diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/52708-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/52708-0.txt | 1419 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 1419 deletions
diff --git a/old/52708-0.txt b/old/52708-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a43ec94..0000000 --- a/old/52708-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1419 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's A Confession of St. Augustine, by William Dean Howells - -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/license - - -Title: A Confession of St. Augustine - -Author: William Dean Howells - -Release Date: August 2, 2016 [EBook #52708] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CONFESSION OF ST. AUGUSTINE *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - HARPER’S - - MONTHLY MAGAZINE - - VOLUME CXXXIV - - DECEMBER, 1916, TO MAY, 1917 - - [Illustration: colophon] - - NEW YORK AND LONDON - - HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS - - - - - A Confession of St. Augustine - - BY W. D. HOWELLS - - - - - PART I - - -WHEN we drove from the station up into the town, in the March of our -first sojourn, and saw the palmettoes all along the streets, among the -dim live-oaks and the shining magnolias, our doubting hearts lifted, and -we said: “Yes, yes, it is all true! This is St. Augustine as advertised: -the air, the sky, the wooden architecture of the 1870’s and ’80’s, when -St. Augustine flourished most, and the memory of that dear Constance -Fenimore Woolson, who worshiped Florida past all Italy, was still sweet -in our literature. Yes, it is all incredibly true!” Then, as we made our -way to Mr. Hastings’s beautiful masterpieces, the hotels Ponce de Leon -and Alcazar, and took refuge in the Neo-Andalusian of the simpler -hostelry from the Belated American of those obsolescent cottages, we -gathered our faith and courage more and more about us, and gave -ourselves to that charm of the place which has not yet failed us. - -The charm is very complex, as a true charm always is, but the place is -very simple, as a place which has taken time to grow always is. It is -especially so if the place, like St. Augustine, has had its period of -waning as well as waxing, and has gently lapsed from its climax. The -heydey of its prosperity was in the years between the 1870’s and ’80’s, -when St. Augustine promised to be lastingly, as it was most fitly, the -winter resort for the whole sneezing and coughing North. Then the Great -Freeze blasted the oranges and hopes of all Upper Florida; then -California flowered and fruited ahead; then the summer shores of Palm -Beach and Miami took the primacy from California, and Florida was again -the desire of our winter travel and sojourn, with a glory of motoring -and dancing such as Florida never knew before, or can ever know, at St. -Augustine. But the little city continued the metropolis of the mind and -heart for such as did not care to shine with the luster of money; and -those beautiful hotels remained without rivalry from the vast wooden -caravansaries of the more tropical resorts, and still remain holding -down their quarter of the local topography. - -It is better, though, to own at once that the charm of St. Augustine -derives nothing from any thing like grandeur in the domestic -architecture of the past. In the Spanish city there were probably no -dwellings of such stateliness as the three or four mansions of our own -Colonial classic, which with their groves and gardens redeem the -American town from the reproach of those deplorable ’seventies and -’eighties, when our eclectic architecture tried its ’prentice hand on so -many of the cottages. The Spaniards had built themselves unassuming -houses of coquina, always flush upon the sidewalks, and painted their -coating of stucco in the buffs and blues and pinks of the Latin taste; -and their dwellings never had the proportion of palaces, if one may -imagine them from the few that remain. But when you leave Mr. Hastings’s -hotels, and keep along King Street eastward on the town plan, you are -almost at once in the Plaza, which is the heart of every Spanish town, -and which begins here with the fountained and palmettoed oblong -inclosing what was once the Spanish governor’s palace, or so said to be. -It is now the American post-office and custom-house, but is inalienably -dignified and venerable, with some galleried façades of the same period -on one side, and a compendious reach of cheerful shops on the other. -These are on King Street, and you must cross St. George Street -(stretching crookedly northward with shops and hotels to the old city -gate, and southward with embowered dwellings of divers architectural -effects and intentions) before you are again at the Plaza, holding the -same eastward course to the shining bay, and to the long bridge built on -piers of palmetto logs after the fashion invented at York Harbor in -Maine and followed in the Long Bridge at Boston. But the bridge from St. -Augustine to Anastasia Island is longer than any other of its kind, even -that over the Piscataqua at Portsmouth which it also excels in the -enormity of its tolls, as you shall find when you cross it to the -snow-white billowing of the low northward sand-dunes and the thick gloom -of the cedar and live-oak woods rising from the water to the southward -in an illusion of uplands. All round the city where there are not -stretches of palmetto scrub and pine woods, there is the far sweep of -the salt-savannahs, with reed like grasses growing tall, and keeping -their Spanish brown from November till March, and then slowly turning -green, as it were insensibly, almost invisibly, after the use of -vegetation in the South. In the waters around, hidden in the deeps or -bristling from the shallows, grow the exhaustless ranks of the little -oysters, which before the white man came to know their deliciousness -left their shells by the million tons. These are still used in the -construction of the beautiful shell roads of the country round, now -replaced in the town by the harsh brick pavements which the municipality -is so proud of and which really hold down the dust as the shells could -not. - -[Illustration: GENERAL XIMENES’S HOUSE] - -It is to be said in the praise of the municipality that it keeps these -pavements swept blamelessly clean; and by night you may hear the negroes -sweeping, doubly darkling over their surface, and softly gossiping -together. Theirs are not the only black voices you hear, for their -casual race seems to have no more stated hours for sleeping than for -eating. Their mellow murmurs, especially when the nights are warm, rise -in what seems perpetual joking, as if from their humorous pleasure at -being alive together in the same amusing world; and if you have no worse -conscience than the talkers, their voices will lull you again to the -slumbers they have broken. It is as if a swarm of blackbirds, carrying -news of the spring northward, had swept chuckling through - -[Illustration: SILHOUETTE OF THE CITY] - -the trees and fluttered the fans of the palms and the leaves of the -magnolias with such comment in their course as would naturally occur to -blackbirds. - -By day these kindly colored folk did not seem to superabound as they do -in Charleston, but this may have been because in the tourist season they -are really outnumbered by the whites in St. Augustine. They have their -own scattering quarters which they are not strictly kept to; they are -segregated, but not concentrated, though their souls are saved in -separate churches, and their minds informed in separate schools. They -even have their own picture-theaters, but they are softly insinuated -through the white population in all subordinate service, and I never -knew the slightest unkindness of word or deed offered them. If there -were any you would not know it from them; by day, at least, they are -silent, and they seem always inoffensive, though very independent. You -mostly know them as the drivers of the wood-colored surreys which still -anticipate the elsewhere universal taxicabs, and as the disseminators of -more or less unreliable information. They do not mean to deceive the -stranger, and their