shower of stars was over, and silence
+and darkness once more reigned, a magnificent barge, that might well
+have represented that of the Egyptian queen--its gay canopies
+resplendent with the glow of many-colored lamps--swept out into the
+middle of the lake, and
+
+              "Like a burnished throne
+    Burn'd on the water."
+
+  [Illustration: THE PETERSKOI GARDENS.]
+
+And when the rowers had ceased, and the barge lay motionless, soft
+strains of music arose from its curtained recesses, swelling up
+gradually till the air was filled with the floods of rich, wild
+harmony, and the senses were ravished with their sweetness.
+
+Was it a wild Oriental dream? Could it all be real--the glittering
+fires, the gayly-costumed crowds, the illuminated barge, the
+voluptuous strains of music? Might it not be some gorgeous freak of
+the emperor, such as the sultan in the Arabian Nights enjoyed at the
+expense of the poor traveler? Surely there could be nothing real like
+it since the days of the califs of Bagdad!
+
+A single night's entertainment such as this must cost many thousand
+rubles. When it is considered that there are but few months in the
+year when such things can be enjoyed, some idea may be formed of the
+characteristic passion of the Russians for luxurious amusements. It is
+worthy of mention, too, that the decorations, the lamps, the actors
+and operators, the material of nearly every description, are imported
+from various parts of the world, and very little is contributed in any
+way by the native Russians, save the means by which these costly
+luxuries are obtained.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE "LITTLE WATER."
+
+
+On the fundamental principles of association the intelligent reader
+will at once comprehend how it came to pass that, of all the traits I
+discovered in the Russian people, none impressed me so favorably as
+their love of vodka, or native brandy, signifying the "little water."
+I admired their long and filthy beards and matted heads of hair,
+because there was much in them to remind me of my beloved Washoe; but
+in nothing did I experience a greater fellowship with them than in
+their constitutional thirst for intoxicating liquors. It was
+absolutely refreshing, after a year's travel over the Continent of
+Europe, to come across a genuine lover of the "tarantula"--to meet at
+every corner of the street a great bearded fellow staggering along
+blind drunk, or attempting to steady the town by hugging a post.
+Rarely had I enjoyed such a sight since my arrival in the Old World.
+In Germany I had seen a few cases of stupefaction arising from
+overdoses of beer; in France the red nose of the _bon vivant_ is not
+uncommon; in England some muddled heads are to be found; and in
+Scotland there are temperance societies enough to give rise to the
+suspicion that there is a cause for them; but, generally speaking, the
+sight of an intoxicated man is somewhat rare in the principal cities
+of the Continent. It will, therefore, be conceded that there was
+something very congenial in the spectacle that greeted me on the very
+first day of my arrival in Moscow. A great giant of a Mujik, with a
+ferocious beard and the general aspect of a wild beast, came toward me
+with a heel and a lurch to port that was very expressive of his
+condition. As he staggered up and tried to balance himself, he blurted
+out some unmeaning twaddle in his native language which I took to be a
+species of greeting. His expression was absolutely inspiring--the
+great blear eyes rolling foolishly in his head; his tongue lolling
+helplessly from his mouth; his under jaw hanging down; his greasy cap
+hung on one side on a tuft of dirty hair--all so familiar, so
+characteristic of something I had seen before! Where could it have
+been? What potent spell was there about this fellow to attract me? In
+what was it that I, an embassador from Washoe, a citizen of
+California, a resident of Oakland, could thus be drawn toward this
+hideous wretch? A word in your ear, reader. It was all the effect of
+association! The unbidden tears flowed to my eyes as I caught a whiff
+of the fellow's breath. It was so like the free-lunch breaths of San
+Francisco, and even suggested thoughts of the Legislative Assembly in
+Sacramento. Only think what a genuine Californian must suffer in being
+a whole year without a glass of whisky--nay, without as much as a
+smell of it! How delightful it is to see a brother human downright
+soggy drunk; drunk all over; drunk in the eyes, in the mouth, in the
+small of his back, in his knees, in his boots, clear down to his toes!
+How one's heart is drawn toward him by this common bond of human
+infirmity! How it recalls the camp, the one-horse mining town, the
+social gathering of the "boys" at Dan's, or Jim's, or Jack's; and the
+clink of dimes and glasses at the bar; how distances are annihilated
+and time set back! Of a verity, when I saw that man, with reason
+dethroned and the garb of self-respect thrown aside, I was once again
+in my own beloved state!
+
+    "What a beauty dwelt in each familiar face,
+      What music hung on every voice!"
+
+  [Illustration: VODKA.]
+
+Since reading is not a very general accomplishment among the lower
+classes, a system of signs answers in some degree as a substitute. The
+irregularity of the streets would of itself present no very remarkable
+feature but for the wonderful variety of small shops and the oddity of
+the signs upon which their contents are pictured. What these symbols
+of trade lack in artistic style they make up in grotesque effects.
+Thus, the tobacco shops are ornamented outside with various
+highly-colored pictures, drawn by artists of the most florid genius,
+representing cigar-boxes, pipes, meerschaums, narghillas, bunches of
+cigars, snuffboxes, plugs and twists of tobacco, and all that the most
+fastidious smoker, chewer, or snuffer can expect to find in any
+tobacco shop, besides a good many things that he never will find in
+any of these shops. Prominent among these symbolical displays is the
+counterfeit presentment of a jet-black Indian of African descent--his
+woolly head adorned with a crown of pearls and feathers; in his right
+hand an uplifted tomahawk, with which he is about to kill some
+invisible enemy; in his left a meerschaum, supposed to be the pipe of
+peace; a tobacco plantation in the background, and a group of warriors
+smoking profusely around a camp-fire, located under one of the tobacco
+plants; the whole having a very fine allegorical effect, fully
+understood, no doubt, by the artist, but very difficult to explain
+upon any known principle of art. The butchers' shops are equally
+prolific in external adornments. On the sign-boards you see every
+animal fit to be eaten, and many of questionable aspect, denuded of
+their skins and reduced to every conceivable degree of butchery; so
+that if you want a veal cutlet of any particular pattern, all you have
+to do is to select your pattern, and the cutlet will be chopped
+accordingly. The bakeries excel in their artistic displays. Here you
+have painted bread from black-moon down to double-knotted twist;
+cakes, biscuit, rolls, and crackers, and as many other varieties as
+the genius of the artist may be capable of suggesting. The bakers of
+Moscow are mostly French or German; and it is a notable fact that the
+bread is quite equal to any made in France or Germany. The
+wine-stores, of which there are many, are decorated with pictures of
+bottles, and bas-reliefs of gilded grapes--a great improvement upon
+the ordinary grape produced by nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE MARKETS OF MOSCOW.
+
+
+If there is nothing new under the sun, there are certainly a good many
+old things to interest a stranger in Moscow. A favorite resort of mine
+during my sojourn in that strange old city of the Czars was in the
+markets of the Katai Gorod. Those of the Riadi and Gostovini Dvor
+present the greatest attractions, perhaps, in the way of shops and
+merchandise; for there, by the aid of time, patience, and money, you
+can get any thing you want, from saints' armlets and devils down to
+candlesticks and cucumbers. Singing-birds, Kazan-work, and Siberian
+diamonds are its most attractive features. But if you have a passion
+for human oddities rather than curiosities of merchandise, you must
+visit the second-hand markets extending along the walls of the Katai
+Gorod, where you will find not only every conceivable variety of old
+clothes, clocks, cooking utensils, and rubbish of all sorts, but the
+queerest imaginable conglomeration of human beings from the far East
+to the far West. It would be a fruitless task to attempt a description
+of the motley assemblage. Pick out all the strangest, most ragged,
+most uncouth figures you ever saw in old pictures, from childhood up
+to the present day; select from every theatrical representation
+within the range of your experience the most monstrous and absurd
+caricatures upon humanity; bring to your aid all the masquerades and
+burlesque fancy-balls you ever visited, tumble them together in the
+great bag of your imagination, and pour them out over a vague
+wilderness of open spaces, dirty streets, high walls, and rickety
+little booths, and you have no idea at all of the queer old markets of
+the Katai Gorod. You will be just as much puzzled to make any thing of
+the scene as when you started, if not more so.
+
+  [Illustration: OLD-CLOTHES' MARKET.]
+
+No mortal man can picture to another all these shaggy-faced Russians,
+booted up to the knees, their long, loose robes flaunting idly around
+their legs, their red sashes twisted around their waists; brawny
+fellows with a reckless, independent swagger about them, stalking like
+grim savages of the North through the crowd. Then there are the sallow
+and cadaverous Jew peddlers, covered all over with piles of ragged old
+clothes, and mountains of old hats and caps; and leathery-faced old
+women--witches of Endor--dealing out horrible mixtures of _quass_ (the
+national drink); and dirty, dingy-looking soldiers, belonging to the
+imperial service, peddling off old boots and cast-off shirts; and
+Zingalee gipsies, dark, lean, and wiry, offering strings of beads and
+armlets for sale with shrill cries; and so on without limit.
+
+Here you see the rich and the poor in all the extremes of affluence
+and poverty; the robust and the decrepit; the strong, the lame, and
+the blind; the noble, with his star and orders of office; the Mujik in
+his shaggy sheepskin capote or tattered blouse; the Mongolian, the
+Persian, and the Caucasian; the Greek and the Turk; the Armenian and
+the Californian, all intent upon something, buying, selling, or
+looking on.
+
+Being the only representative from the Golden State, I was anxious to
+offer some Washoe stock for sale--twenty or thirty feet in the Gone
+Case; but Dominico, my interpreter, informed me that these traders had
+never heard of Washoe, and were mostly involved in Russian
+securities--old breeches, boots, stockings, and the like. He did not
+think my "Gone Case" would bring an old hat; and as for my "Sorrowful
+Countenance" and "Ragged End," he was persuaded I could not dispose of
+my entire interest in them for a pint of grease.
+
+I was very much taken with the soldiers who infested these old
+markets. It was something new in military economy to see the
+representatives of an imperial army supporting themselves in this way;
+dark, lazy fellows in uniform, lounging about with old boots, and
+suspenders hanging all over them, crying out the merits of their wares
+in stentorian voices, thus, as it were, patriotically relieving the
+national treasury of a small fraction of its burden. They have much
+the appearance, in the crowd, of raisins in a plum-pudding.
+
+The peasant women, who flock in from the country with immense burdens
+of vegetables and other products of the farms, are a very striking, if
+not a very pleasing feature in the markets. Owing to the hard labor
+imposed upon them, they are exceedingly rough and brawny, and have a
+hard, dreary, and unfeminine expression of countenance, rather
+inconsistent with one's notions of the delicacy and tenderness of
+woman. Few of them are even passably well-looking. All the natural
+playfulness of the gentler sex seems to be crushed out of them; and
+while their manners are uncouth, their voices are the wildest and most
+unmusical that ever fell upon the ear from a feminine source. When
+dressed in their best attire they usually wear a profusion of red
+handkerchiefs about their heads and shoulders; and from an
+unpicturesque habit they have of making an upper waist immediately
+under their arms by a ligature of some sort, and tying their
+apron-strings about a foot below, they have the singular appearance of
+being double-waisted or three-story women. They carry their children
+on their backs, much after the fashion of Digger Indians, and suckle
+them through an opening in the second or middle story. Doubtless this
+is a convenient arrangement, but it presents the curious anomaly of a
+poor peasant living in a one-story house with a three-story wife.
+According to the prevailing style of architecture in well-wooded
+countries, these women ought to wear their hair shingled; but they
+generally tie it up in a knot behind, or cover it with a fancy-colored
+handkerchief, on the presumption, I suppose, that they look less
+barbarous in that way than they would with shingled heads. You may
+suspect me of story-telling, but upon my word I think three-story
+women are extravagant enough without adding another to them. I only
+hope their garrets contain a better quality of furniture than that
+which afflicts the male members of the Mujik community. No wonder
+those poor women have families of children like steps of stairs! It is
+said that their husbands are often very cruel to them, and think
+nothing of knocking them down and beating them; but even that does not
+surprise me. How can a man be expected to get along with a three-story
+wife unless he floors her occasionally?
+
+Ragged little boys, prematurely arrested in their growth, you see too,
+in myriads--shovel-nosed and bare-legged urchins of hideously
+eccentric manners, carrying around big bottles of _sbiteen_ (a kind of
+mead), which they are continually pouring out into glasses, to appease
+the chronic thirst with which the public seem to be afflicted; and
+groups of the natives gathered around a cucumber stand, devouring
+great piles of unwholesome-looking cucumbers, which skinny old women
+are dipping up out of wooden buckets. The voracity with which all
+classes stow away these vicious edibles in their stomachs is amazing,
+and suggests a melancholy train of reflections on the subject of
+cholera morbus. It was a continual matter of wonder to me how the
+lower classes of Russians survived the horrid messes with which they
+tortured their digestive apparatus. Only think of thousands of men
+dining every day on black bread, heavy enough for bullets, a pound or
+two of grease, and half a peck of raw cucumbers per man, and then
+expecting to live until next morning! And yet they do live, and grow
+fat, and generally die at a good old age, in case they are not killed
+in battle, or frozen up in the wilds of Siberia.
+
+Outside the walls of the Katai Gorod, in an open square, or plaza, are
+rows of wooden booths, in which innumerable varieties of living stock
+are offered for sale--geese, ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigeons, and
+birds of various sorts. I sometimes went down here and bargained for
+an hour or so over a fat goose or a Muscovy duck, not with any
+ultimate idea of purchasing it, but merely because it was offered to
+me at a reduced price. It was amusing, also, to study the manners and
+customs of the dealer, and enjoy their amazement when, after causing
+them so much loss of time, I would hand over five kopeks and walk off.
+Some of them, I verily believe, will long entertain serious doubts as
+to the sanity of the Californian public; for Dominico, my guide,
+always took particular pride in announcing that I was from that great
+country, and was the richest man in it, being, to the best of his
+knowledge, the only one who had money enough to spare to travel all
+the way to Moscow, merely for the fun of the thing.
+
+I may as well mention, parenthetically, that Dominico was rather an
+original in his way. His father was an Italian and his mother a
+Russian. I believe he was born in Moscow. How he came to adopt the
+profession of guide I don't know, unless it was on account of some
+natural proclivity for an easy life. A grave, lean, saturnine man was
+Dominico--something of a cross between Machiavelli and Paganini. If he
+knew any thing about the wonders and curiosities of Moscow he kept it
+a profound secret. It was only by the most rigid inquiry and an adroit
+system of cross-examination that I could get any thing out of him, and
+then his information was vague and laconic, sometimes a little
+sarcastic, but never beyond what I knew myself. Yet he was polite,
+dignified, and gentlemanly--never refused to drink a glass of beer
+with me, and always knew the way to a traktir. To the public
+functionaries with whom we came in contact during the course of our
+rambles his air was grand and imposing; and on the subject of money he
+was sublimely nonchalant, caring no more for rubles than I did for
+kopeks. Once or twice he hinted to me that he was of noble blood, but
+laid no particular stress upon that, since it was his misfortune at
+present to be in rather reduced circumstances. Some time or other he
+would go to Italy and resume his proper position there. In justice to
+Dominico, I must add that he never neglected an opportunity of praying
+for me before any of the public shrines; and at the close of our
+acquaintance he let me off pretty easily, all things considered. Upon
+my explaining to him that a draft for five hundred thousand rubles,
+which ought to be on the way, had failed to reach me, owing,
+doubtless, to some irregularity in the mail service, or some sudden
+depression in my Washoe stocks, he merely shrugged his shoulders, took
+a pinch of snuff, and accepted with profound indifference a fee
+amounting to three times the value of his services.
+
+I was particularly interested in the dog-market. The display of living
+dog-flesh here must be very tempting to one who has a taste for poodle
+soup or fricasseed pup. Dominico repudiated the idea that the Russians
+are addicted to this article of diet; but the very expression of his
+eye as he took up a fat little innocent, smoothed down its skin,
+squeezed its ribs, pinched its loins, and smelled it, satisfied me
+that a litter of pups would stand but a poor chance of ever arriving
+at maturity if they depended upon forbearance upon his part as a
+national virtue. The Chinese quarter of San Francisco affords some
+curious examples of the art of compounding sustenance for man out of
+odd materials--rats, snails, dried frogs, star-fish, polypi, and the
+like; but any person who wishes to indulge a morbid appetite for the
+most disgusting dishes over devised by human ingenuity must visit
+Moscow. I adhere to it that the dog-market supplies a large portion of
+the population with fancy meats. No other use could possibly be made
+of the numberless squads of fat, hairless dogs tied together and
+hawked about by the traders in this article of traffic. I saw one
+man--he had the teeth of an ogre and a fearfully carnivorous
+expression of eye--carry around a bunch of pups on each arm, and cry
+aloud something in his native tongue, which I am confident had
+reference to the tenderness and juiciness of their flesh. Dominico
+declared the man was only talking about the breed--that they were fine
+rat-dogs; but I know that was a miserable subterfuge. Such dogs never
+caught a rat in this world; and if they did, it must have been with a
+view to the manufacture of sausages.
+
+  [Illustration: CABINET-MAKERS.]
+
+A Russian peasant is not particular about the quality of his food, as
+may well be supposed from this general summary. Quantity is the main
+object. Grease of all kinds is his special luxury. The upper classes,
+who have plenty of money to spare, may buy fish from the Volga at its
+weight in gold, and mutton from Astrakan at fabulous prices; but give
+the Mujik his _batvina_ (salt grease and honey boiled together), a
+loaf of black bread, and a peck of raw cucumbers, and he is happy.
+Judging by external appearances, very little grease seems to be wasted
+in the manufacture of soap. Indeed, I would not trust one of these
+Mujiks to carry a pound of soap any where for me, any more than I
+would a gallon of oil or a pound of candles. Once I saw a fellow
+grease his boots with a lump of dirty fat which he had picked up out
+of the gutter, but he took good care first to extract from it the
+richest part of its essence by sucking it, and then greasing his
+beard. The boots came last. In all probability he had just dined, or
+he would have pocketed his treasure for another occasion, instead of
+throwing the remnant, as he did, to the nearest cat.
+
+In respect to the language, one might as well be dropped down in
+Timbuctoo as in a village or country town of Russia, for all the good
+the gift of speech would do him. It is not harsh, as might be
+supposed, yet wonderfully like an East India jungle when you attempt
+to penetrate it. I could make better headway through a boulder of
+solid quartz, or the title to my own house and lot in Oakland. Now I
+profess to be able to see as far into a millstone as most people, but
+I can't see in what respect the Russians behaved any worse than other
+people of the Tower of Babel, that they should be afflicted with a
+language which nobody can hope to understand before his beard becomes
+grizzled, and the top of his head entirely bald. Many of the better
+classes, to be sure, speak French and German; but even in the streets
+of Moscow I could seldom find any body who could discover a ray of
+meaning in my French or German, which is almost as plain as English.
+
+Some people know what you want by instinct, whether they understand
+your language or not. Not so the Russians. Ask for a horse, and they
+will probably offer you a fat goose; inquire the way to your
+lodgings, and they are just as likely as not to show you the Foundling
+Hospital or a livery-stable; go into an old variety shop, and express
+a desire to purchase an Astrakan breast-pin for your sweet-heart, and
+the worthy trader hands you a pair of bellows or an old blunderbuss;
+cast your eye upon any old market-woman, and she divines at once that
+you are in search of a bunch of chickens or a bucket of raw cucumbers,
+and offers them to you at the lowest market-price; hint to a
+picture-dealer that you would like to have an authentic portrait of
+his imperial majesty, and he hands you a picture of the Iberian
+Mother, or St. George slaying the dragon, or the devil and all his
+imps; in short, you can get any thing that you don't want, and nothing
+that you do. If these people are utterly deficient in any one quality,
+it is a sense of fitness in things. They take the most inappropriate
+times for offering you the most inappropriate articles of human use
+that the imagination can possibly conceive. I was more than once
+solicited by the dealers in the markets of Moscow to carry with me a
+bunch of live dogs, or a couple of freshly-scalded pigs, and on one
+occasion was pressed very hard to take a brass skillet and a pair of
+tongs. What could these good people have supposed I wanted with
+articles of this kind on my travels? Is there any thing in my dress or
+the expression of my countenance--I leave it to all who know me--any
+thing in the mildness of my speech or the gravity of my manner, to
+indicate that I am suffering particularly for bunches of dogs or
+scalded pigs, brass skillets or pairs of tongs? Do I look like a man
+who labors under a chronic destitution of dogs, pigs, skillets, and
+tongs?
+
+  [Illustration: PIGS, PUPS, AND PANS.]
+
+It is quite natural that the traveler who finds himself for the first
+time within the limits of a purely despotic government should look
+around him with some vague idea that he must see the effects strongly
+marked upon the external life of the people; that the restraints
+imposed upon popular liberty must be every where apparent. So far as
+any thing of this kind may exist in Moscow or St. Petersburg, it is a
+notable fact that there are few cities in the world where it is less
+visible, or where the people seem more unrestrained in the exercise of
+their popular freedom. Indeed, it struck me rather forcibly, after my
+experience in Vienna and Berlin, that the Russians enjoy quite as
+large a share of practical independence as most of their neighbors. I
+was particularly impressed by the bold and independent air of the
+middle classes, the politeness with which even the lower orders
+address each other, and the absence of those petty and vexatious
+restraints which prevail in some of the German states. The constant
+dread of infringing upon the police regulations; the extraordinary
+deference with which men in uniform are regarded; the circumspect
+behavior at public places; the nice and well-regulated mirthfulness,
+never overstepping the strict bounds of prudence, which I had so often
+noticed in the northern parts of Germany, and which may in part be
+attributed to the naturally orderly and conservative character of the
+people, are by no means prominent features in the principal cities of
+Russia.
+
+Soldiers, indeed, there are in abundance every where throughout the
+dominions of the Czar, and the constant rattle of musketry and clang
+of arms show that the liberty of the people is not altogether without
+limit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE NOSE REGIMENT.
+
+
+I saw nothing in the line of military service that interested me more
+than the Imperial Guard. Without vouching for the truth of the whole
+story connected with the history of this famous regiment, I give it as
+related to me by Dominico, merely stating as a fact within my own
+observation that there is no question whatever about the peculiarity
+of their features. It seems that the Emperor Nicholas, shortly before
+the Crimean War, discovered by some means that the best fighting men
+in his dominions belonged to a certain wild tribe from the north,
+distinguished for the extreme ugliness of their faces. The most
+remarkable feature was the nose, which stood straight out from the
+base of the forehead in the form of a triangle, presenting in front
+the appearance of a double-barreled pistol. A stiff grizzly mustache
+underneath gave them a peculiarly ferocious expression, so that brave
+men quailed, and women and children fled from them in terror. The
+emperor gave orders that all men in the ranks possessed of these
+frightful noses should be brought before him. Finding, when they were
+mustered together, that there was not over one company, he caused a
+general average of the noses to be taken, from which he had a diagram
+carefully prepared and disseminated throughout the empire, calling
+upon the military commanders of the provinces to send him recruits
+corresponding with the prescribed formula.
+
+In due time he was enabled to muster a thousand of these ferocious
+barbarians, whom he caused to be carefully drilled and disciplined. He
+kept them in St. Petersburg under his own immediate supervision till
+some time after the attack upon Sebastopol, when, finding the fortunes
+of war likely to go against him, he sent them down to the Crimea, with
+special instructions to the commander-in-chief to rely upon them in
+any emergency. In compliance with the imperial order, they were at
+once placed in the front ranks, and in a very few days had occasion to
+display their fighting qualities. At the very first onslaught of the
+enemy they stood their ground manfully till the French troops had
+approached within ten feet, when, with one accord, they took to their
+heels, and never stopped running till they were entirely out of sight.
+It was a disastrous day for the Russians. The commander-in-chief was
+overwhelmed with shame and mortification. A detachment of cavalry was
+dispatched in pursuit of the fugitives, who were finally arrested in
+their flight and brought back. "Cowards!" thundered the enraged
+commander, as they stood drawn up before him; "miserable poltroons!
+dastards! is this the way you do honor to your imperial master? Am I
+to report to his most potent majesty that, without striking one blow
+in his defense, you ran like sheep? Wretches, what have you to say for
+yourselves?"
+
+  [Illustration: IMPERIAL NOSEGAY.]
+
+"May it please your excellency," responded the men, firmly and with
+unblenched faces, "we ran away, it is true; but we are not cowards. On
+the contrary, sire, we are brave men, and fear neither man nor beast.
+But your excellency is aware that nature has gifted us with noses
+peculiarly open to unusual impressions. We have smelled all the
+smells known from the far North to the far South, from the stewed rats
+of Moscow to the carrion that lies mouldering upon the plains of the
+Crimea; but, if it please your highness, we never smelled Frenchmen
+before. There was an unearthly odor about them that filled our
+nostrils, and struck a mysterious terror into our souls."
+
+"Fools!" roared the commander-in-chief, bursting with rage, "what you
+smelled was nothing more than garlic, to which these Frenchmen are
+addicted."
+
+"Call it as you will," firmly responded the men with the noses, "it
+was too horrible to be endured. We are willing to die by the natural
+casualties of war, but not by unseen blasts of garlic, against which
+no human power can contend."
+
+"Then," cried the commander, in tones of thunder, "I'll see that you
+die to-morrow by the natural casualties of war. You shall be put in
+the very front rank, and care shall be taken to have every man of you
+shot down the moment you undertake to run."
+
+On the following day this rigorous order was carried into effect. The
+nose regiment was placed in front, and the battle opened with great
+spirit. The French troops swept down upon them like an avalanche. For
+an instant they looked behind, but, finding no hope of escape in that
+direction, each man of them suddenly grasped up a handful of mud, and,
+dashing it over his nostrils, shouted "Death, to the garlic-eaters!"
+and rushed against the enemy with indescribable ferocity. Never before
+were such prodigies of valor performed on the field of battle. The
+French went down like stricken reeds before the ferocious onslaught of
+the Imperial Guard. Their dead bodies lay piled in heaps on the bloody
+field. The fortunes of the day were saved, and, panting and bleeding,
+the men of Noses stood triumphantly in the presence of their chief. In
+an ecstasy of pride and delight he complimented them upon their valor,
+and pronounced them the brightest nosegay in his imperial majesty's
+service, which name they have borne ever since.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE EMPEROR'S BEAR-HUNT.
+
+
+The present emperor, Alexander III., is more distinguished for his
+liberal views respecting the rights of his subjects than for his
+military proclivities. In private life he is much beloved, and is said
+to be a man of very genial social qualities. His predominating passion
+in this relation is a love of hunting. I have been told that he is
+especially great on bears. With all your experience of this manly
+pastime in America, I doubt if you can form any conception of the
+bear-hunts in which the Autocrat of all the Russias has distinguished
+himself. Any body with nerve enough can kill a grizzly, but it
+requires both nerve and money to kill bears of any kind in the genuine
+autocratic style. By an imperial ukase it has been ordered that when
+any of the peasants or serfs discover a bear within twenty versts of
+the Moscow and St. Petersburg Railway, they must make known the fact
+to the proprietor of the estate, whose duty it is to communicate
+official information of the discovery to the corresponding secretary
+of the Czar. With becoming humility the secretary announces the
+tidings to his royal master, who directs him to advise the distant
+party that his majesty is much pleased, and will avail himself of his
+earliest leisure to proceed to the scene of action. In the mean time
+the entire available force of the estate is set to work to watch the
+bear, and from three to five hundred men, armed with cudgels, tin
+pans, old kettles, drums, etc., are stationed in a circle around him.
+Dogs also are employed upon this important service. The advance
+trains, under the direction of the master hunter, having deposited
+their stores of wines, cordials, and provisions, and telegraphic
+communications being transmitted to head-quarters from time to time,
+it is at length privately announced that his imperial majesty has
+condescended to honor the place with his presence, and, should the
+saints not prove averse, will be there with his royal party at the
+hour and on the day specified in the imperial dispatch. The grand
+convoy is then put upon the track; dispatches are transmitted to all
+the stations; officers, soldiers, and guards are required to be in
+attendance to do honor to their sovereign master--privately, of
+course, as this is simply an unofficial affair which nobody is
+supposed to know any thing about. The emperor, having selected his
+chosen few--that is to say, half a dozen princes, a dozen dukes, a
+score or two of counts and barons--all fine fellows and genuine
+bloods--proceeds unostentatiously to the depot in his hunting-carriage
+(a simple little affair, manufactured at a cost of only forty thousand
+rubles or so), where he is astonished to see a large concourse of
+admiring subjects, gayly interspersed with soldiers, all accidentally
+gathered there to see him off. Now hats are removed, bows are made,
+suppressed murmurs of delight run through the crowd; the locomotive
+whizzes and fizzes with impatience; bells are rung, arms are grounded;
+the princes, dukes, and barons--jolly fellows as they are--laugh and
+joke just like common people; bells ring again and whistles blow; a
+signal is made, and the Autocrat of all the Russias is off on his
+bear-hunt!
+
+In an hour, or two or three hours, as the case may be, the royal
+hunters arrive at the destined station. Should the public business be
+pressing, it is not improbable the emperor, availing himself of the
+conveniences provided for him by Winans and Co., in whose magnificent
+present of a railway carriage he travels, has in the mean time
+dispatched a fleet of vessels to Finland, ten or a dozen extra
+regiments of Cossacks to Warsaw, closed upon terms for a loan of fifty
+millions, banished various objectionable parties to the deserts of
+Siberia, and partaken of a game or two of whist with his camarilla.
+
+But now the important affair of the day is at hand--the bear--the
+terrible black bear, which every body is fully armed and equipped to
+kill, but which every body knows by instinct is going to be killed by
+the emperor, because of his majesty's superior skill and courage on
+trying occasions of this sort. What a blessing it is to possess such
+steadiness of nerve! I would not hesitate one moment to attack the
+most ferocious grizzly in existence if I felt half as much confidence
+in my ability to kill it. But the carriages are waiting; the horses
+are prancing; the hunters are blowing their bugles; the royal party
+are mounting on horseback or in their carriages, as best may suit
+their taste, and the signal is given! A salute is fired by the Guard,
+huzzas ring through the air, and the Czar of all the Russias is fairly
+off on his hunt. Trees fly by; desert patches of ground whirl from
+under; versts are as nothing to these spirited steeds and their
+spirited masters, and in an hour or so the grand scene of action is
+reached. Here couriers stand ready to conduct the imperial hunters
+into the very jaws of death. The noble proprietor himself, bareheaded,
+greets the royal pageant; the serfs bow down in Oriental fashion; the
+dashing young Czar touches his hunting-cap in military style and waves
+his hand gallantly to the ladies of the household, who are peeping at
+him from their carriages in the distance. Once more the bugle is
+sounded, and away they dash--knights, nobles, and all--the handsome
+and gallant Czar leading the way by several lengths. Soon the terrific
+cry is heard--"Halt! the bear! the bear! Halt!" Shut your eyes,
+reader, for you never can stand such a sight as that--a full-grown
+black bear, not two hundred yards off, in the middle of an open space,
+surrounded by five hundred men hidden behind trees and driving him
+back from every point where he attempts to escape. You don't see the
+men, but you hear them shouting and banging upon their pots, pans, and
+kettles. Now just open one eye and see the emperor dismount from his
+famous charger, and deliver the rein to a dozen domestics,
+deliberately cock his rifle, and fearlessly get behind the nearest
+tree within the range of the bear. By this time you perceive that
+Bruin is dancing a _pas seul_ on his hind legs, utterly confounded
+with the noises around him. Shut your eyes again, for the emperor is
+taking his royal aim, and will presently crack away with his royal
+rifle. Hist! triggers are clicking around you in every direction, but
+you needn't be the least afraid, for, although the bear is covered by
+a reserve of forty rifles, not one of the hunters has nerve enough to
+shoot unless officially authorized or personally desirous of visiting
+the silver-mines of Siberia. Crack! thug! The smoke clears away. By
+Jove! his imperial majesty has done it cleverly; hit the brute plumb
+on the os frontis, or through the heart, it makes no difference which.
+Down drops Bruin, kicking and tearing up the earth at a dreadful rate;
+cheers rend the welkin; pots, pans, and kettles are banged. High above
+all rises the stern voice of the autocrat, calling for another rifle,
+which is immediately handed to him. Humanity requires that he should
+at once put an end to the poor animal's sufferings, and he does it
+with his accustomed skill.
+
+Now the bear having kicked his last, an intrepid hunter charges up to
+the spot on horseback, whirls around it two or three times, carefully
+examines the body with an opera-glass, returns, and, approaching the
+royal presence with uncovered head, delivers himself according to this
+formula: "May it please your most gallant and imperial majesty, THE
+BEAR IS DEAD!" The emperor sometimes responds, "Is he?" but usually
+contents himself by waving his hand in an indifferent manner, puffing
+his cigar, and calling for his horse. Sixteen grooms immediately rush
+forward with his majesty's horse; and, being still young and vigorous,
+he mounts without difficulty, unaided except by Master of Stirrups.
+Next he draws an ivory-handled revolver--a present from Colt, of New
+York--and, dashing fearlessly upon the bear, fires six shots into the
+dead body; upon which he coolly dismounts, and pulling forth from the
+breast of his hunting-coat an Arkansas bowie-knife--a present from the
+poet Albert Pike, of Little Rock--plunges that dangerous weapon into
+the bowels of the dead bear; then rising to his full height, with a
+dark and stern countenance, he holds the blood-dripping blade high in
+the air, so that all may see it, and utters one wild stentorian and
+terrific shout, "Harasho! harasho!" signifying in English, "Good! very
+well!" The cry is caught up by the princes and nobles, who, with
+uncovered heads, now crowd around their gallant emperor, and waving
+their hats, likewise shout "Harasho! harasho!"--"Good! very well!"
+Then the five hundred peasants rush in with their tin pans, kettles,
+and drums, and amid the most amazing din catch up the inspiring
+strain, and deafen every ear with their wild shouts of "Harasho!
+harasho!"--"Good! very well!" Upon which the emperor, rapidly
+mounting, places a finger in each ear, and, still puffing his cigar,
+rides triumphantly away.
+
+The bear is hastily gutted and dressed with flowers. When all is ready
+the royal party return to the railroad depot in a long procession,
+headed by his majesty, and brought up in the rear by the dead body of
+Bruin borne on poles by six-and-twenty powerful serfs. Refreshments in
+the mean time have been administered to every body of high and low
+degree, and by the time they reach the depot there are but two sober
+individuals in the entire procession--his royal majesty and the bear.
+Farther refreshments are administered all round during the journey
+back to St. Petersburg, and, notwithstanding he is rigidly prohibited
+by his physician from the use of stimulating beverages, it is supposed
+that a reaction has now taken place, which renders necessary a
+modification of the medical ukase. At all events, I am told the bear
+is sometimes the only really steady member of the party by the time
+the imperial pageant reaches the palace. When the usual ceremonies of
+congratulation are over, a merry dance winds up the evening. After
+this the company disperses to prayer and slumber, and thus ends the
+great bear-hunt of his majesty the Autocrat of all the Russias.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+RUSSIAN HUMOR.
+
+
+The Russians have little or no humor, though they are not deficient in
+a certain grotesque savagery bordering on the humorous. There is
+something fearfully vicious in the royal freaks of fancy of which
+Russian history furnishes us so many examples. We read with a shudder
+of the facetious compliment paid to the Italian architect by Ivan the
+Terrible, who caused the poor man's eyes to be put out that he might
+never see to build another church so beautiful as that of St. Basil.
+We can not but smile at the grim humor of Peter the Great, who, upon
+seeing a crowd of men with wigs and gowns at Westminster Hall, and
+being informed that they were lawyers, observed that he had but two in
+his whole empire, and he believed he would hang one of them as soon as
+he got home. A still more striking though less ghastly freak of fancy
+was that perpetrated by the Empress Anne of Courland, who, on the
+occasion of the marriage of her favorite buffoon, Galitzin, caused a
+palace of ice to be built, with a bed of the same material, in which
+she compelled the happy pair to pass their wedding night. The Empress
+Catharine II., a Pomeranian by birth, but thoroughly Russian in her
+morals, possessed a more ardent temperament. What time she did not
+spend in gratifying her ambition by slaughtering men, she spent in
+loving them:
+
+        "For, though she would widow all
+    Nations, she liked man as an individual."
+
+She never dismissed an old admirer until she had secured several new
+ones, and generally consoled those who had served her by a present of
+twenty or thirty thousand serfs. On the death of Lanskoi, it is
+recorded of her that "she gave herself up to the most poignant grief,
+and remained three months without going out of her palace of Czarsko
+Selo," thus perpetrating a very curious practical satire upon the
+holiest of human affections. Her grenadier lover Potemkin, according
+to the character given of him by the Count Segur, was little better
+than a gigantic and savage buffoon--licentious and superstitious, bold
+and timid by turns--sometimes desiring to be King of Poland, at others
+a bishop or a monk. Of him we read that "he put out an eye to free it
+from a blemish which diminished his beauty. Banished by his rival, he
+ran to meet death in battle, and returned with glory." Another
+pleasant little jest was that perpetrated by Suwarrow, who, after the
+bloody battle of Tourtourskaya, announced the result to his mistress
+in an epigram of two doggerel lines. This was the terrible warrior who
+used to sleep almost naked in a room of suffocating heat, and rush out
+to review his troops in a linen jacket, with the thermometer of
+Reaumur ten degrees below freezing point. Of the Emperor Paul, the son
+of Catharine, we read that he issued a ukase against the use of
+shoe-strings and round hats; caused all the watch-boxes, gates, and
+bridges throughout the empire to be painted in the most glaring and
+fantastic colors, and passed a considerable portion of his time riding
+on a wooden rocking-horse--a degenerate practice for a scion of the
+bold Catharine, who used to dress herself in men's clothes, and ride
+a-straddle on the back of a live horse to review her troops. Alexander
+I., in his ukase of September, 1827, perpetrated a very fine piece of
+Russian humor. The period of military service for serfs is fixed at
+twenty years in the Imperial Guard, and twenty-two in other branches
+of the service. It is stated in express terms that the moment a serf
+becomes enrolled in the ranks of the army he is free! But he must not
+desert, for if he does he becomes a slave again. This idea of freedom
+is really refreshing. Only twenty or twenty-two years of the gentle
+restraints of Russian military discipline to be enjoyed after becoming
+a free agent! Then he may go off (at the age of fifty or sixty, say),
+unless disease or gunpowder has carried him off long before, to enjoy
+the sweets of hard labor in some agreeable desert, or the position of
+a watchman on the frontiers of Siberia, where the climate is probably
+considered salubrious.
+
+These may be considered royal or princely vagaries, in which great
+people are privileged to indulge; but I think it will be found that
+the same capricious savagery of humor--if I may so call it--prevails
+to some extent among all classes of Russians. In some instances it can
+scarcely be associated with any idea of mirthfulness, yet in the love
+of strange, startling, and incongruous ideas there is something
+bordering on the humorous. On Recollection Monday, for example, the
+mass of the people go out into the grave-yards, and, spreading
+table-cloths on the mounds that cover the dead bodies of their
+relatives, drink quass and vodka to the health of the deceased,
+saying, "Since the dead are unable to drink, the living must drink for
+them!" Rather a grave excuse, one must think, for intoxication.
+
+In the museum of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg stands the stuffed
+skin of his favorite servant--a gigantic Holsteiner--one of the most
+ghastly of all the grotesque and ghastly relics in that remarkable
+institution. It is not a very agreeable subject for the pencil of an
+artist, yet there is something so original in the idea of stuffing a
+human being and putting him up for exhibition before the public that I
+am constrained to introduce the following sketch of this strange
+spectacle.
+
+In one of the arsenals is an eagle made of gun-flints, with swords for
+wings, daggers for feathers, and the mouths of cannons for eyes. A
+painting of the Strelitzes, in another, represents heaven as
+containing the Russian priests and all the faithful; while the other
+place--a region of fire and brimstone--contains Jews, Tartars,
+Germans, and negroes!
+
+  [Illustration: SKINNED AND STUFFED MAN.]
+
+The winter markets of Moscow and St. Petersburg present some of the
+most cadaverous specimens of the startling humor in which the Russians
+delight. Here you find frozen oxen, calves, sheep, rabbits, geese,
+ducks, and all manner of animals and birds, once animate with life,
+now stiff and stark in death. The oxen stand staring at you with their
+fixed eyes and gory carcasses; the calves are jumping or frisking in
+skinless innocence; the sheep ba-a at you with open mouths, or cast
+sheep's-eyes at the by-passers; the rabbits, having traveled hundreds
+of miles, are jumping, or running, or turning somersaults in frozen
+tableaux to keep themselves warm, and so on with every variety of
+flesh, fowl, and even fish. The butchers cut short these expressive
+practical witticisms by means of saws, as one might saw a block of
+wood; and the saw-dust, which is really frozen flesh and blood in a
+powdered state, is gathered up in baskets and carried away by the
+children and ragamuffins to be made into soup.
+
+  [Illustration: FROZEN ANIMALS IN THE MARKET.]
+
+I can conceive of nothing humorous in these people which is not
+associated in some way with the cruel and the grotesque. They have
+many noble and generous traits, but lack delicacy of feeling. Where
+the range of the thermometer is from a hundred to a hundred and fifty
+degrees of Fahrenheit, their character must partake in some sort of
+the qualities of the climate--fierce, rigorous, and pitiless in its
+wintry aspect, and without the compensating and genial tenderness of
+spring; fitful and passionate as the scorching heats of summer, and
+dark, stormy, and dreary as the desolation of autumn.
+
+I could not but marvel, as I sat in some of the common traktirs, at
+the extraordinary affection manifested by the Russians for cats. It
+appeared to me that the proprietors must keep a feline corps expressly
+for the amusement of their customers. At one of these places I saw at
+least forty cats, of various breeds, from the confines of Tartary to
+the city of Paris. They were up on the tables, on the benches, on the
+floor, under the benches, on the backs of the tea-drinkers, in their
+laps, in their arms--every where. I strongly suspected that they
+answered the purpose of waiters, and that the owner relied upon them
+to keep the plates clean. Possibly, too, they were made available as
+musicians. I have a notion the Russians entertain the same
+superstitious devotion to cats that the Banyans of India do to cows,
+and the French and Germans to nasty little poodles. To see a great
+shaggy boor, his face dripping with grease, his eyes swimming in
+vodka, sit all doubled up, fondling and caressing these feline pets;
+holding them in his hands; pressing their velvety fur to his eyes,
+cheeks, even his lips; listening with delight to their screams and
+squalls, is indeed a curious spectacle.
+
+  [Illustration: MUJIK AND CATS.]
+
+Now I have no unchristian feeling toward any of the brute creation,
+but I don't affect cats. Nor can I say that I greatly enjoy their
+music. I heard the very best bands of tom-cats every night during my
+sojourn in Moscow, and consider them utterly deficient in style and
+execution. It belongs, I think, to the Music of Futurity, so much
+discussed by the critics of Europe during the past few years--a
+peculiar school of anti-melody that requires people yet to be born to
+appreciate it thoroughly. The discords may be very fine, and the
+passion very striking and tempestuous, but it is worse than thrown
+away on an uncultivated ear like mine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE.
+
+
+The police of Moscow are not an attractive class of men, considering
+them in the light of guardians of the law. With a good deal of
+pomposity and laziness, they mingle much filth and rascality. The
+emperor may have great confidence in them, based upon some knowledge
+of their talents and virtues not shared by casual tourists; but if he
+would trust one of them with ten kopeks, or agree to place the life of
+any intimate personal friend in their keeping, in any of the dark
+alleys of Moscow, his faith in their integrity and humanity must be
+greater than mine. Indeed, upon casting around me in search of a
+parallel, I am not quite sure that I ever saw such a scurvy set of
+vagabonds employed to preserve the public peace in any other country,
+except, perhaps, in Spain. The guardians of the law in Cadiz and
+Seville are dark and forbidding enough in all conscience, and
+unscrupulous enough to turn a penny in any way not requiring the
+exercise of personal energy; and the police of Barcelona are not
+inferior in all that constitutes moral turpitude, but they can not
+surpass the Moscovites in filthiness of person or any of the essential
+attributes of villainy.
+
+I have it upon good authority that they are the very worst set of
+thieves in the place, and that they will not hesitate to unite with
+any midnight prowler for the purpose of robbing a stranger. True, they
+did not rob me, but the reason of that is obvious. I gave them to
+understand at the start that I was connected with the press. You
+seldom hear of a writer for newspapers being robbed; and if such a
+thing ever does happen, the amount taken is never large.
+
+As a consequence of this proclivity for ill-gotten gains on the part
+of the guardians of the law, it is unsafe for a stranger to go through
+the less frequented streets of Moscow at night. Should he chance to be
+stopped by two or three footpads and call for help, he will doubtless
+wake up some drowsy guardian of the law, but the help will be all
+against him. Instances have been related to me of robberies in which
+the police were the most active assailants, the robbers merely
+standing by for their share of the plunder. Should the unfortunate
+victim knock down a footpad or two in self-defense, it is good ground
+for an arrest, and both robbers and policemen become witnesses against
+him. A man had better get involved in a question of title to his
+property before the courts of California than be arrested for assault
+and battery, and carried before any of the civil tribunals in Russia.
+There is no end of the law's delays in these institutions, and his
+only chance of justice is to get his case before the emperor, who is
+practically the Supreme Court of the empire. Otherwise the really
+aggrieved party must pay a fine for defending himself, and support the
+assaulted man, whose nose he may have battered, during an unlimited
+period at the hospital, together with physician's fees for all the
+real or imaginary injuries inflicted. I met with a young American who
+was followed by a stalwart ruffian one night in returning from one of
+the public gardens. The man dogged his footsteps for some time. At
+length, there being nobody near to render aid, the robber mustered
+courage enough to seize hold and attempt to intimidate his supposed
+victim by brandishing a knife. He came from a country where they were
+not uncommon, and, besides, was an adept on the shoulder. With a
+sudden jerk he freed himself, and, hauling off a little, gave his
+assailant a note of hand that knocked him down. I am not versed in the
+classics of the ring, or I would make something out of this fight. The
+pad dropped like a stricken ox, his knife flying picturesquely through
+the silvery rays of the moon. Next moment he was on his feet again,
+the claret shining beautifully on his cheeks and beard. Throwing out
+his claws like a huge grizzly, he rushed in, gnashing his teeth and
+swearing horribly. This time our friend was fairly aroused, and the
+wretch promptly measured his length on the ground. Thinking he had
+scattered it on rather heavy, the American stooped down to see how
+matters stood, when the fellow grasped him by the coat and commenced
+shouting with all his might for the police--"Help! help! murder!
+murder!" There was no remedy but to silence him, which our friend
+dexterously accomplished by a blow on the os frontis. Hearing the
+approaching footsteps of the police, he then concluded it was best to
+make his escape, and accordingly took to his heels. Chase was given,
+but he was as good at running as he was at the noble art of
+self-defense, and soon distanced his pursuers. Fortunately, he reached
+his quarters without being recognised. This was all that saved him
+from arrest and imprisonment, or the payment of a fine for the
+assault.
+
+A common practice, as I was informed, is to arrest a stranger for some
+alleged breach of the law, such as smoking a cigar in the streets, or
+using disrespectful language toward the constituted authorities. Not
+being accustomed to the intricacies of a Russian judiciary, it is
+difficult, when once the matter comes before a tribunal of justice,
+for a foreigner to rebut the testimony brought against him; and if he
+be in a hurry to get away, his only course is to bribe the parties
+interested in his detention. It would be unjust to say that this
+system prevails universally throughout Russia. There is a small
+circle around the imperial presence said to be exempt from corruption;
+and there may possibly be a few dignitaries of the government, in
+remote parts of the empire, who will not tell an untruth unless in
+their official correspondence, or steal except to make up what they
+consider due to them for public services; but the circle of immaculate
+ones is very small, and commences very near the Czar, and the other
+exceptions referred to are exceedingly rare. Thieving may be said to
+begin within gunshot of the capital, and to attain its culminating
+excellences on the confines of Tartary. The difference is only in
+degree between the higher and the lower grades of officers. Hence,
+although it is quite possible to obtain full reparation for an injury
+before the Czar, through the intervention of a consul or a minister,
+it is a vexatious and expensive mode of proceeding, and would only
+result at last in the transportation of some miserable wretch to the
+mines of Siberia. Of course no man with a spark of feeling would like
+to see a poor fellow-creature go there. For my part, I would rather
+suffer any amount of injustice than be the cause of sending a
+fellow-mortal on so long and dreary a journey.
+
+The whole bearing of which you will presently discover. I am going to
+tell you a very singular adventure that befell me in Moscow. Do not be
+impatient; it will all come in due time. A few dashes of preliminary
+description will be necessary, by way of introduction, otherwise it
+would be impossible to comprehend the full scope and purpose of my
+narrative. If you be of the rougher mould, cherished reader, just cast
+yourself back somewhere at your ease, take this most excellently
+printed book deftly between your fingers, with a good cigar between
+your teeth; throw your legs over your desk, a gunny-bag, a fence-rail,
+or the mantel-piece of the bar-room, as the case may be; give me the
+benefit of your friendship and confidence, and read away at your
+leisure. But if you be one of those gentle beings placed upon earth to
+diffuse joy and happiness over the desert of life, I pray you
+consider me a serf at your imperial foot-stool; bend on me those
+tender eyes; and with the mingled respect and admiration due by all
+men to female loveliness, I shall proceed at once to tell you
+(confidentially of course)
+
+
+A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE
+
+It so happened in Moscow that I fell in with a very pleasant and
+sociable party of Americans, several of whom were in the railway
+service, and therefore might reasonably be regarded as fast young
+gentlemen, though far be it from me to imply any thing injurious to
+their reputation. Beyond an excessive passion for tea, acquired by
+long residence in Moscow, I do not know that a single one of them was
+at all dissipated. When I first called at the rooms of these lively
+countrymen, they immediately got out their tea-urns, and assured me
+that it would be impossible to comprehend any thing of Russian life
+till I had partaken freely of Russian tea, therefore I was obliged to
+drink five or six glasses by way of a beginning. Having freely
+discussed the affairs of the American nation at one room, we adjourned
+to another, where we had a fresh supply of tea; and then, after
+settling the rebellion to our common satisfaction, adjourned to
+another, and so on throughout the best part of the day. Sometimes we
+stopped in at a _traktir_ and had a portion or two, dashed with a
+little Cognac, which my friends assured me would prevent it from
+having any injurious effect upon the nervous system. In this way,
+within a period of twelve hours, owing to the kindness and hospitality
+of these agreeable Americans, who insisted upon treating me to tea, in
+public and in private, at every turn of our rambles, I must have
+swallowed a gallon or two of this delicious beverage. The weather was
+exceedingly warm, but these experienced gentlemen insisted upon it
+that Russian tea was a sovereign antidote for warm weather, especially
+when dashed with Cognac, as it drove all the caloric out of the body
+through the pores of the skin. "Don't be afraid!" said they,
+encouragingly; "drink just as much as you please--it will cool you!
+See how the Russians drink it. Nothing else enables them to stand
+these fiery hot summers after their polar winters!" Well, I didn't
+feel exactly cool, with thirty or forty tumblers of boiling hot tea,
+dashed with Cognac, in my veins, but what was the use of
+remonstrating? They _lived_ in Moscow--they _knew_ better than I did
+what was good for strangers--so I kept on swallowing a little more,
+just to oblige them, till I verily believe, had any body stuck a pin
+in me, or had I undertaken to make a speech, I would have spouted
+Russian tea.
+
+Why is it that the moment any body wants to render you a service, or
+manifest some token of friendship, he commences by striking at the
+very root of your digestive functions? Is it not exacting a little too
+much of human nature to require a man to consider himself a large
+sponge, in order that hospitality may be poured into him by the
+gallon? When a person of pliant and amiable disposition visits a set
+of good fellows, and they take some trouble to entertain him; when
+they think they are delighting him internally and externally--not to
+say infernally--with such tea as he never drank before, it is hard to
+refuse. The moral courage necessary for the peremptory rejection of
+such advances would make a hero. Thus it has ever been with me--I am
+the victim of misplaced hospitality. It has been the besetting trouble
+of my life. I remember once eating a Nantucket pudding to oblige a
+lady. It was made of corn-meal and molasses, with some diabolical
+compound in the way of sauce--possibly whale-oil and tar. I had just
+eaten a hearty dinner; but the lady insisted upon it that the pudding
+was a great dish in Nantucket, and I must try it. Well, I stuffed and
+gagged at it, out of pure politeness, till every morsel on the plate
+was gone, declaring all the time that it was perfectly delicious. The
+lady was charmed, and, in the face of every denial, instantly filled
+the plate again. What could I do but eat it? And after eating till I
+verily believe one half of me was composed of Nantucket pudding, and
+the other half of whale-oil and tar, what could I do but praise it
+again? The third attempt upon my life was made by this most excellent
+and hospitable lady; but I gave way, and had to beg off. Human nature
+could stand it no longer. The consequence was, I wounded her feelings.
+She regretted very much that I disliked Nantucket pudding, and I don't
+think ever quite forgave me for my prejudice against that article of
+diet, though her kindness laid me up sick for two weeks. Nor is this
+an isolated case. I might relate a thousand others in illustration of
+the melancholy fact that hospitality has been the bane of my life.
+When I think of all the sufferings I have endured out of mere
+politeness--though by no means accounted a polite person--tears of
+grief and indignation spring to my eyes. Old John Rogers at the stake
+never suffered such martyrdom. But there is an end of it! The _tchai_
+of Moscow finished all this sort of thing--so far, at least, as the
+male sex is concerned. I would still eat a coyote or a weasel to
+oblige a lady, but as to drinking two gallons of strong tea per day,
+dashed with Cognac to reduce its temperature, to oblige any man that
+ever wore a beard, I solemnly declare I'll die first. The thing is an
+imposition--an outrage. Every man has a right to my time, my purse, my
+real estate in Oakland, my coat, my boots, or my razor--nay, in a case
+of emergency, my tooth-brush--but no man has a right to deluge my
+diaphragm with slops, or make a ditch of Mundus of my stomach.
+
+  [Illustration: EFFECTS OF "LITTLE WATER."]
+
+At the Peterskoi Gardens we had a little more tea, dashed with
+_vodka_, to keep out the night air. As soon as the fire-works were
+over we adjourned to the pavilion, and refreshed ourselves with a
+little more tea slightly impregnated with some more _vodka_. Now I
+don't know exactly what this vodka is made of, but I believe it is an
+extract of corn. In the Russian language _voda_ is water, and _vodka_
+means "little water." There certainly was very little in what we got,
+or the tea must have been stronger than usual, for, notwithstanding
+these agreeable young gentlemen protested a gallon of such stuff would
+not produce the slightest effect, it seemed to me--though there might
+have been some delusion in the idea, arising from ignorance of Russian
+customs--that my head went round like a whirligig; and by the time I
+took my leave of these experienced young friends and retired to my
+room at the _Hotel de Venise_, it did likewise occur to me--though
+that too may have been a mere notion--that there was a hive of bees in
+each ear. Upon due consideration of all the facts, I thought it best
+to turn in, and resume any inquiries that might be necessary for the
+elucidation of these phenomena in the morning.
+
+[Here, you perceive, I am gradually verging toward the adventure. The
+heroine of the romance has not yet made her appearance, but depend
+upon it she is getting ready. You should never hurry the female
+characters; besides, it is not proper, even if this were all fiction
+instead of sober truth, that the heroine should be brought upon the
+stage just as the hero is tumbling into bed.]
+
+But to proceed. Sleep was effectually banished from my eyes, and no
+wonder. Who in the name of sense could sleep with forty tumblers of
+Russian tea--to say nothing of the dashes that were put in
+it--simmering through every nook and cranny of his body, and boiling
+over in his head? There I lay, twisting and tumbling, the pillow
+continually descending into the depths of infinity, but never getting
+any where--the bed rolling like a dismantled hulk upon a stormy
+sea--the room filled with steaming and hissing urns--a fearful thirst
+parching my throat, while myriads of horrid bearded Russians were
+torturing me with tumblers of boiling-hot tea dashed with
+_vodka_--thus I lay a perfect victim of tea. I could even see Chinamen
+with long queues picking tea-leaves off endless varieties of shrubs
+that grew upon the papered walls; and Kalmuck Tartars, with their long
+caravans, traversing the dreary steppes of Tartary laden with
+inexhaustible burdens of the precious leaf; and the great fair of
+Nijni Novgorod, with its booths, and tents, and countless boxes of
+tea, and busy throngs of traders and tea-merchants, all passing like a
+panorama before me, and all growing naturally out of an indefinite
+background of tea.
+
+I can not distinctly remember how long I tossed about in this way,
+beset by all sorts of vagaries. Sometimes I fancied sleep had come,
+and that the whole matter was a ridiculous freak of fancy, including
+my visit to Moscow--that Russian tea was all a fiction, and _vodka_ a
+mere nightmare; but with a nervous start I would find myself awake,
+the palpable reality of my extraordinary condition staring me in the
+face. Unable to endure such an anomalous frame of mind and body any
+longer, I at length resolved to go down and take an airing in the
+streets, believing, if any thing would have a beneficial effect, it
+would be the fresh air. Acting upon this idea, I hastily dressed
+myself and descended to the front door. The _Hotel de Venise_ is
+situated in a central part of the city, at no great distance from the
+Kremlin. It stands back in a large open yard, with a very pretty
+garden to the right as you enter from the main street. The proprietor
+is a Russian, but the hotel is conducted in the French style, and,
+although not more conspicuous for cleanliness than other
+establishments of the same class in Moscow, it is nevertheless
+tolerably free from vermin. The fleas in it were certainly neither so
+lively nor so entertaining as I have found them at many of the Spanish
+ranches in California, and the bugs, I am sure, are nothing like so
+corpulent as some I have seen in Washington City. I throw this in
+gratis, as a sort of puff, in consideration of an understanding with
+the landlord, that if he would refrain from cheating me I would
+recommend his hotel to American travelers. It is very good of its
+kind, and no person fond of veal, as a standard dish, can suffer from
+hunger at this establishment so long as calves continue to be born any
+where in the neighborhood of Moscow.
+
+The porter, a drowsy old fellow in livery, whose only business, so far
+as I could discover, was to bow to the guests as they passed in and
+out during the day, at the expense of a kopek to each one of them for
+every bow, napping on a lounge close by the front door. Hearing my
+footsteps, he awoke, rubbed his eyes, bowed habitually, and then
+stared at me with a vacant and somewhat startled expression. It was
+not a common thing evidently for lodgers to go out of the hotel at
+that time of night, or rather morning--it must have been nearly two
+o'clock--for, after gazing a while at what he doubtless took to be an
+apparition or an absconding boarder whose bill had not been settled,
+he grumbled out something like a dissent, and stood between me and the
+door. A small fee of ten kopeks, which I placed in his hand, aided him
+in grasping at the mysteries of the case, and he unlocked the door and
+let me out, merely shaking his head gravely, as if he divined my
+purpose, but did not altogether approve of it in one of my age and
+sedate appearance. In that, however, he was mistaken: I had no
+disposition to form any tender alliances in Moscow.
+
+  [Illustration: RUSSIAN BEGGARS.]
+
+The streets were almost deserted. An occasional drosky, carrying home
+some belated pleasure-seeker, was all that disturbed the silence. I
+walked some distance in the direction of the Kremlin. The air was
+deliciously cool and refreshing, and the sky wore a still richer glow
+than I had noticed a few hours before at the gardens of the Peterskoi.
+The moon had not yet gone down, but the first glowing blushes of the
+early morning were stealing over the heavens, mingled with its silvery
+light. I took off my hat to enjoy the fresh air, and wandered along
+quite enchanted with the richness and variety of the scene. Every turn
+of the silent streets brought me in view of some gilded pile of
+cupolas, standing in glowing relief against the sky. Churches of
+strange Asiatic form, the domes richly and fancifully colored; golden
+stars glittering upon a groundwork of blue, green, or yellow; shrines
+with burning tapers over the massive doors and gateways, were
+scattered in every direction in the most beautiful profusion.
+Sometimes I saw a solitary beggar kneeling devoutly before some gilded
+saint, and mourning over the weariness of life. Once I was startled
+by the apparition of a poor wretch lying asleep--I thought he was
+dead--a crippled wreck upon the stone steps--his eyes closed in brief
+oblivion of the world and its sorrows, his furrowed and pallid
+features a ghastly commentary upon the glittering temples and idols
+that surround him. For above all these things that are "decked with
+silver and with gold, and fastened with nails and with hammers that
+they move not," there is One who hath "made the earth by His power and
+established the world by His wisdom;" man is but brutish in his
+knowledge; "every founder is confounded by the graven image; for his
+molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them." Such
+extremes every where abound in Moscow--magnificence and filth; wealth
+and poverty; a superstitious belief in the power of images in the
+midst of abject proofs of their impotence. And yet, is it not better
+that men should believe in something rather than in nothing? The
+glittering idol can not touch the crippled beggar and put health and
+strength in his limbs, but if the poor sufferer can sleep better upon
+the cold stones in the presence of his patron saint than elsewhere, in
+charity's name let him,
+
+        "O'erlabored with his being's strife
+    Shrink to that sweet forgetfulness of life."
+
+I wandered on. Soon the cupolas of the mighty Kremlin were in sight,
+all aglow with the bright sheen of the morn. Passing along its
+embattled walls, which now seemed of snowy whiteness, I reached the
+grand plaza of the Krasnoi Ploschod. Standing out in the open space, I
+gazed at the wondrous pile of gold-covered domes till my eyes rested
+on the highest point--the majestic tower of Ivan Veliki. And then I
+could but think of the terrible Czar--the fourth of the fierce race of
+Ivans, who ruled the destinies of Russia; he who killed his own son in
+a fit of rage, yet never shook hands with a foreign embassador without
+washing his own immediately after; the patron of monasteries, and the
+conqueror of Kazan, Astrakan, and Siberia. This was the most cruel yet
+most enlightened of his name. I am not sure whether the tower was
+built to commemorate his fame or that of his grandfather, Ivan the
+Third, also called "the Terrible," of whom Karasmin says that, "when
+excited with anger, his glance would make a timid woman swoon; that
+petitioners dreaded to approach his throne, and that even at his table
+the boyars, his grandees, trembled before him." A terrible fellow, no
+doubt, and thoroughly Russian by the testimony of this Russian
+historian, for where else will you find men so terrible as to make
+timid women swoon by a single glance of their eye? Not in California,
+surely! If I were a Czar this soft summer night (such was the idea
+that naturally occurred to me), I would gaze upon the fair flowers of
+creation with an entirely different expression of countenance. They
+should neither wilt nor swoon unless overcome by the delicacy and
+tenderness of my admiration.
+
+From the green towers of the Holy Gate, where neither Czar nor serf
+can enter without uncovering his head, I turned toward the Vassoli
+Blagennoi--the wondrous maze of churches that gathers around the
+Cathedral of St. Basil. Not in all Moscow is there a sight so strange
+and gorgeous as this. The globular domes, all striped with the varied
+colors of the rainbow; the glittering gold-gilt cupolas; the rare and
+fanciful minarets; the shrines, and crosses, and stars; the massive
+steps; the iron railing, with shining gold-capped points--surely, in
+the combination of striking and picturesque forms and colors, lights
+and shades, must ever remain unequaled. The comparison may seem
+frivolous, yet it resembled more, to my eye, some gigantic cactus of
+the tropics, with its needles and rich colors, its round, prickly
+domes and fantastic cupolas, than any thing I had ever seen before in
+the shape of a church or group of churches. While I gazed in wonder at
+the strange fabric, I could not but think again of Ivan the Terrible;
+by whose order it was built; and how, when the architect (an Italian)
+was brought before him, trembling with awe, the mighty Ivan expressed
+his approval of the performance, and demanded if he, the architect,
+could build another equally strange and beautiful; to which the poor
+Italian, elated with joy, answered that he could build another even
+stranger and more beautiful than this; and then how the ferocious and
+unprincipled Czar had the poor fellow's eyes put out to prevent him
+from building another.
+
+But this is not the adventure. I have nothing to do at present with
+the Church of St. Basil or Ivan the Terrible except in so far as they
+affected my imagination. The business on hand is to tell you how the
+dire catastrophe happened.
+
+Bewildered at length with gazing at all these wonderful sights, I
+turned to retrace my steps to the hotel. A few droskies were still
+plying on the principal thoroughfares, and now and then I met gay
+parties trudging homeward after their night's dissipation; but I soon
+struck into the less frequented streets, where a dreary silence
+reigned. There was something very sad and solitary in the
+reverberation of my footsteps. For the first time it occurred to me
+that there was not much security here for life, in case of a covert
+attack from some of those footpads said to infest the city. I began to
+reflect upon the experience of my young American friend, and regret
+that it had not occurred to me before I left the hotel. You may think
+this very weak and foolish, good friends, surrounded as you are by all
+the safeguards of law and order, and living in a country where men are
+never knocked on the head of nights--with occasional exceptions; but I
+can assure you it is a very natural feeling in a strange,
+half-barbarous city like Moscow, where one doesn't understand the
+language. Had I been well versed in Russian, the probability is I
+should not have felt the least alarmed; but a man experiences a
+terrible sensation of loneliness when he expects every moment to be
+knocked on the head without being able to say a word in his own
+defense. Had my guide, Dominico, been with me, I should not have felt
+quite so helpless--though I never had much confidence in his
+courage--for he could at least have demanded an explanation, or, if
+the worst came to the worst, helped me to run away. The fact is--and
+there is no use attempting to disguise it--I began to feel a nervous
+apprehension that something was going to happen. I was startled at my
+own shadow, and was even afraid to whistle with any view of keeping up
+my spirits, lest something unusually florid in my style of whistling
+might lead to the supposition that I was from California, and
+therefore a good subject for robbery.
+
+Which, by the way, puts me in mind of a remarkable fact, well worth
+mentioning. The State of California owes me, at the least calculation,
+two hundred dollars, paid in sums varying from six kreutzers up to a
+pound sterling to hotel-keepers, porters, lackeys, and professional
+gentlemen throughout Europe, exclusively on the ground of my
+citizenship in that state. In Paris--in Spain--in Africa--in Germany
+(with the exceptions of the beer-houses and country inns), I had to
+pay a heavy percentage upon the capital invested in my gold mines
+solely on the presumption that no man could come from so rich a
+country without carrying off a good deal of treasure on his person,
+like the carcass that carried the diamonds out of the rich valley for
+Sinbad the Sailor. Yet I never could forego the pleasure of announcing
+myself as an embassador to foreign parts from that noble state,
+commissioned by the sovereigns generally to furnish them with the
+latest improvements in morals, fashions, and manners for the public
+benefit--an extremely onerous and responsible duty, which I have
+executed, and shall continue to execute, with the most rigid fidelity.
+
+After walking quite far enough to have reached the hotel, I became
+confused at the winding of the streets. The neighborhood was strange.
+I could not discover any familiar sign or object. The houses were low,
+mean, and dark looking; the street was narrow and roughly paved. I
+walked a little farther, then turned into another street still more
+obscure, and, following that for some distance, brought up amid a pile
+of ruined walls. There could no longer be a doubt that I had missed
+the way, and was not likely to find it in this direction. It was a
+very suspicious quarter into which I had strayed. Every thing about it
+betokened poverty and crime. I began to feel rather uneasy, but it
+would not do to stand here among the ruins as a mark for any midnight
+prowler who might be lurking around. Turning off in a new direction, I
+took a by-street, which appeared to lead to an open space. As I picked
+my way over the masses of rubbish, a dark figure crossed in front, and
+disappeared in the shadow of a wall. I was entirely unarmed. What was
+to be done? Perhaps the man might be able to tell me the way to my
+lodgings; but I could not speak a word of Russian, as before stated,
+and, besides, was rather averse to making acquaintance with strangers.
+After a moment's reflection, I walked on, cautiously and distrustfully
+enough, for the notion was uppermost in my mind that this fellow was
+not there for any good purpose. As I passed the spot where he had
+disappeared, I looked suspiciously around, but he did not make his
+appearance. With a few hasty strides I readied the open space--a
+vacant lot, it seemed, caused by a recent fire. The houses were burnt
+down, and nothing but a blackened mass of beams, rafters, and ashes
+covered the ground. The only exit was through a narrow alley. Before
+entering this, I looked back and saw the same figure stealthily
+following me. On I went as rapidly as I could walk. Closer and closer
+came the figure. He was a man of gigantic stature, and was probably
+armed. Soon I heard the heavy tramp of his feet within a few paces. It
+was evident I must either run or stand my ground. Perhaps, if I had
+known what direction to take, or could have placed more reliance upon
+my knees, which were greatly weakened by tea, I might have chosen the
+former alternative, inglorious as it may seem; but, under the
+circumstances, I resolved to stand. Facing around suddenly, with my
+back to the wall, I called to the ruffian to stand off, as he valued
+his life. He halted within a few feet, evidently a little disconcerted
+at my sudden determination to make battle. His face was the most
+brutal I had over seen; a filthy mass of beard nearly covered it; two
+piercing white eyes glistened beneath the leaf of his greasy cap; a
+coarse blouse, gathered around the waist by a leather belt, and boots
+that reached nearly to his hips, were the most striking articles of
+his costume. For a moment he gazed at me, as if uncertain what to do;
+then brushed slowly past, with the design, no doubt, of ascertaining
+if I was armed. I could not see whether he carried any deadly weapons
+himself; but a man of his gigantic stature needed none to be a very
+unequal opponent in a struggle with one whose most sanguinary
+conflicts had hitherto been on paper, and who had never wielded a
+heavier weapon than a pen.
+
+Proceeding on his way, however, the ruffian, after going about a
+hundred yards, disappeared in some dark recess in among the houses on
+one side. I continued on, taking care to keep in the middle of the
+alley. As I approached the spot where the man had disappeared, I heard
+several voices, and then the terrible truth flashed upon me that there
+must be a gang of them. I now saw no alternative but to turn back and
+run for my life. It was an inglorious thing to do, no doubt, but which
+of you, my friends, would not have done the same thing?
+
+  [Illustration: GAMBLING SALOON.]
+
+Scarcely had I started under full headway when three or four men
+rushed out in pursuit. I will not attempt to disguise the fact that
+the ground passed under my feet pretty rapidly; and the probability
+is, the hostile party would have been distanced in less than ten
+minutes but for an unfortunate accident. It was necessary to cross the
+ruins already described. Here, in the recklessness of my flight, I
+stumbled over a beam, and fell prostrate in a pile of ashes. Before I
+could regain my feet the ruffians were upon me. While two of them held
+my arms, the third clapped his dirty hand over my mouth, and in this
+way they dragged me back into the alley. As soon as they had reached
+the dark archway from which they had originally started, they knocked
+at a door on one side. This was quickly opened, and I was thrust into
+a large room, dimly lighted with rude lamps of grease hung upon the
+walls. When they first got hold of me, I confess the sensation was not
+pleasant. What would the Emperor Alexander say when he heard that a
+citizen of California had been murdered in this cold-blooded manner?
+My next thought was, in what terms would this sad affair be noticed in
+the columns of the Sacramento _Union_? Would it not be regarded by the
+editor as an unprovoked disaster inflicted upon society? My fears,
+however, were somewhat dispelled upon looking around the saloon into
+which I had been so strangely introduced. Several tables were ranged
+along the walls, at each of which sat a group of the most
+horrible-looking savages that probably ever were seen out of jail--the
+very dregs and offscourings of Moscow. Their faces were mostly covered
+with coarse, greasy beards, reaching half way down their bodies; some
+wore dirty blue or gray blouses, tied around the waist with ropes, or
+fastened with leather belts; others, long blue coats, reaching nearly
+to their feet; and all, or nearly all, had caps on their heads, and
+great heavy boots reaching up to their knees, in which their
+pantaloons were thrust, giving them a rakish and ruffianly appearance.
+A few sat in their shirt-sleeves; and, judging by the color of their
+shirts, as well as their skins, did not reckon soap among the luxuries
+of life. Several of these savage-looking Mujiks were smoking some
+abominable weed, intended, perhaps, for tobacco, but very much unlike
+that delightful narcotic in the foul and tainted odor which it
+diffused over the room. They were all filthy and brutish in the
+extreme, and talked in some wretched jargon, which, even to my
+inexperienced ear, had but little of the gentle flow of the Russian in
+it. The tables were dotted with dice, cards, fragments of black bread,
+plates of grease, and cabbage soup, and glasses of vodka and tea; and
+the business of gambling, eating, and drinking was carried on with
+such earnestness that my entrance attracted no farther attention than
+a rude stare from the nearest group. No wonder they were a little
+puzzled, for I was covered with ashes, and must have presented rather
+a singular appearance. The three ruffians who had brought me in closed
+the door, and motioned me to a seat at a vacant table. They then
+called for tea, vodka, and quass, together with a great dish of raw
+cucumbers, which they set to work devouring with amazing voracity.
+During a pause in the feast they held a low conversation with the man
+who served them, who went out and presently returned with a small
+tea-pot full of tea and a glass, which he set before me. They motioned
+to me, in rather a friendly way, to drink. I was parched with thirst,
+and was not sorry to get a draught of any thing--even the villainous
+compound the traktir had set before me; so I drank off a tumblerfull
+at once. Soon I began to experience a whirling sensation in the head.
+A cold tremor ran through my limbs. Dim and confused visions of the
+company rose before me, and a strange and spectral light seemed shed
+over the room. The murmur of voices sounded like rushing waters in my
+ears. I gradually lost all power of volition, while my consciousness
+remained unimpaired, or, if any thing, became more acute than ever.
+The guests, if such they were, broke up their carousal about this
+time, and began to drop off one by one, each bowing profoundly to the
+landlord, and crossing himself devoutly, and bowing three times again
+before the shrine of the patron saint as he passed out. It was really
+marvelous to see some of these ruffians, so besotted with strong drink
+that they were scarcely able to see the way to the door, stagger up
+before the burnished shrine, and, steadying themselves the best they
+could, gravely and solemnly go through their devotions.
+
+But I see you are beginning to yawn, and, notwithstanding the most
+exciting part of the adventure is about to commence, it would be
+extremely injudicious in me to force it upon you under circumstances
+so disadvantageous to both parties. You will therefore oblige me by
+finishing your nap, and, with your permission, we will proceed with
+our narrative as soon as it may be mutually agreeable. In the mean
+time, I beg you will regard what I have already told you as strictly
+confidential. My reputation, both for veracity and general good
+character, is involved in this very extraordinary affair, and it would
+be unfair that either the one or the other should be prejudiced by a
+partial exposition of the facts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE DENOUEMENT.
+
+
+I noticed that the traktir, in settling accounts with his customers,
+made use of a peculiar instrument commonly seen in the shops and
+market-places throughout the city. Behind a sort of bar or counter at
+the head of the room he kept what is called a _schot_, upon which he
+made his calculations. This is a frame about a foot square, across
+which run numerous wires. On each wire is a string of colored pieces
+of wood somewhat resembling billiard-counters, only smaller. The
+merchant, trader, traktir, or craftsman engaged in pecuniary
+transactions uses this instrument with wonderful dexterity in making
+his calculations. He believes it to be the only thing in the world
+that will not lie or steal. If you have purchased to the amount of
+thirty kopeks, you would naturally conclude that out of a ruble (one
+hundred kopeks) your change would amount to seventy. Not so the
+sagacious and wary Russian. He takes nothing for granted in the way of
+trade. Your calculations may be erroneous--figures obtained through
+the medium of mental arithmetic may lie, but the schot never. The
+experience of a lifetime goes for nothing. He must have proof
+positive. Taking his schot between his knees, he counts off thirty
+balls out of a hundred. Of course there is no mistake about that.
+Neither you nor he can dispute it. Then he counts the remainder, and
+finds that it amounts to seventy--therefore your change is seventy
+kopeks! Do you dispute it? Then you can count for yourself. You might
+cover pages with written calculations, or demonstrate the problem by
+the four cardinal rules of arithmetic; you might express the numbers
+by sticks, stones, beans, or grains of coffee, but it would be all
+the same to this astute and cautious calculator--facts can only reach
+his understanding through the colored balls of his beloved schot. I
+don't think he would rely with certainty upon the loose verbal
+statement that two and two make four without resorting to the schot
+for a verification. But to proceed:
+
+A few of the guests, too far gone with "little water" to get up and
+perform their devotions, rolled over on the floor and went to sleep.
+The lights grew dim. A gloomy silence began to settle over the room,
+interrupted only by the occasional grunting or snoring of the
+sleepers. The ruffians who sat at the table with me had been nodding
+for some time; but, roused by the cessation of noises, they called to
+the man of the house, and in a low voice gave him some orders. He got
+a light and opened a small door in a recess at one side of the room. I
+was then lifted up by the others and carried into an adjoining
+passage, and thence up a narrow stairway. In a large dingy room
+overhead I could see by the flickering rays of the lamp a bed in one
+corner. It was not very clean--none of the Russian beds are--but they
+laid me in it, nevertheless, for I could offer no remonstrance. What
+they had hitherto done was bad enough, but this capped the climax of
+outrages. Were the cowardly villains afraid to murder me, and was this
+their plan of getting it done, and at the same time getting rid of the
+body? Great heavens! was I to be devoured piecemeal by a rapacious
+horde of the wild beasts that are said to infest the Russian beds! And
+utterly helpless, too, without the power to grapple with as much as a
+single flea--the least formidable, perhaps, of the entire gang! It was
+absolutely fearful to contemplate such an act of premeditated
+barbarity; yet what could I do, unable to speak a word or move a limb.
+
+I am reminded by this that the Russians derive the most striking
+features of their civilization from the French and Germans. Their
+fashions, their tailors, their confectioners, their perfumeries, their
+barbers, are nearly all French or Germans; but their baths are a
+national institution, derived originally, perhaps, from the Orientals.
+We hear a good deal of Russian baths, especially from enthusiastic
+travelers, and are apt to suppose that where such a thorough system of
+scrubbing and boiling prevails, the human cuticle must present a very
+extraordinary aspect of cleanliness. Perhaps this is so in certain
+cases, but it is not a national characteristic. A Russian bath, in the
+genuine style, is rather a costly luxury. There are, to be sure, in
+St. Petersburg and Moscow, public bath-houses for the rabble, where
+the filthiest beggar can be boiled out and scrubbed for a few kopeks;
+but people who wear a coating of dirt habitually must become attached
+to it in the course of time, and hate very much to dispose of it at
+any price. At least there seemed to be a prejudice of this kind in
+Moscow, where the affection with which this sort of overlining is
+preserved is quite equal to that with which the Germans adhere to
+their old household furniture. It may be, perhaps, that the few summer
+months which they enjoy are insufficient for the removal of all the
+strange things that accumulate upon the body during the long winters.
+The poorer classes seldom remove their furs or change their clothing
+till warm weather and the natural wear and tear of all perishable
+things cause them to drop off of their own accord. I have seen on a
+scorching hot day men wrapped in long woolen coats, doubled over the
+breast and securely fastened around the waist, and great boots,
+capacious enough and thick enough for fire-buckets, in which they were
+half buried, strolling lazily along in the sun, as if they absolutely
+enjoyed its warmth; and yet these very articles of clothing, with but
+little addition, must have borne the piercing winds of midwinter. A
+suspicion crossed my mind that they were trying in this way to bag a
+little heat for winter use, as the old burghers of Schilda bagged the
+light to put in their town hall because they had no windows. These
+strange habits must have something to do with the number of ferocious
+little animals--I will not degrade their breed and variety by calling
+them, vermin--which infest the rooms and beds. But the Russian skin is
+like Russian leather--the best and toughest in the world. Something in
+the climate is good for the production of thick and lasting cuticles.
+It is doubtless a wise provision of nature, based upon the extremes of
+heat and cold to which these people are exposed. There is no good
+reason why animals with four feet should be more favored in this
+respect than bipeds. I doubt if an ordinary Russian would suffer the
+slightest inconvenience if a needle were run into the small of his
+back. All those physical torments which disturb thin-skinned people
+from other countries are no torments at all to him; and I incline to
+the opinion that it is the constant experience he enjoys in a small
+way that enables him to endure the wounds received in battle with such
+wonderful stoicism. A man can carry a bull if he only commences when
+the animal is young. Why not, on the same principle, accustom himself
+to being stabbed every night till he can quietly endure to be run
+through with a bayonet? The Russian soldiers possess wonderful powers
+of passive endurance. Being stabbed or cut to pieces is second nature
+to them--they have been accustomed to it, in a degree, from early
+infancy. Who does not remember how they were hewed and hacked down in
+the Crimean War, and yet came to life again by thousands after they
+were given up for dead? Perhaps no other soldiers in the world possess
+such stoicism under the inflictions of pain. They stand an enormous
+amount of killing; more so, I think, than any other people, unless it
+may be the Irish, who, at the battle of Vinegar Hill, in the rebellion
+of '98, were nearly all cut to pieces and left for dead on the field,
+but got up in a day or two after and went at it again as lively as
+ever. This, however, was not owing to the same early experience, but
+to the healthy blood made of potatoes, with a slight sprinkling of
+Irish whisky. In fine, I don't think a genuine Muscovite could sleep
+without a bountiful supply of vermin to titillate his skin any more
+than a miller bereft of the customary noise of his hoppers.
+
+Which brings me back again to the adventure. On that filthy bed the
+ruffians laid me down to be devoured by the wild beasts by which it
+was infested. Then they turned about to a shrine that stood in a
+corner of the room, and each one bowed down before it three times and
+crossed himself, after which they all left the room and quietly closed
+the door behind them. I was penetrated with horror at the thought of
+the terrible death before me, but not so much as to avoid noticing
+that the chief furniture of the room consisted of a stove in one
+corner, of cylindrical form, made of terra-cotta or burnt clay, and
+glazed outside. It was colored in rather a fanciful way, like
+queensware, and made a conspicuous appearance, reaching from the floor
+to the ceiling. This was the genuine Russian stove, with which these
+people no doubt kept themselves warm during the winter. The windows
+are composed of double glasses, and between the sashes the space is
+filled with sand to keep out the air, so that to be hermetically
+sealed up is one of necessities of existence in this rigorous climate.
+While I was pondering over the marvelous fact that people can live by
+breathing so many thousand gallons of air over and over so many
+thousand times, a whole legion of fleas, chinches, and other animals
+of a still more forbidding aspect commenced their horrid work, and
+would probably soon have made an end of me but for a new turn in this
+most extraordinary affair. The door gently opened. A figure glided in
+on tiptoe. It was that of a female, I knew by the grace and elegance
+of her motions, even before I could see her face or trace the
+undulating outline of her form in the dim light that pervaded the
+room. My senses were acutely alive to every movement, yet I was
+utterly unable to move, owing to the infernal drug with which they had
+dosed me. The woman, or rather girl--for she could not have been over
+eighteen or nineteen--cautiously approached the bed, with her finger
+to her lips, as if warning me not to speak. She was very beautiful--I
+was not insensible to that fact. Her features were wonderfully
+aristocratic for one in her position, and there was something in the
+expression of her dark, gleaming eyes peculiarly earnest and pathetic.
+Her hair was tossed wildly and carelessly back over her shoulders--she
+had evidently just risen from bed, for her costume consisted of
+nothing more than a loose night-wrapper, which fell in graceful folds
+around her limbs, revealing to great advantage the exquisite symmetry
+of her form. I was certain she did not belong to the house.
+Approaching timidly, yet with a certain air of determination, she bent
+down and gazed a moment in my face, and then hurriedly whispered in
+French, "Now is the time--let us escape! They lie sleeping by the
+door. A servant whom I bribed has disclosed the fact of your capture
+to me; I also am a prisoner in this horrid den. Will you save me? Oh,
+will you fly with me?" Of course, being unable to move a muscle,
+except those of my eyes, I could not open my mouth to utter a word in
+reply. The unhappy young woman looked profoundly distressed that I
+should thus gaze at her in silence. "Oh, what am I to do? Who will
+save me?" she cried, wringing her hands in the deepest anguish: "I
+have not a friend upon earth!" Then, clasping me by the hand, she
+looked in my face appealingly, and said, "Monsieur, I know you are a
+Frenchman. I see it in the chivalrous lines of your countenance. Ah!
+have pity on a friendless young girl, and do not gaze at her with such
+chilling indifference. I also am French. These wretches have waylaid
+and imprisoned me, and they hope to obtain a ransom by my detention.
+My friends are ignorant of my miserable fate. What can I do, monsieur,
+unless you assist me?"
+
+Utterly helpless--drugged--yet perfectly conscious of all the lovely
+creature was saying, I was truly in a most deplorable situation. Again
+and again she begged me, if there was a spark of French chivalry left
+in my nature, not to respond to her appeals by such a look of
+unutterable disdain. She was thrillingly beautiful; and beauty in
+tears is enough to melt the hardest heart that ever was put in the
+breast of man. I could feel her balmy breath upon my face, and the
+warmth of her delicate hand in mine, as she struggled to arouse me;
+and I declare it is my honest conviction that, had I been simply a
+corpse, life would have come back to my assistance; but this
+diabolical drug possessed some extraordinary power against which not
+even the fascinations of beauty could successfully contend. Under
+other circumstances, indeed, there is no telling--but why talk of
+other circumstances? There I lay like a log, completely paralyzed from
+head to foot. At length, unable to elicit an answer, a flush of
+mingled indignation and scorn illuminated her beautiful features, and,
+drawing herself back with a haughty air, she said, "If this be the
+boasted chivalry of my countrymen, then the sooner it meets with a
+merited reward the better. Allow me to say, monsieur, that while I
+admire your prudence, I scorn the spirit that prompts it!" and, with a
+glance of fierce disdain, she swept with queenly strides out of the
+room. A moment after I heard some voices in the passage, and scarcely
+five minutes had elapsed before the door was opened again. To my
+horror I saw the ruffian who had first followed me enter stealthily
+with a darkened lantern, and approach toward my bed. He carried in his
+right hand a heavy bar of iron. Stopping a moment opposite a shrine on
+one side of the room, he laid down his lamp and bar, and, bowing down
+three times, crossed himself devoutly, and then proceeded to
+accomplish his fiendish work. No conception can be formed of the agony
+with which I now regarded my fate. Crouching low as he approached, the
+wretch soon reached my bedside, peered a moment into my face with his
+hideous white eyes, laid down the lamp, then grasped the bar of iron
+firmly in both hands, and raised himself up to his full height. I made
+a desperate effort to cry out for help. My voice was utterly gone. I
+could not even move my lips. But why prolong the dreadful scene? One
+more glance with the fierce white eyes, a deep grating malediction,
+and the ruffian braced himself for his deadly job. He tightened his
+grip upon the bar, swung it high over his head, and with one fell
+blow--DASHED MY BRAINS OUT!!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Don't believe it, eh?
+
+Well, sir, you would insist upon my telling you the adventure, and now
+I stand by it! If it be your deliberate opinion that my statement is
+not to be relied upon, nothing remains between us but to arrange the
+preliminaries. I have no disposition to deprive my publishers of a
+valuable contributor, or society of an ornament; but, sir, the great
+principles of truth must be maintained. As it will not be convenient
+for me to attend to this matter in person, you will be pleased to
+select any friend of mine in California who may desire to stand up for
+my honor; place him before you at the usual distance of ten paces;
+then name any friend of yours at present in Europe as a similar
+substitute for yourself--the principals only to use pistols--notify me
+by the Icelandic telegraph when you are ready, and then, upon return
+of signal, pop away at my friend. But, since it is not my wish to
+proceed to such an extremity unnecessarily, if you will admit that I
+may possibly have been deceived--that there may have been some
+hallucination about the adventure--that strong tea and nervous
+excitement may have had something to do with it, then, sir, I am
+willing to leave the matter open to future negotiation.
+
+It is true I found myself in my room at the _Hotel de Venise_ when I
+recovered from the stunning effects of the blow; also, that the door
+was locked on the inside; but I am by no means prepared to give up the
+point on such flimsy evidence as that. Should the physiological fact
+be developed in the course of these sketches that there is still any
+portion of the brain left, and that it performs its legitimate
+functions, of course I shall be forced to admit that the case is at
+least doubtful; yet even then it can not be regarded in the light of a
+pure fabrication. Has not Dickens given us, in his "Dreams of Venice,"
+the most vivid and truthful description of the City of the Sea ever
+written; and what have I done, at the worst, but try in my humble way
+to give you a general idea of Moscow in the pleasing form of a
+midnight adventure, ending in an assassination? You have seen the
+Kremlin and the Church of St. Basil, and the by-streets and alleys,
+and the interior of a low traktir, and the cats, and the Russian beds,
+and many other interesting features of this wonderful city, in a
+striking and peculiar point of view, and I hold that you have no right
+to complain because, like Louis Philippe, I sacrificed my crown for
+the benefit of my subject. Besides, has not my friend Bayard Taylor
+given to the world his wonderful experiences of the Hasheesh of
+Damascus; his varied and extraordinary hallucinations of intellect
+during the progress of its operations? And why should not I my humble
+experiences of the tchai of Moscow?
+
+_Reader._ Slightly sprinkled with _vodka_, or "the little water."
+
+Oh, that was just thrown in to give additional effect to the tea!
+
+_Reader._ It won't do, sir--it won't do! The deception was too
+transparent throughout.
+
+Well, then, since you saw through it from the beginning, there is no
+harm done, and you can readily afford to make an apology for impugning
+my voracity.
+
+_Lady Reader._ But who was the heroine? What became of her?
+
+Ah! my dear madam, there you have me! I suspect she was a French
+countess, or more likely an actress engaged in the line of tragedy.
+Her style, at all events, was tragical.
+
+_Lady Reader_ (elevating her lovely eyebrows superciliously). She was
+rather demonstrative, it must be admitted. You brought her in
+apparently to fulfill your promise, but sent her off the stage very
+suddenly. You should, at least, have restored her to her friends, and
+not left her in that den of robbers.
+
+That, dear madam, was my natural inclination; but the fact is, d'ye
+see, I was drugged--
+
+_Lady Reader_ (sarcastically). It won't do, Mr. Butterfield--your
+heroine was a failure! In future you had better confine yourself to
+facts--or fresh water.
+
+Madam, I'd confine myself to the Rock of Gibraltar or an iceberg to
+oblige you; therefore, with your permission, I shall proceed to give
+you, in my next, a reliable description of the Kremlin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE KREMLIN.
+
+
+Not the least of the evils resulting from this harum-scarum way of
+traveling and writing is the fact that one's impressions become sadly
+tumbled together and very soon lose their most salient failures. To be
+whirled about the world by land and sea, as I have been for the last
+year, is enough to turn one's brain into a curiosity shop. When I
+undertake to pick out of the pile of rubbish some picture that must
+have been originally worth a great deal of money, I find it so
+disfigured by the sheer force of friction that it looks no better than
+an old daub. The pity of it is, too, that the very best of my
+gatherings are apt to get lost or ruined; and sometimes it happens
+that when I varnish up what appears to be valuable it turns out not a
+groat. Want of method would ruin a Zingalee gipsy or a Bedouin Arab.
+No doubt you have already discovered to your sorrow that when we start
+on a visit to the Kremlin, it is no sure indication that we will not
+spend the day in the Riadi or the old-clothes market. If either you or
+I ever reach our destination, it will be by the sheerest accident. And
+yet one might as well undertake to see Rome without the Capitoline
+Hill, or Athena without the Acropolis, as Moscow without the Kremlin.
+We have had several glimpses of it, to be sure, in the course of our
+rambles, but you must admit that they were very vague and
+indefinite--especially the last, when, if you remember, we were
+laboring under some strange mental hallucination.
+
+The Kremlin has been fully described by many learned and accomplished
+travelers. Coxe, Atkinson, Kohl, and various others, have given
+elaborate accounts of it; yet why despair of presenting, in a homely
+way, some general idea of it, such as one might gather in the course
+of an afternoon's ramble? After reading all we find about it in books
+of travel, our conceptions are still vague and unsatisfactory.
+Probably the reason is, that minute details of history and
+architecture afford one but a very faint and inadequate idea of the
+appearance of any place. Like the pictures of old Dennen, they may
+give you every wrinkle with the accuracy of a daguerreotype, but they
+fail in the general effect, or resemble the corpse of the subject
+rather than the living reality. I must confess that all I had read on
+Russia previous to my visit afforded me a much less vivid idea of the
+actual appearance of the country, the people, or the principal cities,
+than the rough crayon sketches of Timm and Mitreuter, which I had seen
+in the shop windows of Paris. This may not be the fault of the
+writers, who, of course, are not bound to furnish their own eyes or
+their own understanding to other people, but it seems to me that
+elaborate detail is inimical to strong general impressions. I would
+not give two hours' personal observation of any place or city in the
+world for a hundred volumes of the best books of travel ever written
+upon it; and next to that comes the conversation of a friend who
+possesses, even in an ordinary degree, the faculty of conveying to
+another his own impressions. A word, a hint, a gesture, or some
+grotesque comparison, may give you a more vivid picture of the reality
+than you can obtain by a year's study. Now, if you will just consider
+me that friend, and resign yourself in a genial and confiding spirit
+to the trouble of listening; if you will fancy that I mean a great
+deal more than I say, and could be very learned and eloquent if I
+chose; if you will take it for granted that what you don't see is
+there nevertheless, the Kremlin will sooner or later loom out of the
+fogs of romance and mystery that surround it, and stand before you,
+with its embattled walls and towers, as it stood before me in the
+blaze of the noonday sun, when Dominico, the melancholy guide, led the
+way to the Holy Gate. You will then discover that the reality is quite
+wonderful enough in its natural aspect, without the colored spectacles
+of fancy or the rigid asperities of photographic detail to give it
+effect.
+
+Like many of the old cities of Europe, Moscow probably had its origin
+in the nucleus of a citadel built upon the highest point, and
+commanding an extensive sweep of the neighborhood. Around this houses
+gathered by degrees for protection against the invasions of the
+hostile tribes that roamed through Russia at an early period of its
+history. The first object of the Kremlin was doubtless to form a
+military strong-hold. It was originally constructed of wood, with
+ramparts thrown up around it for purposes of defense, but, in common
+with the rest of Moscow, was destroyed by the Tartars in the
+fourteenth century. Under the reign of Dimitri it was rebuilt of
+stone, and strongly fortified with walls and ditches, since which
+period it has sustained, without any great injury, the assaults of
+war, the ravages of fire, and the wear and tear of time. Kief and
+Vladimir, prior to that reign, had each served in turn as the capital
+of the empire. After the removal of the capital to Moscow, that city
+was besieged and ravaged by Tamerlane, and suffered from time to time
+during every succeeding century all the horrors of war, fire,
+pestilence, and famine, till 1812, when it was laid in ashes by the
+Russians themselves, who by this great national sacrifice secured the
+destruction of the French army under Napoleon.
+
+During the almost perpetual wars by which Moscow was assailed for a
+period of four centuries, the Kremlin seems to have borne almost a
+charmed existence. With the exception of the Grand Palace, the Bolshoi
+Drovetz, built by the Emperor Alexander I., and the Maloi Drovetz, or
+Little Palace, built by the Emperor Nicholas, and the Arsenal, it has
+undergone but little change since the time of the early Czars. In
+1812, when the French, after despoiling it of whatever they could lay
+their hands upon, attempted, in the rage of disappointment, to blow up
+the walls, the powder, as the Russians confidently assert, was
+possessed by the devil of water, and refused to explode; and when they
+planted a heavily-loaded cannon before the Holy Gate, and built a fire
+on top of the touch-hole to make it go off, it went off at the breech,
+and blew a number of Frenchmen into the infernal regions, after which
+the remainder of them thought it best to let it alone.
+
+The Kremlin, as it now stands, is a large collection of palaces,
+public buildings, and churches, situated on the crown of a high bank
+or eminence on the left side of the Moskwa River, nearly in the centre
+of the city. It is surrounded by a high embattled wall, forming
+something of a triangle, about a mile in circumference, through which
+are several massive gateways. This wall is very strongly constructed
+of stone, and is about twenty-five or thirty feet in height. It forms
+many irregular sub-angles, and is diversified in effect by numerous
+towers, with green pyramidal roofs; abutments and buttresses; and a
+series of guard-houses at intervals along the top. The general color
+is white, making rather a striking contrast with the green-roofed
+towers, and the gilded domes and many-colored cupolas of the interior
+churches. Outside of this wall, on the upper side of the main angle,
+are some very pleasant gardens, handsomely laid out, with fine shady
+walks, in which many of the citizens spend their summer evenings,
+strolling about, enjoying the fresh air. Other parts of the exterior
+spaces are devoted to drosky stands, markets, and large vacant spaces
+for public gatherings on festa days and great occasions of military
+display. From every point streets diverge irregularly, winding outward
+till they intersect the inner and outer boulevards. These boulevards
+are large circular thoroughfares, crossing the Moskwa River above and
+below. They are well planted with trees, and have spacious sidewalks
+on each side; but, unlike the boulevards of Paris, are only dotted at
+irregular intervals with houses. To the eastward lies the Katai Gorod,
+or Chinese City, and to the westward the Beloi Gorod, or White City.
+
+Isolated in a great measure from the various quarters of the city,
+Russian and Tartaric, by the gardens, the large open spaces, the
+markets, and the river, the Kremlin looms up high over all in solitary
+grandeur--a mass of churches, palaces, and fortifications, surmounted
+by the tower of Ivan Veliki, which stands out in bold octagonal relief
+against the one with its numerous bells swung in the openings of the
+different stages, thundering forth the hours of the day, or tolling a
+grand chorus to the chanting of innumerable priests in the churches
+below. Approaching the Spass Vorota, or Gate of the Redeemer, through
+which none can enter save with uncovered heads--such is the veneration
+in which this Holy Gate is held by all classes--we witness a strange
+and impressive spectacle. Over this wonderful gate, incased in a frame
+covered with glass, stands the holiest of all the pictured relics of
+this sacred place, a painted figure of the Savior, emblazoned with
+gilding, and with a lamp swung in front, which burns night and day, as
+it has burnt since the days of Ivan the Terrible. Before this sacred
+image all true believers bow down and worship. While the great bells
+of the tower are booming out their grand and solemn strains, it is a
+profoundly impressive spectacle to witness the crowds that gather
+before this holy shrine, and bend themselves to the earth--the rich
+and the poor, the decorated noble and the ragged beggar--all alike
+glowing with an all-pervading zeal; no pretense about it, but an
+intense, eager, almost frantic devotion. Many a poor cripple casts his
+crutches aside, and prostrates himself on the paved stoneway, in the
+abandonment of his pious enthusiasm. Men and women, old and young,
+kneel on the open highway, and implore the intercession of the
+Redeemer. From the highest officer of state to the lowest criminal, it
+is all the same. The whole crowd are bowing down in abject
+humiliation, all muttering in earnest tones some prayer or appeal for
+their future salvation. And now, as we enter the gate, the stranger,
+whatever may be his persuasion or condition, whether a true believer
+or a heretic of high or low degree, must join in the general torrent
+of veneration so far as to uncover his head as he walks beneath that
+sacred portal; for, as I said before, none can pass through the Spass
+Vorota without this token of respect for its sacred character. The
+greatest of the Czars have done it through a series of centuries. The
+conqueror of Kazan, Astrakan, and Siberia has here bared his imperial
+head; Romanoff, Peter the Great, even the voluptuous Catharine, have
+here done reverence to this holy portal; and all the later sovereigns
+of Russia, Alexander I., Nicholas, and Alexander II., ere they
+received their kingly crowns, have passed bareheaded through the Spass
+Vorota. Need we hesitate, then, profane scoffers as we may be, when
+such precedents lie before us? Apart from the fact that I always found
+it convenient to do in Rome as the Romans do, and in Moscow to conform
+as far as practicable to the customs of the Moscovites, I really have
+no prejudice on any subject connected with the religious observances
+of other people. In pleasant weather I would walk a mile bareheaded to
+oblige any man who conscientiously thought it would do him the least
+good; more especially in a case like this, where, if one fails to doff
+his shlapa, a soldier stands ready to remind his "brother" or "little
+friend," or possibly "little father," that he (the brother, little
+friend, or little father) has forgotten his "beaver."
+
+We have now, thanks to Dominico, who has touched us up on all these
+points, gotten safely and becomingly through the Holy Gate without
+committing the sin of irreverence toward any of the saints, living or
+dead. We have passed through a high archway, about twenty paces in
+length, roughly paved with stones, and now put on our hat again as we
+ascend the sloping way that leads to the grand esplanade in front of
+the palaces and churches. This is a broad paved space, walled on the
+outer edge, forming a grand promenade overlooking the Moskwa River,
+and from which a magnificent view is had of the lower city, that
+sweeps over the valley of the south. Standing here, we have a grand
+_coup d'oeil_ of the river above and below, its bridges covered with
+moving crowds, its barges and wood-boats, and many-colored
+bath-houses, glittering in the sun; farther off, a dazzling wilderness
+of the innumerable churches of the lower city, with their green,
+yellow, red, and gilded cupolas and domes; still beyond, the trees and
+shrubberies of the outer boulevards; to the left, the great Foundling
+Asylum, fronting on the river, with its vast gardens in the rear; to
+the right, the Military Hospital, the Barracks, and, far in the
+distance, over the gleaming waters of the river, the Sparrow Hills,
+from which Napoleon caught the first glimpse of Moscow; and then the
+grand Convent of the Douskoi, within the outer wall, near the Kalonga
+Road; from which, sweeping over toward the right, once more we catch a
+glimpse of the wooded shade of the Race-course, the Hospital of St.
+Paul, and the Convent of St. Daniel; and to the left, beyond the outer
+wall, of various grand convents and fortifications, till the eye is no
+longer able to encompass all the wondrous and varied features of the
+scene. Turning now toward the north, after we have feasted upon this
+brilliant and glittering series of views, each one of which we might
+linger over for hours with increased delight, we stand facing the
+principal palaces and churches of the Kremlin--the Terema, containing
+the audience chambers, and the Granovitaya Palata, the coronation
+halls of the Czars; the new palaces; the Cathedral of the Assumption;
+the tower of Ivan Veliki; the Treasury and Arsenal; with innumerable
+glimpses of other and scarcely less prominent buildings, which unite
+in forming this wonderful maze of sacred and royal edifices. It would
+be very difficult, if at all practicable, to convey by mere verbal
+description a correct and comprehensive idea of the strange mingling
+of architectural styles here prevailing. The churches present, no
+doubt, the most picturesque effects, but this is not owing to any
+grandeur in their proportions. None of them are either very large or
+very high; but they are singularly varied in form, as if thrown
+together in bunches, without regard to order; some with Gothic gables,
+some round, some acutely angular, and all very rudely and roughly
+constructed, even the perpendicular lines being irregular. The walls
+are whitewashed, and in many places stained with age. The roofs are
+for the most part of earthen tiles, imburnt with strong prismatic
+colors, and shining like the inner surfaces of abalone shells. The
+domes are white, green, red, and yellow, and each church has a number
+of gilded or striped cupolas, rising irregularly from the roofs,
+shaped like bunches of globular cactus, such as one sees on the
+hill-sides of San Diego. If the comparison were not a little
+disparaging to their picturesque beauty, I should say that some of the
+cupolas--especially those of a golden cast--reminded me of mammoth
+pumpkins perched on the top of a Mexican Mission-house, for even the
+buildings themselves have something of a rude Mexican aspect about
+them. The new palace of the Bolshoi Dvoretz, built by the Emperor
+Alexander over a portion of the site of the old Tartar palace, is a
+large, square, uninteresting building, with nothing beyond its vast
+extent and grand facade to recommend it. The Terema and the
+Granovitaya Palata--both remains of the old Tartar palace--are highly
+ornamented with trellised work, and are interesting as well from
+their style of architecture as their contents. It was from the
+terraced roof of the Terema that Napoleon took his first grand view of
+the city of Moscow, after entering the gates of the Kremlin. The one
+contains a fine collection of curiosities, including various portraits
+of the Czars; the other the royal chamber, magnificently decorated
+with embroidered velvet hangings, candelabras, frescoes, gildings, and
+carved eagles bearing thunderbolts, and the great chair of state, in
+which the emperors sit enthroned to receive the homage of their
+vassals after the imposing ceremony of the coronation. But it would be
+an endless task to undertake an account of even a day's ramble through
+the interior of these vast palaces and public buildings. I paid five
+rubles for tickets and fees to porters, and, with the aid of
+Dominico's enlightened conversation, came out after my grand tour of
+exploration perfectly bewildered with jeweled crowns, imperial
+thrones, gilded bedsteads, slippery floors, liveried servants, stuffed
+horses, old guns, swords, and pistols, glassware and brassware,
+emeralds and other precious stones, and altogether disgusted with the
+childish gimcrackery of royalty. Great Alexander, I thought to myself,
+who would be a Czar of Russia, and have to make his living at the
+expense of all this sort of tom-foolery? Who would abide even for a
+day in a bazar of curiosity-shops, bothered out of his wits by
+servants and soldiers, and the flare and glitter of jewelry? It
+certainly all looked very shallow and troublesome to a plain man,
+destitute by nature of kingly aspirations. To confess the truth, I was
+utterly unable to appreciate any thing but the absurdity of these
+things. I can not discover much difference, save in degree, between
+barbaric show on the part of savages and on that of civilized people.
+For what, after all, do these coronation halls and gewgaws amount to?
+Who is truly king upon earth, when there is "an everlasting King at
+whose breath the earth shall tremble?"
+
+Strange, indeed, and not calculated to exalt one's impression of
+royalty, is the fact that, after purchasing a ticket to see all these
+relics of the great Czars of Russia, a horde of officers, servants,
+and lackeys, in imperial livery, must be feed at every turn. It is a
+perfect system of plunder from beginning to end. At the door of the
+new palace I was stopped by some functionary in white stockings,
+polished slippers, plush breeches and plush coat, actually blazing
+with golden embroidery; his head brushed and oiled to the intensest
+limits of foppery, and his hands adorned with white kid gloves, who
+refused to permit me to enter until he had arranged some infernal
+compact of pay with my guide, Dominico. After showing me through the
+grand chambers, pointing out the beds, bed-quilts, writing-desks,
+chairs, and wash-basins of the Czars, he finished up his half hour's
+labor by making a profound bow and holding out his hand, beggar
+fashion, for his fee. I gave him half a ruble (about 87-1/2 cents), at
+which his countenance assumed an expression of extreme pity and
+contempt. Dominico had informed him that I was a stranger from
+California, which had the effect of eliciting from him various
+passages of exceeding politeness up to that moment. But he now came
+out in his true colors, and demanded haughtily, "Was this the pitiful
+sum what the gentleman intended as a recompense for his services?"
+Dominico shrugged his shoulders. The liveried gentleman became excited
+and insolent--assuring me, through the guide, that no stranger of any
+pretensions to gentility ever offered him less than a ruble. I must
+confess I was a little nettled at the fellow's manner, and directed
+Dominico to tell him that, having no pretensions to gentility, I must
+close my acquaintance with him, and therefore bid him good-morning.
+There never was an instance in which I disappointed any beggar with so
+much good will. I have no doubt, if he has read any thing of
+California, he labors under the impression that I am an escaped
+convict from San Quentin.
+
+O most potent Alexander, Czar of all the Russias, is this the only
+way you have of paying your servants? Do you thus make a raree-show of
+the palace of your forefathers, and require every man who enters it
+for the purpose of enlightening his benighted understanding to pay
+your imperial lackeys the sum of three bits? Is it not enough that
+your soldiers and retainers should hawk old clothes through the
+markets of the Riadi for a decent living, without making a small
+speculation out of the beds and wash-stands in which your noble
+fathers slept and (possibly) washed their faces?
+
+One of the most remarkable objects of interest within the walls of the
+Kremlin is the Tzar Kolokol, or King of Bells, cast in 1730 by order
+of the Empress Anne, and said to be not only the largest bell, but the
+largest metal casting in existence. This wonderful bell is formed
+chiefly of contributions of precious metals, bestowed as religious
+offerings by the people from all parts of the Russian empire. Spoons,
+plates, coins, and trinkets were thrown by the devout inhabitants into
+the melting mass, and thus, each having a share in it, the monarch
+bell is regarded with feelings of peculiar affection and veneration
+throughout Russia. Writers differ as to its original use and location,
+some contending that it was first hung in a tower, which was destroyed
+by fire in 1737, and that the large fragment was broken out of it in
+the fall, which is now exhibited by the side of the bell; others that
+it never was hung at all, but that this fragment resulted from a
+failure in the casting. Be that as it may, it was all dug out of the
+ground in 1837, and placed in its present position on a pedestal of
+granite, close by the tower of Ivan Veliki.
+
+Standing in an open space, where the eye necessarily takes in many
+larger objects, including the great tower, but a very inadequate idea
+can be formed of the extraordinary dimensions of this bell. Cast in
+the usual form, its appearance at the distance of fifty or a hundred
+yards is not at all striking; but when you draw near and compare the
+height of the groups of figures usually gathered around it with that
+of the bell, it is easy to form some conception of its gigantic
+proportions. The fragment placed upright against the granite pedestal
+looks at a little distance scarcely three feet high, but as you
+approach you perceive that it is at least six. The bell itself is
+twenty-one feet three inches high, by twenty-two feet five inches in
+diameter, and varies from three feet to three inches in thickness.
+Underneath this immense metallic canopy is a chapel, in which is a
+shrine at which many thousands of the Russians every year offer up
+their devotions. The entrance to this is through an iron gateway, and
+the visitor descends several stone steps before he stands upon the
+paved floor of the chapel. Looking upward and around him, he then for
+the first time realizes the vast magnitude of this wonderful casting.
+It is almost impossible to conceive that such a prodigious body of
+metal was ever at one time a molten mass, seething over vast furnaces.
+Imagine a circular room more than twenty feet in diameter, and of
+proportionate height, and you have some faint idea of the interior of
+the Tzar Kolokol. It is said that it required ten strong men to draw
+the clapper from the centre to the inner rim, by means of ropes, so as
+to produce the ordinary sounds of which the bell was capable. This I
+can very well credit; for the great bell of the Ivan Tower, not a
+third of the size of this, has an iron tongue which requires the
+strength of three men to strike against the rim. The tremendous depth
+and volume of the tones sent forth for many leagues around by the
+monarch bell must have been sublime beyond conception, judging by this
+single fact, that while in Moscow, the largest bell I heard sounded
+was far inferior in size and weight to that of the Ivan Tower, which
+is rung only on state occasions, yet the sounds were so deep and
+powerful that they produced a reverberation in the air resembling the
+distant roar of thunder, mingled with the wailing of the winds in a
+storm. When all the bells of the tower, save the largest, were tolled
+together, the effect was absolutely sublime, surpassing in the
+grandeur and majesty of their harmony any thing I had ever heard
+produced through human agency. Judge, then, what must have been the
+effect when the Tzar Kolokol rolled forth a jubilee or a death-knell
+from his iron tongue!
+
+I do not wonder that the Russians regard this bell with such peculiar
+feelings of reverence. There is something to arouse the most profound
+and reverential emotions of our nature in the simple, grand, and
+mysterious melody of all great bells--something of the infinite that
+exalts our thoughts and aspirations from the earth. In my
+recollections of travel I have few purer or more endearing pleasures
+than the impressions produced by sounds like these. Often the grand
+old strains of the bells of Lima, Mexico, and Spain seem still to
+linger on my ear, and I never dream the wild and varied dream of my
+travels over without feeling that these mysterious voices from many
+lands have not spoken without a meaning, that "Life, with all its
+dreams, shall be but as the passing bell."
+
+From the Tzar Kolokol I took my way, under the guidance of Dominico,
+to the tower of Ivan Veliki, which we ascended by the winding stairway
+of stone. The view from the top of this tower is incomparably the
+finest to be had from any point within the limits of Moscow. Here,
+outspread before us in one vast circle, lay the whole wondrous city of
+the Tzars--a perfect sea of green roofs, dotted over with innumerable
+spires and cupolas. The predominant features are Asiatic, though in
+the quarter to the west, called the Beloi Gorod, or White City, are
+the evidences of a more advanced civilization. Apart from the
+churches, which give the city its chief interest and most picturesque
+effect, the public buildings, such as the theatres, hospitals,
+military barracks, colleges, and riding-school possess no great
+attractions in point of architectural display, and add but little to
+the scenic beauties of the view. In gazing over this bewildering maze
+of habitations and temples of worship, I was again strongly impressed
+with some two or three leading characteristics, which, being directly
+opposed to the idea I had formed of Moscow before seeing it, may be
+worthy of repetition. The general colors of the buildings, roofs, and
+churches are light, gay, and sparkling, so that the whole, taken in
+one sweep of the eye, presents an exceedingly brilliant appearance,
+more like some well-contrived and highly-wrought optical illusions in
+a theatre--such, for example, as the fairy scenery of the
+"Prophete"--than any thing I can now remember. The vast extent of the
+city, compared with its population (the circuit of its outer wall
+being twenty miles, while the population is but little over 300,000),
+is another characteristic feature; but this is in some measure
+accounted for by the great average of small houses, the amount of
+ground occupied by the Kremlin, the inner and outer boulevards, and
+the suburbs within the outer wall, the number of gardens and vacant
+lots, and the large spaces occupied by the ploschads or public
+squares.
+
+Looking beyond the city and its immediate suburbs, a series of
+undulating plains lies outstretched toward the eastward and southward,
+while toward the northward and westward the horizon is bounded by low
+pine-covered hills and occasional forests of birch. No high mountains
+or abrupt outlines are any where visible--all is broad and sweeping,
+conveying some premonition of the vastness of the steppes that divide
+this region from the Ural Mountains. Waving fields of grain, pastures
+of almost boundless extent, and solitary farm-houses lie dim in the
+distance, while in the immediate vicinity of the city cultivation has
+been carried to considerable perfection, and the villas and estates of
+the nobility present something more of the appearance of civilization
+than perhaps any thing of a similar kind to be seen in Russia.
+Contrasted with the country around St. Petersburg, and the desert of
+scrubby pines and marshes lying for a distance of nearly five hundred
+miles along the line of the railway between the two great cities, the
+neighborhood of Moscow is wonderfully rich in rural and pastoral
+beauties. Viewing it in connection with the city from the tower of
+Ivan Veliki, I certainly derived the most exquisite sensations of
+pleasure from the novelty, extent, and variety of the whole scene.
+Yet, calmly and peacefully as it now slumbers in the genial sunshine
+of a summer's afternoon, what visions it conjures up of bloodshed and
+rapine, plague, pestilence, and famine, and of all the calamities
+wrought by human hands, and all the appalling visitations of a divine
+power by which this ill-fated spot has been afflicted. Looking back
+through the wide waste of years, the mighty hosts of Tamerlane uprise
+before us, pouring through the passes of the Ural, and sweeping over
+the plains with their glittering and bloodstained crests like demons
+of destruction carrying death and desolation before them. Then the
+giant Czars, half saints, half devils, loom through the flames of the
+ill-fated city, with their myriads of fierce and defiant warriors
+stemming the torrent of invasion with the bodies of the dying and the
+dead. Then are the streets choked with blackened ruins and putrid
+masses, and the days of sorrow and wailing come, when the living are
+unable to bury the dead. Again, a great famine has come upon the city
+after the days of its early tribulations have passed away, and strong
+men, driven to desperation by the pangs of hunger, slay their wives
+and children, and feed upon the dead bodies, and mothers devour the
+sucking babes in their arms; and horror grows upon horror, till, amid
+the slaughter, ruin, and madness wrought by this unparalleled
+calamity, a hundred thousand corpses lie rotting in the streets in a
+single day, and the city is decimated of its inhabitants! The scene
+changes again. Centuries roll on; a dreary day has come, when the
+foreign invader once more holds possession of the citadel. With the
+prize in his hands, fires burst from every roof in every quarter.
+Three hundred thousand of the inhabitants have fled; a wind arises and
+fans the devouring flame; churches and houses, temples and palaces,
+are wrapped in its relentless embraces; the convicts and the rabble
+run like demons through the streets, drunk with wine and reveling in
+excesses; soldiers, slaves, and prostitutes pillage the burning ruins,
+all wild and mad with the unholy lust of gain. Soon nothing is left
+but blackened and smoking masses, the ruins of palaces, temples, and
+hospitals, and the seared and mutilated corpses of the dead who have
+been crushed by the falling walls or burnt in the flames. Then the
+invading hosts, stricken with dismay, fly from this fated and
+ill-starred city to darken the snows of Lithuania with their bodies;
+and of five hundred thousand men--the flower of French chivalry--but
+forty thousand cross the Beresina to tell the tale! Surely Moscow,
+like Jerusalem, hath "wept sore in the night."
+
+While lounging about through the gilded and glittering mazes of the
+Uspenski Saber, almost wearied by the perpetual glare of burnished
+shrines, my attention was attracted by a curious yet characteristic
+ceremony within these sacred precincts. In a gold-cased frame, placed
+in a horizontal position in one of the alcoves or small chapels, was a
+picture of a saint whose cheeks and robes were resplendent with gaudy
+colors. This must have been St. Nicholas or some other popular
+personage belonging to the holy phalanx. His mouth was very nearly
+obliterated by the labial caresses of the worshipers who came there to
+bestow upon him their devotions. A stone step, raised about a foot
+from the flagged pavement, was nearly worn through by the knees of the
+penitents, who were forever dropping down to snatch a kiss from his
+sacred lips--or at least what was left of them, for his mouth was now
+little more than a dirty blotch, without the semblance of its original
+outline. While pondering over the marvelous ways in which men strive
+to cast off the burden of their sins, I observed a very graceful and
+elegantly-dressed female approach, and with an air of profound
+humility kneel in the accustomed place. As she drew back her veil she
+displayed a remarkably pretty face, and there was something quite
+enchanting in the coquetry with which she ignored the presence of a
+stranger. Of course she could have had no idea that any person of the
+opposite sex would dare to think of female loveliness in such a place,
+and the charming unconsciousness of her manner, as she adjusted the
+folds of her dress, and revealed the exquisitely rounded contour of
+her form, was the very best proof of that fact. A perfect withdrawal
+of self from the world and all its vanities was her ruling expression.
+Thrice did this lovely creature gracefully incline her head and kiss
+the blotched countenance of that inanimate saint. Ah me! what a luxury
+it must be to be a saint! What a lucky fellow is St. Nicholas, to be
+kissed by such honeyed and pouting lips as these! Chaste and pious
+kisses they may be, but, notwithstanding that, it must be very hard to
+keep cool, under the circumstances. Who would not suffer a life of
+martyrdom, and be turned into a picture or an image on such terms?
+Surely this bewitching damsel must have committed some dreadful sin to
+be thus soliciting the saintly intercession of a little picture with a
+dirty mouth! Perhaps she had recently suffered her own delectable lips
+to be pressed by the bearded mouth-piece of some tender and persuasive
+lover, and now sought to make atonement by kissing St. Nicholas! By
+all the powers of beauty, I'll forswear sack, Dominico, and try--ha!
+here comes a devotee of another sort. Let us wait a while. For, as I
+live, it is a great puncheon of a woman, weighing over three hundred
+pounds--puffing and steaming as she waddles toward the shrine--a
+perfect Falstaff in petticoats. Shade of Venus! what a face and
+figure! Carbuncled with wine, and bloated with quass and cabbage soup,
+I'll bet my head, Dominico, she's a countess! How the juices of high
+living roll from her brow as she stoops down, and gives the
+unfortunate St. Nicholas a greasy dish-cloth of her fat lips! Faugh!
+I'll consider about my course of life, Dominico. There are some
+inconveniences in being a saint. Next comes an old and toothless
+crone, all draggled with dirt, limping on crutches--a most pitiful
+object to look upon. She hobbles slowly and painfully up to the place
+just vacated--puts her crutches aside, kneels down, and, bowing low
+her palsied head, presses a dry, shriveled, and leathery kiss upon the
+grease-spot left by the fat woman. Thrice she performed this ceremony,
+mumbling over in her guttural way the prescribed formula; and then
+rising, regained her crutches, and begged for alms. Well, of course I
+gave the alms; but the other part of the performance suggested some
+painful thoughts. It was surely enough to moderate the ardor of one's
+aspirations toward a saintly life. Yet, after all, Dominico, every
+sweet must have its bitter. Let us not despair yet. Next comes a great
+bearded Mujik, all tattered and torn--a regular grizzly bear on his
+hind legs, and drunk at that. This horrid monster has evidently not
+known the use of either soap or water for many a long day. His
+accustomed beverage must be vodka, and grease the only application
+ever used to purify his skin. He, too, kneels down and gives the image
+three cordial smacks--a pretty heavy penalty to endure on the part of
+any saint. Upon my word, Dominico, I don't think it would be possible
+for me to stand that! But hold--here comes a fellow who caps the
+climax. A bilious, yellow-skinned, black-eyed fop, dressed in the
+height of fashion, with frizzled black hair, divided behind, and
+smelling strong of pomatum, a well-oiled mustache, and a simpering,
+supercilious expression--one of those nasty creatures that old Kit
+North says never can be washed clean. He looks conceited and silly
+enough to be an attache to the court of his imperial highness the
+emperor. When this fellow knelt before the picture and slavered it
+with his ugly mouth, a dizzy sensation of disgust came over me. Upon a
+general review of all the circumstances, Dominico, I have concluded
+that it might not be so pleasant, after all, to be a saint--in Russia.
+
+It must not be supposed from this little sketch of a characteristic
+scene that I wish to ridicule any form of religion. I saw precisely
+what I state, and am in no way responsible for it. If people imagine
+this sort of thing does them any good, they are quite welcome to enjoy
+it; but they must not expect every body else to be impressed with the
+profound sensations of solemnity which they feel themselves. The
+Russians may kiss the heads off every saint in Moscow without the
+slightest concern or opposition on my part. The Romans have kissed a
+pound of brass off the big toe of St. Peter, in the grand Cathedral at
+Rome, and I see no reason why other races should not enjoy similar
+privileges, only it does not produce the same effect upon every body.
+
+Yet, in some sense, such scenes are not without an aspect of sadness.
+It is melancholy to look upon such a mingling of glitter and
+barbarism, wealth and poverty, sincerity, debasement, and crime. No
+human being is truly ridiculous, however grotesque may be the
+expression of his feelings, when they are the genuine outpouring of a
+contrite heart. These nobles, common citizens, and beggars, thus
+meeting upon common ground, in a country where the distinctions of
+rank are so rigidly observed, and for the time being disregarding all
+differences of condition; forgetting their ambitions, their
+jealousies, and animosities, and giving themselves up with such
+unselfish zeal to all the demands made upon them by their forms of
+religion, is, in itself, a touching and impressive sight. I confess
+that when the first shock of grotesqueness, so strikingly connected
+with all I saw, passed away, the feeling left was one of unutterable
+sadness. These people were all fellow-beings, and, right or wrong,
+they were profoundly in earnest; yet, while thinking thus, I could not
+but fancy the same divine strain of warning that was wafted to the
+house of Israel still lingered in the air: "Every man is brutish in
+his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image; for
+his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them; they
+are vanity and the work of errors; in the time of their visitation
+they shall perish."
+
+In reference to the interiors of the churches of the Kremlin, I can
+only find space to say, after having visited them all, that they
+present a confusion of gilded and glittering aisles, pillars, alcoves,
+chapels, and painted domes, which baffles any thing like accurate
+description. The Cathedral of the Assumption is literally lined with
+gilding, daubs of paintings representing scriptural scenes, figures
+and pictures of saints, dragons and devils of every conceivable color
+and oddity of design and costume, and burnished shrines and
+candelabras. Through the dazzling mazes of this sacred edifice crowds
+of devotees, priests, and penitents are continually wandering; here,
+casting themselves upon their knees, and bowing down before some
+gold-covered shrine; there standing in mute and rapt adoration before
+some pictured symbol of eternity--grandees, beggars, and all; the
+priests bearing tapers and chanting; the air filled with incense; the
+whole scene an indescribable combination of moving appeals to the
+senses. All the churches of the Kremlin partake, more or less, of this
+character. In some of them, the old bones and other relics held
+peculiarly sacred are inclosed within iron gratings or railings, and
+are only accessible to the visitor through the services of a priestly
+guide. Every visitor must, of course, pay for the gratification of his
+curiosity; so that the bones of the most venerated characters in the
+history of the Russian Church are turned into a considerable source of
+profit. It may well be said that every saint pays his own way, so long
+as there is a fragment of him left in this world. If one could be
+assured of the truth of all he learns during a tour of inspection
+through these receptacles of sacred relics, it would indeed confound
+all his previous impressions that the days of miracles had passed.
+There is a picture in the Uspenski Saber, the bare contemplation of
+which, combined with a fervent appeal, it is confidently asserted,
+recently effected a sudden and wonderful cure in the case of a
+crippled man, who was carried there from his bed, but after his
+devotions before this picture walked out of the door as well as ever;
+and every where about these sacred precincts pictures and carved
+images are abundant which at stated intervals shed tears and manifest
+other tokens of vitality.
+
+Outside, on the steps of those churches, the stranger encounters
+innumerable gangs of beggars, who watch his incoming and his outgoing
+with the most intense eagerness--rushing toward him with outstretched
+hands, calling upon all the saints to bless him and his issue forever
+and ever, and sometimes bowing down to the earth before him, in their
+accustomed way, as if he himself partook of some sacred attributes.
+Apart from the wretched aspect of these poor creatures, among which
+were the lame, the halt, and the blind from all the purlieus of
+Moscow, there was something very revolting in the debasement of their
+attitudes. To assist them all was impossible; and I often had to
+struggle through the crowds with feelings akin to remorse in being
+compelled to leave them thus vainly appealing to my charity. When
+alone, hours after, the weary and pathetic strain of their
+supplications would haunt me, bearing in its sorrowful intonations a
+weird warning that we are all bound together in the great fellowship
+of sin.
+
+And now, while we are taking our last lingering look at the Kremlin,
+the mighty bells of the tower toll forth a funeral knell. A priest
+lies dead in one of the churches, his coffin draped in the habiliments
+of woe. The chanting rises ever and anon above the death-knell that
+sweeps through the air. Standing aloof, we listen to the solemn sounds
+of mourning. The funeral cortege comes forth from the church. The
+hearse, with its plumed horses all draped in black, receives the
+coffin; priests and mourners, bearing lighted tapers, lead the way,
+chanting a requiem for the departed; and thus they pass before us--the
+living and the dead--till they reach the Holy Gate. Then the priests
+and the crowd bow down and pray; and when they have passed out from
+under the sacred arch, they turn before the image of the Savior and
+pray again; then rising, they cross themselves devoutly and pass on to
+the last earthly resting-place of their friend and brother.
+
+Surely death draws us nearer together in life. I thought no more of
+forms. What matters it if we are all true to our Creator and to our
+convictions of duty! Life is too short to spend in earthly
+contentions.
+
+"In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is
+cut down and withereth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+RUSSIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
+
+
+Rude and savage as the lower orders are in their external appearance,
+they certainly can not be considered deficient in politeness, if the
+habit of bowing be taken as an indication. In that branch of
+civilization they are well entitled to take rank with the Germans and
+French, from whom, doubtless, they have acquired many of their forms of
+etiquette. Something, however, of Asiatic gravity and courtliness
+mingles with whatever they may have adopted from the more sprightly and
+demonstrative races of the South; and a certain degree of dignity,
+accompanied though it may be with rags and filth, is always observable
+in their manners. The alacrity, good nature, and enthusiasm so
+characteristic of the Germans, and the dexterous play of muscles and
+vivacious suavity of the French, are wholly deficient in the
+Russians--such of them, at least, as have retained their nationality.
+The higher classes, of course, who frequently spend their summers at
+the watering-places of Germany and their winters in Paris, come home,
+like all traveled gentlemen, with a variety of elegant accomplishments,
+the chief of which is a disgust for their own language and customs.
+This, indeed, seems to be a characteristic of several other
+nations--an inordinate desire to become denationalized by imitating
+whatever is meretricious and absurd in other people; and you need not
+be surprised should you fail to recognize even your unpretending friend
+and correspondent on his return to California; for although I still
+pretend to write a little English, I no longer speak it except in
+broken accents. Having also worn out three good hats practicing the art
+of bowing on the boulevards of Paris and the glacis of Frankfort, I
+never pretend now to recognize any body without striking the top of my
+tile against the cap of my knee.
+
+  [Illustration: A PASSAGE OF POLITENESS.]
+
+This, you see, is all in the way of excuse for the Russians, and
+arises rather from an excess of good nature than an excess of egotism.
+Constant practice in the solemnities of street-worship--uncovering
+their heads and bowing low before their numerous saints and
+shrines--may have some influence upon the stateliness of Russian
+politeness. It is, however, a very prominent and characteristic trait,
+and in some of its phases rather astounding to a stranger. A common
+thing in the streets of Moscow is to see a couple of sturdy beggars,
+uncouth as grizzly bears, meet and stop before each other with the
+utmost and most punctilious gravity. Beggar number one takes his
+greasy cap from his head slowly and deliberately, gives it a graceful
+sweep through the air, and, with a most courtly obeisance, exhibits
+the matted tuft, or the bald spot on the top of his head, to his
+ragged friend. Beggar number two responds in a similar courteous
+style, neither uttering a word. Each then gravely replaces his cap,
+touches the brim of it once or twice by way of representing a few
+extra bows, and passes on his way with an expression of profound
+dignity, utterly unconscious of the grotesque effect of all this
+ceremony to a stranger. I have seen the most vagabond-looking
+istrovoschik, or drosky-drivers, jump out of their drosky and perform
+similar courtesies toward each other; and where men of this craft are
+given to politeness, one may rest assured that it must be a national
+characteristic. All seem to be the slaves of ceremony, from the Czar
+down to the Mujik. Porters, wagoners, water-carriers, butchers,
+bakers, and chimney-sweeps are equally skilled in the noble art of
+bowing. At first, judging by the uncouth faces and the grimy costumes
+of these interesting people, such passages of politeness have very
+much the effect of burlesque. It seems impossible that men of such
+rude aspect can be in earnest. One soon gets used to it, however, and
+regards it as a matter of course. I could not but think how strange it
+would look to see a couple of Sacramento or San Francisco hack-drivers
+meet in some populous part of the town, and each one take off his hat
+to the other, and, with a graceful flourish, make a courtly salaam; or
+a pair of draymen stop their drays, get down leisurely, approach each
+other in an attitude of impressive dignity, take off their hats, and
+double themselves up before an admiring audience. They would certainly
+be suspected in our rude country of poking fun at each other. I can
+very well understand why butchers and chimney-sweeps should be polite,
+since they are accustomed to scraping; and the custom looks
+appropriate enough with many other classes, including barbers, who are
+generally men of oily manners, and tailors and printers, who are
+naturally given to forms; but with men whose business is intimately
+associated with horse-flesh, I must say it has something of a
+satirical aspect. Never in this world can I force myself to believe
+that a hack-driver is in earnest in any thing short of his fare. Do
+not understand me as casting any injurious reflection upon this
+valuable class of men; but it is a melancholy feature in humanity--of
+which sad experience enables me to speak feelingly--that integrity and
+horse-flesh are antagonistical, and can never go together. For the
+hack-driver personally I have great respect. He is a man of the
+world--knows a thing or two about every body and every thing; is
+constitutionally addicted to cheating, and elevates that noble
+propensity into one of the fine arts; maintains his independent
+character, and pockets his extraordinary profits in the face of all
+municipal restrictions; scoffs at the reign of the law, and drinks his
+regular bitters. I consider him a persecuted and an injured man; but
+of such elastic stuff is he made that he rises above all persecutions
+and all injuries, and still is, and ever will be, master of that
+portion of the human race which travels and abounds in cities. He is
+given to humor, too, is the hackman. Nobody better understands how to
+give a joke, or to resent one. An adept in ridicule, he always enjoys
+it when not applied to himself. If he is deficient in any one quality,
+perhaps it is piety. Hack-drivers, as a class, are not pious men; they
+may be very good men in their way, but, strictly speaking, they are
+not pious. Neither are they much given to mutual courtesies,
+especially at steam-boat landings. Therefore I say that to see
+hack-drivers bow down before shrines and stop on public thoroughfares,
+and with the utmost gravity uncover their heads and interchange
+courtly salaams--nay, even kiss hands in certain cases--is a novel and
+peculiar spectacle, suggestive of improvements which might be
+beneficially imported into our country.
+
+There was an impassive, abstracted air about Dominico very difficult
+to describe, but very impressive to a stranger. All these
+peculiarities were developed the first or second day of our
+acquaintance. About the third he seemed to grow impatient, hummed over
+a few gems from unknown operas, and was less disposed than usual to
+unbend himself. There was evidently a coolness growing up between us.
+I suspected it originated in my hat, which was really very shabby; and
+fancied I detected a supercilious expression in his eye as it ranged
+over my coat and down to my boots. At length he said, "Monsieur, you
+appear to travel with very little baggage!"
+
+_Myself._ Yes, only a knapsack.
+
+_Dominico_ (after a pause). Pray what business may Monsieur be engaged
+in?
+
+_M._ None at all--just ranging about miscellaneously.
+
+_Dom._ May I be so bold as to ask what part of England does Monsieur
+come from?
+
+_M._ Oh, I didn't come from England at all!
+
+_Dom._ (puzzled). Pray where does Monsieur come from?
+
+_M._ Oh, just come from over the way there--California!
+
+_Dom._ (elevating his eyebrows and stopping suddenly). California? The
+great gold country? Where they dig gold out of the ground?
+
+_M._ Yes--that's my country.
+
+_Dom._ (admiringly). Oh, then, Monsieur is a gentleman of fortune,
+just traveling for pleasure?
+
+_M._ Precisely; for pleasure and information combined. My estates are
+situated in the city of Oakland.
+
+_Dom._ Is that a large city?
+
+_M._ Well, it covers a good deal of ground--as much, I think, as
+Moscow.
+
+_Dom._ If Monsieur pleases, we will take a drosky and visit some of
+the gardens?
+
+_M._ Agreed.
+
+And so ended the conversation. It was marvelous, the change it
+produced in Dominico; how his dignity evaporated; how vivacious he
+became; how frank and unreserved he was in his descriptions of the
+wonders of Moscow; how he scorned to take trifles of change, and how
+magnificently he disregarded expenses. Wherever we went, however grand
+the domestics, soldiers, or police, Dominico was always high above
+them, and I could hear him descanting constantly on the wonderful
+richness of California. Doubtless the strain of his conversation ran
+about thus: "Behold, gentlemen, I have brought before you a living
+Californian! Notwithstanding the shabbiness of his hat, and the
+strange and uncivilized aspect of his clothes, he is the richest man
+in that land of gold! Yes, gentlemen, his income can scarcely fall
+short of ten millions of rubles per annum. Make way, if you please!"
+
+All things considered, Dominico let me off pretty well at the close
+of our acquaintance, upon my explaining to him that a draft for five
+hundred thousand rubles which ought to be on the way had failed to
+reach me, owing doubtless to some irregularity in the mail service, or
+some sudden depression in my Washoe stocks.
+
+In the way of food the hotels are well supplied, and the fare is not
+bad in the principal cities. Fish and game are abundant, but veal is
+the standard dish. I called for a beefsteak at the hotel in St.
+Petersburg, and was furnished with veal. The soup was made of veal.
+After salad we had veal cutlets. Then came a veal stew; next in order
+was a veal pie; and before the courses were finished I think we had
+calf's head baked and stuffed. At a station-house on the way to Moscow
+I hurriedly purchased a sandwich. It was made of veal. I asked for
+mutton-chops at the hotel in Moscow, and got veal. In fact, I was
+surfeited with veal in every possible shape wherever I went.
+
+Now I am not particular in matters of diet. In a case of emergency I
+can relish buzzard, but if there is any one kind of food upon earth
+that I think never was designed to be eaten, it is veal. No very young
+meat is good, to my notion--not even young pig, so temptingly
+described by the gentle Elia; nor young dog, so much esteemed by
+Chinese and Russian epicures. It has neither the consistency nor the
+flavor of the mature animal, and somehow suggests unpleasant images of
+flabby innocence. There is something horribly repugnant to one's sense
+of humanity in killing and devouring a helpless little calf. Who but a
+cannibal can look the innocent creature in the face, with its soft
+confiding eyes, its gentle and baby-like manners, and calculate upon
+devouring its brains, or satisfying the cravings of hunger upon its
+tender ribs? Who can see the butcher, with his murderous knife in such
+a connection, without a sting of remorse at the idea of the mother's
+grief--her great eyes swimming in tears, her lowing cries haunting him
+for days? I never see a gang of these helpless little creatures
+driven to the shambles without thinking of that touching picture, the
+Murder of the Innocents.
+
+In vain I tried to escape this veal passion in Russia. Nay, even in
+Finland and Sweden it pursued me. I actually began to feel flabby, and
+felt ashamed to look the poor cows in the face. It was a marvel how
+the cattle, of which there seemed to be no lack, ever arrived at
+maturity. If the people kill all the calves, as appeared to be the
+case, in the name of wonder, where do the cows come from? This
+question puzzled me exceedingly for some time, and was only solved
+when I asked a Russian to explain it. "Oh," said he, smiling at my
+simplicity, "they only kill the male calves. They allow the cow calves
+to grow up!"
+
+Still, when I came to reflect upon the reason given, it occurred to me
+that they must be a very singular race of cows. Perhaps they were
+Amazonian cows.
+
+This leads me by an easy and not ungraceful transition to the
+Foundling Asylum of Moscow, one of the largest and most remarkable
+institutions of the kind in the world. In other public places
+throughout Europe, especially in picture-galleries and museums, the
+visitor is required to deliver up his walking-stick at the door, in
+return for which he receives a ticket corresponding with one fastened
+upon the article itself--as in baggage-cars upon the railway, so that
+he may redeem it when he thinks proper. But I had little thought, in
+my experience of foreign travel, that a similar system should prevail
+in regard to the deposit of living beings, as in the foundling
+establishment of Moscow. Here, any body with a surplus baby can carry
+it and have it labeled around the neck, receive a ticket in return
+corresponding in number with the deposit, and call for it at any
+future time, certain that it will be delivered up--if alive. The
+building is of immense extent, and is situated on the banks of the
+Moskwa River, near the lower part of the town. The grounds around it
+are tastefully laid out, and must occupy twenty or thirty acres, the
+whole being surrounded by a high wall, and comprising numerous and
+substantial outhouses, workshops, etc., for the use of the
+establishment. Many thousand children are annually taken in and nursed
+at this institution, no restriction being imposed upon the parents,
+who may be either married or single, to suit their own taste or
+condition. The regular force of wet-nurses employed is about six
+hundred, besides which there are numerous dry-nurses and teachers for
+the older children. It is estimated that the entire expense of
+conducting the establishment is not less than five or six hundred
+thousand rubles per annum, most of which is defrayed by voluntary
+contributions and interest received on loans.
+
+I spent a forenoon rambling through the various wards, and can safely
+say I never before saw such an extraordinary collection of human
+squabs within one inclosure. It was certainly one of the strangest and
+saddest spectacles I had ever witnessed--so many infant specimens of
+humanity, bundled up like little packages of merchandise, labeled,
+numbered, and nursed with a mathematical regularity fearfully
+inconsistent with one's notions of the softness and tenderness of
+babyhood. To be sure, they are well treated--kindly and gently
+treated, perhaps; but it is pitiful to see these helpless little
+creatures bereft of the gentle motherly touch; washed, physicked,
+nursed, and too often buried by hired and unsympathizing hands; and no
+more thought of them, save in the way of duty, than so many little
+animals destitute of souls. The very idea of attachments formed by
+nurses is of itself a painful subject of contemplation; for of what
+avail is it that a child should be loved by its nurse, or find in her
+a new mother, when by the rules of the establishment there must be
+constant separations. It is said that over twenty-five thousand
+children derive, either directly or indirectly, support from this
+establishment. About six thousand are taken in annually, of which
+perhaps one fourth die. Many of them are not far from dead when
+admitted; and it is only surprising, considering the deprivations they
+must endure in being so suddenly withdrawn from the mother's care,
+that so large a proportion should survive.
+
+If it be a wise child that knows its own father, it would be a very
+remarkable father who could recognize his own child among such a
+variegated collection as I saw here. Never upon earth was there a more
+astonishing mixture of baby flesh--big babies and little babies,
+pug-nosed, black-eyed, blue-eyed, fat and lean, red, yellow, and white
+babies--all sorts ever invented or brought to light in this curious
+world of ours. Yet the utmost order was observed, and the beds,
+nurses, cribs, and feeding apparatus looked wonderfully clean for a
+Russian institution, where cleanliness is not generally the prevailing
+characteristic. But, great guns! what music they must make when they
+all get started in one grand simultaneous chorus! five or six hundred
+babies, of both sexes, from one to two or three years old, in one
+department; as many girls from three to five in another; boys of the
+same age in another; older boys and older girls innumerable in
+another! What a luxury it must be to hear them all together! In
+general, however, they do not make as much noise as might be supposed.
+I only heard about forty or fifty small choruses while there; but,
+trifling as that was, it enabled me to form an idea of the style of
+music that might be made when five or six thousand gave their whole
+mind to it. I am personally acquainted with one small baby not over a
+couple of years old, who, when excited of nights, can very nearly
+raise the roof off the house, and am certain that five hundred of the
+same kind would burst the whole city of Moscow sky-high if ever they
+got at it together. These Russian foundlings, however, are generally
+heavy-faced, lymphatic babies, and fall naturally into the machine
+existence which becomes their fate; otherwise it would seem a hard
+life for the poor nurses, who are not always gifted with the patient
+endurance of mothers. I was told that the children only cried
+periodically, say at intervals of every four hours, but hardly credit
+that statement. Being for the most part soggy little animals, they
+spend a goodly portion of their time in sleep, and doubtless, when not
+sleeping, are much given to eating and drinking.
+
+During the summer months several thousand of these children are sent
+out in the country to nurse, after which they are returned in due
+order. As soon as they become old enough, they are taught reading and
+writing, and the most intelligent are selected to become teachers. The
+boys usually receive a military education, and a certain proportion of
+them furnish recruits for the imperial army.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+DESPOTISM _versus_ SERFDOM.
+
+
+The reader has probably discovered by this time that I have no great
+affection for the political institutions of Europe, and am pretty
+strong in my prejudices against despotic governments of all sorts. The
+fact is, I believe our own, with all its faults, is the best system of
+government ever devised by man.
+
+The Emperor Alexander II. is admitted on all hands to be a most
+estimable and enlightened sovereign. He possesses, in a greater
+degree, perhaps, than any of his predecessors, the confidence and
+affection of his people. All his labors since he ascended the throne
+in February, 1855, have been directed to the emancipation of the serfs
+and the general welfare of his country. No fault can be found with him
+by the most ardent advocate of human liberty. His sympathies are--as
+far as it is practicable for those of an autocrat, clothed with
+absolute powers, to be--in favor of freedom. Toward the people and the
+government of the United States he entertains the most kindly feeling,
+and would doubtless sincerely regret the overthrow of our republican
+system. He has, moreover, devoted himself with unceasing zeal to the
+abolition of many onerous and unnecessary restrictions upon the
+liberty of the press and the civil rights of his subjects; encouraged
+institutions of learning; prohibited to a considerable extent cruelty
+and oppression in the subordinate branches of the public service; and
+in all respects has proved himself equal to the great duty imposed
+upon him, and worthy the esteem and commendation of the civilized
+world. Yet I can not see what there is in a despotic form of
+government, under the very best circumstances, to enlist our
+admiration or win our sympathies. We may respect and appreciate a good
+ruler, but every autocrat is not good of his kind; nor is every
+country in a happy condition because it may be exempt from the horrors
+of commotion. But no sovereign power can ever attain a rank among the
+civilized nations of the earth--beyond the respect to which its brute
+force may entitle it--so long as the very germ of its existence is
+founded in the suppression of civil and political liberty among its
+subjects.
+
+What, after all, does the emancipation of the serfs amount to? They
+are only to be nominally free. The same power that accords them the
+poor privilege of tilling the earth for their own subsistence may at
+any time withdraw it. They are not to be owned by individual
+proprietors, and bought and sold like cattle; but they possess none of
+the privileges of freemen; have no voice in the laws that govern them;
+must pay any taxes imposed upon them; may be ordered, at any time, to
+abandon their homes and sacrifice their lives in foolish and
+unnecessary wars in which they have no interest; in short, are just as
+much slaves as they were before, with the exception that during the
+pleasure of the emperor they can not be sold. But will every emperor
+be equally humane? There is nothing to prevent the successor of
+Alexander the Second from restoring the system of serfage, with all
+its concomitant horrors. It will not be difficult to find a
+predominating influence among the nobles to accomplish that object;
+for this has been a long and severe struggle against their influence,
+and owes its success entirely to the unremitting labors of the
+sovereign. The next autocrat may labor with equal earnestness to undo
+this good work; but it matters little, save in name. Despotism and
+freedom are antipodes, and can not be brought together. It may be said
+that it would be difficult to enslave a people who had once even
+partially tasted the sweets of liberty, but the history of Russia does
+not furnish testimony to that effect.
+
+Since the publication of the ukase abolishing serfdom, there has been
+a great deal of trouble in the more remote districts between the serfs
+and their masters, arising chiefly from ignorance on the one side, and
+discontent and disaffection on the other. Every possible obstacle has
+been thrown in the way of a fair understanding of its terms. Some idea
+may be formed of the extreme ignorance and debased condition of the
+serfs when I mention that in many parts of the country, where the
+influence of the court is not so immediately felt by the proprietors,
+they have assumed such despotic powers over their dependents, and
+exercise to this day such an inexorable command over their lives,
+liberties, and persons, that the poor creatures have almost learned to
+regard them as demigods. When a nobleman of high position, owning
+large tracts of land and many serfs, visits his estates, it is not an
+uncommon thing to see the enslaved peasantry, who are taught to
+believe that they exist by his sufferance, cast themselves prostrate
+before him and kiss the ground, in the Oriental fashion, as he passes.
+It is a species of idolatry highly soothing to men in official
+position, who are themselves subjected to almost similar debasement
+before their imperial master. In some instances, especially at a
+distance from the capital, the acts of cruelty perpetrated by these
+cringing and venal nobles, as an offset to the arbitrary rule under
+which they themselves exist, are enough to make the blood curdle. The
+knout, a terrible instrument made of thick, heavy leather, and
+sometimes loaded with leaden balls, is freely used to punish the most
+trifling offense. Men and women, indiscriminately, are whipped at the
+pleasure of their masters, the only real restrictions being that if
+they die within twenty-four hours the owners are subjected to trial
+for murder; but even that is nearly always evaded. The present emperor
+has done much to meliorate these abuses; but his orders have to go a
+great way and through a great many unreliable hands, and it is very
+difficult to carry them into effect unless they accord with the views
+of a venal and corrupt bureaucracy and an unprincipled corps of
+subordinates.
+
+  [Illustration: SERFS.]
+
+In some of the districts where the serfs were purposely kept in
+ignorance of the true meaning and intention of the emperor's ukase, a
+vague idea took possession of their minds that they were free, and
+that the proprietors had no right to compel them to labor, or in any
+way curtail their liberty. Many of them left the estates to which they
+were attached, and sought occupation elsewhere on their own account;
+others refused to obey the orders given them by their seigneurs, and a
+great deal of trouble and bloodshed ensued. In some instances it
+became necessary to call in the military forces of the district to
+subdue the mutinous serfs and preserve order. Protests and
+remonstrances innumerable were addressed to the emperor, pointing out
+the absolute impracticability of carrying his beneficent scheme into
+effect, based chiefly on the ground that the serfs themselves were
+opposed to emancipation. This, of course, occasioned a great deal of
+anxiety and trouble at head-quarters. It was rather a hard state of
+things that the very peasants whom he was striving with all his power
+to serve should, by their insubordination--arising sometimes, it was
+true, from ignorance, but too often from willful misconduct--do even
+more than their masters to frustrate his beneficent designs. These
+troubles went on from time to time, till eventually a deputation of
+three hundred serfs made their way to St. Petersburg and solicited an
+audience of the emperor. His majesty, probably in no very amiable
+mood, called the deputation before him, and demanded what they
+desired. They answered that they wished an explanation in regard to
+his order of emancipation, which many of their people did not
+understand. Some thought they were to be free in two years, but many
+thought they were free from the date of the order, with the simple
+condition that they were to pay sixty rubles to their masters the
+first year, and thirty the second; others, again, that they were free
+without any condition whatever. All they wanted to know was, were they
+free or not? If free, why were they forced to labor for other people;
+and if not free, was there any prospect that they ever would be? The
+emperor asked, "Can you read?" Some answered that they could read,
+others that they could not. "Have you read my order?" demanded the
+emperor of those who could read. "Yes, your majesty," they replied,
+"we have read your order, but we don't understand it." All who could
+read and had read the order were removed on one side. "Now," said the
+emperor, turning to the others, "has this order been read to you?"
+"Yes, your majesty," they replied, "but we don't understand it." "Very
+well," observed the emperor; "you seem to be an intelligent set of
+men, capable of learning, and we shall see that the order is made
+intelligible. We had supposed it was perfectly clear in its terms;
+but, since you do not or will not comprehend it, all you who can read
+must be whipped." The literary portion of the deputation were then
+taken off by a file of soldiers, treated to a score or two of lashes
+each, and sent back to their people to explain the manifesto. "And all
+you," said the emperor, turning to the unlearned members of the
+deputation, "must serve three years as soldiers, during which time we
+shall see that you are taught to read." They were accordingly taken
+off, and furnished with a general outfit of uniforms, and are now
+serving their imperial master in a military capacity.
+
+Summary justice, that, one might say. It seems, at all events, a
+pretty prompt method of explaining official documents, and could
+probably be adopted beneficially in other countries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+REFORM IN RUSSIA.
+
+
+In my last chapter I took occasion to acknowledge, in terms of sincere
+respect and admiration, the noble efforts of the present emperor,
+Alexander II., in the great cause of human freedom. He has already
+gone very far beyond any of his predecessors in the extension of
+civil liberty among his subjects, but a great crisis has now arrived
+which will practically test his sincerity. What he has heretofore done
+will be worse than nothing unless he remains true to himself and the
+noble cause which he has espoused. History shows us that the
+sovereigns of Russia have not always been indifferent to public
+opinion; but, with one or two honorable exceptions, it also shows us
+that they have been more liberal in their professions than in their
+acts. I ventured the assertion that there are insuperable obstacles to
+a very high order of civilization in Russia. Perhaps this is too
+gloomy a view of the case, and, considering the wonderful natural
+capacities of the people, it may be thought rather illiberal for an
+American; but I must confess the difficulties strike me as very
+serious. The severity of the climate in the middle and northern parts
+of the empire, the vast proportion of desert and unavailable lands,
+and the diversity of fierce and ignorant races to be governed, are
+certainly obstacles not easily overcome, if we are to understand by
+civilization a predominance of moral and intellectual cultivation,
+combined with material prosperity and a reasonable share of liberty
+and happiness among the mass of the people. It is not that a few shall
+be learned, and intelligent, and privileged above all others, but that
+the broad fields of knowledge shall be open to all; that education
+shall be general, and the right of every class to the fruits of their
+labor and the enjoyment of civil, political, and religious liberty
+shall be recognized and protected by the laws of the land. In this
+view, it seems to me that the most serious obstacle to civilization in
+Russia is presented by the despotic nature of the government, and the
+difficulty, under the existing state of things, of substituting
+another for which the ignorant masses are prepared. The aristocracy
+are constantly clamoring for increased powers and privileges, but it
+is very certain they have no affinity, beyond pecuniary interest, with
+the middle and lower classes, and that their sole aim is to interpose
+every possible obstacle to the progress of freedom. The emperor is
+now practically the great conservative power who stands between them
+and their dependents. Any increase of authority to the aristocracy
+would deprive the masses of the limited protection which they now
+enjoy. Already the head and front of Russian despotism are the
+camarilla and the bureaucracy, who practically administer the affairs
+of the government. So long as they hold their power, they stand as a
+barrier to all progress on the part of the people. Thoroughly
+aristocratic and tyrannical in all their instincts, they have every
+thing to lose and nothing to hope from a constitutional form of
+government. Why, it may be asked, if the emperor is sincere in his
+professions of regard for freedom and civilization, does he not make
+use of the aristocratic powers vested in him, and cast away from him
+all these obstacles to the perfection of his plans? The question is
+easier asked than answered. We are but little enlightened upon the
+secret councils that prevail at the court of St. Petersburg. Whatever
+is done there is only known by its results; whatever finds its way
+into the public press is subject to a rigid censorship, and is worth
+little so far as it conveys the remotest idea of facts. What you see
+demonstrated you may possibly be safe in believing, but nothing else.
+It may be easier to speak of removing obstacles than to do it; or it
+may be that the emperor has no fixed policy for the future, and
+therefore hesitates to encounter difficulties through which he can not
+see his way without any adequate or well-defined object.
+
+No country in the world presents such an anomalous condition of
+affairs as that presented by Russia at this time. The preliminary
+steps have been taken to set free over twenty-three millions of white
+people, so accustomed to a condition of servitude, so generally
+ignorant, and so incapable of thinking or acting for themselves, that
+many, if not most of them, look with dread upon the movement made for
+their emancipation. The rights reserved to them are so little
+understood, and, indeed, so visionary under any circumstances--for
+two rights to the same land would be as impracticable in Russia
+between the proprietors and the peasant as in our country between the
+whites and the Indians--that they can see nothing beyond abandonment
+to increased oppressions and sufferings in the proposed movement.
+Degraded as they are, accustomed from infancy to obey their rulers,
+kept in a condition of brutish ignorance in order that they may be
+kept in subjection, it is natural they should be unable to realize the
+mysterious benefits about to be conferred upon them. In their present
+abject position they enjoy a certain kind of protection from their
+owners, who, if not always governed by motives of humanity, are at
+least generally susceptible of the influences of self-interest, and
+take care to feed and clothe them, and provide for them in cases of
+sickness; and although this is done at the expense of their labor, it
+relieves them from responsibilities which they are scarcely prepared
+to assume. To set them free against their own will, or even admitting
+that, in common with all mankind, they must have some general
+appreciation of liberty--to undertake so radical a change in their
+condition and future prospects without a practical definition of their
+rights and the substitution of some substantial benefits for the
+withdrawal of responsibilities now borne by their owners, is an
+anomalous movement attended by no ordinary difficulties. When we add
+to this the adverse influences of the landed proprietors; their
+determined hostility to the abrogation of rights and privileges which
+they have so long enjoyed; their entire conviction that, without
+direct powers of coercion, they can not depend upon the labor of the
+peasantry; that the natural tendency of free labor is to elevate the
+masses, and render them less subservient to the will of the
+aristocracy, then, indeed, it may well be conceived that the natural
+difficulties arising from the ignorance and improvident habits of the
+class now held in bondage will be greatly augmented. Believing,
+however, that all men have a right to their freedom; that such a
+right is the gift of the Creator, which can only be wrongfully
+withheld from them by any earthly power; that it is superior to any
+casual influences or considerations of policy, we can not but admire
+the moral courage of the movement, and the apparent zeal and constancy
+with which the emperor has labored, in the face of every obstacle, to
+carry it into effect. But the question now arises, is it to end before
+it assumes a substantial form? Is it to be a mere chimera gotten up to
+entertain and delude the world? If Alexander aspires to the approval
+of all enlightened people beyond the limits of his own empire, he must
+make good his claim to it by a determined policy, carrying in it the
+germ of civil and political liberty. It will not do to "tickle the
+ears of the groundlings" with high-sounding phrases of human progress,
+while he fetters their limbs with manacles of iron. There can be no
+such thing as a graduated despotism--a stringent form of controlling
+the ignorant and a mild form of controlling the intelligent--under one
+system of government. The ways to knowledge, to honorable distinction,
+to wealth and happiness, must be open to all; justice must be
+administered with impartiality, and wherever there is taxation there
+must be representation. There can not be one kind of justice for the
+rich and another for the weak; constitutions for some and despotisms
+for others. The machine must be complete in all its parts, and work
+with a common accord, or it will soon become deranged and break to
+pieces.
+
+Peter the Great did much toward the physical improvement of the
+country. He built up cities, created a navy, organized an army,
+extended his dominions, encouraged education, and fostered the
+mechanical arts; but he held a tight rein upon his subordinate
+officers, and suppressed what little freedom the masses enjoyed. He
+was ambitious, and liked to enjoy a reputation for enlightenment, but
+no regard for civilization beyond the power it gave him to extend his
+dominions. His subjects were merely his instruments. All he learned
+in other countries was to sharpen them and keep them in order, that he
+might use them to the best advantage. His ambition was not of the
+highest or noblest kind. The page he has left in history is
+interesting and instructive, but there is nothing in it to warrant the
+belief that it will be selected by a remote posterity to be bound up
+among the lives of truly great and good men. Catharine II. extended
+the privileges of the nobility, made wars upon inoffensive nations,
+corrupted the morals of her people, and manifested her regard for the
+serfs by giving large numbers of them away to her paramours. The
+Emperor Alexander I. was ambitious of distinction, as the most
+cultivated and enlightened sovereign of his time. He issued liberal
+edicts, but seldom observed them. He wished to be thought friendly to
+liberty, without sacrificing any of his despotic privileges. He gave a
+Constitution to the Poles, but surrounded it by such forms and
+influences that they could derive no advantage from it. He was weak,
+cunning, and conceited; given rather to the delicate evasions of
+diplomacy than to the bold straightforwardness of truth and honor. The
+Emperor Nicholas was utterly selfish and despotic in all his
+instincts. He professed to take a profound interest in the cause of
+emancipation, but it was purely a question of policy with him. He
+cared nothing about human rights. His dark and cruel nature was
+unsusceptible of a noble or generous impulse. While he preached
+liberal generalities, he ruled his subjects with an iron rod. He was
+bigoted, narrow-minded, and brutal. The sense of right was not in his
+nature. His ambition was to be an object of heathenish idolatry to his
+subjects--whether as a god or devil it mattered nothing; fear was the
+only incense he was capable of craving; and if such a nature can be
+susceptible of enjoyment, his consisted in the abasement of his
+fellow-creatures. The severity of his decrees, the rigor of his
+administration, and the attributes of infallibility which he cast
+around his person, caused him to be regarded with awe, but not with
+love. He could brook no opposition nor survive a failure. Few tears
+were shed when he was stricken down in his pride. He left but a small
+legacy of good deeds to endear him in the memory of his subjects. The
+haughty Czar lies dead in his sepulchre--cold, stern, and solitary as
+he lived.
+
+Nicholas left his country in a distracted and unhappy
+condition--deeply in debt; commerce deranged; the military service in
+the worst possible condition, and nearly every branch of the public
+service in the hands of corrupt and incapable men. Well might he say
+to his own son upon his dying bed, "Poor Alexander, my beloved son,
+where lie the ills of unhappy Russia?" Well might he endeavor to make
+atonement for his errors by recommending at his last hour the
+emancipation of the serfs.
+
+The milder spirit of Alexander reigns in his place. What future, then,
+does this humane young sovereign propose to himself and his country?
+He gives personal liberty to the serfs, but he can not allow them to
+become intelligent and responsible beings. If they do, they will no
+longer acknowledge his right to deprive them of political liberty. He
+removes various restrictions from the press, and the moment the light
+of intelligence strikes upon the minds of his subjects, they call for
+a constitution and the overthrow of a despotic camarilla. He
+undertakes to restrain a powerful, intelligent, and unscrupulous
+aristocracy, who by instinct, education, and self-interest hate the
+very name of freedom, and they turn against him, and provoke those
+whom he would serve to acts of rebellion against his authority. We can
+scarcely wonder that this is the case when we consider the interests
+they have at stake. It is not likely that they will quietly relinquish
+their accustomed source of revenue. On the other hand, the argument is
+advanced, and with a good share of reason, that the emancipation of
+the serfs is really a benefit to the owners. It relieves them of
+enormous responsibilities, and, by encouraging industry, increasing
+the intelligence, self-reliance, and capacity of the serfs themselves,
+makes their labor more profitable to the landed proprietors. This is a
+view of the case, however, in which they have no faith. Believing in
+nothing free except the free use of authority in their own persons,
+they can not be brought to understand the advantages of free labor.
+
+But these considerations do not, by any means, comprise all the
+difficulties in which Russia is now placed. The dependencies are
+constantly in revolt. Constant troubles are going on in the remote
+districts. Nine millions of the population--the old believers who do
+not profess the prevailing religion--have their secret conferences,
+their plans and purposes, all antagonistical to the existing form of
+government. A reign of terror exists in Poland. The Finns detest their
+rulers, and are only kept in a partial state of quietude by a total
+subversion of the liberties guaranteed to them under the Constitution.
+The municipal franchises existing in the various provinces of Russia
+are a mere mockery; mayors and corporate officers are imprisoned or
+banished without cause or process of law. The councils of the
+government are secret, and nobody can conjecture how long he may be
+permitted to enjoy his personal liberty. The exchequer is annually
+deficient from thirty to forty millions of rubles. Public credit is
+growing worse and worse every day, and the whole country is falling
+into a condition of bankruptcy. It is evident, even to the most
+superficial observer, that a great crisis is at hand. The Poles are
+united in their resistance to the despotic sway of the government.
+Witness the late bloody massacres in Warsaw (1862), against which the
+whole civilized world cries aloud in horror! They will not now be
+satisfied with empty professions and still emptier concessions. They
+demand a Constitution--not a mere paper Constitution, like that of
+1815, made to be violated by every lackey of the government sent to
+coerce them. They demand civil, political, and religious liberty. Can
+the emperor grant it to a dependency, and withhold it from the body of
+his people?
+
+This has been tried for nearly half a century--ever since 1815--and
+what has it resulted in? Are the Poles any better satisfied now than
+they were then? Are they benefited and enlightened by being cut down
+and hacked to pieces by a set of drunken and bloodthirsty Cossacks in
+the name of the great Russian government?
+
+The Emperor Alexander must adopt some other system. He will never
+reduce the Poles to submission in that way. Overpowered and cut to
+pieces they may be, but not conquered. They belong to the
+unconquerable races of mankind. The blood that heroes, and heroines,
+and martyrs are made of runs in the veins of every man, woman, and
+child of the Polish nation. If they can not govern themselves, it is
+equally certain they can not be governed by any despotic power. It is
+not by slaughtering defenseless women and children; not by forcing
+churches to be opened; not by sending savage and heartless minions to
+crush the people down in the dust, that Alexander II. is to win a
+reputation for humanity and liberality. It is not by issuing edicts of
+emancipation to his serfs, and then, at the instigation of a cruel and
+ruthless camarilla, deluging the country with their blood to keep them
+quiet, that he is going to do it. It is not by extending privileges to
+the press and the universities, and then, by a sudden and violent
+suppression of all liberty, undertake to arrest some abuses, that he
+is likely to achieve it. It is not by countenancing venal and
+unscrupulous writers to sustain every outrage that his nobles may
+choose to perpetrate, and banishing all who respectfully remonstrate
+against their misconduct, that he is to attain the highest eminence as
+a civilized sovereign. It is not by keeping up a system of foreign
+surveillance, by which Russians in other countries are watched and
+their lives threatened, that these glorious results are to be
+achieved. His secret police may (on their own responsibility or his,
+it matters little to the victims which) assassinate M. Herzain, the
+editor of the _Kolokol_, in London; but if they do, a thousand
+Herzains will rise in his place. No; it is by no such means as these
+that the name of Alexander II. is to be transmitted to posterity as
+the most liberal and enlightened sovereign of the age.
+
+If he would regenerate Russia--if he would avert the dismemberment of
+a great empire--if he would accomplish the noble mission upon which
+the world gives him the credit of having started, he must banish from
+his presence all evil councils; he must be true to himself and the
+great cause of humanity; he must give all his people, and all his
+dependencies, a liberal and equitable constitution, which will protect
+them from the despotic sway of military governors and the aristocracy.
+He must establish a constitutional government, complete in all its
+parts; abolish secret tribunals, and open the avenues of knowledge and
+justice to all. He must see that the laws are fairly and equitably
+administered. He must enlarge the liberty of the press, and proscribe
+no man for his opinions, unless in cases of treason, and under
+peculiar circumstances of civil commotion endangering the public
+safety. He must abolish the censorship of the colleges, universities,
+and places of public amusement, and leave them to be regulated by the
+municipal authorities. In short, he must cease to be a despot and
+become a constitutional monarch. Will he do it? Can he do it? Does he
+possess the moral courage to do it? Time alone can answer these
+questions. I sincerely believe the emperor is a good man, actuated by
+the best motives, but not always governed by the wisest counsels. I
+believe he now has an opportunity of earning a name that enlightened
+men will bless through all time to come. So far, it is to be regretted
+that he has not pursued the most consistent course, but it is not yet
+too late to retrieve his errors. One thing is certain--there can be
+no half-way measures of reform in Russia. The spirit of the age--the
+general increase of intelligence--requires a radical change. He can
+not be autocrat and king at the same time. He must be one or the
+other. If he tries both, the empire will be dismembered before many
+years.
+
+Whatever may be the extent and variety of those hidden restraints,
+which doubtless exist, and must, from the very nature of the
+government, be exempt from the scrutiny of a stranger as well as from
+popular discussion, it is beyond question that in the principal
+cities, at least, very little is visible in that respect which would
+be considered objectionable in the municipal regulations of any city
+in the United States. From this, of course, must be excepted the
+presence in every public place and thoroughfare of vast numbers of
+soldiers and officers; but that is a feature which St. Petersburg
+shares in common with all the cities of Europe, and the traveler can
+scarcely regard it as an indication of the depressed condition of
+Russian civilization. I think I have seen in the streets of Pesth,
+Vienna, Berlin, and Frankfort quite as many soldiers, according to the
+population, as in St. Petersburg. I would say something about Paris,
+but I expect to go there after a while, and would dislike very much to
+be placed in the position of Mr. Dick Swiveller, who was blockaded at
+his lodgings, and never could go out without calculating which of the
+public ways was still left open. But if there be officers enough of
+all kinds in Paris to keep the public peace and suppress objectionable
+correspondence and pamphlets against members of the reigning family,
+there are also enough in Lyons and Marseilles, as well as other cities
+of France, to prove that civilization and soldiers, however inimical
+to each other, may, by the force of circumstances, be reduced to a
+partnership. The question that troubles me most is to determine
+precisely what is the highest condition of civilization. It can not be
+to enjoy fine palaces and have a great many soldiers, for Marco Polo
+tells us that the great Kubla Khan had palaces of gold and precious
+stones of incredible extent and most sumptuous magnificence, such as
+the world has never seen from that day to this, and could number his
+troops by millions; yet nobody will undertake to say that the Tartars
+of the tenth century were in advance of the French of the nineteenth
+century. It can not consist in the enjoyment of freedom, and the
+general dissemination of education and intelligence among the people;
+for where will you find a freer or more intelligent people than those
+of the United States, who are rated by the Parisians as little better
+than savages? I think civilization must consist in the perfection of
+cookery, and a high order of tailoring and millinery. If the French
+excel in the manufacture of cannons and iron-cased ships, and devote a
+good deal of attention to surgery, it is a necessity imposed upon them
+by the presence of Great Britain and their natural propensity for
+strong governments; but I am disposed to believe that their genius
+lies in gastronomy and tailoring, and in the construction of hats and
+bonnets. Since the latter articles cover the heads of the best classes
+of mankind, they must be the climax or crowning feature of all human
+intelligence. I am greatly puzzled by the various opinions on this
+subject entertained by the most cultivated people of Europe. The
+English seem to think the perfection of civilization consists in
+preaching against slavery and then trying to perpetuate it, in order
+to get hold of some cotton; the French in suppressing family
+pamphlets, annulling the sacred contract of marriage, building
+iron-cast ships, cooking frogs, snails, and cats, making fancy coats,
+and topping off the human head with elegant hats and bonnets; the
+Austrians in the manufacture of shin-plasters for their soldiers, and
+the making and breaking of constitutions for ungovernable
+dependencies; the Prussians in the blasphemous necromancy of receiving
+crowns for their kings direct from God; and all in some shape or other
+professing devotion to human liberty, and doing every thing in their
+power to subvert it. Truly it is enough to puzzle one who seeks for
+truth amid the prevailing fogs of error that seem to have descended
+upon mankind. If there be any degree in honesty, I really think the
+Emperor of Russia is entitled to the palm of being the most sincere in
+his profession of regard for the advancement of human freedom. He
+imposes no restrictions upon his own subjects which he does not
+consider necessary for the maintenance of his despotic power, and,
+while struggling against the influence of a wealthy, intelligent, and
+refractory aristocracy to extend the boon of personal liberty to
+twenty-three millions of serfs, is the only sovereign who boldly and
+openly manifests a generous sympathy for the cause of freedom in the
+United States. While I can see nothing to admire in any form of
+despotism, or any thing in common between us and the government of
+Russia beyond the common bond of humanity that should connect the
+whole human race, I am forced to admit, with all my hatred of despotic
+institutions, that they are not always a sure indication of an
+illiberal and insincere spirit on the part of the rulers, or of a
+base, sordid, and groveling spirit on that of the subjects. It is a
+matter of regret, calculated to shake our faith in the beneficial
+effects of a high order of intelligence among men, that the course of
+England and France, since the commencement of our difficulties,
+presents a very unfavorable contrast with that of Russia; for,
+although self-interest has restrained them from actual participation
+in the overthrow of our government, they have given its enemies the
+full benefit of their sympathy.
+
+You will smile, perhaps, at the oddity of the idea, considering the
+roughness of our country, the scarcity of palaces, fine equipages,
+liveried servants with white kid gloves and cocked hats, and the
+absence of a perfect railroad system in our remote quarter of the
+world; but I am perfectly in earnest in saying that, if asked to lay
+my hand upon my heart and declare, in all sincerity, what country upon
+earth I do consider the most highly favored and enlightened at the
+present stage of the nineteenth century, I should not hesitate one
+moment to name the State of California. The idea has been growing in
+my head ever since I came to Europe. It is based upon considerations
+which are susceptible of the clearest demonstration. For example,
+assuming our population to be five hundred thousand, where will you
+find the same number of educated, enterprising, and intelligent men in
+any one district or state of Europe, not excepting any given part of
+France or England? If we have fewer learned and scientific men than
+older countries can boast, we have a greater number above mediocrity,
+according to our population, and a vastly higher average of general
+intelligence. If our laws are too often loosely administered, it is at
+least in the power of the people to remedy the difficulty by
+substituting good and faithful for corrupt and inefficient officers;
+and if any law should prove burdensome, it can be repealed at the will
+of the majority. So far as injustice is concerned, I have seen more of
+it in Europe, individual rights were concerned, than I ever saw in
+California. We have a public sentiment in favor of the right which can
+not be shaken by corrupt, factious, and transitory influences. If our
+governors and public men are not furnished with gilded palaces and
+fine equipages, the labor of the toiling poor is not taxed to supply
+them. If we are backward in the higher branches of literature and the
+fine arts, there is scarcely a mechanic or a miner in the state who
+does not know more of the history of his own country, possess a more
+accurate knowledge of its institutions, read more of the current
+intelligence of the day from all other countries--who, in short, is
+not better versed in every branch of practical knowledge applicable to
+the ordinary purposes of life, than the average of the most
+intelligent classes in Great Britain or France. If we are deficient in
+the dandyism of dress and the puppyism of manners, which so generally
+pass for refinement and politeness on the Continent of Europe, there
+is scarcely a boor among us who would not be hooted out of the lowest
+society for the indifference, rudeness, and disrespect toward women,
+which form the rule rather than the exception among the polished
+nations of Europe. I have seen more absolute selfishness, coarseness,
+and innate vulgarity under the guise of elegant manners, since my
+arrival on this side of the water, than I ever saw in California under
+any guise whatever. If that be civilization, I do not want to see it
+prevail in our country. It would be difficult, indeed, to say in what
+respect a comparison would not show a heavy balance in our favor.
+Wealth is more equally diffused, fortune is more accessible to all,
+the honors and emolument of political position are within the reach of
+every man, the press is unrestrained in its freedom save in so far as
+individual rights and the well-being of society may be concerned; no
+class is oppressed by inequitable burdens, and none endowed with
+exclusive privileges; a rich soil, a prolific mineral region, a
+climate unequaled for its salubrity, and a promising future, afford
+profitable occupation, health, and happiness to the whole community;
+none need suffer unless from their own misconduct, or the visitation
+of the Supreme Power by which all are ruled; and none need despond who
+possess energy of character and the capacity to appreciate the many
+blessings bestowed upon them. What nation in Europe possesses a future
+at all, much less such a future as that which lies before us? Russia
+may improve and prosper to a certain extent; beyond that, no human eye
+can discern the glimmerings of a higher and more enlarged
+civilization. England has reached her culminating point. The States of
+Germany--what future have they? Alas! the past and the present must
+answer. France--where is her future? Another revolution--another
+emperor--another and another bloody history of revolutions,
+barricades, kings, emperors, and demagogues, reaching, so far as human
+eye can penetrate, through the dim vistas of all time to come. If, on
+the one side, we see the type of human perfection and the maturity of
+all worldly knowledge, and if we see on the other only the presumption
+that springs from ignorance, want of cultivation, or want of reverence
+for the example of others, then I earnestly pray that we may forever
+remain in our present benighted condition, or, if we advance at all,
+that it may not be in the direction taken by any of the governments of
+Europe. As our present is unlike theirs, so I trust may be our future.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A BOND OF SYMPATHY.
+
+
+The Russians, doubtless, have a natural appetite for tobacco, in
+common with all races of mankind, whether Digger Indians, Caffirs,
+Hindoos, Persians, Turks, Americans, or Dutchmen; for I never yet have
+met with a people who did not take to the glorious weed, in some shape
+or other, as naturally as a babe to its mother's breast. _Vodka_, or
+native brandy, is their favorite beverage, when they can get it. In
+that respect, too, they share a very common attribute of humanity--a
+passion for strong drinks. Nevertheless, although the love of
+intoxicating liquors is pretty general in Russia, the habit of smoking
+which usually accompanies it is not so common as in the more southern
+parts of Europe. A reason for this may be found in the prohibitions
+established by the government against the general use of tobacco. It
+is true, any person who pleases may enjoy this luxury, but by a rigid
+ukase of the emperor the restrictions amount very nearly to an
+absolute prohibition, so far as the common people are concerned.
