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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Letters from America + Preface by Henry James + +Author: Rupert Brooke + +Commentator: Henry James + + +Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6445] +This file was first posted on December 14, 2002 +Last Updated: April 10, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM AMERICA *** + + + + +Produced by Tonya Allen, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + LETTERS FROM AMERICA + </h1> + <h2> + By Rupert Brooke. + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + With a Preface by Henry James + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h4> + [Frontispiece: Rupert Brooke 1913] + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NOTE + </h2> + <p> + The author started in May 1913 on a journey to the United States, Canada, + and the South Seas, from which he returned next year at the beginning of + June. The first thirteen chapters of this book were written as letters to + the <i>Westminster Gazette</i>. He would probably not have republished + them in their present form, as he intended to write a longer book on his + travels; but they are now printed with only the correction of a few + evident slips. + </p> + <p> + The two remaining chapters appeared in the <i>New Statesman</i>, soon + after the outbreak of war. + </p> + <p> + Thanks are due to the Editors who have allowed the republication of the + articles. + </p> + <p> + E. M. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> NOTE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_TOC"> DETAILED CONTENTS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> RUPERT BROOKE: by Henry James </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> LETTERS FROM AMERICA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> VII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> VIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> IX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> X </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> XI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> XII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> XIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> XIV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> AN UNUSUAL YOUNG MAN </a> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_TOC" id="link2H_TOC"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <p> + <b>DETAILED CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p> + Note <br /> RUPERT BROOKE: by Henry James <br /> LETTERS FROM AMERICA <br /> + I. Arrival <br /> II. New York <br /> III. New York—(<i>continued</i>) + <br /> IV. Boston and Harvard <br /> V. Montreal and Ottawa <br /> VI. Quebec + and the Saguenay <br /> VII. Ontario <br /> VIII. Niagara Falls <br /> IX. To + Winnipeg <br /> X. Outside <br /> XI. The Prairies <br /> XII. The Indians + <br /> XIII. The Rockies <br /> XIV. Some Niggers <br /> An Unusual Young Man + <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RUPERT BROOKE: by Henry James + </h2> + <p> + Nothing more generally or more recurrently solicits us, in the light of + literature, I think, than the interest of our learning how the poet, the + true poet, and above all the particular one with whom we may for the + moment be concerned, has come into his estate, asserted and preserved his + identity, worked out his question of sticking to that and to nothing else; + and has so been able to reach us and touch us <i>as</i> a poet, in spite + of the accidents and dangers that must have beset this course. The chances + and changes, the personal history of any absolute genius, draw us to watch + his adventure with curiosity and inquiry, lead us on to win more of his + secret and borrow more of his experience (I mean, needless to say, when we + are at all critically minded); but there is something in the clear safe + arrival of the poetic nature, in a given case, at the point of its free + and happy exercise, that provokes, if not the cold impulse to challenge or + cross-question it, at least the need of understanding so far as possible + how, in a world in which difficulty and disaster are frequent, the most + wavering and flickering of all fine flames has escaped extinction. We go + back, we help ourselves to hang about the attestation of the first spark + of the flame, and like to indulge in a fond notation of such facts as that + of the air in which it was kindled and insisted on proceeding, or yet + perhaps failed to proceed, to a larger combustion, and the draughts, + blowing about the world, that were either, as may have happened, to + quicken its native force or perhaps to extinguish it in a gust of undue + violence. It is naturally when the poet has emerged unmistakeably clear, + or has at a happy moment of his story seemed likely to, that our attention + and our suspense in the matter are most intimately engaged; and we are at + any rate in general beset by the impression and haunted by the observed + law, that the growth and the triumph of the faculty at its finest have + been positively in proportion to certain rigours of circumstance. + </p> + <p> + It is doubtless not indeed so much that this appearance has been + inveterate as that the quality of genius in fact associated with it is apt + to strike us as the clearest we know. We think of Dante in harassed exile, + of Shakespeare under sordidly professional stress, of Milton in + exasperated exposure and material darkness; we think of Burns and + Chatterton, and Keats and Shelley and Coleridge, we think of Leopardi and + Musset and Emily Bronte and Walt Whitman, as it is open to us surely to + think even of Wordsworth, so harshly conditioned by his spareness and + bareness and bleakness—all this in reference to the voices that have + most proved their command of the ear of time, and with the various + examples added of those claiming, or at best enjoying, but the slighter + attention; and their office thus mainly affects us as that of showing in + how jostled, how frequently arrested and all but defeated a hand, the + torch could still be carried. It is not of course for the countrymen of + Byron and of Tennyson and Swinburne, any more than for those of Victor + Hugo, to say nothing of those of Edmond Rostand, to forget the occurrence + on occasion of high instances in which the dangers all seem denied and + only favour and facility recorded; but it would take more of these than we + can begin to set in a row to purge us of that prime determinant, after + all, of our affection for the great poetic muse, the vision of the rarest + sensibility and the largest generosity we know kept by her at their pitch, + kept fighting for their life and insisting on their range of expression, + amid doubts and derisions and buffets, even sometimes amid stones of + stumbling quite self-invited, that might at any moment have made the loss + of the precious clue really irremediable. Which moral, so pointed, + accounts assuredly for half our interest in the poetic character—a + sentiment more unlikely than not, I think, to survive a sustained + succession of Victor Hugos and Rostands, or of Byrons, Tennysons and + Swinburnes. We quite consciously miss in these bards, as we find ourselves + rather wondering even at our failure to miss it in Shelley, that such + "complications" as they may have had to reckon with were not in general of + the cruelly troublous order, and that no stretch of the view either of our + own "theory of art" or of our vivacity of passion as making trouble, + contributes perceptibly the required savour of the pathetic. We cling, + critically or at least experientially speaking, to our superstition, if + not absolutely to our approved measure, of this grace and proof; and that + truly, to cut my argument short, is what sets us straight down before a + sudden case in which the old discrimination quite drops to the ground—in + which we neither on the one hand miss anything that the general + association could have given it, nor on the other recognise the pomp that + attends the grand exceptions I have mentioned. + </p> + <p> + Rupert Brooke, young, happy, radiant, extraordinarily endowed and + irresistibly attaching, virtually met a soldier's death, met it in the + stress of action and the all but immediate presence of the enemy; but he + is before us as a new, a confounding and superseding example altogether, + an unprecedented image, formed to resist erosion by time or vulgarisation + by reference, of quickened possibilities, finer ones than ever before, in + the stuff poets may be noted as made of. With twenty reasons fixing the + interest and the charm that will henceforth abide in his name and + constitute, as we may say, his legend, he submits all helplessly to one in + particular which is, for appreciation, the least personal to him or + inseparable from him, and he does this because, while he is still in the + highest degree of the distinguished faculty and quality, we happen to feel + him even more markedly and significantly "modern." This is why I speak of + the mixture of his elements as new, feeling that it governs his example, + put by it in a light which nothing else could have equally contributed—so + that Byron for instance, who startled his contemporaries by taking for + granted scarce one of the articles that formed their comfortable faith and + by revelling in almost everything that made them idiots if he himself was + to figure as a child of truth, looks to us, by any such measure, + comparatively plated over with the impenetrable rococo of his own day. I + speak, I hasten to add, not of Byron's volume, his flood and his fortune, + but of his really having quarrelled with the temper and the accent of his + age still more where they might have helped him to expression than where + he but flew in their face. He hugged his pomp, whereas our unspeakably + fortunate young poet of to-day, linked like him also, for consecration of + the final romance, with the isles of Greece, took for <i>his</i> own the + whole of the poetic consciousness he was born to, and moved about in it as + a stripped young swimmer might have kept splashing through blue water and + coming up at any point that friendliness and fancy, with every prejudice + shed, might determine. Rupert expressed us <i>all</i>, at the highest tide + of our actuality, and was the creature of a freedom restricted only by + that condition of his blinding youth, which we accept on the whole with + gratitude and relief—given that I qualify the condition as dazzling + even to himself. How can it therefore not be interesting to see a little + what the wondrous modern in him consisted of? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I + </h2> + <p> + What it first and foremost really comes to, I think, is the fact that at + an hour when the civilised peoples are on exhibition, quite finally and + sharply on show, to each other and to the world, as they absolutely never + in all their long history have been before, the English tradition (both of + amenity and of energy, I naturally mean), should have flowered at once + into a specimen so beautifully producible. Thousands of other sentiments + are of course all the while, in different connections, at hand for us; but + it is of the exquisite civility, the social instincts of the race, <i>poetically</i> + expressed, that I speak; and it would be hard to overstate the felicity of + his fellow-countrymen's being able just now to say: "Yes, this, with the + imperfection of so many of our arrangements, with the persistence of so + many of our mistakes, with the waste of so much of our effort and the + weight of the many-coloured mantle of time that drags so redundantly about + us, this natural accommodation of the English spirit, this frequent + extraordinary beauty of the English aspect, this finest saturation of the + English intelligence by its most immediate associations, tasting as they + mainly do of the long past, this ideal image of English youth, in a word, + at once radiant and reflective, are things that appeal to us as + delightfully exhibitional beyond a doubt, yet as drawn, to the last fibre, + from the very wealth of our own conscience and the very force of our own + history. We haven't, for such an instance of our genius, to reach out to + strange places or across other, and otherwise productive, tracts; the + exemplary instance himself has well-nigh as a matter of course reached and + revelled, for that is exactly our way in proportion as we feel ourselves + clear. But the kind of experience so entailed, of contribution so + gathered, is just what we wear easiest when we have been least stinted of + it, and what our English use of makes perhaps our vividest reference to + our thick-growing native determinants." + </p> + <p> + Rupert Brooke, at any rate, the charmed commentator may well keep before + him, simply did all the usual English things—under the happy + provision of course that he found them in his way at their best; and it + was exactly most delightful in him that no inordinate expenditure, no + anxious extension of the common plan, as "liberally" applied all about + him, had been incurred or contrived to predetermine his distinction. It is + difficult to express on the contrary how peculiar a value attached to his + having simply "come in" for the general luck awaiting any English youth + who may not be markedly inapt for the traditional chances. He could in + fact easily strike those who most appreciated him as giving such an + account of the usual English things—to repeat the form of my + allusion to them—as seemed to address you to them, in their very + considerable number indeed, for any information about him that might + matter, but which left you wholly to judge whether they seemed justified + by their fruits. This manner about them, as one may call it in general, + often contributes to your impression that they make for a certain strain + of related modesty which may on occasion be one of their happiest effects; + it at any rate, in days when my acquaintance with them was slighter, used + to leave me gaping at the treasure of operation, the far recessional + perspectives, it took for granted and any offered demonstration of the + extent or the mysteries of which seemed unthinkable just in proportion as + the human resultant testified in some one or other of his odd ways to + their influence. He might not always be, at any rate on first + acquaintance, a resultant explosively human, but there was in any case one + reflection he could always cause you to make: "What a wondrous system it + indeed must be which insists on flourishing to all appearance under such + an absence of advertised or even of confessed relation to it as would do + honour to a vacuum produced by an air-pump!" The formulation, the + approximate expression of what the system at large might or mightn't do + for those in contact with it, became thus one's own fitful care, with + one's attention for a considerable period doubtless dormant enough, but + with the questions always liable to revive before the individual case. + </p> + <p> + Rupert Brooke made them revive as soon as one began to know him, or in + other words made one want to read back into him each of his promoting + causes without exception, to trace to some source in the ambient air + almost any one, at a venture, of his aspects; so precious a loose and + careless bundle of happy references did that inveterate trick of giving + the go-by to over-emphasis which he shared with his general kind fail to + prevent your feeling sure of his having about him. I think the liveliest + interest of these was that while not one of them was signally romantic, by + the common measure of the great English amenity, they yet hung together, + reinforcing and enhancing each other, in a way that seemed to join their + hands for an incomparably educative or civilising process, the great mark + of which was that it took some want of amenability in particular subjects + to betray anything like a gap. I do not mean of course to say that gaps, + and occasionally of the most flagrant, were made so supremely difficult of + occurrence; but only that the effect, in the human resultants who kept + these, and with the least effort, most in abeyance, was a thing one + wouldn't have had different by a single shade. I am not sure that such a + case of the recognisable was the better established by the fact of + Rupert's being one of the three sons of a house-master at Rugby, where he + was born in 1887 and where he lost his father in 1910, the elder of his + brothers having then already died and the younger being destined to fall + in battle at the allied Front, shortly after he himself had succumbed; but + the circumstance I speak of gives a peculiar and an especially welcome + consecration to that perceptible play in him of the inbred "public school" + character the bloom of which his short life had too little time to remove + and which one wouldn't for the world not have been disposed to note, with + everything else, in the beautiful complexity of his attributes. The fact + was that if one liked him—and I may as well say at once that few + young men, in our time, can have gone through life under a greater burden, + more easily carried and kept in its place, of being liked—one liked + absolutely everything about him, without the smallest exception; so that + he appeared to convert before one's eyes all that happened to him, or that + had or that ever might, not only to his advantage as a source of life and + experience, but to the enjoyment on its own side of a sort of + illustrational virtue or glory. This appearance of universal assimilation—often + indeed by incalculable ironic reactions which were of the very essence of + the restless young intelligence rejoicing in its gaiety—made each + part of his rich consciousness, so rapidly acquired, cling, as it were, to + the company of all the other parts, so as at once neither to miss any + touch of the luck (one keeps coming back to that), incurred by them, or to + let them suffer any want of its own rightness. It was as right, through + the spell he cast altogether, that he should have come into the world and + have passed his boyhood in that Rugby home, as that he should have been + able later on to wander as irrepressibly as the spirit moved him, or as + that he should have found himself fitting as intimately as he was very + soon to do into any number of the incalculabilities, the intellectual at + least, of the poetic temperament. He had them all, he gave himself in his + short career up to them all—and I confess that, partly for reasons + to be further developed, I am unable even to guess what they might + eventually have made of him; which is of course what brings us round again + to that view of him as the young poet with absolutely nothing but his + generic spontaneity to trouble about, the young poet profiting for + happiness by a general condition unprecedented for young poets, that I + began by indulging in. He went from Rugby to Cambridge, where, after a + while, he carried off a Fellowship at King's, and where, during a short + visit there in "May week," or otherwise early in June 1909, I first, and + as I was to find, very unforgettingly, met him. He reappears to me as with + his felicities all most promptly divinable, in that splendid setting of + the river at the "backs"; as to which indeed I remember vaguely wondering + what it was left to such a place to do with the added, the verily wasted, + grace of such a person, or how even such a person could hold his own, as + who should say, at such a pitch of simple scenic perfection. Any + difficulty dropped, however, to the reconciling vision; for that the young + man was publicly and responsibly a poet seemed the fact a little + over-officiously involved—to the promotion of a certain surprise (on + one's own part) at his having to "be" anything. It was to come over me + still more afterwards that nothing of that or of any other sort need + really have rested on him with a weight of obligation, and in fact I + cannot but think that life might have been seen and felt to suggest to + him, in an exposed unanimous conspiracy, that his status should be left to + the general sense of others, ever so many others, who would sufficiently + take care of it, and that such a fine rare case was accordingly as + arguable as it possibly <i>could</i> be—with the pure, undischarged + poetry of him and the latent presumption of his dying for his country the + only things to gainsay it. The question was to a certain extent crude, + "Why need he be a poet, why need he so specialise?" but if this was so it + was only, it was already, symptomatic of the interesting final truth that + he was to testify to his function in the unparalleled way. He was going to + have the life (the unanimous conspiracy so far achieved <i>that</i>), was + going to have it under no more formal guarantee than that of his appetite + and genius for it; and this was to help us all to the complete + appreciation of him. No single scrap of the English fortune at its easiest + and truest—which means of course with every vulgarity dropped out—but + was to brush him as by the readiest instinctive wing, never over-straining + a point or achieving a miracle to do so; only trusting his exquisite + imagination and temper to respond to the succession of his opportunities. + It is in the light of what this succession could in the most natural and + most familiar way in the world amount to for him that we find this idea of + a beautiful crowning modernness above all to meet his case. The + promptitude, the perception, the understanding, the quality of humour and + sociability, the happy lapses in the logic of inward reactions (save for + their all infallibly being poetic), of which he availed himself consented + to be as illustrational as any fondest friend could wish, whether the + subject of the exhibition was aware of the degree or not, and made his + vivacity of vision, his exercise of fancy and irony, of observation at its + freest, inevitable—while at the same time setting in motion no + machinery of experience in which his curiosity, or in other words, the + quickness of his familiarity, didn't move faster than anything else. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II + </h2> + <p> + I owe to his intimate and devoted friend Mr Edward Marsh the communication + of many of his letters, these already gathered into an admirable brief + memoir which is yet to appear and which will give ample help in the + illustrative way to the pages to which the present remarks form a preface, + and which are collected from the columns of the London evening journal in + which they originally saw the light. The "literary baggage" of his short + course consists thus of his two slender volumes of verse and of these two + scarcely stouter sheafs of correspondence [Footnote: There remain also to + be published a book on John Webster, and a prose play in one act.—E.M.]—though + I should add that the hitherto unpublished letters enjoy the advantage of + a commemorative and interpretative commentary, at the Editor's hands, + which will have rendered the highest service to each matter. That even + these four scant volumes tell the whole story, or fix the whole image, of + the fine young spirit they are concerned with we certainly hold back from + allowing; his case being in an extraordinary degree that of a creature on + whom the gods had smiled their brightest, and half of whose manifestation + therefore was by the simple act of presence and of direct communication. + He did in fact specialise, to repeat my term; only since, as one reads + him, whether in verse or in prose, that distinguished readability seems + all the specialisation one need invoke, so when the question was of the + gift that made of his face to face address a circumstance so complete in + itself as apparently to cover all the ground, leaving no margin either, an + activity to the last degree justified appeared the only name for one's + impression. The moral of all which is doubtless that these brief, if at + the same time very numerous, moments of his quick career formed altogether + as happy a time, in as happy a place, to be born to as the student of the + human drama has ever caught sight of—granting always, that is, that + some actor of the scene has been thoroughly up to his part. Such was the + sort of recognition, assuredly, under which Rupert played <i>his</i>—that + of his lending himself to every current and contact, the "newer," the + later fruit of time, the better; only this not because any particular one + was an agitating revelation, but because with due sensibility, with a + restless inward ferment, at the centre of them all, what could he possibly + so much feel like as the heir of all the ages? I remember his originally + giving me, though with no shade of imputable intention, the sense of his + just <i>being</i> that, with the highest amiability—the note in him + that, as I have hinted, one kept coming back to; so that during a long + wait for another glimpse of him I thought of the practice and function so + displayed as wholly engaging, took for granted his keeping them up with + equal facility and pleasure. Nothing could have been more delightful + accordingly, later on, in renewal of the personal acquaintance than to + gather that this was exactly what had been taking place, and with an + inveteracy as to which his letters are a full documentation. Whatever his + own terms for the process might be had he been brought to book, and though + the variety of his terms for anything and everything was the very play, + and even the measure, of his talent, the most charmed and conclusive + description of him was that no young man had ever so naturally taken on + under the pressure of life the poetic nature, and shaken it so free of + every encumbrance by simply wearing it as he wore his complexion or his + outline. + </p> + <p> + That, then, was the way the imagination followed him with its luxury of + confidence: he was doing everything that could be done in the time (since + this was the modernest note), but performing each and every finest shade + of these blest acts with a poetic punctuality that was only matched by a + corresponding social sincerity. I recall perfectly my being sure of it all + the while, even if with little current confirmation beyond that supplied + by his first volume of verse; and the effect of the whole record is now to + show that such a conclusion was quite extravagantly right. He <i>was</i> + constantly doing all the things, and this with a reckless freedom, as it + might be called, that really dissociated the responsibility of the + precious character from anything like conscious domestic coddlement to a + point at which no troubled young singer, none, that is, equally troubled, + had perhaps ever felt he could afford to dissociate it. Rupert's resources + for affording, in the whole connection, were his humour, his irony, his + need, under every quiver of inspiration, toward whatever end, to be amused + and amusing, and to find above all that this could never so much occur as + by the application of his talent, of which he was perfectly conscious, to + his own case. He carried his case with him, for purposes of derision as + much as for any others, wherever he went, and how he went everywhere, thus + blissfully burdened, is what meets us at every turn on his printed page. + My only doubt about him springs in fact from the question of whether he + knew that the earthly felicity enjoyed by him, his possession of the + exquisite temperament linked so easily to the irrepressible experience, + was a thing to make of the young Briton of the then hour so nearly the + spoiled child of history that one wanted something in the way of an extra + guarantee to feel soundly sure of him. I come back once more to his having + apparently never dreamt of any stretch of the point of liberal allowance, + of so-called adventure, on behalf of "development," never dreamt of any + stretch but that of the imagination itself indeed—quite a different + matter and even if it too were at moments to recoil; it was so true that + the general measure of his world as to what it might be prompt and + pleasant and in the day's work or the day's play to "go in for" was + exactly the range that tinged all his education as liberal, the education + the free design of which he had left so short a way behind him when he + died. + </p> + <p> + Just there was the luck attendant of the coincidence of his course with + the moment at which the proceeding hither and yon to the tune of almost + any "happy thought," and in the interest of almost any branch of culture + or invocation of response that might be more easily improvised than not, + could positively strike the observer as excessive, as in fact absurd, for + the formation of taste or the enrichment of genius, unless the principle + of these values had in a particular connection been subjected in advance + to some challenge or some test. Why should it take such a flood of + suggestion, such a luxury of acquaintance and contact, only to make + superficial specimens? Why shouldn't the art of living inward a little + more, and thereby of digging a little deeper or pressing a little further, + rather modestly replace the enviable, always the enviable, young Briton's + enormous range of alternatives in the way of question-begging movement, + the way of vision and of non-vision, the enormous habit of holidays? If + one could have made out once for all that holidays were proportionately + and infallibly inspiring one would have ceased thoughtfully to worry; but + the question was as it stood an old story, even though it might freshly + radiate, on occasion, under the recognition that the seed-smothered patch + of soil flowered, when it did flower, with a fragrance all its own. This + concomitant, however, always dangled, that if it were put to us, "Do you + really mean you would rather they should not perpetually have been again + for a look-in at Berlin, or an awfully good time at Munich, or a rush + round Sicily, or a dash through the States to Japan, with whatever like + rattling renewals?" you would after all shrink from the responsibility of + such a restriction before being clear as to what you would suggest in its + place. Rupert went on reading-parties from King's to Lulworth for + instance, which the association of the two places, the two so + extraordinarily finished scenes, causes to figure as a sort of preliminary + flourish; and everything that came his way after that affects me as the + blest indulgence in flourish upon flourish. This was not in the least the + air, or the desire, or the pretension of it, but the unfailing felicity + just kept catching him up, just left him never wanting nor waiting for + some pretext to roam, or indeed only the more responsively to stay, doing + either, whichever it might be, as a form of highly intellectualised "fun." + He didn't overflow with shillings, yet so far as roving was concerned the + practice was always easy, and perhaps the adorably whimsical lyric, + contained in his second volume of verse, on the pull of Grantchester at + his heartstrings, as the old vicarage of that sweet adjunct to Cambridge + could present itself to him in a Berlin cafe, may best exemplify the sort + of thing that was represented, in one way and another, by his taking his + most ultimately English ease. + </p> + <p> + Whatever Berlin or Munich, to speak of them only, could do or fail to do + for him, how can one not rejoice without reserve in the way he felt what + he did feel as poetic reaction of the liveliest and finest, with the added + interest of its often turning at one and the same time to the fullest + sincerity and to a perversity of the most "evolved"?