diff options
Diffstat (limited to '42009-8.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 42009-8.txt | 16196 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 16196 deletions
diff --git a/42009-8.txt b/42009-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 296a785..0000000 --- a/42009-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,16196 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Glimpses of Three Coasts, by Helen Hunt Jackson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Glimpses of Three Coasts - -Author: Helen Hunt Jackson - -Release Date: February 4, 2013 [EBook #42009] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GLIMPSES OF THREE COASTS *** - - - - -Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - -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 THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GLIMPSES OF THREE COASTS *** - -***** This file should be named 42009-8.txt or 42009-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/0/0/42009/ - -Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - |