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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Round the World, by Andrew Carnegie
+
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+Title: Round the World
+
+Author: Andrew Carnegie
+
+Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6411]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on December 8, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUND THE WORLD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Wenker,  Kurt Hockenbury
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+ROUND THE WORLD
+
+BY ANDREW CARNEGIE
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+It seems almost unnecessary to say that "Round the World," like
+"An American Four-in-Hand in Britain," was originally printed for
+private circulation. My publishers having asked permission to give
+it to the public, I have been induced to undertake the slight
+revision, and to make some additions necessary to fit the original
+for general circulation, not so much by the favorable reception
+accorded to the "Four-in-Hand" in England as well as in America,
+nor even by the flattering words of the critics who have dealt so
+kindly with it, but chiefly because of many valued letters which
+entire strangers have been so extremely good as to take the
+trouble to write to me, and which indeed are still coming almost
+daily. Some of these are from invalids who thank me for making the
+days during which they read the book pass more brightly than
+before. Can any knowledge be sweeter to one than this? These
+letters are precious to me, and it is their writers who are mainly
+responsible for this second volume, especially since some who have
+thus written have asked where it could be obtained and I have no
+copies to send to them, which it would have given me a rare
+pleasure to be able to do.
+
+I hope they will like it as they did the other. Some friends
+consider it better; others prefer the "Four-in-Hand." I think them
+different. While coaching I was more joyously happy; during the
+journey round the World I was gaining more knowledge; but if my
+readers like me half as well in the latter as in the former mood,
+I shall have only too much cause to subscribe myself with sincere
+thanks,
+
+Most gratefully,
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+  "Think on thy friends when thou haply see'st
+   Some rare, noteworthy object in thy travels,
+   Wish them partakers of thy happiness."
+
+
+
+
+ROUND THE WORLD.
+
+NEW YORK, Saturday, October 12, 1878.
+
+Bang! click! the desk closes, the key turns, and good-bye for a
+year to my wards--that goodly cluster over which I have watched
+with parental solicitude for many a day; their several cribs full
+of records and labelled Union Iron Mills, Lucy Furnaces, Keystone
+Bridge Works, Union Forge, Cokevale Works, and last, but not
+least, that infant Hercules, the Edgar Thomson Steel Rail
+Works--good lusty bairns all, and well calculated to survive in
+The struggle for existence--great things are expected of them in
+The future, but for the present I bid them farewell; I'm off for
+a holiday, and the rise and fall of iron and steel "affecteth me
+not."
+
+Years ago, Vandy, Harry, and I, standing in the very bottom of the
+crater of Mount Vesuvius, where we had roasted eggs and drank to
+the success of our next trip, resolved that some day, instead of
+turning back as we had then to do, we would make a tour round the
+Ball. My first return to Scotland and journey through Europe was
+an epoch in my life, I had so early in my days determined to do
+it; to-day another epoch comes--our tour fulfils another youthful
+aspiration. There is a sense of supreme satisfaction in carrying
+out these early dreams which I think nothing else can give, it is
+such a triumph to realize one's castles in the air. Other dreams
+remain, which in good time also _must_ come to pass; for
+nothing can defeat these early inborn hopes, if one lives, and if
+death comes there is, until the latest day, the exaltation which
+comes from victory if one but continues true to his guiding star
+and manfully struggles on.
+
+And now what to take for the long weary hours! for travellers know
+that sight-seeing is hard work, and that the ocean wave may become
+monotonous. I cannot carry a whole library with me. Yes, even this
+can be done; mother's thoughtfulness solves the problem, for she
+gives me Shakespeare, in thirteen small handy volumes. Come, then,
+my Shakespeare, you alone of all the mighty past shall be my sole
+companion. I seek none else; there is no want when you are near,
+no mood when you are not welcome--a library indeed, and I look
+forward with great pleasure to many hours' communion with you on
+lonely seas--a lover might as well sigh for more than his
+affianced as I for any but you. A twitch of conscience here. You
+ploughman bard, who are so much to me, are you then forgotten? No,
+no, Robin, no need of taking you in my trunk; I have you in my
+heart, from "A man's a man for a that" to "My Nannie's awa'."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PITTSBURGH, Thursday, October 17.
+
+What is this? A telegram! "Belgic sails from San Francisco 24th
+instead of 28th." Can we make it? Yes, travelling direct and via
+Omaha, and not seeing Denver as intended. All right! through we
+go, and here we are at St. Louis Friday morning, and off for Omaha
+to catch the Saturday morning train for San Francisco. If we miss
+but one connection we shall reach San Francisco too late. But we
+sha'n't. Having courted the fickle goddess assiduously, and
+secured her smiles, we are not going to lose faith in her now,
+come what may. See if our good fortune doesn't carry us through!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OMAHA, Saturday, October 19.
+
+All aboard for "Frisco!"
+
+A train of three Pullmans, all well filled--but what is this shift
+made for, at the last moment, when we thought we were off? Another
+car to be attached, carrying to the Pacific coast Rarus and
+Sweetzer, the fastest trotter and pacer, respectively, in the
+world. How we advance! Shades of Flora Temple and "2.40 on the
+plank road!" That was the cry when first I took to horses--that
+is, to owning them. At a much earlier age I was stealing a ride on
+every thing within reach that had four legs and could go. One
+takes to horseflesh by inheritance. Rarus now goes in 2.13-1/4,
+and Ten Broeck beats Lexington's best time many seconds. I saw him
+do it. And so in this fast age, second by second, we gain upon old
+Father Time. Even since this was written more than another second
+has been knocked off. America leads the world in trotters, and
+will probable do so in running horses as well, when we begin to
+develop them in earnest. Our soft roads are favorable for speed;
+the English roads would ruin a fast horse.
+
+We traverse all day a vast prairie watered by the Platte. Nothing
+could be finer: such fields of corn standing ungathered, such
+herds of cattle grazing at will! It is a superb day, and the
+russet-brown mantle in which Nature arrays herself in the autumn
+never showed to better advantage; but in all directions we see the
+prairies on fire. Farmers burn them over as the easiest mode of
+getting rid of the rank weeds and undergrowth; but it seems a
+dangerous practice. They plough a strip twenty to thirty feet in
+width around their houses, barns, hay-stacks, etc., and depend
+upon the flames not overleaping this barrier.
+
+Third night out, and we are less fatigued than at the beginning.
+The first night upon a sleeping-car is the most fatiguing. Each
+successive one is less wearisome, and ere the fifth or sixth comes
+you really rest well. So much for custom!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SUNDAY, October 20.
+
+All day long we have been passing through the grazing plains of
+Nebraska. Endless herds of cattle untrammelled by fences; the
+landscape a brown sea as far as the eye can reach; a rude hut now
+and then for a shelter to the shepherds. No wonder we export beef,
+for it is fed here for nothing. Horses and cattle thrive on the rich
+grasses as if fed on oats; no flies, no mosquitoes, nothing to
+disturb or annoy, while the pellucid streams which run through the
+ranches furnish the best of water. There can be no question that our
+export trade is still in its infancy. The business is now fully
+organized, and is subject to well-known rules. At Sherman we saw the
+large show-bills of the Wyoming County Cattle Raisers' Association,
+offering heavy rewards for offenders against these rules, and the
+Cheyenne _Herald_ is filled with advertisements of the various
+"marks" adopted by different owners. Large profits have been made in
+the trade--the best assurance that it will grow--but from all I can
+gather it seems doubtful whether the experiment of exporting cattle
+alive will succeed.
+
+We saw numerous herds of antelope to-day, but they graze among the
+cattle, and are altogether too finely civilized to meet our idea of
+"chasing the antelope over the plain;" one might as well chase a
+sheep. As night approaches we get higher and higher up the far-famed
+Rocky Mountains, and before dark reach the most elevated point, at
+Sherman, eight thousand feet above tide. But our preconceived
+notions of the Rocky Mountains, derived from pictures of Fremont _à
+la_ Napoleon crossing the Alps, have received a rude shock; we only
+climb high plains--not a tree, nor a peak, nor a ravine; when at the
+top we are but on level ground--a brown prairie, "only this, and
+nothing more."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TUESDAY, October 22.
+
+Desolation! In the great desert! It extends southward to Mexico
+and northward to British Columbia, and is five hundred miles in
+width. Rivers traverse it only to lose themselves in its sands,
+there being no known outlet for the waters of this vast basin.
+What caverns must exist below capable of receiving them! and
+whither do they finally go?
+
+At the station we begin to meet a mixture of Chinese and
+Indians--Shoshones, Piutes, and Winnemuccas. The Chinamen are at
+work on the line, and appear to be very expert. At Ogden we get
+some honey grapes--the sweetest I ever tasted. It is midnight
+before we are out of the desert.
+
+We are up early to see the Sierras. My first glimpse was of a
+ravine resembling very much the Alleghany Gap below
+Bennington--going to bed in a desert and awaking to such a view
+was a delightful surprise indeed. We are now running down the
+western slope two hundred and twenty-five miles from San
+Francisco, with mines on both sides, and numerous flumes which
+tell of busy times. Halloa! what's this? Dutch Flat. Shades of
+Bret Harte, true child of genius, what a pity you ever forsook
+these scenes to dwindle in the foreign air of the Atlantic coast!
+A whispering pine of the Sierras transplanted to Fifth Avenue!
+How could it grow? Although it shows some faint signs of life,
+how sickly are the leaves! As for fruit, there is none. America
+had in Bret Harte its most distinctively national poet. His
+reputation in Europe proved his originality. The fact is,
+American poets have been only English "with a difference."
+Tennyson might have written the "Psalm of Life," Browning
+"Thanatopsis," but who could have written "Her Letter," or "Flynn
+of Virginia," or "Jim," or "Chiquita"? An American, flesh and
+bone, and none other. If the East would only discard him, as
+Edinburgh society did his greater prototype, he might be forced
+to return to his "native heath" in poverty, and rise again as the
+first truly American poet. But poets, and indeed great artists as
+a class, seem to yield their best only under pressure. The grape
+must be crushed if we would have wine. Give a poet "society" at
+his feet and he sings no more, or sings as Tennyson has been
+singing of late years--fit strains to prepare us for the disgrace
+he has brought upon the poet's calling. Poor, weak, silly old man!
+Forgive him, however, for what he has done when truly the poet. He
+was noble then and didn't know it; now he is a sham noble and
+_knows_ it. Punishment enough that he stands no more upon the
+mountain heights o'ertopping the petty ambitions of English life,
+
+  "With his garlands
+   And his singing robes about him."
+
+His poet's robes, alas! are gone. Room, now, for the masquerader
+disguised as a British peer! Place, next the last great vulgar
+brewer or unprincipled political trimmer in that motley assembly,
+the House of Lords!
+
+The weather is superb, the sky cloudless; the train stops to allow
+us to see the celebrated Cape Horn; the railroad skirts the edge
+of the mountain, and we stand upon a precipice two thousand feet
+high, smaller mountains enclosing the plain below, and the
+American River running at our feet. It is very fine, indeed, but
+the grandeur between Pack Saddle and San Francisco, with the
+exception of the entrance to Weber Cañon and a few miles in the
+vicinity, is all here; as a whole, the scenery on the Pacific
+Railroad is disappointing to one familiar with the Alleghanies.
+
+At Colfax, two hundred miles from San Francisco, we stop for
+breakfast and have our first experience of fresh California grapes
+and salmon; the former black Hamburgs not to be excelled by the
+best hot-house grapes of England; and what a bagful for a quarter!
+We tried the native white wine at dinner, and found it a fair
+Sauterne. With such grapes and climate, it must surely be only a
+question of a few years before the true American wine makes its
+appearance, and then what shall we have to import? Silks and
+woollens are going, watches and jewelry have already gone, and in
+this connection I think I may venture to say good-bye to foreign
+iron and steel; cotton goods went long ago. Now if wines, and
+especially champagne--that creature of fashion--should go, what
+shall we have to tax? What if America, which has given to mankind
+so many political lessons, should be destined to show a government
+living up to the very highest dictate of political economy, viz.,
+supported by direct taxation! No, there remain our home products,
+whiskey and tobacco; let us be satisfied to do the next best thing
+and make these pay the entire cost of government. The day is not
+far distant when out of these two so-called luxuries we shall
+collect all our taxes; and those virtuous citizens who use neither
+shall escape scot-free. Although these sentences were written
+years ago, now since we approach the threshold of fulfilment I am
+not sure that upon the whole the total abolition of the internal
+revenue system is not preferable. We should thus dispense with
+four thousand officials. In government, the fewer the better.
+
+No greater contrast can be imagined than that from the barren
+desert to the fertile plains below; oleanders and geraniums greet
+us with their welcome smiles; grapes, pears, peaches, all in
+profusion; we are indeed in the Italy of America at last, and
+Sacramento is reached by half-past ten. Since the great flood
+which almost ruined it some years ago, extensive dykes have been
+built, walling in the city, which so far have proved a sufficient
+barrier against the rapid swellings of the American River, that
+pours down its torrents from the mountains; but if Sacramento be
+now secure against flood, it is certainly vulnerable to the
+attacks of the not less terrible demon of fire. Such a mass of
+combustible material piled together and called a city I never saw
+before: it is a tinder-box, and we are to hear of its destruction
+some day. Prepare for an extra: "Great fire in Sacramento; the
+city in ashes;" but then, don't let us call it accidental.
+
+What a valley we rush through for the hundred miles which separate
+Sacramento from San Francisco! It is about sixty miles wide, and as
+level as a billiard-table. Here are the famous wheat fields: as far
+as the eye can reach on either side we see nothing but the golden
+straw standing, minus the heads of wheat which have been cut off,
+the straw being left to be burned down as a fertilizer. Fancy a
+Western prairie, substitute golden grain for corn, and you have
+before you the California harvest; for four hundred miles this
+valley extends, and it is wheat from one end to the other--nothing
+but wheat. Granted sufficient rain in the rainy season--that is,
+from November till February--and the husbandman seeks nothing more;
+Nature does all the rest, and a bountiful harvest is a certainty. In
+some years there is a scarcity of rain, but to provide against even
+this sole remaining contingency the rivers have but to be properly
+used for irrigation; with this done, the wheat crop of the Pacific
+coast will outstrip in value, year after year, all the gold and
+silver that can be mined. Douglas Jerrold's famous saying applies to
+no other land so well as to this, for it indeed needs only "to be
+tickled with a hoe to smile with a harvest."
+
+We reached Oakland, the Jersey City of San Francisco, on time to
+the minute; the ferry-boat starts, and there lies before us the
+New York of the Pacific: but instead of the bright sparkling city
+we had pictured, sinking to rest with its tall spires suffused by
+the glories of the setting sun, imagine our surprise when not even
+our own smoky Pittsburgh could boast a denser canopy of smoke. A
+friend who had kindly met us upon arrival at Oakland tried to
+explain that this was not all smoke; it was mostly fog, and a
+peculiar wind which sometimes had this effect; but we could
+scarcely be mistaken upon that point. No, no, Mr. O'B., you may
+know all about "Frisco," the Chinese, the mines, and the Yosemite,
+but do allow me to know something about smoke. We reached our
+hotel, from the seven days' trip, and, after a bath and a good
+dinner with agreeable company, were shown as much of the city as
+it was possible to see before the "wee short hour ayont the
+twal'."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PALACE HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO, Wednesday Evening, October 23.
+
+A palace truly! Where shall we find its equal? Windsor Hotel,
+good-bye! you must yield the palm to your great Western rival, as
+far as structure goes, though in all other respects you may keep
+the foremost place. There is no other hotel building in the world
+equal to this. The court of the Grand at Paris is poor compared to
+that of the Palace. Its general effect at night, when brilliantly
+lighted, is superb; its furniture, rooms and appointments are all
+fine, but then it tells you all over it was built to "whip all
+creation," and the millions of its lucky owner enabled him to
+triumph. It is as much in place in San Francisco as the Taj would
+be in Sligo; but then your California operator, when he has made a
+"pile," goes in for a hotel, just as in New York one takes to a
+marble palace or a grand railway depot, or in Cincinnati to a
+music hall, or in Pittsburgh to building a church or another
+rolling mill. Every community has its social idiosyncrasies, but
+it struck us as rather an amusing coincidence that while we had
+recently greeted no less a man than Potter Palmer, Esq., behind
+the counter in Chicago as "mine host of the Garter," we should so
+soon have found ourselves in the keeping of Senator Sharon, lessee
+of the Palace. These hotels do not impress one as being quite
+suitable monuments for one who naturally considers his labors
+about over when he builds, as they are apt apparently to prove
+rather lively for comfort to the owners, and we have decided when
+our building time comes that it shall not be in the hotel line. We
+got to bed at last, but who could sleep after such a day--after
+such a week! The ceaseless motion, with the click, click, click of
+the wheels--our sweet lullaby apparently this had become--was
+wanting; and then the telegrams from home, which bade us Godspeed,
+the warm, balmy air of Italy, when we had left winter behind--all
+this drove sleep away; and when drowsiness came, what apparitions
+of Japanese, Chinese, Indians, elephants, camels, josses! passed
+through our brain in endless procession. We were at the Golden
+Gate; we had just reached the edge of the Pacific Ocean, and
+before us lay
+
+   ... "the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
+   Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand,
+   Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold.
+
+To every blink the livelong night there came this refrain, which
+seemed to close each scene of Oriental magnificence that haunted
+the imagination:
+
+   "And our gude ship sails ye morn,
+    And our gude ship sails ye morn."
+
+Do what I would, the words of the old Scotch ballad would not
+down. Sleep! who could sleep in such an hour? Dead must be the man
+whose pulse beats not quicker, and whose enthusiasm is not
+enkindled when for the first time he is privileged to whisper to
+himself, The East! the East!
+
+   "And our gude ship sails ye morn."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HARBOR OF SAN FRANCISCO, Thursday, October 24.
+
+At last! noon, 24th, and there she lies--the Belgic at her dock!
+What a crowd! but not of us; eight hundred Chinamen are to return
+to the Flowery Land. One looks like another; but how quiet they
+are! Are they happy? overjoyed at being homeward bound? We cannot
+judge. Those sphinx-like, copper-colored faces tell us no tales.
+We had asked a question last night by telegraph, and here is the
+reply brought to us on the deck. It ends with a tender good-bye.
+How near and yet how far! but even if the message had sought us
+out at the Antipodes, its power to warm the heart with the sense
+of the near presence and companionship of those we love would only
+have been enhanced. In this we seem almost to have reached the
+dream of the Swedish seer, who tells us that thought brings
+presence, annihilating space in heaven.
+
+We start promptly at noon. Our ship is deeply laden with flour,
+which China needs in consequence of the famine prevailing in its
+northern provinces, not owing to a failure of the rice, as I had
+understood, but of the millet, which is used by the poor instead
+of rice. Some writers estimate that five millions of people must
+die from starvation before the next crop can be gathered; but this
+seems incredible. And now America comes to the rescue, so that at
+this moment, while from its Eastern shores it pours forth its
+inexhaustible stores to feed Europe, it sends from the West of its
+surplus to the older races of the far East. Thus from all sides,
+fabled Ceres as she is, she scatters to all peoples from the horn
+of plenty. Favored land, may you prove worthy of all your
+blessings and show to the world that after ages of wars and
+conquests there comes at last to the troubled earth the glorious
+reign of peace. But no new steel cruisers, no standing army. These
+are the devil's tools in monarchies; the Republic's weapons are
+the ploughshare and the pruning hook.
+
+For three hundred miles the Pacific is never pacific. Coast winds
+create a swell, and our first two nights at sea were trying to bad
+sailors, but the motion was to me so soft after our long railway
+ride that I seemed to be resting on air cushions. It was more
+delightful to be awake and enjoy the sense of perfect rest than to
+sleep, tired as we were; so we lay literally
+
+  "Rocked in the cradle of the rude imperious surge,"
+
+and enjoyed it.
+
+To some of my talented New York friends who are touched with
+Buddhism just now and much puzzled to describe, and I judge even
+to imagine, their heaven, I confidently recommend a week's
+continuous jar upon a rough railway as the surest preparation for
+attaining a just conception of Nirvana, where perfect rest is held
+the greatest possible bliss. Lying, as I did apparently, upon air
+cushions, and rocked so softly on the waves, I had not a wish;
+desire was gone; I was content; every particle of my weary body
+seemed bathed in delight. Here was the delicious sense of rest we
+are promised in Nirvana. The third day out we are beyond the
+influence of the coast, and begin our first experience of the
+Pacific Ocean. So far it is simply perfect; we are on the ideal
+summer sea. What hours for lovers, these superb nights! they would
+develop rapidly, I'm sure, under such skyey influences. The
+temperature is genial, balmy breezes blow, there is no feeling of
+chilliness; the sea, bathed in silver, glistens in the moonlight;
+we sit under awnings and glide through the water. The loneliness
+of this great ocean I find very impressive--so different from the
+Atlantic pathway--we are so terribly alone, a speck in the
+universe; the sky seems to enclose us in a huge inverted bowl, and
+we are only groping about, as it were, to find a way out; it is
+equidistant all around us; nothing but clouds and water. But as we
+sail westward we have every night a magnificent picture. I have
+never seen such resplendent sunsets as these: we seem nightly to
+be just approaching the gates of Enchanted Land; through the
+clouds, in beautiful perspective, shine the gardens of the
+Hesperides, and imagination readily creates fairy lands beyond,
+peopled with spirits and fays. It is not so much the gorgeousness
+of the colors as their variety which gives these sunsets a
+character of their own; one can find anything he chooses in their
+infinite depths. Turner must have seen such in his mind's eye. "I
+never saw such sunsets as these you paint," said the critic of his
+style. "No; don't you wish you could?" was the reply. But I think
+even a prosaic critic would feel that these Pacific pictures have
+a spiritual sense beyond the letter, unless, indeed, he were
+Wordsworth's friend, to whom
+
+  "A primrose by a river's brim
+   A yellow primrose was to him,
+   And it was nothing more."
+
+He, of course, is hopeless.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THURSDAY, October 31.
+
+We have been a week at sea. Can it be only seven days since we
+waved adieu to bright eyes on the pier? We begin to feel at home
+on the ship. The passengers are now known to each other, and
+hereafter the days, will slip by faster. I went down with the
+doctor and Vandy to see the Chinamen to-day. What a sight! Piled
+in narrow cots three tiers deep, with passages between the rows
+scarcely wide enough for one to walk, from end to end of the ship
+these poor wretches lie in an atmosphere so stifling that I had to
+rush up to the deck for air. So far three have died, and two have
+become crazy. My foolish curiosity has made the voyage less
+satisfactory, for I cannot forget the danger of disease breaking
+out among this horde, nor can I drive the yellow, stupid-looking
+faces out of mind. The night of the day in which I had gone below
+we were playing a rubber of whist in the cabin when the port-hole
+at my head was pushed open, and a voice in broken English shouted,
+"Crazee manee; he makee firee, firee!" I jumped round and saw a
+Chinaman. Such an expression--Shakespeare alone has described it--
+
+  "And with a look so piteous in purport,
+   As if he had been loosed out of hell
+   To speak of horrors."
+
+Fire! that epitome of all that is appalling at sea, the danger
+each one instinctively dreads, but no one mentions. One ran one
+way and one another. The doctor (a real canny Scot, who sings "My
+Nannie's awa'" like Wilson) was over the rail and down the hold in
+a moment. I ran to Captain Meyer's room on the upper deck and
+roused him. He too was down and in the hold like a flash--brave
+fellows that they are, these "true British sailors." I waited the
+result, knowing that if fire had really started, a general
+stampede of Chinamen would soon come from the hatches; but all was
+still. How long those few moments seemed! In a short time the
+captain returned, looking, in his night-clothes, like a ghost. One
+of the crazy men had broken loose from his chains, and the
+Chinamen were panic-stricken. The watchman wanted the most
+startling alarm, and found it, undoubtedly, in that word fire. It
+is all over; but when he next has to sound an alarm let him "take
+any form but that."
+
+We have a reverend missionary and wife, with two young lady
+missionaries in embryo, who are on their way to begin their labors
+among the Chinese. They are busily engaged learning the language.
+Poor girls! what a life they have before them! But apart from all
+question of its true usefulness, they have the grand thought to
+sustain them, and ennoble their lives, that they go at the call of
+what seems to them their duty. We watch the Chinese eating and
+laugh at their chopsticks, but we forget that one reason why John
+Chinaman prides himself upon being at the pinnacle of civilization
+is that he uses these very chopsticks. (None of the races of Asia,
+and until recently he knew no other, have ever got beyond
+chopsticks, the use of which was first taught China, while most
+of them don't even have them yet.) Let us not forget that our
+ancestors were using their fingers--barbarians that they
+were--when the Chinese had risen, centuries before, to the
+refinement of these sticks, for the fork is only about three
+hundred years old. Shakespeare probably, Spenser certainly, had
+only a knife at his girdle to carve the meat he ate, the fingers
+being important auxiliaries. We must be modest upon this chopstick
+question. It costs the ship eleven cents (5-1/2 d.) per day a head
+to feed these people, and this pays for a wholesome diet in great
+abundance, much beyond what they are accustomed to.
+
+While on the subject of the Chinaman I may note that of course we
+did not get through California without hearing the Chinese problem
+warmly discussed. It is the burning question just now upon the
+Pacific coast, but it seems to me our Californians' fears are, as
+Colonel Diehl would put it, "slightly previous." There are only
+about 130,000 Chinese in America, and great numbers are returning
+as the result of hard times, and I fear harder treatment. There is
+no indication that we are to be overrun by them, and until they
+change their religious ideas and come to California to marry,
+settle, die, and be buried there, it is preposterous to believe
+there is any thing in the agitation against them beyond the usual
+prejudice of the ignorant races next to them in the social scale.
+
+I met the owner of a quicksilver mine, whose remarks shed a flood
+of light upon the matter. The mine yields a lean ore, and did not
+pay when worked by white labor costing $2 to $2.50 per day. He
+contracted with a Chinaman to furnish 170 men at one-half these
+rates. They work well, doing as much per man as the white man can
+do in this climate. He has no trouble with them--no fights, no
+sprees, no strikes. The difference in the cost enables him to work
+at a profit a mine which otherwise would be idle; and to such as
+talk against Chinese labor in the neighborhood, he replies, "Very
+well, drive it off if you please, but the mine stops if you do."
+The benefit to the district of having a mine actively at work has
+so far insured protection. This is the whole story. Our free
+American citizen from Tipperary and the restless rowdy of home
+growth find a rival beating them in the race, and instead of
+taking the lesson to heart and practising the virtues which cause
+the Chinaman to excel, they mount the rostrum and proclaim that
+this is a "white man's country," and "down with the nigger and the
+Heathen Chinee," and "three cheers for whiskey and a free fight!"
+The Chinese question has not reached a stage requiring
+legislation, nor, if let alone, will it do so for centuries to
+come--and not then unless the Chinese change their religious
+ideas, which they have not done for thousands of years, and are
+not likely to do in our time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FRIDAY, November 1
+
+We saw flying-fishes to-day for the first time. The captain had
+been telling us as we approached the 3Oth degree of latitude that
+we should see these curiosities, and, sure enough, while standing
+on the bridge this morning, looking toward the bow, I saw three
+objects rise out of the water and fly from us. One seemed as large
+as a herring, the others were like humming-birds. They have much
+larger wings than I had supposed, and shine brightly in the sun as
+they fly. We have on board a gentleman connected with the Dutch
+Government, who visits their out-of-the-way possessions in the
+Malay Archipelago. He has been where a white man never was
+before--in the interior of New Guinea--and has seen strange
+things. He tells us that the birds of paradise take seven years to
+develop. The first year male and female are alike, but year after
+year the male acquires brighter feathers, until it becomes the
+superb bird we know. Some one remarked that it is just the reverse
+with the birds of paradise in man's creation. Here our Eve puts on
+gayer plumage year after year until finally she develops into a
+still more superb bird, while the male remains the same
+sober-suited fowl he was at first; but this was from a bachelor,
+I think.
+
+We are in a new world, and the talk is all of people and islands and
+animals we never heard of. Do you know, for instance, that such a
+potentate as the Sultan of Terantor exists? and, ambitious ruler
+that he is, that he now claims tribute from the whole of New Guinea?
+Then, again, let me tell you that the Sultan of Burnei gets $6,000
+per year tribute from Setwanak, and, like a grasping tyrant, demands
+more; hence the wars which rage in that quarter of the globe. The
+Setwanaks have appealed to the "God of Battles," and are no doubt
+shouting on all hands that "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to
+God;" and "Millions for defence; not a cent for tribute." Look out
+for their forthcoming declaration of independence; and why shouldn't
+they have their "_Whereases_" as well as your even Christian? The
+only trouble is that when monarchs fight nothing is settled as a
+rule; what one loses to-day, he tries to win back to-morrow, and so
+the masses are kept in a state of perpetual war, or preparation for
+war, equally expensive. If Herbert Spencer had never formulated
+anything but the law underlying these sad contentions between man
+and man, he would have deserved to rank as one of our greatest
+benefactors. "When power is arbitrarily held by chief or king, the
+military spirit is developed, and wars of conquest and dynasties
+ensue; and just in proportion as power is obtained by the people,
+the industrial type is developed and peace ensues." Therefore the
+greatest thinker of the age is a republican. I quote from memory,
+but the substance is there, and it is because this law is true that
+there is hope for the future of the world, for everywhere the people
+are marching to political power. England is yet the world's greatest
+offender, because she is still ruled by the few, her boasted
+representative system being only a sham. When the masses do really
+govern, England will be pacific and make friends throughout the
+world instead of enemies, "and sing the songs of peace to all her
+neighbors."
+
+The Dutch have 35,000,000 under their sway in Java and the other
+Malay Islands; as many as Great Britain has within her borders.
+The world gets most of its spices and its coffee from these
+people. So the Dutch are not to be credited only with having taken
+Holland, you see.
+
+Another Chinaman is reported gone to-day: all have to be embalmed,
+of course, and the doctor gets as his fee $12.50 for each corpse.
+He complained to me the other day that these people would not take
+his medicines, and, Scotchman--like, didn't see the point I
+made--that they might naturally hesitate to swallow the potions of
+one whose highest reward arose from a fatal result. The Heathen
+Chinee is not a fool. The coffins of the dead on the wheel-house
+begin to make quite a show; they are covered with canvas, but one
+will sometimes see the pile. Not one of these men could ever have
+been induced to leave his home without satisfactory assurance that
+in case of death his remains would be carried back and carefully
+buried in the spot where he first drew breath. I remember reading
+in MacLeod's "Highland Parish" that so strongly implanted is this
+sentiment in the Highlanders that even a wife who marries out of
+her clan is brought home at her death and buried among her own
+kith and kin. I confess to a strange sympathy with this feeling
+myself. It seems to agree with the eternal fitness of things, that
+where we first saw day we should rest after the race is run. Yes,
+the old song is right:
+
+  "Wherever we wander in life's stormy ways
+   May our paths lead to home ere the close of our days,
+   And our evening of life in serenity close
+   In the Isle where the bones of our Fathers repose."
+
+One of our company has kindly shown me "some things in waves"
+which I have always passed over before. Hereafter they will have a
+new interest and a new beauty for me. I now watch by the hour for
+some rare effect and colors to which I was before stone-blind.
+Some of the rarest jewels are rated by comparison with the emerald
+and aqua-marine tints shown by the pure waves of the ocean.
+Thanks, my fellow-traveller, for a new sense awakened.
+
+The albatrosses, which follow us in large numbers, are a source of
+pleasure. These are not the sacred birds of the Ancient Mariner,
+but are of the same species. They excel all other birds, I think,
+in power and gracefulness of flight. It is rather a glide than a
+fly, as they appear scarcely ever to flap their wings, but sail on
+as it were "by the sole act of their unlorded will." No wonder
+such woe befell the Ancient Mariner through killing one. They are
+too grand to destroy. Last evening I had a treat in seeing these
+birds gathering for the night on the waters in the hollow of a
+deep wave. A dozen were already in the nest as our ship swept
+past, and others were coming every moment from all directions to
+the fold; probably thirty birds would thus nestle together through
+the long night in the middle of this waste of waters. I was glad
+for their sakes, poor wanderers, that their lonely lives were
+brightened at night by the companionship of their fellows.
+
+Our second Sunday at sea. As I write, the bell tolls for church.
+Our missionary will have a small congregation, for there are only
+twenty-two passengers. I trust he will be moved to speak to us,
+away in mid-ocean, of the great works of the Unknown, the mighty
+deep, the universe, the stars, at which we nightly wonder, and not
+drag us down to the level of dogmas we can know nothing of, and
+about which we care less. The sermon is over. Pshaw! He spent the
+morning attempting to prove to us that the wine Christ made at the
+marriage feast was not fermented, as if it mattered, or as if this
+could ever be known! and I was in the mood to preach such a
+magnificent sermon myself, too, if I had had his place. No; I
+shall never forgive him--never!
+
+It is an even chance that this missionary will one day inflict
+such frivolous stuff upon the heathen as part of the divine
+message; for of the majesty, the sweetness, and the reforming
+power of Christ's teaching and character, he seems to have not the
+faintest conception. To the enquiry one constantly hears in the
+East, why churches send forth as missionaries such inferior men as
+they generally do, whose task is to eradicate error and plant
+truth--there is this to be said: churches must take the best
+material at their disposal, and men who have the ability to
+influence their fellows through the pulpit find their best and
+highest work at home. This leaves the incapables for foreign
+service. The other class from which missionaries must be drawn are
+the over-zealous, who have plenty of enthusiastic emotional
+fervor, but combined in most cases with narrow, dogmatic
+views--the very kind of men to irritate the people to whom they
+are sent, and the least likely to win their hearts or reach their
+understanding. There are notable exceptions, able men who still go
+at duty's call; but such generally see that they can be ill spared
+from more pressing home work.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MONDAY, November 4.
+
+Our course is the southerly one, 5,120 miles to Yokohama, some
+five hundred miles farther than that of the great circle; but for
+the increased distance we have full compensation in the delightful
+weather and calm seas we experience. The water is about 72°, the
+air 73°, so that it is genial on deck. We are really in summer
+weather--something so different from Atlantic sailing that I get
+accustomed to it with difficulty. Last night at ten o'clock we
+passed the half-way point ten days and eight hours out. The
+captain showed us his chart to-day, and it was reassuring to see
+that to-morrow we shall pass within 120 miles of land--the Midway
+Islands. Upon one of this coral group the Pacific Mail Company has
+deposited 3,000 tons of coal and a large amount of mess pork as a
+reserve supply in case any steamer should be disabled. We passed
+the Sandwich Islands, not more than 450 miles to the southward,
+when one quarter of the way over, and the Bonin Islands occupy
+about the same relative position in our course to the eastward, so
+that the immense distance between San Francisco and Yokohama is
+finely provided for in case of accident. You have but to sail
+southward and find a port of refuge. Indeed, there is along this
+entire parallel of latitude a new strip of land under process of
+manufacture. A good chart shows islands dotting the South Pacific
+Ocean, all of coral formation; these millions of toilers are hard
+at work, and it is only a question of time when our posterity will
+run by rail from the Sandwich to the Philippine Islands, always
+provided that the work of these little builders is not interfered
+with by forces which destroy. Thus the grand, never-ending work of
+creation goes on, cycle upon cycle, revealing new wonders at every
+turn and knowing no rest or pause.
+
+Gone, November 5th, 1878, a _dies non_, which never was born.
+Lost, strayed, or stolen--a rare diadem, composed of twenty-four
+precious gems--some diamonds bright, some rubies rare, some jet as
+black as night. It was to have been displayed at midnight to an
+admiring few who nightly gaze upon the stars, but when looked for
+it was nowhere to be found. A well-known party, familiarly known
+as Old Sol, is thought to be concerned in the matter, but chiefly
+is suspected a notorious thief who has stolen many precious
+jewels--Old Father Time. Oh! many an hour has that thief stolen,
+but this gobbling up of a whole day and night at one fell swoop
+seems out of all reason. Yet he has done it! We have no 5th of
+November. An amusing story is told of some clergymen returning to
+America, in which case a day is gained, and it is necessary to
+have two days of the same date instead of omitting one, as in our
+case. The line was crossed on Sunday, and the captain, never
+thinking, called out to the chief officer to make another Sunday
+to-morrow. One of the clergymen was Scotch, and Presbyterian at
+that. "Mak a Sawbath--mak the holy Sawbath; ma conscience!" The
+order had been given, however, and two Sundays were observed; but
+our scandalized friend could never be reconciled to the captain
+who had presumed to have a holy Sabbath of his "ain making."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THURSDAY, November 7.
+
+These nights were not made for sleep, nor these days either, for
+that matter; but of all the nights I have ever seen I think this
+one excels. The moon is overhead and at the full, casting her
+mellow light around, suffusing with a soft glory the heavens
+above, and lending to the dancing, foaming waves a silvery
+shimmer. Jupiter is on the western horizon, fading out of sight,
+but how lustrous! Lyra, Arcturus, Aldebaran, seem of gigantic
+size. All sails are set, and a fair, balmy wind from the sweet
+south makes the Belgic glide through the rushing waters. We are
+only twenty miles from the Morrell Islands. How I long for a
+deckful of my friends to exult with me in this delight! Nothing
+but Byron's lines will do it justice. They are too long to quote
+here, but here are a few lines, which I must repeat:
+
+                     .... "for the night
+   Hath been to me a more familiar face
+   Than that of man; and in her starry shade
+   Of dim and solitary loveliness
+   I learned the language of another world."
+
+One does feel in such moments, when beauty and sublimity are so
+overpoweringly displayed, that there are worlds and life beyond
+our ken, or should be such, for this short day on earth surely
+should be but the foretaste of a sublime existence which such
+moods indicate as our congenial home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FRIDAY, November 8.
+
+I know I went to bed some time early this morning, but after
+reading last night's effusion in the cold, sober light of day, it
+strikes me I must have been rather enthusiastic. However, as I
+intend these notes to be an honest record of my feelings, I shall
+not attempt to modify the outburst. I know I recited poetry all
+the evening as I trod the deck, and therefore was in the mood for
+anything. The captain told me to-night that in all his voyages at
+this season he had never had one so fine as this. Of course he
+hadn't. Just our luck, you see. He never had one who enjoyed a
+trip more--that he is free to confess. I fairly revel in the sea,
+and pity poor Vandy, who is never quite up to the mark on
+shipboard. Some far-away ancestor, some good Scotch "deil ma
+care," who took to smuggling instead of the more fashionable
+occupation of cattle-stealing, for most of the carles
+
+  "Found the meat that made their broth
+   In England and in Scotland both,"
+
+must have implanted in the Carnegies the instinct of the salmon
+for the sea. I should have been a sailor bold, and sailed the
+"sawt, sawt faeme," a pirate with a pirate's bride captured _vi
+et armis_, and all the rest of it.
+
+I am up late again to-night, but, fortunately, there wasn't a soul
+on deck to hear me trying to sing
+
+  "Up, up with the flag; let it wave o'er the sea,
+   I'm afloat, I'm afloat, and the Rover is free!"
+
+The officer on the bridge halloaed to me once, and asked if I
+wanted any thing; but I forgave him. He could only hear my roaring
+at his distance; had I been nearer, the melody would no doubt have
+reached his ears, and he would have known I was singing a tune.
+Still I thought it politic to affect not having heard him, and
+quietly stepped down to bed. I shall avoid friend Ryan in the
+morning, as it would be embarrassing to be asked, especially
+before the young ladies, who or what I was howling at last night.
+Some people have no tact, and he might be one of these and fail to
+comprehend. With the exception of the officers, our crew, sailors,
+stewards, and all, are Chinese, and in all and each of these
+capacities they excel. They stand the heat of the furnaces better
+than any other people, and as stewards are models.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SUNDAY, November 10.
+
+Our third Sunday at sea. The past week has been unbroken sunshine,
+moonlight, and smooth seas. So far not a ship has been seen. I
+have read carefully eleven of Shakespeare's plays during the spare
+hours of the voyage, and have enjoyed those most with which I was
+least familiar, while some passages in even the best known I
+wonder greatly at not having long ere this committed to memory, to
+live there with the rest, and come at my call to minister to me.
+They are such gems. I have them now, and feel as if I have made
+new friends, whose angel visits will do me good in days and nights
+to come. Byron affected to disparage the master, but I note two
+other gems, beside many I knew of before, for which he stands
+indebted. The idea in his celebrated lines in "Mazeppa"--
+
+  "Methought that mist of dawning gray
+   Would never dapple into day"--
+
+is from _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, and the "Bright,
+particular star" from _All's Well that Ends Well_. But of
+course I do not intend any reflection upon Byron. Such was, and
+is, the all-pervading, transcendent nature of Shakespeare's
+genius; it was, and is, and shall be for ages yet to come, simply
+impossible for any writer to avoid drawing from that fountain, for
+every thing has its "environment," and Shakespeare is the
+environment of all English-speaking men.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WEDNESDAY, November 13.
+
+Four hundred and fifty miles from land! To-day we have had the
+only taste of Neptune's power he has favored us with: it began to
+blow at midnight, and today we have a grand sea. I have just come
+from the deck after witnessing the Pacific in its fury, and no one
+would believe that one ocean could differ as much from another as
+this does from the Atlantic. The waves here move in immense
+masses. It is an acre of water in motion, as one solid lump,
+instead of a few feet square dashed into foam. One says
+instinctively,
+
+  "What care these roarers for the name of king?"
+
+I have noticed that even in the smallest waves cast aside by the
+ship formations are different from those of other seas. It is
+midnight, and we are only 125 miles from Japan. Not a passenger
+except myself on deck, but I cannot sleep. Vandy would be with me,
+I know, poor fellow, were he able to crawl, but the storm has
+settled him for the present. How strange that none feel sufficient
+interest to stay awake and watch with me! They would be amply
+repaid. The phosphorescent sea shows forth its wonders now--not
+alone in the myriads of small stars of light, which please you in
+the Atlantic, but at every turn of the foam dashed from the bow
+and sides of the ship masses of glittering phosphorescence as
+large as my travelling cap. What creatures these must be which can
+emit light in such clusters! I leave the deck with the cheery
+"All's well!" ringing in my ears as the ship dances before the
+wind which brings to a close our long flight across the Pacific.
+How we have longed for this last night, and yet how often in after
+life are we to sigh for a return to the glorious nights we have
+lived at sea! Where we have
+
+  "Mingled with the universe to feel
+   What we can ne'er express,
+   Nor cannot all conceal."
+
+Good-night, my band of dear, dear friends, now in the midst of
+your daily toil--for it is yet day with you--racking your brains
+that the holiday wanderer may revel as he is now doing. In the
+earnest hope that the day may not be far distant when to you may
+come similar enjoyment when he is the toiler, he goes at last to
+bed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FRIDAY, November 15.
+
+Land ahoy! The islands of Japan are in sight, and the entrance to
+the bay is reached at 4 P.M. The sail up this bay is never to be
+forgotten. The sun set as we entered, and then came such a sky as
+Italy cannot rival. I have seen it pictured as deluging Egypt with
+its glory, but this we have yet to see. Fusiyama itself shone
+forth under its rays, its very summit clear, more than 14,000 feet
+above us. The clouds in large masses lay east and west of the
+peak, but cowering far below, as if not one speck dared to rise to
+its crown. It stood alone in solitary grandeur, by far the most
+impressive mountain I have yet seen; for mountains, as a rule, are
+disappointing, the height being generally attained by gradations.
+It is only to Fusiyama, and such as it, that rise alone in one
+unbroken pyramid, that one can apply Schiller's grand line,
+
+  "Ye are the things which tower,"
+
+Fusiyama _towers_ beyond any crag or peak I know of; and I do
+not wonder that in early days the Japanese made the home of their
+gods upon its crest.
+
+It was nine o'clock when the anchor dropped, and in a few minutes
+after small boats crowded alongside to take us ashore. Until you
+are rowed in a sampan in style, never flatter yourself you have
+known the grotesque in the way of transportation. Fancy a large,
+wide canoe, with a small cabin in the stern, the deck in front
+lower than the sides, and on this four creatures, resembling
+nothing on earth so much as the demons in the _Black Crook_,
+minus most of the covering. They stand two on each side, but not
+in a line, and each works a long oar scull-fashion, accompanying
+each stroke with shouts such as we never heard before; the last
+one steers as well as sculls with his oar, and thus we go
+propelled by these yelling devils, who apparently work themselves
+into a state of fearful excitement. We land finally, pass the
+Custom House without examination, and with sea-legs which are far
+from steady reach our hotel. A bite of supper--but what fearful
+creatures again to bow and wait on us! More demons. We laugh every
+minute at some funny performance, and wonder where we can be; but
+how surprisingly good every thing is which we eat or drink on land
+after twenty-two days at sea!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TUESDAY, November 19.
+
+We have been three days in Japan, and all we can tell you is that
+we are powerless to convey more than the faintest idea of that
+which meets us at every turn. Had we to return to-morrow, we
+should still feel that we had been fully compensated for our
+journey. Though we have seen most of the strange and novel which
+Europe has to show, a few hours' stroll in Yokohama or Tokio has
+revealed to us more of the unexpected than all we ever saw
+elsewhere. No country I have visited till now has proved as
+strange as I had imagined it; the contrary obtains here. All is so
+far beyond what I had pictured it that I am constantly regretting
+so few of my friends will probably ever visit Japan to see and
+enjoy for themselves. Let me try to describe a walk. We are at the
+hotel door, having received the repeated bows, almost to the
+ground, of numerous demons. A dozen big fellows rush up, each
+between the shafts of his "ginrikshaw" like a cab-horse, and
+invite us to enter, just as cabmen do elsewhere. But look at their
+costume, or shall I rather say want of costume? No shoes, unless a
+mat of straw secured with straw strings twisted around and between
+the big toe and the next one may be called a shoe; legs and body
+bare, except a narrow strip of rag around the loins; and such a
+hat! it is either of some dark material, as big as the head of a
+barrel (I do not exaggerate), to shelter them from sun and rain,
+or a light straw flat of equal size. These are the Bettoes, who
+will run and draw you eighteen miles in three hours and a quarter,
+this being the distance and time by "ginrikshaw" to Tokio. We
+decline their proffers and walk on. What is this? A man on stilts!
+His shoes are composed of a flat wooden sole about a quarter of an
+inch thick, on which the foot rests, elevated upon two similar
+pieces of board, about four inches high, placed crosswise. about
+three inches apart. On the edges of these cross-pieces he struts
+along. A second has solid wooden pieces of equal height, a third
+has flat straw shoes, a fourth has none. Look out behind! What is
+this noise? "Hulda, hulda, hulda!" shouted in our ears. We look
+around, and four coolies, as naked as Adam, one at each corner of
+a four-wheel truck, pushing a load of iron and relieving
+themselves at every step by those unearthly groans. Never have we
+seen that indispensable commodity transported in that fashion
+before. But look there! A fishmonger comes with a basket swinging
+on each end of a bamboo pole carried over the shoulder--all single
+loads are so carried--and yonder goes a water-carrier, carrying
+his stoups in the same manner, while over his shoulders he has
+flung a coat that would make the reputation of a clown in the
+circus. The dress of the women is not so varied, but their painted
+lips and whitened necks, and, in the case of the married women,
+their blackened teeth, afford us much cause for staring, although
+I cannot bear to look upon these hideous-looking wretches when
+they smile; I have to turn my eyes away. How women can be induced
+to make such disgusting frights of themselves I cannot conceive,
+but Fashion--Fashion does anything. The appearance of the children
+is comical in the extreme. They are so thickly padded with dress
+upon dress as to give them the look of little fat Esquimaux. The
+women invariably carry them on their backs, Indian fashion. Here
+are two Japs meeting in the middle of the street. They bow three
+times, each inclination lower and more profound than the preceding
+one, infinite care being taken to drop the proper number of inches
+befitting their respective ranks, and then shake their own hands
+in token of their joy. We soon reach the region of the shops.
+These are small booths, and squat on the floor sit four or five
+men and women around a brazier, warming their hands while they
+smoke. All the shops are of wood, but a small part is constructed
+of mud, and is said to be fire-proof. In this the valuables are
+instantly thrown when one of the very frequent fires occurs. The
+floors are matted, and kept scrupulously clean. No one thinks of
+entering without first taking his shoes off. The shop floors are
+raised about eighteen inches above the street, and on the edges
+purchasers sit sidewise and make their bargains. The entire street
+is a pavement, as no horses are to be provided for. We visited the
+tea factories at Yokohama. Japan has become of late years an
+exporter of tea to America, no less than five thousand tons being
+shipped last year. Tea when first gathered is tasteless, but after
+being exposed to the sun it ferments like hay. It is then curled,
+twisted, baked, and brought to the dealers, who again pick it over
+carefully and roll it into the form in which it reaches us. We saw
+many hundreds of women and girls in the establishment of Messrs.
+Walsh, Hall & Co. rolling rapidly about with their hands a
+quantity of the leaves in large round pots under which a small
+charcoal fire was burning. And now, for the benefit of my lady
+friends, let me explain that the difference between black and
+green tea is simply this: the former is allowed to cure or ferment
+in the sun about fifty minutes longer than the latter, and during
+this extra fifty minutes certain elements pass off which are
+thought to affect the nervous system; hence green tea has a
+greater effect upon weak nerves than the black, but you see the
+same leaf makes either kind, as the owner elects. But here comes
+in a strange prejudice. Green tea of the natural color could not
+be sold in the American market. No, we insist upon having a
+"prettier green," and we are accommodated, of course. What can a
+dealer do but meet the imperious demands of his patrons? The
+required color is obtained by adulterating the pure tea with a
+mixture of indigo and gypsum, which the most conscientious dealers
+are compelled to do. But we saw used in one case Prussian blue,
+which is poisonous--this, however, was not in Messrs. Walsh, Hall
+& Co.'s--and I was told that ultramarine is sometimes resorted to.
+These more pernicious substances produce even a "prettier green"
+than the indigo and gypsum, and secure the preference of ignorant
+people. Moral--Stick to black tea and escape poison. For all of
+which information, and many kind attentions, I have to thank Mr.
+Walsh, our banker.
+
+One hears very often in Japan during the night a long, plaintive
+kind of whistle, which, upon inquiry, I found proceeded from blind
+men or women, called shampooers, who are employed to rub or pinch
+those suffering from pain, and who cure restlessness by the same
+means. It is a favorite cure of the Japanese, and some foreigners
+tell us they have employed it with success. I suppose, this
+climate being productive of rheumatism and kindred pains, the
+people are prone to fly to anything that secures temporary relief;
+but it is a new idea, this, of being pinched to sleep.
+
+We live well at the hotels here. Japan abounds in fish and game in
+great variety. Woodcock, snipe, hares, and venison are cheap, and
+all of excellent quality. The beef and mutton are also good, as
+are the vegetables. Turnips, radishes and carrots are enormous,
+owing, I suppose to the depth and fineness of the soil. Vandy
+measured some of each, and reports: "Radishes, eighteen inches,
+and beautifully white; carrots, twenty inches, and splendid."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WEDNESDAY, November 20.
+
+We started this morning from Yokohama for Tokio, the great city of
+the Empire, which contains 1,030,000 inhabitants, according to a
+census taken last year. Until within a few years past Japan had
+two rulers--the Mikado, or spiritual, and the Tycoon, or secular
+ruler, although, strictly speaking, the former was theoretically
+the supreme ruler, the latter obtaining his power through marriage
+with the family of the former. The seat of the Mikado was at
+Kioto, a fine city near the centre of the island, while the Tycoon
+resided at Tokio, or Yeddo, as it was then called. The Mikado was
+invisible, being the veritable veiled prophet, none but a
+privileged few being ever permitted to gaze upon his divine
+person. A few years ago it was decided to combine the two powers,
+and make Yeddo the only capital. The Mikado was carried to Yeddo
+closely veiled, in triumphal procession, and the vast crowds,
+assembled at every point to see the cavalcade, prostrated
+themselves, and remained with eyes bent upon the ground as the
+sacred car approached. An eye-witness describing the entry into
+Tokio says that few dared to look up as the Presence passed.
+Lately, the same Mikado has made a royal progress through the
+country, meeting the principal men in each district, and
+travelling in view of the entire population, so rapidly have
+manners changed in Japan. When the Mikado was elevated to supreme
+power, the feudal system, which had existed up to that time, was
+abolished, and we now see no more of the Samuri, or two-sworded
+men, or of the Daimios, the petty princes who formerly promenaded
+the streets in gorgeous dresses, accompanied by their military
+retainers. The soldiers, sailors, policemen, and all the official
+classes are dressed in European style. It is the reigning fashion
+to be European, and even furniture after our patterns is coming
+into use. It is the same with food. The hotel where we are
+rejoices in a French cook, expressly imported, and every night we
+have parties of wealthy Japanese dining at this Tokio Delmonico's.
+Last night we had a party of the most celebrated actors enjoying a
+dinner to commemorate the successful completion of a new piece
+which had enjoyed a great run. I amused myself trying to select
+the Montagu, Gilbert, Becket, and Booth of the party, and
+succeeded well, as I afterward heard. Actors are held in
+estimation in Tokio, and these attracted great attention as they
+dined. Matters are much as with us, I fancy. Our interpreter, in
+his broken English, told us in regard to the two young lovers,
+"Very high thought by much high ladies--oh, very high!" I do not
+think European dress improves the appearance of the Japanese
+gentlemen; they are very short, and--I regret to report
+it--generally quite crooked in the legs, and their own flowing
+costumes render them dignified and graceful. Indeed, after a
+residence in the East for a while one agrees with the opinion he
+hears often expressed there that our costume is the most
+unpicturesque dress in the world.
+
+We were fortunate in having as shipmates Captain Totaki, of the
+navy, and a young lady, Mlle. Rio, who had been in America several
+years, and had acquired an English education. They were
+excessively kind to us during our entire stay, and much of the
+pleasure derived is due to them. The captain gave us one evening
+an entertainment at a fashionable tea-house, and introduced us to
+the celebrated singing and dancing girls of Japan, of whom all
+have heard. We were shown into a large room, the floor of which
+was covered with bamboo matting laid upon some soft substance. Of
+course our shoes were laid aside at the door of the house. There
+were neither chairs nor furniture of any kind, but subsequently
+chairs were found for us. The salutations on the part of the
+numerous women servants were most profound, each prostrating
+herself to the floor, and touching the mat with her forehead every
+time she entered or left the apartment. Velvet mats were carried
+into the room by a servant and placed around a brazier of
+charcoal. In a few minutes servant after servant entered,
+prostrating herself to the ground, and placing before us some
+Japanese delicacy. One served soup in small lacquer bowls, another
+fish, a third cakes, a fourth tea in very tiny cups, and others
+various things, and finally saki, the wine of the country, was
+produced, served in small cups like the tea. Then came the girls.