—since I can not + dispense with that sign of truth. Never was a young singer either less + obviously sentimental or less addicted to the mere twang of the guitar; at + the same time that it was always his personal experience or his curious, + his not a little defiantly excogitated, inner vision that he sought to + catch; some of the odd fashion of his play with which latter seems on + occasion to preponderate over the truly pleasing poet's appeal to beauty + or cultivated habit of grace. Odd enough, no doubt, that Rupert should + appear to have had well-nigh in horror the cultivation of grace for its + own sake, as we say, and yet should really not have disfigured his poetic + countenance by a single touch quotable as showing this. The medal of the + mere pleasant had always a reverse for him, and it was generally in that + substitute he was most interested. We catch in him reaction upon reaction, + the succession of these conducing to his entirely unashamed poetic + complexity, and of course one observation always to be made about him, one + reminder always to be gratefully welcomed, is that we are dealing after + all with one of the <i>youngest</i> quantities of art and character taken + together that ever arrived at an irresistible appeal. His irony, his + liberty, his pleasantry, his paradox, and what I have called his + perversity, are all nothing if not young; and I may as well say at once + for him that I find in the imagination of their turning in time, dreadful + time, to something more balanced and harmonised, a difficulty insuperable. + The self-consciousness, the poetic, of his so free figuration (in verse, + only in verse, oddly enough) of the unpleasant to behold, to touch, or + even to smell, was certainly, I think, nothing if not "self-conscious," + but there were so many things in his consciousness, which was never in the + least unpeopled, that it would have been a rare chance had his projection + of the self that we are so apt to make an object of invidious allusion + stayed out. What it all really most comes to, you feel again, is that none + of his impulses prospered in solitude, or, for that matter, were so much + as permitted to mumble their least scrap there; he was predestined and + condemned to sociability, which no league of neglect could have deprived + him of even had it speculatively tried: whereby what was it but his own + image that he most saw reflected in other faces? It would still have been + there, it couldn't possibly have succeeded in not being, even had he + closed his eyes to it with elaborate tightness. The only neglect must have + been on his own side, where indeed it did take form in that of as signal + an opportunity to become "spoiled," probably, as ever fell in a brilliant + young man's way: so that to help out my comprehension of the unsightly and + unsavoury, sufficiently wondered at, with which his muse repeatedly + embraced the occasion to associate herself, I take the thing for a + declaration of the idea that he might himself prevent the spoiling so far + as possible. He could in fact prevent nothing, the wave of his fortune and + his favour continuing so to carry him; which is doubtless one of the + reasons why, through our general sense that nothing could possibly not be + of the last degree of rightness in him, what would have been wrong in + others, literally in any creature but him, like for example "A Channel + Passage" of his first volume, simply puts on, while this particular muse + stands anxiously by, a kind of dignity of experiment quite consistent with + our congratulating her, at the same time, as soon as it is over. What was + "A Channel Passage" thus but a flourish marked with the sign of all his + flourishes, that of being a success and having fruition? Though it + performed the extraordinary feat of directing the contents of the poet's + stomach straight at the object of his displeasure, we feel that, by some + excellent grace, the object is not at all reached—too many things, + and most of all, too innocently enormous a cynicism, standing in the way + and themselves receiving the tribute; having in a word, impatient young + cynicism as they are, <i>that</i> experience as well as various things. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III + </h2> + <p> + No detail of Mr Marsh's admirable memoir may I allow myself to anticipate. + I can only announce it as a picture, with all the elements in iridescent + fusion, of the felicity that fairly dogged Rupert's steps, as we may say, + and that never allowed him to fall below its measure. We shall read into + it even more relations than nominally appear, and every one of them again + a flourish, every one of them a connection with his time, a "sampling" of + it at its most multitudinous and most characteristic; every one of them + too a record of the state of some other charmed, not less than charming + party—even when the letter-writer's expression of the interest, the + amusement, the play of fancy, of taste, of whatever sort of appreciation + or reaction for his own spirit, is the ostensible note. This is what I + mean in especial by the constancy with which, and the cost at which, + perhaps not less, for others, the poetic sensibility was maintained and + guaranteed. It was as genuine as if he had been a bard perched on an + eminence with a harp, and yet it was arranged for, as we may say, by the + close consensus of those who had absolutely to know their relation with + him but as a delight and who wanted therefore to keep him, to the last + point, true to himself. His complete curiosity and sociability might have + made him, on these lines, factitious, if it had not happened that the + people he so variously knew and the contacts he enjoyed were just of the + kind to promote most his facility and vivacity and intelligence of life. + They were all young together, allowing for three or four notable, by which + I mean far from the least responsive, exceptions; they were all fresh and + free and acute and aware and in "the world," when not out of it; all + together at the high speculative, the high talkative pitch of the + initiational stage of these latest years, the informed and animated, the + so consciously non-benighted, geniality of which was to make him the + clearest and most projected poetic case, with the question of difficulty + and doubt and frustration most solved, the question of the immediate and + its implications most in order for him, that it was possible to conceive. + He had found at once to his purpose a wondrous enough old England, an + England breaking out into numberless assertions of a new awareness, into + liberties of high and clean, even when most sceptical and discursive, + young intercourse; a carnival of half anxious and half elated criticism, + all framed and backgrounded in still richer accumulations, both moral and + material, or, as who should say, pictorial, of the matter of course and + the taken for granted. Nothing could have been in greater contrast, one + cannot too much insist, to the situation of the traditional lonely lyrist + who yearns for connections and relations yet to be made and whose + difficulty, lyrical, emotional, personal, social or intellectual, has + thereby so little in common with any embarrassment of choice. The author + of the pages before us was perhaps the young lyrist, in all the annals of + verse, who, having the largest luxury of choice, yet remained least + "demoralised" by it—how little demoralised he was to round off his + short history by showing. + </p> + <p> + It was into these conditions, thickening and thickening, in their + comparative serenity, up to the eleventh hour, that the War came smashing + down; but of the basis, the great garden ground, all green and russet and + silver, all a tissue of distinguished and yet so easy occasions, so + improvised extensions, which they had already placed at his service and + that of his extraordinarily amiable and constantly enlarged "set" for the + exercise of <i>their</i> dealing with the rest of the happy earth in + punctuating interludes, it is the office of our few but precious documents + to enable us to judge. The interlude that here concerns us most is that of + the year spent in his journey round a considerable part of the world in + 1913-14, testifying with a charm that increases as he goes to that quest + of unprejudiced culture, the true poetic, the vision of the life of man, + which was to prove the liveliest of his impulses. It was not indeed under + the flag of that research that he offered himself for the Army almost + immediately after his return to England—and even if when a young man + was so essentially a poet we need see no act in him as a prosaic + alternative. The misfortune of this set of letters from New York and + Boston, from Canada and Samoa, addressed, for the most part, to a friendly + London evening journal is, alas, in the fact that they are of so moderate + a quantity; for we make him out as steadily more vivid and delightful + while his opportunity grows. He is touching at first, inevitably quite + juvenile, in the measure of his good faith; we feel him not a little lost + and lonely and stranded in the New York pandemonium—obliged to throw + himself upon sky-scrapers and the overspread blackness pricked out in a + flickering fury of imaged advertisement for want of some more interesting + view of character and manners. We long to take him by the hand and show + him finer lights—eyes of but meaner range, after all, being adequate + to the gape at the vertical business blocks and the lurid sky-clamour for + more dollars. We feel in a manner his sensibility wasted and would fain + turn it on to the capture of deeper meanings. But we must leave him to + himself and to youth's facility of wonder; he is amused, beguiled, struck + on the whole with as many differences as we could expect, and sufficiently + reminded, no doubt, of the number of words he is restricted to. It is + moreover his sign, as it is that of the poetic turn of mind in general + that we seem to catch him alike in anticipations or divinations, and in + lapses and freshnesses, of experience that surprise us. He makes various + reflections, some of them all perceptive and ingenious—as about the + faces, the men's in particular, seen in the streets, the public + conveyances and elsewhere; though falling a little short, in his friendly + wondering way, of that bewildered apprehension of monotony of type, of + modelling lost in the desert, which we might have expected of him, and of + the question above all of what is destined to become of that more and more + vanishing quantity the American nose other than Judaic. + </p> + <p> + What we note in particular is that he likes, to all appearance, many more + things than he doesn't, and how superlatively he is struck with the + promptitude and wholeness of the American welcome and of all its friendly + service. What it is but too easy, with the pleasure of having known him, + to read into all this is the operation of his own irresistible quality, + and of the state of felicity he clearly created just by appearing as a + party to the social relation. He moves and circulates to our vision as so + naturally, so beautifully undesigning a weaver of that spell, that we feel + comparatively little of the story told even by his diverted report of it; + so much fuller a report would surely proceed, could we appeal to their + memory, their sense of poetry, from those into whose ken he floated. It is + impossible not to figure him, to the last felicity, as he comes and goes, + presenting himself always with a singular effect both of suddenness and of + the readiest rightness; we should always have liked to be there, wherever + it was, for the justification of our own fond confidence and the pleasure + of seeing it unfailingly spread and spread. The ironies and paradoxes of + his verse, in all this record, fall away from him; he takes to direct + observation and accepts with perfect good-humour any hazards of contact, + some of the shocks of encounter proving more muffled for him than might, + as I say, have been feared—witness the American Jew with whom he + appears to have spent some hours in Canada; and of course the "word" of + the whole thing is that he simply reaped at every turn the harmonising + benefit that his presence conferred. This it is in especial that makes us + regret so much the scanting, as we feel it, of his story; it deprives us + in just that proportion of certain of the notes of his appearance and his + "success." <i>There</i> was the poetic fact involved—that, being so + gratefully apprehended everywhere, his own response was inevitably + prescribed and pitched as the perfect friendly and genial and liberal + thing. Moreover, the value of his having so let himself loose in the + immensity tells more at each step in favour of his style; the pages from + Canada, where as an impressionist, he increasingly finds his feet, and + even finds to the same increase a certain comfort of association, are + better than those from the States, while those from the Pacific Islands + rapidly brighten and enlarge their inspiration. This part of his adventure + was clearly the great success and fell in with his fancy, amusing and + quickening and rewarding him, more than anything in the whole revelation. + He lightly performs the miracle, to my own sense, which R. L. Stevenson, + which even Pierre Loti, taking however long a rope, had not performed; he + charmingly conjures away—though in this prose more than in the verse + of his second volume—the marked tendency of the whole exquisite + region to insist on the secret of its charm, when incorrigibly moved to do + so, only at the expense of its falling a little flat, or turning a little + stale, on our hands. I have for myself at least marked the tendency, and + somehow felt it point a graceless moral, the moral that as there are + certain faces too well produced by nature to be producible again by the + painter, the portraitist, so there are certain combinations of earthly + ease, of the natural and social art of giving pleasure, which fail of + character, or accent, even of the power to interest, under the strain of + transposition or of emphasis. Rupert, with an instinct of his own, + transposes and insists only in the right degree; or what it doubtless + comes to is that we simply see him arrested by so vivid a picture of the + youth of the world at its blandest as to make all his culture seem a waste + and all his questions a vanity. That is apparently the very effect of the + Pacific life as those who dip into it seek, or feel that they are expected + to seek, to report it; but it reports itself somehow through these pages, + smilingly cools itself off in them, with the lightest play of the fan ever + placed at its service. Never, clearly, had he been on such good terms with + the hour, never found the life of the senses so anticipate the life of the + imagination, or the life of the imagination so content itself with the + life of the senses; it is all an abundance of amphibious felicity—he + was as incessant and insatiable a swimmer as if he had been a triton + framed for a decoration; and one half makes out that some low-lurking + instinct, some vague foreboding of what awaited him, on his own side the + globe, in the air of so-called civilisation, prompted him to drain to the + last drop the whole perfect negation of the acrid. He might have been + waiting for the tide of the insipid to begin to flow again, as it seems + ever doomed to do when the acrid, the saving acrid, has already ebbed; at + any rate his holiday had by the end of the springtime of 1914 done for him + all it could, without a grain of waste—his assimilations being + neither loose nor literal, and he came back to England as promiscuously + qualified, as variously quickened, as his best friends could wish for fine + production and fine illustration in some order still awaiting sharp + definition. Never certainly had the free poetic sense in him more rejoiced + in an incorruptible sincerity. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV + </h2> + <p> + He was caught up of course after the shortest interval by the strong rush + of that general inspiration in which at first all differences, all + individual relations to the world he lived in, seemed almost ruefully or + bewilderedly to lose themselves. The pressing thing was of a sudden that + youth was youth and genius community and sympathy. He plunged into that + full measure of these things which simply made and spread itself as it + gathered them in, made itself of responses and faiths and understandings + that were all the while in themselves acts of curiosity, romantic and + poetic throbs and wonderments, with reality, as it seemed to call itself, + breaking in after a fashion that left the whole past pale, and that yet + could flush at every turn with meanings and visions borrowing their + expression from whatever had, among those squandered preliminaries, those + too merely sportive intellectual and critical values, happened to make + most for the higher truth. Of the successions of his matter of history at + this time Mr Marsh's memoir is the infinitely touching record—touching + after the fact, but to the accompaniment even at the time of certain now + almost ineffable reflections; this especially, I mean, if one happened to + be then not wholly without familiar vision of him. What could strike one + more, for the immense occasion, than the measure that might be involved in + it of desolating and heart-breaking waste, waste of quality, waste for + that matter of quantity, waste of all the rich redundancies, all the light + and all the golden store, which up to then had formed the very price and + grace of life? Yet out of the depths themselves of this question rose the + other, the tormenting, the sickening and at the same time the strangely + sustaining, of why, since the offering couldn't at best be anything but + great, it wouldn't be great just in proportion to its purity, or in other + words its wholeness, everything in it that could make it most radiant and + restless. Exquisite at such times the hushed watch of the mere hovering + spectator unrelieved by any action of his own to take, which consists at + once of so much wonder for why the finest of the fine should, to the + sacrifice of the faculty we most know them by, have to become mere morsels + in the huge promiscuity, and of the thrill of seeing that they add more + than ever to our knowledge and our passion, which somehow thus becomes at + the same time an unfathomable abyss. + </p> + <p> + Rupert, who had joined the Naval Brigade, took part in the rather + distractedly improvised—as it at least at the moment appeared—movement + for the relief of the doomed Antwerp, but was, later on, after the return + of the force so engaged, for a few days in London, whither he had come up + from camp in Dorsetshire, briefly invalided; thanks to which accident I + had on a couple of occasions my last sight of him. It was all + auspiciously, well-nigh extravagantly, congruous; nothing certainly could + have been called more modern than all the elements and suggestions of his + situation for the hour, the very spot in London that could best serve as a + centre for vibrations the keenest and most various; a challenge to the + appreciation of life, to that of the whole range of the possible English + future, at its most uplifting. He had not yet so much struck me as an + admirable nature <i>en disponibilite</i> and such as any cause, however + high, might swallow up with a sense of being the sounder and sweeter for. + More definitely perhaps the young poet, with all the wind alive in his + sails, was as evident there in the guise of the young soldier and the + thrice welcome young friend, who yet, I all recognisably remember, + insisted on himself as little as ever in either character, and seemed even + more disposed than usual not to let his intelligibility interfere with his + modesty. He promptly recovered and returned to camp, whence it was + testified that his specific practical aptitude, under the lively call, + left nothing to be desired—a fact that expressed again, to the + perception of his circle, with what truth the spring of inspiration worked + in him, in the sense, I mean, that his imagination itself shouldered and + made light of the material load. It had not yet, at the same time, been + more associatedly active in a finer sense; my own next apprehension of it + at least was in reading the five admirable sonnets that had been published + in "New Numbers" after the departure of his contingent for the campaign at + the Dardanelles. To read these in the light of one's personal knowledge of + him was to draw from them, inevitably, a meaning still deeper seated than + their noble beauty, an authority, of the purest, attended with which his + name inscribes itself in its own character on the great English scroll. + The impression, the admiration, the anxiety settled immediately—to + my own sense at least—as upon something that would but too sharply + feed them, falling in as it did with that whole particularly animated + vision of him of which I have spoken. He had never seemed more animated + with our newest and least deluded, least conventionalised life and + perception and sensibility, and that formula of his so distinctively + fortunate, his overflowing share in our most developed social heritage + which had already glimmered, began with this occasion to hang about him as + one of the aspects, really a shining one, of his fate. + </p> + <p> + So I remember irrepressibly thinking and feeling, unspeakably + apprehending, in a word; and so the whole exquisite exhalation of his own + consciousness in the splendid sonnets, attach whatever essentially or + exclusively poetic value to it we might, baffled or defied us as with a + sort of supreme rightness. Everything about him of keenest and brightest + (yes, absolutely of brightest) suggestion made so for his having been + charged with every privilege, every humour, of our merciless actuality, + our fatal excess of opportunity, that what indeed could the full assurance + of this be but that, finding in him the most charming object in its + course, the great tide was to lift him and sweep him away? Questions and + reflections after the fact perhaps, yet haunting for the time and during + the short interval that was still to elapse—when, with the sudden + news that he <i>had</i> met his doom, an irrepressible "of course, of + course!" contributed its note well-nigh of support. It was as if the + peculiar richness of his youth had itself marked its limit, so that what + his own spirit was inevitably to feel about his "chance"—inevitably + because both the high pitch of the romantic and the ironic and the opposed + abyss of the real came together in it—required, in the wondrous way, + the consecration of the event. The event came indeed not in the manner + prefigured by him in the repeatedly perfect line, that of the received + death-stroke, the fall in action, discounted as such; which might have + seemed very much because even the harsh logic and pressure of history were + tender of him at the last and declined to go through more than the form of + their function, discharging it with the least violence and surrounding it + as with a legendary light. He was taken ill, as an effect of + blood-poisoning, on his way from Alexandria to Gallipoli, and, getting + ominously and rapidly worse, was removed from his transport to a French + hospital ship, where, irreproachably cared for, he died in a few hours and + without coming to consciousness. I deny myself any further anticipation of + the story to which further noble associations attach, and the merest + outline of which indeed tells it and rounds it off absolutely as the right + harmony would have it. It is perhaps even a touch beyond any dreamt-of + harmony that, under omission of no martial honour, he was to be carried by + comrades and devoted waiting sharers, whose evidence survives them, to the + steep summit of a Greek island of infinite grace and there placed in such + earth and amid such beauty of light and shade and embracing prospect as + that the fondest reading of his young lifetime could have suggested + nothing better. It struck us at home, I mean, as symbolising with the last + refinement his whole instinct of selection and response, his relation to + the overcharged appeal of his scene and hour. How could he have shown more + the young English poetic possibility and faculty in which we were to seek + the freshest reflection of the intelligence and the soul of the new + generation? The generosity, I may fairly say the joy, of his contribution + to the general perfect way makes a monument of his high rest there at the + heart of all that was once noblest in history. + </p> + <h3> + HENRY JAMES + </h3> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LETTERS FROM AMERICA + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I + </h2> + <h3> + ARRIVAL + </h3> + <p> + However sedulously he may have avoided a preparatory reading of those + 'impressions' of America which our hurried and observant Great continually + record for the instruction of both nations, the pilgrim who is crossing + the Atlantic for the first time cannot approach Sandy Hook Bar with so + completely blank a mind as he would wish. So, at least, I found. It is not + so much that the recent American invasion of London music-halls has bitten + into one's brain a very definite taste of a jerking, vital, <i>bizarre</i> + 'rag-time' civilisation. But the various and vivid comments of friends to + whom the news of a traveller's departure is broken excite and predispose + the imagination. That so many people who have been there should have such + different and decided opinions about it! It must be at least remarkable. I + felt the thrill of an explorer before I started. "A country without + conversation," said a philosopher. "The big land has a big heart," wrote a + kindly scholar; and, by the same post, from another critic, "that land of + crushing hospitality!" "It's Hell, but it's fine," an artist told me. "El + Cuspidorado," remarked an Oxford man, brilliantly. But one wiser than all + the rest wrote: "Think gently of the Americans. They are so very young; + and so very anxious to appear grown-up; and so very lovable." This was + more generous than the unvarying comment of ordinary English friends when + they heard of my purpose, "My God!" And it was more precise than those + nineteen several Americans, to each of whom I said, "I am going to visit + America," and each of whom replied, after long reflection, "Wal! it's a + great country!" + </p> + <p> + Travelling by the ordinary routes, you meet the American people a week + before you meet America. And my excitement to discover what, precisely, + this nation was <i>at</i>, was inflamed rather than damped by the attitude + of a charming American youth who crossed by the same boat. That simplicity + that is not far down in any American was very beautifully on the + delightful surface with him. The second day out he sidled shyly up to me. + "Of what nationality <i>are</i> you?" he asked. His face showed + bewilderment when he heard. "I thought all Englishmen had moustaches," he + said. I told him of the infinite variety, within the homogeneity, of our + race. He did not listen, but settled down near me with the eager + kindliness of a child. "You know," he said, "you'll never understand + America. No, Sir. No Englishman can understand America. I've been in + London. In your Houses of Parliament there is one door for peers to go in + at, and one for ordinary people. Did I laugh some when I saw that? You bet + your America's not like that. In America one man's just as good as + another. You'll never understand America." I was all humility. His theme + and his friendliness fired him. He rose with a splendour which, I had to + confess to myself, England could never have given to him. "Would you like + to hear me re-cite to you the Declaration of Independence?" he asked. And + he did. + </p> + <p> + So it was with a fairly blank mind, and yet a hope of understanding, or at + least of seeing, something very remarkably fresh, that I woke to hear we + were in harbour, and tumbled out on deck at six of a fine summer morning + to view a new world. New York Harbour is loveliest at night perhaps. On + the Staten Island ferry boat you slip out from the darkness right under + the immense sky-scrapers. As they recede they form into a mass together, + heaping up one behind another, fire-lined and majestic, sentinel over the + black, gold-streaked waters. Their cliff-like boldness is the greater, + because to either side sweep in the East River and the Hudson River, + leaving this piled promontory between. To the right hangs the great + stretch of the Brooklyn Suspension Bridge, its slight curve very purely + outlined with light; over it luminous trams, like shuttles of fire, are + thrown across and across, continually weaving the stuff of human + existence. From further off all these lights dwindle to a radiant + semicircle that gazes out over the expanse with a quiet, mysterious + expectancy. Far away seaward you may see the low golden glare of Coney + Island. + </p> + <p> + But there was beauty in the view that morning, also, half an hour after + sunrise. New York, always the cleanest and least smoky of cities, lay + asleep in a queer, pearly, hourless light. A thin mist softened the + further outlines. The water was opalescent under a silver sky, cool and + dim, very slightly ruffled by the sweet wind that followed us in from the + sea. A few streamers of smoke flew above the city, oblique and parallel, + pennants of our civilisation. The space of water is great, and so the vast + buildings do not tower above one as they do from the street. Scale is + lost, and they might be any size. The impression is, rather, of long, low + buildings stretching down to the water's edge on every side, and + innumerable low black wharves and jetties and piers. And at one point, the + lower end of the island on which the city proper stands, rose that higher + clump of the great buildings, the Singer, the Woolworth, and the rest. + Their strength, almost severity, of line and the lightness of their colour + gave a kind of classical feeling, classical, and yet not of Europe. It had + the air, this block of masonry, of edifices built to satisfy some faith, + for more than immediate ends. Only, the faith was unfamiliar. But if these + buildings embodied its nature, it is cold and hard and light, like the + steel that is their heart. The first sight of these strange fanes has + queer resemblances to the first sight of that lonely and secret group by + Pisa's walls. It came upon me, at that moment, that they could not have + been dreamed and made without some nobility. Perhaps the hour lent them + sanctity. For I have often noticed since that in the early morning, and + again for a little about sunset, the sky-scrapers are no longer merely the + means and local convenience for men to pursue their purposes, but acquire + that characteristic of the great buildings of the world, an existence and + meaning of their own. + </p> + <p> + Our boat moved up the harbour and along the Hudson River with a superb and + courteous stateliness. Round her snorted and scuttled and puffed the + multitudinous strange denizens of the harbour. Tugs, steamers, + queer-shaped ferry-boats, long rafts carrying great lines of trucks from + railway to railway, dredgers, motor-boats, even a sailing-boat or two; for + the day's work was beginning. Among them, with that majesty that only a + liner entering a harbour has, she went, progressed, had her moving—English + contains no word for such a motion—"<i>incessu patuit dea</i>." A + goddess entering fairyland, I thought; for the huddled beauty of these + buildings and the still, silver expanse of the water seemed unreal. Then I + looked down at the water immediately beneath me, and knew that New York + was a real city. All kinds of refuse went floating by: bits of wood, straw + from barges, bottles, boxes, paper, occasionally a dead cat or dog, + hideously bladder-like, its four paws stiff and indignant towards heaven. + </p> + <p> + This analysis of fairyland turned me towards the statue of Liberty, + already passed and growing distant. It is one of those things you have + long wanted to see and haven't expected to admire, which, seen, give you a + double thrill, that they're at last <i>there</i>, and that they're better + than your hopes. For Liberty stands nobly. Americans, always shy about + their country, have learnt from the ridicule which Europeans, on mixed + aesthetic and moral grounds, pour on this statue, to dismiss it with an + apologetic laugh. Yet it is fine—until you get near enough to see + its clumsiness. I admired the great gesture of it. A hand fell on my + shoulder, and a voice said, "Look hard at that, young man! That's the + first time you've seen Liberty—and it will be the last till you turn + your back on this country again." It was an American fellow-passenger, one + of the tall, thin type of American, with pale blue eyes of an idealistic, + disappointed expression, and an Indian profile. The other half of America, + personated by a small, bumptious, eager, brown-faced man, with a cigar + raking at an irritating angle from the corner of his mouth, joined in + with, "Wal! I should smile, I guess this is the Land of Freedom, anyway." + The tall man swung round: "Freedom! do you call it a free land, where—" + He gave instances of the power of the dollar. The other man kept up the + argument by spitting and by asseveration. As the busy little tugs, with + rugs on their noses, butted the great liner into her narrow dock, the + pessimist launched his last shafts. The short man denied nothing. He drew + the cigar from his lips, shot it back with a popping noise into the round + hole cigars had worn at the corner of his mouth, and said, "Anyway, it's + some country." I was introduced to America. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II + </h2> + <h3> + NEW YORK + </h3> + <p> + In five things America excels modern England—fish, architecture, + jokes, drinks, and children's clothes. There may be others. Of these I am + certain. The jokes and drinks, which curiously resemble each other, are + the best. There is a cheerful violence about them; they take their + respective kingdoms by storm. All the lesser things one has heard turn out + to be delightfully true. The first hour in America proves them. People + here talk with an American accent; their teeth are inlaid with gold; the + mouths of car-conductors move slowly, slowly, with an oblique oval motion, + for they are chewing; pavements are 'sidewalks.' It is all true.... But + there were other things one expected, though in no precise form. What, for + instance, would it be like, the feeling of whatever democracy America has + secured? + </p> + <p> + I landed, rather forlorn, that first morning, on the immense covered wharf + where the Customs mysteries were to be celebrated. The place was dominated + by a large, dirty, vociferous man, coatless, in a black shirt and black + apron. His mouth and jaw were huge; he looked like a caricaturist's + Roosevelt. 'Express Company' was written on his forehead; labels of a + thousand colours, printed slips, pencils and pieces of string, hung from + his pockets and his hands, were held behind his ears and in his mouth. I + laid my situation and my incompetence before him, and learnt right where + to go and right when to go there. Then he flung a vast, dingy arm round my + shoulders, and bellowed, "We'll have your baggage right along to your + hotel in two hours." It was a lie, but kindly. That grimy and generous + embrace left me startled, but an initiate into Democracy. + </p> + <p> + The other evening I went a lonely ramble, to try to detect the essence of + New York. A wary eavesdropper can always surprise the secret of a city, + through chance scraps of conversation, or by spying from a window, or by + coming suddenly round corners. I started on a 'car.' American tram-cars + are open all along the side and can be entered at any point in it. The + side is divided by vertical bars. It looks like a cage with the horizontal + lines taken out. Between these vertical bars you squeeze into the seat. If + the seat opposite you is full, you swing yourself along the bars by your + hands till you find room. The Americans become terrifyingly expert at + this. I have seen them, fat, middle-aged business men, scampering up and + down the face of the cars by means of their hands, swinging themselves + over and round and above each other, like nothing in the world so much as + the monkeys at the Zoo. It is a people informed with vital energy. I + believe that this exercise, and the habit of drinking a lot of water + between meals, are the chief causes of their good health. + </p> + <p> + The Broadway car runs mostly along the backbone of the queer island on + which this city stands. So the innumerable parallel streets that cross it + curve down and away; and at this time street after street to the west + reveals, and seems to drop into, a mysterious evening sky, full of dull + reds and yellows, amber and pale green, and a few pink flecks, and in the + midst, sometimes, the flushed, smoke-veiled face of the sun. Then + greyness, broken by these patches of misty colour, settles into the lower + channels of the New York streets; while the upper heights of the + sky-scrapers, clear of the roofs, are still lit on the sunward side with a + mellow glow, curiously serene. To the man in the mirk of the street, they + seem to exude this light from the great spaces of brick. At this time the + cars, always polyglot, are filled with shop-hands and workers, and no + English at all is heard. One is surrounded with Yiddish, Italian, and + Greek, broken by Polish, or Russian, or German. Some American + anthropologists claim that the children of these immigrants show marked + changes, in the shape of skull and face, towards the American type. It may + be so. But the people who surround one are mostly European-born. They + represent very completely that H.C.F. of Continental appearance which is + labelled in the English mind 'looking like a foreigner'; being short, + swarthy, gesticulatory, full of clatter, indeterminately alien. Only in + their dress and gait have they—or at least the men among them—become + at all American. + </p> + <p> + The American by race walks better than we; more freely, with a taking + swing, and almost with grace. How much of this is due to living in a + democracy, and how much to wearing no braces, it is very difficult to + determine. But certainly it is the land of belts, and therefore of more + loosely moving bodies. This, and the padded shoulders of the coats, and + the loosely-cut trousers, make a figure more presentable, at a distance, + than most urban civilisations turn out. Also, Americans take their coats + off, which is sensible; and they can do it the more beautifully because + they are belted, and not braced. They take their coats off anywhere and + any-when, and somehow it strikes the visitor as the most symbolic thing + about them. They have not yet thought of discarding collars; but they are + unashamedly shirt-sleeved. Any sculptor, seeking to figure this Republic + in stone, must carve, in future, a young man in shirt-sleeves, open-faced, + pleasant, and rather vulgar, straw hat on the back of his head, his + trousers full and sloppy, his coat over his arm. The motto written beneath + will be, of course, 'This is some country.' The philosophic gazer on such + a monument might get some way towards understanding the making of the + Panama Canal, that exploit that no European nation could have carried out. + </p> + <p> + What facial type the sculptor would give the youth is harder to determine, + and very hard to describe. The American race seems to have developed two + classes, and only two, the upper-middle and the lower-middle. Their faces + are very distinct. The upper-class head is long, often fine about the + forehead and eyes, and very cleanly outlined. The eyes have an odd, tired + pathos in them—mixed with the friendliness that is so admirable—as + if of a perpetual never quite successful effort to understand something. + It is like the face of an only child who has been brought up in the + company of adults. I am convinced it is partly due to the endeavour to set + their standards by the culture and traditions of older nations. But the + mouth of such men is the most typical feature. It is small, tight, and + closed downwards at the corners, the lower lip very slightly protruding. + It has little expression in it, and no curves. There the Puritan comes + out. But no other nation has a mouth like this. It is shared to some + extent by the lower classes; but their mouths tend to be wider and more + expressive. Their foreheads are meaner, and their eyes hard, but the whole + face rather more adaptive and in touch with life. These, anyhow, are the + types that strike one in the Eastern cities. And there are intermediate + varieties, as of the genial business-man, with the narrow forehead and the + wide, smooth—the too wide and too smooth—lower face. + Smoothness is the one unfailing characteristic. Why do American faces + hardly ever wrinkle? Is it the absence of a soul? It must be. For it is + less true of the Bostonian than of the ordinary business American, in + whose life exhilaration and depression take the place of joy and + suffering. The women's faces are more indeterminate, not very feminine; + many of them wear those 'invisible' pince-nez which centre glitteringly + about the bridge of the nose, and get from them a curious air of + intelligence. Handsome people of both sexes are very common; beautiful, + and pretty, ones very rare.... + </p> + <p> + I slipped from my car up about Fortieth Street, the region where the + theatres and restaurants are, the 'roaring forties.' Broadway here might + be the offspring of Shaftesbury Avenue and Leicester Square, with, + somehow, some of Fleet Street also in its ancestry. I passed two men on + the sidewalk, their hats on the back of their heads, arguing fiercely. One + had slightly long hair. The other looked the more truculent, and was + saying to him, intensely, "See here! We contracted with you to supply us + with sonnets at five dollars per sonnet—" I passed up a side-street, + one of those deserted ways that abound just off the big streets, resorts, + apparently, for such people and things as are not quite strident or not + quite energetic enough for the ordinary glare of life; dim places, fusty + with hesternal excitements and the thrills of yesteryear. Against a flight + of desolate steps leant a notice. I stopped to read it. It said: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "You must see Cockie, + Positively the only bird that can both dance and sing. + She is almost superhuman." +</pre> + <p> + There was no explanation; Cockie may have been dead for years. I went, + musing on her possible fates, towards the pride and spaciousness of Fifth + Avenue. + </p> + <p> + Fifth Avenue is handsome, the handsomest street imaginable. It is what the + streets of German cities try to be. The buildings are large, square, + 'imposing,' built with the solidity of opulence. The street, as a whole, + has a character and an air of achievement. "Whatever else may be doubted + or denied, American civilisation has produced this." One feels rich and + safe as one walks. Back in Broadway, New York dropped her mask, and began + to betray herself once again. A little crowd, expressionless, intent, and + volatile, before a small shop, drew me. In the shop-window was a young + man, pleasant-faced, a little conscious, and a little bored, dressed very + lightly in what might have been a runner's costume. He was bowing, + twisting, and posturing in a slow rhythm. From time to time he would put a + large card on a little stand in the corner. The cards bore various + legends. He would display a card that said, "THIS UNDERWEAR DOES NOT + IMPEDE THE MOVEMENT OF THE BODY IN ANY DIRECTION." Then he moved his body + in every direction, from position to position, probable or improbable, and + was not impeded. With a terrible dumb patience he turned the next card: + "IT GIVES WITH THE BODY IN VIOLENT EXERCISING." The young man leapt + suddenly, lunged, smote imaginary balls, belaboured invisible opponents, + ran with immense speed but no progress, was thrown to earth by the Prince + of the Air, kicked, struggled, then bounded to his feet again. But all + this without a word. "IT ENABLES YOU TO KEEP COOL WHILE EXERCISING." The + young man exercised, and yet was cool. He did this, I discovered later, + for many hours a day. + </p> + <p> + Not daring to imagine his state of mind, I hurried off through Union + Square. One of the many daily fire-alarms had gone; the traffic was drawn + to one side, and several fire-engines came, with clanging of bells and + shouting, through the space, gleaming with brass, splendid in their + purpose. Before the thrill in the heart had time to die, or the traffic to + close up, swung through an immense open motor-car driven by a young + mechanic. It was luxuriously appointed, and had the air of a private car + being returned from repairing. The man in it had an almost Swinburnian + mane of red hair, blowing back in the wind, catching the last lights of + day. He was clad, as such people often are in this country these hot days, + only in a suit of yellow overalls, so that his arms and shoulders and neck + and chest were bare. He was big, well-made, and strong, and he drove the + car, not wildly, but a little too fast, leaning back rather insolently + conscious of power. In private life, no doubt, a very ordinary youth, + interested only in baseball scores; but in this brief passage he seemed + like a Greek god, in a fantastically modern, yet not unworthy way emblemed + and incarnate, or like the spirit of Henley's 'Song of Speed.' So I found + a better image of America for my sculptor than the shirt-sleeved young + man. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III + </h2> + <h3> + NEW YORK—(<i>continued</i>) + </h3> + <p> + The hotel into which the workings of blind chance have thrown me is given + over to commercial travellers. Its life is theirs, and the few English + tourists creep in and out with the shy, bewildered dignity of their race + and class. These American commercial travellers are called 'drummers'; + drummers in the most endless and pointless and extraordinary of wars. They + have the air and appearance of devotees, men set aside, roaming preachers + of a <i>jehad</i> whose meaning they have forgotten. They seem to be + invariably of the short, dark type. The larger, fair-haired, long-headed + men are common in business, but not in 'drumming.' The drummer's eyes have + a hard, rapt expression. He is not interested in the romance of the road, + like an English commercial traveller; only in its ever-changing end. These + people are for ever sending off and receiving telegrams, messages, and + cablegrams; they are continually telephoning; stenographers are in waiting + to record their inspirations. In the intervals of activity they relapse + into a curious trance, husbanding their vitality for the next crisis. I + have watched them with terror and fascination. All day there are numbers + of them sitting, immote and vacant, in rows and circles on the hard chairs + in the hall. They are never smoking, never reading a paper, never even + chewing. The expressions of their faces never change. It is impossible to + guess what, or if anything, is in their minds. Hour upon hour they remain. + Occasionally one will rise, in obedience to some call or revelation + incomprehensible to us, and move out through the door into the clang and + confusion of Broadway. + </p> + <p> + It all confirms the impression that grows on the visitor to America that + Business has developed insensibly into a Religion, in more than the light, + metaphorical sense of the words. It has its ritual and theology, its high + places and its jargon, as well as its priests and martyrs. One of its more + mystical manifestations is in advertisement. America has a childlike faith + in advertising. They advertise here, everywhere, and in all ways. They + shout your most private and sacred wants at you. Nothing is untouched. + Every day I pass a wall, some five hundred square feet of which a + gentleman has taken to declare that he is 'out' to break the Undertakers' + Trust. Half the advertisement is a coloured photograph of himself. The + rest is, "See what I give you for 75 dols.!" and a list of what he does + give. He gives everything that the most morbid taphologist could suggest, + beginning with "splendidly carved full-size oak casket, with black ivory + handles. Four draped Flambeaux...." and going on to funereal ingenuities + that would have overwhelmed Mausolus, and make death impossible for a + refined man. + </p> + <p> + But there are heights as well as depths. I have been privileged with some + intimate glances into the greatest of those peculiarly American + institutions, the big departmental stores. Materially it is an immense + building, containing all things that any upper-middle-class person could + conceivably want. Such a store includes even Art, with the same bland + omnipotence. If you wander into the vast auditorium, it is equal chances + whether you hear a work of Beethoven, Victor Herbert, Schonberg, or Mr + Hirsch. If you are 'artistic,' you may choose between a large coloured + photograph of the Eiffel Tower, a carbon print of Botticelli, and a + reproduction of an 'improvisation' by Herr Kandinsky. You may buy an + Elizabethan dining-table, a Graeco-Roman bronze, the latest dress designed + by M. Bakst, or a packet of pins. Or you may sit and muse on the life of + the employee of this place, who gets from it all that in less favoured + civilisations family, guild, club, township, and nationality have given + him or her. As a child he gets education, then evening-classes, + continuation-schools, gymnasia, military training, swimming-baths, + orchestra, facilities for the study of anything under the sun, from + palaeography to Cherokee, libraries, holiday-camps, hospitals, + ever-present medical attendance, and at the end a pension, and, I suppose, + a store cemetery. And all for the price of a few hours' work a day, and a + little loyalty to the 'establishment.' Can human hearts desire more? And, + when all millionaires are as sensible, will they? In industries and + businesses like this, where the majority of the employed are women, it + ought to be a pretty stable sort of millennium. Men, perhaps, take longer + to learn that kind of 'loyalty.' + </p> + <p> + In one corner of this store is the advertising department. There are + gathered poets, artists, <i>litterateurs</i>, and mere intellectuals, all + engaged in explaining to the upper middle-classes what there is for them + to buy and why they should buy it. It is a life of good salary, steady + hours, sufficient leisure, and entire dignity. There is no vulgarity in + this advertising, but the most perfect taste and great artistic daring and + novelty. The most 'advanced' productions of Europe are scanned for ideas + and suggestions. Two of the leading young 'post-impressionist' painters in + Paris, whose names are just beginning to be known in England, have been + designing posters for this store for years. I stood and watched with awe a + young American genius doing entirely Matisse-like illustrations to some + notes on summer suitings. "We give our artists a free hand," said the very + intelligent lady in charge of that section; "except, of course, for nudes + or improprieties. And we don't allow any figures of people <i>smoking</i>. + Some of our customers object very strongly...." + </p> + <p> + Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night. There comes an hour of + evening when lower Broadway, the business end of the town, is deserted. + And if, having felt yourself immersed in men and the frenzy of cities all + day, you stand out in the street in this sudden hush, you will hear, like + a strange questioning voice from another world, the melancholy boom of a + foghorn, and realise that not half a mile away are the waters of the sea, + and some great liner making its slow way out to the Atlantic. After that, + the lights come out up-town, and the New York of theatres and vaudevilles + and restaurants begins to roar and flare. The merciless lights throw a + mask of unradiant glare on the human beings in the streets, making each + face hard, set, wolfish, terribly blue. The chorus of voices becomes + shriller. The buildings tower away into obscurity, looking strangely + theatrical, because lit from below. And beyond them soars the purple roof + of the night. A stranger of another race, loitering here, might cast his + eyes up, in a vague wonder what powers, kind or maleficent, controlled or + observed this whirlpool. He would find only this unresponsive canopy of + black, unpierced even, if the seeker stood near a centre of lights, by any + star. But while he looks, away up in the sky, out of the gulfs of night, + spring two vast fiery tooth-brushes, erect, leaning towards each other, + and hanging on to the bristles of them a little Devil, little but + gigantic, who kicks and wriggles and glares. After a few moments the + Devil, baffled by the firmness of the bristles, stops, hangs still, rolls + his eyes, moon-large, and, in a fury of disappointment, goes out, leaving + only the night, blacker and a little bewildered, and the unconscious + throngs of ant-like human beings. Turning with terrified relief from this + exhibition of diabolic impotence, the stranger finds a divine hand writing + slowly across the opposite quarter of the heavens its igneous message of + warning to the nations, "Wear—Underwear for Youths and Men-Boys." + And close by this message come forth a youth and a man-boy, flaming and + immortal, clad in celestial underwear, box a short round, vanish, reappear + for another round, and again disappear. Night after night they wage this + combat. What gods they are who fight endlessly and indecisively over New + York is not for our knowledge; whether it be Thor and Odin, or Zeus and + Cronos, or Michael and Lucifer, or Ormuzd and Ahriman, or Good-as-a-means + and Good-as-an-end. The ways of our lords were ever riddling and obscure. + To the right a celestial bottle, stretching from the horizon to the + zenith, appears, is uncorked, and scatters the worlds with the foam of + what ambrosial liquor may have been within. Beyond, a Spanish goddess, + some minor deity in the Dionysian theogony, dances continually, rapt and + mysterious, to the music of the spheres, her head in Cassiopeia and her + twinkling feet among the Pleiades. And near her, Orion, archer no longer, + releases himself from his strained posture to drive a sidereal golf-ball + out of sight through the meadows of Paradise; then poses, addresses, and + drives again. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "O Nineveh, are these thy gods, + Thine also, mighty Nineveh?" +</pre> + <p> + Why this theophany, or how the gods have got out to perform their various + 'stunts' on the <i>flammantia moenia mundi</i>, is not asked by their + incurious devotees. Through Broadway the dingily glittering tide spreads + itself over the sands of 'amusement.' Theatres and 'movies' are aglare. + Cars shriek down the street; the Elevated train clangs and curves + perilously overhead; newsboys wail the baseball news; wits cry their + obscure challenges to one another, 'I should worry!' or 'She's some + Daisy!' or 'Good-night, Nurse!' In houses off the streets around children + are being born, lovers are kissing, people are dying. Above, in the midst + of those coruscating divinities, sits one older and greater than any. Most + colossal of all, it flashes momently out, a woman's head, all flame + against the darkness. It is beautiful, passionless, in its simplicity and + conventional representation queerly like an archaic Greek or early + Egyptian figure. Queen of the night behind, and of the gods around, and of + the city below—here, if at all, you think, may one find the answer + to the riddle. Her ostensible message, burning in the firmament beside + her, is that we should buy pepsin chewing-gum. But there is more, not to + be given in words, ineffable. Suddenly, when she has surveyed mankind, she + closes her left eye. Three times she winks, and then vanishes. No ordinary + winks these, but portentous, terrifyingly steady, obliterating a great + tract of the sky. Hour by hour she does this, night by night, year by + year. That enigmatic obscuration of light, that answer that is no answer, + is, perhaps, the first thing in this world that a child born near here + will see, and the last that a dying man will have to take for a message to + the curious dead. She is immortal. Men have worshipped her as Isis and as + Ashtaroth, as Venus, as Cybele, Mother of the Gods, and as Mary. There is + a statue of her by the steps of the British Museum. Here, above the + fantastic civilisation she observes, she has no name. She is older than + the sky-scrapers amongst which she sits; and one, certainly, of her + eyelids is a trifle weary. And the only answer to our cries, the only + comment upon our cities, is that divine stare, the wink, once, twice, + thrice. And then darkness. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV + </h2> + <h3> + BOSTON AND HARVARD + </h3> + <p> + It is right to leave Boston late in a summer afternoon, and by sea. Naval + departure is always the better. A train snatches you, hot, dusty, and + smoky, with an irritated hurry out of the back parts of a town. The last + glimpse of a place you may have grown to like or love is, ignobly, + interminable rows of the bedroom-windows in mean streets, a few hovels, + some cinder-heaps, and a factory chimney. As like as not, you are reft + from a last wave to the city's unresponsive and dingy back by the roar and + suffocation of a tunnel. By sea one takes a gracefuller, more satisfactory + farewell. + </p> + <p> + Boston put on her best appearance to watch our boat go out for New York. + The harbour was bright with sunlight and blue water and little white + sails, and there wasn't more than the faintest smell of tea. The city sat + primly on her little hills, decorous, civilised, European-looking. It is + homely after New York. The Boston crowd is curiously English. They have + nice eighteenth-century houses there, and ivy grows on the buildings. And + they are hospitable. All Americans are hospitable; but they haven't <i>quite</i> + time in New York to practise the art so perfectly as the Bostonians. It is + a lovely art.... But Boston also makes you feel at home without meaning + to. A delicious ancient Toryism is to be found here. "What is wrong with + America," a middle-aged lady told me, "is this <i>Democracy</i>. They + ought to take the votes away from these people, who don't know how to use + them, and give them only to <i>us</i>, the Educated." My heart leapt the + Atlantic, and was in a Cathedral or University town of South England. + </p> + <p> + Yet Boston is alive. It sits, in comfortable middle-age, on the ruins of + its glory. But it is not buried beneath them. It used to lead America in + Literature, Thought, Art, everything. The years have passed. It is + remarkable how nearly now Boston is to New York what Munich is to Berlin. + Boston and Munich were the leaders forty years ago. They can't quite make + out that they aren't now. It is too incredible that Art should leave her + goose-feather bed and away to the wraggle-taggle business-men. And + certainly, if Berlin and New York are more 'live,' Boston and Munich are + more themselves, less feverishly imitations of Paris. But the undisputed + palm is there no more; and its absence is felt. + </p> + <p> + But I had little time to taste Boston itself. I was lured across the river + to a place called Cambridge, where is the University of Harvard. Harvard + is the Oxford and Cambridge of America, they claim. She has moulded the + nation's leaders and uttered its ideals. Harvard, Boston, New England, it + is impossible to say how much they are interwoven, and how they have + influenced America. I saw Harvard in 'Commencement,' which is Eights Week + and May Week, the festive winding-up of the year, a time of parties and of + valedictions. One of the great events of Commencement, and of the year, is + the Harvard-Yale baseball match. To this I went, excited at the prospect + of my first sight of a 'ball game,' and my mind vaguely reminiscent of the + indolent, decorous, upper-class crowd, the sunlit spaces, the dignified + ritual, and white-flannelled grace of Lord's at the 'Varsity cricket + match. The crowd was gay, and not very large. We sat in wooden stands, + which were placed in the shape of a large V. As all the hitting which + counts in baseball takes place well in front of the wicket, so to speak, + the spectators have the game right under their noses; the striker stands + in the angle of the V and plays outwards. The field was a vast place, + partly stubbly grass, partly worn and patchy, like a parade-ground. Beyond + it lay the river; beyond that the town of Cambridge and the University + buildings. Around me were undergraduates, with their mothers and sisters. + 'Cambridge'! ... but there entered to us, across the field, a troop of + several hundred men, all dressed in striped shirts of the same hue and + pattern, and headed by a vast banner which informed the world that they + were the graduates of 1910, celebrating their triennial. In military + formation they moved across the plain towards us, led by a band, + ceaselessly vociferating, and raising their straw hats in unison to mark + the time. There followed the class of 1907, attired as sailors; 1903, the + decennial class, with some samples of their male children marching with + them, and a banner inscribed "515 Others. No Race Suicide"; 1898, + carefully arranged in an H-shaped formation, dancing along to their music + with a slow polka-step, each with his hands on the shoulders of the man in + front, and at the head of all their leader, dancing backwards in perfect + time, marshalling them; 1888, middle-aged men, again with some children, + and a Highland regiment playing the bagpipes. + </p> + <p> + When these had passed to the seats allotted for them, I had time to + observe the players, who were practising about the ground, and I was + shocked. They wear dust-coloured shirts and dingy knickerbockers, fastened + under the knee, and heavy boots. They strike the English eye as being + attired for football, or a gladiatorial combat, rather than a summer game. + The very close-fitting caps, with large peaks, give them picturesquely the + appearance of hooligans. Baseball is a good game to watch, and in outline + easy to understand, as it is merely glorified rounders. A cricketer is + fascinated by their rapidity and skill in catching and throwing. There is + excitement in the game, but little beauty except in the long-limbed + 'pitcher,' whose duty it is to hurl the ball rather further than the + length of a cricket-pitch, as bewilderingly as possible. In his efforts to + combine speed, mystery, and curve, he gets into attitudes of a very novel + and fantastic, but quite obvious, beauty. M. Nijinsky would find them + repay study. + </p> + <p> + One queer feature of this sport is that unoccupied members of the batting + side, fielders, and even spectators, are accustomed to join in vocally. + You have the spectacle of the representatives of the universities + endeavouring to frustrate or unnerve their opponents, at moments of + excitement, by cries of derision and mockery, or heartening their own + supporters and performers with exclamations of 'Now, Joe!' or 'He's got + them!' or 'He's the boy!' At the crises in the fortunes of the game, the + spectators take a collective and important part. The Athletic Committee + appoints a 'cheer-leader' for the occasion. Every five or ten minutes this + gentleman, a big, fine figure in white, springs out from his seat at the + foot of the stands, addresses the multitude through a megaphone with a + 'One! Two! Three!' hurls it aside, and, with a wild flinging and swinging + of his body and arms, conducts ten thousand voices in the Harvard yell. + That over, the game proceeds, and the cheer-leader sits quietly waiting + for the next moment of peril or triumph. I shall not easily forget that + figure, bright in the sunshine, conducting with his whole body, + passionate, possessed by a demon, bounding in the frenzy of his + inspiration from side to side, contorted, rhythmic, ecstatic. It seemed so + wonderfully American, in its combination of entire wildness and entire + regulation, with the whole just a trifle fantastic. Completely friendly + and befriended as I was, I couldn't help feeling at those moments very + alien and very, very old—even more so than after the protracted game + had ended in a victory for Harvard, when the dusty plain was filled with + groups and lines of men dancing in solemn harmony, and a shouting crowd, + broken by occasional individuals who could find some little eminence to + lead a Harvard yell from, and who conducted the bystanders, and then + vanished, and the crowd swirled on again. + </p> + <p> + Different enough was the scene next day, when all Harvard men who were up + for Commencement assembled and, arranged by years, marched round the yard. + Class by class they paraded, beginning with veterans of the 'fifties, down + to the class of 1912. I wonder if English nerves could stand it. It seems + to bring the passage of time so very presently and vividly to the mind. To + see, with such emphatic regularity, one's coevals changing in figure, and + diminishing in number, summer after summer!.... Perhaps it is nobler, this + deliberate viewing of oneself as part of the stream. To the spectator, + certainly, the flow and transiency become apparent and poignant. In five + minutes fifty years of America, of so much of America, go past one. The + shape of the bodies, apart from the effects of age, the lines of the + faces, the ways of wearing hair and beard and moustaches, all these change + a little decade by decade, before your eyes. And through the whole + appearance runs some continuity, which is Harvard. + </p> + <p> + The orderly progression of the years was unbroken, except at one point. + There was one gap, large and arresting. Though all years were represented, + there seemed to be nobody in the procession between fifty and sixty. I + asked a Harvard friend the reason. "The War," he said. He told me there + had always been that gap. Those who were old enough to be conscious of the + war had lost a big piece of their lives. With their successors a new + America began. I don't know how true it is. Certainly, the dates worked + out right. And I met an American on a boat who had been a child in one of + the neutral States. He used to watch the regiments forming in the main + street of his town, and marching out, some north and some south. He said + it felt as though pieces of his body were being torn in different + directions. And he was only nine. + </p> + <p> + The procession filed in to an open court, to hear the speeches of the + recipients of honorary degrees, and the President's annual statement. + There was still, in every sense, a solemn atmosphere. The President's + speech floated out into the great open space; fragments of it were blown + to one's ears concerning deaths, and the spirit of the place, and a + detailed account of the money given during the year. Eleven hundred + thousand dollars in all—a record, or nearly a record. We roared + applause. The American universities appear still to dream of the things of + this world. They keep putting up the most wonderful and expensive + buildings. But they do not pay their teachers well. + </p> + <p> + Yet Harvard is a spirit, a way of looking at things, austerely refined, + gently moral, kindly. The perception of it grows on the foreigner. Its + charm is so deliciously old in this land, so deliciously young compared + with the lovely frowst of Oxford and Cambridge. You see it in temperament, + the charm of simplicity and good-heartedness and culture; in the Harvard + undergraduate, who is a boy, while his English contemporary is either a + young man or a schoolboy, less pleasant stages; and in the old Bostonian + who heard, and still hears, the lectures of Dickens and Thackeray. Class + Day brings so many of that older generation together. They reveal what + Harvard, what Boston, was. There is something terrifying in the + completeness of their lives and their civilisation. They are like a + company of dons whose studies are of a remote and finished world. But the + subject of their scholarship is the Victorian age, and especially + Victorian England. Hence their liveliness and certainty, greater than men + can reach who are concerned with the dubieties and changes of incomplete + things. Hence the wit, the stock of excellent stories, the wrinkled wisdom + and mirth of the type. They are the flower of a civilisation, its ripest + critics, and final judges. Carlyle and Emerson are their greatest living + heroes. One of them bent the kindliness and alert interest of his eighty + years upon me. "So you come from Rugby," he said. "Tell me, do you know + that curious creature, Matthew Arnold?" I couldn't bring myself to tell + him that, even in Rugby, we had forgiven that brilliant youth his + iconoclastic tendencies some time since, and that, as a matter of fact, he + had died when I was eight months old. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V + </h2> + <h3> + MONTREAL AND OTTAWA + </h3> + <p> + My American friends were full of kindly scorn when I announced that I was + going to Canada. 'A country without a soul!' they cried, and pressed books + upon me, to befriend me through that Philistine bleakness. Their + commiseration unnerved me, but I was heartened by a feeling that I was, in + a sense, going home, and by the romance of journeying. There was romance + in the long grim American train, in the great lake we passed in the + blackest of nights, and could just see glinting behind dark trees; in the + negro car-attendant; in the boy who perpetually cried: 'Pea-nuts! Candy!' + up and down the long carriages; in the lofty box they put me in to sleep; + and in the fat old lady who had the berth under mine, and snored shrilly + the whole night through. There was almost romance, even, in the fact that + after all there was no restaurant-car on the train; and, having walked all + day in the country, I dined off an orange. I suppose an Englishman in + another country, if he is simple enough, is continually and alternately + struck by two thoughts: 'How like England this is!' and 'How unlike + England this is!' When I had woken next morning, and, lying on my back, + had got inside my clothes with a series of fish-like jumps, I found myself + looking with startled eyes out of the window at the largest river I had + ever seen. It was blue, and sunlit, and it curved spaciously. But beyond + that we ran into the squalider parts of a city. It became immediately + obvious that we were not in New York or Boston or any of the more orderly, + the rather foreign, cities of America. There was something in the + untidiness of those grimy houses, the smoky disorder of the backyards, + that ran a thrill of nostalgia through me. I recognised the English way of + doing things—with a difference that I could not define till later. + </p> + <p> + Determined to be in all ways the complete tourist, I took a rough + preliminary survey of Montreal in an 'observation-car.' It was a large + motor-wagonette, from which everything in Montreal could be seen in two + hours. We were a most fortuitous band of twenty, who had elected so to see + it. Our guide addressed us from the front through a small megaphone, + telling us what everything was, what we were to be interested in, what to + overlook, what to admire. He seemed the exact type of a spiritual pastor + and master, shepherding his stolid and perplexed flock on a regulated path + through the dust and clatter of the world. And the great hollow device out + of which our instruction proceeded was so perfectly a blind mouth. I had + never understood <i>Lycidas</i> before. We were sheepish enough, and + fairly hungry. However, we were excellently fed. "On the right, ladies and + gentlemen, is the Bank of Montreal; on the left the Presbyterian Church of + St Andrew's; on the right, again, the well-designed residence of Sir Blank + Blank; further on, on the same side, the Art Museum...." The outcome of it + all was a vague general impression that Montreal consists of banks and + churches. The people of this city spend much of their time in laying up + their riches in this world or the next. Indeed, the British part of + Montreal is dominated by the Scotch race; there is a Scotch spirit + sensible in the whole place—in the rather narrow, rather gloomy + streets, the solid, square, grey, aggressively prosperous buildings, the + general greyness of the city, the air of dour prosperity. Even the + Canadian habit of loading the streets with heavy telephone wires, + supported by frequent black poles, seemed to increase the atmospheric + resemblance to Glasgow. + </p> + <p> + But besides all this there is a kind of restraint in the air, due, + perhaps, to a state of affairs which, more than any other, startles the + ordinary ignorant English visitor. The average man in England has an idea + of Canada as a young-eyed daughter State, composed of millions of + wheat-growers and backwoodsmen of British race. It surprises him to learn + that more than a quarter of the population is of French descent, that many + of them cannot speak English, that they control a province, form the + majority in the biggest city in Canada, and are a perpetual complication + in the national politics. Even a stranger who knows this is startled at + the complete separateness of the two races. Inter-marriage is very rare. + They do not meet socially; only on business, and that not often. In the + same city these two communities dwell side by side, with different + traditions, different languages, different ideals, without sympathy or + comprehension. The French in Canada are entirely devoted to—some say + under the thumb of—the Roman Catholic Church. They seem like a piece + of the Middle Ages, dumped after a trans-secular journey into a quite + uncompromising example of our commercial time. Some of their leaders are + said to have dreams of a French Republic—or theocracy—on the + banks of the St Lawrence. How this, or any other, solution of the problem + is to come about, no man knows. Racial difficulties are the most enduring + of all. The French and British in Canada seem to have behaved with quite + extraordinary generosity and kindliness towards each other. No one is to + blame. But it is not in human nature that two communities should live side + by side, pretending they are one, without some irritation and mutual loss + of strength. There is no open strife. But 'incidents,' and the memory of + incidents, bear continual witness to the truth of the situation. And + racial disagreement is at the bottom, often unconsciously, of many + political and social movements. Sir Wilfrid Laurier performed a miracle. + But no one of French birth will ever again be Premier of Canada. + </p> + <p> + Montreal and Eastern Canada suffer from that kind of ill-health which + afflicts men who are cases of 'double personality'—debility and + spiritual paralysis. The 'progressive' British-Canadian man of commerce is + comically desperate of peasants who <i>will not</i> understand that + increase of imports and volume of trade and numbers of millionaires are + the measures of a city's greatness; and to his eye the Roman Catholic + Church, with her invaluable ally Ignorance, keeps up her incessant war + against the general good of the community of which she is part. So things + remain. + </p> + <p> + I made my investigations in Montreal. I have to report that the Discobolus + [Footnote: See Samuel Butler's poem, "Oh God! oh Montreal!"—Ed.] is + very well, and, nowadays, looks the whole world in the face, almost quite + unabashed. West of Montreal, the country seems to take on a rather more + English appearance. There is still a French admixture. But the little + houses are not purely Gallic, as they are along the Lower St Lawrence; and + once or twice I detected real hedges. + </p> + <p> + Ottawa came as a relief after Montreal. There is no such sense of strain + and tightness in the atmosphere. The British, if not greatly in the + majority, are in the ascendency; also, the city seems conscious of other + than financial standards, and quietly, with dignity, aware of her own + purpose. The Canadians, like the Americans, chose to have for their + capital a city which did not lead in population or in wealth. This is + particularly fortunate in Canada, an extremely individualistic country, + whose inhabitants are only just beginning to be faintly conscious of their + nationality. Here, at least, Canada is more than the Canadian. A man + desiring to praise Ottawa would begin to do so without statistics of + wealth and the growth of population; and this can be said of no other city + in Canada except Quebec. Not that there are not immense lumber-mills and + the rest in Ottawa. But the Government farm, and the Parliament buildings, + are more important. Also, although the 'spoils' system obtains a good deal + in this country, the nucleus of the Civil Service is much the same as in + England; so there is an atmosphere of Civil Servants about Ottawa, an + atmosphere of safeness and honour and massive buildings and well-shaded + walks. After all, there is in the qualities of Civility and Service much + beauty, of a kind which would adorn Canada. + </p> + <p> + Parliament Buildings stand finely on a headland of cliff some 160 feet + above the river. There are gardens about them; and beneath, the wooded + rocks go steeply down to the water. It is a position of natural boldness + and significance. The buildings were put up in the middle of last century, + an unfortunate period. But they have dignity, especially of line; and when + evening hides their colour, and the western sky and the river take on the + lovely hues of a Canadian sunset, and the lights begin to come out in the + city, they seem to have the majesty and calm of a natural crown of the + river-headland. The Government have bought the ground along the cliff for + half a mile on either side, and propose to build all their offices there. + So, in the end, if they build well, the river-front at Ottawa will be a + noble sight. And—just to show that it is Canada, and not Utopia—the + line of national buildings will always be broken by an expensive and + superb hotel the Canadian Pacific Railway has been allowed to erect on the + twin and neighbouring promontory to that of the Houses of Parliament. + </p> + <p> + The streets of Ottawa are very quiet, and shaded with trees. The houses + are mostly of that cool, homely, wooden kind, with verandahs, on which, or + on the steps, the whole family may sit in the evening and observe the + passers-by. This is possible for both the rich and the poor, who live + nearer each other in Ottawa than in most cities. In general there is an + air of civilisation, which extends even over the country round. But in the + country you see little signs, a patch of swamp, or thickets of still + untouched primaeval wood, which remind you that Europeans have not long + had this land. I was taken in a motor-car some twenty miles or more over + the execrable roads round here, to a lovely little lake in the hills + north-west of Ottawa. We went by little French villages and fields at + first, and then through rocky, tangled woods of birch and poplar, rich + with milk-weed and blue cornflowers, and the aromatic thimbleberry + blossom, and that romantic, light, purple-red flower which is called + fireweed, because it is the first vegetation to spring up in the prairie + after a fire has passed over, and so might be adopted as the emblematic + flower of a sense of humour. They told me, casually, that there was + nothing but a few villages between me and the North Pole. It is probably + true of several commonly frequented places in this country. But it gives a + thrill to hear it. + </p> + <p> + But what Ottawa leaves in the mind is a certain graciousness—dim, + for it expresses a barely materialised national spirit—and the sight + of kindly English-looking faces, and the rather lovely sound of the soft + Canadian accent, in the streets. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI + </h2> + <h3> + QUEBEC AND THE SAGUENAY + </h3> + <p> + The boat starts from Montreal one evening, and lands you in Quebec at six + next morning. The evening I left was a dull one. Heavy sulphurous clouds + hung low over the city, drifting very slowly and gloomily out across the + river. Mount Royal crouched, black and sullen, in the background, its + crest occluded by the darkness, appearing itself a cloud materialised, + resting on earth. The harbour was filled with volumes of smoke, purple and + black, wreathing and sidling eastwards, from steamers and chimneys. The + gigantic elevators and other harbour buildings stood mistily in this + inferno, their heads clear and sinister above the mirk. It was impossible + to decide whether an enormous mass of pitchy and Tartarian gloom was being + slowly moulded by diabolic invisible hands into a city, or a city, the + desperate and damned abode of a loveless race, was disintegrating into its + proper fume and dusty chaos. With relief we turned outwards to the + nobility of the St Lawrence and the gathering dark. + </p> + <p> + On the boat I fell in with another wanderer, an American Jew, and we + joined our fortunes, rather loosely, for a few days. He was one of those + men whom it is a life-long pleasure to remember. I can record his + existence the more easily that there is not the slightest chance of his + ever reading these lines. He was a fat, large man of forty-five, obviously + in business, and probably of a mediocre success. His eyes were + light-coloured, very small, always watery, and perpetually roving. The + lower part of his face was clean-shaven and very broad; his mouth wide, + with thin, moist, colourless lips; his nose fat and Hebraic. He was rather + bald. He had respect for Montreal, because, though closed to navigation + for five months in the year, it is the second busiest port on the coast. + He said it had Boston skinned. The French he disliked. He thought they + stood in the way of Canada's progress. His mind was even more childlike + and transparent than is usual with business men. The observer could see + thoughts slowly floating into it, like carp in a pond. When they got near + the surface, by a purely automatic process they found utterance. He was + almost completely unconscious of an audience. Everything he thought of he + said. He told me that his boots were giving in the sole, but would + probably last this trip. He said he had not washed his feet for eight + days; and that his clothes were shabby (which was true), but would do for + Canada. It was interesting to see how Canada presented herself to that + mind. He seemed to regard her as a kind of Boeotia, and terrifyingly dour. + "These Canadian waiters," he said, "they jes' <i>fling</i> the food in y'r + face. Kind'er gets yer sick, doesn't it?" I agreed. There was a Yorkshire + mechanic, too, who had been in Canada four years, and preferred it to + England, "because you've room to breathe," but also found that Canada had + not yet learnt social comfort, and regretted the manners of "the Old + Country." + </p> + <p> + We woke to find ourselves sweeping round a high cliff, at six in the + morning, with a lively breeze, the river very blue and broken into + ripples, and a lot of little white clouds in the sky. The air was full of + gaiety and sunshine and the sense of the singing of birds, though + actually, I think, there were only a few gulls crying. It was the + perfection of a summer morning, thrilling with a freshness which, the + fancy said, was keener than any the old world knew. And high and grey and + serene above the morning lay the citadel of Quebec. + </p> + <p> + Is there any city in the world that stands so nobly as Quebec? The citadel + crowns a headland, three hundred feet high, that juts boldly out into the + St Lawrence. Up to it, up the side of the hill, clambers the city, houses + and steeples and huts, piled one on the other. It has the individuality + and the pride of a city where great things have happened, and over which + many years have passed. Quebec is as refreshing and as definite after the + other cities of this continent as an immortal among a crowd of + stockbrokers. She has, indeed, the radiance and repose of an immortal; but + she wears her immortality youthfully. When you get among the streets of + Quebec, the mediaeval, precipitous, narrow, winding, and perplexed + streets, you begin to realise her charm. She almost incurs the charge of + quaintness (abhorrent quality!); but even quaintness becomes attractive in + this country. You are in a foreign land, for the people have an alien + tongue, short stature, the quick, decided, cinematographic quality of + movement, and the inexplicable cheerfulness, which mark a foreigner. You + might almost be in Siena or some old German town, except that Quebec has + her street-cars and grain-elevators to show that she is living. + </p> + <p> + The American Jew and I took a <i>caleche</i>, a little two-wheeled local + carriage, driven by a lively Frenchman with a factitious passion for + death-spots and churches. A small black and white spaniel followed the <i>caleche</i>, + yapping. The American's face shone with interest. "That dawg's Michael," + he said, "the hotel dawg. He's a queer little dawg. I kicked his face; and + he tried to bite me. Hup, Michael!" And he laughed hoarsely. "Non!" said + the driver suddenly, "it is not the 'otel dog." The American did not lose + interest. "These little dawgs are all alike," he said. "Dare say if you + kicked that dawg in the face, he'd bite you. Hup, Michael!" With that he + fell into deep thought. + </p> + <p> + We rattled up and down the steep streets, out among tidy fields, and back + into the noisily sedate city again. We saw where Wolfe fell, where + Montcalm fell, where Montgomery fell. Children played where the tides of + war had ebbed and flowed. Mr Norman Angell and his friends tell us that + trade is superseding war; and pacifists declare that for the future + countries will win their pride or shame from commercial treaties and + tariffs and bounties, and no more from battles and sieges. And there is a + part of Canadian patriotism that has progressed this way. But I wonder if + the hearts of that remarkable race, posterity, will ever beat the harder + when they are told, "Here Mr Borden stood when he decided to double the + duty on agricultural implements," or even "In this room Mr Ritchie + conceived the plan of removing the shilling on wheat." When that happens, + Quebec will be a forgotten ruin.... The reverie was broken by my friend + struggling to his feet and standing, unsteady and bareheaded, in the + swaying carriage. In that position he burst hoarsely into a song that I + recognised as 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' We were passing the American + Consulate. His song over, he settled down and fell into a deep sleep, and + the <i>caleche</i> jolted down even narrower streets, curiously paved with + planks, and ways that led through and under the ancient, tottering wooden + houses. + </p> + <p> + But Quebec is too real a city to be 'seen' in such a manner. And a better + way of spending a few days, or years, is to sit on Dufferin Terrace, with + the old Lower Town sheer beneath you, and the river beyond it, and the + citadel to the right, a little above, and the Isle of Orleans and the + French villages away down-stream to your left. Hour by hour the colours + change, and sunlight follows shadow, and mist rises, and smoke drifts + across. And through the veil of the shifting of lights and hues there + remains visible the majesty of the most glorious river in the world. + </p> + <p> + From this contemplation, and from musing on men's agreement to mark by + this one great sign of the Taking of the Heights of Quebec, the turning of + one of the greatest currents in our history, I was torn by a journey I had + been advised to make. The boat goes some hundred and thirty miles down the + St Lawrence, turns up a northern tributary, the Saguenay, goes as far as + Chicoutimi, ninety miles up, and returns to Quebec. Both on this trip, and + between Quebec and Montreal, we touched at many little French villages, by + day and by night. Their <i>habitants</i>, the French-Canadian peasants, + are a jolly sight. They are like children in their noisy content. They are + poor and happy, Roman Catholics; they laugh a great deal; and they + continually sing. They do not progress at all. As a counter to these + admirable people we had on our boat a great many priests. They diffused an + atmosphere of black, of unpleasant melancholy. Their faces had that + curiously unwashed look, and were for the most part of a mean and very + untrustworthy expression. Their eyes were small, shifty, and cruel, and + would not meet the gaze.... The choice between our own age and mediaeval + times is a very hard one. + </p> + <p> + It was almost full night when we left the twenty-mile width of the St + Lawrence, and turned up a gloomy inlet. By reason of the night and of + comparison with the river from which we had come, this stream appeared + unnaturally narrow. Darkness hid all detail, and we were only aware of + vast cliffs, sometimes dense with trees, sometimes bare faces of sullen + rock. They shut us in, oppressively, but without heat. There are no banks + to this river, for the most part; only these walls, rising sheer from the + water to the height of two thousand feet, going down sheer beneath it, or + rather by the side of it, to many times that depth. The water was of some + colour blacker than black. Even by daylight it is inky and sinister. It + flows without foam or ripple. No white showed in the wake of the boat. The + ominous shores were without sign of life, save for a rare light every few + miles, to mark some bend in the chasm. Once a canoe with two Indians shot + out of the shadows, passed under our stern, and vanished silently down + stream. We all became hushed and apprehensive. The night was gigantic and + terrible. There were a few stars, but the flood slid along too swiftly to + reflect them. The whole scene seemed some Stygian imagination of Dante. As + we drew further and further into that lightless land, little twists and + curls of vapour wriggled over the black river-surface. Our homeless, + irrelevant, tiny steamer seemed to hang between two abysms. One became + suddenly aware of the miles of dark water beneath. I found that under a + prolonged gaze the face of the river began to writhe and eddy, as if from + some horrible suppressed emotion. It seemed likely that something might + appear. I reflected that if the river failed us, all hope was gone; and + that anyhow this region was the abode of devils. I went to bed. + </p> + <p> + Next day we steamed down the river again. By daylight some of the horror + goes, but the impression of ancientness and desolation remains. The gloomy + flood is entirely shut in by the rock or the tangled pine and birch + forests of these great cliffs, except in one or two places, where a chine + and a beach have given lodging to lonely villages. One of these is at the + end of a long bay, called Ha-Ha Bay. The local guide-book, an early + example of the school of fantastic realism so popular among our younger + novelists, says that this name arose from the 'laughing ejaculations' of + the early French explorers, who had mistaken this lengthy blind-alley for + the main stream. 'Ha! Ha!' they said. So like an early explorer. + </p> + <p> + At the point where the Saguenay joins the St Lawrence, here twenty miles + wide, I 'stopped off' for a day, to feel the country more deeply. The + village is called Tadousac, and consists of an hotel and French fishermen, + to whom Quebec is a distant, unvisited city of legend. The afternoon was + very hot. I wandered out along a thin margin of yellow sand to the extreme + rocky point where the waters of the two rivers meet and swirl. There I + lay, and looked at the strange humps of the Laurentian hills, and the dark + green masses of the woods, impenetrable depths of straight and leaning and + horizontal trees, broken here and there by great bald granite rocks, and + behind me the little village, where the earliest church in Canada stands. + Away in the St Lawrence there would be a flash as an immense white fish + jumped. Miles out an occasional steamer passed, bound to England perhaps. + And once, hugging the coast, came a half-breed paddling a canoe with a + small diamond-shaped sail, filled with trout. The cliff above me was + crowned with beds of blue flowers, whose names I did not know. Against the + little gulfs and coasts of rock at my feet were washing a few white logs + of driftwood. I wondered if they could have floated across from England, + or if they could be from the <i>Titanic</i>. The sun was very hot, the sky + a clear light blue, almost cloudless, like an English sky, and the water + seemed fairly deep. I stripped, hovered a while on the brink, and plunged. + The current was unexpectedly strong. I seemed to feel that two-mile-deep + body of black water moving against me. And it was cold as death. Stray + shreds of the St Lawrence water were warm and cheerful. But the current of + the Saguenay, on such a day, seemed unnaturally icy. As my head came up I + made one dash for the land, scrambled out on the hot rocks, and lay there + panting. Then I dried on a handkerchief, dressed, and ran back home, still + shivering, through the woods to the hotel. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII + </h2> + <h3> + ONTARIO + </h3> + <p> + The great joy of travelling in Canada is to do it by water. The advantage + of this is that you can keep fairly clean and quiet of nerves; the + disadvantage is that you don't 'see the country.' I travelled most of the + way from Ottawa to Toronto by water. But between Ottawa and Prescott then, + and later from Toronto to Niagara Falls, and thence to Sarnia, there is a + good deal of Southern Ontario to be seen—the part which has counted + as Ontario so far. And I saw it through a faint grey-pink mist of <i>Heimweh</i>. + For after the States and after Quebec it is English. There are + weather-beaten farm-houses, rolling country, thickets of trees, little + hills green and grey in the distance, decorous small fields, orchards, + and, I swear, a hedge or two. Most of the towns we went through are a + little too vivacious or too pert to be European. But there seemed to be + real villages occasionally, and the land had a quiet air of occupation. + </p> + <p> + Men have lived contentedly on this land and died where they were born, and + so given it a certain sanctity. Away north the wild begins, and is only + now being brought into civilisation, inhabited, made productive, explored, + and exploited. But this country has seen the generations pass, and won + something of that repose and security which countries acquire from the + sight. + </p> + <p> + The wise traveller from Ottawa to Toronto catches a boat at Prescott, and + puffs judicially between two nations up the St Lawrence and across Lake + Ontario. We were a cosmopolitan, middle-class bunch (it is the one + distinction between the Canadian and American languages that Canadians + tend to say 'bunch' but Americans 'crowd'), out to enjoy the scenery. For + this stretch of the river is notoriously picturesque, containing the + Thousand Isles. The Thousand Isles vary from six inches to hundreds of + yards in diameter. Each, if big enough, has been bought by a rich man—generally + an American—who has built a castle on it. So the whole isn't much + more beautiful than Golder's Green. We picked our way carefully between + the islands. The Americans on board sat in rows saying "That house was + built by Mr ——. Made his money in biscuits. Cost three hundred + thousand dollars, e-recting that building. Yessir." The Canadians sat + looking out the other way, and said, "In nineteen-ten this land was worth + twenty thousand an acre; now it's worth forty-five thousand. Next + year...." and their eyes grew solemn as the eyes of men who think deep and + holy thoughts. But the English sat quite still, looking straight in front + of them, thinking of nothing at all, and hoping that nobody would speak to + them. So we fared; until, well on in the afternoon, we came to the + entrance of Lake Ontario. + </p> + <p> + There is something ominous and unnatural about these great lakes. The + sweet flow of a river, and the unfriendly restless vitality of the sea, + men may know and love. And the little lakes we have in Europe are but as + fresh-water streams that have married and settled down, alive and healthy + and comprehensible. Rivers (except the Saguenay) are human. The sea, very + properly, will not be allowed in heaven. It has no soul. It is + unvintageable, cruel, treacherous, what you will. But, in the end—while + we have it with us—it is all right; even though that all-rightness + result but, as with France, from the recognition of an age-long feud and + an irremediable lack of sympathy. But these monstrous lakes, which ape the + ocean, are not proper to fresh water or salt. They have souls, + perceptibly, and wicked ones. + </p> + <p> + We steamed out, that day, over a flat, stationary mass of water, smooth + with the smoothness of metal or polished stone or one's finger-nail. There + was a slight haze everywhere. The lake was a terrible dead-silver colour, + the gleam of its surface shot with flecks of blue and a vapoury + enamel-green. It was like a gigantic silver shield. Its glint was + inexplicably sinister and dead, like the glint on glasses worn by a blind + man. In front the steely mist hid the horizon, so that the occasional rock + or little island and the one ship in sight seemed hung in air. They were + reflected to a preternatural length in the glassy floor. Our boat appeared + to leave no wake; those strange waters closed up foamlessly behind her. + But our black smoke hung, away back on the trail, in a thick, + clearly-bounded cloud, becalmed in the hot, windless air, very close over + the water, like an evil soul after death that cannot win dissolution. + Behind us and to the right lay the low, woody shores of Southern Ontario + and Prince Edward Peninsula, long dark lines of green, stretching thinner + and thinner, interminably, into the distance. The lake around us was dull, + though the sun shone full on it. It gleamed, but without radiance. + </p> + <p> + Toronto (pronounce <i>T'ranto</i>, please) is difficult to describe. It + has an individuality, but an elusive one; yet not through any queerness or + difficult shade of eccentricity; a subtly normal, an indefinably obvious + personality. It is a healthy, cheerful city (by modern standards); a + clean-shaven, pink-faced, respectably dressed, fairly energetic, + unintellectual, passably sociable, well-to-do, public-school-and-'varsity + sort of city. One knows in one's own life certain bright and pleasant + figures; people who occupy the nearer middle distance, unobtrusive but not + negligible; wardens of the marches between acquaintanceship and + friendship. It is always nice to meet them, and in parting one looks back + at them once. They are, healthily and simply, the most fitting product of + a not perfect environment; good-sorts; normal, but not too normal; + distinctly themselves, but not distinguished. They support civilisation. + You can trust them in anything, if your demand be for nothing extremely + intelligent or absurdly altruistic. One of these could be exhibited in any + gallery in the universe, 'Perfect Specimen; Upper Middle Classes; + Twentieth Century'—and we should not be ashamed. They are not vexed + by impossible dreams, nor outrageously materialistic, nor perplexed by + overmuch prosperity, nor spoilt by reverse. Souls for whom the wind is + always nor'-nor'-west, and they sail nearer success than failure, and + nearer wisdom than lunacy. Neither leaders nor slaves—but no + Tomlinsons!—whomsoever of your friends you miss, <i>them</i> you + will certainly meet again, not unduly pardoned, the fifty-first by the + Throne. Such is Toronto. A brisk city of getting on for half a million + inhabitants, the largest British city in Canada (in spite of the cheery + Italian faces that pop up at you out of excavations in the street), + liberally endowed with millionaires, not lacking its due share of + destitution, misery, and slums. It is no mushroom city of the West, it has + its history; but at the same time it has grown immensely of recent years. + It is situated on the shores of a lovely lake; but you never see that, + because the railways have occupied the entire lake front. So if, at + evening, you try to find your way to the edge of the water, you are + checked by a region of smoke, sheds, trucks, wharves, store-houses, + 'depots,' railway-lines, signals, and locomotives and trains that wander + on the tracks up and down and across streets, pushing their way through + the pedestrians, and tolling, as they go, in the American fashion, an + immense melancholy bell, intent, apparently, on some private and + incommunicable grief. Higher up are the business quarters, a few + sky-scrapers in the American style without the modern American beauty, but + one of which advertises itself as the highest in the British Empire; + streets that seem less narrow than Montreal, but not unrespectably wide; + "the buildings are generally substantial and often handsome" (the too + kindly Herr Baedeker). Beyond that the residential part, with quiet + streets, gardens open to the road, shady verandahs, and homes, generally + of wood, that are a deal more pleasant to see than the houses in a modern + English town. + </p> + <p> + Toronto is the centre and heart of the Province of Ontario; and Ontario, + with a third of the whole population of Canada, directs the country for + the present, conditioned by the French on one hand and the West on the + other. And in this land, that is as yet hardly at all conscious of itself + as a nation, Toronto and Ontario do their best in leading and realising + national sentiment. A Toronto man, like most Canadians, dislikes an + Englishman; but, unlike some Canadians, he detests an American. And he has + some inkling of the conditions and responsibilities of the British Empire. + The tradition is in him. His fathers fought to keep Canada British. + </p> + <p> + It is never easy to pick out of the turmoil of an election the real powers + that have moved men; and it is especially difficult in a country where + politics are so corrupt as they are in Canada. But certainly this British + feeling helped to throw Ontario, and so the country, against Reciprocity + with the United States in 1911; and it is keeping it, in the comedy of the + Navy Question, on Mr Borden's side—rather from distrust of his + opponents' sincerity, perhaps, than from admiration of the fix he is in. + It has been used, this patriotism, to aid the wealthy interests, which are + all-powerful here; and it will continue to be a ball in the tennis of + party politics. But it is real; it will remain, potential of good, among + all the forces that are certain for evil. + </p> + <p> + Toronto, soul of Canada, is wealthy, busy, commercial, Scotch, absorbent + of whisky; but she is duly aware of other things. She has a most modern + and efficient interest in education; and here are gathered what faint, + faint beginnings or premonitions of such things as Art Canada can boast + (except the French-Canadians, who, it is complained, produce + disproportionately much literature, and waste their time on their own + unprofitable songs). Most of those few who have begun to paint the + landscape of Canada centre there, and a handful of people who know about + books. In these things, as in all, this city is properly and cheerfully to + the front. It can scarcely be doubted that the first Repertory Theatre in + Canada will be founded in Toronto, some thirty years hence, and will very + daringly perform <i>Candida</i> and <i>The Silver Box</i>. Canada is a + live country, live, but not, like the States, kicking. In these trifles of + Art and 'culture,' indeed, she is much handicapped by the proximity of the + States. For her poets and writers are apt to be drawn thither, for the + better companionship there and the higher rates of pay. + </p> + <p> + But Toronto—Toronto is the subject. One must say something—<i>what</i> + must one say about Toronto? What can one? What has anybody ever said? It + is impossible to give it anything but commendation. It is not squalid like + Birmingham, or cramped like Canton, or scattered like Edmonton, or sham + like Berlin, or hellish like New York, or tiresome like Nice. It is all + right. The only depressing thing is that it will always be what it is, + only larger, and that no Canadian city can ever be anything better or + different. If they are good they may become Toronto. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII + </h2> + <h3> + NIAGARA FALLS + </h3> + <p> + Samuel Butler has a lot to answer for. But for him, a modern traveller + could spend his time peacefully admiring the scenery instead of feeling + himself bound to dog the simple and grotesque of the world for the sake of + their too-human comments. It is his fault if a peasant's <i>naivete</i> + has come to outweigh the beauty of rivers, and the remarks of clergymen + are more than mountains. It is very restful to give up all effort at + observing human nature and drawing social and political deductions from + trifles, and to let oneself relapse into wide-mouthed worship of the + wonders of nature. And this is very easy at Niagara. Niagara means + nothing. It is not leading anywhere. It does not result from anything. It + throws no light on the effects of Protection, nor on the Facility for + Divorce in America, nor on Corruption in Public Life, nor on Canadian + character, nor even on the Navy Bill. It is merely a great deal of water + falling over some cliffs. But it is very remarkably that. The human race, + apt as a child to destroy what it admires, has done its best to surround + the Falls with every distraction, incongruity, and vulgarity. Hotels, + power-houses, bridges, trams, picture post-cards, sham legends, stalls, + booths, rifle-galleries, and side-shows frame them about. And there are + Touts. Niagara is the central home and breeding-place for all the touts of + earth. There are touts insinuating, and touts raucous, greasy touts, + brazen touts, and upper-class, refined, gentlemanly, take-you-by-the-arm + touts; touts who intimidate and touts who wheedle; professionals, + amateurs, and <i>dilettanti</i>, male and female; touts who would + photograph you with your arm round a young lady against a faked background + of the sublimest cataract, touts who would bully you into cars, + char-a-bancs, elevators, or tunnels, or deceive you into a carriage and + pair, touts who would sell you picture postcards, moccasins, sham Indian + beadwork, blankets, tee-pees, and crockery; and touts, finally, who have + no apparent object in the world, but just purely, simply, merely, + incessantly, indefatigably, and ineffugibly—to tout. And in the + midst of all this, overwhelming it all, are the Falls. He who sees them + instantly forgets humanity. They are not very high, but they are + overpowering. They are divided by an island into two parts, the Canadian + and the American. + </p> + <p> + Half a mile or so above the Falls, on either side, the water of the great + stream begins to run more swiftly and in confusion. It descends with + ever-growing speed. It begins chattering and leaping, breaking into a + thousand ripples, throwing up joyful fingers of spray. Sometimes it is + divided by islands and rocks, sometimes the eye can see nothing but a + waste of laughing, springing, foamy waves, turning, crossing, even seeming + to stand for an instant erect, but always borne impetuously forward like a + crowd of triumphant feasters. Sit close down by it, and you see a fragment + of the torrent against the sky, mottled, steely, and foaming, leaping + onward in far-flung criss-cross strands of water. Perpetually the eye is + on the point of descrying a pattern in this weaving, and perpetually it is + cheated by change. In one place part of the flood plunges over a ledge a + few feet high and a quarter of a mile or so long, in a uniform and stable + curve. It gives an impression of almost military concerted movement, grown + suddenly out of confusion. But it is swiftly lost again in the + multitudinous tossing merriment. Here and there a rock close to the + surface is marked by a white wave that faces backwards and seems to be + rushing madly up-stream, but is really stationary in the headlong charge. + But for these signs of reluctance, the waters seem to fling themselves on + with some foreknowledge of their fate, in an ever wilder frenzy. But it is + no Maeterlinckian prescience. They prove, rather, that Greek belief that + the great crashes are preceded by a louder merriment and a wilder gaiety. + Leaping in the sunlight, careless, entwining, clamorously joyful, the + waves riot on towards the verge. + </p> + <p> + But there they change. As they turn to the sheer descent, the white and + blue and slate-colour, in the heart of the Canadian Falls at least, blend + and deepen to a rich, wonderful, luminous green. On the edge of disaster + the river seems to gather herself, to pause, to lift a head noble in ruin, + and then, with a slow grandeur, to plunge into the eternal thunder and + white chaos below. Where the stream runs shallower it is a kind of violet + colour, but both violet and green fray and frill to white as they fall. + The mass of water, striking some ever-hidden base of rock, leaps up the + whole two hundred feet again in pinnacles and domes of spray. The spray + falls back into the lower river once more; all but a little that fines to + foam and white mist, which drifts in layers along the air, graining it, + and wanders out on the wind over the trees and gardens and houses, and so + vanishes. + </p> + <p> + The manager of one of the great power-stations on the banks of the river + above the Falls told me that the centre of the riverbed at the Canadian + Falls is deep and of a saucer shape. So it may be possible to fill this up + to a uniform depth, and divert a lot of water for the power-houses. And + this, he said, would supply the need for more power, which will certainly + soon arise, without taking away from the beauty of Niagara. This is a + handsome concession of the utilitarians to ordinary sight-seers. Yet, I + doubt if we shall be satisfied. The real secret of the beauty and terror + of the Falls is not their height or width, but the feeling of colossal + power and of unintelligible disaster caused by the plunge of that vast + body of water. If that were taken away, there would be little visible + change; but the heart would be gone. + </p> + <p> + The American Falls do not inspire this feeling in the same way as the + Canadian. It is because they are less in volume, and because the water + does not fall so much into one place. By comparison their beauty is almost + delicate and fragile. They are extraordinarily level, one long curtain of + lacework and woven foam. Seen from opposite, when the sun is on them, they + are blindingly white, and the clouds of spray show dark against them. With + both Falls the colour of the water is the ever-altering wonder. Greens and + blues, purples and whites, melt into one another, fade, and come again, + and change with the changing sun. Sometimes they are as richly diaphanous + as a precious stone, and glow from within with a deep, inexplicable light. + Sometimes the white intricacies of dropping foam become opaque and creamy. + And always there are the rainbows. If you come suddenly upon the Falls + from above, a great double rainbow, very vivid, spanning the extent of + spray from top to bottom, is the first thing you see. If you wander along + the cliff opposite, a bow springs into being in the American Falls, + accompanies you courteously on your walk, dwindles and dies as the mist + ends, and awakens again as you reach the Canadian tumult. And the bold + traveller who attempts the trip under the American Falls sees, when he + dare open his eyes to anything, tiny baby rainbows, some four or five + yards in span, leaping from rock to rock among the foam, and gambolling + beside him, barely out of hand's reach, as he goes. One I saw in that + place was a complete circle, such as I have never seen before, and so near + that I could put my foot on it. It is a terrifying journey, beneath and + behind the Falls. The senses are battered and bewildered by the thunder of + the water and the assault of wind and spray; or rather, the sound is not + of falling water, but merely of falling; a noise of unspecified ruin. So, + if you are close behind the endless clamour, the sight cannot recognise + liquid in the masses that hurl past. You are dimly and pitifully aware + that sheets of light and darkness are falling in great curves in front of + you. Dull omnipresent foam washes the face. Farther away, in the roar and + hissing, clouds of spray seem literally to slide down some invisible plane + of air. + </p> + <p> + Beyond the foot of the Falls the river is like a slipping floor of marble, + green with veins of dirty white, made by the scum that was foam. It slides + very quietly and slowly down for a mile or two, sullenly exhausted. Then + it turns to a dull sage green, and hurries more swiftly, smooth and + ominous. As the walls of the ravine close in, trouble stirs, and the + waters boil and eddy. These are the lower rapids, a sight more terrifying + than the Falls, because less intelligible. Close in its bands of rock the + river surges tumultuously forward, writhing and leaping as if inspired by + a demon. It is pressed by the straits into a visibly convex form. Great + planes of water slide past. Sometimes it is thrown up into a pinnacle of + foam higher than a house, or leaps with incredible speed from the crest of + one vast wave to another, along the shining curve between, like the spring + of a wild beast. Its motion continually suggests muscular action. The + power manifest in these rapids moves one with a different sense of awe and + terror from that of the Falls. Here the inhuman life and strength are + spontaneous, active, almost resolute; masculine vigour compared with the + passive gigantic power, female, helpless and overwhelming, of the Falls. A + place of fear. + </p> + <p> + One is drawn back, strangely, to a contemplation of the Falls, at every + hour, and especially by night, when the cloud of spray becomes an immense + visible ghost, straining and wavering high above the river, white and + pathetic and translucent. The Victorian lies very close below the surface + in every man. There one can sit and let great cloudy thoughts of destiny + and the passage of empires drift through the mind; for such dreams are at + home by Niagara. I could not get out of my mind the thought of a friend, + who said that the rainbows over the Falls were like the arts and beauty + and goodness, with regard to the stream of life—caused by it, thrown + upon its spray, but unable to stay or direct or affect it, and ceasing + when it ceased. In all comparisons that rise in the heart, the river, with + its multitudinous waves and its single current, likens itself to a life, + whether of an individual or of a community. A man's life is of many + flashing moments, and yet one stream; a nation's flows through all its + citizens, and yet is more than they. In such places, one is aware, with an + almost insupportable and yet comforting certitude, that both men and + nations are hurried onwards to their ruin or ending as inevitably as this + dark flood. Some go down to it unreluctant, and meet it, like the river, + not without nobility. And as incessant, as inevitable, and as unavailing + as the spray that hangs over the Falls, is the white cloud of human + crying.... With some such thoughts does the platitudinous heart win from + the confusion and thunder of Niagara a peace that the quietest plains or + most stable hills can never give. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX + </h2> + <h3> + TO WINNIPEG + </h3> + <p> + The boats that run from Sarnia the whole length of Lake Huron and Lake + Superior are not comfortable. But no doubt a train for those six hundred + miles would be worse. You start one afternoon, and in the morning of the + next day you have done with the rather colourless, unindividual expanses + of Huron, and are dawdling along a canal that joins the lakes by the + little town of Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced, abruptly, 'Soo'). We happened + on it one Sunday. The nearer waters of the river and the lakes were + covered with little sailing or rowing or bathing parties. Everybody seemed + cheerful, merry, and mildly raucous. There is a fine, breezy, enviable + healthiness about Canadian life. Except in some Eastern cities, there are + few clerks or working-men but can get away to the woods and water. + </p> + <p> + As we drew out into the cold magnificence of Lake Superior, the receding + woody shores were occasionally spotted with picnickers or campers, who + rushed down the beach in various deshabille, waving towels, handkerchiefs, + or garments. We were as friendly. The human race seemed a jolly bunch, and + the world a fine, pleasant, open-air affair—'some world,' in fact. A + man in a red shirt and a bronzed girl with flowing hair slid past in a + canoe. We whistled, sang, and cried 'Snooky-ookums!' and other words of + occult meaning, which imputed love to them, and foolishness. They replied + suitably, grinned, and were gone. A little old lady in black, in the chair + next mine, kept a small telescope glued to her eye, hour after hour. + Whenever she distinguished life on any shore we passed, she waved a tiny + handkerchief. Diligently she did this, and with grave face, never visible + to the objects of her devotion, I suppose, but certainly very happy; the + most persistent lover of humanity I have ever seen.... + </p> + <p> + In the afternoon we were beyond sight of land. The world grew a little + chilly; and over the opaque, hueless water came sliding a queer, pale + mist. We strained through it for hours, a low bank of cloud, not twenty + feet in height, on which one could look down from the higher deck. Its + upper surface was quite flat and smooth, save for innumerable tiny + molehills or pyramids of mist. We seemed to be ploughing aimlessly through + the phantasmal sand-dunes of another world, faintly and by an accident + apprehended. So may the shades on a ghostly liner, plunging down Lethe, + have an hour's chance glimpse of the lights and lives of Piccadilly, to + them uncertain and filmy mirages of the air. + </p> + <p> + To taste the full deliciousness of travelling in an American train by + night through new scenery, you must carefully secure a lower berth. And + when you are secret and separate in your little oblong world, safe between + sheets, pull up the blinds on the great window a few inches and leave them + so. Thus, as you lie, you can view the dark procession of woods and hills, + and mingle the broken hours of railway slumber with glimpses of a wild + starlit landscape. The country retains individuality, and yet puts on + romance, especially the rough, shaggy region between Port Arthur and + Winnipeg. For four hundred miles there is hardly a sign that humanity + exists on the earth's face, only rocks and endless woods of scrubby pine, + and the occasional strange gleam of water, and night and the wind. + Night-long, dream and reality mingle. You may wake from sleep to find + yourself flying through a region where a forest fire has passed, a place + of grey pine-trunks, stripped of foliage, occasionally waving a naked + bough. They appear stricken by calamity, intolerably bare and lonely, + gaunt, perpetually protesting, amazed and tragic creatures. We saw no + actual fire the night I passed. But a little while after dawn we noticed + on the horizon, fifteen miles away, an immense column of smoke. There was + little wind, and it hung, as if sculptured, against the grey of the + morning; nor did we lose sight of it till just before we boomed over a + wide, swift, muddy river, into the flat city of Winnipeg. + </p> + <p> + Winnipeg is the West. It is important and obvious that in Canada there are + two or three (some say five) distinct Canadas. Even if you lump the French + and English together as one community in the East, there remains the gulf + of the Great Lakes. The difference between East and West is possibly no + greater than that between North and South England, or Bavaria and Prussia; + but in this country, yet unconscious of itself, there is so much less to + hold them together. The character of the land and the people differs; + their interests, as it appears to them, are not the same. Winnipeg is a + new city. In the archives at Ottawa is a picture of Winnipeg in 1870—Main + street, with a few shacks, and the prairie either end. Now her population + is a hundred thousand, and she has the biggest this, that, and the other + west of Toronto. A new city; a little more American than the other + Canadian cities, but not unpleasantly so. The streets are wider, and full + of a bustle which keeps clear of hustle. The people have something of the + free swing of Americans, without the bumptiousness; a tempered democracy, + a mitigated independence of bearing. The manners of Winnipeg, of the West, + impress the stranger as better than those of the East, more friendly, more + hearty, more certain to achieve graciousness, if not grace. There is, + even, in the architecture of Winnipeg, a sort of <i>gauche</i> pride + visible. It is hideous, of course, even more hideous than Toronto or + Montreal; but cheerily and windily so. There is no scheme in the city, and + no beauty, but it is at least preferable to Birmingham, less dingy, less + directly depressing. It has no real slums, even though there is poverty + and destitution. + </p> + <p> + But there seems to be a trifle more public spirit in the West than the + East. Perhaps it is that in the greater eagerness and confidence of this + newer country men have a superfluity of energy and interest, even after + attending to their own affairs, to give to the community. Perhaps it is + that the West is so young that one has a suspicion money-making has still + some element of a child's game in it—its only excuse. At any rate, + whether because the state of affairs is yet unsettled, or because of the + invisible subtle spirit of optimism that blows through the heavily + clustering telephone-wires and past the neat little modern villas and down + the solidly pretentious streets, one can't help finding a tiny hope that + Winnipeg, the city of buildings and the city of human beings, may yet come + to something. It is a slender hope, not to be compared to that of the true + Winnipeg man, who, gazing on his city, is fired with the proud and secret + ambition that it will soon be twice as big, and after that four times, and + then ten times.... + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Wider still and wider + Shall thy bounds be set," +</pre> + <p> + says that hymn which is the noblest expression of modern ambition. <i>That</i> + hope is sure to be fulfilled. But the other timid prayer, that something + different, something more worth having, may come out of Winnipeg, exists, + and not quite unreasonably. That cannot be said of Toronto. + </p> + <p> + Winnipeg is of the West, new, vigorous in its way, of unknown + potentialities. Already the West has been a nuisance to the East, in the + fight of 1911 over Reciprocity with the United States. When she gets a + larger representation in Parliament, she will be still more of a nuisance. + A casual traveller cannot venture to investigate the beliefs and opinions + of the inhabitants of a country, but he can record them all the better, + perhaps, for his foreign-ness. It is generally believed in the West that + the East runs Canada, and runs it for its own advantage. And the East + means a very few rich men, who control the big railways, the banks, and + the Manufacturers' Association, subscribe to both political parties, and + are generally credited with complete control over the Tariff and most + other Canadian affairs. Whether or no the Manufacturers' Association does + arrange the Tariff and control the commerce of Canada, it is generally + believed to do so. The only thing is that its friends say that it acts in + the best interests of Canada, its enemies that it acts in the best + interests of the Manufacturers' Association. Among its enemies are many in + the West. The normal Western life is a lonely and individual one; and a + large part of the population has crossed from the United States, or + belongs to that great mass of European immigration that Canada is letting + so blindly in. So, naturally, the Westerner does not feel the same + affection for the Empire or for England as the British Canadians of the + East, whose forefathers fought to stay within the Empire. Nor is his + affection increased by the suspicion that the Imperial cry has been used + for party purposes. He has no use for politics at Ottawa. The naval + question is nothing to him. He wants neither to subscribe money nor to + build ships. Europe is very far away; and he is too ignorant to realise + his close connection with her. He has strong views, however, on a Tariff + which only affects him by perpetually raising the cost of living and + farming. The ideas of even a Conservative in the West about reducing the + Tariff would make an Eastern 'Liberal' die of heart-failure. And the + Westerner also hates the Banks. The banking system of Canada is peculiar, + and throws the control of the banks into the hands of a few people in the + East, who were felt, by the ever optimistic West, to have shut down credit + too completely during the recent money stringency. + </p> + <p> + The most interesting expression of the new Western point of view, and in + many ways the most hopeful movement in Canada, is the Co-operative + movement among the grain-growers of the three prairie provinces. Only + started a few years ago, it has grown rapidly in numbers, wealth, power, + and extent of operations. So far it has confined itself politically to + influencing provincial legislatures. But it has gradually attached itself + to an advanced Radical programme of a Chartist description. And it is + becoming powerful. Whether the outcome will be a very desirable + rejuvenation of the Liberal Party, or the creation of a third—perhaps + Radical-Labour—party, it is hard to tell. At any rate, the change + will come. And, just to start with, there will very shortly come to the + Eastern Powers, who threw out Reciprocity with the States for the sake of + the Empire, a demand from the West that the preference to British goods be + increased rapidly till they be allowed to come in free, also for the + Empire's sake. Then the fun will begin. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X + </h2> + <h3> + OUTSIDE + </h3> + <p> + I had visited New York, Boston, Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto. In Winnipeg + I found a friend, who was tired of cities. So was I. In Canada the remedy + lies close at hand. We took ancient clothes—and I, Ben Jonson and + Jane Austen to keep me English—and departed northward for a lodge, + reported to exist in a region of lakes and hills and forests and caribou + and Indians and a few people. At first the train sauntered through a + smiling plain, intermittently cultivated, and dotted with little new + villages. Over this country are thrown little pools of that flood of + European immigration that pours through Winnipeg, to remain separate or be + absorbed, as destiny wills. The problem of immigration here reveals that + purposelessness that exists in the affairs of Canada even more than those + of other nations. The multitude from South or East Europe flocks in. Some + make money and return. The most remain, often in inassimilable lumps. + There is every sign that these lumps may poison the health of Canada as + dangerously as they have that of the United States. For Canada there is + the peril of too large an element of foreign blood and traditions in a + small nation already little more than half composed of British blood and + descent. Nationalities seem to teach one another only their worst. If the + Italians gave the Canadians of their good manners, and the Doukhobors or + Poles inoculated them with idealism and the love of beauty, and received + from them British romanticism and sense of responsibility!.... But they + only seem to increase the anarchy, these 'foreigners,' and to learn the + American twang and method of spitting. And there is the peril of politics. + Upon these scattered exotic communities, ignorant of the problems of their + adopted land, ignorant even of its language, swoop the agents of political + parties, with their one effectual argument—bad whisky. This baptism + is the immigrants' only organised welcome into their new liberties. + Occasionally some Church raises a thin protest. But the 'Anglo-Saxon' + continues to take up his burden; and the floods from Europe pour in. + Canadians regard this influx with that queer fatalism which men adopt + under plutocracy. "How could they stop it? It pays the steamship and + railway companies. It may, or may not, be good for Canada. Who knows? In + any case, it will go on. Our masters wish it...." + </p> + <p> + It is noteworthy that Icelanders are found to be far the readiest to + mingle and become Canadian. After them, Norwegians and Swedes. With other + immigrant nationalities, hope lies with the younger generation; but these + acclimatise immediately. + </p> + <p> + Our train was boarded by a crowd of Ruthenians or Galicians, brown-eyed + and beautiful people, not yet wholly civilised out of their own costume. + The girls chatted together in a swift, lovely language, and the children + danced about, tossing their queer brown mops of hair. They clattered out + at a little village that seemed to belong to them, and stood waving and + laughing us out of sight. I pondered on their feelings, and looked for the + name of the little Utopia these aliens had found in a new world. It was + called (for the railway companies name towns in this country) 'Milner.' + </p> + <p> + We wandered into rougher country, where the rocks begin to show through + the surface, and scrub pine abounds. At the end of our side-line was + another, and at the end of that a village, the ultimate outpost of + civilisation. Here, on the way back, some weeks later, we had to spend the + night in a little hotel which 'accommodated transients.' It was a rough + affair of planks, inhabited by whatever wandering workman from + construction-camps or other labour in the region wanted shelter for the + night. You slept in a sort of dormitory, each bed partitioned off from the + rest by walls that were some feet short of the ceiling. Swedes, Germans, + Welsh, Italians, and Poles occupied the other partitions, each blaspheming + the works of the Lord in his own tongue. About midnight two pairs of feet + crashed into the cell opposite mine; and a high, sleepless voice, with an + accent I knew, continued an interminable argument on theology. "I' + beginning wash word," it proclaimed with all the melancholy of + drunkenness. The other disputant was German or Norwegian, and + uninterested, though very kindly. "Right-o!" he said. "Let's go sleep!" + </p> + <p> + "<i>What</i> word?" pondered the Englishman. The Norwegian suggested + several, sleepily. "Logos," wailed the other, "<i>What</i> Logos?" and + wept. They persisted, hour by hour, disconnected voices in the void and + darkness, lonely and chance companions in the back-blocks of Canada, the + one who couldn't, and the one who didn't want to, understand. A little + before dawn I woke again. That thin voice, in patient soliloquy, was + discussing Female Suffrage, going very far down into the roots of the + matter. I met its owner next morning. He was tall and dark and lachrymose, + with bloodshot eyes, and breath that stank of gin. He had played + scrum-half for —— College in '98; and had prepared for + ordination. "You'll understand, old man," he said, "how out of place I am + amongst this scum—hoi polloi—we're not of the hoi polloi, are + we?" It seemed nicer to agree. "Oh, I know Greek!"—he was too + eagerly the gentleman—"ho cosmos tes adikias—the last thing I + learnt for ordination—this world of injustice—that's right, + isn't it?" He laughed sickly. "I say as one 'Varsity man to another—we're + not hoi polloi—could you lend me some money?" + </p> + <p> + We had to press on thirty miles up a 'light railway' to a power-station, a + settlement by a waterfall in the wild. An engine and an ancient + luggage-van conveyed us. The van held us, three crates, and some sacks, + four half-breeds in black slouch hats, who curled up on the floor like + dogs and slept, and an aged Italian. This last knew no word of English. He + had travelled all the way from Naples, Heaven knows how, to find his two + sons, supposed to be working in the power-station. So much was written on + a piece of paper. We gave him chocolate, and at intervals I repeated to + him my only Italian, the first line of the <i>Divina Commedia</i>. He + seemed cheered. The van jolted on through the fading light. Once a man + stepped out on to the track, stopped us, and clambered silently up. We + went on. It was the doctor, who had been visiting some lonely hut in the + woods. Later, another figure was seen staggering between the rails. We + slowed up, shouted, and finally stopped, butting him gently on the back + with our buffers, and causing him to fall. He was very drunk. The driver + and the doctor helped him into the van. There he stood, and looking round, + said very distinctly, "I do not wish to travel on your —— + —— train." So we put him off again, and proceeded. Such is the + West. + </p> + <p> + We rattled interminably through the darkness. The unpeopled woods closed + about us, snatched with lean branches, and opened out again to a windy + space. Once or twice the ground fell away, and there was, for a moment, + the mysterious gleam and stir of water. Canadian stars are remote and + virginal. Everyone slumbered. Arrival at the great concrete building and + the little shacks of the power-station shook us to our feet. The Italian + vanished into the darkness. Whether he found his sons or fell into the + river no one knew, and no one seemed to care. + </p> + <p> + An Indian, taciturn and Mongolian, led us on next day, by boat and on + foot, to the lonely log-house we aimed at. It stood on high rocks, above a + lake six miles by two. There was an Indian somewhere, by a river three + miles west, and a trapper to the east, and a family encamped on an island + in the lake. Else nobody. + </p> + <p> + It is that feeling of fresh loneliness that impresses itself before any + detail of the wild. The soul—or the personality—seems to have + indefinite room to expand. There is no one else within reach, there never + has been anyone; no one else is <i>thinking</i> of the lakes and hills you + see before you. They have no tradition, no names even; they are only pools + of water and lumps of earth, some day, perhaps, to be clothed with loves + and memories and the comings and goings of men, but now dumbly waiting + their Wordsworth or their Acropolis to give them individuality, and a + soul. In such country as this there is a rarefied clean sweetness. The air + is unbreathed, and the earth untrodden. All things share this childlike + loveliness, the grey whispering reeds, the pure blue of the sky, the + birches and thin fir-trees that make up these forests, even the brisk + touch of the clear water as you dive. + </p> + <p> + That last sensation, indeed, and none of sight or hearing, has impressed + itself as the token of Canada, the land. Every swimmer knows it. It is not + languorous, like bathing in a warm Southern sea; nor grateful, like a + river in a hot climate; nor strange, as the ocean always is; nor + startling, like very cold water. But it touches the body continually with + freshness, and it seems to be charged with a subtle and unexhausted + energy. It is colourless, faintly stinging, hard and grey, like the rocks + around, full of vitality, and sweet. It has the tint and sensation of a + pale dawn before the sun is up. Such is the wild of Canada. It awaits the + sun, the end for which Heaven made it, the blessing of civilisation. Some + day it will be sold in large portions, and the timber given to a friend of + ——'s, and cut down and made into paper, on which shall be + printed the praise of prosperity; and the land itself shall be divided + into town-lots and sold, and sub-divided and sold again, and boomed and + resold, and boosted and distributed to fishy young men who will vend it in + distant parts of the country; and then such portions as can never be built + upon shall be given in exchange for great sums of money to old ladies in + the quieter parts of England, but the central parts of towns shall remain + in the hands of the wise. And on these shall churches, hotels, and a great + many ugly skyscrapers be built, and hovels for the poor, and houses for + the rich, none beautiful, and there shall ugly objects be manufactured, + rather hurriedly, and sold to the people at more than they are worth, + because similar and cheaper objects made in other countries are kept out + by a tariff.... + </p> + <p> + But at present there are only the wrinkled, grey-blue lake, sliding ever + sideways, and the grey rocks, and the cliffs and hills, covered with + birch-trees, and the fresh wind among the birches, and quiet, and that + unseizable virginity. Dawn is always a lost pearly glow in the ashen + skies, and sunset a multitude of softly-tinted mists sliding before a + remotely golden West. They follow one another with an infinite loneliness. + And there is a far and solitary beach of dark, golden sand, close by a + deserted Indian camp, where, if you drift quietly round the corner in a + canoe, you may see a bear stumbling along, or a great caribou, or a little + red deer coming down to the water to drink, treading the wild edge of lake + and forest with a light, secret, and melancholy grace. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XI + </h2> + <h3> + THE PRAIRIES + </h3> + <p> + I passed the last few hours of the westward journey from Winnipeg to + Regina in daylight, the daylight of a wet and cheerless Sunday. The car + was half-empty, in possession of a family of small children and some + theatrical ladies and gentlemen from the United States, travelling on 'one + night stands,' who were collectively called 'The World-Renowned Barbary + Pirates.' We jogged limply from little village to little village, each + composed of little brown log-shacks, with a few buildings of tin and + corrugated iron, and even of brick, and several grain-elevators. Each + village—I beg your pardon, 'town'—seems to be exactly like the + next. They differ a little in size, from populations of 100 to nearly + 2000, and in age, for some have buildings dating almost back to the + nineteenth century, and a few are still mostly tents. They seemed all to + be emptied of their folk this Sabbath morn; though whether the inhabitants + were at work, or in church, or had shot themselves from depression induced + by the weather, it was impossible to tell. These little towns do not look + to the passer-by comfortable as homes. Partly, there is the difficulty of + distinguishing your village from the others. It would be as bad as being + married to a Jap. And then towns should be on hills or in valleys, however + small. A town dumped down, apparently by chance, on a flat expanse, wears + the same air of discomfort as a man trying to make his bed on a level, + unyielding surface such as a lawn or pavement. He feels hopelessly + incidental to the superficies of the earth. He is aware that the human + race has thigh-bones.... + </p> + <p> + Yet this country is not quite flat, as I had been led to expect. It does + not give you that feeling of a plain you have in parts of Lombardy and + Holland and Belgium. This may have been due to the grey mist and drizzle + which curtained off the horizon. But the land was always very slightly + rolling, and sometimes almost as uneven as a Surrey common. At first it + seemed to be given to mixed farming a good deal; afterwards to wheat, + oats, and barley. But a great part is uncultivated prairie-land, grass, + with sparse bushes and patches of brushwood and a few rare trees, and + continual clumps of large golden daisies. Occasional rough black roads + wind through the brush and into the towns, and die into grass tracks along + the wire fences. The day I went through, the interminable, oblique, thin + rain took the gold out of the wheat and the brown from the distant fields + and bushes, and drabbed all the colours in the grass. The children in the + car cried to each other with the shrill, sick persistency of tired + childhood, "How many inches to Regina?" "A Billion." "A Trillion." "A + Shillion." The Barbary Pirates laughed incessantly. It seemed to me that + the prairie would be a lonely place to live in, especially if it rained. + But the people who have lived there for years tell me they get very + homesick if they go away for a time. Valleys and hills seem to them petty, + fretful, unlovable. The magic of the plains has them in thrall. + </p> + <p> + Certainly there is a little more democracy in the west of Canada than the + east; the communities seem a little less incapable of looking after + themselves. Out in the west they are erecting not despicable public + buildings, founding universities, running a few public services. That + 'politics' has a voice in these undertakings does not make them valueless. + There are perceptible in the prairies, among all the corruption, + irresponsibility, and disastrous individualism, some faint signs of the + sense of the community. Take a very good test, the public libraries. As + you traverse Canada from east to west they steadily improve. You begin in + the city of Montreal, which is unable to support one, and pass through the + dingy rooms and inadequate intellectual provision of Toronto and Winnipeg. + After that the libraries and reading-rooms, small for the smaller cities, + are cleaner and better kept, show signs of care and intelligence; until at + last, in Calgary, you find a very neat and carefully kept building, + stocked with an immense variety of periodicals, and an admirably chosen + store of books, ranging from the classics to the most utterly modern + literature. Few large English towns could show anything as good. Cross the + Rockies to Vancouver, and you're back among dirty walls, grubby furniture, + and inadequate literature again. There's nothing in Canada to compare with + the magnificent libraries little New Zealand can show. But Calgary is + hopeful. + </p> + <p> + These cities grow in population with unimaginable velocity. From thirty to + thirty thousand in fifteen years is the usual rate. Pavements are laid + down, stores and bigger stores and still bigger stores spring up. Trams + buzz along the streets towards the unregarded horizon that lies across the + end of most roads in these flat, geometrically planned, prairie-towns. + Probably a Chinese quarter appears, and the beginnings of slums. Expensive + and pleasant small dwelling-houses fringe the outskirts; and rents being + so high, great edifices of residential flats rival the great stores. In + other streets, or even sandwiched between the finer buildings, are dingy + and decaying saloons, and innumerable little booths and hovels where + adventurers deal dishonestly in Real Estate, and Employment Bureaux. And + there are the vast erections of the great corporations, Hudson's Bay + Company, and the banks and the railways, and, sometimes almost equally + impressive, the public buildings. There are the beginnings of very costly + Universities; and Regina has built a superb great House of Parliament, + with a wide sheet of water in front of it, a noble building. + </p> + <p> + The inhabitants of these cities are proud of them, and envious of each + other with a bitter rivalry. They do not love their cities as a Manchester + man loves Manchester or a Münchener Munich, for they have probably lately + arrived in them, and will surely pass on soon. But while they are there + they love them, and with no silent love. They boost. To boost is to + commend outrageously. And each cries up his own city, both from pride, it + would appear, and for profit. For the fortunes of Newville are very really + the fortunes of its inhabitants. From the successful speculator, owner of + whole blocks, to the waiter bringing you a Martini, who has paid up a + fraction of the cost of a quarter-share in a town-lot—all are the + richer, as well as the prouder, if Newville grows. It is imperative to + praise Edmonton in Edmonton. But it is sudden death to praise it in + Calgary. The partisans of each city proclaim its superiority to all the + others in swiftness of growth, future population, size of buildings, price + of land—by all recognised standards of excellence. I travelled from + Edmonton to Calgary in the company of a citizen of Edmonton and a citizen + of Calgary. Hour after hour they disputed. Land in Calgary had risen from + five dollars to three hundred; but in Edmonton from three to five hundred. + Edmonton had grown from thirty persons to forty thousand in twenty years; + but Calgary from twenty to thirty thousand in twelve.... "Where"—as + a respite—"did I come from?" I had to tell them, not without shame, + that my own town of Grantchester, having numbered three hundred at the + time of Julius Caesar's landing, had risen rapidly to nearly four by + Doomsday Book, but was now declined to three-fifty. They seemed perplexed + and angry. + </p> + <p> + Sentimental people in the East will talk of the romance of the West, and + of these simple, brave pioneers who have wrung a living from the soil, and + are properly proud of the rude little towns that mark their conquest over + nature. That may apply to the frontiers of civilisation up North, but the + prairie-towns have progressed beyond all that. A few of the old pioneers + of the West survive to watch with startled eyes the wonderful fruits of + the seed they sowed. Such are among the finest people in Canada, very + different from the younger generation, with wider interests, good talkers, + the best of company. From them, and from records, one can learn of the + early settlers and the beginnings of the North-West Mounted Police. The + Police seem to have been superb. For no great reward, but the love of the + thing, they imposed order and fairness upon half a continent. The Indians + trusted them utterly; they were without fear. A store stands now in + Calgary where forty years ago a policeman was shot to death by a murderer, + followed over a thousand miles. He knew that the criminal would shoot; but + it was the rule of the Mounted Police not to fire first. Wounded, he + killed his man, then died. And there was the case of the desperado who + crossed the border, and was eventually captured and held by an immense + force of American police and military. They awaited a regiment of the + Police to conduct the villain back to trial. Two appeared, and being + asked, "Where is the escort?" replied, "We are the escort," and started + back their five hundred miles ride with the murderer in tow. And there + were the two who pursued a horse-thief from Dawson down to Minneapolis, + caught him, and took him back to Dawson to be hanged. And there was the + settler, who.... + </p> + <p> + The tragedy of the West is that these men have passed, and that what they + lived and died to secure for their race is now the foundation for a + gigantic national gambling of a most unprofitable and disastrous kind. + Hordes of people—who mostly seem to come from the great neighbouring + Commonwealth, and are inspired with the national hunger for getting rich + quickly without deserving it—prey on the community by their dealings + in what is humorously called 'Real Estate.' For them our fathers died. + What a sowing, and what a harvest! And where good men worked or perished + is now a row of little shops, all devoted to the sale of town-lots in some + distant spot that must infallibly become a great city in the next two + years, and in the doorway of each lounges a thin-chested, much-spitting + youth, with a flabby face, shifty eyes, and an inhuman mouth, who invites + you continually, with the most raucous of American accents, to "step + inside and ex-amine our Praposition." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XII + </h2> + <h3> + THE INDIANS + </h3> + <p> + When I was in the East, I got to know a man who had spent many years of + his life living among the Indians. He showed me his photographs. He + explained one, of an old woman. He said, "They told me there was an old + woman in the camp called Laughing Earth. When I heard the name, I just + said, 'Take me to her!' She wouldn't be photographed. She kept turning her + back to me. I just picked up a clod and plugged it at her, and said, 'Turn + round, Laughing Earth!' She turned half round, and grinned. She <i>was</i> + a game old bird! I joshed all the boys here Laughing Earth was my girl—till + they saw her photo!" + </p> + <p> + There stands Laughing Earth, in brightly-coloured petticoat and blouse, + her grey hair blowing about her. Her back is towards you, but her face is + turned, and scarcely hidden by a hand that is raised with all the coyness + of seventy years. Laughter shines from the infinitely lined, round, brown + cheeks, and from the mouth, and from the dancing eyes, and floods and + spills over from each of the innumerable wrinkles. Laughing Earth—there + is endless vitality in that laughter. The hand and face and the old body + laugh. No skinny, intellectual mirth, affecting but the lips! It was the + merriment of an apple bobbing on the bough, or a brown stream running over + rocks, or any other gay creature of earth. And with all was a great + dignity, invulnerable to clods, and a kindly and noble beauty. By the + light of that laughter much becomes clear—the right place of man + upon earth, the entire suitability in life of very brightly-coloured + petticoats, and the fact that old age is only a different kind of a + merriment from youth, and a wiser. + </p> + <p> + And by that light the fragments of this pathetic race become more + comprehensible, and, perhaps, less pathetic. The wanderer in Canada sees + them from time to time, the more the further west he goes, irrelevant and + inscrutable figures. In the east, French and Scotch half-breeds frequent + the borders of civilisation. In any western town you may chance on a brave + and his wife and a baby, resplendent in gay blankets and trappings, + sliding gravely through the hideousness of the new order that has + supplanted them. And there will be a few half-breeds loitering at the + corners of the streets. These people of mixed race generally seem + unfortunate in the first generation. A few of the older ones, the + 'old-timers', have 'made good,' and hold positions in the society for + which they pioneered. But most appear to inherit the weaknesses of both + sides. Drink does its work. And the nobler ones, like the tragic figure of + that poetess who died recently, Pauline Johnson, seem fated to be at odds + with the world. The happiest, whether Indian or half-breed, are those who + live beyond the ever-advancing edges of cultivation and order, and force a + livelihood from nature by hunting and fishing. Go anywhere into the wild, + and you will find in little clearings, by lake or river, a dilapidated hut + with a family of these solitaries, friendly with the pioneers or trappers + around, ready to act as guide on hunt or trail. The Government, + extraordinarily painstaking and well-intentioned, has established Indian + schools, and trains some of them to take their places in the civilisation + we have built. Not the best Indians these, say lovers of the race. I have + met them, as clerks or stenographers, only distinguishable from their + neighbours by a darker skin and a sweeter voice and manner. And in a + generation or two, I suppose, the strain mingles and is lost. So we finish + with kindness what our fathers began with war. + </p> + <p> + The Government, and others, have scientifically studied the history and + characteristics of the Indians, and written them down in books, lest it be + forgotten that human beings could be so extraordinary. They were a + wandering race, it appears, of many tribes and, even, languages. Not apt + to arts or crafts, they had, and have, an unrefined delight in bright + colours. They enjoyed a 'Nature-Worship,' believed rather dimly in a + presiding Power, and very definitely in certain ethical and moral rules. + One of their incomprehensible customs was that at certain intervals the + tribe divided itself into two factitious divisions, each headed by various + chiefs, and gambled furiously for many days, one party against the other. + They were pugnacious, and in their uncivilised way fought frequent wars. + They were remarkably loyal to each other, and treacherous to the foe; + brave, and very stoical. "Monogamy was very prevalent." It is remarked + that husbands and wives were very fond of each other, and the great body + of scientific opinion favours the theory that mothers were much attached + to their children. Most tribes were very healthy, and some fine-looking. + Such were the remarkable people who hunted, fought, feasted, and lived + here until the light came, and all was changed. Other qualities they had + even more remarkable to a European, such as utter honesty, and complete + devotion to the truth among themselves. Civilisation, disease, alcohol, + and vice have reduced them to a few scattered communities and some + stragglers, and a legend, the admiration of boyhood. Boys they were, + pugnacious, hunters, loyal, and cruel, older than the merrier children of + the South Seas, younger and simpler than the weedy, furtive, acquisitive + youth who may figure our age and type. "We must be a Morally Higher race + than the Indians," said an earnest American businessman to me in + Saskatoon, "because we have Survived them. The Great Darwin has proved + it." I visited, later, a community of our Moral Inferiors, an Indian + 'reservation' under the shade of the Rockies. The Government has put aside + various tracts of land where the Indians may conduct their lives in + something of their old way, and stationed in each an agent to protect + their interests. For every white man, as an agent told me, "thinks an + Indian legitimate prey for all forms of cheating and robbery." + </p> + <p> + The reservations are the better in proportion as they are further from the + towns and cities. The one I saw was peopled by a few hundred Stonies, one + of the finest and most untouched of the tribes. Of these Laughing Earth + had made one, but alas! a few years before she had become + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "a portion of the mirthfulness + That once she made more mirthful." +</pre> + <p> + The Indians occupy themselves with a little farming and hunting, and with + expeditions, and live in two or three small scattered villages of huts and + tents. But the centre of the community is the little white-washed house + where the agent has his office. Here we sat, he and I, and talked, behind + the counter. The agent is father, mother, clergyman, tutor, physician, + solicitor, and banker to the Indians. They wandered in and out of the + place with their various requests. The most part of them could not talk + English, but there was generally some young Indian to interpret. An old + chief entered. His grey hair curled down to his broad shoulders. He had a + noble forehead, brown, steady eyes, a thin, humorous mouth. His cow had + been run over by the C.P.R. What was to be done? and how much would he + get? The affair was discussed through an interpreter, a Canadianised young + Indian in trousers, who spat. Some of the men, especially the older ones, + have wonderful dignity and beauty of face and body. Their physique is + superb; their features shaped and lined by weather and experience into a + Roman nobility that demands respect. Several such passed through. Then + came an old woman, wizened and loquacious, bent double by the sack of her + weekly provision of meat and flour. She required oil, was given it, + secreted it in some cranny of the many-coloured bundle that she was, and + staggered creakily off again. + </p> + <p> + The office emptied for a while. Then drifted in a younger man, tall, with + that brown, dog-like expression of simplicity many Indians wear. He was + covered by a large grey-coloured blanket, over his other clothes. He + puffed at a pipe and stared out of the window. The agent and I continued + talking. You must never hurry an Indian. Presently he gave a little grunt. + The agent said, "Well, John?" John went on smoking. Five minutes later, in + the middle of our conversation, John said suddenly, "Salt." He was staring + inexpressively at the ceiling. "Why, John," said the agent, "I gave you + enough salts on Thursday to last you a week." John directed his gaze on + us, and smoked dumbly. "Still the stomach?" inquired the agent, genially. + John's expression became gradually grimmer, and he moved one hand slowly + across till it rested on his stomach. An impassive, significant hand. + After a courteous pause the agent rose, poured some Epsom salts out of a + large jar, wrapped them in paper, and handed them over. John secreted them + dispassionately in some pouch among the skins and blankets that wrapped + him in. We went back to our conversation. Five minutes after he grunted, + suddenly. Again five minutes, and he departed. His wife—a plump, + patient young woman—and his solemn-eyed, fat, ridiculous son of + four, were sitting stolidly on the grass outside. It obviously made no + difference if he took one hour or seven over his business. They mounted + their tiny ponies and trotted briskly off.... I suppose one is apt to be + sentimental about these good people. They're really so picturesque; they + trail clouds of Fenimore Cooper; and they seem, for all their unfitness, + reposefully more in touch with permanent things than the America that has + succeeded them. And it is interesting to watch our pathetic efforts to + prevent or disarm the effects of ourselves. What will happen? Shall we + preserve these few bands of them, untouched, to succeed us, ultimately, + when the grasp of our 'civilisation' weakens, and our transient anarchy in + these wilder lands recedes once more before the older anarchy of Nature? + Or will they be entirely swallowed by that ugliness of shops and trousers + with which we enchain the earth, and become a memory and less than a + memory? They are that already. The Indians have passed. They left no arts, + no tradition, no buildings or roads or laws; only a story or two, and a + few names, strange and beautiful. The ghosts of the old chiefs must surely + chuckle when they note that the name by which Canada has called her + capital and the centre of her political life, Ottawa, is an Indian name + which signifies 'buying and selling.' And the wanderer in this land will + always be remarking an unexplained fragrance about the place-names, as + from some flower which has withered, and which he does not know. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIII + </h2> + <h3> + THE ROCKIES + </h3> + <p> + At Calgary, if you can spare a minute from more important matters, slip + beyond the hurrying white city, climb the golf links, and gaze west. A low + bank of dark clouds disturbs you by the fixity of its outline. It is the + Rockies, seventy miles away. On a good day, it is said, they are visible + twice as far, so clear and serene is this air. Five hundred miles west is + the coast of British Columbia, a region with a different climate, + different country, and different problems. It is cut off from the prairies + by vast tracts of wild country and uninhabitable ranges. For nearly two + hundred miles the train pants through the homeless grandeur of the Rockies + and the Selkirks. Four or five hotels, a few huts or tents, and a rare + mining-camp—that is all the habitation in many thousands of square + miles. Little even of that is visible from the train. That is one of the + chief differences between the effect of the Rockies and that of the Alps. + There, you are always in sight of a civilisation which has nestled for + ages at the feet of those high places. They stand, enrobed with worship, + and grander by contrast with the lives of men. These un-memoried heights + are inhuman—or rather, irrelevant to humanity. No recorded Hannibal + has struggled across them; their shadow lies on no remembered literature. + They acknowledge claims neither of the soul nor of the body of man. He is + a stranger, neither Nature's enemy nor her child. She is there alone, + scarcely a unity in the heaped confusion of these crags, almost without + grandeur among the chaos of earth. + </p> + <p> + Yet this horrid and solitary wildness is but one aspect. There is beauty + here, at length, for the first time in Canada, the real beauty that is + always too sudden for mortal eyes, and brings pain with its comfort. The + Rockies have a remoter, yet a kindlier, beauty than the Alps. Their rock + is of a browner colour, and such rugged peaks and crowns as do not attain + snow continually suggest gigantic castellations, or the ramparts of + Titans. Eastward, the foothills are few and low, and the mountains stand + superbly. The heart lifts to see them. They guard the sunset. Into this + rocky wilderness you plunge, and toil through it hour by hour, viewing it + from the rear of the Observation-Car. The Observation-Car is a great + invention of the new world. At the end of the train is a compartment with + large windows, and a little platform behind it, roofed over, but exposed + otherwise to the air, On this platform are sixteen little perches, for + which you fight with Americans. Victorious, you crouch on one, and watch + the ever-receding panorama behind the train. It is an admirable way of + viewing scenery. But a day of being perpetually drawn backwards at a great + pace through some of the grandest mountains in the world has a queer + effect. Like life, it leaves you with a dizzy irritation. For, as in life, + you never see the glories till they are past, and then they vanish with + incredible rapidity. And if you crane to see the dwindling further peaks, + you miss the new splendours. + </p> + <p> + The day I went through most of the Rockies was, by some standards, a bad + one for the view. Rain scudded by in forlorn, grey showers, and the upper + parts of the mountains were wrapped in cloud, which was but rarely blown + aside to reveal the heights. Sublimity, therefore, was left to the + imagination; but desolation was most vividly present. In no weather could + the impression of loneliness be stronger. The pines drooped and sobbed. + Cascades, born somewhere in the dun firmament above, dropped down the + mountain sides in ever-growing white threads. The rivers roared and + plunged with aimless passion down the ravines. Stray little clouds, left + behind when the wrack lifted a little, ran bleating up and down the + forlorn hill-sides. More often, the clouds trailed along the valleys, a + long procession of shrouded, melancholy figures, seeming to pause, as with + an indeterminate, tragic, vain gesture, before passing out of sight up + some ravine. + </p> + <p> + Yet desolation is not the final impression that will remain of the Rockies + and the Selkirks. I was advised by various people to 'stop off' at Banff + and at Lake Louise, in the Rockies. I did so. They are supposed to be + equally the beauty-spots of the mountains. How perplexing it is that + advisers are always so kindly and willing to help, and always so + undiscriminating. It is equally disastrous to be a sceptic and to be + credulous. Banff is an ordinary little tourist-resort in mountainous + country, with hills and a stream and snow-peaks beyond. Beautiful enough, + and invigorating. But Lake Louise—Lake Louise is of another world. + Imagine a little round lake 6000 feet up, a mile across, closed in by + great cliffs of brown rock, round the shoulders of which are thrown + mantles of close dark pine. At one end the lake is fed by a vast glacier, + and its milky tumbling stream; and the glacier climbs to snowfields of one + of the highest and loveliest peaks in the Rockies, which keeps perpetual + guard over the scene. To this place you go up three or four miles from the + railway. There is the hotel at one end of the lake, facing the glacier; + else no sign of humanity. From the windows you may watch the water and the + peaks all day, and never see the same view twice. In the lake, + ever-changing, is Beauty herself, as nearly visible to mortal eyes as she + may ever be. The water, beyond the flowers, is green, always a different + green. Sometimes it is tranquil, glassy, shot with blue, of a peacock + tint. Then a little wind awakes in the distance, and ruffles the surface, + yard by yard, covering it with a myriad tiny wrinkles, till half the lake + is milky emerald, while the rest still sleeps. And, at length, the whole + is astir, and the sun catches it, and Lake Louise is a web of laughter, + the opal distillation of all the buds of all the spring. On either side go + up the dark processional pines, mounting to the sacred peaks, devout, + kneeling, motionless, in an ecstasy of homely adoration, like the donors + and their families in a Flemish picture. Among these you may wander for + hours by little rambling paths, over white and red and golden flowers, + and, continually, you spy little lakes, hidden away, each a shy, soft + jewel of a new strange tint of green or blue, mutable and lovely.... And + beyond all is the glacier and the vast fields and peaks of eternal snow. + </p> + <p> + If you watch the great white cliff, from the foot of which the glacier + flows—seven miles away, but it seems two—you will sometimes + see a little puff of silvery smoke go up, thin, and vanish. A few seconds + later comes the roar of terrific, distant thunder. The mountains tower and + smile unregarding in the sun. It was an avalanche. And if you climb any of + the ridges or peaks around, there are discovered other valleys and heights + and ranges, wild and desert, stretching endlessly away. As day draws to an + end the shadows on the snow turn bluer, the crying of innumerable waters + hushes, and the immense, bare ramparts of westward-facing rock that guard + the great valley win a rich, golden-brown radiance. Long after the sun has + set they seem to give forth the splendour of the day, and the tranquillity + of their centuries, in undiminished fulness. They have that other-worldly + serenity which a perfect old age possesses. And as with a perfect old age, + so here, the colour and the light ebb so gradually out of things that you + could swear nothing of the radiance and glory gone up to the very moment + before the dark. + </p> + <p> + It was on such a height, and at some such hour as this, that I sat and + considered the nature of the country in this continent. There was + perceptible, even here, though less urgent than elsewhere, the strangeness + I had noticed in woods by the St Lawrence, and on the banks of the + Delaware (where are red-haired girls who sing at dawn), and in British + Columbia, and afterwards among the brown hills and colossal trees of + California, but especially by that lonely golden beach in Manitoba, where + the high-stepping little brown deer run down to drink, and the wild geese + through the evening go flying and crying. It is an empty land. To love the + country here—mountains are worshipped, not loved—is like + embracing a wraith. A European can find nothing to satisfy the hunger of + his heart. The air is too thin to breathe. He requires haunted woods, and + the friendly presence of ghosts. The immaterial soil of England is heavy + and fertile with the decaying stuff of past seasons and generations. Here + is the floor of a new wood, yet uncumbered by one year's autumn fall. We + Europeans find the Orient stale and too luxuriantly fetid by reason of the + multitude of bygone lives and thoughts, oppressive with the crowded + presence of the dead, both men and gods. So, I imagine, a Canadian would + feel our woods and fields heavy with the past and the invisible, and + suffer claustrophobia in an English countryside beneath the dreadful + pressure of immortals. For his own forests and wild places are windswept + and empty. That is their charm, and their terror. You may lie awake all + night and never feel the passing of evil presences, nor hear printless + feet; neither do you lapse into slumber with the comfortable consciousness + of those friendly watchers who sit invisibly by a lonely sleeper under an + English sky. Even an Irishman would not see a row of little men with green + caps lepping along beneath the fire-weed and the golden daisies; nor have + the subtler fairies of England found these wilds. It has never paid a + steamship or railway company to arrange for their emigration. + </p> + <p> + In the bush of certain islands of the South Seas you may hear a crashing + on windless noons, and, looking up, see a corpse swinging along head + downwards at a great speed from tree to tree, holding by its toes, + grimacing, dripping with decay. Americans, so active in this life, rest + quiet afterwards. And though every stone of Wall Street have its separate + Lar, their kind have not gone out beyond city-lots. The maple and the + birch conceal no dryads, and Pan has never been heard amongst these + reedbeds. Look as long as you like upon a cataract of the New World, you + shall not see a white arm in the foam. A godless place. And the dead do + not return. That is why there is nothing lurking in the heart of the + shadows, and no human mystery in the colours, and neither the same joy nor + the kind of peace in dawn and sunset that older lands know. It is, indeed, + a new world. How far away seem those grassy, moonlit places in England + that have been Roman camps or roads, where there is always serenity, and + the spirit of a purpose at rest, and the sunlight flashes upon more than + flint! Here one is perpetually a first-comer. The land is virginal, the + wind cleaner than elsewhere, and every lake new-born, and each day is the + first day. The flowers are less conscious than English flowers, the + breezes have nothing to remember, and everything to promise. There walk, + as yet, no ghosts of lovers in Canadian lanes. This is the essence of the + grey freshness and brisk melancholy of this land. And for all the charm of + those qualities, it is also the secret of a European's discontent. For it + is possible, at a pinch, to do without gods. But one misses the dead. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIV + </h2> + <h3> + SOME NIGGERS + </h3> + <p> + "<i>Look at those niggers! Whose are they?" (An American Suffragist lady + on board S.S. 'Ventura,' entering Pago-Pago Harbour, Samoa, October 1913. + Apropos of the Samoans.)</i> + </p> + <p> + I suppose that if news came that the National Gallery was burnt down, one + might feel, while hearing of the general damage, the rooms gutted or + untouched, the Rembrandts and Titians saved, harmed, or lost, a sudden + disproportionately keen little stab of wonder: "The Pisanello <i>St Hubert</i>," + or "The Patinir <i>Flight into Egypt</i>—What's happened to <i>that</i>?" + So now there must be a handful of wanderers here and there who, among all + the major conflagration and disasters of nations and continents, have felt + the tug of the question, "What of Samoa?" + </p> + <p> + The South Sea Islands have an invincible glamour. Any bar in 'Frisco or + Sydney will give you tales of seamen who slipped ashore in Samoa or Tahiti + or the Marquesas for a month's holiday, five, ten, or twenty years ago. + Their wives and families await them yet. They are compound, these islands, + of all legendary heavens. They are Calypso's and Prospero's isle, and the + Hesperides, and Paradise, and every timeless and untroubled spot. Such + tales have been made of them by men who have been there, and gone away, + and have been haunted by the smell of the bush and the lagoons, and faint + thunder on the distant reef, and the colours of sky and sea and coral, and + the beauty and grace of the islanders. And the queer thing is that it's + all, almost tiresomely, true. In the South Seas the Creator seems to have + laid Himself out to show what He <i>can</i> do. Imagine an island with the + most perfect climate in the world, tropical, yet almost always cooled by a + breeze from the sea. No malaria or other fevers. No dangerous beasts, + snakes, or insects. Fish for the catching, and fruits for the plucking. + And an earth and sky and sea of immortal loveliness. What more could + civilisation give? Umbrellas? Rope? Gladstone bags?.... Any one of the + vast leaves of the banana is more waterproof than the most expensive woven + stuff. And from the first tree you can tear off a long strip of fibre that + holds better than any rope. And thirty seconds' work on a great palm-leaf + produces a basket-bag which will carry incredible weights all day, and can + be thrown away in the evening. A world of conveniences. And the things + which civilisation has left behind or missed by the way are there, too, + among the Polynesians: beauty and courtesy and mirth. I think there is no + gift of mind or body that the wise value which these people lack. A man I + met in some other islands, who had travelled much all over the world, said + to me, "I have found no man, in or out of Europe, with the good manners + and dignity of the Samoan, with the possible exception of the Irish + peasant." A people among whom an Italian would be uncouth, and a + high-caste Hindu vulgar, and Karsavina would seem clumsy, and Helen of + Troy a frump. + </p> + <p> + The white population of Heaven, as one would expect, is very small; but, + as one wouldn't expect, it is composed of Americans, English, and Germans. + About half Germans, for it has been a German colony for some fourteen + years. But it is one of the few white 'possessions,' I suppose, where a + decent white needn't feel ashamed of himself. For, though it's proper to + deny that Germans can colonise, they have certainly ruled Samoa very well. + In some part, no doubt, the luck has been with them—with the world—in + this success. Samoa was one of their later and wiser attempts in + colonising. The first governor was Herr Solf, the present Secretary for + the Colonies, who is reputed to have started the administration of Samoa + after a careful examination of our method of ruling Fiji, and with a due, + but not complete, regard for the advice of the chief English and American + settlers in Samoa. Certainly he started it very ably and wisely. By luck + and good management those various forces which might destroy the beauty of + Samoa are almost ineffectual. The fact that the missionaries are nearly + all English puts a slight sufficient chasm between the spiritual and civil + powers, and avoids that worst peril of these places—hierocracy. The + trade of the islands is largely a monopoly of the 'German firm,' a big + affair which pays a few people in Hamburg fabulous percentages. So smaller + traders aren't encouraged to flourish unduly; and the German firm itself + is too well fed to bother about extending. The Samoans, therefore, aren't + exploited, spiritually or commercially, as much as they might be. By such + slight chances beauty keeps a foothold in the world. The missionary's + peace of mind may require that the Samoan should wear trousers, or the + trader's pocket that he should drink gin and live under corrugated iron. + But the Government has discovered that these things are not good for the + health of the Polynesian, so the Samoan wears his <i>lava-lava</i> and + drinks his <i>kava</i>, and lives in his cool and lovely thatched hut, and + is happy. And—final test of administration—the population is + no longer decreasing. + </p> + <p> + But I think there's more than luck or German wisdom at the bottom of the + happy condition of Samoa. Something in the very magic of the place seems + to subdue or soften the evil in men. Heaven forbid I should deny that mean + and treacherous and cruel acts of white men and brown are on record. But + as a rule the greedy or the boorish, once they settle there, appear to + mellow and grow quiet. Between this sea and sky even a trader becomes + almost a gentleman, even a Prussian almost lovable, and the very + missionaries are betrayed by beauty, and contentment takes them unaware. + </p> + <p> + Samoa has been well governed. The people have been forbidden a few perils + of civilisation, and for the rest are left pretty well to themselves. Go + up from Apia across the mountains, or round the coast, or take a boat over + to the other big island, Savaii, and you find them living their old life, + fishing and bathing and singing, and never a sign of a white man. They are + guaranteed possession of their land. They'll sometimes complain faintly of + 'taxation'—a small head-tax the Government exacts, which compels the + individual to some four or five days' work a year. The English inhabitants + themselves have had no grumble against the Germans except that they + incline to be 'too kind to the natives'—an admirable testimonial. + And traders in the Pacific say they always get far better treatment from + the customs and harbour authorities at Apia than at the British Suva, in + Fiji. + </p> + <p> + And yet the Samoans do not like the Germans. When I was there, nearly a + year ago, I was often asked, "When will Peritania (Britain) fight Germany, + and send her away from Samoa?" They have no complaint against the Germans. + They have merely a sentimental and highly flattering preference for the + English. On a recent visit of an English gunboat to Apia, the officers + were entertained at a Samoan dinner party, with music and dances, by an + eminent and very charming young princess. The princess is a famous beauty, + with the keen intelligence Samoans have if they care, a wonderful dancer, + possessed of a glorious singing voice and a perfect knowledge of English. + The party was a great success. The princess led her guests afterwards to + the flag-staff. Before anyone could stop her, she leapt on to the pole and + raced up the sixty feet of it. That also is among the accomplishments of a + Samoan princess. She seized the German flag, tore it to pieces, brought it + down, and danced on it. So the tale is; and it is probably true. In the + villages where I stayed it was amusing how swiftly and completely the + children forgot the few words of German the Government sometimes had them + taught; while one or two common phrases, '<i>Morgen</i>,' '<i>gut</i>,' + etc., were retained as extremely good jokes by the boys and girls, + occasions of inextinguishable laughter, through the absurdity of their + sound and the very ridiculous German-ness of them.... + </p> + <p> + I wish I were there again. It is a country, and a life, that bind the + heart. There is a poem: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "I know an island, + Lovely and lost, and half the world away; + And there, 'twixt lowland and highland, + Lies a pool, rich with murmur and scent and glimmer, + And there my friends go, all the radiant day, + Each golden-limbed and flower-crowned laughing swimmer," +</pre> + <p> + —and so on. It tells how ugly and joyless by comparison the fellow's + own country sometimes seems, filled with money-making and fogs and such + grey things: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Evil, and gloom, and cold o' nights in my land; + But,—I know an island + Where Beauty and Courtesy, as flowers, blow." + + So it goes, with a jolly return on the rhyme. But the whole poem is a +bad one. Still, the man felt it, the magic. It is a magic of a different +way of life. In the South Seas, if you live the South Sea life, the +intellect soon lapses into quiescence. The body becomes more active, the +senses and perceptions more lordly and acute. It is a life of swimming +and climbing and resting after exertion. The skin seems to grow more +sensitive to light and air, and the feel of water and the earth and +leaves. Hour after hour one may float in the warm lagoons, conscious, in +the whole body, of every shred and current of the multitudinous +water, or diving under in a vain attempt to catch the radiant +butterfly-coloured fish that flit in and out of the thousand windows +of their gorgeous coral palaces. Or go up, one of a singing +flower-garlanded crowd, to a shaded pool of a river in the bush, cool +from the mountains. The blossom-hung darkness is streaked with the +bodies that fling themselves, head or feet first, from the cliffs around +the water, and the haunted forest-silence is broken by laughter. It is +part of the charm of these people that, while they are not so foolish +as to 'think,' their intelligence is incredibly lively and subtle, their +sense of humour and their intuitions of other people's feelings are +very keen and living. They have built up, in the long centuries of +their civilisation, a delicate and noble complexity of behaviour and of +personal relationships. A white man living with them soon feels his +mind as deplorably dull as his skin is pale and unhealthy among those +glorious golden-brown bodies. But even he soon learns to <i>be</i> his body +(and so his true mind), instead of using it as a stupid convenience +for his personality, a moment's umbrella against this world. He is +perpetually and intensely aware of the subtleties of taste in food, +of every tint and line of the incomparable glories of those dawns and +evenings, of each shade of intercourse in fishing or swimming or dancing +with the best companions in the world. That alone is life; all else is +death. And after dark, the black palms against a tropic night, the smell +of the wind, the tangible moonlight like a white, dry, translucent mist, +the lights in the huts, the murmur and laughter of passing figures, the +passionate, queer thrill of the rhythm of some hidden dance—all this +will seem to him, inexplicably and almost unbearably, a scene his heart +has known long ago, and forgotten, and yet always looked for. +</pre> + <p> + And now Samoa is ours. A New Zealand Expeditionary Force took it. Well, I + know a princess who will have had the day of her life. Did they see + Stevenson's tomb gleaming high up on the hill, as they made for that + passage in the reef? Did Vasa, with his heavy-lidded eyes, and that + infinitely adorable lady Fafaia, wander down to the beach to watch them + land? They must have landed from boats; and at noon, I see. How hot they + got! I know that Apia noon. Didn't they rush to the Tivoli bar—but I + forget, New Zealanders are teetotalers. So, perhaps, the Samoans gave them + the coolest of all drinks, <i>kava</i>; and they scored. And what dances + in their honour, that night!—but, again, I'm afraid the <i>houla-houla</i> + would shock a New Zealander. I suppose they left a garrison, and went + away. I can very vividly see them steaming out in the evening; and the + crowd on shore would be singing them that sweetest and best-known of South + Sea songs, which begins 'Good-bye, my Flenni' ('Friend,' you'd pronounce + it), and goes on in Samoan, a very beautiful tongue. I hope they'll rule + Samoa well. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + AN UNUSUAL YOUNG MAN + </h2> + <p> + Some say the Declaration of War threw us into a primitive abyss of hatred + and the lust for blood. Others declare that we behaved very well. I do not + know. I only know the thoughts that flowed through the mind of a friend of + mine when he heard the news. My friend—I shall make no endeavour to + excuse him—is a normal, even ordinary man, wholly English, + twenty-four years old, active and given to music. By a chance he was + ignorant of the events of the world during the last days of July. He was + camping with some friends in a remote part of Cornwall, and had gone on, + with a companion, for a four-days' sail. So it wasn't till they beached + her again that they heard. A youth ran down to them with a telegram: + "We're at war with Germany. We've joined France and Russia." + </p> + <p> + My friend ate and drank, and then climbed a hill of gorse, and sat alone, + looking at the sea. His mind was full of confused images, and the sense of + strain. In answer to the word 'Germany,' a train of vague thoughts dragged + across his brain. The pompous middle-class vulgarity of the building of + Berlin; the wide and restful beauty of Munich; the taste of beer; + innumerable quiet, glittering <i>cafes</i>; the <i>Ring</i>; the swish of + evening air in the face, as one <i>skis</i> down past the pines; a certain + angle of the eyes in the face; long nights of drinking, and singing, and + laughter; the admirable beauty of German wives and mothers; certain + friends; some tunes; the quiet length of evening over the Starnberger-See. + Between him and the Cornish sea he saw quite clearly an April morning on a + lake south of Berlin, the grey water slipping past his little boat, and a + peasant-woman, suddenly revealed against apple-blossom, hanging up blue + and scarlet garments to dry in the sun. Children played about her; and she + sang as she worked. And he remembered a night in Munich spent with a + students' <i>Kneipe</i>. From eight to one they had continually emptied + immense jugs of beer, and smoked, and sung English and German songs in + profound chorus. And when the party broke up he found himself arm-in-arm + with the president, who was a vast Jew, and with an Apollonian youth + called Leo Diringer, who said he was a poet. There was also a fourth man, + of whom he could remember no detail. Together, walking with ferocious care + down the middle of the street, they had swayed through Schwabing seeking + an open <i>cafe</i>. Cafe Benz was closed, but further up there was a + little place still lighted, inhabited by one waiter, innumerable chairs + and tables piled on each other for the night, and a row of chess-boards, + in front of which sat a little bald, bearded man in dress-clothes, + waiting. The little man seemed to them infinitely pathetic. Four against + one, they played him at chess, and were beaten. They bowed, and passed + into the night. Leo Diringer recited a sonnet, and slept suddenly at the + foot of a lamp-post. The Jew's heavy-lidded eyes shone with a final + flicker of caution, and he turned homeward resolutely, to the last not + wholly drunk. My friend had wandered to his lodgings, in an infinite + peace. He could not remember what had happened to the fourth man.... + </p> + <p> + A thousand little figures tumbled through his mind. But they no longer + brought with them that air of comfortable kindliness which Germany had + always signified for him. Something in him kept urging, "You must hate + these things, find evil in them." There was that half-conscious agony of + breaking a mental habit, painting out a mass of associations, which he had + felt in ceasing to believe in a religion, or, more acutely, after + quarrelling with a friend. He knew that was absurd. The picture came to + him of encountering the Jew, or Diringer, or old Wolf, or little + Streckmann, the pianist, in a raid on the East Coast, or on the Continent, + slashing at them in a stagey, dimly-imagined battle. Ridiculous. He + vaguely imagined a series of heroic feats, vast enterprise, and the + applause of crowds.... + </p> + <p> + From that egotism he was awakened to a different one, by the thought that + this day meant war and the change of all things he knew. He realised, with + increasing resentment, that music would be neglected. And he wouldn't be + able, for example, to camp out. He might have to volunteer for military + training and service. Some of his friends would be killed. The Russian + ballet wouldn't return. His own relationship with A——, a girl + he intermittently adored, would be changed. Absurd, but inevitable; + because—he scarcely worded it to himself—he and she and + everyone else were going to be different. His mind fluttered irascibly to + escape from this thought, but still came back to it, like a tethered bird. + Then he became calmer, and wandered out for a time into fantasy. + </p> + <p> + A cloud over the sun woke him to consciousness of his own thoughts; and he + found, with perplexity, that they were continually recurring to two + periods of his life, the days after the death of his mother, and the time + of his first deep estrangement from one he loved. After a bit he + understood this. Now, as then, his mind had been completely divided into + two parts: the upper running about aimlessly from one half-relevant + thought to another, the lower unconscious half labouring with some + profound and unknowable change. This feeling of ignorant helplessness + linked him with those past crises. His consciousness was like the light + scurry of waves at full tide, when the deeper waters are pausing and + gathering and turning home. Something was growing in his heart, and he + couldn't tell what. But as he thought 'England and Germany,' the word + 'England' seemed to flash like a line of foam. With a sudden tightening of + his heart, he realised that there might be a raid on the English coast. He + didn't imagine any possibility of it <i>succeeding</i>, but only of + enemies and warfare on English soil. The idea sickened him. He was + immensely surprised to perceive that the actual earth of England held for + him a quality which he found in A——, and in a friend's honour, + and scarcely anywhere else, a quality which, if he'd ever been sentimental + enough to use the word, he'd have called 'holiness.' His astonishment grew + as the full flood of 'England' swept him on from thought to thought. He + felt the triumphant helplessness of a lover. Grey, uneven little fields, + and small, ancient hedges rushed before him, wild flowers, elms and + beeches, gentleness, sedate houses of red brick, proudly unassuming, a + countryside of rambling hills and friendly copses. He seemed to be raised + high, looking down on a landscape compounded of the western view from the + Cotswolds, and the Weald, and the high land in Wiltshire, and the Midlands + seen from the hills above Prince's Risborough. And all this to the + accompaniment of tunes heard long ago, an intolerable number of them being + hymns. There was, in his mind, a confused multitude of faces, to most of + which he could not put a name. At one moment he was on an Atlantic liner, + sick for home, making Plymouth at nightfall; and at another, diving into a + little rocky pool through which the Teign flows, north of Bovey; and + again, waking, stiff with dew, to see the dawn come up over the Royston + plain. And continually he seemed to see the set of a mouth which he knew + for his mother's, and A——'s face, and, inexplicably, the face + of an old man he had once passed in a Warwickshire village. To his great + disgust, the most commonplace sentiments found utterance in him. At the + same time he was extraordinarily happy.... + </p> + <p> + My friend, who has always, though never very passionately, believed + himself a most unusual young man, rose to his feet. Feeling a little + frightened, and more than a little unwell—for he is a person of + quiet mental habits—he wandered down the hill. He kept slowly moving + his head, like a man who wishes to dodge a pain. I gather that he was + conscious of few definite thoughts till he reached the London train. He + kept remembering, unwillingly, a midnight in Carnival-time in Munich, when + he had seen a clown, a Pierrot, and a Columbine tip-toe delicately round + the deserted corner of Theresien-strasse, and vanish into the darkness. + Then he thought of the lights on the pavement in Trafalgar Square. It + seemed to him the most desirable thing in the world to mingle and talk + with a great many English people. Also, he kept saying to himself—for + he felt vaguely jealous of the young men in Germany and France—"Well, + if Armageddon's <i>on</i>, I suppose one should be there." ... Of France, + he tells me, he thought little. The French always seemed to him people to + be respected, but very remote; more incomprehensible than the Japanese, + more, even, than the Irish. Of Russia, less. She meant nothing to him + except a sense of hysteria and vague evil which he had been given by some + of her music and literature. He thought often and heavily of Germany. Of + England, all the time. He didn't know whether he was glad or sad. It was a + new feeling. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters from America, by Rupert Brooke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM AMERICA *** + +***** This file should be named 6445-h.htm or 6445-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/4/4/6445/ + +Produced by Tonya Allen, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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