o --W-* 0^'"^- "^^^^°' ^^'""o ''^^R^* o'°"^- %^^''/ ^^,'*3?\/ %^^-^/ ^^,'* i / THOMAS J. CLAYTOX. CHESTHR. PA.. i8q2. Press of The Delaware County Republican. ENTERED ACCORDING TO AN ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1893, BY THOMAS J. CLAYTON, IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON. PREFACE. The following letters are published in book form more as a souvenir for my friends than for general distribution. I have received many flattering letters requesting copies of the newspapers in which they were originally published, but which I have been unable to furnish. This book is intended to sup- ply that demand. The first series of letters was published in 1869, before the Franco-Prussian War. In that year I saw Paris a? it will , perhaps, never be seen again. It was the most glorious per- iod of the Empire of Napoleon III. The second series was published in 1873, after France's humiliation and during the World's Fair, at Vienna, a display that has never been equaled by any exposition that it has been my good fortune to see. In 1888, I made an extended tour of Europe, from Sicily to the North Cape and from Paris to Constantinople. The letters of this series give faithful pictures, as far as I was able to paint them, of my experience and observations during six months of the most active and, to me, the most interesting period of my life. In 1889 I visited Spain and Northern Africa and have en- deavored to give my impressions of the places I visited during the three months I spent in those interesting countries. The last series of foreign letters was written in 1892, and is confined to France, Italy and Africa. I trust the letters from Florida, Havana, Jamaica and Bermuda, written during the winters of 1890 and 1891 will prove interesting to those who have, as well as to those who have not visited those places. The letters describing my hunts in Arkansas and Virginia will recall some pleasant recollections to the old friends who were my partners upon those pleasant occasions and will bs enjoyed by all who are fond of the sports of the field and are friends of the dog and gun. I have supplemented ni}- book with a Biographic il sketch IV of the Clayton family in America, which will, of course, be only interesting to my immediate relatives and nearest friends. As these letters were the hasty compositions of leisure hours and transitory observations, I cannot expect them to be free from just criticism, especially as I am conscious of many grave errors and defects in diction as well as in style. For the want of time and patience, I have concluded to republish them without much revision, trusting to the indulgence of the gen- erous reader, who, I am quite sure, will agree with me that it is much easier to criticise the writings of others than to em- ploy our own pens with perfection. The book contains faithful records of my first impressions of the manners, customs and characteristics of the Old World as I have seen it, and if it will give information, pleasure or pastime to my friends, to whom it is respectfully dedicated, my only object in its publication will be attained. T. J. C. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Family Arms, - - - - I Portrait, - - - - - II Preface, ----- m Table of Contents, - _ - _ jy I. First visit to Europe, 1869 — Life on the ship, - i Cockney English — First sight of Ireland — Cove and Oueenstown, - - - - - 2 Cork Harbor — Spike Island — -Drake's pool — Itemized hotel bill, - - - - 3 II. Queenstown to Killarney — Old castles — Cork — Shandon bells, - - - - - 4 Royal names—Emblem of English justice, old-fashioned steelyards — The zvatcrjack — Blarney stone — P'iddler of Blarney — Birds and beggars — The Mardyke — Killarney — Gap of Dunloe — Masonic friends — Musical echoes — An old barefooted Friar, - - - 6 III. Killarney to Dublin — Irish railroads — No barns — Peasant- ry — An Irish-American, - - - 7 Round towers — Turf — Decreasing population — Ameri- can farming implements — Dublin — Its bridges and pub- lic buildings, squares, monuments and parks — An inter- esting old city, - - - - 8 IV. Dublin to Giant's Causeway — High rents — Drogheda — Old ruins — Remains of the seige by Cromwell — Dwellings of the poor, - - - - "9 Battle of the Boyne — Bridge at Drogheda-— Orangemen outrages — Crosses of Monasterboice — Tomb of King Muredach — Round Tower — Millifonet Abbey — Ten counties at onQcotip d'oeil, - - - 10 VI , Long July days — Belfast — An American city — Familiar names — Obituary poetry — Jaunting cars — Keep to the right — -Gray brick — Girls as farm hands— ^The Giant's Causeway, - - - - - 1 1 Who built the causeway — Portcoon cave — Tim M'Cool — Dunluce Castle — Port Rush sea bathing, - 12 V. From Ireland to England, - - - 12 Liverpool in 1869 — How to explore a strange city — U. S. 5-20's in England — Gold and bank notes in 1869 — Birkenhead, - - - " I3 Chester in England — The Rows and old Roman walls — Phoenix Tower — Old Monk's description of Chester, - 14 Chester Cathedral — Epitaph over a dead son — Horses of Liverpool — English plow, - - - 15 VI. Liverpool to London — Underground R. R. — Farmers — Merchant princes — Sights of London, - - 16 British museum — Three land marks, - - 17 London bridge and monument — A deed 4000 years old - — ^Picture Gallery — Bigotry of the olden time, - 17. Antiquity of London — Great fire — English dislike to changes — 80 miles of solid buildings — Westminster Abbey, chapels and tombs, - - - 18 A Queen's epitaph — Poet's corner — "O Rare Ben John- son" — Lady Ann of Cleve — Richard III, - - 20 Pious fraud, - - - - 21 VII. St. Paul's — Sir Christopher Wren's monument, - 21 Tombs in the crypt — Wellington's funeral car — View from the Ball — The great bell — Tomb of Benjamin West — The Tower of London, - - 22 Ancient and monern arms — Colt's revolver 400 years old — Axe and block — The Koh-i-Noor, - - 23 Traitor's gate — Anne Boleyn, - - 24 Justice to England — Ignorance of America — Sympathy with our Rebellion — The Alabama case — English cha- 25 racter, - - - - - 26 VIII. London to Carlisle — How to see London — English and 26 American pronunciation — Crystal Palace, . - 27 VII South Kensington museum — .Doctors and lawyers — Old castle at Carlisle — Prison of Queen Mary — A Cale- 28 donian giant — Druid remains — King Arthur's Round 29 table — Ignorant people. IX. Carlisle to Edinburgh, - - - "29 Edinburgh castle — Coltonhill— Arthur's seat — Heart of Mid-Lothian — St. Anthony's chapel — Holy Rood — 30 Mary Queen of Scots — Reflections on Mary's character, 31 Hawthornden — Roslin Chapel — River Esk — Rosabelle, 32 X. Edinburgh to Rotterdam — Dykes and canals — Black cows, - - - - - 33 Industrious people — Leaning and lop-sided houses — Cu- rious customs, - - - - 34 Beer drinking and music — Cows in harness — ^City with- out sidewalks — Street scenes — Good eaters and great smokers — Water not drunk as a beverage, - - 35 A hotel breakfast — The menu, - - 36 XL Rotterdam to Baden-Baden — Enchanting den of gamblers, 36 . — Drives in the Black Forest — Scenes around the gam- ing tables — Antwerp to Brussels — -Eve of Waterloo, - "^J "The Star Spangled Banner"— The field of Waterloo — Conjugal scene — No fences in Holland or Belgium — Up 38 the Rhine — Cologne — Mayence—Vineyards — Women 39 in harness, - - - - - 40 XII. Baden to Geneva — Bale — Old Minster — Dispelled illusions — Grand scenery— Lake of Geneva, - - 41 Confluence of the Arve and Rhone — Good and bad can- not flow in the same channel, - - - 41 Mount Blanc from Geneva — 50 miles' ride in a Dili- gence — Splendid roads — Valley of Chamouni — Second view of Mount Blanc 12 miles away — Adventure of a Chicago boy, - - - - 42 Glaciers and mountain passes — Mount Flegere — Mon- tanvcrt, - - - - - 43 4;000 Americans visited Mount Blanc in 1869, - 44 XIII. Geneva to Paris — ^Hundredth anniversary of the birth of Napoleon — A peasant's advice — First sight of Paris — 44 VIII In a blaze of glory — Waiting for sunrise — L. N. — Place de la Bastille — Lettre de Cachet, - - 45 Column of July — :io,ooo great rampart guns discharged by one electric spark at sunrise — Why Paris is such a gay city — Gate of Hell, - - - 46 Amusements — Churches — Schools — The first theatre a 47 Religious institution — -Soirees and balls — First restaurant 48 of Paris — The Devil in Paris — -Historic sketch — Reflec- 49 tions, ■ - - - 50 Napoleon III. His precautions for the future — The 51 Coup d'Etat of 1 85 1 — Pere la Chaise — Miss Mar's 52 baby — The Tuilleries — A scrap of history, - - 53 Must not talk politics — Reflections on a traveler's life, 54 XIV. Second trip to Europe in 1873 — On ship once more — A lady who had not time to fix her hair — Scenes of em- barkation — A pretty woman in tears — Little Charley — Tears turned to smiles, - - - 55 Mrs. Studtgardt— The, Cock Tail Club, - - 56 A ship in distress — Rumor's lying tongue — Fellow travelers from the south, - - "57 XV. Second visit to Ireland, - - - 57 Street nomenclature in Cork — Scene in an Irish Court — 58 Hospitality — A Yankee after a fortune, - 59 P'rom Cork to Limerick — Memento Mori — Marks of Cromwell's cannon balls — The old Italian's lost bells — 59 The Shannon — Mishap to an P^nglish tourist — The Colleen Bawn — An Irish fair at Ennis — Irish mutton — 60 , The town full — No beds, - - - 61 Scenes at the fair — Pigs and wit, - - 62 XVI. Ennis to Galway — Athenrey — Bally-David Castle — Gal- way in a state of decline — Looks like an old Spanish 62 town — Lynch Castle and Lynch Law — The Claddagh — 63 Galway to Londonderry — An Irish curse — Protestant and Catholic churches compared — The Cathedral — City walls — Seige of Derry — Slow place — Bathing at Port 65 Rush, - _ . - - 66 .XVI I , Deny to Hamburg, -. - - - 66 IX Dunluce castle from the sea — Rugged coast — Giant's Causeway again — Liverpool to Hull — Manchester from the cars — Two hours at Leeds — Handsome women, dj Hull — Human slavery in 1834 and 1865 — A clever fel- low in England, - - - - 68 Hamburg in a storm — First efforts at Dutch — Carl Schurz — John F. Hartranft, - - - 69 A funeral in Hamburg, - - - 70 xvin. Hamburg to Dresden — City in a park, - - 71 New and old cities — Museums and churches — Sunday in Europe — Military spirit — The king and his cabman 72 — Berlin — A bad pun — Contrasted with Paris — History of the city — Unter den Linden, - "73 Monument of Victory — Berlin to Dresden — World re- nowned gallery, - - - ~ 74 Raphael's Madonna — Immodest paintings — Diamonds in the green vault — An adventure in the Zoo, - 75 XIX. Dresden to Vienna — Adventure with a Dutch girl — Hotel de la Metropole — New York prices, - " 76 Vienna in 1873 — Approaching eastern civilization — Re- strictions upon Jews — The Jewish quarters — History of Vienna, - - - - ~ 77 The World's Fair — Visited by all nations, - ~ 78 Fine display of art — " Playing with the Tiger," " Ship- wrecked," " Walking in the Light," '' A Sleeping Beauty," " The Enchantress," " The Assassination of Caesar," and other fine paintings, - - "79 The world in a nut-shell — 15 miles of exhibits — The Burgomaster's Fete — Cholera in Venice, - - 80 XX. Vienna to Munich — Last look at the Fair — An American in jail — Suspicious wine cellar, - - 81 The whole world in Vienna — A black princess, 82 High altitude of Munich — The Basilica — Gallery — 83 Palace and dungeon — Lola Montez — New king and mu- sic — Beer drinkers — Privileges of the sex, - - 84 A priest-ridden people — A charnel house, - 85 XXI. Munich to Strasburg — Swabes — Stutgardt, - - 86 Deserted Baden-Baden — Humiliated Strasburg — Cath- edral — Late seige — Shells for candlesticks — City Ger- manized — A priest's opinion of Emperor William, 87 Strasbourg to Paris— Celebrated clock and pickpockets — Strict passport regulations, - - - 88 Paris declining — Wounded by the war — Probable short- lived Republic, - - - - 89 Contrast between French and German soldiers — English as spoken by a French girl — Absinthe drinking — 90 Sodom — Infidelity — Versailles, &c., - - 91 XXII. Homeward — More about Paris — Pere la Chaise — Morgue, 92 Museum de Cluny — Panorama of the seige of Paris — A sea-sick sailor, - - - - 93 Folkstone to London — Thames embankment — Albert me- morial — Quid pro Quo, - - - 94 Color line in Liverpool — Crowded' hotels, - "95 Sad incident, funeral at sea — Ship a little world, - 96 Queer people on the ship — The Parson — The Professor — The Missionary — Widower — Blue stocking, &c., - 97 A sailor's idea of preachers — An Irish woman's letter, 98 XXIII. Third trip (1888) — New York to Antwerp — Changes in ocean traveling since 1873, - - - 98 Neptune in a rage, - - - 99 A preacher's opinion of a philosopher — Mutual blunders by French and English passengers — The Gulf Stream — Trail of the ship, . _ _ _ joo Smoking-room enjoyments — The world's highway — All on a sea-level — Eddystone, - - - loi Coast of England for 200 miles — Lizard to Dover — Farewell to the ship and shipmates, - - 102 XXIV. Antwerp to Bale — Delay at Flushing — Dykes and canals 102 of Holland — Cathedral, _ _ ^ 103 Docks — Art gallery — Elevated promenade — Brussells — Musee Wiertz — Little Paris, - - - 104 Waterloo once m.ore — Napoleon out generaled — Travel- ling much more expensive than in 1873 — A little dinner for four — Valley of the Rhine, - - - 105 XXV. Bale to Milan — The rapid Rhine— Pretty city — Hotel of 106 XI the three Kings — Crooked streets— "Old Minster" — Changes in nineteen years— Beautiful views — Street railways without rails, . _ _ jq^ No free baggage in Italy or Switzerland — The frontier — Cars without accommodations — -Fine scenery, - io8 St. Gothard's tunnel — A destroyed village, - io8 An intruder — An Italian surprised at the ability of an American to speak English, - - - 109 Difference in temperature between the north and south sides of the Alps, - - - - no XXVI. Milan to Genoa, - - - - no The Cathedral of Milan, 500 years old, cost $ 1 20,000,000, 1 1 1 Art Gallery of Milan — ^ipoo.ooo painting — Street rail- ways and electric lights, - - - 1 1 1 Arcade Victor Emanuel — Campus Martius — Campo Santo — Death inspecting a new made grave — Pigeon- holes for human bones, - - - 112 Battlefields of Hannibal and Napoleon — First view of the Mediterranean — Birthplace of Columbus — City of Genoa — A city on mountains' sides — Paint and fresco — Immense fortification, - - - - 'i 1 3 XXVII. Genoa to Pisa — Further description of Genoa — A city of contrasts, - - - - 114 Handsome girls and robust boys — Beautiful views from mountain drives — Magnificent Campo Santo — - 115 A funeral — Man's desire for immortality — Mr. Blaine — 116 Leaning tower at Pisa — Malaria — Historic ground — A city as old as Troy — Campo Santo and Columbaria — 117 Italy full of pilgrims to Rome — Fighting the deadly malaria — Signs of recuperation — Italy destined to re- sume her ancient greatness, - - - 118 XXVIII. Pisa to Rome — Etruscan relics — Civita Vecchia — The Eternal city -Old city rapidly passing away — New dis- coveries, • - - - - 119 The Coliseum — "The Senate sends you this" — Last fight in the Coliseum, - - - - 120 The forum — Widening the Tiber — A beautiful modern city of ^400,000 inhabitants — Cruelty to animals — Old 121 XII Rome thirty feet below the present surface — The World's contributions to its old mistress — Military dis- 122 play — Hotels — Villas and palaces — The ' King and Queen — An unhealthy place from May to September, 123 XXIX. Traveling and Romance, - - - - 123 Past glory of Rome, - - - 124 Its civilization very much like our own — Penalty for proposing new laws — A school girl's idea of Rome — Cannot be seen in less than two weeks — 400 churches — How to see it, - - - - 125 Reflections upon Rome, - - - 126 The Pope's jubilee — Magnificent presents — Pious frauds — The black Virgin, - - - 127 XXX. Rome to Naples — Last look at Rome — St. Peter's, 128 Roman justice in 1420, A. D — Night scene in the Coli- seum — An ancient Roman bath, - - 129 Her fountains and aqueducts — -The lesson of the fall of . Rome — Farewell to Rome, - - - 1 30 Naples a large and flourishing city — Duchess of Edin- burg a guest at our hotel — Fleas, lice and beggars — Sights in the streets, - - - 131 A visit to the crater of Vesuvius — Grotesque forms of lava — A painter's idea of hell, - - - 132 Capri and the Blue grotto, - - - 133 XXXI. Naples to Messina — Last days of Pompeii, - " i 34 Messina — Stromboli — First sight of ^tna — Scylla and Charybdis — Cholera -- A Jerseyman — Hints — A slow- people, - ^ - - - - 135 Italian ships — Fleas and bugs — Politeness from con- ductors, according to the class of your ticket — Catania at the foot of ^tna, - - , - - 1 36 A sea-sick voyage to Athens — A wandering sparrow — The Isles of Greece, - - - 13? Love and death — The Piraeus — Time's ruins — Council of Thirty — Accumulation of wealth a capital crime, i 38 Old and new Athens — A cosmopolitan city — The new Academy — A deteriorated race, - - - 1 39 XXXII. Athens — Sunburned — Parthenon and Temple of Theseus, 140 XIII Three principal hills — Old city carried away — Even the soil gone, - - - - - 141 Wonderful changes in looo years — Necropolis — Plato's academy — Cimon's tomb, - - - 142 The place from which Paul preached — The rostrum of Demosthenes — The Stadium — False teachings of our schoolmasters — Dr. Schlieman's house — A brick 4000 years old — The Sarcophagus of Agamemnon, - 143 Groves of Daphne — Tomb of Thermistocles — Old evo- lutionists — Eleusis — Salamis — Seat of Xerxes — Olive trees 600 years old — Shin plasters — Visit to the King's palace, - - - - - 145 XXXIII. Athens to Constantinople — Asiatic passengers, - 146 Embarkation on the Continent — Evolution of a man from a monkey — Site of Troy — The narrow Darda- nelles, - - - - - 147 Stamboul, dirt and dogs — Fire regulations, - - 148 Mohammedon dilapidation — Cruelty to men and kind- ness to brutes — English as spoken by the guides — Three Sundays — Sultan's day, - - - 149 Ladies and eunuchs — Backshish — The pigeon mosque — A self-righteous old man's prayer, - -150 Superstitions — Metempsychosis— Street scenes, 1 5 1 XXXIV. Constantinople to Bucharest — Scraps of history — New Rome — Duke and Count — Riot of Nike, - " 152 Blue and green — The hippodrome — Roman decree like the U. S. XVth amendment — Difference between like and similar — Stories of ignorant guides — Valuable mis- sionary work — Ruins of time, - - 153 Reflections on human glory — Old prophecy nearly ful- filled — Cistern of 1,000 columns — The dungeon with no echo, - - - - - 154 Handwriting on the wall — Keep your mouth shut — Golden Horn — Archery — Winter palace, - 155 A large family — Courtiers rewarded — Crescent and Cross — A day in Asia — Chalcedon — City of the blind, 156 Loaves and fishes — Splendid view — Bazaars, entry easy, exit difficult — Happy gate, - - ~ ^S7 Hellespont — Bosphorous — Black sea — The Balkans — An old maid, - - - - 158 XIV XXXV. Bucharest to Zurich — Bucharest a beautiful city — Great wheat fields — Borders of Russia — Cheap labor — Women Masons, - - - - ^59 Bucharest to Turn-Severin — Up the Danube — Rich alluvial lands — An old feudal castle, - - i6o Belgrade — Old Buda-Pesth — Modernized with half a million inhabitants — A second Chicago — Hot Springs i6i and Turkish baths — Fine music — On to Vienna — A re- juvenated city — Changes in fifteen years — Beautiful sub- urbs — Second only to Paris, - - - 162 A sight of the Emperor — Prematurely old — Schon- brunn — Kohlenberg — Innspruck, - - - 163 The Austrian Tyrol — Old church at Innspruck — A Rip Van Winkle sleep — Over the Alps — Westward — Sources of the Rhine, Rhone and Danube, - 164 XXXVI. Zurich to Geneva — Arlberg tunnel — 4298 feet above sea level — Beautiful Zurich, - - - 165 Silk weaving — Berne — Inconsistant Sabbatarians — Old church— Beautiful nature — Celebrated clock, - 166 Berne to Geneva — A Swiss family — Geneva once more — Towns on the lake — Castle of Chillon, - 167 View of Mt. Blanc — Geneva watches, - 168 XXXVII. Geneva to Paris — Large fields and wire fences — Six oxen to one plow — Changes in Paris since the Republic — High prices, - - - - - 169 Hotel Continental — Paris compared with Vienna — Satan in Paris, - - - - - 170 Licensed bawdy houses — Dueling — Morals bad but taste good — Cook's tourists — How to see the Louvre, - 171 Sharpers — Passport annoyances to enter Germany — A visible war feeling for revenge, - - 172 XXXVIII. Paris to Amsterdam — More about Paris — Meanness of hotel keepers, - - - - 173 Reckless driving, - - - 174 Howling for another struggle with Germany — From Paris to Metz — Battlefields around Metz — Strongly for- tified — A Germanized city, - - - i/S XV Marshal Ney's monument — Singular hotel rules - i76 Cold weather in July — Sweet Bingen on the Rhine — Bingen to Cologne, down the Rhine, - - ^77 Mountain vineyards — Two days at Cologne — Changes since 1869 — The bones of St. Ursula, - - 178 XXXIX. Amsterdam to London — A city on piles, - - 1/9 Delfthaven and the Mayflower pilgrims — A curious old town — Street scenes in Rotterdam — The rich, poor, and Jewish quarters — An old friend, - - 180 A story of the capture of Rotterdam — Amsterdam — The Hague — Diamond cutters of Amsterdam - - 181 Holland a kitchen garden for London — Back to London — Greatly improved since 1873 — Our native tongue once more — Hotel Metropole — Impressions after a long absence, - - - - - 182 Off for the Polar regions, - . - 183 XL. London to the North Cape — The tides at Tilbury — Three days by sea to Christiania — Rugged Norway — Moun- 183 tains, glaciers and fjords — Christiania — A carriage drive at midnight — Long twilights and love, - - 1 84 License laws — Democratic manners — Christiania to Throndhjem — Beautiful flowers — St. Olaf, - 185 American flag — A German brute — A grand send off — A sickly moon and pale stars, - - - 186 In the Arctic ocean — Playing with whales — Troniso — Ancient Thule — The birthplace of Christmas festivities — The Marked Hat, - - -187 Hammerfest — Land without value — Perpetual day — The midnight sun, - - - - 188 The North Cape — Course of the sun — Bird-roost Rock — Disappointment — Reflections, - - 190 XLI. North Cape to Copenhagen — Last look at the midnight sun, - - - - - 190 Depressing silence — Optical delusions — O n e visit enough — Back to Christiana — A viking ship over i ,000 years old — Reflections on our ships t,ooo years hence Familiar names, - - - - 191 Gin for breakfast — Old ship customs — Gottenberg — Prosperity in Europe — Birthplace of Hamlet — Copen- hagen — Kronberg castle, - - - 192 XVI A popular king — Industrial exposition — Reception to the Emperor of Germany — Lotteries, - - 193 Relics of the stone age — Europe, a camp and all its cities, arsenals, - - - - 194 XLII. Copenhagen to Berlin — Political reflections — -Bismarck in 1873 and now, - - - - I95 Resemblance in all European cities — Berlin handsome but dull, - - - - - 196 Contrast between the palaces of the old Emperor and the Empress — German dislike to Victoria — Lessons taught by the Museum of Arms — An improvement in street railway cars, - - - ^97 XLIIL Berlin to Edinburgh — Hamburg again — The great fire of 1842 a blessing in disguise — A beautiful city, - 199 Daily showers to refresh the flowers — Following the track of spring — Goods cheap — Soon to lose its privi- leges as a free city — Hamburg to Lubeck, - . 200 A curious old city — The dance of death, - - 201 Old League Hall — Old poetry translated — On board ship for Edinburgh — Democrats abroad — Edinburgh once more — Changes in nineteen years, - 202 Industrial Exposition at Glasgow — The Queen's jubilee presents — Edinburgh to York, . - - - 203 XLIV. York to London — York, the oldest city in England — Ber- wick — Durham — Darlington and New Castle from the cars — Historic sketch, _ _ _ 204 Reunion with a fellow traveler — The Cathedral — Walls, gates and towers of York, _ _ _ 205 A scene from Ivanhoe — Dick Turpin and his black mare, Bess, ----- 206 Micklegate bar, from which "York might look over York" — The Booth family — The city of my ancestors — Back to London — A second Babylon, - - 207 Last letter of this series — The difficulties of letter writing, 208 XLV. From New York to Liverpool in 1889 — How they reckon time from city to city, - - - 208 Glimpses at life on a ship — The iron age — Size and ap- pointments of the ship — A floating city, - 209 XVII A death on the ship (a human sacrifice) — MoonHght on the sea — Beautiful stars — How to find latitude and longitude by the stars — Distinguished passengers — Purse-proud people, - - - - 210 Taken for a preacher — A blue stocking, - 211 XLVI. Liverpool to Rouen — Great ships can only enter Liver- pool at high water — A crank, - - - 212 Happy childhood — The wonderful docks of Liverpool — St. George's hall — Birkhenhead tunnel — Birmingham — — Warwick Castle — Rural England, - - 213 Stratford-on-Avon — An Englishman's idea of Philadel- phia — Prosperity in England — Kenilworth — Slums of London, - - - - - 214 Brighton — New Haven — Sudden change from England to France — Rouen — Jeanne D'Arc — The Butter tower, 215 Bird's eye view of Rouen, - - - 216 XLVIL Rouen to Paris — What can be seen in sixty days, - 216 An old Parisian hotel with a history — Paris in her Sun- day clothes, - - - 217 The great exposition of 1889 — The Eiffel tower a mint, 218 How men and horses look from the top of the tower — A night scene at the exposition — St. Germain — Gas- light in Paris, - - - - 219 XLVin. Paris to .Marseilles — Along walk — Buttes Chauniont — Tf lonely look up — Rural France — Old fashioned harvest- 220 ing — Battlefields and historic places — Study of French in a railroad car, - - - - 221 A bad blunder in French— Lyons from Mount Four- viere, . . _ . . 222 Silk industries — Scrap of history — On to Marseilles — Valance — Anecdote of Napoleon, - • - 223 Many square miles of cobblestones — First sight of Mar- seilles, - ... - 224 XLIX. France to Spain — Marseilles as I saw it, - - 224 Chateau d'lf — Politicians' paradise, - - 225 One of Plato's jokes — A visit to a French court, - 226 XVIII A flea hunt — To Barcelona by sea — A beautiful Span- ish city — Mosquitoes — Fruits and flowers, - 227 A city 300 years before Christ — Paradisaical villas — Spanish customs disappearing — Scanty bathing suits, 228 Barcelona to Zaragoza — Size of Spain — Monserrat — Dried up rivers — Burnt up vegetation, - - 229 Spain the graveyard of its ancient glory — Zaragoza — Moorish manners — ^Lerida, - - - 230 Ihe maid of Zaragoza — The Virgin Mary and Napo leon — Reflections, - - - - 231 Steam vs. Romance — A city founded by Tubal — Ab- sence of forest fires — O'Shea's guide to Spain — Beautiful Madrid, - . . . . 232 Magnificent art gallery — The Escurial a humbug — The crazy work of an insane king, - - 233 LI. Madrid to Seville — A Spanish bull-fight, - - 234 The fight described, - - 234 to 237 Peculiar desire to see another fight — On to Seville — '■ Drouth — Seville most enchanting by night — A dull place by day — Yum- Yum — A declining city — The Al- cazar — 400,000 depopulation in one year — Pretty Span- ish maidens, - - . . 238 The old women very ugly, - - - 239 LII. Seville to Cadiz — Cacti horse-high and hog-strong, - 239 Mankind the same throughout the world — Girls and beggars — Sherry wine — sacreligious names, - 240 Hunting without dogs — Salt vats — Cadiz — Night scenes of beauty — The city a fort, - - - 241 No carpets — Tile floors and whitewashed house — The cathedral — Too much religion, - - 242 The fossils of Spain — Dangers — Difficulties and disap- pointments — Nearly wrecked — Waiting for Sunday, 243 LIII. Cadiz to Tangier — Labor omnia vincit — An oriental city in Africa, . . _ . . 244 Cape Trafalgar — Scene of Nelson's victory and death — Reflections — Erroneous impressions of Africa — Our Consul in bad repute — Moors— White slaves, - 245 XIX $2^ for the soul and body of a beautiful girl — Polygamy A place without law — Going upon the house top to pray — The " Needle's Eye" — " New wine in old bottles," 246 Bigoted Mohammedans — Sleeping with the heels up and head down — Graveyards of the faithful — Pilgrims for Mecca — Moorish modesty — Mohammedan saints — Palace, - - . . . 247 Barracks — Jail — School — A Moorish cafe and concert — A guard by night — Dogs — Only six hours from west- ern to eastern civilization, - - . 248 A sea bath — Beginning of the end, - - 249 LIV. Tangier to Cordova — Cadiz from the sea — Dilapidated Cordova — Caesar's revenge — From 300,000 to 50,000 inhabitants, - - - - 250 The mosque of 1,000 columns — Roman bridge and Moorish mills, - - - -251 Primitive farming — High taxes — The country of Don Quixote — Valladolid — ^4 for a seat to see heretics burned, - - - - - 252 Burgos, birtliplace of the Cid — Solomon's mines, - 253 Back to Paris — Sober second thought of the Exposi- tion — P^minent men of the past 100 years, - 254 LV. Paris to Liverpool — Plomeward bound — Neuralgia in Paris, - . - _ _ 254 Renowned Frenchmen — Politics and prophecy, - 255 An astonished cabman — Dover, - - - 256 A London fog — Sunday in Hyde Park — Free speech and fair play, - - - - 257 Democracy in London — A conundrum — Covent Gar- den at day break. - _ _ . 248 P. D, Q. — Glimpse at Gladstone — Old shipmates — Last letter of this series, - - - 259 LVL Last trip abroad — The start — Bon voyage — La Normandie of the French line — A good ship, - - 260 The passengers — Love, romance and sea sickness — A little politics — A lost leaf from a lady's diary, - 261 Gulls, vultures and men — A storm and accident, - 262 Unlucky thirteen — Reflections — " Ship sailors and seas" — The captain's dinner, - - - - 263 XX LVII. Paris to Bordeaux — National extravagance a blessing — Paris again — Economy of the French, - - 264 High prices — Sun of Austerlitz, - - 265 Industrious peasantry — Dried up Australia — Orleans Jeanne D'Arc, . . ,. . 266 . Antiquity of Orleans — Cathedral — Hotel de Ville — Bordeaux, - - - . . 267 Fickle Fame — Incidents of history — St. Michael's mummies, - - . . 268 LVIII. Bordeaux to Marseilles — Poitiers — Toulouse — Marseilles once more, - - - - - . 269 Sub-tropical climate — World renowned harbor — A French punster — Marsailles to Algiers — Game in 270 Africa — Algiers in 1830 — Pirates and robbers — Homely 271 women Scorpions — -Algiers to Tunis — Approaching the great desert — Setif, - - - 272 Constantine — Roman ruins — Milky white moors — Veiled women — Turbaned Turks, etc , - - - 273 Shepherds and their flocks — Wives an article of trade — The harem — The Bible and the koran, - 274 LIX. Tunis to Nice — Mountain scenery in Africa — Tunis older than Carthage or Rome, - - . - 274 The tragic story of Carthage — Dido et Dux, - 276 A very old lover — Interesting ruins — An Arab guide — Palace and harem of the Bey — More wives, more waste — Life-sized portrait of Washington — Amusements of the harem, . . - . . 278 Forbidden fruit — Backsheesh — La Goulette, - 279 Back to Marseilles — The Marsellaise hymn — Along the Riviera — Cannes — Nice, - - - 280 LX. Nice to Florence — Climate of the Litteral dependant on the wind — Charming Nice, - - - 281 View from Campo Santo — Gambetta's grave — Caterina Segurana — Garibaldi's birthplace — Differences in French pronunciation, .... 282 Nice to Manaco — Monte Carlo — Splendid church from profits of gambling — Fighting the tiger — Enormous 283 XXI gains of the Casino — Mentone — San Reino — Genoa — Pisa — Florence, . - . . 284 Hidden charms — Conceited artists — A miracle, - 285 LXI. Florence to Venice — More about the miracles, - - 286 A Florentine pun — Treasures of art, - - 287 Masonic emblems — Gate of Paradise — A work of Bene- venuto Cellina — Campo Santo, - - - 288 A fashionable drive — Florence to Bologna — Lodged in palace — Leaning towers — Bologna to Venice — Another palace converted to a hotel, - - - 289 Low prices in Venice — Necessity for protection — A unique city — No horses, carts or dogs — The plague — Titien's first love, . - - - 290 . Othello's and Desdemona's houses — Shylock vs. Antonio — Clock tower — St. Mark's square, - • - 291 The Lion's mouth — Inquisition, - - - 292 LXIL Venice to Paris — More about the Inquisition, - - 293 Classic and historical places — St. Mark's church — Palace of the Doges, .... 294 Bridge of Sighs — Population — A city on piles — Padua — Milan again — World renowned cathedral, • - 295 Travelers' hobby — A coincidence — Milan to Turin — Ma- genta, ..... 296 Turin a city of arcades — Shin plaster currency — A Methodist church in Milan — Turin to Macon, - 297 Mt. Cenis tunnel — An enchanted castle — Aix Les Baines — Lake Bourget — Macon, and back to Paris, 298 PART II. American hunts and travels, - - - 299 I. Philadelphia to Niagara Falls — Mania potu on the cars — Incidents on the road, - - - 301 Scenery — Mauch Chunk — Wilkes Barre — A picnic dis- turbed — Wyoming, - - - ' - 302 The beautiful Genesee P"alls — Buffalo — Niagara — How to see the falls, , _ , . 303 XXII n. Niagara to Saratoga, . . _ _ 304 When shall the lakes be emptied ? — Morgan's watery grave — The Thousand Isles, - - . 305 The rapids — Frost at Montreal in August — View from Mount Royal — Lake George, ... 306 Old-fashioned stage coaches — Fort Ticondercga — A spread-eagle speech — Saratoga, - - 307 Gambling and flirting — Diamonds and dresses, - 308 III. Battlefield of Gettysburg — Compared with Waterloo, 308 The field as I saw it — To understand the struggle we must see the ground, - . . . 309 Terrible slaughter at Gulp's Hill, - . 310 Liberty guarding her battlefield — Round Top — Meade's headquarters, - - - - 311 Remaining evidences of the battle, - - 312 IV. A hunt in Arkansas — Pennsylvania compared with her sis- ter States, - - - - 313 The Hot Springs — Farm houses as hotels — Reflections upon the character of the people — An amusing story, 3 1 4 A negro experience meeting — A negro soldier's letter to his wife, - - - - - 31 5 Little Rock — Character of the people — Hunting on the 316 grand prairie — Rattlesnakes and whiskey, .- 317 A case of buck fever — Rail birds on the prairie, - 318 V. A hunt on the Blue Ridge — A politician — A forgetful party — An unpleasantness, - - - 3^9 Battlefields and beautiful scenery — Roanoke — A won- berful spring, . . . . 320 Republican party of the South — .War recollections — Tariff Democrats — A divided house — Good hunting — • The sleep of innocence, - - - - 321 Hunting on horseback — The pleasures of a hunter's life — Epitaph to Mahone, - - - 322 VI. 0-- A winter in Florida — Double fete day, Jacksonville — St. Augustine — History — Indian war — Northern capital, - ^ • - 323 XXIIt Hotel Ponce de Leon, - - - 324 American exaggeration, - - - 325 VII. Florida to Key West — Winter Park, - - 325 Orange groves — Hotel Seminole — Lakes, fish and game, _ . . ^ . 326 Kissemee — A conductor's mistake — Sugar and the tariff — Good cars, but bad roads — Tampa, - 327 The Port Tampa Inn — Pelicans — A Portuguese man of war — Key West — The wedded fig tree, - - 328 Havana — Bad passport regulations^ — Worse currency — New stars — Canopus, - - - 329 The ashes of Columbus — Sudden changes of tempera ture — Strange street sights, - - - 3 30 Theatre on Sunday, - - - 331 VIII. Florida, Jamaica and Bermuda, - - . 332 Jacksonville — Sub-tropical exhibition — Emotional wor- ship — Superstitions, - - - 333 River St. John — Spanish cruelty and its revenge — Ori- gin of name of Florida — The State redeemed from the sea — Remarkable springs, . . - 334 Uncertain time table — A landlord's smile — Live Oak, 335 Journey to New Brandford, - - - 3 36 IX. Unpunished assassins — La Grippe — More delays — 105 miles down the Suwanee river — Sulphur Springs, - 3 37 Alligators, turkeys and turtles — Charming scenery — Cedar Key, - - - - 3 38 Shut out of a hotel by the Sheriff — A picnic — Silver Spring — The Ocklawaha — How they settled a dispute over the title to a hotel, - - - 339 Suggestive names of Florida towns, - - 340 X. Ocala to Tampa — Backbone of Florida — Farmers' Alli- ance — Exhibition at Ocala — Sunshine a source of wealth — A 22 pound sweet potato — 41 full-sized cocoa- nuts on one stem — All Democrats — Cars on time for once, - . . - . 341 Tampa Bay hotel — One of the finest in the world, 342 Sad fate of a young Englishman, - - - 343 XXIV XI. P>om Tampa to Jamaica — A leader in the Farmers' Alli- ance — Slips of the tongue, - - - 344 Mr. Cleveland's good luck — More delays — At sea in an old side-wheeler — A sea-sick party, - - 345 Table scene on the ship — First sight of the Southern Cross — Reflections on time and space, - - 346 Looking upward and downward — The captain's idea of the distance of the stars — Half an hour too late — So near and yet so far, - - - 347 Reflections on Paradise, - - - - 348 XII. In the tropics — Kingston — Myrtle Bank Hotel, - 348 Buzzards as scavengers — Peculiar construction of the city — Old slave days, - - . 349 Earthquakes — The story of Lewis Galby — Three classes — The World's Fair — Canada vs. the U. S.,- 350 XIII. Jamaica as near the Equator as the North Cape is to the Pole — Mountainous, but fertile and neglected, - 351 . Women as common laborers — Wages — Averse to work — One white person to fifty colored — Nature supplies nearly every want — Longitude of Philadelphia — Reflec- . tions, - - - - - 352 Market day — A New York colored man's opinion of a 353 Jamaica nigger — English as they speak it — Cheap ci- gars — The Exposition, - - - . 354 The harbor — Fate of deserters from a Russian man-of- war — U. S. money worth more than sterling — No Irish- men in Jamaica, - - - - 355 XIV. Mountain scenery — Ticks and lice, - - - 356 No game and few snakes — Enormous cisterns — Old sugar plantations — No farms or farmers — Spanish Town and the bog walk, - - - - 357 Creepers — Grottoes — Vistas — Constant Spring — One visit enough. ----- 358 XV. Jamaica to Bermuda — More about Jamaica — Reflections 359 — Human interference with the harmony of nature — 360 XXV The rat and the mangoose, - - - j6o Old Port Royal — The Gomorrah of Jamaica — Turk's Island — Miscegenation — A precocious boy — Hayti's opinion of white people, - - - 361 Ship life, the same old story — May and November — A love scene — Looking at the stars — The storm and sea- sickness, - - - - _ 262 A game of euchre — Canada vs. U. S. — Three cheers for Sir John and Canada, - - - . 363 XVI. First impressions of Bermuda, - - - 364 Historical sketch — The scene of Shakespeare's "Tem- pest"---Hog money — Bermuda's friendship for our pa- triot sires — Complete change of sentiment — Her strong sympathy for the late rebellion — A nest of hornets for blockade runners, - - - . 365 Description of Bermuda — Nothing else to do, - 366 Splendid roads — Good climate, but no place for an in- valid, ----- 367 Youth and death, - - - _ 368 XVII. Four black to one white person — A hint to our Southern States — Americans not permitted to own land — An ugly report about General Hastings, of Ohio — Etiquette on the islands, - - . . 36Q Honest and pious people, but somewhat inconsistent, 370 Amusements, innocent and otherwise — A New York belle who left because she had nothing to wear — The dockyards and defences, - - ~ 37^^ XVIII. A chance to escape, . . - _ 3^2 The Spanish Rock — Devil and heretics — Colonial rec- ords of the islands. Vegetation injured by the salt sprays — The unfortunate "Chapel of Ease" — An old female poker player — Beau- tiful drives, - - . . . on a Caverns and grottoes — A day at the dockyards — Arrival of five war ships, - - - _ 37c An old sailor's pun — A genuine octopus, - . 376 XIX. A sail among the small islands — St. George, the light- 373 XXVI house and Tuckcrtown — The coral reefs — Rock studies — Specimens of coral, - - - 377 Devil's hole — Joyce's cave — A church schism with its usual consequences, . - . . 378 Crowded hotels — Angry excursionists, - - 379 A glance at society — Her Majesty's tailless red coats, 380 Old girls and faded roses, - - - 381 XX. Hunting in Virginia — A Marylander's opinion of Yankees, 381 Virginia hospitality — A lost dog, - - 382 Woodcock and woodpeckers — Great fields, - - 383 Our first duck — A coon hunt — Weeds with roots at both 384 ends — The lost found — An anecdote — "Millions of ducks" — A disappointment — A sweet sleep on the ground, .... 385 Fireside stories, .... 386 Delapidation and waste, - ■ - 387 XXI. A North Carolina Hunt in winter — The hunter's paradise . - — Vicissitudes, .... 388 Snow and ice at Norfolk — Value of the telephone — Five miles in an open wagon with the temperature near zero — Pain the price of pleasure, - - . 389 Partridges, rabbits, turkeys and deer — A frozen ther- mometer — Coldest weather in 30 years — A deer hunt — 5 degrees above zero, .... 390 A timely blizzard — A ride on a mule — A wager and a moot court, - - - - 391-2 Old Wash and his toasts, - - - 393 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE CLAYTON FAMILY, WITH SOME PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF BETHEL AND BRANDYWINE HUNDRED. PART I. PATERNAL LINE. Lost links — Authorities, .... 396 Clayton hall, Yorkshire — Clayton (Claytown), Sussex — P'amily coat of arms, - - - 397 XX vn Language of Heraldr)- — Sir Jasper — The Virginia branch — An anecdote, - - - . 398 The Delaware branch — Joshua Clayton — William of Chi- chester, the progenitor of the Pennsylvania branch, ' 399 Saint Waiter Martin's hatred of the Quakers, - - 400 The story of Clem Hathaway, at Port Penn — How my grandmother punished her husband for becoming a Methodist, ■ - -' - 401 Family connections, - - . _ 402 Anecdote of John Faulk, - - 403 Incident in the life of John Faulk, Jr., - - 404 Origin of the name "Claymont" — A bad Delaware law, 405 Feasts at funerals — Aunt Levina, - . 406 Old-time carpenters — Why I was named Thomas Jeffer- son — Origin of the name "Whig," - - . 407 Why the name "Tyler" was stricken from my brother John's name — Clayton cider, - - 408 MATERNAL LINE. Grandfather Clark — An old Tory — Anecdote of grand- father Clark — His sword turned into a corkscrew — A mortal insult, - - - . . 409 His grave in Bethel church yard — Captain William Glover — Commodore Decatur, - - - - 410 Sixty-four years a Methodist — My mothers Christian char- acter and good sense — Family connections, ' - 411 My brothers Powell, John and William, - -* 412 PART II. Why I became a lawyer — My mother's ambition — My father's Advice — Early efforts in anatomy — An unjust reputation, - ... . - 413 A fist fight in a church — Father Hance a true friend, 414 A schism in Bethel church — Choir and anti-choir, - 415 The tragic as well as comic side of the quarrel — T\\g Devil in the guise of a note book — An old blacksmith's idea of music, - - - - - 416 A church trial — A preacher out-witted, - - 417 First efforts as an advocate — The trial, - - 418 The grains of sand that changed the course of the river of my life, - - - - - 419 XXVIII History of a business card — Importance of little things — History of an old letter, - - . 420 Personal inspection of another's work, worth-^io,ooo to a client, - - - - , - 421 An angry old lawyer, - - . . 422 Comedies and tragedies of a lawyer's life, - - 423 PART HI. Recollections of Bethel and Brandywine Hundred sixty years ago — Anti railroad times — First temperance so- ciety, - . _ . . 425 The old Post road — Hotel keeping of the olden time — The fireside and bake oven — No gas or coal — ^The " Corder " — Daily news, .... 426 Oven wood — Anglo-Phobia — Schoolmaster, - - 427 Five miles around Bethel church — Handsome women and beautiful girls — Woodlands — Game — Farm hands — Woodsmen, . . . . 428 Cranky men — Witches — P'ortune Tellers — Aunty Burnet's snake story, - . - . _ 429" A viper in my path — Granny Eastlick — The bewitched cow 430 Fireside stories — Emmor Lloyd — The bewitched child — Polly pudding, - - - 431 The bewitched rabbit — Hunter's revenge, - - 432 The broken spell and fractured leg, - - 433 Mousley's adventure at the devil's rock — Relics of the stone age, - . . _ - 4^4 An old man turned into an old mare — A bad case of night mare — Jehu Forwood's power to stop pain and blood — Planting according to the signs, - - 435 The lucky bone — The bewitched churn — The water wizard, 436 The weather-wise — Signs of the weather, - - 4 37 Changes in religious worship — Old Methodist preachers " Lash the devil" — "Small souls," - - 438 Funeral sermons over babies — The country store — A chronic liar, - - - - - 439 A remarkable shot, - - - - 440 Old Fanny Cherry — Molly Shades' Speak-easy, - 441 Postscript, ----- 442 L UST-Ew "York 'to Queenstown — Parting Scenes — 'Live oisi THE Ocean Wave— Gambling and Drinking — Cockney English — First Sight of Irelane — Queenstown and Cork Harbor — European Hotels. Cork, Ireland, June i86g. I left New York on the 12th inst, , and arrived at Queens- town on tlie 2ist. Our vo5^age was pleasant, and the winds snd weather propitious. It may be interesting to describe life ■on the sea. To the reflecting mind a trip across the Atlantic is full of profitable lessons. I took my stand on the promenade •deck where I could observe both cabin and steerage passen- gers as they came on board. Old men wept as they bade fare-, well to their sons, and the heaving bosoms of tender maidens indicated the heart struggles within as they parted from their lovers, perhaps to meet no more. A poor lad, apparently in the last stages of consumption, seemed loth to quit the fond embrace of his weeping mother who, as a forlorn hope of res- toration, had consented to his departure. I do not think she will see him again. From these sad parting scenes I concluded we were to have a melancholy trip, but we had not been at sea twenty-four hours before I was led to modify my views. For four days I saw but few sober men. The only amusement was drinking and gambling. They bet on everything, from the toss of a penny or turn of a card to the run of the ship ; one gentleman bet ^80 (about $400 American gold) on the toss of a penny. The other part}^ to the wager pocketed the money as coolly as a beggar would a penny. The second day out was Sunday, and although we had five clergymen on board no one proposed religious service, not even myself ; I confess I forgot the day. I saw one of the clergymen coolly looking on at a game of euchre, with a sovereign on each corner. That night he fell out of his berth and dislocated his shoulder ; the poor fellow was under the doctor's hands for the rest of the voyage. I asked one of his companions how it happened. He said, " Oh, he smoked too much." The cabin passengers were a mixture of all nations, and were composed of Americans, Irishmen, Englishmen, and Frenchmen, with a few Italians, Spaniards, Germans, and Scotchmen. One fellow was quite a character. He delighted in the name of Captain. He had been all over America, and was ready to swear that it contained nothing worth seeing, not even a rose. His seat was opposite mine at table. We had New York to Queenstown. oranges after dinner ; he called the steward and demanded- a knife and fork ; said he : "" Hi never could heat han horange without a fowk, hit seems so dem'd vulgaw.^'' Turning to his companion, a Captain in the English army, he said : " How joli it will be to get ^ ame to hold Hengland ; hafter hall hit his the honly place hem hearth for men and 'arses.'" I suggested that it also produced some very fine asses ; after which sugges- tion I did not presume to raise my eyes for full ten seconds, expecting all the time the concussion of a champagne bottle with my head. Upon presuming to look up I was met with a withering scowl from all the English passengers at our table. The captain of the ship remarked that the American gentle- man was inclined to be jokeftd. Off the coast of Newfoundland we encountered a dense fog. With the greatest effort I could not see twenty yards from the ship ; withal it was exceedingly cold ; we saw no ice, but felt it in the air. The officers on duty were very vigilant. A watch of four sailors kept a sharp lookout ahead A bright light was placed at the masthead, and the steam whistle was blown every half minute during the entire night. The great- est danger at sea is from fire and fogs. Had a ship or iceberg crossed our path you would, perhaps, never have heard from us. From this time until we first saw land, officers and pas- sengers were tolerably soh&c . The day before we saw land was Sunday ; we had the regular Church of England service for the sea. I was promenading on deck, and observed the officers anxiously looking northeast, where I observed what I supposed was the dim outline of a cloud. It proved to be the bleak and rocky coast of Ireland. The ship accommodations and fare were all that could be desired. Clean berths, good attendants and obliging stewards. From 5 to 7 o'clock A. M. we had coffee ; at 9, breakfast ; at 12, lunch ; dinner at 4 P. M., and supper from 7 to 9 P. M. Custom requires passengers on quitting the ship to leave a sovereign with the stewards and attendants, usually distributed as follows : 10.?. to the head table steward, 6^-. to the bed stew- ard, and the balance to the cabin boy and bootblack. Our steamer did not enter the harbor at Queenstown, but signalled by means of rockets, and was met in the channel by a steamboat which took off the passengers and mails for Queens- town. The town is situate upon an abrupt bank and previously to 1849 was called Cove. It was then visited by the Queen, and has since been dignified by its new name. It is beautiful and picturesque, built in tiers or terraces upon a hill nearly as abrupt as Fairmount, facing the wire bridge at Philadelphia. The hill rises so high behind the town that a person standing on any of the eminences can look down the chimne5''S of the QUEENSTOWN TO KiLLARNEY, lioTises on the lower tier. Great labor has been expended on the streets ; they are as smooth and clean as a floor, and as hard as the hearts of the Irish landlords. From Queenstown southeast the prospe(^t is charming- Cork harbor and passage lie in front and around it to the right. It is the finest harbor in the world, and^ could afford shelter to the entire English fleet. Spike Island lies directly in front. It is a convict depot, with room for two thousand prisoners. Rocky Island, also in view, contains a powder magazine hewn into the solid rock, in six chambers. It contains 10,000 barrels of gun- powder. Hawbowline is an island opposite Spike. It has a fresh-water tank holding 5000 tons of water. It was in this harbor that Drake took shelter when pursued by the Spaniards, He was so effectually hidden in Cross Haven Creek that they believed his escape to be the work of magic. His hiding place is known to this day as " Drake's Pool." The finest hotel in the place is the Queen's ; it fully equals the Girard House, Philadelphia. It is, of course, conducted on the European plan, containing drawing-room, coffee-room, and salle a manger for gentlemen and ladies, and a commercial room for mer- chants, tradesmen, etc. The scale of prices varies, the draw- ing-room guests being charged about one-third more than those of the commercial room. Meals will be served for the drawing-room guests either in their chambers, salle a manger, or drawing-room, as desired, and at any hour. Everything is itemized in the bill. Upon the whole, my impressions of Ireland are good. 11. Queenstown to Kii^larney— Old Castles — Cork — Shan- don — Royal Names — Irish Farmers— Frogs and. Snakes —Blarney Castle— Beggars — Lakes of Killarney — Musical Echoes — St. John's Day at Killarney. Lakes of Killarney, June, 1869. From Queenstown to this place, by way of Cork, is about seventy-five miles. It is eleven miles from Queenstown to Cork by rail, and fourtsen by river. Tourists should by all means choose the latter ; the scenery is really superb. The shore rises in groves and hills crowned with splendid edifices, public and private. Two castles are passed. The one at Monkstown, erected by Anastatia Goold,. in 1636, is now a ruin. The other, known as Blackrock, stands upon a promon- tory, and at a distance looks like a formidable old castle. It 4 QUEEN'STOWN TO KlLLAKNEY.. is of comparatively modern construction. It was from this place that William Penn^ who had been converted at Cork to- Quakerism, embarked for America.. Cork is quite a considerable town. It contains about eighty thousand inhabitants ;, its population decreases about six thousand in ten years. This is true of all the cities and towns of Ireland. The river I^ee, upon which it is built, forks, at the city ;, the town is built on the swamp between the forks,, and on. the high hills on the north and south of both branches. It takes its name from its location, Corcagh^ the original Irish name, meaning a swamp. It is one of the oldest towns in Ireland, and was the site of a Pagan temple, which was de- stroyed in the seventh century. The streets of the older parts of the city are very narrow, ranging from four to thirty feet ; Grand Parade and St. Patrick's Streets, however, are from eighty to one hundred and fifty feet wide, being wider in some places than others. The Imperial Hotel is fully equal to any second-class hotel in America. It fronts upon Pembroke Street, barely twenty-five feet wide. The streets in the old part of the city run in every conceivable way, making all kinds of angles, circles, triangles, elliptics, and now and then,, for one square, a straight line. The quays are built of solid oblong granite blocks, and are walled up on both sides of the river's branches, at least six feet above high water. The town ■ is united by six bridges of solid masonry. The public build- ings are really a credit to the city. The court house and the county jail are noble edifices, far superior to any of the class in Pennsylvania. It also contains stores on Grand Parade and St. Patrick's Streets, equal to those of Market Street, Phila- delphia. It boasts of eight scientific institutions, but as an offset I counted thirty-three pawnbrokers. I noticed a pecu- liarity in the numbering of the houses, which I am told pre- vails all over Ireland. The numbers begin on one side at the commencement of the street and run consecutively to the end,, then turn and come down the other side — thus No. lo St. Patrick's Street is opposite No. 130 on the other side of the street. The city contains some splendid churches. The most celebrated has been neglected since Cromwell took the town and melted all the church bells into cannon. The steeple or Shandon, to which I refer, is of solid masonry, and one hun- dred and twenty feet high, standing upon a hill on the north side of the north branch of the Lee. It has yet a good chime of bells. "Those Shandon bells-'. Whose sound so wild, would, In the days of childhood, Fling round my cradle Their magic spells." OUEENSTOWN TO KlLLAKNEY, I heard them, and can bear witness to their sweetness. The town delights in royal names ; you see them on every- thing, such as the Imperial Hotel, the Royal Victoria, the Queens, the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, Prince Arthur, the King's Arms, etc., etc. The country around Cork is naturally fertile, but badly cultivated. The land is mostly owned in England, and is cultivated by tenants who, as a rule, hold at sufferance from year to year. The farms contain from one to ten acres, with no barns or houses ; if a tenant was to build himself a house his rent would be at once raised. I noticed as an emblem of Justice, the Goddess on the court house held in her hand an old-fashioned pair of steel- yards, banished from America long ago because of their imcer- tainty. I suppose it to be a true emblem of English justice for poor Ireland. There are plenty of frogs around Cork. I saw a fine large one on the bank of the lake. I said to my coachman : 'I thought you told me that St. Patrick banished from Ireland all the frogs, toads and snakes." "Oh," said he, "That's not a frog, that's only a waterjack.'" The castle and lake of Blarney are about five miles from Cork. The castle is now a ruin ; it was built by Cormac McCarthy, in 1446. The mas- sive donjon tower that remains is 120 feet high, and must have been indeed a strong, and I would say, from its ruins, an im- pregnable place, before the introduction of gunpowder. I kissed the Blarney stone, a somewhat perilous task, as it is about six feet down from the parapet, and while performing the devotion your head is down and your heels up ; b)^ hold- ing firmly to the two iron bars, with the assistance of your guide, who holds you by tho^ feet, the. feat can be accom- plished. The groves and lake of Blarney are lovely and ro- mantic ; they have been the theme of many Irish songs. The Reliques of Father Prout alludes to them and the " stone," " There is a stone there That whoever kisses^ Oh ! he never misses To grow eloquent. "'Tis he may clamber To a lady's chamber,. Or become a member Of Parliament " A short distance from the castle is a cave said to lead tc^ the bottom of the lake, 360 yards off". As we approached it we heard the fiddler of Blarney saiviiig away on ' ' Yayikee Doodle.'' There were five tourists in our party ; of course we gave him sixpence each, after which you should have heard the blarney, for it was beyond description. Rabbits are quite 6 QUEENSTOWN TO KfLLARNEY. thick, and birds fl}^ around the streets of Cork as tame as chickens. The crows are also numerous, and as tame as pigeons ; this is because of the severity of the game laws ; no one in Ireland is allowed to carry a gun without royal permis- sion, and a license in his pocket. The most striking peculiarity of Ireland is its beggars ; they importune you at every step. Cork is full of them ; I saw ten at once make a raid upon a gentleman and lady while walking on the Mardyke, a very beautiful promenade, about a mile long, with stately elms on both sides and arches every few yards, from the apex of which are suspended lamps which give it a most enchanting appearance at night. From Cork to Killarney we passed several ruined castles. The railroads are far superior to ours in construction ; so with the common roads, they are all in splendid order ; no wooden bridges, they are all of stone, even the platforms along the road are built of dressed stone. The railway hotel is decidedly the best in Killarney. It is built of square dressed stone ; the walls are three feet thick ; it contains everything necessary for a first-class hotel, and has one hundred large, airy, and elegantly-furnished guest cham- bers, coffee-room, commercial-room, large drawing-rooms, salle a manger, and breakfast-room. It is well kept, and the prices are reasonable. On the 25th inst., I visited the " L^akes of Killarney," a most charming place. No tongue can tell or pen describe, the ever-changing scenery. It must be seen to be compre- hended. Its lakes, glens, cascades, and mountains present to the eye a panorama of unequalled loveliness. The journey through the lakes and over the mountain passes, by carriage, foot, and boat, is at least 31 miles. I only gave it one day, and went the whole journey. At one point our guide played an air on his bugle ; the whole range of mountains took up the echo ; he was hid from our view, and had we been ignor- ant of its origin, we would have thought the mountains full of musicians. While passing the Gap of Dunloe we overtook about forty gentlemen enjoying a picnic. They recognized me, and insisted on me joining them ; I was fatigued, and gladly partook of their refreshments. The remaining gentlemen of our party supposed I had found a company of American friends. They could not be convinced that we had never met before, until informed by the landlord that they were members of Trales lyodge, F. A. M., No. 379, spending St. John's day at the lyakes. God bless the craft around the globe ! I sat with them that night at table lodge at their hotel and was royally entertained. I leave Killarney with regret. I feel that I shall not look KiLLARNEY TO DuBLIN. upon its like again. But one thing marred my enjoyment — its beggars ; it beggars d.t.sQxv^\\ovL to do them justice. They fol- lowed us four miles over the mountain, and could not be scolded, coaxed, or kicked away. At the town of Killarney — a very mean place — I met a bare-headed, bare-footed men- dicant friar, with gown and cowl, and shaved head, an old rope for a girdle, and rosary hanging by his side ; just such a picture as you have often seen in old paintings. III. Killarney to Dublin — Irish Railways — The Peasantry — An Irish American — Pre-historic Round Towers — Bogs — Decreasing Population — American Farming Im- plements — Dublin, its Bridges, Gardens and Public Buildings. Dublin, June, 1869. From Killarney to Dublin is 185 miles, we pass through parts of Counties Kerry, Cork, lyimerick, Tipperary, Queens, Kildare and Dublin. The route is through the heart of Ire- land. While the railways are superior, the cars are inferior, to those of America, One of our palace cars would be a won- der here. In the railwaj^ car no conductor accompanies the train ; the passengers are locked in, and at certain stations an agent presents himself, requesting a sight of your ticket. Sickness or other emergency must be endured until a station is reached. Tipperary and Queen's counties look bad to an American. The fields are deserted, and the rich meadow lands abandoned to sheep grazing. The ditches and mud fences are broken, and the once beautiful hedges are ragged and trodden down. I noticed the ox-eyed daisy and thistle in great abund- ance in the fields, hedges and roadside. The land looks as if it had once been well cultivated, but it is certainly not now. In vain the traveller looks for a farm-house or barn, instead of which he sees but mud hovels and huts, in which a Pennsyl- vania farmer would bhish to his cattle. These are the dwell- ings of the Irish peasantry. As the train approached the line of Queen's County, I observed a farm-house and barn, such as are seen all over America. I asked an old man at the station, who owned it. He said it had been built about ten years ago by an " Irish American.'' " Does he live there yet ?" said I. " Oh, no, he sold out and went back to America, four years ago." Several interesting ruins are passed ; one of the most per- KlLLARNEY TO DuBLIN. feet old round towers in Ireland stands at Clondankin. It is eighty-four feet high. The telegraph poles throughout Ireland are not ten feet high ; they look like dwarfs, compared with ours. I have not seen an orchard in this part of Ireland. In Limerick I saw some middling well-timbered woodlands ; we pass hundreds of acres of bog-lands. A bog is not a swamp ; the turf is sometimes cut ten feet down, without the interfer- ence of water. It burns quite cheerfully, and leaves a white ash. The general face of the country is not unlike that along the line of the railroad from Marcus Hook to Philadelphia, substituting ditches, mud walls, and ragged hedges for fences, and dividing the fields into patches of from one to three acres. Queen's County looks to me worse than Tipperary ; both have enormously decreased in population during the last twenty years ; the latter from 153,930 in 1641, to 90,650 in 1851 ; County Kildare looks better ; its lands lie well, are mostl}^ rich and rolling, and seem pretty well cultivated. It looks somewhat like New Castle County, Delaware, without its farm-houses and barns, but with better roads and bridges. The water-power of Ireland is enormous ; nature could not have better distributed its rivers and creeks. As I approached Dublin I saw all the modern American implements of farming, such as mowing machines, threshing machines, horse -rakes, haj^-spreaders, cultivators, etc., etc. Dublin is a very interesting and handsome city. It con- tains more elegant public buildings, monument, and works of art, within a comparatively small compass, than any I have yet seen. It has about 250,000 inhabitants, but is decreasing. It is beautifully situated on both banks of the river Liffey, which is about as wide as the Schuylkill at Market Street. The river is walled with dressed stone on both banks at least 15 feet higher than high water mark. It is spanned by eight substantial stone and iron bridges. The shipping comes up to Carlisle Street bridge. The King's bridge is the furthest up the river, say about two miles from Carlisle bridge. Welling- ton, Essex, Richmond, Wintworth, Queen's and Barrack bridges intervene at nearly equal distances. A short distance below Carlisle bridge the river expands into a noble bay. The principal objects of interest in the city are : Nelson's Monu- ment, 121 feet high ; the Post Office, Custom House, Rutland Square, the Rotundo, Newgate Prison, the scene of Fitzger- ald's execution in 1798 ; the King's Inns, the Four Courts, the Royal Barracks, Phoenix Park, containing 1750 acres, in which stands Wellington's Monument ; the Old Castle, Col lege Green, with the statue of William III ; Trinitj' College, with its statues of Moore, Burke and Goldsmith ; Marion Square, St. Stephen's Square, Exhibition Palace and Winter Dublin to Giant's Causeway. Garden, Porto Bello Garden, St. Patrick Cathedral, (said to stand over the well where the Old Saint baptized his converts) and Christ Church. The beggars are not quite as many as at Cork and Killarney, but too thick for comfort. Articles oi merchandise are about as high as in Philadelphia, and the people about as happy. I leave it this afternoon for Belfast and the Giant's Causeway. IV. Dublin to Giant's Causeway — High Rents — Drogheda — Cromwell's Cruelty — Boyne Water — Orangemen of Ulster — Crosses of Monasterboice — Tomb of King MUREDACH — MELLIFONT AbBEY — Ten CoUNTIES AT ONE coup d'oeil — Long Days— Belfast- — Familiar Names — Philadelphia Ledger Obituary Poetry — ^Jaunting Cars --Keep to the Left — Girls Farming— Giant's Causeway — Portcoon Cave— Who Built the Cause- way ? — Dunluce Castle — Sea Bathing. Giant's Causeway, July, 1869. From Dublin to this place, via Belfast, is 187 miles. The country traversed is most interesting, and contains some re- nowned places. The fields are large, well cultivated and green with pasture, flax, barley, oats and potatoes. The farmers pay a perpetual rent, ranging from one to seven pounds per acre. Several manufacturing towns, somewhat resembling Upland, are passed. I spent a day at Drogheda, a very old town, about 37 miles north of Dublin, situated upon the fam- ous river Boyne ; it was once a walled city. A fine specimen of the wall, known as St. Lawrence's Gate, still remains. On the south side of the river are the remains of St. Mary's Ab- bey, founded in the reign of Edward I. Magdalen Steeple is a very fine ruin on the north side of the river, and is all that remains of the famous church of the Dominican Friars, where the Irish chiefs submitted to Richard II. Cromwell sacked the town, and indiscriminate!