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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
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+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #65125 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65125)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Journey of a Jayhawker, by W. Y. Morgan
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: A Journey of a Jayhawker
-
-Author: W. Y. Morgan
-
-Illustrator: Albert T. Reid
-
-Release Date: April 21, 2021 [eBook #65125]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-Produced by: Fay Dunn, Fiona Holmes, and the Online Distributed
- Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
- produced from images generously made available by The Internet
- Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JOURNEY OF A JAYHAWKER ***
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Notes.
-
-Hyphenation has been standardised.
-Other changes made are noted at the end of the book.
-
-
-[Illustration: ARMED AND EQUIPPED, AS ADVISED BY FRIENDS.]
-
-
-
-
- _A JOURNEY
- OF A JAYHAWKER_
-
- _BY
- W. Y. MORGAN_
-
- _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
- ALBERT T. REID_
-
-
- MONOTYPED AND PRINTED BY
- CRANE & COMPANY, PRINTERS
- TOPEKA
- 1905
-
-
-
-
- Copyright 1905,
- BY W. Y. MORGAN.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-These letters were written to the Hutchinson Daily News, and are
-printed in book form without revision. With this understanding the
-reader will kindly overlook inconsistencies and inaccuracies, which
-easily creep into what is only an impression and not a study. Any other
-mistakes are to be charged to the printer and proof-reader, who are
-likewise to be credited for the correct grammar and English which may
-be found in some places.
-
-There is no excuse for the publication of these letters. No one is
-guilty except the writer, and he is responsible only to his conscience,
-which is not sensitive.
-
- W. Y. MORGAN.
-
- HUTCHINSON, KANSAS, December 1, 1905.
-
-
-
-
- _To the
- PEOPLE OF HUTCHINSON,
- Who have stood for much from the same
- source, and for whom there is no
- relief in sight, this book is
- respectfully dedicated._
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
- _Page._
-
- GOING TO EUROPE 11
-
- LEAVING THE LAND 17
-
- CROSSING THE ATLANTIC 24
-
- FIRST DAY IN IRELAND 31
-
- BY KILLARNEY’S LAKES 37
-
- IRELAND AND THE IRISH 44
-
- THE CITY OF PLEASURE 53
-
- PARIS AND PARISIANS 60
-
- RURAL FRANCE 69
-
- GETTING INTO ITALY 79
-
- ROME AND ROMANS 86
-
- VENICE, THE BEAUTIFUL 93
-
- SOME THINGS ON ART 100
-
- AN ITALIAN FOURTH AND SO FORTH 106
-
- ACROSS THE ALPS 117
-
- GENEVA AND CHILLON 123
-
- SOMETHING OF SWITZERLAND 130
-
- SWISS AND SWITZERLAND 136
-
- IN THE BLACK FOREST 145
-
- STORIES OF STRASSBURG 152
-
- IN OLD HEIDELBERG 159
-
- WORMS AND OTHER THINGS 167
-
- RICH OLD FRANKFORT 174
-
- DOWN THE RHINE 180
-
- COLOGNE WATER AND OTHERS 188
-
- IN DUTCH LAND 197
-
- THE DAM DUTCH TOWNS 204
-
- THE KINGDOM OF BELGIUM 212
-
- EUROPEAN ART AND GRUB 219
-
- IN OLD, OLD ENGLAND 231
-
- THE GREATEST OF CITIES 238
-
- AT KING EDWARD’S HOUSE 246
-
- THE TOWER AND OTHER THINGS 253
-
- IN RURAL ENGLAND 259
-
- RAILROADS IN EUROPE 266
-
- THE TIME TO QUIT 275
-
-
-
-
-A JOURNEY OF A JAYHAWKER.
-
-
-
-
-GOING TO EUROPE.
-
-
- BOSTON, May 25, 1905.
-
-When one decides to make a European trip he immediately becomes
-impressed with the importance of his intention, and thinks that
-everyone else is likewise affected. Of course this is a mistake, but
-you have to stop and think before you realize it. You go down the
-street imagining everyone is saying, “There is a man who is going to
-Europe.” In fact, the other fellow is probably merely wondering whether
-or not you will pay the two dollars you owe him or stand him off for
-another thirty days. You are in an exhilarated state. You think over
-the cherished desires of a lifetime to see London, Paris, Rome, and
-the places made famous by history. You can’t pick up a paper but you
-read some reference to a place or thing which you are going to see
-across the Atlantic, and which ordinarily you would skip as you do
-a patent-medicine advertisement. You go to reading the accounts of
-Emperor William’s plans as if you would soon meet William and talk them
-over with him. You read about the comings and goings of nobility and
-wonder if the pope knows you are likely to call on him some day in
-July, and whether the Swiss Guards will realize the honor of a visit
-from an American citizen by the name of Morgan or Jones. You read of
-European travel and sights, and, worst of all, you actually get to
-believe the things. In fact, you work yourself up to a fine point of
-enthusiasm and in your mind go cavorting around among ancient heroes
-and crowned heads. As a first guess I would say that probably the most
-successful part of a trip to the Old World is the one you take in
-advance.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-As soon as I disclosed my European intentions, I began to get advice
-from friends and old travelers. This is a trying experience. Everybody
-has ideas as to what should be done, and no two will agree. One of the
-first questions to be settled is that of clothing. The importance of
-this is impressed upon the prospective tourist. In the first place I am
-told to take no baggage except the very simplest that can be carried
-in the hand. In the second place I am advised that when traveling in
-Europe, even more than in this country, one should be prepared for all
-kinds of climate and be ready with the proper clothes to meet every
-emergency. Every bit of information is absolutely as true as common
-law or the gospel, for the informant has either made the trip, or
-his wife’s cousin has, or he knows a man who knows another man who
-did,—and you are told what happened with all the harrowing details.
-Clothes do not make the man or the woman, but they help out a lot. So
-that our friends will realize the difficulties we may meet. I will
-admit that we are going to the “simple” extreme, taking only light
-baggage, very little more than a clean collar and a pleasant smile. If
-royalty wants to call upon us, royalty will not find us prepared with
-the clothes required by the books of etiquette, unless I can hire a
-dress suit or borrow one from the head waiter.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I have also discovered that it is going to be difficult to please
-everybody with our route. Nearly every person has something that just
-must be seen, and not to do so would make a trip to Europe a flat
-failure. Most of these important places are dug up by inspiration from
-the memory of some novel or play. There is the scientific man who urges
-German universities, the musically inclined who would make Wagnerian
-objects the great points, the historical student who prescribes
-battlefields, the sportive gent who urges Monte Carlo, the classical
-enthusiast who can think of nothing less than a thousand years old,
-the art-lover who has a list of seventy-seven different styles of
-Madonnas, the novel-reader who would wander over the country of Scott,
-the social oracle who would spend the time in London and “Paree,” the
-enthusiast in civics who is interested in government railroads, the
-initiative and referendum of Switzerland, and the man whose ideas of
-a trip abroad are condensed in the parting injunction, “Take one for
-me at Munich or Heidelberg.” It is shocking to see the disappointed
-look of the friendly adviser if you do not agree with him that his
-recommendation is the great thing in Europe. A friend of mine who is
-an archæologist said: “Of course you are going to Greece?” Now I had
-not thought of Greece, and ventured to say so. “What, not going to
-Greece!” was the withering answer in a tone which plainly meant that
-you were undoubtedly going to throw your opportunity away like an empty
-sack when the peanuts are gone. Another type of adviser is the man who
-says: “You must see the Coliseum,” when you know the man would not know
-the Coliseum if he were to meet it in the road. He has simply heard
-some one say something about the Coliseum, and takes that word in order
-to show off his superior knowledge of the sights of Europe. During the
-weeks of preparation we have made “itineraries” to suit the suggestions
-of our friends. It is easy to make an itinerary, and no trouble at all
-to change it the next day when a more profitable route is offered. On
-a rough estimate I should say that in the last few weeks we have made
-European itineraries enough to take about seventeen years’ time, and
-we are intending to be away only about three months. The fact is that
-while Europe is only a little continent, not near as big as the United
-States, it has been fought over, scrapped over, built over, written
-about and has been doing business for so many hundreds of years that
-there is hardly a pin-point on the map which for some good reason you
-do not want to visit. It is like taking a newspaper article about seven
-columns long and condensing it to a small paragraph. You feel you are
-cutting out all the really good places, and about the extent of your
-trip is to the points to which you have ordered your mail sent and
-where you have to go to change trains.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-And then there is the friend who can’t go to Europe and who could
-hardly get to Newton if he had to pay for a round-trip ticket, who
-comfortingly says: “I wouldn’t go to Europe until I had seen all of
-my own country.” This remark has been made to me so often in the last
-few weeks that I have learned to dodge when I see it coming. I have
-traveled around some in the United States, and as a matter of fact
-the people in one section are pretty much the same as the people in
-another, and it is people that I like to see and not mountains or
-museums. Of course some parts are more so than others. There is no
-State like Kansas and no people like Kansans. The object of a trip to
-Europe is to see something different, as different as possible. It
-is to get the local “color” for the things you read about. It is to
-learn if the men and women of the Old World are as they are pictured
-in books, and to compare them with the people whom you associate
-with every day at home. I am told that in Paris even little children
-can talk French, and that in Germany the people stand it to have an
-emperor and never organize any boss-buster movements or bolt the party
-nominations. I have read about these things all my life, and they may
-be true. I want to see them. I am not from Missouri, but I have lived
-near enough to want to be shown.
-
-We sailed from Hutchinson on the Santa Fe. After touching at a few
-places we reached Boston safely, and unless the police intervene we
-will embark this afternoon on the White Star steamship Arabic. It is
-still two hours until we go aboard but I am already seasick, or am
-imagining how it will feel, which is nearly as bad. I am not afraid
-of water. I have lived too long on the Arkansas and Cow creek and my
-boyhood was spent on the shores of the Cottonwood. But nevertheless and
-notwithstanding, I feel as I think everybody must when he takes his
-first long ocean voyage. I never noticed so many accounts of wrecks as
-I have in the last month. If there was an item in a newspaper about
-the wreck of some ocean steamer or the drowning of a passenger, and I
-did not see the piece, some friend always did, and brought it to me
-to comfort me. Statistics prove that it is as safe to travel across
-the ocean in a steamship as across Kansas in a railroad train. This is
-comforting, but statistics do not look big and substantial when you
-contemplate a week’s existence with nothing but a few boards and bolts
-between yourself and the place where McGinty went. One little man in a
-little old boat seems mighty small in the middle of a big ocean.
-
-
-
-
-LEAVING THE LAND.
-
-
- STEAMSHIP ARABIC, May 29, 1905.
-
-In spite of the fact that a trip across the Atlantic is not considered
-dangerous or exceptional, there is always a lot of sentiment which
-comes up into the throat of the traveler when he goes aboard the
-ship that is to take him out of his own country and across the ocean
-to a foreign land. Long before the Arabic was to sail it was filled
-with passengers and friends who had come to say good-by and wave
-farewell. The custom is whenever a friend is to start on such a trip
-to accompany him or her to the dock, send flowers to be placed in the
-stateroom, and to stand on the wharf and wave a handkerchief until the
-responding figure on the deck of the ship is no longer recognizable
-in the distance. Of course, we were so far from home that there was
-nobody to do these honors for wandering Kansans, so we picked out
-a few nice-looking people who seemed to be there for curiosity and
-vigorously shouted and waved good-by to them, and they had the good
-taste to respond. A Colorado man who had been on the trip before told
-me afterward that the young fellow who had called so cheerily and waved
-so vigorously at him as the steamer pulled away from land, was a hotel
-porter whom he had hired for a half-dollar to come to the wharf and bid
-him godspeed on his journey.
-
-The Arabic turned away from the dock at 4.30 in the afternoon of
-May 25, and steamed slowly and majestically down the harbor and out
-toward the ocean with a half-dozen little pilot-boats and revenue
-cutters whistling and dancing like a lot of little dogs frisking and
-playing around a big dog as it walks down the street. The old ship
-Constitution, heroine of America’s early naval warfare, was passed,
-the forts and the navy yard with the modern warships and guns, the
-last island and the last American flag faded into the distance, and a
-solemn thought of leaving one’s native land and of possible seasickness
-makes one choke with patriotism and foreboding. It is too late now to
-back out. There is no chance to get off. For a week the ship will never
-stop, and there will be no place upon which the eye can rest except
-water and sky. A flood of sentiment rushes through one and leaks a
-little at the eyes as the mind turns to those who have been so near and
-dear and are now to be so far away. That is the feeling experienced
-by all travelers, and I want to be recorded present and voting on the
-question, although as a matter of fact while the Arabic was leaving the
-dock and country I was quarreling with the purser over the stateroom
-and trying to get the steward to help me handle baggage when he was so
-full of American liquor that he could do nothing but say “yessir” (hic)
-and smile.
-
-[Illustration: NO TIME FOR SENTIMENT.]
-
-No doubt everyone has noticed how the apparently little things of life
-occupy us at most critical and important times. I remember when at
-a certain stage I was accomplishing an object to which I had worked
-industriously and whole-heartedly. I should have been filled with
-happiness and pride as I faced a large crowd of people. As a matter of
-fact I was miserable because my collar did not fit my shirt and kept
-bobbing up and down in a refractory way. The first time I saw Niagara
-Falls, whither I had gone to be overcome with the grandeur and beauty
-of the scene, I put in all my time trying to find a place to get a
-sandwich. It is said that when Gladstone was making his great fight for
-Irish home rule he was sitting on his bench in parliament, apparently
-wrapped in deep thought. His colleagues did not disturb him, for they
-supposed he was pondering the question which was agitating every
-mind. Finally he straightened himself up and said to himself, but so
-those near could hear: “After all, I will plant that rosebush in the
-front instead of at the side of the doorway.” The energetic man who
-is traveling amid picturesque and historical places puts in more time
-figuring out time-tables and wondering whether he will get dinner in a
-dining-car or at a lunch station, than he does in soulful meditation
-on the wonders of nature or the handiwork of man. And the general
-run of women, I am firmly convinced by circumstantial evidence, will
-approach the subject of a European trip or a church wedding, not with
-the thoughts of the lands to be visited or the responsibility to be
-assumed, but with minds full of the problem of whether four shirtwaists
-and a skirt will do better than two dresses. This peculiarity of
-humanity has often impressed me, so I was not surprised when I realized
-as I returned more or less triumphant from my battles with purser and
-steward that I missed most of the thrills and throbs that had been
-promised me by all the guidebooks and books of travel that I had read.
-
-An ocean voyage is being robbed of most of its terrors. The Arabic is
-a big ship, one of the largest. It stretches out over so many waves
-that it does very little rolling or plunging. We have been out for
-three days and there have been really no cases of seasickness. I fully
-expected to be seasick, and it is a great disappointment. However, I
-am not going to ask the company to refund my fare on that account.
-Everybody is afraid of seasickness, and down in his heart everybody
-wishes that everybody else might be sick and he alone left to proudly
-walk the deck and smile at the victims. The only person who suffers
-from seasickness is the individual affected. You may run a sliver in
-your finger and the family will gather around with words of sympathy.
-You may get a cinder in your eye and your friends will hurry forward to
-help get it out. But if you are suffering with seasickness, and death
-would almost be welcome, your friends will only grin and their words of
-condolence are false and mocking.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-A modern steamship is constructed for safety, comfort, and almost
-luxury. When you get those three qualities there is very little left of
-the poetry or novelty of ocean traveling. We still speak of the ship
-“sailing,” although, of course, it doesn’t. The modern ship steams. We
-have read all of our lives about the beautiful white-wings and the
-jolly jack tars. The reality is a mammoth engine out of sight, a big
-smoke-stack, and a lot of black, dust-covered, sweaty firemen. The
-“sailors” no longer climb the rigging and the masts, but go down in
-the hole and shovel coal. My ideas of the sea came from Oliver Optic.
-I want to hear the boatswain pipe, the mate’s command, “All hands
-belay ship,” and see the captain as he stands at his post and with
-an occasional “Steady, my hearties,” direct the seamen as they sing
-their songs and clamber up the masts. That is beauty and poetry. But
-the reality is that the captain whistles down the tube to the engineer
-and he gives the order, “More coal, you sons of guns; stop that noise
-and fire up.” That is fact, and makes traveling comfortable but not
-soul-inspiring.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The White Star line, on which we are traveling, belongs to the big
-steamship company merger, formed by Pierpont Morgan a few years ago.
-It is really owned by American capital and controlled by American
-financiers, but the ships carry the British flag and are manned by
-British officers and men. England manages things so that it pays to
-carry the English flag. I have a great deal of respect for England.
-With all our American enterprise, energy and ability, we look like
-a tallow candle beside an electric light when it comes to ships and
-international commerce. The government of England always looks after
-its shipping interests and encourages capital to send English vessels
-and English crews carrying English merchandise to the furthermost
-parts. Prizes, bounties, subsidies and favors of all kinds have been
-used to make the merchant marine of Great Britain greater than that of
-the rest of the world. The English are a great people, and they are
-conscious of it. And they see to it that everybody else understands the
-fact. There isn’t anything in this American-owned ship that comes from
-the United States except what the passengers have in their baggage.
-The crew from captain to cook are English. The supplies are all bought
-in England. The ships are built and repaired at Belfast. Coal for the
-voyage both ways comes from Wales. English meats and even ice-cream are
-purchased in Liverpool for the round trip. You can’t buy an American
-postage stamp, and United States money is not taken except at exchange
-below par. The American who has been going through life under the
-impression that America is the whole thing has his feelings stepped on
-nearly every time he turns around.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The daily life on a steamship is a good deal like I am told it is on
-a limited Santa Fe Pullman train, only there is a little more room.
-There are all kinds of people on the Arabic, mostly from England, the
-United States or Boston. Soon after we left port I met a fellow who
-looked like somebody from home. I asked him where he was from, and he
-said Nevada. I said I was from Kansas, and he enthusiastically grasped
-my hand and said, “Then we are neighbors.” You do get a good deal of
-that feeling. Afterward we met some folks from Colorado, and to see
-us warm up to each other would have made you think we were a long
-separated but happily reunited family. When anyone asks me where I hail
-from and I say “Kansas,” the answer is nearly always “Oh.” And then I
-shut my eyes and wait for the next remark. It never fails to come: “Do
-you know Carrie Nation?” If I get a fair show I generally manage in
-the course of conversation to incidentally ring in a few things about
-Kansas that they never heard before (and once in a long while something
-I never heard before myself). I don’t have to confine myself to things
-I can prove. Colorado and Nevada will stand by me, and if the returning
-English tourists are not regretting they did not see the wonderful
-State of Kansas they are simply figuring me out a liar. The poet said:
-“How sweet it is for one’s country to die.” Let us add: “How sweet it
-is for one’s country to lie.”
-
-That reminds me of a good joke on myself. An Englishman was complaining
-of the voyage and wishing he was in old. England. I did a little
-rapture talk about the ocean, and said I loved to go on the deck,
-watching the never-ending blue of water and sky and just lie and lie
-and lie there. He said: “I believe you told me you were a newspaper
-man.”
-
-
-
-
-CROSSING THE ATLANTIC.
-
-
- STEAMSHIP ARABIC, June 1, 1905.
-
-I have come to a realization of the work of Christopher Columbus. It
-took nerve to keep on sailing day in and day out, week in and week out,
-with no sight of anything that looked like land,—nothing but a great
-stretch of water, not even a stick in it. If I had been on board the
-Santa Maria I would surely have joined the crowd of sailors who wanted
-to quit and go home. We have come now nearly 3,000 miles through the
-Atlantic, and if someone had not been over the route before and we did
-not believe that land would appear at a certain time it would certainly
-look as if the ocean would never end. If Columbus were to make the trip
-now on the Arabic he would probably be as surprised as were the Indians
-when the Spaniards landed on San Salvador something over 400 years ago.
-The monotony of the ocean is only broken by an occasional passing ship,
-and a high-strung imagination. We have met or passed five ships in
-seven days. Each one has provided us with excitement for half a day. We
-took sides as to whether the strange vessel was a Cunarder, an American
-liner, a North German Lloyd or what not. Every line that crosses the
-ocean would have partisans and each corner of the argument would be
-vigorously sustained by expert evidence. I decided on a system. I
-always maintained that the ship was an American liner. By sticking
-to the text and not changing I hit it once, which was better than the
-average. Then we have long and sometimes bitter discussions as to the
-number of miles the Arabic will make in the next twenty-four hours.
-Tips are anxiously obtained from officers, sailors, stewards and cooks.
-Every man who ever bet in his life and some who never do at home, back
-their opinions with their money. And when we are not arguing or betting
-we are eating. Passengers on this line are full-fed. The day begins
-with 8 o’clock breakfast, at 10:30 a lunch is served, on deck, at 1
-o’clock an elaborate lunch, at 4 o’clock tea, cakes and sandwiches are
-distributed, and at 7 o’clock a course dinner. People do all of these
-and eat sandwiches and stuff between times and then wonder why their
-stomachs are “disturbed.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-It takes all kinds of people to make up the world, and there are
-samples of most of the varieties on an ocean steamer. Some of our
-passengers are very swell and some are very bum. But they meet on
-the level—provided you can call the deck of a ship level when it is
-usually tilted one way or the other at an angle of 20 to 30 degrees.
-In the spirit of investigation I listened to the talk of a couple of
-ladies who are society leaders and members of the 400 at home. The
-subjects they discussed were babies, servants and clothes, and they
-talked just about like the women-folks of Kansas. There is a touch of
-human nature through all of us.
-
-When I left home I decided not to change my watch until I got to
-Europe. At Boston I was only one hour behind and could easily remember
-and count on that. But every day on the ocean the clock has been
-shoved up thirty-five minutes for the 400 miles traveled eastward the
-preceding twenty-four hours. When it got so we were eating noonday
-lunch at 8 A. M. by my watch I gave it up and turned the hands around.
-When we reach London we will be about six hours ahead of Hutchinson
-time, and anyone can see the ridiculous side of getting up at 2 o’clock
-in the morning and going to bed at 4 in the afternoon. By a strange
-coincidence the sun has changed its time for rising and setting to
-agree with the ship’s clock.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-There is great system on a big ship. Everything is done just so and
-no other way. I have had a hard time locating the “stewards.” I never
-realized what a steward was before. We have a bedroom steward, who
-looks after the stateroom, a bath steward who runs the bathroom, a deck
-steward in charge of the deck, an assistant deck steward, a library
-steward, a smoking-room steward, a table steward, and a few more whose
-titles I can’t remember. One steward never gets on another’s line of
-duty. If you want a deck chair you must see the deck steward, if you
-want a blanket you must see the saloon steward, and so on. If I fall
-overboard I hope the proper steward will be around, for the system is
-so fine that I fear the other stewards would refuse to act until the
-proper steward could be called. Each steward will be expecting a tip
-when the voyage is ended, and if he weren’t a “steward,” he probably
-could not get it so easily.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Sunday we had religious service in the saloon. (Not the kind of a
-saloon that Mrs. Nation holds service in.) It was the Church of England
-service, but out of respect to the American passengers the reader ran
-in President Roosevelt’s name in the prayer for the royal family. It
-was a quiet, beautiful day and the amount of the collection was small.
-I was told by an officer that when Sunday is a stormy day and the boat
-acts as if it might tip over most any time, the passengers contribute
-much more liberally to the offering than they do when the day is fair.
-Some people go to church on board ship who never see the inside of a
-church on land. I suppose they learn from the sailors the advantage of
-casting an anchor out to the windward.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-We will see land in a few hours, the southwest coast of Ireland. A few
-hours later we will land at Queenstown. It will be mighty good to get
-one’s feet on ground that doesn’t move just when you don’t expect it
-to. We will find out what has happened in the world, for we haven’t
-had any news for a week. They are betting on whether or not the Jap
-and Russian fleets have met during our absence from the earth. Like a
-great many good things, the best part of an ocean voyage is the end. I
-have enjoyed the trip very much, but if I get a chance to walk back to
-America I will be mighty glad to take it.
-
-
-
-
-IRELAND.
-
-
-
-
-FIRST DAY IN IRELAND.
-
-
- CORK, IRELAND, June 3.
-
-The first vivid impression made upon me in Ireland was the morning
-after we landed. We had come ashore late at night at Queenstown, and
-except for the Irish names and Irish brogue there was nothing to
-indicate but that we were going through an American custom-house into
-an American hotel. But when we went to breakfast up came the waiter
-attired in full dress and extra long-tailed coat with a red vest. I
-had always supposed the pictures of an English or Irish waiter in such
-livery at breakfast was a joke. It is not a joke. It is a most serious
-and proper attire, and I suppose an Irish waiter in a first-class hotel
-would as soon appear to serve breakfast without any pants as without
-the long swallowtail coat. And when I saw that, I knew I was far away
-from home.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-A European breakfast is “rolls and coffee.” In anticipation I had
-thought of hot rolls and delicious coffee. Put this down: There are no
-hot rolls in Ireland, and I am guessing there will be none in Europe.
-“Rolls” means plain, very plain, cold bread, hard and a trifle stale.
-The coffee is bum and the cream is skim-milk. An English hotel, for
-that is what Irish first-class hotels are, ought to put more into the
-eating and less into the waiter’s uniform. Along with other Americans
-at that first breakfast, we joined in a howl and managed to get some
-eggs.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Queenstown is one of the largest and best of the British harbors. It
-has an important navy yard and several English warships are anchored
-among the numerous merchant vessels. The town is on the side of a high
-hill which comes down to the water’s edge, and the narrow streets go up
-and down the slope at every angle except a right angle to the street
-along the waterfront. The chief resources of Queenstown are sailors
-and tourists, and the main occupations of the leading inhabitants
-are lodging-houses and saloons. Over nearly every store is the sign,
-“Licensed to sell ale, porter and spirits seven days in the week.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration: THE IRISH JAUNTING (JOLTING) CAR.]
-
-There is nothing much to Queenstown except the quaintness that comes
-from age and dirt, and I have seen enough American towns with the same
-characteristics to make this an old story. But we walked and climbed
-to the top of the hill, and there I saw a panorama spread out before
-me which will stick to my memory a good long while. The large harbor,
-locked on three sides and part of the fourth with land, made a blue
-setting for the white of the numerous ships. Little sailboats drifted
-over the quiet water and tugs and launches darted in and out among the
-big vessels. Eight-oared boats from the warships, manned with uniformed
-sailors from the royal navy, skimmed back and forth, the eight oars
-rising and falling as one. Flags were flying from mastheads, and the
-decks were lively with the work of the day. Up from the shore on every
-side except where the ocean’s blue appeared, rose the greenest green
-hills you ever saw, and they reached to the bluest blue sky you ever
-saw, a frame for the picture which no artist could ever hope to portray.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-An Irish woman whose son had gone to America and sent back for the
-mother and little sister, had never been far from home before. Leading
-the little girl by the hand she was walking to Queenstown and came in
-sight of the harbor from the top of the hill. The beauty of the scene
-impressed her, but she added a lesson for the benefit of the daughter:
-“Look at the beautiful sight and see how wonderful is the work of
-Nature. See the big ships side by side, and all around them their
-little ones.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Queenstown is the harbor for Cork, which is twelve miles up the
-river Lee. It is the commercial metropolis of southern Ireland and
-has furnished more policemen to America than any town of twice its
-size in the United States. Of course the first thing we did was to
-ride in a jaunting-car and go to Blarney Castle. The castle looks
-just about as it did last summer on the Pike at St. Louis. But the
-surrounding grounds are as pretty as they can be. I hesitate when it
-comes to describing the park with its stately trees, its beautiful
-grassy slopes crowned with wild flowers, its moss and ivy which cling
-to wall and tree, covering defects, revealing charms, enhancing
-beauties. The castle itself was built by McCarthy, king of Munster,
-in 1446, and while of course uninhabited and in partial ruin, is in
-good preservation, to make an Irish bull of it. We climbed to the top,
-we reveled in the rich scene around us, kissed the blarney stone and
-cheerfully gave the care-taker twice the usual fee because she said
-Americans were the best people on earth. Then we had the nicest lunch
-that has come our way since we left Kansas—an Irish lunch of bread
-and butter, cold ham and milk. We had traveled all morning and climbed
-among ruins from 12 to 2 o’clock. If you want the best lunch on earth,
-no matter what it is made of, climb towers for a couple of hours.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-There are some things that are peculiarly Irish. The jaunting-car is
-one of them. It is the favorite vehicle for driving. It looks like a
-two-wheel cart, driver’s seat in the front end and passengers’ seats
-back to back, facing outward. My fellow-traveler, Mr. McGregor, says
-the Irish brogue has perverted into jaunting-car the real name, which
-is jolting-car. The driver is always a good fellow and he keeps the
-horse on the gallop much of the time. You have to learn to keep your
-seat on a jaunting-car as you do on a bicycle. You also have to learn
-to weigh the statements of your driver as to distances and legends as
-you do the promises of a candidate for office. We suggested to one
-that a jaunting-car driver had to lie. “We never lie, sir,” said the
-Irishman. “But we stretch it a little.”
-
-After a week on shipboard, during which time I had patiently shaved
-myself, I yearned for the comforting work of a good barber. At the
-best hotel in Cork, a city of 80,000 people, I went to the best barber
-shop in town. The chair was just like a common wooden kitchen chair,
-only not quite so comfortable. There was a head-rest made out of a
-two-by-four scantling, and when the barber pulled my head back onto
-that I knew my dream of a comfortable shave was to be a nightmare. He
-made the lather in a wash-basin and I think he honed the razor on a
-grindstone. It cut all right when it didn’t pull out by the roots. When
-the operation was finished he combed my hair with my head still back,
-washed my face with cold water and rubbed it with a coarse towel. The
-barber charged me twopence (equivalent to four cents). And that was my
-first experience with a European tonsorial artist. Perhaps sometime in
-my life I have felt cross at a barber at home because the razor pulled
-or because he squirted bay rum into my eye. But in the future I will
-never murmur, except to recall my experience in Cork and thank God for
-American barbers.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The day we came to Cork there was an election for poor-law guardians,
-only a local affair, but I attended. The voting is by Australian
-ballot just as in America. The suffrage is restricted to householders,
-including those who pay a certain rent, and women vote the same as men.
-The politicians at the polling-place treated me well and explained all
-the methods. One of the workers told the judge that they should let me
-vote, as when he had visited his brother in America they had let him
-vote twice while there. I proposed that if they would let me vote for
-poor-law guardians in the county of Cork I would let any of them vote
-for councilman in the Fourth ward of Hutchinson. We had a good friendly
-visit, and it was easy to see that Irishmen are politicians in the Old
-World as well as the New. After a man or woman voted he or she was
-always given a drink at the nearest place where “spirits” are sold. But
-when the polls closed instead of going ahead and counting the votes,
-the judges adjourned until noon the next day—the invariable custom. It
-was not until the afternoon following the election when it was learned
-who “stood at the top of the poll.” We couldn’t stand the pressure that
-long in America.
-
-There were placards up all around telling the voters to “vote the
-straight ticket,” “vote for the interest of labor,” and “vote for your
-own interests.” The newspapers the next day told of the vicious conduct
-of the opposition and the immoral practices resorted to. But as a rule
-the Irish people are like Americans, accepting the result with good
-feeling and promises of what will be done to the other fellows the next
-time.
-
-
-
-
-BY KILLARNEY’S LAKES.
-
-
- KILLARNEY, June 8, 1905.
-
-We have spent four days in the Irish mountains and have ridden a
-hundred miles in a jaunting-car and coach. I have had mountain scenery,
-lake scenery and plain scenery for every meal in the day. I enjoy
-scenery, but I fear I am getting it in too large quantities and am
-having it shaken too well while taking. Sunday was spent in Glengariff,
-a picturesque place where the mountains rise abruptly from the salt
-water of Bantry bay. Monday we coached from Glengariff to Killarney and
-Tuesday we did the lakes with a jaunting-car, slightly assisted by a
-row-boat. The Irish mountains are not as high as the Rocky Mountains,
-but they are a very good imitation. The Rockies are grand and
-beautiful. The mountains of Cork and Kerry are pretty and beautiful.
-The Irish mountains are covered with green. It is as if the Rocky
-Mountains were smaller, covered with ivy and moss, dotted here and
-there with whitewashed cottages and flocks of sheep, and topped with a
-blue sky which is bluer than any indigo and clearer than any crystal.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-There are several ruined castles about Killarney. I am already getting
-to shy at ruined castles. The proposal to visit one makes my feet
-ache as an approaching thunder-storm affects some people’s corns. We
-first went to Muckross Abbey, a well-preserved ruin about 400 years
-old. The Muckross family, which owned the estate, has played out,
-and the property has been bought by Guinness, the Dublin brewer, who
-was made a lord by Queen Victoria. Whatever the earl of Kenmare does
-not own around Killarney belongs to Guinness. You can imagine how
-Muckross Abbey looked 300 years ago when the old monks lived there and
-occupied the cells and cloister now unroofed. The banquet hall has a
-big fireplace and there are dark spiral stairways running up and down
-such as you read about in Ivanhoe. On the tombstones are inscriptions
-telling of the virtues and sanctity of knights and lords who would be
-considered tough bats if they lived nowadays and swaggered around as
-they did in the good old times. I like to look at old tombstones and
-wonder what the men who lie beneath them would say if they could read
-the catalogue of virtues accredited to them. I always think of the
-little girl who had evidently been visiting Muckross Abbey, or some
-such place, and anxiously inquired if the people in those days did not
-bury bad folks, as all who were interred there were supremely good. And
-then the thought comes up that all of these men were great and strong
-in their time, making history and imagining that they were cutting a
-gash in the world. Now they are forgotten and their deeds unknown, and
-they are the subjects of sportive remarks by tourists from a country
-they never heard of.
-
-The lakes of Killarney have been praised in prose and verse, and they
-are up to the advance advertising. They are not large, but they nestle
-among the mountains and reflect on their clear surface the heights that
-surround them. There is a legend everywhere and the Irish driver knows
-them all. Here is a reasonable one: One of the O’Donohues, which family
-was once the royal power in Kerry, was hunting in the mountains. He
-met the devil, and the two had an altercation in which O’Donohue got
-decidedly the best of the argument. The devil became so angry that he
-bit a big chunk out of a mountain. O’Donohue took his shillelah and hit
-the devil so hard a crack that he dropped the mouthful of mountain into
-the lake. This tale must be true, for as the driver said: “There’s the
-place the devil bit and it is called so to this day, and out in the
-lake is the little island of rock, just as the devil dropped it into
-the water.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Everybody who has read Tom Moore—and if anyone has not he should do
-so—will remember the lines:
-
- “There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
- As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet.”
-
-The meeting of the three Killarney lakes was referred to, and Moore was
-telling truth as well as poetry. The upper lake and the middle lake
-narrow to small streams and flow together as they merge into the little
-rosebud of a mouth which the lower lake puts up to greet them. There is
-a rapid which the boat shoots for a sixpence, but it was not thrilling.
-In the triangular park made by lakes and mountains are said to be
-specimens of every kind of tree known. The driver told this proudly,
-but when I called for a cottonwood he couldn’t produce. Then I told him
-all about the wonderful cottonwood, and he promised to see the keeper
-and find out why they couldn’t have one in Killarney.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-That reminds me of my experience with music. The first morning I
-awoke in Ireland at Queenstown I heard the voices of a number of
-sailors of the royal navy, and as the melodious sounds rolled into the
-window I was surprised to realize that they were singing “Under the
-Anheuser-Busch.” At the hotel in Cork the orchestra played the same. At
-the theatre that night it was greeted with an encore. The driver on the
-jaunting-car whistled the tune. And last night when I had made friends
-with a cottager and was sitting with him by the side of a peat fire and
-he was telling me of Ireland’s woes, his little girl came in and he
-proceeded to show her off. First he had her sing an old Gaelic song.
-Then he said, “Now give us an American song,” and she responded with
-“Under the Anheuser-Busch.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I have hardly met an Irishman but has told me he had brothers and
-sisters in America. At Glengariff the hotel proprietor said at least
-2,000 young men and women had gone to America from that parish in
-the last few years—the brightest and best of the young people, he
-said—nearly all of them to Boston. From Killarney nearly all go
-to New York. I told them how Boston and New York were ruled by the
-Irish, and put the question as to why the Irish couldn’t run Ireland.
-I am trying to answer that conundrum to my own satisfaction, and am
-gathering ideas on the subject from everyone I meet.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The ordinary Irish village like Killarney is a quaint picture. The
-streets are narrow, mostly eight to twelve feet wide. The main street
-is about thirty feet wide. Nearly all the houses are a story or a story
-and a half, thatched roof, whitewashed walls, dirt floors except in
-one room, low ceilings, doors and windows, full of chickens, cats and
-children. I have not yet seen a pig in the parlor. The pig is kept in
-a little room at one side. But the chickens have as much liberty of
-the house as anybody and the goat is monarch of the outside. There is
-very seldom any yard, the houses being built right up to the street.
-The house is heated by a fireplace and the cooking is done in the same.
-Peat is the fuel, and it is cleaner and not sooty like coal. The dirt
-floor and the chickens in the house sound as though the Irish cottage
-would be dirty, but the whitewash and the scrubbing-brush fight on
-the other side, and you don’t get that impression. The women-folks
-are always neat-looking and everybody is pleasant and cheerful. Every
-window has a window-box of geraniums. There are usually so many
-children that the house does not hold them, and the street is always
-filled with them. Remember when you are driving through a town the
-street is filled with children, and if you are an American and not
-used to it your heart will be jumping into your throat for fear some of
-them will be run over—but I am told they never are.
-
-After the chickens and the children the most novel sight is the donkeys
-with their two-wheel carts, the only ordinary carriages for passengers
-or freight of the people. The donkey is the size of our mountain burro,
-and has the same degree of intelligent expression. All of the hauling
-is done by this patient animal, and he is looked upon as a valued
-member of the family.
-
-In riding or walking the rule of the country is the same as in
-England—turn to the left. I have not yet gotten over the yearning to
-grab the lines from the driver when he turns to the left to avoid a
-passing carriage. Fortunately the other driver is always fool enough to
-also turn to the left. I confided my trouble to an Irish driver, and he
-said it was ridiculous to turn to the right.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-One of my traveling companions is a man who chews tobacco, and he had
-neglected to lay in a supply before leaving America. No one else used
-the weed that way and there was no help for him. The Irish chew and
-smoke the same plug tobacco, very dry and not tasting like American
-tobacco. For a week my friend had been looking through shops trying
-to find something that would touch the spot. Last night soon after
-reaching Killarney he came to me greatly excited and said, “Hurry! the
-finest scenery since we left home.” Away we went down the narrow street
-and up to a window in which was a familiar shape and a sign, “Battle
-Ax.” I don’t chew myself, but I have some bad habits, and I could
-appreciate the tear of joy that glistened in my fellow-traveler’s eye
-as he gazed on that sign and felt that he had met an old friend just
-from home.
-
-
-
-
-IRELAND AND THE IRISH.
-
-
- DUBLIN, June 9, 1905.
-
-In my short stay in the Emerald Isle I have endeavored to find out what
-is the matter with Ireland. Why is it that a country of great beauty
-and resources, with a healthful and productive climate, an intelligent
-and attractive people, is a country where poverty is widespread,
-although disguised by picturesque surroundings, and is accepted in
-such a matter-of-fact and almost nonchalant manner? Why is it that the
-population of Ireland is decreasing while the number of successful
-and prosperous Irishmen is rapidly increasing in America, Canada, and
-Australia? A very intelligent Irishman at Glengariff told me why it
-was, and this in brief is his story:
-
-A thousand years ago Ireland was ahead of all neighbors in education,
-religion, and refinement. Then came the civil wars between the
-chieftains. Then came England, and by utilizing the demoralization of
-the civil wars and playing one chieftain against another, acquired
-sovereignty. But this was only nominal, for the Irish chieftains
-did not submit permanently. In Glengariff country the O’Sullivans
-maintained practical independence. Finally the English rulers adopted
-the policy of confiscating the land of the rebellious chieftains and
-giving it to English soldiers and queen’s favorites. In many places
-this meant the massacre of the people. The O’Sullivans and their
-fighting men who escaped went to France and continued to strike at
-their Saxon foes. But the land passed into the ownership of strangers,
-who kept it only for the profit they could get out of it. The new
-Irish nobles lived in London and their agents ran the estates. When
-the nobles needed more money their agents advanced the rents. If the
-people who tilled the soil and whose tenancy had been unquestioned for
-generations, could not pay, they were evicted. Families were ejected
-from the places they had cultivated and made valuable and were set out
-on the road. This was done not without fighting for their rights by the
-Irish people, but by the superior force of English soldiers. No Irish
-farmer owns his place—he is only a tenant at the mercy of his absentee
-landlord, who does not know him. In other countries the feudal tenure
-has not worked so harshly, because the landlords lived among the people
-and were bound to them by ties of race, common history, and natural
-affection. But the fact that there was no way for an Irishman to get
-his own home, or have a reasonable chance to advance in fortune or
-freedom, sent the brightest to America, and left the others to struggle
-hopelessly along, knowing that the best they could do was to “pay the
-rent,” which was fixed like some railroad charges in the United States,
-on the basis of “all the traffic would stand.”
-
-From the parish of Glengariff more than half the young men and at
-least half the young women have gone to the land of promise across the
-sea, and are sending back money to help the parents and brothers and
-sisters at home, either to “pay the rent” or to pay their passage to
-America.
-
-What is true at Glengariff applies to the rest of Ireland. The ancient
-chieftains, the O’Sullivans, the O’Donohues, the McCartys and the
-rest, were succeeded by absentee landlords, and the law of supply and
-demand backed up by the English army simply worked out. At Killarney
-whatever land does not belong to the earl of Kenmare is the property
-of Guinness. The lakes and rivers are full of fish, but no Irishman
-can catch a fish; the mountains are full of game, but no one can hunt
-it except the owner of the estate. The farms are well tilled, but no
-one can buy the land upon which he works. It makes an American mad,
-and he says, “How do you stand it?” But it is the law, and along every
-country road there is a policeman and behind the policeman is the power
-of England. Far up on the mountain-side, several miles from town or
-settlement, I saw a fine stone building which on inquiry I found was a
-police station. The police, or the constabulary, as they are called,
-were not there to protect the lives of the citizens, but to prevent
-hunting and fishing in the brooks and mountains. So, after all, it is
-no wonder the Irishman leaves his beautiful island and emigrates to
-America.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The Irish have kept the English Parliament in an uproar for a
-generation on this land question, and in recent years they have
-secured some friendly legislation. A court can now fix the rent rate
-on appeal—but the English government names the court. So far as
-Englishmen of the present day are concerned they would be glad to get
-out of the Irish problem and let the Irish have their land, but of
-course that can’t be done. The present parliament provided a plan for
-the eventual purchase of land by tenant, at a price to be fixed by the
-court if the two parties cannot agree. This is a step in the right
-direction and the Irish are glad of it, but as my Glengariff friend
-said, “It will not do any good in this generation.” And the exodus to
-America continues.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The Irish are very intelligent. I do not think the poor people of any
-other country are naturally so bright and so full of perception and
-understanding. They are kind and gentle. They are affectionate and
-patriotic. The English say they are “lazy,” but under the circumstances
-you could hardly expect them to be yearning for work, when more work
-means more valuable holdings, and that only means more rent for the
-landlord. The Irish have a reputation among the English for honesty.
-They are religious, and I thought at first they gave too much to the
-church and did not keep enough for themselves, when I saw the large
-and rich cathedrals. But, as an Irishman told me, “We’d rather give to
-the Lord than the landlord.” Public schools are providing education
-for the rising generation, and in the public school the boys and girls
-are being taught the Irish language and prepared for the coming fight
-which the Irish must make to capture Ireland—not probably for an
-independent government, but for actual ownership of the Irish soil.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Taxes are heavy. The burden of taxation is the income tax. “That falls
-on the landlord,” the thoughtless might say. Not on your life. The tax
-is simply added to the rent. There are fine public roads in Ireland,
-as good in the country districts as Main street in Hutchinson will be
-when it is paved. The only advantage a despotic government has over
-a popular government is that it builds better roads. When the people
-elect their own road bosses and levy their own road taxes I notice the
-roads are not so good as when some prince or cabinet minister who does
-not care what the people think, levies the tax and orders the road
-built right. The Irish statesmen are struggling for Irish ownership of
-Irish soil and an Irish parliament to deal with Irish affairs. They are
-“getting on,” and, as I said before, they make so much trouble in the
-English Parliament that I know the English would be glad to get rid of
-Irish local politics and give them back their parliament, if it were
-not for pride,—and the next parliament may cut out the pride.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I want to record one fact which I was surprised to find. The Irish are
-very temperate. I have been in city, town and country for ten days,
-have not been careful about keeping in the nice parts of town, and
-I have seen only one man under the influence of liquor, and he was
-an English sailor at Queenstown. This is in spite of the fact that
-every inn and grocery sells “spirits” and nearly everybody seems to
-drink them if he or she has the price. Perhaps the reason is that in
-Ireland all the liquor-selling is done by women—barmaids. Perhaps the
-influence of women behind the bar makes for temperance. I won’t state
-that as my conclusion, but just submit it for what it is worth to those
-who are trying to solve the liquor question in other countries.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Dublin is a good deal like an American city. It is full of business and
-not as Irish as the inland towns or Cork, although it has statues to
-O’Connell, Curran and Grattan, and will have one to Parnell. The lord
-lieutenant-governor, the representative of the king, resides at Dublin,
-and a big garrison of soldiers gives it an English tone. There is a
-fine university, which we visited. It was started by Queen Elizabeth,
-and has only recently been opened to Catholics and to women. Dublin has
-some great stores where Irish linen and Irish lace should naturally be
-cheap. If Mrs. Morgan were writing this letter she could add a chapter.
-I will only tell this little story: I was telling an Irish driver how
-nice everybody had been to us in Ireland and how pleasant the Irish
-were to Americans. “Yis,” he said. “Whin you go down the strate,
-everybody sez: ‘There’s some Americans, God bless ’em: mark up the
-prices on the linen and lace.’”
-
-
-
-
-FRANCE.
-
-
-
-
-THE CITY OF PLEASURE.
-
-
- PARIS, FRANCE, June 19, 1905.
-
-Since my last letter to The News we have been “going some,” and I will
-leave a few ideas I may have gleaned about England until I get back
-there on my return from the continent. We are pushing for a short visit
-to Italy before the summer gets too far advanced.
-
-To use a classical expression, Paris is a bully sort of a town. If
-there is anything you want and don’t know where it is, I am satisfied
-you will find it in Paris. In England it was customary to close up and
-go to bed sometime after midnight and to rest on Sunday. Nobody in
-Paris thinks of either proposition. The only difference between Paris
-at midnight and Paris at midday is that it is livelier at midnight. The
-performance is continuous and it is worth the price of admission.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Coming into a country where your language is not generally spoken is
-always a little trying on the nerves. The French people have made it
-as easy as possible, but the ways are strange and the helpless tourist
-can only do as others do and trust to Providence and the power of a
-little money distributed as well as possible. I do not know how much
-Providence has had to do with it, but I do believe there are mighty few
-doors in France which a piece of money will not unlock. When I came
-into France I knew only two French expressions, one meaning “How much?”
-and the other, “Thank you.” With that vocabulary we went through the
-custom-house examination, a five-hour railroad journey, landed in a
-big city station, got a carriage, reached the hotel and an interpreter
-without any more trouble than we would have in Sterling. Of course
-everybody from conductor to porter knew we were Americans and could
-not speak French, knew what we ought to do next and showed the way,
-and all we had to do was to look pleasant and hand out small change.
-And it doesn’t cost much to be liberal in France. I gave the conductor
-an equivalent to our 10 cents, and I know he thought I was rich. The
-porter who took my baggage through the custom-house and brought me a
-carriage was deeply impressed with my financial standing when I gave
-him 6 cents worth of French coppers. The coachman who brought Mrs.
-Morgan and myself with four big grips from the station to the hotel,
-two miles, charged me the full price, 30 cents for everything, and
-when I tossed him another dime like a millionaire he took his hat off
-three times. The French people I have met have been very polite. They
-always tip their hats and go out of their way to show me, and they are
-never so discourteous as to refuse 2 cents. Imagine giving a Santa Fe
-conductor 10 cents for showing you where to sit in the car!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-As a lesson in political economy I will put in my observation so far
-as I have gone: Everything in Europe that is made or done by labor is
-cheap. I was offered a tailor-made suit of clothes in London for $18
-that would cost $30 in Hutchinson. A farm laborer in England gets about
-50 cents a day and boards himself. The barber shaves you for 2 or 3
-cents. Bread and meat are higher than in the United States. You can
-see how the wage-earner gets it going and coming. I am learning a few
-things from experience that I had been told before, but I want to visit
-a few more places before I try to form my conclusions and put them into
-print.
-
-Paris is a beautiful city. In spite of the great business houses, the
-manufactories and the banks which I have seen, it strikes me as a kind
-of play town. Every day in the week in Paris looks like an American
-town on the Fourth of July, and on Sunday it is Fourth of July and
-Christmas together and then some. The men who are working at wages
-that would make Americans vicious, are as light-hearted and pleasant
-appearing as a Sunday school picnic. The women are as vivacious as a
-lot of school ma’ams at institute. As soon as work is completed it
-seems as if every Parisian only goes home to put on his good clothes
-and then comes down town accompanied by his wife, or somebody’s wife.
-Half the places of business along the principal streets are restaurants
-and a good many of the others are also restaurants. The Frenchman
-sits at a little table on the sidewalk in front of the café and puts
-in the evening drinking one glass of wine or absinthe, chatting with
-his neighbor and watching the women go by with their good clothes
-and bright faces. Every French woman is an artist when it comes to
-clothes. The goods may not cost much, but the gown is tastefully made,
-and if the lady wants to she sticks on a bow or jabs a flower in her
-hat, regardless of every rule except that it looks pretty there—and it
-always does. Bright and light gowns, hats that are up-to-date or ahead,
-hair to match the hat and hose to match the dress—and the artist’s
-work is done. No wonder the men hurry down town and sit on the sidewalk!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In the afternoon and evening the Paris streets look like a spring
-millinery opening—also like a display of samples of fine hosiery.
-Perhaps I ought not to go into the subject, but it will not be a fair
-description of Paris if I leave it out, and I must warn any other
-Kansan who may venture this way. When a Parisian lady walks along a
-sidewalk that is perfectly clear and clean she daintily lifts her dress
-so as to display only the top of the shoe, maybe an inch or two more.
-Sometimes she thoughtlessly raises the gown a little higher. When she
-reaches the street-crossing—but I had better stop, for she doesn’t. I
-have always been of the opinion that under such circumstances a plain,
-respectful man should look the other way and I have a crick in my neck
-from looking—the other way—since I came to Paris. Remember this is in
-fine weather when the walks and crossings are clean. “They say” that
-when the walks are muddy the result is even more startling to a staid
-observer from Kansas. If the weather gets bad I don’t know what I will
-do.
-
-[Illustration: IN PARIS: LOOKING THE OTHER WAY.]
-
-The philosophy in the above is that it gives you an idea of Paris
-with its brilliantly lighted streets, the men eating and drinking,
-sitting at the little tables along the walks, the well-dressed people,
-the brilliant colors, the laughter, the bright and polite conduct of
-men and women, the holiday appearance, the pleasure that everyone is
-having, and the general gait at which Parisians travel. As another
-example let me add, fully one-third of that part of Paris which in
-any other city would be devoted to business, is given up to public
-gardens, playgrounds for children, parks and drives,—not out in the
-country or to one side, but right through the center of Paris. The
-houses, business and residence, are none of them more than six stories
-high, and I am told the law does not permit higher structures. It is
-a good idea, for you get air and sunlight, which you often do not
-in New York and Chicago, and you can occasionally see out over the
-city. About every so often is a circle or square from which radiate
-from six to a dozen avenues and boulevards. These streets divide into
-others which reach forward to other squares, and are intersected at
-every conceivable angle by cross-streets. The object of this plan was
-to place artillery in the square and thus command the streets and
-boulevards against the revolutionists, who have always been doing or
-about to do something in Paris. The houses, five or six stories high,
-are built right up from the sidewalk, and have inner courts. Usually
-there are stores or shops in the downstairs rooms facing the street
-and living-rooms back and above. And speaking of stores, most of them
-are about ten by twelve feet, one-half display window. The interior
-is lined with mirrors which make the room look large and two or three
-customers like a crowd. The French use mirrors every chance—there are
-three beautiful mirrors in our small bedroom. The shops are generally
-decorated with flowers, pictures and statuary and a sign “English
-spoken,” the latter being usually a delusion and a snare. Instead of
-naming a street or avenue and then sticking to it, the names of the
-streets frequently change. The boulevard our hotel is on begins as
-the Madeleine, runs two blocks and then becomes the Capoucins, two
-blocks more and it is the Italiens. We are on the Capoucins part,
-and besides the Boulevard des Capoucins, there is street “Rue des
-Capoucins,” and a square “Place des Capoucins,” each in a different
-section. The necessity of a stranger in Paris keeping sober is very
-apparent. The streets, squares and public buildings are adorned
-with frequent statues—good ones. Almost any way you turn there is
-something beautiful to look at. The French are artists and lovers of
-art. If there were such a thing as a Kansas joint in Paris it would be
-decorated like an art gallery. But the joints in Paris are open and run
-twenty-four hours a day, seven days in the week, and the police never
-interfere with anything that goes on except in case of a disturbance of
-the peace or abuse of the government.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The French like Americans and don’t like the English or the Germans.
-But that does not mean they refuse anybody’s money. In our country when
-a man gets a comfortable income he grows gray-haired and wrinkled
-trying to make more. A Frenchman spoke to me of this trait, and said
-that when one of his countrymen reached the point where he could live
-nicely on what he had accumulated or the salary he was receiving, he
-quit worrying and took to the cafés and boulevards to enjoy life.
-Perhaps the French way is the best, at least the French look happier
-over mighty little than we do over much more. They go in for “pleasure”
-and they enjoy it as do no other people I have seen.
-
-
-
-
-PARIS AND PARISIANS.
-
-
- PARIS, June 20, 1905.
-
-Almost the first thing we did after we reached Paris was to go to
-the Place de la Concorde, where the guillotine did its bloody work
-during the French Revolution. It is now a beautiful square adorned
-with statues, and is the center of the pleasure-ground of Paris. After
-tightly shutting our eyes so as to avoid seeing the gay Parisians
-passing by, we recalled the terrible scenes which took place a little
-more than a hundred years ago. Here Louis XVI., the unfortunate
-king, paid the penalty for the crimes of his family and class. Here
-Marie Antoinette was executed, and scores and hundreds of the French
-nobility. Poor Marie Antoinette, who always did and said the wrong
-thing, has been the recipient of the sympathy of the world. But in
-addition to the sorrow for her I have never been able to get over my
-sympathy for the thousands of women who marched to Versailles and
-when the king and queen appeared to quiet them, cried, “Give us bread
-for our children!” For France at that time was suffering as no other
-nation has suffered from physical oppression and poverty resulting
-from misgovernment and utter disregard of the lives and property of
-the people. In order to carry on wars and build monuments and palaces
-and indulge in personal dissipation and pleasure, the rulers of France
-had sucked the life of the nation like the juice from an orange. The
-French still make a great fuss over Louis XIV., “The grand monarch,”
-who made France the leading nation of Europe. But it was the logical
-outcome of his methods and grinding government that resulted in
-the degradation of the people, their poverty and distress, and the
-revolution which sent his great grandson to the block.
-
-After the French Jacobins executed their king and queen they began
-to fall out and “revolute” against each other, and so nearly all the
-leaders of the revolution went to the guillotine and got it where Louis
-and Antoinette did—in the neck. In a little more than two years over
-2,800 persons perished here by the guillotine, and the place is very
-appropriately called “de la Concorde.” Around the square are statues
-representing eight of the cities of France, the one for Strassburg
-still there, but draped in black and with emblems of mourning for the
-city and province taken from France by Germany at the end of the last
-war. Every Frenchman has in his heart the intent to lick the Germans
-and recover Alsace.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I will not attempt to describe in detail the great palaces of the
-Tuileries and the magnificent gardens, the Louvre with its acres of
-paintings and statuary, most of which I did not see because it was
-like eating pie—there is a limit. These are historic grounds, for
-back and forth among statues of peace and beautiful works of art
-the French people have fought each other time and again, sometimes
-destroying but always rebuilding. From Place de la Concorde extends the
-Champs-Elysées (pronounced Shame-on-Lizzy, as near as I can get it).
-This is a great avenue 400 yards wide and over a mile long, consisting
-of parallel boulevards running through trees and flowers, playgrounds
-and palaces here and there, and at all times of the day and night
-filled with people and carriages.
-
-The Champs-Elysées and the Bois de Boulogne, a park of over 2,000 acres
-in which it terminates, are the fashionable drives of Paris. It cost
-only 40 cents an hour for Mrs. Morgan and I to drive with the Parisian
-élite, and we took advantage of the opportunity to see Paris society.
-The carriages in the early evening extend in procession over miles of
-boulevard, and are often six or eight abreast. The drives wind around
-through woods, by good-sized lakes, along sides of cascades, and the
-carriages are filled with the swellest lot of gowns and cutest little
-dogs I have ever seen. Nearly every woman has a dog on her string
-as well as a man. In all of this style there is a general lack of
-formality which is appropriate to the scenery. It is not an uncommon
-sight to see the ladies and gentlemen with their arms around each
-other. It isn’t so bad when you get used to it, and the fashion is
-considered strictly proper in France. I am no longer shocked when I
-see a young man just ahead of me in the street put his arm around his
-girl, and in the street cars and automobiles the sight is a frequent
-one and never attracts comment or disapproval. At first Mrs. Morgan and
-I nudged each other at such things, but in less than a week’s time the
-novelty has disappeared.
-
-I like the Champs-Elysées, for it looks a good deal as First avenue in
-Hutchinson would if it were about ten times as wide and the city kept
-up the parking.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-And that leads me to repeat an observation which I have made before. It
-takes a strong government to do big things. You couldn’t get the people
-in America to put up money to construct palaces, widen boulevards, set
-up statues in all directions and devote the main part of the city to
-trees, flowers, walks and drives, playgrounds and art galleries. But
-whether the government of France has been a monarchy or a republic
-has made no difference in the fact that it exercised nearly absolute
-power over such things. The government appoints the officials in all
-cities and provinces and the government has the army. We talk about
-“government ownership” as if it were something new. The government
-of France has been in business more than a century. For example, the
-government has the monopoly of the tobacco business—manufactures and
-sells all the tobacco used in France, charges what it pleases and
-puts out mighty poor stuff. The government has owned the Sèvres china
-decorating factory for over a century, and the Gobelin tapestry, and I
-don’t know how many more such things. Lack of knowledge of the language
-has kept me from finding out all on these subjects I am going to before
-I get home, but it seems to me that whenever the French government
-sees some exceptionally profitable business, it just takes hold of
-the proposition and passes a law forbidding anyone else competing.
-The French are used to this sort of thing and accept it as the
-inevitable. I wonder if Americans would stand for it and for all the
-petty regulations that go with it. An army of workingmen is required
-to maintain all these parks, palaces, art galleries, opera-houses and
-government institutions, and I suspect the number is never reduced. A
-friend was telling how in a short ride on a government railroad his
-ticket was examined by five conductors. We reached the conclusion that
-this work, which in America would have been done by one man, was strung
-out for the good political reason—more jobs. Of course nothing like
-that would happen in America.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The workingmen still wear the long blouse outside the trousers, which
-looks like a heavy night-shirt and reaches below the knees. At the
-time of the great revolution the workingmen were so poor that they
-could not afford to wear trousers and the long blouses were all that
-covered them. Hence came the nickname “sanscullottes,” meaning “without
-breeches,” and as all who have read the story of the revolution or
-Victor Hugo’s books will remember, the Sansculottes, the men without
-breeches, made up the mob which upset the throne and established the
-republic.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The French still worship Napoleon. They have forgiven the sacrifice of
-blood and treasure which he forced from them, and remember the glory
-and the greatness of the empire. And in spite of the fact that Napoleon
-III. quit the emperor business under a cloud, having been removed
-from office after his surrender to the Germans in 1870, he is well
-thought of, for during his reign France and Paris prospered and times
-were good. There is a large party in France that favors the return of
-the present representative of the Napoleon family, Prince Victor, to
-the throne. We went to the Church of Madeleine, the most beautiful and
-fashionable church in Paris, and over the altar is a beautiful painting
-of Napoleon receiving the crown from the pope, with Christ in the
-background of the picture. That is just like the French.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I made an effort to get into the meeting of the Chamber of Deputies,
-the French congress, but failed. You have to have a ticket of
-admission, and it must be applied for several days in advance. They
-tell me the session is a good deal like an old-time Kansas Populist
-convention, where everybody said what he wanted to and then everybody
-was of the same opinion still. The meeting often gets so tumultuous
-that the president of the body adjourns it. Such an assembly must be
-guarded by careful and tactful leadership or it will end in a row. I
-can’t understand French politics. There are really no parties such as
-we have. A large majority favor the republic. The minority is composed
-of Clericals, Bonapartists, Radicals, and Socialists. The government
-party is divided into factions, and the issues are personal rather
-than on economic questions. The minority is of course divided, and the
-result is that the government wins somehow or other nearly every time.
-If it should lose, a new cabinet would be formed; but that would be
-taken from the same party as the old, and would be merely a different
-lot of statesmen. The French republic is all right so long as there is
-no serious trouble, but a Dreyfus incident, or a war, or hard times
-might overturn the government, and nobody knows whether the monarchists
-might not get on top again. The church is opposed to the policy of
-the republic, which has been to decrease the power of the church,
-cut off the parochial schools, and take education out of the hands
-of the religious bodies. The men in France are not very religious,
-leaving that part of life to the women and children. But a large and
-respectable party is in opposition to the government on account of the
-way it has confiscated church property and driven out the religious
-orders.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-There are only a few electric lines in Paris, and they are not in the
-main part of the city. The people use carriages a great deal, for they
-are so cheap; and also omnibuses. The usual means of traveling in the
-city, aside from the cab, is the omnibus, which is double-decked,
-carrying as many people on top as inside. This seems a trifle slow to
-Americans, but it works all right in Paris. The ’buses make regular
-processions up and down the principal streets, and as they are nearly
-always filled inside and outside, they add immensely to the Parisian
-picture. There is an underground railroad and there are dummy lines
-in the suburbs, but I think the people of Paris like to travel where
-they can see and be seen. The cabs are victorias. Automobiles are
-everywhere, and if you go to Paris to live and want to cut any ice you
-must get one.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I saw a little scene which seemed to show up Parisian character. A cab
-collided slightly with another. Immediately both drivers were off their
-vehicles, gesticulating and talking about 300 words a minute. As they
-shook their fists and grew red in the face with the words that came so
-fast they interfered with each other, I thought somebody would surely
-be killed. Nobody noticed them. No one paid any attention. And finally
-the two exhausted men climbed back to their places and drove on. I
-know they used French words to each other that in America would have
-ensured a police court trial for disturbance of the peace. A French
-friend to whom I mentioned the matter said it was the invariable way,
-and he thought the French method of taking out their wrath in words was
-better than the American way of fighting it out. Perhaps he was right,
-but as I afterward saw the scene repeated in different forms it always
-occurred to me that it was childish. And that reminds me to say that
-the Frenchman is in the habit of playing with his children, taking part
-in their games as excitedly as they do.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The French people are industrious and they save their money. France
-is really a rich nation. Most of the money is made in what seem small
-ways to Americans. The French are what we call “thrifty.” No matter
-how little they earn they save something, and the whole family
-works,—men, women and children. When their day’s labor is ended the
-whole family goes out for a good time—cheap, or within their means.
-Their natural temperaments and the beautiful surroundings make it easy
-for them to do this, and it is very seldom a Frenchman leaves his
-native land. He doesn’t travel much, but he believes in other people
-traveling and coming to France to spend their money. He is willing to
-help in the good work of separating foreigners from their cash, but he
-is gentlemanly about it. I like the French people even though I can’t
-understand some of the ways their minds work.
-
-
-
-
-RURAL FRANCE.
-
-
- MARSEILLES, FRANCE, June 23, 1905.
-
-Rural France is a picture. Seen from a car-window it is a succession of
-fields and villages, at this time of year a continuous combination of
-greens and white. French farms are small. I suppose twenty or thirty
-acres is a big place, and many are much less than that. But the land
-is fertilized, drained, irrigated and worked to the limit. The people
-live in villages and not much on their own farms. Each village has a
-common pasture. During the day the farmers go out onto their little
-places and in the evening they return to town to spend the hours with
-their neighbors and friends. The houses are all white stone with red
-tiled roofs and the villages are numerous, one every two or three miles
-in every direction. A farm of twenty acres is divided into strips
-for various crops, so that the landscape is striped with the fields
-of wheat, alfalfa, potatoes and grass, which seem to be the popular
-products. Cattle are not so numerous, but sheep are plentiful, goats
-abound and hogs (always white that I have seen) are on every place.
-A strip of land a hundred yards wide in wheat will run across the
-twenty acres, and the next strip will be some other crop, making the
-hues of green vary. The most extensive crop besides grass is grapes,
-and hillsides which in our country would be considered too steep and
-too stony for cultivation are covered with vines. Nature is like the
-French, artistic when she has a chance, and the combination produces a
-beautiful effect. Coming from Paris to Marseilles through the valleys
-of the Seine and the Rhone, it was 500 miles of continuous agriculture
-and pretty towns. Do you wonder it looks like a picture, with the
-villages of white houses and red tops, the fields and hills of green,
-and the rivers like ribbons running here and there?
-
-France is ahead of England and Ireland in this point: Nearly every
-French farmer owns his own place, even if it is small. In Great Britain
-the big landlords own the land and rent it to tenants. In France the
-farmers, or peasants, as they are called, are landlords of their own if
-it is small. The French nobility lost their possessions and they were
-bought up by the people. A French farmer does not have the opportunity
-to make himself a large land proprietor. He can work all his days and
-only hope to accumulate a little place and enough to take care of him
-in his last days. But he is able to do that, and it has been almost
-impossible to do so in Great Britain.
-
-The farms are separated from one another by high stone walls. In
-driving along the highway these walls shut off the view of the fields
-and you have to get up above the walls to see the picture. The stone
-walls are the evidence that the place is the exclusive property of
-the owner. The grass field is inclosed by these high fences, and the
-gates are locked at night as if they were afraid somebody would steal
-the land. It looks strange indeed to a tourist from the land of
-quarter-sections and barb wires.
-
-Every Frenchman has to serve in the army three years. This is not
-militia service, but regular soldiery. It takes three of the best
-years out of a young man’s life. Of course it gives some compensation
-in the way of discipline, and in continental Europe every nation has
-to keep its pockets full of rocks and its people ready for war with
-the neighbors. A republic cannot neglect this matter any more than a
-monarchy, and France loses a great deal by the withdrawal of its young
-men from the producing class during a time when they could be very
-useful.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In the fields men and women work side by side. The women of France have
-plenty of rights. They can plow or rake hay all day long, and then they
-can indulge in the recreation of housework in the evening. This is
-harvest-time, and on nearly every farm I saw the whole family at work,
-not with reapers and mowers, but with good sickles and hand-rakes.
-The women seem to age earlier than in America, but this fact is true
-wherever I have been outside of the United States.
-
-That reminds me of a mistaken notion I had before coming here. I
-thought the women of the United States were more active in a business
-way than the women of other countries, and had progressed in taking
-hold of what is generally called “men’s work” more than the women of
-Europe. That is a mistake. Proportionately women have more to do with
-business in England and France than they do in America. Nearly all
-the hotels in Great Britain are managed by women. Shops, stores and
-offices are filled with women. The fact is, the combined labor of
-husband and wife is necessary among “the great plain people,” to get
-enough to support the family, and in Ireland, England and France this
-is taken as a matter of course. Especially in France do I find women
-managing business, and doing so with the skill and success which shows
-that it is neither a new thing nor a side occupation. In America it is
-generally accepted that a man who can do so will take the brunt of the
-work and a woman will find her time fully occupied with housekeeping.
-And there is also a widespread practice of raising the girls to sit in
-the parlor while their mother washes the dishes. That is not the way
-they do in France. A young woman is brought up to expect what she will
-get—a young man whom she will have to help, or they will go hungry.
-There are not many chances for a young man to get ahead fast. He has
-no reason to believe that he will be better fixed than his father or
-than his grandfather. In fact, in France a boy usually follows the
-occupation of his father, so that a family for generations will be
-farmers, shoemakers, shopkeepers, etc. In America a farmer usually
-wants his son to study law, while a lawyer hopes his son will be a
-business man, and a merchant sees the advantage of rural life. Our
-people change around from generation to generation, and I doubt on that
-account if we make as good workmen as the French do, who are brought up
-in their occupation. Of course our people would be discontented with
-the French way, but the Frenchmen seem to be satisfied and they get
-a good many compensating advantages to offset the opportunities which
-young Americans have, but of which young Frenchmen never dream.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-There are some disadvantages under which these Europeans labor which
-they should remove. They never get any pie. Here in a land where the
-cherries grow big and red and juicy, a Frenchman will grow to manhood
-and old age without knowing the taste of cherry pie. It is a great
-misfortune. Since landing in Europe I have never seen a piece of pie
-of any description, from Queenstown to Marseilles. They have “tarts”
-and “sweetmeats,” but these can’t approach pie any more than Cow creek
-can be compared to the Mississippi river. Even in the best hotels and
-restaurants of London there is no sign of pie on the bill of fare,
-and the French cooks, who can make old hash taste like choice bits of
-fresh meat or better, have not learned the science of constructing
-pie, mince, apple, pumpkin, cherry or any kind of pie. I do not know
-how they do it, but the railroad restaurants are run without pie. Even
-the crowned heads go through life without knowing the taste of pumpkin
-pie, and one of my ideas of royalty in my early days was that a king or
-prince could have custard pie with flaky brown crust three times a day.
-No wonder the rulers of Europe are afraid of revolution. If they would
-see that their subjects had square meals and pie at least for dinner,
-the heads that wear the crowns need not be so uneasy.
-
-And the Europeans are trying to live without hot cakes for breakfast. I
-suppose there is not a man or woman in Europe who would recognize by
-experience the rich and regal buckwheat cake, or the corn cake, or the
-pancake. I can’t understand why the reformers in this country do not
-get to the point, and see that the people have flapjacks for breakfast
-as well as pie for dinner, and then let the disbanding of the armies
-proceed.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Every American citizen who is sane and patriotic believes that he is
-a fisherman, and tries to prove it whenever he gets near a creek or
-river. Whether he actually catches any fish or not, he “goes fishing.”
-I was somewhat worked up in Ireland and England because the streams
-were nearly all private property and the ordinary citizen had no chance
-to fish any more than he did to attend the wedding of the prince. I was
-glad to know that it is different in France. Last Sunday in Paris we
-walked along the banks of the Seine as it runs through the city between
-the stone walls and under the stone bridges. The stream was lined with
-fishermen. One of the privileges the citizens of Paris enjoy is to fish
-in the Seine, and I was told that there were at least 10,000 Frenchmen
-watching the corks on the river that afternoon. I waited for a long
-time to see them catch a French fish. Occasionally one of the men or
-women would pull up a line, but the bait was never missing. Finally I
-asked a friend who has been in Paris some time if anybody ever caught
-a fish. He said he had never really heard of anyone but there was a
-tradition that along about the time of Napoleon III. somebody did
-catch a fish in the Seine. He doubted the story, but said I could
-believe it if I wanted to. And yet there are theologians and doctors
-of divinity who say the French people are losing in faith, when these
-thousands were demonstrating to the contrary and were heartily enjoying
-the privilege the government gives and for which the Parisians would
-doubtless fight, the right to fish in the river.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-This city of Marseilles, in which we are spending a couple of days, is
-the principal seaport of France. It was established by the Phœnicians,
-and was an important town when Julius Cæsar was setting up the
-primaries in Rome. It is the port from which France does business with
-southern Europe, Africa, Asia, and even America. Consequently the
-harbor is full of all kinds of shipping, the streets are crowded with
-Arabs, Greeks, Spaniards, Turks, Italians, and representatives of all
-nations which use the sea, and the town has the largest collection of
-odors and smells that I have met. As a strange fact I will add that
-Marseilles is the first large city I have visited in Europe with a good
-up-to-date electric railway system. Americans do not come here very
-much. So far as I know, Mrs. Morgan and I are the only Americans in the
-city, and there is not a soul at our hotel who can speak English. So
-you see we are running up against a little real foreign experience.
-
-
-
-
-ITALY.
-
-
-
-
-GETTING INTO ITALY.
-
-
- ROME, June 27, 1905.
-
-One can hardly realize until he has had some experience how quick
-and how decided is the transition from one country to another, and
-especially the change in language. At 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon we
-were in France, everybody around us and on the train talking French.
-At 6 o’clock we were in Italy: everybody was talking Italian, and the
-French language had disappeared as quickly as did the English when
-we landed at Calais. You know when you are going from one country to
-the next, also, because the custom-house is on the line and you have
-to haul out all your dirty clothes and souvenirs for the officials to
-examine to see if you are a smuggler. Let me tell how we came into
-Italy.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-We boarded the train on the French railroad at Monte Carlo and had
-an hour’s ride to the frontier. By this time I had picked up enough
-French so I could get along reasonably well with the help of the
-sign language and a little money. But neither of us knew a word of
-Italian, and there was no one with us that day who could talk English.
-At Vintimille, where we crossed the line, we had to change trains,
-have our tickets signed and our baggage examined in forty minutes.
-With a full realization that nobody could understand me and I could
-understand no one, I tackled the job, putting my trust in Providence
-and a pocketful of small Italian coins which I had secured at Monte
-Carlo. When the train stopped in the Vintimille station a porter came
-alongside and according to the custom of the country I handed the four
-“bags” which constitute our baggage to him through the car-window. Then
-we got out and I told him in English what I wanted. He reeled off a lot
-of Italian and two or three bystanders chipped in, and a hotel runner
-attempted to capture us. But I took out my through ticket, pointed
-to it, jingled the coins in my pocket, and the porter understood. Of
-course I did not know at first whether he did or not, but we followed
-him and he led us into the custom-house and put our grips on a big
-table. Up came an inspector and jabbered Italian and I jabbered back
-in English. We both laughed, and of course neither understood what the
-other wanted. He asked me several questions, to all of which I said,
-“Can’t understand,” and then he gave me a final grin and said, “Tobac?”
-To that I said “No,” and shook my head. Without looking into the grips
-at all he chalked something on them which I suppose corresponds to our
-“O. K.,” threw up his hands and said something to the porter which made
-him and the surrounding onlookers burst forth in a loud guffaw. I felt
-as I suppose a poor Dago does when he strikes America. I again showed
-my ticket to the porter and pointed to the place where it must be
-signed. He puzzled over that a while and then took it and went away for
-a few minutes and came back with the work properly done. Then he took
-us to the Italian train the other side of the station, put our bags in
-the racks and we hoped we were on the right train—we were. I gave that
-porter a lot of Italian money, aggregating about 20 cents American,
-and he saluted me as if I were a duke or a saint. Mrs. Morgan says I
-spoiled him with my extravagant tip. But I felt so grateful to him that
-I didn’t care if I did make him proud with all that money at once. Let
-him swell up inside and parade the avenue all the evening and take his
-family out to dinner if he wants to. Let him take that 20 cents and
-pose as an Italian Rockefeller.
-
-Then we were in Italy and couldn’t even read the signs. It makes you
-foolish to look over the door of your car and see the words which mean
-“Smoking permitted,” or “Smoking forbidden” and not know which. We were
-the only people in the compartment, and the conductor took a great deal
-of interest in us. He tried to tell us something and I tried to tell
-him something, but when we got through neither of us had added to our
-stock of knowledge. After the train had been going for a while he came
-to us and began to make signs and chatter. He held up both hands with
-the fingers extended. Mrs. Morgan was quite sure he meant $10 fine for
-smoking in that compartment, so I threw away my cigar, but he didn’t
-stop. At last I realized that he was making the signs of a man eating
-and drinking. I guessed he meant by both hands that the train would
-stop ten minutes for lunch, or that we wouldn’t get anything to eat
-until 10 o’clock. When the train stopped at the next station it turned
-out that the first of these two was right.
-
-The road from Vintimille to Genoa is a branch, and the ticket had to
-be signed and trains changed again at Genoa, and we also wanted to get
-a sleeping-car on to Rome. We had twenty-seven minutes at the station
-in Genoa, which is bigger than the Union Depot at Kansas City. Again
-I threw the grips out of the window and followed the porter. Then I
-left Mrs. Morgan with the baggage while the porter led me a merry chase
-around the block to the office where the ticket was to be signed or
-“viséd.” It was 11 o’clock at night, and you can imagine how it felt
-to be guided around among those Italians wondering all the while if
-the porter knew what I wanted. But he did and I returned in safety,
-and then I tried to find out about the sleeping-car. In French this
-is called a “Litts-salon,” and in German a “Schlaf-wagen,” literally
-a sleep-wagon. I tried English, French and German, but finally found
-the sleeper by examining the train,—next to the engine, of course,
-just where I wasn’t expecting it. We got on board safely, and after
-distributing a lot more Italian coppers I found we had transacted the
-business and had five minutes to spare,—as good time as I could have
-made in America to do all those things. All I then had to do was to
-hand out the required sleeper fare, $7.50 to Rome, 300 miles, three
-times what Mr. Pullman would have charged. But I reserve my comments
-on European sleeping-cars until I get a little more experience for a
-letter on railroads in the Old World.
