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diff --git a/42009-0.txt b/42009-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3942dc --- /dev/null +++ b/42009-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15806 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42009 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + Footnote 2 has an anchor but no footnote text. + + + + + GLIMPSES OF THREE COASTS. + + BY + HELEN JACKSON (H. H.), + + AUTHOR OF "RAMONA," "A CENTURY OF DISHONOR," "VERSES," "SONNETS + AND LYRICS," "HETTY'S STRANGE HISTORY," "BITS OF TRAVEL," + "BITS OF TRAVEL AT HOME," "ZEPH," "MERCY PHILBRICK'S + CHOICE," "BETWEEN WHILES," "BITS OF TALK + ABOUT HOME MATTERS," "BITS OF TALK FOR + YOUNG FOLKS," "NELLY'S SILVER + MINE," "CAT STORIES." + + + BOSTON: + ROBERTS BROTHERS. + 1886. + + + + + _Copyright, 1886_, + BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. + + University Press: + JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. + + CALIFORNIA AND OREGON. + PAGE + + OUTDOOR INDUSTRIES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 3 + + FATHER JUNIPERO AND HIS WORK. I. II. 30 + + THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE MISSION INDIANS IN + SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 78 + + ECHOES IN THE CITY OF THE ANGELS 103 + + CHANCE DAYS IN OREGON 129 + + + II. + + SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND. + + A BURNS PILGRIMAGE 153 + + GLINTS IN AULD REEKIE 175 + + CHESTER STREETS 196 + + + III. + + NORWAY, DENMARK, AND GERMANY. + + BERGEN DAYS 221 + + FOUR DAYS WITH SANNA 245 + + THE KATRINA SAGA. I. II. 277 + + ENCYCLICALS OF A TRAVELLER. I. II. III. 322 + + THE VILLAGE OF OBERAMMERGAU 384 + + THE PASSION PLAY AT OBERAMMERGAU 402 + + + + +CALIFORNIA AND OREGON. + + + + +GLIMPSES OF THREE COASTS. + +I. + +CALIFORNIA AND OREGON. + + +OUTDOOR INDUSTRIES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. + +Climate is to a country what temperament is to a man,--Fate. The +figure is not so fanciful as it seems; for temperament, broadly +defined, may be said to be that which determines the point of view of +a man's mental and spiritual vision,--in other words, the light in +which he sees things. And the word "climate" is, primarily, simply a +statement of bounds defined according to the obliquity of the sun's +course relative to the horizon,--in other words, the slant of the sun. +The tropics are tropic because the sun shines down too straight. +Vegetation leaps into luxuriance under the nearly vertical ray: but +human activities languish; intellect is supine; only the passions, +human nature's rank weed-growths, thrive. In the temperate zone, +again, the sun strikes the earth too much aslant. Human activities +develop; intellect is keen; the balance of passion and reason is +normally adjusted: but vegetation is slow and restricted. As compared +with the productiveness of the tropics, the best that the temperate +zone can do is scanty. + +There are a few spots on the globe where the conditions of the country +override these laws, and do away with these lines of discrimination in +favors. Florida, Italy, the South of France and of Spain, a few +islands, and South California complete the list. + +These places are doubly dowered. They have the wealths of the two +zones, without the drawbacks of either. In South California this +results from two causes: first, the presence of a temperate current in +the ocean, near the coast; second, the configuration of the mountain +ranges which intercept and reflect the sun's rays, and shut South +California off from the rest of the continent. It is, as it were, +climatically insulated,--a sort of island on land. It has just enough +of sea to make its atmosphere temperate. Its continental position and +affinities give it a dryness no island could have; and its +climatically insulated position gives it an evenness of temperature +much beyond the continental average. + +It has thus a cool summer and a temperate winter,--conditions which +secure the broadest and highest agricultural and horticultural +possibilities. It is the only country in the world where dairies and +orange orchards will thrive together. + +It has its own zones of climate; not at all following lines parallel +to the equator, but following the trend of its mountains. The +California mountains are a big and interesting family of geological +children, with great gaps in point of age, the Sierra Nevada being +oldest of all. Time was when the Sierra Nevada fronted directly on the +Pacific, and its rivers dashed down straight into the sea. But that is +ages ago. Since then have been born out of the waters the numerous +coast ranges, all following more or less closely the shore line. These +are supplemented at Point Conception by east and west ranges, which +complete the insulating walls of South, or semi-tropic, California. +The coast ranges are the youngest of the children born; but the ocean +is still pregnant of others. Range after range, far out to sea, they +lie, with their attendant valleys, biding their time, popping their +heads out here and there in the shape of islands. + +This colossal furrow system of mountains must have its correlative +system of valleys; hence the great valley divisions of the country. +There may be said to be four groups or kinds of these: the low and +broad valleys, so broad that they are plains; the high mountain +valleys; the rounded plateaus of the Great Basin, as it is called, of +which the Bernardino Mountains are the southern rim; and the river +valleys or cañons,--these last running at angles to the mountain and +shore lines. + +When the air in these valleys becomes heated by the sun, it rushes up +the slopes of the Sierra Nevada as up a mighty chimney. To fill the +vacuum thus created, the sea air is drawn in through every break in +the coast ranges as by a blower. In the upper part of the California +coast it sucks in with fury, as through the Golden Gate, piling up and +demolishing high hills of sand every year, and cutting grooves on the +granite fronts of mountains. + +The country may be said to have three distinct industrial belts: the +first, along the coast, a narrow one, from one to fifteen miles wide. +In this grow some of the deciduous fruits, corn, pumpkins, and grain. +Dairy and stock interests flourish. The nearness of the sea makes the +air cool, with fogs at night. There are many _ciénagas_, or marshy +regions, where grass is green all the year round, and water is near +the surface everywhere. Citrus fruits do not flourish in this belt, +except in sheltered spots at the higher levels. + +The second industrial belt comprises the shorter valleys opening +toward the sea; a belt of country averaging perhaps forty miles in +width. In this belt all grains will grow without irrigation; all +deciduous fruits, including the grape, flourish well without +irrigation; the citrus fruits thrive, but need irrigation. + +The third belt lies back of this, farther from the sea; and the land, +without irrigation, is worthless for all purposes except pasturage. +That, in years of average rain-fall, is good. + +The soils of South California are chiefly of the cretaceous and +tertiary epochs. The most remarkable thing about them is their great +depth. It is not uncommon, in making wells, to find the soil the same +to a depth of one hundred feet; the same thing is to be observed in +cañons, cuts, and exposed bluffs on the sea-shore. This accounts for +the great fertility of much of the land. Crops are raised year after +year, sometimes for twenty successive years, on the same fields, +without the soil's showing exhaustion; and what are called volunteer +crops, sowing themselves, give good yields for the first, second, and +even third year after the original planting. + +To provide for a wholesome variety and succession of seasons, in a +country where both winter and summer were debarred full reign, was a +meteorological problem that might well have puzzled even Nature's +ingenuity. But next to a vacuum, she abhors monotony; and to avoid it, +she has, in California, resorted even to the water-cure,--getting her +requisite alternation of seasons by making one wet and the other dry. + +To define the respective limits of these seasons becomes more and more +difficult the longer one stays in California, and the more one studies +rain-fall statistics. Generally speaking, the wet season may be said +to be from the middle of October to the middle of April, corresponding +nearly with the outside limits of the north temperate zone season of +snows. A good description of the two seasons would be--and it is not +so purely humorous and unscientific as it sounds--that the wet season +is the season in which it can rain, but may not; and the dry season is +the season in which it cannot rain, but occasionally does. + +Sometimes the rains expected and hoped for in October do not begin +until March, and the whole country is in anxiety; a drought in the wet +season meaning drought for a year, and great losses. There have been +such years in California, and the dread of them is well founded. But +often the rains, coming later than their wont, are so full and steady +that the requisite number of inches fall, and the year's supply is +made good. The average rain-fall in San Diego County is ten inches; in +Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties, fifteen; in Santa +Barbara, twenty. These five counties are all that properly come under +the name of South California, resting the division on natural and +climatic grounds. The political division, if ever made, will be based +on other than natural or climatic reasons, and will include two, +possibly three, more counties. + +The pricelessness of water in a land where no rain falls during six +months of the year cannot be appreciated by one who has not lived in +such a country. There is a saying in South California that if a man +buys water he can get his land thrown in. This is only an epigrammatic +putting of the literal fact that the value of much of the land +depends solely upon the water which it holds or controls. + +Four systems of irrigation are practised: First, flooding the land. +This is possible only in flat districts, where there are large heads +of water. It is a wasteful method, and is less and less used each +year. The second system is by furrows. By this system a large head of +water is brought upon the land and distributed in small streams in +many narrow furrows. The streams are made as small as will run across +the ground, and are allowed to run only twenty-four hours at a time. +The third system is by basins dug around tree roots. To these basins +water is brought by pipes or ditches; or, in mountain lands, by +flumes. The fourth system is by sub-irrigation. This is the most +expensive system of all, but is thought to economize water. The water +is carried in pipes laid from two to three feet under ground. By +opening valves in these pipes the water is let out and up, but never +comes above the surface. + +The appliances of one sort and another belonging to these irrigation +systems add much to the picturesqueness of South California +landscapes. Even the huge, tower-like, round-fanned windmills by which +the water is pumped up are sometimes, spite of their clumsiness, made +effective by gay colors and by vines growing on them. If they had +broad, stretching arms, like the Holland windmills, the whole country +would seem a-flutter. + +The history of the industries of South California since the American +occupation is interesting in its record of successions,--successions, +not the result of human interventions and decisions so much as of +climatic fate, which, in epoch after epoch, created different +situations. + +The history begins with the cattle interest; hardly an industry, +perhaps, or at any rate an unindustrious one, but belonging in point +of time at the head of the list of the ways and means by which money +has been made in the country. It dates back to the old mission days; +to the two hundred head of cattle which the wise Galvez brought, in +1769, for stocking the three missions projected in Upper California. + +From these had grown, in the sixty years of the friars' unhindered +rule, herds, of which it is no exaggeration to say that they covered +thousands of hills and were beyond counting. It is probable that even +the outside estimates of their numbers were short of the truth. The +cattle wealth, the reckless ruin of the secularization period, +survived, and was the leading wealth of the country at the time of its +surrender to the United States. It was most wastefully handled. The +cattle were killed, as they had been in the mission days, simply for +their hides and tallow. Kingdoms full of people might have been fed on +the beef which rotted on the ground every year, and the California +cattle ranch in which either milk or butter could be found was an +exception to the rule. + +Into the calm of this half-barbaric life broke the fierce excitement +of the gold discovery in 1849. The swarming hordes of ravenous miners +must be fed; beef meant gold. The cattlemen suddenly found in their +herds a new source of undreamed-of riches. Cattle had been sold as low +as two dollars and a half a head. When the gold fever was at its +highest, there were days and places in which they sold for three +hundred. It is not strange that the rancheros lost their heads, grew +careless and profligate. + +Then came the drought of 1864, which killed off cattle by thousands of +thousands. By thousands they were driven over steep places into the +sea to save pasturage, and to save the country from the stench and the +poison of their dying of hunger. In April of that year, fifty thousand +head were sold in Santa Barbara for thirty-seven and a half cents a +head. Many of the rancheros were ruined; they had to mortgage their +lands to live; their stock was gone; they could not farm; values so +sank, that splendid estates were not worth over ten cents an acre. + +Then came in a new set of owners. From the north and from the interior +poured in the thriftier sheep men, with big flocks; and for a few +years the wide belt of good pasturage land along the coast was chiefly +a sheep country. + +Slowly farmers followed; settling, in the beginning, around town +centres such as Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Ventura. Grains and +vegetables were grown for a resource when cattle and sheep should +fail. Cows needed water all the year round; corn only a few months. A +wheat-field might get time to ripen in a year when by reason of a +drought a herd of cattle would die. + +Thus the destiny of the country steadily went on toward its +fulfilling, because the inexorable logic of the situation forced +itself into the minds of the population. From grains and vegetables to +fruits was a short and natural step, in the balmy air, under the sunny +sky, and with the traditions and relics of the old friars' opulent +fruit growths lingering all through the land. Each palm, orange-tree, +and vineyard left on the old mission sites was a way-signal to the new +peoples; mute, yet so eloquent, the wonder is that so many years +should have elapsed before the road began to be thronged. + +Such, in brief, is the chronicle of the development of South +California's outdoor industries down to the present time; of the +successions through which the country has been making ready to become +what it will surely be, the Garden of the world,--a garden with which +no other country can vie; a garden in which will grow, side by side, +the grape and the pumpkin, the pear and the orange, the olive and the +apple, the strawberry and the lemon, Indian corn and the banana, wheat +and the guava. + +The leading position which the fruit interest will ultimately take has +been reached only in Los Angeles County. There the four chief +industries, ranged according to their relative importance, stand as +follows: Fruit, grain, wool, stock, and dairy. This county may be said +to be pre-eminently the garden of the Garden. No other of the five +counties can compete with it. Its fruit harvest is nearly +unintermitted all the year round. The main orange crop ripens from +January to May, though oranges hang on the trees all the year. The +lemon, lime, and citron ripen and hang, like the orange. Apricots, +pears, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, currants, and figs are +plentiful in June; apples, pears, peaches, during July and August. +Late in July grapes begin, and last till January. September is the +best month of all, having grapes, peaches, pomegranates, walnuts, +almonds, and a second crop of figs. From late in August till +Christmas, the vintage does not cease. + +The county has a sea-coast line of one hundred miles, and contains +three millions of acres; two thirds mountain and desert, the remaining +million good pasturage and tillable land. What is known as the great +Los Angeles valley has an area of about sixty miles in length by +thirty in width, and contains the three rivers of the county,--the +Los Angeles, the Santa Ana, and the San Gabriel. Every drop of the +water of these rivers and of the numberless little springs and streams +ministering to their system is owned, rated, utilized, and, one might +almost add, wrangled over. The chapters of these water litigations are +many and full; and it behooves every new settler in the county to +inform himself on that question first of all, and thoroughly. + +In the Los Angeles valley lie several lesser valleys, fertile and +beautiful; most notable of these, the San Gabriel valley, where was +the site of the old San Gabriel Mission, twelve miles east of the town +of Los Angeles. This valley is now taken up in large ranches, or in +colonies of settlers banded together for mutual help and security in +matter of water rights. This colony feature is daily becoming more and +more an important one in the development of the whole country. Small +individual proprietors cannot usually afford the purchase of +sufficient water to make horticultural enterprises successful or safe. +The incorporated colony, therefore, offers advantages to large numbers +of settlers of a class that could not otherwise get foothold in the +country,--the men of comparatively small means, who expect to work +with their hands and await patiently the slow growth of moderate +fortunes,--a most useful and abiding class, making a solid basis for +prosperity. Some of the best results in South California have already +been attained in colonies of this sort, such as Anaheim, Riverside, +and Pasadena. The method is regarded with increasing favor. It is a +rule of give and take, which works equally well for both country and +settlers. + +The South California statistics of fruits, grain, wool, honey, etc., +read more like fancy than like fact, and are not readily believed by +one unacquainted with the country. The only way to get a real +comprehension and intelligent acceptance of them is to study them on +the ground. By a single visit to a great ranch one is more enlightened +than he would be by committing to memory scores of Equalization Board +Reports. One of the very best, if not the best, for this purpose is +Baldwin's ranch, in the San Gabriel valley. It includes a large part +of the old lands of the San Gabriel Mission, and is a principality in +itself. + +There are over a hundred men on its pay-roll, which averages $4,000 a +month. Another $4,000 does not more than meet its running expenses. It +has $6,000 worth of machinery for its grain harvests alone. It has a +dairy of forty cows, Jersey and Durham; one hundred and twenty +work-horses and mules, and fifty thoroughbreds. + +It is divided into four distinct estates: the Santa Anita, of 16,000 +acres; Puente, 18,000; Merced, 20,000; and the Potrero, 25,000. The +Puente and Merced are sheep ranches, and have 20,000 sheep on them. +The Potrero is rented out to small farmers. The Santa Anita is the +home estate. On it are the homes of the family and of the laborers. It +has fifteen hundred acres of oak grove, four thousand acres in grain, +five hundred in grass for hay, one hundred and fifty in orange +orchards, fifty of almond trees, sixty of walnuts, twenty-five of +pears, fifty of peaches, twenty of lemons, and five hundred in vines; +also small orchards of chestnuts, hazel-nuts, and apricots; and +thousands of acres of good pasturage. + +From whatever side one approaches Santa Anita in May, he will drive +through a wild garden,--asters, yellow and white; scarlet pentstemons, +blue larkspur, monk's-hood; lupines, white and blue; gorgeous golden +eschscholtzia, alder, wild lilac, white sage,--all in riotous +flowering. + +Entering the ranch by one of the north gates, he will look southward +down gentle slopes of orchards and vineyards far across the valley, +the tints growing softer and softer, and blending more and more with +each mile, till all melt into a blue or purple haze. Driving from +orchard to orchard, down half-mile avenues through orchards skirting +seemingly endless stretches of vineyard, he begins to realize what +comes of planting trees and vines by hundreds and tens of hundreds of +acres, and the Equalization Board Statistics no longer appear to him +even large. It does not seem wonderful that Los Angeles County should +be reported as having sixty-two hundred acres in vines, when here on +one man's ranch are five hundred acres. The last Equalization Board +Report said the county had 256,135 orange and 41,250 lemon trees. It +would hardly have surprised him to be told that there were as many as +that in the Santa Anita groves alone. The effect on the eye of such +huge tracts, planted with a single sort of tree, is to increase +enormously the apparent size of the tract; the mind stumbles on the +very threshold of the attempt to reckon its distances and numbers, and +they become vaster and vaster as they grow vague. + +The orange orchard is not the unqualifiedly beautiful spectacle one +dreams it will be; nor, in fact, is it so beautiful as it ought to be, +with its evergreen shining foliage, snowy blossoms, and golden fruit +hanging together and lavishly all the year round. I fancy that if +travellers told truth, ninety-nine out of a hundred would confess to a +grievous disappointment at their first sight of the orange at home. In +South California the trees labor under the great disadvantage of being +surrounded by bare brown earth. How much this dulls their effect one +realizes on finding now and then a neglected grove where grass has +been allowed to grow under the trees, to their ruin as fruit-bearers, +but incomparably heightening their beauty. Another fatal defect in the +orange-tree is its contour. It is too round, too stout for its height; +almost as bad a thing in a tree as in a human being. The uniformity of +this contour of the trees, combined with the regularity of their +setting in evenly spaced rows, gives large orange groves a certain +tiresome quality, which one recognizes with a guilty sense of being +shamefully ungrateful for so much splendor of sheen and color. The +exact spherical shape of the fruit possibly helps on this +tiresomeness. One wonders if oblong bunches of long-pointed and +curving fruit, banana-like, set irregularly among the glossy green +leaves, would not look better; which wonder adds to ingratitude an +impertinence, of which one suddenly repents on seeing such a tree as I +saw in a Los Angeles garden in the winter of 1882,--a tree not over +thirty feet high, with twenty-five hundred golden oranges hanging on +it, among leaves so glossy they glittered in the sun with the glitter +of burnished metal. Never the Hesperides saw a more resplendent sight. + +But the orange looks its best plucked and massed; it lends itself then +to every sort and extent of decoration. At a citrus fair in the +Riverside colony in March, 1882, in a building one hundred and fifty +feet long by sixty wide, built of redwood planks, were five long +tables loaded with oranges and lemons; rows, plates, pyramids, +baskets; the bright redwood walls hung with great boughs, full as +when broken from the tree; and each plate and pyramid decorated with +the shining green leaves. The whole place was fairly ablaze, and made +one think of the Arabian Nights' Tales. The acme of success in orange +culture in California is said to have been attained in this Riverside +colony, though it is only six years old, and does not yet number two +thousand souls. There are in its orchards 209,000 orange-trees, of +which 28,000 are in bearing, 20,000 lemon trees, and 8,000 limes. + +The profits of orange culture are slow to begin, but, having once +begun, mount up fast. Orange orchards at San Gabriel have in many +instances netted $500 an acre annually. The following estimate, the +result of sixteen years' experience, is probably a fair one of the +outlay and income of a small orange grove:-- + + 10 acres of land, at $75 per acre $750.00 + 1000 trees, at $75 per hundred 750.00 + Ploughing and harrowing, $2.50 per acre 25.00 + Digging holes, planting, 10 cents each 100.00 + Irrigating and planting 10.00 + Cultivation after irrigation 4.50 + 3 subsequent irrigations during the year 30.00 + 3 subsequent cultivations the first year 13.50 + --------- + Total cost, first year $1,683.00 + + This estimate of cost of land is based on the price of the best + lands in the San Gabriel valley. Fair lands can be bought in + other sections at lower prices. + + Second year.--An annual ploughing in January $25.00 + Four irrigations during year 40.00 + Six cultivations during year 27.00 + Third year 125.00 + Fourth year 150.00 + Fifth year 200.00 + Interest on investment 1,000.00 + --------- + Total $3,250.00 + + If first-class, healthy, thrifty budded trees are planted, they + will begin to fruit the second year. The third year, a few + boxes may be marketed. The fourth year, there will be an + average yield of at least 75 oranges to the tree, which will + equal: + + 75,000, at $10 per thousand net $750.00 + The fifth year, 250 per tree, 250,000, at $10 per + thousand 2,500.00 + --------- + Total $3,250.00 + + The orchard is now clear gain, allowing $1,000 as interest on + the investment. The increase in the volume of production will + continue, until at the end of the tenth year an average of + 1,000 oranges to a tree would not be an extraordinary yield. + +To all these formulas of reckoning should be added one with the +algebraic _x_ representing the unknown quantity, and standing for +insect enemies at large. Each kind of fruit has its own, which must be +fought with eternal vigilance. No port, in any country, has more rigid +laws of quarantine than are now enforced in California against these +insect enemies. Grafts, cuttings, fruit, if even suspected, are seized +and compelled to go through as severe disinfecting processes as if +they were Cuban passengers fresh from a yellow fever epidemic. + +The orange's worst enemy is a curious insect, the scale-bug. It looks +more like a mildew than like anything alive; is usually black, +sometimes red. Nothing but violent treatment with tobacco will +eradicate it. Worse than the scale-bug, in that he works out of sight +underground, is the gopher. He has gnawed every root of a tree bare +before a tooth-mark on the trunk suggests his presence, and then it is +too late to save the tree. The rabbit also is a pernicious ally in the +barking business; he, however, being shy, soon disappears from settled +localities; but the gopher stands not in fear of man or men. Only +persistent strychnine, on his door-sills and thrust down his winding +stairs, will save the orchard in which he has founded a community. + +The almond and the walnut orchards are beautiful features in the +landscape all the year round, no less in the winter, when their +branches are naked, than in the season of their full leaf and bearing. +In fact, the broad spaces of filmy gray made by their acres when +leafless are delicious values in contrast with the solid green of the +orange orchards. The exquisite revelation of tree systems which +stripped boughs give is seen to more perfect advantage against a warm +sky than a cold one, and is heightened in effect standing side by side +with the flowing green pepper-trees and purple eucalyptus. + +In the time of blossoms, an almond orchard, seen from a distance, is +like nothing so much as a rosy-white cloud, floated off a sunset and +spread on the earth. Seen nearer, it is a pink snow-storm, arrested +and set on stalks, with an orchestra buzz of bees filling the air. + +It is a pity that the almond-tree should not be more repaying; for it +will be a sore loss to the beauty of the country when the orchards are +gone, and this is only a question of time. They are being uprooted and +cast out. The crop is a disappointing one, of uncertain yield, and +troublesome to prepare. The nuts must be five times handled: first +picked, then shucked, then dried, then bleached, and then again dried. +After the first drying, they are dipped by basketfuls into hot water, +then poured into the bleachers,--boxes with perforated bottoms. +Underneath these is a sulphur fire to which the nuts must be exposed +for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then they are again spread in a +drying-house. The final gathering them up to send to market makes +really a sixth handling; and after all is said and done, the nuts are +not very good, being flavorless in comparison with those grown in +Europe. + +The walnut orchard is a better investment, and no less a delight to +the eye. While young, the walnut-tree is graceful; when old, it is +stately. It is a sturdy bearer, and if it did not bear at all, would +be worth honorable place and room on large estates, simply for its +avenues of generous shade. It is planted in the seed, and transplanted +at two or three years old, with only twenty-seven trees to an acre. +They begin to bear at ten years, reach full bearing at fifteen, and do +not give sign of failing at fifty. + +Most interesting of all South California's outdoor industries is the +grape culture. To speak of grape culture is to enter upon a subject +which needs a volume. Its history, its riches, past and prospective, +its methods, its beautiful panorama of pictures, each by itself is +worth study and exhaustive treatment. Since the days of Eschol, the +vine and the vineyard have been honored in the thoughts and the +imaginations of men; they furnished shapes and designs for the +earliest sacred decorations in the old dispensation, and suggestions +and symbols for divine parables in the new. No age has been without +them, and no country whose sun was warm enough to make them thrive. It +is safe to predict that so long as the visible frame of the earth +endures, "wine to make glad the heart of man" will be made, loved, +celebrated, and sung. + +To form some idea of California's future wealth from the grape +culture, it is only necessary to reflect on the extent of her +grape-growing country as compared with that of France. In France, +before the days of the phylloxera, 5,000,000 of people were supported +entirely by the grape industry, and the annual average of the wine +crop was 2,000,000,000 gallons, with a value of $400,000,000. The +annual wine-yield of California is already estimated at about +10,000,000 gallons. Nearly one third of this is made in South +California, chiefly in Los Angeles County, where the grape culture is +steadily on the increase, five millions of new vines having been set +out in the spring of 1882. + +The vineyards offer more variety to the eye than the orange orchards. +In winter, when leafless, they are grotesque; their stocky, twisted, +hunchback stems looking like Hindoo idols or deformed imps, no two +alike in a square mile, all weird, fantastic, uncanny. Their first +leafing out does not do away with this; the imps seem simply to have +put up green umbrellas; but presently the leaves widen and lap, hiding +the uncouth trunks, and spreading over all the vineyard a beautiful, +tender green, with lights and shades breaking exquisitely in the +hollows and curves of the great leaves. From this on, through all the +stages of blossoms and seed-setting, till the clusters are so big and +purple that they gleam out everywhere between the leaves,--sometimes +forty-five pounds on a single vine, if the vine is irrigated, twelve +if it is left to itself. Eight tons of grapes off one acre have been +taken in the Baldwin ranch. There were made there, in 1881, 100,000 +gallons of wine and 50,000 of brandy. The vintage begins late in +August, and lasts many weeks, some varieties of grapes ripening later +than others. The vineyards are thronged with Mexican and Indian +pickers. The Indians come in bands, and pitch their tents just outside +the vineyard. They are good workers. The wine-cellars and the great +crushing-vats tell the vineyards' story more emphatically even than +the statistical figures. A vat that will hold 1,000 gallons piled full +of grapes, huge wire wheels driving round and round in the spurting, +foaming mass, the juice flying off through trough-like shoots on each +side into seventy great vats; below, breathless men working the +wheels, loads of grapes coming up momently and being poured into the +swirling vat, the whole air reeking with winy flavor. The scene makes +earth seem young again, old mythologies real; and one would not wonder +to see Bacchus and his leopards come bowling up, with shouting Pan +behind. + +The cellars are still, dark, and fragrant. Forty-eight great +oval-shaped butts, ten feet in diameter, holding 2,100 gallons each, I +counted in one cellar. The butts are made of Michigan oak, and have a +fine yellow color, which contrasts well with the red stream of the +wine when it is drawn. + +Notwithstanding the increase of the grape culture, the price of grapes +is advancing, some estimates making it forty per cent higher than it +was five years ago. It is a quicker and probably a more repaying +industry than orange-growing. It is reckoned that a vineyard in its +fourth year will produce two tons to the acre; in the seventh year, +four; the fourth year it will be profitable, reckoning the cost of the +vineyard at sixty dollars an acre, exclusive of the first cost of the +land. The annual expense of cultivation, picking, and handling is +about twenty-five dollars. The rapid increase of this culture has been +marvellous. In 1848 there were only 200,000 vines in all California; +in 1862 there were 9,500,000; in 1881, 64,000,000, of which at least +34,000,000 are in full bearing. + +Such facts and figures are distressing to the advocates of total +abstinence; but they may take heart in the thought that a by no means +insignificant proportion of these grapes will be made into raisins, +canned, or eaten fresh. + +The raisin crop was estimated at 160,000 boxes for 1881. Many +grape-growers believe that in raisin-making will ultimately be found +the greatest profit. The Americans are a raisin-eating people. From +Malaga alone are imported annually into the United States about ten +tons of raisins, one half the entire crop of the Malaga raisin +district. This district has an area of only about four hundred square +miles. In California an area of at least twenty thousand square miles +is adapted to the raisin. + +A moderate estimate of the entire annual grape crop of California is +119,000 tons. "Allowing 60,000 tons to be used in making wines, 2,000 +tons to be sent fresh to the Eastern States, and 5,000 tons to be made +into raisins, there would still remain 52,000 tons to be eaten fresh +or wasted,--more than one hundred pounds for each resident of +California, including children."[1] + +The California wines are as yet of inferior quality. A variety of +still wines and three champagnes are made; but even the best are +looked on with distrust and disfavor by connoisseurs, and until they +greatly improve they will not command a ready market in America. At +present it is to be feared that a large proportion of them are sold +under foreign labels. + + * * * * * + +Prominent among the minor industries is honey-making. From the great +variety of flowers and their spicy flavor, especially from the +aromatic sages, the honey is said to have a unique and delicious +taste, resembling that of the famous honey of Hymettus. + +The crop for 1881, in the four southern counties, was estimated at +three millions of pounds; a statistic that must seem surprising to +General Fremont, who, in his report to Congress of explorations on the +Pacific coast in 1844, stated that the honey-bee could not exist west +of the Sierra Nevadas. + +The bee ranches are always picturesque; they are usually in cañons or +on wooded foot-hills, and their villages of tiny bright-colored hives +look like gay Lilliputian encampments. It has appeared to me that men +becoming guardians of bees acquire a peculiar calm philosophy, and are +superior to other farmers and outdoor workers. It would not seem +unnatural that the profound respect they are forced to entertain for +insects so small and so wholly at their mercy should give them +enlarged standards in many things; above all, should breed in them a +fine and just humility toward all creatures. + +A striking instance of this is to be seen in one of the most beautiful +cañons of the San Gabriel valley, where, living in a three-roomed, +redwood log cabin, with a vine-covered booth in front, is an old man +kings might envy. + +He had a soldier's warranty deed for one hundred and sixty acres of +land, and he elected to take his estate at the head of a brook-swept +gorge, four fifths precipice and rock. In the two miles between his +cabin and the mouth of the gorge, the trail and the brook change sides +sixteen times. When the brook is at its best, the trail goes under +altogether, and there is no getting up or down the cañon. Here, with a +village of bees for companions, the old man has lived for a dozen +years. While the bees are off at work, he sits at home and weaves, out +of the gnarled stems and roots of manzanita and laurels, curious +baskets, chairs, and brackets, for which he finds ready market in Los +Angeles. He knows every tree and shrub in the cañon, and has a fancy +for collecting specimens of all the native woods of the region. These +he shapes into paper-cutters, and polishes them till they are like +satin. He came from Ohio forty years ago, and has lived in a score of +States. The only spot he likes as well as this gorge is Don Yana, on +the Rio Grande River, in Mexico. Sometimes he hankers to go there and +sit under the shadow of big oaks, where the land slopes down to the +river; but "the bee business," he says, "is a good business only for a +man who has the gift of continuance;" and "it's no use to try to put +bees with farms: farms want valleys, bees want mountains." + +"There are great back-draws to the bee business, the irregularities of +the flowers being chief; some years there's no honey in the flowers at +all. Some explain it on one hypothesis and some on another, and it +lasts them to quarrel over." + +His phrases astonish you; also the quiet courtesy of his manner, so at +odds with his backwoodsman's garb. But presently you learn that he +began life as a lawyer, has been a judge in his time; and when, to +show his assortment of paper-cutters, he lifts down the big book they +are kept in, and you see that it is Voltaire's "Philosophical +Dictionary," you understand how his speech has been fashioned. He +keeps a diary of every hive, the genealogy of every swarm. + +"No matter what they do,--the least thing,--we note it right down in +the book. That's the only way to learn bees," he says. + +On the outside wall of the cabin is fastened an observation hive, with +glass sides. Here he sits, watch in hand, observing and noting; he +times the bees, in and out, and in each one of their operations. He +watches the queen on her bridal tour in the air; once the drone +bridegroom fell dead on his note-book. "I declare I couldn't help +feeling sort of sorry for him," said the old man. + +In a shanty behind the house is the great honey-strainer, a marvellous +invention, which would drive bees mad with despair if they could +understand it. Into a wheel, with perforated spokes, is slipped the +comb full of honey, the cells being first opened with a hot knife. By +the swift turning of this wheel, the honey flies out of the comb, and +pours through a cylinder into a can underneath, leaving the comb whole +and uninjured, ready to be put back into the hive for the patient +robbed bees to fill again. The receiving-can will hold fifteen hundred +pounds; two men can fill it in a day; a single comb is so quickly +drained that a bee might leave his hive on his foraging expedition, +and before he could get his little load of honey and return, the comb +could be emptied and put back. It would be vastly interesting to know +what is thought and said in bee-hives about these mysterious emptyings +of combs. + +A still more tyrannical circumvention has been devised, to get extra +rations of honey from bees: false combs, wonderful imitations of the +real ones, are made of wax. Apparently the bees know no difference; at +any rate, they fill the counterfeit full of real honey. These +artificial combs, carefully handled, will last ten or twelve years in +continual use. + +The highest yield his hives had ever given him was one hundred and +eighty pounds a hive. + +"That's a good yield; at that rate, with three or four hundred hives, +I'd do very well," said the old man. "But you're at the mercy of +speculators in honey as well as everything else. I never count on +getting more than four or five cents a pound. They make more than I +do." + +The bee has a full year's work in South California: from March to +August inexhaustible forage, and in all the other months plenty to +do,--no month without some blossoms to be found. His time of danger is +when apricots are ripe and lady-bugs fly. + +Of apricots, bees will eat till they are either drunk or stuffed to +death; no one knows which. They do not live to get home. Oddly enough, +they cannot pierce the skins themselves, but have to wait till the +lady-bug has made a hole for them. It must have been an accidental +thing in the outset, the first bee's joining a lady-bug at her feast +of apricot. The bee, in his turn, is an irresistible treat to the +bee-bird and lizard, who pounce upon him when he is on the flower; and +to a stealthy moth, who creeps by night into hives and kills hundreds. + +"Nobody need think the bee business is all play," was our old +philosopher's last word. "It's just like everything else in life, and +harder than some things." + + * * * * * + +The sheep industry is, on the whole, decreasing in California. In +1876, the wool crop of the entire State was 28,000 tons; in 1881, only +21,500. This is the result, in part, of fluctuations in the price of +wool, but more of the growing sense of the greater certainty of +increase from agriculture and horticulture. + +The cost of keeping a sheep averages only $1.25 a year. Its wool sells +for $1.50, and for each hundred there will be forty-five lambs, worth +seventy-five cents each. But there have been droughts in California +which have killed over one million sheep in a year; there is always, +therefore, the risk of losing in one year the profits of many. + +The sheep ranches are usually desolate places: a great stretch of +seemingly bare lands, with a few fenced corrals, blackened and +foul-smelling; the home and out-buildings clustered together in a +hollow or on a hill-side where there is water; the less human the +neighborhood the better. + +The loneliness of the life is, of itself, a salient objection to the +industry. Of this the great owners need know nothing; they can live +where they like. But for the small sheepmen, the shepherds, and, above +all, the herders, it is a terrible life,--how terrible is shown by the +frequency of insanity among herders. Sometimes, after only a few +months of the life, a herder goes suddenly mad. After learning this +fact, it is no longer possible to see the picturesque side of the +effective groups one so often comes on suddenly in the wildernesses: +sheep peacefully grazing, and the shepherd lying on the ground +watching them, or the whole flock racing in a solid, fleecy, billowy +scamper up or down a steep hill-side, with the dogs leaping and +barking on all sides at once. One scans the shepherd's face alone, +with pitying fear lest he may be losing his wits. + +A shearing at a large sheep ranch is a grand sight. We had the good +fortune to see one at Baldwin's, at La Puente. Three thousand sheep +had been sheared the day before, and they would shear twenty-five +hundred on this day. + +A shed sixty feet long by twenty-five wide, sides open; small pens +full of sheep surrounding it on three sides; eighty men bent over at +every possible angle, eighty sheep being tightly held in every +possible position, eighty shears flashing, glancing, clipping; bright +Mexican eyes shining, laughing Mexican voices jesting. At first it +seemed only a confused scene of phantasmagoria. As our eyes became +familiarized, the confusion disentangled itself, and we could note the +splendid forms of the men and their marvellous dexterity in using the +shears. Less than five minutes it took from the time a sheep was +grasped, dragged in, thrown down, seized by the shearer's knees, till +it was set free, clean shorn, and its three-pound fleece tossed on a +table outside. A good shearer shears seventy or eighty sheep in a day; +men of extra dexterity shear a hundred. The Indians are famous for +skill at shearing, and in all their large villages are organized +shearing-bands, with captains, that go from ranch to ranch in the +shearing-season. There were a half-dozen Indians lying on the ground +outside this shearing-shed at Puente, looking on wistfully. The +Mexicans had crowded them out for that day, and they could get no +chance to work. + +A pay clerk stood in the centre of the shed with a leathern wallet +full of five-cent pieces. As soon as a man had sheared his sheep, he +ran to the clerk, fleece in hand, threw down the fleece, and received +his five-cent piece. In one corner of the shed was a barrel of beer, +which was retailed at five cents a glass; and far too many of the +five-cent pieces changed hands again the next minute at the beer +barrel. As fast as the fleeces were tossed out from the shed, they +were thrown up to a man standing on the top of the roof. This man +flung them into an enormous bale-sack, swinging wide-mouthed from a +derrick; in the sack stood another man, who jumped on the wool to pack +it down tight. + +As soon as the shearers perceived that their pictures were being drawn +by the artist in our party, they were all agog; by twos and threes +they left their work and crowded around the carriage, peering, +commenting, asking to have their portraits taken, quizzing those whose +features they recognized; it was like Italy rather than America. One +tattered fellow, whose shoeless feet were tied up in bits of +gunny-bags, was distressed because his trousers were too short. "Would +the gentleman kindly make them in the drawing a little farther down +his legs? It was an accident they were so short." All were ready to +pose and stand, even in the most difficult attitudes, as long as was +required. Those who had done so asked, like children, if their names +could not be put in the book; so I wrote them all down: "Juan Canero, +Juan Rivera, Felipe Ybara, José Jesus Lopez, and Domingo Garcia." The +space they will fill is a little thing to give; and there is a +satisfaction in the good faith of printing them, though the shearers +will most assuredly never know it. + +The faces of the sheep being shorn were piteous; not a struggle, not a +bleat, the whole of their unwillingness and terror being written in +their upturned eyes. "As a sheep before her shearers is dumb" will +always have for me a new significance. + +The shepherd in charge of the Puente ranch is an Italian named +Gaetano. The porch of his shanty was wreathed with vines and blossoms, +and opened on a characteristic little garden, half garlic, the other +half pinks and geraniums. As I sat there looking out on the scene, he +told me of a young man who had come from Italy to be herder for him, +and who had gone mad and shot himself. + +"Three go crazy last year," he said. "Dey come home, not know noting. +You see, never got company for speak at all." + +This young boy grew melancholy almost at once, was filled with +abnormal fears of the coyotes, and begged for a pistol to shoot them +with. "He want my pistol. I not want give. I say, You little sick; you +stay home in house; I send oder man. My wife she go town buy clothes +for baptism one baby got. He get pistol in drawer while she gone." +They found him lying dead with his catechism in one hand and the +pistol in the other. As Gaetano finished the story, a great flock of +two thousand shorn sheep were suddenly let out from one of the +corrals. With a great burst of bleating they dashed off, the colly +running after them. Gaetano seized his whistle and blew a sharp call +on it. The dog halted, looked back, uncertain for a second; one more +whistle, and he bounded on. + +"He know," said Gaetano. "He take dem two tousand all right. I like +better dat dog as ten men." + + * * * * * + +On the list of South California's outdoor industries, grain stands +high, and will always continue to do so. Wheat takes the lead; but +oats, barley, and corn are of importance. Barley is always a staple, +and averages twenty bushels to the acre. + +Oats average from thirty to forty bushels an acre, and there are +records of yields of considerably over a hundred bushels. + +Corn will average forty bushels an acre. On the Los Angeles River it +has grown stalks seventeen feet high and seven inches round. + +The average yield of wheat is from twenty to twenty-five bushels an +acre, about thirty-three per cent more than in the States on the +Atlantic slope. + +In grains, as in so many other things, Los Angeles County is far in +advance of the other counties. In 1879 there were in the county 31,500 +acres in wheat; in 1881, not less than 100,000; and the value of the +wheat crop, for 1882 was reckoned $1,020,000. + +The great San Fernando valley, formerly the property of the San +Fernando Mission, is the chief wheat-producing section of the county. +The larger part of this valley is in two great ranches. One of them +was bought a few years ago for $275,000; and $75,000 paid down, the +remainder to be paid in instalments. The next year was a dry year; +crops failed. The purchaser offered the ranch back again to the +original owners, with his $75,000 thrown in, if they would release him +from his bargain. They refused. The next winter rains came, the wheat +crop was large, prices were high, and the ranch actually paid off the +entire debt of $200,000 still owing on the purchase. + +From such figures as these, it is easy to see how the California +farmer can afford to look with equanimity on occasional droughts. +Experience has shown that he can lose crops two years out of five, and +yet make a fair average profit for the five years. + +The most beautiful ranch in California is said to be the one about +twelve miles west of Santa Barbara, belonging to Elwood Cooper. Its +owner speaks of it humorously as a little "pocket ranch." In +comparison with the great ranches whose acres are counted by tens of +thousands, it is small, being only two thousand acres in extent; but +in any other part of the world except California, it would be thought +a wild jest to speak of an estate of two thousand acres as a small +one. + +Ten years ago this ranch was a bare, desolate sheep ranch,--not a tree +on it, excepting the oaks and sycamores in the cañons. To-day it has +twelve hundred acres under high cultivation; and driving from field to +field, orchard to orchard, one drives, if he sees the whole of the +ranch, over eleven miles of good made road. There are three hundred +acres in wheat, one hundred and seventy in barley; thirty-five hundred +walnut trees, twelve thousand almond, five thousand olive, two +thousand fig and domestic fruit trees, and one hundred and fifty +thousand eucalyptus trees, representing twenty-four varieties; one +thousand grape-vines; a few orange, lemon, and lime trees. There are +on the ranch one hundred head of cattle, fifty horses, and fifteen +hundred sheep. + +These are mere bald figures, wonderful enough as statistics of what +may be done in ten years' time on South California soil, but totally +inadequate even to suggest the beauty of the place. + +The first relief to the monotony of the arrow-straight road which it +pleased an impatient, inartistic man to make westward from Santa +Barbara, is the sight of high, dark walls of eucalyptus trees on +either side of the road. A shaded avenue, three quarters of a mile +long, of these represents the frontages of Mr. Cooper's estate. +Turning to the right, through a break in this wall, is a road, with +dense eucalyptus woods on the left and an almond orchard on the right. +It winds and turns, past knolls of walnut grove, long lines of olive +orchard, and right-angled walls of eucalyptus trees shutting in +wheat-fields. By curves and bends and sharp turns, all the time with +new views, and new colors from changes of crop, with exquisite +glimpses of the sea shot through here and there, it finally, at the +end of a mile, reaches the brink of an oak-canopied cañon. In the +mouth of this cañon stands the house, fronting south on a sunny meadow +and garden space, walled in on three sides by eucalyptus trees. + +To describe the oak kingdom of this cañon would be to begin far back +of all known kingdoms of the country. The branches are a network of +rafters upholding roof canopies of boughs and leaves so solid that the +sun's rays pierce them only brokenly, making on the ground a dancing +carpet of brown and gold flecks even in winter, and in summer a shade +lighted only by starry glints. + +Farther up the cañon are sycamores, no less stately than the oaks, +their limbs gnarled and twisted as if they had won their places by +splendid wrestle. + +These oak-and-sycamore-filled cañons are the most beautiful of the +South California cañons; though the soft, chaparral-walled cañons +would, in some lights, press them hard for supremacy of place. Nobody +will ever, by pencil or brush or pen, fairly render the beauty of the +mysterious, undefined, undefinable chaparral. Matted, tangled, +twisted, piled, tufted,--everything is chaparral. All botany may be +exhausted in describing it in one place, and it will not avail you in +another. But in all places, and made up of whatever hundreds of shrubs +it may be, it is the most exquisite carpet surface that Nature has to +show for mountain fronts or cañon sides. Not a color that it does not +take; not a bloom that it cannot rival; a bank of cloud cannot be +softer, or a bed of flowers more varied of hue. Some day, between 1900 +and 2000, when South California is at leisure and has native artists, +she will have an artist of cañons, whose life and love and work will +be spent in picturing them,--the royal oak canopies; the herculean +sycamores; the chameleon, velvety chaparral; and the wild, +throe-built, water-quarried rock gorges, with their myriad ferns and +flowers. + +At the head of Mr. Cooper's cañon are broken and jutting sandstone +walls, over three hundred feet high, draped with mosses and ferns and +all manner of vines. I saw the dainty thalictrum, with its clover-like +leaves, standing in thickets there, fresh and green, its blossoms +nearly out on the first day of February. Looking down from these +heights over the whole of the ranch, one sees for the first time the +completeness of its beauty. The eucalyptus belts have been planted in +every instance solely with a view to utility,--either as wind-breaks +to keep off known special wind-currents from orchard or grain-field, +or to make use of gorge sides too steep for other cultivation. Yet, +had they been planted with sole reference to landscape effects, they +could not better have fallen into place. Even out to the very ocean +edge the groves run, their purples and greens melting into the purples +and greens of the sea when it is dark and when it is sunny +blue,--making harmonious lines of color, leading up from it to the +soft grays of the olive and the bright greens of the walnut orchards +and wheat-fields. When the almond trees are in bloom, the eucalyptus +belts are perhaps most superb of all, with their dark spears and +plumes waving above and around the white and rosy acres. + +The leading industry of this ranch is to be the making of olive oil. +Already its oil is known and sought; and to taste it is a revelation +to palates accustomed to the compounds of rancid cocoanut and +cotton-seed with which the markets are full. The olive industry will +no doubt ultimately be one of the great industries of the whole +country: vast tracts of land which are not suitable or do not command +water enough for orange, grape, or grain culture, affording ample +support to the thrifty and unexacting olive. The hill-slopes around +San Diego, and along the coast line for forty or fifty miles up, will +no doubt one day be as thickly planted with olives as is the +Mediterranean shore. Italy's olive crop is worth thirty million +dollars annually, and California has as much land suited to the olive +as Italy has. + +The tree is propagated from cuttings, begins to bear the fourth year, +and is in full bearing by the tenth or twelfth. One hundred and ten +can be planted to an acre. Their endurance is enormous. Some of the +orchards planted by the friars at the missions over a hundred years +ago are still bearing, spite of scores of years of neglect; and there +are records of trees in Nice having borne for several centuries. + +The process of oil-making is an interesting spectacle, under Mr. +Cooper's oak trees. The olives are first dried in trays with slat +bottoms, tiers upon tiers of these being piled in a kiln over a +furnace fire. Then they are ground between stone rollers, worked by +huge wheels, turned by horse-power. The oil, thus pressed out, is +poured into huge butts or tanks. Here it has to stand and settle three +or four months. There are faucets at different levels in these butts, +so as to draw off different layers of oil. After it has settled +sufficiently, it is filtered through six layers of cotton batting, +then through one of French paper, before it is bottled. It is then of +a delicate straw color, with a slight greenish tint,--not at all of +the golden yellow of the ordinary market article. That golden yellow +and the thickening in cold are sure proofs of the presence of +cotton-seed in oil,--the pure oil remaining limpid in a cold which +will turn the adulterated oils white and thick. It is estimated that +an acre of olives in full bearing will pay fifteen hundred dollars a +year if pickled, and two thousand dollars a year made into oil. + +In observing the industries of South California and studying their +history, one never escapes from an undercurrent of wonder that there +should be any industries or industry there. No winter to be prepared +for; no fixed time at which anything must be done or not done at all; +the air sunny, balmy, dreamy, seductive, making the mere being alive +in it a pleasure; all sorts of fruits and grains growing a-riot, and +taking care of themselves,--it is easy to understand the character, +or, to speak more accurately, the lack of character, of the old +Mexican and Spanish Californians. + +There was a charm in it, however. Simply out of sunshine, there had +distilled in them an Orientalism as fine in its way as that made in +the East by generations of prophets, crusaders, and poets. + +With no more curiosity than was embodied in "Who knows?"--with no +thought or purpose for a future more defined than "Some other time; +not to-day,"--without greeds, and with the unlimited generosities of +children,--no wonder that to them the restless, inquisitive, +insatiable, close-reckoning Yankee seemed the most intolerable of all +conquerors to whom they could surrender. One can fancy them +shuddering, even in heaven, as they look down to-day on his colonies, +his railroads, his crops,--their whole land humming and buzzing with +his industries. + +One questions also whether, as the generations move on, the atmosphere +of life in the sunny empire they lost will not revert more and more to +their type, and be less and less of the type they so disliked. Unto +the third and fourth generation, perhaps, pulses may keep up the +tireless Yankee beat; but sooner or later there is certain to come a +slacking, a toning down, and a readjusting of standards and habits by +a scale in which money and work will not be the highest values. This +is "as sure as that the sun shines," for it is the sun that will bring +it about. + + +FATHER JUNIPERO AND HIS WORK. + +A SKETCH OF THE FOUNDATION, PROSPERITY, AND RUIN OF THE FRANCISCAN +MISSIONS IN CALIFORNIA. + +I. + +During the years when Saint Francis went up and down the streets of +Assisi, carrying in his delicate unused hands the stones for +rebuilding St. Damiano, he is said to have been continually singing +psalms, breaking forth into ejaculations of gratitude; his face +beaming as that of one who saw visions of unspeakable delight. How +much of the spirit or instinct of prophecy there might have been in +his exultant joy, only he himself knew; but it would have been strange +if there had not been vouchsafed to him at least a partial revelation +of the splendid results which must of necessity follow the carrying +out, in the world, of the divine impulses which had blazed up in his +soul like a fire. As Columbus, from the trend of imperfectly known +shores and tides, from the mysterious indications of vague untracked +winds, could deduce the glorious certainty of hitherto undreamed +continents of westward land, so might the ardent spiritual discoverer +see with inextinguishable faith the hitherto undreamed heights which +must be surely reached and won by the path he pointed out. It is +certain that very early in his career he had the purpose of founding +an order whose members, being unselfish in life, should be fit heralds +of God and mighty helpers of men. The absoluteness of self-renunciation +which he inculcated and demanded startled even the thirteenth +century's standard of religious devotion. Cardinals and pope alike +doubted its being within the pale of human possibility; and it was not +until after much entreaty that the Church gave its sanction to the +"Seraphic Saint's" band of "Fratri Minores," and the organized work +of the Franciscan Order began. This was in 1208. From then till now, +the Franciscans have been, in the literal sense of the word, +benefactors of men. Other of the orders in the Catholic Church have +won more distinction, in the way of learning, political power, +marvellous suffering of penances and deprivation; but the record of +the Franciscans is in the main a record of lives and work, like the +life and work of their founder; of whom a Protestant biographer has +written: "So far as can be made out, he thought little of himself, +even of his own soul to be saved, all his life. The trouble had been +on his mind how sufficiently to work for God and to help men." + +Under the head of helping men, come all enterprises of discovery, +development, and civilization which the earth has known; and in many +more of these than the world generally suspects, has been an influence +dating back to the saint of Assisi. America most pre-eminently stands +his debtor. Of the three to whom belongs the glory of its discovery, +one, Juan Perez de Marchena, was a Franciscan friar; the other two, +Queen Isabella and Columbus, were members of Saint Francis's Third +Order; and of all the splendid promise and wondrous development on the +California coast to-day, Franciscan friars were the first founders. + +In the Franciscan College at Santa Barbara is a daguerreotype, taken +from an old portrait which was painted more than a hundred years ago, +at the College of San Fernando, in Mexico. The face is one, once seen, +never to be forgotten; full of spirituality and tenderness and +unutterable pathos; the mouth and chin so delicately sensitive that +one marvels how such a soul could have been capable of heroic +endurance of hardship; the forehead and eyes strong, and radiant with +quenchless purpose, but filled with that solemn, yearning, almost +superhuman sadness, which has in all time been the sign and seal on +the faces of men born to die for the sake of their fellows. It is the +face of Father Junipero Serra, the first founder of Franciscan +missions in South California. Studying the lineaments of this +countenance, one recalls the earliest authentic portrait of Saint +Francis,--the one painted by Pisano, which hangs in the sacristy of +the Assisi church. There seems a notable likeness between the two +faces: the small and delicate features, the broad forehead, and the +expression of great gentleness are the same in both. But the saint had +a joyousness which his illustrious follower never knew. The gayety of +the troubadour melodies which Francis sung all through his youth never +left his soul: but Serra's first and only songs were the solemn chants +of the Church; his first lessons were received in a convent; his +earliest desire and hope was to become a priest. + +Serra was born of lowly people in the island of Majorca, and while he +was yet a little child sang as chorister in the convent of San +Bernardino. He was but sixteen when he entered the Franciscan Order, +and before he was eighteen he had taken the final vows. This was in +the year 1730. His baptismal name, Michael Joseph, he laid aside on +becoming a monk, and took the name of Junipero, after that quaintest +and drollest of all Saint Francis's first companions; him of whom the +saint said jocosely, "Would that I had a whole forest of such +Junipers!" + +Studying in the Majorca Convent at the same time with Serra, were +three other young monks, beloved and intimate companions of +his,--Palon, Verger, and Crespí. The friendship thus early begun never +waned; and the hearty and loving co-operation of the four had much to +do with the success of the great enterprises in which afterward they +jointly labored, and to which, even in their student days, they looked +forward with passionate longing. New Spain was, from the beginning, +the goal of their most ardent wishes. All their conversations turned +on this theme. Long years of delay and monastic routine did not dampen +the ardor of the four friends. Again and again they petitioned to be +sent as missionaries to the New World, and again and again were +disappointed. At last, in 1749, there assembled in Cadiz a great body +of missionaries, destined chiefly for Mexico; and Serra and Palon +received permission to join the band. Arriving at Cadiz, and finding +two vacancies still left in the party, they pleaded warmly that Crespí +and Verger be allowed to go also. At the very last moment this +permission was given, and the four friends joyfully set sail in the +same ship. + +It is impossible at this distance of time to get any complete +realization of the halo of exalted sentiment and rapture which then +invested undertakings of this kind. From the highest to the lowest, +the oldest to the youngest, it reached. Every art was lent to its +service, every channel of expression stamped with its sign. Even on +the rude atlases and charts of the day were pictures of monks +embarking in ships of discovery; the Virgin herself looking on from +the sky, with the motto above, "Matre Dei montravit via;" and on the +ships' sails, "Unus non sufficit orbis." + +In the memoir of Father Junipero, written by his friend Palon, are +many interesting details of his voyage to Vera Cruz. It lasted +ninety-nine days: provisions fell short; starvation threatened; +terrific storms nearly wrecked the ship; but through all, Father +Junipero's courage never failed. He said, "remembering the end for +which they had come," he felt no fear. He performed mass each morning, +and with psalms and exhortations cheered the sinking spirits of all on +board. + +For nineteen years after their arrival in Mexico, Father Junipero and +his three friends were kept at work there, under the control of the +College of San Fernando, in founding missions and preaching. On the +suppression of the Jesuit Order, in 1767, and its consequent expulsion +from all the Spanish dominions, it was decided to send a band of +Franciscans to California, to take charge of the Jesuit missions +there. These were all in Lower California, no attempt at settlement +having been yet made in Upper California. + +Once more the friends, glad and exultant, joined a missionary band +bound to new wildernesses. They were but three now, Verger remaining +behind in the College of San Fernando. The band numbered sixteen. +Serra was put in charge of it, and was appointed president of all the +California missions. His biographer says he received this appointment +"unable to speak a single word for tears." It was not strange, on the +realization of a hope so long deferred. He was now fifty-six years +old; and from boyhood his longing had been to labor among the Indians +on the western shores of the New World. + +It was now the purpose of the Spanish Government to proceed as soon as +possible to the colonization of Upper California. The passion of the +Church allied itself gladly with the purpose of the State; and the +State itself had among its statesmen and soldiers many men who were +hardly less fervid in religion than were those sworn exclusively to +the Church's service. Such an one was Joseph de Galvez, who held the +office of Visitor-General and Commander, representing the person of +the King, and inspecting the working of the Government in every +province of the Spanish Empire. Upon him rested the responsibility of +the practical organization of the first expedition into Upper +California. It was he who ordered the carrying of all sorts of seeds +of vegetables, grains, and flowers; everything that would grow in Old +Spain he ordered to be planted in New. He ordered that two hundred +head of cattle should be taken from the northernmost of the Lower +California missions, and carried to the new posts. It was he also, as +full of interest for chapel as for farm, who selected and packed with +his own hands sacred ornaments and vessels for church ceremonies. A +curious letter of his to Palon is extant, in which he says laughingly +that he is a better sacristan than Father Junipero, having packed the +holy vessels and ornaments quicker and better than he. There are also +extant some of his original instructions to military and naval +commanders which show his religious ardor and wisdom. He declares that +the first object of the expedition is "to establish the Catholic +religion among a numerous heathen people, submerged in the obscure +darkness of paganism, to extend the dominion of the King our Lord, and +to protect this peninsula from the ambitious views of foreign +nations." + +With no clearer knowledge than could be derived from scant records of +Viscayno's voyage in 1602, he selected the two best and most salient +points of the California coast, San Diego and Monterey, and ordered +the founding of a mission at each. He also ordered the selection of a +point midway between these two, for another mission to be called Buena +Ventura. His activity, generosity, and enthusiasm were inexhaustible. +He seems to have had humor as well; for when discussing the names of +the missions to be founded, Father Junipero said to him, "But is there +to be no mission for our Father St. Francis?" he replied, "If St. +Francis wants a mission, let him show us his post, and we will put one +there for him!" + +The records of this first expedition into California are full of +interest. It was divided into two parts, one to go by sea, and one by +land; the sea party in two ships, and the land party in two divisions. +Every possible precaution and provision was thought of by the wise +Galvez; but neither precaution nor provision could make the journey +other than a terrible one. Father Junipero, with his characteristic +ardor, insisted on accompanying one of the land parties, although he +was suffering severely from an inflamed leg, the result of an injury +he had received twenty years before in journeying on foot from Vera +Cruz to the city of Mexico. Galvez tried in vain to detain him; he +said he would rather die on the road than not go, but that he should +not die, for the Lord would carry him through. However, on the second +day out, his pain became so great that he could neither sit, stand, +nor sleep. Portalá, the military commander of the party, implored him +to be carried in a litter; but this he could not brook. Calling one of +the muleteers to him, he said,-- + +"Son, do you not know some remedy for this sore on my leg?" + +"Father," replied the muleteer, "what remedy can I know? I have only +cured beasts." + +"Then consider me a beast," answered Serra; "consider this sore on my +leg a sore back, and give me the same treatment you would apply to a +beast." + +Thus adjured, the muleteer took courage, and saying, "I will do it, +Father, to please you," he proceeded to mix herbs in hot tallow, with +which he anointed the wound, and so reduced the inflammation that +Father Junipero slept all night, rose early, said matins and mass, and +resumed his journey in comparative comfort. He bore this painful wound +to the end of his life; and it was characteristic of the man as well +as of the abnormal standards of the age, that he not only sought no +measures for a radical cure of the diseased member, but, obstinately +accepting the suffering as a cross, allowed the trouble to be +aggravated in every way, by going without shoes or stockings and by +taking long journeys on foot. + +A diary kept by Father Crespí on his toilsome march from Velicatá to +San Diego is full of quaint and curious entries, monotonous in its +religious reiterations, but touching in its simplicity and +unconscious testimony to his own single-heartedness and patience. The +nearest approach to a complaint he makes is to say that "nothing +abounds except stones and thorns." When they journey for days with no +water except scanty rations from the precious casks they are carrying, +he always piously trusts water will be found on the morrow; and when +they come to great tracts of impenetrable cactus thickets, through +which they are obliged to hew a pathway with axes, as through a +forest, and are drenched to the skin in cold rains, and deserted by +the Christian Indians whom they had brought from Lower California as +guides, he mentions the facts without a murmur, and has even for the +deserters only a benediction: "May God guard the misguided ones!" A +far more serious grievance to him is that toward the end of the +journey he could no longer celebrate full mass because the wafers had +given out. Sometimes the party found themselves hemmed in by +mountains, and were forced to halt for days while scouts went ahead to +find a pass. More than once, hoping that at last they had found a +direct and easy route, they struck down to the sea-shore, only to +discover themselves soon confronted by impassable spurs of the Coast +Range, and forced to toil back again up into the labyrinths of mesas +and cactus plains. It was Holy Thursday, the 24th of March, when they +set out, and it was not until the 13th of May that they reached the +high ground from which they had their first view of the bay of San +Diego, and saw the masts of the ships lying at anchor there,--"which +sight was a great joy and consolation to us all," says the diary. + +They named this halting-place "Espiritu Santo." It must have been on, +or very near, the ridge where now runs the boundary line between the +United States and Mexico, as laid down by the treaty of Guadalupe +Hidalgo. It is a grand promontory, ten miles southeast of San Diego, +thrusting out to sea; bare of trees, but matted thick with the dewy +ice-plant, and in early spring carpeted with flowers. An ugly monument +of stone stands there, bearing the names of the American and Mexican +commissioners who established this boundary line in October, 1849. It +would seem much more fitting to have there a monument bearing the +names of the heroic men--friars and soldiers of Spain--who on that +spot, on May 14, 1769, sang the first Easter hymn heard on California +shores. + +It was a sore grief for Father Crespí that the commandant of the party +would not wait here for him to say a mass of thanksgiving; but with +the port in sight, impatience could not be restrained, and the little +band pushed on. As soon as the San Diego camp was seen, the soldiers +discharged a salute of fire-arms, which was answered instantly from +shore and ship. Great joy filled every heart. The friars who had come +by sea ran to meet and embrace their brothers. The gladness was +dampened only by the sad condition of the ships' crews, many of whom +were dead or dying. They had been four months, with their poor charts +and poorer ships, making their way from La Paz up to San Diego; and in +consequence of insufficient and unwholesome food, the scurvy had +broken out among them. It was a melancholy beginning for the new +enterprise. When, six weeks later, the second land party with Father +Junipero arrived, eager to proceed to the establishing of the mission, +they found that their first duty was to the sick and dying of their +own people. In fifteen days twenty-nine of the sailors and soldiers +died. The Indians, who at first had been gentle and friendly, grew +each day more insolent and thievish, even tearing off the clothes of +the sick lying helpless in the tents or tule huts on the beach. At +last, on the 16th of July, a cross was set up facing the port, and in +a rude booth of branches and reeds, mass was celebrated and the grand +hymn of "Veni Creator" was sung, the pilgrims "supplying the want of +an organ by discharging fire-arms," says the old record, and with only +the "smoke of muskets for incense." Thus was founded the Mission of +San Diego; and thus was laid the corner-stone of the civilization of +California on July 16, 1769. + +Two days before this the indefatigable Crespí had set off with another +overland party, Portalá at its head, to find Monterey. On this +journey, also, Father Crespí kept a diary,--little suspecting, +probably, with how much interest it would be studied a century later. +It was not strange that with only a compass and seventeenth-century +charts to guide them along the zigzagging labyrinths of bays, +headlands, and sand-hills which make the California shore, they +toiled to no purpose seeking the Monterey harbor. It is pitiful to +read the record of the days when they were close upon it, setting up a +cross on one of its hills, and yet could not see it; even querying, so +bewildered and lost were they, if it might not have been filled up +with sands since Viscayno's time. Forty leagues north of it they went, +and discovered the present bay of San Francisco, which they at once +recognized by Viscayno's description; and recalling the speech of +Galvez in regard to Saint Francis pointing out a port if he wanted a +mission of his own name, the pious fathers thought it not unlikely +that the saint himself had hidden Monterey from their sight, and led +them to his own harbor. Month after month passed, and still they were +wandering. They were footsore, weary, hungry, but not disheartened. +Friendly Indians everywhere greeted them kindly, gave them nuts, and +shell-fish, and bread made from acorn flour. At one time seventeen of +the party were too ill to travel. Twice they halted and held council +on the question of abandoning the search. Some were ready to continue +as long as the provisions held out, then to eat their mules, and go +back on foot. Fathers Crespí and Gomez volunteered to be left behind +alone. + +At last, on the 11th of November, it was decided to return by the +route by which they had come. On the 20th, finding that their flour +had been stolen by the soldiers, they divided the remainder into equal +parts, giving to each person enough to last him two days. On Christmas +Day they had a present of nuts from friendly Indians, and on New +Year's Day they had the luck to kill a bear and three cubs, which gave +them a feast for which they offered most devout thanksgivings. For the +rest, they lived chiefly on mussels, with now and then a wild goose. +On the 24th of January they came out on the table-lands above San +Diego, six months and ten days from the time of their departure. +Firing a salute, they were answered instantly by shots from the camp, +and saw an eager crowd running to meet them, great anxiety having been +felt at their long absence. + +It is worth while, in studying the history of these Franciscan +missions, to dwell on the details of the hardships endured in the +beginning by their founders. Only narrow-minded bigotry can fail to +see in them proofs of a spiritual enthusiasm and exaltation of +self-sacrifice which are rarely paralleled in the world's history. And +to do justice to the results accomplished, it is necessary to +understand thoroughly the conditions at the outset of the undertaking. + +The weary, returned party found their comrades in sorry plight. The +scurvy had spread, and many more had died. Father Junipero himself had +been dangerously ill with it; provisions were running low; the Indians +were only half friendly, and were not to be trusted out of sight. The +supply-ships looked for from Mexico had not arrived. + +A situation more helpless, unprotected, discouraging, could not be +conceived than that of this little, suffering band, separated by +leagues of desert and leagues of ocean from all possible succor. At +last an examination showed that there were only provisions sufficient +left to subsist the party long enough to make the journey back to +Velicatá. It seemed madness to remain longer; and Governor Portalá, +spite of Father Junipero's entreaties, gave orders to prepare for the +abandonment of the missions. He fixed the 20th of March as the last +day he would wait for the arrival of the ship. This was Saint Joseph's +Day. On the morning of it Father Junipero, who had been praying night +and day for weeks, celebrated to Saint Joseph a high mass, with +special supplications for relief. Before noon a sail was seen on the +horizon. One does not need to believe in saints and saints' +interpositions to feel a thrill at this coincidence, and in fancying +the effect the sudden vision of the relief-ship must have produced on +the minds of devout men who had been starving. The ship appeared for a +few moments, then disappeared; doubtless there were some who scoffed +at it as a mere apparition. But Portalá believed, and waited; and, +four days later, in the ship came!--the "San Antonio," bringing +bountiful stores of all that was needed. + +Courage and cheer now filled the very air. No time was lost in +organizing expeditions to go once more in search of the mysteriously +hidden Monterey. In less than three weeks two parties had set +off,--one by sea in the "San Antonio." With this went Father Junipero, +still feeble from illness. Father Crespí, undaunted by his former six +months of wandering, joined the land party, reaching the Point of +Pines, on Monterey Harbor, seven days before the ship arrived. As soon +as she came in sight, bonfires were lighted on the rocks, and the ship +answered by firing cannon. It was a great rejoicing. The next day, +June 1st, the officers of the two parties met, and exchanged +congratulations; and on the third they took formal possession of the +place: first, in the name of the Church, by religious ceremonies; +secondly, in the name of the King of Spain, unfurling the royal +standard, and planting it in the ground, side by side with the cross. + +To one familiar with the beauty of the Monterey shore in June, the +picture of this scene is vivid. The sand-dunes were ablaze with color; +lupines in high, waving masses, white and yellow; and great mats of +the glittering ice-plant, with myriads of rose-colored umbels, lying +flat on the white sand. Many rods inland, the air was sweet with their +fragrance, borne by the strong sea-wind. On long cliffs of broken, +tempest-piled rocks stood ranks upon ranks of grand old +cypress-trees,--gnarled, bent, twisted, defiant, full of both pathos +and triumph in their loneliness, in this the only spot on earth to +which they are native. + +The booth of boughs in which the mass was performed was built under a +large oak, on the same spot where Viscayno had landed and his +Carmelite monks had said mass one hundred and sixty-seven years +before. The ceremonies closed with a ringing Te Deum,--sailors, +soldiers, monks, alike jubilant. + +When the news of the founding of this second mission reached the city +of Mexico, there was a furore of excitement. The bells of the city +were rung; people ran up and down the streets telling each other; and +the viceroy held at his palace a grand reception, to which went all +persons of note, eager to congratulate him and Galvez. Printed +proclamations, giving full accounts, were circulated, not only in +Mexico but throughout Spain. No province so remote, no home so lowly, +as to fail to hear the good news. It was indeed good news to both +State and Church. The fact of the occupation of the new country was +accomplished; the scheme for the conversion and salvation of the +savage race was fairly inaugurated; Monterey and San Diego being +assured, ultimate possession of the whole of the coast line between +would follow. Little these gladdened people in Spain and Mexico +realized, however, the cost of the triumph over which they rejoiced, +or the true condition of the men who had won it. + +The history of the next fifteen years is a history of struggle, +hardship, and heroic achievement. The indefatigable Serra was the +mainspring and support of it all. There seemed no limit to his +endurance, no bound to his desires; nothing daunted his courage or +chilled his faith. When, in the sixth year after the founding of the +San Diego Mission, it was attacked by hostile Indians, one of the +fathers being most cruelly murdered, and the buildings burned to the +ground, Father Junipero exclaimed, "Thank God! The seed of the Gospel +is now watered by the blood of a martyr; that mission is henceforth +established;" and in a few months he was on the spot, with money and +materials, ready for rebuilding; pressing sailors, neophytes, +soldiers, into the service; working with his own hands, also, spite of +the fears and protestations of all, and only desisting on positive +orders from the military commander. He journeyed, frequently on foot, +back and forth through the country, founding a new mission whenever, +by his urgent letters to the College of San Fernando and to the +Mexican viceroys, he had gathered together men and money enough to do +so. In 1772, when perplexities seemed inextricably thickened and +supplies had fallen so short that starvation threatened the missions, +he took ship to San Blas. With no companion except one Indian boy, he +toiled on foot from San Blas to Guadalajara, two hundred and forty +miles. Here they both fell ill of fever, and sank so low that they +were supposed to be dying, and the Holy Viaticum was administered to +them. But they recovered, and while only partly convalescent, pushed +on again, reaching the city of Mexico in February, 1773. Hard-hearted +indeed must the Mexican viceroy have been to refuse to heed the +prayers of an aged man who had given such proofs as this of his +earnestness and devotion. The difficulties were cleared up, money and +supplies obtained, and Father Junipero returned to his post with a +joyful heart. Before leaving, he kissed the feet of the friars in the +college, and asked their blessing, saying that they would never behold +him more. + +Father Junipero's most insatiable passion was for baptizing Indians; +the saving of one soul thus from death filled him with unspeakable +joy. His biographer illustrates this by the narrative of the first +infant baptism attempted at the San Diego Mission. The Indians had +been prevailed upon to bring an infant to receive the consecration. +Everything was ready: Father Junipero had raised his hand to sprinkle +the child's face; suddenly heathen terror got the better of the +parents, and in the twinkling of an eye they snatched their babe and +ran. Tears rolled down Father Junipero's cheeks: he declared that only +some unworthiness in himself could have led to such a disaster; and to +the day of his death he could never tell the story without tears, +thinking it must be owing to his sins that the soul of that particular +child had been lost. + +When he preached he was carried out of himself by the fervor of his +desire to impress his hearers. Baring his breast, he would beat it +violently with a stone, or burn the flesh with a lighted torch, to +enhance the effect of his descriptions of the tortures of hell. There +is in his memoir a curious engraving, showing him lifted high above a +motley group of listeners, holding in his hands the blazing torch and +the stone. + +In the same book is an outline map of California as he knew it. It is +of the coast line from San Diego to San Francisco, and the only +objects marked on it are the missions and dotted lines showing the +roads leading from one to another. All the rest is a blank. + +There were nine of these missions, founded by Serra, before his death +in 1784. They were founded in the following order: San Diego, July 16, +1769; San Carlos de Monterey, June 3, 1770; San Antonio de Padua, July +14, 1771; San Gabriel, Sept. 8, 1771; San Luis Obispo, Sept. 1, 1772; +San Francisco (Dolores), Oct. 9, 1776; San Juan Capistrano, Nov. 1, +1776; Santa Clara, Jan. 18, 1777; San Buena Ventura, March 31, 1782. + +The transports into which Father Junipero was thrown by the beginning +of a new mission are graphically told by the companion who went with +him to establish the mission of San Antonio. With his little train of +soldiers, and mules laden with a few weeks' supplies, he wandered off +into the unexplored wilderness sixty miles south of Monterey, looking +eagerly for river valleys promising fertility. As soon as the +beautiful oak-shaded plain, with its river swift and full even in +July, caught his eye, he ordered a halt, seized the bells, tied them +to an oak bough, and fell to ringing them with might and main, crying +aloud: "Hear, hear, O ye Gentiles! Come to the Holy Church! Come to +the faith of Jesus Christ!" Not a human creature was in sight, save +his own band; and his companion remonstrated with him. "Let me alone," +cried Father Junipero. "Let me unburden my heart, which could wish +that this bell should be heard by all the world, or at least by all +the Gentiles in these mountains;" and he rang on till the echoes +answered, and one astonished Indian appeared,--the first instance in +which a native had been present at the foundation of a mission. Not +long afterward came a very aged Indian woman named Agreda, begging to +be baptized, saying that she had seen a vision in the skies of a man +clad like the friars, and that her father had repeated to her in her +youth the same words they now spoke. + +The history of this San Antonio Mission justified Father Junipero's +selection. The site proved one of the richest and most repaying, +including, finally, seven large farms with a chapel on each, and being +famous for the best wheat grown, and the best flour made in the +country. The curious mill in which the flour was ground is still to be +seen,--a most interesting ruin. It was run by water brought in a +stone-walled ditch for many miles, and driven through a funnel-shaped +flume so as to strike the side of a large water-wheel, revolving +horizontally on a shaft. The building of this aqueduct and the placing +of the wheel were the work of an Indian named Nolberto, who took the +idea from the balance-wheel of a watch, and did all the work with his +own hands. The walls are broken now; and the sands have so blown in +and piled around the entrance, that the old wheel seems buried in a +cellar; linnets have builded nests in the dusky corners, and are so +seldom disturbed that their bright eyes gaze with placid unconcern at +curious intruders. + +Many interesting incidents are recorded in connection with the +establishment of these first missions. At San Gabriel the Indians +gathered in great force, and were about to attack the little band of +ten soldiers and two friars preparing to plant their cross; but on +the unfurling of a banner with a life-size picture of the Virgin +painted on it, they flung away their bows and arrows, came running +toward the banner with gestures of reverence and delight, and threw +their beads and other ornaments on the ground before it, as at the +feet of a suddenly recognized queen. + +The San Gabriel Indians seem to have been a superior race. They spoke +a soft, musical language, now nearly lost. Their name for God +signified "Giver of Life." They had no belief in a devil or in hell, +and persisted always in regarding them as concerning only white men. +Robbery was unknown among them, murder was punished by death, and +marriage between those near of kin was not allowed. They had names for +the points of the compass, and knew the North Star, calling it Runi. +They had games at which they decked themselves with flower garlands, +which wreathed their heads and hung down to their feet. They had +certain usages of politeness, such as that a child, bringing water to +an elder, must not taste it on the way; and that to pass between two +who were speaking was an offence. They had song contests, often +lasting many days, and sometimes handed down to the next generation. +To a people of such customs as these, the symbols, shows, and +ceremonies of the Catholic Church must needs have seemed especially +beautiful and winning. + +The records of the founding of these missions are similar in details, +but are full of interest to one in sympathy either with their +spiritual or their historical significance. The routine was the same +in all cases. A cross was set up; a booth of branches was built; the +ground and the booth were consecrated by holy water, and christened by +the name of a saint; a mass was performed; the neighboring Indians, if +there were any, were roused and summoned by the ringing of bells swung +on limbs of trees; presents of cloth and trinkets were given them to +inspire them with trust, and thus a mission was founded. Two monks +(never, at first, more) were appointed to take charge of this cross +and booth, and to win, baptize, convert, and teach all the Indians to +be reached in the region. They had for guard and help a few soldiers, +and sometimes a few already partly civilized and Christianized +Indians; several head of cattle, some tools and seeds, and holy +vessels for the church service, completed their store of weapons, +spiritual and secular, offensive and defensive, with which to conquer +the wilderness and its savages. There needs no work of the imagination +to help this picture. Taken in its sternest realism, it is vivid and +thrilling; contrasting the wretched poverty of these single-handed +beginnings with the final splendor and riches attained, the result +seems wellnigh miraculous. + +From the rough booth of boughs and reeds of 1770 to the pillars, +arched corridors, and domes of the stately stone churches of a +half-century later, is a change only a degree less wonderful than the +change in the Indian, from the naked savage with his one stone tool, +grinding acorn-meal in a rock bowl, to the industrious tiller of soil, +weaver of cloth, worker in metals, and singer of sacred hymns. The +steps of this change were slow at first. In 1772, at the end of five +years' work, five missions had been founded, and four hundred and +ninety-one Indians baptized. There were then, in these five missions, +but nineteen friars and sixty soldiers. In 1786, La Perouse, a French +naval commander, who voyaged along the California coast, leaves it on +record that there were but two hundred and eighty-two soldiers, and +about one hundred officers and friars, all told, in both Upper and +Lower California, from Cape Saint Lucas to San Francisco, a line of +eight hundred leagues. At this time there were five thousand one +hundred and forty-three Indians, in the missions of Upper California +alone. In the year 1800 there were, at the mission of San Diego, +fifteen hundred and twenty-one Indians; and the San Diego garrison, +three miles away from the mission, numbered only one hundred and +sixty-seven souls,--officers, soldiers, servants, women, and children. +Such figures as these seem sufficient refutation of the idea sometimes +advanced, that the Indians were converted by force and held in +subjection by terror. There is still preserved, in the archives of the +Franciscan College at Santa Barbara, a letter written by Father +Junipero to the Viceroy of Mexico, in 1776, imploring him to send a +force of eighty soldiers to be divided among seven missions. He +patiently explains that the friars, stationed by twos, at new +missions, from sixty to a hundred miles distant from each other, +cannot be expected to feel safe without a reasonable military +protection; and he asks pertinently what defence could be made, "in +case the enemy should tempt the Gentiles to attack us." That there was +so little active hostility on the part of the savage tribes, that they +looked so kindly as they did to the ways and restraints of the new +life, is the strongest possible proof that the methods of the friars +in dealing with them must have been both wise and humane. + +During the first six years there was but one serious outbreak,--that +at San Diego. No retaliation was shown toward the Indians for this; on +the contrary, the orders of both friars and military commanders were +that they should be treated with even greater kindness than before; +and in less than two years the mission buildings were rebuilt, under a +guard of only a half-score of soldiers with hundreds of Indians +looking on, and many helping cheerfully in the work. The San Carlos +Mission at Monterey was Father Junipero's own charge. There he spent +all his time, when not called away by his duties as president of the +missions. There he died, and there he was buried. There, also, his +beloved friend and brother, Father Crespí, labored by his side for +thirteen years. Crespí was a sanguine, joyous man, sometimes called El +Beato, from his happy temperament. No doubt his gayety made Serra's +sunshine in many a dark day; and grief at his death did much to break +down the splendid old man's courage and strength. Only a few months +before it occurred, they had gone together for a short visit to their +comrade, Father Palon, at the San Francisco Mission. When they took +leave of him, Crespí said, "Farewell forever; you will see me no more." +This was late in the autumn of 1781, and on New Year's Day, 1782, he +died, aged sixty years, and having spent half of those years in +laboring for the Indians. Serra lived only two years longer, and is +said never to have been afterwards the same as before. For many years +he had been a great sufferer from an affection of the heart,--aggravated, +if not induced, by his fierce beatings of his breast with a stone +while he was preaching. But physical pain seemed to make no impression +on his mind. If it did not incapacitate him for action, he held it of +no account. Only the year before his death, being then seventy years +old, and very lame, he had journeyed on foot from San Diego to +Monterey, visiting every mission and turning aside into all the Indian +settlements on the way. At this time there were on the Santa Barbara +coast alone, within a space of eighty miles, twenty-one villages of +Indians, roughly estimated as containing between twenty and thirty +thousand souls. He is said to have gone weeping from village to +village because he could do nothing for them. + +He reached San Carlos in January, 1784, and never again went away. The +story of his last hours and death is in the old church records of +Monterey, written there by the hand of the sorrowing Palon, the second +day after he had closed his friend's eyes. It is a quaint and touching +narrative. + +Up to the day before his death, his indomitable will upholding the +failing strength of his dying body, Father Junipero had read in the +church the canonical offices of each day, a service requiring an hour +and a half of time. The evening before his death he walked alone to +the church to receive the last sacrament. The church was crowded to +overflowing with Indians and whites, many crying aloud in +uncontrollable grief. + +Father Junipero knelt before the altar with great fervor of manner, +while Father Palon, with tears rolling down his cheeks, read the +services for the dying, gave him absolution, and administered the Holy +Viaticum. Then rose from choked and tremulous voices the strains of +the grand hymn "Tantum Ergo,"-- + + "Tantum ergo Sacramentum + Veneremur cernui, + Et antiquum documentum + Novo cedat ritui; + Præstet fides supplementum + Sensuum defectui. + + "Genitori genitoque + Laus et jubilatio, + Salus, honor, virtus quoque + Sit et benedictio; + Procedenti ab utroque + Compar sit laudatio." + +A startled thrill ran through the church as Father Junipero's own +voice, "high and strong as ever," says the record, joined in the +hymn. One by one the voices of his people broke down, stifled by sobs, +until at last the dying man's voice, almost alone, finished the hymn. +After this he gave thanks, and returning to his cell-like room spent +the whole of the night in listening to penitential psalms and +litanies, and giving thanks to God; all the time kneeling or sitting +on the ground supported by the loving and faithful Palon. In the +morning, early, he asked for the plenary indulgence, for which he +again knelt, and confessed again. At noon the chaplain and the captain +of the bark "St. Joseph," then lying in port at Monterey, came to +visit him. He welcomed them, and cordially embracing the chaplain, +said, "You have come just in time to cast the earth upon my body." +After they took their leave, he asked Palon to read to him again the +Recommendations of the Soul. At its conclusion he responded earnestly, +in as clear voice as in health, adding, "Thank God, I am now without +fear." Then with a firm step he walked to the kitchen, saying that he +would like a cup of broth. As soon as he had taken the broth, he +exclaimed, "I feel better now; I will rest;" and lying down he closed +his eyes, and without another word or sign of struggle or pain ceased +to breathe, entering indeed into a rest of which his last word had +been solemnly prophetic. + +Ever since morning the grief-stricken people had been waiting and +listening for the tolling death-bell to announce that all was over. At +its first note they came in crowds, breathless, weeping, and +lamenting. It was with great difficulty that the soldiers could keep +them from tearing Father Junipero's habit piecemeal from his body, so +ardent was their desire to possess some relic of him. The corpse was +laid at once in a coffin which he himself had ordered made many weeks +before. The vessels in port fired a salute of one hundred and one +guns, answered by the same from the guns of the presidio at +Monterey,--an honor given to no one below the rank of general. But the +hundred gun salutes were a paltry honor in comparison with the tears +of the Indian congregation. Soldiers kept watch around his coffin +night and day till the burial; but they could not hold back the +throngs of the poor creatures who pressed to touch the hand of the +father they had so much loved, and to bear away something, if only a +thread, of the garments he had worn. + +His ardent and impassioned nature and his untiring labors had won +their deepest affection and confidence. It was his habit when at San +Carlos to spend all his time with them, working by their side in the +fields, making adobe, digging, tilling, doing, in short, all that he +required of them. Day after day he thus labored, only desisting at the +hours for performing offices in the church. Whenever an Indian came to +address him, he made the sign of the cross on his forehead, and spoke +to him some words of spiritual injunction or benediction. The +arbitrariness--or, as some of his enemies called it, haughty +self-will--which brought Serra at times into conflict with the +military authorities when their purposes or views clashed with his +own, never came to the surface in his spiritual functions, or in his +relation with the Indian converts. He loved them, and yearned over +them as brands to be snatched from the burning. He had baptized over +one thousand of them with his own hands; his whole life he spent for +them, and was ready at any moment to lay it down if that would have +benefited them more. Absolute single-heartedness like this is never +misunderstood by, and never antagonizes equally single-hearted people, +either high or low. But to be absolutely single-hearted in a moral +purpose is almost inevitably to be doggedly one-ideaed in regard to +practical methods; and the single-hearted, one-ideaed man, with a +great moral purpose, is sure to be often at swords' points with +average men of selfish interests and mixed notions. This is the +explanation of the fact that the later years of Serra's life were +marred by occasional collisions with the military authorities in the +country. No doubt the impetuosity of his nature made him sometimes hot +in resentment and indiscreet of speech. But in spite of these +failings, he yet remains the foremost, grandest figure in the +missions' history. If his successors in their administration had been +equal to him in spirituality, enthusiasm, and intellect, the mission +establishments would never have been so utterly overthrown and ruined. + +Father Junipero sleeps on the spot where he labored and died. His +grave is under the ruins of the beautiful stone church of his +mission,--the church which he saw only in ardent and longing fancy. +It was perhaps the most beautiful, though not the grandest of the +mission churches; and its ruins have to-day a charm far exceeding all +the others. The fine yellow tint of the stone, the grand and unique +contour of the arches, the beautiful star-shaped window in the front, +the simple yet effective lines of carving on pilaster and pillar and +doorway, the symmetrical Moorish tower and dome, the worn steps +leading up to the belfry,--all make a picture whose beauty, apart from +hallowing associations, is enough to hold one spell-bound. Reverent +Nature has rebuilt with grass and blossoms even the crumbling +window-sills, across which the wind blows free from the blue ocean +just beyond; and on the day we saw the place, golden wheat, fresh +reaped, was piled in loose mounds on the south slope below the +church's southern wall. It reminded me of the tales I had heard from +many aged men and women of a beautiful custom the Indians had of +scattering their choicest grains on the ground at the friars' feet, as +a token of homage. + +The roof of the church long ago fell in; its doors have stood open for +years; and the fierce sea-gales have been sweeping in, piling sands +until a great part of the floor is covered with solid earth on which +every summer grasses and weeds grow high enough to be cut by sickles. +Of the thousands of acres which the Mission Indians once cultivated in +the San Carlos valley, only nine were finally decreed by the United +States Government to belong to the church. These were so carelessly +surveyed that no avenue of approach was left open to the mission +buildings, and a part of the land had to be sold to buy a right of way +to the church. The remnant left makes a little farm, by the rental of +which a man can be hired to take charge of the whole place, and keep +it, if possible, from further desecration and ruin. The present keeper +is a devout Portuguese, whose broken English becomes eloquent as he +speaks of the old friars whose graves he guards. + +"Dem work for civilize," he said, "not work for money. Dey work to +religion." + +In clearing away the earth at the altar end of the church, in the +winter of 1882, this man came upon stone slabs evidently covering +graves. On opening one of these graves, it was found to hold three +coffins. From the minute description, in the old records, of Father +Junipero's place of burial, Father Carenova, the priest now in charge +of the Monterey parish, became convinced that one of these coffins +must be his. On the opposite side of the church is another grave, +where are buried two of the earliest governors of California. + +It is a disgrace to both the Catholic Church and the State of +California that this grand old ruin, with its sacred sepulchres, +should be left to crumble away. If nothing is done to protect and save +it, one short hundred years more will see it a shapeless, wind-swept +mound of sand. It is not in our power to confer honor or bring +dishonor on the illustrious dead. We ourselves, alone, are dishonored +when we fail in reverence to them. The grave of Junipero Serra may be +buried centuries deep, and its very place forgotten; yet his name will +not perish, nor his fame suffer. But for the men of the country whose +civilization he founded, and of the Church whose faith he so +glorified, to permit his burial-place to sink into oblivion, is a +shame indeed! + + +II. + +If the little grief-stricken band of monks who stood weeping around +Junipero Serra's grave in 1784 could have foreseen the events of the +next thirty years, their weeping would have been turned into exultant +joy; but not the most daring enthusiast among them could have dreamed +of the harvest of power destined to be raised from the seed thus sown +in weakness. + +Almost with his dying breath Father Junipero had promised to use "all +his influence with God" in behalf of the missions. In the course of +the next four months after his death more converts were baptized than +in the whole three years previous; and it became at once the common +belief that his soul had passed directly into heaven, and that this +great wave of conversions was the result of his prayers. Prosperity +continued steadily to increase. Mission after mission was successfully +founded, until, in 1804, the occupation of the sea-coast line from San +Francisco to San Diego was complete, there being nineteen mission +establishments only an easy day's journey apart from each other. + +The ten new missions were founded in the following order: Santa +Barbara, Dec. 4, 1786; La Purissima, Dec. 8, 1787; Santa Cruz, Sept. +25, 1791; Soledad, Oct. 9, 1791; San José, June 11, 1797; San Juan +Bautista, June 24, 1797; San Miguel, July 25, 1797; San Fernando Rey, +Sept. 8, 1797; San Luis Rey de Francia, June 18, 1798; Santa Inez, +Sept. 7, 1804. + +Beginnings had also been made on a projected second line, to be from +thirty to fifty miles back from the sea; and this inland chain of +settlements and development promised to be in no way inferior to the +first. The wealth of the mission establishments had grown to an almost +incredible degree. In several of them massive stone churches had been +built, of an architecture at once so simple and harmonious that, even +in ruins, it is to-day the grandest in America; and it will remain, so +long as arch, pillar, or dome of it shall stand, a noble and touching +monument of the patient Indian workers who built, and of the devoted +friars who designed, its majestic and graceful proportions. + +In all of the missions were buildings on a large scale, providing for +hundreds of occupants, for all the necessary trades and manufactures, +and many of the ornamental arts of civilized life. Enormous tracts of +land were under high cultivation; the grains and cool fruits of the +temperate zone flourishing, in the marvellous California air, side by +side with the palm, olive, grape, fig, orange, and pomegranate. From +the two hundred head of cattle sent by the wise Galvez, had grown +herds past numbering; and to these had been added vast flocks of sheep +and herds of horses. In these nineteen missions were gathered over +twenty thousand Indians, leading regular and industrious lives, and +conforming to the usages of the Catholic religion. + +A description of the San Luis Rey Mission, written by De Mofras, an +_attaché_ of the French Legation in Mexico in 1842, gives a clear +idea of the form, and some of the methods, of the mission +establishments:-- + + "The building is a quadrilateral, four hundred and fifty feet + square; the church occupies one of its wings; the façade is + ornamented with a gallery. The building is two stories in + height. The interior is formed by a court ornamented with + fountains, and decorated with trees. Upon the gallery which + runs around it open the dormitories of the monks, of the + majors-domo, and of travellers, small workshops, schoolrooms, + and storerooms. The hospitals are situated in the most quiet + parts of the mission, where also the schools are kept. The + young Indian girls dwell in halls called monasteries, and are + called nuns. Placed under the care of Indian matrons, who are + worthy of confidence, they learn to make cloth of wool, cotton, + and flax, and do not leave the monastery until they are old + enough to be married. The Indian children mingle in schools + with those of the white colonists. A certain number chosen + among the pupils who display the most intelligence learn music, + chanting, the violin, flute, horn, violoncello, or other + instruments. Those who distinguish themselves in the + carpenters' shops, at the forge, or in agricultural labors are + appointed alcaldes, or overseers, and charged with the + directions of the laborers." + +Surrounding these buildings, or arranged in regular streets upon one +side of them, were the homes of the Indian families. These were built +of adobe, or of reeds, after the native fashion. The daily routine of +the Indians' life was simple and uniform. They were divided into +squads of laborers. At sunrise the Angelus bell called them to mass. +After the mass they breakfasted, and then dispersed to their various +labors. At eleven they were again summoned together for dinner, after +which they rested until two, when they went again to work, and worked +until the evening Angelus, just before sunset. After prayers and +supper they were in the habit of dancing and playing games until +bedtime. Their food was good. They had meat at noon, accompanied by +_posale_, a sort of succotash made of corn, beans, and wheat, boiled +together. Their breakfast and supper were usually of porridge made +from different grains, called _atole_ and _pinole_. + +The men wore linen shirts, pantaloons, and blankets. The overseers and +best workmen had suits of cloth like the Spaniards. The women +received every year two chemises, one gown, and a blanket. De Mofras +says:-- + + "When the hides, tallow, grain, wine, and oil were sold at good + prices to ships from abroad, the monks distributed + handkerchiefs, wearing apparel, tobacco, and trinkets among the + Indians, and devoted the surplus to the embellishment of the + churches, the purchase of musical instruments, pictures, church + ornaments, etc.; still they were careful to keep a part of the + harvest in the granaries to provide for years of scarcity." + +The rule of the friars was in the main a kindly one. The vice of +drunkenness was severely punished by flogging. Quarrelling between +husbands and wives was also dealt with summarily, the offending +parties being chained together by the leg till they were glad to +promise to keep peace. New converts and recruits were secured in many +ways: sometimes by sending out parties of those already attached to +the new mode of life, and letting them set forth to the savages the +advantages and comforts of the Christian way; sometimes by luring +strangers in with gifts; sometimes, it is said, by capturing them by +main force; but of this there is only scanty evidence, and it is not +probable that it was often practised. It has also been said that cruel +and severe methods were used to compel the Indians to work; that they +were driven under the lash by their overseers, and goaded with lances +by the soldiers. No doubt there were individual instances of cruelty; +seeds of it being indigenous in human nature, such absolute control of +hundreds of human beings could not exist without some abuses of the +power. But that the Indians were, on the whole, well treated and cared +for, the fact that so many thousands of them chose to remain in the +missions is proof. With open wilderness on all sides, and with +thousands of savage friends and relatives close at hand, nothing but +their own free will could have kept such numbers of them loyal and +contented. Forbes, in his history of California, written in 1832, +says:-- + + "The best and most unequivocal proof of the good conduct of the + fathers is to be found in the unbounded affection and devotion + invariably shown toward them by their Indian subjects. They + venerate them not merely as friends and fathers, but with a + degree of devotion approaching to adoration." + +The picture of life in one of these missions during their period of +prosperity is unique and attractive. The whole place was a hive of +industry: trades plying indoors and outdoors; tillers, herders, +vintagers by hundreds, going to and fro; children in schools; women +spinning; bands of young men practising on musical instruments; music, +the scores of which, in many instances, they had themselves written +out; at evening, all sorts of games of running, leaping, dancing, and +ball-throwing, and the picturesque ceremonies of a religion which has +always been wise in availing itself of beautiful agencies in color, +form, and harmony. + +At every mission were walled gardens with waving palms, sparkling +fountains, groves of olive trees, broad vineyards, and orchards of all +manner of fruits; over all, the sunny, delicious, winterless +California sky. + +More than mortal, indeed, must the Franciscans have been, to have been +able, under these conditions, to preserve intact the fervor and spirit +of self-abnegation and deprivation inculcated by the rules of their +order. There is a half-comic pathos in the records of occasional +efforts made by one and another of the presidents to check the growing +disposition toward ease on the part of the friars. At one time several +of them were found to be carrying silver watches. The watches were +taken away, and sent to Guadalajara to be sold, the money to be paid +into the Church treasury. At another time an order was issued, +forbidding the wearing of shoes and stockings in place of sandals, and +the occupying of too large and comfortable rooms. And one zealous +president, finding that the friars occasionally rode in the carts +belonging to their missions, had all the carts burned, to compel the +fathers to go about on foot. + +The friars were forced, by the very facts of their situation, into the +exercise of a constant and abounding hospitality; and this of itself +inevitably brought about large departures from the ascetic _régime_ of +living originally preached and practised. Most royally did they +discharge the obligations of this hospitality. Travellers' rooms were +kept always ready in every mission; and there were even set apart +fruit orchards called "travellers' orchards." A man might ride from +San Diego to Monterey by easy day's journeys, spending each night as +guest in a mission establishment. As soon as he rode up, an Indian +page would appear to take his horse; another to show him to one of the +travellers' rooms. He was served with the best of food and wine as +long as he liked to stay, and when he left he might, if he wished, +take from the mission herd a fresh horse to carry him on his journey. +All the California voyagers and travellers of the time speak in +glowing terms of this generous and cordial entertaining by the friars. +It was, undoubtedly, part of their policy as representatives of the +State, but it was no less a part of their duty as Franciscans. + +Some of the highest tributes which have been paid to them, both as men +and as administrators of affairs, have come from strangers who, thus +sojourning under their roofs, had the best opportunity of knowing +their lives. Says Forbes:-- + + "Their conduct has been marked by a degree of benevolence, + humanity, and moderation probably unexampled in any other + situation.... I have never heard that they have not acted with + the most perfect fidelity, or that they ever betrayed a trust, + or acted with inhumanity." + +This testimony is of the more weight that it comes from a man not in +sympathy with either the religious or the secular system on which the +friars' labors were based. + +The tales still told by old people of festal occasions at the missions +sound like tales of the Old World rather than of the New. There was a +strange difference, fifty years ago, between the atmosphere of life on +the east and west sides of the American continent: on the Atlantic +shore, the descendants of the Puritans, weighed down by serious +purpose, half grudging the time for their one staid yearly +Thanksgiving, and driving the Indians farther and farther into the +wilderness every year, fighting and killing them; on the sunny Pacific +shore, the merry people of Mexican and Spanish blood, troubling +themselves about nothing, dancing away whole days and nights like +children, while their priests were gathering the Indians by thousands +into communities, and feeding and teaching them. + +The most beautiful woman known in California a half-century ago[2] +still lives in Santa Barbara, white-haired, bright-eyed, +eloquent-tongued to-day. At the time of her marriage, her husband +being a brother of the Superior of the Santa Barbara mission, her +wedding banquet was spread on tables running the whole length of the +outer corridor of the mission. For three days and three nights the +feasting and dancing were kept up, and the whole town was bid. On the +day after her wedding came the christening or blessing of the right +tower of the church. She and her husband, having been chosen godfather +and godmother to the tower, walked in solemn procession around it, +carrying lighted candles in their hands, preceded by the friar, who +sprinkled it with holy water and burned incense. In the four long +streets of Indians' houses, then running eastward from the mission, +booths of green boughs, decorated with flowers, were set up in front +of all the doors. Companies of Indians from other missions came as +guests, dancing and singing as they approached. Their Indian hosts +went out to meet them, also singing, and pouring out seeds on the +ground for them to walk on. These were descendants of the Indians who, +when Viscayno anchored off Santa Barbara in 1602, came out in canoes, +bringing their king, and rowed three times around Viscayno's ship, +chanting a chorus of welcome. Then the king, going on board the ship, +walked three times around the deck, chanting the same song. He then +gave to the Spaniards gifts of all the simple foods he had, and +implored them to land, promising that if they would come and be their +brothers, he would give to each man ten wives. + +With the increase of success, wealth, and power on the part of the +missions came increasing complexities in their relation to the +military settlements in the country. The original Spanish plan of +colonization was threefold,--religious, military, and civil. Its first +two steps were a mission and a presidio, or garrison,--the presidio to +be the guard of the mission; later was to come the pueblo,[3] or +town. From indefiniteness in the understanding of property rights, and +rights of authority, as vested under these three heads, there very +soon arose confusion, which led to collisions,--collisions which have +not yet ceased, and never will, so long as there remains a land-title +in California to be quarrelled over. The law records of the State are +brimful of briefs, counter-briefs, opinions, and counter-opinions +regarding property issues, all turning on definitions which nobody has +now clear right to make, of old pueblo and presidio titles and bounds. + +In the beginning there were no grants of land; everything was done by +royal decree. In the form of taking possession of the new lands, the +Church, by right of sacred honor, came first, the religious ceremony +always preceding the military. Not till the cross was set up, and the +ground consecrated and taken possession of, in the name of God, for +the Church's purposes, did any military commander ever think of +planting the royal standard, symbolizing the king's possession. In the +early days the relations between the military and the ecclesiastical +representatives of the king were comparatively simple: the soldiers +were sent avowedly and specifically to protect the friars; moreover, +in those earlier days, soldiers and friars were alike devout, and, no +doubt, had the mission interests more equally at heart than they did +later. But each year's increase of numbers in the garrisons, and of +numbers and power in the missions, increased the possibilities of +clashing, until finally the relations between the two underwent a +singular reversal; and the friars, if disposed to be satirical, might +well have said that, however bad a rule might be which would not work +both ways, a rule which did was not of necessity a good one, it being +now the duty of the missions to support the presidios; the military +governors being authorized to draw upon the friars not only for +supplies, but for contributions of money and for levies of +laborers.[4] + +On the other hand, no lands could be set off or assigned for colonists +without consent of the friars, and there were many other curious and +entangling cross-purpose powers distributed between friars and +military governors quite sufficient to make it next to impossible for +things to go smoothly. + +The mission affairs, so far as their own internal interests were +concerned, were administered with admirable simplicity and system. The +friars in charge of the missions were responsible directly to the +president, or prefect, of the missions. He, in turn, was responsible +to the president, or guardian, of the Franciscan College in San +Fernando, in Mexico. One responsible officer, called procurador, was +kept in the city of Mexico to buy supplies for the missions from +stipends due, and from the drafts given to the friars by the presidio +commanders for goods furnished to the presidios. There was also a +syndic, or general agent, at San Bias, who attended to the shipping +and forwarding of supplies. It was a happy combination of the minimum +of functionaries with the maximum of responsibility. + +The income supporting the missions was derived from two sources, the +first of which was a fund, called the "Pious Fund," originally +belonging to the Jesuit order, but on the suppression of that order, +in 1868, taken possession of by the Spanish Government in trust for +the Church. This fund, begun early in the eighteenth century, was made +up of estates, mines, manufactories, and flocks,--all gifts of rich +Catholics to the Society of Jesus. It yielded an income of fifty +thousand dollars a year, the whole of which belonged to the Church, +and was to be used in paying stipends to the friars (to the Dominicans +in Lower as well as to the Franciscans in Upper California), and in +the purchasing of articles needed in the missions. The missions' +second source of income was from the sales of their own products: +first to the presidios,--these sales paid for by drafts on the Spanish +or Mexican Government; second, to trading ships, coming more and more +each year to the California coast. + +As soon as revolutionary troubles began to agitate Spain and Mexico, +the income of the missions from abroad began to fall off. The Pious +Fund was too big a sum to be honestly administered by any government +hard pressed for money. Spain began to filch from it early, to pay the +bills of her wars with Portugal and England; and Mexico, as soon as +she had the chance, followed Spain's example vigorously, selling whole +estates and pocketing their price, farming the fund out for the +benefit of the State treasury, and, finally, in Santa Anna's time, +selling the whole outright to two banking-houses. During these +troublous times the friars not only failed frequently to receive their +regular stipends allotted from the interest of this Pious Fund, but +their agent was unable to collect the money due them for the supplies +furnished to the presidios. The sums of which they were thus robbed by +two governments--that, being ostensibly of the Catholic faith, should +surely have held the Church's property sacred--mounted up in a few +years to such enormous figures that restitution would have been +practically impossible, and, except for their own internal sources of +revenue, the missions must have come to bankruptcy and ruin. + +However, the elements which were to bring about this ruin were already +at work,--were, indeed, inherent in the very system on which they had +been founded. The Spanish Government was impatient to see carried out, +and to reap the benefit of, the pueblo feature of its colonization +plan. With a singular lack of realization of the time needed to make +citizens out of savages, it had set ten years as the period at the +expiration of which the Indian communities attached to the missions +were to be formed into pueblos,--the missions to be secularized, that +is, turned into curacies, the pueblo being the parish. This was, no +doubt, the wise and proper ultimate scheme,--the only one, in fact, +which provided either for the entire civilization of the Indian or the +successful colonization of the country. But five times ten years would +have been little enough to allow for getting such a scheme fairly +under way, and another five times ten years for the finishing and +rounding of the work. It is strange how sure civilized peoples are, +when planning and legislating for savages, to forget that it has +always taken centuries to graft on or evolve out of savagery anything +like civilization. + +Aiming towards this completing of their colonization plan, the +Spanish Government had very early founded the pueblos of Los Angeles +and San José. A second class of pueblos, called, in the legal phrase +of California's later days, "Presidial Pueblos," had originated in the +settlement of the presidios, and gradually grown up around them. There +were four of these,--San Diego, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San +Francisco. + +It is easy to see how, as these settlements increased, of persons more +or less unconnected with the missions, there must have grown up +discontent at the Church's occupation and control of so large a +proportion of the country. Ready for alliance with this discontent was +the constant jealousy on the part of the military authorities, whose +measures were often--and, no doubt, often rightly--opposed by the +friars. These fomenting causes of disquiet reacted on the impatience +and greed in Spain; all together slowly, steadily working against the +missions, until, in 1813, the Spanish Cortes passed an act decreeing +their secularization. This was set forth in sounding phrase as an act +purely for the benefit of the Indians, that they might become citizens +of towns. But it was, to say the least of it, as much for Spain as for +the Indians, since, by its provisions, one half of the mission lands +were to be sold for the payment of Spain's national debt. This act, so +manifestly premature, remained a dead letter; but it alarmed the +friars, and with reason. It was the tocsin of their doom, of the +downfall of their establishments, and the ruin of their work. + +Affairs grew more and more unsettled. Spanish viceroys and Mexican +insurgents took turns at ruling in Mexico, and the representatives of +each took turns at ruling in California. The waves of every Mexican +revolution broke on the California shore. The College of San Fernando, +in Mexico, also shared in the general confusion, and many of its +members returned to Spain. + +From 1817 to 1820 great requisitions were made by the Government upon +the missions. They responded generously. They gave not only food, but +money. They submitted to a tax, _per capita_, on all their thousands +of Indians, to pay the expenses of a deputy to sit in the Mexican +Congress. They allowed troops to be quartered in the mission +buildings. At the end of the year 1820 the outstanding drafts on the +Government, in favor of the missions, amounted to four hundred +thousand dollars. + +It is impossible, in studying the records of this time, not to feel +that the friars were, in the main, disposed to work in good faith for +the best interests of the State. That they opposed the secularization +project is true; but it is unjust to assume that their motives in so +doing were purely selfish. Most certainly, the results of the carrying +out of that project were such as to prove all that they claimed of its +untimeliness. It is easy saying, as their enemies do, that they would +never have advocated it, and were not training the Indians with a view +to it: but the first assertion is an assumption, and nothing more; and +the refutation of the second lies in the fact that even in that short +time they had made the savages into "masons, carpenters, plasterers, +soap-makers, tanners, shoe-makers, blacksmiths, millers, bakers, +cooks, brick-makers, carters and cart-makers, weavers and spinners, +saddlers, ship hands, agriculturists, herdsmen, vintagers;--in a word, +they filled all the laborious occupations known to civilized +society."[5] Moreover, in many of the missions, plots of land had +already been given to individual neophytes who seemed to have +intelligence and energy enough to begin an independent life for +themselves. But it is idle speculating now as to what would or would +not have been done under conditions which never existed. + +So long as Spain refused to recognize Mexico's independence, the +majority of the friars, as was natural, remained loyal to the Spanish +Government, and yielded with reluctance and under protest, in every +instance, to Mexico's control. For some years President Sarria was +under arrest for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the +Mexican republic. Nevertheless, it not being convenient to remove him +and fill his place, he performed all his functions as president of the +missions through that time. Many other friars refused to take the +oath, and left the country in consequence. During three years the +secularization project was continually agitated, and at intervals +measures initiatory to it were decreed and sometimes acted upon. + +The shifting governors of unfortunate California legislated for or +against the mission interests according to the exigencies of their +needs or the warmness or lukewarmness of their religious faith. + +An act of one year, declaring the Indians liberated, and ordering the +friars to turn over the mission properties to administrators, would be +followed a few years later by an act restoring the power of the +friars, and giving back to them all that remained to be rescued of the +mission properties and converts. All was anarchy and confusion. During +the fifty-five years that California was under Spanish rule she had +but nine governors. During the twenty-four that she was under Mexican +misrule she had thirteen. It would be interesting to know what the +Indian populations thought, as they watched these quarrellings and +intrigues among the Christians who were held up to them as patterns +for imitation. + +In a curious pamphlet left by one of the old friars, Father Boscana, +is told a droll story of the logical inferences some of them drew from +the political situations among their supposed betters. It was a band +of San Diego Indians. When they heard that the Spanish viceroy in the +city of Mexico had been killed, and a Mexican made emperor in his +place, they forthwith made a great feast, burned up their chief, and +elected a new one in his stead. To the stringent reproofs of the +horrified friars they made answer: "Have you not done the same in +Mexico? You say your king was not good, and you killed him. Well, our +captain was not good, and we burned him. If the new one turns out bad, +we will burn him too,"--a memorable instance of the superiority of +example to precept. + +At last, in 1834, the final blow fell on the missions. The Governor of +California, in compliance with instructions received from Mexico, +issued an authoritative edict for their secularization. It was a long +document, and had many significant provisions in it. It said that the +Indians were now to be "emancipated." But the 16th article said that +they "should be obliged to join in such labors of community as are +indispensable, in the opinion of the political chief, in the +cultivation of the vineyards, gardens, and fields, which for the +present remain unapportioned." This was a curious sort of +emancipation; and it is not surprising to read, in the political +records of the time, such paragraphs as this: "Out of one hundred and +sixty Indian families at San Diego, to whom emancipation was offered +by Governor Figueroa, only ten could be induced to accept it." The +friars were to hand over all records and inventories to stewards or +administrators appointed. Boards of magistrates were also appointed +for each village. One half of the movable property was to be divided +among the "emancipated persons," and to each head of a family was to +be given four hundred square yards of land. Everything else--lands, +movable properties, property of all classes--was to be put into the +hands of the administrator, to be held subject to the Federal +Government. Out of these properties the administrators were to provide +properly for the support of the father or fathers left in charge of +the church, the church properties, and the souls of the "emancipated +persons." A more complete and ingenious subversion of the previously +existing state of things could not have been devised; and it is hard +to conceive how any student of the history of the period can see, in +its shaping and sudden enforcing, anything except bold and +unprincipled greed hiding itself under specious cloaks of right. Says +Dwinelle, in his "Colonial History:"-- + + "Beneath these specious pretexts was undoubtedly a perfect + understanding between the Government of Mexico and the leading + men in California, that in such a condition of things the + Supreme Government might absorb the Pious Fund, under the + pretence that it was no longer necessary for missionary + purposes, and thus had reverted to the State as a quasi + escheat, while the co-actors in California should appropriate + the local wealth of the missions by the rapid and sure process + of administering their temporalities." + +Of the manner in which the project was executed, Dwinelle goes on to +say:-- + + "These laws, whose ostensible purpose was to convert the + missionary establishments into Indian pueblos, their churches + into parish churches, and to elevate the Christianized Indians + to the rank of citizens, were after all executed in such a + manner that the so-called secularization of the missions + resulted in their plunder and complete ruin, and in the + demoralization and dispersion of the Christianized Indians." + +It is only just to remember, however, that these laws and measures +were set in force in a time of revolution, when even the best measures +and laws could have small chance of being fairly executed, and that a +government which is driven, as Mexico was, to recruiting its colonial +forces by batches of selected prison convicts, is entitled to pity, if +not charity, in our estimates of its conduct. Of course, the position +of administrator of a mission became at once a political reward and a +chance for big gains, and simply, therefore, a source and centre of +bribery and corruption. + +Between the governors--who now regarded the mission establishments as +State property, taking their cattle or grain as freely as they would +any other revenue, and sending orders to a mission for tallow as they +would draw checks on the treasury--and the administrators, who equally +regarded them as easy places for the filling of pockets, the wealth of +the missions disappeared as dew melts in the sun. Through all this the +Indians were the victims. They were, under the administrators, +compelled to work far harder than before; they were ill-fed and +ill-treated; they were hired out in gangs to work in towns or on +farms, under masters who regarded them simply as beasts of burden; +their rights to the plots of land which had been set off for them +were, almost without exception, ignored. A more pitiable sight has not +often been seen on earth than the spectacle of this great body of +helpless, dependent creatures, suddenly deprived of their teachers and +protectors, thrown on their own resources, and at the mercy of +rapacious and unscrupulous communities, in time of revolution. The +best comment on their sufferings is to be found in the statistics of +the mission establishments after a few years of the administrators' +reign. + +In 1834 there were, according to the lowest estimates, from fifteen to +twenty thousand Indians in the missions. De Mofras's statistics give +the number as 30,620. In 1840 there were left, all told, but six +thousand. In many of the missions there were less than one hundred. +According to De Mofras, the cattle, sheep, horses, and mules, in 1834, +numbered 808,000; in 1842, but 6,320. Other estimates put the figures +for 1834 considerably lower. It is not easy to determine which are +true; but the most moderate estimates of all tell the story with +sufficient emphasis. There is also verbal testimony on these points +still to be heard in California, if one has patience and interest +enough in the subject to listen to it. There are still living, +wandering about, half blind, half starved, in the neighborhood of the +mission sites, old Indians who recollect the mission times in the +height of their glory. Their faces kindle with a sad flicker of +recollected happiness, as they tell of the days when they had all they +wanted to eat, and the _padres_ were so good and kind: "Bueno tiempo! +Bueno tiempo," they say, with a hopeless sigh and shake of the head. + +Under the new _régime_ the friars suffered hardly less than the +Indians. Some fled the country, unable to bear the humiliations and +hardships of their positions under the control of the administrators +or majors-domo, and dependent on their caprice for shelter and even +for food. Among this number was Father Antonio Peyri, who had been for +over thirty years in charge of the splendid mission of San Luis Rey. +In 1800, two years after its founding, this mission had 369 Indians. +In 1827 it had 2,686; it owned over twenty thousand head of cattle, +and nearly twenty thousand sheep. It controlled over two hundred +thousand acres of land, and there were raised in its fields in one +year three thousand bushels of wheat, six thousand of barley, and ten +thousand of corn. No other mission had so fine a church. It was one +hundred and sixty feet long, fifty wide, and sixty high, with walls +four feet thick. A tower at one side held a belfry for eight bells. +The corridor on the opposite side had two hundred and fifty-six +arches. Its gold and silver ornaments are said to have been superb. + +When Father Peyri made up his mind to leave the country, he slipped +off by night to San Diego, hoping to escape without the Indians' +knowledge. But, missing him in the morning, and knowing only too well +what it meant, five hundred of them mounted their ponies in hot haste, +and galloped all the way to San Diego, forty-five miles, to bring him +back by force. They arrived just as the ship, with Father Peyri on +board, was weighing anchor. Standing on the deck, with outstretched +arms he blessed them, amid their tears and loud cries. Some flung +themselves into the water and swam after the ship. Four reached it, +and clinging to its sides, so implored to be taken that the father +consented, and carried them with him to Rome, where one of them became +a priest. + +There were other touching instances in which the fathers refused to be +separated from their Indian converts, and remained till the last by +their side, sharing all their miseries and deprivations. De Mofras, in +his visit to the country in 1842, found, at the mission of San Luis +Obispo, Father Azagonais, a very old man, living in a hut, like the +Indians, sleeping on a rawhide on the bare ground, with no +drinking-vessel but an ox-horn, and no food but some dried meat +hanging in the sun. The little he had he shared with the few Indians +who still lingered there. Benevolent persons had offered him asylum; +but he refused, saying that he would die at his post. At the San +Antonio mission De Mofras found another aged friar, Father Gutierrez, +living in great misery. The administrator of this mission was a man +who had been formerly a menial servant in the establishment; he had +refused to provide Father Gutierrez with the commonest necessaries, +and had put him on an allowance of food barely sufficient to keep him +alive. + +At Soledad was a still more pitiful case. Father Sarria, who had +labored there for thirty years, refused to leave the spot, even after +the mission was so ruined that it was not worth any administrator's +while to keep it. He and the handful of Indians who remained loyal to +their faith and to him lived on there, growing poorer and poorer each +day; he sharing his every morsel of food with them, and starving +himself, till, one Sunday morning, saying mass at the crumbling altar, +he fainted, fell forward, and died in their arms, of starvation. This +was in 1838. Only eight years before, this Soledad mission had owned +thirty-six thousand cattle, seventy thousand sheep, three hundred yoke +of working oxen, more horses than any other mission, and had an +aqueduct, fifteen miles long, supplying water enough to irrigate +twenty thousand acres of land. + +For ten years after the passage of the Secularization Act, affairs +went steadily on from bad to worse with the missions. Each governor +had his own plans and devices for making the most out of them, renting +them, dividing them into parcels for the use of colonists, +establishing pueblos on them, making them subject to laws of +bankruptcy, and finally selling them. The departmental assemblies +sometimes indorsed and sometimes annulled the acts of the governors. +In 1842 Governor Micheltorena proclaimed that the twelve southern +missions should be restored to the Church, and that the Government +would not make another grant of land without the consent of the +friars. This led to a revolution, or rather an ebullition, and +Micheltorena was sent out of the country. To him succeeded Pio Pico, +who remained in power till the occupation of California by the United +States forces in 1846. During the reign of Pio Pico, the ruin of the +mission establishments was completed. They were at first sold or +rented in batches to the highest bidders. There was first a +preliminary farce of proclamation to the Indians to return and take +possession of the missions if they did not want them sold. These +proclamations were posted up in the pueblos for months before the +sales. In 1844 the Indians of Dolores, Soledad, San Miguel, La +Purissima, and San Rafael[6] were thus summoned to come back to their +missions,--a curious bit of half conscience-stricken, half politic +recognition of the Indians' ownership of the lands, the act of the +Departmental Assembly saying that if they (the Indians) did not return +before such a date, the Government would declare said missions to be +"without owners," and dispose of them accordingly. There must have +been much bitter speech in those days when news of these proclamations +reached the wilds where the mission Indians had taken refuge. + +At last, in March, 1846, an act of the Departmental Assembly made the +missions liable to the laws of bankruptcy, and authorized the governor +to sell them to private persons. As by this time all the missions that +had any pretence of existence left had been run hopelessly into debt, +proceedings in regard to them were much simplified by this act. In the +same year the President of Mexico issued an order to Governor Pico to +use all means within his power to raise money to defend the country +against the United States; and under color of this double +authorization the governor forthwith proceeded to sell missions right +and left. He sold them at illegal private sales; he sold them for +insignificant sums, and for sums not paid at all; whether he was, to +use the words of a well-known legal brief in one of the celebrated +California land cases, "wilfully ignorant or grossly corrupt," there +is no knowing, and it made no difference in the result. + +One of the last acts of the Departmental Assembly, before the +surrender of the country, was to declare all Governor Pico's sales of +mission property null and void. And one of Governor Pico's last acts +was, as soon as he had made up his mind to run away out of the +country, to write to some of his special friends and ask them if there +were anything else they would like to have him give them before his +departure. + +On the 7th of July, 1846, the American flag was raised in Monterey, +and formal possession of California was taken by the United States. +The proclamation of Admiral Sloat on this memorable occasion included +these words: "All persons holding title to real estate, or in quiet +possession of lands under color of right, shall have those titles and +rights guaranteed to them." "Color of right" is a legal phrase, +embodying a moral idea, an obligation of equity. If the United States +Government had kept this guarantee, there would be living in +comfortable homesteads in California to-day many hundreds of people +that are now homeless and beggared,--Mexicans as well as Indians. + +The army officers in charge of different posts in California, in these +first days of the United States' occupation of the country, were +perplexed and embarrassed by nothing so much as by the confusion +existing in regard to the mission properties and lands. Everywhere men +turned up with bills of sale from Governor Pico. At the San Diego +mission the ostensible owner, one Estudillo by name, confessed frankly +that he "did not think it right to dispose of the Indians' property in +that way; but as everybody was buying missions, he thought he might as +well have one." + +In many of the missions, squatters, without show or semblance of +title, were found; these the officers turned out. Finally, General +Kearney, to save the trouble of cutting any more Gordian knots, +declared that all titles of missions and mission lands must be held +in abeyance till the United States Government should pronounce on +them. + +For several years the question remained unsettled, and the mission +properties were held by those who had them in possession at the time +of the surrender. But in 1856 the United States Land Commission gave, +in reply to a claim and petition from the Catholic Bishop of +California, a decision which, considered with reference to the +situation of the mission properties at the time of the United States' +possession, was perhaps as near to being equitable as the +circumstances would admit. But, considered with reference to the +status of the mission establishments under the Spanish rule, to their +original extent, the scope of the work, and the magnificent success of +their experiment up to the time of the revolutions, it seems a sadly +inadequate return of property once rightfully held. Still, it was not +the province of the United States to repair the injustices or make +good the thefts of Spain and Mexico; and any attempt to clear up the +tangle of confiscations, debts, frauds, and robberies in California, +for the last quarter of a century before the surrender, would have +been bootless work. + +The Land Commissioner's decision was based on the old Spanish law +which divided church property into two classes, sacred and +ecclesiastical, and held it to be inalienable, except in case of +necessity, and then only according to provisions of canon law; in the +legal term, it was said to be "out of commerce." The sacred property +was that which had been in a formal manner consecrated to God,--church +buildings, sacred vessels, vestments, etc. Ecclesiastical property was +land held by the Church, and appropriated to the maintenance of divine +worship, or the support of the ministry; buildings occupied by the +priests, or necessary for their convenience; gardens, etc. Following a +similar division, the property of the mission establishments was held +by the Land Commission to be of two sorts,--mission property and +church property: the mission property, embracing the great tracts of +land formerly cultivated for the community's purpose, it was decided, +must be considered as government property; the church property, +including, with the church buildings, houses of priests, etc., such +smaller portions of land as were devoted to the immediate needs of the +ministry, it was decided must still rightfully go to the Church. How +many acres of the old gardens, orchards, vineyards, of the missions +could properly be claimed by the Church under this head, was of course +a question; and it seems to have been decided on very different bases +in different missions, as some received much more than others. But all +the church buildings, priests' houses, and some acres of land, more or +less, with each, were pronounced by this decision to have been "before +the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo solemnly dedicated to the use of the +Church, and therefore withdrawn from commerce;" "such an interest is +protected by the provisions of the treaty, and must be held inviolate +under our laws." Thus were returned at last, into the inalienable +possession of the Catholic Church, all that were left of the old +mission churches, and some fragments of the mission lands. Many of +them are still in operation as curacies; others are in ruins; of some +not a trace is left,--not even a stone. + +At San Diego the walls of the old church are still standing, unroofed, +and crumbling daily. It was used as a cavalry barracks during the war +of 1846, and has been a sheepfold since. Opposite it is an olive +orchard, of superb hoary trees still in bearing; a cactus wall twenty +feet high, and a cluster of date palms, are all that remain of the +friars' garden. + +At San Juan Capistrano, the next mission to the north, some parts of +the buildings are still habitable. Service is held regularly in one of +the small chapels. The priest lives there, and ekes out his little +income by renting some of the mouldering rooms. The church is a +splendid ruin. It was of stone, a hundred and fifty feet long by a +hundred in width, with walls five feet thick, a dome eighty feet high, +and a fine belfry of arches in which four bells rang. It was thrown +down by an earthquake in 1812, on the day of the Feast of the +Immaculate Conception. Morning mass was going on, and the church was +thronged; thirty persons were killed, and many more injured. + +The little hamlet of San Juan Capistrano lies in harbor, as it were, +looking out on its glimpse of sea, between two low spurs of broken and +rolling hills, which in June are covered with shining yellow and blue +and green, iridescent as a peacock's neck. It is worth going across +the continent to come into the village at sunset of a June day. The +peace, silence, and beauty of the spot are brooded over and dominated +by the grand gray ruin, lifting the whole scene into an ineffable +harmony. Wandering in room after room, court after court, through +corridors with red-tiled roofs and hundreds of broad Roman arches, +over fallen pillars, and through carved doorways, whose untrodden +thresholds have sunk out of sight in summer grasses, one asks himself +if he be indeed in America. On the interior walls are still to be seen +spaces of brilliant fresco-work, in Byzantine patterns of superb red, +pale green, gray and blue; and the corridors are paved with tiles, +large and square. It was our good fortune to have with us, in San Juan +Capistrano, a white-haired Mexican, who in his boyhood had spent a +year in the mission. He remembered as if it were yesterday its +bustling life of fifty years ago, when the arched corridor ran +unbroken around the great courtyard, three hundred feet square, and +was often filled with Indians, friars, officers, and gay Mexican +ladies looking on at a bull-fight in the centre. He remembered the +splendid library, filled from ceiling to floor with books, extending +one whole side of the square: in a corner, where had been the room in +which he used to see sixty Indian women weaving at looms, we stood +ankle-deep in furzy weeds and grass. He showed us the doorway, now +closed up, which led into the friars' parlor. To this door, every +Sunday, after mass, came the Indians, in long processions, to get +their weekly gifts. Each one received something,--a handkerchief, +dress, trinket, or money. While their gifts were being distributed, a +band of ten or twelve performers, all Indians, played lively airs on +brass and stringed instruments. In a little baptistery, dusky with +cobweb and mould, we found huddled a group of wooden statues of +saints, which once stood in niches in the church; on their heads were +faded and brittle wreaths, left from the last occasion on which they +had done duty. One had lost an eye; another a hand. The gilding and +covering of their robes were dimmed and defaced. But they had a +dignity which nothing could destroy. The contours were singularly +expressive and fine, and the rendering of the drapery was indeed +wonderful,--flowing robes and gathered and lifted mantles, all carved +in solid wood. + +There are statues of this sort to be seen in several of the old +mission churches. They were all carved by the Indians, many of whom +showed great talent in that direction. There is also in the office of +the justice--or alcalde, as he is still called--of San Juan +Capistrano, a carved chair of noticeably bold and graceful design made +by Indian workmen. A few tatters of heavy crimson brocade hang on it +still, relics of the time when it formed part of a gorgeous +paraphernalia and service. + +Even finer than the ruins of San Juan Capistrano are those of the +church at San Luis Rey. It has a perfectly proportioned dome over the +chancel, and beautiful groined arches on either hand and over the +altar. Four broad pilasters on each side of the church are frescoed in +a curious mixing of blues, light and dark, with reds and black, which +have faded and blended into a delicious tone. A Byzantine pulpit +hanging high on the wall, and three old wooden statues in niches, are +the only decorations left. Piles of dirt and rubbish fill the space in +front of the altar, and grass and weeds are growing in the corners; +great flocks of wild doves live in the roof, and have made the whole +place unclean and foul-aired. An old Mexican, eighty years old, a +former servant of the mission, has the ruin in charge, and keeps the +doors locked still, as if there were treasure to guard. The old man is +called "alcalde" by the village people, and seems pleased to be so +addressed. His face is like wrinkled parchment, and he walks bent into +a parenthesis, but his eyes are bright and young. As he totters along, +literally holding his rags together, discoursing warmly of the +splendors he recollects, he seems indeed a ghost from the old times. + +The most desolate ruin of all is that of the La Purissima Mission. It +is in the Lompoc valley, two days' easy journey north of Santa +Barbara. Nothing is left there but one long, low adobe building, with +a few arches of the corridor; the doors stand open, the roof is +falling in: it has been so often used as a stable and sheepfold, that +even the grasses are killed around it. The painted pulpit hangs half +falling on the wall, its stairs are gone, and its sounding-board is +slanting awry. Inside the broken altar-rail is a pile of stones, +earth, and rubbish, thrown up by seekers after buried treasures; in +the farther corner another pile and hole, the home of a badger; +mud-swallows' nests are thick on the cornice, and cobwebbed rags of +the old canvas ceiling hang fluttering overhead. The only trace of the +ancient cultivation is a pear-orchard a few rods off, which must have +been a splendid sight in its day; it is at least two hundred yards +square, with a double row of trees all around, so placed as to leave +between them a walk fifty or sixty feet wide. Bits of broken aqueduct +here and there, and a large, round stone tank overgrown by grass, +showed where the life of the orchard used to flow in, it has been many +years slowly dying of thirst. Many of the trees are gone, and those +that remain stretch out gaunt and shrivelled boughs, which, though +still bearing fruit, look like arms tossing in vain reproach and +entreaty; a few pinched little blossoms seemed to heighten rather than +lessen their melancholy look. + +At San Juan Bautista there lingers more of the atmosphere of the olden +time than is to be found in any other place in California. The mission +church is well preserved; its grounds are enclosed and cared for; in +its garden are still blooming roses and vines, in the shelter of +palms, and with the old stone sun-dial to tell time. In the sacristy +are oak chests, full of gorgeous vestments of brocades, with silver +and gold laces. On one of these robes is an interesting relic. A lost +or worn-out silken tassel had been replaced by the patient Indian +workers with one of fine-shredded rawhide; the shreds wound with +silver wire, and twisted into tiny rosettes and loops, closely +imitating the silver device. The church fronts south, on a little +green locust walled plaza,--the sleepiest, sunniest, dreamiest place +in the world. To the east the land falls off abruptly, so that the +paling on that side of the plaza is outlined against the sky, and its +little locked gate looks as if it would open into the heavens. The +mission buildings used to surround this plaza; after the friars' day +came rich men living there; and a charming inn is kept now in one of +their old adobe houses. On the east side of the church is a succession +of three terraces leading down to a valley. On the upper one is the +old graveyard, in which it is said there are sleeping four thousand +Indians. + +In 1825 there were spoken at this mission thirteen different Indian +dialects. + +Just behind the church is an orphan girls' school, kept by the Sisters +of the Sacred Heart. At six o'clock every morning the bells of the +church ring for mass as they used to ring when over a thousand Indians +flocked at the summons. To-day, at the sound, there comes a procession +of little girls and young maidens, the black-robed sisters walking +before them with crossed hands and placid faces. One or two Mexican +women, with shawls over their heads, steal across the faint paths of +the plaza, and enter the church. + +I shall always recollect the morning when I went, too. The silence of +the plaza was in itself a memorial service, with locust blossoms +swinging incense. It was barely dawn in the church. As the shrill yet +sweet childish voices lifted up the strains of the Kyrie Eleison, I +seemed to see the face of Father Junipero in the dim lighted chancel, +and the benediction was as solemn as if he himself had spoken it. Why +the little town of San Juan Bautista continues to exist is a marvel. +It is shut out and cut off from everything; only two or three hundred +souls are left in it; its streets are grass-grown; half its houses are +empty. But it has a charm of sun, valley, hill, and seaward off-look +unsurpassed in all California. Lingering out a peaceful century there +are many old men and women, whose memories are like magic glasses, +reproducing the pictures of the past. One such we found: a Mexican +woman eighty-five years old, portly, jolly, keen-tongued, keen-eyed; +the widow of one of the soldiers of the old mission guard. She had had +twelve children; she had never been ill a week in her life; she is now +the village nurse, and almost doctor. Sixty years back she remembered. +"The Indians used to be in San Juan Bautista like sheep," she said, +"by the thousand and thousand." They were always good, and the padres +were always kind. Fifty oxen were killed for food every eight days, +and everybody had all he wanted to eat. There was much more water then +than now, plenty of rain, and the streams always full. "I don't know +whether you or we were bad, that it has been taken away by God," she +said, with a quick glance, half humorous, half antagonistic. + +The Santa Barbara Mission is still in the charge of Franciscans, the +only one remaining in their possession. It is now called a college for +apostolic missionary work, and there are living within its walls eight +members of the order. One of them is very old,--a friar of the ancient +_régime_; his benevolent face is well known throughout the country, +and there are in many a town and remote hamlet men and women who wait +always for his coming before they will make confession. He is like St. +Francis's first followers: the obligations of poverty and charity +still hold to him the literal fulness of the original bond. He gives +away garment after garment, leaving himself without protection against +cold; and the brothers are forced to lock up and hide from him all +provisions, or he would leave the house bare of food. He often kneels +from midnight to dawn on the stone floor of the church, praying and +chanting psalms; and when a terrible epidemic of small-pox broke out +some years ago, he labored day and night, nursing the worst victims of +it, shriving them, and burying them with his own hands. He is past +eighty, and has not much longer to stay. He has outlived many things +beside his own prime: the day of the sort of faith and work to which +his spirit is attuned has passed by forever. + +The mission buildings stand on high ground, three miles from the +beach, west of the town and above it, looking to the sea. In the +morning the sun's first rays flash full on its front, and at evening +they linger late on its western wall. It is an inalienable benediction +to the place. The longer one stays there the more he is aware of the +influence on his soul, as well as of the importance in the landscape +of the benign and stately edifice. + +On the corridor of the inner court hangs a bell which is rung for the +hours of the daily offices and secular duties. It is also struck +whenever a friar dies, to announce that all is over. It is the duty of +the brother who has watched the last breath of the dying one to go +immediately and strike this bell. Its sad note has echoed many times +through the corridors. One of the brothers said, last year,-- + +"The first time I rang that bell to announce a death, there were +fifteen of us left. Now there are only eight." + +The sentence itself fell on my ear like the note of a passing-bell. It +seems a not unfitting last word to this slight and fragmentary sketch +of the labors of the Franciscan Order in California. + +Still more fitting, however, are the words of a historian, who, living +in California and thoroughly knowing its history from first to last, +has borne the following eloquent testimony to the friars and their +work:-- + + "The results of the mission scheme of Christianization and + colonization were such as to justify the plans of the wise + statesman who devised it, and to gladden the hearts of the + pious men who devoted their lives to its execution. + + "At the end of sixty years the missionaries of Upper California + found themselves in the possession of twenty-one prosperous + missions, planted on a line of about seven hundred miles, + running from San Diego north to the latitude of Sonoma. More + than thirty thousand Indian converts were lodged in the mission + buildings, receiving religious culture, assisting at divine + worship, and cheerfully performing their easy tasks.... If we + ask where are now the thirty thousand Christianized Indians who + once enjoyed the beneficence and created the wealth of the + twenty-one Catholic missions of California, and then + contemplate the most wretched of all want of systems which has + surrounded them under our own government, we shall not withhold + our admiration from those good and devoted men who, with such + wisdom, sagacity, and self-sacrifice, reared these wonderful + institutions in the wilderness of California. They at least + would have preserved these Indian races if they had been left + to pursue unmolested their work of pious beneficence."[7] + + NOTE.--The author desires to express her acknowledgments to H. + H. Bancroft, of San Francisco, who kindly put at her disposal + all the resources of his invaluable library; also to the + Superior of the Franciscan College in Santa Barbara, for the + loan of important books and manuscripts and the photograph of + Father Junipero. + + +THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE MISSION INDIANS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. + +The old laws of the kingdom of the Indies are interesting reading, +especially those portions of them relating to Indians. A certain fine +and chivalrous quality of honor toward the helpless and tenderness +toward the dependent runs all through their quaint and cumbrous +paragraphs. + +It is not until one studies these laws in connection with the history +of the confusions and revolutions of the secularization period, and of +the American conquest of California, that it becomes possible to +understand how the California Mission Indians could have been left so +absolutely unprotected, as they were, in the matter of ownership of +the lands they had cultivated for sixty years. + +"We command," said the Spanish king, "that the sale, grant, and +composition of lands be executed with such attention that the Indians +be left in possession of the full amount of lands belonging to them, +either singly or in communities, together with their rivers and +waters; and the lands which they shall have drained or otherwise +improved, whereby they may by their own industry have rendered them +fertile, are reserved, in the first place, and can in no case be sold +or aliened. And the judges who have been sent thither shall specify +what Indians they may have found on the land, and what lands they +shall have left in possession of each of the elders of tribes, +caciques, governors, or communities." + +Grazing estates for cattle are ordered to be located "apart from the +fields and villages of the Indians." The king's command is that no +such estates shall be granted "in any parts or place where any damage +can accrue to the Indians." Every grant of land must be made "without +prejudice to the Indians;" and "such as may have been granted to their +prejudice and injury" must be "restored to whomever they by right +shall belong." + +"In order to avoid the inconveniences and damages resulting from the +sale or gift to Spaniards of tracts of land to the prejudice of +Indians, upon the suspicious testimony of witnesses," the king orders +that all sales and gifts are to be made before the attorneys of the +royal audiencias, and "always with an eye to the benefit of the +Indians;" and "the king's solicitors are to be protectors of the +Indians and plead for them." "After distributing to the Indians what +they may justly want to cultivate, sow, and raise cattle, confirming +to them what they now hold, and granting what they may want besides, +all the remaining land may be reserved to us," says the old decree, +"clear of any incumbrance, for the purpose of being given as rewards, +or disposed of according to our pleasure." + +In those day's everything in New Spain was thus ordered by royal +decrees. Nobody had grants of land in the sense in which we use the +word. When the friars wished to reward an industrious and capable +Indian, and test his capacity to take care of himself and family, by +giving him a little farm of his own, all they had to do, or did, was +to mark off the portion of land, put the Indian on it and tell him it +was his. There would appear to have been little more formality than +this in the establishing of the Indian pueblos which were formed in +the beginning of the secularization period. Governor Figueroa, in an +address in 1834, speaks of three of these, San Juan Capistrano, San +Dieguito, and Las Flores, says that they are flourishing, and that the +comparison between the condition of these Indians and that of the +Spanish townsmen in the same region is altogether in favor of the +Indians. + +On Nov. 16, 1835, eighty-one "desafiliados"--as the ex-neophytes of +missions were called--of the San Luis Rey Mission settled themselves +in the San Pasqual valley, which was an appanage of that mission. +These Indian communities appear to have had no documents to show their +right, either as communities or individuals, to the land on which they +had settled. At any rate, they had nothing which amounted to a +protection, or stood in the way of settlers who coveted their lands. +It is years since the last trace of the pueblos Las Flores and San +Dieguito disappeared; and the San Pasqual valley is entirely taken up +by white settlers, chiefly on pre-emption claims. San Juan Capistrano +is the only one of the four where are to be found any Indians' homes. +If those who had banded themselves together and had been set off into +pueblos had no recognizable or defensible title, how much more +helpless and defenceless were individuals, or small communities +without any such semblance of pueblo organization! + +Most of the original Mexican grants included tracts of land on which +Indians were living, sometimes large villages of them. In many of +these grants, in accordance with the old Spanish law or custom, was +incorporated a clause protecting the Indians. They were to be left +undisturbed in their homes: the portion of the grant occupied by them +did not belong to the grantee in any such sense as to entitle him to +eject them. The land on which they were living, and the land they were +cultivating at the time of the grant, belonged to them as long as they +pleased to occupy it. In many of the grants the boundaries of the +Indians' reserved portion of the property were carefully marked off; +and the instances were rare in which Mexican grantees disturbed or in +any way interfered with Indians living on their estates. There was no +reason why they should. There was plenty of land and to spare, and it +was simply a convenience and an advantage to have the skilled and +docile Indian laborer on the ground. + +But when the easy-going, generous, improvident Mexican needed or +desired to sell his grant, and the sharp American was on hand to buy +it, then was brought to light the helplessness of the Indians' +position. What cared the sharp American for that sentimental clause, +"without injury to the Indians"? Not a farthing. Why should he? His +government, before him, had decided that all the lands belonging to +the old missions, excepting the small portions technically held as +church property, and therefore "out of commerce," were government +lands. None of the Indians living on those lands at the time of the +American possession were held to have any right--not even "color of +right"--to them. That they and their ancestors had been cultivating +them for three quarters of a century made no difference. Americans +wishing to pre-empt claims on any of these so-called government lands +did not regard the presence on them of Indian families or communities +as any more of a barrier than the presence of so many coyotes or +foxes. They would not hesitate to certify to the land office that such +lands were "unoccupied." Still less, then, need the purchaser of +tracts covered by old Mexican grants hold himself bound to regard the +poor cumberers of the ground, who, having no legal right whatever, had +been all their years living on the tolerance of a silly, good-hearted +Mexican proprietor. The American wanted every rod of his land, every +drop of water on it; his schemes were boundless; his greed insatiable; +he had no use for Indians. His plan did not embrace them, and could +not enlarge itself to take them in. They must go. This is, in brief, +the summing up of the way in which has come about the present pitiable +state of the California Mission Indians. + +In 1852 a report in regard to these Indians was made to the Interior +Department by the Hon. B. D. Wilson, of Los Angeles. It is an +admirable paper, clear and exhaustive. Mr. Wilson was an old +Californian, had known the Indians well, and had been eyewitness to +much of the cruelty and injustice done them. He says:-- + + "In the fall of the missions, accomplished by private cupidity + and political ambition, philanthropy laments the failure of one + of the grandest experiments ever made for the elevation of this + unfortunate race." + +He estimates that there were at that time in the counties of Tulare, +Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego over fifteen thousand +Indians who had been connected with the missions in those counties. +They were classified as the Tulareños, Cahuillas, San Luiseños, and +Diegueños, the latter two being practically one nation, speaking one +language, and being more generally Christianized than the others. They +furnished, Mr. Wilson says, "the majority of the laborers, mechanics, +and servants of San Diego and Los Angeles counties." They all spoke +the Spanish language, and a not inconsiderable number could read and +write it. They had built all the houses in the country, had taught the +whites how to make brick, mud mortar, how to use asphalt on roofs; +they understood irrigation, were good herders, reapers, etc. They were +paid only half the wages paid to whites; and being immoderate +gamblers, often gambled away on Saturday night and Sunday all they had +earned in the week. At that time in Los Angeles nearly every other +house in town was a grog-shop for Indians. In the San Pasqual valley +there were twenty white vagabonds, all rum-sellers, squatted at one +time around the Indian pueblo. The Los Angeles ayuntamiento had passed +an edict declaring that "all Indians without masters"--significant +phrase!--must live outside the town limits; also, that all Indians who +could not show papers from the alcalde of the pueblo in which they +lived, should be treated as "horse thieves and enemies." + +On Sunday nights the squares and streets of Los Angeles were often to +be seen full of Indians lying about helpless in every stage of +intoxication. They were picked up by scores, unconscious, carried to +jail, locked up, and early Monday morning hired out to the highest +bidders at the jail gates. Horrible outrages were committed on Indian +women and children. In some instances the Indians armed to avenge +these, and were themselves killed. + +These are a few out of hundreds of similar items to be gathered from +the newspaper records of the time. Conditions such as these could have +but one outcome. Twenty years later, when another special report on +the condition of the California Mission Indians was asked for by the +Government, not over five thousand Indians remained to be reported on. +Vice and cruelty had reaped large harvests each year. Many of the rich +valleys, which at the time of Mr. Wilson's report had been under +cultivation by Indians, were now filled by white settlers, the Indians +all gone, no one could tell where. In some instances whole villages of +them had been driven off at once by fraudulently procured and +fraudulently enforced claims. One of the most heart-rending of these +cases was that of the Temecula Indians. + +The Temecula valley lies in the northeast corner of San Diego County. +It is watered by two streams and has a good soil. The Southern +California Railroad now crosses it. It was an appanage of the San Luis +Rey Mission, and the two hundred Indians who were living there were +the children and grandchildren of San Luis Rey neophytes. The greater +part of the valley was under cultivation. They had cattle, horses, +sheep. In 1865 a "special agent" of the United States Government held +a grand Indian convention there. Eighteen villages were represented, +and the numbers of inhabitants, stock, vineyards, orchards, were +reported. The Indians were greatly elated at this evidence of the +Government's good intentions toward them. They set up a tall +liberty-pole, and bringing forth a United States flag, which they had +kept carefully hidden away ever since the beginning of the civil war, +they flung it out to the winds in token of their loyalty. "It is +astonishing," says one of the San Diego newspapers of the day, "that +these Indians have behaved so well, considering the pernicious +teachings they have had from the secessionists in our midst." + +There was already anxiety in the minds of the Temecula Indians as to +their title to their lands. All that was in existence to show that +they had any, was the protecting clause in an old Mexican grant. To be +sure, the man was still alive who had assisted in marking off the +boundaries of their part of this original Temecula grant; but his +testimony could establish nothing beyond the letter of the clause as +it stood. They earnestly implored the agent to lay the case before the +Interior Department. Whether he did or not I do not know, but this is +the sequel: On April 15, 1869, an action was brought in the District +Court, in San Francisco, by five men, against "Andrew Johnson, +Thaddeus Stevens, Horace Greeley, and one thousand Indians, and other +parties whose names are unknown." It was "a bill to quit title," an +"action to recover possession of certain real estate bounded thus and +thus." It included the Temecula valley. It was based on grants made by +Governor Micheltorena in 1844. The defendants cited were to appear in +court within twenty days. + +The Indians appealed to the Catholic bishop to help them. He wrote to +one of the judges an imploring letter, saying, "Can you not do +something to save these poor Indians from being driven out?" But the +scheme had been too skilfully plotted. There was no way--or, at any +rate, no way was found--of protecting the Indians. The day came when a +sheriff, bringing a posse of men and a warrant which could not be legally +resisted, arrived to eject the Indian families from their house and drive +them out of the valley. The Indians' first impulse was as determined +as it could have been if they had been white, to resist the outrage. +But on being reasoned with by friends, who sadly and with shame +explained to them that by thus resisting, they would simply make it +the duty of the sheriff to eject them by force, and, if necessary, +shoot down any who opposed the executing of his warrant, they +submitted. But they refused to lift hand to the moving. They sat down, +men and women, on the ground, and looked on, some wailing and weeping, +some dogged and silent, while the sheriff and his men took out of the +neat little adobe houses their small stores of furniture, clothes, and +food, and piled them on wagons to be carried--where?--anywhere the +exiles chose, so long as they did not chance to choose a piece of any +white man's land. + +A Mexican woman is now living in that Temecula valley who told me the +story of this moving. The facts I had learned before from records of +one sort and another. But standing on the spot, looking at the ruins +of the little adobe houses, and the walled graveyard full of graves, +and hearing this woman tell how she kept her doors and windows shut, +and could not bear to look out while the deed was being done, I +realized forcibly how different a thing is history seen from history +written and read. + +It took three days to move them. Procession after procession, with +cries and tears, walked slowly behind the wagons carrying their +household goods. They took the tule roofs off the little houses, and +carried them along. They could be used again. Some of these Indians, +wishing to stay as near as possible to their old home, settled in a +small valley, only three miles and a half away to the south. It was a +dreary, hot little valley, bare, with low, rocky buttes cropping out +on either side, and with scanty growths of bushes; there was not a +drop of water in it. Here the exiles went to work again; built their +huts of reeds and straw; set up a booth of boughs for the priest, when +he came, to say mass in; and a rude wooden cross to consecrate their +new graveyard on a stony hill-side. They put their huts on barren +knolls here and there, where nothing could grow. On the tillable land +they planted wheat or barley or orchards,--some patches not ten feet +square, the largest not over three or four acres. They hollowed out +the base of one of the rocky buttes, sunk a well there, and found +water. + +I think none of us who saw this little refugee village will ever +forget it. The whole place was a series of pictures; and knowing its +history, we found in each low roof and paling the dignity of heroic +achievement. Near many of the huts stood great round baskets woven of +twigs, reaching half-way up to the eaves and looking like huge +birds'-nests. These were their granaries, holding acorns and wheat. +Women with red pottery jars on their heads and on their backs were +going to and from the well; old men were creeping about, bent over, +carrying loads of fagots that would have seemed heavy for a donkey; +aged women sitting on the ground were diligently plaiting baskets, too +busy or too old to give more than a passing look at us. A group of +women was at work washing wool in great stone bowls, probably hundreds +of years old. The interiors of some of the houses were exquisitely +neat and orderly, with touching attempts at adornment,--pretty baskets +and shelves hanging on the walls, and over the beds canopies of bright +calico. On some of the beds, the sheets and pillow-cases were trimmed +with wide hand-wrought lace, made by the Indian women themselves. This +is one of their arts which date back to the mission days. Some of the +lace is beautiful and fine, and of patterns like the old church laces. +It was pitiful to see the poor creatures in almost every one of the +hovels bringing out a yard or two of their lace to sell; and there was +hardly a house which had not the lace-maker's frame hanging on the +wall, with an unfinished piece of lace stretched in it. The making of +this lace requires much time and patience. It is done by first drawing +out all the lengthwise threads of a piece of fine linen or cotton; +then the threads which are left are sewed over and over into an +endless variety of intricate patterns. Sometimes the whole design is +done in solid button-hole stitch, or solid figures are filled in on an +open network made of the threads. The baskets were finely woven, of +good shapes, and excellent decorative patterns in brown and black on +yellow or white. + +Every face, except those of the very young, was sad beyond +description. They were stamped indelibly by generations of suffering, +immovable distrust also underlying the sorrow. It was hard to make +them smile. To all our expressions of good-will and interest they +seemed indifferent, and received in silence the money we paid them for +baskets and lace. + +The word "Temecula" is an Indian word, signifying "grief" or +"mourning." It seems to have had a strangely prophetic fitness for the +valley to which it was given. + +While I am writing these lines, the news comes that, by an executive +order of the President, the little valley in which these Indians took +refuge has been set apart for them as a reservation. No doubt they +know how much executive orders creating Indian reservations are worth. +There have been several such made and revoked in California within +their memories. The San Pasqual valley was at one time set apart by +executive order as a reservation for Indians. This was in 1870. There +were then living in the valley between two and three hundred Indians; +some of them had been members of the original pueblo established there +in 1835. + +The comments of the California newspapers on this executive order are +amusing, or would be if they did not record such tragedy. It was +followed by an outburst of virtuous indignation all along the coast. +One paper said: + + "The iniquity of this scheme is made manifest when we state the + fact that the Indians of that part of the State are Mission + Indians who are settled in villages and engaged in farming like + the white settlers.... It would be gross injustice to the + Indians themselves as well as to the white settlers in San + Pasqual.... These Indians are as fixed in their habitations as + the whites, and have fruit-trees, buildings, and other valuable + improvements to make them contented and comfortable. Until + within the past two or three years they raised more fruit than + the white settlers of the southern counties. There is belonging + to an Indian family there a fig-tree that is the largest in the + State, covering a space sixty paces in diameter.... A + remonstrance signed by over five hundred citizens and indorsed + by every office-holder in the county has gone on to Washington + against this swindle.... This act on the part of the Government + is no better than highway robbery, and the persons engaged in + it are too base to be called men. There is not a person in + either of these valleys that will not be ruined pecuniarily if + these orders are enforced." + +Looking through files of newspapers of that time, I found only one +that had the moral courage to uphold the measure. That paper said,-- + + "Most of the inhabitants are now Indians who desire to be + protected in their ancient possessions; and the Government is + about to give them that protection, after a long delay." + +One editor, having nearly exhausted the resources of invective and +false statement, actually had the hardihood to say that Indians could +not be induced to live on this reservation because "there are no +acorn-bearing trees there, and the acorns furnish their principal +food." + +The congressmen and their clients were successful. The order was +revoked. In less than four years the San Pasqual Indians are heard +from again. A justice of the peace in the San Pasqual valley writes to +the district attorney to know if anything can be done to protect these +Indians. + +"Last year," he says, "the heart of this rancheria (village) was filed +on and pre-empted. The settlers are beginning to plough up the land. +The Los Angeles Land Office has informed the Indians that, not being +citizens, they cannot retain any claim. It seems very hard," says the +judge, "aside from the danger of difficulties likely to arise from +it." + +About this time a bill introduced in Congress to provide homes for the +Mission Indians on the reservation plan was reported unfavorably upon +by a Senate committee, on the ground that all the Mission Indians were +really American citizens. The year following, the chief of the Pala +Indians, being brought to the county clerk's office to register as a +voter, was refused on the ground that, being an Indian, he was not a +citizen. In 1850 a small band of Indians living in San Diego County +were taxed to the amount of six hundred dollars, which they paid, the +sheriff said, "without a murmur." The next year they refused. The +sheriff wrote to the district attorney, who replied that the tax must +be paid. The Indians said they had no money. They had only bows, +arrows, wigwams, and a few cattle. Finally, they were compelled to +drive in enough of their cattle to pay the tax. One of the San Diego +newspapers spoke of the transaction as "a small business to undertake +to collect taxes from a parcel of naked Indians." + +The year before these events happened a special agent, John G. Ames, +had been sent out by the Government to investigate and report upon the +condition of the Mission Indians. He had assured them "of the sincere +desire of the Government to secure their rights and promote their +interests, and of its intention to do whatever might be found +practicable in this direction." He told them he had been "sent out by +the Government to hear their story, to examine carefully into their +condition, and to recommend such measures as seemed under the +circumstances most desirable." + +Mr. Ames found in the San Pasqual valley a white man who had just +built for himself a good house, and claimed to have pre-empted the +greater part of the Indians' village. He "had actually paid the price +of the land to the register of the land office of the district, and +was daily expecting the patent from Washington. He owned that it was +hard to wrest from these well-disposed and industrious creatures the +homes they had built up. 'But,' said he, 'if I had not done it, +somebody else would; for all agree that the Indian has no right to +public lands.'" + +This sketch of the history of the San Pasqual and Temecula bands of +Indians is a fair showing of what, with little variation, has been the +fate of the Mission Indians all through Southern California. The +combination of cruelty and unprincipled greed on the part of the +American settlers, with culpable ignorance, indifference, and neglect +on the part of the Government at Washington has resulted in an +aggregate of monstrous injustice, which no one can fully realize +without studying the facts on the ground. In the winter of 1882 I +visited this San Pasqual valley. I drove over from San Diego with the +Catholic priest, who goes there three or four Sundays in a year, to +hold service in a little adobe chapel built by the Indians in the days +of their prosperity. This beautiful valley is from one to three miles +wide, and perhaps twelve long. It is walled by high-rolling, +soft-contoured hills, which are now one continuous wheat-field. There +are, in sight of the chapel, a dozen or so adobe houses, many of which +were built by the Indians; in all of them except one are now living +the robber whites, who have driven the Indians out; only one Indian +still remains in the valley. He earns a meagre living for himself and +family by doing day's work for the farmers who have taken his land. +The rest of the Indians are hidden away in the cañons and rifts of the +near hills,--wherever they can find a bit of ground to keep a horse or +two and raise a little grain. They have sought the most inaccessible +spots, reached often by miles of difficult trail. They have fled into +secret lairs like hunted wild beasts. The Catholic priest of San Diego +is much beloved by them. He has been their friend for many years. When +he goes to hold service, they gather from their various hiding-places +and refuges; sometimes, on a special _fête_ day, over two hundred +come. But on the day I was there, the priest being a young man who was +a stranger to them, only a few were present. It was a pitiful sight. +The dilapidated adobe building, empty and comfortless; the ragged +poverty-stricken creatures, kneeling on the bare ground,--a few +Mexicans, with some gaudiness of attire, setting off the Indians' +poverty still more. In front of the chapel, on a rough cross-beam +supported by two forked posts, set awry in the ground, swung a bell +bearing the date of 1770. It was one of the bells of the old San Diego +Mission. Standing bareheaded, the priest rang it long and loud: he +rang it several times before the leisurely groups that were plainly to +be seen in doorways or on roadsides bestirred themselves to make any +haste to come. After the service I had a long talk, through an +interpreter, with an aged Indian, the oldest now living in the county. +He is said to be considerably over a hundred, and his looks +corroborate the statement. He is almost blind, and has snow-white +hair, and a strange voice, a kind of shrill whisper. He says he +recollects the rebuilding of the San Diego Mission; though he was a +very little boy then, he helped to carry the mud mortar. This was one +hundred and three years ago. Instances of much greater longevity than +this, however, are not uncommon among the California Indians. I asked +if he had a good time in the mission. "Yes, yes," he said, turning his +sightless eyes up to the sky; "much good time," "plenty to eat," +"_atole_," "_pozzole_," "meat;" now, "no meat;" "all the time to beg, +beg;" "all the time hungry." His wife, who is older than he, is still +living, though "her hair is not so white." She was ill, and was with +relatives far away in the mountains; he lifted his hand and pointed in +the direction of the place. "Much sick, much sick; she will never walk +any more," he said, with deep feeling in his voice. + +During the afternoon the Indians were continually coming and going at +the shop connected with the inn where we had stopped, some four miles +from the valley. The keeper of the shop and inn said he always trusted +them. They were "good pay." "Give them their time and they'll always +pay; and if they die their relations will pay the last cent." Some of +them he would "trust any time as high as twenty dollars." When I asked +him how they earned their money, he seemed to have no very distinct +idea. Some of them had a little stock; they might now and then sell a +horse or a cow, he said; they hired as laborers whenever they could +get a chance, working at sheep-shearing in the spring and autumn, and +at grape-picking in the vintage season. A few of them had a little +wheat to sell; sometimes they paid him in wheat. There were not nearly +so many of them, however, as there had been when he first opened his +shop; not half so many, he thought. Where had they gone? He shrugged +his shoulders. "Who knows?" he said. + +The most wretched of all the Mission Indians now, however, are not +these who have been thus driven into hill fastnesses and waterless +valleys to wrest a living where white men would starve. There is in +their fate the climax of misery, but not of degradation. The latter +cannot be reached in the wilderness. It takes the neighborhood of the +white man to accomplish it. On the outskirts of the town of San Diego +are to be seen, here and there, huddled groups of what, at a distance, +might be taken for piles of refuse and brush, old blankets, old +patches of sail-cloth, old calico, dead pine boughs, and sticks all +heaped together in shapeless mounds; hollow, one perceives on coming +nearer them, and high enough for human beings to creep under. These +are the homes of Indians. I have seen the poorest huts of the most +poverty-stricken wilds in Italy, Bavaria, Norway, and New Mexico; but +never have I seen anything, in shape of shelter for human creatures, +so loathsome as the kennels in which some of the San Diego Indians are +living. Most of these Indians are miserable, worthless beggars, +drunkards of course, and worse. Even for its own sake, it would seem +that the town would devise some scheme of help and redemption for such +outcasts. There is a school in San Diego for the Indian children; it +is supported in part by the Government, in part by charity; but work +must be practically thrown away on children that are to spend eighteen +hours out of the twenty-four surrounded by such filth and vice. + +Coming from the study of the records of the old mission times, with +the picture fresh and vivid of the tranquil industry and comfort of +the Indians' lives in the mission establishments, one gazes with +double grief on such a spectacle as this. Some of these Indian hovels +are within a short distance of the beach where the friars first +landed, in 1769, and began their work. No doubt, Father Junipero and +Father Crespí, arm in arm, in ardent converse, full of glowing +anticipation of the grand future results of their labors, walked again +and again, up and down, on the very spot where these miserable +wretches are living to-day. One cannot fancy Father Junipero's fiery +soul, to whatever far sphere it may have been translated, looking down +on this ruin without pangs of indignation. + +There are still left in the mountain ranges of South California a few +Indian villages which will probably, for some time to come, preserve +their independent existence. Some of them number as many as two or +three hundred inhabitants. Each has its chief, or, as he is now +called, "capitan." They have their own system of government of the +villages; it is autocratic, but in the main it works well. In one of +these villages, that of the Cahuillas, situated in the San Jacinto +range, is a school whose teacher is paid by the United States +Government. She is a widow with one little daughter. She has built for +herself a room adjoining the school-house. In this she lives alone, +with her child, in the heart of the Indian village; there is not a +white person within ten miles. She says that the village is as +well-ordered, quiet, and peaceable as it is possible for a village to +be; and she feels far safer, surrounded by these three hundred +Cahuillas, than she would feel in most of the California towns. The +Cahuillas (pronounced Kaweeyahs) were one of the fiercest and most +powerful of the tribes. The name signifies "master," or "powerful +nation." A great number of the neophytes of the San Gabriel Mission +were from this tribe; but a large proportion of them were never +attached to any mission. + +Their last great chief, Juan Antonio, died twenty years ago. At the +time of the Mexican War he received the title of General from General +Kearney, and never afterward appeared in the villages of the whites +without some fragmentary attempts at military uniform. He must have +been a grand character, with all his barbarism. He ruled his band like +an emperor, and never rode abroad without an escort of from twenty to +thirty men. When he stopped one of his Indians ran forward, bent down, +took off his spurs, then, kneeling on all-fours, made of his back a +stool, on which Juan stepped in dismounting and mounting. In 1850 an +Indian of this tribe, having murdered another Indian, was taken +prisoner by the civil authorities and carried to Jurupa to be tried. +Before the proceedings had begun, Juan, with a big following of armed +Indians, dashed up to the court-house, strode in alone, and demanded +that the prisoner be surrendered to him. + +"I come not here as a child," he said. "I wish to punish my people my +own way. If they deserve hanging, I will hang them. If a white man +deserves hanging, let the white man hang him. I am done." + +The prisoner was given up. The Indians strapped him on a horse, and +rode back to their village, where, in an open grave, the body of the +murdered man had been laid. Into this grave, on the top of the corpse +of his victim, Juan Antonio, with his own hands, flung the murderer +alive, and ordered the grave instantly filled up with earth. + +There are said to have been other instances of his dealings with +offenders nearly as summary and severe as this. He is described as +looking like an old African lion, shaggy and fierce; but he was always +cordial and affectionate in his relations with the whites. He died in +1863, of small-pox, in a terrible epidemic which carried off thousands +of Indians. + +This Cahuilla village is in a small valley, high up in the San Jacinto +range. The Indians are very poor, but they are industrious and +hard-working. The men raise stock, and go out in bands as +sheep-shearers and harvesters. The women make baskets, lace, and from +the fibre of the yucca plant, beautiful and durable mats, called +"cocas," which are much sought after by California ranchmen as +saddle-mats. The yucca fibres are soaked and beaten like flax; some +are dyed brown, some bleached white, and the two woven together in a +great variety of patterns. + +In the San Jacinto valley, some thirty miles south of these Cahuillas, +is another Indian village called Saboba. These Indians have occupied +and cultivated this ground since the days of the missions. They have +good adobe houses, many acres of wheat-fields, little peach and +apricot orchards, irrigating ditches, and some fences. In one of the +houses I found a neatly laid wooden floor, a sewing-machine, and the +walls covered with pictures cut from illustrated newspapers which had +been given to them by the school teacher. There is a Government school +here, numbering from twenty to thirty; the children read as well as +average white children of their age, and in manners and in apparent +interest in their studies, were far above the average of children in +the public schools. + +One of the colony schemes, so common now in California, has been +formed for the opening up and settling of the San Jacinto valley. This +Indian village will be in the colony's way. In fact, the colony must +have its lands and its water. It is only a question of a very little +time, the driving out of these Saboba families as the Temeculas and +San Pasquales were driven,--by force, just as truly as if at the point +of the bayonet. + +In one of the beautiful cañons opening on this valley is the home of +Victoriano, an aged chief of the band. He is living with his daughter +and grandchildren, in a comfortable adobe house at the head of the +cañon. The vineyard and peach orchard which his father planted there, +are in good bearing. His grandson Jesus, a young man twenty years old, +in the summer of 1881 ploughed up and planted twenty acres of wheat. +The boy also studied so faithfully in school that year--his first year +at school--that he learned to read well in the "Fourth Reader;" this +in spite of his being absent six weeks, in both spring and autumn, +with the sheep-shearing band. A letter of his, written at my request +to the Secretary of the Interior in behalf of his people, is touching +in its simple dignity. + + SAN JACINTO, CAL., May 29, 1882. + + MR. TELLER. + + DEAR SIR,--At the request of my friends, I write you in regard + to the land of my people. + + More than one hundred years ago, my great-grandfather, who was + chief of his tribe, settled with his people in the San Jacinto + valley. The people have always been peaceful, never caring for + war, and have welcomed Americans into the valley. + + Some years ago a grant of land was given to the Estudillos by + the Mexican Government. The first survey did not take in any of + the land claimed by the Indians; but four years ago a new + survey was made, taking in all the little farms, the stream of + water, and the village. Upon this survey the United States + Government gave a patent. It seems hard for us to be driven + from our homes that we love as much as other people do theirs; + and this danger is at our doors now, for the grant is being + divided and the village and land will be assigned to some of + the present owners of the grant. + + And now, dear sir, after this statement of facts, I, for my + people (I ask nothing for myself), appeal to you for help. + + Cannot you find some way to right this great wrong done to a + quiet and industrious people? + + Hoping that we may have justice done us, I am + + Respectfully yours, + + JOSÉ JESUS CASTILLO. + +He was at first unwilling to write it, fearing he should be supposed +to be begging for himself rather than for his people. His father was a +Mexican; and he has hoped that on that account their family would be +exempt from the fate of the village when the colony comes into the +valley. But it is not probable that in a country where water is gold, +a stream of water such as runs by Victoriano's door will be left long +in the possession of any Indian family, whatever may be its relations +to rich Mexican proprietors in the neighborhood. Jesus's mother is a +tall, superbly formed woman, with a clear skin, hazel nut-brown eyes +that thrill one with their limpid brightness, a nose straight and +strong, and a mouth like an Egyptian priestess. She is past forty, but +she is strikingly handsome still; and one does not wonder at hearing +the tragedy of her early youth, when, for years, she believed herself +the wife of Jesus's father, lived in his house as a wife, worked as a +wife, and bore him his children. Her heart broke when she was sent +adrift, a sadder than Hagar, with her half-disowned offspring. Money +and lands did not heal the wound. Her face is dark with the sting of +it to-day. When I asked her to sell me the lace-trimmed pillow-case +and sheet from her bed, her cheeks flushed at first, and she looked +away haughtily before replying. But, after a moment, she consented. +They needed the money. She knows well that days of trouble are in +store for them. + +Since the writing of this paper news has come that the long-expected +blow has fallen on this Indian village. The colony scheme has been +completed; the valley has been divided up; the land on which the +village of Saboba stands is now the property of a San Bernardino +merchant. Any day he chooses, he can eject these Indians as the +Temecula and the San Pasqual bands were ejected, and with far more +show of legal right. + +In the vicinity of the San Juan Capistrano Mission are living a few +families of Indians, some of them the former neophytes of the mission. +An old woman there, named Carmen, is a splendid specimen of the best +longevity which her race and the California air can produce. We found +her in bed, where she spends most of her time,--not lying, but sitting +cross-legged, looking brisk and energetic, and always busy making +lace. Nobody makes finer lace than hers. Yet she laughed when we asked +if she could see to do such fine work without spectacles. + +"Where could I get spectacles?" she said, her eyes twinkling. Then she +stretched out her hand for the spectacles of our old Mexican friend +who had asked her this question for us; took them, turned them over +curiously, tried to look through them, shook her head, and handed them +back to him with a shrug and a smile. She was twenty years older than +he; but her strong, young eyes could not see through his glasses. He +recollected her well, fifty years before, an active, handsome woman, +taking care of the sacristy, washing the priests' laces, mending +vestments, and filling various offices of trust in the mission. A +sailor from a French vessel lying in the harbor wished to marry her; +but the friars would not give their consent, because the man was a +drunkard and dishonest. Carmen was well disposed to him, and much +flattered by his love-making. He used to write letters to her, which +she brought to this Mexican boy to read. It was a droll sight to see +her face, as he, now white-haired and looking fully as old as she, +reminded her of that time and of those letters, tapping her jocosely +on her cheek, and saying some things I am sure he did not quite +literally translate to us. She fairly colored, buried her face in her +hands for a second, then laughed till she shook, and answered in +voluble Spanish, of which also I suspect we did not get a full +translation. She was the happiest Indian we saw; indeed, the only one +who seemed really gay of heart or even content. + +A few rods from the old mission church of San Gabriel, in a hut made +of bundles of the tule reeds lashed to sycamore poles, as the San +Gabriel Indians made them a hundred years ago, live two old Indian +women, Laura and Benjamina. Laura is one hundred and two years old, +Benjamina one hundred and seventeen. The record of their baptisms is +still to be seen in the church books, so there can be no dispute as to +their age. It seems not at all incredible, however. If I had been told +that Benjamina was a three-thousand-year-old Nile mummy, resuscitated +by some mysterious process, I should not have demurred much at the +tale. The first time I saw them, the two were crouching over a fire on +the ground, under a sort of booth porch, in front of their hovel. +Laura was making a feint of grinding acorn-meal in a stone bowl; +Benjamina was raking the ashes, with her claw-like old fingers, for +hot coals to start the fire afresh; her skin was like an elephant's, +shrivelled, black, hanging in folds and welts on her neck and breast +and bony arms; it was not like anything human; her shrunken eyes, +bright as beads, peered out from under thickets of coarse grizzled +gray hair. Laura wore a white cloth band around her head, tied on with +a strip of scarlet flannel; above that, a tattered black shawl, which +gave her the look of an aged imp. Old baskets, old pots, old pans, old +stone mortars and pestles, broken tiles and bricks, rags, straw, +boxes, legless chairs,--in short, all conceivable rubbish,--were +strewn about or piled up in the place, making the weirdest of +backgrounds for the aged crones' figures. Inside the hut were two +bedsteads and a few boxes, baskets, and nets; and drying grapes and +peppers hung on the walls. A few feet away was another hut, only a +trifle better than this; four generations were living in the two. +Benjamina's step-daughter, aged eighty, was a fine creature. With a +white band straight around her forehead close to the eyebrows and a +gay plaid handkerchief thrown on above it, falling squarely each side +of her face, she looked like an old Bedouin sheik. + +Our Mexican friend remembered Laura as she was fifty years ago. She +was then, even at fifty-two, celebrated as one of the swiftest runners +and best ball-players in all the San Gabriel games. She was a singer, +too, in the choir. Coaxing her up on her feet, patting her shoulders, +entreating and caressing her as one would a child, he succeeded in +persuading her to chant for us the Lord's Prayer and part of the +litanies, as she had been wont to do it in the old days. It was a +grotesque and incredible sight. The more she stirred and sang and +lifted her arms, the less alive she looked. We asked the step-daughter +if they were happy and wished to live. Laughing, she repeated the +question to them. "Oh, yes, we wish to live forever," they replied. +They were greatly terrified, the daughter said, when the railway cars +first ran through San Gabriel. They thought it was the devil bringing +fire to burn up the world. Their chief solace is tobacco. To beg it, +Benjamina will creep about in the village by the hour, bent double +over her staff, tottering at every step. They sit for the most part +silent, motionless, on the ground; their knees drawn up, their hands +clasped over them, their heads sunk on their breasts. In my drives in +the San Gabriel valley I often saw them sitting thus, as if they were +dead. The sight had an indescribable fascination. It seemed that to be +able to penetrate into the recesses of their thoughts would be to lay +hold upon secrets as old as the earth. + +One of the most beautiful appanages of the San Luis Rey Mission, in +the time of its prosperity, was the Pala valley. It lies about +twenty-five miles east of San Luis, among broken spurs of the Coast +Range, watered by the San Luis River, and also by its own little +stream, the Pala Creek. It was always a favorite home of the Indians; +and at the time of the secularization, over a thousand of them used to +gather at the weekly mass in its chapel. Now, on the occasional visits +of the San Juan Capistrano priest, to hold service there, the +dilapidated little church is not half filled, and the numbers are +growing smaller each year. The buildings are all in decay; the stone +steps leading to the belfry have crumbled; the walls of the little +graveyard are broken in many places, the paling and the graves are +thrown down. On the day we were there, a memorial service for the dead +was going on in the chapel; a great square altar was draped with +black, decorated with silver lace and ghastly funereal emblems; +candles were burning; a row of kneeling black-shawled women were +holding lighted candies in their hands; two old Indians were chanting +a Latin Mass from a tattered missal bound in rawhide; the whole place +was full of chilly gloom, in sharp contrast to the bright valley +outside, with its sunlight and silence. This mass was for the soul of +an old Indian woman named Margarita, sister of Manuelito, a somewhat +famous chief of several bands of the San Luiseños. Her home was at the +Potrero,--a mountain meadow, or pasture, as the word signifies,--about +ten miles from Pala, high up the mountain-side, and reached by an +almost impassable road. This farm--or "saeter" it would be called in +Norway,--was given to Margarita by the friars; and by some exceptional +good fortune she had a title which, it is said, can be maintained by +her heirs. In 1871, in a revolt of some of Manuelito's bands, +Margarita was hung up by her wrists till she was near dying, but was +cut down at the last minute and saved. + +One of her daughters speaks a little English; and finding that we had +visited Pala solely on account of our interest in the Indians, she +asked us to come up to the Potrero and pass the night. She said +timidly that they had plenty of beds, and would do all that they knew +how to do to make us comfortable. One might be in many a dear-priced +hotel less comfortably lodged and served than we were by these +hospitable Indians in their mud house, floored with earth. In my +bedroom were three beds, all neatly made, with lace-trimmed sheets and +pillow-cases and patchwork coverlids. One small square window with a +wooden shutter was the only aperture for air, and there was no +furniture except one chair and a half-dozen trunks. The Indians, like +the Norwegian peasants, keep their clothes and various properties all +neatly packed away in boxes or trunks. As I fell asleep, I wondered +if in the morning I should see Indian heads on the pillows opposite +me; the whole place was swarming with men, women, and babies, and it +seemed impossible for them to spare so many beds; but, no, when I +waked, there were the beds still undisturbed; a soft-eyed Indian girl +was on her knees rummaging in one of the trunks; seeing me awake, she +murmured a few words in Indian, which conveyed her apology as well as +if I had understood them. From the very bottom of the trunk she drew +out a gilt-edged china mug, darted out of the room, and came back +bringing it filled with fresh water. As she set it in the chair, in +which she had already put a tin pan of water and a clean coarse towel, +she smiled, and made a sign that it was for my teeth. There was a +thoughtfulness and delicacy in the attention which lifted it far +beyond the level of its literal value. The gilt-edged mug was her most +precious possession; and, in remembering water for the teeth, she had +provided me with the last superfluity in the way of white man's +comfort of which she could think. + +The food which they gave us was a surprise; it was far better than we +had found the night before in the house of an Austrian colonel's son, +at Pala. Chicken, deliciously cooked, with rice and chile; +soda-biscuits delicately made; good milk and butter, all laid in +orderly fashion, with a clean table-cloth, and clean, white stone +china. When I said to our hostess that I regretted very much that they +had given up their beds in my room, that they ought not to have done +it, she answered me with a wave of her hand that "it was nothing; they +hoped I had slept well; that they had plenty of other beds." The +hospitable lie did not deceive me, for by examination I had convinced +myself that the greater part of the family must have slept on the bare +earth in the kitchen. They would not have taken pay for our lodging, +except that they had just been forced to give so much for the mass for +Margarita's soul, and it had been hard for them to raise the money. +Twelve dollars the priest had charged for the mass; and in addition +they had to pay for the candles, silver lace, black cloth, etc., +nearly as much more. They had earnestly desired to have the mass said +at the Potrero, but the priest would not come up there for less than +twenty dollars, and that, Antonia said, with a sigh, they could not +possibly pay. We left at six o'clock in the morning; Margarita's +husband, the "capitan," riding off with us to see us safe on our way. +When we had passed the worst gullies and boulders, he whirled his +horse, lifted his ragged old sombrero with the grace of a cavalier, +smiled, wished us good-day and good luck, and was out of sight in a +second, his little wild pony galloping up the rough trail as if it +were as smooth as a race-course. + +Between the Potrero and Pala are two Indian villages, the Rincon and +Pauma. The Rincon is at the head of the valley, snugged up against the +mountains, as its name signifies, in a "corner." Here were fences, +irrigating ditches, fields of barley, wheat, hay, and peas; a little +herd of horses and cows grazing, and several flocks of sheep. The men +were all away sheep-shearing; the women were at work in the fields, +some hoeing, some clearing out the irrigating ditches, and all the old +women plaiting baskets. These Rincon Indians, we were told, had +refused a school offered them by the Government; they said they would +accept nothing at the hands of the Government until it gave them a +title to their lands. + +The most picturesque of all the Mission Indians' hiding-places which +we saw was that on the Carmel River, a few miles from the San Carlos +Mission. Except by help of a guide it cannot be found. A faint trail +turning off from the road in the river-bottom leads down to the +river's edge. You follow it into the river and across, supposing it a +ford. On the opposite bank there is no trail, no sign of one. Whether +it is that the Indians purposely always go ashore at different points +of the bank, so as to leave no trail; or whether they so seldom go +out, except on foot, that the trail has faded away, I do not know. But +certainly, if we had had no guide, we should have turned back, sure we +were wrong. A few rods up from the river-bank, a stealthy narrow +footpath appeared; through willow copses, sunk in meadow grasses, +across shingly bits of alder-walled beach it creeps, till it comes out +in a lovely spot,--half basin, half rocky knoll,--where, tucked away +in nooks and hollows, are the little Indian houses, eight or ten of +them, some of adobe, some of the tule-reeds: small patches of corn, +barley, potatoes, and hay; and each little front yard fenced in by +palings, with roses, sweet-peas, poppies, and mignonette growing +inside. In the first house we reached, a woman was living alone. She +was so alarmed at the sight of us that she shook. There could not be a +more pitiful comment on the state of perpetual distrust and alarm in +which the poor creatures live, than this woman's face and behavior. We +tried in vain to reassure her; we bought all the lace she had to sell, +chatted with her about it, and asked her to show us how it was made. +Even then she was so terrified that although she willingly took down +her lace-frame to sew a few stitches for us to see, her hands still +trembled. In another house we found an old woman evidently past +eighty, without glasses working button-holes in fine thread. Her +daughter-in-law--a beautiful half-breed, with a still more beautiful +baby in her arms--asked the old woman, for us, how old she was. She +laughed merrily at the silly question. "She never thought about it," +she said; "it was written down once in a book at the Mission, but the +book was lost." + +There was not a man in the village. They were all away at work, +farming or fishing. This little handful of people are living on land +to which they have no shadow of title, and from which they may be +driven any day,--these Carmel Mission lands having been rented out, by +their present owner, in great dairy farms. The parish priest of +Monterey told me much of the pitiable condition of these remnants of +the San Carlos Indians. He can do little or nothing for them, though +their condition makes his heart ache daily. In that half-foreign +English which is always so much more eloquent a language than the +English-speaking peoples use, he said: "They have their homes there +only by the patience of the thief; it may be that the patience do not +last to-morrow." The phrase is worth preserving: it embodies so much +history,--history of two races. + +In Mr. Wilson's report are many eloquent and strong paragraphs, +bearing on the question of the Indians' right to the lands they had +under cultivation at the time of the secularization. He says:-- + + "It is not natural rights I speak of, nor merely possessory + rights, but rights acquired and contracts made,--acquired and + made when the laws of the Indies had force here, and never + assailed by any laws or executive acts since, till 1834 and + 1846; and impregnable to these.... No past maladministration of + laws can be suffered to destroy their true intent, while the + victims of the maladministration live to complain, and the + rewards of wrong have not been consumed." + +Of Mr. Wilson's report in 1852, of Mr. Ames's report in 1873, and of +the various other reports called for by the Government from time to +time, nothing came, except the occasional setting off of reservations +by executive orders, which, if the lands reserved were worth anything, +were speedily revoked at the bidding of California politicians. There +are still some reservations left, chiefly of desert and mountainous +lands, which nobody wants, and on which the Indians could not live. + +The last report made to the Indian Bureau by their present agent +closes in the following words:-- + + "The necessity of providing suitable lands for them in the form + of one or more reservations has been pressed on the attention + of the Department in my former reports; and I now, for the + third and perhaps the last time, emphasize that necessity by + saying that whether Government will immediately heed the pleas + that have been made in behalf of these people or not, it must + sooner or later deal with this question in a practical way, or + else see a population of over three thousand Indians become + homeless wanderers in a desert region." + +I have shown a few glimpses of the homes, of the industry, the +patience, the long-suffering of the people who are in this immediate +danger of being driven out from their last footholds of refuge, +"homeless wanderers in a desert." + +If the United States Government does not take steps to avert this +danger, to give them lands and protect them in their rights, the +chapter of the history of the Mission Indians will be the blackest one +in the black record of our dealings with the Indian race. + +It must be done speedily if at all, for there is only a small remnant +left to be saved. These are in their present homes "only on the +patience of the thief; and it may be that the patience do not last +to-morrow." + + +ECHOES IN THE CITY OF THE ANGELS. + +The tale of the founding of the city of Los Angeles is a tale for +verse rather than for prose. It reads like a page out of some new +"Earthly Paradise," and would fit well into song such as William +Morris has sung. + +It is only a hundred years old, however, and that is not time enough +for such song to simmer. It will come later, with the perfume of +century-long summers added to its flavor. Summers century-long? One +might say a stronger thing than that of them, seeing that their +blossoming never stops, year in nor year out, and will endure as long +as the visible frame of the earth. + +The twelve devout Spanish soldiers who founded the city named it at +their leisure with a long name, musical as a chime of bells. It +answered well enough, no doubt, for the first fifty years of the +city's life, during which not a municipal record of any sort or kind +was written,--"Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles," "Our Lady the +Queen of the Angels;" and her portrait made a goodly companion flag, +unfurled always by the side of the flag of Spain. + +There is a legend, that sounds older than it is, of the ceremonies +with which the soldiers took possession of their new home. They were +no longer young. They had fought for Spain in many parts of the Old +World, and followed her uncertain fortunes to the New. Ten years some +of them had been faithfully serving Church and King in sight of these +fair lands, for which they hankered, and with reason. + +In those days the soft, rolling, treeless hills and valleys, between +which the Los Angeles River now takes its shilly-shallying course +seaward, were forest slopes and meadows, with lakes great and small. +This abundance of trees, with shining waters playing among them, added +to the limitless bloom of the plains and the splendor of the +snow-topped mountains, must have made the whole region indeed a +paradise. + +Navarro, Villavicencia, Rodriguez, Quintero, Moreno, Lara, Banegas, +Rosas, and Canero, these were their names: happy soldiers all, honored +of their king, and discharged with so royal a gift of lands thus fair. + +Looking out across the Los Angeles hills and meadows to-day, one +easily lives over again the joy they must have felt. Twenty-three +young children there were in the band, poor little waifs of camp and +march. What a "braw flitting" was it for them, away from the drum-beat +forever into the shelter of their own sunny home! The legend says not +a word of the mothers, except that there were eleven of them, and in +the procession they walked with their children behind the men. +Doubtless they rejoiced the most. + +The Fathers from the San Gabriel Mission were there, with many Indian +neophytes, and Don Felipe, the military governor, with his showy guard +of soldiers. + +The priests and neophytes chanted. The Cross was set up, the flag of +Spain and the banner of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels unfurled, and +the new town marked out around a square, a little to the north of the +present plaza of Los Angeles. + +If communities, as well as individuals, are happy when history finds +nothing to record of them, the city of the Queen of the Angels must +have been a happy spot during the first fifty years of its life; for +not a written record of the period remains, not even a record of +grants of land. The kind of grant that these worthy Spanish soldiers +and their sons contented themselves with, however, hardly deserved +recording,--in fact, was not a grant at all, since its continuance +depended entirely on the care a man took of his house and the +improvement he put on his land. If he left his house unoccupied, or +let it fall out of repair, if he left a field uncultivated for two +years, any neighbor who saw fit might denounce him, and by so doing +acquire a right to the property. This sounds incredible, but all the +historical accounts of the time agree on the point. They say,-- + + "The granting authorities could, and were by law required, upon + a proper showing of the abandonment, to grant the property to + the informant, who then acquired the same and no better rights + than those possessed by his predecessor." + +This was a premium indeed on staying at home and minding one's +business,--a premium which amounted to coercion. One