}' slaughtered its inhabitants, from the effects of which it has never recovered. The bitter memories of the siege are still fresh with the people, and the name of the Protector is one of execration ; they tell of little babes found, the day after the slaughter, sucking at the dry breasts of their murdered mothers. There are a few good buildings in the town, but the suburbs are miserable mud hovels, one story high, thatched with straw, without floors or chimneys, and swarming with wretched creatures in the most lo Dublin to Giant's Causeway, abject poverty. I saw pretty little, bright-eyed girls, nearly naked, in the streets, and smarf little boys begging for a liv- ing. The railroad bridge over the Boyne is superior to any I have seen in America. It is of solid masonry, and consists of fifteen arches of 6 1 -feet span, and a centre arch of 250 feet. Large shipping can sail under it. About two miles up,, on the north bank of the river, an obelisk 150 feet high, marks the spot where William of Orange commenced the attack upon his father-in-law, King James II. The spot where James stood and surveyed the battle, as well as that occupied by William, is pointed out by the guide. Some of the entrenchments can still be seen. This is the an- niversary of the battle : it was fought July i, i6go, and has been annually celebrated ever since by the Orange m.en of Ulster. Red and orange -colored flags are now flying from the steeples of Episcopal churches between here and Belfast, com- memorative of the event and mobs of men and boys may be seen flaunting orange-colored flags, and singing insulting sec- tional songs by day, and by night congregating around im- mense bonfires, and hooting, yelling and screaming around the Catholic churches, for the apparent purpose of inciting to riot and bloodshed. The Catholic population of this place is twelve to one of the Protestant, and they are commendable for their good behavior, as they seem determined to avoid a con- flict, by looking in silent contempt upon the disgraceful pro- ceedings of their Protestant neighbors. For twelve shillings a car and driver, who also acts as guide, can be hired to conduct the tourist to Monasterboice, Slane and Mellifont, making a journey of about twenty-five miJes circular from Drogheda. At Monasterboice, in a solitary field, stands an old round tower and two chapels in ruins, with three elaborately sculptured stone crosses, one of which is twenty-seven feet high, and has stood perhaps a thousand years in its present position over the grave of some Irish king. The tomb of King Muredach, who died A. D. 534, is near the round-tower. The name is quite legible in Irish characters upon the slab over his grave. The round-tower is no feet high, and, like all of its kind, is of pre-historic antiquity. It was doubtless an object of traditional reverence when the chapels were built, perhaps by St. Patrick, as King Muredach's death was only about 100 years after that of the old saint. Mellifont Abbey, about three miles west of Monasterboice, was built A. D. 1142, by O'Carrol, Prince of Orgiel. It con- tained at one time 140 monks. Slane, three miles further, con- tains a fine eld ruined abbey, which commands one of the finest views in Ireland. It is said that ten counties may be seen from its towers. The view is truly fine. Dublin to Giant's Causeway. i i The time by rail from Drogheda to Belfast is about five hours. The days here in Jul)^ are very long ; daylight com- mences at 2.30 A. M., and ends a little before 10 o'clock P. M. Belfast is a pretty and clean city, but too much like the towns of America to require special notice. Signs of industry are exhibited everywhere, and consequently beggars are few. I was struck with the familiar names on the business signs, and on the grave-stones in the burial-grounds, such as Gamble, Ward, Wilson, Johnson, Brown, Shaw, Taylor, McCay, and other Delaware county names. Perhaps some of the old set- tlers of the count}^ came from this place. Judging from the obituary poetry on the tomb-stones, the Philadelphia Ledger must have found its way here as early as 183 1. I copied some of its poetry from an old headstone — "With suffering sore, a long time bore, Pnysicians was all in vain. But deatti him seized And God was pleased. A happy release from pain." There are no omnibuses or street railways in Ireland; short journeys are made in jaunting cars. As a rule the sidewalks in all the cities are paved with cobble-stones instead of brick. I have also observed that the guage of the wheels of the vehicles is of a different width, thereby obviating the forma- tion of ruts, and keeping the streets and roads level. If the traveller were to observe the American rule and keep to the right he would be going wro7ig. There are no brick in Ireland like those of Philadelphia; here they are of a yellow mud color, giving even to new build- ings an old appearance. On my journey from Belfast to Port- rush at Ballymena, I saw an apple orchard, the first I have observed in Ireland. Lt is quite common here to see full grown girls spreading hay with their hands instead oi forks. Grass and garden vegetables grow in abundance to within a few feet of the sea- shore, which is verj^ abrupt and rugged, giving indubitable evidence by its charred and cracked rocks of plutonic forma- tion. From here to the Causew^ay the coast looks as if its rocks had been belched up from the infernal regions in a state of fusion, and suddenly cooled by contact with the sea. The seaweed grows in great abundance upon the rocks, and is gathered and burnt by the peasants, who sell the ashes to the chemists for the manufacture of potash. The coast from Portrush to the Giant's Causeway is cal- culated to inspire sentiments of pleasure as well as wonder. In entering Portcoon and Dunkerry caves, nothing is w^anted but the smell of sulphur to transform them into the portals of 12 Ireland TO England. Pandemonium. I fired my pistol in Portcoon cave, and the effect was like the discharge of a battery of artillery. Tra- dition says this cave was the home of a hermit giant, who was fed by seals from the sea. The Causeway proper cannot be described, it must be seen tq be enjoyed. It also has its tradition. The peasants tell you, with great earnestness, that it was built by Fin M'Coul, the champion of Ireland, to afford a passageway to Scotland, that a famous Caledonian giant might cross over without wetting his feet, as he had threatened that he would come over and whip Fin, were it not for the wetting of his feet. After the Causeway was finished he crossed over and got wofully thrashed, but with becoming Hibernian generosity, Fin allowed his former rival to remain in Ireland, and gave him his daughter to wife. As he did not desire to return, the Causeway was neglected and broken up by the angry sea, what is now seen being all that remains of the famous work. Dunluce Castle four miles west of the Causeway, is the most picturesque ruin in Ireland. It rests on a precipitous mass of rock, 150 feet high, boldly facing the ocean. Portrush is the Cape May of Dublin and the North. The ladies bathe by themselves in linen suits, but the gentlemen go in nude. The fair ones do not seem at all shocked, but promenade the shore in perfect nonchalance while the gentlemen are bathing. At Bangor, which is the watering place for Belfast, the entire shore was lined with gentlemen, bathing in all the si7nplicity of ?iature, and the ladies on the boat did not even turn their heads, or "look with downcast eyes." So much for the cus- toms of the country. I have now finished my tour in Ireland. It is a fair land, its people are kind and hospitable; an Ameri- can feels that he is not friendless in Ireland. To-morrow I embark for England. V. From Ireland to England — Eivkrpool — How to Explore AN O1.D CiTv — U. S. Bonds — The Sudden Change from Paper Monev to Gold — Birkenhead — Chester — The Rows AND Roman Walls — Phcenix Tower — An Old Monk's Description of Chester — Cathedral Epitaph UPON the Tomb of a Dead Son — Horses. lylVERPOOL, July, 1869. lyiverpool is about half as large as Philadelphia, and lies nearly due east from Dublin. The sun rises here about twenty- Ireland to England. 13 five minutes ahead of Ireland, although Paddy is loath to admit the possibility of the sun rising anywhere earlier than in Ireland. By taking ship at 8 P. M. at Dublin. lyiverpool is reached at 6 A. M. next day, and by one not subject to vial cle mer, a pleasant sleep may be enjoyed upon the bosom of old ocean. Iviverpool possesses nothing worthy of especial notice, except perhaps its splendid docks and quays, mud colored brick and sombre appearaic?. I am becoming accustomed to winding streets and begin to rather like them. A little exercise of brain, tongue, and eyes, will conduct the intelligent traveller through the most irregularly constructed city of Europe. They have all been built without any previous plan, but after- wards enlarged and beautified, as a native forest would be pruned to convert it into a public park. L,ondon was originally a fort, and Liverpool a fishing town. The roads converged to these points, and new ones were made as the towns grew in importance, and as they generally followed the lines of the farms and hillsides or the bank of some stream they would, of course, be crooked and irregular. As the town grew, the roads became the principal streets, and, for convenience of access from one lo another, the cross streets were made. This was the outline : the streets, lanes, and alleys for private dwellings being subsequently filled in. They all have a central point or grand trunk street, which can easily be found by observing the convergence of the old principal streets into it. By impress- ing on the mind the courses of the grand trunk and its princi- pal branches, together with their names, and the names and localities of the most notorious places, squares, monuments, gardens, parks, and public buildings, and by observing the sun by day and the polar star at night, the traveller may bid defi- ance to guides and cabmen, and without fear walk over every city in Europe. With the exceptions just noticed, Liverpool looks very much like an American city. United States 5-20 bonds and greenbacks are plenty here, and can be converted into gold without difficulty for their full value, though the better way is to procure a draft, or letter of credit before starting abroad. All American travellers tell the same story as to the sudden change from paper to metallic currency. As soon as the trav- eller is assured that he can get gold for his draft, he doesn't want it ; he draws a few sovereigns in coin and the balance in Bank of England notes, and soon hates the sight of silver, and spends the copper to get rid of it. It will be the same in America in a week after resumption. The bank notes here are different from ours, being about twice as large as a greenback, and printed without any engraving, on fine and strong white paper. 14 Ireland to England. Birkenhead occupies the same position to lyiverpool that Camden does to Philadelphia. It is about the size of Chester, Delaware County. The name of Chester inspired me with a desire to see the town from which our Chester derived its name. It lies nearly south, and is about an hour distant from Birken- head by rail. It is admitted to be one of the most remarkable old towns in Kngland, if not in Europe. Before Christ it was a considerable town and has preserved its ancient form to a wonderful extent to the present day. It has its old gates of entrance and exit, and its old Roman walls standing entire. They are about three miles long, and afford a delightful prom- enade, and splendid views around the town. The public square outside of the walls is full of Roman antiquities, con- stantl}^ being exhumed. In 1821, a fine and well-preserved Roman altar was dug up bearing the following inscription : — NYMPHIS ET FONTIBUS IvEG. XX. V. V. which in English would read, "To the Nymphs and Foun- tains, the 20th L,egion, the invincible and victorious" (dedicate this altar). As I walked around the wall I observed a mould- ering old turret, known as Phoenix Tower. The inscription over its ruined portal tells the rest. Here it is : — " King Charles Stood O'l this Tower S^epteraber 24th, 1(545, and saw His army defeated On Rowton Moor." The streets are most singularly constructed. The side- walk or foot-path, apparently runs through the middle of the houses ; below are shops on the level with the street, above are chambers, and on each side stores. Ramulph Higden, a monk of Chester Abbey, whose chronicles were published A. D. 1495, gives the following description of the town: "The City of lyCgions, that is Chester, in time of Britons was head and chief city of all Venedocia, that is North Wales. There lay a winter the legions of Julius Caesar sent for to win Ireland. And after Claudius Caesar sent legions out of the city to win the islands that he called Orcades. This city hath plenty of live land, of corn, of flesh, and specially of salmon. This city receiveth great merchandise and sendeth out also. North - umbers destroyed this city sometime, but Elfleda, I^ady of Mercia, builded it again, and made it much more. In this city had been ways under earth with vaults and stone work, won- derfully wrought, three chambered works, great stones engraved with old names therein. This is that city that Ethelfrede, King of Northumberland, destroyed, , and slew there fast by Ireland TO England. 15 nigh two thousand monks. This is the city that King Edgar came to sometime with seven kings that were subject to him." The old Cathedral of St. Werbug, built upon the site of a Pagan temple to Apollo, which it is said itself supplanted a still older fane of the Druids, stands so near the city wall that the tmcouth rhymes on the tombstones may be read without descending. This ground was a place of sepulture before the Christian era. Among the quaint old verses and epitaphs I read one which touched a tender cord. Here it is : — "Thou art gone, sweet boy, to death's dark shade. To never— never fading bliss ; We could have wished thou'dst longer staid Tosha -e wit'i a> tliy oniilia ? kiss. But God was pleased to call thee hence * And save thee from this life of care ; He called thee while in innocence His mercies better gifts to share. Remember how I danced and sung, And clasped thee in my fond embrace, Delighted with thy prattling tongue. Thy sparkling eye— and lovely face. Thou should'st have closed thy father's eyes. And laid him in his native clay; But gone before me to the skies, I pray thoul't meet me on the way." The face of the country between lyiverpool and Chester "wears very much the same appearance as some parts of Dela- ware. It is undulating rather than hilly, and is better culti- vated than the land in Ireland. The farm-houses are not equal to those of Pennsylvania, and the barns few and poor. The horses, however, are the finest for heavy work I have ever seen. I saw draught horses in lyiverpool almost as large and strong as elephants. I think the Knglish iron plough is superior to any American one. I wonder it has not been adopted by our Pennsylvania farmers, as it would suit the soil, is very strong and steady, and yet of easy draught, and can be managed with one hand in the stiflFest sod. 1 6 Liverpool to London. VI. I^ivERPOOL TO London — Good Railroad Time — Entering London under Ground — English Farming — Objects of Interest — Three Landmarks of London — Museum — Deed Four Thousand Years Old — Gallery of Paint- ings — London Bridge — Pudding Lane — Bigotry of the Olden Time — Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's and the Tower — A Queen's Epitaph — O Rare Ben Johnson — Lady Ann of Cleve — The Murdered Princes. London, July 1869. From Liverpool to London by rail is about 200 miles, the route is through the bowels of the land, for vv^hich reason the journey should be made by day ; but the anxiety to reach the metropolis often induces many travellers to journey by night, a practice to be condemned. One of the objects of travelling should be to see the general face of the country, and to ob- serve, by comparison, its distinctive geographic features, as well as its style of cultivation and improvement. The speed attained upon this line is very great, averaging fiftj^ miles an hour. The locomotive enters the centre of the city of London, but not on any of the streets ; the entrance was effected at enormous expense, by tunnelling and bridging. The passing train can be sometimes heard, but never seen. My impressions of the high state of English agriculture have not been realized; I have seen nothing superior to the well cultivated farms of our own State. Britain depends more on her traffic than her soil for her prosperity. Her merchants are trul}^ princes, and her traffickers the honorable of the earth. If Paris is France, so London is England. To say it is a great city would be a tame expression ; it is an immense, and in man 3^ respects, a wonderful place. Its enormous docks, royal palaces, renowned antiquities, old abbeys, cathedrals, monuments, parks, and places of amusement, together with its mongrel population of 3,500,000 souls, of all classes and characters, from beggars, burglars and professional thieves, up to its peers, princes and royal heads, dwelling in habitations as distinctive as its classes, from the Royal Palace, resplendent with dazzling brilliancy and gorgeous light, down to the pestiferous haunts and noxious dens, where the light of the sun is never seen, all contribute to our wonder, or, if nothing more, furnish food for our serious reflection. London contains many objects of interest which no visitor should fail to see, among which are the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Zoological Gardens, the Crystal Palace, the Parliament Houses, Westminster Abbey, Liverpool to London, 17 •» the Tower and St. Paul's Cathedral. The Museum contains specimens of antiquity, art, sciences and curiosity, so system- atically arranged as to at once commend themselves to the in- telligent mind. Fossils can there be seen ranging from the earliest developments of animal life, and regularly progressing through millions of ages up to the last and highest type, that of a human skeleton imbedded in a hard rock of solid limestone. Kvery known metal and mineral, salt or rock, is there rep- resented. So in botany, zoology and geology. In the depart- ment of antiquities may be found the footprints of every step in human progress. Those from Nineveh, Babylon and Egypt, are the most interesting and confirmatory of the Holy Script- ures. The library contains either the original or a fac -simile of every known book or manuscript. I saw there a deed on papyrus in a plain, bold hand. It was exhumed with a mummy, and purported to convey a lot of ground in Memphis. It was at least four thousand years old, but in form it was identical with the deeds of the present day. The translation, with very little alteration, would pass for the work of a Chester conveyancer for a lot of ground in the South Ward, for I ob- served it had been sold subject to a ^nortgage. The student of universal knowledge could learn more in a month, in the British Museum, of practical education, than could be acquired in years of theoretical research. In the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square, are some of the rarest and best paintings in the world. Paul Veronese's Family of Darius, is considered among the best ; it cost ^14,000. A fine opportunity is af- forded of comparing the works of modern masters with those of the ancient school. I observed a work of Raphael, and an unfinished piece by Michael Angelo, as bright and fresh as when they received the last touch of the brush, while some works of comparatively recent date, although equally beautiful in outline, were manifestly deficient in color, being dim and faded. As I journeyed toward the Tower, I paused a moment at I/Ondon Bridge, and stood where Macaulay says the future traveller from New Zealand will stand upon its broken arch and sketch the ruins of St. Paul's. Near the bridge stands the Monument, from the top of which an excellent view of London is had. It is 202 feet high, and stands just that distance from the spot in Pudding Lane, where the great fire of 1666 began. It was erected by Sir Christopher Wren. It bore an inscription which was erased in 1829, and which conveys a good idea of the bigotry of the age. It read as follows : ' ' This pillar was set up to perpetuate the memory of the most dreadful burning of this ancient city, began and carried on hy the treachery and malice of the Popish faction, in the beginning of September, A. D. 1666, in i8 Liverpool to London: order to thi^ carrying on o'; their horrid plot for extirpating the Protestant religion and old English Liberty, and introducing" Popery and Slavery." All we know of our fathers is taught by the monuments they have left behind them. Man is naturally vain and in- clined to imagine the age in which he lives the most perfect the world has evei known, but, after looking upon the ruins of time and glancing at the remains of ancient greatness^ 'we afe bewildered and amazsd in the mere attempt to comprehend the glory of the olden time. The art of war was perfect 4000 years ago ; all we know of music and the fine arts are but poor imitations of ancient models. Our best_ efforts at architecture are btit copies of Grecian Temples. London was a city before the birth of Christianity. In its growth it has absorbed all the surrounding villages and towns wi-thin a radius of twent}'- miles. , The fire of 1666 destroyed 13,200 houses— 400 streets were laid waste. The rebuilding of the city shows a peculiar trait of English char- acter. They never change anything once deliberately adopted. The Padding Lane, where the fire began is "Pudding Lane", still. The great architect, Sir Christopher Wren, urged the authorities to lay out the city on a new and greatly improved plan suggested by his experience, but with the disposition to do" as their fathers had done, and that they might not infringe on private rights, they resolved to rebuild the city just as it was before the fire, with all its old bends, crooks, twists, hills, hol- lows and irregularities. Recent excavations however have demonstrated that the present city, in the older portions, is at least sixteen feet higher than it was in the days of Roman occupation. Old Roman roads, baths and foundations are constantly being exhumed below the bottom of the cellars of the present city. London covers an area of about eighty square miles of solid buildings. Its three distinctive landmarks are West- minster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower. The tombs and monuments of the old abbey are the marble records of English history. "They harmonize its confusion and shed light upon its darkest pages." The present structure escaped the great fire. It was commenced by Edward the Conqueror upon the site of a ruined monastery. Its ground plan is that of a Latin cross. Its length including the chapel of Henry VII. is 530 feet ; its breadth at the transept is 203 feet. The towers are 225 feet high. William the Conqueror was crowned here with great pomp in A. D. 1065. The chapel of Henry VII. was added during the reign of that prince. To see the abbey under the most favorable conditions it should be entered by Liverpool to London. 19 the western door. When the eye surveys, and the mind for the first time comprehends its vast proportions, the sensation is one of wonder and surprise. The nave, the side aisles, the mass of marble columns and monuments, the organ and the grand eastern arch, beautified by the soft and tinted shades of the decorated windows, present a scene of indescribable beauty. Every inch of space on the side walls and niches has been utilized by a profusion of memorials of the dead, some in good, others in very bad taste. Above the line of the tombs are dreary and solemn looking little chambers, once the dwell- ing places of the monks. The nine adjoining chapels have been constructed so as to give them the appearance of being a part of the same edifice. The chapels contain the tombs, effigies and ashes of Eng- land's mightiest dead. Sebert, who died A. D. 616, was the first and George II. the last king here interred. It has been a ro3^al burial place for over twelve hundred years. Among the many royal tombs I particularly noticed that of Eleanor, the beautiful Queen of Edward I. While in Palestine the Saracens emplo^^ed an assassin to murder Edward with a poisoned dagger. In his struggle he received a wound in the arm. Eleanor sucked the poison from the wound and saved his life. She was the mother of the first Prince of Wales. She died at Harby in 1291, Edward followed her body to Westminster and to commemorate her worth and his grief he set up a cross at every place where the funeral procession had stopped, the last place being at the village of Charring, which has ever since been known as Charring Cross. It is now in the heart of London. The traveler will also notice the tombs of Mar}' Queen of Scots, the little princes murdered by Richard III., the eflfig)" of Henry VII, and the royal vault of George II. One of the most interesting tombs contains the remains of Lady Margaret Douglass, daughter of Queen Margaret of Scotland. It rep- resents a beautiful lady reposing upon a finely chiseled altar. The inscription says: "This lady's great-grandfather was Henry VIL ; her cousin Edward VI. ; her brother James V. of Scotland ; her son Henry I. of Scotland ; her grandson James V, ; having to her great-grandmother and grandmother two queens, both named Elizabeth ; to her mother Margaret Queen of Scots ; her aunt the French Queen ; her cousins Mary and Elizabeth, Queens of England ; her neice and daughter- in-law Mary Queen of Scots." This would seem to an American to be royalty enough concentrated in one body to satisfy even a woman. She was said to have been very beau- tiful. Her first husband, Sir Thomas Howard, died in prison ; liis onl}^ crime was his marriage without the assent of Henry 20 Liverpool to London. VIII. She afterwards married the Earl of I^enox, by whom she had Lord Darnh", the second husband of Mary Queen of Scots and father of James I. of England. Near her tomb is that of her most unfortunate daughter-in-law, Mary Queen of Scots ; she was remarkable for her rare beauty and doubtful virtue. Her first husband was the Dauphin of France ; her third was Bothwell, a rough soldier. After seventeen long years of imprisonment she was beheaded by order of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth. And so we might continue for days, reading the inscriptions and commenting upon and reviewing the lives of those here interred. A favorite resort is the Poets' Corner. Near the tombs of Addison and Lord Macaulay we observe a marble slab set in the wall. Its inscription contains but four words — " O Rare Ben Johnson." The effect of a stroll among these tombs is to engender a desire to know something of the lives of the ones in whose honor they have been erected. We naturally look up their biography and by an association of ideas we never forget what we thus learn. I would, perhaps, never have known of the early struggles of the grand old poet if I had not been struck with the quaintness of his epitaph. Ben Johnson's father recognized his son's talent and took great pride in his education, but when he died Ben lost his best friend. His mother married a bricklayer who thought it a waste of time to study Latin in the school where Ben's father had placed him, so he took him from school and set him to laying bricks. At the building of Lincoln's Inn his subsequent benefactor found him with Horace in one hand and a trowel in the other. Near his memorial may be seen a small portion of the tomb of Lady Ann of Cleve. She was married to Henry VIII and was received by him with great pomp on Black Heath, Jan- uary 3, 1539. In the following July he divorced her. His only ground for divorce was that ' ' she was too Dutch for him." Touched at this insult she, with great dignity, retired to private life under the new name of " Lady Ann of Cleve." She lived to see her rival beheaded for infidelity to the King. Near by repose the ashes of the still more unfortunate Queen Annie. Richard III. after murdering her husband, and mar- rying her, conceived a passion for Elizabeth, sister to the little princes he had murdered in the Tower. To make room for his marriage with Elizabeth he poisoned Annie, but he did not live to capture Elizabeth, having been slain by the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VIL Richard was a cun- ning, brave and blood-thirsty brute. "Not shaped for sportive tricks Nor made to court an amorous looliiug glass ; Clieated of feature by dissembling nature, Deformed, unfinished, sent before his time Sights in London, 21- Into this breathing world, sjarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfasliionable That dog-s barked at him as he halted by tliem." In the days of pious frauds, the monks of Westminster Abbey invented and circulated the legend that St. Peter, in person, assisted by holy angels and amid a glorious display of heavenly light, dedicated the abbey the night before the day appointed by King Sebert for that ceremony. Westminster Abbey is undoubtedly the first landmark of lyOndon. In my next letter I will try to say something about St. Paul's. VII. St. Paul's — Sir Christopher Wren's Monument — Tombs IN THE Crypt — Wellington's Funeral Car — Benjamin West — View from the Ball — Great Bell — Travel on L/ONDON Bridge — The Tower — Arms and Armor — Colt's Revolver Four Hundred Years Old — Axe and Block — Koh-i-Noor for Sixpence — Traitor's Gate — Anne Boleyn Philadelphia in Canada Alabama Claims — English Jealousy of America. London, July, 1869. Passing down Whitehall Street, the Strand, Fleet and Ludgate Streets, about two miles nearly due east from West- minster Abbey, we arrive at the next landmark, the magnifi- cent Cathedral of St. Paul, one of the largest churches in the world and with capacity to hold twenty thousand persons. It is the most prominent object in London. The lofty dome can be seen for many miles. The cathedral stands in the centre of an enclosed churchyard at the head of Ludgate Hill. A church existed here four hundred years before the Nor- man conquest. The present edifice was erected upon the site of the one that was destroyed by the great fire. Its architect was Sir Christopher Wren. It was thirty-five years being built and he lived to see it finished. Over the north door, in letters of gold, may be seen the following inscription : — " Sir Christopher Wren — Si monumentum quaeris, cir- cumspice ! ' ' A free translation of this inscription is a request to the beholder, if he is endeavoring to find Wren's monument, to look around him. In other words, the whole cathedral is his monument. 22 Sights in London. This church is also built upon a ground plan of a Latin cross five hundred and fourteen leet long by two hundred and sixty-six feet wide. From the pavement to the dome is three hundred and sixty -five feet, a foot for each day in the year. It covers two acres and sixteen perches of ground and cost $3,700,- 000 in gold at a time when the purchasing value of a sovereign was twice as great as it now is. It occupies the site of a Druid Temple, remains of which were found when digging for the foundations of the church. The first christian church of St. Paul was commenced by King Ethelbert, A. D, 610. King Athalstan was buried in it and his son Kdmond Ironsides was crowned in it. Canut had his palace hard by ; his courtyard extended to the river. It was there he rebuked his courtiers by commanding the tide to rise no higher. During the civil wars the church was converted into a stable. The soldiers amused themselves by playing ten pins on the long level aisles. The interior of the present edifice is decorated by fifty elaborate marble monuments in commemoration of England's great men. Upon entering the building the first impression is that the interior is unfinished. The building is so immense that the fifty marble monuments are not a sufficient relief to the apparently naked walls. In the crypt are the tombs of Wellington, Nelson, Wren and others. On entering the chamber containing the Sarcoph- agus of the Duke of Wellington, the effect is somewhat start- ling. There stands the colossal funeral car which carried his remains to their present resting place. The six great wheels are of solid brass, cast from the cannon he captured in Spain, Three enormous horses, all harnessed and equipped, draped in black velvet, seemed only to await the driver's word to start. It stands under the dome, a dim light giving to the whole chamber a solemn and sombre appearance. In emerging from the vault I saw the name of Benjamin West, cut upon a slab of marble. His remains repose beneath it. He was born in Delaware County at Swarthmore, and was deemed worthy of a burial place with the hero of Waterloo. For a small fee, trav- elers may climb from the crypt to the ball that surmounts the dome. The view from the balcony on a clear day (hard to find in London) comprends the whole city, the tortuous Thames and surrounding country. The great bell weighs four and a half tons and is ten feet in diameter. The hours are struck, but it is only tolled when one of the Royal family dies. Its solemn tone in the quiet evening sweeps over the metropolis and is often heard far into the suburbs. As we journey east from the Cathedral we ma}^ pause awhile at London Bridge. It is the first bridge coming up the river. Most of the ships anchor, or go into the docks below. Sights in London. 23 The travel over it is enormous. From early dajdight till far into night the bridge is crowded. Two great lines of vehicles and foot travellers may be seen, one coming, the other going from lyondon to Southwark. A penny toll for each person and six pence for each wagon, would yield a revenue of one thous- and dollars a day. About a mile further down the river stands the Tower of LrOndon, one of its most ancient landmarks. Within its walls some of the gayest and many of the saddest scenes of English history have transpired. It was founded b}^ Julius Caesar and was the nucleus of the old city. It contains specimens of all known arms, from the war club to the Needle gun. It was from a revolver 400 years old that Col. Colt got the idea of his pistol . The old Warder told me that he saw Colt closely examining the pistol. He then got an order from the Consta- ble of the Tower and went with it into an adjoining room' where he took it apart and made careful drawings of its several parts. About two years afterwards Colt produced and patented his pistol. The quantit}^ of arms and their fantastical arrange- ments, forming centre pieces, flowers, imitations of the sun, cornices, railing fountains, etc., has a confusing and somewhat bewildering effect upon the mind. Besides its museum of ancient arms and armor, it contains 300,000 stand of the most approved weapons always ready for use.' The horse armory contains the life-sized models of the mounted Kings of England from Edward I. to James II. They are clad in the actual armor they bore in life. The lances, coats of mail, saddles, shields and other accoutrements of the old warriors, clearly conve}^ to the mind the contrast between the battle of Hastings and the bloody field of Waterloo. Among other curiosities in the Tower, I saw the block, and felt the edge of the axe, used to decapitate prisoners of state. Anne Boleyn, Tady Jane Gray, Jier husband I^ord Dudley and many other unfortunate players in the bloody game of "Crowns," have laid their naked necks upon this terrible block. It is of oak, but the blood of its victims has stained it to the color of mahogany. The marks of the axe upon it are very distinct and suggestive of the many tragic scenes in which the old piece of wood has played a prominent part. For an extra six pence, they show the visitors the crown jewels including the famous koh-i-noor diamond — (I afterwards learned the supposed diamond was an imitation.) The walls of the Tower enclose about thirteen acres of ground. The moat has a circumference of about half a mile. There are twelve towers around the walls ; the center building is called the White Tower. Every lover of ancient history must 24 Sights in London, be interested in this hoary relic of a by-gone age. William, the Norman, dwelt in it as a place of safe retreat where he could seek shelter and at the same time awe his rebellious subjects. A simple list of the renowned prisoners, who, during the past thousand years have pined away within these walls, would fill a good sized book. The entry from the river is through the ' ' Traitor's Gate. ' ' It is a gloomy, low arched passage with a heavy iron port- cullis and drawbridge. The great, the beautiful, even the Royal have passed beneath this ominous portal to exchange dreams of glory for the fatal block. Illustrious captives have sighed out a lifetime in the dungeons of the tower. In one of these chambers the Duke of Clarence had his dreadful dream the night before he was drowned in a but of port wine by order of his villainous brother, the Duke of Gloster. I read it, as so graphically repeated in Shakespeare's play of Richard III. At the foot of the staircase of the White Tower, years after the murder, the bone? of the little princes of Edward IV. were found and were buried, as before stated, in Westminster Abbey. In 1487, the beautiful Elizabeth of York, sister of the murdered princes, married Henry VII. in the tower. Henry had avenged the murder of her father and brothers by slaying" Richard in the battle of Bosworth Field, As to the victor belong the spoils, Henry married Elizabeth. If Richard had been successful, he would have married her. All England rejoiced at her restoration, if not upon, at least by the side of her father's throne. Sixteen years afterwards she was buried from the tower. The procession passed to Westminster Abbey where her remains still repose. She was the grandmother of Lady Margaret Douglass, the inscription upon whose tomb I have already given. On the 29th of May, 1533, the fair Lady Anne Boleyn was received at the Tower by Henry VIII. with great pomp and amid a melody of trumpets and a mighty peal of guns. " Beauty and sprightliness sat upon her lips, and in readiness of wit she was unsurpassed." Three years after, while din- ing with her gay friends, she was arrested by order of the King and again entered the tower, the place of her former triumphs. She inhabited the same royal apartments, but never saw the King again. She was tried for unfaithfulness to Henry, was convicted and on the 19th of May, less than three years from her coronation, she laid her neck upon the block already men- tioned and her head was struck ojfF at a single stroke of the axe whose edge I have just felt and find it sharp and keen, ready for a thousand more. Her mutilated body was thrust Sights in London. 25 into an old chest and no one to this daj^ 'knows where it was buried. Catherine of Arragon was avenged ! The last King crowned in the tower was Charles II. Since then its glory has departed. Before leaving England I must do her the justice to say that in many things we might improve by her experience. She encourages braver}^ in her soldiers, she fosters the arts, patronizes the learned and rewards those who serve her. The government of her metropolis is dignified and economical. She holds private rights more sacred than we do and seems to have more reverence for time- honored customs. But, while the majority of her people are well informed, man^^ are lamentably ignorant of everything outside of England. I met a Member of Parliament at Graves End who thought Philadelphia was in Canada and that Cali- fornia was a city on the Pacific Railroad. When I informed him that Philadelphia was one-fourth as large as lyondon and only about 100 miles West of New York, he gave me an in- credulous look and remarked that he did not know it was so far out West. He wound up by asking if there were an}^ buffalo around Philadelphia. I told him there were bulls and dea7^s in Third Street, but if he wanted to hunt buffalo he would have to go to Lake Erie, where he would find them so plentiful that they had named the city of Buffalo after them. We must not, however, charge a nation with the faults or follies of an individual. They do not deny their sympathy with the South during our rebellion, and candidly admit that it was because they thought we were growing great too fast. All their professions, however, of love for the "Great Repub- lic," as they now call our country, are false and hollow; they are evidently a little jealous of our growing strength. They are very uneasy about the Alabama controversy, and exhibit great anxiet}^ for its settlement ; yet not a man can be found in favor of the payment of the damages. At the theatre a few evenings since, I heard a popular actor sing a song evidenth' made for the occasion, as it touched all topics of local excite- ment, such as the Irish church bill. Life Peerage, &c. The chorus to each verse, as nearly as I can remember it, ran thus: " But all is yet uncertain. I have no cause to doubt it. It may be yes. It may be no. That's all I know about it." The whole song was coolly received until the last verse wsls reached, which ran as follows: " Now in the Alabama case The Yankees want their bill. But will they get it? Not for Joe I 1 do not think they will. 26 London to Carlisle. It won't be yes. It will be no, 1 have no cause to doubt it. It shan't be yes. It shall be no. That's what I know about it."' This verse was received with prolonged shouts of ap- plause, encored two or three times. As a people the English are undoubtedly brave and intel- ligent. They are slow to enter a quarrel. They count the cost and are reluctant to embark in doubtful wars, but he reads English character amiss who attributes this reluctance to cowardice. They often bluster to their equals and bully their inferiors, but history is too replete with their great and obstinate struggles to leave a doubt as to their courage. lyCt us also remember, when we cast calumny on the British name^ we foul the nest in which our own eagle was hatched. While yielding nothing that is our due, let us accord to England all that is her right, that the peaceful relations now existing may never by any fault of oiurs be disrupted- "With all her faults we love her still." VIII. EoNDON TO Carlisle; — -How to see London — English AND American Pronunciation — Crystal Palace — Doctors and Lawvers^Carlisle — Wind Mills — Marys Prison — A Giant's Grave — King Arthur's Round Table — Long Meg and Her Daughters. Carlisle, England, July, 1869. From the smoke and fog of London, on my way to Scot- land, I tarried here for a day. I have experienced no diffi- culty in finding any desired place in London. To thoroughly know the city it is necessary to walk over it, avoiding hack- ney coaches as much as possible. The locality of a place, like a geometrical problem, is never forgo tton when discovered by unassisted effort. By the assistance of a map, any desired number of walks may be arranged, and although the streets are almost innumerable, and never more than a few squares long, by sketching the principal ones and noting the promi- nent squares and public buildings, it is not difficult to com- prehend the whole city. The names of the streets are never changed; those familiar to the readers of ancient literature may still be found just where they were in the days of Shakespeare The citizens have adopted a very simple rule by which any spot referred to is mentally located. They associate it with London to Carlisle. 27 the most prominent object in the vicinity, thus : Ask for Drury Lane Theatre, the answer will be "Covent Garden," a famous fruit and vegetable market. I had occasion en my first arrival to ask for the post-office ; the answer was: "St. Martin le Grand, St. Paul's," meaning it was upon the street known as St. Martin le Grand, which street was near St-, Paul's Cathedral: It is advisable, of course, to so arrange th€ daily walks as not to duplicate any previous route — invariably pronounced here "root." I observe some difference between English and American pronunciation. In proper nouns they almost invariably here pronounce the letter "a" as it is sound- ed in the word "father." The words "either" and "neither," they pronounce as if written "iiher and ''nither,"" gWvsxg the "i" its first long sound as in "ice." Their orthography also in some respects differs from ours. They spell cider, cyder, jail £-ao/, labor, labozir. They call baggage, /?^^^^^i?, panta- loons they call trowsers, The \^or6. farmer here has a mean- ing entirel}^ different from the same word in America. It means a renter. I noticed in some of the advertisements re- lating to the Crystal Palace, the word was spelled Chrystal. The Crystal Palace has lost but little of its original in- terest, and although some ten or twelve miles from the city, it is visited by from three to ten thousand persons daily. The great and commendable effort of its managers seems to be, to make it as highly educational as possible. The building is enormous, yet graceful. It is nearly one- third of a mile in length, and over three hundred feet in width, and so high that forest trees could grow under its roof. It contains facsimiles of almost all the architecture and sculpture of successive ages, including one of the exhumed palaces of Pompeii. I saw here a cast of one of the great crosses at Monasterboice. It was so perfect that, until informed to the contrary, I was sure it was the original which I had seen less than a month ago, standing near Drogheda, in Ireland. The grounds contain over two hundred acres, and are laid out in delightful gar- dens, groves, lakes and cascades, relieved by life-sized repre- sentations of all the extinct antediluvian animals and reptiles, from the mastodon down to a lizard thirty-five feet long. Some of them appear to be browsing upon the reeds and rushes in which they stand, others just crawling from the water ; some are sleeping upon the rocks, and yet others half hid in the mud. It would be a very hard day's work to give even a cursory look at all that is here exhibited. In emerging from a small wood, skirting a twenty-acre lake, I came upon one of the best artificial geological studies in the world. It covers several acres, and displays nearly all the rocks forming the earth's crust, from the old red sandstone up to the latest 28 London to Carlisle. tertiary beds, including veins of coal and fossil remains. A little further up the hill is a jac-simile of a Derbyshire lead mine. I also noticed in the South Kensington Museum the same highly educational arrangement of industrial production, showing at a glance all the diiterent processes of the manufac- ture of various articles, from a farthing's worth of iron ore through all its processes until it is worth ^looo in watch sprmgs. I particularly noticed at the latter place an exhibi- tion of the chemical analysis of every known article of food and drink, from tea up to whisky, and from an oyster up to roast beef. The elementary matter was so arranged as to show, by comparison, the quantities of each kind. The water, gelatin, fibrin, albumen, fat, and earthy matter con- tained in each kind of fish, flesh and fowl, were clearly shown, as also the water, alcohol, sugar, citric, malic, and tartaric acids, and fusel oils in the various wines and liquors used as beverages. The division of labor is carried to excess in London, and has been applied to the professions of law and medicine to a ridiculous extent. The physicians make certain diseases specialties ; the result is that each disease has its doctor,' and if the patient does not know his disease he cannot choose a physician, and may therefore die before he knows what ails him. Divisions in the legal profession are still worse. It has its attorneys, barristers, solicitors, proctors, counsellors of the inner and outer bar, special pleaders and sergeants. The poor client often requires the services of the whole batch, in which event Heaven help his purse. In America the entire duty is performed by one lawyer. Carlisle, where I now rest, is about three hundred miles north of London, and one hundred miles from Edinburgh, which lies due north from here. The country is very beauti- ful, but no more so than some American rural scenery. There are no barns, no forests, and no fields of Indian corn, so charming to an American eye. Although the water power of the country is good, I observed old fashioned wind-mills, such as Don Quixote made war upon, on many of the hills ; and I saw on my journey, several men threshing wheat in the open field with old-fashioned flails. Carlisle is about the size of Wilmington, Delaware. It is a very old town, having been at one time a Roman station. The castle, now in ruins, was built by William Rufus. Robert Bruce besieged it, but un- successfully. After the union of the Scotch and English crowns, the city sank into decay, but now appears to be flour- ishing again. The lofty and massive tower of the castle still remains. It contains a very deep well, and excites more than ordinary interest, as the place where Mary, Queen of Scots, Carlisle to Edinburgh. 29 was imprisoned on her flight to England. Seventeen miles south of here, we passed through the old town of Penrith ; it is about the size of Chester, Delaware County. It was laid waste by an army of 30,000 Scots, in the reign of Edward III. Its castle, which is now in ruins close to the line of the road, was dismantled by the adherents of Cromwell. A subterra- nean passage leads from the castle to Dockray Hall, which is three hundred yards distant. The grave of a Caledonian giant, who must have been a rival of Goliath of Gath, is pointed out in the churchyard. The head and foot-stones, covered with unintelligible Runic characters, stand fifteen feet apart. Two miles distant is what tradition declares to be his cave. It shows evident marks of having been inhabited, having traces of a window, doorway, and grate. It is very difficult of access. A short distance from the town is another curious relic of the olden time, consisting of the remains of a Druidical place of judicature, called "King Arthur's Round Table." About six miles from the town are the remains of a Druid temple, consisting of a circle of upright stones, ten feet high, with a large altar stone in the centre. The circle is 350 feet in circumference. It is undoubtedly one of the oldest relics of antiquity in England. It is called, here, "Dong Meg and her daughters." I find some very ignorant people about here, who barely know that there is such a place as America, but whether it is an island or continent, or situated in Asia or Africa, they cannot tell. Methinks Dickens might have found subjects enough for his sarcasm without leaving his own country. IX. Carlisle to Edinburgh — The Castle — Colton Kill- Arthur's Seat Holyrood — Mary's Chamber Ric- cio's Blood Hawthornden — Roslin Castle. Edinburgh, July, 1869. This is modern Athens, and the handsomest city I have 3'et seen. It is built of dressed stone upon the sides and sum- mits of precipitous hills, almost approaching the dignity of mountains. Some of the houses are ten stories high, fronting on the lower street, and only three stories on the upper one. They rise one above the other in tiers, and when lit up at night b}' gas present a very brilliant appearance. There are two great dales running east and west through the entire city, laid 30 Carlisle to Edinburgh, out in delightful gardens, ornamented by fountains, monu- ments and statuary. The ranges of hills are united by water- less bridges, from the battlements of which we can look down into the tallest chimneys. Castle Hill is 383 feet high ; on its summit stands the ancient castle of Edin- burgh, pronounced here Edinburro. It presents an appear- ance strikingly unique. It was the nucleus around which the city arose. From its ramparts the view is magnificent. The whole city and surrounding country' seem to lay at the beholder's feet. Much historical interest attaches to the old fortress. Various and daring have been the exploits of its captors and defenders, the last of which was Sir William Kirkaldy. For his heroic defence on behalf of his queen, the unfortunate Mary, he and his brother were hanged at the Cross. The regalia of Scotland, consisting of Bruce 's crown, made in the fourteenth century, with the sword of state and sceptre, are exhibited in one of the chambers of the castle, strongly guarded by sentries and iron bars. Another chamber with its furniture is also open to the public. It is the one in which Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James II. of Eng- land, after she had fled from Hol3'^rood Palace. Colton Hill, about a half mile east from the castle, is also too steep for building purposes. Its summit is decorated by several monuments, and an astronomical observatory, the top" of which is 350 feet high, and affords also a most superb pros- pect. But the most commanding altitude is the peak, known as Arthur's Seat. It rises from the gardens of Holyrood Palace, which lie at the foot of Cannongate Street. At the highest point it is 822 feet above the level of the sea. Its ascent is not difficult from the east ; facing the west it is nearly perpendicular. In ascending the hill the spot is seen where Jennie Deans is said to have met the ruffian Robertson, in Scotl's novel of the Heart of Midlothian. From Arthur's Seat the whole country for twenty miles around is under the eye, including the Frith of Forth, seaport town of lycith, the island where one of the scenes of Macbeth is laid, several villages, mountains and lakes, rendered immor- tal by Sir Walter Scott. On a clear day may also be seen the Eammermoor hills, the scene of one of Scott's most fascinat- ing novels, while at the foot of the hill repose the palace and ruined chapel at Holyrood, and the city of Edinburgh. On the shoulder of the hill, near the palace, are the ruins of St. Anthony's chapel, mentioned in one of Scott's songs : — " Now Arthur's seat shall be my bed, The sheets sail ne'er be fyled by me ; Saint Anton's well shall be my drink, Since my true love's forsaken me." Carlisle to Edinburgh. 31 The Palace of Holyrood, when not occupied by the Queen, is open to the public under certain restrictions, easily overcome by any who desires to see it. It is the most interesting .spot in Scotland. The abbey is in ruins, but the castle is kept in repair. The apartments of Mary Queen of Scots are kept as nearly as possible as she left them, after the murder of her Secretary Riccio. There stands her bed, and work basket, with some unfinished fancy work The table at which she was taking her tea stands just where it did when lyord Darnley entered and fondly put his arm around her waist, while his gang proceeded to murder the poor Italian. The stains are still upon the floor where they left him all night weltering in his blood. In I^ord Darnley 's chamber, his portrait, together with that of the Queen, painted when she was Dauphiness of France, hang upon the wall. If she was as beautiful, and he as simple as their portraits represent them, it was indeed an ill-starred match. That she had a fool for a husband will hardly be questioned, but whether she was justifiable in mur- dering him, is a more doubtful subject. The general opinion among the most impartial here is, that she in her youth was an artless, amiable and confiding woman, but becoming soured by disappointment in her husband, and enraged at the disgrace he had put upon her, she became revengeful, artful and cor- rupt. Had she been as ugly as Mary, Queen of England, surnamed the Bloody, her admirers would have been fewer. Her portrait cannot well be looked upon without attraction by her inimitable beauty, and as the mind naturally associates a lovely face with a good heart, we jump to the conclusion that the excellencies of her soul were only equalled by the elegance of her person. Cleopatra was beautiful, so was Delilah, but let the shade of Mark Antony and the ghost of Samson answer as to their goodness or virtue. The disposition seems to be to carry the doctrine " de mortids nil nisi bomim,'' too far when we canonize the defunct Queen for her religious faith and praise her for her perfidy to her husband. That she was an accessory, if not a principal in his assassination, will hardly be doubted. Had she openlj' plunged a dagger in his heart, it would have been comparatively pardonable, but she enticed him hy her charms, and with words of tenderness and love induced him to lodge in Edinburgh, where she could care for his comfort and provide for his wants. A terrible explosion of gunpowder, her unaccountable absence from the house, the shattered remains of the building, and his dead and mangled body among the ruins of the house she had provided for him, all point to her as his murderer. Her subsequent conduct con- firms the suspicion. How can her admirers excuse her willing but romantically arranged capture by her accomplice in crime, 32 Carlisle to Edinburgh, her pretence that he had forcibly abducted her, and when the offer of her relief came, her declining to be freed from his captivity ? When Shakspeare said :^ "The evil that men do live after them, The goo I Is oft interred with their boues," he of course had no reference to women, for the good they do lives after them, the bad is often interred with their bones, especially if they are pretty. So let it be with Mary. Among the many charming places around Edinburgh, Hawthornden and Roslin chapel are prominent. The former can be reached by rail in about an hour. The sequestered glen bursts upon the traveler just when he least expects it. By a simple path over an apparently uninteresting country, he suddenly comes upon the fairy stream of Esk, with its deep dell, great caverns, copsewood and cascades. The path winds along the water's edge, with the crags and cliffs of the high banks on either side. The castle, now in ruins, stands upon the cliff of a rock at least one hundred feet above the water. Cut in the solid rock under the castle is a deep well from which a passage leads to several large caves and curiously shaped rooms, all cut out of the solid rock. When they, were made or by whom no one can tell, but their purpose is easily divined. They were intended for dwelling places in times when habitation above ground could not be enjoyed. About two miles down the stream, by a most delightfully romantic path, sometimes winding along the water's edge, at others coursing over the cliffs overhanging the stream, and deeply shaded by copsewood, Roslin Castle stands, and about two hundred yards further up the hill is the chapel. The former is a ruin, the latter is pretty well preserved. Many are the traditions told by the guides and keepers of the two old build- ings. Among others they say that on the night previous to the death of any of the Eords of Roslin, the chapel appears all in flames. Sir Walter Scott's ballad of Rosabelle refers to it : — " O, listen, listen, ladies gay ! No haaghty feat of arms I tell ; Soft is tue note, and sad the lay. That mourns the lovely Rosabelle. O'er Roslin all that dreary night, A wondrous blaze was seen to gleam ; 'Twas broader than the watch-fire's light. And redder than the bright moonbeam. It glared on Roslin's castled rock, It ruddied all the copsewood glen ; 'Twas seen from Dryden's groves of oak, And seen from caverned Hawthornden." Edinburgh to Rotterdam, 33 X. Edinburgh to Rotterdam— Dykes and Canals— Wind- mills AND Black Cows — Holland Bend— Curious Cus- toms— IvIFE IN THE Streets— Smokers and Eaters — Bad Drinking Water' — Living Expenses — The Menu. Antwerp, August, 1869. To go from Edinburgh to Rotterdam, by steamer, requires about two days and a half. From the hills of Scotland to the plains of Holland, the contrast is striking, but not disagree- able. As the old sailor became tired of the Italian sky and longed for the fogs of Dondon, so the traveler wearies even of mountains, dales and glens, and rejoices at the level sea and the unbroken plain. To see Scotland you gaze upward, but you look down upon Holland. The land lies several feet below the level of the sea> The great canals, some of which are larger than many of the rivers of England, are in some places fifteen feet above the surface of the fields. The whole country seems to have gradually subsided, as it would have been im- possible to have walled out the sea and built the immense d5^kes and canals without some elevated spot at which to com- mence. As well might Archimedes have moved the earth without a re.sting place or fulcrum for his lever. The manner of raising the water from the ditches up to the canals is as gro- tesque as it is efficient ; they check the encroachment of the waves by the action of the winds. I counted twenty-seven windmills in a row, working like giant slaves day and nigtt, having no other employment than pumping up the superfluous surface water. The canals answer the double purpose of drain- age and internal commerce. Small steamboats run upon them without difficulty and carry cattle and produce from the farms to the centre of the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which are nearly as full of canals as Venice. It is no uncommon sight to see children fishing from the windows of their parents' houses facing on the canals. The fields present an appearance of the most exuberant verdure for pasture unequalled in the world. The banks of the dykes and canals are perfectl}^ clean and free from reeds, rushes, or other useless weeds. On my way from Rotterdam to the Hague, I saw at one coup d'cei! several thousand cattle grazing over miles of meadow, in the finest pasture I have seen since I left America. A red cow is not to be seen in Holland ; they are spotted black and white. If the Hollanders owned the marshes between Marcus Hook and Philadelphia, they would soon convert them into a bovine 34 Edinburgh to RoTTEKOASf. paradise. Their industry is unremitting ; men, women, chil- dren,, and even puppies work. An idle dog is not found in the land ; they make them do all the churning, and haul almost cart-loads of butter, eggs and vegetables about the streets for sale. The consequence of all this industry is a well-fed and comfortably clad people. The English language is only spoken at the hotels, but m^ost of the citizens speak French. In Ant- werp the French predominates, the streets being named first in French, then in Dutch. The singularl}' irregular architect- ure of the cit}' of Rotterdam is at once noticed by a stranger. The finest buildings are neither ^/?