+Seven approached, each carrying a musical instrument of queer
+construction. They bowed profoundly, but I noticed did not touch
+the mat with their foreheads, their rank being much superior to
+that of the servants, and began to play and sing.
+
+No entertainment is complete without a troop of these Gahazi
+girls, and such entertainments form about the only social
+amusement of the Japanese. And now for the music. Please
+understand that the Japanese scale is not like ours, and nothing
+like melody to our ears can be produced by it. They have a full
+tone between each first and second note, and a semitone between
+each third and fourth, and yet the same feelings are awakened in
+them by their music as in us by ours, so that harmony itself is
+simply a matter of education after all, and the glorious Fifth
+Symphony itself, "Lohengrin," or "Scots wha hae," played or sung
+as I have heard them, would convey no more meaning to these people
+than so much rattling of cross-bones; but imagine the Fifth
+Symphony on any scale but ours! I cannot reconcile myself to the
+idea that we have not the only scale for such a theme; but one has
+to learn that there are different ways for every thing, and no one
+who knows much will assume that he has the best. Owing to the
+change of the scale, I suppose I missed the sentiment of every
+piece performed. When I thought they were giving us a wail for the
+dead it turned out to be a warm welcome, and an assurance on the
+part of those pretty maidens of their happiness in being permitted
+the great honor of performing before such illustrious visitors.
+Our companion, Mile. Rio, took one of the instruments and played
+and sang a piece for us, but I was not more fortunate in my guess
+with her. It was a wedding chorus, which I was willing to wager
+was the Japanese "Miserere"; but this error may have its
+significance after all. To us, in short, the music was execrable.
+A falsetto, and a grinding, singsong falsetto at that--the most
+disagreeable sound I ever heard in music--is very common, and
+highly esteemed. The instruments resemble banjos, and there is a
+harsh kind of drum accompaniment; but there is one larger string
+instrument, the Japanese piano, upon which much older women play,
+the younger girls not being sufficiently skilled to perform upon
+it.
+
+After a few songs had been sung, several of the girls laid down
+their banjos, and after obeisance prepared to dance. Instead of
+being a sprightly performance to, lively music, "first ae caper
+syne anither," Japanese dancing is a very stately and measured
+performance, the body instead of the feet being most brought into
+requisition. With the aid of the indispensable fan the girls
+succeed in depicting many different emotions, and all with
+exquisite grace. It is the very poetry of motion. Each dance
+illustrates a story, and is as well known by name as is the
+"Highland Fling" or the "Sailor's Hornpipe." Here there was no
+difficulty in following the story. Unlike music, acting is a
+universal language, and in its domain "one touch of nature makes
+the whole world kin." There are no different scales for the
+expression of feeling. Love, in some of its manifold forms, as was
+to have been expected, is the theme of most of these dances. I
+redeemed my reputation here as a guesser, I think. I could give a
+very fair report to Mlle. Rio of most that took place in the
+dances, and we enjoyed this portion of the entertainment highly.
+To a Japanese, how stupid our people must appear whirling round a
+room until fatigued or dizzy, all for the fun of the thing!
+
+The dresses of the girls were of the richest and most fashionable
+description, the quietness of the colors surprising us, and their
+manners those of high-born women. Indeed, they set the fashions,
+and are the best educated and most accomplished of their sex.
+These girls are sent for to furnish entertainment for an evening
+just as we would engage a band for a party. They are said to be
+highly respectable as a class, invariably reside with their
+parents, who educate them at great expense, and often make, we
+were told, very favorable marriages. The contrast between them and
+their less accomplished sisters is so great as to strike even us,
+who have been here only a few days, and must be held ignorant of
+style.
+
+The most wonderful sights of Tokio are the temples and the famous
+tombs of the Tycoons. There is much similarity in the latter, but
+that of the sixth Tycoon, at Shibba, is by far the most
+magnificent. It has been rendered familiar by photographs and
+engravings, and at any rate no description would convey a just
+idea of it. It is gorgeous in color, and the extreme delicacy of
+the gold is surprising; upon it, too, are found the finest known
+specimens of the old lacquer. But these tombs totally failed to
+impress me with any feeling akin to reverence; indeed, nothing in
+Japan seems calculated to do so--the odor of the toyshop pervades
+everything, even their temples. As for their religious belief, it
+is hard to tell what it is, or whether they have any. One thing is
+sure, the educated classes have discarded the faith of the
+multitude, if they ever really entertained it, and no longer
+worship the gods of old. The ignorant classes, however, are seen
+pouring into the temples with their modest offerings, and asking
+for prayers in their behalf. It is in Japan as it was in
+Greece--one religion for the masses, and another, or rather none
+in the ordinary sense, for the educated few.
+
+As in Catholic countries, some shrines are esteemed more than
+others. The Temple of the Foxes is the most popular in the Empire.
+It is adorned with statues of Master Reynard in various postures.
+His votaries are numerous, for the sagacity of the fox has passed
+into a proverb, and these people hope by prayers and gifts to move
+the fox-god to bestow upon them the shrewdness of the symbol. The
+fox may be justly rated as the most successful preacher in Japan:
+he draws better than any other, and his congregation is the
+largest; but he has a rival not without pretensions in the
+favorite goddess "Emma." We found her to be a large, very fat
+woman, sitting in Japanese style, and surrounded by images of
+children. Babies cluster like cherubs around the principal figure,
+while an attendant sells for a cent apiece ugly painted ones made
+out of clay, many of which have been placed by worshippers before
+the goddess. As we approached, a young woman--married, for her
+teeth were black, and respectably but not richly dressed--was on
+her knees before the goddess so earnestly engaged in prayer that
+she appeared wholly unconscious of our presence. There was no
+mistaking that this was sincere devotion--a lifting up of the soul
+to some power considered higher than itself. I became most anxious
+to know what sorrow could so move her, and our interpreter
+afterward told us that she asked but one gift from the goddess. It
+was the prayer of old that a man-child should be born to her; and,
+poor woman! when one knows what her life must be in this country
+should this prayer remain unanswered, it saddens one to think of
+it. A living death; another installed in her place; all that woman
+holds dear trembling in the balance. How I pitied her! I also saw
+men praying before other idols and working themselves into a state
+of frenzy. Indeed I saw so much in the temples to make me unhappy
+that I wished I had never visited any of them. It gives one such
+desponding hopes of our race, of its present and of its future,
+when so many are so bound down to the lowest form of superstition.
+
+At one of the principal Shinto temples I saw the sacred dance with
+which that great god is propitiated. In a booth two stories high,
+in front of the temple, was a small stage upon which sat three old
+priests. One beat a drum, the second played a flute, while the
+third fingered a guitar. To this music a very pretty young
+daughter of a priest, gorgeously arrayed in sacred robes, postured
+with a fan, keeping time to the music. This was all. But, like the
+tom-tom beating of the Buddhist which we heard at the same moment
+from an opposite temple, the dance is thought to dispose the gods
+to receive favorably the gifts and prayers of the devotees. We saw
+at the same temple a large wooden figure which is reputed able to
+cure all manner of diseases. So much and so hard had this figure
+been rubbed by the poor sufferers that the nose is no longer
+there; the face is literally rubbed smooth. The ears are gone, and
+it is only a question of time when all traces of human form will
+have vanished. It reminded us of the toe of St. Peter, in the
+cathedral at Rome, which has been worn smooth by the osculations
+of devout Christians.
+
+Japan is rapidly adopting the manners and customs of European
+civilization. There is at present a cry for representative
+government, and one need not be surprised to hear by and by of the
+Parliament of Japan. War-ships are building at the arsenal, which
+are not only constructed but designed by native genius. A standing
+army of about 50,000 men is maintained. Gas has been introduced in
+some places, and railroads and telegraphs are in operation; and,
+not to be behind their neighbors, a public debt and irredeemable
+currency (based upon the property of the nation, of course,) have
+been created. The currency is now at 22 per cent. discount as
+compared with gold, and further depreciation is apprehended. (It
+has since reached 50 per cent. discount.) It is modelled on our
+American paper money, and is actually printed in New York. Let us
+hope that Japan may soon be able to follow the Republic farther by
+making it convertible--as good as gold. Notwithstanding its wide
+"base"--in short, our greenbackers' "base"--it doesn't seem to
+work here any better than at home.
+
+Art in Japan is utilitarian; in no other country are articles of
+common use so artistic. The furniture of a Japanese house is
+scanty. We see no walls hung with pictures with showy gilt frames,
+no portieres or curtains, none of the sofas, chairs, tables,
+brackets, chandeliers, etc., which give our rooms so crowded an
+appearance. The bareness of the rooms strikes one at once upon
+entering, but when one examines the utensils in daily use even by
+the poorer classes he sees that they are of uncommon beauty.
+Surely this is of more moment than to have art confined to the
+few, both as to articles and to persons. In Japan, art may be said
+to be democratic; all classes are brought under its sway.
+
+One thing must be said, however, about art throughout the East, in
+China and in India as well as in Japan: up to this time it has
+been content to remain solely decorative. The higher creative and
+imaginative power has yet to be reached. Why this should be so is
+an interesting question, and I resolve to read up the authorities
+when opportunity offers and see how they account for it. May not
+the poverty of the East have much to do with it? So very few are
+rich; indeed, scarcely any are opulent in our sense, six thousand
+dollars (£1,200) a year being considered a fortune in Japan, I am
+told, and very few, even of the higher classes, possess as much.
+In China and India it is much the same, a few rajahs in the latter
+country excepted.
+
+The start which religion gave to art in Europe is wanting in the
+East, for the temples are mean and destitute of costly works. Rich
+commercial and manufacturing classes do not exist in the East--as
+wealth does not run into "pockets" as it does in Europe--especially
+in England--and in America. I fear, therefore, that art in the East
+will not advance much beyond the decorative stage for centuries
+to come.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SATURDAY, November 23.
+
+Vandy and I walked to-day through the principal street of Tokio
+from end to end, a distance of three miles. It is a fine, broad
+avenue, crowded with people and vehicles drawn or pushed by men.
+There is also a line of small one-horse wagons running as
+omnibuses on the street--novel feature, unknown anywhere else in
+the Empire. Our appearance attracted such crowds whenever we
+stopped at a shop, that the police had to drive the gazers away.
+The city is built upon a plain, and supplied with water by wells
+only. Fires are of frequent occurrence. Japanese cities are such
+piles of combustible material that I wonder they exist at all. But
+fires are little used--only a brazier of charcoal now and then for
+cooking purposes; and as most of the people eat at cook-shops,
+there is never any fire at all in many of the houses. Long ladders
+are erected as fire-towers, and upon these watchmen sit through
+the night to give the alarm. It is only by tearing down or blowing
+up surrounding houses that the progress of a fire can generally be
+stayed. There is no such thing as insurance in Japan, the risks
+being much too great.
+
+The Japanese go to the theatre early in the morning and remain
+until five o'clock in the evening. Doors open at five A.M., but
+the rich classes do not appear before six or seven o'clock, at
+which hour the performance begins. Breakfast is served in the
+theatre about noon. The audience smoke, eat, sip tea, and enjoy
+themselves as they choose. No seats are provided, but a small mat
+is put down for each person as he enters, and beside it a box
+filled with sand, in the middle of which are two pieces of glowing
+charcoal, at which pipes are lighted. Ladies, as well as
+gentlemen, be it remembered, invariably smoke in Japan. Every one
+carries a small pipe with a long stem, and a tobacco-pouch
+attached to it. At short intervals a little tobacco is put into
+the pipe--just enough to give two whirls of smoke--after which the
+tobacco is knocked out and the pipe again replenished. In no case
+have I ever seen more than two very small whiffs taken at one
+time. Even young ladies smoke in this manner, and to one who
+detests tobacco, as I instinctively do, it may be imagined this
+habit did not add to their attractiveness. A sweetheart who
+defiled her lips with tobacco! "Phew!" Neither is it considered
+disrespectful in any degree to begin smoking in the presence of
+others. Deferential as the singing girls were, when at leisure
+they lighted their pipes as a matter of course, wholly unconscious
+that they were taking a liberty.
+
+The marriage ceremony differs greatly from ours. The priests have
+nothing to do with it, nor is there any religious ceremony. The
+parents of a young man select a proper wife for him when he is
+about twenty years of age, and manage the whole affair. They
+consult the young lady's parents, and if the match is a
+satisfactory one to them, writings are exchanged between the
+parents of the young couple, the day is appointed, and the bride
+and groom drink saki from the same cup; feasting and rejoicings
+follow, sometimes continued for several days if the parents are
+wealthy, and the marriage is consummated. In all cases the bride
+goes to reside with the husband's parents, to whom, much more than
+to the husband, it is necessary she should continue to be
+satisfactory. Very often three generations live together, and an
+amount of deference is paid to the oldest such as we have no
+conception of.
+
+The custom of blacking the teeth by married women, is the most
+revolting practice I have yet seen. I have been in the houses of
+fine people of Japan, and seen women, otherwise good-looking, who
+had only to open their lips to convert themselves into objects of
+disgust. I rejoice, therefore, to hear that fashion is setting in
+against this abomination, and that some of the more recent brides
+have refused to conform to the custom.
+
+One readily gets used to anything, earthquakes included, and Japan
+has many of these unruly visitors. One night we had three shocks
+at Tokio, one sufficiently strong to wake me from sleep. My bed
+shook violently, and the house threatened to fall upon us. The
+same night we had a large fire in the city, and a hundred shrill,
+tinkling bells, like so many cows in the woods, were rung to give
+the alarm. The clapping of the night watchmen about our street
+assured me, however, that it was all right with us, and I lay
+still. The night watchmen here use two small square pieces of hard
+wood which they strike frequently against each other as they go
+the rounds as their "All's well" signal; but I think strangers, as
+a rule, fail to appreciate the point in being awakened every now
+and then simply to be assured that there is not the slightest
+occasion for their being awake at all.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MONDAY, November 25.
+
+To-day we took a small steamer and visited the arsenal upon the
+invitation of our friend Captain Totaki, Mlle. Rio being of the
+party. It is finely situated on the bay about fifteen miles below
+Yokohama, and is quite extensive, having good shops filled with
+modern tools. Several ships have already been built here, and two
+men-of-war are now upon the stocks--another evidence of so-called
+civilization. Japan, you see, is ambitious. All the officials,
+foremen, and mechanics, are natives, and these have proved their
+ability in every department. The wages paid surprise us. All
+branches are about upon an equality. Painters, moulders,
+blacksmiths, carpenters, machinists, all get the same
+compensation--from 25 to 40 cents per day, according to their
+respective value as workmen; common labor, outside, 18 cents; shop
+labor, inside, 25 cents; foreman of department, $80 per month. Work,
+nine hours per day, every tenth day being a day of rest
+corresponding to our Sunday. In addition to the two men-of-war under
+construction, the machinery for which is all designed and
+manufactured here, the Emperor is having built for his private use a
+large side-wheel yacht, which promises to be magnificent. However
+poor a nation may be, or however depreciated its currency, if it set
+up an emperor, king, or queen, improper personal expenditure
+inevitably follows. Even as good a woman as Queen Victoria, probably
+the most respectable woman who ever occupied a throne--such a
+character as one would not hesitate to introduce to his family
+circle, which is saying much for a monarch--will squander thirty
+thousand pounds per annum of the people's money on a private yacht
+which she has used but a few times, and which is one of three she
+insists upon keeping at the State's expense. It is the old story:
+make any human being believe he is _born_ to position and he becomes
+arbitrary and inconsiderate of those who have exalted him. Serves
+the foolish ones right, I suppose is the proper verdict. But one is
+not indignant at the worship of their emperor by the Japanese: he is
+a real ruler, has power, and stands firmly upon divine right. The
+Japanese are yet children politically; but the English should be out
+of their swaddling-clothes, surely.
+
+The captain being high in command, and this being his first visit
+to the arsenal since his return from a tour round the world, he
+was received by the officials with manifestations of delight. We
+had another opportunity of seeing the bowing practice in its
+fullest development. The various foremen as they approached bowed
+three times almost to the ground, and in some cases they went
+first upon their knees and struck the floor three times with their
+foreheads. We were afterward informed that only a few years ago
+these would have added to the obeisance by extending the arms to
+their full length and placing the palms of the hands flat upon the
+ground; now this is omitted, and I have no doubt, as intelligence
+spreads, less and less of this deference will be exacted. But up
+to this date it may safely be said Japan is in the condition of
+Sir Pertinax MacSycophant, who, it will be remembered, admitted
+that his success came from "booing." He "never could stand strecht
+in the presence of a great man;" no more can a Japanese.
+
+My writing has just been interrupted by another earthquake shock.
+My chair began to tremble, then the house; I could not write, and
+looking up I saw Vandy standing in amazement. For a few moments it
+seemed as if we were rocking to pieces, and that the end of all
+things had come. I shall never forget the sensation. The motion of
+a ship rolling at sea transferred to land, where you have the
+solid earth and heavy stone walls surrounding and threatening to
+fall upon you, is far from agreeable; but it passed away, and old
+Mother Earth became steady once more.
+
+The way to buy in Japan is not by visiting the shops, for there
+nothing is displayed, and a stranger has infinite difficulty in
+learning where certain articles are to be found; but just intimate
+to your "boy" what you wish, and at your door in a few minutes
+stand not one or two merchants, but five or six, all bowing as you
+pass in or out, and awaiting master's pleasure to examine their
+wares. They leave any articles you may wish to decide upon, and
+the result is that one's rooms become perfect bazaars. The most
+unpleasant feature connected with purchasing is that everything is
+a matter of bargain. A price is named, and you are expected to
+make an offer. Vandy is a great success at this game, and seems to
+enjoy it. I am strictly prohibited from interfering, and so escape
+all trouble. It is always comforting to know that one's interests
+are in much abler hands than his own, and I always have this
+pleasure when Vandy is about.
+
+Wherever we go, Fusiyama looks down upon us. What a beautiful cone
+it is, and how grandly it pierces the heavens, its summit clad
+with perpetual snow! No wonder that the Japanese represent it on
+so many of their articles. Thousands of pilgrims flock to it
+annually from all parts of the Empire, for it is their sacred
+mount and the gods reward such as worship at this shrine. It was
+once an active volcano; but there has been no eruption since about
+1700, when ashes were thrown from it into Yeddo, sixty miles away.
+The crater is nearly five hundred feet deep. Fusiyama stands alone
+among mountains, a vast pyramid rising as Cheops does from the
+plain, no "rascally comparative" near to dispute its sway.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WEDNESDAY, November 27.
+
+We sail to-day for Shanghai, leaving Yokohama with sincere regret;
+nor shall we soon forget the good, kind faces of those who have done
+so much to make our visit to Japan an agreeable one. Had it been
+possible to remain until Saturday I should have been greatly tempted
+to do so to accept an invitation received to respond to a toast at
+St. Andrew's banquet. It would surely have stirred me to hold forth
+on Scotland's glory to my fellow-countrymen in Japan; but this had
+to be foregone. At Kiobe the steamer lay for twenty-four hours, and
+this enabled us to run up by rail to Kioto, the former residence of
+the Mikado, reputed to be the Paris of Japan. The city itself
+deserves this reputation about as well as Cincinnati does that of
+our American Paris, which I see some one has called it. Kioto is
+only a mass of poor one-story buildings, but its situation is
+beautiful, and cannot probably be equalled elsewhere in the Empire,
+and this one can justly say of Cincinnati as well, while the beauty
+of Paris is of the city and not at all rural. There are more pretty
+toy villas embowered in trees upon the little hills about Kioto than
+we saw in all other parts of Japan. The temples at Kioto are much
+inferior to those at Shibba. Our journey enabled us to see about
+seventy miles of the interior, and we were again impressed by the
+evidences on every hand of a teeming population. Gangs of men and
+women were everywhere at work upon small patches of ground, six or
+seven persons being busily engaged sometimes on less than one acre.
+It is not farming; there is in Japan scarcely such a thing as
+farming in our sense; it is a system of gardening such as we see in
+the neighborhood of large cities. Compared with that prevalent
+throughout the whole country, I have seen nothing equal to it in
+thoroughness, not even in Belgium.
+
+We are upon the old steamer Costa Rica, now belonging to the
+Japanese Company, which recently purchased this and other boats from
+the Pacific Mail Company. Among our cargo is a large lot of live
+turkeys which some pushing Jap is taking over to Shanghai for
+Christmas; and listen, you favored souls who revel in the famous
+bird at a dollar a head, your fellow countrymen in China have to pay
+ten dollars for their Christmas turkey. It is said the Chinese
+climate is too damp for the noble bird; but it flourishes in Japan.
+I wish the exporter who thus develops the resources of his country
+much profit on his venture. But it strikes me that, instead of the
+eagle, the more useful gobbler has superior claims to be voted the
+national bird of America. "A turkey for a dollar!" repeated the
+shipper as I told him our price; "a turkey for a dollar--what a
+country!" The climate of Northern China is not favorable for
+Europeans, and many take a run over to Japan to recuperate, a fact
+which argues much for the future of Japan. Although our ship belongs
+to the Japanese, the servants are generally Chinamen, and the agent
+explains this by informing us that while the former do very well
+until they arrive at the age of manhood, they then begin to develop
+more ambitious ideas and cannot be managed, while with the Chinese a
+"boy" (a servant throughout the East is called "boy") is always a
+boy, and is constantly on the watch to serve his master. Again, the
+Japs are pugnacious, a race of little game-cocks, always in for a
+fight, especially with a Chinaman. The captain told us the other day
+a great big Chinaman had complained to him that one of the Japs had
+abused him. Upon calling up the belligerent, he proved to be such a
+small specimen that the captain asked the sufferer why he hadn't
+picked him up and thrown him overboard. The complaint was dismissed:
+served the big fellow right. But some missionary should expound the
+civilized doctrine to him, per revised edition, which reads: "When
+smitten on the one cheek, turn to the smiter the other also, but if
+he smites you on that, _go for him_." To-morrow is to be one of the
+great days of our trip, for we shall enter the famous inland sea of
+Japan at daybreak. Will it be fine to-morrow? is the question with
+all on board. The signs are earnestly discussed. The sun sets
+favorably, and I quote Shakespeare to them, which settles the
+question:
+
+  "The weary sun hath made a golden set,
+   And by the bright track of his fiery car
+   Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow."
+
+Let to-morrow be fair, whatever we may miss hereafter. This is the
+universal sentiment.
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+SATURDAY, November 30.
+
+What a day this has been! Many a rich experience which seemed
+grand enough never to fade from the memory may pass into oblivion,
+but no mortal can ever sail through the inland sea of Japan on a
+fine day and cease to remember it till the day he dies. It
+deserves its reputation as the most beautiful voyage in the world;
+at least I cannot conceive how, taking the elements of earth,
+water and sky, anything more exquisitely beautiful could be
+produced from them. Entering the narrow sea at sunrise, we sail
+for three hundred and fifty miles through three thousand pretty
+islands,
+
+  "Which seem to stand
+   To sentinel enchanted land."
+
+These divide the water, making, not one but a dozen pretty lakes in
+view at once. It is the Lakes of Killarney, or the English or Scotch
+lakes, multiplied a hundred-fold; but instead of the islands and
+mountains being in pasture, they are cultivated to their very tops,
+terraced in every form, in order to utilize every rod of ground. On
+the shores cluster villages, nestling in sheltered nooks, while the
+water swarms with the sails of tiny fishing boats, giving a sense of
+warm, happy life throughout. These sail-boats add greatly to the
+beauty of the scene. I counted at one time from the bow of our
+steamer, without looking back, ninety-seven sails glistening in the
+sun, while on the hills were seen everywhere gangs of people at work
+upon their little farm-gardens. It is a panorama of busy, crowded
+life, but life under most beautiful surroundings, from beginning to
+end, and we all vote that never before have we, in a like space of
+time, seen so much of fairy-land as upon this ever-memorable day. We
+begin to understand how the thirty odd millions of the Japanese
+exist upon so small an area. The rivers and seas abound in fish; the
+hills and valleys under irrigation and constant labor grow their
+rice, millet, and vegetables. A few dollars per year supply all the
+clothing needed, and a few dollars build their light wooden houses.
+Thus they have everything they need, or consider necessary, and are
+happy as the day is long, certain of one established fact in nature,
+to wit, that there is no place like Japan; and no doubt they daily
+and hourly thank their stars that their lines have fallen in
+pleasant places, and pity us--slaves to imaginary wants--who deny
+ourselves the present happiness they consider it wisdom to enjoy, in
+vain hopes of banquetting to surfeit at some future time, which
+always comes too late.
+
+On emerging from this fairy scene, we encountered a gale upon the
+China Sea, which lasted for the few hours we were upon it before
+reaching Nagasaki, the last port of Japan. Here, two hundred years
+ago, the Dutch secured a small island, from which they traded with
+Japan long before any other nation was permitted to do so. The
+Catholics also had their headquarters here. They were so
+successful in converting the natives that the government became
+alarmed, and several thousand Christians were driven to the island
+and all massacred. This was in the sixteenth century; but it is
+only a few years ago that seven thousand native Catholics were
+banished from this region. To-day all is changed. These fugitives
+have been permitted to return, and there is entire freedom of
+religious worship. Last month a return was made of professing
+Christians (Catholics) in this district, and thirty-five thousand
+were reported. Protestants are very few indeed.
+
+As far as I saw in the East, here is the only real and
+considerable advance made toward christianizing a people. At other
+stations throughout my journey I saw only a few ignorant natives
+who professed Christianity--sometimes a dozen or two, rarely
+more. European residents invariably told me that these were the
+dependants or servants of foreigners who held their places mainly
+because of their conversion to the new faith. If dismissed, they
+relapsed. One can readily see that the lowest and most
+unscrupulous would be the first to fall before the almost
+irresistible temptation, for a means of comfortable livelihood
+seems the one serious concern of life in all the East to a degree
+difficult for us in America, at least, to imagine.
+
+I remember the dear, kind Catholic Bishop of Canton telling me
+with such delicious simplicity that every workman engaged in
+building the Cathedral--a work of many years and yet
+unfinished--had by the grace of God been converted to Holy Mother
+Church. The hotel-keeper told me afterward this so-called
+conversion was a source of much amusement among the natives. Well,
+be it so. I believe, myself, that the holy father is the victim of
+misplaced confidence. But here in Nagasaki nothing like this can
+be said. Thirty-five thousand professing Christians in a district
+where there are not a hundred foreign Christian families, if half
+so many, and where to be a Christian is to declare one's self of
+the minority and so out of fashion, surely this does prove that
+the Church has succeeded, and justifies it in hoping that ere long
+this part of Japan at least will one day enter the fold.
+
+One great reason for this undoubted success is probably that
+neither the Government nor the people have the slightest objection
+to missionaries, for their own religion sets but lightly on the
+Japanese. With the Chinaman it is totally different. His own
+religion is sacred to him, a vital force, and his gods must not be
+defamed. He stands by his faith like a Covenanter. It touches the
+most sacred feelings of his nature, and is everything to him. Mrs.
+D. O. Hill's celebrated statue of Livingstone in Prince's Gardens,
+Edinburgh, therefore, represents too truly the attitude of our
+missionaries in the flowery land as well as in other so-called
+heathen lands: the Bible in one hand and the pistol in the other.
+In Japan the pistol is wholly unnecessary. The man of Japan
+regards missionaries as harmless curiosities, and if not disposed
+to trouble himself about their new ideas, he has not the least
+objection to their being expounded.
+
+There is now no established religion in Japan, Buddhism having
+been abolished in 1874. The temples and priesthood are maintained
+by voluntary contributions. The poor laws are simple: government
+gives nine bushels of rice to every person over seventy or under
+fifteen years of age, who cannot work, and the same to foundlings
+under thirteen. Out of the total population of thirty-six
+millions, there are only ten thousand and fifty paupers, and of
+these more than a thousand are at Tokio in the workhouse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HARBOR OF NAGASAKI, MONDAY, December 2.
+
+Vandy and I were off early this morning for the shore, and did not
+return to the ship until late in the afternoon, having walked over
+the high hills and down into the valleys beyond. We had a real
+tramp in the country. It is here just as elsewhere, terrace upon
+terrace, every foot of ground under cultivation; water carried by
+men in pails, or on the backs of oxen, to the highest peaks, which
+it is impossible to irrigate, and every single plant, be it rice,
+millet, turnip, cabbage, or carrot, watered daily. What good
+Mother Earth can be induced to yield under such attention is a
+marvel. The bountiful earth has another meaning when you see what
+she can be made to bring forth. Although we are in December, the
+sun shines bright, and it is quite warm. I sat down several times
+under the hedge-rows, and heard the constant hum of insect life
+around me. Butterflies flitted about, the bees gathered honey, and
+all looked and felt like a day in June. The houses of the people
+which we saw were poor, and the total absence of glass causes them
+to look like deserted hovels; but closer inspection showed fine
+mats on the floors, and everything scrupulously clean. I counted
+upon one hillside forty-seven terraces from the bottom to the top.
+These are divided vertically, so that I think twenty-five feet
+square would be about the average size of each patch; and as the
+division of terraces is made to suit the ground, and hence very
+irregularly, the appearance of a hillside in Japan is something
+like that of a bed-quilt of irregular pieces. The terrace-walls
+are overgrown with vines, ferns, etc., so that they appear like
+low green hedges: and this adds much to the beauty of the
+landscape. No wonder the cultivators of these lovely spots never
+dream of leaving them. Animal food is not half as important to the
+Japanese as the supply of fish--indeed the former is said to be
+comparatively little used, while fish of some kind or in some form
+is ever present at meals. The favorite fish is the _tai_,
+which is red when taken from streams with sandy bottoms, but black
+when caught at the mouths of the same streams, where the dark soil
+of the sea begins. A curious parallel case is seen in the black
+and red pines of this country: in sandy soils they grow red, while
+in the softer black soil they are dark. Transplant the two
+varieties and they change color. The same law, you see, with fish
+and plant. We are all creatures of our environment. Therefore let
+us choose our companions and surroundings well. To know the best
+that has been said and done in the world is no doubt much; to be
+planted and to grow among those who have done the greatest work
+and who live up to the best standard in our day and generation is
+surely equally important.
+
+We had an alarm of fire oft the Belgic in mid-ocean, but this
+morning we had the real article. I had just parted from the
+captain at the stern of the ship, intending to go ashore, when,
+walking forward, I saw dense volumes of smoke issuing from the
+walking-beam pit, and in a few moments I heard the cry of fire
+from below. All was in a bustle at once, but the crew got finely
+to work. Fortunately, although there was no steam in the main
+boilers, the small donkey boiler was full, and the pumps were put
+to work. Meanwhile boats from the various men-of-war in the harbor
+with hand fire-engines came to our assistance. The steamer is an
+old wooden craft, and I knew her cargo was combustible. Were the
+smoke ever to give place to flame, panic was sure to ensue, and
+not one of the small native boats that had until now been
+clustering around us could then be induced to approach; indeed,
+they had already all rowed off. There was one lady on board, Mrs.
+McK., a veritable Princess of Thule from the Island of Lewes, and
+I decided that she had better be taken off with her sick child at
+once; so, bribing a greedy native by the immense reward of a whole
+dollar (a large fee here, small as it seems at home) to come
+alongside, I grasped the baby and followed the mother down the
+gangway, and remained at a safe distance until the danger was
+over. A few minutes more, and the Costa Rica would have followed
+her sister ship, the America, which some years ago took fire under
+similar circumstances in the harbor of Yokohama, and was
+completely destroyed. Fortunately we are about done with wooden
+steamships; otherwise they should not be permitted to run as
+passenger vessels.
+
+The post-office department of Japan is of recent origin, having
+been established in 1871; yet in 1881, after only ten years'
+growth, it carried ninety-five millions of letters, newspapers,
+books, etc. Thirty millions of these were post-cards. Three
+millions of telegrams were also transmitted in that year. Perhaps
+no statement will give one a clearer idea than this of the rapid
+progress of this strange country in the ways of the West.
+
+Japan has only two short lines of railway for thirty-six millions
+of people--a population nearly equal to that of Great Britain: one
+eighteen miles from Yokohama to Tokio, the other seventy miles
+from Hiogo to Kioto. This seems a scanty allowance; nevertheless
+it is not probable that more than a few hundred miles of rail will
+be built for centuries. The habits and poverty of the people, and
+in many districts the topography of the country, are such as to
+render railways unsuitable. The main highways are, however, kept
+in admirable order. I was amused with the classification of these.
+Those of the first class are such as lead from the capital to the
+treaty ports; of the second class those lines leading to the
+national shrines. Commerce has thus usurped the first place. Both
+the first and the second class roads are maintained by the General
+Government as being national affairs. Various grades of roads
+follow, some being maintained by large districts; others, of local
+importance, by taxes upon a smaller area; but all under the strict
+supervision of central officials at Tokio.
+
+Not the least surprising feature in the revolution going forward
+so peacefully in Japan is the prompt adoption of the newspaper as
+one of the essentials of life. A few years ago the official
+Gazette, read only by officials and containing nothing of general
+interest, was the only publication in the Empire; to-day several
+hundred newspapers are published, many of them daily. A censorship
+of the press still exists, however, and leads to the usual mode of
+evasion. Pungent political articles are conveyed under cover of
+criticisms ostensibly upon the blunders of lands not so
+enlightened as Japan. Here is a specimen: "In America during the
+Civil War paper currency was issued and made legal tender. At
+every successive issue the premium rose higher and higher till the
+currency was not worth more than a third of its face. The Southern
+States followed in the same path, but they kept on till their
+issues were found to be good for about one purpose only--to line
+trunks withal--such fools these Americans be. Happy Japan! blessed
+with rulers of preeminent ability, who keep the finances of our
+land in such creditable form."
+
+The fact was that Japanese currency was then at 22 per cent,
+discount and rapidly declining in value under successive issues,
+just as it had done in America. Such articles are no doubt far
+more effective than open, undisguised assaults could possibly be,
+for the cleverness of the evasion gives additional zest to the
+attack. The Press is a hard dog to muzzle, and, like dogs in
+general, only vicious when muzzled. The Japanese will soon find it
+safer to "let Truth and Error grapple" in the full face of day,
+for they are not slow to learn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TUESDAY, December 3.
+
+The turbulent China Sea has passed into a proverb. The Channel
+passage in a gale, I suppose, comes nearest to it. We started to
+cross this sea at daylight, and surely we have reason to be
+grateful. It is as smooth as a mirror, the winds are hushed, and
+as I write the shores of Japan fade peacefully from view. I cannot
+help thinking how improbable that I shall ever see them again;
+but, however that may be, farewell for the present to Japan. Take
+a stranger's best wishes for your future.
+
+Our cargo shows something of the resources of the country. It
+amounts to eight hundred tons, comprising seaweed--a special kind
+of which the Chinese are fond--ginseng, camphor, timber,
+isinglass, Japan piece-goods, ingot copper, etc. Every week this
+line takes to China a similar cargo, and the trade is rapidly
+extending. This steamship company is worth noting as an evidence
+of what Japanese enterprise is doing. The principal owner, the
+Commodore Garrison of Japan, had a small beginning, but now runs
+some thirty-seven steamers between the various Japanese ports.
+Under the management of Mr. Krebs, a remarkable Dane, this company
+beat off the Pacific Mail Company from the China trade, and
+actually purchased their ships. There are many things found on
+these vessels which our Atlantic companies might imitate with
+advantage.
+
+I believe I mentioned that Japan, not to be behind her Western
+neighbors, had created a public debt, which now amounts to about
+$300,000,000, but $250,000,000 of this was used in payment of the
+two hundred and sixty-six daimios and their numerous retainers,
+when government took over the land to itself. Each of these
+potentates had vested rights in a certain proportion of the yield
+of the soil of his district, and this was commuted by the
+government into so much in its bonds, a fixed land tax being
+substituted for the irregular exactions of former landlords. On
+every side I hear that this has greatly improved the condition of
+the population--made the people more contented, and at the same
+time vastly augmented the products of the soil. Not less than
+three millions of the population shared in this operation.
+
+The nationalization of the land is under discussion in England,
+and it is conceded that some change has to be made. Here is Japan
+proving the results of nationalization, while Denmark shows what
+private ownership of small pieces of land can do under a system of
+cumulative taxation in proportion to the size of the estate held.
+One of these two systems is likely to prevail in England some day.
+Meanwhile, here is food for thought for the British tax-payer: out
+of seventy-five million yens (£15,000,000) of revenue raised by
+Japan, forty-three million comes from the land tax. The tax on
+alcoholic liquors yields about seventeen millions more.
+
+Since my visit to Japan an imperial decree has been published,
+promising that a national assembly shall meet in 1890; so we have
+the foundations of representative government almost at hand.
+Surely no other nation ever abandoned its traditions and embraced
+so rapidly those of a civilization of an opposite character. This
+is not development under the law of slow evolution; it seems more
+like a case of spontaneous generation. Presto, change! and here
+before our very eyes is presented the strange spectacle of the
+most curious, backward, feudalistic Eastern nation turning into a
+Western one of the most advanced type.
+
+That Japan will succeed in her effort to establish a central
+government, under something like our ideas of freedom and law, and
+that she has such resources as will enable her to maintain it and
+educate her people, I am glad to be able to say I believe; but
+much remains to be done requiring in the race the exercise of
+solid qualities, the possession of which I find some Europeans
+disposed to deny them. They have travelled, perhaps, quite fast
+enough, and I look for a temporary triumph of the more
+conservative party. But the seed is sown, and Japan will move,
+upon the whole, in the direction of progress. And so, once more,
+farewell, Japan; and China, now almost within sight, all hail!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHINA.
+
+In one respect at least pilgrims from other lands must bow to the
+empire we are about to visit. It is the oldest form of civilized
+government on earth. While the English monarchy boasts its
+uninterrupted course of eight hundred years, and America has just
+celebrated its first century of existence, this remarkable people
+live under a government which has been substantially unchanged for
+four thousand long years. The first authenticated dynasty dates
+from 2345 B.C., and what is now China has been under one central
+government for nearly two thousand five hundred years. Even the
+Papacy, the most venerable of existing Western institutions, is
+young compared to this. There was something in the reply of the
+mandarin to the boast of one of our people as to the superiority
+of our system: "Wait until it is tried!" To a Chinaman a thousand
+years or so seems too short to prove anything. Theirs alone has
+stood the test of ages. That the Chinese are a great race goes
+without saying. Four hundred millions (nearly one-third of the
+human race) existing for thousands of years under one unchanging
+government, riding out the storms which have overwhelmed all other
+nations; nay, even absorbing into themselves the Tartar hordes,
+who came as conquerors, and making them Chinese against their
+will. Such a record tells a story indeed! At a date so remote that
+Egypt and Assyria were the great Western powers, when Athens and
+Troy had just been founded, and Rome was not even thought of,
+these people were governed much as they are now, and since A.D. 67
+have published a daily Peking _Gazette_, of which (thanks to
+our intelligent "host of the Garter," Mr. Janssen) we have secured
+a copy. We are all but of yesterday compared to the Heathen
+Chinee, and it is impossible to sit down and scribble glibly of
+such a people. In Japan there is no record. It is a new race
+appearing almost for the first time among civilized nations. It
+has given the world nothing, but how widely different here! It is
+to China the world owes the compass, gunpowder, porcelain, and
+even the art of printing, and to her also alone the spectacle of a
+people ruled by a code of laws and morals embracing the most
+minute particulars, written two thousand four hundred years ago,
+and taught to this day in the schools as the rules of life. It is
+an old and true saying that almost any system of religion would
+make one good enough if it were properly obeyed; certainly that of
+Confucius would do so. I have been deeply impressed with his
+greatness and purity. Dr. Davis writes in his work on China:
+"Confucius embodied in sententious maxims the first principles of
+morals and of government, and the purity and excellence of some of
+his precepts will bear comparison with even those of the Gospel."
+In Thornton's History of China I find this noteworthy passage: "It
+may excite surprise, and even incredulity, to state that the
+golden rule of our Saviour had been inculcated by Confucius five
+centuries before almost in the same words." If any of my readers
+wish a rare treat, I advise him to add at least the first volume
+of the Rev. Dr. Legge's Life of Confucius to his library
+immediately, and let him not entertain the idea that the sage was
+a heathen or an unbeliever; far, very far from that, for one of
+his most memorable passages explains that all worship belongs to
+Shangti (the Supreme Ruler); no matter what forms or symbols are
+used, the great God alone being the only true object of worship.
+But I must resist this fit of Confucianism, reserving, however,
+the privilege of regaling you with more of it by and bye, for
+really it is too good not to be scattered among you. Meanwhile,
+remember well what Matthew Arnold says:
+
+  "Children of men! the unseen Power, whose eye
+   For ever doth accompany mankind,
+   Hath look'd on no religion scornfully
+   That men did ever find.
+
+   Which has not taught weak wills how much they can?
+   Which has not fall'n on the dry heart like rain?
+   Which has not cried to sunk, self-weary man:
+   _Thou must be born again!_"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THURSDAY, December 5.
+
+We reached Shanghai Thursday morning, and found excellent
+accommodations at the Astor House, in the American settlement. The
+Chinese Government has set apart for the accommodation of
+foreigners a strip of land, about six miles long and one mile
+wide, fronting the river. This is divided among the English,
+French, and Americans. During the Taeping rebellion a few years
+ago, thousands of natives flocked into this territory and found a
+refuge under the foreign flags, and today it contains more than
+seventy thousand Chinese, who do most of the retail business of
+the city. The foreign population does not exceed two thousand. The
+streets are broad, and as well cared for as in an English town,
+and it is lighted with gas, has a fine steam fire organization,
+and is thoroughly drained. It is here the natives of this district
+are learning their first lesson of Western civilization, and at
+length some impression has been made upon this hitherto immovable
+mass and it begins to move. Mandarins come from the country to
+enjoy a drive in the streets, for, let it not be forgotten, there
+is not a street or road in the region, outside of the reservation,
+in which a horse can travel; only footpaths, where a wheelbarrow
+pushed by a man is the only possible vehicle. Now several wealthy
+Chinese have set up their carriages, and may frequently be seen
+driving; and I learn from many that when any are compelled to
+visit their former residences elsewhere, they return to Shanghai
+declaring that they could not live any longer in the old style.
+But think of one-third of the race living at this late day without
+a mile of railroad or of telegraph, or even of macadamized roads!
+Communication in China is solely by means of the rivers, canals,
+and small branches which have been led from the main channels to
+every acre of ground for irrigating purposes, and by narrow
+footpaths between the fields. But some of us will live to see this
+changed. I saw in a newspaper an official notice permitting the
+first telegraph line to be built. True, it is to be only a few
+miles in length, extending from the sea to the port of Peking
+(Tien-Tsin), but this is of course only a beginning. The question
+of railroads is more serious, and what think you is the one
+obstacle to their introduction? Graves--the "tombs of our
+ancestors." China is one vast cemetery. Go where you will, in any
+direction, the mounds of the dead intrude themselves upon you at
+every step. There are no cemeteries or places set apart for burial
+purposes; on the contrary, the Chinaman seems to prefer having his
+dead buried on his own land, and as near to him as practicable. In
+this neighborhood their mode of sepulture is revolting. The
+coffins are not put into a grave at all, but are laid directly on
+the surface of the ground and covered with but a few inches of
+earth; and it is not at all uncommon for them to be wholly
+exposed, simply laid out in the fields, and so close to the
+roadside--I mean to the main roads built by Europeans near their
+settlements--that you can almost touch them with the end of your
+walking-stick as you pass. The stench from such coffins became so
+offensive last year at the rifle range that the European
+authorities had to enter complaint to the Chinese Mandarin. I was,
+like all others, at first much shocked at the sight of these
+evidences of mortality. One day I stood and counted a hundred and
+thirty-four different mounds and exposed coffins within sight. I
+am glad to say that in other parts of China this custom does not
+prevail, the dead being buried in graves, and walls built above
+them in the shape of a horseshoe. As is well known, the Chinese
+worship their ancestors, and believe that much of their happiness
+depends upon the respect shown to those to whom they owe their
+lives. Cases have been known where successive afflictions have
+been attributed to some defect in the resting-places of the dead;
+their ancestors, "after life's fitful fever," were not sleeping
+well, and at great expense the bones have been removed to another
+place; but it is an extreme case when they venture to disturb the
+dead. Every true son of the Empire of the Sun echoes the anathema
+of Shakespeare,
+
+  "And curst be he who moves my bones."
+
+One special feature of the Flowery Land is, I think, the
+repugnance of the people to debt, or to credits in any form. As I
+have remarked, they have no banks of issue; no promises to pay for
+the Celestials; they deal only in the coin itself. All debts must
+be paid at the beginning of each year. The Chinaman who does not
+settle every account and enter upon the new year without an
+obligation is accounted either very unfortunate or very regardless
+of the duties of life. This aversion to debt, perhaps, accounts
+for the fact that these four hundred millions of people had not a
+penny of national debt until four years ago. But they have just
+made a loan of $12,000,000, I believe, the first ever made by
+China in all its thousands of years' history. This may be taken,
+perhaps, as another proof that the empire is influenced by Western
+ideas, but one cannot help regretting that her long reign of
+freedom from debt should at last be stained, even for so paltry an
+amount. If I were a Chinese statesman, I would never rest until
+the last farthing of this debt was paid off. The fashion nowadays
+in America is to urge that it is paying off its debt much too
+fast. I am sorry for this. What an example to all lands we shall
+give when the last bond of the nation is cancelled at Washington
+amid public rejoicings! A republic's part is to give less advanced
+nations, still under the influence of feudal institutions, such
+lessons as this will be. Do not let us, however, underrate
+England's part in. such a work. She has reduced her public debt
+wonderfully, and the next twenty years is to see seventy millions
+sterling more extinguished, unless legislation now existing for
+this end is interfered with.
+
+The general government of China is a very economical one, its
+total revenue being only about $125,000,000 (£25,000,000). Of this
+$15,000,000 is spent upon the army, a sum which for 400,000,000
+people compares very favorably with that expended by other
+nations. China has outgrown the so-called heroic age, in which
+England still dwells, and has little need of armies. A government
+not worth thirty cents (fifteen pence) per year for each
+inhabitant, which is the cost in China, is not worth having.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FRIDAY, December 6.
+
+In our stroll to-day Vandy and I came upon one of the gates of the
+old city, of which there are six in a wall three miles in
+circumference, and entered. It contains 300,000 people. We walked
+some distance through its filthy, narrow alleys, and saw the poor
+wretches in their dens working at all kinds of trades, from the
+forging of iron to the production of Joss-money, but the
+villainous smells soon overpowered me, and I had to get Vandy to
+escort me out. He can go through anything of this kind without
+flinching, and means to return; but I have seen enough of it, and
+am sorry that human beings have to exist under such conditions.
+The Chinese have no coined currency except a small bronze piece
+worth one-tenth of a cent, called "cash." It has a hole in the
+centre, and when a native goes to market he puts several lots of
+them on strings, fifty or a hundred on each string, and throws
+them round his neck; think of it, one thousand pieces, ten strings
+of one hundred each, to make a dollar! Sometimes they are carried
+in the market-basket. In larger operations Mexican and American
+dollars are used, but away from the coast people decline to take
+even these, insisting upon silver cast in the form of a horseshoe
+and called "sice." This silver is hoarded here, and also in India,
+and were it not for this its value would probably fall to a point
+which would rule it out of the list of precious metals. The evils
+of a silver currency are obvious to all here. Its value has
+changed three times in one day since we have been in the country.
+Business is seriously disturbed, and suffers from this cause, and
+it is to such a plight that our misled silverites at home would
+reduce us!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SATURDAY, December 7.
+
+To-day we walked through the fish and vegetable markets. It was
+funny to see the people making their purchases. Each one carries a
+small stick with a weight attached to it. This serves as a
+weighing-beam, and every fowl, fish, and vegetable is carefully
+weighed by the customer. No cheating of a brother Celestial by the
+seller. We pass now and then a shop where nothing is dealt in but
+Joss-money; hundreds in every place are engaged in its
+manufacture. It is made out of thin gold and silver paper, in the
+horseshoe ingot form of genuine "sice." I bought a box containing
+eight pieces for thirty cents. Some of it also is made in
+imitation of silver dollars. This bogus money is laid upon the
+altars of the temples as offerings to the gods, who are supposed
+to find as much use for it as if it were genuine; and no doubt
+this is the case. It would therefore be a great pity, says the
+Heathen Chinee, to waste the real article, although I doubt not
+the priests would infinitely prefer it.
+
+We attended a "paper-hunt" in the afternoon. Between forty and
+fifty riders, all Europeans, on small horses, started across
+country, the route having been previously laid down by means of
+small pieces of white paper scattered at every point where one of
+the innumerable little creeks was to be crossed. The finish was a
+rare sight. The banks of the creeks were very muddy, falls were
+numerous, and several of the riders came in besmirched from head
+to foot. Europeans take to horses here, and a race-course is
+maintained. The animals are a small breed from the north, which
+are now known as Shanghai ponies. I do not think I could enjoy the
+sport of paper-hunting here. The exposed coffins and graves one
+has to gallop over from end to end of the hunt are not calculated
+to enhance one's pleasure; but perhaps one would in time get used
+even to them, though I doubt it.
+
+It was sad to see the roadway which had been prepared for the
+railroad from Woosung, at the mouth of the river, to this city, a
+distance of about twelve miles. The rails had actually been laid
+in some places when a decree from Peking ordered their removal. No
+better location in the empire could have been found to prove the
+advantages of railway travel, and I believe, if it had been
+finished, the Chinese would have quickly appreciated the benefits
+to be derived from it. Britain will some day find in China its
+best field for railway enterprise. By the time we next visit
+Shanghai we expect to see not only the rails restored to this
+line, but also many other miles in successful operation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MONDAY, December 9.
+
+We visited the ship-yard of Messrs. Boyd & Co., and found none but
+native workmen employed. Blacksmiths receive about five dollars
+per week, machinists six dollars; carpenters, sixty to sixty-five
+cents per day. But this concern pays high wages, and requires its
+men to equal Europeans, which I am told they do. Common gang labor
+is contracted for with a head man, who engages to supply day by
+day the number of coolies wanted at twenty cents a day per man.
+Mr. Grant, the senior partner, told me he was buying Belgian iron
+in large lots, assorted sizes, for £4 10s. per gross ton--just
+about one cent per pound; ship plates at £6, equal to $29 per
+gross ton, free on ship at Antwerp. Such figures prove the
+severity of the struggle for existence among the iron
+manufacturers of Europe.
+
+The servants at the hotel pay a contractor two dollars per month
+for food, they not being permitted to eat anything at the hotel. A
+coolie's board costs about five cents per day. For this he gets an
+abundance of coarse rice and cabbage spiced with pieces of dried
+fish and pickles, and upon such a diet lives from year to year.
+Clothing is estimated at two to three dollars per year. This is
+the country of low prices, where one eschews luxuries and comes
+down to first principles. Cab fare is five cents per mile for
+ginrikshaws, which have been introduced from Japan, and are
+generally used in Shanghai. At Tokio I remember cab fare was even
+cheaper. We paid only eight cents per hour for a man and his
+carriage, or seventy-five cents for the entire day. European
+society here is quite extensive, and very pleasant and hospitable.
+We are indebted to kind friends for numerous attentions. As
+General Bailey, our worthy Consul-General, is a public official, I
+may be permitted to express to him my special thanks. He was
+unremitting in his efforts to render our visit agreeable. It is
+from such men that America is to draw its trained diplomatists
+when Civil-Service Reform has done its needed work.
+
+We attended last night a very good amateur theatrical performance.
+Shanghai society was present in force, and in full evening dress.
+The preponderance of fine-looking young men, and the almost total
+absence of young ladies, was most marked. The number of married
+ladies was not great. In answer to my inquiry where the young
+ladies were, I was informed that there were but few in town. One
+was pointed out, but as she was engaged she scarcely counted. If
+ladies will only be contented with unremitting attentions from a
+crowd of handsome beaux, this is their paradise; but, as our lady
+friend explained, none of these fine fellows can afford to marry:
+they are clerks and assistants in the European houses, the
+partners of which unfortunately are married already. I think it
+but fair to mention this for the benefit of any of my fair young
+friends who might otherwise think of visiting the East. The
+absence of young ladies renders the taking of female parts by the
+opposite sex a necessity. A splendid "singing chambermaid" of this
+kind, dressed and looking the part to perfection, but with a deep
+bass voice, caused peals of laughter every time he spoke. During
+the evening there was a song cleverly introduced and sung by a
+brawny Scot--a parody upon "May I like a soldier fall," beginning,
+
+  "Oh! may I like a Scotchman fall
+   Upon St. Andrew's Day."
+
+It appears the Scotch residents had just been celebrating that
+memorable night, having brought up from Hong Kong no less a
+personage than the head piper of the Highlander Regiment to grace
+the festival. But the pipes proved too much for the more
+enthusiastic of the party, and capturing the piper about three
+o'clock in the morning, they compelled him to march at their head
+playing through the town. It may be readily surmised that
+
+  "If no fou, they just had plenty."
+
+As long, however, as the martial strains continued, they managed,
+arm and arm, to keep upright and together, but, unfortunately,
+from some cause or other not clearly explained, at the turn of the
+street Donald himself lost his footing, the bagpipes ceased, and
+then, surging one against the other, without the music to keep
+them in step, the mass was laid low, yelling to the last, however,
+the "March of the Cameron Men." "Oh, what a fall was there, my
+countrymen!" The Central Hotel was fortunately not far off, and by
+the aid of wheelbarrows they were safely conveyed thither and
+taken care of until morning. Ah, well, let the censorious take
+note. This is not the first time, as the world knows, when the
+sound of the pibroch has kept Scotchmen shoulder to shoulder, "one
+stepping where the other fell," when upon them lay the issue of
+the fight; nor shall it be the last. Burke pardoned something to
+the spirit of liberty, and shall we do less to the august shade of
+St. Andrew? Heaven forbid!