+Smoking is prohibited in the streets of every town and city throughout
+the empire, and any infraction of the law in this respect, whether by
+a native or foreigner, is visited by a heavy penalty. I hear of
+several instances in St. Petersburg and Moscow of arrests by the
+police for violations of the imperial decree. The reason given by the
+Russians themselves for this despotic regulation is, that the cities
+being built mostly of wood, extensive and disastrous conflagrations
+have arisen from carelessness in street-smoking. It is difficult to
+see how the risk is lessened in this way, for the prohibition does not
+extend to smoking within doors. A carpenter may indulge his propensity
+for cigars over a pile of shavings, provided it be in his workshop,
+but he must not carry a lighted cigar in his mouth on any of the
+public thoroughfares. The true reason perhaps is, that the emperor
+considers it a useless and expensive habit, and thus makes use of his
+imperial power to discountenance it, as far as practicable, among his
+subjects. They may drink _vodka_ if they please, because that only
+burns their insides out; but they must not smoke cigars, as a general
+rule, because that impairs their moral perceptions. Hence cigars are
+not permitted to be sold at any of the tobacco-shops in packages of
+less than ten. Few of the lower classes ever save up money enough to
+buy ten cigars at a time, so that if they desire to smoke they must go
+to a cheap groggery and indulge in cheap cigaritos. Owing to the want
+of opportunity, therefore, smoking is not a national characteristic,
+as in Germany and the United States.
+
+This, I must confess, gave me a rather gloomy impression of Russia,
+and accounted in some measure for the grave and uncongenial aspect of
+the people. One always likes to find some bond of sympathy between
+himself and the inhabitants of the country through which he travels. I
+remember reading somewhere of a Scotchman who had occasion to visit
+the United States on business connected with an establishment in
+Glasgow. He was disgusted with the manners and customs of the people;
+had no faith in their capacity for business; found nothing to approve;
+considered them vulgar, impertinent, irresponsible, and irreligious;
+and finally was about to take his departure with these unfavorable
+views, when he discovered, from some practical experience, that they
+possessed, in addition to all these traits, wonderful shrewdness in
+the art of swindling. New dodges that he had never dreamt of turned up
+in the line of debits and credits; he was interested--delighted! A
+familiar chord was touched. He retracted all he had said; formed the
+most exalted opinion of the people; reluctantly returned to Glasgow,
+and there made a fortune in the course of a few years! It is said that
+he now swears by the eternal Yankee nation--the only oath he was ever
+known to make use of--and expresses a desire to settle in the United
+States, if he can find a suitable part of the country abounding in
+fogs, rain, sleet, snow, and wind.
+
+Somewhat akin to this is the affection with which a traveler in a
+foreign land regards every mountain, tree, or flower that reminds him
+of his own country. The most pleasant parts of my experiences of
+mountain scenery are those that most resemble similar experiences at
+home. Some suggestion or hint of a familiar scene has often caused me
+to enjoy what would otherwise perhaps have attracted no particular
+attention. I remember once, while traveling in Brazil, near the Falls
+of Tejuca, some very pleasant scenes of early life came suddenly to
+mind, without any thing that I could perceive at the moment to give
+rise to such a train of thought. The aspect of the country was
+different from any I had ever seen before; and it was not till I
+discovered a bunch of violets close by my feet that I became aware
+that it was a familiar perfume which had so mysteriously carried me
+back to by-gone days. On another occasion, when at sea in the Indian
+Ocean, after many dreary months of absence from home, I one day
+accidentally found in the pocket of an old coat a paper of fine-cut
+chewing tobacco. With what delight I grasped the glittering treasure
+and applied it to my nose can only be conceived by a true lover of the
+weed--I speak not of your voracious chewers, who masticate this
+delectable narcotic as if it were food for the stomach instead of
+nutriment for the soul, but of the genuine devotee, who can appreciate
+the divinest essence, the rarest delicacies of tone and touch, the
+most exquisite shades of sentiment in this wondrous weed. What a
+luxury, after months of dreary longing--what an oasis in the desert of
+life! No attar of roses could be sweeter than that paper of fine-cut.
+I played with it--just titillating the nostrils--for hours before I
+dared to descend to the coarse process of chewing. And then--ah
+heavens! can mortal mixture ever equal that first chew again! How
+bright and beautiful the world looked! What happy remembrances I
+reveled in all that day, of serenades, and oyster-suppers, and pretty
+girls, and a thousand other fascinations of early youth, all of which
+grew out of a paper of fine-cut.
+
+My experiences in Sweden were even more delightful in this respect
+than in Russia. At Stockholm I saw drunken men every day, and at
+Gottenburg it was the prevailing trait. The trouble was to see a man
+who was not laboring under a pressure of bricks in his hat. On one
+occasion I must have seen in the course of a single afternoon several
+hundred reeling home in the highest possible condition of
+ecstasy--either that, or the streets were so badly paved, and the
+roads so devious and undulating, that they made people stagger to keep
+straight. It was on the occasion of a fair, and may perhaps have been
+an exception to the general rule. One thing is certain--it looked very
+natural, and made me cotton wonderfully to these good people. There
+was something really homelike in a reeling, staggering crowd--their
+shouts and uproarious songs, their boozy faces and tobacco-stained
+months. Every body seemed to be on a regular "bender." The only point
+of difference between the Swedish and the California "bender" was in
+the way the boys hugged and kissed the peasant-girls; but even in this
+respect a similitude may sometimes be found in the vicinity of the
+Indian Reservations, where I have seen Digger damsels treated quite as
+affectionately. However, it was all right, so long as both parties
+were willing. I rather liked the Gottenburg custom myself--as a
+spectator, of course.
+
+My last and perhaps most agreeable experience connected with the
+pleasures of sympathy occurred in Norway, on the road from Christiania
+to Trondhjem. With profound humiliation I make the confession that I
+have never yet been able to eradicate a natural passion for tobacco.
+Once, after reading the Rev. Dr. Cox's terrific book on the Horrors of
+Tobacco, in which it was conclusively shown that a single drop of the
+oil of this noxious weed put upon a cat's tongue killed the cat, I
+resolved to master this vicious propensity for poison. For six months
+I neither smoked, snuffed, nor chewed. But it came back somehow. Care,
+I think, revived it, and every body knows that care, as well as
+tobacco, killed a cat. A man might as well be killed one way as
+another. We must all eat our peck of dirt, and in some shape or other
+swallow our peck of poison. One learned gentleman proves that tobacco
+is poison; another, that coffee and tea are equally fatal; another,
+that meat is no better, and so on; our food and drink are pretty much
+composed of poison, so that we are constantly killing ourselves, and
+the result is, we die at last. Still, it is marvelous how long some
+people survive all these deadly stimulants; how fat and hearty the
+Germans are in spite of their meerschaums; how wonderfully the French
+survive their strong coffee; how the Russians deluge their stomachs
+with hot tea and yet still live; how the English get over their porter
+and brown stout; and how long it takes the various poisons to which
+the various nations of the earth are addicted to produce any sensible
+diminution in the population. Sometimes I am inclined to think people
+would die if they never ate a particle of any thing--either food or
+poison. It seems to be one of those debts that we incur on coming into
+the world, and can only discharge by going out of it.
+
+All of which leads you gradually to the main point--my experience in
+Norway. First, however, I must tell you that on my arrival in Europe,
+not being able to find a plug of genuine Cavendish, I was forced to
+satisfy the cravings of this morbid appetite by nibbling bad cigars.
+But a new difficulty soon became manifest--there was not a spot in all
+Germany where it was possible to get rid of a quid without attracting
+undue attention. No man likes to be stared at as an outlaw against the
+recognized decencies of life. One may smoke cigars under a lady's
+nose, dress like a popinjay, or kiss his bearded friend in most
+Continental cities, but he must not chew tobacco, because it is
+considered a barbarous and filthy habit. He may guzzle beer, take
+snuff, and wear dirty shirts, but if he would avoid reproach as an
+unclean animal he must abandon his quids. Now, as a general rule, I
+dislike to violate public sentiment, or inconvenience people with whom
+I associate. If they are nonsensical and inconsistent in their
+notions, I agree with them for the sake of harmony, if not for
+politeness. Nothing pleases me better than to annoy an Englishman by
+doing every thing that he most dislikes, because he makes it a point
+to be disagreeable and unmannerly; carries his nationality wherever he
+goes, and it does me good to furnish him with material for criticism.
+Out of pure good nature, I meet him half way; chew and spit that he
+may grumble, and put my legs over the back of the nearest chair to see
+him enjoy a good hearty fit of disgust, and talk loud that he may find
+material for ill-natured reflections on American manners--all of
+which, I know, is exactly what obliges him. It affords him such
+undeniable grounds for the depreciation of others, and the indulgence
+of his own weak vanity!
+
+In like manner I obliged my German friends, who, however, are
+altogether different in their exactions, and only require Americans to
+drop all their uncivilized habits, and become like themselves--quiet,
+decent, and respectable old fogies. Therefore I obeyed the laws,
+doffed my savage California costume, quit whisky, took to beer,
+avoided all passages of tenderness toward the female sex, and herded
+mostly with men. For a time, however, I held on to my beloved quid of
+cigar. It was such a solace in the midst of all these privations!
+But, alas! I had to give that up too; there was not a spot in all
+Germany suitable for the purpose of expectoration! The floors of the
+houses are so dreadfully clean--not a piece of carpet bigger than a
+rug to sit upon; the porcelain stoves so inaccessible; the windows
+always shut; every nook and corner blazing with little ornaments; the
+lady of the house so severely conscious of every movement; even the
+little earthen pans near the stove, filled with white sand nicely
+smoothed over to represent salt-cellars--the ostensible spittoons of
+the establishment--staring one in the face with a cold, steady gaze
+amounting to a positive prohibition--no, the thing was impossible! I
+saw plainly that a good, old-fashioned squirt of tobacco-juice would
+ruin such a country as this, where every room in every house was
+inimical to the habit, and every speck of ground throughout the length
+and breadth of the land adapted to some useful or ornamental purpose.
+Why, sir, I assure you that in the little duchy of Nassau--where it is
+said the grand-duke is unable to exercise his soldiers at
+target-shooting without obtaining permission to place the target in
+some neighboring state--I found the garden-walks and public roads so
+fearfully clean, every leaf and twig being swept up daily, and
+preserved to manure the duchy, that during a pedestrian tour of three
+days I was absolutely ashamed to spit any where. There was no possible
+chance of doing it without expunging a soldier or a policeman, or
+disfiguring the entire province. The result was, between
+tobacco-juice, salt water, iron water, sulphur water, soda-water, and
+all other sorts of water that came out of the earth from Brunnens of
+Nassau, I got home as thin as a snake, and was forced to deny myself
+even the poor consolation of a Frankfort cigar. So matters went on for
+nearly a year. I became a morose and melancholy man. This will account
+for all the bitter and ill-natured things I said of the Germans in
+some of my sketches, every word of which I now retract.
+
+But to come to the point of the narrative. In the due course of a
+vagabond life, after visiting Russia and Sweden, I found myself one
+day on the road from Lillehammer to the Dorre Fjeld in Norway. I sat
+in a little cariole--an old peasant behind. The scenery was sublime.
+Poetry crept over my inmost soul. The old man leaned over and said
+something. Great heavens! What a combination of luxuries! His breath
+smelled of whisky and tobacco. I was enchanted. I turned and gazed
+fondly and affectionately in his withered old face. Two streams of
+rich juice coursed down his furrowed chin. His leathery and wrinkled
+mouth was besmeared with the precious fluid; his eyes rolled foolishly
+in his head; he hung on to the cariole with a trembling and unsteady
+hand; a delicious odor pervaded the entire man. I saw that he was a
+congenial soul--cottoned to him at once--grasped him by the
+hand--swore he was the first civilized human I had met in all my
+travels through Europe--and called upon him, in the name of the great
+American brotherhood of chewers, to pass me a bite of his tobacco.
+From that moment we were the best of friends. The old man dived into
+the depths of a greasy pocket, pulled out a roll of black pigtail, and
+with joy beaming from every feature, saw me tear from it many a goodly
+mouthful. We talked--he in Norwegian, I in a mixture of German and
+English; we chewed; we spat; we laughed and joked; we forgot all the
+discrepancies of age, nativity, condition, and future prospects; in
+short, we were brothers, by the sublime and potent free-masonry of
+tobacco. All that day my senses were entranced. I saw nothing but
+familiar faces, gulches, canyons, bar-rooms, and boozy stage-drivers;
+smelt nothing but whisky and tobacco in every flower by the wayside;
+aspired to nothing but Congress and the suffrages of my
+fellow-citizens. I was once again in my own, my beloved California.
+
+    "Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
+    His first, best country ever is at home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+CIVILIZATION IN RUSSIA.
+
+
+It may be a little startling to set out with the general proposition
+that Russia is not only very far from being a civilized country, but
+that it never can be one in the highest sense of the term. The remark
+of Peter the Great, that distance was the only serious obstacle to be
+overcome in the civilization of Russia, was such as might well be made
+by a monarch of iron will and unparalleled energy, at whose bidding a
+great city arose out of the swamps of Courland, where Nature never
+intended a city to stand. But the remark is not true in point of fact.
+Distance can be annihilated, or nearly so; and although Peter the
+Great was probably aware of that fact, he might well have reasoned
+that facility of intercommunication is not so much the cause as the
+result of civilization. The wilderness may be made to blossom as the
+rose through human agency, but it can only be done by divine
+permission. I think that permission has been withheld in the case of a
+very considerable portion of Russia. No human power can successfully
+contend against the depressing influences of a climate scarcely
+paralleled for its rigor. Where there are four months of a summer, to
+which the scorching heats of Africa can scarcely bear a comparison,
+and from six to eight months of a polar winter, it is utterly
+impossible that the moral and intellectual faculties of man can be
+brought to the highest degree of perfection. There must, of course,
+always be exceptions to every general rule; but even in the dark and
+bloody history of Russia we find that the exceptions of superior
+intelligence and enlightenment have been chiefly confined to those who
+availed themselves of the advantages afforded by more temperate
+climes. Peter himself, the greatest of the Czars, and certainly the
+most gifted of his race in point of intellect, perfected his education
+in other countries, and in all his grand enterprises of improvement
+availed himself of the intellect and experience of other races. Every
+important improvement introduced into Russia during his reign was the
+product of some other country, executed under foreign supervision.
+This, perhaps, more than any thing else, may be said to afford the
+most striking evidence of the enlarged and progressive character of
+his mind. Yet the very same practice has been followed to a greater or
+less extent by all his successors, and still, with the exception of a
+railroad built by Americans, a telegraph system, a few French
+fashions, and a movement professing to have for its object the
+emancipation of the serfs, the country, beyond the limits of the
+sea-port districts and those parts bordering on the States of Germany,
+has advanced but little toward civilization since the reign of Peter.
+
+With such a vast extent of territory, and such a variety of climates
+as it must necessarily embrace, it may seem rather a broad assertion
+to say that climate can be any obstacle to Russian civilization; but
+let us glance for a moment at the general character of the country.
+Between the sixtieth and seventy-eighth degrees of north latitude,
+embracing a considerable portion of European and Asiatic Russia, the
+winters are exceedingly long and severe, the summers so short that but
+little dependence can be placed upon crops. The greater part of this
+region consists of lakes, swamps, forests of pine, and extensive and
+barren plains. The mines of Siberia may be regarded as the most
+valuable feature in this desolate region. The production of flax and
+hemp in the province of Petersburg, and the lumber products of the
+forests which are accessible to the capital, give some importance to
+such portions as border on the southern and European limit of this
+great belt; but its general features are opposed to agricultural
+progress. Whatever of civilization can exist within it must be of
+forced growth, and be maintained under the most adverse circumstances.
+South of this, between the fifty-fifth and sixtieth degrees of
+latitude, comes a still wider and more extensive region, comprising
+St. Petersburg, Riga, Moscow, Smolensk, and a portion of Irkutsk and
+Nijni Novgorod. Here the summers are longer and the winters not quite
+so severe; but a large portion of the country consists of forests,
+sterile plains, and extensive marshes, and much of it is entirely
+unfit for cultivation. The European portions are well settled, and
+corn, flax, and hemp are produced wherever the land is available, and
+large bands of cattle roam over many parts of the country. In its
+general aspect, however, considering the duration and severity of the
+winters, and the large proportion of unavailable lands, I do not think
+it can ever become very productive in an agricultural point of view.
+Between fifty and fifty-five degrees latitude, embracing the valley of
+the Volga, is a more favored region, abounding in fertile lands, and
+the summers are longer, but the winters are still severe, especially
+in the eastern portions. From latitude forty-three to fifty, embracing
+portions of Kief, the Caucasus, and other southern possessions of the
+empire, the winters are comparatively temperate, and the summers warm
+and long; but here, again, a great portion of this country consists of
+mountains, arid plains, and deserts, and it is subject to extreme and
+terrible droughts. Here is a vast extent of territory, comprising
+about one hundred and sixty-five degrees of longitude and thirty-five
+of latitude, which contains within its limits a greater variety of bad
+climates, and a greater amount of land unavailable for any purposes of
+human life, than any equal compass of territory upon the globe, if we
+except Africa, which is at least doubtful. Within the limits of this
+vast, and, for the most part, inhospitable region, we find nearly all
+the races who, as far back as the history of mankind dates, have been
+the most addicted to predatory wars, and the indulgence of every
+savage propensity growing out of an untamable nature--Tartars,
+Cossacks, gipsies, Turks, Circassians, Georgians, etc., and the
+Russians proper, whose wild Sclavonic blood contains very nearly all
+the vices and virtues that circulate through the veins of all these
+races, besides many enterprising and unscrupulous traits of character
+to which the inferior tribes could never aspire. Here we have a mixed
+population, estimated in 1856 at seventy-one millions, including North
+American possessions and tributary tribes, a great part of it composed
+of totally incongruous elements, and with a variety of religions,
+embracing about nine millions of Roman, Armenian, and irregular Greek
+Catholics, Lutherans, Mohammedans, Israelites, and Buddhists--the
+national creed being the Greco-Russe, which, it is estimated, is
+professed by about fifty millions of the inhabitants, including, of
+course, infants and young children, and many others who know nothing
+about it. To keep all these incongruous elements in order, and provide
+against foreign invasion, requires a standing army of 577,859 troops
+"for grand operations," as the last almanac expresses it, besides
+various _corps de reserve_, and a navy of 186 from steamers, 41 large
+sailing vessels, and numerous gun-boats and smaller vessels, in the
+Baltic, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the White Sea, and the Sea of
+Azof. More than seven eighths of these are frozen up and totally
+unavailable for six months every year. It is estimated that, after
+allowing for the forces necessary to protect the home possessions of
+the empire, of which Russian Poland is the most troublesome, the
+number of troops that can be brought into active offensive operation
+does not, under ordinary circumstances, exceed two hundred thousand
+men, and it must be obvious, considering that Russia has but little
+external sea-board, and must submit to the rigors of a climate which
+locks up the best part of her navy at least half of every year, that
+she can never attain any great strength as a naval power. I am
+inclined to believe, therefore, that while this great nation, or
+combination of nations, is, from the very nature of its climate and
+topography, almost impregnable to foreign invasion, it can never
+become a very formidable power at any great distance from home; and
+there are considerations connected with its form of government, and
+the difficulty or impracticability of changing it, which, in my
+opinion, forms an insuperable obstacle to the education of the people,
+and such general dissemination of intelligence among the masses as
+will entitle them to take the highest rank among civilized nations.
+Nor does the history of Russia during past ages afford much
+encouragement for a different view of the future. Democracy existed
+for several centuries before the country became subject to despotic
+rule, and from the ninth to the fifteenth century the aristocracy
+possessed no hereditary privileges; the offices of state were
+accessible to all, and the peasantry enjoyed personal liberty. It was
+not until the reign of Peter the Great--the high-priest of
+civilization--that the serfs became absolute slaves subject to sale,
+with or without the lands upon which they lived. In respect to
+political liberty, there has been little, if any advance since the
+reign of the Empress Catherine, who accorded some elective privileges
+to certain classes of her subjects in the provinces, and reduced the
+administration of the laws to something like a system. The absurd
+pretense of Alexander I. in according to the Senate the right of
+remonstrating against imperial decrees is perfectly in keeping with
+all grants of power made by the sovereigns of Russia to their
+subjects. There is not, and can not be in the nature of things, a
+limited despotism. As soon as the subjects possess constitutional
+rights at all binding upon the supreme authority, it becomes another
+form of government. The great difficulty in Russia is, that the
+sovereign can not divest himself of any substantial part of his power
+without adding to that of the nobles and the aristocracy, who are
+already, by birth, position, and instinct, the class most to be
+feared, and most inimical to the process of freedom. It is not
+altogether the ignorance of the masses, therefore, that forms an
+insuperable barrier to the introduction of more liberal institutions,
+but the wealth, intelligence, and influence of the higher classes, who
+neither toil nor spin, but derive their support from the labor of the
+masses whom they hold in subjection. It is natural enough they should
+oppose every reform tending to elevate these subordinate classes upon
+whom they are dependent for all the powers and luxuries of their
+position. Admitting that the present emperor may have a leaning toward
+free institutions, and possibly contemplate educating forty or fifty
+millions of his subjects to run him into the Presidency of Russia, it
+is obvious that the path is very thorny, and that the position will be
+well earned if ever he gets there. But these acts of sovereign
+condescension, although they read very well in newspapers, and serve
+to entertain mankind with vague ideas of the progress of freedom, are
+generally the essence of an intense egotism, and amount to nothing
+more than cunning devices to subvert what little of liberty their
+subjects may be likely to extort from them by the maintenance of their
+rights. I do not say that Alexander II. is governed by these motives,
+but, having no faith in kings or despots of any kind, however good
+they may be, I can see no reason why he should prove any better than
+his predecessors. Upon this point let me tell you an anecdote. You are
+aware, perhaps, that the Finns have a Constitution which allows them
+to do what they please, provided it be pleasing to the emperor. Like
+the ukase of Alexander I. to the Senate, and all similar grants of
+authority, it is not worth the parchment upon which it is written, and
+in its practical operation is no better than a practical joke. The
+Finns, however, are a brave, simple minded, and rather superstitious
+people, and take some pride in this Constitution. It is the ghost of
+liberty at all events, and they indulge in the hope that some day or
+other it will fish up the dead body. Not more than a few weeks ago, a
+small party of these worthy people, on their way to Stockholm for
+purposes of business or pleasure, were arrested and put in prison by
+the Russian authorities on the supposition that they differed from the
+emperor in his interpretation of this liberal Constitution, and were
+going to Sweden to lay their grievances before their old compatriots.
+It is quite possible that this was true. I heard complaints made when
+I was in Helsingfors that there was quite a difference of opinion on
+the subject. But it is a marvel how they could misunderstand their
+right under the Constitution, when there is a strong military force
+stationed at the principal cities of Finland to make it intelligible.
+So thought the emperor or his subordinates, and put them in jail to
+give them light. The point in the transaction which strikes me most
+forcibly is, that a power like that of Russia, after having wrested
+the province of Finland from Sweden, with an army and navy far
+inferior to what she now possesses, should be afraid that a handful of
+Finns should tell a pitiful tale to the King of Sweden, and prevail
+upon him to take their country back again. If this be the freedom
+granted under the free Constitution of Finland, the restraints upon
+personal liberty must be pretty stringent in dependencies where no
+Constitutions at all exist.
+
+By a natural law, the waves of despotism gather strength and volume as
+they spread from the central power. It is scarcely an exaggeration to
+say that the Autocrat of Russia is the least despotic of all the
+despots in authority. The landed proprietors in the remote provinces
+too often rule their dependents with an iron rod, and the strong arm
+of the supreme authority is more frequently exercised in the
+protection than in the oppression of the lower classes. The tribunals
+of justice in these districts are corrupt, and the laws, as they are
+administered by the subordinate officers of the government, afford but
+little chance of justice to the ignorant masses. The landed
+proprietors are subjected to various exactments and oppressions from
+the governors, and these again are at the mercy of the various
+colleges or departments above them, and so on up to the imperial
+council and imperial presence. Each class or grade becomes
+independent, despotic, and corrupt in proportion as they recede from
+the central authority, having a greater latitude of power, and being
+less apprehensive of punishment for its abuse. In truth, the nobles
+and aristocracy are the immediate oppressors of the ignorant masses,
+who are taught to regard them as demigods, and bow down before them in
+slavish abasement. Now and then, in extreme cases, where the autocrat
+discovers abuses which threaten to impair his authority, he sends some
+of these aspiring gentlemen on a tour of pleasure to Siberia, and thus
+practically demonstrates that there is a ruling power in the land. As
+all authority emanates from him, and all responsibility rests with
+him, so all justice, liberality, fair dealing, and humanity are apt to
+find in a good sovereign, under such a system, their best friend and
+most conscientious supporter. The success of his government, the
+prosperity and happiness of his people, even the perpetuity of the
+entire political system, depend upon the judicious and equitable use
+which he makes of his power. There are limits to human forbearance, as
+sovereigns have discovered by this time. The Czar is but a man, a mere
+mortal, after all, and can only hold his authority through the
+consent, indifference, or ignorance of his subjects; but should he
+oppress them by extraordinary punishments or exactions, or withdraw
+from them his protection against the petty tyranny of his
+subordinates, he would find, sooner or later, that the most degraded
+can be aroused to resentment. It is the belief on the part of the
+peasantry, of which the population of Russia is in so large a part
+formed, that the emperor is their friend--that he does not willingly
+or unnecessarily deprive them of their liberties. This tends to keep
+them in subjection. Indeed, they have but faint notions of liberty, if
+any at all, born as they are to a condition of servitude, and reared
+in abject submission to the governing authorities. They are generally
+well satisfied if they can get enough to eat; and, when they are not
+subjected to cruel and unusual abuses, are comparatively happy.
+
+The unreasonable assumptions of power on the part of their immediate
+governing authorities present a trait common to mankind. We know from
+experience in our own country that the negro-driver on a Southern
+plantation--a slave selected from slaves--is often more tyrannical in
+the use of authority than the overseer or owner. We know that there
+are hard and unfeeling overseers on many plantations, where the owner
+is comparatively mild and humane. So far as he knows any thing of the
+details of his own affairs, his natural disposition accords with his
+interest, and he is favorable to the kind treatment of his slaves. But
+he can not permit them to become intelligent beings. They may study
+all the mechanical arts which may be useful to him--become
+blacksmiths, carpenters, or machinists, but they must not learn that
+they are held in servitude, and that the Almighty has given him no
+natural right to live upon their earnings, or enjoy his pleasure or
+power at the expense of their labor and their freedom. The same
+condition of things, with some variation, of course, arising from
+differences of climate and races, exists in Russia, and the results
+are not altogether dissimilar. We find idleness, lack of principle,
+overbearing manners, ignorance, and sensualism a very common
+characteristic of the superior classes, mingled though it may be with
+a show of fine manners, and such trivial and superficial
+accomplishments as may be obtained without much labor. It is a great
+negro plantation on a large scale, in which the gradation of powers
+has a depressing tendency, causing them to increase in rigor as they
+descend, like a stone dropped from a height, which at first might be
+caught in the open hand, but soon acquires force enough to brain an
+ox.
+
+One of the effects of the strong coercive powers of the government is
+perceptible in this, that the greatest latitude prevails in every
+thing that does not interfere with the maintenance of political
+authority; and although it is difficult, in such a country, to find
+much that comes within that category, occasional exceptions may be
+found. Thus drunkenness, debauchery, indecency, and reckless,
+prodigal, and filthy habits, are but little regarded, while the
+slightest approach to the acquisition of a liberal education, or the
+expression of liberal opinions on any subject connected with public
+polity, is rigidly prohibited. Most of the English newspapers are
+excluded from the empire, although if admitted they would have but few
+general readers among the Russians--certainly not many among the
+middle or lower classes. No publication on political economy, no work
+of any kind relating to the science of government or the natural
+rights of man; nothing, in short, calculated to impair the faith of
+the people in the necessity of their political servitude, is permitted
+to enter the country without a most careful examination. A rigid
+censorship is exercised over the press, the libraries, the public
+colleges, the schools, and all institutions having in view the
+education of the people and the dissemination of intelligence. The
+Censorial Bureau is in itself an important branch of the government,
+having its representatives diffused throughout every province, in
+every public institution, and even extending its ramifications into
+the sacred realms of private life; for it is a well-known fact that a
+family can not employ a private tutor whose antecedents and political
+proclivities have not undergone the scrutiny and received the official
+sanction of the censorial authorities.
+
+How can a country, under such circumstances, be expected to take a
+high rank among the enlightened nations of the earth? The very germ of
+its existence is founded in the suppression of intelligence. It may
+enjoy a limited advancement, but there can be no great progress in any
+direction which does not tend at the same time to the subversion of a
+despotic rule. Even the theatres, operas, _cafes_, and all places of
+public amusement, are under the same rigid surveillance. No play can
+be performed, no opera given, no _cafe_ opened, no garden amusements
+offered to the public, unless under the supervision and with the
+sanction of the censorial authorities. In all well-regulated
+communities there must be, of course, some local or municipal
+restrictions respecting popular amusements, based upon a regard for
+public morals, but in this case the question of morality is not taken
+into much account. Provided there is nothing politically objectionable
+in the performance, and it has no tendency to make the people better
+acquainted with the rottenness of courts, the selfishness, wickedness,
+and insincerity of men in authority, and their own rights as human
+beings--provided the theme be _Jishn za Zara_--"Your life for your
+Czar," or the exhibition a voluptuous display--provided it be merely a
+matter of abject adulation or fashionable sensation, the most
+fastidious censor can find no fault with it. What, then, does the
+education of the masses amount to? We read of lectures for the
+diffusion of knowledge among the people; of colleges for young men; of
+various institutions of learning; of a liberal system of common
+schools for the poor. All this is very well in its way. A little light
+is better than none when the road is crooked, and the country abounds
+in ruts and deep pitfalls. But the lights shed by these institutions
+are much obscured by the official glasses through which they shine.
+The building of fortifications; the manufacture of gunpowder; the use
+of guns and swords; the beauties of rhetoric abounding in the drill
+manual; the eloquence of batteries and broadsides; the poetry of
+ditching and draining; the ethics of primary obedience to the
+authorities, and afterward to God and reason; all that pertains to
+rapine, bloodshed, and wholesale murder--the noble art of mutilating
+men in the most effective manner, and the best method of cutting them
+up or putting them together again when that is done; the horrid sin of
+using one's own lights on any internal problem of right or wrong,
+religion or public policy, when the emperor, in the plenitude of his
+generosity, furnishes light enough out of his individual head for
+sixty-five millions of people--these are the principal themes upon
+which the intellects of the rising generation of Russia are nourished.
+In the primary schools a select and authorized few are taught reading,
+writing, and arithmetic, but they seldom get much farther, and not
+always that far, before subordinate positions in the army or navy are
+found for them. Their education is indeed very limited, and may be set
+down as an exception to the general ignorance.
+
+It will thus be seen that the whole system of education has but one
+object in view, the maintenance of a military despotism. In this it
+would scarcely be reasonable to search for cause of complaint.
+Doubtless the acquisition of knowledge is encouraged as far as may be
+consistent with public security and public peace. But it is obvious
+that under such a system these people can never emerge from their
+condition of semi-barbarism. They must continue behind the spirit of
+the age in all that pertains to the highest order of civilization.
+Science, in a limited sense, may find a few votaries; the arts may be
+cultivated to a certain degree; a feeble school of literature may
+attain the eminence of a national feature; but there can be no general
+expansion of the intellectual faculties, no enlarged and comprehensive
+views of life and of human affairs. Whatever these people do must be
+subservient to military rule; beyond that there can be little advance
+save in what is palpable to the grosser senses, or what panders to the
+savagery of their nature. A statesman or a philosopher, with
+independence enough to think and speak the truth if his views differed
+from those of the constituted authorities, would be a very dangerous
+character, and be very apt to pursue his career, in company with all
+who have hitherto aspired to distinction in that way, beyond the
+confines of Siberia. Russia may produce many Karasmins to write
+glowing histories of her wars and conquests, but her Burkes, her
+Pitts, and her Foxes will be few, and her Shakspeares and her Bacons
+fewer still. Her Pascal's Reflections will be tinged with Siberian
+horrors; her Young's Night Thoughts will be of the dancing damsels of
+St. Petersburg; her Vicars of Wakefield will abound in the genial
+humor of devils and dragons, saints and tortures; and the wit of her
+Sidney Smiths will have a crack of the knout about it, skinning men's
+back's rather than their backslidings; effective only when it draws
+human blood, and best approved by the censors when it strikes at human
+freedom.
+
+We find the results of such a system strongly marked upon the general
+character. While equals are jealous of each other, inferiors are
+slavish and superiors tyrannical. It is often the case that
+overbearing manners and abject humility are centred in the same class
+or person. Thus the Camarilla are overbearing to the bureaucracy, the
+bureaucracy to the provincial nobility, and the provincial nobility to
+the inferior classes. As I said before, it is a sliding-scale of
+despotism. The worst feature of it is seen in the treatment of women.
+Among the better classes conventionality has, doubtless, somewhat
+meliorated their condition. Absolute physical cruelty would be,
+perhaps, a violation of etiquette and good breeding; but neglect,
+selfishness, innate coarseness of thought, and a general want of
+chivalrous appreciation, are too common in the treatment of Russian
+women not to strike the most casual observer. Certainly the
+impressions of one who has been taught from infancy to regard the
+gentler sex as entitled to the most profound respect and chivalrous
+devotion--to look upon them as beings of a more delicate essence than
+man, yet infinitely superior in those moral attributes which rise so
+high above intellect or physical power--are not favorable to the
+assumptions of Russian civilization. Yet, since the condition of woman
+is but little better in any part of Europe, it may be that this is one
+of the fashions imported from France or Germany, and since these two
+claim to be the most polite and cultivated nations in existence, it is
+even possible that the Americans--a rude people, who have not yet had
+time to polish their manners or perfect their customs--may be mistaken
+in their estimate of the ladies, and will, some day or other, become
+more Europeanized.
+
+But, in all fairness, if the Russians be a little uncouth in their
+way, they possess, like bears, a wonderful aptness in learning to
+dance; if the brutal element is strong in their nature, so also is the
+capacity to acquire frivolous and meretricious accomplishments. Like
+all races in which the savage naturally predominates, they delight in
+the glitter of personal decoration, the allurements of music, dancing,
+and the gambling-table, and all the luxuries of idleness and sensuous
+folly--traits which they share pretty generally with the rest of
+mankind. Tropical gardens, where the thermometer is twenty degrees
+below zero; feasts and frolics that in a single night may leave them
+beggars for life; military shows; the smoke and carnage of battle; the
+worship of their saints and Czars--these are their chief pleasures and
+most genial occupations.
+
+But, with all this folly and prodigality, there is really a great deal
+of native generosity in the Russian character. Liberal to a fault in
+every thing but the affairs of government, they freely bestow their
+wealth upon charitable institutions, and, whether rich or poor, are
+ever ready to extend the hand of relief to the distresses of their
+fellow-creatures. It is rarely they hoard their gains. There are few
+who do not live up to the full measure of their incomes, and most of
+them very far beyond. Whether they spend their means for good or for
+evil, they are at least free from the groveling sin of stinginess. I
+never met more than one stingy Russian to my knowledge; but let him
+go. He reaped his reward in the dislike of all who knew him. Toward
+each other, even the beggars are liberal. There is nothing little or
+contemptible in the Russian character. Overbearing and despotic they
+may be; deficient in the gentler traits which grace a more cultivated
+people; but meanness is not one of their failings. In this they
+present a striking contrast to a large and influential portion of
+their North German neighbors, for whose sordid souls Beelzebub might
+search in vain through the desert wastes that lie upon the little end
+of a cambric needle.
+
+In some respects the Russians evince a more enlarged appreciation of
+the world's progress than many of their European neighbors. They have
+no fixed prejudices against mechanical improvements of any kind. Quick
+to appreciate every advance in the useful arts, they are ever ready to
+accept and put in practical operation whatever they see in other
+countries better than the product of their own. Thus they adopt
+English and American machinery, railways, telegraphs, improvements in
+artillery, and whatever else they deem beneficial, or calculated to
+augment their prosperity and power as a nation. While in Germany it
+would be almost an impossibility to introduce the commonest and most
+obvious improvement in the mechanical arts--if we except railways and
+telegraphs, which have become a military and political necessity,
+growing out of the progress of neighboring powers--while many of their
+fabrics are still made by hand, and their mints, presses, and
+fire-engines are of almost primeval clumsiness, the Russians eagerly
+grasp at all novelties, and are wonderfully quick in the comprehension
+of their uses and advantages. A similar comparison might be made in
+reference to the freedom of internal trade, and the encouragement
+given to every industrial pursuit among the people, being the exact
+reverse of the policy pursued by the German governments. Thus, while
+we find them backward in the refinements of literature and
+intellectual culture, it is beyond doubt that they possess wonderful
+natural capacity to learn. They lack steadiness and perseverance, and
+are not always governed by the best motives; but in boldness of
+spirit, disregard of narrow prejudice, ability to conceive and
+execute what they desire to accomplish, they have few equals and no
+superiors. Combined with these admirable traits, their wild Sclavonic
+blood abounds in elements which, upon great occasions, arise to the
+eminence of a sublime heroism. Brave and patriotic, devoted to their
+country and their religion, we search the pages of history in vain for
+a parallel to their sacrifices in the defense of both. Not even the
+wars of the Greeks and Romans can produce such an example of heroic
+devotion to the maintenance of national integrity as the burning of
+Moscow. When an entire people, devoted to their religion, gave up
+their churches and their shrines to the devouring element; when
+princes and nobles placed the burning brands to their palaces; when
+bankers, merchants, and tradesmen freely yielded up their hard-earned
+gains; when women and children joined the great work of destruction to
+deliver their country from the hands of a ruthless invader, it may
+well be said of that sublime flame--
+
+    "Thou stand'st alone unrivall'd, till the fire,
+    To come, in which all empires shall expire."
+
+Truly, when we glance back at the national career of the Russians,
+they can not but strike us as a wonderful people. While we must
+condemn their cruelty and rapacity; while we can see nothing to excuse
+in their ferocious persecution of the Turks; while the greater part of
+their history is a bloody record of injustice to weaker nations, we
+can not but admire their indomitable courage, their intense and
+unalterable attachment to their brave old Czars, and their sublime
+devotion to their religion and their nationality.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+PASSAGE TO REVEL.
+
+
+It was not without a feeling of regret that I took my departure from
+St. Petersburg. Short as my visit to Russia had been, it was full of
+interest. Not a single day had been idly or unprofitably spent.
+Indeed, I know of no country that presents so many attractions to the
+traveler who takes pleasure in novelties of character and
+peculiarities of manners and customs. The lovers of picturesque
+scenery will find little to gratify his taste in a mere railroad
+excursion to Moscow; but with ample time and means at his disposal, a
+journey to the Ural Mountains, or a voyage down the Volga to the
+Caspian Sea, would doubtless be replete with interest. For my part,
+much as I enjoy the natural beauties of a country through which I
+travel, they never afford me as much pleasure as the study of a
+peculiar race of people. Mere scenery, however beautiful, becomes
+monotonous, unless it be associated with something that gives it a
+varied and striking human interest. The mountains and lakes of
+Scotland derive their chief attractions from the wild legends of
+romance and chivalry so inseparably connected with them; and
+Switzerland would be but a dreary desert of glaciers without its
+history. In Russia, Nature has been less prodigal in her gifts; and
+the real interest of the country centres in its public institutions,
+the religious observances of the people, and the progress of
+civilization under a despotic system of government. Of these I have
+endeavored to give you such impressions as may be derived from a
+sojourn of a few weeks in Moscow and St. Petersburg--necessarily
+imperfect and superficial, but I trust not altogether destitute of
+amusing features.
+
+On a pleasant morning in August, I called for my "rechnung" at the
+German gasthaus on the Wasseli-Ostrow. The bill was complicated in
+proportion to its length. There was an extra charge of fifteen kopeks
+a day for the room over and above the amount originally specified.
+That was conscientious cheating, so I made no complaint. Then there
+was a charge for two candles when I saw but one, and always went to
+bed by daylight. That was customary cheating, and could not be
+disputed. Next came an item for beefsteaks, when, to the best of my
+knowledge and belief, nothing but veal cutlets, which were also duly
+specified, ever passed my lips in any part of Russia. Upon that I
+ventured a remonstrance, but gave in on the assurance that it was
+Russian beefsteak. I was too glad to have any ground for believing
+that it was not Russian dog. Next came an item for police commissions.
+All that work I had done myself, and therefore was entitled to demur.
+It appeared that a man was kept for that purpose, and when he was not
+employed he expected remuneration for the disappointment. Then there
+was an item for domestic service, when the only service rendered was
+to black my boots, for which I had already paid. No matter; it was
+customary, so I gave in. Then came sundry bottles of wine. I never
+drink wine. "But," said the proprietor, "it was on the table." Not
+being able to dispute that, I abandoned the question of wine. Various
+ices were in the bill. I had asked for a lump of ice in a glass of
+water on several occasions, supposing it to be a common article in a
+country on the edge of the Arctic circle, but for every lump of ice
+the charge was ten kopeks. Upon this principle, I suppose they attach
+an exorbitant value to thawed water during six months of the year,
+when the Neva is a solid block of ice. I find that ice is an
+uncommonly costly luxury in Northern Europe, where there is a great
+deal of it. In Germany it is ranked with fresh water and other deadly
+poisons; in Russia it costs too much for general use; and in Norway
+and Sweden, where the snow-capped mountains are always in sight, the
+people seem to be unacquainted with the use of iced water, or, indeed,
+any other kind of water as a beverage in summer. They drink brandy and
+schnapps to keep themselves cool. However, I got through the bill at
+last, without loss of temper, being satisfied it was very reasonable
+for St. Petersburg. Having paid for every article real and imaginary;
+paid each servant individually for looking at me; then paid for
+domestic services generally; paid the proprietor for speaking his
+native language, which was German, and the commissioner for wearing a
+brass band on his cap, and bowing several times as I passed out, the
+whole matter was amicably concluded, and, with my knapsack on my back,
+I wended my way down to the steam-boat landing of the Wasseli-Ostrow.
+As I was about to step on board the Russian steamer bound for
+Revel--an eager crowd of passengers pressing in on the plankway from
+all sides--I was forcibly seized by the arm. Supposing it to be an
+arrest for some unconscious violation of the police regulations, a
+ghastly vision of Siberia flashed upon my mind as I turned to demand
+an explanation. But it was not a policeman who arrested me--it was
+only my friend, Herr Batz, the rope-maker, who, with a flushed face
+and starting eyes, gazed at me. "Where are you going?" said he. "To
+Revel," said I. Almost breathless from his struggle to get at me, he
+forcibly pulled me aside from the crowd, drew me close up to him, and
+in a hoarse whisper uttered these remarkable words: "_Hempf is up!_ It
+took a rise yesterday--_Zweimal zwey macht vier, und sechsmal vier
+macht vier und zwanzig! verstehen sie?_" "Gott im Himmel!" said I,
+"you don't say so?" "_Ya, freilich!_" groaned Herr Batz, hoarsely:
+"_Zwey tausent rubles! verstehen sie? Sechs und dreissig, und acht und
+vierzig._" "Ya! ya!" said I, grasping him cordially by the hand, for I
+was afraid the steamer would leave--"_Adjeu, mein Herr! adjeu!_" and I
+darted away into the crowd. The last I saw of the unfortunate
+rope-maker, he was standing on the quay, waving his red cotton
+handkerchief at me. As the lines were cast loose, and the steamer
+swung out into the river, he put both hands to his mouth, and shouted
+out something which the confusion of sounds prevented me from hearing
+distinctly. I was certain, however, that the last word that fell upon
+my ear was "_hempf_!"
+
+The Neva at this season of the year presents a most animated and
+picturesque appearance. A little above the landing-place of the Baltic
+steamers, a magnificent bridge connects the Wasseli-Ostrow with the
+main part of the city, embracing the Winter Palace, the Admiralty, and
+the Nevskoi, generally known as the Bolshaia, or Great Side. Below
+this bridge, as far as the eye can reach in the direction of the Gulf
+of Finland, the glittering waters of the Neva are alive with various
+kinds of shipping--merchant vessels from all parts of the world;
+fishing smacks from Finland and Riga; lumber vessels from Tornea;
+wood-boats from the interior; Russian and Prussian steamers;
+row-boats, skiffs, and fancy colored canoes, with crews and passengers
+representing many nations of the earth, are in perpetual motion; and
+while the sight is bewildered by the variety of moving objects, the
+ears are confounded by the strange medley of languages.
+
+Through this confused web of obstacles, the little steamer in which I
+had taken passage worked her way cautiously and systematically,
+catching a rope here and there for a sudden swing to the right or to
+the left, stopping and backing from time to time, and feeling with her
+nose for the narrow channels of the river, till she was fairly out of
+danger, when, with a blast of the whistle and a heavy pressure of
+steam, she dashed forth into the open waters of the gulf.
+
+As we gradually receded, I turned to take a last look at the mighty
+Venice of the North. The gold-covered domes of the churches, rising
+high above the massive ranges of palaces, were glittering brilliantly
+in the sunlight; the variegated shipping of the Neva was growing dim
+in the distance; the masses of foliage that crowned the islands were
+of tropical luxuriance, and the whole city, with its palaces,
+fortifications, and churches, seemed to rest upon the surface of the
+waters. It was a sight not soon to be forgotten. I turned toward the
+dark and stern fortresses of Cronstadt, now breaking in strong outline
+through the golden haze of the morning, and thought of the grim old
+Czar who had thus battled with Nature, and planted a mighty city in
+the wilderness; and thus musing, sighed to think that such a man
+should have lacked the warmth divine which sheds the only true and
+enduring lustre upon human greatness.
+
+After the usual detention at Cronstadt for the examination of
+passports, the steamer once more started on her way, and in a few
+hours nothing was in sight save the shores of the gulf dim on the
+horizon, and the sails of distant vessels looming up in the haze.
+
+I now, for the first time, had leisure to look at my
+fellow-passengers.
+
+A Russian steamer during the pleasure season is a floating Babel.
+Here, within the limits of a few dozen feet, were the representatives
+of almost every nation from the Arctic circle to the tropics--Finns
+and Swedes, Norwegians and Danes, Tartars and Russians, Poles and
+Germans, Frenchmen and Englishmen, South Americans, and--I was going
+to say North Americans, of which, however, I was the sole
+representative.
+
+It was a motley assemblage--a hodge-podge of humanity, a kind of
+living pot-pourri of dirty faces and dirty shirts, military uniforms,
+slouched hats, blowses, and big boots. There was a Russian general,
+who always stood at the cabin door to show himself to the rest of the
+passengers. I don't know for the life of me what he was angry about,
+but his face wore a perpetual frown of indignation, scorn, and
+contempt; his black brows were constitutionally knit; his eyes seemed
+to be always trying to overpower and knock somebody under; his lips
+were firmly compressed, and his mustaches stood out like a dagger on
+each side, with the handles wrapped in a bundle of dirty hair under
+his nose. So tight was his uniform around the body and neck that it
+forced all the blood up into his face, and wouldn't let it get back
+again; and it seemed a miracle that the veins in his forehead did not
+burst and carry away the top of his head, brains and all. Opposite to
+this great man, in an attitude of profound humility, stood his
+liveried servant--a very gentlemanly-looking person, with an
+intellectual baldness covering the entire top of his cranium. This
+deferential individual wore a coat beautifully variegated before and
+behind with gold lace; a pair of plush knee-breeches, white stockings,
+and white kid gloves; and was continually engaged in bowing to the
+great man, and otherwise anticipating his wants. When the great man
+looked at a trunk, or a carpet sack, or any thing else in the line of
+baggage or traveling equipments, the liveried servant bowed very low,
+looked nervously about him, and then darted off and seized hold of the
+article in question, gave it a pull or a push, put it down again,
+looked nervously around him, hurried back and bowed again to his
+august master, who by that time was generally looking in some other
+direction with an air of great indifference--as much as to say that he
+was accustomed to that species of homage, and did not attach any
+particular value to it. The passengers regarded him with profound awe
+and admiration, and seemed to be very much afraid he would, upon some
+trifling provocation, draw his sword and attack them. I was
+determined, if ever he undertook such a demonstration of authority as
+that, to resent it with the true spirit of a Californian, and cast
+about me for some weapon of personal defense, but saw nothing likely
+to be available in an emergency of that kind except a small bucket of
+slush, with which, however, it would be practicable to "douse his
+glim." This great man, with his attendant, was bound for the sea-baths
+of Revel, where he would doubtless soon be buffeting the waves like a
+porpoise--or possibly, in virtue of the commanding powers vested in
+him by nature and the Czar of Russia, would sit down by the sea-shore
+like Hardicanute the Dane, and order the waves to retire.
+
+Then there was an old lady and her three daughters who sat on the
+camp-stools by the step-ladder; the same fat old lady, bedizened with
+finery, and the same three young ladies, with strong features and
+dismal dresses, which the traveler encounters all over the Continent
+of Europe. The old lady was in a state of chronic agony lest the young
+ladies should be forcibly seized and carried away by some daring youth
+of the male sex; and the young ladies were conscious that such was the
+general purpose of mankind, and that they were in imminent danger of
+being preyed upon in that way, and, consequently, must always hold
+down their heads and look at the seams in the deck upon the approach
+of any gallant-looking cavalier with a handsome face and a fine
+figure, to say nothing of the expressive tenderness of his eyes and
+the gracefulness of his manner, and many other fascinating features in
+the young gentleman's appearance, of which they could not be otherwise
+than entirely unconscious, since they had not taken the slightest
+notice of him, and never contemplated encouraging his advances. The
+old lady was a very discreet and proper old lady, and the young ladies
+were very discreet and proper young ladies, and they were going to the
+baths of Revel after their last winter's campaign in the fashionable
+circles of St. Petersburg; and any body could see at a glance that
+they were of a distinguished and fashionable family, because they had
+a courier and two lapdogs, and carried a coat of arms on their trunks
+and bandboxes, and were taken with violent headaches soon after
+leaving Cronstadt, and used smelling-salts.
+
+Next was the man who belongs to no particular nation, speaks every
+language, and knows every body--a shabby-genteel, middle-aged man, of
+no ostensible occupation, but always occupied. "Sare," said he, "I
+perceive you are an Englishman. I always very glad am to meet with
+Englishmen. I two years spent in London." "Indeed!" said I; "you speak
+English very well, considering you learned it in England!" "Yes,
+sare--in London--I was in business there." "Mercantile?" said I. "No,
+sare; I attended to mi-lor Granby's 'orses." "Oh! that indeed!" "Yes,
+sare;" and so the conversation went on in a manner both entertaining
+and instructive. In the course of it, I gathered that my
+shabby-genteel friend was going to Revel to attend a 'orse-race.
+
+Another conspicuous group on the deck soon after attracted my
+attention--the hungry people. This group consisted of some six or
+eight persons, male and female, of a very Jewish cast of features,
+well-dressed and lively, evidently Germans, since they spoke in the
+German language. Scarcely had the steamer cast loose from the quay
+when they opened the pile of baskets, boxes, and packages by which
+they were surrounded, and, taking out sundry loaves of bread, lumps of
+cheese, sausages, and wine-bottles, began to eat and drink with a
+voracity perfectly amazing. I was certain I had seen them a thousand
+times before. Every feature was familiar; and even their
+constitutional appetite was nothing new to me. I had never seen this
+group, or their prototype, in any public conveyance, or in any part of
+the world, without a feeling of envy at the extraordinary vigor of
+their digestive functions. Here were pale, cadaverous-looking men, and
+sallow women, who never stopped eating from morning till night, in
+rough or calm weather, in sunshine or storm; ever hungry, ever
+thirsty, ever cramming and guzzling with a degree of zest that the
+sturdiest laborer in the field could never experience; and yet they
+neither burst nor dropped down dead, nor suffered from sea-sickness.
+Doubtless they had just breakfasted before they came aboard; but, to
+make sure of it, they immediately breakfasted again. As soon as they
+were through that, they lunched; then they dined; after dinner they
+drank coffee and ate cakes; after coffee and cakes they lunched again;
+then they ate a hearty supper, and after supper whetted their
+appetites on tea and cakes; and before bedtime appeased the cravings
+of hunger with a heavy meal of sausages, brown bread, and cheese,
+which they washed down with several bottles of wine. I don't know how
+many times they got up to eat in the night, but suppose it could not
+have been more than twice or three times, since they were at it again
+by daylight in the morning as vigorously as ever. I am inclined to
+think that some people are physically so organized as to be insensible
+to the difference between a pound of food and ten pounds, as others
+are unconscious of the difference between wit and stupidity, sense and
+nonsense; such, for instance, as the humorous group, who sit by the
+companion-way, and keep themselves and every body around them in a
+continued roar of laughter. It is good to be merry; but I must confess
+it is not within the bounds of my capacity to discover a source of
+merriment in such pranks of wit as these people enjoy. A young fellow
+makes a face like an owl--every body roars laughing, the idea is so
+exquisitely comical. Another pulls his comrades by the hair, and every
+body shouts with uproarious merriment. One sly chap shoves another off
+his seat and takes possession of it--a feat so humorous that the whole
+crowd is convulsed. A bad orange, pitched across the deck, strikes an
+elderly gentleman on the bald pate--well, I had to laugh at that
+myself. By-and-by, a stout, florid young gentleman turns pale and
+groans; three or four officious friends, with twinkling eyes, seize
+him by the arms, and drag him over to the lee-scuppers, where he
+manifests still more decided symptoms of sea-sickness. His friends
+hold him, rub him, chafe him, and pat him on the back; one offers him
+a meerschaum pipe to smoke; another, a bunch of cigars; a third, a
+piece of fat meat; while a fourth tempts him with a bottle of some
+wine, all of which is uncommon fun to every body but the unfortunate
+victim. Thus the time passes away pleasantly enough, after all, taking
+into view the variety of incidents and scenes which constantly occupy
+the attention of a looker-on. I had taken a deck-passage for
+cheapness, and made out to get through the night by bundling myself up
+on a pile of baggage, and catching a few cat-naps whenever the noise
+created by these lively young gentlemen would permit of such a feat.
+
+By seven o'clock in the morning we were steering into the harbor of
+Revel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+REVEL AND HELSINGFORS.
+
+
+Few cities within the limits of the Russian dominions possess greater
+historic interest than Revel. Although its commerce is limited to a
+few annual shipments of hemp, flax, and tallow, produced in the
+province of Esthonia, and the importation of such articles of domestic
+consumption as the peasants require, it occupies a prominent position
+as a naval depot for Russian vessels of war, and is much frequented in
+summer by the citizens of St. Petersburg as a bathing-place and
+general resort of pleasure. A steamer leaves daily for Revel and
+Helsingfors, which, during the bathing season, is crowded with
+passengers, as in the case of my own trip, of which I have already
+given you a sketch. The approach to the harbor, in the bright morning
+sun, is exceedingly picturesque. Beyond the forest of masts and spars,
+with gayly-colored flags and streamers spread to the breeze, rises a
+group of ancient buildings on the rocky eminence called the Domberg,
+comprising the castle, the residences of the governor and commandant,
+and various palaces and quarters of the nobility, surrounded by Gothic
+walls and strong fortifications. This ancient and picturesque pile has
+been termed the Acropolis of Revel, though beyond the fact that it
+overlooks the lower town and forms a prominent feature in the scenic
+beauties of the place, it is difficult to determine in what respect it
+can bear a comparison with the famous Acropolis of Athens. However, I
+have observed that travelers find it convenient to discover
+resemblances of this kind where none exist, as a means of rounding off
+their descriptions; and since the Kremlin is styled the Acropolis of
+Moscow, I see no reason why Revel should not enjoy the same sort of
+classic association. It is to be hoped that when Russian travelers
+visit San Francisco, they will, upon the principle adopted by tourists
+in their country, do us the justice to designate Russian Hill as the
+Acropolis of San Francisco; and should they visit Sacramento during
+the existence of a flood, I have no doubt they can find a pile of
+bricks or a whisky barrel sufficiently elevated above the general
+level to merit the distinctive appellation of an Acropolis. Revel has
+suffered more frequent changes of government, and passed through the
+hands of a greater variety of rulers, than any city, perhaps, in the
+whole of Northern Europe. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it
+was a province of Denmark; subsequently it fell into the hands of the
+Swedes, and in 1347 became a possession of the Livonian Knights, a
+chivalrous and warlike order, who built castles, lived in a style of
+great luxuriance, killed, robbed, and plundered the people of the
+surrounding countries, and otherwise distinguished themselves as
+gentlemen of the first families, not one of them having ever been
+known to perform a day's useful labor in his life. Such, indeed, was
+the heroic character of these doughty knights, that, having plunged
+the whole country into ruin and distress, the peasants, driven to
+desperation, rose upon them in 1560, and completely routed and
+destroyed them, killing many, and compelling the remainder to seek
+some other occupation. This was rough treatment for gentlemen, but it
+happens from time to time in the course of history, and shows to what
+trials chivalrous blood is exposed when it can't have its own way.
+Finally Esthonia and Livonia fell into the hands of Charles II. of
+Sweden, from whom they were wrested by Peter the Great. Since that
+period these provinces have continued under the Russian dominion. From
+the time of Peter to the reign of the present emperor, Revel has been
+a favorite summer resort of the Czars. It has been rebuilt, patched,
+fortified, and improved to such an extent that it now represents
+almost every style of architecture known in Northern Europe since the
+Middle Ages. The people partake of the same characteristics, being a
+mixture of every Northern race by which the place has been inhabited
+since the reign of Eric XIV. of Denmark. I spent some hours visiting
+the churches and other objects of interest, a detailed description of
+which would scarcely be practicable within the brief limits of a
+letter. The Ritterschaftshaus, containing the armorial bearings of the
+nobility, is a place of great historical interest; but I saw nothing
+that afforded me so much amusement as the scenes in the Jahrmarket,
+where the annual summer fair is held. Here were booths and tents, and
+all sorts of wares, much in the style of the markets of the Riadi in
+Moscow, of which I have already given a description. The crowds
+gathered around those places of barter and trade appeared to enjoy a
+very free-and-easy sort of life. I could see nothing about them
+indicative of an oppressed condition. Most of them were reeling drunk,
+and such as were not drunk seemed in a fair way of speedily arriving
+at that condition of beatitude.
+
+From the Jahrmarket I strolled out to the Cathermthal, a favorite
+resort of the citizens during the heat of the day. The shady
+promenades of this magnificent garden, its natural beauties, and the
+display of equipages and costumes, render it an exceedingly agreeable
+lounging-place for a stranger. Every thing is in the Russian
+style--the pavilions, the music, the theatrical exhibitions, and the
+predominance of naval and military uniforms throughout the grounds.
+The scarcity of flowers is remedied to some extent by the profusion
+of epaulettes and brass buttons, which the emperor seems to regard as
+superior to any thing in nature. No garden that I have yet seen in
+Russia is destitute of ornaments of this kind.
+
+Gambling was going on every where--at every tea-table and in every
+pavilion. This department of civilization is well represented in Revel
+by the Russians. Horse-racing, cards, dominoes, and other amusements
+and games of hazard, are their ruling passion. A Russian who will not
+bet his head after he has lost all his valuable possessions must be a
+very poor representative of his country indeed. I have rarely seen
+such a passionate devotion to the gaming-table, even in California,
+which is not usually behind the nations of Europe in all that pertains
+to the cultivation of the human mind. Revel must be a heaven to a
+genuine Russian. All is free and unreserved, and morals are said to be
+unknown, save to a few of the old-fashioned citizens and gentry.
+Visitors usually leave their own behind them, and depend upon chance
+for a fresh supply in case of necessity.
+
+The afternoon was warm, and it occurred to me that a stroll on the
+beach would be pleasant. Accompanied by my friend the horse-jockey,
+who seemed determined to hold on to me as long as I remained in Revel,
+under the conviction, no doubt, that I was secretly engaged in the
+horse business, and would come out in my true character before long, I
+sauntered down in the direction of some bathing tents, scattered along
+the beach a little below the port. My jockey friend was continually
+trying to pump out of me upon which of the horses in the approaching
+race it was my intention to bet, urging me as a friend not to throw
+away my money on the roan or chestnut, although appearances were in
+their favor, but to go in heavy on the black mare; and notwithstanding
+I assured him it was not my intention to risk any portion of my
+capital on this race, he was pertinacious in giving me his advice, and
+could not be convinced that I know nothing about the horses, and
+never bet on races of any kind. "Sare," said he, "you are a stranger.
+These Russians are great rascals. They will cheat you out of your
+eyes. I speakee English. I am your friend." I thanked him very
+cordially, but assured him there was no danger of my being cheated. He
+then went into a dissertation on the relative merits of the horses, to
+prove that it was impossible for me, a perfect stranger, to escape
+bankruptcy among so many sharpers. "But," said I, "the horse-race
+takes place to-morrow, does it not?" "Yes, sare, to-morrow at three
+o'clock! You will be there? I shall also be there!" "But, my good
+friend, I leave to-night in the steamer; therefore all your kindness
+is thrown away!" "Oh! you must not leave to-night. You must see the
+horse-race!" In vain I assured him it was impossible for me to remain.
+He was not to be put off on any pretext, and, having made up his mind
+that I must remain, I was forced to drop the subject and let him have
+his way. While he was enlarging upon the merits of the black mare, my
+attention was attracted by a group of bathers--ladies, as I judged by
+their voices, though, as they were dressed in rather a fantastic
+style, I could not perceive any other indication of the sex. One of
+the party--a lively young girl of sixteen or seventeen--seemed to be a
+perfect mermaid. She plunged and swam, ducked and dived, kicked up her
+delicate little feet, and disappeared under the surf in a way that
+struck me with awe and admiration. Never was there such an enchanting
+picture of perfect abandonment to the enjoyment of the occasion. A
+poetic feeling I took possession of me. Visions of grottoes under the
+deep sea waves, and beautiful princesses and maidens, filled my soul.
+I thought of Gulnare in the Arabian Nights, and felt disposed, like
+Mirza, the King of Persia, to "embrace her with great tenderness." It
+was really a very pretty sight. "Sare," said my companion,
+confidentially, "take my advice. She is blind of one eye, and has a
+strain in the fore leg, but you may bet on her! I jockeyed her for
+six months before the last race." He was still talking about the black
+mare. I turned away to hide my impatience. After a few words of
+desultory conversation, I excused myself on the plea of sickness, and
+bade him good-evening.
+
+At 8 P.M. I took my departure from Revel. A new batch of passengers
+had come on board. We were soon steaming our way across the Gulf of
+Finland. I had rarely spent a more pleasant day, and, if time had
+permitted, would gladly have prolonged my sojourn in the quaint old
+city of Revel. The summer nights were still incomparably beautiful. A
+glow of sunshine was visible in the sky as late as eleven o'clock. At
+two, the rays of the rising sun began to illuminate the horizon. A
+dead calm gave to the sleeping waters of the Gulf the appearance of a
+lake; and as we approached the shores of Helsingfors, the illusion was
+heightened by innumerable little islands, clothed with verdant slopes
+of grass and groves of pine. The harbor of Helsingfors derives a
+peculiar interest from its system of fortifications. Nature seems to
+have done much to render it impregnable; and what Nature has not done
+has been accomplished by the military genius of the Russians. Immense
+masses of rock rise from the water in every direction, leaving deep
+narrow passages between for vessels. Every rock is a fortress. The
+steamer passed through a perfect maze of fortifications. Guns bore
+upon us from all sides--out of the forts, out of holes in the
+rocks--in short, out of every conceivable nook and crevice in the bay.
+The very rocks seemed to be alive with sentinels and to bustle with
+armories. Probably there is no part of the Russian dominions, except
+Cronstadt, more thoroughly fortified than Sweaborg. The system of
+engineering displayed upon this point evinces the highest order of
+military genius. The fortifications embrace a series of forts,
+castles, barracks, and military establishments of various kinds,
+situated on seven islands of solid rock, forming the different
+channels of approach to the harbor. Count Ehrensuerd, Field-marshal
+of Sweden, is entitled to the credit of having devised the original
+system of fortifications, afterward so successfully carried out by the
+Czars of Russia. This was the last rallying-point of the Swedes during
+the war with Russia. In 1808, Admiral Cronstadt, the commander of the
+Swedish forces, who had hitherto proved himself a brave and patriotic
+officer, submitted to terms of capitulation and delivered over the
+forts to the Russians. History scarcely furnishes a parallel to such a
+wanton and unaccountable act of treachery. Cronstadt had fifteen
+hundred men, two frigates, and all the munitions of war to hold his
+position against any force that could be brought against him; while
+the Russians were reduced to great extremities, and, it is said, had
+scarcely force enough left to man the forts after they were evacuated
+by the Swedes. Sufficient testimony has been gathered by historians to
+show that Cronstadt bartered his honor for money; yet, strange to say,
+such is the high estimation in which he was originally held by the
+Swedes, that many of them to this day profess to disbelieve that he
+was capable of such an infamous crime. It is thought by some that he
+must have been laboring under some mental hallucination at the time of
+the capitulation. Be that as it may, the success of the Russian arms
+was doubtless greatly facilitated by this act of treason. Cronstadt,
+like Benedict Arnold, died an isolated and broken-hearted man. His
+ill-gotten gains were but a poor recompense for the infamy entailed
+upon his name. Such, indeed, as all history shows, has been and must
+ever be the fate of all traitors to their country.
+
+Helsingfors was founded by Gustavus Vasa in the sixteenth century. A
+portion of the old town is still visible, though there is little about
+it beyond a few ruined walls possessing much historical interest.
+After the Russians obtained possession they enlarged and improved the
+city upon its present site, and in 1819 it became the capital of
+Finland. In 1827 Abo suffered from a general conflagration, after
+which the grand University of that city was removed to Helsingfors,
+which now comprises the most important public buildings and
+institutions in Finland. Among these are the senate-house, the palace
+of the governor, the Museum, the Botanical Garden, the Observatory,
+etc. The streets in the lower parts of the city are broad and regular,
+and many of the houses are quite as good as the generality of private
+residences in Moscow or St. Petersburg. The principal church, which is
+built in the form of a Greek cross, is a conspicuous and imposing
+edifice, standing near the centre of the town on a rocky eminence,
+presenting on the approach up the harbor a peculiarly Russian effect
+with its gilded domes and crosses. The green roofs of the houses also
+remind one that he is still within the dominions of Russia; and if any
+doubt on that point should remain after landing from the steamer, it
+is speedily dispelled by the vast numbers of Russian soldiers and
+officers constantly marching about the streets.
+
+I had two days to devote to the objects of interest in and around
+Helsingfors. For convenience and economy, I took a room in a Finnish
+hotel, on one of the back streets. Having deposited my knapsack, my
+first visit was to the Observatory, from which a beautiful view is to
+be had of the harbor and fortifications. From this point of
+observation a very good idea may be formed of the extent and general
+character of the town. It covers a large area of solid rocks, the
+entire foundation consisting of immense round boulders, forming a
+succession of ups and downs singularly varied in outline and
+picturesque at every point of view. Beyond the main part of the town,
+toward the interior, the country is mountainous, and covered for the
+most part with dense forests of pine. Cultivation has made but little
+progress beyond the immediate suburbs. A few miles from the waters of
+the bay the eye rests upon an apparently untrodden wilderness of rocky
+heights and pine forests, and toward the Gulf nothing can exceed the
+desolate grandeur of the scene. Rock-bound islands, upon which the
+surf breaks with an unceasing moan; points and promontories covered
+with dark forests; a rugged coast, dimly looming through the mist;
+innumerable sea-gulls whirling and screaming over the dizzy pinnacles,
+are its principal features. While I was seated on a bank of moss near
+the Observatory, enjoying the beauties of the scene, strains of music
+were wafted up on the breeze from the shady recesses of the Botanical
+Gardens, toward which I saw that the citizens were wending their way.
+It was Sunday, which here as well as in Germany is a day of
+recreation. I took a by-path and speedily joined the crowd. The people
+of every degree are well dressed and respectable, and I was somewhat
+surprised to find so much politeness, cultivation, and intelligence in
+such an out-of-the-way part of the world. The music was excellent, and
+the display of style and fashion in the gardens was quite equal to any
+thing I had seen in my European travels. From what little I saw of the
+Finns, I was greatly prepossessed in their favor. They seem to me to
+be a primitive, substantial, and reliable race, strong in their
+affections, kind and hospitable toward strangers, amiable and
+inoffensive, yet brave and patriotic--hating the Russians with a
+cordiality truly refreshing. I formed a casual acquaintance with
+several of them during my rambles about the Garden. No sooner did they
+discern my nationality than they gave me to understand that their
+Constitution had been violated, their liberties trampled under foot,
+their rights disregarded, and their patience under all these injuries
+misconstrued. "We only await an opportunity," they said, "to prove to
+the world that we are still a free-born people. The time is not
+distant. In the heart of every Finn burns the spirit of a freeman and
+a patriot! We are not a race doomed to slavery. You who are an
+American can understand us! We only want a chance to cast off the
+chains of despotism which now oppress us. It is coming: we are
+overpowered now, but not conquered! We hate the Russians! No true
+Finn can ever amalgamate with such a race!"
+
+This was the strain in which I was constantly addressed.
+Notwithstanding the electoral privileges guaranteed to the Finns under
+their Constitution, and the fact that many of the municipal offices
+are filled by themselves, there is no more community of interest
+between them and their rulers than between the Italians and the
+Austrians. Their hatred of the government and of all its concomitants
+is implacable. It seemed a luxury to some of these poor people to find
+a sympathizing listener. I met many intelligent Finns, both in
+Helsingfors and Abo, who spoke good English, and never conversed with
+one for five minutes without hearing the same strong expressions of
+dislike to the present condition of affairs, and sanguine hopes for
+the future. There is only hope for them, that I can see--that the
+emancipation of the serfs may lead to the establishment of a more
+liberal system of government throughout the Russian dominions. All
+hopes based upon isolated revolutions are futile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+A BATHING SCENE.
+
+
+I devoted the afternoon to a stroll on the sea-shore, which presents
+many interesting features in the neighborhood of Helsingfors. A
+considerable portion of the town, as already stated, is built upon
+immense boulders of solid rock, and some of the streets are entirely
+impracticable for wheeled vehicles, owing to the rugged masses of
+stone with which Nature has thought proper to pave them. Indeed, it is
+no easy task for a pedestrian to make his way through the suburbs,
+over the tremendous slippery boulders that lie scattered over the
+earth in every direction, the trail being in some instances higher
+than the houses. I can not conceive how people can travel over such
+streets in wet weather; it seems a task only fit for goats under
+favorable circumstances; but the Finns are an ingenious people, and
+probably ride on the backs of the goats when walking is impracticable.
+Passing the straggling lines of fishermen's huts forming the outskirts
+of the town, I rambled over two or three miles of rocky fields till I
+found myself on the shores of the gulf, at a point sufficiently
+lonesome and desolate to be a thousand miles from any inhabited
+portion of the globe. Taking possession of a natural chair, worn in
+the rocks by the rains of many centuries, I seated myself upon its
+mossy cushion, and, baring my head to the pleasant sea-breeze, quietly
+enjoyed the scene. Perhaps this very seat was the throne of an old
+viking! Here were sea-shells, and glittering pebbles, and tufts of
+moss for his crown; and here were sea-gulls to make music for him, and
+the spray from the wild waves to keep him cool; and a thousand
+rock-bound islands, lying outspread to the north, with grottoes in
+them for his ships; and piles upon piles of rocky palaces all around,
+covered with golden roofs of moss; and every thing, in short, that
+could make glad the heart of a grim old viking residing on the edge of
+the arctic circle. And if this summer scene, with its blue sea, and
+wood-capped islands, and warm sun, and balmy breeze, could not make
+glad his heart, it would not be difficult to imagine what changes
+winter could bring over it, and how the old viking, sitting on his
+throne by the sea-shore, could enjoy the dead and icy waste before
+him; and how the winter drifts would whistle through his hair; and how
+cheery the jagged rocks would look peeping up out of the snow-drifts;
+and how balmy would be the night-air at sixty degrees below
+freezing-point; and how the old viking would shake his beard with
+laughter as he warmed his hands in a midday sun, only ten feet above
+the horizon, and make the icicles rattle on his chin; and sit thus
+laughing and blowing his fingers, and rattling his icy beard, and
+saying to himself, "What a blessing to be a Finlander! How horribly
+the natives of Spain and Italy must suffer from bad climate! What a
+pity it is Finland is not large enough to accommodate the whole human
+race." With such thoughts as these I amused myself for some time,
+soothed and charmed by the pleasant sea-breeze and the music of the
+waves upon the rocks. The air was deliciously pure, and the odor of
+the sea-weeds had something in it so healthful and inspiring that I
+was insensibly carried back to by-gone days. How short a time it
+seemed since I was a wanderer upon the rock-bound shores of Juan
+Fernandez, yet how many strange scenes I had passed through since
+then--how much of the world I had seen, with its toils, and troubles,
+and vicissitudes! Here I was now, after years of travel in every
+clime, among the various nations of the earth, sitting solitary and
+alone upon an isolated rock on the shores of Finland! Whither was I
+going? What was the object? Where was the result? When was it to end?
+Years were creeping over me; I was no longer in the heyday of youth,
+yet the vague aspirations of boyhood still clung to me--the insatiable
+craving to see more and more of the world--the undefined hope that I
+would yet live to be cast away upon a desolate island, and become a
+worthy disciple of the immortal Robinson Crusoe! Ah me! What a
+lonesome feeling it is to be a visionary, enthusiastic boy all one's
+life, in this practical world of dollars and cents, where other boys
+are men, and men forget that they ever were young! But this, you say,
+is all sentimental nonsense. Of course it is. I admit the full folly
+of such thoughts. It would be a pitiable spectacle indeed to see every
+body inspired by the vagabond spirit of Robinson Crusoe. No doubt, if
+you were sitting upon a rock on the Gulf of Finland, my respected
+Californian friend, you would be hammering off the croppings and
+trying to discover the indications. You consider that the true
+philosophy of life--to dig, and delve, and burrow in the ground, and
+get gold and silver out of it, and suffer rheumatism in your bones and
+cramps in your stomach, and wear out your life in a practical way,
+while we visionaries are dreaming sentimental nonsense! But, after
+all, does the one pay any better than the other in the long run? Will
+gold or silver make you see farther into a millstone, or give you a
+better appetite, or put youth and health into your veins, or cause you
+to sleep more soundly of nights, or prolong your life to an indefinite
+period beyond the span allotted to the average of mankind? Will you
+never be convinced of the truth of these inspired words, which can not
+be repeated too often: As you brought nothing into the world, so you
+can take nothing out of it?
+
+Come, then, let us be young again, and dash into the blue waters of
+Finland, and buffet the sparkling brine as it seethes and boils over
+the rocks! Away with your gold and your silver, and your toils and
+cares, and let us play Robinson Crusoe and Friday here in this
+solitary little glen, where "our right there is none to
+dispute"--unless it may be the Czar of Russia. Off with your shirt,
+your boots, your drawers, your all, and be for once a genuine
+savage--be my man Friday, and I'll teach you how to enjoy life. Ye
+gods! doesn't it feel fine--that plunge in the foaming brine! Why, you
+look like a boiled lobster already; the glow of health is all over
+you; your eyes sparkle, your skin glistens; you shoot out the salt
+sea-spray from your nostrils in a manner that would surprise any
+porpoise; you whoop and you yell like a young devil let loose! Never
+in the world would I take you to be a hard, money-making, lucre-loving
+man! Why, my dear Friday, you are a perfect jewel of a savage! I
+didn't know it was you, and doubt if you knew it yourself! Isn't it
+glorious? I feel a thousand years younger! Don't you hear me singing,
+
+    "Oh, poor Robinson Crusoe!
+      Tinky ting tang, tinky ting tang,
+    Oh, poor Robinson Crusoe!"
+
+But the water is rather fresh--considering how much salt there is in
+it. We had better take a race over the rocks. Run, Friday, for your
+life. If I catch you, overboard you go into the sea again. Run, you
+savage, run! Voices? you say, human voices?
+
+Great Heavens! Where are you, Friday? Gone! disappeared behind that
+projecting ledge of rocks. And here am I, all alone, up to my arm-pits
+in the water, with a group of Finnish ladies standing there, not a
+hundred yards off, looking at me!--ay, gazing steadfastly at me, and,
+what is worse, splitting their sides laughing at my confusion! What in
+the world is to be done? The water seems to be growing colder and
+colder. I am chilled through. My jaws begin to chatter. Suppose a
+shark should seize me by the leg--or a sudden and violent cramp should
+take possession of me? My gracious! what are those women doing now?
+Actually seating themselves on the rocks, within ten steps of my
+clothes, and spreading several packages of bread, cheese, and cakes
+around them! They are going to enjoy a picnic while I enjoy my bath! I
+hear their merry voices; I can imagine the general drift of their
+jokes. How innocently they eat, and drink, and laugh. Possibly they
+take me for a seal or a walrus! Certainly nothing is visible but my
+head, on the crown of which, I regret to say, is a bald spot about the
+size of your hand. It may be very funny to see it dodging up and down
+among the breakers--but I can't stand it much longer. Already the
+spray has wellnigh strangled me; I shiver all over; a horrible
+presentiment is uppermost in my mind that polypi, and sea-leeches, and
+shiny jelly-fish are fastening their suckers upon my legs; I jump, and
+kick, and plunge in an agony of apprehension, while those fair
+creatures on the rock imagine, no doubt, that I am disporting myself
+in sheer exuberance of joy. If they only knew that I had been full
+half an hour in the water before they appeared, there might be some
+hope of a release; but that does not seem to have entered their heads.
+
+Never in all my experience, reader, was I in such a predicament. This
+is no fancy sketch. It is true, every word of it. Had the picnickers
+been old ladies, I might have shut my eyes, and made a break out of
+the water for my clothes; but three of them, at least, were young,
+and, worse than that, very pretty! The courage for so daring and
+monstrous an act was not in me. I felt that it would be easier to die;
+and yet to die in this way is pretty hard when it comes to a practical
+test. What the deuce was to be done? I could not speak a word of
+Finnish, otherwise I might have implored them to retire a few hundred
+yards and let me get my clothes. With a shirt, or even a
+pocket-handkerchief, I might have charged upon the enemy; but I had
+nothing--not even a hat--as a shield against the battery of sparkling
+eyes that bore down upon me! A thousand expedients flashed through my
+mind in the extremity of my sufferings. I would slip out of the water
+on all-fours, and creep over the rocks like a seal, but that would be
+an extremely ungraceful way of approaching a bevy of strange ladies.
+Then it occurred to me if I could get hold of a bunch of sea-weeds, it
+might serve as a temporary substitute for a costume; but the weeds had
+all drifted away by this time, and not a patch was in sight. Even a
+large oyster-shell might have afforded some assistance; but who ever
+heard of oyster-shells in the Gulf of Finland? Nothing remained save
+to dive down and seize a big rock, detach it from the bottom, and,
+holding it up before me, make a break for the pile of clothes; yet
+when I came to consider the preposterous spectacle that a middle-aged
+man would present in a state of nudity charging full tilt upon a party
+of ladies, with a big rock in his hands and a gleam of desperation in
+his eye, the idea seemed too monstrous to be entertained, and I was
+forced to give it up. The difficulty was becoming really serious.
+Doubtless it appears very funny to my California friends, but I can
+assure them it was pretty near death to me. I would have given ten
+dollars for the poorest cotton shirt that was ever dealt out by an
+Indian agent to a Reservation Digger; nay, transparent as the blankets
+are, I might have made one serve my purpose by doubling it three or
+four times and holding it up front.
+
+All this, however, though very well in its way, did not relieve me
+from my embarrassing predicament. Something must be done, and that
+very speedily. I was rapidly wilting under the chilling influence of
+the water. Ten minutes more would render me a fit subject for a
+coroner's inquest. I saw but one alternative: to work my course a few
+hundred yards up the shore, and then creep out the best way I could,
+and run for my life till I found some friendly nook among the rocks in
+which I could conceal myself till these fair Finns took a notion to
+depart.
+
+Acting upon this idea, I ducked down as low as possible, and crept
+over the jagged and slippery rocks, in mortal dread all the time that
+some receding wave would leave me a dripping spectacle for these fair
+damsels to laugh at; till, bruised and scarified beyond farther
+endurance, I worked my way to a landing-place, where I paused in a
+recumbent position--that is to say, on all-fours--to take an
+observation. They must have perceived something ludicrous in my
+attitude. A wild scream of laughter saluted my ears. I could stand no
+more. What little warmth was left in my blood forced itself into my
+head and face as I sprang to my feet. With a groan of shame and
+mortification, I took to my heels; and never before, so help me
+Jupiter! did I run so fast in my life. Scream after scream of laughter
+followed me! It is impossible for me to conjecture how I looked, but I
+felt dreadfully destitute of sail as I scudded over the rough pathway
+that wound around the shore. Blushing, panting, and utterly
+overwhelmed with conflicting emotions of modesty and despair, I darted
+behind the friendly shelter of a rock, and inwardly resolved that if
+ever I went bathing in Finland again, I would at least perform my
+ablutions in a more appropriate costume than Nature had bestowed upon
+me.
+
+The next question was, how long were these people going to enjoy
+themselves at my expense? Was I to be blockaded from my clothes all
+the rest of the afternoon? I could not, upon any principle of
+international law, undertake to break the blockade on the ground that
+it was not effectual, and yet it was pretty hard to do without my
+cotton. What I had suffered from the cold while in the water was
+nothing to what I now began to experience from the unobstructed rays
+of the sun. My skin was rapidly assuming every variety of color
+supposed to exist in the rainbow, and a painful consciousness
+possessed me that in half an hour more I would be blistered from head
+to foot. There was no shade on my side of the rock, and nothing any
+where in sight that could afford the least protection. Racked with
+renewed anguish, I peeped out to see if there was any earthly prospect
+reaching my clothes. Horror upon horror! what were they doing now? Did
+my eyes deceive me? As sure as fate, they were all quietly undressing
+themselves! Hats, scarves, parasols and dresses were scattered all
+around them; there they sat, on the moss-covered rocks, their
+alabaster necks and limbs glistening in the sun, looking for all the
+world like a bevy of mermaids, laughing and chattering in the highest
+glee, perfectly indifferent to my presence! I saw no more. A dizziness
+came over me. Consternation seized my inmost soul. Drawing back behind
+the rock. I held my face close up to it and shut both my eyes. Don't
+talk to me about courage! Every man is a coward by nature. Of what
+avail was it that I had killed whales and chased grizzly bears? Here I
+was now, hiding my face, shutting my eyes, trembling in the hot sun
+like a man with an ague, both knees knocking together, and my heart
+ready to pop out of my mouth from abject fear! Strange--wasn't
+it?--especially after having made the grand tour of Europe, in many
+parts of which live men and women are ranked with statuary. What harm
+is there, after all, in discarding those artificial trappings which
+disfigure the human form divine? Many a man who looks like an Apollo
+Belvidere in his natural condition, becomes a very commonplace fellow
+the moment he steps into his conventional disguise. He is no longer
+heroic; he may be a very vulgar-looking mortal, not at all calculated
+to produce classical impressions on any body. His form divine has
+fallen into the hands of a tailor, who may be neither an artist or a
+poet. And since we can admire an Apollo Belvidere, why not a Venus de
+Medici, or, still more, the living, breathing impersonation of beauty
+buffeting the waves with
+
+    "Shapely limb and lubricated joint."
+
+But, hang it all! though not an ill-shaped man, I don't flatter myself
+there was any thing in my personal appearance, as I crouched behind
+the rock, shutting both eyes as hard as I could, to remind the most
+enthusiastic artist of the Apollo Belvidere! Nay, the gifted Hawthorne
+himself could scarcely have made a Marble Faun out of so unpromising a
+subject. And as for the fair bathers, who by this time were plunging
+about in the water like naiads, it would of course be impossible for
+me to say how far they were improved by lack of costume, since I
+looked in another direction, and kept my eyes faithfully closed from
+the very beginning. The question now occurred to me, Would I not be
+justified by the law of nations in breaking the blockade? It was now
+or never. If they once commenced dressing, farewell to hope! Well, I
+did it. Heaven only knows how I got through the terrible ordeal. I
+only remember that desperation gave strength and speed to my limbs,
+and I ran with incredible velocity. A moment of terrible confusion
+ensued as I grasped at my scattered habiliments. There came a scream
+of laughter from the wicked naiads who were sporting in the waves. I
+fled over the hills--my bundle in my arms--and never once stopped till
+I reached a small valley about half a mile distant. Breathless,
+mortified, and bewildered at the oddity of the adventure. I hurriedly
+dressed, and walked back to town. Arrived at my hotel, I called for a
+bottle of schnapps, retired to my room, locked the door, and
+fervently ejaculated, "'All's well that ends well!' Here's to the
+ladies of Helsingfors! But if ever you catch me in such a scrape
+again, my name's not Browne!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+ABO--FINLAND.
+
+
+I was strongly inclined to spend several weeks in Helsingfors. The
+bathing is delightful, and the manners and customs of the people are
+primitive and interesting. My adventure on the sea-shore, as I soon
+discovered, was nothing uncommon. I mentioned the matter to my
+landlady--a Finnish woman of very sociable manners, who spoke a little
+English. I asked her if it was customary for the ladies to dispense
+with bathing-dresses. She said they generally wore something when they
+bathed in public, but beyond the limits of the regular bath-houses, at
+the end of the Botanical Gardens, they seldom troubled themselves
+about matters of that kind; in fact, they preferred going in without
+any obstruction, because "they could swim so much better."
+
+Having procured my passport at the Bureau of the Police, I took
+passage in a Swedish steamer bound for Abo and Stockholm. Next morning
+by daylight the steamer arrived from St. Petersburg. I went on board,
+and in a few hours more the fortifications of Sweaborg were dim in the
+distance.
+
+The accommodations on board the Swedish steamers are excellent. I took
+passage in the second cabin, for the sake of economy, and found every
+thing as clean and comfortable as I could desire. The waiters are
+polite and attentive, the fare is good, and the company quiet and
+respectable. The difference in this respect is very striking between
+first and second class passengers on board of American and Swedish
+steamers. In the latter there is no rowdyism--no incivility from
+officers or servants; and, so far as the passengers are concerned, I
+could not perceive that they were debarred from any of the privileges
+enjoyed by passengers of the first class. They had the entire range of
+the vessel, and were treated with the same respect and consideration
+shown to others who possessed the means of indulgence in a little more
+style. I have been particularly pleased with this trait in the
+management of public conveyances throughout Europe. In Sweden and
+Norway it is especially characteristic. The commonest deck-passenger
+on board a Swedish or Norwegian steamer is treated with courtesy.
+Indeed, I have seen instances of care and tenderness toward the poorer
+classes, whose circumstances compelled them to travel in this way,
+that I regret to say would excite astonishment in our own democratic
+country. I can scarcely understand why it is that the captain and
+officers of a steam-ship on our side of the water consider it their
+duty to harass passengers who do not pay the highest price with all
+sorts of vexatious restrictions, and to render their condition as
+uncomfortable as possible. To be overbearing, insolent, and
+ungentlemanly seems to be the only aim of these important
+functionaries, and, so far as my experience goes, they succeed so well
+in this respect that if they do not actually prove themselves brutes
+and blackguards during the passage, they are usually rewarded for
+their forbearance, on reaching the port of destination, by a card of
+thanks. I have seen no such insolence on the part of officers and
+slavishness on that of passengers on board of any Swedish or Norwegian
+steamer, as I have often seen on the Panama and California coast
+steamers. Yet cards of thanks are not common in Europe. In fact, they
+would be regarded as a reflection upon the officers rather than an
+evidence of complimentary appreciation.
+
+The coast of Finland from Helsingfors to Abo abounds in small rocky
+islands, covered, for the most part, with a stunted growth of pine.
+The outline of the main land is extremely rugged and irregular,
+presenting a succession of promontories, bays, and inlets,
+weather-beaten cliffs of granite, and gloomy pine forests. No sign of
+habitation is to be seen during the entire voyage, with the exception
+of an occasional group of fishermen's huts or a custom-house station.
+The whole country has the appearance of an unbroken wilderness. The
+steamer plows her way, hour after hour, through the narrow and winding
+passages that lie between the islands--sometimes so close to the
+overhanging cliffs and rugged boulders of granite as almost to
+touch--and often apparently land-locked amid the maze of islands and
+promontories. While there is nothing grand or imposing in the scenery,
+the coast of Finland is certainly one of the most interesting portions
+of the world, in a geological point of view. The singular formation of
+the rocks, their rich and varied colors, and the strange manner in
+which Nature has grouped them together, afford an endless variety of
+interesting studies. The utter isolation of the inhabitants from the
+busy world, their rude and primitive mode of life, their simplicity,
+hardihood, and daring; the rigors of climate to which they are
+subject, and their strong attachment to their sea-girt homes and
+perilous pursuits, render the trip interesting to the general tourist,
+who, though not skilled in geology, may be supposed to possess, like
+myself, a fancy for gathering up odds and ends touching the condition
+of his fellow-beings.
+
+The people of this coast region are a hardy race, whose wild habits of
+life and isolation from the great outer world develop in them many
+striking and peculiar traits of character. During the long winters,
+when the bays, inlets, and harbors are blocked with ice, they become
+wood-choppers or lumbermen, and spend their time chiefly in the
+forests. Upon the breaking up of winter they prepare their nets and
+fishing-gear, and, as soon as the season permits, set forth in their
+little smacks, and devote the principal part of the summer to catching
+and curing fish, for which they find a ready sale at the stations
+along the shore, frequented by traders from St. Petersburg. They live
+in small cabins, built of pine logs, rarely consisting of more than
+two rooms. Each family owns a small patch of ground, with an unlimited
+range of forest. A few cows or goats, a vegetable garden, and some
+chickens or ducks, constitute all they require for domestic use, and
+these are usually attended by the women and children during the
+absence of the men on their fishing expeditions. Education is at a low
+ebb among them, though the rudimental branches are not altogether
+neglected. They are a simple, hospitable, and kind-hearted people,
+ignorant and superstitious, yet by no means deficient in natural
+capacity. No better sailors than the Finns are to be found in any part
+of the world, and there is scarcely a sea throughout the arctic
+regions which has not been visited by their vessels. Although the
+climate is rigorous during a considerable portion of the year, the
+Finns prefer it to any other in the world, and conscientiously believe
+the garden of Paradise must have been originally located in Finland.
+The lower classes are contented and happy, caring little for affairs
+of government, unless they happen to be subjected to some peculiar or
+oppressive restraints. As the traveler approaches the Gulf of Bothnia,
+they assimilate very closely to the same classes in Sweden, and but
+little difference is perceptible either in their language or costume.
+The educated classes, such as the professional men, merchants,
+bankers, traders, etc., are as polished as most people throughout the
+North of Europe, and many of them are distinguished for their
+cultivated manners and general intelligence. Such of these as I
+conversed with on board the steamer impressed me very favorably. I
+found them liberal in their sentiments, and devoted admirers of our
+American institutions. Yet, strange to say, the only secessionist I
+met in the course of my wanderings in this region was a Finn. Hearing
+me speak English, he immediately opened a conversation on the subject
+of the revolutionary movement in the United States. He did not know
+what we were fighting for; thought the North was acting very badly;
+regarded the people of the South as an oppressed and persecuted race;
+believed in slavery; considered the Lincoln government a perfect
+despotism, etc. In short, his views were a general epitome of the
+speeches, proclamations, and messages of the leading rebels throughout
+the South. I listened to him with great patience. He had an
+interesting family on board, all of whom spoke English; and what
+struck me as peculiar, a species of negro English common in the
+Southern States. "Sir," said I, at length, "you surprise me! I had not
+expected to meet so strong an advocate of slavery and slave
+institutions in this latitude. Can it be possible that you are a
+Finn?" "Yes, sir," he answered, "a genuine Finn--now on a visit to my
+native country after an absence of twenty-five years." "Then you must
+have lived in the South?" "Yes, sir; in Montgomery, Alabama. I have
+property there. It was getting pretty bad there for a family, and I
+thought I had better pay a visit to Finland while the war was going
+on." This accounted for the peculiar sentiments of my fellow-traveler!
+He seemed to be a very nice old gentleman, and I was sorry to find him
+tinctured with the heresies of rebellion. Farther conversation with
+him satisfied me that if he could get his property out of Montgomery,
+and put it in Massachusetts, he would be a very respectable Union man.
+I don't think his heart was in the movement, though his pocket,
+doubtless, felt a considerable interest in it.
+
+The town of Abo, formerly the capital of Finland--now a place of no
+great importance except as a custom-house and military station--is
+beautifully situated on the banks of a river called the Aurajoki,
+about three miles above its mouth. Vessels of medium draught,
+including the coasting steamers, have no difficulty in ascending as
+far as the bridge, where they lie alongside the wharves and receive or
+discharge freight. Those of larger draught usually anchor off the
+village of Boxholm, a picturesque gathering of red cottages, with
+high peaked roofs, situated at the entrance of the river. Above the
+village, on the summit of a rocky cliff, stands the fort of Abohus,
+ready at a moment's notice to pour a broadside into any enemy of
+Imperial Russia that may undertake to pass up the river.
+
+Abo, since the removal of the capital and University to Helsingfors
+and the great conflagration of 1827, which destroyed two thirds of the
+town, has fallen into decay, and now does not contain a population of
+more than ten or twelve thousand souls. Spread over an area of several
+miles square, with a sufficient number of houses to accommodate twice
+or three times the population, its broad, stone-paved thoroughfares
+and numerous untenanted buildings have a peculiarly desolate
+appearance. Back a little from the river the pedestrian may walk half
+a mile at midday without meeting a single soul in the streets. A dead
+silence reigns over these deserted quarters, as if the prevailing
+lethargy had fallen upon the few inhabitants that remain. Grass grows
+on the sidewalks, and the basement walls of the houses are covered
+with moss. A dank, chilly mildew seems to hang in the air. One might
+become green all over, like a neglected tomb-stone, should he forget
+himself and stand too long in one spot. I spent a considerable portion
+of the day rambling through these melancholy by-ways, and must admit
+that the effect upon my spirits was not cheering. Now and then the
+apparition of some cadaverous old woman, wrinkled with age--a greenish
+hue upon her features--would appear unexpectedly at some unexpected
+opening in one of the ruinous old houses, and startle me by a gaze of
+wonder or some unintelligible speech addressed to herself. Probably a
+human being had not been seen in that vicinity for the last month.
+Sometimes a slatternly servant-girl would appear in the distance, her
+dress bedraggled with slops, a tub of water on the pavement close by,
+and a long-handled mop in her hand, with which she seemed to be
+vigorously engaged in scrubbing the green slime and tufts of moss off
+the window-sills; but catching a sight of the strangers, down would
+go the mop, and then the usual hasty attempt would be made at fixing
+her hair and otherwise increasing her personal charms. As I drew near,
+this useful member of society would naturally take a sidelong glance
+at the strange gentleman, and perceiving that he was uncommonly
+attractive in personal appearance, it was quite natural she should
+make a neat little courtesy and say "_Got Aften!_" to which, of
+course, I always responded in the most affable manner, not forgetting
+to say to myself, in an audible tone, "Sken Jumfru!"--a pretty girl.
+No harm in that, is there?
+
+In the afternoon I walked out to a public garden about two miles from
+town, where there are some very pleasant promenades, a large building
+containing a ballroom, and numerous pavilions for refreshments. It was
+a festive occasion, and the elite and fashion of Abo were assembled
+there in their best attire. The music was inspiring. Dancing seemed
+contagious. The ballroom was crowded, and old and young were whirling
+about on the light fantastic toe with a zest and spirit truly
+inspiring. Old gentlemen with bald heads seemed to have forgotten
+their age and infirmities, and whirled the blooming damsels around in
+the dizzy mazes of the waltz as dexterously as the youngest; and young
+gentlemen hopped about quite frantic with joy, and altogether
+bewildered with the beauty of their partners. It was really a pretty
+sight. Rarely had I seen so many pleasant faces of both sexes,
+especially those of the ladies. Good-humor, simplicity, and frankness
+were their predominant traits. All ceremony seemed to be cast aside,
+and every body participated in the dance as if it were one great
+family frolic. The formality of introduction was dispensed with, or
+probably most of the guests were already acquainted. The fiddlers
+scraped louder and louder; wilder and faster blew the horns, and on
+went the dance with increasing vigor. I was getting excited--the
+spirit of the thing was contagious. Though not much of a dancer, yet
+I had occasionally in my life filled a place in a reel or a cotillon.
+Waltzing, to be sure, was a little beyond my experience, but I had a
+general idea of the figure, and could not perceive that there was any
+thing very difficult about it. Most of the waltzers here whirled
+around with great ease, and I could see no reason why it would not be
+entirely practicable for an active man like myself, who thought
+nothing of climbing high mountains or jumping across small rivers, to
+do the same. Besides, these people were strangers; it would be a good
+opportunity to try my skill. Doubtless, any of the young ladies would
+oblige me if I asked them to dance. They seemed to oblige every body
+that asked them, and showed no signs of fatigue. Indeed, they looked
+fresher and more vigorous after every bout. I was particularly charmed
+with the appearance of one young lady. Her complexion was florid, and
+her figure absolutely magnificent. At a rough guess she must have
+weighed a hundred and eighty pounds. Every time she whirled past me I
+could feel the floor give way. Her partner was rather small, and
+revolved around her like a planet round the sun. When she laughed,
+which was nearly all the time, her beautiful mouth opened at least two
+thirds of the way across her face, revealing a set of teeth to which
+flakes of snow, pearls, or any thing of that kind could bear no
+comparison. The extraordinary vigor of this girl, her tremendous
+powers of endurance, her weight, beauty, and good-humor, rendered her
+a general favorite. She was, in fact, the belle of the room. To dance
+with her would be an honorable distinction. Now I am naturally a
+modest man, but of late years that defect has been gradually
+disappearing from my character. I resolved to dance with this girl--if
+she would consent. As soon as there was a pause, therefore, I made
+bold to go up to her, and, with a very polite bow, solicited her
+hand--in English. She didn't understand English, but she understood
+dancing, and answered me very politely in Swedish, "Ja!" I think my
+dress and manner, together with my ignorance of the Swedish language,
+had rather a favorable effect. She certainly looked complimented and
+gratified. I saw her turn round her head as we stood up, and laugh at
+the other girls, which I interpreted to mean that she, of all in the
+room, had succeeded in catching the distinguished stranger. Well, the
+music started--it was a German waltz. I stood holding on to my partner
+as the ivy clings to the solid oak. Never did I feel so firm a girl.
+Had she been formed of lead she could not have felt more substantial.
+Now, thought I, away we'll spin over the floor, a living duet,
+altogether accidental, but beautiful to behold--
+
+    "Like the sweet tunes that wandering meet,
+    And so harmoniously they run,
+    The hearer dreams they are but one."
+
+There was only one consideration that gave me any particular anxiety.
+Being of a light and slender figure, I had some apprehensions that in
+the giddy whirl of the waltz this powerful young lady might
+accidentally throw me out of balance and create an unpleasant scene.
+However, there was no time for reflection. At a given signal, away she
+started with tremendous energy. I did my best to whirl her round, and
+don't think it would be possible for any body to do any better under
+the circumstances; but she didn't keep time--or I didn't. Round and
+round the room we flew, to the inspiring strains of the music, with an
+undulating motion very difficult to conceive, and still more difficult
+to execute without danger to the other dancers. The warm blood rushed
+to my face; my head grew dizzy: the only thing I saw was that this
+style of waltzing must end in destruction to myself or somebody else.
+I was fairly lifted off my feet at every turn, and found myself
+absolutely hanging on to my partner to keep from falling. She never
+relaxed in her vigorous movements one moment; but as the music
+increased in spirit, so did she. The room was filled with waltzers. It
+was impossible to be flying about in this way without hitting
+somebody. I knew it from the very beginning, but what could I do? The
+first man down was an old gentleman. I begged his pardon, and helped
+him up again. Next I was dashed against a young lady. She and her
+partner both went down. I helped them up, and begged pardon again,
+which was granted with great good-humor. After that, most of the
+waltzers began to get out of the way, so that we presently had a more
+enlarged scope of operations. I fancy there was something uncommon in
+my style of waltzing that attracted attention. It was not long before
+we had the entire circle to ourselves, the crowd standing around and
+manifesting the most intense appreciation of our efforts. All went on
+very well for a while. Up and down the room, and round and round we
+whirled, and at every whirl there was a murmur of admiration and
+applause. My beautiful partner shook her sides as if convulsed with an
+earthquake--I could feel the motion, but was unable to conjecture the
+cause. Possibly she was getting agitated--or it might be that
+sentiments of tenderness were stealing over her heart. That idea, or
+something else, confused me. I struck out one foot a little awkwardly.
+She tripped against it, whirled me half round in attempting to gain
+her balance, and then we fell. It was very awkward. What rendered it
+still more unpleasant, every body began to laugh. People always do
+laugh at the misfortunes of others. I would have picked the young lady
+up at once, or at least tried it (for she was rather heavy), but the
+fact is, I fell underneath, and was utterly unable to move. Had I been
+pinned and riveted to the floor, I could not have been in a more
+helpless position. A man whose natural instincts are polite is surely
+a subject of sympathy and commiseration under such a pressure of
+difficulties as this. I breathed hard, but was unable to get out a
+single word of apology, till, with, a laugh and a bound, my fair
+partner regained her feet, and then she very good-naturedly assisted
+me in regaining mine. Mortified beyond measure, I conducted her to a
+seat. As I was passing out of the room soon after, a new waltz struck
+up. The dancers went at it again as lively as ever. I turned to see
+what had become of my partner. She was whirling over the floor with
+undiminished energy in the arms of a young gentleman in military
+uniform. He may have been more accustomed to waltzing than I was, but
+I think any person present--not excepting the young lady
+herself--would have been willing to admit that his style did not
+compare with mine in force and individuality. It certainly produced no
+such effect upon the audience.
+
+I walked back to town a sober and thoughtful man. This dancing
+business is a very foolish pastime. It may do very well for giddy and
+thoughtless young persons, but for men of mature years it is the
+height of folly. I am surprised that they should be led aside from
+their customary propriety by the fascinations of beauty.
+
+The sun was just setting. Its last rays rested upon the ruined walls
+of the Observatory. I followed a crowd of citizens who were slowly
+toiling up the stone steps, and, after a pretty hard climb, was
+rewarded with a magnificent view of the city and surrounding country.
+The rocky pinnacle upon which the Observatory stands rises some three
+hundred feet above the banks of the river, and overlooks a large
+portion of the valley of the Aurajoki. The winding waters of the
+river; the green fields; patches of woodland, villas, and gardens; the
+blue mountains in the distance, and the silent city lying like a
+mouldering corpse beneath, presented a scene singularly picturesque
+and impressive. I sat down upon the ruined walls and thought of Abo in
+its glory--the ancient head-quarters of Christianity in Finland; the
+last abiding-place of the beautiful Caroline Morsson, the peasant
+queen of Sweden, wife of Eric XII., who died here, and whose remains
+lie in the Cathedral--the city of the mighty hosts of warlike Finns
+who fought under the banner of Charles XII., and made a funeral pyre
+of their bodies upon the bloody field of Puttara. The present Finns
+are of this heroic race. Not less brave, yet less fortunate than the
+Spartans of Thermopylae, they have lost their country and their
+freedom, and now groan under the oppression of a despotic government.
+
+While thus musing on the past, a strain of delicious music broke the
+stillness. I rambled over the granite cliffs in the direction of the
+sound, and soon came to a grove of trees, with an open space in the
+middle, occupied by a band of musicians, who were surrounded by a
+group of citizens, thus pleasantly passing the summer evening. Booths
+and tents were scattered about in every direction, in which cakes and
+refreshments were to be had; and gay parties of young people were
+seated on long planks so arranged as to make a kind of spring seats,
+upon which they bounced up and down to the time of the music. Children
+were playing upon the grass, their merry shouts of laughter mingling
+pleasantly with the national air performed by the band. On the
+moss-covered rocks sat groups of young ladies, guarded by their
+amiable mothers or discreet duennas, as the case might be, trying hard
+not to see any of the young gentlemen who lounged about in the same
+vicinity; and young gentlemen prowled about puffing cigars as if they
+didn't care a straw whether the young ladies looked at them or
+not--both being, of course, according to the established usages of
+society, natural enemies of each other. For the life of me, I can't
+tell why it is that young ladies and gentlemen should be thus
+everlastingly at war. Would it not be better to kiss and make it up,
+and try, if possible, to get along peaceably through the world?
+
+But the steamer blows her whistle--the bell rings--I must hurry on
+board. Good-by, dear Finns, big and little, I like you all. God bless
+you! Good-by old Abo, with your ancient church, and your moss-grown
+streets, and deserts of houses--I feel sorry for you, but I can't help
+it! Good-by, Russia! If I don't call again, attribute it to no want of
+interest in the great cause of civilization. Just drop me a line and
+let me know when the serfs are free and a constitutional government is
+established, and I will strain a point to pay my respects to Alexander
+II. I rather like the young man, and have an idea that he is capable
+of noble deeds and heroic sacrifices. But he must abolish his secret
+police, punish them for whipping women, open universities upon a
+liberal basis, throw the camarilla and the aristocracy overboard, quit
+murdering the poor Poles at Warsaw, and do several other things before
+he can have my support. Should he accomplish these beneficial reforms,
+and at any future time think proper to settle in my neighborhood,
+where the climate is more genial, I shall cheerfully vote for him as
+mayor of the city of Oakland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+STOCKHOLM.
+
+
+The passage from Abo to Stockholm occupies about eighteen hours, and
+in fine weather affords a constant succession of agreeable scenes.
+With the exception of about four hours of open sea in crossing the
+Gulf of Bothnia, the steamer is constantly surrounded by islands, many
+of them highly picturesque, and all interesting from their peculiar
+geological formation. Occasionally the island winds like a snake
+through a wilderness of naked granite boulders, round and slippery,
+and barely high enough out of the water to afford a foundation for a
+few fishermen's huts, which from time to time break the monotony of
+their solitude. Sometimes the channel opens out into broad lakes,
+apparently hemmed in on all sides by pine-covered cliffs; then passing
+between a series of frightful crags, upthrown, as it were, out of the
+water by some convulsion of nature, the surging waves lash their way
+through the narrow passages, and threaten each moment to ingulf the
+frail vessel, or dash it to atoms against the rocks. The greatest
+danger in making this trip arises from the number of sunken rocks,
+which often approach to within a few feet of the surface without being
+visible. The depth is usually marked by poles or buoys, and it often
+happens that the steamer plies her way for hours between these
+water-marks, where there is no other indication of danger. The Swedish
+and Finnish pilots are proverbially among the best in the world. We
+had an old Finn on board--a shaggy old sea-dog, rough and
+weather-beaten as any of the rocks on his own rock-bound coast, who, I
+venture to say, never slept a wink during the entire passage, or if he
+did, it was all the same. He knew every rock, big and little, visible
+and invisible, that lay on the entire route between Abo and Stockholm,
+and could see them all with his eyes shut. An uncouth, hardy, honest
+old monster was this Finn--a Caliban of a fellow, half human, half
+fish--with a great sou'wester on his head, a rough monkey-jacket
+buttoned around his body, and a pair of boots on his legs that must
+have been designed for wading over coral reefs, through seas of
+swordfish, shovel-nosed sharks, and unicorns. His broad, honest face
+looked for all the world like a granite boulder covered with barnacles
+and sea-weed, and ornamented by a bunch of mussels for a nose, and a
+pair of shining blue pebbles by way of eyes; and when he spoke, which
+was not often, his voice sounded like the keel of a fishing-smack
+grating over a bank of gravel. I strongly suspect his father was a
+sea-lion and his mother a grampus or scragg whale, and that he was
+fished up out of the sea when young by some hardy son of Neptune, and
+subsequently trained up in the ways of humanity on board a
+fishing-smack, where the food consisted of polypi, lobsters, and black
+bread. Yet there was something wonderfully genial about this old
+pilot. He chewed enormous quantities of tobacco, the stains of which
+around his mouth greatly improved the beauty of his countenance; and
+when he was not chewing pigtail he was smoking it, which equally
+contributed to soften the asperities of his features. Having sailed
+in many seas, he spoke many languages, but none very intelligibly,
+owing to some radical defect in the muscles of his mouth. As to the
+channel between Abo and Stockholm, which lies partly through the Aland
+Islands and numerous adjacent rocks, above and below water, I believe
+he had traveled over it so often that he could steer a vessel through
+it standing backward as readily as box the compass, or shut both his
+eyes and tell where the deepest water lay by the smell of the air and
+the taste of his tobacco.
+
+The passage across the Gulf of Bothnia was somewhat rough, and most of
+the passengers were sea-sick, owing, no doubt, to the short chopping
+motion which prevails on board of all kinds of sea-going vessels in
+these inland seas. Having performed various voyages in various parts
+of the world, I was, of course, exempt from this annoyance; but my
+digestion had been impaired in Russia by the vast quantity of tea,
+cucumbers, veal, cabbage-soup, and other horrible mixtures which I had
+been forced to consume while there, and which now began to tell on my
+constitution. Notwithstanding repeated doses of cognac, taken from
+time to time as I walked the decks, the sea began to whirl all round,
+the clouds overhead to swing about at random through the rigging, and
+the odor of the machinery to produce the strongest and most
+disagreeable sensations. I went below to see how things looked there;
+but, finding the atmosphere dense and the prospect gloomy, returned in
+great haste and looked over the bulwarks to see how fast we were going
+through the water. While thus engaged, an amusing thought occurred to
+me. Suppose the mermaids who lie down in the briny depths form their
+ideas of the beauty of the human countenance from the casual glimpses
+thus afforded of our features, would it be possible for the most
+susceptible of them to fall in love with us? The idea was so droll
+that I was almost convulsed with laughter; but, not wishing to attract
+attention by laughing aloud at my own thoughts, I merely clung to the
+bulwarks and doubled myself up, trying to avoid the appearance of
+eccentricity. At or about the same moment, the old Finnish pilot, with
+whom I had formed an acquaintance, came along, and said
+good-naturedly, "Hello, sir! I dink you pe sea-sick." "Sea-sick?" said
+I, a little nettled. "Oh no, Herr Pilot, I'm an old sailor, and never
+get sea-sick." "Vel, I dought you was sick--you look bad, sir,"
+answered the good old pilot; "de sea is very rough, sir." Here the
+steamer took a notion to pitch down into the water and jump up again
+suddenly, and then rolled on one side and then on the other, and at
+the same time a number of the passengers began to make grotesque and
+disagreeable noises, which amused me so much that I had to turn away
+my face and look at the water again to avoid laughing. "Sir," said the
+old pilot, who observed the contortions of mirth by which I was moved,
+"vil you have some schnapps? I dink schnapps is goot for de sea-sick."
+"Thank you," said I, the tears streaming from my eyes, "I won't have
+any just now." "Vel, 'twon't last long, any how," suggested the
+good-natured monster. "By'm-by we be up to Vaxholm--in pout two hours.
+Dere's land! Don't you see it?" I saw it, and right glad I was too,
+for it is always refreshing to see land from the deck of a steamer. In
+half an hour more we entered a smooth stretch of water, and soon the
+wood-covered islands and shores of Sweden were close ahead.
+
+Passing the fortress of Waxholm, we entered the magnificent fjord or
+arm of the sea which extends for a distance of ten or twelve miles up
+to the city. The scenery on this part of the route is very fine. All
+along the shores of the main land and adjacent islands rugged cliffs
+of granite reared their hoary crests over the waters of the fjord.
+Forests of oak and pine cover the rolling background, and beautiful
+villas, with parterres and blooming gardens, peep from every glen.
+Sometimes for miles the solitude of the forests and rock-bound shores
+is unbroken, save by an occasional fisherman's hut or an open patch
+of green pasture; then suddenly, upon turning a point, a group of
+red-roofed villas glimmer through the foliage; sail-boats are seen
+gliding over the water with gay companies of ladies and gentlemen from
+the city enjoying the fresh breeze that sweeps up from the Gulf; now a
+hay-boat or a clumsy lugger laden with wood drifts along lazily toward
+the grand centre of trade; and as we approach nearer to the dim
+smoke-cloud that hangs over the city, big and little craft gather
+thicker and thicker before us, till the whole fjord seems alive with
+masts and sails. Soon the outlines of the churches and castles break
+through the dim distance, and, like some grand optical illusion, the
+whole city gradually opens up before us.
+
+To say that I was charmed with the first view of Stockholm would but
+faintly express the feelings with which I gazed upon this beautiful
+metropolis of the North. Though different in almost every essential
+particular, it has been not unaptly compared to Venice; and certainly,
+if the sparkling waters from which it seems to rise, the wood-covered
+islands, the rich and varied outlines of its churches and castles, the
+forests of shipping at its wharves, the many-colored sail-boats and
+gondolas sweeping hither and thither, the glowing atmosphere, and
+surrounding gardens, villas, temples, and pavilions, can entitle it to
+that distinction, Stockholm well deserves to rank with the Queen City
+of the Adriatic.
+
+The landing for the Baltic steamers is at the head quay called the
+Skepsbron, which in summer is well lined with shipping, and presents
+rather an animated appearance. Very little formality is observed in
+regard to the baggage of passengers, and passports are not required, or
+at least no demand was made upon me for mine. All I had to do was to
+show my knapsack to the custom-house officer, who put a chalk-mark upon
+it, signifying, no doubt, that it contained nothing contraband; after
+which I stepped ashore, and, aided by a friendly fellow-passenger,
+found lodgings at a dirty little hotel close by, called the "Stadt
+Frankfort." If there is any worse place to be found in Stockholm, it
+must be the very worst on the face of the earth, for the "Stadt
+Frankfort" is next thing to it. Being dirty and foul of smell, and
+abounding in vermin, of course the charges are, as usual in such cases,
+proportionally high, for which reason I recommend it to any gentleman
+traveling in this direction whose main object is to get rid of his
+money for an equivalent of filth, fleas, bugs, bad bread, and worse
+coffee. The main part of the city, embracing the King's Palace, the
+Bourse, the Church of St. Nicholas, the Barracks and public buildings,
+is built upon an island fronting the Baltic on the one side and the
+Malar Lake on the other. This is the most populous and interesting
+part, though the streets are narrow and irregular, and the houses
+generally old and dilapidated, with dark, gloomy fronts, and a very
+fishy and primitive expression of countenance. The new parts of the
+city, called the Normalm to the north and the Sodmalm to the south,
+which are connected with the island by bridges, have some fine streets
+and handsome rows of buildings in the modern style, especially the
+Normalm, which contains the King's Garden, the Arsenal, the
+Opera-house, and the principal hotels and residences of the foreign
+ministers. This part of Stockholm will compare favorably with second or
+third-rate cities in Germany; for it must be borne in mind that,
+striking as the external aspect of Stockholm is, the interior is very
+far from sustaining the illusion of grandeur cast around it by the
+scenic beauties of its position. In nothing is the traveler more
+disappointed than the almost total absence of business excitement. With
+the exception of a few stevedores at work on the wharves and a trifling
+jostle at the market-places, the whole city seems to be sitting down in
+its Northern solitude, waiting, like Mr. Micawber, for something to
+turn up. In some parts one may walk half a mile without hearing a sound
+save the echo of his own footsteps. It is, emphatically, a "slow"
+place--so slow, indeed, compared with the marts of commerce to which I
+had been accustomed in California (especially the city of Oakland),
+that I was constantly impressed with the idea that every body was fast
+asleep, and that if three or four of them should happen to wake at the
+same time, it would be fearfully startling to hear their eyelids crack
+open and the hollow streets echo to their yawns.
+
+But don't understand this as a reflection upon the Swedish race. They
+are industrious and energetic when occasion requires, but, like all
+people who live at the extreme North, acquire tropical habits of
+indolence from the climate. During the tedious winters, when the days
+are but six hours long, all who can afford it become torpid, like
+frogs, and lie up in their houses till the summer sun thaws them out.
+Balls, parties, and sleigh-riding occasionally rouse them up, but
+lethargy is the general rule. The warm weather comes very suddenly,
+and then the days are eighteen hours long. This being the season of
+outdoor pleasure, it is spent in visits to the country or lounging
+about the gardens, sitting on spring benches and enjoying the
+sunshine.
+
+The Swedish soldiers are a fine-looking race of men, far superior in
+stature and general appearance to the soldiers of Russia. They are
+well drilled, bold, and manly, and have fine faces, full of spirit and
+intelligence. Wherever these men are led, they will now, as in past
+times, give the enemies of their country some trouble. I consider them
+the finest soldiers in Northern Europe.
+
+The general aspect of the citizens of Stockholm is that of extreme
+plainness and simplicity. I take them to be an honest, substantial,
+and reliable people, well educated and intelligent; satisfied with
+themselves and the world, and proud of their country and its history.
+Politeness is a national characteristic. Every person, of high and low
+degree, upon entering a shop, takes off his hat, and remains with
+uncovered head while making his purchase. Gentlemen who meet on the
+street knock the tops of their "tiles" against their knees, and
+continue to bow at each other long after they have passed. In feature
+and general appearance the Swedes are handsomer than the southern
+races of Europe, and for that reason wear a nearer resemblance to the
+Americans. I saw several men in Stockholm who would not have done
+discredit to California, in point of fine faces and commanding
+figures. The Swedish ladies are proverbially beautiful. It was really
+refreshing, after my visit to Russia, to see so many pretty women as I
+met here. Light hair, oval features, sparkling blue eyes, and forms of
+intoxicating grace and beauty--ah me! why should such dangers be
+permitted to threaten the defenseless traveler with instant
+destruction, when the law provides for his protection against other
+disasters by land and sea, assault and battery, false imprisonment and
+highway robbery? Yet here were lovely creatures, gliding about at
+large, shooting mutilation and death out of their bright blue eyes,
+and apparently as indifferent to the slaughter they committed as if it
+were the finest fun in the world! Talk of your French beauties, your
+Italian beauties, your Spanish beauties! Give me, for the
+impersonation of soul expressed in the human form divine--for features
+"woven from the music of the spheres and painted with the hues of the
+aurora borealis"--a Swedish beauty, the nearest approach upon earth to
+an American beauty, which, being altogether angelic, must ever remain
+the highest type of perfection known to mankind.
+
+I don't wonder Swedenborg made so many heavens for his female
+characters. His "conjugal felicity" required at least seven. One small
+heaven, constructed upon the Swedish plan, would certainly afford but
+limited accommodations for all the beauties of Stockholm.
+
+A day or two after my arrival in Stockholm I called to Mr. Fristadius,
+the American consul, from whom I obtained the latest news in reference
+to the progress of the rebellion. Accustomed as we are in the United
+States to read the newspapers every morning, wherever we may happen
+to be, the deprivations in this respect to which an American traveler
+in Europe is subjected must be experienced to be fully appreciated.
+Even in the principal cities of Germany it is difficult to find a
+newspaper that contains any thing more than a notice of the price of
+stocks, a few telegraphic items about the petty court movements of
+neighboring cities, a rehash of slander upon our country from the
+London _Times_, or an item of news about the war, in which the states
+are misplaced, the names misspelled, and the most important points
+omitted. I do not think there is a village press in California that
+would not be ashamed to turn out such trashy little sheets as are
+issued in Frankfort; and as for the matter of fairness and honesty, it
+is rare to find an independent newspaper in any part of Europe. To
+suppress truth and subserve some military or financial interest is the
+business for which they are paid. Making due allowance for party
+prejudices, you may guess at the truth in most of our American
+journals, but it would be a waste of time to search for it in the
+newspapers published on this side of the water. While they studiously
+refrain from indecorous language, they are corrupt and unreliable
+beyond any thing known in California, and have not even the merit of
+being energetic and entertaining liars. This is the case in Russia and
+Finland as well as in Germany. Where the press is subjected to a rigid
+censorship, it is of course useless to look for reliable information,
+and as for late intelligence, it does not travel through official
+bureaus. Before leaving Frankfort I had news to the 28th of June. A
+week after my arrival at St. Petersburg the same news was promulgated
+in that city. On my return from Moscow I had the pleasure of reading
+the details in an American newspaper. One or two mutilated telegraphic
+dispatches seemed to sharpen my appetite during the trip to Revel,
+Helsingfors, Abo, and Stockholm; and now, arrived at the head-quarters
+of Swedish civilization, after searching in vain for a late English or
+American newspaper at the principal cafes, I was compelled to make
+application to our consul, in the faint hope that he might be an
+occasional reader of that ephemeral species of literature.
+Fortunately, Mr. Fristadius had spent some time in the United States,
+and learned to appreciate the magnitude and importance of the struggle
+in which we were engaged.
+
+I had the pleasure, during my sojourn in Stockholm, of getting a
+glimpse of Swedish social life in one of its most agreeable phases.
+Mr. Fristadius, who is a Swede by birth and education, and occupies a
+prominent position as one of the leading iron-merchants of Stockholm,
+was kind enough to invite me to an entertainment at his villa,
+situated about four miles from the city, on one of the prettiest
+little islands in the Malar Lake.
+
+At an early hour in the afternoon, the company, which consisted of
+thirty or forty ladies and gentlemen, assembled by appointment at a
+wharf near one of the principal bridges, where a small steam-boat
+belonging to Mr. Fristadius was in waiting. I was a little astonished,
+not to say taken aback, at the display of elegant dresses, liveried
+servants, and white kid gloves that graced the occasion, and looked at
+my dusty and travel-worn coat, slouched hat, and sunburnt hands--for
+which there was no remedy--with serious thoughts of a hasty retreat.
+One doesn't like to be a savage among civilized people; yet, if one
+undertakes to travel with little baggage and less money, what can he
+do, unless he holds himself aloof from the world altogether, which is
+not the best way of seeing it? There was no time for reflection,
+however; the whistle was blowing, and we were hurried on board by our
+kind host, who seemed determined to make every body as happy as
+possible. The trip down the lake was delightful. On either side the
+hills and islands were dotted with villas and gardens; sail-boats were
+skimming over the water with gay parties intent on pleasure; the views
+of the city from every turn were picturesque beyond description, and
+the weather was quite enchanting. As we swept along on our course, the
+gentlemen of the party, who were nearly all Swedes, united in a wild
+and beautiful Scandinavian glee, the mellow strains of which swept
+over the water, and were echoed from the wooded islands and shores of
+the lake with a magnificent effect. Whether it was the scenery, the
+weather, or the singing, or all combined, I could scarcely tell, but
+this little trip was certainly an episode in life to be remembered
+with pleasure in after years. In about half an hour we drew near a
+perfect little Paradise of an island, upon which, half hidden in
+shrubbery and flowers, stood the villa of our friend, Mr. Fristadius.
+Here were winding graveled walks overhung by rich foliage; beds of
+flowers in full bloom; grottoes of rock laved by the waters of the
+lake; immense boulders of granite surmounted by rustic pavilions;
+hedges of privet and hawthorn to mark the by-paths; a miniature bridge
+from the main island across to a smaller island, upon which stood an
+aquatic temple for the fishing-boats and gondolas; with a wharf
+jutting out into the deep water at which the little steam-boat landed.
+Nothing could be more unique than the whole place. Nature and art
+seemed to have united to give it the most captivating effects of
+wildness, seclusion, comfort, and elegance. It was Crusoe-life
+idealized. As we approached the landing-place, the interesting family
+of our host, surrounded by numerous friends, stood upon a little
+eminence awaiting our arrival. While we gazed with pleasurable
+emotions at the pretty scene before us, a most delicate and
+appropriate compliment was paid to our excellent minister, Mr.
+Haldeman, and his accomplished wife, who were of the party. The
+American flag was hoisted upon a pole near the landing by Mrs.
+Fristadius, and the company with one accord arose and greeted with
+three cheers this glorious emblem of liberty. I shall never forget the
+mingled feelings of pride and pleasure with which I looked upon the
+stars and stripes once more, after months of dreary depression in
+countries where freedom is but a glimmering hope in the human heart.
+But here in Sweden the spirit of our institutions is appreciated;
+here I found myself surrounded by noble and trusty friends of the
+American Union, loyal to their own liberal government, yet devoted to
+the great cause of human freedom wherever it can exist consistently
+with the progress of the times and the capacity of the people for
+self-government. As the flag waved in the breeze, an inspiring song of
+liberty burst from the joyous company--one of those soul-stirring
+songs of Belman, which find a response in the breast of every
+Swede--wild, impassioned, and patriotic, breathing in every word and
+intonation the chivalrous spirit of men whose ancestry had fought
+under the glorious banners of Gustavus Adolphus.
+
+As soon as the song was concluded the little steam-boat drew up to the
+wharf, where we were most kindly and cordially greeted by the family
+of our host. After a pleasant ramble about the grounds we proceeded to
+the house, which is situated on a picturesque eminence overlooking the
+lake, and the adjacent shores and islands. Here, in a large and
+elegant saloon, opening on all sides upon a spacious veranda, a
+sumptuous collation was spread. The company lounged about without
+ceremony, eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves as they pleased;
+wit and wine flowed together, unrestrained by the slightest formality.
+In the midst of our "feast of reason and flow of soul," Mr. Fristadius
+made a neat and appropriate little speech of "welcome to all his
+friends," which was followed by a song from the musical gentlemen;
+after which he proposed a toast to a young married couple present.
+This was followed by another song. Then there was a toast to the
+American flag, another speech and a song, to which Mr. Haldeman, our
+minister, responded in such terms of enthusiasm and complimentary
+allusion to the Swedish nation that there was a general outburst of
+applause. I had hoped, in view of my rustic garb, to escape notice,
+and was snugly barricaded in a corner behind a table, looking on
+quietly and enjoying the scene, when, to my great astonishment, a
+toast was proposed "to the DISTINGUISHED TRAVELER FROM CALIFORNIA!"
+In vain I looked about me to see if any prominent gentleman of my
+acquaintance from California would step forward and answer to the
+summons, when I was gently but firmly captured by our host, and duly
+brought forth to respond to the charge! Never having made a speech in
+my life, I could only seize hold of a wine-glass (which I think
+belonged to somebody else), and in the confusion of the moment drink
+spontaneously to the great traveler from California! Then there was an
+inspiring glee from the lively young gentlemen who did the music.
+
+Thus passed the time till dinner was over, when we adjourned to the
+garden for coffee and cigars. Seated under the wide-spreading trees,
+in the balmy air of this summer evening, we had songs and recitations
+of Scandinavian poetry, anecdotes, and humorous dissertations till
+nearly midnight. I do not remember that I ever participated in a more
+rational or delightful entertainment. After a farewell glee to our
+host we marched down to the wharf, where the boat was in waiting, and
+embarked for Stockholm. I can only add that I was charmed with the
+refinement and intelligence of Swedish society, as far as I could
+judge of it by this casual glimpse. From many of the guests I received
+cordial invitations to prolong my sojourn, and the next morning found
+two or three of the gentlemen in readiness to show me every thing of
+interest about the city.
+
+We visited the Museum, where there is an interesting assortment of
+Scandinavian antiquities, and the palace, and some half a dozen other
+places, all of which came in the regular routine of sight-seeing; but
+the fact is, I am getting dreadfully tired of this systematic way of
+lionizing the cities of Europe. I turn pale at the sight of a museum,
+shudder at a church, feel weak in the knees at the bare thought of a
+picture-gallery, and as for antiquities, they make my flesh creep.
+Between you and myself, dear reader, I wouldn't give a sou-markee for
+all the old bones gathered up during the last eighteen centuries,
+unless to start a bone-mill and sell the dust at a remunerative
+profit.
+
+After all, the more I saw of Stockholm the more the blues began to
+creep over me. It is depressingly slow in these far Northern cities;
+so slow, indeed, I don't wonder every thing has a mildewed and
+sepulchral aspect. The houses look like slimy tombs in a grave-yard;
+the atmosphere, when the sun does not happen to shine--which is more
+than half the time--is dank and flat, and hangs upon one's spirits
+like a nightmare, crushing out by degrees the very germ of vitality. I
+am not surprised that paralysis and hip-disease are frightfully
+prevalent in Stockholm.
+
+Give me California forever--the land of sunshine and progress. I have
+seen no country like it yet. When I think of old times there, a
+terrible home-sickness takes possession of me. So help me, friends and
+fellow-citizens, I'd sooner be a pack-mule in California with a raw
+back, and be owned by a Mexican greaser, employed week in and week out
+in carrying barrels of whisky over the Downieville trail, fed on three
+grains of barley per day, and turned out to browse on quartz rock and
+sage-bushes every night--I'd rather be a miserable little burro,
+kicked and cuffed by a Mariposa Chinaman--I'd rather be a dog and bay
+the moon in the city of Oakland, or a toad and feed upon the vapors of
+a dungeon at San Quentin--I'd rather be a lamp-post on the corner of
+Montgomery Street, San Francisco, and be leaned against, and hugged,
+and kissed alternately by every loafer out of the Montgomery
+saloon--I'd rather be any of these than a human being compelled to
+live permanently in Europe, with a palace in every city, town, and
+village, and an income of fifty thousand dollars a day to defray
+expenses; so don't be surprised if I should turn up again one of these
+fine mornings on the Pacific coast. The only difficulty at present
+is--a collapse in the financial department.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+WALKS ABOUT STOCKHOLM.
+
+
+If you expect any very lively or striking pictures of Stockholm from a
+tourist like myself, whose besetting trouble in life is a
+constitutional melancholy, I am afraid you will be disappointed. It is
+beyond doubt one of the most agreeable cities in the North, and, so
+far as public institutions are concerned, affords a fine field of
+research for the antiquarian and the naturalist. Any enterprising
+gentleman who desires to improve his mind by the study of Puffendorf
+can here find the original. Linnaeus, Berzelius, and others will
+materially assist him in grasping at the mysteries of animated
+creation; and if he be of a poetical turn, he can enjoy Belman in the
+unadulterated Scandinavian metre. For me, however, the public museums
+and libraries possessed only an external interest. I would gladly have
+devoted the remainder of my life to Scandinavian researches, but,
+having several other important matters to attend to, I was reluctantly
+forced to give up the idea. The main object at present was to escape
+from "an eternal lethargy of woe," which seemed to grow worse and
+worse every day. I really had nothing particular to afflict me, yet I
+both felt and looked like "a man sore acquaint with grief." Day after
+day I wandered about the streets in search of excitement. All in vain;
+such a luxury is unknown to strangers in Stockholm. I visited the
+fruit-markets, jostled about among the simple and kind-hearted
+peasants, bought bunches of cherries and baskets of raspberries from
+the pretty peasant-girls, and then stood eating my way into their
+acquaintance, while they laughed, and talked, and wondered where in
+the world such a strange man came from, and when I told them I came
+from California they looked incredulous, having probably never of such
+a country. Then I strolled down through the fish-market, where there
+were a great many queer fish exposed for sale by ancient and slimy old
+men and women, whose hands and aprons were covered with fish-scales,
+and whose faces had a very fishy expression. They offered me fish in
+every shape--skinned, gutted, chopped up, or whole, just as I pleased
+to buy them. One wrinkled old woman, with a voice much broken by
+shouting against the Gulf storms from high rocks, or some such cause,
+called my attention to a monster fish that must have weighed at least
+sixty pounds, and insisted upon letting me have it at a reduced price.
+I shook my head and smiled. In that smile I suppose the sagacious old
+fishwoman discovered the pliancy of my disposition, for she
+immediately commenced a wild harangue on the merits of the fish,
+scarcely a word of which I understood. Two or three times I started to
+leave, but each time she made a motion to detain me. The fact is, I
+was afraid she would get hold of me with her fishy hands, and was
+considerably embarrassed what to do. The price of the fish was
+reasonable enough--only two marks (about forty cents); but I had no
+use for it, and did not like to carry it to my hotel. The worst of it
+was, the old woman thought the price was the only obstacle, and
+finally came down to a mark and a half. What was to be done? From
+Billingsgate to Stockholm, it is notorious that a disappointed
+fishwoman is a very dangerous and uncertain foe to be encountered by
+any man, however brave. She began to get excited at the bare prospect
+of having taken so much trouble for nothing. Several of her friends
+began to gather round. A cold tremor ran through my frame. There
+seemed to be no possible way of evading the purchase without creating
+an unpleasant scene. To make an end of it, I bought the fish. With a
+bunch of grass wrapped around its tail, I made my way through the
+crowd. To be sure, I felt a little ashamed to be perambulating the
+streets of a strange city with a big fish in my hand, yet I could not
+well throw it down on the sidewalk, and was afraid, if I offered it to
+some little boy, he might stick his tongue in his cheek, and ask me if
+I saw any thing green in the corner of his eye. The case was getting
+worse and worse every moment. People stopped and looked at me as I
+passed. My arm was getting tired. Fortunately, I was close to the
+quay. A happy thought struck me; I walked over to the water's edge and
+cast the fish into his native element. "Go," said I, in the language
+of my uncle Toby; "there's room enough in the world for you and me."
+What the by-standers thought of the act I did not wait to see. It was
+enough that I was clear of a very unpleasant companion, though an
+ancient and fish-like odor remained with me for some time after. As
+for the fish, I doubt if he ever came to life; he must have been dead
+for several days when I bought him, judging by a taint upon my hands,
+which the best soap could not eradicate.
+
+After this I rambled gloomily along the quays, and wondered what every
+body was waiting for. There were small vessels enough lying at the
+wharves, but every body on board seemed to be taking it easy. Cooks
+were lying asleep on the galleys; skippers were sitting on the poop,
+smoking socially with their crews; small boys, with red night-caps on
+their heads, were stretched out upon the hatchways, playing push-pin,
+and eating crusts of black bread; stevedores, with dusty sacks on
+their shoulders, were lounging about on the wharf, waiting for
+something in the way of trade to turn up; shabby citizens, who seemed
+to be out of profitable employment, were sitting on the loose timbers
+overlooking the water, bobbing for fish, and never catching any so far
+as I could perceive; and scattering crowds of idlers were strolling
+idly along like myself, in search of something particular to look at,
+but, failing to discover it, they looked about at things generally,
+and then strolled on to look at something else. I sighed at the
+stagnation of business, and hoped it would never be my fate to be
+engaged in mercantile affairs in Stockholm. Before the Gotha Canal was
+completed this was a very brisk city; but since that period,
+Gottenburg, being more accessible, has monopolized much of the
+European trade. The principal trade of Stockholm now consists of
+exports of iron, and imports of sugar, coffee, and liquors. Throughout
+the interior the peasantry manufacture most of the articles required
+for their own use, such as clothing, implements of husbandry, etc., so
+that they are not large consumers of foreign commodities. Finding it
+very dull in town, I walked out in the suburbs, which are pretty and
+picturesque, though primitive enough to be a thousand miles from a
+commercial city. The houses are chiefly constructed of wood, painted
+yellow, with red roofs, and neatly ornamented with verandas; and the
+people have a quaint and simple look, as if they knew but little of
+the world, and did not care much to trouble their heads about the
+progress of events. Here as well as elsewhere, children continue to be
+born in great numbers, and groups of them were to be seen before every
+house playing in the mud just as little cotton-headed children play
+all over the world. I say cotton-headed, because these were of the
+blue-eyed, white-haired race who have a natural affinity for muddy
+places, and whose cheeks have a natural propensity to gather bloom and
+dirt at the same time.
+
+I struck out on the high points of the Normalm, and on one of them
+discovered an old church, surrounded by trees, with benches
+conveniently placed beneath their shade for weary pedestrians. Here
+were family groups quietly enjoying the fresh air, the men smoking and
+drinking, while the women and girls economized time by knitting and
+sewing. I took a vacant seat and looked down over the city. Surely a
+prettier prospect could not exist upon earth. There lay the city of
+the sea outspread beneath, its irregular streets, quaint old houses
+and churches covering every available space; the numerous wooded
+islands in the vicinity dotted with villas; sloops and boats floating
+dreamily on the Malar Lake, and larger vessels gliding over the waters
+of the Baltic; dense forests of pine dim in the distance; and over all
+a strangely colored Northern light, that gave the scene something of a
+spectral aspect. Yet the spirit of repose that seemed cast over this
+fair scene was absolutely oppressive to one like myself, accustomed to
+an active life. From the high points I wandered down into the low
+places, through narrow and tortuous streets; gazed into the stables
+and cow-houses; watched the tinners, and coppersmiths, and shoemakers
+as they wound up the labors of the day in their dingy little shops;
+peered into the greasy little meatshops and antiquated grocery-stores;
+studied the faces of the good people who slowly wended their way
+homeward, and bowed to several old ladies out of pure kindliness and
+good feeling; then wandered back into the public places, still pursued
+by a green and yellow melancholy. I gazed steadfastly at the statues
+of Gustavus Vasa, Charles XII., and Berzelius, and tried in vain to
+remember something of their history. I went into the picture-shops,
+took off my hat to small boys behind the counter, looked at the
+pictures, and bought several, for which I had no earthly use; then I
+went to the cafe on the bridge, drank coffee and cognac, and attempted
+to read the Swedish newspapers, of which I understood every letter,
+but not a word; after which I heard the whistle of a small steam-boat
+at the end of the cafe garden, and ran down in a hurry to get on
+board. The steam-boat was about equal to a good-sized yawl, and was
+bound for some port unknown to me; but that made no difference. I
+never see a boat of any kind going any where, or a locomotive, or a
+carriage, or any thing that moves by steam, sails, horse-power, or
+electricity, without feeling an unconquerable desire to be off too, so
+that I very much fear, if I should come across a convict vessel bound
+for Van Diemen's Land, it would be impossible for me to avoid jumping
+on board and going with the crowd. In the present case it was
+essentially necessary that I should keep moving. I was almost sinking
+under the oppressive loneliness of the place. Rather than remain
+another hour within the limits of such a dreary old city, I would have
+taken passage in a tread-mill, and relied upon the force of
+imagination to carry me to some other place. Nay, a hangman's cart on
+the way to the gallows would have presented a strong temptation. In
+saying this I mean nothing disrespectful to Birger Jarl, who founded
+Stockholm, and made it his place of residence in 1260; nor to
+Christina Gyllenstierna, who so heroically defended it against
+Christian II. of Denmark in the sixteenth century; nor to Gustavus
+Vasa, the brave liberator of Sweden; nor his noble and heroic
+grandson, Gustavus Adolphus; nor any body else famous in Swedish
+history; but the truth of it is, Sweden at the present day is
+essentially a home country, and the people are too domestic in their
+habits and modes of thought to afford any peculiar interest to a
+casual tourist. I like their simple and genial manners, and respect
+them for their sterling integrity, yet these are traits of no great
+value to one who travels so far out of the world in search of objects
+of more stirring interest. The ordinary traveler, who has no time to
+dive very deep beneath the surface of human life, is not satisfied to
+find things nearly as he finds them at home; streets, shops, and
+houses undistinguished by any peculiarity save the inconveniences and
+oddities of age; people every where around him who dress like all
+other civilized people, and possess the standard virtues and
+weaknesses of humanity; the proprieties of life decently observed, and
+loyalty to forms and time-honored usages a national characteristic. A
+Swede would no more violate a rule of etiquette, smile or bow out of
+place, eat a beefsteak or drink his schnapps at an unusual hour, or
+strike out any thing novel or original in the way of pleasure, profit,
+or enterprise, than a German. The court circle is the most formal in
+Europe, and the upper classes of society are absolute slaves to
+conventionality. A presentation at court is an event of such signal
+importance that weeks of preparation are required for the impressive
+ordeal; and when the tailor, and shoemaker, and the jeweler have done
+their part, and the unhappy victim, all bedeviled with finery and
+befrogged with lace, is brought into the presence of royalty, it is a
+miracle if he gets through without committing some dire offense
+against the laws of etiquette. Fine carriages, coats of arms,
+uniforms, and badges of office, are held in high veneration; and while
+the government is liberal and the people profess to be independent,
+their slavish devotion to rank, dress, and etiquette surpasses any
+thing I saw in Russia. With this, to be sure, is mingled a certain
+simplicity of manner and kindliness of expression toward inferiors
+which sometimes lead the stranger to believe that he is among a
+democratic people, but they are as far from democracy as the Prussians
+or the Austrians. The very affability of the superior to the inferior
+is the best evidence of the inseparable gulf that lies between them.
+In Russia there is the charm of barbarism, savagery, filth, and show;
+the people are loose, ferocious, daring, and wild; here in Sweden, the
+quiet, decent, home-aspect of the people, their rigid observance of
+the rules of etiquette, their devotion to royalty, law, and order, are
+absolutely depressing. In the abstract, many traits in their character
+are worthy of admiration, but as a traveler I detest this kind of
+civilization. Give me a devil or a savage at all times, who outrages
+the rules of society and carries an advertisement of character on his
+back. As an artist I can make something of him, either in the way of
+copy or pencil-sketches.
+
+Which brings me back to my situation, in the natural course of events.
+The whistle blows. The little steam-boat is about to stop at the
+landing-place of the Djurgaard. The engineer, smutty and oily with
+hard service, gives a turn to the crank, pulls an iron bar with a
+polished handle, and then pushes it; the tea-kettle boiler fizzes and
+whizzes, and lets off steam; the paddles stop paddling; the gentlemen
+passengers stand up and adjust their shirt collars; the ladies gather
+their shawls around them, and pick up their scattered bundles; with a
+whirl and a jerk we are alongside the wharf, and the captain jumps
+from the bow with a rope in his hand, and makes all fast to a
+logger-head. And now step ashore, if you please, ladies and gentlemen,
+and let us take a stroll through the deer garden, where
+
+        "The ash and warrior oak
+    Cast anchor in the rifted rock."
+
+The walks through this beautiful park (said to be the finest attached
+to any capital in Europe) are broad, and handsomely graded. Grand old
+forest-trees on either side make "a boundless contiguity of shade"
+over the greensward. Pavilions and rustic summer-houses stand on the
+high points of rock, commanding magnificent views of the adjacent
+islands and waters of the lake. Flower-gardens are numerous, and every
+nook and dell contains some place of refreshment, where the gay
+company who frequent these delightful grounds in the long summer
+evenings can drink their tea and enjoy the varied beauties of the
+scene. Wandering through these sylvan glades, the eye is continually
+charmed with the rare combinations of natural and artificial beauties
+scattered around in every direction with such wonderful prodigality.
+At one moment you imagine yourself in a wilderness, hundreds of miles
+from any human habitation, so dense are the shades of the grand old
+forest-trees, and so wild and rugged the moss-covered rocks; a few
+steps bring you suddenly upon some fairy scene, where palaces and
+temples, gilded carriages, gayly-dressed companies of ladies and
+gentlemen, and groups of children sporting upon the grass, dispel the
+illusion. Ascending to the highest points by the narrow and tortuous
+by-paths, I could almost fancy myself in the midst of the Coast Range,
+so perfect was the isolation; then coming out suddenly upon some
+projecting cliff, the change of scene from rugged grandeur to the
+perfection of civilization was absolutely magical. Vegetation in this
+northern region, where the summer are so short and warm, flourishes
+with an almost tropical luxuriance. The melting of the snows in
+spring, followed by heavy rains and sudden heat, causes the earth to
+give forth its products with a prodigality that compensates in some
+degree for the long and dreary winters. Trees burst into leaf as if by
+magic; flowers shoot up and bloom in a few weeks; the grass, enriched
+by the snows, springs forth and covers the earth like a gorgeous
+carpet of velvet. All nature rejoices in the coming of the long summer
+days. The birds sing in the groves; the bees hum merrily around the
+flowers; the gay butterflies flit through the sunbeams; and day and
+night are an almost continued period of revelry for all those
+beautiful and ephemeral creatures that droop and die with the flowers.
+I have nowhere seen such a profusion of intensely rich green and such
+wonderfully deep shades as in the neighborhood of Stockholm. It is
+almost oppressive to one accustomed to California scenery, where the
+whole face of the country wears a dry red-and-yellowish hue in summer.
+Strange how one's tastes change by association! I well remember when I
+first entered the Golden Gate, in August, 1849, after a long and
+dreary voyage round Cape Horn. Glad as I was to see land once more, it
+struck me that I had never looked upon so barren and desolate a
+country. The hill-sides had the appearance of parched and sodless
+deserts. Yet I soon learned to like that warm glow. I slept upon those
+parched hills, breathed the invigorating air, and felt the inspiration
+of California life. I would not now exchange the summer drapery of our
+hills and valleys for the deepest green upon earth. To my present
+frame of mind there is something flat and chilling in this redundancy
+of verdure that reminds one of death and the grave-yard. The
+moss-covered rocks jutting from the cold, grassy earth; the dripping
+fern; the pale, flitting gleams of sunshine struggling through the
+depths of foliage; the mould that seems to hang in the air--all these
+strike me as death-like. I long for the vital glow of a more genial
+sun, whose all-pervading light is reflected from the rich golden
+earth, shooting health and vigor through every fibre of the frame,
+permeating body and soul with its effulgence. Such intensity of light,
+such warmth of colors, fill the dullest mind with inspiration; the
+blood is quickened in its circulation; the respiration is full and
+free; the intellect becomes clearer and sharper; the whole man is
+quickened into the highest condition of mental and physical vitality.
+Is it a matter of wonder, then, that the people of California should
+be brave, generous, and loyal--that they should have a high sense of
+right, and an undying scorn of wrong? I hold that the species is
+improved by the climate and the country--that stronger men and better
+men are now undergoing the process of development in California than
+in any other country on the face of the earth. If we live fast and die
+suddenly, it is the natural consequence of increased bodily and mental
+vigor, which too often leads to excesses, but which, under proper
+training, must eventually lead to the highest moral and intellectual
+achievements. The fault does not lie in our climate. I have yet seen
+none to equal it North or South--not even in Italy. I do not think the
+climate of Sweden is conducive to longevity, or extraordinary mental
+or bodily vigor. Indeed, the same may be said of any climate abounding
+in such rigorous extremes. The Swedes, it is true, lead a placid and
+easy life, content with ordinary comforts, and worried by no exciting
+or disquieting ambitions; hence they enjoy good health, and generally
+get through the usual span allotted to man. If the same sanitary rules
+were observed in our country, there would be less sickness and fewer
+untimely deaths. Dissipation is not rare in Sweden, especially in the
+capital cities, but it is more methodical with us. The people have
+certain times and occasions for getting drunk; they make a regular
+business of it. Virulent and disgusting diseases are also prevalent
+among them, so that between the rigors of climate and other causes
+less excusable, they frequently appear old and decrepit before their
+time. That among the middle classes there are fine-looking men and
+beautiful women, is true; that in literature, science, and music, they
+can boast names that will go down to posterity, is a fact that can not
+be denied; but I think such a climate and the habits engendered by it
+are inimical to the highest order of physical and mental development
+among the masses. Hence we find throughout the country many diseased
+and deformed persons of both sexes; many weakly and not a few
+imbecile. The peasants are not so hardy and robust as I expected to
+find them; and I was told by competent judges, better informed than I
+could hope to become during so brief a sojourn, that they are
+progressively degenerating year after year, and can not now compare
+with the peasants of former times.
+
+To say that I was charmed with my ramble through the Djurgaard would
+but faintly express the pleasure I derived from my visit to this
+beautiful park. Of all the resorts for recreation that I have yet seen
+in Northern Europe, I give it the palm for natural beauty and tasteful
+cultivation. In this the Swedes excel. Their villas, gardens, and
+parks are unsurpassed, and no people in the world better understand
+how to enjoy them.
+
+Late in the evening I returned to my hotel, delighted with all I had
+seen. I was anxious to extend my rambles to Upsala, and to visit more
+in detail the various beautiful islands and places of interest in the
+vicinity of Stockholm; but the season was advancing, and I was
+reluctantly compelled to push on toward Norway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE GOTHA CANAL.
+
+
+On a pleasant morning in August I called for my bill at the "Stadt
+Frankfort." The landlady, a blooming young woman of rather vivacious
+and persuasive manners, wished me such a delightful journey, and
+looked so sorry I was going, that I could not muster resolution enough
+to complain of the various candles that were never burnt, and the
+numerous services that were never rendered, except in the bill; and
+had she charged me for washing my own face and putting on my own
+boots, I fear the result would have been the same. Wishing her a happy
+future, I shouldered my knapsack, which by this time contained only
+two shirts, an old pair of stockings, and some few flowers and stones
+from celebrated places, and, thus accoutred for the journey, made my
+way down to Riddarholm Quay. In a dingy old office, abounding in
+cobwebs, a dingy old gentleman, who spoke English, sold me a
+second-class ticket for Gottenburg. The little steamer upon which I
+had the good fortune to secure a passage was called the Admiral Von
+Platten, a name famous in the history of Swedish enterprise. It was
+Von Platten who, in 1808, took charge of the great work of internal
+improvement known as the West Gotha Canal, and by the aid of Telford,
+the celebrated English engineer, carried it into successful operation
+in 1822. The project of connecting the lakes of Wenern and Wettern,
+and forming a water communication all the way between Stockholm and
+Gottenburg, was entertained at a very early day by the different
+sovereigns and scientific men of Sweden. Bishop Brask in 1516,
+Gustavus I., Charles IX., Swedenborg, Gustavus Adolphus, and others,
+took particular interest in it, and some progress was made in the
+building of locks and opening of short passages up to the beginning of
+the present century. Daniel Thunberg contributed materially to the
+opening of the route between Wenern and the Baltic; and Colonel N.
+Eriksson, the celebrated engineer whose reputation stands so high in
+the United States, had the direction of the work for many years. It
+was not, however, till 1844 that the entire work was fully completed,
+although some years prior to that time the two seas were connected and
+open to navigation. The immense expense of this enterprise; the
+extraordinary natural obstacles that have been overcome; the patience
+and perseverance with which it has been carried into practical
+operation; the magnitude and durability of the work, can only be
+appreciated by one who has made the trip through Sweden by this route.
+It is certainly the grandest triumph recorded in Swedish history. It
+will exist and benefit generations to come, when the names of her
+kings, warriors, and statesmen shall be known only to antiquarians.
+
+The steamers now plying on this route are small, but well arranged for
+the accommodation of passengers. There is a first and second cabin,
+and a restaurant at which the traveler can call for what he desires,
+and, provided his tastes are not eccentric, generally get what he
+calls for. The waiters are simple-minded, kind-hearted, and sociable;
+sit down and gossip with the passengers (at least those of the second
+class), and, what seems rather novel and amusing to a stranger, leave
+the bill to be made out and summed up by the passengers themselves. A
+general account-book is left open in the cabin, in which it is
+expected every traveler will set down his name and keep his own
+account. At the end of the trip, the head waiter goes the rounds of
+the cabin and deck, book in hand, and asks the passengers to designate
+their names and sum up their accounts. Nobody seems to think of
+cheating or being cheated. There is something so primitive in this way
+of dealing on a public highway between two commercial cities, that I
+was quite charmed with it, and have some thoughts of recommending it
+to the California Steam Navigation Company. Just think what a pleasure
+it would be to travel from San Francisco to Sacramento, and keep the
+record of your own bitters and cigars, to say nothing of your supper
+and berth! I am certain the plan would be approved by a majority of
+the traveling public throughout the state.
+
+The company on board these little Swedish steamers is generally plain,
+sociable, and intelligent. Among the passengers I met many who spoke
+English and German, and few who did not speak at least one language
+in addition to their own. In midsummer the trip from Stockholm to
+Gottenburg usually takes three days, though it is sometimes
+accomplished in two. The distance is about three hundred and seventy
+miles by the shortest route, through the Wettern and Wenern lakes.
+Time, however, is no great object in Sweden, and a day or two more or
+less makes no great difference. The beauty of the scenery, and the
+diversity of land and water, render the trip one of the most agreeable
+in Northern Europe, and for one I can safely say it would have pleased
+me all the better had it lasted longer.
+
+Leaving the Riddarholm Quay, our route lay for the first four hours
+through the Malar Lake. The weather was delightful, and there was
+scarcely a ripple on the water. Sloops and wood-boats lay floating
+upon its glassy surface without perceptible motion. All along on
+either side beautiful villas peeped from the umbrageous shores and
+islands. Behind us, the city loomed up in all its queenly beauty, the
+numerous churches and public buildings presented in majestic outline
+against the sky, while the forest of shipping at the quays added a
+more stirring and vital interest to the scene. As we turned the last
+promontory to the right, and took a lingering look at this charming
+"city of the sea," I thought I had never enjoyed a more enchanting
+_coup d'oeil_. The suburbs of Stockholm; the numerous little islands,
+with their rich green shrubbery; the villas and gardens; the sparkling
+vistas of water, form a combination of beauties rarely to be met with
+in any other part of the world. No wonder the Swedes regard their
+capital as a paradise. I fully agree with them that in summer it
+deserves all their praise; but I should prefer a warmer and more
+genial paradise for winter quarters. Earthen stoves and hot-air
+furnaces are not in any of the seven heavens that occur in my
+imagination.
+
+Before many hours we passed a point somewhat celebrated in Swedish
+history. On a high peak of rock, hanging upon a pole, is a prodigious
+iron hat, said to be the identical "stove-pipe" worn by one of the old
+Swedish kings--a terrible fellow, who was in the habit of slaying
+hundreds of his enemies with his own hand. This famous old king must
+have been a giant in stature. Judging by his hat, as Professor Agassiz
+judges of fish by their scales, he must have been forty feet high, by
+about ten or fifteen broad; and if his strength corresponded with his
+gigantic proportions, I fancy he could have knocked the gable-end off
+a house with a single blow of his fist, or kicked the head out of a
+puncheon of rum, and swallowed the contents at a single draught,
+without the least difficulty. His hat probably weighs a hundred
+pounds--enough to give any ordinary man a severe headache. Here it has
+stood for centuries, in commemoration of his last struggle. Besieged
+by an overwhelming force of his enemies, as the chronicle goes, he
+slew some thousands of them, but, being finally hard pressed, he lost
+his iron hat in the fight, and then plunged headlong into the lake.
+Some historians assert that he took to water to avoid capture; but I
+incline to the opinion myself that he did it to cool his head. At all
+events, the record ends at this point. We are unable to learn any
+thing more of his fate. These Northern races are strong believers in
+their own aboriginal history, and although there may be much in this
+that would require the very best kind of testimony before a California
+jury, the slightest hint of a doubt as to its truth would probably be
+taken as a personal offense by any public spirited Swede. In that
+respect, thank fortune, I am gifted with a most accommodating
+disposition. I can believe almost any thing under the sun. Giants and
+genii are nothing to what my credulity is capable of; and as for
+fairies and hobgoblins, I can swallow them by wholesale. There is only
+one thing in this world that I entertain the least doubt about--the
+title to my house and lot in Oakland. Upon that point I question if it
+ever will be possible for human evidence to satisfy me. Three times I
+paid for it, and each time every body considered it perfect except
+myself. I expect daily to hear of another title, of which I trust some
+enterprising gentleman in want of funds will advise me. It will be a
+source of consolation to know that I was not mistaken.
+
+Situated near the entrance of the canal, on the left bank, is the
+beautiful little town of Soderkoping, celebrated for its mineral
+springs, to which the people of Stockholm resort in great numbers
+during the summer for health and recreation. The scene as we
+approached was very pretty. Pine and oak forests cover the granite
+hills for many miles around, relieved by occasional openings dotted
+with villas, gardens, and farms; and the dark red wooden houses of the
+town have a singularly pleasant effect glimmering in the sunbeams
+through the rich masses of foliage by which they are surrounded.
+Groups of visitors stood at the locks awaiting the news from the city,
+or anxiously looking out for the familiar faces of relatives and
+friends, while the lock-men slowly and methodically performed their
+accustomed routine of labors. Soderkoping is a very ancient town, and
+in former times enjoyed considerable importance as a mart of commerce.
+Passing through a narrow stretch of canal, some miles in length,
+overhung by trees and rocks on the right, and affording some pleasant
+views of the rich valley to the left, the banks gradually widened till
+we entered a beautiful little lake, leading, after a short passage, to
+the waters of the Roxen. The narrow parts of the canal are difficult
+of navigation, owing to the various turns and the solid masses of rock
+through which it is cut; and the steamer sometimes proceeds very
+slowly, carefully feeling her way along, till an open space affords an
+opportunity of going ahead at a more rapid rate. In the mean time the
+passengers are all out on the decks, shaded by an awning, enjoying
+themselves in the most unceremonious manner, laughing and talking in
+groups, sipping their coffee, or promenading up and down to enjoy the
+sweet-scented breeze from the neighboring hills. The Roxen Lake,
+through which we next passed, is some seventeen miles long by seven
+broad, and is justly regarded as one of the loveliest sheets of water
+in all Sweden. The shores are neither very high nor very grand, but it
+would be difficult to find any thing more charming than the rich
+coloring of the rocks, their varied outlines, the luxuriance of the
+forests, and the crystal clearness of the water. Villages and farms
+are seen at occasional intervals in the distance, and sloops, with
+their sails hanging idly against their masts, float upon the placid
+surface of the lake as upon a mirror. Indeed, so perfect is the
+inversion, that the eye can scarcely determine how much is real and
+how much the result of optical illusion. Passing in sight of the town
+of Linkoping, which lies to the left, we soon reached the entrance of
+the West Gotha Canal, which here makes a direct ascent from the waters
+of the Roxen of seventy-five feet. At this point there are eleven
+locks, seven of which are closely connected, and the remainder
+separated by short stretches of canal. Near at hand is a pretty little
+village to the left, famous for its church, the Vretakloster, built in
+the Gothic style in 1128, by Inge II., one of the early kings of
+Sweden. While the steamer was slowly toiling through the locks, a
+party of the passengers, including myself, paid a visit to the church,
+and, aided by a venerable sacristan, saw all that was to be seen in
+it, chief among which are the tombs of the kings and the arms of the
+Douglas family, those warlike Scots who took such an active part in
+the military exploits of Sweden during the Thirty Years' War. The walk
+was a pleasant relief after our trip across the lake, and on our
+return by a short cut to the upper locks we had a splendid view of the
+wood-covered shore and glistening waters of the Roxen, now fading away
+in the rich twilight. The steamer occupies about an hour and a half in
+getting through the locks, and most of the passengers take advantage
+of the delay to stroll about among the neighboring cottages and
+gardens, and enjoy the various refreshments offered for sale at the
+pavilions and tents erected near the upper extremity for the
+accommodation of travelers. Fresh milk, raspberries, coffee, sweet
+cakes, and ale are the principal articles furnished at these places.
+Notwithstanding there was an abundant supply of luxuries on board,
+every body seemed to be hungry and thirsty on getting ashore. The
+rapidity with which the plates, cups, and glasses were emptied was
+really surprising, and would have done credit to a crowd of
+Californians, who, I think, can eat more and drink more in a given
+time than any race of men upon the earth.
+
+The canal for some distance beyond the locks is quite narrow--often
+barely wide enough for two steamers to pass. On the left the banks
+rise to a considerable height, and then gradually decline till the
+canal passes along a ridge, high above the surrounding country. The
+effect in these places is very peculiar. The overhanging trees almost
+unite their branches over the chimney of the steamer as she wends her
+way slowly and steadily along; deep ravines extend downward into an
+impenetrable abyss on either side; the sky glimmers through the
+foliage in a horizontal line with the eye, and one can almost fancy
+the world has been left below somewhere, and that a new highway has
+been entered, upon which passengers steam their way to the stars. I am
+quite certain, if we had kept a direct course long enough, we would
+have reached the moon or some of the heavenly bodies.
+
+It was late at night when we reached the Boren Lake, another of those
+natural highways that lie between the Baltic and the North Sea. This
+lake is comparatively small, but it abounds in rocky islands and
+shoals which render the navigation through it rather intricate. A
+pilot is taken on board at the entrance of each lake, and discharged
+upon reaching the next canal station.
+
+I remained on deck until midnight, enjoying the strange and beautiful
+lights spread over the heavens in this latitude, and was reluctant
+even then to lose the views during any part of the journey. Nature,
+however, can not be defrauded of her legitimate demands even by the
+beauties of scenery, and I went below to sleep out the remainder of
+the night. My berth was in the forward cabin, where twenty or thirty
+passengers were already stretched out--some on the tables, some on the
+floor, and as many as could find room were snoring away in the
+temporary berths erected on the seats for their accommodation. Toward
+morning I was suddenly aroused by a strange and jarring motion of the
+boat, accompanied by a grating sound. It seemed as if an earthquake
+were throwing us up out of the water; yet the shocks were more sudden
+and violent than any I had ever before experienced. Many of the
+passengers were cast out of their berths, and the glass and crockery
+in the pantry went crashing over the floor. Scarcely conscious whether
+I was dreaming or awake, I grasped a post, and sprang out on a pile of
+baggage, but was immediately precipitated across the cabin.
+Fortunately I fell against the chambermaid, and suffered no injury.
+Amid the confusion worse confounded, the screams of the women down
+below, the crash of broken glasses, and the general struggle to get to
+the cabin door, a German Jew sprang from his berth, and in frantic
+accents begged that his life might be spared. "Take my money!" cried
+he; "take it all, but for God's sake don't murder me!" The poor fellow
+had evidently been aroused out of some horrible dream, and between
+actual and imaginary dangers was now quite bewildered with terror. I
+could not help but be amused at the grotesque expression of his face,
+even at such a moment. It would have provoked a smile had we been
+going to the bottom. There was no fear of that, however, as I quickly
+ascertained. We were already hard and fast on the bottom. We had run
+upon a sunken rock, and were so firmly wedged between its crevices
+that it seemed likely we should remain there some time. As soon as all
+was still, I quietly dressed myself and went on deck to take an
+observation. It was just daylight. We were in the middle of a lake,
+surrounded by small rocky islands. One of these was only a stone's
+throw distant on our starboard. The stakes between which our course
+lay were close by on the larboard. We had missed the channel by some
+twenty or thirty yards, and run upon a bed of solid boulders. The
+pilot, it seemed, had been drinking a little too freely of schnapps,
+and had fallen asleep at the helm. It was a miracle that we were not
+all dashed to pieces. A few yards to the right stood a sharp rock,
+which, had we run against it, would have crushed in the entire bow of
+the boat, and probably many of us would have perished.
+
+Although there was no fear of our sinking any deeper unless the bed of
+rocks gave way, it was not a pleasant prospect to be detained here,
+perhaps for several days. The main shore was some five or six miles
+distant, and presented an almost unbroken line of granite boulders and
+dense pine forests. Most of the passengers were on deck, in a state of
+high excitement; the gentlemen running about in their shirt sleeves
+and drawers, and the ladies in those indescribable costumes which
+ladies usually wear when they go to sleep. The captain was mounted on
+the poop-deck, with his pipe in his mouth, giving orders to the men,
+who were pulling and tugging at big ropes, and trying to be very busy
+knocking things about; the pilot stood a little apart from the
+captain, pale and moody, having in a single moment destroyed his
+prospects for life. I felt very sorry for the poor fellow, though
+there was really no excuse for him. Every now and then the captain
+turned to him and gave him a broadside of curses, which he bore very
+meekly.
+
+In vain the engineer put on additional steam; in vain the captain
+shouted "Back!" "Ahead!" "Stop!" We did nothing but stop. It was stop
+all the time. As there is no tide in these inland waters, the prospect
+was that we would continue to stop as long as the rocks remained
+stationary.
+
+All hope of progress being at an end, the engineer slackened down the
+fires; the deck-hands went to breakfast, and the passengers went down
+below to dress and talk over their misfortune. The sun rose as usual,
+and the sky was as clear and the lake as placid as if nothing had
+happened. I had been trying all my life to get shipwrecked on a
+desolate island; now there seemed a fair prospect of success. The only
+difficulty was, that there was no heavy sea to break the vessel to
+pieces, and she was too substantial to go to pieces of her own
+account. The nearest island was little more than a barren rock. A few
+birds wheeled about over it, or sat perched upon its rugged points,
+but with that exception I doubt if it furnished a foothold for a
+living creature.
+
+After a good breakfast of sausages and veal cutlets, brown bread and
+coffee, we again turned out on deck. This time the joyful tidings
+reached us from aloft that a Gottenburg steamer was approaching. Soon
+the smoke of her chimneys was perceptible from the deck, and in an
+hour or so she was alongside. A stout hawser was bent on to her, and
+after another hour of pulling and tugging, backing and filling, we
+slipped off the rocks, and floated out into the channel. I was
+destined, after all, never to be decently shipwrecked. We had suffered
+but little injury, and proceeded on our way as quietly as if nothing
+had interrupted our course. On our arrival at the next pilot station
+the captain put the pilot ashore, with a parting malediction in the
+Swedish vernacular.
+
+The next place of importance on our route was the pretty little town
+of Motala, at which we stopped for some hours to take in freight and
+passengers. The neighborhood is undulating and picturesque, and
+abounds in rich farms. Motala is an old-fashioned place, with paved
+streets and wooden houses, much like the suburbs of Stockholm. It is
+celebrated chiefly for its manufactures of iron. The founderies are
+numerous, and cutlery of a very good quality is manufactured here.
+Besides these, it possesses many other objects of interest. The
+churches are well worth visiting, and the ruins of the fortifications
+erected in 1567, to resist the Danes, are among the finest in Sweden.
+From Motala, after another narrow stretch of canal, we soon reached
+the Wettern Lake, the next largest to the Wenern, and the waters of
+which are three hundred and four feet above the level of the sea.
+
+In my recollections of travel I can scarcely call to mind any
+experience more pleasant than I enjoyed during this part of the trip.
+The lake scenery of Sweden, although not very grand compared with that
+of the Norwegian fjords, is certainly unsurpassed in the softness and
+beauty of its coloring, the crystal clearness of the water, the
+luxuriance of the surrounding forests, the varied labyrinths of
+charming little islands through which the channel winds, and the
+delicate atmospheric tints cast on the distant shores. By this time,
+too, the passengers have become better acquainted. The wonderful
+sights that we have seen together; the perils and dangers through
+which we have passed; the breakfasts, dinners, and suppers that we
+have eaten at the same board; the amount of solid sleeping that we
+have done in the same little cabin; the promenades we have had up and
+down the decks, and the rambles we have enjoyed together, have bound
+us together as one family, and now we come out with our individual
+histories and experiences, our accomplishments and humors. We (the
+gentlemen) drink schnapps together, smoke cigars, talk all the
+languages under the sun, tell our best anecdotes, and sing glees under
+the awning. The ladies look more beautiful than ever, and although
+they are still a little shy of us, as ladies in Europe generally are
+of the male sex, they sometimes favor us with a smile or a pleasant
+word, and thus contribute to our happiness. I don't know, for the life
+of me, what dire offense the man who founded European society was
+guilty of; but it is certain his successors, from Algeria to the North
+Pole, are sadly mistrusted by the unmarried ladies. This, I regret to
+say, is the case in Sweden, as well as in Germany and France. A
+gentleman is generally regarded as a ferocious cannibal, ready
+without the slightest provocation to devour and swallow up
+defenseless maidens. The married ladies are free and easy enough,
+having discovered probably that men are not half so dangerous as they
+are reported to be. But, all things considered, the Swedish ladies are
+exceedingly polite and affable, and on occasions of this kind seem
+well disposed toward our rapacious sex.
+
+The next important point in our route was the fortress of Wanas, which
+commands the channel entering the lake on the eastern side. This is
+considered a work of great importance in view of invasion by any
+foreign power. We did not stop long enough to examine it in detail,
+merely touching to put the mail ashore and take in a few passengers.
+Leaving the Wettern Lake, our route lay through a series of smaller
+lakes, beautifully diversified with wood-covered islands, till we
+entered the Viken, another magnificent stretch of water of less extent
+than the Wettern, but still more beautiful than any we had yet seen.
+Here the rocks and islands are innumerable, rising from the water in
+every direction; the smaller ones covered with moss, lichens,
+shrubbery, and flowers; and the larger darkened with a dense growth of
+fir, pine, and other evergreens, while the oak, elm, and ash
+occasionally enliven the masses of shade with their more lively
+foliage.
+
+At the end of the Viken, which is some fifteen miles in length, the
+West Gotha Canal commences, and continues through a rich and beautiful
+farming country to the waters of the great Wenern Lake, some twenty
+miles distant. The passage through this portion of the route is less
+interesting than others through which we had passed--so far, at least,
+as the scenery is concerned. The country is undulating, but not
+sufficiently diversified for fine scenic effects. Farms and meadows
+extend nearly all the way to the shores of the Wenern; and the canal
+passes at frequent intervals through farming districts, which, in
+point of cultivation, are quite equal to any thing I had seen in more
+southern parts of Europe. The peasants' houses along the route are
+neat and comfortable, and reminded me occasionally of our New England
+farm-houses. Villages enliven the route at intervals of a few miles,
+but generally they are of inconsiderable size, and may properly be
+regarded as mere gatherings of farm-houses around the nucleus of a
+church or post station. In this respect, I was struck with the
+difference between Sweden and Germany. The German peasantry, as a
+general thing, live in villages, and carry on their farming outside,
+sometimes at a distance of several miles. In the Thuringenwald, the
+Schwartzwald, the Spessart, and some other mountainous districts, it
+is true, exceptions may be found to this rule; but throughout the best
+cultivated districts of Germany there are but comparatively few
+farm-houses in which isolated families live. Hence villages, and, in
+many cases, large towns, form the head-quarters of each agricultural
+parish. The pedestrian, in traveling through Germany, is scarcely ever
+more than a "halp-stund" from one town or village to another. I think
+the longest stretch I ever made between two villages was two hours, or
+six and a half miles. In Sweden (and the same may be said of Norway)
+the farming districts have more of an American aspect. The houses are
+scattered about on the different farms, and the peasants do not seem
+to be so gregarious in their habits as those of Germany. This arises
+in part from the fact that the population is not so dense in Sweden as
+in the more central parts of Europe, and in part from the greater
+abundance of wood and pasture, and the predominance of the lumbering,
+mining, and stock-raising interests. Many of the farmers are also
+lumbermen and miners, and nearly all have a good supply of blood
+cattle. The extent of arable land in Sweden is comparatively small. It
+presents few attractions as an agricultural country. Its chief wealth
+consists in its vast forests and mines. The climate is too severe and
+the production of cereal crops too uncertain to render farming on a
+large scale a profitable pursuit. This is especially the case in the
+northern parts. South of Stockholm, between the lakes of Wettern and
+Wenern, and along the banks of the Gota River, farming is carried to
+considerable perfection; but with this exception, and some small and
+sheltered valleys to the north, in which the peasants manage with
+great care and labor to raise a sufficient supply of grain and
+potatoes for domestic consumption, but little is produced for
+exportation. The land generally throughout Sweden is barren and rocky,
+and it is only by great labor and constant manuring that fair crops
+can be produced. In the populous districts, where the soil possesses
+some natural advantages, the farms are mostly small, averaging from
+ten to seventy-five acres. A tract of forest is usually attached to
+these farming-lands, from which the peasants derive their supplies of
+lumber and fuel. Saw-mills are numerous on all the rivers, and a large
+trade in lumber is carried on in the lake regions. The main lumber
+region lies north of Stockholm, on the various small rivers emptying
+into the Gulf of Bothnia. Sundswall, Umea, Lulea, and Haparanda are
+the principal places of exportation on the eastern shore, and
+Gottenburg on the west. The fisheries are also an important branch of
+industry, and large quantities of stromung and herrings are exported.
+Salmon abound in the rivers, and the lakes and mountain streams
+furnish a very fine quality of trout. Game is more abundant in the
+densely wooded regions of Sweden than in Norway, being less accessible
+to English sportsmen. Of late years Norway has become the favorite
+hunting and fishing ground of the English, and every summer they swarm
+all over the country with their guns and fishing-rods. In Sweden,
+however, comparatively few have yet made their appearance. Bear, elk,
+red deer, ptarmigan, and wild-fowl abound in the forests and along the
+shores of the lakes. The Swedes themselves are not so much given to
+this kind of recreation as the English. Their chief amusements consist
+in Sunday afternoon recreations, such as theatrical representations,
+dancing, singing, drinking, and carousing. In their religious
+observances they are very strict, but after church they consider
+themselves privileged to enjoy a little dissipation in the Continental
+style. It too often happens that their frolics are carried to an
+excess. More brandy and other strong liquors are consumed in Sweden,
+according to the population, than in New Orleans or San Francisco,
+which is saying a good deal for the civilization of the people.
+Another good sign is that they chew tobacco. The better classes
+usually smoke this delightful weed, but the peasants both smoke it and
+chew it, showing conclusively that they are advancing rapidly toward
+emancipation from the narrow prejudices of European society. I saw
+drunken men and tobacco-chewers in Sweden who would have done credit
+to any little mining district in California. The habit of drinking is
+almost universal. The peasants drink to get drunk, the better classes
+drink for excitement, and all drink because they like it. At the
+principal restaurants in Stockholm and Gottenburg there is usually an
+anteroom opening into the main saloon. Here every gentleman who enters
+deposits his hat and cane. In the centre of the room stands a small
+table, upon which are several decanters containing "schnapps," a pile
+of brown bread sliced, various plates of biscuit and thin flour-cake,
+butter, and pickled fish. Around this the customers gather to acquire
+an appetite, which they accomplish by drinking one or two glasses of
+schnapps, eating a few small fish (stromung) spread upon their bread
+and butter, and then drinking some schnapps. They then go in to
+dinner, and call for what they want, including the various wines
+necessary for the process of digestion. Having eaten heartily and
+emptied a few bottles of wine, they wind up with coffee and cognac or
+maraschino. One would think such a process every day would burn the
+lining off the best stomach in the world; but the Swedes, like the
+Russians, have gutta-percha stomachs. The same system, it is true,
+prevails in San Francisco, only in a different form, and the same
+consequences generally ensue. People are very apt to get up from the
+table with a rush of blood to the head, a general obliquity of vision,
+and a peculiar weakness in the knees. I tried it myself by way of
+experiment, and was sick of a headache for three days after. Somehow I
+can travel a long distance on foot without getting tired, but my
+stomach is not lined with sheet iron. I have seen women and children
+drink at a single sitting enough of intoxicating beverages, since my
+arrival in Europe, to have capsized me for a month. This, I think,
+will account for the prevalence of bloated bodies and red noses in
+these highly civilized countries.