would think that +there must have been left from those days teeming records of alienated +estates, shifted tenures, and angry feuds between neighbor and +neighbor. But no evidence remains of such strifes. Life was too +simple, and the people were too ignorant. + +Their houses were little more than hovels, built of mud, eight feet +high, with flat roofs made of reeds and asphaltum. Their fields, with +slight cultivation, produced all they needed; and if anything lacked, +the rich vineyards, wheat-fields, and orchards of the San Gabriel +Mission lay only twelve miles away. These vineyards, orchards, and +granaries, so near at hand, must have been sore temptation to +idleness. Each head of a family had been presented, by the paternal +Spanish king, with "two oxen, two mules, two mares, two sheep, two +goats, two cows, one calf, an ass, and one hoe." For these they were +to pay in such small instalments as they were able to spare out of +their pay and rations, which were still continued by the generous +king. + +In a climate in which flowers blossom winter and summer alike, man may +bask in sun all the year round if he chooses. Why, then, should those +happy Spanish soldiers work? Even the king had thought it unnecessary, +it seems, to give them any implements of labor except "one hoe." What +could a family do, in the way of work, with "one hoe"? Evidently, they +did not work, neither they, nor their sons, nor their sons' sons after +them; for, half a century later, they were still living a life of +almost incredible ignorance, redeemed only by its simplicity and +childlike adherence to the old religious observances. + +Many of those were beautiful. As late as 1830 it was the custom +throughout the town, in all the families of the early settlers, for +the oldest member of the family--oftenest it was a grandfather or +grandmother--to rise every morning at the rising of the morning star, +and at once to strike up a hymn. At the first note every person in the +house would rise, or sit up in bed and join in the song. From house to +house, street to street, the singing spread; and the volume of musical +sound swelled, until it was as if the whole town sang. + +The hymns were usually invocations to the Virgin, to Jesus, or to some +saint. The opening line of many of them was,-- + + "Rejoice, O Mother of God." + +A manuscript copy of one of these old morning songs I have seen, and +had the good fortune to win a literal translation of part of it, in +the soft, Spanish-voiced, broken English, so pleasant to hear. The +first stanza is the chorus, and was repeated after each of the +others:-- + + "Come, O sinners, + Come, and we will sing + Tender hymns + To our refuge. + + "Singers at dawn, + From the heavens above, + People all regions; + Gladly we too sing. + + "Singing harmoniously, + Saying to Mary, + 'O beautiful Queen, + Princess of Heaven! + + "'Your beautiful head + Crowned we see; + The stars are adorning + Your beautiful hair; + + "'Your eyebrows are arched, + Your forehead serene; + Your face turned always + Looks toward God; + + "'Your eyes' radiance + Is like beautiful stars; + Like a white dove, + You are true to your spouse.'" + +Each of these stanzas was sung first alone by the aged leader of the +family choir. Then the rest repeated it; then all joined in the +chorus. + +It is said that there are still to be found, in lonely country regions +in California, Mexican homes in which these sweet and holy "songs +before sunrise" are sung. + +Looking forward to death, the greatest anxiety of these simple souls +was to provide themselves with a priest's cast-off robe to be buried +in. These were begged or bought as the greatest of treasures; kept in +sight, or always at hand, to remind them of approaching death. When +their last hour drew near, this robe was flung over their breasts, and +they died happy, their stiffening fingers grasping its folds. The dead +body was wrapped in it, and laid on the mud floor of the house, a +stone being placed under the head to raise it a few inches. Thus the +body must lie till the time of burial. Around it, day and night, +squatted, praying and singing, friends who wished not only to show +their affection for the deceased, but to win indulgences for +themselves; every prayer said thus, by the side of a corpse, having a +special and specified value. + +A strange demarkation between the sexes was enforced in these +ceremonies. If it were a woman who lay dead, only women might kneel +and pray and watch with her body; if a man, the circle of watchers +must be exclusively of men. + +A rough box, of boards nailed together, was the coffin. The body, +rolled in the old robe whose virtues had so comforted its last +conscious moments, was carried to the grave on a board, in the centre +of a procession of friends chanting and singing. Not until the last +moment was it laid in the box. + +The first attempts to introduce more civilized forms of burial met +with opposition, and it was only by slow degrees that changes were +wrought. A Frenchman, who had come from France to Los Angeles, by way +of the Sandwich Islands, bringing a store of sacred ornaments and +trinkets, and had grown rich by sale of them to the devout, owned a +spring wagon, the only one in the country. By dint of entreaty, the +people were finally prevailed upon to allow their dead to be carried +in this wagon to the burial-place. For a long time, however, they +refused to have horses put to the wagon, but drew it by hand all the +way; women drawing women, and men drawing men, with the same +scrupulous partition of the sexes as in the earlier ceremonies. The +picture must have been a strange one, and not without pathos,--the +wagon, wound and draped with black and white, drawn up and down the +steep hills by the band of silent mourners. + +The next innovation was the introduction of stately catafalques for +the dead to repose on, either in house or church, during the interval +between their death and burial. There had been brought into the town a +few old-fashioned, high-post, canopied bedsteads, and from these the +first catafalques were made. Gilded, decorated with gold and silver +lace, and hung with white and black draperies, they made a by no means +insignificant show, which doubtless went far to reconcile people's +minds to the new methods. + +In 1838 there was a memorable funeral of a woman over a hundred years +old. Fourteen old women watched with her body, which lay stretched on +the floor, in the ancient fashion, with only a stone beneath the head. +The youngest of these watchers was eighty-five. One of them, Tomasa +Camera by name, was herself over a hundred years old. Tomasa was +infirm of foot; so they propped her with pillows in a little cart, and +drew her to the house that she might not miss of the occasion. All +night long, the fourteen squatted or sat on rawhides spread on the +floor, and sang and prayed and smoked: as fine a wake as was ever +seen. They smoked cigarettes, which they rolled on the spot, out of +corn-husks slit fine for the purpose, there being at that day in Los +Angeles no paper fit for cigarettes. + +Outside this body-guard of aged women knelt a circle of friends and +relatives, also chanting, praying, and smoking. In this outer circle +any one might come and go at pleasure; but into the inner ring of the +watching none must come, and none must go out of it till the night was +spent. + +With the beginning of the prosperity of the City of the Angels, came +the end of its primeval peace. Spanish viceroys, Mexican alcaldes and +governors, United States commanders, naval and military, followed on +each other's heels, with or without frays, ruling California through a +succession of tumultuous years. Greedy traders from all parts of the +world added their rivalries and interventions to the civil and +military disputation. In the general anarchy and confusion, the +peaceful and peace-loving Catholic Fathers were robbed of their lands, +their converts were scattered, their industries broken up. Nowhere +were these uncomfortable years more uncomfortable than in Los Angeles. +Revolts, occupations, surrenders, retakings, and resurrenders kept the +little town in perpetual ferment. Disorders were the order of the day +and of the night, in small matters as well as in great. + +The Californian fought as impetuously for his old way of dancing as +for his political allegiance. There are comical traditions of the +men's determination never to wear long trousers to dances; nor to +permit dances to be held in houses or halls, it having been the +practice always to give them in outdoor booths or bowers, with +lattice-work walls of sycamore poles lashed together by thongs of +rawhide. + +Outside these booths the men sat on their horses looking in at the +dancing, which was chiefly done by the women. An old man standing in +the centre of the enclosure directed the dances. Stopping in front of +the girl whom he wished to have join the set, he clapped his hands. +She then rose and took her place on the floor; if she could not dance, +or wished to decline, she made a low bow and resumed her seat. + +To look in on all this was great sport. Sometimes, unable to resist +the spell, a man would fling himself off his horse, dash into the +enclosure, seize a girl by the waist, whirl around with her through +one dance, then out again and into the saddle, where he sat, proudly +aware of his vantage. The decorations of masculine attire at this time +were such as to make riding a fine show. Around the crown of the +broad-brimmed sombrero was twisted a coil of gold or silver cord; over +the shoulders was flung, with ostentatious carelessness, a short cloak +of velvet or brocade; the waistcoats were embroidered in gold, silver, +or gay colors; so also were the knee-breeches, leggings, and +stockings. Long silken garters, with ornamented tassels at the ends, +were wound round and round to hold the stockings in place. Even the +cumbrous wooden stirrups were carved in elaborate designs. No wonder +that men accustomed to such braveries as these saw ignominy in the +plain American trousers. + +They seem to have been a variety of Centaur, these early Californian +men. They were seldom off their horses except to eat and sleep. They +mounted, with jingling silver spur and glittering bridle, for the +shortest distances, even to cross a plaza. They paid long visits on +horseback, without dismounting. Clattering up to the window or +door-sill, halting, throwing one knee over the crupper, the reins +lying loose, they sat at ease, far more at ease than in a house. Only +at church, where the separation was inevitable, would they be parted +from their horses. They turned the near neighborhood of a church on +Sunday into a sort of picket-ground, or horse-trainers' yard, full of +horse-posts and horses; and the scene was far more like a horse-fair +than like an occasion of holy observance. There seems to have been a +curious mixture of reverence and irreverence in their natures. They +confessed sins and underwent penances with the simplicity of children; +but when, in 1821, the Church issued an edict against that +"escandalosisima" dance, the waltz, declaring that whoever dared to +dance it should be excommunicated, the merry sinners waltzed on only +the harder and faster, and laughed in their priests' faces. And when +the advocates of decorum, good order, and indoor dancing gave their +first ball in a public hall in Los Angeles, the same merry outdoor +party broke every window and door in the building, and put a stop to +the festivity. They persisted in taking this same summary vengeance on +occasion after occasion, until, finally, any person wishing to give a +ball in his own house was forced to surround the house by a cordon of +police to protect it. + +The City of the Angels is a prosperous city now. It has business +thoroughfares, blocks of fine stone buildings, hotels, shops, banks, +and is growing daily. Its outlying regions are a great circuit of +gardens, orchards, vineyards, and corn-fields, and its suburbs are +fast filling up with houses of a showy though cheap architecture. But +it has not yet shaken off its past. A certain indefinable, delicious +aroma from the old, ignorant, picturesque times lingers still, not +only in byways and corners, but in the very centres of its newest +activities. + +Mexican women, their heads wrapped in black shawls, and their bright +eyes peering out between the close-gathered folds, glide about +everywhere; the soft Spanish speech is continually heard; long-robed +priests hurry to and fro; and at each dawn ancient, jangling bells +from the Church of the Lady of the Angels ring out the night and in +the day. Venders of strange commodities drive in stranger vehicles up +and down the streets: antiquated carts piled high with oranges, their +golden opulence contrasting weirdly with the shabbiness of their +surroundings and the evident poverty of their owner; close following +on the gold of one of these, one has sometimes the luck to see another +cart, still more antiquated and rickety, piled high with something--he +cannot imagine what--terra-cotta red in grotesque shapes; it is +fuel,--the same sort which Villavicencia, Quintero, and the rest +probably burned, when they burned any, a hundred years ago. It is the +roots and root-shoots of manzanita and other shrubs. The colors are +superb,--terra-cotta reds, shading up to flesh pink, and down to dark +mahogany; but the forms are grotesque beyond comparison: twists, +querls, contortions, a boxful of them is an uncomfortable presence in +one's room, and putting them on the fire is like cremating the +vertebræ and double teeth of colossal monsters of the Pterodactyl +period. + +The present plaza of the city is near the original plaza marked out at +the time of the first settlement; the low adobe house of one of the +early governors stands yet on its east side, and is still a habitable +building. + +The plaza is a dusty and dismal little place, with a parsimonious +fountain in the centre, surrounded by spokes of thin turf, and walled +at its outer circumference by a row of tall Monterey cypresses, shorn +and clipped into the shape of huge croquettes or brad-awls standing +broad end down. At all hours of the day idle boys and still idler men +are to be seen basking on the fountain's stone rim, or lying, face +down, heels in air, in the triangles of shade made by the cypress +croquettes. There is in Los Angeles much of this ancient and ingenious +style of shearing and compressing foliage into unnatural and distorted +shapes. It comes, no doubt, of lingering reverence for the traditions +of what was thought beautiful in Spain centuries ago; and it gives to +the town a certain quaint and foreign look, in admirable keeping with +its irregular levels, zigzag, toppling precipices, and houses in tiers +one above another. + +One comes sometimes abruptly on a picture which seems bewilderingly +un-American, of a precipice wall covered with bird-cage cottages, the +little, paling-walled yard of one jutting out in a line with the +chimney-tops of the next one below, and so on down to the street at +the base of the hill. Wooden staircases and bits of terrace link and +loop the odd little perches together; bright green pepper-trees, +sometimes tall enough to shade two or three tiers of roofs, give a +graceful plumed draping at the sides, and some of the steep fronts are +covered with bloom, in solid curtains, of geranium, sweet alyssum, +heliotrope, and ivy. These terraced eyries are not the homes of the +rich: the houses are lilliputian in size, and of cheap quality; but +they do more for the picturesqueness of the city than all the large, +fine, and costly houses put together. + +Moreover, they are the only houses that command the situation, possess +distance and a horizon. From some of these little ten-by-twelve +flower-beds of homes is a stretch of view which makes each hour of the +day a succession of changing splendors,--the snowy peaks of San +Bernardino and San Jacinto in the east and south; to the west, vast +open country, billowy green with vineyard and orchard; beyond this, in +clear weather, shining glints and threads of ocean, and again beyond, +in the farthest outing, hill-crowned islands, misty blue against the +sky. No one knows Los Angeles who does not climb to these sunny +outlying heights, and roam and linger on them many a day. Nor, even +thus lingering, will any one ever know more of Los Angeles than its +lovely outward semblances and mysterious suggestions, unless he have +the good fortune to win past the barrier of proud, sensitive, tender +reserve, behind which is hid the life of the few remaining survivors +of the old Spanish and Mexican _régime_. + +Once past this, he gets glimpses of the same stintless hospitality and +immeasurable courtesy which gave to the old Franciscan establishments +a world-wide fame, and to the society whose tone and customs they +created an atmosphere of simple-hearted joyousness and generosity +never known by any other communities on the American continent. + +In houses whose doors seldom open to English-speaking people, there +are rooms full of relics of that fast-vanishing past. Strongholds also +of a religious faith, almost as obsolete, in its sort and degree, as +are the garments of the aged creatures who are peacefully resting +their last days on its support. + +In one of these houses, in a poverty-stricken but gayly decorated +little bedroom, hangs a small oil-painting, a portrait of Saint +Francis de Paula. It was brought from Mexico, fifty-five years ago, by +the woman who still owns it, and has knelt before it and prayed to it +every day of the fifty-five years. Below it is a small altar covered +with flowers, candlesticks, vases, and innumerable knick-knacks. A +long string under the picture is hung full of tiny gold and silver +votive offerings from persons who have been miraculously cured in +answer to prayers made to the saint. Legs, arms, hands, eyes, hearts, +heads, babies, dogs, horses,--no organ, no creature, that could +suffer, is unrepresented. The old woman has at her tongue's end the +tale of each one of these miracles. She is herself a sad cripple; her +feet swollen by inflammation, which for many years has given her +incessant torture and made it impossible for her to walk, except with +tottering steps, from room to room, by help of a staff. This, she +says, is the only thing her saint has not cured. It is her "cross," +her "mortification of the flesh," "to take her to heaven." "He knows +best." As she speaks, her eyes perpetually seek the picture, resting +on it with a look of ineffable adoration. She has seen tears roll down +its cheeks more than once, she says; and it often smiles on her when +they are alone. When strangers enter the room she can always tell, by +its expression, whether the saint is or is not pleased with them, and +whether their prayers will be granted. She was good enough to remark +that he was very glad to see us; she was sure of it by the smile in +his eye. He had wrought many beautiful miracles for her. Nothing was +too trivial for his sympathy and help. Once when she had broken a vase +in which she had been in the habit of keeping flowers on the altar, +she took the pieces in her hands, and standing before him, said: "You +know you will miss this vase. I always put your flowers in it, and I +am too poor to buy another. Now, do mend this for me. I have nobody +but you to help me." And the vase grew together again whole while she +was speaking. In the same way he mended for her a high glass +flower-case which stood on the altar. + +Thus she jabbered away breathlessly in Spanish, almost too fast to be +followed. Sitting in a high chair, her poor distorted feet propped on +a cushion, a black silk handkerchief wound like a turban around her +head, a plaid ribosa across her shoulders, contrasting sharply with +her shabby wine-colored gown, her hands clasped around a yellow staff, +on which she leaned as she bent forward in her eager speaking, she +made a study for an artist. + +She was very beautiful in her youth, she said; her cheeks so red that +people thought they were painted; and she was so strong that she was +never tired; and when, in the first year of her widowhood, a stranger +came to her "with a letter of recommendation" to be her second +husband, and before she had time to speak had fallen on his knees at +her feet, she seized him by the throat, and toppling him backward, +pinned him against the wall till he was black in the face. And her +sister came running up in terror, imploring her not to kill him. But +all that strength is gone now, she says sadly; her memory also. Each +day, as soon as she has finished her prayers, she has to put away her +rosary in a special place, or else she forgets that the prayers have +been said. Many priests have desired to possess her precious +miracle-working saint; but never till she dies will it leave her +bedroom. Not a week passes without some one's arriving to implore its +aid. Sometimes the deeply distressed come on their knees all the way +from the gate before the house, up the steps, through the hall, and +into her bedroom. Such occasions as these are to her full of solemn +joy, and no doubt, also, of a secret exultation whose kinship to pride +she does not suspect. + +In another unpretending little adobe house, not far from this Saint +Francis shrine, lives the granddaughter of Moreno, one of the twelve +Spanish soldiers who founded the city. She speaks no word of English; +and her soft black eyes are timid, though she is the widow of a +general, and in the stormy days of the City of the Angels, passed +through many a crisis of peril and adventure. Her house is full of +curious relics, which she shows with a gentle, half-amused courtesy. +It is not easy for her to believe that any American can feel real +reverence for the symbols, tokens, and relics of the life and customs +which his people destroyed. In her mind Americans remain to-day as +completely foreigners as they were when her husband girded on his +sword and went out to fight them, forty years ago. Many of her relics +have been rescued at one time or another from plunderers of the +missions. She has an old bronze kettle which once held holy water at +San Fernando; an incense cup and spoon, and massive silver +candlesticks; cartridge-boxes of leather, with Spain's ancient seal +stamped on them; a huge copper caldron and scales from San Gabriel; a +bunch of keys of hammered iron, locks, scissors, reaping-hooks, +shovels, carding-brushes for wool and for flax: all made by the Indian +workmen in the missions. There was also one old lock, in which the key +was rusted fast and immovable, which seemed to me fuller of suggestion +than anything else there of the sealed and ended past to which it had +belonged; and a curious little iron cannon, in shape like an ale-mug, +about eight inches high, with a hole in the side and in the top, to be +used by setting it on the ground and laying a trail of powder to the +opening in the side. This gave the Indians great delight. It was fired +at the times of church festivals, and in seasons of drought to bring +rain. Another curious instrument of racket was the matrarca, a strip +of board with two small swinging iron handles so set in it that, in +swinging back and forth, they hit iron plates. In the time of Lent, +when all ringing of bells was forbidden, these were rattled to call +the Indians to church. The noise one of them can make when vigorously +shaken is astonishing. In crumpled bundles, their stiffened meshes +opening out reluctantly, were two curious rush-woven nets which had +been used by Indian women fifty years ago in carrying burdens. Similar +nets, made of twine, are used by them still. Fastened to a leather +strap or band passing around the forehead, they hang down behind far +below the waist, and when filled out to their utmost holding capacity +are so heavy that the poor creatures bend nearly double beneath them. +But the women stand as uncomplainingly as camels while weight after +weight is piled in; then slipping the band over their heads, they +adjust the huge burden and set off at a trot. + +"This is the squaw's horse," said an Indian woman in the San Jacinto +valley one day, tapping her forehead and laughing good-naturedly, when +the shopkeeper remonstrated with her husband, who was heaping article +after article, and finally a large sack of flour, on her shoulders; +"squaw's horse very strong." + +The original site of the San Gabriel Mission was a few miles to the +east of the City of the Angels. Its lands are now divided into ranches +and colony settlements, only a few acres remaining in the possession +of the Church. But the old chapel is still standing in a fair state of +preservation, used for the daily services of the San Gabriel parish; +and there are in its near neighborhood a few crumbling adobe hovels +left, the only remains of the once splendid and opulent mission. In +one of these lives a Mexican woman, eighty-two years old, who for more +than half a century has washed and mended the priests' laces, repaired +the robes, and remodelled the vestments of San Gabriel. She is worth +crossing the continent to see: all white from head to foot, as if +bleached by some strange gramarye; white hair, white skin, blue eyes +faded nearly to white; white cotton clothes, ragged and not over +clean, yet not a trace of color in them; a white linen handkerchief, +delicately embroidered by herself, always tied loosely around her +throat. She sits on a low box, leaning against the wall, with three +white pillows at her back, her feet on a cushion on the ground; in +front of her, another low box, on this a lace-maker's pillow, with +knotted fringe stretched on it; at her left hand a battered copper +caldron, holding hot coals to warm her fingers and to light her +cigarettes. A match she will never use; and she has seldom been +without a cigarette in her mouth since she was six years old. On her +right hand is a chest filled with her treasures,--rags of damask, +silk, velvet, lace, muslin, ribbon, artificial flowers, flosses, +worsteds, silks on spools; here she sits, day in, day out, making +cotton fringes and, out of shreds of silk, tiny embroidered scapulars, +which she sells to all devout and charitable people of the region. +She also teaches the children of the parish to read and to pray. The +walls of her hovel are papered with tattered pictures, including many +gay-colored ones, taken off tin cans, their flaunting signs reading +drolly,--"Perfection Press Mackerel, Boston, Mass.," "Charm Baking +Powder," and "Knowlton's Inks," alternating with "Toledo Blades" and +clipper-ship advertisements. She finds these of great use in both +teaching and amusing the children. The ceiling, of canvas, black with +smoke, and festooned with cobwebs, sags down in folds, and shows many +a rent. When it rains, her poor little place must be drenched in +spots. One end of the room is curtained off with calico; this is her +bedchamber. At the other end is a raised dais, on which stands an +altar, holding a small statuette of the Infant Jesus. It is a copy in +wood of the famous Little Jesus of Atoches in Mexico, which is +worshipped by all the people in that region. It has been her constant +companion and protector for fifty years. Over the altar is a canopy of +calico, decorated with paper flowers, whirligigs, doves, and little +gourds; with votive offerings, also, of gold or silver, from grateful +people helped or cured by the Little Jesus. On the statuette's head is +a tiny hat of real gold, and a real gold sceptre in the little hand; +the breast of its fine white linen cambric gown is pinned by a gold +pin. It has a wardrobe with as many changes as an actor. She keeps +these carefully hid away in a small camphor-wood trunk, but she +brought them all out to show to us. + +Two of her barefooted, ragged little pupils scampered in as she was +unfolding these gay doll's clothes. They crowded close around her +knees and looked on, with open-mouthed awe and admiration: a purple +velvet cape with white fringe for feast days; capes of satin, of +brocade; a dozen shirts of finest linen, embroidered or trimmed with +lace; a tiny plume not more than an inch long, of gold exquisitely +carved,--this was her chief treasure. It looked beautiful in his hat, +she said, but it was too valuable to wear often. Hid away here among +the image's best clothes were more of the gold votive offerings it had +received: one a head cut out of solid gold; several rosaries of carved +beads, silver and gold. Spite of her apparently unbounded faith in the +Little Jesus' power to protect her and himself, the old woman thought +it wiser to keep these valuables concealed from the common gaze. + +Holding up a silken pillow some sixteen inches square, she said, "You +could not guess with what that pillow is filled." We could not, +indeed. It was her own hair. With pride she asked us to take it in our +hands, that we might see how heavy it was. For sixteen years she had +been saving it, and it was to be put under her head in her coffin. The +friend who had taken us to her home exclaimed on hearing this. "And I +can tell you it was beautiful hair. I recollect it forty-five years +ago, bright brown, and down to her ankles, and enough of it to roll +herself up in." The old woman nodded and laughed, much pleased at this +compliment. She did not know why the Lord had preserved her life so +long, she said; but she was very happy. Her nieces had asked her to go +and live with them in Santa Ana; but she could not go away from San +Gabriel. She told them that there was plenty of water in the ditch +close by her door, and that God would take care of the rest, and so he +had; she never wants for anything; not only is she never hungry +herself, but she always has food to give away. No one would suppose +it, but many people come to eat with her in her house. God never +forgets her one minute. She is very happy. She is never ill; or if she +is, she has two remedies, which, in all her life, have never failed to +cure her, and they cost nothing,--saliva and ear-wax. For a pain, the +sign of the cross, made with saliva on the spot which is in pain, is +instantaneously effective; for an eruption or any skin disorder, the +application of ear-wax is a sure cure. She is very glad to live so +close to the church; the father has promised her this room as long as +she lives; when she dies, it will be no trouble, he says, to pick her +up and carry her across the road to the church. In a gay painted box, +standing on two chairs, so as to be kept from the dampness of the bare +earth floor, she cherishes the few relics of her better days: a shawl +and a ribosa of silk, and two gowns, one of black silk, one of dark +blue satin. These are of the fashions of twenty years ago; they were +given to her by her husband. She wears them now when she goes to +church; so it is as if she were "married again," she says, and is "her +husband's work still." She seems to be a character well known and +held in some regard by the clergy of her church. When the bishop +returned a few years ago from a visit to Rome, he brought her a little +gift, a carved figure of a saint. She asked him if he could not get +for her a bit of the relics of Saint Viviano. "Oh, let alone!" he +replied; "give you relics? Wait a bit; and as soon as you die, I'll +have you made into relics yourself." She laughed as heartily, telling +this somewhat unecclesiastical rejoinder, as if it had been made at +some other person's expense. + +In the marvellously preserving air of California, added to her own +contented temperament, there is no reason why this happy old lady +should not last, as some of her Indian neighbors have, well into a +second century. Before she ceases from her peaceful, pitiful little +labors, new generations of millionnaires in her country will no doubt +have piled up bigger fortunes than this generation ever dreams of, but +there will not be a man of them all so rich as she. + +In the western suburbs of Los Angeles is a low adobe house, built +after the ancient style, on three sides of a square, surrounded by +orchards, vineyards, and orange groves, and looking out on an +old-fashioned garden, in which southernwood, rue, lavender, mint, +marigolds, and gillyflowers hold their own bravely, growing in +straight and angular beds among the newer splendors of verbenas, +roses, carnations, and geraniums. On two sides of the house runs a +broad porch, where stand rows of geraniums and chrysanthemums growing +in odd-shaped earthen pots. Here may often be seen a beautiful young +Mexican woman, flitting about among the plants, or sporting with a +superb Saint Bernard dog. Her clear olive skin, soft brown eyes, +delicate sensitive nostrils, and broad smiling mouth, are all of the +Spanish madonna type; and when her low brow is bound, as is often her +wont, by turban folds of soft brown or green gauze, her face becomes a +picture indeed. She is the young wife of a gray-headed Mexican señor, +of whom--by his own most gracious permission--I shall speak by his +familiar name, Don Antonio. Whoever has the fortune to pass as a +friend across the threshold of this house finds himself transported, +as by a miracle, into the life of a half-century ago. The rooms are +ornamented with fans, shells, feather and wax flowers, pictures, +saints' images, old laces, and stuffs, in the quaint gay Mexican +fashion. On the day when I first saw them, they were brilliant with +bloom. In every one of the deep window-seats stood a cone of bright +flowers, its base made by large white datura blossoms, their creamy +whorls all turned outward, making a superb decoration. I went for but +a few moments' call. I stayed three hours, and left carrying with me +bewildering treasures of pictures of the olden time. + +Don Antonio speaks little English; but the señora knows just enough of +the language to make her use of it delicious, as she translates for +her husband. It is an entrancing sight to watch his dark, +weather-beaten face, full of lightning changes as he pours out +torrents of his nervous, eloquent Spanish speech; watching his wife +intently, hearkening to each word she uses, sometimes interrupting her +urgently with, "No, no; that is not it,"--for he well understands the +tongue he cannot or will not use for himself. He is sixty-five years +of age, but he is young: the best waltzer in Los Angeles to-day; his +eye keen, his blood fiery quick; his memory like a burning-glass +bringing into sharp light and focus a half-century as if it were a +yesterday. Full of sentiment, of an intense and poetic nature, he +looks back to the lost empire of his race and people on the California +shores with a sorrow far too proud for any antagonisms or complaints. +He recognizes the inexorableness of the laws under whose workings his +nation is slowly, surely giving place to one more representative of +the age. Intellectually he is in sympathy with progress, with reform, +with civilization at its utmost; he would not have had them stayed, or +changed, because his people could not keep up, and were not ready. But +his heart is none the less saddened and lonely. + +This is probably the position and point of view of most cultivated +Mexican men of his age. The suffering involved in it is inevitable. It +is part of the great, unreckoned price which must always be paid for +the gain the world gets, when the young and strong supersede the old +and weak. + +A sunny little southeast corner room in Don Antonio's house is full of +the relics of the time when he and his father were foremost +representatives of ideas and progress in the City of the Angels, and +taught the first school that was kept in the place. This was nearly a +half-century ago. On the walls of the room still hang maps and charts +which they used; and carefully preserved, with the tender reverence of +which only poetic natures are capable, are still to be seen there the +old atlases, primers, catechisms, grammars, reading-books, which meant +toil and trouble to the merry, ignorant children of the merry and +ignorant people of that time. + +The leathern covers of the books are thin and frayed by long handling; +the edges of the leaves worn down as if mice had gnawed them: +tattered, loose, hanging by yellow threads, they look far older than +they are, and bear vivid record of the days when books were so rare +and precious that each book did doubled and redoubled duty, passing +from hand to hand and house to house. It was on the old Lancaster +system that Los Angeles set out in educating its children; and here +are still preserved the formal and elaborate instructions for teachers +and schools on that plan; also volumes of Spain's laws for military +judges in 1781, and a quaint old volume called "Secrets of +Agriculture, Fields and Pastures," written by a Catholic Father in +1617, reprinted in 1781, and held of great value in its day as a sure +guide to success with crops. Accompanying it was a chart, a perpetual +circle, by which might be foretold, with certainty, what years would +be barren and what ones fruitful. + +Almanacs, histories, arithmetics, dating back to 1750, drawing-books, +multiplication tables, music, and bundles of records of the branding +of cattle at the San Gabriel Mission, are among the curiosities of +this room. The music of the first quadrilles ever danced in Mexico is +here: a ragged pamphlet, which, no doubt, went gleeful rounds in the +City of the Angels for many a year. It is a merry music, simple in +melody, but with an especial quality of light-heartedness, suiting the +people who danced to it. + +There are also in the little room many relics of a more substantial +sort than tattered papers and books: a branding-iron and a pair of +handcuffs from the San Gabriel Mission; curiously decorated clubs and +sticks used by the Indians in their games; boxes of silver rings and +balls made for decorations of bridles and on leggings and +knee-breeches. The place of honor in the room is given, as well it +might be, to a small cannon, the first cannon brought into California. +It was made in 1717, and was brought by Father Junipero Serra to San +Diego in 1769. Afterward it was given to the San Gabriel Mission, but +it still bears its old name, "San Diego." It is an odd little arm, +only about two feet long, and requiring but six ounces of powder. Its +swivel is made with a rest to set firm in the ground. It has taken +many long journeys on the backs of mules, having been in great +requisition in the early mission days for the firing of salutes at +festivals and feasts. + +Don Antonio was but a lad when his father's family removed from the +city of Mexico to California. They came in one of the many unfortunate +colonies sent out by the Mexican Government during the first years of +the secularization period, having had a toilsome and suffering two +months, going in wagons from Mexico to San Blas, then a tedious and +uncomfortable voyage of several weeks from San Blas to Monterey, where +they arrived only to find themselves deceived and disappointed in +every particular, and surrounded by hostilities, plots, and dangers on +all sides. So great was the antagonism to them that it was at times +difficult for a colonist to obtain food from a Californian. They were +arrested on false pretences, thrown into prison, shipped off like +convicts from place to place, with no one to protect them or plead +their cause. Revolution succeeded upon revolution, and it was a most +unhappy period for all refined and cultivated persons who had joined +the colony enterprises. Young men of education and breeding were glad +to earn their daily bread by any menial labor that offered. Don +Antonio and several of his young friends, who had all studied medicine +together, spent the greater part of a year in making shingles. The one +hope and aim of most of them was to earn money enough to get back to +Mexico. Don Antonio, however, seems to have had more versatility and +capacity than his friends, for he never lost courage; and it was owing +to him that at last his whole family gathered in Los Angeles and +established a home there. This was in 1836. There were then only about +eight hundred people in the pueblo, and the customs, superstitions, +and ignorances of the earliest days still held sway. The missions +were still rich and powerful, though the confusions and conflicts of +their ruin had begun. At this time the young Antonio, being quick at +accounts and naturally ingenious at all sorts of mechanical crafts, +found profit as well as pleasure in journeying from mission to +mission, sometimes spending two or three months in one place, keeping +books, or repairing silver and gold ornaments. + +The blowpipe which he made for himself at that time his wife exhibits +now with affectionate pride; and there are few things she enjoys +better than translating to an eager listener his graphic stories of +the incidents and adventures of that portion of his life. + +While he was at the San Antonio Mission, a strange thing happened. It +is a good illustration of the stintless hospitality of those old +missions, that staying there at that time were a notorious gambler and +a celebrated juggler who had come out in the colony from Mexico. The +juggler threatened to turn the gambler into a crow; the gambler, after +watching his tricks for a short time, became frightened, and asked +young Antonio, in serious good faith, if he did not believe the +juggler had made a league with the devil. A few nights afterward, at +midnight, a terrible noise was heard in the gambler's room. He was +found in convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and crying, "Oh, father! +father! I have got the devil inside of me! Take him away!" + +The priest dragged him into the chapel, showered him with holy water, +and exorcised the devil, first making the gambler promise to leave off +his gambling forever. All the rest of the night the rescued sinner +spent in the chapel, praying and weeping. In the morning he announced +his intention of becoming a priest, and began his studies at once. +These he faithfully pursued for a year, leading all the while a life +of great devotion. At the end of that time preparations were made for +his ordination at San José. The day was set, the hour came: he was in +the sacristy, had put on the sacred vestments, and was just going +toward the church door, when he fell to the floor, dead. Soon after +this the juggler was banished from the county, trouble and disaster +having everywhere followed on his presence. + +On the first breaking out of hostilities between California and the +United States, Don Antonio took command of a company of Los Angeles +volunteers to repel the intruders. By this time he had attained a +prominent position in the affairs of the pueblo; had been alcalde and, +under Governor Michelorena, inspector of public works. It was like the +fighting of children,--the impetuous attempts that heterogeneous +little bands of Californians here and there made to hold their +country. They were plucky from first to last; for they were everywhere +at a disadvantage, and fought on, quite in the dark as to what Mexico +meant to do about them,--whether she might not any morning deliver +them over to the enemy. Of all Don Antonio's graphic narratives of the +olden time, none is more interesting than those which describe his +adventures during the days of this contest. On one of the first +approaches made by the Americans to Los Angeles, he went out with his +little haphazard company of men and boys to meet them. He had but one +cannon, a small one, tied by ropes on a cart axle. He had but one +small keg of powder which was good for anything; all the rest was bad, +would merely go off "pouf, pouf," the señora said, and the ball would +pop down near the mouth of the cannon. With this bad powder he fired +his first shots. The Americans laughed; this is child's play, they +said, and pushed on closer. Then came a good shot, with the good +powder, tearing into their ranks and knocking them right and left; +another, and another. "Then the Americans began to think, these are no +pouf balls; and when a few more were killed, they ran away and left +their flag behind them. And if they had only known it, the +Californians had only one more charge left of the good powder, and the +next minute it would have been the Californians that would have had to +run away themselves," merrily laughed the señora as she told the tale. + +This captured flag, with important papers, was intrusted to Don +Antonio to carry to the Mexican headquarters at Sonora. He set off +with an escort of soldiers, his horse decked with silver trappings; +his sword, pistols, all of the finest: a proud beginning of a journey +destined to end in a different fashion. It was in winter time; cold +rains were falling. By night he was drenched to the skin, and stopped +at a friendly Indian's tent to change his clothes. Hardly had he got +them off when the sound of horses' hoofs was heard. The Indian flung +himself down, put his ear to the ground, and exclaimed, "Americanos! +Americanos!" Almost in the same second they were at the tent's door. +As they halted, Don Antonio, clad only in his drawers and stockings, +crawled out at the back of the tent, and creeping on all fours reached +a tree up which he climbed, and sat safe hidden in the darkness among +its branches listening, while his pursuers cross-questioned the +Indian, and at last rode away with his horse. Luckily, he had carried +into the tent the precious papers and the captured flag: these he +intrusted to an Indian to take to Sonora, it being evidently of no use +for him to try to cross the country thus closely pursued by his +enemies. + +All night he lay hidden; the next day he walked twelve miles across +the mountains to an Indian village where he hoped to get a horse. It +was dark when he reached it. Cautiously he opened the door of the hut +of one whom he knew well. The Indian was preparing poisoned arrows: +fixing one on the string and aiming at the door, he called out, +angrily, "Who is there?"--"It is I, Antonio."--"Don't make a sound," +whispered the Indian, throwing down his arrow, springing to the door, +coming out and closing it softly. He then proceeded to tell him that +the Americans had offered a reward for his head, and that some of the +Indians in the rancheria were ready to betray or kill him. While they +were yet talking, again came the sound of the Americans' horses' hoofs +galloping in the distance. This time there seemed no escape. Suddenly +Don Antonio, throwing himself on his stomach, wriggled into a cactus +patch near by. Only one who has seen California cactus thickets can +realize the desperateness of this act. But it succeeded. The Indian +threw over the cactus plants an old blanket and some refuse stalks and +reeds; and there once more, within hearing of all his baffled pursuers +said, the hunted man lay, safe, thanks to Indian friendship. The +crafty Indian assented to all the Americans proposed, said that Don +Antonio would be sure to be caught in a few days, advised them to +search in a certain rancheria which he described, a few miles off, and +in an opposite direction from the way in which he intended to guide +Don Antonio. As soon as the Americans had gone, he bound up Antonio's +feet in strips of rawhide, gave him a blanket and an old tattered hat, +the best his stores afforded, and then led him by a long and difficult +trail to a spot high up in the mountains where the old women of the +band were gathering acorns. By the time they reached this place, blood +was trickling from Antonio's feet and legs, and he was well-nigh +fainting with fatigue and excitement. Tears rolled down the old +women's cheeks when they saw him. Some of them had been servants in +his father's house, and loved him. One brought gruel; another bathed +his feet; others ran in search of healing leaves of different sorts. +Bruising these in a stone mortar, they rubbed him from head to foot +with the wet fibre. All his pain and weariness vanished as by magic. +His wounds healed, and in a day he was ready to set off for home. +There was but one pony in the old women's camp. This was old, vicious, +blind of one eye, and with one ear cropped short; but it looked to Don +Antonio far more beautiful than the gay steed on which he had ridden +away from Los Angeles three days before. There was one pair of ragged +shoes of enormous size among the old women's possessions. These were +strapped on his feet by leathern thongs, and a bit of old sheepskin +was tied around the pony's body. Thus accoutred and mounted, shivering +in his drawers under his single blanket, the captain and flag-bearer +turned his face homeward. At the first friend's house he reached he +stopped and begged for food. Some dried meat was given to him, and a +stool on the porch offered to him. It was the house of a dear friend, +and the friend's sister was his sweetheart. As he sat there eating his +meat, the women eyed him curiously. One said to the other, "How much +he looks like Antonio!" At last the sweetheart, coming nearer, asked +him if he were "any relation of Don Antonio." "No," he said. Just at +that moment his friend rode up, gave one glance at the pitiful beggar +sitting on his porch, shouted his name, dashed toward him, and seized +him in his arms. Then was a great laughing and half-weeping, for it +had been rumored that he had been taken prisoner by the Americans. + +From this friend he received a welcome gift of a pair of trousers, +many inches too short for his legs. At the next house his friend was +as much too tall, and his second pair of gift trousers had to be +rolled up in thick folds around his ankles. + +Finally he reached Los Angeles in safety. Halting in a grove outside +the town, he waited till twilight before entering. Having disguised +himself in the rags which he had worn from the Indian village, he rode +boldly up to the porch of his father's house, and in an impudent tone +called for brandy. The terrified women began to scream; but his +youngest sister, fixing one piercing glance on his face, laughed out +gladly, and cried, "You can't fool me; you are Antonio." + +Sitting in the little corner room, looking out through the open door +on the gay garden and breathing its spring air, gay even in midwinter, +and as spicy then as the gardens of other lands are in June, I spent +many an afternoon listening to such tales as this. Sunset always came +long before its time, it seemed, on these days. + +Occasionally, at the last moment, Don Antonio would take up his +guitar, and, in a voice still sympathetic and full of melody, sing an +old Spanish love-song, brought to his mind by thus living over the +events of his youth. Never, however, in his most ardent youth, could +his eyes have gazed on his fairest sweetheart's face with a look of +greater devotion than that with which they now rest on the noble, +expressive countenance of his wife, as he sings the ancient and tender +strains. Of one of them, I once won from her, amid laughs and blushes, +a few words of translation:-- + + "Let us hear the sweet echo + Of your sweet voice that charms me. + The one that truly loves you, + He says he wishes to love; + That the one who with ardent love adores you, + Will sacrifice himself for you. + Do not deprive me, + Owner of me, + Of that sweet echo + Of your sweet voice that charms me." + +Near the western end of Don Antonio's porch is an orange-tree, on +which were hanging at this time twenty-five hundred oranges, ripe and +golden among the glossy leaves. Under this tree my carriage always +waited for me. The señora never allowed me to depart without bringing +to me, in the carriage, farewell gifts of flowers and fruit: clusters +of grapes, dried and fresh; great boughs full of oranges, more than I +could lift. As I drove away thus, my lap filled with bloom and golden +fruit, canopies of golden fruit over my head, I said to myself often: +"Fables are prophecies. The Hesperides have come true." + + +CHANCE DAYS IN OREGON. + +The best things in life seem always snatched on chances. The longer +one lives and looks back, the more he realizes this, and the harder he +finds it to "make option which of two," in the perpetually recurring +cases when "there's not enough for this and that," and he must choose +which he will do or take. Chancing right in a decision, and seeing +clearly what a blunder any other decision would have been, only makes +the next such decision harder, and contributes to increased +vacillation of purpose and infirmity of will, until one comes to have +serious doubts whether there be not a truer philosophy in the "toss +up" test than in any other method. "Heads we go, tails we stay," will +prove right as many times out of ten as the most painstaking pros and +cons, weighing, consulting, and slow deciding. + +It was not exactly by "heads and tails" that we won our glimpse of +Oregon; but it came so nearly to the same thing that our recollections +of the journey are still mingled with that sort of exultant sense of +delight with which the human mind always regards a purely fortuitous +possession. + +Three days and two nights on the Pacific Ocean is a round price to pay +for a thing, even for Oregon, with the Columbia River thrown in. There +is not so misnamed a piece of water on the globe as the Pacific Ocean, +nor so unexplainable a delusion as the almost universal impression +that it is smooth sailing there. It is British Channel and North Sea +and off the Hebrides combined,--as many different twists and chops and +swells as there are waves. People who have crossed the Atlantic again +and again without so much as a qualm are desperately ill between San +Francisco and Portland. There is but one comparison for the motion: it +is as if one's stomach were being treated as double teeth are handled, +when country doctors are forced to officiate as dentists, and know no +better way to get a four-pronged tooth out of its socket than to turn +it round and round till it is torn loose. + +Three days and two nights! I spent no inconsiderable portion of the +time in speculations as to Monsieur Antoine Crozat's probable reasons +for giving back to King Louis his magnificent grant of Pacific coast +country. He kept it five years, I believe. In that time he probably +voyaged up and down its shores thoroughly. Having been an adventurous +trader in the Indies, he must have been well wonted to seas; and being +worth forty millions of livres, he could afford to make himself as +comfortable in the matter of a ship as was possible a century and a +half ago. His grant was a princely domain, an empire five times larger +than France itself. What could he have been thinking of, to hand it +back to King Louis like a worthless bauble of which he had grown +tired? Nothing but the terrors of sea-sickness can explain it. If he +could have foreseen the steam-engine, and have had a vision of it +flying on iron roads across continents and mountains, how differently +would he have conducted! The heirs of Monsieur Antoine, if any such +there be to-day, must chafe when they read the terms of our Louisiana +Purchase. + +Three days and two nights--from Thursday morning till Saturday +afternoon--between San Francisco and the mouth of the Columbia, and +then we had to lie at Astoria the greater part of Sunday night before +the tide would let us go on up the river. It was not waste time, +however. Astoria is a place curious to behold. Seen from the water, it +seems a tidy little white town nestled on the shore, and well topped +off by wooded hills. Landing, one finds that it must be ranked as +amphibious, being literally half on land and half on water. From +Astoria proper--the old Astoria, which Mr. Astor founded, and +Washington Irving described--up to the new town, or upper Astoria, is +a mile and a half, two thirds bridges and piers. Long wooden wharves, +more streets than wharves, resting on hundreds of piles, are built out +to deep water. They fairly fringe the shore; and the street nearest +the water is little more than a succession of bridges from wharf to +wharf. Frequent bays and inlets make up, leaving unsightly muddy +wastes when the tide goes out. To see family washing hung out on lines +over these tidal flats, and the family infants drawing their go-carts +in the mud below, was a droll sight. At least every other building on +these strange wharf streets is a salmon cannery, and acres of the +wharf surfaces were covered with salmon nets spread out to dry. The +streets were crowded with wild-looking men, sailor-like, and yet not +sailor-like, all wearing india-rubber boots reaching far above the +knee, with queer wing-like flaps projecting all around at top. These +were the fishers of salmon, two thousand of them, Russians, Finns, +Germans, Italians,--"every kind on the earth," an old restaurant-keeper +said, in speaking of them; "every kind on the earth, they pour in +here, for four months, from May to September. They're a wild set; +clear out with the salmon, 'n' don't mind any more 'n the fish do what +they leave behind 'em." + +All day long they kill time in the saloons. The nights they spend on +the water, flinging and trolling and drawing in their nets, which +often burst with the weight of the captured salmon. It is a strange +life, and one sure to foster a man's worst traits rather than his best +ones. The fishermen who have homes and families, and are loyal to +them, industrious and thrifty, are the exception. + +The site of Mr. Astor's original fort is now the terraced yard of a +spruce new house on the corner of one of the pleasantest streets in +the old town. These streets are little more than narrow terraces +rising one above the other on jutting and jagged levels of the +river-bank. They command superb off-looks across and up and down the +majestic river, which is here far more a bay than a river. The Astoria +people must be strangely indifferent to these views; for the majority +of the finest houses face away from the water, looking straight into +the rough wooded hillside. + +Uncouth and quaint vehicles are perpetually plying between the old and +the new towns; they jolt along fast over the narrow wooden roads, and +the foot-passengers, who have no other place to walk, are perpetually +scrambling from under the horses' heels. It is a unique highway: +pebbly beaches, marshes, and salt ponds, alder-grown cliffs, hemlock +and spruce copses on its inland side; on the water-side, bustling +wharves, canneries, fishermen's boarding-houses, great spaces filled +in with bare piles waiting to be floored; at every turn shore and sea +seem to change sides, and clumps of brakes, fresh-hewn stumps, maple +and madrone trees, shift places with canneries and wharves; the sea +swashes under the planks of the road at one minute, and the next is an +eighth of a mile away, at the end of a close-built lane. Even in the +thickest settled business part of the town, blocks of water alternate +with blocks of brick and stone. + +The statistics of the salmon-canning business almost pass belief. In +1881 six hundred thousand cases of canned salmon were shipped from +Astoria. We ourselves saw seventy-five hundred cases put on board one +steamer. There were forty eight-pound cans in each case; it took five +hours' steady work, of forty "long-shore men," to load them. These +long-shore men are another shifting and turbulent element in the +populations of the river towns. They work day and night, get big +wages, go from place to place, and spend money recklessly; a sort of +commercial Bohemian, difficult to handle and often dangerous. They +sometimes elect to take fifty cents an hour and all the beer they can +drink, rather than a dollar an hour and no beer. At the time we saw +them, they were on beer wages. The foaming beer casks stood at short +intervals along the wharf,--a pitcher, pail, and mug at each cask. The +scene was a lively one: four cases loaded at a time on each truck, run +swiftly to the wharf edge, and slid down the hold; trucks rattling, +turning sharp corners; men laughing, wheeling to right and left of +each other, tossing off mugs of beer, wiping their mouths with their +hands, and flinging the drops in the air with jests,--one half forgave +them for taking part wages in the beer, it made it so much merrier. + +On Sunday morning we waked up to find ourselves at sea in the Columbia +River. A good part of Oregon and Washington Territory seemed also to +be at sea there. When a river of the size of the Columbia gets thirty +feet above low-water mark, towns and townships go to sea unexpectedly. +All the way up the Columbia to the Willamette, and down the +Willamette to Portland, we sailed in and on a freshet, and saw at once +more and less of the country than could be seen at any other time. At +the town of Kalama, facetiously announced as "the water terminus of +the Northern Pacific Railroad," the hotel, the railroad station, and +its warehouses were entirely surrounded by water, and we sailed, in +seemingly deep water, directly over the wharf where landings were +usually made. At other towns on the way we ran well up into the +fields, and landed passengers or freight on stray sand-spits, or +hillocks, from which they could get off again on the other side by +small boats. We passed scores of deserted houses, their windows open, +the water swashing over their door-sills; gardens with only tops of +bushes in sight, one with red roses swaying back and forth, limp and +helpless on the tide. It seemed strange that men would build houses +and make farms in a place where they are each year liable to be driven +out by such freshets. When I expressed this wonder, an Oregonian +replied lightly, "Oh, the river always gives them plenty of time. +They've all got boats, and they wait till the last minute always, +hoping the water'll go down."--"But it must be unwholesome to the last +degree to live on such overflowed lands. When the water recedes, they +must get fevers."--"Oh, they get used to it. After they've taken about +a barrel of quinine, they're pretty well acclimated." + +Other inhabitants of the country asserted roundly that no fevers +followed these freshets; that the trade-winds swept away all malarial +influences; that the water did no injury whatever to the farms,--on +the contrary, made the crops better; and that these farmers along the +river bottoms "couldn't be hired to live anywhere else in Oregon." + +The higher shore lines were wooded almost without a break; only at +long intervals an oasis of clearing, high up, an emerald spot of +barley or wheat, and a tiny farm-house. These were said to be usually +lumbermen's homes; it was warmer up there than in the bottom, and +crops thrived. In the not far-off day when these kingdoms of forests +are overthrown, and the Columbia runs unshaded to the sea, these hill +shores will be one vast granary. + +The city of Portland is on the Willamette River, fourteen miles south +of the junction of that river with the Columbia. Seen from its water +approach, Portland is a picturesque city, with a near surrounding of +hills, wooded with pines and firs, that make a superb sky-line setting +to the town, and to the five grand snow-peaks, of which clear days +give a sight. These dark forests and spear-top fringes are a more +distinctive feature in the beauty of Portland's site than even its +fine waters and islands. It is to be hoped that the Portland people +will appreciate their value, and never let their near hills be shorn +of trees. Not one tree more should be cut. Already there are breaks in +the forest horizons, which mar the picture greatly; and it would take +but a few days of ruthless wood choppers' work to rob the city forever +of its backgrounds, turning them into unsightly barrens. The city is +on both sides of the river, and is called East and West Portland. With +the usual perversity in such cases, the higher ground and the sunny +eastern frontage belong to the less popular part of the city, the west +town having most of the business and all of the fine houses. Yet in +times of freshet its lower streets are always under water; and the +setting-up of back-water into drains, cellars, and empty lots is a +yearly source of much illness. When we arrived, two of the principal +hotels were surrounded by water; from one of them there was no going +out or coming in except by planks laid on trestle-work in the piazzas, +and the air in the lower part of the town was foul with bad smells +from the stagnant water. + +Portland is only thirty years old, and its population is not over +twenty-five thousand; yet it is said to have more wealth per head than +any other city in the United States except New Haven. Wheat and lumber +and salmon have made it rich. Oregon wheat brings such prices in +England that ships can afford to cross the ocean to get it; and last +year one hundred and thirty-four vessels sailed out of Portland +harbor, loaded solely with wheat or flour. + +The city reminds one strongly of some of the rural towns in New +England. The houses are unpretentious, wooden, either white or of +light colors, and uniformly surrounded by pleasant grounds, in which +trees, shrubs, and flowers grow freely, without any attempt at formal +or decorative culture. One of the most delightful things about the +town is its surrounding of wild and wooded country. In an hour, +driving up on the hills to the west, one finds himself in wildernesses +of woods: spruce, maple, cedar, and pine; dogwood, wild syringa, +honeysuckle, ferns and brakes fitting in for undergrowth; and below +all, white clover matting the ground. By the roadsides are Linnæa, red +clover, yarrow, May-weed, and dandelion, looking to New England eyes +strangely familiar and unfamiliar at once. Never in New England woods +and roadsides do they have such a luxurious diet of water and rich +soil, and such comfortable warm winters. The white clover especially +has an air of spendthrifty indulgence about it which is delicious. It +riots through the woods, even in their densest, darkest depths, making +luxuriant pasturage where one would least look for it. On these wooded +heights are scores of dairy farms, which have no clearings except of +the space needful for the house and outbuildings. The cows, each with +a bell at her neck, go roaming and browsing all day in the forests. +Out of thickets scarcely penetrable to the eye come everywhere along +the road the contented notes of these bells' slow tinkling at the +cows' leisure. The milk, cream, and butter from these dairy farms are +of the excellent quality to be expected, and we wondered at not seeing +"white clover butter" advertised as well as "white clover honey." Land +in these wooded wilds brings from forty to eighty dollars an acre; +cleared, it is admirable farm land. Here and there we saw orchards of +cherry and apple trees, which were loaded with fruit; the cherry trees +so full that they showed red at a distance. + +The alternation of these farms with long tracts of forest, where +spruces and pines stand a hundred and fifty feet high, and myriads of +wild things have grown in generations of tangle, gives to the country +around Portland a charm and flavor peculiarly its own; even into the +city itself extends something of the same charm of contrast and +antithesis; meandering footpaths, or narrow plank sidewalks with +grassy rims, running within stone's-throw of solid brick blocks and +business thoroughfares. One of the most interesting places in the town +is the Bureau of Immigration of the Northern Pacific Railroad. In the +centre of the room stands a tall case, made of the native Oregon +woods. It journeyed to the Paris and the Philadelphia Expositions, +but nowhere can it have given eloquent mute answer to so many +questions as it does in its present place. It now holds jars of all +the grains raised in Oregon and Washington Territory; also sheaves of +superb stalks of the same grains, arranged in circles,--wheat six feet +high, oats ten, red clover over six, and timothy grass eight. To see +Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Irish, come in, stand wonderingly before +this case, and then begin to ask their jargon of questions, was an +experience which did more in an hour to make one realize what the +present tide of immigration to the New Northwest really is than +reading of statistics could do in a year. These immigrants are pouring +in, it is estimated, at the rate of at least a hundred and fifty a +day,--one hundred by way of San Francisco and Portland, twenty-five by +the Puget Sound ports, and another twenty-five overland by wagons; no +two with the same aim, no two alike in quality or capacity. To listen +to their inquiries and their narratives, to give them advice and help, +requires almost preternatural patience and sagacity. It might be +doubted, perhaps, whether this requisite combination could be found in +an American; certainly no one of any nationality could fill the office +better than it is filled by the tireless Norwegian who occupies the +post at present. It was touching to see the brightened faces of his +countrymen, as their broken English was answered by him in the +familiar words of their own tongue. He could tell well which parts of +the new country would best suit the Hardanger men, and the men from +Eide. It must have been hard for them to believe his statements, even +when indorsed by the home speech. To the ordinary Scandinavian +peasant, accustomed to measuring cultivable ground by hand-breadths, +and making gardens in pockets in rocks, tales of hundreds of unbroken +miles of wheat country, where crops average from thirty-five to +forty-five bushels an acre, must sound incredible; and spite of their +faith in their countryman, they are no doubt surprised when their +first harvest in the Willamette or Umpqua valley proves that his +statements were under, rather than over, the truth. + +The Columbia River steamers set off from Portland at dawn, or +thereabouts. Wise travellers go on board the night before, and their +first morning consciousness is a wonder at finding themselves +afloat,--afloat on a sea; for it hardly seems like river voyaging when +shores are miles apart, and, in many broad vistas, water is all that +can be seen. These vistas, in times of high water, when the Columbia +may be said to be fairly "seas over," are grand. They shine and +flicker for miles, right and left, with green feathery fringes of +tree-tops, and queer brown stippled points and ridges, which are house +gables and roof-trees, not quite gone under. One almost forgets, in +the interest of the spectacle, what misery it means to the owners of +the gables and roof-trees. + +At Washougal Landing, on the morning when we went up the river, all +that was to be seen of the warehouse on the wharf at which we should +have made landing was the narrow ridge-line of its roof; and this was +at least a third of a mile out from shore. The boat stopped, and the +passengers were rowed out in boats and canoes, steering around among +tree-tops and houses as best they might. + +The true shore-line of the river we never once saw; but it cannot be +so beautiful as was the freshet's shore of upper banks and +terraces,--dark forests at top, shifting shades of blue in every rift +between the hills, iridescent rainbow colors on the slopes, and gray +clouds, white-edged, piled up in masses above them, all floating apace +with us, and changing tone and tint oftener than we changed course. + +As we approached the Cascade Mountains, the scenery grew grander with +every mile. The river cuts through this range in a winding cañon, +whose sides for a space of four or five miles are from three to four +thousand feet high. But the charm of this pass is not so much in the +height and grandeur as in the beauty of its walls. They vary in color +and angle, and light and shadow, each second,--perpendicular rock +fronts, mossy brown; shelves of velvety greenness and ledges of +glistening red or black stone thrown across; great basaltic columns +fluted as by a chisel; jutting tables of rock carpeted with yellow and +brown lichen; turrets standing out with firs growing on them; bosky +points of cottonwood trees; yellow and white blossoms and curtains of +ferns, waving out, hanging over; and towering above all these, peaks +and summits wrapped in fleecy clouds. Looking ahead, we could see +sometimes only castellated mountain lines, meeting across the river, +like walls; as we advanced they retreated, and opened with new vistas +at each opening. Shining threads of water spun down in the highest +places, sometimes falling sheer to the river, sometimes sinking out of +sight in forest depths midway down, like the famed fosses of the +Norway fjords. Long sky-lines of pines and firs, which we knew to be +from one hundred to three hundred feet tall, looked in the aerial +perspective no more than a mossy border along the wall. A little girl, +looking up at them, gave by one artless exclamation a true idea of +this effect. "Oh," she cried, "they look just as if you could pick a +little bunch of them." At intervals along the right-hand shore were to +be seen the white-tented encampments of the Chinese laborers on the +road which the Northern Pacific Railroad Company is building to link +St. Paul with Puget Sound. A force of three thousand Chinamen and two +thousand whites is at work on this river division, and the road is +being pushed forward with great rapidity. The track looked in places +as if it were not one inch out of the water, though it was twenty +feet; and tunnels which were a hundred and thirty feet high looked +only like oven mouths. It has been a hard road to build, costing in +some parts sixty-five thousand dollars a mile. One spot was pointed +out to us where twenty tons of powder had been put in, in seven +drifts, and one hundred and forty cubic yards of rock and soil blown +at one blast into the river. It is an odd thing that huge blasts like +this make little noise, only a slight puff; whereas small blasts make +the hills ring and echo with their racket. + +Between the lower cascades and the upper cascades is a portage of six +miles, past fierce waters, in which a boat could scarcely live. Here +we took cars; they were overfull, and we felt ourselves much aggrieved +at being obliged to make the short journey standing on one of the +crowded platforms. It proved to be only another instance of the good +things caught on chances. Next to me stood an old couple, the man's +neck so burnt and wrinkled it looked like fiery red alligator's skin; +his clothes, evidently his best, donned for a journey, were of a +fashion so long gone by that they had a quaint dignity. The woman wore +a checked calico sun-bonnet, and a green merino gown of as quaint a +fashion as her husband's coat. With them was a veritable Leather +Stocking,--an old farmer, whose flannel shirt, tied loosely at the +throat with a bit of twine, fell open, and showed a broad hairy breast +of which a gladiator might have been proud. + +The cars jolted heavily, making it hard to keep one's footing; and the +old man came near being shaken off the step. Recovering himself, he +said, laughing, to his friend,-- + +"Anyhow, it's easier'n a buckin' Cayuse horse." + +"Yes," assented the other. "'T ain't much like '49, is it?" + +"Were you here in '49?" I asked eagerly. + +"'49!" he repeated scornfully. "I was here in '47. I was seven months +comin' across from Iowa to Oregon City in an ox team; an' we're livin' +on that same section we took up then; an' I reckon there hain't nobody +got a lien on to it yet. We've raised nine children, an' the youngest +on em's twenty-one. My woman's been sick for two or three years; this +is the first time I've got her out. Thought we'd go down to Columbus, +an' get a little pleasure, if we can. We used to come up to this +portage in boats, an' then pack everything on horses an' ride across." + +"We wore buckskin clo'es in those days," interrupted Leather Stocking, +"and spurs with bells; needn't do more 'n jingle the bells, 'n' the +horse'd start. I'd like to see them times back agen, too. I vow I'm +put to 't now to know where to go. This civilyzation," with an +indescribably sarcastic emphasis on the third syllable, "is too much +for me. I don't want to live where I can't go out 'n' kill a deer +before breakfast any mornin' I take a notion to." + +"Were there many Indians here in those days?" I asked. + +"Many Injuns?" he retorted; "why, 'twas all Injuns. All this country +'long here was jest full on 'em." + +"How did you find them?" + +"Jest 's civil 's any people in the world; never had no trouble with +'em. Nobody never did have any thet treated 'em fair. I tell ye, it's +jest with them 's 't is with cattle. Now there 'll be one man raise +cattle, an' be real mean with 'em; an' they'll all hook, an' kick, an' +break fences, an' run away. An' there 'll be another, an' his cattle +'ll all be kind, an' come ter yer when you call 'em. I don't never +want to know anythin' more about a man than the way his stock acts. I +hain't got a critter that won't come up by its name an' lick my hand. +An' it's jest so with folks. Ef a man's mean to you, yer goin' to be +mean to him, every time. The great thing with Injuns is, never to tell +'em a yarn. If yer deceive 'em once, they won't ever trust yer again, +'s long's yer live, an' you can't trust them either. Oh, I know +Injuns, I tell you. I've been among 'em here more 'n thirty year, an' +I never had the first trouble yet. There's been troubles, but I wa'n't +in 'em. It's been the white people's fault every time." + +"Did you ever know Chief Joseph?" I asked. + +"What, old Jo! You bet I knew him. He's an A No. 1 Injun, he is. He's +real honorable. Why, I got lost once, an' I came right on his camp +before I knowed it, an' the Injuns they grabbed me; 't was night, 'n' +I was kind o' creepin' along cautious, an' the first thing I knew +there was an Injun had me on each side, an' they jest marched me up to +Jo's tent, to know what they should do with me. I wa'n't a mite +afraid; I jest looked him right square in the eye. That's another +thing with Injuns; you've got to look 'em in the eye, or they won't +trust ye. Well, Jo, he took up a torch, a pine knot he had burnin', +and he held it close't up to my face, and looked me up an' down, an' +down an' up; an' I never flinched; I jest looked him up an' down's +good's he did me; 'n' then he set the knot down, 'n' told the men it +was all right,--I was 'tum tum;' that meant I was good heart; 'n' they +gave me all I could eat, 'n' a guide to show me my way, next day, 'n' +I couldn't make Jo nor any of 'em take one cent. I had a kind o' +comforter o' red yarn, I wore round my neck; an' at last I got Jo to +take that, jest as a kind o' momento." + +The old man was greatly indignant to hear that Chief Joseph was in +Indian Territory. He had been out of the State at the time of the Nez +Percé war, and had not heard of Joseph's fate. + +"Well, that was a dirty mean trick!" he exclaimed,--"a dirty mean +trick! I don't care who done it." + +Then he told me of another Indian chief he had known well,--"Ercutch" +by name. This chief was always a warm friend of the whites; again and +again he had warned them of danger from hostile Indians. "Why, when he +died, there wa'n't a white woman in all this country that didn't mourn +'s if she'd lost a friend; they felt safe's long's he was round. When +he knew he was dyin' he jest bade all his friends good-by. Said he, +'Good-by! I'm goin' to the Great Spirit;' an' then he named over each +friend he had, Injuns an' whites, each one by name, and said good-by +after each name." + +It was a strange half-hour, rocking and jolting on this crowded car +platform, the splendid tossing and foaming river with its rocks and +islands on one hand, high cliffs and fir forests on the other; these +three weather-beaten, eager, aged faces by my side, with their shrewd +old voices telling such reminiscences, and rising shrill above the din +of the cars. + +From the upper cascades to the Dalles, by boat again; a splendid forty +miles' run, through the mountain-pass, its walls now gradually +lowering, and, on the Washington Territory side of the river, terraces +and slopes of cleared lands and occasional settlements. Great numbers +of drift-logs passed us here, coming down apace, from the rush of the +Dalles above. Every now and then one would get tangled in the bushes +and roots on the shore, swing in, and lodge tight to await the next +freshet. + +The "log" of one of these driftwood voyages would be interesting; a +tree trunk may be ten years getting down to the sea, or it may swirl +down in a week. It is one of the businesses along the river to catch +them, and pull them in to shore, and much money is made at it. One +lucky fisher of logs, on the Snake River Fork, once drew ashore six +hundred cords in a single year. Sometimes a whole boom gets loose from +its moorings, and comes down stream, without breaking up. This is a +godsend to anybody who can head it off and tow it in shore; for by the +law of the river he is entitled to one half the value of the logs. + +At the Dalles is another short portage of twelve miles, past a portion +of the river which, though less grand than its plunge through the +Cascade Mountains, is far more unique and wonderful. The waters here +are stripped and shred into countless zigzagging torrents, boiling +along through labyrinths of black lava rocks and slabs. There is +nothing in all Nature so gloomy, so weird, as volcanic slag; and the +piles, ridges, walls, palisades of it thrown up at this point look +like the roof-trees, chimneys, turrets of a half-engulfed Pandemonium. +Dark slaty and gray tints spread over the whole shore, also; it is all +volcanic matter, oozed or boiled over, and hardened into rigid shapes +of death and destruction. The place is terrible to see. Fitting in +well with the desolateness of the region was a group of half-naked +Indians crouching on the rocks, gaunt and wretched, fishing for +salmon; the hollows in the rocks about them filled with the bright +vermilion-colored salmon spawn, spread out to dry. The twilight was +nearly over as we sped by, and the deepening darkness added momently +to the gloom of the scene. + +At Celilo, just above the Dalles, we took boat again for Umatilla, one +hundred miles farther up the river. + +Next morning we were still among lava beds: on the Washington +Territory side, low, rolling shores, or slanting slopes with terraces, +and tufty brown surfaces broken by ridges and points of the black +slag; on the Oregon side, high brown cliffs mottled with red and +yellow lichens, and great beaches and dunes of sand, which had blown +into windrows and curving hillock lines as on the sea-shore. This sand +is a terrible enemy for a railroad to fight. In a few hours, +sometimes, rods of the track are buried by it as deep as by snow in +the fiercest winter storms. + +The first picture I saw from my state-room windows, this morning, was +an Indian standing on a narrow plank shelf that was let down by ropes +over a perpendicular rock front, some fifty feet high. There he stood, +as composed as if he were on _terra firma_, bending over towards the +water, and flinging in his salmon net. On the rocks above him sat the +women of his family, spreading the salmon to dry. We were within so +short a distance of the banks that friendly smiles could be distinctly +seen; and one of the younger squaws, laughing back at the lookers-on +on deck, picked up a salmon, and waving it in her right hand ran +swiftly along towards an outjutting point. She was a gay creature, +with scarlet fringed leggings, a pale green blanket, and on her head a +twisted handkerchief of a fine old Dürer red. As she poised herself, +and braced backwards to throw the salmon on deck, she was a superb +figure against the sky; she did not throw straight, and the fish fell +a few inches short of reaching the boat. As it struck the water she +made a petulant little gesture of disappointment, like a child, threw +up her hands, turned, and ran back to her work. + +At Umatilla, being forced again to "make option which of two," we +reluctantly turned back, leaving the beautiful Walla Walla region +unvisited, for the sake of seeing Puget Sound. The Walla Walla region +is said to be the finest stretch of wheat country in the world. Lava +slag, when decomposed, makes the richest of soil,--deep and seemingly +of inexhaustible fertility. A failure of harvests is said never to +have been known in that country; the average yield of wheat is +thirty-five to forty bushels an acre, and oats have yielded a hundred +bushels. Apples and peaches thrive, and are of a superior quality. The +country is well watered, and has fine rolling plateaus from fifteen +hundred to three thousand feet high, giving a climate neither too cold +in winter nor too hot in summer, and of a bracing quality not found +nearer the sea. Hearing all the unquestionable tributes to the beauty +and value of this Walla Walla region, I could not but recall some of +Chief Joseph's pleas that a small share of it should be left in the +possession of those who once owned it all. + +From our pilot, on the way down, I heard an Indian story, too touching +to be forgotten, though too long to tell here except in briefest +outline. As we were passing a little village, half under water, he +exclaimed, looking earnestly at a small building to whose window-sills +the water nearly reached: "Well, I declare, Lucy's been driven out of +her house this time. I was wondering why I didn't see her handkerchief +a-waving. She always waves to me when I go by." Then he told me Lucy's +story. + +She was a California Indian, probably of the Tulares, and migrated to +Oregon with her family thirty years ago. She was then a young girl, +and said to be the handsomest squaw ever seen in Oregon. In those days +white men in wildernesses thought it small shame, if any, to take +Indian women to live with them as wives, and Lucy was much sought and +wooed. But she seems to have had uncommon virtue or coldness, for she +resisted all such approaches for a long time. + +Finally, a man named Pomeroy appeared; and, as Lucy said afterward, as +soon as she looked at him, she knew he was her "tum tum man," and she +must go with him. He had a small sloop, and Lucy became its mate. They +two alone ran it for several years up and down the river. He +established a little trading-post, and Lucy always took charge of that +when he went to buy goods. When gold was discovered at Ringgold Bar, +Lucy went there, worked with a rocker like a man, and washed out +hundreds of dollars' worth of gold, all which she gave to Pomeroy. +With it he built a fine schooner and enlarged his business, the +faithful Lucy working always at his side and bidding. At last, after +eight or ten years, he grew weary of her and of the country, and made +up his mind to go to California. But he had not the heart to tell Lucy +he meant to leave her. The pilot who told me this story was at that +time captain of a schooner on the river. Pomeroy came to him one day, +and asked him to move Lucy and her effects down to Columbus. He said +he had told her that she must go and live there with her relatives, +while he went to California and looked about, and then he would send +for her. The poor creature, who had no idea of treachery, came on +board cheerfully and willingly, and he set her off at Columbus. This +was in the early spring. Week after week, month after month, whenever +his schooner stopped there, Lucy was on the shore, asking if he had +heard from Pomeroy. For a long time, he said, he couldn't bear to tell +her. At last he did; but she would not believe him. Winter came on. +She had got a few boards together and built herself a sort of hut, +near a house where lived an eccentric old bachelor, who finally took +compassion on her, and to save her from freezing let her come into his +shanty to sleep. He was a mysterious old man, a recluse, with a morbid +aversion to women; and at the outset it was a great struggle for him +to let even an Indian woman cross his threshold. But little by little +Lucy won her way: first she washed the dishes; then she would timidly +help at the cooking. Faithful, patient, unpresuming, at last she grew +to be really the old man's housekeeper as well as servant. He lost his +health, and became blind. Lucy took care of him till he died, and +followed him to the grave, his only mourner,--the only human being in +the country with whom he had any tie. He left her his little house +and a few hundred dollars,--all he had; and there she is still, alone, +making out to live by doing whatever work she can find in the +neighborhood. Everybody respects her; she is known as "Lucy" up and +down the river. "I did my best to hire her to come and keep house for +my wife, last year," said the pilot. "I'd rather have her for nurse or +cook than any white woman in Oregon. But she wouldn't come. I don't +know as she's done looking for Pomeroy to come back yet, and she's +going to stay just where he left her. She never misses a time, waving +to me, when she knows what boat I'm on; and there isn't much going on +on the river she don't know." + +It was dusk when the pilot finished telling Lucy's story. We were +shooting along through wild passages of water called Hell Gate, just +above the Dalles. In the dim light the basaltic columnar cliffs looked +like grooved ebony. One of the pinnacles has a strange resemblance to +the figure of an Indian. It is called the Chief, and the semblance is +startling,--a colossal figure, with a plume-crowned head, turned as if +gazing backward over the shoulder; the attitude stately, the drapery +graceful, and the whole expression one of profound and dignified +sorrow. It seemed a strangely fitting emphasis to the story of the +faithful Indian woman. + +It was near midnight when we passed the Dalles. Our train was late, +and dashed on at its swiftest. Fitful light came from a wisp of a new +moon and one star; they seemed tossing in a tumultuous sea of dark +clouds. In this glimmering darkness the lava walls and ridges stood +up, inky black; the foaming water looked like molten steel, the whole +region more ghastly and terrible than before. + +There is a village of three thousand inhabitants at the Dalles. The +houses are set among lava hillocks and ridges. The fields seemed +bubbled with lava, their blackened surfaces stippled in with yellow +and brown. High up above are wheat-fields in clearings, reaching to +the sky-line of the hills. Great slopes of crumbling and +disintegrating lava rock spread superb purple and slate colors between +the greens of forests and wheat-fields. It is one of the memorable +pictures on the Columbia. + +To go both up and down a river is a good deal like spending a summer +and a winter in a place, so great difference does it make when right +hand and left shift sides, and everything is seen from a new +stand-point. + +The Columbia River scenery is taken at its best going up, especially +the gradual crescendo of the Cascade Mountain region, which is far +tamer entered from above. But we had a compensation in the clearer sky +and lifted clouds, which gave us the more distant snow-peaks in all +their glory; and our run down from the Dalles to Portland was the best +day of our three on the river. Our steamer was steered by hydraulic +pressure; and it was a wonderful thing to sit in the pilot-house and +see the slight touch of a finger on the shining lever sway the great +boat in a second. A baby's hand is strong enough to steer the largest +steamboat by this instrument. It could turn the boat, the captain +said, in a maelstrom, where four men together could not budge the +rudder-wheel. + +The history of the Columbia River navigation would make by itself an +interesting chapter. It dates back to 1792, when a Boston ship and a +Boston captain first sailed up the river. A curious bit of history in +regard to that ship is to be found in the archives of the old Spanish +government in California. Whenever a royal decree was issued in Madrid +in regard to the Indies or New Spain, a copy of it was sent to every +viceroy in the Spanish Dominions; he communicated it to his next +subordinate, who in turn sent it to all the governors, and so on, till +the decree reached every corner of the king's provinces. In 1789 there +was sent from Madrid, by ship to Mexico, and thence by courier to +California, and by Fages, the California governor, to every port in +California, the following order:-- + + "Whenever there may arrive at the port of San Francisco a ship + named the 'Columbia,' said to belong to General Washington of + the American States, commanded by John Kendrick, which sailed + from Boston in 1787, bound on a voyage of discovery to the + Russian settlements on the northern coast of the peninsula, you + will cause said vessel to be examined with caution and + delicacy, using for this purpose a small boat which you have in + your possession." + +Two months after this order was promulgated in the Santa Barbara +presidio, Captain Gray, of the ship "Washington," and Captain +Kendrick of the ship "Columbia," changed ships in Wickmanish harbor. +Captain Gray took the "Columbia" to China, and did not sail into San +Francisco harbor at all, whereby he escaped being "examined with +caution and delicacy" by the small boat in possession of the San +Francisco garrison. Not till the 11th of May, 1792, did he return and +sail up the Columbia River, then called the Oregon. He renamed it, for +his ship, "Columbia's River;" but the possessive was soon dropped. + +When one looks at the crowded rows of steamboats at the Portland +wharves now, it is hard to realize that it is only thirty-two years +since the first one was launched there. Two were built and launched in +one year, the "Columbia" and the "Lot Whitcomb." The "Lot Whitcomb" +was launched on Christmas Day; there were three days' feasting and +dancing, and people gathered from all parts of the Territory to +celebrate the occasion. + +It is also hard to realize, when standing on the Portland wharves, +that it is less than fifty years since there were angry discussions in +the United States Congress as to whether or not it were worth while to +obtain Oregon as a possession, and in the Eastern States manuals were +being freely distributed, bearing such titles as this: "A general +circular to all persons of good character wishing to emigrate to the +Oregon Territory." Even those statesmen who were most earnest in favor +of the securing of Oregon did not perceive the true nature of its +value. One of Benton's most enthusiastic predictions was that an +"emporium of Asiatic commerce" would be situated at the mouth of the +Columbia, and that "a stream of Asiatic trade would pour into the +valley of the Mississippi through the channel of Oregon." But the +future of Oregon and Washington rests not on any transmission of the +riches of other countries, however important an element in their +prosperity that may ultimately become. Their true riches are their own +and inalienable. They are to be among the great feeders of the earth. +Gold and silver values are unsteady and capricious; intrigues can +overthrow them; markets can be glutted, and mines fail. But bread the +nations of the earth must have. The bread-yielder controls the +situation always. Given a soil which can grow wheat year after year +with no apparent fatigue or exhaustion, a climate where rains never +fail and seed-time and harvest are uniformly certain, and conditions +are created under which the future success and wealth of a country may +be predicted just as surely as the movements of the planets in the +heavens. + +There are three great valleys in western Oregon,--the Willamette, the +Umpqua, and the Rogue River. The Willamette is the largest, being +sixty miles long by one hundred and fifty wide. The Umpqua and Rogue +River together contain over a million of acres. These valleys are +natural gardens; fertile to luxuriance, and watered by all the +westward drainage of the great Cascade Range, the Andes of North +America, a continuation of the Sierra Nevada. The Coast Range +Mountains lie west of these valleys, breaking, but not shutting out, +the influence of the sea air and fogs. This valley region between +these two ranges contains less than a third of the area of Washington +and Oregon. The country east of the Cascade Mountains is no less +fertile, but has a drier climate, colder winters, and hotter summers. +Its elevation is from two to four thousand feet,--probably the very +best elevations for health. A comparison of statistics of yearly +death-rates cannot be made with absolute fairness between old and +thick-settled and new and sparsely settled countries. Allowance must +be made for the probably superior health and strength of the men and +women who have had the youth and energy to go forward as pioneers. +But, making all due allowance for these, there still remains +difference enough to startle one between the death-rates in some of +the Atlantic States and in these infant empires of the New Northwest. +The yearly death-rate in Massachusetts is one out of fifty-seven; in +Vermont one out of ninety-seven; in Oregon one out of one hundred and +seventy-two; and in Washington Territory one out of two hundred and +twenty-eight. + +As we glided slowly to anchorage in Portland harbor, five dazzling +snow-white peaks were in sight on the horizon,--Mount Hood, of +peerless shape, strong as if it were a bulwark of the very heavens +themselves, yet graceful and sharp-cut as Egypt's pyramids; St. +Helen's, a little lower, yet looking higher, with the marvellous +curves of its slender shining cone, bent on and seemingly into the +sky, like an intaglio of ice cut in the blue; miles away in the +farthest north and east horizons, Mounts Tacoma and Adams and Baker, +all gleaming white, and all seeming to uphold the skies. + +These eternal, unalterable snow-peaks will be as eternal and +unalterable factors in the history of the country as in its beauty to +the eye. Their value will not come under any head of things reckonable +by census, statistics, or computation, but it will be none the less +real for that: it will be an element in the nature and character of +every man and woman born within sight of the radiant splendor; and it +will be strange if it does not ultimately develop, in the empire of +this New Northwest, a local patriotism and passionate loyalty to soil +as strong and lasting as that which has made generations of Swiss +mountaineers ready to brave death for a sight of their mountains. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] John G. Hittell's Commerce and Industries of the Pacific Coast. + +[3] "The term 'pueblo' answers to that of the English word 'town,' in +all its vagueness and all its precision. As the word 'town' in English +generally embraces every kind of population from the village to the +city, and also, used specifically, signifies a town corporate and +politic, so the word 'pueblo' in Spanish ranges from the hamlet to the +city, but, used emphatically, signifies a town corporate and +politic."