own ignorance may have been first abused. As I heard -them passing our gate in St. George Street (where we dwelt in the winter -of our second sojourn at St. Augustine), and pointing out the objects of -interest, I could have wished to share in both the illusion and -delusion. Their race apparently rested content in its lowly employs, -with seldom the hope or endeavor for higher things. In some cases which -seemed few, it sometimes became propertied, and owned its usually -decrepit cabins in and beyond the suburbs; but it was said that if any -housing improved, and put on an air of prosperity it was not well -regarded. This may have been the excuse of racial unthrift, and I have -to urge, to the contrary the signal instance of a colored man living in -a very comfortable house of his own in his own grounds, without -molestation from any lowest or spitefullest white witness of his -condition. He paid what seemed heavy interest to me, and taxes which -seemed heavy to him, under the municipal government of St. Augustine -which has lately changed to the commission form (a favorite experiment -in the South as well as the West) without abatement of the rates, which -remain of metropolitan proportions. - -The colored people are by far for the most part entirely black, to the -credit of both races, since intermarriage is abhorred both by the laws -and customs, and they are of the prevailing plainness of their race. On -the other hand, one might go very far and wide elsewhere without seeing -so much outright beauty among the whites, and especially in the sex -whose business it is to be beautiful, as in St. Augustine. Age is no -handsomer there than in other places, and now and then country folks of -the cadaverous cracker type appeared with the produce of their sandy -fields or groves; but the beauty and grace of the young girls of city -birth was extraordinarily great. Perhaps it was from my lifelong -fondness for the Spanish that I chose to think these divine creatures, -so, slimly shaped and darkly fair, were ol the Spanish race which for -three hundred years ruled or misruled in St. Augustine. There was the -like fineness in some of the men’s faces which earned later into life -than in the women’s; but the Spaniards have left so little trace -otherwise in the city, that they were probably those insular Spanish, -the Minorcans, whose touching story is a minor strain in the romance of -the city’s life. - -In all public places the American girl prevailed in the excess of -fashion which it is her prerogative to exploit everywhere, with the -helpless American father fettered to her high-heeled, sharp-toed little -shoes, and the American mother distractedly struggling to keep up with -her. This sovereign of our society did not appear very early in the -winter, or indeed till after the turn of the year, when with a roar of -cannon and a flutter of Hags (the Spanish colors romantically -pre-eminent) the gates of the great Ponce de Leon Hotel were thrown open -and the season was officially proclaimed. By that time the Alcazar was -pretty well filled in lounge and _patio_ by such fashion as had not -waited so long as at the Ponce de Leon to come up from Palm Beach, or -perhaps not even been there, or wished to be; these things are mysteries -which one had better leave to the pictures and the letter-press of the -Sunday editions. I myself was happiest in the looks of those hoarders -and roomers who abounded in the Plaza from the small hotels and -lodging-houses and intimidated my meek spirit less than the guests of -the two great hotels which are not quite so much the last word in -architecture as in fashion. They are the syllabling of the architect who -won the commission for them while yet a student in the _École des Beaux -Arts_, and pronounced it in accents which, though still so distinctive, -are now a little archaic. People now do not want that series of drawing -and dining-rooms which open from the inner _patio_ of the Ponce de Leon; -and if they did, they would not have the form fitly to inhabit them; -their short skirts and their lounge-coats are not for such gracious -interiors, but rather for the golf-links. - -[Illustration: THE PLAZA] - -One heard of teas in the afternoons and of balls at night which filled -these rooms, but, as I have owned, I am afraid of the great world, and -am so eager to despise the pride of life when I think I see it that I -make myself unhappy in the vision, and I would rather invite the reader -to fly with me to the more congenial society of the Plaza. I will not -even attempt to speak of the balls at the Ponce de Leon from the -exclusion, too voluntary to know that it might have been involuntary, -which I suffered. Any one could share the pleasure of the tango-teas in -the most fashionable restaurants by simply coming to them and either -dancing them or drinking them. The dancing was actually the affair of -young couples who seemed to stray in from the street, and - -[Illustration: AN ANCIENT DOORWAY] - -circled round between the tables in those rhythmical embraces of the -dance to the harsh clatter of the band and the applause of those who -preferred the tea form of tango. It was very strange, and a little -periculous-looking, but practically it came to no more harm than the -waltz did in its day when it alarmed the delicacy of Byron’s muse a -hundred years ago. Besides these tango-teas there were street dances at -night promised by local associations, but mostly defeated by cold snaps -from the North or West, which seized them as it were unawares, after the -street had been roped off, and hung with lanterns, or flooded with -moonlight. Where you expected a gay masquerade what you got was a couple -or two in citizen’s dress performing to the music of what sounded like a -German band, but may have been German-American. Cordova Street was the -favorite scene of such hilarities, but there are many other St. -Augustine streets named after Spanish cities or provinces which I liked -to walk through or drive through merely because they were called -Saragossa, or Granada, or Barcelona, or Malaga, or the like, and brought -their namesakes endearingly to mind. - -One year I recall, however, when the kinder night caressed the scene -with the tenderness of summer, and glowed upon the same southward space -of Cordova Street where with the first hour of dusk the feet of the -dancers began to whisper on the sanded asphalt. The new moon, with -upward-tilted horns, swam in the blue above the palms of the Alcazar -gardens and sank into its depths while the dance thickened in the -mystical pace of the one-step and the music throbbed with the monotony -of the barbaric time. It was such a scene as we might have looked down -upon from some balcony in medieval Florence, where the youth of the city -danced from street to street, and the children were allowed up to look -on till all hours, as they were now in St. Augustine. - -In St. Augustine the shops and theaters are open on Sunday, as in any -continental European town, but the same may be said of the churches, -which are abundantly frequented. The favorite dissipation of the local -youth was apparently the ice-cream served at small tables in the -drug-stores, where with the bane the antidote could be promptly -supplied; but I should say, or almost say, that the favorite -dissipation of the aliens of every age was the sail to the nearer and -farther North Beaches. This could be afforded at twenty-five cents, -which paid the sail both ways, and the transit of the sandy stretch of -the island to the ocean shore in a horse-car drawn by a mule hitched at -the side of the car, but did not include the roast oysters at the -restaurants. If you wish to lose yourself in the sandy jungles of -Anastasia Island you may cross by trolley-car on a pro rata payment of -that supremely extortionate toll which I have already lamented. But I -hope you do not wish to cross as yet, but will be willing to keep with -me along the bay-front, either way you like, past some minor hotels and -pleasant dwellings southward and the ruins of old Spanish houses and -dwellings northward, when suddenly the fort of San Marco, now misnamed -Marion, blocks your way with its mass, darkly but not gloomily