/;;7/<5, level nor square. They lean every conceivable way, and are both lopsided and twisted. It is not uncommon to see a three-story house three feet out of plumb, with the adjoining one perhaps leaning the other way. In the narrow streets the tops of the houses Irom the opposite sides seem endeavoring to embrace, but unable to obtain the coveted kiss, lest they should fall at each other's feet. Upon inquiring the cause of all this crookedness, I was informed that it was originall}^ because of the swampy nature of the ground, the buildings having settled during erection, but that it afterwards became fashionable to build them so, that they might be like their neighbors. It is not the only bad fashion which has been followed here, for I observe the ladies have the Grecian, as badly as the houses have the Holland bend. The same thing is observable at the Hague as Well in the houses as the ladies. Thej^ have .some curious old customs here. For instance, the sign of an apothecarj^ is not, as with us, large bottles of red and blue water in the windows, but consists of a full-sized human head, carved in wood and painted as nearlj^ like life as possible, with the mouth wide open, and in some cases containing an enormous pill, which he seems to be trying to swallow. It is placed on a bracket over the door, and is as unanimously adopted by all druggists as the Poinpey is in America by tobacconists. The drollest thing I have seen here was a bulletin affixed upon the door of one of the fashionable houses, and which the passing citizens seemed to read with great satisfaction. It read as follows : " Der kraamvrouzv en het kind sijn naar ornstandigheden " — (the mother and her babe are doing as well as could be ex- pected). I was informed that the custom of the country requires the advent of every baby to be thus announced. In some places in Holland the event is published by hanging upon the ' knob of the front door a little board covered with red fringed silk. If the little stranger be a girl, a small piece of white paper is pasted on it. In case of twins they hang- out two. The maidens from sixteen upwards wear white bob- binet caps, and on holidays and evenings, in company with Edikbukgh to Rotterdam. tlieir beaux, resort to the gardens and spend their leisure hours in drinking beer, making love, and listening to the music, which is always of the very best kind. The young men are well-made, hale and rosy-cheeked fellows, and the maidens are really pretty, but not to be compared with the young ladies of Delaware and Delaware County. I do not think they have their superiors in the world, at least I have not found them 3-et. The wives and daughters of the farmers here work in the fields the same as the men. I actually saw them mowing and working potato ground with milch cows harnessed to harrows, and wdth bridles and bits in the cows' mouths like horses. On the other hand, the wife is in every respect her husband's equal, and participates in all his pleas- ures. She is consulted on every subject, and has equal access to the family treasury ; indeed she is almost invariably the treasurer. On Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons the town pre- sents a very livel}^ appearance. The whole population seem to be in the narrow streets, and as the}^ ha^^e no sidewalks for foot passengers the consequence is they are full to over- fiowang from house to house. The absence of sidewalks is observable all over Holland ; where one is found . it is the exception, not the rule, and is always considered as the exclu- sive property of the owner of the house in front of which it is. Whole squares are often obstructed in front of restaurants and cafes with tables and chairs, where men and women, es- pecially on Sundays, are eating, drinking and smoking. In some streets I noticed iron bars placed across the foot-paths at intervals of about twenty feet, as a gentle intimation that it was no thoroughfare. Thus men, women, maids, donkeys, dogs and carts are all compelled to move in one compact mass along the streets together, and they seem to have a mutual respect for each other. The people of Holland are good eaters, though they make but one full meal a day. The rule at the hotels, at the table d'hote, is for the guests to go through the entire course, the last of which is cigars, but, like the wines, they are charged extra in the bill. It is not considered a breach of etiquette for gentlemen to smoke in the presence of ladies ; the luxury is indulged in everywhere, except at church, even in the drawing-rooms and parlors of the elite. The principal reason why so much beer and wine are drunk in Europe, is the mis- erable and unwholesome water found there. I have not tasted a glass of good cold water since I left Philadelphia ; it is all strongly' impregnated with lime and very hard. Those who do not drink wine have to resort to soda water, which is almost as expensive as wine. It cost at the hotels nine pence per 36 Rotterdam to Baden-Baden. glass, which is equivalent to eighteen cents, American silver. The general idea in America that everything is cheaper in Europe is simply erroneous. To live here as one would live in America the cost is about the sams. The fact is, the people here do not indulge in the luxuries of American life. But few can afford to keep horses and carriages ; fewer still can own their own houses. Some articles are undoubtedly much cheaper, while others are more expensive. A hotel breakfast generally consists of a cup of coffee or tea, with bread and butter and boiled eggs, or cold roast, or corned beef. For supper nothing is taken but a cup of tea and bread and butter. The majority do not sup at all. Thi table d'hote is the principal meal, and is generally taken from 4.30 to 6.00 P. M. The second class live chiefly on bread, milk and vegetables, seldom indulging in tea or coffee, and rarely in beef. For flesh they resort to bacon, and eat freely of the cheaper varieties ot fish. Salmon often sells for two shillings per pound. The great number of courses named in the bills of fare at the hotels is often more dependent upon the skill of the cook than the variety of viands, some of the fancy dishes being but skillful inventions for saving the previous day's fragments. XI. Rotterdam to Baden-Baden — Brussels and Waterloo — The Rhine — Heidleburg — Gambler's Paradise — Old Castle of Baden — Ride Through the Black Forest — Great Fortifications — Star Spangled Ban- NER7— Conjugal Night Scene — No Fences— Vineyards — Women in Harness. Baden-Baden, August, i86g. This is the gamester's paradise and the blissful resort of the gay world. It is a beauty spot on Nature's face. The town, like a charming but abandoned woman, reclines upon the banks of the river Oos, a limpid mountainous stream ; she is arrayed in wealth's most voluptuous attire, and decked with jewels of countless value, the price of her shame, and the revenue of her perverted trade. She is surrounded by moun- tains from whose summits the enchanted eye looks down upon the broad valley of the Rhine, and from whose base forever gush exhaustless springs of water, pure as nectar. Baden- Baden must be seen to be fully understood. It is decidedly a gay place. It lies at the entrance of the Black Forest, inter- esting as the seat of so many legends and superstitious tales. Rotterdam to Baden-Baden. 37 At the top of one of the highest mountains stand the ruins of the old castle, one of the most extensive in Germany, and the dwelling place, in A. D. 1190, of Herman III., after his return from the Holy wars. The carriage drives through the Black Forest and over the mountain are most enchanting, and the aroma from the mountain firs most exhilarating. Instead of indulging in play, I invested a sovereign a day in a carriage, guide and pair of splendid black horses, and made excursions in every direction through th-e forest and over the mountains, and was repaid by a ravenous appetite and an exuberant flow of spirits without the aid of wine. The animated scenes within and in front of the Conversatio7is-haus — which is simply a magnificently fitted up gaming palace, with drawing-rooms, reading and dining-rooms, concert hall and promenade — do not begin until about 7.00 P. M., and continue in unabated vigor until midnight, during which time fortunes are hazarded and lost. lyadies from eighteen to eighty spend their whole even- ings at the tables, and gamble away an incredible sum of money. During the play, while animated by the excitement of the game, some of them showed traces of rare beauty ; but I noticed them next morning in the gardens, where they resorted for recuperation, and upon the cheeks of every one I saw sad traces of the serpent's tooth, and from their careworn and haggard looks, I fear the poison of his sting was rankling in their hearts. Many of them have once been beautiful and all talented ; but alas for human nature ! the one has been betrayed and the other perverted. An idea can be formed of the extent to which play is here indulged in, from the fact that the keeper of the establishment pays a rent of about $50,000 per annum, and defrays all the expenses of the concern, which amount to as much more. In my journey from Antwerp, I spent three days at Brus- sels and the field of Waterloo, and two full days on the Rhine from Cologne to Mayence. I also stopped a short time at Heidelberg, which is a very beautiful place, but, in my judg- ment, not comparable with Baden-Baden. Brussels is called, by those who have seen both cities, lyittle Paris. Both it and Antwerp are completely encompassed with most gigantic for- tifications. An Ameiican can form but a poor idea of these immense military works, as nothing of the kind was ever seen in the United States. The old bulwarks have been converted into boulevards, and make most magnificent streets around the towns. Before proceeding to the field of Waterloo I visited the spot where the Duchess of Richmond gave her grand ball to the Duke of Wellington on the eve of the battle. ''The eyes that then looked love to eyes that spoke again, have long since been 38- Rotterdam to Baden-Baden. closed forever, but the sound of revelry at night is still heard in Belgium's capital." I have often heard of the inspiring effect of a familiar air upon the ear of a wanderer in a foreign land ; but I felt it here. There were seven passengers in the coach, of which I was the only American. The bugler played several airs without attracting any particular attention ; after a moment's rest he readjusted his horn and suddenly struck up in splendid style the " Star Spangled Banner." I confess the effect was so electrical that despite every effort at stoicism, my eyes filled with tears and my thoughts were immediately transferred from the conflicting scenes of strife and blood so intimately associated with Waterloo, to the now peaceful fields and sunny plains of my own dear native land. A drive of about three hours through a luxuriant and well-cultivated country brought us to the Battle Monument, an immense mound of earth surmounted b}^ an enormous Belgian lion. It requires about four hours to survey the field, and by the assist- ance of a good guide and a history of the battle at hand, more can be learned of the tremendous conflict and decisive victor}^ of June 1 8, 1815, than by months of study. It does not re- quire much imagination, while looking at the bullet marks upon the walls and the broken and shattered inclosure of the garden, known as the Poste d'Hougomont— which stands to-daj^ very much as the battle left it — to reproduce upon the sur- ■ rounding hills the contending armies, surging like an angr}' sea to and fro amid the smoke and confusion of tlie battle, the beating of drums, roaring of artillery, charges of the cavalry, groans of the wounded and moans of the dying. Many per- sons visit Waterloo, but few see it. I^ike those who visit and merely glance at the superb masterpiece of Rubens in the Cathedral at Antwerp, without taking time to study it, the3' go away disappointed. There is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous, and I must be pardoned for making the sudden descent. On returning to Brussels, fatigued by the long drive and four hours' walk I retired early to bed. I was suddenlj^ aroused by a tremendous row between an English tourist and his wife in the adjoining room, and as the transom over the communi- cating door was open, the noise was more distinctlj' heard. He had evidently left her in the hotel, and gone out to see the town. She had left the candle burning for him, but it had exhausted itself before his return. In endeavoring to sneak into bed without awakening his wife, he ran against the table, upset the wash-stand and broke the pitcher and basin to atoms, and at the same time fell himself sprawling on the floor, j^ell- ing as he fell, " Where in 'ell's the candle ?" " W^here have you been all night ?" screamed the wife. " Hall night ! hit's Rotterdam to Baden-Baden. 39^ honly 'alf past ten ; I've just come from the theatre. You'ie alwaj'S lecturing me, and if you don't stop it we'll 'ave han halmight}^ row. So I caution you not to do it." Just then the treacherous town-clock struck three. " There," said the indignant wife, " I knew you were deceiving me ; you've been at some bad house and left me here all aloneamong strangers. You'll break mj^ heart, so you will. Oh, boo-woo-woo." A soothing scene followed, entirely too affecting for vulgar ears, so I gave a very loud cough, which seemed to have a marvel- lous effect in quieting the impending storm. Methought I heard a smothered kiss and an affectionate utterance, some- thing like that made by a cow when her calf wanders too far away, and all was quiet as a grave ; he had doubtless con- vinced her of his innocence, for next morning they were as loving as turtle doves. On my journey from Brussels to Cologne I noticed what I had also particularly observed around Brussels, the entire absence of fences or inclosures. Even the roads were un- fenced and not a horse, cow, or sheep could be seen anywhere, except in the fields at work. The land is good and undulat- ing, but cultivated on a very small scale, the cattle being kept in stalls and the grass being mowed for them every day. The entire country is divided into small patches, composed of oblong and irregular squares, varying from a few feet to a few acres, giving to the face of the country a checkered appear- ance, not unlike an immense patch-work bed quilt ; here a patch of deep green potatoes, there one of light green oats, adjoining one of bright yellow mustard, red clover, purple- topped turnips, wheat, barle}' and cabbages. One of the most interesting journeys in Europe is from Cologne up the Rhine as far as Maj^ence. Of course it would be utterly impossible to give anything like an adequate descrip- tion of the scenery in the narrow limits of a letter. Those who have traveled up the Hudson can form some idea of it, but nothing can supply the historical interest connected with every mile of the Rhine ; its mountains, castles, villages and vineyards passing like a panorama before the eye are entirelj^ bej-ond description, and are superlatively beautiful. A vineyard, however, while remarkable for the great labor bestowed on the terraces on which they are planted, often ex- tending up the side of a mountain so steep that it would be otherwise impossible of ascent, has no particular beauty about it, and is not half as attractive as a well-cultivated field of corn. The vines are planted about three feet apart, tied to rough stakes, and never permitted to grow over four feet high. The}' are in some places planted from the mountain top down to the river edge, the flow of which is verj' rapid, and in this 40 Baden to Geneva. respect not unlike the Susquehanna at Harrisburg. It is no uncommon sight to see women in harness performing the duties of mules and horses along the tow-paths up the Rhine, while big lazy-looking men are sitting on the deck, or steering the boat and smoking their pipes. XII. Badi;n to Gknkva — ^Bai^e^-Les Ii^lusion Perdu — Grand Scenery — Mont Blanc— Pure and Foue Water Can- not Feow in one Stream — First Sight of a Glacier — Fifty Miles by Diligence— Mountain Roads in Savoy— Valley of Chamouni— Optical Delusion — Adventure of a Yankee on a Glacier— Dangerous Passes—River Arve— Stars and Stripes in Switzer- land. Geneva, August, 1869. I have escaped from the allurements of Baden-Baden, and have taken refuge in this old Calvinistic town, chiefly inhab- ited by clock-makers, jewellers and millionaries, and more remarkable for the natural beauty of its situation than its monuments of art. I broke my journey at Bale, and was fully compensated for the time there expended. Its quiet demeanor is in fine contrast with its gay neighbor of Baden. It contains two of the finest churches I have seen on the continent. The one remarkable for its well-preserved antiquity, the other for its modern architectural beauty. The old Cathedral of Bale 'was founded by Henri II., and is about 900 years old. It has ■suffered from war, fire and earthquakes, but still presents its original appearance, in this respect unlike many of the old monuments of Europe, which instead of being restored have been reconstructed and spoiled by the confusion of architecture . The new church of St. Elizabeth is a magnificent modern structure of the purest gothic order, and is composed entirely, within and without, of dressed and ornamented stone. If not destroyed by violence, it will begin to be admired a thousand years from now. Bale is the republic of Switzerland where the air is supposed to be too pure for kings to breathe, but I am inclined to think that their absence depends more upon the height of the mountains than the purity of the air. I rubbed my eyes and picked my ears, expecting of course, to ■see those beautiful maidens — pictures of which I had seen in my youth, with their little straw hats, crooks, ribbons and white petticoats, and to hear the shepherd's pipe or the echo Baden to Geneva. 41. of his merry song as he guarded his sheep and led them from the waterfall of the mountains to the pastures of the valley. All was vain ! The mountains, meadows and cascades were visible, but instead of the maidens, cottages, shepherds and flocks, I saw nothing but ugly old hags with immense goitres like pelicans, performing the tripJe duty of shepherd, child's nurse and knitting stockings. In some places instead of sheep, they were guarding herds of black hogs. And thus the romance and poetry of youth is ever blurred, blighted and disappointed by the stern realities of life. As I advanced toward Geneva, and even along the far-famed valley of Cha- mouni, it got worse instead of better. All along the route I saw women and girls performing the labor of horses and mules as well as the work of men. They not only reap the grain and mow the grass, but they carry on their backs the hay and grain from the fields to the barns. I saw them staggering under loads I would not have put upon a horse. The scenery, however, is superlatively grand. The Alps are in constant view, and the mountains and valleys are stud- ded with cities, villages and cottages. The line of the road passes from I^ausanne to Geneva, along the entire northwestern shore of the lake, which is about fifty miles in length, and affords a most perfect view of the Alpine hills and Mont Blanc, which, although fifty-one miles distant by diligence, does not seem more than ten miles off. The waters of the lyake of Geneva are crystal clear, and at a short distance look as blue as indigo. Stones and shells can be seen on the bottom in thirty feet of water. The city of Geneva is situated at the extreme southwest end of the lake, where it empties into the Rhone. The rapidity of the current is startling, it darts under the bridges like an arrow and propels the machinery of great factories by under-tow water-wheels. No races or water courses are necessary, the force of the current entirely super- seding the weight of water required. About half a mile below the town the river Arve joins the Rhone. The confluence is very remarkable, they run together for a mile or two in the same channel without mixing, the line of each river being as distinctly marked as if one were oil and the other water. After thus flowing side by side for some time, they gradually mingle, and then the pure waters of the Rhone assume the character of the muddj- waters of the Arve, and from the most limpid it becomes one of the most murk}^ of rivers. While contemplating the purity of the one thus soiled and corrupted by the filthiness of the other, it seemed like a lesson of nature, teaching the inevitable fate of virtue when attempt- ing to run in the same course with vice, she is sure to become soiled and eventually corrupted, for although the Rhone is 42 Baden to Geneva. much the greater river, after its confluence with the Arve it loses its character for purity and assumes that of the defiled one it has received into its bosom. On a clear day Mont Blanc can be distinctly seen from Geneva, and the sight of it has certainly a very exhilarating effect on one seeing it for the first time. The desire to ascend it and stand upon its glaciers is irresistible, and must be grat- ified even at the expense of a hundred francs and two days' journey in a diligence, or, in other words, in an old-fashioned stage coach drawn by six horses, three abreast. The journey is very charming ; I need not describe it to the fathers of Delaware County ; they remember the ante-railroad days ; what the stage coach was then there, is precisely what the diligence is now here, from Geneva to Chamouni, which is at the foot of Mont Blanc. Our diligence contained sixteen pas- sengers ; the road is up hill nearly the entire fifty -one miles, but by changing horses three times, Chamouni is reached in twelve hours. The journey back is performed in eight hours, because of the descending grade. At some places the greatest skill is required to keep the coach from striking the rocks on either side of the road, at other places it is so tortuous that it is with difficulty the precipices along the mountain sides are avoided. The Emperor Napoleon is, however, having a new road built which is to be opened next week, and which will greatly facilitate travel from Geneva to Chamouni. I will not attempt to describe the valley of Chamouni ; abler pens have failed to do it justice. At some favorite spots its scenery is enchantingly beautiful, leaving upon the mind of the beholder a vague presentiment of unreality from which it is difficult to realize that he is gazing upon snow and ice, and at the same time inhaling the aroma of flowers and blos- soms, luxuriantly flourishing in richly cultivated gardens and meadows, overhung by barren peaks and rugged crags. As we crossed a rustic bridge over the Arve, about seventeen miles by road from Chamouni, the coach suddenl}^ stopped ; at the same time the driver cried at the top of his voice : " Voila le Mont Blanc au gauche.'' All eyes were instantly turned to the left, and there, comparatively not five hundred yards distant, loomed up the great white mountain, as bright as unsoiled snow, and glistening in the beams of the fast de- clining sun like burnished silver. A picture approaching the reality of this scene would be rejected as an exaggeration. We could not realize the fact that the mountain was twelve miles distant in a direct line, but the consumption of three hours of hard driving before we reached our destination, con- vinced us of the truth. A young American gentleman from Chicago, with the usual and often reprehensible conceit of his Baden to Geneva. 43 country men, on the day after our arrival, ascended one of the spurs of the mountain M^ithout a guide, and as a consequence spent the entire night upon the mountain, having lost his path and nearly his life, in wandering over the glaciers, rocks and tortuous paths. The whole village was as a matter of course alarmed for his safety, and our fears were not relieved until the next morning about nine o'clock, when he came to the hotel more dead than alive, having had neither shelter nor food for twenty-four hours. The known paths are sufficiently dangerous and difficult, without seeking " new ones which we know not of. ' ' The path from Montanvert to what is known as Te Jardin is in some places quite difficult, passing for some considerable distance over what are called the pouts along the side of a nearly perpendicular rock. The rock is passed by means of steps about two inches wide by six or seven in length, cut in the side of the rock ; a slight loss of the centre of gravity, which is maintained by hugging closely to the side of the rock, would be certain destruction, as the glacier is 300 feet below. The slight danger, however, adds amazingly to the enjo^^ment of the adventure ; like every other t.aste of joy, it must have its corresponding perils to give zest to the pleasurable emotions thereby awakened. The best view of the range of Mont Blanc is had from Mount Flegere, on the opposite side of the river. The path is good and smooth, and by three hours' hard walking the summit may be reached, when the entire range lies under the eye, and the lovely valley of Chamouni, with its villages and meadows, may be seen for miles. Of the innumerable needles and peaks, pointed cut and named by the guide, two only fast- ened themselves on my mind. No person having once seen can ever forget Aiguille Dru and Aigidlle Verte, presenting the appearance of a gigantic Gothic cathedral, with two enor- mous towers frowning down upon the vier de glace. It requires a day to visit this glacier in order to form a perfect idea of its magnitude. By simply ascending Montanvert, which can be done in two hours, crossing the glaciers and returning by Mauvais Pas requiring two hours more, an adequate judgment cannot be formed of this immense sea of ice. By extending the journey over the pouts to the juuction de Tacul, and from thence to I,e Jardin , which will require seven hours more on the ice, the mind is enabled to partially comprehend its mag- nitude. I have no doubt but that it is over a mile thick in some places. It has been melting for thousands of years, and will continue to melt thousands of years to come, before it disappears, which it must eventually do. It extends down to the valley, and forms the source of the river Arve, which gushes full formed from under an immense arch, formed by the 44 Geneva to Paris. melting of the ice. It is said that four thousand Americans have visited it this year. I observed the United States flag floating from the roof of every hotel in Chamouni, with that of England and France ; no others are seen. Are these three the only nations of the earth ? American travelers have a good reputation, and I hope they will maintain it, though a sacred regard for truth compels me to say that I have met some fools from mj^ own country ; the}'' are, however, the exception to the rule, and are composed chiefly of a class distinguished for a lavish display of diamonds and jewelr}^ and scarcity of brains. I leave here to-morrow for Paris where j^ou will, per- haps, hear from me for the last time, as from there I shall embark for home. XIII. Geneva to Paris Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Napoleon I. — Paris in a Beaze of Glory — ly. N. — A Peasant's Advice — Waiting for Sunrise — The Bastile— IvETTre de Cachet— Column of July— Ten Thousand Rampart Guns Discharged by one Electric Spark — First Sight of Paris — Why is Paris such a Pleasant Place ? — Gate of Hell — Amusements — Churches — Schools — Saloons — -Theatres— Galleries OF Art — -Museums — Soirees — -Balls — Shops — Restau- rants — Boulevards — The Devil in Paris — History — Character of the People — Monkeys when Pleased — Tigers when in a Rage — Place de la Concorde— The National Razor — Reign of Terror — New Paris — The TuiLLERiES — Coup d'Etat of 1851 — Walls of Paris — Pere la Chaise— French Female Modesty— King I^ouis Phillipe — Talking Politics Prohibited — A Travel- er's lyiFE NOT AN Easy One. Paris, August, 1869. While in the village of Chamouni I saw workmen engaged in the apparently vain task of planting great forest pines in the shadeless streets of that picturesque town. As the trees had no roots my curiosity prompted me to inquire of one of the laborers the object of such a strange work. • With a look of mingled contempt and amazement he replied in French : " Is it possible that Monsieur does not know that the fifteenth of this month is the one hundreth anniversary of the birth of the Great Emperor ?" I informed him that I was an American, which I hoped would excuse my ignorance. The rootless Geneva to Pakis. 45 trees were to decorate the naked squares, and were to be orna- mented with flags and Chinese lanterns very much as a child would decorate its Christmas tree. " If I were Monsieur" said the workman, " and had the money Monsieur has, I would be in Paris on the fifteenth to see the grand fete. Paris will be seen as it never has appeared before. Ten thousand can- non will be discharged by one instantaneous electric spark just at sunrise. The first ray upon the Golden statue of lyib- erty on the Column of July is to be the signal for the grand event." I had been wandering among the mountains of Switzer- land, and enjoying nature in all its rugged grandeur. I never wearied in climbing its cragg}^ peaks, in walking over its fertile meadows or sailing upon its placid lakes. Even its cold and cheerless glaciers had an enchantment that seemed to chain my soul a willing captive to their icy charms. I had resolved to cross over into Italy and visit Rome, only three days distant, and leave Paris as an epicure would his dessert, until the last of the feast, but the disinterested advice of this peasant of Savoy induced me to break up m}^ previous arrange- ments and go at once to Paris. By traveling at night as well as by day, I reached Paris on the morning of the fifteenth. The day was bright and the scene charming. Every town along the route was decorated with tri -colored flags, triumphal arches were erected in the principal streets and wreaths of immortelles were upon the monuments. The groves and gar- dens at night were gaily illuminated, while the happy citizens amused themselves with music, dancing, rural plays and promenades. On every monument, church, public building and market place, the eye met the monogram of the Emperor, " ly. N. " in letters of gold. No word but of praise was heard, as well of the Great Emperor as for his nephew the present ruler of France. Can the glory of Napoleon III. ever fade or the star of his prosperity set ? God only knows. Time must answer. Our train halted without the city walls in the Bois de Vincennes. Every eye was turned toward the Column of July, in the Place de la Bastile, to catch the first ra}^ of sun- light upon the Genius of Liberty on its top. While waiting for sunrise I endeavored in fancy to rebuild the Bastile and re- people it with the many prisoners of State whose lives have been smothered within its cruel walls. The royal dames and proud chevaliers who had died in rags and filth or had been starved in its deep mouldy cells or iron cages, and whose neg- lected skeletons were found when the accursed den was forever destroyed, will never be known. The word of the king, or his Lettre de Cachet often fraudulently obtained, opened the Geneva to Paris. merciless gates and closed them upon the proudest, bravest and best citizens of France. When once within the Bastile no power save that of the King could liberate the prisoner. They had no Habeas Corpses to bring him face to face with his accuser. After a few anxious inquiries by relations and friends he was as completely forgotten as if in his grave. I afterwards saw in one of the museums of Paris an original Lettre de Cachet. It had been issued by lyouis XIV. It read as follows : " O est par vton ordre et pour le bien d' Etat que le portettr a ce preseiit a fait ce qu'il a fait." The English of which is : " It is by my order ^and for the good of the State that the bearer of this letter has done what he has done." The Bastile was destroyed by the people July 14, 1789. The fourteenth of July has been a fete day ever since. The keys were presented to General Washington. The Column of July was erected to commemorate its destruction. The column is 155 feet high, and is entirely of metal. It is a beautiful Corin- thian column which supports a golden globe upon the top of which, with outstretched arms, facing the west, poised on one foot, stands the statue of the Genius of Liberty, as if about to depart westward. In his right hand he holds a burning torch, in his left hand a broken chain to indicate that the flame of freedom like natural fire must be confided to a strong hand. When the sun arose on the fifteenth of August, 1869, there were over 4,000,000 persons in Paris. In breathless suspense we awaited the given signal. Suddenly the simultaneous and con- centrated roar of 10,000 great rampart guns belched forth the glad tidings that the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Great Emperor had arrived. .1 cannot express the feeling I experienced on entering for the first time a city of which I have heard so much. It is surrounded by forests, groves and gardens, and ornamented within by statuary, fountains and boulevards. When I stood in the garden of the Tuilleries and looked up the beautiful Avenue Des Champs-Elysees as far as the Arc de Triomphe I felt indeed that I was in the Elysian Fields and was enjoy- ing an exquisite view of celestial scener}^, but the Bacchana- lian revels of fallen Angels and the stern demands of hunger soon admonished me that I was yet mortal and still in this sin cursed world. There is an enchanting charm about Paris hard to explain because the result of so many causes. It is laid out with great taste, the air is pure and climate congenial. It is embel- lished and adorned by all that art can bestow or wealth com- mand. One does not become fatigued in Paris as in other places, its pleasures do not satiate desire, nor its pains make the body weary. Genkva to Paris. 47 The compactness of the city adds much to its charms. Its native population is about 2,000,000 and it usually con- tains 1,000,000 strangers. While it has four times as many inhabitants as Philadelphia, it is only about one-third as large in territorial limits. When we remember that the 1,000,000 strangers are mostly there for pleasure and to spend rather than to make money, we can form some idea of its gaiety. This immense population is confined within a circuit of about twenty-one miles, yet the cit}^ contains over one thousand miles of streets. Fancy, if you can, a grand avenue like Broadway, one thousand miles long, with no square without some object of interest. Whichever way we turn some noble edifice, beautiful column, triumphal arch, colossal monument, bridge, museum, church, palace, fountain, garden or park at- tracts the attention. Another contribution to its charms is its fresh, clean and bright appearance. If fatigued we can take a chair in some delightful flower garden or in front of a good cafe. The flower beds have no fences nor forbidding notices to warn the citizen that he must " keep off the grass." The city is built of a soft, chalk-like stone of a mellow yellowish color. It forms the sub-stratum upon which the city stands. It is from this that " Plaster of Paris " is made. In the old part of the city the quarries have been converted into catacombs which undermine about one-tenth of the sur- face of the cit3^ They contain the bones of over 3,000,000 dead, fantastically arranged and built in on the face of the walls, presenting in the gas light a ghastly picture. Openings have been made to admit the air and channels to carry off the water. Pillars support the vaults. Ninet}' steps have been cut to carry the visitors to the gloomy caverns. The place of entrance is called Barriere d'Enfer, or " Gate of Hell." The atmosphere of Paris is usually so pure that the whole city can be seen from any of its elevations. The smoke as- cends in a straight column to the clouds, while in I^ondon it hangs like a pall and is so dense that one can see but a few squares even from the dome of St. Paul's. Paris is well gov- erned. The police, like trained soldiers, are always ready for instant service. They never converse with citizens except upon subjects of duty If your cabman should become intoxi- cated, or be arrested for any breach of municipal regulations, the Sergeant-de-ville takes him in charge and, that you may suffer no inconvenience, he puts one of his reserve force in the driver's seat, who politely carries you to your destination. Much of the pleasure of Parisian life depends upon its system of public amusement. The various desires of the human heart seem to have been provided for and a free amuse- ment selected for every phase of gratification. Are you of a Geneva to Paris. religious disposition ? Such churches and sacred institutions are nowhere to be found. They are always open and contain the most interesting relics of Christianity. If the visitor is of an intelligent turn of mind, such schools, salons, galleries of art and museums are nowhere to be seen. Here you may look upon the remains of ancient as well as the gems of modern art. There are paintings in the Louvre worth a fortune to be seen, studied and enjo5'ed as freely as the air is breathed. The soldier has his museum of artillery and war with maps, plans and models systematically arranged, illustrating the world's great battlefields and presenting a mass of most useful infor- mation in a most attractive form . Singular as it may seem, the first theatres of Paris onlj^ represented sacred subjects and were patronized by pious citizens, priests and church members. They soon degenerated , to their present style. When Napoleon became Emperor he suppressed all the low and vulgar ones. Only nine of the best were licensed, but after the restoration, the drama was so en- couraged that Paris now has forty theatres, some good and respectable, others very common and vulgar. The govern- ment pays annually to the French opera 1,000,000 francs. The Theatre Francais receives annually 240,000 francs as an encour- agement for classic comedy. It is estimated that six thousand persons daily frequent the theatres of Paris. The theatres are required to pay a license tax of ten per cent, of their profits, which is distributed to the poor. This source of revenue alone in 1867, amounted to $5,000,000. The government also awards two annual prizes for the four best plays represented during the year, one of five thousand francs and the other of three thousand francs. The great social charm of Paris is its soirees or private entertainments given by the opulent citizens. The resident families in fashionable life give weekly receptions from the opening to the close of winter. No invitation is required. In the course of a month a stranger may see all the prominent men and women in political, literary or fashionable life at these soirees. It is not improper to attend several on the same night, lyong stays are not expected. The only form required is a decent suit, gloved hands and the announcement of the name, and after a salutation to the host movement within and exit are free. If one wishes to attend a soiree of the nobility the auspices of his diplomatic representative will be required. The public balls also afford a fine opportunity to see high life of French as well as foreign society. Everybody goes to the. balls. Scandal is absolutely unknown. Good p^iblic manners and a polite demeanor are all that is required to secure respect and an entrance into the best society. Geneva to Paris, 49 Paris has many other attractions. It is the paradise of milliners, mantua makers and shop-keepers. The ladies all love Paris. The fair one may spend her time and her hus- band's money without limit. The women are free from the cares of housekeeping. Many citizens have but a sleeping place and live in the stieets and take their meals at the res- taurants. The making of a cup of coffee is about all the cook- ing done in the dwellings. The man servant is the fac-totum of the establishment while the fanme de ckambre keeps the sleeping apartments in order All the washing is done at the laundries. The Emperor would not feel degiaded by being found at his meals in a good restaurant. There are about 3000 of them now in the city fitted up with great taste and patron- ized by the best society. The history ot these restaurants is amusing. In 1 765 a French cook fitted up a house for the sale of refreshments. He chose for his sign a I^atin parody upon a well-known passage of Scripture : ' ' Venite ad me omnes qui stomacho laboratis, et ego restaurabo vos," The experiment was a success, and the word " Restaurabo " in the parody was the origin of the word restaurant now so general all over the world. The boulevards in summer are filled with well-dressed crowds, either promenading or seated in groups among the green trees and thousand lights in front of some fashionable restaurant with neatly dressed waiters in white caps and aprons, ready to serve you with any desired refreshments, on little tables provided for that purpose. If it is desired, meals will be served at any named place. All you have to do is to bar- gain for the number of dishes and all the cares of the table are over. The variety of dishes runs from fried snails to horse- flesh steaks. It is no uncommon thing to find four hundred dishes named on one bill of fare. ^ While Paris is such a paradise of pleasure, a sacred regard for truth compels me to confess that all the baser passions find fuller freedom here than in any other city. The devil in Paris is the same individual but of politer mien than his namesake in other cities. Here he is a gentleman of culture and prides himself upon his good manners. He shows you the way to hell with a patronizing smile ; he points out its smooth and attractive path enlivened by the sweetest music and planted with the choicest flowers. For such as seek forbidden pleas- ures, the city presents her Jardin Mabile, Tivoli, students' balls, exhibitions of living statuary, and innumerable other palaces of impure enjoyment, garnished with most alluring attractions for the unwarj' traveler or confiding youth. The government has established rules for houses of prostitution and grants them an annual license. The emperor has given to so Geneva to Paris. the citizens of his Capital a carie blanche for every enjoyment, subject to but one condition, that of good public order. Im- politeness, rudeness, rowdyism or boisterousness, even in the most abandoned resorts, will not be permitted. The most fas- tidious ear will seldom be offended either by day or night in the streets. You must seek the impure Goddess, but her shrine is easily found. There is a certain abandon in Parisian life which, however reprehensible, is certainly very seducing. Before the Roman conquest, Paris was a Druid fort upon the isle of St. Ivouis. It was surrounded with great marshes and heavy forests full of hungry wolves. The lyouvre takes its name from a bloody struggle between the citizens and a pack of half starved wolves. Louvre in French has the same meaning as wolf in English. The Gospel was first preached here by St. Denis, A. D. 250 ; he suffered martyrdom on a hill on the north part of the city, ever since called Monbnartre — or the Martyr's Hill. Some, however, maintain that the name is a corruption of Mons Martis or Mars Hill. Five or six old-fashioned windmills still stand on the hill from the summit of which all Paris can be seen. It is 300 feet above the Seine. It was in the old church on Montmartre that Ig- natius Loyola, on the fifteenth of August, 1534, founded the Order of Jesuits, a society whose influence has been felt by every government of the world. In the year 1466, a law was enacted guaranteeing protec- tion to all the malefactors of the world provided they became resident citizens of Paris. It was soon filled with murderers, robbers and political offenders from surrounding nations which is supposed to in some degree, account for the marked nerv- ousness and excitability of the Parisian French, who are said to be like monkeys when pleased but tigers when in a rage. All history proves the Parisian French, in their times of peace and tranquility to be merciful and kind hearted, but when their passions are aroused they are blood-thirsty and desperate almost to insanity. Their tragedies are the saddest and their comedies are the most frivolous. Paris presents to-daj' many monuments of her tragic history. The Obelisque du Luxor in the Place de la Concorde surrounded by beautiful fountains and statuary, stands on the spot once occupied by the Guillo- tine. The rabble made merry over its bloody work and sportively called it the National Razor. So many of the best citizens had their heads shaved off by this blood-thirsty barber that it became necessary to dig a canal from the Guillotine J:o the Seine to carry off the blood, just as a butcher would dig a trench from his slaughter house to the nearest stream. In those days some overburdened peasants presumed most respectfully to ask the aristocratic Assembly to reduce their. Geneva to Paris. 51 taxes that they might with the money saved buy bread for their children. One of the proud deputies in his speech upon the subject said : "If the peasants cannot afford to buy bread let them eat hay— the taxes must bepaid>" Shortly afterwards the wheel of fortune turned. The tax payers were elevated to political power and their first act was to decapitate the orator and march through the streets of Paris with his head on a pole and a wisp of hay in his mouth, much to the amuse- ment of the merry citizens who thought it a capital joke. Were it not for the eternal vigilance of the ruling powers, scenes as extravagant, as tragic and as bloody would be wit' nessed in the streets of Paris to-day. There is a political party here called Communists, who hold secret meetings and advocate a return to the convention, the Guillotine and the reign of terror as the only remedy for imperialism and royalty. Napoleon III. takes every precaution that human foresight can suggest to guard his imperial throne. He has removed all the cobble stones from the streets to prevent the building of barricades. In 1830, four thousand barricades were sud- denly made from the cobble stones torn up from the streets. The Emperor does not intend that this shall happen again-. Grand avenues, under the pretext of improving Paris have been opened in straight but radiating lines from strategic centres, so as to put the entire city under the guns of a few well posted batteries. No power of France, save treachery from within, can dethrone Napoleon III. He floated into power on a wave of popular inconsistency. While liberty slept during the night of December i, 1851, as confident of security as we now are of the perpetuity of our Republic, he entered her Temple and when she suddenly awoke on the morning of December 2, she found the Republic of the night before metamorphosed into an empire with its former President as its emperor. Na- poleon has dwelt in the Tuilleries in comparative safety, during the past eighteen years. A political thunder storm may result in his ejectment as summarily as the departure of his royal predecessor. Human tenure of earthly power is very uncer- tain. God reigns, and earthly rulers, despite their greatest precautions, are set up and removed from place and power as easily as a piece from the chessboard by the master of the game. The coup d'etat of December i, 1851, marked an era in the improvement of Paris never witnessed by any other city* Qigantic fortifications and new walls have been built. The approaches to the citj^ are guarded by seventeen casemated forts situated at convenient distances, connected by a series of strategical roads. The walls and forts are armed with 2813 cannon, including 575 heavy rampart guns. Paris can never 52 Geneva to Paris. be taken by assault, it may succumb to famine. I am half inclined to believe that these immense walls and fortified posi- tions are as much intended to awe the unriily citizens within the city as to defend Ihem from possible enemies from without. I suppose the time will come, if Paris continues to im- prove in the future as she has in the past, when the walls of Napoleon III. will be removed, and their place be converted into a new line of boulevards just as the old walls were torn down three or four times for that purpose. The city has always been of an oval shape encircled with walls. As the population spread and the city outside the walls increased to accommodate its rapid growth, new^ systems of bulwarks were erected further out and the old ones were torn down and converted into streets. Boulevard, in French, means a bul- wark. All the great boulevards were formerly the bulwarks of the city. They now contain its finest and most imposing buildings, theatres, churches, restaurants and hotels. There are four cemeteries within the walls, the most fash- ionable of which is Pere Iva Chaise, near the eastern wall. It occupies a commanding eminence, from the heights of which the whole city can be distinctly seen. Pere I^a Chaise was the con- fessor of Ivouis XIV. , and had his country seat upon the beauti- ful hill now occupied by the cemetery. It was a battlefield be- tween the French and Russians in 1 8 14. A single grave in Pere I^a Chaise cannot be secured now under seven hundred francs. This great necropolis contains about 98,000 monu- ments, some in good but many in very poor taste. There are days when 100,000 people visit the cemetery. The most cele- brated monument is that of Abelard and Heloise which to this day is often wreathed with flowers by some unknown fair one. It is looked upon by the French maidens as the true shrine of disappointed love. I may be pardoned for referring to the little monument over the grave of the daughter of Madamoiselle Mars. Miss Mars was never married, but had a little girl baby which she buried in this cemetery, and erected over it a monument, the inscription upon which informs us that the ashes of the little one beneath it was the only daughter of Miss Mars. Miss Mars, was a celebrated actress and great favorite with the French people. She was freely received into the best society. You cannot find a French lady or gentleman who can see the slightest impropriety in what would, with us, be considered as a publication of her own shame. The want of sensibilij:y apon this subject may be accounted for from the fact that one- third of all the children born in Paris are illegitimate. The fault is generally supposed to be with the men, who are inclined to looseness and profligacy ; the women as a rule are fair, Geneva to Fakis. 53 vivacious, neat and industrious and make good, thrifty wives. The entire care of the family is left with the mother, who at the same time often manages two or three restaurants and super- intends one or two shops. I do not believe that the women of Paris are less virtuous than their sisters of other large cities. I saw hundreds of shop girls at their earnest religious devo- tions on Sunday at Notre Dame. Bad girls do not pray. "" Before leaving Paris I visited the Palace of the Tuilleries and saw its chambers, halls and saloons, so long the dwelling place of royalty. With its magnificent furniture and gorgeous embellishments it is a very interesting monument of the olden time. From 1830 to 1848, this palace had been the quiet resi- dence oi lyouis Philippe. During all that time France was tranquil and gave no sign to warn the king of approaching danger. As far as outward appearances indicated he was be- loved by the fickle French people. He delighted to promenade the streets in citizen's dress, with nothing to distinguish him from his subjects except his peculiarly benevolent face and un- assuming demeanor. On the night of February 23, 1848, vi^hile the king was enjoying a chat with some friends in the chamber of the palace now called " The King's Cabinet," the people of Paris were throwing up great barricades and preparing for a successful revolution. About 8 o'clock on the morning of the twenty-fourth, the king was for the first time warned of approaching danger. A feeble attempt was made to change the Ministry and concede to the popular demand for a dissolu- tion of the Chamber of Deputies, but it was too late. Soon after the unfortunate king was informed that his soldiers were fraternizing with the insurgents and that all was lost. The king supposing that his submission might appease the infuri- ated multitude and induce them to accept the Count of Paris as king, gave orders that no resistance should be made. In a few minutes the crowd penetrated the Court of the Palace, the king fled and the monarch}'- of 1830 was no more. The king with the queen and a few attendants passed up under cover of the southern wall of the Garden of the Tuilleries to the Place- de la Concorde ; he paused a moment at the spot where Louis XVI. had been beheaded about fifty-six years before for " op- posing the people." He at once retraced his steps to where a. small one-horse carriage was standing, which he immediately entered and in a gallop departed towards St. Cloud never to- enter Paris again. The Tuilleries then became the residence of the President and afterwards the Emperor Napoleon, where he still dwells in apparent safety. The chambers of the palace formerly occupied by King lyouis Philippe have been preserved very much as they were when he so unceremoniously left the palace. 54 Geneva to Paris, The Emperor spares neither labor nor expense to please and gratify his people. They ma}' enjoy every pleasure with the single exception of that most exquisitely delightful of all American enjoyments, the privilege of talking politics. It is a thing interdicted and must not even be thought of. He builds them elegant opera houses and theatres, as well as splendid churches. It is a mistake to suppose the French to be a nation of infidels. I found their churches about as well filled as those of lyondon. Infidelity was a fungus of the dark days of the revolution, just as a field of wheat may be blighted by the mildew of a foggy night, but it does not follow that every subsequent crop will be equally blasted. Were it not for my anxiety for home, I would like to spend at least a month in Paris, but I begin to be fatigued by the hardships of my rapid traveling, and will quit Europe in a few days for home. The life of a traveler is one of more than or- dinary labor, and if he would improve his hours, and hope to return to his home benefited in body and enlarged in mind, he must not waste his moments, neither must he indulge in the soft luxuries and enchanting allurements which constantly beckon him to forbidden pleasures. I^ike Ulysses, he must not trust to his own strength, but while sailing by the Siren Isles, he must lash himself to the mast, stop his ears, crowd the sails and bend the oars, until he is entirely out of reach of their bewitching songs. Those who suppose the pleasures of traveling can be enjoyed without its hardships, will be sadly undeceived before they have advanced far. There is, never- theless, something very invigorating in the constant change of climate and scenery, otherwise the repeated annoyances would be unendurable. The successful traveler must retire late and arise early, walk over cities and plains and climb mountains. To-night he may have a downy pillow for his head, to-morrow night a board, or the musty berth of a badly ventilated ship. With health and strength and not too much baggage^ the en- joyment, however, far exceeds the annoyance. On Ship Once More. 55 XIV. On Ship Once More — Lonely Female Passengers — lyOVE ON THE Sea — ^Mrs. Studtgardt — Cocktail Club— A Ship IN Distress — Southern Men on the Ship. QUEENSTOWN, IRELAND, July, 1 873. With a fair wind and flowing sail, a smooth sea and sta,unch ship, we sailed from New York on the nineteenth, at 2 P. M., and arrived at this port to-day at 7 P. M. A novice is very much surprised at the rapidity with which a cargo is received and discharged. The passengers with their baggage are not permitted to come on board before 11 A. M. The ship is advertised to sail at i P. M. ; there is always some delay and there are generally some passengers who arrive at the last moment. Just as the plank was half withdrawn, a lady with five great Saratoga trunks arrived ; one minute longer and she would have been left behind. Her excuse was that she hadn't time to fix her hair. The bustle of the embarkation is very amusing, officers yelling, crew swearing, steam whistling, pas- sengers out of breath and carriages coming in a gallop ; no time to dispute with Jehu, who is provokingly slow in getting out the baggage, and for his life can't make change for a five dollar bill which a passenger was fool enough to hand him. When the order comes for all but passengers to leave the ship a scene follows, of kissing, crying, embracing and sobbing,, which beggars all attempts at description. Of course every- body is interested in the tears of a pretty woman. I am not singular in this respect. I began at once to look for her ; she was sitting in the rear of the ship, her beautiful eyes in a flood of tears, her face buried in her handsome young husband's bosom who, for some unknown cause, at least unknown to me, was not to accompany her ; but little Charley, a bright-eyed boy of about six years, was to go with her in papa's stead. He evidently felt his responsibility as he strutted about the deck in his new sailor clothes, happy as a lord. For four days Charley's mother did little but sigh and gaze upon a miniature likeness, which at short intervals she drew from her heaving bosom. The intervals grew gradually and beautifully longer until about the fifth day out, when the sunshine from the face of a very handsome young Englishman began to dissipate from her fair countenance the sombre clouds of grief for the absent one. It was truly marvellous to observe with what disinterested anxiety he would inquire about little Charley's health ; how gently he would nurse, caress and pet him, and how sweetly Charley's mother would smile upon the polite 56 On Ship Once Moke. and obliging young gentleman. The miniature of Charlej^'s papa appeared no more. A stranger to the first scenes of the voyage would have sworn they were lovers, and by ray soul, I believe they were ! " Faith,'* said an Irish gentleman from Cincinnati, who had left a young wife of thirty behind, "1 begin to tremble for myself; I'm losing faith in the virtue of men, or the honesty of women.''' " O, 'tis nothing but a little amusement," said an elderly Scotch lady. True, thovight I, 'tis nothing ; but "Is whispering nothing? Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses? Kissing with Inside lip? stopping the career Of laughter with a sigh ; (a note infallible Of breaking honesty) * * * * Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift? Hours, minutes ? noon, midnight? and all eyes blind With the pin and web, but their' s, theirs only That would, unseen, be wicked? is this notliing? Why then the world and all that's in It is nothiag, * * nor nothing have these nothings, If this be nothing." Mrs. Studtgardt was a buxom dame from Chicago of about forty summers. About the third day out she told me her name ; said that she was alone, and was on a visit to Germany to see her relatives. She was very desirous to be introduced to a handsome young German on board, because she said the poor fellow seemed so lonely ; she could speak German and she had no doubt that the charms of her conversation would relieve his apparent solitude. To get rid of her I effected an introduction, and it was very pleasant to see how happy I made them both. Of course I thought her a spinster, but to my unutterable grief, I learned just before we landed at Queenstown, that she was married, and had left Jake at home to attend the children while she visited the Vaterland. Upon informing my Irish friend of this painful news, he raised his pious eyes to heaven and exclaimed in apparent despair : " O, woman, thy name is frailty," and with a sigh kissed his wife's photograph. We had about one hundred cabin passengers on board and but little fun. The trip was to me a very tedious one, not even a storm to relieve the monotonj-, and with the exception of a moral story or chaste song, spiced now and then with a modest joke from the young gentlemen of the Cocktail Club, whose headquarters were the smoking room, there was little to laugh at during the entire voyage. On our seventh day out we had a genuine sensation . The full rigged British bark Silver Cloud, with all sail set, bore down straight across our bow. In a few minutes we observed Second Visit to Ireland. 