--DWINELLE'S _Colonial History of San Francisco_. + +[4] In the decade between 1801 and 1810 the missions furnished to the +presidios about eighteen thousand dollars' worth of supplies each +year. + +[5] Special Report of the Hon. B. D. Wilson, of Los Angeles, Cal., to +the Interior Department in 1852. + +[6] The missions of San Rafael and San Francisco de Solano were the +last founded; the first in 1819, and the latter in 1823,--too late to +attain any great success or importance. + +[7] John W. Dwinelle's Colonial History of San Francisco, pp. 44-87. + + + + +II. + +SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND. + + + + +II. + +SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND. + + +A BURNS PILGRIMAGE. + +A shining-beached crescent of country facing to the sunset, and rising +higher and higher to the east till it becomes mountain, is the county +of Ayrshire, fair and famous among the southern Scotch highlands. To a +sixty-mile measure by air, between its north and south promontories, +it stretches a curving coast of ninety; and when Robert Burns strolled +over its breezy uplands, he saw always beautiful and mysterious silver +lines of land thrusting themselves out into the mists of the sea, +pointing to far-off island peaks, seeming sometimes to bridge and +sometimes to wall vistas ending only in sky. These lines are as +beautiful, elusive, and luring now as then, and in the inalienable +loyalty of nature bear testimony to-day to their lover. + +This is the greatest crown of the hero and the poet. Other great men +hold fame by failing records which moth and fire destroy. The places +that knew them know them no more when they are dead. Marble and canvas +and parchment league in vain to keep green the memory of him who did +not love and consecrate by his life-blood, in fight or in song, the +soil where he trod. But for him who has done this,--who fought well, +sang well,--the morning cloud, and the wild rose, and broken blades of +grass under men's feet, become immortal witnesses; so imperishable, +after all, are what we are in the habit of calling the "perishable +things of this earth." + +More than two hundred years ago, when the followers and holders of the +different baronies of Ayrshire compared respective dignities and +values, they made a proverb which ran:-- + + "Carrick for a man; Kyle for a coo; + Cunningham for butter and cheese; Galloway for woo." + +Before the nineteenth century set in, the proverb should have been +changed; for Kyle is the land through which "Bonnie Doon" and Irvine +Water run, and there has been never a man in all Carrick of whom +Carrick can be proud as is Kyle of Robert Burns. It has been said that +a copy of his poems lies on every Scotch cottager's shelf, by the side +of the Bible. This is probably not very far from the truth. Certain it +is, that in the villages where he dwelt there seems to be no man, no +child, who does not apparently know every detail of the life he lived +there, nearly a hundred years ago. + +"Will ye be drivin' over to Tarbolton in the morning?" said the pretty +young vice-landlady of the King's Arms at Ayr, when I wrote my name in +her visitors' book late one Saturday night. + +"What made you think of that?" I asked, amused. + +"And did ye not come on account o' Burns?" she replied. "There's been +a many from your country here by reason of him this summer. I think +you love him in America a'most as well as we do oursel's. It's vary +seldom the English come to see anythin' aboot him. They've so many +poets o' their own, I suppose, is the reason o' their not thinkin' +more o' Burns." + +All that there was unflattering in this speech I forgave by reason of +the girl's sweet low voice, pretty gray eyes, and gentle, refined +hospitality. She might have been the daughter of some country +gentleman, welcoming a guest to the house; and she took as much +interest in making all the arrangements for my drive to Tarbolton the +next morning as if it had been a pleasure excursion for herself. It is +but a dull life she leads, helping her widowed mother keep the King's +Arms,--dull, and unprofitable too, I fear; for it takes four +men-servants and seven women to keep up the house, and I saw no +symptom of any coming or going of customers in it. A stillness as of a +church on weekdays reigned throughout the establishment. "At the races +and when the yeomanry come," she said, there was something to do; but +"in the winter nothing, except at the times of the county balls. You +know, ma'am, we've many county families here," she remarked with +gentle pride, "and they all stop with us." + +There is a compensation to the lower orders of a society where rank +and castes are fixed, which does not readily occur at first sight to +the democratic mind naturally rebelling against such defined +distinctions. It is very much to be questioned whether, in a republic, +the people who find themselves temporarily lower down in the social +scale than they like to be or expect to stay, feel, in their +consciousness of the possibility of rising, half so much pride or +satisfying pleasure as do the lower classes in England, for instance, +in their relations with those whom they serve, whose dignity they seem +to share by ministering to it. + +The way from Ayr to Tarbolton must be greatly changed since the day +when the sorrowful Burns family trod it, going from the Mount Oliphant +farm to that of Lochlea. Now it is for miles a smooth road, on which +horses' hoofs ring merrily, and neat little stone houses, with pretty +yards, line it on both sides for some distance. The ground rises +almost immediately, so that the dwellers in these little suburban +houses get fine off-looks seaward and a wholesome breeze in at their +windows. The houses are built joined by twos, with a yard in common. +They have three rooms besides the kitchen, and they rent for +twenty-five pounds a year; so no industrious man of Ayr need be badly +lodged. Where the houses leave off, hedges begin,--thorn and beech, +untrimmed and luxuriant, with great outbursts of white honeysuckle and +sweet-brier at intervals. As far as the eye could see were waving +fields of wheat, oats, and "rye-grass," which last being just ripe was +of a glorious red color. The wheat-fields were rich and full, sixty +bushels to the acre. Oats, which do not take so kindly to the soil and +air, produce sometimes only forty-eight. + +Burns was but sixteen when his father moved from Mount Oliphant to the +Lochlea farm, in the parish of Tarbolton. It was in Tarbolton that he +first went to dancing-school, joined the Freemasons, and organized the +club which, no doubt, cost him dear, "The Bachelors of Tarbolton." In +the beginning this club consisted of only five members besides Burns +and his brother; afterward it was enlarged to sixteen. Burns drew up +the rules; and the last one--the tenth--is worth remembering, as an +unconscious defining on his part of his ideal of human life:-- + + "Every man proper for a member of this society must have a + friendly, honest, open heart, above everything dirty or mean, + and must be a professed lover of one or more of the sex. The + proper person for this society is a cheerful, honest-hearted + lad, who, if he has a friend that is true, and a mistress that + is kind, and as much wealth as genteelly to make both ends + meet, is just as happy as this world can make him." + +Walking to-day through the narrow streets of Tarbolton, it is wellnigh +impossible to conceive of such rollicking good cheer having made +abiding-place there. It is a close, packed town, the houses of stone +or white plaster,--many of them low, squalid, with thatched roofs and +walls awry; those that are not squalid are grim. The streets are +winding and tangled; the people look poor and dull. As I drove up to +the "Crown Inn," the place where the Tarbolton Freemasons meet now, +and where some of the relics of Burns's Freemason days are kept, the +"first bells" were ringing in the belfry of the old church opposite, +and the landlord of the inn replied with a look of great embarrassment +to my request to see the Burns relics,-- + +"It's the Sabbath, mem." + +Then he stood still, scratching his head for a few moments, and then +set off, at full run, down the street without another word. + +"He's gone to the head Mason," explained the landlady. "It takes three +to open the chest. I think ye'll na see it the day." And she turned on +her heel with a frown and left me. + +"They make much account o' the Sabbath in this country," said my +driver. "Another day ye'd do better." + +Thinking of Burns's lines to the "Unco Guid," I strolled over into the +churchyard opposite, to await the landlord's return. The bell-ringer +had come down, and followed me curiously about among the graves. One +very old stone had carved upon it two high-top boots; under these, +two low shoes; below these, two kneeling figures, a man and a woman, +cut in high relief; no inscription of any sort. + +"What can it mean?" I asked. + +The bell-ringer could not tell; it was so old nobody knew anything +about it. His mother, now ninety years of age, remembered seeing it +when she was a child, and it looked just as old then as now. + +"There's a many strange things in this graveyard," said he; and then +he led me to a corner where, enclosed by swinging chains and stone +posts, was a carefully kept square of green turf, on which lay a +granite slab. "Every year comes the money to pay for keeping that +grass green," he said, "and no name to it. It's been going on that way +for fifty years." + +The stone-wall around the graveyard was dilapidated, and in parts was +falling down. + +"I suppose this old wall was here in Burns's time," I said. + +"Ay, yes," said the bell-ringer; and pointing to a low, thatched +cottage just outside it, "and yon shop--many's the time he's been in +it playin' his tricks." + +The landlord of the inn now came running up, with profuse apologies +for the ill success of his mission. He had been to the head Mason, +hoping he would come over and assist in the opening of the chest, in +which were kept a Mason's apron worn by Burns, some jewels of his, and +a book of minutes kept by him. But "bein' 's it's the Sabbath," and +"he's sick in bed," and it was "against the rules to open the regalia +chest unless three Masons were present," the kindly landlord, piling +up reason after reason, irrespective of their consistency with each +other, went on to explain that it would be impossible; but I might see +the chair in which Burns always sat. This was a huge oaken chair, +black with age, and furrowed with names cut deep in the wood. It was +shaped and proportioned like a child's high-chair, and had precisely +such a rest for the feet as is put on children's high-chairs. To this +day the Grand Mason sits in it at their meetings, and will so long as +the St. James Lodge exists. + +"They've been offered hundreds of pounds for that chair, mem, plain as +it is. You'd not think it; but there's no money'd buy it from the +lodge," said the landlord. + +The old club-house where the jolly "Bachelors of Tarbolton" met in +Burns's day is a low, two-roomed, thatched cottage, half in ruins. The +room where the bachelors smoked, drank, and sang is now little more +than a cellar filled with rubbish and filth,--nothing left but the old +fireplace to show that it was ever inhabited. In the other half of the +cottage lives a laborer's family,--father, mother, and a young child: +their one room, with its bed built into the wall, and their few delf +dishes on the dresser, is probably much like the room in which Burns +first opened his wondrous eyes. The man was lying on the floor playing +with his baby. At the name of Burns, he sprang up with a hearty "Ay, +weel," and ran out in his blue-stocking feet to show me the cellar, of +which, it was plainly to be seen, he was far prouder than of his more +comfortable side of the house. The name by which the inn was called in +Burns's day he did not know. But "He's a Mason over there; he'll +know," he cried; and before I could prevent him, he had darted, still +shoeless, across the road, and asked the question of a yet poorer +laborer, who was taking his Sunday on his door-sill with two bairns +between his knees. He had heard, but had "forgotten." "Feyther'll +know," said the wife, coming forward with the third bairn, a baby, in +her arms. "I'll rin an' ask feyther." The old man tottered out, and +gazed with a vacant, feeble look at me, while he replied impatiently +to his daughter: "Manson's Inn, 't was called; ye've heard it times +eneuch." + +"I dare say you always drink Burns's health at the lodge when you +meet," I said to the laborer. + +"Ay, ay, his health's ay dronkit," he said, with a coarse laugh, "weel +dronkit." + +A few rods to the east, and down the very road Burns was wont to come +and go between Lochlea and Tarbolton, still stands "Willie's +mill,"--cottage and mill and shed and barn, all in one low, long, +oddly joined (or jointed) building of irregular heights, like a +telescope pulled out to its full length; a little brook and a bit of +gay garden in front. In the winter the mill goes by water from a lake +near by; in the summer by steam,--a great change since the night when +Burns went + + "Todlin' down on Willie's mill," + +and though he thought he + + "Was na fou, but just had plenty," + +could not for the life of him make out to count the moon's horns. + + "To count her horns, wi' a' my power, + I set mysel'; + But whether she had three or four + I could na tell." + +To go by road from Tarbolton to Lochlea farm is to go around three +sides of a square, east, north, and then west again. Certain it is +that Burns never took so many superfluous steps to do it; and as I +drove along I found absorbing interest in looking at the little +cluster of farm buildings beyond the fields, and wondering where the +light-footed boy used to "cut across" for his nightly frolics. There +is nothing left at Lochlea now of him or his; nothing save a worn +lintel of the old barn. The buildings are all new; and there is a look +of thrift and comfort about the place, quite unlike the face it must +have worn in 1784. The house stands on a rising knoll, and from the +windows looking westward and seaward there must be a fine horizon and +headlands to be seen at sunset. Nobody was at home on this day except +a barefooted servant-girl, who was keeping the house while the family +were at church. She came to the door with an expression of almost +alarm, at the unwonted apparition of a carriage driving down the lane +on Sunday, and a stranger coming in the name of a man dead so long +ago. She evidently knew nothing of Burns except that, for some reason +connected with him, the old lintel was kept and shown. She was +impatient of the interruption of her Sabbath, and all the while she +was speaking kept her finger in her book--"Footprints of Jesus"--at +the place where she had been reading, and glanced at it continually, +as if it were an amulet which could keep her from harm through the +worldly interlude into which she had been forced. + +"It's a pity ye came on the Sabba-day," remarked the driver again, as +we drove away from Lochlea. "The country people 'ull not speak on the +Sabbath." It would have been useless to try to explain to him that the +spectacle of this Scottish "Sabba-day" was of itself of almost as much +interest as the sight of the fields in which Robert Burns had walked +and worked. + +The farm of Mossgiel, which was Burns's next home after Lochlea, is +about three miles from Tarbolton, and only one from Mauchline. Burns +and his brother Gilbert had become tenants of it a few months before +their father's death in 1784. It was stocked by the joint savings of +the whole family; and each member of the family was allowed fair rates +of wages for all labor performed on it. The allowance to Gilbert and +to Robert was seven pounds a year each, and it is said that during the +four years that Robert lived there, his expenses never exceeded this +pittance. + +To Mossgiel he came with new resolutions. He had already reaped some +bitter harvests from the wild oats sown during the seven years at +Lochlea. He was no longer a boy. He says of himself at this time,-- + +"I entered on Mossgiel with a full resolution, 'Come, go; I will be +wise.'" + +Driving up the long, straight road which leads from the highway to the +hawthorn fortress in which the Mossgiel farm buildings stand, one +recalls these words, and fancies the brave young fellow striding up +the field, full of new hope and determination. The hawthorn hedge +to-day is much higher than a man's head, and completely screens from +the road the farm-house and the outbuildings behind it. The present +tenants have lived on the farm forty years, the first twenty in the +same house which stood there when Robert and Gilbert Burns pledged +themselves to pay one hundred and twenty pounds a year for the farm. +When the house was rebuilt, twenty years ago, the old walls were used +in part, and the windows were left in the same places; but, instead of +the low, sloping-roofed, garret-like rooms upstairs, where Burns used +to sleep and write, are now comfortable chambers of modern fashion. + +"Were you not sorry to have the old house pulled down?" I said to the +comely, aged farm-wife. + +"'Deed, then, I was very prood," she replied; "it had na 'coomodation, +and the thatch took in the rain an' all that was vile." + +In the best room of the house hung two autograph letters of Burns's +plainly framed: one, his letter to the lass of ----, asking her +permission to print the poem he had addressed to her; the other, the +original copy of the poem. These were "presented to the house by the +brother of the lady," the woman said, and they had "a great value +now." But when she first came to this part of the country she was +"vary soorpreezed" to find the great esteem in which Burns's poetry +was held. In the North, where she had lived, he was "na thocht weel +of." Her father had never permitted a copy of his poems to be brought +inside his doors, and had forbidden his children to read a word of +them. "He thocht them too rough for us to read." It was not until she +was a woman grown, and living in her husband's house, that she had +ever ventured to disobey this parental command, and she did not now +herself think they were "fitted for the reading of young pairsons." +"There was much more discreet writin's," she said severely; an opinion +which there was no gainsaying. + +There is a broader horizon to be seen, looking westward from the +fields of Mossgiel, than from those of Lochlea; the lands are higher +and nobler of contour. Superb trees, which must have been superb a +century ago, stand to right and left of the house,--beeches, ashes, +oaks, and planes. The fields which are in sight from the house are now +all grass-grown. I have heard that twenty years ago, it was +confidently told in which field Burns, ploughing late in the autumn, +broke into the little nest of the + + "Wee sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie," + +whom every song-lover has known and pitied from that day to this, and +whose misfortunes have answered ever since for a mint of reassuring +comparison to all of us, remembering that "the best-laid schemes o' +mice an' men" must "gang aft aglee;" and the other field, also near +by, where grew that mountain daisy, + + "Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flower," + +whose name is immortal in our hearts as that of Burns. This farm-wife, +however, knew nothing about them. The stern air of the north country +in which she had been reared still chilled somewhat her thoughts of +Burns and her interest in his inalienable bond on the fields of her +farm. + +It is but a mile from Mossgiel's gate to Mauchline, the town of +"bonnie Jean" and Nansie Tinnoch and Gavin Hamilton. Surely a +strange-assorted trio to be comrades of one man. Their houses are +still standing: Jean's a tumble-down thatched cottage, looking out of +place enough between the smart, new houses built on either side of it; +Gavin Hamilton's, a dark, picturesque stone house, joined to the ruins +of Mauchline Castle; and Nansie Tinnoch's, a black and dilapidated +hovel, into which it takes courage to go. It stands snugged up against +the wall of the old graveyard, part below it and part above it,--a +situation as unwholesome as horrible; a door at the head of the narrow +stairway opening out into the graveyard itself, and the slanting old +stones leering in at the smoky windows by crowds. In the days when all +the "country side" met at the open-air services in this churchyard, + + "Some thinkin' on their sins, an' some on their claes," + +no doubt Nancy Tinnoch's was a lighter, whiter, cheerier place than +now; else the "Jolly Beggars" would never have gone there to tipple. + +It was the nooning between services when I reached Mauchline, and +church-goers from a distance were taking their beer and crackers +decorously in the parlor of the inn. As the intermission was only +three quarters of an hour long, this much of involuntary dissipation +was plainly forced on them; but they did not abuse it, I can testify. +They partook of it as of a passover: young men and maidens as sober +and silent as if they had been doing solemn penance for sins, as +indeed, from one point of view, it might perhaps be truly said that +they were. + +By dint of some difficult advances I drew one or two of them into +conversation about the Mossgiel farm and the disappearance of the old +relics of Burns's life in that region. It was a great pity, I said, +that the Mossgiel house had to be taken down. + +"'Deed, then, it was na such thing," spoke up an elderly man. "It was +na moor than a wreck, an' I'm the mon who did it." + +He was the landlord of the farm, it appeared. He seemed much amused at +hearing of the farm-wife's disapproval of Burns's verses, and of her +father's prohibition of them. + +"He was a heepocritical auld Radical, if ye knows him," he said +angrily. "I hope we'll never have ony worse readin' in our country +than Robert Bur-r-r-ns." The prolongation of the "r" in the Scotch way +of saying "Burns" is something that cannot be typographically +represented. It is hardly a rolling of the "r," nor a multiplication +of it; but it takes up a great deal more time and room than any one +"r" ought to. + +After the landlady had shown to me the big hall where the Freemasons +meet, "the Burns' Mother Lodge," and the chest which used to hold the +regalia at Tarbolton in Burns's day, and the little bedroom in which +Stedman and Hawthorne had slept,--coming also to look at Burns's +fields,--she told me in a mysterious whisper that there was a nephew +of Burns's in the kitchen, who would like to see me, if I would like +to see him. "A nephew of Burns's!" I exclaimed. "Weel, not exactly," +she explained, "but he's a grand-nephew of Burns's wife; she thet was +Jean, ye know," with a deprecating nod and lowering of the eyelid. So +fast is the clutch of a Scotch neighborhood on its traditions of +offended virtue, even to-day poor Jean cannot be mentioned by a +landlady in her native town without a small stone cast backward at +her. + +Jean's grand-nephew proved to be a middle-aged man; not "ower +weel-to-do," the landlady said. He had tried his hand at doctoring +both in Scotland and America,--a rolling stone evidently, with too +much of the old fiery blood of his race in his veins for quiet and +decorous prosperity. He, too, seemed only half willing to speak of +poor "Jean,"--his kinswoman; but he led me to the cottage where she +had lived, and pointed out the window from which she was said to have +leaned out many a night listening to the songs of her lover when he +sauntered across from the Whiteford Arms, Johnny Pigeon's house, just +opposite, "not fou, but having had plenty" to make him merry and +affectionate. Johnny Pigeon's is a "co-operative store" now; and new +buildings have altered the line of the street so that "Rob Mossgiel" +would lose his way there to-day. + +The room in which Burns and his "bonnie Jean" were at last married in +Gavin Hamilton's house, by Hamilton himself, is still shown to +visitors. This room I had a greater desire to see than any other spot +in Mauchline. "We can but try," said the grand-nephew; "but it's a +small chance of seeing it the Sabba." + +The sole tenant of this house now is the widow of a son of Gavin +Hamilton's. Old, blind, and nearly helpless, she lives there alone +with one family servant, nearly as old as herself, but hale, hearty, +and rosy as only an old Scotchwoman can be. This servant opened the +door for us, her cap, calico gown, and white apron all alike bristling +with starch, religion, and pride of family. Her mistress would not +allow the room to be shown on the Sabbath, she said. Imploringly it +was explained to her that no other day had been possible, and that I +had come "all the way from America." + +"Ye did na do weel to tak the Sabbath," was her only reply, as she +turned on her heel to go with the fruitless appeal to her mistress. +Returning, she said curtly,-- + +"She winna shew it on the Sabbath." + +At this crisis my companion, who had kept in the background, stepped +forward with,-- + +"You don't know me, Elspie, do ye?" + +"No, sir," she said stiffly, bracing herself up mentally against any +further heathenish entreaties. + +"What, not know ----?" repeating his name in full. + +Presto! as if changed by a magician's trick, the stiff, starched, +religious, haughty family retainer disappeared, and there stood, in +the same cap, gown, and apron, a limber, rollicking, wellnigh improper +old woman, who poked the grand-nephew in the ribs, clapped him on the +shoulder, chuckling, ejaculating, questioning, wondering, laughing, +all in a breath. Reminiscence on reminiscence followed between them. + +"An' do ye mind Barry, too?" she asked. (This was an old man-servant +of the house.) "An' many's the quirrel, an' many's the gree we had." + +Barry was dead. Dead also was the beautiful girl whom my companion +remembered well,--dead of a broken heart before she was eighteen years +of age. Forbidden to marry her lover, she had drooped and pined. He +went to India and died. It was in a December the news of his death +came, just at Christmas time, and in the next September she followed +him. + +"Ay, but she was a bonnie lass," said Elspie, the tears rolling down +her face. + +"I dare say she [nodding his head toward the house]--I dare say she's +shed many a salt tear over it; but naebody 'ill ever know she +repentit," quoth the grand-nephew. + +"Ay, ay," said Elspie. "There's a wee bit closet in every hoos." + +"'Twas in that room she died," pointing up to a small ivy-shaded +window. "I closed her eyes wi' my hands. She's never spoken of. She +was a bonnie lass." + +The picture of this desolate old woman, sitting there alone in her +house, helpless, blind, waiting for death to come and take her to meet +that daughter whose young heart was broken by her cruel will, seemed +to shadow the very sunshine on the greensward in the court. The broken +arches and crumbling walls of the old stone abbey ruins seemed, in +their ivy mantles, warmly, joyously venerable by contrast with the +silent, ruined, stony old human heart still beating in the house they +joined. + +In spite of my protestations, the grand-nephew urged Elspie to show us +the room. She evidently now longed to do it; but, casting a fearful +glance over her shoulder, said: "I daur na! I daur na! I could na open +the door that she'd na hear 't." And she seemed much relieved when I +made haste to assure her that on no account would I go into the room +without her mistress's permission. So we came away, leaving her gazing +regretfully after us, with her hand shading her eyes from the sun. + +Going back from Mauchline to Ayr, I took another road, farther to the +south than the one leading through Tarbolton, and much more beautiful, +with superb beech-trees meeting overhead, and gentlemen's +country-seats, with great parks, on either hand. + +On this road is Montgomerie Castle, walled in by grand woods, which +Burns knew so well. + + "Ye banks and braes and streams around + The castle o' Montgomery, + Green be your woods and fair your flowers, + Your waters never drumlie! + There simmer first unfauld her robes, + And there the langest tarry, + For there I took the last fareweel + O' my sweet Highland Mary." + +Sitting in the sun, on a bench outside the gate-house, with his little +granddaughter on his lap, was the white-haired gate-keeper. As the +horses' heads turned toward the gate, he arose slowly, without a +change of muscle, and set down the child, who accepted her altered +situation also without a change of muscle in her sober little face. + +"Is it allowed to go in?" asked the driver. + +"Eh--ye'll not be calling at the hoos?" asked the old man, surprised. + +"No, I'm a stranger; but I like to see all the fine places in your +country," I replied. + +"I've no orders," looking at the driver reflectively; "I've no +orders--but--a decent pairson"--looking again scrutinizingly at +me,--"I think there can be no hairm." And he opened the gate. + +Grand trees, rolling tracts of velvety turf, an ugly huge house of +weather-beaten stone, with white pillars in front; conservatories +joining the wings to the centre; no attempt at decorative landscape +art; grass, trees, distances,--these were all; but there were miles of +these. It was at least a mile's drive to the other entrance to the +estate, where the old stone gateway house was in ruin. I fancy that it +was better kept up in the days before an Earl of Eglinstoune sold it +to a plain Mr. Patterson. + +At another fine estate nearer Ayr, where an old woman was gate-keeper, +and also had "no orders" about admitting strangers, the magic word +"America" threw open the gates with a sweep, and bent the old dame's +knees in a courtesy which made her look three times as broad as she +was long. This estate had been "always in the Oswald family, an' is +likely always to be, please God," said the loyal creature, with +another courtesy at the mention, unconsciously devout as that of the +Catholic when he crosses himself. "An' it's a fine country ye've +yersel' in America," she added politely. The Oswald estate has acres +of beautiful curving uplands, all green and smooth and open; a lack of +woods near the house, but great banks of sunshine instead, make a +beauty all their own; and the Ayr Water, running through the grounds, +and bridged gracefully here and there, is a possession to be coveted. +From all points is a clear sight of sea, and headlands north and +south,--Ayr harbor lying like a crescent, now silver, now gold, afloat +between blue sky and green shore, and dusky gray roof-lines of the +town. + +The most precious thing in all the parish of Ayr is the cottage in +which Burns was born. It is about two miles south from the centre of +the town, on the shore of "Bonnie Doon," and near Alloway Kirk. You +cannot go thither from Ayr over any road except the one Tam o' Shanter +took: it has been straightened a little since his day, but many a rod +of it is the same that Maggie trod; and Alloway Kirk is as ghostly a +place now, even at high noon, as can be found "frae Maidenkirk to +Johnny Groat's." There is nothing left of it but the walls and the +gable, in which the ancient bell still hangs, intensifying the silence +by its suggestion of echoes long dead. + +The Burns cottage is now a sort of inn, kept by an Englishman whose +fortunes would make a tale by themselves. He fought at Balaklava and +in our civil war; and side by side on the walls of his dining-room +hang, framed, his two commissions in the Pennsylvania Volunteers and +the menu of the Balaklava Banquet, given in London to the brave +fellows that came home alive after that fight. He does not love the +Scotch people. + +"I would not give the Americans for all the Scotch ever born," he +says, and is disposed to speak with unjust satire of their apparent +love of Burns, which he ascribes to a perception of his recognition by +the rest of the world and a shamefaced desire not to seem to be +behindhand in paying tribute to him. + +"Oh, they let on to think much of him," he said. "It's money in their +pockets." + +The room in which Burns was born is still unaltered, except in having +one more window let in. Originally, it had but one small square window +of four panes. The bed is like the beds in all the old Scotch +cottages, built into the wall, similar to those still seen in Norway. +Stifling enough the air surely must have been in the cupboard bed in +which the "waly boy" was born. + + "The gossip keekit in his loof; + Quo' scho, 'Wha lives will see the proof,-- + This waly boy will be nae coof; + I think we'll ca' him Robin.'" + +Before he was many days old, or, as some traditions have it, on the +very night he was born, a violent storm "tirled" away part of the roof +of the poor little "clay biggin," and mother and babe were forced to +seek shelter in a neighbor's cottage. Misfortune and Robin early +joined company, and never parted. The little bedroom is now the +show-room of the inn, and is filled with tables piled with the +well-known boxes, pincushions, baskets, paper-cutters, etc., made from +sycamore wood grown on the banks of Doon and Ayr. These articles are +all stamped with some pictures of scenery associated with Burns or +with quotations from his verses. It is impossible to see all this +money-making without thinking what a delicious, rollicking bit of +verse Burns would write about it himself if he came back to-day. There +are those who offer for sale articles said to be made out of the old +timbers of the Mossgiel house; but the Balaklava Englishman scouts all +that as the most barefaced imposture. "There wasn't an inch of that +timber," he says,--and he was there when the house was taken +down--"which wasn't worm-eaten and rotten; not enough to make a +knife-handle of!" + +One feels disposed to pass over in silence the "Burns Monument," which +was built in 1820, at a cost of over three thousand pounds; "a +circular temple supported by nine fluted Corinthian columns, +emblematic of the nine muses," say the guide-books. It stands in a +garden overlooking the Doon, and is a painful sight. But in a room in +the base of it are to be seen some relics at which no Burns lover can +look unmoved,--the Bibles he gave to Highland Mary, the ring with +which he wedded Jean (taken off after her death), and two rings +containing some of his hair. + +It is but a few steps from this monument down to a spot on the "banks +o' bonnie Doon," from which is a fine view of the "auld brig." This +shining, silent water, and the overhanging, silent trees, and the +silent bell in the gable of Alloway Kirk, speak more eloquently of +Burns than do all nine of the Corinthian muse-dedicated pillars in his +monument. + +So do the twa brigs of Ayr, which still stand at the foot of High +Street, silently recriminating each other as of old. + + "I doubt na, frien', ye'll think ye'r nae sheep-shank + When ye are streekit o'er frae bank to bank," + +sneers the Auld; and + + "Will your poor, narrow foot-path of a street, + Where twa wheelbarrows tremble when they meet, + Your ruined, formless bulk o' stane and lime, + Compare wi' bonny brigs o' modern time?" + +retorts the New; and "the sprites that owre the brigs of Ayr preside" +never interrupt the quarrel. Spite of all its boasting, however, the +new bridge cracked badly two years ago, and had to be taken down and +entirely rebuilt. + +The dingy little inn where + + "Tam was glorious, + O'er a' the ills o' life victorious," + +is still called by his name, and still preserves, as its chief claims +to distinction, the big wooden mug out of which Tam drank, and the +chair in which he so many market-nights + + "Gat planted unco richt." + +The chair is of oak, wellnigh black as ebony, and furrowed thick with +names cut upon it. The smart young landlady who now keeps the house +commented severely on this desecration of it, and said that for some +years the house had been "keepit" by a widow, who was "in no sense up +to the beesiness," and "a' people did as they pleased in the hoos in +her day." The mug has a metal rim and base; but spite of these it has +needed to be clasped together again by three ribs of cane, riveted on. +"Money couldn't buy it," the landlady said. It belongs to the house, +is mentioned always in the terms of lease, and the house has changed +hands but four times since Tam's day. + +In a tiny stone cottage in the southern suburbs of Ayr, live two +nieces of Burns, daughters of his youngest sister, Isabella. They are +vivacious still, and eagerly alive to all that goes on in the world, +though they must be well on in the seventies. The day I called they +had "just received a newspaper from America," they said. "Perhaps I +knew it. It was called 'The Democrat.'" As I was not able to identify +it by that description, the younger sister made haste to fetch it. It +proved to be a paper printed in Madison, Iowa. The old ladies were +much interested in the approaching American election, had read all +they could find about General Garfield, and were much impressed by the +wise reticence of General Grant. "He must be a vary cautious man; +disna say enough to please people," they said, with sagacious nods of +approbation. They remembered Burns's wife very well, had visited her +when she was living, a widow, at Dumfries, and told with glee a story +which they said she herself used to narrate, with great relish, of a +pedler lad who, often coming to the house with wares to sell in the +kitchen, finally expressed to the servant his deep desire to see Mrs. +Burns. She accordingly told him to wait, and her mistress would, no +doubt, before long come into the room. Mrs. Burns came in, stood for +some moments talking with the lad, bought some trifle of him, and went +away. Still he sat waiting. At last the servant asked why he did not +go. He replied that she had promised he should see Mrs. Burns. + +"But ye have seen her; that was she," said the servant. + +"Eh, eh?" said the lad. "Na! never tell me now that was 'bonnie +Jean'!" + +Burns's mother, too (their grandmother), they recollected well, and +had often heard her tell of the time when the family lived at Lochlea, +and Robert, spending his evenings at the Tarbolton merry-makings with +the Bachelors' Club or the Masons, used to come home late in the +night, and she used to sit up to let him in. These doings sorely +displeased the father; and at last he said grimly, one night, that he +would sit up to open the door for Robert. Trembling with fear, the +mother went to bed, and did not close her eyes, listening +apprehensively for the angry meeting between father and son. She heard +the door open, the old man's stern tone, Robert's gay reply; and in a +twinkling more the two were sitting together over the fire, the father +splitting his sides with half-unwilling laughter at the boy's +inimitable descriptions and mimicry of the scenes he had left. Nearly +two hours they sat there in this way, the mother all the while +cramming the bed-clothes into her mouth, lest her own laughter should +remind her husband how poorly he was carrying out his threats. After +that night "Rob" came home at what hour he pleased, and there was +nothing more heard of his father's sitting up to reprove him. + +They believed that Burns's intemperate habits had been greatly +exaggerated. Their mother was a woman twenty-five years old, and the +mother of three children when he died, and she had never once seen him +the "waur for liquor." "There were vary mony idle people i' the warld, +an' a great deal o' talk," they said. After his father's death he +assumed the position of the head of the house, and led in family +prayers each morning; and everybody said, even the servants, that +there were never such beautiful prayers heard. He was a generous soul. +After he left home he never came back for a visit, however poor he +might be, without bringing a present for every member of the family; +always a pound of tea for his mother, "and tea was tea then," the old +ladies added. To their mother he gave a copy of Thomson's "Seasons," +which they still have. They have also some letters of his, two of +which I read with great interest. They were to his brother, and were +full of good advice. In one he says:-- + + "I intended to have given you a sheetful of counsels, but some + business has prevented me. In a word, learn taciturnity. Let + that be your motto. Though you had the wisdom of Newton or the + wit of Swift, garrulousness would lower you in the eyes of your + fellow-creatures." + +In the other, after alluding to some village tragedy, in which great +suffering had fallen on a woman, he says,-- + + "Women have a kind of steady sufferance which qualifies them to + endure much beyond the common run of men; but perhaps part of + that fortitude is owing to their short-sightedness, as they are + by no means famous for seeing remote consequences in their real + importance." + +The old ladies said that their mother had liked "Jean" on the whole, +though "at first not so weel, on account of the connection being what +it was." She was kindly, cheery, "never bonny;" but had a good figure, +danced well and sang well, and worshipped her husband. She was "not +intellectual;" "but there's some say a poet shouldn't have an +intellectual wife," one of the ingenuous old spinsters remarked +interrogatively. "At any rate, she suited him; an' it was ill speering +at her after all that was said and done," the younger niece added, +with real feeling in her tone. Well might she say so. If there be a +touching picture in all the long list of faithful and ill-used women, +it is that of "bonnie Jean,"--the unwedded mother of children, the +forgiving wife of a husband who betrayed others as he had betrayed +her,--when she took into her arms and nursed and cared for her +husband's child, born of an outcast woman, and bravely answered all +curious questioners with, "It's a neebor's bairn I'm bringin' up." She +wrought for herself a place and an esteem of which her honest and +loving humility little dreamed. + +There is always something sad in seeking out the spot where a great +man has died. It is like living over the days of his death and burial. +The more sympathetically we have felt the spell of the scenes in which +he lived his life, the more vitalized and vitalizing that life was, +the more are we chilled and depressed in the presence of places on +which his wearied and suffering gaze rested last. As I drove through +the dingy, confused, and ugly streets of Dumfries, my chief thought +was, "How Burns must have hated this place!" Looking back on it now, I +have a half-regret that I ever saw it, that I can recall vividly the +ghastly graveyard of Saint Michael's, with its twenty-six thousand +gravestones and monuments, crowded closer than they would be in a +marble-yard, ranged in rows against the walls without any pretence of +association with the dust they affect to commemorate. What a ballad +Burns might have written about such a show! And what would it not have +been given to him to say of the "Genius of Coila, finding her favorite +son at the plough, and casting her mantle over him,"--that is, the +sculptured monument, or, as the sexton called it, "Máwsolem," under +which he has had the misfortune to be buried. A great Malvern +bathwoman, bringing a bathing-sheet to an unwilling patient, might +have been the model for the thing. It is hideous beyond description, +and in a refinement of ingenuity has been made uglier still by having +the spaces between the pillars filled in with glass. The severe Scotch +weather, it seems, was discoloring the marble. It is a pity that the +zealous guardians of its beauty did not hold it precious enough to be +boarded up altogether. + +The house in which Burns spent the first eighteen months of his dreary +life in Dumfries is now a common tenement-house at the lower end of a +poor and narrow street. As I was reading the tablet let into the wall, +bearing his name, a carpenter went by, carrying his box of tools slung +on his shoulder. + +"He only had three rooms there," said the man, "those three up there," +pointing to the windows; "two rooms and a little kitchen at the back." + +The house which is usually shown to strangers as his is now the home +of the master of the industrial school, and is a comfortable little +building joining the school. Here Burns lived for three years; and +here, in a small chamber not more than twelve by fifteen feet in size, +he died on the 21st of July, 1796, sadly harassed in his last moments +by anxiety about money matters and about the approaching illness of +his faithful Jean. + +Opening from this room is a tiny closet, lighted by one window. + +"They say he used to make up his poetry in here," said the +servant-girl; "but I dare say it is only a supposeetion; still, it 'ud +be a quiet place." + +"They say there was a great lot o' papers up here when he died," she +added, throwing open the narrow door of a ladder-like stairway that +led up into the garret, "writin's that had been sent to him from all +over the world, but nobody knew what become of them. Now that he's so +much thought aboot, I wonder his widow did not keep them. But, ye +know, the poor thing was just comin' to be ill; that was the last +thing he wrote when he knew he was dyin', for some one to come and +stay with her; and I dare say she was in such a sewither she did not +know about anything." + +The old stone stairs were winding and narrow,--painted now, and neatly +carpeted, but worn into depressions here and there by the plodding of +feet. Nothing in the house, above or below, spoke to me of Burns so +much as did they. I stood silent and rapt on the landing, and saw him +coming wearily up, that last time; after which he went no more out +forever, till he was borne in the arms of men, and laid away in Saint +Michael's graveyard to rest. + +That night, at my lonely dinner in the King's Arms, I had the +Edinburgh papers. There were in them three editorials headed with +quotations from Burns's poems, and an account of the sale in +Edinburgh, that week, of an autograph letter of his for ninety-four +pounds! + +Does he think sadly, even in heaven, how differently he might have +done by himself and by earth, if earth had done for him then a tithe +of what it does now? Does he know it? Does he care? And does he listen +when, in lands he never saw, great poets sing of him in words simple +and melodious as his own? + + "For now he haunts his native land + As an immortal youth: his hand + Guides every plough; + He sits beside each ingle-nook, + His voice is in each rushing brook, + Each rustling bough. + + "His presence haunts this room to-night, + A form of mingled mist and light + From that far coast. + Welcome beneath this roof of mine! + Welcome! this vacant chair is thine, + Dear guest and ghost!"[8] + + + +GLINTS IN AULD REEKIE. + +As soon as one comes to know Edinburgh, he feels a gratitude to that +old gentleman of Fife who is said to have invented the affectionate +phrase "Auld Reekie." Perhaps there never was any such old gentleman; +and perhaps he never did, as the legend narrates, regulate the hours +of his family prayers, on summer evenings, by the thickening smoke +which he could see rising from Edinburgh chimneys, when the cooking of +suppers began. + +"It's time now, bairns, to tak the beuks an' gang to our beds; for +yonder's Auld Reekie, I see, putting on her nichtcap," are the words +which the harmless little tradition puts into his mouth. They are +wisely dated back to the reign of Charles II., a time from which none +now speak to contradict; and they serve as well as any others to +introduce and emphasize the epithet which, once heard, is not +forgotten by a lover of Edinburgh, remaining always in his memory, +like a pet name of one familiarly known. + +It is not much the fashion of travellers to become attached to +Edinburgh. Rome for antiquity, London for study and stir, Florence for +art, Venice for art and enchantment combined,--all these have pilgrims +who become worshippers, and return again and again to them, as the +devout return to shrines. But few return thus to Edinburgh. It +continually happens that people planning routes of travel are heard to +say, "I have seen Edinburgh," pronouncing the word "seen" with a +stress indicating a finality of completion. Nobody ever uses a phrase +in that way about Rome or Venice. It is always, "We have been in," +"spent a winter in," "a summer in," or "a month in" Rome, or Venice, +or any of the rest; and the very tone and turn of the phrase tell the +desire or purpose of another winter, or summer, or month in the +remembered and longed-for place. + +But Edinburgh has no splendors with which to woo and attract. She is +"a penniless lass;" "wi' a lang pedigree," however,--as long and as +splendid as the best, reaching back to King Arthur at least, and some +say a thousand years farther, and assert that the rock on which her +castle stands was a stronghold when Rome was a village. At any rate, +there was a fortress there long before Edinburgh was a town, and that +takes it back midway between the five hundredth and six hundredth year +of our Lord. From that century down to this it was the centre of as +glorious and terrible fighting and suffering as the world has ever +seen. Kingly besieged and besiegers, prisoners, martyrs, men and women +alike heroic, their presences throng each doorway still; and the very +stones at a touch seem set ringing again with the echoes of their +triumphs and their agonies. + +To me, the castle is Edinburgh. Looking from the sunny south windows +of Prince's Street across at its hoary front is like a wizard's +miracle, by which dead centuries are rolled back, compressed into +minutes. At the foot of its north precipices, where lay the lake in +which, in the seventeenth century, royal swans floated and plebeian +courtesans were ducked, now stretches a gay gardened meadow, through +which flash daily railway trains. Their columns of blue smoke scale +the rocks, coil after coil, but never reach the citadel summit, being +tangled, spent, and lost in the tops of trees, which in their turn +seem also to be green-plumed besiegers, ever climbing, climbing. For +five days I looked out on this picture etched against a summer sky: in +black, by night; in the morning, of soft sepia tints, or gray,--tower, +battlement, wall, and roof, all in sky lines; below these the wild +crags and precipices, a mosaic of grays, two hundred feet down, to a +bright greensward dotted with white daisies. Set steadily to the +sunrise, by a west wind which never stopped blowing for the whole five +days, streamed out the flag. To have read on its folds, +"Castelh-Mynyd-Agned," or "Castrum Puellarum," would not have seemed +at any hour a surprise. There is nowhere a relic of antiquity which so +dominates its whole environment as does this rock fortress. Its +actuality is sovereign; its personality majestic. The thousands of +modern people thronging up and down Prince's Street seem perpetrating +an impertinent anachronism. The times are the castle's times still; +all this nineteenth-century haberdashery and chatter is an +inexplicable and insolent freak of interruption. Sitting at one's +Prince's Street windows, one sees it not; overlooks it as meaningless +and of no consequence. Instead, he sees the constable's son, in +Bruce's day, coming down that two hundred feet of precipice, hand over +hand, on a bit of rope ladder, to visit the "wench in town" with whom +he was in love; and anon turning this love-lore of his to patriotic +account, by leading Earl Douglas, with his thirty picked Scots, up the +same precipices, in the same perilous fashion, to surprise the English +garrison, which they did to such good purpose that in a few hours they +retook the castle, the only one then left which Bruce had not +recovered. Or, when morning and evening mists rise slowly up from the +meadow, veil the hill, and float off in hazy wreaths from its summit, +he fancies fagots and tar-barrels ablaze on the esplanade, and the +beauteous Lady Glammis, with her white arms crossed on her breast, +burning to death there, with eyes fixed on the windows of her +husband's prison. Scores of other women with "fayre bodies" were +burned alive there; men, too, their lovers and sons,--all for a crime +of which no human soul ever was or could be guilty. Poor, blinded, +superstitious earth, which heard and saw and permitted such things! +Even to-day, when the ground is dug up on that accursed esplanade, +there are found the ashes of these martyrs to the witchcraft madness. + +That grand old master-gunner, too, of Cromwell's first +following,--each sunset gun from the castle seemed to me in honor of +his memory, and recalled his name. "May the devil blaw me into the +air, if I lowse a cannon this day!" said he, when Charles's men bade +him fire a salute in honor of the Restoration. Every other one of +Cromwell's men in the garrison had turned false, and done ready +service to the king's officers; but not so Browne. It was only by main +force that he was dragged to his gun, and forced to fire it. Whether +the gun were old, and its time had come to burst, or whether the +splendid old Puritan slyly overweighed his charge, it is open to each +man's preference to believe; but burst the gun did, and, taking the +hero at his word, "shuites his bellie from him, and blew him quyte +over the castle wall," says the old record. I make no doubt myself +that it was just what the master-gunner intended. + +Thirty years later there were many gunners in Edinburgh Castle as +brave as he, or braver,--men who stood by their guns month after +month, starving by inches and freezing; the snow lying knee-deep on +the shattered bastions; every roof shelter blown to fragments; no +fuel; their last well so low that the water was putrid; raw salt +herrings the only food for the men, and for the officers oatmeal, +stirred in the putrid water. This was the Duke of Gordon's doing, when +he vowed to hold Edinburgh Castle for King James, if every other +fortress in Scotland went over to William. When his last hope failed, +and he gave his men permission to abandon the castle and go out to the +enemy, if they chose, not a man would go. "Three cheers for his +grace," they raised, with their poor starved voices, and swore they +would stay as long as he did. From December to June they held out, and +then surrendered, a handful of fifty ghastly, emaciated, tottering +men. Pity they could not have known how much grander than victories +such defeats as theirs would read by and by! + +Hard by the castle was the duke's house, in Blair's Close; in this he +was shut up prisoner, under strict guard. The steps up which he walked +that day, for the first time in his life without his sword, are still +there; his coronet, with a deer-hound on either side, in dingy stone +carving, above the low door. It is one of the doorways worth haunting, +in Edinburgh. Generations of Dukes of Gordon have trodden its +threshold, from the swordless hero of 1689 down to the young lover +who, in George the Third's day, went courting his duchess, over in +Hyndford's Close, at the bottom of High Street. She was a famous +beauty, daughter of Lady Maxwell; and thanks to one gossip and +another, we know a good deal about her bringing-up. There was still +living in Edinburgh, sixty years ago, an aged and courtly gentleman, +who recollected well having seen her riding a sow in High Street; her +sister running behind and thumping the beast with a stick. Duchesses +are not made of such stuff in these days. It almost passes belief what +one reads in old records of the ways and manners of Scottish nobility +in the first half of the eighteenth century. These Maxwells' fine +laces were always drying in the narrow passage from their front stair +to their drawing-room; and their undergear hanging out on a pole from +an upper window in full sight of passers-by, as is still the custom +with the poverty-stricken people who live in Hyndford's Close. + +On the same stair with the Maxwells lived the Countess Anne of +Balcarres, mother of eleven children, the eldest of whom wrote "Auld +Robin Gray." She was poor and proud, and a fierce Jacobite to the +last. To be asked to drink tea in Countess Anne's bedchamber was great +honor. The room was so small that the man-servant, John, gorgeous in +the Balcarres livery, had to stand snugged up to the bedpost. Here, +with one arm around the post, he stood like a statue, ready to hand +the teakettle as it was needed. When the noble ladies differed about a +date or a point of genealogy, John was appealed to, and often so far +forgot his manners as to swear at the mention of assumers and +pretenders to baronetcies. + +There is an endless fascination in going from house to house, in their +old wynds and closes, now. A price has to be paid for it,--bad smells, +filth underfoot, and, very likely, volleys of ribald abuse from +gin-loosened tongues right and left and high up overhead; but all this +only emphasizes the picture, and makes one's mental processions of +earls and countesses all the livelier and more vivid. + +Some of these wynds are so narrow and dark that one hesitates about +plunging into them. They seem little more than rifts between dungeons: +seven, eight, and nine stories high, the black walls stretch up. If +there is a tiny courtyard, it is like the bottom of a foul well; and +looking to the hand's-breadth of sky visible above, it seems so far up +and so dark blue, one half expects to see its stars glimmering at +noonday. A single narrow winding stone stair is the only means of +going up and down; and each floor being swarming full of wretched +human beings, each room a tenement house in itself, of course this +common stairway becomes a highway of contentions, the very +battle-ground of the house. Progress up or down can be stopped at a +second's notice; a single pair of elbows is a blockade. How sedan +chairs were managed in these corkscrew crevices is a puzzle; yet we +read that the ladies of quality went always in sedan chairs to balls +and assemblies. + +In the Stamp Office Close, now the refuge of soot-venders, old-clothes +dealers, and hucksters of lowest degree, tramps, beggars, and skulkers +of all sorts, still is locked tight every night a big carved door, at +foot of the stair down which used to come stately Lady Eglintoune, the +third, with her seven daughters, in fine array. It was one of the +sights of the town to see the procession of their eight sedan chairs +on the way to a dance. The countess herself was six feet tall, and her +daughters not much below her; all strikingly handsome, and of such +fine bearing that it went into the traditions of the century as the +"Eglintoune air." There also went into the traditions of the century +some details of the earl's wooing, which might better have been kept a +secret between him and his father-in-law. The second Lady Eglintoune +was ailing, and like to die, when Sir Archibald Kennedy arrived in +Edinburgh, with his stalwart but beautiful daughter Susanna. She was +much sought immediately; and Sir Archibald, in his perplexity among +the many suitors, one day consulted his old friend Eglintoune. "Bide a +wee, Sir Archy," replied the earl,--"bide a wee; my wife's very +sickly." And so, by waiting, the fair Susanna became Countess of +Eglintoune. It would seem as if Nature had some intent to punish the +earl's impatient faithlessness to his sickly wife; for, year after +year, seven years running, came a daughter, and no son, to the house +of Eglintoune. At last the earl, with a readiness to ignore marital +obligations at which his third countess need not have been surprised, +bluntly threatened to divorce her if she bore him no heir. Promptly +the spirited Susanna replied that nothing would please her better, +provided he would give her back all she brought him. "Every penny of +it, and welcome!" retorted the earl, supposing she referred to her +fortune. "Na, na, my lord," replied the lady, "that winna do. Return +me my youth, beauty, and virginity, and dismiss me when you please;" +upon which the matter dropped. In the end, the earl fared better than +he deserved, three sons being given him within the next five years. + +For half a century Lady Eglintoune was a prominent figure in Scottish +social life. Her comings and goings and doings were all chronicled, +and handed down. It is even told that when Johnson and Boswell visited +her at her country-place, she was so delighted with Johnson's +conversation that she kissed him on parting,--from which we can argue +her ladyship's liking for long words. She lived to be ninety-one, and +amused herself in her last days by taming rats, of which she had a +dozen or more in such subjection that at a tap on the oak wainscoting +of her dining-room they came forth, joined her at her meal, and at a +word of command retired again into the wainscot. + +When twenty-first-century travellers go speiring among the dingy ruins +of cities which are gay and fine now, they will not find relics and +traces of such individualities as these. The eighteenth century left a +most entertaining budget, which we of to-day are too busy and too well +educated to equal. No chiel among us all has the time to take gossip +notes of this century; and even if he did, they would be dull enough +in comparison with those of the last. + +Groping and rummaging in Hyndford's Close, one day, for recognizable +traces of Lady Maxwell's house, we had the good fortune to encounter a +thrifty housewife, of the better class, living there. She was coming +home, with her market-basket on her arm. Seeing our eager scenting of +the old carvings on lintels and sills, and overhearing our mention of +the name of the Duchess of Gordon, she made bold to address us. + +"It waur a strange place for the nobeelity to be livin' in, to be +sure," she said. "I'm livin' mysil in ane o' the best of 'im, an' it's +na mair space to 't than ud turn a cat. Ye're welcome to walk up, if +ye like to see what their dwellin's waur like in the auld time. It's a +self-contained stair ye see," she added with pride, as she marshalled +us up a twisting stone stairway, so narrow that even one person, going +alone, must go cautiously to avoid grazing elbows and shins on the +stone walls, at every turn. "I couldna abide the place but for the +self-contained stair: there's not many has them," she continued. "Mind +yer heads! mind yer heads! There's a stoop!" she cried; but it was too +late. We had reached, unwarned, a point in the winding stair where it +was necessary to go bent half double; only a little child could have +stood upright. With heads dizzy from the blow and eyes half blinded +by the sudden darkness, we stumbled on, and brought out in a +passage-way, perhaps three feet wide and ten long, from which opened +four rooms: one the kitchen, a totally dark closet, not over six feet +square; a tiny grate, a chair, table, and a bunk in the wall, where +the servant slept, were all its furniture. The woman lighted a candle +to show us how convenient was this bunk for the maid "to lie." +Standing in the middle of the narrow passage, one could reach his head +into kitchen, parlor, and both bedrooms without changing his position. +The four rooms together would hardly have made one good-sized chamber. +Nothing but its exquisite neatness and order saved the place from +being insupportable! Even those would not save it when herring suppers +should be broiling in the closet surnamed kitchen. Up a still smaller, +narrower crevice in the wall led a second "self-contained stair," dark +as midnight, and so low roofed there was no standing upright in it, +even at the beginning. This led to what the landlady called the +"lodgers' flairt." We had not courage to venture up, though she was +exceedingly anxious to show us her seven good bedrooms, three double +and four single, which were nightly filled with lodgers, at a shilling +a night. + +Only the "verra rayspectable," she said, came to lodge with her. Her +husband was "verra pairticular." Trades-people from the country were +the chief of their customers, "an' the same a-comin' for seven year, +noo." No doubt she has as lively a pride, and gets as many +satisfactions between these narrow walls, as did the lords and ladies +of 1700. Evidently not the least of her satisfactions was the fact +that those lords and ladies had lived there before her. + +Nowhere are Auld Reekie's antitheses of new and old more emphasized +than in the Cowgate. In 1530 it was an elegant suburb. The city walls +even then extended to enclose it, and it was eloquently described, in +an old divine's writings, as the place "ubi nihil est humile aut +rusticum, sed omnia magnifica." + +In one of its grassy lanes the Earl of Galloway built a mansion. His +countess often went to pay visits to her neighbors, in great state, +driving six horses; and it not infrequently happened that when her +ladyship stepped into her coach, the leaders were standing opposite +the door at which she intended to alight. + +Here dwelt, in 1617, the famous "Tam o' the Cowgate," Earl of +Haddington, boon companion of King James, who came often to dine with +him, and gave him the familiar nickname of Tam. Tam was so rich he was +vulgarly believed to have the philosopher's stone; but he himself once +gave a more probable explanation of his wealth, saying that his only +secret lay in two rules,--"never to put off till to-morrow that which +could be done to-day," and "never to trust to another what his own +hand could execute." + +To-day there is not in all the world, outside the Jewish Ghetto of +Rome, so loathly wretched a street as this same Cowgate. Even at high +noon it is not always safe to walk through it; and there are many of +its wynds into which no man would go without protection of the police. +Simply to drive through it is harrowing. The place is indescribable. +It seems a perpetual and insatiable carnival of vice and misery. The +misery alone would be terrible enough to see; but the leering, +juggling, insolent vice added makes it indeed hellish. Every +curbstone, door-sill, alley mouth, window, swarms with faces out of +which has gone every trace of self-respect or decency; babies' faces +as bad as the worst, and the most aged faces worst of all. To pause on +the sidewalk is to be surrounded, in a moment, by a dangerous crowd of +half-naked boys and girls, whining, begging, elbowing, cursing, and +fighting. Giving of an alms is like pouring oil on a fire. The whole +gang is ablaze with envy and attack: the fierce and unscrupulous +pillage of the seventeenth century is re-enacted in miniature in the +Cowgate every day, when an injudicious stranger, passing through, +throws a handful of pennies to the beggars. The general look of +hopeless degradation in the spot is heightened by the great number of +old-clothes shops along the whole line of the street. In the days when +the Cowgate was an elegant suburb, the citizens were permitted by law +to extend their upper stories seven feet into the street, provided +they would build them of wood cut in the Borough Forest, a forest that +harbored robbers dangerous to the town. These projecting upper stories +are invaluable now to the old-clothes venders, who hang from them +their hideous wares, in double and treble lines, fluttering over the +heads and in the faces of passers-by; the wood of the Borough Forest +thus, by a strange irony of fate, still continuing to harbor dangers +to public welfare. If these close-packed tiers of dangling rags in the +Cowgate were run out in a straight single line, they would be miles +long; a sad beggars' arras to behold. The preponderance of tattered +finery in it adds to its melancholy: shreds of damask; dirty lace; +theatrical costumes; artificial flowers so crumpled, broken, and +soiled that they would seem to have been trodden in gutters,--there +was an indefinable horror in the thought that there could be even in +the Cowgate a woman creature who could think herself adorned by such +mockeries of blossoms. But I saw more than one poor soul look at them +with longing eyes, finger them, haggle at the price, and walk away +disappointed that she could not buy. + +The quaint mottoes here and there in the grimy walls, built in when +the Cowgate people were not only comfortable but pious, must serve +often now to point bitter jests among the ungodly. On one wretched, +reeking tenement is: "Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt +his name together. 1643." On another, "All my trist is in ye Lord." + +A token I saw in the Cowgate of one life there not without hope and +the capacity of enjoyment. It was in a small window, nine stories up +from the ground, in a wynd so close that hands might be clasped from +house to house across it. It was a tiny thing, but my eye fell on it +with as much relief as on a rift of blue sky in a storm: it was a +little green fern growing in a pot. Outside the window it stood, on a +perilously narrow ledge. As I watched it I grew frightened, lest the +wind should blow it down, or a vicious neighbor stone it off. It +seemed the brave signal flying of a forlorn hope, of a dauntless, +besieged soul that would never surrender; and I shall recollect it +long after every other picture of the Cowgate scenes has grown dim. + +The more respectable of the pawnbrokers' or second-hand-goods shops in +Edinburgh are interesting places to rummage. If there were no other +record of the slow decay and dwindling fortunes of the noble Scottish +folk, it could be read in the great number of small dealers in relics +of the olden time. + +Old buckles and brooches and clan badges; chains, lockets, seals, +rings; faded miniatures, on ivory or in mosaics, of women as far back +as Mary's time, loved then as well as was ever Mary herself, but +forgotten now as if they had never been; swords rusty, bent, battered, +and stained; spoons with forgotten crests; punch-ladles worn smooth +with the merry-makings of generations,--all these one may find in +scores of little one-roomed shops, kept perhaps by aged dames with the +very aroma of the antique Puritanism lingering about them still. + +In such a room as this I found a Scotch pebble brooch with a quaint +silver setting, reverently and cautiously locked in a glass case. On +the back of it had been scratched, apparently with a pin, "Margret +Fleming, from her brother." I bore it away with me triumphantly, sure +that it had belonged to an ancestor of Pet Marjorie. + +Almost as full of old-time atmosphere as the pawnbrokers' shops are +the antiquarian bookstores. Here one may possess himself, if he likes, +of well-thumbed volumes with heraldic crests on titlepages, dating +back to the earliest reading done by noble earls and baronets in +Scotland; even to the time when not to know how to read was no +indelible disgrace. In one of these shops, on the day I bought Margret +Fleming's brooch, I found an old torn copy of "Pet Marjorie." Speaking +of Dr. Brown and Rab to the bookseller,--himself almost a relic of +antiquity,--I was astonished and greatly amused to hear him reply: +"It's a' a feection.... He can't write without it.... I knoo that +darg.... A verra neece darg he was, but--a--a--a"--with a shake of the +head--"it's a verra neece story, verra neece.... He wrote it up, up; +not but that Rab was a verra neece darg. I knoo the darg wull." + +Not a word of more definite disclaimer or contradiction could I win +from the canny old Scot. But to have hastily called the whole story a +lee, from beginning to end, would hardly have shaken one's confidence +in it so much as did the thoughtful deliberation of his "He was a +verra neece darg. I knoo the darg wull." + +One of our "cawdies," during our stay in Edinburgh, was a remarkable +fellow. After being for twenty years a gentleman's servant, he had +turned his back on aristocracy, and betaken himself to the streets +for a living; driving cabs, or piloting strangers around the city, as +might be. But his earlier habits of good behavior were strong in him +still, and came to the surface quickly in associations which revived +them. His conversation reminded us forcibly of somebody's excellent +saying that Scotland would always be Scott-land. Not a line of Scott's +novels which this vagabond cawdie did not seemingly know by heart. +Scottish history, too, he had at his tongue's end, and its most +familiar episodes sounded new and entertaining as he phrased them. +Even the death of Queen Mary seemed freshly stated, as he put it, +when, after summing up the cruelties she had experienced at the hands +of Elizabeth, he wound up with, "And finally she beheaded her, and +that was the last of her,"--a succinctness of close which some of +Mary's historians would have done well to simulate. + +Of Jeanie Deans and Dumbiedikes he spoke as of old acquaintances. He +pointed out a spot in the misty blue distance where was Dumbiedikes' +house, where Jeanie's sweetheart dwelt, and where the road lay on +which Jeanie went to London. + +"It was there the old road to London lay; and wouldn't you think it +more natural, sir, that it was that way she went, and it was there she +met Dumbiedikes, and he gave her the purse? I'll always maintain, sir, +that it was there she got it." + +Of the two women, Jeanie Deans and Mary Queen of Scots, Jeanie was +evidently the vivider and more real in his thoughts. + +The second day of our stay in Edinburgh was a gay day in the castle. +The 71st Highlanders had just returned from a twelvemonth's stay at +Gibraltar. It was people's day. Everywhere the bronzed, tired, +happy-looking fellows, in their smartened uniforms, were to be +encountered, strolling, lounging, sitting with sweethearts or +wives,--more of the former than the latter. It struck me also that the +women were less good-looking than the men; but they were all +beautified by happiness, and the merry sounds of their laughter, and +the rumble of skittles playing filled all the place. Inside the +castle, the room in which the regalia were on exhibition was thronged +with country people, gazing reverently on its splendors. + +"Keep yer eye on't, as ye walk by, an' mark the changes o' 't," I +heard one old lady say to her husband, whose wandering gaze seemed to +her neglectful of the opportunity. + +A few gay-dressed women, escorted by officers, held themselves apart +from the soldiers' sweethearting, and were disposed, I thought, to +look a little scornfully on it. The soldiers did not seem to mind the +affront, if they saw it; no doubt, they thought their own sweethearts +far the better looking, and if they had ever heard of it would have +quoted with hearty good-will the old ballad,-- + + "The lassies o' the Cannongate, + Oh, they are wondrous nice: + They winna gie a single kiss, + But for a double price. + + "Gar hang them, gar hang them, + Hie upon a tree; + For we'll get better up the gate, + For a bawbee!" + +Most picturesque of all the figures to be seen in Edinburgh are the +Newhaven fishwives. With short, full blue cloth petticoats, reaching +barely to their ankles; white blouses and gay kerchiefs; big, +long-sleeved cloaks of the same blue cloth, fastened at the throat, +but flying loose, sleeves and all, as if thrown on in haste; the girls +bareheaded; the married women with white caps, standing up stiff and +straight in a point on the top of the head; two big wickerwork creels, +one above the other, full of fish, packed securely, on their broad +shoulders, and held in place by a stout leather strap passing round +their foreheads, they pull along at a steady, striding gait, up hill +and down, carrying weights that it taxes a man's strength merely to +lift. In fact, it is a fishwife's boast that she will run with a +weight which it takes two men to put on her back. By reason of this +great strength on the part of the women, and their immemorial habit of +exercising it; perhaps also from other causes far back in the early +days of Jutland, where these curious Newhaven fishing-folk are said to +have originated,--it has come about that the Newhaven men are a +singularly docile and submissive race. The wives keep all the money +which they receive for the fish, and the husbands take what is given +them,--a singular reversion of the situation in most communities. I +did not believe this when it was told me; so I stopped three fishwives +one day, and without mincing matters put the question direct to them. +Two of them were young, one old. The young women laughed saucily, and +the old woman smiled; but they all replied unhesitatingly, that they +had the spending of all the money. + +"It's a' spent i' the hoos," said one, anxious not to be thought too +selfish,--"it's a' spent i' the hoos. The men, they cam home an' tak +their sleep, an' then they'll be aff agen." + +"It 'ud never do for the husbands to stoop in tha city, an' be +spendin' a' the money," added the old woman, with severe emphasis. + +I learned afterward that on the present system of buying and selling +the fish, the fishermen do receive from their labor an income +independent of their wives. They are the first sellers of the +fish,--selling them in quantity to the wholesale dealers, who sell in +turn at auction to the "retail trade," represented by the wives. This +seems an unjust system, and is much resented by both husbands and +wives; but it has been established by law, and there is no help for +it. It came in with the introduction of the steam trawlers. "They're +the deestrooction o' the place," said one of the fish women. "A mon +canna go oot wi' his lines an' mak a livin' noo. They just drag +everything; they tak a' the broods; they're dooin' a worrld o' harrm. +There's somethin' a dooin' aboot it in the House o' Commons, noo, but +a canna till hoo it wull go. They ull be the deestrooction o' this +place, if they're na pit stop to." And she shook her fist vindictively +at a puffing trawler which had just pushed away from the wharf. + +Whoever would see the Newhaven fishwives at their best must be on the +Newhaven wharf by seven o'clock in the morning, on a day when the +trawlers come in and the fish is sold. The scene is a study for a +painter. + +The fish are in long, narrow boxes, on the wharf, ranged at the base +of the sea wall; some sorted out, in piles, each kind by itself: +skates, with their long tails, which look vicious, as if they could +kick; hake, witches, brill, sole, flounders, huge catfish, crayfish, +and herrings, by the ton. The wall is crowded with men, Edinburgh +fishmongers, come to buy cheap on the spot. The wall is not over two +feet wide; and here they stand, lean over, jostle, slip by to right +and left of each other, and run up and down in their eager haste to +catch the eye of one auctioneer, or to get first speech with another. +The wharf is crowded with women,--an army in blue, two hundred, three +hundred, at a time; white caps bobbing, elbows thrusting, shrill +voices crying, fiery blue eyes shining, it is a sight worth going to +Scotland for. If one has had an affection for Christie Johnstone, it +is a delightful return of his old admiration for her. A dozen faces +which might be Christie's own are flashing up from the crowd; one +understands on the instant how that best of good stories came to be +written. A man with eyes in his head and a pen in his hand could not +have done less. Such fire, such honesty, such splendor of vitality, +kindle the women's faces. To spend a few days among them would be to +see Christie Johnstone dramatized on all sides. + +On the morning when I drove out from Edinburgh to see this scene, a +Scotch mist was simmering down,--so warm that at first it seemed of no +consequence whatever, so cold that all of a sudden one found himself +pierced through and through with icy shivers. This is the universal +quality of a Scotch mist or drizzle. + +The Newhaven wharf is a narrow pier running out to sea. On one side +lay the steam trawlers, which had just unloaded their freight; on the +other side, on the narrow, rampart-like wall of stone, swarmed the +fishmonger men. In this line I took my place, and the chances of the +scramble. Immediately the jolly fishwives caught sight of me, and +began to nod and smile. They knew very well I was there to "speir" at +them. + +"Ye'll tak cauld!" cried one motherly old soul, with her white hair +blowing wildly about almost enough to lift the cap off her head. "Com +doon! Ye'll tak cauld." + +I smiled, and pointed to my water-proof cloak, down which, it must be +admitted, the "mist" was trickling in streams, while the cloak itself +flapped in the wind like a loose sail. She shook her head scornfully. + +"It's a grat plass to tak cauld!" she cried. "Ye'll doo wull to com +doon." + +There were three auctioneers: one, a handsome, fair-haired, blue-eyed +young fellow, was plainly a favorite with the women. They flocked +after him as he passed from one to another of the different lots of +fish. They crowded in close circles around him, three and four deep; +pushing, struggling, rising on tiptoes to look over each other's +shoulders and get sight of the fish. + +"What's offered for this lot o' fine herrings? One! One and sax! +Thrippence ha'! Going, going, gone!" rang above all the clatter and +chatter of the women's tongues. It was so swift that it seemed over +before it was fairly begun; and the surging circles had moved along to +a new spot and a new trade. The eyes of the women were fixed on the +auctioneer's eyes; they beckoned; they shook forefingers at him; now +and then a tall, stalwart one, reaching over less able-bodied +comrades, took him by the shoulder, and compelled him to turn her way; +one, most fearless of all, literally gripped him by the ear and pulled +his head around, shrieking out her bid. When the pressure got +unbearable, the young fellow would shake himself like a Newfoundland +dog, and, laughing good-naturedly, whirl his arms wide round to clear +a breathing space; the women would fall back a pace or two, but in a +moment the rings would close up again, tighter than ever. + +The efforts of those in the outer ring to break through or see over +the inner ones were droll. Arms and hands and heads seemed fairly +interlinked and interwoven. Sometimes a pair of hands would come into +sight, pushing their way between two bodies, low down,--just the two +hands, nothing more, breaking way for themselves, as if in a thicket +of underbrush; presently the arms followed; and then, with a quick +thrust of the arms to right and left, the space would be widened +enough to let in the head, and when that was fairly through the +victory was won. Straightening herself with a big leap, the woman +bounded in front of the couple she had so skilfully separated, and a +buzzing "bicker" of angry words would rise for a moment; but there was +no time to waste in bad temper where bargains were to be made or lost +in the twinkling of an eye. + +An old sailor, who stood near me on the wall, twice saved me from +going backwards into the sea, in my hasty efforts to better my +standpoint. He also seemed to be there simply as a spectator, and I +asked him how the women knew what they were buying; buying, as they +did, by the pile or the box. + +"Oh, they'll giss, verra near," he said; "they've an eye on the fish +sense they're bawn. God knows it's verra little they mak," he added, +"an' they'll carry's much's two men o' us can lift. They're extrawnery +strang." + +As a lot of catfish were thrown down at our feet, he looked at them +with a shudder and exclaimed,-- + +"I'd no eat that." + +"Why not?" said I. "Are they not good?" + +"Ah, I'd no eat it," he replied, with a look of superstitious terror +spreading over his face. "It doesna look richt." + +A fresh trawler came in just as the auction had nearly ended. The +excitement renewed itself fiercely. The crowd surged over to the +opposite side of the pier, and a Babel of voices arose. The skipper +was short and fat, and in his dripping oilskin suit looked like a +cross between a catfish and a frog. + +"Here, you Rob," shouted the auctioneer, "what do you add to this fine +lot o' herrin'?" + +"Herring be d----d!" growled the skipper, out of temper, for some +reason of his own; at which a whirring sound of ejaculated +disapprobation burst from the women's lips. + +The fish were in great tanks on the deck. Quickly the sailors dipped +up pails of the sea-water, dashed it over them, and piled them into +baskets, in shining, slippery masses: the whole load was on the pier, +sorted, and sold in a few minutes. + +Then the women settled down to the work of assorting and packing up +their fish. One after another they shouldered their creels and set off +for Edinburgh. They seemed to have much paying back and forth of +silver among themselves, one small piece of silver that I noticed +actually travelling through four different hands in the five minutes +during which I watched it. Each woman wore under her apron, in front, +a sort of apron-like bag, in which she carried her money. There was +evidently rivalry among them. They spied closely on each other's +loads, and did some trafficking and exchange before they set off. One +poor old creature had bought only a few crayfish, and as she lifted +her creel to her back, and crawled away, the women standing by looked +over into her basket, and laughed and jeered at her; but she gave no +sign of hearing a word they said. + +Some of them were greatly discontented with their purchases when they +came to examine them closely, especially one woman who had bought a +box of flounders. She emptied them on the ground, and sorted the few +big ones, which had been artfully laid on the top; then, putting the +rest, which were all small, in a pile by themselves, she pointed +contemptuously to the contrast, and, with a toss of her head, ran +after the auctioneer, and led him by the sleeve back to the spot where +her fish lay. She was as fierce as Christie herself could have been at +the imposition. She had paid the price for big flounders, and had got +small ones. The auctioneer opened his book and took out his pencil to +correct the entry which had been made against her. + +"Wull, tak aff saxpence," he said. + +"Na! na!" cried she. "They're too dear at seven saxpence." + +"Wull, tak aff a saxpence; it is written noo,--seven shillin'." + +She nodded, and began packing up the flounders. + +"Will you make something on them at that price?" I asked her. + +"Wull, I'll mak me money back," she replied; but her eyes twinkled, +and I fancy she had got a very good bargain, as bargains go in +Newhaven; it being thought there a good day's work to clear three +shillings,--a pitiful sum, when a woman, to earn it, must trudge from +Newhaven to Edinburgh (two miles) with a hundred pounds of fish on her +back, and then toil up and down Edinburgh hills selling it from door +to door. One shilling on every pound is the auctioneer's fee. He has +all the women's names in his book, and it is safe to trust them; they +never seek to cheat, or even to put off paying. "They'd rather pay +than not," the blue-eyed auctioneer said to me. "They're the honestest +folks i' the warld." + +As the last group was dispersing, one old woman, evidently in a state +of fierce anger, approached and poured out a torrent of Scotch as +bewildering and as unintelligible to me as if it had been Chinese. Her +companions gazed at her in astonishment; presently they began to +reply, and in a few seconds there was as fine a "rippet" going on as +could have been heard in Cowgate in Tam's day. At last a woman of near +her own age sprang forward, and approaching her with a determined +face, lifted her right hand with an authoritative gesture, and said in +vehement indignation, which reminded me of Christie again,-- + +"Keep yersil, an' haud yer tongue, noo!" + +"What is she saying?" I asked. "What is the matter?" + +"Eh, it is jist nathin' at a'," she replied. "She's thet angry, she +doesna knaw hersil." + +The faces of the Newhaven women are full of beauty, even those of the +old women: their blue eyes are bright and laughing, long after the sea +wind and sun have tanned and shrivelled their skins and bleached their +hair. Blue eyes and yellow hair are the predominant type; but there +are some faces with dark hazel eyes of rare beauty and very dark +hair,--still more beautiful,--which, spite of its darkness, shows +glints of red in the sun. The dark blue of their gowns and cloaks is +the best color-frame and setting their faces could have; the bunched +fulness of the petticoat is saved from looking clumsy by being so +short, and the cloaks are in themselves graceful garments. The walking +in a bent posture, with such heavy loads on the back, has given to all +the women an abnormal breadth of hip, which would be hideous in any +other dress than their own. This is so noticeable that I thought +perhaps they wore under their skirts, to set them out, a roll, such as +is worn by some of the Bavarian peasants. But when I asked one of the +women, she replied,-- + +"Na, na, jist the flannel; a' tuckit." + +"Tucked all the way up to the belt?" said I. + +"Na, na," laughing as if that were a folly never conceived of,--"na, +na." And in a twinkling she whipped her petticoat high up, to show me +the under petticoat, of the same heavy blue cloth, tucked only a few +inches deep. Her massive hips alone were responsible for the strange +contour of her figure. + +The last person to leave the wharf was a young man with a creel of +fish on his back. My friend the sailor glanced at him with contempt. + +"There's the only man in all Scotland that 'ud be seen carryin' a +creel o' fish on his back like a woman," said he. "He's na pride aboot +him." + +"But why shouldn't men carry creels?" I asked. "I'm sure it is very +hard work for women." + +The sailor eyed me for a moment perplexedly, and then as if it were +waste of words to undertake to explain self-evident propositions, +resumed,-- + +"He worked at it when he was a boy, with his mother; an' now he's no +pride left. There's the whole village been at him to get a barrow; but +he'll not do't. He's na pride aboot him." + +What an interesting addition it would be to the statistics of foods +eaten by different peoples to collect the statistics of the different +foods with which pride's hunger is satisfied in different countries! +Its stomach has as many and opposite standards as the human digestive +apparatus. It is, like everything else, all and only a question of +climate. Not a nabob anywhere who gets more daily satisfaction out of +despising his neighbors than the Newhaven fishermen do out of their +conscious superiority to this poor soul, who lugs his fish in a basket +on his back like a woman, and has "na pride aboot him." + +If I had had time and opportunity to probe one layer farther down in +Newhaven society, no doubt I should have come upon something which +even this pariah, the fish-carrying man, would scorn to be seen doing. + +After the last toiling fishwife had disappeared in the distance, and +the wharf and the village had quieted down into sombre stillness, I +drove to "The Peacock," and ate bread and milk in a room which, if it +were not the very one in which Christie and her lover supped, at least +looked out on the same sea they looked upon. And a very gray, ugly sea +it was, too; just such an one as used to stir Christie's soul with a +heat of desire to spin out into it, and show the boys she was without +fear. On the stony beach below the inn a woman was spreading linen to +dry. Her motions as she raised and bent, and raised and bent, over her +task were graceful beyond measure. Scuds of rain-drops swept by now +and then; and she would stop her work, and straightening herself into +a splendid pose, with one hand on her hip, throw back her head, and +sweep the whole sky with her look, uncertain whether to keep on with +her labor or not; then bend again, and make greater haste than before. + +As I drove out of the village I found a knot of the women gossiping at +a corner. They had gathered around a young wife, who had evidently +brought out her baby for the village to admire. It was dressed in very +"braw attire" for Newhaven,--snowy white, and embroidery, and blue +ribbons. It was but four weeks old, and its tiny red face was nearly +covered up by the fine clothes. I said to a white-haired woman in the +group,-- + +"Do you recollect when it was all open down to the sea here,--before +this second line of newer cottages was built?" + +She shook her head and replied, "I'm na so auld 's I luik; my hair it +wentit white--" After a second's pause, and turning her eyes out to +sea as she spoke, she added, "A''t once it wentit white." + +A silence fell on the group, and looks were exchanged between the +women. I drove away hastily, feeling as one does who has unawares +stepped irreverently on a grave. Many grief-stricken queens have trod +the Scottish shores; the centuries still keep their memory green, and +their names haunt one's thoughts in every spot they knew. But more +vivid to my memory than all these returns and returns the thought of +the obscure fisherwoman whose hair, from a grief of which the world +never heard, "a' 't once wentit white." + + +CHESTER STREETS. + +If it be true, as some poets think, that every spot on earth is full +of poetry, then it is certainly also true that each place has its own +distinctive measure; an indigenous metre, so to speak, in which, and +in which only, its poetry will be truly set or sung. + +The more one reflects on this, in connection with the spots and places +he has known best in the world, the truer it seems. Memories and +impressions group themselves in subtle co-ordinations to prove it. +There are surely woods which are like stately sonnets, and others of +which the truth would best be told in tender lyrics; brooks which are +jocund songs, and mountains which are Odes to Immortality. Of cities +and towns it is perhaps even truer than of woods and mountains; +certainly, no less true. For instance, it would be a bold poet who +should attempt to set pictures of Rome in any strain less solemn than +the epic; and is it too strong a thing to say that only a foolish one +would think of framing a Venice glimpse or memory in anything save +dreamy songs, with dreamiest refrains? Endless vistas of reverie open +to the imagination once entered on the road of this sort of +fancy,--reveries which play strange pranks with both time and place, +endow the dreamer with a sort of _post facto_ second sight, and leave +him, when suddenly roused, as lost as if he had been asleep for a +century. For sensations of this kind Chester is a "hede and chefe +cyte." Simply to walk its streets is to step to time and tune of +ballads; the very air about one's ears goes lilting with them; the +walls ring; the gates echo; choruses rollic round corners,--ballads, +always ballads, or, if not a ballad, a play, none the less lively,--a +play with pageants and delightful racket. + +Such are the measure and metre to-day of "The Cyte of Legyons, that is +Chestre in the marches of Englonde, towards Wales, betwegne two armes +of the see, that bee named Dee and Mersee. Thys cyte in tyme of +Britons was hede and chefe cyte of Venedocia, that is North Wales. +Thys cyte in Brytyshe speech bete Carthleon, Chestre in Englyshe, and +Cyte of Legyons also. For there laye a wynter, the legyons that Julius +Cæsar sent to wyne Irlonde. And after, Claudius Cæsar sent legyons out +of the cyte for to wynn the Islands that bee called Orcades. Thys cyte +hath plenty of cyne land, of corn, of flesh, and specyally of samon. +Thys cyte receyveth grate marchandyse and sendeth out also. +Northumbres destroyed this cyte but Elfleda Lady of Mercia bylded it +again and made it mouch more." + +This is what was written of Chester, more than six hundred years ago, +by one Ranulph Higden, a Chester Abbey monk,--him who wrote those old +miracle plays, except for which we very like had never had such a +thing as a play at all, and William Shakspeare had turned out no +better than many another Stratford man. + +All good Americans who reach England go to Chester. They go to see the +cathedral, and to buy old Queen Anne furniture. The cathedral is very +good in its way, the way of all cathedrals, and the old Queen Anne +furniture is now quite well made; but it is a marvel that either +cathedral or shop can long hold a person away from Chester streets. +One cannot go amiss in them; at each step he is, as it were, +button-holed by a gable, an arch, a pavement, a door-sill, a sign, or +a gate with a story to tell. A story, indeed? A hundred, or more; and +if anybody doubts them, or has by reason of old age, or +over-occupation with other matters, got them confused in his mind, all +he has to do is to step into a public library, which is kept in a very +private way, in a by-street, by two aged Cestrian citizens and a +parish boy. Here, if he can convince these venerable Cestrians of his +respectability, he may go a-junketing by himself in that delicious +feast of an old book, the "Vale-Royale" of England, published in +London in 1656, and written, I believe, a half-century or so earlier. + +Never was any bit of country more praised than this beautiful Chester +County, "pleasant and abounding in plenteousness of all things +needful and necessary for man's use, insomuch that it merited and had +the name of the Vale-Royale of England." + +The old writer continues:-- + + "The ayr is very wholesome, insomuch that the people of the + Country are seldome infected with Diseases or Sicknesses; + neither do they use the help of the Physicians nothing so much + as in other countries. For when any of them are sick they make + him a Posset and tye a kerchief on his head, and if that will + not amend him, then God be merciful to him!" + +And of the river Dee,-- + + "To which water no man can express how much this ancient city + hath been beholden; nay, I suppose if I should call it the + Mother, the Nurse, the Maintainer, the Advancer and Preserver + thereof, I should not greatly erre." + +And again, of the shifting "sands o' Dee," this ancient and devout +man, taking quite another view than that of the thoughtless or pensive +lyrists, later, says,-- + + "The changing and shifting of the water gave some occasion to + the Britons in that Infancy of the Christian Religion to + attribute some divine honor and estimation to the said water: + though I cannot believe that to be any cause of the name of + it." + +His pious deduction from the exceeding beauty of the situation of the +city is that it is "worthy, according to the Eye, to be called a city +guarded with Watch of Holy and Religious men, and through the Mercy of +our Saviour always fenced and fortified with the merciful assistance +of the Almighty." To keep it thus guarded, the monks of Vale-Royale +did their best. Witness the terms in which their grant was couched:-- + + "All the mannours, churches, lands and tenements aforesaid, in + free pure and perpetual alms forever; with Homages, Rents, + Demesnes, Villenages, Services of Free Holders and Bond, with + Villains and their Families, Advowsons, Wards, Reliefs, + Escheates, Woods, Plains, Meadows, Pastures, Wayes, Pathes, + Heaths, Turfs, Forests, Waters, Ponds, Parks, Fishing, Mills in + Granges, Cottages within Borough and without, and in all other + places with all Easments, Liberties, Franchises and Free + Customs any way belonging to the aforesaid Mannours, Churches, + lands and tenements." + +Plainly, if the devil or any of his followers were caught in the +Vale-Royale, they could be legally ejected as trespassers. + +He was not, however, without an eye to worldly state, this devout +writer, for he speaks with evident pride of the fine show kept up by +the mayor of Chester:-- + + "The Estate that the Mayor of Chester keepeth is great. For he + hath both Sword Bearer and Mace Bearer Sergeants, with their + silver maces, in as good and decent order as in any other city + in England. His housekeeping accordingly; but not so chargeable + as in all other cities, because all thing are better cheap + there.... He remaineth, most part of the day at a place called + the Pendice which is a brave place builded for the purpose at + the high Crosse under St. Peters Church, and in the middest of + the city, of such a sort that a man may stand therein and see + into the markets or four principal streets of the city." + +Nevertheless, there was once a mayor of Chester who did not see all he +ought to have seen in the principal streets of the city; for his own +daughter, out playing ball "with other maids, in the summer time, in +Pepur Street," stole away from her companions, and ran off with her +sweetheart, through one of the city gates, at the foot of that street, +which gate the enraged mayor ordered closed up forever, as if that +would do any good; and some sharp-tongued and sensible Cestrian +immediately phrased the illogical action in a proverb: "When the +daughter is stolen, shut the Pepur gate." This saying is to be heard +in Chester to this day, and is no doubt lineal ancestor of our own +broader apothegm, "When the mare's stolen, lock the stable." + +There are many lively stories about mayors of Chester. There was a +mayor in 1617 who made a very learned speech to King James, when he +rode in through East Gate, with all the train soldiers of the city +standing in order, "each company with their ensigns in seemly sort," +the array stretching up both sides of East Gate Street. This mayor's +name was Charles Fitton. He delivered his speech to the king; +presented to him a "standing cup with a cover double gilt, and therein +a hundred jacobins of gold;" likewise delivered to him the city's +sword, and afterward bore it before him, in the procession. But when +King James proposed, in return for all these civilities, to make a +knight of him, Charles Fitton sturdily refused; which was a thing so +strange for its day and generation that one is instantly possessed by +a fire of curiosity to know what Charles Fitton's reasons could have +been for such contempt of a knight's title. No doubt there is a story +hanging thereby,--something to do with a lady-love, not unlikely; and +a fine ballad it would make, if one but knew it. The records, however, +state only the bare fact. + +Then there was, a hundred years later than this, a man who got to be +mayor of Chester by a very strange chance. He was a ribbon-weaver, in +a small way, kept a shop in Shoemaker's Row, and lived in a little +house backing on the Falcon Inn. All of a sudden he blossomed out into +a rich silk-mercer; bought a fine estate just outside the city, built +a grand house, and generally assumed the airs and manners of a +dignitary. As is the way of the world now, so then: people soon took +him at his surface showing, forgot all about the mystery of his sudden +wealth, and presently made him mayor of Chester. Afterward it came +out, though never in such fashion that anything was done about it, how +the mayor got his money. Just before the mysterious rise in his +fortunes, a great London banking-house had been robbed of a large sum +of money by one of its clerks, who ran away, came to Chester, and went +into hiding at the Falcon Inn. He was tracked and overtaken late one +night. Hearing his pursuers on the stairs, he sprang from his bed and +threw the treasure bags out of the window, plump into the +ribbon-weaver's back-yard; where the disappointed constables naturally +never thought of looking, and went back to London much chagrined, +carrying only the man, and no money. None of the money having been +found on the robber, he escaped conviction, but subsequently, for +another offence, was tried, convicted, and executed. I take it for +granted that it must have been he who told in his last hours what he +did with the money bags: for certainly no one else knew,--that is, no +one else except Mr. Samuel Jarvis, the ribbon-weaver, who, much +astonished, had picked them up before daylight, the morning after they +had been thrown into his back-yard. It is certain that he kept his +mouth shut, and proceeded to turn the money to the best possible +account in the shortest possible time. But an evil fate seemed to +attach to the dishonestly gotten riches; Jarvis dying without issue, +his estate all went to a man named Doe, "a gardener, at Greg's Pit," +whose sons and grandsons spent the last penny of it in riotous living. +So there is now "nothing to show for" that money, for the stealing of +which one man was tried for his life, and another man made mayor of +Chester; which would all come in capitally in a ballad, if a +ballad-monger chose. + +Of the famous Chester Rows, nobody has ever yet contrived to give a +description intelligible to one who had not seen them. The more +familiarly they are known, the more fantastic and bewildering they +seem, and the less one is sure how to speak of them. Whether it is +that the sidewalk goes upstairs, or the front second-story bedroom +comes down into the street; whether the street itself be in the +basement or the cellar, or the sidewalk be on the roofs of the +houses;--where any one of them all begins or leaves off, it would be a +courageous narrator that tried to explain. They appear to have been as +much of a puzzle two hundred years ago as to-day; for the devout old +chronicler of the Vale-Royale, essaying to describe them, wrote the +following paragraph, which, delicious as it is to those who know +Chester, I think must be a stumbling-block and foolishness to those +who do not. He says there is "a singular property of praise to this +city, whereof I know not the like of any other: there be towards the +street fair rooms, both for shops and dwelling-houses, to which there +is rather a descent than an equal height with the floor or pavement of +the street. Yet the principal dwelling-houses and shops for the +chiefest Trades are mounted a story higher, and before the Doors and +Entries a continued Row, on either side the street, for people to pass +to and fro all along the said houses, out of all annoyance of Rain, or +other foul weather, with stairs fairly built, and neatly maintained to +step down out of those Rowes into the open streets: almost at every +second house: and the said Rowes built over the head with such of the +Chambers and Rooms for the most part as are the best rooms in every +one of the said houses. + +"It approves itself to be of most excellent use, both for dry and easy +passage of all sorts of people upon their necessary occasions, as +also for the sending away, of all or the most Passengers on foot from +the passage of the street, amongst laden and empty Carts, loaden and +travelling Horses, lumbering Coaches, Beer Carts, Beasts, Sheep, +Swine, and all annoyances, which what a confused trouble it makes in +other cities, especially where great stirring is, there's none that +can be ignorant." + +He also suggests another advantage of this arrangement, which seems by +no means unlikely to have been part of its original reason for being; +namely, that "when the enemy entered they might avoid the danger of +the Horsemen, and might annoy the Enemies as they passed through the +Streets." Probably in this writer's day the marvel of the construction +of the Rows was even greater than it is now; in many instances the +first story was excavated out of solid rock, so you began by going +downstairs at the outset. These first stories of the ancient Cestrians +are beneath the cellars of the Rows to-day; and every now and then, in +deepening a vault or cellar-way, workmen come on old Roman altars, +built there by the "Legyons" of Julius, or Claudius Cæsar, dedicated +to "Nymphs and Fountains," or other genii of the day; baths, too, with +their pillars and perforated tiles still in place, as they were in the +days when cleanly and luxurious Roman soldiers took Turkish baths +there, after hot victories. Knowing about these lower strata adds a +weird charm to the fascination of strolling along in the balconies +above, looking in, now at a jeweller's window, now at a smart +haberdashery shop, now at some neat housekeeper's bedroom window, now +into a mysterious chink-like passage-way winding off into the heart of +the building; and then, perhaps, presto! descending a staircase a few +feet, to another tier of similar shop-windows, domiciles, garret +alleys, and dormer-window bazars; and the next thing, plump down +again, ten feet or so more, into the very street itself. Indeed are +they, as the "Vale-Royale" says, "a singular property of praise to +this city, whereof I know not the like of any other." + +One manifest use and enjoyment of this medley of in and out, up and +down, above and below, balconies, basements, attics, dormer windows, +gables, and casements, the old chronicler failed to mention, but there +can never have been a day or a generation which has not discovered +it, and that is the convenient overlooking of all that goes on in the +street below. What rare and comfortable nooks for the spying on +processions, and all manner of shows and spectacles! To sit snug in +one's best chamber, ten feet above the street, ten feet out into it, +with windows looking up and down the highway,--what vantage it must +have been in the days when the Miracle Plays went wheeling along from +street to street, played on double scaffolded carts; the players +attiring themselves on the lower scaffold, while the play was +progressing on the upper! They began to do this in Chester in the year +of our Lord 1268. There were generally in use at one time twenty-four +of the wheeled stages; as soon as one play was over, its stage was +wheeled along to the next street, and another took its place. The +plays were called Mysteries, and were devised for the giving of +instruction in the Old and New Testament, which had been so long +sealed books to the people. Luther gave them his sanction, saying, +"Such spectacles often do more good and produce more impression than +sermons." + +The old chronicles are full of quaint and interesting entries in +regard to these plays. The different trades and guilds of the city +represented different acts in the holy dramas:-- + +The Barkers and Tanners, _The Fall of Lucifer_. + +Drapers and Hosiers, _The Creation of the World_. + +Drawers of Dee and Water Leaders, _Noe and his Shippe_. + +Barbers, Wax Chandlers, and Leeches, _Abraham and Isaac_. + +Cappers, Wire Drawers, and Pinners, _Balak and Balaam with Moses_. + +Wrights, Slaters, Tylers, Daubers, and Thatchers, _The Nativity_. + +In 1574 these plays were played for the last time. There had been +several attempts before to suppress them. One Chester mayor, Henry +Hardware by name, being a "godly and zealous man, caused the gyauntes +in the mid-somer show to be broken up, not to go; and the devil in his +feathers he put awaye, and the caps, and the canes, and dragon and the +naked boys." + +But it was reserved for another mayor, Sir John Savage, Knight, to +have the honor of finally putting an end to the pageants. "Sir John +Savage, knight, being Mayor of Chester, which was the laste time they +were played, and we praise God, and praye that we see not the like +profanation of holy Scriptures, but O, the mercie of God for the time +of our ignorance!" says an old history, written in 1595. + +At intervals between these pious suppressions, carnal and +pleasure-loving persons made great efforts to restore the plays; and +there are some very curious accounts of expenditures made in Chester, +under mayors less godly than Hardware and Savage, for the +rehabilitation of some of the old properties of the sacred pageants:-- + + "For finding all the materials with the workmanship of the four + great giants, all to be made new, as neere as may be, lyke as + they were before, at five pounds a giant, the least that can + be, and four men to carry them at two shillings and sixpence + each." + +These redoubtable giants, which could not be made at less than five +pounds apiece, were constructed out of "hoops, deal boards, nails, +pasteboard, scale-board, paper of various sorts, buckram size cloth, +old sheets for their bodies, sleeves and shirts, tinsille, tinfoil, +gold and silver leaf, colors of different kinds, and glue in +abundance." Last, not least, came the item, "For arsknick to put into +the paste to save the giants from being eaten by the rats, one +shilling and fourpence." + +It is at first laughable to think of a set of city fathers summing up +such accounts as these for a paper baby show, but upon second thought +the question occurs whether city funds are any better administered in +these days. The paper giants, feathered devils, and dragons were +cheaper than champagne suppers and stationery now-a-days in "hede and +chefe" cities. + +When the Mystery Plays were finally forbidden, it seemed dull times +for a while in Chester; but at last the people contrived an ingenious +resuscitation of the old amusements under new names, and with new +themes, to which nobody could object. They dramatized old stories, +legends, histories of kings, and the like. The story of Æneas and +Queen Dido was one of the first played. No doubt all the "gyauntes" +and hobble-de-horses which had not been eaten up by rats and moths +came in as effectively in the second dispensation as in the first. The +only one of the later plays of which an account has been preserved was +played in 1608, in honor of the oldest son of James I., by the sheriff +of Chester, who himself wrote a flaming account of it. He says:-- + + "Zeal produced it, love devized it, boyes performed it, men + beheld it, and none but fools dispraised it.... The chiefest + part of this people-pleasing spectacle consisted in three Bees, + that is, Boyes, Beastes, and Bels." + +Allegory, mythology, music, fireworks, and ground and lofty tumbling +were jumbled together in a fine way, in the sheriff's show. Envy was +on horseback with a wreath of snakes around her head; Plenty, Peace, +Fame, and Joy were personated; Mercury came down from heaven with +wings, in a cloud; a "wheele of fire burning very cunningly, with +other fireworks, mounted the Crosse by the assistance of ropes, in the +midst of heavenly melody;" and, to top off with, a grotesque figure +climbed up to the top of the "Crosse," and stood on his head, with his +feet in the air, "very dangerously and wonderfully to the view of the +beholders, and casting fireworks very delightfull." Truly, the +sheriff's language seems hardly too strong, when he says that none but +fools dispraised his spectacle. + +These secular shows never attained the popularity of the old Mystery +Plays. That mysterious halo of attraction which always invests the +forbidden undoubtedly heightened the reputed charm of the +never-more-to-be-seen sacred pageants, and led people to continually +depreciate the value of all entertainments offered as substitutes for +them. Probably in the midst of the heavenly melodies and "fireworks +very delightfull," at the sheriff's grand show, old men went about +shaking their heads regretfully, and saying, "Ah, but you should have +seen the gyaunts we used to have forty years ago, and the way they +played the Fall of Lucifer in 1574; there's never been anything like +it since;" and immediately all the young people who had never seen a +Miracle Play began to be full of dissatisfied wonder as to what they +were like. + +But what the shows and pageants lacked in the early days of the +seventeenth century, grand processions went a long way towards making +up. It is evident that Chester people never missed an occasion for +turning out in fine array; and there being always somebody who took +the trouble to write a full account of the parade, we of to-day know +almost as much about it as if we had been on the spot. The old +chronicles in the Chester public library are running over with quaint +and gay stories of such doings as the following: + + "Came to Chester, being Saturday, the Duchess of Tremoyle, from + France, mother-in-law to the Lord Strange: and all the Gentry + of Cheshier, Flintshier, and Denbighshier went to meet her at + Hoole's Heath, with the Earl of Derby; being at least six + hundred horse. All the Gentle Men of the artelery yard lately + erected in Chester, met her in Cow Lane, in very stately + manner, all with greate white and blew fethers, and went before + her chariot, in march, to the Bishop's Pallas, and making a + yard, let her thro the middest, and then gave her three volleys + of shot, and so returned to their yard.... So many knights, + esquires, and Gentle Men never were in Chester, no, not to meet + King James when he went to Chester." + +This Cow Lane is now called Frodsham Street; and on one of its corners +is the building in which William Penn, in his day, preached more than +once, setting forth doctrines which the Duchess of Tremoyle would have +much disrelished in her day, as would also the "artelery Gentle Men" +with their "greate white and blew fethers." King James himself is said +to have once dropped in at this Quaker meeting-house when Penn was +preaching, and to have sat, attentive, through the entire discourse. + +And so we come down through the centuries, from the pasteboard +"gyaunt" and glued dragon, winged Mercury with fire-wheel, Duchess of +Tremoyle with her plumed horsemen, to the grim but gentle Quaker, +holding feathers pernicious, plays deadly, and permitting to the +people nothing but plain yea and nay. Of all this, and worlds more +like it, and gayer and wilder,--sadder, too,--is the Chester air so +brimful that, as I said in the beginning, it seems perpetually to go +lilting about one's ears. + +Leaving the library, with its quaint and fascinating old records, and +turning aside at intervals from the more ancient landmarks of the +streets to observe the ways and conditions of the Cestrians now, the +traveller is no less repaid. Every rod of the sidewalk is a study for +its present as well as for its past. The venders are a guild by +themselves, as much to-day as they were in the sixteenth century. They +build up their stuffs, their old chairs, chests, brooms, crockery and +tinware, in stacks of confusion, in shelf-like balconies, on beams +hanging overhead and in corners and nooks underfoot, all along the +most ancient of the Rows. It is a piece of good luck to walk past half +a dozen doors there without jostling something on the right or left, +and bringing down a clattering pile on one's heels. From shadowy +recesses, men and women eager for trade dart out, eying the stranger +sharply. They are connoisseurs in customers, if in nothing else, the +Cestrian dealers of to-day. They know at a glance who will give ten +shillings and sixpence for a cream jug without any nose, and with a +big crack in one side, on the bare chance of its being old Welsh. +There is much excuse for their spreading out their goods over the +highway, as they do, for the shops themselves are closets,--six by +eight, eight by ten; ten by twelve is a spacious mart, in comparison +with the average. Deprived of the outside nooks between the pillars of +the arcade, the dealers would be sorely put to it for room. It is +becoming, however, a disputed question whether the renting of these +shops includes any right to the covered ways in front of them; and +there is great anxiety among the inhabitants of the more dilapidated +portions of the Rows in consequence. + +"There's a deespute with the corporation, mem, as to whether we hown +the stalls or not," said an energetic furniture-wife (if fish-wife, +why not furniture-wife?) to me one day, as I was laughingly steering a +cautious passage among her shaky pyramids of fourth or twentieth hand +furniture. "It's lasted a while now, an' they've not forced us to give +'em hup as yet; but I'm afeard they may bring it about," she added, +with the dogged humility of her class. "They've everything their own +way,--the corporation." + +It is worth while to take a turn down some of the crevice-like alleys +in these Rows, and see where the people live; see also where the +nobility gets part of its wherewithal to eat, drink, and be clothed. + +Often there is to be seen at the far end of these crevices a point of +sunlight; like the gleaming point of light seen ahead, in going +through a rayless tunnel. This betokens a tiny court-yard in the rear. +These court-yards are always well worth seeing. They are paved, +sometimes with tiles evidently hundreds of years old. The different +properties of the dozens of families living in tenements opening on +the court are arranged around its sides, apparently each family +keeping scrupulously to its own little hand's-breadth of room; +frequently a tiny flower-bed, or a single plant in a pot, gives a +gleam of cheer to the place. In such a court-yard as this, I found, +one morning, a yellow-haired, blue-eyed little maid, scrubbing away +for dear life, with a broom and soap-suds, on the old tiles. She was +not over nine years old; her bare legs and feet were pink and chubby, +and she had a smile like a sunbeam. + +"I saw the sun shining in here so brightly that I walked up the alley +to see how it got in," I said to her. + +"Yes, mem," she said, with a courtesy. "It do shine in here +beautiful." And she looked up at the sky, smiling. + +"Have you lived here long?" I asked. + +"About nine months, mem. I'm only in service, mem," she continued with +a deprecating courtesy, modestly anxious to disclaim the honor of +having any proprietary right in the place. + +"We've five rooms, mem," she went on. "It's a very nice lodging, if +you'd like to see it." And she threw open a door into an infinitesimal +parlor, out of which opened a still smaller dining-room, lighted only +by a window in the parlor door. There were two bedrooms above, reached +by a nearly upright stairway, not over two feet wide. The fifth room +was a "beautiful washroom," which the little maiden exhibited with +even more pride than she had shown the parlor. "It's three families +has it together, mem," she explained. "It's a great thing to get a +washroom. And we've a coal-hole, too, mem," she said eagerly; "you +passed it, coming up." And she stepped a few paces down the alley, and +threw open a door into a rayless place possibly five by seven feet in +size. "It used to be a bedroom, mem, to the opposite house; but it's +empty now, so we gets it for coal." I could not take my eyes from the +child's face, as she prattled and pattered along. She looked like an +angel. Her face shone with loyalty, pride, and happiness. I envied the +poverty-stricken dwellers in this court their barefooted handmaiden, +and would have taken her then and there, if I could, into my own +service for her lifetime. As we stood talking, another door opened, +and a grizzled old head popped out. + +"Good-morning, mem," said the child cheerily, making the same +respectful courtesy she had made to me. "I'm just showin' the lady +what nice lodgin's we've 'ere in the court." + +"Humph," said the old woman gruffly, as she tottered out, leaving her +door wide open; "they're nothin' to boast of." + +Her own lodging certainly was not. It was literally little more than a +chamber in the wall: it had no window, except one small square pane +above the door. You could hardly stand upright in it, and not much +more than turn around. The walls were hung full: household utensils, +clothes, even her two or three books, were hung up by strings; there +being only room for one tiny table, besides the stove. In one corner +stood a step-ladder, which led up through a hole in the ceiling to the +cranny overhead in which she slept. This was all the old woman had. +She lived here alone, and she paid to the Duke of Westminster two +shillings and sixpence a week for the rent of the place. "It's dear at +the rent," she said; "but it's a respectable place, an' I think a deal +o' that." And she sighed. + +The name of the Duke of Westminster and the value of that two and +sixpence to his grace meant more to me that morning than it would have +done twenty-four hours earlier; for on the previous afternoon we had +visited his palace, the famous Eaton Hall. We had walked there for +weary hours over marble floors, under frescoed domes, through long +lines of statues, of pictures, of stained-glass windows, hangings, +carvings, and rare relics and trophies innumerable. We had seen the +duchess's window balcony, one waving mass of yellow musk. "Her +ladyship is very fond of musk. It is always to be kept flowering at +her window," we were told. + +We had walked also through a glass corridor three hundred and +seventy-five yards long, draped with white clematis and heliotrope on +one side, and on the other banked high with geraniums, carnations, +and all manner of flowers. Opening at intervals in these banks of +flowers were doors into other conservatories: one was filled chiefly +with rare orchids, like an enchanted aviary of hummingbirds, arrested +on the wing; gold and white, purple and white, brown and gold, green, +snowy white, orange; some of them as large as a fleur-de-lis. Another +house was filled with ferns and palms, green, luxuriant, like a bit of +tropical forest brought across seas for his grace's pleasure. The most +superb sight of all was the lotus house. Cleopatra herself might have +flushed with pleasure at beholding it. A deep tank, sixty feet long, +and twenty wide, filled with white and blue and pink blossoms, +floating, swaying, lolling on the dark water; while, seemingly to +uphold the glass roof canopying this lotus-decked sea, rose slender +columns, wreathed with thunbergia vines in full bloom, yellow, orange, +and white; the glass walls of the building were set thick and high +with maiden-hair and other rare ferns, interspersed at irregular +intervals with solid masses of purple or white flowers. The spell of +the place, of its warm, languid air, was beyond words: it was +bewildering. + +All this being vivid in my mind, I started at hearing his grace's name +from the old woman's lips. + +"So these houses belong to the Duke of Westminster, do they?" I +replied. + +"Yes, 'ee's the 'ole o' 't," she answered; "an' a power o' money it +brings 'im in, considerin' its size. 