Spanish, -and incomparably monumental. - -It is the most perfect example of the Vauban ideal of military -architecture anywhere remaining; yet neither for this, nor for anything -else are you to leave the Plaza, which is the heart of St. Augustine, -until you have exhausted all the emotions it can impart. They are not -many, and for me the chiefest of them came from my affectionate interest -in those minor hotel guests and roomers who seemed to resort there much -more in the March of last year than of this. Then they arrived, with -their home-town papers (bought of the blind newsman at the corner of the -post-office) and sat, rows upon rows of them, on the benches converging -upon the stand where a very admirable band of musicians, claiming to be -Venetian, but upon confidential approach owning themselves Neapolitan, -seemed to play day-long and night-long while my home-towners exchanged -personal histories, and declared their opinions of the climate and the -weather of St. Augustine. - -[Illustration: A BIT OF OLD ST. AUGUSTINE] - -With the wind in the right quarter, and the sun in a forenoon sky either -entirely blue, or a soft blend of white clouds melting in spaces of -azure, the play of light through the palmetto and cedar tops on the -facade of the cathedral across the street or on the curves of the triune -belfry beside it, left nothing to be asked of the climate or weather. -But both are subject to strange vicissitudes, and especially from -melting warmth to cold of the ice-brook’s temper. You should especially -beware of the wind that blows with soft insistence from the southeast -till the first thing you know it has got round you, as if - -[Illustration: THE CITY GATES] - -morally, and holds you in the clutch of a cold snap, incredibly -prophesied from the northwest. The Floridian winter, which is not a -season, but merely an incident of the year-long summer of the latitude, -seldom comes from New York or Boston, but arrives from Chicago by way of -Chattanooga, and its affiliations are with the Middle West, as most of -its visitors are. Sometimes it comes like a thief in the night, and -twice it has happened with me to be resting on one of the home-towners’ -benches in the Plaza, and with head thrown back to be admiring the -mildest of full moons, and then before morning to hear the rush and -trample of a sudden shower on my roof and to wake in the morning eager -for the fire of live-oak logs on my hearth. - -This was so in the gentle January of one of my sojourns, and in either -of the two Marches I have known for the maddest months of the St. -Augustine winter. They say that December is commonly mild, as with the -resignation of the declining year, and that February is not so very bad, -but I search my lexicon in vain for a good word to say of March, though -by then the mocking-birds have long been in full chorus and are making -believe that all the songsters of the northing spring are lingering with -us. I am sorry to say that our noisy, big, vulgar robin was never among -these, but in compensation there was now and then audibly a blue-jay, -whether in its authentic note, or the mocking-bird’s thin reproduction, -and welcomer still was the simulated fluting of the red-bird, sweet as -if it came from the Middle-Western woods of my boyhood. With these -sylvan voices the hymning of the nuns joined from their school-garden -across the way, and the far-floating call of the crows from the upper -blue. Their call was never the harsh cawing of our Northern crows, but -something more like the colloquies of the English rooks among their -“immemorial elms.” As the January and February days follow one another -in an almost unbroken succession of sunny days one is apt to see -turkey-buzzards that spread their wider wings among the crows. A trio of -them, I remember, liked to perch on the cupola of a neighboring house, -where they seemed in the early morning to be discussing the business of -the coming day, and consulting upon matters of grave importance, but -were probably settling some question of recently discovered carrion. I -liked best to have them far aloof, and I particular fancy for the way -their pinions bent thinly upward at the edge. - -If the reader is still, as I hope, in the Plaza with me, I would have -him leave our places on the Mid-Western benching, and come and lean over -the rail which keeps the dogs and boys from throwing themselves to the -alligator in his pool there, where he lies stiller than the stone of -his bath. In some moment when the water is coldest he rises to the sun -and basks motionless and soundless on the stone curbing, but no one ever -saw him unlid those loathly eyes of his, or stir those antediluvian -limbs. Ever, do I say? This is wrong. I myself have seen the monster -raise himself on his hideous arms and legs and, “being wrought upon in -the extreme” by his intolerable prescience of a change in the weather, -lift his head and roar--roar as the jungled lion roars, or as the bull -that sees his rival cross the meadow where he ranges in challenge to -mortal combat. Nothing in nature has more surprised me, and the effect -with my fellow home-towners was the same; they came running from, the -benches--men, women, and children--and hung upon the alligator’s fence -and wondered and worshiped like so many idolaters of some serpent of Old -Nile, till his bellow subsided into a hoarse bleat, and then a long sigh -that shook the disgusting folds of his throat into silence. - -Several times already in this study of the Plaza I have tried to mention -the ivied Gothic of the Episcopal church which faces the southwestern -corner, and then the galleried upper stories of the line of shops -stretching eastward forming a picturesque recall of the St. Augustine -which was once so much more all galleries than the ancient city now is. -But I could not somehow leave the intersecting paths and the flower-beds -beside them, or that gentle little Canovan figure with ankles crossed -and wrists on hips which discreetly invites from its pedestal the -home-towner unfolding his paper as he advances to place himself with his -back to the sun on a favorite bench. Still less could I leave the -somewhat plain, not to say severe, obelisk near the fountain which -celebrates in stately inscriprional Spanish the promulgation of the -constitution of 1812. Which king of the several constitution-giving -sovereigns of Spain it was who gave that charter of the national -liberties I do not know or much care to know. The charm, the -provincial-patriotic charm of the obelisk remains, as it remains with -every crumbling ruin of the city which the Spanish colonists builded and -as you feel it at many points on the swerving, rather than curving, -narrow ways between St. George Street and the bay-front. I here the -wooden balconies droop from the drooping wall of time-stained coquina; -the doors and windows open flush upon the sidewalks; the little gardens -cherish a few onions and heads of lettuce; the dooryard trees support -themselves in the friendly angles and ripen, slowly ripen their plums, -their peaches, their guavas, their figs, and such other fruits as love a -sunny exposure in literature. - -[Illustration: THE SPANISH FORT] - -These little sympathetic lanes continue to King Street, but seldom -cross it. There at the end of the Plaza, where the old Spanish -market-house consents to the modern legend of having been a slave-mart, -other kind avenues take up the tale and tell it, mostly in the terms of -the gentle Charlotte Street, till they bring you almost suddenly upon -the great fortress of San Marco set impregnable across your path. There, -if it could have spoken, San Marco might well have forbidden the ravage -of the flames which have consumed large spaces of the Spanish houses on -the bay-front, and left only the crumbling coquina walls and arches and -the scorched palmettoes to attest the tragedy of their destruction; but -it is not till you pass San Marco that you come upon the means of -enforcing such a mandate--not till you come in fact to the city -water-works where the splendid up-gush from the deeply subterranean -springs diffuses their odor through the air. Many people--perhaps -most--do not like this