57 lief ensign at half mast, with the union down, an emblem of distress. In a moment all was excitement, the engines were stopped and life boats manned and despatched to the distressed ship. A boat was also sent from the bark ; they 'met about half way between the vessels within hailing distance. " What's the matter" shouted the Captain, throtigh his trum- pet. The response came : " Man very sick ; don't know how to treat him ; send your doctor." He was immediately sent, but soon returned and sent a large package of Cholera medi- cine to the bark. They had but six seamen and were of course greatly alarmed. I was standing near the captain when he received the response to his question. I went at once for- ward, but rumor had beaten me. I heard one passenger tell another that the cholera had killed all the ship's crew^ and that the captain and dog were all that were left to man the ship. It reminded me of the reliability of the war nevvs we used to receive in America. There were three Southern gentlemen passengers on the ship, from South Carolina, Alabama and lyouisiana. At first Ihey were very bitter in expressing their opinions about the government, but they soon grew more conservative. The gentleman from Alabama hoped only for a stable government when Grant should be King, at which remark the Englishmen present expressed great delight. Upon ascending to the deck to take our after dinner smoke, my South CaroHna friend gave my arm a quiet touch, and whispered in my ear, " Don't mind Alabama, he has suffered like myself ; however we may dif- fer at home, abroad we will be countrymen." That simple remark has made me that man's friend forever. I will go from here to lyimerick and from thence to Londonderry, where you may hear from me again. XV. Second Visit to iRfiLANo^-StREEt NoMBNCLAtURS in Cork— Scene in CouRt— Irish HosPitALitY=--A Yankee After a FoRtuNE-^^TnE City of the Vio^AtED Treaty — Cathedral of Limerick— Memento Mori—The Lost Bells— The Shannon— Mishap To an English TouRist =— The Coleen Bawn- — Kilrush— An Irish Fair aT Ennis — Pigs and Wit. Galway, Ireland, August^ 1873. This is my second visit to Ireland and I find it, if pos- sible, more beautiful than ever. I visited again the church of Shandon and paid the bell-ringer a shilling to play the old §8 Setcond Visit to Ireland. air,, " Shandon Balls." The bells are eight in number and have a very sweet tone. Each one is as large as the old State House bell at Philadelphia. We were under the surveillance of two policemen who dogged our heels to the very top of the tower, which is one hundred and twenty feet high. From the top of the tower the view of Cork is very fine. The whole town and many miles of the surrounding country lie at your feet. In Cork, like I^ondon, they never change the name of anything. Its street nomenclature is somewhat remarkable, such as Cat I^ane, Rag L-ane^ Cock-pit I^ane, etc. The courts were in session and I concluded to pay them a visit. The Judge's coach, with footman in livery and cock- aded coachman, surrounded by eight dragoons with drawn swords, came galloping down the street. Two dragoons went before, two behind and two on each side of the coach. When the coach stopped opposite the court house the dragoons formed in single file on the opposite side of the street with their horses' heads facing the court house, while two lines of soldiers were formed, making a passage between the lines from the coach to the court house door. Then the Sheriff in his gold lace uniform and hat in hand approached the coach door from which his L-ordship alighted arrayed in a flowing black robe and gray wig. The tipstaves walked before them backwards into the court house, while the dragoons blew a blast upon their trumpets. The same ceremony is alwa5^s en- acted upon the adjournment of the court. The court rooms are formed something like a funnel or inverted cone. The jury box is in reality a box about four by ten feet in which the jury are locked up, and is about six or seven feet above the level of the floor. The jury looked like twelve very wise owls in consultation over a dead horse. The witness had not a very strong voice and the Judge was a little deaf, so the counsellors set a chair on the table at which they were taking notes, and the witness was made to mount the table afud sit on the chair about three feet from the Judge's nose, with lawyers all around him. I spent a very pleasant evening with Mr. Welsh to whom I had been introduced by my Irish friend from Cincinnati. I enjoyed his hospitality very much. Mrs. Welsh's tea was only surpassed by her husband's punch. He is a true type of an Irish merchant, with good sense, good spirits, quick wit and a kind heart I met one of my fellow-passengers promenading upon the quay ; he was a regular Yankee, with blue swallow-tail coat and brass buttons, short waist and big collar. He wore an old-fashioned stovepipe hat, the brim of which rested on his nose ; a cigar was in his mouth and both hands well down in his pantaloons pockets. He had kept himself very quiet on Second Visit to Ireland. 55 tlie sliip, and as I had not spoken to him before, I liai'led hini with a "good morning, sir." " How d'j^e doo ?" was the reply. I asked him if he was going to Dublin. As quick as lightning came the reply : *'Well, I rather guess that's the calculation, ' ' He was in search of a lawyer, and claimed to be heir to a fortune in Ireland of ^2,000,000, only $10,000,000. He had $4000 in his pocket to fee lawyers with, and he * ' Guessed that would fetch his fortune if anything on airth would." I felt sorry his estate was not in Philadelphia and I his lucky lawyer. From Cork I visited Limerick, the city of the violated treaty. It is a very old looking town, some parts of which are in complete ruins. It was once a royal city, enclosed by a stone wall of prodigious proportions and defended by a mag- nificent castle. The ashes of Munster's mighty kings repose in the old cathedral, but her strong walls are broken down and her mighty castle is in ruins. The marks of Cromwell's cannon are very distinct upon the castle walls. It was at one of the eastern gates where the women made a gallant fight and beat back the invading English with no other arms than stones in their stockings. In the year 1691, William III. be- sieged the city and was several times repelled with great slaughter by the Irish people, commanded by Sarsfield, Earl of lyUcan, who caused a large cannon to be mounted on the top of the steeple of the cathedral commanded by one of his best gunners and which did great havoc among the enemy. The place occupied by this gun was one hundred and twenty feet high, the steeple being of massive stone masonry. At last a chain-shot from one of the enemy's guns cut the gunner in two and silenced the gun. This shot is exhibited among the relics of the church. This cathedral is a very well-pre- served edifice. We find it referred to in history as early as the twelfth century . Among the tombs and monuments of the church, deeplj^ cut in black marble, is the following singular inscription, in English characters : — Memento Mory. Here lieth little Samuel Barinton that greate under Taker of famous citties— Clock and chime maker He made his one time goe Early and latter but now He is returned to god liis ere A.tor The 19 of november then he Scest an for his memory This here is pleast by his Son Ben, 1693. 6(7 Second- Visit to; Ireland. From the steeple the view of the town and surrotmding eountry is most charming. The green fields of Erin, with the beautiful Shanrton,, the most magniEcent of Irish rivers, may be distinctly seen for twenty miles around. The population of lyimerick is about 46,000, and like that of most Irish cities, does not increase. The chime of eight very large bells is of great arLtiquity. They were bought from an old church in Italy. It is said an old Italian gentleman, who had never wan- dered outside of the range of the bells, when he awoke and missed their music upon the morning of their removal, became very melancholy, and after months of disconsolate mourning, he left Italy in search of his lost bells. After years of wander- ing he sailed up the Shannon, and as he approached the city on a bright Sunday morning in May, he recognized the sound of his long-lost Dells and, as was supposed by his attendants, he swooned away overpowered with delight, but when they came to more closely examine, they found he was dead. The Shannon is the only river in Ireland worthy of the name. It is 240 miles long and runs through ten coun- ties ; at some places it is very narrow, at others it expands into a glassy lake several miles wide. The shores on both sides are in the highest state of cultivation, and the scenery most enchanting ; studded with old ruined castles and orna-. mented with splendid new ones. I sailed for eighty miles down the river from lyimerick to Kilrush. The sun was shin- ing splendidly over the boat, but we could see refreshing showers, for which Ireland is so noted, falling in five different directions. The river at Tarbet is about nine miles wide and was as rough as the Atlantic. An English tourist lost his hat and came near falling overboard ; he was very much fright- ened. " What /''' said he " hafter traveling hall hover the hearth ham hi to be drowned hat last hin the blasted Shannon f" " Holy mother," said an Irish patriot, "shure and you might be drowned in a much more ignoble stream. ' ' Our boat passed the dark and stormy waters, where the Coleen Bawn was drowned by the foster brother of her lover. On the shore may be seen the ruined church where she was buried. On landing at Kilrush I learned that there was to be a great fair held at Ennis, the assize town of county Clare. As I had never seen a genuine Irish fair, I determined even at the expense of a twenty mile ride in a jaunting car, to visit it. I did not grudge the ride, as it took me through some of the richest and best cultivated lands I had ever looked upon. I saw at Ennis, sheep which sold for ;i^3.io each, which is about equal to $17.50 in American gold. I made my dinner on a mutton chop, as large as an ordinary sirloin steak, and ^vUVinl as tender and sweet as a three months' old lamb. Second Visit to Ireland. 6i Ennis is a very queer looking old town. The river Fur- gus runs through it and supplies it with all its water. At one place you may see a dozen old cro nes in the water up to their knees, washing foul linen, hard by a hostler or peasant boy watering his sheep and cows, or washing his horses, and close by a kitchen maid drawing a supply of the same water for cooking and drinking. The town was crowded to overflowing with peasants, pigs, sheep, cows and horses. A bed in a hotel could not be obtained at any price. I gave an old woman, with a bushy head of red hair, five shill- ings for a bed, made on an old settee, in a barn-like chamber, over a saddler's shop and was glad to get it. Persons were there from England, Scotland and all parts of Ireland to buy stock. The fair opened at 4 o'clock in the morning, and pre- sented a scene which must be witnessed to be comprehended. It had rained all night ; the fair grounds consisted of the open lots and streets of the town south of the Furgus. This is the old part of Ennis, where the best street is not over fifteen feet in width. Amid the mud, manure and puddles of foul water, the enormous crowd of men and animals surged, bartered, swore and drank whisky, while the pigs kept up a concert of squealing, relieved now and then by bellowing of bulls and bleating of sheep. The peasantry were there, male and female, in their Sunday clothes. The men in corduroy breeches, blue woolen stockings and heavy soled shoes. Their coats were mostly of homemade gray cloth, with very long tails and enormous collars. The girls looked better than the men ; they wore short petticoats, which exhibited to great advantage their well developed limbs. Everybody seemed excited ; most of the bargains were made in a loud and boisterous manner, I expected every moment to see a row, but in this I was disappointed, the reason was quite obvious ; her Majesty's constabulary were there in force. The most amusement was found in the pig department. Most of the peasants owned but a single pig, which would be held by it* proprietor by a rope of grass around its hind leg. Some of the pigs were in donkey carts and seemed quite con- tented beside the young woman who drove the cart. The air was full of true Irish wit which seemed to bubble out like water from a spring. The following is a fair sample. An English swell with some lady friends were looking at the fair, and to amuse the girls he pretended to a peasant that he wished to buy his pig. Winking at the girls he inquired its price. " Sure," said paddy, " offer me his value and I'll soon tell ye his price, for there's not a man in all Clare I'd rather sell him to than yer honor, for I know you'd treat him well, seeing ye look so much alike." My friend from Cincinnati, *62 Galway to Londonderry, says this wit was borrowed from Glover who gives a scene very much like it. The bystanders laughed, the swell sneaked off, but paddy never as much as grinned ; he only gave a half wink, and stood scratching his bushy head. The fair broke up in the afternoon amid the wildest scenes of confusion, the roads leading out of Knnis were crowded with the returning peasantry, and not caring to prolong my stay, I left for Galway which can only be reached from here by a circuitous route of about 200 miles. XVI. Galway — Athenrey — Bally-David Castle — Spanish Costumes and Customs — Empty Docks and Store- houses — lyYNCH Castle and Lynch I^aw — King of the Claddagh — Londonderry — The Curse of Cromwall ■ — Siege of Derry— A Slow Place for Business — Port Rush Bathing Scenes. Londonderry, August, 1873. From Knnis on my way to Galway, I stopped at Athenrey,. which in English means the King' s Ford. I never saw such a stony country. All the fences are built with stone, and the fields are full of large piles of them, resembling at a short distance, cocks of hay. We passed several old ruined castles, which are so thick in this part of Ireland that they excite but little interest in the traveler and none in the inhabitants. At Athenrey there is a very well preserved old ruin, known as Bally-David Castle. The town is very ancient, the walls, castle, convent and abbey are all in ruins. A battle was fought here in 1315, in which the Irish were defeated. From Athenrey the face of the country improves very much, but I was greatly disappointed with Galway. I expected to find a thriving town, instead of which it proved one of the sleepiest places I have ever visited. It requires an hour's notice to procure, the simplest meal. There is but one barber in the town, and he don't shave, but makes his living at hair cutting at three pence a head. The citizens have all a foreign air, and one seems surprised to hear them speak English. They dress like Spaniards, and it is said have Spanish manners, which is accounted for from the fact that the town was once a Spanish settlement and had a great Spanish trade. The men wear red vests and short Spanish cloaks lined with red, while the ladies adorn themselves with Spanish head dresses, and wear short red petticoats. When walking in the streets they Galway to Londonderry. 63 wear a kind of Spanish mantle which entirely covers the head, falls in graceful folds over the shoulders, and is clasped tightly by the hand under the chin. The poor as well as the rich dress in this way. The houses are built like those in Zara- gosa and other Spanish towns. They are of stone, very large, without any cornice to the roofs, with immense gable ends facing the streets, many of which are without sidewalks. The entrance to the dwellings is b}^ a large arched way with- out doors, but closed at night by an iron gate ; the doors to the houses are from the inside of the arched way. Galway has been a very rich town ; the evidences and remains of immense wealth are to be found all over it. The docks are like those of Liverpool, and must have cost an enorm- ous sum to build them. It also contains great storehouses and splendid quays, but her docks are entirely deserted, her store- houses all empty and in ruins, her quays only occupied by miserable fishermen, and her fine old mansions, where wealth and luxury once abounded, are now the habitations of vice and poverty. lyike a poor and decayed old gentleman who has seen better days, the town appears to be arrayed in the cast-oif garments of happier times, but withal there is a dignity in its demeanor, even in its desolate and distressed condition, which awakes pity and demands respect. The old Lynch Castle still stands, but the abbey is in ruins. The castle is square and heavy-looking ; it is profusely ornamented, and the balustrade decorated with the heads of mythical animals. It was from the window of this castle that James Lynch Fitz-Stephen, who was Mayor in 1493, hung his own son. He had sent his son to Spain on business ; while returning the son conspired with the crew, murdered the captain, and seized the ship and cargo. One of the party discovered the horrid business to the Ma5'or, He tried his son, and as he was found guilty, he condemned him to death. It was thought that as the condemned was an only son the Mayor would not execute the sentence. All his relatives interceded for the pardon of the youth. The father fixed a day to announce his determination, and early on the morning of the time appointed the son was found hanging by the neck out of one of the windows of his father's house. Some suppose that this was the origin of our word ' 'lynch-law. ' ' The lower part of the town is called the Claddagh. It is a miserable conglomeration of one-story hovels, inhabited by about 5000 sturdy fishermen. They have their own laws and customs, and are looked upon by the townspeople as an inferior race. They have a head chief, whose boat bears a white flag, who is called the ' ' King of Claddagh " ; he decide all mat- ters of litigation among the tribe. Among their customs is the marriage gift of a boat by the bride's father upon her ^64 GalWay to LoNDoxDEkkV- wedding day, and the marriage ring is an heir-loom passing from the mother to her daughter from generation to generation. They seldom marry with the townspeople, whom they in turn consider interlopers and inferior to the Claddagh. I left Gal way at 11 A. M., and arrived in Londonderry about II P. M. of the same day. The country from Galway to Derry is very beautiful, rich, rolling and in some parts almost mountainous. The fields which are very small and irregular in shape, present a most pleasing prospect to the eye. The shades of green are as various as the fields ; from the deepest hue to the lightest shade. I find lyondonderry, or Derry as it is here called, a very remarkable town, containing many objects of deep interest to the traveler. On my way to Derry I heard a peculiar Irish curse ^ which I had never before heard. There was in our compartment a young swell who, from the time he entered the car, did nothing but smoke cigars and tell obscene stories to the great disgust of a very pious-looking fellow passenger. Upon stopping at one of the stations a priest was about entering our compart- ment, when our pious friend with a look of deep concern, ejaculated as he jumped from the car: "May the curse oi Cromwell be on you, ye blackguard." Then addressing the priest, he exclaimed : " Holy father, don't enter the car of ye'U be stifled with smoke and horrified by the corrupt con- versation . ' ' My first day in Derry was Sunday, and like a good christ- ian, I went to church in the cathedral, by which I killed two birds with one stone : Said my prayers and got to see the in- terior of the old church ; for it being a Protestant church, is somewhat difficult of access on week-day. The Catholic churches are always open. They afford convenient resting places for the weary traveler ; and while he often only enters to gaze upon the beautiful paintings and noble architecture, he seldom leaves without a feeling of reverence and religious awe. The Cathedral of Derry was built in 1633. It is a fine old building and remarkably well preserved. I copied the following from an old black marble slab in the vestibule :=-= "Alio. Do-. 1633, Car. Regis 9. If stones coulde speake Then Loladons prayse Shoulde sound who Built this church and Cittie from the grounde." The wails of the city are in perfect order ; they are from fifteen to fifty feet wide and form a very pleasant promenade around the city ; of course they would afford no defence against Galway to Londonderry. 65 modern artillerj'. The city is located on the west side of the river Foyle, about forty miles from the sea. Derry in the Irish tongue means " thick wood. " The city \^as built by the citi- zens of lyondon during the reign of James I. and is remarkable for the sieges it has withstood. The appearance of the town from the opposite side of the river is very picturesque. Its population is about 20,000. The monument erected to the memory of Rev. George Walker, in 1828, is one of the most interesting objects in the city. It is a very handsome Doric column surmounted by his statue. The people of Derrj^ never weary in recounting the inci- dents of the last siege. They tell of a letter which was dropped at Dumbartin, county Down, where the Earl of Mount Alexander resided, informing him that all the Protestants of Derry, men, women and children, were to be massacred on the ■9th of December, 1688; of the wild alarm with which the whole town was seized; how in the confusion which followed, some apprentice boj^s muttered something about shutting the gates; how the authorities of the city vacillated between hope and fear, until some Irish troops appeared on the opposite side of the river and sent their officers over to take possession of the town in the name of King James, v/hen some nine of the apprentice boys ran to the main guard and seized the keys just as he, by order of the Mayor, was about delivering them to the enemy and when I^ord Antrim's soldiers were within 60 yards of the city gate. They also tell with great particularity how, during the siege which followed and which lasted 105 days, the people suffered from starvation, when a mouse sold for six pence, a rat for two shillings and a morsel of horse pudding for five shillings. They point out the place where the besiegers had thrown a boom across the river to prevent pro- visions from coming to their relief by water. How the boom was broken by a provision ship, which from the violence of the shock rebounded and went ashore on the enem^^'s side of the river, and how just as the enemy in great joy were about boarding her she fired a broadside into them, the shock of which extricated her from her perilous position, when she floated again into deep waters and relieved the city after 2300 of the citizens had died of hunger; all of which must be taken cum grano sails. I have no doubt the people of Derrj^ were very brave, but they were somewhat slow in preparing for their defence, and from all I could see, the present inhabitants in this respect are worth}^ sons of their tardj^ sires, for I went to a bookstore to buy a map of the city at 9.30 A. M. on Monday morning, and was coolly informed by a boy in attendance, that they did not open the store for the sale of goods until 10 A. M. I had a 55 D'erry tq Hamtburgt^ letter of introduction to an attorney of the city,, and' walked from the bookstore to his offics; it too was shut, and on inquiry I was informed that the lawyers did not open their offices until. ID A. M. So I leftDerry in disgust and went to. Port Rusk to treat my eyes with a glance at the beauties of Erin in their bathing costumes,, a la chemise, which when wet exhibited in great perfection the natural outlines of their angelic forms.. The men go in a la nalurel. I will sail to-morrow for lyiverpool aiud expect a splendid- view of the entire northern coast of Ireland. From Liverpool I will go by rail to Hull and from thence by sea to Hamburg.. XVII. Derrv t'o Hamtbukg— Ditnluce Castle— a Rugged Coast" — Manchester from the Cars — Leeds — Hull — Eng- lish Views of Slavery in 1834 and 1864 — A Clever Fellow m England — Thunder Storm in Hamburg — Loneliness in a Crowd — A Funeral— On to Berlin. Hamburg, August, 1873, I sailed from Derry for Liverpool on the morning of the 5th inst. The weather was delightful and the sky remarkably clear for this climate. The river Foyle is ten hundred and sixty-eight feet wide and forty-three feet deep opposite Derry. The bold shore and cheerful rural scenery, with the mountain ranges in the back ground, present a charming picture in looking upon which the eye never wearies. Our ship hugged the entire north coast of Ireland so very closely, that the sheep could be seen with the naked eye grazing in the green fields, and all the little villages and hamlets from which the blue smoke at eventide so gracefully curled, were plainly visible, adding essentially to the beauty of the picture. The old cas- tle of Dunluce, perched like a hoary sentinel upon its ocean- beaten rock, could be seen in its minutest details. It stands upon the summit of a perpendicular rock, 1000 feet above the sea, The entire surface of the rock is occupied by the castle walls, which are in appearance but a continuation of the per- pendicular sides of the rock. The castle must have been ab- solutely inaccessible, except by the drawbridge across the yawning chasm. This castle was the scene of a most villain- ous act of treachery in 1642. General Munroe visited it as the guest of the Earl of Antrim and was honored with a splendid entertainment. Munroe took advantage of his host's Dert^y to Hamburg. '67 Thospitality, seized his person and his castle, and conveyed the 3arl a prisoner to the castle of Carrickfergus. We passed between the coast and Rathlin island, upon which many fine ships have been wrecked. This coast is very dangerous in rough weather. A ship-wrecked crew would not .have the slightest chance of escape by the shore, as it is for many miles a rugged and precipitous rock, rising almost per- pendicularly several hundred feet above the surface of the sea., the terrible roar of which can be heard for many miles as it "dashes against the rocky coast and seems, even incalm weather, to lash itself into an uncontrollable fury. We passed so near . the causeway^ that the peculiar formation of the tagaltic rocks, with their five and six-sided columns could almost be counted- So clear was the atmosphere that the coast of Scot- land could be seen across the channel without the aid of a .glass. We lost sight of Ireland about sun-set, passed the Isle of Man during the night, and sighted the Welsh mountains .about 7 A, M. the next morning, arriving at I^iverpool about 9 A. M, Not caring to tarry in -Liverpool, as I had seen it twice before, I took the 11 A. M, train for Hull, which is mearly due east upon the other side of the island, I passed through the city of Manchester and formed a very contempt- ible opinion of the town. It is hardly fair, however, to judge a city by its appearance from a railway car. It was black with the smoke of ten thousand enormous chimneys, which ;seemed to rival each other in belching forth the blackest kind of smoke; withal the houses are built of sombre gray and very coarse brick and are covered with red tile, or heavy slate, very rough and ugly. The homeliness of the town was, however, greatly relieved by the busy hum of machinery and the active industry of its inhabitants, I stopped two hours at I^eds and found it a very import- ant and thriving town. The business part of the city is al- .most as smoky as Manchester, and is built of the same uglj' gray brick, but the residences of the better classes are very handsome and are built of square dressed stone, which is found in great abundance in this vicinity. It is very easily dressed, as it comes from the quarries in great flat flakes and naturally breaks square. The only really handsdme women I saw in Kngland were here. The younger ones had a very fresh and rosy look, but the more elderly had a rather heavy and coarse appearance. After all our American ladies are the handsomest women in the world at forty. It is the age at which a woman should be in her prime, yet here at that age they all look like men dressed in feminine attire. I arrived at Hull about 7 P. M. and was very agreeably disappointed with the place. I found it the third cit)^ in the Dekry to Hamburg. kingdom, having a commercial importance only equalled by Ivondon and Liverpool. It stands upon the most noble of Eng- lish rivers; its streets are clean and well paved, and its docks are truly wonderful works. It is situated at the point where the river Hull faV.s into the Humber, twenty-two miles from sea. The country around the town is very flat, hence its ex- tent cannot be judged of from a distant view. The old part of the town is very primitive in appearance, with the same narrow streets and fantastic style of architecture found in all old English towns. The new part of the city is really beauti- ful, the better class of buildings being constructed of the same kind of mellow colored stone of which Paris is built. The history oi the town dates back about 700 years; its present population is about 125,000. It was the birthplace of William Wilberforce, the great English abolitionist. It contains a splendid monument, with the statue of Wilberforce upon its top. The base of the monument contains this inscription: •'Negro slavery abolished, 1st Aug., 1834." The wicked thought would intrude itself upon my mind that if the Southern Confederacy had been, as the English people freely confess they hoped it would be, a success, Hull might have had another monument equally as conspicuous, with the statue of Alexander H. Stevens or Mr. Jeff. Davis upon its top, and the inscription upon its base : ' ' Negro slavery re-established, ist Aug., 78^5." I suppose it is uncharitable to think of such things, especially as the English people now seem wonderfully kind and appear to have a true and devoted attachment to their American cousins. They say we managed the Alabama claims with great cleverness. Clever xs a great word here ; they never say one is skillful, adroit, intelligent or smart, but that he's verj^ clever. They apply the word altogether to the intellectual, rather than to the social qualities as with us. From Hull regular lines of steamers sail to all parts of the earth ; I never saw so many ships in any one place as are here collected. I embarked from its port in the good ship Fairy for Ham- burg, on Wednesday night and reached that city this morning at daybreak, being two days and a half making the vo3'age. I retired to my berth about 11 o'clock P. M , and was soon dreaming of home, listening to the prattle of sweet little voices and enjoying the smile of a still sweeter face, when suddenlj' a lurid flash and deafening peal of thunder aroused me from my slumber, scattered all my happy dreams and awoke me to realize that I was thousands of miles away, a stranger in a strange land. I heard a great noise upon the deck, and a con- fusion of tongues worse, if possible, than the jargon of Babel. My first thought was that the boiler had burst and we were in Derry to Hamburg. 69 — no matter where. I looked out the port hole of my state room and discovered it was daylight and that our ship was safely moored in some strange harbor, with old warehouses and wharves around us, in a thunder storm. I felt relieved when I saw the rain, for I knew it never rained in the place where I at first thought we were. " Don't be alarmed, sir," said the steward, " we're safe at Hamburg." The sun rises about six hours sooner here than it does in Philadelphia. The storm was soon over, and when I saw the sun rise I felt that his was the only familiar face I could look upon. One who has never realized the loneliness of suddenly finding himself transplanted from a country where every word is clearly comprehended and every shade of thought perfectly expressed, to a land where every word is but gibberish and every look a vacant meaningless stare ; where one neither com- prehends the language nor is understood when he speaks, can not conceive or form any clear idea of the feeling of despair which for a moment overcomes the heart. To suddenly awake and find you had lost both heaiing and speech would give some idea of the situation of your humble servant in Hamburg. Everything here is different from England or America ; the civilization, manners, dress and money, even the dogs bark in Dutch. I offered a porter a shilling to carry my luggage to a neighboring hotel ; he shook his head and said " nine-nine y What, thought I, nine shillings for carrying a carpet bag a few short squares ? I'll carry it myself first. The steward laughed and explained that 7iine wdiS no; he asked him in IJutch how much he would carry the luggage for ; the rascal wanted fiftee^i schellings. I was about toddling off" with my own luggage, when the steward explained that a schelling in- Dutch was less than a penny in English money, whereupon, my wrath subsided and the porter soon conducted me safely to my hotel. It is truly wonderful with what facilitj' one accommodates himself to circumstances. After a few hours spent in wander- ing about the town I began to feel quite at home. True, it required a little cheek, but every traveler must have a good supply of that commodity or he had better stay at home. I could call for my bier and cigar en, and enjoy mj^self in " mine inn ' ' as comfortably as any other Dutchman. Even the names on the signs seemed familiar ; such for instance as Carl Sc/mrs, Tobacke und Cigare?i Fabrick ; Johann Freiderick Hartranft, Haarschneiden U7id Coffeuric — etc., etc. (i) I met (I) Time has destroyed the point in the intended play upon the names of Carl Schurz and J. F. Hartrauft. When the letter was written one was a leader in the Senate, the o her Governor of Pennsylvania. Their namesakes iu Ham- burg were tol)acconists and barbers.— "There is nothing in the name." T. J. C. (1892), 70 Derky to Hamburg. a funeral coming down the street ; the hearse was drawn by a pair of black horses, each horse led by a man, and both men and horses dressed in long black robes ; the hearse was fol- lowed by eight hi7ed mourners, also arrayed in long black robes ; these were followed by three carriages, conveying the priests and family of the deceased. The hotel at which I am stopping is one of the best in the city, very large, and beautifully situated upon the lake in the centre of the town. In England and Ireland they gave us no napkins at meals ; here they are as large as table-cloths. When spread out on the lap both ends hang on the floor and cover even the feet, The omnibuses and street railway cars are two stories high and look very odd. The third class cars on the railroads are also in some instances two stories high. It is no uncommon sight to see women with wooden yokes fitted to the back of the neck and resting upon the shoulders, with enormous baskets hanging at each end of the yoke, filled with vegetables, which they peddle about the streets, or with buckets filled with water for household purposes, and which they carry from one end of the town to the other. The city of Hamburg is really a very interesting town. It was founded by Charlemagne, A. D. 803, and has houses now standing in the ancient part of the city one thousand years old. They resemble those of Rotterdam, and lean every way, and are twisted in various shapes. The streets of the old part are narrow and crooked ; there are no sidewalks ; the houses, some of which are six stories high, project at each story from one to two feet over the lower stories into the street. The city is situated on the river Elbe, about sixty miles from its mouth. It has a population of about 225,000. Upwards of five thousand sea-going vessels annually enter and quit its harbor. It was visited in 1842 with a fearful conflagration which destroyed about a fourth payt of the city, which has ■been entirely rebuilt with very handsome modern buildings. The new part of the town is not surpassed by any city in Europe. The gardens, groves and boulevards, lakes and promenades of Hamburg, are constructed and kept up on a .gigantic scale. A beautiful lake, of over a mile in circumfer- ence, is situated in the centre of the city, I leave here to- morrow for Berlin. Hamburg to Dresden. jt XVIII. Hamburg to Dresden — More about Hamburg — Contrast Between New and Old Cities— Protestant and Cath- olic Churches — Sunday in Europe — ^Berlin— The King AND His Cabmen — Unter den I^inden — Monument of Victory — Dresden Art Gallery — Madonna di Sisto — Immodest Paintings — The Green Vault — An Adven- ture IN THE Zoo. Dresden, August, 1873. After taking another stroll through Hamburg, I was com- pelled to modify my views of the town. The old fortifications have been destroyed and their places converted into beautiful parks and gardens. The entire suburbs somewhat resemble Fairmount Park at Philadelphia, on a small scale, with the city in the centre of the park. There are certain general features common to all European- towns, They all have an old and a new quarter ; they are all comparatively finished, having no scattered suburbs with brick yards and town lots for sale. On emerging from the thickly- populated and closely-built streets, you at once enter the cul- tivated fields or beautiful gardens. They are all built in the form of an irregular circle, with wide avenues, like bent hoops, enclosing the town. These avenues follow to a certain extent, the course of the old city walls, and many of the best streets now occupy the place of the removed bulwarks. The old part of every town has crooked, narrow, and very irregular cross streets, without sidewalks, which cut at various angles the circular streets. They all have their museums of an- tiquity and art, and their old cathedrals, and after you have seen one you have seen all, especially after having visited Westminster Abbey, the old Cathedral at Cologne, and Notre Dame at Paris, the Douvre and British Museum. I have become really weary in wandering through museums and visit- ing churches, except, of course, for rest and devotion. The traveler abroad must remark the singular contrast between the Protestant and Catholic churches. The former are always shut except during service, and if you wish to see them,, the sexton must be found and feed for the favor ; when entered, they are cold, damp and unhealthy resting places. On the other hand, the Catholic cathedrals are always open, well ven- tilated, clean and highly ornamented, affording to the weary sojourner a refreshing rest, and seldom failing to inspire him with feelings of gratitude and devotion. 72 Hamburg to Dresden. The general face of the country, farms, villages and modes of country life have also certain general features of resem- blance. There are no fences ; the earth is cultivated in patches ; the cattle are either watched by herdsmen or tethered. The peasant women all work in the fields, make hay, mow, spread manure and plov/, often with a bull in rustic harness, while the implements of farming are of the rudest, primitive kind. The peasant women generally go bareheaded as well as barefooted, but when they do wear shoes they are either all of wood or have wooden soles, while their hats, when they have any, resemble a tin wash basin upside down, the rim as- sisting to balance the burdens they bear upon their heads. The farm lands of the continent, as a rule, are not as fer- tile as those of England, Ireland or America, nor are they as well cultivated. The entire country irom Hamburg to Berlin is a flat, sandy plain, with no timber, except such as may be seen among the sands of New Jersey. The villages and country towns are composed of squalid one -story buildings, covered with thatched straw or coarse red tile. Barns are unknown in Ger- many, and but few of the modern improvements in farming have been introduced. The government of the German Empire seems to have devoted all its energies to the art of war ; the cities are crowded with soldiers, well dressed, armed and equipped. Sunday is never observed as with us in x\merica. The same labor goes on in the field and the stores and markets are all open in the cities. I inquired of the waiter at my hotel in Hamburg if the trains ran on Sunday. He gave me a look of perfect amazement as he replied, " Certainly sir ; why not ? It is only a holiday for the rich ; not for poor men or horses." The military spirit is so rampant in Prussia that even the inferior officers on the railway give their superiors the military salute as they pass. Upon my arrival at Berlin, although hundreds of cabmen were in waiting, none of them moved from their seats, or made the slightest effort to obtain a pas- senger. I endeavored by signs to induce one to take me to the Hotel de Metropole, but he flatly refused without an order from the officer in charge of the station. I could not find a person who could speak either English or French. I saw an omnibus a short distance off marked Hotel de Saxe, so without knowing where it would take me, I jumped in and soon found m3^self in a very good commercial hotel where one of the waiters spoke a little English. I learned from him that King William became disgusted with his noisy cabmen, and ordained by la-v that they should not take a passenger, move from their seats or open their mouths, until called by one of his officers at the station, who should furnish to every decent applicant a ticket with the number of the cab upon it. Hamburg to Dresden. 73 Berlin, the capital of Germany, is situated on a flat, sandy plain, about the centre of the empire ; its population is 830,000, of which 25,000 is its garrison of soldiers. The river Spree runs through the town ; it is no larger than Chester creek at Chester. The waiter at the hotel made a very bad pun upon the name of the river. " Why," said he, '" is Berlin such a jolly town ?" I gave it up. "Because 'tis always on the same old Spree.'' The old part of the city is just like all other old European towns. Its markets are just what might have been seen twenty-five years ago at Market Street, Phila- delphia, from the wharf up to Third Street, on market days ; they are held here in the open squares, each person bringing his own booth or shed. They present a very active scene of old-fashioned animation. The new part of Berlin is undoubtedly very handsome, and at a first glance quite imposing and grand in appearance, but when you come to a closer inspection, you discover all the ap- parently majestic stone buildings ornamented with finely chiseled statuary, are but plastered brick, painted in imitation of the stone of which Paris is built. The chief street is the Ivinden, upon which the most splendid edifices are erected ; it is about 130 feet wide and a mile long, and is adorned with several rows of linden trees, colossal bronze statues, monu- ments, palaces and gigantic public buildings. Some have compared Berlin with Paris, but it will not bear it. As well might Hercules be compared with Adonis ; both have their superior points. In Berlin everything looks heavy and im- perial, even the king assumes to frown like Jove, while in Paris all is light, air}^ and beautiful, everj^body feels gajs and even Napoleon III. looked like a dancing master. The whole population of Berlin dwell in only 15,000 pri- vate houses. In the twelfth century it was a village; it is first mentioned in history in 1244. The house of Hohenzollern be- came masters of the place about 141 1. In 1539 the townspeo- ple embraced the reformed faith, and Berlin as well as all Prussia has since been strongly Protestant. At the death of Frederick the Great it had a population of 172,000, and has recently rapidly increased in prosperity, and is now the capital of the great German empire. One ot the finest buildings in the city is the old Museum; it is in the Greek style, with eighteen Ionic columns; its front is about 300 feet. It is very elaborately adorned with colossal groups in bronze, and marble statues. The most striking feature of the whole is a very beautiful fresco by Schinkel, which covers the entire front wall under the portico, representing the progress of civilization and the development of the world. The figures are all very large and exquisitely colored. From the square in front, they stand out 74 Hamburg to Dresden. very boldly and never fail to im^Dress the mind with an emotion of wonder and delight. The Kmperor has expended some of his French treasure in the erection of a monument something after the pattern of the Colomie Vendome lately destroyed at Paris. It has just been completed and is undoubtedly a very fine work. It is one hundred and ninety feet high, adorned with reliefs commemo- rating the Great German victories over the French in 1871. A golden statue of victory , forty-two feet high, crowns the column. Upon the whole, Berlin is well worthy of a visit, and will richly repay the time expended in exploring its many beauties ; the only wonder to me was how so much wealth could be ex- tracted from such a miserable, flat and unsightly country as surrounds it. From the great profusion of gigantic bronze statues with which every vacant place is embellished, one would almost suppose oid Vulcan had had his workshop here and had been casting models for the gods. A great feature of Berlin's beauty is the close proximity of all her grand public buildings, of which there are about seven hundred. Dresden lies due south of Berlin, and is reached in about five hours by rail. The general appearance of the country does not improve unti) within a few miles of the town when the Jersey-like look of the land begins to put on more of a Penn- sylvania appearance. The city of Dresden in its general appearance is like Ber- lin ; the houses are of the same order of architecture, they are mostly of brick, covered with cement and painted a mellow cream color. It is full of English and American residents, who have taken up their abode here because of its great edu- cational advantages ; it is said to have the best schools in the world. Its principal attraction to travellers is its world re- nowned Picture Gallery. It also contains a very rich museum of coins, old gold and silver plate, the crown jewels of the King of Saxony, of which country it was until recently the capital, and some of the finest statuary in ivory executed by Michael Angelo. The gem of the collection of painting is Raphael s Sistine Madonna. It cost in 1753, $35,000 in gold, and is now almost priceless ; persons come from all parts of the world to look at it. I do not assume to be a connoisseur in paintings, but it seemed to me that there were other pictures in the gallery as meritorious as the Madonna. The color is as bright and as delicately shaded to day as when it received its last touch from the hand of Raphael, but the drawing is certainly no better than some modern works. There are paintings in conspicuous positions in this gallery that would be veiled in England or America, not that they are without merit or beauty, but because of the peculiar subjects they Hamburg to Dresden. 75 illustrate. As the details of some tragedies will not bear pub- lication, much less should they be presented in all their naked- ness on canvas. The rape of I^ucretia, and I^eda and the Swan, are painted with rather too much perfection for the common eye. The same may be said of some of the statuary, though it must be admitted that even the most fastidious eye can look without emotion upon the most voluptuously chis- eled statue where the purity of the marble and coldness of the stone combine to banish from the mind of the beholder all im- pure thoughts or suggestions. This however is not true of a well executed painting, where every passion is so perfectly delineated and so well colored that the beholder can almost fancy he feels the warm burning breath and sees the heaving and C3 welling bosom, while his ear may almost hear the throb- bing of the enraptured heart, and where every struggling pas- sion is so perfectly portrayed by the painter that it must be understood by every person young or old, pure or impure who chances to gaze upon the picture. I saw more solid wealth in diamonds and precious stones, gold and silver plate, and finely wrought works in the precious metals than I thought could be collected together in any one place in the world. They are to be seen in the green vault of the Royal Palace. There is here exhibited a full communion set in fine gold and ruby-crystal by Benvenuto Cellini. Before quitting Dresden a young English traveler sug- gested that we should visit the Zoological Gardens just west of the city; it was late in the afternoon when we entered, and we found the collection so extensive, that before we were aware of it we were in the deep woods among the black swans with darkness fast obscuring all our landmarks for an exit from the place. By the time we reached the gate it was as dark as pitch, a rain storm had commenced and the gate keeper had gone home for the night. We pounded at the gate and hol- lowed with all our might but no relief came. "Heavens," ex- claimed my companion, "Have we to stay with these blasted beasts all night in the rain ?" "Not if I can help it," said I, as I commenced scaling the wall, at least twelve feet high. By clinging to the bar of the gate, I got over pretty well, but vixy poor companion fell from the top of the wall, and came near breaking his neck, beside spoiling a good suit of clothes. He swears he will never forget Dresden, nor will I. To-morrow I start for Prague, and from there to Vienna. •^6 Dresden to Vienna. XIX. Dresden to Vienna — Adventure with a Dutch Girl — Hotel de la Metropole— Beautiful Suburbs — ^Jews in Vienna— History — The Great World's Fair — Paint- ings ON Exhibition — Playing with the Tiger — Sleep- ing WITH One Eye Open— Shipwrecked— Fifteen Miles OF Exhibits--Burgomaster's Fete— Cholera in Venice. Vienna, August, 1873. I arrived here on the 15th inst. The journey from Dres- den requires seventeen hours by rail. I was shut up all night with a bevy of six bouncing German girls and one baby, I being the only man in the party. Fortunately for me, one of the girls had been at school at Dresden, and spoke a little English. Her beau was employed at the Exposition in Vienna, and she was about giving him a surprise, by an unexpected visit. About midnight we all got drowsy, and were soon lolling about in all directions, fast asleep. A man is not re- sponsible for his dreams, nor a woman for her talk in her sleep, if the Bride of Ravenna did lose her life by it, it by no means follows that any other woman who talks in her sleep means all she says. Why should they be responsible then for what they. do in their sleep ? I moralize thus, because about 2 o'clock in the morning, and when the lamp had grown very dim, I was aroused from my slumber and innocent dreams by a most lov- ing embrace from my little Dutch girl. She was fast asleep, and no doubt dreaming of her lover. I gently removed her arm and slid my shoulder from under her head, and was soon snoring again. She is none the worse for it, neither am I. I secured a very excellent chamber at the Hotel de la Metropole, beautifully situated upon the west bank of the canal of the Danube. My chamber window looks down upon the water which presents a very delightful scene in the early eve- ning by moonlight. The waters are quite rapid in their flow and are now very low, and of course not so interesting as when the banks are full. The waters are of a murky lime color,, very hard and entirely unfit to drink. Living here is about as high in a second-class hotel as it is in the first-class ones of New York. The Metropole is the best hotel in the city ; I pay 6 florins for my room, and my dinners cost from 3.50 to 5 florins, supper and breakfast about 2^ florins each, so that altogether it absorbs about 15 florins per day, exclusive of cab hire and extras. A florin is about fifty cents in American silver, but as "we are but lookers on here in Vienna," we must of course expect to pay a little more than if we were permanent dwellers in the city. Again we Dresden to Vienna. 'J'J must remember that it is the dwelling place of the Emperor, and the Capital of Austria. The city is very beautifully situ- ated upon both sides of the canal of the Danube. In its details it is just like all other great European cities. It has its splendid avenues, occupying the site of its old bulwarks, its museums, gallery of art, great monuments, palaces, prisons and parks, its old town and new, its narrow streets and its wide ones. The country around the town is quite mountainous in the distance, and is very much devoted to the culture of the grape. I spent the first day here in surveying the t/wn and its envi- rons, making myself familiar with its streets, and studying the peculiar habits of the people. The manners and customs of the people gradually approach Eastern civilization as we recede from Western nations. Many of the Jews here assume the dress, and keep up the customs of their brethren at Jeru- salem They dwell here in great numbers, and have selected the oldest part of the city for their habitation. They traffic in all manner of cast-off clothing, and gather together every- thing that other people have thrown away. They trade in the open street ; crowds of them may be seen on Sunday morning, busily engaged in traffic, exchanging hats, coats and even shoes, paying a slight difference in the exchange. They may be found sitting on the bare pavement, trying on shoes, and exhibiting the excellencies of a pair of worn-out pantaloons, a used-up pinch-back watch, or a dilapidated old hat. Alter walking around what are here called the rings, occu- pying the site of the recently removed bulwarks, ana which are really fine modern streets, very much like the boulevards of Paris, it is necessary to penetrate the centre of the city, or that part within the rings, to obtain anything like a fair idea of the place. It will be found to be a perfect network of nar- row streets, lanes, passages under gloomy arches, and long dismal vaults, with what we would call dirty alleys, running in every conceivable direction. Upon these narrow streets very large houses are erected, often inhabited by fifty families. The entrance is through an arched passage in the centre, gen- erally leading to a court-yard, from which the only light and air is obtained for the chambers not facing the street. In many places the sun never shines upon the street. It must be remembered that Vienna is a very old city. Marcus Aurelius died here A. D. i8o. It was a flourishing town until the Huns invaded the Roman Empire in the fifth century. Charlemagne conquered the inhabitants of the dis- trict and made it a part of his empire. During the crusades, we read of Vienna as a city of great importance. In 1276, Rudolph, of Hapsburg, became the ruler of Austria and made 78 Dkesdkn to Vienna. Vienna the seat of his house. It has been twice besieged by the Turks, and near its gates .the celebrated battles of Auster- litz and Wagram were fought. The collection of rare paint- ings of the Belvedere have a world-wide reputation. It requires at least two days to give even a glance at each as you pass ; they are chiefly by the old masters. I confess I am losing my admiration for the old school, and enjoy much better the'works of modern masters, many of which are exhibited at the Great Exhibition. There is something won- derfully enchanting in a well executed painting or piece of sculpture. It is very amusing to observe the passing crowds at the exhibition. Men of all nations, tongues and kindreds of the earth would halt and gaze in rapture on some sleeping venus, nor would they pass without inspection, the venuses awake. The French department is most admired. A splendid life-size painting representing a naked virgin, rolling upon a bed of roses with a pet tiger, is very suggestive of many liv- ing pictures. She sportively caresses his head as he licks her hand ; a lurking fire in his eye indicates that his rough tongue has given him a taste of blood, and when in alarm she en- deavors to withdraw her hand, his bristling hair and curved tail imparts to her the startling fact that she is just one minute too late. He will certainly devour her for no rescuing hand is near. I would advise all my young female friends in iVmerica, as well as some of the young gentlemen, to avoid playing with the tiger. ' ' Shipwrecked ' ' is another beautiful work. A fair young damsel is in a tinj^ boat wafted by the breath of love far out upon life's smooth sea. Suddenly a ter- rific tempest wrecks the frail craft, and a great dashing wave casts her lifeless form upon the rugged shore. It needs no explanation. Just opposite is the picture of an angelic form, naked and alone in a deep wood at midnight. She stands erect, holding in her right hand above her head a bright lamp and reflecting mirror. The dim outline of a narrow path is before her. She shows no fear, for she is ''walking in the light.''' This painting is called " La Verita." A little fur- ther on I observe a crowd of admirers around a large painting. As usual I find it to be the same old story, a sleeping venus with cupid drawing aside the veil to give Pan a peep. Of course the rustic god is love-struck ; how could any half human beast help it, with all her charms exposed. The poor woman does not know she's naked, for she is sound asleep, with one eye half open. I have seen women just like her, not only handsome, but they knew it, and they went to sleep just where they knew such half human brutes as Pan were wandering about. The E^ichantress is a charming picture of female Dresden to Vienna. 79 beauty, but she walks backwaid, followed by her admirers till she leads them to an unknown land, the dark confines of which are seen in the background. I wonder if the world ever pro- duced a woman as superlatively beautiful. If it did, we may appreciate Shakespeare's expression : "A fiend like thee could draw my soul to hell !" If Potiphar's wife was half as hand- some, Joseph was certainly a saint, or a eunuch. I shall carry in my mind forever the face of Csesar. While falling at the base of Ponipey's pillar, he seems to say et tit Brute, and if he gave to Brutus such a look as the artist has given him here, he would need no other ghost to fright him from the field of Philippi. In the gallery of sculpture are, if possible, some still more attractive works. Here we have Cupid with a golden chain binding together two youthful hearts. It is most exquisitely executed and cannot be looked at without an emotion of pleasure. It recalls a happy hour long years ago, when he chained together a pair of hearts that I could name, and what is better the golden links, though sometimes a little bent, have never yet been broken. Sculp- ture, when perfect, is always chaste and pure ; the nude figures are supposed to be alone, asleep or surprised ; nothing can so well exhibit the beauty of the human form and at the same time prerserve the purity of the imagination. A universally admired work is labeled "I Primi Flori." It represents a sweet maid of sixteen summers, chiseled from marble so pure that it seems transparent. She wears a wreath of the early spring roses, and her face is as bright and hopeful as an angel's smile. Alas ! she little knows how rapidly the winter shall approach and blast her beautiful flowers, or how soon her own loveliness shall fade and pass away forever. And so for days, and even weeks, one could wander among these beautiful images of grace and loveliness and never feel satiated upon the food for thought they so abundantly provide. The Grand Exposition is simply stupendous ; it is abso- lutely impossible to give an idea of it. It must be seen to be comprehended or enjoyed. It requires at least fifteen miles of walking to explore it all. Here may be seen the whole world in a nut-shell. Oriental palaces are reproduced, and the mar- kets, bazaars, restaurants and workshops of the East, attended by the veritable merchants, barbers and servants of the lands they represent, in their native costumes The arts, sciences, trades, arms and agricultural implements of all nations are on exhibition. It is but a few yards, often but a step irom the habits, customs and manners of a civilized people to the semi- barbarous fashions of Egyptian, Persian or Arabian life. As }'0U march from the East toward the West, the progress of '8o Vienna to Munich. civilization is distinctly marked by the improved machinery for manufacturing and the implements of war. The buildings for the accommodation of the Exhibition, are of the most beautiful architectural construction. One can hardly believe they aie to be all removed when the grand dis- play is over. The park in which they are erected is an ordin- ary wood, not to be compared with Fairmount Park at Phila- delphia, but while we have the advantage in the ground, I entirely dispair of producing a displa^^ approaching the magni- tude and grandeur of Vienna. Those who visited the World's -Fair at I^ondon, and the Exposition Universelle at Paris, say that both combined were not half equal to this. The Burgomaster of Vienna gave a grand soiree on Sat- urday evening last. It was attended by many thousands of strangers from all parts of the world. Among other distin- guished guests the Burgomaster of South Chester (i) was there. The gardens and halls were splendidly illuminated, while the guests were welcomed by the most delightful music and a gorgeous collation. It lasted nearly all night and was a great success. I had intended visiting Venice and Milan, only one day distant by rail, but the cholera is now so bad in Venice as to be considered dangerous to strangers. I met yesterday a Philadelphia lady direct from there. She says it was with difficulty she got into Austria ; not being permitted to land until the car she occupied was fumigated as well as herself. I will therefore postpone my visit to Italy to a more convenient season, and will leave here to-morrow for Munich, and from thence to Paris on my way home. XX. Vienna to Munich — Last I^ook at the Fair — An Ameri- can IN Jail — A Suspicious Wine Cellar — The World IN Vienna — A Black Princess — High Altitude op Mu- nich — Bavaria — Munich — St. Boniface — Art Gallery — Palaces and Dungeons — The Old King and Lola MoNTEz — The New King and Music — Beer Drinkers — The Privileges of the Fair Sex — A Priest-Ridden People — Revolting Scene in a Charnel House. Munich, August, 1873. Before leaving Vienna I took a long last look at the Grand Exposition. It makes the heart sick to think that all this (1) When this letter was written I was the Burgess of South Chester. Vienna to Munich. 8i gorgeous display of glittering splendor shall so soon, like the "baseless fabric of a dream," vanish and forever pass away. It seems to me that Philadelphia should have had a commis- sioner here from the beginning, studying the details, for it is folly to suppose that any knowledge worth imparting could be gathered in a week. It would require the whole time to give a hasty glance at each group. Improvements could undoubt- edly be made, and just here is where the importance of a com- petent commissioner is so necessary. Just as an inferior architect might suggest improvements in St. Peter's at Rome, St. Paul's at lyondon, or the Capitol at Washington, so a person of even ordinary ability might be able to give very use- ful hints, and could profitably observe and note, not the per- fection of the display, but its faults and mistakes, so that they could be avoided in our Centennial celebration ; yet I am told by the attendant at the ofBce of the U. S. Commission, that none of the Philadelphia Commission staid over a week. For all they learned in that time they might as well have staid at home. One of the sover-eigns of America, at Vienna, is likely to get a taste of Austrian justice instead of her hospitality. He had a dispute at one of the cafes with a waiter, who he says seized his cane as he supposed to strike him, he then drew his revolver and although he replaced it instantly, he was arrested and committed to prison. The laws of Austria are very severe in such cases. It is made a felony to draw a deadly weapon upon a citizen, punishable with fine and imprisonment of 7ioi less than three years. The most distressing part of the case is, that he has his little son, not over 12 years old, with him. He had better have left his American institution at home. There is said to be no necessity for it in this country. I would nevertheless have felt more comfortable last Saturday night if my pocket had contained one The water of Vienna is poison, beer to me is disgusting, and consequently I had to drink wine, which was so frightfully high at the hotel, that none but princes could enjoy it. I was told there were places in the city where good Hungarian wine could be bought by the glass very cheap, and was directed to a place in the old part of the town, which, after some wandering among narrow and wind- ing passages, so contracted that with outstretched arms, I could touch the houses on either side, I came to a low arched vault, which I entered and was conducted through a succes- sion of irregular arches and dark cavernous vaults, to a mouldy cellar lit up with tallow candles, and filled with acrowd of the ugliest, roughest and raggedest set of villains I ever saw. They were seated around dilapidated tables and were smoking common cigars and drinking white Hungarian wine by the 82 Vienna to Munich, qiart. I was the only decently dressed man in the place, and se2med to be the object of every gaze, as well as the subject of the common jargon, not a word of which I could understand. When I thought how easily I could be knocked in the head, robbed and disposed of, and no one be the wiser of my where- abouts, I began to feel alarmed and wished myself safely out; but there was no stopping on a race-course, so I determined to face it out. I observed the fellow on the other side of the table, eyeing my diamond breast-pin, which I had forgotten to conceal and which fairly glittered in the dim candle-light. I do not suppose there was a particle of danger, but the rogues did stare at me just like hungry cats at a good fat rat. I gave the fellow on the other side of the table a defiant look, and kept my eyes full on his, until with assumed composure, I gobbled down my pint of wine and quietly felt my way out, when, I assure you, I breathed much more freely. On in- quiry, I learned that it was the Saturday night rendezvous of the lower classes of Vienna, where they met to smoke bad cigars and drink cheap wine, and that the probability was, that they were as much surprised to see me there, as I was to find myself in their company. I am inclined to think, how- ever, that I was safer at the "Metropole," even if I had to pay for a whole bottle of wine, in order to get a single drink. It was a source of great amusement to observe the variety of races, and the colors and costumes worn by the people of different nationalities at Vienna. There was at the Metropole a gentleman of very light complexion, in full European dress, with a wife, also well dressed, who in America would pass for a negress. From the attention he paid her, and the politeness she received from others, I suppose she is a person of some importance in her own country. I left Vienna for Munich on the 20th. It requires twelve hours by express train to make the journey between the cities. It is much cooler and more pleasant at Munich; although in about the same latitude it is of much greater altitude, Vienna being 430, while Munich is 1703 feet above the level of the sea. The night air here is considered dangerous to sojourners, because of its sudden coolness and variableness. Bavaria is a very rich, fertile and beautiful country, much better looking than either Austria or Prussia, The scenery up the valley of the Danube and the rapid Iser, is very picturesque. As we approach Munich the distant Alps can be distinctly seen. They are but a day's journey distant, and are much visited by the fashionable citizens as a summer resort. Notwithstanding the great altitude of the city, it is built upon a vast plain of about fifty square miles. The ground immediately around the city is rather sterile, but very highly cultivated, Munich^ we Vienna to Munich, 83 are told, was founded by Henry the Lion, in 1158. It has in- creased very rapidly in population during the present century ; its present population being about 170,000, nearly all of whom are very devout Catholics. It is no uncommon sight to see houses, even of modern construction, ornamented with a niche containing an image of the blessed virgin and child; while the churches are very abundant, and most elaborately adorned with paintings, frescoes and pious statuary. The Basilica of St. Boniface, is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen, and I have visited many hundreds in different countries. It is an admirable imitation of the ancient Italian Basilica of the fifth centur}-. It has sixty-six marble columns, each of a single shaft, supporting round arches richly gilt, forming four grand aisles. The walls of the entire interior are lined with pjlished marble of various colors to the top of the columns, and above the columns are some of the finest frescoes in Europe, representing scenes in the life of St. Boniface, and other old Bavarian saints, with portraits of all the popes from Julian III. to Gregory XVI. The exterior of the church has quite an ordinary appearance, being faced with red brick. The fine marble columns in front of the church are all that would attract the attention of the passer-by. Munich has a splendid picture gallery and a national mu- seum, said to be the finest in Europe. Like most museums the traveler wearies his mind in endeavoring to comprehend the immense collections spread before him. He has no time to deliberately study the historical collections of each epoch or period so well represented. He might spend months, instead of hours, in examining and studying the different groups, chambers and series. One is overwhelmed and confused with the immensity of the collection, and leaves it with a feeling of mental fatigue instead of refreshment, the natural result of cramming the food for a months' reflection into a single meal of observation. The same may be said of the gallery of paint- ings in the old PinacothecayiX. has works by Rubens, Rem- brandt, and some of the best efforts of the old masters of Ital^' and the Netherlands. It has nine large halls, each set apart for a separate school. A gentleman of leisure could profitably spend weeks in this gallery alone, and find ample food for most delightful thought; for, after all, there is really no end to the capacity of the mind for reflection. It acts as it is acted upon, and grows in proportion to what it digests, not to what it de- vours. The new part of Munich, with its wide streets and fine public buildings, monuments in fine bronz,e, and beautiful gardens, is more attractive than either Berlin or Dresden. Some think it superior to Vienna. I visited the King's Palace 84 Vienna to Munich. and was permitted to look with my plebien eyes into the sacred precincts of royalty. The old palace is now being restored; it covers several acres of ground, has its large court yards, chambers of state, ball and reception rooms, waiting rooms, chapels and bed chambers above ground, and its dark, mouldy vaults and dismal dungeons and cells below ground, where many a poor soul has passed a life of misery and neglect, and where many a royal prisoner, male and female, has died from violence or starvation. If these old walls could speak, they would "A tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up the soul; * * * Make the two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres; The knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porcupine ; But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood." I also paid the new palace a visit. It was built by the gay old king of Bavaria a few years ago, for the accommoda- tion of I^ola Montez. Though of recent construction, it too could tell some unwelcome tales of the lecherous old reprobate and his merry mistress. Many of us remember how the peo- ple, becoming disgusted at the disgraceful scenes enacted in this palace, revolted, and in fury drove lyola from Bavaria, and the foolish old king from his throne. The present king, who I believe is a grand-son of the one previously spoken of, is a model of virtue and propriety, so modest and retiring, that notwithstanding all the efforts of his courtiers, he cannot be induced to wed. Several matches have been made for him, and publicly announced, but he always backs out just at the critical moment— the wedding day. He is what the ladies call a pretty man, soft, effeminate, and of delicate mould; abso- lutely invulnerable to the charms of beauty, but passionately fond of music. The citizens of Munich are great beer drinkers, they are absolutely incapable of any form of amusement beyond the enjoyments of a beer garden, where they will sit from morning till night listening to the music, drinking their beer, telling their little stories and smoking their pipes. It is perfectly comme il fant for a lady to attend either the gardens, concerts, or even the theatre alone, and she will never be insulted or spoken to except in politeness by any one. While the women have this privilege, it must be added they are also permitted to sweep the streets, make mortar, and carry bricks for the baicklayer saw wood, plough, spread manure, mow and carry burdens large enough for pack -mules. I prefer, with all their Vienna to Munich. 85 faults, our own forms and customs, and I do not think a woman was intended for all the uses they make of her in Bavaria. The lower classes are evidently priest-ridden. A reason- able amount of religion is undoubtedly very good, but while I must admire the Christian devotion of the Bavarians, I can- not without a feeling of pity, see their debased and almost idolatrous saint worship. I was walking through one of the charming gardens, when a fine looking woman, also walking in the garden with a gentleman and two female attendants, suddenly became very sick ; she had all the symptoms of heart disease, and seemed to me in an almost dying state. I saw the attendants run off very rapidly, as I supposed for a phy- sician, instead of which they brought back two priests, who for a full half hour did nothing but oil her hands and put a crucifix to her lips, while they whispered pious ejaculations in her ears. Presently she showed some signs of revival ; then they sent for a doctor. I am told that a rope broke a few days ago and let fall a large stone on the breast of a workman ; his fellow workmen instead of removing the stone and saving his life, ran for a priest. By the time he arrived the man was dead. I shall never forget a most horrid and revolting sight in the cemetery of the city. Some regulations forbid the burial of the dead until a certain length of time after they are brought to the cemeterj" for interment. I chanced to observe a funeral halt and deposit a corpse in a large building. As the door opened I looked in ; there lay sixty-three dead bodies in their funeral attire, from babes of yesterday to old men and women of eighty years, young virgins as plump and beautitul as if they were made of wax, lay beside emaciated forms wasted to skeletons by long sickness. Some were absolutely in a state of decay, V^ith black hollow eyes, and lips which had fallen away from the teeth. Most of them were covered with flowers, and all had their faces exposed and were so arranged that a single glance around the hall showed every face. The smell, was that of a charnel house. Without depreciating German manners I have come to the conclusion that there is no place like home. I leave here to-morrow for Strasbourg, and am. traveling very rapidly westward and homeward. 86 Munich to Strasbourg, XXI. Munich to Strasbourg— Stutgardt— The Suabks — Babies AND Grapes — UIvM — Deserted Baden-Baden — Cathe- dral of Strasbourg — The I^ate Siege — Shells for Candlesticks — -The City Germanized — -The Great Clock— Pickpockets— Strasbourg to Paris — Paris in a state of Decline — Probable short-lived Republic- Contrast between French and Prussian Soldiers — The Gay Mabile — English as spoken by a French Girl BOIS DE ViNCENNP:S — BOIS DE BOLOGNE -AbSYNTH DRINK- ERS — Infidelity — Versailles — Useless Fortifications OF Paris. Paris, August, 1873. The time by rail from Munich to Strasbourg is about twelve hours. The course is nearly due west, up the valley of the Danube, which is wide and flat, but seems well cultivated, although not remarkable for its fertility. In the vicinity of Stutgardt the soil as well as the scenery very much improves. The distant Alps are plainly visible, the rich undulating lands . yield an abundant supply of corn and wine. Great vineyards grace all the Southern faces of the mountains, which are ter- raced with stone walls nearly to their tops, and look very beautiful. The city of Stutgardt is of comparatively recent construction and therefore, although a very pretty town, of no particular interest to the traveler. The line of the road from near Stutgardt follows the valley of the Suabia, from whence our country has been so liberally supplied with knmigrants, known as Suabes. They are to the Germans what our Penn- sylvania Dutch are to the native farmers. The Prussians or Bavarians would consider themselves insulted to be called Suabes. They are nevertheless a very honest, thrifty and in- dustrious people, and, from the clusters of children everywhere to be seen, as well in the fields as in their mother's arms, and other still more comfortable quarters, one would conclude that the soil was equally as productive of babies as of grapes. Some of the mountain tops are still graced with old ruined ■castles, the remains of feudal times. I almost wonder that the shrill scream of the iron horse now so constantly reverber- ating among the surrounding hills, does not fright from their rocky graves, the ghosts of some of the old robbers who once inhabited these ruined piles. As usual in Germany, the fields are full of women per- forming the drudgery and common labor of the farm, such as Munich to Strasbourg. 87 plowing, spreading manure, mowing and making hay. As a natural consequence, they are coarse and masculine in appear- ance. The road passes over seme of the most hotly-contested battlefields of the world. Ulm is a very strong fort ; earth- works, thrown up during the recent war, are all around it. As we passed from Carlsrhue to Oos, my eye recognized the old castle of Eaden. I visited it in 1869, when Baden-Baden was the battlefield of all the gamblers of the earth. It is said to have lost its attraction for travelers since its license to gam- ble has been taken away. The whole country, with the long range of mountains covered by the Black Forest, seemed as familiar to my eye as if I had seen it but yesterday. The tall spire of the Cathedral of Strasbourg can be seen long beiore the town is reached. It is one of the highest steeples in the world, and was a mark for the German gunners in the recent bombardment of the place. I was surprised to see how thor- oughly the town has been deprived of its French appearance. She looks like an old German woman, and until you hear her speak, you are not aware that she is a French girl in a German gown. All the French names of the streets have been taken off and German jaw-breakers substituted, while the constant movement of German soldiers and the eternal clatter of the drum and fife render the illusion still more perfect. At heart she is devotedly French, and never lets an opportunity slip to give vent to a secret curse upon her Prussian ravisher. There is nothing in Strasbourg worth a visit except the cathedral , It is really a wonderful work. The great piles of stone heaped up along the aisles, and the new stained glass which has been substituted for the windows, too plainly indicate how terribly it suffered from Prussian shot and shell during the siege. It has, however, been nearly restored to its former appearance. The organ, which had been blown entirely from its position by an exploded shell, has been rebuilt and now occupies its old place. The old priest, whom I bribed to open the church for me — for I arrived after the hour of public admittance — while guiding me around the interior of the building gave vent, in French, to a rather severe curse, for a priest, upon the heads of the sacreligious heretics who had so nearly destroyed his idol. The church must indeed have been a rather uncomfort- able place during the siege. I counted some thirty marks of shot and shell, some of which knocked out several tons of stone. My guide thought that the Prussian king was surely an infidel ; for said he, when we implored him to spare the cathedral, he sent us back the audacious reply, that " he was sorry he could not move the church out of the range of his guns," when bang went another shell right into the organ. But few houses in the city escaped a shot or shell ; the hotel S8 Munich to Strasbourg. where I st''/pped received several ; one is still imbedded in one of the large wooden girders in the cofifee roora. If it had ex- ploded it would have blown the hotise to' pieces. Another came into the landlady's bed chamber, but out of respect for the lady, did not explode. She has had it unloaded, and it now ornaments her mantle as a candle-stick. It is ten inches in diameter and eighteen inches long. The French may aban- don all hope of ever recovering Strasbourg. It has been ren- dered stronger than ever, and so far as human precaution can make it, it is impregnable. It was one of the gates of France ; its statue in the place de la Concorde, in Paris, is now draped in mourning. Before quitting the Cathedral I took a look at the world- renowned clock. I consider it a great humbug, not worth a journey of twenty miles to see. So far as its astronomical construction is concerned, it is undoubtedly a work of some considerable mechanical ingenuity; but the awkward figures representing Christ and his Apostles, the crowing cock, and the figure of death striking the hours on the bell, are anj^thing but life-like, and could be easily beaten by any ordinary Yan- kee clock-maker. I have seen in Geneva clock work much superior to it. The clock at a first glance would hardly at- tract any particular attention. After gazing upon the graceful proportions of the architecture of the church, to go into ecstasies over an old clock with toy men and childish move- ments, is certainly a step from the sublime to the ridiculous. It stands upon the ground floor of the church, in one corner of the building, and looks something like an antiquated organ, about twelve feet wide by thirty feet high. It may be one of the world's wonders, but it did not so impress me; perhaps I expected too much. I really felt ashamed, when I visited it the second day, to see the great gaping crowd of Americans anxiously waiting for noon to see the toy figures representing Christ and his Apostles — the largest figure not exceeding a foot in stature — make their circular movement, and to hear the cock crow, which is nothing more than any expert organist could do much better. The pickpockets reap heavy harvests just at the moment when the figures begin to move, while the abstracted fools have all their thoughts on the He-Biddy, and of course none left for their purses. The church itself is, how- ever, all that its enthusiastic admirers claim it to be. It was founded A. D, 504, and finished in the twelfth century. The stone work is so mellowed and toned down by age, as to pre- sent the appearance of old oak carving. The window called the "Rose of Marigold," is forty-three feet in diameter. It radiates like the sun, and from the inside of the edifice, sheds a flood of gorgeous colors through the rich old stained glass. Strasbourg to Paris. 89 The spire is of stone to the highest point, which is 466 feet from the pavement. It is sixteen feet higher than the great pyramid, and eighteen feet higher than St. Peters at Rome. The view from the tower is very extensive. The Black For- rest and Vosges mountains can be easily seen. I left Strasbourg perfectly satisfied with my visit, and con- tinued my journey homeward to Paris, which is about 312 miles west, and requires about twelve hours' travel by express. The French authorities are very particular in their scrutiny of all travelers entering from Germany. Americans, however, have no trouble in crossing the frontier, which is now between Embermenil and Avricourt. The cars are stopped, and every passenger is reqnired to pass in single file through a narrow gate, produce his passport, and answer such questions as the official in charge may ask. Some of the German passengers in our train were under examination several minutes before they were permitted to pass. I arrived in Paris just a week ago, and have been veiy busy ever since my arrival in giving a rapid glance at its wonderful and almost cxhaustless attractions. I am satisfied it is in a state of rapid decline. It is yet the handsomest and most interesting city in the world, but it is not the ''Paris noiivelle de Napoleon III. ' ' I saw it in the very acme of its glory, upon the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Napoleon I — August 15th, 1869. She then looked like a bride upon her wedding day — she was all smiles and flowers. There was a beauty and rosy freshness upon her face, only equalled by her rich and glittering attire and brilliant ornaments. She was surrounded by luxurious splendor, and v^as overflowing with mirth and happiness. Now her clothes are soiled, her laces torn, her ej^es are red with sorrow, and her face is very, very sad. The flowers of her fete-day have all withered, and instead of youthful freshness a hectic flush is upon her cheek, a wrinkle upon her brow, and here and there a treacherous gray hair peeps out from her glossy y«/.y^ ringlets. The Parisians are struggling manfully to restore the city to its former beauty, and have made considerable progress in that direction, but it will be a long time before the marks of the lash are removed from her back. She richly deserved a sound scourging, but I am inclined to think it was laid on a little too heavily. Some of the public buildings have their ornamental stone fronts completely peppered with musket balls, while others have the deeper indentations of cannon shot. I counted sixteen marks of cannon balls on the front of the building occupied by the Corps Legislatif. On all the public buildings, including the churches, the motto of the Republic has been substituted for the imperial insignia, and the golden Le Jardin Mabille, initials I^. N ,, which once graced them all, have been chipped off and removed. I noticed, however, that ''Liberie, Egaiite^ Frateryiite,'" was only painted on the several buildings with ordinary lamp-black, which in case of necessity can easily be removed, and the arms of royalty in turn substituted, an event which will, from present mdications, soon transpire. One can- not avoid noticing the marked difference between the French, and Prussian soldiers. The latter are all splendid looking men, full breasted and sturdy, and march with a firm and con- fident step; while the former are small, pale, hollow -chested boys and haggard looking men, apparently unused to arms. They march with a kind of swagger, and compare with the Prussians about as a mule with a horse. There can be no question but that the Frenchmen of Paris have degenerated. The results of luxur}'- and dissipation have enervated the race. Their national dissipation is not an over-indulgence in wine, but a softer and more enfeebling kind of dissoluteness engend- ered by such places as le jardin Mabile and similar places of debauchery and folly; even they, if possible, have become more corrupt. I noticed in the gay Mabile the same dancers every night, in disguise as visitors. One of the fair ones seemed to take a fancy to me. She took me for an Englishman, said she could not speak English but would soon teach me French. I excused myself by informing her that I was an American and could speak French already. ''Ah, vous etes Americain! Je parte Americain,'" said she. I asked her to favor me with a little, when up she jumped, and after a hop or two, kicked the hat from the head of a six-foot looker-on, caught her toe in her mouth, and whirling like a top, she said in pretty good English, "How's tat for high — perty good, ehf Roast-beh!'' Any government that would tolerate such an establishment as le Jardin Mabile, must be far advanced in degeneracy. I visited the Bois de Vincenness, expecting to find it as I saw it last, but I was sadly disappointed to find what was then a beautiful garden and ornamented park, now all overgrown with rubbish and scrub oak, and filled with loungers of the demi monde, some sleeping on the grass, others making love or flirting under the shade of some old tree. The Bois de Bo- logne I found half cut down, and what was once a beautiful park was now being converted into a race course. In addition to their other bad habits, the Parisians poison themselves with absynthe, which they drink almost universal- ly; and they also weaken their naturally acute intellects be the intemperate use of bad tobacco. A good cigar cannot by had in Paris under a franc. The whole city is but a whitened sepulchre, beautiful and- highly ornamented without, but full of corruption and dead Parisian Immorality. 91 men's bones. I doubt if it is any better than Sodom or Gomorab was; if it contains ten righteous men God only knows where to find them. The great mistake of the Parisian French is their infidelity. They have discarded religion, and have substituted nothing in its place. It is very hard to find a Frenchman who has any idea of a hereafter, and yet he ex- hibits many excellent traits of character, such as pity, benevo- lence and generosity, but no veneration for God or respect for religion. There is much more I would like to say of Paris, but the reasonable limits of a letter will not suffice. I would like to speak of my visit to Versailles; of the fine paintings I saw there, among others most excellent portraits of Washing- ton, Henry Clay and Webster; of the miles of galleries devoted to paintings and sculpture; the charming gardens and foun- tains. I would like also to refer to the battlefields I visited around the city, and the ruined villages and destroyed towns I saw. No city was ever fortified like Paris; all that human skill could suggest was done; yet when the smallest of her forts fell, the entire city was at the enemy's feet. It matters little how, many bolts and bars secure the doors of your dwelling ; if the burglar can enter a window, all the house is at his mercy. So with Paris; it required more than human vigilance to pro- tect all her gates; the enemy broke open one and all the rest were useless. XXII. Homeward — More about Paris — Pere la Chaise— The Catacombs — ^The Morgue — Museum de Cluny — Siege OF Paris — An Old Sailor Sea-sick — Folkstone to IvON- DON — Thames Embankment — Albert Memorial — Quid PRO Quo — The Color I^ine Abroad — Overcrowded Hotels — Sad Incident on the Ship — A Funeral at Sea — Queer Characters on Board — The Parson — The Professor — The Great Traveler— The Missionary — The Widower — The Blue Stocking — An Old Sailor's Idea of Preachers. Steamship City of Brooklyn, off Sandy Hook, \ September, 1873. J "Breathes there a man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native laad ! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned, From wandering on a foreign strand!" 92 Pere La Chaise, We are now in a dense fog, lying like a log upon the water, patiently awaiting the rising of the niist, that we may caich a glance of our native land. All is bustle and confusion. The ladies are busy dressing and the gentlemen packing their trunks for a final departure irom the ship. To while away a weary hour, I have concluded to write a final letter. Before leaving Paris I visited some places I had not previously seen. The Cemetery of Pere la Chaise and the Catacombs, contains the dust of the millions who once dwelt in, built and beautified this venerable city. The situation of Pere la Chaise is most charming. Seated upon a hill in the eastern part of the town, it commands a view of the whoJe city, and for this alone is well worth a visit. The monuments and sepulchres contrast unfavorably with those of the fashionable cemeteries of America. There is not a cemetery that I have seen comparable with Greenwood or Laurel Hill. There is a sameness about Pere la Chaise which makes a detailed exami- nation very tedious. Most of the graves are covered with miniature chapels, filled with small crucifixes and holy candles, artificial flowers and wreaths of immortelles. Most of the walks are straight and narrow ; even the trees seem to have been planted without much taste. The Morgue, which is situated a short distance east of. Notre Dame, is a place visited daily by thousands of persons of all classes and from various motives; many visit it like my- self, from mere curiosity, many others in search of lost friends and relatives, while still others, to gratify a morbid desire to . witness sorrowful scenes and horrible sights. It is said to possess a peculiar fascination impelling a second visit from those who have once entered it. The building is of but one story, with a door for entrance and one for exit. The chamber which contains the dead, is separated from the passage by a glass partition, through which the passing crowd may look upon the dead, who are arranged on marble tables, with as much of the body exposed as decency will permit. It is seldom without a tenant, as all the unknown dead of Paris are deposited there for identification. It is a melancholy study to observe the faces, and read the thoughts and emotions of the myriads who enter it. Fathers look for lost sons; mothers seeking missing daughters, whose anxious faces as they depart, would seem to indicate an increased distress, instead of joy in not finding the lost one there. Perhaps she is lost indeed, worse than dead ! She must be sought for in a worse place than the Morgue. When I visited it, one of the tables contained the body of a very handsome young man, with glossy black hair and mous- tache, and a cleanly shaved face. His chest was full and broad, and his limbs splendidly developed. There was a deep gash More About Pris. 93 above his eye, indicating a death from violence. His clothing was hanging upon a row of pins over his head. He had been found dead in one of the streets, and had been no doubt, like myself, a stranger in Paris. No one should leave Paris without a visit to the Hotel de Chilly. The old curiosities it contains are absolutely unique, and must be seen to be appreciated. It contains among many other very remarkable things, a clumsy contrivance of the old Romans to enforce virtue upon their wives during the hus- band's absence in the wars. Modesty forbids a description of the singular invention. Suffice it to say that, as a protection from modern burglary, it would be but a small impediment ; five minutes would scarcely be required to pick the lock. There is now on exhibition at Paris one of the most per- fect panoramas ever painted. It represents the seige of Paris and conveys a better idea of the momentous struggle than could be gathered from volumes of reading. It is no more like the panoramas we are accustomed to see in America, than the light of the sun at noonday is like the glimmer of a tallow candle at midnight. It is with great difficulty that the spec- tator can convince himself that he is not looking out upon the veritable battlefields around the city ; the burning villages, affrighted and flying citizens, belching cannon, bursting shells, wounded and dying soldiers, and dismounted guns, are all so natiiral and life-like as to render the illusion perfect. In the foreground the cannon, sand bags and earthworks are real, and none but a connoisseur can discern, without physical in- spection, the line where the actual ceases and the artificial begins. It is pronounced by those who are judges to be one of the most perfect pieces of enlarged landscape painting ever produced. On my way to Boulogne the cars were crowded with re- turning travelers from the Continent. In the compartment I occupied was a young English I^ord, with two ladies, return- ing from a tour through Switzerland. He was very anxious that none of his fine points should pass unnoticed, to which end he wore a pair of breeches laced tight to the knee, a pair of brogans upon his feet, and heavy woolen stockings up to his knees, the better to exhibit his well developed calves. While dining at Boulogne he warned the ladies to be spare in their diet as the channel was sometimes rough, and they might suffer from sea sickness ; as for him, he said, he was an old sailor and could eat and drink as he liked ; he was never sea sick, and would very much like to feel the sensation. We had not been a half hour on the sea before our little ship began to roll and pitch most fearfully. I never saw so mau}^ sick persons at once. There were over six hundred on board, and 94 Crossing the Channel. fully four hundred were sick. The deck, despite the hundreds of basins distributed by the stewards, was slippery with the dinners of the passengers. Such retching, gagging, and des- pairing cries of " Oh ! oh. my ! Oh, I^ord !" I hope never to hear again. I felt a malicious desire to keep my eye on his lordship, the "old sailor." He was composedly smoking a cigar, but I thought he looked a little pale under the gills. Presently I saw him sit down on a pile of trunks, as I thought, rather too suddenly for an old sailor. It was all up ; he made a rush for the gunwale, and with a tremendous " Oh !" he gave his entire dinner, including a bottle of Burgundy, to the fish. "What is the matter?" said one of the girls, neither of whom had shown any symptoms of sickness. " Oh," said he, "I ain't sea sick, the beastly motion of the boat has turned my stomach, that's all ; I never was on such a blasted, stupid ship before." One of the stewards gave him a basin, which he kept between "those well-developed calves" the rest of the voyage, and filled it about three times. The waves cross the channel from Boulogne to Folkstone diagonally, and when the sea is rough the small steamers being about half of the time in the trough of the sea, roll most terribly. The country from Folkstone to I^ondon is very highl)" cul- tivated, the land is rich and rolling, and the dwellings com- fortable. Ivondon is constantly improving, new embellishments being added every year. The Thames embankment is equal to anything of the kind in the world. A splendid new street has been redeemed from the river and given to the metropolis, to the great relief of the overcrowded Strand. The river face is built of great granite blocks, and when it is remembered that the tide rises here eighteen feet, the difficulty and extent of the work can be appreciated. The Albert Memorial at Hyde Park has just been finished, and is now one of the world's most beautiful monuments. It stands upon an arti- ficial plateau, ascended by granite steps from its four sides. At the corners are four colossal statues, allegorical of the four grand divisions of the earth. The buffalo upon which the figure of America is seated is open to criticism. It looks more like a Durham bull with a lion's mane than a buffalo. The base of the monument is embellished with full life-size reliefs in white marble, representing all the world's greatest geniuses, above which rises the Gothic spire something similar to the Scott monument at Edinburgh, the whole of which is heavily gilt with pure gold, presenting in the bright sunlight a most gorgeous efiect. The Knglish are great on the quid pro quo. I sat for a moment in one of the iron chairs distributed over the park, as I supposed to rest the weary traveler's limbs, and so the)' Homeward Bound. 95 were, but they charged me the equivalent of six cents Ameri- can money for the privilege ; but when we remember that the Queen charges sixpence for a sight of her diamonds, and then only shows a paste copy of the Koh-i-noor, we cannot expect her to give us a seat in her park for less than half as much. After a three days' rest in London I left for Liverpool, which although over two hundred miles distant, is reached in four and a half hours. It rained all the time I remained there and had been raining every day for six weeks. At the theatre in Liverpool, the American doctrine of equality without re- gard to race, was fully recognized. Sambo in full dress, with a fair British damsel on each side, occupied one of the most fashionable boxes. We may soon expect to see the House of Lords graced with a peer from Africa ; yet it is somewhat remarkable that the Queen rejected the proffered hand of the King of Abyssinia. Liverpool was literally crowded with Americans home- ward bound ; every ship had its berths all engaged for a fortnight in advance. Two ships were to sail the day after my arrival, the Samaria of the Cunard, and the City of Brooklyn of the Jnman line. I applied first at the Cunard office, but could not get a berth even by paying a premium ; every cor- ner was secured, even some of the officers' quarters were purchased. At the Inman office I received no better encour- agement. As I was on the point of leaving in despair I learned that berth No. 30 had just been given up, and could be secured for twenty-one guineas, which I paid at once, and upon embarking found myself the happy owner of one of the very best berths in the ship. No one in the city could give me any information about the " New American Line," nor could I find any advertisement in the newspapers relating to it. I met upon the ship a Chicago gentleman with whom I had traveled in Germany. He had secured his berth two days before me, and had paid a premium of £io, equal to $5ogold^, over the regular price, and was lucky in getting it at that. We had 119 cabin and 800 steerage passengers, and as most of those in the cabin were Americans returning home^ you may imagine we were a jolly party. After trying both, I much prefer the Inman to the Cunard steamers. The passage is shorter and the accommodations better. The officers are more congenial, and the stewards more obliging. The Samat^ia left Liverpool three hours Defore the Brooklyn, yet we beat her a day to New York. Everything went well the first two days out. The sea sick- ness was passing off — the passengers beginning to become sociable, and the smoking room to sparkle with wit and humor, when an event occurred which cast a gloomy cloud over the 96 A Tragedy at Sea. whole ship. We had among the passengers an English lady, with three beautiful little children. She was about joining hei husband in America, He had preceded her several months, and had provided a home for her reception. He had written to her of his success, and anticipated happiness in meeting her and his little ones in New York. She was evidently a woman of some refinement; her appearance was genteel, and her children were well clad and clean. She had been very sea- sick, and became despondent and low spirited. She seemed to have a deep affection for her husband, but appeared prepos- sessed with the idea that she would never live to see him again. We were all enjoying our lunch at noon in the cabin, when suddenly the machinery stopped, and we were startled bj^ the tramp of hundreds of feet over head on the deck, rapidl}' rush- ing to the stern. My first thought was that the ship was on fire. I cast a hasty glance out the cabin window and saw the sailors rapidly cutting away the life boats. In a moment the tables were deserted, and all hands made a simultaneous rush for the deck, which was found crowded with passengers great- ly excited, looking out upon the sea over the stern of the ship. Some had clambered into the rigging, and others stood upon the spanker boom. The woman, with her two youngest child- ren in her arms, had plunged into the sea; she could be seen aoout a half mile in the rear, like a little speck floating upon the waves. In three minutes (which seemed an age) the boat was cut away, manned and on its way to the rescue. It was a time of most intense anxiety, as she was expected to sink every moment. She was soon picked up, when another speck was observed still further in the rear; it proved to be one of the children When the boat returned to the ship the child was dead, and the mother a raving maniac. The little boy was never seen from the time he was thrown into the ocean. The next day we buried the little girl according to the rites of the sea. The body, prepared in the usual way, was coflBned in canvas, with a cannon ball at her feet, borne upon a plank to the gunwale of the ship, when one end of the plank was elevated, and while the captain read the service, the corpse glided under the English flag into the sea, which closed over it forever. The mother has been confined in the ship's hos- pital ever since, and although she has shown a few lucid inter- vals, no hopes are entertained of her recovery. It would have been better for both her and her husband, if she had followed her children to their watery grave. A ship is like a little world ; the saddest scenes are soon forgotten. In a day or two all was as ga}^ as ever. There were several passengers on the ship who soon became known by some characteristic sobriquet. There was the Moke About Paris. 97 Parsoji who never smiled, walked with a meastired step, wore a white cravat and enormous spectacles. He preached one night upon Jonah in the whale's belly, in which he demonstrated that the whale was a kind of shark, which had mistaken Jonah for a little shark, and out of paternal regard sheltered him in a kind of pelican-like pouch till the storm was over, when it permitted him to escape and swim ashore. Then there was the Professor who was a great calculator, just returning from a course of lectures on figures, in London. He was known in America as Barnum's lightning calculator, and undoubtedly possessed a most wonderful talent. He could stand with his back to the blackboard, filled with several columns of figures by any of the passengers, when he would turn, and in an instant write the correct addition, then turn his back again upon the board, and repeat from memor}^ every figure upon it. One fellow was known as the great traveler. Nobody could speak of a spot upon the earth which he had not seen. When asked one day what was the greatest distance he had ever been from home, he replied 40,000 miles He either forgot, or did not know, that the entire circircumference of the earth was not much more than half that much. Tom Pepper was a model of veracity compared with him. Then there was the missionary ; he had under his protection a young lady, whom he was escorting to a fellow-missionary in the Sandwich Islands, to whom she was betrothed. From the marked attention he paid her, and their disposition to keep late hours alone upon the deck, the general judgment of the ship was, that they were lovers, and that the other missionary was cheated out of his bride. One of the ladies was known as the strong-minded ^Nom!\.x]., and one of the gentlemen as the widower. He was very anxious that every one should know his age — ]nst forty-five. He was very fastidious about his dress, shaved every morning, and paid great attention to the young ladies. "You must have been very happy in your matrimonial life," said the strong-minded worm.n^ "Oh yes," said he, "we lived together forty years without a single quarrel." ' Were you of age," said she, "when you were married ?" "Yes, 23 years old." She called the Professor to solve the problem, how 23 and 40 could make 45. The last Sunday on the ship was a regular field day for the preachers. We had the regular Episcopal service read by the Missionary , a sermon by the Parson, who by the way was a Scotch Universalist, and a prayer-meeting in the steerage under the auspices of the Professor. Besides which we had a Catholic priest and a Presbyterian minister, who adminis- tered private consolation to the members of their respective churches. An old sailor remarked, as soon as he learned that 9^ New York to Antwerp, so many preachers were on board, that he knew we would have bad luck, for said he, " what' s the 7ise of 'em if we ain't goiii' to die f' " Shure," said an old Irish lady as she peeped over my shoulder, "ye must be writing a very long letter." I in- formed her that it was a resume of ^he events of the voyage. She said she had a son in New York whom she had not seen since he was a " wee bit of a boy," twenty years ago, that he was very rich^ and had seat for her to come and spend her days with him. "And shure," said she, " I wrote him a very long letter before I left Ireland, informing him that I was coming, and for fear it might miscarry I have brought it with me, and intend to deliver it myself.'' I am in this respect like the old lady, for I have brought this letter with me and intend to deliver it myself. XXIIL New York to Antwerp — Changes in Ocean TraveIvIng Since 1873 — Neptune in a Rage — Mutual Blunders in our Efforts to Speak a Forejgn Tongue-The Warmth OF THE GuivF Stream — The Beautiful Blue and Bra- cing Sea — Smoking Room Enjoyments— Kddystone — Coast of England — Dover — Antwerp — Farewell to THE Ship and Shipmates. Off Flushing, April, 1888. " Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for au acre of barren land — ling, heath, bro-vi furze, anything. Tne wills above ue done ! but I would fain die a dry death."— 7'/i.e J'empest. While waiting for the tide to carry us over the bar and up to Antwerp, I will economize the time by giving you a brief note of the interesting events of our voyage. At high noon, on the fourth of April, with a bright sun, smooth sea and fair wind — all on board hopeful and happy— we bade fare- well to the beautiful New York bay, and facing nearly due east we fearlessly plunged into the bosom of the tranquil and lake-like ocean. Fifteen long years have passed since my last journey across the sea. The changes in the size, splendor and accom- modations of the ocean steamers are very perceptible. The staterooms and berths are much larger and more comfortable. We had no bath rooms then, no barber shop or bar room. It A Rough Passage. msiy be doubted whether the last is a real improvement. How- ever great the changes in ships, old ocean remains the same. The first day out Neptune was all smiles ; the second day his face was sombre and cloudy ; the third day found him in a furious rage. About 500 miles out we encountered what I would call a terrific storm, but what the captain described as a " right stiff breeze." The ship pitched, lurched and rolled fearfully. At times her propeller was out of the water, her leeward bulwarks two feet under water, and her decks at an angle of forty-five degrees with what should be the level of the sea. Everything had to be lashed to the ship and the passengers were gently warned that their safest place was the cabin. I love the excitement of a storm at sea and secured a place for myself and daughter leeward of the funnel. While enjoying the " rage of the tempest's roar," the ship lurched upon her beam ends and a ten-ton wave struck her in the. windward bilge, sweeping completely over the deck, compan- ion-house and all, and covering us with water. If our chairs had not been lashed to the rails we would have been swept into the sea. There were but seven passengers at the dinner table that day. The rest were distressingly sick and remained so for two days. The tables for the next four days were decorated with what the English sailors call "fiddles," but what are now called racks. They are intended to keep the dishes from sliding off the table. One of the passengers, without think- ing of the consequences, took a large dish of salmon from the steward to help himself to a morsel ; just then the ship gave another list to the leeward ; in an instant the table was at an angle of forty-five degrees with its proper level^the salmon slid across the table and lit upon the sofa on the opposite side ; dishes flew from the racks, glasses bounced from their sockets over the table, and a bottle of wine struck one of the gentle- men on his head, nearly fracturing his skull. Another gen- tleman was thrown from his seat against one of the permanent cabin chairs, nearly breaking his ribs. He has suffered from the effects of the accident ever since. The captain informs me that it is no uncommon thing lor passengers in a storm to have their limbs broken, and sometimes even the most expe- rienced sailors are washed into the sea. After a couple of days and nights of storm the sky cleared but the winds and waves continued very high. Our passengers are of many nations and tongues. The captain is a German, the officers and crew German, Swiss and Flemish. The ship's accounts are kept in French francs and centimes. We have about as much French and German as English spoken on the vessel. We have a learned professor oi 100 In the Gulf Stream. Geology and Philosophy among the passengers. He is a walk- ing encyclopaedia of useful knowledge, a very estimable gen- tleman, but a skeptic in orthodoxy. He believes in Heaven but '■' takes no stock in Sheol.'" We have also on board a priest of th-e Episcopal church,, severely orthodox of course I asked him why he did not controvert the heresies of the Professor. His answer was that ' ' none but God could humble a geologist or take the conceit out of a philosopher. They all think," said he, " that they know more than the Almighty." To a certain extent, I agree with the preacher. The French and German passengers smile at our efforts to speak their language, but we laugh at their blunders in ours. A Swiss gentleman, returning from a tour in South America, undertook to tell us in English how expert the cow- boys were in the use of the lasso. He said they could catch a woman swine by ze foot and take all her little flying porks before she could get loose. By woman swine he meant a sow ; the little flying porks meant her pigs. Our French cook thought to surprise us all by writing the menu in English. His blunders were ludicrous. One will suf&ce as an example. He described the ' ' hind quarter of lamb ' ' as the ' ' behind quarter of little sheeps." Upon entering the Gulf Stream the change in the temper- " ature of the water and air is most remarkable. The water suddenly becomes fully 20 degrees and the air from 16 to 18 degrees warmer. The thermometer stood at 42 degrees before entering the stream ; it rose in half an hour to 56 degrees. The water at the same time was 7 degrees warmer than the air. There are some things I cannot comprehend about life on the sea. We have no fire or heat of any kind in our rooms, most of the time none in the cabin. The temperature is on an average about 50 degrees ; yet we all sit on the deck and in the open air, we leave the ports all open when there is no storm, and we do not feel the cold. It is also most astonish- ing to see how much we can eat, drink and sleep without any unpleasant consequences. Upon a clear night the trail of the ship presents a very beautiful spectacle. The disturbed water shows a long streak of phosphorescent light, like m'yriads of fire-flies upon a sum- mer night. The color of the sea by day is also an interesting study. It is at times a gray stone color, at other times a dark blue, then from apple green to the deepest shade of azure. The various colors are the result of the play of the sun's rays upon the disturbed waters. There can be no malaria on the sea, yet I notice that the ship's doctor gives nothing but quinine to the sick passengers. Smoking Room Morals. ioi He says they bring malaria on board and that the pure sea air develops it. We have a sweet little ten-months' old boy on the ship, the brightest and among the best babies I have ever seen. He is the favorite of the ship, and laughs and crows from morn- ing till night. The smoking room was at first a kind of lecture room for the discussion of questions of Theology and Philosophy. Alas ! how soon Satan converts even churches to his use. The cozy little tables in the smoking room were soon sur- rounded with anxious card players, gambling like sinners, while the steward was kept bus}^ answering the bell for wine,, brandy and beer. lyike all the beginning of sin, the gambling commenced with a penny ante and five cent limit ; it ended with a franc ante and Napoleon ($4.00) limit. Some of the foreigners undertook to teach the Yankees some new games.. The result was similar to that of the Yankee teaching the heathen Chinee how to play poker. The scholars soon knew the game better than their teachers and the foreigners were cleaned out. Many persons wonder why gambling is permit- ted on shipboard. The reason is obvious. The sea is the highway of the world, subject to no law but that of nature, which Vatell says is the law of nations. There are no police- men, committing magistrates, courts or even judges on the sea. We all come down to a regular sea level and every one does as he pleases, subject to but one condition — he must not interfere with the same rights in others. At II A. M., on the 14th, we passed Lizard Point. The signaling commenced and the news of our safe arrival was at once telegraphed to New York and received there five hours before we sent the despatch. The first land seen was the Scilly Islands, mostly barren rocks. From Lizard the crew began to put the ship in order. The carpets were laid, the covers taken from the red plush upholstery, the brass work scoured, the red curtains put up, the rust on the iron painted,, in a word she was rigged out very much like a lady prepared to receive her lover. To look at her dressed up in her Sundaj- clothes one could not believe she had passed such rough treat- ment from the sea or had been so buffeted by the angry waves. On passing Eddystone my mind returned to its namesake at home, and to the kind friend who had given me so much enjoyment on the little ship Comet, in bygone years. The coast of England from Lizard to Dover is plainly seen from, the deck. The channel was exceptionally smooth, as tranquil as the Delaware bay, and our ship moved as steadily as the steamer Republic on a Cape May trip. We could see the Eng- lish coast as distinctly, for two hundred miles, as one could C02 Antwerp to Bale. view the Delaware and Jersey shore from a steamboat. The English shore is very abrupt, the cliffs in some places rising very much like the Palisades up the Hudson.' The land is cul- tivated to the edge of the cliff or water as the case may be. The topography of the country is beautiful, with alternating hills and vales. The fields divided by stone fences and hedges are plainly visible. Dover presents a very romantic picture, nestling in the valley nearly en a level with the sea, with high hills on both sides and immense cliffs along the sea, below and above, one hill crowned with Dover Castle and the other with grand and gigantic fortifications ; she conveys to the mind a sense of beauty, romantic ease and perfect security. We are now abou: to bid farewell to the ship. The pas- sengers have become almost one family. We will separate with regret perhaps never to meet again. We were all stran= gers two weeks ago, and a Ibrtnight hence will, perhaps, forget that we have ever met. XXIV. Antwerp to BaIvE-^The Dykks and Canals op Holland — The CathedRxAl, Bourse, Art Gallery and Elevated Promenade oe Antwerp — Brussels— -MusEE Wiertz— Waterloo Once More— Expensive Traveling— Gam-- BEING BY Government License— A Little Dinner for Four— Valley of the Rhine. Bale, April, 1888. My last letter was written upon the ship off the quaint old town of Flushing. I would like to give j^ou a pen picture of the place but it is impossible. It is built in the mediaeval style, surrounded with a strong wall, supported by earthworks and mounted with cannon. The old red tile roofs, of very irregular heights, appear above the ramparts. The gate to the city faces up the river Schelde, and, from the sea front, does not look much larger than the arched front door of an old mansion. The town stands upon the alluvial deposit from the mouth of the river, causing a large delta like that of the Mis- sissippi at New Orleans- The deposit from the Meuse, Rhine and Schelde is very great and changes the channel and bars of the rivers very frequently. Skillful pilots are required to take ships up to Antwerp. At times the fogs are so heavy as to entirely interrupt navigation. We were so unfortunate as to encounter one about ten miles up the river. The conse- quence was we lost a whole day and. instead of arriving at 7 Holland. 103 P. M. on Sunday, did not get there until 5 P. M. on Monday, This was a great disappointment to all on the ship-^especially as we arose early and dressed ourselves in our Sunday clothes, and expected to step on shore at sunrise. I may here say, once for all, that my letters will not at- tempt to give an accurate description of the places I may see. I will endeavor to convey the impressions made on my own mind. Many letters from abroad are but extracts from guide books. My effort will be to express, as well as I can, the im- pressions made upon my own mind, and only note that which strikes me as in contrast with the habits and customs of my own country. x\s a rule, the manners, fashions and habits of the people of Kurope are very much like those of America. The means of communication are now so great that men every- where, and women too, have become cosmopolite. The first sight of Flushing presented a picture ver}^ dif- ferent from anything seen in America. The depressed soil of Holland, and parts of Belgium is very remarkable. As we sailed up the coast we saw the tops of trees and houses a few feet above the sea banks. The land lies from seventeen to twenty feet below the high water level of the sea. The dykes are immense earthworks against the sea ; an enemy could destroy all Holland if he could but make a breach in the sea walls. The river Schelde is studded with strong forts, and as a still better means of defence — but to be used only as a last resort — sluices have been prepared, by opening of which the whole country for thousands of square miles can be flooded so as to render it impossible for an enemy to move. The people of Holland and Belgium seem to delight in straight lines. There are no fences ; the land is farmed in patches. Around Antwerp it is mostly cultivated with the spade. L,ong lines of trees can be seen in every direction, all in perfectly straight rows. These long lines of trees generally mark ditches or canals. The canals are constructed on top of what looks like a railroad embankment with the canals where the rails should be. The water is pumped up by windmills from the ditches into the canals and by the canals is carried out to the sea over the dykes. Antwerp is built upon the left bank of the Schelde about fifty miles from the sea. It is a large and flourishing city„ only third in commercial importance to I^ondon. It is one of the most interesting cities upon the continent. The Cathedral, very old, and rich with the relics of past ages, is one of the finest specimens of mediseval architecture. It is decorated with statuary and paintings worth millions. It would require volumes to give anything like a full description of the art treasures and relics of this single building. Antwerp has an 104 Antwerp and Brussels. art gallery equal in gems of art to almost any museum in the world. The old part of the city is very irregular. The wharves, docks and quays are of most substantial masonry. Above the wharf is a very beautiful promenade constructed somewhat on the principle of an elevated road — the part below being the wharf and that above being the promenade. The new part of the city is very much like the new part of Boston ; indeed the whole town reminded me of that city. No traveler should visit the continent without seeing Antwerp. From Antwerp we went to Brussels, noted as the most complete and beautiful city of its size in Europe. With a good commissioner, a carriage and hard work the town can be pretty well seen in two days. It certainly cannot be properly comprehended in less time. The general site of the city is something like that of Albany, N. Y. Its buildings are equal to the best part of New York but not so heavy, nor are the interior appointments as spacious. The streets are gracefully curved, but few being straight, or at right angles or on parallel lines. It is called, even by the French, " Little Paris." We visited every place of importance in the city, among others the Chamber of Deputies and Senate of the Kingdom . The Deputies were in session. The court language is French. The exterior of the building i§ not imposing but the inside is very rich with costly carved woodwork, and is decorated with very attractive paintings. Several million francs have been spent in its decoration. The Senate was not in session ; we were, therefore, taken through the whole chamber and had everything fully explained. The new court house is a most imposing and truly grand piece of architecture. It stands on a hill which commands a full view of the city. It has already cost about three million dollars. It will compare favorably with the new municipal building of Philadelphia but is of an entirely different order of architecture. There is in Brussels a collection of paintings by Wiertz known as " Musee Wiertz." They are all of a most startling and original character. It is not like any other gallery in the world. I would not advise a nervous person to visit it, as he would be apt to have the nightmare for a month aiter. Some of the pictures made my hair "stand straight on end." A few of his subjects will suffice to give an idea of them all : Such as "A scene in hell " ; " The visions of a decapitated head"; " The Cholera," etc. While at Brussels we visited the field of Waterloo, about twelve miles from the city. Upon arriving at the little hotel opposite the Monument I ordered a little dinner for four, to be ready at i P. M. I neglected to limit the price. We had a very good dinner but it cost me just $10.50. This is my Brussels to Bale. 105 S Mt. ^tna — Messina to Athens — Stromboli — Scylla AND Charybdis — The Cholera at Messina — A Jersey- man — Italian Ships — Polite Conductors According to THE Class of Your Ticket— -Seasick Passengers — A Wandering Spakrow — ^The Isles op Greece-— I/Ove and Death — The Pi^^.eus— Time's Ruins — The Council of Thirty— Old and New Athens— The New Academy — A Cosmopolitan City and Deteriorated Race. Athens, May, 1888. Before leaving Naples we spent a day in the exkumed city of Pompeii. In many respects my anticipations were not realized- The day was sultry, the dust almost suffocating, and the beggars disgustingly persistent and annoying. It takes three hours to reach the place by carriage, and about two hours to explore the ruins, I am not convinced that the city was anything like as rich and luxuriant as it is usually painted by travelers. What remains, however, gives a very- fair idea of Roman life eighteen hundred years ago. Our ideas of the place have been favorably prepared by Bulwer's " I^ast T>a.ys of Pompeii." The book, however, I have no doubt, fairly portrays Roman life at the time of the destruction of the city. Again, only a small part has been excavated. The size of its Forum, Bourse, two theatres, municipal build- ings and private gardens, would seem to indicate a place of considerable importance ; nothing, however, when compared with the cities of our day, or the great ones of that period. The museum at Naples and the one at Pompeii clearly show that the people of the city at the time of its destruction were very much like the people of to-day. They had the same pleasures and toils, the same trades and professions, merchants and farmers. The children had the same t05^s now found at our firesides. The men played cards, checkers and chess just as our men do and, from the frescoes on some of the walls, did many other naughty things practised si/i> rosa to-day. There were learned men and refined women in Pompeii, and it had its ignorant, egotistical and vulgar ones. From what remains, we may fairly judge they managed to extract about as much good, and suffered about as much evil from life as we do. From Naples we went to Messina, in Sicily, and from there to Catania, at the foot of ^tna. The ladies of our party are showing signs of weariness, at which I am not surprised. Na'ples to MfissmA. 5 31 They liave never been subjected to such incessant toil, for traveling in Europe means toil in its strictest sense- I only wonder that they have kept up so well- I hope to give them 41 little rest at Athens, but I intend to carry out my first de- sign and not turn my steps homeward until we have seen Constantinople. Messina is a very old city, but contains nothing that struck me as unusually iateresting. Perhaps if I had visited it before seeing Rome., I might have been able to find amusement and instruciion here for a week. As it is I shall not stay over a day and a half. The journey from Naples was delightfuL The sea was like a lake and the scenery around the Bay of Naples was exquisitely fine. We came in sight of Stromboli about five •o'clock on the morning after embarkation. This island is almost a circle and rise>s out of the sea like a cone. It was regarded by the ancients as the seat of JBolns. It was consid- ered in the Middle Ages as the entrance to purgatory. It is 'Over three thousand feet high and is one of the volcanoes never entirel)' inactive. The island of Volcano could also be plainly seen from the ship. It is now in an active state of eruption. Mount ^tna can be seen towering like a giant above the other mountains of Sicily. It is over ten thousand feet high and is always snow-capped, except the cone, which is so hot that the snow melts as soon as it falls. It is the loftiest volcano in Europe. Tt can only be ascended in summer. One of its eruptions destroyed forty towns and from sixty to one hundred thousand lives. The last violent eruption was in 1886, when it destroyed cultivated fields to the value of one hifndred and fifty thousand dollars. The length of the lava stream was four miles. The mountain cannot be seen from Messina. In passing through the Straits of Messina we see what was for- merly known as the rock Scylla, represented in Homer's Odyssey as a roaring sea monster On the other side is the fabulous Charybdis of the ancients. The ancient poets and mariners either drew their terrible stories from their imagina- tion, or time and earthquakes have destroyed the rock and filled up the whirlpool, for I could not discern the slightest trace of either. Messina is quite an extensive seaport, beautifull)' situated on the sea and backed b}^ mountains. (All Sicily is mount- ainous). It has a population of 130,000. Its scenery is said to vie with that of Palermo. The cholera last year swept off 40,000 of its citizens. Since then thej'^ have introduced purer water into the city and hope to escape a second visitation of the dreadful scourge. I was surprised at the purity of the English spoken by the chief cook of our hotel. On inquirj" I found he was a B36 Ttalfan Politeness. genuine Jersej^man from. Newark, and knew more about Plifla- delphia and New York than I did. Most .of the attaches 01 tihe hotels af the continent speak a little Knglish. I have made q^uite an important discovery. I find, by speaking very slowl}^ and distinctly, and only using words derived from the lyatin, I can make myself understood when others who speak much better English than I do cannot be understood at all.. For instance : I never say I wis^h or I want anything ; I say desire. Never say tinderstand, but comprehend. Never say begin, but connjieyice^ etc. The Italians are a very deliberate people in all their busi- ness transactions, and very slow in the performance of all the duties of life. If you are in haste you cannot hurry an Italian waiter. If you have but five minutes for the boat or train, don't trust a cabman or a ferryman. As an illustration of Italian slowness^, our ship from Messina to Athens was booked to stop at Catania to discharge and take on a part of her cargo. We were warned by the captain to be on board punctually at 11 A. M. Instead of starting at eleven, the ship did not weigh anchor until 5 P. M. A loss of six hours. A good stevedore of Philadelphia would have done in two hours what these lazy sailors were six hours working at. I would not advise my countrymen to travel in an Italian ship if one of any other nation can be found. I am sorry to say they are not clean. Fleas, bed bugs and other disagree- able vermin fill every hole and corner. The officers, however, are very polite and courtly in their attention to the passengers of the first class. I have noticed, in traveling on the rail- roads, a most marked difference in the manners of the railroad officials. When you approach the window and ask for a first- class ticket, the agent tips his hat and smiles superciliously while he waits on you and always calls you Monsieur. A second-class ticket is also delivered with common politeness, no more. The third-class passengers are scarcely noticed. The guard, who is the same as our conductor, approaches the window of the third-class car with the abrupt word , " ' Tickets ! ' ' The second-class car he approaches with a bow and says, *' Please show your tickets." To the first-class passengers he always tips his hat and says, " Will the gentleman be pleased to exhibit his ticket ?" and after inspection he says, " Thank you : sorry to annoy you . ' ' Our voyage from Catania was a sad disappointment. Our ship was not one-eighth laden. In fact she may be said to have sailed on nothing but ballast. The sea was smooth, the sky clear ; the sun set behind Mount ^tna most gloriously ; the passengers were all happy in anticipation of a two days' rest upon the tranquil bosom of the sea. At the table d'hote On THE Adriatic. 137 at 7.30 P. M. all were present and enjoyed a hearty meal. To all but the captain and myself it was the last meal for two days. In all my travels oy sea, I never encountered anything like it. I was, for the first time in my life, nauseated by the abominable, unaccountable and absolutely indescribable mo- tion of the ship. It was a compound between a roll and a pitch, the most sickening motion I ever telt. After two days and nights, however, we came in sight of land and found a smooth sea again. The passengers began to crawl from their berths like ghosts from their graves, and it was not long be- fore we were as jolly and happy as when we started. The passengers were of different nations — Italians, Greeks, Turks, French, Portuguese and English speaking people. It was sur- prising how .soon we were able to communicate with each other, and it was amusing, after the sea sickness had passed, to see the male passengers playing like children at " hide and seek, " " knock in and knock out, " and such childlike sports. Men, after all, are but children of a larger growth. While crossing the Adriatic, two poor little land sparrows, evidently blown by the storm beyond their power to return, took shelter on the ship. They were nearly exhausted, and so hungry and thirsty as to deprive them of all fear of their enemy, man. I could have easily caught them as they hopped about the deck seeking a crumb here and there or a little rain water Jying in the hollow places of the ship. I felt that, like myself, they were wanderers and entitled to all the rites of hospitality. The}^ nestled about the ship for a day or so, and as soon as we sighted land made a rapid flight for the shore. Among the steerage passengers was a full-fledged Turk, in the costume of his race. He sat cross-legged and smoked a pipe with a stem four feet long. During the storm it looked very odd to see him with an old English big coat over his gaudy Turkish suit. As we approached the ' ' Isles of Greece ' ' all my romantic fear of the Nymphs and Sirens, who formerly enticed mariners to destruction by their sweet music, disappeared. If they ever inhabited these barren wastes, I don't wonder that they fed upon the unhappy sailors wrecked upon their inhospitable coasts, for these rocky crags can certainly afford no food for mortals or immortals. The Isles of Greece are apparently mountain peaks, peeping out of the sea. So far as their coast presentation is concerned, they appear to b..^ entirely sterile. Their villages look like mere shelter huts for fishermen. I am only speaking from my own observation. There may be very rich and fertile fields beyond the range of my vision, but I would not like, from present appearances, to be compelled to live on one of them as a condition for the gift of them all. 138 Love and Death. Many of the scenes of mythology are laid in these Isles. They abound with wild and wierd shades and enchanted grot- toes There is a beautiful legend of I^ove and Death getting their arrows mixed while sleeping in one of these caverns. I remember, when I was younger than I now am, of writing a short poem upon this legend. It may not be worth preserv- ing but, as we all love our own children, even if they are hump-backed and squint-eyed, so I have an affection for my own early efforts, even if they are halt and lame. Here is the poem : THB TWO FRIENDS — I,OVE AND DEATH, Love, weary, tki-ew his arrows down And went to sleep upon the ground, While Deatli. a pleasant hour to spend, Lay down to rest beside his friend. While thus they passed the hours away. Their arrows in confusion lay ; Eeath's darts were found in Cupid's quiver, And there they must remain forever ; For Love and Death are so allied. They walk together side by side. As Hope is followed oft by Fear, The Altar but precedes the Bier ; We see together, very often. An infant's crib and baby's coffln. A funeral toll and marriage bell Sound so alike, 'tis hard to tell Wtiich gives most anguish to the lieart, The shaft of Death, or Cupid's dart. For Love and Death are so allied They march forever side by side. The Piraeus, or seaport of Athens, is a very pretty place. The ancients had two harbors here, the war harbor and the mercantile harbor. Near here is the supposed tomb of The- mistocles, hewn in the rock, but now covered by the water. It is almost impossible to conceive how completely nearly all the evidence of the former greatness, beauty and strength of the Pirccus, as described by ancient writers, has passed away. Scarcely a trace of the immense walls from here to Athens is to be found. These walls were eighty feet apart and extended four miles from the city to the Piraeus, which was then as now, the seaport of x\thens. The walls were built of dressed gran- ite and were very high and strong. They were intended to shelter the army as it passed from the city to the port. It was destroyed by Lysander after the defeat of Alcibiades, 405 B. C. This same Lysander established the thirty T3^rants, who ruled the city with such cruelty that in eight months more citizens were put to death than had been destroyed in thirtj^ years of war. They ordained the private possession of wealth to be a capital crime. The Astors, GouidsandVanderbilts of Athens were declared public enemies and their property confiscated for the State. There is now a railway connecting the place with Athens. I preferred, however, to take a carriage and guide, and enter First Impressions OF Athens. 139 Athens by the old road. In two places we saw a trace of the ancient wall. This is the dry season ; everything is covered with a white dust ; very disagreeable. The Piraeus struck me as looking very much like the little harbors of New Eng- land, and the general appearance of the country is very much like New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. The hills are very rocky, with but very little green grass. Most of the rivers are now entirely dry. The flow of water from the rains and snow of winter and early spring is said to be very abundant, but now scarcely a rivulet is to be seen. Almost every trace of the ancient city has disappeared. The new city is just like most other modern European towns. It contains some very beautiful public and private buildings, among which I ma}^ especially name the New Academ)^, one of the most graceful and attractive buildings I have seen in Europe. It is of pure white marble, partly gilt with gold, and is said to be an exact copy of some ancient building. In front it is adorned with two lofty marble columns, surmounted with finely wrought statues, one of Apollo, the other of Minerva. No one can look upon these columns without a feeling of pleasure. The ruins of the ancient city are much more conspicuous than those of Rome for the reason that they are mostly ex- posed to full view, and are not hidden or disfigured by modern buildings. The site of modern Athens was but a suburb of the ancient city. Some of the places of interest are in the modern town, but the finest remains are a short distance fur- ther south. As in Rome, learned archaeologists are here mak- ing new discoveries every day. The treasury of Greece is nearly empty, but the government is conducting some very expensive excavations, and is being richly compensated by startling discoveries. Some splendid pieces of statuary have been exhumed and set up in the museum and public squares. Until recently Athens had no museum of Antiquities. She has supplied the world with ancient statuary and has been stripped nearly naked to fill the museums of other lands, but she will soon have as rich relics of the past as any other city. In my next letter I will be better prepared to describe my im- pressions of the place. It is a most remarkably cosmopolitan city. We find people here in strange costumes. The streets are full of foreigners from Persia, Egypt, Turkey and Syria, each wearing the costume of his native land. The language is modern Greek. It looks very odd to recognize upon some shoemaker's sign, or over the door of a restaurant, such names as Demosthenes, Pericles, Aristides, etc. The Grecians seem to take great delight in perpetuating the names of the great ones of the days of her glory. The disasters of war have 140 Athenian Climate. however, played havoc with the race. The Turk, the Venetian^? and the other conquerors of Greece have left their mark upon the forms and faces of the present race. There is nothing now in the least remarkable in the beauty of the women or strength of the men. If anything is to be truthfully said upon this sub- ject, I would say the present type of manhood of the modern Greeks is something like the mixed Spanish of Mexico and South America— much deteriorated by the infusion of strange blood. XXXII. Athe;ns— A Sunburned Traveler — The Parthenon xAnd Temple of Theseus— Three Principal Hills — The Old City Carried Away — Even the Soil Gone— Groves of Daphne — Tombs of Cimon and Themisticles^Prison OF Socrates— Acropolis and Site of the Supreme Court— Buried Graveyards — Plato's Academy — The Places from which Demosthenes and Paul Spoke — Stadium and Theatre — False Teachings of Old Schoolmasters — Relics from Troy — Bricks Four Thousand Years Old— Ancient Evolutionist— Eleu- sis— -Salamis — Old Olive Trees— The King's Palace — Shinplasters for Money - Athens, May, 1888. The sun of Italy has given me the complexion of an Arab. If I and m}^ friend 'Squire Hazzard were to take a walk to- gether through the streets of Athens we would be taken for brothers. I am rather proud of my Oriental appearance. When I arrive at Constantinople I intend to wear a fez. I find I can stand exposure in the sun better than any of our party. It is amusing to hear our English fellow-travelers complain of the blasted heat. If the Athenians could only keep down the disagreeable white dust that floats in clouds and covers everything, even the green trees of its parks and gar- dens, their city would be rather a pleasant resort for Ameri- cans accustomed to the genial rays of our summer sun. I have spent a very agreeable week here. The ruins of the Parthenon and Temple of Theseus are the best I have yet seen. When we remember that these ruins are the remains of buildings that were the admiration of the world twenty-five hundred years ago, and five hundred years before the period of Roman glory, we can but be astonished at their present pre- servation. The Temple of Theseus at a little distance looks Impressive Ruins, 141 like a modern erection, not unlike Girard College, but much smaller. From the hill Lycabettus, no one would take if for a ruin. It was built by Cimon, B. C 470, to the memory of Theseus whose ghost is said to have appeared at the battle of Marathon and encouraged the Greeks to victory. No cement was used in the masonry of these old ruins. The solid marble blocks are square, dressed smooth on all sides, so as to present a finished inside as well as outside wall. The joints are so nicely fitted that a cambric needle cannot now be inserted be- tween them. In Grecian architecture there is no arch ; the ceiling and roof of their temples is formed by immense marble beams, beautifully ornamented, and formerly heavily gilt. The most impressive ruins are those on the Acropolis, a hill of Athens five hundred feet high, around which the ancient city was built. The building of the Parthenon was con- ducted under the supervision of Phidias, B. C. 488. Until the seventeenth century it stood almost uninjured, when it was left in its present condition by an explosion of gunpowder, caused by a shell during the siege of the place by the Vene- tians in 1687. The top oi the Acropolis was cut off to make a plateau for the Parthenon and other buildings erected thereon. There are three hills from which a splendid view of Athens can be had. First, the Acropolis ; Second, Philopappus, four hundred and fifty-three feet high, and third, I^ycabettus, nine hundred and forty-eight feet high. From the latter hill the whole town and country for many miles around, hemmed in by mountains and bordered by the sea, can be distinctly view- ed. Athens has been so often painted by pen and pencil that an attempt by me at a further description would be presump- tuous. I shall therefore only note such matters as made a special impression on my mind, not mentioned by other trav- elers. To me, the most striking thing was the complete disap- pearance of even the material with which the ancient city was built. With the exception of a few noted ruins, not a stone remains of what was once the most beautiful of cities. The question naturally follows, what has become of the imperish- able part of the old town ? A view of the place suggests the answer. The}^ have been carried away by sea and sold for building purposes all over the earth. The stones that remain of the great four-mile-long walls from the Piraeus to Athens, show great labor in their preparation. The rest were carried away to build the quays, wharves and seawalls of Venice and other Italian seaports. The marble blocks, and even the com- mon stone and brick of the houses of the citizens, were well worth removing for building purposes. Some of- the broken marble statuary has been found built up in common walls in !42 Where Paul Preached. Rome, The hills upon which the city was built are of reck. The leveling of the surface of the rock, for foundations, all over the hills, is plainly visible ; but even the earth that formed the gardens has been washed away. Small stones, the rocky foundations, and broken pottery, are all that is now left. The trees that once formed the shady groves, where Plato, Socrates and the old Grecian philosophers used to walk and lecture to their disciples, have all been cut down, thus leaving the soil exposed to the hot sun of summer, the dust and winds, and to the wash of winter and spring. In this way hills that were once fertile have lost all their soil, and now show noth- ing but small stone and a rocky base with scarcely a particle of vegetation. The Areopagus, where once stood the splendid buildings of the Supreme Court of. Athens, is a bare and rugged mass of r/^/ck. Steps cut into the stone where the Judges ascended, and a few level places cut into the rock for foundations, are all that remain to mark the spot where Socrates was tried and where Paul preached. Cut into the solid rock, the prison of Socrates still remains, because it could not be carried away without taking the mountain with it. The same may be s^id of the tomb of Cimon. It has been converted to the basest of uses by the common people, being in an out-of-the-way place.. The Necropolis, a burial place, in its present condition, shows the wonderful changes of the past thousand years. Re- cent excavations show that the original level of this burial place, was, perhaps, thirty or forty feet below the present sur- face. The dust, gathered and held by the grass of the ne- glected graveyard, and the wash caused by the melting snow and heavy rains, have gradually and imperceptibly filled the valley to its present level. The excavations show three dis- tinct periods of Grecian history. In the deeper excavations were found urns, vases, and jars of pottery, which contain the ashes and charred bones of the dead, perhaps three thousand years old ; then richly chiseled marble urns and statuary, and beautiful monuments, marking the resting places of the dead of a more luxuriant period ; finally, large marble and stone sarcophagi indicating the burial, instead of the burning of the dead. Everyday new discoveries, throwing new light upon the history of the ancient city, are being made. Nothing now re- mains of the Academy of Plato but a few columns and some broken statuary built into the vegetable garden wall. The old well is still there. The place of the grove, where the old philosophers walked and talked, is now devoted to the raising of cabbages and garden produce for the hungry Athenians of this degenerate age. Relics from Troy, 143 Recent excavations clearly prove that Athens, in its glor}' , must have been a much larger place thain we, in our schoolboy days, were taught. The market place, where Paul heard the Stoics and Epi " cureans discussing their opposite tenets, would hold perhaps 40,000 persons. The rostrum, still well marked, where De- mosthenes and Pericles by their eloquence fired the Grecian heart, would hold perhaps 80,000 persons. There was the Stadium, founded by Lycurgus B. C. 350, provided with seats for 50,000 spectators to behold the foot-races. The covering was of an oval shape, six hundred and fifty feet long by one hundred and six feet wide. There was also the Theatre of Dion^-sus, recently discovered, built 500 B, C, where ^sch}^- lus, Sophocles and Euripides played, which would seat 30,- 000 spectators. Besides this was the Theatre of Tragedy, and many other places of amusement and pleasure, and yet I was taught when a schoolbo}^ that Athens, in its greatest glory, did not contain over 20,000 inhabitants. At the same time, 1 was taught that there never was such a place as Nineveh, and that Tro}^ was a myth of Homer. By special permission we visited the residence of Dr, Schliemann and inspected his collection of relics exhumed on the plains of Troy, The collection preserved in his own house, and in the Museum here, must strike any reasonabl}- acute mind with wonder and amazement. He undoubtedly discov- ered the true site of that most ancient city ; a city that was almost prehistoric when Moses was born. We saw arms, tools and ornaments of iron and steel, swords with hilts of solid gold, and gems oi the hardest and most precious stones, with engravings upon them only legible through a lens of considerable power. He took from the sarcophagus of Aga> memnon gold coins as sharply stamped as the products of our best mints of the present day. A gold chain and pair of brace- lets taken from the same tomb, are most exquisitely wrought and as fresh and beautiful as if they had been the workmanship of yesterday. Every day is throwing new light upon the for- gotten past and teaching the world the Bible truth that "there is nothing new under the sun," and that man, as we now see him, is just what he was in the olden time. Dr. Schlie- mann has in his house a brick found by him in Egypt, made of the bitumen of the Nile and sun-baked. The straw, used to hold the substance together and keep it in form while hardening in the sun, is still plainly visible. It is about eleven inches long, five-and-a-half inches wide and five inches thick. It is about three thousand four hundred years old ; just such a brick as the Israelites were compelled to make during their captivity in Egypt, 144 A^' Ancient Evolutionist. A most beautiful piece of statuar}^ b}^ the father of Praxiteles, wavS recently found. Nothing is left but the arm of a female holding a life-sized child of ten or twelve months. The child is perfect and as well preserved as if it had been chiseled yesterday. We visited the famous groves of Daphne, about five miles from the city. A few straggling laurel trees are all that is left. A miserable looking monastery occupies the site of the temple of iVpollo (Pythian). Here and there we see a few columns. The others have been carried off ; some of them are in the British Museum. There must have been a change in the topography of the country — the land at the Piraeus has either sunk or the sea has raised. The tomb of Themistocles, hewn into the solid rock, is now quite covered with water. The museum is full of recentl}^ exhumed works of the old masters. They are now erecting a new building in which to preserve the newly discovered antiquities of the city. The statuary of the ancients, say 4000 3^ears old, teaches us that the human form was as beautiful and majestic then as its best specimens of the present day ; yet I saw in the museum here, and also at Naples, a male and female statue of a baboon, man-sized, in a sitting posture, cut from granite, of. unknown antiquity, found side by side with a perfect speci- men of a man and woman, seeming to indicate that the sculp- tor intended to hint that they were of the same race. Per- haps Darwinianism is not as young a philosophy as we have been taught to regard it. The mere fact, however, that some old Greek got such a notion in his head is no argument either for or against the theory. The lessons taught by the museums of antiquity here and in other places are, that all the relics of our race indicate man as the same animal in all ages. The man of 4000 years ago had the same pleasures and passions as his descendant of to-day. The women were as fair, the children as lovely, the babes as helpless. They had the same toys ; they played chess and checkers 4000 years ago ; they gambled and got drunk; they committed the same crimes and had the same charities. The probability is that we are much inferior to them in some of the essential elments of human greatness, and that they were far below us in many scientific discoveries. We visited the ruins of the second great city of ancient At- tica, Eleusis, about twelve miles from Athens. We followed very nearly the old sacred road by the groves of Daphne, before alluded to. On the way we had a view of the bay Eleusis and Salamis where the great naval battles were fought, and the Persians were so signally defeated 480 B. C. The Marathon and Salamts. I45- spot in the opposite mjantain, called to this day Xerxes' seat,, is pointed out, and is said to be the place where he had his throne erected and where he sat to witness the battle which ended so disastrously to his arms. Marathon and Salamis were two of the world's decisive battles. We 'enjoy to-day the benefits of these heroic strugles for Western civilization. Had the result been favorable to the Persians the probability is that the manners and customs of the East, including ha- rems and seraglios, would now exist in England and America. I would like to say more of Athens and of Greece but my letters are becoming too prolix. I must curtail them. The ruins of Eleusis are only surpassed by those of the Acropolis. Excavations made within a few months have exhumed the remains of a great city. I found a coin very well preserved among these ruins. I have no doubt it is over two thousand years old. I quietly put it in my pocket and said nothing about it. Of the future of Athens I cannot say much. I can see but little hope of any great advance from its present state. The government is very poor and the land sterile. What was spoken of by the ancients as a fertile plain, would not now be considered worth culivating for 'farming purposes in America. The celebrated olive groves are still here. They show trees said to be from six hundred to one thousand years old, but they scarcely yield fruit enough to pay for gathering. The present condition of the currency of Greece is in a deplorable state. Gold is at a premium of thirty-three per cent. They cut up their bank notes to make change. The king has just left his palace for the country. We were per- mitted to visit it and were much pleased with the courtesy shown us by the attendants. It is a fairly good dwelling house, much surpassed by hundreds of private dwellingg m Philadelphia and New York. 146 Constantinople. XXXIII. Constantinople— Embarkation on the Continent — ~ Bandaged Babes and Evolution — Site of Troy^ — The Narrow Dardanelles — Stamboul — Dirt and Dogs — Peculiar Fire Regulations— Mohammedan Dislike of Repairs— Cruelty to Men and Kindness to Brutes- English AS Spoken by the Guides — Three Sundays a Week — Sultan's Day— ^I^adies and Eunuchs Back- shish— A Self- Righteous Mohammedan's Prayer — Superstitions — The Metempsychosis— Street Scenes IN Constantinople, Constantinople, June, 1888. After a rough voyage over the ^gean Sea, in a crowded ship, full of fleas, Turks, Greeks, Armenians and a few Eng- lish and Americans, most of whom-, always excepting the fleas, were very seasick, I found myself safel)^ moored in the Bos- phorus, directly opposite the Golden Horn, and under the garden walls of the late Sultan's seraglio. Constantinople from the ship presented a very pretty appearance. The beauti- ful green hills, the harems with their luxuriant gardens, the old walls, towers, mosques and minarets, together with the soft blue sky and balm}^ bracing air, was in pleasing contrast with the white dust, dry sultry air and barren hills of Athens, To go by sea from Athens to Constantinople takes about two days. We were unfortunate in encountering a strong head wind, which not only delayed our arrival but caused the ship to roll very much. Of the two or three hundred second-class passengers, not one was in European dress. Their costumes were as varied as their nationalities. I particularly noticed their heavy clothing. They all wore woolen fabrics and dress- ed warmer than we would in midwinter. Some had suits of sheep skin with the wool next to their own skins ; others had great overcoats of goat skin, with the long hair out. They wore great turbans and fezes, loose frocks tied in loops around their ankles, and had long red, yellow and green sashes wound around their waists, in which they carried ugly knives. There was not a new suit in the whole party. They ate nothing during the voyage but bread which they always carried about their persons. They herded together like sheep and lay cud- dled up in their big cloaks, or sat cross-legged on the deck, smoking long fancy pipes. The place they selected on enter- ing the ship they kept till the voyage. was over. Some of them never moved for two days except to cut off a slice of bread for Man and Monkey. 147 a meal. On arriving they were very boisterous, and for a full hour kept possession of the gangway of the ship while, with their greasy and stinking luggage, they disembarked. Continental ports, as a rule, have no docks. The ships do not come up to the wharf, but anchor a short distance from the shoie. . Small row-boats are in waiting at the wharves, which, for fixed fees, convey the passengers and luggage to and from the ship. In stormy weather it is very inconvenient and often dangerous for ladies and nervous persons. I noticed among the crowd what I had seen in Naples, babies in the warmest weather tightly bandaged in swaddling clothes like the Indian papooses, with arms and legs tightly bound up so that no part of the babe could move except the mouth and eyes. The Darwinians say it was a discovery made by our monkey ancestors, by which they straightened their little mon- keys and made them grow up as men. They also point out two very old pieces of statuary in granite, found in Egypt, of pre- historic age, representing a man-sized male and female baboon, in a sitting posture which, they say, were worshiped as the fathers of our race. But we have the stubborn fact that the past five thousand years, so far as the remains of man and his works are concerned, have neither improved nor degenerated his form, feature, or intelligence. The men of Egypt, Nineveh and Troy were just as we find the man of to-day. Perhaps a few thousand years hence, when our civilization shall be broken up, and our religion has either been perfected or de- stroyed, the relics of buried L/Ondon or New York will be dug up and be exhibited like those of Egypt and Troy, and our times will be spoken of as either an age of barbarism, or, as we speak of the age of gold. But I must stop moralizing or I will not be able to say anything about Constantinople. Everything around the city is intensely interesting, even its approaches. Just before entering the Dardanelles we passed the site of Homer's Troy. Our ship went very near the shore. There was Mount Ida and the hills from which Ajax hurled rocks that, " Five stroug men in this degenerate age uould scarcely Inc. ' Further back were the hills upon which Juno and Venus sat to view the fight. On the opposite side is the Thracean shore where the bodies of the slain were strewn and which " Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore," How soon one of our ironclad ships of war would have leveled the " impregnable walls !" and with what ease could we have bombarded the Grecian camp in Europe, and at the same time shelled the city of Troy in Asia. As we sailed up the Dardanelles I was surprised to see 14^ Dogs and Dirt. how narrow the channel is which divides Europe from Asia. After passing through the Dardanelles, however, it is neces- sary to cross the Sea of Marmora before reaching the city of Constantinople. The scenery around the city is undoubtedly very fine, but the city itself is more beautiful when viewed from a little distaace than when saan within its walls. While it is the dirtiest and worst paved city in the world (I speak only of the old part of the town), it is comparatively a healthy place. The first thing I was struck with was the multitude of dogs. The city is literally full of them. They lie by dozens in the streets. The citizens never disturb or hurt them. If two or three feel inclined to take a nap on the side- walk, rather than disturb the innocent slumbers of worthless •curs, the people get out of their way and walk in the street. The dogs have divided the city into districts, and have or- ganized themselves into tribes. Each tribe has its own dis- trict. If, by chance, or a desire to rove like old Sampson among the Philistines, some handsome young pup wanders beyond the limits of his district all the dogs of the invaded territory rush upon him and, if not reinforced by his own tribe, they will kill him in a few minuter. If within reach of assistance, a general war between the tribes is the result, till the citizens or police interfere and drive each tribe to its ■ own particular street. I saw a poor young hound suddenly pounced upon by at least twenty infuriated whelps. He yelled and cried most piteously. A workman ran among the pack and at the risk of being torn to pieces rescued the poor indiscreet wretch and carried him tenderly in his arms to his own tribe. I could understand this affection for the dogs if they were well-bred and beautiful like the dogs of our coun- try ; but I did not, among the thousands of the city, see one well-bred dog. They are the commonest mongrels, but few lop-eared, and mostly wolfish looking curs. The city, in the old district of Stamboul, is largely built of wood and is subject to great fires, yet they have no muni- cipal fire department. All the city government does is to maintain a few towers for watchmen to give the alarm when a fire breaks out. Then the private fire companies, consisting of ten or fifteen men turn out with a portable engine without wheels, about half the size of the old one stored away as a curiosity at the I^azaretto. They are carried by four men who rush through the streets yelling fire ! fire ! as loud as they can scream. When they arrive at the scene of conflagra- tion they coolly look at the flames till the owner makes a bar- gain with them for their services, or the proprietors of ad- joining houses secure their aid to save their homes from de- struction. Mohammedan Customs, 149 It is a peculiarity of the Mohammedans never to repair anything. They build beautiful palaces and let them fall into dilapidation for the want of attention. When they get too leaky for habitation they abandon them for new ones They never repair their houses and only, from necessity, put in a new pane of glass. The same may be said of the streets and bridges. While the Turks are remarkably kind to domestic ani- mals, birds and insects, they have very little regard for their fellow-men. They put saddles on the backs of men and bur- den them with loads we would hesitate to put upon a horse. I hired a porter for forty cents to take my luggage from the boat to my hotel. It consisted of seven pieces. To my sur- prise he put on his saddle and had a comrade to pile the whole lot upon his back, which he carried a half mile without a grunt. They carry great loads of marketing and coal and wood about the streets for sale. The only nations of the East not represented in Constantinople are China and Japan. Not- withstanding the Babel of tongues and general mixture of na- tions, one feels more at home here than in any other conti- nental city. Knglish is spoken in the hotels, and French is used in almost all the shops. The Sultan goes from the old seraglio to his new palace, through the city, once a year. It happened that the time fixed for the journey was the first Friday after our arrival. Business on that day was suspended along the proposed route. To make the streets smooth for His Majesty's carriage, gravel was hauled and spread over them three or four inches thick. As a consequence the tramway could not be used. I proposed to my guide to take a ride on the tramway. His answer was, " The tramway no walk to-day; this is Sultan's day ; burn much powder gun " This is a sample of the English spoken by the guides. He meant that because of the Sultan's journey over the street the tramway would not run and that the day would be celeb-ated by the firing of cannon. They have three Sundays here. The Mohammedan Sab- bath, (Friday); the Jewish Sabbath, (Saturday), and the Chris- tian Sunday. Sunday is more generally observed here than in other European cities, except in Scotland. The population of the city is fully one million, one-half of whom are Chris- tians. There are about 100,000 Jews ; the balance are Mo- hammedans. The Jews close their shops on Saturday. On Sunday nearly one-half of the stores were shut. This speaks well for the Christians of Constantinople. For some reason the Sultan saw proper to disappoint his people in making his journey through the city. The streets had been prepared at great expense and soldiers were 150 Mohammedan Customs. stationed at all the cross streets. The scene was very much like the crowd on Chestnut Street when General Grant returned from his trip around the world, except that the costumes were as many as the people. The ladies of the harem passed in carriages, guarded by strapping big black eunuchs on horse- back, in gaudy uniforms. We were permitted to peep at the fair ones in the carriages, but staring is not permitted under penalty of the whiplash of the eunuch across your face. Some of the ladies were as white as milk, others bronze and some almost black. The Sultan's mother rode in a carriage alone and amused herself by throwing small coins to the crowd of beggars that ran after her with outstretched hands crying " backshish, backshish. ' ' When a piece of money was thrown out there was a general scramble and rough and tumble strug- gle for the coin. Some great personage, on a white horse, with a purse in his hand, would take from his wallet a small coin, hold it up between his fingers, and when the crowd would surround his horse so that he could not move, he would, bestow the coin on one of the crowd selected by himself, and then gallop off with a look of great satisfaction, only to repeat the stupid farce again. All the alms bestowed with so much display did not exceed ten dollars. They have ho hospitals or almshouses in Constantinople. The blind, halt and lame must depend upon private charity or starve. They feed dogs and birds, but let their own help- less ones want. They have a Mosque dedicated to pigeons. On entering it, the worshiper purchases a small quantity of grain, kept on hand for the purpose, which he scatters on the floor. Imme- diately it will be devoured by thousands of pigeons which live and breed in the Mosque. They believe that pigeons, doves and ducks are possessed of the souls of the dead. They say every time the birds drink and raise their heads to swallow the water, they are thanking God. They also believe that the beautiful Whitewater fowl, so plentiful in the Bosphorus, are possessed of the souls of the unfortunate women of the harem that have been sewed up in sacks and cast into the water. On the outside of the Mosques are places for ablutions. The dev^out Mohammedan always washes his hands, face and feet before entering the Mosque. As he washes, he prays. I saw a very self-righteous looking old Turk at his ablution in front of St. Sophia. I asked my dragoman to translate his prayer. As near as I can remember it ran as follows : " O Allah ! I wash my hands, cleanse thou my heart. I wash my feet, may my walk before thee be clean ; and if I have wronged any man help me to restore to him that which I have unjustly' taken with five-fold increase, and if I have unjustly scourged Superstition, 1 1; t any man, may the stripes of retribution fall on my own back. Now, O Allah, I wash my face, may it be clean enough for thee to look upon in the Great Day, ' ' The Mohammedans are verj^ superstitious. They believe in sorcery, witchcraft and the evil eye. In most of the Mosques they have talismans hung from the ceiling to keep out bad spirits. The ostrich egg is believed to be a sovereign amulet against the Bvil One. They are hanging from the roofs of nearly all the Mosques. In the Mohammedan quar- ters you will see hung over the door of some dilapidated shanty a piece of brimstone, garlic, and a vial of water, as a charm against fire. In a word, I can give no better picture of the Stamboul district of Constantinople than to refer my readers to the description of Bagdad and Damascus in the Arabian Nights. Seated on his bench at a street corner you will see the cobbler pegging away at an old shoe and singing as he sews ;. the barber with his kit, shaving a customer on an old stool in the street ; old Alia Baba with an air of dignity, and Cogia Hassin waiting on the three Calenders, sons of kings and the fine ladies of Bagdad. Here j^ou will see the palace of rich Sinbad the Sailor, yonder the beggar leaning against his wall grieving that -heaven has not favored him with wealth and luxury. A little stretch of imagination will reproduce in the street the old magician offering to give ' ' new lamps for old ones. " You will see men leading horses loaded with water in leather bags made by stripping the hide from a yearling calf, with the neck as a spout and the legs tied up to hold the water. This is peddled about the streets for sale. It was to bottles of this kind that our Saviour referred when he said new wine should not be put into old bottles. When the hide is .green it will stretch and make room for fermentation, but when the leather becomes old the slightest unusual pressure will cause it to burst. I will say more of Constantinople in my next letter. 152 New Rome. XXXIV. Constantinople to Bucharest-Scraps of History Picked UP ON THE Ground — New Rome — Dukes and Counts — The Hippodrome — Riot of Nika — The Blue and the Green — A Roman Decree L^ike our XVth Amendment — The Difference Between IvIke and Similar — Sto- ries OF Ignorant Guides — Valuable Missionary Work — The Ruins of Time — An Old Prophecy Nearly Ful- filled — ^The Dungeon Without an Echo — The Hand- writing Upon the Wall — Keep Your Mouth Shut — The Golden Horn — Archery — Winter Palace — Sul- tan's lyARGE Family — Crescent and Cross — A Day in Asia — Chalcedon — St. Euphemia — IvOaves and Fishes — Bazaars — The Bosphorus — Hellespont — Black SEx\ — The Balkans — An Old Maid. Bucharest, Roumania, June, 1888. After two weeks' rest at Constantinople, we concluded to Tisit two former Turkish provinces, Bulgaria and Roumania. Within a few years these provinces will, perhaps, be the. theatre of a tremendous struggle on the part of Russia for the final possession of Constantinople. Before attempting to de- scribe my journey, however, I would like to say a few words more about Constantinople. It is remarkable what a firm im- pression little scraps of history, picked up upon the ground, make upon the mind. Among other things, I learned that ^ Constantinople " is not the official name of the city. When it was founded by Constantine, he, by a most solemn decree, christened it " The City of New Rome." A beautiful pillar was erected to commemorate the dedication with the name just mentioned inscribed upon it in letters of brass. The common people, however, called it the city of Constantine — (Constantinople) and for fifteen hundred years it has been known by no other name. It was Constantine that created the titles now so common all over Europe, of Count and Duke. Count means a major- general ; Duke means a general one degree lower. They are now hereditary titles and mean nothing. As I carefully looked at and walked around the oval space in the center of the city, formerly occupied by the circus, and now called the amphitheatre, my mind reverted to the terrible scenes here enacted in the days of Justinian, during the riot of Nika. The circus was divided into competing companies, one wore green, the other blue. The excitement ran so high that The Blues AND Greens. 155 the whole city, became divided into two bitter factions, the Greens and the Blues. The Blues occupied the same relation to the Court that Tammany now does to the city government of New York. No matter what crimes they committed they could not be convicted. As is always the case, when the law fails to redress wrongs, the Greens determined to be their own avengers and came into the Hippodrome with daggers con- cealed under their mantles and, in one night, they killed three thousand of the Blues. The Blues appealed to the Kmperor who issued a decree which reads very much like the XVth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It de- clares that " all wrongs shall be duly redressed by the courts of law, without regard to condition or color.'' The Blues then commenced the terrible riot of Nika, which means con- quer, and nearly destroyed the city. It was during this riot that the Church of St. Sophia was burned. It was rebuilt at a cost of $5,000,000. Before the riot could be quelled old BeLsarius killed 30,000 of the rioters within the circuit of the Hifodrome. The religious factions of the city were as bitter in their hatred of each other as the sportsmen. They were divided between the doctrines of Athanasius and Arius. Great vol- umui- were written, expensive counsels were held and bloody battles were fought to settle the difference between the mean- ing of the Vv'ords similar and like, (Homoousian and Homoi- ousian.) Some idea of the wealth of the city may be formed by the amount of the spoils which are divided among its captors in its first siege. Gibbon says the spoils amounted to more than seven times the entire revenue of England, yet from this disaster she completely recovered. Some of the stories told by ignorant guides are amusingly ridiculous. Among other wonderful things about St. Sophia, they tell you that its lofty dome can be seen of a clear day one hundred miles away on the Black Sea, whereas Mount Blanc, 15,000 feet high, can barely be seen from Geneva, only fifty miles awa3^. The church would have to be four thousand feet high to be seen one hundred miles at sea. Mount Olympus is only one hundred and ten miles from Constantinople, and can. only be seen by ascending some high place. Constantinople at one time was a flourishing silk-making city. A christian missionary stole the art from China. ■ He brought the eggs in a hollow cane. This proved to the Greeks very valuable missionary work. Nothing is more impressed upon the mind of the traveler than the complete destruction by time of all the monuments of human glory. When we read the glowing accounts of the 154 Vanished Splendor. city of Constantinople in the days of Justinian ; its splendid edifices, mighty walls, golden gates and beautiful palaces, gardens, and parks; its amphitheatre, where the Greens and Blues contended and quarreled for imperial favor ; its cisterns of a thousand columns, viaducts, baths and towers, we natu- rally expect to find some remains of so much vaunted splendor. We might as well look upon the decayed bones of an exhumed graveyard for the manly beauty and graceful forms and faces once possessed by those whose remains are buried there, as to expect to find many evidences of the former greatness of this more than dead and buried city. The walls are in ruins. The Golden Gate has been walled up by the roughest of Turk- ish masonry. The Happy Gate is a miserable hole in a pile of old bricks. The seven towers around the Golden Gate are still standing, but greatly dilapidated. The cistern of a thousand and one columns is filled up three columns high, and is used as a place for spinning silk. The Forum, once the pride of the city, has been arched over and is filled with ba- zaars. The amphitheatre has been filled up fifteen feet and is not now more than one-fifth of its former size. St. Sophia's Church has been converted into a Mohammedan mosque. That the worshipers may face Mecca, they have built out one side of the altar further than the other and placed the matting of the floor diagonally across the building. Every trace of Christian decoration has been destroyed. Even the mosaic work representing Christ and the Holy Virgin has been painted over or covered. When I visited the church it was desecrated by being converted into a pigeon roost. The Golden Gate was walled up because of an old prophecy that the enemy would enter by that gate. The Russians were very near ful- filling the prophecy seven years ago. From the main tower I could plainly see with the naked eye their breastworks within half a mile, apparently, of the Golden Gate. The seven towers, at the Golden Gate, and the connecting walls enclose six or eight acres of ground. The enclosure has been used as a prison for political offenders. Several Sultans and many Viziers have been murdered here. The walls are covered with inscriptions cut in the stone by some of the prisoners. Under the main tower is what is called the " Echoless Dun- geon." So called because, no matter how loud the cr}^ of the tortured prisoner, his voice never reached the surface. The history will never be written of the thousands of poor wretches who have suffered and died in this horrid place. Where the Roman Emperors had their harbor- for ships of war, within the city walls, vegetable gardens are now culti- vated, the product of which is carried every morning, on the backs of the poor farmers, into the city for sale. Funeral Customs, i5'5 In the Stamboul district no repairs, either to the streets or houses, have oeen made for years. Notwithstanding the bad government of the city, its natural advantages are so great that it is still one of the most lovely spots of Kurope. The new part of the city, on the opposite side of the Golden Horn, is very much like other European cities. The buildings are good and the streets well paved. The Turks saem to realize their fate. The hand- writing is on the wall. They know their lease of power in Europe is nearly ended. Most of the Mohammedans now bury their dead or the other side of the Bosphorus, in Asia. It is very dangerous for a foreigner to speak disrespect- fully of the Sultan. There are several instances where an in- discreet remark at the table, or in the presence of servants or housekeepers, has resulted in a request to leave the city. It is useless to protest. When such a request comes, even your Minister cannot help you, as the proof is preserved and pro- duced that the hospitality of the city has been violated. In such cases the offender is not permitted to pass out of the city by the " Happy Gate. " He must pass by some other portal, and is escorted to his ship to prevent assassination. The Golden Horn runs from the Bosphorus about six miles to a point completely dividing the city into two great divis- ions, Stamboul and Pera. As you go up the Horn it gets smaller and finally ends beyond the city limit. Hence the old saying, "Going out at the little end of the horn. " The Mohammedans, like the Christians, bury their dead and never disturb their final resting place. I saw a funeral in the old graveyard outside the city. It looked very much like one of our own funeral scenes. Evidences, however, of super- stition are found all around their burial places, such as pin- ning or tying small pieces of a sick person's clothing to the tomb or railing around some saintly grave, by which they believe' the sickness is cured. Just outside the city . is a large field with several round marble pillars upon which are cut the names of several of the Sultan's courtiers and counsellors. I took it for a burial ground, but on inquiry I found it was the Sultan's field for archery practice. He and his court visit it once a year, and the best shot is rewarded by a pillar planted to his memory with his name and the date the famous shot was made. No matter how far he comes from the bull's eye, all that is required is that he shall be nearer than any of his competitors ; so some one of his courtiers is sure to have a pillar of honor every year. The Sultan's winter palace is a beautiful white marble building erected at the water's edge of the Bosphorus. It covers several acres of ground. His summer palace is about 156 The Winter Palace. a mile further northward on the hill and overlooks the whole city. It is said his elder brother and the true heir to the throne is confined in the winter palace a prisoner of State. He was Sultan at the time the Russians were before the city, but was afterwards deposed in favor of his 5'oiinger brother, the present Sultan. It is also said that of all the courtiers con- cerned in the overthrbw of the former Sultan, not one is now alive. The)' were all rewarded by being sent on embassays and errands of State, but by some fortuitous accident, died before the time for return arrived. Thus the Sultan has no powerful friends around him. The Sultan's household consists of over ten thousand persons, including wives, children, eunuchs, slaves and ser- vants. In this respect he is a greater man than Brigham Young was in the days of his greatest glory. It is hard to un- derstand how the corrupt teaching of the Crescent has so com- pletel}^ triumphed in the East over the pure doctrines of the Cross. The Koran undoubtedly contains some good moral principles, borrowed from the Bible, but the life of Mahomet and the doctrines of his religion are wanting in purity and clouded with superstition. The great majority, however, of the Mohammedans, of Turkey, are sincere in their faith. They are sober, industrious and honest. Their belief in predestina- tion and fatalism has dwarfed all their best energies, and must eventually make them succumb to a race of broader and bolder views. Before leaving Constantinople we spent a day in Asia. We crossed the Bosphorus to the site of ancient Chalcedon. Nothing of the city remains but a stone fountain said to be two thousand five hundred years old. Here we hired a car- riage and made an excursion of about twelve miles to the 'top of the mountain Bourgourlu (pronounced Boorgoorloo'). The crown of this hill was the former centre of the city. The splendid church of St. Kuphemia stood on the summit. It was one of the most magnificent cathedrals in the world and could comfortably seat four thousand worshipers. The fourth gen- eral council was held in this church. Six hundred and thirty' bishops sat in its Nave. Now not a stone or even a mark re- mains. Chalcedon was called the " City of the Blind," be- cause the founders had not seen the site of Constantinople on the opposite side of the Bosphorus. Of the Great Walled City, full of palaces, monuments and magnificent edifices, not a stone remains. Great trees are growing where its palaces stood and sheep graze over the site of St. Euphemia. It is hard to be- lieve a city ever occupied these cultivated fields and natural woods. The road was very rough and stony. The soil seemed very much like that of Bethel, in Delaware county. There Chalcedok 157 were cherry, peacli, plum and apple trees in abundance. If it liad not been for the turbans and Turkish costumes, the scen- ery would have been quite homelike until we got high enough to see the mountains on the South and the city on the West. Here we saw the genuine Asiatic buffalo working- like an ox. By the side of the road we saw a peddler, in full Oriental cos- tume, selling cooked loaves and fishes. We co.uld understand the Scriptural scene of Christ feeding the multitude better than before. From my observation of Oriental manners, I am convinced that the habits and dresses of the people of Asia are to-day very much as they were in the days of our Saviour. From the summit of Bourgourlu the prospect is most charming. Snow-capped Olympus can be plainly seen, though one hundred miles away. One of the high mountains of Asia one hundred and sixt}^ miles to the east, was plainly visible. All the islands of the Sea of Marmora, the Dardanelles, the Golden Horn, the whole city of Constantinople and the beau- tiful Bosphorus, from Marmora to the Black Sea, could be distinctly seen. I do not remember ever having witnessed a finer view. I thought the view from L^ycabettus, over Athens, was the finest I ever saw, but this far surpasses it. The world-renowned Bazaars of Constantinople occup}* the site of the old F3riiin, which has been arched over in the roughest manner and converted into small shops, where every- thing of Asiatic or Oriental manufacture may be bought. It is impossible to enter without buying something, no matter how firmly you may have resolved not to do it. The goods are displayed in most fascinating forms. The prices seem low, but are generally about one-third higher than the same goods can be bought at the stores. I priced a silver bracelet and pin with the Sultan's monogram ; to get rid of the mer- chant I offered him ju,st one-half of his asking price. He refused my offer with a gesture of profound disgust. I smiled and went on, congratulating myself on my success. After I had gone half a square I felt a pull at m}" arm. The man was there with the articles. He said his children were starving and I would have to take the goods at my own price. I could not go back on my offer. I had firmly resolved on entering not to purchase anything, but T came out several dollars poorer than I went in. It is somewhat troublesome to enter the city. I had to have the Turkish Consul at Athens give me the necessary papers. Even then the authorities hesitated about admitting my wife and daughter. I also found that it required permis- sion from the American Consul to get out. I presented m}^ passport and got leave to go to Roumania. I then had to call on the Roumanian Consul and get leave to enter that kingdom. 1^8 On the Blak Sea. I then presented my papers to the officers at the city gate and hid endorsed upon my passport that I had leave to go out by the " Happy Gate." So after man 3^ annoyances and much red tape I left Constantinople by the good ship Apollo for Varna, on the Black Sea. The trip up the Bosphorus was very interesting. It has been the subject of much praise from abler pens. I will not attempt to describe its gardens, palaces and harems. We passed the Hellespont, where Xerxes built his bridge of boats, and where Leander swam to kiss his love. I can only say that I have seen other places just as beautiful, and that I was a little disappointed. Perhaps I expected too much. The Bosphorus is abouc fifteen miles long and, at places, very nar- row. The fact that we gaze upon Asia on the right and Europe on the J eft for these fifteen miles adds to the interest of the voyage. Upon entering the Black Sea, the temperature fell fifteen or twenty degrees. It is called the Black Sea from the dark shade of its water, caused by the absence of sun- shine. The sky is generally overcast and th(S air damp and chilly. It requires about thirty hours by ship to go from Con- stantinople to Varna. The sea was rough and most of the passengers very sick. At Varna we took the cars and passed through Bulgaria to Rustchuck, on the Danube. There we . crossed the river and again took the cars for Bucharest. We spent a very interesting day at Bucharest. I was surprised to find Bulgaria and Roumania such fertile countries. I never saw better pasture lands or wheat fields. It rerninded me very much of the prairie lands ot Illinois. There are,, however, no farm houses. The lands are tilled by peasants who live in miserable little huts, or in villages. Our route lay through a spur of the Balkan Mountains and was very picturesque, of course not comparable with the Swiss or Italian Alpine scenery, but very beautiful and entertaining. The tops of the moun- tains seemed leveled off" and crowned with a wall. There were no crags or lofty peaks. The scenery of these mountains is soft and has a soothing rather than a stirring influence upon the beholder. In my judgment Turkey lost her most fertile territory when she surrendered her sovereignty over Bulgaria and Rou- mania and, if not torn to pieces in the impending war, these two principalities will soon become rich and prosperous. Our hotel here is one of the best I have found in Europe ; very few in America are better. I met an English lady, of doubtful age, on the trip from Varna. We had met at Con- stantinople, where she had set her heart upon capturing a young American traveler. She spoke of the beauties of a moonlight sail on the Bosphorus ; said she would not be afraid Bucharest. 