+
+I had read somewhere, before visiting Sweden, that the Swedes are not
+very sociable toward strangers. Perhaps in this respect they do not
+produce so favorable an impression as the Germans, but my experience
+has been such as to give me a very pleasant idea of their social
+qualities. It is true they are not so demonstrative in their manners
+as the French, or so enthusiastic as the Germans; but I found no
+difficulty in becoming acquainted with them, and was invariably
+treated with kindness and hospitality. When a Swede manifests an
+interest in your behalf, it is pretty certain that he feels it. If you
+become acquainted with one respectable family, you have a general
+entree into the entire social circle. No pains are spared to render
+your visit agreeable; and although the demonstrations of kindness are
+never intrusive, you feel that they are cordial and sincere. There may
+be among the more polished classes a certain degree of formality which
+to a stranger bears the appearance of reserve; but this quickly passes
+away, and the pleasure is all the greater in finding that there is
+really very little reserve about them. With all their adhesion to
+forms and ceremonies, they are simple and unaffected in their manners,
+and have a natural repugnance to whatever is meretricious. In a word,
+the Swedes are an honest, straightforward, sterling people, resembling
+more, in certain points of character, the English than any of their
+Continental neighbors, though I must do them the justice to say that
+they rarely have so unpleasant a way of manifesting their best traits.
+I can readily believe that the longer they are known the better they
+may be liked. It is true I saw nothing of Swedish society beyond what
+a casual tourist can see in passing rapidly through the country, yet
+that little impressed me very favorably, and disposes me to rely with
+confidence upon what I gathered from others who have enjoyed a more
+extended experience.
+
+The home sketches of Fredrika Bremer give a more thorough insight of
+Swedish life and manners than perhaps those of any other writer. Of
+late years, however, Miss Bremer does not appear to have maintained
+her early popularity. She is said to have written some things which
+have given offense and provoked severe criticism, and I was surprised
+to hear her productions mentioned by several of her countrymen in
+somewhat disparaging terms. This was a source of disappointment to me,
+for I had supposed she was the most popular writer in Sweden; and I
+could not easily forget the pleasure I had derived from the perusal of
+"The H---- Family," "Nina," "The Professor," and other of her
+charming delineations of domestic life. As no man is a prophet in his
+own valley, I suppose the same may be said of women. To this, however,
+Jenny Lind is an exception.
+
+But, as usual, I find myself steering out of the channel. We were now
+in the great Wenern Lake, a vast sheet of water fifty miles broad by
+one hundred in length. The elevation of this lake is 147 feet above
+the sea level. Its shores are densely wooded, and it abounds in
+islands, many of which are inhabited and cultivated. Several rivers of
+considerable size empty their waters into the Wenern, among which is
+the Klar, a large and rapid stream having its source in the mountains
+of Norway, at a distance of two hundred and fifty miles to the north.
+Fishing and lumbering are the principal occupations of the inhabitants
+living on the islands and shores. All these interior waters are frozen
+over in winter, and communication is carried on by means of sledges.
+The winters are very severe; and it is said that great numbers of
+wolves, driven from their usual haunts by starvation, prowl along the
+public highways during the winter months in search of prey. Traveling
+parties are sometimes attacked, and it is considered dangerous for
+children to go from one farm-house to another. The government,
+however, by a system of rewards for the destruction of these vicious
+animals, has succeeded of late years in greatly reducing their
+numbers.
+
+In speaking of the severity of Swedish winters, it may be well to
+state that the cold is uniform, and consequently more easily endured
+than if the temperature were subject to sudden variations. There is,
+of course, considerable difference between the northern and southern
+parts of the country; but, taking the average or central parts, the
+winters may be considered as lasting about five months. During that
+period the snow covers the earth, and the lakes and rivers are frozen.
+At Stockholm the thermometer averages in summer about 70 degrees
+above, and in winter 29 degrees below zero, of Fahrenheit. At
+Gottenburg the summers are not quite so warm and the winters not so
+cold. The temperature of the Norwegian coast facing the Atlantic is
+less rigorous than that of the Swedish coast on the Baltic, arising
+from the influence of the Gulf Stream, and partly from the proximity
+of the open sea. Even at Wammerfest, which lies within the arctic
+circle, the winters are comparatively mild. At Bergen it rains over
+two hundred days in the year, and the fjords are seldom frozen over.
+
+Passing along the eastern shore of the Wenern, we passed a series of
+rocky islands, well wooded till we reached the town of Wenersberg--an
+important depot for the commerce and products of the lake. At this
+place a brisk trade in iron and lumber is carried on during the summer
+months, and the wharves present quite a lively appearance, with their
+shipping, and piles of lumber and merchandise. The population of
+Wenersberg is about 2500; the houses are neat, and the general
+appearance of the town is thrifty. We stopped long enough to enjoy a
+ramble through the streets, and take a look at the inhabitants, after
+which our little steamer proceeded on her way through the Wassbottom
+Lake. At the end of this we entered the Carls Graf, or that portion of
+the canal built by Charles IX., to avoid the upper falls of the Gota
+River. The canal is here cut through solid masses of rock, and must
+have been a work of great difficulty and expense.
+
+Late in the evening we arrived at the Falls of Trolhaetta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+VOYAGE TO CHRISTIANIA.
+
+
+I shall not stop to describe the Falls of Trolhaetta. Better
+word-painters have so often pictured the beauties of this region that
+there is nothing left for an unimaginative tourist like myself.
+
+A few hours' travel by the river steamer brought me to Gottenburg,
+where, for the first time since my arrival in Europe, I really began
+to enjoy life. Not that Gottenburg is a very lively or fascinating
+place, for it abounds in abominations and smells of fish, and is
+inhabited by a race of men whose chief aim in life appears to be
+directed toward pickled herring, mackerel, and codfish. There was much
+in it, however, to remind me of that homeland on the Pacific for which
+my troubled heart was pining. A grand fair was going on. All the
+peasants from the surrounding country were gathered in, and I met very
+few of them, at the close of evening, who were not reeling drunk.
+Besides, they chewed tobacco--an additional sign of civilization to
+which I had long been unaccustomed.
+
+  [Illustration: IN NORSELAND.]
+
+At Gottenburg, in the absence of something better to do, I made up my
+mind to visit Norway. The steamer from Copenhagen touches on her way
+to Christiania. She has an unpleasant habit of waking people up in the
+middle of the night; and I was told that if I wanted to make sure of
+getting on board, I must sit up and watch for her. This is abominable
+in a mercantile community; but what can be expected of a people whose
+noblest aspirations are wrapped up in layers of dried codfish? By
+contract with the kellner at my hotel the difficulty was finally
+arranged. For the sum of two marks, Swedish currency, he agreed to
+notify me of the approach of the Copenhagen steamer. I thought he was
+doing all this solely on my account, but afterward discovered that he
+had made contracts at a quarter the price with about a dozen others.
+
+It was very late in the night, or very early in the morning, when I
+was roused up, and duly put on board the steamer. Of the remainder of
+that night the least said the better. A cabinful of sea-sick
+passengers is not a pleasant subject of contemplation. When the light
+of day found its way into our dreary abode of misery, I went on deck.
+The weather was thick, and nothing was to be seen in any direction but
+a rough, chopping sea and flakes of drifting fog. A few
+doleful-looking tourists were searching for the land through their
+opera-glasses. They appeared to be sorry they ever undertook such a
+stormy and perilous voyage, and evidently had misgivings that they
+might never again see their native country. Some of them peeped over
+the bulwarks from time to time, with a faint hope, perhaps, of seeing
+something new in that direction; but from the singular noises they
+made, and the convulsive motions of their bodies, I had reason to
+suspect they were heaving some very heavy sighs at their forlorn fate.
+The waiters were continually running about with cups of coffee, which
+served to fortify the stomachs of these hardy adventurers against
+sea-sickness. I may here mention as a curious fact that in all my
+travels I have rarely met a sea-going gentleman who could be induced
+to acknowledge that he suffered the least inconvenience from the
+motion of the vessel. A headache, a fit of indigestion, the remains of
+a recent attack of gout, a long-standing rheumatism, a bilious colic
+to which he had been subject for years, a sudden and unaccountable
+shock of vertigo, a disorganized condition of the liver--something, in
+short, entirely foreign to the known and recognized laws of motion,
+disturbed his equilibrium, but rarely an out-and-out case of
+sea-sickness. That is a weakness of human nature fortunately confined
+to the ladies. Indeed, I don't know what the gentler sex would do if
+it were not for the kindness of Providence in exempting the ruder
+portion of humanity from this unpleasant accompaniment of sea-life,
+only it unfortunately happens that the gentlemen are usually afflicted
+with some other dire and disabling visitation about the same time.
+
+  [Illustration: THE STEAMER ENTERING THE FJORD.]
+
+Toward noon the fog broke away, and we sighted the rocky headlands of
+the Christiania Fjord. In a few hours more we were steaming our way
+into this magnificent sheet of water at a dashing rate, and the decks
+were crowded with a gay and happy company. No more the pangs of
+despised love, indigestion, gout, and bilious colic disturbed the
+gentlemen of this lively party; no more the fair ladies of Hamburg and
+Copenhagen hid themselves away in their state-rooms, and called in
+vain to their natural protectors for assistance. The sea was smooth;
+the sun shot forth through the whirling rain-clouds his brightest
+August beams. All along the shores of the Fjord, the rocky points,
+jutting abruptly from the water, rose like embattled towers, crowned
+with a variegated covering of moss, grim and hoary with the wild winds
+and scathing winters of the North. Beautiful little valleys, ravines,
+and slopes of woodland of such rich and glittering green opened out to
+us on either side, as we swept past the headlands, that the vision was
+dazzled with the profusion and variety of the charms bestowed upon
+this wilderness of romantic scenery. A group of fishermen's huts,
+behind a bold and jagged point of rocks--a rude lugger or
+fishing-smack, manned by a hardy crew of Norskmen, rough and
+weather-beaten as the ocean monsters of their stormy coast, gliding
+out of some nook among the rocky inlets--here the cozy little cottage
+of some well-to-do sea-captain, half fisher, half farmer, with a gang
+of white-headed little urchins running out over the cliffs to take a
+peep at the passing steamer, the frugal matron standing in the door
+resplendent in her red woolen petticoat and fanciful head-dress,
+knitting a pair of stockings, or some such token of love, for her
+absent lord--there, a pretty little village, with a church, a wharf,
+and a few store-houses, shrinking back behind the protecting wing of
+some huge and rugged citadel of rocks, the white cottages glittering
+pleasantly in the rays of the evening sun, and the smoke curling up
+peacefully over the surrounding foliage, and floating off till it
+vanished in the rich glow of the sky--all so calm, so dreamy in colors
+and outline that the imagination is absolutely bewildered with the
+varied feast of beauties: such are the characteristic features of this
+noble sheet of water.
+
+The Christiania Fjord is one of the largest in Norway. Commencing at
+Frederickstadt on the one side and Sandesund on the other, it extends
+into the interior a distance of seventy or eighty miles, making one of
+the finest natural harbors in the world. The water is deep, and the
+shores are almost rock-bound. In many places the navigation is
+somewhat intricate, owing to the numerous rocky islands and rugged
+headlands; but the Norwegian pilots are thoroughly experienced in
+their business, and know every foot of the way as familiarly as they
+know their own snug little cabins perched up among the rocks.
+
+  [Illustration: COAST OF NORWAY.]
+
+Touching at the picturesque little town of Horten on the left, we
+discharged some passengers and took in others, after which we
+proceeded without farther incident to the town of Drobak on the right.
+Here the Fjord is narrow, presenting something the appearance of a
+river. A group of fortifications on the cliffs protects this
+passage. The view on leaving Drobak is inexpressibly beautiful. The
+Fjord widens gradually till it assumes the form of an immense lake,
+the shores of which rise abruptly from the water, covered with forests
+of pine. Moss-covered rocks, green wooded islands, and innumerable
+fishing-craft, give variety and animation to the scene. Range upon
+range of wild and rugged mountains extend back through the dim
+distance on either side till their vague and fanciful outlines are
+mingled with the clouds. Nothing can exceed the richness and beauty of
+the atmospheric tints. A golden glow, mingled with deep shades of
+purple, illuminates the sky. In the distance the snowy peaks of the
+vast interior ranges of mountains glisten in the evening sun. The deep
+green of the foliage which decks the islands and promontories of the
+Fjord casts its reflected hues upon the surface of the sleeping
+waters. In the valleys, which from time to time open out as we sweep
+along on our way, rich yellow fields of grain make a brilliant and
+striking contrast to the sombre tints of the pine forests in the rear.
+
+It was long after sunset, but still light enough to enjoy all the
+beauties of the Fjord, when we saw before us the numerous and
+picturesque villas that adorn the neighborhood of Christiania. Passing
+the fine old castle of Aggershuus on the left, we rounded a point, and
+then came in full view of the town and harbor.
+
+Surely there is nothing like this in the whole world, I thought, as I
+gazed for the first time upon this charming scene. The strange
+old-fashioned buildings, the castle, the palace on the hill-top, the
+shipping at the wharves, the gardens on every slope, the varied
+outlines of the neighboring cliffs and hills, covered with groves and
+green slopes of rich sward; every nook glimmering with beautiful
+villas; the whole reflected in the glowing waters that sweep through
+the maze of islands and headlands in every direction; can there be any
+thing more beautiful in all the world?
+
+  [Illustration: THE ISLANDS.]
+
+The steamer was soon hauled alongside the wharf, where a crowd of
+citizens was gathered to see us land. Here again was a scene
+characteristic of Norway. No hurry, no confusion, no shouting and
+clamoring for passengers, but all quiet, primitive, and good-humored.
+How different from a landing at New York or San Francisco! Three or
+four sturdy hack-drivers stood smoking their pipes, watching the
+proceedings with an air of philosophical indifference truly
+refreshing. Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and cousins of
+various parties on board, waved their handkerchiefs and nodded
+affectionately to their friends and relatives, but kept their
+enthusiasm within limits till the plank was put out, when they came on
+board, and kissed and hugged every body of their acquaintance in the
+most affectionate manner. The officers of the customs, good easy
+souls! also came on board, books in hand, and made a kind of
+examination of the baggage. It was neither severe nor formal, and I
+felt an absolute friendship for the chief officer on account of the
+jolly manner in which he looked at me, and asked me if I had any thing
+contraband in my little knapsack. I offered to open it, but with a
+wave of his hand he chalked a pass upon it and I walked ashore. For
+the first time in my life I here felt the inconvenience of not being
+persecuted by porters and hack-drivers. The few who were on hand
+seemed to be particular friends or relatives of parties on board, and
+were already engaged. I walked up the queer, grass-grown old streets,
+looking around in the dim twilight for a hotel; and after stumbling
+into half a dozen odd-looking shops and store-houses, contrived to
+make my way to the Hotel Victoria, said to be the best in Christiania.
+
+As it is no part of my purpose to write a book on Christiania, I shall
+only say that for the next three days I rambled about enjoying all the
+objects of interest in this quaint northern city--the churches, the
+museum, the castle, the palace, the ups and downs of the streets, the
+market-places, wharves, and gardens, and the magic beauties of the
+neighborhood. There is a plainness and simplicity about the people of
+Christiania, a good-humor of expression, a kindliness of manner and
+natural politeness that impressed me very favorably. The society is
+said to be genial and cultivated. I have no doubt of the fact, though
+my stay was too short to afford an opportunity of making many
+acquaintances.
+
+At the Hotel Victoria I met Ole Bull, who was on a tour through his
+native land. He sat near me at the _table d'hote_, and I had an
+opportunity of noticing the changes which time has made in his
+appearance. The last time I had seen him was in Columbus, Ohio, in
+1844. He was then in the very prime of life, slender and graceful, yet
+broad of shoulder and powerful of limb; with light straight hair,
+clear blue eyes, and a healthy Northern complexion. He is now quite
+altered, and I am not sure that I would have recognized him had he not
+been pointed out to me. In form he is much stouter, though not so
+erect as he was in former years. His hair is sprinkled with gray. He
+retains the same noble cast of features, and deep, dreamy, and genial
+expression of eye as of old, but his complexion is sallow, and his
+face is marked by lines of care. There is something sad and touching
+in his manner. I do not know what his misfortunes in America may have
+to do with his present dejected expression, but he seems to me to be a
+man who has met with great disappointments in life. Although I sat
+beside him at the table, and might have claimed acquaintance as one of
+his most ardent American admirers, I was deterred from speaking to him
+by something peculiar in his manner--not coldness, for that is not in
+his nature--but an apparent withdrawal from the outer world into
+himself. A feeling that it might be intrusive to address him kept me
+silent. I afterward sent him a few lines, expressing a desire to renew
+my early acquaintance with him; but he left town while I was absent on
+an excursion to the Frogner-assen, and, much to my regret, I missed
+seeing him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+FROM CHRISTIANIA TO LILLEHAMMER.
+
+
+The population of Christiania is something over 40,000, and of late
+years it has become quite a place of resort for tourists on the way to
+the interior of Norway. The houses built since the fire of 1858, which
+destroyed a considerable portion of the town, are large and
+substantial, built of stone and covered with cement. The streets for
+the most part are broad and roughly paved. Very little of
+characteristic style is observable in the costume of the citizens.
+Plainness of dress, simple and primitive manners, and good nature, are
+the leading traits of the Norwegians. Christiania is the modern
+capital of Norway, and was founded by Christian IV. of Denmark, near
+the site of the ancient capital of Osloe, which was founded in 1058 by
+King Harold Hardraade. Some of the old buildings still remain in a
+state of good preservation; but the chief interest of the city
+consists in its castle, university, library, and museum of Northern
+antiquities. A traveler from the busy cities of America is struck with
+the quiet aspect of the streets, and the almost death-like silence
+that reigns in them after dark. In many places the sidewalks are
+overgrown with grass, and the houses are green with moss. Stagnation
+broods in the very atmosphere. Christiania is in all respects the
+antipodes of San Francisco. A Californian could scarcely endure an
+existence in such a place for six weeks. He would go stark mad from
+sheer inanity. Beautiful as the scenery is, and pleasantly as the time
+passed during my brief sojourn, it was not without a feeling of relief
+that I took my departure in the cars for Eidsvold.
+
+  [Illustration: APPROACH TO CHRISTIANIA.]
+
+The railway from Christiania to Eidsvold is the only one yet in
+operation in Norway. It was a pretty heavy undertaking, considering
+the rough country and the limited resources of the people; but it was
+finally completed, and is now considered a great feature in Norwegian
+civilization. Some idea may be formed of the backwardness of
+facilities for internal communication throughout this country when I
+mention the fact that beyond the distance of forty miles to Eidsvold
+and the Lake of Miosen, the traveler is dependent upon such vehicles
+as he takes with him, unless he chooses to incur the risk of procuring
+a conveyance at Hamar or Lillehammer. The whole country is a series of
+rugged mountains, narrow valleys, desolate fjelds, rivers, and fjords.
+There are no regular communications between one point and another on
+any of the public highways, and the interior districts are supplied
+with such commodities as they require from the sea-board solely by
+means of heavy wagons, sledges, boats, and such other primitive modes
+of transportation as the nature of the country and the season may
+render most available.
+
+Like every thing else in Norway, the cars on the Eidsvold railway have
+rather more of a rustic than a metropolitan appearance. They are
+extremely simple in construction and rural in decoration; and as for
+the road, it may be very good compared with a trail over the Sierra
+Nevada Mountains, but it is absolutely frightful to travel over it by
+steam. Three hours is the allowance of time for forty miles. If I
+remember correctly, we stretched it out to four, on account of a
+necessary stoppage on the way, caused by the tumbling down of some
+rocks from an overhanging cliff. The jolting is enough to dislocate
+one's vertebrae; and I had a vague feeling all the time during the trip
+that the locomotive would jump off the track, and dash her brains out
+against some of the terrible boulders of granite that stood frowning
+at us on either side as we worried our way along from station to
+station.
+
+It was nearly dark when we came to a saw-mill by the roadside. The
+scenery is pretty all the way from Christiania, but not very striking
+till the train passes the narrow gorge in which the saw-mill is
+situated, where there is a tunnel of a few hundred feet that
+penetrates a bluff on the left. Emerging from this, we are close upon
+the charming little village of Eidsvold, one of the loveliest spots in
+this land of beauty. A few minutes more brought us to the
+station-house, where the railway ends. Here we found ourselves at a
+good hotel, picturesquely situated on the bank of the Wormen, a river
+flowing from the Miosen Lake.
+
+At eleven o'clock on a fine Sunday forenoon I took my departure from
+Eidsvold on board one of the little lake steamers. These vessels are
+well managed, and not inconveniently arranged, but they are so very
+small that on particular occasions, when there is an unusual pressure
+of travelers, it is difficult to find room for a seat. Owing to the
+facilities afforded by the railway from Christiania, an excursion to
+Lillehammer is the most popular way of passing a Sunday during the
+summer months, and this being the height of the season, the crowd was
+unusually great. It also happened that two hundred soldiers, who had
+served out their time, were returning to their homes in the interior,
+so that there was no lack of company on board. If the soldiers were
+somewhat lively and frolicsome, it was nothing more than natural under
+the circumstances. A good many were intoxicated--at the idea, perhaps,
+of getting home once more, and their songs and merry shouts of
+laughter kept every body in a good humor. I am unable to account for a
+curious fact, which I may as well mention in this connection. Whenever
+the authorities of any country through which I chance to travel have
+occasion to send their troops from one point to another, they
+invariably send them upon the same boat or in the same railway train
+upon which I have the fortune to take passage. There must be something
+military in my appearance, or some natural propensity for bloodshed in
+my nature, that causes this affinity to exist between us, for it has
+happened altogether too often to be accidental. The King of Sicily,
+some years ago, sent a party of troops to keep me company to Palermo.
+Subsequently the King of Greece favored me with a large military
+convoy to one of the Greek islands. After that I had an independent
+supervision of various bodies of Turkish soldiers on board of
+different vessels within the Turkish dominions. Recently Napoleon III.
+sent down by the same train of cars, from Paris to Marseilles, about
+four hundred of his troops for Algiers. Being detained at Marseilles
+by some unforeseen circumstance, I had the pleasure of seeing these
+men shipped off on the first steamer. I took passage in the next. By
+some extraordinary fatality, for which there is no accounting, there
+were upward of five hundred additional troops shipped on this vessel.
+It was a consolation to know that a storm was brewing, and that they
+would soon be all sea-sick. Before we got out of the Gulf of Lyons I
+could have slain every man of them with a pocket-knife. It was
+therefore with a spirit of resignation that I saw the Norwegian
+soldiers come on board at Eidsvold. Fate had ordained that we should
+travel together, and it was no use to complain. Besides, I liked their
+looks. As stalwart, blue-eyed, jovial, and hearty-looking a set of
+fellows they were as ever I saw in any country--men of far higher
+intelligence and physical capacity than the average of soldiers in
+Continental Europe. That these were the right sort of men to fight for
+their country there could be no doubt. I have rarely seen finer troops
+any where than those of Norway.
+
+The Miosen Lake is sixty-three miles in length, extending from Minde
+to Lillehammer, and varies in width from five to ten miles. The
+broadest part is opposite to Hamar, nearly at the centre, and not far
+from the island of Helgeo. The shores embrace some of the finest
+farming lands in Norway; and after passing Minde, the sloping
+hill-sides are dotted with pretty little farm-houses, and beautifully
+variegated with fields and orchards. In many places, so numerous are
+the cottages of the thrifty farmers hung in this favored region, that
+they resemble a continuous village, extending for many miles along the
+hill-sides. There is not much in the natural aspect of the country to
+attract the lover of bold mountain scenery. The beauties of the shores
+of Miosen are of a gentle and pastoral character, and become
+monotonous after a few hours. Near Hamar, on the right, there are the
+ruins of an old cathedral, burned and plundered by the Swedes in 1567.
+
+Apart from the ordinary interest of the Miosen Lake, arising from the
+quiet, pastoral character of its shores, it possessed a peculiar charm
+to me, owing to the fact that, in 1755, when the great earthquake
+occurred at Lisbon, its waters rose twenty feet, and suddenly
+retreated. Only a few months previously I had visited the city of
+Lisbon, and stood upon the very spot, where, in six minutes, over
+sixty thousand souls had been buried beneath the ruins. I was now, so
+to speak, following up an earthquake.
+
+It was late at night when we arrived at the pretty little town of
+Lillehammer, at the head of the lake. Leaving the steamer here, I
+found myself, for the first time, beyond the limits of the English
+language. A Norwegian with whom I had become acquainted on board the
+boat was kind enough to walk up town with me and show me the way to
+the post station, where I had some difficulty in procuring
+accommodations, owing to the number of recent arrivals.
+
+The town of Lillehammer contains twelve or fifteen hundred
+inhabitants, whose principal industry consists in the lumber business.
+Immense rafts are towed down the lake every day by the returning
+steamers, and carried by rail from Eidsvold to Christiania. The logs
+are drifted down the Logen River from the interior, and cut up at
+Lillehammer and Eidsvold. Such as are designed for spars are dressed
+and stripped at the latter place. There are many other points on the
+lake from which supplies of timber are also transferred to
+Christiania, so that, between farming, fishing, and lumbering, the
+inhabitants of this region make out a very comfortable subsistence,
+and generally own the lands upon which they reside. Many of them are
+wealthy--for this part of the world.
+
+Lillehammer is prettily situated on an eminence, and consists of log
+and frame houses, presenting much the appearance of a Western lake
+village in the United States. The view of the Miosen and its verdant
+shores is very fine from the top of the hill. It was ten o'clock at
+night when I arrived, although the sky was still lighted up with a
+purple glow from the departed sun. Something of the wonderful scenic
+beauties of the country were still visible. A party of French
+tourists, who had come to Norway to make a three days' visit, set off
+at this late hour to see the torrent which breaks from the side of the
+mountain, about half a mile beyond the town. I was solicited to join
+them; but my passion for sight-seeing was rather obscured by the
+passion of hunger and thirst. At such times I am practical enough to
+prefer a good supper to the best waterfall in the world. Waterfalls
+can be postponed. Hunger must be promptly satisfied. Thirst makes one
+dry. A distant view of falling water is a poor substitute for a glass
+of good ale. There is no fear that any ordinary cataract will run
+itself out before morning.
+
+This was my first experience of a post station, and very pleasant I
+found it. The inns of Norway are plain, cheap, and comfortable; not
+very elegant in appearance, but as good in all respects as a plain
+traveler could desire. I had a capital supper at Lillehammer,
+consisting of beefsteak, eggs, bread, butter, and coffee--enough to
+satisfy any reasonable man. The rooms are clean, the beds and bedding
+neat and comfortable, and the charge for supper, lodging, and
+breakfast not exceeding an average of about fifty cents. At some of
+the interior stations I was charged only about twenty-five cents, and
+in no instance was I imposed upon. The inn-keepers are so generally
+obliging and good-natured that there is very little difficulty in
+getting along with them. A few words always sufficed to make my wants
+understood, and the greatest kindness and alacrity were invariably
+shown in supplying them. But I anticipate my journey.
+
+After a pleasant night's rest I arose bright and early; and here,
+being for the first time thrown completely upon my own resources in
+the way of language, was obliged to have recourse to my vocabulary to
+get at the means of asking for breakfast and a horse and cariole.
+Fancy a lean and hungry man standing before a substantial landlord,
+trying to spell out a breakfast from his book in some such way as
+this:
+
+"Jeg vil Spise [I will eat]!"
+
+"Ya, min Herr!" the landlord politely answers.
+
+"Jeg vil Frokost [I will breakfast]!"
+
+"Ya, min Herr;" and the landlord runs off into a perfect labyrinth of
+birds, fish, eggs, beefsteak, hot cakes, and other luxuries, which the
+inexperienced traveler is vainly attempting to follow up in his book.
+In despair, he at length calls out,
+
+"Ja! Ja!--that's all right! any thing you say, my fine old gentleman!"
+
+At which the landlord scratches his head, for he doesn't understand
+precisely what you have selected. Now you take your book, and explain
+slowly and systematically:
+
+"Kaffee!"
+
+"Ja."
+
+"Oegg!"
+
+"Ja."
+
+"Fisk!"
+
+"Ja."
+
+"Smor og Brod!"
+
+Here the landlord is staggered, and scratches his head again. _Smor_
+he gets a glimmering of, but the bread stuns him. You try it in a
+dozen different ways--broad, breyd, breed, brode, braid. At length a
+light flashes upon his mind. You want bread! Simple as the word is,
+and though he pronounces it precisely according to one of your own
+methods, as you suppose, it is difficult to get the peculiar
+intonation that renders it intelligible.
+
+"Ja!" And thus you lay the foundation of your breakfast; after which,
+having progressed so far in the language, there is no great difficulty
+in asking for a "Heste og Cariole" [a horse and cariole].
+
+A little practice in this way soon enables the traveler to acquire a
+sufficient knowledge of the language for the ordinary purposes of
+communication along the road. With a smattering of the German it comes
+very readily to one who speaks English, being something of a mixture
+between these two languages. I was really astonished to find how well
+I could understand it, and make myself understood, in the course of a
+few days, though candor obliges me to say that if there is any one
+thing in the world for which nature never intended me it is a
+linguist.
+
+I was in hopes of finding at Lillehammer a party of tourists bound
+over the Dovre Fjeld to Trondhjem, of whom I had heard in Christiania.
+In this I was disappointed. They had started a few days previously. An
+omnibus was advertised to run as far as Elstad, some thirty-five miles
+up the valley of Gudbransdalen, which would be so much gained on my
+route. It seemed, however, that it only ran whenever a sufficient
+number of passengers offered--so I was obliged to give up that
+prospect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+HOW THEY TRAVEL IN NORWAY.
+
+
+Nothing can be more characteristic of Norwegian seclusion from the
+world than the rude means of inland communication between the
+principal cities. Here was a public highway between two of the most
+important sea-ports in the country--Christiania and Trondhjem--without
+as much as a stage to carry passengers. Every traveler has to depend
+upon his own vehicle, or upon such rude and casual modes of conveyance
+as he can find at the stations by the wayside. I asked the reason of
+this backward state of things, and was informed that the amount of
+travel is insufficient to support any regular stage line. The season
+for tourists lasts only about three months, and during the remainder
+of the year very few strangers have occasion to pass over the roads.
+In winter--which, of course, lasts very long in this latitude--the
+whole country is covered with snow, and sledges are altogether used,
+both for purposes of traveling and the transportation of merchandise
+from the sea-board. The products of the country--such as logs, spars,
+and boards--are prepared during these months for rafting down the
+rivers during the spring floods. Once, as I was told, an enterprising
+Englishman had started a regular stage-line from Christiania to
+Trondhjem, in consequence of the repeated complaints of the traveling
+public, who objected to the delays to which they were subject; but he
+was soon obliged to discontinue it for want of patronage. When
+travelers had a convenient way of getting over, they grumbled at being
+hurried through, and preferred taking the usual conveyances of the
+country, which afforded them an opportunity of enjoying the scenery
+and stopping wherever they pleased. People did not come all the way to
+Norway, they said, to fly through it without seeing any of its wonders
+and beauties. There was some philosophy in this, as well as a touch of
+human nature. It reminded me of the Frenchman in Paris who lived to be
+eighty years of age without ever leaving the city; when the king, for
+the sake of experiment, positively forbid him from doing so during the
+remainder of his life. The poor fellow was immediately seized with an
+inordinate desire to see something of the outside world, and
+petitioned so hard for the privilege of leaving the city that the
+king, unable to resist his importunities, granted him the privilege,
+after which the man was perfectly satisfied, and remained in Paris to
+the day of his death.
+
+By reference to a copy of the laws on the subject of post-travel,
+which I had procured in Christiania from a Mr. Bennett, I discovered
+that the system is singularly complicated and hazardous, as well as a
+little curious in some of its details. The stations are situated along
+the road about every eight or ten miles (counted in Norwegian by so
+many hours). Nothing that we could call a village is to be seen in any
+part of the interior, unless the few straggling farm-houses
+occasionally huddled together, with a church in the centre, may be
+considered in that light. The stations usually stand alone, in some
+isolated spot on the wayside, and consist of a little log or frame
+tavern, a long shambling stable, innumerable odds and ends of cribs,
+store-houses, and outbuildings, forming a kind of court or
+stable-yard; a rickety medley of old carts and carioles lying about
+basking in the sun; a number of old white-headed men smoking their
+pipes, and leathery-faced women on household duties intent, with a
+score or so of little cotton-headed children running about over the
+manure pile in the neighborhood of the barn, to keep the pigs company;
+here and there a strapping lout of a boy swinging on a gate and
+whistling for his own amusement; while cows, sheep, goats, chickens,
+and other domestic animals and birds browse, nibble, and peck all over
+the yard in such a lazy and rural manner as would delight an artist.
+This is the ordinary Norwegian station.
+
+  [Illustration: STATION-HOUSE, LOGEN VALLEY.]
+
+There is always a good room for the traveler, and plenty of excellent
+homely fare to eat. At some few places along the route the
+station-houses aspire to the style and dignity of hotels, but they are
+not always the best or most comfortable. Then there are "fast" and
+"slow" stations--so called in the book of laws. At the fast stations
+the traveler can procure a horse and cariole without delay--fifteen
+minutes being the legal limit. At the slow stations he must wait till
+the neighborhood, for a distance of three or four miles perhaps, is
+searched for a horse--sometimes for both horse and cariole. If he
+chooses to incur the expense he can send forward a _Forbad_, or notice
+in advance, requiring horses to be ready at each station at a
+specified time; but if he is not there according to notice, he must
+pay so much per hour for the delay. A day-book is kept at each of
+these post-houses, in which the traveler must enter his name, stating
+the time of his arrival and departure, where he came from, his
+destination, how many horses he requires, etc. In this formidable book
+he may also specify any complaint he has to make against the
+station-holder, boy, horse, cariole, or any body, animal, or thing
+that maltreats him, cheats him, or in any way misuses him on the
+journey; but he must take care to have the inn-keeper or some such
+disinterested person as a witness in his behalf, so that when the
+matter comes before the Amtmand, or grand tribunal of justice, it may
+be fairly considered and disposed of according to law. When the
+inn-keeper, station-holder, posting-master, alderman, or other proper
+functionary on the premises, fails to present this book and require
+the traveler to sign his name in it, he (the arrant violator of laws)
+is fined; but the traveler need not flatter himself that the rule does
+not work both ways, for he also is fined if he refuses or
+intentionally neglects to write his name in the said book. The number
+of horses to be kept at fast stations is fixed by law, and no traveler
+is to be detained more than a quarter of an hour, unless in certain
+cases, when he may be detained half an hour. At a slow station he must
+not be detained over three hours--such is the utmost stretch of the
+law. Think of that, ye Gothamites, who complain if you are detained
+any where on the face of the earth three minutes--only detained three
+hours every eight or ten miles! But for delay occasioned by any
+insuperable impediment, says the Norwegian law-book--such as a storm
+at sea, or too great a distance between the inns--no liability is
+incurred on either side. A Philadelphia lawyer could drive
+six-and-thirty coaches-and-four, all abreast, through such a law as
+that, and then leave room enough for a Stockton wagon and mule-team
+on each side. Who is to judge of the weather or the distance between
+the inns? When the traveler holds the reins he is responsible for the
+horse, but when the post-boy does the holding, he, the said boy, is
+the responsible party. Should any post-horse be ill treated or
+overdriven when the traveler holds the reins, so that, in the language
+of the law, "the station-holder, inn-keeper, or two men at the next
+station can perceive this to be the case, the traveler shall pay for
+the injury according to the estimation of these men, and he shall not
+be allowed to be sent on until the payment is made." The traveler pays
+all tolls and ferry charges. "When the road is very hilly, or is in
+out-of-the-way districts where there are but few horses in proportion
+to the travel, and the distance between the stations is unusually
+long, or under other circumstances where the burden on the people
+obligated to find horses is evidently very oppressive, etc.," "it may
+be ordered by the king, after a declaration to that effect has been
+procured by the authorities, that payment for posting may be reckoned
+according to a greater distance, in proportion to the circumstances,
+as far as double the actual distance."
+
+In addition to all these formidable regulations--against which it
+seems to me it would be impossible for any ordinary man to
+contend--the tariff fixes the price of posting for fast and slow
+stations in the country, the only difficulty being to find where the
+towns are after you get into them, or to know at what stage of the
+journey you leave them. The Amtmand, by letter to all the authorities,
+likewise requires the tariff to be hung conspicuously in all the inns;
+which tariff, says the law, "is altered according to the rise and fall
+of provisions."
+
+When I came to study out all this, and consider the duties and
+obligations imposed on me as a traveler going a journey of three or
+four hundred miles; that I was to be subject to contingencies and
+liabilities depending upon the elements both by land and sea; that
+serious responsibilities fell upon me if I held the reins of the
+post-horse, and probably heavy risks of life and limb if the post-boy
+held them; that the inn-keeper, station-holder, alderman, or two men
+chosen miscellaneously from the ranks of society, were to judge of
+damages that might be inflicted upon the horse; that I must register
+my name in a day-book, and enter formal complaints against the
+authorities on the way about every ten miles; that the tariff might
+rise and fall five hundred times during the journey, for aught I knew,
+according to the rise and fall of provisions or the pleasure of the
+Amtmand; that conspiracies might be entered into against me to make me
+pay for all the lame, halt, blind, and spavined horses in the country,
+and my liberty restrained in some desolate region of the mountains;
+that I could not speak a dozen words of the language, and had no other
+means of personal defense against imposition than a small pen-knife
+and the natural ferocity of my countenance--when all these
+considerations occurred to me, I confess they made me hesitate a
+little before launching out from Lillehammer.
+
+However, the landlord of the post, a jolly and good-natured old
+gentleman, relieved my apprehensions by providing such a breakfast of
+coffee, eggs, beefsteak, fish, and bread, that my sunken spirits were
+soon thoroughly aroused, and I felt equal to any emergency. When I
+looked out on the bright hill-sides, and saw the sun glistening on the
+dewy sod, and heard the post-boys in the yard whistling merrily to the
+horses, I was prepared to face the great Amtmand itself. In a little
+while the horse and cariole designed for my use were brought up before
+the door, and the landlord informed me that all was "_fertig_."
+
+Now, was there ever such a vehicle for a full-grown man to travel in?
+A little thing, with a body like the end of a canoe, perched up on two
+long shafts, with a pair of wheels in the rear; no springs, and only a
+few straps of leather for a harness; a board behind for the
+skydskaarl, or post-boy, to sit upon; and a horse not bigger than a
+large mountain goat to drag me over the road! It was positively
+absurd. After enjoying the spectacle for a moment, and making a
+hurried sketch of it, wondering what manner of man had first contrived
+such a vehicle, I bounced in, and stretched my legs out on each side,
+bracing my feet against a pair of iron catches, made expressly for
+that purpose. Fortunately, I am a capital driver. If nature ever
+intended me for any one profession above all others, it must have been
+for a stage-driver. I have driven buggies, wagons, and carts in
+California hundreds of miles, and never yet killed any body. Like the
+Irishman, I can drive within two inches of a precipice without going
+over. Usually, however, I let the horse take his own way, which, after
+all, is the grand secret of skillful driving.
+
+My baggage consisted of a knapsack containing two shirts and an extra
+pair of stockings, a sketch-book and some pencils, and such other
+trifling knick-knacks as a tourist usually requires in this country. I
+carried no more outside clothing than what common decency required: a
+rough hunting-coat, a pair of stout cloth pantaloons, and an old pair
+of boots--which is as much as any traveler needs on a Norwegian tour,
+though it is highly recommended by an English writer that every
+traveler should provide himself with two suits of clothes, a
+Mackintosh, a portable desk, an India-rubber pillow, a few blankets,
+an opera-glass, a musquito-net, a thermometer, some dried beef, and a
+dozen boxes of sardines, besides a stock of white bread, and two
+bottles of English pickles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+A NORWEGIAN GIRL.
+
+
+With a crack of the whip that must have astonished the landlord, and
+caused him some misgivings for the fate of his horse and cariole, I
+took my departure from Lillehammer. About half a mile beyond the town
+we (the skydskaarl, myself, horse, and cariole) passed the falls--a
+roaring torrent of water tumbling down from the mountain side on the
+right. Several extensive saw-mills are located at this point. The
+piles of lumber outside, and the familiar sounds of the saws and
+wheels, reminded me of home. The scene was pretty and picturesque, but
+rather disfigured by the progress of Norwegian civilization. Passing
+numerous thriving farms in the full season of harvest, the road
+winding pleasantly along the hill-side to the right, the foaming
+waters of the Logen deep down in the valley to the left, we at length
+reached the entrance of the Gudbransdalen--that beautiful and fertile
+valley, which stretches all the way up the course of the Logen to the
+Dovre Fjeld, a distance of a hundred and sixty-eight miles from
+Lillehammer. It would be an endless task to undertake a description of
+the beauties of this valley. From station to station it is a continued
+panorama of dashing waterfalls, towering mountains, green slopes, pine
+forests overtopping the cliffs, rich and thriving farms, with
+innumerable log cottages perched up among the cliffs, and wild and
+rugged defiles through which the road passes, sometimes overhung by
+shrubbery for miles at a stretch. Flying along the smoothly-graded
+highway at a rapid rate; independent of all the world except your
+horse and boy; the bright sunshine glimmering through the trees; the
+music of the wild waters falling pleasantly on your ear; each turn of
+the road opening out something rich, new, and strange; the fresh
+mountain air invigorating every fibre of your frame; renewed youth and
+health beginning to glow upon your cheeks; digestion performing its
+functions without a pang or a hint of remonstrance; kind, genial,
+open-hearted people wherever you stop--is it not an episode in life
+worth enjoying? The valley of the Logen must surely be a paradise (in
+summer) for invalids.
+
+At each station the traveler is furnished with a stunted little boy
+called the skydskaarl, usually clothed in the cast-off rags of his
+great-grandfather; his head ornamented by a flaming red night-cap, and
+his feet either bare or the next thing to it; his hair standing out in
+every direction like a mop dyed in whitewash and yellow ochre, and his
+face and hands freckled and sunburned, and not very clean, while his
+manners are any thing but cultivated. This remarkable boy sits on a
+board behind the cariole, and drives it back to the station from which
+it starts. He is regarded somewhat in the light of a high public
+functionary by his contemporary ragamuffins, having been promoted from
+the fields or the barn-yard to the honorable position of skydskaarl.
+His countenance is marked by the lines of premature care and
+responsibility, but varies in expression according to circumstances.
+The sum of four cents at the end of an hour's journey gives it an
+extremely amiable and intelligent cast. Some boys are constitutionally
+knowing, and have a quick, sharp look; others again are dull and
+stolid, as naturally happens wherever there is a variety of boys born
+of different parents. For the most part, they are exceedingly bright
+and lively little fellows. Mounted on their seat of honor at the back
+of the cariole, they greatly enliven the way by whistling and singing,
+and asking questions in their native tongue, which it is sometimes
+very difficult to answer when one is not familiar with the language.
+
+I had at Moshuus a communicative little boy, who talked to me
+incessantly all the way to Holmen without ever discovering, so far as
+I could perceive, that I did not understand a single word he said.
+Another, after repeated efforts to draw me out, fell into a fit of
+moody silence, and from that into a profound slumber, which was only
+broken off toward the end of our journey by an accident. The cariole
+struck against a stone and tilted him out on the road. He was a good
+deal surprised, but said nothing.
+
+Another little fellow, not more than six or seven years of age--a
+pretty fair-haired child--was sent with me over a very wild and
+broken stage of the journey. He was newly dressed in a suit of gray
+frieze with brass buttons, and was evidently a shining light at home.
+On the road a dog ran out from the bushes and barked at us. The poor
+little skydskaarl was frantic with terror, and cried so lustily that I
+had to take him into the cariole, and put him under my legs to keep
+him from going into fits. He bellowed all the way to the next station,
+where I endeavored to make the inn-keeper understand that it was cruel
+to send so small a boy on such a hazardous journey. The man laughed
+and said "Ja! he is too little!" which was all I could get out of him.
+I felt unhappy about this poor child all day.
+
+On another occasion I had a bright, lively little fellow about twelve
+years of age, who was so pleased to find that I was an American that
+he stopped every body on the road to tell them this important piece of
+news, so that it took me about three hours to go a distance of seven
+or eight miles. There was a light of intelligence in the boy's face
+that enabled me to comprehend him almost by instinct, and the
+quickness with which he caught at my half-formed words, and gathered
+my meaning when I told him of the wonders of California, were really
+surprising. This boy was a natural genius. He will leave his mountain
+home some day or other and make a leading citizen of the United
+States. Already he was eager to dash out upon the world and see some
+of its novelties and wonders.
+
+  [Illustration: STATION-BOY.]
+
+At Laurgaard I was favored with a small urchin who must have been
+modeled upon one of Hogarth's pictures. He was a fixed laugh all over.
+His mouth, nose, ears, eyes, hair, and chin were all turned up in a
+broad grin. Even the elbows of his coat and the knees of his trowsers
+were wide open with ill-concealed laughter. He laughed when he saw me,
+and laughed more than ever when he heard me "_tale Norsk_." There was
+something uncommonly amusing to this little shaver in the cut of a
+man's jib who could not speak good Norwegian. All the way up the hill
+he whistled, sang lively snatches of song, joked with the horse, and
+when the horse nickered laughed a young horse-laugh to keep him
+company. It did me good to see the rascal so cheery. I gave him an
+extra shilling at Braendhagen for his lively spirit, at which he
+grinned all over wider than ever, put the small change in his pocket,
+and with his red night-cap in one hand made a dodge of his head at me,
+as if snapping at a fly, and then held out his spare hand to give me
+a shake. Of course I shook hands with him.
+
+  [Illustration: GOOD-BY--MANY THANKS!]
+
+Shaking hands with small boys, however, is nothing uncommon in Norway.
+Every boy on the entire route shook hands with me. Whenever I settled
+the fare the skydskaarl invariably pulled off his cap, or, if he had
+none, gave a pull at the most prominent bunch of hair, and holding
+forth a flipper, more or less like a lump of raw beef, required me, by
+all the laws of politeness, to give it a shake. The simplicity with
+which they did this, and the awkward kindliness of their manner, as
+they wished me a pleasant trip, always formed an agreeable episode in
+the day's travel. I have shaken a greater variety of boys' hands in
+Norway--of every size, kind, and quality, fat, lean, clean, and dirty,
+dry and wet--than ever I shook all over the world before.
+Notwithstanding the amount of water in the country, I must have
+carried away from Trondhjem about a quarter of a pound of the native
+soil. Between the contortions of body and limb acquired by a brief
+residence in Paris, the battering out of several hats against my knee
+in the process of bowing throughout the cities of Germany, and the
+shaking of various boys' hands on my trip through Norway, I consider
+that my politeness now qualifies me for any society.
+
+  [Illustration: NORWEGIAN PEASANT FAMILY.]
+
+It must not be understood, however, that I was always favored with the
+society of little boys. At one of the stations, which, for obvious
+reasons, it would be indiscreet to name, there was no boy visible
+except the ragamuffin who had accompanied me. He, of course, was
+obliged to return with the horse and cariole. Three white-headed old
+men were sitting on a log near the stable basking in the sun, and
+gossiping pleasantly about by-gone times or the affairs of state, I
+could not understand which. Each of these venerable worthies wore a
+red night-cap, which in this country answers likewise for a day-cap,
+and smoked a massive wooden pipe. It was a very pleasant picture of
+rural content. As I approached they nodded a smiling "_God Aften!_"
+and rose to unharness the horse. An elderly lady, of very neat
+appearance and pleasing expression, came to the door and bade me a
+kindly welcome. Then the three old men all began to talk to me
+together, and when they said what they had to say about the fine
+weather, and the road, and the quality of the horse, and whatever else
+came into their antiquated heads, they led the horse off to the
+stable and proceeded to get me a fresh one. While they were doing that
+the elderly lady went back into the house and called aloud for some
+person within. Presently a fine buxom young girl, about seventeen
+years of age, made her appearance at the door. I flattered myself she
+wore rather a pleased expression when she saw me; but that might have
+been the customary cast of her features, or vanity on my part. At all
+events, there was a glowing bloom in her cheeks, and a penetrating
+brilliancy in her large blue eyes, wonderfully fascinating to one who
+had not recently looked upon any thing very attractive in the line of
+female loveliness. She was certainly a model of rustic beauty--I had
+rarely seen her equal in any country. Nothing could be more lithe and
+graceful than her form, which was advantageously set off by a tight
+bodice and a very scanty petticoat. A pair of red woolen stockings
+conspicuously displayed the fine contour of her--ankles I suppose is
+the conventional expression, though I mean a great deal more than
+that. As she sprang down the steps with a light and elastic bound, and
+took hold of the horse, which by this time the three old men were
+fumbling at to harness in the cariole, I unconsciously thought of
+Diana Vernon. She had all the daring grace and delicacy of the Scotch
+heroine--only in a rustic way. Seizing the horse by the bridle, she
+backed him up in a jiffy between the shafts of the cariole, and
+pushing the old gray-heads aside with a merry laugh, proceeded to
+arrange the harness. Having paid the boy who had come over from the
+last station, and put my name and destination in the day-book,
+according to law, I refreshed myself by a glass of ale, and then came
+out to see if all was ready. The girl nodded to me smilingly to get in
+and be off.
+
+I looked around for the boy who was to accompany me. Nobody in the
+shape of a boy was to be seen. The three old men had returned to their
+log by the stable, and now sat smoking their pipes and gossiping as
+usual, and the good-natured old landlady stood smiling and nodding in
+the doorway. Who was to take charge of the cariole? that was the
+question. Was I to go alone? Suppose I should miss the road and get
+lost in some awful wilderness? However, these questions were too much
+for my limited vocabulary of Norsk on the spur of the moment. So I
+mounted the cariole, resolved to abide whatever fate Providence might
+have in store for me. The girl put the reins in my hand and off I
+started, wondering why these good people left me to travel alone. I
+thought that they would naturally feel some solicitude about their
+property. Scarcely was I under way, when, with a bound like a deer,
+the girl was up on the cariole behind, hanging on to the back of the
+seat with both hands. Perfectly aghast with astonishment, I pulled the
+reins and stopped. "What!" I exclaimed, in the best Norsk I could
+muster, "is the _Jomfru_ going with me?" "_Ja!_" answered the laughing
+damsel, in a merry, ringing voice--"_Ja! Ja! Jeg vil vise de
+Veien!_--I will show you the way!"
+
+Here was a predicament! A handsome young girl going to take charge of
+me through a perfectly wild and unknown country! I turned to the old
+lady at the door with something of a remonstrating expression, no
+doubt, for I felt confused and alarmed. How the deuce was I, a
+solitary and inexperienced traveler from California, to defend myself
+against such eyes, such blooming cheeks, such honeyed lips and pearly
+teeth as these, to say nothing of a form all grace and ability, a
+voice that was the very essence of melody, and the fascinating smiles
+and blandishments of this wild young creature! It was enough to puzzle
+and confound any man of ordinary susceptibility, much less one who had
+a natural terror of the female sex. But I suppose it was all right.
+The old lady nodded approvingly; and the three old men smoked their
+pipes, and, touching their red night-caps, bid me--_Farrel! meget god
+reise!_--a pleasant trip! So, without more ado, I cracked the whip,
+and off we started. It was not my fault, that was certain. My
+conscience was clear of any bad intentions.
+
+We were soon out of sight of the station, and then came a steep hill.
+While the pony was pulling and tugging with all his might, the girl
+bounced off, landing like a wood-nymph about six feet in the rear of
+the cariole; when, with strides that perfectly astonished me, she
+began to march up the hill, singing a lively Norwegian ditty as she
+sprang over the ruts and ridges of the road. I halted in amazement.
+This would never do. Respect for the gentler sex would not permit me
+to ride up the hill while so lovely a creature was taking it on foot.
+Governed by those high principles of gallantry, augmented and
+cultivated by long residence in California, I jumped out of the
+cariole, and with persuasive eloquence begged the fair damsel to get
+in and drive up the hill on my account; that I greatly preferred
+walking; the exercise was congenial--I liked it. At this she looked
+astonished, if not suspicious. I fancied she was not used to that
+species of homage. At all events, she stoutly declined getting in; and
+since it was impossible for me to ride under the circumstances, I
+walked by her side to the top of the hill. A coolness was evidently
+growing up between us, for she never spoke a word all the way; and I
+was too busy trying to keep the horse in the middle of the road and
+save my breath to make any farther attempts at conversation.
+
+Having at length reached the summit, the girl directed me to take my
+place, which I did at once with great alacrity. With another active
+bound she was up behind, holding on as before with both hands to the
+back of the seat. Then she whistled to the horse in a style he seemed
+to understand perfectly well, for away he dashed down the hill at a
+rate of speed that I was certain would very soon result in utter
+destruction to the whole party. It was awful to think of being pitched
+out and rolling down the precipice, in the arms perhaps of this
+dashing young damsel, who, being accustomed to the road, would
+doubtless exert herself to save me.
+
+"_Nu! Reise! Reise!_--travel!" cried this extraordinary girl; and
+away we went, over rocks, into ruts, against roots and bushes;
+bouncing, springing, splashing, and dashing through mud-holes; down
+hill and still down; whirling past terrific pits, jagged pinnacles of
+rock, and yawning gulfs of darkness; through gloomy patches of pine,
+out again into open spaces, and along the brinks of fearful
+precipices; over rickety wooden bridges, and through foaming torrents
+that dashed out over the road, the wild girl clinging fast behind, the
+little pony flying along madly in front, the cariole creaking and
+rattling as if going to pieces, myself hanging on to the reins in a
+perfect agony of doubt whether each moment would not be our last. I
+declare, on the faith of a traveler, it beat all the dangers I had
+hitherto encountered summed up together. Trees whirled by, waterfalls
+flashed upon my astonished eyes, streaks of sunshine fretted the gloom
+with a net-work of light that dazzled and confounded me. I could see
+nothing clearly. There was a horrible jumble in my mind of black rocks
+and blue eyes, pine forests and flaming red stockings, flying clouds
+and flying petticoats, the roar of torrents and the ringing voice of
+the maiden as she cried "_Flue! Gaae! Reise!_--Fly! Go it! Travel!"
+Only one thought was uppermost--the fear of being dashed to pieces.
+Great heavens, what a fate! If I could only stop this infernal little
+pony, we might yet be saved! But I dared not attempt it. The slightest
+pull at the reins would throw him upon his haunches, and cariole and
+all would go spinning over him into some horrible abyss. All this time
+the wild damsel behind was getting more and more excited. Now she
+whistled, now she shouted "_Skynde pa!_--Faster! faster!" till, fairly
+carried away by enthusiasm, she begged me to give her the whip, which
+I did, with a faint attempt at prayer. Again she whistled, and shouted
+"_Skynde pa!_--Faster! faster!" and then she cracked the most
+startling and incomprehensible Norwegian melodies with the whip,
+absolutely stunning my ears, while she shouted "_Gaae! Flue!
+Reise!_--Go it! Fly! Travel!" Faster and still faster we flew down the
+frightful hill. The pony caught the infection of enthusiasm, and now
+broke into a frantic run. "Faster! faster!" shrieked the wild girl in
+a paroxysm of delight.
+
+By this time I was positively beside myself with terror. No longer
+able to distinguish the flying trees, waterfalls, and precipices, I
+closed my eyes and gasped for breath. Soon the fearful bouncing of the
+cariole aroused me to something like consciousness. We had struck a
+rock, and were now spinning along the edge of a mighty abyss on one
+wheel, the other performing a sort of balance in the air. I looked
+ahead, but there was neither shape nor meaning in the country. It was
+all a wild chaos of destructive elements--trees, precipices, red
+stockings, and whirling petticoats--toward which we were madly flying.
+
+But there is an end to all troubles upon earth. With thanks to a kind
+Providence, I at length caught sight of a long stretch of level road.
+Although there were several short turns to be made before reaching it,
+there was still hope that it might be gained without any more serious
+disaster than the breaking of a leg or an arm. Upon such a casualty as
+that I should have compromised at once. If this extraordinary creature
+behind would only stop whistling and cracking the whip, and driving
+the little pony crazy by her inspiring cries, I might yet succeed in
+steering safely into the level road; but the nearer we approached the
+bottom of the hill the wilder she became--now actually dancing on the
+little board with delight, now leaning over to get a cut at the pony's
+tail with the whip, while she whistled more fiercely than ever, and
+cried out, from time to time, "_Flue! Gaae! Reise!_" Already the poor
+animal was reeking with sweat, and it was a miracle he did not drop
+dead on the road.
+
+  [Illustration: THE POST-GIRL.]
+
+However, by great good fortune, aided by my skill in driving, we made
+the turns, and in a few minutes more were safely jogging along the
+level road. Almost breathless, and quite bewildered, I instinctively
+turned round to see what manner of wild being this girl behind was. If
+you believe me, she was leaning over my shoulder, shaking her sides
+laughing at me, her sparkling blue eyes now all ablaze with
+excitement, her cheeks glowing like peonies, her lips wide apart,
+displaying the most exquisite set of teeth I ever beheld, while her
+long golden tresses, bursting from the red handkerchief which served
+as a sort of crowning glory to her head, floated in wavy ringlets over
+her shoulders. Hermosa! it was enough to thaw an anchorite! She was
+certainly very pretty--there was no doubt of that; full of life,
+overflowing with health and vitality, and delighted at the confusion
+and astonishment of the strange gentleman she had taken in charge.
+
+Can any body tell me what it is that produces such a singular
+sensation when one looks over his shoulder and discovers the face of a
+pretty and innocent young girl within a few inches of his own, her
+beautiful eyes sparkling like a pair of stars, and shooting magic
+scintillations through and through him, body and soul, while her
+breath falls like a zephyr upon his cheek? Tell me, ye who deal in
+metaphysics, what is it? There is certainly a kind of charm in it,
+against which no mortal man is proof. Though naturally prejudiced
+against the female sex, and firmly convinced that we could get along
+in the world much better without them, I was not altogether insensible
+to beauty in an artistical point of view, otherwise I should never
+have been able to grace the pages of HARPER with the above likeness of
+this Norwegian sylph. After all, it must be admitted that they have a
+way about them which makes us feel overpowered and irresponsible in
+their presence. Doubtless this fair damsel was unconscious of the
+damage she was inflicting upon a wayworn and defenseless traveler. Her
+very innocence was itself her chiefest charm. Either she was the most
+innocent or the most designing of her sex. She thought nothing of
+holding on to my shoulder, and talked as glibly and pleasantly, with
+her beaming face close to my ear, as if I had been her brother or her
+cousin, or possibly her uncle, though I did not exactly like to regard
+it in that point of view. What she was saying I could not conjecture,
+save by her roguish expression and her merry peals of laughter.
+
+"_Jag kan ikke tale Norsk!_--I can't speak Norwegian"--was all I could
+say, at which she laughed more joyously than ever, and rattled off a
+number of excellent jokes, no doubt at my helpless condition. Indeed,
+I strongly suspected, from a familiar word here and there, that she
+was making love to me out of mere sport, though she was guarded enough
+not to make any intelligible demonstration to that effect. At last I
+got out my vocabulary, and as we jogged quietly along the road, by
+catching a word now and then, and making her repeat what she said very
+slowly, got so far as to construct something of a conversation.
+
+"What is your name, _sken Jumfru_?" I asked.
+
+"Maria," was the answer.
+
+"A pretty name; and Maria is a very pretty girl."
+
+She tossed her head a little scornfully, as much as to say Maria was
+not to be fooled by flattery.
+
+"What is _your_ name?" said Maria, after a pause.
+
+"Mine? Oh, I have forgotten mine."
+
+"Are you an Englishman?"
+
+"No."
+
+"A Frenchman?"
+
+"No."
+
+"A Dutchman?"
+
+"No--I am an American."
+
+"I like Americans--I don't like Englishmen," said the girl.
+
+"Have you a lover?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you going to be married to him?"
+
+"Yes, in about six months."
+
+"I wish you joy."
+
+"Thank you!"
+
+At this moment a carriage drawn by two horses hove in sight. It was an
+English traveling party--an old gentleman and two ladies, evidently
+his wife and daughter. As they drew near they seemed to be a little
+perplexed at the singular equipage before them--a small horse, nearly
+dead and lathered all over with foam; a cariole bespattered with mud;
+a dashing fine girl behind, with flaunting hair, a short petticoat,
+and a flaming pair of red stockings; myself in the body of the
+cariole, covered from head to foot with mire, my beard flying out in
+every direction, and my hair still standing on end from the effects of
+recent fright--a very singular spectacle to meet in the middle of a
+public highway, even in Norway. The road was very narrow at the point
+of meeting. It became necessary for one of the vehicles to pull up the
+side of the hill a little in order to allow room for the other to
+pass. Being the lighter party as well as under obligations of
+gallantry, I at once gave way. While endeavoring to make a passage,
+the old gentleman gruffly observed to the public generally,
+
+"What an excessively bad road!"
+
+"Very!" said I.
+
+"Beastly!" growled the Englishman.
+
+"Abominable!" said I.
+
+"Oh, you are an Englishman?" said the elderly lady.
+
+"No, madam--an American," I answered, with great suavity.
+
+"Oh, an American!" said the young lady, taking out her note-book;
+"dear me, how very interesting!"
+
+"From California," I added, with a smile of pride.
+
+"How very interesting!" exclaimed the young lady.
+
+"A great country," said I.
+
+"Gray," observed the elderly lady, in an under tone, looking very hard
+at the girl, who was still standing on the little board at the back of
+the cariole, and who coolly and saucily surveyed the traveling party,
+"Gray, is that a Norwegian girl?"
+
+"Yes, madam; she is my postillion, only she rides behind, according
+to the Norwegian custom."
+
+"Dear me!" cried the young lady, "how very interesting!"
+
+"And dangerous too," I observed.
+
+The lady looked puzzled. She was thinking of dangers to which I had no
+reference.
+
+"Dangerous?" exclaimed the young lady.
+
+"Yes; she came near breaking my neck down that hill;" and here I gave
+the party a brief synopsis of the adventure.
+
+"Devilish odd!" growled the old Englishman, impatiently. "Good-day,
+sir. Come, get up!"
+
+The elderly lady said nothing, but looked suspicious.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed the young lady, as they drove off; "how very--"
+This was the last I heard, but I suppose she considered it
+interesting. The whole affair, no doubt, stands fully recorded in her
+note-book.
+
+The way being now clear, we proceeded on our journey. In a little
+while the station-house was in sight, and after a few minutes' drive I
+was obliged to part from my interesting companion. At first I
+hesitated about proffering the usual fee of four shillings; but, upon
+reflection, it occurred to me that I had no right to consider her any
+thing more than a post-boy. It was worth something extra to travel
+with one so lively and entertaining, so I handed her double the usual
+allowance, at which she made a very polite courtesy and greatly
+relieved my embarrassment by giving a hearty shake of the hand and
+wishing me a pleasant journey. This was the last I saw of my Norwegian
+Diana. She is a young damsel of great beauty and vivacity, not to say
+a little wild. I trust she is now happily married to the object of her
+affections.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+HOW THEY LIVE.
+
+
+Every where on the route through the interior I found the peasants
+kind, hospitable, and simple-hearted. Sometimes I made a detour of
+several miles from the main road for the purpose of catching a glimpse
+of the home-life of the farmers; and, imperfect as my means of
+communication were, I never had any difficulty in making acquaintance
+with them after announcing myself as a traveler from California. They
+had all heard, more or less, of that wonderful land of gold, and
+entertained the most vague and exaggerated notions of its mineral
+resources. It was not uncommon to find men who believed that the whole
+country was yellow with gold; that such quantities of that ore
+abounded in it as to be of little or no value. When I told them that
+the country was very rich in the precious metals, but that every hill
+was not a mass of gold, nor the bed of every river lined with rocks
+and pebbles of the same material, they looked a little incredulous,
+not to say disappointed. Many of them seemed surprised that a
+Californian should be traveling through a distant land like Norway
+merely for amusement, and few seemed to be entirely satisfied when I
+assured them, in answer to their questions, that I was not very rich;
+that I was neither a merchant, nor a speculator, nor the owner of gold
+mines, but simply an indifferent artist making sketches of their
+country for pastime. French, German, and English artists they could
+believe in, for they saw plenty of them in the wilds of Norway every
+summer; but what use would such a poor business be in California, they
+said, where every man could make a thousand dollars a day digging for
+gold? I even fancied they looked at my rough and dusty costume as if
+they thought it concealed a glittering uniform, such as the rich men
+of my country must naturally wear when they go abroad to visit foreign
+lands. It was impossible to convince them that I was not extravagantly
+wealthy. On any other point there might be room for doubt, but the
+pertinacity with which they insisted upon that afforded me much
+amusement; and since I could not dispel the illusion, it generally
+cost me a few extra shillings when I had any thing to pay to avoid the
+stigma of meanness. Not that my extraordinary wealth ever gave them a
+plea for imposition or extortion. Such an idea never entered their
+heads. On the contrary, their main purpose seemed to be to show every
+possible kindness to the distinguished stranger; and more than once,
+at some of the post-stations, I had to remind them of things which
+they had omitted in the charge. For this very reason I was in a
+measure compelled to be rather more profuse than travelers usually
+are, so that the state from which I have the honor to hail owes me a
+considerable amount of money by this time for the handsome manner in
+which I have sustained its reputation. At some of the stopping-places
+on the road, where I obtained lodgings for the night, it was not
+uncommon to find intelligent and educated families of cultivated
+manners. Education of late years has made considerable progress in
+Norway; and the rising generation, owing to the facilities afforded by
+the excellent school system established throughout the country, but
+especially in the principal towns, will not be in any respect behind
+the times, so far as regards intellectual progress. It is the
+simplicity and honesty of these good people, however, that form their
+principal and most charming characteristic. To one long accustomed to
+sharp dealing and unscrupulous trickery, it is really refreshing their
+confidence in the integrity of a stranger. Usually they left the
+settlement of accounts to myself, merely stating that I must determine
+what I owed by adding up the items according to the tariff; and,
+although my knowledge of the language was so limited, I nowhere had
+the slightest approach to a dispute about the payment of expenses. On
+one occasion, not wishing to forfeit this confidence, I was obliged to
+ride back half a mile to pay for two cigars which I had forgotten in
+making up the reckoning, and of which the inn-keeper had not thought
+proper to remind me, or had forgotten to keep any account himself. No
+surprise was manifested at this conscientious act--the inn-keeper
+merely nodding good-naturedly when I handed him the money, with the
+remark that it was "all right."
+
+In the districts remote from the sea-ports, the peasants, as may well
+be supposed, are extremely ignorant of the great outside world. Sweden
+and Denmark are the only countries known to them besides their own
+"Gamle Norge," save such vague notions of other lands as they pick up
+from occasional travelers. To them "Amerika" is a terra incognita. A
+letter once or twice a year from some emigrant to the members of his
+family goes the rounds of the district, and gives them all the
+knowledge they have of that distant land of promise; and when they
+listen, with gaping eyes and open mouths, to the wonderful stories of
+adventure, life, enterprise, and wealth detailed by the enthusiastic
+rover, it is no wonder they shake their heads and say that Christian,
+or Hans, or Ole (as the case may be), "always was a capital fellow at
+drawing a long bow." They firmly believe in ghosts and supernatural
+visitations of all sorts, but are very incredulous about any country
+in the world being equal to "Gamle Norge." Naturally enough, they
+consider their climate the most genial, their barren rocks the most
+fertile, their government the best and most liberal on the face of the
+earth, and themselves the most highly favored of the human race.
+Goldsmith must have had special reference to the Norwegians when he
+sang of "that happiest spot below:"
+
+    "The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone
+    Boldly proclaims the happiest spot his own."
+
+And why should they be otherwise than contented--if such a thing as
+contentment can exist upon earth? They have few wants and many
+children; a country free from internal commotion, and too far removed
+from the great scenes of European strife to excite the jealousy of
+external powers; sufficient food and raiment to satisfy the ordinary
+necessities of life, and no great extremes of wealth or poverty to
+militate against their independence, either in a political or social
+point of view. With good laws, an excellent Constitution, and a fair
+representation in the Storthing, they are justly proud of their
+freedom, and deeply imbued with the spirit of patriotism.
+
+Very little of poverty or beggary is to be seen by the wayside during
+a tour through Norway. Only at one point between Kringelen and
+Laurgaard--a wild and barren district exceedingly savage in its
+aspect, situated in a narrow gorge of the mountains near the head of
+the Logen--was I solicited for alms. A portion of this route, after
+passing Sinclair's Monument, is rudely fenced in, so as to render
+available every foot of the narrow valley. The road passes directly
+through the little farms, which at this stage of the journey are poor
+and unproductive. The climate is said to be very severe in this
+district, in consequence of its altitude, and the sharp winds which
+sweep down from the mountain gorges. At every gateway a gang of ragged
+little children always stood ready to open the gate, for which, of
+course, they expected a few shillings; and as these gates occur at
+intervals of every few hundred yards for some distance, it produces a
+sensible effect upon one's purse to get through. Passing through some
+wretched hamlets in this vicinity, crowds of old women hobbled out to
+beg alms, and I did not get clear of the regiments of children who ran
+along behind the cariole to receive the remainder of my small change
+for several miles. Strange to say, this was the only place during my
+rambles through the interior in which I saw any thing like beggary.
+Generally speaking, the farming lands are sufficiently productive to
+supply all the wants of the peasants, and many of the farmers are
+even comfortably situated.
+
+The houses in which these country people reside are not altogether
+unlike the small log cabins of the early settlers on our Western
+frontier. I have seen many such on the borders of Missouri and Kansas.
+Built in the most primitive style of pine logs, they stand upon stumps
+or columns of stone, elevated some two or three feet from the ground,
+in order to allow a draft of air underneath, which in this humid
+climate is considered necessary for health. They seldom consist of
+more than two or three rooms, but make up in number what they lack in
+size. Thus a single farming establishment often comprises some ten or
+a dozen little cabins, besides the large barn, which is the nucleus
+around which they all centre; with smaller cribs for pigs, chickens,
+etc., and here and there a shed for the cows and sheep, all huddled
+together among the rocks or on some open hill-side, without the least
+apparent regard to direction or architectural effect. The roofs are
+covered with sod, upon which it is not uncommon to see patches of
+oats, weeds, moss, flowers, or whatever comes most convenient to form
+roots and give consistency and strength to this singular overtopping.
+The object, I suppose, is to prevent the transmission of heat during
+the severe season of winter. Approaching some of these hamlets or
+farming establishments during the summer months, the traveler is
+frequently at a loss to distinguish their green-sodded roofs from the
+natural sod of the hill-sides, so that one is liable at any time to
+plunge into the midst of a settlement before he is aware of its
+existence. Something of a damp, earthy look about them, the weedy or
+grass-covered tops, the logs green and moss-grown, the dripping eaves,
+the veins of water oozing out of the rocks, give them a peculiarly
+Northern and chilling effect, and fill the mind with visions of long
+and dreary winters, rheumatisms, colds, coughs, and consumptions, to
+which it is said these people are subject. Nothing so wild and
+primitive is to be seen in any other part of Europe. A silence almost
+death-like hangs over these little hamlets during a great part of the
+day, when the inhabitants are out in the hills attending their flocks
+or cultivating their small patches of ground. I passed many groups of
+cabins without seeing the first sign of life, save now and then a few
+chickens or pigs rooting about the barn-yard. The constant impression
+was that it was Sunday, or at least a holiday, and that the people
+were either at church or asleep. For one who seeks retirement from the
+busy haunts of life, where he can indulge in uninterrupted reflection,
+I know of no country that can equal Norway. There are places in the
+interior where I am sure he would be astonished at the sound of his
+own voice. The deserts of Africa can scarcely present a scene of such
+utter isolation. With a rod in his hand, he can, if given to the
+gentle art, sit and dream upon some mossy bank,
+
+    "In close covert by some brook,
+    Where no profaner eye may look,
+    And hide him from day's garish noon."
+
+Thus you often come upon an English sportsman waiting for a nibble.
+
+  [Illustration: WAITING FOR A NIBBLE.]
+
+The food of the peasants consists principally of black bread, milk,
+butter, and cheese. Meat is too expensive for very general use, though
+at certain seasons of the year they indulge in it once or twice a
+week. Coffee is a luxury to which they are much addicted. Even the
+poorest classes strain a point to indulge in this favorite narcotic,
+and in no part of Norway did I fail to get a good cup of coffee. It is
+a very curious fact that the best coffee to be had at the most
+fashionable hotels on the Continent of Europe--always excepting
+Paris--is inferior to that furnished to the traveler at the commonest
+station-house in Norway. This is indeed one of the luxuries of a tour
+through this part of Scandinavia. The cream is rich and pure, and it
+is a rare treat to get a large bowlful of it for breakfast, with as
+much milk as you please, and no limit to bread and butter. Your
+appetite is not measured by infinitesimal bits and scraps as in
+Germany. A good wholesome meal is spread before you in the genuine
+backwoods style, and you may eat as much as you please, which is a
+rare luxury to one who has been stinted and starved at the hotels on
+the Continent. I remember, at one station beyond the Dovre Fjeld,
+Bennett's Hand-book says, "Few rooms, but food supplied in first-rate
+style when Miss Marit is at home. She will be much offended if you do
+not prove that you have a good appetite." On my arrival at this place,
+not wishing to offend Miss Marit--for whom I entertained the highest
+respect in consequence of her hospitable reputation--I called for
+every thing I could think of, and when it was placed upon the table
+by that accomplished young lady (a very pleasant, pretty young woman,
+by-the-way), fell to work and made it vanish at a most astonishing
+rate. Miss Marit stood by approvingly. During a pause in my heavy
+labors I called the attention of this estimable person to her own name
+in the printed pamphlet, at which she blushed and looked somewhat
+confused. Possibly there might be a mistake about it.
+
+"Your name is Miss Marit?" I asked, very politely.
+
+"Ja."
+
+"And this is Miss Marit in print?"
+
+"Ja."
+
+She took the book and tried to read it.
+
+"Nikka Forstoe!"--she didn't understand.
+
+"What does it say?" she asked, rather gravely.
+
+Here was a job--to translate the paragraph into Norwegian! Besides, it
+would not do to translate it literally, so I made a sort of impromptu
+paraphrase upon it.
+
+"Oh! it says Miss Marit is a very pretty young lady."
+
+"Ja!"--blushing and looking somewhat astonished.
+
+"And Miss Marit is a very nice housekeeper."
+
+"Ja."
+
+"And Miss Marit makes splendid coffee, and thoroughly understands how
+to cook a beefsteak."
+
+"Ja!"
+
+"And Miss Marit would make a most excellent wife for any young
+gentleman who could succeed in winning her affections!"
+
+"Nei!" said the young lady, blushing again, and looking more
+astonished than ever.
+
+"Ja," said I, "it is all in print"--adding, with an internal
+reservation, "or ought to be."
+
+Who can blame me for paying tribute to Miss Marit's kindness and
+hospitality? She is certainly deserving of much higher praise than
+that bestowed upon her, and I hope Mr. Bennett will pardon me for the
+liberal style of my translation. If he didn't mean all I said, let the
+responsibility rest upon me, for I certainly meant every word of it.
+
+The farming districts are limited chiefly to the valleys along the
+river-courses, and such portions of arable lands as lie along the
+shores of the Fjords. A large proportion of the country is extremely
+wild and rugged, and covered, for the most part, with dense pine
+forests. The peasants generally own their own farms, which are small,
+and cut up into patches of pasture, grain-lands, and tracts of forest.
+Even the most unpromising nooks among the rocks, in many parts of the
+Gudbransdalen Valley, where plows are wholly unavailable, are rooted
+up by means of hoes, and planted with oats and other grain. I
+sometimes saw as many as forty or fifty of these little arable patches
+perched up among the rocks, hundreds of feet above the roofs of the
+houses, where it would seem dangerous for goats to browse. The log
+cabins peep out from among the rocks and pine-clad cliffs all along
+the course of the Logen, giving the country a singular speckled
+appearance. This, it must be remembered, is one of the best districts
+in the interior. The richest agricultural region is said to be that
+bordering on the shores of the Miosen. One of the comforts enjoyed by
+the peasants, and without which it would scarcely be possible for them
+to exist in such a rigorous climate, consists in the unlimited
+quantity of fuel to which they have such easy access. This is an
+inconceivable luxury during the long winter months; and their large
+open fireplaces and blazing fires, even in the cool summer evenings,
+constantly remind one of the homes of the settlers in the Far West.
+When the roads are covered with snow the true season of internal
+communication commences. Then the means of transportation and travel
+are greatly facilitated, and the clumsy wagons used in summer are put
+aside for the lighter and more convenient sledges with which every
+farmer is abundantly provided. All along the route the snow-plows may
+be seen turned up against the rocks, ready to be used during the
+winter to clear and level the roads. In summer the means of
+transportation are little better than those existing between
+Placerville and Carson Valley.
+
+  [Illustration: SNOW-PLOW.]
+
+It was during the height of the harvesting season that I passed
+through the Gudbransdalen. One of the most characteristic sights at
+this time of the year is the extraordinary amount of labor imposed
+upon the women, who seem really to do most of the heavy work. I
+thought I had seen the last of that in the Thuringenwald, Odenwald,
+and Schwartzwald, while on a foot-tour through Germany; but even the
+Germans are not so far advanced in civilization in this respect as the
+Norwegians, who do not hesitate to make their women cut wood, haul
+logs, pull carts, row boats, fish, and perform various other kinds of
+labor usually allotted to the stronger sex, which even a German would
+consider rather heavy for his "frow." The men, in addition to this
+ungallant trait, are much addicted to the use of tobacco and native
+corn-brandy--which, however, I can not but regard as a sign of
+civilization, since the same habits exist, to some extent, in our own
+country. Chewing and drinking are just as common as in California, the
+most enlightened country in the world. Wherever I saw a set of
+drunken fellows roaring and rollicking at some wayside inn, their
+faces smeared with tobacco, and their eyes rolling in their heads, I
+naturally felt drawn toward them by the great free-masonry of familiar
+customs.
+
+  [Illustration: A DRINKING BOUT.]
+
+The system of farming followed by the peasants is exceedingly
+primitive, though doubtless well adapted to the climate and soil.
+Nothing can be more striking to a stranger than the odd shapes of the
+wagons and carts, and the rudeness of the agricultural implements,
+which must be patterned upon those in vogue during the time of Odin,
+the founder of the Norwegian race. Owing to the humidity of the
+climate, it is necessary in harvest time to dry the hay and grain by
+staking it out in the fields on long poles, so that the sun and air
+may penetrate every part of it. The appearance of a farm is thus
+rendered unique as well as picturesque. In the long twilight nights of
+summer these ghostly stokes present the appearance of a gang of
+heathenish spirits standing about in the fields, with their long
+beards waving in the air, and their dusky robes trailing over the
+stubbles. The figures thus seen at every turn of the road often assume
+the most striking spectral forms, well calculated to augment those
+wild superstitions which prevail throughout the country. It was
+impossible for me ever to get quite rid of the idea that they were
+descendants of the old Scandinavian gods, holding counsel over the
+affairs of the nation, especially when some passing breeze caused
+their arms and robes to flutter in the twilight, and their heads to
+swing to and fro, as if in the enthusiasm of their ghostly
+deliberations.
+
+  [Illustration: A NORWEGIAN FARM.]
+
+  [Illustration: NORWEGIAN CHURCH.]
+
+Mingled with the wild superstitions of the people their piety is a
+prominent trait. Their prevailing religion is Episcopal Lutheran,
+though Catholicism and other religions are tolerated by an act of the
+Storthing, with the exception of Mormonism, which is prohibited by
+law. A considerable number of proselytes to that sect have emigrated
+to Salt Lake. This prevailing spirit of piety is observable even in
+the wildest parts of the country, where every little hamlet has its
+church, and neither old nor young neglect their religious services.
+Most of these churches are built of wood, with a steeple of the same
+material, shingled over and painted black, so as to present the most
+striking contrast to the snows which cover the face of the country
+during the greater part of the year.
+
+  [Illustration: PARISH SCHOOLMASTER.]
+
+The parish schoolmaster is a most important personage in these rural
+districts. He it is who trains up the rising generation, teaches the
+young idea how to shoot, and
+
+    "Out of great things and small draweth the secrets of
+    the universe."
+
+He is greatly revered by the simple-minded old farmers, is cherished
+and respected by the mothers of families, enthusiastically admired and
+generally aspired to by the village belles, and held in profound awe
+by all the little urchins of the neighborhood. He speaketh unknown
+tongues; he diveth into the depths of abstruse sciences; he talketh
+with the air of one burdened with much learning; he "argueth the
+cycles of the stars from a pebble flung by a child;" he likewise
+teacheth reading, writing, and arithmetic, and applieth the rod to the
+juvenile seat of understanding, as shown on the preceding page.
+
+Soon after leaving Storkterstad, a station about two days' journey
+from Lillehammer, on the main road to Trondhjem, I passed through a
+very steep and rugged defile in the mountains, with jagged rocks on
+the right and the foaming waters of the Logen on the left, where my
+attention was called by the skydskaarl to a small monument by the
+roadside hearing an inscription commemorative of the death of Colonel
+Sinclair. If I remember correctly, a fine description is given of this
+celebrated passage by Mogge, whose graphic sketches of Norwegian
+scenery I had frequent occasion to admire, during my tour, for their
+beauty and accuracy. I fully agree with my friend Bayard Taylor, that
+the traveler can find no better guide to the Fjelds and Fjords of this
+wild country than "Afraja" and "Life and Love in Norway." Laing has
+also given an interesting account of the massacre of Colonel
+Sinclair's party. From his version of this famous incident in
+Norwegian history it appears that, during the war between Christian
+the Fourth of Denmark and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, while the Danes
+held the western coast of Norway, Colonel Sinclair, a Scotchman,
+desiring to render assistance to the Swedes, landed at Romsdalen, on
+the coast, with a party of nine hundred followers. Another detachment
+of his forces landed at Trondhjem. It was their intention to fight
+their way across the mountains and join the Swedish forces on the
+frontier. Sinclair's party met with no resistance till they arrived at
+the pass of Kringelen, where three hundred peasants, hearing of their
+approach, had prepared an ambush. Every thing was arranged with the
+utmost secrecy. An abrupt mountain on the right, abounding in immense
+masses of loose rock, furnished the means of a terrible revenge for
+the ravages committed by the Scotch on their march from Romsdalen. The
+road winds around the foot of this mountain, making a narrow pass,
+hemmed in by the roaring torrents of the Logen on the one side and
+abrupt cliffs on the other. Across the river, which here dashes with
+frightful rapidity through the narrow gorge of the mountains, the
+country wears an exceedingly weird and desolate aspect; the ravines
+and summits of the mountains are darkened by gloomy forests of pine,
+relieved only by hoary and moss-covered cliffs overhanging the rushing
+waters of the Logen. On the precipitous slopes of the pass, hundreds
+of feet above the road, the peasants gathered enormous masses of rock,
+logs of wood, and even trunks of trees, which they fixed in such a way
+that, at a moment's notice, they could precipitate the whole terrible
+avalanche upon the heads of the enemy.
+
+Such was the secrecy with which the peasants managed the whole affair,
+that the Scotch, ignorant even of the existence of a foe, marched
+along in imaginary security till they reached the middle of the narrow
+pass, when they were suddenly overwhelmed and crushed beneath the
+masses of rocks and loose timbers launched upon them by the
+Norwegians. Rushing from their ambush, the infuriated peasants soon
+slaughtered the maimed and wounded, leaving, according to some
+authorities, only two of the enemy to tell the tale. Others, however,
+say that as many as sixty escaped, but were afterward caught and
+massacred. Attached to this fearful story of retribution, Laing
+mentions a romantic incident, which is still currently told in the
+neighborhood. A young peasant was prevented from joining in the attack
+by his sweet-heart, to whom he was to be married the next day. She,
+learning that the wife of Colonel Sinclair was among the party, sent
+her lover to offer his assistance; but the Scotch lady, mistaking his
+purpose, shot him dead. Such is the tragic history that casts over
+this wild region a mingled interest of horror and romance.
+
+The road from Laurgaard beyond the pass of the Kringelen ascends a
+high mountain. On the right is a series of foaming cataracts, and
+nothing can surpass the rugged grandeur of the view as you reach the
+highest eminence before descending toward Braendhagen. Here the
+country is one vast wilderness of pine-clad mountains, green winding
+valleys, and raging torrents of water dashing down over the jagged
+rocks thousands of feet below. It was nearly night when I reached
+Dombaas, the last station before ascending the Dovre Fjeld.
+
+A telegraphic station at Dombaas gives something of a civilized aspect
+to this stopping-place, otherwise rather a primitive-looking
+establishment. The people, however, are very kind and hospitable, and
+somewhat noted for their skill in carving bone and wooden
+knife-handles. I should have mentioned that, wild as this part of the
+country is, the traveler is constantly reminded by the telegraphic
+poles all along the route that he is never quite beyond the limits of
+civilization. Such is the force of habit that I was strongly tempted
+to send a message to somebody from Dombaas; but, upon turning the
+matter over in my mind, could think of nobody within the limits of
+Norway who felt sufficient interest in my explorations to be likely to
+derive much satisfaction from the announcement that I had reached the
+edge of the Dovre Fjeld in safety. The name of a waiter who was good
+enough to black my boots at the Victoria Hotel occurred to me, but it
+was hardly possible he would appreciate a telegraphic dispatch from
+one who had no more pressing claims to his attention. I thought of
+sending a few lines of remembrance to the Wild Girl who had come so
+near breaking my neck. This notion, however, I gave over upon
+reflecting that she might attach undue weight to my expressions of
+friendship, and possibly take it into her head that I was making love
+to her--than which nothing could be farther from my intention. I had a
+social chat with the telegraph-man, however--a very respectable and
+intelligent person--who gave me the latest news; and with this, and
+good supper and bed, I was obliged to rest content.
+
+  [Illustration: DOVRE FJELD.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+JOHN BULL ABROAD.
+
+
+Leaving Dombaas at an early hour, I soon began to ascend a long slope,
+reaching, by a gradual elevation, to the Dovre Fjeld. The vegetation
+began to grow more and more scanty on the wayside, consisting mostly
+of lichens and reindeer moss. I passed through some stunted groves of
+pine, which, however, were bleached and almost destitute of foliage.
+The ground on either side of the road was soft, black, and boggy,
+abounding in springs and scarcely susceptible of cultivation. At this
+elevation grain is rarely planted, though I was told potatoes and
+other esculents are not difficult to raise. On the left of the road,
+approaching the summit, lies a range of snow-capped mountains between
+the Dovre Fjeld and Molde; on the right a series of rocky and barren
+hills of sweeping outline, presenting an exceedingly desolate aspect.
+In the course of an hour after leaving Dombaas, having walked most of
+the way, I fairly reached the grand plateau of the Dovre Fjeld. The
+scene at this point of the journey is inexpressibly desolate.
+
+Bare, whitish-colored hills bound the horizon on the right; in front
+is a dreary waste, through which the road winds like a thread till
+lost in the dim haze of the distance; and to the left the everlasting
+snows of Snaehatten. A few wretched cabins are scattered at remote
+intervals over the desert plains, in which the shepherds seek shelter
+from the inclemency of the weather, which even in midsummer is often
+piercingly raw. Herds of rattle, sheep, and goats were grazing over
+the rocky wastes of the Fjeld. Reindeer are sometimes seen in this
+vicinity, but not often within sight of the road. The only vegetation
+produced here is reindeer moss, and a coarse sort of grass growing in
+bunches over the plain. I met several shepherds on the way dressed in
+something like a characteristic costume--frieze jackets with brass
+buttons, black knee-breeches, a red night-cap, and armed with the
+usual staff or shepherd's crook, represented in pictures, and much
+discoursed of by poets:
+
+            "Methinks it were a happy life
+    To be no better than a homely swain;"
+
+but not on the Dovre Fjelds of Norway. It must be rather a dull
+business in that region, taking into consideration the barren plains,
+the bleak winds, and desolate aspect of the country. No sweet hawthorn
+bushes are there, beneath which these rustic philosophers can sit,
+
+    "Looking on their silly sheep."
+
+Shepherd life must be a very dismal reality indeed. And yet there is
+no accounting for tastes. At one point of the road, beyond Folkstuen,
+where a sluggish lagoon mingles its waters with the barren slopes of
+the Fjeld, I saw an Englishman standing up to his knees in a dismal
+marsh fishing for trout.
+
+The weather was cold enough to strike a chill into one's very marrow;
+yet this indefatigable sportsman had come more than a thousand miles
+from his native country to enjoy himself in this way. He was a genuine
+specimen of an English snob--self-sufficient, conceited, and
+unsociable; looking neither to the right nor the left, and terribly
+determined not to commit himself by making acquaintance with casual
+travelers speaking the English tongue. I stopped my cariole within a
+few paces and asked him "what luck?" One would think the sound of his
+native tongue would have been refreshing to him in this dreary
+wilderness; but, without deigning to raise his head, he merely
+answered in a gruff tone, "Don't know, sir--don't know!" I certainly
+did not suspect him of knowing much, but thought that question at
+least would not be beyond the limits of his intelligence. Finding him
+insensible to the approaches of humanity, I revenged myself for his
+rudeness by making a sketch of his person, which I hope will be
+recognized by his friends in England should he meet with any
+misfortune in the wilds of Norway. They will at least know where to
+search for his body, and be enabled to recognize it when they find it.
+This man's sense of enjoyment reminded me of the anecdote told by
+Longfellow in Hyperion, of an Englishman who sat in a tub of cold
+water every morning while he ate his breakfast and read the
+newspapers.
+
+  [Illustration: PLAYING HIM OUT.]
+
+I met with many such in the course of my tour. Is it not a little
+marvelous what hardships people will encounter for pleasure? Here was
+a man of mature age, in the enjoyment perhaps of a comfortable
+income, who had left his country, with all its attractions, for a
+dreary desert in which he was utterly isolated from the world. He was
+not traveling--not reading, not surrounded by a few congenial friends
+who could make a brief exile pleasant, but utterly alone; ignorant, no
+doubt, of the language spoken by the few shepherds in the
+neighborhood; up to his knees in a pool of cold water; stubbornly
+striving against the most adverse circumstances of wind and weather to
+torture out of the water a few miserable little fish! Of what material
+can such a man's brain be composed, if he be gifted with brain at all?
+Is it mud, clay, or water; or is it all a bog? Possibly he was a lover
+of nature; but if you examine his portrait you will perceive that
+there is nothing in his personal appearance to warrant that suspicion.
+Even if such were the case, this was not the charming region described
+by the quaint old Walton, where the scholar can turn aside "toward the
+high honeysuckle hedge," or "sit and sing while the shower falls upon
+the teeming earth, viewing the silver streams glide silently toward
+their centre, the tempestuous sea," beguiled by the harmless lambs
+till, with a soul possessed with content, he feels "lifted above the
+earth." Nor was the solitary angler of the Dovre Fjeld a man likely to
+be lifted from the earth by any thing so fragile as the beauties of
+nature. His weight--sixteen stone at least--would be much more likely
+to sink him into it.
+
+As I approached the neighborhood of Djerkin on the Dovre Fjeld, famous
+as a central station for hunting expeditions, I met several English
+sportsmen armed with rifles, double-barreled guns, pistols, and other
+deadly weapons, on their way to the defiles of the adjacent mountains
+in search of the black bears which are said to infest that region. One
+of these enthusiastic gentlemen was seated in a cariole, and traveled
+for some distance in front of me. Taking into view the rotundity of
+his person, which overhung the little vehicle on every side, I could
+not but picture to myself the extraordinary spectacle that would be
+presented to any observant eye in case this ponderous individual
+should suddenly come in contact with one of those ferocious animals.
+
+  [Illustration: ENGLISH SPORTSMAN.]
+
+Here you have him, just as he sat before me--a back view, to be sure,
+but the only one I could get in the emergency of the moment. It will
+be easy to imagine, from the dexterous grace of his figure, how he
+will bound over the rocks, climb up the rugged points of the
+precipices, hang by the roots and branches of trees, dodge the attacks
+of the enemy, crawl through the brush, and, in the event of an
+unfavorable turn in the battle, retreat to some position of security.
+
+No man can be blamed for running when he is sure to be worsted in an
+encounter of this kind. Many a brave Californian has taken to his
+heels when pursued by a grizzly, and I have scarcely a doubt that I
+would pursue the same course myself under similar circumstances. Only
+it must look a little ludicrous to see a fat Englishman, a
+representative of the British Lion, forced to adopt this mortifying
+alternative rather than suffer himself to be torn into beefsteaks. It
+may be, however, that in this instance our Nimrod has suddenly
+discovered that it is about dinner-time, and is hurrying back to camp
+lest the beef should be overdone.
+
+  [Illustration: BEAR CHASE.]
+
+These bear-hunting Englishmen take care to have as many chances on
+their own side as possible. Hence they usually go into the mountains
+well provided with guides, ammunition, provisions, etc., and prepare
+the way by first securing the bear in some favored locality. This is
+done by killing a calf or hog, and placing the carcass in the required
+position. A hired attendant lies in wait until he discovers the bear,
+when he comes down to the station or camp, and notifies the hunter
+that it is time to start out. Thus the risk of life is greatly
+reduced, and the prospect of securing some game proportionally
+augmented. The black bears of Norway are not very dangerous, however,
+and, hunted in this manner, it requires no great skill to kill them.
+They are generally to be found in the higher mountains and defiles, a
+few miles from some farming settlement. In winter, when their
+customary food is scarce, they often commit serious depredations upon
+the stock of the farmers. Every facility is freely afforded by the
+peasants for their destruction, and every bear killed is considered so
+many cattle saved.
+
+  [Illustration: PEASANT WOMEN AT WORK.]
+
+It was late in the afternoon when I descended a rocky and pine-covered
+hill, and came in sight of the station called Djerkin, celebrated as
+one of the best in the interior of Norway. This place is kept by an
+old Norwegian peasant family of considerable wealth, and is a favorite
+resort of English sportsmen bound on fishing and hunting excursions
+throughout the wilds of the Dovre Fjeld. The main buildings and
+outhouses are numerous and substantial, and stand on the slope of the
+hill which forms the highest point of the Fjeld on the road from
+Christiania to Trondhjem. The appearance of this isolated group of
+buildings on the broad and barren face of the hill had much in it to
+remind me of some of the old missionary establishments in California;
+and the resemblance was increased by the scattered herds of cattle
+browsing upon the parched and barren slopes of the Fjeld, which in
+this vicinity are as much like the old ranch lands of San Diego County
+as one region of country wholly different in climate can be like
+another. A few cultivated patches of ground near the station, upon
+which the peasants were at work gathering in the scanty harvest,
+showed that even in this rigorous region the attempts at agriculture
+were not altogether unsuccessful. As usual, the principal burden of
+labor seemed to fall upon the women, who were digging, hoeing, and
+raking with a lusty will that would have done credit to the men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+WOMEN IN NORWAY AND GERMANY.
+
+
+I must say that of all the customs prevailing in the different parts
+of Europe, not excepting the most civilized states of Germany, this
+one of making the women do all the heavy work strikes me as the
+nearest approximation to the perfection of domestic discipline. The
+Diggers of California and the Kaffres of Africa understand this thing
+exactly, and no man of any spirit belonging to those tribes would any
+more think of performing the drudgery which he imposes upon his wife
+and daughters than a German or Norwegian. What is the use of having
+wives and children if they don't relieve us of our heavy work? In that
+respect we Americans are very much behind the times. We pay such
+absurd devotion to the weakness of woman that they rule us with a
+despotism unknown in any other country. Their smiles are threats, and
+their tears are despotic manifestoes, against which the bravest of us
+dare not rebel. It is absolutely horrible to think of the condition of
+servitude in which we are placed by the extraordinary powers vested
+in, and so relentlessly exercised by, the women of America. I, for
+one, am in favor of a revival of the old laws of Nuremberg, by which
+female tyranny was punished. By a decree of the famous Council of
+Eight, any woman convicted of beating her husband or otherwise
+maltreating him was forced to wear a dragon's head for the period of
+three days; and if she did not, at the expiration of that date, ask
+his pardon, she was compelled to undergo a regimen of bread and water
+for the space of three weeks, or until effectually reduced to
+submission. Something must be done, or we shall be compelled sooner or
+later to adopt a clause in the Constitution prohibiting from admission
+the State of Matrimony. What would the ladies do then? I think that
+would bring them to their senses.
+
+Not only in the matter of domestic discipline, but of business and
+pleasure, are the people of Europe infinitely ahead of us. In France
+many of the railway stations are attended by female clerks, and in
+Germany the beer-saloons are ornamented by pretty girls, who carry
+around the foaming schoppens, having a spare smile and a joke for
+every customer. Of opera-singers, dancers, and female fiddlers, the
+most famous are produced in Europe. The wheeling girls of Hamburg, who
+roll after the omnibuses in circus fashion, are the only specimens in
+the line of popular attractions that I have not yet seen in the
+streets or public resorts of New York.
+
+  [Illustration: WHEELING GIRLS.]
+
+What would be thought of half a dozen of these street acrobats
+rolling down Broadway or the Fifth Avenue? Doubtless they would
+attract considerable attention, and probably turn many a good penny. I
+fancy the Bowery boys would enjoy this sort of thing. A pretty girl of
+sixteen or seventeen, with her crinoline securely bundled up between
+her ankles, wheeling merrily along after an omnibus at the rate of
+five miles an hour, would be an attractive as well as extraordinary
+spectacle. For my part, I would greatly prefer it to our best female
+lectures on phrenology or physiology. I think a girl who can roll in
+that way must be possessed of uncommon genius. The wheeling boys of
+London are but clumsy spectacle compared with this. No man of
+sensibility can witness such a sight without regarding it as the very
+poetry of motion.
+
+But this digression has led me a little out of the way. I was on the
+road to Djerkin. A sharp pull of half a mile up the hill brought me to
+the door of the station, where I was kindly greeted by the family.
+Descending from my cariole a little stiff after the last long stage, I
+entered the general sitting-room, where there was a goodly assemblage
+of customers smoking and drinking, and otherwise enjoying themselves.
+The landlady, however, would not permit me to stop in such rude
+quarters, but hurried me at once into the fine room of the
+establishment. While she was preparing a venison steak and some
+coffee, I took a survey of the room, which was certainly ornamented in
+a very artistical manner. The sofa was covered with little scraps of
+white net-work; the bureau was dotted all over with little angels made
+of gauze, highly-colored pin-cushions, and fanciful paper boxes and
+card-stands. The walls were decorated with paintings of cows, stags,
+rocks, waterfalls, and other animals, and gems of Norwegian scenery,
+the productions of the genius of the family--the oldest son, a Justice
+of the Peace for the District, now absent on business at Christiania.
+They were very tolerably executed. The old lady was so proud of them
+that she took care to call my attention to their merits immediately
+upon entering the room, informing me, with much warmth of manner, that
+her son was a highly respectable man, of wonderful talents, who had
+held the honorable position of Justice of the Peace for the past ten
+years, and that there was something in my face that reminded her of
+her dear boy. In fact, she thought our features bore a striking
+resemblance--only Hansen had rather a more melancholy expression, his
+wife having unfortunately died about three years ago (here the poor
+old lady heaved a profound sigh). But I could judge for myself. There
+was his portrait, painted by a German artist who spent some months at
+this place last summer. I looked at the portrait with some curiosity.
+It was that of a man about forty years of age, with a black skull-cap
+on his head, a long queue behind, and a pair of spectacles on his
+nose--his face very thin and of a cadaverous expression; just such a
+man as you would expect to find upon a justice's bench of a country
+district in Norway. Was it possible I bore any resemblance to this
+learned man? The very idea was so startling, not to say flattering,
+that I could hardly preserve my composure. I mumbled over something to
+the effect that it was a good face--for scenic purposes; but every
+time I tried to acknowledge the likeness to myself the words stuck in
+my throat. Finally, I was forced to ask the landlady if she would be
+so kind as to bring me a glass of brandy-wine, for I was afraid she
+would discover the internal convulsions which threatened every moment
+to rend my ribs asunder. While she was looking after the brandy-wine I
+made a hasty copy of the portrait, and I now leave it to the impartial
+reader to decide upon the supposed resemblance. It may be like me, but
+I confess the fact never would have impressed itself upon my mind from
+any personal observation of my own countenance taken in front of a
+looking-glass.
+
+  [Illustration: JUSTICE OF THE PEACE.]
+
+There was something so genial and cozy about the inn at Djerkin that I
+partially resolved to stop all night. At dinner-time the landlord made
+his appearance steaming hot from the kitchen. I no longer hesitated
+about staying. I am a great believer in the physiognomy of inns as
+well as of landlords. Traveling through a wild country like Norway,
+where there is little beyond the scenery to attract attention, the
+unpretending stations by the wayside assume a degree of importance
+equaled only by the largest cities in other countries. The approach,
+the aspect of the place, the physiognomy of the house, become matters
+of the deepest interest to the solitary wayfarer, who clings to these
+episodes in the day's journey as the connecting links that bind him to
+the great family of man. I claim to be able to tell from the general
+expression of an inn, commencing at the chimney-top and ending at the
+steps of the front door, exactly what sort of cheer is to be had
+within--whether the family are happily bound together in bonds of
+affection; how often the landlord indulges in a bout of hard drinking;
+and the state of control under which he is kept by the female head of
+the establishment; nay, I can almost guess, from the general aspect of
+the house, the exact weight and digestive capacity of mine host; for
+if the inn promise well for the creature comforts, so will the
+inn-keeper. And what can be more cheering to a tired wayfarer than to
+be met at the door by a jolly red-faced old fellow--
+
+    "His fair round belly with fat capon lined"--
+
+beefsteaks in the expression of his eye; his bald pate the fac-simile
+of a rump of mutton; plum-puddings and apple-dumplings in every curve
+of his chin; his body the living embodiment of a cask of beer
+supported by two pipes of generous wine; the whole man overflowing
+with rich juices and essences, gravies, and strong drinks--a
+breathing incarnation of all the good things of life, whom to look
+upon is to feel good-natured and happy in the present, and hopeful for
+the future; such a man, in short, as mine host of the Golden Crown,
+whose portrait I have endeavored to present.
+
+  [Illustration: MODEL LANDLORD.]
+
+If there be any likeness between myself and the son, it certainly does
+not extend to the father. He carries in his hands a steaming hot
+plum-pudding; he is a model landlord, and delights in feeding his
+customers. His voice is greasy like his face. When he laughs it is
+from his capacious stomach the sounds come. His best jokes are based
+upon his digestive organs. He gets a little boozy toward evening, but
+that is merely a hospitable habit of his to prove that his liquors are
+good. You commit yourself at once to his keeping with a delightful
+consciousness that in his hands you are safe. He is not a man to
+suffer an honest customer to starve. Nature, in her prodigality,
+formed him upon a generous pattern. Whatever does other people good
+likewise does him good. May he live a thousand years--mine host of the
+Golden Crown!--and may his shadow never be less!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+DOWN THE DRIVSDAL.
+
+
+The next morning I proceeded on my way, resolved, if ever I came this
+route again, to spend a week at Djerkin. A withered old man
+accompanied me on the back of the cariole. After half an hour's hard
+climbing up a very steep hill we reached the highest point of the
+Dovre Fjeld, 4594 feet above the level of the sea. From this point the
+view is exceedingly weird and desolate. Owing to the weather, however,
+which was dark and threatening, I did not stop long to enjoy the view
+of the barren wastes that lay behind, but was soon dashing at a
+slapping pace down into the valley of the Drivsdal--one of the most
+rugged and picturesque in Norway.
+
+  [Illustration: DRIVSDAL VALLEY.]
+
+My journey down the valley of the Drivsdal was both pleasant and
+interesting. A beautiful new road commences at Kongsvold, the last
+station on the Dovre Fjeld, after passing Djerkin, and follows the
+winding of the river through the narrow gorges of the mountains all
+the way to Ny Orne. On each side towering and pine-covered mountains
+rear their rugged crests, sometimes approaching so close to the river
+as to overhang the road, which for miles on a stretch is hewn from the
+solid rock.
+
+The innumerable clefts and fissures that mark the rugged fronts of the
+cliffs; the overhanging trees and shrubbery; the toppling boulders of
+granite, balanced in mid-air; the rushing torrents that dash from the
+moss-covered rocks; the seething and foaming waters of the Driv,
+whirling through the narrow gorges hundreds of feet below the road;
+the bright blue sky overhead, and the fitful gleams of sunshine
+darting through the masses of pine and circling into innumerable
+rainbows in the spray of the river, all combine to form a scene of
+incomparable beauty and grandeur such as I have rarely seen equaled in
+any part of the world, and only surpassed by the Siskiyon Mountains in
+the northern part of California.
+
+About midway down the valley, after passing the settlement of Rise, I
+stopped to examine a curious passage of the river in the neighborhood
+of the Drivstuklere, where it dashes down between two solid walls of
+rocks, which at this point approach so as to form a passage of not
+more than fifteen feet in width. Securing my cariole horse to a tree
+by the side of the road, I descended a steep bank under the guidance
+of my skydskaarl, a bright little fellow about ten years of age, who
+first called my attention to this remarkable phenomenon. I was soon
+compelled to follow his example, and crawl over the rocks like a
+caterpillar to avoid falling into the frightful abyss below. For a
+distance of fifty or sixty yards, the river, compressed within a limit
+of fifteen feet, dashes with fearful velocity through its rugged and
+tortuous boundaries, filling the air with spray, and making an angry
+moan, as if threatening momentarily to tear the rocks from their solid
+beds, and sweep them, into the broad and sullen pool below.
+
+The trembling of the massive boulder upon which I lay outstretched
+peering into the raging abyss, the fierce surging of the waters, the
+whirling clouds of spray, and gorgeous prismatic colors that flashed
+through them, created an impression that the whole was some wild, mad
+freak of the elements, gotten up to furnish the traveler with a
+startling idea of the wonders and beauties of Norwegian scenery.
+
+  [Illustration: PASSAGE ON THE DRIV.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+A NORWEGIAN HORSE-JOCKEY.
+
+
+Late one evening I arrived at a lonely little station by the wayside,
+not far beyond the valley of the Drivsdal. I was cold and hungry, and
+well disposed to enjoy whatever good cheer the honest people who kept
+the inn might have in store for me. The house and outbuildings were
+such as belong to an ordinary farming establishment, and did not
+promise much in the way of entertainment. Upon entering the rustic
+doorway I was kindly greeted by the host--a simple, good-natured
+looking man--who, as usual, showed me into the best room. Now I am not
+aware of any thing in my appearance that entitles me to this
+distinction, but it has generally been my fate, in this sort of
+travel, to be set apart and isolated from the common herd in the fancy
+room of the establishment, which I have always found to be
+correspondingly the coldest and most uncomfortable. It is a great
+annoyance in Norway to be treated as a gentleman. The commonest lout
+can enjoy the cozy glow and social gossip of the kitchen or ordinary
+sitting-room, but the traveler whom these good people would honor must
+sit shivering and alone in some great barn of a room because it
+contains a sofa, a bureau, a looking-glass, a few mantle-piece
+ornaments, and an occasional picture of the king or some member of the
+royal family. I have walked up and down these dismal chambers for
+hours at a time, staring at the daubs on the walls, and picking up
+little odds and ends of ornaments, and gazing vacantly at them, till I
+felt a numbness steal all over me, accompanied by a vague presentiment
+that I was imprisoned for life. The progress of time is a matter of no
+importance in Norway. To an American, accustomed to see every thing
+done with energy and promptness, it is absolutely astounding--the
+indifference of these people to the waste of hours. They seem to be
+forever asleep, or doing something that bears no possible reference to
+their ostensible business. If you are hungry and want something to eat
+in a few minutes, the probability is you will be left alone in the
+fine room for several hours, at the expiration of which you discover
+that the inn-keeper is out in the stable feeding his horses, his wife
+in the back yard looking after the chickens, and his children sitting
+at a table in the kitchen devouring a dish of porridge. Upon
+expressing your astonishment that nothing is ready, the good man of
+the house says "Ja! it will be ready directly, min Herr!" and if you
+are lucky it comes in another hour--a cup of coffee and some bread
+perhaps, which you could just as well have had in ten minutes.
+Patience may be a virtue in other countries, but it is an absolute
+necessity in Norway. I believe, after the few weeks' experience I had
+on the road to Trondhjem, I could without difficulty sit upon a
+monument and smile at grief.
+
+  [Illustration: THE PRIZE.]
+
+Perceiving through the cracks of the door that there was a good fire
+in the kitchen, and hearing the cheerful voices of the man and his
+wife, varied by the merry whistle my skydskaarl, I made bold to go in
+and ask leave to stand by the fire. The good people seemed a little
+astonished at first that a person of quality like myself should prefer
+the kitchen to the fine room with the sofa and bureau, the
+mantle-piece ornaments and pictures of the royal family; but, by dint
+of good-humored gossip about the horses, and an extravagant compliment
+thrown in about the beauty of the landlady's children--for which I
+hope to be pardoned--I secured a comfortable seat by the fire, and was
+soon quite at home. The great open fireplace, the blazing pine logs,
+the well-smoked hobs, the simmering pots and steaming kettles, had
+something indescribably cheerful about them; and lighting my pipe, I
+puffed away cozily during the pauses in the conversation, having a
+delightful consciousness that nature had peculiarly adapted me for the
+vulgar enjoyments of life, and that every thing approaching the
+refinements of civilization was a great bore. It was doubtless this
+taint of the savage in my disposition that made me look with such
+horror upon neat rooms and civilized furniture, and fall back with
+such zest upon the primitive comforts of savage life. When I told the
+people of the house that I was all the way from California--that I had
+come expressly to see their country--there was no end to the interest
+and excitement. "Dear me!" they cried, "and you have traveled a long
+way! You must be very tired! And you must be very rich to travel so
+far! Ah Gott--how wonderful!" "Did you come all the way in a cariole?"
+inquired the simple-minded host. "No; I came part of the way by sea,
+in a great ship." "How wonderful!" "And what sort of horses had they
+in California?" I told some tough stories about the mustang horses, in
+which the landlord was profoundly interested, for I soon discovered
+that horses were his great hobby. Whatever we talked of, he invariably
+came back to horse-flesh. His head was overrunning with horses. I
+praised his cariole horses, and he was enchanted. He gave me the
+pedigree of every horse in his stable, scarcely a word of which I
+understood, and then wound up by telling me he was considered the best
+judge of horses in all Norway. I did not think there was much in his
+appearance indicative of the shrewd horse-jockey, but was soon
+convinced of his shrewdness, for he informed me confidentially he had
+drawn the great prize at the last annual horse-fair at Christiania,
+and if I didn't believe it he would show it to me! I tried to make him
+understand that I had no doubt at all what he said was strictly true;
+but, not satisfied at this expression of faith in his word, he went to
+a big wooden chest in the corner and took out a bag of money, which he
+placed upon the middle of the table with a proud smile of triumph.
+"That," said he, "is the prize! A hundred and fifty silver
+dollars--_silver_, mind you--all SILVER!" But perhaps I didn't
+believe it was a prize? Well, he would convince me of that. So he left
+the bag of money on the table and went into a back room to get the
+certificate of the society, in which it was all duly written out, with
+his name in large letters, the paper being neatly framed in a carved
+frame, the work of his own hands. There it was; I could read for
+myself! I tried to read it to oblige him, and as I blundered over the
+words he took it into his head that I was still incredulous. "Nai!
+nai!" said he, "you shall see the money! You shall count it for
+yourself!" In vain I strove to convince him that I was entirely
+satisfied on the subject--that he must not go to so much trouble on my
+account. "Nai! nai!" cried the enthusiastic dealer in horse-flesh, "it
+is no trouble. You shall see the money WITH YOUR OWN EYES!" And
+forthwith he untied the string of the bag, and poured out the shining
+dollars in a pile on the middle of the table. His good wife stood by,
+professing to smile, but I suspected, from the watchful expression of
+her eye, that she did not feel quite at ease. The skydskaarl leaned
+over with a general expression of the most profound astonishment and
+admiration. "See!" cried the old man; "this is the prize--every dollar
+of it. But you must count it--I'll help you--so!" As there was no
+getting over the task imposed upon me without hurting his feelings, I
+had to sit down and help to count the money--no very pleasant job for
+a hungry man. After summing up our respective piles, there appeared to
+be only a hundred and forty-nine dollars--just a dollar short. "Lieb
+Gott!" cried the man, "there must be a mistake! Let us count it
+again!" I felt that there was a necessity for counting it very
+carefully this time, for the landlady's eye was on me with a very
+searching expression. "Een, to, tre, five, fem, sex," and so on for
+nearly half an hour, when we summed up our counts again. This time it
+was only a hundred and forty-eight dollars--just two dollars short!
+The old man scratched his head and looked bewildered. The landlady
+moved about nervously, and stared very hard at me. It was getting to
+be rather an embarrassing affair. I blamed myself for being so
+foolishly drawn into it. Wishing to know if there really was a
+mistake, I begged my host to let me count it alone, which I did by
+making fifteen piles of ten dollars each, carefully counting every
+pile. It was all right; the whole amount was there, a hundred and
+fifty dollars. "All right!" said I, much relieved; "don't you see,
+every pile is exactly the same height!" "Ja! Ja!" said the man; "but I
+don't understand it. Here, wife, you and I must count it!" So the wife
+sat down, and they both began counting the money, varying every time
+they compared notes from two to ten dollars. Once they had it a
+hundred and sixty dollars. "The devil is in the money!" exclaimed the
+horse-dealer; "I'm certain I counted right." "And so am I!" said the
+woman; "I can not be mistaken. It is you who have made the mistake.
+You always were a stupid old fool about money!" This she said with
+some degree of asperity, for she was evidently displeased at the whole
+proceeding. "A fool, eh? A fool!" muttered the old man; "you do well
+to call me a fool before strangers!" "Ja, that's the way! I always
+told you so!" screamed the woman, in rising tones of anger; "you'll
+lose all your money yet!" "Lose it!" retorted the man; "don't you see
+I have made ten dollars by counting it to-night! There! count it
+yourself, and hold your peace, woman!" Here the wife, suppressing her
+wrath, made a careful and deliberate count, which resulted in the
+exact sum of a hundred and fifty dollars! I was much relieved; but by
+this time the old man, unable to bear the torrent of reproaches heaped
+upon him by his good wife for his stupidity, swore she must have made
+a mistake. He was sure he had counted a hundred and sixty; therefore
+he would count it again, all alone, which he proceeded to do, very
+slowly and cautiously. This time the result was a hundred and
+fifty-five dollars. "The devil's in it!" cried the astonished dealer;
+"there's some magic about it! I don't understand it. I must count it
+again!" The woman, however, being satisfied that it was all right, I
+now thought it best to return to my seat by the fire, where she soon
+began to busy herself preparing the supper, turning round now and then
+of course to let off a broadside at her old man. She took occasion to
+inform me, during the progress of her culinary labors, that he was a
+very good sort of man, but was somewhat addicted to brandy-wine, of
+which he had partaken a little too freely on the present occasion. I
+must excuse him. She would send him to bed presently. And now, if I
+pleased, supper was ready.
+
+I could not help thinking, as I lay in bed that night, how lucky it
+was for these simple-minded people that they lived in the interior of
+Norway. Even in California, where public and private integrity is the
+prevailing trait of the people, it would hardly be considered safe to
+pull out a bag of money at a wayside inn and show it to every passing
+stranger. I have known men there in high public positions whom I would
+scarcely like to tempt in that way, especially if there was money
+enough in the bag to make robbery respectable.
+
+All along the route during the next day the scenery was a continued
+feast of enjoyment. In looking back over it now, however, after the
+lapse of several months, it would be difficult to recall any thing
+beyond its general features--pine-covered mountains, green valleys,
+dark rocky glens, foaming torrents of water, and groups of farm-houses
+by the wayside. At Bjerkager I reached the first of the
+"slow-stations;" that is to say, the established post-houses, where a
+margin of three hours is allowed for a change of horses. I had
+supposed that in a country, and on a public route, where during the
+summer there must be considerable travel, it would hardly be possible
+that so long a delay could take place; but in this I was mistaken. The
+slow-stations are emphatically slow; the keepers are slow, the horses
+are slow, the whole concern is slow. From Bjerkager to Garlid, and
+from Garlid to Hov, including all delays, a distance of three hours
+and a half ordinary time, it took me all day. No entreaties, no offers
+of extra compensation, no expressions of impatience produced the
+slightest effect. The people at these places were not to be hurried.
+Kind and good-natured as they were in appearance and expression, I
+found them the most bull-headed and intractable race of beings on the
+face of the earth.
+
+I was particularly struck with the depressing lethargy that hung over
+a wretched little place called Soknaes, which I made out to reach the
+next morning. A dead silence reigned over the miserable huddle of
+buildings by the roadside. The houses looked green and mildewed. A few
+forlorn chickens in the stable-yard, and a half-starved dog crouching
+under the door-steps, too poor to bark and too lazy to move, were the
+only signs of life that greeted me as I approached. I knocked at the
+door, but no answer was made to the summons. Not a living soul was to
+be seen around the place. I attempted to whistle and shout. Still the
+terrible silence remained unbroken save by the dismal echoes of my own
+melancholy music. At length I went to a rickety shed under which some
+carts were drawn up for shelter from the weather. In one of the carts,
+half-covered in a bundle of straw, was a bundle of clothes. It moved
+as I drew near; it thrust a boot out over the tail-board; it shook
+itself; it emitted a curious sound between a grunt and a yawn; it
+raised itself up and shook off a portion of the straw; it thrust a red
+night-cap out of the mass of shapeless rubbish; the night-cap
+contained a head and a matted shock of hair; there was a withered,
+old-fashioned little face on the front part of the head, underneath
+the shock of hair, which opened its mouth and eyes, and gazed at me
+vacantly; it was an old man or a boy, I could not tell which till it
+spoke, when I discovered that it was something between the two, and
+was the skydskaarl or hostler of this remarkable establishment. He
+rubbed his eyes and stared again. "Hello!" said I. He grunted out
+something. "Heste og Cariole!" said I. "Ja! Ja!" grunted the hostler,
+and then he began to get out of the cart. I suppose he creaked, though
+I do not pretend that the sounds were audible. First one leg came out;
+slowly it was followed by the other. When they both got to the ground,
+he pushed his body gradually over the tail-board, and in about five
+minutes was standing before me.
+
+"A horse and cariole," said I; "let me have them quick!"
+
+"Ja! Ja!"
+
+"_Strax!_" [directly!] said I.
+
+"Ja! Ja!"
+
+"How long will it be?"
+
+"Ach!"--here he yawned.
+
+"An hour?"
+
+"Ja! Ja!"
+
+"Two hours?"
+
+"Ja! Ja!"
+
+"Three hours?"
+
+"Ja! Ja!"
+
+"Sacramento! I can't stand that, I must have one
+STRAX--directly--forstoede?"
+
+"Ja! Ja!" and the fellow rubbed his eyes and yawned again.
+
+"Look here! my friend," said I, "if you'll get me a horse and cariole
+in half an hour, I'll give you two marks extra--forstoe?"
+
+"Ja! Ja! twa mark" (still yawning).
+
+"Half an hour, mind you!"
+
+"_Tre time_--three hours!" grunted the incorrigible dunderhead.
+
+"Then good-by--I must travel on foot!" and, with rage and indignation
+depicted in every feature, I flung my knapsack over my shoulder and
+made a feint to start.
+
+"Adieu! farvel!" said the sleepy lout, good-naturedly holding out his
+hand to give me a parting shake. "Farvel, min Herr! May your journey
+be pleasant! God take care of you!"
+
+The perfect sincerity of the fellow completely dissipated my rage,
+and, giving him a friendly shake, I proceeded on my way. As I turned
+the corner of the main building and struck into the road, I cast a
+look back. He was still standing by the cart, yawning and rubbing his
+eyes as before. That man would make money in California--if money
+could be made by a bet on laziness. He is lazier than the old Dutch
+skipper who was too lazy to go below, and gave orders to the man at
+the helm to follow the sun so as to keep him in the shade of the
+main-sail, by reason of which he sailed round the horizon till his
+tobacco gave out, and he had to return home for a fresh supply. I call
+that a strong case of laziness, but scarcely stronger than the
+traveler meets with every day in Norway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+OUT OF MONEY.
+
+
+I now began to enjoy the real pleasures of Norwegian travel. No longer
+compelled to endure the vexatious delays to which I had lately been
+subject, I bowled along the road, with my knapsack on my back, at the
+rate of four miles an hour, whistling merrily from sheer exuberance of
+health and lack of thought. The weather was charming. A bright sun
+shed its warm rays over hill and dale; the air was fresh and
+invigorating; the richest tints adorned the whole face of the country,
+which from Soknaes to Trondhjem gradually increases in fertility and
+breadth of outline, till it becomes almost unrivaled in the profusion
+of its pastoral beauties. Nothing can surpass the gorgeous splendor of
+the autumnal sunsets in this part of Norway. At an earlier period of
+the year there is perpetual daylight for several weeks, and for three
+days the sun does not descend below the horizon. The light, however,
+is too strong during that period to produce the rich and glowing tints
+which cover the sky and mountain-tops at a later season of the year. I
+was fortunate in being just in time to enjoy the full measure of its
+beauties, and surely it is not too much to say that such an experience
+is of itself worth a trip to Norway. I shall not attempt a description
+of Norwegian skies, however, after the glowing picture of the North
+Cape at midnight drawn by the pen of my friend Bayard Taylor, the most
+faithful and enthusiastic of all the travelers who have given their
+experience of this interesting region.
+
+  [Illustration: TRAVELING ON FOOT.]
+
+Keeping along the banks of the Gula, the road winds around the sides
+of the hills, sometimes crossing open valleys, and occasionally
+penetrating the shady recesses of the pine forests, till it diverges
+from the river at Meelhus. Soon after leaving this station the views
+from the higher points over which the road passes are of great beauty
+and extent, embracing a glimpse, from time to time, of the great
+Trondhjem Fjord.
+
+Night overtook me at the pretty little station of Esp. Next morning I
+was up bright and early, and, after a cup of coffee and some rolls,
+shouldered my knapsack and pushed on to Trondhjem.
+
+Finding my purse growing lighter every day, I was compelled at this
+point to cut short my intended journey to the North Cape, and take the
+first steamer down the coast for Christiansund and Hamburg.
+
+Arrived once more at the family head-quarters in
+Frankfort-on-the-Main, I spent a few months writing up the loose
+material I had thus gathered, and making foot-tours through the
+Odenwald, the Spessart, and the Schwartzwald. But I was not satisfied
+with what I had seen of the North. There was still a wild region, far
+beyond any explorations I had yet made, which constantly loomed up in
+my imagination--the chaotic land of frost and fire, where dwelt in
+ancient times the mighty Thor, the mystic deity of the Scandinavians.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+ICELANDIC TRAVEL.
+
+
+Not many years have passed since it was considered something of an
+achievement to visit Iceland. The traveler who had the hardihood to
+penetrate the chilly fogs of the North, and journey by the compass
+through a region of everlasting snows and desolating fires, could well
+afford to stay at home during the remainder of his life, satisfied
+with the reputation generally accorded him by his fellow-men. It was
+something to have plunged into rivers of unknown depth, and traversed
+treacherous bogs and desert fjelds of lava--something to be able to
+speak knowingly of the learned Sagas, and verify the wonders of the
+Burned Njal.
+
+An isolated spot of earth, bordering on the Arctic Circle, and cut off
+by icebergs and frozen seas from all intercourse with the civilized
+world during half the year, once the seat of an enlightened republic,
+and still inhabited by the descendants of men who had worshiped Odin
+and Thor, must surely have presented rare attractions to the
+enterprising traveler before it became a beaten track for modern
+tourists. A simple narrative of facts was then sufficient to enlist
+attention. Even the unlearned adventurer could obtain a reputation by
+an unvarnished recital of what he saw and heard. He could describe the
+Logberg upon which the republican Parliament held its sittings, and
+attest from personal observation that this was the exact spot where
+judgments were pronounced by the _Thing_. He could speak familiarly of
+heathen gods and vikings after a brief intercourse with the
+inhabitants, who are still tinctured with the spirit of their early
+civilization. He could tell of frightful volcanoes, that fill the air
+with clouds of ashes, and desolate the earth with burning floods of
+lava, and of scalding hot water shot up out of subterranean boilers,
+and gaping fissures that emit sulphurous vapors, and strange sounds
+heard beneath the earth's surface, and all the marvelous experiences
+of Icelandic travel, including ghosts and hobgoblins that ramble over
+the icy wastes by night, and hide themselves in gloomy caverns by
+day--these he could dwell upon in earnest and homely language with the
+pleasing certainty of an appreciative audience. But times have sadly
+changed within the past few years. A trip to Iceland nowadays is
+little more than a pleasant summer excursion, brought within the
+capacity of every tyro in travel through the leveling agency of steam.
+When a Parisian lady of rank visits Spitzbergen, and makes the
+overland journey from the North Cape to the Gulf of Bothnia, of what
+avail is it for any gentleman of elegant leisure to leave his
+comfortable fireside? We tourists who are ambitious to see the world
+in an easy way need but sit in our cushioned chair, cosily smoking our
+cigar, while some enterprising lady puts a girdle round about the
+earth; for we may depend upon it she will reappear ere leviathan can
+swim a league, and present us with a bouquet of wonderful
+experiences, neatly pressed between the pages of an entertaining
+volume. The icebergs of the Arctic, the bananas of the tropics, the
+camels of the East, the buffaloes of the West, and the cannibals of
+the South, are equally at our service. We can hold the mountains,
+rivers, seas, and human races between our finger and thumb, and thus,
+as we gently dally with care, we may see the wonders of the world as
+in a pleasant dream. Thus may we enjoy the perils and hardships of
+travel at a very small sacrifice of personal comfort.
+
+  [Illustration: THE GREAT GEYSER.]
+
+It was somewhat in this style that I reasoned when the idea occurred
+to me of making a trip to Iceland. From all accounts it was a very
+uncomfortable country, deficient in roads, destitute of hotels, and
+subject to various eccentricities of climate. Neither fame nor money
+was to be gained by such a trip--unless, indeed, I succeeded in
+catching the great auk, for which, it is said, the directors of the
+British Museum have offered a reward of a hundred pounds. This was a
+chance, to be sure. I might possibly be able to get hold of the auk,
+and thereby secure money enough to pay expenses, and make certain a
+niche in the temple of fame. It would be something to rank with the
+great men who had devoted their lives to the pursuit of the dodo and
+the roc. But there was a deplorable lack of information about the
+haunts and habits of the auk. I was not even satisfied of its
+existence, by the fact that two Englishmen visited Iceland a few years
+ago for the purpose of securing a specimen of this wonderful bird,
+and, after six weeks of unavailing search, wrote a book to prove that
+there was still reason to hope for success.
+
+Upon the whole, I thought it would not do to depend upon the auk.
+There was but one opening left--to visit Iceland, sketch-book in hand,
+and faithfully do what others had left undone--make accurate sketches
+of the mountains, rivers, lava-fjelds, geysers, people, and costumes.
+In nothing is Iceland so deficient as in pictorial representation. It
+has been very minutely surveyed by the Danes, and Olsen has left
+nothing to wish for in the way of topographical delineation, but
+artists do not seem to have found it an attractive field for the
+exercise of their talent. At least I could obtain no good pictures of
+Iceland in Copenhagen. The few indifferent sketches published there,
+and in the journals of late English and German tourists, afford no
+adequate idea of the country. I have seen nothing of the kind any
+where that impressed my mind with the slightest notion of that land of
+fire, or the spirit and genius of Icelandic life. It would therefore
+be some gain to the cause of knowledge if I could present to five
+hundred thousand of my fellow-citizens, who do their traveling through
+these illuminated pages, a reasonably fair delineation of the country
+and the people, with such simple record of my own experiences as would
+render the sketches generally intelligible.
+
+So one fine morning in May I shouldered my knapsack, and bade a
+temporary adieu to my friends in Frankfort. By night I was in Hamburg.
+The next day was agreeably spent in rambling about the gardens across
+the Alster Basin, and at 5 P.M. I left Altona for Kiel, a journey of
+three hours by rail across a flat and not very interesting tract of
+country within the limits of Schleswig-Holstein. From Kiel a steamer
+leaves for Korsor, on the island of Zealand, the terminus of the
+Copenhagen Railway. This is the most direct route between Hamburg and
+Copenhagen, though the trip may be very pleasantly varied by taking a
+steamer to Taars, and passing by diligence through the islands of
+Lalland, Falster, and Moen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.
+
+
+A few days after my arrival in Copenhagen I had the pleasure of making
+the acquaintance of Professor Andersen, of the Scandinavian Museum, a
+native Icelander, who very kindly showed me the chief objects of
+curiosity obtained from the Danish possessions in the North,
+consisting mostly of fish and geological specimens. The Minister of
+the Judiciary obligingly gave me a letter to the governor and
+principal amtmen of Iceland, and many other gentlemen of influence
+manifested the most friendly interest in my proposed undertaking. I
+was especially indebted to Captain Sodring, late owner of the _Fox_,
+of Arctic celebrity, for much valuable information respecting the
+Northern seas, as well as for his cordial hospitality and
+indefatigable efforts to make my sojourn in Copenhagen both agreeable
+and profitable. Indeed, I was delighted with the place and the people.
+The Danes are exceedingly genial in their manners, distinguished alike
+for their simplicity and intelligence. There is no trouble to which
+they will not put themselves to oblige a stranger. In my rambles
+through the public libraries and museums I was always accompanied by
+some professor attached to the institution, who took the greatest
+pains to explain every thing, and impress me with a favorable idea of
+the value of the collection. This was not a mere formal matter of
+duty; many of them spent hours and even days in the performance of
+their friendly labors, omitting nothing that might contribute to my
+enjoyment as a stranger. The visitor who can not spend his time
+agreeably in such society, surrounded by such institutions as
+Thorwaldsen's Museum and the National Collection of Scandinavian
+Antiquities, must be difficult to please indeed. The Tivoli or the
+Dyrhave, an evening at Fredericksberg, or a trip to "Hamlet's Grave"
+at Elsineur, would surely fill the measure of his contentment. Whether
+in the way of beautiful gardens, public amusements, charming
+excursions, or agreeable and intelligent society, I know of no
+European capital that can surpass Copenhagen. Our excellent minister,
+Mr. Wood, with whom I had the pleasure of spending an evening at
+Elsineur, speaks in the most complimentary terms of the Danes and
+their customs, and expresses some surprise, considering the general
+increase of European travel from our country, that so few American
+tourists visit Denmark.
+
+I could not do myself the injustice to leave Copenhagen without
+forming the personal acquaintance of a man to whom a debt of gratitude
+is due by the young and the old in all countries--the ramblers in
+fairy-land, the lovers of romance, and the friends of humanity--all
+who can feel the divine influence of genius, and learn, through the
+teachings of a kindly heart, that the inhabitants of earth are
+
+    "Kindred by one holy tie"--
+
+the quaint, pathetic, genial Hans Christian Andersen. Not wishing to
+impose any obligation of courtesy on him by a letter of introduction
+or the obliging services of my Danish friends, I called at his house
+unattended, and merely sent in my name and address. Unfortunately he
+was out taking his morning walk, and would not be back till the
+afternoon. By calling at three o'clock, the servant said, I would be
+very likely to find him at home. I then added to my card the simple
+fact that I was an American traveler on my way to Iceland for the
+purpose of making some sketches of the country, and would take the
+liberty of calling at the appointed hour. It may be a matter of
+interest to an American reader to have some idea of the peculiar
+neighborhood and style of house in which a great Danish author has
+chosen to take up his abode. The city of Copenhagen, it should be
+borne in mind, is intersected by canals which, during the summer
+months, are crowded with small trading vessels from Sweden and
+Jutland, and fishing-smacks from the neighboring islands and coast of
+Norway. The wharves bordering on these canals present an exceedingly
+animated appearance. Peasants, sailors, traders, and fishermen, in
+every variety of costume, are gathered in groups, enjoying a social
+gossip, or interchanging their various products and wares, and
+strawberries from Amak and fish from the Skager-Rack mingle their
+odors. In the second story of a dingy and dilapidated house, fronting
+one of these unsavory canals, a confused pile of dirty, shambling old
+tenements in the rear, and a curious medley of fish and fishermen,
+sloops and schooners, mud-scows and skiffs in front, lives the
+world-renowned author, Hans Christian Andersen. I say he lives there,
+but, properly speaking, he only lodges. It seems to be a peculiarity
+of his nature to move about from time to time into all the queer and
+uninviting places possible to be discovered within the limits of
+Copenhagen--not where
+
+                  "The mantling vine
+    Lays forth her grape and gently creeps
+    Luxuriant,"
+
+but where the roughest, noisiest, busiest, and fishiest of an
+amphibious population is to be found. Here it is, apparently amid the
+most incongruous elements, that he draws from all around him the most
+delicate traits of human nature, and matures for the great outer world
+the most exquisite creations of his fancy. It is purely a labor of
+love in which he spends his life. The products of his pen have
+furnished him with ample means to live in elegant style, surrounded by
+all the allurements of rank and fashion, but he prefers the obscurity
+of a plain lodging amid the haunts of those classes whose lives and
+pursuits he so well portrays. Here he cordially receives all who call
+upon him, and they are not few. Pilgrims of every condition in life
+and from all nations do homage to his genius, yet, valuable as his
+time is, he finds enough to spare for the kindly reception of his
+visitors. His only household companions appear to be two old peasant
+women, whom he employs as domestics; weather-beaten and decrepit old
+creatures, with faces and forms very much like a pair of antiquated
+nut-crackers. He occupies only two or three rooms plainly furnished,
+and apparently lives in the simplest and most abstemious style.
+
+When I called according to directions, one of the ancient nut-crackers
+merely pointed to the door, and said she thought Herr Andersen was in,
+but didn't know. I could knock there and try; so I knocked. Presently
+I heard a rapid step, and the door was thrown open. Before me stood
+the tall, thin, shambling, raw-boned figure of a man a little beyond
+the prime of life, but not yet old, with a pair of dancing gray eyes
+and a hatchet-face, all alive with twists, and wrinkles, and muscles;
+a long, lean face, upon which stood out prominently a great nose,
+diverted by a freak of nature a little to one side, and flanked by a
+tremendous pair of cheek-bones, with great hollows underneath.
+Innumerable ridges and furrows swept semicircularly downward around
+the corners of a great mouth--a broad, deep, rugged fissure across the
+face, that might have been mistaken for the dreadful child-trap of an
+ogre but for the sunny beams of benevolence that lurked around the
+lips, and the genial humanity that glimmered from every nook and turn.
+Neither mustache nor beard obscured the strong individuality of this
+remarkable face, which for the most part was of a dull granite color,
+a little mixed with limestone and spotted with patches of porphyry. A
+dented gutta-percha forehead, very prominent about the brows, and
+somewhat resembling in its general topography a raised map of
+Switzerland, sloped upward and backward to the top of the head; not a
+very large head, but wonderfully bumped and battered by the operations
+of the brain, and partially covered by a mop of dark wavy hair, a
+little thin in front and somewhat grizzled behind; a long, bony pair
+of arms, with long hands on them; a long, lank body, with a long black
+coat on it; a long, loose pair of legs, with long boots on the feet,
+all in motion at the same time--all shining, and wriggling, and
+working with an indescribable vitality, a voice bubbling up from the
+vast depths below with cheery, spasmodic, and unintelligible words of
+welcome--this was the wonderful man that stood before me, the great
+Danish improvisator, the lover of little children, the gentle Caliban
+who dwells among fairies and holds sweet converse with fishes, and
+frogs, and beetles! I would have picked him out from among a thousand
+men at the first glance as a candidate for Congress, or the
+proprietor of a tavern, if I had met him any where in the United
+States. But the resemblance was only momentary. In the quaint
+awkwardness of his gestures and the simplicity of his speech there was
+a certain refinement not usually found among men of that class.
+Something in the spontaneous and almost childlike cordiality of his
+greeting; the unworldly impulsiveness of his nature, as he grasped
+both my hands in his, patted me affectionately on the shoulder, and
+bade me welcome, convinced me in a moment that this was no other, and
+could be no other, than Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+"Come in! come in!" he said, in a gush of broken English; "come in and
+sit down. You are very welcome. Thank you--thank you very much. I am
+very glad to see you. It is a rare thing to meet a traveler all the
+way from California--quite a surprise. Sit down! Thank you!"
+
+And then followed a variety of friendly compliments and remarks about
+the Americans. He liked them; he was sorry they were so unfortunate as
+to be engaged in a civil war, but hoped it would soon be over. Did I
+speak French? he asked, after a pause. Not very well. Or German? Still
+worse, was my answer. "What a pity!" he exclaimed; "it must trouble
+you to understand my English, I speak it so badly. It is only within a
+few years that I have learned to speak it at all." Of course I
+complimented him upon his English, which was really better than I had
+been led to expect. "Can you understand it?" he asked, looking
+earnestly in my face. "Certainly," I answered, "almost every word."
+"Oh, thank you--thank you. You are very good," he cried, grasping me
+by the hand. "I am very much obliged to you for understanding me." I
+naturally thanked him for being obliged to me, and we shook hands
+cordially, and mutually thanked one another over again for being so
+amiable. The conversation, if such it could be called, flew from
+subject to subject with a rapidity that almost took my breath away.
+The great improvisator dashed recklessly into every thing that he
+thought would be interesting to an American traveler, but with the
+difficulty of his utterance in English, and the absence of any
+knowledge on his part of my name or history, it was evident he was a
+little embarrassed in what way to oblige me most; and the trouble on
+my side was, that I was too busy listening to find time for talking.
+
+"Dear! dear! And you are going to Iceland!" he continued. "A long way
+from California! I would like to visit America, but it is very
+dangerous to travel by sea. A vessel was burned up not long since, and
+many of my friends were lost. It was a dreadful affair."
+
+From this he diverged to a trip he then had in contemplation through
+Switzerland and Spain. He was sitting for his statuette, which he
+desired to leave as a memento to his friends prior to his departure. A
+young Danish sculptor was making it. Would I like to see it? and
+forthwith I was introduced to the young Danish sculptor. The likeness
+was very good, and my comments upon it elicited many additional thanks
+and several squeezes of the hand--it was so kind of me to be pleased
+with it! "He is a young student," said Andersen, approvingly; "a very
+good young man. I want to encourage him. He will be a great artist
+some day or other."
+
+Talking of likenesses reminded me of a photograph which I had
+purchased a few days before, and to which I now asked the addition of
+an autograph.
+
+  [Illustration: [Signature: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN]]
+
+"Oh, you have a libel on me here!" cried the poet, laughing
+joyously--"a very bad likeness. Wait! I have several much better; here
+they are--" And he rushed into the next room, tumbled over a lot of
+papers, and ransacked a number of drawers till he found the desired
+package--"here's a dozen of them; take your choice; help yourself--as
+many as you please!" While looking over the collection, I said the
+likeness of one who had done so much to promote the happiness of some
+little friends I had at home would be valued beyond measure; that I
+knew at least half a dozen youngsters who were as well acquainted with
+the "Little Match Girl," and the "Ugly Duck," and the "Poor Idiot
+Boy," as he was himself, and his name was as familiar in California as
+it was in Denmark. At this he grasped both my hands, and looking
+straight in my face with a kind of ecstatic expression, said, "Oh, is
+it possible? Do they really read my books in California? so far away!
+Oh! I thank you very much. Some of my stories, I am aware, have been
+published in New York, but I did not think they had found their way to
+the Pacific Coast. Dear me! Thank you! thank you! Have you seen my
+last--the--what do you call it in English?--a little animal--"
+
+"Mouse," I suggested.
+
+"No, not a mouse; a little animal with wings."
+
+"Oh, a bat!"
+
+"Nay, nay, a little animal with wings and many legs. Dear me! I forget
+the name in English, but you certainly know it in America--a very
+small animal!"
+
+In vain I tried to make a selection from all the little animals of my
+acquaintance with wings and many legs. The case was getting both
+embarrassing and vexatious. At length a light broke upon me.
+
+"A musquito!" I exclaimed, triumphantly.
+
+"Nay, nay!" cried the bothered poet; "a little animal with a hard skin
+on its back. Dear me, I can't remember the name!"
+
+"Oh, I have it now," said I, really desirous of relieving his mind--"a
+flea!"
+
+At this the great improvisator scratched his head, looked at the
+ceiling and then at the floor, after which he took several rapid
+strides up and down the room, and struck himself repeatedly on the
+forehead. Suddenly grasping up a pen, he exclaimed, somewhat
+energetically, "Here! I'll draw it for you;" and forthwith he drew on
+a scrap of paper a diagram, of which the accompanying engraving is a
+fac-simile.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+"A tumble-bug!" I shouted, astonished at my former stupidity.
+
+The poet looked puzzled and distressed. Evidently I had not yet
+succeeded. What could it be?
+
+"A beetle!" I next ventured to suggest, rather disappointed at the
+result of my previous guess.
+
+"A beetle! A beetle!--that's it; now I remember--a beetle!" and the
+delighted author of "The Beetle" patted me approvingly on the back,
+and chuckled gleefully at his own adroit method of explanation. "I'll
+give you 'The Beetle,'" he said; "you shall have the only copy in my
+possession. But you don't read Danish! What are we to do? There is a
+partial translation in French--a mere notice."
+
+"No matter," I answered. "A specimen of the Danish language will be
+very acceptable, and the book will be a pleasant souvenir of my
+visit."
+
+He then darted into the next room, tumbled over a dozen piles of
+books, then out again, ransacked the desks, and drawers, and heaps of
+old papers and rubbish, talking all the time in his joyous, cheery way
+about his books and his travels in Jutland, and his visit to Charles
+Dickens, and his intended journey through Spain, and his delight at
+meeting a traveler all the way from California, and whatever else came
+into his head--all in such mixed-up broken English that the meaning
+must have been utterly lost but for the wonderful expressiveness of
+his face and the striking oddity of his motions. It came to me
+mesmerically. He seemed like one who glowed all over with bright and
+happy thoughts, which permeated all around him with a new
+intelligence. His presence shed a light upon others like the rays that
+beamed from the eyes of "Little Sunshine." The book was found at last,
+and when he had written his name in it, with a friendly inscription,
+and pressed both my hands on the gift, and patted me once more on the
+shoulder, and promised to call at Frankfort on his return from
+Switzerland to see his little friends who knew all about the "Ugly
+Duck" and the "Little Match Girl," I took my leave, more delighted, if
+possible, with the author than I had ever before been with his books.
+Such a man, the brightest, happiest, simplest, most genial of human
+beings, is Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+The steamer _Arcturus_ was advertised to sail for Reykjavik on the 4th
+of June, so it behooved me to be laying in some sort of an outfit for
+the voyage during the few days that intervened. A knapsack, containing
+a change of linen and my sketching materials, was all I possessed.
+This would have been sufficient but for the probability of rain and
+cold weather. I wanted a sailor's monkey-jacket and an overall. My
+friend Captain Sodring would not hear of my buying any thing in that
+way. He had enough on hand from his old whaling voyages, he said, to
+fit out a dozen men of my pattern. Just come up to the house and take
+a look at them, and if there wasn't too much oil on them, I was
+welcome to the whole lot; but the oil, he thought, would be an
+advantage--it would keep out the water. In vain I protested--it was no
+use--the captain was an old whaler, and so was I, and when two old
+whalers met, it was a pity if they couldn't act like shipmates on the
+voyage of life. There was no resisting this appeal, so I agreed to
+accept the old clothes. When we arrived at the captain's house he
+disappeared in the garret, but presently returned bearing a terrific
+pile of rubbish on his shoulders, and accompanied by a stout
+servant-girl also heavily laden with marine curiosities. There were
+sou'westers, and tarpaulins, and skull-caps; frieze jackets, and
+overalls, and hickory shirts; tarpaulin coats, and heavy sea-boots,
+and duck blouses with old bunches of oakum sticking out of the
+pockets; there were coils of rope-yarn well tarred, and jack-knives in
+leather cases, still black with whale-gurry: and a few telescopes and
+log-glasses. "Take 'em all," said the captain. "They smell a little
+fishy, but no matter. It's all the better for a voyage to Iceland.
+You'll be used to the smell before you get to Reykjavik; and it's
+wholesome--very wholesome! Nothing makes a man so fat." I made a small
+selection--a rough jacket and a few other essential articles.
+"Nonsense, man!" roared the captain, "take 'em all! You'll find them
+useful; and if you don't, you can heave them overboard or give them to
+the sailors." And thus was I fitted out for the voyage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+VOYAGE TO SCOTLAND.
+
+
+The _Arcturus_ is a small screw steamer owned by Messrs. Koch and
+Henderson, and now some six years on the route between Copenhagen and
+Reykjavik. The Danish government pays them an annual sum for carrying
+the mails, and they control a considerable trade in fish and wool.
+This vessel makes six trips every year, touching at a port in Scotland
+both on the outer and return voyage. At first she made Leith her
+stopping-place; but, owing to superior facilities for her business at
+Grangemouth, she now stops at that port. The cost of passage is
+extremely moderate--only 45 Danish dollars, about $28 American, living
+on board 75 cents a day, and a small fee to the steward, making for
+the voyage out or back, which usually occupies about eleven days,
+inclusive of stoppages, something less than $40. I mention this for
+the benefit of my friends at home, who may think proper to make a very
+interesting trip at a very small expense; though, as will hereafter
+appear, the most considerable part of the expenditure occurs in
+Iceland. Captain Andersen (they are all Andersens, or Jonasens, or
+Hansens, or Petersens in Denmark), a very active and obliging little
+Dane, commands the _Arcturus_. He speaks English fluently, and is an
+experienced seaman; and if the tourist is not unusually fastidious
+about accommodations, there will be no difficulty in making an
+agreeable voyage. I found every thing on board excellent; the fare
+abundant and wholesome, and the sleeping-quarters not more like
+coffins than they usually are on board small steamers. A few inches
+cut off the passengers' legs or added to the length of the berths, and
+a few extra handspikes in the lee scuppers to steady the vessel, would
+be an improvement; but then one can't have every thing to suit him.
+Some grumbling took place, to be sure, after our departure from
+Scotland. A young Scotchman wanted a berth for a big dog in the same
+cabin with the rest of his friends, which the captain would not
+permit; an Englishman was disgusted with the "beastly fare;" and an
+old Danish merchant would persist in shaving himself at the public
+table every day--all of which caused an under-current of
+dissatisfaction during the early part of the voyage. Sea-sickness,
+however, put an end to it before long, and things went on all right
+after that.
+
+But I must not anticipate my narrative. The scene upon leaving the
+wharf at Copenhagen was amusing and characteristic. For some hours
+before our departure the decks were crowded with the friends of the
+passengers. Every person had to kiss and hug every other person, and
+shake hands, and laugh and cry a little, and then hug and kiss again,
+without regard to age and not much distinction of sex. Some natural
+tears, of course, must always be shed on occasions of this kind. It
+was rather a melancholy reflection, as I stood aloof looking on at all
+these demonstrations of affection, that there was nobody present to
+grieve over my departure--not even a lapdog to bestow upon me a
+parting kiss. Waving of handkerchiefs, messages to friends in Iceland,
+and parting benedictions, took place long before we left the wharf. At
+length the last bells were rung, the lingering loved ones were handed
+ashore, and the inexorable voice of the captain was heard ordering the
+sailors to cast loose the ropes. We were fairly off for Iceland!
+
+In a few hours we passed, near Elsineur, the fine old Castle of
+Kronberg, built in the time of Tycho Brahe, once the prison of the
+unfortunate Caroline Matilda, queen of Christian VII., and in the
+great vaults of which it is said the Danish Roland, Holger Dansk,
+still lives, his long white beard grown fast to a stone table. We were
+soon out of the Sound, plowing our way toward the famous Skager-Rack.
+The weather had been showery and threatening for some time. It now
+began to rain and blow in good earnest.
+
+We had on board only thirteen passengers, chiefly Danes and
+Icelanders. Among them was a newly-appointed amtman for the district
+of Reykjaness, with a very accomplished young wife. He was going to
+spend the honey-moon amid the glaciers and lava-fjelds of Iceland. It
+seemed a dreary prospect for so young and tender a bride, but she was
+cheerful and happy, except when the inevitable hour of sea-sickness
+came. Love, I suppose, can make the wilderness blossom as the rose,
+and shed a warmth over ice-covered mountains and a pleasant verdure
+over deserts of lava. A very agreeable and intelligent young man, Mr.
+Jonasen, son of the governor, was also on board. I saw but little of
+him during the passage--only his head over the side of his berth; but
+I heard from him frequently after the weather became rough. If there
+was any inside left in that young man by the time we arrived at
+Reykjavik, it must have been badly strained. As a son of Iona he
+completely reversed the scriptural order of things; for, instead of
+being swallowed by a great fish, and remaining in the belly thereof
+three days and nights, he swallowed numerous sprats and sardines
+himself, yet would never allow them internal accommodations for the
+space of three minutes. My room-mate was a young Icelandic student,
+who had been to the college at Copenhagen, and was now returning to
+his native land to die. There was something very sad in his case. He
+had left home a few years before with the brightest prospects of
+success. Ambitious and talented, he had devoted himself with unwearied
+assiduity to his studies, but the activity of his mind was too much
+for a naturally feeble constitution. Consumption set its seal upon
+him. Given up by the physicians in Copenhagen, he was returning to
+breathe his last in the arms of a loving mother.
+
+On the second morning after leaving the Sound we passed close along
+the Downs of Jutland, a barren shore, singularly diversified by great
+mounds of sand. The wind sweeping in from the ocean casts up the loose
+sands that lie upon this low peninsula, and drifts them against some
+bush or other obstacle sufficiently firm to form a nucleus. In the
+course of a few years, by constant accumulations, this becomes a vast
+mound, sometimes over a hundred feet high. Nearly the whole of
+Northern Jutland is diversified with sand-plains, heaths, and
+ever-changing mounds, among which wandering bands of gipsies still
+roam. The shores along the Skagen are surrounded by dangerous reefs of
+quicksand, stretching for many miles out into the ocean. Navigation at
+this point is very difficult, especially in the winter, when terrific
+gales prevail from the northwest. The numerous stakes, buoys, and
+other water-marks by which the channel is designated, the frequency of
+light-houses and signal telegraphs, and the wrecks that lie strewn
+along the beach, over which the surging foam breaks like a perpetual
+dirge, afford striking indication of the dangers to which mariners are
+subject in this wild region. Hans Christian Andersen, in one of his
+most delightful works, has thrown a romantic interest over the scenery
+of Jutland, giving a charm to its very desolation, and investing with
+all the beauty of a genial humanity the rude lives of the gipsies and
+fishermen who inhabit this wild region of drifting sands and wintry
+tempests. Steen Blicher has also cast over it the spell of his poetic
+genius; and Von Buch, in his graphic narrative, has given a memorable
+interest to its sea-girt shores, where "masts and skeletons of vessels
+stand like a range of palisades."
+
+During our passage through the Skager-Rack we passed innumerable
+fleets of fishing-smacks, and often encountered the diminutive skiffs
+of the fishermen, with two or three amphibious occupants, buffeting
+about among the waves many miles from the shore. The weather had been
+steadily growing worse ever since our departure from Copenhagen. As we
+entered the North Sea it began to blow fiercer than ever, and for two
+days we experienced all the discomforts of chopping seas that
+drenched our decks fore and aft, and chilling gales mingled with fogs
+and heavy rains. It was cold enough for midwinter, yet here we were on
+the verge of midsummer. Our little craft was rendered somewhat
+unmanageable by a deck-load of coal and a heavy cargo of freight, and
+there were periods when I would have thought myself fortunate in being
+once more off Cape Horn in the good ship _Pacific_. The amtman and his
+young bride spent this portion of their honey-moon performing a kind
+of duet that reminded me of my friend Ross Wallace's lines in
+"Perdita:"
+
+    "Like two sweet tunes that wandering met,
+    And so harmoniously they run,
+    The hearer deems they are but one."
+
+At least the harmony was perfect, whatever might be thought of the
+music in other respects. Young Jonasen swallowed a few more sardines
+about this period of the voyage, which he vainly attempted to secure
+by sudden and violent contractions of the diaphragm. In short, there
+were but two persons in the cabin besides Captain Andersen and myself
+who had the temerity to appear at table--one an old Danish merchant,
+who generally received advices, midway through the meal, requiring his
+immediate presence on deck; and the other a gentleman from Holstein,
+who always lost his appetite after the soup, and had to jump up and
+run to his state-room for exercise.
+
+In due time we sighted the shores of Scotland. A pilot came on board
+inside the Frith of Forth, and, as we steamed rapidly on our course,
+all the passengers forgot their afflictions, and gazed with delight on
+the sloping sward and woodland, the picturesque villages, and romantic
+old castles that decorate the shores of this magnificent sheet of
+water.
+
+Our destination was Grangemouth, where we arrived early on Sunday
+morning. A few sailors belonging to some vessels in the docks, a
+custom-house inspector, and three small boys, comprised the entire
+visible population of the place. Judging by the manner in which the
+Sabbath is kept in Scotland, the Scotch must be a profoundly moral
+people. The towns are like grave-yards, and the inhabitants bear a
+striking resemblance to sextons, or men who spend much of their lives
+in burying the dead.
+
+I was very anxious to get a newspaper containing the latest
+intelligence from America, but was informed that none could be had on
+Sunday. I wanted to go up to Edinburg: it was not possible on Sunday.
+I asked a man where could I get some cigars? he didna ken; it was
+Sunday. The depressed expression of the few people I met began to prey
+like a nightmare on my spirits. Doubtless it is a very good thing to
+pay a decent regard to the Sabbath, but can any body tell me where we
+are commanded to look gloomy? The contrast was certainly very striking
+between the Scotch and the Danes. Of course there is no such thing as
+drunkenness in Scotland, no assaults and batteries, no robberies and
+murders, no divorces, no cheating among the merchants of Glasgow or
+the bankers of Edinburg, no sympathizing with rebellion and the
+institution of slavery--for the Scotch are a sober and righteous
+people, much given to sackcloth and ashes, manufactures of iron, and
+societies for the insurance of property against fire.
+
+The _Arcturus_ was detained several days discharging and taking in
+freight. I availed myself of the first train to visit Edinburg. A day
+there, and an excursion to Glasgow and Loch Lomond, agreeably occupied
+the time. I must confess the scenery--beautiful as it is, and fraught
+with all the interest that history and genius can throw over
+it--disappointed me. It was not what I expected. It was a damp, moist,
+uncomfortable reality, as Mantalini would say--not very grand or
+striking in any respect. A subsequent excursion to the Trosachs, Loch
+Katrine, Loch Long, and the Clyde, afforded me a better opportunity of
+judging, yet it all seemed tame and commonplace compared with the
+scenery of California and Norway. If I enjoyed a fair specimen of the
+climate--rain, wind, and fog, varied by sickly gleams of sunshine--it
+strikes me it would be a congenial country for snails and frogs to
+reside in. The Highlands are like all other wild places within the
+limits of Europe, very gentle in their wildness compared with the
+rugged slopes of the Sierra Nevada. The Lady of the Lake must have
+possessed an uncommonly strong constitution, if she made her nocturnal
+excursions on Loch Katrine in a thin white robe without suffering any
+bad consequences, for I found a stout overcoat insufficient to keep
+the chilling mists of that region from seeking in my bones a suitable
+location for rheumatism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+THE JOLLY BLOODS.
+
+
+I was quietly sitting in my state-room, awaiting the departure of the
+steamer, when a tremendous racket on the cabin steps, followed by a
+rush of feet up and down the saloon, startled me out of a pleasant
+home-dream.
+
+"Hello! What the devil! I say! Where's every body! Stoord! Blast the
+fellow! Here, Bowser! What'r ye abeaout! Ho there! Where the dooce are
+our berths? By Jove! Ha! ha! This is jolly!"
+
+Other voices joined in, with a general chorus of complaints and
+exclamations--"Egad! it's a _do_! No berths, no state-rooms! Ho,
+Stoord! Where's my trunk? I say, Stoord, where's my fishing-rod? Hey!
+hey! did you 'appen to see my overalls? I've lost my gun! 'Pon my
+word, this is a pretty do! Let's go see the Agent?" "Come on!
+Certainly!" "Oh, hang it, no!" "Oh yes!" "Here, Bowser! What the
+devil! Where's Bowser? Gone ashore, by Jove! A pretty kettle of fish!"
+Here there was a sudden and general stampede, and amid loud
+exclamations of "Beastly!" and "Disgusting!" the party left the
+cabin. I barely had time to see that it consisted of some four or five
+fashionable tourists--spirited young bloods of sporting proclivities,
+who had taken passage for Iceland. The prospect of having some company
+was pleasant enough, and from the specimen I had seen there could be
+no doubt it would be lively and entertaining.
+
+Once more during the night I was aroused by a repetition of the noises
+and exclamations already described. The steamer was moving off. The
+passengers were all on board. We were battering our way through the
+canal. Soon the heaving waters of the ocean began to subdue the
+enthusiasm of the sportsmen, and before morning my ears were saluted
+by sounds and observations of a very different character.
+
+I shall only add at present, in reference to this lively party of
+young "Britishers," that I found them very good fellows in their
+way--a little boisterous and inexperienced, but well-educated and
+intelligent. The young chap with the dog was what we would call in
+America a "regular bird." He and his dog afforded us infinite
+diversion during the whole passage--racing up and down the decks, into
+and out of the cabin, and all over each other. There was something so
+fresh and sprightly about the fellow, something so good-natured, that
+I could readily excuse his roughness of manner. One of the others, a
+quiet, scholastic-looking person, who did not really belong to the
+party, having only met them on board, was a young collegian well
+versed in Icelandic literature. He was going to Iceland to perfect
+himself in the language of the country, and make some translations of
+the learned Sagas.
+
+A favorable wind enabled us to sight the Orkneys on the afternoon
+following our departure from the Frith of Forth. Next day we passed
+the Shetlands, of which we had a good view. The rocky shores of these
+islands, all rugged and surf-beaten, with myriads of wild-fowl
+darkening the air around them, presented a most tempting field of
+exploration. I longed to take a ramble in the footsteps of Dr.
+Johnson; but to see the Shetlands would be to lose Iceland, and of the
+two I preferred seeing the latter. After a pleasant passage of two
+days and a half from Grangemouth we made the Faroe Islands, and had
+the good fortune to secure, without the usual loss of time occasioned
+by fogs, an anchorage in the harbor of Thorshavn.
+
+  [Illustration: A DANDY TOURIST.]
+
+  [Illustration: THORSHAVN.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+THE FAROE ISLANDS.
+
+
+The Faroe Islands lie about midway between Scotland and Iceland, and
+belong to Denmark. The whole group consists of thirty-five small
+islands, some of which are little more than naked rocks jutting up out
+of the sea. About twenty are inhabited. The rest are too barren and
+precipitous to afford a suitable place of abode even for the hardy
+Faroese. The entire population is estimated at something over six
+thousand, of which the greater part are shepherds, fishermen, and
+bird-catchers. Owing to the situation of these islands, surrounded by
+the open sea and within the influence of the Gulf Stream, the climate
+is very mild, although they lie in the sixty-second degree of north
+latitude. The winters are never severe, and frost and snow rarely last
+over two months. They are subject, however, at that season to frequent
+and terrible gales from the north, and during the summer are often
+inaccessible for days and even weeks, owing to dense fogs. The
+humidity of the climate is favorable to the growth of grass, which
+covers the hills with a brilliant coating of green wherever there is
+the least approach to soil; and where there is no soil, as in many
+places along the shores, the rocks are beautifully draped with moss
+and lichens. The highest point in the group is 2800 feet above the
+level of the sea, and the general aspect of them all is wild and
+rugged in the extreme. Prodigious cliffs, a thousand feet high, stand
+like a wall out of the sea on the southern side of the Stromoe. The
+Mygenaes-holm, a solitary rock, guards, like a sentinel, one of the
+passages, and forms a terrific precipice of 1500 feet on one side,
+against which the waves break with an everlasting roar. Here the
+solan-goose, the eider-duck, and innumerable varieties of gulls and
+other sea-fowl, build their nests and breed.
+
+  [Illustration: VIEW IN FAROE ISLANDS.]
+
+At certain seasons of the year the intrepid bird-hunters suspend
+themselves from the cliffs by means of ropes, and feather their own
+nests by robbing the nests of their neighbors. Enormous quantities of
+eggs are taken in this way. The eider-down, of which the nests of the
+eider-duck are composed, is one of the most profitable articles of
+Faroese traffic. The mode of life to which these men devote
+themselves, and their habitual contact with dangers, render them
+reckless, and many perish every year by falling from the rocks. Widows
+and orphans are numerous throughout the islands.
+
+The few scattering farms to be seen on the slopes of the hills and in
+the arable valleys are conducted on the most primitive principles. A
+small patch of potatoes and vegetables, and in certain exposures a few
+acres of grain, comprise the extent of their agricultural operations.
+Sheep-raising is the most profitable of their pursuits. The climate
+appears to be more congenial to the growth of wool than of cereal
+productions. The Faroese sheep are noted for the fineness and
+luxuriance of their fleece, and it always commands a high price in
+market. A considerable portion of it is manufactured by the
+inhabitants, who are quite skillful in weaving and knitting. They make
+a kind of thick woolen shirt, something like that known as the
+Guernsey, which for durability and warmth is unsurpassed. Sailors and
+fishermen all over the Northern seas consider themselves fortunate if
+they can get possession of a Faroese shirt. The costume of the men,
+which is chiefly home-made, consists of a rough, thick jacket of brown
+wool; a coarse woolen shirt; a knitted bag-shaped cap on the head; a
+pair of knee-breeches of the same material as the coat; a pair of
+thick woolen stockings, and sheepskin shoes, generally covered with
+mud--all of the same brown or rather burnt-umber color. Exposure to
+the weather gives their skins, naturally of a leathery texture,
+something of the same dull and dingy aspect, so that a genuine
+Faroese enjoys one advantage--he can never look much more dirty at one
+time than another.
+
+The women wear dresses of the same material, without much attempt at
+shape or ornament. A colored handkerchief tied around the head, a
+silver breast-pin, and a pair of ear-rings of domestic manufacture,
+comprise their only personal decorations. As in all countries where
+the burden of heavy labor is thrown upon the women, they lose their
+comely looks at an early age, and become withered, ill-shaped, and
+hard-featured long before they reach the prime of life. The Faroese
+women doubtless make excellent wives for lazy men; they do all the
+labors of the house, and share largely in those of the field. I do not
+know that they are more prolific than good and loving wives in other
+parts of the world, but they certainty enjoy the possession of as many
+little cotton-heads with dirty faces, turned up noses, ragged elbows,
+and tattered frocks, as one usually meets in the course of his
+travels. Two fair specimens of the rising generation, a little boy and
+girl, made an excellent speculation on the occasion of my visit to
+Thorshavn. Knowing by instinct, if not by my dress, that I was a
+stranger, they followed me about wherever I rambled, looking curiously
+and cautiously into my face, and mutually commenting upon the oddity
+of my appearance--which, by-the-way, would have been slightly odd even
+in the streets of New York, wrapped, as I was, in the voluminous folds
+of Captain Sodring's old whaling coat, with a sketch-book in my hand
+and a pair of spectacles on my nose. However, no man likes to be
+regarded as an object of curiosity even by two small ragamuffins
+belonging to a strange race, so I just held up suddenly, and requested
+these children of Faroe to state explicitly the grounds of their
+interest in my behalf. What they said in reply it would be impossible
+for me to translate, since the Faroese language is quite as
+impenetrable as the Icelandic. They looked so startled and alarmed
+withal that a gleam of pity must have manifested its appearance in
+the corner of my eyes. The next moment their faces broke into a broad
+grin, and each held out a hand audaciously, as much as to say, "My
+dear sir, if you'll put a small copper in this small hand, we'll
+retract all injurious criticisms, and ever after regard you as a
+gentleman of extraordinary personal beauty!" Somehow my hand slipped
+unconsciously into my pocket, but, before handing them the desired
+change, it occurred to me to secure their likenesses for publication
+as a warning to the children of all nations not to undertake a similar
+experiment with any hope of success.
+
+  [Illustration: FAROESE CHILDREN.]
+
+Thorshavn, so named after the old god Thor, is a small town of some
+five or six hundred inhabitants, situated on the southeastern side of
+the island of Stromoe. In front lies a harbor, indifferently protected
+by a small island and two rocky points. The anchorage is insecure at
+all times, especially during the prevalence of southerly and easterly
+gales, when it often becomes necessary to heave up and put to sea; and
+the dense fogs by which the approach to land is generally obscured
+render navigation about these islands extremely perilous. Of the town
+of Thorshavn little need be said. Its chief interest lies in the
+almost primeval construction of the houses and the rustic simplicity
+of its inhabitants. The few streets that run between the straggling
+lines of sheds and sod-covered huts scattered over the rocks are
+narrow and tortuous, winding up steep, stony precipices, and into
+deep, boggy hollows; around rugged points, and over scraggy mounds of
+gravel and grit. The public edifices, consisting of two or three small
+churches and the amtman's residence, are little better than
+martin-boxes. For some reason best known to the people in these
+Northern climes, they paint their houses black, except where the roofs
+are covered with sod, which nature paints green. I think it must be
+from some notion that it gives them a cheerful aspect, though the
+darkness of the paint and the chilly luxuriance of the green did not
+strike me with joyous impressions. If Scotland can claim some
+advantages as a place of residence for snails, Thorshavn must surely
+be a paradise for toads accustomed to feed upon the vapors of a
+dungeon. The wharves--loose masses of rock at the boat-landing--are
+singularly luxuriant in the article of fish. Prodigious piles of
+fish lie about in every direction. The shambling old store-houses are
+crammed with fish, and the heads of fish and the back-bones of fish
+lie bleaching on the rocks. The gravelly patches of beach are slimy
+with the entrails of fresh fish, and the air is foul with the odor of
+decayed fish. The boatmen that lounge about waiting for a job are
+saturated with fish inside and out--like their boats. The cats, crows,
+and ravens mingle in social harmony over the dreadful carnival of
+fish. In fine, the impression produced upon the stranger who lands for
+the first time is that he has accidentally turned up in some
+piscatorial hell, where the tortures of skinning, drying, and
+disemboweling are performed by the unrelenting hands of man.
+
+  [Illustration: FAROESE ISLANDERS.]
+
+In addition to the standing population of Thorshavn, the
+fortifications--an abandoned mud-bank, a flag-staff, and a board
+shanty--are subject, in times of great public peril, to be defended by
+a standing army and navy of twenty-four soldiers, one small boat, one
+corporal, and the governor of the islands, who takes the field himself
+at the head of this bloody phalanx of Danes still reeking with the
+gore of slaughtered fish. Upon the occasion of the arrival of the
+_Arcturus_--the only steamer that ever touches here--the principal
+amtman, upon perceiving the vessel in the distance, immediately
+proceeds to organize the army and navy for a grand display. First he
+shaves and puts on his uniform; then calling together the troops, who
+are also sailors, he carefully inspects them, and selecting from the
+number the darkest, dirtiest, and most bloody-looking, he causes them
+to buckle on their swords. This done, he delivers a brief address,
+recommending them to abstain from the use of schnapps and other
+intoxicating beverages till the departure of the steamer. The dignity
+of official position requires that he should remain on shore for the
+space of one hour after the dropping of the anchor. He then musters
+his forces, marches them down to his war-skiff, from the stern of
+which waves the Danish flag, and, placing an oar in the hands of each
+man, he gives the order to advance and board the steamer. On his
+arrival alongside he touches his cap to the passengers in a grave and
+dignified manner, and expresses a desire to see our commander, Captain
+Andersen, who, during this period of the ceremony, is down below,
+busily occupied in arranging the brandy and crackers. The appearance
+of Captain Andersen on deck is politely acknowledged by the amtman,
+who thereupon orders his men to pull alongside, when the two
+cabin-boys and the cook kindly assist him over the gangway. Descending
+into the cabin, he carefully examines the ship's papers, pronounces
+them all right, and joins Captain Andersen in a social "smile." Then,
+having delivered himself of the latest intelligence on the subject of
+wool and codfish, he returns to his boat and proceeds to his quarters
+on shore. All this is done with a quiet and dignified formality both
+pleasing and impressive.
+
+As an illustration of the severity of the laws that govern the Faroe
+Islands, and the upright and inexorable character of the governor and
+principal amtman, I must relate an incident that occurred under my own
+observation.
+
+Shortly after the _Arcturus_ had cast anchor, the party of British
+sportsmen already mentioned went ashore with their dogs and guns, and
+began an indiscriminate slaughter of all the game within two miles of
+Thorshavn, consisting of three plovers, a snipe, and some half a dozen
+sparrows. The captain had warned them that such a proceeding was
+contrary to law, and a citizen of Thorshavn had gently remonstrated
+with them as they passed through the town. When the slaughter
+commenced, the proprietors of the bog, in which the game abounded,
+rushed to the doors of their cabins to see what was going on, and
+perceiving that it was a party of Englishmen engaged in the
+destructive pastime of firing shotguns about and among the flocks of
+sheep that browsed on the premises, they straightway laid a complaint
+before the governor. The independent sons of Britain were not to be
+baffled of their sport in this manner. They cracked away as long as
+they pleased, by-Joved and blawsted the island for not having more
+game, and then came aboard. The steamer hove up anchor and sailed that
+night. Nothing farther took place to admonish us of the consequences
+of the trespass till our return from Iceland, when the principal
+amtman came on board with a formidable placard, neatly written, and
+translated into the three court languages of the place--Danish,
+French, and English. The contents of this document were as follows:
+that whereas, in the year 1763, a law had been passed for the
+protection of game on the Faroe Islands, which law had not since been
+rescinded; and whereas a subsequent law of 1786 had been passed for
+the protection of sheep and other stock ranging at large on the said
+islands, which law had not since been rescinded; and whereas it had
+been represented to the governor of the said islands that certain
+persons, supposed to be Englishmen, had lately come on shore, armed
+with shotguns, and, in violation of the said laws of the country, had
+shot at, maimed, and killed several birds, and caused serious
+apprehensions of injury to the flocks of sheep which were peaceably
+grazing on their respective ranges; now, therefore, this was earnestly
+to request that all such persons would reflect upon the penalties that
+would attach to similar acts in their own country, and be thus enabled
+to perceive the impropriety of pursuing such a course in other
+countries. Should they fail to observe the aforesaid laws after this
+warning, they would only have themselves to blame for the unpleasant
+consequences that must assuredly ensue, etc., etc. [Officially signed
+and sealed.]
+
+Great formality was observed in carrying this important document on
+board. It was neatly folded and carefully done up, with various seals
+and blue ribbons, in a package about six inches wide by eighteen in
+length, and was guarded by the select half of the Faroese army and
+navy, being exactly twelve men, and delivered by the amtman of the
+island with a few appropriate and impressive remarks, after which it
+was hung up over the cabin gangway by the captain as a solemn warning
+to all future passengers. There can be no doubt that it produced the
+most salutary effects upon the sporting gentlemen. I was really glad
+the affair had taken place, as it evidently afforded his excellency a
+favorable opportunity of promulgating a most excellent state paper,
+cautiously conceived and judiciously worded. The preparation of it
+must have occupied his time advantageously to himself and his country
+during the entire period of our absence.
+
+I must now turn back a little to say that, while my comrades were
+engaged in their unlawful work of killing the sparrows and frightening
+the sheep, I deemed it a matter of personal safety to keep out of
+range of their guns. Apart from the danger of arrest, the probable
+loss of an eye or disfigurement of some ornamental feature was a
+sufficient consideration to satisfy me of the policy of this course.
+
+Taking a path across the rugged desert of rocks and bogs, extending
+for some miles back of Thorshavn, I quickly began to ascend a barren
+range of hills, abounding in greenstone trap-rock and zoolites, from
+the summit of which there is a magnificent view of the whole
+surrounding country, with glimpses of the cloud-capped summits of the
+neighboring islands. Beautiful little valleys, dotted with the
+sod-covered huts of the shepherds and fishermen, sweep down to the
+water's edge a thousand feet below; weird black bogs, and fields of
+scoria and burned earth, lie on the slopes of the distant hills to the
+right; and to the left are rugged cliffs, jutting out of the sea like
+huge castles, around which myriads of birds continually hover,
+piercing the air with their wild screams. The wind blew in such fierce
+gusts over the bleak and desolate range of crags on which I stood that
+I was glad enough to seek shelter down on the leeside.
+
+It now occurred to me to go in search of a ruined church of which I
+had read in some traveler's journal said to be within four or five
+miles of Thorshavn. Some artificial piles of stones, near the ledge
+upon which I had descended, indicated the existence of a trail. On my
+way down, a legion of birds, about the size of puffins, began to
+gather around, with fierce cries and warning motions, as if determined
+to dispute my progress. They flew backward and forward within a few
+feet of my head, flapping their wings furiously, and uttering the most
+terrific cries of rage and alarm, so that I was sorely puzzled to know
+what was the matter. It was not long before I came upon some of their
+nests, which of course explained the difficulty. Having no immediate
+use for eggs or feathers, I left the nests unmolested and proceeded on
+my way. In about an hour I came suddenly upon a small green valley
+that lay some five hundred feet below, directly on the water's edge.
+By some mischance I had lost the trail, and, in order to descend, was
+obliged to slide and scramble down the cliffs--an experiment that I
+presently discovered would probably cost me a broken neck if persisted
+in; for when there seemed to be no farther obstruction, I came all at
+once upon a precipice at least sixty feet deep, without a single
+foothold or other means of descent than a clear jump to the bottom.
+Not disposed to follow the example of Sam Patch on dry land, I
+reluctantly turned back. By dint of scrambling and climbing, and
+slipping down various cliffs and slopes, I at length reached a point
+from which I had a view of some ruins and farm-houses still some
+distance below. Following the line of the regular trail till it struck
+into the cliffs, I had no farther difficulty in reaching the valley.
+
+The good people at the farm-house--a family by the name of
+Petersen--received me in the kindest manner, with many expressions of
+wonder at the risk I had run in crossing the mountain without a guide.
+It was with considerable difficulty we made ourselves understood. None
+of the family spoke any language except their own. The son, indeed, a
+fine young man of twenty, understood a few words of English, but that
+was all. There is something, nevertheless, in genuine kindness and
+hospitality that makes itself intelligible without the aid of language.
+I was immediately invited into the house, and while young Petersen
+entertained me with old prints and Faroese books, his mother prepared
+an excellent lunch. Tired and worried after my trip, I could offer no
+objection. Never shall I forget the coffee and cream, and the butter
+and bread, and delicate fruit-tarts placed on the nice white
+table-cloth by the good Mrs. Petersen. I ate and drank, and glowed all
+over with a childlike relish of the good things, while the whole family
+gathered round and tried to make me understand that they had a relative
+in California, who lived in the mines at a place called Six-mile-bar,
+and that they were glad to see a Californian, and wanted to know all
+about California. It is wonderful with how few words we can communicate
+our ideas when necessity compels us to depend upon our ingenuity.
+Before I had parted from that family the whole matter was perfectly
+explained; the history of their absent relative was quite clear to me,
+and they had a very fair conception of the kind of country in which he
+lived. Upon no consideration would they receive compensation for the
+lunch, and they even seemed offended when I endeavored to press it upon
+them. This, from people whom I had never seen before--a plain country
+family living in a wilderness where such luxuries as sugar and coffee
+could only be had at considerable expense--was absolutely refreshing.
+For the first time since my arrival in Europe, after having traversed
+the whole Continent, I had encountered a specimen of the human race
+capable of refusing money. Subsequently I learned that this was the
+common practice in the Faroe Islands. The poorest shepherd freely
+offers to the stranger the hospitality of his hut; and it is a creed
+among these worthy people not to accept pay for coffee and bread, or
+indeed any thing else they may have to offer in the way of
+entertainment. My fellow-passengers were similarly treated in
+Thorshavn, where visitors are more frequent and the customs of the
+country less primitive.
+
+  [Illustration: KIRK GOBOE.]
+
+The great object of interest at Kirk Goboe is the ancient church, from
+which the place derives its name; a long, low stone building,
+whitewashed and covered with a sod roof, but, owing to repeated
+repairs, now presenting no particular traces of antiquity, although
+reported to have been built in the eighth century. I have no data in
+reference to this interesting relic, and am not aware that
+antiquarians have ever attempted to trace out its origin. The
+probability is that it was built by some of those Culdee anchorites of
+whom Dasent speaks as the first settlers of Iceland.
+
+The interior of the church contains an altar, and some wooden carvings
+on the head-boards of the pews, evidently of great antiquity. It is
+impossible to conjecture from their appearance whether they are five
+hundred or a thousand years old--at least without more research than a
+casual tourist can bestow upon them.
+
+There is also within a few steps of the farm-house a much larger and
+more picturesque ruin of a church, built in a later style of
+architecture. The only information I could get about this ruin was
+that it dates back as far as the fifteenth century. The walls are of
+rough stone well put together, and now stand roofless and
+moss-covered, inhabited only by crows and swallows. The doors and
+windows are in the Gothic style. A sketch made from the door of the
+old church first mentioned, embracing the residence of the Petersen
+family, with a glimpse of the cliffs and rugged ledges behind upon
+which their flocks graze, will give the best idea of the whole
+premises.
+
+  [Illustration: FARM-HOUSE AND RUINS.]
+
+Having thus pleasantly occupied a few hours at Kirk Goboe, I bade
+adieu to the worthy family who had so hospitably entertained me, and
+was about to set out for Thorshavn, when young Petersen, not content
+with the directions he had given me, announced his intention of seeing
+me safe over the mountain. In vain I assured him that, however
+pleasant his company would be, I had no apprehension of losing the way
+this time. Go he would, and go he did; and when we parted on the top
+of the mountain, in plain sight of Thorshavn, he cordially shook me by
+the hand, and said many kind words, which I could only interpret to
+mean that he and all his kith and kin wished me a pleasant voyage to
+Iceland, and many years of health and happiness.
+
+When I now recall the fine, intelligent face of this young man, his
+bright dark eyes, healthy complexion, and strong, well-knit frame, the
+latent energy in all his movements, the genial simplicity of his
+manners, and his evident thirst for knowledge, I can not help feeling
+something akin to regret that so much good material should be wasted
+in the obscurity of a shepherd's life. So gifted by nature, what might
+not such a youth achieve in an appropriate sphere of action? And yet,
+perhaps, it is better for him that he should spend his life among the
+barren cliffs of Stromoe, with no more companions than his dog and his
+sheep, than jostle among men in the great outer world, to learn at
+last the bitter lesson that the eye is not satisfied with riches, nor
+the understanding with knowledge.
+
+On the way down to the Valley of Thorshavn I met a man mounted on a
+shaggy little monster, which in almost any other country would have
+been mistaken for a species of sheep. As this was a fair specimen of a
+Faroese horse and his rider, I sat down on a rock after they had
+passed and took the best view of them I could get.
+
+Late in the afternoon the scattered passengers were gathered together,
+and the good people of Thorshavn came down to the wharf to bid us
+farewell. In half an hour more we were all on board. "Up anchor!" was
+the order, and once more we went steaming on our way.
+
+Short as our sojourn had been among these primitive people, it
+furnished us with many pleasant reminiscences. Their genial
+hospitality and simple good-nature, together with their utter
+ignorance of the outer world, formed the theme of various amusing
+anecdotes during the remainder of the passage. Favored by a southerly
+wind and a stock of good coal, we made the southeastern point of
+Iceland in a little over two days from Thorshavn.
+
+  [Illustration: FAROESE ON HORSEBACK.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ICELAND.
+
+
+It would be difficult to conceive any thing more impressive than this
+first view of the land of snow and fire. A low stretch of black boggy
+coast to the right; dark cliffs of lava in front; far in the
+background, range after range of bleak, snow-capped mountains, the
+fiery Jokuls dimly visible through drifting masses of fog; to the left
+a broken wall of red, black, and blue rocks, weird and surf-beaten,
+stretching as far as the eye could reach--this was Iceland! All along
+the grim rifted coast the dread marks of fire, and flood, and
+desolation were visible. Detached masses of lava, gnarled and scraggy
+like huge clinkers, seemed tossed out into the sea; towers,
+buttresses, and battlements, shaped by the very elements of
+destruction, reared their stern crests against the waves; glaciers lay
+glittering upon the blackened slopes behind; and foaming torrents of
+snow-water burst through the rifted crags in front, and mingled their
+rage with the wild rage of the surf--all was battle, and ruin, and
+desolation.
+
+As we approached the point called Portland, a colossal bridge opened
+into view, so symmetrical in its outline that it was difficult to
+believe it was not of artificial construction. The arch is about fifty
+feet high by thirty in width, and affords shelter to innumerable
+flocks of birds, whose nests are built in the crevices underneath.
+Solan-geese, eider-ducks, and sea-gulls cover the dizzy heights
+overhead, and whales have been known to pass through the passage
+below. Great numbers of blackfish and porpoises abound in this
+vicinity. From time to time, as we swept along on our way, we could
+discern a lonesome hut high up on the shore, with a few sheep and
+cattle on the slopes of the adjacent hills, but for the most part
+the coast was barren and desolate.
+
+  [Illustration: NATURAL BRIDGE.]
+
+Early on the following morning the sun-capped peaks of Mount Hecla
+were visible. There has been no eruption from this mountain since
+1845. The principal crater lies 5210 feet above the level of the sea,
+and is distant fifteen miles from the shore.
+
+Toward noon we made the Westmann Isles, a small rocky group some ten
+miles distant from the main island. A fishing and trading
+establishment, owned by a company of Danes, is located on one of these
+islands. The _Arcturus_ touches twice a year to deliver and receive a
+mail. On the occasion of our visit, a boat came out with a
+hardy-looking crew of Danes to receive the mail-bag. It was doubtless
+a matter of great rejoicing to them to obtain news from home. I had
+barely time to make a rough outline of the islands as we lay off the
+settlement.
+
+The chief interest attached to the Westmann group is, that it is
+supposed to have been visited by Columbus in 1477, fifteen years prior
+to his voyage of discovery to the shores of America. It is now
+generally conceded that the Icelanders were the original discoverers
+of the American continent. Recent antiquarian researches tend to
+establish the fact that they had advanced as far to the southward as
+Massachusetts in the tenth century. They held colonies on the coasts
+of Greenland and Labrador, and must have had frequent intercourse with
+the Indians farther south. Columbus in all probability obtained some
+valuable data from these hardy adventurers. The date of his visit to
+Iceland is well authenticated by Beamish, Rafn, and other eminent
+writers on the early discoveries of the Northmen.
+
+  [Illustration: COAST OF ICELAND.]
+
+Nothing could surpass the desolate grandeur of the coast as we
+approached the point of Reykjaness. It was of an almost infernal
+blackness. The whole country seemed uptorn, rifted, shattered, and
+scattered about in a vast chaos of ruin. Huge cliffs of lava split
+down to their bases toppled over the surf. Rocks of every
+conceivable shape, scorched and blasted with fire, wrested from the
+main and hurled into the sea, battled with the waves, their black
+scraggy points piercing the mist like giant hands upthrown to smite or
+sink in a fierce death-struggle. The wild havoc wrought in the
+conflict of elements was appalling. Birds screamed over the fearful
+wreck of matter. The surf from the inrolling waves broke against the
+charred and shattered desert of ruin with a terrific roar. Columns of
+spray shot up over the blackened fragments of lava, while in every
+opening the lashed waters, discolored by the collision, seethed and
+surged as in a huge caldron. Verily there is One whose "fury is poured
+out like fire; the rocks are thrown down by him; the mountains quake,
+and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence."
+
+  [Illustration: THE MEAL-SACK.]
+
+Passing a singular rock standing alone some twenty miles off the land,
+called the _Meal-sack_, we soon changed our course and bore up for the
+harbor of Reykjavik. By the time we reached the anchorage our voyage
+from Thorshavn had occupied exactly three days and six hours.
+
+Trusting that the reader will pardon me for the frequent delays to
+which I have subjected him since we joined our fortunes at Copenhagen,
+I shall now proceed to the important labors of the enterprise with
+this solemn understanding--that the journey before us is pretty rough,
+and the prospect is strong that, in our random dash at the wonders of
+Iceland, we will encounter some perilous adventures by flood and
+field; but if I don't carry him safely and satisfactorily through them
+all, he must console himself by the reflection that many a good man
+has been sacrificed in the pursuit of knowledge, and that he will
+suffer in excellent company.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND.
+
+
+My first view of the capital of Iceland was through a chilling rain. A
+more desolate-looking place I had rarely if ever seen, though, like
+Don Quixote's market-woman on the ass, it was susceptible of
+improvement under the influence of an ardent imagination. As a subject
+for the pencil of an artist, it was at least peculiar, if not
+picturesque. A tourist whose glowing fancies had not been nipped in
+the bud by the vigors of an extended experience might have been able
+to invest it with certain weird charms, but to me it was only the
+fag-end of civilization, abounding in horrible odors of decayed polypi
+and dried fish. A cutting wind from the distant Jokuls and a searching
+rain did not tend to soften the natural asperities of its features. In
+no point of view did it impress me as a cheerful place of residence
+except for wild ducks and sea-gulls. The whole country for miles
+around is a black desert of bogs and lava. Scarcely an arable spot is
+to be seen save on the tops of the fishermen's huts, where the sod
+produces an abundance of grass and weeds. A dark gravelly slope in
+front of the town, dotted with boats, oars, nets, and piles of fish; a
+long row of shambling old store-houses built of wood, and painted a
+dismal black, varied by patches of dirty yellow; a general
+hodge-podge of frame shanties behind, constructed of old boards and
+patched up with drift-wood; a few straggling streets, paved with
+broken lava and reeking with offal from the doors of the houses; some
+dozens of idle citizens and drunken boatmen lounging around the
+grog-shops; a gang of women, brawny and weather-beaten, carrying loads
+of codfish down to the landing; a drove of shaggy little ponies, each
+tied to the tail of the pony in front; a pack of mangy dogs prowling
+about in dirty places looking for something to eat, and fighting when
+they got it--this was all I could see of Reykjavik, the famous
+Icelandic capital.
+
+  [Illustration: REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND.]
+
+The town lies on a strip of land between the harbor and a lagoon in
+the rear. It is said to contain a population of two thousand, and if
+the dogs and fleas be taken into consideration, I have no doubt it
+does. Where two thousand human beings can stow themselves in a place
+containing but one hotel, and that a very poor one, is a matter of
+wonder to the stranger. The houses generally are but one story high,
+and seldom contain more than two or three rooms. Some half a dozen
+stores, it is true, of better appearance than the average, have been
+built by the Danish merchants within the past few years; and the
+residence of the governor and the public University are not without
+some pretensions to style.
+
+The only stone building in Reykjavik of any importance is the
+"Cathedral;" so called, perhaps, more in honor of its great antiquity
+than any thing imposing about its style or dimensions. At present it
+shows no indications of age, having been patched, plastered, and
+painted into quite a neat little church of modern appearance.
+
+  [Illustration: GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE, REYKJAVIK.]
+
+  [Illustration: ICELANDIC HOUSES.]
+
+At each end of the town is a small gathering of sod-covered huts,
+where the fishermen and their families live like rabbits in a burrow.
+That these poor people are not all devoured by snails or crippled with
+rheumatism is a marvel to any stranger who takes a peep into their
+filthy and cheerless little cabins. The oozy slime of fish and smoke
+mingles with the green mould of the rocks; barnacles cover the walls,
+and puddles make a soft carpeting for the floors. The earth is
+overhead, and their heads are under the earth, and the light of day
+has no light job of it to get in edgewise, through the windows. The
+beaver-huts and badger-holes of California, taking into consideration
+the difference of climate, are palatial residences compared with the
+dismal hovels of these Icelandic fishermen. At a short distance they
+look for all the world like mounds in a grave-yard. The inhabitants,
+worse off than the dead, are buried alive. No gardens, no cultivated
+patches, no attempt at any thing ornamental relieves the dreary
+monotony of the premises. Dark patches of lava, all littered with the
+heads and entrails of fish; a pile of turf from some neighboring bog;
+a rickety shed in which the fish are hung up to dry; a gang of
+wolfish-looking curs, horribly lean and voracious; a few prowling
+cats, and possibly a chicken deeply depressed in spirits--these are
+the most prominent objects visible in the vicinity. Sloth and filth go
+hand in hand.
+
+  [Illustration: CHURCH AT REYKJAVIK.]
+
+The women are really the only class of inhabitants, except the fleas,
+who possess any vitality. Rude, slatternly, and ignorant as they are,
+they still evince some sign of life and energy compared with the men.
+Overtaxed by domestic cares, they go down upon the wharves when a
+vessel comes in, and by hard labor earn enough to purchase a few rags
+of clothing for their children. The men are too lazy even to carry the
+fish out of their own boats. At home they lie about the doors, smoking
+and gossiping, and too often drunk. Some are too lazy to get drunk,
+and go to sleep over the effort. In truth, the prevailing indolence
+among all classes is so striking that one can almost imagine himself
+in a Southern clime. There is much about Reykjavik to remind a
+Californian traveler of San Diego. The drunken fellows about the
+stores, and the racing of horses up and down the streets, under the
+stimulus of liquor rather than natural energy, sometimes made me feel
+quite at home.
+
+  [Illustration: ICELANDERS AT WORK.]
+
+On the morning after my arrival I called to see my young friend
+Jonasen, the governor's son, and was most hospitably entertained by
+the family. I had a letter of introduction to the governor from the
+Minister of the Judiciary at Copenhagen, but thought it unnecessary to
+present it. His excellency is a good specimen of the better class of
+Icelanders--simple, kind-hearted, and polite. My casual acquaintance
+with his son was sufficient to enlist his warmest sympathies. I
+thought he would destroy his equilibrium as well as my own by
+repeatedly drinking my health and wishing me a hearty welcome to
+Iceland. He said he had never seen a Californian before, and seemed
+astonished to find that they had noses, mouths, ears, and skins like
+other people. In one respect he paid me a practical compliment that I
+have rarely enjoyed in the course of my travels--he spoke nearly as
+bad French as I did. Now I take it that a man who speaks bad French,
+after years of travel on the Continent of Europe, is worthy of some
+consideration. He is at least entitled to the distinction of having
+well preserved his nationality; and when any foreigner tries to speak
+it worse, but doesn't succeed, I can not but regard it as a tribute of
+respect.
+
+Young Jonasen, I was glad to see, had gotten over his struggle with
+the sardines, and was now in a fair way to enjoy life. His sister,
+Miss Jonasen, is a very charming young lady, well educated and
+intelligent. She speaks English quite fluently, and does the honors of
+the executive mansion with an easy grace scarcely to be expected in
+this remote part of the world. Both are natives of Iceland.
+
+I should be sorry to be understood as intimating, in my brief sketch
+of Reykjavik, that it is destitute of refined society. There are
+families of as cultivated manners here as in any other part of the
+world; and on the occasion of a ball or party, a stranger would be
+surprised at the display of beauty and style. The University and
+public library attract students from all parts of the island, and
+several of the professors and literary men have obtained a European
+reputation. Two semi-monthly newspapers are published at Reykjavik, in
+the Icelandic language. They are well printed, and said to be edited
+with ability. I looked over them very carefully from beginning to end,
+and could see nothing to object to in any portion of the contents.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+GEIR ZOEGA.
+
+
+Wishing to see as much of the island as possible during the short time
+at my disposal, I made application to young Jonasen for information in
+regard to a guide, and through his friendly aid secured the services
+of Geir Zoega, a man of excellent reputation.
+
+A grave, dignified man is Geir Zoega, large of frame and strong of
+limb; a light-haired, blue-eyed, fresh, honest-faced native, warm of
+heart and trusty of hand; a jewel of a guide, who knows every rook,
+bog, and mud-puddle between Reykjavik and the Geysers; a gentleman by
+nature, born in all probability of an iceberg and a volcano; a
+believer in ghosts and ghouls, and a devout member of the Church. All
+hail to thee, Geir Zoega! I have traveled many a rough mile with thee,
+used up thy brandy and smoked thy cigars, covered my chilled body with
+thy coat, listened to thy words of comfort pronounced in broken
+English, received thy last kind wishes at parting, and now I say, in
+heartfelt sincerity, all hail to thee, Geir Zoega! A better man never
+lived, or if he did, he could be better spared at Reykjavik.
+
+To my great discontent, I found it indispensable to have five horses,
+although I proposed making the trip entirely without baggage. It
+seemed that two were necessary for myself, two for the guide, and one
+to carry the provisions and tent, without which it would be very
+difficult to travel, since there are no hotels in any part of the
+interior. Lodgings may be had at the huts of the peasants, and such
+rude fare as they can furnish; but the tourist had better rely upon
+his own tent and provisions, unless he has a craving to be fed on
+black bread and curds, and to be buried alive under a dismal pile of
+sods.
+
+  [Illustration: GEIR ZOEGA.]
+
+The reason why so many horses are required is plain enough. At this
+time of the year (June) they are still very poor after their winter's
+starvation, the pasturage is not yet good, and, in order to make a
+rapid journey of any considerable length, frequent changes are
+necessary. Philosophy and humanity combined to satisfy me that the
+trip could not well be made with a smaller number. I was a little
+inquisitive on that point, partly on the score of expense, and partly
+on account of the delay and trouble that might arise in taking care
+of so many animals.
+
+If there is any one trait common among all the nations of the earth,
+it is a natural sharpness in the traffic of horse-flesh. My experience
+has been wonderfully uniform in this respect wherever it has been my
+fortune to travel. I have had the misfortune to be the victim of
+horse-jockeys in Syria, Africa, Russia, Norway, and even California,
+where the people are proverbially honest. I have weighed the
+horse-jockeys of the four continents in the balance, and never found
+them wanting in natural shrewdness. It is a mistake, however, to call
+them unprincipled. They are men of most astonishing tenacity of
+principle, but unfortunately they have but one governing principle in
+life--to get good prices for bad horses.
+
+On the arrival of the steamer at Reykjavik the competition among the
+horse-traders is really the only lively feature in the place.
+Immediately after the passengers get ashore they are beset by offers
+of accommodation in the line of horse-flesh. Vagabonds and idlers of
+every kind, if they possess nothing else in the world, are at least
+directly or indirectly interested in this species of property. The
+roughest specimens of humanity begin to gather in from the country
+around the corners of the streets near the hotel, with all the
+worn-out, lame, halt, blind, and spavined horses that can be raked up
+by hook or crook in the neighborhood. Such a medley was never seen in
+any other country. Barnum's woolly horse was nothing to these shaggy,
+stunted, raw-backed, bow-legged, knock-kneed little monsters, offered
+to the astonished traveler with unintelligible pedigrees in the
+Icelandic, which, if literally translated, must surely mean that they
+are a mixed product of codfish and brushwood. The size has but little
+to do with the age, and all rules applicable as a test in other parts
+of the world fail here. I judged some of them to be about four months
+old, and was not at all astonished when informed by disinterested
+spectators that they ranged from twelve to fifteen years. Nothing,
+in fact, could astonish me after learning that the horses in Iceland
+are fed during the winter on dried fish. This is a literal fact. Owing
+to the absence of grain and the scarcity of grass, it becomes
+necessary to keep life in the poor animals during the severest months
+of the season by giving them the refuse of the fisheries; and, what is
+very surprising, they relish it in preference to any other species of
+food. Shade of Ceres! what an article of diet for horses! Only think
+of it--riding on the back of a horse partly constructed of fish! No
+wonder some of them blow like whales.
+
+  [Illustration: ICELANDIC HORSES.]
+
+In one respect the traveler can not be cheated to any great extent; he
+can not well lose more than twelve specie dollars on any one horse,
+that being the average price. To do the animals justice, they are like
+singed cats--a great deal better than they look. If they are not much
+for beauty, they are at least hardy, docile, and faithful; and, what
+is better, in a country where forage is sometimes difficult to find,
+will eat any thing on the face of the earth short of very hard lava or
+very indigestible trap-rock. Many of them, in consequence of these
+valuable qualities, are exported every year to Scotland and Copenhagen
+for breeding purposes. Two vessels were taking in cargoes of them
+during our stay at Reykjavik.
+
+I was saved the trouble of bargaining for my animals by Geir Zoega,
+who agreed to furnish me with the necessary number at five Danish
+dollars apiece the round trip; that is, about two dollars and a half
+American, which was not at all unreasonable. For his own services he
+only charged a dollar a day, with whatever _buono mano_ I might choose
+to give him. These items I mention for the benefit of my friends at
+home who may take a notion to make the trip.
+
+I was anxious to get off at once, but the horses were in the country
+and had to be brought up. Two days were lost in consequence of the
+heavy rains, and the trail was said to be in very bad condition. On
+the morning of the third day all was to be ready; and having
+purchased a few pounds of crackers, half a pound of tea, some sugar
+and cheese, I was prepared to encounter the perils of the wilderness.
+This was all the provision I took. Of other baggage I had none, save
+my overcoat and sketch-book, which, for a journey of five days, did
+not seem unreasonable. Zoega promised me any amount of suffering; but
+I told him Californians rather enjoyed that sort of thing than
+otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+THE ENGLISH TOURISTS.
+
+
+My English friends were so well provided with funds and equipments
+that they found it impossible to get ready. They had patent tents,
+sheets, bedsteads, mattresses, and medicine-boxes. They had guns, too,
+in handsome gun-cases; and compasses, and chronometers, and pocket
+editions of the poets. They had portable kitchens packed in tin boxes,
+which they emptied out, but never could get in again, comprising a
+general assortment of pots, pans, kettles, skillets, frying-pans,
+knives and forks, and pepper-castors. They had demijohns of brandy and
+kegs of Port wine; baskets of bottled porter and a dozen of Champagne;
+vinegar by the gallon and French mustard in patent pots; likewise
+collodium for healing bruises, and musquito-nets for keeping out
+snakes. They had improved oil-lamps to assist the daylight which
+prevails in this latitude during the twenty-four hours, and shaving
+apparatus and nail-brushes, and cold cream for cracked lips, and
+dentifrice for the teeth, and patent preparations for the removal of
+dandruff from the hair; likewise lint and splints for mending broken
+legs. One of them carried a theodolite for drawing inaccessible
+mountains within a reasonable distance; another a photographic
+apparatus for taking likenesses of the natives and securing
+fac-similes of the wild beasts; while a third was provided with a
+brass thief-defender for running under doors and keeping them shut
+against persons of evil character. They had bags, boxes, and bales of
+crackers, preserved meats, vegetables, and pickles; jellies and
+sweet-cake; concentrated coffee, and a small apparatus for the
+manufacture of ice-cream. In addition to all these, they had patent
+overcoats and undercoats, patent hats and patent boots, gum-elastic
+bed-covers, and portable gutta-percha floors for tents; ropes, cords,
+horse-shoes, bits, saddles and bridles, bags of oats, fancy packs for
+horses, and locomotive pegs for hanging guns on, besides many other
+articles commonly deemed useful in foreign countries by gentlemen of
+the British Islands who go abroad to rough it. This was roughing it
+with a vengeance! It would surely be rough work for me, an uncivilized
+Californian, to travel in Iceland or any other country under such a
+dreadful complication of conveniences.
+
+When all these things were unpacked and scattered over the beds and
+floors of the hotel, nothing could excel the enthusiasm of the whole
+party--including myself, for I really had seen nothing in the course
+of my travels half so amusing. As an old stager in the camping
+business, I was repeatedly appealed to for advice and assistance,
+which of course I gave with the natural politeness belonging to all
+Californians, suggesting many additions. Warming-pans for the sheets,
+pads of eider-down to wear on the saddles, and bathing-tubs to sit in
+after a hard ride, would, I thought, be an improvement; but as such
+things were difficult to be had in Reykjavik, the hope of obtaining
+them was abandoned after some consideration. "In fact," said they, "we
+are merely roughing it, and, by Jove, a fellow must put up with some
+inconveniences in a country like this!"
+
+  [Illustration: ENGLISH PARTY AT REYKJAVIK.]
+
+To carry all these burdens, which, when tied up in packs, occupied an
+extra room, required exactly eighteen horses, inclusive of the riders,
+and to bargain for eighteen horses was no small job. The last I saw of
+the Englishmen they were standing in the street surrounded by a
+large portion of the population of Reykjavik, who had every possible
+variety of horses to sell--horses shaggy and horses shaved, horses
+small and horses smaller, into the mouths of which the sagacious
+travelers were intently peering in search of teeth--occasionally
+punching the poor creatures on the ribs, probing their backs, pulling
+them up by the legs, or tickling them under the tail to ascertain if
+they kicked.
+
+At the appointed hour, 6 A.M., Zoega was ready at the door of the
+hotel with his shaggy cavalcade, which surely was the most
+extraordinary spectacle I had ever witnessed. The horned horses of
+Africa would have been commonplace objects in comparison with these
+remarkable animals destined to carry me to the Geysers of Iceland.
+Each one of them looked at me through a stack of mane containing hair
+enough to have stuffed half a dozen chairs; and as for their tails,
+they hung about the poor creatures like huge bunches of wool. Some of
+them were piebald and had white eyes--others had no eyes at all.
+Seeing me look at them rather apprehensively, Zoega remarked,
+
+"Oh, sir, you needn't be afraid. They are perfectly gentle!"
+
+"Don't they bite?" said I.
+
+"Oh no, sir, not at all."
+
+"Nor kick?"
+
+"No, sir, never."
+
+"Nor lie down on the way?"
+
+"No, sir, not at all."
+
+"Answer me one more question, Zoega, and I'm done." [This I said with
+great earnestness.] "Do these horses ever eat cats or porcupines, or
+swallow heavy brooms with crooked handles?"
+
+"Oh no, sir!" answered my guide, with a look of some surprise; "they
+are too well trained for that."
+
+"Then I suppose they subsist on train-oil as well as codfish?"
+
+"Yes, sir, when they can get it. They are very fond of oil."
+
+I thought to myself, No wonder they are so poor and small. Horses
+addicted to the use of oil must expect to be of light construction.
+But it was time to be off.
+
+A cup of excellent coffee and a few biscuit were amply sufficient to
+prepare me for the journey. Our pack-horse carried two boxes and a
+small tent--all we required. Before starting Zoega performed the
+Icelandic ceremony of tying the horses in a row, each one's head to
+the tail of the horse in front. This, he said, was the general
+practice. If it were not done they would scatter outside of town, and
+it would probably take two hours to catch them again. I had some fear
+that if one of the number should tumble over a precipice he would
+carry several of his comrades with him, or their heads and tails.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+THE ROAD TO THINGVALLA.
+
+
+It was a gray, gloomy morning when we sallied forth from the silent
+streets of Reykjavik. A chilly fog covered the country, and little
+more was to be seen than the jagged outline of the lava-hills, and the
+boggy sinks and morasses on either side of the trail. The weird,
+fire-blasted, and flood-scourged wilderness on all sides was as silent
+as death, save when we approached some dark lagoon, and startled up
+the flocks of water-fowl that dwelt in its sedgy borders. Then the air
+was pierced with wild screams and strange cries, and the rocks
+resounded to the flapping of many wings. To me there was a peculiar
+charm in all this. It was different from any thing I had recently
+experienced. The roughness of the trail, the absence of cultivated
+fields, the entire exemption from the restraints of civilization, were
+perfectly delightful after a dreary residence of nearly a year in
+Germany. Here, at least, there were no passport bureaus, no
+meddlesome police, no conceited and disagreeable habitues of public
+places with fierce dogs running at their heels, no _Verbotener Wegs_
+staring one in the face at every turn. Here all ways possible to be
+traveled were open to the public; here was plenty of fresh air and no
+lack of elbow-room; here an unsophisticated American could travel
+without being persecuted every ten minutes by applications from
+distinguished officers in livery for six kreutzers; here an honest
+Californian could chew tobacco when he felt disposed, and relieve his
+mind by an occasional oath when he considered it essential to a
+vigorous expression of his thoughts.
+
+It seemed very strange to be traveling in Iceland, actually plodding
+my way over deserts of lava, and breathing blasts of air fresh from
+the summit of Mount Hecla! I was at last in the land of the Sagas--the
+land of fire, and brimstone, and boiling fountains!--the land which,
+as a child, I had been accustomed to look upon as the _ultima Thule_,
+where men, and fish, and fire, and water were pitted against each
+other in everlasting strife. How often had the fascinating vision of
+Icelandic travel crossed my mind; and how often had I dismissed it
+with a sigh as too much happiness to hope for in this world! And now
+it was all realized. Was I any the happier? Was it what I expected?
+Well, we won't probe these questions too far. It was a very strange
+reality, at all events.
+
+For the first eight miles the weather was thick and rainy; after that
+the sun began to dissipate the gloom, and we had a very pleasant
+journey. Though a little chilly in consequence of the moisture, the
+air was not really cold. As well as I could judge, the thermometer
+ranged about 54 deg. Fahrenheit. It frequently rises to 76 deg. at
+Thingvalla during the months of July and August; and at the Geysers,
+and in some of the adjacent valleys, the heat is said to be quite
+oppressive.
+
+  [Illustration: A ROUGH ROAD.]
+
+Notwithstanding the roughness of the trail, which in many places
+passed for miles over rugged fields of lava, full of sharp, jagged
+points and dangerous fissures, we traveled with considerable speed,
+seldom slackening from a lope. Zoega untied the horses from each
+other's tails soon after passing the road to Hafuarfiord, as there was
+no farther danger of their separating, and then, with many flourishes
+of his whip and strange cries, well understood by our animals, led the
+way. I must confess that, in spite of some pretty hard experience of
+bad roads in the coast range of California, there were times during
+our mad career over the lava-beds when visions of maimed limbs and a
+mutilated head crossed my mind. Should my horse stumble on a stray
+spike of lava, what possible chance of escape would there be? Falling
+head foremost on harrows and rakes would be fun to a fall here, where
+all the instruments capable of human destruction, from razors, saws,
+and meat-axes down to spike-nails and punches, were duly represented.
+
+In the course of our journey we frequently overtook pack-trains laden
+with dried fish from the sea-shore. The main dependence of the people
+throughout the country, during the winter, is upon the fish caught
+during the summer. When dried it is done up in packs and fastened on
+each side of the horse, something in the Mexican style; and each train
+is attended by three or four men, and sometimes by women. About the
+month of June the farmers and shepherds go down to Reykjavik, or some
+other convenient fishing-station on the sea-shore, and lay in their
+supplies of fish and groceries, which they purchase from the traders
+by exchanges of wool, butter, and other domestic products. After a few
+days of novelty and excitement they go back to their quiet homes,
+where they live in an almost dormant state until the next season,
+rarely receiving any news from the great outer world, or troubling
+their heads about the affairs which concern the rest of mankind. Those
+whom we met had in all probability not seen a stranger for a year.
+They are an honest, primitive people, decently but very coarsely clad
+in rough woolen garments manufactured by themselves, and shaped much
+in the European style. On their feet they wear moccasins made of
+sheepskin. Whenever we met these pack-trains in any convenient place,
+the drivers stopped to have a talk with Zoega, often riding back a
+mile or two to enjoy the novelty of his conversation. Being fresh from
+the capital, he naturally abounded in stirring news about the price of
+codfish, and the value of lard and butter, wool, stockings, mittens,
+etc., and such other articles of traffic as they felt interested in.
+He could also give them the latest intelligence by the steamer, which
+always astonished them, no matter whether it concerned the throwing
+overboard of three ponies on the last voyage, or the possible
+resumption of operations on the Icelandic telegraph. In every way
+Zoega was kind and obliging, and, being well known every where, was
+highly appreciated as a man possessed of a remarkable fund of
+information. At parting they generally stopped to kiss hands and take
+a pinch of snuff.
+
+The first time I witnessed the favorite ceremony of snuff-taking I was
+at a loss to understand what it meant. A man with a small horn flask,
+which it was reasonable to suppose was filled with powder and only
+used for loading guns or pistols, drew the plug from it, and, stopping
+quite still in the middle of the road, threw his head back and applied
+the tube to his nose. Surely the fellow was not trying to blow his
+brains out with the powder-flask! Two or three times he repeated this
+strange proceeding, snorting all the time as if in the agonies of
+suffocation. The gravity of his countenance was extraordinary. I could
+not believe my eyes.
+
+"What an absurd way of committing suicide!" I remarked to Zoega.
+
+"Oh, sir, he is only taking snuff!" was the reply.
+
+"But if he stops up both nostrils, how is he going to breathe?" was my
+natural inquiry.
+
+  [Illustration: TAKING SNUFF.]
+
+Zoega kindly explained that, when the man's nose was full he would
+naturally open his mouth, and as the snuff was very fine and strong
+it would eventually cause him to sneeze. In this way it was quite
+practicable to blow out the load.
+
+"But don't they ever hang fire and burst their heads?" I asked, with
+some concern.
+
+"Why no, sir, I've never heard of a case," answered Zoega, in his
+usual grave manner; "in this country every body takes snuff, but I
+never knew it to burst any body's head."
+
+It was really refreshing the matter-of-fact manner in which my guide
+regarded all the affairs of life. He took every thing in a literal
+sense, and was of so obliging a disposition that he would spend hours
+in the vain endeavor to satisfy my curiosity on any doubtful point.
+
+"Why, Zoega," said I, "this is a monstrous practice. I never saw any
+thing like it. Are you quite sure that fellow won't kick when he tries
+to blow his nose?"
+
+"Yes, sir, they never kick."
+
+"Tell me, Zoega, are their breeches strong?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir."
+
+"That's lucky." I was thinking of an accident that once occurred to a
+young man of my acquaintance. Owing to a defect in the breech of his
+gun, the whole load entered his head and killed him instantaneously.
+
+The gravity of these good people in their forms of politeness is one
+of the most striking features in their social intercourse. The
+commonest peasant takes off his cap to another when they meet, and
+shaking hands and snuff-taking are conducted on the most ceremonious
+principles. They do not, however, wholly confine themselves to
+stimulants for the nose. As soon as they get down to Reykjavik and
+finish their business, they are very apt to indulge in what we call in
+California "a bender;" that is to say, they drink a little too much
+whisky, and hang around the stores and streets for a day or two in a
+state of intoxication. At other times their habits are temperate, and
+they pass the greater part of their lives among their flocks, free
+from excitement, and as happy as people can be with such limited means
+of comfort. The uniformity of their lives would of course be painful
+to a people possessed of more energy and a higher order of
+intelligence; but the Icelanders are well satisfied if they can keep
+warm during the dreary winters, and obtain their usual supplies during
+the summer. Sometimes a plague sets in among their sheep and reduces
+them to great distress. Fire, pestilence, and famine have from time to
+time devastated the island. Still, where their wants are so few, they
+can bear with great patience the calamities inflicted upon them by an
+all-wise Providence. Owing perhaps to their isolated mode of life,
+they are a grave and pious people, simple in their manners,
+superstitious, and credulous. They attend church regularly, and are
+much devoted to religious books and evening prayers. No family goes to
+bed without joining in thanksgiving for all the benefits conferred
+upon them during the day. Living as they do amid the grandest
+phenomena of nature, and tinctured with the wild traditions of the old
+Norsemen, it is not surprising that they should implicitly believe in
+wandering spirits of fire and flood, and clothe the desolate wastes of
+lava with a poetic imagery peculiarly their own. Every rock, and
+river, and bog is invested with a legend or story, to the truth of
+which they can bear personal witness. Here a ghost was overtaken by
+the light of the moon and turned to stone; there voices were heard
+crying for help, and because no help came a farmer's house was burned
+the next day; here a certain man saw a wild woman, with long hair, who
+lived in a cave, and never came out to seek for food save in the midst
+of a storm, when she was seen chasing the birds; there a great many
+sheep disappeared one night, and it was thought they were killed and
+devoured by a prodigious animal with two heads--and so on, without
+end. Nothing is too marvelous for their credulity. One of my most
+pleasant experiences was to talk with these good people, through the
+aid of my guide, and hear them tell of the wonderful sights they had
+seen with their own eyes. Nor do I believe that they had the remotest
+intention of stretching the truth. Doubtless they imagined the reality
+of whatever they said. It was very strange to one who had lived so
+long among a sharp and rather incredulous race of men to hear
+full-grown people talk with the simplicity of little children.
+
+About half way on our journey toward Thingvalla it was necessary to
+cross a bog, which is never a very agreeable undertaking in Iceland,
+especially after heavy rains. This was not the worst specimen of its
+kind, though; we afterward passed through others that would be
+difficult to improve upon without entirely removing the bottom. A
+considerable portion of Iceland is intersected by these treacherous
+stretches of land and water, through which the traveler must make his
+way or relinquish his journey. Often it becomes a much more difficult
+matter to find the way out than to get in. Along the sea-coast, to the
+southward and eastward, some of these vast bogs are quite impassable
+without the assistance of a guide thoroughly acquainted with every
+spot capable of bearing a horse. On the route to the Geysers we
+generally contrived to avoid the worst places by making a detour
+around the edges of the hills, but this is not always practicable. In
+many places the hills themselves abound in boggy ground.
+
+The formation of the Icelandic bog is peculiar. I have seen something
+similar on the Pacific coast near Cape Mendocino, but by no means so
+extensive and well-defined. In Iceland it consists of innumerable
+tufts of earth from two to three feet high, interwoven with vegetable
+fibres which render them elastic when pressed by the foot. These tufts
+stand out in relief from the main ground at intervals of a few feet
+from each other, and frequently cover a large extent of country. The
+tops are covered with grass of a very fine texture, furnishing a good
+pasture for sheep and other stock. So regular and apparently
+artificial is the appearance of these grassy tufts, that I was at
+first inclined to think they must be the remains of cultivated
+fields--probably potato-hills, or places where corn had grown in
+former times. Nor was it altogether unreasonable to suppose that
+groves of wood might once have covered these singular patches of
+country, and that they had been uprooted and destroyed by some of
+those violent convulsions of nature which from time to time have
+devastated the island. Dr. Dasent produces ample testimony to show
+that, in old times, not only corn grew in Iceland, but wood
+sufficiently large to be used in building vessels. Now it is with
+great difficulty that a few potatoes can be raised in some of the
+warmest spots, and there is not a single tree to be found on the
+entire island. The largest bushes I saw were only six or eight feet
+high.
+
+A singular fact connected with the bog-formation is that it is often
+found in dry places--on the slopes of mountains, for example, in
+certain localities where the water never settles and where the ground
+is perpetually dry. I was greatly puzzled by this, and was scarcely
+satisfied by the explanation given by Zoega, my guide, who said it was
+caused by the action of the frost. In proof of the fact that they are
+not of artificial formation, and that the process by which they are
+developed is always going on, he stated that in many places where they
+had been leveled down for sheep-corrals or some such purpose, a
+similar formation of tufted hillocks had grown up in the course of a
+few years.
+
+I was continually troubled by the circuits made by Zoega to avoid
+certain tracts of this kind which to me did not look at all
+impracticable. Once I thought it would be a good joke to show him that
+a Californian could find his way through the strange country even
+better than a native; and watching a chance when he was not on the
+look-out--for I suspected what his objection would be--I suddenly
+turned my horse toward the bog, and urged him to take the short cut.
+It was such a capital idea, that of beating my own guide about two
+miles in a journey of little more than half a mile! But, strange to
+say, the horse was of Zoega's opinion respecting roads through
+Iceland. He would not budge into the bog till I inflicted some rather
+strong arguments upon him, and then he went in with great reluctance.
+Before we had proceeded a dozen yards he sank up to his belly in the
+mire, and left me perched up on two matted tufts about four feet
+apart. Any disinterested spectator would have supposed at once that I
+was attempting to favor my guide with a representation of the colossal
+statue at Rhodes, or the Natural Bridge in Virginia. Zoega, however,
+was too warmly interested in my behalf to take it in this way. As soon
+as he missed me he turned about, and, perceiving my critical position,
+shouted at the top of his voice,
+
+"Sir, you can't go that way!"
+
+  [Illustration: AN ICELANDIC BOG.]
+
+"No," said I, in rather a desponding tone, "I see I can't."
+
+"Don't try it, sir!" cried Zoega; "you'll certainly sink if you do!"
+
+"I'll promise you that, Zoega," I answered, looking gloomily toward
+the dry land, toward which my horse was now headed, plunging
+frantically in a labyrinth of tufts, his head just above the ground.
+
+"Sir, it's very dangerous!" shouted Zoega.
+
+"Any sharks in it?" I asked.
+
+"No, sir; but I don't see your horse!"
+
+"Neither do I, Zoega. Just sing out when he blows!"
+
+But the honest Icelander saw a better method than that, which was to
+dismount from his own horse, and jump from tuft to tuft until he got
+hold of my bridle. With it of course came the poor animal, which by
+hard pulling my trusty guide soon succeeded in getting on dry land.
+Meantime I discovered a way of getting out myself by a complicated
+system of jumps, and presently we all stood in a group, Zoega scraping
+the mud off the sides of my trembling steed, while I ventured to
+remark that it was "a little boggy in that direction."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Zoega; "that was the reason I was going round."
+
+And a very sensible reason it was too, as I now cheerfully admitted.
+After a medicinal pull at the brandy we once more proceeded on our
+way.
+
+I mentioned the fact that there are dry bog-formations on the sides of
+some of the hills. It should also be noted that the wet bogs are not
+always in the lowest places. Frequently they are found on elevated
+grounds, and even high up in the mountains. Approaching a region of
+this kind, when the tufts are nearly on a level with the eye, the
+effect is very peculiar. It looks as if an army of grim old Norsemen,
+on their march through the wilderness, had suddenly sunk to their
+necks in the treacherous earth, and still stood in that position with
+their shaggy heads bared to the tempests. Often the traveler detects
+something like features, and it would not be at all difficult, of a
+moonlight night, to mistake them for ghostly warriors struggling to
+get out on dry land. Indeed, the simple-minded peasants, with their
+accustomed fertility of imagination, have invested them with life, and
+relate many wonderful stories about their pranks of dark and stormy
+nights, when it is said they are seen plunging about in the water.
+Hoarse cries are heard through the gusts of the tempest; and solitary
+travelers on their journey retreat in dismay, lest they should be
+dragged into the treacherous abode of these ghostly old Norsemen.
+
+Not long after our unpleasant adventure we ascended an eminence or
+dividing ridge of lava, from which we had a fine view of the Lake of
+Thingvalla. Descending by a series of narrow defiles, we reached a
+sandy canyon winding for several miles nearly parallel with the shores
+of the lake. The sides of the hills now began to exhibit a scanty
+vegetation, and sometimes we crossed a moist patch of pasture covered
+with a fine grass of most brilliant and beautiful green. A few huts,
+with sod walls or fences around the arable patches in the vicinity,
+were to be seen from time to time, but in general the country was very
+thinly populated. Flocks of sheep, and occasionally a few horses,
+grazed on the hill-sides.
+
+The great trouble of our lives in the neighborhood of these
+settlements was a little dog belonging to my guide. Brusa was his
+name, and the management of our loose horses was his legitimate
+occupation. A bright, lively, officious little fellow was Brusa, very
+much like a wolf in appearance, and not unlike a human being in
+certain traits of his character. Montaigne says that great fault was
+found with him, when he was mayor of his native town, because he was
+always satisfied to let things go along smoothly; and though the
+citizens admitted that they had never been so free from trouble, they
+could not see the use of a mayor who never issued any ordinances or
+created any public commotion. Our little dog was of precisely the
+same way of thinking. He could see no use in holding office in our
+train without doing something, whether necessary or not. So, when the
+horses were going along all right, he felt it incumbent upon him to
+give chase to the sheep. Stealing away quietly, so that Zoega might
+not see him at the start, he would suddenly dart off after the poor
+animals, with his shaggy hair all erect, and never stop barking,
+snapping, and biting their legs till they were scattered over miles of
+territory. He was particularly severe upon the cowardly ewes and
+lambs, actually driving them frantic with terror; but the old rams
+that stood to make fight he always passed with quiet disdain. It was
+in vain Zoega would hold up, and utter the most fearful cries and
+threats of punishment: "Hur-r-r-r! Brusa! B-r-r-r-usa!! you
+B-r-r-usa!!!" Never a bit could Brusa be stopped once he got fairly
+under way. Up hill, and down hill, and over the wild gorges he would
+fly till entirely out of sight. In about half an hour he generally
+joined the train again, looking, to say the least of it, very
+sheepish. I have already spoken of the gravity and dignity of Zoega's
+manner. On occasions of this kind it assumed a parental severity truly
+impressive. Slowly dismounting from his horse, as if a great duty
+devolved upon him, he would unlock one of the boxes on the pack-horse,
+take therefrom a piece of bread, deliberately grease the same with
+butter, and then holding it forth, more in sorrow than in anger,
+invite Brusa to refresh himself after his fatiguing chase of the
+sheep. The struggle between a guilty conscience and a sharp appetite
+would now become painfully perceptible on the countenance of Brusa as
+well as in the relaxation of his tail. As he approached the tempting
+morsel nothing could be more abject than his manner--stealing furtive
+glances at the eyes of his master, and trying to conciliate him by
+wagging the downcast tail between his legs. Alas, poor Brusa! I
+suspected it from the beginning. What do you think of yourself now?
+Grabbed by the back of the neck in the powerful hands of Geir Zoega!
+Not a particle of use for you to whine, and yelp, and try to beg off.
+You have been a very bad fellow, and must suffer the consequences.
+With dreadful deliberation Zoega draws forth his whip, which has been
+carefully hidden in the folds of his coat all this time, and, holding
+the victim of his displeasure in mid-air, thus, as I take it,
+apostrophizes him in his native language: "O Brusa! have I not fed
+thee and cherished thee with parental care? (Whack! yelp! and whack
+again.) Have I not been to thee tender and true? (Whack! whack!
+accompanied by heart-rending yelps and cries.) And this is thy
+ingratitude! This is thy return for all my kindness! O how sharper
+than a serpent's tooth is the sting of ingratitude! (Whack.) I warned
+thee about those sheep--those harmless and tender little lambs! I
+begged thee with tears in my eyes not to run after them; but thou wert
+stubborn in thine iniquity; and now what can I do but--(whack)--but
+punish thee according to my promise? Wilt thou ever do it again? O
+say, Brusa, will thou ever again be guilty of this disreputable
+conduct? (A melancholy howl.) It pains me to do it (whack), but it is
+(whack) for thine own good! Now hear and repent, and henceforth let
+thy ways be the ways of the virtuous and the just!" It was absolutely
+delightful to witness the joy of Brusa when the whipping was over.
+Without one word of comment Zoega would throw him the bread, and then
+gravely mount his horse and ride on. For hours after the victim of his
+displeasure would run, and jump, and bark, and caper with excess of
+delight. I really thought it was a kindness to whip him, he enjoyed it
+so much afterward.
+
+  [Illustration: GEIR ZOEGA AND BRUSA.]
+
+Whenever our loose horses got off the trail or lagged behind, the
+services of our dog were invaluable. Zoega had a particular way of
+directing his attention to the errant animal. "Hur-r-r-r!--(a roll of
+the tongue)--Hur-r-r-r Brusa!" and off Brusa would dash, his hair on
+end with rage, till within a few feet of the horse, when he would
+commence a series of terrific demonstrations, barking and snapping at
+the heels of the vagrant. Backing of ears to frighten him, or kicks at
+his head, had no terrors for him; he was altogether too sagacious to
+be caught within reach of dangerous weapons.
+
+I know of nothing to equal the sagacity of these Icelandic dogs save
+that of the sheep-dogs of France and Germany. They are often sent out
+in the pastures to gather up the horses, and will remain by them and
+keep them within bounds for days at a time. They are also much used in
+the management of sheep. Unlike the regular shepherd-dog of Europe,
+however, they are sometimes thievish and treacherous, owing to their
+wolfish origin. I do not think we could have made ten miles a day
+without Brusa. In the driving of pack-trains a good dog is
+indispensable. I always gave the poor fellow something to eat when we
+stopped in consideration of his services.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+THE ALMANNAJAU.
+
+
+We rode for some time along an elevated plateau of very barren aspect
+till something like a break in the outline became visible a few
+hundred yards ahead. I had a kind of feeling that we were approaching
+a crisis in our journey, but said nothing. Neither did Zoega, for he
+was not a man to waste words. He always answered my questions
+politely, but seldom volunteered a remark. Presently we entered a
+great gap between two enormous cliffs of lava.
+
+"What's this, Zoega?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, this is the Almannajau."
+
+"What! the great Almannajau, where the Icelandic Parliament used to
+camp!"
+
+"Yes, sir; you see the exact spot down there below."
+
+And, in good truth, there it was, some hundreds of feet below, in a
+beautiful little green valley that lay at the bottom of the gap. Never
+had my eyes witnessed so strange and wild a sight. A great fissure in
+the earth nearly a hundred feet deep, walled up with prodigious
+fragments of lava, dark and perpendicular, the bases strewn with
+molten masses, scattered about in the strangest disorder; a valley of
+the brightest green, over a hundred feet wide, stretching like a river
+between the fire-blasted cliffs; the trail winding through it in
+snake-like undulation--all now silent as death under the grim leaden
+sky, yet eloquent of terrible convulsions in by-gone centuries and of
+the voices of men long since mingled with the dust. Upon entering the
+gorge between the shattered walls of lava on either side, the trail
+makes a rapid descent of a few hundred yards till it strikes into the
+valley. I waited till my guide had descended with the horses, and then
+took a position a little below the entrance, so as to command a view
+out through the gorge and up the entire range of the Almannajau.
+
+  [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE ALMANNAJAU.]
+
+The appended sketch, imperfect as it is, will convey some idea of
+the scene; yet to comprise within the brief compass of a sheet of
+paper the varied wonders of this terrible gap, the wild disorder of
+the fragments cast loose over the earth, the utter desolation of the
+whole place would be simply impossible. No artist has ever yet done
+justice to the scene, and certainly no mere amateur can hope to attain
+better success.
+
+  [Illustration: THE ALMANNAJAU.]
+
+Looking up the range of the fissure, it resembles an immense walled
+alley, high on one side, and low, broken, and irregular on the other.
+The main or left side forms a fearful precipice of more than eighty
+feet, and runs in a direct line toward the mountains, a distance of
+four or five miles. On the right, toward the plain of Thingvalla, the
+inferior side forms nearly a parallel line of rifted and irregular
+masses of lava, perpendicular in front and receding behind. The
+greater wall presents a dark, rugged face, composed of immense pillars
+and blocks of lava, defined by horizontal and vertical fissures,
+strangely irregular in detail, but showing a dark, compact, and solid
+front. In places it is not unlike a vast library of books, shaken into
+the wildest confusion by some resistless power. Whole ranges of
+ink-colored blocks are wrenched from their places, and scattered about
+between the ledges. Well may they represent the law-books of the old
+Icelandic Sagas and judges, who held their councils near this fearful
+gorge! Corresponding in face, but less regular and of inferior height,
+is the opposite wall. In its molten state the whole once formed a
+burning flood, of such vast extent and depth that it is estimated by
+geologists nearly half a century must have elapsed before it became
+cool. The bottom of this tremendous crack in the sea of lava is almost
+a dead level, and forms a valley of about a hundred feet in width,
+which extends, with occasional breaks and irregularities, entirely up
+to the base of the mountain. This valley is for the most part covered
+with a beautiful carpeting of fine green grass, but is sometimes
+diversified by fragments of lava shivered off and cast down from the
+walls on either side.
+
+The gorge by which we entered must have been impracticable for horses
+in its original state. Huge masses of lava, which doubtless once
+jammed up the way, must have been hurled over into the gaping fissures
+at each side, and something like a road-way cleared out from the chaos
+of ruin. Pavements and side-stones are still visible, where it is more
+than probable the old Icelanders did many a hard day's work. Eight or
+nine centuries have not yet obliterated the traces of the hammer and
+chisel; and there were stones cast a little on one side that still
+bear the marks of horses' hoofs--the very horses in all probability
+ridden by old Sagas and lawgivers. Through this wild gorge they made
+their way into the sheltered solitudes of the Almannajau, where they
+pitched their tents and held their feasts previous to their councils
+on the Logberg. Here passed the members of the Althing; here the
+victims of the Logberg never repassed again.
+
+  [Illustration: SKELETON VIEW OF THE ALMANNAJAU.]
+
+There are various theories concerning the original formation of this
+wonderful fissure. It is supposed by some that the flood of lava by
+which Thingvalla was desolated in times of which history presents no
+record must have cooled irregularly, owing to the variation of
+thickness in different parts of the valley; that at this point, where
+its depth was great, the contracting mass separated, and the inferior
+portion gradually settled downward toward the point of greatest
+depression.
+
+Others, again, hold the theory that there was a liquid drain of the
+molten lava underneath toward the lake, by means of which a great
+subterranean cavity was formed as far back as the mountain; that the
+crust on top, being of insufficient strength to bear its own great
+weight, must have fallen in as the whole mass cooled, and thus created
+this vast crack in the earth.
+
+  [Illustration: OUTLINE VIEW OF THINGVALLA.]
+
+I incline to the first of these theories myself, as the most
+conformable to the contractile laws of heat. There is also something
+like practical evidence to sustain it. A careful examination of the
+elevations and depressions on each wall of the gap satisfied me that
+they bear at least a very striking analogy. Points on one side are
+frequently represented by hollows on the other, and even complicated
+figures occasionally find a counterpart, the configuration being
+always relatively convex or concave. This would seem to indicate very
+clearly that the mass had been forcibly rent asunder, either by the
+contractile process of heat, or a convulsion of the earth. The most
+difficult point to determine is why the bottom should be so flat and
+regular, and what kept the great mass on each side so far intact as to
+form one clearly-defined fissure a hundred feet wide and nearly five
+miles in length? This, however, is not for an unlearned tourist like
+myself to go into very deeply.
+
+How many centuries have passed away since all this happened the first
+man who "gazed through the rent of ruin" has failed to leave on
+record--if he ever knew it. The great walls of the fissure stood grim
+and black before the old Icelandic Sagas, just as they now stand
+before the astonished eyes of the tourist. History records no material
+change in its aspect. It may be older than the Pyramids of Egypt; yet
+it looks as if the eruption by which it was caused might have happened
+within a lifetime, so little is there to indicate the progress of
+ages. I could not but experience the strangest sensations in being
+carried so far back toward the beginning of the world.
+
+At the distance of about a mile up the "Jau" a river tumbles over the
+upper wall of lava, and rushes down the main fissure for a few hundred
+yards, when it suddenly diverges and breaks through a gap in the
+inferior wall, and comes down the valley on the outside toward the
+lake.
+
+During my stay at Thingvalla I walked up to this part of the
+Almannajau, and made a rough sketch of the waterfall.
+
+From the point of rocks upon which I stood the effect was peculiar.
+The course of the river, which lies behind the Jau, on the opposite
+side, is entirely hidden by the great wall in front, and nothing of it
+is visible till the whole river bursts over the dark precipice, and
+tumbles, foaming and roaring, into the tremendous depths below, where
+it dashes down wildly among the shattered fragments of lava till it
+reaches the outlet into the main valley. A mist rises up from the
+falling water, and whirls around the base of the cataract in clouds,
+forming in the rays of the sun a series of beautiful rainbows. The
+grim, jagged rocks, blackened and rifted with fire, make a strange
+contrast with the delicate prismatic colors of the rainbows, and their
+sharp and rugged outline with the soft, ever-changing clouds of spray.
+
+  [Illustration: FALL OF THE ALMANNAJAU.]
+
+The flocks of the good pastor of Thingvalla were quietly browsing
+among the rugged declivities where I stood. Here were violence and
+peace in striking contrast; the tremendous concussion of the falling
+water; the fearful marks of convulsion on the one hand, and on the
+other
+
+    "The gentle flocks that play upon the green."
+
+As I put away my imperfect sketch, and sauntered back toward the
+hospitable cabin of the pastor, a figure emerged from the rocks, and I
+stood face to face with an Icelandic shepherdess.
+
+  [Illustration: ICELANDIC SHEPHERD-GIRL.]
+
+Well, it is no use to grow poetical over this matter. To be sure, we
+were alone in a great wilderness, and she was very pretty, and looked
+uncommonly coquettish with her tasseled cap, neat blue bodice, and
+short petticoats, to say nothing of a well-turned pair of ankles; but
+then, you see, I couldn't speak a word of Icelandic, and if I could,
+what had I, a responsible man, to say to a pretty young shepherdess?
+At most I could only tell her she was extremely captivating, and
+looked for all the world like a flower in the desert, born to blush
+unseen, etc. As she skipped shyly away from me over the rocks I was
+struck with admiration at the graceful sprightliness of her movements,
+and wondered why so much beauty should be wasted upon silly sheep,
+when the world is so full of stout, brave young fellows who would fall
+dead in love with her at the first sight. But I had better drop the
+subject. There is a young man of my acquaintance already gone up to
+Norway to look for the post-girl that drove me over the road to
+Trondhjem, and at least two of my friends are now on the way to
+Hamburg for the express purpose of witnessing the gyrations of the
+celebrated wheeling girls. All I hope is, that when they meet with
+those enterprising damsels they will follow my example, and behave
+with honor and discretion.
+
+Standing upon an eminence overlooking the valley, I was struck with
+wonder at the vast field of lava outspread before me. Here is an area
+at least eight miles square, all covered with a stony crust, varying
+from fifty to a hundred feet in thickness, rent into gaping fissures
+and tossed about in tremendous fragments; once a burning flood,
+covering the earth with ruin and desolation wherever it flowed; now a
+cold, weird desert, whose gloomy monotony is only relieved by stunted
+patches of brushwood and dark pools of water--all wrapped in a
+death-like silence. Where could this terrible flood have come from?
+The mountains in the distance look so peaceful in their snowy robes,
+so incapable of the rage from which all this desolation must have
+sprung, that I could scarcely reconcile such terrible results with an
+origin so apparently inadequate.
+
+I questioned Zoega on this point, but not with much success. How was
+it possible, I asked, that millions and billions of tons of lava could
+be vomited forth from the crater of any mountain within sight? Here
+was a solid bed of lava spread over the valley, and many miles beyond,
+which, if piled up, shrunken and dried as it was, would of itself make
+a mountain larger than the Skjaldbraid Jokul, from which it is
+supposed to have been ejected.
+
+"Now, Zoega," said I, "how do you make it out that this came from the
+Skjaldbraid Jokul?"
+
+"Well, sir, I don't know, but I think it came from the inside of the
+world."
+
+"Why, Zoega, the world is only a shell--a mere egg-shell in Iceland I
+should fancy--filled with fiery gases."
+
+"Is that possible, sir?" cried Zoega, in undisguised astonishment.
+
+"Yes, quite possible--a mere egg-shell!"
+
+"Dear me, I didn't know that! It is a wonderful world, sir."
+
+"Very--especially in Iceland."
+
+"Then, sir, I don't know how this could have happened, unless it was
+done by spirits that live in the ground. Some people say they are
+great monsters, and live on burnt stones."
+
+"Do you believe in spirits, Zoega?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir; and don't you? I've seen them many a time. I once saw a
+spirit nearly as large as the Skjaldbraid. It came up out of the earth
+directly before me where I was traveling, and shook its head as if
+warning me to go back. I was badly frightened, and turned my horse
+around and went back. Then I heard that my best friend was dying. When
+he was dead I married his wife. She's a very good woman, sir, and, if
+you please, I'll get her to make you some coffee when we get back to
+Reykjavik."
+
+So goes the world, thought I, from the Skjaldbraid Jokul to a cup of
+coffee! Why bother our heads about these troublesome questions, which
+can only result in proving us all equally ignorant. The wisest has
+learned nothing save his own ignorance. He "meets with darkness in the
+daytime, and gropes in the noonday as in the night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+THINGVALLA.
+
+
+The extensive valley called Thingvalla, or the Valley of the "Thing,"
+lies at the head of a lake of the same name, some fifteen miles in
+length by six or seven in width. The waters of this lake are
+beautifully clear, and the scenery around it is of the wildest and
+most picturesque character. Rugged mountains rise from its shores in
+various directions, and islands reflect their varied outlines in its
+glassy surface. Cranes, wild ducks, plovers, and occasionally swans,
+abound in the lagoons that open into it from Thingvalla. The bed of
+this fine sheet of water corresponds in its configuration with the
+surrounding country. It is of volcanic formation throughout, and the
+rifts and fissures in the lava can be traced as far as it is
+practicable to see through the water.
+
+On passing out of the Almannajau near the lower fall, where the river
+breaks out into the main valley, the view toward the lake is extensive
+and imposing. Along the course of the river is a succession of
+beautiful little green flats, upon which the horses and cattle of the
+good pastor graze; and farther down, on the left, lies the church and
+farm-house. Still beyond are vast plains of lava, gradually merging
+into the waters of the lake; and in the far distance mountain upon
+mountain, till the view is lost in the snowy Jokuls of the far
+interior.
+
+Descending into this valley we soon crossed the river, which is
+fordable at this season, and in a few minutes entered a lane between
+the low stone walls that surround the station.
+
+  [Illustration: CHURCH AT THINGVALLA.]
+
+The church is of modern construction, and, like all I saw in the
+interior, is made of wood, painted a dark color, and roofed with
+boards covered with sheets of tarred canvas. It is a very primitive
+little affair, only one story high, and not more than fifteen by
+twenty feet in dimensions. From the date on the weather-cock it
+appears to have been built in 1858.
+
+The congregation is supplied by the few sheep-ranches in the
+neighborhood, consisting at most of half a dozen families. These
+unpretending little churches are to be seen in the vicinity of every
+settlement throughout the whole island. Simple and homely as they are,
+they speak well for the pious character of the people.
+
+The pastor of Thingvalla and his family reside in a group of
+sod-covered huts close by the church. These cheerless little hovels
+are really a curiosity, none of them being over ten or fifteen feet
+high, and all huddled together without the slightest regard to
+latitude or longitude, like a parcel of sheep in a storm. Some have
+windows in the roof, and some have chimneys; grass and weeds grow all
+over them, and crooked by-ways and dark alleys run among them and
+through them. At the base they are walled up with big lumps of lava,
+and two of them have board fronts, painted black, while the remainder
+are patched up with turf and rubbish of all sorts, very much in the
+style of a stork's nest. A low stone wall encircles the premises, but
+seems to be of little use as a barrier against the encroachments of
+live-stock, being broken up in gaps every few yards. In front of the
+group some attempt has been made at a pavement, which, however, must
+have been abandoned soon after the work was commenced. It is now
+littered all over with old tubs, pots, dish-cloths, and other articles
+of domestic use.
+
+  [Illustration: THE PASTOR'S HOUSE.]
+
+The interior of this strange abode is even more complicated than one
+would be led to expect from the exterior. Passing through a
+dilapidated doorway in one of the smaller cabins, which you would
+hardly suppose to be the main entrance, you find yourself in a long
+dark passage-way, built of rough stone, and roofed with wooden rafters
+and brushwood covered with sod. The sides are ornamented with pegs
+stuck in the crevices between the stones, upon which hang saddles,
+bridles, horse-shoes, bunches of herbs, dried fish, and various
+articles of cast-off clothing, including old shoes and sheepskins.
+Wide or narrow, straight or crooked, to suit the sinuosities of the
+different cabins into which it forms the entrance, it seems to have
+been originally located upon the track of a blind boa-constrictor,
+though Bishop Hatton denies the existence of snakes in Iceland. The
+best room, or rather house--for every room is a house--is set apart
+for the accommodation of travelers. Another cabin is occupied by some
+members of the pastor's family, who bundle about like a lot of
+rabbits. The kitchen is also the dog-kennel, and occasionally the
+sheep-house. A pile of stones in one corner of it, upon which a few
+twigs or scraps of sheep-manure serve to make the fire, constitute the
+cooking department. The beams overhead are decorated with pots and
+kettles, dried fish, stockings, petticoats, and the remains of a pair
+of boots that probably belonged to the pastor in his younger days. The
+dark turf walls are pleasantly diversified with bags of oil hung on
+pegs, scraps of meat, old bottles and jars, and divers rusty-looking
+instruments for shearing sheep and cleaning their hoofs. The floor
+consists of the original lava-bed, and artificial puddles composed of
+slops and offal of divers unctuous kinds. Smoke fills all the cavities
+in the air not already occupied by foul odors, and the beams, and
+posts, and rickety old bits of furniture are dyed to the core with the
+dense and variegated atmosphere around them. This is a fair specimen
+of the whole establishment, with the exception of the travelers' room.
+The beds in these cabins are the chief articles of luxury. Feathers
+being abundant, they are sewed up in prodigious ticks, which are
+tumbled topsy-turvy into big boxes on legs that serve for bedsteads,
+and then covered over with piles of all the loose blankets,
+petticoats, and cast-off rags possible to be gathered up about the
+premises. Into these comfortable nests the sleepers dive every night,
+and, whether in summer or winter, cover themselves up under the
+odorous mountain of rags, and snooze away till morning. During the
+long winter nights they spend on an average about sixteen hours out of
+the twenty-four in this agreeable manner. When it is borne in mind
+that every crevice in the house is carefully stopped up in order to
+keep out the cold air, and that whole families frequently occupy a
+single apartment not over ten by twelve, the idea of being able to cut
+through the atmosphere with a cleaver seems perfectly preposterous. A
+night's respiration in such a hole is quite sufficient to saturate the
+whole family with the substance of all the fish and sheepskins in the
+vicinity; and the marvel of it is that they don't come out next day
+wagging their fins or bleating like sheep. I wonder they ever have any
+occasion to eat. Absorption must supply them with a large amount of
+nutriment; but I suppose what is gained in that way is lost in the
+fattening of certain other members of the household. Warmth seems to
+be the principal object, and certainly it is no small consideration in
+a country where fuel is so scarce.
+
+I can not conceive of more wretched abodes for human beings. They are,
+indeed, very little better than fox-holes--certainly not much sweeter.
+Yet in such rude habitations as these the priests of Iceland study the
+classical languages, and perfect themselves in the early literature of
+their country. Many of them become learned, and devote much of their
+lives to the pursuits of science. In the northern part of the country
+the houses are said to be better and more capacious; but the example I
+have given is a fair average of what I saw.
+
+The passionate devotion of the Icelanders to their homes is almost
+inconceivable. I have never seen any thing like it. The most favored
+nations of the earth can not furnish examples of such intense and
+all-absorbing love of home and country. I traveled with a native of
+Reykjavik some weeks after my visit to Thingvalla, and had an
+opportunity of judging what his impressions were of other countries.
+He was a very intelligent man, well versed in Icelandic literature,
+and spoke English remarkably well. Both himself and wife were fellow
+passengers on the _Arcturus_ from Reykjavik to Grangemouth. I was
+curious to know what a well-educated man would think of a civilized
+country, and watched him very closely. He had never seen a railway,
+locomotive, or carriage of any kind, not even a tree or a good-sized
+house. We stopped at Leith, where we took passage by the train to
+Edinburg. As soon as the locomotive started he began to laugh
+heartily, and by the time we reached Edinburg he and his wife, though
+naturally grave people, were nearly in convulsions of laughter. I had
+no idea that the emotion of wonder would be manifested in that way by
+civilized beings. Of course I laughed to see them laugh, and
+altogether it was very funny. We took rooms at the same hotel,
+opposite to Sir Walter Scott's monument. Now it is needless to say
+that Edinburg is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Even
+Constantinople can scarcely surpass it in picturesque beauty. The
+worthy Icelander, be it remembered, had never seen even a town, except
+Reykjavik, of which I have already attempted a description. It was
+night when we arrived at Edinburg, so that I had no opportunity of
+judging what his impressions would be at that time. Next morning I
+knocked at his room door. His wife opened it, looking very sad, as I
+thought. At the window, gazing out over the magnificent scene,
+embracing the Monument, the Castle, and many of the finest of the
+public buildings, stood her husband, the big tears coursing down his
+face.
+
+"Well," said I, "what do you think of Edinburg?"
+
+"Oh!" he cried, "oh, I am so home-sick! Oh, my dear, dear native land!
+Oh, my own beautiful Iceland! Oh that I were back in my beloved
+Reykjavik! Oh, I shall die in this desert of houses! Oh that I could
+once more breathe the pure fresh air of my own dear, dear island
+home!"
+
+Such were literally his expressions. Not one word had he to say about
+the beauties of Edinburg! To him it was a hideous nightmare. The fishy
+little huts of Reykjavik, the bleak lava-deserts of the neighborhood,
+and the raw blasts from the Jokuls, were all he could realize of a
+Paradise upon earth. Yet he was a highly-cultivated and intelligent
+man, not destitute of refined tastes. Truly, I thought to myself,
+
+    "The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone
+    Boldly proclaims the happiest spot his own."
+
+While I waited outside the pastor's house, enjoying the oddity of the
+scene, Zoega busied himself unsaddling the horses. I sat down on a
+pile of fagots, and, with some trouble and a little assistance from my
+guide, succeeded in getting off my overalls, which had been thoroughly
+drenched with rain and saturated with mud. The occasional duckings we
+had experienced in crossing the rivers did not add to my comfort. I
+was chilled and wet, and would have given a Danish dollar for the
+privilege of sitting at a fire. All this time there was no sign of
+life about the premises save the barking of an ill-favored little dog
+that was energetically disclaiming any acquaintance with Brusa. I
+regret to say that Brusa lost much of his bravado air in the presence
+of this insignificant cur, but it was quite natural; the cur was at
+home and Brusa wasn't. At first our dog seemed disposed to stand his
+ground, but upon the near approach of the house-dog he dropped his
+tail between his legs and ingloriously sneaked between the legs of the
+horses, which of course gave the gentleman of the house a high opinion
+of his own prowess--so much so, indeed, that the craven spirit of
+Brusa never before appeared in such a despicable light. He cringed and
+howled with terror, which so flattered the vanity of the other that a
+ferocious attack was the immediate consequence. Fortunately, a kick
+from one of the horses laid Brusa's aggressor yelping in the mud, an
+advantage of which Brusa promptly availed himself, and the pastor's
+dog would have fared badly in the issue but for the interference of
+Zoega, who separated the contending parties, and administered a grave
+rebuke to the party of our part respecting the impropriety of his
+conduct.
+
+Though it occurred to me that I had seen the retreating figure of a
+man as we rode up, I was at a loss to understand why nobody appeared
+to ask us in or bid us welcome, and suggested to Zoega that I thought
+this rather an unfriendly reception. Now, upon this point of Icelandic
+hospitality Zoega was peculiarly sensitive. He always maintained that
+the people, though poor, are very hospitable--so much so that they
+made no complaint when a certain Englishman, whose name he could
+mention, stopped with them for days, ate up all their food and drank
+up all their coffee, and then went off without offering them even a
+small present. "No wonder," said Zoega, "this man told a great many
+lies about them, and laughed at them for refusing money, when the
+truth was he never offered them money or any thing else. It was
+certainly a very cheap way of traveling."
+
+"But what about the pastor, Zoega? I'm certain I caught a glimpse of
+him as he darted behind the door."
+
+"Oh, he'll be here directly; he always runs away when strangers come."
+
+"What does he run away for?"
+
+"Why, you see, sir, he is generally a little dirty, and must go wash
+himself and put on some decent clothes."
+
+While we were talking the pastor made his appearance, looking somewhat
+damp about the face and hair, and rather embarrassed about the shape
+of his coat, which was much too large for him, and hung rather low
+about his heels. With an awkward shuffling gait he approached us, and,
+having shaken hands with Zoega, looked askant at me, and said
+something, which my guide interpreted as follows:
+
+"He bids you welcome, sir, and says his house is at your service. It
+is a very poor house, but it is the best he has. He wishes to know if
+you will take some coffee, and asks what part of the world you are
+from. I tell him you are from California, and he says it is a great
+way off, clear down on the other side of the world, and may God's
+blessing be upon you. Walk in, sir."
+
+  [Illustration: THE PASTOR OF THINGVALLA.]
+
+Pleased with these kind words, I stepped up to the good pastor and
+cordially shook him by the hand, at the same time desiring Zoega to
+say that I thanked him very much, and hoped he would make it
+convenient to call and see me some time or other in California, which,
+I regret to add, caused him to look both alarmed and embarrassed. A
+queer, shy man was this pastor--a sort of living mummy, dried up and
+bleached by Icelandic snows. His manner was singularly bashful. There
+was something of the recluse in it--a mixture of shyness, awkwardness,
+and intelligence, as if his life had been spent chiefly among sheep
+and books, which very likely was the case. All the time I was trying
+to say something agreeable he was looking about him as if he desired
+to make his escape into some Icelandic bog, and there hide himself
+during my stay. I followed him through the passage-way already
+mentioned into the travelers' room, where he beckoned me to take a
+seat, and then, awkwardly seating himself on the edge of a chair as
+far away as he could get without backing through the wall, addressed
+me in Danish. Finding me not very proficient in that tongue, he
+branched off into Latin, which he spoke as fluently as if it had been
+his native language. Here again I was at fault. I had gone as far as
+_Quosque tandem_ when a boy, but the vicissitudes of time and travel
+had knocked it all out of my head. I tried him on the German, and
+there, to use a familiar phrase, had the "dead-wood on him." He
+couldn't understand a word of that euphonious language. However, a
+slight knowledge of the Spanish, picked up in Mexico and California,
+enabled me to guess at some of his Latin, and in this way we struggled
+into something of conversation. The effort, however, was too great for
+the timid recluse. After several pauses and lapses into long fits of
+silence, he got up and took his leave. Meantime Zoega was enjoying
+himself by the fire in the kitchen, surrounded by the female members
+of the family, who no doubt were eagerly listening to the latest news
+from Reykjavik. Whenever their voices became audible I strongly
+suspected that the ladies were asking whether the steamer had brought
+any crinoline from Copenhagen.
+
+The pastor's family appeared to be composed entirely of females. Like
+all the Icelandic women I had seen, they do all the work of the
+establishment, attend to the cows, make the cheese, cut the hay, carry
+the heavy burdens, and perform the manual labor generally. This I
+found to be the case at all the farm-houses. Sometimes the men assist,
+but they prefer riding about the country or lying idle about the doors
+of their cabins. At Reykjavik, it is true, there is a population of
+Danish sailors and fishermen, and it would be scarcely fair to form an
+opinion from the lazy and thriftless habits of the people there. But I
+think the civilization of Iceland is very much like that of Germany in
+respect to women. They are not rated very high in the scale of
+humanity. Still, overworked and degraded as they are, the natural
+proclivities of the sex are not altogether obliterated. In former
+times their costume was picturesque and becoming, and some traces of
+the old style are yet to be seen throughout the pastoral districts; a
+close body, a jaunty little cap on the head, with a heavy tassel,
+ornamented with gold or silver bands, silver clasps to their belts,
+and filigree buttons down the front, give them a very pleasing
+appearance. Of late years, however, fashion has begun to assert her
+sway, even in this isolated part of the world, and the native costume
+is gradually becoming modernized.
+
+The pastor having joined the more congenial circle of which Zoega was
+the admired centre, I was left alone in the chilly little room
+allotted to travelers to meditate upon the comforts of Icelandic life.
+It was rather a gloomy condition of affairs to be wet to the skin,
+shivering with cold, and not a soul at hand to sympathize with me in
+my misery. Then the everlasting day--when would it end? Already I had
+been awake and traveling some fourteen hours, and it was as broad
+daylight as ever. Nothing could be more wearying than the everlasting
+daylight that surrounded me--not bright and sunshiny, but dreary and
+lead-colored, showing scarcely any perceptible difference between
+morning, noon, and night.
+
+The coffee soon came to my relief, and the pastor followed it to wish
+me a good appetite and ask if I wanted any thing else. I again renewed
+the attempt at conversation, but it was too much for his nervous
+temperament and shrinking modesty. He always managed, after a few
+words, to slip stealthily away up into the loft or out among the rocks
+to avoid the appearance of intrusion, or the labor of understanding
+what I said, or communicating his ideas--I could not tell which.
+
+  [Illustration: SKELETON VIEW OF THE LOGBERG.]
+
+After a slight repast I walked out to take a look at the Logberg, or
+Rock of Laws, which is situated about half a mile from the church.
+This is, perhaps, of all the objects of historical association in
+Iceland, the most interesting. It was here the judges tried criminals,
+pronounced judgments, and executed their stern decrees. On a small
+plateau of lava, separated from the general mass by a profound abyss
+on every side, save a narrow neck barely wide enough for a foothold,
+the famous "Thing" assembled once a year, and, secured from intrusion
+in their deliberations by the terrible chasm around, passed laws for
+the weal or woe of the people. It was only necessary to guard the
+causeway by which they entered; all other sides were well protected by
+the encircling moat, which varies from thirty to forty feet in width,
+and is half filled with water. The total depth to the bottom, which
+is distinctly visible through the crystal pool, must be sixty or
+seventy feet. Into this yawning abyss the unhappy criminals were cast,
+with stones around their necks, and many a long day did they lie
+beneath the water, a ghastly spectacle for the crowd that peered at
+them over the precipice.
+
+  [Illustration: THINGVALLA, LOGBERG, ALMANNAJAU.]
+
+All was now as silent as the grave. Eight centuries had passed, and
+yet the strange scenes that had taken place here were vividly before
+me. I could imagine the gathering crowds, the rising hum of voices;
+the pause, the shriek, and plunge; the low murmur of horror, and then
+the stern warning of the lawgivers and the gradual dispersing of the
+multitude.
+
+The dimensions of the plateau are four or five hundred feet in length
+by an average of sixty or eighty in width. A diagram, taken from an
+elevated point beyond, will give some idea of its form. The surface is
+now covered with a fine coating of sod and grass, and furnishes good
+pasturage for the sheep belonging to the pastor.
+
+  [Illustration: DIAGRAM OF THE LOGBERG.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+THE ROAD TO THE GEYSERS.
+
+
+It was ten o'clock at night when I reached the parsonage. In addition
+to my rough ride from Reykjavik, and the various trying adventures on
+the way, I had walked over nearly the whole range of the Almannajau,
+sketched the principal points of interest, visited the Logberg, and
+made some sketches and diagrams of that, besides accomplishing a
+considerable amount of work about the premises of the good pastor, all
+of which is now submitted to the kind indulgence of the reader. Surely
+if there is a country upon earth abounding in obstacles to the pursuit
+of the fine arts, it is Iceland. The climate is the most variable in
+existence--warm and cold, wet and dry by turns, seldom the same thing
+for half a day. Such, at least, was my experience in June. Wild and
+desolate scenery there is in abundance, and no lack of interesting
+objects any where for the pencil of an artist; but it is difficult to
+conceive the amount of physical discomfort that must be endured by one
+who faithfully adheres to his purpose. Only think of sitting down on a
+jagged piece of lava, wet to the skin and shivering with cold; a raw,
+drizzling rain running down your back and dropping from the brim of
+your hat, making rivers on your paper where none are intended to be;
+hints of rheumatism shooting through your bones, and visions of a
+solitary grave in the wilderness crossing your mind; then, of a
+sudden, a wind that scatters your papers far and wide, and sends your
+only hat whirling into an abyss from which it is doubtful whether you
+will ever recover it--think of these, ye summer tourists who wander,
+sketch-book in hand, through the "warbling woodland" and along "the
+resounding shore," and talk about being enterprising followers of the
+fine arts! Try it in Iceland a while, and see how long your
+inspiration will last! Take my word for it, unless you be terribly in
+earnest, you will postpone your labors till the next day, and then the
+next, and so on to the day that never comes.
+
+Not the least of my troubles was the difficulty of getting a good
+night's rest after the fatiguing adventures of the day. There was no
+fault to be found with the bed, save that it was made for somebody who
+had never attained the average growth of an American; and one might do
+without a night-cap, but how in the world could any body be expected
+to sleep when there was no night? At twelve o'clock, when it ought to
+be midnight and the ghosts stirring about, I looked out, and it was
+broad day; at half past one I looked out again, and the sun was
+shining; at two I got up and tried to read some of the pastor's books,
+which were written in Icelandic, and therefore not very entertaining;
+at three I went to work and finished some of my sketches; and at four
+I gave up all farther hope of sleeping, and sallied forth to take
+another look at the Almannajau.
+
+  [Illustration: AN ARTIST AT HOME.]
+
+On my return Zoega was saddling up the horses. A cup of coffee and a
+dry biscuit put me in traveling order, and we were soon on our way up
+the valley.
+
+For the first few miles we followed the range of the "Jau," from which
+we then diverged across the great lava-beds of Thingvalla. It was not
+long before we struck into a region of such blasted and barren aspect
+that the imagination was bewildered with the dreary desolation of the
+scene. The whole country, as far as the eye could reach, was torn up
+and rent to pieces. Great masses of lava seemed to have been wrested
+forcibly from the original bed, and hurled at random over the face of
+the country. Prodigious fissures opened on every side, and for miles
+the trail wound through a maze of sharp points and brittle crusts of
+lava, with no indication of the course save at occasional intervals a
+pile of stones on some prominent point, erected by the peasants as a
+way-mark for travelers. Sometimes our hardy little horses climbed like
+goats up the rugged sides of a slope, where it seemed utterly
+impossible to find a foothold, so tortured and chaotic was the face of
+the earth; and not unfrequently we became involved in a labyrinth of
+fearful sinks, where the upper stratum had given way and fallen into
+the yawning depths below. Between these terrible traps the trail was
+often not over a few feet wide. It was no pleasant thing to
+contemplate the results of a probable slip or a misstep. The whole
+country bore the aspect of baffled rage--as if imbued with a demoniac
+spirit, it had received a crushing stroke from the Almighty hand that
+blasted and shivered it to fragments.
+
+  [Illustration: LAVA-FJELDS.]
+
+There were masses that looked as if they had turned cold while running
+in a fiery flood from the crater--wavy, serrated, frothy, like tar
+congealed or stiffened on a flat surface. One piece that I sketched
+was of the shape of a large leaf, upon which all the fibres were
+marked. It measured ten feet by four. Another bore a resemblance to a
+great conch-shell. Many were impressed with the roots of shrubs and
+the images of various surrounding objects--snail-shells, pebbles,
+twigs, and the like. On a larger scale, bubbling brooks, waterfalls,
+and whirlpools were represented--now no longer a burning flood, but
+stiff, stark, and motionless. One sketch, which is reproduced, bore a
+startling resemblance to some of the marble effigies on the tombs of
+medieval knights.
+
+  [Illustration: EFFIGY IN LAVA.]
+
+The distant mountains were covered with their perpetual mantles of
+snow. Nearer, on the verge of the valley, were the red peaks of the
+foot-hills. To the right lay the quiet waters of the lake glistening
+in the sunbeams. In front, a great black fissure stretched from the
+shores of the lake to the base of the mountains, presenting to the eye
+an impassable barrier. This was the famous Hrafnajau--the uncouth and
+terrible twin-brother of the Almannajau.
+
+A toilsome ride of eight miles brought us to the edge of the Pass,
+which in point of rugged grandeur far surpasses the Almannajau, though
+it lacks the extent and symmetry which give the latter such a
+remarkable effect. Here was a tremendous gap in the earth, over a
+hundred feet deep, hacked and shivered into a thousand fantastic
+shapes; the sides a succession of the wildest accidents; the bottom a
+chaos of broken lava, all tossed about in the most terrific confusion.
+It is not, however, the extraordinary desolation of the scene that
+constitutes its principal interest. The resistless power which had
+rent the great lava-bed asunder, as if touched with pity at the ruin,
+had also flung from the tottering cliffs a causeway across the gap,
+which now forms the only means of passing over the great Hrafnajau. No
+human hands could have created such a colossal work as this; the
+imagination is lost in its massive grandeur; and when we reflect that
+miles of an almost impassable country would otherwise have to be
+traversed in order to reach the opposite side of the gap, the
+conclusion is irresistible that in the battle of the elements Nature
+still had a kindly remembrance of man.
+
+  [Illustration: THE HRAFNAJAU.]
+
+Five or six miles beyond the Hrafnajau, near the summit of a
+dividing ridge, we came upon a very singular volcanic formation called
+the Tintron. It stands, a little to the right of the trail, on a rise
+of scoria and burned earth, from which it juts up in rugged relief to
+the height of twenty or thirty feet. This is, strictly speaking, a
+huge clinker not unlike what comes out of a grate--hard, glassy in
+spots, and scraggy all over. The top part is shaped like a shell; in
+the centre is a hole about three feet in diameter, which opens into a
+vast subterranean cavity of unknown depth. Whether the Tintron is an
+extinct crater, through which fires shot out of the earth in by-gone
+times, or an isolated mass of lava, whirled through the air out of
+some distant volcano, is a question that geologists must determine.
+The probability is that it is one of those natural curiosities so
+common in Iceland which defy research. The whole country is full of
+anomalies--bogs where one would expect to find dry land, and parched
+deserts where it would not seem strange to see bogs; fire where water
+ought to be, and water in the place of fire.