odor, and few if any like the taste of the water, -unless they have been inured to the offensive virtues of the ferruginous -and sulphurous springs of Germany. It is not healing like these, but -physicians say you may safely drink it if you can stand it; and to the -right, before you reach the water-works, you may visit the Fountain of -Youth which it seems an error to suppose Ponce de Leon did not discover -when he came to Florida in 1513, for he left the fountain behind him -there with the date in a pattern of stone near the source. In fact he -left two Fountains of Youth at St. Augustine, but the one which was to -the westward of the actual fountain was closed by the Board of Health as -unhygienic. For a reasonable sum, however, you may drink of the -remaining spring, and if it does not rejuvenate you it will scarcely -disappoint you, unless you have expected the impossible of it, or even -the credible. This remaining Fountain of Youth may well be left behind -in the realm of fancy, and the atmosphere of fable which so richly -invests it, for a return to the great fortress which holds down more -history than any other such edifice on our continent. Not even the -citadel at Quebec outrivals it for the events which have elapsed in its -time, for it has stood invulnerable during the two hundred and fifty -years since its foundations were powerfully laid beside the wave that -washes its base. - - [TO BE CONCLUDED.] - - * * * * * - - - - - A Confession of St. Augustine - - BY W. D. HOWELLS - - - - - PART II - - -THOUGH it was in 1513 that Ponce de Leon came sailing from Puerto Rico -to find the waters of youth, it was not till 1565 that the terrible, the -cruel (yet no more responsibly cruel or terrible than a tiger) Pedro -Menendez de Aviles came in sight of those sands, and fell upon the -weak-minded, fever-wasted Huguenots whom he found in possession and -captured and slaughtered these heretics, and put Spain and God in -keeping of their own again. The tale need hardly be repeated here; once -for all the pious, pitiless Pedro has told it for himself to his king, -the pious, pitiless Philip, in a letter found among the colonial -archives at Seville and included among other curious documents in _The -Unknown History of Our Country_, as it is entitled by the lady of St. -Augustine who compiled it. The Lutherans, as Menendez, like all the -Spaniards of his time, called the Huguenots, were by the laws and usage -of the time illegally there, and it was his duty as a loyal subject and -a good Christian to destroy them. He was much concerned besides in -saving the souls of the savages from these Lutherans who had the gift of -insinuating affection for themselves among the Indians along with their -heretical instruction. - -There is something wonderful in the moral security of the murderer’s -account of his crime, which was not a private or personal murder so much -as a political act duly avenged on the Spaniards by the French, when -their turn came. For the present the French were miserably officered; -they were spent by hunger and sickness; the winds and waves were leagued -with the Spaniards against them; and they gave themselves up to -Menendez, as he had fairly stipulated, without any promise of mercy. -Then he took them out from their comrades’ sight by tens till he had put -them all to death, except a few who proved to be of the true faith just -in time, and other few who were such excellent artificers that their -skill could not be spared by the captors who spared their lives. There -is a touch in the fashion of their taking off by Menendez worthy of an -hidalgo who was born in Granada and who knew how a gentleman should -behave in such a matter. He had their hands bound, and led them aside, -and then, to spare their feelings, he had them stabbed in the back. - -There was bloodshed of this sort or that pretty well everywhere along -these white sands, but death had so long died out of the dead that one -day when we motored down Anastasia Island to a point where there had -been a battle, we lunched on the table stretched under the trees of a -pleasant farm, and used a half-petrified skull to keep down our Japanese -paper table-spread without molestation from its terrible memories. It -does not sound very pleasant, but we were no more aware of the -petrifaction’s human quality than it was of ours, and in the farm-yard -near by the peach-trees kept on with their leisurely blossoming as if -there had never been slaughter of French or Spaniards in the shade where -we ate our sandwiches with the sweet, small oysters from the shore, and -drained our thermos-bottles of their coffee. In fact, after the -Spaniards were with comparatively little wanton bloodshed secure in -their hold of Florida, life at St. Augustine went on in the paternal -terms which the obedient children of their fatherly kings found kindly -enough. During those three hundred years, one Philip followed another -from the Second till the Fourth, and St. Augustine drowsed under their -rule till some successor of them ceded it to the British in exchange -for Cuba, which the British had somehow (it does not matter how) come -by. Meanwhile, as the papers from the Sevillian archives testify, the -bond between the prince and his far-off subjects was close if not -tender. When any of them was in trouble he wrote to the king; a priest -who fancied himself wronged in his duties or privileges wrote; the -families of old soldiers wrote, dunning for their pensions; any one who -had a grievance against any other, or a pull of his own, wrote to the -king. Sometimes the king wrote back, or seemed to write, for perhaps he -did not personally read all those letters. When, in due course, his -faithful lieges began to build him that beautiful fort of San Marco they -wrote so pressingly and constantly for money that the kings made its -cost their joke. One Philip said he thought they must have now got it so -high that he ought to see its bastions from Madrid; another asked if -they were making its curtains of solid silver. - -By that time, from one cause or another, the royal funds had begun to -run low; the English buccaneers had long since learned to tap them at -their sources in the galleons bringing the gold and silver ingots up the -Spanish Main from South America. When the authorities of St. Augustine -had got the lofty bastions of San Marco finally up and the solid-silver -curtains down, General Oglethorpe, who had meanwhile settled Georgia, -marched a force of Englishmen through the forests and morasses to -Anastasia and sat down before the stronghold, and began to bombard it. -But in their season there are clouds of mosquitoes and myriads of -sand-flies in that island and they bit his sick and homesick soldiers -fearfully. Still he held on, and he might have reduced the stronghold -and the starving population of three thousand civilian refugees within -its walls if one day a relief of Spanish ships had not come sailing up -from Havana. Then the British general struck his tents and led his -bitten and baffled forces home through the forests and morasses. - -San Marco has never been attacked since, for when our revolution broke -out, Florida did not join the other colonies in their revolt against the -British, who remained peaceably enough in possession till they ceded the -province back to Spain. Then the old city resumed its slumbers in her -keeping, till Spain in her turn ceded Florida, with its Seminole War, to -the United States, when the name of the fort was changed, fatuously -enough, from San Marco to Fort Marion, in honor of a hero whose side -Florida had not taken in our revolt. It is devoted now mainly to rousing -and allaying the curiosity of the swarming tourists who haunt its -medieval fastnesses, and for the first time in their lives realize what -a past they had no part in was like. In this way it serves the best -possible use, but otherwise it is employed as the scene of rehearsals -for the more populous events of the picture-plays. On a single occasion -last year a company of three hundred combatants--white and black, men, -women, and children, hired overnight for the purpose--thronged the noble -place and repelled each other in an invasion by the Japanese, with