159 to go if any young gentleman would take her ; she thought it would be so romantic. The young fellow while very polite, would not take the hint, but constantly and adroitl}^ turned the subject. I thought I would inquire about the young gen- tleman as I found her now alone. I asked her where she had parted with him, " Oh," said she, " I found him so awfully stupid I shook him off and left him at Constantinople. I con- versed with him for a whole week and he never could get higher than the weather." XXXV. Bucharest to Zurich^ Female Masons- — Great Wheat Fields — Up the Danube — A Feudal Castle — Belgrade — Buda-Pesth — A Splendid City of Half a Million People — On to Vienna — A Rejuvenated City— The Changes of Fifteen Years — Beautiful Suburbs — Schonbrun- — Kahlenburg — Vienna to Innsbruck--The Austrian Tyrol— Old Church at Innsbruck— A Rip Van Winkle Sleep — Over the Alps Westward — Sources of Europe's Three Greatest Rivers. Zurich, Switzerland, June, 1888. The journey from Constantinople, over the Black Sea, through Bulgaria and Roumania and up the Danube as far as Belgrade, is hard to describe. It differs from any scener)^ I have yet seen. Bucharest, the capital of Roumania, is a beau- tiful city of 300,000 inhabitants, well built after the Parisian style, with broad, well-paved streets, and a fine park within easy walking distance from the centre of the city. It is full of delightful gardens, fragrant with roses. French is spoken in nearly all the stores, but the costumes of the common peo- ple are Russian. The Russian language seems to be the native tongue of the people. The names upon the signs are peculiar to the place. The family name is given first : as Smith John, Jones Peter, etc. Some of the stores are equal to those of lyondon and New York. I found another of the best hotels in Europe here. I saw women here not only making mortar and digging cellars, but actuall}^ using the trowel and doing car- penter work. From Bucharest we went by rail to Turn-Severin, on the Danube. The route is through some of the richest farm lands on the continent, but they are flat and alluvial, very much like our Western prairies. While the wheat fields are ver}' large, sometimes containing fifty acres, no labor-saving r6o Up the Danube, machinery seems to be used. L/abor is so abundant and cheap as to render improved plows, rakes, mowers and reapers un- neccessary, I met an agent of the McCormick reaper at Buda- Pesth. He says it is impossible to introduce their mowers and reapers here. All the grain is moved by hand in sacks.. It is wonderful how rapidly a cargo of wheat can be put on board or discharged from a ship. At Turn-Severin we embarked for a two days' trip up the Danube. I have gone up the Hudson, the Rhine, and down the St. ly-awrence through the Thousand Isles and over the rapids ; I have seen Lakes George and Champlain and the mountain scenery of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Vermont ;. but I have never seen an5'thing finer than the scenery of the Danube from the Iron Gate up to Belgrade. The river varies . from a few yards, through the mountains, to several miles in width over the plains. Throu-^h some of the mountain gorges the river seems narrower than it really is because of the pre- cipitous height of the apparently overhanging crags and lofty- mountain peaks. As it winds and twists in its tortuous chan- nel it looks like a succession of little lakes with no outlet. The boat seems about to butt against some rocky cliff, when suddenl}^ it wheels about and apparently plunges into another pond of fifty or a hundred yards in length and, seemingly,., hardly wide enough for the boat to pass. There is an old Roman road along the water's edge cut into the mountain side and hewn out of the solid rock, supported here and there by abutments of masonry, through the entire mountain pass. Withal the air is balmy and moist, so much so as to cause green shrubbery to grow in profusion upon the rocky sides of the mountains wherever there is a fissure or crack in the stone large enough to permit the fibrous roots to enter and hold the shrubs and vines. After a few miles the scenery softens, the crags disappear and gradually we enter a rich, undulating and highly cultivated country. Then follows a vast marshy dis- trict known as the Valley of the Danube, said to be poisoned with malaria. The river is now very high. At places it seemed to me to be ten or fifteen miles wide. The ground is all alluvial below Belgrade and is a great country for grazing. I saw vast herds of cattle, horses, and immense flecks of sheep pasturing on the meadows. We passed what seemed to be groves of willow trees with the water halfway up their trunks. One of the best preserved feudal castles in Europe is seen a few miles below Belgrade. It covers about thirty acres ox ground. The walls are all perfect. I counted twenty-eight fine towers. I have no doubt the old baron who built it be- lieved he would live forever in safety within its walls. Belgrade is a very old town but so much like all the Buda-Pesth. r6i mediaeval cities of Europe as to make a description of it tire- some. It has its old walls, gates, churches, narrow crooked streets, towers and dungeons, together with its legends and- local stories of tragedies and romances common to all the old towns of the continent. We stayed there one night. Next morning we crossed the river and took the cars for Buda-Pesth, the capital of Hungary. Here we were again sur- prised. We found Hungary one of the finest farming countries of the world. A vast rich plain, covered with great wheal fields and pasture lands, but with no fences or farm houses. The land is cultivated by peasants. Both sexes work alike in the fields. The city of Buda-Pesth is one of the finest and richest in Kurope. lyike Chicago, it is the great grain centre of the continent. Everybody seems rich. The streets, parks and buildings, public and private, are kept in the best of order. One would say upon a casual glance that it was a new city. A little inspection, however, will reveal the fact that it has been built upon the site of a very old one. It has a popula- tion of half a million. The river Danube runs through it. Its- streets are from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet wide. It is surrounded with villas like Rome. The river is walled on both sides, and has a parapet or bulwark four feet high and a splendid wide promenade on each side along the water front. Then a well-paved carriage-way, and palatial residences, hotels and restaurants looking down upon the beautiful river as it sweeps rapidly through the city. The river is spanned by a bridge one-third of a mile long, built on an exact model of the Brooklyn bridge over the East river at New York. On the opposite side of the river are the public building, palaces, gardens, barracks and castles. The hill upon which these buildings stand is seven hundred and ninety -three feet high and overlooks the city and country many miles around. At its foot is a fine natural hot spring with Turkish baths. The palace gardens are six hundred feet above the level of the river, looking down upon the town. The people are very fond of music. The concert hall will hold two thousand per- sons and is a very beautiful building. We attended a concert there given in aid of the overflowed peasant villages, by the world-renowned choir of Vienna. I am not much of a mu- sician, but I think the singing was the finest I have ever heard. In a word, Buda-Pesth is a splendid city and cannot be properly described in the short limit I must give it. From Buda-Pesth we went by rail to Vienna. I found my old hotel, the Metropole, so full we could not be accommo- dated without takii;ig inferior rooms. Our hotels at Bucha- rest and Buda-Pesth were so good they had spoiled us and nothing but the best accommodations could now satisfy our 1 52 Improvements at Vienna. cultivated taste for hotel life. Much to the disgust of the proprietor we left his house and took up our quarters at the Hotel Continental, a spacious and well-kept house. I find Vienna entirely rejuvenated since 1873. I visited jt during the World's Fair of that year. I would hardly know the place now, so great have been the changes. I am free to say that it is now what Paris then was : one of the loyeliest cities in the world. The rotunda, or main building of the great Exposition, is still standing in the Prater and looks as fresh and well preserved as when the exhibition closed fifteen years ago. It is still used as an exhibition building and is filled with the most attractive productions of Austria. It looks about as well as when the World,'s Fair was in full course. While the old city has nearly disappeared the land-marks are still there; the old Cathedral, with its tall stone spire; the King's Palace and Capuchin vaults where the ashes of Aus- trian royalty repose ; and the bulwarks of the old city can still be found, and to one who has seen Vienna twenty years ago, the picture of the old city, may be easil}^ restored ; but one visiting it for the first time could form no idea of what it was when its population was only a hundred and twenty or thirty thousand. It now has a population approaching one million. The Danube has been straightened, walled and . bridged. It is subjected to great overflows, to prevent which the channel has been very much improved. The city in 1873, and for several hundred years before, kept her commercial in- tercourse with the river by means of a canal which runs through the town. .Now the city has extended to the banks of the Danube. The principal bridge is nearly a mile long. It has been built since 1873. It is the full width 01 the street and paved from one end to the other. The river is banked and walled so as to allow a rise of twenty feet without an overflow. The city is full of new monuments and statuary in marble and bronze. It contains, however, nothing finer than Canova's marble group of Theseus and the Minotaur, which is preserved and exhibited here. : . The great charm of Vienna life is its multitude of re- courses for amusement and pleasure. lyike Paris, the people live in the streets, parks and cafes. , The Prater is within a few minutes' walk from the busiest; part of the city, and is one of the most delightful resorts for refreshment, amusement or pleasure in the world. In this respect it is much superior to the Bois de Boulogne of Paris. It is laid out with exquisite taste ; it has one course in a straight line four miles long. It is beautifully shaded, full of exquisite drives for carriages or horseback exercise, enchanting promenades, full of roses and flowers from every clime. It has its little theatres, concert Francis- Joseph. i6j halls, and wine and beer gardens ; in a word, it contains everything the hnman heart can desire or the most fertile im- agination conceive of for the promotion of enjoyment and hu- man happiness. If I were compelled to live away from my own country, I would select Vienna as my permanent home, for I believe more genuine happiness could be extracted from life here than in any other place. The people of Vienna are noted for their easy, yet courtly manners. While wandering through the Rotunda, we met the Em- peror, leisurely examining the exhibits. He was dressed in the uniform of an ordinary soldier. There was nothing about him to distinguish him from a high private, and if we had not been told by our commissionaire we would not have known him. He was attended by three or four gentlemen in black suits and dress coats. We saw no armed guards or evidences of precaution for the protection of his person from vulgar ob- trusion. In our walks around the building we saw him twice. At one time I was near enough to have touched him. I saw him and the Archduke Charles in the same building in 1873. Although but fifteen years ago, he has sadly changed. He was then in his forty-third year, full of vigor and manly beauty. I did not then notice a gray hair in his head or fine flowing beard. His step was elastic and his whole beariup- majestic. He now looks prematurely old. His hair is thin and gray, his eye has lost its fire and his cheek is furrowed with deep lines of care. 'He is but fifty-eight years old ; I \yould take him for seventy. He still walks erect and rather briskly, and seems alive with interest for all that affects his empire. iVs far as I could ascertain by conversation with his subjects, I would say he is a very popular ruler and is much honored and beloved by his people. The suburbs of the city are very attractive places and are usually gay on every fine afternoon, being crowded by the citizens of the town seeking for country air and rural enjoy- ment. We visited two or three of the suburban resorts and found them very charming places. Schonbrun is two miles out. It is the seat of the Emperor's summer palace. Kahlen- berg, about five miles out, is now reached by rail. It is about one thousand feet high and gives a most perfect view over the city, neighboring mountains and course of the Danube for many miles above and below the city. If time had permitted I would like to have tarried longer in this delightful place I left it with much regret. Our next resting place was Innsbruck, via Saltzburg, a very beautiful little town, fifteen hours by express train from Vienna going toward the Alps. I never saw such perfect shades of green as were presented by the hills and mountains 164 The Tyrol. along the route. The road gradually rises until it approaches the snow line. It follows very near the course of one of the tributaries of the Danube and passes over some of the wildest and grandest Alpine scenery. The Tyrol has been so often described as to become familiar— so far as mere description can make it familiar — to all who have taken the trouble to read about it. It is impossible to convey a correct idea of its grandeur without actually travelling through and over it. Innsbruck is prettily situated on the River Inn, and is surrounded with snow clad mountains. The snow, however, generally disappears about August. It is one of the oldest towns in Austria and was supposed to have been finished over a thousand years ago. It is about four hundred miles by rail west of Vienna. Some of the mountains around Innsbruck are seven thousand eight hundred feet high. When I looked 'out of my chamber window in the morning, it seemed as if one of the lofty cliffs was about to tumble over and bury me and my Inn five thousand feet deep. The city itself is about two thousand feet above the level of the sea. It looks like a pretty little flower nestling in a mountain cliff", and sheltered by the surrounding peaks. It contains a very old church full of bronze life-size statuary, said to be very artistic. The old town slept for several hundred years, when it was aroused suddenly one summer morning by the shrill scream of a loco- motive on a new railroad which was, after much opposition on the part of the city authorities, located near its western gate. From that moment it sprung into importance and now bids fair to become one of the great commercial frontier cities of Austria. It is, without exaggeration, one of the prettiest places in Kurope. From Innsbruck we crossed the Alps and entered Switzerland, our next stop being Zurich two hundred miles farther west. We passed near the sources of the three great rivers of Europe — -the Danube running east, the Rhine running northward and the Rhone running southward ; one emptying into the Black Sea, one into the Mediterranean, and the other into the North Sea. So it will be seen we have passed over the highest part of the continent and have now viewed its finest scenery. We crossed the highest bridge in Europe, three hundred feet above a chasm cut by a small river rumbling and tumbling over the rocks below. After passing through the Arlberg tunnel we began to descend. Great peaks pierce the clouds in every direction. Mighty cliffs and crags overhang the rich valleys below, great cataracts tumble down the mountain sides, while beautiful cascades fall over bluffs five hundred feet high. But my page is full — and we are at Zurich. Zurich TO Geneva. 165 XXXVI. Zurich to Okneva— Arlberg Tunnel, Four Thousand Two Hundred and Ninety-eight Feet High — Silk Weavers of Zurich— Berne— Sunday Observers Some- what Inconsistent — Old Church — Beautiful Nature — Geneva Again^A Swiss Family— Lake of Geneva — Towns on its Borders— The Prisoner of Chillon— View of Mont Blanc — American Watches in Geneva — Future Route. Geneva, June, 1888. My last letter was mailed from Zurich, one of Switzer- land's largest towns. It is most charmingly situated at the lower end of the lake of the same name. The lake is about twenty -five miles long, from two to three miles wide and is at places nearly 500 feet deep. It is stocked with several varie- ties of fine fish dud is navigated by both sailing vessels and steamboats. On Its shores are several villages and manufact- uring towns. The water is clear and of a greenish hue, the ai-- is cool and bracing, and the people industrious and hospi- table. The altitude of the surface of the lake ia 1345 feet above the level of the sea. We passed over mountains 4000 feet high. The great tunnel of Arlberg, over six miles long, through which we passed, is 4,298 feet above the level of the sea. After leaving the tunnel, we noticed all the rivers and mountain streams ran northward, into the Rhine ; on the other side they ran eastward into the Danube. From this we knew we had passed over the backbone of the continent. The effect of remaining for several days in these high altitudes was to give a very disagreeable buzzing sensation in the ears. Zurich has some excellent hotels. Hotel Baur au Lac, at which we spent three days, is one of the best in the city. It faces up the lake, is surrounded by a beautiful garden fragrant with roses and full of sweet little bowers, delightfully shaded and tastefully laid out. The lake view from our chamber window is very fine. We can see up the lake for fifteen miles and the surrounding mountains, especially upon the right, are very clearly seen. The first tier of hills, some of which are three or four thousand feet high , are green and partly cultivated; those further off are still higher and barren ; finally the snow- capped Alpine peaks overtower them all and pierce the clouds. Just outside of the city is Mount Uetelberg, 3000 feet high from whose summit a splendid view of the city, lake and sur- rounding country can be had. Zurich has a population of 1 66 Berne, 85,000, and is a very busy and enterprising- place. Some of the finest silks are mannfactured here, on old-fashioned hand- looms, by Swiss girls. I saw them at work on looms of the simplest construction, but the work produced was of the finest kind. After a three days' sojourn at Zurich, we left for Berne. Here also we found a thriving Swiss city of about 44,000 in- habitants. It is a very romantic and picturesque old town. It had the honor of being the birthplace of Delaware county's present District Attorney. No wonder he is so proud of his horses and hounds and takes so much delight in Nature's charms. He was born in a land of 6ears and mountains 1800 ieet nearer heaven than the highest point in Delaware county. The waiters at the hotel seemed delighted when I told them that one of the best offices of the county where I lived was held by a native born Swiss. The citizens of Berne are very strict in their observance of the Sabbath. The Old Minster, with its high-backed, nar- row and most uncomfortable pews, is filled on Sundays with Protestant worshippers. It is a naked, cold looking old edi- fice, but greatly venerated by the people. It stands upon a terrace rising perpendicularly one hundred and ten feet, at the foot of which the river Aare sweeps in a beautiful curve. The terrace, in the rear of the church, is now a shady grove with seats and statues, graveled walks and flower beds. The view from the terrace is indescribably fine ; the Bernese Alps present a very grand and thrilling appearance. We plainly define the contour of mountains over twelve thousand feet high. I thought I discovered some inconsistency in their pro- fessed respect for the Sabbath. While the stores were gen- erally closed and the churches well filled on the Sunday I spent in Berne, I noticed many more people on the drilling grounds, looking at the evolutions and artillery practice of the handsome young soldiers, than were in the churches. Sunday is a regular drill day in Switzerland. At sunrise the day is opened by the booming of cannon, and the constant crack of the infantry rifle, by battalion as well as in target practice, is kept up until sunset. The day is devoted to military reviews, target practice and warlike parades, of which the people seem very fond. The celebrated clock, of Berne, like the one at Strasbourg, is but a toy, not worth going ten miles to see. The old part of the town has a very mediaeval look, with high houses, narrow and crooked streets, with sidewalks under an arched way over which the quaint old houses pro- ject. The new part of the city is like all the other modern additions to old towns ; that is to say, as beautiful and Lake of Geneva. 167 convenient as architectural skill can make them. The great attraction of Berne, indeed of all Switzerland, is not its works of Art, but its profuse display of the handiwork of Nature. Its peaceful meadows and placid lakes contrasted with its crags and peaks ; its green forests and barren rocks ; its cataracts, cascades, caverns and grottoes contrasted with its sheepherds and picturesque cottages, sturd3% free and independent people, all crowded within the limits of the little Republic of Switzer- land, making it look more like a theatrical spectacle than a living landscape, all unite to make it such a charming retreat for travelers from all parts of the world. From Berne we went to Geneva in six hours by express train through the best part of Switzerland. We.pa.ssed Swiss houses with great pitched roofs extending down, porch-like, all around the buildings to within six feet of the ground. Under these patronizing shelters the whole Swiss family rest during winter and repose at night. A Swiss family consists of the father, mother, children and often the grand-children, together with the flocks, herds, horses, cows, pigs, goats and other domestic animals, all living in harmony under the same roof. The Lake of Geneva is thfe largest in Switzerland. It covers an area of two hundred and twenty-five square miles. It is about fifty' miles long and, on an average, eight miles wide. In places it is over one thousand feet deep. Its water is perfectly clear ; objects may be seen sixty feet under water. In color the lake is a deep blue. The deposits of the Rhone at the head of the lake are gradually filling it with a rich alluvial soil and convertiag what was once a part of the lake into a fertile valley. There are thirteen towns upon the borders of the lake, in appearance, finished fully a thousand years ago. These towns communicate with the city of Geneva by steamboats which make a daily course of the entire lake. We spent a very agreeable day on one of these boats, only landing once, for two hours, to inspect the famous old castle of Chillon. It stands upon an isolated rock which juts out into the lake. The water at the base of the castle is three hundred feet deep. The castle is in a good state of preservation and is now used as an arsenal. It was built over a thousand years ago and has been the scene of many terrible tragedies. Crimes, in the name of the law and under the guise of justice have been com- mitted here, a recountal of which " Would freeze the blood. " It contains gloom^^ dungeons, torture rooms and a gibbet on which thousands of victims have been hung and whose bodies have been thrown down an eight)^ -feet-deep hole, at the 1 68 Geneva, bottom of which were arranged revolving knives which cut the poor wretches into twenty or thirty pieces. The fragments then flowed out into the lake and became food for the fish. The stone column is shown where Byron's Prisoner of Chillon was chained for so many years, and until his bare feet wore a path in the stone floor as he chafed and paced his life away within the tether of his chain. •■Chillon ! thy prison Is a hoiy place And thy sad floor an altar— for 'twas trod Until his very steps have left a trace, Worn, as if the cold pavement werea sod." The climate of Geneva is very pleasant. It is never very warm and seldom cold enough to freeze over the lake. I visit- ed the city nineteen years ago, and can discover but little change in that part facing the lake. It is the same beautiful and charming city. Our hotel (De la Paix), fronts upon the lake and is considered by travelers the best in the city. From the balcony of our chambers we have a splendid view of Mont Blanc. It looks like a pyramid of burnished silver rising above the dim outlines of the lower Alps. The spectacle is more striking and weird because the sun shines upon the snowy head of this mountain for several minutes after it has set at Geneva and the other mbuntains are partly obscured by the shades of approaching night. While all around has a gloomy look, Mont Blanc seems aglow with the reflected rays of the sun which to us has been under the horizon half an hour. While gazing upon it we are reminded that we now see the highest point in Europe. Geneva is a thriving town of about seventy thousand in- habitants. It used to be the grand centre of watch manufac- turers. America has now monopolized this industry. I find American watches for sale here cheaper than they can be made by the home manufacturers. French is the native tongue of Geneva, from which we may infer that we are approaching the frontier of France. I have concluded to go from here to Paris, where I shall remain for two weeks and then go to Meyence and down the Rhine visiting Rotterdam, Amster- dam and perhaps Hamburg, from which I hope to embark for Scotland. Geneva to Paris. ii6q XXXVIL Geneva to Paris — Farming ix France— La-RGE Fields AND Wire Fences; — Six Oxen to a Plow — The Repub- lic OP 1873 ^^^ T-'JE Empire op 1869— High Prices — Hotel Continental — Paris Compared with Vienna — L-icENSED Bawdy Houses-Dueling— Morals and Tastes — Cook's Tourists in the Liu /re — How td S3E the Louvre — Sharpens in Paris— Passport Annoyances to Enter Germany. Paris, June, 1888. Distance on the continent is measured by time, not by miles. Paris, by the fastest express train and shortest route, is twelve hours from Geneva. In our journey here we passed through the cities of Macon and Dijon. The general face of the country from Geneva to the PYench frontier is rather tame for Switzerland, but, when compared with the flat fields of France, it is ver}' beautiful. From Macon to Paris one would almost imagine himself traveling in Pennsylvania and Dela- ware. The land is good and well tilled. It is, as a rule, cultivated in small patches, but here and there we find large farms upon which are used all modern implements, such as mowers and reapers, horse-rakes and hay-spreaders, sub-soil plows, steam threshing machines, etc. I saw large flecks of sheep and hundreds of cows and horses grazing in one-hun- dred-acre fields surrounded with wire fences. In the mountain districts the farmers merely scratch the soil as if to tickle it into a genial smile, but in the alluvial lands they plow very deep. I saw six large oxen to a plow and it was as much as they could do to draw it through the stiff sod. The furrow seemed to me a foot wide and about fourteen inches deep. I find Paris very much changed since the days of the empire. It is no longer a city of cheap living and low prices. The necessaries of* life are as dear in Paris as in Philadelphia. The Bon Marche still keeps up a fair reputation for reasonable fixed prices. The Palais Royal has degenerated into a set of street stores, where things can be bought cheap but are always of inferior quality. I notice around the Palais Royal many shops " To Let." I do not believe, from present appearances, that one-tenth as much business is done there now as was done in 1869. I predict that before manj^ years the Palais Royal will be among the things that were. The " Grand Magasins du Louvre" is now one of Paris 's popular stores, conducted somewhat on the principle of Wanamaker's Philadelphia store, j'jo Parisian Hotels, with the difference iia favor of the latter. It is worse thai folly to come to Paris to buy cheap goods,. There are ver}^ many cheap things here, but just like cheap things everywhere they are useless and, therefore, dear at any price. There are several first-class hotels here,, but it costs more to live in one of them than in the same class of hotels in New York or Philadelphia. We are very comfortably quartered at the Hotel Continental,, an immense establishment in the heart of Paris, on the Rue Rivoli, directly opposite the Gardens of the Tuilleries. It covers an entire square. It contains on Rue Rivoli three hundred and thirty feet ; on Rue Castiglione,. two hundred and fiity-eight feet. It is six stories high and has five hundred and sixteen sleeping rooms, some of them with parlors and sitting rooms annexed. The house is well furnished and has every modern convenience — bar, reading rooms, restaurant, billiard room, parlors, reception rooms,, elevators, etc. Our rooms ftont on Rue Rivoli and give us a fine view over the Gardens of the Tuilleries, directly opposite.. We can see Notre Dame, the tower of St. Jacque, St. Sulpice, the ruins of Palais D'Orsay, the Hotel des Invalides, with its gilded dome, Champ-de-Mars, the new iron tower to be the highest in the world, and Des-Champ-Elysee, as far as the Arc de-Triomphe ; in a word, we can see nearly the half of Paris from our chamber window. The hotel is full of Bnglish and American travelers. But few Frenchmen patronize it. If I were traveling alone I would select an humbler resting place and could secure better accommodations for less money. With all its faults, Paris is still a very beautiful city, full of life and devoted to pleasure. For a month's sojourn, but few gayer places can be found. For a permanent dwelling place, I would much prefer Vienna. The vaunted pleasures of Parisian life are visionary and unreal ; pleasures that can- not be looked back upon with satisfaction. On the other hand, Vienna is full of solid comfort and real home enjoy- ments. There the father, mother and all the little ones en- joy a holiday together ; here they take it in pairs. Two is company, but three a crowd in Paris. The young men- and women of Paris never look beyond the present hour. Their motto is, "Be merry to-day for to-morrow we may die. " Satan in Paris is the same gentleman of great social culture and good manners. He is never publicly vulgar, but lets no private opportunity pass to gently insinuate the most disgust- ing moral sins. He never gets drunk, always wears gloves and is exceedingly polite. While he would scorn to pick your pocket, he will not hesitate to recommend all sorts of gamb- ling, from the Grand Prix de Paris to a legalized lottery to help build the Panama Canal. M-OKALS AKD AkT. IJ^. A prostitute here holds a license from the government ; lier fees are regulated by a tariff of charges fixed by the State authorities. She may recover them in a suit at law. You are permitted to murder your enemy here with im- punity, provided you observe the fixed rules of the so-called ■code of honor. A trial has just ended before one of the high courts of Paris. I have watched it with great interest. An •editor criticised in his paper the work of an artist. The editor was a dead shot, the artist had never discharged a pistol. The ■criticism was kept up for months, becoming more bitter and sarcastic in each edition. At last the poor artist's wife was attacked and one of his female friends held up to public ridi- cule. A challenge followed. At the first shot the artist was killed. The only question before the court was, whether the duel had been regularly conducted. After a careful investi- gation the court found that the code had been followed in all its essential details and the bully, blackguard- and murderer was discharged. Whatever may be said of the morals of Paris, it must be admitted that the French are very highly cultivated in all that pertains to art and refined taste. The I^ouvre is still the finest picture gallery of the world. The lyUxembourg and the Sal en •of Paris still display the finest works of modern painters and sculptors. They can make the finest goods and produce the most beautiful fabrics of the world. To do justice to the paintings exhibited in the lyouvre, they should be visited once a da}^ for at least a week. I was struck with a visit made to these galleries by a party personally conducted by one of Cook's professional guides. His part}'^ consisted of about twenty travelers. He took them through the entire buildmg in one hour and fifty minutes (it requires two hours to walk through the gallery without stopping to examine any pictures). Some of the party were upon a half run ; others, attracted by some work of more than'ordinar}^ excellence, were unable to keep up with the crowd ; while all had a confused and bewil- dered look and were certainly unable to carry awa}^ any fixed remembrance of a single painting. When the^^ get home they will think they have seen the world-renowned paintings of the Louvre, but they have not. The proper way to visit the gal- lery is, first, to take a deliberate stroll through it very much as you would enter and promenade around a ballroom, letting your bewildered eyes rest but for a moment upon the fair faces which most impress you at the first glance ; then take your catalogue and look at ever}- picture. You will often find some perfect gem, unnoticed at your first glance, arid man^^ paint- ings of the greatest merit in some unexpected place. It takes two weeks, industrioush' spent, to see Paris. 1^2 Passport Annovances'. The place is full of sharpers. I trul}- pity the greenhorii here. They will relieve him of his money in such a patron- izing way as almost to compel him to thank them for robbing him. I will give one instance. While at Versailles, I met an American gentleman with his family. He had gone from the hotel in tiie coach expressly provided for the guests, that they might not be imposed upon b}^ being overcharged. I asked him how much he paid, and was surprised to learn they had charged him for fare alone, twenty francs per person. T took m}^ family there in the street car for less than one franc each, and we had just as comfortable a ride as he had for twenty francs. I have known instances of American travelers being taken by their guides into restaurant^ and being com- pelled to pay twenty francs for what I could get without diffi- cult}^ for two, or at the outside, four francs. I leave Paris to-morrow for Meyence and a trip down the Rhine. When purchasing my tickets yesterday the agent de- cliied to sell them until I produced my passport. I was in- formed that while it would admit me, my wife and daughter could not enter Germany without separate passports. The German authorities are sending back travelers from France ever}^ day. I w^as compelled to call on our Minister for pass- ports for my wife and daughter and, after procuring them, I had to have them vised by the German Consul and pay him forty-eight francs for his permission endorsed upon them to enter Germany. The French government admits travelers from Germany without requiring passports. Some American and English travelers who, without warning, have been turned back at the frontiers of Germany, are very indignant at the conduct of the German authorities. I would not be surprised if another war would soon break out between Germany and France. The result would probably be a further humiliation for France. The French are a brave people, but are not able to measure swords with the powerful German empire. Nothing but one of those unaccountable accidents of war which have so often illustrated the Bible truth that the race is not always to the swift or the victory to the strong, could save France from disaster in a conflict with Germany, in the present con- dition of her affairs. Petty Meanness, • 175 XXXVIII Paris to Amsterdam— More About Paris — Petty Mean- ness OP Hotel Management -Political Factions- Reckless Driving — Metz — Fortifications and Battle-^ FIELDS — Marshal Ney — Bingen on the Rhine — Church OF ' Oberstein — -Watching the Rhine— Cologne and ITS Changes since 1869 — The Bones of St. Ursula and her Eleven Thousand Virgins. Amsterdam, July, 1888. We left Paris on the third of this month to visit the battle- fields of Metz. I leave Paris with an unfavorable impression. Travelers in Paris are very much like innocent flies flickering around the brilliant glare of a gas light. The Parisians look upon them as legitimate prey. They resort to petty acts of meanness an Englishman or a German would scorn to practice, A favorite trick of the hotel keepers is to withhold your bill until the last moment when you have no time for a critical ex- amination of the long list of trivial items or to correct mistakes. You must be careful not to break a glass, soil the carpet, or scratch the furniture of your room. If you should happen to wipe your pen, or let fall a drop of ink upon the gaud}^ cover of your table, you may find a charge in your bill for the high- est price of a new one. To upset the slop-jar means to pay for a new carpet no matter how old the soiled one may have been. Should you indulge in the luxury of blacking your boots upon one of the elegantl}^ upholstered chairs, you may expect to pay $10 for a new chair. The only safe way is to have your bills rendered every few days and closely scrutinize every item of charge. They have been encouraged in this system of small swindling, chiefl}^, b}^ American trpvclers who merel}^ glance at their bills and pay them. I was in the city a little over two weeks and made it a rule to call for and settle my bill every four days, yet I came very near being overcharged about four hundred francs. I called for my Bill the evening before my departure, but did not get it until about five minutes before starting time. I at once saw that the last payment had not been credited, and so informed the clerk. He very deliberately asked if I had my receipt. I informed him that I did not preserve my hotel re- ceipts, and requested him. to look at his cash book. He S'-id he had no time to examine the book, that was the business of the book-keeper ; that I could pay the bill and if I could show a receipt for the money they would take great pleasure in "4(74 Hotel Charges. refunding it. He did not suspect t^at I was plajdng with him, for I had the receipt in my pocket ready to produce after I had satisfied myself of his honesty. I then produced my receipt, but did not permit him to take it from my hand. He blushed, begged pardon, said it was a grand meprise'; examined his books with a provoking slowness ; said it was the first time in the history of the hotel that such a mistake had occurred, and then struck out three hundred and ninety-seven francs from my bill. If I had lost or mislaid my receipt I would have been compelled to pay the bill as rendered. Before giving me my bill, two men closel}^ examined our Tooms, sounded the crockery with a little wooden hammer, and examined everything in the apartments to ascertain whether anything had been damaged. Knowing their habits, we had been very careful not to injure or soil any of the furni- ture ; indeed we had been very little in our rooms except to sleep there ; the result was no extra charge. A young American gentleman stopping at the same hotel was not so lucky. He had his hair dressed by the hotel bar- ber, and on leaving paid his bill without examination. He afterwards discovered a charge of forty-seven francs for cut- ting his hair and furnishing him with a small bottle of worth- less hair tonic. The wife of another American gentleman, in the same hotel, sent for the coiffeur to dress her hair. Her husband arrived just as the job had been completed and was coolly pre- sented with a bill of about one hundred francs. The fellow had brought with him new brushes, combs, and half a dozen bottles of perfumes, and had charged for them all, though but a few drops had been used from each bottle. Instead of pay- ing the bill, in true American style, he gave him five francs and kicked him out of the room, bottles, brushes and all. He was lucky in not being served with a " Proces Verbal'' and severely punished for an assault and battery on the injured barber. A foreigner has no chance for fair play in the infer- ior courts of Paris. He cannot afford the time and expense of an appeal from the judgment of the petty magistrates and must consequently submit to injustice rather than seek redress in the higher courts. I particularly noticed the reckless driving by cabmen and others through the crowded streets. Pedestrians seem to have no rights. There are no flagstones for foot passengers. It is no uncommon thing to see a cab in a full gallop, or an omni- bus with the horses in a run, in the most frequented streets. To remed}^ the evil, the city authorities have certain stations, a few squares apart, called " Secours pour les Blesse,'" where fhey take care of the wounded. French Chakacteristics. 175" As far as I have been able to form a judgment of the char- apter of the Parisian French, I find them to be a very fickle and uncertain race, fond of trivial amusements and inclined to immorality. A large majority have no religious faith, and only live for- the present day in a state of feverish excitement, ready at any moment for social or political revolutions. All they care for is the gratification of their present desires with- out any regard to the future. They are now ready for another change of government, and are howling for war with Germany. Paris has many learned, wise and conservative men within its walls, but they are now the objects of public scorn and ridi- cule. There are at least six political factions in the city, each supporting a newspaper as the organ of the party. Not a day passes without some insulting squib or diatribe appearing in these journals, calculated to embitter the different parties against each other. In a word, they are now ready to seize each other by the throats and inaugurate again the times of 1793 with all the horrors of the Reign of Terror. No one can predict tha result of war. It depends upon too many acci- dents ; but as far as I am able to judge, a war with Germany at this time would be disastrous to France. The match is un- doubtedly very near the magazine and a very little more fric- tion will cause an explosion that will shake Europe to its very centre. The great insecurity of France lies in the settled fact that Paris is the centre of its political power. The faction in possession of Paris rules France, The people of the Provinces are thrifty and conservative ; why they suffer the rabble of Paris to rule and ruin the country is an enigma none can solve .- Germany is ready at a moment's warning for the struggle. If it comes it will end either in the complete ruin or in the politi- cal regeneration of France. From Paris to Metz the country is mostly flat, but very rich. In many places fine, thrifty young forests are seen.. These have all been planted within the past twenty-five or thirty years. Just before reaching Metz the scenery becomes more broken and attractive. The weather was bad during my stay in the city, b}^ reason of which I was much disappointed in my contemplated tour of its battlefields. It is at this time the most interesting spot in Germany. The decisive battles around this city have settled for ages the map lines of Europe. The fate of the German Empire was settled here. The ambi- tion of France, which had been rapidly growing since she was so sadly humbled at Waterloo, here received its second and perhaps its final humiliation. An American, without seeing them, can form no proper conception of the immense fortifications around the city of Metz. The surrounding countrj^ is mountainous, with every 176 Metz, !iUl strongly entrenched and mounted with guns of a mast irightful size. There are new works being constructed every day. The city proper has a population of about 55,000, be- sides a garrison of 20,000 men. The town is as old as the Roman empire. It was plundered by the Vandals and sacked and almost destroyed by the Huns. In the sixth century it was the capital of the Kingdom of Austria. In 1552 it was captured by the French and strongly fortified by them, They held it against Charles V., but lost it in 1871, when it was again reunited to the German Empire, where i-t will probably remain as long as the empire lasts. The present lines of suc- cessive fortifications extend for fifteen miles around the city. Metz can never succumb to an outward enemy by any force except treachery or starvation. The battlefields lie to the west, on the road to Verdon. It takes a full day and costs about forty francs to visit them. The battle of the i th of August, 1870, was very bloody. The French lost about 17,000 and the Germans about the same number of officers and men. The Germans were fortified, while the French fought in the open field. In the battle of August 18, the Germans had 230,000 men opposed by 180,000 French. The Germans lost over 20,000 officers and men; the French loss was about 12,000 There were two more battles, one on the 31st of August, the other on the I St of September. In the last struggle the French were driven back under the guns of Metz. The city has been much improved by the Germans. The influx of travelers to visit the battlefields has been a source of great profit to the several very good hotels of the place. The new passport system has completely ruined the hotel business. We found a very large and well-appointed hotel with no guests except ourselves. Nearly all travelers now enter Germany from France through Belgium or Switzerland, where no pass- ports are required. In the Esplanade, — a beautiful park in the centre of the city, — stands the colossal statue of Marshal Ney. I saw his grave in Pere la Chaise, at Paris, with no monument to mark his final resting place. I have often wondered why the Im- perialists of France have so neglected one of Napoleon's bravest Marshals, created a Duke by the Emperor in 1805, and Prince of Moscowa 181 2. While the other Marshals of France, buried in the same cemetery, have splendid monuments over their remains, Ney has nothing but an iron railing around his grave, and his name cut on the stone step under the gate. I noticed a peculiarity in the hotel regulations of Metz I have seen in no other place. The}^ reckon from night to night and not from day to day. The traveler's bills commence at BlNGEN ON THE RHINE. I7; 5 P, M. ; the night ends at 8 A. M. the next morning. If he holds his room after 5 P, M., he is charged with another night whether he stays or not. We left Metz on the 4th of July, It was uncomfortably coldv We are all wearing our winter clothing and are non^ too warm-. We sleep under two or three blankets every night. Nothing but violent exercise will cause perspiration here. Our next resting place was ' ' Sweet Bingen on the Rhine. ' ' The scenery from Metz to Bingen is soft and lovely, here and there broken by the Vosges mountains which we skirt nearly the entire route. We passed the battlefield of Saarbruch^ where a sharp engagement took place between the French and Prussians August 6th, 1870, in which the French, although numerically superior, were obliged to retreat. At Oberstein, there is a church most curiously constructed in the cliff of a rock four hundred feet high. The church is cut out of the face of the rock about two hundred feet up the precipitous cliff, and presents a very weird and romantic ap- pearance. The railroad route follows very nearly the course of the river Nahe, passing through several towns of from five thousand to twenty thousand inhabitants ) among them Kreuz- nach, a watering place of great repute, celebrated for its natural salt springs and baths. The railroad station is at Bingenbruckj on the left bank of the Nahe, which we cross by carriage to Bingen . Bingen is a town of seven thousand inhabitants, completely finished several hundred years ago ; a most delightful place to spend a few days in rest and rural recreation among flower gardens, vineyards and mountains. The town is very old. During the thirty years' war it was almost entirely destroyed by the French. From the heights in the rear of the town the prospect is most charming. Old ruined castles upon the rocky hill tops of the Rhine may be seen for many miles down the river. On the opposite bank, about five hundred feet up the hillside, stands the new monument recently erected by the German Empire, representing "Germania watching the Rhine. " It looks very much like the new monument at New York, of *' lyiberty enlightening the World." A little to the right, on the opposite side of the river, stands the village ofRudesheim, surrounded by the celebrated Rude.sheimer vineyards, the wine of which is known all over the world. We made the trip down the Rhine from Bingen to Cologne in one day. Of course I will not be expected to describe sqenery upon which volumes have been written, and upon which the best painters and landscape artists have exhausted their skill. It looks about as it did nineteen years ago when I saw it last and then thought nothing in the world could be lyS Cologne. more beatitifuL I had not then seen the Danube, the Dardan- elles or the Bosphorus from Constantinople to the Black Sea. While the Rhine scenery is beautiful, I do not consider it equal to the scenery of the Danube from the Iron Gate to Bel- grade, I can easily imagine how the now barren mountains of Greece and Judea could have once been terraced as the mountains of the Rhine now are, and how they could have been covered with vineyards and verdure as these now are. If these mountains were neglected for two thousand years as those of Greece have been, every particle of soil would be washed off or be blown away and nothing but the barren rock be left- We stayed two days at Cologne, It has been very much improved since my visit in 1869, The cathedral, which ha;? been five or six hundred years in construction has been fin- ished, and is now one of the grandest Gothic churches in the world. The spires are five hundred and twelve feet high and of most perfect proportions, I do not remember ever having looked upon a construction of human hands more inspiring with a sensation of awe, than that presented by the first full view of this cathedral. The latitude of Cologne is nearh seven hundred miles north of Philadelphia, The Rhine here is about four hundred and fift}'' yards wide and flows with ■ great rapidity. The length of the navigable river from Bale to the German Ocean is about eleven hundred miles. Its average width is not over three hundred and fifty yards ; its average depth about five feet. At Bale the surface of the river is eight hundred and three feet above the level of the sea ; at Cologne it is one hundred and twenty-two feet above sea leveL I have been within a few miles of its source, near Toma-See- where it is seven thousand six hundred and eighty-nine feet above the level of the sea. It is somewhat remarkable that the Rhone, running southward, the Rhine, running north- ward, and the Danube, running eastward, all rise within a few miles of each other. The old bridge of boats still crosses the river at Cologne, Ivike Bale, Cologne has completely changed since my last visit. The old houses have nearly all disappeared and splen- did modern buildings have taken their places. The old town walls have been removed and magnificent new boulevards with houses like the new part of Boston have been built upon the site of the old bulwarks for miles. The old church of St. Ursula, with the bones and skulls of the eleven thousand virgins massacred with her, looks just like it did nineteen years ago- Amsterdam to London,, 179 XXXIX, Amsterdam to London—Rotterdam a City on Piles^-- Delethaven and the Mayflower Pilgrims— A Curious Old City-^An Old Friend— The Hague— Diamond Cut- TING in Amsterdam— ^Holland, London's Kitchen Gar- den—Back TO London— The Pleasure of Hearing our Native Tongue Again^— Hotel Metropole— Impres- sions OF London After a Long Absence--^Off For the Polar Regions. London, July, 1888. From Rotterdam to Harwich by sea, and from thence by rail to London, requires about one day. We found the North Sea very rough. Most of the passengers were sick from the time we entered the Sea until we landed in England. We en- countered a wind storm dead ahead and for half an hour went backward instead of forward It is impossible to describe the complicated motion of one of the little side-wheel .ships of the line from Rotterdam to London. An ocean steamer never inakes such erratic movements. We landed safely about 9 A. M. on the day after our em- barkation and proceeded at once to this grand old city. Rotterdam is a very interesting old Dutch town of about 170,000 inhabitants. Dam, in Dutch, means to keep out the water ; Amsterdam, means the dike of the river Amster, which runs through the town. Rotterdam is built upon a marshy plain from six to twelve feet below the sea level. The build- ings, in the old part of the city, are very irregular, twisted and out of plumb, leaning in different waj^s. Some look as if they were top-heavy and about to tumble into the streets, while others lean sideways and backward. The cause of this irregularity is the swampy, alluvial ground upon which the town is built. No trees can be found to make piles long enough to reach the firm earth. They now overcome the difh- culty by driving the piles up to the head and then driving others on the ones already sunk until a firm foundation is se- cured ; even then some of the laige modern buildings are out of plumb and slightly twisted. In Amsterdam they encounter the same difficulties, but not to the same extent, as the ground is firmer and nearer on a level with the sea. The whole coun = try around these cities was once a part of the sea and has been filled up to its present level by the wash of the Meuse, Rhine and other rivers. To an American, the most interesting place in Rotterdam Rotterdam. ii the old church at D^lfthavea and the adjoimng" wharf from which the Pilgrim Fathsrs sailed in the Maj^flower, in 1594- All their names are written in the church records ; among tnem I read that of Miles Sta;idish. The church has been preserved in its ancient form, with broad floors covered with clean white sand. The pews are of unpainted wood, built very high and uncomfortable,, with a board in front upon which rest great clumsy looking Bibles five inches thick and a foot square. The city has its rich, poor, middle class and Jewish quar- ters. The Jewisn quarter is inhabited by about seven thousand Israelites, who dwell chiefly in the old part. It presents a very amasing appearance. Tney seem to live in tne streets. The sidewalks are obstructed by wash tubs and women doing the family work, cooking, mending and nursing their babies. I never saw so many little dirtj'-faced but robust children. They play all over tne street. The men cobble and trade in the open street, and the parts of the sidewalk not occupied by the wash tubs and babies is used by them as a place of deposit for their packs and dog-carts. The pedestrians pa.y the same respect to the wash tubs, carts and babies on the sidewalks as the people of Constantinople pay to their sleeping dogs ; that is to say,- they walk in the carriage-way and go around the obstructions without complaint, as a matter of course. The most beautiful part of the city is that occupied by the middle class, which includes merchants and tradespeople generally, some of whom are very rich. Wealth does not here raise the class. Kach house is of a different order of architect- ure and is erected in the centre of a garden from one hundred to one hundred and fifty or more feet square, surrounded by a canal and approached from the street over a drawbridge and portcullis. The bridge is down and the portcullis up during the day ; at night the bridge is up and the portcullis down. The gardens around these beautiful dwellings are laid out with great taste, with gravel walks, arbors, flower beds and green, shady trees. The ground is so rich and the climate so mild that the vegetation is luxuriant and very fresh and green. There are no dead leaves. I almost doubted whether Death ever entered this little Paradise, but a piece of black crape bound by a white ribbon, hanging from one of the door knobs, dispelled this illusion and convinced me that there were loved and lost ones here as well as at home. All these pretty dwell- ing places have fancy names, such as "Felicity," "Paradise," "Jerusalem," etc. The poor quarter is in complete contrast with what I have endeavored to describe as the quarter of the middle class. The houses are high, old, ugly and dilapidated ; the streets long, Amsterdam. iS'r narrow and dark. I visited it on Sunday and will never forget the scene. The street was so crowded with men, women and children as to render it almost impossible to pass in our car- riage. The women wore the old Dutch costume of a hundred years ago. They all seemed healthy, and I really believe they were as happy as their more favored brethren of the other quarters. The whole city is traversed by canals navigated by boats of considerable size, some of them propelled by steam. There are several good hotels in the place. I selected the " Hotel de Pays Bas " because when I visited the city in 1869 it was a new and fashionable house. I was surprised to find the same guide there that showed me the town nearly twenty years ago. In looks he had not grown much older, but his hair showed the frost marks of Time. The hotel is still a comfortable resting place but not equipped with many of the modern hotel improvements. The city has a fine park running for several miles along the banks of the Meuse. Several old historic houses have been carefully preserved. They show the house where Erasmus was born, and the house where over one thousand citizens were saved during one of the massacres which followed a suc- cessful siege of the city. The house was filled with the flying and panic-stricken citizens, while the enemy, flushed with a dearly-bought victory, were sweeping the streets and slaught- ering the people. One of the cooler heads killed a sheep and smeared the door with blood. The passing murderers, sup- posing the house had been already sacked, passed on. Soon after order was restored and the citizens saved from further slaughter. While the city seems to be in a prosperous condi- tion, it is evidently much behind the age as compared with others of the same class. We went from Rotterdam to Amsterdam and out to the Hague. Amsterdam is a large and prosperous city of nearlj- half a million inhabitants, well built, but full of canals of green stagnant water. The canals of the city are crossed by about four hundred bridges and are, like those of Rotterdam, navi- gated by steam and other boats. We visited the King's pal- ace, museum, picture gallery and parks, and took a four hours- drive around the city. We also visited the world-renowned diamond -cutting establishment of Amsterdam. We stopped at Brack's Doelen Hotel, the best in the city and equal to any we have stopped at with a few exceptions. The Hague is alwaj^s a place of interest. It has been very much improved during the past few years. It is quite a fashionable watering place, and the residence of the King. He t82 Back to London. only dwells in his Amsterdam palace about a month in each year. We have had a fine opportunity to see nearly the whole of Holland and have either visited or passed through all its principal cities and towns. It is a land of ditches, canals, windmills and green luxuriant fields. They raise two crops a year and produce some of the best small fruits in the world. The market for the fruits and general produce of the country is L/Ondon. I,and rents at from ten to thirty dollars an acre. The people are very sober and industrious and apparently as happy as the people of France and German }•, and more con- tented with their government. There are but few politicians in Holland. I find lyondon very much improved since my visit in 1873. The Thames embankment was not then finished. It has con- verted the river Iront from the ugliest to the most beautiful water front in Europe, if not in the world. While Paris has retrograded I^ondon has advanced. To my mind, it is a much handsomer city now than Paris, and a much more pleasant place for an American. After four months of wandering among unknown tongues, it is trul}' refreshing to hear our native language once more. I have at times, while in the center of some great city, surrounded by hundreds of thous- ands of people, felt as lonely as if I had been in the center of the sea, or in some great wilderness entirely away from human contact, where every word I heard was as meaningless as the gibberish of a monkey and where I understood the dogs and domestic animals better than my own race,. I find the couriers and guides who profess to speak all the European languages very deficient in common conversation. They have learned only what pertains to their business. They under- stand the language of railroads, steamships, hotels and shops, but nothing more. After all it is not very dif&cult to acquire a sufficiency of such knowledge. But here, in Old England, we can converse with each other ; we can convey every shade of thought and sentiment ; mind can hold communion with mind without the constant strain and ludicrous mistakes so constantly made when conversing in a foreign tongue. We are now quartered at the Hotel Metropole, beyond question the finest in the world so far as the building is con- cerned. I have visited many palaces but have not seen one more completely finished than this hotel. It is one of the largest hotels in the world and is now full to overflowing. The service and attention required by the traveler, to make him comfortable, is not as good as that of the " Continental " of Paris, and not half as good as dozens of hotels we have found of less pretensions. There are now between one and London to the North Cape. two thousand guests in the house. I have vasited again the old landmarks of London and find them about the same as when I saw them last. The appearance of the city, however, as before stated, has been completely changed along the river front. Southwark looks just as it did nineteen years ago ; so do the suburbs of the city. The population of London is now supposed to be over 4,000,000. I have .hired a courier who speaks the languages of Detf- mark, Sweden and Norway, and have determined to visit those countries. If nothing interferes with my present plans, we will go beyond the Arctic circle as far as the North Cape, and take a look at the midnight sun. This excursion will re- quire at least a month. It is a big undertaking but the ladies of my family think they can endure it and I, therefore, ought not to refuse them such a treat. By the way, they have proved splendid travelers, at which I am agreeably surprised- XL London to the North Cape — Christian! a— Rugged Nor- way Fjords, Mountains and Glaciers-Long Twilights and Love Making — Temperance and Lic'ense Laws of Norway — Democratic Manners — Throndhjem— Beau- tiful Flowers— St. Olaf — A German Brute — Grand Send Off — Whales— Tromso — Troghatten — Hammer- FEST — Land Without Value— The Midnight Sun- North Cape — BiRD-KoosT Rock — Reflections. North Cape, Norway, On board Steamer Sirius, Midnight, July, 188^ We left London on the 12th in a fog, being the tail of a snow storm that passed over the city on the 9th. The weather was disagreeably cold, rousing fires were in all the grates of the hotel, and most of the guests wore their winter clothing. After providing ourselves with rugs, furs and other Arctic attire, we took the train for Tilbury, opposite Grave's End, where we embarked on the British ship Albanos for Christiania. The tide at Tilbury rises nearly twenty-eight feet. The wharf is connected by a long tubular bridge, work- ing on hinges, with a pontoon which rises and falls with the tide. After a pleasant voyage of three days, we arrived at Chris- tiania, the Capital city of Norway. The whole western coast of Norway, from Christiania to the North Cape, is a network l'84 Christiania. of rocky islands and fjords (pronounced /.