+
+While bemoaning the absence of foreign young ladies here and in
+Japan, I may as well tell those at home something of the marriage
+customs of the East, for Japan, China, and India all have much in
+common here. First and foremost, then, please understand that the
+couple about to be married have nothing whatever to do with the
+affair. The match has been made by the parents, and as a rule
+neither has seen the other until after the contract has been
+closed; and in many cases it is thought advisable that they should
+meet for the first time when the ceremony begins. It is considered
+one of the most important duties of a mother to select a wife for
+each of her sons as he arrives at maturity, as a failure to do
+this might involve the fearful catastrophe of a break in the
+worship of the family's ancestors, and indeed of her own and her
+husband's ashes, for there might be no men to perform the sacred
+rites over them. The parents of the young men take the initiative,
+but how to propose is said to be even more embarrassing than it
+would be to the son himself, as a refusal implies that the lady's
+parents consider the proposal much beneath them. There exists,
+therefore, a class of "marriage brokers," who keep themselves
+informed of the eligible sons and daughters in their circle, and
+can sound the parents, name the _dot_ to be given or
+required, and suggest and finally bring about a satisfactory
+alliance without wounding the family pride upon either side. The
+Chinese are very superstitious, and no union takes place without
+the astrologer's sanction. He must consult the stars and see that
+there is proper conjunction. If all is favorable, the marriage
+takes place.
+
+But now, my lady friends, don't imagine that the happy pair set up
+a separate establishment, as you expect to do when you marry. No;
+the wife goes in every case to reside with her mother-in-law, to
+whom, as also to her husband's father, she renders implicit
+obedience. This obedience to parents is the most conspicuous duty
+in their religion. Should the daughter-in-law be disrespectful,
+even, to her husband's parents, these would be upheld in putting
+her away, even against the wish of her husband; and unless the son
+happened to have an independent income or means of support, which
+is very rarely the case, his parents would select for him another
+wife who knew her duty better. The deference exacted and bestowed
+not only by children but by grown men and women to their parents,
+is wholly inconceivable by Americans; but, remember, their
+religion teaches them that those from whom they derive existence
+are entitled to their worship. No priest is required at a
+marriage. The ceremony always takes place at the man's house, the
+bride coming from her parents in grand procession through the
+streets in a sedan chair with its blinds closely drawn, the
+presents being ostentatiously displayed by men carrying them in
+front. We saw several of these processions. I cannot give a tithe
+of all the customs observed; they would fill pages. But one is
+significant; the bride is required to kneel before the husband's
+family tablet, and to worship his ancestors, her own being from
+that moment apparently of no account to her, and her father gives
+her, as his parting injunction, the command to yield hereafter to
+her new parents the obedience and reverence hitherto his due.
+
+When the entire day has been spent in the ceremonies required,
+dinner for the couple is announced, and they are left alone with
+each other for the first time in their lives; but she may not
+partake one morsel of the feast, and, harder still, perhaps, not
+one syllable must she speak. Etiquette demands that she "sit in
+silence, grave and dignified," and she cannot break fast upon her
+wedding day. The woman's chief study is a book giving minute
+instructions for her guidance through life. In this are prescribed
+the three great duties of woman: 1, obedience when a child to her
+parents; 2, obedience when a wife to her husband; 3, obedience
+when a widow to her eldest son. The government of man is thus
+secured for the weaker vessel from the cradle to the grave. No
+Eastern man could be made to believe that the influence of the
+masculine intellect is not absolutely essential for the well-being
+of the female; and so it undoubtedly will be in the East as long
+as woman is uneducated. It is in America we find woman in her
+highest development, higher even than the English standard, simply
+because in the best circles she receives an education nearer to
+that of man than is given her elsewhere.
+
+By many such curious customs is secured the entire absorption of
+the woman, her total eclipse as a separate individuality; there is
+nothing left of her as far as law and usage can destroy her
+rights. This is the Eastern idea. But she has her triumph later.
+As a wife she knows there is little for her. Divorce is almost
+sure unless she bear a son; but when, in the language of
+Scripture, "a man-child is born"--presto change! she is a mother,
+supreme, invested with a halo of sanctity which secures rank and
+reverence from all. She becomes by this the equal of her lord, and
+must be worshipped like him, and jointly with him, by succeeding
+generations, for Confucius enjoins upon every son the erection of
+the family tablets, to father and mother alike. Nor is her rule
+confined to her own children, but, as before stated, to their
+children as well to the latest day of her life, and the older she
+becomes the more she is reverenced as being nearer to heaven,
+dearer to the gods; and it is considered of much moment to any
+family to be able to boast a great-great-grandmother living.
+
+Do not mourn too much over the sad fate of a young Chinaman
+compelled to marry one whom he has never seen, for indeed there
+seems little difference between the young ladies of China. Thousands
+of years of seclusion, of unvarying customs, have at last moulded
+women into the same form, mentally and physically, and anything like
+individuality can exist only to a small degree, and in exceptional
+natures. They are as like as peas, and one may as well marry one as
+another. If the husband has not the joys of love, neither has he the
+anxieties pertaining to that super-sensitive condition; for she is
+not to be his constant companion, nor his companion at all if he has
+not drawn a prize.
+
+The position of woman would seem, therefore, to be almost entirely
+different from what it is with us: in youth she is nothing there,
+in old age everything; with us it is the opposite. The "just mean"
+between the two would probably yield better results than either.
+In China a man may marry more than one woman, but the first only
+is recognized as his legal wife; all others are her servants, and
+bound to wait upon and obey her; and should there be children,
+these are considered as children of the legal wife only, and it is
+her they must worship, and not their real mother. Among the masses
+wives are invariably bought from the parents, about ninety dollars
+being a fair market price among poor people. This sum is supposed
+to recompense them for the outlay involved in rearing the young
+girl. But this custom is valuable in this, that the possession of
+so large a sum by a young workingman is the best possible
+guarantee that the son-in-law has acquired steady habits, and is
+competent to provide for his family. If a test of this nature
+could be applied with us, I think paterfamilias would not regard
+it as the worst of institutions. These Chinese have ideas that are
+sometimes worth thinking over.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FRIDAY, December 13.
+
+Our intended trip up the Yang-tse has been interfered with by a
+storm of rain and dense fog, but the days never seem long. We get
+a little time to read up. Our book-table shows seven important
+works on China and its people--all interesting. To-day is marked
+by a notable invitation to dinner extended to us through General
+Bailey. We are to have the honor--one not often bestowed upon
+globe trotters--of dining with the Mandarin.
+
+The dinner lasted more than three hours, and was composed of I
+don't know how many courses. I depended upon Vandy to keep count,
+but he found so much to wonder at that he lost the run when in the
+teens. From birds'-nest soup, which, by the way, is insipid, to
+shark's fin and bamboo shoots in rapid succession, we had it all.
+I thought each course would surely be the last; but finally we did
+get to sweet dishes, and I knew we were approaching the end. Then
+came the bowl of rice and tea, which are supposed to be able to
+neutralize the mess which has gone before. Our host pressed all to
+drink frequently of a celebrated native wine, the champagne of
+China, grown in his district, of the quality of which he seemed
+very proud. Whenever he showed the bottom of his cup, guests were
+expected to empty and replenish theirs. I did the best I could,
+both as to tasting the compounds and drinking the wine, but I fear
+I was voted not a great success in either. The natives were quite
+hilarious, and smoked at intervals during the feast. They played
+the ancient game of digits like Romans, and also a Japanese game
+with the hands and arms, the loser in every case being compelled
+to drain his cup. When tea was served, the Mandarin, through his
+interpreter, addressed General Bailey, as the principal dignitary
+present, thanking him for the great honor conferred upon his
+humble self by those present having condescended to sit at his
+table. The general's reply was equally polite and very happy, and
+appeared to please our host greatly, who then hoped that the
+illustrious travellers from America would be pleased with China
+and return safely to their great country from their journey round
+the world, adding that, having now got the telegraph, America and
+China and all countries were brought nearer to one another, and
+would know each other better. I replied that this was happily
+true, and ventured to express the belief that as we knew each
+other better we should also like each other more, and that as we,
+and all modern nations, had learned so much from his country in
+the past, I hoped that in return we might be able, to some extent
+at least, to repay that debt by perhaps, showing China some things
+which she could adopt with advantage. To this sentiment there was
+a most cordial response.
+
+Before rising from table the photograph of the host was presented
+to each guest. I requested that his autograph be put upon ours,
+that we could insert it in our albums among the eminent men we
+met. He replied that he must then go at the very end, because he
+had not on his Mandarin hat. But I asked the interpreter to assure
+him that we in America did not care about the hat; "it was the
+head that was in it" which had raised him so high. This appeared
+to please the company inordinately, and we got the autograph, and
+so ended our first, and, in all probability, our last, Mandarin
+dinner. Vandy ate and drank of everything offered him, and this
+morning, when I fully expected him to be as sick as a dog, and
+with a head like to split, he surprised me by reporting himself as
+all right, and telling me that in some respects Mandarin cooking
+beats the world. I should mention that the politeness of our host
+was overpowering. The first course he served himself to each
+guest, his servants following him round the table and handing him
+the dishes ("and I myself shall be your servant, sir, says good
+Uncle Toby"), and upon entering, as well as upon retiring, he
+stood in the open court outside of his threshold to welcome and to
+bid farewell. The shaking of one's own hands instead of grasping
+those of your friends is soon learned; but what a world of
+pleasure the Chinaman misses by his mode!
+
+Of course we saw none of the ladies of the household, nor were
+they inquired for or referred to by any of us. If a Chinese
+gentleman were asked how many children he had, he would probably
+not count the girls at all, but at all events he would distinguish
+thus: two children and a _girl_. When a boy is born the
+father is overwhelmed with congratulations, presents are sent, and
+rejoicing takes place. If the little stranger happen to be a girl,
+the event is hushed up. No reference is ever made to the great
+misfortune which has befallen the expectant father. Friends are
+apprised of the result by advertisements carried through the
+streets. Yellow strips of paper are used if the child is a boy;
+_any other color_ means a girl. Among the poorer classes girl
+babies are frequently drowned. Some estimate that in the Shanghai
+district one-third are so destroyed; the excuse given by the
+parents is that they cannot afford to rear a girl. Men monopolize
+most of the occupations here, and a woman can earn little or
+nothing; besides, a husband for every girl must be provided upon
+some terms. After a certain age an unmarried woman is regarded as
+disreputable, entailing something of disgrace upon her family; and
+so China lacks that most useful, and, as far as my experience
+goes, most unjustly maligned class--old maids.
+
+A universal sameness prevails in China which soon becomes
+monotonous. One street looks precisely like another. If a traveller
+were set down in any city of China, he would be at a loss to tell
+where he was. It might be Shanghai, Canton, or Peking. There are the
+same rows of one-story, or, at most, one-and-a-half-story huts,
+without the slightest attempt at ornament or variety. There are no
+grand mansions scattered throughout the land, no city halls,
+colleges or commercial exchanges, as with us, but one dead flat
+level of low structures wherever you go. Probably the exactions to
+which wealth is subject here has much to do with this; all are
+concerned to hide their resources, but I am told the Chinese
+educated mind has really reached the stage in which ostentatious
+display is regarded with contempt. It seeks escape from ceremony and
+show, in sweet simplicity of living, as most truly great men have
+done and are doing more and more.
+
+Life "_en grand seigneur_" has never been the foible of the
+rich American, but as the seigneur is a species of recent growth
+and has not yet had time to blossom into flower and show us just
+to what his nature turns, we must watch his movements hereafter
+with interest. So far, he seems endued with quiet tastes, as far
+as personal parade is concerned. A few have built grand mansions,
+but still live plainly in the matter of retinue and ceremonial.
+
+Even in England one notes nowadays a general expression of
+disappointment at the result of living up to one's rank, according
+to the old standard. It is not altogether from lack of means to
+maintain great style, although this is the real reason with the
+majority, perhaps, who have abandoned former habits. Another cause
+is operating, even with such as are wealthy: the squire or his
+lordship is not the all in all of his district any more; and he is
+educated now, in many cases, to enjoy intellectual pleasures,
+which he finds incompatible with so much society and numerous
+establishments with their endless staffs of servants to maintain.
+Many of the stately homes of England, therefore, are for rent, and
+their owners live more within themselves and in simpler manner
+than before.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SHANGHAI, Saturday, December 14.
+
+We leave for Hong Kong, eight hundred miles south, by the mail
+steamer which sails at daylight. Our usual good fortune attends
+us. The monsoon blew us to port one night sooner than we expected.
+A night saved was quite an object, as the Geelong is a small
+craft, and her rocking means something. Vandy was very ill, but I
+managed to report regularly at table as usual. We slept on shore
+Tuesday night, and the morning revealed one of the prettiest
+places we have ever seen in the East. Hong Kong is an island about
+twenty, six miles in circumference, situated one mile from the
+mainland of China, and just at the mouth of the river leading to
+Canton. There is scarcely an acre of level ground upon it except
+one little spot which does duty as a race-course, and is not level
+either by any means. A narrow strip fronting the water is occupied
+by the city of Victoria, which extends about three miles, but back
+of this the ground rises rapidly, and houses cluster upon the
+steep sides of the mountain. Nevertheless, public gardens have
+been laid out with exquisite taste and skill upon the hillside,
+and excellent walks reach to the very top of the peak, more than
+eighteen hundred feet high. So closely does this crag overhang the
+town below that a stone could be dropped into the settlement from
+its crest.
+
+It is the thing in Hong Kong to do the Peak, and we did it, but
+not in a manner very creditable to our staying powers, I fear. The
+fact is, we had been tossed for sortie days upon a small ship. It
+was exceedingly warm. I We were very tired (conscience suggested
+another word for tired); in short, there were a dozen
+reasons--good, bad, and indifferent--why two strong, lusty fellows
+should, under the circumstances, be carried up instead of
+attacking the Peak on foot; and so each of us, in a sedan chair,
+borne by four strong coolies, managed to get to the top and enjoy
+the splendid view, coming down in the same novel manner. It was
+surprising, after we had returned, to find how decided a
+misunderstanding had arisen between us on the subject. I had not
+pressed walking up on Vandy's account, while he had only denied
+himself that wished-for pleasure in deference to my supposed
+inability. You see, had this point been made clearer before we
+started, we might have had the walk after all. As it is, the
+credit of both is fairly maintained, and I do think that neither
+of us regrets the unfortunate misunderstanding; one gets so lazy
+in these latitudes!
+
+More than a hundred thousand Chinese have come from the main land
+to reside in Hong Kong and enjoy the benefits of British rule, and
+the population, which in 1841 was only five thousand, is now a
+hundred and forty thousand. So the good work of reforming China
+goes forward by the surest of all means, good example. It is at
+such points as Hong Kong--one of the keys of the world--that
+England does her real work and lifts up mankind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THURSDAY, December 19.
+
+We took the steamer for the Paris of the East, far-famed Canton,
+distant ninety-five miles. The steamer is just an American river
+boat, and we enjoyed the trip very highly. And here let me note
+two strange customs which prevail in China. First, your passage
+money generally embraces all the liquor, beer, or wine you choose
+to consume on the trip. Such was the case to-day, and passengers
+were free to call for anything they wished to drink at any time
+(champagne excepted). The other custom is universal. There is no
+coin in circulation but silver, and it is so heavy that Europeans
+have adopted the habit of carrying none, giving for any debt
+incurred I. O. U.'s, called "chits," which are sent in at the end
+of each month for payment; a vicious custom, which leads to
+deplorable excesses, especially in drinking and in gambling. Men
+drink and gamble more freely when immediate payment is not
+required, or when the chances of a lucky turn may recoup their
+losses; besides, many who have no means to pay incur debts.
+Indeed, so many cases of this kind have happened since "hard times
+set in" that I am encouraged to hope the end of "chits"
+approaches. The rule at the clubs now is that no chits can be
+given beyond a trifling amount each month, and that they must be
+promptly redeemed. Canton was reached by four in the afternoon,
+and such a swarm of small boats as surrounded us was never seen
+elsewhere. When we were a full mile from the wharf I saw the mass
+begin to stir, and such a stir! and almost all rowed by women,
+yelling and striving, and dashing one boat against another, in
+their efforts to be first. One of the most active scrambled up the
+guards and reached us on the upper deck almost before the boat had
+stopped, and secured us as her spoil. How she and a young girl
+handled our trunks, carrying them over intervening boats and then
+coming back for us, giving us her hand to convey us to her craft!
+No mistaking her business capacity, nor her ability to cope with
+the strongest and most active man and capture two passengers to
+his one. John is no match for a Canton boatwoman on water,
+whatever he may be on land.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CANTON, Friday, December 20.
+
+We have just returned from our first stroll through the narrow,
+crowded alleys of Canton. Pictures and descriptions had prepared us
+for what we were to see, but, as is usual in the East, we knew
+nothing until we had seen for ourselves. In most cases the more one
+reads or hears about a certain locality the more confused he is when
+he visits it. He was a traveller who first said, "The eye and the
+ear are close together, but what a distance between hearing and
+seeing!" This recurs to me constantly. But to revert to Canton. We
+decided to walk instead of following the custom of Europeans, who
+generally take sedan chairs and dash through, seeing nothing in
+detail. We cross the river by one of the innumerable boats rowed by
+women, and are in the city. For five hours we are guided through
+streets varying from six to ten feet in width through one continuous
+mass of Chinamen. As for Chinawomen, they are rarely or never seen.
+A few men are in silks; numbers of coolies, with loads, are almost
+naked, but more, of a slightly higher order, are in rags; for the
+Chinese, unlike their scrupulously clean brethren of Japan, appear
+to pile on one tattered, greasy cloth rag over another until they
+are a bundle of filth, against which you fear at every step lest you
+may be pushed. The shops or booths on each side of the narrow
+streets are resplendent just now, preparatory to the New-Year
+celebrations, and those which make temple decorations a specialty
+are brilliant in the extreme. As every shop, house or boat contains
+an altar, which, as well as those in the public temples, must be
+freshly decorated at the beginning of every year, the extent of this
+trade is surprising, and all that tinsel can do with the most
+gorgeous coloring imaginable is seen in this branch to perfection.
+One thing appears very strange: even in the principal streets
+various manufactures are carried on, the workmen being so close that
+you can touch them from the pavement with your cane. We saw to-day
+glass-making in a space not more than fifteen feet square, iron-
+forging and shaping, cloth-weaving, the making of coffins (such
+massive affairs these are, too, in China!), of Joss-sticks and
+Joss-money, firecrackers, and many other articles. The front part of
+the building is usually occupied by the shop for the sale of the
+product, the ornamental shrine serving as a kind of screen to shut
+off the manufacturing department; but by stepping behind you see
+crowds of almost nude workmen, hard at work, making by hand with the
+aid of the rudest appliances almost every article known. The wages
+of a tradesman--a carpenter, for instance--is fifteen cents per day;
+in addition the master has to give him three times per day his rice,
+etc., estimated to cost six to eight cents more. The workmen are fed
+by the employer, and allowed to sleep in and about the premises
+somewhere or somehow. We saw freely exposed for sale dogs, rats, and
+mice, all nicely dressed and hanging upon spits to tempt the hungry
+passers-by, while above a large pot from which the steam was issuing
+was a card, which, being translated by our guide, read, "A big black
+cat within; ready soon." The dogs which are eaten are fed especially
+for the purpose, and are hung up in state with labels setting forth
+their superior merits. As far as I should have known, they might
+have passed for delicious young roasting pigs, delicate enough in
+flavor to have satisfied gentle Elia himself.
+
+Our guide, in answer to numerous questions upon the subject,
+informed us that some of his countrymen had acquired a taste for
+dogs, while others had succumbed to the sweeter attractions of
+cats; others again found rats their favorite morsel, but in all
+cases these penchants are indulged in on the sly. Upon no account
+would a Chinaman think of taking either of these peculiar
+delicacies home, for it appears that mesdames, much to their
+credit, have serious objections to their use. They draw the line
+here, and the husband must confine the indulgence of his uncanny
+longings to restaurants, and say nothing about it, or his lady
+friends might mark him as one of whom "'twas said he ate strange
+flesh." Contrary to the statement of travellers, I find this food
+is not confined to the poorer classes. The price of it is about
+the same as that of pork, and far beyond that of hare or deer. How
+strange these people are! The price of a black dog or cat is fully
+double that of a white one, the superstition being that the former
+makes blood much faster than the other, while rats are supposed to
+make the hair grow.
+
+We returned to our hotel in time for luncheon, and in the afternoon
+called upon Captain Lincoln, the United States Consul, to whom
+General Bailey had given us letters which secured us a cordial
+reception. The European settlement at Canton is very pretty, with
+its broad, well-shaded avenues, exquisite flower-garden, and
+lawn-tennis and croquet grounds. Its club-house is a gem, comprising
+a small theatre, billiard-room and bowling- alley--everything
+complete. The colonel took us for a stroll about the settlement, and
+pressed us to join a party he was just about taking over the river
+to visit the best flower-gardens of the city. We could not decline
+such a treat, and this gave us the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Lincoln,
+who is so well known in China as to be regarded somewhat in the
+light of an historical character. Her collection of teapots promises
+to render her famous. She boasts already of more than two hundred,
+no two alike in form, and the record grows day by day; and the
+melancholy feature is that there is no end for the passion save in
+death, a mania for "a bit of the blue" ranking first in the list of
+diseases for which materia medico, boasts no antidote.
+
+Almost everything seems to have been tried in China during its
+thousands of years of national life. We read for instance that in
+A.D. 841 the emperor, seeing the evils of monasteries and
+nunneries, suddenly closed them all and sent the inmates back to
+their families. So far, perhaps, so good; but he also shut up all
+the temples and told the priests to turn their faces in the
+direction from which they came. He was far too "thorough," and
+when the next emperor was so favored by heaven as to become the
+discoverer of a veritable bone of Buddha and brought it to the
+capital with many solemn ceremonies, the people were quite ready
+for the inevitable reaction, and Buddhism was again restored. This
+is a comparatively modern instance. Away back two hundred and more
+years B.C., we find the famous builder of the Great Wall
+attempting an impossible task with no better result. He was a
+great reformer--indeed the first universal emperor of all existing
+China, which was consolidated by his genius. The privileged
+classes, of course, opposed his reforms and gave him much trouble
+by holding up to the admiration of the people the feudal times of
+the past, and extolling the heroes of those days to the
+disadvantage of those of the present. At last the emperor resolved
+to break with the past altogether, and ordered that all books
+should be burned except such as referred to his own reign, that
+all who even spoke of other books should be put to death; that
+those who spoke of the past as superior to the present should be
+put to death, and their relatives as well. Soon after this order,
+more than four hundred who had disobeyed it were ordered to be
+executed. Even the books of Confucius were not exempt; indeed
+these were chief offenders, for the sage was remarkable for such
+worship of the past as has scarcely a precedent in history.
+
+Of course such an order could not be carried out. The condemned
+books were secreted and all the more venerated from the dangers
+which surrounded their possession. To-day we are thankful that so
+many books exist telling truthfully of the past--those good old
+times which were very bad times indeed. The history of the past
+should be studied carefully that we may learn not what to copy,
+but what to avoid. Let all the records be preserved.
+
+I take it that to many blessings for which we have to thank the
+Heathen Chinee may be added our axiom: "Resistance to tyrants is
+obedience to God." The Emperor of China is in theory the most
+absolute of rulers, and holds in his hands the power of life and
+death--"whom he wills he slays, and whom he wills he keeps alive."
+So runs the edict. It is the duty of the subject to render
+implicit obedience. But here follows another duty no less
+imperative: He is bound to resist the emperor's authority if he
+"ceases to be a minister of God for the good of his people."
+Confucius distinctly teaches "the sacred right of rebellion," and
+the next highest authority, Mencius, puts it in even stronger
+terms. This seems a striking anomaly, for the whole theory of
+government to-day, as thousands of years ago, is the patriarchal
+one: as the emperor is the Son of Heaven, so his people are the
+sons of the emperor, and he alone can intercede between his
+children and heaven. It is his prayers and sacrifices to which
+supreme importance is attached. Notwithstanding all this, as we
+have seen, the Chinaman believes it to be his duty to dethrone a
+bad emperor and even to put him to death. You see, my friends, a
+Chinese emperor can do wrong, which follows from his having power
+direct from heaven to do anything; therefore the right to
+decapitate him upon occasion must be reserved to the people. It is
+only in England that the doctrine that the king can do no wrong
+can safely be accepted. It is quite true there, for these
+Islanders have so managed matters as not to allow that ornamental
+appendage to do anything beyond opening fancy bazaars or laying
+foundation stones, where even an hereditary monarch cannot go very
+far astray.
+
+On the 8th day of the 12th month, in the reign of Man-Ti, A.D.
+593, occurred one of the most remarkable events in the history of
+our race. An edict was issued that the various texts then in
+circulation should be collected and engraved on wood, to be
+printed and published. Here began the art of printing, but it was
+not till a blacksmith named Pe-Ching, three or four hundred years
+later, invented movable types that the astounding possibilities of
+the invention were seen. Off hats to the memory of that learned
+blacksmith! Tall oaks from little acorns grow; but surely never
+before nor since has the world seen such stupendous results from
+so small a change as that of substituting little pieces of wood,
+each with one character upon it, for larger pieces which contained
+many. That blacksmith has revolutionized the world. I shall never
+pass one of the craft again without honoring him as distantly
+related to Pe-Ching by virtue of his calling. Vulcan has done much
+in the past in his smithy, forging the thunderbolts of war, but
+put all such weapons together and I will back the movable types of
+Pe-Ching for victory.
+
+China carries the principle of home rule to a greater extent even
+than the United States do, for each province not only manages its
+own local affairs and levies its own taxes, but also supports its
+only army and navy. This would seem fatal to the organization of
+solid, vital forces; but as the Chinese have passed farther beyond
+the barbarous thirst for so-called "glory" (disgrace, rather) than
+western nations, it is not essential that either army or navy
+should be efficient. Indeed, the less so the better.
+
+I trust, however, the Chinese cannot rob the Republic of the
+credit of having the poorest navy and smallest army among the
+nations, for this I consider perhaps the foremost evidence that
+America gives to the world that she is worthy to lead our race to
+nobler issues than those which have so largely occupied it in the
+past.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SATURDAY, December 21.
+
+To-day has been devoted, like yesterday, to Canton sights; but as
+we had several distant places to visit, we took sedan chairs, and
+went shouting along, four coolies each, Indian file, through the
+town, forming quite a cavalcade, with our guide in front. It was
+the same interminable maze of narrow, crowded thorough-fares,
+crammed with human beings, that we had seen for the first time
+yesterday. A great commotion was seen ahead at one place, out of
+which emerged several men in crimson robes, bearing banners,
+clearing the way and shouting out the name and dignities of a
+mandarin who was approaching. An ornamented chair, borne aloft,
+came into view, on which his lordship, an official of the third or
+fourth button, sat in state, followed by two servants on ponies,
+the only species of horseflesh we have seen in Canton. It is with
+considerable difficulty that even these small animals get through,
+and their use is confined to escorting high officials.
+
+At almost every corner we pass crowds of poor wretches gambling in
+various modes, from fantan down to dice and dominoes. Children
+participate, and stake their "cash" with the elders; indeed, a
+young Celestial rarely spends his stray coppers in candy without
+tossing with the stall-keeper, double or quits; the little scamps
+begin early, and at every counter we noticed the dice lying ready
+to facilitate the operation. Is it any wonder that the vice of
+gambling seems inherent in the Chinese character? We saw rather a
+funny illustration of this practice, at which we couldn't help
+laughing. A class of venders keep a large pot boiling on the
+pavement in some partially secluded place, in which is an
+assortment of odds and ends. Such a mess of tidbits--pieces of
+liver, chicken, kidneys, beef, almost every conceivable thing!
+These the owner stirs up, taking care, I thought, to bring the
+largest bits adroitly to the surface. You should see the longing
+faces of the hungry beggars around. One risks a cash (one-tenth of
+a cent), a rattle of the dice--the customer has won. The fork is
+handed to him, and he has two dabs in the pot. What a prize! Down
+go the _bonnes bouches_ one after the other, and back goes
+the fork to the pot-boiler, who again uses it to stir up in the
+pot prizes to tempt the lucky owner of funds sufficient for the
+indulgence of this piece of extravagance. I really believe the
+poor, miserable, hungry wretches lounging around the pot derived
+satisfaction from the odor emitted. And as the lucky gamester
+gobbled his prizes, I imagined every one around involuntarily went
+through the motion of smacking his lips, as if he shared in the
+inward satisfaction of his lucky neighbor. Vandy almost
+overwhelmed one of these people by handing him a cash to try his
+fortune; but he thinks his man was too hungry to risk the dice,
+and took the sure thing. He probably considered one bite in the
+mouth worth two in the pot; but he wasn't a representative
+Chinaman by any means.
+
+At one point our guide in advance called a halt, and upon our
+dismounting he led us into a walled enclosure, and startled us
+with the information that we were in the execution grounds. He
+pointed out spots still damp with the blood of criminals, several
+jars containing the heads of victims, the protruding hair matted
+with the lime used to decompose the flesh more rapidly, and a rude
+cross still remaining upon which a woman had recently been
+crucified and cut to pieces while alive. Her crime was the gravest
+known to Chinese law: she had murdered her husband. Poor wretch!
+probably he had not illy deserved his fate were the whole story
+known, for the provocation which would nerve a woman in China to
+rise against her husband and owner must be beyond human endurance.
+Instead of this spot being set apart and shunned by man, woman and
+child, as defiled by the horrors enacted within its walls, the
+area was filled with large clay jars, used as stoves, the product
+of a manufactory adjoining, set out there in rows to dry. Men
+moved in and around them unconcernedly, and at the entrance and
+within the enclosure there was a temporary fantan gambling shop,
+composed of bamboo poles and mats, in full operation, surrounded
+by crowds of people. Of a surety the Heathen Chinee is peculiar.
+The grounds are of course cleared of everything upon "execution
+days," and I suppose the swarming masses of Canton see no reason
+why even this acre of notorious ground should be permitted to lie
+useless several days in succession. There is nothing which is not
+put to use in China.
+
+Our next visit was more to our taste; it was to the place of the
+literary examinations, which are held every third year. Here the
+grounds are kept in good order, and exclusively devoted to this
+noble use. It is well known that each province in China has public
+examinations for its students. Those who are successful become
+eligible for the higher examinations, which are held at Canton and
+at two or three of the other great cities. Candidates who pass at
+these are permitted to enter for the final struggle at Peking,
+where success brings rank, honor, and fortune. At Canton the ten
+acres of grounds are covered with long rows of brick sheds,
+divided into stalls about six by four feet, with neither door nor
+window, and open at the back; a narrow footway permits entrance,
+and a blank wall forms the front of the succeeding row, and so on.
+The stalls contain no furniture, but a board extending from the
+front, half the length of the stall, and working backward and
+forward in grooves in the wall, is used as a seat; a smaller one
+higher up at the foot of the stall makes a writing-table, and
+these combined made a bed. A small lamp is furnished, and the
+aspirant remains for three days and nights writing upon subjects
+given to him after he has entered the stall. No chance for
+cramming here. Out of ten thousand six hundred who competed last
+year, only eighty-two were found worthy to appear at Peking. I
+believe only a certain number can succeed throughout the whole
+Empire, and the standard is, therefore, kept very high.
+
+Amid much which causes one to mourn for the backwardness of this
+country, here is the bright jewel in her crown. China is, as far
+as I know, the only nation which has advanced beyond the so-called
+heroic age when the soldier claims precedence. England and America
+must be content to claim that
+
+  "Peace hath her victories
+   No less renowned than war,"
+
+while here the triumphs of peace are held in chief esteem. No
+general, no conqueror, be his victories what they may, can ever in
+China attain the highest rank. That is held only by successful
+scholars who have shown the possession of literary talent. When
+the news reaches a town or village that a townsman has been
+victorious at Peking, a general rejoicing takes place, and
+triumphal arches are built in his honor to witness for centuries
+how deeply they appreciate the honor conferred upon the town by
+their illustrious fellow-citizen. Upon his return the whole
+population turns out to meet and welcome him, and his career
+inspires other young men to emulate his virtues. Henceforth his
+life is one of honor, for from this class the rulers of China are
+taken. These are the Mandarins, and there is no other aristocracy
+in China. Nor are his honors hereditary. His sons, if they would
+be ennobled, must outstrip their fellows in knowledge, as their
+father did before them. An aristocracy founded upon learning, and
+composed of those who know the most, is an institution with which
+we have no serious quarrel. It is claims from birth which make my
+blood boil. These are an insult to every commoner, and we must not
+rest until every trace of hereditary privilege is swept from the
+earth. Neither king, queen, prince, nor lord should live in our
+native isle to insult us if I had my way--and my way may come ere
+I depart if I get the three score and ten allotted to mortals by
+the psalmist.
+
+Our trip to-day had another surprise for us. We were taken to the
+city court and prison. A poor naked wretch was on his knees as we
+entered, his back a mass of blood caused by the blows just
+inflicted with the bamboo which an officer, standing close behind,
+still held over the victim, ready to use again at a word from the
+judge. What a quivering, miserable spectacle the culprit was! As I
+write this I can see him tremble. His reputed crime was stealing,
+but he had denied it, and the judge, not getting satisfactory
+answers to his questions, had ordered the bamboo to be applied.
+Another poor soul sat under torture, laced by ropes against a
+large flat board in some diabolical manner so that his features
+were distorted by pain, while at a short distance from the door
+many hardened-looking criminals, all chained to large balls of
+iron, awaited trial and sentence. The most enlightened of the
+judges here still urge that it would be impossible to administer
+justice without torture or physical punishment in order to force
+replies from the accused. If you can compel a culprit to answer
+every question which a trained examiner is allowed to put, it is
+not difficult to convict the guilty. With us we forego that
+advantage by requiring no man to convict himself. Here he has to
+prove his innocence in a measure; at least he must tell a straight
+story; and this he would never do, it is said, in China, unless he
+were held in fear of bodily chastisement or torture. It is an
+effectual mode of getting answers, as I can testify. The judge
+asks a question which goes to the very root of the matter. The
+wretch hesitates an instant. I thought I could see from his
+supplicating gesture that he felt the true answer would expose his
+guilt. "Bamboo, attend--ready!" Another instant, and the blow
+descends, the trembling man stammers out his reply, and his
+sentence is pronounced. Another, who has been cleverly allowed to
+witness the manner in which recusant parties are dealt with, is
+dragged before the judge, his back bared, and he falls on his
+knees to make answer. No skilful lawyers here to defend and throw
+around the prisoner the safeguards of the law; but neither is
+there any upon the side of the prosecution. The accused has only
+to satisfy the judge by giving a true account of himself and his
+doings. I should say an innocent man would prefer this mode, a
+guilty one detest it; and this seems a strong argument in its
+favor.
+
+My room fronts on the river, and is upon the second story of this
+strange little hotel. This gives me fine views of the unceasing
+traffic of the stream, but it is not without its disadvantages as
+a place of rest at night. The Chinese gods, or devils rather, have
+a strong fondness for fire-crackers, and these are set off at all
+hours of the night by the more devout of the boat-women right
+under my windows. I waken with a start every now and then, as an
+unusally large bunch is fired. It occurred to me last night that
+some of the extra fees bestowed upon our woman and her bright
+little sister may be responsible for part of this species of
+devotion. It is very likely that some part of their extra earnings
+is considered due to their gods. I write this at nine in the
+morning, and there are two boats busily engaged in their prayers
+just now, one battery of crackers responding to the other. One
+would almost think a naval war upon a small scale was raging. I
+must plead ignorance till now of this strange manner of
+propitiating the supernatural powers. If I ever read of it, it has
+passed away and been forgotten, like a thousand things one reads
+of. Another custom which interferes with slumber is the noise made
+by the night watchman, who walks backward and forward beating a
+tenor gong with a hard stick. One, two, three, slowly, followed by
+two quick taps, is the signal that all is well. Extraordinary
+precautions have to be taken in the cities against theft. Almost
+every block has its watchman, and gates short distances apart are
+shut at nine o'clock, after which only those known personally to
+him are allowed to pass. One provision struck me as putting an
+effectual check upon mischief of all kinds: no one is allowed to
+walk after night without carrying a lantern, and one found
+disregarding this law would be held "suspect." Our landlord told
+me that the watchman would be sternly dealt with if a robbery
+occurred, as he is held responsible for the safety of his block.
+
+The boat population of Canton is famous as being something unique,
+but it exceeds all ideas I had formed of it. It is said that three
+hundred thousand people live in boats ranging from the size of a
+skiff to that of a yawl. I have seen a family of six huddled
+together in one of the former size, but these were the poorest of
+the poor. The usual passenger boat is twenty feet long by four and
+a half wide--the size of the hotel boats we use. We got into one
+this morning, and as the crackers were going off from numerous
+boats on all sides, our woman explained that the unusually
+vigorous fusilade was owing to this being "Joss day." "All people
+go Jossee Temple this day." "Do you go?" "No; have got Jossee here
+on boatee." "Where? Show us." With that one of the girls at the
+stern pushed aside two small sliding-doors in the extreme end of
+the boat, and revealed a little shrine with a lamp ever burning,
+and Joss sticks in the incense bowl. The entire family burst into
+laughter at our surprise, evidently tickled with the idea that it
+was a decidedly cute thing to have their Joss cooped up "Jack-in-
+the-box" style. Yesterday the Emperor, at Peking, after fasting
+all the previous day, would ascend into the Temple of Heaven,
+accompanied by two thousand of his highest officials, and worship,
+while his subjects celebrate the event by this fire-cracker
+carnival.
+
+I was curious to see how a small yawl could be the residence of a
+family, and examined several of them. The centre of the extreme
+stern is occupied by the Joss temple, on either side of which
+small dishes, cans, etc., are arranged; then comes an open space
+extending across the boat, about four feet long, over which is
+thrown a light board about six inches wide, upon which stands the
+woman who sculls and steers the craft. A permanent bamboo roof is
+built over about the next six feet of the boat, and around the
+walls are hung a few ornaments, generally old-fashioned plates and
+cheap prints from the English illustrated papers, while on a shelf
+are those indispensable articles, the smoking pipes of the
+family--large and curious affairs, with richly ornamented square
+brass bowls about four and one-half by two inches in size. A tiny
+china tea-set and various little "curios" are found in the best
+boats. The next portion, where passengers sit, has nicely
+cushioned seats running across the boat, and on each side as well,
+and is also covered by the roof. Next to the bow is a platform
+three feet deep, upon which stands the second woman, who rows or
+poles the boat, as may be necessary. Under her feet is the
+kitchen, and she has only to lift a board to show a small square
+covered with clay, upon which a fire can be built. Pots and pans
+are seen snugly stowed away around this, so that, by means of
+movable platforms, trap-doors, etc., the entire boat is rendered
+available to its very keel. At night, when the business of
+carrying passengers is over, all the boards are made into a fine
+flush deck, which is divided, in a very few minutes, into sleeping
+apartments by means of bamboo poles and mats; and so it comes to
+pass that what I was before disposed to believe almost impossible
+is accomplished with a degree of comfort quite surprising. These
+boat people live for less than ten cents a day. Rent there is
+none; food costs about five cents per day for each person;
+clothing does not cost two. From the child of eight to the great-
+grandmother, all do something. When not otherwise engaged, they
+sew, make Joss-sticks, slit bamboo, or do something or other, the
+baby being strapped on the mother's back that her capacity for
+work may not be interfered with; and her stepping backward and
+forward as she sculls must be a soothing lullaby, for we haven't
+heard a child crying yet in China. Upon such boats as I have here
+attempted to describe, and many far smaller and destitute of
+ornament, millions of the people of China live, move, and have
+their being. Children-are born, old men die, upon them, and many
+thousands of their occupants have never slept a night upon shore.
+
+I was surprised to hear that there is no theatre at Canton. The
+government had some time ago to prohibit night performances, as
+they were constantly the scenes of disorder. The only amusement is
+furnished upon large gayly decorated boats, where feasts are
+given, at which girls belonging to the boats appear and sing. We
+saw one of these, but it was a poor performance compared with our
+experience in Japan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SUNDAY, December 22.
+
+We allowed our guide to leave us for to-day, and strolled about
+alone. In the early part of our walk we heard music--a harmonium
+and a well-known old hymn tune--and on entering a building found
+Rev. Dr. Hopper preaching in Chinese. We had entered at the wrong
+door, and were among the women, who are separated from the men by
+a high, solid wall; but Mrs. Hopper rose and conducted us to the
+other side, and after service the Doctor came and greeted us
+cordially. We spent an hour in their house, and were surprised to
+hear that both were old Pittsburghers. There were at church that
+morning about thirty Chinamen, all of the poorer classes,
+principally servants and dependents of Europeans. In the afternoon
+we stumbled upon the large Catholic cathedral, which is now almost
+ready for use. It is a magnificent granite structure, three
+hundred feet long and eighty-eight feet wide. If anything can
+impress the Chinese mind it must be grand mass in such a temple,
+with its vaulted roof, stained windows, the swelling organ, and
+all the "pride, pomp, and circumstance" of Catholic worship. As we
+stood admiring, the saintly bishop approached and greeted us with
+exquisite grace. He could not speak English, but. his French was
+the easiest to understand of any I ever listened to, and my little
+knowledge of the language enabled us to carry on an interesting
+conversation. When I told him I had been in St. Peter's at Rome,
+and had seen the Pope when the assembled thousands fell prostrate
+before him as he advanced up the aisle, carried upon his
+palanquin, he seemed much affected, and pressed us to visit his
+quarters, apologizing, as he showed us into a poor one-story
+building, for the poverty of his apartments, but adding that the
+true _prêtre Catholique_ must needs dwell in poverty among
+the poor of the earth. I asked if he did not expect to return to
+France to die; but, laying his hand upon his heart, he answered
+that he must not allow himself to think of France, since it had
+pleased God to place him here. For thirty years he had labored
+among these people, and among them he must die; it was the will of
+God. There were only a table and a few chairs in this bishop's
+palace, not even a mat or carpet on the floor; but he ordered a
+servant to bring wine, of which he only tasted, while we drank
+"_sa santé_." He subsequently took us to the orphanage, where
+we saw eighty boys being educated. About an equal number of little
+girls are in a separate building. If the Chinese are ever to be
+reformed, this is the way to do it--get control of the young, and
+teach them. As for the older generation, I fear it is too late to
+do much with it. There are in and around Canton about five
+thousand Chinese Catholics, mostly recruited, I understand, from
+among the young, taken by these sagacious workers into their
+schools and orphanages and other institutions, and educated as
+Christians from their youth up.
+
+When I told the good Bishop we spent our summers at Cresson, very
+near Loretto, and often drove to Count Gallitzin's tomb, he
+grasped my hand and gave me his benediction. Oh, blessed man! a
+grand Catholic, Father Gallitzin!
+
+Every one has heard of the great wall of China, which stretches
+across the northern frontier from the sea to the westernmost
+province, a distance of twelve to fifteen hundred miles. It is
+fifteen to thirty feet high, with brick towers about forty feet
+high at intervals along the whole route. This gigantic work was
+begun in the third century before Christ by one of the greatest
+rulers of men the world has ever seen, the Emperor Che Hwang, who
+hoped that it would prove an insuperable barrier to the inroads of
+the Tartar hordes. But a still greater warrior than he; Genghis
+Khan, leader of the Mongols, showed in 1212 that it could be
+overcome. To this day the Chinese dynasty is Tartar, but the four
+hundred millions of people remain the same, having assimilated the
+foreign element. The Tartars are fast becoming Chinese, although a
+difference between the races is still clearly discernible. The
+Heathen Chinee changes not. The Jews and the Scotch are perhaps
+the races in Europe who preserve their types with the greatest
+tenacity, but compared with the Chinese they must be considered
+plasticity itself. Apart from their overwhelming numbers, which,
+being of one unvarying type throughout, constitute a mass upon
+which it is almost impossible to make much impression, one sees
+how climate and conditions of life in China operate to bring to
+the Chinese type all foreign elements, and to retain them there.
+Mrs. McC. has just been explaining to me to-day how much trouble
+she has to keep her children, for instance, from becoming young
+Celestials. They are of pure Scotch parentage upon both sides, yet
+are constantly alarming their fond mother by developing tastes
+wholly opposed to hers in food, dress, habits, manners, language,
+everything. It is just the same in India: the child of foreign
+parents there must be taken home for years before he is seven or
+eight years old, or he becomes a Hindoo. We have just such
+differences at home in a less degree. If two brothers leave Boston
+with their families, one for New Orleans, another for Chicago, the
+differences in their grandchildren will be very noticeable. The
+dream of some dreamer, that Englishmen can be grown in Hindostan
+or Australia, or even in America (or in Ireland, for that matter),
+will be rudely dispelled by a few weeks' residence in China or
+India. The opening gowan transplanted from its Scottish glen loses
+its modest charm and grows rank upon the prairies of the West even
+in its second year. The shamrock pines away in exile beyond the
+borders of its own Emerald Isle. Man, the most delicately touched
+of all to fine issues, is also the creature of his surroundings,
+even to a greater degree.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MONDAY, December 23.
+
+Now for a frank confession. Like Mark Twain's preacher with the
+car rhyme, "I have got it, got it bad"--the "curio" malady in one
+of its most virulent types. Ever since we were dropped upon that
+uncanny land of Japan the symptoms of forthcoming disorder have
+not been wanting. I had to succumb occasionally, but rallied in
+time to preserve a tolerably clean bill of health. But if I have
+one weakness more than another, it is for the harmony of sweet
+sounds, and this the tempter knew right well. I met my fate in the
+famous Temple of Hoonan, in which is the most celebrated "gong" in
+China. I struck it, and listened. For more than one full minute, I
+believe, that bowl was a quivering mass of delicious sound. I
+thought it would never cease to vibrate. In Japan I had counted
+one that sounded fifty seconds, and its music rang in my ears for
+days. I asked "Ah-Cum" why the temple would not sell this gong and
+buy another far cheaper; for my opinion is, and my experience too,
+that there is nothing in China that money will not buy. However,
+this was an exception. Well, does the priest know where there are
+any temple gongs that can be bought? Yes, three that belonged to a
+temple destroyed by the rebels some years ago, and which were
+still in the hands of curio dealers. The address was obtained, and
+off we set to see them. I wish I could describe the places we
+visited in our search, the collections of curios we saw! No
+antiquary outside of Canton ever saw a tithe of the strange old
+things we examined. One might stumble upon a magic mirror, or an
+Aladdin's lamp, in some of these recesses, and scarcely wonder at
+it; all is so strange. But to the gongs. There is a little bit of
+history connected with one of them which is significant. We found
+we had to get from one of the priests a certain ticket before the
+article could be delivered. I thought a moment, and then:
+
+  "Oh, my prophetic soul, _my uncle_!"
+
+It was even so. The priest had seen "his uncle," the curio dealer,
+and in some moment of want or dire temptation had pledged the gong
+of the temple for an advance. I got those which had a fairer record,
+and told our guide I wanted the other if he could get it; but this
+was impossible. Judge of my surprise, however, when the identical
+gong reached me at Hong Kong. I have it, with the pawn mark
+fortunately only partially obliterated, but so that the name of the
+guilty priest is no longer legible. Ah-Cum must have bargained for
+that ticket, the rogue, knowing I would pay the price; but really,
+had that gong reached me while in Canton, and had it been possible
+for me to return it to the right temple, I should not have thought,
+under the circumstances, of carrying it off. It seems as if I were
+in some degree a receiver of stolen goods; but as it only came to me
+after we had reached Hong Kong, and I knew neither priest nor
+temple, what could I do but decide to hold it myself until claimed
+by the rightful owners? Therefore, my friends, one and all of you,
+please take notice: whatever you may take a fancy to among my
+curios, don't ask me for that gong. I don't feel my title quite as
+clear as I could wish it, but I shall ease my conscience by agreeing
+with myself to act as temporary custodian--only that and nothing
+more. There are others beside temples' gongs, and I have to confess
+to several (genuine "sous chows," all of them). Indeed to-day was
+the curio day throughout. I cannot give even a partial record of the
+spoils as our procession marched hotelward in the evening. I burst
+into loud laughter as I eyed our party. In the advance was Ah-Cum,
+the guide, bearing aloft a fearful idol, "the ugliest I could find
+in China," this being Sister Lucy's characteristic commission; Vandy
+followed with his pockets stuffed with "birds'-nests,"
+"Joss-sticks," "temple money," and etceteras too numerous to
+mention; then came two coolies, one after the other, naked as Adam
+after he donned the fig-leaf, carrying the gongs, while I brought up
+the rear with fans, vials, ivory carvings, and what-not. I cannot
+tell what part of this maze of shops we had been in, but the curio
+shops were so far from our hotel that not a man about them knew
+where it was, although there is but one European hotel in the city,
+consequently the coolies had to follow us. Vandy has just reported
+that it will take nine boxes to hold our spoils from here. I
+exclaim, Vandy, for goodness' sake let us get out of this
+immediately and try to regain our good, hard common sense, and be
+sound, practical men once more. Give me a _Pittsburgh Commercial_
+and let me see the price of pig metal, and what is said of steel
+rails and coke and manufactured iron, and all the rest of it; and
+that monthly report of the Lucy Furnaces and of the Edgar Thomson,
+both the largest upon record. Thanks! Ah! now I feel better. How is
+it with thee, my friend? Fortunately Vandy felt the necessity for
+keeping an eye upon me, and he never was in such danger himself. But
+if any one can pass through Canton and escape a touch of the
+Toodleian malady, which prompts one to buy everything one sees, I
+warrant him sound to the core.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HONG KONG, Christmas Eve.
+
+We returned this afternoon from Canton. After retiring I heard a
+well-known sound--the ubiquitous mosquito. It was rather odd to be
+compelled to rise and ring for our "boy" to put up mosquito-bars
+on Christmas evening, but it had to be done. We talked till late
+of home, and speculated upon what our friends would all be about
+away up there almost above our heads--"topside," as John Chinaman
+always expresses it. So far we have only one paper from home; no
+letters, these having been missed at Shanghai. The news of the
+triumph of hard money views rejoiced us greatly, as proving once
+more that in grave emergencies the good sense of the people of
+America can always be depended upon. One has only to visit the
+East to see what evils the silver basis entails upon a nation.
+
+The economy practised in China is striking. A sweet potato is sold
+in halves, or even in quarters, if required; ferriage across the
+river in a boat--a stream as wide as the Ohio at Pittsburgh--costs
+one-fifth of a cent, and you can engage an entire boat for
+yourself for a cent, if you wish to be extravagant; poultry is
+sold by the piece, as we sell a sheep, the wings, breast, legs,
+all having their price, and even the very feet of a chicken being
+sold for soup. Common iron nails are laid out in lots of six each;
+these have been used and used again, no one knows how often; we
+see the people at work straightening old nails at every turn. You
+can buy one-tenth of a cent's worth (1 cash) of either fish, soup,
+or rice. Verily things are down to a fine point here!
+
+In one of our strolls we came upon a string of ten blind beggars
+wandering through the narrow, crowded street, the hands of each
+upon the shoulders of the one in advance, the leader beating with
+his cane upon the stone pavement, and all beseeching alms. It was
+a strange sight. The Chinese Government gives to every blind
+person a small monthly pittance, and well-dressed passers, I
+observed, generally bestowed a cash upon the gang.
+
+I have not said much about the temples of Canton or of China, as
+they are poor affairs compared with those of Japan; besides, one
+becomes sated with temples which are for the most part copies of
+one another; the pagodas are much more picturesque at a distance
+than when closely inspected. The Chinese actually prefer all their
+places to smack of age, and repair them reluctantly, so that all
+have a dilapidated air, which gives a very unfavorable impression
+to a stranger. At best, China has nothing whatever to boast of in
+the way of architecture. We did not see a structure of any kind
+which would attract a moment's notice, a few pagodas and temples,
+perhaps, excepted; but even these are poor and mean affairs.
+
+The only temple worthy of mention I saw in any part of China is
+that of the Sages. In it we were shown tolerably good busts of
+five hundred of the most famous characters known to Chinese
+history--all the writers, statesmen, and rulers who have
+distinguished themselves for thousands of years. Among them,
+curiously enough, Marco Polo has by some means found a place.
+Compared with the hideous monsters worshipped in other temples, I
+regarded this deification of the illustrious dead with sincere
+satisfaction. No man can erect a house superior to what his rank
+or station in life justifies. A public officer prescribes the
+limit of expenditure, after investigating the affairs of the
+intending builder, as every one in China tries to conceal his
+wealth, fearing unjust exactions by the State. It is easy to see
+why no palaces are forthcoming. This is not "liberty;" but I
+suspect several of my friends who have erected palatial structures
+of late years have seen reason to wish that such a safeguard had
+existed when they began to build.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHRISTMAS DAY.
+
+Yesterday's papers announced that the Hallelujah Chorus was to be
+performed in the English Cathedral this morning at eight o'clock.
+I had been so long out of the region of music that I rose early
+and went to church. The Japanese and Chinese music grated so on my
+ears, I longed to hear an organ once more. I enjoyed the service
+very much. The music was well performed, and as for the sermon--I
+had to be back for breakfast, you know. It was specially pleasing
+to see at church the detachment of British soldiers, the more so
+as they were Highlanders. My heart will warm to the tartan. One
+strange feature I shall not soon forget. Several soldiers, in
+their scarlet uniforms, sang in the choir. I scarcely ever see
+soldiers without being saddened by the thought that the
+civilization of the race is yet little better than a name when so
+much must still be done to teach millions of men the surest way to
+destroy their fellows; but I take hope from this omen--these
+mighty men of war engaged this morning chanting the seraphic
+strains which proclaim the coming of the better day when there
+shall reign "on earth peace, good-will toward men."
+
+Whatever old China may be doing, young China is progressing, for I
+saw in the park this morning several youthful Celestials, with
+their pigtails securely tied and out of the way, hard at cricket
+and baseball. Nor were they "duffers" either, although our wee
+Willie and his nine could no doubt, in the way of a "friendly"
+inning or two, show the lads a sweet thing, especially in the
+"underthrow," for which my little nephew, I hear, is famous.
+
+We are all creatures of prejudice, of course, but I could not help
+being somewhat shocked on Sunday, as I strolled about the
+Cathedral, to see some thirty odd sedan chairs on the one side,
+and I suppose as many on the other, each with two, three, and some
+with four coolies in gorgeous liveries in attendance, all waiting
+the closing of prayers, lying in the shade, and some of them
+improving the opportunity to enjoy a quiet gamble with dice this
+fine Sunday morning. It did not seem to me to be quite consistent
+for some of my Scotch friends who stand so stoutly for Sabbath
+observance to keep so many human beings on duty, say three for one
+who worshipped, just to save them from walking a few short squares
+to and from church, for the town is small and compact. But custom
+has much to do with one's prejudices, for, after all, how is this
+worse than to roll in one's carriage to our Fifth Avenue temples?