-
-And this is an old world. When I was in Boston I looked with awe upon
-the churches and monuments of 1776. In England these years seemed
-recent, and it took a cathedral or a castle of Elizabeth’s time or back
-to William the Conqueror. But here in Rome the very latest and newest
-buildings that we look at are those of the early Christians, and to get
-a real thrill they have to show me something B. C. It is really a good
-deal like living back in those times. I can’t read the newspapers and
-don’t know what has happened since I left Paris nearly a week ago. At
-that time the Russians and Japs were either going to have a conference
-or a fight, or both. Sometimes I wonder what has occurred, but
-generally I am concerning myself with what Julius Cæsar did, standing
-by the old forum and imagining Mark Antony denouncing the boss-busters,
-or wondering if Cicero’s speech against Catiline was not a political
-blunder which would make the old man trouble at the next city election.
-The only difficulty is to make the modern Italians fit in with the old
-Romans. Somehow or other it is hard to imagine the lazy gents who hold
-out their hands for coppers as real Romans who ruled the world.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The first real striking feature of Italy we noticed at Vintimille was
-the policemen. They wear handsome full-dress uniforms with red braid
-down the trousers, gilt lace and epaulets on the coats, tri-cornered
-hat with an immense plume, and carry in sight a sword and revolver.
-An Italian policeman walking his beat makes a gorgeous Knight Templar
-uniform look cheap. You never see one policeman—there are always
-two together. The police of the whole country are appointed by the
-royal government, not by local officials, and are selected from the
-army. They are good-looking fellows, and wear their tight, heavy coats
-buttoned up in front regardless of the fact that it is Italy and
-the climate is not better than Kansas the last of June. One of the
-troubles with Italy is that it is really a second-class power, but it
-tries to keep up an army and navy in rivalry with Germany, Russia,
-and France. Every Italian must put in three years in active service.
-Take a country about the size of Kansas, fill it up with an army of
-300,000 men and you see soldiers in every direction. Immense cathedrals
-and palaces filled with valuable gems and works of art, an army of
-expensive uniforms, and a poverty-stricken people,—that is Italy.
-The tourist hurries along and shuts his eyes to the distress as much
-as he can, visits the galleries and the churches, the ruins and the
-historic spots. He tries to see only the Italy of 2,000 years ago. He
-is fortunate if he can keep himself worked up in an ecstasy over the
-Cæsars and the old masters, so that the half-clothed children, the
-broken-down women and the men working without hope, do not leave an
-impression on his heart. I can’t shut my eyes tight enough to avoid
-seeing those things and sympathizing with the poor Italian people who
-have no show.
-
-But here we are in Italy, not the Italy of to-day, but the Italy of
-Cæsar and Cicero, Nero and Constantine, the Italy where Paul and
-Peter planted the Christian religion and where they died the death
-of martyrs; the Italy of temples and colosseums, cathedrals and
-catacombs,—the Italy we read about, if you please, and not the Italy
-now on the map.
-
-
-
-
-ROME AND ROMANS.
-
-
- ROME, June 29, 1905.
-
-There is so much in the point of view. Here are things which I have
-studied about, read about, wondered about. Some of them on close
-inspection are impressive yet. Others are commonplace. And there are
-even some which are ridiculous. On approaching Rome I had tried to take
-an inventory of the things I most wanted to see first: The Forum, St.
-Peter’s, the Appian Way, the Coliseum, the Sistine Chapel, the Tarpeian
-Rock, the Vatican, and the list was as long as I could set down. But
-really the words that kept haunting me and which were always in my mind
-were “the yellow Tiber.” Like every other school-boy of my time, I had
-learned and recited “Horatius at the Bridge,” and I wanted to see the
-raging torrent which saved Rome when Horatius held back the foe until
-the Romans had cut down the only bridge. I kept saying to myself:
-
- “Then up spake brave Horatius,
- The captain of the gate:
- ‘To every man upon this earth
- Death cometh soon or late;
- And how can man die better
- Than when facing fearful odds,
- For the ashes of his fathers
- And the temples of his gods?’”
-
-[Illustration: THE ITALIAN NOBLEMAN OF THE STAGE, AND THE REAL THING]
-
-Accordingly the first observation I made in Rome was of the Tiber. It
-is yellow, all right, and about as wide as the Cottonwood river.
-It seemed impossible to associate that stream with the Tiber of
-which historians had told and poets sung. But it was the Tiber, all
-right—from another view-point.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Now with St. Peter’s it was different. I have seen some right nice
-churches in America, but of course they do not come up to European
-cathedrals. St. Paul’s in London was disappointing, and Notre Dame
-in Paris was not up to the advance advertising. But when it comes
-to impressiveness St. Peter’s at Rome is to my mind the greatest
-imaginable. It is so big and yet so proportioned, so grand and yet so
-substantial, so full of precious memories of martyrs and divines and
-so tastefully and magnificently decorated with pictures that tell the
-story of the faith it stands for. All the people in Hutchinson could
-worship in one side of St. Peter’s, and yet there is none of that
-barny, barracksy look which usually goes with great size and capacity.
-The length is 232 yards, the transept is 150 yards and the height of
-the nave 151 feet, the dome is 435 feet to the cross. But figures don’t
-tell anything about St. Peter’s. The interior is tapestry and painting,
-gold without tinsel, pictures without tawdry effect, and columns that
-add and do not detract from the dignity of the structure. Under the
-great dome is the tomb of Peter, the disciple who made so much trouble,
-but knowing his energy and power, whom Christ made the rock upon which
-the church was to be built.
-
-Next door to St. Peter’s is the Vatican, where the pope resides, and
-the first thing we saw there was the Sistine Chapel. Here is where my
-view-point differs from most people. I concede that the paintings in
-the Sistine Chapel are beautiful, especially in their design and their
-color. The old masters who did the work under the direction of Michael
-Angelo have never been equaled in their ability to make rich color.
-But I contend that the subject of a picture should count as well as
-the drawing and the color. When Michael Angelo attempted to paint God
-Almighty he couldn’t do it. The color is all right and the proportions
-are perfect, but all that Michael Angelo did was to paint a man a
-little larger than Adam, and that does not come up to my ideal of the
-Divine. The fact is that neither Michael Angelo nor anyone else can put
-onto canvas such a subject, and therefore Michael should not have tried
-it. His fault was in his judgment of what can be painted. The entire
-effect of the remainder of the beautiful ceilings and walls with their
-paintings of scenes from Old and New Testament, was spoiled for me when
-I couldn’t get away from that central figure, that failure of ability
-to do the impossible.
-
-I would like to have the support of the women-folks in my theory in
-regard to the failure of the Sistine Chapel, so I will add that in the
-picture where Michael paints the devil, he makes the devil half snake
-and the upper half a woman. If I remember correctly, the great painter
-was an old bachelor,—probably not one of his own motion.
-
-The paintings mix up the pagan with the Christian. “The Last Judgment”
-has Christ the central figure as judge, surrounded by apostles and
-saints, and the hell part of the painting is according to Dante, with
-the old Roman idea of the boatman Charon ferrying the lost across the
-river. In this picture Michael Angelo made a hit. He put the face of
-an enemy of his, an officer of the pope, on the painting of Minos, one
-of the leading devils of hell. The offending official had objected to
-some of the artist’s work on account of the nudity of the figures, and
-Michael has sent him down the ages as the face of a devil.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-But there is no call for me to describe paintings and statuary and
-cathedrals. A hasty sketch like this is not giving them fair treatment.
-You can’t go anywhere in Rome without running into something beautiful
-or something historic. Go down a street and there will be the baths
-of Diocletian, turn around and there will be the Forum, and next is
-the Coliseum, the Arch of Constantine, Trajan’s forum and column, the
-Palace of Tiberius, the Stadium, and so on until you can’t rest with
-the long list of things you saw and ought to remember, and some that
-you ought to have seen but didn’t because you were just too tired to
-look around. The Forum, the Coliseum and all this kind of things look
-just like the pictures, and they are there,—that’s all I can say about
-them, although the feeling of actually having seen and touched is one
-of a great deal of satisfaction and worth going to Rome to have.
-
-I don’t know how many churches there are in Rome. There are eighty
-dedicated to the Virgin and fully as many to St. Peter. They are
-filled with great paintings and statuary. Rome is the center of the
-greatest Christian church, and for centuries the civilized world, or
-a large part of it, has sent its gifts to the temples and shrines.
-Thousands and tens of thousands of young men are studying here for the
-priesthood. The streets are filled with their black gowns and hats.
-Here and there along the streets and roads are shrines erected to
-patron saints. All the churches are open seven days in the week, and
-there are always people in them at their devotions.
-
-As a contrast to the power and greatness of the present church we went
-to see the catacombs, the burrows in the earth to which the Christians
-of the early centuries fled for safety, and in which they buried their
-dead. The catacombs of St. Calixtus, which we visited are said to
-contain twelve miles of underground passages. Along the sides and in
-the occasional niches and chapels are the places where the bodies were
-put. The passages go down thirty to forty feet and the catacombs are
-from four to six stories downward, just as a building is that much
-above ground. In these places the early Christians kept alive their
-faith under the terrible persecution of the emperors. Amid the tombs
-they met and worshipped in spite of imperial decree and certain death
-if captured. Rude pictures and inscriptions on the walls tell part
-of the story which has made the world wonder ever since as the Roman
-government did then, at the power of the faith for which men and women
-would so live and so die.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Coming out of the catacombs we drove along the Appian Way, the great
-military road constructed over 300 years B. C. I had expected to have a
-good thrill of enthusiasm over the Appian Way, but somehow it did not
-come. The Appian Way is an ordinary good country road lined with old
-houses, wine gardens, ruins and high fences. There are still a number
-of villas and palaces, but the owners are poor and the basements are
-usually rented out for stables and the upper apartments for tenements.
-Italian noblemen are generally poor, and if they have palaces are
-obliged to rent rooms and keep boarders.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Another cherished hope of mine is gone. I had read about the beautiful
-Italian peasant girls and have seen them on the stage singing in opera
-and dressed in fetching short skirts and bright-colored bodices.
-Italian girls work in the fields with the boys and then help their
-mothers with the children, and most of them look tired and sickly. The
-fetching skirts hang like loose wall-paper and the “bright bodice”
-looks as if the girl was wearing her mother’s old corset outside her
-clothes.
-
-The largest and most numerous ruins in Rome are those of the public
-baths erected by the state and by the emperors. The Romans in those
-days were sporty, banqueted all night and bathed all next day to get
-over the effects. But there are no public baths now—at least none of
-consequence. And judging by the ordinary senses of sight and smell,
-bathing has become one of the lost arts with a large number of the
-Romans of to-day.
-
-
-
-
-VENICE, THE BEAUTIFUL.
-
-
- VENICE, July 3, 1905.
-
-I suppose everybody knows about Venice, the city built in the
-water. During the sixth century the “barbarians” from the north
-were overrunning Italy, killing or making slaves of the people and
-destroying the cities and towns. A number of the inhabitants of
-northeast Italy fled for safety to a group of small islands in the
-shallow bay of the Adriatic sea, and there built up little villages
-which were united in a republic and became the city and suburbs which
-we call Venice. They naturally were a seafaring and trading people,
-and Venice was the port of commerce between the Orient and Europe.
-The Crusades stimulated business, and Venice was the most important
-trading-point on the Mediterranean. At that time there was no Suez
-canal and no knowledge of an ocean route to Asia, and all commerce
-passed through Venice. The little republic grew strong and powerful,
-captured and retained possessions in Italy and the islands of the
-Mediterranean. Venice was one of the powers of Europe about the
-fifteenth century, and thought she had the world by the tail. But the
-Turks captured Constantinople, other routes to Asia were discovered
-about the time Columbus reached America, and Venice as a great
-political power and business center suffered a collapse. In other
-words, the boom in Venice busted and Venice has never done much on her
-own account since. The first few hundred years the government was that
-of a republic, but about the close of the thirteenth century the nobles
-who had won leadership through trade and war declared their offices
-hereditary, and thereafter Venice was an aristocracy with a president
-called “the doge.” During the French Revolution the French captured
-Venice, and then Austria got it, and finally, in 1868, it was united
-with the kingdom of Italy, where it belongs.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Built on islands, crossed by canals like streets in other cities,
-without a carriage or a horse, Venice is a strange, and to me, an
-attractive place. The railroad runs out on a long trestle bridge. It
-is hardly appropriate to say “landed” in a place like Venice, but we
-arrived here at ten o’clock at night. The porter for the hotel to which
-we were going took us through the station and put us into a gondola,
-and away we went, down back streets and under bridges, with no light
-except a few corner lamps and the stars. The Venetian gondoliers may be
-poetical, but their looks do not invite the confidence of the traveler
-when he intrusts himself to their hands for the first time and late at
-night. Little chills creep up and down your back as you see the gondola
-going straight for a corner—sure to hit it, but accidentally doesn’t.
-After you get acquainted with the ways of the city you learn to trust
-the gondolier, but the first time, late at night, you have your doubts.
-You may forget just how you arrived in other cities, but not in Venice.
-
-The Grand canal, the main street in Venice, is about seventy-five
-yards wide and averages sixteen feet deep. The paving question does
-not bother the city council in Venice. Most of their canal streets
-are only twelve to thirty feet in width. There are also a few real
-streets four to ten feet wide, on the inside of the blocks formed by
-the canals, and the total result is a labyrinth of alleys and canals
-which are impossible for a stranger to get head or tail of. Along the
-Grand canal and many others the fine houses of the old prosperous
-times loom up straight from the water six or seven stories. For
-example, the front of our hotel, on the Grand canal, has absolutely
-no sidewalk, only marble steps leading to the water, up which the
-tide rises about two and a half feet twice a day. The architecture of
-Venice is Oriental, and is refreshing after the Roman and Greek styles
-everywhere else in Italy. The churches and public buildings, mostly
-constructed between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, have round
-Moorish towers and are decorated with gold and colors and have very
-ornate pillars and façades. That makes Venice a beautiful city, and
-so it is,—if you don’t go into the little back alleys where you see
-the undecorated side. Of the 125,000 people one-fourth have no means
-of support except charity. In the last few years Venice has revived
-the glass industry and has developed the lace-making, and times are
-better than they were. But just think of a people where one-fourth have
-no chance to earn their living! We visited one of the big lace-making
-suburbs on the island of Burano. The lace, which Mrs. Morgan says is
-“b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l” and over which all good women rave, is made by
-girls and women who sit all day on straight-back chairs and labor over
-the pillow,—and get about twenty-five cents a day wages. We visited
-the glass-blowers at Murano, the finest in the world, and skilled
-workmen get up to two dollars a day for a dexterity and ability which
-would easily command three or four times that amount in America. The
-people live mostly on fish and vegetables, are very poor and apparently
-very happy. They are the best-looking folks I have seen in Italy, and
-evidently enjoy the improvident life which would drive an American to
-strong drink, or if he were in Italy would drive him to drink the water.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The center of Venice is “the Piazza of St. Mark,” a square about two
-hundred yards long and nearly half as wide, paved with marble and
-inclosed by fine buildings, including the great Church of St. Mark,
-the old palace of the doge, the present royal palace, and a glittering
-array of shops. I should say there were ten thousand beautiful shops
-in Venice selling lace, glass, art works, beads, curios, pictures,
-etc. Of course there are not that many, but there seem to be. There
-is practically nothing else of importance. Venice is a good deal like
-the world’s fair grounds, all glitter and glass, Oriental towers and
-marble palaces, beautiful bridges and lagoons, and everybody trying to
-separate the stranger from his money.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Venice is a night town. In the evening the canals are filled with
-gondolas and everybody is out for a good time. Regular musical clubs
-drift along with the sweetest Italian opera rendered with real ability,
-and arias and Italian serenades and love songs until you think the
-world is nothing but lights glancing on the water, drifting gondolas,
-song and gladness. Every few minutes one of the singers will pass
-the hat and you contribute two or three cents and remember you are
-still on earth. We sit at our hotel and watch the gay crowd in the
-passing gondolas, or for a few cents get into one, lean back on the
-easy cushions, smoke a two-cent cigar, and forget all about these poor
-people with their poverty and their fleas. They have forgotten them
-themselves.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The patron saint of Venice is St. Mark. In the early days, say a
-thousand years ago and more, some doge dreamed that Venice would never
-prosper until the bones of St. Mark were brought here for burial. The
-bones happened to be in Asia or Africa, and for years the Venetians
-put in their time fighting the Turks and trying to capture the relics.
-Finally the bright idea struck them that it would be easier to steal
-St. Mark’s bones than capture them by battle, and an enterprising
-Venetian merchant did the job. The remains of St. Mark were brought to
-Venice and a beautiful cathedral with Oriental towers and rich colors
-built above them. The doge’s dream was no fake, for after that Venice
-prospered greatly. Tradition says that St. Mark used to have a winged
-lion for a companion, and accordingly the winged lion is the Venetian
-emblem. The cathedral and the public buildings are full of Oriental
-works of art captured or stolen from the Turks during the years of
-the Crusades when Venice was a stronghold of Christendom. Venetian
-painters have done St. Mark and the lion in every conceivable place,
-and wherever you go you see his kindly face, the quill pen he used in
-writing, and the playful winged lion. The only horses in the city are
-of bronze, and decorate the façade of St. Mark’s cathedral. Except for
-these rather poor imitations I suppose nine-tenths of the people of
-Venice never saw a horse. Incidentally I will add that it is a great
-advantage to live in a city where you are not awakened at daylight by
-the rumble of wagons and carts over stone-paved streets.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The government of Venice during the Middle Ages was something fierce.
-Nominally a republic, it was controlled by the nobles, who had a
-general assembly, which selected a senate of seventy-five, of which
-there was an inner council of ten and a secret tribunal of three, who
-met masked and did not know each other’s identity. If you lived in
-Venice at that time and had an enemy you wanted to do away with, you
-would drop a letter accusing him of treason into the letter-box shaped
-like a lion’s head in the counter outside the room of the council of
-three. It was a pretty sure thing that he would not be heard from
-again. Of course you would have to do this first, for your enemy might
-be dropping in a letter while you were thinking about it.
-
-We went through the rooms of the various councils down the secret
-stairway and over the “Bridge of Sighs,” which connected the palace
-with the prison across the canal street. This was the way the
-prisoners were brought for trial, and if they went back it was to
-torture and death. The jails in those times were not built for health
-or sanitary purposes, and were evidently not examined by the county
-commissioners. The dungeons are dark and damp, and the guide tells you
-some awful stories of the rack, the thumbscrew and the block. You can
-imagine the “good old days” and shudder as you think of the cruelty and
-the crime. Paraphrasing Byron, who wrote some lines on the subject:
-
- I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,
- Visions of Old from those deep dungeons rise,—
- The shrieks of pain, the terrifying cries,
- Then I reflect: Perhaps it’s mostly lies.
-
-
-
-
-SOME THINGS ON ART.
-
-
- VENICE, ITALY, July 3, 1905.
-
-Because I have not been writing much to The News on the subject of art,
-it must not be supposed that I am omitting the regular work of every
-tourist. Nor do I want it presupposed that I don’t know enough about
-art to tell the difference between a renaissance and a vermicelli. If
-industry and a desire to thoroughly do the job so it will not have to
-be done a second time will count for anything, I have been an arduous
-lover of art in all its forms since I passed the custom-house on the
-Italian border. Everybody knows that the center of art is Italy and
-that anything that isn’t old and Italian is second-class. When you
-come to Italy you expect to see the heights of the artistic and you
-are expected to have fits of ecstasy over the said heights. I have had
-’em every time the guidebook told me to. I have endeavored in every
-way to show that a plain, common citizen of Kansas knew what to do
-when brought face to face with Raphael, Titian, Michael Angelo and
-the other gentlemen since whose death the world has never really seen
-much in art. According to my pedometer I have traveled through 171
-miles of cathedrals, 56 miles of public buildings and 85 miles of art
-galleries—all in ten days. Some people may think my pedometer is too
-rapid, but I know it is too slow. You know a good bird dog learns never
-to “set” for anything but a game bird. And it is well established
-that people with a certain kind of rheumatism can tell the approaching
-changes in the weather by the twinges in their joints. And it is a fact
-that even when I do not know there is a cathedral or an art gallery
-within a hundred miles, let me approach one accidentally and my feet
-will begin to ache. Then I know what is before me and I try to do my
-duty. If the work of absorbing Italian art should prove too much for
-me, the words could be as appropriately put on my tombstone as they
-were over the early citizen of Dodge who died with a dozen bullets in
-his body and a half-dozen enemies lying on the floor:
-
- HERE LIES BILL.
- HE DONE HIS DAMDEST.
- ANGELS COULD DO
- NO MORE.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-There are three places where you always find art in Italy: First and
-foremost, the churches; second, the public buildings; third, the art
-galleries and museums. The churches come first, because the Catholic
-Church has always been the support and promoter of art. For centuries
-it was the only strong power that encouraged artists. It had the
-tasteful men of the age and it had the money. The great artists both
-in painting and sculpture would have had no opportunity and their
-works would have been destroyed if it had not been for the church. In
-return, the artists took the subjects of religion and portrayed them
-most beautifully and effectively. There is hardly a church in Italy
-which does not have paintings by some of those old painters which
-would be worth a fortune now if they were for sale. The Catholic faith
-especially appeals to the artistic sense, and the history of the church
-furnished a boundless field of subjects. Walls and ceilings of churches
-are covered with magnificent pictures, the exteriors are decorated
-with sculpture, and the architecture of the buildings is brilliant and
-effective. To see paintings, statues or architecture in Italy you first
-go to the churches, and there you see the greatest and best.
-
-After the churches the art treasures and galleries are found in the
-public buildings, and there we get what is left of the art of Greece
-and Rome, together with much of a later time. The old pagan mythology
-furnished most of the ancient art, together with a few attempts at
-transferring abstract ideas into concrete form. Of course I don’t
-want to set up as an art critic—I have trouble enough without that.
-But according to the way I was raised, a large per cent. of ancient
-sculpture isn’t fit to be exhibited to young folks—or to old men.
-Probably the times were different and fashions in art were acute, but
-the Grecian and Roman sculptors paid no attention to the rules of
-common decency as generally understood in this generation. While doing
-my duty in the art galleries I have actually blushed so much that
-it grew noticeable to the other art critics, and I fear that I lost
-standing with them. Of course I am not a regular critic, but I know a
-few things, and this is one of them.
-
-Another objection I have to the old masters is that they never
-considered any subject too big for them. I have written something of
-this when I kicked on Michael Angelo attempting to make a picture of
-God Almighty. There is too much of that kind of business in Italian
-art. And another thing is that they couldn’t paint good animals. Some
-of the pictures by the great masters have horses or lions in them, and
-I believe even the horses would laugh at their own appearance.
-
-Aside from these unimportant objections and a trifling criticism of a
-great deal of ignorance about drawing and the fitness of things, the
-“old masters,” by which is meant the great painters from about 1400 to
-1600, are certainly worthy of their reputation. Everybody I met knew
-more about art than I did—so they thought—and everyone said: “What
-wonderful color.” The old masters certainly did know how to mix paints
-so as to make the most beautiful and most lasting colors. I think
-Titian’s red-headed girls are the prettiest reds I have ever seen.
-Raphael’s paintings cannot be criticized by me—their feeling and their
-execution will make a cynical Kansan stand and admire. Michael Angelo
-I did not take to so well as I did Titian and Raphael, but he did a
-lot of work, and he, too, had the ability to make his pictures like
-life. The other great painters of Italy in these two centuries of the
-renaissance have not been equaled in any period since, and in spite of
-the fact that the experience of one generation ought to help the next,
-I do not believe that the modern Italian painters, or the Englishmen
-and Americans who go to Italy and copy, can come within several blocks
-of equaling the work of the “old masters.”
-
-There is one more objection I have to the “old masters,” and I would
-like to tell it to their faces. They had the habit of taking a great
-subject and making it a means of flattery for wealthy patrons. For
-example, a picture of Christ or the Virgin sitting and talking
-confidentially with some old scamp of a Medici. Of course I don’t blame
-the old artists. The Medici were a lot of thugs, thieves, highwaymen,
-murderers, and lovers of art. They put up handsomely for the great
-masters, and undoubtedly assisted much in promoting art at a time when
-the princes and nobility of Italy were not respectable according to our
-standard. This flattery by the old masters may have been necessary to
-make a living, but I don’t think it is Art.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I had one objection which has been overruled on the ground that it
-was simply because my apprenticeship in art had been too short. Every
-artist painted a “Madonna.” Each had a different ideal or model. Mary
-was a Jewess. But the Italian artists nearly all ran in pictures
-of Italians, and each had a different style. It makes a confusing
-aggregation. I think I have seen a thousand Madonnas, five hundred
-Magdalens, and from one to three hundred of each of the saints. There
-is a sameness of subject and a variance in execution which makes me
-a little nervous. I haven’t worked at the art business as long as I
-should, and therefore I may be too hasty in my judgment, although I
-am fairly perspiring art at every pore and the climate of Italy in the
-latter part of June and the first of July has nearly as much cause for
-perspiration as the climate of Kansas.
-
-
-
-
-AN ITALIAN FOURTH AND SO FORTH.
-
-
- MENAGIO, ITALY, July 5, 1905.
-
-At an early hour yesterday morning, July 4, we left the hotel in
-Venice in a gondola, and defiantly waving in the air was an American
-flag which I carried as proudly and as exuberantly as a ten-year-old
-boy would at a picnic in Kansas. We met several Americans at the
-station, and they waved and cheered “Old Glory.” We met all kinds
-of Italians, who looked as amused and curious as a lot of Americans
-would at an Italian carrying a green, white and red banner down the
-streets of Hutchinson. I flaunted the stars and stripes in the faces
-of the Italian policemen, and they seemed to enjoy it. Several people
-tried to find out from me what it all meant, and in spite of the fact
-that I told them in good English that this was the Fourth of July,
-the anniversary of independence, they shook their heads and did not
-“comprehendo.” The weather was very hot and very dry, the train was
-dusty, and the conditions as near ideal for a successful Fourth of July
-celebration as could be imagined. The American flag that day floated
-in the Italian breeze from Venice to Milan and then to Lake Como. The
-inability to make the Dagoes understand what I meant was embarrassing
-at times, and I longed vainly for a pack of firecrackers or a few
-good torpedoes. The conductor on the train was greatly interested. We
-talked in sign language and all the Italian I knew and all the English
-he knew, but to no effect. Finally I said the word “liberty,” and as
-the Italian word is about the same, he caught on and I could tell he
-was approving. “Vive l’America!” I cried, and he took off his hat and
-said it after me and smiled agreement to the remarks I was making on
-what the old flag meant. I gave him a big tip, 10 cents,—5 cents for
-hurrahing for America and 5 cents for listening to my speech.
-
-To-night we are out of the heat of the fertile plains of Lombardy and
-are in a delightful cool place on the shore of Lake Como, the prettiest
-and pleasantest place I have seen since we left Killarney. The last
-part of the day the flag waved over Como, Bellagio, Cernobio, Nesso,
-Colomo, Bellano, and all the other “o’s” that make the list of Italian
-towns look like the roster of an Irish Fenian society, only the o is at
-the wrong end of the names.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Speaking of “tipping” the conductor reminds me of the tipping system in
-Italy, which is a subject of the greatest importance to the traveler. I
-think I have seen only one man in Italy who did not hold out his hand,
-and that was an armless beggar at the Milan station who had a tin cup
-in which you were expected to deposit. The tipping custom is general
-in Europe, but it reaches its greatest development in Italy. Everybody
-you meet is so courteous and polite, willing to show you or tell you or
-take you, but always expecting something. You tip the conductor, the
-porter, the hotel manager, the chambermaid, the “man chambermaid,” the
-elevator boy, the waiter, the head waiter, the clerk, the interpreter,
-the attendants, the driver, the man who opens the door, the church
-janitor, the policeman, and everybody you ask a question or who is
-there to answer if you do ask, and then you tip a few more just because
-they expect it. This looks like an alarming expenditure of money.
-But as a matter of fact the total amount of tips is not more than is
-expected at a big hotel in New York. And when you tip the waiter at the
-restaurant he does not keep it, but all tips go into a common fund that
-is divided and is the wages the waiters receive in most cases.
-
-Here is a schedule of “tips,” which, after considerable study and
-comparison with that of others, I have figured as about right:
-
- Baggageman, 2 cents.
- Elevator boy, 2 cents.
- Chambermaid, 3 cents.
- Man chambermaid, 3 cents.
- Waiter, per day, 5 cents.
- Head waiter, 10 cents.
- Manager of hotel, 20 cents.
- Miscellaneous men and boys, each 1 cent.
- Railroad conductor, 5 cents.
- Policeman, 2 cents.
- Driver, 2 cents.
- Italian nobleman, 3 cents.
- Italian merchant, 2 cents.
- Clerk in store, 1 cent.
- Ordinary civility, 1 cent.
-
-I haven’t met the king or queen, but I estimate that if I did and asked
-a favor they would look like about 30 cents.
-
-The Italian money is like the French money, based on a unit which is
-equivalent to 20 cents. So when you give a man 10 cents you give him
-a half-lire or half-franc. The lire is divided into 100 centimes, and
-when you give a man 2 cents you hand him a great big copper coin with
-“ten centimes” on it. This small unit of measurement causes an American
-a peculiar sensation. For example, I had to buy a shirt in Venice and
-it was marked 5.50. That looked like a big price for a shirt, but
-reduced to American currency it was only $1.10. I bought some of the
-long Italian cigars which look like stogies and have straws down the
-center so they will draw. They were 30 centimes each—only 6 cents
-American. For a carriage and driver to go anywhere in Rome, carrying
-Mrs. Morgan and myself and a lot of baggage, it was 1.00, twenty
-American cents. When two Americans can ride a couple of miles in a
-comfortable victoria for 20 cents they don’t walk much, and they feel
-as if they were beating somebody and are perfectly willing to “tip” the
-driver an extra 2 cents. So when you are “doing” Italy and get used to
-the custom, you do not mind carrying a pound or so of copper coins and
-distributing them whenever you speak to a native.
-
-The effect of this custom on the people must be very pernicious. And
-it takes away the charm of recognizing courtesy and hospitality as a
-national trait when you remember that you pay for it and it is cheap.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I wrote from Paris that the government of France has the monopoly of
-the tobacco business. In Italy the government has the monopoly of
-tobacco and salt, the two great necessities. It looks funny to go
-along the street and see the little government shops with the sign in
-Italian, “Tobacco and Salt.” The Italian government doesn’t sell good
-tobacco or good salt. The best cigars are from the island of Luzon,
-manufactured into alleged cigars in the government factories in Italy.
-The salt is heavy and coarse, something like old-style yellow-brown
-sugar. If you don’t like the tobacco or the salt you can go without,
-for the government allows no competitor who might do better.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I have learned a little Italian, not so much but I can forget it when I
-cross the line. And that leads me to tell of a little experience with
-a moral. I had been so annoyed by the numerous beggars and vendors
-of trinkets that I asked a hotel porter who knew some English what I
-should say in Italian to tell them to go away. He told me something
-that sounded like “Muffa tora.” Accordingly I went around for a couple
-of days saying “Muffa tora” to all that bothered me. Then a friend who
-knew a little more Italian happened to hear me and suggested that my
-language was too strong. The words were about what in America is meant
-by “Go-to-hell.” And there I had been going around St. Peter’s, St.
-Paul, and all the churches and art galleries in Rome, saying to half
-the people who approached me, “Go-to-hell,” “Go-to-hell.” A little
-knowledge is a dangerous thing.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Of course Americans stop at the best hotels, and they are about the
-same everywhere, being based on the French model. They are from
-one-third to one-half cheaper than the best hotels in American cities.
-We are supposed to get three meals a day: First, rolls and coffee;
-second, about 12 o’clock, what is really a late breakfast but is called
-“dejeuner” and has three to five courses: eggs (always—generally
-omelet), macaroni, a cutlet or chop with potatoes, a roast meat,
-cheese, and fruit. No coffee or tea or anything to drink except water,
-which they say is bad and unhealthful. Dinner at 7 o’clock and a good
-meal: Soup, fish, cutlet or chop with macaroni, roast, vegetables,
-roast chicken and salad, cheese, small cakes, and fruit. No coffee
-or tea. If you want coffee after dinner you have it served in the
-lounging-room or out-of-doors, and it is extra. Nobody but Americans
-drink water, and they do not use enough to hurt. When you enter the
-hotel you are received by the “hall porter,” really the manager, who
-bows and takes you or sends you to a room. After a while he sends up
-for your name and nationality, but that is for the police. There is
-no hotel register. When you pay your bill and are leaving the porter
-rings a bell and everybody from proprietor to chambermaid appears to
-say “good-by,” speed the parting guest and receive the parting tips. At
-first your royal reception and leave-taking makes quite an impression
-and you feel “set up,” but after a while it gets to be a bore and you
-try to escape it but can’t. The cooking and service are first-class,
-better than in America. There is one kind of dishes I steer clear of,
-those labeled on the bill of fare, “a la Americaine.” They are like
-those served in Hutchinson, “a la Italia,” or “a la Français,” which
-means that they are probably spoiled by the cook trying to do something
-he does not understand.
-
-Of course in the small Italian hotels the cooking is different, but
-they tell me it is good. The restaurants where the poorer people eat
-are full of garlicky smells which can be heard for a block. The staple
-articles of food for Italians are soup, macaroni and vegetables, all
-flavored with garlic. The ordinary Italian does not eat meat. There are
-probably several reasons why, but the first one is that he has not the
-price, and that is enough. When a man is working for 30 cents a day he
-is a stranger to roast beef, for meat is as high as it is in America.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I haven’t seen a real clothing store in Italy. There are two classes
-of Italians only: The rich, who have a tailor, and the poor, who put
-the goods together themselves. Again I want to repeat what I have
-said before: The things that are cheap in Europe are those in which
-labor is the principal factor. When it comes to hiring a man to do
-work, you name your price. That is why carriage-driving, servants,
-clothes-making, the building trades and labor of every kind from
-lace-makers to railroad engineers, are so low.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The Italian shopkeepers have a well-deserved reputation as bargainers.
-Go into a shop, ask a price, and very likely the proprietor or clerk
-will say “So much: what will you give?” Americans have a reputation of
-being “easy,” and so they usually start us with a price of “6 francs,”
-when they will come down to one or two rather than lose a sale. When
-you get through you never know just how much you have been beaten—you
-only know you have been. Some stores advertise “fixed prices,” but they
-are unfixed if necessary. The process of “shopping” thus has another
-and delicious feature for the American “shopper.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I have found the Italians honest. We hardly ever lock our room. I am
-always leaving the umbrella, but somebody always finds it and brings
-it to me, and I can’t say that much for Americans. The hackmen do not
-overcharge, or at least not near as much as in Chicago or New York. I
-think a stranger is better treated in Rome than in Kansas City. But
-then comes the suspicious thought—we pay for it.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Previous to this trip I had often heard people talk about the fleas in
-Italy, and had thought it was very funny. It is no joke. At first I was
-much amused when I would see a well-dressed lady stop suddenly on the
-street, elevate her skirt and go hunting. I now consider it a perfectly
-justifiable and proper action. If there is a game law in Italy with a
-closed season on fleas it is not at this time of the year. I have seen
-the anxious, heart-stricken look on the faces of the martyrs and saints
-as painted by the old masters, and I know now where they got their
-models, for I have seen the man and the woman conscious of the march
-of the flea along the small of the back or in some other unreachable
-place, and have seen the haunted, hunted look on the face as conjecture
-what the flea would do next changed into realization. The Italian flea
-works a good deal like the American mosquito, only he makes no music
-and you can only tell where he is by sad experience. He can dodge
-better than some politicians and he can get in his work early and
-often. I am growing accustomed to the sensation myself, but I do not
-think I shall ever enjoy it. The Bible says the wicked flee when no man
-pursueth, but in Italy the wicked flea is improving each minute whether
-anyone pursueth or not. Mingled with art and old masters, lagoons, and
-gondolas, cathedrals and Cæsars, blue sky and green fields, will always
-be my recollection of the flea that never takes a siesta and to whom
-the poets have never done justice.
-
-
-
-
-SWITZERLAND.
-
-
-
-
-ACROSS THE ALPS.
-
-
- BRIEG, SWITZERLAND, July 7, 1905.
-
-“Beyond the Alps lies Italy” with all of its art and history and fleas.
-After a day on Lake Lugano and Lake Maggiore, where the two countries
-of Italy and Switzerland meet, and where the customs officers examined
-our baggage three times in the course of a trip around the water,
-we crossed the Alps, among which we had been for two days, and are
-now in the oldest republic on earth, Switzerland. We came over the
-Simplon Pass in a stage-coach and not through a tunnel, as we could
-have done. The Simplon Pass is historic and picturesque. As soon as
-the tunnel is completed, which has been seven years in building, the
-railroad train will rush through the mountains and the stage-coach will
-be an old fogy luxury. But the way to go over the Alps for pleasure
-and observation is not to take a tunnel train, but ride over on the
-outside of a coach with five horses and see the panorama as you pass
-by. After a fortnight spent among the great works of man, cathedrals,
-coliseums and galleries, one day was enough in the Simplon to prove
-that Nature is still ahead. The great amphitheatres of the mountains,
-the magnificent stage-settings of forest and peak, left the coliseum
-and the forum far behind. The changing hues of the slopes, now gradual
-and now precipitate, sometimes bare and sometimes covered with pasture
-and vineyard or forest, were in colors which even the old masters could
-not equal. It was an all-day drive over a fine road, through narrow
-gulches, alongside rushing rivers, under waterfalls of melted snow,
-finally through the snow itself, and then down, almost sliding, with
-the coach-wheels locked so they were like runners, into the quaint
-little town of Brieg.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The road over the Simplon was built by Napoleon. All over the map of
-Europe you will see such monuments to the name of the great emperor.
-I do not give Napoleon much credit for the job, as it was a military
-necessity to him. He had to keep an army in Italy and always be on the
-lookout for his enemies there, so he ordered the Simplon Pass, up to
-the time only a trail, to be provided with a macadamized road, and it
-was done. I have seen so many of such roads in Europe that I would be
-willing to support Napoleon for road overseer or street commissioner
-any time. The road was completed in 1807, and the tunnel under the Pass
-will be finished in 1906. It is sixteen miles long, large enough for a
-double track, and has been constructed from both ends at the same time.
-To my mind it is a great engineering feat to start two small holes in
-a mountain, sixteen miles apart, and figure so accurately that those
-holes will meet some place in the center over a mile from the daylight
-on top. I suppose it looks easy to the engineer who knows how, but it
-is miraculous to me. A good many lives have been lost and a lot of
-money spent on this tunnel, but those are the sacrifices the world
-demands before it will move on.
-
-The road over the Pass is forty-five miles long. Soon after starting,
-all agriculture disappeared, except vineyards and pasture. The
-vineyards continued almost up to the snow. Wherever there was enough
-ground there were vines, and in many places the mountain-side was
-terraced and in the made land the vines were growing profusely.
-Literally speaking, there are mountains of vineyards in northern Italy
-and in Switzerland.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Cattle-raising in the Alps is done in small herds and is mostly on the
-Swiss side. The stock looks smooth and fine. Along with a drove of cows
-are always a few goats. In the early summer the herdsmen drive the
-animals up the paths and trails to the little patches of rich pasture,
-where they feed until fall, neither man nor beast coming down until
-driven by the cold. I saw cattle pasturing on the mountain-side where
-it was so steep it seemed they must have feet like flies or they would
-tumble down. Of course the animals inherit the mountain knowledge, and
-I suppose they don’t know there is such a thing as a level meadow.
-Here and there men and women would be cutting grass with a scythe,
-spreading the hay out to dry, and then actually rolling it down the
-mountain-side. Like all people who live in mountainous countries, the
-Swiss herdsmen along the Simplon looked intelligent, cheerful and poor.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-And that brings me to another broken idol. I had always heard of a
-Swiss “chalet,” and had supposed it was an artistic, smart-looking
-house perched up on a peak for everybody to see. A real Swiss chalet
-is a half dugout in a valley, built of stone and whitewashed once, in
-which the family lives upstairs and the cattle spend the winter in the
-basement, never going out until the springtime comes. Now I can see
-the economy, the advantages and the necessity of a Swiss “chalet,”
-but I can’t see anything beautiful or poetic, for such qualities are
-not present. I had the same experience with an Italian “villa,” which
-I found by observation was usually a plain-appearing stone house
-built around a court, inhabited by Italians, goats and chickens, and
-principally remembered by the noisome odor.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I have done some touring in the Rocky Mountains, and I was curious
-to see what difference there would be between the Rockies and the
-Alps,—both having peaks of about the same height, and each forming the
-backbone of a continent. The Alps have more snow than the Rockies. All
-of the peaks are snow-covered and the gulches of snow run far down the
-mountain-side here in July. Only an occasional peak in Colorado has
-snow, and then only a little, not enough to call it “snow-covered.” To
-my mind the Rockies are more grandly picturesque. The sides of the Alps
-are cultivated and covered with vines, dotted with pasture and cattle
-nearly up to the timber-line. The Rockies are still as nature left
-them, more stern and desolate, awe-inspiring and effective. The Alps do
-not look like the Rockies, except in height and steepness. The foliage
-of the trees is not the same, and the Alps have a tamer appearance than
-the American range. A town in the Rockies is out of harmony with the
-scenery. A village in the Alps adds to the beauty. Perhaps I do not
-make myself clear, but there is a great difference, and I think the
-Rockies are far ahead from a mountain standpoint.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Switzerland has no language of its own. The Swiss have four distinct
-languages, and the people of one part of the country do not understand
-the other. In some of the cantons (corresponding to our states) the
-language is French, in some German, in some Italian, and in some a
-composite speech based on the Latin and called “the Romance language.”
-Remember, this is a country of about the same area (15,000 miles) as
-the Seventh Congressional district of Kansas, but also remember it
-is cut up by the mountains into natural divisions which are hard to
-overcome. I am getting used to hearing one language in one town and
-another in the next across an imaginary line. But four kinds of talk
-within a little country like Switzerland is going to be hard to contend
-with.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Right at the top of the Simplon Pass among the snows that never
-entirely melt is a “hospice,” maintained for generations by an order of
-monks and devoted to taking care of poor travelers or relieving those
-in distress or who lose their way. On every pass between Switzerland
-and Italy there is such a hospice. The monks have the great St. Bernard
-dogs (named from the St. Bernard Pass, a little distance away), and
-when the snows get deep the dogs do much of the work of rescue. I had
-heard of these great institutions since boyhood, and wondered if they
-would turn out badly when actually seen. But they are all right, and
-their good work has not been exaggerated in the thrilling stories in
-which they have figured.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-There are many very large and very picturesque waterfalls, many more
-than in the Rockies. The constantly melting snow keeps them running,
-and it is not uncommon to see the water tumbling or jumping down a
-sheer descent of two hundred to five hundred feet. I would like to
-take a few waterfalls of that kind back to Kansas and put them up
-in the sand-hills. I offered an Italian gentleman on the coach who
-spoke some English to trade him 160 acres of western Kansas land for
-a good first-class waterfall. Almost fifteen minutes after I made the
-proposition he laughed. It doesn’t do any good to be funny with people
-who don’t know your language.
-
-
-
-
-GENEVA AND CHILLON.
-
-
- GENEVA, July 9, 1905.
-
-This little city, now containing nearly 100,000 inhabitants, has been
-a storm-center in Europe for 2000 years. Cæsar mentions it, and during
-the early centuries when Rome was conquering and governing most of
-the known world, Geneva was an important place, both from a strategic
-standpoint as a gate to Helvetia and as a prosperous and loyal town.
-It was either the capital of the country or a ruling city during all
-of the Dark and Medieval ages, and was one of the first where people
-learned popular sovereignty and applied it to the detriment of the
-reigning king or duke. By playing one side against another in the
-struggle for sovereignty the popular leaders fought for freedom of
-conscience, and about the year 1500 secured practical independence.
-Then the Reformation commenced, and Calvin fled from Paris to Geneva.
-The people there were naturally “agin the government,” and they took
-up Calvin’s doctrine, and during the years of fighting over religion
-Geneva was the center from which Protestantism drew most of its
-leadership and inspiration. They fought for freedom of conscience and
-worship, and if anybody disagreed with them they killed him promptly
-to convince him of his error. Calvin ruled Geneva during his life, and
-after his death his cause went marching on. During the last century
-Geneva has made a reputation for manufacturing watches, jewelry and
-musical instruments. It is only fair to say that the best Geneva
-watches are now made in America. The work here is nearly all done by
-hand in the home of the workman, and the watchmakers of Geneva have had
-a hard time competing with Yankee machinery and ingenuity.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The surroundings of Geneva are peaceful and beautiful. The big lake of
-blue water comes to an end at the Geneva quay and rushes out into the
-world as the river Rhone, clear and sparkling. Mont Blanc, a quiet old
-stager of a mountain, whose head is always covered with snow, looks
-over the city like a stately sentinel at his post. Mountains rise all
-around the lake and are covered with vineyards, almost the only product
-of the soil, stretching far up the heights connecting the blue of the
-lake with the blue of the sky and the snowy peaks and white clouds
-which watch over them. Amid such surroundings we had decided to rest a
-few days from our travel, and I found it the best place in the world
-just to sit in the hotel garden from which the lake, Mont Blanc and the
-entire picture are visible, and just loaf and loaf and loaf.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration: THE ALPINE HUNTER OF TO-DAY]
-
-The great amusement of tourists who come to Switzerland is
-mountain-climbing. I have learned the game. Men and women come in at
-night recounting the wonderful feats they have accomplished and the
-dangers they have escaped. Everybody carries an “alpenstock,” which
-is a sharp-pointed cane with a chamois handle, and whenever he climbs
-a peak he has a ring burned around the stick, and shows it as proudly
-as the Indian once did the notches which meant deaths of enemies. I
-am a little skeptical, and listen to the climbing stories as I do to
-fish stories at home. It is too much like golf where you keep your own
-count. Perhaps I shall yield to the demands of environment enough to
-get me an alpenstock and have a few rings burned in it so I can have a
-few chips in the game, as it were. The men run to knickerbockers, wear
-feathers in their hats and carry packs on their shoulders. The women
-wear short skirts which don’t hang well and big shoes with nails in
-the soles—I am speaking now of people who do the thing right, and not
-those who sit on the porch and loaf.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The Swiss themselves are degenerating from the simple-hearted people
-they were. They have fallen before the temptations of the tourists.
-They see the American and the Englishman with lots of money to spend,
-and they find it easier to separate the stranger from his cash than
-they do to hunt chamois and herd cattle. It is a cause of much regret
-to the intelligent Swiss that this is so, but I do not notice the
-intelligent mourners going out into the mountains and setting an
-example of industry. They sell the jewelry, the souvenirs, the milk
-and the wine at advanced prices, and they have the greatest number
-of hotels and boarding-houses of any country on earth. If you enjoy
-handsome little shops with trinkets and gew-gaws, jewelry and
-picture cards, carved wood and imitation stones, as I do, you would
-thoroughly enjoy wandering through Geneva. The Geneva artisan will take
-a chair-leg and make a musical instrument. Sit down on a sofa and you
-will be startled to hear a piece of Wagner’s played by the concealed
-music-box.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The language spoken in Geneva is French. I do not think it is good
-French, for the people here do not understand the French with the fine
-Parisian accent I brought from Paris. But a large proportion of the
-people understand English. I am of the opinion that in spite of the
-fact that French is still the international language in Europe, the one
-you can use with educated people nearly anywhere, the English-American
-is the coming language. Very few people in Europe travel. The Germans
-do so more than others, but the French seldom do, the Italians rarely,
-and the Spanish and the Russians practically never. The English come
-to the continent in great numbers, and the Americans are in droves. In
-a place like Geneva in the principal shops and on the promenades you
-would say that fully half the people were English-speaking. In order to
-take care of these profitable guests the Swiss and others are learning
-enough of the language to sell them cheap goods at high prices, and
-they will learn more. It is not an uncommon experience to go into a
-store and after laboriously constructing a question in alleged French
-to get an answer in very fair English.
-
-I am told that up to a few years ago the American traveler was
-regarded with a little contempt by the people of continental Europe,
-and considered as only so much soil from which to gather wealth. But
-Americans of experience tell me that since the war with Spain all this
-has changed. As for myself, these Europeans have always spoken in the
-friendliest way of America, even when they did not know there were any
-Yankees around. The theory that we were only a commercial people and
-would not fight (the world loves a fighter) was disproven so thoroughly
-that they have rather gone to the other extreme, and Americans are now
-very popular as Americans and not merely for their money. Europe also
-has the highest opinion of McKinley and Roosevelt. With a great deal of
-pride in my heart I read a leading editorial in the London Times saying
-that Roosevelt’s letter to Russia and Japan urging peace was one of the
-greatest of state papers. The Times added that it was “straightforward,
-frank and clear—the American idea of diplomacy.” All of Europe now
-regards America as a great and friendly power, and an American swells
-up considerably more over his country when he is in other nations
-than he does at home, where he is apt to get fussy and cynical. The
-English are not popular on the continent, though England is feared and
-respected. The Americans are liked because they are believed to be fair
-and square.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-At the other end of Lake Geneva is the castle of Chillon. It is about
-as big as the court-house in Hutchinson, and looks like the old
-sugar-mill, only more so. Byron did a great deal for the people in that
-neck of the woods, for his poem made the castle famous, and tourists
-come by the hundreds and buy. In return they have named the big hotel
-the Byron, which shows they are not ungrateful. Byron’s poem had the
-poor prisoner confined in a dungeon with two brothers, and he had the
-torture of seeing them die. The facts are that there never was any
-“prisoner of Chillon” except in the brilliant imagination of Lord
-Byron. Of course many prisoners were confined in the dungeon. Every
-castle in Europe has a dungeon, and none of them were constructed with
-an idea of sanitary conditions or the health of the prisoners. But the
-dungeon at Chillon is the lightest and airiest dungeon I have seen. It
-is as comfortable as a good many hotel rooms in the United States. The
-only prisoner of note that had any such experience was a preacher named
-Bonnivard, who was kept there for two years because he believed or
-didn’t believe in Calvin,—I have forgotten which it was. Bonnivard had
-no brothers, and lived a number of years afterward and said he enjoyed
-his confinement at Chillon because he had so much time to think. Our
-guide showed our party the pathway the prisoner’s feet had worn in
-the rock where he had walked back and forth within the limit of his
-chains. I couldn’t see the path, although everybody else did. The rest
-of the castle of Chillon is very interesting, as it was the residence
-of a fine line of dukes who were always fighting either for or against
-the king. Our guide, who spoke only French, told us all about it, but
-I shall not repeat what she said. The people of Hutchinson would not
-understand her remarks any better than I did.
-
-My idea of a good joke is to have a guide who can only talk French tell
-an American who can’t understand French something very important or
-serious. The Frenchman tells his story with rapidity, earnestness and
-gestures. The American listens with frank impatience and punctuates the
-French sentences with American ejaculations which have no connection
-with the subject. The Frenchman acts mad, but he isn’t at all. The
-American acts pleasant, but he is really mad.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The castle of Chillon is in the lake, about sixty feet from the shore.
-You reach the entrance over a bridge after fighting your way through
-the sellers of souvenirs. That is one thing the old dukes did not have
-to contend with. If they were still doing business I think they would
-fill up the dungeon with the salesmen and salesladies.
-
-
-
-
-SOMETHING OF SWITZERLAND.
-
-
- ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, July 12, 1905.
-
-Switzerland is a succession of beautiful lakes, mountains and big
-hotels, dotted here and there with manufacturing towns and vineyards.
-It has been said that you cannot get too much of a good thing, but
-that is a mistake. Even the man who loves pie must admit that after he
-has had all the pie he can consume three times a day for a week, he
-would want to change the subject. After one has been traveling through
-Swiss scenery for seven days he is almost satisfied. We no longer chase
-across the car to see a big mountain-peak, or hurry out of the hotel
-soon after our arrival to behold the lake. And men and women with
-feathers in their hats and alpenstocks in their hands do not make us
-turn our heads. The sight of a little level country would look mighty
-good, and a comfortable seat on the porch comes nearer to filling the
-longing in my heart than the sight of a waterfall or an old castle
-several minutes’ walk distant.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Lucerne is the center of the tourist travel. All roads into Switzerland
-lead to Lucerne, and the scenery is more varied than at any other of
-the show places. The town is on the lake and the mountains are around
-it. From my hotel I could see Mount Pilatus, the place where they say
-Pontius Pilate finally found a resting-place. At the other end of the
-view is the snow-covered Rigi, and there are all kinds of Alps in the
-background. Lucerne looks like an American summer resort. It is made up
-of hotels and souvenir shops, and elegantly dressed women parade up and
-down the promenade walks, while rich old gentlemen sit uncomfortably
-around the piazzas and wish the women-folks had let them stay at home.
-It is astonishing how many men act as if they would give a good deal to
-be at work somewhere rather than in Switzerland “enjoying themselves.”
-A lot of people do not know how to have a good time or how to see a
-strange and delightful place. I meet many people who do not care for
-Europe, or Italy, or Switzerland,—the people who bring a stack of
-trunks and good clothes and have to put in their time dressing up only
-to be out-dressed by somebody else.
-
-But Lucerne has one thing different. It is the “Lion of Lucerne,” the
-monument erected in honor of the Swiss soldiers who died in the French
-palace defending the rotten Bourbon dynasty when the revolutionists
-broke in and captured the king and queen. The lion (twenty-eight feet
-in length) is carved out of a sandstone ledge, and is the finest
-monument or statue I ever saw. The king of beasts is dying, agony on
-his face, a broken lance in his side, and his huge paw resting on a
-shield of the lilies of France. The more I looked at the great work
-of Thorwaldsen the more I felt it, and I went back again and again to
-see it,—the real test of effect. Nearly everyone has seen copies or
-pictures of this work, but it is one of the things that no copy can do
-justice to, for the size and substance of the stone, the pathos and
-power of the subject and the skill and the genius of the sculptor have
-met most perfectly and impressively.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Near Lucerne is the scene of the early struggle for Swiss liberty.
-Around the lake of Lucerne are the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and
-Unterwalden, whose representatives met some 500 years ago and entered
-into the compact to stand together for freedom, a compact which has
-never been broken. Here William Tell refused to take off his hat to the
-hat the tyrant Gessler had set up and ordered all to salute. To punish
-Tell the governor ordered him to take his bow and arrow and shoot an
-apple from the head of his son. Tell’s aim was true, but as he turned
-away another arrow dropped from his coat. When asked why he had that,
-he said it was for Gessler if the boy had been hurt. Gessler took Tell
-in a boat and was carrying him to a dungeon, when a storm arose and
-Tell was released in order to use his skill as a boatman. He knew that
-the world wasn’t big enough for both himself and Gessler, so he soon
-after inserted an arrow into the tyrant’s ribs, and the Austrians had
-to get a new governor.
-
-Some cynical historians doubt this Tell story, but I do not. It is just
-as good a story as a lot which appear in history and it is good enough
-to be true.
-
-After the Tell revolution, which was in the thirteenth century, those
-Swiss cantons never lost their freedom, although they had to fight
-for it about every generation. The Hapsburg family, which reigned in
-Austria, was always trying to conquer the Swiss, and although its power
-was great enough to overcome any army they could collect, it could not
-cope with the mountains and gulches in which the Swiss were at home,
-and where one man who knew the land was equal in fighting value to a
-dozen knights in armor or on horseback. On that account the Swiss,
-especially the people of these “forest cantons,” have been a free
-people through all the changes in the world during more than 500 years.
-Sometimes they have been selfish and narrow in their ideas of freedom,
-considering that they were the only people on earth, and they have
-until the last century held serfs and domineered despotically over weak
-neighbors. But they were always far in advance of the rest of the world
-in their ideas of personal liberty. Switzerland is the one country
-which has always been a refuge to exiled patriots, rebels, conspirators
-and pretenders. Switzerland will not surrender a fugitive from another
-country on a political charge. The judges who sentenced Charles I. of
-England to death sought refuge in Switzerland when Charles II. came
-to the throne. Charles demanded that the judges be given up to him,
-and brought every influence to bear, but the Swiss stood by their
-law of refuge. To-day the anarchists and nihilists of Russia and the
-revolutionists of every country from Roumania to Spain have their
-headquarters in Geneva or some other Swiss town.
-
-It will be noticed that I think a good deal of the Swiss, and that
-I have written some criticism of the Italians. I went through Italy
-without ever being overcharged, “held up,” or worked by cab-drivers,
-hotel-keepers, or anyone at all. But in Switzerland, the land of
-freedom and education, I have had all these things done to me. I have
-been surprised and pleased by the way the people of Europe treat
-strangers, even if they do want tips. I had not been meanly treated
-from the time I left Boston until I reached Switzerland. The last man I
-did business with in my native land was a Boston hackman, who charged
-me twice what he should when he brought us to the ship. I did not meet
-his equal until I got to Lucerne. I hope there is no connection between
-personal liberty, republican government, and the swindling of strangers.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Yesterday we went to St. Gallen, a little industrial town near
-Constance. The women will recognize the name of this town if the men
-do not, for it is the place Swiss embroideries come from. I found
-out one thing there: Most of the Swiss hand embroidery is made by
-machinery. The Swiss are called the Yankees of Europe. They are up to
-almost all the tricks of the trade. They are changing from a pastoral
-and agricultural people, except right in the mountains, and are making
-money out of manufactories and tourists. The men and women do not wear
-the ridiculous and charming peasant costumes, except in beer-gardens
-and summer-resort hotels. In fact, I am impressed with the sameness
-of people’s clothes everywhere. There is no longer any such thing as
-characteristic costume. I saw the men’s clothes in Italy all cut and
-made just as in France, England, or America. The women have the same
-styles in the country districts of Switzerland that they do in Kansas
-or in Paris. Of course some people know how to wear their clothes
-better than others, and there is a difference in fit and make, but the
-styles are the same from Hutchinson to St. Gallen.
-
-I am learning some things in geography. Mont Blanc, the biggest
-mountain in Switzerland, is in France. Constance, one of the best Swiss
-resorts, is in Germany. Switzerland is such a busy little country that
-it bulges out all around.
-
-
-
-
-SWISS AND SWITZERLAND.
-
-
- NEUHAUSEN, SWITZERLAND, July 13, 1905.
-
-Soon after I arrived in Switzerland I inquired at a Geneva hotel
-the name of the President of the Republic of Switzerland. The hall
-porter (about the same as chief clerk) could not tell me, nor could
-he find out on inquiry around the office. Several times in Geneva I
-asked the same question, but always in vain. One or two men thought
-they knew, but they were not sure, and, as I learned afterward, they
-guessed wrong. I kept at the work of finding out who was the chief
-executive until I reached Lucerne. In a bookstore there my question
-aroused the interest of the proprietor, who spoke good English, and he
-inquired around until he found out that the President of Switzerland is
-named Brenner. During the process I suppose I asked a dozen educated
-Swiss, and three-fourths of them could give me promptly the name of
-the President of the United States, but not the name of their own
-President. Of course there is a reason for what would be fearful
-ignorance in any other country. The President of Switzerland doesn’t
-amount to as much as the Vice-President of the United States, and it
-would stagger a good many Americans to tell who was Vice-President
-before Roosevelt. Switzerland is a rather loosely bound together
-confederation of cantons (states). The cantons are jealous of the
-federal government, and give it very little power. Up to a few years
-ago there would be tariffs in some cantons against importations from
-others. The general government has the power to do the international
-business, but Switzerland keeps out of European politics. It would
-have little or no power as an offensive nation with its three million
-of people, and so it contents itself with furnishing scenery, wine,
-watches, music-boxes and good air to the inhabitants of other countries
-who are able to buy. The federal government consists of a congress
-composed of representatives from the cantons made up like our Senate
-and House. This congress elects an executive committee of seven, and
-the President of Switzerland is merely the chairman of that executive
-committee. Berne is the capital of Switzerland and the congress
-meets there, but it can only propose important legislation, which
-is then submitted to the people, who usually defeat it. The cantons
-of Switzerland have various kinds of republican government. Some
-have legislatures, some councils, and in a few of the small ones,
-where it is practicable, the government acts by mass meetings of the
-people, with an executive or a committee to carry out the legislation.
-The small area of the country and of the twenty-two cantons (they
-average about the size of Reno county, but some are not bigger than a
-commissioner district) makes the government a peculiar proposition.
-There is no foreign immigration, no uneducated class, and no one
-whose ancestors have not been self-governing for a generation. And
-yet as they have remodeled their local and federal constitutions and
-charters, they have come closer to the American methods all the time,
-the only important difference being the initiative and referendum,
-which is after all only a continuance of their ancient “land gemeinde,”
-or mass meetings of the people at which measures were considered and
-officers elected, the voting now being done by ballot instead of
-holding up the hands.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-As I have written before, in some cantons the people use one language
-and in some another. Likewise in some everybody is a Protestant and in
-others everybody is a Catholic; very seldom both faiths in one canton.
-During the Reformation and for a number of years afterward the Swiss
-fought and killed each other for the love of God as fiercely as in any
-other country. Switzerland and southern Germany, which borders on it,
-were the fields in which the great Reformers did their best and worst
-work. The Reformation in Switzerland was double-headed. One branch,
-led by Calvin, was marked by what we call Puritan austerity, and had
-its headquarters at Geneva. From there went John Knox to Scotland and
-a host of eminent preachers to England and other countries, forming
-what is now called the Presbyterian Church. Zwingli, at Zurich, was
-a milder, gentler teacher, and his kind of Protestantism grew most
-in Switzerland. Luther, only a little way off, had still another
-kind of Protestantism, and each of the three differed considerably
-in confession of faith, Calvin standing on the principle of
-predestination, Luther holding to transubstantiation, or the doctrine
-of the actual presence of the body of our Saviour in communion, Zwingli
-insisting that communion was only symbolic. Mutual friends brought
-Zwingli and Luther together, and when they could not agree, Zwingli
-held out his hand in parting and Luther would not even shake hands.
-Zwingli was killed in a battle in a religious war with the Catholics,
-but his creed really became the dominant one in Swiss Protestantism.
-Calvin had Servetus burned to death because he denied the trinity.
-
-So you see in the good old days in Switzerland there was a hard time
-for the plain and honest person trying to do what was right. Those
-times are past now, and Protestant and Catholic cantons get along
-peaceably; but there is still friction. Each canton in Switzerland
-looks after its educational matters and there are good schools
-everywhere. In nearly every city is a big university. I suppose that
-in proportion to population there are more university graduates in
-Switzerland than in any other country on earth. In America the young
-men and women too often cut short their education in order to get into
-business. In Switzerland, there are no such alluring opportunities,
-and the students stay till graduation. A young Swiss will go through
-the university and then go to work at the trade of his father. In
-America the young man would want to “do better” and really does worse
-by becoming a lawyer or an editor. Even good things have their bad
-features, and American colleges make mighty poor professional men out
-of material which was intended for good mechanics and farmers.
-
-We spent a couple of days in Zurich, the largest city of Switzerland.
-Its special industry is silk-making, and the silk and embroidery stores
-are beautiful. The main business street of Zurich has two rows of trees
-like First avenue in Hutchinson, and the result is a delightful change
-from the usual hot, bare main street of a city. And that reminds me
-that it is a law in Switzerland or in the forest cantons that no one
-can cut down a tree except by official permission, and then another
-must be planted to take its place.
-
-In the agricultural and pastoral parts of Switzerland a great deal of
-land is held “in common,” that is government land, under the control of
-the canton, not for sale at any price, but for the use of the people of
-the community under strict regulations. So a Swiss peasant will have a
-few acres of land of his own, a few cattle, and a right as a citizen to
-pasture on the common ground and a share of the profits of the forest.
-Immigration is not invited, although tourists with money are welcomed,
-for the more people the less the share of each in the common fund.
-There can hardly be any poverty in Switzerland, except, of course, in
-the cities. Every Swiss peasant can make a living if he will work.
-But neither can he be expected to get rich nor be a bigger man than
-his father. He must follow the beaten path marked out by centuries of
-custom and more firmly established than the unwritten constitution of
-the country.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I am getting more and more impressed with the fallacy of “cheapness”
-in Europe. Comparing prices with those of Hutchinson, I find that the
-things which are cheaper here are silks, kid gloves, diamonds, and
-the products of labor like embroidery, lace, clocks, wood carvings,
-tailor-made clothes and straw hats (poorly made). Cotton goods, linen
-goods, shoes, iron and steel, bread and meat, coffee, and most of what
-we call necessities of life, are higher in Europe than in America.
-It is the people who are cheap and not the things; and when I say
-“cheap” I do not mean lacking in energy, ability, or industry, but in
-opportunity to make more than a living, to have leisure or the common
-luxuries and often necessities.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-This is the last night in Switzerland. To-morrow we cross the line
-to Constance, which is in Germany, and which is spelled Konstanz and
-abbreviated “Kaz.,” which makes it near to “Kas.” Neuhausen is the
-place where the Rhine makes its big leap down the rocks, a fall of
-sixty feet, and on account of the volume of water the grandest in
-Europe. It is the Niagara Falls of the Alpine country, but it is not
-in the same class with Niagara Falls, U. S. A. The Rhine is about as
-wide as the Kaw at Topeka, but much deeper, and the falls are about
-four times the height of Bowersock’s dam at Lawrence. A beautiful hotel
-faces the roaring torrent as it precipitates itself over the rocks amid
-clouds of spray. The prices at the hotel are higher than the falls. I
-can only call to mind one place where you feel that you are being more
-genteelly robbed with your own consent, and that is at Niagara Falls,
-New York. But our Niagara Falls are higher to correspond.
-
-
-
-
-GERMANY.
-
-
-
-
-IN THE BLACK FOREST.
-
-
- TRIBERG, GERMANY, July 17, 1905.
-
-This is a small town in the middle of the Black Forest. I had read a
-good deal of the Black Forest, but really had no idea what it was. The
-name sounded as if it might be a part of Arkansas or Louisiana, and I
-think I was looking for swamps and waste land covered with underbrush
-and impenetrable to travelers except on made roads. But as a matter of
-fact it is as delightful and beautiful a country as I have seen since I
-left Kansas. The land is mountainous, but it is fertile and the valleys
-and hillsides are dotted with thrifty-looking little farms. The name
-applies, all right, for the mountains are covered with dense forests
-of spruce trees with a dark-green foliage which looks really black.
-The farming land has evidently been cleared in the centuries that have
-passed since the roving Germans settled into peaceful peasants and
-quit their occupation of making Rome howl by raiding and pillaging the
-towns of the declining empire. The Black Forest covers a great part
-of southwest Germany, mostly in the state or grand duchy of Baden. Up
-to a short time ago it had a number of practically independent little
-kingdoms about the size of your hat, which were in a perpetual struggle
-for existence and recognition. Anthony Hope used the Black Forest
-as the scene for his Zenda stories, and to-day we came through the
-principality of Fürstenberg, one of his favorite places, in which the
-prince of Fürstenberg still holds an honorary position but under the
-actual government of Emperor William. I also noticed that the prince
-was proprietor of a big brewery.
-
-It is harvest-time in the Black Forest, and men and women are gathering
-the crops, small grain and hay, using the hand-sickle and the hand-rake
-but doing their work in a thorough manner. When they get through the
-raking I don’t suppose there is a waste straw left lying on the ground
-or a kernel of grain which is not carefully picked up. The farmer in
-Europe would get rich on what an American farmer drops on the way from
-the field to the barn. They have fine horses and cattle in the Black
-Forest, and look prosperous. When one horse is used in a wagon he is
-harnessed alongside the pole and not between shafts. I was told the
-reason was that it was to make it easy to add another horse if desired
-without changing the pole. That was nearly as strange as the one horse
-alongside the pole.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The time is past when the sight of ladies working in the field excites
-any interest, although I still have a little feeling when the woman is
-sixty or seventy years old. It is not so bad in Germany, and especially
-in the Black Forest, where the air is light and exhilarating; and
-then the men work too. In Italy the hauling was done by animals as
-follows: Horses, oxen, cows, dogs, women. Sometimes a woman and a
-dog were hitched together to small wagons, especially milk carts. In
-Switzerland the dogs were still in harness, but the women were out
-of it. And in the Black Forest I believe the dogs are freed, as all
-the vehicles I have seen have been drawn by horses or oxen. Perhaps
-it will be different later. I write now only of the Black Forest. We
-drove for twelve miles down one of the valleys and through the little
-villages. A number of the old peasant costumes were worn by women and
-girls, although most of them were dressed in the same styles as in
-Paris or Hutchinson. A very striking head-dress for the feminine is one
-of the Black Forest styles, a bonnet with two large wings extending
-upward at an angle of about 40 degrees from the head, and with flowing
-bands several feet long down the back. Girls and unmarried women have
-bright-colored wings and bands, married women must wear black. By the
-way, the women of continental Europe wherever we have been have worn
-earrings,—France, Italy, and Switzerland. As American women generally
-discarded these disfiguring ornaments several years ago, the sight has
-been a strange one. Especially in Italy are the earrings large and
-imposing, rich and poor vieing with each other in size of the pendants
-and rings.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Aside from agriculture the main industry of the Black Forest is
-wood-carving and clock-making. There are some small factories, but as
-a rule the work is done at home; and it is very good. We visited one
-of these home shops, and the whole family showed us their handiwork.
-A beautifully carved wooden hall clock with a cuckoo and a music-box
-which played every half-hour was only $4 American money. It must
-have taken the man a week to make it, and in our country the price
-would have been several times as large. There is a big tariff on this
-ware going into America, and it is all right. If it were not so, our
-American wood-workers would have to learn another trade or work for $4
-or $5 a week. And if they got only $4 or $5 a week they would not eat
-much meat, buy much clothing, or pay for many newspapers. See?
-
-The people of the Black Forest are a charming, friendly lot. I suppose
-they are as happy as anybody, although one of them was very proud of a
-brother who had gone to America and was making “much geld,” and whom
-he would follow if he could. All through Europe I meet people who have
-relatives in America, and that may account for the friendly treatment
-I have everywhere received. These American relatives have all gotten
-“rich” according to their European relatives, which shows that the
-immigrants to our country all succeed or keep a stiff upper lip when
-they write to the folks in the fatherland.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The architecture of the Black Forest houses is as striking as any I
-have seen. Nearly every farmhouse is very large, at least three stories
-high, and on one or more sides the roof “gambrels” off from the high
-ridge nearly to the ground. The effect is like a tent-covering, and
-the roof is often thatched or tiled in two or three colors,—on some
-the green grass is growing. Part of the house is the barn. The winter
-here is said to be severe, and the Forest peasant evidently believes
-in having his family and his horses, cows and chickens where they
-can be comfortable and sociable. The houses are extra clean, and the
-furniture, dishes and utensils of the kitchen shine with the good
-polishing they must receive. The little farms are tilled to the limit,
-and are generally irrigated and always fertilized. Just to show how
-these people manage to get a living out of the ground and the care they
-use to get it all, I saw women and men on the roadside with baskets
-cleaning the road of manure and carrying it to their land.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-We have had to learn a new money system in Germany. France, Italy,
-Switzerland and Belgium have what is called a “Latin league,”
-with interchangeable currency, the unit being the franc (France,
-Switzerland, and Belgium), and the lire (Italy). But Germany joins
-no Latin leagues. The unit of the German currency is the “mark,”
-equivalent to twenty-five cents American. This is divided into
-one hundred pfennigs. Prices are carried out to the pfennig, and
-one-pfennig coins (in value one-fourth of one cent) are seen more
-than our one-cent pieces at home. That illustrates the close, exact,
-economical German spirit. The first time I made a small purchase in
-Germany I got a pocketful of change. Mrs. Morgan wanted a little money,
-and I gave her a couple of handfuls. She said she didn’t want so much,
-as she only intended to buy inexpensive things. I had actually given
-her about fifty cents. When one hundred copper coins make twenty-five
-cents and they are used in most transactions, you can realize what a
-heavy load you carry and how you can get that wealthy feeling without
-much actual expense.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Soon after leaving Constance our road turned away from the Rhine, and
-going through a tunnel we were in the valley of the Danube. It startled
-me a little, as I had always connected the Danube with Austria and
-Turkey. But sure enough, we were riding along the banks of the Danube,
-which has been made famous by history, poetry and music. If a raindrop
-fell on one side of that hill it would go down to the Rhine to the
-Baltic, and if the wind blew it over to the other side before it struck
-the earth it would start eastward and journey down the Danube to the
-Black sea. Rivers are like human beings,—they get their directions
-from the place where they start and go onward along the road of least
-resistance to the place appointed, unless dammed or taken up by man
-or God, in which case they will struggle and work to seep back to the
-channel in which it was intended they should make their course.
-
-By the way, the “Beautiful Blue Danube” is not blue at all in this part
-of its career, but almost black, seemingly taking its hue from the
-forests in which it has its origin.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The town of Triberg is a quaint little place near the top of the
-mountain, and apparently about one hundred miles from Nowhere. I have
-had my first experience with what I understand is not infrequent in
-old German towns. There is a tax on strangers, thirty pfennigs a day
-or one mark a week, and our hotel has to pay and charge in our bill.
-Ministers of the gospel, and paupers, are exempt. In America if they
-had a fool tax like that they would also exempt newspaper men. The
-only way I could get out of paying the tax was to make affidavit that
-I was a minister or a pauper, so I reluctantly gave up the offer to
-dodge taxation and the town of Triberg is fifteen cents to the good on
-account of our stay. However, there is a very fine waterfall, and we
-looked fifteen cents’ worth at that and called it even.
-
-STORIES OF STRASSBURG.
-
-
- STRASSBURG, GERMANY, July 18, 1905.
-
-To use the American vernacular, Strassburg is a good town. It has
-the best-looking stores, the most energetic acting people and the
-most thriving appearance of any city since we left Paris. The reason
-for this is probably the mingling of the German and the French and
-the location of the city as the metropolis of a very rich territory
-lying in both countries. Strassburg is a German city in which the
-people are at heart French. Thirty years ago the treaty which ended
-the Franco-German war gave Strassburg and two of the rich provinces
-of eastern France, Alsace and Lorraine, to the German empire. But
-it did not give the German emperor a warranty deed to the hearts of
-the people, and they long for their old associations. Probably the
-new generation is not so much disposed to France, and the influence
-of education and environment will gradually change the desire of the
-Alsatians to be sometime reunited with their old countrymen, but time
-and again to-day in talking with the Strassburgers they have given me
-to understand that they were not Germans but French.
-
-Strassburg has a history as a city on its own account. Away back in
-1300 the people revolted from the rule of the bishop who was their
-sovereign, and gained their independence. For 400 years Strassburg
-was what is known as a “free city,” owing some allegiance to the
-German empire but governing itself and doing about as it pleased. The
-language, the customs and the sympathy of the people were German. In
-1681 Louis XIV. of France in a time of peace seized Strassburg, and a
-few years later in a general treaty France was confirmed in the title,
-and from that time until 1871 it was a French city. During the war
-of 1870 Strassburg did not surrender to the overwhelming German army
-until its defenses were battered down and the city bombarded. And as I
-wrote from Paris, in the galaxy of statues representing the cities of
-France in the Parisian Place de la Concorde, the statue of Strassburg
-is hung with emblems of mourning, and some day France will fight to
-get the city back. Germany knows this, and the city has been strongly
-fortified and a garrison of 15,000 German soldiers is kept there. So
-many soldiers in a city of 150,000 people give a showy look to the
-streets, the promenades and the public places, and doubtless is a good
-thing financially for the merchants.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Since leaving Italy I have sworn off on cathedrals, but I had to go to
-the one here because it is a good one and because of the Strassburg
-clock. The spire of the Strassburg cathedral is one of the highest
-in Europe, 465 feet, beating by a few feet St. Peter’s at Rome and
-St. Paul’s in London. The rest of the building is just the ordinary
-cathedral except for the clock. The first big clock was constructed
-here in 1352 and it lasted two centuries, when another took its place,
-to be succeeded sixty years ago by the present one. This clock is about
-the size of the front of an ordinary church. It not only tells the hour
-and minute of the day, but the day of the week, the month of the year,
-the feast days of the church, and is regulated to run for centuries,
-automatically making the right figures for leap years and adapting
-itself to the revolution of feast and fast days for an almost unlimited
-number of years. Every fifteen minutes an angel figure strikes the bell
-for the quarter-hour, and figures representing boyhood, youth, manhood
-and old age come out for the appropriate quarters. A skeleton strikes
-the hour and another reverses an hour-glass. At noon there is a parade
-of the twelve apostles before the Saviour, and a big rooster at one
-side crows loudly twice before Peter gets to the front and the third
-time as he passes. I am getting a great sympathy for Peter because he
-has that story thrown up to him in so many cathedrals, churches and
-pictures in Europe. It seems to me that Peter did enough after that to
-entitle him to a rest on the cock-crow story.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Next to the cathedral clock the most interesting sight to my mind was
-the washerwomen’s boats in the river. About 500 women were in these
-canal-shaped boats washing clothes, rinsing them in the river and
-having a good gossiping time of it. The emperor of Germany has a
-palace in Strassburg where he spends at least three days every year
-in the month of May. I did not know this, so when I saw the imperial
-palace on the city map I told the driver to take us there. I had never
-met Emperor William and he had never met me. I entered the palace door
-as directed by the cab-driver and was pleasantly received by a fine,
-portly gentleman. Of course I knew he wasn’t the emperor, so I spoke in
-a dignified way as becomes an American citizen toying with the effete
-monarchies of Europe, and asked the gentleman in my best German if the
-emperor was at home, at the same time assuring him that if the emperor
-was busy not to bother him, as I could come again after supper when
-he would be through his work. The fat gentleman bowed and told me the
-emperor was here only in May, and asked me if we would like to go over
-the palace. I spoke up abruptly, as if I were used to running around
-palaces; that as I had nothing else to do just then, having laid out to
-put in a short time with Emperor Bill, I wouldn’t mind if I did. He was
-a very nice man, a court chamberlain, he said, and he took Mrs. Morgan
-and me all through the palace and the big dining-room and ball-room and
-the king’s den, and all that sort of thing. Before we went onto the
-polished floors of the big rooms we had to put felt slippers on over
-our shoes—a good thing to keep the floors from getting scratched, and
-I suppose it is a kind of ground rule that Mrs. Emperor has made to
-protect the varnish from the hobnailed boots of William’s friends. I
-hope the custom won’t spread to America.
-
-The German emperor has a mighty good house in Strassburg, and it has
-been furnished regardless of expense. There was a notice up, “Visitors
-not allowed to sit on the chairs,” but I wasn’t very tired anyway. I
-looked for a sign not to spit on the floor to go with some of the other
-wall decoration, but it must have been overlooked. The house looked
-stiff, and I don’t believe Bill has much fun at home and probably his
-wife makes him go out on the porch to smoke. I was sorry not to meet
-the emperor, as we will not get to Berlin, and I had some things to
-tell him. However, I feel that I have done the proper thing by calling
-on him and not waiting for him to hunt me up.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-There is not so much American-made stuff in Europe as I expected.
-There is a good deal, but in fact these Germans and French are up to
-about everything that we are, and sometimes they have us bested. The
-Singer sewing-machine is everywhere, even in Italy. American shoes are
-the leaders in their lines in every city. American typewriters are
-sold ahead of European. Wernicke bookcases and office furniture are
-advertised and sold almost as at home. But the list of American goods
-is not very long, or else they are sold under other names and brands.
-To-day we bought a good picture of a typical German girl to take home
-with us as our art collection from Europe. Before we had gone a block
-Mrs. Morgan found the tag which proclaimed, “Made in Springfield,
-Massachusetts, U. S. A.” We were chagrined that our European purchase
-had turned out to be an American importation, sold to us at a higher
-price than it would have been at home, but we were proud that here in
-Germany they knew the country to send to in order to get good pictures
-of fetching Dutch maidens. At Zurich I started to buy a little office
-fixture which I thought I had never seen before and which I intended to
-take home to surprise the Kansans, when I found out just in time that
-it was made by the Globe-Wernicke company of Cincinnati, and I knew we
-had the same thing for sale at The News office in Hutchinson. Hereafter
-in buying souvenirs of Europe we will look close for the brand.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-This is the place where the “pâté de fois gras” originated. I do not
-know how many people in Kansas know what pâté de fois gras is and
-whether it is a flower or a dog. I had once seen the words on a bill
-of fare in a very swell restaurant, but the figures which followed the
-name were so much larger than those after ham and eggs that I stuck
-to “ham and.” But when in Rome you must see the Forum, in Venice you
-must see St. Mark’s, and in Strassburg you must have some pâté de
-fois gras. The food combination which the four French words stand for
-is based on goose-liver, and corresponds to about what we would call
-“goose-liver smothered in roses.” It is very good, and you never forget
-the delicious taste or the price. Strassburg chefs make the stuff, can
-it and ship it all over the world to people who like delicate things
-to eat and who have sufficient credit to get a good stand-off. Pâté de
-fois gras is sweeter than chocolate, more luscious than peaches and
-more delicious than lemon pop at a Fourth of July picnic. It is a proof
-that Strassburgers have French stomachs as well as French hearts.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Speaking of eatables, we had the first loaf of bread in Switzerland
-that we had seen since we left home. After nearly two months on hard,
-stale rolls the sight of a reasonably good loaf of bread at Geneva
-made as strong an impression on my mind as Mont Blanc. Anybody who has
-traveled in Europe or in Arkansas will appreciate the feelings of a
-Kansan when he puts a slice of fairly soft bread between his teeth.
-It is better than pâté de fois gras, and it is almost exclusively an
-American institution.
-
-
-
-
-IN OLD HEIDELBERG.
-
-
- HEIDELBERG, GERMANY, July 22, 1905.
-
-This is the old and famous university town of Germany. It is about two
-miles long and 200 yards wide, lying between the river Neckar and the
-steep hills which rise 500 feet high and which can only be ascended by
-terraced roads or a modern tunnel railway. The town is of comparatively
-recent origin, being really started only 850 years ago, when a Rhenish
-count who wanted to build a strong and impregnable fortress selected
-a spot 400 feet straight up the hill from the river and built the
-old castle of Heidelberg. Being thus the capital of a little German
-state, the Palatinate of the Rhine, it was an important place during
-the Middle Ages, and was fought over every few years for several
-centuries. In the fourteenth century the ruling count, whose title
-was Elector, developed a literary streak and founded the university,
-which became the center of learning and scientific study in Germany,
-and has continued so until the present day, although some of the newer
-universities like Berlin and Leipsig are now larger. The valley of the
-Neckar joins the valley of the Rhine here and makes a fertile territory
-and a prosperous city, but the university and the students are the main
-features of modern Heidelberg, now that counts, electors and castles
-are ruins or relics. There are many students in Heidelberg from
-America and other countries, but it is the rollicking German “yunkers”
-who make the life of the place.
-
-German universities differ somewhat from American universities in the
-character and method of work. There are no recitations—only lectures
-and examinations. A student does not have to attend either. He can
-attend Heidelberg year in and year out and devote himself exclusively
-to the beer-garden and the dueling-ground. Or he can work hard, receive
-the ablest instruction and the highest degrees. The discipline of
-the common schools in Germany is severe—military in its character.
-But at the university the young man or young woman (for women now
-attend lectures at Heidelberg) can do as they please and go to Hades
-if they desire. The university buildings are plain and ordinary. The
-picturesque feature is the students, especially the young men who
-belong to the various “corps.” Less than 10 per cent. of the students
-are members of these societies, but they color the town, for each corps
-has a distinctive cap,—red, yellow, white, etc. These organizations
-are the social life of the university, and at all hours of the day
-or night they are in evidence, parading with their caps and canes,
-occupying the beer-gardens and the promenade, jollying the girl waiters
-and having what is called in America a High Old Time.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Everybody has heard of the duel or sword-fighting. It is as much an
-institution at Heidelberg as football is at Princeton or K. U. Not many
-students take part in it, only members of the six corps, but it is
-the show feature of student life. Each corps has about twenty members.
-Each member has to fight at least one duel a term with a member of some
-other corps. This morning we went to the dueling-place just outside of
-the city and saw the game.
-
-One gets a great deal of misinformation about this student dueling,
-but as near as I can find out it is done in a genteel and cold-blooded
-manner. When it is the turn of one of the corps members to fight he
-makes a face or refuses to salute a member of another corps. That
-constitutes cause for the duel, and the preliminaries are then arranged
-by the officers of the respective corps according to the rules and
-regulations that have come down through generations. The fighting is
-done in an inner court of a wine-garden. This morning there were ten
-duels on the program, and when we arrived the third was in progress.
-A young man of the bright-red-cap corps was trying to slice the face
-of a member of the dark-red-cap corps. Each was covered with felt
-armor, which protected all of his body, and also had goggles and
-nose-pad, a little bit more so than a football player. The seconds,
-very similarly attired, stood by the side of the principals and struck
-up the swords at the end of each round or when the blood came. The
-only unprotected places were the head and face, and the game was to
-slash the opponent there, not to stick him. Thrusting is evidently
-against the rules. A surgeon with an apron like a butcher attended to
-the cuts and the members of both corps stood quietly and calmly by,
-giving vent to no expression of feeling whatever. The officers of
-each corps saluted, the word was given, the two swords clashed away
-for a minute, and each fellow had a nice long cut on his cheek. When
-the round was over the seconds sponged the cuts. There is no specified
-number of rounds, but whenever the two seconds are satisfied that one
-man is cut enough the other is declared the victor and they salute
-and retire to get court-plastered or sewed up as is necessary. We saw
-four duels and got tired of the fun. In the last fought one of the men
-was apparently an experienced swordsman and his opponent apparently a
-beginner. (I understand that in order to show his courage a new man
-always challenges an expert.) After four rounds the face of the weaker
-swordsman was streaming with blood from a half-dozen cuts. I suppose he
-looked upon his defeat as a real victory because he showed the fellows
-that he could stand up and take punishment and never wince. Some people
-have curious ideas of greatness.
-
-They tell me no one is ever killed in these duels, but every member of
-every corps would be considered disfigured for life in America. Every
-one of them has long sears on his face and head. The restaurant where
-we eat is a favorite resort for the corps and we see much of them. It
-looks like a shame that every one of those bright young men will have
-to go through life with a face like a war map of Manchuria. But they
-wouldn’t trade those sears for love nor money. (I am told they are
-good for love.) They are the badges of bravery and ability, and are as
-highly prized as the bronze button of the Grand Army man. As I have
-remarked, some ambitions are very funny, and if the German students
-want to be hand-carved in this manner there is no use of a football-,
-prize-fight-loving nation making any kick.
-
-[Illustration: THE GERMAN WAY.]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Heidelberg is a “wet” town. I suppose half the places on the main
-street are beer-gardens and some of the others are wine-rooms.
-Everybody in Germany drinks beer and wine. There is this difference
-between France and Germany: In France the men do most of the drinking
-as they sit in the sidewalk cafés watching the women go by. In Germany
-the man brings his wife and children and they all sit around the table
-in the garden or restaurants and drink beer. They do not seem to get
-intoxicated. I haven’t seen anyone drunk, although they drink by the
-wholesale. Beer is high in Heidelberg, up to 2½ cents a quart, but
-out in the suburbs it is cheaper. I think beer-drinking makes the
-Germans have bad forms, for men and women get round and fat. But in
-Germany these forms are considered beautiful, so the sylph-like and the
-slender are looked down upon. It is an illustration of the fact that it
-is a good thing we don’t all think alike about such things as personal
-beauty, or some of us would have to always be away back sitting down.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I have been in Germany a week, and I have not seen a half-dozen men
-smoking pipes. I thought Germans were great pipe-smokers, but they
-are not in this part. The Heidelberg pipes are mostly made to sell to
-Americans and English. The Germans smoke a little the worst cigars I
-have ever met. They are cheap in price and the Germans consume them in
-large quantities. The kind the high-class Germans use closely resembles
-a brand known in our country as “The Pride of the Sewer,” and sells at
-about two for 5 cents. An American who is accustomed at home to buying
-“a good nickel cigar” can’t find anything that good in Germany, unless
-it may be in the big hotels where they cater to American and English
-trade. I had always had Germans pictured to me as big fat men with long
-pipes in their mouths, sitting around tables on which were large steins
-of beer. The beer is here all right, but the men are as bright and
-energetic as Americans, and they smoke cigars and not pipes.
-
-Another dream gone up in smoke.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-It is a great country for castles and “legends.” I think the average
-yield of legends per acre is larger in Germany than in any other
-country on earth, especially in the Black Forest and on the Rhine. That
-is one thing our country is short of—legends. Aside from a few old
-Indian stories, a tale of woe about the grasshoppers and reminiscences
-of the Populists, we haven’t anything that approaches the legends which
-hang on almost every tree in the Black Forest and stick out of every
-castle-window. And yet Kansas could raise legends as well as Germany,
-for a legend is nothing but a lie told so often that nobody knows
-where it started; and Kansas has her share of liars. Here is a sample
-“legend” from the old castle of Heidelberg which we visited to-day:
-
-
-A HEIDELBERG LEGEND.
-
-The count of Heidelberg had a beautiful daughter. (They all do—in
-legends.) Her reputation for beauty went all over Germany and reached
-the shores of Great Britain. The king of England saw the photograph
-of the fair lady dressed in her bicycle suit, and instantly fell in
-love with her. But he did not want the German beauty to marry him for
-his money and title, so he disguised himself as a cook, got a job in
-Heidelberg castle and made eyes at the princess. It was a case of
-two-hearts-that-beat-as-one, and the princess soon began to make dates
-and meet the supposed cook back of the castle and down on the Neckar.
-He revealed his real identity to her, but made her promise not to tell.
-He then went to the old man and asked him for the hand of his daughter.
-The count laughed at the cook, which made the latter mad and so he
-blurted out that the maiden loved him. Then the cook skipped out and
-the count sent for his daughter. She confessed to being in love with
-the cook, but on account of her promise did not tell his right name.
-The old count got into an awful rage and ordered his daughter whipped,
-and the lash was applied so well that the princess died. Before she
-passed away she told her father who the cook really was, and the count
-of Heidelberg was truly sorry; but that did no good. A few days later
-the king of England with an imposing suite arrived to ask the hand of
-the princess, and when he found out what had happened he took the old
-man out behind the barn and sliced him up in fine pieces.
-
-There is a song which tells all about this affair, and the music is
-about as good as the legend.
-
-WORMS AND OTHER THINGS.
-
-
- WORMS, GERMANY, July 23, 1905.
-
-People do not laugh in Germany when you pronounce the name of this
-town properly. Say the word as if it were spelled Vorms and give the o
-the long sound, and you will admit that it is better than the way you
-used to say it. For many years I have heard of Luther and the Diet of
-Worms, and being at Heidelberg, only a few miles away, we came here to
-see Worms, the “Diet,” and to spend Sunday. Four hundred years ago this
-was quite a town, one of the free cities of the Rhine owing allegiance
-only to the emperor. It was here that in 1524 Charles V., emperor of
-Germany, summoned Luther to appear before a congress of princes and
-imperial electors, and wanted him to fix up a compromise. The emperor
-of Germany was in a ticklish position. About half of his subjects were
-loyal to the pope and about half had bolted with Luther. The princes
-and dukes were divided, and were fighting each other to prove that they
-were right. The German empire was demoralized with internal dissension
-and feuds. So Charles thought it would be a smooth thing to get Luther
-before the august assemblage, induce him to concede some and get the
-Catholics to concede some, and have a sort of “Missouri compromise.”
-Luther went to Worms, although he was warned not to do so. As a matter
-of fact, Luther did not want to separate from the Catholic Church, and
-his claim was that he wanted to reform it. But after the controversy
-had continued a few years he kept getting further away, and Charles
-had made his move too late. Luther laid down certain doctrines which
-he knew the loyal Catholics could not agree to, and then announced
-that he took his stand upon them and would not move. The result of the
-emperor’s effort at peace-making was that each side was a little more
-infuriated than before, and the war went on.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-A hundred years ago Worms had gone down to be a town of only 5,000
-inhabitants, but now it has about 40,000 and is a thriving little
-city. But in spite of the growth and progress in the last century
-there is still a general air of quaintness and age which makes it
-very interesting because it is so different. A magnificent monument
-to Luther is the show feature of the place. On a massive platform ten
-feet high is the figure of the great reformer, over nine feet high,
-surrounded by statues of Huss, Savonarola, Wyckliffe and Waldus,
-and of princes who befriended Luther. A number of German cities are
-represented by allegorical figures or coats of arms, and the entire
-group makes an impressive monument and memorial. The palace where
-Luther met the emperor and princes has been destroyed, but another
-takes its place and with a right good imagination the tourist can stand
-where Luther stood, any day between the hours of 11 and 5 o’clock.
-Strange to say, the town to which Catholics and Protestants came is
-now controlled by the Jews, who dominate the business interests of
-Worms as they do those of many other German cities. Worms is on the
-Rhine river, and the valley of the Rhine is the garden-spot of Germany.
-Coming over the fertile fields of the Rhine valley is a good deal
-like riding in the Arkansas valley between Nickerson and Haven, with
-its rich farms, great orchards and prosperous communities. But in
-the hundred miles I have traveled along the Rhine I have not seen a
-reaper or a mower, a sulky rake or any other kind of machinery except
-a hand-sickle and a hand-rake. I think there are more women at work in
-the fields than there are men. Perhaps the men are off in the army.
-Perhaps they are in town drinking beer and talking politics.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Coming from Heidelberg to Worms we had to change trains twice in an
-hour’s time. Changing trains is no easy job in a foreign country. At
-Manheim, where the station is as large and as busy as the Union Depot
-in Kansas City, our incoming train was late and when we arrived our
-outgoing train was due to leave. With the assistance of a porter I was
-handling a half-dozen grips and bundles when Mrs. Morgan discovered our
-train at the other side of the depot. She promptly started across the
-tracks just as she would at home. I thought there was a revolution or a
-fire, as a dozen train porters, as many policemen, the station-master
-and a lot of assistants set up a yell that fairly made the air tremble.
-The station-master rushed after her, caught up and brought her back,
-with at least ten men talking vociferously and gesticulating in German.
-The fact was she had broken the law of the empire. It is not merely
-violating a railroad rule to cross the track, but it is against the
-criminal law and punishable by a jail sentence. Of course they didn’t
-do anything to Americans, but if a German should cross the tracks
-where it was forbidden they wouldn’t do a thing to him! They actually
-held that train five minutes after time while we made a circuit of the
-station to the other side, when we could have sensibly and reasonably
-have been allowed to cross the track in a half-minute.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Speaking of railroads and the management makes me think of the
-conductors. I have ridden first-class, second-class and third-class in
-Germany. When the conductor enters the first-class carriage to see the
-tickets, he takes off his cap and says in German: “If you please, will
-you me your tickets show?” When he comes into the second-class carriage
-he says: “Tickets, if you please,” and when you hand them over he gives
-them back with a military salute, but keeps his cap on. When he comes
-into the third-class carriage he simply says: “Tickets!”
-
-When the train starts out of the station the station-master (dressed in
-a gorgeous uniform) stands on the platform at a salute until the last
-car passes him. This is a very pretty custom, and I think the station
-agents at Hutchinson ought to be required to put on their uniforms and
-salute the trains.
-
-The almost universal custom in Germany is to eat out-of-doors in the
-summer-time. The hotels have spacious porches or gardens, and there we
-eat breakfast, dinner, and supper. (They have dinner at noon and supper
-in the evening in Germany.) There are no flies, and there seems to be
-but little wind, so you can eat comfortably in the open air and not
-swallow too much that is not on the bill of fare. It is a sensible and
-delightful custom. After the evening meal at the hotels or restaurants
-everybody stays at the table for an hour or so, and there is music by
-the orchestra or band. The only good feature I can see to the German
-army is that it provides nearly every city with a fine band which gives
-concerts frequently. The cities and towns usually support bands, and
-most of them own theatres and opera-houses. I think we have attended a
-band concert every evening since we entered Germany, and we could go in
-the afternoon if we had time.
-
-By the way, right here in Worms, in the part of the city that looks
-about as it did in Luther’s time, we were wandering down a narrow
-street when we were stopped by familiar music, the popular two-step,
-“Whistling Rufus.” The German bands play a great deal of American
-music, mostly Sousa’s marches or our “ragtime,” and it always gets
-an encore. At Heidelberg the military band played “Hiawatha.” For
-two years it has been almost against the law in the United States to
-play “Hiawatha.” But the Germans liked it. I don’t think the German
-bands play ragtime properly. They go at it seriously, as they do
-the selections from Wagner and such like which make up most of the
-program. They add a good deal of noise and they do not get the “swing”
-that is given by American musicians.
-
-I have discovered in Germany that Wagner and his kind of composers
-wrote a lot of good music that never gets across the water, the kind
-that has tune to it,—not so much tune as Sousa’s pieces, but a good
-deal more than is ever rendered in the United States. And I suppose
-the German bands understand Wagnerian music better than the American
-bands, just as Sousa can direct a better two-step or march than a
-German conductor. A German municipal band or military band, such
-as plays every night in one of the public parks in every city, is
-as good a band as Sousa or Innes ever took on the road. I am not a
-musical critic, I am thankful to say. I like music whether it is good,
-bad, or indifferent. I like grand opera some and light opera a great
-deal. I enjoy a fine band or a poor one, a selection from Chopin or
-a street piano. I will follow a band, a drum corps or a bagpipe all
-over town. I am even fond of the “Blue Bells of Scotland.” Probably my
-recommendations will not be accepted by all the musical experts at home
-after these admissions, but I can’t keep from saying that German band
-music is the best in this world to which I have been introduced.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I have written of the growing use of the English-American language
-on the continent of Europe. Here at Worms we are stopping at a very
-Dutch hotel. When the waiter came for the first time I went to work in
-German. The construction of a supper bill of fare in German is not
-easy for me, but I tackled the job bravely. I know enough German to
-order meat and potatoes, but my pronunciation is ragged on the edges
-and my verbs are not hitched right and the genders of the nouns are
-only likely to be right one guess in three. After I had floundered
-along for about three minutes the waiter gravely and politely
-interrupted: “Won’t you please give me the order in English?” RICH OLD
-FRANKFORT.
-
-
- FRANKFORT, GERMANY, July 24, 1905.
-
-This is one of the old and wealthy cities of Germany, with 300,000
-people and a fine country around about. It is the place the Rothschilds
-came from. A few years ago when the Populists were pretty much the
-whole thing in Kansas and to be against them was to be in the pay of
-the Rothschilds and the Great Red Dragon, I was on the Rothschilds’
-side, and never having received any compensation I thought I would call
-and see what was the matter. It was no trouble to find the Rothschild
-house, for it is described in every guidebook and is marked by an
-inscription on the front. The morning after we reached the city we
-went to formally make a call, and found the place to be an old and
-unpretentious building. I rang the bell and asked the little girl who
-came to the door if Mr. Rothschild was at home. She ran away and I went
-on in and part way up the stairs, when a man appeared and said “fifty
-pfennig.” I told him I was an old friend and merely wished to pay my
-respects—pay nothing else, not even fifty pfennig. I talked English
-and he talked German, but I had no difficulty in understanding that
-it would cost me 12½ cents American money to go through the house.
-This I declined to do, and unless the gentleman who wanted the fifty
-pfennig tells Mr. Rothschild I don’t suppose he will ever know I came.
-In fact, I was afterward told that none of the present members of the
-Rothschild family live in Frankfort, but have their homes in Vienna,
-Paris, and London, where they dictate the financial policy of the
-world. Only a little over a hundred years ago the law of Frankfort was
-that every night at sundown and on Sundays and feast days all Jews must
-stay in their own part of town, and the gates inclosing their section
-were locked until the following day. As an illustration of how rapidly
-the wheel of fortune turns I was told that now, although comprising
-but one-tenth of the population, the Jews handle three-fourths of the
-business, own over half the real estate, and hold most of the high and
-responsible positions in Frankfort, where their great grandfathers had
-no more show than a rabbit.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Goethe, the great German poet, was born in Frankfort, and we visited
-the house of his birth and boyhood. His father was a lawyer, but the
-poet could not help that. Young Goethe was a bright lad, and took to
-writing poetry as readily as he did to going with the girls; and he
-kept at both occupations all his life. A petty German prince took
-him under his patronage and Goethe never had to work for a living,
-so he went on writing poetry and having a good time until he died
-at the age of 83 years. The Germans love Goethe as the Americans do
-Longfellow, for he was a poet who loved his country, his countrymen
-and his country-women, and his works are full of sweet and patriotic
-sentiment as well as being beautiful in construction. Goethe and his
-friend Schiller and the literary crowd which followed their lead, made
-the German language classical and correct, and occupy the same place in
-German literature that Shakespeare does in English. The “Goethe house”
-here is under the charge of a historical society, and has been put in
-the same shape that it was when Goethe was a boy. It is an interesting
-place, for it is not only full of mementoes of the poet but of the time
-in which he lived.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The most interesting public buildings I have seen in Germany are here,
-the “Roemer,” a name applied to a group of twelve old and picturesque
-houses. In one of these the electors of the German empire (certain
-hereditary princes) would assemble to elect an emperor whenever there
-was a vacancy. After the election they would have a banquet and the
-fountain in the public square would run with red and white wine while
-the people cheered and drank the health of the new man. This was
-calculated to make the emperor very popular at least that night, but
-I wonder if the people were so enthusiastic when the headache came
-the next morning. These old buildings are well preserved. In fact,
-Frankfort is a city which takes good care of itself and is like a
-prosperous man. The most beautiful public garden I have seen is here,
-the Palm Garden, and a fine military band gives concerts afternoon and
-evening. Frankfort is not only well off, but old enough to enjoy the
-fact, and everywhere the city is made to look as handsome and be as
-comfortable as possible. The best and cheapest eating in Europe is in
-Frankfort, and that fact has made a deep and lasting impression on my
-heart.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-It is doubtless repeating what has been said before, but I cannot help
-wonder at the industry of the German farmers. Of course they were
-raised right on the place, and their fathers and forefathers were
-farmers. They probably don’t know anything else, and never expect to
-sell out and move to town. In this fertile Rhine country, where there
-seems to be a model climate, they irrigate the land as if it were arid
-and they fertilize and drain and cultivate with the hoe and rake.
-I never believed the story, but it is true. The wealth of a German
-farmer can be gauged by the size of the manure-pile in his front yard.
-No doubt when a German farmer brags on what he has done he does not
-refer to the purchase of a quarter-section of pasture land in the next
-township, but points with pride to the large and luxuriant heap of
-fertilizing substance which he can call his own. Instead of farming
-more land, he tries to get more out of what he has than he did, and his
-attempt is a success. He does not have a herd of cattle, but he has one
-or a half-dozen cows which live in the other end of the house, and are
-curried, fed and looked after as carefully as members of the family,
-perhaps more so. The cattle are good-looking, smooth and polished,
-evidently well bred, and certainly well taken care of. They are much
-better in appearance than the average of American cattle, but the care
-bestowed upon them easily accounts for the fact.
-
-Frankfort is geographically in Hesse, the old state from which George
-III. hired soldiers to fight the Americans. In the good old times a
-little over a hundred years ago, a German prince who was hard up for
-cash would rent out his soldiers to fight and be shot at. The pay went
-to the prince, not to the soldier. It is hard to believe that such
-things occurred only a comparatively short time ago, and yet they did.
-The Hessians did not understand American tactics and were not much of a
-success in our Revolution, but they were always good fighters in German
-wars, and the little state was a powerful one. Frankfort was a “free
-city,” and not under the active rule of the Hessian princes. For 500
-years it kept its independence of any local prince, but in 1866 it was
-annexed to Prussia. The time for the independent cities of Europe was
-ended.
-
-Besides Rothschild and Goethe, Frankfort is noted for the Frankfurter
-sausages. I was pleased to find that this was no legend. In Bologna,
-Italy, I was surprised to find no bologna, but Frankfort stood the
-test. There is also a house where it is said Luther preached a sermon
-while on his way to Worms. It is a tobacco-shop now.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In every German city there is an old bridge with a history. The old
-bridge at Frankfort across the Main river, which is a good big river
-and lined with freight boats, is mentioned in a document of 1222. It
-is constructed of red sandstone, and looks as if it would easily stand
-700 years more. A bridge like that is really worth more than an art
-gallery. The legend connected with the bridge is not so bad. It seems
-that the architect who drew the plans and supervised the construction
-had made a mistake in his calculations. He came to realize that the
-span would not hold weight, and he could see the ruin of the bridge
-and his own reputation mighty close at hand. Of course he was in a
-terrible state of mind, and when he was at his worst the Devil dropped
-in to see him. The Devil offered to show him how the defect could be
-remedied, the bridge built and his reputation saved, if he would sign
-a contract that the first who crossed the bridge should become the
-Devil’s property. The poor architect at first nobly refused, as most
-men do when tempted, and then fell, as men occasionally do. He signed
-the contract, the Devil pointed out the correction in the plan, and
-the great bridge was successfully finished. Then the architect had
-remorse (they always do afterward), and nearly went wild with thinking
-of what he had done. But the day the bridge was formally finished and
-turned over, before the mayor and city council could get into their
-carriages after the dedicating speeches, a rooster broke loose from a
-chicken-house, ran down the road, across the bridge and went to the
-Devil. Of course the Devil kicked, but the architect stood on the
-letter of the contract, and they all lived happy forever afterward.
-This legend is undoubtedly true, for on the middle of the bridge is an
-iron cross with a figure of Christ and on top of the cross is a bronze
-rooster.
-
-DOWN THE RHINE.
-
-
- COLOGNE, GERMANY, July 29, 1905.
-
-The words “Down the Rhine” have a strong significance to everyone who
-has read history, poetry, or romance. From the time when Cæsar crossed
-the Rhine to punish the warlike tribes for invading Gaul, down to the
-Franco-German war of 1870, every European war has been fought more
-or less in the valley of the Rhine. And for 2,000 years whenever the
-nations of Europe were not marching their armies to the Rhine, the
-petty princes, potentates and powers of the valley were fighting one
-another. The Rhine is the dividing line in Europe. Those who have read
-these letters to The News will appreciate the fact that instead of
-going to the large cities of Munich, Berlin and Hanover, we began with
-the Rhine as it flowed out of Lake Constance and plunged over the falls
-at Neuhausen, and have followed it through the Black Forest and Germany
-on its way “down north” to the sea, and will finally watch it mingle
-its blue into the great salt water at Rotterdam and The Hague.
-
-The last two days we have traveled by boat from Biebrich to Cologne,
-that part of the river which is called the scenic or “the castled
-Rhine,” the part of which poets have sung and around which history and
-fiction have woven stories and legends in every language. But the Rhine
-is not only useful for the poet and the historian; it is also a plain
-business proposition. I am told and I believe that the Rhine carries
-more traffic than any other river in the world. It flows through a rich
-agricultural country, is lined with important cities, and especially
-with manufacturing places. Freight rates on the water are cheap.
-Products of the farm or vineyard, the shop or mill, placed on the
-boats, are carried with only one transfer to all the great markets of
-the world.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-And now imagine the beautiful Rhine gliding among high hills, with
-every few miles a handsome castle or the picturesque ruins of one, with
-a busy railroad running on each bank, passenger and freight trains as
-frequent as suburban trains near Chicago, and two endless processions
-of steamboats, tugs and barges, one going up and one going down. That
-is the Rhine of to-day. The hills and castles reminiscent of the past,
-the black smoke of the furnaces and the shrill whistle of the engine
-the reminders of the present. You have to shut your eyes to see either
-the historic or the beautiful and keep them from “telescoping” into the
-practical present. And I will admit that the boats and the boatmen,
-the passengers and the freight interested me more than the dead-walls
-and the ivy-covered towers. If you think it over you will realize how
-castles and ruins pall upon your taste. When we began the trip we
-would rush from one side of the boat to the other to see a castle and
-hardly went below for lunch for fear we might miss a lofty summit or
-a breasted fortress. At the close of the trip a broken-down abbey or
-a roofless castle had no charms that would compare with a comfortable
-seat and a cigar. I remember well one of the last and largest castles
-we passed, one I had read of and looked forward to seeing. A friend
-enthusiastically exclaimed: “There is the Drachenfels on the other
-side!” And my coarse nature revolted, and I murmured that if the
-Drachenfels wanted me to see it, the Drachenfels would have to come
-around to my side of the boat. My neck was tired.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Really a homeopathic dose of Rhine castles would be very interesting. A
-thousand years ago some baron would build a big stone fortress high up
-on a hill overlooking the Rhine, and up to the discovery of gunpowder
-it was practically impregnable. The baron and his followers, according
-to the rules of the game, would divide their time between rescuing
-lovely maidens from giants and robbing the merchants and traders who
-passed by. I never heard of a knight or baron who worked for a living.
-History is filled with tales of deeds the old knights did for religion
-or for some fair lady, but it is silent or passes over lightly the
-fact that they made their money by robbery and murder, disguised under
-the name of expeditions, crusades, knight-errantry, and war. But when
-the inventive genius of man made a gun that would shoot through armor
-and discovered that gunpowder could knock down forts, the days of
-chivalry and highway robbery on the Rhine were over. The merchants and
-artisans no longer had to hire armies to protect their property and
-their families, and the rule of force was followed by the rule of
-shrewdness, a change which may not have brought perfection, but has
-resulted in a show of decency, fairness and honesty.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-A few old castles transported from the Rhine to Cow creek or the Kaw
-would be helpful to the landscape of Kansas. But there would be no use
-of stringing them out for a hundred miles. A castle a thousand years
-old is interesting, always provided your imagination is good. The best
-way to enjoy castles is to believe everything the books and guides
-tell you. I am getting fascinated with the legends, although I think
-I can unfasten. Now here is a choice legend of the castles of the Two
-Brothers, which stand on neighboring hills and which I saw early:
-
-
-THE TWO BROTHERS.
-
-Once upon a time there were two brothers, both as valiant and noble
-knights as ever wore armor or robbed a traveler. Unfortunately they
-fell in love with the same girl, and as she couldn’t accept both and
-had to say she would “always be a sister” to the other, the tension in
-the family circle got very tight. Finally the elder brother saw that
-the maiden loved the younger best, so he put his broken heart in his
-pocket, gave the pair his blessing and lit out for the crusades. In
-those days whenever a man lost out in love or was in danger of being
-hung for crime, he went to the crusades. The younger brother was very
-happy for a while, but he happened to visit another country and there
-he fell in love with another girl, just as much and as eternally in
-love with her as with the first one. The second girl was wise or else
-she had been warned of the young man’s record, for she announced the
-engagement and the marriage followed soon. Girl No. 1 went to a convent
-with an aching heart, everybody settled down, and even the neighbors
-quit talking. Just at that time the elder brother returned from the
-crusades, and when he heard what had happened he thought it was awful.
-He went to his brother’s castle and challenged him to fight a duel.
-The younger brother was worked up over the interference of the family
-in his private affairs and was anxious to fight. The two knights met
-in a plum-patch back of the convent and prepared to settle which was
-right. Just as they drew their swords the original girl, who had been
-informed of what was going on by some busybody, rushed out of the gate,
-threw herself between the brothers and begged them not to fight for her
-sake. She made such a good talk that they shook hands and took a drink
-together as a sign that it was all over. The elder brother offered to
-marry the girl in the convent, but she refused. The wife of the younger
-brother ran off with another chivalrous knight and the two brothers
-were left alone in the world. They built the two castles side by side,
-and spent all their days together hunting deer and wealthy travelers,
-and died without ever flirting with another woman (so the legend says).
-The ruins of the two castles side by side are evidence of the truth of
-the story.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration: THE LEGEND OF COW CREEK.]
-
-“Fair Bingen on the Rhine” was somewhat of a disappointment. Thousands
-and tens of thousands of American girls and boys have stood up in
-front of the school on Friday afternoons, scared stiff with the awful
-prospect of forgetting the next word, and told their school-mates:
-
- “A soldier of the legion lay dying in Algiers,
- There was lack of woman’s nursing,
- There was dearth of woman’s tears.”
-
-And when the same moon shone there that shone on fair Bingen on the
-Rhine, those countless American youths have breathed a sigh for the
-soldier and several sighs over getting through. Bingen is a good sort
-of manufacturing town, and the fact that the poet selected the name
-because of its rhythm and not because it fitted the situation accounts
-for the success of the poem. After some reflection on the subject among
-the storied regions of Europe I have come to the conclusion that it is
-the romancer and the singer who make a country great and interesting,
-and not any special merit of the place itself. If Cow creek had a few
-legend-writers in a few years it would rank with the Rhine, the Black
-Forest, and even the fields of old England. How would this do for a Cow
-creek legend, _a la_ Europe?
-
-
-LEGEND OF COW CREEK.
-
-Once upon a time there lived on the creek a wealthy old farmer who
-had a beautiful daughter. The fame of her beauty spread all the way
-to Sterling and down to Pretty Prairie, and many young men aspired to
-the honor of her hand in marriage. Among those who loved her was a
-neighbor boy who had nothing to his credit but a good name and a rare
-ability to make speeches before the literary society which met every
-other Friday night at the school-house. As the good name was no good
-on a check, he knew the old farmer would not listen to his suit but
-would likely kick him into the middle of next week if he asked him for
-his daughter. So all the poor young man could do was to see her home
-occasionally after church and talk about the soulfulness of love and
-the communion of congenial souls. The young lady really preferred the
-aforesaid young man, but as she did not want to undertake the job of
-making a living for two or more, and she knew her father would never
-consent to taking him to board, she could only sigh and pine and sit in
-the shade of a cottonwood tree and dream of love. At last the father
-told his beautiful daughter that he had selected a husband for her, a
-man from Nickerson, a man who owned two sections of land and a lot of
-oil stock, but who could not tell the difference between true love and
-a pain in his side. That night the two young people met down by the
-creek bank and she told him of the fate in store for her unless he got
-a move on himself. Their plan was formed. That night the lover braced
-himself with a good “bracer” and met the maiden behind the barn. Away
-they went toward the county seat with high hopes and enough cash to
-purchase a marriage license. Suddenly they heard the gentle murmur of
-the father, who had discovered the elopers and was telling the people
-for miles around what he would do to the son of a gun who was running
-off with his daughter. It was a race for love and for life, but the old
-man was getting the best of it and the lovers could hear him as he was
-overtaking them. They came to the creek, which was on its annual flood,
-and then they gave themselves up for lost. But the young man happened
-to look around and saw an old cow. An idea came into his head. He drove
-the cow into the creek and each of them grabbed her tail. She swam
-straight to the other side while the old man stood on the bank cursing
-a blue streak. Away they went to town and were married by the probate
-judge before the flood went down and the old man could get across.
-
-There was nothing for the father to do but to give them his blessing
-and eighty acres of sand-hill land, on which they lived happily ever
-afterward. The stream which thus saved the lives and loves of those two
-young people has been called Cow creek ever since.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-If the people of Kansas will take a few stories like the above, have
-them trimmed up and embellished, tell them to visitors and charge
-admission to see the relics, they will have as good a collection of
-legends as ever grew on the Rhine.
-
-COLOGNE WATER AND OTHERS.
-
-
- COLOGNE, GERMANY, July 29, 1905.
-
-This is the place the eau de cologne habit started. There are over
-forty manufacturers who advertise themselves as “the original house”
-that first made this perfumed water. A few miles below here on the
-Rhine is the Apollinaris spring. I always supposed Apollinaris water
-came from the drug store, but there really is an original spring. It
-got its name from St. Apollinaris, who was a prominent church-worker a
-thousand years ago, and had his head chopped off by the heathen. The
-head is still preserved in a church and his name goes marching on with
-a label on the bottle. The highest cathedral I have seen in Europe is
-at Cologne, the top of the spire being 510 feet above the ground. It is
-a beautiful cathedral of Gothic architecture. The plans were made and a
-good part of the structure completed about eight hundred years before
-it was finished, the latter part of the job being done only a few years
-ago. The legend of the beginning of the cathedral is very authentic.
-The architect had spent several years on the drawings, but was not able
-to finish them satisfactorily to himself or the building committee.
-One night he had a dream, and in the vision saw just what had been
-lacking. But when he awoke he could not remember the design, and as is
-usual in such cases he said he would give anything to have it. The
-Devil promptly showed up and offered to reveal the wonderful plan if
-the architect would sign a contract to give in payment his own soul and
-also the soul of the first who should enter the church after it was
-completed. The architect tried to beat the Devil down on the price,
-but could not, and finally signed. The Devil lived up to his part
-of the contract, and the completed plans were so beautiful that the
-church authorities and the emperor and the city council were unanimous
-in declaring the architect the greatest man in his profession. As
-the church neared completion the architect began to worry. He took
-to drink, and went around carousing so that his friends thought he
-was crazy. Finally he confessed to the archbishop and it got into the
-newspapers, so the community was stirred up. No one was willing to be
-the first to go into the church, and yet if the great cathedral was to
-amount to anything, somebody must enter it. Finally a bad woman who was
-confined in jail sent word to the church board that she would be the
-victim. After due deliberation, and believing that she would go to the
-Devil anyhow, they accepted her offer. The day of dedication came. The
-people gathered from far and near. A carriage drove from the police
-station and backed up to the church door. Out of the wagon and into the
-building dashed a female form and the Devil in great glee grabbed, and
-broke its neck. But it was only a pig which the smart bad woman had
-fixed up in her clothes. So the Devil was cheated, the cathedral was
-dedicated, and all went right except for the architect, who was found
-with a broken neck and smelling of sulphur, for the Devil in his rage
-didn’t do a thing to him.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Cologne has over 300,000 inhabitants and is a very busy city. This
-morning we went to the market. The grocery stores in Cologne and in
-all the German cities I have visited practically never keep green
-groceries. Everything of that kind is bought at the public market,
-which is a very interesting sight. From all the country around come
-the farmers and the farmers’ wives with the produce of the garden, and
-from all over the city come the housewives or the maids, each with
-a big basket. The trading is brisk, and as it is nearly all done by
-women on both sides, there is some talk and the shopping habit is seen
-in all its glory. Then there is the fish market, the flower market,
-the poultry market, and even the old-clothes market. I am sure that
-in the big market-house and on the streets and the square in Cologne
-this morning there were two thousand vendors of goods, from potatoes to
-second-hand hats and from luscious fruit to old candle-sticks,—nearly
-everything conceivable that could be brought to the open-air market and
-sold. The market is still retained in a few old American towns, but to
-me it is a novelty with a never-fading charm, and in nearly every city
-where I have stopped the market has been a sight that I did not miss.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Next to the market the restaurant or beer- and wine-garden is the place
-to see the people. The Germans eat breakfast, dinner at noon, supper
-at 6 o’clock, and once more about 10 o’clock. From 7 o’clock to 10
-o’clock the whole family sits in the public garden drinking beer or
-wine (not much, but long), listening to the music and getting hungry
-for the fourth meal of the day. There are restaurants everywhere—in
-the public buildings, the art galleries, the churches, on the
-sidewalks, and in the parks. I have not been to a German cemetery, but
-I would confidently expect to find there a garden with tables where one
-could get something to eat and drink.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The valley of the Rhine for more than a hundred miles is one vast
-vineyard, and the word valley includes the hillsides. The hills are
-high. The vines begin close to the water’s edge, the vineyards being
-sometimes terraced and sometimes on a slope so steep that the men and
-women who cultivate them must wear climbers like telegraph linemen.
-It is a beautiful sight at this season of the year with the lofty
-heights clothed in green and pointing up into the blue sky, with brown
-old ruined taverns and castles and white châteaus and villas here and
-there among the green. One would wonder what could be done with all
-the grapes that must come from such a great vineyard if he did not
-look around him and see everybody drinking the juice and evidently
-endeavoring to keep pace with the production. At Coblentz the Moselle
-river joins the Rhine, and it is another charming valley full of
-history, poetry and grapes. Coblentz is old and quaint, with narrow
-streets, old-fashioned people, and the appearance of ancient days.
-On this trip I have seen a good deal of the German people. The class
-distinctions are about all that make them different from Americans. The
-poor folks always expect to be poor and do not move around with the
-aggressive action that ours do. I suppose I talked with a hundred, and
-every one of them wanted to come to America. Mechanics and artisans,
-very skillful, are not altogether satisfied with conditions, and they,
-too, talk America. But the great middle class of farmers and merchants
-are as full of patriotism and conceit as are true American citizens.
-They think Germany is the greatest nation on earth, and that all the
-countries will eventually admit the fact and take subordinate places.
-They don’t like America or England, and they expect sometime to have
-war with us unless we give up easier than they anticipate. The typical
-German is not slow or easy-going, as he is often painted, but is
-energetic, pushing and “chesty.” He thinks Germany can lick the United
-States with one hand tied behind, and is ready to have the work begin
-any time. In fact, Germans are just as offensively and ignorantly
-patriotic as are Americans, which is saying a good deal, for Americans
-in Europe nearly always go around with a chip on either shoulder,
-daring somebody to knock it off.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-But the Germans are gentlemen. For the first time since I left Paris
-I saw men in the street cars give their seats to ladies. In Italy the
-rule is for the man to have first consideration. It makes American
-women furious when they meet Italian men on the narrow sidewalks to
-have to get off into the streets and let the gentlemen pass by. But
-they must do it or the men will simply walk over them. In Germany the
-women in the country work in the fields and in the cities they are in
-the shops and offices more than in the United States, but they are
-treated decently and politely. The German is in fact more polite than
-the Frenchman. He even tips his hat to his man friends. If I go into
-a store to buy a cigar the proprietor or clerk who waits on me will
-say “good-morning” and “good-by.” They do this with one another, and
-do not keep their company manners for strangers. German hotels are the
-best in Europe, and one of the customs is during the meal at hotel or
-restaurant for the proprietor to walk around and pleasantly greet his
-patrons, whether he knows them or not, on the comfortable theory that
-they are his guests. Germans are always willing to guide and advise
-strangers and they don’t take “tips,” at least not any more than in
-America. Germany is wealthy and prosperous as a nation and the Germans
-one meets when traveling are about the best folks you find in Europe.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In Germany a landlord advertises his hotel as “first-class” or
-“second-class.” The second-class hotels are clean and good, but they
-have some mighty funny names. I had learned in England not to get
-worried over the signs of “The Red Lion,” “The White Bull,” etc. But
-German hotel-keepers go still further. They name their places after
-animals of all kinds and colors, and often saints and imaginary
-creatures. The Golden Calf, The Winged Lion, The House of the Weaned
-Calf, The Wild Man, were some of the names, but at Heidelberg one
-extreme was reached by the “Hotel Jesus,” and at Worms the other
-extreme by the “Hotel of the Two Pairs of Drawers.” I suppose every
-name has a story or a legend behind it and the name is a valuable asset
-of the property. Speaking of names reminds me that here in Cologne the
-street that leads to the market-place is called “Kingdom of Heaven
-street,” and not far away is the “Grace of God street.” I can see how
-these names might be properly used in Kansas, but they are out of place
-in Cologne.
-
-HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.
-
-IN DUTCH LAND.
-
-
- AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND, July 31, 1905.
-
-The kingdom of Holland is a little bit of a country, but it has exerted
-a great influence in history. In size it is 12,650 square miles, not
-as large as the Seventh congressional district of Kansas, but it has
-over 5,000,000 inhabitants and is busy from one end to the other. The
-greater part lies below the level of the sea, which borders it on the
-west and has been literally reclaimed from the water by the energy
-and work of the people. The Hollanders are the Dutch, and they have a
-saying: “God made the sea, but we made the land.” The water is held
-back by immense dikes, and here in Amsterdam I look toward the sea and
-the great lot of shipping along the quay is higher than the tops of
-many of the houses; that is, the water is higher than the roofs in the
-town. The industry which has thus driven back and held back the sea has
-made little Holland a wealthy nation and Dutch capital has not only
-built up business at home, but it has gone into the farthermost parts
-of the earth, even to Missouri and Arkansas, constructed railroads,
-started factories and earned dividends or gone into the hands of
-receivers in large amounts. The country is covered with canals about as
-Kansas is with section-line roads. These canals are used for commerce,
-carrying freight cheaply, and for drainage, irrigation, and in place
-of fences. Every farm has its little canal leading to a main canal
-as a farmer’s road in Kansas goes out to the main traveled road. The
-farmer brings his stuff to town in a canal-boat, and a farm-wagon
-is almost as rare a sight in Holland as a canal-boat is in Kansas.
-In wet seasons the canals are used as drains and in dry seasons as
-irrigating-ditches. Canals are built above the level of the land, so
-that irrigation is easy, and for drainage the water is collected in
-ditches and pumped up into the canals. All of these facts I had read
-about, as has everyone else, but to actually see such a country was
-like a dream come true.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-There is more sky in Holland than anywhere else. The land is flatter
-than a Kansas prairie. The scenery would be absolutely nothing if it
-were not for the works of man upon the surface. There are no hills in
-Holland, no rushing streams, no picturesque bits of nature. Some of
-the land looks lower than the rest, but none looks higher, and the
-water from the big rivers that enter Holland on the east simply oozes
-through the soil and canals, without a perceptible current and really
-without river-beds or water-courses. The Rhine spreads out until it is
-fifty miles wide, but it is no longer a river,—merely a network of
-canals which it supplies with water, and its old channels are now made
-by dikes and drainage into farms and town-sites. The landscape thus
-becomes a flat, fertile country, mostly farmed in grass and pastured
-with cattle and sheep, a lace-work of canals in shiny streaks running
-in every direction, narrow red brick houses with white trimmings,
-and windmills which tower above everything else and stand like giant
-sentinels over the low and level country. These windmills are big,
-fifty to a hundred feet high, the lower part usually used as dwellings,
-constructed as strongly and stoutly as government buildings, and
-with four immense arms or sails which convert the Dutch zephyrs into
-horsepower. The windmills are used for grinding grain, sawing lumber
-and in all kinds of manufacturing, as well as to pump water from the
-low ground to the canals and into the sea. A Kansas windmill compared
-to a Dutch windmill would be like a straw beside an oak tree.
-
-Very often in Europe I have been compelled to draw on my imagination to
-make the actual facts come within speaking distance of what had been
-written or promised about a country. Not so in Holland. Everything I
-have ever read about dikes, canals and windmills is true, and nothing
-you have been able to imagine is beyond the real existing condition and
-appearance.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Yes, there is one thing, and I wonder if other people would feel the
-same way. In the pictures and on the china the windmills, the cows and
-even the people have always been blue. Of course I knew better, but
-when I found that a Holland landscape was not blue and white, I felt as
-if I had been deceived. The sky is blue, but the windmills are browned
-with exposure, the cows are black-and-white, and the people are not
-any more blue in Holland than they are in Newton.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The ride from Cologne, Germany, to Amsterdam, down the valley of
-the Rhine, which is no longer picturesque or lined with castles and
-legends, gave me my introduction to Holland. Most of it is the kind of
-country in which a traveler can enjoy reading a good book. After the
-first enthusiastic demonstration over windmills,—and they are more
-numerous than telegraph posts along the Santa Fe,—and the excitement
-of watching canal-boats having died out, Holland is not a country
-that causes thrills. There is a strange effect created on seeing a
-canal-boat in a canal a little distance off. You see a sailboat or a
-steamboat apparently sailing right through a pasture. You can’t see the
-water, and the effect is as if ships were really gliding over the grass
-and fields.
-
-The canals are generally at least fifty feet wide and at least six feet
-deep. There are many good-sized boats. The power used is of different
-kinds: steam, sails, horses, men, women. Steamboats are numerous. Sails
-are used on nearly all, at least to help. Very often a man is hitched
-to a rope and sometimes a woman, with a regular harness so that the
-pull comes on the breast and shoulders. Dogs are not used to haul
-canal-boats, but they are the usual motive-power in the towns for small
-delivery-wagons, milk-wagons and the like.
-
-[Illustration: CANALLING IN HOLLAND—THE EXTENSION OF WOMAN’S SPHERE.]
-
-The people of Holland, especially outside the cities, stick to their
-old peculiar costumes better than do the people of any other country
-in Europe that I have seen. The originals of the quaint Dutch pictures
-are here and numerous. The women wear the foolish bonnets, funny short
-full skirts, woolen stockings and wooden shoes, and the men the odd
-hats, clothes that bag between the hips and knees, and the wooden
-shoes that turn up like sled-runners. The wooden shoes are not worn
-in the house, but shaken off as the person enters and a pair of cloth
-shoes substituted. I suppose that is a ground rule made by the Dutch
-housewives, whose propensity for scrubbing and cleanliness is well
-known. But in spite of the deserved reputation, I do not think that
-Holland is as clean a country as it is advertised. The canals are close
-to being stagnant water, and as all the dirt and sewage goes into
-them there is an odor about Holland that comes near the smell you get
-from old cheese. Especially in the towns and cities where the canals
-form the principal streets, I can’t escape the idea that they are a
-good deal like open sewers. The water is changed by pumping, but not
-often, and after it stands a while over the stuff thrown in one would
-think from the noticeable odor that it would breed sickness. They say
-it is not very bad, but it would cause a big kick in America—the
-newspapers would go after the city council a plenty for permitting such
-a nuisance.
-
-A good deal has been said and written in the United States of recent
-years in regard to the “emancipation of women.” The extension of civil
-and legal rights to persons of the female sex has been properly the
-subject of general congratulation. The club movement has done a great
-work in forcing a recognition of the work of women equally with the
-work of men. Prior to coming to Europe I had supposed that the women of
-the United States had made more progress along these lines than those
-of any other country. But I was mistaken. The women of Europe are far
-ahead of the women of America in the equality of the sexes. A women
-in continental Europe not only has the right to go out in the field
-and labor, but she can work on the roads, and she can engage in any
-business that a man can. In Italy I saw women harnessed alongside of
-dogs and in Holland I find them harnessed to canal-boats, the same as
-men. If there is any kind of work in Europe that a man can do in which
-women cannot and do not engage I have not discovered it, except the
-occupation of wearing military uniforms. The mercantile and shopkeeping
-business is almost entirely given over to women, and the right to carry
-trunks, shine shoes, sell papers and act as porters is not denied them.
-The men seem to be perfectly willing to let the women do the work, and
-the emancipation seems to have been accomplished without trouble of any
-kind.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The Dutch language is more like the English than like the German, with
-which it is classed. With my little knowledge of German I can read the
-Dutch signs and make a stagger at the newspapers, for there is more
-English than German in the written words. But the Dutch as a spoken
-language is like neither the German nor English. When two Dutchmen have
-a social, quiet chat it sounds like a buzz-saw. I can usually make a
-Dutchman understand me, but when it comes to my grasping the meaning of
-his talk I had as soon try to interpret the remarks of a file. It is
-ridiculous the way you have to change language every few hours’ ride
-in Europe. But I quit trying when I came to the Dutch. They will have
-to talk English or make signs in order to get my money; and again I am
-brought to the conclusion that no matter what is the language of the
-country, “money talks.”
-
-
-
-
-THE DAM DUTCH TOWNS.
-
-
- THE HAGUE, HOLLAND, Aug. 2, 1905.
-
-Before leaving Amsterdam we took a trip through several little Dutch
-villages and to the island of Maarken, where the fisher-people continue
-to wear their eighteenth-century costumes in the progressive, stylish
-twentieth century. As a very pleasing incident of this journey we
-happened to reach Maarken at the same time with Queen Wilhelmina, so we
-not only got to see a live queen but in the excitement in the village
-escaped the attention usually given to American tourists by a thrifty
-people who have curios to sell. Queen Wilhelmina was a disappointment.
-I had been prepared to see a charming girlish sovereign, and I guess
-I was looking for something like a bright American girl with her hair
-hanging down her back. The queen is only 24 years old, but she looks
-30. She wore a cheap-looking white suit which probably cost 30 cents
-a yard, American money. Her face was faded and so was her hat. She
-has large feet, wears coarse shoes, and her stockings wrinkled around
-the ankle like a fisherwoman’s. The stolidity of the Dutch was too
-much for me. The queen walked through the village, and while everybody
-turned out to see her there was not a cheer. When she passed the little
-group of a half-dozen Americans we took off our hats and gave a loud
-hurrah, just to show our friendship. She didn’t smile or look around,
-and we felt as cheap as she looked. In appearance she is sad and
-uninteresting. In America a governor or a president would have smiled
-and spoken cheerfully. But the queen of Holland does not have to run
-for reëlection, and I suppose that has a salutary effect on American
-statesmen. I will confess right now that my observations of European
-nobility have been made at a distance. I have not been mingling with
-the dukes and counts, but have received most of my impressions from
-the hotel clerks, the hackmen, the store-keepers and the workingmen.
-They are always glad to talk or make signs to Americans, and I have
-not met one laboring man who did not say he wanted to come to America.
-In the smoking-rooms and around the hotels I have talked some with
-the so-called “upper classes.” They don’t like America or England. I
-think the rulers of continental Europe and all the lords and valets are
-afraid America and England are going to combine with Japan and rule
-the world. The leading newspapers are full of that kind of talk, and
-while it is laughable to find that they think the American people are
-planning an invasion of Europe, it has a satisfactory side in the fact
-that it shows they think we could do it if we tried. The ruling classes
-are hostile politically to America. On the other hand, the working
-people are very friendly. The kings and nobles know that their jobs
-would not last long under American ideas. And the workingmen think that
-America means a chance to earn more than a mere living. Both classes
-have instinctively taken a position on the American question, and I
-don’t blame them.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Amsterdam is the biggest city in Holland and is the capital, but the
-queen and court reside at The Hague. Amsterdam is rich in commerce,
-but is beneath the level of the sea, rather unsightly, and perhaps
-unhealthy. The Hague is about as high as the sea-level and is on
-real land, not the drained and reclaimed sort. It has some beautiful
-streets and thousands of acres of woods which are kept in comparatively
-original condition and used for parks and drives. The two cities are
-only an hour’s ride apart, and The Hague is becoming the residence city
-for wealthy Dutchmen. Amsterdam is one of the financial centers of
-the world. The Hague is one of the political centers of the world. On
-account of its size Holland is not considered dangerous, and therefore
-presents a convenient meeting-place for international conferences. We
-visited the palace known as “The House in the Woods,” where the peace
-conference was held in 1899, on the suggestion of the czar of Russia,
-and in which twenty-six governments were represented. The actual result
-was not much, but an international court at The Hague was provided to
-which nations can submit disputed questions if they wish, and probably
-after the Japs get through with the czar so he can call another peace
-conference, further steps will be taken to prevent or mitigate the
-horrors of war. Andrew Carnegie, the same gentleman who put up the
-money for the Hutchinson public library, has promised $1,500,000
-to erect an international court-house at The Hague which will be a
-suitable place for what might be called an international supreme court.
-One great weight which every European power has holding down its
-progress is the necessity of maintaining a large standing army and thus
-withdrawing from active production a big per cent. of its workers. The
-governments of Europe know this and talk of “disarming,” but each one
-is afraid the others won’t do it. And I also have a guess coming that
-some of the kings and queens would worry a little over the future of
-their jobs if they did not have the big armies at their command.
-
-The Dutch are a hard-working lot. They get up earlier than the people
-of any other country I have seen in Europe. And as the entire family
-works, from the grandmother to the dog, they accumulate wealth as a
-nation and as individuals. The ordinary dwelling is part of the store,
-the shop, the barn or the windmill, so that the women-folks can do
-their part of the labor and not lose much time going back and forth.
-Whenever the women are not attending to the farm or the shop they are
-scrubbing. The smell of good strong soap is one of the real Dutch
-landmarks as much as a windmill or a canal.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-From Amsterdam we went to Edam and Monnikendam and Volendam and
-Zaandam, and from here we go to Rotterdam and through several other
-dams. The affix “dam” means bridge or embankment, and in a country of
-canals it is not surprising that nearly all the names of towns end
-with dam, Amsterdam being on the bank of the Amsel river, and so on.
-When I was a boy I heard the story of the teacher who was having her
-class give sentences containing the words they were learning to spell.
-One day they came to the word “cofferdam,” and the teacher asked the
-bright boy of the class to frame a sentence illustrating the use of the
-word. He wrote on the blackboard: “Our old cow thought some sawdust was
-bran, and if she don’t look out she will cofferdam head off.” The word
-“dam” is not a cuss-word in Dutch. If it were, all the dam towns would
-be printed with a dash for the last syllable.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The history of Holland has about as much trouble in it as that of any
-country. It was not much of a nation during the dark and medieval
-ages, as there was no such state, but a number of petty vassal lords
-and bishops. About 1500 a Holland count got the title of Prince of
-Orange by marrying a French heiress. The principal ruler in Holland was
-the count of Burgundy, but the Dutch cities developed along business
-lines and were to a certain extent independent of kings and emperors,
-although nominally a part of the German empire. In the sixteenth
-century Philip of Spain inherited the sovereignty of the country, and
-by his bigoted and cruel rule started a civil war in 1568 which lasted
-eighty years and ended in the independence of Holland. During that war
-the Dutch had to have a leader, and so they elected William, prince of
-Orange, as stadtholder, or governor. Under his management the war was
-fought successfully, and when he was assassinated his son was elected
-stadtholder. The Dutch were divided into two parties, the Democratic
-and Aristocratic, and when Spain was defeated there was trouble
-between them. The so-called Dutch Republic was only an aristocracy,
-the privilege of participating in the government being restricted to a
-privileged class of small nobles and wealthy families. The office of
-stadtholder was elective, but generally went to the Oranges. Holland by
-its wise statesmanship and a strong navy was a world-power for a while,
-and in alliance with England and Sweden generally defeated the French
-and Spanish, and when there was war with England the Dutchmen held
-their own. Finally William III. of Orange became king of England, and
-the Dutch Republic lost its prestige. In the eighteenth century it was
-a tail to the English kite, and in 1806 Napoleon made his brother king
-of Holland and five years later annexed the country to France. After
-Napoleon’s defeat the European powers created the kingdom of Holland,
-joined Belgium to it, and made William of Orange king of the united
-country. The Belgians broke away in 1830, and since that time Holland
-has been a monarchy, although the power is with the people.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I was much struck with the apparent lack of loyalty to the queen.
-In England everybody is loyal to King Edward because he not only
-represents the sovereignty of the nation, but he stands for the English
-constitution, rights of parliament and the people, and the king is the
-result of centuries of English thought and political action. But the
-Dutch have been without a king most of their history and they don’t
-feel the reverence for the crown that the English do. Wilhelmina is
-not very popular, and her husband, who is a second-rate German prince
-that never mixes with the people and is said to be mean to his wife, is
-not liked at all. The Dutch cities have practical self-government, and
-it would not be surprising if after the death of Wilhelmina or in the
-event of some political upheaval the Dutch Republic would be revived on
-a broader basis than before.
-
- * * * * *
-
- ROTTERDAM, HOLLAND, Aug. 3, 1905.
-
-To-day we came to Delft, where the Delft china does not come from
-any more, and from there to Rotterdam in a canal-boat. Riding in a
-canal-boat is a very pleasant way of traveling. If you want to get
-off, the boat simply runs up close to the bank and you make it with a
-jump—one jump is better than two. You glide along through the pastures
-and back yards and see the women scrubbing, the men smoking and the
-dogs pulling the carts. When you come to a low bridge everybody lies
-down flat until the boat is beyond it. Our canal-boat was propelled by
-steam, and we went flying along at the rate of five or six miles an
-hour, but still with plenty of time to inspect the country and visit
-with the people on the other boats if we could only have talked their
-language. As a cure for nervousness or as an antidote for being in a
-hurry I recommend a trip on a canal-boat.
-
-Delft is a quaint old town, with old churches and clean canals. Two
-hundred years ago the manufacture of porcelain made the town famous,
-but for a hundred years the business was suspended and now most of the
-Delft china is made in New Jersey. Recently a factory has been started
-and real Delft ware can be obtained, but the American kind is just as
-good.
-
-The canal-boat brought us through the town of Schiedam, where the
-celebrated Dutch “schnapps” is made. They tell me schnapps is closely
-related to that brand of American whisky which will make a man climb a
-tree. There are 200 distilleries in Schiedam. The Dutch are given to
-strong drinks rather than beer. The result is that the Dutch get wildly
-and meanly drunk, whereas the Germans merely get fat.
-
-Near Rotterdam we canalled by Delfthaven. This is the place from which
-the Pilgrims sailed for North America in 1620. They stopped en route
-in England, but their original start was from here. They had come to
-Holland from England in order to secure freedom of worship, but they
-were still Englishmen and did not want to become Dutch. So they secured
-a promise that they would not be disturbed in the New World, and left
-their Holland home. If they had stayed in Delfthaven there would have
-been no New England, no Bunker Hill, no United States. But they did not
-stay. THE KINGDOM OF BELGIUM.
-
-
- BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, Aug. 5, 1905.
-
-I do not suppose other people are as ignorant as I was, but I will
-admit that in my mind I have always lumped off Holland and Belgium
-together as two countries with the same kind of people, the same
-language, the same habits and generally the same government. This
-is a great mistake. Holland and Belgium are about as unlike as the
-United States and Mexico. Holland is Dutch, with a language related
-to the German and English, and with Teutonic characteristics. Belgium
-is allied to France, the people speaking French or a kind of French,
-and with traits of character like the Parisians. Holland and Belgium
-have never agreed well politically and have never lived together
-harmoniously. When the allies had defeated Napoleon they created the
-kingdom of Holland and Belgium and tried to tie the two together.
-The combination lasted just fifteen years, and in 1830 the Belgians
-revolted, declared their independence and fought successfully to make
-it good. This year they are celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary
-of Belgian independence. Two hundred years ago the king of Spain
-was sovereign over both countries. Holland threw off the yoke and
-did business on its own account, while Belgium failed and remained
-the property of Spain or Austria down to the time of Napoleon.
-The Hollanders drink “schnapps” and the Belgians drink wine. The
-Hollanders are Protestant in religion and the Belgians are Catholics.
-Except for the fact that they are side by side along the North sea and
-are flat and low, the two countries differ in about everything possible.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The largest city in Belgium is Antwerp, located on the Scheldt river a
-little way from the sea, and with one of the largest and best harbors
-of Europe. During the Middle Ages Antwerp was a great commercial
-city, monopolizing much of the trade with the Orient, and being known
-everywhere for its wealth and business. In the eighteenth century,
-under Spanish and Austrian rule, the city lost its standing and went
-down to about 40,000 population. During the nineteenth century it had
-a boom; now there are 355,000 inhabitants and Antwerp looks like a
-great American city,—with many wide avenues, beautiful buildings, and
-handsome stores. Aside from the fact that the streets are often narrow,
-a modern city in Europe looks better than one of the same size and
-standing in America. The Europeans have better ideas of architecture,
-put up their buildings more substantially and with more regard to their
-appearance, and have less of the cheap and shoddy construction than
-we do. I suppose we have as good architects in America as in Belgium,
-but I know of no city in our country where the business blocks are
-so elegant or so well built. Our folks build in a hurry. Over here
-they build for centuries, because they have already had centuries and
-know that is the way to do. I haven’t seen a frame house except in
-Switzerland. When people build with stone they are apt to put the work
-there to stay. And these modern European cities, by which I mean cities
-which have kept pace with the world’s growth and are not simply living
-on history and tourists, have many large squares with monuments and
-fountains, parks with gardens and boulevards with drives,—all over the
-city, not simply where the rich folks live as in some American cities.
-I reckon I am as conceited about my country as anybody, but I get it
-taken out of me every now and then, and modern city-building is one of
-the places. It would pay our town-builders to take a little more time
-and do better, more substantial and more tasteful work.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Brussels is the capital of Belgium. If all the suburbs were taken in as
-in Chicago and New York, it would have a half-million people. It has
-the reputation of being one of the handsomest cities of Europe, and is
-called “the second Paris.” It has many wide avenues, beautiful shops,
-and the people, like those of Paris, are great on having a good time.
-Nearly every other store in Brussels is a lace store, and most of the
-rest are jewelry stores. There are said to be 150,000 women in Brussels
-and vicinity making lace for sale, and they are paid by the shops
-for which they work about 20 cents a day. The country round about is
-fertile, but the farming is more what we would call market gardening.
-The picturesque costumes have disappeared, and the Belgians dress and
-act more like French and Americans than any other European people I
-have seen. Their farm labor is still crude. There is no machinery, and
-there need be none so long as labor is cheap. The dogs pull the carts
-to town with the truck for market and the working-people live on fish
-and vegetables because they are used to it and because meat is away
-beyond their means.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-To-day I went to the battlefield of Waterloo. It has always been a
-matter of regret to me that Napoleon did not win that fight. The big
-powers of Europe had combined and forced his abdication. They sent
-Napoleon to Elba and were quarreling over a division of the spoils when
-he escaped and returned to France. The people received him with joy
-and his old soldiers rallied to his standards. The allies ran hither
-and thither and were scared almost to death—all but the English, who
-never know when to quit. Wellington with about 70,000 soldiers was near
-Brussels and Napoleon rushed his army of the same size to meet him. If
-Napoleon had defeated Wellington the backbone of the alliance against
-him would have been broken and the map of Europe would have been very
-different from what it is. The battlefield is comparatively small.
-The two armies had a front of about two miles and were less than a
-mile apart. In those days a cannon could not shoot a mile and a musket
-not more than 150 yards. After the first firing the guns had to be
-reloaded, so as a matter of fact there would be a few volleys and then
-the opposing armies would clinch and go at it with bayonets, clubbed
-muskets, and swords. That was the way at Waterloo. Napoleon made the
-attack and Wellington’s army had the help of stone walls and position.
-In a space of about forty acres around one farmhouse there were 6,000
-killed and wounded. Both sides fought like the devil, or rather like
-devils, and took few prisoners. The English allies held their ground
-all day, beating back the frequent and ferocious French charges. In
-the evening the Prussian army under Blucher came slowly up at one side
-and the outnumbered Frenchmen had to retreat. It was all over with
-Napoleon, for his army was dead or missing; so he again gave up, and
-this time his enemies were careful to put him at St. Helena where he
-could not get away.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-A great monument was erected on the battlefield by the victorious
-nations. It is a mound of earth 150 feet high, pyramid-shaped, and
-a half-mile around the base. On top of the mound is a figure of a
-colossal lion. The mound is the highest point for many miles, and from
-its top the entire battlefield is easily seen. It is a very impressive
-sight. When the great mound was constructed the earth was carried in
-baskets by women who were paid 8 cents a day. That kind of a price
-for labor makes a steam shovel sick. The people who live around the
-battlefield have a rich tourist crop. Although they are Belgians I
-think some of them are descendants of Napoleon’s soldiers, judging
-from the way they charge. Just about the time the visitor gets excited
-or interested in the historic spots, he is reminded that there is
-“something for the guide,” or that he can buy maps, picture cards,
-bullets, buttons from Napoleon’s coat, or get a drink of water from
-the well in which the bodies of 150 French soldiers were thrown.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Belgium is one of the busiest countries in Europe, but labor is really
-not better paid than elsewhere. A laboring man gets 30 cents a day,
-skilled laborers up to a dollar. A woman works at lace-making for 20
-cents a day, or a woman will come at 7 o’clock in the morning and work
-until 8 o’clock in the evening, a Belgian working-day, for 20 cents.
-The cost of good, decent living is not much if any less than in Kansas,
-but of course people who earn only 20 or 30 cents a day don’t live
-well. Their home is with the cow or the dog or with people just as
-poor, and a beefsteak would probably give them the gout. I have seen
-similar conditions in the slums of American cities, and once, when the
-tariff bars were thrown down and our factories put to competition with
-Belgian and other European factories where labor is paid as I have
-stated, there was a temporary paralysis of labor attended by suffering
-and want. But these are the normal conditions in Belgium and in Europe
-at a time which is considered one of general prosperity. I wonder how
-it must be with hard times. The “bugaboo” of “competition with pauper
-labor” is not a political imagination, but would be a sad reality if
-the American people should vote for a change in the tariff policy. I
-have learned this lesson from the mouths and faces of the workingmen of
-Europe.
-
-Of course there are American-made goods that come into Europe. They are
-all here because the Europeans have nothing near as good. The American
-typewriter, the sewing-machine, the Wernicke office supplies and the
-American shoe are always advertised boldly and freely. Other American
-wares are sold without the American label because of some prejudice,
-especially in England. In order to show my patriotism I started lifting
-my hat every time I saw the sign or advertisement of American goods.
-At first I enjoyed the novelty, but as I learned to look for the marks
-I soon had my hat off most of the time. I didn’t mind honoring any
-American article, but it grew wearisome to have my hand bobbing up to
-my hat whenever I turned around, especially as Carter’s liver pills
-and Quaker oats have just covered Europe with their posters and their
-catch-lines. When the American does start to do business in Europe
-he does it right, and is not afraid to put his name on any place the
-police will let him. And it is comforting to a pilgrim in a strange
-land to see in big letters on street cars and fences the names that
-decorated the old walls and billboards at home.
-
-
-
-
-EUROPEAN ART AND GRUB.
-
-
- BRUGES, BELGIUM, Aug. 8, 1905.
-
-In this quaint old town we are spending the last day of our stay on the
-continent of Europe. To-morrow we sail from Ostend to Dover, and the
-prospect of a return to a land where the English language is spoken is
-next to getting home.
-
-Of all the cities of the Netherlands, Bruges has best held on to the
-ancient appearance and ways. The fact may be explained by the figures.
-During the boom in Belgium a few centuries ago, Bruges had a population
-of 200,000, while now there are only 54,000. There was no necessity
-to tear down the old buildings to make room for modern structures or
-provide wide boulevards and promenades. Consequently the old buildings
-stand, only modified in appearance by the wear and tear of weather
-and years. The sole business of the town as near as I could see is
-lace-making, and as the women do that there is little left for the men,
-except to drive cabs and hold the offices. We walked down a little
-narrow street, perhaps twelve feet wide, lined from one end to the
-other on this pleasant day with women sitting on stools making lace.
-The advent of a few Americans almost caused a riot in the desire to
-see and be seen, and the little street seemed to swarm with women and
-with children. Working over the pillow these women make lace to be
-sold at 15 or 20 cents for their day’s labor. Girls hardly into their
-teens and grandmothers up in the 80’s were laboring side by side. One
-old lady with whom we had a most delightful visit, although neither
-could understand the other’s language, and from whom Mrs. Morgan bought
-some of the handiwork, is 86 years old, and yet she cheerfully and
-ably manipulates the hand-shuttles that make the lace as if she were
-not half that age. There is a special provision of Providence that
-nearly always applies. These women of all ages who have to make lace
-or starve, work in abominable light and yet have excellent eyesight
-and never wear spectacles or glasses. In America, where the lace is
-bought and where such work is a delicate, eye-trying task, the women
-have trouble with their eyesight and must have artificial help to see
-the lace that the Belgian women make. The wind is tempered to the shorn
-lamb.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Bruges is also the depository of the earliest specimens of Dutch and
-Flemish art, for here nearly 500 years ago lived Jan Van Eyck, and he
-and his brother were the pioneers in the style of painting which is
-generally known as “Dutch.” They were followed a few years later by
-Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, De Crayer, Jordaens, and their crowd, who
-went to Italy and learned a good deal, but who were really followers
-of the Van Eycks. I have spent some time in the art galleries at
-Amsterdam, The Hague, Antwerp and Brussels, and have picked up a
-smattering of knowledge of Dutch and Flemish art which I would like
-to unload. The “whole shooting-match,” as the Germans would say,
-is generally called Dutch, but there is a perceptible difference
-between the work in Holland and Belgium, although the artists lived
-so close together that they naturally formed one great school. Peter
-Paul Rubens, who generally gets first place, was a Belgian, although
-he was born out of that country when his parents were politically
-exiled. He lived at Antwerp and was brought up in a Jesuit school in a
-Catholic country. Rembrandt was a Dutchman, born at Leyden, Holland,
-and a politician as well as an artist in a Protestant country. If
-one will reflect upon the religious situation in Europe in the early
-seventeenth century, he will see that no matter if both used the
-same colors and the same rules for drawing, they were bound to treat
-different subjects, or have different conceptions of the same subject.
-Van Dyck, the third of the celebrated trio, was born in Antwerp, but
-went to London, and there did most of his work in portrait-painting,
-his specialty, because he was better paid by Englishmen. The Catholic
-Rubens and his followers painted for the churches and cathedrals, and
-for a Catholic constituency, and usually portrayed religious subjects,
-while Rembrandt and his pupils painted for the Dutch burghers, and
-their best pictures are of men, grouped in military companies or
-trade guilds. Rubens is more ideal and spiritual, Rembrandt more
-material and human. Therefore it is that people who like one often
-do not appreciate the other. I really like the Dutch art better than
-the Italian, although it is a good deal like a boy trying to decide
-whether he will have cherry pie or custard pie, and wanting both. The
-influence of environment and education is clearly seen in the fat
-Madonnas and the pictures of public-houses and drinking-bouts which
-are favorite subjects. The Dutch artists also lean to “realism,” and
-about nine times in ten a picture of the realist school is unpleasant
-and therefore to my mind inartistic. For example, one of Rubens’s
-great masterpieces represents the martyrdom of a saint who had his
-tongue torn out, and in the picture the executioner is handing the
-red, bleeding tongue to a dog. Another picture shows an execution, the
-axeman holding up the head, and the body with the stump of a neck the
-main feature of the foreground. Some people like this sort of thing,
-but I don’t. For a hundred years after Rubens and Rembrandt, the
-Netherlands produced no art, at the time the countries themselves were
-demoralized and the prey of the larger powers. Recently Dutch art has
-revived in the portraying of Dutch landscapes, windmills, canals and
-such, and to my mind it is the pleasantest and most effective art now
-alive in Europe, away ahead of the Italians, who persist in imitating
-the old masters and tackling subjects which have been thoroughly
-covered so much that there is hardly a chance for a new impression.
-
-Every town of any size in Belgium and Holland has a public art gallery,
-and the people ought to be artists merely from association. But as a
-matter of fact three-fourths of the visitors to the galleries when I
-was there were Americans and English.
-
-Speaking of art reminds me of hotels. Before leaving Europe I want
-to pay a tribute to the hotel-keepers of the continent. I must have
-been wrongly impressed by what I had read and heard, for I had looked
-forward with dread to the queer ways and the strange dishes I was
-to go against on the trip. As a matter of fact the hotels in Europe
-are better and cheaper than those of America. The management is more
-courteous, the service better, and the eating far surpasses the
-equivalent in the United States. The “tipping system” is not bad at all
-and the effort of the landlord to get at your money is concealed by a
-show of cordiality and hospitality which I have never experienced in
-a strange hostelry in my own country. I am overcharged and worked ten
-times more in Kansas City, Chicago and New York than in Rome, Cologne,
-Brussels, or any other European city.
-
-When a traveler arrives at a continental hotel he is greeted at the
-entrance by the hall porter or clerk, and instead of being bulldozed
-over a counter by a gentleman with a diamond stud into paying twice the
-ordinary price for a room, he is quietly and pleasantly told what rooms
-are vacant, what are their rates, and allowed to make a selection. He
-does not have to tip a porter or a bell-boy for every little favor.
-From the proprietor to the “boots” everyone in the hotel is at your
-service and nothing to pay—not then. Of course you expect to do the
-right thing when you leave, but for the time this cordial service seems
-to be spontaneous and animated with a sincere desire for your comfort.
-In Germany the proprietor of the hotel keeps up the pretense that you
-are his guest, and every day he inquires after your welfare. In the
-German restaurants the proprietor walks around and speaks pleasantly
-to everyone and you feel that he is really glad to see you without
-associating that sensation with the payment of the bill. Everything
-and everybody in the hotel is at your service. There is always a
-reading-room with newspapers, often American papers, smoking-rooms,
-lounging-rooms, and comfortable parlors where it is a pleasure to spend
-the time. In nearly every hotel there is a free library, mostly books
-of the country, but always some in English. At the Parker House in
-Boston, my last stopping-place in America, I had been surprised and
-delighted to find a well-selected library for the use of the guests of
-the hotel. I supposed that was a Boston innovation and was prepared
-to brag about it, but I have found a similar library in nearly every
-hotel at which I have stayed in Europe. An American hotel does not give
-half the space to the general use and comfort of guests that a European
-hotel does, and what it does offer is usually only a big office and
-stiff parlors in which people stay only when they can find nowhere else
-to go.
-
-European cooking is far ahead of American cooking. A cook in this
-country is not an accident, not a man or woman who is cooking until a
-better job offers. A cook is something between a professional man and
-a skilled mechanic, and young men learn the business as thoroughly as
-they do engineering or banking. Labor is cheap, so that in the kitchen
-as well as in the front rooms there is always plenty of service, and
-it is by people who are brought up to it and not by boys or men who
-are down on their luck. I expected to be “fussy” over the cooking and
-cookery, but I have hardly had a poor meal in Europe and not a bad one
-at all. There is not much difference in the stuff used or in the way of
-serving, but the work is better done, and all the good American dishes
-like beefsteak and eggs are found in Europe looking as natural as life.
-The Europeans do more with mutton, veal and fish and less with beef
-than our cooks, and the small farms raise vegetables that are delicious.
-
-When one leaves the hotel the proprietor or manager always comes to
-see him off and say good-by. There isn’t such a crowd of servants
-waiting for tips as is generally alleged. Your porter, who has polished
-your shoes and carried your baggage, is on hand, and the chambermaid
-casually meets you on the stairs. The head waiter expects a tip and
-so does the hall porter, and there are usually a couple of other
-attendants ready to receive, but not obnoxiously so. I learned that
-the best way to do was to be as polite as the Europeans. A few minutes
-before time to leave I would say good-by to the head waiter, the
-smoking-room attendant, and any other who had rendered special service,
-giving each a small tip which he always took with many expressions of
-good-will and appreciation. That prevented any assemblage at the door
-when we left, and the last good-bys and tips were only expected by
-the man who brought the baggage and the hall porter who put us in the
-carriage and gave me full information as regards the coming journey and
-the next stop.
-
-The rates at European hotels are much less than in ours. The prices
-for rooms are about half what they would be in America for similar
-accommodations in the same-sized places. The restaurant prices are a
-little less than ours. I should say that in Europe you pay about $2 to
-$3 a day for what would cost $3 to $4 in America. In small hotels and
-boarding-houses the same ratio is maintained, and there is no doubt
-in my mind that “room and board” on a European trip for an American
-is little more than half what it would be for a European in America.
-In these prices I include tips. The ordinary American will greatly
-enjoy life on the continent, provided, of course, he does not always
-eat at the “table d’hôte,” or regular meal-table, which is monotonous
-everywhere. And also he must not want a room with a bath, or an
-elevator. Very few buildings in Europe have elevators, and the natives
-do not use them. It is an inconvenience to walk up two or three flights
-of stairs to your room, but in the hotels that do not have “lifts”
-you must remember that is the way the nobility and everybody does in
-Europe, and quit kicking. You can get a bath in the bathroom or you
-can scrub yourself with the contents of the washbowl, after you have
-had some experience. That is the custom of the country, and the thing
-to do is not to be telling about the rooms with baths in America, but
-accept the situation, look pleasant, and you will get along all right.
-It is the same way in Europe that it is everywhere else in this vale
-of tears: if you look for trouble you easily find it, and if you are
-constantly talking and thinking of the conveniences which American
-customs have provided and which are not used in Europe, you can make
-yourself miserable and unpopular. But if you accept the ways of the
-country, enjoy the novelties even if they seem old-fashioned and
-strange, you will have a grand old time and will make yourself solid
-with the people.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In Europe the name “United States” is rarely used. We are “Americans.”
-The people of Canada are Canadians and the people of the United
-States have the sole use of the title of Americans. They consider us
-the whole thing, and we always admit it without argument. There is
-a general impression in the Old World that all Americans are rich.
-There is a general impression that sometime we will fight the rest
-of the world, and I think there is an impression that we will lick.
-So far as I can see, Americans are treated about as well as dukes,
-and the ways of traveling are greased for them by everybody along the
-line. (Grease to be paid for, of course.) In two months’ travel on the
-continent, usually not knowing the language, we have never missed a
-train or connection, been mistreated or imposed upon, allowed to suffer
-inconvenience or annoyance. That is a record it would be hard to equal
-in America.
-
-
-
-
-ENGLAND.
-
-
-
-
-IN OLD, OLD ENGLAND.
-
-
- WARWICK, ENGLAND, June 12, 1905.
-
-When the American tourist reaches old England he has a large and
-well-selected stock of emotions which he can feel, in addition to
-the thanks in his heart that the short but “nahsty” trip across the
-Irish sea is at an end. No matter where an individual’s ancestors may
-have come from, the mother country of America is England. Up to 1776
-our history was only English history, our customs English customs,
-our laws English laws, and when the Continental army began shooting
-at the British soldiers, the Continental Congress accompanied every
-volley with a resolution declaring that the colonists had no desire
-to separate from England, but were only fighting in self-defense.
-Our laws, our language, our literature are English. The fight of the
-parliament against the crown has reached practically the same result in
-England that the revolution of Congress against King George did by a
-short cut.
-
-This is the land of Shakespeare, Milton and Dickens, who are just
-as much American as English, except for the accident of birthplace.
-This is the home of our heroes of medieval times, of Ivanhoe, Richard
-the Lion-hearted, and the Black Prince. This is the country which is
-familiar to us by name and history through Scott and Thackeray, Dickens
-and Lytton, and a hundred other authors whose works are read in the
-American homes. We are not strangers to such names as Kenilworth,
-York, Shrewsbury, Chester, Stratford, Oxford, Cambridge, and in fact
-nearly every town on the map of England. This is more like the visit to
-a long-absent friend and not an entrance into a foreign land. We are
-now going among places of which we have read and among the monuments
-and works of men whom we have held close to our hearts through the
-pictures painted for us by our authors. We are going to actually see
-the things we have so often read about and which we have so much
-dreamed about.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Instead of beginning at London, the great center of trade, we are going
-to begin here at Warwick, the center of the oldest Old England left on
-earth. In Warwick we are five miles from Kenilworth, the castle Scott
-made famous, seven miles from Stratford-on-Avon, where Shakespeare was
-born, and surrounded by beautiful rural England, with a fine old castle
-only five minutes walk away, and churches and buildings which were old
-when Columbus discovered America.
-
-The first stop in England was at Chester, which was a town of
-importance when Julius Cæsar was doing business. The walls the Romans
-built were demolished by the Saxons but rebuilt, and Chester was the
-last place in England to surrender to William the Conqueror. During the
-Middle Ages it was the scene of more fights and sieges and the walls
-then completed are the same walls which we walked on this week. The
-walls are from ten to twenty feet wide at the top, twenty to thirty
-feet high, and little towers occupy the angles and corners. From the
-wall of Chester Charles the First saw the parliamentary army defeat
-his soldiers, and when Chester surrendered, Cromwell’s men had all of
-England.
-
-There are two main streets in Chester, crossing each other at the
-center of the town and terminating in the four city gates. All the
-other streets of the old town are alleys from six to ten feet wide. But
-the curious part of Chester is “the Rows.” Along a good part of the
-main streets there is a second floor, or rather a stone roof over the
-sidewalks. On this upstairs street are stores and shops, and business
-is going on as briskly along the second story as on the ground floor.
-As there were originally but the two streets in Chester, the people
-simply doubled the street capacity,—a thousand years ago and they
-haven’t changed. In fact, I suppose a great many people in Chester who
-have never been out of the neighborhood, think that is the proper and
-usual way of arranging business streets in all towns.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The greatest place in England is Stratford-on-Avon, because Shakespeare
-was born there. A great many English towns have ancient cathedrals and
-are the birthplaces or the deathplaces of kings and queens, dukes and
-ministers, but Stratford is the only place where Shakespeare was born
-and there has been but one Shakespeare. Many great men have several
-birthplaces, or perhaps I should say, several towns claim to be the
-only birthplace. But Stratford-on-Avon is a thousand years old or
-more, and has never done anything for the world except to provide
-William Shakespeare, and the world says that is enough to last another
-thousand. I stood in the church and saw the slab which covers the
-dust of the great poet and man-knower. By his side are the graves of
-his wife and daughter. Around the chancel are the inscriptions and
-memorials which tell of the admiration and affection of the world.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The house where the poet was born is now owned by a public association,
-and great pains have been taken to gather all the relics of his
-lifetime that have been spared. The rooms are arranged just as they
-were when his father, a highly respected tradesman who reached the
-dignity of a justice of the peace, was running his little shop and
-William was poaching in the neighboring fields and streams and sparking
-Anne Hathaway, whose home was a mile away. The Hathaway cottage is
-kept in the same way as the Shakespeare house, and we wandered through
-the low rooms and up the narrow stairs just as they were nearly four
-centuries ago. In talking with an Englishman at Warwick he said he
-believed the Americans thought more of Shakespeare than the English
-did, for more of them went to Stratford. Of course that is hardly
-correct, for the English all love Shakespeare, but they probably do
-not visit his birthplace so much as American travelers do. Practically
-every American goes to Stratford, some of them perhaps just because
-the others do. Coming over on the ship I was being enlightened by an
-aggressive American on just what was what. “Going to Stratford?” he
-said. I assented. “Yes, you’ll go there and look around and wonder
-what in hell you went there for.” But that is not the sentiment which
-fills the hearts of most of the cousins from across the ocean, as is
-evidenced by the reverential awe and the thorough appreciation of every
-nook and corner shown by them when they are in the historic village.
-
-The river Avon is about the size of Cow creek, and looks a good deal
-like it. The banks are low and the meadows and fields come right to
-them, without the timber that borders most American streams. The town
-of Stratford is old-fashioned and quaint. Just as in Warwick, the
-hotels or inns bear such names as “The Red Dog,” “The Bull and Cow,”
-“The Golden Lion,” a style of nomenclature which I had always half-way
-thought was imaginary with the great authors who have made such names
-familiar. Large, stately trees line the roads and stone walls and
-hedges conceal the fields and farms, revealing just enough to enhance
-the beauty of the landscape. One can dreamily think as he rides in the
-coach from Stratford to Warwick that he is back in the days of Queen
-Elizabeth and half expect ye knights and ladies to appear before the
-gate of Kenilworth, but as he does so there is a sudden whir-r-r, a
-cloud of dust and a smell, and the automobile of the twentieth century
-has rudely broken the dream.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-We visited the castle of the earl of Warwick. The earl evidently did
-not know we were coming, for he was away, but a shilling admitted us
-through the big gate in the massive stone walls which surround the
-castle and inclose probably twenty acres of ground. It was originally
-built by a daughter of Alfred, about 915, and has been more or less
-knocked down and built up since. It is said to be one of the finest
-old castles in England. A regiment of soldiers could easily parade
-in the large court within the walls and be quartered in the building
-and towers. Many a time such a garrison has occupied the place,
-for the earls of Warwick have been fighters from the beginning and
-Shakespeare’s Warwick was a regular Cy Leland or a Stubbs in his day,
-and was known as the king-maker. The castle is about twice as large
-as the Hutchinson Reformatory, and the earl has to keep a good deal
-of hired help in these times of peace. Many of the great rooms are
-kept just as in the old days of chivalry and are filled with armor and
-weapons. The banquet-room is maintained as it was in the great earl’s
-time, and much of the castle is really a museum and gallery full of the
-pictures, portraits, furniture and tapestries of the long ago.
-
-Kings and queens, earls and earlesses, have walked the halls and had
-their brief time upon the stage of life. The noble of to-day does not
-have the armor or the power he did then. His band of armed retainers
-has changed to a crowd of peaceful laborers. He does not lead his men
-to war, but presides at country fairs and acts as dignified as the
-spirit of the twentieth century will permit. He no longer fears a
-midnight assault from a neighboring baron, but only dreads the ravages
-of the American tourists and sensibly compromises by letting them
-ravage at a quarter apiece. The times of chivalry are gone.
-
- “Their swords are rust;
- The knights are dust;
- Their souls are with the saints, we trust.”
-
-Here in Warwick and at Kenilworth we take a long dream backward, and
-by working our imagination and our sentiment we see the England of
-Shakespeare, of Warwick, of Ivanhoe. It is a good dream, but it is a
-past that will never return, a past that is more nearly connected with
-the present in Warwick than at any other place. It is old England,
-which first learned to rule herself and then began to rule most of
-the rest of the world, and with the assistance of the American child
-will undoubtedly do the business in the future. We are going to London
-and Liverpool, the castles of commerce and industry which now command
-the trade of the globe. In the England of to-day the castles of the
-business man and the banker rule in the place of the castles of the
-baron and the earl, and old England has given place to a new England.
-But it will be this old England of Shakespeare, Warwick and Kenilworth
-that will live in the hearts of the English people, and will be the
-object of pilgrimage for Americans abroad.
-
-
-
-
-THE GREATEST OF CITIES.
-
-
- LONDON, Aug. 11, 1905.
-
-We are “out of season” in London. “Everybody is out of town.” I suppose
-there are only about 7,000,000 people left within the limits of the
-city as laid out for police purposes. With only 7,000,000 people in
-this district twenty miles square, one naturally feels lonesome. I
-suppose it will strike me that way after I get used to it. But if as
-many of the inhabitants of London as there are people in the State of
-Kansas should go away, it is probable that I would not notice it at
-first. It is curious what funny first impressions one gets of things.
-My first of London was that it looked like a great big ant-heap with
-the ants excited over something and swarming in every direction. The
-long processions or streams of people which wind in and out, up and
-down, make the individual feel mightily insignificant. In comparison
-my memory of Chicago is that it looks like a deserted country town on
-Sunday afternoon, and New York a fairly large and busy village.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The streets of London are laid out with no regard for plan or
-regularity. None of them are straight, and in the course of a few
-blocks they will be intersected at every angle and possible curve by
-other streets, which in turn are cut into by more streets. Every now
-and then there is a “square,” or a “circus,” either meaning a place
-where different streets meet head-on and usually stop. A “circus” is a
-curved square and not a show. A map of London looks like a chicken-yard
-in which the hens have been very busy scratching. The stranger loses
-all idea of direction. When the sun shines, which is not often, I have
-seen it in the north, south, east and west on the same day.
-
-There are no “sky-scrapers.” The height of buildings is regulated,
-and I think the limit is usually six stories. This is a rule which
-our American cities ought to have but they won’t. The climate has the
-effect of making a new house soon look old, and London is neither
-bright nor shining in its appearance. But it is the greatest city
-in the world, and that fact is impressed on the traveler in every
-direction. There are more Irishmen in London than in Dublin, more
-Scotchmen than in Edinburgh, more Jews than in Palestine, and in its
-population are large colonies of people from every country on the
-earth. Name any article you want or have ever heard of, and it is in
-London. No business and no trade in any civilized land but has its
-representative in this city. No great work is done and no enterprise
-attempted but the fact is known to some one in London. In spite of
-the great growth and wealth of America, the industry and success of
-Germany, the thrift and saving of France, the financial center of the
-world is in London, and other bourses and boards of trade follow the
-lead or are in fact only branches of the English concern. Every active
-financial institution in the United States or elsewhere has its London
-connection through which it draws when it engages in international
-business or when it goes out of the local sphere of influence. London
-is the whirlpool to which all the world contributes and from which all
-the world gets something thrown out.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-London is not only the center of business but of literary, artistic
-and political activity. Especially is this true for Americans. All of
-our history prior to 1776 is English, and in the annals of the world
-1776 is only the day before yesterday. Our writers, as soon as they get
-their feet on the ground at home, look to London, this clearing-house
-of literature as of money. London writers, from the time of Shakespeare
-to Dickens, Thackeray and Kipling, are ours just as much as they are
-England’s. Not an American but recognizes the names of Piccadilly,
-Hyde Park, Westminster, Temple Bar, Ludgate, the Tower, Tooley street,
-London Bridge, Charing Cross, Drury Lane, Whitechapel, Billingsgate,
-and other streets and places in London as familiarly as he does those
-of places in the nearest city to which he lives. A common history
-for more than a thousand years, a common literature which cannot be
-divided, and a common trend of religious and political thought make
-Great Britain and the United States one people although divided by
-an ocean and by arbitrary political lines. I think that up to a few
-years ago there was much prejudice in each country against the other.
-That has now practically disappeared. Englishmen on the continent and
-at home have fraternized with us Americans at every opportunity, and
-no place in London that I have gone but I have been received with
-unmistakable heartfelt kindness.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-After getting comfortably settled the question comes to the tourist,
-“What first?” And there is so much in London we want to see, that it
-was a question. I suppose we answered it as every American would,
-Westminster Abbey. There we spent our first afternoon. I had been
-afraid of disappointment. I may say I am getting used to finding
-things which sounded and seemed big when viewed from Kansas, actually
-getting small and ordinary when right before us. But it was not so
-with Westminster. The present building was put up by Henry III., in
-the thirteenth century to take the place of the structure on the same
-spot erected by the Saxons soon after the year 1000. A few towers and
-façades were added a century later, but for practically 400 years this
-grand church has been the national memorial hall of the English people.
-Although tombs and monuments are on every side, the spacious church is
-used for service every day, and it is an agreeable memory now that we
-joined in the afternoon service that day in the hall where kings are
-crowned and where they are buried, and where men greater than kings
-have been laid away after their work was done.
-
-The church is very large, the form of a Latin cross, beautifully
-proportioned, rather gloomily lighted, but impressive in appearance.
-Of course it was originally Catholic, but being the state church it
-went Protestant when Henry VIII. turned against the pope, partly
-because the pope would not recognize his divorce machine. There are
-not many statues of saints, but up one side and down the other of the
-double aisles and the little chapels are monuments, usually statues, of
-the men whose names are England’s greatness. I do not mean the kings
-and queens, for most of them would not by their own merit deserve
-the honor, but such as these: The Pitts, father and son, who ruled
-in England a hundred years ago; Fox, Peel, Cobden, statesmen of the
-world; Beaconsfield and Gladstone, not far apart now; Wilberforce,
-the philanthropist; Darwin, Newton and Herschel, the scientists;
-Livingstone, the African explorer, and Gordon, the general; André, who
-was shot as a spy in America; John and Charles Wesley, the Methodists;
-Watts, the hymn-writer; Händel, the composer, and Jenny Lind, the
-sweet singer of a generation ago; Addison, Macaulay, Thackeray, and
-Dickens; Chaucer, Ben Jonson, and Tennyson, poets laureate; Booth and
-Garrick, the actors; Spenser and Dryden, and many other poets;—a great
-aristocracy of learning, and now in the democratic, barrier-razing
-grave. Then there are nearly all the great English generals of
-the last four centuries, with heroes whose names are familiar to
-American school-boys as to English. And in the chapels are the tombs
-of England’s rulers from Edward the Confessor, some great kings and
-some little kings, some good and some bad, surrounded by the graves
-of queens and lords and ladies with the familiar names of English
-nobility. Near the tomb of the great Queen Elizabeth is that of her
-rival whom she executed, Mary Queen of Scots, the remains of the
-latter placed there by her son, King James, who by the irony of fate
-succeeded his mother’s enemy. I could go on with the list, but it would
-be with the reader as with the visitor, only the general effect, with
-here and there some great name singled out from the rest because of
-special interest or connection with some great event. And a fact which
-impressed me was that many men and women were executed by one monarch
-and their remains brought to Westminster and monuments erected to them
-by the next.
-
-In Westminster Abbey the kings and queens of England have been crowned
-since the time of its building. A sovereign may inherit or receive
-from the representatives of the people the royal power, but he is not
-fully authorized and empowered to perform the duties of the job, or, to
-paraphrase a slang expression, his crown is not on straight until he
-receives it here. There are times when the great church is brilliant
-with light and resonant with music, when gay uniforms and gowns fill
-the galleries and aisles, when bells peal merrily and the banners wave
-from choir and column, concealing for the day the monuments and tombs
-of the past with their lesson of the end to earthly greatness and the
-fate of human pomp and grandeur.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The way to see London is from the top of an omnibus. There are
-no electric or cable lines or any other above-ground means of
-transportation in London except cabs and ’buses. The underground
-railroad, called “the tube,” is useful for quick traveling from
-one part of the city to the other, but the ’bus is the ordinary
-conveyance. It has regular seats on top, and they are always occupied
-except when the rain comes in torrents. An ordinary drizzle rain does
-not bother a Londoner. The sight of the long line of omnibuses with
-people filling the tops of every one of them is in itself a show. I
-am told there is not an hour in the day when there are not 100,000
-people on top of the London ’buses. We have found that we can learn
-and see more of London sitting next to the driver of a ’bus in an hour
-than we could in a day with a carriage and guide. The driver is always
-glad to trade you all the news about the street for a sixpence, and a
-London ’bus-driver is a man of intelligence and learning; he has to
-be in order to drive through the jam of traffic and not get lost in
-the crooked streets. It was like reading a story when we rode down the
-Strand past St. Paul’s and the Bank of England to the Whitechapel, as
-the driver pointed out the house where Peter the Great lived when in
-England; William Penn’s old home; Somerset House, where queens have
-lived; the theatre in which the great actors of to-day appear, Covent
-Garden; Garrick’s house; the rooms which Dickens described as David
-Copperfield’s at Miss Trotwood’s; the Temple, England’s great lawyer
-factory; the grave of Goldsmith; the inn where Johnson and congenial
-sports dined and drank; and all kinds of places mentioned or described
-by Dickens and Thackeray, or connected with the history of England. I
-am not writing a guidebook, but I can make affidavit that a ride on a
-London omnibus is the quickest and easiest way I know to fill one’s
-head with a jumble of literature and history, as well as to test the
-elastic qualities of the neck. If I were to advise a tourist coming to
-Europe I would not only tell him to read in advance and bring plenty of
-money, but he should have all the rubber possible between his head and
-his body.
-
-
-
-
-AT KING EDWARD’S HOUSE.
-
-
- LONDON, Aug. 14, 1905.
-
-We have spent the day at Windsor Castle, the favorite home of Queen
-Victoria, and indeed of British monarchs for several centuries. King
-Edward and Queen Alexandra were not at home. We had not advised them
-in advance of our intention to visit them, and Edward had gone off
-to a hot-springs resort to recuperate from the festivities of last
-week, when he was entertaining the French navy. The queen is visiting
-her folks in Copenhagen, and none of the royal family were at the
-depot. However, we went direct to the castle, and, opening it with the
-usual key (a shilling), we wandered around in the big and beautiful
-rooms, tramped through the stables and saw the horses, and enjoyed the
-beautiful view of the valley of the Thames from the terrace on which
-Queen Elizabeth used to stand and shoot deer which her gamekeeper
-drove in front of her. King Edward and Queen Alexandra have a right
-pretty place at Windsor, but it takes a lot of help to keep it up.
-There are fifty men employed in the stables alone. The queen is a good
-housekeeper, as can be told from the well-polished floors, the shining
-brass and the absence of dirt and dust from the walls and furniture.
-Windsor Castle is about three times as big as the Reformatory. Part
-of it was built over 800 years ago by William the Conqueror, and it
-has been added to by nearly every sovereign. It was a favorite place
-with Henry VIII., and one of his wives, Anne Boleyn, was confined and
-executed in Windsor. At the time, Henry was over in the next county
-waiting until Anne was dead so he could marry another, which he did
-within forty-eight hours. The kings and queens in those days were often
-tough bats and acted scandalous. They couldn’t do it now, at least in
-England. A few years ago the people of England were worked up over a
-gambling scandal in which the present king, then Prince of Wales, was
-implicated. But King Edward has shown himself to be a model monarch,
-and he and the queen are both popular.
-
-A king does not have an easy job. He has to attend state banquets,
-preside at the laying of corner-stones, and ride in state on great
-occasions, always look pleasant when he is in public, and eternally
-be entertaining somebody from somewhere that he does not care about.
-This does not sound so bad, but when you read, as you do in the English
-papers, just what the king does every day and realize what a grind it
-must be after the novelty is worn off, you begin to feel sorry for
-Edward. No wonder he has to go to the hot springs for his health. I
-don’t suppose that since he has been king he has had a whole week off,
-and he is getting old. Kings and queens have to do everything, from
-marrying to visiting, because it is best for their countries and not
-because they want to. Even an independent American citizen knows how
-tiresome it is to do “what is best” rather than what you really like,
-and poor Edward never gets a rest. Of course, if the king really had
-power there would be some recompense to a man. But the king of England
-has little or no power. He is not allowed to have any views on public
-questions. When the Conservative party is in power it speaks for the
-king and when the Liberal party is in power it voices the sentiment
-of the king. This fiction is a part of the British constitution, with
-the further inconsistent proposition that the king can do no wrong.
-If the people disapprove of the public policy they blame the dominant
-ministry, and properly so, for the king has no more to say on political
-questions in England than a Republican has in Texas. Edward would no
-more dare to take a decided position or make a stand on a government
-policy than he would get out in the street with nothing on but his
-crown. The people run the government in Great Britain nearly as much
-as they do in the United States, and the monarchical customs and the
-restrictions and regulations which seem absurd to us would be dumped
-out in the next session of parliament if the people wished it. But they
-don’t, for they are English and they cling to the old ways. They want
-the king and nobles and are willing to pay the bills.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-But I am getting away from Windsor. It is the biggest and best castle
-I have seen in Europe. There are towers and turrets and moats enough
-to remind you that once upon a time a castle was a fort, and there are
-gardens and terraces and beautiful pictures which show that the kings
-have spent their money, or the people’s money, with good taste. There
-are several other royal residences in England, but Windsor is conceded
-to be the best. It is in a beautiful country, and yet it is close to
-London, so that the king could spend a quiet night and in the morning
-hop on the train and in thirty minutes be at his office in the city.
-And the king has a train of special cars nearly as handsome as those of
-a division superintendent on the Santa Fe.
-
-Our guide pointed out to us a neighboring estate which belonged to
-William Penn, the first owner of Pennsylvania, long before Quay’s time.
-Penn got the English sovereign to let him have all of Pennsylvania at a
-nominal rent. He then settled with the Indians on a friendly basis, and
-the result was his Quaker colony prospered from the start. The contract
-was that he and his successors and assigns should pay to the king of
-England so many beaver-skins annually. There have been no payments, so
-the guide said, since July 4, 1776.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-On our way to Windsor we stopped at Stoke Poges, or rather at the
-church near there, in the graveyard of which Gray wrote his great
-“Elegy.” The little church stands just as it did when Gray was there
-about 150 years ago. The yew tree, to which he refers, is a veritable
-monarch, and the woman who shows strangers around said it was 900 years
-old. In the church are the graves of Gray and his mother, to whom he
-owed his intelligence and his opportunity. The ivy-covered tower looks
-down over the crumbling gravestones of those—
-
- “Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife,
- Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
- Along the cool, sequestered vale of life
- They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.”
-
-Gray wrote a great poem. He never wrote another in the same class.
-His reputation is based on the Elegy, and that is enough. It made him
-famous, and he was offered the position of poet laureate to the king
-and declined it. A man who will decline a good job like that is almost
-as rare as a great poet.
-
-We read the poem aloud out in the graveyard underneath the yew tree.
-It fitted exactly. Gray had touched the springs of sublimity by seeing
-through nature and telling just what he saw, no more.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In a field near Windsor I saw a mowing-machine, the first I have
-noticed in Europe. Everywhere else the hay and grass has been cut by
-hand. I mentioned this fact to the driver, and he was very bitter over
-the introduction of machinery because it kept men out of an opportunity
-to work. He told me he was going to America just as soon as he could
-“raise the funds.” The women do not work in the field in England, at
-least not much. But they are busy in the dairy, at the stores and
-behind the bar in the saloons. In every way I found England ahead of
-the continent in its ways of doing things, but there is still enough
-difference from our ways to make them seem queer. I also have a kick
-coming on another matter. A great many English people do not speak the
-English language. They think they do, but they not only drop their h’s
-when they should be on and put them on where they do not belong, but
-they pronounce the vowels and some of the consonants in a manner that
-would make a dictionary turn pale. It is often very difficult for me
-to understand them, and they are all at sea over my Kansas brogue. Of
-course this does not apply to the educated English people, who only
-speak differently from us in using a broad and pleasant accent.
-
-Coming down the street on the way home I saw in a grocery-store window
-these signs: “Breakfast eggs, ten for a shilling;” “Recommended eggs,
-twelve for a shilling;” “Select eggs, fourteen for a shilling;”
-“Cooking-eggs, sixteen for a shilling.” The frankness of the signs
-surprised me. I suppose we have the same varieties of eggs in Kansas,
-but we don’t describe them so exactly and they all go at the same
-price. As eggs are a staple item on the bill of fare, I am wondering
-to-night whether my landlord buys “breakfast eggs” or “cooking-eggs,”
-or just plain “eggs.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The English money is the hardest to understand in Europe. It is based
-on the shilling, worth about a quarter in our money. Four farthings
-make a penny, 12 pennies make a shilling, and 20 shillings make a
-pound ($4.80). The usual coins are the ½ penny, pronounced “ha-penny,”
-penny, “tuppence,” the 3-penny, pronounced “trippence,” the sixpence,
-the shilling, the 10-shilling, the pound, called a sovereign; the
-5-shilling piece, called a crown, and the half-crown. You add 8 pence
-to 10 pence and it doesn’t make 18, it makes “one and six.” Add one and
-six to one and eight and it makes three and two—yes, it does! Figuring
-with English money for an American beginner is like turning handsprings.
-
-The paper currency is issued by the Bank of England, and is made of
-white-fiber paper. In some way I got possession of a ten-pound note
-and took it into a bank to have it changed. The cashier had me sign my
-name on the back. I demurred at first, but as I wanted the change I
-finally did it, remarking to him that I was pleased to know that the
-bank considered my indorsement necessary to a bank note of the Bank of
-England. The cashier did not see the joke, for he took pains to tell me
-that it was not to make the note better and that a Bank of England note
-was worth its face in gold anywhere. I have had a hard time with my
-alleged jokes. I had a letter of introduction to a London banker from
-a New York banker, and presented it in order to get the opportunity of
-looking through an English bank. Wanting to be pleasant and friendly,
-I remarked as he finished reading the letter that I had gotten it so
-that if I had trouble with the police I might call on him for help. He
-gravely assured me that he did not think I would have any difficulty
-with the police. He did not see my little joke. Perhaps he has seen it
-by this time, for that was two days ago.
-
-
-
-
-THE TOWER AND OTHER THINGS.
-
-
- LONDON, ENGLAND, Aug. 17, 1905.
-
-After Westminster Abbey I went to looking for the Tower of London.
-Since I was a boy and read the story of the two little princes who
-were said to have been murdered in the Tower by order of their royal
-uncle, I had pictured the Tower as something awful and gloomy. As a
-matter of fact the Tower is rather imposing in appearance, and with the
-improvements that have been made in recent years is a fairly decent
-sort of castle right in the city of London. Built for a fortress by
-William the Conqueror soon after his capture of England from the
-Saxons, it was added to and used as a royal residence and state prison,
-mostly the latter. Kings and queens have been confined within its walls
-and nobles have been imprisoned by the hundreds, many of them only
-finding it a step toward execution. It is now a government arsenal, and
-contains a number of soldiers and a lot of military supplies as well
-as a historical museum. The Tower consists of a dozen towers inclosed
-by a wall and moat, and covers thirteen acres. It is really very
-interesting, and anyone who remembers his English history or who has
-read English stories of a few centuries ago can feel delightful thrills
-as he goes up and down the dark corridors and stairways, sees the rooms
-in which so many of the great men of England, good and bad, spent
-the time preliminary to their death, or passed years in confinement.
-Kings of England, Scotland and France, princes, archbishops and
-ministers of state have carved or scratched their names on the walls
-and window-frames while sojourning here at the expense of the state.
-As a usual thing the executions were held outside the walls so that
-the public could enjoy the amusement, but a few of the noble ladies
-and some men who were very popular with the people were decapitated in
-the little square in the middle of the inclosure, and the spot is now
-marked by an iron tablet. The Tower has not been used as a prison since
-1820, and since then it has been cleaned and renovated so that the only
-evidence of the dark old days is contained in the placards which the
-government has put up for the benefit of the public. Henry VIII., who
-was a bad husband but an able monarch, had a fad for the collection
-of old armor, and a great part of the White Tower, the largest of
-the towers in the Tower, is taken up by a splendid exhibition of the
-fighting-clothes and weapons of England and Europe during the Middle
-Ages. In another tower, Wakefield Tower, is kept a part of the royal
-regalia, including the crown worn by the king when he is formally
-inducted into office at Westminster Abbey. This crown contains 2,818
-diamonds, 300 pearls and other precious stones “too numerous to
-mention.” The government charges a sixpence to get into this exhibit,
-which is said by the official guidebook to be worth $15,000,000. You
-pay another sixpence to see the rest of the buildings, including the
-old armor, the place where the bones of the little princes are said
-to have been found, the tower where the Duke of Clarence was drowned
-in a large cask of wine, and all the other beautiful horrors that go
-with the Tower. I never fail to appreciate the thrift of these European
-governments. They always charge admissions to the castles, palaces
-and public buildings. What a howl there would be in America if the
-Government should exact a fee of 10 cents to visit the White House, or
-the State of Kansas should charge admission to the Governor’s residence
-at Topeka.
-
-When we went into the Tower the officers at the gate made everybody
-leave packages or boxes outside. Mrs. Morgan even had to dispose of her
-chatelaine bag, and when she wanted to know the reason why, learned
-that it was to prevent her carrying dynamite into the Tower and blowing
-it to pieces. The powers of the Old World are always looking for
-dynamiters.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-During our stay in London the French fleet has been visiting the
-British fleet at Portsmouth, and a large number of the officers and men
-have been brought to London and entertained. International politics is
-a subject of general interest in Europe. Emperor William of Germany has
-most of the rest of Europe so nervous that even the English and French,
-foes for centuries, are making up to each other. Just as in Germany I
-found a feeling that eventually Germany would have a war with America
-and England, I found the same impression here, and as France hates
-Germany more than it does England, the French, with the same thing in
-mind, would line up with the Anglo-American combine. The London papers
-have had numerous articles showing that the combined fleets, armies and
-financial powers of the three countries and Japan could lick the rest
-of the earth to a standstill. The most ordinary Englishman is posted
-on international matters as well as the ordinary American is on local
-State affairs. To illustrate the public feeling, at a theatre when the
-ballet-girls were carrying banners of the various nations the climax
-came with the English representatives and the French representatives
-clasping hands and the American dancers waving the stars and stripes
-over them. The audience cheered enthusiastically.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Speaking of theatres reminds me that London has the best in the world.
-The English people are great play-goers, and the city has such a large
-population that a play often runs here for a year. Prices are higher
-for the best seats and cheaper for the cheap seats than in America. A
-parquet seat is called a “stall,” and is usually $2.50. The “pit” is
-back of the parquet, and is about 50 cents. First balcony is called
-the dress circle, and is about $2. Second gallery is about 25 or 50
-cents. I think the class distinctions account for the great difference
-in prices. An imposition in London theatres is that a charge of 12
-cents is made for a program, filled with advertising, and no better
-than those given free in America. When the orchestra plays “God Save
-the King” the audience rises. Americans get up, too, and as the tune is
-the same as “America” the Yankees I know sing “Sweet Land of Liberty”
-while the English are saving the king.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I saw the procession of the local officials when the Frenchmen were
-here. The sheriff of the county rode in a beautiful old-style yellow
-coach, wore a three-cornered hat and a uniform of 200 years ago, with
-powdered wig and sword. The lord mayor of London was dressed the same
-way, with his hair down his back in a queue. If the sheriff of Reno
-county and the mayor of Hutchinson had any style about them they would
-not let these English officials outshine them. I am told it costs the
-mayor about a half-million a year to hold the office, as his principal
-duty is to entertain the city’s guests at his own expense. The lord
-mayor is more ornamental than useful. The local government is more like
-our State organization, with one legislative body, consisting of 118
-county councillors elected by the boroughs, and another of nineteen
-aldermen appointed by the council. As London has about five times as
-many people as Kansas and much harder problems of administration to be
-solved, the government is a big thing. And London is well governed,
-better, I think, than American cities. The only thing that would grate
-on us is the great amount of regulation. You can’t build a house or go
-into business without permission, and then everything must be just so.
-The English people are law-abiding, more patient with regulations and
-rules than ours, and public opinion stands for the strict enforcement
-not only of laws but of what seem like absurd red-tape rules. Hardly
-any stores are open or business commenced until 9 o’clock. Nearly
-everybody takes one to two hours for lunch. Stores close at 6 o’clock
-and dinner is in the evening. Saturday afternoons all business houses
-are shut up, and there are a great number of holidays. An American gets
-nervous over the easy-going way of doing business. He is always in
-trouble because he has forgotten it is Saturday afternoon or a “bank
-holiday,” or because he can’t transact important business between 12
-and 2 o’clock. In fact, if he wants to, an American can find a lot
-of things in London to make him miserable and cause him to abuse the
-country. But if he is patient and learns a little of the English ways
-he finds that he may live a little slower but he will live just as
-happily, and probably longer if he does as the English do. The American
-way of rushing things is well known and generally discountenanced in
-England. They think we are fools for working so hard, and resent the
-rather offensive criticisms by the Yankees of their slowness. Perhaps
-they are right. They tell me that on his first visit an American always
-tries to reform English business methods. After that first attempt he
-tackles the easier job of sweeping back the ocean with a broom.
-
-
-
-
-IN RURAL ENGLAND.
-
-
- LONDON, ENGLAND, August 21, 1905.
-
-We have just finished a trip of a couple of hundred miles through
-southern England in a motor car. In France and the United States it is
-an automobile, but in Great Britain it is a motor car. This is a better
-way to see the country than from a railroad train, and not so good as
-walking. If you have a motor car or have a friend who has one, that is
-the best way to travel. If you have none and no prospect, a motor car
-is a delusion and a mistake. I happened to have a friend with a motor
-car and am therefore on the side of the motorists.
-
-We left London at 10 o’clock in the morning, and by night had ridden a
-hundred miles and taken in Hampton Court, Windsor, Reading, Maidenhead,
-Alton, and Winchester, besides a lot of little places and the country
-along the way. The English roads are just about perfection. The main
-roads are made of stone or gravel with clay on top, rolled until they
-are as smooth as asphalt, and kept free from holes and bumps. Every
-bridge and culvert is of stone. There is no need to slow up except for
-people and other vehicles. I doubt if America ever has such roads.
-Perhaps in a thousand years, when our country is about as old as
-England, we will have equally as good thoroughfares, but it will be
-fully a thousand years. These English roads were good stone roads
-before the days of railways. They were constructed as business and
-military necessities by the order of the English government. I don’t
-think Kansas farmers will ever build graveled roads on which motorists
-can make high speed and kill the chickens and dogs that don’t get
-out of the way when the horn blows. However, Kansas farmers could,
-profitably to themselves, improve their roads so that one horse could
-haul a wagon-load in place of two horses, and so that the wagon could
-be hauled in muddy times. Such roads would be good enough for Kansas
-automobiles, and by that time they will be cheap and every farmer will
-have one. The Romans who conquered and held possession of England
-from the time of Julius Cæsar to several centuries later, were great
-road-builders, and fragments of their old military roads still exist.
-Good roads are a sign of civilization. Fortunately, they are not the
-only sign, for if they were, parts of Kansas would be uncivilized. We
-can beat the Old World on a good many propositions, but when it comes
-to roads and highways the old country has us skinned a good many blocks.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-This is August, but the woods and meadows of England are as green and
-fresh as with us in May. An English summer as I see it is warm and
-moist. It is not near so warm as in the Mississippi valley, and the
-rain comes nearly every day. Rain does not often fall in sheets and
-inches, but drizzle-drazzles down and soaks in so as to do the most
-good. The English people don’t mind the rain at all. It is this moist
-climate which covers the walls with ivy and the trees with moss, and
-keeps the verdure fresh and green until the fall. Harvest is just
-now being finished. There is no corn in England—although they call
-barley, wheat and small grain generally, “corn.” The principal crop
-is hay and oats and barley, a little wheat, and vegetables in great
-quantities. England has 50,000 square miles, so it is over half as
-large as Kansas, but it has 30,000,000 people, and therefore much of
-the farming is for market truck. As a matter of fact there is very
-little actual “rural life.” The villages are so close together that
-it is often hard to tell where one town ends and another begins, and
-a country road is as nearly well settled as a city suburb in America.
-Here and there are vast estates, the beautiful show places and curse of
-England. With millions of people wanting work and thousands of tenant
-farmers who can get no title to the soil they till, it looks to me like
-a howling outrage for a lord, a duke or a brewer to fence up several
-thousand acres as a shooting-place, and remove from production a large
-per cent. of the land which ought to be doing good and providing some
-Englishman a chance to make a living and a home. The English people do
-not seem to mind it at all, and I suppose there is no call for me to
-get excited, but I can’t help it. We have gone by some beautiful parks,
-with great stately trees, deer grazing in herds and pheasants and quail
-flying at the side of the road. These belong to somebody who is off
-for the summer and who got them from his father, who received them
-from the king, who originally stole them from the actual owners. For
-quiet beauty the lanes and meadows of England, lined with fine trees
-and fenced with hedge or stone wall, cannot be beaten. The Arkansas
-valley is just as beautiful in June, but in August the Kansas sun can
-be depended on to do business and spoil the freshness of the trees
-and grass. When the wayside is not inclosed between high hedgerows,
-the fence is stone, but over the stone grow ivy and moss, out of the
-cracks come grass and flowers, so the coldness and bleakness of the
-rock is concealed. Every English farm seems to have a flock of sheep.
-I always heard the national meat of old England was roast beef, but
-that is a mistake. It is mutton-chops, and every English family has
-them at least once a day if it has the price. Along the main roads are
-little inns every mile or so with the peculiar names and signs that are
-characteristic. During the day I counted four called “The Red Lion.”
-One was “The Headless Woman,” and over the sign-post was the picture of
-a woman with her head chopped off below the chin. These inns are hotels
-and public-houses, and generally look interesting and clean. I am told
-their prices are reasonable to Englishmen, but they charge Americans in
-an automobile about all the law would allow.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-To-day we came from Southampton to Brighton, fifty miles along the
-southern coast. The beach is fine, and is the summer resort of England.
-Years ago royalty and nobility made Brighton their favorite sea-shore
-place, but the great plain people have gotten into the habit of
-going there in numbers, so the aristocracy has gone farther, to the
-continent and to Wales. Nearly every one of these old English towns
-has a cathedral and a Roman wall. The Romans were town-builders as
-well as road-makers, and they never even camped for the night without
-fortifying. The cathedrals were mostly built in the Middle Ages, when
-the church was a wealthy business organization with lands and revenues.
-They look old and quaint and are generally in good taste. When you read
-about a cathedral or castle being a thousand years old you may depend
-on it that if it is still in use it has been “restored.” Some of these
-very old cathedrals remind me of the boy’s jackknife. The blades wore
-out and he got new blades. The handle wore out and he got a new handle.
-But he still had the old jackknife. A cathedral built in the year 1000
-may have new walls, new roof, new interior and new spire, but it is
-still the old cathedral, “restored.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In a little old English inn on the bank of the river Thames we ate our
-lunch and watched the endless procession of boats that passes up and
-down the stream. The ocean reaches up the river as far as London, so
-that it is really an inlet, with a tide that rises and falls, and a
-deep channel for ships. Ten miles above London the Thames is about the
-size of the Little Arkansas, and all the way past Windsor, Henley and
-Oxford, historic for the boat-races, it is very little wider than Cow
-creek. By a system of dams and locks the Thames above London is really
-only a canal. There is a path alongside, and we saw several young men
-taking their sisters, or somebody’s sisters, for a boat-ride, the man
-walking the bank, pulling the boat with a rope, and the lady sitting in
-the boat. In some countries I have been in this summer the woman would
-have been pulling on the rope and the man would have been reared back
-in the seat, comfortably smoking a long cigar. As a river the Thames
-above London is not much, but as a pretty winding stream, carrying
-little steamboats and row-boats, filled with gaily dressed people, it
-is a success.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The place we stopped for lunch was at Runnymede, just about the
-greatest spot on earth for English and Americans. It was here in 1215
-that King John met the rebellious barons and signed the Magna Charta.
-Up to that time the king of England had done as he pleased, regardless
-of law. King John levied taxes so heavily that the people could not
-stand it, and the big nobles suffered worst of all. So the barons
-combined, and when the king started out to lick them, his supporters
-nearly all went over to the rebels. In order to save his neck and his
-kingdom, John met the barons at Runnymede and signed the agreement
-which is at the basis of the English and American constitutions. He
-agreed not to levy any further unusual taxes except by consent of the
-Great Council of the nobles (origin of the English parliament), nor to
-deny or sell justice, and confirmed the right of an accused person to a
-trial by jury.
-
-It did not make any difference if King John repudiated the Magna Charta
-as soon as he could. The principle was established, and while some
-English rulers after that tried to evade and escape its provisions,
-the English people held to it as their rock of refuge. England has no
-written constitution like ours. The English constitution is a growth of
-custom, laws, grants and statutes, and the Magna Charta is the basis on
-which it rests.
-
-When John met the barons at Runnymede the people had no rights that
-king or baron was bound to respect. But John put a provision in the
-Magna Charta that the barons must treat their tenants as fairly as the
-barons wanted to be treated by the king. I suppose John was trying
-to get even with his powerful nobles by thus recognizing the common
-people, and deserves no credit for the article. But in a few centuries
-the development of this idea and the discovery that a musket in the
-hands of an ordinary man could shoot a hole through a knight, broadened
-the Magna Charta so that it protects every Englishman.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-One of the things that strike Americans as odd is the rule of the
-road, “turn to the left.” This rule is rigidly observed everywhere in
-England. But when your motor car, running at 30 or 40 miles an hour,
-meets another coming at a like speed, and your driver turns to the
-left, the American on the rear seat shuts his eyes so as not to see
-the collision, while a cold chill travels down his backbone. Of course
-there is no accident, for the other fellow also turns to the left, but
-it is hard on the nerves. However, a Kansas man in Europe takes plenty
-of nerve with him and he is all right so long as his money lasts.
-
-
-
-
-RAILROADS IN EUROPE.
-
-
- LIVERPOOL, Aug. 24, 1905.
-
-A railroad is a railroad anywhere in the world, only it is sometimes
-different. Every country has its own peculiarity in railroads as
-well as in everything else. The first European train we saw was at
-Queenstown, Ireland, and we laughed. It looked like a toy, small
-engine, small coaches and strange in appearance. I decided to wait
-until I had more observations on the subject before putting my ideas
-into a letter, and since then have gone from one country to another
-in Europe, traveling first, second and third class, on main lines and
-branch roads, on through trains and accommodation trains, and gaining
-all the knowledge possible for an American traveler who gets his
-information from experience. While each country has its peculiarities,
-there are certain ways in common.
-
-In the first place the European idea of a passenger car is taken
-directly from the old stage-coach. It is composed of from three to
-six compartments, like that many stages fastened together. In each
-compartment there are two seats running across the car, facing each
-other, and holding eight or ten passengers. As a rule there is no
-communication between the compartments. You get in the little room, the
-door is shut and locked, and there you stay until you get to the next
-stop, when the door is opened if anyone wants to come in or go out.
-There is no toilet-room, and no way to go to the smoking compartment
-unless you are in one, and no way to get out if you are in. I think
-all third-class cars are of this pattern. On the main lines, on a
-few trains and in some cars, there is a corridor running along the
-side, making it possible to go from one compartment to another, and
-sometimes there is a toilet-room. This pattern of cars is often called
-“American,” and usually there are extra charges. The cars are short
-and light, with two wheels under each end like wagon-wheels, and not
-the double trucks of our cars. There is very seldom any ventilation
-at the top, and as the rule is that the passenger next to the window
-can regulate its opening, the other passengers can freeze or roast as
-the case may be. In Germany the cars have appliances for steam heat,
-but they do not seem to usually have them in England or elsewhere on
-the continent. Travelers carry rugs, blankets and footstones in cold
-weather.
-
-And right here let me explain a difference in traveling that accounts
-for much of the seeming shortcomings of European cars. The people in
-Europe hardly ever take long journeys. Sleeping-cars are rarities
-and only carried on a few trains. A European who takes a twenty-mile
-railroad trip thinks he is a “traveler.” They do not have our
-magnificent distances and long journeys, and therefore do not expect
-the comforts and luxuries which we consider necessities. Almost the
-only people who make what are called “long trips” in Europe, that is,
-ten or twelve hours, are American and English tourists, and they are
-given a shadow of American comfort on certain first-class trains, for
-which they pay right well. For example, Mrs. Morgan and I wanted to
-take the night train from Paris to Marseilles, twelve hours’ ride. One
-train carried a sleeping-car. It left Paris at 9 o’clock at night and
-reached Marseilles at 9 o’clock the next morning. Only passengers with
-first-class tickets can ride on it. I bought my first-class tickets
-(nearly twice the second-class, which is the usual way), and then asked
-how much the sleeper would be. “Twenty dollars!” In America we would
-have paid $2.50. And this in a land where we were told everything was
-cheap! I have often been heard to rail at the high rates charged by Mr.
-Pullman, but I will be slow to do so again. I lifted up my voice to
-the French agent on the extortion of charging twenty dollars for one
-night, and he shrugged his shoulders and said we could go on the day
-train,—that Frenchmen never used the sleeping-cars, and that if the
-rich Americans wanted them they could pay the price. We did not buy
-that sleeping-car, but a few days later, when it became very important
-to hurry to Rome, we gave up eight dollars for a sleeper from Genoa to
-the city of the Cæsars. A berth in a European sleeping-car is a little
-compartment with two beds, one above the other, about the size of
-pantry shelves. Two people cannot comfortably stand in the compartment,
-and when one is dressing the other has to stay on his shelf or go out
-in the corridor which runs along the side. There is no ventilation, and
-the toilet-room, about as big as a barrel, is for both sexes. As some
-American said, there is one good thing about a European sleeping-car,
-and only one: you do not mind having to get off at an early hour.
-
-The railroad language is different in England. When I bought a ticket
-in London I went to the “booking office,” and “booked for Liverpool.”
-There is no conductor, but a “guard,” who is conductor, brakeman and
-porter combined. Freight trains are “goods trains.” The engineer is a
-“driver.” Baggage is “luggage.” A grip is a “bag,” a trunk is a “box,”
-and anything is a “parcel.” Nobody calls the stations. When you reach
-your destination you get off, and if you are a stranger you are always
-in trouble wondering whether or not you have gone past. I have never
-learned the theory of their tickets. When I “book” I get a ticket about
-like ours. Often no one looks at it or takes it up until I leave the
-station at the end of the trip. We rode one day in Italy nearly all day
-before anybody looked at our tickets, although usually it is necessary
-to show them to get on the station platform. It would seem as if such
-carelessness would be taken advantage of, but it does not seem to be.
-One reason probably is that in every country it is a crime to ride on
-a railroad train without a ticket. In America if the conductor catches
-you riding without a ticket he collects the fare. In Europe he can
-send you to jail, and I don’t doubt but he would. In America it is not
-considered even bad morals to beat a railroad. In Europe it is a felony.
-
-I had been told that railroad traveling is cheaper in Europe than in
-America, but it is not. To understand railroad rates you must remember
-that population is very dense and traffic heavy, much like suburban
-travel around New York or Chicago. England is not near as large as
-Kansas, but it has twenty times our population. Practically all of the
-travel is short-distance. The same conditions prevail on the continent.
-You can ride third-class, second-class, or first-class. In most
-countries third-class is a good deal like riding in American box-cars
-fitted up with seats. That costs about two cents a mile. Second-class
-means cars such as I have described with upholstered seats, and the
-price is close to three cents a mile. First-class means plush or
-leather and a guarantee that your traveling companions will be nobility
-or Americans or fools. The first-class rate is about four cents. In
-most European countries no baggage is carried free. You pay extra for
-fast trains, “corridor trains,” and for the use of toilet-rooms. In
-order to travel in clean company and in ordinary decent style, after
-you count in your “extras,” the railroad fare is just about the same
-in Europe as in America, and not as cheap as it is on similar trains
-in the populous sections of our country. In the stations there are
-separate waiting-rooms and separate lunch-counters for first, second
-and third-class passengers. The high-class European can eat his lunch
-with the happy thought that no rude third-class citizen is on the next
-stool.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-But if the European railroads do not do much for the comfort and
-pleasure of the passengers, they are away ahead of our railroads when
-it comes to providing for their safety. Accidents are not unknown,
-but they are rare, especially in comparison with the frightful wrecks
-which take place in the United States. Nearly every railroad is
-double-tracked or has three or four tracks. The roadbeds are near to
-perfection. Bridges are of stone. Rails are not so heavy, but are
-stronger when the light cars are considered. And every mile of European
-track is patrolled day and night. They use a half-dozen section-men
-and track-walkers where we would have one or two, and they pay the
-half-dozen wages that aggregate about as much as the one or two. In
-Italy the track-walkers are usually women, and it was a funny sight
-to see the Dago lady stand with a red flag at “present arms” when the
-train passed. Most crossings are overhead or under, very rarely on
-grade. Embankments are built of stone instead of mud, and the roadbeds
-are constructed for centuries, instead of being just sufficient to
-“earn the bonds.” I was in England when an accident occurred on a
-railroad, and the next day the matter was brought up in parliament and
-the government was asked what it was doing to prevent a recurrence
-of such a thing. Just as the government protects the railroads from
-beats it regulates their conduct for the safety of the traveler. In
-some European countries, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy,
-the government owns the important railroads, but in all of them it
-exercises a strong control. If a European railroad would attempt to
-operate a line like some of the jerkwater branches in Kansas, the
-directors would be in jail. The result is that many of the conveniences
-are sacrificed to rigid rules and the lives and limbs of the passengers
-are not in near as much danger as in the United States, where
-competition has gone in for comfortable cars and often neglected the
-track. While the Europeans might copy some of our methods, our railroad
-officials could get some information in the Old World that would save
-them lots of wrecks and make their passengers more secure in their life
-and health while traveling in the palatial cars.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-As the European does not travel long distances and has to pay extra for
-his baggage, he rarely takes anything but hand-luggage. All through
-Europe we have journeyed for three months, carrying all of our baggage
-in the car with us. When we reached a station where we were to stop
-there was always a porter on hand to carry our half-dozen grips and
-bags, and for five or ten cents put them safely in the carriage that
-would take us to the hotel to the hotel for a quarter. During the three
-months I don’t think I carried my grip three times. There is always a
-man standing around ready to do such work so cheaply that nobody thinks
-of carrying his own grips even across a station platform. If you have
-a trunk it is put in a box-car on the end of the train, and at your
-destination you go and get it at once. There are no baggage-checks, and
-you wonder the trunks do not get lost. But they don’t.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The station-master always wears a fine uniform, and in most countries
-he is a sort of military officer. When the time for departure arrives
-he rings a bell or blows a whistle. The guards close the car-doors.
-Then the station-master whistles again and the train starts, the
-station-master saluting. The engine does not whistle or ring a bell.
-The conductor does not yell “All aboard!” The station-master is the
-whole thing. He is an autocrat and has entire control of the train in
-station.
-
-Trains are rarely late in Europe. The schedule is maintained regardless
-of connections, and therefore connections are usually made. The
-railroad rules have the same weight as laws and are observed as such.
-Railroad employés are polite. When a porter starts down a platform with
-a barrow of luggage he does not try to run over people, or yell “Get
-out of the way!” as in America. He goes slowly and calls out “Make way,
-if you please.” Baggagemen do not try to break the trunks, and will
-answer civilly when you ask questions. Some of these European ways are
-not so bad.
-
-Summed up, these are my impressions of European railroads: Cars small,
-uncomfortable, unsanitary; road-bed fine and management good; prices
-about the same as in America, and chance of getting to your destination
-much better.
-
-A passenger train with the long line of little light coaches is put
-over the rails very rapidly in Europe if they wish. Many regular trains
-make fifty and sixty miles an hour. The ordinary trains which stop
-frequently and carry the third-class cars principally, are slow. A
-freight car, called a “goods van,” is about the size of a dray. There
-are not many box-cars, but the goods are packed on the open drays and
-covered with tarpaulins. The effect is about like a thresher engine
-pulling a lot of four-wheel wagons and drays. It looks “dinky” and is a
-cause of merriment for Americans. But the Englishman retorts with some
-reference to an American railroad wreck and we shut up. I have learned
-this summer that while the United States is the greatest country on
-earth, it can still learn lessons from the slow-but-sure-going English,
-the sturdy Germans and the energetic French. One of these lessons
-is that fast trains and fine cars ought to be supplemented by solid
-roadbeds and careful watching.
-
-A New York clothing merchant was showing a customer some suits. The
-man tried on a coat and vest, and when the merchant turned his back
-he bolted out of the door. The store-keeper yelled “Stop thief!” and
-called the police. All joined in the pursuit. The policeman drew his
-revolver and began to fire at the fugitive. “Shoot him in the pants!”
-screamed the merchant, “shoot him in the pants: the coat and vest are
-mine.”
-
-So when we begin to fire at the defects of railroading in the various
-countries I have to beg the shootist to shoot at the pants, the coat
-and vest and some of the faults are our own.
-
-
-
-
-THE TIME TO QUIT.
-
-
- LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, Aug. 24, 1905.
-
-To-morrow we will finish the job of seeing Europe and sail for home.
-Just to be sure that we would not miss the boat, we came to Liverpool
-two days in advance. When an American is on his first long stay in a
-foreign country and the time grows near when he is to return once more
-to the land and the people he loves, he knows now that he loved them
-if never before. Strange scenes are no longer interesting, castles,
-cathedrals and curious costumes are tiresome, and the only thoughts
-are of the folks at home. Even a man who is ordinarily cynical and
-unsentimental finds his heart beating faster as the hours drag slowly
-by waiting for the time of departure. It would be a great relief if
-one could walk ahead and be overtaken, but the walking is not good in
-the Atlantic this season, so we are painfully killing time and going
-through the motions of sight-seeing while “waiting for the train,”
-or rather for the boat, which happens to be the White Star steamship
-Republic.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-On the way here we spent a day in the town of Oxford. Everybody has
-read more or less of the great university and its student life. Of
-course this is vacation-time and the colleges are practically deserted,
-but we wandered through the buildings and quadrangles and enjoyed
-the walks and quaint streets. The phrase “classic shades” might well
-have originated here, for the great trees hundreds of years old, the
-ivy-covered walls and towers, the inclosed courts and the low-ceiled
-halls and rooms, all make for a peaceful repose that forms a charming
-setting for the intellectual life which ordinarily fills the place.
-There are twenty-one colleges in Oxford, each large in size and
-impressive in architecture. The style is a quadrangle with a large
-court or “quad” within, on which the students’ rooms face, and usually
-covered with grass and filled with stately trees. Each college has from
-100 to 300 students, and the attendance at the whole university is over
-3,000. The “young gentlemen,” as Oxford students are called, reside in
-the college buildings, and each has a bedroom and sitting-room. Meals
-are either served in the rooms or in the large dining-hall. There are
-no recitations, and not many lectures. Much of the studying is done
-with tutors. The intellectual effort of the student is to acquire
-sufficient knowledge from lectures, tutors and books to pass the
-examinations. The chief courses of study are the ancient languages,
-philosophy, mathematics, history, and either theology, law, medicine,
-or natural science. The range is not near so large as in America and
-they do not go so much on what we call “practical studies.” On the
-side the men do good work in rowing and cricket, and have all the fun
-of American students, even if they are supposed to be in and with the
-gates locked every night at 9 o’clock.
-
-The history of Oxford University dates back to Alfred the Great, but
-the first authentic accounts of the work are of the twelfth century.
-All learning was then in the hands of the church, and the first
-colleges were primarily for the education of priests. Kings, queens
-and bishops, interested in learning, established first one college and
-then another, so that by the thirteenth century Oxford ranked with the
-most important universities in Europe; and then, as education extended
-to other professions, the colleges widened their courses of study,
-and the government, while still ecclesiastical in form, became broad
-and liberal. The colleges have large endowments, plenty of money, and
-Oxford and Cambridge have educated most of the great men of England in
-the last 500 years.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Liverpool is a good deal like a big American city. A hundred years ago
-it was a small town, but by taking the lead in American trade it has
-become the most important port of Great Britain, and, counting suburbs,
-has nearly a million population. Its harbor is a deep river, the
-Mersey, and the banks are solid walls of wharves, docks and wholesale
-buildings. It is a relief to strike a town where you go to see bridges
-and factories instead of churches and art galleries. Liverpool is a
-good place in which to taper off from the old and the curious to the
-useful and the active. In our hotel here we have electric lights,
-bathrooms, and an elevator that works. Hotels where you go to bed by
-candlelight, bathe in a little tub, and walk up four flights of narrow
-stairs, are interesting and comfortable, but they are better for a
-three months’ stay than for a steady diet. Nearly every guest at this,
-the biggest hotel in Liverpool, is an American who is getting anxious.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-One of the subjects in which I have taken an interest on this trip has
-been that of the prices of products and labor, comparing them with
-those at home. I have referred to it frequently, but perhaps a summary
-will interest the practical American who wants to know “what it costs.”
-In the beginning I want to say I have not yet found a place where
-“things are cheap,” according to the American standard. The ordinary
-people in Europe get along with things that are cheaper than in America
-and they do without others, so their cost of living is not so high. The
-ordinary artisan or mechanic in Europe will live with his family in
-two or three rooms poorly lighted, ventilated and uninviting. His rent
-is therefore cheaper than the American mechanic who occupies a little
-house of his own and has a front yard or a porch. The European mechanic
-will have meat to eat once a week or once a day, and he and his family
-will live on what a great many Americans waste—they have to. Therefore
-he lives more cheaply, and so can an American who puts himself and his
-family on a diet of soup, potatoes, carrots and turnips. The ordinary
-European mechanic is assisted in earning a living by his wife and all
-of his children, while the ordinary American mechanic only expects
-his wife to do the housework and look after the little ones, and
-his children are at school until they are nearly ready to work for
-themselves. The American mechanic will make from $2 to $5 a day, while
-the European will get from 50 cents to $1.50.
-
-Clothing is cheaper in Europe, and there is none ready made. The family
-either is wealthy enough to have tailors and dressmakers or makes
-its own. A tailor will get $1 a day wages, a seamstress 25 cents a
-day. A “hired girl” gets from a dollar a month to a dollar a week, so
-if a European has money enough he can have servants—but he doesn’t
-have them, and his wife and children work out. They don’t do this
-spasmodically, or in hard times, but customarily and ordinarily, just
-as their parents did before them and their children will do after them.
-Shoes are more expensive in Europe, and not so good. Cotton goods, such
-as shirts, underwear, etc., are as high or higher. Silk goods, kid
-gloves and perfumery are much cheaper than in America. The grades of
-clothing, etc., are different. In Europe the people use ugly and coarse
-stuff such as our people never use. Groceries are at least as high in
-Europe as in America. Meat is higher. You can get a “square meal” in
-the ordinary American small town for a quarter. You can’t do it in
-Europe, but you can get some soup and bread and carrots for ten cents.
-
-The ordinary American workingman figures that by working hard, being
-economical and having a careful family, he can save enough to be
-comfortable, educate his children and give them as good a chance as
-anybody in town. The ordinary European workingman figures that by
-working hard, being economical and having all his family at work he
-can escape the poor-house, and his children can have the same chance he
-has had.
-
-Of course the best prices are paid in the big cities, as in our
-country, and I will illustrate by some of my own experiences.
-
-In London at one of the finest shops I had my hair cut and shampooed.
-It cost me 12 cents American money, and in Hutchinson would have cost
-me 50 cents, in New York at least 65 cents. The barber told me that
-most English workingmen could not afford to pay 6 cents (or 4 cents in
-a plain shop) and therefore cut their own hair.
-
-I could have had a tailor make a suit in London for $12 or $15 that
-would cost me $30 in Hutchinson or $40 in Kansas City. The American
-tailor can figure out how it is done. But here is a thing that
-pleased me: The swell shops in London advertise “American tailoring.”
-A European tailor sews beautifully, but he can’t fit. The wealthy
-Englishmen wear clothes that would make a tasteful American have fits.
-Americans are the best dressed people in the world, and American
-tailors are considered the best everywhere.
-
-I could live in a hotel cheaper in Europe. The hotel-keeper here pays
-his men from $6 to $10 a month and his chambermaids and female help
-from $1 to $3 a month. His meat and groceries cost as much or more than
-they would in America, but he works them more economically. The main
-difference is in the “help.”
-
-[Illustration: EUROPEAN CLASS DISTINCTION.
-
- “_Big fleas have little fleas
- Upon their backs to bite ’em,
- And the little fleas have other fleas,
- And so on, ad infinitum._”
-]
-
-In women’s wares, silks, embroideries, laces and sewing are cheaper
-in Europe. Cotton goods, shoes and ordinary clothes are higher.
-
-“Things” are just as high in Europe, people and their labor are cheaper.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-England is the natural friend and business competitor of America. There
-is a marked difference in methods and ways. An Englishman will hold
-fast to the old and only accept improvements and changes when he is
-forced to or when he has fully decided they are best. In America we
-usually think a change is a good thing, and will prefer something new
-to the old just because it is new, when it may actually not be as good.
-These are differences in temperament which have their advantages and
-disadvantages. We could learn from the English and they from us, and a
-half-way compromise would undoubtedly work best.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The class distinctions are the most unpleasant feature of English life.
-An American friend was telling me of an incident which illustrates it.
-He was visiting a wealthy English family, and during his stay had a
-long and pleasant talk with the gardener. He went away, and afterward
-came back for another visit. He told his host that he wanted to see the
-gardener and ask about some shrubs. “Very well,” said the host; “but
-you won’t mind if I suggest one thing to you. Don’t call the gardener
-‘Mr. Johnson.’ Just call him Johnson. We never speak to a servant
-as ‘Mr.’” That was not snobbery in England. The host was a kind and
-intelligent Englishman. It is the custom of the country. The custom
-goes on down the line. The butler would not associate on equal terms
-with the footman or the footman with the porter. And the host of my
-friend would take off his hat to the good-for-nothing son of an earl,
-who in turn would not presume to approach a prince unless requested. It
-reminds me of the poem:
-
- “Big fleas have little fleas
- Upon their backs to bite ’em,
- And the little fleas have other fleas,
- And so on, ad infinitum.”
-
-It is funny, but it is sickening to an American who knows that in his
-country the son of the gardener may be President and the son of the
-President may be a gardener and either of them may be a gentleman if he
-is honest and straight and decent.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-A thought which comes to me very strongly is that a little visiting in
-other countries not only makes a man a better American, but it gives
-him the knowledge that there are other bright, smart and able people
-besides those in the United States. The competition in this world is
-keen, and every country has its advantages and its disadvantages, its
-weak points and its strong points. There is no profit in belittling the
-other fellow. If I have dwelt most upon the differences between America
-and England, it is because they are the interesting things. There is no
-interest in what is the same at home and here. The English are a great
-people. A little country not as big as Kansas really dominates the
-financial and political world. Out of the false notions of medieval
-times they have built up constitutional liberty and have conferred its
-blessings upon others. England is the greatest commercial power on
-earth, and it is so because of Englishmen and not because of natural
-advantages or favored position. It is old and interesting, wealthy and
-powerful. It is good to look upon and pleasant to visit. But as for me,
-I am with the Kansan who wrote:
-
- “I’ve been off on a journey—just got home to-day.
- I’ve traveled north, and south, and east, and every other way.
- I’ve seen a heap of country, and cities on the boom,
- But I want to be in Kansas, where the sunflowers bloom.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Notes
-
-Page 67 — insured changed to ensured.
-Page 107 — ’lAmerica changed to l’America.
-Page 139 — passed changed to past.
-Page 152 — metroplis changed to metropolis.
-Page 152 — taking changed to talking.
-Page 168 — sursounded changed to surrounded.
-Page 191 — vinevards changed to vineyards.
-Page 201 — removed the extra word ‘one’.
-Page 240 — Britian changed to Britain.
-Page 277 — jaye changed to have.
-
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-
-<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Journey of a Jayhawker, by W. Y. Morgan</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
-at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: A Journey of a Jayhawker</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: W. Y. Morgan</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Albert T. Reid</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 21, 2021 [eBook #65125]</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Fay Dunn, Fiona Holmes, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</div>
-
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JOURNEY OF A JAYHAWKER ***</div>
-
-<div class="transnote">
-<h2 class="nopagebreak" title="">Transcriber’s Notes.</h2>
-
-<p>Hyphenation has been standardised.</p>
-<p>Other changes made are noted at the <a href="#end_note" title="Go to the End Note">end of the book.</a></p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a id="i_cover" name="i_cover"><img src="images/i_cover.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="1067" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_i"></a>[i]</span></p>
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_frontis.jpg" alt="" width="404" height="550" />
-<p class="caption center p80">ARMED AND EQUIPPED, AS ADVISED BY FRIENDS.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-
-<h1> <em>A JOURNEY<br />
- OF A JAYHAWKER</em></h1>
-
-<p class="space-above4"></p>
-
-<p class="center"> <i>BY<br />
- W. Y. MORGAN</i></p>
-
-<p class="space-above4"></p>
-
-<p class="center p80"> <i>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY<br />
- ALBERT T. REID</i></p>
-
-<p class="space-above4"></p>
-
-<p class="center p70"> MONOTYPED AND PRINTED BY<br />
- CRANE &amp; COMPANY, PRINTERS<br />
- TOPEKA<br />
- 1905
-</p>
-
-<p class="space-above4"></p>
-
-<p class="center p70"> Copyright 1905,<br />
- <span class="smcap">By</span> W. Y. MORGAN.
-</p>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-
-<p>These letters were written to the Hutchinson Daily
-News, and are printed in book form without revision.
-With this understanding the reader will kindly overlook
-inconsistencies and inaccuracies, which easily
-creep into what is only an impression and not a study.
-Any other mistakes are to be charged to the printer
-and proof-reader, who are likewise to be credited for
-the correct grammar and English which may be found
-in some places.</p>
-
-<p>There is no excuse for the publication of these letters.
-No one is guilty except the writer, and he is
-responsible only to his conscience, which is not sensitive.</p>
-
-<p class="right">W. Y. MORGAN.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hutchinson, Kansas</span>, December 1, 1905.</p>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p class="center"><em>To the</em><br />
-<em>PEOPLE OF HUTCHINSON,</em><br />
-<em>Who have stood for much from the same</em><br />
-<em>source, and for whom there is no</em><br />
-<em>relief in sight, this book is</em><br />
-<em>respectfully dedicated.</em></p>
-
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ix"></a>[ix]</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</h2>
-
-<table summary="Contents" class="toc">
-<tr>
- <td>&nbsp;</td>
- <td class="tdr"><i>Page.</i></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Going to Europe</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_11" title="Page 11">11</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Leaving the Land</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_17" title="Page 17">17</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Crossing the Atlantic</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_24" title="Page 24">24</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">First Day in Ireland</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_31" title="Page 31">31</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">By Killarney’s Lakes</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_37" title="Page 37">37</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Ireland and the Irish</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_44" title="Page 44">44</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The City of Pleasure</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_53" title="Page 53">53</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Paris and Parisians</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_60" title="Page 60">60</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Rural France</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_69" title="Page 69">69</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Getting into Italy</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_79" title="Page 79">79</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Rome and Romans</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_86" title="Page 86">86</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Venice, the Beautiful</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_93" title="Page 93">93</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Some Things on Art</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_100" title="Page 100">100</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">An Italian Fourth and So Forth</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_106" title="Page 106">106</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Across the Alps</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_117" title="Page 117">117</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Geneva and Chillon</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_123" title="Page 123">123</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Something of Switzerland</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_130" title="Page 130">130</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Swiss and Switzerland</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_136" title="Page 136">136</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">In the Black Forest</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_145" title="Page 145">145</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Stories of Strassburg</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_152" title="Page 152">152</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">In Old Heidelberg</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_159" title="Page 159">159</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
-<td><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_x"></a>[x]</span></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Worms and Other Things</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_167" title="Page 167">167</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Rich Old Frankfort</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_174" title="Page 174">174</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Down the Rhine</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_180" title="Page 180">180</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Cologne Water and Others</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_188" title="Page 188">188</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">In Dutch Land</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_197" title="Page 197">197</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Dam Dutch Towns</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_204" title="Page 204">204</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Kingdom of Belgium</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_212" title="Page 212">212</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">European Art and Grub</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_219" title="Page 219">219</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">In Old, Old England</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_231" title="Page 231">231</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Greatest of Cities</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_238" title="Page 238">238</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">At King Edward’s House</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_246" title="Page 246">246</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Tower and Other Things</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_253" title="Page 253">253</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">In Rural England</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_259" title="Page 259">259</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Railroads in Europe</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_266" title="Page 266">266</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Time To Quit</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_275" title="Page 275">275</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span></p>
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_JOURNEY_OF_A_JAYHAWKER">A JOURNEY OF A JAYHAWKER.</h2>
-</div>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="center p130">GOING TO EUROPE.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Boston</span>, May 25, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>When one decides to make a European trip he immediately
-becomes impressed with the importance of
-his intention, and thinks that everyone else is likewise
-affected. Of course this is a mistake, but you
-have to stop and think before you realize it. You go
-down the street imagining everyone is saying, “There
-is a man who is going to Europe.” In fact, the other
-fellow is probably merely wondering whether or not
-you will pay the two dollars you owe him or stand him
-off for another thirty days. You are in an exhilarated
-state. You think over the cherished desires of a lifetime
-to see London, Paris, Rome, and the places made
-famous by history. You can’t pick up a paper but
-you read some reference to a place or thing which you
-are going to see across the Atlantic, and which ordinarily
-you would skip as you do a patent-medicine advertisement.
-You go to reading the accounts of
-Emperor William’s plans as if you would soon meet
-William and talk them over with him. You read about
-the comings and goings of nobility and wonder if the
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span>pope knows you are likely to call on him some day in
-July, and whether the Swiss Guards will realize the
-honor of a visit from an American citizen by the name
-of Morgan or Jones. You read of European travel
-and sights, and, worst of all, you actually get to believe
-the things. In fact, you work yourself up to a
-fine point of enthusiasm and in your mind go cavorting
-around among ancient heroes and crowned heads.
-As a first guess I would say that probably the most
-successful part of a trip to the Old World is the one
-you take in advance.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>As soon as I disclosed my European intentions, I
-began to get advice from friends and old travelers.
-This is a trying experience. Everybody has ideas as
-to what should be done, and no two will agree. One
-of the first questions to be settled is that of clothing.
-The importance of this is impressed upon the prospective
-tourist. In the first place I am told to take no
-baggage except the very simplest that can be carried
-in the hand. In the second place I am advised that
-when traveling in Europe, even more than in this
-country, one should be prepared for all kinds of climate
-and be ready with the proper clothes to meet every
-emergency. Every bit of information is absolutely as
-true as common law or the gospel, for the informant
-has either made the trip, or his wife’s cousin has, or he
-knows a man who knows another man who did,&mdash;and
-you are told what happened with all the harrowing
-details. Clothes do not make the man or the woman,
-but they help out a lot. So that our friends will realize<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span>
-the difficulties we may meet. I will admit that
-we are going to the “simple” extreme, taking only
-light baggage, very little more than a clean collar and
-a pleasant smile. If royalty wants to call upon us,
-royalty will not find us prepared with the clothes required
-by the books of etiquette, unless I can hire a
-dress suit or borrow one from the head waiter.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I have also discovered that it is going to be difficult
-to please everybody with our route. Nearly every
-person has something that just must be seen, and not
-to do so would make a trip to Europe a flat failure.
-Most of these important places are dug up by inspiration
-from the memory of some novel or play. There
-is the scientific man who urges German universities,
-the musically inclined who would make Wagnerian
-objects the great points, the historical student who
-prescribes battlefields, the sportive gent who urges
-Monte Carlo, the classical enthusiast who can think of
-nothing less than a thousand years old, the art-lover
-who has a list of seventy-seven different styles of
-Madonnas, the novel-reader who would wander over
-the country of Scott, the social oracle who would spend
-the time in London and “Paree,” the enthusiast in
-civics who is interested in government railroads, the
-initiative and referendum of Switzerland, and the man
-whose ideas of a trip abroad are condensed in the parting
-injunction, “Take one for me at Munich or Heidelberg.”
-It is shocking to see the disappointed look
-of the friendly adviser if you do not agree with him
-that his recommendation is the great thing in Europe.
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span>A friend of mine who is an archæologist said: “Of
-course you are going to Greece?” Now I had not
-thought of Greece, and ventured to say so. “What,
-not going to Greece!” was the withering answer in a
-tone which plainly meant that you were undoubtedly
-going to throw your opportunity away like an empty
-sack when the peanuts are gone. Another type of
-adviser is the man who says: “You must see the Coliseum,”
-when you know the man would not know the
-Coliseum if he were to meet it in the road. He has
-simply heard some one say something about the Coliseum,
-and takes that word in order to show off his
-superior knowledge of the sights of Europe. During
-the weeks of preparation we have made “itineraries”
-to suit the suggestions of our friends. It is easy to
-make an itinerary, and no trouble at all to change it
-the next day when a more profitable route is offered.
-On a rough estimate I should say that in the last few
-weeks we have made European itineraries enough to
-take about seventeen years’ time, and we are intending
-to be away only about three months. The fact
-is that while Europe is only a little continent, not near
-as big as the United States, it has been fought over,
-scrapped over, built over, written about and has been
-doing business for so many hundreds of years that there
-is hardly a pin-point on the map which for some good
-reason you do not want to visit. It is like taking a
-newspaper article about seven columns long and condensing
-it to a small paragraph. You feel you are
-cutting out all the really good places, and about the
-extent of your trip is to the points to which you have
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span>ordered your mail sent and where you have to go to
-change trains.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>And then there is the friend who can’t go to Europe
-and who could hardly get to Newton if he had to pay
-for a round-trip ticket, who comfortingly says: “I
-wouldn’t go to Europe until I had seen all of my own
-country.” This remark has been made to me so often
-in the last few weeks that I have learned to dodge
-when I see it coming. I have traveled around some
-in the United States, and as a matter of fact the people
-in one section are pretty much the same as the people
-in another, and it is people that I like to see and not
-mountains or museums. Of course some parts are
-more so than others. There is no State like Kansas
-and no people like Kansans. The object of a trip to
-Europe is to see something different, as different as
-possible. It is to get the local “color” for the things
-you read about. It is to learn if the men and women
-of the Old World are as they are pictured in books,
-and to compare them with the people whom you associate
-with every day at home. I am told that in
-Paris even little children can talk French, and that
-in Germany the people stand it to have an emperor
-and never organize any boss-buster movements or bolt
-the party nominations. I have read about these
-things all my life, and they may be true. I want to
-see them. I am not from Missouri, but I have lived
-near enough to want to be shown.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span></p>
-<p>We sailed from Hutchinson on the Santa Fe. After
-touching at a few places we reached Boston safely, and
-unless the police intervene we will embark this afternoon
-on the White Star steamship Arabic. It is still
-two hours until we go aboard but I am already seasick,
-or am imagining how it will feel, which is nearly as bad.
-I am not afraid of water. I have lived too long on the
-Arkansas and Cow creek and my boyhood was spent on
-the shores of the Cottonwood. But nevertheless and
-notwithstanding, I feel as I think everybody must
-when he takes his first long ocean voyage. I never
-noticed so many accounts of wrecks as I have in the
-last month. If there was an item in a newspaper
-about the wreck of some ocean steamer or the drowning
-of a passenger, and I did not see the piece, some friend
-always did, and brought it to me to comfort me. Statistics
-prove that it is as safe to travel across the ocean
-in a steamship as across Kansas in a railroad train.
-This is comforting, but statistics do not look big and
-substantial when you contemplate a week’s existence
-with nothing but a few boards and bolts between
-yourself and the place where McGinty went. One
-little man in a little old boat seems mighty small in
-the middle of a big ocean.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">LEAVING THE LAND.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Steamship Arabic</span>, May 29, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>In spite of the fact that a trip across the Atlantic
-is not considered dangerous or exceptional, there is
-always a lot of sentiment which comes up into the
-throat of the traveler when he goes aboard the ship
-that is to take him out of his own country and across
-the ocean to a foreign land. Long before the Arabic
-was to sail it was filled with passengers and friends
-who had come to say good-by and wave farewell. The
-custom is whenever a friend is to start on such a trip
-to accompany him or her to the dock, send flowers to
-be placed in the stateroom, and to stand on the wharf
-and wave a handkerchief until the responding figure
-on the deck of the ship is no longer recognizable in the
-distance. Of course, we were so far from home that
-there was nobody to do these honors for wandering
-Kansans, so we picked out a few nice-looking people
-who seemed to be there for curiosity and vigorously
-shouted and waved good-by to them, and they had
-the good taste to respond. A Colorado man who had
-been on the trip before told me afterward that the
-young fellow who had called so cheerily and waved
-so vigorously at him as the steamer pulled away from
-land, was a hotel porter whom he had hired for a half-dollar
-to come to the wharf and bid him godspeed on
-his journey.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span></p>
-<p>The Arabic turned away from the dock at 4.30 in the
-afternoon of May 25, and steamed slowly and majestically
-down the harbor and out toward the ocean
-with a half-dozen little pilot-boats and revenue cutters
-whistling and dancing like a lot of little dogs frisking
-and playing around a big dog as it walks down the
-street. The old ship Constitution, heroine of America’s
-early naval warfare, was passed, the forts and the navy
-yard with the modern warships and guns, the last island
-and the last American flag faded into the distance,
-and a solemn thought of leaving one’s native land and
-of possible seasickness makes one choke with patriotism
-and foreboding. It is too late now to back out.
-There is no chance to get off. For a week the ship will
-never stop, and there will be no place upon which the
-eye can rest except water and sky. A flood of sentiment
-rushes through one and leaks a little at the eyes
-as the mind turns to those who have been so near and
-dear and are now to be so far away. That is the feeling
-experienced by all travelers, and I want to be recorded
-present and voting on the question, although as a
-matter of fact while the Arabic was leaving the dock
-and country I was quarreling with the purser over the
-stateroom and trying to get the steward to help me
-handle baggage when he was so full of American liquor
-that he could do nothing but say “yessir” (hic) and
-smile.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a id="i_019" name="i_019"><img src="images/i_019.jpg" alt="" width="340" height="550" /></a>
-<p class="caption center p80">NO TIME FOR SENTIMENT.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p>No doubt everyone has noticed how the apparently
-little things of life occupy us at most critical and important
-times. I remember when at a certain stage
-I was accomplishing an object to which I had worked
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span>industriously and whole-heartedly. I should have been
-filled with happiness and pride as I faced a large crowd
-of people. As a matter of fact I was miserable because
-my collar did not fit my shirt and kept bobbing
-up and down in a refractory way. The first time I saw
-Niagara Falls, whither I had gone to be overcome with
-the grandeur and beauty of the scene, I put in all my
-time trying to find a place to get a sandwich. It is
-said that when Gladstone was making his great fight
-for Irish home rule he was sitting on his bench in
-parliament, apparently wrapped in deep thought. His
-colleagues did not disturb him, for they supposed he
-was pondering the question which was agitating every
-mind. Finally he straightened himself up and said
-to himself, but so those near could hear: “After all,
-I will plant that rosebush in the front instead of at
-the side of the doorway.” The energetic man who
-is traveling amid picturesque and historical places puts
-in more time figuring out time-tables and wondering
-whether he will get dinner in a dining-car or at a lunch
-station, than he does in soulful meditation on the wonders
-of nature or the handiwork of man. And the
-general run of women, I am firmly convinced by circumstantial
-evidence, will approach the subject of a
-European trip or a church wedding, not with the
-thoughts of the lands to be visited or the responsibility
-to be assumed, but with minds full of the problem
-of whether four shirtwaists and a skirt will do better
-than two dresses. This peculiarity of humanity has
-often impressed me, so I was not surprised when I
-realized as I returned more or less triumphant from
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span>my battles with purser and steward that I missed
-most of the thrills and throbs that had been promised
-me by all the guidebooks and books of travel that I
-had read.</p>
-
-<p>An ocean voyage is being robbed of most of its terrors.
-The Arabic is a big ship, one of the largest.
-It stretches out over so many waves that it does very
-little rolling or plunging. We have been out for three
-days and there have been really no cases of seasickness.
-I fully expected to be seasick, and it is a great disappointment.
-However, I am not going to ask the company
-to refund my fare on that account. Everybody
-is afraid of seasickness, and down in his heart everybody
-wishes that everybody else might be sick and he
-alone left to proudly walk the deck and smile at the
-victims. The only person who suffers from seasickness
-is the individual affected. You may run a sliver
-in your finger and the family will gather around with
-words of sympathy. You may get a cinder in your
-eye and your friends will hurry forward to help get
-it out. But if you are suffering with seasickness, and
-death would almost be welcome, your friends will only
-grin and their words of condolence are false and mocking.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>A modern steamship is constructed for safety, comfort,
-and almost luxury. When you get those three
-qualities there is very little left of the poetry or novelty
-of ocean traveling. We still speak of the ship “sailing,”
-although, of course, it doesn’t. The modern
-ship steams. We have read all of our lives about the
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span>beautiful white-wings and the jolly jack tars. The
-reality is a mammoth engine out of sight, a big smoke-stack,
-and a lot of black, dust-covered, sweaty firemen.
-The “sailors” no longer climb the rigging and the
-masts, but go down in the hole and shovel coal. My
-ideas of the sea came from Oliver Optic. I want to
-hear the boatswain pipe, the mate’s command, “All
-hands belay ship,” and see the captain as he stands
-at his post and with an occasional “Steady, my hearties,”
-direct the seamen as they sing their songs and
-clamber up the masts. That is beauty and poetry.
-But the reality is that the captain whistles down the
-tube to the engineer and he gives the order, “More
-coal, you sons of guns; stop that noise and fire up.”
-That is fact, and makes traveling comfortable but not
-soul-inspiring.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The White Star line, on which we are traveling, belongs
-to the big steamship company merger, formed by
-Pierpont Morgan a few years ago. It is really owned by
-American capital and controlled by American financiers,
-but the ships carry the British flag and are manned by
-British officers and men. England manages things
-so that it pays to carry the English flag. I have a
-great deal of respect for England. With all our American
-enterprise, energy and ability, we look like a
-tallow candle beside an electric light when it comes to
-ships and international commerce. The government
-of England always looks after its shipping interests
-and encourages capital to send English vessels and English
-crews carrying English merchandise to the fur<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span>thermost
-parts. Prizes, bounties, subsidies and favors
-of all kinds have been used to make the merchant
-marine of Great Britain greater than that of the rest
-of the world. The English are a great people, and they
-are conscious of it. And they see to it that everybody
-else understands the fact. There isn’t anything in this
-American-owned ship that comes from the United
-States except what the passengers have in their baggage.
-The crew from captain to cook are English.
-The supplies are all bought in England. The ships
-are built and repaired at Belfast. Coal for the voyage
-both ways comes from Wales. English meats and
-even ice-cream are purchased in Liverpool for the round
-trip. You can’t buy an American postage stamp, and
-United States money is not taken except at exchange
-below par. The American who has been going through
-life under the impression that America is the whole
-thing has his feelings stepped on nearly every time he
-turns around.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The daily life on a steamship is a good deal like I am
-told it is on a limited Santa Fe Pullman train, only
-there is a little more room. There are all kinds of
-people on the Arabic, mostly from England, the United
-States or Boston. Soon after we left port I met a
-fellow who looked like somebody from home. I asked
-him where he was from, and he said Nevada. I said
-I was from Kansas, and he enthusiastically grasped
-my hand and said, “Then we are neighbors.” You
-do get a good deal of that feeling. Afterward we met
-some folks from Colorado, and to see us warm up to
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span>each other would have made you think we were a
-long separated but happily reunited family. When
-anyone asks me where I hail from and I say “Kansas,”
-the answer is nearly always “Oh.” And then I shut
-my eyes and wait for the next remark. It never fails
-to come: “Do you know Carrie Nation?” If I get
-a fair show I generally manage in the course of conversation
-to incidentally ring in a few things about
-Kansas that they never heard before (and once in a
-long while something I never heard before myself).
-I don’t have to confine myself to things I can prove.
-Colorado and Nevada will stand by me, and if the returning
-English tourists are not regretting they did
-not see the wonderful State of Kansas they are simply
-figuring me out a liar. The poet said: “How sweet
-it is for one’s country to die.” Let us add: “How
-sweet it is for one’s country to lie.”</p>
-
-<p>That reminds me of a good joke on myself. An
-Englishman was complaining of the voyage and wishing
-he was in old. England. I did a little rapture talk
-about the ocean, and said I loved to go on the deck,
-watching the never-ending blue of water and sky and
-just lie and lie and lie there. He said: “I believe you
-told me you were a newspaper man.”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">CROSSING THE ATLANTIC.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Steamship Arabic</span>, June 1, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>I have come to a realization of the work of Christopher
-Columbus. It took nerve to keep on sailing
-day in and day out, week in and week out, with no
-sight of anything that looked like land,&mdash;nothing but
-a great stretch of water, not even a stick in it. If I
-had been on board the Santa Maria I would surely
-have joined the crowd of sailors who wanted to quit
-and go home. We have come now nearly 3,000 miles
-through the Atlantic, and if someone had not been
-over the route before and we did not believe that land
-would appear at a certain time it would certainly
-look as if the ocean would never end. If Columbus
-were to make the trip now on the Arabic he would
-probably be as surprised as were the Indians when the
-Spaniards landed on San Salvador something over 400
-years ago. The monotony of the ocean is only broken
-by an occasional passing ship, and a high-strung imagination.
-We have met or passed five ships in seven
-days. Each one has provided us with excitement for
-half a day. We took sides as to whether the strange
-vessel was a Cunarder, an American liner, a North
-German Lloyd or what not. Every line that crosses
-the ocean would have partisans and each corner of the
-argument would be vigorously sustained by expert
-evidence. I decided on a system. I always main<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span>tained
-that the ship was an American liner. By
-sticking to the text and not changing I hit it once, which
-was better than the average. Then we have long and
-sometimes bitter discussions as to the number of miles
-the Arabic will make in the next twenty-four hours.
-Tips are anxiously obtained from officers, sailors, stewards
-and cooks. Every man who ever bet in his life
-and some who never do at home, back their opinions
-with their money. And when we are not arguing or
-betting we are eating. Passengers on this line are
-full-fed. The day begins with 8 o’clock breakfast,
-at 10:30 a lunch is served, on deck, at 1 o’clock an
-elaborate lunch, at 4 o’clock tea, cakes and sandwiches
-are distributed, and at 7 o’clock a course dinner. People
-do all of these and eat sandwiches and stuff between
-times and then wonder why their stomachs are “disturbed.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>It takes all kinds of people to make up the world,
-and there are samples of most of the varieties on an
-ocean steamer. Some of our passengers are very swell
-and some are very bum. But they meet on the level&mdash;provided
-you can call the deck of a ship level when it
-is usually tilted one way or the other at an angle of
-20 to 30 degrees. In the spirit of investigation I listened
-to the talk of a couple of ladies who are society
-leaders and members of the 400 at home. The subjects
-they discussed were babies, servants and clothes,
-and they talked just about like the women-folks of
-Kansas. There is a touch of human nature through
-all of us.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span></p>
-<p>When I left home I decided not to change my watch
-until I got to Europe. At Boston I was only one hour
-behind and could easily remember and count on that.
-But every day on the ocean the clock has been shoved
-up thirty-five minutes for the 400 miles traveled eastward
-the preceding twenty-four hours. When it got
-so we were eating noonday lunch at 8 <span class="allsmcap">A. M.</span> by my
-watch I gave it up and turned the hands around. When
-we reach London we will be about six hours ahead of
-Hutchinson time, and anyone can see the ridiculous
-side of getting up at 2 o’clock in the morning and going
-to bed at 4 in the afternoon. By a strange coincidence
-the sun has changed its time for rising and setting to
-agree with the ship’s clock.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>There is great system on a big ship. Everything is
-done just so and no other way. I have had a hard
-time locating the “stewards.” I never realized what
-a steward was before. We have a bedroom steward,
-who looks after the stateroom, a bath steward who
-runs the bathroom, a deck steward in charge of the
-deck, an assistant deck steward, a library steward, a
-smoking-room steward, a table steward, and a few
-more whose titles I can’t remember. One steward
-never gets on another’s line of duty. If you want a
-deck chair you must see the deck steward, if you want
-a blanket you must see the saloon steward, and so on.
-If I fall overboard I hope the proper steward will be
-around, for the system is so fine that I fear the other
-stewards would refuse to act until the proper steward
-could be called. Each steward will be expecting a
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span>tip when the voyage is ended, and if he weren’t a “steward,”
-he probably could not get it so easily.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Sunday we had religious service in the saloon. (Not
-the kind of a saloon that Mrs. Nation holds service in.)
-It was the Church of England service, but out of respect
-to the American passengers the reader ran in
-President Roosevelt’s name in the prayer for the royal
-family. It was a quiet, beautiful day and the amount
-of the collection was small. I was told by an officer
-that when Sunday is a stormy day and the boat acts
-as if it might tip over most any time, the passengers
-contribute much more liberally to the offering than
-they do when the day is fair. Some people go to
-church on board ship who never see the inside of a
-church on land. I suppose they learn from the sailors
-the advantage of casting an anchor out to the windward.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>We will see land in a few hours, the southwest coast
-of Ireland. A few hours later we will land at Queenstown.
-It will be mighty good to get one’s feet on
-ground that doesn’t move just when you don’t expect
-it to. We will find out what has happened in the
-world, for we haven’t had any news for a week. They
-are betting on whether or not the Jap and Russian
-fleets have met during our absence from the earth.
-Like a great many good things, the best part of an
-ocean voyage is the end. I have enjoyed the trip
-very much, but if I get a chance to walk back to America
-I will be mighty glad to take it.</p>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="IRELAND">IRELAND.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">FIRST DAY IN IRELAND.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Cork, Ireland</span>, June 3.</p>
-
-<p>The first vivid impression made upon me in Ireland
-was the morning after we landed. We had come ashore
-late at night at Queenstown, and except for the Irish
-names and Irish brogue there was nothing to indicate
-but that we were going through an American
-custom-house into an American hotel. But when we
-went to breakfast up came the waiter attired in full
-dress and extra long-tailed coat with a red vest. I had
-always supposed the pictures of an English or Irish
-waiter in such livery at breakfast was a joke. It is
-not a joke. It is a most serious and proper attire, and
-I suppose an Irish waiter in a first-class hotel would
-as soon appear to serve breakfast without any pants
-as without the long swallowtail coat. And when I saw
-that, I knew I was far away from home.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>A European breakfast is “rolls and coffee.” In anticipation
-I had thought of hot rolls and delicious
-coffee. Put this down: There are no hot rolls in Ireland,
-and I am guessing there will be none in Europe.
-“Rolls” means plain, very plain, cold bread, hard and
-a trifle stale. The coffee is bum and the cream is
-skim-milk. An English hotel, for that is what Irish
-first-class hotels are, ought to put more into the eating
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span>and less into the waiter’s uniform. Along with other
-Americans at that first breakfast, we joined in a howl
-and managed to get some eggs.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Queenstown is one of the largest and best of the
-British harbors. It has an important navy yard and
-several English warships are anchored among the numerous
-merchant vessels. The town is on the side of a
-high hill which comes down to the water’s edge, and
-the narrow streets go up and down the slope at every
-angle except a right angle to the street along the waterfront.
-The chief resources of Queenstown are sailors
-and tourists, and the main occupations of the leading
-inhabitants are lodging-houses and saloons. Over
-nearly every store is the sign, “Licensed to sell ale,
-porter and spirits seven days in the week.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a id="i_035" name="i_035"><img src="images/i_035.jpg" alt="" width="376" height="532" /></a>
-<p class="caption center p80">THE IRISH JAUNTING (JOLTING) CAR.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p>There is nothing much to Queenstown except the
-quaintness that comes from age and dirt, and I have
-seen enough American towns with the same characteristics
-to make this an old story. But we walked and
-climbed to the top of the hill, and there I saw a panorama
-spread out before me which will stick to my
-memory a good long while. The large harbor, locked
-on three sides and part of the fourth with land, made
-a blue setting for the white of the numerous ships.
-Little sailboats drifted over the quiet water and tugs
-and launches darted in and out among the big vessels.
-Eight-oared boats from the warships, manned with uniformed
-sailors from the royal navy, skimmed back and
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span>forth, the eight oars rising and falling as one. Flags
-were flying from mastheads, and the decks were lively
-with the work of the day. Up from the shore on every
-side except where the ocean’s blue appeared, rose the
-greenest green hills you ever saw, and they reached to
-the bluest blue sky you ever saw, a frame for the picture
-which no artist could ever hope to portray.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>An Irish woman whose son had gone to America
-and sent back for the mother and little sister, had
-never been far from home before. Leading the little
-girl by the hand she was walking to Queenstown and
-came in sight of the harbor from the top of the hill.
-The beauty of the scene impressed her, but she added
-a lesson for the benefit of the daughter: “Look at the
-beautiful sight and see how wonderful is the work of
-Nature. See the big ships side by side, and all around
-them their little ones.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Queenstown is the harbor for Cork, which is twelve
-miles up the river Lee. It is the commercial metropolis
-of southern Ireland and has furnished more policemen
-to America than any town of twice its size in
-the United States. Of course the first thing we did
-was to ride in a jaunting-car and go to Blarney Castle.
-The castle looks just about as it did last summer on the
-Pike at St. Louis. But the surrounding grounds are
-as pretty as they can be. I hesitate when it comes to
-describing the park with its stately trees, its beautiful
-grassy slopes crowned with wild flowers, its moss and
-ivy which cling to wall and tree, covering defects,
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span>revealing charms, enhancing beauties. The castle itself
-was built by McCarthy, king of Munster, in 1446,
-and while of course uninhabited and in partial ruin,
-is in good preservation, to make an Irish bull of it.
-We climbed to the top, we reveled in the rich scene
-around us, kissed the blarney stone and cheerfully gave
-the care-taker twice the usual fee because she said
-Americans were the best people on earth. Then we had
-the nicest lunch that has come our way since we left
-Kansas&mdash;an Irish lunch of bread and butter, cold ham
-and milk. We had traveled all morning and climbed
-among ruins from 12 to 2 o’clock. If you want the
-best lunch on earth, no matter what it is made of,
-climb towers for a couple of hours.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>There are some things that are peculiarly Irish.
-The jaunting-car is one of them. It is the favorite
-vehicle for driving. It looks like a two-wheel cart,
-driver’s seat in the front end and passengers’ seats back
-to back, facing outward. My fellow-traveler, Mr. McGregor,
-says the Irish brogue has perverted into jaunting-car
-the real name, which is jolting-car. The driver
-is always a good fellow and he keeps the horse on the
-gallop much of the time. You have to learn to keep
-your seat on a jaunting-car as you do on a bicycle.
-You also have to learn to weigh the statements of
-your driver as to distances and legends as you do the
-promises of a candidate for office. We suggested to
-one that a jaunting-car driver had to lie. “We never
-lie, sir,” said the Irishman. “But we stretch it a
-little.”</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span></p>
-<p>After a week on shipboard, during which time I had
-patiently shaved myself, I yearned for the comforting
-work of a good barber. At the best hotel in Cork, a
-city of 80,000 people, I went to the best barber shop in
-town. The chair was just like a common wooden
-kitchen chair, only not quite so comfortable. There
-was a head-rest made out of a two-by-four scantling,
-and when the barber pulled my head back onto that
-I knew my dream of a comfortable shave was to be a
-nightmare. He made the lather in a wash-basin and
-I think he honed the razor on a grindstone. It cut
-all right when it didn’t pull out by the roots. When
-the operation was finished he combed my hair with my
-head still back, washed my face with cold water and
-rubbed it with a coarse towel. The barber charged
-me twopence (equivalent to four cents). And that
-was my first experience with a European tonsorial
-artist. Perhaps sometime in my life I have felt cross
-at a barber at home because the razor pulled or because
-he squirted bay rum into my eye. But in the
-future I will never murmur, except to recall my experience
-in Cork and thank God for American barbers.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The day we came to Cork there was an election for
-poor-law guardians, only a local affair, but I attended.
-The voting is by Australian ballot just as in America.
-The suffrage is restricted to householders, including
-those who pay a certain rent, and women vote the same
-as men. The politicians at the polling-place treated
-me well and explained all the methods. One of the
-workers told the judge that they should let me vote, as
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span>when he had visited his brother in America they had
-let him vote twice while there. I proposed that if
-they would let me vote for poor-law guardians in the
-county of Cork I would let any of them vote for councilman
-in the Fourth ward of Hutchinson. We had a
-good friendly visit, and it was easy to see that Irishmen
-are politicians in the Old World as well as the New.
-After a man or woman voted he or she was always given
-a drink at the nearest place where “spirits” are sold.
-But when the polls closed instead of going ahead and
-counting the votes, the judges adjourned until noon the
-next day&mdash;the invariable custom. It was not until
-the afternoon following the election when it was learned
-who “stood at the top of the poll.” We couldn’t
-stand the pressure that long in America.</p>
-
-<p>There were placards up all around telling the voters
-to “vote the straight ticket,” “vote for the interest
-of labor,” and “vote for your own interests.” The
-newspapers the next day told of the vicious conduct
-of the opposition and the immoral practices resorted
-to. But as a rule the Irish people are like Americans,
-accepting the result with good feeling and promises
-of what will be done to the other fellows the next time.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">BY KILLARNEY’S LAKES.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Killarney</span>, June 8, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>We have spent four days in the Irish mountains
-and have ridden a hundred miles in a jaunting-car
-and coach. I have had mountain scenery, lake scenery
-and plain scenery for every meal in the day. I enjoy
-scenery, but I fear I am getting it in too large quantities
-and am having it shaken too well while taking.
-Sunday was spent in Glengariff, a picturesque place
-where the mountains rise abruptly from the salt water
-of Bantry bay. Monday we coached from Glengariff
-to Killarney and Tuesday we did the lakes with a
-jaunting-car, slightly assisted by a row-boat. The
-Irish mountains are not as high as the Rocky Mountains,
-but they are a very good imitation. The Rockies
-are grand and beautiful. The mountains of Cork and
-Kerry are pretty and beautiful. The Irish mountains
-are covered with green. It is as if the Rocky Mountains
-were smaller, covered with ivy and moss, dotted here
-and there with whitewashed cottages and flocks of
-sheep, and topped with a blue sky which is bluer than
-any indigo and clearer than any crystal.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>There are several ruined castles about Killarney.
-I am already getting to shy at ruined castles. The
-proposal to visit one makes my feet ache as an ap<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span>proaching
-thunder-storm affects some people’s corns.
-We first went to Muckross Abbey, a well-preserved
-ruin about 400 years old. The Muckross family, which
-owned the estate, has played out, and the property has
-been bought by Guinness, the Dublin brewer, who was
-made a lord by Queen Victoria. Whatever the earl
-of Kenmare does not own around Killarney belongs to
-Guinness. You can imagine how Muckross Abbey
-looked 300 years ago when the old monks lived there
-and occupied the cells and cloister now unroofed.
-The banquet hall has a big fireplace and there are dark
-spiral stairways running up and down such as you read
-about in Ivanhoe. On the tombstones are inscriptions
-telling of the virtues and sanctity of knights and lords
-who would be considered tough bats if they lived nowadays
-and swaggered around as they did in the good old
-times. I like to look at old tombstones and wonder what
-the men who lie beneath them would say if they could
-read the catalogue of virtues accredited to them. I
-always think of the little girl who had evidently been visiting
-Muckross Abbey, or some such place, and anxiously
-inquired if the people in those days did not bury bad
-folks, as all who were interred there were supremely
-good. And then the thought comes up that all of
-these men were great and strong in their time, making
-history and imagining that they were cutting a gash
-in the world. Now they are forgotten and their deeds
-unknown, and they are the subjects of sportive remarks
-by tourists from a country they never heard of.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span></p>
-<p>The lakes of Killarney have been praised in prose
-and verse, and they are up to the advance advertising.
-They are not large, but they nestle among the mountains
-and reflect on their clear surface the heights that
-surround them. There is a legend everywhere and the
-Irish driver knows them all. Here is a reasonable one:
-One of the O’Donohues, which family was once the
-royal power in Kerry, was hunting in the mountains.
-He met the devil, and the two had an altercation in
-which O’Donohue got decidedly the best of the argument.
-The devil became so angry that he bit a
-big chunk out of a mountain. O’Donohue took his
-shillelah and hit the devil so hard a crack that he
-dropped the mouthful of mountain into the lake.
-This tale must be true, for as the driver said: “There’s
-the place the devil bit and it is called so to this day,
-and out in the lake is the little island of rock, just as
-the devil dropped it into the water.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Everybody who has read Tom Moore&mdash;and if anyone
-has not he should do so&mdash;will remember the lines:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse">“There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet</div>
- <div class="verse">As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet.”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The meeting of the three Killarney lakes was referred to,
-and Moore was telling truth as well as poetry.
-The upper lake and the middle lake narrow to small
-streams and flow together as they merge into the little
-rosebud of a mouth which the lower lake puts up to
-greet them. There is a rapid which the boat shoots for
-a sixpence, but it was not thrilling. In the triangular
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span>park made by lakes and mountains are said to be
-specimens of every kind of tree known. The driver
-told this proudly, but when I called for a cottonwood
-he couldn’t produce. Then I told him all about the
-wonderful cottonwood, and he promised to see the
-keeper and find out why they couldn’t have one in
-Killarney.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>That reminds me of my experience with music. The
-first morning I awoke in Ireland at Queenstown I heard
-the voices of a number of sailors of the royal navy, and
-as the melodious sounds rolled into the window I was
-surprised to realize that they were singing “Under the
-Anheuser-Busch.” At the hotel in Cork the orchestra
-played the same. At the theatre that night it was
-greeted with an encore. The driver on the jaunting-car
-whistled the tune. And last night when I had
-made friends with a cottager and was sitting with him
-by the side of a peat fire and he was telling me of Ireland’s
-woes, his little girl came in and he proceeded
-to show her off. First he had her sing an old Gaelic
-song. Then he said, “Now give us an American
-song,” and she responded with “Under the Anheuser-Busch.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I have hardly met an Irishman but has told me he
-had brothers and sisters in America. At Glengariff
-the hotel proprietor said at least 2,000 young men and
-women had gone to America from that parish in the
-last few years&mdash;the brightest and best of the young
-people, he said&mdash;nearly all of them to Boston. From
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span>Killarney nearly all go to New York. I told them how
-Boston and New York were ruled by the Irish, and put
-the question as to why the Irish couldn’t run Ireland.
-I am trying to answer that conundrum to my own
-satisfaction, and am gathering ideas on the subject
-from everyone I meet.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The ordinary Irish village like Killarney is a quaint
-picture. The streets are narrow, mostly eight to
-twelve feet wide. The main street is about thirty feet
-wide. Nearly all the houses are a story or a story and
-a half, thatched roof, whitewashed walls, dirt floors
-except in one room, low ceilings, doors and windows,
-full of chickens, cats and children. I have not yet
-seen a pig in the parlor. The pig is kept in a little
-room at one side. But the chickens have as much
-liberty of the house as anybody and the goat is monarch
-of the outside. There is very seldom any yard,
-the houses being built right up to the street. The house
-is heated by a fireplace and the cooking is done in the
-same. Peat is the fuel, and it is cleaner and not sooty
-like coal. The dirt floor and the chickens in the
-house sound as though the Irish cottage would be dirty,
-but the whitewash and the scrubbing-brush fight on the
-other side, and you don’t get that impression. The
-women-folks are always neat-looking and everybody is
-pleasant and cheerful. Every window has a window-box
-of geraniums. There are usually so many children
-that the house does not hold them, and the street is
-always filled with them. Remember when you are
-driving through a town the street is filled with children,
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span>and if you are an American and not used to it your
-heart will be jumping into your throat for fear some of
-them will be run over&mdash;but I am told they never are.</p>
-
-<p>After the chickens and the children the most novel
-sight is the donkeys with their two-wheel carts, the
-only ordinary carriages for passengers or freight of the
-people. The donkey is the size of our mountain burro,
-and has the same degree of intelligent expression. All
-of the hauling is done by this patient animal, and he
-is looked upon as a valued member of the family.</p>
-
-<p>In riding or walking the rule of the country is the
-same as in England&mdash;turn to the left. I have not yet
-gotten over the yearning to grab the lines from the
-driver when he turns to the left to avoid a passing
-carriage. Fortunately the other driver is always fool
-enough to also turn to the left. I confided my trouble
-to an Irish driver, and he said it was ridiculous to turn
-to the right.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>One of my traveling companions is a man who chews
-tobacco, and he had neglected to lay in a supply before
-leaving America. No one else used the weed
-that way and there was no help for him. The Irish
-chew and smoke the same plug tobacco, very dry and
-not tasting like American tobacco. For a week my
-friend had been looking through shops trying to find
-something that would touch the spot. Last night
-soon after reaching Killarney he came to me greatly
-excited and said, “Hurry! the finest scenery since we
-left home.” Away we went down the narrow street
-and up to a window in which was a familiar shape and
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span>a sign, “Battle Ax.” I don’t chew myself, but I have
-some bad habits, and I could appreciate the tear of
-joy that glistened in my fellow-traveler’s eye as he
-gazed on that sign and felt that he had met an old
-friend just from home.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">IRELAND AND THE IRISH.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Dublin</span>, June 9, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>In my short stay in the Emerald Isle I have endeavored
-to find out what is the matter with Ireland.
-Why is it that a country of great beauty and resources,
-with a healthful and productive climate, an intelligent
-and attractive people, is a country where poverty is
-widespread, although disguised by picturesque surroundings,
-and is accepted in such a matter-of-fact
-and almost nonchalant manner? Why is it that the
-population of Ireland is decreasing while the number
-of successful and prosperous Irishmen is rapidly increasing
-in America, Canada, and Australia? A very
-intelligent Irishman at Glengariff told me why it was,
-and this in brief is his story:</p>
-
-<p>A thousand years ago Ireland was ahead of all neighbors
-in education, religion, and refinement. Then
-came the civil wars between the chieftains. Then came
-England, and by utilizing the demoralization of the
-civil wars and playing one chieftain against another,
-acquired sovereignty. But this was only nominal, for
-the Irish chieftains did not submit permanently. In
-Glengariff country the O’Sullivans maintained practical
-independence. Finally the English rulers adopted
-the policy of confiscating the land of the rebellious
-chieftains and giving it to English soldiers and queen’s
-favorites. In many places this meant the massacre
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span>of the people. The O’Sullivans and their fighting men
-who escaped went to France and continued to strike
-at their Saxon foes. But the land passed into the
-ownership of strangers, who kept it only for the profit
-they could get out of it. The new Irish nobles lived
-in London and their agents ran the estates. When
-the nobles needed more money their agents advanced
-the rents. If the people who tilled the soil and whose
-tenancy had been unquestioned for generations, could
-not pay, they were evicted. Families were ejected
-from the places they had cultivated and made valuable
-and were set out on the road. This was done not without
-fighting for their rights by the Irish people, but
-by the superior force of English soldiers. No Irish
-farmer owns his place&mdash;he is only a tenant at the mercy
-of his absentee landlord, who does not know him. In
-other countries the feudal tenure has not worked so
-harshly, because the landlords lived among the people
-and were bound to them by ties of race, common history,
-and natural affection. But the fact that there
-was no way for an Irishman to get his own home, or
-have a reasonable chance to advance in fortune or
-freedom, sent the brightest to America, and left the
-others to struggle hopelessly along, knowing that the
-best they could do was to “pay the rent,” which was
-fixed like some railroad charges in the United States,
-on the basis of “all the traffic would stand.”</p>
-
-<p>From the parish of Glengariff more than half the
-young men and at least half the young women have
-gone to the land of promise across the sea, and are send<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span>ing
-back money to help the parents and brothers and
-sisters at home, either to “pay the rent” or to pay
-their passage to America.</p>
-
-<p>What is true at Glengariff applies to the rest of
-Ireland. The ancient chieftains, the O’Sullivans, the
-O’Donohues, the McCartys and the rest, were succeeded
-by absentee landlords, and the law of supply
-and demand backed up by the English army simply
-worked out. At Killarney whatever land does not
-belong to the earl of Kenmare is the property of Guinness.
-The lakes and rivers are full of fish, but no Irishman
-can catch a fish; the mountains are full of game,
-but no one can hunt it except the owner of the estate.
-The farms are well tilled, but no one can buy the land
-upon which he works. It makes an American mad,
-and he says, “How do you stand it?” But it is the
-law, and along every country road there is a policeman
-and behind the policeman is the power of England.
-Far up on the mountain-side, several miles from town
-or settlement, I saw a fine stone building which on
-inquiry I found was a police station. The police, or
-the constabulary, as they are called, were not there to
-protect the lives of the citizens, but to prevent hunting
-and fishing in the brooks and mountains. So, after
-all, it is no wonder the Irishman leaves his beautiful
-island and emigrates to America.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The Irish have kept the English Parliament in an
-uproar for a generation on this land question, and in
-recent years they have secured some friendly legislation.
-A court can now fix the rent rate on appeal&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span>but
-the English government names the court. So far
-as Englishmen of the present day are concerned they
-would be glad to get out of the Irish problem and let
-the Irish have their land, but of course that can’t be
-done. The present parliament provided a plan for
-the eventual purchase of land by tenant, at a price to
-be fixed by the court if the two parties cannot agree.
-This is a step in the right direction and the Irish are
-glad of it, but as my Glengariff friend said, “It will not
-do any good in this generation.” And the exodus to
-America continues.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The Irish are very intelligent. I do not think the
-poor people of any other country are naturally so bright
-and so full of perception and understanding. They are
-kind and gentle. They are affectionate and patriotic.
-The English say they are “lazy,” but under the circumstances
-you could hardly expect them to be yearning
-for work, when more work means more valuable
-holdings, and that only means more rent for the landlord.
-The Irish have a reputation among the English
-for honesty. They are religious, and I thought at
-first they gave too much to the church and did not
-keep enough for themselves, when I saw the large and
-rich cathedrals. But, as an Irishman told me, “We’d
-rather give to the Lord than the landlord.” Public
-schools are providing education for the rising generation,
-and in the public school the boys and girls are
-being taught the Irish language and prepared for the
-coming fight which the Irish must make to capture
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span>Ireland&mdash;not probably for an independent government,
-but for actual ownership of the Irish soil.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Taxes are heavy. The burden of taxation is the
-income tax. “That falls on the landlord,” the thoughtless
-might say. Not on your life. The tax is simply
-added to the rent. There are fine public roads in
-Ireland, as good in the country districts as Main street
-in Hutchinson will be when it is paved. The only
-advantage a despotic government has over a popular
-government is that it builds better roads. When the
-people elect their own road bosses and levy their own
-road taxes I notice the roads are not so good as when
-some prince or cabinet minister who does not care
-what the people think, levies the tax and orders the
-road built right. The Irish statesmen are struggling
-for Irish ownership of Irish soil and an Irish parliament
-to deal with Irish affairs. They are “getting on,”
-and, as I said before, they make so much trouble in
-the English Parliament that I know the English would
-be glad to get rid of Irish local politics and give them
-back their parliament, if it were not for pride,&mdash;and the
-next parliament may cut out the pride.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I want to record one fact which I was surprised to
-find. The Irish are very temperate. I have been in
-city, town and country for ten days, have not been
-careful about keeping in the nice parts of town, and
-I have seen only one man under the influence of liquor,
-and he was an English sailor at Queenstown. This
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span>is in spite of the fact that every inn and grocery sells
-“spirits” and nearly everybody seems to drink them
-if he or she has the price. Perhaps the reason is that
-in Ireland all the liquor-selling is done by women&mdash;barmaids.
-Perhaps the influence of women behind the
-bar makes for temperance. I won’t state that as my
-conclusion, but just submit it for what it is worth to
-those who are trying to solve the liquor question in
-other countries.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Dublin is a good deal like an American city. It is
-full of business and not as Irish as the inland towns
-or Cork, although it has statues to O’Connell, Curran
-and Grattan, and will have one to Parnell. The lord
-lieutenant-governor, the representative of the king,
-resides at Dublin, and a big garrison of soldiers gives
-it an English tone. There is a fine university, which
-we visited. It was started by Queen Elizabeth, and
-has only recently been opened to Catholics and to
-women. Dublin has some great stores where Irish
-linen and Irish lace should naturally be cheap. If
-Mrs. Morgan were writing this letter she could add a
-chapter. I will only tell this little story: I was telling
-an Irish driver how nice everybody had been to us in
-Ireland and how pleasant the Irish were to Americans.
-“Yis,” he said. “Whin you go down the strate,
-everybody sez: ‘There’s some Americans, God bless
-’em: mark up the prices on the linen and lace.’”</p>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="FRANCE">FRANCE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">THE CITY OF PLEASURE.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Paris, France</span>, June 19, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>Since my last letter to The News we have been
-“going some,” and I will leave a few ideas I may have
-gleaned about England until I get back there on my
-return from the continent. We are pushing for a short
-visit to Italy before the summer gets too far advanced.</p>
-
-<p>To use a classical expression, Paris is a bully sort of
-a town. If there is anything you want and don’t know
-where it is, I am satisfied you will find it in Paris. In
-England it was customary to close up and go to bed
-sometime after midnight and to rest on Sunday. Nobody
-in Paris thinks of either proposition. The only
-difference between Paris at midnight and Paris at
-midday is that it is livelier at midnight. The performance
-is continuous and it is worth the price of
-admission.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Coming into a country where your language is not
-generally spoken is always a little trying on the nerves.
-The French people have made it as easy as possible,
-but the ways are strange and the helpless tourist can
-only do as others do and trust to Providence and the
-power of a little money distributed as well as possible.
-I do not know how much Providence has had to do
-with it, but I do believe there are mighty few doors in
-France which a piece of money will not unlock. When
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span>I came into France I knew only two French expressions,
-one meaning “How much?” and the other,
-“Thank you.” With that vocabulary we went through
-the custom-house examination, a five-hour railroad
-journey, landed in a big city station, got a carriage,
-reached the hotel and an interpreter without any more
-trouble than we would have in Sterling. Of course
-everybody from conductor to porter knew we were
-Americans and could not speak French, knew what we
-ought to do next and showed the way, and all we had
-to do was to look pleasant and hand out small change.
-And it doesn’t cost much to be liberal in France. I
-gave the conductor an equivalent to our 10 cents, and
-I know he thought I was rich. The porter who took
-my baggage through the custom-house and brought
-me a carriage was deeply impressed with my financial
-standing when I gave him 6 cents worth of French
-coppers. The coachman who brought Mrs. Morgan
-and myself with four big grips from the station to the
-hotel, two miles, charged me the full price, 30 cents for
-everything, and when I tossed him another dime like
-a millionaire he took his hat off three times. The
-French people I have met have been very polite.
-They always tip their hats and go out of their way to
-show me, and they are never so discourteous as to refuse
-2 cents. Imagine giving a Santa Fe conductor 10
-cents for showing you where to sit in the car!</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>As a lesson in political economy I will put in my
-observation so far as I have gone: Everything in
-Europe that is made or done by labor is cheap. I was
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span>offered a tailor-made suit of clothes in London for
-$18 that would cost $30 in Hutchinson. A farm
-laborer in England gets about 50 cents a day and boards
-himself. The barber shaves you for 2 or 3 cents.
-Bread and meat are higher than in the United States.
-You can see how the wage-earner gets it going and coming.
-I am learning a few things from experience that
-I had been told before, but I want to visit a few more
-places before I try to form my conclusions and put
-them into print.</p>
-
-<p>Paris is a beautiful city. In spite of the great business
-houses, the manufactories and the banks which I
-have seen, it strikes me as a kind of play town. Every
-day in the week in Paris looks like an American
-town on the Fourth of July, and on Sunday it is Fourth
-of July and Christmas together and then some. The
-men who are working at wages that would make Americans
-vicious, are as light-hearted and pleasant appearing
-as a Sunday school picnic. The women are as
-vivacious as a lot of school ma’ams at institute. As
-soon as work is completed it seems as if every Parisian
-only goes home to put on his good clothes and then
-comes down town accompanied by his wife, or somebody’s
-wife. Half the places of business along the
-principal streets are restaurants and a good many of
-the others are also restaurants. The Frenchman sits
-at a little table on the sidewalk in front of the café and
-puts in the evening drinking one glass of wine or absinthe,
-chatting with his neighbor and watching the
-women go by with their good clothes and bright faces.
-Every French woman is an artist when it comes to
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span>clothes. The goods may not cost much, but the gown
-is tastefully made, and if the lady wants to she sticks
-on a bow or jabs a flower in her hat, regardless of every
-rule except that it looks pretty there&mdash;and it always
-does. Bright and light gowns, hats that are up-to-date
-or ahead, hair to match the hat and hose to match the
-dress&mdash;and the artist’s work is done. No wonder the
-men hurry down town and sit on the sidewalk!</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>In the afternoon and evening the Paris streets look
-like a spring millinery opening&mdash;also like a display of
-samples of fine hosiery. Perhaps I ought not to go
-into the subject, but it will not be a fair description of
-Paris if I leave it out, and I must warn any other Kansan
-who may venture this way. When a Parisian lady
-walks along a sidewalk that is perfectly clear and clean
-she daintily lifts her dress so as to display only the
-top of the shoe, maybe an inch or two more. Sometimes
-she thoughtlessly raises the gown a little higher.
-When she reaches the street-crossing&mdash;but I had better
-stop, for she doesn’t. I have always been of the opinion
-that under such circumstances a plain, respectful
-man should look the other way and I have a crick in
-my neck from looking&mdash;the other way&mdash;since I came
-to Paris. Remember this is in fine weather when the
-walks and crossings are clean. “They say” that when
-the walks are muddy the result is even more startling
-to a staid observer from Kansas. If the weather gets
-bad I don’t know what I will do.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a id="i_061" name="i_061"><img src="images/i_061.jpg" alt="" width="326" height="534" /></a>
-<p class="caption center p80">IN PARIS: LOOKING THE OTHER WAY.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span></p>
-<p>The philosophy in the above is that it gives you an
-idea of Paris with its brilliantly lighted streets, the
-men eating and drinking, sitting at the little tables
-along the walks, the well-dressed people, the brilliant
-colors, the laughter, the bright and polite conduct of
-men and women, the holiday appearance, the pleasure
-that everyone is having, and the general gait at which
-Parisians travel. As another example let me add, fully
-one-third of that part of Paris which in any other city
-would be devoted to business, is given up to public
-gardens, playgrounds for children, parks and drives,&mdash;not
-out in the country or to one side, but right through
-the center of Paris. The houses, business and residence,
-are none of them more than six stories high, and
-I am told the law does not permit higher structures.
-It is a good idea, for you get air and sunlight, which
-you often do not in New York and Chicago, and you
-can occasionally see out over the city. About every
-so often is a circle or square from which radiate from
-six to a dozen avenues and boulevards. These streets
-divide into others which reach forward to other squares,
-and are intersected at every conceivable angle by cross-streets.
-The object of this plan was to place artillery
-in the square and thus command the streets and boulevards
-against the revolutionists, who have always been
-doing or about to do something in Paris. The houses,
-five or six stories high, are built right up from the
-sidewalk, and have inner courts. Usually there are
-stores or shops in the downstairs rooms facing the
-street and living-rooms back and above. And speaking
-of stores, most of them are about ten by twelve
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span>feet, one-half display window. The interior is lined
-with mirrors which make the room look large and two
-or three customers like a crowd. The French use
-mirrors every chance&mdash;there are three beautiful mirrors
-in our small bedroom. The shops are generally
-decorated with flowers, pictures and statuary and a
-sign “English spoken,” the latter being usually a delusion
-and a snare. Instead of naming a street or
-avenue and then sticking to it, the names of the streets
-frequently change. The boulevard our hotel is on
-begins as the Madeleine, runs two blocks and then becomes
-the Capoucins, two blocks more and it is the
-Italiens. We are on the Capoucins part, and besides
-the Boulevard des Capoucins, there is street “Rue des
-Capoucins,” and a square “Place des Capoucins,” each
-in a different section. The necessity of a stranger in
-Paris keeping sober is very apparent. The streets,
-squares and public buildings are adorned with frequent
-statues&mdash;good ones. Almost any way you turn there
-is something beautiful to look at. The French are
-artists and lovers of art. If there were such a thing
-as a Kansas joint in Paris it would be decorated like an
-art gallery. But the joints in Paris are open and run
-twenty-four hours a day, seven days in the week, and
-the police never interfere with anything that goes on
-except in case of a disturbance of the peace or abuse of
-the government.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The French like Americans and don’t like the English
-or the Germans. But that does not mean they
-refuse anybody’s money. In our country when a man
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span>gets a comfortable income he grows gray-haired and
-wrinkled trying to make more. A Frenchman spoke
-to me of this trait, and said that when one of his countrymen
-reached the point where he could live nicely
-on what he had accumulated or the salary he was receiving,
-he quit worrying and took to the cafés and
-boulevards to enjoy life. Perhaps the French way is
-the best, at least the French look happier over mighty
-little than we do over much more. They go in for
-“pleasure” and they enjoy it as do no other people I
-have seen.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">PARIS AND PARISIANS.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Paris</span>, June 20, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>Almost the first thing we did after we reached Paris
-was to go to the Place de la Concorde, where the guillotine
-did its bloody work during the French Revolution.
-It is now a beautiful square adorned with statues, and
-is the center of the pleasure-ground of Paris. After
-tightly shutting our eyes so as to avoid seeing the gay
-Parisians passing by, we recalled the terrible scenes
-which took place a little more than a hundred years
-ago. Here Louis <abbr title="the sixteenth">XVI</abbr>., the unfortunate king, paid
-the penalty for the crimes of his family and class.
-Here Marie Antoinette was executed, and scores and
-hundreds of the French nobility. Poor Marie Antoinette,
-who always did and said the wrong thing, has
-been the recipient of the sympathy of the world. But
-in addition to the sorrow for her I have never been able
-to get over my sympathy for the thousands of women
-who marched to Versailles and when the king and queen
-appeared to quiet them, cried, “Give us bread for our
-children!” For France at that time was suffering as
-no other nation has suffered from physical oppression
-and poverty resulting from misgovernment and utter
-disregard of the lives and property of the people. In
-order to carry on wars and build monuments and palaces
-and indulge in personal dissipation and pleasure,
-the rulers of France had sucked the life of the nation
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span>like the juice from an orange. The French still make
-a great fuss over Louis <abbr title="the fourteenth">XIV</abbr>., “The grand monarch,”
-who made France the leading nation of Europe. But
-it was the logical outcome of his methods and grinding
-government that resulted in the degradation of the
-people, their poverty and distress, and the revolution
-which sent his great grandson to the block.</p>
-
-<p>After the French Jacobins executed their king and
-queen they began to fall out and “revolute” against
-each other, and so nearly all the leaders of the revolution
-went to the guillotine and got it where Louis and
-Antoinette did&mdash;in the neck. In a little more than
-two years over 2,800 persons perished here by the guillotine,
-and the place is very appropriately called “de la
-Concorde.” Around the square are statues representing
-eight of the cities of France, the one for Strassburg
-still there, but draped in black and with emblems
-of mourning for the city and province taken from
-France by Germany at the end of the last war. Every
-Frenchman has in his heart the intent to lick the Germans
-and recover Alsace.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I will not attempt to describe in detail the great
-palaces of the Tuileries and the magnificent gardens,
-the Louvre with its acres of paintings and statuary,
-most of which I did not see because it was like eating
-pie&mdash;there is a limit. These are historic grounds, for
-back and forth among statues of peace and beautiful
-works of art the French people have fought each other
-time and again, sometimes destroying but always rebuilding.
-From Place de la Concorde extends the
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span>Champs-Elysées (pronounced Shame-on-Lizzy, as near
-as I can get it). This is a great avenue 400 yards wide
-and over a mile long, consisting of parallel boulevards
-running through trees and flowers, playgrounds and
-palaces here and there, and at all times of the day and
-night filled with people and carriages.</p>
-
-<p>The Champs-Elysées and the Bois de Boulogne, a
-park of over 2,000 acres in which it terminates, are the
-fashionable drives of Paris. It cost only 40 cents an
-hour for Mrs. Morgan and I to drive with the Parisian
-élite, and we took advantage of the opportunity to see
-Paris society. The carriages in the early evening extend
-in procession over miles of boulevard, and are
-often six or eight abreast. The drives wind around
-through woods, by good-sized lakes, along sides of
-cascades, and the carriages are filled with the swellest
-lot of gowns and cutest little dogs I have ever seen.
-Nearly every woman has a dog on her string as well as
-a man. In all of this style there is a general lack of
-formality which is appropriate to the scenery. It is
-not an uncommon sight to see the ladies and gentlemen
-with their arms around each other. It isn’t so bad
-when you get used to it, and the fashion is considered
-strictly proper in France. I am no longer shocked
-when I see a young man just ahead of me in the street
-put his arm around his girl, and in the street cars and
-automobiles the sight is a frequent one and never attracts
-comment or disapproval. At first Mrs. Morgan
-and I nudged each other at such things, but in less than
-a week’s time the novelty has disappeared.</p>
-
-<p>I like the Champs-Elysées, for it looks a good deal
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span>as First avenue in Hutchinson would if it were about
-ten times as wide and the city kept up the parking.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>And that leads me to repeat an observation which I
-have made before. It takes a strong government to
-do big things. You couldn’t get the people in America
-to put up money to construct palaces, widen boulevards,
-set up statues in all directions and devote the
-main part of the city to trees, flowers, walks and drives,
-playgrounds and art galleries. But whether the government
-of France has been a monarchy or a republic
-has made no difference in the fact that it exercised
-nearly absolute power over such things. The government
-appoints the officials in all cities and provinces
-and the government has the army. We talk about
-“government ownership” as if it were something new.
-The government of France has been in business more
-than a century. For example, the government has the
-monopoly of the tobacco business&mdash;manufactures and
-sells all the tobacco used in France, charges what it
-pleases and puts out mighty poor stuff. The government
-has owned the Sèvres china decorating factory
-for over a century, and the Gobelin tapestry, and I don’t
-know how many more such things. Lack of knowledge
-of the language has kept me from finding out
-all on these subjects I am going to before I get home,
-but it seems to me that whenever the French government
-sees some exceptionally profitable business, it
-just takes hold of the proposition and passes a law
-forbidding anyone else competing. The French are
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span>used to this sort of thing and accept it as the inevitable.
-I wonder if Americans would stand for it and for all the
-petty regulations that go with it. An army of workingmen
-is required to maintain all these parks, palaces,
-art galleries, opera-houses and government institutions,
-and I suspect the number is never reduced. A
-friend was telling how in a short ride on a government
-railroad his ticket was examined by five conductors.
-We reached the conclusion that this work, which in
-America would have been done by one man, was strung
-out for the good political reason&mdash;more jobs. Of course
-nothing like that would happen in America.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The workingmen still wear the long blouse outside
-the trousers, which looks like a heavy night-shirt and
-reaches below the knees. At the time of the great
-revolution the workingmen were so poor that they
-could not afford to wear trousers and the long blouses
-were all that covered them. Hence came the nickname
-“sanscullottes,” meaning “without breeches,”
-and as all who have read the story of the revolution or
-Victor Hugo’s books will remember, the Sansculottes,
-the men without breeches, made up the mob which
-upset the throne and established the republic.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The French still worship Napoleon. They have forgiven
-the sacrifice of blood and treasure which he
-forced from them, and remember the glory and the
-greatness of the empire. And in spite of the fact that
-Napoleon <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>. quit the emperor business under a cloud,
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span>having been removed from office after his surrender to
-the Germans in 1870, he is well thought of, for during
-his reign France and Paris prospered and times were
-good. There is a large party in France that favors the
-return of the present representative of the Napoleon
-family, Prince Victor, to the throne. We went to the
-Church of Madeleine, the most beautiful and fashionable
-church in Paris, and over the altar is a beautiful painting
-of Napoleon receiving the crown from the pope,
-with Christ in the background of the picture. That
-is just like the French.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I made an effort to get into the meeting of the
-Chamber of Deputies, the French congress, but failed.
-You have to have a ticket of admission, and it must be
-applied for several days in advance. They tell me the
-session is a good deal like an old-time Kansas Populist
-convention, where everybody said what he wanted to
-and then everybody was of the same opinion still.
-The meeting often gets so tumultuous that the president
-of the body adjourns it. Such an assembly must
-be guarded by careful and tactful leadership or it will
-end in a row. I can’t understand French politics.
-There are really no parties such as we have. A
-large majority favor the republic. The minority is
-composed of Clericals, Bonapartists, Radicals, and Socialists.
-The government party is divided into factions,
-and the issues are personal rather than on economic
-questions. The minority is of course divided,
-and the result is that the government wins somehow or
-other nearly every time. If it should lose, a new cabinet<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span>
-would be formed; but that would be taken from
-the same party as the old, and would be merely a different
-lot of statesmen. The French republic is all
-right so long as there is no serious trouble, but a Dreyfus
-incident, or a war, or hard times might overturn the
-government, and nobody knows whether the monarchists
-might not get on top again. The church is
-opposed to the policy of the republic, which has been
-to decrease the power of the church, cut off the parochial
-schools, and take education out of the hands of
-the religious bodies. The men in France are not very
-religious, leaving that part of life to the women and
-children. But a large and respectable party is in opposition
-to the government on account of the way it
-has confiscated church property and driven out the
-religious orders.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>There are only a few electric lines in Paris, and they
-are not in the main part of the city. The people use
-carriages a great deal, for they are so cheap; and also
-omnibuses. The usual means of traveling in the city,
-aside from the cab, is the omnibus, which is double-decked,
-carrying as many people on top as inside.
-This seems a trifle slow to Americans, but it works all
-right in Paris. The ’buses make regular processions
-up and down the principal streets, and as they are
-nearly always filled inside and outside, they add immensely
-to the Parisian picture. There is an underground
-railroad and there are dummy lines in the
-suburbs, but I think the people of Paris like to travel
-where they can see and be seen. The cabs are victorias.
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span>Automobiles are everywhere, and if you go to Paris to
-live and want to cut any ice you must get one.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I saw a little scene which seemed to show up Parisian
-character. A cab collided slightly with another.
-Immediately both drivers were off their vehicles, gesticulating
-and talking about 300 words a minute. As
-they shook their fists and grew red in the face with the
-words that came so fast they interfered with each other,
-I thought somebody would surely be killed. Nobody
-noticed them. No one paid any attention. And
-finally the two exhausted men climbed back to their
-places and drove on. I know they used French words
-to each other that in America would have ensured a
-police court trial for disturbance of the peace. A
-French friend to whom I mentioned the matter said it
-was the invariable way, and he thought the French
-method of taking out their wrath in words was better
-than the American way of fighting it out. Perhaps
-he was right, but as I afterward saw the scene repeated
-in different forms it always occurred to me that it was
-childish. And that reminds me to say that the Frenchman
-is in the habit of playing with his children, taking
-part in their games as excitedly as they do.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The French people are industrious and they save
-their money. France is really a rich nation. Most
-of the money is made in what seem small ways to
-Americans. The French are what we call “thrifty.”
-No matter how little they earn they save something,
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span>and the whole family works,&mdash;men, women and children.
-When their day’s labor is ended the whole family
-goes out for a good time&mdash;cheap, or within their
-means. Their natural temperaments and the beautiful
-surroundings make it easy for them to do this, and
-it is very seldom a Frenchman leaves his native land.
-He doesn’t travel much, but he believes in other people
-traveling and coming to France to spend their money.
-He is willing to help in the good work of separating
-foreigners from their cash, but he is gentlemanly about
-it. I like the French people even though I can’t
-understand some of the ways their minds work.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">RURAL FRANCE.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Marseilles, France</span>, June 23, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>Rural France is a picture. Seen from a car-window
-it is a succession of fields and villages, at this time of
-year a continuous combination of greens and white.
-French farms are small. I suppose twenty or thirty
-acres is a big place, and many are much less than that.
-But the land is fertilized, drained, irrigated and worked
-to the limit. The people live in villages and not much
-on their own farms. Each village has a common pasture.
-During the day the farmers go out onto their
-little places and in the evening they return to town to
-spend the hours with their neighbors and friends. The
-houses are all white stone with red tiled roofs and the
-villages are numerous, one every two or three miles in
-every direction. A farm of twenty acres is divided
-into strips for various crops, so that the landscape is
-striped with the fields of wheat, alfalfa, potatoes and
-grass, which seem to be the popular products. Cattle
-are not so numerous, but sheep are plentiful, goats
-abound and hogs (always white that I have seen) are
-on every place. A strip of land a hundred yards wide
-in wheat will run across the twenty acres, and the next
-strip will be some other crop, making the hues of green
-vary. The most extensive crop besides grass is grapes,
-and hillsides which in our country would be considered
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span>too steep and too stony for cultivation are covered
-with vines. Nature is like the French, artistic when
-she has a chance, and the combination produces a
-beautiful effect. Coming from Paris to Marseilles
-through the valleys of the Seine and the Rhone, it was
-500 miles of continuous agriculture and pretty towns.
-Do you wonder it looks like a picture, with the villages
-of white houses and red tops, the fields and hills of
-green, and the rivers like ribbons running here and
-there?</p>
-
-<p>France is ahead of England and Ireland in this point:
-Nearly every French farmer owns his own place, even
-if it is small. In Great Britain the big landlords own
-the land and rent it to tenants. In France the farmers,
-or peasants, as they are called, are landlords of
-their own if it is small. The French nobility lost their
-possessions and they were bought up by the people. A
-French farmer does not have the opportunity to make
-himself a large land proprietor. He can work all his
-days and only hope to accumulate a little place and
-enough to take care of him in his last days. But he is
-able to do that, and it has been almost impossible to
-do so in Great Britain.</p>
-
-<p>The farms are separated from one another by high
-stone walls. In driving along the highway these walls
-shut off the view of the fields and you have to get up
-above the walls to see the picture. The stone walls
-are the evidence that the place is the exclusive property
-of the owner. The grass field is inclosed by these high
-fences, and the gates are locked at night as if they were
-afraid somebody would steal the land. It looks strange
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span>indeed to a tourist from the land of quarter-sections
-and barb wires.</p>
-
-<p>Every Frenchman has to serve in the army three
-years. This is not militia service, but regular soldiery.
-It takes three of the best years out of a young man’s
-life. Of course it gives some compensation in the way
-of discipline, and in continental Europe every nation
-has to keep its pockets full of rocks and its people
-ready for war with the neighbors. A republic cannot
-neglect this matter any more than a monarchy, and
-France loses a great deal by the withdrawal of its young
-men from the producing class during a time when they
-could be very useful.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>In the fields men and women work side by side. The
-women of France have plenty of rights. They can
-plow or rake hay all day long, and then they can indulge
-in the recreation of housework in the evening.
-This is harvest-time, and on nearly every farm I saw
-the whole family at work, not with reapers and mowers,
-but with good sickles and hand-rakes. The women
-seem to age earlier than in America, but this fact is
-true wherever I have been outside of the United States.</p>
-
-<p>That reminds me of a mistaken notion I had before
-coming here. I thought the women of the United
-States were more active in a business way than the
-women of other countries, and had progressed in taking
-hold of what is generally called “men’s work” more
-than the women of Europe. That is a mistake. Proportionately
-women have more to do with business in
-England and France than they do in America. Nearly
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span>all the hotels in Great Britain are managed by women.
-Shops, stores and offices are filled with women. The
-fact is, the combined labor of husband and wife is necessary
-among “the great plain people,” to get enough
-to support the family, and in Ireland, England and
-France this is taken as a matter of course. Especially
-in France do I find women managing business, and doing
-so with the skill and success which shows that it is
-neither a new thing nor a side occupation. In America
-it is generally accepted that a man who can do so will
-take the brunt of the work and a woman will find her
-time fully occupied with housekeeping. And there is
-also a widespread practice of raising the girls to sit in
-the parlor while their mother washes the dishes. That
-is not the way they do in France. A young woman is
-brought up to expect what she will get&mdash;a young man
-whom she will have to help, or they will go hungry.
-There are not many chances for a young man to get
-ahead fast. He has no reason to believe that he will
-be better fixed than his father or than his grandfather.
-In fact, in France a boy usually follows the occupation
-of his father, so that a family for generations will be
-farmers, shoemakers, shopkeepers, etc. In America
-a farmer usually wants his son to study law, while a
-lawyer hopes his son will be a business man, and a merchant
-sees the advantage of rural life. Our people
-change around from generation to generation, and I
-doubt on that account if we make as good workmen as
-the French do, who are brought up in their occupation.
-Of course our people would be discontented with the
-French way, but the Frenchmen seem to be satisfied
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span>and they get a good many compensating advantages
-to offset the opportunities which young Americans
-have, but of which young Frenchmen never dream.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>There are some disadvantages under which these
-Europeans labor which they should remove. They
-never get any pie. Here in a land where the cherries
-grow big and red and juicy, a Frenchman will grow to
-manhood and old age without knowing the taste of
-cherry pie. It is a great misfortune. Since landing
-in Europe I have never seen a piece of pie of any description,
-from Queenstown to Marseilles. They have
-“tarts” and “sweetmeats,” but these can’t approach
-pie any more than Cow creek can be compared to the
-Mississippi river. Even in the best hotels and restaurants
-of London there is no sign of pie on the bill of fare,
-and the French cooks, who can make old hash taste
-like choice bits of fresh meat or better, have not learned
-the science of constructing pie, mince, apple, pumpkin,
-cherry or any kind of pie. I do not know how they do
-it, but the railroad restaurants are run without pie.
-Even the crowned heads go through life without knowing
-the taste of pumpkin pie, and one of my ideas of
-royalty in my early days was that a king or prince
-could have custard pie with flaky brown crust three
-times a day. No wonder the rulers of Europe are
-afraid of revolution. If they would see that their
-subjects had square meals and pie at least for dinner,
-the heads that wear the crowns need not be so uneasy.</p>
-
-<p>And the Europeans are trying to live without hot
-cakes for breakfast. I suppose there is not a man or
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span>woman in Europe who would recognize by experience
-the rich and regal buckwheat cake, or the corn cake,
-or the pancake. I can’t understand why the reformers
-in this country do not get to the point, and see that the
-people have flapjacks for breakfast as well as pie for
-dinner, and then let the disbanding of the armies proceed.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Every American citizen who is sane and patriotic
-believes that he is a fisherman, and tries to prove it
-whenever he gets near a creek or river. Whether he
-actually catches any fish or not, he “goes fishing.”
-I was somewhat worked up in Ireland and England
-because the streams were nearly all private property
-and the ordinary citizen had no chance to fish any
-more than he did to attend the wedding of the prince.
-I was glad to know that it is different in France. Last
-Sunday in Paris we walked along the banks of the Seine
-as it runs through the city between the stone walls and
-under the stone bridges. The stream was lined with
-fishermen. One of the privileges the citizens of Paris
-enjoy is to fish in the Seine, and I was told that there
-were at least 10,000 Frenchmen watching the corks on
-the river that afternoon. I waited for a long time to
-see them catch a French fish. Occasionally one of the
-men or women would pull up a line, but the bait was
-never missing. Finally I asked a friend who has been
-in Paris some time if anybody ever caught a fish. He
-said he had never really heard of anyone but there was
-a tradition that along about the time of Napoleon <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>.
-somebody did catch a fish in the Seine. He doubted
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span>the story, but said I could believe it if I wanted to.
-And yet there are theologians and doctors of divinity
-who say the French people are losing in faith, when
-these thousands were demonstrating to the contrary
-and were heartily enjoying the privilege the government
-gives and for which the Parisians would doubtless
-fight, the right to fish in the river.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>This city of Marseilles, in which we are spending a
-couple of days, is the principal seaport of France. It
-was established by the Phœnicians, and was an important
-town when Julius Cæsar was setting up the
-primaries in Rome. It is the port from which France
-does business with southern Europe, Africa, Asia, and
-even America. Consequently the harbor is full of all
-kinds of shipping, the streets are crowded with Arabs,
-Greeks, Spaniards, Turks, Italians, and representatives
-of all nations which use the sea, and the town has
-the largest collection of odors and smells that I have
-met. As a strange fact I will add that Marseilles is the
-first large city I have visited in Europe with a good
-up-to-date electric railway system. Americans do not
-come here very much. So far as I know, Mrs. Morgan
-and I are the only Americans in the city, and there is
-not a soul at our hotel who can speak English. So you
-see we are running up against a little real foreign experience.</p>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="ITALY">ITALY.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">GETTING INTO ITALY.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Rome</span>, June 27, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>One can hardly realize until he has had some experience
-how quick and how decided is the transition
-from one country to another, and especially the change
-in language. At 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon we
-were in France, everybody around us and on the train
-talking French. At 6 o’clock we were in Italy: everybody
-was talking Italian, and the French language had
-disappeared as quickly as did the English when we
-landed at Calais. You know when you are going from
-one country to the next, also, because the custom-house
-is on the line and you have to haul out all your
-dirty clothes and souvenirs for the officials to examine
-to see if you are a smuggler. Let me tell how we came
-into Italy.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>We boarded the train on the French railroad at
-Monte Carlo and had an hour’s ride to the frontier.
-By this time I had picked up enough French so I could
-get along reasonably well with the help of the sign
-language and a little money. But neither of us knew
-a word of Italian, and there was no one with us that
-day who could talk English. At Vintimille, where we
-crossed the line, we had to change trains, have our tickets
-signed and our baggage examined in forty minutes.
-With a full realization that nobody could understand
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span>me and I could understand no one, I tackled the job,
-putting my trust in Providence and a pocketful of
-small Italian coins which I had secured at Monte Carlo.
-When the train stopped in the Vintimille station a
-porter came alongside and according to the custom of
-the country I handed the four “bags” which constitute
-our baggage to him through the car-window.
-Then we got out and I told him in English what I
-wanted. He reeled off a lot of Italian and two or
-three bystanders chipped in, and a hotel runner attempted
-to capture us. But I took out my through
-ticket, pointed to it, jingled the coins in my pocket, and
-the porter understood. Of course I did not know at
-first whether he did or not, but we followed him and he
-led us into the custom-house and put our grips on a
-big table. Up came an inspector and jabbered Italian
-and I jabbered back in English. We both laughed,
-and of course neither understood what the other
-wanted. He asked me several questions, to all of
-which I said, “Can’t understand,” and then he gave
-me a final grin and said, “Tobac?” To that I said
-“No,” and shook my head. Without looking into the
-grips at all he chalked something on them which I suppose
-corresponds to our “O. K.,” threw up his hands
-and said something to the porter which made him and
-the surrounding onlookers burst forth in a loud guffaw.
-I felt as I suppose a poor Dago does when he
-strikes America. I again showed my ticket to the
-porter and pointed to the place where it must be signed.
-He puzzled over that a while and then took it and
-went away for a few minutes and came back with the
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span>work properly done. Then he took us to the Italian
-train the other side of the station, put our bags in the
-racks and we hoped we were on the right train&mdash;we
-were. I gave that porter a lot of Italian money, aggregating
-about 20 cents American, and he saluted me
-as if I were a duke or a saint. Mrs. Morgan says I
-spoiled him with my extravagant tip. But I felt so
-grateful to him that I didn’t care if I did make him
-proud with all that money at once. Let him swell up
-inside and parade the avenue all the evening and take
-his family out to dinner if he wants to. Let him take
-that 20 cents and pose as an Italian Rockefeller.</p>
-
-<p>Then we were in Italy and couldn’t even read the
-signs. It makes you foolish to look over the door of
-your car and see the words which mean “Smoking
-permitted,” or “Smoking forbidden” and not know
-which. We were the only people in the compartment,
-and the conductor took a great deal of interest in us.
-He tried to tell us something and I tried to tell him
-something, but when we got through neither of us had
-added to our stock of knowledge. After the train had
-been going for a while he came to us and began to make
-signs and chatter. He held up both hands with the
-fingers extended. Mrs. Morgan was quite sure he meant
-$10 fine for smoking in that compartment, so I threw
-away my cigar, but he didn’t stop. At last I realized
-that he was making the signs of a man eating and
-drinking. I guessed he meant by both hands that the
-train would stop ten minutes for lunch, or that we
-wouldn’t get anything to eat until 10 o’clock. When
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span>the train stopped at the next station it turned out that
-the first of these two was right.</p>
-
-<p>The road from Vintimille to Genoa is a branch, and
-the ticket had to be signed and trains changed again
-at Genoa, and we also wanted to get a sleeping-car on to
-Rome. We had twenty-seven minutes at the station
-in Genoa, which is bigger than the Union Depot at
-Kansas City. Again I threw the grips out of the window
-and followed the porter. Then I left Mrs. Morgan
-with the baggage while the porter led me a merry
-chase around the block to the office where the ticket
-was to be signed or “viséd.” It was 11 o’clock at
-night, and you can imagine how it felt to be guided
-around among those Italians wondering all the while
-if the porter knew what I wanted. But he did and I
-returned in safety, and then I tried to find out about
-the sleeping-car. In French this is called a “Litts-salon,”
-and in German a “Schlaf-wagen,” literally a
-sleep-wagon. I tried English, French and German,
-but finally found the sleeper by examining the train,&mdash;next
-to the engine, of course, just where I wasn’t expecting
-it. We got on board safely, and after distributing
-a lot more Italian coppers I found we had transacted
-the business and had five minutes to spare,&mdash;as
-good time as I could have made in America to do all
-those things. All I then had to do was to hand out
-the required sleeper fare, $7.50 to Rome, 300 miles,
-three times what Mr. Pullman would have charged.
-But I reserve my comments on European sleeping-cars
-until I get a little more experience for a letter on railroads
-in the Old World.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span></p>
-<p>And this is an old world. When I was in Boston I
-looked with awe upon the churches and monuments
-of 1776. In England these years seemed recent, and
-it took a cathedral or a castle of Elizabeth’s time or
-back to William the Conqueror. But here in Rome
-the very latest and newest buildings that we look at
-are those of the early Christians, and to get a real thrill
-they have to show me something B. C. It is really a
-good deal like living back in those times. I can’t read
-the newspapers and don’t know what has happened
-since I left Paris nearly a week ago. At that time the
-Russians and Japs were either going to have a conference
-or a fight, or both. Sometimes I wonder
-what has occurred, but generally I am concerning
-myself with what Julius Cæsar did, standing by the
-old forum and imagining Mark Antony denouncing
-the boss-busters, or wondering if Cicero’s speech against
-Catiline was not a political blunder which would make
-the old man trouble at the next city election. The
-only difficulty is to make the modern Italians fit in
-with the old Romans. Somehow or other it is hard to
-imagine the lazy gents who hold out their hands for
-coppers as real Romans who ruled the world.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The first real striking feature of Italy we noticed at
-Vintimille was the policemen. They wear handsome
-full-dress uniforms with red braid down the trousers,
-gilt lace and epaulets on the coats, tri-cornered hat
-with an immense plume, and carry in sight a sword and
-revolver. An Italian policeman walking his beat makes
-a gorgeous Knight Templar uniform look cheap. You
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span>never see one policeman&mdash;there are always two together.
-The police of the whole country are appointed
-by the royal government, not by local officials, and
-are selected from the army. They are good-looking
-fellows, and wear their tight, heavy coats buttoned up
-in front regardless of the fact that it is Italy and the
-climate is not better than Kansas the last of June.
-One of the troubles with Italy is that it is really a
-second-class power, but it tries to keep up an army and
-navy in rivalry with Germany, Russia, and France.
-Every Italian must put in three years in active service.
-Take a country about the size of Kansas, fill it up with
-an army of 300,000 men and you see soldiers in every
-direction. Immense cathedrals and palaces filled with
-valuable gems and works of art, an army of expensive
-uniforms, and a poverty-stricken people,&mdash;that is Italy.
-The tourist hurries along and shuts his eyes to the distress
-as much as he can, visits the galleries and the
-churches, the ruins and the historic spots. He tries to
-see only the Italy of 2,000 years ago. He is fortunate
-if he can keep himself worked up in an ecstasy over
-the Cæsars and the old masters, so that the half-clothed
-children, the broken-down women and the men working
-without hope, do not leave an impression on his
-heart. I can’t shut my eyes tight enough to avoid
-seeing those things and sympathizing with the poor
-Italian people who have no show.</p>
-
-<p>But here we are in Italy, not the Italy of to-day,
-but the Italy of Cæsar and Cicero, Nero and Constantine,
-the Italy where Paul and Peter planted the
-Christian religion and where they died the death of
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span>martyrs; the Italy of temples and colosseums, cathedrals
-and catacombs,&mdash;the Italy we read about, if you
-please, and not the Italy now on the map.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">ROME AND ROMANS.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Rome</span>, June 29, 1905.<br />
-</p>
-
-<p>There is so much in the point of view. Here are
-things which I have studied about, read about, wondered
-about. Some of them on close inspection are
-impressive yet. Others are commonplace. And there
-are even some which are ridiculous. On approaching
-Rome I had tried to take an inventory of the things I
-most wanted to see first: The Forum, St. Peter’s, the
-Appian Way, the Coliseum, the Sistine Chapel, the
-Tarpeian Rock, the Vatican, and the list was as long
-as I could set down. But really the words that kept
-haunting me and which were always in my mind were
-“the yellow Tiber.” Like every other school-boy of
-my time, I had learned and recited “Horatius at the
-Bridge,” and I wanted to see the raging torrent which
-saved Rome when Horatius held back the foe until
-the Romans had cut down the only bridge. I kept
-saying to myself:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="indent10">“Then up spake brave Horatius,</div>
- <div class="indent10">The captain of the gate:</div>
- <div class="indent10">‘To every man upon this earth</div>
- <div class="indent10">Death cometh soon or late;</div>
- <div class="indent10">And how can man die better</div>
- <div class="indent10">Than when facing fearful odds,</div>
- <div class="indent10">For the ashes of his fathers</div>
- <div class="indent10">And the temples of his gods?’”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a id="i_093" name="i_093"><img src="images/i_093.jpg" alt="" width="370" height="531" /></a>
-<p class="caption center p80">THE ITALIAN NOBLEMAN OF THE STAGE, AND THE REAL THING</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p>Accordingly the first observation I made in Rome
-was of the Tiber. It is yellow, all right, and about as
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span>wide as the Cottonwood river. It seemed impossible
-to associate that stream with the Tiber of which historians
-had told and poets sung. But it was the
-Tiber, all right&mdash;from another view-point.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Now with St. Peter’s it was different. I have seen
-some right nice churches in America, but of course
-they do not come up to European cathedrals. St.
-Paul’s in London was disappointing, and Notre Dame
-in Paris was not up to the advance advertising. But
-when it comes to impressiveness St. Peter’s at Rome
-is to my mind the greatest imaginable. It is so big and
-yet so proportioned, so grand and yet so substantial,
-so full of precious memories of martyrs and divines
-and so tastefully and magnificently decorated with pictures
-that tell the story of the faith it stands for. All
-the people in Hutchinson could worship in one side of
-St. Peter’s, and yet there is none of that barny, barracksy
-look which usually goes with great size and
-capacity. The length is 232 yards, the transept is
-150 yards and the height of the nave 151 feet, the dome
-is 435 feet to the cross. But figures don’t tell anything
-about St. Peter’s. The interior is tapestry and
-painting, gold without tinsel, pictures without tawdry
-effect, and columns that add and do not detract from
-the dignity of the structure. Under the great dome is
-the tomb of Peter, the disciple who made so much trouble,
-but knowing his energy and power, whom Christ
-made the rock upon which the church was to be built.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span></p>
-<p>Next door to St. Peter’s is the Vatican, where the
-pope resides, and the first thing we saw there was the
-Sistine Chapel. Here is where my view-point differs
-from most people. I concede that the paintings in the
-Sistine Chapel are beautiful, especially in their design
-and their color. The old masters who did the work
-under the direction of Michael Angelo have never been
-equaled in their ability to make rich color. But I contend
-that the subject of a picture should count as well
-as the drawing and the color. When Michael Angelo
-attempted to paint God Almighty he couldn’t do it.
-The color is all right and the proportions are perfect,
-but all that Michael Angelo did was to paint a man a
-little larger than Adam, and that does not come up to
-my ideal of the Divine. The fact is that neither
-Michael Angelo nor anyone else can put onto canvas
-such a subject, and therefore Michael should not have
-tried it. His fault was in his judgment of what can
-be painted. The entire effect of the remainder of the
-beautiful ceilings and walls with their paintings of
-scenes from Old and New Testament, was spoiled for
-me when I couldn’t get away from that central figure,
-that failure of ability to do the impossible.</p>
-
-<p>I would like to have the support of the women-folks in
-my theory in regard to the failure of the Sistine Chapel,
-so I will add that in the picture where Michael paints
-the devil, he makes the devil half snake and the upper
-half a woman. If I remember correctly, the great
-painter was an old bachelor,&mdash;probably not one of his
-own motion.</p>
-
-<p>The paintings mix up the pagan with the Christian.
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span>“The Last Judgment” has Christ the central figure as
-judge, surrounded by apostles and saints, and the hell
-part of the painting is according to Dante, with the
-old Roman idea of the boatman Charon ferrying the
-lost across the river. In this picture Michael Angelo
-made a hit. He put the face of an enemy of his, an
-officer of the pope, on the painting of Minos, one of the
-leading devils of hell. The offending official had objected
-to some of the artist’s work on account of the
-nudity of the figures, and Michael has sent him down
-the ages as the face of a devil.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>But there is no call for me to describe paintings and
-statuary and cathedrals. A hasty sketch like this is
-not giving them fair treatment. You can’t go anywhere
-in Rome without running into something beautiful
-or something historic. Go down a street and
-there will be the baths of Diocletian, turn around and
-there will be the Forum, and next is the Coliseum, the
-Arch of Constantine, Trajan’s forum and column, the
-Palace of Tiberius, the Stadium, and so on until you
-can’t rest with the long list of things you saw and ought
-to remember, and some that you ought to have seen
-but didn’t because you were just too tired to look
-around. The Forum, the Coliseum and all this kind
-of things look just like the pictures, and they are
-there,&mdash;that’s all I can say about them, although the
-feeling of actually having seen and touched is one of
-a great deal of satisfaction and worth going to Rome
-to have.</p>
- <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span></p>
-<p>I don’t know how many churches there are in Rome.
-There are eighty dedicated to the Virgin and fully as
-many to St. Peter. They are filled with great paintings
-and statuary. Rome is the center of the greatest
-Christian church, and for centuries the civilized world,
-or a large part of it, has sent its gifts to the temples and
-shrines. Thousands and tens of thousands of young
-men are studying here for the priesthood. The streets
-are filled with their black gowns and hats. Here and
-there along the streets and roads are shrines erected
-to patron saints. All the churches are open seven days
-in the week, and there are always people in them at
-their devotions.</p>
-
-<p>As a contrast to the power and greatness of the present
-church we went to see the catacombs, the burrows
-in the earth to which the Christians of the early centuries
-fled for safety, and in which they buried their
-dead. The catacombs of St. Calixtus, which we visited
-are said to contain twelve miles of underground
-passages. Along the sides and in the occasional niches
-and chapels are the places where the bodies were put.
-The passages go down thirty to forty feet and the catacombs
-are from four to six stories downward, just as a
-building is that much above ground. In these places
-the early Christians kept alive their faith under the terrible
-persecution of the emperors. Amid the tombs
-they met and worshipped in spite of imperial decree
-and certain death if captured. Rude pictures and inscriptions
-on the walls tell part of the story which has
-made the world wonder ever since as the Roman government<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span>
-did then, at the power of the faith for which
-men and women would so live and so die.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Coming out of the catacombs we drove along the Appian
-Way, the great military road constructed over
-300 years B. C. I had expected to have a good thrill
-of enthusiasm over the Appian Way, but somehow it
-did not come. The Appian Way is an ordinary good
-country road lined with old houses, wine gardens, ruins
-and high fences. There are still a number of villas and
-palaces, but the owners are poor and the basements are
-usually rented out for stables and the upper apartments
-for tenements. Italian noblemen are generally poor,
-and if they have palaces are obliged to rent rooms and
-keep boarders.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Another cherished hope of mine is gone. I had read
-about the beautiful Italian peasant girls and have seen
-them on the stage singing in opera and dressed in fetching
-short skirts and bright-colored bodices. Italian
-girls work in the fields with the boys and then help
-their mothers with the children, and most of them look
-tired and sickly. The fetching skirts hang like loose
-wall-paper and the “bright bodice” looks as if the girl
-was wearing her mother’s old corset outside her clothes.</p>
-
-<p>The largest and most numerous ruins in Rome are
-those of the public baths erected by the state and by
-the emperors. The Romans in those days were sporty,
-banqueted all night and bathed all next day to get over
-the effects. But there are no public baths now&mdash;at
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span>least none of consequence. And judging by the ordinary
-senses of sight and smell, bathing has become one
-of the lost arts with a large number of the Romans of
-to-day.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">VENICE, THE BEAUTIFUL.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Venice</span>, July 3, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>I suppose everybody knows about Venice, the city
-built in the water. During the sixth century the “barbarians”
-from the north were overrunning Italy, killing
-or making slaves of the people and destroying the
-cities and towns. A number of the inhabitants of
-northeast Italy fled for safety to a group of small
-islands in the shallow bay of the Adriatic sea, and there
-built up little villages which were united in a republic
-and became the city and suburbs which we call Venice.
-They naturally were a seafaring and trading people,
-and Venice was the port of commerce between the Orient
-and Europe. The Crusades stimulated business,
-and Venice was the most important trading-point on
-the Mediterranean. At that time there was no Suez
-canal and no knowledge of an ocean route to Asia, and
-all commerce passed through Venice. The little republic
-grew strong and powerful, captured and retained
-possessions in Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean.
-Venice was one of the powers of Europe
-about the fifteenth century, and thought she had the
-world by the tail. But the Turks captured Constantinople,
-other routes to Asia were discovered about the
-time Columbus reached America, and Venice as a great
-political power and business center suffered a collapse.
-In other words, the boom in Venice busted and Venice
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span>has never done much on her own account since. The
-first few hundred years the government was that of a
-republic, but about the close of the thirteenth century
-the nobles who had won leadership through trade and
-war declared their offices hereditary, and thereafter
-Venice was an aristocracy with a president called “the
-doge.” During the French Revolution the French captured
-Venice, and then Austria got it, and finally, in
-1868, it was united with the kingdom of Italy, where it
-belongs.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Built on islands, crossed by canals like streets in
-other cities, without a carriage or a horse, Venice is a
-strange, and to me, an attractive place. The railroad
-runs out on a long trestle bridge. It is hardly appropriate
-to say “landed” in a place like Venice, but we
-arrived here at ten o’clock at night. The porter for the
-hotel to which we were going took us through the station
-and put us into a gondola, and away we went,
-down back streets and under bridges, with no light except
-a few corner lamps and the stars. The Venetian
-gondoliers may be poetical, but their looks do not invite
-the confidence of the traveler when he intrusts
-himself to their hands for the first time and late at
-night. Little chills creep up and down your back as
-you see the gondola going straight for a corner&mdash;sure
-to hit it, but accidentally doesn’t. After you get acquainted
-with the ways of the city you learn to trust
-the gondolier, but the first time, late at night, you have
-your doubts. You may forget just how you arrived
-in other cities, but not in Venice.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span></p>
-<p>The Grand canal, the main street in Venice, is about
-seventy-five yards wide and averages sixteen feet deep.
-The paving question does not bother the city council
-in Venice. Most of their canal streets are only twelve
-to thirty feet in width. There are also a few real streets
-four to ten feet wide, on the inside of the blocks formed
-by the canals, and the total result is a labyrinth of alleys
-and canals which are impossible for a stranger to
-get head or tail of. Along the Grand canal and many
-others the fine houses of the old prosperous times loom
-up straight from the water six or seven stories. For
-example, the front of our hotel, on the Grand canal,
-has absolutely no sidewalk, only marble steps leading
-to the water, up which the tide rises about two and a
-half feet twice a day. The architecture of Venice is
-Oriental, and is refreshing after the Roman and Greek
-styles everywhere else in Italy. The churches and public
-buildings, mostly constructed between the eleventh
-and fifteenth centuries, have round Moorish towers and
-are decorated with gold and colors and have very ornate
-pillars and façades. That makes Venice a beautiful
-city, and so it is,&mdash;if you don’t go into the little back
-alleys where you see the undecorated side. Of the
-125,000 people one-fourth have no means of support
-except charity. In the last few years Venice has revived
-the glass industry and has developed the lace-making,
-and times are better than they were. But
-just think of a people where one-fourth have no chance
-to earn their living! We visited one of the big lace-making
-suburbs on the island of Burano. The lace,
-which Mrs. Morgan says is “b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l” and over
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span>which all good women rave, is made by girls and women
-who sit all day on straight-back chairs and labor
-over the pillow,&mdash;and get about twenty-five cents a day
-wages. We visited the glass-blowers at Murano, the
-finest in the world, and skilled workmen get up to two
-dollars a day for a dexterity and ability which would
-easily command three or four times that amount in
-America. The people live mostly on fish and vegetables,
-are very poor and apparently very happy.
-They are the best-looking folks I have seen in Italy, and
-evidently enjoy the improvident life which would drive
-an American to strong drink, or if he were in Italy would
-drive him to drink the water.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The center of Venice is “the Piazza of St. Mark,” a
-square about two hundred yards long and nearly half
-as wide, paved with marble and inclosed by fine buildings,
-including the great Church of St. Mark, the old
-palace of the doge, the present royal palace, and a glittering
-array of shops. I should say there were ten
-thousand beautiful shops in Venice selling lace, glass,
-art works, beads, curios, pictures, etc. Of course there
-are not that many, but there seem to be. There is practically
-nothing else of importance. Venice is a good
-deal like the world’s fair grounds, all glitter and glass,
-Oriental towers and marble palaces, beautiful bridges
-and lagoons, and everybody trying to separate the
-stranger from his money.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Venice is a night town. In the evening the canals
-are filled with gondolas and everybody is out for a good
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span>time. Regular musical clubs drift along with the sweetest
-Italian opera rendered with real ability, and arias
-and Italian serenades and love songs until you think the
-world is nothing but lights glancing on the water, drifting
-gondolas, song and gladness. Every few minutes
-one of the singers will pass the hat and you contribute
-two or three cents and remember you are still on earth.
-We sit at our hotel and watch the gay crowd in the passing
-gondolas, or for a few cents get into one, lean back
-on the easy cushions, smoke a two-cent cigar, and forget
-all about these poor people with their poverty and
-their fleas. They have forgotten them themselves.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The patron saint of Venice is St. Mark. In the early
-days, say a thousand years ago and more, some doge
-dreamed that Venice would never prosper until the
-bones of St. Mark were brought here for burial. The
-bones happened to be in Asia or Africa, and for years
-the Venetians put in their time fighting the Turks and
-trying to capture the relics. Finally the bright idea
-struck them that it would be easier to steal St. Mark’s
-bones than capture them by battle, and an enterprising
-Venetian merchant did the job. The remains of
-St. Mark were brought to Venice and a beautiful cathedral
-with Oriental towers and rich colors built above
-them. The doge’s dream was no fake, for after that
-Venice prospered greatly. Tradition says that St.
-Mark used to have a winged lion for a companion, and
-accordingly the winged lion is the Venetian emblem.
-The cathedral and the public buildings are full of Oriental
-works of art captured or stolen from the Turks
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span>during the years of the Crusades when Venice was a
-stronghold of Christendom. Venetian painters have
-done St. Mark and the lion in every conceivable place,
-and wherever you go you see his kindly face, the quill
-pen he used in writing, and the playful winged lion.
-The only horses in the city are of bronze, and decorate
-the façade of St. Mark’s cathedral. Except for these
-rather poor imitations I suppose nine-tenths of the
-people of Venice never saw a horse. Incidentally I will
-add that it is a great advantage to live in a city where
-you are not awakened at daylight by the rumble of
-wagons and carts over stone-paved streets.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The government of Venice during the Middle Ages
-was something fierce. Nominally a republic, it was
-controlled by the nobles, who had a general assembly,
-which selected a senate of seventy-five, of which there
-was an inner council of ten and a secret tribunal of
-three, who met masked and did not know each other’s
-identity. If you lived in Venice at that time and had
-an enemy you wanted to do away with, you would drop
-a letter accusing him of treason into the letter-box
-shaped like a lion’s head in the counter outside the room
-of the council of three. It was a pretty sure thing that
-he would not be heard from again. Of course you
-would have to do this first, for your enemy might be
-dropping in a letter while you were thinking about it.</p>
-
-<p>We went through the rooms of the various councils
-down the secret stairway and over the “Bridge of
-Sighs,” which connected the palace with the prison
-across the canal street. This was the way the prisoners<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span>
-were brought for trial, and if they went back it was
-to torture and death. The jails in those times were
-not built for health or sanitary purposes, and were
-evidently not examined by the county commissioners.
-The dungeons are dark and damp, and the guide tells
-you some awful stories of the rack, the thumbscrew
-and the block. You can imagine the “good old days”
-and shudder as you think of the cruelty and the crime.
-Paraphrasing Byron, who wrote some lines on the
-subject:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="indent10">I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,</div>
- <div class="indent10">Visions of Old from those deep dungeons rise,&mdash;</div>
- <div class="indent10">The shrieks of pain, the terrifying cries,</div>
- <div class="indent10">Then I reflect: Perhaps it’s mostly lies.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">SOME THINGS ON ART.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Venice</span>, <span class="smcap">Italy</span>, July 3, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>Because I have not been writing much to The News
-on the subject of art, it must not be supposed that I am
-omitting the regular work of every tourist. Nor do I
-want it presupposed that I don’t know enough about
-art to tell the difference between a renaissance and a
-vermicelli. If industry and a desire to thoroughly
-do the job so it will not have to be done a second time
-will count for anything, I have been an arduous lover
-of art in all its forms since I passed the custom-house
-on the Italian border. Everybody knows that the
-center of art is Italy and that anything that isn’t old
-and Italian is second-class. When you come to Italy
-you expect to see the heights of the artistic and you are
-expected to have fits of ecstasy over the said heights.
-I have had ’em every time the guidebook told me to.
-I have endeavored in every way to show that a plain,
-common citizen of Kansas knew what to do when
-brought face to face with Raphael, Titian, Michael
-Angelo and the other gentlemen since whose death the
-world has never really seen much in art. According
-to my pedometer I have traveled through 171 miles
-of cathedrals, 56 miles of public buildings and 85
-miles of art galleries&mdash;all in ten days. Some people
-may think my pedometer is too rapid, but I know
-it is too slow. You know a good bird dog learns never
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span>to “set” for anything but a game bird. And it is well
-established that people with a certain kind of rheumatism
-can tell the approaching changes in the weather
-by the twinges in their joints. And it is a fact that even
-when I do not know there is a cathedral or an art gallery
-within a hundred miles, let me approach one accidentally
-and my feet will begin to ache. Then I
-know what is before me and I try to do my duty. If
-the work of absorbing Italian art should prove too
-much for me, the words could be as appropriately put
-on my tombstone as they were over the early citizen
-of Dodge who died with a dozen bullets in his body and
-a half-dozen enemies lying on the floor:</p>
-
-<div class="border">
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="indent8">HERE LIES BILL.</div>
- <div class="indent6">HE DONE HIS DAMDEST.</div>
- <div class="indent8">ANGELS COULD DO</div>
- <div class="indent10">NO MORE.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>There are three places where you always find art in
-Italy: First and foremost, the churches; second, the
-public buildings; third, the art galleries and museums.
-The churches come first, because the Catholic Church
-has always been the support and promoter of art. For
-centuries it was the only strong power that encouraged
-artists. It had the tasteful men of the age and it had
-the money. The great artists both in painting and
-sculpture would have had no opportunity and their
-works would have been destroyed if it had not been for
-the church. In return, the artists took the subjects
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span>of religion and portrayed them most beautifully and
-effectively. There is hardly a church in Italy which
-does not have paintings by some of those old painters
-which would be worth a fortune now if they were for sale.
-The Catholic faith especially appeals to the artistic
-sense, and the history of the church furnished a boundless
-field of subjects. Walls and ceilings of churches are
-covered with magnificent pictures, the exteriors are
-decorated with sculpture, and the architecture of the
-buildings is brilliant and effective. To see paintings,
-statues or architecture in Italy you first go to the
-churches, and there you see the greatest and best.</p>
-
-<p>After the churches the art treasures and galleries
-are found in the public buildings, and there we get
-what is left of the art of Greece and Rome, together
-with much of a later time. The old pagan mythology
-furnished most of the ancient art, together with a few
-attempts at transferring abstract ideas into concrete
-form. Of course I don’t want to set up as an art
-critic&mdash;I have trouble enough without that. But according
-to the way I was raised, a large per cent. of
-ancient sculpture isn’t fit to be exhibited to young
-folks&mdash;or to old men. Probably the times were different
-and fashions in art were acute, but the Grecian
-and Roman sculptors paid no attention to the rules of
-common decency as generally understood in this generation.
-While doing my duty in the art galleries I
-have actually blushed so much that it grew noticeable
-to the other art critics, and I fear that I lost standing
-with them. Of course I am not a regular critic, but I
-know a few things, and this is one of them.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span></p>
-<p>Another objection I have to the old masters is that
-they never considered any subject too big for them.
-I have written something of this when I kicked on
-Michael Angelo attempting to make a picture of God
-Almighty. There is too much of that kind of business
-in Italian art. And another thing is that they couldn’t
-paint good animals. Some of the pictures by the great
-masters have horses or lions in them, and I believe
-even the horses would laugh at their own appearance.</p>
-
-<p>Aside from these unimportant objections and a trifling
-criticism of a great deal of ignorance about drawing
-and the fitness of things, the “old masters,” by
-which is meant the great painters from about 1400 to
-1600, are certainly worthy of their reputation. Everybody
-I met knew more about art than I did&mdash;so they
-thought&mdash;and everyone said: “What wonderful color.”
-The old masters certainly did know how to mix paints
-so as to make the most beautiful and most lasting
-colors. I think Titian’s red-headed girls are the prettiest
-reds I have ever seen. Raphael’s paintings cannot
-be criticized by me&mdash;their feeling and their execution
-will make a cynical Kansan stand and admire.
-Michael Angelo I did not take to so well as I did Titian
-and Raphael, but he did a lot of work, and he, too,
-had the ability to make his pictures like life. The other
-great painters of Italy in these two centuries of the
-renaissance have not been equaled in any period since,
-and in spite of the fact that the experience of one generation
-ought to help the next, I do not believe that the
-modern Italian painters, or the Englishmen and Americans<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span>
-who go to Italy and copy, can come within several
-blocks of equaling the work of the “old masters.”</p>
-
-<p>There is one more objection I have to the “old masters,”
-and I would like to tell it to their faces. They
-had the habit of taking a great subject and making it
-a means of flattery for wealthy patrons. For example,
-a picture of Christ or the Virgin sitting and talking
-confidentially with some old scamp of a Medici. Of
-course I don’t blame the old artists. The Medici were
-a lot of thugs, thieves, highwaymen, murderers, and
-lovers of art. They put up handsomely for the great
-masters, and undoubtedly assisted much in promoting
-art at a time when the princes and nobility of Italy
-were not respectable according to our standard. This
-flattery by the old masters may have been necessary
-to make a living, but I don’t think it is Art.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I had one objection which has been overruled on the
-ground that it was simply because my apprenticeship
-in art had been too short. Every artist painted a
-“Madonna.” Each had a different ideal or model.
-Mary was a Jewess. But the Italian artists nearly all
-ran in pictures of Italians, and each had a different
-style. It makes a confusing aggregation. I think I
-have seen a thousand Madonnas, five hundred Magdalens,
-and from one to three hundred of each of the
-saints. There is a sameness of subject and a variance
-in execution which makes me a little nervous. I
-haven’t worked at the art business as long as I should,
-and therefore I may be too hasty in my judgment,
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span>although I am fairly perspiring art at every pore and the
-climate of Italy in the latter part of June and the first
-of July has nearly as much cause for perspiration as
-the climate of Kansas.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">AN ITALIAN FOURTH AND SO FORTH.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Menagio</span>, <span class="smcap">Italy</span>, July 5, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>At an early hour yesterday morning, July 4, we left
-the hotel in Venice in a gondola, and defiantly waving in
-the air was an American flag which I carried as proudly
-and as exuberantly as a ten-year-old boy would at a
-picnic in Kansas. We met several Americans at the
-station, and they waved and cheered “Old Glory.”
-We met all kinds of Italians, who looked as amused
-and curious as a lot of Americans would at an Italian
-carrying a green, white and red banner down the
-streets of Hutchinson. I flaunted the stars and stripes
-in the faces of the Italian policemen, and they seemed
-to enjoy it. Several people tried to find out from me
-what it all meant, and in spite of the fact that I told
-them in good English that this was the Fourth of July,
-the anniversary of independence, they shook their
-heads and did not “comprehendo.” The weather was
-very hot and very dry, the train was dusty, and the
-conditions as near ideal for a successful Fourth of July
-celebration as could be imagined. The American flag
-that day floated in the Italian breeze from Venice to
-Milan and then to Lake Como. The inability to make
-the Dagoes understand what I meant was embarrassing
-at times, and I longed vainly for a pack of firecrackers
-or a few good torpedoes. The conductor on the train
-was greatly interested. We talked in sign language
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span>and all the Italian I knew and all the English he knew,
-but to no effect. Finally I said the word “liberty,”
-and as the Italian word is about the same, he caught
-on and I could tell he was approving. “Vive l’America!”
-I cried, and he took off his hat and said it after
-me and smiled agreement to the remarks I was making
-on what the old flag meant. I gave him a big tip,
-10 cents,&mdash;5 cents for hurrahing for America and 5
-cents for listening to my speech.</p>
-
-<p>To-night we are out of the heat of the fertile plains
-of Lombardy and are in a delightful cool place on the
-shore of Lake Como, the prettiest and pleasantest
-place I have seen since we left Killarney. The last
-part of the day the flag waved over Como, Bellagio,
-Cernobio, Nesso, Colomo, Bellano, and all the other
-“o’s” that make the list of Italian towns look like the
-roster of an Irish Fenian society, only the o is at the
-wrong end of the names.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Speaking of “tipping” the conductor reminds me of
-the tipping system in Italy, which is a subject of the
-greatest importance to the traveler. I think I have
-seen only one man in Italy who did not hold out his
-hand, and that was an armless beggar at the Milan
-station who had a tin cup in which you were expected
-to deposit. The tipping custom is general in Europe,
-but it reaches its greatest development in Italy.
-Everybody you meet is so courteous and polite, willing
-to show you or tell you or take you, but always expecting
-something. You tip the conductor, the porter,
-the hotel manager, the chambermaid, the “man chambermaid,”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span>
-the elevator boy, the waiter, the head waiter,
-the clerk, the interpreter, the attendants, the driver,
-the man who opens the door, the church janitor, the
-policeman, and everybody you ask a question or who
-is there to answer if you do ask, and then you tip a few
-more just because they expect it. This looks like an
-alarming expenditure of money. But as a matter of
-fact the total amount of tips is not more than is expected
-at a big hotel in New York. And when you
-tip the waiter at the restaurant he does not keep it,
-but all tips go into a common fund that is divided and
-is the wages the waiters receive in most cases.</p>
-
-<p>Here is a schedule of “tips,” which, after considerable
-study and comparison with that of others, I have
-figured as about right:</p>
-
- <ul>
- <li>Baggageman, 2 cents.</li>
- <li>Elevator boy, 2 cents.</li>
- <li>Chambermaid, 3 cents.</li>
- <li>Man chambermaid, 3 cents.</li>
- <li>Waiter, per day, 5 cents.</li>
- <li>Head waiter, 10 cents.</li>
- <li>Manager of hotel, 20 cents.</li>
- <li>Miscellaneous men and boys, each 1 cent.</li>
- <li>Railroad conductor, 5 cents.</li>
- <li>Policeman, 2 cents.</li>
- <li>Driver, 2 cents.</li>
- <li>Italian nobleman, 3 cents.</li>
- <li>Italian merchant, 2 cents.</li>
- <li>Clerk in store, 1 cent.</li>
- <li>Ordinary civility, 1 cent.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>I haven’t met the king or queen, but I estimate that
-if I did and asked a favor they would look like about
-30 cents.</p>
-
-<p>The Italian money is like the French money, based
-on a unit which is equivalent to 20 cents. So when
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span>you give a man 10 cents you give him a half-lire or
-half-franc. The lire is divided into 100 centimes, and
-when you give a man 2 cents you hand him a great big
-copper coin with “ten centimes” on it. This small
-unit of measurement causes an American a peculiar
-sensation. For example, I had to buy a shirt in Venice
-and it was marked 5.50. That looked like a big
-price for a shirt, but reduced to American currency
-it was only $1.10. I bought some of the long Italian
-cigars which look like stogies and have straws down
-the center so they will draw. They were 30 centimes
-each&mdash;only 6 cents American. For a carriage and
-driver to go anywhere in Rome, carrying Mrs. Morgan
-and myself and a lot of baggage, it was 1.00, twenty
-American cents. When two Americans can ride a
-couple of miles in a comfortable victoria for 20 cents
-they don’t walk much, and they feel as if they were
-beating somebody and are perfectly willing to “tip”
-the driver an extra 2 cents. So when you are “doing”
-Italy and get used to the custom, you do not mind
-carrying a pound or so of copper coins and distributing
-them whenever you speak to a native.</p>
-
-<p>The effect of this custom on the people must be very
-pernicious. And it takes away the charm of recognizing
-courtesy and hospitality as a national trait when
-you remember that you pay for it and it is cheap.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I wrote from Paris that the government of France
-has the monopoly of the tobacco business. In Italy
-the government has the monopoly of tobacco and salt,
-the two great necessities. It looks funny to go along
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span>the street and see the little government shops with the
-sign in Italian, “Tobacco and Salt.” The Italian government
-doesn’t sell good tobacco or good salt. The
-best cigars are from the island of Luzon, manufactured
-into alleged cigars in the government factories in Italy.
-The salt is heavy and coarse, something like old-style
-yellow-brown sugar. If you don’t like the tobacco or
-the salt you can go without, for the government allows
-no competitor who might do better.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I have learned a little Italian, not so much but I can
-forget it when I cross the line. And that leads me to
-tell of a little experience with a moral. I had been
-so annoyed by the numerous beggars and vendors of
-trinkets that I asked a hotel porter who knew some
-English what I should say in Italian to tell them to go
-away. He told me something that sounded like “Muffa
-tora.” Accordingly I went around for a couple of days
-saying “Muffa tora” to all that bothered me. Then
-a friend who knew a little more Italian happened to
-hear me and suggested that my language was too strong.
-The words were about what in America is meant by
-“Go-to-hell.” And there I had been going around
-St. Peter’s, St. Paul, and all the churches and art galleries
-in Rome, saying to half the people who approached
-me, “Go-to-hell,” “Go-to-hell.” A little
-knowledge is a dangerous thing.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Of course Americans stop at the best hotels, and
-they are about the same everywhere, being based on
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span>the French model. They are from one-third to one-half
-cheaper than the best hotels in American cities.
-We are supposed to get three meals a day: First, rolls
-and coffee; second, about 12 o’clock, what is really a
-late breakfast but is called “dejeuner” and has three
-to five courses: eggs (always&mdash;generally omelet), macaroni,
-a cutlet or chop with potatoes, a roast meat,
-cheese, and fruit. No coffee or tea or anything to drink
-except water, which they say is bad and unhealthful.
-Dinner at 7 o’clock and a good meal: Soup, fish, cutlet
-or chop with macaroni, roast, vegetables, roast chicken
-and salad, cheese, small cakes, and fruit. No coffee
-or tea. If you want coffee after dinner you have it
-served in the lounging-room or out-of-doors, and it is
-extra. Nobody but Americans drink water, and they
-do not use enough to hurt. When you enter the hotel
-you are received by the “hall porter,” really the manager,
-who bows and takes you or sends you to a room.
-After a while he sends up for your name and nationality,
-but that is for the police. There is no hotel register.
-When you pay your bill and are leaving the porter
-rings a bell and everybody from proprietor to chambermaid
-appears to say “good-by,” speed the parting
-guest and receive the parting tips. At first your royal
-reception and leave-taking makes quite an impression
-and you feel “set up,” but after a while it gets to be a
-bore and you try to escape it but can’t. The cooking
-and service are first-class, better than in America.
-There is one kind of dishes I steer clear of, those labeled
-on the bill of fare, “a la Americaine.” They are like
-those served in Hutchinson, “a la Italia,” or “a la
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span>Français,” which means that they are probably spoiled
-by the cook trying to do something he does not understand.</p>
-
-<p>Of course in the small Italian hotels the cooking is
-different, but they tell me it is good. The restaurants
-where the poorer people eat are full of garlicky smells
-which can be heard for a block. The staple articles of
-food for Italians are soup, macaroni and vegetables,
-all flavored with garlic. The ordinary Italian does
-not eat meat. There are probably several reasons
-why, but the first one is that he has not the price,
-and that is enough. When a man is working for 30
-cents a day he is a stranger to roast beef, for meat is as
-high as it is in America.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I haven’t seen a real clothing store in Italy. There
-are two classes of Italians only: The rich, who have a
-tailor, and the poor, who put the goods together themselves.
-Again I want to repeat what I have said before:
-The things that are cheap in Europe are those
-in which labor is the principal factor. When it comes
-to hiring a man to do work, you name your price.
-That is why carriage-driving, servants, clothes-making,
-the building trades and labor of every kind from lace-makers
-to railroad engineers, are so low.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The Italian shopkeepers have a well-deserved reputation
-as bargainers. Go into a shop, ask a price, and
-very likely the proprietor or clerk will say “So much:
-what will you give?” Americans have a reputation
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span>of being “easy,” and so they usually start us with a
-price of “6 francs,” when they will come down to one
-or two rather than lose a sale. When you get through
-you never know just how much you have been beaten&mdash;you
-only know you have been. Some stores advertise
-“fixed prices,” but they are unfixed if necessary.
-The process of “shopping” thus has another and delicious
-feature for the American “shopper.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I have found the Italians honest. We hardly ever
-lock our room. I am always leaving the umbrella,
-but somebody always finds it and brings it to me, and
-I can’t say that much for Americans. The hackmen
-do not overcharge, or at least not near as much as in
-Chicago or New York. I think a stranger is better
-treated in Rome than in Kansas City. But then comes
-the suspicious thought&mdash;we pay for it.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Previous to this trip I had often heard people talk
-about the fleas in Italy, and had thought it was very
-funny. It is no joke. At first I was much amused
-when I would see a well-dressed lady stop suddenly
-on the street, elevate her skirt and go hunting. I now
-consider it a perfectly justifiable and proper action. If
-there is a game law in Italy with a closed season on
-fleas it is not at this time of the year. I have seen the
-anxious, heart-stricken look on the faces of the martyrs
-and saints as painted by the old masters, and I know
-now where they got their models, for I have seen the
-man and the woman conscious of the march of the flea
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span>along the small of the back or in some other unreachable
-place, and have seen the haunted, hunted look on
-the face as conjecture what the flea would do next
-changed into realization. The Italian flea works a
-good deal like the American mosquito, only he makes
-no music and you can only tell where he is by sad
-experience. He can dodge better than some politicians
-and he can get in his work early and often. I
-am growing accustomed to the sensation myself, but
-I do not think I shall ever enjoy it. The Bible says the
-wicked flee when no man pursueth, but in Italy the
-wicked flea is improving each minute whether anyone
-pursueth or not. Mingled with art and old masters,
-lagoons, and gondolas, cathedrals and Cæsars, blue
-sky and green fields, will always be my recollection of
-the flea that never takes a siesta and to whom the poets
-have never done justice.</p>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="SWITZERLAND">SWITZERLAND.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">ACROSS THE ALPS.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Brieg, Switzerland</span>, July 7, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>“Beyond the Alps lies Italy” with all of its art and
-history and fleas. After a day on Lake Lugano and
-Lake Maggiore, where the two countries of Italy and
-Switzerland meet, and where the customs officers examined
-our baggage three times in the course of a trip
-around the water, we crossed the Alps, among which
-we had been for two days, and are now in the oldest
-republic on earth, Switzerland. We came over the
-Simplon Pass in a stage-coach and not through a tunnel,
-as we could have done. The Simplon Pass is historic
-and picturesque. As soon as the tunnel is completed,
-which has been seven years in building, the
-railroad train will rush through the mountains and the
-stage-coach will be an old fogy luxury. But the way to
-go over the Alps for pleasure and observation is not to
-take a tunnel train, but ride over on the outside of a
-coach with five horses and see the panorama as you
-pass by. After a fortnight spent among the great
-works of man, cathedrals, coliseums and galleries, one
-day was enough in the Simplon to prove that Nature
-is still ahead. The great amphitheatres of the mountains,
-the magnificent stage-settings of forest and peak,
-left the coliseum and the forum far behind. The
-changing hues of the slopes, now gradual and now
-precipitate, sometimes bare and sometimes covered
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span>with pasture and vineyard or forest, were in colors
-which even the old masters could not equal. It was an
-all-day drive over a fine road, through narrow gulches,
-alongside rushing rivers, under waterfalls of melted
-snow, finally through the snow itself, and then down,
-almost sliding, with the coach-wheels locked so they
-were like runners, into the quaint little town of Brieg.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The road over the Simplon was built by Napoleon.
-All over the map of Europe you will see such monuments
-to the name of the great emperor. I do not
-give Napoleon much credit for the job, as it was a military
-necessity to him. He had to keep an army in
-Italy and always be on the lookout for his enemies
-there, so he ordered the Simplon Pass, up to the time
-only a trail, to be provided with a macadamized road,
-and it was done. I have seen so many of such roads
-in Europe that I would be willing to support Napoleon
-for road overseer or street commissioner any time.
-The road was completed in 1807, and the tunnel under
-the Pass will be finished in 1906. It is sixteen miles
-long, large enough for a double track, and has been
-constructed from both ends at the same time. To my
-mind it is a great engineering feat to start two small
-holes in a mountain, sixteen miles apart, and figure so
-accurately that those holes will meet some place in the
-center over a mile from the daylight on top. I suppose
-it looks easy to the engineer who knows how, but it is
-miraculous to me. A good many lives have been lost
-and a lot of money spent on this tunnel, but those are
-the sacrifices the world demands before it will move on.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span></p>
-<p>The road over the Pass is forty-five miles long.
-Soon after starting, all agriculture disappeared, except
-vineyards and pasture. The vineyards continued almost
-up to the snow. Wherever there was enough
-ground there were vines, and in many places the mountain-side
-was terraced and in the made land the vines
-were growing profusely. Literally speaking, there are
-mountains of vineyards in northern Italy and in Switzerland.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Cattle-raising in the Alps is done in small herds and
-is mostly on the Swiss side. The stock looks smooth
-and fine. Along with a drove of cows are always a
-few goats. In the early summer the herdsmen drive
-the animals up the paths and trails to the little patches
-of rich pasture, where they feed until fall, neither man
-nor beast coming down until driven by the cold. I
-saw cattle pasturing on the mountain-side where it was
-so steep it seemed they must have feet like flies or they
-would tumble down. Of course the animals inherit
-the mountain knowledge, and I suppose they don’t
-know there is such a thing as a level meadow. Here
-and there men and women would be cutting grass with
-a scythe, spreading the hay out to dry, and then actually
-rolling it down the mountain-side. Like all
-people who live in mountainous countries, the Swiss
-herdsmen along the Simplon looked intelligent, cheerful
-and poor.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>And that brings me to another broken idol. I had
-always heard of a Swiss “chalet,” and had supposed
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span>it was an artistic, smart-looking house perched up on
-a peak for everybody to see. A real Swiss chalet is a
-half dugout in a valley, built of stone and whitewashed
-once, in which the family lives upstairs and the cattle
-spend the winter in the basement, never going out
-until the springtime comes. Now I can see the economy,
-the advantages and the necessity of a Swiss
-“chalet,” but I can’t see anything beautiful or poetic,
-for such qualities are not present. I had the same
-experience with an Italian “villa,” which I found by
-observation was usually a plain-appearing stone house
-built around a court, inhabited by Italians, goats and
-chickens, and principally remembered by the noisome
-odor.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I have done some touring in the Rocky Mountains,
-and I was curious to see what difference there would
-be between the Rockies and the Alps,&mdash;both having
-peaks of about the same height, and each forming the
-backbone of a continent. The Alps have more snow
-than the Rockies. All of the peaks are snow-covered
-and the gulches of snow run far down the mountain-side
-here in July. Only an occasional peak in Colorado
-has snow, and then only a little, not enough to
-call it “snow-covered.” To my mind the Rockies are
-more grandly picturesque. The sides of the Alps are
-cultivated and covered with vines, dotted with pasture
-and cattle nearly up to the timber-line. The Rockies
-are still as nature left them, more stern and desolate,
-awe-inspiring and effective. The Alps do not look
-like the Rockies, except in height and steepness. The
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span>foliage of the trees is not the same, and the Alps have a
-tamer appearance than the American range. A town
-in the Rockies is out of harmony with the scenery.
-A village in the Alps adds to the beauty. Perhaps I
-do not make myself clear, but there is a great difference,
-and I think the Rockies are far ahead from a mountain
-standpoint.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Switzerland has no language of its own. The Swiss
-have four distinct languages, and the people of one
-part of the country do not understand the other. In
-some of the cantons (corresponding to our states) the
-language is French, in some German, in some Italian,
-and in some a composite speech based on the Latin
-and called “the Romance language.” Remember, this
-is a country of about the same area (15,000 miles) as
-the Seventh Congressional district of Kansas, but also
-remember it is cut up by the mountains into natural
-divisions which are hard to overcome. I am getting
-used to hearing one language in one town and another
-in the next across an imaginary line. But four kinds
-of talk within a little country like Switzerland is going
-to be hard to contend with.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Right at the top of the Simplon Pass among the
-snows that never entirely melt is a “hospice,” maintained
-for generations by an order of monks and devoted
-to taking care of poor travelers or relieving
-those in distress or who lose their way. On every
-pass between Switzerland and Italy there is such a
-hospice. The monks have the great St. Bernard
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span>dogs (named from the St. Bernard Pass, a little distance
-away), and when the snows get deep the dogs
-do much of the work of rescue. I had heard of these
-great institutions since boyhood, and wondered if
-they would turn out badly when actually seen. But
-they are all right, and their good work has not been
-exaggerated in the thrilling stories in which they have
-figured.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>There are many very large and very picturesque
-waterfalls, many more than in the Rockies. The
-constantly melting snow keeps them running, and it
-is not uncommon to see the water tumbling or jumping
-down a sheer descent of two hundred to five hundred
-feet. I would like to take a few waterfalls of
-that kind back to Kansas and put them up in the
-sand-hills. I offered an Italian gentleman on the
-coach who spoke some English to trade him 160 acres
-of western Kansas land for a good first-class waterfall.
-Almost fifteen minutes after I made the proposition
-he laughed. It doesn’t do any good to be funny
-with people who don’t know your language.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">GENEVA AND CHILLON.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Geneva</span>, July 9, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>This little city, now containing nearly 100,000 inhabitants,
-has been a storm-center in Europe for
-2000 years. Cæsar mentions it, and during the early
-centuries when Rome was conquering and governing
-most of the known world, Geneva was an important
-place, both from a strategic standpoint as a gate to
-Helvetia and as a prosperous and loyal town. It
-was either the capital of the country or a ruling city
-during all of the Dark and Medieval ages, and was
-one of the first where people learned popular sovereignty
-and applied it to the detriment of the reigning
-king or duke. By playing one side against another
-in the struggle for sovereignty the popular leaders
-fought for freedom of conscience, and about the year
-1500 secured practical independence. Then the Reformation
-commenced, and Calvin fled from Paris
-to Geneva. The people there were naturally “agin the
-government,” and they took up Calvin’s doctrine,
-and during the years of fighting over religion Geneva
-was the center from which Protestantism drew most
-of its leadership and inspiration. They fought for
-freedom of conscience and worship, and if anybody
-disagreed with them they killed him promptly to
-convince him of his error. Calvin ruled Geneva during
-his life, and after his death his cause went marching<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span>
-on. During the last century Geneva has made
-a reputation for manufacturing watches, jewelry and
-musical instruments. It is only fair to say that the
-best Geneva watches are now made in America. The
-work here is nearly all done by hand in the home of
-the workman, and the watchmakers of Geneva have
-had a hard time competing with Yankee machinery
-and ingenuity.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The surroundings of Geneva are peaceful and beautiful.
-The big lake of blue water comes to an end at
-the Geneva quay and rushes out into the world as
-the river Rhone, clear and sparkling. Mont Blanc, a
-quiet old stager of a mountain, whose head is always
-covered with snow, looks over the city like a stately
-sentinel at his post. Mountains rise all around the
-lake and are covered with vineyards, almost the only
-product of the soil, stretching far up the heights connecting
-the blue of the lake with the blue of the sky
-and the snowy peaks and white clouds which watch
-over them. Amid such surroundings we had decided
-to rest a few days from our travel, and I found it the
-best place in the world just to sit in the hotel garden
-from which the lake, Mont Blanc and the entire picture
-are visible, and just loaf and loaf and loaf.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a id="i_210" name="i_210"><img src="images/i_133.jpg" alt="" width="383" height="533" /></a>
-<p class="caption center p80">THE ALPINE HUNTER OF TO-DAY</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p>The great amusement of tourists who come to
-Switzerland is mountain-climbing. I have learned
-the game. Men and women come in at night recounting
-the wonderful feats they have accomplished and
-the dangers they have escaped. Everybody carries
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span>an “alpenstock,” which is a sharp-pointed cane with
-a chamois handle, and whenever he climbs a peak he
-has a ring burned around the stick, and shows it as
-proudly as the Indian once did the notches which meant
-deaths of enemies. I am a little skeptical, and listen
-to the climbing stories as I do to fish stories at home.
-It is too much like golf where you keep your own
-count. Perhaps I shall yield to the demands of environment
-enough to get me an alpenstock and have a
-few rings burned in it so I can have a few chips in the
-game, as it were. The men run to knickerbockers,
-wear feathers in their hats and carry packs on their
-shoulders. The women wear short skirts which don’t
-hang well and big shoes with nails in the soles&mdash;I am
-speaking now of people who do the thing right, and
-not those who sit on the porch and loaf.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The Swiss themselves are degenerating from the
-simple-hearted people they were. They have fallen
-before the temptations of the tourists. They see the
-American and the Englishman with lots of money to
-spend, and they find it easier to separate the stranger
-from his cash than they do to hunt chamois and herd
-cattle. It is a cause of much regret to the intelligent
-Swiss that this is so, but I do not notice the intelligent
-mourners going out into the mountains and setting
-an example of industry. They sell the jewelry, the
-souvenirs, the milk and the wine at advanced prices,
-and they have the greatest number of hotels and
-boarding-houses of any country on earth. If you
-enjoy handsome little shops with trinkets and gew-gaws,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span>
-jewelry and picture cards, carved wood and
-imitation stones, as I do, you would thoroughly enjoy
-wandering through Geneva. The Geneva artisan
-will take a chair-leg and make a musical instrument.
-Sit down on a sofa and you will be startled
-to hear a piece of Wagner’s played by the concealed
-music-box.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The language spoken in Geneva is French. I do
-not think it is good French, for the people here do not
-understand the French with the fine Parisian accent
-I brought from Paris. But a large proportion of the
-people understand English. I am of the opinion that
-in spite of the fact that French is still the international
-language in Europe, the one you can use with educated
-people nearly anywhere, the English-American is
-the coming language. Very few people in Europe
-travel. The Germans do so more than others, but
-the French seldom do, the Italians rarely, and the
-Spanish and the Russians practically never. The
-English come to the continent in great numbers, and
-the Americans are in droves. In a place like Geneva
-in the principal shops and on the promenades you
-would say that fully half the people were English-speaking.
-In order to take care of these profitable
-guests the Swiss and others are learning enough of
-the language to sell them cheap goods at high prices,
-and they will learn more. It is not an uncommon
-experience to go into a store and after laboriously
-constructing a question in alleged French to get an
-answer in very fair English.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span></p>
-<p>I am told that up to a few years ago the American
-traveler was regarded with a little contempt by the
-people of continental Europe, and considered as only
-so much soil from which to gather wealth. But Americans
-of experience tell me that since the war with
-Spain all this has changed. As for myself, these
-Europeans have always spoken in the friendliest way
-of America, even when they did not know there were
-any Yankees around. The theory that we were only
-a commercial people and would not fight (the world
-loves a fighter) was disproven so thoroughly that they
-have rather gone to the other extreme, and Americans
-are now very popular as Americans and not
-merely for their money. Europe also has the highest
-opinion of McKinley and Roosevelt. With a great
-deal of pride in my heart I read a leading editorial
-in the London Times saying that Roosevelt’s letter
-to Russia and Japan urging peace was one of the
-greatest of state papers. The Times added that it
-was “straightforward, frank and clear&mdash;the American
-idea of diplomacy.” All of Europe now regards
-America as a great and friendly power, and an American
-swells up considerably more over his country
-when he is in other nations than he does at home,
-where he is apt to get fussy and cynical. The English
-are not popular on the continent, though England
-is feared and respected. The Americans are
-liked because they are believed to be fair and square.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>At the other end of Lake Geneva is the castle of
-Chillon. It is about as big as the court-house in
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span>Hutchinson, and looks like the old sugar-mill, only
-more so. Byron did a great deal for the people in
-that neck of the woods, for his poem made the castle
-famous, and tourists come by the hundreds and buy.
-In return they have named the big hotel the Byron,
-which shows they are not ungrateful. Byron’s poem
-had the poor prisoner confined in a dungeon with two
-brothers, and he had the torture of seeing them die.
-The facts are that there never was any “prisoner of
-Chillon” except in the brilliant imagination of Lord
-Byron. Of course many prisoners were confined in
-the dungeon. Every castle in Europe has a dungeon,
-and none of them were constructed with an idea of
-sanitary conditions or the health of the prisoners.
-But the dungeon at Chillon is the lightest and airiest
-dungeon I have seen. It is as comfortable as a good
-many hotel rooms in the United States. The only
-prisoner of note that had any such experience was a
-preacher named Bonnivard, who was kept there for
-two years because he believed or didn’t believe in
-Calvin,&mdash;I have forgotten which it was. Bonnivard
-had no brothers, and lived a number of years afterward
-and said he enjoyed his confinement at Chillon
-because he had so much time to think. Our guide
-showed our party the pathway the prisoner’s feet
-had worn in the rock where he had walked back and
-forth within the limit of his chains. I couldn’t see
-the path, although everybody else did. The rest of
-the castle of Chillon is very interesting, as it was the
-residence of a fine line of dukes who were always
-fighting either for or against the king. Our guide,
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span>who spoke only French, told us all about it, but I
-shall not repeat what she said. The people of Hutchinson
-would not understand her remarks any better
-than I did.</p>
-
-<p>My idea of a good joke is to have a guide who can
-only talk French tell an American who can’t understand
-French something very important or serious.
-The Frenchman tells his story with rapidity, earnestness
-and gestures. The American listens with frank
-impatience and punctuates the French sentences with
-American ejaculations which have no connection with
-the subject. The Frenchman acts mad, but he isn’t
-at all. The American acts pleasant, but he is really
-mad.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The castle of Chillon is in the lake, about sixty
-feet from the shore. You reach the entrance over a
-bridge after fighting your way through the sellers of
-souvenirs. That is one thing the old dukes did not
-have to contend with. If they were still doing business
-I think they would fill up the dungeon with the
-salesmen and salesladies.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">SOMETHING OF SWITZERLAND.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Zurich, Switzerland</span>, July 12, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>Switzerland is a succession of beautiful lakes,
-mountains and big hotels, dotted here and there with
-manufacturing towns and vineyards. It has been
-said that you cannot get too much of a good thing,
-but that is a mistake. Even the man who loves pie
-must admit that after he has had all the pie he can
-consume three times a day for a week, he would want
-to change the subject. After one has been traveling
-through Swiss scenery for seven days he is almost
-satisfied. We no longer chase across the car to see
-a big mountain-peak, or hurry out of the hotel soon
-after our arrival to behold the lake. And men and
-women with feathers in their hats and alpenstocks
-in their hands do not make us turn our heads. The
-sight of a little level country would look mighty good,
-and a comfortable seat on the porch comes nearer to filling
-the longing in my heart than the sight of a waterfall
-or an old castle several minutes’ walk distant.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Lucerne is the center of the tourist travel. All
-roads into Switzerland lead to Lucerne, and the
-scenery is more varied than at any other of the show
-places. The town is on the lake and the mountains are
-around it. From my hotel I could see Mount Pilatus,
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span>the place where they say Pontius Pilate finally found
-a resting-place. At the other end of the view is the
-snow-covered Rigi, and there are all kinds of Alps in
-the background. Lucerne looks like an American
-summer resort. It is made up of hotels and souvenir
-shops, and elegantly dressed women parade up and
-down the promenade walks, while rich old gentlemen
-sit uncomfortably around the piazzas and wish the
-women-folks had let them stay at home. It is astonishing
-how many men act as if they would give a good
-deal to be at work somewhere rather than in Switzerland
-“enjoying themselves.” A lot of people do not
-know how to have a good time or how to see a strange
-and delightful place. I meet many people who do
-not care for Europe, or Italy, or Switzerland,&mdash;the
-people who bring a stack of trunks and good clothes
-and have to put in their time dressing up only to be
-out-dressed by somebody else.</p>
-
-<p>But Lucerne has one thing different. It is the
-“Lion of Lucerne,” the monument erected in honor
-of the Swiss soldiers who died in the French palace
-defending the rotten Bourbon dynasty when the revolutionists
-broke in and captured the king and queen.
-The lion (twenty-eight feet in length) is carved out
-of a sandstone ledge, and is the finest monument or
-statue I ever saw. The king of beasts is dying, agony
-on his face, a broken lance in his side, and his huge
-paw resting on a shield of the lilies of France. The
-more I looked at the great work of Thorwaldsen the
-more I felt it, and I went back again and again to see
-it,&mdash;the real test of effect. Nearly everyone has seen
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span>copies or pictures of this work, but it is one of the
-things that no copy can do justice to, for the size and
-substance of the stone, the pathos and power of the
-subject and the skill and the genius of the sculptor
-have met most perfectly and impressively.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Near Lucerne is the scene of the early struggle for
-Swiss liberty. Around the lake of Lucerne are the
-three cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, whose
-representatives met some 500 years ago and entered
-into the compact to stand together for freedom, a compact
-which has never been broken. Here William Tell
-refused to take off his hat to the hat the tyrant Gessler
-had set up and ordered all to salute. To punish Tell
-the governor ordered him to take his bow and arrow
-and shoot an apple from the head of his son. Tell’s
-aim was true, but as he turned away another arrow
-dropped from his coat. When asked why he had that,
-he said it was for Gessler if the boy had been hurt.
-Gessler took Tell in a boat and was carrying him to a
-dungeon, when a storm arose and Tell was released in
-order to use his skill as a boatman. He knew that
-the world wasn’t big enough for both himself and Gessler,
-so he soon after inserted an arrow into the tyrant’s
-ribs, and the Austrians had to get a new governor.</p>
-
-<p>Some cynical historians doubt this Tell story, but
-I do not. It is just as good a story as a lot which appear
-in history and it is good enough to be true.</p>
-
-<p>After the Tell revolution, which was in the thirteenth
-century, those Swiss cantons never lost their freedom,
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span>although they had to fight for it about every generation.
-The Hapsburg family, which reigned in Austria, was
-always trying to conquer the Swiss, and although its
-power was great enough to overcome any army they
-could collect, it could not cope with the mountains and
-gulches in which the Swiss were at home, and where
-one man who knew the land was equal in fighting
-value to a dozen knights in armor or on horseback.
-On that account the Swiss, especially the people of
-these “forest cantons,” have been a free people through
-all the changes in the world during more than 500
-years. Sometimes they have been selfish and narrow
-in their ideas of freedom, considering that they were
-the only people on earth, and they have until the last
-century held serfs and domineered despotically over
-weak neighbors. But they were always far in advance
-of the rest of the world in their ideas of personal liberty.
-Switzerland is the one country which has always
-been a refuge to exiled patriots, rebels, conspirators
-and pretenders. Switzerland will not surrender a fugitive
-from another country on a political charge. The
-judges who sentenced Charles I. of England to death
-sought refuge in Switzerland when Charles II. came to
-the throne. Charles demanded that the judges be
-given up to him, and brought every influence to bear,
-but the Swiss stood by their law of refuge. To-day
-the anarchists and nihilists of Russia and the revolutionists
-of every country from Roumania to Spain
-have their headquarters in Geneva or some other Swiss
-town.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span></p>
-<p>It will be noticed that I think a good deal of the
-Swiss, and that I have written some criticism of the
-Italians. I went through Italy without ever being
-overcharged, “held up,” or worked by cab-drivers,
-hotel-keepers, or anyone at all. But in Switzerland,
-the land of freedom and education, I have had all these
-things done to me. I have been surprised and pleased
-by the way the people of Europe treat strangers, even
-if they do want tips. I had not been meanly treated
-from the time I left Boston until I reached Switzerland.
-The last man I did business with in my native land was
-a Boston hackman, who charged me twice what he
-should when he brought us to the ship. I did not meet
-his equal until I got to Lucerne. I hope there is no
-connection between personal liberty, republican government,
-and the swindling of strangers.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Yesterday we went to St. Gallen, a little industrial
-town near Constance. The women will recognize the
-name of this town if the men do not, for it is the place
-Swiss embroideries come from. I found out one thing
-there: Most of the Swiss hand embroidery is made by
-machinery. The Swiss are called the Yankees of Europe.
-They are up to almost all the tricks of the trade.
-They are changing from a pastoral and agricultural
-people, except right in the mountains, and are making
-money out of manufactories and tourists. The men
-and women do not wear the ridiculous and charming
-peasant costumes, except in beer-gardens and summer-resort
-hotels. In fact, I am impressed with the sameness
-of people’s clothes everywhere. There is no longer
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span>any such thing as characteristic costume. I saw the
-men’s clothes in Italy all cut and made just as in France,
-England, or America. The women have the same
-styles in the country districts of Switzerland that they
-do in Kansas or in Paris. Of course some people know
-how to wear their clothes better than others, and there
-is a difference in fit and make, but the styles are the
-same from Hutchinson to St. Gallen.</p>
-
-<p>I am learning some things in geography. Mont
-Blanc, the biggest mountain in Switzerland, is in
-France. Constance, one of the best Swiss resorts, is
-in Germany. Switzerland is such a busy little country
-that it bulges out all around.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">SWISS AND SWITZERLAND.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Neuhausen, Switzerland</span>, July 13, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>Soon after I arrived in Switzerland I inquired at a
-Geneva hotel the name of the President of the Republic
-of Switzerland. The hall porter (about the same as
-chief clerk) could not tell me, nor could he find out on
-inquiry around the office. Several times in Geneva I
-asked the same question, but always in vain. One
-or two men thought they knew, but they were not sure,
-and, as I learned afterward, they guessed wrong. I
-kept at the work of finding out who was the chief executive
-until I reached Lucerne. In a bookstore there
-my question aroused the interest of the proprietor,
-who spoke good English, and he inquired around until
-he found out that the President of Switzerland is
-named Brenner. During the process I suppose I asked
-a dozen educated Swiss, and three-fourths of them
-could give me promptly the name of the President of
-the United States, but not the name of their own President.
-Of course there is a reason for what would be
-fearful ignorance in any other country. The President
-of Switzerland doesn’t amount to as much as the
-Vice-President of the United States, and it would stagger
-a good many Americans to tell who was Vice-President
-before Roosevelt. Switzerland is a rather
-loosely bound together confederation of cantons
-(states). The cantons are jealous of the federal government,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span>
-and give it very little power. Up to a few
-years ago there would be tariffs in some cantons
-against importations from others. The general government
-has the power to do the international business,
-but Switzerland keeps out of European politics. It
-would have little or no power as an offensive nation
-with its three million of people, and so it contents itself
-with furnishing scenery, wine, watches, music-boxes
-and good air to the inhabitants of other countries
-who are able to buy. The federal government
-consists of a congress composed of representatives
-from the cantons made up like our Senate and House.
-This congress elects an executive committee of seven,
-and the President of Switzerland is merely the chairman
-of that executive committee. Berne is the capital
-of Switzerland and the congress meets there, but
-it can only propose important legislation, which is then
-submitted to the people, who usually defeat it. The
-cantons of Switzerland have various kinds of republican
-government. Some have legislatures, some councils,
-and in a few of the small ones, where it is practicable,
-the government acts by mass meetings of the
-people, with an executive or a committee to carry out
-the legislation. The small area of the country and of
-the twenty-two cantons (they average about the size
-of Reno county, but some are not bigger than a commissioner
-district) makes the government a peculiar
-proposition. There is no foreign immigration, no uneducated
-class, and no one whose ancestors have not
-been self-governing for a generation. And yet as they
-have remodeled their local and federal constitutions
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span>and charters, they have come closer to the American
-methods all the time, the only important difference
-being the initiative and referendum, which is after all
-only a continuance of their ancient “land gemeinde,”
-or mass meetings of the people at which measures
-were considered and officers elected, the voting now
-being done by ballot instead of holding up the hands.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>As I have written before, in some cantons the people
-use one language and in some another. Likewise in
-some everybody is a Protestant and in others everybody
-is a Catholic; very seldom both faiths in one
-canton. During the Reformation and for a number of
-years afterward the Swiss fought and killed each other
-for the love of God as fiercely as in any other country.
-Switzerland and southern Germany, which borders on
-it, were the fields in which the great Reformers did
-their best and worst work. The Reformation in Switzerland
-was double-headed. One branch, led by Calvin,
-was marked by what we call Puritan austerity, and had
-its headquarters at Geneva. From there went John
-Knox to Scotland and a host of eminent preachers to
-England and other countries, forming what is now
-called the Presbyterian Church. Zwingli, at Zurich,
-was a milder, gentler teacher, and his kind of Protestantism
-grew most in Switzerland. Luther, only a
-little way off, had still another kind of Protestantism,
-and each of the three differed considerably in confession
-of faith, Calvin standing on the principle of predestination,
-Luther holding to transubstantiation, or the doctrine<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span>
-of the actual presence of the body of our Saviour
-in communion, Zwingli insisting that communion was
-only symbolic. Mutual friends brought Zwingli and
-Luther together, and when they could not agree,
-Zwingli held out his hand in parting and Luther would
-not even shake hands. Zwingli was killed in a battle
-in a religious war with the Catholics, but his creed
-really became the dominant one in Swiss Protestantism.
-Calvin had Servetus burned to death because he denied
-the trinity.</p>
-
-<p>So you see in the good old days in Switzerland there
-was a hard time for the plain and honest person trying
-to do what was right. Those times are past now,
-and Protestant and Catholic cantons get along peaceably;
-but there is still friction. Each canton in Switzerland
-looks after its educational matters and there are
-good schools everywhere. In nearly every city is a
-big university. I suppose that in proportion to population
-there are more university graduates in Switzerland
-than in any other country on earth. In America
-the young men and women too often cut short their
-education in order to get into business. In Switzerland,
-there are no such alluring opportunities, and the
-students stay till graduation. A young Swiss will go
-through the university and then go to work at the
-trade of his father. In America the young man would
-want to “do better” and really does worse by becoming
-a lawyer or an editor. Even good things have their
-bad features, and American colleges make mighty poor
-professional men out of material which was intended for
-good mechanics and farmers.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span></p>
-<p>We spent a couple of days in Zurich, the largest city
-of Switzerland. Its special industry is silk-making, and
-the silk and embroidery stores are beautiful. The main
-business street of Zurich has two rows of trees like
-First avenue in Hutchinson, and the result is a delightful
-change from the usual hot, bare main street of a
-city. And that reminds me that it is a law in Switzerland
-or in the forest cantons that no one can cut down
-a tree except by official permission, and then another
-must be planted to take its place.</p>
-
-<p>In the agricultural and pastoral parts of Switzerland
-a great deal of land is held “in common,” that is
-government land, under the control of the canton, not
-for sale at any price, but for the use of the people of
-the community under strict regulations. So a Swiss
-peasant will have a few acres of land of his own, a few
-cattle, and a right as a citizen to pasture on the common
-ground and a share of the profits of the forest.
-Immigration is not invited, although tourists with
-money are welcomed, for the more people the less the
-share of each in the common fund. There can hardly
-be any poverty in Switzerland, except, of course, in
-the cities. Every Swiss peasant can make a living if
-he will work. But neither can he be expected to get
-rich nor be a bigger man than his father. He must
-follow the beaten path marked out by centuries of
-custom and more firmly established than the unwritten
-constitution of the country.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I am getting more and more impressed with the
-fallacy of “cheapness” in Europe. Comparing prices
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span>with those of Hutchinson, I find that the things which
-are cheaper here are silks, kid gloves, diamonds, and
-the products of labor like embroidery, lace, clocks,
-wood carvings, tailor-made clothes and straw hats
-(poorly made). Cotton goods, linen goods, shoes, iron
-and steel, bread and meat, coffee, and most of what we
-call necessities of life, are higher in Europe than in
-America. It is the people who are cheap and not the
-things; and when I say “cheap” I do not mean lacking
-in energy, ability, or industry, but in opportunity to
-make more than a living, to have leisure or the common
-luxuries and often necessities.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>This is the last night in Switzerland. To-morrow
-we cross the line to Constance, which is in Germany,
-and which is spelled Konstanz and abbreviated “Kaz.,”
-which makes it near to “Kas.” Neuhausen is the
-place where the Rhine makes its big leap down the
-rocks, a fall of sixty feet, and on account of the volume
-of water the grandest in Europe. It is the Niagara
-Falls of the Alpine country, but it is not in the same
-class with Niagara Falls, U. S. A. The Rhine is about
-as wide as the Kaw at Topeka, but much deeper, and
-the falls are about four times the height of Bowersock’s
-dam at Lawrence. A beautiful hotel faces the
-roaring torrent as it precipitates itself over the rocks
-amid clouds of spray. The prices at the hotel are higher
-than the falls. I can only call to mind one place where
-you feel that you are being more genteelly robbed with
-your own consent, and that is at Niagara Falls, New
-York. But our Niagara Falls are higher to correspond.</p>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="GERMANY">GERMANY.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">IN THE BLACK FOREST.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Triberg, Germany</span>, July 17, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>This is a small town in the middle of the Black Forest.
-I had read a good deal of the Black Forest, but
-really had no idea what it was. The name sounded
-as if it might be a part of Arkansas or Louisiana, and I
-think I was looking for swamps and waste land covered
-with underbrush and impenetrable to travelers
-except on made roads. But as a matter of fact it is as
-delightful and beautiful a country as I have seen since
-I left Kansas. The land is mountainous, but it is fertile
-and the valleys and hillsides are dotted with thrifty-looking
-little farms. The name applies, all right, for
-the mountains are covered with dense forests of spruce
-trees with a dark-green foliage which looks really black.
-The farming land has evidently been cleared in the
-centuries that have passed since the roving Germans
-settled into peaceful peasants and quit their occupation
-of making Rome howl by raiding and pillaging the
-towns of the declining empire. The Black Forest covers
-a great part of southwest Germany, mostly in the
-state or grand duchy of Baden. Up to a short time
-ago it had a number of practically independent little
-kingdoms about the size of your hat, which were in a
-perpetual struggle for existence and recognition. Anthony
-Hope used the Black Forest as the scene for his
-Zenda stories, and to-day we came through the principality<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span>
-of Fürstenberg, one of his favorite places, in
-which the prince of Fürstenberg still holds an honorary
-position but under the actual government of Emperor
-William. I also noticed that the prince was proprietor
-of a big brewery.</p>
-
-<p>It is harvest-time in the Black Forest, and men
-and women are gathering the crops, small grain and
-hay, using the hand-sickle and the hand-rake but
-doing their work in a thorough manner. When they
-get through the raking I don’t suppose there is a waste
-straw left lying on the ground or a kernel of grain which
-is not carefully picked up. The farmer in Europe
-would get rich on what an American farmer drops on
-the way from the field to the barn. They have fine
-horses and cattle in the Black Forest, and look prosperous.
-When one horse is used in a wagon he is harnessed
-alongside the pole and not between shafts. I
-was told the reason was that it was to make it easy to
-add another horse if desired without changing the pole.
-That was nearly as strange as the one horse alongside
-the pole.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The time is past when the sight of ladies working in
-the field excites any interest, although I still have a
-little feeling when the woman is sixty or seventy years
-old. It is not so bad in Germany, and especially in the
-Black Forest, where the air is light and exhilarating;
-and then the men work too. In Italy the hauling was
-done by animals as follows: Horses, oxen, cows, dogs,
-women. Sometimes a woman and a dog were hitched
-together to small wagons, especially milk carts. In
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span>Switzerland the dogs were still in harness, but the
-women were out of it. And in the Black Forest I believe
-the dogs are freed, as all the vehicles I have seen
-have been drawn by horses or oxen. Perhaps it will
-be different later. I write now only of the Black Forest.
-We drove for twelve miles down one of the valleys
-and through the little villages. A number of the
-old peasant costumes were worn by women and girls,
-although most of them were dressed in the same styles
-as in Paris or Hutchinson. A very striking head-dress
-for the feminine is one of the Black Forest styles, a
-bonnet with two large wings extending upward at an
-angle of about 40 degrees from the head, and with flowing
-bands several feet long down the back. Girls and
-unmarried women have bright-colored wings and bands,
-married women must wear black. By the way, the
-women of continental Europe wherever we have been
-have worn earrings,&mdash;France, Italy, and Switzerland.
-As American women generally discarded these disfiguring
-ornaments several years ago, the sight has
-been a strange one. Especially in Italy are the earrings
-large and imposing, rich and poor vieing with
-each other in size of the pendants and rings.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Aside from agriculture the main industry of the
-Black Forest is wood-carving and clock-making. There
-are some small factories, but as a rule the work is done
-at home; and it is very good. We visited one of these
-home shops, and the whole family showed us their
-handiwork. A beautifully carved wooden hall clock
-with a cuckoo and a music-box which played every
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span>half-hour was only $4 American money. It must have
-taken the man a week to make it, and in our country the
-price would have been several times as large. There
-is a big tariff on this ware going into America, and it
-is all right. If it were not so, our American wood-workers
-would have to learn another trade or work for
-$4 or $5 a week. And if they got only $4 or $5 a week
-they would not eat much meat, buy much clothing, or
-pay for many newspapers. See?</p>
-
-<p>The people of the Black Forest are a charming,
-friendly lot. I suppose they are as happy as anybody,
-although one of them was very proud of a brother who
-had gone to America and was making “much geld,”
-and whom he would follow if he could. All through
-Europe I meet people who have relatives in America,
-and that may account for the friendly treatment I have
-everywhere received. These American relatives have
-all gotten “rich” according to their European relatives,
-which shows that the immigrants to our country
-all succeed or keep a stiff upper lip when they write to
-the folks in the fatherland.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The architecture of the Black Forest houses is as
-striking as any I have seen. Nearly every farmhouse
-is very large, at least three stories high, and on one
-or more sides the roof “gambrels” off from the high
-ridge nearly to the ground. The effect is like a tent-covering,
-and the roof is often thatched or tiled in
-two or three colors,&mdash;on some the green grass is growing.
-Part of the house is the barn. The winter here
-is said to be severe, and the Forest peasant evidently
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span>believes in having his family and his horses, cows and
-chickens where they can be comfortable and sociable.
-The houses are extra clean, and the furniture, dishes
-and utensils of the kitchen shine with the good polishing
-they must receive. The little farms are tilled to
-the limit, and are generally irrigated and always fertilized.
-Just to show how these people manage to
-get a living out of the ground and the care they use
-to get it all, I saw women and men on the roadside
-with baskets cleaning the road of manure and carrying
-it to their land.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>We have had to learn a new money system in Germany.
-France, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium have
-what is called a “Latin league,” with interchangeable
-currency, the unit being the franc (France, Switzerland,
-and Belgium), and the lire (Italy). But
-Germany joins no Latin leagues. The unit of the
-German currency is the “mark,” equivalent to twenty-five
-cents American. This is divided into one hundred
-pfennigs. Prices are carried out to the pfennig, and
-one-pfennig coins (in value one-fourth of one cent)
-are seen more than our one-cent pieces at home.
-That illustrates the close, exact, economical German
-spirit. The first time I made a small purchase in
-Germany I got a pocketful of change. Mrs. Morgan
-wanted a little money, and I gave her a couple of
-handfuls. She said she didn’t want so much, as she
-only intended to buy inexpensive things. I had
-actually given her about fifty cents. When one hundred
-copper coins make twenty-five cents and they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span>
-are used in most transactions, you can realize what
-a heavy load you carry and how you can get that
-wealthy feeling without much actual expense.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Soon after leaving Constance our road turned away
-from the Rhine, and going through a tunnel we were
-in the valley of the Danube. It startled me a little,
-as I had always connected the Danube with Austria
-and Turkey. But sure enough, we were riding along
-the banks of the Danube, which has been made famous
-by history, poetry and music. If a raindrop fell
-on one side of that hill it would go down to the Rhine
-to the Baltic, and if the wind blew it over to the other
-side before it struck the earth it would start eastward
-and journey down the Danube to the Black sea.
-Rivers are like human beings,&mdash;they get their directions
-from the place where they start and go onward
-along the road of least resistance to the place
-appointed, unless dammed or taken up by man or
-God, in which case they will struggle and work to
-seep back to the channel in which it was intended
-they should make their course.</p>
-
-<p>By the way, the “Beautiful Blue Danube” is not
-blue at all in this part of its career, but almost black,
-seemingly taking its hue from the forests in which
-it has its origin.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The town of Triberg is a quaint little place near
-the top of the mountain, and apparently about one
-hundred miles from Nowhere. I have had my first
-experience with what I understand is not infrequent<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151"></a>[151]</span>
-in old German towns. There is a tax on strangers,
-thirty pfennigs a day or one mark a week, and our
-hotel has to pay and charge in our bill. Ministers
-of the gospel, and paupers, are exempt. In America
-if they had a fool tax like that they would also exempt
-newspaper men. The only way I could get out of
-paying the tax was to make affidavit that I was a
-minister or a pauper, so I reluctantly gave up the
-offer to dodge taxation and the town of Triberg is
-fifteen cents to the good on account of our stay. However,
-there is a very fine waterfall, and we looked
-fifteen cents’ worth at that and called it even.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152"></a>[152]</span></p>
-
-<p class="p130">STORIES OF STRASSBURG.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Strassburg, Germany</span>, July 18, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>To use the American vernacular, Strassburg is a
-good town. It has the best-looking stores, the most
-energetic acting people and the most thriving appearance
-of any city since we left Paris. The reason
-for this is probably the mingling of the German and
-the French and the location of the city as the metropolis
-of a very rich territory lying in both countries.
-Strassburg is a German city in which the people are
-at heart French. Thirty years ago the treaty which
-ended the Franco-German war gave Strassburg and
-two of the rich provinces of eastern France, Alsace
-and Lorraine, to the German empire. But it did not
-give the German emperor a warranty deed to the
-hearts of the people, and they long for their old associations.
-Probably the new generation is not so
-much disposed to France, and the influence of education
-and environment will gradually change the
-desire of the Alsatians to be sometime reunited with
-their old countrymen, but time and again to-day in
-talking with the Strassburgers they have given me to
-understand that they were not Germans but French.</p>
-
-<p>Strassburg has a history as a city on its own account.
-Away back in 1300 the people revolted from
-the rule of the bishop who was their sovereign, and
-gained their independence. For 400 years Strassburg<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153"></a>[153]</span>
-was what is known as a “free city,” owing some
-allegiance to the German empire but governing itself
-and doing about as it pleased. The language,
-the customs and the sympathy of the people were
-German. In 1681 Louis XIV. of France in a time
-of peace seized Strassburg, and a few years later in
-a general treaty France was confirmed in the title,
-and from that time until 1871 it was a French city.
-During the war of 1870 Strassburg did not surrender
-to the overwhelming German army until its defenses
-were battered down and the city bombarded. And
-as I wrote from Paris, in the galaxy of statues representing
-the cities of France in the Parisian Place de
-la Concorde, the statue of Strassburg is hung with
-emblems of mourning, and some day France will
-fight to get the city back. Germany knows this,
-and the city has been strongly fortified and a garrison
-of 15,000 German soldiers is kept there. So many
-soldiers in a city of 150,000 people give a showy look
-to the streets, the promenades and the public places,
-and doubtless is a good thing financially for the merchants.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Since leaving Italy I have sworn off on cathedrals,
-but I had to go to the one here because it is a good
-one and because of the Strassburg clock. The spire
-of the Strassburg cathedral is one of the highest in
-Europe, 465 feet, beating by a few feet St. Peter’s
-at Rome and St. Paul’s in London. The rest of the
-building is just the ordinary cathedral except for the
-clock. The first big clock was constructed here in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span>
-1352 and it lasted two centuries, when another took
-its place, to be succeeded sixty years ago by the present
-one. This clock is about the size of the front of
-an ordinary church. It not only tells the hour and
-minute of the day, but the day of the week, the month
-of the year, the feast days of the church, and is regulated
-to run for centuries, automatically making the
-right figures for leap years and adapting itself to the
-revolution of feast and fast days for an almost unlimited
-number of years. Every fifteen minutes an
-angel figure strikes the bell for the quarter-hour, and
-figures representing boyhood, youth, manhood and
-old age come out for the appropriate quarters. A
-skeleton strikes the hour and another reverses an
-hour-glass. At noon there is a parade of the twelve
-apostles before the Saviour, and a big rooster at one
-side crows loudly twice before Peter gets to the front
-and the third time as he passes. I am getting a great
-sympathy for Peter because he has that story thrown
-up to him in so many cathedrals, churches and pictures
-in Europe. It seems to me that Peter did enough
-after that to entitle him to a rest on the cock-crow
-story.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Next to the cathedral clock the most interesting
-sight to my mind was the washerwomen’s boats in
-the river. About 500 women were in these canal-shaped
-boats washing clothes, rinsing them in the river
-and having a good gossiping time of it.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155"></a>[155]</span>
-The emperor of Germany has a palace in Strassburg
-where he spends at least three days every year
-in the month of May. I did not know this, so when
-I saw the imperial palace on the city map I told the
-driver to take us there. I had never met Emperor
-William and he had never met me. I entered the
-palace door as directed by the cab-driver and was
-pleasantly received by a fine, portly gentleman. Of
-course I knew he wasn’t the emperor, so I spoke in a
-dignified way as becomes an American citizen toying
-with the effete monarchies of Europe, and asked the
-gentleman in my best German if the emperor was at
-home, at the same time assuring him that if the emperor
-was busy not to bother him, as I could come
-again after supper when he would be through his work.
-The fat gentleman bowed and told me the emperor
-was here only in May, and asked me if we would like
-to go over the palace. I spoke up abruptly, as if I were
-used to running around palaces; that as I had nothing
-else to do just then, having laid out to put in a short
-time with Emperor Bill, I wouldn’t mind if I did.
-He was a very nice man, a court chamberlain, he said,
-and he took Mrs. Morgan and me all through the
-palace and the big dining-room and ball-room and the
-king’s den, and all that sort of thing. Before we
-went onto the polished floors of the big rooms we
-had to put felt slippers on over our shoes&mdash;a good
-thing to keep the floors from getting scratched,
-and I suppose it is a kind of ground rule that Mrs.
-Emperor has made to protect the varnish from the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156"></a>[156]</span>
-hobnailed boots of William’s friends. I hope the
-custom won’t spread to America.</p>
-
-<p>The German emperor has a mighty good house in
-Strassburg, and it has been furnished regardless of
-expense. There was a notice up, “Visitors not allowed
-to sit on the chairs,” but I wasn’t very tired
-anyway. I looked for a sign not to spit on the floor
-to go with some of the other wall decoration, but it
-must have been overlooked. The house looked stiff,
-and I don’t believe Bill has much fun at home and
-probably his wife makes him go out on the porch to
-smoke. I was sorry not to meet the emperor, as we
-will not get to Berlin, and I had some things to tell
-him. However, I feel that I have done the proper
-thing by calling on him and not waiting for him to
-hunt me up.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>There is not so much American-made stuff in Europe
-as I expected. There is a good deal, but in fact
-these Germans and French are up to about everything
-that we are, and sometimes they have us bested.
-The Singer sewing-machine is everywhere, even in
-Italy. American shoes are the leaders in their lines
-in every city. American typewriters are sold ahead
-of European. Wernicke bookcases and office furniture
-are advertised and sold almost as at home. But
-the list of American goods is not very long, or else
-they are sold under other names and brands. To-day
-we bought a good picture of a typical German girl
-to take home with us as our art collection from Europe.
-Before we had gone a block Mrs. Morgan found<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157"></a>[157]</span>
-the tag which proclaimed, “Made in Springfield,
-Massachusetts, U. S. A.” We were chagrined that
-our European purchase had turned out to be an
-American importation, sold to us at a higher price
-than it would have been at home, but we were proud
-that here in Germany they knew the country to send
-to in order to get good pictures of fetching Dutch
-maidens. At Zurich I started to buy a little office
-fixture which I thought I had never seen before and
-which I intended to take home to surprise the Kansans,
-when I found out just in time that it was made by the
-Globe-Wernicke company of Cincinnati, and I knew
-we had the same thing for sale at The News office in
-Hutchinson. Hereafter in buying souvenirs of Europe
-we will look close for the brand.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>This is the place where the “pâté de fois gras”
-originated. I do not know how many people in Kansas
-know what pâté de fois gras is and whether it is
-a flower or a dog. I had once seen the words on a
-bill of fare in a very swell restaurant, but the figures
-which followed the name were so much larger than
-those after ham and eggs that I stuck to “ham and.”
-But when in Rome you must see the Forum, in Venice
-you must see St. Mark’s, and in Strassburg you must
-have some pâté de fois gras. The food combination
-which the four French words stand for is based on
-goose-liver, and corresponds to about what we would
-call “goose-liver smothered in roses.” It is very
-good, and you never forget the delicious taste or the
-price. Strassburg chefs make the stuff, can it and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158"></a>[158]</span>
-ship it all over the world to people who like delicate
-things to eat and who have sufficient credit to get
-a good stand-off. Pâté de fois gras is sweeter than
-chocolate, more luscious than peaches and more delicious
-than lemon pop at a Fourth of July picnic.
-It is a proof that Strassburgers have French stomachs
-as well as French hearts.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Speaking of eatables, we had the first loaf of bread
-in Switzerland that we had seen since we left home.
-After nearly two months on hard, stale rolls the sight
-of a reasonably good loaf of bread at Geneva made
-as strong an impression on my mind as Mont Blanc.
-Anybody who has traveled in Europe or in Arkansas
-will appreciate the feelings of a Kansan when he puts
-a slice of fairly soft bread between his teeth. It is
-better than pâté de fois gras, and it is almost exclusively
-an American institution.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159"></a>[159]</span></p>
-
-<p class="p130">IN OLD HEIDELBERG.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Heidelberg, Germany</span>, July 22, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>This is the old and famous university town of Germany.
-It is about two miles long and 200 yards
-wide, lying between the river Neckar and the steep
-hills which rise 500 feet high and which can only be
-ascended by terraced roads or a modern tunnel railway.
-The town is of comparatively recent origin,
-being really started only 850 years ago, when a Rhenish
-count who wanted to build a strong and impregnable
-fortress selected a spot 400 feet straight up the
-hill from the river and built the old castle of Heidelberg.
-Being thus the capital of a little German state,
-the Palatinate of the Rhine, it was an important
-place during the Middle Ages, and was fought over
-every few years for several centuries. In the fourteenth
-century the ruling count, whose title was Elector,
-developed a literary streak and founded the university,
-which became the center of learning and
-scientific study in Germany, and has continued so
-until the present day, although some of the newer
-universities like Berlin and Leipsig are now larger.
-The valley of the Neckar joins the valley of the Rhine
-here and makes a fertile territory and a prosperous
-city, but the university and the students are the main
-features of modern Heidelberg, now that counts, electors
-and castles are ruins or relics. There are many<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160"></a>[160]</span>
-students in Heidelberg from America and other countries,
-but it is the rollicking German “yunkers” who
-make the life of the place.</p>
-
-<p>German universities differ somewhat from American
-universities in the character and method of work.
-There are no recitations&mdash;only lectures and examinations.
-A student does not have to attend either. He
-can attend Heidelberg year in and year out and devote
-himself exclusively to the beer-garden and the dueling-ground.
-Or he can work hard, receive the ablest instruction
-and the highest degrees. The discipline of
-the common schools in Germany is severe&mdash;military
-in its character. But at the university the young man
-or young woman (for women now attend lectures at
-Heidelberg) can do as they please and go to Hades if
-they desire. The university buildings are plain and
-ordinary. The picturesque feature is the students, especially
-the young men who belong to the various
-“corps.” Less than 10 per cent. of the students are
-members of these societies, but they color the town,
-for each corps has a distinctive cap,&mdash;red, yellow, white,
-etc. These organizations are the social life of the university,
-and at all hours of the day or night they are
-in evidence, parading with their caps and canes, occupying
-the beer-gardens and the promenade, jollying
-the girl waiters and having what is called in America a
-High Old Time.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Everybody has heard of the duel or sword-fighting.
-It is as much an institution at Heidelberg as football
-is at Princeton or K. U. Not many students take part<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161"></a>[161]</span>
-in it, only members of the six corps, but it is the show
-feature of student life. Each corps has about twenty
-members. Each member has to fight at least one duel
-a term with a member of some other corps. This morning
-we went to the dueling-place just outside of the
-city and saw the game.</p>
-
-<p>One gets a great deal of misinformation about this
-student dueling, but as near as I can find out it is done
-in a genteel and cold-blooded manner. When it is the
-turn of one of the corps members to fight he makes a
-face or refuses to salute a member of another corps.
-That constitutes cause for the duel, and the preliminaries
-are then arranged by the officers of the respective
-corps according to the rules and regulations that
-have come down through generations. The fighting
-is done in an inner court of a wine-garden. This morning
-there were ten duels on the program, and when we
-arrived the third was in progress. A young man of the
-bright-red-cap corps was trying to slice the face of a
-member of the dark-red-cap corps. Each was covered
-with felt armor, which protected all of his body, and
-also had goggles and nose-pad, a little bit more so than
-a football player. The seconds, very similarly attired,
-stood by the side of the principals and struck up the
-swords at the end of each round or when the blood
-came. The only unprotected places were the head and
-face, and the game was to slash the opponent there,
-not to stick him. Thrusting is evidently against the
-rules. A surgeon with an apron like a butcher attended
-to the cuts and the members of both corps stood quietly
-and calmly by, giving vent to no expression of feeling<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162"></a>[162]</span>
-whatever. The officers of each corps saluted, the word
-was given, the two swords clashed away for a minute,
-and each fellow had a nice long cut on his cheek. When
-the round was over the seconds sponged the cuts.
-There is no specified number of rounds, but whenever
-the two seconds are satisfied that one man is cut
-enough the other is declared the victor and they salute
-and retire to get court-plastered or sewed up as is necessary.
-We saw four duels and got tired of the fun.
-In the last fought one of the men was apparently an
-experienced swordsman and his opponent apparently
-a beginner. (I understand that in order to show his
-courage a new man always challenges an expert.) After
-four rounds the face of the weaker swordsman was
-streaming with blood from a half-dozen cuts. I suppose
-he looked upon his defeat as a real victory because
-he showed the fellows that he could stand up and take
-punishment and never wince. Some people have curious
-ideas of greatness.</p>
-
-<p>They tell me no one is ever killed in these duels, but
-every member of every corps would be considered disfigured
-for life in America. Every one of them has
-long sears on his face and head. The restaurant where
-we eat is a favorite resort for the corps and we see much
-of them. It looks like a shame that every one of those
-bright young men will have to go through life with a
-face like a war map of Manchuria. But they wouldn’t
-trade those sears for love nor money. (I am told
-they are good for love.) They are the badges of bravery
-and ability, and are as highly prized as the bronze
-button of the Grand Army man. As I have remarked,
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163"></a>[163]</span>some ambitions are very funny, and if the German
-students want to be hand-carved in this manner there
-is no use of a football-, prize-fight-loving nation making
-any kick.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a id="i_173" name="i_173"><img src="images/i_173.jpg" alt="" width="368" height="532" /></a>
-<p class="caption center p80">THE GERMAN WAY.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Heidelberg is a “wet” town. I suppose half the
-places on the main street are beer-gardens and some
-of the others are wine-rooms. Everybody in Germany
-drinks beer and wine. There is this difference between
-France and Germany: In France the men do
-most of the drinking as they sit in the sidewalk cafés
-watching the women go by. In Germany the man
-brings his wife and children and they all sit around the
-table in the garden or restaurants and drink beer. They
-do not seem to get intoxicated. I haven’t seen anyone
-drunk, although they drink by the wholesale. Beer
-is high in Heidelberg, up to 2&frac12; cents a quart, but out
-in the suburbs it is cheaper. I think beer-drinking
-makes the Germans have bad forms, for men and
-women get round and fat. But in Germany these
-forms are considered beautiful, so the sylph-like and
-the slender are looked down upon. It is an illustration
-of the fact that it is a good thing we don’t all think
-alike about such things as personal beauty, or some of
-us would have to always be away back sitting down.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I have been in Germany a week, and I have not seen
-a half-dozen men smoking pipes. I thought Germans
-were great pipe-smokers, but they are not in this part.
-The Heidelberg pipes are mostly made to sell to Americans<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164"></a>[164]</span>
-and English. The Germans smoke a little the
-worst cigars I have ever met. They are cheap in price
-and the Germans consume them in large quantities.
-The kind the high-class Germans use closely resembles
-a brand known in our country as “The Pride of the
-Sewer,” and sells at about two for 5 cents. An American
-who is accustomed at home to buying “a good
-nickel cigar” can’t find anything that good in Germany,
-unless it may be in the big hotels where they cater to
-American and English trade. I had always had Germans
-pictured to me as big fat men with long pipes in
-their mouths, sitting around tables on which were
-large steins of beer. The beer is here all right, but the
-men are as bright and energetic as Americans, and they
-smoke cigars and not pipes.</p>
-
-<p>Another dream gone up in smoke.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>It is a great country for castles and “legends.” I
-think the average yield of legends per acre is larger in
-Germany than in any other country on earth, especially
-in the Black Forest and on the Rhine. That is one
-thing our country is short of&mdash;legends. Aside from a
-few old Indian stories, a tale of woe about the grasshoppers
-and reminiscences of the Populists, we haven’t
-anything that approaches the legends which hang on
-almost every tree in the Black Forest and stick out of
-every castle-window. And yet Kansas could raise
-legends as well as Germany, for a legend is nothing but
-a lie told so often that nobody knows where it started;
-and Kansas has her share of liars. Here is a sample<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165"></a>[165]</span>
-“legend” from the old castle of Heidelberg which we
-visited to-day:</p>
-
-
-<p class="center">A HEIDELBERG LEGEND.</p>
-
-<p>The count of Heidelberg had a beautiful daughter.
-(They all do&mdash;in legends.) Her reputation for beauty
-went all over Germany and reached the shores of Great
-Britain. The king of England saw the photograph of
-the fair lady dressed in her bicycle suit, and instantly
-fell in love with her. But he did not want the German
-beauty to marry him for his money and title, so he
-disguised himself as a cook, got a job in Heidelberg
-castle and made eyes at the princess. It was a case of
-two-hearts-that-beat-as-one, and the princess soon began
-to make dates and meet the supposed cook back
-of the castle and down on the Neckar. He revealed
-his real identity to her, but made her promise not to
-tell. He then went to the old man and asked him
-for the hand of his daughter. The count laughed at
-the cook, which made the latter mad and so he blurted
-out that the maiden loved him. Then the cook skipped
-out and the count sent for his daughter. She confessed
-to being in love with the cook, but on account of
-her promise did not tell his right name. The old count
-got into an awful rage and ordered his daughter
-whipped, and the lash was applied so well that the
-princess died. Before she passed away she told her
-father who the cook really was, and the count of Heidelberg
-was truly sorry; but that did no good. A few
-days later the king of England with an imposing suite
-arrived to ask the hand of the princess, and when he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166"></a>[166]</span>
-found out what had happened he took the old man out
-behind the barn and sliced him up in fine pieces.</p>
-
-<p>There is a song which tells all about this affair, and
-the music is about as good as the legend.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167"></a>[167]</span></p>
-
-<p class="p130">WORMS AND OTHER THINGS.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Worms, Germany</span>, July 23, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>People do not laugh in Germany when you pronounce
-the name of this town properly. Say the word as if
-it were spelled Vorms and give the o the long sound,
-and you will admit that it is better than the way you
-used to say it. For many years I have heard of
-Luther and the Diet of Worms, and being at Heidelberg,
-only a few miles away, we came here to see
-Worms, the “Diet,” and to spend Sunday. Four hundred
-years ago this was quite a town, one of the free
-cities of the Rhine owing allegiance only to the emperor.
-It was here that in 1524 Charles V., emperor of Germany,
-summoned Luther to appear before a congress
-of princes and imperial electors, and wanted him to fix
-up a compromise. The emperor of Germany was in a
-ticklish position. About half of his subjects were
-loyal to the pope and about half had bolted with
-Luther. The princes and dukes were divided, and
-were fighting each other to prove that they were right.
-The German empire was demoralized with internal
-dissension and feuds. So Charles thought it would be
-a smooth thing to get Luther before the august assemblage,
-induce him to concede some and get the
-Catholics to concede some, and have a sort of “Missouri
-compromise.” Luther went to Worms, although
-he was warned not to do so. As a matter of fact,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168"></a>[168]</span>
-Luther did not want to separate from the Catholic
-Church, and his claim was that he wanted to reform it.
-But after the controversy had continued a few years
-he kept getting further away, and Charles had made
-his move too late. Luther laid down certain doctrines
-which he knew the loyal Catholics could not agree to,
-and then announced that he took his stand upon them
-and would not move. The result of the emperor’s
-effort at peace-making was that each side was a little
-more infuriated than before, and the war went on.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>A hundred years ago Worms had gone down to be a
-town of only 5,000 inhabitants, but now it has about
-40,000 and is a thriving little city. But in spite of the
-growth and progress in the last century there is still
-a general air of quaintness and age which makes it
-very interesting because it is so different. A magnificent
-monument to Luther is the show feature of the
-place. On a massive platform ten feet high is the
-figure of the great reformer, over nine feet high, surrounded
-by statues of Huss, Savonarola, Wyckliffe
-and Waldus, and of princes who befriended Luther.
-A number of German cities are represented by allegorical
-figures or coats of arms, and the entire group
-makes an impressive monument and memorial. The
-palace where Luther met the emperor and princes has
-been destroyed, but another takes its place and with a
-right good imagination the tourist can stand where
-Luther stood, any day between the hours of 11 and 5
-o’clock. Strange to say, the town to which Catholics
-and Protestants came is now controlled by the Jews,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169"></a>[169]</span>
-who dominate the business interests of Worms as they
-do those of many other German cities. Worms is on
-the Rhine river, and the valley of the Rhine is the garden-spot
-of Germany. Coming over the fertile fields
-of the Rhine valley is a good deal like riding in the Arkansas
-valley between Nickerson and Haven, with its
-rich farms, great orchards and prosperous communities.
-But in the hundred miles I have traveled along the
-Rhine I have not seen a reaper or a mower, a sulky
-rake or any other kind of machinery except a hand-sickle
-and a hand-rake. I think there are more women
-at work in the fields than there are men. Perhaps the
-men are off in the army. Perhaps they are in town
-drinking beer and talking politics.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Coming from Heidelberg to Worms we had to change
-trains twice in an hour’s time. Changing trains is no
-easy job in a foreign country. At Manheim, where the
-station is as large and as busy as the Union Depot in
-Kansas City, our incoming train was late and when we
-arrived our outgoing train was due to leave. With the
-assistance of a porter I was handling a half-dozen grips
-and bundles when Mrs. Morgan discovered our train
-at the other side of the depot. She promptly started
-across the tracks just as she would at home. I
-thought there was a revolution or a fire, as a dozen
-train porters, as many policemen, the station-master
-and a lot of assistants set up a yell that fairly made the
-air tremble. The station-master rushed after her,
-caught up and brought her back, with at least ten men
-talking vociferously and gesticulating in German. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170"></a>[170]</span>
-fact was she had broken the law of the empire. It is
-not merely violating a railroad rule to cross the track,
-but it is against the criminal law and punishable by a
-jail sentence. Of course they didn’t do anything to
-Americans, but if a German should cross the tracks
-where it was forbidden they wouldn’t do a thing to
-him! They actually held that train five minutes after
-time while we made a circuit of the station to the other
-side, when we could have sensibly and reasonably have
-been allowed to cross the track in a half-minute.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Speaking of railroads and the management makes
-me think of the conductors. I have ridden first-class,
-second-class and third-class in Germany. When the
-conductor enters the first-class carriage to see the
-tickets, he takes off his cap and says in German: “If
-you please, will you me your tickets show?” When he
-comes into the second-class carriage he says: “Tickets,
-if you please,” and when you hand them over he gives
-them back with a military salute, but keeps his cap on.
-When he comes into the third-class carriage he simply
-says: “Tickets!”</p>
-
-<p>When the train starts out of the station the station-master
-(dressed in a gorgeous uniform) stands on the
-platform at a salute until the last car passes him. This
-is a very pretty custom, and I think the station agents
-at Hutchinson ought to be required to put on their
-uniforms and salute the trains.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171"></a>[171]</span></p>
-
-<p>The almost universal custom in Germany is to eat
-out-of-doors in the summer-time. The hotels have
-spacious porches or gardens, and there we eat breakfast,
-dinner, and supper. (They have dinner at noon
-and supper in the evening in Germany.) There are no
-flies, and there seems to be but little wind, so you can
-eat comfortably in the open air and not swallow too
-much that is not on the bill of fare. It is a sensible and
-delightful custom. After the evening meal at the hotels
-or restaurants everybody stays at the table for an
-hour or so, and there is music by the orchestra or band.
-The only good feature I can see to the German army
-is that it provides nearly every city with a fine band
-which gives concerts frequently. The cities and towns
-usually support bands, and most of them own theatres
-and opera-houses. I think we have attended a band
-concert every evening since we entered Germany, and
-we could go in the afternoon if we had time.</p>
-
-<p>By the way, right here in Worms, in the part of the
-city that looks about as it did in Luther’s time, we were
-wandering down a narrow street when we were stopped
-by familiar music, the popular two-step, “Whistling
-Rufus.” The German bands play a great deal of
-American music, mostly Sousa’s marches or our “ragtime,”
-and it always gets an encore. At Heidelberg
-the military band played “Hiawatha.” For two years
-it has been almost against the law in the United States
-to play “Hiawatha.” But the Germans liked it. I
-don’t think the German bands play ragtime properly.
-They go at it seriously, as they do the selections from
-Wagner and such like which make up most of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172"></a>[172]</span>
-program. They add a good deal of noise and they do
-not get the “swing” that is given by American musicians.</p>
-
-<p>I have discovered in Germany that Wagner and his
-kind of composers wrote a lot of good music that never
-gets across the water, the kind that has tune to it,&mdash;not
-so much tune as Sousa’s pieces, but a good deal more
-than is ever rendered in the United States. And I suppose
-the German bands understand Wagnerian music
-better than the American bands, just as Sousa can direct
-a better two-step or march than a German conductor.
-A German municipal band or military band,
-such as plays every night in one of the public parks in
-every city, is as good a band as Sousa or Innes ever
-took on the road. I am not a musical critic, I am
-thankful to say. I like music whether it is good, bad,
-or indifferent. I like grand opera some and light opera
-a great deal. I enjoy a fine band or a poor one, a selection
-from Chopin or a street piano. I will follow a
-band, a drum corps or a bagpipe all over town. I am
-even fond of the “Blue Bells of Scotland.” Probably
-my recommendations will not be accepted by all the
-musical experts at home after these admissions, but
-I can’t keep from saying that German band music is
-the best in this world to which I have been introduced.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I have written of the growing use of the English-American
-language on the continent of Europe. Here
-at Worms we are stopping at a very Dutch hotel.
-When the waiter came for the first time I went to
-work in German. The construction of a supper bill<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173"></a>[173]</span>
-of fare in German is not easy for me, but I tackled the
-job bravely. I know enough German to order meat
-and potatoes, but my pronunciation is ragged on the
-edges and my verbs are not hitched right and the genders
-of the nouns are only likely to be right one guess
-in three. After I had floundered along for about three
-minutes the waiter gravely and politely interrupted:
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174"></a>[174]</span>“Won’t you please give me the order in English?”</p>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p class="p130">RICH OLD FRANKFORT.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Frankfort, Germany</span>, July 24, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>This is one of the old and wealthy cities of Germany,
-with 300,000 people and a fine country around about.
-It is the place the Rothschilds came from. A few
-years ago when the Populists were pretty much the
-whole thing in Kansas and to be against them was to
-be in the pay of the Rothschilds and the Great Red
-Dragon, I was on the Rothschilds’ side, and never having
-received any compensation I thought I would call
-and see what was the matter. It was no trouble to
-find the Rothschild house, for it is described in every
-guidebook and is marked by an inscription on the front.
-The morning after we reached the city we went to
-formally make a call, and found the place to be an old
-and unpretentious building. I rang the bell and asked
-the little girl who came to the door if Mr. Rothschild
-was at home. She ran away and I went on in and part
-way up the stairs, when a man appeared and said
-“fifty pfennig.” I told him I was an old friend and
-merely wished to pay my respects&mdash;pay nothing else,
-not even fifty pfennig. I talked English and he talked
-German, but I had no difficulty in understanding that
-it would cost me 12&frac12; cents American money to go
-through the house. This I declined to do, and unless
-the gentleman who wanted the fifty pfennig tells Mr.
-Rothschild I don’t suppose he will ever know I came.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175"></a>[175]</span>
-In fact, I was afterward told that none of the present
-members of the Rothschild family live in Frankfort,
-but have their homes in Vienna, Paris, and London,
-where they dictate the financial policy of the world.
-Only a little over a hundred years ago the law of Frankfort
-was that every night at sundown and on Sundays
-and feast days all Jews must stay in their own part of
-town, and the gates inclosing their section were locked
-until the following day. As an illustration of how
-rapidly the wheel of fortune turns I was told that now,
-although comprising but one-tenth of the population,
-the Jews handle three-fourths of the business, own
-over half the real estate, and hold most of the high and
-responsible positions in Frankfort, where their great
-grandfathers had no more show than a rabbit.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Goethe, the great German poet, was born in Frankfort,
-and we visited the house of his birth and boyhood.
-His father was a lawyer, but the poet could not
-help that. Young Goethe was a bright lad, and took
-to writing poetry as readily as he did to going with the
-girls; and he kept at both occupations all his life. A
-petty German prince took him under his patronage and
-Goethe never had to work for a living, so he went on
-writing poetry and having a good time until he died
-at the age of 83 years. The Germans love Goethe as
-the Americans do Longfellow, for he was a poet who
-loved his country, his countrymen and his country-women,
-and his works are full of sweet and patriotic
-sentiment as well as being beautiful in construction.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176"></a>[176]</span>
-Goethe and his friend Schiller and the literary crowd
-which followed their lead, made the German language
-classical and correct, and occupy the same place in
-German literature that Shakespeare does in English.
-The “Goethe house” here is under the charge of a historical
-society, and has been put in the same shape
-that it was when Goethe was a boy. It is an interesting
-place, for it is not only full of mementoes of the
-poet but of the time in which he lived.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The most interesting public buildings I have seen in
-Germany are here, the “Roemer,” a name applied to a
-group of twelve old and picturesque houses. In one
-of these the electors of the German empire (certain
-hereditary princes) would assemble to elect an emperor
-whenever there was a vacancy. After the election
-they would have a banquet and the fountain in the
-public square would run with red and white wine while
-the people cheered and drank the health of the new
-man. This was calculated to make the emperor very
-popular at least that night, but I wonder if the people
-were so enthusiastic when the headache came the next
-morning. These old buildings are well preserved. In
-fact, Frankfort is a city which takes good care of itself
-and is like a prosperous man. The most beautiful
-public garden I have seen is here, the Palm Garden,
-and a fine military band gives concerts afternoon
-and evening. Frankfort is not only well off, but old
-enough to enjoy the fact, and everywhere the city is
-made to look as handsome and be as comfortable as
-possible. The best and cheapest eating in Europe is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177"></a>[177]</span>
-in Frankfort, and that fact has made a deep and lasting
-impression on my heart.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>It is doubtless repeating what has been said before,
-but I cannot help wonder at the industry of the German
-farmers. Of course they were raised right on the place,
-and their fathers and forefathers were farmers. They
-probably don’t know anything else, and never expect
-to sell out and move to town. In this fertile Rhine
-country, where there seems to be a model climate, they
-irrigate the land as if it were arid and they fertilize
-and drain and cultivate with the hoe and rake. I
-never believed the story, but it is true. The wealth
-of a German farmer can be gauged by the size of the
-manure-pile in his front yard. No doubt when a German
-farmer brags on what he has done he does not
-refer to the purchase of a quarter-section of pasture land
-in the next township, but points with pride to the
-large and luxuriant heap of fertilizing substance which
-he can call his own. Instead of farming more land,
-he tries to get more out of what he has than he did,
-and his attempt is a success. He does not have a herd
-of cattle, but he has one or a half-dozen cows which
-live in the other end of the house, and are curried, fed
-and looked after as carefully as members of the family,
-perhaps more so. The cattle are good-looking, smooth
-and polished, evidently well bred, and certainly well
-taken care of. They are much better in appearance
-than the average of American cattle, but the care bestowed
-upon them easily accounts for the fact.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178"></a>[178]</span></p>
-
-<p>Frankfort is geographically in Hesse, the old state
-from which George <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>. hired soldiers to fight the Americans.
-In the good old times a little over a hundred
-years ago, a German prince who was hard up for cash
-would rent out his soldiers to fight and be shot at. The
-pay went to the prince, not to the soldier. It is hard
-to believe that such things occurred only a comparatively
-short time ago, and yet they did. The Hessians
-did not understand American tactics and were not
-much of a success in our Revolution, but they were
-always good fighters in German wars, and the little
-state was a powerful one. Frankfort was a “free
-city,” and not under the active rule of the Hessian
-princes. For 500 years it kept its independence of
-any local prince, but in 1866 it was annexed to Prussia.
-The time for the independent cities of Europe was
-ended.</p>
-
-<p>Besides Rothschild and Goethe, Frankfort is noted
-for the Frankfurter sausages. I was pleased to find
-that this was no legend. In Bologna, Italy, I was surprised
-to find no bologna, but Frankfort stood the test.
-There is also a house where it is said Luther preached
-a sermon while on his way to Worms. It is a tobacco-shop
-now.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>In every German city there is an old bridge with a
-history. The old bridge at Frankfort across the Main
-river, which is a good big river and lined with freight
-boats, is mentioned in a document of 1222. It is constructed
-of red sandstone, and looks as if it would easily
-stand 700 years more. A bridge like that is really<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179"></a>[179]</span>
-worth more than an art gallery. The legend connected
-with the bridge is not so bad. It seems that the
-architect who drew the plans and supervised the construction
-had made a mistake in his calculations. He
-came to realize that the span would not hold weight,
-and he could see the ruin of the bridge and his own
-reputation mighty close at hand. Of course he was in
-a terrible state of mind, and when he was at his worst
-the Devil dropped in to see him. The Devil offered to
-show him how the defect could be remedied, the bridge
-built and his reputation saved, if he would sign a
-contract that the first who crossed the bridge should
-become the Devil’s property. The poor architect at
-first nobly refused, as most men do when tempted, and
-then fell, as men occasionally do. He signed the contract,
-the Devil pointed out the correction in the plan,
-and the great bridge was successfully finished. Then
-the architect had remorse (they always do afterward),
-and nearly went wild with thinking of what he had
-done. But the day the bridge was formally finished
-and turned over, before the mayor and city council
-could get into their carriages after the dedicating
-speeches, a rooster broke loose from a chicken-house,
-ran down the road, across the bridge and went to the
-Devil. Of course the Devil kicked, but the architect
-stood on the letter of the contract, and they all lived
-happy forever afterward. This legend is undoubtedly
-true, for on the middle of the bridge is an iron cross
-with a figure of Christ and on top of the cross is a
-bronze rooster.</p>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180"></a>[180]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">DOWN THE RHINE.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Cologne, Germany</span>, July 29, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>The words “Down the Rhine” have a strong significance
-to everyone who has read history, poetry, or
-romance. From the time when Cæsar crossed the
-Rhine to punish the warlike tribes for invading Gaul,
-down to the Franco-German war of 1870, every European
-war has been fought more or less in the valley
-of the Rhine. And for 2,000 years whenever the nations
-of Europe were not marching their armies to the
-Rhine, the petty princes, potentates and powers of the
-valley were fighting one another. The Rhine is the
-dividing line in Europe. Those who have read these
-letters to The News will appreciate the fact that instead
-of going to the large cities of Munich, Berlin and
-Hanover, we began with the Rhine as it flowed out of
-Lake Constance and plunged over the falls at Neuhausen,
-and have followed it through the Black Forest
-and Germany on its way “down north” to the sea, and
-will finally watch it mingle its blue into the great salt
-water at Rotterdam and The Hague.</p>
-
-<p>The last two days we have traveled by boat from
-Biebrich to Cologne, that part of the river which is
-called the scenic or “the castled Rhine,” the part of
-which poets have sung and around which history and
-fiction have woven stories and legends in every language.
-But the Rhine is not only useful for the poet<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181"></a>[181]</span>
-and the historian; it is also a plain business proposition.
-I am told and I believe that the Rhine carries
-more traffic than any other river in the world. It
-flows through a rich agricultural country, is lined with
-important cities, and especially with manufacturing
-places. Freight rates on the water are cheap. Products
-of the farm or vineyard, the shop or mill, placed
-on the boats, are carried with only one transfer to all
-the great markets of the world.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>And now imagine the beautiful Rhine gliding among
-high hills, with every few miles a handsome castle or
-the picturesque ruins of one, with a busy railroad running
-on each bank, passenger and freight trains as
-frequent as suburban trains near Chicago, and two
-endless processions of steamboats, tugs and barges,
-one going up and one going down. That is the Rhine
-of to-day. The hills and castles reminiscent of the
-past, the black smoke of the furnaces and the shrill
-whistle of the engine the reminders of the present.
-You have to shut your eyes to see either the historic
-or the beautiful and keep them from “telescoping”
-into the practical present. And I will admit that the
-boats and the boatmen, the passengers and the freight
-interested me more than the dead-walls and the ivy-covered
-towers. If you think it over you will realize
-how castles and ruins pall upon your taste. When we
-began the trip we would rush from one side of the boat
-to the other to see a castle and hardly went below for
-lunch for fear we might miss a lofty summit or a
-breasted fortress. At the close of the trip a broken-down<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182"></a>[182]</span>
-abbey or a roofless castle had no charms that
-would compare with a comfortable seat and a cigar.
-I remember well one of the last and largest castles
-we passed, one I had read of and looked forward to seeing.
-A friend enthusiastically exclaimed: “There is
-the Drachenfels on the other side!” And my coarse
-nature revolted, and I murmured that if the Drachenfels
-wanted me to see it, the Drachenfels would have to
-come around to my side of the boat. My neck was tired.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Really a homeopathic dose of Rhine castles would
-be very interesting. A thousand years ago some baron
-would build a big stone fortress high up on a hill overlooking
-the Rhine, and up to the discovery of gunpowder
-it was practically impregnable. The baron
-and his followers, according to the rules of the game,
-would divide their time between rescuing lovely maidens
-from giants and robbing the merchants and traders
-who passed by. I never heard of a knight or baron
-who worked for a living. History is filled with tales
-of deeds the old knights did for religion or for some fair
-lady, but it is silent or passes over lightly the fact that
-they made their money by robbery and murder, disguised
-under the name of expeditions, crusades, knight-errantry,
-and war. But when the inventive genius of
-man made a gun that would shoot through armor and
-discovered that gunpowder could knock down forts,
-the days of chivalry and highway robbery on the Rhine
-were over. The merchants and artisans no longer had
-to hire armies to protect their property and their families,
-and the rule of force was followed by the rule of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183"></a>[183]</span>
-shrewdness, a change which may not have brought
-perfection, but has resulted in a show of decency, fairness
-and honesty.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>A few old castles transported from the Rhine to
-Cow creek or the Kaw would be helpful to the landscape
-of Kansas. But there would be no use of stringing
-them out for a hundred miles. A castle a thousand
-years old is interesting, always provided your imagination
-is good. The best way to enjoy castles is to believe
-everything the books and guides tell you. I am
-getting fascinated with the legends, although I think
-I can unfasten. Now here is a choice legend of the
-castles of the Two Brothers, which stand on neighboring
-hills and which I saw early:</p>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p class="center">THE TWO BROTHERS.</p>
-
-<p>Once upon a time there were two brothers, both as
-valiant and noble knights as ever wore armor or robbed
-a traveler. Unfortunately they fell in love with the
-same girl, and as she couldn’t accept both and had to
-say she would “always be a sister” to the other, the
-tension in the family circle got very tight. Finally
-the elder brother saw that the maiden loved the younger
-best, so he put his broken heart in his pocket, gave the
-pair his blessing and lit out for the crusades. In those
-days whenever a man lost out in love or was in danger
-of being hung for crime, he went to the crusades. The
-younger brother was very happy for a while, but he
-happened to visit another country and there he fell
-in love with another girl, just as much and as eternally<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184"></a>[184]</span>
-in love with her as with the first one. The second girl
-was wise or else she had been warned of the young
-man’s record, for she announced the engagement and
-the marriage followed soon. Girl No. 1 went to a convent
-with an aching heart, everybody settled down,
-and even the neighbors quit talking. Just at that time
-the elder brother returned from the crusades, and when
-he heard what had happened he thought it was awful.
-He went to his brother’s castle and challenged him to
-fight a duel. The younger brother was worked up over
-the interference of the family in his private affairs and
-was anxious to fight. The two knights met in a plum-patch
-back of the convent and prepared to settle which
-was right. Just as they drew their swords the original
-girl, who had been informed of what was going on by
-some busybody, rushed out of the gate, threw herself
-between the brothers and begged them not to fight for
-her sake. She made such a good talk that they shook
-hands and took a drink together as a sign that it was
-all over. The elder brother offered to marry the girl
-in the convent, but she refused. The wife of the
-younger brother ran off with another chivalrous knight
-and the two brothers were left alone in the world.
-They built the two castles side by side, and spent all
-their days together hunting deer and wealthy travelers,
-and died without ever flirting with another woman (so
-the legend says). The ruins of the two castles side
-by side are evidence of the truth of the story.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a id="i_197" name="i_197"><img src="images/i_197.jpg" alt="" width="382" height="550" /></a>
-<p class="caption center p80">THE LEGEND OF COW CREEK.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p>“Fair Bingen on the Rhine” was somewhat of a disappointment.
-Thousands and tens of thousands of
-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185"></a>[185]</span>American girls and boys have stood up in front of the
-school on Friday afternoons, scared stiff with the awful
-prospect of forgetting the next word, and told their
-school-mates:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="indent2">“A soldier of the legion lay dying in Algiers,</div>
- <div class="indent4">There was lack of woman’s nursing,</div>
- <div class="indent2">There was dearth of woman’s tears.”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>And when the same moon shone there that shone on
-fair Bingen on the Rhine, those countless American
-youths have breathed a sigh for the soldier and several
-sighs over getting through. Bingen is a good sort of
-manufacturing town, and the fact that the poet selected
-the name because of its rhythm and not because
-it fitted the situation accounts for the success of the
-poem. After some reflection on the subject among the
-storied regions of Europe I have come to the conclusion
-that it is the romancer and the singer who make
-a country great and interesting, and not any special
-merit of the place itself. If Cow creek had a few
-legend-writers in a few years it would rank with the
-Rhine, the Black Forest, and even the fields of old
-England. How would this do for a Cow creek legend,
-<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">a la</i> Europe?</p>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-<p class="center">LEGEND OF COW CREEK.</p>
-
-<p>Once upon a time there lived on the creek a wealthy
-old farmer who had a beautiful daughter. The fame
-of her beauty spread all the way to Sterling and down
-to Pretty Prairie, and many young men aspired to the
-honor of her hand in marriage. Among those who
-loved her was a neighbor boy who had nothing to his
-credit but a good name and a rare ability to make<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186"></a>[186]</span>
-speeches before the literary society which met every
-other Friday night at the school-house. As the good
-name was no good on a check, he knew the old farmer
-would not listen to his suit but would likely kick him
-into the middle of next week if he asked him for his
-daughter. So all the poor young man could do was to
-see her home occasionally after church and talk about
-the soulfulness of love and the communion of congenial
-souls. The young lady really preferred the aforesaid
-young man, but as she did not want to undertake the
-job of making a living for two or more, and she knew
-her father would never consent to taking him to board,
-she could only sigh and pine and sit in the shade of a
-cottonwood tree and dream of love. At last the father
-told his beautiful daughter that he had selected a husband
-for her, a man from Nickerson, a man who owned
-two sections of land and a lot of oil stock, but who could
-not tell the difference between true love and a pain in
-his side. That night the two young people met down
-by the creek bank and she told him of the fate in store
-for her unless he got a move on himself. Their plan
-was formed. That night the lover braced himself
-with a good “bracer” and met the maiden behind the
-barn. Away they went toward the county seat with
-high hopes and enough cash to purchase a marriage
-license. Suddenly they heard the gentle murmur of
-the father, who had discovered the elopers and was
-telling the people for miles around what he would do
-to the son of a gun who was running off with his daughter.
-It was a race for love and for life, but the old man
-was getting the best of it and the lovers could hear him<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187"></a>[187]</span>
-as he was overtaking them. They came to the creek,
-which was on its annual flood, and then they gave
-themselves up for lost. But the young man happened
-to look around and saw an old cow. An idea came into
-his head. He drove the cow into the creek and each
-of them grabbed her tail. She swam straight to the
-other side while the old man stood on the bank cursing
-a blue streak. Away they went to town and were married
-by the probate judge before the flood went down
-and the old man could get across.</p>
-
-<p>There was nothing for the father to do but to give
-them his blessing and eighty acres of sand-hill land, on
-which they lived happily ever afterward. The stream
-which thus saved the lives and loves of those two young
-people has been called Cow creek ever since.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>If the people of Kansas will take a few stories like
-the above, have them trimmed up and embellished,
-tell them to visitors and charge admission to see the
-relics, they will have as good a collection of legends
-as ever grew on the Rhine.</p>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188"></a>[188]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">COLOGNE WATER AND OTHERS.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Cologne, Germany</span>, July 29, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>This is the place the eau de cologne habit started.
-There are over forty manufacturers who advertise
-themselves as “the original house” that first made
-this perfumed water. A few miles below here on the
-Rhine is the Apollinaris spring. I always supposed
-Apollinaris water came from the drug store, but there
-really is an original spring. It got its name from St.
-Apollinaris, who was a prominent church-worker a
-thousand years ago, and had his head chopped off by
-the heathen. The head is still preserved in a church
-and his name goes marching on with a label on the bottle.
-The highest cathedral I have seen in Europe is at
-Cologne, the top of the spire being 510 feet above the
-ground. It is a beautiful cathedral of Gothic architecture.
-The plans were made and a good part of the
-structure completed about eight hundred years before
-it was finished, the latter part of the job being done
-only a few years ago. The legend of the beginning of
-the cathedral is very authentic. The architect had
-spent several years on the drawings, but was not able
-to finish them satisfactorily to himself or the building
-committee. One night he had a dream, and in the
-vision saw just what had been lacking. But when he
-awoke he could not remember the design, and as is
-usual in such cases he said he would give anything to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189"></a>[189]</span>
-have it. The Devil promptly showed up and offered
-to reveal the wonderful plan if the architect would
-sign a contract to give in payment his own soul and
-also the soul of the first who should enter the church
-after it was completed. The architect tried to beat
-the Devil down on the price, but could not, and finally
-signed. The Devil lived up to his part of the contract,
-and the completed plans were so beautiful that the
-church authorities and the emperor and the city council
-were unanimous in declaring the architect the greatest
-man in his profession. As the church neared completion
-the architect began to worry. He took to drink,
-and went around carousing so that his friends thought
-he was crazy. Finally he confessed to the archbishop
-and it got into the newspapers, so the community was
-stirred up. No one was willing to be the first to go
-into the church, and yet if the great cathedral was to
-amount to anything, somebody must enter it. Finally
-a bad woman who was confined in jail sent word to the
-church board that she would be the victim. After due
-deliberation, and believing that she would go to the
-Devil anyhow, they accepted her offer. The day of
-dedication came. The people gathered from far and
-near. A carriage drove from the police station and
-backed up to the church door. Out of the wagon and
-into the building dashed a female form and the Devil
-in great glee grabbed, and broke its neck. But it was
-only a pig which the smart bad woman had fixed up
-in her clothes. So the Devil was cheated, the cathedral
-was dedicated, and all went right except for the
-architect, who was found with a broken neck and smelling<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190"></a>[190]</span>
-of sulphur, for the Devil in his rage didn’t do a thing
-to him.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Cologne has over 300,000 inhabitants and is a very
-busy city. This morning we went to the market. The
-grocery stores in Cologne and in all the German cities
-I have visited practically never keep green groceries.
-Everything of that kind is bought at the public market,
-which is a very interesting sight. From all the
-country around come the farmers and the farmers’
-wives with the produce of the garden, and from all
-over the city come the housewives or the maids, each
-with a big basket. The trading is brisk, and as it is
-nearly all done by women on both sides, there is some
-talk and the shopping habit is seen in all its glory.
-Then there is the fish market, the flower market, the
-poultry market, and even the old-clothes market. I
-am sure that in the big market-house and on the streets
-and the square in Cologne this morning there were
-two thousand vendors of goods, from potatoes to second-hand
-hats and from luscious fruit to old candle-sticks,&mdash;nearly
-everything conceivable that could be
-brought to the open-air market and sold. The market
-is still retained in a few old American towns, but to me
-it is a novelty with a never-fading charm, and in nearly
-every city where I have stopped the market has been
-a sight that I did not miss.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Next to the market the restaurant or beer-and wine-garden
-is the place to see the people. The Germans
-eat breakfast, dinner at noon, supper at 6 o’clock, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191"></a>[191]</span>
-once more about 10 o’clock. From 7 o’clock to 10
-o’clock the whole family sits in the public garden drinking
-beer or wine (not much, but long), listening to the
-music and getting hungry for the fourth meal of the
-day. There are restaurants everywhere&mdash;in the public
-buildings, the art galleries, the churches, on the
-sidewalks, and in the parks. I have not been to a
-German cemetery, but I would confidently expect to
-find there a garden with tables where one could get
-something to eat and drink.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The valley of the Rhine for more than a hundred
-miles is one vast vineyard, and the word valley includes
-the hillsides. The hills are high. The vines
-begin close to the water’s edge, the vineyards being
-sometimes terraced and sometimes on a slope so steep
-that the men and women who cultivate them must
-wear climbers like telegraph linemen. It is a beautiful
-sight at this season of the year with the lofty heights
-clothed in green and pointing up into the blue sky,
-with brown old ruined taverns and castles and white
-châteaus and villas here and there among the green.
-One would wonder what could be done with all the
-grapes that must come from such a great vineyard if
-he did not look around him and see everybody drinking
-the juice and evidently endeavoring to keep pace with
-the production. At Coblentz the Moselle river joins
-the Rhine, and it is another charming valley full of
-history, poetry and grapes. Coblentz is old and quaint,
-with narrow streets, old-fashioned people, and the appearance
-of ancient days.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192"></a>[192]</span>
-On this trip I have seen a good deal of the German
-people. The class distinctions are about all that make
-them different from Americans. The poor folks always
-expect to be poor and do not move around with
-the aggressive action that ours do. I suppose I talked
-with a hundred, and every one of them wanted to come
-to America. Mechanics and artisans, very skillful, are
-not altogether satisfied with conditions, and they, too,
-talk America. But the great middle class of farmers
-and merchants are as full of patriotism and conceit as
-are true American citizens. They think Germany is
-the greatest nation on earth, and that all the countries
-will eventually admit the fact and take subordinate
-places. They don’t like America or England, and they
-expect sometime to have war with us unless we give up
-easier than they anticipate. The typical German is
-not slow or easy-going, as he is often painted, but is
-energetic, pushing and “chesty.” He thinks Germany
-can lick the United States with one hand tied behind,
-and is ready to have the work begin any time. In
-fact, Germans are just as offensively and ignorantly
-patriotic as are Americans, which is saying a good deal,
-for Americans in Europe nearly always go around
-with a chip on either shoulder, daring somebody to
-knock it off.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>But the Germans are gentlemen. For the first time
-since I left Paris I saw men in the street cars give their
-seats to ladies. In Italy the rule is for the man to have
-first consideration. It makes American women furious
-when they meet Italian men on the narrow sidewalks<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193"></a>[193]</span>
-to have to get off into the streets and let the gentlemen
-pass by. But they must do it or the men will
-simply walk over them. In Germany the women in
-the country work in the fields and in the cities they are
-in the shops and offices more than in the United States,
-but they are treated decently and politely. The German
-is in fact more polite than the Frenchman. He
-even tips his hat to his man friends. If I go into a
-store to buy a cigar the proprietor or clerk who waits
-on me will say “good-morning” and “good-by.” They
-do this with one another, and do not keep their company
-manners for strangers. German hotels are the
-best in Europe, and one of the customs is during the
-meal at hotel or restaurant for the proprietor to walk
-around and pleasantly greet his patrons, whether he
-knows them or not, on the comfortable theory that
-they are his guests. Germans are always willing to
-guide and advise strangers and they don’t take “tips,”
-at least not any more than in America. Germany is
-wealthy and prosperous as a nation and the Germans
-one meets when traveling are about the best folks
-you find in Europe.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>In Germany a landlord advertises his hotel as “first-class”
-or “second-class.” The second-class hotels are
-clean and good, but they have some mighty funny
-names. I had learned in England not to get worried
-over the signs of “The Red Lion,” “The White Bull,”
-etc. But German hotel-keepers go still further. They
-name their places after animals of all kinds and colors,
-and often saints and imaginary creatures. The Golden<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194"></a>[194]</span>
-Calf, The Winged Lion, The House of the Weaned
-Calf, The Wild Man, were some of the names, but at
-Heidelberg one extreme was reached by the “Hotel
-Jesus,” and at Worms the other extreme by the “Hotel
-of the Two Pairs of Drawers.” I suppose every name
-has a story or a legend behind it and the name is a valuable
-asset of the property. Speaking of names reminds
-me that here in Cologne the street that leads to
-the market-place is called “Kingdom of Heaven street,”
-and not far away is the “Grace of God street.” I can
-see how these names might be properly used in Kansas,
-but they are out of place in Cologne.</p>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<h2>HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.</h2>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197"></a>[197]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">IN DUTCH LAND.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Amsterdam, Holland</span>, July 31, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>The kingdom of Holland is a little bit of a country,
-but it has exerted a great influence in history. In
-size it is 12,650 square miles, not as large as the Seventh
-congressional district of Kansas, but it has over 5,000,000
-inhabitants and is busy from one end to the other.
-The greater part lies below the level of the sea, which
-borders it on the west and has been literally reclaimed
-from the water by the energy and work of the people.
-The Hollanders are the Dutch, and they have a saying:
-“God made the sea, but we made the land.”
-The water is held back by immense dikes, and here
-in Amsterdam I look toward the sea and the great
-lot of shipping along the quay is higher than the tops
-of many of the houses; that is, the water is higher
-than the roofs in the town. The industry which has
-thus driven back and held back the sea has made
-little Holland a wealthy nation and Dutch capital
-has not only built up business at home, but it has
-gone into the farthermost parts of the earth, even to
-Missouri and Arkansas, constructed railroads, started
-factories and earned dividends or gone into the hands
-of receivers in large amounts. The country is covered
-with canals about as Kansas is with section-line roads.
-These canals are used for commerce, carrying freight
-cheaply, and for drainage, irrigation, and in place of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198"></a>[198]</span>
-fences. Every farm has its little canal leading to a main
-canal as a farmer’s road in Kansas goes out to the
-main traveled road. The farmer brings his stuff to
-town in a canal-boat, and a farm-wagon is almost
-as rare a sight in Holland as a canal-boat is in Kansas.
-In wet seasons the canals are used as drains
-and in dry seasons as irrigating-ditches. Canals are
-built above the level of the land, so that irrigation
-is easy, and for drainage the water is collected in
-ditches and pumped up into the canals. All of these
-facts I had read about, as has everyone else, but to
-actually see such a country was like a dream come
-true.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>There is more sky in Holland than anywhere else.
-The land is flatter than a Kansas prairie. The scenery
-would be absolutely nothing if it were not for the works
-of man upon the surface. There are no hills in Holland,
-no rushing streams, no picturesque bits of nature.
-Some of the land looks lower than the rest, but none
-looks higher, and the water from the big rivers that
-enter Holland on the east simply oozes through the
-soil and canals, without a perceptible current and really
-without river-beds or water-courses. The Rhine
-spreads out until it is fifty miles wide, but it is no
-longer a river,&mdash;merely a network of canals which
-it supplies with water, and its old channels are now
-made by dikes and drainage into farms and town-sites.
-The landscape thus becomes a flat, fertile
-country, mostly farmed in grass and pastured with
-cattle and sheep, a lace-work of canals in shiny streaks<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199"></a>[199]</span>
-running in every direction, narrow red brick houses
-with white trimmings, and windmills which tower
-above everything else and stand like giant sentinels
-over the low and level country. These windmills
-are big, fifty to a hundred feet high, the lower part
-usually used as dwellings, constructed as strongly
-and stoutly as government buildings, and with four
-immense arms or sails which convert the Dutch
-zephyrs into horsepower. The windmills are used
-for grinding grain, sawing lumber and in all kinds of
-manufacturing, as well as to pump water from the
-low ground to the canals and into the sea. A Kansas
-windmill compared to a Dutch windmill would be
-like a straw beside an oak tree.</p>
-
-<p>Very often in Europe I have been compelled to
-draw on my imagination to make the actual facts
-come within speaking distance of what had been
-written or promised about a country. Not so in Holland.
-Everything I have ever read about dikes,
-canals and windmills is true, and nothing you have
-been able to imagine is beyond the real existing condition
-and appearance.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Yes, there is one thing, and I wonder if other people
-would feel the same way. In the pictures and on
-the china the windmills, the cows and even the people
-have always been blue. Of course I knew better,
-but when I found that a Holland landscape was not
-blue and white, I felt as if I had been deceived. The
-sky is blue, but the windmills are browned with exposure,
-the cows are black-and-white, and the people<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200"></a>[200]</span>
-are not any more blue in Holland than they are in
-Newton.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The ride from Cologne, Germany, to Amsterdam,
-down the valley of the Rhine, which is no longer picturesque
-or lined with castles and legends, gave me
-my introduction to Holland. Most of it is the kind
-of country in which a traveler can enjoy reading
-a good book. After the first enthusiastic demonstration
-over windmills,&mdash;and they are more numerous
-than telegraph posts along the Santa Fe,&mdash;and
-the excitement of watching canal-boats having
-died out, Holland is not a country that causes
-thrills. There is a strange effect created on seeing
-a canal-boat in a canal a little distance off. You see
-a sailboat or a steamboat apparently sailing right
-through a pasture. You can’t see the water, and the
-effect is as if ships were really gliding over the grass
-and fields.</p>
-
-<p>The canals are generally at least fifty feet wide and
-at least six feet deep. There are many good-sized
-boats. The power used is of different kinds: steam,
-sails, horses, men, women. Steamboats are numerous.
-Sails are used on nearly all, at least to help.
-Very often a man is hitched to a rope and sometimes
-a woman, with a regular harness so that the pull comes
-on the breast and shoulders. Dogs are not used to
-haul canal-boats, but they are the usual motive-power
-in the towns for small delivery-wagons, milk-wagons
-and the like.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a id="i_215" name="i_215"><img src="images/i_215.jpg" alt="" width="351" height="550" /></a>
-<p class="caption center p80"> CANALLING IN HOLLAND&mdash;THE EXTENSION OF WOMAN’S SPHERE.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201"></a>[201]</span></p>
-
-<p>The people of Holland, especially outside the cities,
-stick to their old peculiar costumes better than do the
-people of any other country in Europe that I have
-seen. The originals of the quaint Dutch pictures
-are here and numerous. The women wear the foolish
-bonnets, funny short full skirts, woolen stockings and
-wooden shoes, and the men the odd hats, clothes that
-bag between the hips and knees, and the wooden shoes
-that turn up like sled-runners. The wooden shoes
-are not worn in the house, but shaken off as the person
-enters and a pair of cloth shoes substituted. I
-suppose that is a ground rule made by the Dutch
-housewives, whose propensity for scrubbing and
-cleanliness is well known. But in spite of the deserved
-reputation, I do not think that Holland is as
-clean a country as it is advertised. The canals are
-close to being stagnant water, and as all the dirt and
-sewage goes into them there is an odor about Holland
-that comes near the smell you get from old cheese.
-Especially in the towns and cities where the canals
-form the principal streets, I can’t escape the idea
-that they are a good deal like open sewers. The
-water is changed by pumping, but not often, and
-after it stands a while over the stuff thrown in
-one would think from the noticeable odor that it
-would breed sickness. They say it is not very bad,
-but it would cause a big kick in America&mdash;the newspapers
-would go after the city council a plenty for
-permitting such a nuisance.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202"></a>[202]</span></p>
-
-<p>A good deal has been said and written in the United
-States of recent years in regard to the “emancipation
-of women.” The extension of civil and legal rights
-to persons of the female sex has been properly the
-subject of general congratulation. The club movement
-has done a great work in forcing a recognition
-of the work of women equally with the work of men.
-Prior to coming to Europe I had supposed that the
-women of the United States had made more progress
-along these lines than those of any other country.
-But I was mistaken. The women of Europe are far
-ahead of the women of America in the equality of
-the sexes. A women in continental Europe not only
-has the right to go out in the field and labor, but she
-can work on the roads, and she can engage in any
-business that a man can. In Italy I saw women
-harnessed alongside of dogs and in Holland I find
-them harnessed to canal-boats, the same as men. If
-there is any kind of work in Europe that a man can
-do in which women cannot and do not engage I have
-not discovered it, except the occupation of wearing
-military uniforms. The mercantile and shopkeeping
-business is almost entirely given over to women,
-and the right to carry trunks, shine shoes, sell papers
-and act as porters is not denied them. The men
-seem to be perfectly willing to let the women do the
-work, and the emancipation seems to have been accomplished
-without trouble of any kind.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The Dutch language is more like the English than
-like the German, with which it is classed. With my<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203"></a>[203]</span>
-little knowledge of German I can read the Dutch
-signs and make a stagger at the newspapers, for there
-is more English than German in the written words.
-But the Dutch as a spoken language is like neither
-the German nor English. When two Dutchmen
-have a social, quiet chat it sounds like a buzz-saw.
-I can usually make a Dutchman understand me, but
-when it comes to my grasping the meaning of his talk
-I had as soon try to interpret the remarks of a file.
-It is ridiculous the way you have to change language
-every few hours’ ride in Europe. But I quit trying
-when I came to the Dutch. They will have to talk
-English or make signs in order to get my money; and
-again I am brought to the conclusion that no matter
-what is the language of the country, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204"></a>[204]</span>“money talks.”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="p130">THE DAM DUTCH TOWNS.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">The Hague, Holland</span>, Aug. 2, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>Before leaving Amsterdam we took a trip through
-several little Dutch villages and to the island of
-Maarken, where the fisher-people continue to wear
-their eighteenth-century costumes in the progressive,
-stylish twentieth century. As a very pleasing incident
-of this journey we happened to reach Maarken
-at the same time with Queen Wilhelmina, so we not
-only got to see a live queen but in the excitement in
-the village escaped the attention usually given to
-American tourists by a thrifty people who have curios
-to sell. Queen Wilhelmina was a disappointment.
-I had been prepared to see a charming girlish sovereign,
-and I guess I was looking for something like a
-bright American girl with her hair hanging down her
-back. The queen is only 24 years old, but she looks
-30. She wore a cheap-looking white suit which probably
-cost 30 cents a yard, American money. Her
-face was faded and so was her hat. She has large
-feet, wears coarse shoes, and her stockings wrinkled
-around the ankle like a fisherwoman’s. The stolidity
-of the Dutch was too much for me. The queen
-walked through the village, and while everybody
-turned out to see her there was not a cheer. When
-she passed the little group of a half-dozen Americans
-we took off our hats and gave a loud hurrah, just to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205"></a>[205]</span>
-show our friendship. She didn’t smile or look around,
-and we felt as cheap as she looked. In appearance
-she is sad and uninteresting. In America a governor
-or a president would have smiled and spoken cheerfully.
-But the queen of Holland does not have to
-run for reëlection, and I suppose that has a salutary
-effect on American statesmen. I will confess right
-now that my observations of European nobility
-have been made at a distance. I have not been
-mingling with the dukes and counts, but have received
-most of my impressions from the hotel
-clerks, the hackmen, the store-keepers and the workingmen.
-They are always glad to talk or make
-signs to Americans, and I have not met one laboring
-man who did not say he wanted to come to America.
-In the smoking-rooms and around the hotels I have
-talked some with the so-called “upper classes.” They
-don’t like America or England. I think the rulers
-of continental Europe and all the lords and valets
-are afraid America and England are going to combine
-with Japan and rule the world. The leading newspapers
-are full of that kind of talk, and while it is
-laughable to find that they think the American people
-are planning an invasion of Europe, it has a satisfactory
-side in the fact that it shows they think we
-could do it if we tried. The ruling classes are hostile
-politically to America. On the other hand, the working
-people are very friendly. The kings and nobles
-know that their jobs would not last long under American
-ideas. And the workingmen think that America
-means a chance to earn more than a mere living.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206"></a>[206]</span>
-Both classes have instinctively taken a position on
-the American question, and I don’t blame them.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Amsterdam is the biggest city in Holland and is the
-capital, but the queen and court reside at The Hague.
-Amsterdam is rich in commerce, but is beneath the level
-of the sea, rather unsightly, and perhaps unhealthy.
-The Hague is about as high as the sea-level and is on
-real land, not the drained and reclaimed sort. It has
-some beautiful streets and thousands of acres of woods
-which are kept in comparatively original condition
-and used for parks and drives. The two cities are only
-an hour’s ride apart, and The Hague is becoming the
-residence city for wealthy Dutchmen. Amsterdam
-is one of the financial centers of the world. The
-Hague is one of the political centers of the world.
-On account of its size Holland is not considered dangerous,
-and therefore presents a convenient meeting-place
-for international conferences. We visited the
-palace known as “The House in the Woods,” where
-the peace conference was held in 1899, on the suggestion
-of the czar of Russia, and in which twenty-six
-governments were represented. The actual result
-was not much, but an international court at The
-Hague was provided to which nations can submit disputed
-questions if they wish, and probably after the
-Japs get through with the czar so he can call another
-peace conference, further steps will be taken to prevent
-or mitigate the horrors of war. Andrew Carnegie,
-the same gentleman who put up the money
-for the Hutchinson public library, has promised<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207"></a>[207]</span>
-$1,500,000 to erect an international court-house at The
-Hague which will be a suitable place for what might
-be called an international supreme court. One great
-weight which every European power has holding
-down its progress is the necessity of maintaining a
-large standing army and thus withdrawing from active
-production a big per cent. of its workers. The governments
-of Europe know this and talk of “disarming,”
-but each one is afraid the others won’t do it. And I
-also have a guess coming that some of the kings and
-queens would worry a little over the future of their
-jobs if they did not have the big armies at their command.</p>
-
-<p>The Dutch are a hard-working lot. They get up
-earlier than the people of any other country I have
-seen in Europe. And as the entire family works,
-from the grandmother to the dog, they accumulate
-wealth as a nation and as individuals. The ordinary
-dwelling is part of the store, the shop, the barn
-or the windmill, so that the women-folks can do their
-part of the labor and not lose much time going back
-and forth. Whenever the women are not attending
-to the farm or the shop they are scrubbing. The smell
-of good strong soap is one of the real Dutch landmarks
-as much as a windmill or a canal.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>From Amsterdam we went to Edam and Monnikendam
-and Volendam and Zaandam, and from here we
-go to Rotterdam and through several other dams.
-The affix “dam” means bridge or embankment, and
-in a country of canals it is not surprising that nearly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208"></a>[208]</span>
-all the names of towns end with dam, Amsterdam being
-on the bank of the Amsel river, and so on. When
-I was a boy I heard the story of the teacher who was
-having her class give sentences containing the words
-they were learning to spell. One day they came to the
-word “cofferdam,” and the teacher asked the bright
-boy of the class to frame a sentence illustrating the use
-of the word. He wrote on the blackboard: “Our old
-cow thought some sawdust was bran, and if she don’t
-look out she will cofferdam head off.” The word
-“dam” is not a cuss-word in Dutch. If it were, all
-the dam towns would be printed with a dash for the
-last syllable.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The history of Holland has about as much trouble
-in it as that of any country. It was not much of a
-nation during the dark and medieval ages, as there
-was no such state, but a number of petty vassal lords
-and bishops. About 1500 a Holland count got the
-title of Prince of Orange by marrying a French heiress.
-The principal ruler in Holland was the count of Burgundy,
-but the Dutch cities developed along business
-lines and were to a certain extent independent of kings
-and emperors, although nominally a part of the German
-empire. In the sixteenth century Philip of Spain inherited
-the sovereignty of the country, and by his
-bigoted and cruel rule started a civil war in 1568 which
-lasted eighty years and ended in the independence of
-Holland. During that war the Dutch had to have a
-leader, and so they elected William, prince of Orange,
-as stadtholder, or governor. Under his management<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209"></a>[209]</span>
-the war was fought successfully, and when he was assassinated
-his son was elected stadtholder. The Dutch
-were divided into two parties, the Democratic and
-Aristocratic, and when Spain was defeated there was
-trouble between them. The so-called Dutch Republic
-was only an aristocracy, the privilege of participating
-in the government being restricted to a privileged class
-of small nobles and wealthy families. The office of
-stadtholder was elective, but generally went to the
-Oranges. Holland by its wise statesmanship and a
-strong navy was a world-power for a while, and in alliance
-with England and Sweden generally defeated the
-French and Spanish, and when there was war with
-England the Dutchmen held their own. Finally William <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>.
-of Orange became king of England, and the
-Dutch Republic lost its prestige. In the eighteenth
-century it was a tail to the English kite, and in 1806
-Napoleon made his brother king of Holland and five
-years later annexed the country to France. After
-Napoleon’s defeat the European powers created the
-kingdom of Holland, joined Belgium to it, and made
-William of Orange king of the united country. The
-Belgians broke away in 1830, and since that time Holland
-has been a monarchy, although the power is with
-the people.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I was much struck with the apparent lack of loyalty
-to the queen. In England everybody is loyal to King
-Edward because he not only represents the sovereignty
-of the nation, but he stands for the English constitution,
-rights of parliament and the people, and the king<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210"></a>[210]</span>
-is the result of centuries of English thought and political
-action. But the Dutch have been without a
-king most of their history and they don’t feel the reverence
-for the crown that the English do. Wilhelmina
-is not very popular, and her husband, who is a second-rate
-German prince that never mixes with the people
-and is said to be mean to his wife, is not liked at all.
-The Dutch cities have practical self-government, and
-it would not be surprising if after the death of Wilhelmina
-or in the event of some political upheaval the
-Dutch Republic would be revived on a broader basis
-than before.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Rotterdam, Holland</span>, Aug. 3, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>To-day we came to Delft, where the Delft china does
-not come from any more, and from there to Rotterdam
-in a canal-boat. Riding in a canal-boat is a very
-pleasant way of traveling. If you want to get off, the
-boat simply runs up close to the bank and you make it
-with a jump&mdash;one jump is better than two. You glide
-along through the pastures and back yards and see the
-women scrubbing, the men smoking and the dogs pulling
-the carts. When you come to a low bridge everybody
-lies down flat until the boat is beyond it. Our
-canal-boat was propelled by steam, and we went flying
-along at the rate of five or six miles an hour, but still
-with plenty of time to inspect the country and visit
-with the people on the other boats if we could only have
-talked their language. As a cure for nervousness or
-as an antidote for being in a hurry I recommend a trip
-on a canal-boat.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211"></a>[211]</span></p>
-
-<p>Delft is a quaint old town, with old churches and
-clean canals. Two hundred years ago the manufacture
-of porcelain made the town famous, but for a hundred
-years the business was suspended and now most
-of the Delft china is made in New Jersey. Recently a
-factory has been started and real Delft ware can be
-obtained, but the American kind is just as good.</p>
-
-<p>The canal-boat brought us through the town of
-Schiedam, where the celebrated Dutch “schnapps” is
-made. They tell me schnapps is closely related to
-that brand of American whisky which will make a man
-climb a tree. There are 200 distilleries in Schiedam.
-The Dutch are given to strong drinks rather than beer.
-The result is that the Dutch get wildly and meanly
-drunk, whereas the Germans merely get fat.</p>
-
-<p>Near Rotterdam we canalled by Delfthaven. This
-is the place from which the Pilgrims sailed for North
-America in 1620. They stopped en route in England,
-but their original start was from here. They had come
-to Holland from England in order to secure freedom of
-worship, but they were still Englishmen and did not
-want to become Dutch. So they secured a promise
-that they would not be disturbed in the New World,
-and left their Holland home. If they had stayed in
-Delfthaven there would have been no New England,
-no Bunker Hill, no United States. But they did not
-stay.</p>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212"></a>[212]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">THE KINGDOM OF BELGIUM.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Brussels, Belgium</span>, Aug. 5, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>I do not suppose other people are as ignorant as I
-was, but I will admit that in my mind I have always
-lumped off Holland and Belgium together as two countries
-with the same kind of people, the same language,
-the same habits and generally the same government.
-This is a great mistake. Holland and Belgium are
-about as unlike as the United States and Mexico.
-Holland is Dutch, with a language related to the German
-and English, and with Teutonic characteristics.
-Belgium is allied to France, the people speaking French
-or a kind of French, and with traits of character like
-the Parisians. Holland and Belgium have never agreed
-well politically and have never lived together harmoniously.
-When the allies had defeated Napoleon
-they created the kingdom of Holland and Belgium and
-tried to tie the two together. The combination lasted
-just fifteen years, and in 1830 the Belgians revolted,
-declared their independence and fought successfully
-to make it good. This year they are celebrating the
-seventy-fifth anniversary of Belgian independence.
-Two hundred years ago the king of Spain was sovereign
-over both countries. Holland threw off the yoke and
-did business on its own account, while Belgium failed
-and remained the property of Spain or Austria down
-to the time of Napoleon. The Hollanders drink<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213"></a>[213]</span>
-“schnapps” and the Belgians drink wine. The Hollanders
-are Protestant in religion and the Belgians are
-Catholics. Except for the fact that they are side by
-side along the North sea and are flat and low, the two
-countries differ in about everything possible.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The largest city in Belgium is Antwerp, located on
-the Scheldt river a little way from the sea, and with one
-of the largest and best harbors of Europe. During the
-Middle Ages Antwerp was a great commercial city,
-monopolizing much of the trade with the Orient, and
-being known everywhere for its wealth and business.
-In the eighteenth century, under Spanish and Austrian
-rule, the city lost its standing and went down to about
-40,000 population. During the nineteenth century it
-had a boom; now there are 355,000 inhabitants and
-Antwerp looks like a great American city,&mdash;with many
-wide avenues, beautiful buildings, and handsome stores.
-Aside from the fact that the streets are often narrow,
-a modern city in Europe looks better than one of the
-same size and standing in America. The Europeans
-have better ideas of architecture, put up their buildings
-more substantially and with more regard to their appearance,
-and have less of the cheap and shoddy construction
-than we do. I suppose we have as good architects
-in America as in Belgium, but I know of no
-city in our country where the business blocks are so
-elegant or so well built. Our folks build in a hurry.
-Over here they build for centuries, because they have
-already had centuries and know that is the way to do.
-I haven’t seen a frame house except in Switzerland.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214"></a>[214]</span>
-When people build with stone they are apt to put the
-work there to stay. And these modern European
-cities, by which I mean cities which have kept pace
-with the world’s growth and are not simply living on
-history and tourists, have many large squares with
-monuments and fountains, parks with gardens and
-boulevards with drives,&mdash;all over the city, not simply
-where the rich folks live as in some American cities.
-I reckon I am as conceited about my country as anybody,
-but I get it taken out of me every now and then,
-and modern city-building is one of the places. It
-would pay our town-builders to take a little more time
-and do better, more substantial and more tasteful
-work.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Brussels is the capital of Belgium. If all the suburbs
-were taken in as in Chicago and New York, it would
-have a half-million people. It has the reputation of
-being one of the handsomest cities of Europe, and is
-called “the second Paris.” It has many wide avenues,
-beautiful shops, and the people, like those of
-Paris, are great on having a good time. Nearly every
-other store in Brussels is a lace store, and most of the
-rest are jewelry stores. There are said to be 150,000
-women in Brussels and vicinity making lace for sale,
-and they are paid by the shops for which they work
-about 20 cents a day. The country round about is
-fertile, but the farming is more what we would call
-market gardening. The picturesque costumes have
-disappeared, and the Belgians dress and act more like
-French and Americans than any other European people<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215"></a>[215]</span>
-I have seen. Their farm labor is still crude. There
-is no machinery, and there need be none so long as
-labor is cheap. The dogs pull the carts to town with
-the truck for market and the working-people live on
-fish and vegetables because they are used to it and because
-meat is away beyond their means.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>To-day I went to the battlefield of Waterloo. It has
-always been a matter of regret to me that Napoleon
-did not win that fight. The big powers of Europe had
-combined and forced his abdication. They sent Napoleon
-to Elba and were quarreling over a division of
-the spoils when he escaped and returned to France.
-The people received him with joy and his old soldiers
-rallied to his standards. The allies ran hither and
-thither and were scared almost to death&mdash;all but the
-English, who never know when to quit. Wellington
-with about 70,000 soldiers was near Brussels and Napoleon
-rushed his army of the same size to meet him.
-If Napoleon had defeated Wellington the backbone of
-the alliance against him would have been broken and
-the map of Europe would have been very different
-from what it is. The battlefield is comparatively
-small. The two armies had a front of about two miles
-and were less than a mile apart. In those days a cannon
-could not shoot a mile and a musket not more than
-150 yards. After the first firing the guns had to be
-reloaded, so as a matter of fact there would be a few
-volleys and then the opposing armies would clinch and
-go at it with bayonets, clubbed muskets, and swords.
-That was the way at Waterloo. Napoleon made the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216"></a>[216]</span>
-attack and Wellington’s army had the help of stone
-walls and position. In a space of about forty acres
-around one farmhouse there were 6,000 killed and
-wounded. Both sides fought like the devil, or rather
-like devils, and took few prisoners. The English allies
-held their ground all day, beating back the frequent
-and ferocious French charges. In the evening the
-Prussian army under Blucher came slowly up at one
-side and the outnumbered Frenchmen had to retreat.
-It was all over with Napoleon, for his army was dead
-or missing; so he again gave up, and this time his enemies
-were careful to put him at St. Helena where he
-could not get away.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>A great monument was erected on the battlefield
-by the victorious nations. It is a mound of earth 150
-feet high, pyramid-shaped, and a half-mile around the
-base. On top of the mound is a figure of a colossal
-lion. The mound is the highest point for many miles,
-and from its top the entire battlefield is easily seen.
-It is a very impressive sight. When the great mound
-was constructed the earth was carried in baskets by
-women who were paid 8 cents a day. That kind of a
-price for labor makes a steam shovel sick. The people
-who live around the battlefield have a rich tourist
-crop. Although they are Belgians I think some of them
-are descendants of Napoleon’s soldiers, judging from
-the way they charge. Just about the time the visitor
-gets excited or interested in the historic spots, he is
-reminded that there is “something for the guide,” or
-that he can buy maps, picture cards, bullets, buttons<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217"></a>[217]</span>
-from Napoleon’s coat, or get a drink of water from the
-well in which the bodies of 150 French soldiers were
-thrown.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Belgium is one of the busiest countries in Europe,
-but labor is really not better paid than elsewhere. A
-laboring man gets 30 cents a day, skilled laborers up
-to a dollar. A woman works at lace-making for 20
-cents a day, or a woman will come at 7 o’clock in the
-morning and work until 8 o’clock in the evening, a
-Belgian working-day, for 20 cents. The cost of good,
-decent living is not much if any less than in Kansas,
-but of course people who earn only 20 or 30 cents a day
-don’t live well. Their home is with the cow or the dog
-or with people just as poor, and a beefsteak would
-probably give them the gout. I have seen similar
-conditions in the slums of American cities, and once,
-when the tariff bars were thrown down and our factories
-put to competition with Belgian and other European
-factories where labor is paid as I have stated,
-there was a temporary paralysis of labor attended by
-suffering and want. But these are the normal conditions
-in Belgium and in Europe at a time which is considered
-one of general prosperity. I wonder how it
-must be with hard times. The “bugaboo” of “competition
-with pauper labor” is not a political imagination,
-but would be a sad reality if the American people
-should vote for a change in the tariff policy. I have
-learned this lesson from the mouths and faces of the
-workingmen of Europe.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218"></a>[218]</span></p>
-
-<p>Of course there are American-made goods that come
-into Europe. They are all here because the Europeans
-have nothing near as good. The American typewriter,
-the sewing-machine, the Wernicke office supplies and
-the American shoe are always advertised boldly and
-freely. Other American wares are sold without the
-American label because of some prejudice, especially
-in England. In order to show my patriotism I started
-lifting my hat every time I saw the sign or advertisement
-of American goods. At first I enjoyed the novelty,
-but as I learned to look for the marks I soon had
-my hat off most of the time. I didn’t mind honoring
-any American article, but it grew wearisome to have
-my hand bobbing up to my hat whenever I turned
-around, especially as Carter’s liver pills and Quaker
-oats have just covered Europe with their posters and
-their catch-lines. When the American does start to
-do business in Europe he does it right, and is not afraid
-to put his name on any place the police will let him.
-And it is comforting to a pilgrim in a strange land to
-see in big letters on street cars and fences the names
-that decorated the old walls and billboards at home.</p>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219"></a>[219]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">EUROPEAN ART AND GRUB.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Bruges</span>, <span class="smcap">Belgium</span>, Aug. 8, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>In this quaint old town we are spending the last day
-of our stay on the continent of Europe. To-morrow
-we sail from Ostend to Dover, and the prospect of a
-return to a land where the English language is spoken
-is next to getting home.</p>
-
-<p>Of all the cities of the Netherlands, Bruges has best
-held on to the ancient appearance and ways. The
-fact may be explained by the figures. During the
-boom in Belgium a few centuries ago, Bruges had a
-population of 200,000, while now there are only 54,000.
-There was no necessity to tear down the old buildings
-to make room for modern structures or provide wide
-boulevards and promenades. Consequently the old
-buildings stand, only modified in appearance by the
-wear and tear of weather and years. The sole business
-of the town as near as I could see is lace-making, and
-as the women do that there is little left for the men,
-except to drive cabs and hold the offices. We walked
-down a little narrow street, perhaps twelve feet wide,
-lined from one end to the other on this pleasant day
-with women sitting on stools making lace. The advent
-of a few Americans almost caused a riot in the
-desire to see and be seen, and the little street seemed
-to swarm with women and with children. Working
-over the pillow these women make lace to be sold at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220"></a>[220]</span>
-15 or 20 cents for their day’s labor. Girls hardly into
-their teens and grandmothers up in the 80’s were laboring
-side by side. One old lady with whom we had
-a most delightful visit, although neither could understand
-the other’s language, and from whom Mrs.
-Morgan bought some of the handiwork, is 86 years old,
-and yet she cheerfully and ably manipulates the hand-shuttles
-that make the lace as if she were not half that
-age. There is a special provision of Providence that
-nearly always applies. These women of all ages who
-have to make lace or starve, work in abominable light
-and yet have excellent eyesight and never wear spectacles
-or glasses. In America, where the lace is bought
-and where such work is a delicate, eye-trying task, the
-women have trouble with their eyesight and must have
-artificial help to see the lace that the Belgian women
-make. The wind is tempered to the shorn lamb.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Bruges is also the depository of the earliest specimens
-of Dutch and Flemish art, for here nearly 500 years
-ago lived Jan Van Eyck, and he and his brother were
-the pioneers in the style of painting which is generally
-known as “Dutch.” They were followed a few years
-later by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, De Crayer,
-Jordaens, and their crowd, who went to Italy and
-learned a good deal, but who were really followers of
-the Van Eycks. I have spent some time in the art
-galleries at Amsterdam, The Hague, Antwerp and Brussels,
-and have picked up a smattering of knowledge of
-Dutch and Flemish art which I would like to unload.
-The “whole shooting-match,” as the Germans would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221"></a>[221]</span>
-say, is generally called Dutch, but there is a perceptible
-difference between the work in Holland and Belgium,
-although the artists lived so close together that they
-naturally formed one great school. Peter Paul Rubens,
-who generally gets first place, was a Belgian, although
-he was born out of that country when his parents
-were politically exiled. He lived at Antwerp and
-was brought up in a Jesuit school in a Catholic country.
-Rembrandt was a Dutchman, born at Leyden, Holland,
-and a politician as well as an artist in a Protestant
-country. If one will reflect upon the religious situation
-in Europe in the early seventeenth century, he will
-see that no matter if both used the same colors and
-the same rules for drawing, they were bound to treat
-different subjects, or have different conceptions of the
-same subject. Van Dyck, the third of the celebrated
-trio, was born in Antwerp, but went to London, and
-there did most of his work in portrait-painting, his
-specialty, because he was better paid by Englishmen.
-The Catholic Rubens and his followers painted for the
-churches and cathedrals, and for a Catholic constituency,
-and usually portrayed religious subjects, while
-Rembrandt and his pupils painted for the Dutch
-burghers, and their best pictures are of men, grouped
-in military companies or trade guilds. Rubens is more
-ideal and spiritual, Rembrandt more material and human.
-Therefore it is that people who like one often
-do not appreciate the other. I really like the Dutch
-art better than the Italian, although it is a good deal
-like a boy trying to decide whether he will have cherry
-pie or custard pie, and wanting both. The influence<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222"></a>[222]</span>
-of environment and education is clearly seen in the fat
-Madonnas and the pictures of public-houses and drinking-bouts
-which are favorite subjects. The Dutch artists
-also lean to “realism,” and about nine times in
-ten a picture of the realist school is unpleasant and
-therefore to my mind inartistic. For example, one of
-Rubens’s great masterpieces represents the martyrdom
-of a saint who had his tongue torn out, and in the
-picture the executioner is handing the red, bleeding
-tongue to a dog. Another picture shows an execution,
-the axeman holding up the head, and the body with
-the stump of a neck the main feature of the foreground.
-Some people like this sort of thing, but I don’t. For a
-hundred years after Rubens and Rembrandt, the Netherlands
-produced no art, at the time the countries
-themselves were demoralized and the prey of the
-larger powers. Recently Dutch art has revived in the
-portraying of Dutch landscapes, windmills, canals and
-such, and to my mind it is the pleasantest and most
-effective art now alive in Europe, away ahead of the
-Italians, who persist in imitating the old masters and
-tackling subjects which have been thoroughly covered
-so much that there is hardly a chance for a new impression.</p>
-
-<p>Every town of any size in Belgium and Holland has
-a public art gallery, and the people ought to be artists
-merely from association. But as a matter of fact
-three-fourths of the visitors to the galleries when I
-was there were Americans and English.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223"></a>[223]</span></p>
-
-<p>Speaking of art reminds me of hotels. Before leaving
-Europe I want to pay a tribute to the hotel-keepers
-of the continent. I must have been wrongly impressed
-by what I had read and heard, for I had looked forward
-with dread to the queer ways and the strange
-dishes I was to go against on the trip. As a matter of
-fact the hotels in Europe are better and cheaper than
-those of America. The management is more courteous,
-the service better, and the eating far surpasses the
-equivalent in the United States. The “tipping system”
-is not bad at all and the effort of the landlord to
-get at your money is concealed by a show of cordiality
-and hospitality which I have never experienced in a
-strange hostelry in my own country. I am overcharged
-and worked ten times more in Kansas City, Chicago
-and New York than in Rome, Cologne, Brussels, or any
-other European city.</p>
-
-<p>When a traveler arrives at a continental hotel he is
-greeted at the entrance by the hall porter or clerk, and
-instead of being bulldozed over a counter by a gentleman
-with a diamond stud into paying twice the ordinary
-price for a room, he is quietly and pleasantly told
-what rooms are vacant, what are their rates, and allowed
-to make a selection. He does not have to tip a
-porter or a bell-boy for every little favor. From the
-proprietor to the “boots” everyone in the hotel is at
-your service and nothing to pay&mdash;not then. Of course
-you expect to do the right thing when you leave, but
-for the time this cordial service seems to be spontaneous
-and animated with a sincere desire for your comfort.
-In Germany the proprietor of the hotel keeps<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224"></a>[224]</span>
-up the pretense that you are his guest, and every day
-he inquires after your welfare. In the German restaurants
-the proprietor walks around and speaks pleasantly
-to everyone and you feel that he is really glad to
-see you without associating that sensation with the
-payment of the bill. Everything and everybody in
-the hotel is at your service. There is always a reading-room
-with newspapers, often American papers, smoking-rooms,
-lounging-rooms, and comfortable parlors
-where it is a pleasure to spend the time. In nearly
-every hotel there is a free library, mostly books of the
-country, but always some in English. At the Parker
-House in Boston, my last stopping-place in America,
-I had been surprised and delighted to find a well-selected
-library for the use of the guests of the hotel. I
-supposed that was a Boston innovation and was prepared
-to brag about it, but I have found a similar
-library in nearly every hotel at which I have stayed
-in Europe. An American hotel does not give half the
-space to the general use and comfort of guests that a
-European hotel does, and what it does offer is usually
-only a big office and stiff parlors in which people stay
-only when they can find nowhere else to go.</p>
-
-<p>European cooking is far ahead of American cooking.
-A cook in this country is not an accident, not a man
-or woman who is cooking until a better job offers. A
-cook is something between a professional man and a
-skilled mechanic, and young men learn the business as
-thoroughly as they do engineering or banking. Labor
-is cheap, so that in the kitchen as well as in the front
-rooms there is always plenty of service, and it is by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225"></a>[225]</span>
-people who are brought up to it and not by boys or men
-who are down on their luck. I expected to be “fussy”
-over the cooking and cookery, but I have hardly had a
-poor meal in Europe and not a bad one at all. There
-is not much difference in the stuff used or in the way
-of serving, but the work is better done, and all the
-good American dishes like beefsteak and eggs are
-found in Europe looking as natural as life. The Europeans
-do more with mutton, veal and fish and less
-with beef than our cooks, and the small farms raise
-vegetables that are delicious.</p>
-
-<p>When one leaves the hotel the proprietor or manager
-always comes to see him off and say good-by. There
-isn’t such a crowd of servants waiting for tips as is
-generally alleged. Your porter, who has polished your
-shoes and carried your baggage, is on hand, and the
-chambermaid casually meets you on the stairs. The
-head waiter expects a tip and so does the hall porter,
-and there are usually a couple of other attendants
-ready to receive, but not obnoxiously so. I learned
-that the best way to do was to be as polite as the Europeans.
-A few minutes before time to leave I would
-say good-by to the head waiter, the smoking-room attendant,
-and any other who had rendered special service,
-giving each a small tip which he always took with
-many expressions of good-will and appreciation. That
-prevented any assemblage at the door when we left,
-and the last good-bys and tips were only expected by
-the man who brought the baggage and the hall porter
-who put us in the carriage and gave me full information
-as regards the coming journey and the next stop.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226"></a>[226]</span></p>
-
-<p>The rates at European hotels are much less than in
-ours. The prices for rooms are about half what they
-would be in America for similar accommodations in
-the same-sized places. The restaurant prices are a
-little less than ours. I should say that in Europe you
-pay about $2 to $3 a day for what would cost $3 to $4
-in America. In small hotels and boarding-houses the
-same ratio is maintained, and there is no doubt in my
-mind that “room and board” on a European trip for
-an American is little more than half what it would be
-for a European in America. In these prices I include
-tips. The ordinary American will greatly enjoy life
-on the continent, provided, of course, he does not always
-eat at the “table d’hôte,” or regular meal-table,
-which is monotonous everywhere. And also he must
-not want a room with a bath, or an elevator. Very
-few buildings in Europe have elevators, and the natives
-do not use them. It is an inconvenience to walk up
-two or three flights of stairs to your room, but in the
-hotels that do not have “lifts” you must remember
-that is the way the nobility and everybody does in
-Europe, and quit kicking. You can get a bath in the
-bathroom or you can scrub yourself with the contents
-of the washbowl, after you have had some experience.
-That is the custom of the country, and the thing to do
-is not to be telling about the rooms with baths in America,
-but accept the situation, look pleasant, and you
-will get along all right. It is the same way in Europe
-that it is everywhere else in this vale of tears: if you
-look for trouble you easily find it, and if you are constantly
-talking and thinking of the conveniences which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227"></a>[227]</span>
-American customs have provided and which are not
-used in Europe, you can make yourself miserable and
-unpopular. But if you accept the ways of the country,
-enjoy the novelties even if they seem old-fashioned and
-strange, you will have a grand old time and will make
-yourself solid with the people.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>In Europe the name “United States” is rarely used.
-We are “Americans.” The people of Canada are Canadians
-and the people of the United States have the
-sole use of the title of Americans. They consider us
-the whole thing, and we always admit it without argument.
-There is a general impression in the Old
-World that all Americans are rich. There is a general
-impression that sometime we will fight the rest of the
-world, and I think there is an impression that we will
-lick. So far as I can see, Americans are treated about
-as well as dukes, and the ways of traveling are greased
-for them by everybody along the line. (Grease to be
-paid for, of course.) In two months’ travel on the
-continent, usually not knowing the language, we have
-never missed a train or connection, been mistreated
-or imposed upon, allowed to suffer inconvenience or annoyance.
-That is a record it would be hard to equal
-in America.</p>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="ENGLAND">ENGLAND.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231"></a>[231]</span></p>
-<p class="p130">IN OLD, OLD ENGLAND.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Warwick, England</span>, June 12, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>When the American tourist reaches old England he
-has a large and well-selected stock of emotions which
-he can feel, in addition to the thanks in his heart that
-the short but “nahsty” trip across the Irish sea is at
-an end. No matter where an individual’s ancestors
-may have come from, the mother country of America is
-England. Up to 1776 our history was only English
-history, our customs English customs, our laws English
-laws, and when the Continental army began shooting
-at the British soldiers, the Continental Congress
-accompanied every volley with a resolution declaring
-that the colonists had no desire to separate from England,
-but were only fighting in self-defense. Our laws,
-our language, our literature are English. The fight
-of the parliament against the crown has reached practically
-the same result in England that the revolution
-of Congress against King George did by a short cut.</p>
-
-<p>This is the land of Shakespeare, Milton and Dickens,
-who are just as much American as English, except for
-the accident of birthplace. This is the home of our
-heroes of medieval times, of Ivanhoe, Richard the
-Lion-hearted, and the Black Prince. This is the country
-which is familiar to us by name and history through
-Scott and Thackeray, Dickens and Lytton, and a hundred
-other authors whose works are read in the American<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232"></a>[232]</span>
-homes. We are not strangers to such names as
-Kenilworth, York, Shrewsbury, Chester, Stratford,
-Oxford, Cambridge, and in fact nearly every town on
-the map of England. This is more like the visit to a
-long-absent friend and not an entrance into a foreign
-land. We are now going among places of which we
-have read and among the monuments and works of
-men whom we have held close to our hearts through
-the pictures painted for us by our authors. We are
-going to actually see the things we have so often read
-about and which we have so much dreamed about.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Instead of beginning at London, the great center
-of trade, we are going to begin here at Warwick, the
-center of the oldest Old England left on earth. In
-Warwick we are five miles from Kenilworth, the castle
-Scott made famous, seven miles from Stratford-on-Avon,
-where Shakespeare was born, and surrounded
-by beautiful rural England, with a fine old castle only
-five minutes walk away, and churches and buildings
-which were old when Columbus discovered America.</p>
-
-<p>The first stop in England was at Chester, which was
-a town of importance when Julius Cæsar was doing
-business. The walls the Romans built were demolished
-by the Saxons but rebuilt, and Chester was the
-last place in England to surrender to William the Conqueror.
-During the Middle Ages it was the scene of
-more fights and sieges and the walls then completed
-are the same walls which we walked on this week.
-The walls are from ten to twenty feet wide at the top,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233"></a>[233]</span>
-twenty to thirty feet high, and little towers occupy the
-angles and corners. From the wall of Chester Charles
-the First saw the parliamentary army defeat his soldiers,
-and when Chester surrendered, Cromwell’s men
-had all of England.</p>
-
-<p>There are two main streets in Chester, crossing each
-other at the center of the town and terminating in the
-four city gates. All the other streets of the old town
-are alleys from six to ten feet wide. But the curious
-part of Chester is “the Rows.” Along a good part of
-the main streets there is a second floor, or rather a
-stone roof over the sidewalks. On this upstairs street
-are stores and shops, and business is going on as briskly
-along the second story as on the ground floor. As
-there were originally but the two streets in Chester, the
-people simply doubled the street capacity,&mdash;a thousand
-years ago and they haven’t changed. In fact, I suppose
-a great many people in Chester who have never
-been out of the neighborhood, think that is the proper
-and usual way of arranging business streets in all
-towns.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The greatest place in England is Stratford-on-Avon,
-because Shakespeare was born there. A great many
-English towns have ancient cathedrals and are the
-birthplaces or the deathplaces of kings and queens,
-dukes and ministers, but Stratford is the only place
-where Shakespeare was born and there has been but
-one Shakespeare. Many great men have several birthplaces,
-or perhaps I should say, several towns claim to
-be the only birthplace. But Stratford-on-Avon is a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234"></a>[234]</span>
-thousand years old or more, and has never done anything
-for the world except to provide William Shakespeare,
-and the world says that is enough to last another
-thousand. I stood in the church and saw the slab
-which covers the dust of the great poet and man-knower.
-By his side are the graves of his wife and
-daughter. Around the chancel are the inscriptions and
-memorials which tell of the admiration and affection of
-the world.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The house where the poet was born is now owned by
-a public association, and great pains have been taken
-to gather all the relics of his lifetime that have been
-spared. The rooms are arranged just as they were
-when his father, a highly respected tradesman who
-reached the dignity of a justice of the peace, was running
-his little shop and William was poaching in the
-neighboring fields and streams and sparking Anne
-Hathaway, whose home was a mile away. The Hathaway
-cottage is kept in the same way as the Shakespeare
-house, and we wandered through the low rooms
-and up the narrow stairs just as they were nearly four
-centuries ago. In talking with an Englishman at Warwick
-he said he believed the Americans thought more
-of Shakespeare than the English did, for more of them
-went to Stratford. Of course that is hardly correct,
-for the English all love Shakespeare, but they probably
-do not visit his birthplace so much as American travelers
-do. Practically every American goes to Stratford,
-some of them perhaps just because the others do.
-Coming over on the ship I was being enlightened by an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235"></a>[235]</span>
-aggressive American on just what was what. “Going
-to Stratford?” he said. I assented. “Yes, you’ll go
-there and look around and wonder what in hell you
-went there for.” But that is not the sentiment which
-fills the hearts of most of the cousins from across the
-ocean, as is evidenced by the reverential awe and the
-thorough appreciation of every nook and corner shown
-by them when they are in the historic village.</p>
-
-<p>The river Avon is about the size of Cow creek, and
-looks a good deal like it. The banks are low and the
-meadows and fields come right to them, without the
-timber that borders most American streams. The
-town of Stratford is old-fashioned and quaint. Just
-as in Warwick, the hotels or inns bear such names as
-“The Red Dog,” “The Bull and Cow,” “The Golden
-Lion,” a style of nomenclature which I had always
-half-way thought was imaginary with the great authors
-who have made such names familiar. Large, stately
-trees line the roads and stone walls and hedges conceal
-the fields and farms, revealing just enough to enhance
-the beauty of the landscape. One can dreamily think
-as he rides in the coach from Stratford to Warwick
-that he is back in the days of Queen Elizabeth and half
-expect ye knights and ladies to appear before the gate
-of Kenilworth, but as he does so there is a sudden
-whir-r-r, a cloud of dust and a smell, and the automobile
-of the twentieth century has rudely broken the
-dream.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>We visited the castle of the earl of Warwick. The
-earl evidently did not know we were coming, for he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236"></a>[236]</span>
-was away, but a shilling admitted us through the big
-gate in the massive stone walls which surround the
-castle and inclose probably twenty acres of ground.
-It was originally built by a daughter of Alfred, about
-915, and has been more or less knocked down and built
-up since. It is said to be one of the finest old castles
-in England. A regiment of soldiers could easily parade
-in the large court within the walls and be quartered
-in the building and towers. Many a time such a garrison
-has occupied the place, for the earls of Warwick
-have been fighters from the beginning and Shakespeare’s
-Warwick was a regular Cy Leland or a Stubbs in his
-day, and was known as the king-maker. The castle
-is about twice as large as the Hutchinson Reformatory,
-and the earl has to keep a good deal of hired help in
-these times of peace. Many of the great rooms are
-kept just as in the old days of chivalry and are filled
-with armor and weapons. The banquet-room is maintained
-as it was in the great earl’s time, and much of
-the castle is really a museum and gallery full of the
-pictures, portraits, furniture and tapestries of the long
-ago.</p>
-
-<p>Kings and queens, earls and earlesses, have walked
-the halls and had their brief time upon the stage of
-life. The noble of to-day does not have the armor or
-the power he did then. His band of armed retainers
-has changed to a crowd of peaceful laborers. He does
-not lead his men to war, but presides at country fairs
-and acts as dignified as the spirit of the twentieth
-century will permit. He no longer fears a midnight
-assault from a neighboring baron, but only dreads the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237"></a>[237]</span>
-ravages of the American tourists and sensibly compromises
-by letting them ravage at a quarter apiece. The
-times of chivalry are gone.</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="indent2">“Their swords are rust;</div>
- <div class="indent2">The knights are dust;</div>
- <div class="indent2">Their souls are with the saints, we trust.”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Here in Warwick and at Kenilworth we take a long
-dream backward, and by working our imagination and
-our sentiment we see the England of Shakespeare, of
-Warwick, of Ivanhoe. It is a good dream, but it is
-a past that will never return, a past that is more nearly
-connected with the present in Warwick than at any
-other place. It is old England, which first learned to
-rule herself and then began to rule most of the rest of
-the world, and with the assistance of the American
-child will undoubtedly do the business in the future.
-We are going to London and Liverpool, the castles of
-commerce and industry which now command the trade
-of the globe. In the England of to-day the castles of
-the business man and the banker rule in the place of
-the castles of the baron and the earl, and old England
-has given place to a new England. But it will be
-this old England of Shakespeare, Warwick and Kenilworth
-that will live in the hearts of the English people,
-and will be the object of pilgrimage for Americans
-abroad.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238"></a>[238]</span></p>
-
-<p class="p130">THE GREATEST OF CITIES.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">London</span>, Aug. 11, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>We are “out of season” in London. “Everybody
-is out of town.” I suppose there are only about
-7,000,000 people left within the limits of the city as
-laid out for police purposes. With only 7,000,000
-people in this district twenty miles square, one naturally
-feels lonesome. I suppose it will strike me that
-way after I get used to it. But if as many of the inhabitants
-of London as there are people in the State of
-Kansas should go away, it is probable that I would not
-notice it at first. It is curious what funny first impressions
-one gets of things. My first of London was that
-it looked like a great big ant-heap with the ants excited
-over something and swarming in every direction. The
-long processions or streams of people which wind in
-and out, up and down, make the individual feel
-mightily insignificant. In comparison my memory of
-Chicago is that it looks like a deserted country town
-on Sunday afternoon, and New York a fairly large and
-busy village.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The streets of London are laid out with no regard
-for plan or regularity. None of them are straight, and
-in the course of a few blocks they will be intersected
-at every angle and possible curve by other streets,
-which in turn are cut into by more streets. Every<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239"></a>[239]</span>
-now and then there is a “square,” or a “circus,” either
-meaning a place where different streets meet head-on
-and usually stop. A “circus” is a curved square and
-not a show. A map of London looks like a chicken-yard
-in which the hens have been very busy scratching.
-The stranger loses all idea of direction. When the
-sun shines, which is not often, I have seen it in the
-north, south, east and west on the same day.</p>
-
-<p>There are no “sky-scrapers.” The height of buildings
-is regulated, and I think the limit is usually six
-stories. This is a rule which our American cities ought
-to have but they won’t. The climate has the effect of
-making a new house soon look old, and London is
-neither bright nor shining in its appearance. But it is
-the greatest city in the world, and that fact is impressed
-on the traveler in every direction. There are more
-Irishmen in London than in Dublin, more Scotchmen
-than in Edinburgh, more Jews than in Palestine, and
-in its population are large colonies of people from every
-country on the earth. Name any article you want or
-have ever heard of, and it is in London. No business
-and no trade in any civilized land but has its representative
-in this city. No great work is done and no
-enterprise attempted but the fact is known to some one
-in London. In spite of the great growth and wealth
-of America, the industry and success of Germany, the
-thrift and saving of France, the financial center of the
-world is in London, and other bourses and boards of
-trade follow the lead or are in fact only branches of the
-English concern. Every active financial institution in
-the United States or elsewhere has its London connection<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240"></a>[240]</span>
-through which it draws when it engages in international
-business or when it goes out of the local
-sphere of influence. London is the whirlpool to which
-all the world contributes and from which all the world
-gets something thrown out.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>London is not only the center of business but of
-literary, artistic and political activity. Especially is
-this true for Americans. All of our history prior to
-1776 is English, and in the annals of the world 1776 is
-only the day before yesterday. Our writers, as soon
-as they get their feet on the ground at home, look to
-London, this clearing-house of literature as of money.
-London writers, from the time of Shakespeare to Dickens,
-Thackeray and Kipling, are ours just as much as
-they are England’s. Not an American but recognizes
-the names of Piccadilly, Hyde Park, Westminster,
-Temple Bar, Ludgate, the Tower, Tooley street, London
-Bridge, Charing Cross, Drury Lane, Whitechapel,
-Billingsgate, and other streets and places in London
-as familiarly as he does those of places in the nearest
-city to which he lives. A common history for more
-than a thousand years, a common literature which cannot
-be divided, and a common trend of religious and
-political thought make Great Britain and the United
-States one people although divided by an ocean and by
-arbitrary political lines. I think that up to a few
-years ago there was much prejudice in each country
-against the other. That has now practically disappeared.
-Englishmen on the continent and at home
-have fraternized with us Americans at every opportunity,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241"></a>[241]</span>
-and no place in London that I have gone but
-I have been received with unmistakable heartfelt kindness.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>After getting comfortably settled the question comes
-to the tourist, “What first?” And there is so much in
-London we want to see, that it was a question. I suppose
-we answered it as every American would, Westminster
-Abbey. There we spent our first afternoon.
-I had been afraid of disappointment. I may say I am
-getting used to finding things which sounded and
-seemed big when viewed from Kansas, actually getting
-small and ordinary when right before us. But it was
-not so with Westminster. The present building was
-put up by Henry <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>., in the thirteenth century to take
-the place of the structure on the same spot erected by
-the Saxons soon after the year 1000. A few towers
-and façades were added a century later, but for practically
-400 years this grand church has been the national
-memorial hall of the English people. Although
-tombs and monuments are on every side, the spacious
-church is used for service every day, and it is an agreeable
-memory now that we joined in the afternoon
-service that day in the hall where kings are crowned
-and where they are buried, and where men greater
-than kings have been laid away after their work was
-done.</p>
-
-<p>The church is very large, the form of a Latin cross,
-beautifully proportioned, rather gloomily lighted, but
-impressive in appearance. Of course it was originally
-Catholic, but being the state church it went Protestant<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242"></a>[242]</span>
-when Henry <abbr title="the eighth">VIII</abbr>. turned against the pope, partly because
-the pope would not recognize his divorce machine.
-There are not many statues of saints, but up one side
-and down the other of the double aisles and the little
-chapels are monuments, usually statues, of the men
-whose names are England’s greatness. I do not mean
-the kings and queens, for most of them would not by
-their own merit deserve the honor, but such as these:
-The Pitts, father and son, who ruled in England a hundred
-years ago; Fox, Peel, Cobden, statesmen of the
-world; Beaconsfield and Gladstone, not far apart now;
-Wilberforce, the philanthropist; Darwin, Newton and
-Herschel, the scientists; Livingstone, the African explorer,
-and Gordon, the general; André, who was shot
-as a spy in America; John and Charles Wesley, the
-Methodists; Watts, the hymn-writer; Händel, the
-composer, and Jenny Lind, the sweet singer of a generation
-ago; Addison, Macaulay, Thackeray, and Dickens;
-Chaucer, Ben Jonson, and Tennyson, poets laureate;
-Booth and Garrick, the actors; Spenser and
-Dryden, and many other poets;&mdash;a great aristocracy of
-learning, and now in the democratic, barrier-razing
-grave. Then there are nearly all the great English
-generals of the last four centuries, with heroes whose
-names are familiar to American school-boys as to English.
-And in the chapels are the tombs of England’s
-rulers from Edward the Confessor, some great kings
-and some little kings, some good and some bad, surrounded
-by the graves of queens and lords and ladies
-with the familiar names of English nobility. Near the
-tomb of the great Queen Elizabeth is that of her rival<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243"></a>[243]</span>
-whom she executed, Mary Queen of Scots, the remains
-of the latter placed there by her son, King James, who
-by the irony of fate succeeded his mother’s enemy. I
-could go on with the list, but it would be with the
-reader as with the visitor, only the general effect, with
-here and there some great name singled out from the
-rest because of special interest or connection with some
-great event. And a fact which impressed me was
-that many men and women were executed by one
-monarch and their remains brought to Westminster
-and monuments erected to them by the next.</p>
-
-<p>In Westminster Abbey the kings and queens of
-England have been crowned since the time of its building.
-A sovereign may inherit or receive from the representatives
-of the people the royal power, but he is not
-fully authorized and empowered to perform the duties
-of the job, or, to paraphrase a slang expression, his
-crown is not on straight until he receives it here.
-There are times when the great church is brilliant with
-light and resonant with music, when gay uniforms and
-gowns fill the galleries and aisles, when bells peal merrily
-and the banners wave from choir and column, concealing
-for the day the monuments and tombs of the
-past with their lesson of the end to earthly greatness
-and the fate of human pomp and grandeur.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The way to see London is from the top of an omnibus.
-There are no electric or cable lines or any other above-ground
-means of transportation in London except cabs
-and ’buses. The underground railroad, called “the
-tube,” is useful for quick traveling from one part of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244"></a>[244]</span>
-the city to the other, but the ’bus is the ordinary conveyance.
-It has regular seats on top, and they are
-always occupied except when the rain comes in torrents.
-An ordinary drizzle rain does not bother a
-Londoner. The sight of the long line of omnibuses
-with people filling the tops of every one of them is in
-itself a show. I am told there is not an hour in the
-day when there are not 100,000 people on top of the
-London ’buses. We have found that we can learn and
-see more of London sitting next to the driver of a ’bus
-in an hour than we could in a day with a carriage and
-guide. The driver is always glad to trade you all the
-news about the street for a sixpence, and a London
-’bus-driver is a man of intelligence and learning; he
-has to be in order to drive through the jam of traffic
-and not get lost in the crooked streets. It was like
-reading a story when we rode down the Strand past
-St. Paul’s and the Bank of England to the Whitechapel,
-as the driver pointed out the house where Peter the
-Great lived when in England; William Penn’s old
-home; Somerset House, where queens have lived; the
-theatre in which the great actors of to-day appear,
-Covent Garden; Garrick’s house; the rooms which
-Dickens described as David Copperfield’s at Miss Trotwood’s;
-the Temple, England’s great lawyer factory;
-the grave of Goldsmith; the inn where Johnson and
-congenial sports dined and drank; and all kinds of
-places mentioned or described by Dickens and Thackeray,
-or connected with the history of England. I am
-not writing a guidebook, but I can make affidavit that
-a ride on a London omnibus is the quickest and easiest<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_245"></a>[245]</span>
-way I know to fill one’s head with a jumble of literature
-and history, as well as to test the elastic qualities
-of the neck. If I were to advise a tourist coming to
-Europe I would not only tell him to read in advance
-and bring plenty of money, but he should have all the
-rubber possible between his head and his body.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_246"></a>[246]</span></p>
-
-<p class="p130">AT KING EDWARD’S HOUSE.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">London</span>, Aug. 14, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>We have spent the day at Windsor Castle, the favorite
-home of Queen Victoria, and indeed of British
-monarchs for several centuries. King Edward and
-Queen Alexandra were not at home. We had not advised
-them in advance of our intention to visit them,
-and Edward had gone off to a hot-springs resort to
-recuperate from the festivities of last week, when he
-was entertaining the French navy. The queen is visiting
-her folks in Copenhagen, and none of the royal
-family were at the depot. However, we went direct
-to the castle, and, opening it with the usual key (a
-shilling), we wandered around in the big and beautiful
-rooms, tramped through the stables and saw the horses,
-and enjoyed the beautiful view of the valley of the
-Thames from the terrace on which Queen Elizabeth
-used to stand and shoot deer which her gamekeeper
-drove in front of her. King Edward and Queen Alexandra
-have a right pretty place at Windsor, but it takes
-a lot of help to keep it up. There are fifty men employed
-in the stables alone. The queen is a good housekeeper,
-as can be told from the well-polished floors,
-the shining brass and the absence of dirt and dust from
-the walls and furniture. Windsor Castle is about three
-times as big as the Reformatory. Part of it was built
-over 800 years ago by William the Conqueror, and it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_247"></a>[247]</span>
-has been added to by nearly every sovereign. It was
-a favorite place with Henry <abbr title="the eighth">VIII</abbr>., and one of his wives,
-Anne Boleyn, was confined and executed in Windsor.
-At the time, Henry was over in the next county waiting
-until Anne was dead so he could marry another, which
-he did within forty-eight hours. The kings and queens
-in those days were often tough bats and acted scandalous.
-They couldn’t do it now, at least in England.
-A few years ago the people of England were worked up
-over a gambling scandal in which the present king,
-then Prince of Wales, was implicated. But King Edward
-has shown himself to be a model monarch, and he
-and the queen are both popular.</p>
-
-<p>A king does not have an easy job. He has to attend
-state banquets, preside at the laying of corner-stones,
-and ride in state on great occasions, always look pleasant
-when he is in public, and eternally be entertaining
-somebody from somewhere that he does not care about.
-This does not sound so bad, but when you read, as you
-do in the English papers, just what the king does every
-day and realize what a grind it must be after the novelty
-is worn off, you begin to feel sorry for Edward.
-No wonder he has to go to the hot springs for his health.
-I don’t suppose that since he has been king he has had
-a whole week off, and he is getting old. Kings and
-queens have to do everything, from marrying to visiting,
-because it is best for their countries and not because
-they want to. Even an independent American
-citizen knows how tiresome it is to do “what is best”
-rather than what you really like, and poor Edward
-never gets a rest. Of course, if the king really had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_248"></a>[248]</span>
-power there would be some recompense to a man. But
-the king of England has little or no power. He is not
-allowed to have any views on public questions. When
-the Conservative party is in power it speaks for the
-king and when the Liberal party is in power it voices
-the sentiment of the king. This fiction is a part of
-the British constitution, with the further inconsistent
-proposition that the king can do no wrong. If the people
-disapprove of the public policy they blame the dominant
-ministry, and properly so, for the king has no
-more to say on political questions in England than a
-Republican has in Texas. Edward would no more dare
-to take a decided position or make a stand on a government
-policy than he would get out in the street with
-nothing on but his crown. The people run the government
-in Great Britain nearly as much as they do in
-the United States, and the monarchical customs and
-the restrictions and regulations which seem absurd to
-us would be dumped out in the next session of parliament
-if the people wished it. But they don’t, for they
-are English and they cling to the old ways. They want
-the king and nobles and are willing to pay the bills.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>But I am getting away from Windsor. It is the biggest
-and best castle I have seen in Europe. There are
-towers and turrets and moats enough to remind you
-that once upon a time a castle was a fort, and there
-are gardens and terraces and beautiful pictures which
-show that the kings have spent their money, or the
-people’s money, with good taste. There are several
-other royal residences in England, but Windsor is conceded<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_249"></a>[249]</span>
-to be the best. It is in a beautiful country, and
-yet it is close to London, so that the king could spend
-a quiet night and in the morning hop on the train and
-in thirty minutes be at his office in the city. And the
-king has a train of special cars nearly as handsome as
-those of a division superintendent on the Santa Fe.</p>
-
-<p>Our guide pointed out to us a neighboring estate
-which belonged to William Penn, the first owner of
-Pennsylvania, long before Quay’s time. Penn got the
-English sovereign to let him have all of Pennsylvania
-at a nominal rent. He then settled with the Indians
-on a friendly basis, and the result was his Quaker colony
-prospered from the start. The contract was that he
-and his successors and assigns should pay to the king of
-England so many beaver-skins annually. There have
-been no payments, so the guide said, since July 4, 1776.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>On our way to Windsor we stopped at Stoke Poges,
-or rather at the church near there, in the graveyard of
-which Gray wrote his great “Elegy.” The little church
-stands just as it did when Gray was there about 150
-years ago. The yew tree, to which he refers, is a veritable
-monarch, and the woman who shows strangers
-around said it was 900 years old. In the church are
-the graves of Gray and his mother, to whom he owed
-his intelligence and his opportunity. The ivy-covered
-tower looks down over the crumbling gravestones of
-those&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="indent2">“Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife,</div>
- <div class="indent4">Their sober wishes never learned to stray;</div>
- <div class="indent2">Along the cool, sequestered vale of life</div>
- <div class="indent4">They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_250"></a>[250]</span></p>
-<p>Gray wrote a great poem. He never wrote another
-in the same class. His reputation is based on the
-Elegy, and that is enough. It made him famous, and
-he was offered the position of poet laureate to the king
-and declined it. A man who will decline a good job
-like that is almost as rare as a great poet.</p>
-
-<p>We read the poem aloud out in the graveyard underneath
-the yew tree. It fitted exactly. Gray had
-touched the springs of sublimity by seeing through
-nature and telling just what he saw, no more.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>In a field near Windsor I saw a mowing-machine, the
-first I have noticed in Europe. Everywhere else the
-hay and grass has been cut by hand. I mentioned this
-fact to the driver, and he was very bitter over the introduction
-of machinery because it kept men out of
-an opportunity to work. He told me he was going to
-America just as soon as he could “raise the funds.”
-The women do not work in the field in England, at
-least not much. But they are busy in the dairy, at the
-stores and behind the bar in the saloons. In every
-way I found England ahead of the continent in its
-ways of doing things, but there is still enough difference
-from our ways to make them seem queer. I also have
-a kick coming on another matter. A great many English
-people do not speak the English language. They
-think they do, but they not only drop their h’s when
-they should be on and put them on where they do not
-belong, but they pronounce the vowels and some of the
-consonants in a manner that would make a dictionary
-turn pale. It is often very difficult for me to understand<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_251"></a>[251]</span>
-them, and they are all at sea over my Kansas
-brogue. Of course this does not apply to the educated
-English people, who only speak differently from us in
-using a broad and pleasant accent.</p>
-
-<p>Coming down the street on the way home I saw in a
-grocery-store window these signs: “Breakfast eggs, ten
-for a shilling;” “Recommended eggs, twelve for a
-shilling;” “Select eggs, fourteen for a shilling;”
-“Cooking-eggs, sixteen for a shilling.” The frankness
-of the signs surprised me. I suppose we have the same
-varieties of eggs in Kansas, but we don’t describe them
-so exactly and they all go at the same price. As eggs
-are a staple item on the bill of fare, I am wondering
-to-night whether my landlord buys “breakfast eggs”
-or “cooking-eggs,” or just plain “eggs.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The English money is the hardest to understand in
-Europe. It is based on the shilling, worth about a
-quarter in our money. Four farthings make a penny,
-12 pennies make a shilling, and 20 shillings make a
-pound ($4.80). The usual coins are the ½ penny, pronounced
-“ha-penny,” penny, “tuppence,” the 3-penny,
-pronounced “trippence,” the sixpence, the shilling,
-the 10-shilling, the pound, called a sovereign; the
-5-shilling piece, called a crown, and the half-crown.
-You add 8 pence to 10 pence and it doesn’t make 18,
-it makes “one and six.” Add one and six to one and
-eight and it makes three and two&mdash;yes, it does! Figuring
-with English money for an American beginner is
-like turning handsprings.</p>
-
-<p>The paper currency is issued by the Bank of England,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_252"></a>[252]</span>
-and is made of white-fiber paper. In some way
-I got possession of a ten-pound note and took it into
-a bank to have it changed. The cashier had me sign
-my name on the back. I demurred at first, but as I
-wanted the change I finally did it, remarking to him
-that I was pleased to know that the bank considered
-my indorsement necessary to a bank note of the Bank
-of England. The cashier did not see the joke, for he
-took pains to tell me that it was not to make the note
-better and that a Bank of England note was worth its
-face in gold anywhere. I have had a hard time with
-my alleged jokes. I had a letter of introduction to a
-London banker from a New York banker, and presented
-it in order to get the opportunity of looking
-through an English bank. Wanting to be pleasant and
-friendly, I remarked as he finished reading the letter
-that I had gotten it so that if I had trouble with the
-police I might call on him for help. He gravely assured
-me that he did not think I would have any difficulty
-with the police. He did not see my little joke. Perhaps
-he has seen it by this time, for that was two days
-ago.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_253"></a>[253]</span></p>
-
-<p class="p130">THE TOWER AND OTHER THINGS.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">London</span>, <span class="smcap">England</span>, Aug. 17, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>After Westminster Abbey I went to looking for the
-Tower of London. Since I was a boy and read the
-story of the two little princes who were said to have
-been murdered in the Tower by order of their royal
-uncle, I had pictured the Tower as something awful
-and gloomy. As a matter of fact the Tower is rather
-imposing in appearance, and with the improvements
-that have been made in recent years is a fairly decent
-sort of castle right in the city of London. Built for
-a fortress by William the Conqueror soon after his capture
-of England from the Saxons, it was added to and
-used as a royal residence and state prison, mostly the
-latter. Kings and queens have been confined within
-its walls and nobles have been imprisoned by the hundreds,
-many of them only finding it a step toward execution.
-It is now a government arsenal, and contains
-a number of soldiers and a lot of military supplies as
-well as a historical museum. The Tower consists of
-a dozen towers inclosed by a wall and moat, and covers
-thirteen acres. It is really very interesting, and anyone
-who remembers his English history or who has
-read English stories of a few centuries ago can feel
-delightful thrills as he goes up and down the dark
-corridors and stairways, sees the rooms in which so
-many of the great men of England, good and bad,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_254"></a>[254]</span>
-spent the time preliminary to their death, or passed
-years in confinement. Kings of England, Scotland and
-France, princes, archbishops and ministers of state have
-carved or scratched their names on the walls and window-frames
-while sojourning here at the expense of the
-state. As a usual thing the executions were held outside
-the walls so that the public could enjoy the amusement,
-but a few of the noble ladies and some men who
-were very popular with the people were decapitated in
-the little square in the middle of the inclosure, and the
-spot is now marked by an iron tablet. The Tower has
-not been used as a prison since 1820, and since then it
-has been cleaned and renovated so that the only evidence
-of the dark old days is contained in the placards
-which the government has put up for the benefit of the
-public. Henry <abbr title="the eighth">VIII</abbr>., who was a bad husband but an
-able monarch, had a fad for the collection of old armor,
-and a great part of the White Tower, the largest of the
-towers in the Tower, is taken up by a splendid exhibition
-of the fighting-clothes and weapons of England
-and Europe during the Middle Ages. In another tower,
-Wakefield Tower, is kept a part of the royal regalia, including
-the crown worn by the king when he is formally
-inducted into office at Westminster Abbey. This crown
-contains 2,818 diamonds, 300 pearls and other precious
-stones “too numerous to mention.” The government
-charges a sixpence to get into this exhibit, which
-is said by the official guidebook to be worth $15,000,000.
-You pay another sixpence to see the rest of the buildings,
-including the old armor, the place where the bones
-of the little princes are said to have been found, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_255"></a>[255]</span>
-tower where the Duke of Clarence was drowned in a
-large cask of wine, and all the other beautiful horrors
-that go with the Tower. I never fail to appreciate the
-thrift of these European governments. They always
-charge admissions to the castles, palaces and public
-buildings. What a howl there would be in America
-if the Government should exact a fee of 10 cents to
-visit the White House, or the State of Kansas should
-charge admission to the Governor’s residence at Topeka.</p>
-
-<p>When we went into the Tower the officers at the gate
-made everybody leave packages or boxes outside. Mrs.
-Morgan even had to dispose of her chatelaine bag, and
-when she wanted to know the reason why, learned that
-it was to prevent her carrying dynamite into the Tower
-and blowing it to pieces. The powers of the Old World
-are always looking for dynamiters.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>During our stay in London the French fleet has been
-visiting the British fleet at Portsmouth, and a large
-number of the officers and men have been brought to
-London and entertained. International politics is a
-subject of general interest in Europe. Emperor William
-of Germany has most of the rest of Europe so
-nervous that even the English and French, foes for
-centuries, are making up to each other. Just as in
-Germany I found a feeling that eventually Germany
-would have a war with America and England, I found
-the same impression here, and as France hates Germany
-more than it does England, the French, with the same
-thing in mind, would line up with the Anglo-American<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_256"></a>[256]</span>
-combine. The London papers have had numerous
-articles showing that the combined fleets, armies and
-financial powers of the three countries and Japan could
-lick the rest of the earth to a standstill. The most
-ordinary Englishman is posted on international matters
-as well as the ordinary American is on local State
-affairs. To illustrate the public feeling, at a theatre
-when the ballet-girls were carrying banners of the various
-nations the climax came with the English representatives
-and the French representatives clasping
-hands and the American dancers waving the stars and
-stripes over them. The audience cheered enthusiastically.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Speaking of theatres reminds me that London has
-the best in the world. The English people are great
-play-goers, and the city has such a large population
-that a play often runs here for a year. Prices are higher
-for the best seats and cheaper for the cheap seats than
-in America. A parquet seat is called a “stall,” and is
-usually $2.50. The “pit” is back of the parquet, and
-is about 50 cents. First balcony is called the dress
-circle, and is about $2. Second gallery is about 25 or
-50 cents. I think the class distinctions account for
-the great difference in prices. An imposition in London
-theatres is that a charge of 12 cents is made for a
-program, filled with advertising, and no better than
-those given free in America. When the orchestra
-plays “God Save the King” the audience rises. Americans
-get up, too, and as the tune is the same as “America”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257"></a>[257]</span>
-the Yankees I know sing “Sweet Land of Liberty”
-while the English are saving the king.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I saw the procession of the local officials when the
-Frenchmen were here. The sheriff of the county rode
-in a beautiful old-style yellow coach, wore a three-cornered
-hat and a uniform of 200 years ago, with
-powdered wig and sword. The lord mayor of London
-was dressed the same way, with his hair down his back
-in a queue. If the sheriff of Reno county and the
-mayor of Hutchinson had any style about them they
-would not let these English officials outshine them.
-I am told it costs the mayor about a half-million a
-year to hold the office, as his principal duty is to entertain
-the city’s guests at his own expense. The lord
-mayor is more ornamental than useful. The local
-government is more like our State organization, with
-one legislative body, consisting of 118 county councillors
-elected by the boroughs, and another of nineteen
-aldermen appointed by the council. As London has
-about five times as many people as Kansas and much
-harder problems of administration to be solved, the
-government is a big thing. And London is well governed,
-better, I think, than American cities. The only
-thing that would grate on us is the great amount of
-regulation. You can’t build a house or go into business
-without permission, and then everything must be
-just so. The English people are law-abiding, more
-patient with regulations and rules than ours, and public
-opinion stands for the strict enforcement not only of
-laws but of what seem like absurd red-tape rules.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_258"></a>[258]</span>
-Hardly any stores are open or business commenced
-until 9 o’clock. Nearly everybody takes one to two
-hours for lunch. Stores close at 6 o’clock and dinner
-is in the evening. Saturday afternoons all business
-houses are shut up, and there are a great number of
-holidays. An American gets nervous over the easy-going
-way of doing business. He is always in trouble
-because he has forgotten it is Saturday afternoon or a
-“bank holiday,” or because he can’t transact important
-business between 12 and 2 o’clock. In fact, if he
-wants to, an American can find a lot of things in London
-to make him miserable and cause him to abuse the
-country. But if he is patient and learns a little of the
-English ways he finds that he may live a little slower
-but he will live just as happily, and probably longer
-if he does as the English do. The American way of
-rushing things is well known and generally discountenanced
-in England. They think we are fools for working
-so hard, and resent the rather offensive criticisms
-by the Yankees of their slowness. Perhaps they are
-right. They tell me that on his first visit an American
-always tries to reform English business methods. After
-that first attempt he tackles the easier job of sweeping
-back the ocean with a broom.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_259"></a>[259]</span></p>
-
-<p class="p130">IN RURAL ENGLAND.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">London, England</span>, August 21, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>We have just finished a trip of a couple of hundred
-miles through southern England in a motor car. In
-France and the United States it is an automobile, but
-in Great Britain it is a motor car. This is a better way
-to see the country than from a railroad train, and not
-so good as walking. If you have a motor car or have
-a friend who has one, that is the best way to travel.
-If you have none and no prospect, a motor car is a delusion
-and a mistake. I happened to have a friend
-with a motor car and am therefore on the side of the
-motorists.</p>
-
-<p>We left London at 10 o’clock in the morning, and
-by night had ridden a hundred miles and taken in
-Hampton Court, Windsor, Reading, Maidenhead, Alton,
-and Winchester, besides a lot of little places and
-the country along the way. The English roads are
-just about perfection. The main roads are made of
-stone or gravel with clay on top, rolled until they are
-as smooth as asphalt, and kept free from holes and
-bumps. Every bridge and culvert is of stone. There
-is no need to slow up except for people and other vehicles.
-I doubt if America ever has such roads. Perhaps
-in a thousand years, when our country is about
-as old as England, we will have equally as good thoroughfares,
-but it will be fully a thousand years. These<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_260"></a>[260]</span>
-English roads were good stone roads before the days
-of railways. They were constructed as business and
-military necessities by the order of the English government.
-I don’t think Kansas farmers will ever
-build graveled roads on which motorists can make high
-speed and kill the chickens and dogs that don’t get out
-of the way when the horn blows. However, Kansas
-farmers could, profitably to themselves, improve their
-roads so that one horse could haul a wagon-load in
-place of two horses, and so that the wagon could be
-hauled in muddy times. Such roads would be good
-enough for Kansas automobiles, and by that time they
-will be cheap and every farmer will have one. The
-Romans who conquered and held possession of England
-from the time of Julius Cæsar to several centuries
-later, were great road-builders, and fragments of their
-old military roads still exist. Good roads are a sign of
-civilization. Fortunately, they are not the only sign,
-for if they were, parts of Kansas would be uncivilized.
-We can beat the Old World on a good many propositions,
-but when it comes to roads and highways the
-old country has us skinned a good many blocks.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>This is August, but the woods and meadows of England
-are as green and fresh as with us in May. An
-English summer as I see it is warm and moist. It is
-not near so warm as in the Mississippi valley, and the
-rain comes nearly every day. Rain does not often fall
-in sheets and inches, but drizzle-drazzles down and
-soaks in so as to do the most good. The English people
-don’t mind the rain at all. It is this moist climate<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_261"></a>[261]</span>
-which covers the walls with ivy and the trees with moss,
-and keeps the verdure fresh and green until the fall.
-Harvest is just now being finished. There is no corn
-in England&mdash;although they call barley, wheat and small
-grain generally, “corn.” The principal crop is hay
-and oats and barley, a little wheat, and vegetables in
-great quantities. England has 50,000 square miles,
-so it is over half as large as Kansas, but it has 30,000,000
-people, and therefore much of the farming is for market
-truck. As a matter of fact there is very little actual
-“rural life.” The villages are so close together that
-it is often hard to tell where one town ends and another
-begins, and a country road is as nearly well settled as
-a city suburb in America. Here and there are vast
-estates, the beautiful show places and curse of England.
-With millions of people wanting work and thousands
-of tenant farmers who can get no title to the soil
-they till, it looks to me like a howling outrage for a lord,
-a duke or a brewer to fence up several thousand acres
-as a shooting-place, and remove from production a
-large per cent. of the land which ought to be doing
-good and providing some Englishman a chance to make
-a living and a home. The English people do not seem
-to mind it at all, and I suppose there is no call for me
-to get excited, but I can’t help it. We have gone by
-some beautiful parks, with great stately trees, deer
-grazing in herds and pheasants and quail flying at the
-side of the road. These belong to somebody who is
-off for the summer and who got them from his father,
-who received them from the king, who originally stole
-them from the actual owners.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_262"></a>[262]</span>
-For quiet beauty the lanes and meadows of England,
-lined with fine trees and fenced with hedge or stone
-wall, cannot be beaten. The Arkansas valley is just
-as beautiful in June, but in August the Kansas sun can
-be depended on to do business and spoil the freshness
-of the trees and grass. When the wayside is not inclosed
-between high hedgerows, the fence is stone, but
-over the stone grow ivy and moss, out of the cracks
-come grass and flowers, so the coldness and bleakness
-of the rock is concealed. Every English farm seems
-to have a flock of sheep. I always heard the national
-meat of old England was roast beef, but that is a mistake.
-It is mutton-chops, and every English family
-has them at least once a day if it has the price. Along
-the main roads are little inns every mile or so with the
-peculiar names and signs that are characteristic. During
-the day I counted four called “The Red Lion.”
-One was “The Headless Woman,” and over the sign-post
-was the picture of a woman with her head chopped
-off below the chin. These inns are hotels and public-houses,
-and generally look interesting and clean. I am
-told their prices are reasonable to Englishmen, but they
-charge Americans in an automobile about all the law
-would allow.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>To-day we came from Southampton to Brighton,
-fifty miles along the southern coast. The beach is fine,
-and is the summer resort of England. Years ago royalty
-and nobility made Brighton their favorite sea-shore
-place, but the great plain people have gotten into
-the habit of going there in numbers, so the aristocracy<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_263"></a>[263]</span>
-has gone farther, to the continent and to Wales. Nearly
-every one of these old English towns has a cathedral
-and a Roman wall. The Romans were town-builders
-as well as road-makers, and they never even camped
-for the night without fortifying. The cathedrals were
-mostly built in the Middle Ages, when the church was
-a wealthy business organization with lands and revenues.
-They look old and quaint and are generally in
-good taste. When you read about a cathedral or castle
-being a thousand years old you may depend on it that
-if it is still in use it has been “restored.” Some of
-these very old cathedrals remind me of the boy’s jackknife.
-The blades wore out and he got new blades.
-The handle wore out and he got a new handle. But
-he still had the old jackknife. A cathedral built in
-the year 1000 may have new walls, new roof, new interior
-and new spire, but it is still the old cathedral, “restored.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>In a little old English inn on the bank of the river
-Thames we ate our lunch and watched the endless procession
-of boats that passes up and down the stream.
-The ocean reaches up the river as far as London, so
-that it is really an inlet, with a tide that rises and falls,
-and a deep channel for ships. Ten miles above London
-the Thames is about the size of the Little Arkansas,
-and all the way past Windsor, Henley and Oxford,
-historic for the boat-races, it is very little wider than
-Cow creek. By a system of dams and locks the Thames
-above London is really only a canal. There is a path
-alongside, and we saw several young men taking their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_264"></a>[264]</span>
-sisters, or somebody’s sisters, for a boat-ride, the man
-walking the bank, pulling the boat with a rope, and the
-lady sitting in the boat. In some countries I have
-been in this summer the woman would have been pulling
-on the rope and the man would have been reared
-back in the seat, comfortably smoking a long cigar.
-As a river the Thames above London is not much, but as
-a pretty winding stream, carrying little steamboats and
-row-boats, filled with gaily dressed people, it is a success.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The place we stopped for lunch was at Runnymede,
-just about the greatest spot on earth for English and
-Americans. It was here in 1215 that King John met
-the rebellious barons and signed the Magna Charta.
-Up to that time the king of England had done as he
-pleased, regardless of law. King John levied taxes so
-heavily that the people could not stand it, and the big
-nobles suffered worst of all. So the barons combined,
-and when the king started out to lick them, his supporters
-nearly all went over to the rebels. In order to
-save his neck and his kingdom, John met the barons at
-Runnymede and signed the agreement which is at the
-basis of the English and American constitutions. He
-agreed not to levy any further unusual taxes except by
-consent of the Great Council of the nobles (origin of the
-English parliament), nor to deny or sell justice, and
-confirmed the right of an accused person to a trial by
-jury.</p>
-
-<p>It did not make any difference if King John repudiated
-the Magna Charta as soon as he could. The
-principle was established, and while some English rulers<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_265"></a>[265]</span>
-after that tried to evade and escape its provisions,
-the English people held to it as their rock of refuge.
-England has no written constitution like ours. The
-English constitution is a growth of custom, laws, grants
-and statutes, and the Magna Charta is the basis on
-which it rests.</p>
-
-<p>When John met the barons at Runnymede the people
-had no rights that king or baron was bound to respect.
-But John put a provision in the Magna Charta that the
-barons must treat their tenants as fairly as the barons
-wanted to be treated by the king. I suppose John was
-trying to get even with his powerful nobles by thus
-recognizing the common people, and deserves no credit
-for the article. But in a few centuries the development
-of this idea and the discovery that a musket in
-the hands of an ordinary man could shoot a hole through
-a knight, broadened the Magna Charta so that it protects
-every Englishman.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>One of the things that strike Americans as odd is the
-rule of the road, “turn to the left.” This rule is rigidly
-observed everywhere in England. But when your
-motor car, running at 30 or 40 miles an hour, meets
-another coming at a like speed, and your driver turns
-to the left, the American on the rear seat shuts his eyes
-so as not to see the collision, while a cold chill travels
-down his backbone. Of course there is no accident, for
-the other fellow also turns to the left, but it is hard on
-the nerves. However, a Kansas man in Europe takes
-plenty of nerve with him and he is all right so long as
-his money lasts.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_266"></a>[266]</span></p>
-
-<p class="p130">RAILROADS IN EUROPE.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Liverpool</span>, Aug. 24, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>A railroad is a railroad anywhere in the world, only
-it is sometimes different. Every country has its own
-peculiarity in railroads as well as in everything else.
-The first European train we saw was at Queenstown,
-Ireland, and we laughed. It looked like a toy, small
-engine, small coaches and strange in appearance. I
-decided to wait until I had more observations on the
-subject before putting my ideas into a letter, and since
-then have gone from one country to another in Europe,
-traveling first, second and third class, on main lines
-and branch roads, on through trains and accommodation
-trains, and gaining all the knowledge possible for
-an American traveler who gets his information from
-experience. While each country has its peculiarities,
-there are certain ways in common.</p>
-
-<p>In the first place the European idea of a passenger
-car is taken directly from the old stage-coach. It is
-composed of from three to six compartments, like that
-many stages fastened together. In each compartment
-there are two seats running across the car, facing each
-other, and holding eight or ten passengers. As a rule
-there is no communication between the compartments.
-You get in the little room, the door is shut and locked,
-and there you stay until you get to the next stop, when
-the door is opened if anyone wants to come in or go out.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_267"></a>[267]</span>
-There is no toilet-room, and no way to go to the smoking
-compartment unless you are in one, and no way to
-get out if you are in. I think all third-class cars are of
-this pattern. On the main lines, on a few trains and
-in some cars, there is a corridor running along the side,
-making it possible to go from one compartment to another,
-and sometimes there is a toilet-room. This pattern
-of cars is often called “American,” and usually
-there are extra charges. The cars are short and light,
-with two wheels under each end like wagon-wheels, and
-not the double trucks of our cars. There is very seldom
-any ventilation at the top, and as the rule is that
-the passenger next to the window can regulate its opening,
-the other passengers can freeze or roast as the case
-may be. In Germany the cars have appliances for
-steam heat, but they do not seem to usually have them
-in England or elsewhere on the continent. Travelers
-carry rugs, blankets and footstones in cold weather.</p>
-
-<p>And right here let me explain a difference in traveling
-that accounts for much of the seeming shortcomings
-of European cars. The people in Europe hardly
-ever take long journeys. Sleeping-cars are rarities and
-only carried on a few trains. A European who takes
-a twenty-mile railroad trip thinks he is a “traveler.”
-They do not have our magnificent distances and long
-journeys, and therefore do not expect the comforts and
-luxuries which we consider necessities. Almost the
-only people who make what are called “long trips” in
-Europe, that is, ten or twelve hours, are American and
-English tourists, and they are given a shadow of American
-comfort on certain first-class trains, for which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_268"></a>[268]</span>
-they pay right well. For example, Mrs. Morgan and
-I wanted to take the night train from Paris to Marseilles,
-twelve hours’ ride. One train carried a sleeping-car.
-It left Paris at 9 o’clock at night and reached
-Marseilles at 9 o’clock the next morning. Only passengers
-with first-class tickets can ride on it. I bought
-my first-class tickets (nearly twice the second-class,
-which is the usual way), and then asked how much the
-sleeper would be. “Twenty dollars!” In America
-we would have paid $2.50. And this in a land where
-we were told everything was cheap! I have often been
-heard to rail at the high rates charged by Mr. Pullman,
-but I will be slow to do so again. I lifted up my voice
-to the French agent on the extortion of charging twenty
-dollars for one night, and he shrugged his shoulders and
-said we could go on the day train,&mdash;that Frenchmen
-never used the sleeping-cars, and that if the rich Americans
-wanted them they could pay the price. We did
-not buy that sleeping-car, but a few days later, when it
-became very important to hurry to Rome, we gave up
-eight dollars for a sleeper from Genoa to the city of the
-Cæsars. A berth in a European sleeping-car is a little
-compartment with two beds, one above the other, about
-the size of pantry shelves. Two people cannot comfortably
-stand in the compartment, and when one is
-dressing the other has to stay on his shelf or go out in
-the corridor which runs along the side. There is no
-ventilation, and the toilet-room, about as big as a barrel,
-is for both sexes. As some American said, there is
-one good thing about a European sleeping-car, and only
-one: you do not mind having to get off at an early hour.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_269"></a>[269]</span></p>
-
-<p>The railroad language is different in England. When
-I bought a ticket in London I went to the “booking
-office,” and “booked for Liverpool.” There is no conductor,
-but a “guard,” who is conductor, brakeman
-and porter combined. Freight trains are “goods
-trains.” The engineer is a “driver.” Baggage is “luggage.”
-A grip is a “bag,” a trunk is a “box,” and anything
-is a “parcel.” Nobody calls the stations. When
-you reach your destination you get off, and if you are
-a stranger you are always in trouble wondering whether
-or not you have gone past. I have never learned the
-theory of their tickets. When I “book” I get a ticket
-about like ours. Often no one looks at it or takes it up
-until I leave the station at the end of the trip. We
-rode one day in Italy nearly all day before anybody
-looked at our tickets, although usually it is necessary
-to show them to get on the station platform. It would
-seem as if such carelessness would be taken advantage
-of, but it does not seem to be. One reason probably
-is that in every country it is a crime to ride on a railroad
-train without a ticket. In America if the conductor
-catches you riding without a ticket he collects
-the fare. In Europe he can send you to jail, and I
-don’t doubt but he would. In America it is not considered
-even bad morals to beat a railroad. In Europe
-it is a felony.</p>
-
-<p>I had been told that railroad traveling is cheaper
-in Europe than in America, but it is not. To understand
-railroad rates you must remember that population
-is very dense and traffic heavy, much like suburban
-travel around New York or Chicago. England is not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_270"></a>[270]</span>
-near as large as Kansas, but it has twenty times our
-population. Practically all of the travel is short-distance.
-The same conditions prevail on the continent.
-You can ride third-class, second-class, or first-class.
-In most countries third-class is a good deal like riding
-in American box-cars fitted up with seats. That costs
-about two cents a mile. Second-class means cars such
-as I have described with upholstered seats, and the
-price is close to three cents a mile. First-class means
-plush or leather and a guarantee that your traveling
-companions will be nobility or Americans or fools.
-The first-class rate is about four cents. In most European
-countries no baggage is carried free. You pay
-extra for fast trains, “corridor trains,” and for the use
-of toilet-rooms. In order to travel in clean company
-and in ordinary decent style, after you count in your
-“extras,” the railroad fare is just about the same in
-Europe as in America, and not as cheap as it is on similar
-trains in the populous sections of our country. In
-the stations there are separate waiting-rooms and separate
-lunch-counters for first, second and third-class
-passengers. The high-class European can eat his lunch
-with the happy thought that no rude third-class citizen
-is on the next stool.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>But if the European railroads do not do much for the
-comfort and pleasure of the passengers, they are away
-ahead of our railroads when it comes to providing for
-their safety. Accidents are not unknown, but they
-are rare, especially in comparison with the frightful
-wrecks which take place in the United States. Nearly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_271"></a>[271]</span>
-every railroad is double-tracked or has three or four
-tracks. The roadbeds are near to perfection. Bridges
-are of stone. Rails are not so heavy, but are stronger
-when the light cars are considered. And every mile
-of European track is patrolled day and night. They
-use a half-dozen section-men and track-walkers where
-we would have one or two, and they pay the half-dozen
-wages that aggregate about as much as the one or
-two. In Italy the track-walkers are usually women,
-and it was a funny sight to see the Dago lady stand
-with a red flag at “present arms” when the train passed.
-Most crossings are overhead or under, very rarely on
-grade. Embankments are built of stone instead of
-mud, and the roadbeds are constructed for centuries,
-instead of being just sufficient to “earn the bonds.”
-I was in England when an accident occurred on a railroad,
-and the next day the matter was brought up in
-parliament and the government was asked what it was
-doing to prevent a recurrence of such a thing. Just
-as the government protects the railroads from beats
-it regulates their conduct for the safety of the traveler.
-In some European countries, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland
-and Italy, the government owns the important
-railroads, but in all of them it exercises a strong control.
-If a European railroad would attempt to operate
-a line like some of the jerkwater branches in Kansas,
-the directors would be in jail. The result is that many
-of the conveniences are sacrificed to rigid rules and the
-lives and limbs of the passengers are not in near as
-much danger as in the United States, where competition
-has gone in for comfortable cars and often neglected<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_272"></a>[272]</span>
-the track. While the Europeans might copy
-some of our methods, our railroad officials could get
-some information in the Old World that would save
-them lots of wrecks and make their passengers more
-secure in their life and health while traveling in the
-palatial cars.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>As the European does not travel long distances and
-has to pay extra for his baggage, he rarely takes anything
-but hand-luggage. All through Europe we have
-journeyed for three months, carrying all of our baggage
-in the car with us. When we reached a station where
-we were to stop there was always a porter on hand to
-carry our half-dozen grips and bags, and for five or ten
-cents put them safely in the carriage that would take
-us to the hotel to the hotel for a quarter. During the
-three months I don’t think I carried my grip three
-times. There is always a man standing around ready
-to do such work so cheaply that nobody thinks of carrying
-his own grips even across a station platform. If
-you have a trunk it is put in a box-car on the end of
-the train, and at your destination you go and get it at
-once. There are no baggage-checks, and you wonder
-the trunks do not get lost. But they don’t.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The station-master always wears a fine uniform, and
-in most countries he is a sort of military officer. When
-the time for departure arrives he rings a bell or blows
-a whistle. The guards close the car-doors. Then the
-station-master whistles again and the train starts, the
-station-master saluting. The engine does not whistle<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273"></a>[273]</span>
-or ring a bell. The conductor does not yell “All
-aboard!” The station-master is the whole thing. He
-is an autocrat and has entire control of the train in
-station.</p>
-
-<p>Trains are rarely late in Europe. The schedule is
-maintained regardless of connections, and therefore connections
-are usually made. The railroad rules have
-the same weight as laws and are observed as such.
-Railroad employés are polite. When a porter starts
-down a platform with a barrow of luggage he does not
-try to run over people, or yell “Get out of the way!”
-as in America. He goes slowly and calls out “Make
-way, if you please.” Baggagemen do not try to break
-the trunks, and will answer civilly when you ask questions.
-Some of these European ways are not so bad.</p>
-
-<p>Summed up, these are my impressions of European
-railroads: Cars small, uncomfortable, unsanitary; road-bed
-fine and management good; prices about the same
-as in America, and chance of getting to your destination
-much better.</p>
-
-<p>A passenger train with the long line of little light
-coaches is put over the rails very rapidly in Europe if
-they wish. Many regular trains make fifty and sixty
-miles an hour. The ordinary trains which stop frequently
-and carry the third-class cars principally, are
-slow. A freight car, called a “goods van,” is about
-the size of a dray. There are not many box-cars, but
-the goods are packed on the open drays and covered
-with tarpaulins. The effect is about like a thresher
-engine pulling a lot of four-wheel wagons and drays.
-It looks “dinky” and is a cause of merriment for Americans.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274"></a>[274]</span>
-But the Englishman retorts with some reference
-to an American railroad wreck and we shut up.
-I have learned this summer that while the United
-States is the greatest country on earth, it can still
-learn lessons from the slow-but-sure-going English, the
-sturdy Germans and the energetic French. One of
-these lessons is that fast trains and fine cars ought to
-be supplemented by solid roadbeds and careful watching.</p>
-
-<p>A New York clothing merchant was showing a customer
-some suits. The man tried on a coat and vest,
-and when the merchant turned his back he bolted out
-of the door. The store-keeper yelled “Stop thief!”
-and called the police. All joined in the pursuit. The
-policeman drew his revolver and began to fire at the
-fugitive. “Shoot him in the pants!” screamed the
-merchant, “shoot him in the pants: the coat and vest
-are mine.”</p>
-
-<p>So when we begin to fire at the defects of railroading
-in the various countries I have to beg the shootist to
-shoot at the pants, the coat and vest and some of the
-faults are our own.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275"></a>[275]</span></p>
-
-<p class="p130">THE TIME TO QUIT.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="date"><span class="smcap">Liverpool, England</span>, Aug. 24, 1905.</p>
-
-<p>To-morrow we will finish the job of seeing Europe and
-sail for home. Just to be sure that we would not miss
-the boat, we came to Liverpool two days in advance.
-When an American is on his first long stay in a foreign
-country and the time grows near when he is to return
-once more to the land and the people he loves, he knows
-now that he loved them if never before. Strange scenes
-are no longer interesting, castles, cathedrals and curious
-costumes are tiresome, and the only thoughts are
-of the folks at home. Even a man who is ordinarily
-cynical and unsentimental finds his heart beating faster
-as the hours drag slowly by waiting for the time of departure.
-It would be a great relief if one could walk
-ahead and be overtaken, but the walking is not good
-in the Atlantic this season, so we are painfully killing
-time and going through the motions of sight-seeing
-while “waiting for the train,” or rather for the boat,
-which happens to be the White Star steamship Republic.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>On the way here we spent a day in the town of
-Oxford. Everybody has read more or less of the great
-university and its student life. Of course this is vacation-time
-and the colleges are practically deserted, but
-we wandered through the buildings and quadrangles<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276"></a>[276]</span>
-and enjoyed the walks and quaint streets. The phrase
-“classic shades” might well have originated here, for
-the great trees hundreds of years old, the ivy-covered
-walls and towers, the inclosed courts and the low-ceiled
-halls and rooms, all make for a peaceful repose
-that forms a charming setting for the intellectual life
-which ordinarily fills the place. There are twenty-one
-colleges in Oxford, each large in size and impressive
-in architecture. The style is a quadrangle with a large
-court or “quad” within, on which the students’ rooms
-face, and usually covered with grass and filled with
-stately trees. Each college has from 100 to 300 students,
-and the attendance at the whole university is
-over 3,000. The “young gentlemen,” as Oxford students
-are called, reside in the college buildings, and
-each has a bedroom and sitting-room. Meals are either
-served in the rooms or in the large dining-hall. There
-are no recitations, and not many lectures. Much of the
-studying is done with tutors. The intellectual effort
-of the student is to acquire sufficient knowledge from
-lectures, tutors and books to pass the examinations.
-The chief courses of study are the ancient languages,
-philosophy, mathematics, history, and either theology,
-law, medicine, or natural science. The range is not
-near so large as in America and they do not go so much
-on what we call “practical studies.” On the side the
-men do good work in rowing and cricket, and have all
-the fun of American students, even if they are supposed
-to be in and with the gates locked every night
-at 9 o’clock.</p>
-
-<p>The history of Oxford University dates back to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277"></a>[277]</span>
-Alfred the Great, but the first authentic accounts of
-the work are of the twelfth century. All learning was
-then in the hands of the church, and the first colleges
-were primarily for the education of priests. Kings,
-queens and bishops, interested in learning, established
-first one college and then another, so that by the thirteenth
-century Oxford ranked with the most important
-universities in Europe; and then, as education
-extended to other professions, the colleges widened
-their courses of study, and the government, while still
-ecclesiastical in form, became broad and liberal. The
-colleges have large endowments, plenty of money, and
-Oxford and Cambridge have educated most of the
-great men of England in the last 500 years.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Liverpool is a good deal like a big American city. A
-hundred years ago it was a small town, but by taking
-the lead in American trade it has become the most
-important port of Great Britain, and, counting suburbs,
-has nearly a million population. Its harbor is a deep
-river, the Mersey, and the banks are solid walls of
-wharves, docks and wholesale buildings. It is a relief
-to strike a town where you go to see bridges and
-factories instead of churches and art galleries. Liverpool
-is a good place in which to taper off from the old
-and the curious to the useful and the active. In our
-hotel here we have electric lights, bathrooms, and an
-elevator that works. Hotels where you go to bed by
-candlelight, bathe in a little tub, and walk up four
-flights of narrow stairs, are interesting and comfortable,
-but they are better for a three months’ stay than for a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278"></a>[278]</span>
-steady diet. Nearly every guest at this, the biggest
-hotel in Liverpool, is an American who is getting anxious.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>One of the subjects in which I have taken an interest
-on this trip has been that of the prices of products and
-labor, comparing them with those at home. I have
-referred to it frequently, but perhaps a summary will
-interest the practical American who wants to know
-“what it costs.” In the beginning I want to say I
-have not yet found a place where “things are cheap,”
-according to the American standard. The ordinary
-people in Europe get along with things that are cheaper
-than in America and they do without others, so their
-cost of living is not so high. The ordinary artisan or
-mechanic in Europe will live with his family in two or
-three rooms poorly lighted, ventilated and uninviting.
-His rent is therefore cheaper than the American mechanic
-who occupies a little house of his own and has a
-front yard or a porch. The European mechanic will
-have meat to eat once a week or once a day, and he and
-his family will live on what a great many Americans
-waste&mdash;they have to. Therefore he lives more cheaply,
-and so can an American who puts himself and his family
-on a diet of soup, potatoes, carrots and turnips.
-The ordinary European mechanic is assisted in earning
-a living by his wife and all of his children, while the
-ordinary American mechanic only expects his wife to
-do the housework and look after the little ones, and
-his children are at school until they are nearly ready
-to work for themselves. The American mechanic will<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279"></a>[279]</span>
-make from $2 to $5 a day, while the European will get
-from 50 cents to $1.50.</p>
-
-<p>Clothing is cheaper in Europe, and there is none
-ready made. The family either is wealthy enough to
-have tailors and dressmakers or makes its own. A
-tailor will get $1 a day wages, a seamstress 25 cents a
-day. A “hired girl” gets from a dollar a month to a
-dollar a week, so if a European has money enough he
-can have servants&mdash;but he doesn’t have them, and his
-wife and children work out. They don’t do this spasmodically,
-or in hard times, but customarily and ordinarily,
-just as their parents did before them and their
-children will do after them. Shoes are more expensive
-in Europe, and not so good. Cotton goods, such as
-shirts, underwear, etc., are as high or higher. Silk
-goods, kid gloves and perfumery are much cheaper than
-in America. The grades of clothing, etc., are different.
-In Europe the people use ugly and coarse stuff such as
-our people never use. Groceries are at least as high
-in Europe as in America. Meat is higher. You can
-get a “square meal” in the ordinary American small
-town for a quarter. You can’t do it in Europe, but
-you can get some soup and bread and carrots for ten
-cents.</p>
-
-<p>The ordinary American workingman figures that by
-working hard, being economical and having a careful
-family, he can save enough to be comfortable, educate
-his children and give them as good a chance as anybody
-in town. The ordinary European workingman
-figures that by working hard, being economical and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280"></a>[280]</span>
-having all his family at work he can escape the poor-house,
-and his children can have the same chance
-he has had.</p>
-
-<p>Of course the best prices are paid in the big cities,
-as in our country, and I will illustrate by some of my
-own experiences.</p>
-
-<p>In London at one of the finest shops I had my hair
-cut and shampooed. It cost me 12 cents American
-money, and in Hutchinson would have cost me 50
-cents, in New York at least 65 cents. The barber told
-me that most English workingmen could not afford to
-pay 6 cents (or 4 cents in a plain shop) and therefore
-cut their own hair.</p>
-
-<p>I could have had a tailor make a suit in London for
-$12 or $15 that would cost me $30 in Hutchinson or
-$40 in Kansas City. The American tailor can figure
-out how it is done. But here is a thing that pleased
-me: The swell shops in London advertise “American
-tailoring.” A European tailor sews beautifully, but
-he can’t fit. The wealthy Englishmen wear clothes
-that would make a tasteful American have fits. Americans
-are the best dressed people in the world, and
-American tailors are considered the best everywhere.</p>
-
-<p>I could live in a hotel cheaper in Europe. The hotel-keeper
-here pays his men from $6 to $10 a month and
-his chambermaids and female help from $1 to $3 a
-month. His meat and groceries cost as much or more
-than they would in America, but he works them more
-economically. The main difference is in the “help.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a id="i_297" name="i_297"><img src="images/i_297.jpg" alt="" width="443" height="550" /></a>
-<p class="caption center p80">EUROPEAN CLASS DISTINCTION.</p>
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="indent6">“<em>Big fleas have little fleas</em></div>
- <div class="indent8"><em>Upon their backs to bite ’em,</em></div>
- <div class="indent6"><em>And the little fleas have other fleas,</em></div>
- <div class="indent8"><em>And so on, ad infinitum.</em>”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<p>In women’s wares, silks, embroideries, laces and sewing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281"></a>[281]</span>
-are cheaper in Europe. Cotton goods, shoes and
-ordinary clothes are higher.</p>
-
-<p>“Things” are just as high in Europe, people and their
-labor are cheaper.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>England is the natural friend and business competitor
-of America. There is a marked difference in
-methods and ways. An Englishman will hold fast to
-the old and only accept improvements and changes
-when he is forced to or when he has fully decided they
-are best. In America we usually think a change is a
-good thing, and will prefer something new to the old
-just because it is new, when it may actually not be as
-good. These are differences in temperament which
-have their advantages and disadvantages. We could
-learn from the English and they from us, and a half-way
-compromise would undoubtedly work best.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The class distinctions are the most unpleasant feature
-of English life. An American friend was telling
-me of an incident which illustrates it. He was visiting
-a wealthy English family, and during his stay had a
-long and pleasant talk with the gardener. He went
-away, and afterward came back for another visit. He
-told his host that he wanted to see the gardener and
-ask about some shrubs. “Very well,” said the host;
-“but you won’t mind if I suggest one thing to you.
-Don’t call the gardener ‘Mr. Johnson.’ Just call him
-Johnson. We never speak to a servant as ‘Mr.’”
-That was not snobbery in England. The host was a
-kind and intelligent Englishman. It is the custom of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282"></a>[282]</span>
-the country. The custom goes on down the line. The
-butler would not associate on equal terms with the
-footman or the footman with the porter. And the
-host of my friend would take off his hat to the good-for-nothing
-son of an earl, who in turn would not presume
-to approach a prince unless requested. It reminds
-me of the poem:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="indent6">“Big fleas have little fleas</div>
- <div class="indent8">Upon their backs to bite ’em,</div>
- <div class="indent6">And the little fleas have other fleas,</div>
- <div class="indent8">And so on, ad infinitum.”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It is funny, but it is sickening to an American who
-knows that in his country the son of the gardener may
-be President and the son of the President may be a
-gardener and either of them may be a gentleman if he
-is honest and straight and decent.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_acorns.jpg" alt="" width="103" height="40" />
-</div>
-
-<p>A thought which comes to me very strongly is that
-a little visiting in other countries not only makes a
-man a better American, but it gives him the knowledge
-that there are other bright, smart and able people
-besides those in the United States. The competition
-in this world is keen, and every country has its advantages
-and its disadvantages, its weak points and
-its strong points. There is no profit in belittling the
-other fellow. If I have dwelt most upon the differences
-between America and England, it is because they are
-the interesting things. There is no interest in what
-is the same at home and here. The English are a great
-people. A little country not as big as Kansas really
-dominates the financial and political world. Out of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283"></a>[283]</span>
-the false notions of medieval times they have built up
-constitutional liberty and have conferred its blessings
-upon others. England is the greatest commercial
-power on earth, and it is so because of Englishmen and
-not because of natural advantages or favored position.
-It is old and interesting, wealthy and powerful. It is
-good to look upon and pleasant to visit. But as for me,
-I am with the Kansan who wrote:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent2">“I’ve been off on a journey&mdash;just got home to-day.</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">I’ve traveled north, and south, and east, and every other way.</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">I’ve seen a heap of country, and cities on the boom,</div>
- <div class="verse indent2">But I want to be in Kansas, where the sunflowers bloom.”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_301.jpg" alt="" width="189" height="80" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="space-above2"></p>
-
-<div class="transnote">
- <h3 id="end_note" class="nopagebreak" title="">Transcriber’s Notes</h3>
-<p><a href="#Page_67" title="">Page 67</a>&mdash; insured changed to ensured.</p>
-<p><a href="#Page_107" title="">Page 107</a>&mdash; ’lAmerica changed to l’America.</p>
-<p><a href="#Page_139" title="">Page 139</a>&mdash; passed changed to past.</p>
-<p><a href="#Page_152" title="">Page 152</a>&mdash; metroplis changed to metropolis.</p>
-<p><a href="#Page_152" title="">Page 152</a>&mdash; taking changed to talking.</p>
-<p><a href="#Page_168" title="">Page 168</a>&mdash; sursounded changed to surrounded.</p>
-<p><a href="#Page_191" title="">Page 191</a>&mdash; vinevards changed to vineyards.</p>
-<p><a href="#Page_201" title="">Page 201</a>&mdash; removed the extra word ‘one’.</p>
-<p><a href="#Page_240" title="">Page 240</a>&mdash; Britian changed to Britain.</p>
-<p><a href="#Page_277" title="">Page 277</a>&mdash; jaye changed to have.</p>
-</div>
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JOURNEY OF A JAYHAWKER ***</div>
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