a -constant explosion of old-fashioned musketry which sounded like the -detonations of the unmuffled motors of a fleet of such boats as infest -all our inland or coastwise waters. These, no longer in the force of -former years, make themselves heard over the still waters of the bay at -St. Augustine any especially fine evening, when they madden the echoes -with their infernal racketing. No longer as in their former years, I -say, but they are still in such force as to keep frightened away the -sail-boats which used to flock there, but now linger only in a sad two -or three. Otherwise the bay is not crowded with any sort of craft: a few -yachts of houseboat model; the little steamers which ply between St. -Augustine and Daytona, the fishing craft which bring the inexhaustible -oysters and their multifarious finny kindred to the excellent -fish-market; and, on stated days, the great, swelling stern-wheel -steamboat arriving from Jacksonville as from the Western rivers of sixty -years ago formed the pleasure and business of the port; though I must -not forget the two gasolene packets running to the North beaches, at -hours which it took them the whole of January to ascertain and specify. - -Otherwise the port offered a good reproduction of the two centuries of -calm which it must have enjoyed during the Spanish rule; to be sure -there was now the rattling of the trolley-car over the extortionate -toll-bridge to the island which could not have been heard then, or even -imagined. I like to fancy that time as one of entire peacefulness for -all not of the New Religion who after the time of the devout Menendez -are scarcely imaginable there. The spirit of the time lingers yet in a -few half-dozen old coquina houses standing flush upon the streets. One -of them stood next to our own, covered, roof and wall, with ivy and with -roses and yellow bignonia flowers, where Prince Murat, the Bonapartist -heir of the Neapolitan throne, lived and died in a long, unmolested -exile. We found it a charmingly simple interior, much like that of the -little house so lately owned and occupied by a gentle, elderly Spanish -lady who received us like friends upon fit introduction, but had to keep -her street door locked against the tourists apt to make themselves at -home by walking in without ceremony. The door was overhung by a true -Spanish balcony, and behind the house reposed an old garden of trees and -flowers and vegetables, with the only staircase of the house climbing -the outer wall from it. The gentle lady was proud of the age of her -house, which she held as great as that of the oldest house in St. -Augustine in the same street, or even greater. There is a rivalry -between oldest houses in St. Augustine, but after making friends with -her we would admit no competition. We always looked for her in the -quaint garden as we passed, and we were always hoping to go into it -again, when one day suddenly, as such things seem to come to one in St. -Augustine, we heard that she was dead of pneumonia. By chance also we -saw her funeral starting from the cathedral, and then, keeping our own -course, we fell in behind the sad train by another chance, and followed -till it left us to keep its way to the arid and sandy new cemetery of -her church. - -The old Spanish cemetery, now disused, lies far away on the edge of the -marshes to the northwest, where it was sweet one morning to find it -basking in the sun, under its wilding cedars, in the keeping of the cows -which made it their pasturage. When I wandered a little way among its -forgotten and neglected graves, I found no name Spanisher than Burns on -one of the stones. There might have been Spanisher names; I only say I -did not happen on them then, though later, following the wandering -cowpaths, I did find such a name as, say, Lopez. But at the worst the -old Spanish cemetery is not so all misnamed as the old Huguenot -burial-ground, where no Huguenot was ever buried, and where you cannot -read a solitary name of French accent or denomination. The Old Religion, -as distinguished from the New Religion which the Huguenots professed, is -the faith which now perhaps not unfitly prevails in St. Augustine, but -there is a great variety in the Protestant faiths, let alone that -difference of white and black which is of such marked emphasis that I do -not suppose any one could get to heaven from a church where he was not -properly segregated. The colored churches, divided from the white, are -again divided by such a nice distinction, for example, as Methodist -Episcopal and African Methodist Episcopal. Many of the colored people, -however, are broadly Roman Catholic, but they also have their own -churches apart from the white. - -When the king of Spain ceded Florida to the king of England, late in the -eighteenth century, the Spanish inhabitants of St. Augustine largely, if -not mostly, went away to Cuba, but their religion continued in the -primacy which it still enjoys. The cathedral fronting the Plaza from the -north is not the cathedral of former days, but a dignified reproduction -of the cathedral devoured by the flames which in St. Augustine seem to -have a peculiar appetite for the older edifices. One steps into it from -the twentieth century and finds oneself in the serious silence which is -the same in all the temples of that faith, and which one might almost -persuade oneself was a religious emotion and not the esthetic impression -it really is. It makes one wish for the moment that one were of the Old -Religion, and this was the effect with me when I woke in the morning and -heard the nuns’ sweet voices rising in their matins over the gardens of -the girls’ school across the way from us. It was a privilege to dwell -in the sound and sight of that place, and one felt something of an -unmerited consecration from it; when one met two of those kind sisters, -who always came and went in twos, one gladly stepped from the narrow -footway of St. George Street, and gave way to them with a sense of -unmerited blessing from the sight of them. The figure of St. Joseph -looked down, at first glance rather apparitionally, from an upper window -across the flowers, and seemed to bless them in the benediction not -withheld from the shrill hilarity of the girl children and the -undergraduates romping at their noonday games in the open galleries. One -night we went to a dramatic performance in the school given by a -sisterhood of young people from the outside under the nuns’ auspices, -with blameless dances and instructive mythological tableaux. When we -would not wait for the play which was to follow these we were stayed by -one of the girl pupils and entreated to remain; the play was going to be -the best thing of the whole evening; and now I am sorry we did not -remain. - -Such spare incidents were the most salient events of our sojourn, which -I could easily pretend was full of much more startling experiences. St. -Augustine is indeed the setting of almost any most dramatic fact, as the -companies of movie-players, rehearsing their pantomimes everywhere, so -recurrently testified. No week passed without the encounter of these -genial fellow-creatures dismounting from motors at this picturesque -point or that, or delaying in them to darken an eye, or redden a lip or -cheek, or pull a bodice into shape, before alighting to take part in the -drama. I talk as if there were no men in these affairs, but there were -plenty, preferably villains, like brigands or smugglers or savages, with -consoling cowboys or American cavalrymen for the rescue of ladies in -extremity. Seeing the films so much in formation, we naturally went a -great deal to see them ultimated in the movie-theaters, where we found -them nearly all bad. In this I do not suppose that they differed from -the movie-drama elsewhere, or that they were more unfailingly worthless. -They were less offensive as they were more romantic; when they tried to -be realistic they illustrated the life of crime in the East, and of -violence in the West. There was very little comedy, but one night, in -the representation of a medieval action, an involuntary stroke of -burlesque varied the poetry of the love interest when the mechanical -piano, which had been