'Ee 's big rents in this town. +Mebbe ye've bin out t' 'is 'all? It's a gran' sight, I'm told. I've +never seen it." + +I was minded then to tell about the duke's flowers. It would have been +only a bit of a fairy story to the little maid, a bright spot in her +still bright horizons; but I forebore, for the sake of the old woman's +soul, already enough wrung and embittered by the long strain of her +hard lot, and its contrast with that of her betters, without having +that contrast enforced by a vivid picture of the duke's hothouses. My +own memory of them was darkened forever,--unreasonably so, perhaps; +but the antithesis came too suddenly and soon for me ever to separate +the pictures. + +The archæologist in Chester will frequently be lured from its streets +to its still more famous walls. This side Rome there is no such piece +of Roman masonry work, to be seen. Here, indeed, is the air full of +ballad measures, to which one must step, if he go his way thinking at +all. The four great gates, north, south, east, and west,--three kept +by earls, and only one owned by the citizens; the lesser posterns, +with commoner names, born of their different sorts of traffic, or the +fords to which they led; the towers and turrets, fought over, lost and +won, and won and lost, trod by centuries of brave fighters whose names +live forever; bridgeways and arches in their own successions, of as +noble lineage as any lineages of men,--of such are the walls of +Chester. They surround the old city; are nearly two miles in length, +and were originally of the width prescribed in the ancient Roman +manual of Vitruvius, "that two armed men may pass each other without +impediment." There are many places, now, however, which would by no +means come up to that standard; Nature having usurped much space with +her various growths, and time having been chipping away at them as +well. In fact, on some portions of the wall, there is only a narrow +grassy footpath, such as might wind around in a village churchyard. To +come up by hoary stone stairs, out of the bustling street, atop of the +wall, and out on such a bit of footpath as this, with an outlook over +the Rood Eye meadow and off toward the region of the old Welsh +castles, is a fine early-morning treat in Chester. Some of the towers +are now sunk to the ignoble uses of heterogeneous museums. Old women +have the keys, and for a fee admit curious people to the ancient +chambers and keeps, where, after having the satisfaction of standing +where kings have stood, and looking off over fields where kings' +battles were fought, they can gaze at glass cases full of curiosities +and relics of one sort and another, sometimes of an incredible +worthlessness. In the tower known as King Charles's Tower, from the +fact of Charles I. having stood there, on the 27th of September, 1645, +overlooking the to him luckless battle of Rowton Moor, is the most +miscellaneous collection of odds and ends ever offered to public gaze. +A very old woman keeps the key of this tower, and is herself by no +means the least of the curiosities in it. She was born in Chester, and +recollects well when all the space outside the old walls, which is now +occupied by the modern city, was chiefly woods; she used to go, in +her childhood, to play and to gather flowers in them. The fact that +King Charles once looked through the window of this turret has grown, +by a sort of geometrical ratio relative to the number of years she has +been reiterating the statement, into a colossally disproportionate +place in her mind. + +"The king, mem, stood just where you're standin' now," she says over +and over and over, in a mechanical manner, as long as you remain in +the tower. I wondered if she said it all night, in her sleep; and if, +if one were to spend a whole day in the tower, she would never stop +saying it. She was an enthusiastic show-woman of her little store; +undismayed by any amount of indifference on the part of her listeners. +"'Ere 's a face you know, mem, I dare say," producing from one corner +of the glass case a cheap newspaper picture, much soiled, of General +Grant. "'Ee was in this tower last summer, and 'ee was much +hinterested." + +Next to General Grant's portrait came "a ring snake from Kentucky." +"It's my brother, mem, brought that over: twenty years ago, 'ee was in +Hamerica. You must undustand the puttin' of 'em hup better than we do, +mem, for 'ere's these salamanders was only put hup two years ago, an' +they've quite gone a'ready, in that time." + +She had a statuette of King Charles, Cromwell's chaplain's broth bowl, +a bit of a bedquilt of Queen Anne's, a black snake from Australia, a +fine-tooth comb from Africa, a tattered fifty-cent piece of American +paper currency, and a string of shell money from the South Sea +Islands, all arranged in close proximity. Taking up the bit of +American currency, she held it out toward us, saying inquiringly, +"Hextinct now, mem, I believe?" I think she can hardly have recovered +even yet from the bewilderment into which she was thrown by our +convulsive laughter and ejaculated reply, "Oh, no! Would that it +were!" + +In a clear day can be seen from this tower, a dozen or so miles to the +south, the ruins of a castle built by Earl Randel Blundeville. He was +the Earl Randel of whom Roger Lacy, constable of Cheshire in 1204, +made a famous rescue, once on a time. The earl, it seems, was in a +desperate strait, besieged in one of his castles by the Welsh; perhaps +in this very castle. Roger Lacy, hearing of the earl's situation, +forthwith made a muster of all the tramps, beggars, and rapscallions +he could find,--"a tumultuous rout," says the chronicle, "of loose, +disorderly, and dissolute persons, players, minstrels, shoemakers and +the like,--and marched speedily towards the enemy." The Welsh, seeing +so great a multitude coming, raised their siege and fled; and the +earl, thus delivered, showed his gratitude to Constable Roger by +conferring upon him perpetual authority over the loose, idle persons +in Cheshire; making the office hereditary in the Lacy family. A +thankless dignity, one would suppose, at best; by no means a sinecure, +at any time, and during the season of the Midsummer Fairs a terrible +responsibility: it being the law of the land that during those fairs +the city of Chester was for the space of one month a free city of +refuge for all criminals, of whatsoever degree; in token of which a +glove was hung out at St. Peter's Church, on the first day of the +fairs. + +There is another good tale of Roger Lacy's prowess. He seems to have +been a roving fighter, for he once held a castle in Normandy, for King +John, against the French, "with such gallantry that after all his +victuals were spent, having been besieged almost a year, and many +assaults of the enemy made, but still repulsed by him, he mounts his +horse, and issues out of the castle with his troop into the middest of +his enemies, chusing rather to die like a soldier, than to starve to +death. He slew many of the enemy, but was at last with much difficulty +taken prisoner; so he and his soldiers were brought prisoners to the +King of France, where, by the command of the king, Roger Lacy was to +be held no strict prisoner, for his great honesty and trust in keeping +the Castle so gallantly.... King John's letter to Roger Lacy +concerning the keeping of the said castle, you may see among the +Norman writings put out by Andrew du Chesne, and printed at Paris in +1619." Of all of which, if no ballad have ever been written, it is +certain that songs must have been sung by minstrels at the time; and +the name of the brave Roger's lady-love was well suited to minstrelsy, +she being one Maud de Clare. Plain Roger Lacy and Maud de Clare! The +dullest fancy takes a leap at the sound of the two names. + +In the same old chronicle which gives these and many other narratives +of Roger Lacy is the history of a singular, half-witted being, who +was known in Vale-Royale, in the fifteenth century, as Nixon the +Prophet. How much that the old records claim for him, in the way of +minute and minutely fulfilled prophecies, is to be set down to the +score of ignorant superstition, it is hard now to say; but there must +have been some foundation in fact for the narrative. Robert Nixon was +the son of a farmer in Cheshire County, and was born in the year 1467. +His stupidity and ignorance were said to be "invincible." No efforts +could make him understand anything save the care of cattle, and even +in this he showed at times a brutish and idiotic cruelty. He had a +very rough, coarse voice, but said little, sometimes passing whole +months without opening his lips to speak. He began very early to +foretell events, and with an apparently preternatural accuracy. When +he was a lad, he was seen, one day, to abuse an ox belonging to his +brother. To a person threatening to inform his brother of this act, +Robert replied that three days later his brother would not own the ox. +Sure enough, on the next day a life inheritance came into the estate +on which his brother was a tenant, and that very ox was taken for the +"heriot bond to the new owner." One of the abbey monks having +displeased him, he exclaimed,-- + + "When you the harrow come on high, + Soon a raven's nest will be." + +The couplet was thought at the time to be simple nonsense; but as it +turned out, the last abbot of that monastery was named Harrow, and +when the king suppressed the monastery he gave the domain to Sir +Thomas Holcroft, whose crest was a raven. + +It was also one of Nixon's predictions that the two abbeys of +Vale-Royale and Norton should meet on Orton bridge and the thorn +growing in the abbey yard should be its door. + +When the abbeys were pulled down, in the time of the Reformation, +stones taken from each of them were used in rebuilding that bridge; +and the thorn-tree was cut down, and placed as a barrier across the +entrance to the abbey court, to keep the sheep from entering there. + +The most remarkable of Nixon's predictions or revelations was at the +time of the battle on Bosworth Field between Richard III. and Henry +VII. On that day, as he was driving a pair of oxen, he stopped +suddenly, and with his whip pointing now one way, now another, cried +aloud, "Now, Richard," "Now, Harry!" At last he said, "Now, Harry, get +over that ditch, and you gain the day!" The ploughmen with him were +greatly amazed, and related to many persons what had passed. When a +courier came through the country announcing the result of the battle, +he verified every word Nixon had said. + +This courier, when he returned to court, recounted Nixon's +predictions; and King Henry was so impressed by them that he at once +sent orders to have him brought to the palace. + +Before this messenger arrived, Nixon ran about like a madman, weeping +and crying that the king was about sending for him, and that he must +go to court to be starved to death. + +In a few days the royal messenger appeared. Nixon was turning the spit +in his brother's kitchen. Just before the messenger came in sight, he +shrieked out, "He is on the road! He is coming for me! I shall be +starved!" + +Lamenting loudly, he was carried away almost by force, and taken into +the presence of the king, who tried him with various tests: among +others, he hid a diamond ring, and commanded Nixon to find it; but all +the answer he got from the cunning varlet was, "He that hideth can +find." The king caused all he said to be carefully noted and put down +in writing; gave him the run of the palace, and commanded that no one +should molest or offend him in any way. + +One day, when the king was setting off on a hunt, Nixon ran to him, +crying and begging to be allowed to go too; saying that his time had +come now, and he would be starved if he were left behind. To humor his +whim and ease his fears, the king gave him into the especial charge +and keeping of one of the chief officers of the court. The officer, in +turn, to make sure that no ill befell the poor fellow, locked him up +in one of his private rooms, and with his own hands carried food to +him. But after a day or two, a very urgent message from the king +calling this officer suddenly away, in the haste of his departure he +forgot Nixon, and left him locked up in the apartment. No one missed +him or discovered him; and when at the end of three days the officer +returned, Nixon was found dead,--dead, as he had himself foretold, of +starvation. It is a strange and pitiful story, a tale suited to its +century, and could not be left out were there ever to be written a +ballad-history of the Vale-Royale's olden days. + +It is a question, in early mornings in Chester, whether to take a turn +on the ancient walls, listening to echoes such as these from all the +fair country in sight in embrace of the Dee, or to saunter through the +market, and hear the shriller but no less characteristic voice of +Cestrian life to-day. + +Markets are always good vantage-grounds for studying the life and +people of a place or region. The true traveller never feels completely +at home in a town till he has been in the markets. Many times I have +gathered from the chance speech of an ignorant market man or woman +information I had been in search of for days. Markets are especially +interesting in places where caste and class lines are strongly drawn, +as in England. The market man or woman whose ancestors have been of +the same following, and who has no higher ambition in life than to +continue, and if possible enhance, the good will and the good name of +the business, is good authority to consult on all matters within his +range. There is a self-poise about him, the result of his satisfaction +with his own position, which is dignified and pleasing. + +On my last morning in Chester, I spent an hour or two in the markets, +and encountered two good specimens of this class. One was a fair, +slender girl, so unexceptionably dressed in a plain, well-cut ulster +that, as I observed her in the crowd of market-women, I supposed she +was a young housekeeper, out for her early marketing; but presently, +to my great astonishment, I saw her with her own hands measuring +onions into a huckster-woman's basket. On drawing nearer, I discovered +that she was the proprietress of a natty vegetable cart, piled full of +all sorts of green stuff, which she was selling to the sellers. She +could not have been more than eighteen. Her manner and speech were +prompt, decisive, business-like; she wasted no words in her +transactions. Her little brother held the sturdy pony's reins, and she +stood by the side of the cart, ready to take orders. She said that she +lived ten miles out of town; that she and her three brothers had a +large market garden, of which they did all the work with their own +hands, and she and this lad brought the produce to market daily. + +"I make more sellin' 'olesale than sellin' standin'," she said; "an' +I'm 'ome again by ten o'clock, to be at the work." + +I observed that all who bought from her addressed her as "miss," and +bore themselves toward her with a certain respectfulness of demeanor, +showing that they considered her avocation a grade or so above their +own. + +A matronly woman, with pink cheeks and bright hazel eyes, had walked +in from her farm, a distance of six miles, because the load of greens, +eggs, poultry, and flowers was all that her small pony could draw. +Beautiful moss roses she had, at "thrippence" a bunch. + +"No, no, Ada, not any more," she said, in a delicious low voice, to a +child by her side, who was slyly taking a rose from one of the +baskets. "You've enough there. It hurts them to lie in the 'ot +sun.--My daughter, mem," she explained, as the little thing shrunk +back, covered with confusion, and pretended to be very busy arranging +the flowers on a little board laid across two stones, behind which she +was squatted,--"my daughter, mem. All the profits of the flowers they +sell are their own, mem. They puts it all in the missionary box. +They'd eighteen an' six last year, mem, in all, besides what they put +in the school box. Yes, mem, indeed they had." + +It struck me that this devout mother took a strange view of the +meaning of the word "own," and I did not spend so much money on Ada's +flowers as I would have done if I had thought Ada would have the +spending of it herself, in her own childish way. But I bought a big +bunch of red and white daisies, and another of columbines, white +pinks, ivy, and poppies; and the little maid, barely ten years old, +took my silver, made change, and gave me the flowers with a winsome +smile and a genuine market-woman's "Thank you, mem." + +It was a pretty scene: the open space in front of the market building, +filled with baskets, bags, barrows, piles of fresh green things, +chiefly of those endless cabbage species, which England so proudly +enumerates when called upon to mention her vegetables; the dealers +were principally women, with fresh, fair faces, rosy cheeks, and soft +voices; in the outer circle, scores of tiny donkey-carts, in which the +vegetables had been brought. One chubby little girl, surely not more +than seven, was beginning her market-woman's training by minding the +donkey, while her mother attended to trade. As she stood by the +donkey's side, her head barely reached to his ears; but he entered +very cleverly into the spirit of the farce of being kept in place by +such a mite, and to that end employed her busily in feeding him with +handfuls of grass. If she stopped, he poked his nose into her neck and +rummaged under her chin, till she began again. All had flowers to +sell, if it were only a single bunch, or plant in a pot; and there +were in the building several fine stalls entirely filled with +flowers,--roses, carnations, geraniums, and wonderful pansies. +Noticing, in one stall, a blossom I had never before seen, I asked the +old woman who kept the stand to tell me its name. She clapped her hand +to her head tragically. "'Deed, mem, it's strange. Ye're the second +has asked me the name o' that flower; an' it's gone out o' my head. If +the young lady that has the next stand was here, she'd tell ye. It was +from her I got the roots: she's a great botanist, mem, an' a fine +gardener. Could I send ye the name o' 't, mem? I'd be pleased to +accommodate ye, an' may be ye'd like a root or two o' 't. It's a free +grower. We've 'ad a death in the house, mem,--my little grandchild, +only a few hours ill,--an' it seems like it 'ad confused the 'ole +'ouse. We've not 'ad 'eart to take pains with the flowers yet." + +The old woman's artless, garrulous words smote like a sudden bell-note +echo from a far past,--an echo that never ceases for hearts that have +once known how bell-notes sound when bells toll for beloved dead! The +thoughts her words woke seemed to span Chester's centuries more +vividly than all the old chronicle traditions and legends, than +sculptured Roman altar, or coin, or graven story in stone. The strange +changes they recorded were but things of the surface, conditions of +the hour. Through and past them all, life remained the same. Grief and +joy do not alter shape or sort. Love and love's losses and hurts are +the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] Longfellow. + + + + +III. + +NORWAY, DENMARK, AND GERMANY. + + + + +III. + +NORWAY, DENMARK, AND GERMANY. + + +BERGEN DAYS. + +The hardest way to go to Norway is by way of the North Sea. It is two +days' and two nights' sail from Hull to Bergen; and two days and two +nights on the North Sea are nearly as bad as two days and two nights +on the English Channel would be. But the hardest way is the best way, +in this as in so many other things. No possible approach to Norway +from the Continent can give one the sudden characteristic impression +of Norway sea and shore which he gets as he sails up the Stavanger +Fjord, and sees the town of Stavanger looking off from its hillside +over the fleets of island and rock that lie moored in its harbor. + +At first sight it seems as if there were no Norway coast at all, only +an endless series of islands beyond islands, never stayed by any +barrier of mainland; or as if the mainland itself must be being +disintegrated from its very centre outwards, breaking up and crumbling +into pieces. Surely, the waters, when they were commanded to stay from +off the earth, yielded the command but a fragmentary obedience so far +as this region was concerned. + +The tradition of the creation of Norway seems a natural outgrowth of +the place,--the only way, in fact, of accounting for the lay of the +land. The legend declares that Norway was made last, and in this wise: +On the seventh day, while God was resting from his labors, the devil, +full of spite at seeing so fair a world, hurled into the ocean a +gigantic rock,--a rock so large that it threatened to break the axis +of the universe. But the Lord seized it, and fixed it firm in place, +with its myriad jutting points just above the waters. Between these +points he scattered all the earth he had left; nothing like enough to +cover the rock, or to make a respectable continent,--only just enough +to redeem spots here and there, and give man a foothold on it. The +fact that forty per cent of the whole surface of Norway is over three +thousand feet above the sea is certainly a corroboration of this +legend. + +This island fringe gives to the coast of Norway an indefinable +charm,--the charm of endless maze, vista, expectation, and surprise; +lure, also, suggestion, dim hint, and reticent revelation, like a +character one cannot fathom, and behavior one can never reckon on. +Though the ship sail in and out of the labyrinths never so safely and +quickly, fancy is always busy at deep-sea soundings; bewildered by the +myriad shapes, and half conscious of a sort of rhythm in their swift, +perpetual change, as if they, and not the ship, were gliding. The +vivid verdure on them in spots has more the expression of something +momentarily donned and worn than of a growth. It seems accidental and +decorative, flung on suddenly; then, again, soft, thick, +inexhaustible, as if the islands might be the tops of drowned forests. + +Stavanger is one of the most ancient towns in Norway. It looks as if +it were one of the most ancient in the world; its very brightness, +with its faded red houses, open windows, and rugged pavements, being +like the color and smile one sees sometimes on a cheerful, wrinkled, +old face. The houses are packed close together, going up-hill as hard +as they can; roofs red tiled; gable ends red tiled also, which gives a +droll eyebrow effect to the ends of the houses, and helps wonderfully +to show off pretty faces just beneath them, looking out of windows. +All the windows open in the middle, outwards, like shutters; and it +would not be much risk to say that there is not a window-sill in all +Stavanger without flowers. Certainly, we did not see one in a three +hours' ramble. From an old watchtower, which stands on the top of the +first sharp hill above the harbor, is a sweeping off-look, seaward and +coastward, to north and south: long promontories, green and curving, +with low red roofs here and there, shot up into relief by the sharp +contrast of color; bays of blue water breaking in between; distant +ranges of mountains glittering white; thousands of islands in sight at +once. Stavanger's approach strikes Norway's key-note with a bold +hand, and old Norway and new Norway meet in Stavanger's market-place. +An old cathedral, the oldest but one in the country, looks down a +little inner harbor, where lie sloops loaded with gay pottery of +shapes and colors copied from the latest patterns out in +Staffordshire. These are made by peasants many miles away, on the +shores of the fjords: bowls, jars, flower-pots, jugs, and plates, +brown, cream-colored, red, and white; painted with flowers, and +decorated with Grecian and Etruscan patterns in simple lines. The +sloop decks are piled high with them,--a gay show, and an odd enough +freight to be at sea in a storm. The sailors' heads bob up and down +among the pots and pans, and the salesman sits flat on the deck, lost +from view, until a purchaser appears. Miraculously cheap this pottery +is, as well as fantastic of shape and color; one could fit out his +table off one of these crockery sloops, for next to nothing. Along the +wharves were market-stands of all sorts: old women selling fuchsias, +myrtles, carrots, and cabbages, and blueberries, all together; piles +of wooden shoes, too,--clumsy things, hollowed out of a single chunk +of wood, shaped like a Chinese junk keel, and coarsely daubed with +black paint on the outside; no heel to hold them on, and but little +toe. The racket made by shuffling along on pavements in them is +amazing, and "down at the heel" becomes a phrase of new significance, +after one has heard the thing done in Norway. + +Just outside the market-place we came upon our first cariole; it was +going by like the wind, drawn by a little Norwegian pony, which seemed +part pincushion, part spaniel, part fat snowbird, and the rest pony, +with a shoe-brush, bristles up, for a mane. Such good-will in his +trot, and such a sense of honor and independence in the wriggle of his +head, and such affectionateness all over him, no wonder the Norwegians +love such a species of grown-up useful pet dogs. Hardy they are, and, +if they choose, swift; obey voices better than whips, and would rather +have bread than hay to eat, at any time of day. The cariole is a kind +of compressed sulky, open, without springs; the narrow seat, narrow +even for one person, set high up on elastic wooden shafts, which rest +on the axle-tree at the back, and on a sort of saddle-piece in front. +The horse is harnessed very far forward in the low thills, and has +the direct weight on his shoulders. A queerer sight than such a +vehicle as this, coming at a Norwegian pony's best rate towards you, +with a pretty Norwegian girl driving, and standing up on the +cross-piece behind her a handsome Norwegian officer, with his plumed +head above hers, bent a little to the right or left, and very close, +lovers of human nature in picturesque situations need not wish to see. +Less picturesque, and no doubt less happy for the time being, but no +less characteristic, was the first family we saw in Stavanger taking +an airing; a square wooden box for a wagon,--nothing more than a +vegetable bin on wheels. This held two large milk-cans, several +bushels of cabbages, four children, and their mother. The father +walked sturdily beside the wagon, his head bent down, like his pony's; +serious eyes, a resolute mouth, and a certain look of unjoyous content +marked him as a good specimen of the best sort of Norwegian peasant. +The woman and the children wore the same look of unjoyous and +unmirthful content; silent, serious, satisfied, they all sat still +among the cabbages. So solemn a thing is it to be born in latitude +north. Had those cabbages grown in the Campagna, the man would have +been singing, the woman laughing, and the young ones rolling about in +the cart like kittens. + +From Stavanger to Bergen is a half-day's sail: in and out among +islands, promontories, inlets, rocks; now wide sea on one hand, and +rugged shore on the other; now a very archipelago of bits of land and +stone flung about in chaotic confusion, on all sides. Many of the +islands are nothing but low beds of granite, looking as if it were in +flaky slices like mica, or else minutely roughened and stippled, as +though cooled suddenly from a tremendous boil. Some of these islands +have oases of green in them; tiny red farm-houses, sunk in hollows, +with narrow settings of emerald around them; hand's-breadth patches of +grain here and there, left behind as from some harvest, which the +hungry sea is following after to glean. No language can describe the +fantastic, elusive charm of this islet and rocklet universe: half +sadness, half cheer, half lonely, half teeming, altogether brilliant +and brimming with beauty; green land, gray rock, and blue water, +surging, swaying, blending, parting, dancing together, in stately and +contagious pleasure. On the north horizon rise grand snow-topped +peaks; broad blue bays make up into the land walled by mountains; snow +fjelds and glaciers glitter in the distance; and waterfalls, like +silver threads, shine from afar on the misty clouds. At every new turn +is a hamlet or house, looking as if it had just crept into shelter; +one solitary boat moored at the base of its rock, often the only token +of a link kept with the outer world. + +The half-day's sail from Stavanger to Bergen is all like this, except +that after one turns southward into the Bergen Fjord the mysterious +islanded shores press closer, and the hill shores back of them rise +higher, so that expectancy and wonder deepen moment by moment, till +the moment of landing on Bergen's water rim. "Will there be carriages +at the wharf?" we had asked of the terrible stewardess who had +tyrannized over our ship for two days, like a French Revolution +fishwoman. "Carriages!" she cried, with her arms akimbo. "The streets +in Bergen are so steep carriages can't drive down them. The horses +would tumble back on the carriage,"--a purely gratuitous fiction on +her part, for what motive it is hard to conceive. But it much enhanced +the interest with which we gazed at the rounding hills, slowly hemming +us in closer and closer, and looking quite steep enough to justify the +stewardess's assertion. By clocks, it was ten o'clock at night; by +sky, about dawn, or just after sunset; by air, atmosphere, light, no +time which any human being ever heard named or defined. There is +nothing in any known calendar of daylight, twilight, or nightlight +which is like this Norwegian interval between two lights. It is weird, +bewildering, disconcerting. You don't know whether you are glad or +sorry, pleased or scared; whether you really can see or not; whether +you'd better begin another day's work at once, or make believe it is +time to go to bed. + +If somebody would invent a word which should bear the same +interesting, specific, and intelligible relation to light and dark +that "amphibious" does to land and water, it would be, in describing +Norway twilight, of more use than all the rest of the English language +put together. Perhaps the Norwegians have such a word. I think it +highly probable they have, and I wish I knew it. + +In this strange illuminated twilight, we landed on the silent Bergen +wharf. The quay was in shadow of high warehouses. A few nonchalant and +leisurely men and boys were ambling about; custom-house men, speaking +the jargon of their race, went through the farce of appearing to +ransack our luggage. Our party seemed instantaneously to have +disintegrated, in the half darkness, into odds and ends of unassorted +boxes and people, and it was with gratitude as for a succession of +interpositions of a superior and invincible power that we finally +found ourselves together again in one hotel, and decided that, on the +whole, it was best to go to bed, in spite of the light, because, as it +was already near midnight, it would very soon be still lighter, and +there would be no going to bed at all. + +The next day, we began Bergen by driving out of it (a good way always, +to begin a place). No going out of Bergen eastward or westward except +straight up skyward, so steep are the slopes. Southward the country +opens by gentler ascents, and pretty country houses are built along +the road for miles,--all of wood, and of light colors, with much +fantastic carving about them; summer-houses perched on the terraces, +among lime, birch, and ash trees. One which we saw was in octagon +shape, and had the roof thick sodded with grass, which waved in the +wind. The eight open spaces of the sides were draped with bright +scarlet curtains, drawn away tight on each side, making a Gothic arch +line of red at each opening. It looked like somebody's gay palanquin +set down to wait. + +Our driver's name was Nils. He matched it: short, sturdy, and +good-natured; red cheeks and shining brown eyes. His ponies scrambled +along splendidly, and stopped to rest whenever they felt like it,--not +often, to be sure, but they had their own way whenever they did, and +were allowed to stand still. Generally they put their heads down and +started off of their own accord in a few seconds; occasionally Nils +reminded them by a chuckle to go on. + +There is no need of any society for the prevention of cruelty to +animals in Norway. The Norwegian seems to be instinctively kind to all +beasts of bondage. At the foot of steep hills is to be seen everywhere +the sign, "Do not forget to rest the horses." The noise Nils made when +he wished to stop his ponies gave us a fright, the first time we +heard it. It is the drollest sound ever invented for such a use: a +loud call of rolling _r's_; an ingenious human parody on a watchman's +rattle; a cross between a bellow and a purr. It is universal in +Norway, but one can never become accustomed to it unless he has heard +it from infancy up. + +The wild and wooded country through which we drove was like parts of +the northern hill country of New England: steep, stony hills; nooks +full of ferns; bits of meadow in sunlight and shadow, with clover, and +buttercups, and bluebells, and great mossy bowlders; farm-houses +snugged down in hollows to escape the wind; lovely dark tarns, with +pond-lilies afloat, just too far from the shore for arms to reach +them. Only when we met people, or when the great blue fjord gleamed +through the trees below us, did we know we were away from home. It is +a glory when an arm of the sea reaches up into the heart of a hill +country, so that men may sail to and from mountain bases. No wonder +that the Vikings went forth with the passion of conquering, and yet +forever returned and returned, with the passion of loving their _gamle +Norge_. + +When we came back to the inn, we were invited into the landlady's own +parlor, and there were served to us wine and milk and sweet tarts, in +a gracious and simple hospitality. The landlady and her sister were +beautiful old ladies, well past sixty, with skins like peaches, and +bright eyes and quick smiles. High caps of white lace, trimmed with +sky-blue ribbons, and blue ostrich feathers laid on them like wreaths +above the forehead, gave to their expression a sort of infantile +elegance which was bewitching in its unworldliness; small white shawls +thrown over their shoulders, and reaching only just below the belt, +like those worn by old Quaker women, corroborated the simplicity of +the blue ribbons, and added to the charm. They had all the freshness +and spotlessness of Quakers, with color and plumes added; a +combination surely unique of its kind. One of these old ladies was as +gay a chatterer as if she were only seventeen. She had not one tooth +in her mouth; but her mouth was no more made ugly by the absence of +teeth, as are most old women's mouths, than a baby's mouth is made +ugly by the same lack. The lips were full and soft and red; her face +was not wrinkled; and when she talked and laughed and nodded, the blue +ostrich feathers bobbing above, she looked like some sort of +miraculous baby, that had learned to talk before "teething." + +Her niece, who was our only interpreter, and too shy to use quickly +and fluently even the English she knew, was in despair at trying to +translate her. "It is too much, too much," she said. "I cannot follow; +I am too far behind," and she laughed as heartily as her aunt. The old +lady was brimful of stories: she had known Bergen, in and out, for +half a century, and forgotten nothing. It was a great pleasure to set +her going, and get at her narrative by peeps, as one sees a landscape +through chinks in a fence, when one is whirling by in a railway train. +One of her best stories was of "the man who was brought back from the +dead by coffee." + +It seemed that when she was young there lived in Bergen three old +women, past whose house an eccentric old bachelor used to walk every +day at a certain hour. When he came back from his walk, he always +stopped at their house and drank a cup of coffee. This he had done for +a great many years. "He was their watch to tell the time by," and when +he first passed the house they began to make the coffee, that it +should be ready on his return. At last he fell ill and died, and two +of these old women were hired to sit up one night and watch the +corpse. It is the custom in Norway to keep all dead bodies one week +before burial, if not in the house where they have died, then in the +chapel at the graveyard. "When we do die on a Wednesday, we shall not +be buried till another Wednesday have come," said the niece, +explaining this custom. + +These old women were sitting in the room with the corpse, talking and +sipping hot coffee together, and saying how they should miss him; that +never more would he go by their house and stop to get his coffee. + +"At any rate, he shall taste the coffee once more," said one of them, +and she put a spoonful of the hot coffee into the corpse's lips, at +which the old gentleman stirred, drew a long breath, and began to lift +himself up, upon which the women uttered such shrieks that the city +watchman, passing by, broke quickly into the house, to see what was +the matter. Entering the room, he found the watchers senseless on the +floor, and the corpse sitting bolt upright in his coffin, looking +around him, much bewildered. "And he did live many years after that +time,--many, many years. My aunt did know him well," said the niece. + +Other of her stories were of the sort common to the whole +world,--stories of the love, sorrow, tragedy, mystery, which are +inwoven in the very warp and woof of human life; the same on the bleak +North Sea coast as on bright Southern shores. It seemed, however, a +little more desolate to have lived in the sunless North seventy years +of such life as had been dealt to one Bergen woman, who had but just +passed away. Seventy years she had lived in Bergen, the last thirty +alone, with one servant. In her youth she had been beautiful; and when +she was still little more than a child had come to love very dearly +the eldest son in a neighbor's house. Their parents were friends; the +young people saw each other without restraint, familiarly, fondly, and +a great love grew up between them. They were suffered to become +betrothed, but for some unassigned reason their marriage was +forbidden. For years they bore with strange patience their parents' +apparently capricious decision. At last the blow fell. One of the +fathers, lying at the point of death, revealed a terrible secret. This +faithful betrothed man and woman were own brother and sister. The +shame of two homes, the guilt of two unsuspected wrong-doers, was +told; the mystery was cleared up, and more than one heart broken. +Bitter as was the grief of the two betrothed, who could now never wed, +there must have been grief still more terrible in the hearts of those +long ago wedded, and so long deceived. The father died as soon as he +had confessed the guilty secret. The young man left Norway, and died +in some far country. The girl lived on,--lived to be seventy,--alone +with her sorrow and disgrace. + +Two other Bergen lovers had had better fate. Spite of fathers and +mothers who had forbidden them to meet, it fell out for them to be +safely married, one night, in the very teeth of the closest watching. +The girl was permitted to go, under the escort of a faithful +man-servant, to a wedding dance at a friend's house. The man-servant +was ordered to stand guard at the door, till the dance was over; if +the lover appeared, the girl was to be instantly taken home. Strange +oversight, for parents so much in earnest as that, to forget that +houses have more than one door! When the mirth was at its height, the +girl stole away by the back door, and fled to her lover. At length the +dance was over, and the guests were leaving; anxiously the faithful +servitor, who had never once left the doorstep, looked for his young +mistress. The last guest departed; his mistress did not appear. In +great terror he entered; the house was searched in vain; no one knew +when she had taken her leave. Trembling, he ran back to the father +with the unwelcome news; and both going in hot haste to the lover's +house, there they found the two young people sitting gay and happy +over cake and wine, with the excellent clergyman who had that very +hour made them man and wife. + +The old lady had a firm and unalterable belief in ghosts, as indeed +she had some little right to have, one was forced to admit, after +hearing her stories. "And could you believe that after a man is dead +he should be seen again as if he were alive?" said the niece. "My aunt +is so sure, so sure she have seen such; also my aunt's sister, they +did both did see him." + +At one time the two sisters hired a house in Bergen, and lived +together. In one of the upper halls stood a small trunk, which had +been left there by a sailor, in payment of a debt he had owed to the +owner of the house. One day, in broad daylight, there suddenly +appeared, before the younger sister, the shape of a man in sailor's +dress. He walked toward her, holding out a paper. She spoke to him +wonderingly, asking what he wanted. At the sound of her voice he +vanished into thin air. She fainted, and was for some weeks seriously +ill. A few months later, the same figure appeared in the bedroom of +the eldest sister (the old lady who told these stories). He came in +the night, and approached her bed holding out a white paper in his +hands. "My aunt say she could cut the shape in paper like the hat he +wore on his head; she did see it so plain to-day as she have seen it +then, and it shall be fifty years since he did come by her bed. She +was so scared she would not have the trunk of the sailor to stand in +the house longer; and after the trunk had gone away he did come no +more to their house." + +Another instance of this ghost-seeing was truly remarkable, and not so +easily explained by any freak of imagination. Walking, one day, in a +public garden, with a friend, she saw coming down the path toward them +a singular old woman in a white nightcap and short white +bedgown,--both very dirty. The old woman was tossing her arms in the +air, and behaving so strangely that she thought she must be drunk, and +turned laughingly to her friend, about to say, "What can be the matter +with this old woman?" when, to her surprise, she saw her friend pale, +fainting, ready to fall to the ground. She seized her in her arms, +called for help, and carried her to a seat. On returning to +consciousness, her friend exclaimed, "It was my mother! It was my +mother!" The mother had been dead some months, had always worn in her +illness this white cotton nightcap and short bedgown, and had been, it +seemed, notoriously untidy. + +"Now my aunt did never see that old woman in all her life," continued +the niece. "So what think you it was, in that garden, that both them +did see the same thing at one time? And my aunt's friend she get so +very sick after that, she were sick in bed for a long time. My aunt +will believe always she did see the mother's ghost; and she says she +have seen a great many more that she never tells to anybody." + +All this ghost-seeing has not sobered or saddened the old lady a whit, +and she looks the last person in the world to whom sentimental or +mischief-making spirits would be likely to address themselves: but +there is certainly something uncanny, to say the least of it, in these +experiences of hers. + +One of the most novel pleasures in Bergen is old-silver hunting. There +are shops where old silver is to be bought in abundance and at dear +prices: old belts, rings, slides, buttons, brooches, spoons, of quaint +and fantastic styles, some of them hundreds of years old. But the +connoisseur in old-silver hunting will not confine his search for +treasures to the large shops on the thoroughfares. He will roam the +city, keeping a sharp eye for little boxes tucked up on walls of +houses, far down narrow lanes and by-ways,--little boxes with glass +sides, and a silver spoon or two, or an old buckle or brooch, shining +through. This is the sign that somewhere in that house he will come on +a family that has tucked away in some closet a little box of old +silver that they will sell. Often they are workers in silver in a +small way; have a counter in the front parlor, and a tiny work-room +opening out behind, where they make thin silver spoons with twisted +handles, and brooches with dangling disks and crosses, such as all the +peasant women wear to-day, and a hundred years hence their +grandchildren will be selling to English and American travellers as +"old silver." The next century, however, will not gather such +treasures as this one; there is no modern silver to compare with the +ancient. It is marvellous to see what a wealth of silver the old +Norwegians wore: buckles and belts which are heavy, buttons which +weigh down any cloak, and rings under which nineteenth-century +fingers, and even thumbs, would ache. And the farther back we go the +weightier become the ornaments. In the Museum of Northern Antiquities +in Copenhagen are necklaces of solid gold, which it seems certain that +noble Norwegian women wore in King Olaf's time,--necklaces in shape of +a single snake, coiled, so heavy that they are not easily lifted in +one hand; bracelets, also of the same snake shape, which a modern +wrist could not wear half an hour without pain. + +In these out-of-the-way houses where old silver is to be bought one +sees often picturesque sights. Climbing up a narrow stairway, perhaps +two, you find a door with the upper half glass, through which you look +instantly into the bosom of the family,--children playing, old ladies +knitting, women cooking; it seems the last place in the world to come +shopping; but at the first glimpse of the foreign face and dress +through the window, somebody springs to open the door. They know at +once what it means. You want no interpreter to carry on your trade: +the words "old silver" and "how much?" are all you need. They will not +cheat you. As you enter the room, every member of the family who is +sitting will rise and greet you. The youngest child will make its +little bow or courtesy. The box of old silver will be brought out and +emptied on a table, and you may examine its miscellany as long as you +like. If an article pleases you, and you ask its price, it is taken +into the work-room to be weighed; a few mysterious Norsk words come +back from the weigher, and the price is fixed. If you hesitate at the +sum, they will lower it if they can; if not, they will await your +departure quietly, with a dignity of hospitable instinct that would +deem it an offence to betray any impatience. I had once the good luck +to find in one of these places a young peasant woman, who had come +with her lover to bargain for the silver-and-gilt crown without which +no virtuous Bergen bride will wed. These crowns are dear, costing +often from fifty to a hundred dollars. Sometimes they are hired for +the occasion; but well-to-do families have pride in possessing a crown +which is handed down and worn by generation after generation. These +lovers were evidently not of the rich class: they wore the plainest of +clothes, and it was easy to see that the prices of the crowns +disquieted them. I made signs to the girl to try one of them on. She +laughed, blushed, and shook her head. I pressed my entreaties as well +as I could, being dumb; but "Oh, do!" is intelligible in all +languages, if it is enforced by gesture and appealing look. The old +man who had the silver to sell also warmly seconded my request, lifted +the crown himself, and set it on the girl's head. Turning redder and +redder, she cried, "Ne, ne!" but did not resist; and once the crown +was on her head she could not leave off looking at herself in the +glass. It was a very pretty bit of human nature. The lover stole up +close behind her, shy, but glowing with emotion, reached up, and just +touched the crown timidly with one finger: so alike are men in love +all the world over and all time through. The look that man's face wore +has been seen by the eyes of every wife since the beginning of Eden, +and it will last the world out. I slipped away, and left them standing +before the glass, the whole family crowding around with a chorus of +approving and flattering exclamations. Much I fear she could not +afford to buy the crown, however. There was a hopeless regret in her +pretty blue eyes. As I left the house I stepped on juniper twigs at +the very next door; the sidewalk and the street were strewn thick with +them, the symbol of death either in that home or among its friends. +This is one of the most simple and touching of the Norwegian customs: +how much finer in instinct and significance than the gloomy streamer +of black crape used by the civilization calling itself superior! + +The street was full of men and women going to and from the +market-place: women with big wooden firkins strapped on their backs, +and a firkin under each arm (these firkins were full of milk, and the +women think nothing of bringing them in that way five or six miles); +men with big sacks of vegetables strapped on in the same way, one +above another, almost as high as their heads. One little girl, not +nine years old, bore a huge basket of green moss, bigger than herself, +lashed on her fragile shoulders. The better class brought their things +in little two-wheeled carts, they themselves mounted up on top of +sacks, firkins, and all; or, if the cart were too full, plodding along +on foot by its side, just as bent as those who were carrying loads on +their back. A Bergen peasant man or woman who stands upright is a rare +thing to see. The long habit of carrying burdens on the back has given +them a chronic stoop, which makes them all look far older than they +are. + +The sidewalks were lined with gay displays of fruit, flowers, and +wooden utensils. Prettiest among these last were the bright wooden +trunks and boxes which no Norwegian peasant will be without. The +trunks are painted bright scarlet, with bands and stripes of gay +colors; small boxes to be carried in the hand, called _tines_ +(pronounced teeners), are charming. They are oval, with a high perch +at each end like a squirrel trap; are painted bright red, with wreaths +of gay flowers on them, and mottoes such as "Not in every man's garden +can such flowers grow," or, "A basket filled by love is light to +carry." Bowls, wooden plates, and drinking-vessels, all of wood, are +also painted in gay colors and designs, many of which seem to have +come from Algiers. + +Everybody who can sell anything, even the smallest thing, runs, or +stands, or squats in the Bergen streets to sell it. Even spaces under +high doorsteps are apparently rented for shops, rigged up with a sort +of door, and old women sit crouching in them, selling blueberries and +dark bread. One man, clad in sheepskin that looked a hundred years +old, I saw trying to sell a bit of sheepskin nearly as old as that he +was wearing; another had a basket with three bunches of wild +monkshood, pink spiræa, and blue larkspur, and one small saucer full +of wild strawberries; boys carrying one pot with a plant growing in +it, or a tub of sour milk, or a string of onions, or bunch of juniper +boughs; women sitting on a small butter-tub upside down, their butter +waiting sale around them in tubs or bits of newspaper, they knitting +for dear life, or sewing patches on ragged garments; other groups of +women sitting flat on the stones, surrounded by piles of juniper, +moss, green heath, and wreaths made of kinni-kinnick vines, green +moss, and yellow flowers. These last were for graves. The whole +expression of the scene was of dogged and indomitable thriftiness, put +to its last wits to turn a penny and squeeze out a living. Yet nobody +appeared discontented; the women looked friendly, as I passed, and +smiled as they saw me taking out my note-book to write them down. + +The Bergen fish-market is something worth seeing. It isn't a market at +all; or rather it is a hundred markets afloat and bobbing on water, a +hundred or more little boats all crowded in together in an armlet of +the sea breaking up between two quays. To see the best of it one must +be there betimes in the morning, not later than seven. The quays will +be lined with women, each woman carrying a tin coal-scuttle on her +arm, to take home her fish in. From every direction women are coming +running with tin scuttles swinging on their arms; in Bergen, fish is +never carried in any other way. The narrow span of water between the +quays is packed as close as it can be with little boats shooting among +the sloops and _jagts_, all pushing up to the wharf. The steps leading +down to the water are crowded with gesticulating women; screaming and +gesticulating women hang over the railings above, beckoning to the +fishermen, calling to them, reaching over and dealing them sharp +whacks with their tin scuttles, if they do not reply. "Fisherman! I +say, Fisherman! Do you hear me or not?" they shout. Then they point to +one particular fish, and insist on having it handed up to them to +examine; if it does not please them, they fling it down with a jerk, +and ask for another. The boats were full of fish: silver-skinned +herring, mackerel, salmon, eels, and a small fish like a perch, but of +a gorgeous dark red color; others vermilion and white, or iridescent +opal, blue, and black; many of them writhing in death, and changing +color each second. Every few minutes a new boat would appear darting +in, wriggling its way where it had seemed not one boat more could +come; then a rush of the women to see what the new boat had brought, +a fresh outburst of screams and gesticulations; then a lull and a +sinking back to the noisy monotone of the previous chaffering. Some of +the boats were rowed by women,--splendid creatures, in gay red bodices +and white head-dresses, standing with one foot on the seat, and +sculling their little craft in and out, dexterously shoving everybody +to make way. + +On the wharf were a few dealers with stands and baskets of fish; these +were for the poorer people. "Fish that have died do be to be brought +there," said my guide, with a shudder and an expressive grimace, "for +very little money; it is the poor that take." Here were also great +tubs of squirming eels, alive in every inch from tip to tip. "Too +small to cook," said one woman, eying them contemptuously; and in a +twinkling she thrust her arm into the squirming mass, grasped a dozen +or more at once, lifted them out and flirted them into the seller's +face, then letting them fall back with a splash into the tub, "H'm, +pretty eels those are!" she said. "Put them back into the water with +their mothers:" at which a great laugh went up, and the seller +muttered something angrily which my guide would not translate for me. + +On our way home I stopped to look at a group of peasant women in gay +costumes. Two of them were from the Hardanger county, and wore the +beautiful white head-dress peculiar to that region: a large triangular +piece of fine crimped dimity pinned as closely as a Quaker cap around +the face; the two corners then rolled under and carried back over a +wooden frame projecting several inches on each side the head; the +central point hanging down behind, over the shoulders,--by far the +most picturesque of all the Norwegian head-dresses. A gentleman +passing by, seeing my interest in these peasant dresses, spoke to the +friend who was with me, whom he knew slightly, and said that if the +American lady would like to examine one of those peasant costumes he +had one which he would be happy to show to me. + +The incident is worth mentioning as a fair illustration of the quick, +ready, and cordial good-will of which Norwegians are full. Is there +any other country in the world where a man would take that sort and +amount of trouble for a chance traveller, of whom he knew nothing? + +This Norwegian led us to his house, and opened two boxes in which were +put away the clothes of his wife, who had been dead two years. This +peasant costume which he showed to us she had had made to wear to the +last ball she had attended. It was a beautiful costume; strictly +national and characteristic, and made of exquisite materials. The belt +was of silver-gilded links, with jewels set in them; the buttons for +wrists and throat of the white blouse were of solid silver, with gold +Maltese crosses hanging from them; the brooches and vest ornaments the +same; the stomacher of velvet, embroidered thick with beads and gold; +the long white apron with broad lace let in. All were rich and +beautiful. It was strange to see the dead woman's adornments thus +brought out for a stranger to admire; but it was done with such +simplicity and kindliness that it was only touching, as no shadow of +disrespect was in it. I felt instantly, like a friend, reverent toward +the relics of the woman I had never seen. + +One of our pleasantest Bergen days was a day that wound up with a +sunset picnic on the banks of a stray bit of sea, which had gone so +far on its narrow roadway east, among hill and meadow and rock, that +it was like an inland lake; and the track by which its tides slipped +back and forth looked at sunset like little more than a sunbeam, +broader and brighter than the rest which were slanting across. We had +come to it by several miles' driving to the north and east, over steep +and stony hills, up which the road wound in loops, zigzagging back and +forth, with superb views out seaward at every turn; at the top, +another great sweep of view away from the sea, past a desolate lake +and stony moor, to green hills and white mountains in the east. We +seemed above everything except the snow-topped peaks. At our feet, to +the west, lay the little sunny fjord; green meadows and trees and a +handful of houses around it; daisies and clover and tangles of +potentilla by the roadside; clumps of ragged robin also, which goes +better named in Norway, being called "silken blossom;" mountain ash, +larch, maple, and ash trees: bowlders of granite covered with mosses +and lichens, bedded on every side,--it was as winning a spot as sun +and sea and summer could make anywhere. On the edge of the fjord, +lifted a little above it, as on a terrace, was a small white cottage, +with a bit of garden, enclosed by white palings, running close to the +water. Roses, southernwood, currants, lilacs, cherry-trees, potatoes, +and primroses filled it full. We leaned over the paling and looked. An +old woman, with knitting in her hand, came quickly out, and begged us +to come in and take some flowers. No sooner had we entered the garden +than a second old woman came hurrying with scissors to cut the +flowers; and in a second more a third old woman with a basket to hold +them. It was not easy to stay their hands. Then, nothing would do but +we must go into the house and sit down, and see the brothers: two old +men, one a clergyman, the other stone blind. "I can English read in my +New Testament," said the clergyman, "but I cannot understand." "Yes, +to be sure," said the blind brother, echoing him. And it was soon +evident to us that it was not only sight of which the old man had been +bereft; his wits were gone too; all that he could do now was to echo +in gentle iteration every word that his brother or sisters said. "Yes, +to be sure," was his instantaneous comment on every word spoken. "I +think they are all just a little crazy. I am more happy now that we +are away," said my friend, as we departed with our roses. "I do know I +have heard that to be crazy is in that family." Crazy or not, they +were a very happy family on that sunny terrace, and sane enough to +have chosen the loveliest spot to live in within ten miles of Bergen. + +Another of our memorable Bergen days was marked by a true Norwegian +dinner in a simple Bergen home. "The carriage that shall take you will +come at six," the hostess had said. Punctual to the hour it came; +red-cheeked Nils and the cheery little ponies. On the threshold we +were met by the host and hostess, both saying, "Welcome." As soon as +we took our seats at table a toast was offered: "Welcome to the table" +(_Welkommen tilbords_). The meal was, as we had requested, a simple +Norwegian dinner. First, a soup, with balls made of chicken: the meat +scraped fine while it is raw; then pounded to a paste with cream in a +marble mortar, the cream added drop by drop, as oil is added to salad +dressing; this, delicately seasoned, made into small round balls and +cooked in the boiling soup, had a delicious flavor, and a consistency +which baffled all our conjecture. Next came salmon, garnished with +shreds of cucumber, and with clear melted butter for sauce. Next, +chickens stuffed tight with green parsley, and boiled; with these were +brought vegetables, raspberry jam, and stewed plums, all delicious. +Next, a light omelet, baked in a low oval tin pan, in which it was +brought to the table, the pan concealed in a frame of stiff white +dimity with a broad frill embroidered in red. Cheese and many other +dishes are served in this way in Norway, adorned with petticoats, or +frills of embroidered white stuffs. With this omelet were eaten cherry +sweetmeats, with which had been cooked all the kernels from the +cracked stones, giving a rare flavor and richness to the syrup. After +this, nuts, coffee, and cordials. When the dinner was over, the host +and the hostess stood in the doorway, one on either hand; as we passed +between them, they bowed to each one, saying, "God be with you." It is +the custom of each guest to say, "_Tak fur maden_" ("Thanks for the +meal"). After dinner our hostess played for us Norwegian airs, wild +and tender, and at ten o'clock came Nils and the ponies to take us +home. + +The next day the jagts came in, a sight fine enough to stir one's +blood; ten of them sailing into harbor in line, the same as they +sailed in Olaf's day,--their prows curling upward, as if they stepped +high on the waters from pride, and their single great square sail set +on their one mast doggedly across their decks, as if they could compel +winds' courses to suit them. They had been only four days running down +from Heligoland, ahead of a fierce north wind, which had not so much +as drawn breath even night or day, but blown them down flying. A rare +piece of luck for the jagts to hit such a wind as that: when the wind +faces them, they are sometimes four weeks on the way; for their one +great stolid sail amidships, which is all very well with the wind +behind it, is no kind of a sail to tack with, or to make headway on a +quartering wind. The Vikings must have had a hard time of it, often, +manoeuvring their stately craft in Mediterranean squalls, and in the +Bay of Biscay. One of these jagts bore a fine scarlet silk flag with a +yellow crown on it. It was called the king's jagt, because, a year +ago, the king had visited it, spent some time on board, and afterward +sent this flag as a gift to the captain. We hired an old boatman to +row us alongside, and clambered on board up a swinging ladder; then up +another ladder, still longer, to the top of the square mountain of +salt codfish which filled three fourths of the deck. Most of it was to +go to Spain, the skipper said,--to Spain and the Mediterranean. "It +was well for Norway that there were so many Roman Catholic Countries:" +no danger of an overstock of the fish market in Europe so long as good +Catholics keep Lent every spring and Fridays all the year round. If +the Catholics were to be converted, Norway would be plunged into +misery. One tenth of her whole population live off, if not on, fish; +the value of the fisheries is reckoned at over ten millions of dollars +a year. Not a fish goes free on the Norway coast. Even the shark has +to give up his liver for oil, from which item alone the Norwegians get +about half a million of dollars yearly. The herring, shining, silvery, +slippery fellows that they are, are the aristocrats of the Norway +waters; the cod is stupid, stays quietly at home on his banks, breeds +and multiplies, and waits to be caught year after year in the same +places. But the herring shoals are off and on, at capricious pleasure, +now here, now there, and to be watched for with unremitting vigilance. +Kings' squadrons might come to Norway with less attention than is +given to them. Flash, flash, flash, by electric telegraph from point +to point all along the Norway shore, is sent like lightning the news +of the arrival of their majesties the herring. + +Our boatman rowed us across the harbor to the landing at the foot of +the market-place. Climbing the steep hill, so steep that the roadway +for vehicles zigzags five times across it between bottom and top, we +looked back. Four more of the jagts were coming in,--colors flying, +sails taut; six more were in sight, it was said, farther out in the +fjord. The harbor was crowded with masts; the gay-colored houses and +red roofs and gables of the city on the east side of the harbor stood +out in relief against the gray, stony background of the high hill to +which they cling. The jagts seem to change the atmosphere of the whole +scene, and set it three centuries back. In the sunset light, they +looked as fine and fierce as if they had just brought Sigurd home from +Jerusalem. + +Another memorable Bergen day was a day at Valestrand, on the island +Osteroën. Valestrand is a farm which has been in the possession of Ole +Bull's family for several generations, and is still in the possession +of Ole Bull's eldest son. It lies two hours' sail north from +Bergen,--two hours, or four according to the number of lighters loaded +with cotton bales, wood, etc., which the steamer picks up to draw. +Steamers on Norway fjords are like country gentlemen who go into the +city every day and come out at night, always doing unexpected errands +for people along the road. No steamer captain going out from Bergen +may say how many times he will stop on his journey, or at what hour he +will reach its end: all of which is clear profit for the steamboat +company, no doubt, but is worrying to travellers; especially to those +who leave Bergen of a morning at seven, as we did, invited to +breakfast at Valestrand at nine, and do not see Osteroën's shore till +near eleven. People who were not going to Valestrand to breakfast that +day were eating breakfast on board, all around us: poor people eating +cracknels and dry bread out of baskets; well-to-do people eating +sausage, eggs, and coffee, neatly served at little tables on deck, and +all prepared in a tiny coop below-stairs, hardly big enough for one +person to turn around in. It is an enticing sight always for hungry +people to see eating going on; up to a certain point it whets +appetite, but beyond that it is both insult and injury. + +The harbor of Valestrand is a tiny amphitheatre of shallow water. No +big craft can get to the shore. As the steamer comes to a stop +opposite it, the old home of Ole Bull is seen on a slope at the head +of the harbor, looking brightly out over a bower of foliage to the +southern sun. It appears to be close to the water, but, on landing, +one discovers that he is still a half hour's walk away from it. A +little pathway of mossy stones, past an old boat-house, on whose +thatched roof flowering grasses and a young birch-tree were waving, +leads up from the water to the one road on the island. Wild pansies, +white clover, and dandelions, tinkling water among ferns and mosses, +along the roadsides, made the way beautiful; low hills rose on either +side, softly wooded with firs and birches feathery as plumes; in the +meadows, peasant men and women making hay,--the women in red jackets +and white blouses, a delight to the eye. Just in front of the house +is a small, darkly shaded lake, in which there is a mysterious +floating island, which moves up and down at pleasure, changing its +moorings often. + +The house is wooden, and painted of a pale flesh-color. The +architecture is of the light and fantastic order of which so much is +to be seen in Norway,--the instinctive reaction of the Norwegian +against the sharp, angular, severe lines of his rock-made, rock-bound +country; and it is vindicated by the fact that fantastic carvings, +which would look trivial and impertinent on houses in countries where +Nature herself had done more decorating, seem here pleasing and in +place. Before the house were clumps of rose-bushes in blossom, and +great circles of blazing yellow eschscholtzias. In honor of our +arrival, every room had been decorated with flowers and ferns; and +clumps of wild pansies in bloom had been set along the steps to the +porch. Ole Bull's own chamber and music-room are superb rooms, +finished in yellow pine, with rows of twisted and carved pillars, and +carved cornices and beams and panels, all done by Norwegian workmen. + +Valestrand was his home for many years, abandoned only when he found +one still more beautiful on the island of Lysoen, sixteen miles +southwest of Bergen. + +A Norwegian supper of trout freshly caught, and smothered in cream, +croquettes, salad, strawberries, goat's-milk cheese, with +fine-flavored gooseberry wine, served by a Norwegian maid in a +white-winged head-dress, scarlet jacket, and stomacher of gay beads, +closed our day. As we walked back to the little moss-grown wharf, we +found two peasants taking trout from the brook. Just where it dashed +foaming under a little foot-bridge, a stake-lined box trap had been +plunged deep in the water. As we were passing, the men lifted it out, +dripping, ten superb trout dashing about wildly in it, in terror and +pain; the scarlet spots on their sides shone like garnet crystals in +the sun, as the men emptied them on the ground, and killed them, one +by one, by knocking their heads against a stone with a sharp, quick +stroke, which could not have been so cruel as it looked. + +On our way back to Bergen we passed several little rowboats, creeping +slowly along, loaded high with juniper boughs. They looked like +little green islands broken loose from their places and drifting out +to sea. + +"For somebody's sorrow!" we said thoughtfully, as we watched them +slowly fading from sight in the distance; but we did not dream that in +so few days the green boughs would have been strewn for the burial of +the beloved musician whose home we had just left. + +The day of the burial of Ole Bull is a day that will never be +forgotten in Bergen. From mothers to children and to children's +children will go down the story of the day when from every house in +Bergen Norway's flag floated at half-mast, because Ole Bull was dead, +and the streets of Bergen for two miles--all the way from the quay to +the cemetery--were strewn with green juniper boughs, for the passage +of the procession bearing his body in sad triumph to the grave. It +must have been a touching sight. Early in the morning a steamer had +gone down to Lysoen to receive the body. This steamer on entering the +Bergen Fjord was met by fifteen others, all draped in black, to act as +its convoy. As the fleet approached the harbor, guns fired from the +fort, and answered by the steamers, made peals of echoes rolling away +gloriously among the hills. The harbor was crowded with shipping from +all parts of the world; every vessel's flag was at half-mast. The quay +was covered thick with green juniper, and festoons of green draped its +whole front to the very water's edge. Every shop and place of business +was shut; the whole population of the city stood waiting, silent, +reverent, for the landing of the dead body of the artist who had loved +Norway even as well as he loved the art to which his heart and life +had been given. While the body was borne from the boat and placed in +the high catafalque, a band played national airs of his arranging. +Young girls dressed in black bore many of the trophies which had been +given to him in foreign countries. His gold crown and orders were +carried by distinguished gentlemen of Bergen. As the procession passed +slowly along, flowers were showered on the coffin, and tears were seen +on many faces, but the silence was unbroken. + +At the grave, Norway's greatest orator and poet, Björnstjerne +Björnson, spoke a few words of eloquent love and admiration. The grave +was made on a commanding spot in the centre of Bergen's old cemetery, +in which interments had been forbidden for many years. This spot, +however, had been set apart more than thirty years ago, to be reserved +for the interment of some great man. It had been refused to the father +and framer of the Norwegian Constitution, Christie, whose statue +stands in Bergen, but it was offered for Ole Bull; so much more +tenderly does the world love artists than statesmen! The grave was +lined with flowers and juniper, and juniper and flowers lay +thick-strewn on the ground for a great space about. After the coffin +had been put in the grave, and the relatives had gone away, there was +paid a last tribute to Ole Bull,--a tribute more touching and of more +worth than the king's letter, the gold crown, all the orders, and the +flags of the world at half mast; meaning more love than the +pine-strewn streets of the silent city and the tears on its people's +faces,--a tribute from poor peasants, who had come in from the country +far and near, men who knew Ole Bull's music by heart, who in their +lonely, poverty-stricken huts had been proud of the man who had played +their "Gamle Norge" before the kings of the earth. These men were +there by hundreds, each bringing a green bough, or a fern, or a +flower; they waited humbly till all others had left the grave, then +crowded up, and threw in, each man, the only token he had been rich +enough to bring. The grave was filled to the brim; and it is not +irreverent to say that to Ole Bull, in heaven, there could come no +gladder memory of earth than that the last honors paid him there were +wild leaves and flowers of Norway, laid on his body by the loving +hands of Norway peasants. + + +FOUR DAYS WITH SANNA. + +A pair of eyes too blue for gray, too gray for blue; brown hair as +dark as hair can be, being brown and not black; a face fine without +beauty, gentle but firm; a look appealing, and yet full of a certain +steadfastness, which one can see would be changed to fortitude at once +if there were need; a voice soft, low, and of a rich fulness, in which +even Norwegian _sks_ flow melodiously and broken English becomes +music,--this is a little, these are a few features, of the portrait of +Sanna, all that can be told to any one not knowing Sanna herself. And +to those who do know her it would not occur to speak of the eyes, or +the hair, or the shy, brave look: to speak of her in description would +be lost time and a half-way impertinence; she is simply "Sanna." + +When she said she would go with me and show me two of the most +beautiful fjords of her country, her beloved Norway, I found no words +in which to convey my gladness. He who journeys in a foreign country +whose language he does not know is in sorrier plight for the time +being than one born a deaf-mute. Deprived all of a sudden of his two +chief channels of communication with his fellows, cut off in an hour +from all which he has been wont to gain through his ears and express +by his tongue, there is no telling his abject sense of helplessness. +The more he has been accustomed to free intercourse, exact replies, +ready compliance, and full utterance among his own people, the worse +off he feels himself now. It is ceaseless humiliation added to +perpetual discomfort. And the more novel the country, and the greater +his eagerness to understand all he sees, the greater is his misery: +the very things which, if he were not this pitiful deaf-mute, would +give him his best pleasures, are turned into his chief torments; even +evident friendliness on the part of those he meets becomes as +irritating a misery as the sound of waterfalls in the ears of +Tantalus. Nowhere in the world can this misery of unwilling dumbness +and deafness be greater, I think, than it is in Norway. The evident +good-will and readiness to talk of the Norwegian people are as +peculiarly their own as are their gay costumes and their flower-decked +houses. Their desire to meet you half-way is so great that they talk +on and on, in spite of the palpable fact that not one word of all they +say conveys any idea to your mind; and at last, when your despair has +become contagious, and they accept the situation as hopeless, they +seize your hand in both of theirs, and pressing it warmly let it fall +with a smile and a shake of the head, which speak volumes of regret +both for their own loss and for yours. + +It took much planning to contrive what we could best do in the four +days which were all that we could have for our journey. The comings +and goings of steamboats on the Norway fjords, their habits in the +matter of arriving and departing, the possibilities and +impossibilities of carioles, caleches, peasant carts and horses, the +contingencies and uncertainties of beds at inns,--all these things, +taken together, make any programme of journeying, in any direction in +Norway, an aggregate of complications, risks, and hindrances enough to +deter any but the most indomitable lovers of Nature and adventure. +Long before it was decided which routes promised us most between a +Saturday afternoon and the next Wednesday night, I had abandoned all +effort to grapple understandingly with the problems, and left the +planning entirely to my wiser and more resolute companion. Each +suggestion that I made seemed to involve us in deeper perplexities. +One steamer would set off at three in the morning; another would +arrive at the same hour; a third would take us over the most beautiful +parts of a fjord in the night; on a fourth route nothing in the way of +vehicles could be procured, except the peasant's cart, a thing in +which no human being not born a Norwegian peasant can drive for half a +day without being shaken to a jelly; on a fifth we should have to wait +three days for a return boat; on another it was unsafe to go without +having received beforehand the promise of a bed, the accommodations +for travellers being so scanty. The old puzzle of the fox and the +goose and the corn is an _a b c_ in comparison with the dilemma we +were in. At last, when I thought I had finally arranged a scheme which +would enable us to see two of the finest of the fjords within our +prescribed time, a scheme which involved spending a day and a night in +the little town of Gudvangen, in the valley of Nerodal, Sanna +exclaimed, shuddering, "We cannot! we cannot! The mountains are over +us. We can sleep at Gudvangen; but a whole day? No! You shall not like +a whole day at Gudvangen. The mountains are so--" And she finished her +sentence by another shudder and a gesture of cowering, which were more +eloquent than words. So the day at Gudvangen was given up, and it was +arranged that we were to wait one day at some other point on the road, +wherever it might seem good, and upon no account come to Gudvangen for +anything more than to take the steamer away from it. + +The heat of a Bergen noon is like a passing smile on a stern face. It +was cold at ten, and it will be cold again long before sunset; you +have your winter wrap on your arm, and you dare not be separated from +it, but the mid-day glares at and down on you, and makes the wrap seem +not only intolerable but incongruous. As we drove to the steamer at +twelve o'clock, with fur-trimmed wraps and heavy rugs filling the +front seat of the carriage, and our faces flushed with heat, I said, +"What an absurd amount of wraps for a midsummer journey! I have a mind +to let Nils carry back this heavy rug." + +"I think you shall be very glad if you have it," remarked Sanna. "Oh!" +she exclaimed with a groan, "there is Bob." + +Bob is Sanna's dog,--a small black spaniel, part setter, with a +beautiful head and eye, and a devotion to his mistress which lovers +might envy. Never, when in her presence, does he remove his eyes from +her for many minutes. He either revolves restlessly about her like an +alert scout, or lays himself down with a sentry-like expression at her +feet. + +"Oh, what is to do with Bob?" she continued, gazing helplessly at me. +The rascal was bounding along the road, curvetting, and wagging his +tail, and looking up at us with an audacious leer on his handsome +face. "He did understand perfectly that he should not come," said +Sanna; hearing which, Bob hung back, behind the carriage. + +"Nils must carry him back," I said. Then, relenting, seeing the look +of distress on Sanna's face, I added, "Could we not take him with us?" + +"Oh, no, it must be impossible," she replied. "It is for the lambs. He +does drive them and frighten them. He must stay, but we shall have +trouble." + +Fast the little Norwegian ponies clattered down to the wharf. No Bob. +As we went on board he was nowhere to be seen. Anxiously Sanna +searched for him, to give him into Nils's charge. He was not to be +found. The boat began to move. Still no Bob. We settled ourselves +comfortably; already the burdensome rug was welcome. "I really think +Bob must have missed us in the crowd," I said. + +"I do not know, I do not think," replied Sanna, her face full of +perplexity. "Oh!" with a cry of dismay. "He is here!" + +There he was! Abject, nearly dragging his body on the deck like a +snake, his tail between his legs, fawning, cringing, his eyes fixed on +Sanna, he crawled to her feet. Only his eyes told that he felt any +emotion except remorse; they betrayed him; their expression was the +drollest I ever saw on a dumb creature's face. It was absurd; it was +impossible, incredible, if one had not seen it; as plainly as if words +had been spoken, it avowed the whole plot, the distinct exultation in +its success. "Here I am," it said, "and I know very well that now the +steamer has begun to move you are compelled to take me with you. My +heart is nearly broken with terror and grief at the thought of your +displeasure, but all the same I can hardly contain myself for delight +at having outwitted you so completely." All this while he was +wriggling closer and closer to her feet, watching her eye, as a child +watches its mother's, for the first show of relenting. Of course we +began to laugh. At the first beginning of a smile in Sanna's eyes, he +let his tail out from between his legs, and began to flap it on the +deck; as the smile broadened, he gradually rose to his feet; and by +the time we had fairly burst into uncontrolled laughter, he was erect, +gambolling around us like a kid, and joining in the chorus of our +merriment by a series of short, sharp yelps of delight, which, being +interpreted, would doubtless have been something like, "Ha, ha! Beat +'em, and they 're not going to thrash me, and I'm booked for the whole +journey now, spite of fate! Ha, ha!" Then he stretched himself at our +feet, laid his nose out flat on the deck, and went to sleep as +composedly as if he had been on the hearth-rug at home; far more +composedly than he would had he dreamed of the experiences in store +for him. + +"Poor Bob!" said Sanna. "It must be that we shall send him back by the +steamer." Poor Bob, indeed! Long before we reached our first landing, +Bob was evidently sea-sick. The beautiful water of the great Hardanger +Fjord was as smooth as an inland lake; changing from dark and +translucent green in the narrowing channels, where the bold shores +came so near together that we could count the trees, to brilliant and +sparkling blue in the wider opens. But little cared Bob for the beauty +of the water; little did it comfort him that the boat glided as gently +as is possible for a boat to move. He had never been on a boat before, +and did not know it was smooth. Piteously he roamed about, from place +to place, looking off; then he would come and stand before Sanna, +quivering in every fibre, and looking up at her with sorrowful appeal +in his eyes. His thoughts were plainly written in his countenance now, +as before; but nobody could have had the heart to laugh at him. Poor +fellow! He was not the first creature that has been bowed down by the +curse of a granted prayer. + +Presently there came a new trouble. All along the Hardanger Fjord are +little hamlets and villages and clusters of houses, tucked in in nooks +among rocks and on rims of shore at the base of the high, stony walls +of mountains, and snugged away at the heads of inlets. Many of these +are places of summer resort for the Bergen people, who go out of town +into the country in summer, I fancy, somewhat as the San Francisco +people do, not to find coolness, but to find warmth; for the air in +these sheltered nooks and inlets of the fjords is far softer than it +is in Bergen, which has the strong sea wind blowing in its teeth all +the while. On Saturdays the steamers for the Hardanger country are +crowded with Bergen men going out to spend the Sunday with their +families or friends who are rusticating at these little villages. At +many of these spots there is no landing except by small boats; and it +was one of the pleasantest features of the sail, the frequent pausing +of the steamer off some such nook, and the putting out of the rowboats +to fetch or to carry passengers. They would row alongside, half a +dozen at a time, bobbing like corks, and the agile Norwegians would +skip in and out of and across them as deftly as if they were stepping +on firm floor. The Norwegian peasant is as much at home in a boat as a +snail in his shell,--women as well as men; they row, stand, leap, +gesticulate, lift burdens, with only a rocking plank between their +feet and fathomless water, and never seem to know that they are not on +solid ground. In fact, they are far more graceful afloat than on +ground: on the land they shuffle and walk in a bent and toil-worn +attitude, the result of perpetual carrying of loads on their backs; +but they bend to their oars with ease and freedom, and wheel and turn +and shoot and back their little skiffs with a dexterity which leaves +no room for doubt that they can do anything they choose on water. It +would not have astonished me, any day, to see a Norwegian coming +towards me in two boats at once, one foot in each boat, walking on the +water in them, as a man walks on snow in snow-shoes. I never did see +it, but I am sure they could do it. + +When these boats came alongside, Bob peered wistfully over the +railings, but did not offer to stir. The connection between this new +variety of water craft and _terra firma_ he did not comprehend. But at +the first landing which we reached, he gazed for a moment intently, +and then bounded forward like a shot, across the gangway, in among the +crowd on the wharf, in a twinkling. + +"Oh!" shrieked Sanna, "Bob is on shore!" And she rushed after him, and +brought him back, crestfallen. But he had learned the trick of it; and +after that, his knack at disappearing some minutes before we came to a +wharf--thereby luring us into a temporary forgetfulness of him--and +then, when we went to seek him, making himself invisible among the +people going on shore, was something so uncanny that my respect for +him fast deepened into an awe which made an odd undercurrent of +anxiety, mingling with my enjoyment of the beauties of the fjord. It +was strange, while looking at grand tiers of hills rising one behind +the other, with precipitous fronts, the nearer ones wooded, the +farther ones bare and stony, sometimes almost solid rock, walling the +beautiful green and blue water as if it had been a way hewn for it to +pass; shining waterfalls pouring down from the highest summits, +straight as a beam of light, into the fjord, sometimes in full +torrents dazzling bright, sometimes in single threads as if of +ravelled cloud, sometimes in a broken line of round disks of +glittering white on the dark green, the course of the water in the +intervals between being marked only by a deeper green and a sunken +line in the foliage,--it was strange, side by side with the wonder at +all this beauty, to be wondering to one's self also what Bob would do +next. But so it was hour by hour, all of our way up the Hardanger +Fjord, till we came, in the early twilight at half-past ten o'clock, +to Eide, our journey's end. The sun had set--if in a Norway summer it +can ever be truly said to set--two hours before, and in its slow +sinking had turned the mountains, first pink, then red, then to an +opaline tint, blending both pink and red with silver gray and white; +all shifting and changing so fast that the mountains themselves seemed +to be quivering beneath. Then, of a sudden, they lost color and turned +gray and dark blue. Belts and downstretching lines of snow shone out +sternly on their darkened summits; a shadowy half-moon rose above them +in the southeast, and the strange luminous night lit up the little +hamlet of Eide, almost light like day, as we landed. + +At first sight Eide looked as if the houses, as well as the people, +had just run down to the shore to meet the boat: from the front +windows of the houses one might easily look into the cabin windows of +the boat,--so narrow strips of shore do the mountain walls leave +sometimes along these fjords, and such marvellous depth of water do +the fjords bring to the mountains' feet. + +"Have you written for rooms? Where are you going? There isn't a bed in +Eide," were the first words that greeted us from some English people +who had left Bergen days before, and whom we never expected to see +again. The disappearing, reappearing, and turning up of one's +travelling acquaintances in Norway is one of the distinctive +experiences of the country. The chief routes of tourist travel are so +involved with each other, and so planned for exchange, interchange, +and succession of goers and comers, that the perpetual _rencontres_ of +chance acquaintances are amusing. It is like a performance of the +figures of a country-dance on a colossal scale, so many miles to a +figure; and if one sits down quietly at any one of the large inns for +a week, the great body of Norway tourists for that week will be pretty +sure to pass under his inspection. + +At Holt's, in Bergen, one sees, say forty travellers, at breakfast, +any morning. Before supper at eight in the evening these forty have +gone their ways, and a second forty have arrived, and so on; and +wherever he goes during the following week he will meet detachments of +these same bands: each man sure that he has just done the one thing +best worth doing, and done it in the best way; each eloquent in praise +or dispraise of the inns, the roads, and the people, and ready with +his "Oh, but you must be sure to see" this, that, or the other. + +There were those who sat up all night in Eide, that night, for want of +a bed; but Bob and we were well lodged in a pretty bedroom, with two +windows white-curtained and two beds white-ruffled to the floor, on +which were spread rugs of black-and-white goatskins edged with coarse +home-made blue flannel. In the parlor and the dining-room of the +little inn, carved book-cases and pipe-cases hung on the walls; ivies +trained everywhere; white curtains, a piano, black-worsted-covered +high-backed chairs, spotless table linen, and old silver gave an air +of old-fashioned refinement to the rooms, which was a surprise. + +The landlady wore the peasant's costume of the Hardanger country: the +straight black skirt to the ankles, long white apron, sleeveless +scarlet jacket, with a gay beaded stomacher over a full white blouse, +shining silver ornaments at throat and wrists, and on her head the +elegant and dignified head-dress of fine crimped white lawn, which +makes the Hardanger wives by far the most picturesque women to be seen +in all Norway. + +At seven in the morning a young peasant girl opened our bedroom door +cautiously to ask if we would have coffee in bed. Bob flew at her with +a fierce yelp, which made her retreat hastily, and call for +protection. Being sharply reproved by Sanna, Bob stood doggedly +defiant in the middle of the floor, turning his reproachful eyes from +her to the stranger, and back again, plainly saying, "Ungrateful one! +How should I know she was not an enemy? That is the way enemies +approach." The girl wore the peasant maiden's dress: a short black +skirt bound with scarlet braid, sewed to a short sleeveless green +jacket, which was little wider than a pair of suspenders between the +shoulders behind. Her full, long-sleeved white blouse came up high in +the throat, and was fastened there by two silver buttons with Maltese +crosses hanging from them by curiously twisted chains. Her yellow hair +was braided in two thick braids, and wound tight round her head like a +wreath. She had a fair skin, tender, honest blue eyes, and a face +serious enough for a Madonna. But she laughed when she brought us the +eggs for our breakfast, kept warm in many folds of linen napkin held +down by a great motherly hen of gray china with a red crest on its +head. + +The house was a small white cottage; at the front door a square porch, +large enough to hold two tables and seats for a dozen people; opposite +this a vine-wreathed arch and gate led into a garden, at the foot of +which ran a noisy little river. An old bent peasant woman was always +going back and forth between the house and the river, carrying water +in two pails hung from a yoke on her shoulders. A bit of half-mowed +meadow joined the garden. It had been mowed at intervals, a little +piece at a time, so that the surface was a patchwork of different +shades of green. The hay was hung out to dry on short lines of fence +here and there. Grass is always dried in this way in Norway, and can +hang on the fences for two weeks and not be hurt, even if it is +repeatedly wet by rain. One narrow, straggling street led off up the +hillside, and suddenly disappeared as if the mountains had swallowed +it. The houses were thatched, with layers of birch bark put under the +boards; sods of earth on top; and flowers blooming on them as in a +garden. One roof was a bed of wild pansies, and another of a tiny pink +flower as fine as a grass; and young shoots of birch waved on them +both. The little river which ran past the inn garden had come down +from the mountains through terraced meadows, which were about half and +half meadow and terrace; stony and swampy, and full of hillocks and +hollows. New England has acres of fields like them; only here there +were big blue harebells and pink heath, added to clover and +buttercups, wild parsley and yarrow. On tiny pebbly bits of island +here and there in the brook grew purple thistles, "snow flake," and +bushes of birch and ash. + +Bob rollicked in the lush grass, as we picked our way among the moist +hollows of this flowery meadow. In Sanna's hand dangled a bit of rope, +which he eyed suspiciously. She had brought it with her to tie him up, +when the hour should come for him to be carried on board the steamer. +He could not have known this, for he had never been tied up in his +life. But new dangers had roused new wariness in his acute mind: he +had distinctly heard the word "steamer" several times that morning, +and understood it. I said to him immediately after breakfast, "Bob, +you have to go home by the steamer this morning." He instantly crept +under the sofa, his tail between his legs, and cowered and crouched in +the farthest corner; no persuasions could lure him out, and his eyes +were piteous beyond description. Not until we had walked some distance +from the house, in a direction opposite to the steamer wharf, did he +follow us. Then he came bounding, relieved for the time being from +anxiety. At last Sanna, in a feint of play, tied the rope around his +neck. His bewilderment and terror were tragic. Setting all four feet +firmly on the ground, he refused to stir, except as he was dragged by +main force. It was plain that he would be choked to death before he +would obey. The rope project must be abandoned. Perhaps he could be +lured on board, following Sanna. Vain hope! Long before we reached the +wharf, the engine of the boat gave a shrill whistle. At the first +sound of it Bob darted away like the wind, up the road, past the +hotel, out of sight in a minute. We followed him a few rods, and then +gave it up. Again he had outwitted us. We walked to the steamer, +posted a letter, sat down, and waited. The steamer blew five +successive signals, and then glided away from the wharf. In less than +three minutes, before she was many rods off, lo, Bob! back again, +prancing around us with glee, evidently keeping his eye on the +retreating steamboat, and chuckling to himself at his escape. + +"O Bob, Bob!" groaned Sanna. "What is to do with you?" + +We were to set off for Vossevangen by carriage at three; at half-past +two poor Bob was carried, struggling, into the wood-shed, and tied up. +His cries were piteous, almost more than we could bear. I am sure he +understood the whole plot; but the worst was to come. By somebody's +carelessness, the wood-shed door was opened just as we were driving +away from the porch. With one convulsive leap and cry, Bob tore his +rope from the log to which it was tied, and darted out. The stable +boys caught him, and held him fast; his cries were human. Sanna buried +her face in her hands and exclaimed, "Oh, say to the driver that he go +so fast as he can!" And we drove away, leaving the poor, faithful, +loving creature behind, to be sent by express back to Bergen on the +steamer the next day. It was like leaving a little child alone among +strangers, heart-broken and terrified. When we returned to Bergen we +learned that he had touched neither food nor drink till he reached +home, late the next night. + +To go from Eide to Vossevangen, one must begin by climbing up out of +Eide. It is at the bottom of a well, walled by green hills and +snow-topped mountains; at the top of the well the country spreads out +for a little, only to meet higher hills, higher mountains. Here lies a +great lake, rimmed by broad borders of reeds, which shook and +glistened in the wind and sun like the spears of half-drowned armies +as we passed. Clumps and groves of ash-trees on the shores of this +lake looked like huge clumsy torches set in the ground: their tops had +been cut down again and again, till they had grown as broad as they +were high. The leaves are used for the feed of sheep, and the boughs +for firewood; and as in the frugal Norwegian living nothing that can +be utilized is left to lie idle, never an ash-tree has the chance to +shoot up, become tall and full of leaf. Magpies flitted in and out +among them. + +"One is for sorrow, and two are for joy, three must be a marriage, and +four do bring good fortune, we do say in Norway," said Sanna. "But I +think we shall have all sorrow and joy, and to be married many times +over, if it be true," she added, as the noisy, showy creatures +continued to cross our road by twos and threes. + +High up on the hills, just in the edge of snow patches, sæters were +to be seen, their brown roofs looking as much a part of the lonely +Nature as did the waterfalls and the pine-trees. On all sides shone +the water,--trickling fosses down precipices, outbursting fosses from +ravines and dells; just before us rose a wall some three thousand feet +high, over which leaped a foaming cataract. + +"We shall go there," said Sanna, pointing up to it. Sure enough, we +did. By loops so oval and narrow they seemed twisted as if to thread +their way, as eyes of needles are threaded, the road wound and +doubled, and doubled and wound, six times crossing the hill front in +fifteen hundred feet. At each double, the valley sank below us; the +lake sank; the hills which walled the lake sank; the road was only a +broad rift among piled bowlders. In many places these bowlders were +higher than our heads; but there was no sense of danger, for the road +was a perfect road, smooth as a macadamized turnpike. Along its outer +edge rows of thickly set rocks, several feet high, and so near each +other that no carriage could possibly fall between; in the most +dangerous places stout iron bars were set from rock to rock; these +loops of chain ladder up the precipice were as safe as a summer +pathway in a green meadow. On a stone bridge of three arches we +crossed the waterfall: basins of rocks above us, filled with spray; +basins and shelves and ledges of rocks below us, filled with spray; +the bridge black and slippery wet, and the air thick with spray, like +a snow-storm; precipices of water on the right and the left. It was +next to being an eagle on wing in a storm to cross that bridge in +upper air. At the sixth turn we came out abreast of the top of the +waterfall, and in a moment more had left all the stress and storm and +tumult of waters behind us, and glided into a sombre, still roadway +beside a calm little river deep in a fir forest. Only the linnæa had +won bloom out of this darkness; its courageous little tendrils +wreathed the tree trunks nestled among the savage rocks, and held up +myriads of pink cups wet with the ceaseless spray. It was a dreary, +lonely place; miles of gaunt swamp, forest, and stony moor; here and +there a farm-house, silent as if deserted. + +"Where are all the people? Why do we not see any one moving about the +houses?" I asked. + +"In the house, reading, every one," replied Sanna. "On a Sunday +afternoon, if there is no service in church, all Norwegian farm people +do go into their houses, and spend all afternoon in reading and in +religion." + +At last we reached a more open country,--an off look to the west; new +ranges of snow-topped mountains came in sight. We began to descend; +another silent river slipping down by our side; two more dark, shining +lakes. On the shore of one, a peasant man--the first living creature +we had seen for ten miles--was taking his cart out of a little shed by +the roadside. This shed was the only sign of human habitation to be +seen in the region. His horse stood near by, with a big barrel slung +on each side: they were barrels of milk, which had just been brought +down in this way from a sæter which we could see, well up in the +cloud region, far above the woods on the left. Down the steep path +from this sæter the man had walked, and the horse bearing the +barrels of milk had followed. Now the barrels were to be put in the +cart, and carried to Eide. Ten miles more that milk was to be carried +before it reached its market; and yet, at the little inn in Eide, for +a breakfast, at which one may drink all the milk he desires, he will +be asked to pay only thirty-five cents. What else beside milk? Fresh +salmon, trout, two kinds of rye bread and two of white, good butter, +six kinds of cheese, herrings done in oil and laurel leaves in tiny +wooden barrels, cold sausage, ham, smoked salmon (raw), coffee and +tea, and perhaps--wild strawberries: this will be the Eide +summer-morning breakfast. The cheese feature in the Norwegian +breakfast is startling at first: all colors, sizes, shapes, and smells +known of cheese; it must be owned they are not savory for breakfast, +but the Norwegian eats them almost as a rite. He has a proverb in +regard to cheese as we have of fruit: "Gold in the morning, silver at +noon, and lead at night;" and he lives up to it more implicitly than +we do to ours. + +As we neared Vossevangen, the silent river grew noisier and noisier, +and at last let out all its reserves in a great torrent which leaped +down into the valley with a roar. This torrent also was bridged at its +leap; and the bridge seemed to be in a perpetual quiver from the shock +of it. The sides of the rocky gorge below glistened black like ebony; +they had been worn into columnar grooves by the centuries of whirling +waters; the knotted roots of a fir forest jutted out above them, and +long spikes of a beautiful white flower hung out from their crevices +in masses of waving snowy bloom. It looked like a variety of the +house-leek, but no human hand could reach it to make sure. + +Vossevangen is a little farming hamlet on the west shore of a +beautiful lake. The region is one of the best agricultural districts +in western Norway; the "Vos" farmers are held to be fortunate and well +to do, and their butter and cheese always bring high prices in market. + +On the eastern shore of the lake is a chain of mountains, from two to +four thousand feet high; to the south, west, and north rise the green +hills on which the farms lie; above these, again, rise other hills, +higher and more distant, where in the edges of the snow tracts or +buried in fir forests are the sæters, the farmers' summer homes. + +As we drove into the village we met the peasants going home from +church: the women in short green or black gowns, with gay jackets and +white handkerchiefs made into a flying-buttress sort of head-dress on +their heads; the men with knee-breeches, short vests, and jackets +thick trimmed with silver buttons. Every man bowed and every woman +courtesied as we passed. To pass any human being on the highway +without a sign or token of greeting would be considered in Norway the +height of ill manners; any child seen to do it would be sharply +reproved. Probably few things would astonish the rural Norwegian more +than to be told that among the highly civilized it is considered a +mark of good breeding, if you chance to meet a fellow-man on the +highway, to go by him with no more recognition of his presence than +you would give to a tree or a stone wall. + +It is an odd thing that a man should be keeping the Vossevangen Hotel +to-day who served in America's civil war, was for two years in one of +the New York regiments, and saw a good deal of active service. He was +called back to Norway by the death of his father, which made it +necessary for him to take charge of the family estate in Vossevangen. +He has married a Vossevangen woman, and is likely to end his days +there; but he hankers for Chicago, and always will. He keeps a fairly +good little hotel, on the shores of the lake, with a row of +willow-trees in front; dwarf apple-trees, gooseberry and currant +bushes, and thickets of rhubarb in his front yard; roses, too, besides +larkspur and phlox; but the rhubarb has the place of honor. The +dining-room and the parlor were, like those at Eide, adorned with +ivies and flowering plants; oleanders in the windows and potted +carnations on the table. In one corner of the dining-room was a large +round table covered with old silver for sale: tankards, chains, belts, +buttons, coins, rings, buckles, brooches, ornaments of all +kinds,--hundreds of dollars' worth of things. There they lay, day and +night, open to all who came; and they had done this, the landlady +said, for years, and not a single article had ever been stolen: from +which it is plain that not only is the Norwegian honest himself, there +must be a contagion in his honesty, which spreads it to all travellers +in his country. + +The next morning, early, we set off in a peasant's cart to visit some +of the farm-houses. + +"Now you shall see," said Sanna, "that it was not possible if you had +all day to ride in this kind of wagon." + +It did not take long to prove the truth of her remark. A shallow +wooden box set on two heavy wheels; a wooden seat raised on two +slanting wooden braces, so high that one's feet but just reach the +front edge of the box; no dasher, no sides to seat, no anything, +apparently, after you are up, except your hard wooden seat and two +pounding wheels below,--this is the peasant wagon. The horse, low down +between two heavy thills, is without traces, pulls by a breast collar, +is guided by rope reins, and keeps his heels half the time under the +front edge of the box. The driver stands up in the box behind you, and +the rope reins are in your hair, or on your neck, shoulders, ears, as +may be. The walloping motion of this kind of box, drawn by a frisky +Norwegian horse over rough roads, is droll beyond description. But +when it comes to going down hills in it, and down hills so steep that +the box appears to be on the point of dumping you between the horse's +ears at each wallop, it ceases to be droll, and becomes horrible. Our +driver was a splendid specimen of a man,--six feet tall, strong built, +and ruddy. When he found that I was an American, he glowed all over, +and began to talk rapidly to Sanna. He had six brothers in America. + +"They do say that they all have it very good there," interpreted +Sanna; "and he thinks to go there himself so soon as there is money to +take all. It must be that America is the best country in the world, to +have it so good there that every man can have it good." + +The roads up the hills were little more than paths. Often for many +rods there was no trace of wheels on the stony ledges; again the track +disappeared in a bit of soft meadow. As we climbed, the valley below +us rounded and hollowed, and the lake grew smaller and smaller to the +eye; the surrounding hills opened up, showing countless valleys +winding here and there among them. It was a surpassingly beautiful +view. Vast tracts of firs, inky black in the distances, emphasized the +glittering of the snow fields above them and the sunny green of the +nearer foregrounds below. + +The first farm which we visited lay about three miles north of the +village,--three miles north and up. The buildings were huddled +together, some half dozen of them, in a haphazard sort of way, with no +attempt at order, no front, no back, and no particular reason for +approaching one way rather than another. Walls of hewn logs, black +with age; roofs either thatched, or covered with huge slabs of slate, +laid on irregularly and moss-grown; rough stones or logs for +doorsteps; so little difference between the buildings that one was at +a loss to know which were meant for dwellings and which for barns,--a +more unsightly spot could hardly be imagined. But the owners had as +quick an instinct of hospitality as if they dwelt in a palace. No +sooner did Sanna mention that I was from America, and wished to see +some of the Norwegian farm-houses, than their faces brightened with +welcome and good-will, and they were ready to throw open every room +and show me all their simple stores. + +"There is not a man in all Vos," they said, "who has not a relative in +America." And they asked eager question after question, in insatiable +curiosity, about the unknown country whither their friends had gone. + +The wives and daughters of the family were all away, up at the +sæter with the cows; only the men and the servant maids were left +at home to make the hay. Would I not go up to the sæter? The +mistress would be distressed that an American lady had visited the +farm in her absence. I could easily go to the sæter in a day. It +was only five hours on horseback, and about a half-hour's walk, at the +last, over a path too rough even for riding. Very warmly the men urged +Sanna to induce me to make the trip. They themselves would leave the +haying and go with me, if I would only go; and I must never think I +had seen Norwegian farming unless I had seen the sæter also, they +said. + +The maids were at dinner in the kitchen. It was a large room, with +walls not more than eight feet high, black with smoke; and in the +centre a square stone trough, above which was built a funnel chimney. +In this hollow trough a fire smouldered, and above it hung an enormous +black caldron, full of beer, which was being brewed. One of the maids +sprang from her dinner, lifted a trap door in the floor, disappeared +in the cellar, and presently returned, bringing a curious wooden +drinking-vessel shaped like a great bowl, with a prow at each side for +handles, and painted in gay colors. This was brimming full of new +beer, just brewed. Sanna whispered to me that it would be bad manners +if we did not drink freely of it. It was passed in turn to each member +of the party. The driver, eying me sharply as I forced down a few +mouthfuls of the nauseous drink, said something to Sanna. + +"He asks if American ladies do not like beer," said Sanna. "He is +mortified that you do not drink. It will be best that we drink all we +can. It is all what they have. Only I do hope that they give us not +brandy." + +There was no window in the kitchen, no ventilation except through the +chimney and the door. A bare wooden table, wooden chairs, a few +shelves, where were ranged some iron utensils, were all the furniture +of the gloomy room. The maids' dinner consisted of a huge plate of +fladbröd and jugs of milk; nothing else. They would live on that, +Sanna said, for weeks, and work in the hay-fields from sunrise till +midnight. + +Opposite the kitchen was the living-room,--the same smoky log walls, +bare floors, wooden chairs and benches. The expression of poverty was +dismal. + +"I thought you said these people were well to do!" I exclaimed. + +"So they are," replied Sanna. "They are very well off; they do not +know that it is not comfort to be like this. They shall have money in +banks, these people. All the farmers in Vos are rich." + +Above the living-room were two bedrooms and clothes-rooms. Here, in +gay painted scarlet boxes and hanging from lines, were the clothes of +the family and the bed linen of the house. Mistress and maid alike +must keep their clothes in this common room. The trunks were ranged +around the sides of the room, each locked with a key big enough to +lock prison doors. On one side of one of the rooms were three bunk +beds built in under the eaves. These were filled with loose straw, and +had only blankets for covers. Into this straw the Norwegian burrows by +night, rolled in his blankets. The beds can never be moved, for they +are built in with the framework of the house. No wonder that the +Norwegian flea has, by generations of such good lodging and food, +become a triumphant Bedouin marauder, in comparison with whom the +fleas of all other countries are too petty to deserve mention. + +The good-natured farmer opened his mother's box as well as his wife's, +and with awkward and unaccustomed hands shook out their Sunday +costumes for us to see. From another box, filled with soft blankets +and linen, he took out a bottle of brandy, and pouring some into a +little silver bowl, with the same prow-shaped handles as the wooden +one we had seen in the kitchen, pressed us to drink. One drop of it +was like liquid fire. He seemed hurt that we refused more, and poured +it down his own throat at a gulp, without change of a muscle. Then he +hid the brandy bottle again under the blankets, and the little silver +cup in the till of his mother's chest, and locked them both up with +the huge keys. + +Downstairs we found an aged couple, who had come from another of the +buildings, hearing of our presence. These were the grandparents. The +old woman was eighty-four, and was knitting briskly without glasses. +She took us into the storerooms, where were bins of flour and grain; +hams of beef and pork hanging up; wooden utensils of all sorts, +curiously carved and stained wooden spoons, among other things,--a +cask full of them, put away to be used "when they had a merry-making." +Here also were stacks of fladbröd. This is the staple of the +Norwegian's living; it is a coarse bread made of dark flour, in cakes +as thin as a wafer and as big round as a barrel. This is baked once a +year, in the spring, is piled up in stacks in the storerooms, and +keeps good till the spring baking comes round again. It is very sweet +and nutritious: one might easily fare worse than to have to make a +meal of it with milk. On one of the storeroom shelves I spied an old +wooden drinking-bowl, set away with dried peas in it. It had been +broken, and riveted together in the bottom, but would no longer hold +water, so had been degraded to this use. It had once been gayly +painted, and had a motto in old Norwegian around the edge: "Drink in +good-will, and give thanks to God." I coveted the thing, and offered +to buy it. It was a study to see the old people consult with each +other if they should let it go. It seemed that when they first went to +housekeeping it had been given to them by the woman's mother, and was +an old bowl even then. It was certainly over a hundred years old, and +how much more there was no knowing. After long discussion they decided +to sell it to me for four kroner (about one dollar), which the son +thought (Sanna said) was a shameful price to ask for an old broken +bowl. But he stood by in filial submission, and made no loud objection +to the barter. The old woman also showed us a fine blanket, which had +been spun and woven by her mother a hundred years ago. It was as gay +of color and fantastic of design as if it had been made in Algiers. +This too she was willing to sell for an absurdly small price, but it +was too heavy to bring away. At weddings and other festivities these +gay blankets are hung on the walls; and it is the custom for neighbors +to lend all they can on such occasions. + +The next farm we visited belonged to the richest people in Vos. It lay +a half-mile still higher up, and the road leading to it seemed +perilously steep. The higher we went, the greater the profusion of +flowers: the stony way led us through tracts of bloom, in blue and +gold; tall spikes of mullein in clumps like hollyhocks, and +"shepherd's bells" in great purple patches. + +The buildings of this farm were clustered around a sort of court-yard +enclosure, roughly flagged by slate. Most of the roofs were also +slated; one or two were thatched, and these thatched roofs were the +only thing that redeemed the gloom of the spot, the sods on these +being bright with pansies and grasses and waving raspberry bushes. +Here also we found the men of the family alone at home, the women +being gone on their summering at the sæter. The youngest son showed +us freely from room to room, and displayed with some pride the trunks +full of blankets and linen, and the rows of women's dresses hanging in +the chambers. On two sides of one large room these were hung thick one +above another, no variety in them, and no finery; merely a succession +of strong, serviceable petticoats, of black, green, or gray woollen. +The gay jackets and stomachers were packed away in trunks; huge +fur-lined coats, made of the same shape for men and for women, hung in +the storeroom. Some of the trunks were red, painted in gay colors; +some were of polished cedar, finished with fine brass mountings. As +soon as a Norwegian girl approaches womanhood, one of these trunks is +given her, set in its place in the clothes-room, and her accumulations +begin. Clothes, bedding, and silver ornaments seem to be the only +things for which the Norwegian peasant spends his money. In neither of +these houses was there an article of superfluous furniture, not even +of ordinary comfort. In both were the same bunk beds, built in under +the eaves; the same loose, tossed straw, with blankets for covering; +and only the coarsest wooden chairs and benches for seats. The young +man opened his mother's trunk, and took from one corner a beautiful +little silver beaker, with curling, prow-shaped handles. In this the +old lady had packed away her silver brooches, buttons, and studs for +the summer. Side by side with them, thrown in loosely among her white +head-dresses and blouses, were half a dozen small twisted rolls of +white bread. Sanna explained this by saying that the Norwegians never +have this bread except at their most important festivals; it is +considered a great luxury, and these had no doubt been put away as a +future treat, as we should put away a bit of wedding-cake to keep. +Very irreverently the son tipped out all his mother's ornaments into +the bottom of the trunk, and proceeded to fill the little beaker with +fiery brandy from a bottle which had been hid in another corner. From +lip to lip it was passed, returning to him wellnigh untasted; but he +poured the whole down at a draught, smacked his lips, and tossed the +cup back into the trunk, dripping with the brandy. Very much that good +old Norwegian dame, when she comes down in the autumn, will wonder, I +fancy, what has happened to her nicely packed trunk of underclothes, +dry bread, and old silver. + +There were several storerooms in these farm buildings, and they were +well filled with food, grain, flour, dried meats, fish, and towers of +fladbröd. Looms with partly finished webs of cloth in them were there +set away till winter; baskets full of carved yellow spoons hung on the +wall. In one of the rooms, standing on the sill of the open window, +were two common black glass bottles, with a few pond-lilies in +each,--the only bit of decoration or token of love of the beautiful we +had found. Seeing that I looked at the lilies with admiration, the +young man took them out, wiped their dripping stems on his +coat-sleeve, and presented them to me with a bow that a courtier might +have envied. The grace, the courtesy, of the Norwegian peasant's bow +is something that must date centuries back. Surely there is nothing in +his life and surroundings to-day to create or explain it. It must be a +trace of something that Olaf Tryggveson--that "magnificent, +far-shining man"--scattered abroad in his kingdom eight hundred years +ago, with his "bright, airy, wise way" of speaking and behaving to +women and men. + +One of the buildings on this farm was known, the young man said, to be +at least two hundred years old. The logs are moss-grown and black, but +it is good for hundreds of years yet. The first story is used now for +a storeroom. From this a ladder led up to a half-chamber overhead, the +front railed by a low railing; here, in this strange sort of balcony +bedroom, had slept the children of the family, all the time under +observation of their elders below. + +Thrust in among the rafters, dark, rusty, bent, was an ancient sword. +Our guide took it out and handed it to