+Yet this never struck me as so much out of the way before, and I
+think, unless the future Mrs. C. seriously objects, we shall walk
+to church as a rule--when we go. Really, three men kept at work
+that one may pray seems just a shade out of proportion.
+
+I astonished Vandy this morning by getting up early; but I did not
+care to explain the reason for this phenomenon, which was that I
+had to catch the Canton boat to send a note back to Ah-Cum asking
+him to get me certain additional curios after all. While at Canton
+I had manfully resisted the temptation, but the thought of leaving
+China without the treasures proved overwhelming, and now my only
+fear is lest Ah-Cum should fail me. I confessed to Vandy, after we
+had had a glass of good wine at tiffin, and I shall not soon
+forget his quiet smile. "You've got it bad, haven't you?" 'Twas
+all he said, but you should have heard the touch of infinite pity
+in his tone. Yes, I have got it bad, I know, but to-morrow we
+shall escape from this old curiosity shop forever.
+
+The fire-bell rang just after we retired, and from eleven o'clock
+until now (two this afternoon--fifteen hours) a disastrous
+conflagration has raged, often threatening to consume the entire
+settlement; indeed, nothing could have saved it but the splendid
+conduct of the 74th Highlanders. They were everywhere, and fought
+the fire the whole night long. The singers of the morning were the
+intrepid firemen of that tempestuous night. It was only by blowing
+up row after row of buildings that the flames were confined to one
+district. I saw the brave fellows march into the buildings upon
+the edge of the swirling flames to lay the fuse. A moment after
+their return the bugle would sound; then came the explosion, and
+the men were off to another building to repeat the work. All was
+done by bugle call, with military precision. Ten thousand times
+more "glory" in this march to save than in all the charge at
+Balaklava. Had equal pluck been shown on the field of battle, the
+flag of that splendid regiment would have blazoned with another
+war-cry. Let them place this record on their banners, instead of
+the name of a city destroyed: December 25th, 1878. Hong Kong
+_Saved!_ They have no prouder triumph to commemorate, even in
+their glorious history.
+
+I have not yet mentioned that slavery, in its mildest form, exists
+in China; but the children of a slave are free, and custom, which
+is all-powerful there, requires a master to give up his servant if
+the latter can repay the amount originally paid for him; and those
+who own a woman-servant are expected to provide a husband for her
+when she becomes of age. The purchase of boys and girls is, as a
+rule, confined to those who wish in this way to be provided with
+servants who shall become part of the household and can be relied
+upon. In no case can a master or mistress require a slave to
+engage in any disreputable calling unless the purpose for which
+the sale is made is clearly set forth, in which event the cost is
+fully doubled. Without special provisions in the bill of sale, it
+is understood that the servant is to perform a servant's ordinary
+duties and to be fairly treated, and to be required to do no wrong
+thing.
+
+The firing of firecrackers caused me to speak to our boatman one
+day, as I was annoyed by the noise, having always had a dislike
+for sudden explosions. "Why don't you worship something good and
+beautiful," I said; "some god that would detest such things as
+firecrackers?" "So we do," said he, "in our hearts, but this is
+not worship; it is sacrifice to the bad gods, so they will be
+pleased and do one no harm." "But won't the good god be displeased
+and do you harm?" "No, the good god would never harm any one." His
+words were, as near as I can recollect them, "He no do badee; no
+can; always likee he; much goodee; by-by kill bad Jossee may be;"
+and so they go, good lord, good devil; no saying into whose hands
+one may fall, as the sailor had it. I gave it up, as the business
+woman came on board and took command, the husband going off to his
+work elsewhere. This woman Susan--Black-eyed Susan, as we have
+dubbed her--and her bright young sister-in-law continue to
+interest us more and more, they are such active, intelligent
+women. The girl is ornamented with bangles and heavy anklets, and
+her earrings are of blue-bird feathers; her hair is banged, and
+everything about her evinces the care of really good, respectable
+people. I told Susan if I were a boatman I should try hard to save
+money enough to buy her sister-in-law, and asked her price. "No
+sellee you; sellee goodee Chinaman two hundred dollars." This was
+said as a great boast, as the ordinary price for one in her
+station is only ninety dollars. Our guide turned up his lip in
+scorn and whispered to me, "She talkee with mouthee too muchee;
+ninety dollar plenty." Perhaps he had his eye upon the maid for
+his son. If so, I put in a good word for her, telling him I was
+reputed one of the best judges of young ladies in America, that I
+could tell their qualities at a glance, and that it was certain
+she would make an excellent wife; and, what I thought would weigh
+as much with him, I added that for a business woman who could
+please travellers and get lots of money I did not believe she had
+her equal in Canton. One always likes to help on a match when he
+can, and something may come of this; who knows?
+
+I wish to bear my testimony to the grand work which is going
+forward at various places in China by means of the medical
+departments of missions. There are fourteen hospitals of this kind
+in the country, and patients from all parts flock to them. In
+diseases of the eye unusual success seems to have been achieved,
+and stories are told of mandarins almost blind who have been
+restored to sight; and in dealing with cutaneous disorders, which
+are very common, the doctors have also done wonders. A small
+mission hospital established in the Island of Formosa only a few
+years ago has already treated ten thousand patients, and I am
+informed that the Canton establishment numbers its beneficiaries
+by the hundred thousand. Whatever objection the people make to
+missionaries, doctors are ever welcome, and regarded as
+benefactors. Nor must we forget that the entire credit of this
+indisputably grand work is wholly due to those who consider it a
+sacred duty to endeavor to force their religious views upon the
+consideration of the Chinese. One can hardly find terms strong
+enough to speak fitly of the good missions are performing in this
+department of their labors; and while upon this subject we should
+remember that it is also to missionaries alone we owe almost all
+we know of China and its literature. Even Confucius was given to
+the world in English by a missionary. I take special pleasure in
+saying all I justly can for those who are so universally decried
+throughout the East. With scarcely an exception--indeed I do not
+remember one--every European or American engaged in the East
+speaks disparagingly of missionaries and their labors. I believe,
+myself, that trying to force religious views upon those who only
+tolerate them because the cannon stands behind ready to support
+the preaching is not the better way, and that many more converts
+would be made by "the word spoken in season" by ministers of the
+European congregations now scattered throughout the East, and by
+doctors and others with whom the natives are daily brought in
+contact, if the paid propaganda were withdrawn; but this should
+not prevent us from crediting the missionaries with the collateral
+advantages which are now flowing from another branch of their
+efforts. They are on the right track now; the M.D. is the best
+pioneer of the D.D. There is another powerful lever at work in the
+_Herald_, a weekly paper published in Shanghai and
+distributed throughout the Empire. It is obtaining an immense
+circulation. It gives each week an epitome of the most important
+events occurring in every country, and America, I saw, headed the
+list. A Mr. Allen, formerly connected with missions, is the
+publisher, and he is probably doing more to revolutionize China
+than all others combined.
+
+China, as everybody knows, grows a great deal of tea, but few are
+aware how great a proportion of this indispensable article she
+produces, and how much of it she uses herself. Here are the
+figures I see printed: Total production of the world, 1,300,000
+net tons; China's portion, 1,150,000 tons, being about nine times
+more than all the world beside. But what is more wonderful is that
+China uses 1,000,000 tons per annum, and exports only 150,000
+tons. But every one in China, upon all occasions, partakes of the
+cup which cheers and does not inebriate. Neither sugar nor cream
+is used in it; a little tea is placed in the cup and boiling water
+poured over it and it is drunk immediately. The strength of the
+tea is drawn in a few moments after the water is poured upon it.
+The coloring matter leaves it later. It is therefore a great
+mistake to use a teapot and allow tea to remain in it, and equally
+to use either sugar or cream--at least such is the verdict of
+those here who should know best. We quite agreed with them, and
+recommend our readers to try the Chinese plan, always provided
+they are so fortunate as to have a good sound article of pleasant
+flavor. With most of the tea found in England, and especially so
+with that generally used in America, the sugar and cream are no
+doubt necessary to drown the "twang." A Chinaman would put this
+practice on a par with putting sugar in Chateau Lafitte. Tea is
+the wine of the Celestial. A mandarin will "talk" it to you as a
+gourmet talks wine with us; dilate upon its quality and flavor,
+for the grades are innumerable, and taste and sip and sip and
+taste as your winebibber does--and smack his lips too. We are told
+of teas so delicate in flavor that fifty miles of transportation
+spoils them.
+
+It is popularly supposed that a small-footed woman must be one of
+rank, but this is an error. It is a matter of family ambition,
+even among the poor, to have in the family at least one such
+deformity. Gentlemen marry only small-footed women, and their
+child might make a good match. If large-footed, this would be
+impossible; but such hopes are sometimes doomed to disappointment,
+or after marriage reverses may ensue; and so it happens that many
+small feet stamp about in poverty and try to eke out a living
+under disadvantages from which their less genteel neighbors are
+free. The most remarkable feature in the streets is the total
+absence of women of any class except such as drudge alongside of
+men, and even these are not numerous, for man appears to
+monopolize most of the work, at least in the cities. Occasionally
+we pass a sedan chair, or one passes us, closely covered up, which
+no doubt contains a lady of position compelled to visit some
+temple or relative; but I do not recall seeing in China any woman
+in a costume above that of the working classes, so jealously do
+Chinamen sentence their ladies to seclusion. A curious
+illustration of this occurred on our passage out. On our ship was
+one of the leading Chinese merchants of San Francisco with his
+wife. Rather than have her seen, even among the few cabin
+passengers, he engaged a portion of the steerage, had it closely
+boarded up and confined her in it, and she was never seen by any
+of us during the entire voyage. He and she took their meals
+together in the box. It was said that now and then at night she
+was carried secretly on deck for a breath of air; of course with
+her small feet she could not walk.
+
+The steerage had to be fumigated at intervals and every soul was
+ordered on deck before the process began. This necessity had
+evidently not been taken into account by the exclusives, and much
+difficulty did our good doctor encounter with them. The husband
+declared that rather than be exposed to the gaze of the crowd, his
+wife would run the risk of being fumigated to death. The operation
+was postponed until a small cabin could be provided and the veiled
+beauty taken secretly to it.
+
+A Chinese woman in China would hold it disgraceful to expose her
+face to a strange man. Queen Victoria, sober, sage matron and pink
+of propriety as she is reputed, would not consider a lady properly
+dressed for her levee--where the more strange men to gaze the
+better--who did not expose her face and neck and shoulders to full
+view. Education, my boy, education! all things right and all
+things wrong within a very wide range of affairs. Chinese women
+pinch the feet, ours pinch the waist, and each pities the other
+for their woeful lack of knowledge and their wickedness in marring
+God's image--and for their bad taste, which is, I fear, equally
+heinous to the female mind.
+
+Our visit to the Celestial Empire is now at an end. We sail at
+noon by the French mail steamer Pie Ho for Singapore, fourteen
+hundred miles south. The more we see of China the greater it
+grows. A country much larger than the United States, with eight
+times the population, and not one mile of telegraph or railroad in
+it, in many districts not even one mile of public road broad
+enough for anything wider than a wheelbarrow--and yet a reading
+and writing people, a race of acknowledged mental power, with a
+form of settled government the oldest in the world--how
+inconsistent all this seems to us! But the reason for this
+paradoxical condition of affairs is, I think, that the unequalled
+resources of the country, which give to the people every necessary
+of life and almost every luxury, encouraged them in early days to
+eschew intercourse with the poorer lands around them, and then
+their superiority as a race to all their neighbors led them quite
+justifiably to conclude that all beyond were outside barbarians.
+They rested content with the advanced position attained, and as
+each successive generation copied the past, change became foreign
+to their whole nature, and in this path they have stubbornly
+persisted until the once inferior races of the West have far
+outstripped them. Among these outside barbarians must be ranked
+our noble selves, for it isn't one thousand years, let alone two,
+since our ancestors were running about dressed in skins and eating
+raw flesh--perhaps eating each other, as some allege--as ignorant
+of their A B C's as of the theory of evolution or the nebular
+hypothesis, when these Chinese were printing books and sailing
+ships by the compass. If my English readers will not be too
+greatly startled at the illustration, I will suggest that the
+conduct of China and its results suggest a danger for them which
+their statesmen should not be slow to perceive and remedy. England
+once stood as much in advance of other Western nations as China
+did in comparison with other lands, and she has apparently rested
+till now with equal complacency in the belief of her superiority.
+It is fast passing away. The English-speaking race throughout the
+world no longer looks to the parent land for political guidance,
+for instance, where Britain once reigned supreme. What English-
+speaking community would now study her antiquated political
+devices, her throne, her church and state, her primogeniture and
+entail, her hereditary chamber, unequal representation, or lack of
+representation rather, except that they might surely learn how to
+avoid them! Over the day when all English-speaking people turned
+instinctively to my native land for political example "Ichabod"
+must be written. They now look elsewhere, follow other ideals, and
+have adopted other ideas of government and the rights of man.
+
+It is not too late yet, however, for England to regain her proper
+place in the race if she will only wake up, rub her dear old eyes,
+and see what the youngsters are about. "There is life in the old
+dog yet." The world is not done with the glorious little island,
+nor the island done with the world either. But no nation can
+indulge in a very long sleep in these days of progress the world
+over. England must remember,
+
+         "_To have done_, is to hang
+   Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail
+   In monumental mockery."
+
+Recent events have undoubtedly awakened the foremost minds of
+China to the fact that they have been asleep, not twenty years
+only like our Rip, but twenty generations. They have recently
+begun to build steamships, a line of telegraph is authorized,
+postage stamps are being printed, and, best of all, for our
+comfort, at the principal cities there is generally at least one
+dealer who adheres to fixed prices for his goods. A daily paper is
+now published in Chinese at Shanghai, and the English school there
+is well patronized. All these things convince me that at last
+Western civilization is making an impression. The inert mass
+begins to move, and China will march forward ere long. The most
+convincing proof of this is found, perhaps, in the fact that the
+government appropriated in 1872 nearly two millions of dollars to
+maintain a hundred and fifty students in the United States. These
+are to be educated in our colleges and afterward employed
+officially at home. No action could prove more conclusively that
+China is at last awakening from her long centuries of repose.
+
+But without railroads the material resources of the country can
+never be thoroughly developed. I fear this will be among the last
+features of our civilization which China will adopt, although the
+most important for her progress, because, as before mentioned, a
+railway cannot be built without desecrating graves by the
+thousand, and this every true Chinaman would view with horror. Our
+guide, although a remarkably intelligent man, and favorable to
+improvements of all kinds, took his stand here, inflexibly
+opposing the introduction of railways. No matter what material
+advantages might accrue, nor how much money he might be offered,
+no earthly consideration would induce him to disturb his
+ancestors, who have lain in one place in uninterrupted succession
+for nearly seven hundred years. If my friends Messrs. Garrison,
+Field and Pullman, who have so skilfully managed to give us
+elevated railroads without disturbing proprietary rights below,
+wish to enhance their fame, let them ask a concession in the
+Celestial Empire for railroads "topside," guaranteed to dodge
+every grave, and I do not doubt their success. Such inborn
+superstition as is here depicted dies hard, but it must pass away
+with the spread of knowledge; it will, however, take time.
+Nevertheless, China has a great future before it, as it has had a
+great past, and instead of having passed her climacteric, I
+predict that she is destined to reach a position of paramount
+importance in the Eastern world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TUESDAY, December 26.
+
+The Pie Ho is a magnificent ship, and we are delighted at getting
+under the auspices of a French cook once more, after the
+experiences we have had in Chinese cookery. No doubt about the
+preëminence of the French in regard to human food. Whoever sends
+the raw material, the French send the cooks. The _table
+d'hôte_, now common in England at the hotels, and the French
+service found in private houses, all so very different from the
+practice even since I began to revisit England, show how rapidly
+the world is bowing to the French cuisine.
+
+We are scudding along before the monsoon, the temperature that of
+June, an agreeable change from Hong Kong, where the nights have been
+chilly. We are out of the region of cold weather now for the
+remainder of our travels. We reached Saigon, the capital of the
+French settlement in Cochin China, at six this morning, after
+sailing forty miles up a branch of the Cambodia. Lower Cochin China
+belongs to France, and is under the rule of a colonial governor,
+French troops being scattered through the provinces. It is a
+low-lying district, celebrated only for growing more rice than any
+other part of the world. Our ship took on large quantities of it for
+France, but this is exceptional, the scarcity of freights being
+everywhere so great that steamers are glad to get anything to carry.
+The Saigonites are the lowest specimens of humanity we have yet
+seen--miserable, sickly-looking creatures, and without the faintest
+regard for cleanliness. Their long, coarse black hair hangs over
+their shoulders in thick, tangled masses which apparently have never
+known a comb. Every one chews the betel-nut without intermission,
+young and old alike, and this so discolors the teeth and mouth as to
+render them extremely disgusting. We drove about the town for a few
+hours, but it was so hot we were compelled to return to the ship.
+This is the God-forsaken-looking region about which France is now
+disputing with China. I cannot but wish that every deputy had been
+with me during the few days of my visit, that he might see what kind
+of a land and what sort of human beings his country expected to
+derive credit from by superintending.
+
+What I have said previous to the foregoing paragraph was written on
+the spot, and therefore I cannot be accused of being prejudiced by the
+recent action of France, which has caused me, as its well-wisher,
+much sincere regret. Any power acquired by France over this portion
+of the world can be but illusory--wholly so. The importance even of
+Saigon is so small that it offers no inducement to any of the
+regular steamers to call as they pass. The French line alone visits
+it under a subvention from the home government. A few poor French
+people manage to exist after a fashion by trading with the ignorant
+natives, and a few soldiers and a ship- of-war give some semblance
+of French authority. But just as certain as the sun shines, should
+any considerable commerce arise in Cochin China, the English will
+absorb nine-tenths of it, and this by a law from which there is no
+escape.
+
+When the French people forced the government to withdraw from
+Egypt they gave us reason to hope that Herbert Spencer's law,
+which creates pacific principles in proportion that power is held
+by the masses, had received a significant vindication. Let us hope
+the republican element will ere long put its veto upon foolish
+interference in Tonquin.
+
+The night we spent at Saigon the French governor gave a grand
+ball, five hundred invitations; but out of all this number how
+many ladies, think you? Society here musters but thirty-five,
+mammas and grandmammas included, and only three young ladies.
+Think of it, ye belles of Cresson, Newport and Saratoga (Cresson
+first, Mr. Printer, is quite correct)! fifteen officers in
+dazzling uniforms for every lady!
+
+We have on board several English merchants and one American, who
+are taking a run home for a visit. The latter regrets that his
+countrymen should be induced to drink green tea abominations, and
+I console him by stating that a reform is surely near at hand.
+These gentlemen agree that the American cotton goods are taking
+the market and driving the adulterated English goods out. The
+trade is increasing so fast that it was welcome intelligence for
+them to be advised by the last mail that another large mill in
+Massachusetts was being altered to make exclusively Chinese goods.
+I congratulate my friend Edward Atkinson upon this result. But is
+this new business to be permanent? I think not. The day is far
+distant, I hope, when either labor or capital in America will have
+to be content with the return obtained in a populous country like
+Britain; and unless we have superior natural advantages we cannot
+hope to compete with her. In cotton manufacture for the East we
+have not any advantage, as I find that the cheapest way of
+reaching China from New York is to ship via London. England can
+bring the raw cotton from New Orleans or New York, and send the
+manufactured goods to market for certainly not more than the cost
+of transportation from the American mills to market, and therefore
+England can retain that trade whenever she adopts the latest
+improvements in mode of manufacture; and this she is as certain to
+do as the sun shines, and probably to improve upon them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1879.
+
+The clock strikes twelve. Good-bye, 1878; and you, 1879, all hail!
+Be as kind to us as the departed, and we shall in turn bless your
+memory. This midnight hour of all the hours of the year is reputed
+the best for framing good resolutions, but somehow those I have
+tried at this season hitherto have not been exceptionally
+fortunate in bearing good fruit. However, I have never "resolved"
+on a New-Year's night before while suffering from heat and
+mosquitoes. I conclude to hazard one, so here goes antipodal
+resolution No. I. See what you are good for. I record it that it
+may be the more deeply impressed upon my mind, and, if a failure,
+that it may in print sternly stare me in the face, and not "down
+at my bidding."
+
+To-day we make our first acquaintance with punkas. They extend
+throughout the cabin, ominous of hot weather, which I detest;
+Vandy, on the other hand, revels in it, and it is his turn now.
+Vandy handed me today a string of Cambodia money, sixty pieces,
+which cost only two cents, showing to what fractions they reduce
+exchanges in Cochin China. I have been careful to collect coins in
+every place visited. Sock No. 1 is now full, and I have had to
+start bag No. 2. I have some rare specimens; of Japan the set is
+complete, from the gold cobang, worth $115, oblong, five inches
+long by about three wide, down to the smallest copper piece. I
+have some Chinese coins shaped like a St. Andrew's cross, dating
+before Christ. The mania for coin collecting is another inherent
+tendency the presence of which has probably never been suspected
+in my disposition. But collecting the coin of the realm, when one
+thinks of it, isn't at all foreign to my tastes. The form of
+manifestation is different, that's all--old coin for new--the
+"ruling love," to use a Swedenborgianism, being the same; and the
+ruling love must be acted out, so Aunt tells me, even in heaven.
+"Oh!" said L., when she heard this, "I wonder what they'll get for
+Mr.----to do in the other world; there are no dollars and cents
+there; but there will be the _golden harps_ for him to trim
+and weigh." So he would still handle the siller, and be in his
+element. Some time afterward, when this was recalled to L., she
+declared that it was impossible that she could have said it.
+"Mr.----trim and weigh! He would never be satisfied unless he were
+_boiling it down solid_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SINGAPORE, Saturday, January 4.
+
+We reached Singapore at dusk. The drive through the town was a
+curious one. Nowhere else can such a mixture of races be seen, and
+each nationality was enjoying itself in its own peculiar
+fashion--all except the Chinese, who were, as usual, hard at work
+in their little dens. No recreation for this people. Work, work,
+work! They never play, never smile, but plod away, from early
+morning until late at night. The Chinaman's objection to giving
+his creditor in New York a note was because it "walkee, walkee
+alle timee; walkee, walkee, no sleepee." They seem to me to
+emulate these objectionable obligations.
+
+We saw in Singapore our first lot of Hindoos, moving about the
+streets like ghosts, wrapped in webs of thin white cotton cloth,
+which scissors, needle, or thread have never defiled. The cloth
+must remain just as it came from the loom; no hat, no shoes, their
+foreheads chalked, or painted in red with the stamp of the god
+they worship and the caste to which they belong. They are a small,
+slight race, with fine, delicate features.
+
+I went out for a stroll before retiring, and hearing a great noise
+up the street, followed and came up with a Hindoo procession. The
+god was being paraded through the Hindoo portion of the town amid
+the beating of drums and blowing of squeaking trumpets. The idol
+was seated in a finely decorated temple upon wheels, drawn by
+devotees, many of whom danced wildly around, while others bore
+torches aloft, making altogether a very gorgeous display. Priests
+stood at each side performing mysterious rites as the cortege
+proceeded. It was my first sight of an idolatrous procession, and
+it made a deep impression upon me, carrying me back to Sunday-
+school days, and the terrible car of Juggernaut and all its
+horrors.
+
+I have had many experiences in beds, from the generous feather
+cover of the Germans to the canopy of state couch of England, but
+to-night my couch was minus covering of any kind. Calling to
+Vandy, I found he was in the same predicament. Each had instead a
+long, stiff bolster lying lengthwise in the middle of the
+mattress, the use of which neither of us could make out. We soon
+discovered that there was no need of covering at the Equator; but
+this bolster must have some use, if we could only find it. Upon
+inquiring next day we ascertained that it is composed of a kind of
+pith which has the property of keeping cool in the hottest
+weather, and that it is the greatest relief at night to cultivate
+the closest possible acquaintance with this strange bed-fellow; in
+fact, in Singapore, "no family should be without it."
+
+The island of Singapore, which is included in the British Straits
+Settlements, is nearly seventy miles in circumference, with a
+population of about one hundred thousand, one-half of which is
+Chinese, the remainder Malays, Klings, Javanese, Hindoos, and
+every other Eastern race under the sun, I believe, and a few
+Europeans. Here the "survival of the fittest" is being fought out
+under the protection of the British flag, which insures peace and
+order wherever it floats. In this struggle we have no hesitation
+in backing the Heathen Chinee against the field. Permanent
+occupation by any Western race is of course out of the question.
+An Englishman would inevitably cease to be an Englishman in a few,
+a very few, generations, and it is therefore only a question of
+time when the Chinese will drive every other race to the wall. No
+race can possibly stand against them anywhere in the East.
+
+On Sunday, Major Studer, United States Consul, and his
+accomplished daughter, drove us to the house and gardens of the
+leading Chinese merchant of this region, Mr. Wampoo, who received
+and entertained us with great cordiality. His residence is
+extensive and filled in every part with curios; but his gardens
+are most celebrated, and far surpass anything of the kind we have
+yet seen. His collection of Victoria Regia plants is said to be
+the best in the world. Unfortunately none were in bloom, but a
+flower was due, I understood, in about ten years! The kind old
+gentleman invited us back to see it, and we accepted; but since
+writing this we have heard, alas! that he has ceased to play his
+part upon earth.
+
+The newspapers here sometimes give strange local items. Here is
+one from yesterday's _Times_:
+
+"Tigers must be increasing on the island; a fine big male one was
+caught in a pit on Christmas eve at the water-works." The fellow
+was probably on the track of a Christmas dinner, and ventured to
+the very suburbs of the town.
+
+We were driven one day, by the major and Miss Studer, some ten or
+twelve miles in the interior, passing through groves of cocoa and
+betel-nut trees, both in full bearing, to a tapioca plantation,
+where we saw many trees and plants new to us--the fan and sago
+palms and many other varieties, bananas, nutmeg trees, bread
+fruit, durion, gutta-percha trees and others. We also saw the
+indigo plant under cultivation, and passed through fields of the
+sensitive plant as we walked about, while pine-apples were
+everywhere. We are in a new world of vegetation here, within a
+degree of the Equator; but, rich as it is, there is still a
+feeling of disappointment because it is all green--no bright hues,
+no coloring, such as gives Florida its charm, or lends to an
+American forest in autumn its unrivalled glory! It is always
+summer, and the moisture of the tropics keeps everything green.
+There is another cause of disappointment to one accustomed to the
+primeval forest and its majestic trees. These monarchs cannot
+develop themselves in the tropics, and in their stead we have only
+underbrush, the "jungle" of the tiger, which does not at all come
+up to one's expectations.
+
+About one thousand men and women are employed upon this tapioca
+plantation. Married Hindoos get twenty cents per day, but the
+greater number are Javanese unmarried men, who get only sixteen
+cents; both find themselves. The Javanese are Mohammedans from
+Java _en route_ to Mecca as a religious duty. They come here
+and work and save for two years to get sufficient to pay their
+passage and return to this point, when they work a year more for
+funds to carry them home. How vital is the creed which brings its
+adherents to such sacrifice! This drive gave us an excellent
+opportunity of seeing just how the people live in the country.
+Dress is confined to the rag worn about the loins, except that the
+women wear in addition a small cloth over their shoulders. The
+children wear nothing whatever, but we saw none that were not
+ornamented by cheap jewelry in the most extraordinary manner.
+
+The subject of clothes, as we all know from the days of "Sartor
+Resartus," lies very closely at the roots of civilization. I think
+every thoughtful person must admit that here the Heathen Chinee
+shows that he has reached the best solution of that annoying
+question. The every-day dress of the Chinaman is to-day just what
+it was thousands of years ago. As there is no going out or coming
+in of fashion, he wears his clothes till they can be worn no
+longer. The heavy-overcoats which distress Americans and are a
+weight even to the Englishman, our celestial friend escapes by
+having three or four light coats all of one pattern and weight. It
+is a one, two, or a three-coat day, according to temperature.
+Again and above all he escapes the horrid starch entirely, neither
+shirts nor collars nor cuffs, sometimes like thin sheets of iron,
+irritating his skin.
+
+Vandy and I seriously resolved to-day that we would never again
+tolerate a starched thing about us; no matter what others did, we
+would discard the vile custom and be free. In revising this I am
+bound to admit our weakness: neither Vandy nor I have been strong
+enough to contend against our mothers. I don't know exactly what
+Vandy's experience was, but I know he fell soon after our return.
+For my part I fought it out awhile and tried many ways to win; but
+my flannel and frieze underwear which I brought from China soon
+became unwearable, I was informed, from shrinkage, then they had
+broken into holes, and so on. They were finally missed from my
+wardrobe, and I compromised by stipulating that I should return to
+the shirt and collars and cuffs, and agreed they might be all pure
+white--provided that little or no starch should be used--this is
+an improvement, but linen is the most uncomfortable material
+known, used as we use it.
+
+Vandy and I when in the East reduced the time for bathing and
+dressing in the morning to seven minutes. Of course, we have long
+since given up the folly of shaving. How one envies the man of the
+East who has but four articles to slip on, and no pins required:
+socks and low shoes (no lacing), one; breeches, two; undershirt,
+three; coat, four; and there he is, ready for breakfast. The coat
+buttons close to the chin, and has a small upright collar, and a
+watch-pocket outside; no cuffs, collars or neckties. Why does not
+some born reformer of our sex devote his life to giving his fellow
+man such additional happiness in life? Hundreds waste their
+energies upon objects which, if accomplished, would not be half as
+fruitful.
+
+Here is a description of a woman's jewelry, as taken from life by
+Vandy: lobes of ears pierced with holes large enough to allow
+one's thumb to be inserted; above these holes two small gold-color
+rivets in each ear; in each nostril two gold pendants, inserted by
+screwing in; through the centre of the nose a large silver ring;
+on each wrist four bracelets; higher up the arm more rings; around
+her neck a necklace; around each ankle a large silver ring; and
+around her big toe and the next, on both feet, were rings. The
+smallest children wore many similar jewels. Upon these every penny
+they can save is squandered, and to secure them they are content
+to live on a little boiled rice and fish--a bamboo hut of one
+apartment their only home, and a piece of cotton cloth their
+wardrobe.
+
+We had the pleasure of meeting, at Major Studer's, Mr. Hornaday, a
+young gentleman who travels for Professor Ward, of Rochester, New
+York, whose museum is well known the world over. Mr. Hornaday's
+department is to keep the Professor's collections complete, and if
+there be a rare bird, beast, or reptile on the globe, he is bound to
+capture specimens. He had just returned from spending four months
+among the savages of Borneo, where alone a supply of orang-outangs
+could be obtained. He returned with forty-two of these links, shot
+mostly by himself. He came one day upon two very young ones, and
+these he has brought here alive. They are suggestively human in
+their ways, and two better-behaved, more affectionate babies are
+rarely to be met with. Let no anti-Darwinian study young
+orang-outangs if he wishes to retain his present notions. The
+museum, Mr. Hornaday is advised, is now short of dugongs, and he is
+off for Australia next steamer to lay in a supply. The recital of
+his adventures is extremely interesting, and I predict that some day
+a book from him will have a great run.
+
+What an interest is awakened by one who is able to tell stories of
+his own experience! No wonder that Othello won Desdemona with the
+recital of his adventures. He was the hero who had been the actor
+in all the scenes he depicted. Listening to Mr. Hornaday was a
+source of rare pleasure to-night. His chief regret is that he
+missed, during his visit to Borneo, the largest mias ever seen on
+the island. The natives discovered a troop, all of which made off
+except the leader. He showed fight, but soon ran up a high tree,
+from which the native weapons were unable to dislodge him. He was
+beyond their reach and there he sat. It was resolved to cut down
+the tree and capture him as he fell; but as soon as they came to
+close quarters with the monster, he proved so powerful, fierce,
+and courageous that the natives ran away and he got off.
+
+Mr. Hornaday reached the spot just too late. "Why didn't you send
+for me? Didn't you know my rifle would have reached him?" he
+asked. They gave him no reason for their conduct, but he suspected
+that they feared he would not have paid them had he made the
+capture. Mr. Hornaday is confident this mias exceeded the height
+stated by Wallace as the maximum.
+
+Mr. Hornaday was more successful with the largest tiger shot in
+India for years. He was out after cheetahs, and having no more
+expectation of meeting with the nobler game than of encountering a
+lion, had not his tiger rifle with him. On coming to the banks of
+a small stream he was greatly surprised to see a tiger's fresh
+footmarks--a big foot, too. Making a sign to his attendants to
+stand motionless, he glanced up the stream, then down, and saw,
+not far from him, leisurely strolling along the edge of the creek,
+seeking a convenient ford, the largest tiger he had ever laid eyes
+upon, although he had shot many. "Shall I shoot with this gun?" he
+thought. "If I miss he will certainly be upon us. He will attack
+one of my colored attendants first, anyhow, and I'll get a chance
+to reload. I'll do it!" A moment after, the monster, having found
+a ford to his liking, turned his head and looked cautiously down
+stream before entering the water. Finding all quiet in that
+direction, he turned to glance up stream. For this moment Mr.
+Hornaday had waited. There is one spot only to hit a tiger--right
+between the eyes. He fired and the beast fell. No other shot was
+fired, for holes spoil a skin. The animal writhed for several
+hours, no one daring to approach him, until he finally sank
+exhausted upon the sand. I think it was fifteen pounds Mr.
+Hornaday received from Government for this exploit. I have secured
+the skin of this very beast, properly preserved, full head, open
+mouth, glaring eyeballs, and all, and I am ready to match tiger
+skins with any one.
+
+In the absence of other commercial intelligence, I may quote the
+market in Mr. Hornaday's line: Tigers are still reported "lively;"
+orang-outangs "looking up;" pythons show but little animation at
+this season of the year; proboscis monkeys, on the other hand,
+continue scarce; there is quite a run on lions, and kangaroos are
+jumped at with avidity; elephants heavy; birds of paradise
+drooping; crocodiles are snapped up as offered, while dugongs
+bring large prices. What is pig metal to this?
+
+The climate of Singapore, as of all places so near the Equator,
+would be intolerable but for the dense clouds which obscure the
+sun and save us from its fierce rays; but occasionally it breaks
+through for a few minutes, and we are in a bath of perspiration
+before we know it. No one can estimate the difference in the power
+of the sun here as compared with it in New York. Straw hats afford
+no protection whatever; we are compelled to wear thick white
+helmets of pith, and use a white umbrella lined with green cloth,
+and yet can walk only a few steps when the sun is not hid without
+feeling that we must seek the shade. The horses are unable to go
+more than ten miles in twenty-four hours, and our carriage and
+pair are hired with the understanding that this is not to be
+exceeded. Nothing could exist near the line if the intense heat
+did not cause evaporation upon a gigantic scale. The clouds so
+formed are driven upward by the streams of colder air from both
+sides, condensation then takes place, and showers fall every few
+hours in the region of Singapore.
+
+One is not only in a new earth here, but he has a new sky as well.
+As the tropics have nothing to compare with our more brilliant
+colors in the vegetable world, so the southern sky has no stars to
+equal ours. Indeed, with the exception of the four in the Southern
+Cross, two in the Centaur, and two or three others, there is no
+star of the first magnitude to be seen, and the constellations are
+poor compared with those of our splendid northern skies.
+Shakespeare's
+
+  ". . . inlaid with patines of bright gold,"
+
+must seem hyperbole to the Australian. I saw the Southern Cross
+many nights while at sea, and it is certainly very fine, as far as
+four stars can make a cross; for, as usual, much is left to the
+imagination. It is really not a cross at all. These long ocean
+trips furnish the best opportunity for observing the stars, and I
+have rubbed up my early knowledge on the subject so far as to be
+able to point out all the constellations and many of the principal
+stars; but away down here the North Star even is not to be seen,
+and we have to steer by Orion's belt if the compass varies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TUESDAY, January 14.
+
+We left Singapore to-day at three P.M. by the English mail steamer
+Teheran, parting with very sincere regret from Major and Miss
+Studer, to whom we had been so much indebted for our week's
+happiness. These partings from kind friends on our way round the
+world are the sad incidents of the trip. People are so kind, and
+they do so much to render our stay agreeable, that we become
+warmly attached, and have many excursions planned, when some
+morning up goes the flag, boom goes the signal gun, "Mail steamer
+arrived!" all aboard at sunset! and farewell, friends! We see them
+linger on the pier as we sail away, good-byes are waved, and we
+fade from each other's sight; but it will be long ere many faces
+vanish from our memory.
+
+While still gazing Singaporeward I am recalled to the stern duties
+of life. These two baby orang-outangs I told you of are going to a
+naturalist in Madras. What a present! and Vandy and I have
+promised to do what we can in the way of attendance upon them. The
+butcher comes to ask me when they are to be fed, and how, and
+what. This is a poser. I am not up in the management of orang-
+outangs, but Vandy has skill in almost everything of this kind; at
+least he is safer than I, there being a good deal of the incipient
+doctor about Vandy, and I search for him in this emergency. The
+fact is, while I have had varied experiences in the matter of
+delicate charges of many kinds, these have generally been of our
+own species--a youngster to be taken home to his parents, a
+dowager lady afraid of the cars--even a blushing damsel to be
+transported across the Atlantic to the arms of her _fiancé_
+has been entrusted to me before this, but this charge is decidedly
+out of my line. These fearfully human-looking, human-acting brutes
+furnish much amusement to the passengers; but at first every lady
+whom we took forward to watch them was compelled to run away
+laughing and exclaiming, "Oh, they are so much like babies! It's
+just horrid to see these nasty, hairy things carry on so!"
+Confirmation strong, I suppose, of our kinship, so do riot let us
+neglect our poor relations even if the connection be somewhat
+remote. Bananas are their favorite delicacy, but this morning not
+even that fruit could tempt them. I gave one to the smaller of the
+two, but it would not take it. Then I tried the larger one. He
+took it in his paw, peeled it at one end and put it to his lips,
+then looking up at me with a sad, puzzled expression, dropped his
+prize, and resting his head on his paw laid slowly down on the
+straw, telling us all as plainly as could be that he was sea-sick.
+Such was indeed the case; but in a few hours the sea fell and he
+was as sprightly as ever. Monkeys move spasmodically, by jerks as
+it were; not so these dignified, stately creatures: they are as
+deliberate in all their actions as staid, sober people. One day a
+passenger had offered a banana to the little one, but as it put
+forth its paw, withdrew it. The wee thing stood this several
+times, and at last laid down on its face and cried like a child--a
+wicked cry; nor would it be comforted, the banana when offered
+being petulantly rejected. They are much too human.
+
+We called at Penang, an island on the western shore of the
+Peninsula, also belonging to Great Britain, and had time to drive
+around the settlement. The place is not to be compared to
+Singapore in size, but vegetation is even more luxuriant. It was
+very hot, and we envied the governor his residence on a mountain
+peak eighteen hundred feet above the sea, where, it was reported,
+fires are actually required at some seasons night and morning.
+Penang exports large quantities of tin, and we took on a lot for
+New York. This valuable production seems about the only metal
+America has now to import, but some lucky explorer is no doubt
+destined to find it in immense quantities by and by. Having got
+everything else, it doesn't stand to reason that America should
+not be favored with this also. Nothing unusual occurred upon our
+run across the Bay of Bengal. Even Vandy enjoyed the sea voyage
+this time; something he had never before done in his life, nor
+ever done since. It was smooth and quiet steaming all the way to
+Ceylon. I had been humming "Greenland's Icy Mountains" for several
+days previously, about all that I knew of Ceylon's isle being
+contained in one of the verses of that hymn, which I used to sing
+at missionary meetings, when a minister who had seen the heathen
+was stared at as a prodigy.
+
+And indeed the "spicy breezes blew soft o'er Ceylon's isle" as we
+approached it in the moonlight. We found Galle quite a pretty,
+quaint little port, and remained there one night, taking the coach
+next morning for Colombo, the capital. The drive of sixty miles to
+the railway which extends to Colombo, seventeen miles beyond, is
+one of the best treats we have yet had. The road is equal to one
+of our best park avenues, as indeed are all the roads we saw in
+Ceylon; from end to end it skirts the rocky shores, passing
+through groves of cocoa and betel-nut trees, and dotted on each
+side by the huts of natives at work at some branch of the cocoanut
+business. Every part of the nut is utilized; ropes and mats are
+made from the covering of the shell, oil from the kernel, and the
+milk is drank fresh at every meal. These trees do not thrive
+except near the coast, the salt air laden with moisture being
+essential for their growth, but they grow quite down to the edge
+of the sea. The natives have been attracted to this main road, and
+from Galle to Colombo it is almost one continuous village; there
+is no prettier sea-shore in the world, nor a more beautiful surf.
+Every few miles we come upon large numbers of fishermen drawing in
+their nets, which are excessively long and take in several acres
+of sea in their sweep. An artist who would come to Ceylon and
+devote himself to depicting "the fishers of Ceylon's isle" (how
+well that sounds! and a good title is half the battle) would make
+a reputation and a fortune. I am quite sure there is no more
+picturesque sight than the drawing of their nets, several hundred
+men being engaged in the labor, while the beach is alive with
+women and children in bright colors anxiously watching the result.
+
+The dress of the Ceylonese women is really pretty: a skirt closely
+fitting the figure, and a tight jacket over the shoulders--all of
+fine, pure white cotton cloth or muslin and quite plain, with
+neither frill, tuck, flounce, nor anything of the kind. Necklaces
+and ear-rings are worn, but I am glad to say the nose in Ceylon
+seems to be preserved from the indignity of rings. The men's dress
+is rather scanty, their weakness being a large tortoise-shell
+comb, which every one wears; it reaches from ear to ear, and the
+hair is combed straight back and confined by it. Women are denied
+this crowning ornament, and must content themselves with a pin in
+the hair, the head of which, however, is highly ornamented. The
+Buddhist priests form a strange contrast in their dress, which
+consists of a yellow plaid, generally of silk, wrapped around the
+body and over the shoulders.
+
+I asked our Ceylonese guide to-day whether he had ever heard of
+our most popular missionary hymn. "Here is the verse," I said,
+"about your beautiful isle ":
+
+  "What though the spicy breezes
+   Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle,
+   Though every prospect pleases,
+   And only man is vile!
+   In vain with lavish kindness,
+   The gifts of God are strewn;
+   The heathen, in his blindness,
+   Bows down to wood and stone."
+
+"What do you think of that description?" I asked. He said he
+thought "the writer was a fool," and asked if any one in my
+country believed that there was a man, woman, or child in Ceylon
+who did not know better than to bow down to any power but God.
+"Yes," I said, "I once believed it myself, and millions believe it
+to-day, and good boys and girls with us save their pennies to send
+missionaries to tell these heathen who worship idols how very
+wrong and foolish it is to do so, and how very angry the true God
+is to have anything worshipped but himself." He said ours must be
+a very curious country, and he should like to visit it and see
+such queer people. I gave him my address and promised, if he would
+come to see me, to take him to a great missionary meeting where he
+would see the best and most religious people, all greatly
+concerned about the idolaters of Ceylon.
+
+The truth is there is scarcely in all the world a human being so
+low in the scale as not to know that the object he sees is only
+the symbol of the invisible power. What the cross is to the
+Christian the idol is to the other, and it is nothing more. The
+worship of both is to the Unknown beyond. I did my best to soothe
+the wounded spirit of our guide by explaining the necessities of
+poetic license. Still he would have it that Bishop Heber had
+wronged his beloved Ceylon and did not know what he was writing
+about.
+
+The religion of Ceylon is Buddhism; indeed it is now the most
+strictly Buddhist country in the world. One condition of the
+cession of the sovereignty to Great Britain was that this religion
+should be held inviolable with its rights and privileges, its
+monasteries and temples and all pertaining thereto. In the
+language of the greatest European authority, "although government
+support is no longer given to it, its pure and simple doctrines
+live in the hearts of the people and are the noblest monument to
+its founder Gautama Buddha. The taking of the meanest life is
+strictly forbidden, and falsehood, intemperance, dishonesty,
+anger, pride, and covetousness are denounced as incompatible with
+Buddhism, which enjoins the practice of chastity, gratitude,
+contentment, moderation, forgiveness of injuries, patience, and
+cheerfulness." The priests of Buddha are regularly ordained and
+sworn to celibacy, and they are required to meet each other every
+fourteen days for purposes of mutual confession. The lowest caste
+is eligible to the priesthood, as with the Christian religion.
+
+Ceylon is somewhat smaller than Ireland, and the population is a
+little less than three millions, but it is rapidly increasing, as
+are its exports and imports. Of all the places we visited it seems
+to have suffered least from the wave of depression which has
+recently swept over the world. This is undoubtedly owing to the
+fact that the spicy isle enjoys somewhat of a monopoly in coffee
+and some of the spices, cinnamon especially. Java coffee is
+generally used, I think, in America, but in Ceylon it is deemed an
+inferior article; Mocha, in Arabia, furnishes the best, but much
+called Mocha is really grown here. In the coffee plantations men
+are paid eighteen cents per day; women, fourteen cents. A disease
+akin to that which attacked the vines in France some years ago has
+raged among the plants for two years past; it promises this year
+to be less destructive, although no effectual cure has yet been
+discovered. We met several coffee planters, generally young,
+pushing Englishmen who either own the estates, or are related to
+those who do. They lead a pleasant life in Ceylon, the climate
+being good most of the year, and those who are contented declare
+that a European can live there and enjoy as good health as at
+home. If the weather prove too warm in the summer there are the
+mountains to run to. Scientific cultivation of coffee began in
+Ceylon as late as 1824, and public attention was not directed to
+it until 1834--only fifty years ago--yet to-day there are more
+than twelve hundred coffee plantations, and the amount of coffee
+exported exceeds twenty millions of dollars per annum. Tea
+cultivation has been introduced recently, and the quality is said
+to be excellent. There cannot be any doubt of this, because it
+finds a ready market here. None has been exported. If it were not
+a remarkably good article the foreign would be preferred, as we
+all know a domestic article has a world of prejudice to overcome
+at first. I shall watch the Ceylon tea question with interest, and
+hope that at some not distant day the production of tea leaf may
+rival that of the coffee bean.
+
+I have no intention to enter into any political
+question--certainly not into the merits of Free Trade vs.
+Protection; but I must own I was surprised to find that one-fifth
+of the total revenue of the island is derived from taxes upon the
+daily food of the people, two-thirds of this from a tax upon
+imported rice, and the other third from native grain.
+
+Ceylon teaches many lessons. The liquor traffic, for instance, is
+managed throughout the entire island as a governmental monopoly.
+Distillation is restricted to a few specified distillers who can
+sell their product at wholesale in open market, but the right to
+retail is restricted to certain taverns, which are rented year by
+year to the highest bidders, subject to stringent conditions. Pure
+arrack only can be sold at fixed prices, and lessees are held to
+strict account for drunkenness and disturbances. The liquor
+monopoly yields £170,000, or about one-seventh of the whole
+revenue, which in 1873 was £1,241,558 ($6,200,000); about ten
+shillings per head, as against England's two pounds and more.
+
+The main roads of Ceylon are equal to those of Central Park; so
+they should be, for their cost has exceeded £2,000 per mile. Ten
+thousand dollars!--we could almost build a railway in the West for
+this. However, it is not as much as it costs in Britain to get the
+right to begin to spend money on a railway; so we must
+congratulate the Ceylonese upon getting a splendid return for
+their investment. During our brief sojourn in the island (alas!
+all too short as I write these pages) we travelled over every mile
+of railway there. This sounds large to one who judges of a railway
+system by that of the United States--a hundred and twenty thousand
+miles; there were then only about a hundred miles in all
+Ceylon--two short lines. To-day there are doubtless a hundred and
+Fifty miles in operation, as the line under construction between
+Colombo and Galle was expected to be opened in two years more.
+This brings Japan and Ceylon about even upon the railway question,
+though the population of Ceylon is only about one-twelfth that of
+Japan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+KANDY.
+
+A railway has been built from Colombo, the shipping port, through
+the mountains to the coffee-growing districts, a distance of
+seventy miles, and this enabled us to visit Kandy, more than 1,600
+feet above the sea, and the summer capital to which the government
+repairs in hot weather. It is a beautiful little town, and gave us
+the first breath of air with "ozone" in it that we had enjoyed
+since we were on the Sierras. Our hotel fronts upon the square,
+and is opposite the Buddhist Temple, celebrated as the receptacle
+of that precious relic, "the sacred tooth of Buddha." A former
+king of Ceylon is reputed to have paid an immense sum for this
+memento of the departed. We were too near the temple for comfort.
+The tomtom has to be beaten five times each day, and as one of
+these is at sunrise, I had occasion to wish the priest and tooth
+both far enough away. I wonder the Europeans don't indict this
+tomtoming at unseasonable hours as a nuisance.
+
+The Botanical Gardens here are rivalled in the tropics by those in
+Java only, and upon seeing the display of luxuriant vegetation, we
+fully understood how it had acquired its celebrity; but still all
+is green. The great variety of palms, the bread-fruit, banyan,
+jack-fruit, and others sustain this reputation. The chocolate tree
+was the most curious to us; it has recently been introduced in the
+island, and promises to add one more to the list of luxuries for
+which Ceylon is famous. A fine evidence of the intelligence of the
+Ceylon planters is seen in the fact that the association employs a
+chemist to investigate and report upon the different soils and
+what they are capable of producing; under his supervision various
+articles are always under trial. Recently Liberian coffee has been
+found to thrive in low latitudes unsuited for the Arabian variety,
+which requires a higher district, thus rendering available for
+this plant a large area, which has hitherto been necessarily
+devoted to less profitable uses. Nothing nowadays can be
+thoroughly developed without the chemist's aid, and the day is not
+far distant when our farming will be conducted under his
+instructions as completely as our steel manufacture is now.
+
+Ceylon is noted for its pearl fisheries and its supply of rubies,
+sapphires, and cats'-eyes as much as for its spices; and from the
+hour the traveller lands until the steamer carries him off he is
+beset with dealers offering precious stones, worth hundreds of
+dollars in London or New York, for a few rupees; but those who
+purchase no doubt find their fate in the story of the innocent who
+bought his gold cheap. The government keeps the pearl fishery
+grounds under proper regulations, and allows divers one half of
+all they find, the other half going to the State Treasury. I was
+told the value of the pearls found last year amounted to $400,000,
+but the production seems to be falling off. In 1798 the fishery
+was rented for £142,000 ($710,000). Now the government has to work
+it and the net proceeds have never exceeded £87,000 in any year,
+and have fallen as low as £7,200.
+
+The government employed a naturalist to study the habits of the
+pearl oyster. He labored for five years, but this time scientific
+investigation seems to have failed and we know but little more
+about the subject than before. Some genius will come, however, to
+solve all questions. Science may be rebuffed twenty times, but it
+never rests until the truth is known. This much is certain, that
+these precious oysters leave their usual beds for years together.
+There was no fishery once for twenty-seven years, from 1768 to
+1796, and once before then it failed for about fourteen years.
+When they do visit pretty Ceylon, their main residence is upon the
+northwestern coast, sixteen to twenty miles from shore. It is
+believed that the oyster reaches maturity in its seventh year,
+when the pearl attains full size and lustre. If the oyster be not
+secured then, it soon dies and we lose our pearl. Consider the
+number of these jewels which fade away to their original elements
+in the depths of ocean: for one we get, a million decomposed.
+
+Did the poet know how true his words were when he said:
+
+  "Full many a gem of purest ray serene
+   The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear."
+
+The government brings the oysters to the beach and sells them to
+the highest bidders in lots of one thousand. Can you conceive of a
+prettier game of chance than this! Imagine the natives at work
+opening the rough shells, expecting at every turn to find a pearl
+worth a fortune!
+
+The pearl fishers descend six to eight fathoms forty or fifty
+times a day, and can remain under water from a minute to a minute
+and a half. So much for practice. In the course of a million or
+hundred million years, more or less, each successive generation
+pursuing this calling, under the law of inherited tendencies,
+these people might well return to the amphibious state and give us
+an illustration of evolution, backward.
+
+The pearl oyster is a large, round bivalve, sometimes twelve
+inches in diameter. If Thackeray felt, as he said when he first
+tried a Rockaway, as if he were swallowing a baby, what would have
+been his impressions if he had tickled his throat with one of
+these monsters? Sometimes a dozen, or even twenty pearls, are said
+to have been found in a single oyster. I remember hearing in China
+that a fresh water mollusc is made to grow pearls by the
+introduction of foreign bodies within the shell. These produce
+irritation which the shell fish seeks to allay by depositing
+around them a layer of pearly matter, and thus pearls are formed.
+It is a fact that the celebrated Linnaeus was paid $2,500 by the
+Swedish Government for a plan he discovered for doing a similar
+thing with the oyster. He bored through the shell and deposited
+sand particles, between it and the mantle of fine tissues. It was
+not a success; but some day the race will produce pearls from
+cultivated oyster beds as we now get our eggs from chickens; that
+is, provided the coming man is not to regard jewelry of all kinds
+as barbaric--"_barbaric_ pearls and gold" are Milton's very
+words, and great poets are prophets. The tendency is certainly in
+that direction. The more ignorant the natives, the more ornamental
+jewelry is worn, even if it be immense, heavy glass bracelets from
+Birmingham. Already one says, how simple, how grandly simple she
+was, with her hair plain, her ears unpierced, her head and neck
+without a single ornament, save only a rosebud in the hair. Jewels
+are to women what wine is to man--not recommended till after
+forty; and a poor help at any age.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+COLOMBO, Tuesday, January 21.
+
+Ceylon was originally settled in 1517 by the Portuguese, who
+obtained the right to erect a small factory at Colombo for
+purposes of trade. This soon grew into a fort, and naturally the
+whole west coast became theirs. The Dutch drove them out a hundred
+and fifty years later, to be in turn expelled by the English after
+they had occupied the island for just about the same period. As
+with all their colonies, the Dutch left their impress upon Ceylon.
+New industries were introduced, great public works constructed,
+and, better than all, the education of the people was well cared
+for. The trade with Holland became a source of much profit.
+England has been master since 1796, nearly ninety years now, and
+certainly the work she has to show for the less than a century is
+marvellous indeed.
+
+The people are not yet done rejoicing at the restoration of their
+ancient village institutions, which took place in 1871. Europeans
+had rudely swept these away and substituted courts after their own
+fashion. After many years trial, they were seen to be unsuited for
+the country, and the ancient village tribunals were reestablished,
+as I have said, a few years ago. It will not do to conclude, as
+many do, that India, Ceylon, and other of the Eastern lands, are
+left almost bare of just laws and fair administration, for nothing
+could be farther from the truth. The village elders, chosen by the
+people of Ceylon, for instance, administer laws which are the
+outgrowth of centuries, and as such are far better adapted to the
+real conditions which exist than any other system of laws, no
+matter how perfect, which have been found suitable in other lands
+under conditions wholly unlike. Here in this charming island, as
+indeed throughout all India, villages, or groups of villages, are
+authorized to frame rules having the force of laws, and which
+natives construe and administer.