set to the music of the tango, continued that -deplorable strain while the funeral of a nun slowly paced through the -garden of the convent to the chapel. The general vulgarity and worse -seemed the more pity because the theaters were always well filled not -only with prouder visitors from the great hotels, and the friendly -roomers from everywhere, but with nice-looking townspeople, who had -brought their children with them when they had not let them come alone. - -The children seemed about at most hours of their parents’ waking, and, -as in Italy and Spain, one saw little ones of tender age sharing their -pleasures of the public places. Very small boys and girls played at -night in the paths of the Plaza, or hung upon the railing of the -alligator’s bath-tub, and admired his secular repose; now and then one -fell asleep at its mother’s knee, and I thought the whole usage homelike -and kindly, however not perfectly wise. It was at least part of the -native life, which the tourist lite so much overran; and yet that -tourist life was genial, too. It went and came in conversible enjoyment -of the place, from its various lodgings and from the delicatessen shops -where it inexpensively fed. As the season advanced it thickened upon the -town, and the dwellers up and down the more convenient streets were -adventurously besought to share their houses with the roomers. We -ourselves were not exempt from their entreaties, and I do not yet quite -know how we escaped having one mother in Israel for a paying guest; she -sat down at her own suggestion to argue the matter with us, and I -thought really she had much of the logic on her side. Possibly she -prolonged her argument because she liked so much the rich glow from the -mass of the live-oak logs burning on our hearth, and I did not blame -her; rather do I blame myself, and shall always blame, for not asking -in to that genial warmth the little frail old dame who arrived one cold -day on our veranda to offer her pathetically humble stock of needles and -pins for our purchase. I then thought it enough to buy a quarter’s worth -of pins, and did not think, insensate that I was, to ask her indoors to -warm herself at our fire. She was from Michigan, she said, and that -Florida day must have been mockingly bitter to her. She faded into the -afternoon chill, and left me, when I realized it, to suffer for my sin -of omission with vain thoughts of pursuing her, and bringing her back -and offering her tea and toast and whatever instant refreshments I could -imagine. - -While I am about owning this unavailing regret, I may as well remember -how I one day bought a wagon-load of fat pine from a thin little old -woman, who proved, on the testimony of our colored maid, a widow trying -to work the bit of farm her husband’s death had left her, and whom I -ought to have bought a load of fat pine from every day, but I did not -think to order even another load, and so never saw her again. This also -lies heavy on my soul, but I thank Heaven we bought all the tumblers of -delicious guava jelly which a little neighbor girl offered us; and since -we did this I wish she had seemed needier than she probably was. Not -many people came to us with things to sell, but we soon began getting -boxes of delicious strawberries from the farm-wife whom once we found -working in her own field, and we never ceased buying them as long as -they lasted. It was a quaint place, of wooden Gothic, holding its own -against age, and charming the air with an effect of personal history. -She led us over it, and invited us to tell any one who asked that it was -to let furnished, as I now tell the reader. A lady not otherwise of our -acquaintance accompanied us on her own incentive, as by mere force of -habit, and said she always liked to visit that house, it was so -picturesque. - -Very little of the country life showed itself about the town, and when -it did it was mostly colored; there was one white orange-farmer who came -at first with his fruit, and then, on our question of the sweetness of -his tangerines, promptly ceased to come. But there is a famous orange -grove northward of the city where the tangerines are better, and you may -be shown on a ladder plucking them from the tree, if you are of a mind -to be so photographed. It is perhaps a little too conscious, but the -orchard is not the less sincere for that, and you may see there the -preparation which the orange-growers of northern Florida have provided -against frost ever since the Great Freeze: pots and pans of -combustibles, to make a heavy smudge and blanket the fruit against the -inclemency of the skies. When the spring began to thicken in leaf and -blossom upon our vernal world, the perfume of the orange flowers struck -through the air a quarter of a mile off and involved us in its dense -sweetness as we drove by on our often way “Round the Horn.” As is well -known, the orange-trees are always flowering and fruiting together, but -it may not be so well known that in St. Augustine they have infected the -peach-trees with their habit. When we arrived the first week of January -these were already trying the temperature with a bud here and there, and -when we left in the second week of April, they were still tentatively -blowing, as the New England country folks say, while their earlier -ventures were rewarded with half-grown peaches. There was never that -passionate flush of bloom which makes the peach-tree a thing of -unspeakable beauty at the North; with the whole season from Christmas to -Easter for its work, it felt no hurry here. It was so with most other -fruits and flowers, especially with the nondescript fruit called a -loquat in Bermuda, and in St. Augustine a Japanese plum, which began -with no perceptible flower, and slowly yellowed and mellowed to the hand -of predatory boyhood, though that might have had it for the asking in -any dooryard. In the first days of April the mulberries were black -enough to be eaten by the black boys. We made no account of roses and -violets; but the poinsettia seemed to merit attention by keeping its -fire-red spikes on till they dropped at the coming of spring, and left -the bougainvillea to take up the tale. - -That famous orange orchard which we must not leave behind yet, is -admirable for the avenues first of palms, and then of live-oaks which -form its approach; the oaks stretch their writhing limbs across the -driveway, and put a still weirder disposition on from their hearsing -with long plumes of Spanish moss, in perhaps the least endearing appeal -of nature to human nature. Half an acre from the stooping trunks the -branches reach far out as in some strife of “dragons of the prime,” -hairy with the hideous gray of the parasite, which waves funerally in -the air. It is said to be finally the death of the tree, but there is -here and there one which escapes its throttling grip, and especially we -knew one which in a neglected garden spread itself abroad over half an -acre of ground. Always it was a pleasure to drive by that vast oak, as -it was a pleasure to drive under the oaks which border the long Avenue -San Marco on the way to the road Round the Horn. Last year it seemed to -have been ravaged by some sort of insect, but it was putting out its -gray-green leaves anew, with the water-oak in young verdure bulking -freshly and refreshingly beside it. - -The drive Round the Horn is the most characteristic of the drives about -St. Augustine, and is more comprehensive of the general interest than -any other. The bridge which you presently cross gives one of the fairest -prospects of the city, with its Andalusian towers and roofs, and then -you are on the way back to them, by a shell road winding through the -reaches and expanses of palmetto scrub, among the stems of the rather -spindling pines. The scrub is the wonder and the terror of the local -landscape, and, so far as I know, the whole Floridian landscape. Of all -the vegetable enemies of man it seems the most inexorable. You may cut -it, or burn its fans down to the roots; it bides its time, and after a -brief season of sparse grass, which the cows eat in default of other -herbage, the scrub renews its hold upon the nether regions, and must be -dug up, fiber