us, with a look of awe on his +face. No one knew, he said, how long that sword had been on the farm. +In the earliest writings by which the estate had been transferred, +that sword had been mentioned, and it was a clause in every lease +since that it should never be taken away from the place. However many +times the farm might change hands, the sword must go with it, for all +time. Was there no legend, no tradition, with it? None that his father +or his father's father had ever heard; only the mysterious entailed +charge, from generation to generation, that the sword must never be +removed. The blade was thin and the edge jagged, the handle plain and +without ornament; evidently the sword had been for work, and not for +show. There was something infinitely solemn in its inalienable estate +of safe and reverent keeping at the hands of men all ignorant of its +history. It is by no means impossible that it had journeyed in the +company of that Sigurd who sailed with his splendid fleet of sixty +ships for Palestine, early in the twelfth century. Sigurd +Jorsalafarer, or Traveller to Jerusalem, he was called; and no less an +authority than Thomas Carlyle vouches for him as having been "a wise, +able, and prudent man," reigning in a "solid and successful way." +Through the Straits of Gibraltar to Jerusalem, home by way of +Constantinople and Russia, "shining with renown," he sailed, and took +a hand in any fighting he found going on by the way. Many of his men +came from the region of the Sogne Fjord; and the more I thought of it +the surer I felt that this old sword had many a time flashed on the +deck of his ships. + +Our second day opened rainy. The lake was blotted out by mist; on the +fence under the willows sat half a dozen men, roosting as +unconcernedly as if it were warm sunshine. + +"It does wonder me," said Sanna, "that I find here so many men +standing idle. When the railroad come, it shall be that the life must +be different." + +A heroic English party, undeterred by weather, were setting off in +carioles and on horseback. Delays after delays occurred to hinder +them. At the last moment their angry courier was obliged to go and +fetch the washing, which had not arrived. There is a proverb in +Norway, "When the Norwegian says 'immediately,' look for him in half +an hour." + +Finally, at noon, in despair of sunshine, we also set off: rugs, +water-proofs; the india-rubber boot of the carriage drawn tight up to +the level of our eyes; we set off in pouring sheets of rain for +Gudvangen. For the first two hours the sole variation of the monotony +of our journey was in emptying the boot of water once every five +minutes, just in time to save a freshet in our laps. High mountain +peaks, black with forests or icy white with snow, gleamed in and out +of the clouds on either hand, as we toiled and splashed along. +Occasional lightings up revealed stretches of barren country, here and +there a cluster of farm-houses or a lowly church. On the shores of a +small lake we passed one of these lonely churches. Only two other +buildings were in sight in the vast expanse: one, the wretched little +inn where we were to rest our horses for half an hour; the other, the +parsonage. This last was a pretty little cottage, picturesquely built +of yellow pine, half bowered in vines, looking in that lonely waste as +if it had lost itself and strayed away from some civilized spot. The +pastor and his sister, who kept house for him, were away; but his +servant was so sure that they would like to have us see their home +that we allowed her to show it to us. It was a tasteful and cosey +little home: parlor, study, and dining-room, all prettily carpeted and +furnished; books, flowers, a sewing-machine, and a piano. It did one's +heart good to see such an oasis of a home in the wilderness. Drawn up +on rests in a shed near the house, was an open boat, much like a +wherry. The pastor spent hours every day, the maid said, in rowing on +the lake. It was his great pleasure. + +Up, up we climbed: past fir forests, swamps, foaming streams,--the +wildest, weirdest road storm-driven people ever crossed. Spite of the +rain, half-naked children came flying out of hovels and cabins to open +gates: sometimes there would be six in a row, their thin brown hands +all stretched for alms, and their hollow eyes begging piteously; then +they would race on ahead to open the next gate. The moors seemed but a +succession of enclosed pasture-lands. Now and then we passed a little +knot of cabins close to the road, and men who looked kindly, but as +wild as wild beasts, would come out and speak to the driver; their +poverty was direful to see. At last, at the top of a high hill, we +halted; the storm stayed; the clouds lifted and blew off. At our feet +lay a black chasm; it was like looking down into the bowels of the +earth. This was the Nerodal Valley; into it we were to descend. Its +walls were three and four thousand feet high. It looked little more +than a cleft. The road down this precipitous wall is a marvel of +engineering. It is called the Stalheimscleft, and was built by a +Norwegian officer, Captain Finne. It is made in a series of zigzagging +loops, which are so long and so narrow that the descent at no point +appears steep; yet as one looks up from any loop to the loop next +above, it seems directly over his head. Down this precipice into the +Nerodal Valley leap two grand fosses, the Stalheimfos and the +Salvklevfos; roaring in ceaseless thunder, filling the air, and +drenching the valley with spray. Tiny grass-grown spaces between the +bowlders and the loops of the road had all been close mowed; spaces +which looked too small for the smallest reaping-hook to swing in were +yet close shorn, and the little handfuls of hay hung up drying on +hand's-breadths of fence set up for the purpose. Even single blades of +grass are too precious in Norway to be wasted. + +As we walked slowly down this incredible road, we paused step by step +to look first up, then down. The carriage waiting for us below on the +bridge looked like a baby wagon. The river made by the meeting of +these two great cataracts at the base of the precipice was only a +little silver thread flowing down the valley. The cataracts seemed +leaping from the sky, and the sky seemed resting on the hill-tops; +masses of whirling and floating clouds added to the awesome grandeur +of the scene. The Stalheimfos fell into a deep, basin-shaped ravine, +piled with great bowlders, and full of birch and ash shrubs; in the +centre of this, by some strange play of the water, rose a distinct and +beautifully shaped cone, thrown up closely in front of the fall, +almost blending with it, and thick veiled in the tumultuous spray,--a +fountain in a waterfall. It seemed the accident of a moment, but its +shape did not alter so long as we watched it; it is a part of the +fall. + +Five miles down this cleft, called valley, to Gudvangen run the road +and the little river and the narrow strips of meadow, dark, thin, and +ghastly; long months in utter darkness this Nerodal lies, and never, +even at summer's best and longest, has it more than a half-day of sun. +The mountains rise in sheer black walls on either hand,--bare rock in +colossal shafts and peaks, three, four, and even five thousand feet +high; snow in the rifts at top; patches of gaunt firs here and there; +great spaces of tumbled rocks, where avalanches have slid; pebbly and +sandy channels worn from side to side of the valley, where torrents +have rushed down and torn a way across; white streams from top to +bottom of the precipices, all foam and quiver, like threads spun out +on the sward, more than can be counted; they seem to swing down out of +the sky as spider threads swing swift and countless in a dewy morning. + +Sanna shuddered. "Now you see, one could not spend a whole day in +Nerodal Valley," she said. "It does wonder me that any people will +live here. Every spring the mountains do fall and people are killed." + +On a narrow rim of land at base of these walls, just where the fjord +meets the river, is the village of Gudvangen, a desolate huddle of +half a dozen poor houses. A chill as of death filled the air; foul +odors arose at every turn. The two little inns were overcrowded with +people, who roamed restlessly up and down, waiting for they knew not +what. An indescribable gloom settles on Gudvangen with nightfall. The +black waters of the fjord chafing monotonously at the base of the +black mountains; the sky black also, and looking farther off than sky +ever looked before, walled into a strip, like the valley beneath it; +hemmed in, forsaken, doomed, and left seems Gudvangen. What hold life +can have on a human being kept in such a spot it is hard to imagine. +Yet we found three very old women hobnobbing contentedly there in a +cave of a hut. Ragged, dirty, hideous, hopeless one would have thought +them; but they were all agog and cheery, and full of plans for +repairing their house. They were in a little log stable, perhaps ten +feet square, and hardly high enough to stand upright in: they were +cowering round a bit of fire in the centre; their piles of straw and +blankets laid in corners; not a chair, not a table. Macbeth's witches +had seemed full-dressed society women by the side of these. We peered +timidly in at the group, and they all came running towards us, +chattering, glad to see strangers, and apologizing for their +condition, because, as they said, they had just turned in there +together for a few days, while their house across the way was being +mended. Not a light of any description had they, except the fire. The +oldest one hobbled away, and returned with a small tallow candle, +which she lit and held in her hand, to show us how comfortable they +were, after all; plenty of room for three piles of straw on the rough +log floor. Their "house across the way" was a little better than this; +not much. One of the poor old crones had "five children in America." +"They wanted her to come out to America and live with them, but she +was too old to go away from home," she said. "Home was the best place +for old people," to which the other two assented eagerly. "Oh, yes, +home was the best place. America was too far." + +It seemed a miracle to have comfort in an inn in so poverty-stricken a +spot as this, but we did. We slept in straw-filled bunks, set tight +into closets under the eaves; only a narrow doorway by which to get in +and out of bed; but there were two windows in the room, and no need to +stifle. And for supper there was set before us a stew of lamb, +delicately flavored with curry, and served with rice, of which no +house need be ashamed. That so palatable a dish could have issued from +the place which answered for kitchen in that poor little inn was a +marvel; it was little more than a small dark tomb. The dishes were all +washed out-of-doors in tubs set on planks laid across two broken +chairs at the kitchen door; and the food and milk were kept in an +above-ground cellar not three steps from the same door. This had been +made by an immense slab of rock which had crashed down from the +mountain top, one day, and instead of tearing through the house and +killing everybody had considerately lodged on top of two other +bowlders, roofing the space in, and forming a huge stone refrigerator +ready to hand for the innkeeper. The enclosed space was cold as ice, +and high enough and large enough for one to walk about in it +comfortably. I had the curiosity to ask this innkeeper how much he +could make in a year off his inn. When he found that I had no sinister +motive in the inquiry, he was freely communicative. At first he +feared, Sanna said, that it might become known in the town how much +money he was making, and that demands might be made on him in +consequence. If the season of summer travel were very good, he said he +would clear two hundred dollars; but he did not always make so much as +that. He earned a little also by keeping a small shop, and in the +winter that was his only resource. He had a wife and two children, and +his wife was not strong, which made it harder for them, as they were +obliged always to keep a servant. + +Even in full sunlight, at nine of the morning, Gudvangen looked grim +and dangerous, and the Nerö Fjord water black. As we sailed out, the +walls of the valley closed up suddenly behind us, as with a snap which +might have craunched poor little Gudvangen to death. The fjord is as +wild as the pass; in fact, the same thing, only that it has water at +bottom instead of land, and you can sail closer than you can drive at +base of the rocky walls. Soon we came to the mouth of another great +fjord, opening up another watery road into the mountains; this was the +Aurland, and on its farther shore opened again the Sognedal Fjord, up +which we went a little way to leave somebody at a landing. Here were +green hills and slopes and trees, and a bright yellow church, shaped +like a blancmange mould in three pyramid-shaped cones, each smaller +than the one below. + +"Here is the finest fruit orchard in all Scandinavia," said Sanna, +pointing to a pretty place just out of the town, where fields rose one +above the other in terraces on south-facing slopes, covered thick with +orchards. "It belongs to an acquainted with me: but she must sell it. +She is a widow, and she cannot take the care to herself." + +Back again across the mouth of the Aurland Fjord, and then out into +the great Sogne Fjord, zigzagging from side to side of it, and up into +numerous little fjords where the boat looked to be steering straight +into hills,--we seemed to be adrift, without purpose, rather than on a +definite voyage with a fixed aim of getting home. The magnificent +labyrinths of walled waters were calm as the heavens they reflected; +the clouds above and clouds below kept silent pace with each other, +and we seemed gliding between two skies. Great snow fjelds came in +sight, wheeled, rose, sank, and disappeared, as we passed; sometimes +green meadows stretched on either side of us, then terrible gorges and +pinnacles of towering rock. Picture after picture we saw, of +gay-colored little villages, with rims of fields and rocky +promontories; snow fjelds above, and fir forests between; glittering +waterfalls shooting from the sky line to the water, like white +lightning down a black stone front, or leaping out in spaces of +feathery snow, like one preternatural blooming of the forests all the +way down the black walls rising perpendicularly thousands of feet; +tiers of blue mountains in the distance, dark blue on the nearest, and +shading off to palest blue at the sky line; the fjord dark purple in +the narrows, shading to gray in the opens; illuminated spaces of +green, now at the shore, now half-way up, now two-thirds-way up to the +sky; tops of hills in sunlight; bars of sunlight streaming through +dark clefts. Then a storm-sweep across the fjord, far in our +wake,--swooping and sweeping, and gone in a half-hour; blotting out +the mountains; then turning them into a dark-slate wall, on which +white sails and cross-sunbeams made a superb shining. And so, between +the sun and the storm, we came to Valestrand, and sent off and took on +boat-loads of pleasuring people,--the boats with bright flags at prow +and stern, and gay-dressed women with fantastic parasols like +butterflies poised on their edges,--Valestrand, where, as some say, +Frithiof was born; and as all say, he burnt one of Balder's great +temples. Then Ladvik, on a green slope turning to gold in the sun; its +white church with a gray stone spire relieved against a bank of purple +gloom; the lights sinking lower and the shadows stretching farther +every minute; shadows of hills behind which the sun had already gone, +thrown sharp and black on hills still glowing in full light; hills +before us, shimmering in soft silver gray and pale purple against a +clear golden west; hills behind us, folding and folded in masses of +rosy vapor; shining fosses leaping down among them; the colors +changing like the colors of a prism minute by minute along the tops of +the ranges,--this was the way our day on the Sogne Fjord drew near its +ending. Industriously knitting, with eyes firm fastened on her +needles, sat an English matron near us on the deck. Not one glance of +her eye did she give to the splendors of sky and water and land about +her. + +"I do think that lady must be in want of stockings very much," +remarked Sanna quietly; "but she need not to come to Norway to knit." + +Far worse, however, than the woman who knitted were the women and the +men who talked, loudly, stupidly, vulgarly, around us. It was +mortifying that their talk was English, but they were not Americans. +At last they drove us to another part of the deck, but not before a +few phrases of their conversation had been indelibly stamped on my +memory. + +"Well, we were in Dresden two days: there's only the gallery there; +that's time enough for that." + +"Raphaels,--lots of Raphaels." + +"I don't care for Raphaels, anyhow. I'll tell you who I like; I like +Veronese." + +"Well, I'm very fond of Tintoretto." + +"I like Titians; they're so delicate, don't you know?" + +"Well, who's that man that's painted such dreadful things,--all mixed +up, don't you know? In some places you see a good many of them." + +"You don't mean Rembrandt, do you? There are a lot of Rembrandts in +Munich." + +"There was one picture I liked. I think it was a Christ; but I ain't +sure. There were four children on the ground, I remember." + +When the real sunset came we were threading the rocky labyrinths of +the Bergen Fjord. It is a field of bowlders, with an ocean let in; +nothing more. Why the bowlders are not submerged, since the water is +deep enough for big ships to sail on, is the perpetual marvel; but +they are not. They are as firm in their places as continents, myriads +of them only a few feet out of water; and when the sun as it sinks +sends a flood of gold and red light athwart them, they turn all +colors, and glow on the water like great smoke crystals with fire +shining through. To sail up this fjord in the sunset is to wind +through devious lanes walled with these jewels, and to look off, over +and above them, to fields of purple and gray and green, islands on +islands on islands, to the right and to the left, with the same +jewel-walled lanes running east and west and north and south among +them; the sky will stream with glowing colors from horizon to horizon, +and the glorious silence will be broken by no harsher sound than the +low lapsing of waters and the soft whirr of gray gulls' wings. + +And so we came to Bergen in the bright midnight of the last of our +four days. + +Months afterwards Sanna sent me a few extracts from descriptions given +by a Norwegian writer of some of the spots we had seen in the dim +upper distances along the fjords,--some of those illuminated spaces +of green high up among the crags, which looked such sunny and peaceful +homes. + +Her English is so much more graphic than mine that I have begged her +permission to give the extracts as she wrote them:-- + + "Grand, glorious, and serious is the Sogne Fjord. Serious in + itself, and still more serious we find it when we know where + and how people do live there between mountains. And we must + wonder or ask, Is there really none places left, or no kind of + work for those people to get for the maintenance of the life, + but to go to such desolate and rather impassable a place?... + + "More than half of the year are the two families who live on + the farm of Vetti separated from all other human beings. During + the winter can the usual path in the grass not be passed in + case of snow, ice, and perpetual slips, which leave behind + trace long out in the summer, because the sun only for a short + time came over this long enormous abyss, and does not linger + there long, so that the snow which has been to ice do melt very + slow, and seldom disappear earlier than in July. The short time + in the winter when the river Utla is frozen may the bottom of + the pass well be passed, though not without danger, on account + of the mentioned slips, which, with the power of the hurricane, + are whizzing down in the deep, and which merely pressure of the + air is so strong that it throw all down. + + "Late in the autumn and in the spring is all approach to and + from Vetti quite stopped; and late in the autumn chiefly with + ground and snow slips, which then get loosened by the frequent + rain. The farm-houses is situate on a steep slope, so that the + one end of the lowest beam is put on the mere ground, and the + other end must be put on a wall almost three yards high. The + fields are so steep, and so quite near the dreadful precipice, + that none unaccustomed to it do venture one's self thither; and + when one from here look over the pass, and look the meadows + which is more hanging than laying over the deep, and which have + its grass mowed down with a short scythe, then one cannot + comprehend the desperate courage which risk to set about and + occupy one's self here, while the abyss has opened its swallow + for receiving the foolhardy. + + "A little above the dwelling-houses is a quite tolerable plain; + and when one ask the man why he has not built his houses there, + he answers that owing to the snow-slips it is impossible to + build there. + + "Through the valley-streams the Afdals River comes from the + mountains, run in a distance of only twenty yards from the + farm-houses, and about one hundred yards from the same pour + out itself with crash of thunder in a mighty foss. The rumble + of the same, and that with its hurling out caused pressure of + the air, is in the summer so strong that the dwelling-houses + seems to shiver, and all what fluids there in open vessels get + placed on the table is on an incessant trembling, moving almost + as on board a ship in a rough sea. The wall and windows which + turns to the river are then always moistened of the whipped + foam, which in small particles continually is thrown back from + the foss. + + "By the side of this foss, in the hard granite wall which it + moisten, is a mined gut (the author says he can't call it a + road, though it is reckoned for that), broad enough that one + man, and in the highest one small well-trained horse, however + not by each other's side, can walk therein. This gut, which + vault is not so high that an full-grown man can walk upright, + is the farm's only road which rise to a considerable height. + + "But as this gut could not get lightened in a suitable height, + one has filled up or finished the remaining gap with four + timber beams, four or five yards long, which is close to the + gut, and with its upper end leans on a higher small mountain + peak, which beside this is the fastening for the bridge over + the waterfall. In these beams is cut in flukes, just as the + steps of a staircase, and when one walks up these flukes one + looks between the beams the frothing foss beneath one's self, + while one get wrapped up of its exhalation clouds. + + "The man told me that the pass also is to be passed with horse, + the time of the summer, and that all then is to be carried in a + pack-saddle to the farm, of his own horse, which is accustomed + to this trip. And when one know the small Lærdalske horses' + easiness, and the extraordinary security wherewith they can go + upon the most narrow path on the edge of the most dreadful + precipices, in that they place or cast the feet so in front of + each other that no path is too narrow for them, then it seems a + little less surprising. + + "From the Vetti farm continues the pass in a distance of about + twenty-one English miles, so that the whole pass, then, is a + little more than twenty-four miles, and shall on the other side + of the farm be still more narrow, more difficult, and more + dreadful. The farmer himself and his people must often go there + to the woods, and for other things for his farm. There belongs + to this farm most excellent sæter and mountain fields, + wherefore the cattle begetting is here of great importance; and + also the most excellent tract of firs belong to this farm. + + "I was curious to know how one had to behave from here to get + the dead buried, when it was impossible that two men could walk + by the side of each other through the pass, and I did even not + see how one could carry any coffin on horseback. I got the + following information: The corpse is to be laid on a thin + board, in which there is bored holes in both ends in which + there is to be put handles of rope; to this board is the corpse + to be tied, wrapped up in its linen cloth. And now one man in + the front and one behind carry it through the pass to the farm + Gjelde, and here it is to be laid into the coffin, and in the + common manner brought to the churchyard. If any one die in the + winter, and the bottom of the pass must be impassable then as + well as in the spring and in the autumn, one must try to keep + the corpse in an hard frozen state, which is not difficult, + till it can be brought down in the above-mentioned manner. + + "A still more strange and sad manner was used once at a + cottager place called Vermelien. This place is lying in the + little valley which border to the Vetti's field. Its situation + by the river deep down in the pass is exceedingly horrid, and + it has none other road or path than a very steep and narrow + foot-path along the mountain wall side with the most dreadful + precipice as by the Vetti. + + "Since the cottager people here generally had changed, no one + had dead there. It happened, then, the first time a boy, on + seventeen years old, died. One did not do one's self any + hesitation about the manner to bring him to his grave, and they + made a coffin in the house. The corpse was put in the coffin, + and then the coffin brought outside; and first now one did see + with consternation that it was not possible to carry the corpse + with them in this manner. What was to do then? + + "At last they resolved to let the coffin be left as a _memento + mori_, and to place the dead upon a horse, his feet tied up + under the belly of the horse; against the mane on the horse was + fastened a well-stuffed fodder bag, that the corpse may lean to + the same, to which again the corpse was tied. And so the dead + must ride over the mountain to his resting-place by Fortun's + church in Lyster." + + + +THE KATRINA SAGA. + +I. + +"Forr English Ladies." This was the address on the back of a +much-thumbed envelope, resting on top of the key-rack in the +dining-room of our Bergen hotel. If "For" had been spelled correctly, +the letter would not have been half so likely to be read; but that +extra outsider of an _r_ was irresistibly attractive. The words of the +letter itself were, if not equally original in spelling, at least as +unique in arrangement, and altogether the advertisement answered its +purposes far better than if it had been written in good English. The +_naïveté_ with which the writer went on to say, "I do recommend me," +was delicious; and when she herself appeared there was something in +her whole personal bearing entirely in keeping with the childlike and +unconscious complacency of her phraseology. "I do recommend me" was +written all over her face; and, as things turned out, if it had been +"I do guarantee me," it had not been too strong an indorsement. A more +tireless, willing, thoughtful, helpful, eager, shrewd little creature +than Katrina never chattered. Looking back from the last day to the +first of my acquaintance with her, I feel a remorseful twinge as I +think how near I came to taking instead of her, as my maid for a +month's journeying, a stately young woman, who, appearing in answer to +my advertisement, handed me her card with dignity, and begged my +pardon for inquiring precisely what it would be that she would have to +do for me, besides the turning of English into Norwegian and _vice +versa_. The contrast between this specific gravity and Katrina's +hearty and unreflecting "I will do my best to satisfy you in all +occasions," did not sufficiently impress me in the outset. But many a +time afterward did I recall it, and believe more than ever in the +doctrine of lucky stars and good angels. + +When Katrina appeared, punctually to the appointed minute, half an +hour before the time for setting off, I saw with pleasure that she was +wrapped in a warm cloak of dark cloth. I had seen her before, flitting +about in shawls of various sorts, loosely pinned at the throat in a +disjointed kind of way, which gave to her appearance an expression +that I did not like,--an expression of desultory if not intermittent +respectability. But wrapped in this heavy cloak, she was decorum +personified. + +"Ah, Katrina," I said, "I am very glad to see you are warmly dressed. +This summer you keep in Norway is so cold, one needs winter clothes +all the time." + +"Yes, I must," she replied. "I get fever and ague in New York, and +since then it always reminds me. That was six years ago; but it +reminds me,--the freezing at my neck," putting her hand to the back of +her neck. + +It was in New York, then, that she had learned so much English. This +explained everything,--the curious mixture of volubility and +inaccuracy and slang in her speech. She had been for several months a +house-servant in New York, "with an Irish lady; such a nice lady. Her +husband, he took care of a bank: kept it clean, don't you see, and all +such tings. And we lived in the top in the eight story: we was always +going up and down in the elewator." + +After this she had been a button-hole maker in a great clothing-house, +and next, had married one of her own countrymen; a nephew, by the way, +of the famous Norwegian giant at Barnum's Museum,--a fact which +Katrina stated simply, without any apparent boast, adding, "My +husband's father were guyant, too. There be many guyants in that part +of the country." + +Perhaps it was wicked, seeing that Katrina had had such hopes of +learning much English in her month with me, not to have told her then +and there that _g_ in the English word _giant_ was always soft. But I +could not. Neither did I once, from first to last, correct her +inimitable and delicious pronunciations. I confined my instructions to +the endeavor to make her understand clearly the meanings of words, and +to teach her true synonymes; but as for meddling with her +pronunciations, I would as soon have been caught trying to teach a +baby to speak plain. I fear, towards the last, she began to suspect +this, and to be half aware of the not wholly disinterested pleasure +which I took in listening to her eager prattle; but she did not accuse +me, and I let her set off for home not one whit wiser in the matter of +the sounds of the English language than she had been when she came +away, except so far as she might have unconsciously caught them from +hearing me speak. It is just as well: her English is quite good enough +as it is, for all practical purposes in Norway, and would lose half +its charm and value to English-speaking people if she were to learn to +say the words as we say them. + +To set off by boat from Bergen means to set off by boats; it would not +be an idle addition to the phrase, either, to say, not only by boats, +but among boats, in, out, over, and across boats; and one may consider +himself lucky if he is not called upon to add,--the whole truth being +told,--under boats. Arriving at the wharf, he is shown where his +steamer lies, midway in the harbor; whether it be at anchor, or +hoisted on a raft of small boats, he is at first at a loss to see. +However, rowing alongside, he discovers that the raft of small boats +is only a crowd, like any other crowd, of movable things or creatures, +and can be shoved, jostled, pushed out of the way, and compelled to +give room. A Norwegian can elbow his boat through a tight-packed mass +of boats with as dexterous and irresistible force as another man can +elbow his way on foot, on dry land, in a crowd of men. So long as you +are sitting quiet in the middle of the boat, merely swayed from side +to side by his gyrations, with no sort of responsibility as to their +successive direction, and with implicit faith in their being right, it +is all very well. But when your Norwegian springs up, confident, +poises one foot on the edge of his own boat, the other foot on the +edge of another boat, plants one of his oars against the gunwale of a +third boat, and rests the other oar hard up against the high side of a +steamboat, and then authoritatively requests you to rise and make +pathway for yourself across and between all these oars and boats, and +leap varying chasms of water between them and the ladder up the +steamer's side, dismay seizes you, if you are not to the water born. +I did not hear of anybody's being drowned in attempting to get on +board a Bergen steamer. But why somebody is not, every day in the +week, I do not know, if it often happens to people to thread and +surmount such a labyrinth of small rocking boats as lay around the +dampskib "Jupiter," in which Katrina and I sailed for Christiania. + +The Northern nations of Europe seem to have hit upon signally +appropriate names for that place of torment which in English is called +steamboat. There are times when simply to pronounce the words +_dampskib_ or _dampbaad_ is soothing to the nerves; and nowhere +oftener than in Norway can one be called upon to seek such relief. It +is an accepted thing in Norway that no steamboat can be counted on +either to arrive or depart within one, two, or three hours of its +advertised time. The guide-books all state this fact; so nobody who, +thus forewarned, has chosen to trust himself to the dampskib has any +right to complain if the whole plan of his journey is disarranged and +frustrated by the thing's not arriving within four hours of the time +it had promised. But it is not set down in the guide-books, as it +ought to be, that there is something else on which the traveller in +Norwegian dampskibs can place no dependence whatever; and that is the +engaging beforehand of his stateroom. To have engaged a stateroom one +week beforehand, positively, explicitly, and then, upon arriving on +board, to be confronted by a smiling captain, who states in an +off-hand manner, as if it were an every-day occurrence, that "he is +very sorry, but it is impossible to let you have it;" and who, when he +is pressed for an explanation of the impossibility, has no better +reason to give than that two gentlemen wanted the stateroom, and as +the two gentlemen could not go in the ladies' cabin, and you, owing to +the misfortune of your sex, could, therefore the two gentlemen have +the stateroom, and you will take the one remaining untenanted berth in +the cabin,--this is what may happen in a Norwegian dampskib. If one is +resolute enough to halt in the gangway, and, ordering the porters +bearing the luggage to halt also, say calmly, "Very well; then I must +return to my hotel, and wait for another boat, in which I can have a +stateroom; it would be quite out of the question, my making the +journey in the cabin," the captain will discover some way of +disposing of the two gentlemen, and without putting them into the +ladies' cabin; but this late concession, not to the justice of your +claim, only to your determination in enforcing it, does not in any +wise conciliate your respect or your amiability. The fact of the +imposition and unfairness is the same. I ought to say, however, that +this is the only matter in which I found unfairness in Norway. In +regard to everything else the Norwegian has to provide or to sell, he +is just and honest; but when it comes to the question of dampskib +accommodations, he seems to take leave of all his sense of obligation +to be either. + +As I crept into the narrow trough called a berth, in my hardly won +stateroom, a vision flitted past the door: a tall and graceful figure, +in a tight, shabby black gown; a classic head, set with the grace of a +lily on a slender neck; pale brown hair, put back, braided, and wound +in a knot behind, all save a few short curls, which fell lightly +floating and waving over a low forehead; a pair of honest, merry gray +eyes, with a swift twinkle at the corners, and a sudden serious +tenderness in their depths; a straight nose, with a nostril spirited +and fine as an Arabian's; a mouth of flawless beauty, unless it might +be that the upper lip was a trifle too short, but this fault only +added to the piquancy of the face. I lifted myself on my elbow to look +at her. She was gone; and I sank back, thinking of the pictures that +the world raved over, so few short years ago, of the lovely Eugénie. +Here was a face strangely like hers, but with far more fire and +character,--a Norwegian girl, evidently poor. I was wondering if I +should see her again, and how I could manage to set Katrina on her +track, and if I could find out who she was, when, lo, there she stood +by my side, bending above me, and saying something Norwegian over and +over in a gentle voice; and Katrina behind her, saying, "This is the +lady what has care of all. She do say, 'Poor lady, poor lady, to be so +sick!' She is sorry that you are sick." I gazed at her in stupefied +wonder. This radiant creature the stewardess of a steamboat! She was +more beautiful near than at a distance. I am sure I have never seen so +beautiful a woman. And coming nearer, one could see clearly, almost as +radiant as her physical beauty, the beauty of a fine and sweet nature +shining through. Her smile was transcendent. I am not over-easy to be +stirred by women's fair looks. Seldom I see a woman's face that gives +me unalloyed pleasure. Faces are half-terrifying things to one who +studies them, such paradoxical masks are they; only one half mask, and +the other half bared secrets of a lifetime. Their mere physical +beauty, however great it may be, is so underlaid and overlaid by +tokens and traces and scars of things in which the flesh and blood of +it have played part that a fair face can rarely be more than half +fair. But here was a face with beauty such as the old Greeks put into +marble; and shining through it the honesty and innocence of an +untaught child, the good-will and content of a faithful working-girl, +and the native archness of a healthful maiden. I am not unaware that +all this must have the sound of an invention, and there being no man +to bear witness to my tale, except such as have sailed in the +Norwegian dampskib "Jupiter," it will not be much believed; +nevertheless, I shall tell it. Not being the sort of artist to bring +the girl's face away in a portfolio, the only thing left for me is to +try to set it in the poor portraiture of words. Poor enough +portraiture it is that words can fashion, even for things less subtle +than faces,--a day or a sky, a swift passion or a thought. Words seem +always to those who work with them more or less failures; but most of +all are they impotent and disappointing when a face is to be told. Yet +I shall not cast away my sketch of the beautiful Anna. It is the only +one which will ever be made of her. Now that I think of it, however, +there is one testimony to be added to mine,--a testimony of much +weight, too, taken in the connection, for it was of such +involuntariness. + +On the second day of my voyage in the "Jupiter," in the course of a +conversation with the captain, I took occasion to speak of the +good-will and efficiency of his stewardess. He assented warmly to my +praise of her; adding that she was born of very poor parents, and had +little education herself beyond knowing how to read and write, but was +a person of rare goodness. + +I then said, "And of very rare beauty, also. I have never seen a more +beautiful face." + +"Yes," he replied; "there is something very not common about her. Her +face is quite antic." "Antique," he meant, but for the first few +seconds I could not imagine what it was he had intended. He also, +then, had recognized, as this phrase shows, the truly classic quality +of the girl's beauty; and he is the only witness I am able to bring to +prove that my description of her face and figure and look and bearing +are not an ingenious fable wrought out of nothing. + +From Katrina, also, there came testimonies to Anna's rare quality. + +"I have been in long speech with Anna," she said before we had been at +sea a day. "I tink she will come to Bergen, by my husband and me. She +can be trusted; I can tell in one firstest minute vat peoples is to be +trusted. She is so polite always, but she passes ghentlemens without +speaking, except she has business. I can tell." + +Shrewd Katrina! Her husband has a sort of restaurant and billiard-room +in Bergen,--a place not over-creditable, I fear, although keeping +within the pale of respectability. It is a sore trial to Katrina, his +doing this, especially the selling of liquor. She had several times +refused her consent to his going into the business, "but dis time," +she said, "he had it before I knowed anyting, don't you see? He didn't +tell me. I always tink dere is de wifes and children, and maybe de +mens don't take home no bread; and den to sit dere and drink, it is +shame, don't you see? But if he don't do, some other mans would; so +tere it is, don't you see? And tere is money in it, you see." Poor +Katrina had tried in vain to shelter herself and appease her +conscience by this old sophistry. Her pride and self-respect still so +revolted at the trade that she would not go to the place to stay. "He +not get me to go tere. He not want me, either. I would not work in +such a place." + +But she had no scruples about endeavoring to engage Anna as a +waiter-girl for the place. + +"She will be by my husband and me," she said, "and it is always shut +every night at ten o'clock; and my husband is very strict man. He will +have all right. She can have all her times after dat; and here she +have only four dollars a mont, and my husband gives more tan dat. And +I shall teach to her English; I gives her one hour every day. Dat is +great for her, for she vill go to America next year. If she can +English speak, she get twice the money in America. Oh, ven I go to +America, I did not know de name of one ting; and every night I cry and +cry; I tink I never learn; but dat Irish lady I live by, she vas so +kind to me as my own mother. Oh, I like Irish peoples; the Irish and +the Americans, dey are what I like best. I don't like de English; and +Chermans, I don't like dem; dey vill take all out of your pocket. She +is intended;[9] and dat is good. When one are intended one must be +careful; and if he is one you love, ten you don't vant to do anyting +else; and her sweetheart is a nice young fellow. He is in the engyne +in a Hamburg boat. She has been speaking by me about him." + +The dampskib "Jupiter" is a roller. It is a marvel how anything not a +log can roll at such a rate. The stateroom berths being built across +instead of lengthwise, the result is a perpetual tossing of heads +_versus_ feet. As Katrina expressively put it, "It is first te head, +and den te feets up. Dat is te worstest. Dat makes te difference." + +Ill, helpless, almost as tight-wedged in as a knife-blade shut in its +handle, I lay in my trough a day and a night. The swinging port-hole, +through which I feebly looked, made a series of ever-changing +vignettes of the bits of water, sky, land it showed: moss-crowned +hillocks of stone; now and then a red roof, or a sloop scudding by. +The shore of Norway is a kaleidoscope of land, rock, and water broken +up. To call it shore at all seems half a misnomer. I have never heard +of a census of the islands on the Norway coast, but it would be a +matter of great interest to know if it needs the decimals of millions +to reckon them. This would not be hard to be believed by one who has +sailed two days and two nights in their labyrinths. They are a more +distinctive feature in the beauty of Norway's seaward face than even +her majestic mountain ranges. They have as much and as changing beauty +of color as those, and, added to the subtle and exhaustless beauty of +changing color, they have the still subtler charm of that mysterious +combination of rest and restlessness, stillness and motion, solidity +and evanescence, which is the dower of all islands, and most of all of +the islands of outer seas. Even more than from the stern solemnity of +their mountain-walled fjords must the Norwegians have drawn their +ancient inspirations, I imagine, from the wooing, baffling, luring, +forbidding, locking and unlocking, and never-revealing vistas, +channels, gates, and barriers of their islands. They are round and +soft and mossy as hillocks of sphagnum in a green marsh. You may sink +above your ankles in the moist, delicious verdure, which looks from +the sea like a mere mantle lightly flung over the rock. Or they are +bare and gray and unbroken, as if coated in mail of stone; and you +might clutch in vain for so much as the help of a crevice or a shrub, +if you were cast on their sides. Some lie level and low, with oases of +vividest green in their hollows; these lift and loom in the noon or +the twilight, with a mirage which the desert cannot outdo. Some rise +up in precipices of sudden wall, countless Gibraltars, which no mortal +power can scale, and only wild creatures with tireless wings can +approach. They are lashed by foaming waves, and the echoes peal like +laughter among them; the tide brings them all it has; the morning sun +lights them up, top after top, like beacons of its way out to sea, and +leaves them again at night, lingeringly, one by one; changing them +often into the semblance of jewels by the last red rays of its sinking +light. They seem, as you sail swiftly among them, to be sailing too, a +flotilla of glittering kingdoms; your escort, your convoy; shifting to +right, to left, in gorgeous parade of skilful display, as for a +pageant. When you anchor, they too are of a sudden at rest; solid, +substantial land again, wooing you to take possession. There are +myriads of them still unknown, untrodden, and sure to remain so +forever, no matter how long the world may last; as sure as if the old +spells were true, and the gods had made them invincible by a charm, or +lonely under an eternal curse. At the mouths of the great fjords they +seem sometimes to have fallen back and into line, as if to do honor to +whomever might come sailing in. They must have greatly helped the +splendor of the processions of viking ships, a thousand years ago, in +the days when a viking thought nothing of setting sail for the south +or the east with six or seven hundred ships in his fleet. If their +birch-trees were as plumy then as now, there was nothing finer than +they in all that a viking adorned his ships with, not even the gilt +dragons at the prow. + +Before the close of the second day of our voyage, the six passengers +in the ladies' cabin had reached the end of their journey and left the +boat. By way of atonement for his first scheming to rob me of my +stateroom, the captain now magnanimously offered to me the whole of +the ladies' cabin, for which he had no further use. How gladly I +accepted it! How gleefully I watched my broad bed being made on a +sofa, lengthwise the rolling "Jupiter"! How pleased was Katrina, how +cheery the beautiful stewardess! + +"Good-night! Good-night! Sleep well! Sleep well!" they both said as +they left me. + +"Now it will be different; not te head and feets any more. De oder way +is bestest," added Katrina, as she lurched out of the room. + +How triumphantly I locked the door! How well I slept! All of which +would be of no consequence here, except that it makes such a +background for what followed. Out of a sleep sound as only the sleep +of one worn out by seasickness can be, I was roused by a dash of water +in my face. Too bewildered at first to understand what had happened, I +sat up in bed quickly, and thereby brought my face considerably nearer +the port-hole, directly above my pillow, just in time to receive +another full dash of water in my very teeth; and water by no means +clean, either, as I instantly perceived. The situation explained +itself. The port-hole had not been shut tight; the decks were being +washed. Swash, swash, it came, with frightful dexterity, aimed, it +would seem, at that very port-hole, and nowhere else. I sprang up, +seized the handle of the port-hole window, and tried to tighten it. In +my ignorance and fright I turned it the wrong way; in poured the dirty +water. There stood I, clapping the window to with all my might, but +utterly unable either to fasten it or to hold it tight enough to keep +out the water. Calling for help was useless, even if my voice could +have been heard above the noise of the boat; the door of my cabin was +locked. Swash, swash, in it came, more and more, and dirtier and +dirtier; trickling down the back of the red velvet sofa, drenching my +pillows and sheets, and spattering me. One of the few things one never +ceases being astonished at in this world is the length a minute can +seem when one is uncomfortable. It couldn't have been many minutes, +but it seemed an hour, before I had succeeded in partially fastening +that port-hole, unlocking that cabin door, and bringing Anna to the +rescue. Before she arrived the dirty swashes had left the first +port-hole and gone to the second, which, luckily, had been fastened +tight, and all danger was over. But if I had been afloat and in danger +of drowning, her sympathy could not have been greater. She came +running, her feet bare,--very white they were, too, and rosy pink on +the outside edges, like a baby's, I noticed,--and her gown but partly +on. It was only half-past four, and she had been, no doubt, as sound +asleep as I. With comic pantomime of distress, and repeated +exclamations of "Poor lady, poor lady!" which phrase I already knew by +heart, she gathered up the wet bed, made me another in a dry corner, +and then vanished; and I heard her telling the tale of my disaster, in +excited tones, to Katrina, who soon appeared with a look half +sympathy, half amusement, on her face. + +"Now, dat is great tings," she said, giving the innocent port-hole +another hard twist at the handle. "I tink you vill be glad ven you +comes to Christiania. Dey say it vill be tere at ten, but I tink it is +only shtories." + +It was not. Already we were well up in the smoothness and shelter of +the beautiful Christiania Fjord,--a great bay, which is in the +beginning like a sea looking southward into an ocean; then reaches up +northward, counting its miles by scores, shooting its shining inlets +to right and left, narrowing and yielding itself more and more to the +embrace of the land, till, suddenly, headed off by a knot of hills, it +turns around, and as if seeking the outer sea it has left behind runs +due south for miles, making the peninsula of Nesodden. On this +peninsula is the little town of Drobak, where thirty thousand pounds' +worth of ice is stored every winter, to be sold in London as "Wenham +Lake ice." This ice was in summer the water of countless little lakes. +The region round about the Christiania Fjord is set full of them, +lily-grown and fir-shaded. Once they freeze over, they are marked for +their destiny; the snow is kept from them; if the surface be too much +roughened it is planed; then it is lined off into great squares, cut +out by an ice plough, pried up by wedges, loaded on carts, and +carried to the ice-houses. There it is packed into solid bulk, with +layers of sawdust between to prevent the blocks from freezing together +again. + +The fjord was so glassy smooth, as we sailed up, that even the +"Jupiter" could not roll, but glided; and seemed to try to hush its +jarring sounds, as if holding its breath, with sense of the shame it +was to disturb such sunny silence. The shores on either hand were +darkly wooded; here and there a country-seat on higher ground, with a +gay flag floating out. No Norwegian house is complete without its +flagstaff. On Sundays, on all holidays, on the birthdays of members of +the family, and on all days when guests are expected at the house, the +flag is run up. This pretty custom gives a festal air to all places, +since one can never walk far without coming on a house that keeps +either a birthday or a guest-day. + +There seemed almost a mirage on the western shore of the bay. The +captain, noticing this, called my attention to it, and said it was +often to be seen on the Norway fjords, "but it was always on the +head." In reply to my puzzled look, he went on to say, by way of +making it perfectly clear, that "the mountains stood always on their +heads;" that is, "their heads down to the heads of the other +mountains." He then spoke of the strange looming of the water-line +often seen in Holland, where he had travelled; but where, he said he +never wished to go again, they were "such dirty people." This +accusation brought against the Dutch was indeed startling. I exclaimed +in surprise, saying that the world gave the Dutch credit for being the +cleanliest of people. Yes, he said, they did scrub; it was to be +admitted that they kept their houses clean; "but they do put the +spitkin on the table when they eat." + +"Spitkin," cried I. "What is that? You do not mean spittoon, surely?" + +"Yes, yes, that is it; the spitkin in which to spit. It is high, like +what we keep to put flowers in,--so high," holding his hand about +twelve inches from the table; "made just like what we put for flowers; +and they put it always on the table when they are eating. I have +myself seen it. And they do eat and spit, and eat and spit, ugh!" And +the captain shook himself with a great shudder, as well he might, at +the recollection. "I do never wish to see Holland again." + +I took the opportunity then to praise the Norwegian spitkin, which is +a most ingenious device; and not only ingenious, but wholesome and +cleanly. It is an open brass pan, some four inches in depth, filled +with broken twigs of green juniper. These are put in fresh and clean +every day,--an invention, no doubt, of poverty in the first place; for +the Norwegian has been hard pressed for centuries, and has learned to +set his fragrant juniper and fir boughs to all manner of uses unknown +in other countries; for instance, spreading them down for outside +door-mats, in country-houses,--another pretty and cleanly custom. But +the juniper-filled spitkin is the triumph of them all, and he would be +a benefactor who would introduce its civilization into all countries. +The captain seemed pleased with my commendation, and said +hesitatingly,-- + +"There is a tale, that. They do say,--excuse me," bowing +apologetically,--"they do say that it is in America spitted +everywhere; and that an American who was in Norway did see the spitkin +on the stove, but did not know it was spitkin." + +This part of the story I could most easily credit, having myself +looked wonderingly for several days at the pretty little oval brass +pan, filled with juniper twigs, standing on the hearth of the +turret-like stove in my Bergen bedroom, and having finally come to the +conclusion that the juniper twigs must be kept there for kindlings. + +"So he did spit everywhere on the stove; it was all around spitted. +And when the servant came in he said, 'Take away that thing with green +stuff; I want to spit in that place.'" + +The captain told this story with much hesitancy of manner and repeated +"excuse me's;" but he was reassured by my hearty laughter, and my +confession that my own ignorance of the proper use of the juniper +spitkin had been quite equal to my countryman's. + +Christiania looks well, as one approaches it by water; it is snugged +in on the lower half of an amphitheatre of high wooded hills, which +open as they recede, showing ravines, and suggesting countless +delightful ways up and out into the country. Many ships lie in the +harbor; on either hand are wooded peninsulas and islands; and +everywhere are to be seen light or bright-colored country-houses. The +first expression of the city itself, as one enters it, is +disappointingly modern, if one has his head full of Haralds and Olafs, +and expects to see some traces of the old Osloe. The Christiania of +to-day is new, as newness is reckoned in Norway, for it dates back +only to the middle of the sixteenth century; but it is as +characteristically Norwegian as if it were older,--a pleasanter place +to stay in than Bergen, and a much better starting-point for Norway +travel. + + "A cautious guest, + When he comes to his hostel, + Speaketh but little; + With his ears he listeneth, + With his eyes he looketh: + Thus the wise learneth," + +an old Norwegian song says. + +When walking through the labyrinths of the Victoria Hotel in +Christiania, and listening with my ears, I heard dripping and plashing +water, and when, looking with my eyes, I saw long dark corridors, damp +courtyards, and rooms on which no sun ever had shone, I spoke little, +but forthwith drove away in search of airier, sunnier, drier quarters. +There were many mysterious inside balconies of beautiful gay flowers +at the Victoria, but they did not redeem it. + +"I tink dat place is like a prison more tan it is like a hótle," said +Katrina, as we drove away; in which she was quite right. "I don't see +vhy tey need make a hótle like dat; nobody vould stay in prison!" At +the Hotel Scandinavie, a big room with six sides and five windows +pleased her better. "Dis is vat you like," she said; "here tere is +light." + +Light! If there had only been darkness! In the Norway summer one comes +actually to yearn for a little Christian darkness to go to bed by; +much as he may crave a stronger sun by day, to keep him warm, he would +like to have a reasonable night-time for sleeping. At first there is a +stimulus, and a weird sort of triumphant sense of outwitting Nature, +in finding one's self able to read or to write by the sun's light till +nearly midnight of the clock. But presently it becomes clear that the +outwitting is on the other side. What avails it that there is light +enough for one to write by at ten o'clock at night, if he is tired +out, does not want to write, and longs for nothing but to go to sleep? +If it were dark, and he longed to write, nothing would be easier than +to light candles and write all night, if he chose and could pay for +his candles. But neither money nor ingenuity can compass for him a +normal darkness to sleep in. The Norwegian house is one-half window: +in their long winters they need all the sun they can get; not an +outside blind, not an inside shutter, not a dark shade, to be seen; +streaming, flooding, radiating in and round about the rooms, comes the +light, welcome or unwelcome, early and late. And to the words "early" +and "late" there are in a Norway summer new meanings: the early light +of the summer morning sets in about half-past two; the late light of +the summer evening fades into a luminous twilight about eleven. +Enjoyment of this species of perpetual day soon comes to an end. After +the traveller has written home to everybody once by broad daylight at +ten o'clock, the fun of the thing is over: normal sleepiness begins to +hunger for its rights, and dissatisfaction takes the place of +wondering amusement. This dissatisfaction reaches its climax in a few +days; then, if he is wise, the traveller provides himself with several +pieces of dark green cambric, which he pins up at his windows at +bedtime, thereby making it possible to get seven or eight hours' rest +for his tired eyes. But the green cambric will not shut out sounds: +and he is lucky if he is not kept awake until one or two o'clock every +night by the unceasing tread and loud chatter of the cheerful +Norwegians, who have been forced to form the habit of sitting up half +their night-time to get in the course of a year their full quota of +daytime. + +"I tink King Ring lived not far from dis place," said Katrina, +stretching her head out of first one and then another of the five +windows, and looking up and down the busy streets; "not in +Christiania, but I tink not very far away. Did ever you hear of King +Ring? Oh, dat is our best story in all Norway,--te saga of King +Ring!" + +"Cannot you tell it to me, Katrina?" said I, trying to speak as if I +had never heard of King Ring. + +"Vell, King Ring, he loved Ingeborg. I cannot tell; I do not remember. +My father, you see,--not my right father, but my father the hatter, he +whose little home I showed you in Bergen,--he used to take books out +vere you pay so much for one week, you see; and I only get half an +hour, maybe, or few minutes, but I steal de book, and read all vat I +can. I vas only little den: oh, it is years ago. But it is our best +story in all Norway. Ingeborg was beauty, you see, and all in te +kings' families vat vanted her: many ghentlemens, and Ring, he killed +three or four I tink; and den after he killed dem three or four, den +he lost her, after all, don't you see; and tat was te fun of it." + +"But I don't think that was funny at all, Katrina," I said. "I don't +believe King Ring thought it so." + +"No, I don't tink, either; but den, you see, he had all killed for +nothing, and den he lost her himself. I tink it was on the ice: it +broke. A stranger told dem not to take the ice; but King Ring, he +would go. I tink dat was te way it was." + +It was plain that Katrina's reminiscences of her stolen childish +readings of the Frithiof's Saga were incorrect as well as fragmentary, +but her eager enthusiasm over it was delicious. Her face kindled as +she repeated, "Oh, it is our best story in all Norway!" and when I +told her that the next day she should go to a circulating library and +get a copy of the book and read it to me, her eyes actually flashed +with pleasure. + +Early the next morning she set off. A nondescript roving commission +she bore: "A copy of the Frithiof's Saga in Norwegian, [how guiltily I +feared she might stumble upon it in an English translation!] and +anything in the way of fruit or vegetables." These were her +instructions. It was an hour before she came back, flushed with +victory, sure of her success and of my satisfaction. She burst into +the room, brandishing in one hand two turnips and a carrot; in the +other she hugged up in front of her a newspaper, bursting and +red-stained, full of fresh raspberries; under her left arm, held very +tight, a little old copy of the Frithiof's Saga. Breathless, she +dropped the raspberries down, newspaper and all, in a rolling pile on +the table, exclaiming, "I tink I shall not get tese home, after I get +te oders in my oder hand! Are tese what you like?" holding the turnips +and carrot close up to my face. "I vas asking for oranges," she +continued, "but it is one month ago since they leaved Christiania." + +"What!" I exclaimed. + +"One mont ago since dey were to see in Christiania," she repeated +impatiently. "It is not mont since I vas eating dem in Bergen. I +tought in a great place like Christiania dere would be more tings as +in Bergen; but it is all shtories, you see." + +How well I came to know the look of that little ragged old copy of the +grand Saga, and of Katrina's face, as she bent puzzling over it, every +now and then bursting out with some ejaculated bit of translation, +beginning always with, "Vell, you see!" I kept her hard at work at it, +reading it to me, while I lingered over my lonely breakfasts and +dinners, or while we sat under fragrant fir-trees on country hills. +Wherever we went, the little old book and Katrina's Norwegian and +English Dictionary, older still, went with us. + +Her English always incalculably wrong and right, in startling +alternations, became a thousand times droller when she set herself to +deliberate renderings of the lines of the Saga. She went often, in one +bound, in a single stanza, from the extreme of nonsense to the climax +of poetical beauty of phrase; her pronunciation, always as unexpected +and irregular as her construction of phrases, grew less and less +correct, as she grew excited and absorbed in the tale. The troublesome +_th_ sound, which in ordinary conversation she managed to enunciate in +perhaps one time out of ten, disappeared entirely from her poetry; and +in place of it, came the most refreshing _t_'s and _d_'s. The worse +her pronunciation and the more broken her English, the better I liked +it, and the more poetical was the translation. Many men have tried +their hand at translation of the Frithiof's Saga, but I have read none +which gave me so much pleasure as I had from hearing Katrina's; +neither do I believe that any poet has studied and rewritten it, +however cultured he might be, with more enthusiasm and delight than +this Norwegian girl of the people, to whom many of the mythological +allusions were as unintelligible as if they had been written in +Sanskrit. She had a convenient way of disposing of those when she came +to such as she did not understand: "Dat's some o' dem old gods, you +see,--dem gods vat dey used to worship." It was evident from many of +Katrina's terms of expression, and from her peculiar delight in the +most poetical lines and thoughts in the Saga, that she herself was of +a highly poetical temperament. I was more and more impressed by this, +and began at last to marvel at the fineness of her appreciations. But +I was not prepared for her turning the tables suddenly upon me, as she +did one day, after I had helped her to a few phrases in a stanza over +which she had come to a halt in difficulties. + +"As sure 's I'm aliv," she exclaimed, "I believe you're a poet your +own self, too!" While I was considering what reply to make to this +charge, she went on: "Dat's what tey call me in my own country. I can +make songs. I make a many: all te birtdays and all te extra days in +our family, all come to me and say, 'Now, Katrina, you has to make +song.' Dey tink I can make song in one minute for all! [What a kinship +is there, all the world over, in some sorts of misery!] Ven I've went +to America, I made a nice song," she added. "I vould like you to see." + +"Indeed, I would like very much to see it, Katrina," I replied. "Have +you it here?" + +"I got it in my head, here," she said, laughing, tapping her broad +forehead. "I keeps it in my head." + +But it was a long time before I could persuade her to give it to me. +She persisted in saying that she could not translate it. + +"Surely, Katrina," I said, "it cannot be harder than the Frithiof's +Saga, of which you have read me so much." + +"Dat is very different," was all I could extract from her. I think +that she felt a certain pride in not having her own stanzas fail of +true appreciation owing to their being put in broken English. At last, +however, I got it. She had been hard at work a whole forenoon in her +room with her dictionary and pencil. In the afternoon she came to me, +holding several sheets of much-scribbled brown paper in her hand, and +said shyly, "Now I can read it." I wrote it down as she read it, only +in one or two instances helping her with a word, and here it is:-- + +SONG ON MY DEPARTURE FROM BERGEN FOR AMERICA. + + The time of departure is near, + And I am no more in my home; + But, God, be thou my protector. + I don't know how it will go, + Out on the big ocean, + From my father and mother; + I don't know for sure where at last + My dwelling-place will be on the earth. + + My thanks to all my dear, + To my foster father and mother; + In the distant land, as well as the near, + Your word shall be my guide. + It may happen that we never meet on earth, + But my wish is that God forever + Be with you and bless you. + + Don't forget; bring my compliments over + To that place where my cradle stood,-- + The dear Akrehavnske waves, + What I lately took leave of. + Don't mourn, my father and mother, + It is to my benefit; + My best thanks for all the goodness + You have bestowed on me. + + A last farewell to you + All, my dear friends; + May the life's fortune, honor, and glory + Be with you wherever you are! + I know you are all standing + In deep thoughts + When Harald Haarfager weighs anchor, + And I am away from you. + + A wreath of memory + I will twine or twist round + My dear native land, + And as a lark happy sing + This my well-meaned song. + Oh, that we all may be + Wreathed with glory, + And in the last carry our wreaths of glory + In heaven's hall! + +Watching my face keenly, she read my approbation of her simple little +song, and nodding her head with satisfaction, said,-- + +"Oh, sometime you see I ain't quite that foolish I look to! I got big +book of all my songs. Nobody but myself could read dem papers. It is +all pulled up, and five six words standing one on top of oder." + + +II. + +Murray's Guide-book, that paradoxical union of the false and the true, +says of Christiania, "There is not much of interest in the town, and +it may be seen in from four to five hours." The person who made that +statement did not have Katrina with him, and perhaps ought therefore +to be forgiven. He had not strolled with her through the market square +of a morning, and among the old women, squatted low, with half a dozen +flat, open baskets of fruit before them: blueberries, currants, +raspberries, plums, pears, and all shades, sizes, and flavors of +cherries, from the pale and tasteless yellow up to those wine-red and +juicy as a grape; the very cherry, it must have been, which made +Lucullus think it worth while to carry the tree in triumphal +procession into Rome. Queer little wooden boxes set on four low +wheels, with a short pole, by which a strong man or woman can draw +them, are the distinctive features of out-door trade in the +Christiania market-places. A compacter, cheaper device for combining +storage, transportation, and exhibition was never hit on. The boxes +hold a great deal. They make a good counter; and when there are twenty +or thirty of them together, with poles set up at the four corners, a +clothes-line fastened from pole to pole and swung full of cheap stuffs +of one sort and another, ready-made garments, hats, caps, bonnets, +shoes, clothespins, wooden spoons, baskets, and boxes,--the venders +sitting behind or among their wares, on firkins bottom side up,--it is +a spectacle not to be despised; and when a market-place, filled with +such many-colored fluttering merchandise as this, is also flanked by +old-clothes stalls which are like nothing except the Ghetto, or Rag +Fair in London, it is indeed worth looking at. To have at one's side +an alert native, of frugal mind and unsparing tongue, belonging to +that class of women who can never see a low-priced article offered for +sale without, for the moment, contemplating it as a possible purchase, +adds incalculably to the interest of a saunter through such a market. +The thrifty Katrina never lost sight of the possibility of lighting +upon some bargain of value to her home housekeeping; and our rooms +filled up from day to day with her acquisitions. She was absolutely +without false pride in the matter of carrying odd burdens. One day she +came lugging a big twisted door-mat with, "You see dat? For de door. +In Bergen I give exact double." The climax of her purchases was a fine +washboard, which she brought in in her arms, and exclaimed, laughing, +"What you tink the porter say to me? He ask if I am going to take in +washing up here. I only give two crowns for dat," she said, eying it +with the fondest exultation, and setting it in a conspicuous place, +leaning against the side of the room; "it is better as I get for four +in Bergen." Good little Katrina! her hands were too white and pretty +to be spoiled by hard rubbing on a washboard. They were her one +vanity, and it was pardonable. + +"Did you ever see hand like mine?" she said one day, spreading her +right hand out on the table. "Dere was two English ladies, dey say it +ought to be made in warx, and send to see in Crystal Palace. See dem?" +she continued, sticking her left forefinger into the four dimples +which marked the spots where knuckles are in ordinary hands; "dem is +nice." It was true. The hand was not small, but it was a model: plump, +solid, dimples for knuckles, all the fingers straight and shapely; +done in "warx," it would have been a beautiful thing, and her pleasure +in it was just as guileless as her delight in her washboard. + +As she delved deeper in her Frithiof's Saga, she discovered that she +had been greatly wrong in her childish impressions of the story. "It +was not as I tought," she said: "King Ring did get Ingeborg after; but +he had to die, and leaved her." + +When we went out to Oscar's Hall, which is a pretty country-seat of +the king's, on the beautiful peninsula of Ladegaardsöen, she was far +more interested in the sculptured cornice which told the story of +Frithiof and Ingeborg, than in any of the more splendid things, or +those more suggestive of the life of the king. The rooms are showily +decorated: ceilings in white with gold stars, walls panelled with +velvet; gay-colored frescos, and throne-like chairs in which "many +kings and queens have sat," the old woman who kept the keys said. +Everywhere were the royal shields with the crown and the lion; at the +corners of the doors, at the crossings of ceiling beams, above +brackets, looking-glasses, and on chair-backs. + +"I tink the king get tired looking at his crown all de time," remarked +Katrina, composedly. "I wonder vere dey could put in one more." + +The bronze statues of some of the old kings pleased her better. She +studied them carefully: Olaf and Harald Haarfager, Sverre Sigurdson +and Olaf Tryggvesson; they stand leaning upon their spears, as if on +guard. The face of Harald looks true to the record of him: a +fair-haired, blue-eyed man, who stopped at nothing when he wanted his +way, and was just as ready to fall in love with six successive women +after he had labored hard twelve years for Gyda, and won her, as +before. + +"He is de nicest," said Katrina, lingering before his statue, and +reaching up and fingering the bronze curiously. "Ain't it wonderful +how dey can make such tings!" she added with a deep-drawn sigh. But +when I pointed to the cornice, and said, "Katrina, I think that must +be the story of the Frithiof's Saga," she bounded, and threw her head +back, like a deer snuffing the wind. "Ja, ja," cried the old woman, +evidently pleased that I recognized it, and then she began to pour out +the tale. Is there a peasant in all Norway that does not know it, I +wonder? The first medallion was of the children, Frithiof and +Ingeborg, playing together. "Dere," said Katrina, "dat is vat I told +you. Two trees growed in one place, nicely in the garden; one growed +with de strongth of de oak, dat was Frithiof; and de rose in the green +walley, dat was Ingeborg de beauty." + +Very closely she scanned the medallions one after the other, +criticising their fidelity to the record. When she came to the one +where Frithiof is supporting King Ring on his knee, fainting, or +sleeping, she exclaimed, "Dere, if he had been dat bad, he could have +killed King Ring den, ven he was sleeping; but see, he have thrown his +sword away;" and at last, when the sculpture represented King Ring +dying, and bequeathing his beautiful queen and her children to +Frithiof, she exclaimed, "Dere, dem two boys belongs to King Ring; but +now Frithiof gets her. Dat is good, after all dat dem two had gone +through with." + +King Oscar makes very little use of this pretty country-house. He +comes there sometimes once or twice in the course of a summer, for a +day, or part of a day, but never to sleep, the old woman said. All the +rest of the time it is empty and desolate, with only this one poor old +woman to keep it tidy; a good berth for her, but a pity that nobody +should be taking comfort all summer in the superb outlooks and +off-looks from its windows and porch, and in the shady walks along the +banks of the fjord. One of the old Norway kings, Hakon, thought the +peninsula beautiful enough for a wedding morning gift to his queen; +but it seems not to have been held so dear by her as it ought, for she +gave it away to the monks who lived on the neighboring island of +Hovedöen. Then, in the time of the Reformation, when monks had to +scatter and go begging, and monastic properties were lying about loose +everywhere, the Norwegian kings picked up Ladegaardsöen again, and it +has been a crown property ever since. + +One of the most charming of the short drives in what Katrina called +"the nearance" of Christiania is to the "Grefsens Bad," a water-cure +establishment only two miles away, by road, to the north, but lying so +much higher up than the town that it seems to lie in another +world,--as in fact it does; for, climbing there, one rises to another +and so different air that he becomes another man, being born again +through his lungs. It is a good pull up a stony and ill-kept road, to +reach the place; but it is more than worth while, for the sake of the +clear look-out to sea, over a delicious foreground of vivid green +fields and woods. + +"This is the place where all the sick peoples in Norway do come when +de doctors cannot do nottings more for dem," said Katrina; "den dey +comes here. Here came our last king, King Oscar, and den he did die +on the dock ven he vas coming away. He had all de climb dis hill vor +notting. Ven it is the time, one has to go, no matter how much money +dey will pay; dere is One"--here she stopped hesitating for a +word--"you know all vat I mean: dere is One what has it all his own +way, not de way we wish it shall be." This she said devoutly, and was +silent for an unwonted length of time afterwards. + +As we were driving down the steepest part of the hill, a man came +running after us, calling so loudly to us to stop that we were +alarmed, thinking something must be wrong with our carriage or in the +road. Not at all. He was a roadside merchant; not precisely a pedler, +since he never went out of his own town, but a kind of aristocratic +vender in a small circuit, it seemed; we saw him afterwards in other +suburbs, bearing with him the same mysterious basket, and I very much +fear, poor fellow, the same still more mysterious articles in it. Not +even on Norwegian country-roads, I think, could there be found many +souls so dead to all sense of beauty as to buy the hideous and costly +combinations which he insisted upon laying in my lap: a sofa-cushion, +square, thick, and hard, of wine-colored velvet, with a sprawling tree +and bird laid upon it in an appliqué pattern cut out of black and +white velvet; a long and narrow strip of the same velvet, with the +same black and white velvet foliage and poultry, was trimmed at the +ends with heavy fringe, and intended for a sideboard or a bureau; a +large square tablecloth to match completed the list of his +extraordinary wares. It was so odd a wayside incident that it seemed +to loom quite out of its normal proportions as a mere effort at +traffic. He insisted on spreading the articles in my lap. He could not +be persuaded to take them away. The driver turning round on his seat, +and Katrina leaning over from hers, both rapt in admiration of the +monstrosities, were stolidly oblivious of my indifference. The things +seemed to grow bigger and bigger each moment, and more and more +hideous, and it was at last only by a sudden effort of sternness, as +if shaking off a spell, that I succeeded in compelling the man to lift +them from my knees and fold them away in his basket. As soon as he had +gone, I was seized with misgivings that I had been ungracious; and +these misgivings were much heightened by Katrina's soliloquizing as +follows:-- + +"He! I tink he never take dem tings away. His wife are sick; dat is de +reason he is on de road instead of her. He was sure you would buy +dem." + +I hope they are sold. I wish I could know. + +The suburbs of Christiania which lie along the road to the Grefsens +Bad are ugly, dusty, and unpleasing. "I tink we go some oder way dan +way we came," said Katrina. "Dere must be better way." So saying, she +stopped the driver abruptly, and after some vigorous conversation he +took another road. + +"He ask more money to go by St. John's Hill, but I tell him you not +pay any more. I can see it is not farther; I ask him if he tink I got +eyes in de head," she said scornfully, waving her fat fingers towards +the city which lay close at hand. + +"Ah, dat is great day," she continued, "St. John's Day. Keep you dat +in America? Here it is fires all round, from one hill to one hill. Dat +is from de old time. I tink it is from Catolics. Dey did do so much +for dem old saints, you see. I tink dat is it; but I tink dey do not +just know in Norway to-day what for dey do it. It has been old custom +from parents to parents." + +Then I told her about Balder and his death, and asked her if she had +never seen the country people put a boat on the top of their bonfire +on St. John's Eve. + +"Yes, I did see dat, once, in Stavanger," she replied, "but it was old +boat; no use any more. I tink dat be to save wood. It are cheapest +wood dey have, old boat. Dat were not to give to any god." + +"No, you are mistaken, Katrina," I said. "They have done that for +hundreds of years in Norway. It is to remind them of Balder's great +ship, the Hringhorn, and to commemorate his death." + +"May be," she said curtly, "but I don't tink. I only see dat once; and +all my life I see de fires, all round Bergen, and everywhere, and dere +was no boat on dem. I don't tink." + +We drove into the city through one of the smaller fruit markets, +where, late as it was, the old women still lingered with their baskets +of cherries, pears, and currants. They were not losing time, for they +were all knitting, fast as their fingers could fly; such a thing as a +Norwegian wasting time is not to be seen, I verily believe, from the +North Cape to the Skager Rack, and one would think that they knit +stockings enough for the whole continent of Europe; old men, old +women, little girls, and even little boys, all knitting, knitting, +morning, noon, and night, by roadsides, on door-sills, in +market-places; wherever they sit down, or stand, to rest, they knit. +As our carriage stopped, down went the stockings, balls rolling, yarn +tangling, on the sidewalk, and up jumped the old women, all crowding +round me, smiling, each holding out a specimen of her fruit for me to +taste. "Eat, lady, eat. It is good." "Eat and you will buy." "No such +cherries as these in Christiania." "Taste of my plums." A chorus of +imploring voices and rattling hail of _sks_. Hurried and confused talk +in the Norwegian tongue as spoken by uneducated people is a +bewildering racket; it hardly sounds like human voices. If the smiles +did not redeem it, it would be something insupportable; but the smiles +do redeem it, transfigure it, lift it up to the level of superior +harmonies. Such graciousness of eye and of smiling lips triumphs over +all possible discord of sound, even over the Norwegian battery of +consonants. + +Katrina fired back to them all. I fear she reproved them; for they +subsided suddenly into silence, and left the outstretched withered +palms holding the fruit to speak for themselves. + +"I only tell dem you cannot buy all de market out. You can say vat you +like," she said. + +Pears and cherries, and plums too, because the old plum-woman looked +poorer than the rest, I bought; and as we drove away the chorus +followed us again with good wishes. "Dey are like crazy old vomans," +remarked Katrina; "I never heard such noise of old vomans to once time +before." A few minutes after we reached the house she disappeared +suddenly, and presently returned with a little cantaloupe melon in her +hands. Standing before me, with a curious and hesitating look on her +face, she said, "Is dis vat you like?" + +"Oh, yes," I exclaimed, grateful for the sight. "I was longing for one +yesterday. Where did you get it?" + +"I not get it. I borrow it for you to see. I tell the man I bring it +back," she replied, still with the same curious expressions of doubt +flitting over her queer little face. + +"Why, whose melon is it?" I exclaimed. "What did you bring it for if +it were not for sale?" + +"Oh, it is for selled, if you like to buy," she said, still with the +hesitant expression. + +"Of course I like to buy it," I said impatiently. "How much does it +cost?" + +"Dat is it," replied Katrina, sententiously. "It is too dear to buy, I +tell the man; but he said I should bring it to you, to see. I tink you +vill not buy it;" still with the quizzical look on her face. + +Quite out of patience, I cried, "But why don't you tell me the price +of it? I should like it very much. It can't be so very dear." + +"Dat it can," answered Katrina, chuckling, at last letting out her +suppressed laugh. "He ask six kroner for dat ting; and I tink you not +buy it at such price, so I bring to make you laugh." + +One dollar and sixty-two cents for a tiny cantaloupe! Katrina had her +reward. "Oh, but I am dat glad ven I make you laugh," she said +roguishly, picking up her melon, as I cried out with surprise and +amusement,-- + +"I should think not. I never heard of such a price for a melon." + +"So I tink," said Katrina. "I ask de man who buy dem melons, and he +say plenty peoples; but I tink it is all shtories." And she ran +downstairs laughing so that I heard her, all the way, two flights down +to the door. + +High up on the dark wooded mountain wall which lies to the north and +northwest of Christiania is a spot of light color. In the early +morning it is vivid green; sometimes at sunset it catches a tint of +gold; but neither at morn nor at night can it ever be overlooked. It +is a perpetual lure to the eye, and stimulus to the imagination. What +eyry is it that has cleared for itself this loop-hole in the solid +mountain-forest? Is it a clearing, or only a bit of varied wooding of +a contrasting color to the rest? For several days I looked at it +before I asked; and I had grown so impressed by its mystery and charm, +that when I found it was a house, the summer home of a rich +Christiania family, and one of the places always shown to travellers, +I felt more than half-way minded not to go near it,--to keep it still +nothing more than a far-away, changing, luring oasis of sunny gold or +wistful green on the mountain-side. Had it been called by any other +name, my instinct to leave it unknown might have triumphed; but the +words "Frogner Sæter" were almost as great a lure to the imagination +as the green oasis itself. The sæter, high up on some mountain-side, +is the fulfilling of the Norwegian out-door life, the key-note of the +Norwegian summer. The gentle kine know it as well as their mistresses +who go thither with them. Three months in the upper air, in the spicy +and fragrant woods,--no matter if it be solitary and if the work be +hard, the sæter life must be the best the Norwegians know,--must +elevate and develop them, and strengthen them for their long, sunless +winters. I had looked up from the Vossevangen Valley, from Ringeriket, +and from the Hardanger country to many such gleaming points of lighter +green, tossed up as it were on the billowy forests. They were beyond +the reach of any methods of ascent at my command; unwillingly I had +accepted again and again the wisdom of the farm people, who said "the +road up to the sæter was too hard for those who were not used to it." +Reluctantly I had put the sæter out of my hopes, as a thing to be +known only by imagination and other people's descriptions. Therefore +the name of the Frogner Sæter was a lure not to be resisted; a sæter +to which one might drive in a comfortable carriage over a good road +could not be the ideal sæter of the wild country life, but still it +was called "sæter;" we would go, and we would take a day for the going +and coming. + +"Dat will be bestest," said Katrina. "I tink you like dat high place +better as Christiania." + +On the way we called at the office of a homoeopathic physician, +whose name had been given to me by a Bergen friend. He spoke no +English, and for the first time Katrina's failed. I saw at once that +she did not convey my meanings to him, nor his to me, with accuracy. +She was out of her depth. Her mortification was droll; it reached the +climax when it came to the word "dynamic." Poor little child! How +should she have known that! + +"I vill understand! I vill!" she exclaimed; and the good-natured +doctor took pains to explain to her at some length; at the end of his +explanation she turned to me triumphantly, with a nod: "Now I know +very well; it is another kind of strongth from the strongth of a +machine. It is not such strongth that you can see, or you can make +with your hands; but it is strongth all the same,"--a definition which +might be commended to the careful attention of all persons in the +habit or need of using the word "dynamic." + +It is five miles from Christiania out and up to the Frogner Sæter, +first through pretty suburban streets which are more roads than +streets, with picturesque wooden houses, painted in wonderful +colors,--lilac, apple-green, white with orange-colored settings to +doors and windows, yellow pine left its own color, oiled, and +decorated with white or with maroon red. They look like the gay +toy-houses sold in boxes for children to play with. There is no one of +them, perhaps, which one would not grow very weary of, if he had to +see it every day, but the effect of the succession of them along the +roadside is surprisingly gay and picturesque. Their variety of shape +and the pretty little balconies of carved lattice-work add much to +this picturesqueness. They are all surrounded by flower-gardens of a +simple kind,--old-fashioned flowers growing in clumps and straight +borders, and every window-sill full of plants in bloom; windows all +opening outward like doors, so that in a warm day, when every +window-sash is thrown open, the houses have a strange look of being +a-flutter. There is no expression of elegance or of the habits or +standards of great wealth about these suburban houses of Christiania; +but there is a very rare and charming expression of comfort and good +cheer, and a childlike simplicity which dotes on flowers and has not +outgrown the love of bright colors. I do not know anywhere a region +where houses are so instantly and good-naturedly attractive, with a +suggestion of good fellowship, and sensible, easy-going good times +inside and out. + +The last three miles of the road to the sæter are steadily up, and all +the way through dense woods of fir and spruce,--that grand Norway +spruce, which spreads its boughs out generously as palms, and loads +down each twig so full that by their own weight of shining green the +lower branches trail out along the ground, and the upper ones fold a +little and slant downwards from the middle, as if avalanches of snow +had just slid off on each side and bent them. Here were great beds of +ferns, clusters of bluebells, and territories of Linnæa. In June the +mountain-side must be fragrant with its flowers. + +Katrina glowed with pleasure. In her colder, barrener home she had +seen no such lavishness as this. + +"Oh, but ven one tinks, how Nature is wonderful!" she cried. "Here all +dese tings grow up, demselves! noting to be done. Are dey not wort +more dan in gardens? In gardens always must be put in a corn before +anyting come up; and all dese nice tings come up alone, demselves." + +"Oh, but see vat God has done; how much better than all vat people +can; no matter vat dey make." + +Half-way up the mountain we came to a tiny house, set in a clearing +barely big enough to hold the house and let a little sun in on it from +above. + +"Oh, I wish-shed I had dat little house!" she exclaimed. "Dat house +could stand in Bergen. I like to carry dat home and dem trees to it; +but my husband, he would not like it. He likes Bergen house bestest." + +As we drew near the top, we met carriages coming down. Evidently it +was the custom to drive to the Frogner Sæter. + +"I tink in dat first carriage were Chews," said Katrina, scornfully. +"I do hate dem Chews. I can't bear dat kind of people." + +"Why not, Katrina?" I asked. "It is not fair to hate people because of +their religion." + +"Oh, dat I don't know about deir religion," she replied carelessly. "I +don't tink dey got much religion anyhow. I tink dey are kind of +thieves. I saw it in New York. Ven I went into Chew shop, he say a +ting are tree dollar; and I say, 'No, dat are too dear.' Den he say, +'You can have for two dollar;' and I say, 'No, I cannot take;' and den +he say, 'Oh, have it for one dollar and half;' and I tink all such +tings are not real. I hate dem Chews. Dey are all de same in all +places. Dey are chust like dat if dey come in Norway. Very few Chews +comes in Norway. Dat is one good ting." + +In a small open, part clearing, part natural rocky crest of the hill, +stood the sæter: great spaces of pink heather to right and left of it, +a fir wood walling it on two sides; to the south and the east, a clear +off-look over the two bays of the Christiania Fjord, past all their +islands, out to sea, and the farthest horizon. Christiania lay like an +insignificant huddle of buildings in the nearer foreground; its only +beauty now being in its rich surrounding of farm-lands, which seemed +to hold it like a rough brown pebble in an emerald setting. + +The house itself fronted south. Its piazza and front windows commanded +this grand view. It was of pine logs, smoothed and mortised into each +other at the corners. Behind it was a hollow square of the farm +buildings: sheds, barns, and the pretty white cottage of the overseer. +The overseer's wife came running to meet us, and with cordial +good-will took us into the house, and showed us every room. She had +the pride of a retainer in the place; and when she found that none of +its beauty was lost on me, she warmed and grew communicative. It will +not be easy to describe the charm of this log-house: only logs inside +as well as out; but the logs are Norway pine, yellow and hard and +shining, taking a polish for floors and ceiling as fine as ash or +maple, and making for the walls belts and stripes of gold color better +than paper; all cross beams and partitions are mortised at the +joinings, instead of crossing and lapping. This alone gives to these +Norwegian houses an expression quite unlike that of ordinary +log-houses. A little carved work of a simple pattern, at the cornices +of the rooms and on the ceiling beams, was the only ornamentation of +the house; and a great glass door, of a single pane, opening on the +piazza, was the only luxurious thing about it. Everything else was +simply and beautifully picturesque. Old Norwegian tapestries hung here +and there on the walls, their vivid reds and blues coming out superbly +on the yellow pine; curious antique corner cupboards, painted in +chaotic colors of fantastic brightness; old fireplaces built out into +the room, in the style of the most ancient Norwegian farm-houses; old +brasses, sconces, placques, and candlesticks; and a long dining-table, +with wooden benches of hollowed planks for seats, such as are to be +seen to-day in some of the old ruined baronial castles in England. + +In the second-story rooms were old-fashioned bedsteads: one of carved +pine, so high that it needed a step-ladder to mount it; the other +built like a cupboard against the wall, and shut by two sliding doors, +which on being pushed back disclosed two narrow bunks. This is the +style of bed in many of the Norwegian farm-houses still. On the +sliding door of the upper bunk was a small photograph of the prince +imperial; and the woman told us with great pride that he had slept one +night in that bed. + +Upstairs again, by narrow winding stairs, and there we found the whole +floor left undivided save by the big chimney-stack which came up in +the middle; the gable ends of the garret opened out in two great doors +like barn-doors; under the eaves, the whole length of each side, was a +row of bunk beds, five on each side, separated only by a board +partition. This was a great common bedroom, "used for gentlemen at +Christmas-time," the woman said. "There had as many as fifteen or +twenty gentlemen slept in that room." + +At Christmas, it seems, it is the habit of the family owning this +unique and charming country-house to come up into the woods for a two +weeks' festivity. The snow is deep. The mercury is well down near zero +or below; but the road up the mountain is swept level smooth: sledges +can go easier in winter than carriages can in summer; and the vast +outlook over the glittering white land and shining blue sea full of +ice islands must be grander than when the islands and the land are +green. Pine logs in huge fireplaces can warm any room; and persons of +the sort that would think of spending Christmas in a fir-wood on a +mountain-top could make a house warm even better than pine logs could +do it. Christmas at the Frogner Sæter must be a Christmas worth +having. + +"The house is as full as ever it can hold," said the woman, "and fifty +sit down to dinner sometimes; they think nothing of driving up from +Christiania and down again at midnight." + +What a place for sleigh-bells to ring on a frosty night; that rocky +hill-crest swung out as it were in clear space of upper air, with the +great Christiania Fjord stretching away beneath, an ice-bound, +ice-flaked sea, white and steel-black under the winter moon! I fancied +the house blazing like a many-sided beacon out of the darkness of the +mountain front at midnight, the bells clanging, the voices of lovers +and loved chiming, and laughter and mirth ringing. I think for years +to come the picture will be so vivid in my mind that I shall find +myself on many a Christmas night mentally listening to the swift bells +chiming down the mountain from the Frogner Sæter. + +The eastern end of the piazza is closed in by a great window, one +single pane of glass like the door; so that in this corner, sheltered +from the wind, but losing nothing of the view, one can sit in even +cold weather. Katrina cuddled herself down like a kitten, in the sun, +on the piazza steps, and looking up at me, as I sat in this sheltered +corner, said approvingly,-- + +"Dis you like. I ask de voman if we could stay here; but she got no +room: else she would like to keep us. I tink I stay here all my life: +only for my husband, I go back." + +Then she pulled out the Saga and read some pages of Ingeborg's Lament, +convulsing me in the beginning by saying that it was "Ingeborg's +Whale." It was long before I grasped that she meant "Wail." + +"What you say ven it is like as if you cry, but you do not cry?" she +said. "Dat is it. It stands in my dictionary, whale!" And she +reiterated it with some impatience at my stupidity in not better +understanding my own language. When I explained to her the vast +difference between "whale" and "wail," she was convulsed in her turn. +"Oh, dere are so many words in English which do have same sound and +mean so different ting," she said, "I tink I never learn to speak +English in dis world." + +While we were sitting there, a great speckled woodpecker flew out from +the depths of the wood, lighted on a fir near the house, and began +racing up and down the tree, tapping the bark with his strong bill, +like the strokes of a hammer. + +"There is your Gertrude bird, Katrina," said I. She looked bewildered. +"The woman that Christ punished," I said, "and turned her into the +Gertrude bird; do you not know the old story?" No, she had never heard +it. She listened with wide-open eyes while I told her the old +Norwegian legend, which it was strange that I knew and she did +not,--how Christ and Peter, stopping one day at the door of a woman +who was kneading her bread, asked her for a piece. She broke a piece +for them; but as she was rolling it out, it grew under her roller till +it filled her table. She laid it aside, saying it was too large, broke +off another piece, rolled it out with the same result; it grew larger +every moment. She laid that aside, and took a third bit, the smallest +she could possibly break off: the same result; that too grew under her +roller till it covered the table. Then her heart was entirely +hardened, and she laid this third piece on one side, saying, "Go your +ways, I cannot spare you any bread to-day." Then Christ was angry, and +opened her eyes to see who he was. She fell on her knees, and implored +his forgiveness; but he said, "No. You shall henceforth seek your +bread from day to day, between the wood and the bark." And he changed +her into a bird,--the Gertrude bird, or woodpecker. The legend runs, +however, that, relenting, the Lord said that when the plumage of the +bird should become entirely black, her punishment should be at an end. +The Gertrude bird grows darker and darker every year, and when it is +old, has no white to be seen in its plumage. When the white has all +disappeared, then the Lord Christ takes it for his own, so the legend +says; and no Norwegian will ever injure a Gertrude bird, because he +believes it to be under God's protection, doing this penance. + +"Is dat true?" asked Katrina, seriously. "Dat must have been when de +Lord was going about on dis earth; ven he was ghost. I never hear +dat." + +I tried to explain to her the idea of a fable. + +"Fable," she said, "fable,--dat is to teach people to be giving ven +dey got, and not send peoples away vidout notings. Dat's what I see, +many times I see. But I do not see dat de peoples dat is all for +saving all dey got, gets any richer. I tink if you give all the time +to dem dat is poorer, dat is de way to be richer. Dere is always some +vat is poorer." + +In the cosey little sitting-room of her white cottage, the farmer's +wife gave us a lunch which would not have been any shame to any lady's +table,--scrambled eggs, bread, rusks, milk, and a queer sort of +election cake, with raisins but no sugar. This Katrina eyed with the +greed of a child; watched to see if I liked it, and exclaimed, "We +only get dat once a year, at Christmas time." Seeing that I left a +large piece on my plate, she finally said, "Do you tink it would be +shame if I take dat home? It is too good to be leaved." With great +glee, on my first word of permission, she crammed it into her +omnivorous pocket, which already held a dozen or more green apples +that she had persisted in picking up by the roadside as we came. + +As we drove down the mountain, the glimpses here and there, between +the trees, of the fjord and islands were even more beautiful than the +great panorama seen from the top. Little children ran out to open +gates for us, and made their pretty Norwegian courtesies, with smiles +of gratitude for a penny. We met scores of peasant women going out to +their homes, bearing all sorts of burdens swung from a yoke laid +across their shoulders. The thing that a Norwegian cannot contrive to +swing from one side or the other of his shoulder-yoke must be very big +indeed. The yokes seem equally adapted to everything, from a +butter-firkin to a silk handkerchief full of cabbages. Weights which +would be far too heavy to carry in any other way the peasants take in +this, and trot along between their swinging loads at as round a pace +as if they had nothing to carry. We drove a roundabout way to our +hotel, to enable Katrina to see an old teacher of hers; through street +after street of monotonous stucco-walled houses, each with a big open +door, a covered way leading into a court behind, and glimpses of +clothes-lines, or other walls and doorways, or green yards, beyond. +Two thirds of the houses in Christiania are on this plan; the families +live in flats, or parts of flats. Sometimes there are eight or ten +brass bell-handles, one above another, on the side of one of these big +doorways, each door-bell marking a family. The teacher lived in a +respectable but plain house of this kind,--she and her sister; they +had taught Katrina in Bergen when she was a child, and she retained a +warm and grateful memory of them; one had been married, and her +husband was in America, where they were both going to join him soon. +Everywhere in Norway one meets people whose hearts are in +America,--sons, husbands, daughters, lovers. Everybody would go if it +were possible; once fourteen thousand went in one year, I was told. +These poor women had been working hard to support themselves by +teaching and by embroidering. Katrina brought down, to exhibit to me, +a dog's head, embroidered in the finest possible silks,--silks that +made a hair-stroke like a fine pen; it was a marvellously ingenious +thing, but no more interesting than the "Lord's Prayer written in the +circumference of two inches," or any of that class of marvels. + +"Dey take dese to America," Katrina said. "Did you ever see anyting +like dem dere? Dey get thirty kroner for one of dem dogs. It is chust +like live dog." + +After we returned, Katrina disappeared again on one of her mysterious +expeditions, whose returns were usually of great interest to me. This +time they brought to both of us disappointment. Coming in with a +radiant face, and the usual little newspaper bundle in her hand, she +cried out, "Now I got you de bestest ting yet," and held out her +treasures,--a pint of small berries, a little larger than +whortleberries, and as black and shining as jet. "Dis is de bestest +berry in all Norway," she exclaimed, whipping one into her own mouth; +"see if you like." + +I incautiously took three or four at once. Not since the days of +old-fashioned Dover's and James's powders have I ever tasted a more +nauseous combination of flavors than resided in those glittering black +berries. + +"You not like dem berries?" cried poor Katrina, in dismay at my +disgust, raising her voice and its inflections at every syllable. "You +not like dem berries? I never hear of nobody not liking dem berries. +Dey is bestest we got! Any way, I eat dem myself," she added +philosophically, and retreated crestfallen to her room, where I heard +her smacking her lips over them for half an hour. I believe she ate +the whole at a sitting. They must have been a variety of black +currant, and exclusively intended by Nature for medicinal purposes; +but Katrina came out hearty and well as ever the next day, after +having swallowed some twelve or sixteen ounces of them. + +By way of atoning for her mishap with the berries, she ran out early +the next morning and bought a little packet of odds and ends of +strong-scented leaves and dust of several kinds, and, coming up behind +my chair, held it close under my nose, with,-- + +"Ain't dat nice smell? Ain't dat better as dem berries? Oh, I tink I +never stop laughing ven I am at home ven I tink how you eat dem +berries. Dey are de bestest berries we got." + +On my approving the scent, she seemed much pleased, and laid the +little packet on my table, remarking that I could "chust smell it ven +I liked." She added that in the winter-time they kept it in all +Norwegian houses, and strewed it on the stoves when they were hot, and +it "smelled beautiful." They called it "king's smoke," she said, and +nobody would be without it. + +It is easy to see why the Norwegians, from the king down, must need +some such device as this to make tolerable the air in their +stove-heated rooms in winter. It was appalling to look at their four +and five storied stoves, and think how scorched the air must be by +such a mass of heated iron. The average Norwegian stove is as high as +the door of the room, or even higher. It is built up of sections of +square-cornered hollow iron pipe, somewhat as we build card-houses; +back and forth, forward and back, up and across, through these hollow +blocks of cast-iron, goes the heated air. It takes hours to get the +tower heated from bottom to top; but once it is heated there is a +radiating mass of burnt iron, with which it must be terrible to be +shut up. The open spaces between the cross sections must be very +convenient for many purposes,--to keep all sorts of things hot; and a +man given to the habit of tipping back in his chair, and liking to sit +with his feet higher than his head, could keep his favorite attitude +and warm his feet at the same time,--a thing that couldn't be done +with any other sort of stove. + +One of my last days in Christiania was spent on the island of +Hovedöen, a short half-hour's row from the town. Here are the ruins of +an old monastery, dating back to the first half of the twelfth +century, and of priceless interest to antiquarians, who tell, inch by +inch, among the old grass-grown stones, just where the abbot sat, and +the monks prayed, and through which arch they walked at vespers. Bits +of the old carved cornices are standing everywhere, leaning up against +the moss-grown walls, which look much less old for being hoary with +moss. One thing they had in the monastery of Hovedöen,--a well of +ice-cold, sparkling water, which might have consoled them for much +lack of wine; and if the limes and poplars and birches were half as +beautiful in 1147 as they are now, the monks were to be envied, when a +whole nunneryful of nuns took refuge on their island in the time of +the first onslaught on convents. What strolls under those trees! There +are several species of flowers growing there now which grow nowhere +else in all the region about, and tradition says that these nuns +planted them. The paths are edged with heather and thyme and +bluebells, and that daintiest of little vetches, the golden yellow, +whose blossoms were well named by the devout sisters "Mary's golden +shoes." As we rowed home at sunset over the amber and silver water, +Katrina sang Norwegian songs; her voice, though untrained and shrill, +had sweet notes in it, and she sang with the same childlike heartiness +and innocent exultation that she showed in everything else. "Old +Norway" was the refrain of the song she liked most and sang best; and +more than one manly Norwegian voice joined in with hers with good-will +and fervor. + +At the botanical gardens a Victoria regia was on the point of +blooming. Day after day I had driven out there to see it; each day +confident, each day disappointed. The professor, a quaint and learned +old man, simple in speech and behavior, as all great scientific men +are, glided about in a linen coat, his shears hanging in a big sheath +on one side his belt, his pruning-knife on the other, and a big +note-book in his breast-pocket. His life seemed to me one of the few +ideal ones I had ever seen. His house stands on a high terrace in the +garden, looking southward, over the city to the fjord. It is a long, +low cottage, with dormer windows sunk deep in the red-tiled roof, +shaded by two great horsechestnut trees, which are so old that clumps +of grass have grown in their gnarled knots. Here he plants and watches +and studies; triumphs over the utmost rigors of the Norway climate, +and points with pride to a dozen varieties of Indian corn thriving in +his grounds. Tropical plants of all climes he has cajoled or coerced +into living out-of-doors all winter in Norway. One large house full of +begonias was his special pride; tier after tier of the splendid velvet +leaves, all shades of color in the blossoms: one could not have +dreamed that the world held so many varieties of begonia. He was +annoyed by his Victoria regia's tardiness. There it lay, lolling in +its huge lake,--in a sultry heated air which it was almost dangerous +for human lungs to breathe. Its seven huge leaves spread out in round +disks on which a child could stand safe. In the middle, just out of +the water, rose the mysterious red bud. It was a plant he had himself +raised in one year from seed; and he felt towards it as to a child. + +"I cannot promise. I did think it should have opened this morning. It +has lifted itself one inch since last night," he said. "It is not my +fault," he added apologetically, like a parent who cannot make a child +obey. Then he showed me, by his clasped hands, how it opened; in a +series of spasmodic unclosings, as if by throes, at intervals of five +or six minutes; each unclosing revealing more and more of the petals, +till at last, at the end of a half-hour, the whole snowy blossom is +unfolded: one day open, then towards night, by a similar series of +throe-like movements, it closes, and the next morning, between nine +and eleven, opens again in the same way, but no longer white. In the +night it has changed its color. One look, one taste, one day, of life +has flushed it rose-red. As the old professor told me this tale, not +new, but always wonderful and solemn, his face kindled with delight +and awe. No astronomer reckoning the times and colors of a recurring +planet could have had a vivider sense of the beauty and grandeur of +its law. The last thing I did in Christiania was to drive for the +third time to see if this flower had unfolded. It had apparently made +no movement for twenty-four hours. + +"I tought you not see dat flower," said Katrina, who had looked with +some impatience on the repeated bootless journeys. "I tink it is +hoombug. I tink it is all shtories." + +To me there was a half-omen in the flower's delay. Norway also had +shown me only half its beauty; I was going away wistful and +unsatisfied. "You must have another Victoria next summer," I said to +the quaint old professor, when I bade him good-by; and as Katrina ran +swiftly off the deck of the steamer, that I might not see any tears in +her eyes, bidding me farewell, I said also to her, "Next summer, +Katrina. Study the Frithiof's Saga, and read me the rest of it next +summer." + +I hope she will not study it so well as to improve too much in her +renderings. Could any good English be so good as this? + +FRITHIOF AND INGEBORG. + + Two trees growed bold and silent: never before the north never + seen such beauties; they growed nicely in the garden. + + The one growed up with the strongth of the oak; and the stem + was as the handle of the spear, but the crown shaked in the + wind like the top on the helmet. + + But the other one growed like a rose,--like a rose when the + winter just is going away; but the spring what stands in its + buds still in dreams childly is smiling. + + The storm shall go round the world. In fight with the storm the + oak will stand: the sun in the spring will glow on the heaven. + Then the rose opens its ripe lips. + + So they growed in joy and play; and Frithiof was the young oak, + but the rose in the green walley was named Ingeborg the Beauty. + + If you seen dem two in the daylight, you would think of Freya's + dwelling, where many a little pair is swinging with yellow + hair, and vings like roses. + + But if you saw dem in the moonlight, dancing easy around, you + would tink to see an erl-king pair dancing among the wreaths of + the walley. How he was glad-- + +"Dem's the nicest vairses, I tink." + + --how he was glad, how it was dear to him, when he got to write + the first letter of her name, and afterwards to learn his + Ingeborg, that was to Frithiof more than the king's honor. + + How nicely when with the little sail, ven they vent over the + surface of the water, how happy with her little white hands she + is clapping ven he turns the rudder. + + How far up it was hanging in the top of the tree, to the + bird's-nest, he found up; sure was not either the eagle's nest, + when she stand pointing down below. + + You couldn't find a river, no matter how hard it was, without + he could carry her over. It is so beautiful when the waves are + roaring to be keeped fast in little white arms. + + The first flower brought up in the spring, the first strawberry + that gets red, the first stem that golden bended down, he happy + brought his Ingeborg. + + But the days of childhood goes quickly away. There stands a + youth; and in a while the hope, the brave, and the fire is + standing in his face. There stands a maiden, with the bosom + swelling. + + Very often Frithiof went out a-hunting. Such a hunting would + frighten many; without spear and sword the brave would fetch + the bear: they were fighting breast to breast; and after the + glory, in an awful state, the hunter went home with what he + got. + + What girl wouldn't like to take that? + +"Ven he had been fighting that way, you see, without any sword or +anyting." + + Then dear to the women is the fierce of a man. The strongth is + wort the beauty, and they will fit well for another, as well as + the helm fits the brain of an hero. + + But if he in the winter evening, with his soul fierce, by the + fire's beam was reading of bright Walhalla, a song, a song of + the gods-- + +"Veil, dat's the mans; vat's the vomens?" + +"Goddesses?" + +"Vell, dat's it." + + --a song of the gods and goddesses' joy, he was tinking, Yellow + is the hair of Freya. My Ingeborg-- + +"Vat's a big field called when it is all over ripe?" + +"Yellow?" + +"No,"--a shake of the head. + + --is like the fields when easy waves the summer wind a golden + net round all the flower bundles. + + Iduna's bosom is rich, and beautiful it waves under the green + satin. I know a twin satin wave in where light Alfs hid + themself. + + And the eyes of Frigga are blue as the heavenly whole; still + often I looked at two eyes under the vault of heaven: against + dem are a spring day dark to look at. + + How can it be they praise Gerda's white cheeks, and the + new-come snow in the north light beam? + + I looked at cheeks, the snow mountain's beam ain't so beautiful + in the red of the morning. + + I know a heart as soft as Nanna's, if not so much spoken of. + + Well praised of the skalds you, Nanna's happy Balder! + + Oh, that I as you could die missed of the soft and honest + maiden, your Nanna like. I should glad go down to Hell's the + dark kingdom. + + But the king's daughter sat and sung a hero song, and weaved + glad into the stuff all things the hero have done, the blue + sea, the green walley, and rock-rifts. + + There growed out in snow-white vool the shining shields of-- + +"Ain't there a word you say spinned?" + + --spinned gold; red as the lightning flew the lances of the + war, and stiff of silver was every armor. + + But as she quickly is weaving and nicely, she gets the heroes + Frithiof's shape, and as she comes farther into the weave, she + gets red, but still she sees them with joy. + + But Frithiof did cut in walley and field many an I and F in the + bark of-- + +"He cut all round. Wherever he come, he cut them two." + + --the trees. These Runes is healed with happy and joy, just + like the young hearts together. + + When the daylight stands in its emerald-- + +Here we had a long halt, Katrina insisting on saying "smaragd," and +declaring that that was an English word; she had seen it often, and +"it could not be pronounced in any other way;" she had seen it in +"Lady Montaig in Turkey,"--"she had loads of smaragds and all such +things." Her contrition, when she discovered her mistake, was +inimitable. + +She had read this account of "Lady Montagu in Turkey," in her "Hundred +Lessons," at school so many times she knew it by heart, which she +proceeded to prove by long quotations. + + --and the king of the light with the golden hair, and the mens, + is busy wandering, then they did only think one on each other. + + When the night is standing in its emerald, and the mother of + the sleep with dark hair and all are silent, and the stars are + wandering, den they only is dreaming of each other. + + Thou Earth dat fix thee [or gets new] every spring, and is + braiding the flowers into your hair, the beautifullest of them, + give me friendly, for a wreath to reward Frithiof. + + Thou Ocean, dat in thy dark room has pearls in thousands, give + me the best, the beautifullest, and the beautifullest neck I + will bind them to. + + Thou button on Odin's king-chair, Thou World's Eye Golden Sun, + if you were mine, your shining round I would give Frithiof as + shield. + + Thou lantern in the All-Father's Home, the moon with the pale + torch, if you were mine, I would give it as an emerald for my + beautiful hand-maiden. + + Then Hilding said, "Foster son, + Your love wouldn't be any good to you. + Different lots Norna gives out. + That maiden is daughter to King Bele. + To Odin hisself in the Star-place + Mounts her family. + You, de son of Thorstein peasant, + Must give way, because like thrives best with like." + +"He have to leave because he vas poor, you see." + + But Frithiof smiled: "Very easy + My arm will win me king's race. + The king of the wood fall, + The king of the forest fall in spite of claw and howl; + His race I inherit with the Skin." + + The free-born man wouldn't move, + Because the world belongs to the free. + Easy, courage can reconcile fortune, + And de Hope carries a king's crown. + + Most noble is all Strongth. Because Thor-- + +"He was fader of all dem oder gods, you see." + + The ancestor lives in Thrudvang, + He weighs not de burden, but de wort; + +"Look now, all dese be strange words." + + A mighty wooer is also the Sword. + + I will fight for my young bride. + If it so were, vid de God of de Tunder; + Grow safe, grow happy, my white lily, + Our covenant are fast as the Norna's will. + +This is her translation of the last stanzas of the account of +Ingeborg's marriage to Frithiof:-- + + In come Ingeborg in hermine sack, and bright jewels, followed + of a crowd of maids like de stars wid de moon. Wid de tears in + de beautiful eyes she fall to her brother's heart; but he lead + the dear sister up to Frithiof's noble breast; and over the + God's altar she reach-ched her hand to de childhood's friend, + to her heart's beloved. + +A few days before I left Christiania, Katrina had come shyly up to my +table, one evening, and tossed down on it a paper, saying,-- + +"Dere is anoder. Dis one is for you." + +On looking at it, I found it contained four stanzas of Norwegian +verse, in which my name occurred often. No persuasions I could bring +to bear on her would induce her to translate it. She only laughed, +said she could not, and that some of my Norwegian friends must read it +to me. She read it aloud in the Norwegian, and to my ignorant ear the +lines had a rhythmical and musical sound. She herself was pleased with +it. "It is nice song, dat song," she said; but turn it into English +for me she would not. Each day, however, she asked if I had had it +translated, and finding on the last day that I had not, she darted +into her room, shut the door, and in the course of two hours came out, +saying, "I got it part done; but dey tell you better, as I tell you." + +The truth was, the tribute was so flattering, she preferred it should +come to me second hand. She shrank from saying directly, in open +speech, all that it had pleased her affectionate heart to say in the +verses. Three of the stanzas I give exactly as she wrote them. The +rest is a secret between Katrina and me. + +THANKS. + + The duty command me to honor + You, who with me + Were that kind I set her beside + My parents. Like a sunbeamed picture + For my look, you painted stands. + My wishes here translated + With you to Colorado go. + + Happy days! oh, happy memories + Be with me on the life's way. + Let me still after a while find or meet + You energisk. I wouldn't forget. + God, be thou a true guide + For her over the big ocean; + Keep away from her all torments + That she happy may reach her home. + + Take my thanks and my farewell + As remembrance along with you home, + Though a stranger I am placed + And as servant for you, + The heaven's best reward I pray down + For all you did to me. + Good luck and honor + Be with you till you die. + +The last verse seems to me to sound far better in Norwegian than in +English, and is it not more fitting to end the Katrina Saga in a few +of her words in her own tongue? + + "Modtag Takken og Farvellet + Som Erindring med dem hjem, + Sjönt som Fremmed jeg er stillet + Og som Tjener kun for dem. + Himlen's rige Lön nedbeder + Jeg for Lidet og for Stort, + Mrs. Jackson, Held og Hæder + Fölge dem til Döden's Port." + + + +ENCYCLICALS OF A TRAVELLER. + +I. + +Dear People,--We had a fine send-off from Christiania. The landlord of +the Scandinavie sent up to know if we would do him the honor to drive +down to the steamer in his private carriage. Katrina delivered the +message with exultant eyes. "You see," she said, "he likes to show dat +he do not every day get such in de house." We sent word back that we +should consider ourselves most honored; and so when we went +downstairs, there stood a fine landau open, with bouquets lying on the +seats, and a driver in livery; and the landlord himself in the +doorway, and the landlord's wife, who had sent us the bouquets, +Katrina said, peering from behind the curtains. When she saw Katrina +pointing her out, she threw the curtains back and appeared full in +view, smiling and waving her hand; we lifted up our bouquets, and +waved them to her, and smiled our thanks. Katrina sprang up, with my +cloak on her arm, to the coachman's seat. "I tink I go down too," she +exclaimed, "I see you all safe;" and so we drove off, with as much +smiling and bowing and "fare-welling" as if we had been cousins and +aunts of everybody in the Scandinavie. How we did hate to leave our +great corner rooms, with five windows in them, the fifth window being +across the corner, which is not a right-angled corner, but like a huge +bay-window! This utilization of the corner is a very noticeable +feature in the streets of Christiania. In the greater part of the best +houses the corner is cut off in this way; the door into the room being +across the opposite corner (also cut off), thus making a six-sided +room. The improvement in the street-fronts of handsome blocks of +buildings made by this shape instead of the usual rectangular corner +is greater than would be supposed, and the rooms made in this fashion +are delightfully bright, airy, and out of the common. + +I did not quite fancy sailing in a steamer named "Balder,"--one gets +superstitious in Norway,--but I think we had flowers enough on board +to have saved us if Loki herself had wished us ill. Nothing in all +Norway is more striking than the Norwegian's love of flowers. It is no +exaggeration to say that one does not see a house without flowers in +the window. In the better houses every window in the front, even up to +the little four-paned window in the gable, has its row of flower-pots; +and even in the very poorest hovels there will be at least one window +flower-filled. This general love and culture of flowers makes it the +most natural thing in the world for the Norwegian, when he travels, to +be carrying along something in the shape of a plant. He is either +taking it home or carrying it as a gift to some one he is going to +visit. I have not yet been on a steamboat where I did not see at least +a dozen potted plants, of one sort or another, being carefully carried +along, as hand luggage, by men or women; and as for bouquets, they are +almost as common as hats and bonnets. Of the potted plants, five out +of seven will be green myrtles, and usually the narrow leaf. There is +a reason for this,--the Norwegian bride, of the better class, wears +always a chaplet of green myrtle, and has her white veil trimmed with +little knots of it from top to bottom. The chaplet is made in front +somewhat after the shape of the high gilded crowns worn by the peasant +brides; but at the back it is simply a narrow wreath confining the +veil. After I knew this, I looked with more interest at the pots of +myrtle I met everywhere, journeying about from place to place; and I +observed, after this, what I had not before noticed, that every house +had at least one pot of myrtle in its windows. + +There were a dozen different varieties of carnations in our bouquets. +The first thing I saw as we moved off from the wharf was a shabbily +dressed little girl with a big bouquet entirely of carnations, in +which there must have been many more. In a few minutes a woman, still +shabbier than the little girl, came down into the cabin with a great +wooden box of the sort that Norwegian women carry everything in, from +potatoes up to their church fineries: it is an oval box with a little +peak at each end like a squirrel cage; the top, which has a hole in +the middle, fits down around these peaks so tight that the box is +safely lifted by this handle; and, as I say, everything that a +Norwegian woman wants to carry, she puts into her _tine_ (pronounced, +"teener"). Some of them are painted in gay colors; others are left +plain. Setting down the box, she opened it, and proceeded to sprinkle +with water one of the most beautiful wreaths I have ever seen,--white +lilies, roses, and green myrtle. I think it came from a wedding; but +as she knew no English, and I no Norwegian, I could not find out. Two +nights and a day she was going to carry it, however, and she sprinkled +it several times a day. An hour later, when I went down into the +cabin, there was a row of bouquets filling the table under the +looking-glass; five pots of flowers standing on the floor, and in +several staterooms whose doors were standing open I saw still more of +both bouquets and plants. This is only a common illustration of the +universal custom. It is a beautiful one, and in thorough keeping with +the affectionate simplicity of the Norwegian character. + +Christiania looked beautiful as we sailed away. It lies in the hollow, +or rather on the shore rim of the fine amphitheatre of hills which +makes the head of the Christiania Fjord. _Fjord_ is a much more +picturesque word than _bay_; and I suppose when a bay travels up into +the heart of a country scores of miles, slips under several narrow +strips of land one after the other, making lakes between them, it is +entitled to be called something more than plain _bay_; but I wish it +had been a word easier to pronounce. I never could say "fjord," when I +read the word in America; and all that I have gained on the +pronouncing of it by coming to Norway is to become still more +distinctly aware that I always pronounce it wrong. I do not think +Cadmus ever intended that _j_ should be _y_, or that one should be +called on to pronounce _f_ before it. + +The Christiania Fjord has nothing of grandeur about it, like the +wilder fjords on the west coast of Norway. It is smiling and gracious, +with beautifully rounded and interlocking hills,--intervals of pine +woods, with green meadows and fields, pretty villages and hamlets, +farm-houses and country-seats, and islands unnumbered, which deceive +the eye continually, seeming to be themselves the shore. We left +Christiania at two o'clock; at that hour the light on a Norway summer +day is like high noon in other parts of the world,--in fact, it's noon +till four o'clock in the afternoon, and then it is afternoon till ten, +and then a good, long, very light twilight to go to bed by at eleven +or twelve, and if you want to get up again at three o'clock in the +morning you can wake without any trouble, for it is broad daylight: +all of which is funny for once or twice, or perhaps for ten times, but +not for very long. + +It was not till four or five o'clock that we began to see the full +beauty of the fjord; then the sun had gone far enough over to cast a +shadow,--soften all the forest tops on the west side, and cast shadows +on the east side. The little oases of bright green farm-lands, with +their clusters of houses, seemed to sink deeper and deeper into their +dark pine-tree settings,--the fjord grew wider and wider, and was as +smooth as a lake: now and then we drew up by a little village and half +stopped,--it seemed no more than that,--and somebody would climb on or +off the steamer by little cockles of boats that bobbed alongside. +Sometimes we came to a full stop, and lay several minutes at a wharf, +loading or unloading bags of grain. I think we took on just as many as +we took off,--like a game of bean-bags between the villages. The +sailors carried them off and on their backs, one set standing still in +their places to lift the bags up on their comrades' backs; they lifted +with a will, and then folded their arms and waited till the +bag-carriers came back to be loaded up again. If I could have spoken +Norwegian, I should have asked whether those sets of men took turn and +turn about, or whether one set always lifted up the loads and the +others lugged them,--probably the latter. That's the way it is in +life; but I never saw a more striking example of it than in the +picture these sailors made standing with folded arms doing nothing, +waiting till their fellows came back again to be loaded down like +beasts of burden. It was at "Moss" we saw this,--a pretty name for a +little town with a handful of gay-colored houses, red, yellow, and +white, set in green fields and woods. Women came on board here with +trays of apples and pears to sell,--little wizened pears red high up +on one side, like some old spinsters' cheeks in New England. Children +came too, with cherries tied up in bunches of about ten to a bunch; +they looked dear, but it was only a few hundredths of a quarter of a +dollar that they cost. Since I have found out that a kroner is only +about twenty-seven cents, and that it takes one hundred ore to make a +kroner, all the things that cost only a few ore seem to me so +ridiculously cheap as not to be worth talking about. These children +with the cherries were all barefoot, and they were so shy that they +curled and mauled their little brown toes all the time they were +selling their cherries, just as children one shade less shy twist and +untwist their fingers. + +We left Moss by a short cut, not overland exactly, but next door to +it,--through land. The first thing we knew we were sailing through a +bridge right into the town, in a narrow canal,--we could have thrown +an apple into the windows of some of the houses as we glided by; then +in a few moments out we were again into the broad open fjord. + +At six o'clock we went down to our first Danish supper. The "Balder" +is a Danish boat, and sailed by a Danish captain, and conducted on +Danish methods; and they pleased us greatly. The ordinary Norwegian +supper is a mongrel meal of nobody knows how many kinds of sausage, +raw ham, raw smoked salmon, sardines, and all varieties of cheese. The +Danish we found much better, having the addition of hot fish, and +cutlets, and the delicious Danish butter. One good result of Denmark's +lying low, she gets splendid pasturage for her cows, and makes a +delicious butter, which brings the highest prices in the English and +other markets. + +When we came up from supper we found ourselves in a vast open sea; dim +shores to be seen in the east and west,--in the east pink and gray, in +the west dark with woods. The setting sun was sinking behind them, and +its yellow light etched every tree-top on the clear sky. Here and +there a sail gleamed in the sun, or stood out white in the farther +horizon. A pink halo slowly spread around the whole outer +circumference of the water; and while we were looking at this, all of +a sudden we were not in an open sea at all, but in among islands +again, and slowly coming to a stop between two stretches of lovely +shore,--big solid green fields like America's on one side, and a low +promontory of mossy rocks on the other. A handful of houses, with one +large and conspicuous one in the centre, stood between the green +fields and the shore. A sign was printed on this house in big letters; +and as I was trying to spell it out, a polite Norwegian at my elbow +said, "Shoddy factory! We make shoddy there; we call it so after the +English," bowing flatteringly as if it were a compliment to the +English. _Kradsuld_ is Norwegian for shoddy, and sounds worlds more +respectable, I am sure. + +The roof of this shoddy factory had four dormer windows in it, with +their tiled roofs running up full width to the ridge-pole, which gave +the roof the drollest expression of being laid in box-plaits. I wish +somebody would make a series of photographs of roofs in Norway and +Denmark. They are the most picturesque part of the scenery; and as for +their "sky-line," it is the very poetry of etching. I thought I had +seen the perfection of the beauty of irregularity in the sky-line in +Edinburgh; but Edinburgh roofs are monotonous and straight in +comparison with the huddling of corners and angles in Scandinavian +gables and ridges and chimneys and attics. Add to this freaky and +fantastic and shifting shape the beauty of color and of fine +regularity of small curves in the red tile, and you have got as it +were a mid-air world of beauty by itself. As I was studying out the +points where these box-plaited dormer windows set into their roof, the +same polite Norwegian voice said to a friend by his side, "I have read +it over twenty-five ones." He pronounced the word _read_ as for the +present indicative, which made his adverbs of time at the end still +droller. Really one of the great pleasures of foreign travel is the +English one hears spoken; and it is a pleasure for which we no doubt +render a full equivalent in turn when we try speaking in any tongue +except our own. But it is hard to conceive of any intelligible English +French or German being so droll as German or French English can be and +yet be perfectly intelligible. Polite creatures that they all are, +never to smile when we speak their language! + +As the sun sank, the rosy horizon-halo gathered itself up and floated +about in pink fleeces; the sky turned pale green, like the sky before +dawn. Latitude plays strange pranks with sunsets and sunrises. Norway, +I think, must be the only place in the world where you could mistake +one for the other; but it is literally true that in Norway it would be +very easy to do so if you happened not to know which end of the day it +was. + +When we went down into our staterooms sorrow awaited us. To the eye +the staterooms had been most alluring. One and all, we had exclaimed +that never had we seen so fine staterooms in a Norwegian steamboat. +All the time we were undressing we eyed with complacency the two fine +red sofas, on one of which we were to sleep. Strangely enough, no one +of us observed the shape of the sofa, or thought to try the +consistency of it. Our experiences, therefore, were nearly +simultaneous, and unanimous to a degree, as we discovered afterwards +on comparing notes. The first thing we did on lying down on our bed +was to roll off it. Then we got up and on again, and tried to get +farther back on it. As it was only about the width of a good-sized +pocket-handkerchief, and rounded up in the middle, this proved to be +impossible. Then we got up and tried to pull it out from the wall. +Vain! It was upholstered to the board as immovable as the stack-pipe +of the boat. Then we tried once more to adjust ourselves to it. +Presently we discovered that it was not only narrow and rounding, but +harder than it would have seemed possible that anything in shape of +tufted upholstered velvet could be. We began to ache in spots; the +ache spread: we ached all over; we could neither toss, twist, nor turn +on the summit of this narrow tumulus. Misery set in; indignation and +restlessness followed; seasickness, in addition, seemed for once a +trifle. The most indefatigable member of the party, being also the +most fatigued, succeeded at last in procuring a half-dozen small +square pillows,--one shade less hard than the sofa, she thought when +she first lay down on them, but long before morning she began to +wonder whether they were not even harder. Such a night lingers long in +one's memory; it was a closing chapter to our experience of Norwegian +beds,--a fitting climax, if anything so small could be properly called +a climax. How it has ever come about that the Norwegian notion of a +bed should be so restricted, I am at a loss to imagine. They are +simply child's cribs,--no more; as short as narrow, and in many +instances so narrow that it is impossible to turn over quickly in them +without danger. I have again and again been suddenly waked, finding +myself just going over the edge. The making of them is as queer as the +size. A sort of _bulkhead_ small mattress is slipped in under the +head, lifting it up at an angle admirably suited to an asthmatic +patient who can't breathe lying down, or to a small boy who likes to +coast down-hill in his bed of a morning. The single pillow is placed +on this; the short, narrow sheet flung loosely over it; blanket, +ditto; coverlet, ditto--it may or may not be straight or smooth. The +whole expression of the bed is as if it had been just hastily smoothed +up temporarily till there should be time enough to make it. In perfect +good faith I sent for a chambermaid one night, in the early days of my +Norway journey, and made signs to her that I would like to have my bed +made, when the poor thing had already made it to the very best of her +ability, and entirely in keeping with the customs of her country. + +It is very needless to say that we all were up early the next morning; +and there was something ludicrous enough in the tone in which each +inquired eagerly of each, "Did you ever know such beds?" At ten we +were anchored off the little town of Frederikssund; and here the boat +lay five mortal hours, doing nothing but unloading and taking on bags +of bran. + +Another big steamer was lying alongside, doing the same thing. This +was our first glimpse of Denmark. Very flat it looked,--just out of +water, and no more,--like Holland. The sailors who were carrying the +bags of bran wore queer pointed hoods on their heads, with long, +tail-like pieces coming down behind, which made them look like +elves,--at least it did for the first hour; after that they no longer +looked queer. If we had gone on shore, we could have seen the Royal +Estate of Iaegerspriis, which has belonged to kings of Denmark ever +since the year 1300, and has a fine park, and a house decorated by +sculptures by Wiedewelt,--a Danish sculptor of the last century,--and +an old sepulchre which dates back to the stone age, and, best of all, +a great old oak, called the King's Oak, which is the largest in +Denmark, and dates back farther than anybody will know till it dies. +A tree is the only living thing which can keep the secret of its own +age, is it not? Nobody can tell within a hundred or two of years +anything about it so long as the tree can hold its head up. The +circumference of this tree is said to be forty-two feet four feet from +the ground,--a pretty respectable tree, considering the size of +Denmark itself. Now we begin to see where the old Vikings got the oak +to build their ships. They carried it up from Denmark, which must have +been in those days a great forest of beech and oak to have kept so +many till now. It is only a few miles from Frederikssund, also, to +Havelse, which is celebrated for its "kitchen middings,"--the +archæological name for kitchen refuse which got buried up hundreds of +years ago. Even potato parings become highly important if you keep +them long enough! They will at least establish the fact that somebody +ate potatoes at that date; and all things hang together so in this +queer world that there is no telling how much any one fact may prove +or disprove. For myself, I don't care so much for what they ate in +those days as for what they wore,--next to what they did in the way of +fighting and making love. I saw the other day, in Christiania, a whole +trayful of things which were taken from a burial mound opened in +Norway last spring. A Viking had been buried there in his ship. The +hull was entire, and I have stood in it; but not even the old +blackened hull, nor the oars, stirred me so much as the ornaments he +and his horses had worn,--the bosses of the shields, and queer little +carved bits of iron and silver which had held the harnesses together; +one exquisitely wrought horse's head, only about two inches long, +which must have been a beautiful ornament wherever it was placed. If +there had been a fish-bone found left from his last dinner or from the +funeral feast which the relations had at his wake, I should not have +cared half so much for it. But tastes differ. + +An afternoon more of sailing and another awful night on the red velvet +ridges, and we came to Copenhagen itself, at five of the morning. At +four we had thought it must be near,--long strips of green shore, with +trees and houses,--so flat that it looked narrow, and seemed to unroll +like a ribbon as we sailed by; but when we slipped into the harbor we +saw the difference,--wharves and crowds of masts and warehouses, just +like any other city, and the same tiresome farce of making believe +examine your luggage. I should respect customs and custom-houses more +if they did as they say they will do. As it is, to smuggle seems to me +the easiest thing in the world as well as the most alluring. I have +never smuggled because I have never had the means necessary to do it; +but I _could_ have smuggled thousands of dollars worth of goods, if I +had had them, through every custom-house I have ever seen. A +commissionnaire with a shining beaver hat stood on the shore to meet +us, we having been passed on with "recommendations" from the kindly +people of the Scandinavie in Christiania to the King of Denmark Hotel +people in Copenhagen. Nothing is so comfortable in travelling as to be +waited for by your landlord. The difference between arriving unlooked +for and arriving as an expected customer is about like the difference +between arriving at the house of a friend and arriving at that of an +enemy. The commissionaire had that pathetic air of having seen better +days which is so universal in his class. One would think that the last +vocation in the world which a "decayed" gentleman would choose would +be that of showing other gentlemen their way about cities; it is only +to be explained by the same morbid liking to be tantalized which makes +hungry beggars stand by the hour with their noses against the outside +of the panes of a pastry-cook's window,--which they all do, if they +can! Spite of our flaming "recommendations," which had preceded us +from our last employer, the landlord of the Scandinavie, satisfactory +rooms were not awaiting us. Sara Bernhardt was in town, and every +hotel was crowded with people who had come for a night or two to see +and hear her. It is wonderful how much room a person of her sort can +take up in a city; and if they add, as she does, the aroma of a +distinct and avowed disreputability, they take up twice as much room! +Since her visit to England I wonder she does not add to her open +avowal of disregard of all the laws and moralities which decent people +hold in esteem, "By permission of the Queen," or "To the Royal +Family." + +But this is not telling you about Copenhagen. It was five o'clock when +we landed, and before seven I had driven with the commissionnaire to +each one of the four first-class hotels in Copenhagen in search of +_sunny_ rooms. None to be had! All four of the hotels were fully +occupied, as I said, by Sara Bernhardt in some shape or other. So we +made the best of the best we could do,--breakfasted, slept, lunched, +and at two o'clock were ready to begin to see Copenhagen. At first we +were disappointed, as in Christiania, by its modern look. It is a +dreadful pity that old cities will burn down and be rebuilt, and that +all cities must have such a monotony of repetitions of blocks of +houses. By the end of another century there won't be an old city left +anywhere in the world. There are acres of blocks of houses in +Copenhagen to-day that might have been built anywhere else, and fit in +anywhere else just as well as here. When you look at them a little +more closely, you see that there are bits of terra-cotta work in +friezes and pilasters and brackets here and there, which would not +have been done anywhere except in the home of Thorwaldsen. If he had +done nothing else for art than to stamp a refined and graceful +expression on all the minor architectural decorations of his native +city, that would have been worth while. There is not an architectural +monstrosity in the city,--not one; and many of the buildings have an +excellent tone of quiet, conventional decoration which is pleasing to +the eye. The brick-work particularly is well done; and simple +variations of design are effectively used. You see often recurring +over doorways and windows terra-cotta reproductions of some of +Thorwaldsen's popular figures; and they are never marred by anything +fantastic or bizarre in cornice or moulding above or around them. +Among the most noticeable of the modern blocks are some built for the +dwellings of poor people. They are in short streets leading to the +Reservoir, and having therefore a good sweep of air through them. They +are but two stories and a half high, pale yellow brick, neatly +finished; and each house has a tiny dooryard filled with flowers. +There are three tenements to a house, each having three rooms. The +expression of these rows of gay little yellow houses with red roofs +and flower-filled dooryards and windows, and each doorway bearing its +two or three signs of trade or artisanry, was enough to do one's heart +good. The rents are low, bringing the tenements within easy reach of +poor people's purses. Yet there is evidently an obligation--a certain +sort of social standard--involved in the neighborhood which will keep +it always from squalor or untidiness. I doubt if anybody would dare to +live in those rows and not have flowers in his front yard and windows. +For myself, I would far rather live in one of these little houses than +in either of the four great palaces which make the Royal Square, +Amalienborg, and look as much like great penitentiaries as like +anything else,--high, bulky, unadorned gray piles, flat and straight +walls, and tiresome, dingy windows, and the pavements up to their +door-sills. They may be splendid the other side the walls,--probably +are; but they are dreary objects to look at as you come home of an +evening. The horse-cars are the most unique thing in the modern parts +of Copenhagen. How two horses can draw them I don't see: but they do; +and if two horses can draw two-story horse-cars, why don't we have +them in America, and save such overcrowding? The horse-cars here not +only have a double row of seats on top as they have in London, but +they have a roof over those seats, which nearly doubles the apparent +height. As they come towards you they look like a great +square-cornered boat, with a long pilot-house on top. Of course they +carry just double the number. Women never ride on the top; but men do +not mind going upstairs outside a horse-car and sitting in mid-air +above the heads of the crowd; and if two horses really are able to +draw so many, it is a gain. + +The one splendid sight in Copenhagen is its great dragon spire. This, +one could stand and gaze at by the day. It is made of four dragons +twisted together, heads down, tails up; heads pointing to the four +corners of the earth; tails tapering and twisting, and twisting and +tapering, till they taper out into an iron rod, which mounts still +higher, with three gilded balls, and three wrought gilded circles on +it, and finally ends in a huge gilded open-work weather-cock. This is +on an old brick building now used as the Exchange. It was built early +in 1600 by Christian IV., who seems to me to have done everything best +worth doing that was ever done in Denmark. His monogram (C) is forever +cropping out on all the splendid old things. They are enlarging this +Exchange now; and the new red brick and glaring white marble make a +very unpleasing contrast to the old part of the building, although +every effort has been made to copy the style of it exactly. It is +long, and not high, the wall divided into spaces by carved pilasters +between every two windows. Each pilaster begins as a man or a +woman,--arms cut off at the shoulders, breasts and shoulders looking +from a distance grotesquely like four humps. Where the legs should +begin, the trunk ends in a great gargoyle,--a lion's head, or a man's, +or a bull's,--some grotesque, some beautiful; below this, a +conventional tapering support. In the pointed arch of each of the +lower windows, also a carved head, no two of them alike, many of them +beautiful. It is a grand old building, and one might study it and draw +from it by the week. Passing this and crossing an arm of the +sea,--which, by the way, you are perpetually doing in Copenhagen to go +anywhere, the sea never having fully made up its mind to abandon the +situation,--you come to another quaint old building in the suburbs, +called Christianshaven. This is Vor Frelser's Church (Our Saviour's +Church), built only fifty years later than the Exchange. It is a dark +red brick church, with tiny flat dormer windows let in and painted +green on a shining tile roof; a square belfry; clock face painted red, +black, and blue; above this, a spire, first six-sided and then round, +288 feet high, covered with copper, which is bright green in places, +and wound round and round by a glittering gilded staircase, which goes +to the very top and ends under a huge gilt ball, under which twelve +people can stand. This also is a fine kind of spire to have at hand at +sunset; it flames out like a ladder into the sky. + +One more old church has a way up, which is worth telling, though you +can't see it from the outside. This is another of that same Christian +IV.'s buildings,--it was built for an observatory, and used for that +for two hundred years, but then joined to a church. The tower is +round, 115 feet high, 48 feet in diameter, and made of two hollow +cylinders. Between these is the way up, a winding stone road, smooth +and broad; and if you'll believe it, in 1716 that rascal Catherine of +Russia actually drove up to the top of it in a coach and four, Peter +going ahead on horseback. I walked up two of the turns of this stone +roadway, and it made me dizzy to think what a clatter the five +horses' hoofs must have made, with stone above, below, and around +them; and what a place it would have been to have knocked brains out +if the horses had been frightened! In this inside cylinder all the +University treasures were hidden when the English bombarded the city +in 1807, and a very safe place it must have been. + +Opposite this church is still another of Christian IV.'s good +works,--a large brick building put up for the accommodation of poor +students at the University. One hundred poor students still have free +lodgings in this building, but part of it looks as if its roof would +fall in before long. + +Along the arms of the sea which stretch into or across the city--for +some of them go way through, come out, and join the outer waters +again--are rows of high warehouses for grain, some seven and eight +stories high. These have two-storied dormer windows, and terraced +roofs, and a great beak like a ship's prow projecting from the +ridge-pole of the dormer window. From this the grain is lowered and +hoisted to and from the ships below. The ships lie crowded in these +narrow arms, as in a harbor, and make picturesque lanes of mast-tops +through the city. On many of them are hung great strings of flounders +drying, festooned on cords, from rope to rope, scores of them on a +single sloop. They look better than they smell; you could not spare +them out of the picture. + +The last thing we saw this afternoon was the statue of Hans Christian +Andersen, which has just been put up in the great garden of Rosenborg +Castle. This garden is generally called Kongen's Have ("The King's +Garden"). It was planned by the good Christian, but contains now very +little of his original design. Two splendid avenues of horse-chestnut +trees and a couple of old bronze lions are all that is left as he saw +it. It is a great place of resort for the middle classes with their +children. A yearly tax of two kroners (about fifty cents) permits a +family to take its children there every day; and I am sure there must +have been two hundred children in sight as I walked up the dark dense +shaded avenue of linden trees at the upper end of which sits the +beloved Hans Christian, with the sunlight falling on his head. "The +children come here every day," said the commissionnaire; "and that is +the reason they put him here, so they can see him." He looked as if he +also saw them. A more benignant, lifelike, tender look was never +wrought in bronze. He sits, half wrapped in a cloak, his left hand +holding a book carelessly on his knee, the right hand lifted as if in +benediction of the children. The statue is raised a few feet on a +plain pedestal, in a large oval bed of flowers: on one side the +pedestal is carved the "Child and the Stork;" on the other, the group +of ducks, with the "ugly" one in the middle,--pictures that every +little child will understand and love to see; on the front is his name +and a wreath of the bay he so well earned. Written above is,-- + + "PUT UP BY THE DANISH PEOPLE;" + +and I thought as I stood there that he was more to be envied than +Christian IV. with his splendors of art and architecture, or than the +whole Danish dynasty, with their priceless treasures and their +jewelled orders. And so ended our first day in Copenhagen. + +The next morning, Sunday, I drove out to church in the island of +Amager, of which that paradoxical compound of truth and falsehood, +Murray, says: "It offers absolutely nothing of interest." I always +find it very safe to go to places of which that is said. Amager is +Copenhagen's vegetable garden. It is an island four miles square, and +absolutely flat,--as flat as a piece of pasteboard; in fact, while I +was driving on it, it seemed to me to bear the same relation to +flatness that the Irishman's gun did to recoiling,--"If it recoiled at +all, it recoiled forrards,"--so it was a very safe gun. If Amager is +anything more or less than flat, it is bent inwards; for actually when +I looked off to the water it seemed to be higher than the land, and +the ships looked as if they might any minute come sailing down among +the cabbages. Early in the sixteenth century it was filled up by Dutch +people; and there they are to this day, wearing the same clothes and +raising cabbages just as they did three hundred years ago. To reach +Amager from Copenhagen, you cross several arms of the sea and go +through one or two suburbs called by different names; but you would +never know that you were not driving in Copenhagen all the time until +you come out into the greenery of Amager itself. It was good luck to +go of a Sunday. All the Dutch dames were out and about in their best, +driving in carts and walking, or sitting in their doorways. The women +were "sights to behold." The poorer ones wore shirred sunbonnets on +their heads, made of calico, coming out like an old poke-bonnet in +front, and with full capes which set out at a fly-away angle behind. +They seemed to have got the conception of the cape from the arms of +their own windmills (of which, by the way, there are several on the +island; and their revolving arms add to the island's expression of +being insecurely at sea!). Next below the sunbonnet came a gay +handkerchief crossed on the breast, over a black gown with tight +sleeves; a full bright blue apron, reaching half-way round the waist +and coming down to within two inches of the bottom of the overskirt, +completed their rig. It was droller than it sounds. Some of them wore +three-cornered handkerchiefs pinned outside their poke-bonnets, pinned +under their chins, and the point falling over the neck behind. These +were sometimes plain colors, sometimes white, embroidered or trimmed +with lace. The men looked exactly like any countrymen in England or +Scotland or America. If we haven't an international anything else, we +have very nearly an international costume for the masculine human +creature; and it is as ugly and unpicturesque a thing as malignity +itself could devise. The better class of women wore a plain black +bonnet, made in the same poke shape as the sunbonnets, but without any +cape at all on the back, only a little full crown tucked in, and the +fronts coming round very narrow in the back of the neck, and tied +there with narrow black ribbons. Don't fancy these were the only +strings that held the roof in its place,--not at all. Two very broad +strings, of bright blue, or red, or purple, as it might be, came from +somewhere high up inside the front, and tied under the chin in a huge +bow, so that their faces looked as if they had first been tied up in +broad ribbon for the toothache, and then the huge bonnet put on +outside of all. Strangely enough, the effect on the faces was not +ugly. Old faces were sheltered and softened, double chins and scraggy +necks were hid, and younger faces peered out prettily from under the +scoop and among the folds of ribbon; and the absolute plainness of the +bonnet itself, having no trimming save a straight band across the +middle, gave the charm of simplicity to the outline, and vindicated +the worth of that most emphatically when set side by side in the +church pews with the modern bonnets,--all bunches and bows, and angles +and tilts of feathers and flowers and rubbish generally. + +The houses were all comfortable, and some of them very pretty. Low, +long, chiefly of a light yellow straw, latticed off by dark lines of +wood-work, some of them entirely matted with ivy, like cottages in the +English lake district, all of them with either red-tiled or thatched +roofs, and the greater part surrounded by hedges. The thatched roofs +were delightful. The thatch is held on and fastened down at the +ridge-pole by long bits of crooked wood, one on each side, the two +crossing and lapping at the ridge-pole and held together there by +pins. The effect of a long, low roof set thick with these cross-pieces +at the top is almost as if dozens of slender fishes were set there +with forked tails up in the air; and when half a dozen sparrows are +flitting and alighting on these projecting points of board, the effect +is of a still odder trimming. Some of the red-tiled roofs have a set +pattern in white painted along the ridge-pole, corners, and eaves. +These are very gay; and some of the thatched roofs are grown thick +with a dark olive-green moss, which in a cross sunlight is as fine a +color as was ever wrought into an old tapestry, and looks more like +ancient velvet. + +The church in Amager is new, brick, and ugly of exterior. But the +inside is good; the wood-work, choir, pulpit, sounding-board, +railings, pews, all carved in a simple conventional pattern, and +painted dark-olive brown, relieved by claret and green,--in a +combination borrowed no doubt from some old wood-work centuries back. +In the centre a candelabra, hanging by a red cord, marked off by six +gilded balls at intervals; the candelabra itself being simply a great +gilded ball, with the simplest possible candle-holders projecting from +it. Two high candle-holders inside the railing had each three brass +candlesticks in the shape of a bird, with his long tail curled under +his feet to stand on,--a fantastic design, but singularly graceful, +considering its absurdity. The minister wore a long black gown and +high, full ruff, exactly like those we see in the pictures of the +divines of the Reformation times. He had a fine and serious face, of +oval contour; therefore the ruff suited him. On short necks and below +round faces it is simply grotesque, and no more dignified than a +turkey-cock's ruffled feathers. He preached with great fervor and +warmth of manner; but as I could not understand a word he said, I +should have found the sermon long if I had not been very busy in +studying the bonnets and faces, and choir of little girls in the +gallery. More than half the congregation were in the ordinary modern +dress, and would have passed unnoticed anywhere. All the men looked +like well-to-do New England farmers, coloring and all; for the +blue-eyed, fair-haired type prevails. But the women who had had the +sense and sensibility to stick to their own national clothes were as +pretty as pictures, as their faces showed above the dark olive-brown +pews, framed in their front porches of bonnets,--for that is really +what they are like, the faces are so far back in them. Some were lined +with bright lavender satin, full-puffed; some with purple; some with +blue. The strings never matched the lining, but were of a violent +contrast,--light blue in the purple, gay plaid in the lavender, and so +on. The aprons were all of the same shade of vivid blue,--as blue as +the sky, and darker. They were all shirred down about two inches below +the waist; some of them trimmed down the sides at the back with lace +or velvet, but none of them on the bottom. One old woman who sat in +front of me wore a conical and pointed cap of black velvet and plush, +held on her head by broad gray silk strings, tied with a big bow under +her chin, covering her ears and cheeks. The cap was shaped like a +funnel carried out to a point, which projected far behind her, stiff +and rigid; yet it was not an ungraceful thing on the head. These, I am +told, are rarely seen now. + +When the sermon was done, the minister disappeared for a moment, and +came back in gorgeous claret velvet and white robes, with a great gilt +cross on his back. The candles on the altar were lighted, and the +sacrament was administered to a dozen or more kneeling outside the +railing. This part of the ceremony seemed to me not very Lutheran; but +I suppose that is precisely the thing it was,--Luther-an,--one of the +relics he kept when he threw overboard the rest of the superstitions. +Before this ceremony the sexton came and unlocked the pew we +occupied, and I discovered for the first time that I and the +commissionnaire had been all that time locked in. After church the +sexton told us that there would be a baptismal service there in an +hour,--eleven babies to be baptized. That was something not to be +lost; so I drove away for half an hour, went to a farm-house and +begged milk, and then, after I had got my inch, asked for my habitual +ell,--that is, to see the house. The woman was, like all housekeepers, +full of apologies, but showed me her five rooms with good-will,--five +in a row, all opening together, the kitchen in the middle, and the +front door in the back yard by the hen-coop and water-barrel! The +kitchen was like the Norwegian farm-house kitchens,--a bare shed-like +place, with a table, and wall-shelves, and a great stone platform with +a funnel roof overhead; sunken hollows to make the fire in; no oven, +no lids, no arrangement for doing anything except boiling or frying. A +huge kettle of boiling porridge was standing over a few blazing +sticks. _Havremels grod_--which is Norwegian, and Danish also, for +oatmeal pudding--is half their living. All the bread they have they +buy at the baker's. + +The other rooms were clean. Every one had in it a two-storied bed +curtained with calico, neat corner cupboards, and bureaus. There were +prints on the wall, and a splendid brass coffee-pot and urn under pink +mosquito netting. But the woman herself had no stockings on her feet, +and her wooden shoes stood just outside the door. + +When we reached the church again, the babies were all there. A wail as +of bleating lambs reached us at the very door. A strange custom in +Denmark explained this bleating: the poor babies were in the hands of +godmothers, and not their own mothers. The mothers do not go with +their babies to the christening; the fathers, godfathers, and +godmothers go,--two godmothers and one godfather to each baby. The +women and the babies sat together, and rocked and trotted and shook +and dandled and screamed, in a perfect Babel of motion and sound. +Seven out of those eleven babies were crying at the top of their +lungs. The twenty-two godmothers looked as if they would go crazy. +Never, no, never, did I see or hear such a scene! The twenty-two +fathers and godfathers sat together on the other side of the aisle, +stolid and unconcerned. I tried to read in their faces which men owned +the babies, but I could not. They all looked alike indifferent to the +racket. Presently the sexton marshalled the women with their babies in +a row outside the outer railing. He had in his hand a paper with the +list of the poor little things' names on it, which he took round, and +called the roll, apparently so as to make sure all was right. Then the +minister came in, and went the round, saying something over each baby +and making the sign of the cross on its head and breast. I thought he +was through when he had once been round doing this; but no,--he had to +begin back again at the first baby and sprinkle them. Oh, how the poor +little things did scream! I think all eleven were crying by this time, +and I couldn't stand it; so at the third baby I signed to my +commissionnaire that we would go, and we slipped out as quietly as we +could. "Will there be much more of the service?" I asked him. "Oh, +yes," he said. "He will preach now to the fathers and to the +godfathers and godmothers." I doubt if the godmothers knew one word he +said. The babies all wore little round woollen hoods, most of them +bright blue, with three white buttons in a row on the back. Their +dresses were white, but short; and each baby had a long white apron on +to make a show with in front. This was as long as a handsome infant's +robe would be made anywhere; but it was undisguisedly an apron, open +all the way behind, and in the case of these poor little screaming +creatures flying in all directions at every kick and writhing +struggle. I was glad enough to escape the church; but twenty-two women +must have come out gladder still a little later. On the way home I +passed a windmill which I could have stayed a day to paint if I had +been an artist. It was six-sided; the sails were on red beams; a red +balcony all round it, with red beams sloping down as supports, resting +on the lower story; the first story was on piles, and the spaces +between filled up solid with sticks of wood,--the place where they +kept their winter fuel. Next to this came a narrow belt painted light +yellow; then a black belt, with windows in it rimmed with white; then +the red balcony; then a drab or gray space,--this made of plain +boards; then the rest to the top shingled like a roof; in this part +one window, with red rims in each side. A long, low warehouse of +light yellow stuccoed walls, lined off with dark brown, joined the +mill by a covered way; and the mill-owner's house was close on the +other side, also with light yellow stuccoed walls and a red-tiled +roof, and hedges and vines and an orchard in front. Paint this, +somebody; do! + +This is the tale of the first two days in Copenhagen. In my next I +will tell you about the museums if I come out of them alive; it sounds +as if nobody could. One ought to be here at least two weeks to really +study the superb collections of one sort and another. + +I will close this first section of my notions of Denmark with a brief +tribute to the Danish flea. I considered myself proof against fleas. I +had wintered them in Rome, had lived familiarly with them in Norway, +and my contempt for them was in direct proportion to my familiarity. I +defied them by day, and ignored them by night. But the Danish flea is +as David to Saul! He is a cross between a bedbug and a wasp. He is the +original of the famous idea of the Dragon, symbolized in all the +worships of the world. I bow before him in terror, and trust most +devoutly he never leaves the shores of Denmark. + +Good-by. Bless you all! + + +II. + +Dear People,--I promised to tell you about the museums in Copenhagen. +It was a very rash promise: and there was a rash promise which I made +to myself back of that,--that is, to _see_ the Copenhagen museums. I +had looked forward to them as the chief interest of our visit; they +are said to be among the finest in the world, in some respects +unequalled. One would suppose that the Dane's first desire and impulse +would be to make it easy for strangers to see these unrivalled +collections, the pride of his capital; on the contrary, he has done, +it would seem, all that lay in his power to make it quite out of the +power of travellers to do anything like justice to them. To really +see the three great museums of Copenhagen--the Ethnographic, the +Museum of Northern Antiquities, and the Rosenborg Castle +collection--one would need to stay in Copenhagen at least two weeks, +and even then he would have had but fourteen hours for each museum. + +The Ethnographic is open only on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and +Sunday, and open only two hours at a time,--on Sunday, from twelve to +two; on the week days, from ten to twelve. There are in this museum +over thirty large rooms, and nearly six hundred cases of labelled and +numbered objects. All the rooms are of great interest; one could +easily spend the whole two hours of the allotted time in any one of +them. To attempt even to walk through the whole museum in the two +hours is undertaking too much. + +The Museum of Northern Antiquities is open on Thursdays, Saturdays, +and Sundays, from twelve to two; on Tuesdays, from five to seven. On +Sundays, you see, it is at the same hour as the Ethnographic! In this +museum are eighteen large rooms filled with objects of the greatest +interest, from the old "dust heaps" of the lake dwellers down to Tycho +Brahe's watch. + +The Rosenborg Castle Collection is probably, to travellers in general, +the most interesting of all the collections. It is called a +"Chronological Collection of the Kings of Denmark,"--which, being +interpreted, means that it is a collection of dresses, weapons, +ornaments, etc., the greater proportion of which have belonged to +Danish kings, from the old days of Christian IV. (1448) down to the +present time. These are most admirably arranged in chronological +order, so that you see in each room or division a graphic picture of +the royal life and luxury of that period. The whole of the great +Rosenborg Castle, three floors, is devoted to this collection. How +many rooms there are, I do not know,--certainly twenty; and there is +not one of them in which I would not like to spend a half-day. Now, +how do you think the Danish Government (for this is a national +property) arranges for the exhibition of this collection? You may see +it, on any day, by applying for a ticket the day beforehand; the hour +at which you can be admitted will be marked on your ticket; you will +arrive, with perhaps twelve others (that being the outside number for +whom tickets are issued for any one hour); you will be walked through +that whole museum in _one hour_, by one of the Government Inspectors +of the museum; he will give you a rapid enumeration of the chief +objects of interest as you pass; and you will have no clearer idea of +any one thing than if you had been _fired_ through the rooms out of a +cannon. + +Have I spoken unjustly when I say that the Dane appears to have done +all in his power to shut up from the general public of travellers +these choicest collections of his country? + +Now I will tell you all I know of the Rosenborg Collection, and how it +happens that I know anything; and my history begins like so many of +the old Danish histories, with a fight. + +In the outset I paid for a full ticket, as there happened to be no one +else who had applied to go in that afternoon. Later, two Englishmen +wishing to see the museum, their commissionnaire came to know if I +would not like to have them go at the same time, which would reduce +the price of the tickets by two thirds. This I declined to do, +preferring to have the entire time of the Museum Inspector for my own +benefit in way of explanations, etc. With the guide all to myself, I +thought I should be able far better to understand and study the +museum. + +Equipped with my note-book and pen and catalogue, and with the +faithful Harriet by my side, I entered, cheerful, confident, and full +of enthusiasm, especially about any and all relics of the famous old +Christian IV., whose impress on his city and country is so noticeable +to this day. + +The first scene of my drama opens with the arrival of the Inspector +whose duty it was on that occasion to exhibit the museum. There are +three of these Inspectors, who take turns in the exhibition. He was a +singularly handsome man,--a keen blue eye; hair about white, whiter +than it should have been by age, for he could not have been more than +fifty or fifty-five; a finely cut face, with great mobility, almost a +passionateness of vivacity in its expression; a tall and graceful +figure: his whole look and bearing gave me a great and sudden pleasure +as he approached. And when he began to speak in English, my delight +was kindled anew; I warmed at once in anticipation of my afternoon. +Mistaken dream! + +I said to him, "I am very sorry, indeed, that we have so short a time +in which to see these beautiful and interesting collections. Two hours +is nothing." + +"Oh, I shall explain to you everything," he said hastily, and +proceeded to throw open the doors of mysterious wall-closets in the +room which was called the Presence Chamber of Christian IV. + +The walls of this room are of solid oak, divided off into panels by +beautiful carved pillars, with paintings between. The ceiling is like +the walls, and the floor is of marble. In the south wall are four +closets filled with more rare and exquisite things than I could +describe in a hundred pages; all these in one side of the first room! +The first thing which my noble Dane pointed out was the famous old +Oldenborg horn, of which I had before read, and wished much to +see,--an old drinking-horn of silver, solid chased, from brim to tip. +The legend is that it was given to Count Otto of Oldenborg by a +mountain nymph in a forest one day in the year 909. + +As he pointed out this horn, I opened my catalogue to find the place +where it was mentioned there, that I might make on the margin some +notes of points which I wished to recollect. I think I might have been +looking for this perhaps half of a minute, possibly one whole minute, +when thundering from the mouth of my splendid Dane came, "Do you +prefer that you read it in the catalogue than that I tell you?" + +I am not sure, but my impression is that I actually jumped at his +tone. I know I was frightened enough to do so. I then explained to him +that I was not looking for it in the catalogue to read then and there, +only to associate what I saw with its place and with the illustrations +in the catalogue, and to make notes for future use. He hardly heard a +word I said. Putting out his hand and waving my poor catalogue away, +he said, "It is all there. You shall find everything there, as I tell +you; will you listen?" + +Quite cowed, I tried to listen; but I found that unless I carried out +my plan of following his explanations by the list in the catalogue, +and made little marginal notes, I should remember nothing; moreover, +that it was impossible to look at half the things, as he rapidly +enumerated them. I opened my catalogue again, and began to note some +of the more interesting things. The very sight of the catalogue open +in my hands seemed to act upon him like a scarlet flag on a bull. +Instantly he burst out upon me again; and when I attempted to explain, +he interrupted me,--did not give me time to finish one sentence,--did +not apparently comprehend what I meant, or what it was that I wished +to do, except that it reflected in some way on him as a guide and +explainer. In vain I tried to stem the tide of his angry words; and +the angrier he got, the less intelligible became his English. + +"Perhaps you take me for a servant in this museum," he said. "Perhaps +my name is as good in my country as yours is in your own!" + +"Oh, do--do listen to me one minute," I said. "If you will only hear +me, I think I can make you understand. I do implore you not to be so +angry." + +"I am not angry. I have listen to you every time,--too many time. I +have not time to listen any more!" + +This he said so angrily that I felt the tears coming into my eyes. I +was in despair. I turned to Harriet and said, "Very well, Harriet, we +will go." + +"You shall not go!" he exclaimed. "Twenty years I have shown this +museum, and never yet was any one before dissatisfied with what I tell +them. I have myself written this catalogue you carry," he cried, +tapping my poor book with his fingers. "Now I will nothing say, and +you can ask if you wish I should explain anything." And thereupon he +folded his arms, and stepped back, the very picture of a splendid man +in a sulk. Could anything be imagined droller, more unnecessary? I +hesitated what to do. If I had not had a very strong desire to see the +museum, I would have gone away, for he had really been almost +unpardonably rude; yet I sympathized fully in his hot and hasty +temper. I saw clearly wherein his mistake lay, and that on his theory +of the situation he was right and I was wrong; and I thought perhaps +if he watched me for a few minutes quietly he would see that I was +very much in earnest in studying the collection, and that nothing had +been further from my mind than any distrust of his knowledge. So I +gulped down my wounded feelings, and went on looking silently at the +cases and making my notes. Presently he began to cool down, to see his +mistake, and before we had gone through the second room was telling me +courteously about everything, waiting while I made my notes, and +pointing out objects of especial interest. In less than half an hour +he had ceased to be hostile, and before the end of the hour he had +become friendly, and more,--seized both my hands in his, exclaiming, +"We shall be good friends,--good!" He was as vivacious, imperious, and +overwhelming in his friendliness as in his anger. "You must come again +to Rosenborg; you must see it all. I will myself show you every room. +No matter who sends to come in, they shall not be admitted. I go alone +with you." + +In vain I explained to him that I had only one more day in Copenhagen, +and that I must spend that in going to Elsinore. + +"No, you are not to go to Elsinore. It is not necessary. You shall not +leave Copenhagen without seeing Rosenborg. Promise me that you will +come again to Rosenborg. Promise! Take any hour you please, and I will +come. You shall have four--five hours. Promise! Promise!" And he +seized my hand in both of his, and held it, repeating, "Promise me! +Promise! Oh, we shall be very good friends,--very good." + +"Ah," I said, "I knew, if you only understood, you would be friendly; +but I really cannot come again." + +He pulled out his watch, made a gesture of despair. "I have to leave +town in one little half-hour; and there are yet seventeen rooms you +have not seen. You shall not leave Copenhagen till you have seen. Do +you promise?" + +I believe if I had not promised I should be still standing in the +halls of the Rosenborg. When I finally said, "Yes, I promise," he +wrung my hand again, and said,-- + +"Now we are good friends, we shall be all good friends. I will show to +you all Rosenborg. Do you promise?" + +"Yes," I said, "I promise," and drove away, leaving him standing on +the sidewalk, his steel blue eyes flashing with determination and +fire, and a smile on his face which I shall not forget. Never before +did I see such passionate, fierce fulness of life in a man whose hair +was white. + +I promised, but I did not go. From the Rosenborg I drove to the Museum +of Northern Antiquities,--from five to seven of that day being my only +chance of seeing it at all. By the time I had spent two hours in the +hurried attempt to see the most interesting things in this second +collection, my brain was in a state of chaos, and I went back to my +hotel with a sense of loathing of museums, only to be compared to the +feeling one would have about dinners if he had eaten ten hearty ones +in one day. One does not sleep off such an indigestion in one night. +The next morning, nothing save actual terror could have driven me into +a museum; and as my noble Dane was not present to cow me into +obedience, I had energy enough to write him a note of farewell and +regret. The regret was indeed heartfelt, not so much for the museum as +for him. I would have liked to see those blue eyes flash out from +under the gray eyebrows once more. I too felt that we would be "good +friends,--good." + +Now I will try to tell you a little of the little I remember of the +Rosenborg. I only got as far as Frederick IV.'s time, 1730. Many of +the most beautiful things in the museum I did not see, and of many +that I did see I recollect nothing, especially of all which I looked +at while I was in disgrace with the guide; I might as well not have +seen them at all. + +One little unpretending thing interested me greatly: it was a plain +gold ring, with a small uncut sapphire in it; round the circle is +engraved, "Ave Maria gr. [gratiosissima]." It was given by King +Christian to his wife, Elizabeth, on their wedding-day, Aug. 12, +1515,--three hundred years and two weeks before the day I saw it. It +lay near the great Oldenborg drinking-horn, and few people would care +much for it by the side of the other, I suppose. Then there was +another bridal ornament of a dead queen,--it had belonged to Dorothea, +wife of Christian III.,--a gold plate, four or five inches square, +with an eagle in the centre, bearing an escutcheon with the date 1557: +on the eagle's breast a large uncut sapphire; over the eagle, an +emerald and a sapphire; and under it, a sapphire and an amethyst, all +very large. There are also pearls set here and there in the plate. +This was given to the city of Copenhagen by the queen, to be worn by +the daughters of the richest and most honored of the Danish people on +their wedding-day. It was for many generations kept and used in this +way, but finally the custom fell into disuse; and now the Copenhagen +brides think no more of Queen Dorothea at their weddings, than of any +other old gone-by queen,--which is a pity, it seems to me, for it +surely was a lovely thought of hers to ally her memory to the bridals +of young maidens in her land for all time. + +There was in this room, also, Frederick II.'s Order of the Elephant, +the oldest in existence, and held in great veneration by people who +esteem ornaments of that sort. It is much less beautiful than some +other orders of less distinction. The elephant is a clumsy beast, +carve him never so finely, enamel him all you will, and call him what +you like. + +There is also here the Order of the Garter, of that same +king--twenty-six enamelled red roses on blue shields held together by +twists of gold cord; diamonds and pearls make it splendid, and that +bit of gospel truth "Evil to him that evil thinks," is written on it +in rubies, as it deserves to be written everywhere. + +This Frederick must have been a gay fellow; for here stands a glass +goblet, five inches in diameter, and fifteen high, out of which he and +his set of boon companions fell to drinking one day on wagers to see +who could drink the most, and scratched their names on the glass as +they drank, each man his mark and record, little thinking that the +glass would outlive them three centuries and more, as it has; and is +likely now, unless Rosenborg burns down, to last the world out. + +The thing I would rather own, of all this Frederick's possessions, +would be one--I would be quite content with one--of the plates which +Germany sent to him as a present. They are red in the middle, with +gold escutcheons enamelled on them; the borders are of plain clear +amber, rimmed with silver,--one big circle of amber! The piece from +which it was cut was big enough to have made the whole plate, if they +had chosen, but it was more beautiful to set it simply as a rim. +Nothing could be dreamed of more beautiful in the way of a plate than +this. + +I told you in my last letter what a stamp Christian IV. had left on +the capital of his kingdom. I fancy, without knowing anything about +it, that he must have been one of the greatest kings Denmark ever had; +at any rate, he built well, planned well for poor people, worked with +a free hand for art and science, fought like a tiger, and loved--well, +he loved like a king, I suppose; for he had concubines from every +country in Europe, and no end of illegitimate princes and princesses +whom he brought up, maintained, and educated in the most royal +fashion. He lived many years in this Rosenborg; and when he found he +must die, was brought back here, and died in a little room we should +think small to-day for a man to lie mortally ill in; but he lived only +one week after he was brought back, and it was in winter-time, so the +open fireplace ventilated the room. + +The upper half of the walls is covered with dark green moire silk, +with gold flowers on it; the lower half is covered with paintings, +many portraits among them; and in places of honor among the portraits, +the king's favorite dogs, Wild-brat and Tyrk. + +Here are his silver compasses and his ship hand-lantern; the silver +scales in which he weighed out his gold and silver; a little hand +printing-press, dusty and worn, with the brass stamp with his monogram +on it,--his occupation in rainy days of leisure. Here, also, are the +tokens of his idle moments,--a silver goblet made out of money won by +him from four courtiers, who had all betted with him, on one 6th of +February, which would be first drunk before Easter. These were the +things that I cared most for,--more than for the splendors, of which +there were closets full, glass cases full, tables full: goblets of +lapis lazuli, jasper, agate, and crystal, gold and silver; lamps of +crystal; cabinets of ebony; orders and rings and bracelets and seals +and note-books and clocks and weapons, all of the costliest and most +beautiful workmanship; rubies and diamonds and pearls, set and sewed +wherever they could be; a medicine spoon, with gold for its handle and +a hollowed sapphire for its bowl, for instance,--the sapphire nearly +one inch across. One might swallow even allopathic medicine out of +such a spoon as that: and I dare say that it was when she was very +ill, and had a lot of nasty doses to take, that Madame Kirstin--one of +the left-handed wives--got from the sympathizing king this dainty +little gift. "C" and "K" are wrought into a monogram on the handle, +which is three inches long, of embossed gold. Another sapphire, clear +as a drop of ocean water with sunlight piercing it, and one inch +square, is in the same case with the medicine spoon. A chalice, with +wafer-box, paten, and cup, all of the finest gold, engraved, +enamelled, and set thick with precious stones, has a gold death's-head +and cross-bones on the stem of the chalice; and the eyes of the +death's-head are two great rose diamonds, which gleam out frightfully. +Another gold chalice has on its under side a twisted network of +Arabesque, with sixty-six enamelled rosettes, all openwork on it. + +In the room called Christian's workroom is a set of caparisons for a +horse,--saddle, saddle-cloth, housing, and holsters, all of black +velvet, sewn thick, even solid, with pearls and gold, rubies, +sapphires, and rose diamonds. The sight of them flashing in sunlight +on a horse's back must have been dazzling. These were a wedding +present from King Christian to his son. + +In this room also are several suits of Christian's clothes,--jerkin, +trousers, and mantle, in the fashion of that day, dashing enough, even +when made of common stuffs; but these are of cloth of gold, silver +moire, black Brabant lace, trimmed in the most lavish way with gold +and silver laces, and embroidered with pearls and gold. There is a +suit of dirty and blood-stained linen hanging in one of the locked +cabinets which does him more credit than these. It is the suit he wore +at the great naval battle where he lost his eye. A shell exploding on +the deck, a fragment of it flew into his face and instantly destroyed +his right eye. His men thought all was lost; but he, seizing his +handkerchief, clapped it into the bleeding socket, and fought on. One +reads of such heroic deeds as this with only a vague thrill of wonder +and admiration; but to see and touch the very garments the hero wore +is another thing. This old blood-stained velvet jerkin is worth more +to the Danish people than all the scores of bejewelled robes in the +Rosenborg; and I think there are literally scores of them. + +Next to Christian IV. came Frederick III.; and in his reign the rococo +style ruled everything. Three rooms in the Rosenborg are devoted to +the relics of this king's reign; and a great deal of hideous +magnificence they hold, it must be confessed,--cabinets and tables +and candlesticks and ceilings and walls, which are as jarring to the +eye as the Chinese gong is to the ear, and appear to be just about as +civilized. But the rococo had not yet spoiled everything. The jewelled +cups and boxes and spoons and miniatures are as beautiful as ever; a +set of glass spoons with handles of gold and of agate and of crystal; +the gold knives and forks that Frederick III. and his queen used to +travel with. In those days when you were asked to tea you carried your +own implements; ivory cups, gold goblets, and goblets of crystal, a +goblet made out of one solid topaz, and a great tankard made of +amber,--these are a few of the little necessaries of every-day life to +Frederick's court. His motto was "Dominus providebit;" it is on half +of his splendid possessions,--on his mosaic tables and his jewelled +canes and pomade boxes; everywhere it looms up, in unwitting but +delicious satire on the habit Frederick had of providing for himself, +and most lavishly too, all sorts of superfluities, which the Lord +never would think of providing for any human being!--such, for +instance, as a jewel box of silver, with fifteen splendidly cut +crystals let into the sides, so that one can look through into the box +and see on the bottom a fine bit of embossed work, the picture of the +Judgment of Paris. Around these crystals sixty-two large garnets are +set, and these again are surrounded by wreaths of flowers and leaves +in embossed work, set thick with more diamonds than could be counted. +A very pretty thing in its way, to stand on a dressing-table and hold +the kind of rings worn at this time by the kind of persons who reigned +in Denmark! Another pretty little thing he had,--not so useful as the +jewel-box, but in far more perfect taste,--was a crystal goblet, in +shape of a shell, resting on the back of a bending Cupid. Eight +beautiful heads are cut on the sides of this cup, and there is +standing on its curling base a winged boy. Its translucent shades and +shadows are beautiful beyond words. It is said to be the most +beautiful specimen in the world of work in pure crystal. The topaz +goblet and the amber tankard, however, would outrival it in most eyes. +I longed to see the topaz cup held up to the sun, filled with pale +wine. I believe you could _hear_ it shine! The third of the rooms +devoted to Frederick and his reign is called the Marble Chamber, and +is a superb icy place; floor and walls all marble. In cabinets in this +room are some of Frederick's clothes,--every-day clothes, such as dark +brown cloth, ornamented down every seam with gold and silver lace; and +a dress of his queen's, the only dress of a woman which has come down +from that age. It is one solid mass of embroidery in gold and gay +colors on silk, stiff as old tapestry; loops of faded pink ribbon down +the front, and a long jabot of old point lace all the way down the +front. There are also a sword and sword-belt, and a gun bearing the +initials of this lady. The gun has a medallion of ivory let in at the +butt end, with her initials, "S. A.," and her motto, "In God is my +hope." There is something uncommonly droll in these mottoes of faith +in God's providing, inscribed on so many articles of luxury by people +who must have certainly spent a good part of their time in providing +for themselves. + +In the last part of the seventeenth century things in Denmark were +more and more stamped by the French influence. Christian V., who +succeeded to Frederick III., had spent some time in the court of Louis +XIV., and wanted to make his own court as much like it as possible. So +we find, in the rooms devoted to Christian V.'s reign, tapestries and +cabinets which might all have come from France. One of the saloons is +hung with superb tapestry, all with a red ground; and the tables and +mirrors and chairs are all gilded and carved in the last degree of +fantastic decoration. This red room used to be Christian's +dining-room; and the plate-warmers still stand before the +fireplace,--two feet high, round, solid silver, every inch engraved. + +Caskets of amber, of ivory; drinking-horns,--one-third horn and +two-thirds embossed silver,--bowls and globes of wrought silver, +hunting-cups of solid silver made to fit into deer's antlers and with +coral knobs for handles; closets full of fowling-pieces, pistols, +silver-sheathed hunting-knives, falcon hoods set with real pearls and +embroidered in gold,--orders of all sorts known to Denmark; elephants +and St. Georges in silver and crystal and cameo; gold jugs, gold +beakers, bowls of green jade, with twisted snakes for handles and +dragons' heads at bottom; goblets of solid crystal, of countless +shapes and sizes,--one in shape of a flying-fish borne by two +dolphins; onyx and jasper and agate and porcelain, made into no end of +shapes and uses;--these are a few of the things which "God provided" +for this Danish king and queen. One of these rooms is hung with +tapestries of lilac silk and gold moire, embroidered with gold and +silver threads and colors. These were provided by Frederick himself, +who brought them from Italy. + +But you don't care a fig who brought the things, or when they were +brought; and perhaps you don't care very much about the things anyhow. +I dare say they do not sound half as superb as they were; but I must +tell you of a few more. What do you think of a room with walls, +ceiling, and a large space in the centre of the floor all of plate +glass, the rest of the floor being of exquisite mosaic in wood; and of +a coat of crimson velvet embroidered thick with silver thread, to be +worn with a pale blue waistcoat, also embroidered stiff with silver +thread; and of cups cut out of rubies; and a great bowl of obsidian +set with rubies and garnets; and of topazes big enough to cut heads on +in fine relief? There are hundreds and hundreds more of things I have +not mentioned, and hundreds of things I did not see even, in the rooms +I walked through; and there were seventeen rooms more into which I did +not even go. If I had, I should have seen twelve superb tapestries, 12 +feet in height, by 10 to 20 feet broad, each giving a picture of a +battle, and all strictly historical; the Royal Font, of solid embossed +silver, inside which is placed at every christening another dish of +gold; one whole room full of the costliest and rarest porcelain from +all parts of the world,--here is the splendid and famous "Flora +Danica" service. I saw at a porcelain shop a reproduction of this +service, every article bearing some Danish flower most exquisitely +painted. A great platter heaped full of wild roses was as lovely as a +day in June. Here also are the Danish Regalia, kept in a room hung +with Oriental carpets, and with a floor of black and white marble. "In +the middle of the floor a pyramid arises behind clear thick plate +glass, from the flat sides of which, covered with red velvet, the rays +of gold and precious stones flash upon us, whilst the summit is +adorned by a magnificent and costly crown." This sentence is from the +catalogue written by my friend the noble Dane, and is a very +favorable specimen of his English. Bless him, how I do wish I had gone +back to that museum! At this distance of time it seems incomprehensible +to me that I did not. But that day I felt as if one more look at the +simple door of a museum would make a maniac of me. So this is all I +can tell you about the famous Rosenborg. And with the others I will +not bore you much, for I have made this so long; only I must tell you +that in the Ethnographic, which is in some respects, I suppose, the +most valuable of them all, having five rooms full of _Prehistoric_ +antiquities from the stone, bronze, and early iron ages in every part +of the world, and twenty or thirty rooms more full of characteristic +things,--dresses, implements, ornaments, weapons, of the uncultivated +savage or semi-savage races, also of the Chinese, Persians, Arabians, +Turks, East Indians, etc.;--in this museum I found a most important +place assigned to the North American Indian; and Dr. Steinhauer, the +director of the museum, a man whose ethnographical studies and +researches have made him known to all antiquarians in the world was +full of interest in them, and appreciation of their noble qualities, +of their skill and taste in decoration, and still more of the +important links between them and the old civilizations. Here were +portraits of all the most distinguished of our Indian chiefs; a whole +corridor filled with glass cases full of their robes, implements, +weapons, decorations; several life-size figures in full war-dress: and +their trappings were by no means put to shame, in point of design and +color, by the handsomest trappings in Rosenborg; in fact, they were +far more wonderful, being wrought by an uncivilized race, living in +wildernesses, with only rude paints, porcupine quills, and glass beads +to work with. My eyes filled with tears, I confess, to find at last in +little Denmark one spot in the world where there will be kept a +complete pictorial record of the race of men that we have done our +best to wipe out from the face of the earth,--where historical justice +will be done to them in the far future, as a race of splendid +possibilities, and attainments marvellous, considering the time in +which they were made. Here was a superb life-size figure of a +Blackfeet warrior on his horse; the saddle, trappings, etc., are +exactly the same in shape and style as an old Arab saddle used +hundreds of years ago. On the warrior's breast is a round disk of +lines radiating from a centre, in gay colors, of straw and beads, of a +device identical with a rich Moorish ornament; the same device Dr. +Steinhauer pointed out to me on a medicine-bag of the Blackfeet tribe. + +Here was a figure of a chief of the Sacs and Foxes, in full array; by +his side the portrait of his father, with the totem of the tribe +tattooed on his breast. With enthusiasm Dr. Steinhauer pointed out to +me how in one generation the progress had been so great that on the +robe of the son was set in a fine and skilful embroidery the same +totem which the father had rudely tattooed on his breast. Here were +specimens of the handiwork of every tribe,--of their dresses, of their +weapons; those of each tribe carefully assorted by themselves. Dr. +Steinhauer knew more, I venture to say, about the different tribes, +their race affinities and connections, than any man in America knows +to-day. When I told him a little about the scorn and hatred which are +felt in America towards the Indians, the indifference with which their +fate is regarded by the masses of the people, and the cruel injustice +of our government towards them, he listened to me with undisguised +astonishment, and repeated again and again and again, "It is +inexplicable; I cannot understand." + +You can imagine what a thrilling pleasure all this was to me. But it +was marred by the keenest sense of shame of my country, that it should +have been left for Denmark alone to keep a place in historical +archives for a fair showing and true appreciation of the "wards of the +United States Government." + +I might fill another letter with accounts of the "Collection of +Northern Antiquities;" but don't be frightened: I won't, only to tell +you that it is far the largest and most complete in Europe. And you +may see there a specimen of everything that has been made, wrought, +and worn in the way of stone, bronze, iron, or gold and silver, in the +north countries, from the rude stone chisel with which the prehistoric +man pried open his oyster and clam shells at picnics on the shore, and +went away and left his shells and "openers" in a careless pile behind +him, so that we could dig them all up together some thousands of +years later, down to the superb gold bracelets worn by the +strong-armed women who queened it in Norway ten centuries ago. It is a +great thing for us that those old fellows had such a way of flinging +their ornaments into lakes as offerings to gods, and burying them by +the wheelbarrow-full in graves. It wasn't a safe thing to do, even as +long ago as that, however; for there are traces in many of these +burial-mounds of their having been opened and robbed at some period +far back. In one of the rooms of this museum are several huge oak +coffins, with the mummied or half-petrified bodies lying in them, just +as they were buried sixteen hundred years ago. The coffins were made +of whole trunks of trees, hollowed out so as to make a sort of trough +with a lid; and in this the body was laid, with all its usual garments +on. There is an indescribable and uncanny fascination in the sight of +one of these old mummies,--the eyeless sockets, the painful cheekbone, +the tight-drawn forehead; they look so human and unhuman at once, so +awfully dead and yet somehow so suggestive of having been alive, that +it stimulates a far greater curiosity to know what they did and +thought and felt, than it is possible to feel about neighbors to-day. +I never see half a dozen of these mummies together without wishing +they would sit up and take up the thread of their gossip where they +left it off,--so different from the feeling one has about live +gossips, and so utterly unreasonable too; for gossip is gossip all the +same, and nothing but an abomination in any age, whether that of +Pharaoh or Ulysses Grant. If I did not feel a dreadful misgiving that +you had had enough museum already, and would be bored by more, I +really would like to tell you about a few more of these things: a +necklace, found in a peat bog by a poor devil who had begged leave to +cut a bit of turf there to burn, and to be sure he found eleven +beautiful gold things of one sort and another. The necklace is very +heavy to lift. I asked permission to take it in my hands. I laid it +around my neck, and it would have hurt to wear it ten minutes. It was +a great snake coil of solid gold, the body half as big as my wrist! If +Queen Thyra wore it, she must have been a giantess, or else have had a +wadded "chest protector" underneath her necklaces. She and her +husband, King Gorm, were buried in two enormous mounds in Jutland, +some fourteen hundred years ago. The mounds were so high that they +nearly overtopped the little village church; and yet, at some time or +other, robbers had burrowed into them, and carried off a lot of +things, so that when the mounds were scientifically excavated, few +relics were found. Stealing from that sort of grave seems to make the +modern methods of body-snatching quite insignificant. Even A. T. +Stewart's body would have been safe if it had been in a mound as high +as the church steeple. + +Now I must tell you a little more about Harriet. She leaves me +to-morrow, and I shall grieve at parting with the garrulous old soul. +Niobe, I call her in my own mind; for she melts into tears at the +least emotion. I am afraid nobody has ever been very good to her; for +the smallest kindness touches her to the quick, and she cannot refrain +from perpetually breaking out into expressions of fondness for me, and +gratitude, which are sometimes tiresome. The explanation of her good +English is that her parents were English, though she was born in +Copenhagen, has lived there all her life, and married a Dane when she +was quite young. He was a tradesman, and they lived in comparative +comfort, though, as she said, "we never could lay up a penny, because +we always sent the children to the best schools; and for ten children, +ma'am, it does take a heap of schooling!" + +Of the ten children, six are still living; and Harriet, at sixty-four, +has thirty-six grandchildren. When she first came to me she looked ten +years older than she does now. Good food, freedom from care, and her +enjoyment of her journey have almost worked miracles on her face. +Every morning she has come out looking better than she did the night +before. I see that she must have been a very handsome woman in her +day,--delicate features, and a soft dark brown eye, with very great +native refinement and gentleness of manner. Poor soul! her hardest +days are before her, I fear; for the daughter with whom she lives, and +for whom she works night and day, is the wife of that worthless +fellow, our commissionnaire. He is a drunkard, and not much more than +four fifths "witted." Harriet is pew-opener at the English church, and +gets a little money from that; the clergyman is very kind to her, and +she has the promise of a place at last in a sort of "Old Lady's Home" +in Copenhagen. This is her outlook! I must send you the verses she +presented to me yesterday. I had left her alone for the greater part +of the forenoon, and she took to her pen for company. That was the way +Katrina used to amuse herself when I left her alone. I always found +her sitting with her elbows on the table, a pile of scribbled sheets +in front of her, her hair pushed off her forehead, and a general +expression of fine frenzy about her. Katrina's English did not compare +with Harriet's at all; that is, it was not so good. I liked it far +better. It was one perpetual fund of amusement to me; but I think +Katrina had more nearly a vein of genius about her, and she was not +sentimental; whereas Harriet is a sentimentalist of the first +water,--no, of the "seventy thousandth"! + + PARIS, September 19. + + I kept my letter and brought it here to tell you about Ole + Bull's funeral, full accounts of which reached the H----'s just + before we left Munich on the 9th. It was a splendid tribute to + the dear old man; I shall always regret that I did not see it. + His home is on a beautiful island about sixteen miles from + Bergen. If it were only possible to make you understand how + much more the word _island_ means in Norway than anywhere else! + But it is not. To those of you who know the sort of mountain + pasture in which great hillocks of moss and stone are thrown + up, piled up, crowded in, in such labyrinths that you go + leaping from one to the other, winding in and out in + crevice-like paths, never knowing where moss leaves off and + stone begins,--where you will strike firm footing, and where + you will plunge your foot down suddenly into moss above your + ankles; and to those of you who love the country and the spring + in the country so well that you know just the look of a + feathery young birch-tree on the first day of June, and of + slender young spruce-trees all the year round, it is enough to + say that if you take a dozen miles or so of such a pasture, and + make the hillocks many feet high, and then set in here and + there little hollows full of the birches, and a ravine or two + full of the young spruces, and then launch your hillocks and + birches and spruces straight out into deep blue sea, you'll + have something such an island as there are thousands of on the + Norway coast. Ole Bull's home was on such an island as this, + and he had made it an ideally beautiful place. Eighteen miles + of pathway he had made in the labyrinths of the island; had + brought soil from the shore, and set gardens in hollows here + and there. The house is a picturesque and delightful one; and + in the great music-room, nearly a hundred feet long, there he + lay dead, two days, in state like a king, with steamers full of + sorrowing friends and mourning strangers coming to take their + last look at his face. The king sent a letter of condolence to + Mrs. Bull, and the peasants came weeping to the side of his + bed; from highest to lowest, Norway mourned. On the day of the + funeral, after some short services at the house, the body was + carried on board a steamer, to be taken to Bergen. The steamer + was draped with black and strewn with green. I believe I have + told you of the beautiful custom the Norwegians have of + strewing green juniper twigs in the street in front of their + houses whenever they have lost a friend. No matter how far away + the friend may have lived, when they hear of his death they + strew the juniper around their house to show that a death has + given them sorrow. It was a commentary on human life (and + death!) that I never went out in Bergen without seeing in some + street, and often in many, the juniper-strewn sidewalks. As the + steamer with Ole Bull's body approached the entrance of Bergen + harbor, sixteen steamers, all draped in black, with flags at + half-mast, sailed out to meet it, turned, and fell into line on + either side to convoy it to shore. Bands were playing his music + all the way. At the wharf they were met by nearly all Bergen; + and the body was borne in grand procession through the streets, + which were strewn thick with juniper from the wharf to the + cemetery, at least two or three miles. The houses were all + draped with black, and many of the people had put on black. The + golden wreath which was given him in San Francisco was borne in + the procession by one of his friends, and a procession of + little girls bore wreaths and bouquets of flowers. The grave + was hidden and half filled with flowers; and last of all, after + the body had been laid there,--last and most touching of all, + came the peasants, crowds of them, gathering close, and each + one flinging in a fern leaf or a juniper bough or a bunch of + flowers. Every one had brought something, and the grave was + nearly filled up with their offerings. It is worth while to be + loved like that by a people. Whatever scientific critics may + say of Ole Bull's playing, he played so that he swayed the + hearts of the common people; and his own nation loved him and + were proud of him, just as the Danes loved Hans Christian + Andersen, with a love that asked no indorsement and admitted no + question from the outside world. The school of music to which + Ole Bull belonged has passed away; but what scientific art has + gained the people have lost. It will never be seen that one of + these modern violinists can make uneducated people smile and + weep as he did. The flowers that are dying on his coffin are + all immortelles. Such blossoms as these will never again be + strewn by peasant hands in a player's grave. + + It took two days to come from Munich to Paris,--two hard days, + from seven in the morning till six at night. We broke the + journey by sleeping at Strasburg, where we had just one hour to + see the wonderful cathedral and its clock. The clock I didn't + care so much about, though the trick of it is a marvel; but the + twilight of the cathedral, lit up by its great roses of topaz + and amethyst, I shall never forget as long as I live. In my + next letter I will tell you about it. But now I have only time + to copy Harriet's verses, and send off this letter. Here they + are:-- + + DENMARK. + + When again in your own bright land you are, + And with all that dearly you love, + And at times you look up at the Northern Star + That stands on the sky above, + Remember, then, that near forgot, + Here, near the Gothic strand, + There is on the globe a little spot,-- + 'T is Denmark, a beautiful land. + Now at harvest time from there you flew, + Like the birds from its tranquil shore; + They return at springtime, kind and true: + May, like them, you return once more! + + Dear Mrs. Jakson, I remain your humble and thankful servant, + HARRIET. + +Poor thing! when she bade me good-by she began to shed tears, and I +had to be almost stern with her to stop their flow. "Tell your +husband," she said, "that there's a little creature in Denmark that +you've made very happy, that'll never forget you," and she was gone. +In about ten minutes a tap at the door; there was Harriet again, with +a big paper of grapes and a deprecating face. "Excuse me, ma'am, but +they were only one mark and a half a pound, and they 're much better +than you'd get them in the hotel. Oh, I'll not lose my train, ma'am; +I've plenty of time." And with another kiss on my hand she ran out of +the room. Faithful creature! I shall never see her again in this +world, but I shall remember her with gratitude as long as I live. +Surely nowhere except in Norway and Denmark could it have happened to +a person to find in the sudden exigency of the moment two such devoted +servants as Katrina and Harriet; and that they should have both been +rhymers was a doubling up of coincidences truly droll. + +Paris is as detestable as ever,--literally a howling and waste place! +Of all the yells and shrieks that ever made air discordant, surely the +cries of Paris are the loudest and worst. My room looks on the street; +and I should say that at least three different Indian tribes in +distress and one in drunken hilarity were wailing and shouting under +my windows all the time! As for the fiacre-men,--how like _fiasco_, +_fiacre_ looks written!