+
+I am amused at the ignorance of the average Englishman or American
+upon Eastern affairs. He is always amazed when I tell him that so
+far as representative institutions are concerned, there is not a
+village in India which is not farther advanced in this department
+of politics than any rural constituency in Britain. The American
+county, village, district and township system is of course more
+perfect than any other with which I am acquainted, but the English
+is really about the most backward. The experiment in Ceylon of
+restoring the native system has been an unequivocal success, even
+beyond the expectations of its warmest advocates, and in addition
+to the advantages flowing from the native courts, it is found that
+the village committees are beginning to repair and restore the
+ancient tanks and other irrigation works, which, under the curse
+of centralized and foreign authority had been allowed to fall into
+disuse.
+
+The new blood of home rule in local affairs has aroused local
+patriotism and established numerous bodies throughout the country,
+each a centre from which good influences radiate, organizations
+into which good impulses flow, to crystallize into works of public
+utility, while at the same time an _esprit de corps_ is
+created which must tell more and more. Wait till this plan is
+tried in England and Scotland, and, above all, in unhappy Ireland!
+I shall never despair of Ireland until at least a generation has
+had such local institutions as we find in Ceylon's Isle. If that
+people cannot develop under self-government, they deserve to fall
+away and give place to a better race; but they will not fail.
+
+Caste exists in Ceylon, although it is not so strictly preserved
+as in India. Still, every calling is a caste, down to the
+scavenger. The several castes do not intermarry, nor is it
+practicable for one who has reaped great wealth and has natural
+tastes and abilities above his caste, to do in this small island
+what is readily done in India, viz., emigrate and set up in
+superior style in some other part of the crowded empire. The
+wealthiest native in Ceylon to-day is a fisherman, and yet he
+cannot gain admittance to the society of poorer natives about him
+of higher caste. If he were in India, and socially ambitious, he
+would change his residence. I was told by several Europeans that
+the bonds of caste in India are slowly weakening, and that when a
+wealthy stranger comes to a district it is held wise not to
+inquire too curiously concerning his birth.
+
+Of all the castes, the tiller of the soil stands at the head in
+Ceylon; even the skilled worker in iron is away below him. The
+rural laborer with us must be taught to hold his head up. He is A1
+in Ceylon.
+
+The position held by Ceylon in ancient days as the great granary
+of Southern Asia explains the precedence accorded to agricultural
+pursuits. Under native rule the whole island was brought under
+irrigation by means of artificial lakes, constructed by dams
+across ravines, many of them of great extent--one, still existing,
+is twenty miles in circumference--but the system has been allowed
+to fall into decay. I am glad to know that government has resolved
+to undertake the work of repair. Proper sluices are to be supplied
+to all the village tanks, and the embankments are to be raised and
+strengthened through the labor of the village communities. We may
+yet live to see the fertility of the country restored to that of
+its pristine days.
+
+We saw the new breakwater which government is constructing here at
+great expense. When finished it is proposed that the Indian
+steamers shall call here instead of at Galle, the harbor of which
+is dangerous. This may be a decided improvement upon the whole,
+but the tourist who does not see pretty Galle and enjoy the long
+day's drive through the island to Colombo will miss much.
+
+Iron ore exists in Ceylon in vast deposits and is remarkably pure,
+rivalling the best Swedish grades. It has been worked from remote
+times, and native articles of iron are preferred even to-day to
+any that can be imported. If cost of transportation is to keep
+growing less and less, it is not beyond the range of possibility
+that some day Britain may import some of this unrivalled stone for
+special uses. There are also quicksilver mines, and lead, tin, and
+manganese are found to some extent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GALLE, Wednesday, January 22.
+
+We reached here last night upon our return, stopping one night at
+Colombo. Future travellers will soon miss one of the rarest treats
+in Ceylon. The railway will soon be completed from Colombo to
+Galle, and the days of coaching cease forever. We congratulate
+ourselves that our visit was before this passed away, as we know
+of no drive equal to that we have now enjoyed twice, and the last
+time even more than the first.
+
+During our trip down yesterday I counted within forty miles eleven
+schools filled with young Cingalese. English is generally taught
+in them, and although attendance is not compulsory, great
+inducements are held out to parents to send their children. The
+advantages of knowing the English language are so decided that I
+am told parents generally are most anxious to have their children
+taught. The school-houses are simple affairs, consisting only of
+white plastered walls about five feet high, with spaces for
+entrance. On this wall rest the slight wooden standards which
+support thereof of palm-leaves, so that all is open to our view as
+we drive past. The attention paid to this vital subject, evidences
+of which are seen everywhere, is what most delights us. In 1874
+there were 1,468 public schools on the island, attended by 66,385
+scholars.
+
+We were equally delighted to see numerous medical dispensaries,
+where the afflicted natives can obtain advice and medicine free of
+charge. On several huts we saw large placards denoting the
+presence of contagious disease within. It is a great work that is
+going forward here under English rule. By such means England
+proves her ability to govern, and best confirms her sway against
+domestic revolt or foreign intrigues. The blessings of good
+government, the education of the people, and careful attention to
+their health and comfort--these will be found the most effective
+weapons with which to combat mutiny within, or Russian or any
+other aggression from abroad. From all we saw in Ceylon we are
+prepared to put it forth as the best example of English government
+in the world, England herself not excepted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SATURDAY, January 25.
+
+At ten tonight we sailed for Madras and Calcutta by the English
+mail steamer Hindostan, and were lighted out of the intricate
+harbor by flaming torches displayed by lines of natives stationed
+at the buoys.
+
+"Flashes of flambeaux looked Like Demons guarding the river of
+death."
+
+The last sight of Ceylon's isle revealed the fine spires of the
+Catholic Cathedral, which tower above the pretty harbor of Galle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INDIA.
+
+MADRAS, Tuesday, January 28.
+
+We arose to find ourselves at anchor in the open sea opposite
+Madras. There is not a harbor upon the whole western coast of
+Hindostan. Government is engaged in constructing one, but it is
+slow work, as the immense blocks of concrete used can be handled
+and laid only in smooth seas, which seldom occur. Sometimes the
+mail steamers find it impossible to land passengers or cargo, and
+are compelled to carry both to Calcutta. The surf often sweeps
+over the top of the iron pier, which is certainly twenty feet
+high. Passengers are taken ashore in native boats twenty feet long
+and five feet deep. Across the boat, on small round poles, sit ten
+rowers, five on each side; another man steers, and in the bow
+stand two boys prepared to bail out the water which sweeps in as
+we plunge through the surf. Fortunately the sea was unusually
+calm, and we had no difficulty in reaching dry land. When the surf
+is too strong for even these boats to encounter, natives
+communicate with ships by tying together three small logs, upon
+which they manage to sit and paddle about, carrying letters in
+bags fastened upon their heads. As the solid logs cannot sink,
+they are safe as long as they can cling to them, and an upset is
+to them an occurrence of little consequence. We saw many of these
+curious contrivances, but one must have a good deal of the
+amphibious in his nature, or full faith that he was not born to be
+drowned, to trust himself upon them through the Madras surf.
+
+India at last! How strange everything looks! Brahmans, Cullrees
+and Banians, devotees of the three different gods, with foreheads
+marked to denote their status, the white sandal-wood paste upon
+the Brahman's brow. Our first glimpse of caste, of which these are
+the three main divisions, to one of which all persons must belong
+or be of the lowest order, the residuum, who are coolies. There
+are many subdivisions of these, and indeed every trade or calling
+constitutes a different order, the members of which do not
+intermarry, or associate, or even eat with one another.
+Generations pursuing the same calling, and only marrying within
+themselves, acquire a peculiar appearance, and this effectually
+creates a caste. Carpenters, masons, merchants, each are distinct,
+and the occupation of a man can readily be known by his dress or
+manner.
+
+Caste! what is caste? whence did it spring? and what are its
+effects today in India? Whatever story I tell about its origin,
+some great authority will flatly contradict it. The beginning of
+caste, like that of most existing institutions, is lost in
+obscurity; but the most likely guess to my mind is that which
+founds caste upon this natural train of reasoning.
+
+Before men travelled much, when the race were serfs and all their
+needs were supplied by those immediately about them, it was almost
+inevitable that the son should be put to his father's handicraft.
+He could be of service there at a much earlier age than if he had
+to go to a stranger. Besides, he had a chance from his infancy to
+become familiar with the work, and again, his father's reputation
+would serve a purpose. Therefore, successive generations remained
+bakers, smiths, carpenters, agriculturists, laborers, and
+eventually this developed special aptitudes under the law of
+inherited tendencies and each occupation became a caste.
+
+Those who were in the highest employments being the best educated,
+they soon took measures to secure their privileges, and in the
+past ages nothing could rivet the chains so effectually as the
+sanction of the gods. Therefore, we need not be surprised that in
+good time a revelation came to this effect: "When man was divided
+how many did they make him? What was his mouth? What his arms?
+What his legs and feet? Brahma was his mouth, Kshatriya his arms,
+Vaisya his thighs, and Sudra his feet."
+
+This gives four grand divisions for the race, and their duties
+toward the State and to each other are clearly defined by the part
+of the "Grand Man" or "God" from which they sprang. The following
+are a few of the principal items of the code which regulates these
+classes: To the first, or Brahman, belongs the religious
+department--he studies and expounds the sacred books, officiates
+at sacrifices, and is the recipient of the "presents" offered to
+the gods. These are modern clergymen. To the second, or
+Kshatriyas, are given the war department, force, and criminal
+justice. These are our human butchers, the military class, who are
+yet not ashamed of the "profession of arms." To the third, or
+Vaisyas, belong commerce and agriculture, and to the poor fourth
+estate, or Sudras, are left the mechanical arts and service to the
+other castes. The first three alone wear the sacred thread.
+
+The Brahman is entitled by primogeniture to the whole universe. He
+may seize the goods of a Sudra, and whatever, beyond a certain
+amount, the latter acquires by labor or succession. If he slanders
+any of the other castes he pays only nominal fines graduated
+according to classes. Whatever crime he may commit his personal
+property cannot be injured, but whoever strikes a Brahman even
+with a blade of grass becomes an inferior quadruped for twenty-one
+generations. He is the physician for men's bodies as well as for
+their souls.
+
+The one duty of the Sudra is to serve all the three superior
+castes "without depreciating their worth." In administering oaths,
+a Brahman swears only by his veracity--"his honor as a gentleman."
+A Kshatriya swears by his weapons, a Vaisya by his cattle, while
+the poor Sudra has to swear by all the most frightful penalties of
+perjury.
+
+A curious survival of this same idea lingers in England, where the
+theory is that all men are equal before the law. Nevertheless
+members of the Royal Family are still released from the suspicion
+that they would not tell the truth unless they took an oath to do
+so. They are not required to take an oath before testifying in
+court. But imagine Herbert Spencer and the average Prince giving
+evidence; whose word would go the farther the wide world over? Yet
+the former would be insulted by being compelled to swear, while
+the latter would be allowed to testify upon the "honor of a
+prince," a very scanty foundation as princes have ever been and
+must ever be. History seems to teach us that it has been difficult
+to get this class to keep the oaths they did take. If I were an M.
+P., I would move that this be changed. The Brahman,
+notwithstanding his superior station, is nevertheless held to be
+much more liable to pollution than the lower orders, and is
+therefore required to bathe more frequently, and to be much more
+watchful against the tempter. Our Brahmans at home might take a
+lesson from this. A high authority has told us that
+
+  "Life can be lived well,
+   Even in a palace."
+
+But Burns has the truth:
+
+  "And certes in fair Virtue's heavenly road
+   The cottage leaves the palace far behind."
+
+I have given you the ideal of caste and its laws. Their
+administration is a far different matter. It is no longer possible
+for Brahmans to enforce strictly their claims. Caste crumbles away
+before the progress of the age. Your railway is a "sure destroyer"
+of all branches of inequality among men. The Press a still
+greater; but ages will pass ere we have among the two hundred and
+fifty millions of Hindostan anything approaching that degree of
+equality and intermarriage of classes which even England
+possesses, to say nothing of America. The marvel is that caste
+took such root throughout India apparently in opposition to the
+teachings of Gautama Buddha. But it is scarcely less strange than
+that the fighting Christian nations found their system upon the
+teachings of the Prince of Peace.
+
+Here is the true doctrine of the Eastern Christ: As the four
+rivers which fall into the Ganges lose their names as soon as they
+mingle their waters with the holy river, so all who believe in
+Buddha cease to be Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras. The
+same doctrine is beautifully expressed in the "Light of Asia."
+Buddha asks for a drink of milk from a shepherd.
+
+  "'Ah, my Lord,
+   I cannot give thee,' quoth the lad; 'thou seest
+   I am a Sudra, and my touch defiles!'
+   Then the world-honored spoke: 'Pity and need
+   Make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood,
+   Which runneth of one hue, nor caste in tears,
+   Which trickle salt with all; neither comes man
+   To birth with tilka-mark stamped on the brow,
+   Nor sacred thread on neck. Who doeth right deeds
+   Is twice-born, and who doeth ill deeds vile.
+   Give me to drink, _my brother_. '"
+
+Our friend in Madras gave us a rare treat by driving us out to see
+the celebrated Madras tigers, for nowhere else in the world are
+such tigers kept as here, and indeed I go so far as to declare
+that until one has seen these grand animals he has no adequate
+idea of what a tiger is. All that I have seen hitherto--and I do
+not forget the "Zoo" in London--are but tame mockeries of the
+genuine monster. I walked up to a large cage, but was startled by
+such a fright. A tiger was in an instant flat against the cage,
+and between me and it were only a few small iron rods which
+rattled like reeds as he struck them. I thought the whole cage was
+in pieces, and that beast upon me. Such glaring eyes, burning like
+immense topazes in his head! and then when he found himself unable
+to get at his prey, such a yell! but I was many feet from him ere
+this came, I assure you. He had sprung from the back of his cage
+against the bars, a distance of at least fifteen or eighteen feet,
+the moment he saw me, and no doubt hurt himself as he dashed
+against them. The keeper told us this one had only been caught a
+few months ago. His stripes were glossy black, and his coat not
+that sickly tawny color we are so familiar with, but a light fiery
+brown. Compared with the tiger, it is impossible but that even the
+noblest lion must seem tame and inert. We took no interest in the
+lions, although there were some fine specimens. In the evening we
+enjoyed hearing the Governor's band performing on the beach and
+seeing Madras society congregated there, and for the first time
+since we left America saw full-sized horses again. Several
+gentlemen were riding animals that would pass muster in Central
+Park. Thus far we have found only little ponies in use.
+
+Our races have never been brought face to face with famine, but in
+India the masses are always upon the brink of starvation; a little
+too much, or too little, rain during the monsoon, and the lives of
+millions are endangered. The miserable wretches--mere
+skeletons--we saw to-day sitting on the dusty road sides
+beseeching passers-by for a pittance, are traces which still
+remain of the terrible famine of the years 1876 and 1877. Both the
+monsoons of the former year failed, and the season of 1877 was
+little better, although the government spent more than eleven
+millions sterling ($55,000,000) in strenuous efforts to supply
+enough food to render existence possible. More than five million
+human beings, more than the entire population of the State of
+Pennsylvania--far more than that of Scotland--were sacrificed from
+want and disease resulting from the famine of these two years.
+There is no doubt about the correctness of this startling
+statement, for it is founded upon the increased death rate in the
+afflicted districts.
+
+It was while the shadow of this calamity, unparalleled since the
+beginning of British rule in India, was over the land that the
+most gorgeous "durbar" ever held in India was ordered for the
+purpose of gratifying a whim of Queen Victoria, who had induced
+Lord Beaconsfield to have her proclaimed Empress of India, or, as
+is far more probable, which he had instigated her to accept. The
+natives who spoke of this to us were outraged at the act, and
+quoted it as proof that their lives and sufferings were held as
+nothing by England. This does England gross injustice, for, as I
+was able to tell them, English opinion was itself averse to giving
+the Queen a title in India which they could not be induced to
+tolerate at home, and only acquiesced because Victoria had really
+done so much that was good during her long reign that they did not
+wish to deny her what she had unfortunately set her heart upon;
+and then after all the poor Queen probably did not know about the
+famine. Her books show that her interest in life is confined
+strictly to the petty details of her household and narrow circle
+of satellites.
+
+Today our Sunday-school recollections were again aroused by a
+sight of the terrible car of Juggernaut. It is really an immense
+affair, elaborately carved in bold relief, and on the top is a
+platform for the priests. I should say the car is twenty-five feet
+high and about eight by twelve at the base; it has six wheels,
+four outside and two in the centre, the former nine feet in
+diameter and the latter six, all of solid wood clamped together
+with iron bands, and all at least two feet in width of tread. Such
+a mass, drawn through the streets by elephants and accompanied by
+excited devotees, its hundred bells jangling as it rolled along
+where there was not another vehicle of any kind with which to
+compare it, or a house more than one small story high, must have
+appeared to the ignorant natives something akin to the
+supernatural; and I can now well understand how wretches, working
+themselves into a state of frenzy, should have felt impelled to
+dash under its wheels. It is still paraded upon certain festival
+days, invariably surrounded, however, by policemen, who keep the
+natives clear of the wheels, for even to-day, if they were not
+prevented, its victims would be as numerous as ever. Imagine, if
+you can, with what feelings we stood and gazed upon this car,
+which has crushed under its ponderous wheels religious enthusiasts
+by the thousand, and which still retains its fascination over men
+anxious to be allowed the glory of such self-immolation, at the
+supposed call of God, who would be a fiend if he desired such
+sacrifice.
+
+We left Madras on Wednesday morning, and had a fine smooth sail
+across the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta, the City of Palaces and
+centre of the British power in India. Coming up the river we pass
+the shipping in review, and never before have we seen so many
+large, magnificent sailing ships in one port, not even in
+Liverpool or London. The trade requires large clippers, and these
+splendid vessels lie four and five deep for two miles along the
+river, all in fine trim, flags flying, and looking their best. We
+pass the palace of the old King of Oude, who was brought here when
+deposed for his misdeeds. He is allowed a pension of $50,000 per
+month, which seems a great waste of money, as it is mostly
+squandered by the old reprobate. His collection of birds and
+beasts is a wonderful one, for he pays any price for animals; last
+month he paid $12,500 for two grand tigers, but they escaped a few
+days afterward and swam across the river.
+
+The first queer thing that strikes you at your hotel is that two
+natives take you in custody without even saying "by your leave,"
+and never while you are in Calcutta will you be able to get out of
+sight of one or the other of these officers. One attends in person
+to your room, brings you your tea and toast at six, prepares your
+bath, takes your shoes to the proper "caste" man below (he
+wouldn't black them for the world, bless you!), and plays the
+valet while you dress. At night you find him stretched out across
+your door, like a dog on the watch, and there he lies all night,
+subject to master's call. I hurt my man's feelings one night by
+gently stepping over his prostrate form and getting into my room
+and going to bed without his aid. I turned the key when I got
+inside, and not many moments after I heard him move. Missing the
+key, he suspected something was wrong, and tried the door several
+times; but as he met with no response he finally gave it over, and
+lay down to sleep. The other attendant is our waiter at table and
+out-door servant. You find these people curled up and lying at
+every step through the halls, and are in constant danger of
+stumbling over them. Every guest generally has two, although the
+hotel professes to keep an efficient staff of its own. We hear
+amusing stories told of servants in India, their duties being so
+strictly defined by caste that one must be kept for every trifling
+duty. Our friend the Major tells us, for instance, that upon a
+recent occasion his wife wished to send a note to him at the Fort,
+a very short distance from his residence. The proper messenger
+happening to have been sent elsewhere, she asked the coachman to
+please take it to master, but he explained how impossible it would
+be for him to comply, much as he wished to do so. Persuasion was
+useless; but madame thought of a remedy--order the carriage. The
+grooms prepare and harness the horses, the coachman mounts the box
+and appears at the door. "Now drive to master's, and, attendant,
+deliver this note." All right. This brought it within the sphere
+of his caste. He is bound to obey all orders connected with the
+carriage. Incidents of this nature are too numerous to recount. It
+is in India that political economists can best study the division
+of labor in its most advanced stage of development. My friend Mrs.
+K. kindly gave me her list of servants and their various duties,
+They numbered twenty-two, although Mr. K.'s establishment is a
+moderate one.
+
+We find the Zoological Gardens very interesting. Here we saw for
+the first time monkeys running about unfettered among the trees,
+and a lion chained to a dog-kennel doing watch duty like a
+mastiff. We also saw an entire house devoted to the display of
+pheasants. These birds make a fine collection, for there are
+numerous varieties, and some exceedingly beautiful. There are here
+two full-grown orang-outangs and one child, the former even more
+human than the pets we had recently been in charge of. The huge
+crocodile in a large pond failed to make his appearance yesterday,
+and while we were there five natives with long poles and two in a
+small boat were detailed to stir him up and see what was the
+matter. It was amusing to see these naked attendants as they waded
+in a few feet and poked about, ready to jump back at every
+movement of the water, and sometimes frightened at each other's
+strokes; but all will agree with me that this business of stirring
+up crocodiles at twenty cents per day yields no fair compensation
+for the risks involved. There are good tigers here also, but
+having seen the tiger of the world at Madras, all others are but
+shadows. It is the same now with peacocks, which in these
+latitudes are far superior to those with us, but the peacock is at
+Saigon, in Cochin China, and we never see one without saying, one
+to the other, "How poor!" We are in a few days to see the Taj, and
+I suppose it will be the same as to buildings hereafter. Even
+Walter Scott's monument at Edinburgh--my favorite piece of stone
+and lime--must be surpassed by this marvel of perfection.
+
+I have been considering whether it is more productive of pleasure
+really to have seen or heard the admitted best of everything,
+beyond which you can never expect to go, and as compared with
+which you must actually hereafter be content invariably to meet
+the inferior, or whether one had better, for the retention of
+future interest in things, not see the very topmost and unrivalled
+of each. I have met people whose ears, for instance, were so
+cultivated as to render it painful for them to listen even to the
+grandest music if indifferently performed; some who had
+"atmosphere" and "chiaro-oscuro" so fully developed that copies of
+even the "Madonna di San Sisto" were only daubs offensive to the
+eye; others who, having seen Macready in Macbeth, find the tragedy
+stale in others' hands. Now I don't believe this ensues where the
+love of the art itself is genuine; and I rejoice to say that
+having once listened to an oratorio at the Handel Festival with
+four thousand selected performers, that oratorio becomes forever a
+source of exquisite enjoyment, performed where or how it may be.
+If poorly done, the mind floats up toward the region, if it does
+not attain quite the same height, where it soared at the perfect
+recital; the distinct images there seen, which Confucius justly
+gives music the power of creating, come vividly again as the notes
+swell forth. The priests who call are different, indeed, but the
+gods who respond are one and the same. So having seen Janauschek
+in Lady Macbeth, all other Lady Macbeths participate in her
+quality. Having almost worshipped Raphael's Madonna, all other
+Madonnas have a touch of her power. It is of the very essence of
+genius that it educates one to find beauty and harmony where
+before he would only have trodden over barren sands, and the
+grand and poor performances of any masterpiece are not a contrast
+to the truly receptive, but are as steps leading from the lowest
+to the highest in the same temple. Because one has been
+awe-stricken by Niagara's torrent, are the other waterfalls of the
+world to be uninteresting? No; to the man whose soul has really
+been impressed, every tiny stream that tumbles down in foam is
+related to the greater wonder, partaking to some extent of its
+beauty and grandeur. Having seen the Himalayas, are the more
+modest but not less dear Alleghanies to lose their charm and
+power? Never! Let me go forward, then, and revel without
+misgivings in the highest of human and divine creations, as I may
+be privileged to see or hear or know them. I do not fear that I
+shall ever become a member of the extensive band we meet in our
+travels who have become incapable of enjoying anything but the
+best.
+
+We paid a visit to the river one morning to see the Hindoos
+performing the sacred rite of bathing, which their religion
+commands. Crowds of men and women enter the water promiscuously
+and pray together. What a mercy that Brahma thought of elevating,
+personal cleanliness to the rank of the virtues! What thousands
+are saved every year in consequence! What this crowded hive of
+human beings in hot India would become without this custom it is
+fearful to contemplate. I find our friends all regretting that
+Mohammed was less imperative upon this point. His followers take
+rather to sprinkling than immersion, for dipping hands and feet in
+water is held by them as quite sufficient, and both are not
+equally efficacious as purifiers in the tropics, however they may
+be as religious ceremonies.
+
+A Boston clipper ship was being unloaded of its cargo of Wenham
+Ice as we strolled along the wharf in the warm early morning. The
+great blocks were carried upon the heads of the naked Sudras, one
+at a time, and even at this early hour the ice was melting fast,
+the drops of cool water forming tiny rills on the soiled, dark
+skins of the carriers, who no doubt enjoyed the rare luxury of
+something really cold. The exportation of ice to the East was a
+great Boston industry at that time; today it is wholly gone, the
+artificial being now made and sold at every centre for one-third
+the price commanded by the natural product. A slight improvement
+in the mode of manufacture, and, presto! here at the Equator,
+where the temperature is always at our summer heat, we make ice by
+the ton and are able to sell it at prices which the poorest
+population in the world can readily pay. Where are we going to
+stop in the domain of invention?
+
+One day we visited the temple sacred to the bloody goddess "Kali,"
+from whom Calcutta derives its name. She took her rise, as many gods
+have done, from her insatiable thirst for human blood. One powerful
+giant alone was able for many years to withstand her arts, he being
+secretly informed by a spirit that when she pursued he had only to
+stand in water, and if one drop of his blood was spilled, other
+giants would spring forth and devour "Kali" herself. This secret she
+divined, however, and one day attacked him even in the water,
+strangling him and sucking every drop of his blood without spilling
+one. But her tongue grew so large and red that she was never
+afterward able to get it back into her mouth, and now she stands
+fixed in this temple, her big red tongue hanging out, a most
+revolting sight. So powerful is she esteemed that pilgrims to her
+shrine, who have spent months in coming hundreds of miles by
+measuring their bodies upon the dusty ground, are sometimes seen
+passing through the by-lanes of Calcutta. Lying flat, they mark
+their length, rise, and lie down again at this mark, and go on this
+way, never leaving the path day or night, and begging food and water
+enough to sustain them as they proceed. I was told of one man who
+travelled eight hundred miles in this manner. Imagine the strength
+of the superstition which can so blind its dupes. But even this is
+nothing compared with the self-inflicted torture practised by many
+"who seek to merit heaven by making earth a hell." It is not rare
+for fakirs to stand in postures that cripple them for life. One
+elects to stand on one foot until it becomes impossible for him ever
+to put the other to the ground. Another determines to raise his arms
+to heaven, never taking them down. In a short time, after
+excruciating pain, the joints stiffen so as to render any change
+impossible, and the arms shrivel until little but bone is left. Some
+let their nails grow into their flesh and through their hands. The
+forms of these penances are innumerable, and those who undergo them
+are regarded as holy men and are worshipped and supported by their
+less religious fellows. Kali must still have her blood, and hundreds
+of kids, goats, buffaloes, and other animals are sacrificed daily at
+her shrine. We saw the bloody work going forward. Crowds of
+pilgrims, numbering at least three hundred during our short stay,
+came in bands from the country to propitiate the goddess. Each one
+presents an offering as the idol is shown. It is the most disgusting
+object I have ever seen, and a sight of it would, I am sure,
+frighten children into crying. The business is skilfully managed. A
+small dark hall, capable of holding about twenty-five worshippers,
+occupies the space before the idol. This is filled with people and
+the doors closed; then, amid the murmurs of priests and beating of
+gongs, two sliding-doors are drawn aside, and the horrible
+she-demon, with swollen blood-red tongue, comes into view for a
+moment only, and the gifts are thrown at her. The crowd is excited
+by fear and awe, but ere the figure can be closely scrutinized the
+doors close, and the poor ignorant wretches seem stupefied with what
+has been revealed. They pass slowly out, looking as if they had been
+almost blinded with a glimpse of the forbidden mysteries, and
+another batch crowds in to be similarly worked upon. We saw other
+forms and figures of worship too gross to speak of. Nothing yet seen
+can be called idolatry when compared with this, and I felt like
+giving up all hope of improvement in these people; but then when one
+sees the extent and character of the superstitions of the East he
+cannot help having doubts of the advancement or elevation of the
+species. There is, however, this consoling knowledge, that the
+worshippers, such young girls and boys as we saw today excepted,
+know that Kali is but the symbol of power, not the power itself.
+Around this fact the forces able to overthrow superstition may be
+evolved hereafter. The germ is there.
+
+The hundreds of young, pretty, innocent children whom we saw
+brought to-day to witness such rites by kind, dutiful, religious
+parents--the most conscientious and most respectable of the native
+race--were dressed with as much care and pride as a corresponding
+number of young Christians would be when taken to the rite of
+confirmation. How could I be otherwise than sad and murmur,
+"Forgive them, for they know not what they do." Thus far is plain
+sailing, for every one will agree with me; but when I denounced to
+the priests the pools of clotted blood as offensive, even to
+coarse men, and wholly unfit as a satisfactory offering to any
+power to whom we can ascribe the name of God, they retorted by
+saying this is also part of the Christian system: the God of
+Abraham demands his sacrifice of blood also. It is in vain to
+intimate that this day is past and that our Father in heaven no
+longer takes delight in the blood of rams or of bullocks. I shall
+never forget the malicious inquiry: "Does your God _change_,
+then?" "No, certainly not; but our conceptions of him change year
+by year as we gain knowledge." They smile, and I am troubled. Let
+us pause and reflect before we rashly assail any form of religion
+until we know that what we have to offer in its place is really
+free from the errors we mourn over in others. In the progress of
+the race such dreadful conceptions of God must apparently exist
+for a time. Has not Herbert Spencer himself assured us that,
+
+  "Speaking generally, the religion current in each age and among
+   each people has been as near an approximation to the truth as
+   it was then and there possible for men to receive."
+
+I needed all this from the philosopher to restrain my indignation
+at first and afterward to mitigate my sorrow. Even this was not
+quite sufficient, but how much an anecdote will sometimes do, and
+this one the philosopher above quoted told me himself. At times,
+when disposed to take gloomy views of man's advance, and sickened
+by certain of his still barbarous beliefs and acts, he had found
+relief in the story Emerson tells of himself when in similar
+moods. After attending a meeting--perhaps the one where he was
+hissed from the platform for denouncing human slavery--he walked
+home burning with indignation; but entering his grounds, and
+wandering among the green grass and the flowers, silently growing
+in the cool moonlight, he looked up at the big trees and the big
+trees looking down upon him seemed to say: "What! _so hot, my
+little sir!_" Yes, we must upon our "distemper sprinkle cool
+patience." If all is not well, yet all is coming well. In this
+faith we find peace. The endless progress of the race is assured
+now that evolution has come with its message and shed light where
+before there was darkness, reassuring those who thought and who
+therefore doubted most.
+
+General Litchfield, United States Consul, fortunately accompanied
+us upon this visit, and he knew two of the officiating priests,
+who spoke English perfectly. These escorted us round and told us
+about everything. The history of these two natives is most
+suggestive. They were educated by the government in one of its
+colleges, and very soon saw the falsity of their religious tenets,
+but failing to get suitable employment, they had to return to
+their families, who owned a share in the Kali Temple, which is
+still profitable property, held like any other building. The
+revenues are now divided among a hundred priests, and maintain
+these and their families, all of whom are of the same family.
+Should another son marry he becomes entitled to a certain share,
+and so on. They carry this imposture on simply as a matter of
+business, and laughed at us when we said they knew it was all
+humbug. If it be true that no religion can long retain vital force
+after its priests know it to be false, then there is hope for the
+speedy fall of idolatry in India; but I fear there will be no lack
+of men who will, like these hypocrites, continue to preach what
+they know better than to believe, as long as rich livings are at
+stake.
+
+In one of our drives General Litchfield pointed out the house
+where Macaulay wrote some of his essays while here laying the
+foundations of the law code which has proved such a boon to India.
+I see one great tribute paid to this monument of his genius: the
+codification of the law in England is urged forward by pointing to
+the indisputable success of the Indian code.
+
+India has also great capabilities in regard to another article of
+the largest consumption--tea. In this it is not improbable she
+will some day rival even China.
+ We have been travelling for some days with a gentleman largely
+interested in its cultivation in the Assam district, and learn
+from him that the tea grown there commands a higher price than the
+Chinese article. It also prospers in several other parts of India,
+and the amount grown is increasing rapidly. The total export in
+1878 was 34,000,000 pounds, while last year, 1883, it reached, it
+is stated, 57,000,000 pounds, a large increase, while the tea
+culture in China is about at a stand-still, the amount exported to
+England in 1868, £11,000,000, exceeding that in any year since.
+India, therefore gains rapidly upon China, and prophets are not
+wanting who assert that as India was the original home of the
+plant (as some authorities claim), so India is going to furnish
+the world in future most of its tea. This may all be true and yet
+the amount grown in India be a bagatelle to the product of China,
+which consumes at home about nine times the amount exported.
+Indian tea is pure, while that raised by both the Japanese and
+Chinese is adulterated. It is also much stronger. I advise all to
+give the Indian tea a fair trial.
+
+India, you see, has great possibilities. She is distanced in
+cotton, is a good second in wheat, and has a place in the race for
+tea, with odds in her favor in the latter as far as export goes. I
+think this describes her situation fairly.
+
+There are very few really successful equestrian statues in the
+world, but Calcutta boasts one of these--Noble's statue of
+General Outram. The artist has taken a bold departure, and instead
+of the traditional eagle glance of the hero, the general is
+represented as just checking his impetuous speed and casting a
+look behind; the body turned round, and one hand resting on the
+horse's flank, while the other reins in the horse; his head bare,
+as if in the attack he had outrun his troops, lost his helmet, and
+was stopping a moment for them to overtake him. I liked this
+statue much, and wished that some others of which I wot partook of
+its merits.
+
+We attended the Viceroy's ball on Wednesday evening, and enjoyed the
+brilliant scene. The uniforms of British officers as well as those of
+the Civil Service are gorgeous, and set off a ball-room effectively.
+We saw more ladies here than upon all other occasions combined
+during our travels, and their general appearance was certainly
+better than elsewhere, showing the climate to be less severe upon
+them. Lord Lytton is a small man of unimposing appearance, and
+entirely destitute of style, but the Commander-in-Chief, General
+Haines, seems every inch a soldier, as do many of his subordinate
+officers. Native princes were formerly invited to these balls, and
+their presence, attended by their suites in Oriental costumes, added
+much to the brilliancy of the scene, but it was found desirable to
+discontinue the practice; they could not partake of European
+refreshments nor understand the appearance of women in public, and
+especially their dancing, nor, I fancy, could they look with
+becoming gravity upon dignitaries so engaged, as they employ people
+to do their dancing. I confess it struck me as bordering upon the
+farcical to see Lord Lytton, charged with the government of more
+than two hundred millions, and General Haines, Commander-in-Chief,
+with an active campaign on his hands, Sir Thomas Wade, Her Majesty's
+Ambassador to China, and the Lieutenant-General, all in uniform, and
+the two former in knee- breeches, "all of ye olden time," doing
+"forward four and turn your partner" in the same quadrille. Imagine
+President Lincoln, Secretaries Seward and Stanton, and General Grant
+so engaged.
+
+The Viceroy of India has certainly to do his part in the way of
+ceremonial. Flaming handbills of an English circus announce that
+the performances are under his direct patronage. "Victoria, the
+Empress of the Arena," is to-night to perform her unparalleled
+feats in the ring in the presence of His Excellency. This was the
+only tribute we saw paid in India to Her Majesty's spick-and-span
+brand-new title of Empress. We attended the performance, which was
+really creditable, but the natives sat unmoved throughout every
+scene; so different from the conduct of the Japanese, who scream
+with delight like children under similar circumstances. The
+Indians seem to take their pleasures sadly, like ourselves.
+
+We did not fail to visit the famous banyan tree of Calcutta, by
+far the largest in the world. Vandy and I started and paced it
+around until we met, counting three hundred and thirteen steps,
+or, say, three hundred yards; the main trunk is probably about
+thirty feet in circumference, but from each main branch roots have
+descended to the earth and become supporters of these branches,
+allowing them to extend still farther. In this way a branch may
+have in its course three or four supporters at intervals of twenty
+or thirty feet; the leaves are thick, and much resemble those of
+the rubber tree in size and character.
+
+We see numerous native barbers engaged in shaving the people.
+Victim and operator squat down in a corner on their "hunkers,"
+facing each other, and the operation then begins, the utensils
+being laid out upon a rag on the ground. It seems the most
+unnatural posture in the world for shaving or hair-dressing, but
+as it is the custom there must be some advantages in it which we
+cannot even guess.
+
+One morning we drove to the burning ghat, and from personal
+examination of cremation, I am able to express my preference for
+Christian burial. The business of burning the dead--for in India it
+is a business like any other, and belongs to a low caste--is carried
+on in the most heartless manner. A building is erected upon the
+river-bank, about a hundred feet in length and twenty-five feet in
+width, and open on the side toward the river. The dead are brought
+there upon stretchers wrapped in a little cloth, and are first
+shaved by the attendants, who open the mouth and pour down a vial of
+the water of the sacred Ganges. The body is then bent into a sitting
+posture, carried out to the middle of the building, and wood built
+around it. We saw the embers of several piles which had just done
+their work, and one pile blazing, through the interstices of which
+parts of the body were plainly visible. It was all horrible to me as
+conducted here, but I can conceive of the grand funeral piles of the
+high priests being made most impressive; and so I am told they are,
+but the cremation of the poor lacks every element of this nature. My
+heart bled for a poor widow whose husband had just been taken to the
+pile. She was of a very low caste, but her grief was heartrending;
+not loud, but I thought I could taste the saltness of her tears,
+they seemed so bitter; but she has this consolation to comfort her
+after the outburst, that she insured the eternal happiness of her
+mate by having his ashes mingled with the sacred river of God. No
+one will touch or associate with the caste who dress and burn the
+dead, nor could any one be induced, save one branch of this caste,
+to furnish the fire which lights the funeral pile, for which
+sometimes large sums are exacted, in case the relatives of the dead
+are wealthy.
+
+The absence of women, other than coolies, which has struck us
+everywhere in the East, is if anything even more marked in India,
+where, so far, we have scarcely seen one woman of high caste. The
+Mohammedans do not permit their ladies ever to leave the house,
+and upon rare occasions, when temples must be visited, they are
+closely concealed from view and driven in a close carriage or
+carried in a sedan chair. The Hindoos are not quite so strict, and
+we have seen a few in secluded streets going a few steps, but
+closely muffled up and with faces covered.
+
+Do you remember with what laughter the sun-spot theory was
+received? At least I know I laughed when I first heard of it--but
+here in India, where the rainfall is the prime condition of
+existence to millions and the sun is much more powerful than with
+us, the Meteorological Department has just reported that there is
+apparently a sure connection between the rainfall and its
+distribution and the spots upon the sun. When these spots are at
+the minimum there is a tendency to prolonged excessive pressure
+over the land and an unusual amount and irregular distribution of
+rain.
+
+  "There is blood upon the moon,"
+
+still stands as a poetic expression; but "there are great spots
+upon the sun" must pass as presaging famine. There seems to have
+been an element of truth after all in "the signs of the heavens"
+of the astrologer, only the great law which governs them was
+unknown.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THURSDAY, February 6.
+
+We left Calcutta for the Hindoo Mecca, Benares, tonight, and had
+our first experience of Indian railway travel, which proved to be
+very comfortable. We had all to ourselves a first-class carriage
+compartment containing two sofas lengthwise of the car and one
+across; above these were three upper berths, to be let down, if
+necessary, and used as beds. A smaller compartment contained
+dressing-room, etc., for all of which there is no extra charge.
+Evidently there is no field here for my enterprising friend Mr.
+Pullman. Our route lay through the opium-growing district, and the
+white poppies were just beginning to bloom. I did not know before
+that only the white variety is grown, but, curiously enough, the
+red flower is not nearly so productive. This set us to thinking
+that there may, after all, be something in the Chinaman's
+preference for a black dog to one of another color. By all means
+let us have the two kinds analyzed and see whether the blood be
+just the same. The opium question has given rise to much angry
+discussion upon which we do not propose to pass an opinion. My
+readers may safely assume, I think, that the difficulties we
+encounter in restraining or abolishing the use of liquor among
+ourselves, also surround the opium question in the East. It is
+their liquor. China grows most of what she consumes, and I believe
+would grow it all if the Indian drug was not admitted. Its
+exclusion by the Chinese would not therefore seriously lessen its
+use. Still it places England in a false position before the world
+to enforce its admission by treaty stipulations. The sum involved
+to the Indian revenue exceeds seven millions sterling per annum
+($35,000,000); that is the net yearly profit made out of the
+growth of the poppy. It would not all be lost, and perhaps not be
+seriously reduced, were China free to exclude it, for large
+quantities would be smuggled in, and the people would have it. I
+wish England's hands were entirely free from all stain in
+connection with this business. China should not be compelled by
+England to admit a drug which is considered pernicious.
+
+The total exports this year were ninety-one thousand chests,
+valued at thirteen millions sterling, most of it to China. The
+growing of the poppy is a government monopoly in the Bengal
+province (Calcutta). Each year government enters into contracts
+with cultivators to devote so many acres to its cultivation--an
+advance upon the expected crops is made and final settlements at
+the end of the season according to amount and quality produced.
+The drug is extracted at two government factories. In the other
+district, the produce of which passes through the Bombay
+presidency, the cultivation of the plant is free, but a duty is
+collected upon the opium.
+
+We are in the dry season, and where not irrigated the vast plains
+of India are parched. The soil is a light brown clay, and turns
+readily to fine dust, which seems to blow over everything and make
+all of one hue. Even the scanty muslin clothing of the people
+becomes of this dusty color. The houses are only mud huts one
+story high and roofed with coarse straw; an opening in one side
+serves as a door, but with this exception the hovel is closed;
+neither window nor chimney appears, and when fires are made the
+smoke escapes through all parts of the roof, and when the roof is
+closer than usual, through the door. This dusty, dirty mud color
+of soil, streets, houses, dress, and people gives one an
+impression of a more squalid poverty even than that of the
+overcrowded Chinese in Shanghai. These latter have more clothing
+and no dust, and their dirtiness seems a less objectionable form
+of dirt.
+
+One remarkable difference between these people and the Chinese is
+that we never see the former eating, while the latter eat
+frequently. I am told that the Indians have but two meals a
+day--at noon and at eight in the evening, with a bite early in the
+morning. As is well known, the Hindoos are strict vegetarians,
+neither meat, fish, poultry, nor even eggs being allowed. The
+result of a vegetable diet, if they are to be taken as a fair
+example, is not such as to favor its general adoption. The
+Mohammedans, on the other hand, eat everything but pork; like the
+Jews, they forbid this one article, and I am informed that the
+Mohammedans are a far sturdier race than their neighbors the
+Hindoos; but they should be superior, as the advance from
+Hindooism, with its numerous gods and idolatrous worship, to
+Mohammedanism with its one god is an immense one. The claims which
+Mohammed has upon the gratitude of mankind rest upon a solid
+basis, for he it was who proclaimed to the East that there is but
+one God, and announced himself as his prophet only, instead of
+demanding that he himself should be worshipped as divine; but he
+performed another great service, for he abolished the abominable
+system of caste, and thus it comes that the most popular religion
+in existence hails all its disciples, from the peasant to the
+Sultan, as of one brotherhood, as Christianity does with hers.
+There are nearly fifty millions of Mohammedans among the two
+hundred and fifty millions of India's population, and it is to
+them we must chiefly look for the regeneration of the native
+races.
+
+As we pass through the country we are surprised at the crowds of
+gayly-dressed natives waiting at the crossings to pass the line,
+and at the stations to take the trains. All the colors of the
+rainbow are to be seen in their wraps. It is the season of
+idleness just now, their two months of rest in the country, and
+the entire population seem to be running about in holiday attire,
+forming a striking contrast to their fellows in the towns, who sit
+in their hovels hard at work, one crowding another in his seat.
+Before England established free dispensaries for these masses the
+rate of mortality must have been something incredible; even now it
+is very high, although last year in the two provinces alone no
+fewer than eleven hundred thousand patients were treated or
+prescribed for by these institutions, which we rejoice to see
+scattered throughout the country wherever we go. Nor in all her
+illustrious record do we know a brighter page than that which
+chronicles the rise and progress of these truly English
+organizations.
+
+Manufactures in India are not profitable at present: during the
+scarcity of cotton, owing to the American war, large quantities
+were grown here and fortunes made in the business; eventually
+cotton mills were built in Bombay and jute mills in Calcutta,
+which prospered for a time, but now that America, under the system
+of free labor, has demonstrated her ability to supply cheaper and
+better cotton than India, these enterprises languish. I counted
+thirty-eight spinning and weaving companies in Bombay, and twenty-
+one cotton-press companies; the shares of which were quoted in the
+market, and found that on an average these would not command to-day
+one-half the actual capital paid in. It is much the same with the
+seven Calcutta jute companies. Cotton, both as to growth and
+manufacture, in India, I believe has no future, save one contingent
+upon the interruption of the American supply, of which there does
+not appear much danger. But it must be borne in mind that the fall
+in the value of silver so far is a direct gain to native productions.
+The planter and manufacturer alike pay in the debased currency and
+sell the product as far as it is exported for gold, upon which they
+realize a handsome premium. America needs a continuance of low rates
+for transportation to counterbalance this advantage of her Indian
+rival.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BENARES, Saturday, February 8.
+
+We started from our hotel early this morning to see the Hindoos
+bathing in the sacred waters of the Ganges. Benares is to the
+pious Hindoo all that Mecca is to the good son of the Prophet, and
+much more beside, and he esteems himself happy if it is vouchsafed
+him to die in sight of this stream and this city. Pilgrims flock
+here from all parts of India, and thousands are carried from long
+distances, while dying, that their eyes may behold, ere they
+close, the holy city of God. At the junction yesterday, six miles
+out, we came upon our first band of pilgrims, for they now
+patronize the rail freely, men and women, each with the inevitable
+bundle of rags which serves as his bed _en route_ and as a
+change of clothing, to be blessed by washing in the Ganges. It
+requires about a month to worship at every temple and do all that
+the priests persuade these pilgrims to be essential for their
+salvation, every ceremony, of course, producing revenue for this
+class. Each Rajah of India has his temple upon the bank of the
+river, and it is these handsome structures, situated on the cliff
+which overhangs the river, that give to Benares its unparalleled
+beauty. In each temple a priest is maintained who prays constantly
+and bathes every morning as a substitute for his master, the
+Rajah, but the latter comes in person also for one month each year
+to perform the sacred rites. We were fortunate this morning in
+seeing the Rajah of Nepaul at his devotions. He has a small
+covered boat of his own, and we found him on his knees, in front
+of it, gazing upon the sun, as we pulled slowly past in our boat,
+his staff standing behind him in reverential attitudes. For one
+full month this intelligent ruler, who speaks English fluently and
+is well informed of the views Europeans hold of his religious
+ideas, will nevertheless work hard, visiting daily the temples,
+going through various exercises, and bathing every morning in the
+Ganges. One other Rajah is here, and others are shortly to come
+and do likewise. It seems so strange that these men still remain
+slaves to such superstitions; but how few among ourselves succeed
+in rising beyond what we happen to have been taught in our
+childhood! It is very different, I am told, with those who have
+received English ideas in their youth at the government colleges.
+They make quick work of the Hindoo idols; but so far every one
+here agrees with the Rev. Dr. Field when he says: "It needs very
+little learning to convince the Hindoo that his sacred books are a
+mass of fable. But this does not make him a Christian. It only
+lands him in infidelity, and leaves him there." The
+_Encyclopedia Britannica_ says that "the progress of
+Protestant missions amounts at present to almost nothing." In Dr.
+Mullen's report, down to 1871, the "whole force of English
+missionaries--579, and of native preachers, 1,993--had produced a
+native Christian population of only 280,600. There was probably a
+much larger number in the south of India about the middle of the
+eighteenth century." I heard everywhere corroborations of this
+statement.
+
+The wife of the Rajah, we heard, had yesterday performed the most
+sacred of all the ceremonies under conditions of considerable
+popular excitement. The sacred well, the stairs leading from it to
+the river, and the bathing place at the river, were all covered
+in; the crowd could only see the sedan chair which carried the
+queen to the well, but the spectacle attracted great numbers. This
+well is simply a trench about twenty-five feet long and not more
+than three feet wide, but it must be thirty feet below the
+surface. Broad steps lead to it from all sides. In this well every
+Hindoo of good caste is permitted to wash, and there are always
+many in it. The water is foul and offensive, yet such is its
+reputed sanctity that no sin can be committed so heinous that it
+cannot be washed away by it. The ceremony, fortunately, is
+incomplete until one, rising from its stench, walks to the pure
+water of the Ganges and bathes there. I think the ceremony must
+typify man before purification, foul with sin, and then cleansed
+by bathing in the pure Jordan afterward; but no one could give me
+any information upon this point. At all events it was into this
+sink that the Rajah's wife bravely immersed herself yesterday, and
+it is here, too, the Rajah himself must come before he
+leaves--poor man!
+
+The place where the dead are burned was pointed out as we drifted
+past in our boat, but it was then unoccupied. As we returned,
+however, one body was in the hands of the attendants, who had
+taken it into the river and were just in the act of pouring the
+sacred water down the throat preparatory to the final scene. One
+woman alone sat on the shore weeping, and two small children at
+her side seemed not to understand why. It was still early morning,
+and all was quiet. Our guide pointed out some who were evidently
+friends, in conversation with men on a parapet above. They were
+bargaining for the sacred fire to light the funeral pile.
+Government prohibits the burning of the forlorn widow with her
+husband's body, as was formerly the custom, but it is said many
+widows wish this privilege even yet, nor can I blame them much.
+I'm sure I don't see why, beyond the mere instinct of self-
+preservation, they should have a wish to live on. Those educated
+people among us who commit suicide have prospects before them
+which might be called blissful compared with what confronts poor
+widows in India.
+
+We visited the principal temples and shrines in succession, but I do
+not propose to rehearse their names and special virtues. There is a
+great sameness about them, but the Monkey Temple differs from the
+others in having several hundred monkeys running over it in every
+direction. Like the rest, this is owned by a number of people, and
+its shares are marketable property. Dr. Lazarus, the chief of the
+medical department, tells us that the "river people," a term
+embracing those who own the temples on the stream--just as we would
+say the "steel rail" or the "pig metal" people at home--are very
+much depressed, complaining bitterly that the revenues have fallen
+away. One owner in the Monkey Temple, probably the most prosperous
+of all, had some time ago asked what this trouble meant. He was
+advised to sell his monkey stock as soon as possible, but up to the
+present day he has found no one willing to invest in the property.
+One of the high priests of another sacred shrine said to my
+informant that he had seen in his day three ages--one of gold, one
+of silver, and now he had reached the age of copper, and was only
+thankful when he saw a few pieces of that. "The people still come as
+of old, to worship, which costs nothing," he said, "but they don't
+pay the gods more than a pittance. I wonder what we are coming to?"
+While great allowance has to be made for the changed condition of
+affairs throughout the world, which has seriously affected the
+revenues of religious establishments everywhere, and which India has
+had to share, aggravated by the loss of her cotton industry, still
+it can hardly be doubted that Hindooism as a vital force is
+crumbling slowly to pieces, and that the priests are losing their
+sway over the masses. Caste also goes slowly with the tide of
+change, and Brahmans are now occasionally found taking employment
+below that of their caste; and while a high-caste Hindoo some years
+ago would have considered himself defiled if even the garments of a
+low-caste person touched him, he now rushes into the same railway
+compartment among the general crowd and struggles for a seat with
+various castes, and says nothing about it. One stand the English
+home Government took, in deference to English ideas as opposed to
+those of the Anglo-Indian authorities, which alone dooms caste,
+sooner or later, to extinction: it would not permit different
+classes on the railways to be established for Hindoos or
+Mohammedans, or for castes of the former. Many residents in India
+feared that this would prevent the natives from using the lines, but
+the result has wonderfully belied these fears and vindicated the
+sagacity of those who ventured to inaugurate this system; and now
+one sees Hindoos and Mohammedans, high caste and low caste, jostling
+each other in their efforts to get desirable seats in the
+third-class compartments, where, by the way, they travel for less
+per mile than anywhere else in the world, third-class fares in India
+being uniformly one-half of a cent per mile. First-class fares, with
+such sleeping-car luxuries as I have before described included, are
+just about our rates with sleeping-cars not included--viz., three
+cents per mile.
+
+While Hindooism is thus passing away, but little progress is made
+with Islam. The fifty millions of Mohammedans stand to-day where
+they have stood for ages, and cry from their mosques morning and
+night, "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his prophet." No
+idols, no drunkenness, no caste. The contrast between their faith
+and that of Christians is therefore much less marked, and our
+guide says to us, with evident pride, "Hindoos believe many gods,
+worship idols. _I believe like you_, one God, no idols."
+
+India is thus in a state of transition, her caste and religion
+both passing away. The work before this generation and probably
+the next is to pull down and destroy. It will remain for those who
+come after to begin the more difficult labor of building up.
+
+We met at Benares strings of water-carriers, carrying brass
+vessels on each end of a pole borne over the shoulder. These come
+here for hundreds of miles on foot, and take back to their
+customers in the country the sacred water of the blessed river. It
+is a regular business, and furnishes employment for thousands of
+men. Upon no account must this water be carried by railway and
+deprived of its healing powers by being handled by unbelievers. It
+must be carried by Hindoos of the proper caste on foot, or it has
+no virtue.
+
+Science invades everything nowadays, and the officials have
+recently had the water of one of the sacred wells analyzed by a
+chemist--audacious dog of an infidel--and here he comes with his
+CO2 and all the virtue of this water of life is gone. It is found
+unfit for human use, and the well is ordered to be closed. The
+chemist, in the eyes of the ignorant natives, has sacrificed
+spiritual for physical health; preferred the welfare of their
+bodies to that of their souls, as is the custom with these wicked
+scientists.