by fiber, before the meager soil can be freed from it for -such crops as will grow in it. More crops will grow in what looks like -mere sand than you would imagine, or the Northern farmer or gardener -could hope to harvest from it. If you transplant the young trees from -among the scrub, they willingly flourish, when encouraged with a little -water, into columnar palmettoes, such as make the promise of a noble -avenue on the drive to the beautiful woodland called Lewis’s Point, -after a philanthropist whose public and private beneficences at St. -Augustine form a Tolstoyan romance. But this is not the place to tell -the story which, as your colored driver murmurs it, lends its poetry to -your course through the winding ways of the natural park, with their -outlooks upon the still waters of the bays and bayous around. You need -not otherwise believe all that your driver says, especially all he says -of the serpents which frequent these groves and climb the vines of the -scuppernong to share its fruit with the colored boys competing for the -grapes. Like these boys, the snake which loves the fruit most is black, -and sometimes in the imagination of the driver is of as lofty reach as -the vine itself. - -Candor obliges me to say that although we saw scuppernong vines in -abundance, we never saw any snakes on them, black or of any other color; -but once in driving home from the Point in the cool of a very cool -evening we saw a captive rattlesnake held in leash by the man who had -caught it. The loathly worm was quite torpid from the cold, and lay a -gray, clayey length that showed the whole pattern of its checkered -design, with its rattles a full yard away from its deadly fangs. We did -not stay to ask how or where it had been taken, but hurried by through -the early dusk which the Southern twilight had suddenly lapsed into -after our visit to the vineyard where a German family makes a “fine, -fruity old port” from the berries of the scuppernong. These grow, -anomalously enough, the size of small plums, in loose clusters of three -or four, and are of the flavor of our Concord grapes, but do not -transport so well as the wine, and probably would not ripen in the -North. The name had always a charm for me from its musical enumeration -in that pleasant rhyme of Longfellow’s renowning our Catawba beyond all -other native, and some alien vintages; and I now satisfied my wish to -see the scuppernong growing on some spreading trellises which it -roofed. But it has never the soft insinuation of vines better known to -literature, and before the leaves come to hide them in the spring, it is -covered with spiky twigs instead of the delicate, clinging tendrils of -other grapes. The spreading trellises here were of no great spread, and -were presently lost in an orchard of oranges and other fruit trees, all -ordered with a neatness very alien to the sloven farming of the country -about, but much in keeping with the young Bavarian sisters, with their -long braids and smooth masses of dark hair, who came out to show us the -place. They came out of a new-built house of Northern pattern--first to -save us from the misgivings of their dogs; and last--their widowed -mother and older sister being in town--the capable little women led us -to the barn where the bottles and barrels of the scuppernong were -stored. When I proposed to buy a bottle of the wine, they wished me to -taste a glass of it that I might test its quality; and they even allowed -our colored driver (a very mildly coffee-colored driver) to join in the -test, so that he was able to add his voice in favor of the vintage from -a whole tumblerful. - -The drive from the farm through the forest solitude back to the highway -was haunted by the sad or savage black faces starting up before us as in -the woodland road, and was not cheered by the lamps in the windows of -the moldering hamlet of Moultrie. Ruin seemed to have grown upon the -place since we had seen it an hour before, and a decay at once eerie and -ramshackle invested the forsaken villa on rising ground beyond the -estuary where the little oysters mustered their serried ranks in the -ebb-tide of the muddy flats. This villa could never have been very -impressive itself, but the massive stone posts of the gateways -approaching it were of even undue grandeur; otherwise the unpainted wood -of the local architecture, which had never known dignity nor beauty, was -of that repulsive forlornness which seems characteristic of the Southern -farm or village house in its decay. Yet if the ground has once been -cleared of all that man has builded for the shelter of his love or -pride, there is sometimes a charm in the utter effacement. One day of -another year another driver carried us by a place where he said he used -to bring a lady from the North whose family home it had once been, and -where, beyond the squalor of a negro suburb, an opening in the -scrub-pine and palmetto stretched a wilding lawn under gray live-oaks -and shining magnolias growing apart from one another as if from -intention rather than by accident. It was so fit a place for the mansion -which had once stood there in the stately keeping of the slave-holding -past that one must look twice to make sure that the vanished home was -not haunting the scene. The Northern lady who frequented it was only far -off akin to those who had once dwelt there, and it did not seem that her -visits were the effect of family piety; but she came and came as long as -she remained in St. Augustine, and as we should have come if we had -remained in reach of the beautiful, wistful spot. - -As for the allure of St. Augustine itself, it was largely that of all -small cities not densely built over their area, and it kept the -tradition of a country town in dooryards with flowers, and back yards -with homely vegetables, and here and there a vacant lot where the sweet -corn and the pea vines flourished, not remote from the centers of -commerce and fashion which, as I have said, do not intermit their -business or pleasure on Sundays. I liked driving in the outlying streets -which had once hoped to be avenues, but when Palm Beach and Miami had -taken the hope of all-winter resort from St. Augustine had given it up -(not in desperation so much as in resignation) and become gently -weed-grown and grass-grown roadways. Where the tops of the wayside oaks -or cedars arched together overhead, they were of a gloom that was very -pleasant, and where the colonnading and arcading ceased, it was still a -pensive pleasure to find oneself passing the simple gardens and lawns, -not too wild-grown, of houses that had quite ceased trying to be the -winter homes of well-to-do Northern invalids, and were now either for -sale outright, or were putting off the inevitable hour by offering -furnished rooms to let. Every point of the winning city had its moment -of charm, and I did not yield a fonder allegiance to the great Ponce de -Leon when that hostelry gathered a rich sunset in its clustering palms, -and lifted its roofs and towers above them in the lingering afterglow, -than to the Plaza of a sunny morning when my home-towners ranged -themselves with their home-papers on the benching in the checkered -shade, or then, when the full moon sailed above the campanile of the -cathedral, and the alligator dreamed in his fountain, and the old -Spanish market-house tried to remember which of the home-towners it was -that beat at checkers during the long games of the forenoon. It was fine -also when the swift twilight fled before the dusk over the waters that -stretched between St. Augustine and St. Anastasia; but no finer than -other divisions of the day at other places. If I were driven to choose, -I should favor a mild Sunday forenoon on the road crossing from farther -St. George Street over the water-gate that keeps the estuary of Maria -Sanchez full, independently of the changing tide. It is then a smooth, -motionless mirror, where the distant towers and roofs of the city glass -themselves with a certain delicate beauty of line and color, and let you -imagine them in whatever story of the city’s past you like. I myself -like some idyllic passage of it not too weighted down with fact, and not -above sympathy with