+
+While the pack-train followed the trail, Zoega suggested that the
+Tintron had never been sketched, and if I felt disposed to "take it
+down"--as he expressed it--he would wait for me in the valley below;
+so I took it down.
+
+During this day's journey we crossed many small rivers which had been
+much swollen by the recent rains. The fording-places, however, were
+generally good, and we got over them without being obliged to swim our
+horses. One river, the Bruara, gave me some uneasiness. When we
+arrived at the banks it presented a very formidable obstacle. At the
+only place where it was practicable to reach the water it was a raging
+torrent over fifty yards wide, dashing furiously over a bed of lava
+with a velocity and volume that bade apparent defiance to any attempt
+at crossing. In the middle was a great fissure running parallel with
+the course of the water, into which the current converged from each
+side, forming a series of cataracts that shook the earth, and made a
+loud reverberation from the depths below.
+
+  [Illustration: THE TINTRON ROCK.]
+
+I stopped on an elevated bank to survey the route before us. There
+seemed to be no possible way of getting over. It was all a wild
+roaring flood plunging madly down among the rocks. While I was
+thinking what was to be done, Zoega, with a crack of his whip, drove
+the animals into the water and made a bold dash after them. It then
+occurred to me that there was a good deal of prudence in the advice
+given by an Icelandic traveler: "_Never go into a river till your
+guide has tried it._" Should Zoega be swept down over the cataract, as
+appeared quite probable, there would be no necessity for me to follow
+him. I had a genuine regard for the poor fellow, and it would pain me
+greatly to lose him; but then he was paid so much per day for risking
+his life, and how could I help it if he chose to pursue such a
+perilous career? Doubtless he had come near being drowned many a time
+before; he seemed to be used to it. All I could do for him in the
+present instance would be to break the melancholy intelligence to his
+wife as tenderly as possible. While thus philosophizing, Zoega plunged
+in deeper and deeper till he was surrounded by the raging torrent on
+the very verge of the great fissure. Was it possible he was going to
+force his horse into it? Surely the man must be crazy.
+
+"Stop, Zoega! stop!" I shouted, at the top of my voice; "you'll be
+swept over the precipice. There's a great gap in the river just before
+you."
+
+"All right, sir!" cried Zoega. "Come on, sir!"
+
+Again and again I called to him to stop but he seemed to lose my voice
+in the roar of the falling waters. Dashing about after the scattered
+animals, he whipped them all up to the brink of the precipice, and
+then quietly walked his own horse across on what looked to me like a
+streak of foam. The others followed, and in a few minutes they all
+stood safely on the opposite bank. I thought this was very strange. A
+remote suspicion flashed across my mind that Zoega was in league with
+some of those water-spirits which are said to infest the rivers of
+Iceland. Wondering what they would say to a live Californian, I
+plunged in and followed the route taken by my guide. Upon approaching
+the middle of the river I discovered that what appeared to be a streak
+of foam was in reality a wooden platform stretched across the chasm
+and covered by a thin sheet of water. It was pinned down to the rocks
+at each end, and was well braced with rafters underneath. From this
+the river derives its name--Bruara, or the Bridge.
+
+The general aspect of the country differed but little from what I have
+already attempted to describe. Vast deserts of lava, snow-capped
+mountains in the distance, a few green spots here and there, and no
+apparent sign of habitation--these were its principal features. Below
+the falls the scene was peculiarly wild and characteristic. Tremendous
+masses of lava cast at random amid the roaring waters; great fissures
+splitting the earth asunder in all directions; every where marks of
+violent convulsion. In the following sketch I have endeavored to
+depict some of these salient points. When it is taken into
+consideration that the wind blew like a hurricane through the craggy
+ravines; that the rain and spray whirled over, and under, and almost
+through me; that it was difficult to stand on any elevated spot
+without danger of being blown over, I hope some allowance will be made
+for the imperfections of the performance.
+
+  [Illustration: BRIDGE RIVER.]
+
+About midway between Thingvalla and the Geysers we descended into a
+beautiful little valley, covered with a fine growth of grass, where we
+stopped to change horses and refresh ourselves with a lunch. While
+Zoega busied himself arranging the packs and saddles, our
+indefatigable little dog Brusa availed himself of the opportunity to
+give chase to a flock of sheep. Zoega shouted at him as usual, and as
+usual Brusa only barked the louder and ran the faster. The sheep
+scattered over the valley, Brusa pursuing all the loose members of the
+flock with a degree of energy and enthusiasm that would have done
+credit to a better cause. Upon the lambs he was particularly severe.
+Many of them must have been stunted in their growth for life by the
+fright they received; and it was not until he had tumbled half a dozen
+of them heels over head, and totally dispersed the remainder, that he
+saw fit to return to head-quarters. The excitement once over, he of
+course began to consider the consequences, and I must say he looked as
+mean as it was possible for an intelligent dog to look. Zoega took him
+by the nape of the neck with a relentless hand, and heaving a profound
+sigh, addressed a pathetic remonstrance to him in the Icelandic
+language, giving it weight and emphasis by a sharp cut of his whip
+after every sentence. This solemn duty performed to his satisfaction,
+and greatly to Brusa's satisfaction when it was over, we mounted our
+horses once more and proceeded on our journey.
+
+A considerable portion of this day's ride was over a rolling country,
+somewhat resembling the foot-hills in certain parts of California. On
+the right was an extensive plain, generally barren, but showing
+occasional green patches; and on the left a rugged range of mountains,
+not very high, but strongly marked by volcanic signs. We passed
+several lonely little huts, the occupants of which rarely made their
+appearance. Sheep, goats, and sometimes horses, dotted the
+pasture-lands. There was not much vegetation of any kind save patches
+of grass and brushwood. A species of white moss covered the rocks in
+places, presenting the appearance of hoar-frost at a short distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+THE GEYSERS.
+
+
+Upon turning the point of a hill where our trail was a little elevated
+above the great valley, Zoega called my attention to a column of vapor
+that seemed to rise out of the ground about ten miles distant. For all
+I could judge, it was smoke from some settler's cabin situated in a
+hollow of the slope.
+
+"What's that, Zoega?" I asked.
+
+"That's the Geysers, sir," he replied, as coolly as if it were the
+commonest thing in the world to see the famous Geysers of Iceland.
+
+"The Geysers! That little thing the Geysers?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Dear me! who would ever have thought it?"
+
+I may as well confess at once that I was sadly disappointed. It was a
+pleasure, of course, to see what I had read of and pictured to my
+mind, from early boyhood; but this contemptible little affair looked
+very much like a humbug. A vague idea had taken possession of my mind
+that I would see a whole district of country shooting up hot water and
+sulphurous vapors--a kind of hell upon earth; but that thing ahead of
+us--that little curl of smoke on the horizon looked so peaceful, so
+inadequate a result of great subterranean fires, that I could not but
+feel some resentment toward the travelers who had preceded me, and
+whose glowing accounts of the Geysers had deceived me. At this point
+of view it was not at all equal to the Geysers of California. I had a
+distinct recollection of the great canyon between Russian River Valley
+and Clear Lake, the magnificent hills on the route, the first glimpse
+of the infernal scene far down in the bed of the canyon, the boiling,
+hissing waters, and clouds of vapor whirling up among the rocks, the
+towering crags on the opposite side, and the noble forests of oak and
+pine that spread "a boundless contiguity of shade" over the wearied
+traveler, and I must say a patriotic pride took possession of my soul.
+We had beaten the world in the production of gold; our fruits were
+finer and our vegetables larger than any ever produced in other
+countries; our men taller and stronger, our women prettier and more
+prolific, our lawsuits more extensive, our fights the best ever gotten
+up, our towns the most rapidly built and rapidly burned--in short,
+every thing was on a grand, wide, broad, tall, fast, overwhelming
+scale, that bid defiance to competition, and now I was satisfied we
+could even beat old Iceland in the matters of Geysers. I really felt
+a contempt for that little streak of smoke. Perhaps something in the
+expression of my eye may have betrayed my thoughts, for Zoega, as if
+he felt a natural pride in the wonders of Iceland and wished them to
+be properly appreciated, hastily added, "But you must not judge of the
+Geysers by what you now see, sir! That is only the little Geyser. He
+don't blow up much. The others are behind the first rise of ground."
+
+"That may be, Zoega. I have no doubt they are very fine, but it is not
+within the bounds of possibility that they should equal the Geysers of
+California."
+
+"Indeed, sir! I didn't know you had Geysers there."
+
+"Didn't know it! Never heard of the Geysers of California?"
+
+"Never, sir."
+
+"Well, Zoega, that is remarkable. Our Geysers are the finest, the
+bitterest, the smokiest, the noisiest, the most infernal in the world;
+and as for mountains, our Shasta Bute would knock your Mount Hecla
+into a cocked hat!"
+
+"Is it possible!"
+
+"Of course it is."
+
+"And have you great lava-beds covering whole valleys as we have here?"
+
+"Certainly--only they are made of gold. We call them Placers--Gold
+Placers."
+
+"A wonderful country, sir!"
+
+"Would you like to go there, Zoega?"
+
+"No, sir; I'd rather stay here."
+
+  [Illustration: SHEPHERD AND FAMILY.]
+
+And so we talked, Zoega and I, as we jogged along pleasantly on our
+way. Our ride, after we caught the first sight of the smoke,
+continued for some two hours over a series of low hills, with little
+green valleys lying between, till we came to an extensive bog that
+skirts the base of the Langarfjal, a volcanic bluff forming the
+background of the Geysers. It was now becoming interesting. Half an
+hour more would settle the matter conclusively between California
+and Iceland. Crossing the bog where it was not very wet, we soon came
+to a group of huts at the turning-point of the hill, where we were
+met by a shepherd and his family. All turned out, big and little, to
+see the strangers. The man and his wife were fair specimens of
+Icelandic peasantry--broad-faced, blue-eyed, and good-natured, with
+yellowish hair, and a sort of mixed costume, between the civilized
+and the barbarous. The children, of which there must have been over a
+dozen, were of the usual cotton-head species found in all Northern
+countries, and wore any thing apparently they could get, from the
+cast-off rags of their parents to sheepskins and raw hide. Nothing
+could surpass the friendly interest of the old shepherd. He asked
+Zoega a thousand questions about the "gentleman," and begged that we
+would dismount and do him the honor to take a cup of coffee, which
+his wife would prepare for us in five minutes. Knowing by experience
+that five minutes in Iceland means any time within five hours, I was
+reluctantly obliged to decline the invitation. The poor fellow seemed
+much disappointed, and evidently was sincere in his offers of
+hospitality. To compromise the matter, we borrowed a spade from him,
+and requested him to send some milk down to our camp as soon as the
+cows were milked.
+
+Although these worthy people lived not over half a mile from the
+Geysers, they could not tell us when the last eruption had taken
+place--a most important thing for us to know, as the success of the
+trip depended almost entirely upon the length of time which had
+elapsed since that event. The man said he never took notice of the
+eruptions. He saw the water shooting up every few days, but paid no
+particular attention to it. There might have been an eruption
+yesterday, or this morning, for all he knew; it was impossible for him
+to say positively. "In truth, good friend," said he to Zoega, "my head
+is filled with sheep, and they give me trouble enough." It was
+evidently filled with something, for he kept scratching it all the
+time he was talking.
+
+Many travelers have been compelled to wait a week for an eruption of
+the Great Geyser, though the interval between the eruptions is not
+usually more than three days. A good deal depends upon the previous
+state of the weather, whether it has been wet or dry. Sometimes the
+eruptions take place within twenty-four hours, but not often. The
+Great Geyser is a very capricious old gentleman, take him as you will.
+He goes up or keeps quiet just to suit himself, and will not put
+himself the least out of the way to oblige anybody. Even the Prince
+Napoleon, who visited this region a few years ago, spent two days
+trying to coax the grumbling old fellow to favor him with a
+performance, but all to no purpose. The prince was no more to a Great
+Geyser than the commonest shepherd--not so much, in fact, for his
+finest displays are said to be made when nobody but some poor shepherd
+of the neighborhood is about. In former times the eruptions were much
+more frequent than they are now, occurring at least every six hours,
+and often at periods of only three or four. Gradually they have been
+diminishing in force and frequency, and it is not improbable they will
+cease altogether before the lapse of another century. According to the
+measurements given by various travelers, among whom may be mentioned
+Dr. Henderson, Sir George Mackenzie, Forbes, Metcalfe, and Lord
+Dufferin, the height to which the water is ejected varies from eighty
+to two hundred feet. It is stated that these Geysers did not exist
+prior to the fifteenth century; and one eruption--that of 1772--is
+estimated by Olsen and Paulsen to have reached the extraordinary
+height of three hundred and sixty feet. All these measurements appear
+to me to be exaggerated.
+
+Ascending a slope of dry incrusted earth of a red and yellowish color,
+we first came upon the Little Geyser, a small orifice in the ground,
+from which a column of steam arose. A bubbling sound as of boiling
+water issued from the depths below, but otherwise it presented no
+remarkable phenomena. In a few minutes more we stood in the middle of
+a sloping plateau of some half a mile in circuit, which declines into
+an extensive valley on the right. Within the limits of this area there
+are some forty springs and fissures which emit hot water and vapors.
+None of them are of any considerable size, except the Great Geyser,
+the Strokhr, and the Little Geyser. The earth seems to be a mere crust
+of sulphurous deposits, and burnt clay, and rotten trap-rock, and is
+destitute of vegetation except in a few spots, where patches of grass
+and moss present a beautiful contrast to the surrounding barrenness.
+In its quiescent state the scene was not so striking as I had
+expected, though the whirling volumes of smoke that filled the air,
+and the strange sounds that issued from the ground in every direction,
+filled my mind with strong premonitions of what might take place at
+any moment. I did not yet relinquish my views in reference to the
+superiority of the California Geysers; still, I began to feel some
+misgiving about it when I looked around and saw the vastness of the
+scale upon which the fixtures were arranged here for hydraulic
+entertainments. If we could beat Iceland in the beauty of our scenery,
+it was quite apparent that the advantage lay here in the breadth and
+extent of the surrounding desolation--the great lava-fields, the
+snow-capped Jokuls, and the distant peaks of Mount Hecla.
+
+We rode directly toward the Great Geyser, which we approached within
+about fifty yards. Here was the camping-ground--a pleasant little
+patch of green sod, where the various travelers who had preceded us
+had pitched their tents. Zoega knew every spot. He had accompanied
+most of the distinguished gentlemen who had honored the place with
+their presence, and had something to say in his grave, simple way
+about each of them. Here stood Lord Dufferin's tent. A lively young
+gentleman he was; a very nice young man; told some queer stories about
+the Icelanders; didn't see much of the country, but made a very nice
+book about what he saw; had a great time at the governor's, and drank
+every body drunk under the table, etc. Here, close by, the Prince
+Napoleon pitched his tent--a large tent, very handsomely decorated;
+room for all his officers; very fine gentleman the prince; had lots of
+money; drank plenty of Champagne; a fat gentleman, not very tall; had
+blackish hair, and talked French; didn't see the Great Geyser go up,
+but saw the Strokhr, etc. Here was Mr. Metcalfe's tent; a queer
+gentleman, Mr. Metcalfe; rather rough in his dress; wrote a funny book
+about Iceland; told some hard things on the priests; they didn't like
+it at all; didn't know what to make of Mr. Metcalfe, etc. Here was Mr.
+Chambers's camp--a Scotch gentleman; very nice man, plain and
+sensible; wrote a pamphlet, etc. And here was an old tent-mark, almost
+rubbed out, where an American gentleman camped about ten years ago;
+thought his name was Mr. Miles. This traveler also wrote a book, and
+told some funny stories.
+
+"Was it Pliny Miles?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, sir, that was his name. I was with him all the time."
+
+"Have you his book?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I have his book at home. A very queer gentleman, Mr. Miles;
+saw a great many things that I didn't see; says he came near getting
+drowned in a river."
+
+"And didn't he?"
+
+"Well, sir, I don't know. I didn't see him when he was near being
+drowned. You crossed the river, sir, yourself, and know whether it is
+dangerous."
+
+"Was it the Bruara?"
+
+"No, sir; one of the other little rivers, about knee-deep."
+
+Here was food for reflection. Zoega, with his matter-of-fact eyes,
+evidently saw things in an entirely different light from that in which
+they presented themselves to the enthusiastic tourists who accompanied
+him. Perhaps he would some time or other be pointing out my tent to
+some inquisitive visitor, and giving him a running criticism upon my
+journal of experiences in Iceland. I deemed it judicious, therefore,
+to explain to him that gentlemen who traveled all the way to Iceland
+were bound to see something and meet with some thrilling adventures.
+If they didn't tell of very remarkable things, nobody would care
+about reading their books. This was the great art of travel; it was
+not exactly lying, but putting on colors to give the picture effect.
+
+"For my part, Zoega," said I, "having no great skill as an artist, and
+being a very plain, unimaginative man, as you know, I shall confine
+myself strictly to facts. Perhaps there will be novelty enough in
+telling the truth to attract attention."
+
+"The truth is always the best, sir," replied Zoega, gravely and
+piously.
+
+"Of course it is, Zoega. This country is sufficiently curious in
+itself. It does not require the aid of fiction to give it effect.
+Therefore, should you come across any thing in my narrative which may
+have escaped your notice, depend upon it I thought it was true--or
+ought to be."
+
+"Yes, sir; I know you would never lie like some of these gentlemen."
+
+"Never! never, Zoega! I scorn a lying traveler above all things on
+earth."
+
+But these digressions, however amusing they were at the time, can
+scarcely be of much interest to the reader.
+
+Even after the lapse of several years the marks around the
+camping-ground were quite fresh. The sod is of very fine texture, and
+the grass never grows very rank, so that wherever a trench is cut to
+let off the rain, it remains, with very little alteration, for a great
+length of time.
+
+On the principle that a sovereign of the United States ought never to
+rank himself below a prince of any other country, I selected a spot a
+little above the camping-ground of his excellency the Prince Napoleon.
+By the aid of my guide I soon had the tent pitched. It was a small
+affair--only an upright pole, a few yards of canvas, and four wooden
+pins. The whole concern did not weigh twenty pounds, and only covered
+an area of ground about four feet by six. Zoega then took the horses
+to a pasture up the valley. I amused myself making a few sketches of
+the surrounding objects, and thinking how strange it was to be here
+all alone at the Geysers of Iceland. How many of my friends knew where
+I was? Not one, perhaps. And should all the Geysers blow up together
+and boil me on the spot, what would people generally think of it? Or
+suppose the ground were to give way and swallow me up, what difference
+would it make in the price of consols or the temperature of the ocean?
+
+When Zoega came back, he said, if I pleased, we would now go to work
+and cut sods for the Strokhr. It was a favorable time "to see him
+heave up." The way to make him do that was to make him sick. Sods
+always made him sick. They didn't agree with his stomach. Every
+gentleman who came here made it a point to stir him up. He was called
+the Strokhr because he churned things that were thrown down his
+throat; and Strokhr means _churn_. I was very anxious to see the
+performance suggested by Zoega, and readily consented to assist him in
+getting the sods.
+
+The Strokhr lay about a hundred yards from our tent, nearly in a line
+between the Great and Little Geysers. Externally it presents no very
+remarkable feature, being nothing more than a hole in the bed of
+rocks, about five feet in diameter, and slightly funnel-shaped at the
+orifice. Standing upon the edge, one can see the water boiling up and
+whirling over about twenty feet below. A hollow, growling noise is
+heard, varied by an occasional hiss and rush, as if the contents were
+struggling to get out. It emits hot vapors, and a slight smell of
+sulphur; otherwise it maintains rather a peaceful aspect, considering
+the infernal temper it gets into when disturbed.
+
+Zoega and I worked hard cutting and carrying the sods for nearly half
+an hour, by which time we had a large pile on the edge of the orifice.
+Zoega said there was enough. I insisted on getting more. "Let us give
+him a dose that he won't forget." "Oh, sir, nobody ever puts more than
+that in; it is quite enough." "No; I mean to make him deadly sick.
+Come on, Zoega." And at it we went again, cutting the sod, and
+carrying it over and piling it up in a great heap by the hole. When we
+had about a ton all ready, I said to Zoega, "Now, Zoega, fire away,
+and I'll stand here and see how it works." Then Zoega pushed it all
+over, and it went slapping and dashing down into the steaming shaft.
+For a little while it whirled about, and surged, and boiled, and
+tumbled over and over in the depths of the churn with a hollow,
+swashing noise terribly ominous of what was to come. I peeped over the
+edge to try if I could detect the first symptoms of the approaching
+eruption. Zoega walked quietly away about twenty steps, saying he
+preferred not to be too close. There was a sudden growl and a rumble,
+a terrible plunging about and swashing of the sods below, and fierce,
+whirling clouds of steam flew up, almost blinding me as they passed.
+
+"Sir," said Zoega, gravely, "you had better stand away. It comes up
+very suddenly when it once starts."
+
+"Don't be afraid, Zoega; I'll keep a sharp look-out for it. You may
+depend there's not a Geyser in Iceland can catch me when I make a
+break."
+
+"Very well, sir; but I'd advise you to be careful."
+
+Notwithstanding this good counsel, I could not resist the fascination
+of looking in. There was another tremendous commotion going on--a
+roar, a whirling over of the sods, and clouds of steam flying up. This
+time I ran back a few steps. But it was a false alarm. Nothing came of
+it. The heaving mass seemed to be producing the desired effect,
+however. The Strokhr was evidently getting very sick. I looked over
+once more. All below was a rumbling, tumbling black mass, dashing over
+and over against the sides of the churn. Soon a threatening roar not
+to be mistaken startled me. "Look out, sir!" shouted Zoega; "look
+out!" Unlike the Frenchman who looked out when he should have looked
+in, I unconsciously looked in when I should have looked out. With a
+suddenness that astonished me, up shot the seething mass almost in my
+face. One galvanic jump--an involuntary shout of triumph--and I was
+rolling heels over head on the crust of earth about ten feet off, the
+hot water and clumps of sod tumbling down about me in every direction.
+Another scramble brought me to my feet, of which I made such good use
+that I was forty yards beyond Zoega before I knew distinctly what had
+happened. The poor fellow came running toward me in great
+consternation.
+
+"Are you hurt, sir? I hope you're not hurt!" he cried, in accents of
+great concern.
+
+"Hurt!" I answered. "Didn't you see me rolling over on the ground
+laughing at it? Why, Zoega, I never saw any thing so absurd as that in
+my life; any decent Geyser would have given at least an hour's notice.
+This miserable little wretch went off half cocked. I was just laughing
+to think how sick we made him all of a sudden!"
+
+"Oh, that was it, sir! I thought you were badly hurt."
+
+"Not a bit of it. You never saw a man who had suffered serious bodily
+injury run and jump with joy, and roll with laughter as I did."
+
+"No, sir, never, now that I come to think of it."
+
+Somehow it was always pleasant to talk with Zoega, his simplicity was
+so refreshing.
+
+The display was really magnificent. An immense dark column shot into
+the air to the height of sixty or seventy feet, composed of
+innumerable jets of water and whirling masses of sod. It resembled a
+thousand fountains joined together, each with a separate source of
+expulsion. The hissing hot water, blackened by the boiled clay and
+turf, spurted up in countless revolving circlets, spreading out in
+every direction and falling in torrents over the earth, which was
+deluged for fifty feet around with the dark, steaming flood. This,
+again sweeping into the mouth of the funnel, fell in thick streams
+into the churn, carrying with it the sods that were scattered within
+its vortex, and once more heaved and surged about in the huge caldron
+below.
+
+The eruption continued for about five minutes without any apparent
+diminution of force. It then subsided into fitful and convulsive jets,
+as if making a last effort, and finally disappeared with a deep growl
+of disappointment. All was now quiet save the gurgling of the murky
+water as it sought its way back. Zoega said it was not done yet--that
+this was only a beginning. I took my sketch-book and resolved to seize
+the next opportunity for a good view of the eruption, taking, in the
+mean time, a general outline of the locality, including a glimpse of
+the Langarfjal. Just as I had finished up to the orifice the same
+angry roar which had first startled me was repeated, and up shot the
+dark, boiling flood in grander style than ever. This time it was
+absolutely fearful. There could be no doubt the dose of sods we had
+tumbled into the stomach of the old gentleman was making him not only
+dreadfully sick, but furiously angry.
+
+At this moment, as if the elements sympathized in his distress, fierce
+gusts of wind began to blow down from the Langarfjal. So sudden and
+violent were they that it was difficult to maintain a foothold in our
+exposed position; and the tall column of fountains, struck with the
+full violence of the wind, presented a splendid spectacle of strength
+and rage--surging, and swaying, and battling to maintain its erect
+position, and showing in every motion the irresistible power with
+which it was ejected. Steam, and water, and sods went whirling down
+into the valley; the very air was darkened with the shriven and
+scattered currents; and a black deluge fell to the leeward, hundreds
+of yards beyond the orifice. The weird and barren aspect of the
+surrounding scenery was never more impressive.
+
+"What do you think of the Strokhr, sir?" asked Zoega, with some pride.
+"Is it equal to the Geysers of California?"
+
+  [Illustration: THE STROKHR.]
+
+I was rather taken aback at the honest bluntness of this question,
+and must admit that I felt a little crest-fallen when I came to
+compare the respective performances. Therefore I could only answer, in
+rather a casual way,
+
+"Well, Zoega, to tell you the truth, ours don't get quite so sick as
+this, owing, no doubt, to the superior salubrity of our climate. You
+might throw sods into them all day, and they wouldn't make such a fuss
+about it as the Strokhr makes about a mere handful. Their digestion,
+you see, is a great deal stronger."
+
+"Oh, but wait, sir, till you see the Great Geyser; that's much better
+than the Strokhr."
+
+"Doubtless it is very fine, Zoega. Still I can't help but think our
+California Geysers are in a superior condition of health. It is true
+they smoke a good deal, but I don't think they impair their digestion
+by such stimulating food as the Geysers of Iceland. Judging by the
+eruptions of the Strokhr, I should say he feeds exclusively on fire
+and water, which would ruin the best stomach in the world."
+
+Zoega looked troubled. He evidently did not comprehend my figurative
+style of speech. So the conversation dropped.
+
+The column of water ejected from the Strokhr, unlike that of the Great
+Geyser, is tall and slender, and of almost inky blackness. In the case
+of the Great Geyser no artificial means interrupt its operations; in
+that of the Strokhr the pressure of foreign substances produces
+results not natural to it.
+
+After the two eruptions which I have attempted to describe, the waters
+of the Strokhr again subsided into sobs and convulsive throes. Some
+half an hour now elapsed before any thing more took place. Then there
+was another series of growls, and a terrible swashing about down in
+the churn, as if all the demons under earth were trying to drown one
+another, and up shot the murky flood for the third time. Thus it
+continued at intervals more and more remote, till a late hour in the
+night, making desperate efforts to disgorge the sods that were swept
+back after every ejection, and to rid itself of the foul water that
+remained. Those attempts gradually grow fainter and fainter, subsiding
+at last into mere grumblings. I looked into the orifice the next
+morning, and was surprised to find the water yet discolored. It was
+evident, from the uneasy manner in which it surged about, that the
+dose still produced unpleasant effects.
+
+Having finished my sketch, I returned to the tent, in front of which
+Zoega had meantime spread a cloth, with some bread and cheese on it,
+and such other scraps of provisions as we had. A little boy from the
+neighboring sheep-ranch brought us down some milk and cream, and I
+thought if we only had a cup of tea on to warm us up after the chilly
+wind our supper would be luxurious.
+
+"Just in time, sir," said Zoega; "I'll make the tea in a minute."
+
+"Where's your fire."
+
+"Oh, we don't need fire here--the hot water is always ready. There's
+the big boiler up yonder!"
+
+I looked where Zoega pointed, and saw, about a hundred yards off, a
+boiling caldron. This was our grand tea-kettle. Upon a nearer
+inspection, I found that it consisted of two great holes in the rocks,
+close together, the larger of which was about thirty feet in
+circumference, and of great depth. The water was as clear as crystal.
+It was easy to trace the white stratum of rocks, of which the sides
+were formed, down to the neck of the great shaft through which the
+water was ejected. Flakes of steam floated off from the surface of the
+crystal pool, which was generally placid. Only at occasional intervals
+did it show any symptoms of internal commotion. By dipping my finger
+down a little way I found that it was boiling hot. Five minutes
+immersion would be sufficient to skin and boil an entire man.
+
+Nature has bountifully put these boilers here for the use of
+travelers. Not a stick or twig of wood grows within a circuit of many
+miles, and without fuel of course it would be impossible to cook
+food. Here a leg of mutton submerged in a pot can be beautifully
+boiled; plum-puddings cooked; eggs, fish, or any thing you please,
+done to a nicety. All this I knew before, but I had no idea that the
+water was pure enough for drinking purposes. Such, however, is the
+fact. No better water ever came out of the earth--in a boiled
+condition. To make a pot of tea, you simply put your tea in your pot,
+hold on to the handle, dip the whole concern down into the water, keep
+it there a while to draw, and your tea is made.
+
+I found it excellent, and did not, as I apprehended, discover any
+unpleasant flavor in the water. It may be slightly impregnated with
+sulphur, though that gives it rather a wholesome smack. To me,
+however, it tasted very much like any other hot water.
+
+  [Illustration: SIDE-SADDLE.]
+
+When I returned to the tent, and sat down to my frugal repast, and ate
+my bread and cheese, and quaffed the fragrant tea, Zoega sitting near
+by respectfully assisting me, something of the old California feeling
+came over me, and I enjoyed life once more after years of travel
+through the deserts of civilization in Europe. What a glorious thing
+it is to be a natural barbarian! This was luxury! this was joy! this
+was Paradise upon earth! Ah me! where is the country that can equal
+California? Brightest of the bright lands of sunshine; richest,
+rarest, loveliest of earth's beauties! like Phaedra to the mistress of
+his soul, I love you by day and by night, behave in the company of
+others as if I were absent; want you; dream of you; think of you; wish
+for you; delight in you--in short, I am wholly yours, body and soul!
+If ever I leave you again on a wild-goose chase through Europe, may
+the Elector of Hesse-Cassel appoint me his prime minister, or the Duke
+of Baden his principal butler!
+
+Very little indication of the time was apparent in the sky. The sun
+still shone brightly, although it was nearly ten o'clock. I did not
+feel much inclined to sleep, with so many objects of interest around.
+Apart from that, there was something in this everlasting light that
+disturbed my nervous system. It becomes really terrible in the course
+of a few days. The whole order of nature seems reversed. Night has
+disappeared altogether. Nothing but day remains--dreary, monotonous,
+perpetual day. You crave the relief of darkness; your spirits, at
+first exuberant, go down, and still down, till they are below zero;
+the novelty wears away, and the very light becomes gloomy.
+
+People must sleep, nevertheless. With me it was a duty I owed to an
+overtaxed body. Our tent was rather small for two, and Zoega asked
+permission to sleep with an acquaintance who lived in a cabin about
+two miles distant. This I readily granted. It was something of a
+novelty to be left in charge of two such distinguished characters as
+the Great Geyser and the Strokhr. Possibly they might favor me with
+some extraordinary freaks of humor, such as no other traveler had yet
+enjoyed. So, bidding Zoega a kindly farewell for the present, I closed
+the front of the tent, and tried to persuade myself that it was night.
+
+With the light streaming in through the crevices of the tent, it was
+no easy matter to imagine that this was an appropriate time to "steep
+the senses in forgetfulness." I was badly provided with covering, and
+the weather, though not absolutely cold, was damp and chilly. In my
+hurry to get off, I had forgotten even the small outfit with which I
+originally thought of making the journey. All I now had in the way of
+bedding was a thin shawl, and an old overall belonging to Captain
+Andersen, of the steamer. I put one on the ground and the other over
+my body, and with a bag of hard bread under my head by way of a
+pillow, strove to banish the notion that it was at all uncomfortable.
+There was something in this method of sleeping to remind me of my
+California experience. To be sure there was a lack of blankets, and
+fire, and pleasant company, and balmy air, and many other luxuries;
+but the general principle was the same, except that it was impossible
+to sleep. The idea of being utterly alone, in such an outlandish part
+of the world, may have had something to do with the singular activity
+of my nervous system. It seemed to me that somebody was thrusting
+cambric needles into my skin in a sudden and violent manner, and at
+the most unexpected places; and strange sounds were continually
+buzzing in my ears. I began to reflect seriously upon the condition of
+affairs down underneath my bed. Doubtless it was a very fiery and
+restless region, or all these smokes and simmering pools would not
+disfigure the face of the country. How thick was the shell of the
+earth at this particular spot? It sounded very thin all over--a mere
+crust, through which one might break at any moment. Here was boiling
+water fizzing and gurgling all around, and the air was impregnated
+with strong odors of sulphur. Suppose the whole thing should burst up
+of a sudden? It was by no means impossible. What would become of my
+sketches of Iceland in the event of such a catastrophe as that? What
+sort of a notice would my editorial friends give of the curious manner
+in which I had disappeared? And what would Zoega think in the
+morning, when he came down from the farm-house, and saw that his tent
+and provision-boxes were gone down in a great hole, and that an
+American gentleman, in whom he had the greatest confidence, had not
+only carried them with him, but failed to pay his liabilities before
+starting? Here, too, was the sun only slightly dipped below the
+horizon at midnight, and the moon shining overhead at the same time.
+Every thing was twisted inside out and turned upside down. It was
+truly a strange country.
+
+Having tossed and tumbled about for an indefinite length of time, I
+must have fallen into an uneasy doze. During the day I had been
+thinking of the rebellion at home, and now gloomy visions disturbed my
+mind. I thought I saw moving crowds dressed in black, and heard
+wailing sounds. Funerals passed before me, and women and children wept
+for the dead. The scene changed, and I saw hosts of men on the
+battle-field, rushing upon each other and falling in deadly strife. A
+dreary horror came over me. It was like some dreadful play, in which
+the stake was human life. Blood was upon the faces of the dying and
+the dead. In the effort to disentangle the right from the wrong--to
+seek out a cause for the calamity which had fallen upon us--a racking
+anguish tortured me, and I vainly strove to regain my scattered
+senses. Then, in the midst of this confused dream, I heard the booming
+of cannon--at first far down in the earth, but gradually growing
+nearer, till, with a start, I awoke. Still the guns boomed! Surely the
+sounds were real. I could not be deceived. Starting to my feet, I
+listened. Splashing and surging waters, and dull, heavy reports,
+sounded in the air. I dashed aside the lining of the tent and looked
+out. Never shall I forget that sight--the Great Geyser in full
+eruption! A tremendous volume of water stood in bold relief against
+the sky, like a tall weeping willow in winter swaying before the wind,
+and shaking the white frost from its drooping branches. Whirling
+vapors and white wreaths floated off toward the valley. All was clear
+overhead. A spectral light, which was neither of day nor of night,
+shone upon the dark, lava-covered earth. The rush and plashing of the
+fountain and the booming of the subterranean guns fell with a
+startling distinctness upon the solitude. Streams of glittering white
+water swept the surface of the great basin on all sides, and dashed
+hissing and steaming into the encircling fissures. A feathery spray
+sparkled through the air. The earth trembled, and sudden gusts of wind
+whirled down with a moaning sound from the wild gorges of the
+Langarfjal.
+
+It did not appear to me that the height of the fountain was so great
+as it is generally represented. So far as I could judge, the greatest
+altitude at any time from the commencement of the eruption was not
+over sixty feet. Its volume, however, greatly exceeded my
+expectations, and the beauty of its form surpassed all description. I
+had never before seen, and never again expect to see, any thing equal
+to it. This magnificent display lasted, altogether, about ten minutes.
+The eruption was somewhat spasmodic in its operation, increasing or
+diminishing in force at each moment, till, with a sudden dash, all the
+water that remained was ejected, and then, after a few gurgling
+throes, all was silent.
+
+I no longer attempted to sleep. My mind was bewildered with the
+wonders of the scene I had just witnessed. All I could do was to make
+a cup of tea at the big boiler on the slope above my tent, and walk
+about, after drinking it, to keep my feet warm. Soon the sun's rays
+appeared upon the distant mountains. A strange time of the night for
+the sun to be getting up--only half past one--when people in most
+other parts of the world are snug in bed, and don't expect to see a
+streak of sunshine for at least four or five hours. How different from
+any thing I had ever before seen was the sunrise in Iceland! No
+crowing of the cock; no singing of the birds; no merry plow-boys
+whistling up the horses in the barn-yard; no cherry-cheeked
+milk-maids singing love-ditties as they tripped the green with their
+pails upon their heads. All was grim, silent, and death-like. And yet
+surely, for all that, the delicate tints of the snow-capped mountains,
+the peaks of which were now steeped in the rays of the rising sun, the
+broad valley slumbering in the shade, the clear, sparkling atmosphere,
+and the exquisite coloring of the Langarfjal--the mighty crag that
+towers over the Geysers--were beauties enough to redeem the solitude
+and imbue the deserts with a celestial glory.
+
+There are various theories concerning the cause of these eruptions of
+water in Iceland. That of Lyell, the geologist, seems the most
+reasonable. The earth, as it is well known, increases in heat at a
+certain ratio corresponding with the depth from the surface. There are
+cavities in many parts of it, arising from subterranean disturbances,
+into which the water percolates from the upper strata. In Iceland the
+probability is that these cavities are both numerous and extensive,
+owing to volcanic causes, and form large receivers for the water of
+the surrounding neighborhood. Wherever there is a natural outlet, as
+at the Geysers, this water, which is boiled by the heat of the earth,
+is forced to the surface by compression of steam, and remains at the
+mouth of the pipe, or shaft, until an accumulation of compressed steam
+drives it up in the form of a fountain. The periodical occurrence of
+these eruptions in some of the hot-springs and not in others may arise
+from a difference in the depth of the receiver, or more probably from
+the existence of several outlets for the escape of steam in some, and
+only one in others. A good illustration of this theory is presented in
+the boiling of an ordinary tea-kettle. When the compression of steam
+is great, the cover is lifted up and the water shoots from the spout,
+by which means the pressure is relieved and the water subsides. The
+same thing is repeated until the space within the kettle becomes
+sufficiently large to admit of a more rapid condensation of the steam.
+The action of the Strokhr, which, as I have shown, differs from that
+of the Great Geyser, may be accounted for on the same general
+principle. The foreign substances thrown in on top of the boiling
+water stops the escape of steam, which, under ordinary circumstances,
+is sufficiently great not to require the periodical relief of an
+eruption. An accumulation of compressed steam takes place in the
+reservoir below, and this continues until the obstruction is ejected.
+
+  [Illustration: GREAT GEYSER AND RECEIVER.]
+
+  [Illustration: STROKHR AND RECEIVER.]
+
+This, I believe, is substantially Lyell's theory; though, having no
+books by me at present, I quote entirely from memory, and it is
+possible I may be mistaken in some of the details. The preceding
+diagrams will enable the reader to understand more clearly the whole
+process by which these eruptions are produced.
+
+Six long hours remained till ordinary breakfast-time. What was to be
+done? It was getting terribly lonesome. I felt like one who had been
+to a theatre and seen all the performances. Zoega had promised to be
+back by eight o'clock; but eight o'clock in Iceland, on the 21st of
+June, is a late hour of the day. A treatise on trigonometry might be
+written between sunrise and that unapproachable hour. The only thing I
+could do was to make some more tea and eat a preliminary breakfast.
+When that was done nothing remained but to go to work in front of my
+little tent and finish up my rough sketches. This is a very absorbing
+business, as every body knows who has tried it, and I was deeply into
+it when Zoega made his appearance.
+
+"Well, sir," said he, "what success? Did he erupt?"
+
+"Of course he erupted, Zoega. You didn't suppose a Great Geyser would
+keep a gentleman all the way from California waiting here an entire
+night without showing him what he could do?"
+
+"No, sir; but he sometimes disappoints travelers. How do you like it?
+Does he compare with your California Geysers?"
+
+"Well, Zoega, he throws up more hot water, to be sure, because our
+Geysers don't erupt at all; but here is the grand difference. We
+Californians are a moral people; we don't live so near to (I pointed
+down below) as you do in Iceland."
+
+"I don't understand you, sir," said Zoega, with a puzzled expression.
+
+I called him over and whispered in his ear, "Zoega, I hope you're a
+good man. Do you say your prayers regularly?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then you are all right. Let us be going. I don't like this
+neighborhood."
+
+"Whenever you wish, sir. The horses are all ready."
+
+And Zoega proceeded to strike the tent and pack the animals, muttering
+to himself and shaking his head gravely, as if he thought the
+Californians were a very peculiar race of men, to say the least of
+them.
+
+Another cup of tea and a few biscuits served to brace us up for the
+journey, and we mounted our horses and turned their heads homeward.
+Brusa was so delighted at the idea of being _en route_ once more that
+he signalized our departure by giving chase to a flock of sheep, which
+he dispersed in a most miraculous manner, and then, of course,
+received the customary punishment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+THE ENGLISH SPORTS IN TROUBLE.
+
+
+Our ride back to Thingvalla was over the same trail which we had
+traveled on the preceding day, with the exception of a short cut to
+the right of the Tintron rock. We made very good speed, and reached
+the Parsonage early in the afternoon.
+
+During our absence a young Englishman had arrived from the North,
+where he had been living for a year. I found him in the travelers'
+room, surrounded by a confused medley of boxes, bags, books, and
+Icelandic curiosities, which he was endeavoring to reduce to some kind
+of order. Had I not been told he was an Englishman I should never have
+suspected it, either from his appearance or manner. When I entered the
+room he stood up and looked at me, and I must say, without intending
+him the slightest disrespect, that he was the most extraordinary
+looking man I ever saw in all my life, not excepting a tattooed
+African chief that I once met at Zanzibar. Whether he was young or old
+it was impossible to say--he might be twenty-five or just as likely
+fifty. Dirty and discolored with travel, his face was generally dark,
+though it was somewhat relieved by spots of yellow. His features were
+regular, and of almost feminine softness; his eyes were dark brown;
+and his hair, which was nearly black, hung down over his shoulders in
+lank straight locks, sunburnt or frostbitten at the ends. On his head
+he wore a tall, conical green wool hat, with a broad brim, and a brown
+band tied in a true lover's knot at one side. The remainder of his
+costume consisted of a black cloth roundabout, threadbare and dirty; a
+pair of black casimere pantaloons, very tight about the legs and burst
+open in several places; and a pair of moccasins on his feet, adorned
+with beads and patches of red flannel. If he wore a shirt it was not
+conspicuous for whiteness, for I failed to discover it. When he saw
+that a stranger stood before him, he looked quite overwhelmed with
+astonishment, and gasped out some inarticulate words, consisting
+principally of Icelandic interjections.
+
+"How do you do, sir?" said I, in the usual California style. "I'm glad
+to meet an Englishman in this wild country!"
+
+"Ye'ow-w-w!" (a prolonged exclamation.)
+
+"Just arrived, sir?"
+
+"Nay-y-y!" (a prolonged negative.)
+
+"You speak English, I believe, sir?"
+
+"Oh-h-h! Ya-a-a-s. Are--you--an--Englishman?"
+
+"No, sir. An American, from California."
+
+"De-e-e-a-r-r m-e-e!"
+
+  [Illustration: OH-O-O-AH!]
+
+Here there was a pause, for I really did not know what to make of the
+man. He looked at the ceiling, and at the floor, and out of the
+window, and started a remark several times, but always stopped before
+he got under way, or lost it in a prolonged "Oh-o-o-a!" Again and
+again he attempted to speak, never getting beyond a word or two. It
+seemed as if some new idea were continually crossing his mind and
+depriving him of his breath: he labored under a chronic astonishment.
+At first I supposed it might be the natural result of a year's absence
+in the interior of Iceland, but subsequent acquaintance with him
+satisfied me that it was constitutional. He was astonished all the
+way from Reykjavik to Scotland. When it rained he opened his eyes as
+if they would burst; looked up in the sky, and cried "Oh-h-h!" When it
+blew he tumbled into his berth, covered himself up in the blankets,
+peeped out in the most profound amazement, and ejaculated "Ah-h-h!
+Oh-h-h! Hay-y-y! Ye'ow-w-w!" When the weather was fine he came up on
+deck, peered over the bulwarks, up at the rigging, down into the
+engine-room, and was perfectly astounded at each object, exclaiming
+alternately "Oh-h-o-o-a-a-h!" "Ah-ha!" "H-a-y!" and "Ye'ow-w-w-w!" At
+Thingvalla his main food was curds and black bread, yet he had an
+abundance of the best provisions. He was a thorough Icelandic scholar,
+and spoke the language with ease and grace, only when interrupted by
+the novel ideas that so often struck him in the head. With all his
+oddity, he was a gentleman by birth and education, and was very
+amiable in his disposition. He had evidently spent much of his life
+over books; his knowledge of the world scarcely equaled that of a
+child. From all that I could gather of his winter's experiences in
+North Iceland, the climate was not very severe, except at occasional
+intervals when there was a press of ice-fields along the coast. The
+mean temperature was quite moderate. He suffered no inconvenience at
+all from the weather. At times it was very pleasant. He had the
+misfortune to break his leg in climbing over some lava-bergs, which
+crippled him for some weeks, but he was now getting all right again.
+This account of his experiences, which I obtained from him during the
+evening, took many divergences into the "Ohs!" and "Ahs!" and was
+really both instructive and entertaining. When he came to the breaking
+of his leg, I expressed my astonishment at the equanimity with which
+he bore it, which so astonished him, when he came to think of it in
+that light, that he cried "Oh-h-a-a! ya-a-s! It--was--very--bad!" as
+if he had entirely forgotten how bad it was, and now made a new and
+most singular discovery.
+
+As there was only the one small room we had to sleep at pretty close
+quarters, the Englishman on the sofa and I in the bed, which for some
+reason was awarded to me by the good pastor. Having no preference, I
+offered to exchange; but this only astonished my eccentric neighbor,
+and set him off into a labyrinth of interjections. Our heads were
+placed pretty close together, and it was some time before I could
+settle myself to sleep, owing to a variety of peculiar sounds he made
+in whispering to himself. He seemed to be telling himself some
+interminable story from one of the Sagas. Several times I dozed off,
+and was awakened by some extraordinary ejaculation.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said I, at length, rising up, and looking in the
+face of my neighbor, who was lying on his back, with his eyes wide
+open, "I beg your pardon, sir; did you speak to me?"
+
+"Oh-h-h-a!" shouted the Englishman, jumping up as if touched with a
+streak of electricity. "Dear me! ha--oh-o-o! How very odd!"
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Good-night, sir!" I said, and lay down again. The Englishman also
+composed himself to rest, but presently rose up, and looking over at
+me, exclaimed "Oh-o-o-ah!"
+
+This was all. Then we both composed ourselves to sleep. Tired as I was
+after my ride from the Geysers and the bad night I had passed there,
+it was no wonder I soon lost all consciousness of the proximity of my
+eccentric room-mate, and the probability is I would have gotten well
+through the night but for another singular and unexpected
+interruption.
+
+"Hello! What the devil! Who's here? By Jove, this is jolly! I say!
+Where the dooce is our American friend? Down, Bowser! Down! Blawst the
+dog! Ho! ho! Look there, Tompkins! I say! Here's a go!"
+
+There was a tramping of feet, a knocking about of loose things in the
+room, and a chorus of familiar voices in the adjoining passage. It is
+needless to say that the party of sporting Englishmen had arrived from
+Reykjavik.
+
+"Oh-h-a! Ye-o-w!" exclaimed my room-mate, starting up, and gazing
+wildly at the lively young gentleman with the dog. "Oh-o-o! How very
+odd!"
+
+The jolly sportsman looked at the apparition in perfect amazement.
+Both stared at each other for a moment, as if such an extraordinary
+sight had never been witnessed on either side before.
+
+"By Jove! this is jolly!" muttered the lively gentleman, turning on
+his heel and walking out; "a devilish rum-looking chap, that!"
+
+"Oh-o-o-o!" was all my astonished room-mate said, after which he
+turned over and composed himself to sleep. I had purposely refrained
+from manifesting any symptoms of wakefulness, well-knowing that there
+would be no farther rest that night if I once discovered myself to the
+traveling party.
+
+At a seasonable hour in the morning, however, I got up, and looked
+about in search of my fellow-passengers, whom I really liked, and in
+whose progress I felt a considerable interest. They were camped close
+by the church, under the lee of the front door. Two canvas tents
+covered what was left of them. A general wreck of equipments lay
+scattered all around--broken poles, boxes, tinware, etc. It was plain
+enough they had encountered incredible hardships.
+
+  [Illustration: THE ENGLISH PARTY.]
+
+The usual greetings over, I inquired how they had enjoyed the trip
+from Reykjavik. In reply they gave me a detailed and melancholy
+history of their experiences. Riley's Narrative of Shipwreck, and
+subsequent hardships on the coast of Africa, was nothing to it. Of the
+twenty-five horses with which they left Reykjavik only thirteen were
+sound of wind, and of these more than half were afflicted with raw
+backs. The pack-animals, eighteen in number, were every one lame. Then
+the packs were badly done up, and broke to pieces on the way.
+Sometimes the ropes cut the horses' backs, and sometimes the horses
+lay down on the road, and tried to travel with their feet in the air.
+Incredible difficulty was experienced in making twelve miles the first
+day. It rained all the time. The bread was soaked; the tea destroyed;
+the sugar melted; and the Champagne baskets smashed. When the packs
+were taken off it was discovered that some of them wore quite empty,
+and the contents, consisting originally of hair-brushes, flea-powder,
+lip-salve, and cold-cream, were strewn along the road probably all the
+way from Reykjavik. The cot-fixtures were swelled and wouldn't fit;
+the tea-kettle was jammed into a cocked-hat; the tent-pins were lost,
+and the hatchet nowhere to be found. It was a perfect series of jams,
+smashes, and scatterings. Even the sheets were filled with mud, and
+wholly unfit for use until they could be washed and done up. One horse
+lay down on the portable kitchen, and flattened it into a general
+pancake; another attempted to take an impression of his own body on
+the photographic apparatus, and reduced it (the apparatus) to
+fragments; another, wishing perhaps to see his face as others saw him,
+raked off the looking-glasses against a point of lava, and walked on
+them; and, lastly, one stupid beast contrived in some way to get his
+nose into a mustard-case which had fallen from a pack in front, and,
+snuffing up the mustard, got his nostrils burnt and went perfectly
+crazy, kicking, plunging, and charging at all the other horses till he
+drove them all as crazy as himself, whereby a prodigious amount of
+damage was done. In short, it was a series of disasters from beginning
+to end; and here they were now but two days' journey from Reykjavik (I
+had made the whole distance easily in seven hours), and, by Jove,
+there was no telling how much longer it would be possible to keep the
+guide. They had already quarreled with him several times, and
+threatened to discharge him. He was a stupid dunce, and a rascal and a
+cheat into the bargain. On the whole, it was a "rum" sort of a country
+to travel in. No game, no roads, no shops, no accommodations for man
+or beast! And who ever saw such houses for people to live in? Mere
+sheep-pens! Disgustingly filthy! A beastly set of ragamuffins! By
+Jove, sir, if it wasn't for the name of the thing, a fellow might as
+well be in the infernal regions at once! In truth, I must acknowledge
+that the interior of an Icelandic hut does not present a very
+attractive spectacle to a stranger.
+
+I deeply sympathized with my friends, and urged them to leave the
+remainder of their baggage. If there was any medicine left, a dose of
+quinine all around might do them good and prevent any ill effects from
+the rain; but, on the whole, I thought they would get along better
+with less baggage.
+
+"Less baggage!" cried all together. "Why, hang it, our baggage is
+scattered along the trail clear back to Reykjavik! It has been growing
+less ever since we started. By the time we reach the Geysers it is
+questionable if we'll have as much as a fine-tooth comb left!"
+
+"Then," said I, "you can travel. Sell a dozen of your horses on the
+way, and you'll be rid of another trouble!"
+
+"Sell them; they wouldn't bring a farthing. They're not worth a
+groat."
+
+"Then turn them loose."
+
+"That's a jolly idea," said the lively sportsman; "how the deuce are
+we to travel without pack-horses?"
+
+"Oh, nothing easier. You don't need pack-horses when you have no
+packs."
+
+"By Jove, there's something in that!" said the jolly gentleman. "Our
+American friend ought to know. He's seen the elephant before."
+
+This proposition gave rise to an animated discussion, during which I
+wished them a prosperous tour, and took my leave. Of their subsequent
+career I have heard nothing, save that they arrived safely in England,
+and published various letters in the newspapers giving glowing
+accounts of their Icelandic experience.
+
+  [Illustration: INTERIOR OF ICELANDIC HUT.]
+
+Nothing of importance occurred on the way back to Reykjavik. I
+arrived there early in the afternoon safe and sound, and greatly
+benefited by the trip. Like the beatings received by Brusa, the
+experience was delightful when it was over. I paid off my excellent
+guide Geir Zoega, and made him a present of the few articles that
+remained from the expedition. It is a great pleasure to be able to
+recommend a guide heartily and conscientiously. A worthier man than
+Geir Zoega does not exist, and I hereby certify that he afforded me
+entire satisfaction. No traveler who desires an honest, intelligent,
+and conscientious guide can do better than secure his services. Long
+life and happiness to you, Geir Zoega! May your shadow never be less;
+and may your invaluable little dog Brusa live to profit by your wise
+counsel and judicious administration of the rod.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+A FRIGHTFUL ADVENTURE.
+
+
+The _Arcturus_ had been delayed in discharging freight by a series of
+storms which prevailed at the bay, and was now down at Haparanda Fjord
+taking in ballast. The probability was that she would not leave for
+several days. Meantime I was extremely anxious to see a little more of
+domestic life in Iceland, and made several foot-expeditions to the
+farm-houses in the neighborhood of Reykjavik.
+
+At one of these I passed a night. In giving the details of an awkward
+adventure that befell me on that occasion, it is only necessary for me
+to say of the house that it was built in the usual primitive style,
+already described at some length. The people were farmers, and the
+family consisted of an old man and his wife, three or four stout sons,
+and a buxom daughter some twenty years of age. A few words of Danish
+enabled me to make them understand that I wished for a cup of coffee,
+some bread, and lodgings for the night. They were exceeding kind, and
+seemed greatly interested in the fact that I was an American--probably
+the first they had ever seen. The coffee was soon ready; a cloth was
+spread upon the table, and a very good supper of bread, cheese, and
+curds placed before me. I passed some hours very sociably, giving
+them, as well as I could by means of signs and diagrams, aided by a
+few words of Danish, a general idea of California, its position on the
+globe, and the enormous amount of gold which it yielded. Evidently
+they had heard some exaggerated rumors of the country. The name was
+familiar to them, but they had no idea where this El Dorado was, or
+whether there was any truth in the statement that the mountains were
+made of gold, and all the rocks in the valleys of pure silver. My
+efforts to enlighten them on these points were rather ludicrous. It
+was miraculous how far I made a few words go, and how quick they were
+to guess at my meaning.
+
+About eleven o'clock the old people began to manifest symptoms of
+drowsiness, and gave me to understand that whenever I felt disposed to
+go to bed the girl would show me my room. A walk of ten or twelve
+miles over the lava-bergs rendered this suggestion quite acceptable,
+so I bade the family a friendly good-night, and followed the girl to
+another part of the house. She took me into a small room with a bed in
+one corner. By a motion of her hand she intimated that I could rest
+there for the night. I sat down on the edge of the bed and said it was
+very good--that I was much obliged to her. She still lingered in the
+room, however, as if waiting to see if she could be of any farther
+assistance. I could not be insensible to the fact that she was a very
+florid and good-natured looking young woman; but, of course, that was
+none of my business. All I could do with propriety was to thank her
+again, and signify by taking off my overcoat that I was about to go to
+bed. Still she lingered, apparently disposed to be as friendly as
+circumstances would permit. It was somewhat awkward being alone in a
+strange room with a person of the opposite sex, young and rather
+pretty, without saying any thing particular. Her silence, as well as
+my own, was getting embarrassing. I attempted to carry on a
+conversation in Danish, of which I soon discovered she knew even less
+than I did myself. She answered my remarks, however, in her native
+tongue, with a very sweet voice, and in such a sociable way that I
+felt sure she meant to be kind and hospitable. In vain I waited for
+her to leave. It was getting late, and her parents might feel anxious
+about her. Still she manifested no disposition to go away. What could
+the girl mean? was a question that now began to enter my head.
+Probably I had taken possession of her room, and she had no other
+place to sleep. If so, it was not my fault. Nobody could hold me
+responsible for such a peculiar family arrangement. Seeing no
+alternative but to test the point, I gradually began to take off my
+coat. So far from being abashed at the movement, she seized hold of
+the sleeves and helped me off with it. I did the same with my vest,
+and still with the same result. Then I pulled off my boots, but with
+no better prospect of relief from my embarrassing dilemma. Finally I
+came to my pantaloons, at which I naturally hesitated. It was about
+time for the young woman to leave, if she had any regard for my
+feelings. I thanked her very cordially; but she showed no symptoms of
+leaving. It was plain that she meant to help me through with the
+business. I sat for some time longer before I could bring myself to
+this last trying ordeal. There was something so pure and innocent in
+the expression of the young woman's face--such an utter
+unconsciousness of any impropriety in our relative positions, that I
+scarcely knew what to do or think. "She wants to help me off with my
+pantaloons--that's plain!" said I to myself. "Perhaps it is the custom
+in Iceland; but it is very awkward, nevertheless." The fact is, you
+see, I was not quite old enough to be the girl's father, nor yet quite
+young enough to be put to bed like her youngest brother. Between the
+two extremes of the case I was considerably troubled. To reject her
+kind offers of service might be deemed rude, and nothing was farther
+from my intention than to offend this amiable young person. Allowing a
+reasonable time to elapse, I saw there was no getting over the
+difficulty, and began to remove the last article of my daily apparel.
+Doubtless she had long foreseen that it would eventually come to that.
+In a very accommodating manner, she took a position directly in front,
+and beckoned to me to elevate one of my legs, an order which I
+naturally obeyed. Then she seized hold of the pendent casimere and
+dragged away with a hearty good-will. I was quickly reduced to my
+natural state with the exception of a pair of drawers, which, to my
+horror, I discovered were in a very ragged condition, owing to the
+roughness of my travels in this wild region. However, by an adroit
+movement I whirled into bed, and the young woman covered me up and
+wished me a good night's sleep. I thanked her very cordially, and so
+ended this strange and rather awkward adventure.
+
+  [Illustration: AN AWKWARD PREDICAMENT.]
+
+Such primitive scenes are to be found only in the interior. In the
+towns the women are in dress and manners very like their sisters
+elsewhere. Hoops and crinoline are frequently to be seen not only
+among the Danes, who, as a matter of course, import them from
+Copenhagen, but among the native women, who can see no good reason why
+they should not be as much like pyramids or Jokuls as others of their
+sex. Bonnets and inverted pudding-bowls are common on the heads of the
+Reykjavik ladies, though as yet they have not found their way into the
+interior. All who can afford it indulge in a profusion of
+jewelry--silver clasps, breast-pins, tassel-bands, etc., and various
+articles of filigree made by native artists. These feminine traits I
+had not expected to find so fully developed in so out-of-the-way a
+country. But where is it that lovely woman will not make herself still
+more captivating? I once saw in Madagascar a belle of the first rank,
+as black as the ace of spades, and greased all over cocoa-nut oil,
+commit great havoc among her admirers by a necklace of shark's teeth
+and a pair of brass anklets, and nothing else. The rest of her
+costume, with a trifling exception, was purely imaginary; yet she was
+as vain of her superior style, and put on as many fine airs, as the
+most fashionable lady in any civilized country. After all, what is the
+difference between a finely-dressed savage and a finely-dressed
+Parisian? None at all that I can see, save in the color of the skin
+and the amount of labor performed by the manufacturer, the milliner,
+the tailor, or the schoolmaster. Intrinsically the constitution of the
+mind is identically the same. I speak now of men as well as women, for
+the most affected creatures I have seen in Europe are of the male sex.
+So pardon me, fair ladies, for any reflection upon your crinoline, and
+accept as my apology this candid avowal--that while you are naturally
+angelic, and always beautiful beyond comparison, in spite of what you
+do to disfigure your lovely persons, we men are naturally savages, and
+are driven to the barbarous expedient of adorning and beautifying our
+ugly bodies with gewgaws, tinsel, and jimcrackery, in order that they
+may be acceptable in your eyes.
+
+On my return to Reykjavik I found that the steamer was to sail next
+day. I was very anxious to visit Mount Hecla, but my time and means
+were limited, and would not permit of a farther sojourn in this
+interesting land. It was a great satisfaction to have seen any thing
+of it at all; and if I have given the reader even a slight glimpse of
+its wonders, my trip has not been entirely unsuccessful.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
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+"Playing for High Stakes," "Walter Goring," &c. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents.
+
+
+_Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood._
+
+A Novel. By George Macdonald, M.A. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75.
+
+
+_Two Marriages._
+
+A Novel. By Miss Mulock, Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman," "A Noble
+Life," "Christian's Mistake," &c., &c. Large 12mo, Cloth, Beveled
+Edges, $1 50.
+
+
+_The Land of Thor._
+
+By J. Ross Browne, Author of "An American Family in Germany,"
+"Crusoe's Island," "Yusef," &c. Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00.
+
+
+_The Village on the Cliff._
+
+A Novel. By Miss Thackeray, Author of "The Story of Elizabeth."
+Illustrated. 8vo, Paper, 25 cents.
+
+
+_Partisan Life with Mosby;_
+
+Or, Three Years with Mosby and his Men. By John Scott, of Fauquier,
+Author of "The Lost Principle" and "Letters to an Officer in the
+Army." 8vo, Cloth. (_In Press._)
+
+
+_Black Sheep._
+
+A Novel. By Edmund Yates, Author of "Kissing the Rod," "Land at Last,"
+&c. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.
+
+
+
+
+VALUABLE AND INTERESTING
+
+BOOKS,
+
+_SUITABLE FOR YOUNG PERSONS_.
+
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS will send any of the following Works by Mail,
+postage paid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the
+price.
+
+HARPER'S CATALOGUE and TRADE-LIST may be had gratuitously on
+application to the Publishers personally, or sent by mail on receipt
+of Five Cents.
+
+
+Laboulaye's Fairy Book. Fairy Tales of all Nations. By Edouard
+Laboulaye, Member of the Institute of France. Translated by Mary L.
+Booth. Elegantly Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00.
+
+
+Miss Mulock's Fairy Book. The best Popular Fairy Stories selected and
+rendered anew. Engravings. 16mo, Cloth, $1 50.
+
+
+Fairy Book Illustrated. Containing Twelve New Stories, expressly
+translated for this Work. With 81 fine Engravings, by Adams. 16mo,
+Cloth, $1 50.
+
+
+Abbott's Franconia Stories. Numerous Illustrations. Complete in 10
+vols., 16mo, Cloth, 90 cents each. The volumes may be obtained
+separately; or complete in neat case, $9 00:
+
+    Malleville; Mary Belle; Ellen Linn; Wallace; Beechnut;
+    Stuyvesant; Agnes; Mary Erskine; Rodolphus; Caroline.
+
+
+Abbott's Little Learner Series. Harper's Picture-Books for the
+Nursery. Beautifully Illustrated. In 5 vols., 90 cents each. The
+Volumes complete in themselves, and sold separately; or the Set
+complete in case, for $4 50:
+
+    Learning to Talk; To Think; To Read; About Common
+    Things; About Right and Wrong.
+
+
+Abbott's Marco Paul's Voyages and Travels in the Pursuit of Knowledge.
+Beautifully Illustrated. Complete in 6 vols., 16mo, Cloth, 90 cents
+each. The volumes may be obtained separately; or complete in neat
+case, for $5 40:
+
+    In New York; On the Erie Canal; In the Forests of Maine;
+    In Vermont; In Boston; At the Springfield Armory.
+
+
+Abbott's Stories of Rainbow and Lucky. Beautifully Illustrated. 5
+vols., 16mo, Cloth, 90 cents per Volume. The volumes may be obtained
+separately; or complete in neat case, $4 50:
+
+    Hardie; Rainbow's Journey; Selling Lucky; Up the River;
+    The Three Pines.
+
+
+Abbott's Illustrated Histories. Illustrated with numerous Engravings.
+16mo, Cloth, $1 20 per Volume. The volumes may be obtained separately;
+or the Set complete in box, $33 60:
+
+    Cyrus the Great; Darius the great; Xerxes; Alexander the
+    Great; Romulus; Hannibal; Pyrrhus; Julius Caesar;
+    Cleopatra; Nero; Alfred the Great; William the
+    Conqueror; Richard I.; Richard II.; Richard III.; Mary
+    Queen of Scots; Queen Elizabeth; Charles I.; Charles
+    II.; Josephine; Marie Antoinette; Madame Roland; Henry
+    IV.; Margaret of Anjou; Peter the Great; Genghis Khan;
+    King Philip; Hernando Cortez.
+
+
+Abbott's Young Christian Series. Very greatly improved and enlarged.
+Numerous Engravings. The Volumes sold separately. Complete in 4 vols.,
+12mo, Cloth, $1 75 each:
+
+    The Young Christian; The Corner-Stone; The Way to do
+    Good; Hoary-head and M'Donner.
+
+
+Aikin's Evenings at Home; or, The Juvenile Budget Opened. By Dr. Aikin
+and Mrs. Barbauld. With 34 Engravings by Adams. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50.
+
+
+Child's History of England. By Charles Dickens. 2 vols., 16mo, Cloth,
+$2 00.
+
+
+Child's History of the United States. By John Bonner. 3 vols., 16mo,
+Cloth, $3 75.
+
+
+Child's History of Rome. By John Bonner. With Illustrations. 2 vols.,
+16mo, Cloth, $2 50.
+
+
+Child's History of Greece. By John Bonner. With Illustrations. 16mo,
+$2 50.
+
+
+Edgar's Boyhood of Great Men. By John G. Edgar. With Illustrations.
+16mo, Cloth, $1 20.
+
+
+Edgar's Footprints of Famous Men. By John G. Edgar. With
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+
+
+Edgar's History for Boys; or, Annals of the Nations of Modern Europe.
+By John G. Edgar. Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1 20.
+
+
+Edgar's Sea-Kings and Naval Heroes. A Book for Boys. By John G. Edgar.
+Illustrated by C. Keene and E. K. Johnson. 16mo, Cloth, $1 20.
+
+
+Edgar's Wars of the Roses. By John G. Edgar. Illustrations. 16mo,
+Cloth, $1 20.
+
+
+Nineteen Beautiful Years; or, Sketches of a Girl's Life. Written by
+her Sister. With an Introduction by Rev. R. S. Foster, D.D. 16mo,
+Cloth, $1 00.
+
+
+Harper's Boys' and Girls' Library. 32 Volumes. Numerous Engravings.
+18mo, Cloth. Sold separately at 75 cents a Volume:
+
+    Lives of the Apostles and Early Martyrs.
+    The Swiss Family Robinson. 2 vols.
+    Sunday Evenings. Comprising Scripture Stories. 3 vols.
+    Mrs. Hofland's Son of a Genius.
+    Thatcher's Indian Traits. 2 vols.
+    Thatcher's Tales of the American Revolution.
+    Miss Eliza Robins's Tales from American History. 3 vols.
+    Mrs. Hofland's Young Crusoe; or, The Shipwrecked Boy.
+    Perils of the Sea.
+    Lives of Distinguished Females.
+    Mrs. Phelps's Caroline Westerley.
+    Mrs. Hughs's Ornaments Discovered.
+    The Clergyman's Orphan; the Infidel Reclaimed.
+    Uncle Philip's Natural History.
+    Uncle Philip's Evidences of Christianity.
+    Uncle Philip's History of Virginia.
+    Uncle Philip's American Forest.
+    Uncle Philip's History of New York. 2 vols.
+    Uncle Philip's Whale Fishery and the Polar Seas. 2 vols.
+    Uncle Philip's History of the Lost Colonies of Greenland.
+    Uncle Philip's History of Massachusetts. 2 vols.
+    Uncle Philip's History of New Hampshire 2 vols.
+
+
+Harper's Fireside Library; expressly adapted to the Domestic Circle,
+Sunday-Schools, &c. Cloth, Seventy-five cents each:
+
+    Alden's Alice Gordon.
+    Alden's Lawyer's Daughter.
+    Alden's Young Schoolmistress.
+    Burdett's Arthur Martin.
+    The Dying Robin.
+    Ellen Herbert; or, Family Changes.
+    Mayhew's Good Genius that turned every thing into Gold.
+    William the Cottager.
+    Mayhew's Magic of Kindness.
+
+
+Harper's Story Books. Narratives, Biographies, and Tales for the
+Young. By Jacob Abbott. With more than 1000 beautiful Engravings.
+
+    "HARPER'S STORY BOOKS" can be obtained complete in
+    Twelve Volumes, each one containing Three Stories, at
+    the price of $21 00; or in Thirty-six Thin Volumes, each
+    containing One Story, at the price of $32 40. The
+    volumes sold separately.
+
+    Vol. I. Bruno; Willie and the Mortgage; The Strait Gate.
+    Vol II. The Little Louvre; Prank; Emma. Vol. III.
+    Virginia; Timboo and Joliba; Timboo and Fanny. Vol. IV.
+    The Harper Establishment; Franklin; The Studio. Vol. V.
+    The Story of Ancient History; The Story of English
+    History; The Story of American History. Vol. VI. John
+    True; Elfred; The Museum. Vol. VII. The Engineer;
+    Rambles among the Alps; The Three Gold Dollars. Vol.
+    VIII. The Gibraltar Gallery; The Alcove; Dialogues. Vol.
+    IX. The Great Elm; Aunt Margaret; Vernon. Vol. X. Carl
+    and Jocko; Lapstone; Orkney the Peacemaker. Vol. XI.
+    Judge Justin; Minigo; Jasper. Vol. XII. Congo; Viola;
+    Little Paul.
+
+    Some of the Story Books are written particularly for
+    Girls, some for Boys; and the different volumes are
+    adapted to various ages, so that the Series forms a
+    complete Library of Story Books for Children of the
+    Family and the Sunday-School.
+
+
+Miss Mulock's Our Year. A Child's Book in Prose and Verse. Illustrated
+by Clarence Dobell. 16mo, Cloth, gilt edges, $1 00.
+
+
+Children's Picture-Books. Square 4to, about 300 pages each,
+beautifully printed on Tinted Paper, with many Illustrations by Weir,
+Steinle, Overbeck, Veit, Schnorr, Harvey, &c., bound in Cloth, gilt,
+$1 50 a volume; or the Series complete in neat case, $7 50:
+
+    The Children's Bible Picture-Book; The Children's
+    Picture Fable-Book; The Children's Picture-Book of
+    Quadrupeds, and other Mammalia; The Children's
+    Picture-Book of the Sagacity of Animals; The Children's
+    Picture-Book of Birds.
+
+
+Mayhew's Boyhood of Martin Luther; or, The Sufferings of the Little
+Beggar-boy who afterward became the Great German Reformer. By Henry
+Mayhew. Beautifully Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Mayhew's Peasant-Boy Philosopher. The Story of the Peasant-Boy
+Philosopher; or, "A Child gathering Pebbles on the Sea-Shore."
+(Founded on the Early Life of Ferguson, The Shepherd-Boy Astronomer,
+and intended to show how a Poor Lad became acquainted with the
+Principles of Natural Science.) By Henry Mayhew. Illustrations. 16mo,
+Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Mayhew's Wonders of Science; or, Young Humphrey Davy (The Cornish
+Apothecary's Boy, who taught himself Natural Philosophy and eventually
+became President of the Royal Society). The Life of a Wonderful Boy
+written for Boys. By Henry Mayhew. Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Mayhew's Young Benjamin Franklin; or, the Right Road through Life. A
+Story to show how Young Benjamin Learned the Principles which Raised
+him from a Printer's Boy to the First Embassador of the American
+Republic. A Boy's Book on a Boy's Own Subject. By Henry Mayhew. With
+Illustrations by John Gilbert. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Mr. Wind and Madam Rain. By Paul De Musset. Translated by Emily
+Makepeace. Illustrated by Charles Bennett. Square 4to, Cloth, 75
+cents.
+
+
+Mrs. Mortimer's Reading without Tears; or, A Pleasant Mode of Learning
+to Read. Beautifully Illustrated. Small 4to, Cloth, 75 cents.
+
+
+Mrs. Mortimer's Reading without Tears, Part II. Beautifully
+Illustrated. Small 4to, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Mrs. Mortimer's Lines Left Out; or, Some of the Histories left out in
+"Line upon Line." The First Part relates Events in the Times of the
+Patriarchs and the Judges. By the Author of "Line upon Line," "Reading
+without Tears," "More about Jesus," "Streaks of Light," &c. With
+Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents.
+
+
+Mrs. Mortimer's More about Jesus. With Illustrations and a Map. By the
+author of "Peep of Day," "Reading without Tears," &c. 16mo, Cloth, 75
+cents.
+
+
+Mrs. Mortimer's Streaks of Light; or Fifty-two Facts from the Bible
+for Fifty-two Sundays of the Year. By the Author of "Reading without
+Tears," &c. Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, gilt, 75 cents.
+
+
+Harry's Ladder to Learning. With 250 Illustrations. Square 4to, Cloth,
+75 cents.
+
+
+Harry's Summer in Ashcroft. Illustrations. Square 4to, Cloth, 75
+cents.
+
+
+Kingston's Fred Markham in Russia; or, The Boy Travellers in the Land
+of the Czar. By W. H. G. Kingston. Profusely and elegantly
+illustrated. Small 4to, Cloth, gilt, 75 cents.
+
+
+Reid's Odd People. Being a Popular Description of Singular Races of
+Men. By Captain Mayne Reid. With Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents.
+
+
+Reuben Davidger. The Adventures of Reuben Davidger, Seventeen Years
+and Four Months Captive among the Dyaks of Borneo. By James Greenwood.
+With Engravings. 8vo, Cloth, $1 75.
+
+
+Seymour's Self-Made Men. By Charles C. B. Seymour. Many Portraits.
+12mo, 588 pages, Cloth, $1 75.
+
+
+Smiles's Self-Help: with Illustrations of Character and Conduct. By
+Samuel Smiles. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+
+Thackeray's Rose and the Ring; or, The History of Prince Giglio and
+Prince Bulbo. A Fireside Pantomime for Great and Small Children. By
+Mr. M. A. Titmarsh. Numerous Illustrations. Small 4to, Cloth, $1 00.
+
+
+Wood's Homes without Hands: Being a Description of the Habitations of
+Animals, classed according to their Principle of Construction. By
+J. G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S., Author of "Illustrated Natural History."
+With about 140 Illustrations, engraved on Wood by G. Pearson, from
+Original Designs made by F. W. Keyl and E. A. Smith, under the
+Author's Superintendence. 8vo, Cloth, Beveled, $4 50.
+
+
+
+
+"They do honor to American Literature, and would do honor to the
+Literature of any Country in the World."
+
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC.
+
+A History
+
+BY JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY.
+
+
+New Edition. With a Portrait of William of Orange. 3 vols. 8vo,
+Muslin, $9 00.
+
+
+We regard this work as the best contribution to modern history that
+has yet been made by an American.--_Methodist Quarterly Review._
+
+The "History of the Dutch Republic" is a great gift to us; but the
+heart and earnestness that beat through all its pages are greater, for
+they give us most timely inspiration to vindicate the true ideas of
+our country, and to compose an able history of our own.--_Christian
+Examiner_ (Boston).
+
+This work bears on its face the evidences of scholarship and research.
+The arrangement is clear and effective; the style energetic, lively,
+and often brilliant. * * * Mr. Motley's instructive volumes will, we
+trust, have a circulation commensurate with their interest and
+value.--_Protestant Episcopal Quarterly Review._
+
+To the illustration of this most interesting period Mr. Motley has
+brought the matured powers of a vigorous and brilliant mind, and the
+abundant fruits of patient and judicious study and deep reflection.
+The result is, one of the most important contributions to historical
+literature that have been made in this country.--_North American
+Review._
+
+We would conclude this notice by earnestly recommending our readers to
+procure for themselves this truly great and admirable work, by the
+production of which the author has conferred no less honor upon his
+country than he has won praise and fame for himself, and than which,
+we can assure them, they can find nothing more attractive or
+interesting within the compass of modern literature.--_Evangelical
+Review._
+
+It is not often that we have the pleasure of commending to the
+attention of the lover of books a work of such extraordinary and
+unexceptionable excellence as this one.--_Universalist Quarterly
+Review._
+
+There are an elevation and a classic polish in these volumes, and a
+felicity of grouping and of portraiture, which invest the subject with
+the attractions of a living and stirring episode in the grand historic
+drama.--_Southern Methodist Quarterly Review._
+
+The author writes with a genial glow and love of his
+subject.--_Presbyterian Quarterly Review._
+
+Mr. Motley is a sturdy Republican and a hearty Protestant. His style
+is lively and picturesque, and his work is an honor and an important
+accession to our national literature.--_Church Review._
+
+Mr. Motley's work is an important one, the result of profound
+research, sincere convictions, sound principles, and manly sentiments;
+and even those who are most familiar with the history of the period
+will find it a fresh and vivid addition to their previous knowledge.
+It does honor to American Literature, and would do honor to the
+literature of any country in the world.--_Edinburgh Review._
+
+A serious chasm in English historical literature has been (by this
+book) very remarkably filled. * * * A history as complete as industry
+and genius can make it now lies before us, of the first twenty years
+of the revolt of the United Provinces. * * * All the essentials of a
+great writer Mr. Motley eminently possesses. His mind is broad, his
+industry unwearied. In power of dramatic description no modern
+historian, except, perhaps, Mr. Carlyle, surpasses him, and in
+analysis of character he is elaborate and distinct.--_Westminster
+Review._
+
+It is a work of real historical value, the result of accurate
+criticism, written in a liberal spirit, and from first to last deeply
+interesting.--_Athenaeum._
+
+The style is excellent, clear, vivid, eloquent; and the industry with
+which original sources have been investigated, and through which new
+light has been shed over perplexed incidents and characters, entitles
+Mr. Motley to a high rank in the literature of an age peculiarly rich
+in history.--_North British Review._
+
+It abounds in new information, and, as a first work, commands a very
+cordial recognition, not merely of the promise it gives, but of the
+extent and importance of the labor actually performed on it.--_London
+Examiner._
+
+Mr. Motley's "History" is a work of which any country might be
+proud.--_Press_ (London).
+
+Mr. Motley's History will be a standard book of reference in
+historical literature.--_London Literary Gazette._
+
+Mr. Motley has searched the whole range of historical documents
+necessary to the composition of his work.--_London Leader._
+
+This is a really great work. It belongs to the class of books in
+which we range our Grotes, Milmans, Merivales, and Macaulays, as the
+glories of English literature in the department of history. * * * Mr.
+Motley's gifts as a historical writer are among the highest and
+rarest.--_Nonconformist_ (London).
+
+Mr. Motley's volumes will well repay perusal. * * * For his learning,
+his liberal tone, and his generous enthusiasm, we heartily commend
+him, and bid him good speed for the remainder of his interesting and
+heroic narrative.--_Saturday Review._
+
+The story is a noble one, and is worthily treated. * * * Mr. Motley has
+had the patience to unravel, with unfailing perseverance, the thousand
+intricate plots of the adversaries of the Prince of Orange; but the
+details and the literal extracts which he has derived from original
+documents, and transferred to his pages, give a truthful color and a
+picturesque effect, which are especially charming.--_London Daily
+News._
+
+M. Lothrop Motley dans son magnifique tableau de la formation de notre
+Republique.--G. Groen Van Prinsterer.
+
+Our accomplished countryman, Mr. J. Lothrop Motley, who, during the
+last five years, for the better prosecution of his labors, has
+established his residence in the neighborhood of the scenes of his
+narrative. No one acquainted with the fine powers of mind possessed by
+this scholar, and the earnestness with which he has devoted himself to
+the task, can doubt that he will do full justice to his important but
+difficult subject.--W. H. Prescott.
+
+The production of such a work as this astonishes, while it gratifies
+the pride of the American reader.--_N. Y. Observer._
+
+The "Rise of the Dutch Republic" at once, and by acclimation, takes
+its place by the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," as a work
+which, whether for research, substance, or style, will never be
+superseded.--_N. Y. Albion._
+
+A work upon which all who read the English language may congratulate
+themselves.--_New Yorker Handels Zeitung._
+
+Mr. Motley's place is now (alluding to this book) with Hallam and Lord
+Mahon, Alison and Macaulay in the Old Country, and with Washington
+Irving, Prescott, and Bancroft in this.--_N. Y. Times._
+
+The authority, in the English tongue, for the history of the period
+and people to which it refers.--_N. Y. Courier and Enquirer._
+
+This work at once places the author on the list of American historians
+which has been so signally illustrated by the names of Irving,
+Prescott, Bancroft, and Hildreth.--_Boston Times._
+
+The work is a noble one, and a most desirable acquisition to our
+historical literature.--_Mobile Advertiser._
+
+Such a work is an honor to its author, to his country, and to the age
+in which it was written.--_Ohio Farmer._
+
+
+_Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, New York._
+
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS will send the above Work by Mail postage paid (for
+any distance in the United States under 3000 miles), on receipt of the
+Money.
+
+
+
+
+_Mr. Motley, the American historian of the United Netherlands--we owe
+him English homage._--LONDON TIMES.
+
+"_As interesting as a romance, and as reliable as a proposition of
+Euclid._"
+
+
+History of The United Netherlands.
+
+FROM THE DEATH OF WILLIAM THE SILENT TO THE SYNOD OF DORT. WITH A FULL
+VIEW OF THE ENGLISH-DUTCH STRUGGLE AGAINST SPAIN, AND OF THE ORIGIN
+AND DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.
+
+BY JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, LL.D., D.C.L.,
+
+Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, Author of "The Rise
+of the Dutch Republic."
+
+With Portraits and Map.
+
+2 vols. 8vo, Muslin, $6 00.
+
+
+_Critical Notices._
+
+His living and truthful picture of events.--_Quarterly Review_
+(London), Jan., 1861.
+
+Fertile as the present age has been in historical works of the highest
+merit, none of them can be ranked above these volumes in the grand
+qualities of interest, accuracy, and truth.--_Edinburgh Quarterly
+Review_, Jan., 1861.
+
+This noble work.--_Westminster Review_ (London).
+
+One of the most fascinating as well as important histories of the
+century.--_Cor. N. Y. Evening Post._
+
+The careful study of these volumes will infallibly afford a feast both
+rich and rare.--_Baltimore Republican._
+
+Already takes a rank among standard works of history.--_London
+Critic._
+
+Mr. Motley's prose epic.--_London Spectator._
+
+Its pages are pregnant with instruction.--_London Literary Gazette._
+
+We may profit by almost every page of his narrative. All the topics
+which agitate us now are more or less vividly presented in the History
+of the United Netherlands.--_New York Times._
+
+Bears on every page marks of the same vigorous mind that produced "The
+Rise of the Dutch Republic;" but the new work is riper, mellower, and
+though equally racy of the soil, softer flavored. The inspiring idea
+which breathes through Mr. Motley's histories and colors the whole
+texture of his narrative, is the grandeur of that memorable struggle
+in the 16th century by which the human mind broke the thraldom of
+religious intolerance and achieved its independence.--_The World,
+N. Y._
+
+The name of Motley now stands in the very front rank of living
+historians. His _Dutch Republic_ took the world by surprise; but the
+favorable verdict then given is now only the more deliberately
+confirmed on the publication of the continued story under the title of
+the _History of the United Netherlands_. All the nerve, and power, and
+substance of juicy life are there, lending a charm to every
+page.--_Church Journal, N. Y._
+
+Motley indeed, has produced a prose epic, and his fighting scenes are
+as real, spirited, and life-like as the combats in the Iliad.--_The
+Press_ (Phila.).
+
+His history is as interesting as a romance, and as reliable as a
+proposition of Euclid. Clio never had a more faithful disciple. We
+advise every reader whose means will permit to become the owner of
+these fascinating volumes, assuring him that he will never regret the
+investment.--_Christian Intelligencer, N. Y._
+
+
+Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, New York.
+
+
+--> HARPER & BROTHERS will send the above Work by Mail, postage
+prepaid (for any distance in the United States under 3000 miles), on
+receipt of the Money.
+
+
+
+
+BY MRS. GASKELL.
+
+
+CRANFORD. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25.
+
+COUSIN PHILLIS. 8vo, Paper, 25 cents.
+
+A DARK NIGHT'S WORK. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.
+
+MARY BARTON. A Tale of Manchester Life. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.
+
+THE MOORLAND COTTAGE. 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents.
+
+MY LADY LUDLOW. 8vo, Paper, 25 cents.
+
+NORTH AND SOUTH. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.
+
+RIGHT AT LAST, and Other Tales. 12mo. Cloth, $1 50.
+
+SYLVIA'S LOVERS. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents.
+
+WIVES AND DAUGHTERS. With Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $2 00; Paper,
+$1 50.
+
+
+_From the London Examiner._
+
+That tender pathos, which could sink so deep--that gentle humor, which
+could soar so lightly--that delicate perception, which nothing could
+escape--that wide sympathy, which ranged so far--those sweet
+moralities, which rang so true; it is indeed hard and sad to feel that
+these must be silent for us henceforth forever.
+
+Let us be grateful, however, that we have still those writings of hers
+which England will not willingly let die, and that she has given us no
+less an example of conscientious work and careful pains, by which we
+all alike may profit. For Mrs. Gaskell had not only genius of a high
+order, but she had also the true feeling of the artist, that grows
+impatient at whatever is unfinished or imperfect. Whether describing
+with touching skill the charities of poor to poor, or painting, with
+an art which Miss Austin might have envied, the daily round of common
+life, or merely telling, in her graphic way, some wild or simple tale:
+whatever the work, she did it with all her power, sparing nothing,
+scarcely sparing herself enough, if only the work were well and
+completely done.
+
+
+_From the New York Evening Post._
+
+It is said that George Sand remarked to an English friend: "Mrs.
+Gaskell has done what neither I nor other female writers in France can
+accomplish--she has written novels which excite the deepest interest
+in men of the world, and which every girl will be the better for
+reading."
+
+
+Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
+
+
+--> _Sent by Mail to any part of the United States, postage free, on
+receipt of the Price._
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+Minor typographic errors in punctuation and spelling (omitted or
+transposed letters, etc.) have been repaired. Hyphenation has been
+made consistent where there was a prevalence of one form over another.
+
+Archaic and variant spelling has been preserved as printed, where
+reference to the alternate spelling could be established from other
+sources, e.g. the Frith of Forth, gambling-hells, feed referring to
+the paying of a fee. If alternate spelling of proper nouns could not
+be established, it has been made consistent within the text. The
+spelling of other words and phrases in languages other than English
+has been preserved as printed.
+
+Illustrations have been moved if necessary so that they were not in
+the middle of a paragraph.
+
+A small pointing hand symbol is used in two places, and has been
+rendered as --> in this e-text.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Land of Thor, by J. Ross Browne
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