+
+We pass booths in which native jewellers sit hard at work
+fashioning rings, brooches, and other articles of personal
+adornment. Their dexterity is marvellous; without elaborate
+appliances of any kind, with only a small blow pipe and a few rude
+tools, they will take a gold coin from you and before your eyes
+shape it into any form selected. But it is said they must have a
+model to copy from; no original design emanates from them. The
+booths, or little shops, are curious affairs. They are built of
+mud, with neither window nor door, the floor on which the artisans
+sit being about four feet above the narrow street level.
+
+I never was more thoroughly impressed with the position of the
+European of India than to-day when pushing through the crowded,
+narrow lanes of Benares. Our native guide went before us carrying
+a whip which he cracked and brandished among the crowd, calling
+out "Sahib! Sahib!" and the people, casting one glance behind, at
+once hurried out of our way, making a clear track for our august
+person supposed to represent the conquering race. The respectful
+salaams, as we caught the eye of one native after another, their
+deferential, not to say obsequious, attitude as we passed--all
+this tells its story. That "all men are born free and equal" will
+not enter the Hindoo mind for centuries--not till England has
+brought it up to the standard of self-government, which it is
+gradually doing, however, by its schools and colleges.
+
+Benares has been famous for centuries for its manufacture of gold
+and silver embroideries. I remember that Macaulay speaks of them
+in his essay on Warren Hastings as decorating alike the court of
+Versailles and the halls of St. James. We went to the native
+village and saw the work carried on. How such exquisite fabrics
+come from the antiquated looms situated in mud hovels it is hard
+to understand, but they do. We saw one man who had no less than
+thirty-three different tiny spools to work from in a piece not
+more than a yard wide. All of these he had in turn to introduce in
+the web, and pass through a greater or lesser number of threads,
+the one starting in where the other left the woof, before one
+single thread was complete from end to end of the warp and could
+be driven into the pattern. The people of Benares also excel as
+workers in brass.
+
+To-day we had a unique experience indeed, being carried through
+the principal streets of Benares on State elephants, kindly
+provided for us by the Rajah of Benares. Mr. H., of New York, whom
+we have met on his way round the world, and Vandy and I were the
+riders. We were driven to the palace, and found there two huge
+animals, gayly caparisoned, awaiting our arrival, surrounded by
+servants in resplendent liveries. The elephants very kindly got
+upon their knees, which rendered a short ladder only necessary for
+us to mount by. The motion is decidedly peculiar, and, until one
+becomes used to it, I should think very fatiguing; but we enjoyed
+our elephant ride greatly, and the Rajah has our hearty thanks.
+
+We are in the land of the cheapest labor in the world. It is
+doubtful if men can be found anywhere else to do a day's work for
+as little as they are paid in India. Railway laborers and coolies
+of all kinds receive only four rupees per month, and find
+themselves; these are worth just now forty cents each, or, say,
+$1.60 (6s. 6d.) in gold for a month's service. Upon
+this a man has to exist. Is it any wonder that the masses are
+constantly upon the verge of starvation? Women earn much less, and
+of course every member of a family has to work and earn something.
+The common food is a pulse called gran; the better class indulge
+in a pea called daahl. Anything beyond a vegetable diet is not
+dreamed of.
+
+Before leaving Benares I must speak again of the scene at the
+river, which far excels any representation I have seen of it or
+any description I have read. Photographs cannot be made to convey
+a just idea of its picturesque beauty, because the view is
+enlivened by such masses and combinations of color as Turner alone
+could do justice to. Indeed, my first thought as I saw the
+thousands on the ascending banks--one tier of resting-places above
+another, culminating in the grand temples' towering at the
+tops--was that I had seen something akin to this in a dazzling
+picture somewhere. Need I say that it is in the Turner Gallery
+alone where such color can be seen? He should have painted the
+"Hindoo Bathers at Benares," and given the world one more gem
+revealing what he alone, in his generation, fully saw in the
+mind's eye, "the light which never shone on sea or shore." We have
+voted this scene at Benares the finest sight we have yet
+witnessed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LUCKNOW, Tuesday, February 11.
+
+We reached Lucknow at night. The moon was not yet shining, but the
+stars shed their peaceful halo around this spot, to which the eyes
+of the civilized world were so long directed during the dark days
+of the mutiny. At the hotel upon arrival a lady's voice was heard
+singing the universal refrain which nearest touches all English
+hearts in India and expresses the ever dominant longing, "Home,
+Sweet, Sweet Home."
+
+There is no trace here of the massacres which have made this
+region memorable. But is the past to be repeated? Who can assure
+us that these bronzed figures which surround us by millions may
+not again in some mad moment catch the fever of revolt? This is
+the anxious question which I find intruding itself upon me every
+hour. Truly it is a dangerous game, this, to undertake the
+permanent subjection of a conquered race; and I do not believe
+that after General Grant sees India he will regret that the
+foolish Santo Domingo craze passed away. If America can learn one
+lesson from England, it is the folly of conquest, where conquest
+involves the government of an alien race.
+
+Our first visit was to the ruins of the Residency, where for six
+long months Sir Henry Lawrence and his devoted band were shut up
+and surrounded by fifty thousand armed rebels. The grounds, which
+I should say are about thirty acres in extent, were fortunately
+encompassed by an earthen rampart six feet in height. You need not
+be told of the heroic resistance of the two regiments of British
+soldiers and one of natives, nor of the famous rescue. Hour after
+hour, day after day, week after week, and month after month, the
+three hundred women and children, shut in a cellar under ground,
+watched and prayed for the sound of Have-lock's bugles, but it
+came not. Hope, wearied out at last, had almost given place to
+despair. Through the day the attacks of the infuriated mob could
+be seen and repelled, but who was to answer that when darkness
+fell the wall was not to be pierced at some weak point of the
+extended line? One officer in command of a critical point
+failing--not to do his duty, there was never a fear of that--but
+failing to judge correctly of what the occasion demanded, and the
+struggle was over. Death was the last of the fears of these poor
+women night after night as the days rolled slowly away. One night
+there was graver silence than usual in the room; all were
+despondent, and lay resigned to their seemingly impending fate. No
+rescue came, nor any tidings of relief. In the darkness one
+piercing scream was heard from the narrow window. A Highland nurse
+had clambered up to gaze through the bars and strain her ears once
+more. The cooling breeze of night blew in her face and wafted such
+music as she could not stay to hear. One spring to the ground, a
+clapping of hands above the head, and such a shriek as appalled
+her sisters who clustered round; but all she could say between the
+sobs was: "The slogan--the slogan!" But few knew what the slogan
+was. "Didna ye hear--didna ye hear?" cried the demented girl, and
+then listening one moment, that she might not be deceived, she
+muttered, "It's the Macgregors gathering, the grandest o' them
+a'," and fell senseless to the ground. Truly, my lassie, the
+"grandest o' them a'," for never came such strains before to
+mortal ears. And so Jessie of Lucknow takes her place in history
+as one of the finest themes for painter, dramatist, poet or
+historian henceforth and forever. I have been hesitating whether
+the next paragraph in my note-book should go down here or be
+omitted. Probably it would be in better taste if quietly ignored,
+but then it would be so finely natural if put in. Well, I shall be
+natural or nothing, and recount that I could not help rejoicing
+that Jessie was Scotch, and that Scotchmen first broke the rebels'
+lines and reached the fort, and that the bagpipes led the way.
+That's all. I feel better now that this is also set down.
+
+Lucknow, so rich in historical associations, is poverty itself in
+genuine architectural attractions, magnificent as it appears at a
+distance. It is a modern capital. About a century ago a king of
+Oude, in a moment of caprice, I suppose, determined to remove his
+capital from Fyzabad to Lucknow. Palaces on a great scale were
+hastily erected of common bricks and covered with white plaster.
+These look very fine at a distance, but closer inspection reveals
+the sham, and one is provoked because his admiration has been
+unworthily excited. Several other kings followed and carried on
+this imposture, each building his palace and tomb in this
+untruthful way. What could we expect from kings content to lie in
+such tombs but lives of disgusting dissipation? A simple marble
+slab were surely better than these pretentious lies: anything so
+it be genuine. However, retribution came, and the dynasty is
+extinct, the present king living as a prisoner in Calcutta.
+
+The bazaars of Lucknow are well worth seeing, with their native
+jewellers, brass-workers, and other artificers, working in spaces
+not more than six feet square. We begin to see persons and modes
+which remind us of scriptural expressions--the water-carrier with
+the goat-skin filled, "the hewers of wood and drawers of water,"
+the latter usually working in gangs of five. An earthen incline is
+built, leading up to the top of the wall which surrounds the well;
+the well-rope passes over the shoulders of the drawers, and in
+marching down the incline they raise the bucket. We came to-day
+upon a lot of women grinding the coarse daahl. Two work at each
+mill, sitting opposite one another, pushing around the upper stone
+by means of upright handles fastened into it.
+
+  "And two women shall be grinding at the mill, and one shall be
+   taken and the other left,"
+
+saith the Scriptures of old, but our coming revised and corrected
+edition, I could not help hoping to-day, as I saw this picture for
+the first time, will note an error, or at least intimate a doubt
+of the correct translation of this passage; or, if not, the age
+may require some commentator "more powerful than the rest" to
+console us with the hope that while at the first call one was
+indeed left, there would be a second, yea, and a third, a seventh,
+and a seventy times seventh call, in one of which even she would
+participate.
+
+We have been this afternoon among the tombs of heroes--Lawrence
+and Havelock, Banks and McNeil, Hodson and Arthur--men who fell in
+the days of the mutiny. Lawrence's tomb is most touching from its
+simplicity--a short record, no eulogy, only
+
+  "Here lies Henry Lawrence,
+   Who tried to do his duty."
+
+"I have tried to do my duty," he said, as he breathed his last,
+and this is all his tomb has to say of him; but isn't it enough?
+
+One day in our drive we came upon our first elephant and our first
+camel camp, hundreds of the latter and nearly two hundred of the
+former being attached to the transportation department of the
+army. They are said to perform work which could never be done by
+other animals in this climate. Bullocks are the third class used
+as carriers; these are taught to trot, and do trot well. I
+remember one day in Ceylon one of them in a hackery gave us in the
+mail coach quite a spirited race for a short distance, but it was
+only to-day that I learned that camels are also so trained and
+used as mail or despatch bearers where speed is necessary, and the
+gait of a really good trained camel is said to be quite easy. If
+development goes forward in this line, our posterity may be using
+the camel in trotting matches with the horse. He would possess the
+advantage over that favorite animal which the Chinaman has over
+the European; he could go longer between drinks, and that counts
+for much.
+
+The quarters for troops at Lucknow are models; the officers'
+quarters are surrounded and in some cases almost embowered by
+vines and flowers; lawn-tennis courts, cricket grounds, ball
+courts, and a gymnasium are provided for the private soldiers, and
+are finer than we have seen elsewhere, and serve to make Lucknow,
+with its beautiful gardens and long shady avenues, the one really
+pretty rural spot we have seen in India.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WEDNESDAY, February 12.
+
+We are on our way to Agra by rail, and expect to arrive in time to
+drive out and see the Taj by moonlight. I have been reading more
+carefully than before some descriptions of it, and keep wondering
+whether this gem of the world is to prove a disappointment or not.
+Most things which have been heralded like the Taj fail to fulfil
+expectations at first, and how can stone and lime be so formed as
+to justify such fulsome praises as have been bestowed upon this
+tomb? One writer, for instance, exclaims, "There is no mystery, no
+sense of partial failure about the Taj. A thing of perfect beauty
+and of absolute finish in every detail, it might pass for the work
+of genii, who knew naught of the weakness and ills with which
+mankind were afflicted." The exact and prosaic Bernier had to
+express doubts whether "I may not be somewhat infected with
+'Indianisme,' but I must needs say I believe it ought to be
+reckoned amongst the wonders of the world." Bayard Taylor exhausts
+eulogy upon the Pearl Mosque, calling it "a sanctuary so pure and
+stainless, revealing so exalted a spirit of worship, that I felt
+humbled as a Christian that our noble religion had never inspired
+its architects to surpass this temple to God and Mohammed;" but
+when he comes to the Taj itself he is lost in rapture. There is
+nothing, however, which the critics--those men who have failed in
+literature and art--will not venture to attack, and I thought it
+advisable to tone down my expectations by taking a dose of carping
+criticism. Unfortunately for me, however, when I had got fairly in
+with a writer who assures me "the design is weak and feeble," the
+"shadows are much too thin," this misleader left me in a worse
+condition than ever, for succumbing at last to the sweet
+overpowering charms of the structure as a whole, and apparently
+ashamed of himself for ever having dared to say one word against
+its perfections, he adds--just after he had bravely done the
+"design" and the "shadows"--"but the Taj is like a lovely woman:
+abuse her as you please, the moment you come into her presence you
+submit to her fascinations." Pretty criticism this for one who
+wishes the faults of this beauty clearly set forth! I put this
+lover of the Taj aside at once and try another writer, who does
+indeed give me a page of preventive, well suited to one in my
+condition, but upon turning over the page he too falls sadly away,
+for here is his last line:
+
+  "The rare genius of the calm building finds its way unchallenged
+   to the heart."
+
+Well, then, gentlemen, if all this be so, what's the use of your
+petty criticism? If this marvel, before whose spell all men, even
+you yourselves, must bow, has a "rigidity of outline," an "air of
+littleness and luxury," a "poverty of relief," and if "the inlaid
+work has been vulgarly employed," and the patterns are "meagre in
+the extreme," wasn't it the highest aim that its builder could
+probably have had in view, to entrance the world and give to it a
+thing of beauty which is indeed a joy forever? and doesn't the Taj
+do this so far beyond all other human structures that no one
+thinks of naming another in comparison? And should not this
+incontrovertible fact teach you a lesson--just a little bit of
+modesty? No, gentlemen; it isn't the Taj that must be changed,
+either in its outline or shadows, to conform to your canons of
+criticism, but your canons of art that must be changed to embrace
+the Taj, or rather to set it apart, as a stroke of original
+genius, and consequently above and beyond the domain of criticism;
+for criticism, like science, works solidly only upon what is
+absolutely known, formulating its fixed decrees upon the past. All
+great geniuses have encountered the critics of their day. How
+Shakespeare violated the unities! and didn't Napoleon win battles
+which he should have lost? Let these people then be silent, and
+know that when a transcendent exhibition of original genius wins
+success beyond the reach of measurement by their plumb and line
+and square and compass, the higher law governing the seeming
+miracle will be duly revealed: and the Taj is just such a miracle,
+from all I can learn of its power.
+
+The evidences of the intense summer heat are seen everywhere. The
+railway carriages have false tops, leaving an air space of a foot
+between the roof and the cover. Awnings cover the windows outside,
+and there are posted up directions for the use of the cooling
+apparatus applied to each first-class compartment; the frames for
+punkas are seen in the railway waiting-rooms, and we notice in the
+army regulations that during the hot season soldiers are required
+to stay in-doors between the hours of eleven and three. We are
+told of revolving fans being used to cool rooms, and that it is
+very common to fill doors and windows with thick mats of scented
+grass, which are kept constantly wet; the wind, passing through
+these, is cooled to about ninety degrees, and large banana leaves
+furnish a cool bed in extreme cases, from all of which, "Good
+Lord, deliver us!" We thank our stars every day that we are doing
+India when the heat, though great at midday, is not unbearable. We
+are five hundred and fifty miles north of Calcutta, and find the
+temperature much cooler. The people look stronger, and necessarily
+wear more clothing, which means that another piece of coarse
+bagging is wrapped around their shoulders. We are at the best
+hotel in Agra, and I notice as remarkable, in the printed list of
+prices, that a man to pull the punka in one's bedroom
+ all night can be obtained for the sum of three annas, or six
+cents in silver. Washing costs two cents per piece, but while
+these strike us as cheap, the next item tells us that each guest
+during the hot season is chargeable with twenty cents per day for
+ice used at table etc. It is very sparingly used, but yet the
+little bit of ice you see costs as much as the labor of three men
+all night. All the employees of the railways in India are required
+to join the volunteer forces, and to drill under the supervision
+of regular army officers, appointed by the government for this
+purpose. An excellent auxiliary force numbering many thousands is
+thus secured at trifling expense. One significant announcement
+posted at stations attracted my attention, and gave me an insight
+into one department in which India is in advance of us. This
+placard set forth that certain employees having been found under
+the influence of liquor while on duty, the district court had
+sentenced them to six months' imprisonment. This betokens a
+decided step forward, I take it, and one which it would be
+advisable for us to follow. A captain, pilot, engineer, railway
+conductor, or any one directly charged with the care of human
+lives convicted of being drunk while on duty should be held guilty
+of a criminal offence and punished by the State.
+
+I have been admiring all through India three magnificent vines,
+now in full bloom. One, the Begonia, resembles our honeysuckle,
+but the flower is larger and hangs in large clusters; the second,
+called the Bouganviella, is purple in color and like our morning-
+glory, and the two are often seen climbing together up tall trees
+almost to their very tops, covering them with a mass of flowers.
+The third favorite, Poinsetta, is a leaf of rich magenta color.
+These three are the special glories of India. Some of our own
+flowers do tolerably well in this region, and the inherent love of
+the English for flowers and plants is seen in the numerous pretty
+plots and gardens.
+
+Life in India is only rendered tolerable by the opportunity people
+have to enjoy things which would be beyond their reach at home
+without fortunes. All residences have grounds connected with them,
+more or less extensive, and laid out in fine gardens. Lawn-tennis
+and croquet grounds are the rule. Horses and carriages, or at
+least a vehicle of some kind, are indispensable, and no one who
+strolls around the European quarters in early morning and sees the
+large staff of servants lounging about the spacious verandas,
+awaiting the call of "Sahib" or "Mem Sahiba," can be at a loss to
+account for the disappointment often experienced by those who,
+after years of longing, at last go home to enjoy themselves in
+their fancied Elysium. Alas! ten times the sum that supports them
+here in style would not suffice in England. Here Sahib awakes and
+drawls out, "Qui hi" (you of my people who are in waiting). There
+is a stir among several servants who have lain the whole night
+long at his door, to be in readiness, and the moaning reply comes,
+"S-a-h-i-b," and he is surrounded by those who minister to his
+slightest wish all day, leaving him again at night only to repeat
+the performance on the morrow. When he drives his gig to town one
+servant stands at his back to wait upon him, and Madame appears in
+the afternoon upon the Mall in her grand equipage, two on the box
+and two standing behind, as if she were a duchess. As a European
+walks the streets he is salaamed by every native he chances to
+look at. He moves about, one of a superior race and rank. As he
+approaches a crowd, to look at a passing sight, a clear lane is
+made for him; and if he steps into the post-office to ask for
+letters, the natives instinctively fall back until Sahib is
+served. All this spoils a man for residence at home, where "one
+man is as good as another and a good deal better," unless a
+tremendous fortune is at one's back to purchase precedence, which
+nowadays is scarcely obtainable at any price even in England where
+traces of by-gone days linger longest: and so it falls out that
+many who have prayed for long years for the day to come for their
+return to England, find the coveted change but Dead Sea fruit when
+it is gained at last. A few even return to the land they had so
+long prayed to be allowed to leave, and take up their final abode
+among the hills. For these people I cannot help feeling deeply
+sorry. It is impossible that their lives can be full and rich to
+overflowing here. A tone of sadness, of vain regret, must pervade
+the mind. The prize so ardently struggled for has been found
+unsatisfactory, and at best their lives must draw to a close
+tinged by a sense of partial failure.
+
+How many human beings can the land maintain to the square mile?
+About three hundred and fifty in Europe say the authorities,
+provided the soil is fertile and climate good. This is close upon
+the English and Belgian standard; but some parts of India are
+cursed with more than double this number; indeed one district has
+nearly eight hundred to the square mile. This seems to be the
+limit even for India, as population does not increase beyond it,
+and female infanticide begins to protrude its monstrous form
+whenever population becomes so dense. In the Punjaub, for
+instance, the males exceed the females sixteen per cent.--a
+fearful revelation; but it is just the same in many parts of
+China. All authorities agree that male children are tenderly cared
+for, and even desired. This is especially so in China, for no
+greater evil can befall a Chinaman than the absence of sons to
+keep unbroken the worship. of ancestors. Death is nothing if he
+passes away with dutiful sons around his bedside ready to perform
+the sacred rites. To die without these is to send his soul forth a
+wanderer without claims upon his gods. The commercial aspect,
+however, has mostly to do with the question in India. Where is
+food for the little mouths, to come from, and how can a girl be
+reared by a family who live from day to day upon the brink of
+starvation, even when every member labors like a slave?
+
+One morning we drove to the jail--one of the sights of India--and
+were fortunate in meeting the Inspector-General, Mr. Walker, an
+authority on all matters relating to prison discipline, and Dr.
+Tyler, the Chief for Agra. These officials kindly conducted us
+through the vast establishment. The prison labor is not, as
+generally with us, contracted out--a vicious plan which
+necessitates the intercourse of outsiders with the criminals and
+invariably leads to bad results. Here the prisoners deal with none
+but their keepers; but what pleased me most was the admirable
+system of rewards and promotions for good conduct which has been
+established. Marks are given and worn upon the clothes which
+shorten one's sentence from one day up to several, and it is
+possible for a prisoner in this way to acquire marks enough to
+take as much as one tenth from his imprisonment. The best behaved
+of all can rise to the position of wardens. Several hundreds have
+reached this prize, and are distinguished by better clothing, and
+also by ornamental badges. These wardens are placed over the other
+malefactors, and there is no difficulty experienced in enforcing
+the strictest discipline through them. Foremen of shops and of the
+various departments are all appointed from among the prisoners
+themselves, and, with the exception of the one in charge of the
+complicated machinery, there are no others employed in such
+capacities. The armed guards are, however, not of this class. In
+ordinary years the cost of maintenance per person is one rupee a
+month (40 cents gold); clothing 75 cents a year, including cost of
+supervision and all expenses of the jail department; prisoners in
+India thus cost only about $14 per year each. This prison
+maintains itself by the labor of its inmates, and last year showed
+an actual profit of about $40,000. Twenty-three hundred prisoners
+were confined within its walls when we were there. The total
+number of inmates of the jail in this and the Northwest Province
+is just now 39,000; but last year, owing to the famine, the number
+rose to 42,000. This seems a great number, but I am informed that,
+taking the population into account, it is not quite up to the
+average in England. We saw the prisoners working the celebrated
+Agra jail carpets and rugs, for which there is such demand that
+orders given to-day cannot be filled for many months. A new
+building has just been erected and filled with looms to increase
+the supply. Native dyes and materials alone are used, and one can
+thus rest assured that a carpet obtained here is genuine
+throughout. France takes the finest qualities, and we saw some so
+fine that the day's task of men sitting as close as they could the
+entire width of the web was only one inch per day. These carpets,
+which are really works of art, cost here $10 gold per square yard,
+and certainly not less than double that when retailed in Paris. Of
+the inmates about one hundred were women, their special crime
+being that of child-stealing, which is very common in India, the
+ornaments worn by the little ones being a strong temptation. We
+saw two young lads sentenced for life for this crime. They had
+stolen and robbed a child, and afterward thrown the body into a
+well. We left Messrs. Walker and Tyler strongly imbued with the
+feeling that we had seen the model prison of the world in Agra
+jail.
+
+India gives us valuable hints upon the land question. There is no
+private tenure; at least it is not general, for when one speaks of
+a continent with two hundred and fifty millions of people
+possessed of different customs it is unsafe to say that anything
+does not exist. Speaking generally, the land of India belongs to
+village communities in which every family has its right. The State
+first taxes a certain portion of the produce. Akbar the first
+Mogul fixed it at one-third of the gross amount, which the head
+man of each village was required first to set apart for
+government. The remainder was divided among the community. For
+untold generations these village communities have preserved intact
+their traditions, which neither anarchy nor conquest have
+abolished. Unfortunately the English in the early days were
+disposed to introduce their system of landlord and tenant, and in
+the Bengal province this has led to infinite trouble. Men had
+arisen there who undertook the collection of the land tax of a
+district and paid the government an agreed-upon sum. They were in
+fact contractors (Zemindars); this was certainly the easiest mode
+for the British Government to obtain the revenue, but in
+recognizing these contractors it raised them virtually to the
+position of landlord. The poor cultivator could not reach the
+government at all. He was in the power of the Zemindar, who alone
+dealt with the authorities. As was to have been expected, the
+result was just as it has been found in Ireland. The Zemindars
+squeezed every penny out of the poor farmer which he could be made
+to yield, until finally the government was compelled to embark
+upon that perilous sea, land legislation, tenant rights, judicial
+rents, and all the rest of it.
+
+In the Bombay presidency, however, wiser councils have prevailed.
+The cultivator deals directly with the government; has a lease as
+it were subject to revaluation every thirty years. In time the
+poor cultivator will no doubt rise to the advantages of this
+system by a process of natural selection. It was certain that many
+unfit occupiers would be found, and this has been the case so far.
+The plan is bound, however, to develop and sustain the most
+competent, and this means that it is the right plan. The land
+yields the government twenty-two millions sterling per annum
+($110,000,000). Had the land owners of England not released
+themselves while acting as M. P.'s of the tax under which till
+then land was held by them, England would be in position to-day to
+remit many taxes which bear heavily upon the people.
+
+We had a talk to-day with an officer of the forest department of
+India, which vainly strives to save the forests from wandering
+tribes who practice nomadic agriculture, reaping indeed where they
+sow, but rarely sowing twice in the same place, which is the
+difficulty. These tribes inhabit the hills of India, and depend
+for food solely upon crops grown in the forests. They make a
+clearing by burning the timber and scatter the seed, rarely taking
+the trouble to turn up the soil, although some tribes scratch the
+surface with sticks. The virgin soil yields forty and fifty fold of
+rice as a first crop. This is gathered and off go the gypsies to
+another locality for next season. The destruction of timber upon
+these small clearings is nothing, as our friend explained, compared
+to that caused by the spread of the fires. The government imposes
+heavy penalties upon these nomads, if discovered, but vast, tracts
+remain where no restraint is possible. He was on his way to solitude
+among the hills, which he preferred to even the plains with their
+crowds. But England, England some day! was his dream. Ah, poor
+fellow! the chances are that he will fall and lie in his Indian
+forest; or, sadder yet, should fortune reach him and he realize his
+dream, that he would find life in England intolerable and return to
+die here a disappointed man. We have met several such, and for no
+class am I so profoundly sorry. Never to realize one's life dream is
+bad enough, but to have it sent you and then find it naught--that
+seems to me the keenest thrust which can enter the soul of man.
+
+Among the attractions of Agra are the palaces and tombs of the
+Great Moguls, and we have been busy visiting them day after day.
+This was the capital during the most brilliant period of that
+extraordinary family's reign. The founder, Baber, lies buried at
+Cabool, which was the chief place before the invaders penetrated
+farther south. Six of these Moguls reigned, and no dynasty in
+history has six consecutive names of equal power to boast.
+Hereditary genius has strong support in the careers of these
+illustrious men; besides this, Baber was a lineal descendant of
+Tamerlane himself, on his father's side, and of a scarcely less
+able Tartar leader on his mother's side. So much for blood.
+
+The greatest of the six was Akbar, who proved to be that rare
+combination, soldier and statesman in one. He, Mohammedan by
+birth, dared to marry a Hindoo princess as an example for his
+people to follow, but which, unfortunately, they have failed to
+do. It is strange to remember that the Moguls were seated on their
+thrones only three hundred years ago, Akbar being contemporaneous
+with Henry VIII., and ruling India when Shakespeare was still on
+earth.
+
+Six successive generations of great men, like the Great Moguls,
+cannot be matched, I think, elsewhere; but it would not be fair to
+attribute this unbroken line altogether to the doctrine of
+hereditary genius. Much lies in the fact that upon each of these
+rulers in turn, depended the maintenance and success of his
+empire. The Moguls were real powers, indeed the only powers, and
+not only reigned but governed. Had the doctrine of the divine
+right of kings been overthrown in India during the reign of even
+the ablest of the six, and the heir to the throne been debarred
+the exercise of power; taught from his infancy that his role was
+to be wholly ornamental, a sham king whose chief end and use was
+the opening of fancy bazaars or the laying of foundation stones,
+he too would have developed into something suited for the purpose
+in view, just as heirs apparent have done elsewhere. It was the
+continual exercise of high functions which made the race great and
+kept it so. To _play_ the part of king when one knows himself
+the political valet of his prime minister, would soon have taken
+manhood out of Akbar himself, if we can imagine such a man willing
+to play the part.
+
+I am not going to give a catalogue of what is to be seen in Agra,
+having no notion of writing a guide-book or of filling notes with
+long passages from such sources, as I see many writers have done;
+but I must speak of three or four structures which have pleased me
+most.
+
+The "Fort" is a most impressive pile of masonry, a Warwick Castle
+upon a large scale, the ramparts being one and a quarter miles in
+circumference. This was Akbar's principal palace, or rather series
+of palaces, for it embraces the Pearl Mosque, Public Audience
+Hall, and Jessamine Tower, all of which are within its walls.
+
+The tomb of her father, built by that rare woman, Noor Mahal, she
+who sleeps in the Taj, is a marble structure of exquisite
+proportions, and quite unlike others because of the great number
+and extent of the perforated screens of marble of which it is
+principally composed. Up to the time we had seen this I think I
+liked it the best of any; but then Noor Mahal had built it for her
+father, and I was predisposed to like this proof of her filial
+devotion.
+
+There is one romantic and perfect love story concerning her in the
+annals of the Moguls. Akbar's son, the future ruler, fell
+desperately in love with a young lady, but for reasons of state
+she was not eligible, and the emperor quietly provided a husband
+for her in the person of one of his generals. The young heir only
+knew that she was married and he condemned to take to wife the
+woman provided for him. Two years after he had become emperor the
+husband of his first love died, and although she was then a
+middle-aged woman, he, the emperor, sought her out and not only
+married her (she could have been his slave), but raised her to the
+throne with himself, stamping her image with his own upon the coin
+of the realm. Such an unbounded influence did this capable and
+high-spirited woman acquire over not only her devoted husband but
+the circle of the court, that she became the constant adviser in
+all important affairs; and that she might not be less thoroughly
+feminine, I am glad to see it recorded that she introduced
+improved modes of dress and manners among her ladies. The emperor
+told his priests one day that until he had married this paragon he
+had not known what marriage meant. But her grandest achievement is
+yet to be told. The emperor had previously been dissolute,
+probably from his first pure dream of love having been so cruelly
+dispelled--who knows?--but Noor Mahal lifted him into higher
+regions, and made him a better man. She loved him fervently, and,
+on more than one occasion, when the emperor was attacked, she
+imperilled her own life to save his. As they grew old they became
+more and more to each other, and at her death was it any wonder
+the emperor ordered that a tomb should rise excelling all previous
+tombs as much, if possible, as Noor Mahal excelled all other
+women? This tomb, the Taj Mahal (Diadem Tomb), is said to have
+cost more than two millions sterling, which is equal to an
+expenditure of fifty millions of dollars with us to-day. Truly a
+costly monument, you say. No doubt, but if it has given to mankind
+one proof that the loftiest ideal can be wrought out and realized
+in practice, the Taj would be cheap even if its erection had
+emptied the Comstock lode; and there are men--wise men too--who
+affirm that it performs this miracle and inspires them with the
+pleasing hope that in the far ages yet to come the real and the
+ideal may grow closer together. The emperor built no tomb for
+himself, as was customary, but as the kind fates decreed, he was
+placed side by side with her who had been to him so much, and they
+rest together, under the noblest canopy ever made by human hands.
+Taking into account the degraded position accorded to women, and
+remembering to what Noor Mahal raised herself, I think she must be
+allowed to rank as the greatest woman who ever reigned, and
+perhaps the greatest who ever lived, for no one has climbed from
+such a depth to such a height as she, as far as I know. Assuming
+that Cleopatra was all that Shakespeare has made her for us, a
+human being of whom it could be truly said
+
+  "Age cannot wither nor custom stale her infinite variety,"
+
+yet the Egyptian was born to the purple, a queen recognized by her
+nation, and entitled to rule from the first. What was this
+general's daughter in India? A woman, to begin with, which in
+India meant an inferior being, and yet she rose to equality with
+the Mogul and was consulted upon affairs of state--not simply
+because she was, in a bad sense, the ruler's favorite, but by the
+inherent force of her own abilities.
+
+Akbar's Tomb amazes one by its gigantic size, which dwarfs all
+other tombs. The amount of inlaid work, composed of jasper,
+carnelian, and other precious stones, seen at every step, inclines
+one to believe that it cost the fabulous sum stated. It should be
+remembered that it was the custom among these monarchs always to
+erect during their lives a palace in which great ceremonies took
+place while they lived, and which became their tomb at their
+death. A similar custom prevailed in Egypt, where each ruler began
+a pyramid when he began his reign. It was in this way that so many
+splendid structures were built. Akbar did not live to see this
+vast building completed, but his son carried on the work. The
+stern simplicity of Akbar's tomb, which is in the centre of the
+building and under ground, pleased me. It is a plain solid block
+of marble, without one word upon it, or mark of any kind; as if it
+would say to all time, What need to tell the world that the great
+Akbar lies here?
+
+Speaking generally, the palaces and tombs of Agra are far finer
+than I had imagined them to be, and the relief experienced in
+getting away from the plaster shams of Lucknow--cheap
+magnificence, to genuine grandeur at Agra--can be easily imagined.
+
+Our train having been delayed in reaching Agra, we had arrived too
+late to visit the Taj by moonlight; and in deference to the strong
+remonstrance of every one we have met here, we have not yet
+attempted to see the wonder. "Oh! don't think, please don't think
+of seeing the Taj until the very last, because, if you do, every
+thing else will seem so coarse," has been in substance the
+exclamation of every friend. But now we are through with all else,
+and we start, two o'clock P.M., February 14th, 1879. Vandy has
+just come to announce that our carriage is ready. Good-bye! Am I
+to be disappointed? Of course I am. I have made up my mind to
+that, and having just had tiffin, and drank a whole pint of bitter
+beer, I feel myself quite competent to criticise the Taj with the
+best of them, and especially well fitted just now to stand no
+nonsense. We met an American who was travelling as a matter of
+duty, and had found, as far as travel was concerned, I suspect,
+that he belonged to the class represented by the grumbler in
+paradise, whose "halo didn't fit his head exactly." He had found
+nothing in India, he said, but a lot of rubbish, but checked
+himself at once, "except the Taj. Now that building--that
+is--perfectly satisfactory," as if he had ordered a suit of
+clothes from his tailor and had nothing to find fault with. On the
+other hand, I have just come across a statement "that stern men,
+overpowered by the sight of it, have been known to burst into
+tears." It is this miracle of inanimate matter we are now to see.
+But here comes Vandy again. "Come on, Andrew; carriage waiting."
+I'm off--particulars in our next.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FRIDAY NIGHT, February 14.
+
+We have seen it, but I am without the slightest desire to burst
+into rapturous adjectives. Do not expect me to attempt a
+description of it, or to try to express my feelings. There are
+some subjects too sacred for analysis, or even for words, and I
+now know that there is a human structure so exquisitely fine, or
+unearthly, as to lift it into this holy domain. Let me say little
+about it; only tell you that, lingering until the sun went down,
+we turned in the noble gateway which forms a frame through which
+you see the Taj in the distance, with only the blue sky in the
+background, around and above it, and there took our last fond sad
+farewell, as the shades of night were wrapping the lovely jewel in
+their embrace, as if it were a charge too sweetly precious not to
+be safely enveloped in night's black mantle, till it could again
+shine forth at the dawn in all its beauty to adorn the earth. Full
+in its face we gazed. How kindly it seemed to look upon us! And as
+one parts for the last time from one whose eye glistens at his
+glance, we turned never to look upon the Taj again, hiding our
+eyes as the carriage rolled away, lest by any mischance a partial
+view should intrude to mar the perfect image our mind has grasped
+to tarry with us forever. We had been so deliciously sad, and at
+the same time so thrillingly but yet so solemnly happy for hours,
+and now came pain alone, the inevitable finale to all our joys on
+earth--the parting forever. But till the day I die, amid mountain
+streams or moonlight strolls in the forest, wherever and whenever
+the mood comes, when all that is most sacred, most elevated, and
+most pure recur to shed their radiance upon the tranquil mind,
+there will be found among my treasures the memory of that lovely
+charm--the Taj.
+
+We had engaged to meet some friends at the club as we drove
+homeward, but was it any wonder that neither of us remembered this
+until the stoppage of the carriage at our hotel awoke us from our
+reveries! What was to be done? Vandy's reply expressed our
+condition exactly: "Go out to enjoy myself when I feel that I want
+to go and put on mourning! I couldn't do it." And we didn't. Our
+friends will please accept this intimation.
+
+In reading these pages at home so long after the visit one can
+bring one's self to be a little prosaic in regard to this marvel,
+and tell his readers just what the Taj is. As before stated, it is
+the structure erected by the Emperor Jehanghir in memory of that
+paragon Noor Mahal. That a tomb should be erected at all for a
+woman in India is of itself significant, to begin with, and the
+Roman Emperor who put his horse's head upon the coin and who is
+supposed to have consulted him in political affairs did not take a
+much wider departure from custom than did this true lover when he
+put upon the coin a woman's image with his own.
+
+The Taj is built of a light creamy marble, so that it does not
+chill one as pure cold white marble does. It is warm and
+sympathetic as a woman. One great critic has finely called the Taj
+a feminine structure. There is nothing masculine about it, says
+he; its charms are all feminine. This creamy marble is inlaid with
+fine black marble lines, the entire Koran in Arabic letters, it is
+said, being thus interwoven.
+
+The following description is condensed from Fergusson: The
+enclosure, which includes an inner and an outer court, the whole
+about a fifth of a mile wide, extends along the banks of the Jumna
+River one-third of a mile. The principal gateway, opening into the
+inner court, is a hundred and forty feet high by a hundred and ten
+feet wide. The mausoleum stands in the centre of a raised marble
+platform, eighteen feet high, and exactly three hundred and
+thirteen feet square. At each angle of this terrace rises a
+minaret, a hundred and thirty-three feet high, and of exquisite
+proportions, "more beautiful, perhaps," says Ferguson, "than any
+other in India." The mausoleum itself is a square of one hundred
+and eighty-six feet, with the corners cut off to the extent of
+about thirty-four feet. In the centre is the principal dome,
+fifty-eight feet in diameter, and eighty feet high, and at each
+angle is a smaller dome surmounting a two-story apartment, about
+twenty-seven feet in diameter.
+
+The light to the central apartment is admitted through double
+screens of white marble trellis-work of the most exquisite
+designs. In any climate but that of India this would produce
+darkness within, but here, in a building constructed wholly of
+white marble, it serves to temper the glare of the blinding light.
+No words can express the chastened beauty of that dim religious
+light, the unearthly effect of the subdued sunshine, sparkling now
+and then upon the brilliant stones of which the graceful mosaics,
+vines and flowers are composed. Twenty thousand workmen are said
+to have been employed upon this marvel for twenty-two years. I
+would think the time and labor and money bestowed upon it well
+spent had it been twenty times--aye, a hundred times--as great.
+There is no price too dear to pay for perfection.
+
+The mosaics of the interior are exquisitely graceful. Flowers and
+fruits are represented by precious stones, formerly genuine
+stones, but these having been stolen by the Jats and others, have
+been replaced by glass, colored to represent the originals. In the
+centre of the dome lie Noor Mahal and Jehanghir side by side, this
+being, I believe, the only instance where any emperor of India has
+condescended to be buried by the side of a woman. The sweetest
+echo in the known world answers a call at the side of this tomb.
+Of course the architect could not have had this attraction in view
+when he planned the structure, and the natives who throng this
+unique gem of architecture do well to ascribe this apparent voice
+from heaven to the continual presence and approval of the good
+gods who like to linger over the tomb of true lovers.
+
+The guide steps forward without a word of warning and raises the
+cry, "Great is God, and Mohammed is his prophet! Allah! Allah!" At
+first three distinct musical notes are heard in the echo; I mean
+different notes upon the musical scale, as distinct from each
+other as "do, sol, do." These reverberate round the dome and
+ascend until they reach the smaller dome, where they reunite and
+escape from the temple as one tone. Some readers may recall the
+echo in the baptistery at Pisa, as we did when we heard this new
+delight in the Taj, but that echo compares with this, well, say as
+the Taj compares to Milan Cathedral--and now I repent me for
+comparing the Taj to any other material structure. It is not
+proper to do so. We shall say as the piano compares with the
+organ.
+
+If I am ever sentenced to hard labor for life for some unlawful
+outburst of my wild republicanism, I will make one request as I
+throw myself upon the mercy of the court: Let me be transported to
+India, and allowed to perform my daily task in beautifying and
+preserving the Taj. This would be a labor of love, and I should
+not be unhappy with my idol to worship, doing my part to hand it
+down untarnished to future generations.
+
+The Taj is really a very large temple, yet such is its grace, its
+exquisite proportions, its unapproachable charm--it never occurs
+to the beholder that it is of such great size. It is neither big
+nor little, nor heavy nor light--it is simply perfect. You can't
+tell why it is perfect, and you don't want to. You stand and look
+at the gem through the great gateway which serves as a frame for
+the picture, for the Taj is directly in front of the arch,
+probably five hundred yards distant. A narrow walk, lined on both
+sides with the choicest Indian plants, leads to it, but it is many
+minutes before you can be induced to advance. Never before have
+you gazed upon stone and lime which you deemed worthy of being
+called beautiful. All you have seen becomes mean, coarse,
+material; this alone is entirely worthy. There is grace and beauty
+brought down to us from above, the realization of the ideal; it
+really seems an inspiration. Vandy and I separated instinctively
+without a word. You want to be with the Taj alone, for it leads
+you captive and invites to secret communion. I wandered around
+many hours, gazing at every turn, deliciously, not joyously happy;
+there was no disposition to croon over a melody, nor any bracing
+quality in my thoughts--not a trace of the heroic--but I was
+filled with happiness which seemed to fall upon me gently as the
+snow-flakes fall, as the zephyr comes when laden with sweet odors.
+I sat down at length in the garden in full view of the Taj, but
+had not rested long before an Englishman approached, and something
+in our faces telling that we were both in the blissful state and
+the worshipful mood, he came and sat down quietly, without
+speaking a word, but with a slight and slow nod of recognition,
+and broke out without one word of introduction--partly as if
+talking to himself--as follows:
+
+"I stayed away from this in England as long as I could. It is seven
+years since I was here before. I have been here for two weeks
+wandering about the grounds; I must tear myself away to-morrow and
+my great grief is, that I know that I cannot take and carry with me
+a perfect image--of _that_--and so I may have to return again." I
+said that my feeling was the reverse, for I felt that its image
+could never leave me. He envied me that, he said. I have often
+regretted that I did not get the name and address of this worthy
+devotee, but under the spell of the spirit neither he nor I cared
+much for other companionship; but should this ever meet his eye
+surely he will address me and perhaps we may shake hands in silence
+over the memory of our idol.
+
+It began to grow dark at length, and I thought of finding Vandy to
+tell him--for no apology seemed necessary--that I could not
+possibly resist the spell which had carried me away even from him
+all the afternoon. I was at once relieved, for I found him in the
+archway. He was first to speak. "A. C.," he said, "I'm very sorry.
+I know I ought to have looked for you long ago, but really I could
+not leave this spot. Look! there is no place like this." So it was
+all right. When one is called upward by the spirit, even the
+dearest of humanity must be left behind. But Vandy was in the
+right place certainly for one to take his farewell. If ever an
+inanimate object spoke to man, the Taj did to me when I said
+farewell; the tear was not alone in the eye of the beholder as he
+took his last fond look, for that spiritual face of the Taj seemed
+to beam kindly in return. It said--yes, smile, reader, if you
+will--I know it said, "This is not farewell, for we understand
+each other." There never is a farewell between souls completely
+sympathetic. They live forever in the bonds of a sacred friendship
+which separation cannot break.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DELHI, Sunday, February 16.
+
+Delhi at last--he Rome of Asia! Baber established his capital in
+Agra, a hundred and forty miles south, and therefore farther into
+India, but his son Humayun returned to Delhi because the summer
+heats of Agra were found to be insupportable. But it had before
+been the principal seat of the Pathans or Afghan kings, and, back
+of them, of several Hindoo dynasties. There are ruins of palaces
+and forts here dating to one hundred years before Christ, and for
+eighteen hundred years we have the ruins of the structures of the
+kings of Delhi and their most noted subordinates, comprising prime
+ministers, favorite slaves, barbers, architects, etc. For eleven
+miles along the Imperial Way, on both sides, these ruins stretch,
+ending in the Kuttub Minar, the glory of Delhi, as the Taj is of
+Agra. This is a tower standing alone, two hundred and forty feet
+in height, fifty feet in diameter at the base, and tapering to
+nine feet at the top. But pictures and photographs have made all
+familiar with this superb monument. It and the tomb of Humayun,
+father of the great Akbar, alone remain vividly impressed upon my
+memory. A ruin now and then is acceptable, but eleven miles of
+them in one or two days are rather embarrassing, and it is
+impossible to examine them in detail and retain interest in the
+work; besides this, a great similarity pervades the mass. It seems
+to me the entire population must have been oppressed to the last
+degree, and every surplus penny secured in some way to be expended
+in the erection and maintenance of these palaces, and for the
+support of the classes who occupied them.
+
+One most important department of government in the management of a
+conquered race is that of its police and intelligence bureau, and
+this is admirably administered in India. A special department was
+organized years ago, and specially gifted officers of the army
+placed at its head. To the present chief, Major Henderson, whose
+face we see in all the photographs of the Prince of Wales's party,
+we are deeply indebted for Indian items. This department has
+almost succeeded in stamping out the Thugs, and it is very seldom
+that murders are now committed by these religious fanatics. Their
+goddess Kali demanded blood, but she was fastidious; nothing but
+human blood would meet her tastes, and so her devotees strangled
+and waylaid and shot the victims marked out for sacrifice. Some
+Thugs confessed to between seventy and eighty murders, and one to
+the incredible number of one hundred and ninety-two (what saints
+they would make!). The members of the sect-were classified into
+spies, stranglers, and grave-diggers, the spies being in the first
+stage and not ranking with the two more advanced degrees. Assuming
+usually the garb of merchants or pilgrims, they often craved the
+protection of their intended victims. Their favorite instrument
+for strangulation was a handkerchief, in the use of which they
+were most expert. The secret that these wretches were linked
+together as a religious fraternity, bound by all the hopes of
+future bliss and the terrors of eternal damnation as they
+satisfied or failed to satisfy the craving of their horrible gods
+for human blood, was not discovered until about a half century
+ago. The government purchased the secret with the names and
+address of every member and relative of a member of the sect,
+arrested them all in 1837 and colonized them at Jubbulpore, where
+they were taught trades. Their names and those of their
+descendants remain on the list of persons suspect, and should
+Thugism ever show its head again, the presence of any member near
+the scene of the offence would be held almost conclusive evidence
+against him.
+
+The Major's department has on its records the names and
+descriptions of more than four thousand of these people, and also
+of nearly nine thousand professional gang robbers. Murder has been
+done when the booty did not exceed six cents. But the systematic
+ hunting down of these dangerous classes is fast ridding India of
+this curse. If a man will murder another for a sixpence he can be
+induced to betray his fellow-murderers for a moderate sum. Is it
+not a blessing for the race that evil disintegrates? Only for good
+ends can men permanently combine; then no feared betrayal works
+dismay. As great movements, whether for good or evil, require many
+supporters, society has its safe-guard; nothing really good can be
+destroyed by conspirators.
+
+The fort at Delhi resembles in its general features that of Agra,
+but is famous as having been the receptacle of the Peacock Throne,
+which was valued by a French jeweller at not less than six
+millions sterling, say thirty millions of dollars. On such a
+precious pedestal as this the Moguls sat and ruled this land. The
+throne was plundered of its jewels by the Persians, but its frame
+is still shown in the local museum. The fort remains in an
+unusually good state of preservation, making it by far the most
+satisfactory specimen of the gorgeous residences of the Moguls
+that we have seen. The walls are of marble, inlaid in the interior
+with genuine precious stones of various colors worked into the
+forms of vines and flowers for a height of about six feet. The
+floors are similarly decorated. The upper portions of the walls
+have the same patterns, but these are painted, not inlaid. Every
+part is gilded in the most elaborate manner, and, in short, here
+alone of all places that I have seen, one could fancy himself
+wandering through the resplendent wonders of the Arabian Nights.
+
+Of course we did not neglect the many places rendered historical
+by the mutiny. These are seen upon every side in this district,
+but none was more interesting to me than the Cashmere Gate. The
+rebels held the fort, and it was determined to assault it. Here is
+the record of the men who volunteered to lay the train to the
+Gate:
+
+"Salkfied laid his bags, but was shot through the arm and leg, and
+fell back on the bridge, handing the portfire to Sergeant Burgess,
+_bidding him light the fuse_. Burgess was instantly shot dead
+in the attempt. Sergeant Carmichael then advanced, took up the
+portfire, and succeeded in the attempt, but immediately fell
+mortally wounded. Sergeant Smith, seeing him fall, advanced at a
+run, but finding that the fuse was already burning, threw himself
+into the ditch."
+
+The age of miracles is admittedly past, but it is certain that the
+age of heroes existed in 1857.
+
+The finest mosque in Delhi, and one of the finest in the world, is
+the Jumma Musjid. We happened to visit it just as the priests were
+calling the faithful to prayer, which they do by ascending to the
+foot of the minarets and turning toward Mecca and there chanting
+the call. Numerous worshippers came, and having washed in the
+pool, went to the Mosque and began their worship on their knees.
+Our guide was a Mohammedan, and I asked him what a good man is
+required to do daily in the way of external worship. Here is the
+programme as he gave it to me: Five times each day he washes hands
+and feet and prays; first in the morning when he rises, and then
+at one, four, after sunset, and before he goes to bed, repeating
+the prayer to Allah and some words from the Koran, and touching
+the ground with his forehead no less than thirty-eight times
+during the day. This must be done every day, Saturday and Sunday
+alike. The prayers are simple exclamations reciting the greatness
+of God and the insignificance of his servants, and _ask for
+nothing_. How very close to their daily lives must this
+constant appeal at short intervals, through each day, bring the
+Unknown, unless, as is said to be the case, it becomes a more
+matter of form, familiarity breeding contempt.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SAUGOR, GREAT PENINSULAR RAILWAY, February 19.
+
+We are now _en route_ to Bombay from Delhi, a distance of
+about thirteen hundred miles. We have been two nights in our
+sleeping-car, and shall spend the night on the line and reach
+Bombay in the morning. General Grant just passed us going toward
+Calcutta, but there was no chance for us to get at him to shake
+hands in India. This is the Pacific Railway of India, connecting
+Calcutta and all the eastern portion with the western coast, upon
+which Bombay is situated. The time between Calcutta and England
+has been shortened almost a whole week by its construction. The
+railways of India, of which there are at present about nine
+thousand miles in operation, were principally constructed under a
+guarantee of five per cent, by the Indian Government, and some of
+them yield more than that already. In a short time there will be
+none that will remain a charge upon the revenues. The government
+retained the right, at intervals of twenty or twenty-five years,
+to acquire possession and ownership of these lines upon certain
+terms, and at no distant day will enjoy large revenues from its
+railway property. If the days of guarantees and subsidies be not
+hopelessly gone with us, here is an idea worth considering by our
+government. Fancy what the ownership of the Union and Central
+Pacific lines would mean as recompense for the amounts advanced.
+
+The government has established several model farms in different
+provinces, for the purpose of testing articles thought suitable
+for cultivation in India, and of diffusing among the natives
+improved methods of agriculture. Such farms under able scientific
+management must eventually bring to the country what it is best
+calculated to produce. The success attendant upon the growth of a
+substitute for cinchona is significant. India must have quinine in
+large quantities as a preventive of malaria. Experiments prove
+that while the genuine article does not thrive here, a kindred
+species, possessing nearly the same properties, although to a less
+degree, will grow well. This has been cultivated in large
+quantities, and I notice that the medical chief orders it to be
+used in all dispensaries where quinine has hitherto been required,
+although the medical officers are permitted in extreme cases to
+order the dearer drug.
+
+We are now traversing a level plain, and as this region was
+blessed with rain in season, it seems much more fertile than some
+other portions of the country; but the poorest harvests I ever saw
+in any part of America would be rated as abundant here. We have
+seen everywhere herds of buffaloes, bullocks, and sheep grazing in
+fields which seemed to us entirely destitute of everything; not a
+green leaf of any kind to be seen, and we could not understand how
+animals could even get a mouthful of food in the brown parched
+lands. But I am told they do nibble away at the short stalks and
+roots of corn or sugar-cane left in the ground when the crop was
+cut, and in this way manage to eke out a scanty existence. They
+are at best little but skin and bone. When it is merely a question
+of keeping life in the body, man and beast alike prove that but
+little is required.
+
+While everything about us partakes of a dusty clayey hue, we must
+not forget that we see the plains of India in the winter. Let the
+blessed Monsoon burst, and these fields, now so parched and dead,
+are covered at once "as if the earth had given a subterranean
+birth to heaven." As Roderick Dhu's host rose up at the blast of
+his bugle, vegetation springs forth, and the land we now wonder at
+is no longer barren, but teems with tropical luxuriance. Then come
+the snakes and insects to poison and annoy. Last year, sixteen
+thousand seven hundred and seventy human beings were reported
+killed by snakes, while eight hundred and nineteen only were
+killed by tigers.
+
+One has difficulty in imagining such a change in any land as is
+implied by these startling figures, for to-day as we travel not a
+fly nor insect of any kind is to be seen. If it were not for the
+intense heat, which I know I could not endure, I should like to
+spend a summer in India, snakes notwithstanding, just to see so
+complete a reversal of conditions, for no matter what reflection
+may do to tell, as we see India only under winter conditions, we
+shall always have a bias to rate it as the miserable, barren land
+it appears to us. Travellers should be on their guard against this
+tendency, for it leads to many false conclusions. If both sides of
+a question need to be considered, all seasons of a country must be
+experienced before a true judgment can be passed upon it. This is
+especially true of India, where the change is, as it were, from
+life to death.