such homely effects as the reedy pastures of the -shore, and the rather shabby cows grazing there in the keeping of -colored mothers past more active cares. If you are for a more romantic -outlook, you are welcome to the long expanse of the southward savannah, -fenced along the horizon by the shadowy walls of woodland. But I think -we shall come together in our pleasure of the river’s name, called after -whatever Spanish maid or matron Maria Sanchez might have been, and that -we shall like it better, and find it the sweeter on our tongues for -being her surname as well as her Christian name. - -Matron or maid, Señora or Señorita, it would not be more endearing if it -were of the oldest Spanish derivation than if it were of that Minorcan -origin which lends to the history of St. Augustine the pathos of a -people cruelly injured. The children of this people have multiplied and -prospered in the friendly air of the place for more than a hundred -years, now, since an alien governor rescued them from a wrong which an -alien oppressor had done them. Under their name and with them many poor -Greeks and Italians were lured from Minorca when the islanders were -brought to Florida by the Englishman who promised them home and country -in his employ, and after he had got them to his lands practically -enslaved them. They seem to have been something like our colonial -Redemptioners in the terms of their emigration, but when they found -themselves doomed lifelong to work out the price of their transit, in no -hope of rescue from their tyrant till one of them who had heard of -English law stole away to St. Augustine, and asked the English governor -if they could be held against their will, without land or wages; and the -governor answered, with what roar of disclaimer the reader chooses to -imagine. Certainly not! Then their Moses went back to them, and led them -up out of their bondage at New Smyrna to St. Augustine and left their -English tyrant with the machinery of his indigo farms to rust and ruin. -Ever since they have been an admirably industrious element in their city -of refuge, and honored for their virtues. But it is said that they keep -to themselves away from their kind neighbors, irreparably wounded in -their pride by the conditions of their past sufferings. For my own part -I would like to believe that all that beauty and grace which I liked to -attribute to the blood of the race dominant in the city for three -hundred years, had come down to our day through these deeply wronged -Minorcans; and I would not have the shadow of their tragedy rest, -however lightly, upon the sunny picture of St. Augustine which remains -in my remembrance. Other shadows there were, as there are in all the -memories of life. Sometimes the butcher would not send home the meat in -time, or the sort of meat that was ordered; sometimes the grocer would -not send anything at any time, until he was prodded over the telephone; -but in the end we did not starve, and meanwhile we continued in the -hope that the boys carrying baskets before them on their bicycles were -coming to us with them. - -Otherwise our days went by in a summer succession the whole winter -through, but if now and then a day was unseasonably wintry, we justly -blamed our native North for it. I have tried, faithfully if not -successfully, to give some notion of the place and its resources for the -exile who has merely come away to escape care, and I hope I have not -exaggerated them. I have confessed that the drives were not so many as I -could wish, but the pleasant walks were more than I could take, and our -excursions in suburb or beyond always offered some interesting spectacle -or experience. There would be a house, left unoccupied by its owner for -the winter, which we would occupy for the moment at a merely nominal -rent; there was a certain ship’s carpenter whom we liked to see building -a small yacht in his back yard, remote from any of the surrounding -waters; and in a garden beside a house not otherwise memorable there was -the passion of a half-grown kitten for a hen which, as the cat rubbed -against the scandalized and indignant fowl, afforded a spectacle of -unrequited affection that might well have been studied for a painting on -the cover of a popular magazine; there were wide, wilding spaces which -the prosperity of former years had meant for house-lots, and there were -others where houses had once stood, and then fallen away, leaving -flowery tangles of bushes and briers behind them. But the great charm of -the town was in the town itself, and chiefly characteristic of it was -our own St. George Street, which, whether it followed the Maria Sanchez -away in cottages or bungalows of divers ideals to the border of the -far-reaching southward savannah, or led northward beyond the Plaza, was -somehow more Old World in effect than other thoroughfares of the town. -There were not merely the shops where everything you wanted or did not -want was offered you, but there was here and there a Spanish house, -sometimes tottering with age, but in one instance at least keeping its -ancient state of coquina walls flush with the street and with a stretch -of garden beside it, and on the street beyond it the appealing ruin of -like houses left by the last fire. Somewhat early in the season, the old -thoroughfare entered into a generous commercial rivalry with King -Street, and equipped itself with colored electric lamps strung overhead -in gay strands from side to side. By night or by day, with its little -shops and its cracking walls, and people walking up and down its middle -among the vehicles, it was very, very South-European. But it had places -where you could hardly keep from buying the latest magazines, or deny -the claim of your home-paper wherever your home was in the Middle West. -Promptly, twenty-four hours late, there were not only the New York -papers, but the Chicago, the Cleveland, the Cincinnati papers, with news -which had kept quite fresh on the long way south. But, above all, St. -George Street was the directest way to the old fort San Marco, and to -the city gates which remain another monument ol the Spanish will to be -fair as well as strong. Our great architect McKim could not find a -nobler suggestion for his Harvard gates than these gave, and one who -goes to Cambridge may imagine from them the chief ornament of St. -Augustine. They are indeed only the pillars of the gates, with a bit of -the ancient wall beside each, and how the fortification was continued -from them I never could quite realize, or whether in palmetto logs or -coquina walls. The old embankment which once stretched away on either -side was long ago leveled with the plain, but you can still imagine -anything you like of it. You cannot imagine too much of St. Augustine -anywhere within its vanished walls, or in the characteristic landscape, -where it lies a vision of unique appeal in our commonplace American -world. - - [THE END.] - - - - - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Confession of St. Augustine, by -William Dean Howells - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CONFESSION OF ST. AUGUSTINE *** - -***** This file should be named 52708-0.txt or 52708-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/7/0/52708/ - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at 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 -http://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/license - -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 web page at http://www.pglaf.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. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at -http://pglaf.org/fundraising. 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 -business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact -information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official -page at http://pglaf.org - -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 http://pglaf.org - -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: http://pglaf.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For thirty 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: - - http://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. |