--they drive as if their souls' salvation +depended on just grazing the wheel of every vehicle they pass. When +two of them yell out at once, as they go by each other, it is enough +to deafen one. + + +III. + +Dear People,--I couldn't give you a better illustration of what +happens to you in foreign countries when you pin your faith on people +who are said to "speak English here," than by giving you the tale of +how I went from Copenhagen to Lubeck. To begin with, I explained to +the porter of the König von Denmark Hotel, who is one of the +English-speaking _attachés_ of that very good hotel, that I wished, +in going to Lubeck, to avoid water as much as possible. I endeavored +to convey to him that my horror of it was in fact hydrophobic, and +that I could go miles out of my way to escape it. He understood me +perfectly, he said; and he explained to me a fine route by which I was +to cross island after island by rail, have only short intervals of +water between, and come comfortably to Lubeck by eight in the evening, +provided I would leave Copenhagen at 6.45 in the morning, which I was +only too happy to do for the sake of escaping a long steamboat +journey. So I arranged everything to that end; explained to the one +waiter who spoke English that I must have breakfast on the table at +5.40, as I was to leave the house at 6.15. He understood perfectly, he +said. (I also commissioned him to buy a pound of grapes for my +lunch-basket; the relevancy of this will appear later.) I then +carefully explained to the worthy old lady who had promised for a +small consideration to take me to Munich, that she must be on the spot +at six, with her luggage; and that she was on no account to bring +anything to lift in her hands, because my own hand-luggage would be +all she could well handle. Then I asked for my bill, that it might be +settled the night beforehand, to have nothing on hand in the morning +but to get off. This was doubly important, as the landlord had +promised to change my Danish money into German money for me,--the +Danish bankers having no German money. They so hate Germany that they +consider it a disgrace, I believe, even to handle marks and pfennigs. +The clerk, who also "speaks English," said he understood me perfectly; +so I went upstairs cheerful and at ease in my mind. In half an hour my +bill arrived; and I sent down by the waiter, who spoke "a leetle" +English, five hundred Danish crowns to pay my bill, and have four +hundred crowns returned to me in marks. Waited one hour, no money; +rang, same waiter appeared. + +"Where is my money?" + +"Yees, it have gone out; it will soon return. He is not here." + +Waited half an hour longer; rang again. + +"Where is my money?" + +"Yees, strachs. He shall all right, strachs." + +"But I am very tired; I wish to go to bed." + +"Yees, it shall be kommen." + +Waited another half-hour,--it was now quarter of eleven; wrote on a +bit of paper, "I have gone to bed; cannot take the money to-night. +Have it ready for me at six in the morning." Rang, and gave it to the +waiter, ejaculating, "Bureau;" and pointing downstairs, shut the door +on him and went to bed. The last thing I heard from him, as I shut the +door, was, "Strachs, strachs!" That means "Immediately;" and there is +a Norwegian proverb that "when the Norwegian says 'Strachs,' he will +be with you in half an hour." + +At twenty-five minutes before six I was in the dining-room, bonneted, +all ready; no sign or symptom of breakfast. I went to the little room +beyond, where the waiters are to be found. There was the one who +speaks least English. "Oh, goodness!" said I, "where _is_ Wilhelm?" +Wilhelm being the one mainstay of the establishment in the matter of +English, and the one who had waited upon me during all my stay. + +"Ya, ya. Wilhelm here; soon will be kommen." + +"But I must have my breakfast; I leave the house in half an hour." + +"Ya, ya. Wilhelm is not yet. He sleeps." And the good-natured little +fellow darted off to call him. Poor Wilhelm had indeed overslept; but +he appeared in a miraculously short time, got my breakfast together by +bits, got the money from the clerk, and did his best to explain to me +how it was that a given sum of money was at once more and less in +marks than it was in kroner. I crammed it all into my pocket, and ran +downstairs to find--no old lady; her "knapsack" on the driver's seat, +but she herself not there. Four different people said something to me +about it, and I could not understand one word they said; so I stepped +into the carriage, sat down, and resigned myself to whatever was +coming next. After about ten minutes she appeared, breathless, coming +down the stairs of the hotel. She had mounted to my room, and, +unmindful of the significant fact that the door was wide open and all +my luggage gone, had been waiting there for me. This augured well for +the journey! However, there was no time for misgivings; and we drove +off at a tearing rate, late for the train. Suddenly I spied a most +disreputable-looking parcel on the seat,--large, clumsy, done up in an +old dirty calico curtain, from which a few brass rings were still +hanging. + +"What is that?" I exclaimed. + +"Only my best gown, ma'am, and my velvet cloak. I couldn't disgrace +you, ma'am." + +"Disgrace me!" thought I. "I was never before disgraced by such a +bundle." + +"But I told you to bring nothing whatever to carry in your hands," I +said; "you must put that into your knapsack. My roll and basket are +all you can possibly lift." + +"Oh, ma'am, it would ruin it to put it in the knapsack. I'm not a rich +lady, like you, ma'am; it's all I've got: but I'd not like to disgrace +you. I was out last night trying to hire a small trunk to bring; but +you wouldn't believe it, ma'am, they wanted eight kroner down for the +deposit for the value of it. But I'll not disgrace you, ma'am, and +I'll forget nothing. I've a good head at counting. You'll see I'll not +overlook anything." + +"Never mind," I said; "you must wear your cloak [she had on only a +little thin, clinging, black crape shawl,--the most pitiful of +garments, and no more protection than a pocket-handkerchief against +cold], and the dress must go into the knapsack at Lubeck. I will put +it into my own roll as soon as we are in the cars." + +At the station--luckily, as I thought--the ticket-seller spoke +English, and replied readily to my inquiry for a ticket to Lubeck, _by +rail_, "Yes, by Kiel." Then there came a man who wanted three kroner +more because my trunk was heavy, and another who wanted a few pfennigs +for having helped the first one lift it. I tried for a minute to count +out the sum he had mentioned, and then I said, "Oh, good gracious, +take it all!" emptying the few little coppers and tiny silver +bits--which I knew must be, all told, not a quarter of a dollar--into +his hand. He said something which, in my innocence, I supposed was +thanks, but Brita told me afterwards that he was a "fearfully rough +man, and what he said was to call me a 'damned German devil!' You see, +ma'am, they all hate the Germans so, and hearing me speak English, he +thought it was German. The French, too, ma'am,--they hate the Germans +too. They say that Sara Bernhardt,--I dare say you've seen her, +ma'am,--they say she nearly starved herself all in her travelling +through Germany, because she wouldn't eat the German food." + +At the train to see me off were two dear warm-hearted Danish +women,--mother and daughter,--to whom I had brought a letter from +friends in America. With barely time to thank them and say good-by, I +and my old lady and her bundle and my own three parcels were all +hustled into a carriage, the door slammed and locked, and we were off. +Then I sank back and considered the situation. I had fancied that all +that was necessary was to have a person who could speak,--that if I +had but a tongue at my command, it would answer my purposes almost as +well in another person's head as in my own. But I was fast learning my +mistake. This good old woman, who had never been out of Denmark in her +life, had no more idea which way to turn or what to do in a railway +station than a baby. The first five minutes of our journey had shown +that. She stood, bundles in hand, her bonnet falling off the back of +her head, her crape shawl clinging limp to her figure; her face full +of nervous uncertainty,--the very ideal of a bewildered old woman, +such as one always sees at railway stations. The thought of being +taken charge of, all the way from Copenhagen to Munich, by this type +of elderly female, was, at the outset, awful; but very soon the +comical side of it came over me so thoroughly that I began to think it +would, on the whole, be more entertaining. + +When she had told me the day before, as we were driving about in +Copenhagen, that she had never in her life been out of Denmark, though +she was sixty-four years old, I said, "Really that is a strange +thing,--for you to be taking your first journey at that age." + +"Oh, well, ma'am," she said, "I'm such a child of Nature that I shall +enjoy it as much as if I were younger, and I've all the Danish +history, ma'am, at my tongue's end, ma'am. There's nothing I can't +tell you, ma'am. Though we've been very hard-working, I've always been +one that was for making all I could: and I've been with my children at +their lessons always,--we gave them all good schooling; and I've a +volume of Danish poetry I've written, ma'am,--a volume _that_ thick," +marking off at least two inches on her finger. + +"Danish?" said I. "Why did you not write it in English?" + +"Well, ma'am, being raised here, the Danish tongue is more my own, +much as I spoke English always till my parents died; but I'll write +some in English for you, ma'am, before we part." + +So I had for the third time alighted on a poet. "Birds of a feather," +thought I to myself; but it really is extraordinary. Norwegian, +Dane--I wonder, if I take a German maid to carry me to Oberammergau, +if she also will turn out "a child of Nature" and a scribbler of +verses. + +The way from Copenhagen southward and westward by land is delightful. +It plunges immediately into a rich farming-country, level as an +Illinois prairie, and with comfortable farm-houses set in enclosures +of trees, as they are there; and I presume for the same reason,--to +break the force of the winds which might sweep from one end of Denmark +to the other, without so much as a hillock to stay them: no fences, +only hedges, and great tracts without even a hedge, marked off and +divided by differing colors from the different crops. The second crop +of clover was in full flower; acres of wheat or barley, just being +sheaved; wagons piled full, rolling down shaded roads with long lines +of trees on each side. Roeskilde, Ringsted, Soro,--three towns, but +seemingly only one great farm, for seventeen miles out of Copenhagen. +Then we began to smell the salt water, and to get a fresh breeze in at +the windows; and presently we came to Kosör, where we were to take +boat. A big man in uniform stood at the door of the station, looked at +our tickets, said "Kiel," and waved his hand toward a little steamer +lying at the dock. + +"They say they fear it will be rough, ma'am, as the wind is from the +southeast," said the old lady. + +"Oh, well," said I, "it is only an hour and a half across. We cross +the Big Belt to Nyborg." + +She accepted my statement as confidingly as a child, and we made +ourselves comfortable on the upper deck. It was half-past nine +o'clock. I took out my guide-book and studied up the descriptions of +the different towns we were to pass through after our next landing. A +green dome-like island came into sight, with a lighthouse on top, +looking like the stick at the top of a haystack. "That's in the +middle of the Belt, ma'am," said Brita. "In the winter many's the time +the passengers across here have to land there and stay a day, or maybe +two; and sometimes they come on the ice-boats. Very dangerous they +are; they pull them on the ice, and if the ice breaks, jump in and row +them." + +It seemed to me that we were bearing strangely to the south: land was +disappearing from view; the waves grew bigger and higher; spray dashed +on the deck; white-caps tossed in all directions. + +"I believe we are going out to sea," said I. + +"It does look like it, ma'am," replied the "child of Nature." "Shall I +go and ask?" + +"Yes," I replied, "go and ask." She returned with consternation in +every line of her aged face. + +"Oh, ma'am, it's strange they should have told you so wrong. We're on +this boat till four in the afternoon." + +And so we were, and a half-hour to boot, owing to the southeast wind +which was dead ahead all the way. Everybody was ill,--my poor old +protectress most of all, and for the first time in her life. + +"Oh, ma'am, I did not think it could be like this," she gasped. "I +never did feel so awful." I sat grimly still in one spot on the deck +all that day. What a day it was! About noon it occurred to me that +some grapes would be a relief to my misery. Opening the basket and +taking out the bag in which the English-speaking waiter had told me +were my grapes, I put in my hand and drew out--a hard, corky, +tasteless pear! Thanks to the southeast wind, we came a half-hour late +to Kiel, and thereby missed the train to Lubeck which we should have +taken, waited two hours and a half in the station, and then had to +take three different trains one after the other, and pay an extra fare +on each one; how we ever stumbled through I don't know, but we did, +and at half-past eleven we were in Lubeck, safe and sound, and not +more than three quarters dead! and I shall laugh whenever I think of +it as long as I live. + +Lubeck is an old town, well worth several days' study; and the Stadt +Hamburg is a comfortable house to sleep and be fed in. You can have a +mutton-chop there, and that is a thing hard to find in Germany; and +you can have your mutton-chop brought to you by an "English-speaking" +waiter who speaks English; and you may have it delicately served in +your own room, or in a pretty dining-room, or on a front porch, walled +in thick by oleander-trees, ten and fifteen feet high,--a lustrous +wall of green, through which you have glimpses of such old gables and +high peaked roofs, red-tiled, and scooped into queer curves, as I do +not know elsewhere except in Nuremberg. It all dates back to 1100 and +1200, and thereabouts,--which does not sound so very old to you when +you have just come from Norway, where a thing is not ancient unless it +dates back to somewhere near Christ's time; but for a mediæval town, +Lubeck has a fine flavor of antiquity about it. It has some splendid +old gateways, and plenty of old houses, two-thirds roof, one-third +gable, and four-fifths dormer-window, with door-posts and corners +carved in the leisurely way peculiar to that time. Really, one would +think a man must have his house ordered before he was born, to have +got it done in time to die in, in those days. I have speculated very +much about this problem, and it puzzles me yet. So many of these old +houses look as if it must have taken at least the years of one +generation to have made the carvings on them; perhaps the building and +ornamentation of the house was a thing handed down from father to son +and to son's son, like famous games of chess. Nothing less than this +seems to me to explain the elaboration of fine hand-wrought +decorations in the way of carving and tapestries, which were the chief +splendors of splendid living in those old times. There is a room in +the Merchants' Exchange in Lubeck, which is entirely walled and ceiled +with carved wood-work taken out of an ancient house belonging to one +of Lubeck's early burgomasters. These carvings were done in 1585 by +"an unknown master," and were recently transferred to this room to +preserve them. The panels of wood alternate with panels of exquisitely +wrought alabaster; two rows of these around the room. There were old +cupboard doors, now firmly fastened on the wall, never to swing again; +and one panel, with a group of wood-carvers at work, said--or +guessed--to be the portraits of the carver and his assistants. The old +shutters are there,--each decorated with a group, or single +figure,--every face as expressive as if it were painted in oil by a +master's hand. Every inch of the wall is wrought into some form of +decorations; the ceiling is carved into great squares, with alabaster +knobs at the intersections; a superb chandelier of ancient Venetian +glass hangs in the middle; and the new room stands to-day exactly as +the old one stood in the grand old burgomaster's day. It is kept +insured by the Merchants' Guild for $30,000, but twice that sum could +not replace it. The Merchants' Guild of Lubeck must contain true +art-lovers; a large room opening from this one has also finely carved +walls, and a frieze of the old burgomasters' portraits, and another +fine Venetian glass chandelier, two centuries old. Through the window +I caught a glimpse of a spiral stair outside the building; it wound in +short turns, and the iron balustrade was a wall of green vines; it +looked like the stair to the chamber of a princess, but it was only +the outside way to another room where the Merchants held their +sittings. + +The largest of the Lubeck churches is the Church of Saint Mary. This +was built so big, it is said, simply to outdo the cathedral in size, +the Lubeck citizens being determined to have their church bigger than +the bishop's. The result is three hundred and thirty-five feet of a +succession of frightful rococo things, enough to drive the thought of +worship out of any head that has eyes in it. The exterior is fine, +being of the best style of twelfth-century brick-work, and there are +some fine and interesting things to be seen inside; but the general +effect of the interior is indescribably hideous, with huge grotesque +carvings in black and white marble and painted wood, at every pillar +of the arches. In one of the chapels is a series of paintings, +ascribed to Holbein,--"The Dance of Death." It is a ghastly picture, +with a certain morbid fascination about it,--a series of fantastic +figures, alternating with grim skeleton figures of Death. The emperor, +the pope, the king and queen, the law-giver, the merchant, the +peasant, the miser,--all are there, hand in hand with the grim, +grappling, leaping skeleton, who will draw them away. Under each +figure is a stanza of verse representing his excuse for delay, his +reply to Death,--all in vain. This chapel had the most uncanny +fascination to my companion. + +"Oh, ma'am! oh, indeed, ma'am, it is too true!" she exclaimed, walking +about, and peering through her spectacles at each motto. "It is all +the same for the pope and the emperor. Death calls us all; and we all +would like to stay a little longer." + +By a fine bronze reclining statue of one of the old bishops she +lingered. "Is it not wonderful, ma'am, the pride there is in this poor +world?" she said. The reflection seemed to me a very just one, as I +too looked at the old man lying there in his mitre, with the sacred +wafer ostentatiously held in one hand, and his crosier in the other; +every inch of him, and of the great bronze slab on which he lay, +wrought as exquisitely as the finest etching. + +At twelve o'clock every day a crowd gathers in this church to see a +procession of little figures come out of the huge clock; the Lubeck +people, it seems, never tire of this small miracle. It must be +acknowledged that it is a droll sight: but one would think, seeing +that there are only forty thousand people in the town, that there +would now and then be a day without a crowd; yet the sacristan said, +that, rain or shine, every day, the little chapel was full at the +striking of the first stroke of twelve. The show is on the back of the +clock, which detracts very much from its effect. At the instant of +twelve a tiny white statue lifted its arm, struck a hammer on the bell +twelve times; at the first stroke a door opened, and out came a +procession of eight figures, called the Emperor and the Electors; each +glided around the circle, paused in the middle, made a jerky bow to +the figure of Christ in the centre, and then disappeared in a door in +the other side, which closed after them. The figures seemed only a few +inches tall at that great height; and the whole thing like part of a +Punch and Judy show, and quite in keeping with the rococo ornaments on +the pillars. But the crowd gazed as devoutly as if it had been the +elevation of the Host itself; and I hurried away, fearing that they +might resent the irreverent look on my countenance. + +There are some carved brass tablets which are superb, and a curious +old altar-piece, with doors opening after doors, like a succession of +wardrobes, one inside the other, the first doors painted on the +inside, the second also painted, and disclosing, on being opened, a +series of wonderful wood carvings of Scriptural scenes, these opening +out again and showing still others; a fine canopy of wrought wood +above them, as delicate as filigree. These are disfigured, as so many +of the exquisite wood carvings of this time are, by being painted in +grotesque colors; but the carving is marvellous. The thing that +interested me most in this church was a tiny little stone mouse carved +at the base of one of the pillars. You might go all your life to that +church and never see it. I searched for it long before I found it. It +is a tiny black mouse gnawing at the root of an oak; and some old +stone-worker put it in there six hundred years ago, because it was the +ancient emblem of the city. There was also a line of old saints and +apostles carved on the ends of the pews, that were fine; a Saint +Christopher with the child on his shoulder that I would have liked to +filch and carry away. + +In the Jacobi Kirche--a church not quite so old--is a remarkable old +altar, which a rich burgomaster hit on the device of bestowing on the +church and immortalizing his own family in it at the same time. To +make it all right for the church, he had the scene of the crucifixion +carved in stone for the centre; then on the doors, which must be +thrown back to show this stone carving, he had himself and his family +painted. And I venture to say that the event justifies his +expectations; for one looks ten minutes at the burgomaster's sons and +daughters and wife for one at the stone carving inside. It is a family +group not to be forgotten,--the burgomaster and his five sons behind +him on one door, and his wife with her five daughters in front of her +on the other door. They are all kneeling, so as to seem to be adoring +the central figures,--all but the burgomaster's wife, who stands tall +and stately, stiff in gold brocade, with a missal in one hand and a +long feather in the other; a high cap of the same brocade, flying +sleeves at the shoulder, and a long bodice in front complete the +dame's array. Three of the daughters wear high foolscaps of white; +white robes trimmed with ermine, falling from the back of the neck, +thrown open to show fine scarlet gowns, with bodices laced over white, +and coming down nearly to their knees in front. Two little things in +long-sleeved dark-green gowns--"not out" yet, I suppose--kneel +modestly in front; and a nun and a saint or a Virgin Mary are thrown +into the group to make it holy. The burgomaster is in a black +fur-trimmed robe, kneeling with a book open before him,--the very +model of a Pharisee at family prayers,--his five sons kneeling behind +him in scarlet robes trimmed with dark fur. + +The sacristan said something in German to Brita, which she instantly +translated to me as "Oh, ma'am, to think of it! They're all buried +here under our very feet, ma'am,--the whole family! And they'd to +leave all that finery behind them, didn't they, ma'am?" The thought of +their actual dust being under our feet at that moment seemed to make +the family portraits much more real. I dare say that burgomaster never +did anything worthy of being remembered in all his life; but he has +hit on a device which will secure him and his race a place in the +knowledge of men for centuries to come. + +In the Rathhaus--which is one of the quaintest buildings in +Lubeck--there is an odd old chimney-piece. It is downstairs, in what +one would call vaults, except that they are used for the rooms of a +restaurant. It has been for centuries a Lubeck custom that when a +couple have been married in the Church of Saint Mary (which adjoins +the Rathhaus), they should come into this room to drink their first +winecup together; and, by way of giving a pleasant turn to things for +the bridegroom, the satirical old wood-carvers wrought a chimney-piece +for this room with a cock on one side, a hen on the other, the +Israelitish spies bearing the huge bunch of the over-rated grapes of +Eshcol between them, and in the centre below it this motto: "Many a +man sings loudly when they bring him his bride. If he knew what they +brought him, he might well weep." It is an odd thing how universally, +when this sort of slur upon marriage is aimed at, it is the man's +disappointment which is set forth or predicted, and not the woman's. +It is a very poor rule, no doubt; but it may at least be said to "work +both ways." There used to be an underground passage-way by which they +came from the church into this room, but it is shut up now. While we +sat waiting in the outer hall upstairs for the janitor to come and +show us this room, a bridal couple came down and passed out to their +carriage,--plain people of the working class. She wore a black alpaca +gown, and had no bridal sign or symptom about her, except the green +myrtle wreath on her head. But few brides look happier than she did. + +The Rathhaus makes one side of the Market-place, which was, like all +market-places, picturesque at eleven in the morning, dirty and dismal +at four in the afternoon. I drove through it several times in the +course of the forenoon; and at last the women came to know me, and +nodded and smiled as we passed. Their hats were wonderful to +see,--cocked up on top of a neat white cap, with its frill all at the +back and none in front; the hats shaped--well, nobody could say how +they were shaped--like _half_ a washbowl bent up, with the little +round centre rim left in behind! I wonder if that gives an idea to +anybody who has not seen the hat. The real wonder, however, was not in +the shape, but in the material. They are made of wood,--actually of +wood,--split up into the finest threads, and sewed like straw; and the +women make them themselves. All the vegetable women had theirs bound +with bright green, with long green loops hanging down behind; but the +fishwomen had theirs bound with narrow black binding round the edge, +lined with purple calico, and with black ribbon at the back. Finally, +after staring a dozen of the good souls out of countenance looking at +their heads, I bought one of the bonnets outright! It was the cleanest +creature ever seen that sold it to me. She pulled it off her head, and +sold it as readily as she would have sold me a dozen eels out of her +basket; and I carried it on my arm all the way from Lubeck to Cassel, +and from Cassel to Munich, to the great bewilderment of many railway +officials and travellers. Before I had concluded my bargain there was +a crowd ten deep all around the carriage. Everybody--men, women, +children--left their baskets and stalls, and came to look on. I +believe I could have bought the entire wardrobe of the whole crowd, if +I had so wished,--so eager and pleased did they look, talking volubly +with each other, and looking at me. It was a great occasion for Brita, +who harangued them all by instalments from the front seat, and +explained to them that the bonnet was going all the way to America, +and that her "lady" had a great liking for all "national" things, +which touched one old lady's patriotism so deeply that she pulled off +her white cap and offered it to me, making signs that my wooden bonnet +was incomplete without the cap, as it certainly was. On Brita's +delicately calling her attention to the fact that her cap was far +from clean, she said she would go home and wash it and flute it +afresh, if the lady would only buy it; and three hours later she +actually appeared with it most exquisitely done up, and not at all +dear for the half-dollar she asked for it. After buying this bonnet I +drove back to the hotel with it, ate my lunch in the oleander-shaded +porch, and then set off again to see the cathedral. This proved to me +a far more interesting church than Saint Mary's, though the +guide-books say that Saint Mary's is far the finer church of the two. +There is enough ugliness in both of them, for that matter, to sink +them. But in the cathedral there are some superb bronzes and brasses, +and a twisted iron railing around the pulpit, which is so marvellous +in its knottings and twistings that a legend has arisen that the devil +made it. + +"How very much they seem to have made of the devil in the olden time, +ma'am, do they not?" remarked Brita, entirely unconscious of the fact +that she was philosophizing; "wherever we have been, there have been +so many things named in his honor!" + +The clock in this church has not been deemed worthy of mention in the +guide-books; but it seemed to me far more wonderful than the one at +Saint Mary's. I shall never forget it as long as I live; in fact, I +fear I shall live to wish I could. The centre of the dial plate is a +huge face of gilt, with gilt rays streaming out from it; two enormous +eyes in this turn from side to side as the clock ticks, right, left, +right, left, so far each time that it is a squint,--a horrible, +malignant, diabolical squint. It seems almost irreverent even to tell +you that this is to symbolize the never-closing eye of God. The +uncanny fascination of these rolling eyes cannot be described. It is +too hideous to look at, yet you cannot look away. I sat spellbound in +a pew under it for a long time. On the right hand of the clock stands +a figure representing the "Genius of Time." This figure holds a gold +hammer in its hand, and strikes the quarter-hours. On the other side +stands Death,--a naked skeleton,--with an hour-glass. At each hour he +turns his hour-glass, shakes his head, and with a hammer in his right +hand strikes the hour. I heard him strike "three," and I confess a +superstitious horror affected me. The thought of a congregation of +people sitting Sunday after Sunday looking at those rolling eyes, and +seeing that skeleton strike the hour and turn his hour-glass, is +monstrous. Surely there was an epidemic in those middle ages of +hideous and fantastic inventions. I am not at all sure that it has not +stamped its impress on the physiognomy of the German nation. I never +see a crowd of Germans at a railway station without seeing in dozens +of faces resemblance to ugly gargoyles. And why should it not have +told on them? The women of old Greece brought forth beautiful sons and +daughters, it is said, because they looked always on beautiful statues +and pictures. The German women have been for a thousand years looking +at grotesque and leering or coarse and malignant gargoyles carved +everywhere,--on the gateways of their cities, in their churches, on +the very lintels of their houses. Why should not the German face have +been slowly moulded by these prenatal influences? + +Above this malevolent clock was a huge scaffold beam, crossing the +entire width of the church, and supporting four huge figures, carved +with some skill; the most immodest Adam and Eve I ever beheld; a +bishop and a Saint John and a Mary,--these latter kneeling in +adoration of a crucifixion above. The whole combination--the guilty +Adam and Eve, the pompous bishop, the repulsive crucifixion, the +puppet clock with its restless eyes and skeleton, and the loud +tick-tock, tick-tock, of the pendulum,--all made up a scene of +grotesqueness and irreverence mingled with superstition and devotion, +such as could not be found anywhere except in a German church of the +twelfth century. It was a relief to turn from it and go into the +little chapel, where stands the altar-piece made sacred as well as +famous by the hands of that tender spiritual painter, Memling. These +altar-pieces look at first sight so much like decorated wardrobes that +it is jarring. I wish they had fashioned them otherwise. In this one, +for instance, it is almost a pain to see on the outside doors of what +apparently is a cupboard one of Memling's angels (the Gabriel) and the +Mary listening to his message. Throwing these doors back, you see +life-size figures of four saints,--John, Jerome, Blasius, and Ægidius. +The latter is a grand dark figure, with a head and face to haunt one. +Opening these doors again, you come to the last,--a landscape with the +crucifixion in the foreground, and other scenes from the Passion of +the Saviour. This is less distinctively Memling-like; in fact, the +only ones of them all which one would be willing to say positively no +man's hand but Memling's had touched, are the two tender angels in +white on the outside shutters. + +We left Lubeck very early in the morning. As we drove to the station, +the milkmen and milkwomen were coming in, in their pretty carts, full +of white wooden firkins, brass bound, with queer long spouts out on +one side; brass measures of different sizes, and brass dippers, all +shining as if they had been fresh scoured that very morning, made the +carts a pretty spectacle. And the last thing of all which I stopped to +look at in Lubeck was the best of all,--an old house with a turreted +bay-window on the corner, and this inscription on the front between +the first and second stories of the house:-- + + "North and south, the world is wide: + East and west, home is best." + +It was in Platt Deutsch; and oddly enough, the servant of the house, +who was at the door, did not know what it meant; and the first two men +we asked did not know what it meant,--stared at it stupidly, shrugged +their shoulders, and shook their heads. It was a lovely motto for a +house, but not a good one for wanderers away from home to look at. It +brought a sudden sense of homesickness, like an odor of a flower or a +bar of music which has an indissoluble link with home. + +It took a whole day to go from Lubeck to Cassel, but the day did not +seem long. It was a series of pictures, and poor Brita's raptures over +it all were at once amusing and pathetic. As soon as we began to see +elevated ground, she became excited. "Oh, oh, ma'am," she exclaimed, +"talk about scenery in Denmark! It is too flat. I am so used to the +flat country, the least hill is beautiful." "Do you not call this +grand?" she would say, at the sight of a hill a hundred or two feet +high. It was a good lesson of the meaning of the word _relative_. +After all, one can hardly conceive what it must be to live sixty-four +years on a dead level of flatness. A genuine mountain would probably +be a terror to a person who had led such a life. Brita's face, when I +told her that I lived at the foot of mountains more than twelve times +as high as any she had seen, was a study for incredulity and wonder. I +think she thought I was lying. It was the hay harvest. All the way +from Lubeck to Cassel were men and women, all hard at work in the +fields; the women swung their scythes as well as the men, but looked +more graceful while raking. Some wore scarlet handkerchiefs over their +heads, some white; all had bare legs well in sight. At noon we saw +them in groups on the ground, and towards night walking swiftly along +the roads, with their rakes over their shoulders. I do not understand +why travellers make such a to-do always about the way women work in +the fields in Germany. I am sure they are far less to be pitied than +the women who work in narrow, dark, foul streets of cities; and they +look a thousand times healthier. Our road lay for many hours through a +beautiful farm country: red brick houses and barns with high thatched +roofs, three quarters of the whole building being thatched roof; great +sweeps of meadow, tracts of soft pines, kingdoms of beeches,--the +whole forest looking like a rich yellow brown moss in the distance, +and their mottled trunks fairly shining out in the cross sunbeams, as +if painted; wide stretches of brown opens, with worn paths leading off +across them; hedges everywhere, and never a fence or a wall; +mountain-ash trees, scarlet full; horse-chestnuts by orchards; towns +every few minutes, and our train halting at them all long enough for +the whole town to make up their minds whether they could go or not, +pack their bags, and come on board; bits of marsh, with labyrinths of +blue water in and out in it, so like tongues of the sea that, +forgetting where I was, I said, "I wonder if that is fresh water." "It +must be, ma'am," replied the observant Brita, "inasmuch as the white +lilies are floating beautiful and large in it." + +"Oh," she suddenly ejaculated, "how strange it was! Napoleon III. he +thought he would get a good bit of this beautiful Germany for a +birthday present, and be in Berlin on his birthday; and instead of +that the Prussians were in Berlin on his birthday." + +At Lüneburg we came into the heather. I thought I knew heather, but I was +to discover my mistake. All the heather of my life heretofore--English, +Scotch, Norwegian--had been no more than a single sprig by the side +of this. "The dreary Lüneburg Heath," the discriminating Baedeker +calls it. The man who wrote that phrase must have been not only +color-blind, he must have been color-dead! If a mountain is "dreary" +when it turns purple pink or pink purple five minutes before the +rising sun is going to flash full on its eastern front, then the +Lüneburg Heath is "dreary." Acres of heather, miles of heather; miles +after miles, hour after hour, of swift railroad riding, and still +heather! The purple and the pink and the browns into which the purple +and pink blended and melted, shifted every second, and deepened and +paled in the light and the shadow, as if the earth itself were gently +undulating. Two or three times, down vistas among the low birches, I +saw men up to their knees in the purple, apparently reaping it with a +sickle. A German lady in the car explained that they cut it to strew +in the sheep-stalls for the sheep to sleep on, and that the sheep ate +it: bed, bed-blanket, and breakfast all in one! Who would not be a +sheep? Here and there were little pine groves in this heath; the pine +and the birch being the only trees which can keep any footing against +heather when it sets out to usurp a territory, and even they cannot +grow large or freely. Three storks rose from these downs as we passed, +and flew slowly away, their great yellow feet shining as if they had +on gold slippers. + +"The country people reckon it a great blessing, ma'am, if a stork will +build its nest on their roof," said Brita. "I dare say it is thought +so in America the same." "No, Brita, we have no storks in America," I +said. "I dare say some other bird, then, you hold the same," she +replied, in a tone so taking it for granted that no nation of people +could be without its sacred domestic bird that I was fain to fall back +on the marten as our nearest approach to such a bird; and I said +boastfully that we built houses for them in our yards, that they never +built on roofs. + +At Celle, when she caught sight of the castle where poor Caroline +Matilda died, she exclaimed, "Oh, ma'am, that is where our poor queen +died. It was the nasty Queen Dowager did it; it was, indeed, ma'am. +And the king had opened the ball with her that very night that he +signed the order to send her away. They took her in her ball-dress, +just as she was. If they had waited till morning the Danes would have +torn her out of the wagon, for they worshipped her. She screamed for +her baby, and they just tossed it to her in the wagon; and she was +only twenty." + +Pages of guide-book could not have so emphasized the tragedy of that +old gray castle as did Brita's words and her tearful eyes, and "nasty +old Queen Dowager." I suppose the truth will never be known about that +poor young queen; history whiffles round so from century to century +that it seems hardly worth while to mind about it. At any rate, it +can't matter much to either Caroline or Struensee, her lover, now. + +Cassel at nine o'clock. Friendly faces and voices and hands, and the +very air of America in every room. It was like a dream; and like a +dream vanished, after twenty-four hours of almost unceasing talk and +reminiscence and interchange. "Blessings brighten," even more than +"when they take their flight," when they pause in their flight long +enough for us to come up with them and take another look at them. + +Cassel is the healthiest town in all Germany; and when you see it you +do not wonder. High and dry and clear, and several hundred feet up +above the plain, it has off-looks to wide horizons in all directions. +To the east and south are beautiful curves of high hills, called +mountains here; thickly wooded, so that they make solid spaces of +color, dark green or purple or blue, according to the time calendar of +colors of mountains at a distance. (They have their time-tables as +fixed as railway trains, and much more to be depended on.) There is no +town in Germany which can compare with Cassel as a home for people +wishing to educate children cheaply and well, and not wishing to live +in the fashions and ways and close air of cities. It has a +picture-gallery second to only one in Germany; it has admirable +museums of all sorts; it has a first-rate theatre; good masters in all +branches of study are to be had at low rates; living is cheap and +comfortable (for Germany). The water is good; the climate also (for +Germany); and last, not least, the surrounding country is full of +picturesque scenery,--woods, high hills, streams; just such a region +as a lover of Nature finds most repaying and enjoyable. In the matter +of society, also, Cassel is especially favored, having taken its tone +from the days of the Electors, and keeping still much of the old fine +breeding of culture and courtesy. + +It is a misfortune to want to go from Cassel to Munich in one day. It +can be done; but it takes fourteen hours of very hard work,--three +changes,--an hour's waiting at one place, and half an hour at another, +and the road for the last half of the day so rough that it could +honestly be compared to nothing except horseback riding over bowlders +at a rapid rate. This is from Gemunden to Munich: if there is any +other way of getting there, I think nobody would go by this; so I +infer that there is not. You must set off, also, at the unearthly hour +of 5 A.M.,--an hour at which all virtues ooze out of one; even honesty +out of cabmen, as I found at Cassel, when a man to whom I had paid +four marks--more than twice the regular fare--for bringing us a five +minutes' distance to the railway station, absolutely had the face to +ask three marks more. Never did I so long for a command of the German +tongue. I only hope that the docile Brita translated for me literally +what I said, as I handed him twelve cents more, with, "I gave one +dollar because you had to get up so early in the morning. You know +very well that even half that sum is more than the price at ordinary +times. I will give you this fifty pfennigs for yourself, and not +another pfennig do you get!" I wish that the man that invented the +word _pfennig_ had to "do a pour of it for one tousand year," as dear +old Dr. Pröhl said of the teapot that would not pour without spilling. +I think it is the test-word of the German language. The nearest +direction I could give for pronouncing it would be: fill your mouth +with hasty-pudding, then say _purr-f-f-f-f-f_, and then gulp the +pudding and choke when you come to the _g_,--that's a _pfennig_; and +the idea of such a name as that for a contemptible thing of which it +takes one hundred to make a quarter of a dollar! They do them up in +big nickel pieces too,--heavy, and so large that in the dark you +always mistake them for something else. Ten hundredths of a +quarter!--you could starve with your purse loaded down with them. + +In the station, trudging about as cheerily as if they were at home, was +a poor family,--father, mother, and five little children,--evidently +about to emigrate. Each carried a big bundle; even the smallest +toddler had her parcel tied up in black cloth with a big cord. The +mother carried the biggest bundle of all,--a baby done up in a +bedquilt, thick as a comforter; the child's head was pinned in tight +as its feet,--not one breath of air could reach it. + +"Going to America, ma'am," said Brita, "I think they must be. Oh, +ma'am, there was five hundred sailed in one ship for America, last +summer,--all to be Mormons; and the big fellow that took them, with +his gold spectacles, I could have killed him. They'll be wretched +enough when they come to find what they've done. Brigham Young's dead, +but there must be somebody in his place that's carrying it on the +same. They'd not be allowed to stay in Denmark, ma'am,--oh, no, +they've got to go out of the country." + +All day again we journeyed through the hay harvest,--the same +picturesque farm-houses, with their high roofs thatched or dark-tiled, +their low walls white or red or pink, marked off into odd-shaped +intervals by lattice-work of wood; no fences, no walls; only the +coloring to mark divisions of crops. Town after town snugged round its +church; the churches looked like hens with their broods gathered close +around them, just ready to go under the wings. We had been told that +we need not change cars all the way to Munich; so, of course, we had +to change three times,--bundled out at short notice, at the last +minute, to gather ourselves up as we might. In one of these hurried +changes I dropped my stylographic pen. Angry as I get with the thing +when I am writing with it, my very heart was wrung with sorrow at its +loss. Without much hope of ever seeing it again, I telegraphed for it. +The station-master who did the telegraphing was profoundly impressed +by Brita's description of the "wonderful instrument" I had lost. "A +self-writing pen,"--she called it. I only wish it were! "You shall +hear at the next station if it has been found," he said. Sure enough, +at the very next station the guard came to the door. "Found and will +be sent," he said; and from that on he regarded me with a sort of +awe-stricken look whenever he entered the car. I believe he considered +me a kind of female necromancer from America! and no wonder, with two +self-writing pens in my possession, for luckily I had my No. 2 in my +travelling-bag to show as sample of what I had lost. + +At Elm we came into a fine hilly region,--hills that had to be +tunnelled or climbed over by zigzags; between them were beautiful +glimpses of valleys and streams. Brita was nearly beside herself, poor +soul! Her "Oh's" became something tragic. "Oh, ma'am, it needs no +judge to see that God has been here!" she cried. "We must think on the +Building-Master when we see such scenery as this." + +As we came out on the broader plains, the coloring of the villages +grew colder; unlatticed white walls, and a colder gray to the roofs, +the groups of houses no longer looked like crowds of furry creatures +nestled close for protection. Some rollicking school girls, with long +hair flying, got into our carriage, and chattered, and ate cake, and +giggled; the cars rocked us to and fro on our seats as if we were in a +saddle on a run-away horse in a Colorado cañon. All the rough roads I +have ever been on have been smooth gliding in comparison with this. At +nine o'clock, Munich, and a note from the dear old "Fraulein" to say +that her house was full, but she had rooms engaged for me near by. The +next day I went to see her, and found her the same old inimitable dear +as ever,--the eyes and the smile not a day older, and the drollery and +the mimicry all there; but, alas! old age has come creeping too close +not to hurt in some ways, and an ugly rheumatism prevents her from +walking and gives her much pain. I had hoped she could go to +Oberammergau with me; but it is out of the question. At night she sent +over to me the loveliest basket of roses and forget-me-nots and +mignonette, with a card, "Good-night, my dear lady,--I kiss you;" and +I am not too proud to confess that I read it with tears in my eyes. +The dear, faithful, loving soul! + + +THE VILLAGE OF OBERAMMERGAU. + +Mountains and valleys and rivers are in league with the sun and +summer--and, for that matter, with winter too--to do their best in the +Bavarian Highlands. Lofty ranges, ever green at base, ever white at +top, are there tied with luminous bands of meadow into knots and +loops, and knots and loops again, tightening and loosening, opening +and shutting in labyrinths, of which only rivers know the secret and +no man can speak the charm. Villages which find place in lands like +these take rank and relation at once with the divine organic +architecture already builded; seem to become a part of Nature; appear +to have existed as long as the hills or the streams, and to have the +same surety of continuance. How much this natural correlation may have +had to do with the long, unchanging simplicities of peoples born and +bred in these mountain haunts, it would be worth while to analyze. +Certain it is that in all peasantry of the hill countries in Europe, +there are to be seen traits of countenance and demeanor,--peculiarities +of body, habits, customs, and beliefs which are indigenous and +lasting, like plants and rocks. Mere lapse of time hardly touches +them; they have defied many centuries; only now in the mad +restlessness of progress of this the nineteenth do they begin to +falter. But they have excuse when Alps have come to be tunnelled and +glaciers are melted and measured. + +Best known of all the villages that have had the good fortune to be +born in the Bavarian Highlands is Oberammergau, the town of the famous +Passion Play. But for the Passion Play the great world had never found +Oberammergau out, perhaps; yet it might well be sought for itself. It +lies 2,600 feet above the sea, at the head of a long stretch of +meadow lands, which the River Ammer keeps green for half the year,--at +the head of these, and in the gateway of one of the most beautiful +walled valleys of the Alps. The Ammer is at once its friend and foe; +in summer a friend, but malicious in spring, rising suddenly after +great rains or thaws, and filling the valley with a swift sea, by +which everything is in danger of being swept away. In 1769 it tore +through the village with a flood like a tidal wave, and left only +twelve houses standing. + +High up on one of the mountain-sides, northeast of the village, is a +tiny spot of greensward, near the course of one of the mountain +torrents which swell the Ammer. This green spot is the Oberammergauers' +safety-gauge. So long as that is green and clear the valley will not +be flooded; as soon as the water is seen shining over that spot it is +certain that floods will be on in less than an hour, and the whole +village is astir to forestall the danger. The high peaks, also, which +stand on either side the town, are friend and foe alternately. White +with snow till July, they keep stores of a grateful coolness for +summer heats; but in winter the sun cannot climb above them till nine +o'clock, and is lost in their fastnesses again at one. Terrible +hail-storms sometimes whirl down from their summits. On the 10th of +May, 1774, there were three of these hail-storms in one day, which +killed every green blade and leaf in the fields. One month later, just +as vegetation had fairly started again, came another avalanche of +hail, and killed everything a second time. On the 13th of June, 1771, +snow lay so deep that men drove in sledges through the valley. This +was a year never to be forgotten. In 1744 there was a storm of rain, +thunder, and lightning, in which the electric fire shot down like +javelins into the town, set a score of houses on fire, and destroyed +the church. One had need of goodly devotion to keep a composed mind +and contented spirit in a dwelling-place surrounded by such dangers. +The very elements, however, it seems, are becoming tamed by the +inroads of civilization; for it is more than fifty years since +Oberammergau has seen such hail or such lightning. + +The village is, like all Tyrolean villages, built without apparent +plan,--no two houses on a line, no two streets at right angles, +everybody's house slanting across or against somebody else's house, +the confusion really attaining the dignity of a fine art. If a child +were to set out a toy village on the floor, decide hastily to put it +back in its box, sweep it all together between his two hands, then +change his mind, and let the houses remain exactly as they had fallen, +with no change except to set them right side up, I think it would make +a good map of Oberammergau. The houses are low, white-plastered, or +else left of the natural color of the wood, which, as it grows old, is +of a rich dark brown. The roofs project far over the eaves, and are +held down by rows of heavy stones to keep them from blowing off in +wind-storms. Tiny open-work balconies are twined in and out +capriciously, sometimes filled with gay flowers, sometimes with hay +and dried herbs, sometimes with the firewood for winter. Oberammergau +knows in such matters no law but each man's pleasure. It is at each +man's pleasure, also, where he will keep his manure-heap; and usually +he elects to keep it close to the street, joining his barn or his +house, or his neighbor's barn or house, at convenience. Except that +there are many small sluices and rivulets and canals of spring water +wandering about the village to carry off the liquidation, this would +be intolerable, and surely would create pestilences. As it is, the +odors are abominable, and are a perpetual drawback to the delight one +would otherwise take in the picturesque little place. + +There are many minute gardens and bits of orchard of all possible +shapes,--as many and as many-sided as the figures in the first pages +of Euclid. I saw one, certainly not containing more than eight square +feet, which was seven-sided, fenced and joined to two houses. Purple +phlox, dahlias, and lilacs are the favorite out-door flowers. Of these +there were clumps and beds which might have been transported from New +England. In the balconies and window-sills were scarlet geranium, +white alyssum, and pansies. + +The most striking natural feature of Oberammergau is the great +mountain-peak to the southwest, called the Kofel. This is a bare, +rocky peak of singularly bold contour. On its summit is set a large +cross, which stands out always against the sky with a clearness almost +solemn. The people regard this Kofel as the guardian angel of their +village; and it is said that the reply was once made to persons who +were urging the Passion Play actors to perform their play in England +or America,-- + +"We would do so if it were possible; but to do that, it would be +needful to take the entire village and our guardian spirit, the +Kofel." + +I arrived in Oberammergau on a Wednesday, and counted on finding +myself much welcomed, three days in advance of the day of the play. +Never was a greater mistake. A country cousin coming uninvited to make +a visit in the middle of a busy housewife's spring house-cleaning +would be as welcome. As I drove into the village the expression of +things gave me alarm. Every fence, post, roof, bush, had sheets, +pillow-cases, or towels drying on it; the porches and grass-plots were +strewn with pillows and mattresses; a general fumigation and +purification of a quarantined town could not have produced a greater +look of being turned wrong side out. This is what the cleanly +Oberammergau women do every week during the Passion Play season. It +takes all the time intervening between the weekly representations of +the play to make ready their bedrooms and beds. + +I was destined to greater alarms and surprises, however. The Frau +Rutz, to whom I had written for lodgings, and to whose house I drove +all confident, had never heard of my name. It became instantaneously +apparent to me that I probably represented to her mind perhaps the +eleven hundred and thirty-seventh person who had stopped at her door +with the same expectation. Half of her house was being re-roofed, "to +be done by Sunday;" all her bed-linen was damp in baskets in the +kitchen; and she and her sister were even then ironing for dear life +to be done in time to begin baking and brewing on the next day. +Evidently taking time by the forelock was a good way to come to a +dead-lock in Oberammergau. To house after house I drove,--to Frau +Zwink's bird-cage, perched on the brink of a narrow canal, and half +over it, it seemed. Just before me stood a post-carriage, at Frau +Zwink's door; and as I stepped out two English ladies with bags, +bundles, and umbrellas disappeared within Frau Zwink's door, having +secured the only two available perches in the cage. The Frau came +running with urgent solicitations that I should examine a closet she +had, which she thought might answer. + +"Oh, is she the lady of the house, and she barefoot?" exclaimed my +Danish maid, aghast at the spectacle. Yet I afterwards heard that the +Frau Zwink's was one of the notably comfortable lodging-places in the +town. In another house were shown to us two small dark rooms, to reach +which one must climb a ladder out of the common living-room of the +family. From house after house came the response, "No rooms; all +promised for Saturday." At intervals I drove back to Frau Rutz's for +further suggestions. At last she became gradually impressed with a +sense of responsibility for our fortunes; and the mystery of her +knowing nothing about my letter was cleared up. Her nephew had charge +of the correspondence; she never saw the letters; he had not yet had +time to answer one half of the letters he had received. Most probably +my letter might be in his pocket now. Friendship grew up between my +heart and the heart of the Frau Rutz as we talked. Who shall fathom or +sound these bonds which create themselves so quickly with one, so +slowly with another? She was an Oberammergau peasant, who knew no word +of my tongue; I a woman of another race, life, plane, who could not +speak one word she could comprehend, and our interpreter was only a +servant; but I think I do not exaggerate when I say that the Frau and +I became friends. I know I am hers; and I think if I were in +Oberammergau in need, I should find that she was mine. + +By some unexplained accident (if there be such things) the best room +in all Oberammergau was still left free,--a great sunny room, with a +south window and east windows, a white porcelain stove, an +old-fashioned spinnet, a glass-doored corner-cupboard full of +trinkets, old-fashioned looking-glasses, tables, and two good beds; +and of this I took possession in incredulous haste. It was in the +house of George Lang, merchant, the richest man in the town. The +history of the family of which he is now the leading representative is +identified with the fortunes of Oberammergau for a century past. It is +an odd thing that this little village should have had its line of +merchant princes,--a line dating back a hundred years, marked by the +same curious points of heredity as that of the Vanderbilts or Astors +in America, and the Rothschilds in Europe; men as shrewd, sharp, +foreseeing, fore-planning, and executive in their smaller way, and +perhaps as arbitrary in their monopolies, as some of our +millionnaires. + +In 1765 there lived in the service of the monastery at Ettal a man +named Joseph Lang. He was a trusted man, a sort of steward and general +supervisor. When the monastery was suppressed, Joseph Lang's +occupation was gone. He was a handy man, both with tools and with +colors, and wandering down to Oberammergau, halted for a little to see +if he could work himself in with the industry already established +there of toy-making. At first he made simply frames, and of the +plainest sort; soon--perhaps from a reverent bias for still +ministering to the glory of the church, but probably quite as much +from his trader's perception of the value of an assured market--he +began to paint wooden figures of saints, apostles, Holy Virgins, and +Christs. These figures at first he imported from the Tyrol, painted +them, and sent them back there to be sold. Before long he had a large +majority of the Oberammergau villagers working under his direction as +both carvers and colorers in this business,--a great enlargement of +their previous trade of mere toy-making. + +This man had eleven sons. Ten of them were carvers in wood, one was a +painter and gilder. All these sons worked together in the continuing +and building up of their father's business. One of them, George Lang, +perceiving the advantage of widening business connections, struck out +for the world at large, established agencies for his house in many +countries, chiefly in Russia, and came home to die. He had six sons +and four or five daughters, it is not certainly known which; for, as +the present George Lang said, telling this genealogical history in his +delightful English: "The archives went up in fire once, so they did +not know exactly." All six of these sons followed the trades of +carving, painting, and gilding. One of them, the youngest, Johann, +continued the business, succeeding to his father's position in 1824. +He was perhaps the cleverest man of the line. He went from country to +country, all over Europe, and had his agents in America, England, +Australia, Russia. He was on terms of acquaintance with people in +high position everywhere, and was sometimes called "The King of +Oberammergau." Again and again the villagers wished to make him +burgomaster or magistrate, but he would not accept the position. +Nevertheless it finally came to pass that all legal writings of the +town, leases, conveyances, etc., made, were signed by his name as well +as by the names of the recognized officials. First, "the magistracy of +Oberammergau," then, "Johann Lang, Agent," as he persisted in calling +himself, ran in the records of the parties to transactions in +Oberammergau at that time. + +In 1847 the village began to be in great trouble. A large part of it +was burned; sickness swept it; whole families were homeless, or +without father or brother to support them. Now shone out the virtues +of this "King of Oberammergau," who would not be its burgomaster. He +supported the village: to those who could work he gave work, whether +the work had present value to him or not; to those who could not work +he gave food, shelter, clothes. He was a rich man in 1847, when the +troubles began. In 1849 he was poor, simply from his lavish giving. He +had only two sons, to both of whom he gave an education in the law. +Thus the spell of the succession of the craft of wood-workers was +broken. No doubt ambition had entered into the heart of the "King of +Oberammergau" to place his sons higher in the social scale than any +success in mere trade could lift them. One of these sons is now +burgomaster of the village; he is better known to the outside world as +the Caiaphas of the Passion Play. To one knowing the antecedents of +his house, the dramatic power with which he assumes and renders the +Jewish High-Priest's haughty scorn, impatience of opposition, contempt +for the Nazarene, will be seen to have a basis in his own pride of +birth and inherited habit of authority. + +The other son, having been only moderately successful in making his +way in the world as a lawyer, returned to Oberammergau, succeeded to +his father's business in 1856, but lived only a short time, dying in +1859. He left a widow and six children,--three sons and three +daughters. For a time the widow and a sister-in-law carried on the +business. As the sons grew up, two of them gradually assumed more and +more the lead in affairs, and now bid fair to revive and restore the +old traditions of the family power and success. One of them is in +charge of a branch of the business in England, the other in +Oberammergau. The third son is an officer in the Bavarian army. The +aunt is still the accountant and manager of the house, and the young +people evidently defer to her advice and authority. + +The daughters have been educated in Munich and at convents, and are +gentle, pleasing, refined young women. At the time of the Passion Play +in 1880 they did the honors of their house to hundreds of strangers, +who were at once bewildered and delighted to find, standing behind +their chairs at dinner, young women speaking both English and French, +and as courteously attentive to their guests' every wish as if they +had been extending the hospitality of the "King of Oberammergau," a +half-century back. + +Their house is in itself a record. It stands fronting an irregular +open, where five straggling roadways meet, making common centre of a +big spring, from which water runs ceaselessly day and night into three +large tanks. The house thus commands the village, and it would seem no +less than natural that all post and postal service should centre in +it. It is the largest and far the best house in the place. Its two +huge carved doors stand wide open from morning till night, like those +of an inn. On the right-hand side of the hall is the post-office, +combined with which is the usual universal shop of a country village, +holding everything conceivable, from a Norway dried herring down to +French sewing-silk. On the left-hand side are the warerooms of +wood-carvings: the first two rooms for their sale; behind these, rooms +for storing and for packing the goods, to send away; there are four of +these rooms, and their piled-up cases bear testimony to the extent of +the business they represent. + +A broad, dark, winding stairway leads up to the second floor. Here are +the living-rooms of the family; spacious, sunny, comfortable. At the +farther end of this hall a great iron door leads into the barn; +whenever it is opened, a whiff of the odor of hay sweeps through; and +to put out your head from your chamber-door of a morning, and looking +down the hall, to see straight into a big haymow, is an odd experience +the first time it happens. The house faces southeast, and has a dozen +windows, all the time blazing in sunlight,--a goodly thing in +Oberammergau, where shadow and shade mean reeking damp and chill. On +the south side of the house is an old garden, chiefly apple-orchard; +under these trees, in sunny weather, the family take their meals, and +at the time of the Passion Play more than fifty people often sat down +at outdoor tables there. These trees were like one great aviary, so +full were they of little sparrow-like birds, with breasts of cinnamon +brown color, and black crests on their heads. They chatted and +chattered like magpies, and I hardly ever knew them to be quiet except +for a few minutes every morning, when, at half-past five, the village +herd of fifty cows went by, each cow with a bell at her neck; and all +fifty bells half ringing, half tolling, a broken, drowsy, sleepy, +delicious chime, as if some old sacristan, but half awake, was trying +to ring a peal. At the first note of this the birds always +stopped,--half envious, I fancied. As the chime died away, they broke +out again as shrill as ever, and even the sunrise did not interrupt +them. + +The open square in front of the house is a perpetual stage of +tableaux. The people come and go, and linger there around the great +water-tanks as at a sort of Bethesda, sunk to profaner uses of +every-day cleansing. The commonest labors become picturesque performed +in open air, with a background of mountains, by men and women with +bare heads and bare legs and feet. Whenever I looked out of my windows +I saw a picture worth painting. For instance, a woman washing her +windows in the tanks, holding each window under the running stream, +tipping it and turning it so quickly in the sunshine that the waters +gliding off it took millions of prismatic hues, till she seemed to be +scrubbing with rainbows; another with two tubs full of clothes, which +she had brought there to wash, her petticoat tucked up to her knees, +her arms bare to the shoulder, a bright red handkerchief knotted round +her head, and her eyes flashing as she beat and lifted, wringing and +tossing the clothes, and flinging out a sharp or a laughing word to +every passer; another coming home at night with a big bundle of green +grass under one arm, her rake over her shoulder, a free, open glance, +and a smile and a bow to a gay postilion watering his horses; another +who had brought, apparently, her whole stock of kitchen utensils +there to be made clean,--jugs and crocks, and brass pans. How they +glittered as she splashed them in and out! She did not wipe them, only +set them down on the ground to dry, which seemed likely to leave them +but half clean, after all. Then there came a dashing young fellow from +the Tyrol, with three kinds of feathers in his green hat, short brown +breeches, bare knees, gray yarn stockings with a pattern of green +wreath knit in at the top, a happy-go-lucky look on his face, stooping +down to take a mouthful of the swift-running water from the spout, and +getting well splashed by missing aim with his mouth, to the uproarious +delight of two women just coming in from their hay-making in the +meadows, one of them balancing a hay-rake and pitchfork on her +shoulder with one hand, and with the other holding her dark-blue +petticoat carefully gathered up in front, full of hay; the other +drawing behind her (not wheeling it) a low, scoop-shaped wheelbarrow +full of green grass and clover,--these are a few of any day's +pictures. And thither came every day Issa Kattan, from Bethlehem of +Judæa,--a brown-skinned, deer-eyed Syrian, who had come all the way +from the Holy Land to offer to the Passion Play pilgrims +mother-of-pearl trinkets wrought in Jerusalem; rosaries of pearl, of +olive-wood, of seeds, scarlet, yellow, and black, wonderfully smooth, +hard, and shining. He wore a brilliant red fez, and told his gentle +lies in a voice as soft as the murmuring of wind in pines. He carried +his wares in a small tray, hung, like a muff, by a cord round his +neck, the rosaries and some strips of bright stuffs hanging down at +each side and swinging back and forth in time to his slow tread. Issa +paced the streets patiently from morn till night, but took good care +to be at this watering-place many times in the course of the day, +chiefly at the morning, and when the laborers were coming home at +sunset. + +Another vender, as industrious as he, but less picturesque, also +haunted the spot: a man who, knowing how dusty the Passion Play +pilgrims would be, had brought brushes to sell,--brushes big, little, +round, square, thick, thin, long, short, cheap, dear, good, bad, and +indifferent; no brush ever made that was not to be found hanging on +that man's body, if you turned him round times enough. That was the +way he carried his wares,--in tiers, strings, strata, all tied +together and on himself in some inexplicable way. One would think he +must have slipped himself into a dozen "cat's-cradles" of twine to +begin with, and then had the brushes netted in and out on this +foundation. All that remained to be seen of him was his head, above +this bristling ball, and his feet shuffling below. To cap the climax +of his grotesqueness, he wore on his back a wooden box, shaped like an +Indian pappoose frame; and in this stood three or four lofty +long-handled brushes for sweeping, which rose far above his head. + +Another peasant woman--a hay-maker--I remember, who came one night; +never again, though I watched longingly for her, or one like her. She +wore a petticoat of umber-brown, a white blouse, a blue apron, a +pink-and-white handkerchief over her head, pinned under her chin; +under one arm she carried a big bunch of tall green grasses, with the +tasselled heads hanging loose far behind her. On the other shoulder +rested her pitchfork, and in the hand that poised the pitchfork she +held a bunch of dahlias, red, white, and yellow. + +But the daintiest and most memorable figure of all that flitted or +tarried here, was a little brown-eyed, golden-haired maiden, not more +than three years old. She lived near by, and often ran away from home. +I saw her sometimes led by the hand, but oftenest without guide or +protector,--never alone, however; for, rain or shine, early or late, +she carried always in her arms a huge puppet, with a face bigger than +her own. It wore a shawl and a knit hood, the child herself being +always bareheaded. It was some time before I could fathom the mystery +of this doll, which seemed shapeless yet bulky, and heavier than the +child could well lift, though she tugged at it faithfully and with an +expression of care, as we often see poor babies in cities lugging +about babies a little younger than themselves. At last I caught the +puppet out one day without its shawl, and the mystery was revealed. It +was a milliner's bonnet-block, on which a face had been painted. No +wonder it seemed heavy and shapeless; below the face was nothing but a +rough base of wood. It appeared that as soon as the thing was given to +the child, she conceived for it a most inconvenient and unmanageable +affection,--would go nowhere without it, would not go to sleep +without it, could hardly be induced to put it for one moment out of +her tired little arms, which could hardly clasp it round. It seemed +but a fitting reward to perpetuate some token of such faithfulness; +and after a good deal of pleading I induced the child's aunt, in whose +charge she lived, to bring her to be photographed with her doll in her +arms. It was not an easy thing to compass this; for the only +photographer of the town, being one of the singers in the chorus, had +small leisure for the practice of his trade in the Passion Play year; +but, won over by the novelty of the subject, he found an odd hour for +us, and made the picture. The little thing was so frightened at the +sight of the strange room and instruments that she utterly refused to +stand alone for a second, which was not so much of a misfortune as I +thought at first, for it gave me the aunt's face also; and a very +characteristic Oberammergau face it is. + +At the same time I also secured a photograph of the good Frau Rutz. It +was an illustration of the inborn dramatic sense in the Oberammergau +people, that when I explained to Frau Rutz that I wished her to sit +for a picture of an Oberammergau woman at her carving, she took the +idea instantly, and appeared prompt to the minute, with a vase of her +own carving, her glue-pot, and all her tools, to lay on the table by +her side. "Do you not think it would be better with these?" she said +simply; then she took up her vase and tool, as if to work, seated +herself at the table in a pose which could not be improved, and looked +up with, "Is this right?" The photographer nodded his head, and, +presto! in five seconds it was done; and Frau Rutz had really been +artist of her own picture. The likeness did her less than justice. Her +face is even more like an old Memling portrait than is the picture. +Weather-beaten, wrinkled, thin,--as old at forty-five as it should be +by rights at sixty,--hers is still a noble and beautiful countenance. +Nothing would so surprise Frau Rutz as to be told this. She laughed +and shook her head when, on giving her one of the photographs, I said +how much I liked it. "If it had another head on it, it might be very +good," she said. She is one of the few women in Oberammergau who do +delicate carving. In the previous winter she had made thirty vases of +this pattern, besides doing much other work. + +Very well I came to know Frau Rutz's chiselled and expressive old face +before I left Oberammergau. The front door of her house stood always +open; and in a tiny kitchen opposite it,--a sort of closet in the +middle of the house, lighted only by one small window opening into the +hall, and by its door, which was never shut,--she was generally to be +seen stirring or skimming, or scouring her bright saucepans. Whenever +she saw us, she ran out with a smile, and the inquiry if there was +anything she could do for us. On the day before the Passion Play she +opened her little shop. It was about the size of a steamboat +stateroom, built over a bit of the sidewalk,--Oberammergau +fashion,--and joined at a slant to the house; it was a set of shelves +roofed over, and with a door to lock at night, not much more: eight +people crowded it tight; but it was packed from sill to roof with +carvings, a large part of which had been made by herself, her husband +and sons, or workmen in their employ, and most of which, I think, were +sold by virtue of the Frau's smile, if it proved as potent a lure to +other buyers as to me. If I drove or walked past her house without +seeing it, I felt as if I had left something behind for which I ought +to go back; and when she waved her hand to us, and stood looking after +us as our horses dashed round the corner, I felt that good luck was +invoked on the drive and the day. + +Driving out of Oberammergau, there are two roads to choose from,--one +up the Ammer, by way of a higher valley, and into closer knots of +mountains, and so on into the Tyrol; the other down the Ammer, through +meadows, doubling and climbing some of the outpost mountains of the +range, and so on out to the plains. On the first road lies Ettal, and +on the other Unterammergau, both within so short a distance of +Oberammergau that they are to be counted in among its pleasures. + +Ettal is one of the twelve beautiful houses which the ecclesiastics +formerly owned in this part of Bavaria. These old monks had a quick +eye for beauty of landscape, as well as a shrewd one for all other +advantages of locality; and in the days of their power and prosperity +they so crowded into these South Bavarian highlands that the region +came to be called "Pfaffenwinkel," or "The Priest's Corner." Abbeys, +priories, and convents--a dozen of them, all rich and powerful--stood +within a day's journey of one another. Of these, Ettal was pre-eminent +for beauty and splendor. It was founded early in the fourteenth +century by a German emperor, who, being ill, was ready to promise +anything to be well again, and being approached at this moment by a +crafty Benedictine, promised to found a Benedictine monastery in the +valley of the Ammer, if the Holy Virgin would restore him to health. +An old tradition says that as the emperor came riding up the steep +Ettaler Berg, at the summit of which the monastery stands, his horse +fell three times on his knees, and refused to go farther. This was +construed to be a sign from heaven to point out the site of the +monastery. But to all unforewarned travellers who have approached +Oberammergau by way of Ettal, and been compelled to walk up the +Ettaler Berg, there will seem small occasion for any suggestion of a +supernatural cause for the emperor's horse tumbling on his knees. A +more unmitigated two miles of severe climb was never built into a +road; the marvel is that it should have occurred to mortal man to do +it, and that there is as yet but one votive tablet by the roadside in +commemoration of death by apoplexy in the attempt to walk up. It was +Alois Pfaurler who did thus die in July, 1866,--and before he was +half-way up, too. Therefore this tablet on the spot of his death has a +depressing effect on people for the latter half of their struggle, and +no doubt makes them go slower. + +How much the Benedictines of Ettal had to do with the Passion Play +which has made Oberammergau so famous, it is now not possible to know. +Those who know most about it disagree. In 1634, the year in which the +play was first performed, it is certain that the Oberammergau +community must have been under the pastoral charge of some one of the +great ecclesiastical establishments in that region; and it is more +than probable that the monks, who were themselves much in the way of +writing and performing in religious plays, first suggested to the +villagers this mode of working for the glory and profit of the Church. + +Their venerable pastor, Daisenberger, to whom they owe the present +version of the Passion Play, was an Ettal monk; and one of the many +plays which he has arranged or written for their dramatic training is +"The Founding of the Monastery of Ettal." The closing stanzas of this +well express the feeling of the Oberammergauer to-day, and no doubt of +the Ettal monk centuries ago, in regard to the incomparable Ammer Thal +region:-- + + "Let God be praised! He hath this vale created + To show to man the glory of his name! + And these wide hills the Lord hath consecrated + Where he his love incessant may proclaim. + + "Ne'er shall decay the valley's greatest treasure, + Madonna, thou the pledge of Heaven's grace! + Her blessings will the Queen of Heaven outmeasure + To her quiet Ettal and Bavaria's race." + +Most travellers who visit Oberammergau know nothing of Unterammergau, +except that the white and brown lines of its roofs and spires make a +charming dotted picture on the Ammer meadows, as seen from the higher +seats in the Passion Play theatre. The little hamlet is not talked +about, not even in guide-books. It sits, a sort of Cinderella, and +meekly does its best to take care of the strangers who come grumbling +to sleep there, once in ten years, only because beds are not to be had +in its more favored sister village farther up the stream. Yet it is no +less picturesque, and a good deal cleaner, than is Oberammergau; gets +hours more of sunshine, a freer sweep of wind, and has compassing it +about a fine stretch of meadow-lands, beautiful to look at, and rich +to reap. + +Its houses are, like those in Oberammergau, chiefly white stucco over +stone, or else dark and painted wood, often the lower story of white +stucco and the upper one of dark wood, with a fringe of balconies, +dried herbs, and wood-piles where the two stories join. Many of the +stuccoed houses are gay with Scripture frescos, more than one hundred +years old, and not faded yet. There are also many of the curious +ancient windows, made of tiny round panes set in lead. When these are +broken, square panes have to be set in. Nobody can make the round ones +any more. On the inside of the brown wooden shutters are paintings of +bright flowers; over the windows, and above the doors, are also +Scripture frescos. One old house is covered with them. One scene is +Saint Francis lying on his back, with his cross by his side; and +another, the coronation of the Virgin Mary, in which God the Father +is represented as a venerable man wrapped in a red and yellow robe, +with a long white beard, resting his hand on the round globe, while +Christ, in a red mantle, is putting the crown on the head of Mary, who +is resplendent in bright blue and red. On another wall is Saint +Joseph, holding the infant Christ on his knee. There must have been a +marvellous secret in the coloring of these old frescos, that they have +so long withstood the snows, rains, and winds of the Ammer valley. The +greater part of them were painted by one Franz Zwink, in the middle of +the last century. The peasants called him the "wind painter," because +he worked with such preternatural rapidity. Many legends attest this; +among others, a droll one of his finding a woman at her churning one +day and asking her for some butter. She refused. "If you'll give me +that butter," said Zwink, "I'll paint a Mother of God for you above +your door." "Very well; it is a bargain," said the woman, "provided +the picture is done as soon as the butter," whereupon Zwink mounted to +the wall, and, his brushes flying as fast as her churn dasher, lo! +when the butter was done, there shone out the fresh Madonna over the +door, and the butter had been fairly earned. Zwink was an athletic +fellow, and walked as swiftly as he painted; gay, moreover, for there +is a tradition of his having run all the way to Munich once for a +dance. Being too poor to hire a horse, he ran thither in one day, +danced all night, and the next day ran back to Oberammergau, fresh and +merry. He was originally only a color-rubber in the studio of one of +the old rococo painters; but certain it is that he either stole or +invented a most triumphant system of coloring, whose secret is unknown +to-day. It is said that in 1790 every house in both Ober and Unter +Ammergau was painted in this way. But repeated fires have destroyed +many of the most valuable frescos, and many others have been +ruthlessly covered up by whitewash. An old history of the valley says +that when the inhabitants saw flames consuming these sacred images, +they wept aloud in terror and grief, not so much for the loss of their +dwellings as for the irreparable loss of the guardian pictures. The +effect of these on a race for three generations,--one after another +growing up in the habit, from earliest infancy, of gazing on the +visible representations of God and Christ and the Mother of God, +placed as if in token of perpetual presence and protection on the very +walls and roofs of their homes--must be incalculably great. Such a +people would be religious by nature, as inherently and organically as +they were hardy of frame by reason of the stern necessities of their +existence. It is a poor proof of the superiority of enlightened, +emancipated, and cultivated intellect, with all its fine analyses of +what God is not, if it tends to hold in scorn or dares to hold in pity +the ignorance which is yet so full of spirituality that it believes it +can even see what God is, and feels safer by night and day with a +cross at each gable of the roof. + +One of the Unterammergau women, seeing me closely studying the frescos +on her house, asked me to come in, and with half-shy hospitality, and +a sort of childlike glee at my interest, showed me every room. The +house is one of some note, as note is reckoned in Unterammergau: it +was built in 1700, is well covered with Zwink's frescos, and bears an +inscription stating that it was the birthplace of one "Max Anrich, +canon of St. Zeno." It is the dwelling now of only humble people, but +has traces of better days in the square-blocked wooden ceilings and +curious old gayly-painted cupboards. Around three sides of the +living-room ran a wooden bench, which made chairs a superfluous +luxury. In one corner, on a raised stone platform, stood a square +stove, surrounded by a broad bench; two steps led up to this bench, +and from the bench, two steps more to the lower round of a ladder-like +stair leading to the chamber overhead. The kitchen had a brick floor, +worn and sunken in hollows; the stove was raised up on a high stone +platform, with a similar bench around it, and the woman explained that +to sit on this bench with your back to the fire was a very good thing +to do in winter. Every nook, every utensil, was shining clean. In one +corner stood a great box full of whetstones, scythe-sharpeners; the +making of these was the industry by which the brothers earned the most +of their money, she said; surely very little money, then, must come +into the house. There were four brothers, three sisters, and the old +mother, who sat at a window smiling foolishly all the time, aged, +imbecile, but very happy. As we drove away, one of the sisters came +running with a few little blossoms she had picked from her balcony; +she halted, disappointed, and too shy to offer them, but her whole +face lighted up with pleasure as I ordered the driver to halt that I +might take her gift. She little knew that I was thinking how much the +hospitality of her people shamed the cold indifference of so-called +finer breeding. + +A few rods on, we came to a barn, in whose open doorway stood two +women threshing wheat with ringing flails. Red handkerchiefs twisted +tight round their heads and down to their eyebrows, barefooted, +bare-legged, bare-armed to the shoulders, swinging their flails +lustily, and laughing as they saw me stop my horses to have a better +look at them; they made one of the vividest pictures I saw in the +Ammer valley. Women often are hired there for this work of threshing, +and they are expected to swing flails with that lusty stroke all day +long for one mark. + + +THE PASSION PLAY AT OBERAMMERGAU. + +The stir the Passion Play brings does not begin in Oberammergau till +the Friday afternoon before the Sabbath of the play. Then, gradually, +as a hum begins and swells in a disturbed hive of bees, begins and +swells the bustle of the incoming of strangers into the little place. +By sunset the crooked lanes and streets are swarming with people who +have all fancied they were coming in good season before the crowd. The +open space in front of George Lang's house was a scene for a painter +as the sun went down on Friday, Sept. 5, 1880. The village herd of +cows was straggling past on its easy homeward way, the fifty bells +tinkling even more sleepily than in the morning; a little goat-herd, +with bright brown eyes, and bright brown partridge feathers in his +hat, was worrying his little flock of goats along in the jam; vehicles +of all sorts,--einspanners, diligences, landaus,--all pulling, +twisting, turning, despairing, were trying to go the drivers did not +know where, and were asking the way helplessly of each other. To +heighten the confusion, a load of hay upset in the middle of the +crowd. Twenty shoulders were under it in a twinkling, and the cart was +rolled on, limping, on three wheels, friendly hands holding up the +corner. Thirty-four vehicles, one after another, halted in front of +George Lang's door. Out of many of them the occupants jumped +confidently, looking much satisfied at sight of so comfortable a +house, and presenting little slips of white paper consigning them to +Mr. Lang's care. Much crestfallen, they re-entered their vehicles, to +be driven to the quarters reserved for them elsewhere. Some argued; +some grumbled; some entreated: all in vain. The decrees of the house +of Lang are like those of the Medes and Persians. + +It was long after midnight before the sound of wheels and voices and +the cracks of postilions' whips ceased under my windows; and it began +again before daylight the next morning. All was hurry and +stir,--crowds going to the early mass; still greater crowds, with +anxious faces, besieging the doors of the building where were to be +issued the numbered tickets for seats at the Play; more crowds coming +in, chiefly pedestrians; peasant men and women in all varieties and +colors of costume; Englishmen in natty travelling-clothes, with white +veils streaming from their hats; Roman Catholic priests in squads, +their square-brimmed hats and high black coats white with dust. Eager, +intent, swift, by hundreds and hundreds they poured in. Without seeing +it, one can never realize what a spectacle is produced by this rushing +in of six thousand people into a little town in the space of +thirty-six hours. There can be nothing like it except in the movements +of armies. Being in the streets was like being in a chorus or +village-fair scene on an opera stage a mile big, and crowded full from +corner to corner. The only thing to do was to abandon one's self to +currents, like a ship afloat, and drift, now down this street and now +down that, now whirl into an eddy and come to a stop, and now hurry +purposelessly on, just as the preponderating push might determine. +Mingled up in it all, in everybody's way and under all the horses' +feet, were dozens of little mites of Oberammergauers, looking five, +six, seven years of age, like lost children, offering for sale "books +of the Passion Play." Every creature above the age of an infant is +busy at this time in other ways in Oberammergau; so it is left for the +babies to hawk the librettos round the streets, and very shrewdly they +do it. Little tots that are trusted with only one book at a time,--all +they can carry,--as soon as it is sold, grab the pennies in chubby +hands and toddle home after another. + +As the day wore on, the crowd and the hum of it increased into a jam +and a racket. By four o'clock it was a din of wheels, cracking whips, +and postilions' cries. Great diligences, loaded down till they +squeaked and groaned on their axles; hay-wagons of all sizes, rigged +with white cloth stretched on poles for a cover, and rough planks +fastened to the sides for seats, came in procession, all packed with +the country people; hundreds of shabby einspanners, bringing two or +three, and sometimes a fourth holding on behind with dangling feet; +fine travelling-carriages of rich people, their postilions decked in +blue and silver, with shining black hats, and brass horns swung over +their shoulders by green and white cords and tassels,--on they came +into the twist and tangle, making it worse, minute by minute. + +Most remarkable among all the remarkable costumes to be seen was that +of an old woman from Dachau. She was only a peasant, but she was a +peasant of some estate and degree. She had come as escort and maid for +four young women belonging to a Roman Catholic institution, and +wearing its plain uniform. The contrast between the young ladies' +conventional garb of black and white and the blazing toilet of their +guide and protector was ludicrous. She wore a jacket of brocade stiff +with red, green, and silver embroidery; the sleeves puffed out big at +the shoulder, straight and tight below to the wrist. It came down +behind only a little lower than her shoulder-blades, and it was open +in front from the throat to the waist-belt, showing beneath a solid +mass of gold and silver braid. Nine enormous silver buttons were sewed +on each side the fronts; a scarf of soft black silk was fastened tight +round her throat by a superb silver ornament, all twists and chains +and disks. Her black woollen petticoat was laid in small, close +flutings, straight from belt to hem, edged with scarlet, and +apparently was stiff enough to stand alone. It was held out from her +body, just below the belt, by a stiff rope coil underneath it, making +a tight, hard, round ridge just below her waist, and nearly doubling +her apparent size. All the women in Dachau must be as "thick" as that, +she said; and "lovers must have long arms to reach round them!" The +jacket, petticoat, and scarf, and all her ornaments, had belonged to +her grandmother. What a comment on the quality of the fabrics and the +perpetuity of a fashion! She was as elegant to-day as her ancestor had +been nearly a century before her. On her head she wore a structure of +brocaded black ribbon, built up into high projecting horns or towers, +and floating in streamers behind. As she herself was nearly six feet +tall, this shining brocade fortress on the top of her head moved about +above the heads of the crowd like something carried aloft for show in +a procession. + +Another interesting sight was the peasants who had come bringing +edelweiss and blue gentians to sell,--great bunches of the lovely dark +blue chalices, drooping a little, but wonderfully fresh to have come +two days, or even three, from home; the edelweiss blossoms were there +by sheaves, and ten pfennigs a flower seemed none too much to pay to a +man who had climbed among dangerous glaciers to pick it, and had +walked three whole days to bring it to market. + +The very poor people, who had walked, were the most interesting. They +came in groups, evidently families, two women to one man; carrying +their provisions in baskets, bundles, or knapsacks; worn and haggard +with dust and fatigue, but wearing a noticeable look of earnestness, +almost of exaltation. Many of them had walked forty or fifty miles; +they had brought only black bread to eat; they would sleep the two +nights on hay in some barn,--those of them who had had the great good +fortune to secure such a luxury; the rest--and that meant +hundreds--would sit on the ground anywhere where they could find a +spot clear and a rest for their heads; and after two nights and a day +of this, they trudged back again their forty miles or fifty, +refreshed, glad, and satisfied for the rest of their lives. This is +what the Passion Play means to the devout, ignorant Catholic peasant +of Bavaria to-day, and this is what it has meant to his race for +hundreds of years. + +The antagonism and enlightenment of the Reformation did not reach the +Bavarian peasant,--did not so much as disturb his reverence for the +tangible tokens and presentations of his religion. He did not so much +as know when miracle plays were cast out and forbidden in other +countries. But it was sixty-one years later than this that the +Oberammergau people, stricken with terror at a plague in their +village, knew no better device to stay it than to vow to God the +performance of a Play of the Divine Passion of Christ. It is as holy a +thing to the masses of them now as it was then; and no one can do +justice to the play, even as a dramatic spectacle, who does not look +at it with recognition of this fact. + +The early history of the Play itself is not known. The oldest +text-book of it now extant bears the date 1662,--nearly a generation +later than the first performance of it in Oberammergau. This +manuscript is still in possession of the Lang family, and is greatly +amusing in parts. The prologue gives an account of the New Testament +plan of salvation, and exhorts all people to avail themselves of it +with gratitude and devotion. At this juncture in rushes a demon +messenger from the devil, bearing a letter, which he unfolds and +reads. In this letter the devil requests all the people not to yield +to the influence of this play, asks them to make all the discordant +noises they can while it is going on, and promises to reward them well +if they will do so. The letter is signed: "I, Lucifer, Dog of Hell, in +my hellish house, where the fire pours out of the windows." The demon, +having read the letter aloud, folds it up and addresses the audience, +saying: "Now you have heard what my master wishes. He is a very good +master, and will reward you! Hie, Devil! up and away!" with which he +leaps off the stage, and the play at once begins, opening with a scene +laid in Bethany,--a meeting between Christ and his disciples. These +grotesque fancies, quips, and cranks were gradually banished from the +Play. Every year it was more or less altered, priest after priest +revising or rewriting it, down to the time of the now venerable +Daisenberger, who spent his youth in the monastery of Ettal, and first +saw the Passion Play acted at Oberammergau in 1830. + +In 1845 the Oberammergau people, in unanimous enthusiasm, demanded to +have Daisenberger appointed as their pastor. He at once identified +himself warmly with the dramatic as well as the spiritual life of the +community; and it is to his learning and skill that the final +admirable form of the Passion Play, and the villagers' wonderful +success in rendering it, are due. He has written many Biblical dramas +and historical plays founded on incidents in the history of Bavaria. +Chief among these are: "The Founding of the Monastery of Ettal," +"Theolinda," "King Heinrich and Duke Arnold of Bavaria," "Otto Von +Wittelsbach at the Veronese Hermitage," "The Bavarians in the +Peasants' War," "Luitberge, Duchess of Bavaria." He has also +dramatized some of the legends of the saints, and has translated the +"Antigone" of Sophocles and arranged it for the Oberammergau stage. A +half-century's training under the guidance of so learned and dramatic +a writer, who added to his learning and fine dramatic faculty a +profound spirituality and passionate adherence to the faiths and +dogmas of the Church, might well create, in a simple religious +community, a capacity and a fervor even greater than have been shown +by the Oberammergau people. To understand the extent and the method of +their attainment, it is needful to realize all this; but no amount of +study of the details of the long process can fully convey or set forth +the subtle influences which must have pervaded the very air of the +place during these years. The acting of plays has been not only the +one recreation of their life, otherwise hard-worked, sombre, and +stern,--it has been their one channel for the two greatest passions of +the human heart,--love of approbation and the instinct of religious +worship; for the Oberammergau peasant, both these passions have +centred on and in his chance to win fame, please his priest, and honor +God, by playing well some worthy part in the Passion Play. The hope +and the ambition for this have been the earliest emotions roused in +the Oberammergau child's breast. In the tableaux of the Play even very +young children take part, and it is said that it has always been the +reward held up to them as soon as they could know what the words +meant: "If thou art good, thou mayest possibly have the honor of being +selected to play in the Passion Play when the year comes round." Not +to be considered fit to take any part in the Play is held, in +Oberammergau, to be disgrace; while to be regarded as worthy to render +the part of the Christus is the greatest honor which a man can receive +in this world. To take away from an actor a part he has once played is +a shame that can hardly be borne; and it is on record that once a man +to whom this had happened sank into a melancholy which became madness. + +When the time approaches for the choice of the actors and the +assignment of the parts, the whole village is in a turmoil. The +selections and assignments are made by a committee of forty-five, +presided over by the priest and by the venerable "Geistlicher Rath" +Daisenberger, who, now in his eightieth year, still takes the keenest +interest in all the dramatic performances of his pupils. The election +day is in the last week of December of the year before the Play; and +the members of the committee, before going to this meeting, attend a +mass in the church. The deciding as to the players for 1880 took +three days' time, and great heart-burnings were experienced in the +community. In regard to the half-dozen prominent parts there is rarely +much disagreement; but as there are some seven hundred actors required +for the Play, there must inevitably be antagonisms and jealousies +among the minor characters. However, when the result of the +discussions and votes of the committee is made public, all dissension +ceases. One of the older actors is appointed to take charge of the +rehearsals, and from his authority there is no appeal. Each player is +required to rehearse his part four times a week; and as early in the +spring as the snow is out of the theatre the final rehearsals begin. +Thus each Passion Play year is a year of very hard work for the +Oberammergauers. Except for their constant familiarity with stage +routine and unbroken habit of stage representation through the +intervening years, they would never be able to endure the strain of +the Passion Play summers; and as it is, they look wan and worn before +the season is ended. + +It is a thankless return that they have received at the hands of some +travellers, who have seen in the Passion Play little more than a show +of mountebanks acting for money. The truth is that the individual +performers receive an incredibly small share of the profits of the +Play. There is not another village in the world whose members would +work so hard, and at so great personal sacrifice, for the good of +their community and their Church. Every dollar of the money received +goes into the hands of a committee selected by the people. After all +the costs are paid, the profits are divided into four portions: one +quarter is set aside to be expended for the Church, for the school, +and for the poor; another for the improvement of the village, for +repairs of highways, public buildings, etc.; a third is divided among +the tax-paying citizens of the town who have incurred the expense of +preparing for the Play, buying the costumes, etc. The remaining +quarter is apportioned among the players, according to the importance +of their respective parts; as there are seven hundred of them, it is +easy to see that the individual gains cannot be very great. + +The music of the Play, as now performed, was written in 1814, by +Rochus Dedler, an Oberammergau schoolmaster. It has for many years +been made a _sine qua non_ of this position in Oberammergau that the +master must be a musician, and, if possible, a composer; and Dedler is +not the only composer who has been content in the humble position of +schoolmaster in this village of peasants. Every day the children are +drilled in chorus singing and in recitative; with masses and other +church music they are early made familiar. Thus is every avenue of +training made to minister to the development of material for the +perfection of the Passion Play. + +Dedler is said to have been a man of almost inspired nature. He wrote +often by night, and with preternatural rapidity. The music of the +Passion Play was begun on the evening of Trinity Sunday; he called his +six children together, made them kneel in a circle around him, and +saying, "Now I begin," ordered them all to devote themselves to +earnest prayer for him that he might write music worthy of the good +themes of the Play. The last notes were written on the following +Christmas Day, and they are indeed worthy of the story for which they +are at once the expression and the setting. The harmonies are +dignified, simple, and tender, with movements at times much resembling +some of Mozart's Masses. Many of the chorals are full of solemn +beauty. A daughter of Dedler's is still living in Munich; and to her +the grateful and honest-minded Oberammergau people have sent, after +each performance of the Passion Play, a sum of money in token of their +sense of indebtedness to her father's work. + +The Passion Play cannot be considered solely as a drama; neither is it +to be considered simply as a historical panorama, presenting the +salient points in the earthly career of Jesus called Christ. To +consider it in either of these ways, or to behold it in the spirit +born of either of these two views, is to do only partial justice to +it. Whatever there might have been in the beginning of theatrical show +and diversion and fantastic conceit about it, has been long ago +eliminated. Generation after generation of devout and holy men have +looked upon it more and more as a vehicle for the profoundest truths +of their religion, and have added to it, scene by scene, speech by +speech, everything which in their esteem could enhance its solemnity +and make clear its teaching. However much one may disagree with its +doctrines, reject its assumptions, or question its interpretations, +that is no reason for overlooking its significance as a tangible and +rounded presentation of that scheme of the redemption of the world in +which to-day millions of men and women have full faith. It is by no +means distinctively a Roman Catholic presentation of this scheme; it +is Christian. The Holy Virgin of the Roman Catholic Church is, in this +play, from first to last, only the mother of Jesus,--the mother whom +all lovers and followers of Jesus, wherever they place him or her, +however they define his nature and her relations to him, yet hold +blessed among the women who have given birth to leaders and saviors of +men. + +This presentation of the scheme of redemption seeks to portray not +only the scenes of the life of Jesus on earth, but the typical +foreshadowing of it in the Old Testament narratives,--its prophecy as +well as its fulfilment. To this end there are given, before each act +of the Play, tableaux of Old Testament events, supposed to be directly +typical, and intended to be prophetic, of the scenes in Christ's life +which are depicted in the act following. These are selected with +skill, and rendered with marvellous effect. For instance, a tableau of +the plotting of Joseph's brethren to sell him into Egypt, is given +before the act in which the Jewish priests in the full council of the +Sanhedrim plot the death of Jesus; a tableau of the miraculous fall of +manna for the Israelites in the wilderness, before the act in which is +given Christ's Last Supper with his Disciples; the sale of Joseph to +the Midianites before the bargain of Judas with the priests for the +betrayal of Jesus; the death of Abel, and Cain's despair, before the +act in which Judas, driven mad by remorse, throws down at the feet of +the priests the "price of blood," and rushes out to hang himself; +Daniel defending himself to Darius, before the act in which Jesus is +brought into the presence of Pilate for trial; the sacrifice of Isaac, +before the scourging of Jesus and his crowning with the thorns: these +are a few of the best and most relevant ones. + +The Play is divided into eighteen acts, and covers the time from +Christ's entry into Jerusalem at the time of his driving the +money-changers out of the temple till his ascension. The salient +points, both historical and graphic, are admirably chosen for a +continuous representation. In the second act is seen the High Council +of the Jewish Sanhedrim plotting measures for the ruin and death of +Jesus. This is followed by his Departure from Bethany, the Last +Journey to Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Final Interview between +Judas and the Sanhedrim, the Betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane. + +The performance of the Play up to this point consumes four hours; and +as there is here a natural break in the action, an interval of an +hour's rest is taken. It comes none too soon, either to actors or +spectators, after so long a strain of unbroken attention and deep +emotion. + +The next act is the bringing of Jesus before the High-Priest Annas; +Annas orders him taken before Caiaphas, and this is the ninth act of +the Play. Then follow: The Despair of Judas and his Bitter Reproaches +to the Sanhedrim, The Interview between Jesus and Pilate, His +Appearance before Herod, His Scourging and Crowning with Thorns, The +Pronouncing of his Death Sentence by Pilate, The Ascent to Golgotha, +The Crucifixion and Burial, The Resurrection and Ascension. The whole +lesson of Christ's life, the whole lesson of Christ's death, are thus +shown, taught, impressed with a vividness which one must be callous +not to feel. The quality or condition of mind which can remain to the +end either unmoved or antagonistic is not to be envied. But, setting +aside all and every consideration of the moral quality of the Play, +looking at it simply as a dramatic spectacle, as a matter of acting, +of pictorial effects, it is impossible to deny to it a place among the +masterly theatrical representations of the world. One's natural +incredulity as to the possibility of true dramatic skill on the part +of comparatively unlettered peasants melts and disappears at sight of +the first act, The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem. + +The stage, open to the sky, with a background so ingeniously arranged +as to give a good representation of several streets of the city, is +crowded in a few moments by five hundred men and women and children, +all waving palm branches, singing hosannas, and crowding around the +central figure of Jesus riding on an ass. The verisimilitude of the +scene is bewildering. The splendor of the colors is dazzling. Watching +this crowd of five hundred actors closely, one finds not a single +man, woman, or little child performing his part mechanically or +absently. The whole five hundred are acting as if each one regarded +his part as the central and prominent one; in fact, they are so acting +that it does not seem acting: this is characteristic of the acting +throughout the play. There is not a moment's slighting or tameness +anywhere. The most insignificant part is rendered as honestly as the +most important, and with the same abandon and fervor. There are +myriads of little by-plays and touches, which one hardly recognizes in +the first seeing of it, the interest is so intense and the movement so +rapid; but, seeing it a second time, one is almost more impressed by +these perfections in minor points than by the rendering of the chief +parts. The scribes who sit quietly writing in the foreground of the +Sanhedrim Court; the disciples who have nothing to do but to appear to +listen while Jesus speaks; the money-changers picking up their coins; +the messengers who come with only a word or two to speak; the soldiers +drawing lots among themselves in a group for Jesus' garments, at a +moment when all attention might be supposed to be concentrated on the +central figures of the Crucifixion,--every one of these acts with an +enthusiasm and absorption only to be explained by the mingling of a +certain element of religious fervor with native and long-trained +dramatic instinct. + +This dramatic instinct is shown almost as much in the tableaux as in +the acting. The poses and grouping are wonderful, and the power of +remaining a long time motionless is certainly a trait which the +Oberammergau people possess to a well-nigh superhuman extent. The +curtain remained up, during many of these tableaux, five and seven +minutes; and there was not a trace of unsteadiness to be seen in one +of the characters. Even through a powerful glass I could not detect so +much as the twitching of a muscle. This is especially noticeable in +the tableau of the Fall of Manna in the Wilderness, which is one of +the finest of the Play. There are in it more than four hundred +persons; one hundred and fifty of them are children, some not over +three years of age. These children are conspicuously grouped in the +foreground; many of them are in attitudes which must be difficult to +keep,--bent on one knee or with outstretched hand or with uplifted +face,--but not one of the little creatures stirs head or foot or eye. +Neither is there to be seen, as the curtain begins to fall, any tremor +of preparation to move. Motionless as death they stand till the +curtain shuts even their feet from view. Too much praise cannot be +bestowed on the fidelity, accuracy, and beauty of the costumes. They +are gorgeous in color and fabric, and have been studied carefully from +the best authorities extant, and are not the least among the surprises +which the Play affords to all who go to see it expecting it to be on +the plane of ordinary theatrical representations. The splendor of some +of the more crowded scenes is rarely equalled: such a combination of +severe simplicity of outlines and contours, classic models of drapery, +with brilliancy of coloring, is not to be seen in any other play now +acted. + +The high-water mark of the acting in the Play seems to me to be +reached, not in the Christus, but by Judas. This part is played by an +old man, Gregory Lechner. He is over sixty years of age, and his snowy +beard and his hair have to be dyed to the red hue which is desired for +the crafty Judas's face. From the time when, in Simon's house, he +stands by, grumbling at the waste of the precious ointment poured by +Mary Magdalene on the feet of Jesus, to the last moment of his +wretched existence, when he is seen wandering in a desolate +wilderness, about to take his own life in his remorse and despair, +Judas' acting is superb. Face, attitudes, voice, action,--all are +grandly true to the character, and marvellously full of life. It would +be considered splendid acting on any stage in the world. Nothing could +surpass its subtlety and fineness of conception, or the fire of its +rendering. It is a conception quite unlike those ordinarily held of +the character of Judas; ascribes the betrayal neither to a wilful, +malignant treachery, nor, as is sometimes done, to a secret purpose of +forcing Jesus to vindicate his claims to divine nature by working a +miracle of discomfiture to his enemies, but to pure, unrestrained +avarice,--the deadliest passion which can get possession of the human +soul. This theory is tenable at every point of Judas' career as +recorded in the Bible, and affords far broader scope for dramatic +delineation than any other theory of his character and conduct. It is, +in fact, the only theory which seems compatible with the entire +belief in the supernatural nature of Jesus. Expecting up to the last +minute that supernatural agencies would hinder the accomplishment of +the Jews' utmost malice, he thought to realize the full benefit of the +price of the betrayal, and yet not seriously imperil either the +ultimate ends or the personal safety of Jesus. The struggle between +the insatiable demon of avarice in his heart and all the nobler +impulses restraining it is a struggle which is to be seen going on in +his thoughts and repeated in his face in every scene in which he +appears; and his final despair and remorse are but the natural +culmination of the deed which he did only under the temporary control +of a passion against which he was all the time struggling, and which +he himself held in detestation and scorn. The gesture and look with +which he at last flings down the bag of silver in the presence of the +assembled Sanhedrim, exclaiming,-- + + "Ye have made me a betrayer! + Release again the innocent One! My + Hands shall be clean," + +are a triumph of dramatic art never to be forgotten. His last words as +he wanders distraught in the dark wastes among barren trees, are one +of the finest monologues of the Play. It was written by the priest +Daisenberger. + + "Oh, were the Master there! Oh, could I see + His face once more! I'd cast me at his feet, + And cling to him, my only saving hope. + But now he lieth in prison,--is, perhaps, + Already murdered by his raging foe,-- + Alas, through my own guilt, through my own guilt! + I am the outcast villain who hath brought + My benefactor to these bonds and death! + The scum of men! There is no help for me! + For me no hope! My crime is much too great! + The tearful crime no penance can make good! + Too late! Too late! For he is dead--and I-- + I am his murderer! + + Thrice unhappy hour + In which my mother gave me to the world! + How long must I drag on this life of shame, + And bear these tortures in my outcast breast? + As one pest-stricken, flee the haunts of men, + And be despised and shunned by all the world? + Not one step farther! Here, O life accursed,-- + Here will I end thee!" + +The character of Christ is, of necessity, far the most difficult part +in the Play. Looking at it either as a rendering of the supernatural +or a portraying of the human Christ, there is apparent at once the +well-nigh insurmountable difficulty in the way of actualizing it in +any man's conception. Only the very profoundest religious fervor could +carry any man through the effort of embodying it on the theory of +Christ's divinity; and no amount of atheistic indifference could carry +a man through the ghastly mockery of acting it on any other theory. +Joseph Maier, who played the part in 1870, 1871, and 1880, is one of +the best-skilled carvers in the village, and, it is said, has never +carved anything but figures of Christ. He is a man of gentle and +religious nature, and is, as any devout Oberammergauer would be, +deeply pervaded by a sense of the solemnity of the function he +performs in the Play. In the main, he acts the part with wonderful +dignity and pathos. The only drawback is a certain undercurrent of +self-consciousness which seems ever apparent in him. Perhaps this is +only one of the limitations inevitably resulting from the over-demand +which the part, once being accepted and regarded as a supernatural +one, must perforce make on human powers. The dignity and dramatic +unity of the Play are much heightened by the admirable manner in which +a chorus is introduced, somewhat like the chorus of the old Greek +plays. It consists of eighteen singers, with a leader styled the +_Choragus_. The appearance and functions of these _Schutzgeister_, or +guardian angels, as they are called, has been thus admirably described +by a writer who has given the best detailed account ever written of +the Passion Play:-- + + "They have dresses of various colors, over which a white tunic + with gold fringe and a colored mantle are worn. Their + appearance on the stage is majestic and solemn. They advance + from the recesses on either side of the proscenium, and take up + their position across the whole extent of the theatre, forming + a slightly concave line. After the chorus has assumed its + position, the choragus gives out in a dramatic manner the + opening address or prologue which introduces each act; the tone + is immediately taken up by the whole chorus, which continues + either in solo, alternately, or in chorus, until the curtain is + raised in order to reveal a _tableau vivant_. At this moment + the choragus retires a few steps backward, and forms with one + half of the band a division on the left of the stage, while + the other half withdraws in like manner to the right. They thus + leave the centre of the stage completely free, and the + spectators have a full view of the tableau thus revealed. A few + seconds having been granted for the contemplation of this + picture, made more solemn by the musical recitation of the + expounders, the curtain falls again, and the two divisions of + the chorus coming forward resume their first position, and + present a front to the audience, observing the same grace in + all their motions as when they parted. The chanting still + continues, and points out the connection between the picture + which has just vanished and the dramatic scene which is + forthwith to succeed. The singers then make their exit. The + task of these Spirit-singers is resumed in the few following + points: They have to prepare the audience for the approaching + scenes. While gratifying the ear by delicious harmonies, they + explain and interpret the relation which shadow bears to + substance,--the connection between the type and its fulfilment. + And as their name implies, they must be ever present as + guardian spirits, as heavenly monitors, during the entire + performance. The addresses of the choragus are all written by + the Geistlicher Rath Daisenberger. They are written in the form + of the ancient strophe and anti-strophe, with the difference + that while in the Greek theatre they were spoken by the + different members of the chorus, they are delivered in the + Passion Play by the choragus alone." + +It is impossible for any description, however accurate and minute, to +give a just idea of the effects produced by this chorus. The handling +of it is perhaps the one thing which, more than any other, lifts the +play to its high plane of dignity and beauty. The costumes are +brilliant in color, and strictly classic in contour,--a full white +tunic, edged with gold at hem and at throat, and simply confined at +the waist by a loose girdle. Over these are worn flowing mantles of +either pale blue, crimson, dull red, grayish purple, green, or +scarlet. These mantles or robes are held in place carelessly by a band +of gold across the breast. Crowns or tiaras of gold on the head +complete the dress, which, for simplicity and grace of outline and +beauty of coloring, could not be surpassed. The rhythmic precision +with which the singers enter, take place, open their lines, and fall +back on the right and left, is a marvel, until one learns that a +diagram of their movement is marked out on the floor, and that the +mysterious exactness and uniformity of their positions are simply the +result of following each time the constantly marked lines on the +stage. Their motions are slow and solemn, their expressions exalted +and rapt; they also are actors in the grand scheme of the Play. + +On the morning of the Play the whole village is astir before light; in +fact, the village proper can hardly be said to have slept at all, for +seven hundred out of its twelve hundred inhabitants are actors in the +play, and are to be ready to attend a solemn mass at daylight. + +Before eight o'clock every seat in the theatre is filled. There is no +confusion, no noise. The proportion of those who have come to the play +with as solemn a feeling as they would have followed the steps of the +living Christ in Judæa is so large that the contagion of their devout +atmosphere spreads even to the most indifferent spectators, commanding +quiet and serious demeanor. + +The firing of a cannon announces the moment of beginning. Slow, +swelling strains come from the orchestra; the stately chorus enters on +the stage; the music stops; the leader gives a few words of prologue +or argument, and immediately the chorus breaks into song. + +From this moment to the end, eight long hours, with only one hour's +rest at noon, the movement of this play is continuous. It is a +wonderful instance of endurance on the part of the actors; the stage +being entirely uncovered, sun and rain alike beat on their unprotected +heads. The greater part of the auditorium also is uncovered, and there +have been several instances in which the play has been performed in a +violent storm of rain, thousands of spectators sitting drenched from +beginning to end of the performance. + +How incomparably the effects are, in sunny weather, heightened by this +background of mountain and sky, fine distances, and vistas of mountain +and meadow, and the canopy of heaven overhead, it is impossible to +express; one only wonders, on seeing it, that outdoor theatres have +not become a common summer pleasure for the whole world. + +When birds fly over, they cast fluttering shadows of their wings on +the front of Pilate's and Caiaphas' homes, as naturally as did Judæan +sparrows two thousand years ago. Even butterflies flitting past cast +their tiny shadows on the stage; one bird paused, hovered, as if +pondering what it all could mean, circled two or three times over the +heads of the multitude, and then alighted on one of the wall-posts and +watched for some time. Great banks of white cumulus clouds gathered +and rested, dissolved and floated away, as the morning grew to +noonday, and the noonday wore on toward night. This closeness of +Nature is an accessory of illimitable effect; the visible presence of +the sky seems a witness to invisible presences beyond it, and a direct +bond with them. There must be many a soul, I am sure, who has felt +closer to the world of spiritual existences, while listening to the +music of the Oberammergau Passion Play, than in any other hour of his +life; and who can never, so long as he lives, read without emotion the +closing words of the venerable Daisenberger's little "History of +Oberammergau:"-- + + "May the strangers who come to this Holy Passion Play become, + by reading this book, more friendly with Ammergau; and may it + sometimes, after they have returned to their homes, renew in + them the memory of this quiet mountain valley." + + University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[9] Betrothed. + + + + +_Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications._ + + +RAMONA: A STORY. + +BY HELEN JACKSON (H. H.). + +12mo Cloth. Price $1.50 + +_The Atlantic Monthly_ says of the author that she is "a Murillo in +literature," and that the story "is one of the most artistic creations +of American literature." Says a lady: "To me it is the most +distinctive piece of work we have had in this country since 'Uncle +Tom's Cabin,' and its exquisite finish of style is beyond that +classic." "The book is truly an American novel," says the _Boston +Advertiser_. "Ramona is one of the most charming creations of modern +fiction," says Charles D Warner. "The romance of the story is +irresistibly fascinating," says _The Independent_. + +"The best novel written by a woman since George Eliot died, as it +seems to me, is Mrs. Jackson's 'Ramona.' What action is there! What +motion! How _entrainant_ it is! It carries us along as if mounted on a +swift horse's back, from beginning to end, and it is only when we +return for a second reading that we can appreciate the fine handling +of the characters, and especially the Spanish mother, drawn with a +stroke as keen and firm as that which portrayed George Eliot's +'Dorothea.'"--_T. W. Higginson._ + +Unsolicited tribute of a stranger, a lady in Wisconsin:-- + +"I beg leave to thank you with an intense heartiness for your public +espousal of the cause of the Indian. In your 'Century of Dishonor' you +showed to the country its own disgrace. In 'Ramona' you have dealt +most tenderly with the Indians as men and women. You have shown that +their stoicism is not indifference, that their squalor is not always +of their own choosing. You have shown the tender grandeur of their +love, the endurance of their constancy. While, by 'Ramona,' you have +made your name immortal, you have done something which is far greater. +You are but one: they are many. You have helped those who cannot help +themselves. As a novel, 'Ramona' must stand beside 'Romola,' both as +regards literary excellence and the portrayal of life's deepest, most +vital, most solemn interests. I think nothing in literature since +Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield' equals your description of the flight +of Ramona and Alessandro. Such delicate pathos and tender joy, such +pure conception of life's realities, and such loftiness of +self-abnegating love! How much richer and happier the world is with +'Ramona' in it!" + + _Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, by the publishers_, + + ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Glimpses of Three Coasts, by Helen Hunt Jackson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42009 *** |