+
+We see wood-gatherers entering the cities, each with a bundle of
+sticks, or twigs rather, on his head, the result of the day's
+gathering--scarcely one of the sticks thicker than one's finger,
+and the great bulk of the bundle composed of mere switches, so
+closely is everything shaven in crowded Hindostan. To-day we stood
+and looked at a native who had led his goat into the country to
+pick up a meal. He bent the boughs of small trees one after
+another so that the goat could strip them of their leaves. The
+poor skeleton was ravenous. Nothing goes to waste in India, nor
+anywhere in the East. Garbage and sewage have value, and all is
+swept clean and kept clean in every hole and corner in
+consequence. This simplifies life very much. Our elaborate system
+of underground pipes, our sewers, drains, and modern conveniences
+of all kinds, and our sanitary arrangements which are of such
+prime importance to health, and to which we are fortunately giving
+so much more attention--these the East wholly escapes. We have to
+cure; they have prevention. Human labor at four or five cents per
+day (2 to 2 1/2d.) changes the conditions of existence. It pays to
+do so many things which, under our rates for labor, cannot be
+thought of. I have mentioned that in Japan the refuse of all kinds
+from a residence is not only taken away at any hours each day one
+fixes, but a small sum is actually paid for it, which the servants
+of the establishment consider a perquisite.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BOMBAY, Thursday, February 20.
+
+We reached this city on time this morning, feeling not in the
+least fatigued by our three nights in the train. In the evening we
+were fortunate enough to stroll down to the pier, where the band
+was playing. Nowhere have we seen so varied a concourse of people.
+The drive at Calcutta has long been noted as excelling any other
+scene in the gorgeousness of its oriental coloring, but this of
+the pier at Bombay surpasses by far what we saw there. Calcutta
+can boast no wealthy native Parsees, who attend here in large
+numbers in fine equipages with servants in livery. The Parsee
+ladies especially are resplendent in jewels and color; and the
+rich turbaned Mohammedan adds to the variety. The assemblage moved
+to and fro among the carriages and along the edges of the broad
+pier chatting gayly, while the music seemed to set everything in
+motion. Native boatmen in their picturesque garbs passed now and
+then plying their trade, carrying a Sahib's portmanteau or a
+lady's bundle. I sat down and imagined myself in the midst of all
+that I had seen of pretty seaports in grand opera, the ship scene
+in L'Africaine, the landing of Desdemona in the Isle of Cyprus,
+the fishermen in Masaniello, and I thought I had never seen
+anything of this description so pleasing. I lost Vandy in the
+crowd, and sat drinking it all in till dark. Certainly among the
+fine things in the East is to be ranked the music upon the Apollo
+Bunder, Bombay.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FRIDAY, February 21.
+
+We rose early, and were off before breakfast for a drive to the
+"Tower of Silence." This is the mountain top where the Parsees
+give their dead to be torn by the vultures. We shudder at
+cremation, but the sacred fire of the funeral pile as it flames to
+heaven has something awe-inspiring about it. Man sprung from the
+dust mingles at last with the purer element of fire, and "vanishes
+into air, into thin air," leaving no trace behind. But
+deliberately to throw our dead out to be torn in pieces and
+devoured by vultures--who can endure the thought! And yet many of
+the inhabitants here would be most unhappy if denied the
+consolation of believing that their bodies were to be served in
+this manner. Nor are these poor and ignorant; on the contrary,
+next to the English they are the best educated and the principal
+merchants in the city. It is simply that they have been taught in
+their youth that the earth must not be defiled by contact with the
+dead. They cannot bury, therefore, neither can they burn, because
+fire, one of the elements, is sacred; neither can they cast their
+dead into the sea, for it, too, is holy. There seems to them no
+way but this--of getting the birds of the air to come and take the
+flesh. We were received at the foot of the mound by a Parsee
+guide, who conducted us through every part. The towers, of which
+there are five, are approached by long flights of easy stairs. We
+entered a door at the top, and the first objects which struck our
+eyes were the vultures. They sat motionless, as close together as
+possible, on top of the wall of the round tower, with their tails
+toward us and their beaks toward the centre of the tower where the
+bodies are placed. The wall is about twenty feet high and fifty
+feet in diameter. There did not appear to be room for one more
+bird upon it, every inch of it being occupied, their bodies almost
+touching each other. What a revolting coping they formed to the
+otherwise plain round wall. More birds were perched on trees, and
+on the other towers; and indeed everywhere we looked these
+disgusting objects met our view. At ten o'clock every morning the
+dead are taken from the dead-house, rich and poor alike being
+previously divested of clothing; and were we to revisit the spot
+at that hour, we are told the quiet stillness which pervaded the
+grove would be found no longer. We inwardly congratulated
+ourselves that the dreaded heat of a Bombay sun had sent us to
+this place at so early an hour--ere the repast began--and rapidly
+withdrew. It isn't much, yet I would not be robbed of it--such a
+disposition of our dead as would still render it possible for us
+to say with Laertes:
+
+  "_Lay her i' the earth_;
+   And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
+   May violets spring."
+
+Hard times are everywhere, and produce some strange changes. The
+Banyan caste of Suerah has just resolved to abolish caste dinners
+after funerals, but if a wealthy Hindoo still wishes to indulge in
+these affairs he is permitted to do so after one year has elapsed.
+I fear many of the dear departed will never be honored by the
+feast after this interval. At marriages hereafter only one feast
+is to be given, instead of four, which were formerly considered
+the thing. Retrenchment is the word even where caste customs of
+long standing are involved.
+
+I note that yesterday a native was fined ten rupees for driving a
+lame horse. What a singular race he must think these English!
+Before their day he could have done what he liked with horse or
+servant, male or female, "because he bought them," and now he
+can't even be the judge when to use his horse. The more I see of
+the thoroughness of the English Government in the East--its
+attention to the minutest details, the exceptional ability of its
+officials as evinced in the excellence of the courts, jails,
+hospitals, dispensaries, schools, roads, railways, canals,
+etc.,--the more I am amazed. I had before no idea of what was
+implied by the government of India. It would have been madness for
+any other people than the English to undertake it. Not that we
+have not in America a class of men of equal organizing power, but
+these have careers at home open to them, and could not be induced
+to leave their own land. Even if this were not so, America
+requires an improved civil service to bring its ablest men
+forward. I am sure no such body of officials exists as that
+comprising the civil service of India, whether judged by its
+purity or its ability.
+
+The British army has been reformed of late years in India to a
+degree beyond popular knowledge of the subject. Every one agrees
+in attributing the spread of the great mutiny to the fact that
+there were at two or three critical points superannuated veterans,
+unable to take before it was too late the most obvious measures
+for its suppression. In short, it was here just as it was in
+Washington when the Civil War began. I remember seeing General
+Scott, the commander-in-chief, when Bull Run was lost, carried or
+assisted from his carriage across the pavement to his office, he
+being too old and infirm to walk. There were others scarcely less
+feeble in charge of departments. It was just so in India; but now
+mark the change. No man can retain the command of a regiment in
+the British army more than five years, nor can generals serve
+longer. These officers retire on pensions, and the next in
+seniority takes his turn, always provided he passes successfully
+the most searching examination at each successive promotion. I was
+told that upon a recent examination only two officers out of
+thirteen passed. No favoritism is shown, and I have met young men
+related to the highest officials to whom it has been kindly
+intimated that another career than the army had better be sought.
+I have met many officers, and the impression made upon me is an
+exceedingly favorable one. I do not believe that in case of war
+now the blunder of those in command would have to be atoned for by
+the superior fighting qualities of the rank and file, as was
+notoriously the case during the Crimean War. The promotion of
+General Wolseley means business. The Duke of Cambridge, because he
+is a royal duke, is allowed to reign, but Wolseley is to govern.
+
+I was struck with the full length portraits of the real man and
+the sham in last year's Royal Academy. General Winfield Scott in
+all his glory was not more brilliant than the duke, military hat
+in hand with its white waving plumes, booted and spurred, his
+breast a mass of decorations, "Old Fuss and Feathers" over again.
+Beside him was a man in plain attire, about as ornamental as
+General Grant; but this was the man of war, one of those very rare
+characters who does what there is to do--in Egypt as in
+Abyssinia--and never fails.
+
+Bombay and Calcutta are again rivals for supremacy. Bombay Island,
+upon which Bombay City stands, another of the keys of the world,
+was given to Britain by Portugal as part of the dower of Catherine
+of Braganza when she married Charles II. Think of a woman giving
+anything for the privilege of marrying such a wretch! but so
+little was it esteemed that the government gave it in 1688 to the
+East India Company for a rental of £10 per annum. It was
+subsequently made the principal seat of their power, but it had no
+access to the interior, and Calcutta, which stands at the mouth of
+a river system of inland transportation rivalled only by that of
+our smoky Pittsburgh, soon eclipsed it. There was no chance for
+Bombay against this natural advantage, and she had to succumb; but
+now, since railways have penetrated the interior, and especially
+since the opening of the Suez Canal route has brought Bombay so
+very much nearer to Europe, the struggle for supremacy has begun
+anew. The European traffic now goes mainly to her, and Calcutta
+gets her portion by rail through her ancient rival. In 1872 the
+exports and imports of Bombay were £50,000,000, and those of
+Calcutta £54,000,000; so you see it is not going to be a walk over
+for Calcutta, though her population still exceeds that of her
+challenger by about a hundred thousand. It is water _vs_.
+rail on a large scale, and the result will be looked for with
+interest. I think the former capital, once dethroned, will
+eventually regain the crown; but there is plenty of room for both,
+and the rivalry between them should be a generous one.
+
+Bombay is by far the finest city in the East, but it has been
+inflated more than any other, and is now undergoing severe
+contraction. Its public buildings would do credit to any European
+capital. Government concluded to sell the land fronting on the bay,
+which had been used as the site of an antiquated fort, and such was
+the rage for speculation at the time that five million dollars'
+worth of land was disposed of and enough retained to give Bombay a
+beautiful little park and a long drive along the beach. Government
+took the money and erected on part of the land retained the
+magnificent buildings referred to. We met one gentleman who had
+bought one hundred thousand dollars' worth of the new lots, for
+which he admitted he could not get today more than twenty thousand
+dollars. But Bombay is only learning the universal lesson which the
+world seems to need to have repeated every ten or twelve years. It
+is fortunate that this city is our last in India, because it so far
+excels any other. Nowhere else is such oriental richness to be seen.
+The colors of the masses as they move rapidly to and fro remind you
+of the combinations of the kaleidoscope. The native women of the
+lowest order work in gangs, and it is their dress which chiefly
+brightens the scene. A dark-green tight-fitting jacket, a magenta
+mantle festooned about the body and legs in some very graceful
+manner and reaching to the knees, the feet and legs bare to the
+knees, a purple veil on the head but thrown back over the
+shoulders--this is the dress as well as I can describe it. The habit
+of carrying loads upon the head makes them as straight as arrows,
+and as they march along with majestic stride they completely eclipse
+the poor-looking male, who seems to have had his manhood ground out
+of him by generations of oppression, while his companion has passed
+through subjugation without losing her personal dignity.
+
+It seems homelike to see street railways, of which there are
+several prosperous lines here. For this enterprise an American
+gentleman has to be thanked. All classes ride together, and caste
+in Bombay gets serious knocks in consequence. From Bombay as a
+centre civilization is destined to radiate. A palpable breach has
+already been made in the solid walls which have hitherto shut
+India from the entrance of new ideas, and through this gate the
+assaulting columns must eventually gain possession; but it will
+not be within the span of men now living, nor for several
+generations to come. The Sailors' Home and the hospitals of the
+city are highly creditable, and among the charitable institutions
+I must not forget the Hindoo hospital for wretched animals, where
+some of each kind are tenderly cared for, to signify the reverence
+paid by this sect to all kinds of life, for the meanest form is
+sacred to them. We had a curious illustration of this while in
+Benares examining the richest specimens of the delicate
+embroideries for which that city is celebrated. A little nasty
+intruder showed itself on one of the finest, and a gentleman with
+us involuntarily reached forth to kill it, but the three Hindoos
+caught his arm at once, and exhibited great anxiety to save the
+insect. One of them did get it, and taking it to the window set it
+at liberty. It was Uncle Toby and the troublesome fly over again,
+as immortalized by the genius of Sterne: "Get thee gone, poor
+devil! there is room enough in the world for thee and for me,"
+quoth Uncle Toby. And does not Cowper say--
+
+  "I would not enter on my list of friends
+   (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense,
+   Yet wanting sensibility) the man
+   Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm."
+
+Well, these Hindoos wouldn't do it either. Let them be credited
+accordingly, heathen though they be.
+
+It begins to grow too hot here; I could not live one season in
+India--that I am convinced of. The tropical sun has no mercy,
+piercing through thick pith helmet, white umbrella, and driving
+one into the house. We are to leave none too soon. This evening we
+were surprised to see, as we strolled along the beach, more
+Parsees than ever before, and more Parsee ladies richly dressed;
+all seemed wending their way to the sea. It was the first of the
+new moon, a period sacred to these worshippers of the elements;
+and here on the shores of the ocean, as the sun was sinking in the
+sea, and the slender silver thread of the crescent moon was
+faintly shining in the horizon, they congregated to perform their
+religious rites. Fire was there in its grandest form--the sun--and
+water in the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean outstretched before
+them. The earth was under their feet, and wafted across the sea
+the air came laden with the perfumes of "Araby the Blest." Surely
+no time nor place could be more fitly chosen than this for lifting
+up the soul to the realms beyond sense. I could not but
+participate with these worshippers in what was so grandly
+beautiful. There was no music save the solemn moan of the waves as
+they broke into foam on the beach,
+
+  "With their ain eerie croon
+   Working their appointed work,
+   And never, never done."
+
+But where shall we find so mighty an organ, or so grand an anthem?
+How inexpressibly sublime the scene appeared to me, and how
+insignificant and unworthy of the Unknown seemed even our
+cathedrals, "made with human hands," when compared to this looking
+up through Nature unto Nature's God! I stood and drank in the
+serene happiness which seemed to fill the air. I have seen many
+modes and forms of worship, some disgusting, others saddening, a
+few elevating when the organ pealed forth its tones, but all poor
+in comparison to this. Nor do I ever expect in all my life to
+witness a religious ceremony which will so powerfully affect me as
+that of the Parsees on the beach at Bombay. While I gazed upon the
+scene I stood conscious only that I was privileged to catch a
+glimpse of something that was not of the earth, but, as I
+sauntered homeward, Wordsworth's lines came to me as the fittest
+expression of my feelings. The passage is too long to quote at
+length; besides I have to confess I cannot at this moment recall
+it all. But he tells first how in his youth Nature was all in all
+to him, "nor needed a moral sense unborrowed from the eye," but
+later the inner light came; and hear him in his maturer years:
+
+                      "For I have learned
+   To look on Nature, not as in the hour
+   Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
+   The still, sad music of humanity,
+   Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
+   To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
+   A Presence that disturbs me with the joy
+   Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
+   Of something far more deeply interfused,
+   Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
+   And the round ocean and the living air,
+   And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
+   A motion and a spirit, that impels
+   All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
+   And rolls through all things."
+
+"The still sad music of humanity!"--it was that I heard sounding
+in the prayers of those devout Parsees and in the moan of that
+mighty sea. Sweet, refreshing it was, though tinged with sadness,
+as all our more precious musings must be, "since all we know is,
+nothing can be known."
+
+In one of my strolls along the beach I met a Parsee gentleman who
+spoke excellent English. From him I learned that the disciples of
+Zoroaster number only about two hundred thousand, and of those no
+fewer than fifty thousand are in Bombay. They were driven from
+Persia by the Mohammedans and settled here, where they have
+prospered.
+
+They do not intermarry with other sects, believe in one God, and
+worship the sun, moon, earth, and stars only as being the visible
+angels of God, as he termed them. In themselves these are nothing,
+but are the best steps by which we can ascend to God. Good men will
+be happy forever; bad men will be unhappy for a long time after
+death, and very bad men will be severely punished. But I was
+delighted to be assured that no one will be punished forever, all
+life being sacred to God because he made it, and all life must
+eventually be purified, return to its Maker, and be merged in Him.
+Parsees cannot burn the dead, because fire should not be prostituted
+to so vile a use. They cannot bury, because the earth should not be
+desecrated with the dead, neither should the sea; and therefore God
+has provided vultures, which cannot be defiled, to absorb the flesh
+of the dead. I said to him that the mere thought of violence offered
+to our dead caused us to shudder. "Then what do you think of the
+worms?" he asked. This was certainly an effective estoppel. "It
+comes to this," he continued, "a question of birds or worms." "You
+are right" (I had to admit it), I said; "after all, it's not worth
+disputing about." When I had asked him a great many questions, I
+suppose he thought turn-about was fair play, and he began to
+cross-examine me upon many points of Christian doctrine, which I did
+my best to put in the proper form. We finally agreed that no good
+men or good women of any form of religion would be eternally
+miserable, and upon this platform we said good-bye and parted.
+
+On looking around, I saw that we had become the centre of quite a
+circle of Parsees, Hindoos, and Mohammedans, who had been
+attracted by our conversation, their earnest bronze faces,
+surmounted by the flaming red turbans, so very close to mine,
+forming with the gorgeous colors of their flowing robes, a picture
+I shall not soon forget. They opened a way of egress, and Sahib
+passed out of the throng amid their salaams, evidently an object
+of intense curiosity.
+
+Our excursion to the Caves of Elephanta was very enjoyable. They
+are decidedly worth seeing. Here is the strongest contrast to the
+grand open-air worship of the Parsees, for the Hindoos sought to
+hide their worship in caves which shut out the light of day, and
+to seek their gods in the dark recesses. The carved figures and
+columns of the Temple are fine, the principal idol being of great
+size--a huge representation of the Hindoo Trinity of Brahma,
+Vishnu, and Siva, which make the three-headed god. The effect of
+such a monster, seen dimly by the lighted torch, upon ignorant
+natures, could not but be overpowering. When examined closely
+there is nothing repulsive in the faces; on the contrary, the
+expression of all three is rather pleasing than otherwise, like
+that of Buddha. It is evident that the gods of the Hindoos are
+good natured, kind, and disposed to forgiveness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BOMBAY, Monday, February 24.
+
+We sailed at six in the evening by the splendid Peninsula and
+Oriental mail steamer Pekin. The city was bathed in the rays of a
+brilliant sunset as we steamed slowly out of the harbor, and we
+bade farewell to India when it looked the fairest.
+
+And now for something on the great Indian Question, for it would
+never do for a traveller to visit India and not to have his
+decided opinion upon matters and things there, and his clearly-
+defined policy embracing the management of the most intricate
+problems involved in the government of two hundred and fifty
+millions of the most ignorant races known, and all founded upon a
+few weeks' hurried travel among them. There is, however, a much
+more extensive class who are even more presumptuous, for they have
+just as complete a policy upon this subject, although they have
+never seen India at all.
+
+The vast country we know as India, then, is held and governed, not
+as one country, but district by district. One province, for
+instance, has a native ruler with whom England has nothing
+whatever to do except that, by right of treaty, she sends a
+political agent to his court, supported in some cases, and in
+others not, by a certain number of soldiers. This Resident is
+expected to confer with and advise the Rajah, and keep him and his
+officials from outrageous courses. Especially are they prevented
+from warring upon neighboring States. In extreme cases, when
+counsel and remonstrance avail not, the government has had either
+to depose the ruling Rajah and substitute another, as in the
+recent affair of the Rajah of Baroda, or to confiscate the
+province and merge it in the Empire, as in the case of the King of
+Oude. But what must be borne in mind is that no two native rulers
+govern alike. Laws and customs prevailing in one province are
+unknown in another. Land is held by one tenure in one place, and
+by an entirely different system in another. India is therefore not
+one nation, but a vast conglomeration of different races and
+principalities, each independent of the other, differing as much
+as France does from Germany, and much more than England does from
+America. Add to this the fact that the people of any one district
+are not a homogeneous community, but subdivided into distinct
+castes, which refuse to intermarry or even to eat with one
+another, and a faint idea of the magnitude of the Indian question
+will begin to dawn upon one.
+
+It is this mass which England has to rule and keep firmly in order
+with her sixty thousand troops, and which constitutes the
+government of India the most difficult problem with which, I
+believe, statesmen have to deal. The amount of knowledge,
+statesmanship, tact, temper, patience and resource absolutely put
+in requisition by the men who rule India equals, I feel sure, that
+required for the government of the whole of civilized Europe
+combined; for it is always easy to govern a homogeneous people,
+the rulers being of the people themselves, and having the good of
+their respective countries at heart. It seems to me that an
+unnecessary element of danger arises from the fact that these
+Rajahs are permitted to maintain no fewer than three hundred
+thousand native troops, mainly to swell their importance. The
+question of enforcing reductions in these armaments is now under
+consideration, I observe, but I should decidedly say with Hamlet.
+
+  "Oh! reform it altogether."
+
+I would not allow a Rajah to keep more than one hundred armed
+troops, except as a body-guard, beyond the number actually
+required to enforce order. Upon this point I have decided views.
+
+The existence of Rajahs is perhaps a necessary evil. They are
+maintained in consequence of a well-grounded reluctance on the
+part of the government to assume the task of governing more
+territory. It is to be regretted that it has been necessary to
+extend the sway so far already; nevertheless, the day will come
+when the petty courts must be swept away, as they have been in
+Japan and Germany, and the whole country given the benefits of
+uniform rule. It is estimated that the Rajahs tax the people to an
+extent equal to the revenues of the government--about $300,000,000
+per annum: of this much is squandered in upholding their state--a
+grievous exaction from so poor a country. This will soon be one of
+the burning questions of India.
+
+The Rajah of Jeypoor draws from the people $6,000,000 per annum,
+and one or two others exceed this sum. Poor fellow! the other day
+he had to marry his tenth wife--a sister of two of his previous
+wives, for whom no suitable husband could be found. There were but
+two families in the realm, I believe, of the proper rank, and
+neither happened just then to have a nice young man on hand. The
+disgrace of having an unmarried woman in the family was not to be
+borne, and the old Rajah had to husband her, as he had her other
+sister some time ago. Although so well provided with wives, he has
+never been blessed with an heir, and at his death his first wife
+will adopt a son, who will be his successor.
+
+What do I think of India? is asked me every day; but I feel that
+one accustomed to the exceptional fertility and advantages of
+America--a land so wonderfully endowed that it seems to me more
+and more the special favorite of fortune--is very apt to underrate
+India. We saw it after two years of bad harvests, and a third most
+unpromising one coming on. Judged from what I saw, I can only say
+that I, as a lover of England, find it impossible to repress the
+wish that springs up at every turn, Would she were safely and
+honorably out of it! Retiring now is out of the question; she has
+abolished the native system in large districts, and must perforce
+continue the glorious task of giving to these millions the
+blessings of order.
+
+Her withdrawal would be the signal for internecine strife, and
+such a saturnalia of blood and rapine as the world has never
+known; but were the question whether Britain should to-day accept
+India as a gift, and I had the privilege of replying, then,
+"Declined with thanks;" and yet it is the fashion just now to call
+India "the brightest jewel in the crown." The glitter of that
+jewel may be red again some day. I have heard only two reasons
+advanced in favor of India as an English possession. The first is,
+it furnishes official station and employment for a large number
+who would otherwise have no field; but I think there is yet plenty
+of unoccupied territory in which these gentlemen can find work if
+they can hold their own in the struggle for existence. Besides,
+the official class requires less protection, not greater, than it
+has hitherto been favored with, if the true interest of England is
+to be considered.
+
+The second reason is a commercial one, and it is pointed out that
+the trade of England is thereby extended; to which it may be said
+in reply that the occupation of foreign countries and the
+subjugation of foreign races are in no measure required by the
+demands of trade. The possession of small islands at proper points
+secures all this. Hong Kong and a small strip at Shanghai and one
+or two other ports, afford all the facilities required for England
+to obtain the trade. Penang on the west of the Malay Peninsula,
+Singapore at the south end, do the same. All of these have the
+precious silver thread surrounding them, and can be held easily by
+Britannia against the world without and native races struggling
+within for independence, as they are bound to do some day.
+
+There is another view to be taken of this question by a well-
+wisher of Britain which cannot be ignored. She, the mother of
+nations and champion of oppressed nationalities, necessarily
+occupies a false position in India; there she must assume the
+_rôle_ of the conqueror. I do not speak of this to disapprove
+of it, or even of the Press Laws recently adopted; to avert still
+greater evils she is compelled to go to any length. Nevertheless,
+it is a false position; the stars in their courses fight against
+it, and sooner or later England will retire from it. In short, the
+pole-star of Indian policy is to bend every energy to the sowing
+of seed which will produce a native class capable at first of
+participating in the government, and which will eventually become
+such as can be trusted with entire control, so that England may
+stand to India as she stands to-day to Canada and Australia. There
+is one course for England, and one only, and this let her adopt
+speedily. Let her call around her Indian government the best men
+of India, explain to them her aim and end, show them how noble her
+aspirations are; point to Canada and Australia as proofs of her
+colonial system, and say, To this condition we hope to bring your
+country. Can you resist our appeal to come and help us?
+
+Since all this was written the Ilbert bill question has arisen. It
+will be understood at once that such a measure is believed by me
+to be emphatically a step not only in the right direction, but in
+the only direction, if grave dangers are to be avoided in India.
+Let me tell my English readers that, travelling as I did, an
+American, and not, in Indian parlance, as one of the governing
+class--one of the usurpers--I had many opportunities of hearing
+educated natives speak the thoughts of their hearts, which to an
+Englishman's ears would have been treason. Such trustworthy
+indications of the forces moving under the crust should be
+considered as invaluable by the rulers of India. While, therefore,
+educated natives give assent to the claims made for English rule,
+that it keeps order and enforces justice as far as its courts can
+reach, they are yet antagonistic to it. It is the old story: You
+have taught people to read, and placed before them as types of
+highest excellence our rebels, Cromwell, Hampden, Sidney, Russell,
+Washington, Franklin. In so far as a native Indian dwells
+contentedly while his country is ruled by a foreign race, by just
+so much do we despise him in our heart, for loyalty to England
+means treachery to his country, and one cannot depend upon
+traitors.
+
+If India were told that the chief delight of England was not to
+hold dependencies but to bring forth nations competent to govern
+themselves--a much grander mission--and were England slowly, but
+steadily to introduce, little by little, the native element in
+government whenever practicable--and that it is practicable to do
+so in every department to a greater or less degree I am
+convinced--then I should feel that sufficient pressure had been
+relieved to give hope that peace would reign there. The greatest
+danger England will have to contend with in every measure taken
+toward this great end will be the violent opposition of the Anglo-
+Indian. It will be difficult to carry reform against the advice of
+The only class which seems competent to advise, viz., such
+Englishmen as have had experience of India. I hold such to be
+Totally incompetent as a class to take proper views of Indian
+problems--such men as Sir Richard Temple are the exception. His
+articles upon India seem to me most salutary and to denote a
+statesmanlike grasp of a subject of paramount importance to
+England. The reason why the Englishman in India is likely to be
+entirely wrong in his views of Indian government is because he
+sits on the safety valve of the terrible boiler. He hears every
+now and then the sharp rush of the confined steam, which startles
+the ear as it passes. When it is proposed to relieve the pressure
+and allow more steam to escape he is frightened, and protests that
+his position would thereby become unendurable.
+
+But we who stand afar off and know the play of the forces in that
+boiler, as I know them from sources sealed to him, see that the
+steam must be allowed vent in constantly increasing volume if a
+terrible catastrophe is to be averted. John Bright, of all English
+public men of the first rank, seems to me to understand the Indian
+problem best; hence the interest he takes in it--an interest which
+every public man would share did he realize the situation England
+occupies in Hindostan.
+
+I have before referred to the fact that the Anglo-Indian
+authorities protested against railway travel being conducted
+without special reference to caste, and that they were overruled
+by the Home Government. The result is that more impression has
+been made upon caste, and is made daily and hourly, by the rush of
+every grade to get the best seats in the same carriage, than by
+all other influences combined. The Home Office judged more wisely
+than those who were too close to the problem to get a clear view;
+and so it must be in every measure calculated to elevate the
+people of India to a higher stage of civilization. In my opinion
+England can scarcely move too rapidly in the imperative task of
+attaching able natives, as these arise, to her side, and giving
+them power--at least the danger is that she will move too slowly
+rather than too fast.
+
+The business of colonizing, as a whole, does not appear to me to
+pay. As a mission there is none so noble or to be compared with
+it, next to governing well at home; but beyond this England's
+share of the material good looks small. If the colony is rich and
+prosperous it sets up for itself; if weak and unsuccessful, it
+becomes a Natal, and calls upon the generous-hearted mother for
+assistance. The gain to the colonies is obvious; nothing could be
+finer for them; and if it be clearly understood that England
+elects to play the tender nurse and receive her reward in the
+consciousness of doing good--all right. Let her continue! But if
+it be thought that these dependencies enhance her own power and
+promote her prosperity, the sooner the books are balanced the
+better. Only one prayer, May heaven keep America from the
+colonizing craze! Cuba! Santo Domingo! avaunt, and quit our sight!
+
+From another point of view one keeps inquiring whether all the
+advantages flowing from the introduction of English ideas, as far
+as these can really be introduced in the government of subject
+races--whether, after all, the result is, upon the whole, for the
+real permanent good of these inferior races. To the uninformed
+man, who has never been beyond his own island, it seems fanciful,
+perhaps, to raise this question. English civilization, freedom,
+civil and religious liberty, order, law, Christianity--these not
+beneficial, think you! Softly, my friend, softly. These may be
+growths admirable for English-speaking people who can assimilate
+them, but yet unsuitable for the Hottentot. You press man's food
+upon babes to their injury, may be. The true evolutionist must
+regard these attempts with sorrow.
+
+Speaking broadly, I do not believe that it is in the power of
+England--and of course much less of any other country--to confer
+upon another race benefits which are not more than cancelled by
+the evil which usually follows from her interference. Rob even the
+lowest people in development today of the necessity of governing
+themselves, take this responsibility away from them, as
+interference does take it away, and the natural growth of that
+people is not only checked, but it is diverted into channels
+foreign to it.
+
+If colonization can follow occupation it is a different matter--
+the interference is temporary, and Australians, Canadians and
+Americans soon come forth and govern themselves, the native-born
+soon grow patriotic, and work out their own destiny. In such
+cases England's share is her glory, a glory of which no other
+nation partakes, for she alone is the grand old mother of nations,
+God bless her! It is different with India. No one pretends that
+Our race can ever obtain a foothold there. Conquerors the English
+are, and conquerors they must remain as long as they remain at
+all, which I ardently trust may not be long; not longer than the
+natives are willing to accept the task of self-government.
+Meanwhile surely no further rash responsibilities should be taken
+upon herself by England. She can do most good by example. The
+little islands of Hong Kong and Singapore, and the other Straits
+Settlements, Shanghai, and even Ceylon, which is not too
+big--these teach the races of the East what western civilization
+means, and serve as models to which they can move with such
+differentiation as circumstances require and without losing the
+inestimable advantages of thinking and acting for themselves. Even
+Christianity will make more progress from such examples than if
+through the efforts of a paid propaganda we try to _force_ it
+upon people. Rob them of this freedom to act, to accept, and to
+reject, and all that England can give in return will not atone for
+the injury she inflicts. A nation should have much to offer in
+exchange, more than I see that any nation has, which stifles in
+the breast of the most ignorant people in the world the sacred
+germ of self-development.
+
+The total acreage under wheat in India is not much, if any, less
+than that of the United States, and the average yield about the
+same--thirteen bushels per acre. The quality is excellent. America
+cannot afford to ignore this potential rival. The cheaper labor of
+India is quite an element in her favor, but cheap labor is not
+always cheap. One educated Minnesotan, with his machinery, must
+count for many spindle-shanked Hindoos with their wooden rakes.
+India's remoteness from Europe and the lack of inland
+transportation facilities, give America the vantage-ground. The
+present low price of wheat in Liverpool today, however, warns our
+western friends that there are other great sources of supply.
+Until 1873, only ten years ago, an export duty was laid upon
+Indian wheat. The amount exported in that year was valued at only
+£167,000; last year, 1882, the exports were £8,869,000
+($45,000,000), more than one-third as much as the United States
+exported in that year ($112,000,000), to which, however, should be
+added $35,000,000 worth of wheat flour exported, making the total
+United States export $157,000,000. It must be remembered that
+India has scarcely yet entered the race with us for the supremacy
+in this department, for while we have 110,000 miles of railway
+with 55,000,000 of people, she has 250,000,000 of people with only
+10,000 miles of rail. This may seem alarming to the untravelled
+Yankee, but let him possess his soul in patience. It is a very
+safe wager that notwithstanding this seemingly uncalled-for
+disparity in railway facilities, the American railway system is
+still to increase at a far greater ratio than the Indian. Last
+year only three hundred and eighty-seven miles of line were built
+in India as against our six thousand, and even my friend, William
+Fowler, M.P., in his most interesting article in the
+_Fortnightly Review_ for February, 1884, "India, Her Wheat,
+and Her Railways," to which I beg to refer such of my readers as
+are specially interested in this subject--even he only suggests
+that twelve hundred miles should be built every year in India; to
+secure which he urges the government to give a guarantee upon
+$50,000,000 per year, in order to obtain the necessary capital,
+which he admits cannot be obtained otherwise. This the government
+is not likely to do until the people rule England and sweep away
+the privileged classes, who live mainly through wars, and would be
+relegated to obscurity were the resources of England once spent
+for peaceful development, as those of Republican America are.
+Friend Fowler will get a vote to add millions to England's burden
+by an Afghan or Zulu war, or even to squander her means upon
+worthless members of a more than useless royal family and its
+dependents of the court long before he will get a pound for his
+Indian railways. The Republic will hold control of the world's
+wheat market for a hundred years and more, but prices must rule
+lower in consequence of India. Beyond that let posterity wrestle
+with the question.
+
+As to cotton, of which America holds a firmer grasp upon the
+world's supply than it appears she does of wheat, India is not an
+impossible second if from any cause the American supply were
+forced to extreme prices. During the civil war in the United
+States, cotton cultivation in India, as I have before said,
+reached an extraordinary development. In 1866 the exports amounted
+to thirty-seven millions of pounds sterling, $185,000,000; now the
+average has fallen to about $40,000,000 per year. If the staple
+were equal to the American, India would be formidable as a rival,
+but it is not, and consequently the growth of cotton in the South
+seems sure to increase as rapidly as ever.
+
+After six days' delightful sail we had our first glimpse of Arabia
+this morning, and are now skirting the Arabian coast. Aden was
+reached Sunday morning, and we drove out to the native town and
+saw the tanks said to have been constructed thousands of years
+ago. It rains only once in every year or two, and a supply of
+water is obtained by storing the torrents which then flow from the
+hills. A more desolate desert than that which surrounds the city
+surely does not exist. Aden itself illustrates how the whirligig
+of time revolves. Before the discovery of the passage round the
+Cape of Good Hope it was the chief entrepôt for the trade between
+Europe and Asia. It fell into insignificance when the stream of
+traffic left for the new route around the Cape of Good Hope; but
+now the Suez Canal, which restores the original route via the Red
+Sea, to its former supremacy, once more raises Aden to her former
+commanding position. The population, which in 1839 had dwindled to
+fewer than a thousand, now numbers nearly thirty thousand.
+
+Aden is just one of those natural keys of the world which England
+should hold, and I doubt not will hold to the last. The town
+stands upon a narrow peninsula composed of desolate volcanic
+rocks, five miles long from east to west, and three from north to
+south, connected with the main land by a neck of flat sandy ground
+only a few feet high. The town itself is surrounded by precipitous
+rocks, which really make it a natural fortress impregnable against
+attack. All that I urge against conquest in general is
+inapplicable here, and I say let England guard such spots. As long
+as she does she is mistress of the sea. Her influence at such
+points is always for good. The thirty thousand natives of Aden,
+for instance, may now be considered subjects of Britain by their
+own act. They have flocked to the town attracted by the advantages
+to be derived from a residence there, just as the Chinese have
+done at Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. There is no coercion in
+the matter. One foreigner electing to come under the British flag
+is worth ten thousand held down by force, whether considered as an
+element of strength to the Empire, or as conducive to its glory.
+
+This is the market of the world for ostrich feathers. We saw
+droves of the birds wandering about Aden and its suburbs at home
+in the sand. The natives keep ostriches as their chief dependence,
+and we are besieged at every turn with offers of rare
+feathers--feathers--feathers--nothing but feathers.
+
+Our trip on the Pekin was the most delightful we ever had at sea;
+even Vandy was well, and gained by the journey. We had very
+agreeable company on board, and were especially fortunate in our
+neighbors, Mr., Mrs., and Miss G., of Edinburgh, at table. The
+ship was crowded with officers and officers' wives and children
+returning from India to England, for children must be taken home
+out of the climate of India. Nothing can exceed the discipline and
+general management of the Peninsula and Oriental ships. Promotion
+from the ranks is the rule, and they certainly are served by a
+class of men which it would be difficult to equal elsewhere. The
+Cunard line is probably the only counterpart of the Peninsula and
+Oriental line in existence.
+
+This was our first experience of life upon a vessel crowded with
+various ranks of English people. On the Atlantic our steamer
+acquaintances are with few exceptions Americans. The contrast is
+great in one respect: the tendency of the English passengers is to
+form themselves into a great number of small cliques. No doubt
+this tendency prevails to some extent upon the Atlantic also, but
+then congenial tastes and education form the divisions there and
+every one is in his proper sphere. Upon the Pekin we found that
+rank and position formed a strong element in the case--regardless
+of merit. Vandy and I being republicans, not caring a rap about
+either birth or position, and without social status in England,
+seemed to be the only cosmopolitans on board. From the major-
+general and family down to the clerk of a mercantile house and his
+nice wife and children, we had the free run of the ship. But when
+we met intelligent and interesting people in one or the other
+grade, and proposed to make them known to others, as, had both
+parties been Americans, would have given much pleasure, and from
+whose acquaintance mutual benefit would have resulted, we found
+that the miserable barriers of artificial distinction stood in the
+way.
+
+I wished two young ladies to know each other, for they were akin
+in education, manners, feelings, and accomplishments, and one
+morning I said to the one who surely was not the less desirable
+acquaintance: "You and Miss----should know each other; would you
+not like to make her acquaintance? If so, I shall ask her, and I
+am sure she would be pleased to make yours. Both will be the
+gainers."
+
+"Mr. Carnegie, excuse me, but she is a major-general's daughter,
+the advance must come from her. If she ever expresses a wish to
+know me, then you come to me and I'll tell you. This is the proper
+thing, you know."
+
+Happy American young ladies, into whose pretty heads the thought
+would never enter that another would be so silly as to stand upon
+position, and if by any chance it did momentarily arise, it would
+be scouted as inconsistent with one's own self-respect as a woman.
+England will never be truly homogeneous till throne and
+aristocracy give place to the higher republican form.
+
+India claims many victims. We had yesterday a young man near us
+who had been in India only a short time, and who was returning
+invalided. Poor fellow! He lay in the hatchway in his easy-chair
+from morning until night, gazing wistfully over the sea toward his
+beloved England. There he would soon get well. Only last night as
+I passed to bed I stopped to encourage him, telling him how finely
+we were dancing along homeward. At dawn I heard the pulsations of
+the engine cease for a few moments only, but in those moments he
+had been cast into the sea. Scarcely any one knew of his death
+except the doctor and a few of the crew; not a soul on board knew
+anything of him; he was an entire stranger to all. But think of
+the mother and sisters who were to meet him on arrival and convey
+him "to the green lanes of Surrey!" See them hastening on board
+and casting anxious glances around! No one will know them, but
+every one will suspect who they are, and what their errand, and
+instinctively avoid them--for who would be the messenger to strike
+a mother down with a word? The death and burial were sad--sad
+enough; but the real tragedy is yet to be played in Southampton,
+when the living are to envy the fate of the dead, who, "after
+life's fitful fever," sleeps so well in the depths of the Indian
+Ocean.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SUEZ, Friday, February 28.
+
+We reached Suez at six o'clock in the morning, and anchored within
+the bay. An enterprising sailboat captain came alongside and
+offered to take us across the bay to the town in time to catch the
+only train leaving for Cairo for twenty-four hours. It was two
+long hours' sail, but the breeze was strong, and Vandy and I
+resolved to try it, bargaining with the captain, however, upon the
+basis of no train no pay. The few passengers on deck at that early
+hour gathered to give the adventurers a farewell cheer, and we
+were off. We made it just in time, and grasping a bottle of wine
+and some bread at the station--for we had had no breakfast--we
+started for Cairo.
+
+The railway runs parallel to the Suez Canal, which, by the way,
+was a canal in the days of the Pharaohs, but, of course, much
+smaller and only used for irrigation. We saw the top-masts of
+several steamers above the sandy banks as they crawled slowly
+through the desert. How great the traffic already is and with what
+strides it grows is well known. Its capacity can at any time be
+doubled by lighting it with electricity, but at present vessels
+are compelled by rule to lie still after sunset. All is dead
+through the night. In a few years this will be changed; and indeed
+the canal must be widened ere long and made a double track
+throughout to accommodate the continual stream of ships plying
+between the East and the West. At present it is just like one of
+our single-track railways with sidings or passing places. The
+distance from end to end is only about a hundred miles, but ships
+sometimes take three and even four days to squeeze through. This
+must be remedied. Twenty-four hours seems to be about the proper
+time-table. When past Ismailia, the line leaves the canal and runs
+westward through the land of Goshen. After the parched plains of
+India, it was refreshing once more to look upon "deep waving
+fields and pastures green." We were within the regions watered by
+the Nile, and the harvests resembled those of the carse of Gowrie.
+
+We reached Cairo on time, and our first inquiries were about our
+friends, Mr. H., Miss N., and party, who were expected there from
+their three months' excursion upon the Nile. Fortunately, we found
+their dalbeah anchored in the stream, and we drove to it without
+delay. Sure enough, as we reached the bank, there lay the Nubia,
+that little gem, with the Stars and Stripes floating above her. We
+were rowed on board only to find that our friends were in the
+city. However, we made ourselves at home in the charming saloon,
+and awaited their return. Unfortunately, some sailor on shore had
+told them of two strangers going aboard, and there was not the
+entire surprise we had intended; but if there was no surprise
+there was no lack of cordial welcome, and we realized to the
+fullest extent what a world of meaning lies in the quaint simile,
+"as the face of a friend in a far-off country."
+
+This reunion at Cairo was one of the fine incidents of our tour.
+Many months ago we had parted from Mr. H. and family, and half in
+jest appointed Cairo as our next meeting-place. They went in one
+direction, we in another, and without special reference to each
+other's movements it had so turned out that we caught them here.
+It was a narrow hit, however, as they were to leave next day for
+Alexandria; and had we remained on the Pekin, as all the other
+passengers did, and not undertaken the sail across the bay, we
+should have missed them. We grasped hands once more and sat down
+to dinner, the Nile gurgling past, the Pyramids with their forty
+centuries looking down upon us, and here was one more happy band
+drawing more closely to each other since separated from friends at
+home, enacting over again such scenes as the famous river has
+witnessed upon its bosom for thousands of years--one generation
+going and another coming, but the mysterious Nile remaining to
+welcome each succeeding host; and thus,
+
+  "Thro' plots and counterplots--
+   Thro' gain and loss--thro' glory and disgrace--
+   ...still the holy stream
+   Of human happiness glides on!"
+
+Today sight-seeing was subordinated to the rare pleasure of
+enjoying the company of our friends, but we all drove through
+Cairo streets and saw one memorable sight--the great college of
+Islam, where more than ten thousand students are constantly under
+preparation as priests of the Prophet. We saw them in hundreds
+sitting on their mats in the extensive open courts, all busily
+engaged in learning to recite the Koran to masters, or listening
+to professors who expounded it. Their intense earnestness soon
+impresses you. From this centre radiate every year thousands of
+these propagandists, scattering themselves over Arabia and to the
+farthest boundaries of Islam, and even beyond, warring upon
+idolatry and proclaiming the unity of God. No one can fail, I
+think, to receive from such a visit as we paid a much higher
+estimate of the vitality of Mohammedanism, and, having seen what
+it has to supplant, we cannot refrain from wishing these
+missionaries God-speed. The race rises step by step, never by
+leaps and bounds. Upon this point I am much impressed by a
+paragraph from a lecture delivered by Marcus Dodd, D.D., at the
+Presbyterian College, London, which seems to me to take a wider
+and sounder view than one usually finds from such a source, and is
+therefore specially pleasing. He says: "The great lesson in
+comparative religion which we learn from the connection of Judaism
+and Christianity is that men are not always ripe for the highest
+religion; that there is a fulness of time which it may take four
+thousand years to produce. The Mosaic religion, imperfect as it
+was, compared with Christianity, was better for Israel during its
+period and preparation than the religion of Christ would have
+been." Then, referring to the Mohammedan religion, he says: "It is
+not denied that this religion did at once effect reforms which
+Christianity had failed to effect. It accomplished more for Arabia
+in a few years than Christianity had accomplished for centuries.
+It abolished at a stroke the idolatry which Christianity had
+fought in vain." It is to such men as Mr. Dodd that we are to look
+to keep religion abreast of the age.
+
+Max Müller says: "In one sense every religion was a true religion,
+being the only religion which was possible at the time, which was
+compatible with the language, the thoughts, and the sentiments of
+each generation, which was appropriate to the age of the world."
+The Brahman has found the same truth. "Men of an enlightened
+understanding well know," says he, "that the Supreme has imparted
+to each nation the doctrine most suitable for it, and He,
+therefore, beholds with satisfaction the various ways in which He
+is worshipped." In other words, religion is the highest expression
+of which a people is capable. There is no reason why we should not
+try to prepare a people for a better one, but note this, _they
+must be prepared_. To _force_ new religions upon any race
+is a sad mistake. In a late address on missionary methods in
+India, Rev. Phillips Brooks said: "That which makes people
+distrust foreign missions is the testimony that the Europeans in
+India will not trust the Christianized Indian. It is not strange
+that some poor creature should bring discredit on the religion he
+professes. He worships in strange houses and in a strange way. He
+kneels in American-style churches and is taught by men full of
+American ideas. Christianity will never be the religion of India
+until it comes there imbued with the spirit of the day. In time
+there must come forth an Indian Christianity, rich, full of power
+and goodness. The missionaries want this, and are perfectly aware
+it must come. The influence that now goes to India carries with it
+the curse as well as the blessing. Let the divisions of church
+creeds be kept at home, and _let the Indian religion be
+developed from within_."
+
+We visited several mosques, but they are such poor affairs
+compared to those of India that we took little interest in them.
+While the other countries we have thus far visited have all
+appeared stranger than expected, this is not so with Egypt.
+Everything seems to be just as I had imagined it. We know too much
+about the land of the Pharaohs to be taken thoroughly by surprise.
+Perhaps there is something in our having seen so much that our
+perceptions are no longer as keen as when we landed in Japan. The
+appetite for sight-seeing becomes sated, like any other, and I
+fear we are not as impressionable as before. So we decide not to
+visit Turkey and Greece upon this trip but to take these when
+fresh. The crowds of squalid wretches who surround us at every
+turn, clamoring for backsheesh; the mud hovels in which they
+manage to live, and the coarse food upon which they exist; the
+mass of greasy, unwashed rags which hang loosely upon them--such
+things no longer excite our wonder, or even our pity. We have seen
+so much of such misery before that I fear we begin to grow
+callous.
+
+Cairo, as a city, is most picturesque, with its commanding
+citadel, and its hundreds of mosques with their slender spires and
+conspicuous minarets; while surrounding all this in the desert lie
+the ruins of older cities and of tombs and temples innumerable.
+The Desert of Sahara reaches to the very gates of the city on the
+east. The city lies between that and the Nile; then comes a narrow
+strip of green about ten miles in width, and after that the
+boundless Libyan Desert. The Pyramids stand upon the very edge of
+this desert, so that it is sand, sand, sand! everywhere around the
+city of the Caliphs, save and except this little green border
+along the Nile. But indeed the whole of Egypt is only a narrow
+green ribbon stretching along the river for some six hundred
+miles, and widening at the delta, where the waters divide and
+reach the sea by various channels. All the rest is sand. Egypt has
+not more cultivable soil than Belgium, and would not make a fair
+sized State with us.
+
+The Khedive Ismail was determined to make Cairo a miniature Paris,
+and we see much that recalls Paris to us. The new boulevards, the
+opera-house, circus, cafés, new hotel--all show how much has
+already been done in this direction; but he is in hard straits
+just now, and the cry there, as elsewhere, is for retrenchment and
+reform. The new streets are Parisian, but it is in the old, narrow
+streets of the city that one sees oriental life distinctively
+Egyptian in its character. Indeed these are sights of Cairo which
+I enjoy most. Muffled ladies pass by, resembling nothing I can
+think of so much as big black bats as they sit man-fashion on
+their donkeys, wrapped in black silk cloaks; men in gorgeous
+silks, also on donkeys, ride along, while laden camels and asses
+carrying large panniers of clover slowly pick their way through
+the crowd. Harem ladies, too (there is the weight which pulls
+Egypt down), roll slowly by in their covered carriages, preceded
+by the running Lyces. I never saw such a miscellaneous throng in
+any street before.
+
+The great event of a visit to Cairo is Pyramid Day. The Pyramids
+are eight miles distant, and an early start has to be made to
+insure a return in season. Yesterday was our day. These wonders do
+not impress one at first--few really stupendous works ever do; and
+even when at their base you think but meanly of their magnitude,
+so much so that you never hesitate as to whether you will ascend
+Cheops, the largest. Three Arabs, whose duty it is to assist you,
+are at once assigned to you by the Sheikh; two of these take your
+hands, while the third stands behind to "boost" you up at the
+moment the others pull. It is a hard climb even when so assisted,
+and many who start are fain to content themselves with getting up
+one third the distance. I think I rested three times in making the
+ascent, and each time I found my feeling of disappointment growing
+beautifully less; while by the time the shout came from my Arabs
+announcing that they were on the top stone, I was filled with
+respectful admiration for Cheops, I assure you, and whatever one
+may say about the equator, I feel sure no one will ever hear me
+speak disrespectfully of the Pyramids.
+
+They are without doubt the greatest masses ever built by man.
+Cheops is four hundred and fifty feet high, and covers thirteen
+acres at the base, tapering to the top, which is only about thirty
+feet square, where one false step would be certain death, as,
+contrary to my opinion at first, I saw that one in falling could
+not possibly rest on any of the layers of projecting stone. I do
+not like high places, and I felt, while on the top, I would give a
+handsome sum just to be safe on level ground again. But I got
+down, or rather was taken down by my three attendants, without
+much difficulty, and after luncheon we went into the centre of the
+pile--a work of considerable trouble--and saw the sarcophagus.
+Attempts have been made to invest the Pyramids with some
+mysterious meaning, but, I take it, there will be no more of this,
+since an explanation is now given which meets every objection.
+They are simply the tombs of various kings, and differ in size
+because the kings ruled for different periods of time. The mode of
+procedure was this: When a king came to the throne he began to
+build his tomb; perhaps this was an excellent way of keeping
+before him the fact that he also must surely die, and that ere
+long; successive courses of stone were built around the pile, one
+course per year, and when the king died the building ceased, his
+successor taking care to finish the course under progress at the
+death of his predecessor; hence the great size of Cheops, for the
+monarch who constructed it reigned forty-two years and built his
+forty-two courses. This Pyramid is either sixty-five hundred or
+five thousand years old, according as you decide for one or
+another mode of computation. Either date will, however, entitle it
+to the honors of a hoary old age. The old Arabian proverb, "That
+all things fear Time, but Time fears the Pyramids," holds good no
+longer, for "the tooth of Time" is slowly but surely
+disintegrating even these masses. The entire finishing course of
+huge stone blocks, from top to bottom of Cheops, has already
+crumbled away, and lies in dust at the base. This is also the case
+with the second in size, except that a portion still clings around
+its top; this will fall some day, and leave it stripped like its
+greater neighbor.
+
+Our Arab guide told us, as he pointed to the numerous monograms
+carved on the top of Cheops, that a lover who cuts the initials of
+his adored there, and calls upon Allah to prosper his suit, is
+certain to win her. Would you believe it, soon after this I saw
+Vandy secretly carving away.
+
+The Sphinx--the mysterious Sphinx--which has baffled all
+inquisitive inquirers for centuries without number, stands in the
+sand only a. short distance from Cheops. Imagine, if you can, with
+what feelings one gazes upon it. It is as old as the Pyramids,
+perhaps older, and there it still looks out upon the green and
+fertile banks of the Nile with the Libyan Desert behind. Its
+countenance has the same benignant cast, but it tells neither of
+sorrow nor of anger, neither of triumph nor of defeat. It tells
+you of no human passion, and yet seems to tell you of all--_the
+end of all_--and yet it is not a sad face. It is every thing
+and yet nothing. I never was so utterly unable to vivify an image
+with at least some imaginings. It could be made one thing or
+another, but no sooner had I thought it indicated one sentiment
+than a second look made the idea seem absurd. Like so many
+countless thousands before me, I gave it up. You cannot extract
+anything from that face. I thought the lesson might be in its
+position, and I pleased myself with drawing one from that. There
+this mystery stands, gazing only upon what is rich and fertile and
+instinct with life, the life-giving Nile rolling before it, and
+the fields of golden grain in view. Its back turned resolutely to
+the dreary sandy waste of death behind; and so it said to me as
+plainly as if it could speak, This is your lesson: let the dead
+past bury its dead; look forward only upon that which has life and
+grows steadily towards perfection. It is upon the bright things of
+life we must fix our gaze if we would be of use in our day and
+generation.
+
+When in Alexandria we visited with deep interest the site of the
+famous Alexandrian Library, in which lay stored the most precious
+treasures of the world. Had it escaped destruction, how many
+questions which have vexed scholars would never have arisen, and
+how much ground which it has been necessary for genius to
+reconquer would have come to us as our heritage!
+
+The Cleopatra's Needle now in New York, the counterpart of the one
+in London, was still in Alexandria when we were there. Seventeen
+hundred years before Christ this huge monolith, which is cut out
+of solid rock, was erected at Heliopolis, and it was transported
+thence several hundred miles to its present site. It measures
+sixty-eight feet in height, and is not less than eight feet square
+at its base--one solid shaft of granite; but this is exceeded by
+the one still at Thebes, which is a hundred feet high. It struck
+me as a notable coincidence that the ingenious Frenchman who first
+proved the truth of the supposed hieroglyphic alphabet should have
+done so by assuming that the name repeated so frequently upon a
+certain stone extolling the virtues of Ptolemy Soter, must be that
+of the famous Cleopatra, and so it proved. Thus this extraordinary
+woman, who filled the world with her name during her life, and for
+centuries after, once more renews her tenure by linking herself
+with the world's history two thousand years after her death.
+
+The museum in Cairo is said to comprise more Egyptian antiquities
+than are possessed in the world besides. It is filled with
+mummies, sarcophagi, jewelry, coins and statues, one wooden statue
+shown being no less than four thousand six hundred years old.
+Anything less than five thousand years of age one gets to consider
+rather too modern to suit his taste. Upon some of the lids of the
+tombs the inscriptions are as fresh as if cut yesterday. Egypt
+furnishes the earliest records of our race, because the dry sands
+of the desert on each side of the Nile, blowing over the cities of
+the past until these were completely buried, hermetically sealed
+them, and this preserved them from decay, and would have done so
+for ages yet to come. Is it any wonder that this narrow strip,
+filled with buried cities, should have given rise to a body of men
+who devote themselves to the search for rich spoils of the past
+and to deciphering the inscriptions? You meet occasionally an
+Egyptologist, and seem to know him instinctively.
+
+But grand as is Egypt's past, and varied as her fortunes have
+been, it may surely be said that never during all her misfortunes
+has she occupied a position as deplorable as that which saddens
+the traveller of today. If any one wants to see what personal rule
+in its fullest development is capable of producing, let him visit
+Egypt. The condition of its finances is notorious, but we did not
+expect to witness such convincing proofs of insolvency.
+
+The Khedive has been maintaining a standing army of sixty thousand
+men, but it has not been paid for more than two years.
+Retrenchment having been insisted upon by England and France, it
+was resolved to reduce the force to some eight thousand, and
+orders of dismissal were accordingly issued. But about two hundred
+officers who were in Cairo and had not yet been paid, entered the
+Prime Minister's chambers a few days before our arrival in the
+city, clamoring for their dues, and refused to leave until paid.
+Some slight violence was even used toward that functionary, and
+the English agent, who came manfully to his assistance, was
+roughly pushed about. It was finally arranged to pay all dismissed
+soldiers two months of their arrears. The train upon which we
+travelled from Cairo carried many of these men to their homes.
+While the army is not paid, we see on every hand unmistakable
+proofs of the Khedive's reckless personal extravagance. Here lies
+his grand steam yacht rotting in the harbor. In the station we
+noticed the imperial cars stowed away; on the river his large
+summer boat; and every other remarkably fine house in Cairo seemed
+to be one or another of the Khedive's palaces or harems. The man
+does not seem to have had the faintest idea of what was due to his
+country, or, even worse, what was due to himself. But take the
+greatest and best man in the world, surround him by people who
+assure him morn, noon and night that he differs from other men,
+and has a born right to their obedience--make a khedive, or czar,
+or king out of him--if kind nature has not made a fool of him at
+the start, men will do it, and if he has brains, brutality will
+soon be added to his folly. If he hasn't brains, then he becomes
+the fool pure and simple. George Washington himself would have
+been spoiled by royal notions in less than six months--good as he
+was and sound republican to boot.
+
+One becomes indignant with a people so supine as to endure such
+waste and oppression. Everything is taxed, and the masses of the
+people are ground down to the lowest stage compatible with mere
+animal existence. England and France have been compelled recently
+to take strong measures in order to prevent impending ruin. The
+Khedive not long since dismissed the only one of his ministers who
+seemed to comprehend the state of affairs, but I see the faint
+remonstrance of these powers has sufficed to reinstate him; in
+other words, the Khedive has been told he is a figure-head, to
+reign, not to govern, and we may hope for an improvement in
+consequence. The population is only five millions, and it is
+estimated that at least two millions more could be supported by
+the country; so it seems that only good government is required to
+restore Egypt to prosperity.
+
+The tenure of land is an important question just now, and men's
+minds are disposed to give the subject consideration. Mr. George's
+exciting book has attracted surprising attention. "Thou shalt not
+sell the land of the Lord thy God for ever," seems likely to prove
+correct. Egypt has a land history of much significance. Anciently
+the land was the property of the priests, and of the king and the
+military class. Although there were no castes, still the fact that
+the son usually followed his father's occupation, served the
+purpose of caste. Even Joseph did not purchase the land of the
+priests when he bought all the rest. Before the time of Mehemet
+Ali, say up to about a hundred years ago, a kind of feudal system
+prevailed, but by the massacre of the Mamelukes the feudal system
+was destroyed. Mehemet Ali seized almost all the landed property,
+and gave the owners pensions for life. There is scarcely such a
+thing as private tenure of land now in Egypt.
+
+This little bit of cultivated land has actually borrowed in the
+last fifteen years no less than £80,000,000 sterling
+($400,000,000). Twelve hundred miles of railway have been built,
+and numerous canals, harbors, and lighthouses constructed; but the
+amount spent in useful works bears but a small proportion to that
+squandered. The greatest item of all, however, is the discount
+paid upon the five successive loans by which funds were obtained.
+None of these loans cost less than 12 per cent, per annum, while
+the one for railways cost 26 per cent, per annum. These rates, I
+believe, are calculated upon the issue prices; what commissions
+the bankers received is unknown. A report upon the finances states
+that the Government received only about one-half the amount of the
+loans.
+
+I have referred to the discontent which had shown itself in the
+army during our stay in Cairo. How rapidly events have travelled
+since then! The rise of a popular leader, Arabi, who possessed the
+confidence, or at least, who was accepted by the people as their
+only instrument of reform,--effectually put down by the English
+Government, which surely was misled by its agents in Egypt.
+
+Now that England has been so foolish as to interfere, but two
+courses are open. She must either rule Egypt as she does India,
+or, what would be infinitely better both for Egypt and for
+England, retire, and allow the people of Egypt to undertake the
+management of their own affairs. This would be unfortunate for the
+bondholders, no doubt, but it would sooner or later secure for
+Egypt those institutions for which she is suited. I am convinced
+that England is to see the day, and that ere long, when she will
+bitterly repent ever having thrown her power in the scale against
+men who revolted at a state of affairs against which revolt was
+meritorious, and gave to the world the best proof that sufficient
+sound timber existed in Egypt to form the nucleus of firm national
+institutions. England's position in Egypt is all wrong. She of all
+nations should know that there are stages in the life of nations
+where oppression can be overthrown only by violent means. Ah! John
+Bright proved himself here once more the true statesman. Had his
+advice been followed, how different might have been the result!
+But ere the Egyptian question is settled we may see stranger
+events still than those which have surprised us.
+
+The cry from the moment you set foot in Egypt until the steamer
+sails is "Backsheesh! Backsheesh!" Give! give! give! Crowds
+surround you at every place, and from child to withered eld it is
+an incessant chorus. If one is weak enough to give a piastre he is
+done for; the crowd increases, and the roars of the beggars with
+it. There is no place in Egypt which can be enjoyed, owing to this
+nuisance; even on the top of the Pyramid the evil is unabated.
+Travellers must be to blame for such an annoyance. For our part we
+resolved never to give anything to a beggar, and adhered strictly
+to the rule, which preserved us from many a fierce attack; but the
+objects begging were sometimes piteous-looking enough to haunt
+one.
+
+The surest means of obtaining a livelihood as a beggar in Egypt is
+to feign idiocy, which, I am told, is frequently done. Idiots are
+regarded as saints, and are never restricted in their movements,
+maniacs alone being confined, and they are often met with in the
+streets. My Swedenborgian friends might account for the absence of
+sense being held proof positive of the saintly character by urging
+that idiots were certainly free from one of the worst evils of
+this generation denounced by the Swedish Seer as "self-derived
+intelligence."
+
+The never ending work of creation is finely illustrated in the
+remarkable depression of the northern shore of Egypt, which is
+continually going on, notwithstanding the vast deposits from the
+many mouths of the Nile annually discharged upon it, while on the
+southern shore, near Suez, a contrary phenomenon is observable.
+The consequence of this movement is seen in the ruins of places on
+the Mediterranean shore, and the drying up of large portions of
+the Gulf of Suez. Indeed the bed of the Red Sea may be traced for
+miles north of the town of Suez, which is now at the head of the
+gulf, and places far north of the town were on the coast in
+historic times. An equally remarkable change is observable in the
+level of the Nile. Two thousand years B.C. it is found that at
+Semneh the mean height of the famous river was twenty-three feet
+greater than it is to-day. Imagine what results would flow from a
+change of the level of the Mississippi twenty-three feet higher or
+lower than now! It would change the continent. While such
+startling changes are found right under our own eyes, surely we do
+not require the "doctrine of catastrophes" to explain the creation
+of this little ball--the earth! The silent, irresistible,
+unchanging laws of Nature suffice.
+
+We arrived too late to get a run up the Nile, as the boats had
+ceased to ply for the season. There remained but Cairo and
+Alexandria to visit, and a few days spent at each place exhausts
+the sights; but we concluded that nothing could be more enjoyable
+than a three-months' sail upon the Nile, in one's own boat,
+breathing the remarkably pure and dry air as it comes from the
+desert, moving day by day from one to another scene of the far
+past, and at night enjoying the unequalled sunsets, when it seems,
+as some one has beautifully said, that "the day was slowly dying
+of its own glory." This is the trip of trips for an invalid, or
+for one overtaxed by work or oppressed with sorrow; and for a
+bridal tour--to give the lovers plenty of time and opportunity to
+become thoroughly acquainted with each other--it can be highly
+recommended.
+
+The rapid rise of our western rivers is very different from the
+gradual swelling of the Nile, which begins at Khartoum, at the
+junction of the White and Blue Niles, as early as April each year,
+but which is not felt at Cairo until after the summer solstice,
+while the greatest height is not reached till autumn. A good flood
+gives a rise of forty feet at the first cataract, and about
+twenty-five at Cairo; a scanty rise is when only between eighteen
+or twenty feet occurs at Cairo. The inundation is good if it is
+between twenty-four and twenty-seven feet; if beyond the latter it
+becomes a destructive flood. Upon such a narrow margin--the rise
+of a few feet more or less in the Nile--depends the entire crop of
+Egypt! Once for a period of seven years (A.D. 457-464), the rise
+failed and seven years of famine ensued. A great engineering work,
+designed to regulate the inundation by means of a _barrage_
+across both branches of the river below Cairo, was begun some
+years ago, but, I believe, has been abandoned. When Egypt reaches
+good government from within herself, not through foreigners, one
+of its first works should be to complete the barrage. Surplus
+water will then be allowed free escape, and inundations prevented.
+When the flow is scanty, egress at the river mouths will be
+retarded, and thus Egypt will be secured regular harvests. We
+watch men at work everywhere raising water from narrow ditches to
+higher levels, that all parts may be irrigated from the fruitful
+Nile. We could get no estimate of the amount of water which one
+man can raise in a day; but when human labor is so cheap, we
+guessed that it was, upon the whole, an economical mode. At all
+events a complete revolution in the management of land, and
+probably of its tenure, must precede the general use of machinery
+for this purpose. The "shadoof" of today is the same in form as
+that used by the ancient Egyptians. Two columns of mud, or brick,
+erected at the side of the ditch, support a beam of wood, across
+which is a pole with a weight at one end, and a rude wooden bowl-
+shaped bucket, suspended by a stick, at the other. A man stands
+under the bucket and pulls it down into the water. The weight
+helps him to push it up to the ditch above, where it is emptied.
+The operation is very quickly performed, and the bucket kept
+constantly going. It would be hard to beat these ancient Egyptian
+shadoofs by any device requiring human labor where the amount of
+water required is small. Water-wheels, driven by bullocks or cows,
+and sometimes by one animal only, are sometimes used. There is
+also a double shadoof worked by two men, and even steam pumps are
+used in extreme cases where the volume of water desired is
+unusually large. Steam, no doubt, is ultimately to drive out the
+shadoof, ancient as it is. We had a strange meeting at Cairo upon
+entering the breakfast-room the morning after our arrival. Whom
+should we be placed opposite to but my friend the Rev. Mr. D., of
+Dunfermline, my aunty's minister, nae less! He was _en route_
+to the Holy Land with his father-in-law; but we had several days
+together at Cairo, and talked upon many subjects, from theology to
+town affairs. I had received a telegram the day of his departure
+which told me my mother was to sail from New York that very day to
+join me in Scotland, as had been arranged, and we drank her health
+and wished her _bon voyage_ in good style.
+
+Before bidding farewell to the East, I wish to indulge in just a
+few general reflections. Life there lacks two of its most
+important elements--the want of intelligent and refined women as
+the companion of man, and a Sunday. It has been a strange
+experience to me to be for several months without the society of
+some of this class of women--sometimes many weeks without even
+speaking to one, and often a whole week without even seeing the
+face of an educated woman. And, bachelor as I am, let me confess
+what a miserable, dark, dreary, and insipid life this would be
+without their constant companionship! This brings everything that
+is good in its train, everything that is bright and elevating. I
+cannot satisfy myself as to what the man of the East has to
+struggle for, since he has dethroned woman and practically left
+her out of his life. To see a wealthy Chinaman driving along in
+his carriage alone was pitiable. His efforts had been successful,
+but for what? There was no joy in his world. The very soul of
+European civilization, its crown and special glory, lies in the
+elevation of woman to her present position (she will rise even
+higher yet with the coming years), and this favor she has repaid a
+thousand-fold by making herself the fountain of all that is best
+in man. In life, without her there is nothing. Much as the lot of
+woman in the East is to be deplored, that of man is still more
+deplorable. The revenge she takes is terrible, for she drags down
+with her, in her debasement, the higher life of man. I had noted
+the absence of music as one great want. Not an opera nor a
+concert--not even a hand-organ. Scarcely a sweet sound in all our
+journey. When we found an English church or a regimental band, we
+rejoiced. I went to hear the organ upon every occasion, and was
+seldom absent when the band played; but were women there as with
+us, wouldn't music spring forth also! so that even this want I am
+disposed to attribute to the first cause.
+
+The absence of a regularly recurring day of rest ranks next in
+importance, I believe, in the list of causes which keep the East
+down in the scale of nations. With few exceptions, the race is
+doomed to a life of unremitting toil--from morning till night, and
+every day without respite; for festival and fête days recurring at
+long, irregular intervals are no substitute for the one regular
+day to which labor looks forward with us. The prospect of one day
+of rest frequently intervening gives a toiler something bright to
+look forward to, without which his life must stretch before him as
+one unceasing, unvarying drag. In this one blessed day his slavery
+ceases, the shackles fall. He is no longer a brute--fed and
+clothed solely because of his physical powers, his capacity to
+bear burdens--but a higher being, with tastes, pleasures, friends.
+Life becomes worth living. The man puts on his best clothes--and
+there is much in this--the woman gives her cottage an extra
+brushing up. Something extra is prepared for dinner--there is a
+great deal in this, too--and, in short, the day is marked by a
+hundred little differences from those of labor--a stroll in the
+fields, a visit to relatives, or a meeting with neighbors at
+church, all in their best; and then the swelling organ and the
+choir--these things lie closely at the root of all improvements;
+and if ever the race is to be lifted to a higher platform--and who
+shall dare doubt it?--the weekly day of rest will prove itself an
+agency in the good work only second to the elevation of woman.
+
+The best mode of improving its most precious hours for the toiling
+masses is therefore a question of infinite moment, apart
+altogether from the question of its divine character, and viewed
+only as a human enactment of the highest wisdom. It would seem
+clear that to make this only respite from manual labor a day
+exclusively set apart for the mournful duty of bemoaning our
+manifold shortcomings--which must at best give rise to gloomy
+thoughts--would defeat the purposes I have indicated. I want a
+compromise--church service in the morning, with a sermon "leaning
+to the side of mercy," as Sidney Smith suggested, which meant that
+it should not exceed twenty minutes, for, as one wit says, "a
+minister who can't strike ile in twenty minutes should quit
+_boring_"--and then the fields and streams for the toilers
+who are cooped up in factories and workshops all the week long, or
+a visit to picture galleries, museums, or to musical concerts of a
+high order in huge centres--for in London and a village it is not
+the same question at all--to anything that would tend to brighten
+their existence. I am now convinced that there is an important
+change to be made in the mode of keeping our Sundays--the
+cessation of labor, as far as it is possible, to remain a cardinal
+point, but better facilities to be provided for cultivating the
+higher tastes of our poor workers, that the day may be to them
+indeed "the golden jewel which clasps the circle of the week."
+
+One more observation upon the East and I am done: the work that
+England is doing there. You know that she has in one way or
+another obtained the keys to the East. Some islands she owns; some
+small strips of the mainland she also has acquired and governs; at
+Shanghai, Hong Kong, and other points in China; at Singapore,
+Penang, Ceylon, Aden, Malta, and indeed all through our journey,
+we stand now and then on British soil. And wherever the meteor
+flag floats, there you find order, freedom, schools, churches,
+dispensaries, clean streets, hospitals, newspapers, justice; and
+under that flag you will find thousands of Chinamen and Malays,
+Indians, Cingalese, Arabs--indeed men of all races--settled and
+enjoying the blessings of good government. No revolution there, no
+slavery, no arbitrary arrest, nor forced levy. As a native lawyer
+in India said to me--he talked freely because of our American
+look--"There is between natives under English rule perfect
+justice; but," he added, "every one must behave himself. There is
+no war nor plundering when one settles under them, for these
+English _won't stand any nonsense, and they will have
+peace_."
+
+England, therefore, has planted throughout the East small models
+of perfectly governed little States, enjoying all the blessings of
+the highest civilization. Daily and hourly these teach their
+lesson to the native races, and when they do acquire this
+lesson--and who that believes in the progress of mankind can doubt
+but the day must come?--they will look westward with grateful
+hearts and say, "All this we owe to thee, noble England!"
+
+But while this is true, there is another phase of England's work
+to which I have referred in my remarks upon India. The source of
+England's good work springs from example. It is where the native
+races are drawn to her standard, as at the many points named,
+where their freedom is not destroyed, that great results can alone
+be looked for. This is the very reverse of England's position in
+India. She stands there as the destroyer of native institutions,
+and forces her views upon an unwilling people wholly unprepared to
+receive them, instead of resting, as at Hong Kong, Singapore,
+Aden, and such places, saying to the natives, "Come, try our
+system, and, if you like it, remain and share its benefits."
+Nothing but good can result from the latter, and nothing really
+good can flow from the former; the injury done must more than
+absorb any temporary gains. Force is no remedy; and some of these
+years, unless the ablest natives are induced to participate in the
+government of India, and soon allowed the chief control, England
+will rise to a rude awakening.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ALEXANDRIA, Friday, March 14.
+
+Off at nine this morning for Naples, taking Sicily _en
+route_. The voyage was a smooth one, and we landed at Catania
+upon the morning of the fourth day. As we stepped ashore we felt
+in a moment that we were once more within the bounds of
+civilization. What a difference between this and the East! And
+there frowned Mount Etna, ten thousand feet above the sea level,
+thirty miles distant, and yet seemingly so near we thought that we
+could almost walk over to its base after breakfast. We ascended a
+small hill in the centre of the city--which, by the way, has a
+population of a hundred thousand--and there lay Sicily spread out
+before us in all its wondrous beauty. Lemon and orange groves in
+full bearing, and fields of vines just budding; and in the town
+clean paved streets and pavements, which are unknown in the East;
+people with shoes and stockings on; statues and fountains, and a
+good old cathedral; harps and violins, and the chime of church
+going bells. Ah! Western civilization is not a mistake, nor a
+myth, nor a thing of doubtful value, as we can testify. At least
+so thought two happy travellers in Sicily that bright balmy
+morning, as they felt how blessed a thing it was to be once more
+in a civilized country.
+
+The pretty island of Sicily (Sechelia, as the Italians pronounce
+it) contains nearly three millions of people--nearly as many as
+Scotland--and supports them almost entirely by the produce of the
+land, for manufactures are little known. The olive and the vine
+are everywhere, and the crops of oranges and lemons go to most
+parts of the world. An English gentleman told us he had bought
+oranges in the season for one cent per dozen. There is one item of
+export of rather peculiar character--sulphur--which is obtained
+from the volcano. We saw it drawn through the streets in large
+blocks.
+
+Only two hundred years ago an eruption of Mount Etna took place,
+and 27,000 people were buried by the lava. We saw where the stream
+had rushed down from the crater through part of the town, and far
+into the sea--almost a mile in width, and thirty miles from its
+source, bearing destruction to everything in its course, and yet
+to-day fine new houses stand upon the cold lava, and away up and
+along the sides of the volcano for miles are to be seen cottages
+clustering thickly together, the inmates busily engaged in
+cultivating their vineyards. It was only a few days ago--the
+monster gave a warning and shook these houses; but they still "sit
+under their vine and sing the merry songs of peace to all their
+neighbors"--these merry, light-hearted Sicilians!--as if they had
+Mount Etna under perfect control.
+
+The railway skirts the shores of the island for its entire
+length--some fifty miles--and a more beautiful ride is not to be
+seen in all the world. It is a succession of fine old castles, in
+perfect ruin, upon every petty promontory, and we go through
+nothing but orange and lemon groves and vineyards. We pass at the
+base of Mount Etna; but although all was smiling in the valleys
+below, its top was enveloped in dark clouds and busy with the
+thunder and the storm.
+
+Messina is a very quaint Italian city. The funeral services of a
+distinguished lady were in progress when we stepped into the
+cathedral, which was illuminated with hundreds of candles--I think
+I might say almost a thousand--the interior being one mass of
+light, which shone with strange effect upon the rich black velvet
+with which the walls were draped. A lady in our party counted the
+carriages as they passed, and told us there were fifty-three, most
+of which would compare favorably with those of New York or London.
+This will give you some idea of the richness of Messina, which we
+had thought to be an unimportant town.
+
+The Sicilians are strict Roman Catholics and completely under the
+dominion of that faith. There is scarcely a trace of dissent to be
+found. When we were about to sail from Messina for Naples a priest
+walked upon the deck and collected contributions from the devout
+passengers, for which in return he was expected to give to our
+good ship the august protection of Holy Mother Church. We noticed
+that all the passengers contributed and received his blessing with
+much solemnity. Faith is still there. They were going to
+sea--probably a first experience to most if not all of them, and
+were naturally apprehensive. Should we have a stormy night, no
+doubt, notwithstanding their bargain with the priest, some will
+resolve with good Dame Partington that under like circumstances
+if ever she set her foot on dry land she would never again trust
+herself "so far out of the reach of Providence." But my mother
+remembers well that when a member of the congregation was about to
+start from Dunfermline to London, a rare event in those days,
+though not so very long ago, that his safety was always prayed for
+in church. I mentioned this to Vandy when he was deploring the
+ignorance and, as he thought, the impiety of the Sicilians. We are
+not entirely free from superstition ourselves, and were in the
+last generation where the Sicilians are in this.
+
+The scene in "The Tempest," the enchanted isle, must have been in
+the neighborhood of Sechelia, and surely no fitter region in all
+the world could be found; indeed I found sweet Sechelia so
+enchanting that I voted it the very spot, and selected my
+Prospero's Cave on the glittering shore within sight of Mount
+Etna.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BAY OF NAPLES, Thursday, March 20.
+
+Early morning! Yes, my dear friends, it is round. Here stands
+Mount Vesuvius in full view this morning, making for itself pure
+white clouds of steam, which float in the otherwise clear,
+cloudless sky of Italy. No entering the crater now as we did
+before, for the volcano is no longer at rest. Vandy and I shake
+hands and recall our pledge made in the crater years ago, and say,
+"Well, that is now fulfilled, and may life only have for us in its
+unknown future another such five months of unalloyed happiness
+(save where the dark shades of death among friends at home have
+saddened the hours) as those we have been so privileged to enjoy."
+
+It is well never to be without something to look forward to, and
+speculate upon; and by a happy chance Vandy and I have hit upon
+our next excursion, when we shall have earned another vacation by
+useful work. The very thought of it already brings us pleasure.
+And so, all hail, sunny Italia! What a picture this Bay of Naples
+is! We sail past our former haunts, Capri and Sorrento, and are
+soon in our hotel at Naples, where we are delighted to rejoin our
+friends.
+
+From this time forth it is impossible but that a change must occur
+in the character of these notes. There is a first time to
+everything, and it is first impressions which I have endeavored
+honestly to convey; but my first impressions of Europe were
+obtained years ago. The gloss and enthusiasm of novelty are
+wanting. The sober second thought is proverbial; but there is a
+sober second sight as well, and it is this I am about to take.
+Besides this, Europe is more familiar to everybody than the East.
+Many know it through personal experience, and I shall therefore
+content myself with giving the salient features of our homeward
+progress from this point.
+
+We find Naples, Sorrento, Capri, and all the pretty spots around
+the bay much improved since our last visit. The people seem to us
+to be remarkably fine-looking, but perhaps this is mainly owing to
+the miserable races we have been seeing lately. The museum which
+contains the principal treasures found at Pompeii and Herculaneum
+is greatly improved, and one has no difficulty now in determining
+just how the people of those cities lived. There are even models
+of the houses shown. The frescoes and sculptures are far finer
+than I had remembered them, and indeed there are so many articles
+of furniture and domestic utensils that one cannot help admitting
+that those who argue that man travels in a circle just as the
+world goes round, and never advances, have some ground for their
+theory in these remarkable productions of the first century. We
+are in the land of music, sure enough!--Here is the list of operas
+to be performed to-night, apart from numerous dramatic
+performances: "Norma," "Sonnambula," "La Belle Hélène," "Martha."
+You will please take it for granted that our nights here, with few
+exceptions, will be spent hearing one or another opera, for of all
+the pleasures of civilized society which we have missed most in
+our travels, we rank first after the absence of refined women the
+total absence of music. We hunger for sweet sounds.
+
+We were fortunate this time in getting into the Blue Grotto--the
+sea being quite smooth. The reflections upon the rocky roof were
+not as fine as we expected; but Miss N. pronounced the water "the
+prettiest blue that ever was," and she is an authority upon color.
+While at Capri we ascended to the villa of Tiberius, on the edge
+of a perpendicular cliff nearly two thousand feet high. It was
+from this rock that ruler was wont to throw his victims into the
+sea. He found they never troubled him again. And now I write amid
+the orange groves of Sorrento, where we have been spending a few
+days.
+
+We have just finished, in company with our friends, a three-days'
+excursion to Pæstum, embracing the famous drive along the coast to
+Amalfi. Certainly I know nothing of the kind in the world equal to
+this road in grandeur, and if any of you ever visit Naples I advise
+you to let nothing interfere with your going to Amalfi. At Sorrento
+we joined our friends, Mr. H. and party, and our Windsor Hotel
+delegation was further and happily augmented by Mr. and Mrs. I. and
+family. Can you wonder that our daily excursions were delightful?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ROME, March 26.
+
+Rome once more! What a change! A miniature Paris has been added to
+old Rome since we first saw it, and even old Rome itself is
+modernized completely. Much of the picturesque is lost, but well
+lost, since it brings us clean streets, improved dwellings, and
+all the accompaniments of progress; but, notwithstanding its now
+greater likeness to modern cities, it is not with these Rome vies.
+Her empire is not of to-day, but over the mighty past she alone
+holds undisputed sway, and the spirit of ages gone still infuses
+itself into everything in Rome. I thought even modern structures
+were unlike their fellows elsewhere, as if the mere fact that they
+stood in Rome invested them with a peculiar halo of classic
+dignity and importance. Then Rome still has to boast of so many of
+the best things which the world has to show. No other cathedral is
+so grand as St. Peter's nor so beautiful as St. Paul's; no other
+"bit of color" is equal to the Transfiguration; no other heroic
+statue is to be compared with the Augustus; nowhere else is so
+sweet a girl-face as the Cenci; no other group is to be named with
+the Laocoon, no other fresco with the Aurora; and where is there
+another Moses, or Apollo Belvedere, or Antinous, or where is there
+vocal music so heavenly as that of the Pope's choir? Nowhere. And
+so it comes that the world still flocks to Rome, and must continue
+its pilgrimage hither to this Mecca for a thousand years to come;
+and artists by the score, day after day, multiply copies of these
+wonders of art, the recognized "best" in their various classes
+which man has yet brought forth. All these works, and others
+unmentioned, I returned to with enhanced pleasure. They all seemed
+greater and finer to me than when I saw them before. I had not
+forgotten them, while the mass of mediocre works had left no
+trace.
+
+It is thus that the true fire of genius vindicates its right to
+immortality. Generations may come and go, fashions and tastes may
+change, but "a thing of beauty" remains "a joy forever." While the
+statues and pictures of Rome, therefore, gave me far greater
+pleasure than before, I have to confess that the historical
+associations gave me much less. When in Rome before I was
+overflowing with Shakespeare, Byron and Macaulay, and would wander
+away alone and recite to myself on the appropriate sites the
+passages connected with them. This time I fear our friends proved
+too congenial. We dwelt too much in the happy present to give
+ourselves up to the historical past; but I do not think one gets
+the sweetest juices out of Rome unless he gives way to the
+melancholy vein now and then, and "stalks apart in joyless
+reverie."
+
+Another reason for the difference suggests itself. One fresh from
+Egypt, where he has been digging among the five thousand years
+B.C., and lost in amazement at what the race was even then
+producing, must experience some difficulty in getting up a
+respectable amount of enthusiasm for structures so recent as the
+time of Christ; the "rascally comparative" intrudes to chill it
+with its cold breath.
+
+There is a third reason, perhaps--and reasons do seem as plenty as
+blackberries, now that I begin to write them down--we are so near
+home the echoes of business affairs begin to sound in our ears. We
+snuff the battle as it were afar off. It is impossible to become
+so entirely absorbed in the story of the Cenci as to prevent the
+morning's telegram from home intruding, and so it came about that
+this time we did less moralizing than before. We were fortunate in
+being in Rome during Easter Week, which gave us an opportunity to
+hear the best music; and certainly there is no choir for vocal
+music which can rank with that of the Pope. It is the only choir I
+ever heard which I felt the finest organ would spoil. It produces
+a strange and powerful effect, the music itself seeming to be of a
+peculiar order unlike any other. One of our young ladies,
+describing her feelings to a friend, said that at one time she
+felt she was really in heaven; but when the "Miserere" broke
+forth, she knew she was only a poor sinner struggling to get
+there.
+
+We visited, with our friends, the various studios. In painting
+there does not appear to be a high standard of excellence. The
+Roman school does not stand well, but in statuary it is better. A
+young American artist, Mr. Harnisch, seemed to me to be doing the
+most creditable work. His busts have already given him reputation,
+and he has a figure now in plaster, "Antigone," which I rate as
+the best classical statue in process of completion which we saw.
+This young artist is not probably as good a manager as some of his
+more pretentious countrymen, and, I fear, we are to wait some time
+before a Congressional committee can be induced to give him a
+commission; but in the opinion of real Italian sculptors he is an
+artist. There are those who have "adorned" our public edifices
+with huge works to whom certainly no one outside of America would
+apply the name. We shall hear of Mr. Harnisch by-and-by; he is
+young, and can wait. I was highly gratified at making the
+acquaintance of Dr. Smiles, author of "Self-Help," and that
+favorite of mine, "The Scotch Naturalist," and other valued works.
+He is a most delightful companion and a true Scotchman, and hadn't
+we "a canny day thegether" at Tivoli! Through him I met Mr.
+William Black, who is a small, young man, with a face that lights
+up, and eyes that sparkle through his spectacles. Mr. Petty, R.A.,
+and he were doing Italy together, and no doubt we are to see
+traces of their travels in their respective lines ere long.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FLORENCE, Wednesday, April 9.
+
+We spent a few days in Florence, but it rained almost continually,
+as indeed it has done all winter. This has been the most
+disagreeable season ever known in Italy, we hear from every
+quarter. Sight-seeing requires sunshine: but we nevertheless did
+the galleries, and were delighted with the masterpieces for which
+the city is famed. The statuary, however, is much inferior to that
+of Rome. In the way of painting I was most interested in comparing
+the numerous Madonnas of Raphael, and seeing how he, at last,
+reached "the face of all the world" in the San Sisto. He seems to
+have held as loyally as a true knight to his first love. His
+Madonnas have all the same type of face. You could never hesitate
+about their authorship. Emphatically they are one and all
+"Raphael's Madonnas," and very much alike--even the one which the
+Grand Duke loved so fondly as to take it about with him wherever
+he travelled is only a little sweeter than the rest. It is a
+strange fact that it was not by painting Madonnas at all the
+master obtained his inspiration. He painted the portrait of a
+lady, which is still seen in the Pitti Palace, from whose face he
+drew the lacking halo of awe and sublimity. He idealized this
+woman's face, and the San Sisto came to satisfy all one can
+imagine about the Madonna. But the face of Christ! Who shall paint
+it satisfactorily? No one. This is something beyond the region of
+art. A divine-human face cannot be depicted, and all the efforts I
+have seen are not only failures which one can lament, but many are
+caricatures at which one becomes indignant. I was greatly pleased
+that a true artist, Leonardo da Vinci, realized this, and painted
+his Christ with averted head. Every great painter in older times
+seems to have thought it incumbent upon him to paint a Christ, and
+consequently you meet them everywhere. As for the "Fathers"
+(_i.e._, Jehovah) one sees, these seem to me positively
+sacrilegious. I wonder the arms of the men who ventured upon such
+sacred ground did not wither at their sides. To paint old men with
+tremendous white flowing beards--a cross between Santa Claus and
+Bluebeard--and call them God! Here is materialism for you with a
+vengeance. These audacious men forgot that _He_ was not seen
+in the whirlwind, neither in the storm, but never seen at all;
+only _heard in the still_, small voice.
+
+Of course I visited Mrs. Browning's grave in Florence. I had the
+melancholy satisfaction of hearing, from one who knew her
+intimately, many details concerning her life here. Mr. Browning
+left Florence the day after she died, leaving the house, his
+books, papers, and even unfinished letters, as they were when he
+was called to her bedside the night before, and has never
+returned; nor has he ever been known to mention her name, or to
+refer to the blow which left him alone in the world. He seems to
+have been worthy even of a love like hers. We stayed over two days
+at Milan to see friends, and while there ascended to see once more
+the celebrated cathedral. It is finer--I do not say grander--but
+much finer, especially as seen from the roof, than any other
+building in Europe.
+
+From Milan we went to Turin, and spent a day there, as we had
+never seen that city. It is prettily situated, very clean, with
+regular streets, but without any special objects of interest. The
+splendid view of the snow-clad Alps, and the fertile valley of the
+Po, as seen from the monastery, fully repaid us for the day given
+to Turin. We leave Italy in the morning. It is impossible not to
+like the country and to be deeply interested in its future. While
+it has made considerable progress since the genius of Cavour made
+it once more a nation, still its path is just now beset with
+dangers. A standing army of six hundred thousand and all the
+concomitants of royalty to maintain, and a large national debt
+upon which interest has to be paid--these require severe
+taxation, and even with this the revenues show a deficit. That
+last resort, paper currency, has been sought, and now the
+circulating medium--although "based on the entire property of the
+nation," as our demagogues phrase it--is at a discount of ten per
+cent., which threatens to increase.
+
+But the chief trouble arises from the religious difficulty--that
+sad legacy from the past, of which, fortunately, a new land like
+America knows nothing. The Pope and all strict Catholics stand
+coldly aloof from the government, ready to give trouble whenever
+opportunity offers. But I have faith in Italy. She will conquer
+her enemies, and once again be a great power worthy of her
+glorious past. All her troubles, however, are not to seek.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PARIS, Thursday, May 1.
+
+Now comes somewhat of a return to the more prosaic side of life.
+We made an excursion to the famous iron and steel works of the
+Schneider Company at Creuzot. What a concern this is, and how
+small we all are upon the other side of the Atlantic! Fifteen
+thousand five hundred men are employed here. We saw fifteen steam
+hammers in one shop. The mill for rolling only is 1,500 by 350
+feet, filled with trains. The giant, however, is the 80-ton steam
+hammer, with its huge appliances. Masses of steel 35 tons in
+weight are handled as readily as we move a rail ingot. One ingot
+of steel weighing 120 tons was shown to us. This monster hammer is
+required only for armor plate and guns--war material. The happier
+demands of peaceful industry are met with ordinary machinery. Long
+may it be, therefore, before America can boast an engine of even
+half the size. Our visit to Creuzot was both interesting and
+instructive. Mr. Schneider and his officers were most cordial and
+attentive to us.
+
+We spend a few days in Paris, which shows even more than the other
+cities we have revisited the march of improvement. It is farther
+beyond competition in its line than it ever was. I appreciate its
+attractions more than I have done upon previous visits; but one
+must be exceptionally strong who can persist in leading an earnest
+and useful life here, where so much exists to persuade one that
+after all amusement is the principal thing to be sought for. Most
+of the American residents seem to me to sink naturally to the
+level of thinking most--or certainly talking most--of the newest
+opera, or even the best ballet, or where is to be found the best
+_table d'hôte_; but, after all, what can a man do who leaves
+his own country, and the duties incumbent upon him there, to
+become a man about town here, with no work in the world to do.
+Good Americans come here when they die, it is said. I think it
+would be well for most of them if they did postpone their journey
+until then.
+
+As we have travelled through France bands of the "Reserves" have
+been constantly seen repairing to their camps. Every Frenchman
+now, without exception, must serve as a soldier and drill at least
+one month every year. No substitutes are allowed. Soldiers!
+soldiers everywhere! Not a petty town at which we have stayed over
+night but has its barracks--its troops who parade its streets
+every morning. The entire male population is being trained so as
+most skilfully to murder, upon the first favorable opportunity,
+such of their fellow-Christians who may happen to be called
+Germans, while in Germany a similar state of affairs is rendered
+necessary to prevent the success of their "brothers'" intention.
+You see there was a frontier that was not "scientific," and it was
+"rectified" a few years ago; but these rectifications, of all
+things in the world, never remain rectified, and so we are to
+awake some fine morning to find the "civilized" Christian (!)
+nations (save the mark!) nobly engaged in butchering each other,
+even if this is the nineteenth century and we all worship Christ
+and have the same Father in heaven. That thoughtful educated
+people, even in England and America, can still deliberately send a
+son "to the army," to be taught the butchering trade, his victims
+being human, always saddens me when I think of it. The progress of
+the world has not only been slow but small, till the profession of
+arms, as it is called, is held to be unfit except for men of
+brutal natures.
+
+In Italy it is much the same. She has 600,000 men under arms, and
+is drilling others, while Russia has just ordered an addition to
+her hosts exceeding five-fold the entire American army. England's
+war expenditure this year exceeds that of only five years ago by
+$30,000,000, which is more than America spends for her army
+altogether. And so the whole of Europe is armed and arming, as if
+conscious that a storm is about to burst, or at least that such a
+stupendous drain upon her productive resources has to be endured
+to insure safety. Happy America! she alone seems to occupy a
+position free from grave and imminent dangers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LONDON.
+
+Our next step brought us to monster London, where we attended the
+interesting meeting of the British Iron and Steel Institute, and
+being called upon as the only representative of American iron and
+steel manufacturers present, I had to venture a few remarks.
+Whatever England may be justly chargeable with in the past for her
+neglect of scientific methods and the improvements of the day, it
+is evident she now occupies the van in this respect.
+
+No one could be present at these meetings without being impressed
+with the amount and thoroughness of the scientific knowledge now
+engaged in the iron and steel manufacture of Great Britain. Not
+less remarkable seemed to me the willingness upon the part of all
+to report and explain every advance made in the various processes
+to their fellows. The old idea of trade secrets seems thoroughly
+exploded, and a free interchange of practice and theory is now
+seen to be the best for all. I cannot but believe that had the
+manufacturers of America adopted this policy years ago, many
+millions squandered in the erection of works at unsuitable
+locations would have been saved. It struck me as strange that no
+less a personage than Earl Granville, who has had charge of her
+Majesty's foreign affairs and been leader in the House of Lords,
+should have been in attendance and participated in these meetings.
+The company also had the attendance of two dukes; but these were
+Lord Granville's compeers only in title. All of the three,
+however, rightfully claim to rank with us as iron-masters. The
+Bessemer medal was presented this year to Peter Cooper, of New
+York, much to the honor of the donors, I think.
+
+For one shilling, any one curious to know something of the sights
+of this London, can do so by purchasing a good-sized
+volume--Dickens's London. A look at it will soon satisfy one how
+true it is that compared to London all other cities are but
+villages. It will very soon count four millions of people under
+its sway. Every year one hundred thousand are added to the mass,
+and not even depressed times seem to limit this increase. The
+reason for this is patent; there is everything here that there is
+elsewhere, and much that can be found nowhere else; in every
+department of life, for earnest work in any special line, or for
+amusement--for sight-seeing, study, or fashion--it is here that
+the very best of everything is concentrated; the very cream of all
+the world is here, because no other place is large enough or rich
+enough to support it. To know the best that has been said and done
+in the world of the past is no doubt much, as Matthew Arnold says,
+but there is also much in seeing and living where the best of
+to-day is said and done, and if possible in the company of those
+who have said or done any of the best things in any line. Life
+with godlike men on earth must be the best preparative for
+companionship hereafter. This is possible in Britain only in
+London, for the celebrities and their works are centred here. An
+unusually large proportion of the population is of the wealthy
+classes, for the height of the average Briton's ambition is, in
+addition to the essential estate in the country, to be in
+possession of a mansion in London. After these are acquired, and
+his wife and daughters have been presented at court, any after-
+successes may be regarded as details which ornament the solid
+edifice of position attained; and truly, as far as I have seen
+human life in any part of the world, I know of no state which in
+itself seems capable of affording so much pleasure--were happiness
+dependent upon external circumstances--as that which rewards
+successful Britons when with their usual good sense they retire
+from business.
+
+If the owner of a large estate in Britain with its hundreds of
+people, who are as it were, under his care, its pretty quaint
+villages and honeysuckled cottages, its running brooks, its hedge-
+rows and green fields, all giving him scope for change and
+improvement--if such a man is not happy and does not enjoy life,
+let him seek for some more favorable conditions in some other
+planet than this, say I. I must not attempt to follow our steps
+through England and Scotland, nor to tell you of the cordial
+welcomes and thousand kind attentions bestowed upon us. We spent a
+very, very happy month among dear kind friends, and never enjoyed
+Merrie England more. My mother and Miss F. joined us in London,
+and took care of us until we sailed for New York, which we did by
+the new Cunard steamer Gallia, June 14th, reaching New York on the
+24th, exactly eight months from the day we sailed out of the
+Golden Gate. And now, June 25th, I write these lines at Cresson,
+on the crest of the Alleghanies, having reached our starting point
+and earned our right to fellowship with the favored fraternity of
+globe-trotters.
+
+The voyage round the world should be made sailing westward from
+London or New York, as this gives the traveller the prevailing
+winds in his favor; at least after he reaches New York, for the
+Atlantic is never quite blessed with steady winds from the west.
+The trade-winds waft the traveller on his way when he goes toward
+the west; should he take the contrary direction and start via
+England to the East, he must experience many rough days and nights
+upon the sea. We saw the steamers from England battling against
+the monsoon, which only served to push us steadily and smoothly
+on. Let all my readers make due note of this--westward, not
+eastward. Another even greater advantage, at least to those who,
+like myself, are affected by heat, is obtained by taking the
+westward course: the various countries can be visited in months
+during which no extreme heat is possible. The best time to start
+from San Francisco is early in September, so that Japan is reached
+about the first of October, which is a delightful month in that
+pretty toy-land, neither too hot nor too cold. A month will enable
+the tourist to see all that is specially interesting--Yokohama,
+Yeddo, Kiobe, Kioto, Osaka, Nagasaki, and some of the notable
+inland sights. This brings him to China (Shanghai) the middle of
+November. After a few days there, a trip up the Yangtse, on one of
+the excellent American style of river boats, some six hundred
+miles to Hang-Kow, should not be missed, as one gets by this the
+best possible look at the Chinese at home. Hong Kong, the next
+stage, is reached, say early in December. Here you do Canton,
+Macao, and other interesting points, and reach Singapore, almost
+at the equator, and eat your Christmas dinner directly below your
+friends at home. If the reports from Java are favorable, a
+tempting excursion to that interesting island can be made from
+Singapore; but when we were at Singapore Europeans were being
+brought there from Java, and hurried north to cool places as the
+only cure for maladies contracted in that island. Therefore we
+abandoned our intended trip thither.
+
+The traveller can decide whether to take steamer from Singapore
+via Bankok, Siam, and do that coast of Asia, and reach Calcutta
+from the west, or to follow our course via Ceylon. If he has
+plenty of time, the former may enable him to see more of India;
+but our experience was that there is more to see by any route than
+can be properly taken in upon one journey. If the wanderer follow
+us to Ceylon, we advise him to cross from Colombo to Southern
+India by steamer to Philipopolis, and go up through Southern India
+by land to Madras, as this will give him an opportunity to see the
+strange architecture and many customs peculiar to that region. We
+did the principal sights of India, but we advise any of our
+readers who make the journey, instead of returning from Delhi as
+we did, to go further north to Amritsir, and as far toward Cabool
+as the rail may extend. Simla upon the hills should also be
+visited. We often regret that we had not a week or two more to
+spend in India. We were rather late in the season, and Bombay was
+getting hot--indeed, it is always rather hot anywhere at the
+equator--but with the exception of a few hours at midday no great
+inconvenience was found, and the nights and the mornings were
+pleasant.
+
+By the time the traveller has reached Egypt, and seen Alexandria
+and Cairo, he will be disposed, if our condition be any guide, to
+rest and be thankful, consigning any further extended travels to
+some future time when he has fully digested what he has gathered
+in his wanderings, and is fresh. When he touches pretty Catania,
+on his way west, he will feel for the first time that he is once
+more, as it were, at home among his own kith and kin, and has been
+quite long enough among strangers. Going round the world yields
+one exquisite pleasure which cannot be experienced upon any other
+tour. Our way over the long seas has not to be retraced. The
+farther we go, the nearer we come to home; every day's journey
+away from those we love, is also one day's step nearer to them. I
+think, also, that no amount of travel in detached portions of the
+world enables one to contemplate the world and the human race as a
+whole. One must traverse the ball round and round to arrive at a
+broad, liberal, correct estimate of humanity--its work, its aims,
+its destiny.
+
+Go, therefore, my friends--all you who are so situated as to be
+able to avail yourselves of this privilege--go and see for
+yourselves how greatly we are bound by prejudices, how checkered
+and uncertain are many of our own advances, how very nearly all is
+balanced. No nation has all that is best, neither is any bereft of
+some advantages, and no nation, or tribe, or people is so unhappy
+that it would be willing to exchange its condition for that of any
+other. See, also, that in every society there are many individuals
+distinguished for traits of character which place them upon a par
+with the best and highest we know at home, and that such are
+everywhere regarded with esteem, and held up as models for lower
+and baser natures to emulate.
+
+The traveller will not see in all his wanderings so much abject,
+repulsive misery among human beings in the most heathen lands, as
+that which startles him in his civilized Christian home, for
+nowhere are the extremes of wealth and poverty so painfully
+presented. He will learn, too, if he be observant, that very
+little is required after all to make mankind happy, and that the
+prizes of life worth contending for are, generally speaking,
+within the reach of the great mass.
+
+Did you ever sum up these prizes and think how very little the
+millionaire has beyond the peasant, and how very often his
+additions tend not to happiness but to misery! What constitutes
+the choice food of the world? Plain beef, common vegetables and
+bread, and the best of all fruits--the apple; the only nectar
+bubbles from the brook without money and without price. All that
+our race eats or drinks beyond this range must be inferior, if not
+positively injurious. Dress--what man, or rather what woman
+wears--is less and less comfortable in proportion to its frills
+and its cost, and no jewel is so refined as the simple flower in
+the hair, which the village maid has for the plucking. All that
+women overload themselves with beyond this range is a source of
+unhappiness. To be the most simply attired is to be the most
+elegantly dressed. So much for true health and happiness in all
+that we eat, and drink, and wear.
+
+If we extend the inquiry to the luxuries and adornments of life,
+is there any music--which of course comes first--comparable in
+grandeur to that of the wave, stirring the soul with its mighty
+organ tones as it breaks upon the beach, or any so exquisitely
+fine as that of the murmuring brook which sings its song forever
+to every listener upon its banks, while above birds warble and the
+zephyr plays its divine accompaniment among the trees! We spend
+fortunes for picture-galleries, but what are the tiny painted
+copies compared to the great originals, the mountains, the glens,
+the streams and waterfalls, the fertile fields, the breezy downs,
+the silver sea! These are the gems of the universal gallery, the
+common heritage of man, the property of the humblest who has eyes
+to see, and as free as the air we breathe. We have our
+conservatories and spend our thousands upon orchids, but which of
+nature's smiles ranks with the rose and the mignonette, the daisy
+and the bluebell, and the sweet forget-me-not blooming for all
+earth's children, and which grow upon the window-sill of the
+artisan and which the laborer blesses at his cottage door!
+
+If we go higher still in the scale, we find that the companionship
+of the gods is not denied to the steady wage-receiving man, for
+Shakespeare and our Burns and our Scott can be had for sixpence
+per volume. In this blessed age in which we are privileged to live
+even the immortals are cheap and visit the toiler. We see the rich
+rolling over the land in their carriages, but blessed beyond these
+is the man who strolls along the hedge-rows. The connoisseur in
+his gallery misses the health-giving breeze which brings happiness
+to the devotee who seeks the original afield. The lady in her
+overheated conservatory knows nothing of the joyous rapture of her
+more fortunate sister who gathers the spoils of the glen. Ah, my
+friends, ponder well over this truth: the more one dwells with
+her, the more one draws from her, the closer one creeps to her
+bosom, the sweeter is nature's kiss. From man's neglect of her for
+meaner substitutes come most of the disappointment and unhappiness
+of life. The masses of mankind are happy all round the world
+because their pleasures are drawn so largely from sources which
+lie open to all. The rich are not to be envied, for truly "there
+is no purchase in money" of any real happiness. When used for our
+own gratification, it injures us; when used ostentatiously, it
+brings care; when hoarded, it narrows the soul. Nature has not
+provided a means by which any man can use riches for selfish
+purposes without suffering therefrom. There is only one source of
+true blessedness in wealth, and that comes from giving it away for
+ends that tend to elevate our brothers and enable them to share it
+with us. Nature is gloriously communistic after all, God bless
+her! and sees that a pretty fair division is made, let man hoard
+as he may. The secret of happiness is renunciation.
+
+Another advantage to be derived from a journey round the world is,
+I think, that the sense of the brotherhood of man, the unity of
+the race, is very greatly strengthened thereby, for one sees that
+the virtues are the same in all lands, and produce their good
+fruits, and render their possessors blessed in Benares and Kioto
+as in London or New York; that the vices, too, are akin, and also
+that the motives which govern men and their actions and aims are
+very much the same the world over. In their trials and sufferings,
+as in their triumphs and rejoicings, men do not differ, and so the
+heart swells and the sympathies extend, and we embrace all men in
+our thoughts, leaving not one outside the range of our solicitude
+and wishing every one well. The Japanese, Chinese, Cingalese,
+Indians, Egyptians, all have been made our friends through
+individuals of each race of whom we have heard much that was good
+and noble, pure lives, high aims, good deeds, and how can we,
+therefore, any longer dwell apart, believing our own land or our
+own people in any respect the chosen of God! No, no; we know now
+in a sense much more vivid than before that all the children of
+the earth dwell under the reign of the same divine law, and that
+for each and every one that law evolves through all the ages, the
+higher from the lower, the good from evil, slowly but surely
+separating the dross from the pure gold, disintegrating what is
+pernicious, consolidating what is beneficial to the race, so that
+the feeling that formerly told us that we alone had special care
+bestowed upon us gives place to the knowledge that every one in
+his day and generation, wherever found, receives the truth best
+fitted for his elevation from that state to the next higher, and
+so
+
+  "Ilka blade of grass keps its ain drap o' dew,"
+
+and grows its own fruit after its kind. For these and many other
+reasons, let all thoughtful souls follow my example and visit
+their brethren from one land to another till the circle is
+complete.
+
+The unprecedented advance made by western nations in the past and
+present generations, upon which we continually plume ourselves, is
+shared by the world in general. Wherever we have been, one story met
+us. Everywhere there is progress, not only material but intellectual
+as well, and rapid progress too. The oldest inhabitant has always
+his comparison to offer between the days of his youth and the
+advantages possessed by the youth of to-day. Matters are not as they
+were. We saw no race which had retrograded, if we except Egypt,
+which is now in a transitional state, and will ultimately prove no
+exception to the rule. The whole world moves, and moves in the right
+direction--upward and onward--the things that are better than those
+that have been and those to come to be better than those of to-day.
+The law of evolution--the higher from the lower--is not discredited
+by a voyage round the world and the knowledge of what is transpiring
+from New York round to New York again gives us joy this morning as
+we sum it all up.
+
+The trip has been without a single unpleasant incident. We have not
+missed one connection, nor ever been beyond the reach of all the
+comforts of life, nor have we had one unhappy or even lonely hour.
+Every day has brought something new or interesting. And sitting here
+in our quiet mountain home this morning, I feel that there is
+scarcely a prize that could be offered for which I would exchange
+the knowledge obtained and the memories of things seen during my
+trip. One of the great pleasures of travel in the East is the
+unbounded hospitality--excessive kindness--everywhere met with. Will
+the numerous kind friends to whom we are so deeply indebted--a host
+far too great to name--please accept this general acknowledgment as
+at least a slight evidence that their goodness to us is not
+unappreciated? At every stage of our travels I have been struck with
+the cheering thought, that notwithstanding the indisputable fact
+that a vast amount of misery seems inseparable from human life,
+still the general condition of mankind is a happy one. Even the
+Hindoo in India, or the Malay in the Archipelago--and these seem to
+exist under the worst conditions--each of these constantly sees
+cause to bless his good fortune and render thanks--sincere,
+heartfelt thanks--to a kind Providence for casting his life in
+pleasant places, and not in damp, foggy England, or amid American
+frosts and snows. We have their sincere sympathy, I assure you. Nor
+is patriotism a peculiarly western virtue. No matter who or what he
+is, the man of the East in his heart exalts his own country and his
+own race, and esteems them specially favored of the gods. And indeed
+it is with nations as with individuals: as none are entirely good,
+so none are entirely bad. The unseen power is at work in all lands,
+evolving the higher from the lower and steadily improving all, so
+the traveller finds much to commend in every country, and seeing
+this he grows tolerant and liberal, and able more heartily to sing
+with Burns--
+
+   "Then let us pray that come it may--
+      As come it will, for a' that--
+    That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,
+      May bear the gree, for a' that;
+    For a' that, and a' that,
+      It's coming yet, for a'that,
+    That man to man, the warld o'er
+      Shall brothers be, for a' that."
+
+In which hope, nay, in the confident and inspiring belief in the
+sure coming of the day of the Brotherhood of Man, I lay down my
+pen and bring to a close this record of my tour round the world.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Round the World, by Andrew Carnegie
+
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