^^^rf^). Some of the islands are- barren rocks, and manj^ of them mountains, from eight hundred to six thousand feet high, rising either abruptly or with a gentle slope from the sea. A glance at the map will convey a better idea of this rough, rugged and barren coast, with its many thousand island mountains, its fjords, glaciers and desolate hills of snow, than can possibly be given in the narrow limits of a letter. We passed one glacier containing over five hundred square miles of ice. We were on another nearly fifty miles long and twelve miles wide. Christiania was, within a recent period, a city of wooden houses. Commercial prosperity and some extensive confla- grations have converted it into a very substantial stone and brick built city, with fine broad, regular and well paved Streets. There is nothing very striking about the town. It is just -such a modern city as the traveler will find all over Europe. The suburbs, however, are more than ordinarily beautiful. There are hills fully eighteen hundred feet high, in close proximity with the town, from which most charming views can be had over the city and bay. These hills are cov- ered with thrifty green fir trees, which impart to the air an aromatic perfume of balsam. One of the lady passengers on the ship thought she smelt the fragrance of the forest pines as we passed one of the fir clad mountains before landing at Christiania, but alas ! for the uncertainty of our senses, the delicious perfume was found to come from the newly tarred shrouds of the ship. We took a drive around the city and its environs at the fashionable hour for such amusement, 7 PM. We returned at 10 P. M., in full daylight. It seemed very odd to see farm- ers at work in the harvest field at ten in the a/ter?ioon. They don't call \\. flight here until about 11.30 or 12 P. M. It is twilight all night at this season of the year. It takes several days of sunshine to cure the hay. It must be carefully spread upon poles, arranged like fences in the fields, so that the air can circulate through it. The city has a population of about 124,000. I saw noth- ing peculiar in the people except their free and easy love- inaking. It is no uncommon thing to find lovers, old and young, sitting on the benches of the park, or strolling among the trees and reposing upon the grass, in the beautiful suburbs of the city, nearly all night, always remembering that it is never very dark. It was as light at eleven P. M. the two tiights we remained there as it is at sundown in summer at home. I also noticed the horses as being of a different breed from any I have seen in America. They resemble the ancient war horses of Greece as they are painted in old pictures, with Throndhjem. 185 great strong necks, very much t)Owed and with the mane cut short so as to make a crest. The_v are not very large, but are said to have great strength and endurance. The Norwegians were formerly heavy drinkers. A strong temperance movement has very much reformed this bad habit> They enacted, in 1877, a very stringent license law. I^icenses are sold at public auction to the highest bidder, who is com- pelled before he receives his license, to give security and pay about one hundred dollars for the privilege. Sometimes a pri- vate corporation is licensed upon condition that all profits over a fixed sum shall go to the government. They also have, in some districts, a local option law, by which a majority of the people decide whether any or how many licenses shall bi grant- ed. So, you see, the agitation of temperance legislation is not CDnfined to our country alone. In manners the people are very democratic. Common laborers do not hesitate to set themselves at the same table with the lordly traveller. If you invite your guide to dine with you, he will not hesitate to order a bottle of the best wine and quite innocently invite you to drink with him, but he ex- pects you to pay for the treat. The people, however, are kind, unaffected and polite and less inclined to take advantage of the traveler's necessities than the same class in other parts of Europe. The common people have a peculiar way of express- ing their thanks for an act of kindness. They do not speak, but simply bow and shake your hand. From Christiania, we went by rail to Throndhjem (pro- nounced Troneuvi). It requires seventeen hours to make the journej'-. We could see the country as well by night as day. Throndhjem is situated on the west coast, in latitude 63.30 N., on a line with Iceland. It has a population of about 23,000 and is built chiefly of wood. The streets are wide and regular. It has several tastefully kept little gardens of the most beauti- ful flowers I have ever seen. One of the peculiarities of the latitude and temperature of Norway is to produce laiger flowers and broader leaves than the same leaves and flowers are in other places. Butter-cups are nearly all double. Clover heads are twice as large as in England, while the leaves and blades of grass are much longer and broader than in other countries. The perpetual sunlight is supposed to cause this increase in the leaf and blossom of annual plants. On the spot where St. OJaf was originally buried, a fine church has been erected, which is one of the chief objects of interest in Throndhjem. It is now only a fragment of its for- mer magnificence. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Kings of Norway were all buried here. All the sovereigns of the country are required to repair to Throndhjem to be crowned tS6 To TvToRTir Cape;. Charles XIV.,, John (Bernadotte), Oscar I , Charles XV., send the present King,. Oscar II,., were crowned in this Cathedral„ There are several fine views and a beautiful water-fall near the city, well worth a. visit.. We were compelled, to remain at Throndhjem over a day to meet our ship^ which did. not arrive at her usual hour- because of a fog on her way from. Bergan.. We went on board, about 9 P. M-. She was a fine English built iron, steamer of about eight hundred tons, one hundred and fifty feet long,, with powerful engines and well furnished berths for over one-, hundred fi.rst -class passengers. I was a little sn) tovo-luntarily leave the ship that night at the next landing. The enraged fool had not sense- enough to know that the only person he was punishing was the poor captain,, who,, by the way,, was a most excellent ofl&cer and courtly gentleman. It takes eight days by steamer ta gO' from Tbrondhjem to* the North Cape and return. I had no idea that the excursion had created so much excitement. It seemed to me that the entire population of the city were on the wharf to see us off", A band of most excellent musicians played the national airs of Eagl and, France and America, and "precisely at lo P. M. the discharge of four cannon upon the ship announced the hour of departure. You must always remember that lo P, M, there means broad daylight. From Thronhdjem to the North Cape there is no night. We did not see a star for eight days. The moon lost its red blush and had a sickly, dying look. The "TRo'^gd. i^ ';ship winds its way among thousands of islands and mduntaiti scenery of a most interesting character. Some of the -mountains -are six thousand feet high, but do not seem near so lofty be- •cause of the great distances across the for-ds or bays which ■separate them. We soon arrived at the Arctic Circle 66.50 N. , where, from 'the 2 1 St of June till late in. July, the sun never sets. We played -for several hours with a school of whales. We nearly ran over •a very large one. We were .permittsd to land at a place where they convert the captured whales into oil, &c. I counted ^twenty-three large, dead ones anchored a short distance from the immense vats and steam, machinery on the shore. Some had just been brought in, others looked and s-meU if they had 'heen there for months. Our first regular coaling place w^s Tromso, a small wooden 'built town of about six hundred inhabitants, in N. latitude '69.38. It is sheltered by mountains and is comparatively warm. There was a camp of L,aplanders a short distance from the town^ which the passengers Visited while the ship was 'being coaled. We are now beyond the line of timber. There is a shrub here and there-, and now and then a little green spot^ •but vegetation is very scarce. The wood with which the town is built has been brought from Russia and exchanged for fish. All the country above the sixty-eighth degree of north latitude was known to the ancients as the land of Thtile. It was -a -■strange region., supposed to be inhabited by beings different ■from ordinary mortals. Th-e ancient Greeks never explored it. Indeed-, in the reign of Theodoric, the people of Constan- tinople only knew it by conversations with exiles from those far northern lands. It was in this region that the ceremonies of the Christian celebration of Christmas originated. When the sun disappeared in the South they thought he was buried and their season of mourning began. When some watchman upon a high mountain shouted the glad tidings of the first •approaching ray of his return, which was about the twenty- fifth of December, then the joyous festivities of his resurrec- tion began-. When these northern nations became Christians-, they applied the same ceremonies to their rejoicing for the birth of Christ. Thus, one of our most interesting church festivals had its origin in a heathen custom. A short distance north of Tromso, we landed to ascend Mount Torghattan, or the marked hat. About five hundred feet up the mountain there is a hole, from fifty to a hundred feet squate, directly through it. From the sea, it looks as if a large cannon ball had been shot through the mountain. How the tunnel was made no one knows. The inhabitants say it was caused by an arrow from the bow of an old Norwegian Hammerfest, giant shot at his rival for the heart of a Norseland maid. They say the arrow struck his high Norwegian hat and went clean and clear through the mountain. The next day the ship stopped at a fishing station to give us an opportunity to visit a seven hundred year old churchy about two miles distant. I asked an old fisherman on the wharf, who spoke a little Eng- liish, why he did not leave these hyperborean regions and come to America, He smiled, shook his head and said there was no better country in the world than Harstahaven.. That was the naiue of the church. On the third day from Throndhjem,. we arrived at Ham^merfest,. the most northern city of Europe. It is also built of Russian timber. It has about two thousand one hundred inhabitants. Its situation is very picturesque, nestling at the fefet of mountains of rock in the form of an amphitheatre. It is sheltered from the northern blasts and gets the benefit of the sun's rays upon the bare rock of the mountains. The thermometer stood at 52^ while the water showed a temperature of 60. There were twenty-six vessels at anchor in the harbor in front of the town,, mostly Russian coasters. We are now at a point where land has no value. We have left all traces of cultivated fields far behind us. The mind suffers a sense of weariness in contemplating the boundless waste and endless desolation around us. The eye grows tired of perpetual sunshine and longs for the relief of a good old- fashioned night, Hammerfest is two thousand one hundred miles north of the latitude of Philadelphia, In the same latitude on the American side of the Arctic Ocean we would be in the region of eternal ice, Franklin perished in a latitude south of the North Cape, and the uninhabited regions of East Siberia are south of Hammerfest. As we sailed out of the harbor of Hammerfest, we got our first glimpse of the midnight sun. The view was ver)" imper- fect, and the passengers were very much depressed because of the threatening weather. Many persons come thousands of miles to see it and go home disappointed. There are times when it is not seen for weeks. On the 226., in latitude 70, we had a superb view of the full orb from 6 P. M. until 2 A. M, At half-past eleven every soul was on deck anxiously looking due north for the last minute of midnight. As the minutes passed slowly away it was an interesting study to observe the excited, care-worn and solicitous faces of the gazing crowd. The sun had gradually skimmed along the northwestern hori- zon from 6 P. M., at which time it did not seem more than half an hour high. It was about three degrees above the horizon, apparently about four feet high, when we were all The Midnight Sun, 189 startled by the discharge of one of the ship's cannon, by which the captain announced the exact minute of midnight. The long suspense was over and a happy smile lighted up every face. We had seen the midnight sun. We remained on deck until 2 A.M. and saw the sun begin to gradually rise higher and higher until he was about five feet above the sea, when most of the passengers went to bed for a long, happy sleep. 7\t midnight the sun is due north ; at 6 A. M. he is east, not more than 23 degrees high ; at noon he is due south, about 45 degrees high ; at 6 P. M. he is west, back to 23 degrees, and from that hour gradually descends upon an oblique line northward until he again arrives at a point due north at mid- night. If we were at the North Pole the sun would apparently skim around the horizon at the same altitude. As we are nine- teen degrees south of the pole the effect is to give the sun a course around an imaginary eccentric, with its axis nineteen degrees south of the centre. The northern part of this ring is just above the horizon ; its southern part is about 45 degrees high. Around this ring the sun appears to travel daily . Every day the northern part of this ring descends until it drops below the hori- zon. The sun then commences to rise and set daily, the south- ern arc growing gradually less until he at last entirely disap- pears in the south, where, at his appointed time he appear^j again and so on to the end of time. The next day we started for the North Cape, where we expected to have a still better view of the midnight sun. The Cape being farther north and the headland being one thous- and feet above the sea, the sun at midnight is much higher than where we saw it. To put in the time, the captain visited the bird-roost rock, about twenty miles east of the Cape. When we were opposite the rock, which rises about one thous- and feet above the sea, a cannon was discharged. Instantly thousands upon thousands of sea fowl, with a cry of alarm ,. took wing and ascended in circles above the rock and over the ship. I noticed that not more than one-third of the birds roost- ing upon the ledges of the rock, flew away. The captain said they had learned that it was all noise and no danger, and only the young and timid were now^ frightened at an explosion of gunpowder. I thought that some men might take a lesson from the birds. We soon arrived at the Cape, cast anchor, lowered the boats and were all on shore. The ascent is very steep, almost perpendicular. We were about an hour getting to the top. All were elated at the prospect of a splendid view of the midnight sun. We were doomed to a most bitter disappointment. We had scarcely reached the summit when a heavy fog fell upon the mountain top and completely obscured the sun until long igo North CaPe to Copter^HAGEM. after midnight. We could barely distinguish where it w^^j but could not see the orb. While on the moutitain, I was very much impressed with our delusive ideas of size and distance. The cape did not seem over two or three hundred feet high, whereas it was fully one thousand. The ship looked about the size of a Delaware river tugi The mountains fifty iniles off appeared but a few hundred yards away. If these stupendous mountains and almost boundless seas seem so small to one only a thousand feet above them, how like a microscopic mite must the world appear to the eye that beholds the universe at a single glanee. • My letter is too long. I have tried to condense my thoughts, but find it almost impossible-. It was written by sunlight at midnight at the North Cape. XLI. -NoKTH Cape to Copenhagen— L,ast Look a't the Mid- night Sun — Depressing Sieence — Opticai^ Delusions — Once in a Lifetime I3nough---Bag« to Christiania — A Viking Ship One Thousand Years Old — What Will BE Said of Our Ships One Thousand Years Hence^=^ Familiar Names— =^Gin for Breakfast — Ancient Ship Customs — -Gotenberg — 'Prosperity in Europe— Birth- place OF Hamlet — Emperor of Germany's Reception — Kings OP Denmark and Belgium in Copenhagen — Great -Industrial Exposition--- Lotteries — Stone Age Relics — All Europe a Camp and Every City an Arsenal^— On to Berlin. Copenhagen, August-, 1^88. Just before our arrival at Hammerfest, on our return from the North Cape^ we had another view of the midnight sun. As both the sun and the ship were going southward, its disk •was not as far above the horizon at midnight as it was at the -North Cape. One who has seen the sun just before it goes down on a clear evening at sea, will have a very fair idea of the sun at midnight at Hammerfest at this season of the year. It is apparently about three feet high and casts a long glittfer= ing streak of golden rays along the smooth surface of the water. The clouds above are in a blaze of red, while those more dis- tant have a silver lining. Our return was through different fjords from our course Up to the Cape, thus giving us a more extensive view of the rug- ged mountains and glaciers of Norway, The eternal quiet A Viking Ship. igr and absence ol the usual signs of civilization in these desolate regions have a very depressing effect upon the mind, hard to express but felt by all travelers who have vistited the place. To me it seemed like a journey to the moon, or some dead planet. I was again struck with my inability to measure dis- tances or heights. Before landing upon one of the glaciers I tried to mentally guess its length and breadth. Making full allowance for previous optical delusions, I supposed its breadth to be five hundred yards and its length some two or three miles. It was in fact forty-four miles, long and twelve miles broad. I saw a rock upon the side of a mountain which I thought about fifty feet high ; it was in reality higher than the tower of the Public Buildings at Philadelphia which, set beside this mountain, would look like a child's toy. Fjords fully ten miles across do not look over half a mile wide. North Cape is worth one visit in a lifetime. T would not have missed it for all it has cost, but I would not endure the weariness and fatigue of a second journey there for ten times the cost of the trip. The great drawback to travel in Norway and Sweden is the unexpected distance between the points of in- terest. For instance, in our journey from lyondon to the North Cape and this far back we have traveled four thousand miles. On returning to Christiania, we gave the city a more com- plete examination and found it a very interesting place. It contains one of the world's most wonderful relics, an exhumed Viking ship, in sufficiently perfect condition to convey a very correct idea of the war ships of these people a thousand years; ago. This ship is seventy feet long, built very much on the plan of the vessels of the same size of to-day, and gives us a reasonably correct notion of the old mariners of " Norseland " who so successfully invaded England and other lands. As I stood on the deck of our splendid steamer, on our way from. Christiania here, and looked down at her powerful compound engines working like great dumb giants , I wondered what the world, a thousand years hence, when our present means of locomotion will most probably be forgotten, will think when one of these wrecked steamers shall be belched up from the bottom of the sea by an earthquake, or the drying up of the sea has exposed it. Perhaps the geologists of that day will pronounce it a fossil sea monster with iron ribs and skin of steel that fed upon coal and drank boiling water. They will,, perhaps, be about as near right as our modern philosophers are, in some of their deductions, from fossil remains. I notice all over Norway, Sweden and Denmark very familiar names, such as Williamson, Clemson, Johnson, Peter- son and many other names ending in son or sen, which has the same meaning here as Mac in Scotland and O' in Ireland, 192 Copenhagen. Notwithstanding the stringent liquor laws of late j^ears, I find the Norwegians and Swedes very heavy drinkers. When you call for a glass of beer, they give you a pint, and they have free gin on the table for breakfast, dinner and supper. Withal, I see but few drunken men. There must be some- thing in the chilly atmosphere of this latitude that engenders a desire for strong drink. . On Norwegian ships the3^ still keep up some of their an- cient customs. For instance, the purser still carries the ship's money in a great bag or purse hung around his neck. It was from this custom that the ship's treasurer took the name he still bears, of " purser, " We came by ship from Christiania to Copenhagen. We had a very fine view of the coast of Sweden and the southern part of Norway. We stopped long enough at Gotenberg to fairly see the city. The coast near the town is very rocky but interesting. The city is built among the rocka, some of which project above the loftiest buildings. Most of the rocky emi- nences are either built upon, or crowned with forts or castles. The harbor was full of ships of all sizes, from ocean steamers down to fishing schooners. The streets are wide, well paved and reasonably regular. I saw nothing very remarkable to distinguish it from other cities of the same size on the conti- . nent, except its rocky site. It has a population of about 82,000, and appears to be a very busy and thriving place. It may be that Europe is falling into ruin and decay, but I must confess I have been unable to see it. All that I have seen points to great prosperity and a rapid increase of wealth and population. As we approached Copenhagen the country appeared flat and uninteresting, somewhat like Holland. Before reaching the city we passed Klsinore, the scene of Shakespeare's Tragedy of Hamlet. They show the traveler the brook, in which the fair Ophelia was drowned, and the grave of the Mad Prince. Copenhagen is a beautiful, well-built and very strongly fortified city. Several large forts rise out of the water along the channel, long before we reach the town. The water front presents a better appearance than that of most cities. In approaching the city we passed the old castle of Kronberg which we afterwards visited ; the guide belonging to the cas- tle not being able to speak English, our visit was not satisfac- tory. Manj^ historic memories, however, cluster around the place. It is well preserved and full of objects of interest. Caroline Matilda, of Eogland, was confined in this castle until George III., her brother, sent a fleet to escort her to England, where she soon afterwards died. The Prince of Wales's wife is the daughter of Christian IX., King of Denmark. The king seems to be very popular Copenhagen. 195 with the people. I counted four iron-clad ships of war and several torpedo boats lying in the harbor. The city is built upon a flat island, indeed all Denmark is flat. The highest place in the kingdom is only about six hundred feet above the level of the sea. The people of the city seem to be very fond of out-of-door sports and rural pleasures. The city contains sixteen beautiful green squares, devoted entirely to the pleas- ure of the people. Tivoli Garden, in the centre of the city, is always crowded with old and young pleasure -seekers. On Sundays, and after business hours, one is struck with the bare- ness of the streets. It is just the opposite in the public squares and gardens, which will be found crowded to overflowing. I know of no town except Hamburg that h s more pleasure grounds and public amusements than Copenhagen. lyike all other towns of its size, it has its museums, art gallery, palace,, opera house, circus and theatre. We attended the circus once, and found it crowded to suffocation. The performance was good ; indeed it could not be better. The population of the city is about 280,000, The day after our arrival the city, and the Industrial Exhibition now being held there, were visited by Count Bismarck and the young Emperor of Germany. I expected to see a much more enthusastic reception. I secured places on board one of the reception ships and steamed out some ten or twelve miles to meet the fleet of the Emperor's escort. But few flags were displayed from private houses or ships. Of course the public buildings were decorated with the national colors of Germany and Denmark. The King also sent his splendid yacht to meet and receive the Emperor, and a grand salute was fired from the line of forts as the yacht and royal visitors approached ^ but any one could see a degreeof coldness that must have been anything but pleasant to the pride of the German Emperor. A few days before, the King of Belgium had visited the city^ and was received with great enthusiasm. They say there was not a private house in the city that did not display a flag,, while the people all along his line of march shouted them- selves hoarse in huzzas to his honor. The people of Denmark have not forgotten Schleswig-Holstein. The exhibition, now being held, is very creditable to the State of Denmark. It looked very much like our Centennial display in 1876, but, of course, was not so extensive or grand. I noticed several lotteries in full operation. The poor peas- ants were standing in a long line, dropping in their kronen- only to see a blank come out. About once or twice a day a prize of from five to ten kronen was drawn, and this seemed to set the people crazy for a chance to gamble. We had a full look at both the King of Denmark and the 194 Copenhagen, Emperor of Germany as they descenJed from the ship. There was no difl&culty in seeing them both within the exhibition , grounds. I may be deceived in my estimation of the German Kmperor, but he does not look like a very strong man either mentally or physically. There is on; of the finest CDllections of relics of the stone age here to be found in the world. Hammers, axes, chisels and other tools in stone are exhibited in the Museum of Antiq- uities, in the exact farm of modern iron and steel tools. There are also exhibited here two petrified wooden coffins of a pre-historic age, with skulls and bones well preserved. The size of each skeleton is about the same as the present hu- man stature, and the shape of their skulls is highly intellect- ual, showing a volume of brain equal to Daniel Webster or Victor Hugo. If man is an evolution from a monkey, he must , rhave attained his present form and intellectual superiority when these old mummies lived, thousands of years ago. > In my drives around the city and excursions by water along its front, I w%s surprised to see the gigantic warlike energy displayed by such a small kingdom as Denmark. It seems to me that Europe must soon do one of two things: — either enter . upon a general; war until the- energies of all are exhausted and the powers be thus again reduced to a level, or agree upon a general disarming. It is quite certain that one Power cannot now remain idle while a neighboring State is drilling and arm- ing to its fullest ability. The result is that all Europe is now an arsenal and every cit}^ a military camp. ; ThCj weather has been very unsettled since we left Eng- land ; in fact we have been compelled to wear our winter cloth- ing ever since we left Vienna. Cherries and strawberries are now in season, while the wheat is still green and the grass not yet harvested. One peculiarity of Sweden and Denmark is their American mode of farming. They have the same style of barns, hedges, plows, mowing machines and fences. I have no doubt but that our idea of farming in Chester and Dela- ware Counties are largely due to early Swedish emigration. We leave here to-morrow for Berlin where we will, per- haps, sojourn a week, after which we hope to visit Hamburg and from there go to Scotland, Our time is now getting short. We begin to realize that our wanderings are nearly over,. Copenhagen to Berlin. . '95 XLIL Cope;nhagen to Berlin -Political REi^LECTioNs---- A Beau- tiful BUT Dull City— Bismarck and the Emperor in 1873 — The IvIFE of a City Depends Upon the Spirit of , its People-^First Impression of Berlin the Best— - Contrast Between William's and Augusta's Palaces —The Mother of the Young Emperor not Popular— lyESSoNS Taught by the Museum op Arms— An Improv^- ED Street Railway Car— On to Hamburg. '"- - Berlin, August, 1888. After a few days rest- in Copenhagen, I felt an irresistable desire to again visit the capital of the great German Empire. I saw it first in 1873, after the close of the Franco-Prussian war. It had then a population of about eighty thousand. While taking an early morning walk by the Royal PalaCe, I saw the Emperor and the, then Count, now Prince Bismarck, promenading arm in arm in the Palace Garden. The Empe- ror looked fresh and vigorous, but the Count seemed to move with pain and had a haggard and careworn countenance. The Crown Prince was then the idol of Germany, young, tall, hand- some and strong ; full of health and hope. Since then, both he and his illustrious father have died, and the ponderous crown of the Empire is now upon the head of an untried youth The "man of blood and iron " still lives, but even iron will rust and the warmest blood become chilled with age. Ger- many is now in the acme of its glory ; great, proud and Over- bearing. How long she will maintain her exalted position is the problem of the day only to be solved by her conduct in the future. She has wounded the pride of her neighbors. She has mutilated France, dismembered Denmark, humiliated Austria and insulted England. She is now Courting the friend- ship of Russia. If Constantinople is to be the price of that friendship, will England, France, Austria and Italy quietly consent to surrender all the advantages of the Crimean war ? In our journey from Copenhagen to Berlin, we noticed that the harvest was not yet ripe. We found Denmark, along our route of travel, very fertile but flat. It is covered with farm- houses and barns very much like some parts of our own coun- try. The hedges dividing the fields were very well kept, green and beautiful, giving to the land a very neat and fresh appear- ance. As we entered Germany and approached Berlin, the land became more sterile and sandy, very much resembling the State of New Jersey from Bordentown to Cape May. 196 Berlin. The city of Berlin is situated in the centre of a fifty-mile- wide sandy plateau, at its highest point not over one hundred and twenty feet above the sea. The river Spree, about twice as broad as the creek at Chester, runs through the city. The population of the place has increased with a surprising rapidity since 1873. It now contains, including a garrison of twenty thousand soldiers, a population of 1,300,000, and in size is now the third city in Europe. The built up area of the city is about twenty-five square miles. The streets are splendidly paved, the houses tall and imposing and the general appearance of the city prepossessing. The heart of the city is around the Old Museum, Royal Gallery and Palaces, on both sides of the Spree. There is a striking resemblance in all European cities. T^he model of Western Europe was Rome, it is now Paris. As one goes farther East, ancient Babylon and Ninevah are the models. I^ondon is a mixture of Roman, Greek and Babylonish architecture. So is Berlin. When one for the first time stands upon the bridge over the Spree and looks towards the Old Museum, Royal Gallery, Palaces, University, Arsenal and other imposing public buildings in close proximity with the splendid street " Unter Den Linden," the city looks like the paintings representing ancient Babylon. While, however, there is a striking similarity in the general features of all European cities, there is in fact, as much diversity of appearance in them as there is in the faces and forms of the people that dwell in them. Some are young, fresh and rosy, others are old, bent and boney ; some are clothed in beautiful apparel, others clad in rags ; some are growing, others dying, Berlin is now rapidly growing in size and beauty. As compared with Vienna, lyondon and Paris, it is, however, a rather dull place. It has a splendid park within a short walk of the centre of the city, but it is not as lively and sprightly as the Bois de Bologne, at Paris or the Prater at Vienna. It is full of theatres and concert halls, but the plays and music are of a grave, heavy and august nature. In a general view, the city looks about as it did in 1873 ; in special details, however, it has greatly improved. The old ram- parts have been removed and converted into fine new avenues. The old rough cobble stones have given place to new Belgian blocks, wooden pavements like Chicago, and to asphaltum streets like Paris. Tramways run in every direction and public conveyance is easy and cheap. To my mind Berlin is not as fine a city as either New York or Boston, and a much duller place to live in than either. To most travelers the first impression ot Berlin is the best. As one walks down the broad street, crosses the bridge, looks over at what appears to be a Grecian temple, with tall Corinthian columns, and colossal statuary, flanked wiih hand- Berlin, 197 som^ palaces and spacious hotels, lie is apt to form tlie hasty conclusion that it is one of the handsomest cities in the world ; but when he gives the place a closer inspection he finds what appeared to be grand marble columns and palaces are really nothing but brick masonry covered with stucco. The feeling is the same as that experienced when for the first time we dis- cover some idol of female beauty, made up of paint and cotton pads, or when we suppose we are looking upon a pure diamond and find it is only a piece of polished glass. Berlin, however, has some fine modern buildings of cut sandstone, granite and brick. They are, however, exceptions to the general rule. We gave the city a thorough ex amination . We devoted one day to a drive over the town and through the parks. We visit- ed its best Royal palaces, museums, galleries and monuments. Every visitor to Berlin should see the Palace of the Old King and also that of the Empress Augusta. Tney had sepa- rate palaces. The contrast between them is very marked. That of the Empress is very rich and beautiful, but filled to its utmost capacity with valuable toys, pretty little articles devertu, and useless but very valuable furniture, lace, diamond work, and a thousand articles that no one but a woman could ever gather together. It is nevertheless excessively feminine and, therefore, very pretty. In the palace of the old Emperor, on the other hand, everything is ample but useful, and m perfect ■order. The decorations are of the richest kind. The walls are covered with splendid paintings by the best masters. The subjects all touch the pride and glory of Germany, The visi- tors to a part of this palace are required to wear felt slippers just as we were made to cover our feet before entering the uiosques of Constantinople. The object, however, is not the same. In one case the foot of the infidel must not touch the sacred floor, in the other the slipper is to deaden the noise of the feet upon tne bare polished wood and also to keep the floor clean. We have entered many royal and princely palaces in different countries, but have seen none richer or more elegant than the two seen here. We particularly noticed the portrait of the widow of the late Emperor Frederick, the daughter of Queen Victoria. If she was as fair as her picture represents her, and I have no reason to doubt it, she was a woman of rare beauty. It is hinted that the German people do not like her, No one has been able to inform me why. They ought not only to be proud of her, but also of noble old Queen Victoria, the grandmother of their Emperor. A very fine view of Ber- lin can be had from the top of the monument of Victory in the park. One of the most interesting places in the city is the Mu- seum of Arms, and the relics of the war with France. Aglance igS ■ 'BEKtiNV ■'. at the monstrous cannon, broken and battered by actual battle,, gives some idea of the terrible struggles around Metz and other fields. Some of these gtinsi show the indentations of as mam^ as six cannon balls on a single gun . Some have been struck in the muzzle, others have been broken in two,, while many have been bent and dismantled by a single shot. Exact models in plaster and wood of the several battlefields are here exhibited, and afford a most excellent study of the sanguinary scenes of the Franco-Prussian war, so full of glory to Germany and so disastrous to France. This museum- is intended to keep up the enthusiasm of Germany for her army, and it seems to have that effect^ for it is always crowded and is the scene of many a lecture from some old veteran who is always listened to with pride by the young people' of the city. One should never tire of looking at beautiful or interesting objects, yet I confess that I am weary of sight seeing. I have visited so many muse- ums of art and antiquity, and have seen so many of the world's finest paintings' that my desire for picture galleries and muse- ums is almost satisfied. Berlin can boast of a very fine gallery of modern art, and one of the best museums of antiquity in Europe r noticed in Berlin what seemed to me to be an im- provement in street car traveling/ The cars have ordinary omnibus wheels, the tires being the width of the iron rails:^ They have also a fifth wheel, raised and lowered by a lever, which falls into the groove in the iron rail in front of the fore wheels and keeps thetn perfectly in place upon the fail. By this simple contrivance the5' can pass each other on a jingle track by simply raising the fifth wheel, by which they become ordinary omnibuses, and turn out to pass, and then take the track again. We leave here to-morrow for Hamburg. Berlin to Edinbui^gh. XLIII Berlin to Edinburgh — Hamburg Again— A City in a Park — Daily Showers to Refresh the Flowers — Fol* LOWING the Track of Spring— Hamburg Soon to;Iv0SE ITS Charter as a Free City — Sudden Rise in the Price OF Goods — Old IvUbeck — Curious Architecture — The " Dance of Death " — On Ship for Scotland — All the Passengers but Ourselves Democrats and Free Trad- ers^Edinburgh After an Absence of Nineteen Years — Glasgow— The Exhibition and Queen's Jubilee Pres- ents — Off for York. Edinburgh, August 1888. The most direct route from Berlin to Scotland is through Hamburg where we took ship, and in about two and a half days arrived at Lrcith, the seaport of Edinburgh. The general appearance of the country from Berlin to Hamburg is flat and unprepossessing. Just before reaching Hamburg, however, the prospect improves. We suddenly emerge from a compara- tive desert into a beautiful city of mixed but very striking architecture, green and luxuriaat parks, gardens and lawns, lakes and rivers. Except upon the river front, Edinburgh looks like a city built in the centre of a great park. Much of the present splendor of the place is due to the great conflagra- tion of 1842. which destroyed one-third of the city. Enough was left to give a fair idea of the city in the olden time. Before the fire it looked very much like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Eu- beck and other mediaeval towns. The contrast between the old and new town is very striking. The city now has a population of dbout 475,000, but in commercial importance it isne:JittoEon- don and Eiverpool. The harbor is literally full of ships from all countries, and presents a scene of very busy and active life. Besides the river Elbe, upon which the city fronts, there are two other rivers running through it, with large houses built up from the water on each side giving the city, along the rivers, very much the appearance of Venice. These little rivers empty into the beautiful lakes or basins in the very heart of the city and are crossed by small steamboats and fancy yachtSt looking very gay on a fair summer evening. The suburbs are occupied by rich and elegant villas and country seats, .some of them quite baronial in appearance. In many respects the city is unique. Its lakes, canals, rivers, parks, gardens and villas, all within a reasonable proximity of each other, together with the sharp dividing line between the 200 Hamburg". old city and the new, distinguish it from all other cities of the same size. In a word^ it is a place of pleasant contrasts. It has a good art gallery^ a fine museum, one of the best zoologi- cal gardens, and the finest aquarium in the world. Being Protestant in religion,, its churches are plain, and not very at- tractive. I^ike most old cities, the ancient ramparts have been removed and their places converted into splendid drives and avenues, with long lines of trees of the greenest foliage. The luxuriant green fields,, lawns,, gardens and parks owe their su- perior verdure to the almost daily rains during the summer- Clear days here are the exception, the rule is a shower or two every day. We wear our heavy winter clothing and never venture into the streets without umhrellas or waterproof over- coats. It is a very bad place for a high silk hat. It looked, odd at first, in July,, to see the citizens in winter attire and the ladies in furs, but we got used to it. We sleep under blankets, every night. It may seem strange but it is nevertheless the fact, that we have been following the track of Spring ever since we left America ; we have not advanced enough to reach Summer yet, and when we get home we will find Autumn with its sere and yellow leaves to greet us,, and find one of the Sum- mers of our lives forever lost. We are now enjoying all the early Spring fruits, flowers and vegetables, such as goose-, berries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, green peas (not canned) and asparagus. The farmers are just beginning to» mow their grass ; the wheat and oats fields are still green. We have at last reached a land of good butter. I think I have referred to the bad and cheesey butter of Italy and Greece,, where the butter was really grease. All imported goods are cheap in Hamburg. 1 find good Havana cigars here cheaper than in America, Hamburg is a free city ; that is to say, no duties are paid on foreign impor- tations. This happy state of affairs is to end with this year. By an Imperial decree, all the free cities of the Old Hanseatic I^eague are to lose their time-honored privilege after 1888, Merchants have already anticipated the supposed rise in goods by marking up their prices about 20 percent. The prosperity of Germany, like America,, depends upon her protective policy, England is nearly ready to abandon her free trade theories. She has already imposed a heavy duty on cigars, spirits, and silver plate. Silver, you know, is a great American product. I took a day, while waiting for the sailing time of our ship, to visit the old town of Lubeck, one of the quaintest places I have yet found on the continent. I found the coun- try between Hamburg and lyubeck very highly cultivated and thickly settled with prosperous farmers. In general appear- ance it looks very much like our own rich farms. The fields LUBECK. 201 are about the same size , the houses and out-buildings have the same air of comfort and the boys and girls seem equally happy and contented. Travelers, as a rule, pronounce rural life and domestic thrift uninteresting. They confine their praise to gay city life or lake, river and mountain scenery ; but to me there is nothing more touching and really beautiful than happy domestic life amid green fields and well-fed herds. It has a charm equal to the gay whirl of city splendor, or mountains,, lakes, cascades and grottoes, especially when both. can be en- joyed, appreciated and compared. The city of L/ubeck occupies a very commanding position about ten miles from the sea on a small but deep arm of the Baltic. It is chiefly built of red .brick, ornamented with terra cotta, very much like the brick work of the present day. Most of the buildings are mediaeval and seem to have been erected without the use of the "plumb, level and square." There is scarcely a building in the old part of the town with a straight face or plumb front. Walls, not over fifteen feet high, are crook- ed and twisted. Two of the old churches have very high steeples which lean almost as much as the Tower of Pisa. One of the side walls is four feet out of plumb at a height of about one hundred feet.- To equalize the difficulty the balance of the wall leans about as much the other way. There are no cracks in the walls and the foundations are upon the firm origi- nal earth. The conclusion is, therefore, inevitable that they were built so ; why, no one can tell. Even the ten-feet-high- stone pillars which support the rich brick vaulting of the anci- ent cloisters outside the church, are out of plumb. There is- not a straight street in the city, but all are of good width and well paved. St. Mary's Church is a most remarkable struct- ure. It is immense in proportion, Gothic in style and con- structed entirely of red brick, with grand vaulted arches inside, and whitewashed, to make it look like marble. It has great fly- ing buttresses of brick, in imitation of the stone ones of Notre Dame in Paris. These are necessary to support the heavy brick vaulting over the interior of the building. The walls are visibly out of plumb, while the floor is at least ten feet out of level. It looks within like the enclosure of a graveyard by an immense church. Not an inch of the floor is unoccupied by old flat gravestones recording the merits of those who repose below. The church contains some very interesting relics of the Middle Ages, among which is a very old painting called the "Dance of Death." It is very suggestive of the imparti- ality of the King of Terrors in the choice of his partners in the dance. The new buildings are most substantial as well as beau- tiful in construction and conform with our idea of modern 202 American Politics Abroad. architecture. The town has now a population of about 55,000 ; it once amounted to near 100,000. It was one of the first cities of th:i Hanseatic League, from the Articles of which many of tiie ideas in our Federal Constitution were borrowed. I visit- ed the old I^eague Hall, completed in 1443. In the Rathskeller the vaulting is very well preserved. I copied the following inscription from the chimney piece : "Menich man lude synghet ; Wen me em de Brute binget ; Weste he wat men em brochte, dot he wol weuen nochte." To show my progress in old Saxon I have made the fol- lowing impromptu translation, in which I claim to have pre- served the rhythm as well as the sense of the original : Many a man loudly sings When to him a bride one brings ; If he knew what they had brought He would cry for what he'd caught. After spending four days in Hamburg, we set sail for Leith, where we arrived in about two days and a half. The sea was smooth and the weather pleasant. Most of the passengers were English and Scotch merchants. They showed great in- terest in American politics and did not hesitate to express their hope that Mr. Cleveland might be re-elected. The reason they gave for their preference was what they termed ' ' our abominable tariff laws." They said that their correspondents, in America had assured them that the Democrats were free traders and that would be of great advantage to the English and Scotch manufacturers. I have now been four days in Edinburg and have made it a point to ascertain the sentiments of the merchants and business men of the city. I have not found a man who is not earnestly anxious for the success of the Democratic party, and all give the same reason — "our unjust tariff laws." It seems to me that if the election of Mr. Cleveland is to be of such immense advantage to the manufac- turers of Great Britain, it must necessarily be a corresponding disadvantage to our American manufacturers and workingmen, If they do not hope to profit by it, why are they so deeply in-, terested in Democratic success. I visited Edinburgh in 1869 and then thought it the most enchanting city I had seen ; now, after nearly 20 years' ab-. sence, and after I have seen all the most beautiful cities of Europe, I find no reason for modifying my former opinion of the place. It is without question the most picturesque and ■charmingly located city I have ever seen. The old castle, five hundred feet abovie the sea level ; Calton Hill, with its imitation of the Parthenon ; Arthur's seat, nearly eight hun- dred feet high ; the green and beautiful valley running through fhe centre of the city, decorated with shrubbery and flowers ; the great waterless bridge crossing the deep ravine connecting Edinburgh and Glasgow. 20 ■ the old city with the new ; its parks, monuments, palaces, and- substantial cut granite buildings ; all tend to give to the placet a grand as well as a romantic appearance, once seen, never to be forgotten. It has been the home of Scotland's greatest poet's and literary men. Scott and Burns have immortalized it, while the sad fate of Mary Queen of Scotts has invested it with a peculiar interest to all the admirers of that unhappy queen. From Arthur's seat the prospect is superb. We can see the North German Ocean ; the Firth and Island of " Mac- beth's witches ;" the whole city of Edinburgh down to and including L-eith ; the hills of I^ammermoor and the scenes of many of Scott's most exciting novels. We visited Roslin Cas^ tie and chapel, about nine miles from the city, and were richly paid for the time and trouble. We also paid a flying visit to Glasgow, where we spent a very agreeable day in the Indus- trial Exhibition now being held there. Glasgow is one of the world's most busy places. It fur- nishes ships for all nations ; I have seen them on every sea. The city is full of familiar names such as Simpson, Clyde, McCay, McCall, and other honored Delaware county names. They were making great preparal ions for an expected visit from the Queen who had promised to attend the exhibition in a few days. The Scotch are among the most loyal subjects of Her Majesty and seem to have a strong personal attachment for her ; in this respect they are in happy contrast with poor Ireland. The exhibition is very much like the one we saw at Co- penhagen, and something like the Centennial Exposition held at Philadelphia in 1876 ; of course not as extensive, but in some respects equally as good. We had the pleasure of seeing all the Queen's Jubilee presents, exhibited in a building erect- ed for the purpose. They are very rich and beautiful, but not equal to those presented to the Pope at his jubilee and on ex- hibition at Rome when we were there. We leave here to-morrow for York, where we hope to spend a few days. 204 Edinburgh to London. XLIV. Edinburgh to L-ondon-x^ Stop at York-The Oldest City OP England —An Old Fellow Traveler— Cathedral OF York — A S^ene prom IvanhOe— The Jewish Massa- cre in Clifford Tower — Dick Turpin— Micklegate Bar — The Booth Family— Back to Eondon— A Second Babylojn — The Tribulations OF Eetter Writing — East OP THE Series. Eondon, August, 1888. Seven weeks ago we left Eondon for a journey to the North Cape. After wandering over Ncrvvay, Sweden, Denmark, Ger- many and Scotland, here we are back again in this smoky old town. It is four hundred miles from Edinburgh to Eondon, yet Ben Johnson walked the entire distance to spend a few days with a ftUow poet. "O Rare Ben Johnson." We have not been in the habit of traveling by rail more than twelve hours ■a day, and never by night; we therefore broke our journey Just halfway, at the very remarkable old city of York, where we remained two days exploring the wonders of that famous and intensely interesting town. On our journey from Edin- burgh we passed Berwick, Durham., Darlington and New Cas- • tie, and had a very excellent view of each. They are all noted places in English history. The cathedral of Durham towers over the town like the Minster of York. York is perhaps the oldest city in Great Britain. Some historians assert that it was a city of considerable importance when David was King at Jerusalem, It is certain that it is as old as the Christian religion. It has a well authenticated his- tory since A. D, 79, at which time the Sixth Roman Eegion was quartered there. The Emperor Severus, with his sons Geta and Caracalla, lived in York A. D. 208. Severus died there. His son Geta was Supreme Judge of the Tribunal of Justice, and the great old Roman lawyer Papinianus was his counsellor. Caracalla murdered his brother Geta and Papin- ianus was put to death in Rome for refusing, in a public ora- tion;, to declare Caracalla innocent. There is a mound a short distance outside the city walls where Severus's body was burn- ed. His ashes were put into an urn and sent to Rome. There is another mound about two miles beyond the bulwarks sur- rounded with hoary old oak trees where, tradition says, one of the Danish Kings was buried. The city is situated on the river Ouse, which is navigable up to its site. It is surrounded by well-preserved Roman walls. There is not a city in all Great Britain that has preserved its ancient character so well as York. It has streets with houses YoRK» 205 if it took all summer, so we went to our rooms to muse on the uncertainties of human events, and put in the time as best we could for three weary daj'S. About 5 P. M. one of the waiters came to our chamber door and knocked with a nervous vigor very different from the gentle tap of former occasions. He had come to congratulate us upon our escape. The ship had encountered a terrible storm> came near being wrecked and had returned to port in distress. SliC would start again to-morrow at 6 A. M., if the storm 244 Cadiz to Tangier, sufl&ciently abated to make it safe. We were greatly relieved by this news, as we would now only lose one day. We waited patiently all day, went to bed soon so that we could rise early ^ but just before putting out our candles the same waiter again knocked at the door to inform us that the ship would start at 3 A. M. and we would have to get up at two, at the same time- giving us a gentle hint that it was not certain that she would not abandon the voyage and wait till Sunday. We concluded to wait till Sunday. We are now patiently waiting,, but Sunday seems as far off as Christmas used to in our boyhood days. LIII. Cadiz to Tangie;r — ^Labor Omnia Vi'ncit— An Oriental City — A Consui. in Bad Repute — SivAvery, Mohamme- danism AND Polygamy — Twenty-Five Dollars for the Soul and Body of a Beautiful Girl — New Wine in Old Bottles — 'A I^awless and Dangerous Place — Going UP ON THE House Top to Pray — Sleeping, Heels Up AND Head Down— The Graveyard of the Faithful — A Pilgrimage for Mecca — Moorish Modesty — Moham- medan Saints — Palaces, Jails,, Schools and Concerts — A Sea Bath — The Beginning of the End. Tangier, Africa, August, 1889. By persevering we have prevailed and are now upon the veritable soil of Africa. It is difficult to realize that all around us is not an enchantment, a dream, or a theatrical representa- tion of some Oriental tale. It is impossible to describe this singular, dirty, dreamy old city. Its narrow lanes, called s-treets, its whitewashed one-story flat-roofed houses,, its bare- legged and turbaned inhabitants, its beggars, slaves and ba- zaars, must be seen to be properly understood. If you want an accurate description of the place read the " Arabian Night's Entertainment," and the pictures it contains will be perfect pen paintings of Tangier. Bagdad and Damascus cannot be more oriental or primitive, in manners as well as architecture,, than this equally old city. Its chief sights are the life, man- ners, and costumes seen everywhere in the streets. Its entire population does not exceed eighteen thousand, and only four hundred wear European costumes. The city is the politico- diplomatic capital of Morocco. The four hundred Europeans residing in the city are chiefly foreign ministers, consuls, with their families and attendants. Tangier. 24c; The voyage from Cadiz, wind and weather being favorable, is made in about six hours. The ships are very good sea steamers of English build. O'Shea had warned us not to at- tempt to visit Tangier before October, as the heat of August, he said, was unendurable for a white man ; and that we would be also in danger of the African fever. As we had found him unreliable in his advice about other places, we had concluded to read his book as the old farmer read Dodd's Almanac — when it said rain, the old farmer always looked for fair weather. The sequel proved the correctness of our conclusion. Our ship ' ' The Mogador ' ' hugged the Spanish coast as far as Cape Trafalgar, from which point, by a sudden tack, we ran across the mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar into the Bay of Tangier. As we looked towards the Straits, the highlands of both Europe and Africa were plainly visible. We did not pass over the historic waters off Cape Trafalgar without calling to mind L,ord Nelson's famous victory of October 21st, 1805, fought at the very spot over which our ship passed. We had seen in the British Museum the letter Eord Nelson wrote on the eve of the battle, directed to his mistress, I,ady Hamilton, It indicated a premonition of approaching death. His last wish was for the welfare of his mistress whom he commended to the care of the English people. They erected countless monuments to the memory of their hero but, very properly,, gave lyady Hamilton the cold shoulder and left her to find an- other lover or take care of herself. My former impressions of the African coast were very in- correct. It is very rough and barren, wind blown and hilly,, not unlike the coast of Spain, but more mountainous. The Bay of Tangier is very secure against storms ; it is sheltered, by an amphitheatre of mountains. The city is built in tiers up the sides of the hills at the right, as we enter the bay. On the top of the hills, overlooking the city, there are several well- built European houses inhabited by the ministers, diplomats and foreign consuls. Our dragoman seemed to have a very bad opinion of the United States. He told some very disgraceful stories about our Consul. I will not repeat them as they are, perhaps, slan- ders ; but if the one-tenth of what he said is true, our Consul ought not only to be removed, but also severely punished for bis conduct here during the past three years. The inhabitants are not negroes ; they are Arabs and .Moors, The language of the city is Arabic. The few black people we saw were slaves or servants to their Moorish mas- ters. I could have bought male or female slaves, fine looking and young, for about five pounds a head (twenty-five dollars). The city is cursed with the three great evils of the earth — 246 Praying on the Housetop. Slavery, Polygamy and Mohammedanism. It seems to be a place without law. The streets are long, narrow and tortuotiS) and are never lighted at night. Men could be murdered here in the streets, on a dark night, and the crime would not be discovered before daylight. A few days ago a Spaniard killed a Moor in a dispute over a half franc (ten cents)- No arrest was made and the murderer is now safe in Spain. A more filthy place cannot be imagined ; it has not been cleaned fof hundreds of years, except by dogs and rains. All the garbage^ offal of the slaughter pens, sheep's heads, dead animals and contents of the privies are thrown into the streets. The streets are, however, so constructed that a heavy shower will wash their filth into the sea. They are very roughly paved and have not been repaired for, perhaps, a' hundred years or more. The house tops are all flat, often of stone or cement over the arched chamber below, and are used as places of prayer, meditation, smoking and amusement, after sunset. We saw from the balcony of our hotel several devout Mussel men at their prayers on their housetops. I also saw, just after sun- down, a loaded camel endeavor to enter the city through .one of the low arched gates. His burden was too high, where- upon his driver made him kneel and then took from his back several large sacks. The camel then got up and entered the city through the arch. I could now better understand the Scriptural expression concerning the rich man, and the camel going through the needle's eye. The "Needle's Eye" was undoubtedly the name of one of the low arched gates of Jeru- salem, where the camels had to be unloaded before they could enter the city. I could also fully comprehend the story of JPeter's vision, when he was hungry and went up on the house top to pray. Water for drinking purposes is drawn from wells and springs, poured into goat skins and carried about the city on the backs of peddlers. We visited one of the famous springs from which the drinking water is drawn. The sight was very disgusting ; the spring basin was full of dirty Arabs washing the filth from their feet and legs, some of them in the water up to their waists, filling their goatskins, to be sold to the thirsty citizens at a penny a quart. These goatskins are called in the Arabic language, bottles, and are the same as those spoken of in the New Testament as unfit, when old, to be filled with new wine. When they are new, that is just stripped from the goat, they are elastic and yield to the gases of fermentation, but when old they, like leather, lose this elasticity and the force ■of fermentation bursts them. We found the Arabs and Moors much more bigoted Mo- hammedans than they were at Constantinople, They will not Pilgrimage to Mecca. 247 permit an unbeliever to enter their mosques on any pretext ; we were permitted to look at the exterior, but could not enter its sacred portals. There are no chairs, sofas, or even benches upon which to sit, in the houses, shops, churches or places oL amusement. They sit cross-legged on mats made from reeds, or on the bare floor or stone pavement. They seem to be great sleepers and can repose in any position. They have no pillows and rest as comfortably with their heads hanging down as with them raised up. They sleep in the streets, stretched out at full length on the stone pavement, or cuddled up like dogs in some nook or corner. I have no doubt but that Jacob was accustomed to just such habits, and that he slept as sweetly on his pillow of stone, when he dreamed of heaven and saw the angels ascending and descending, as one of us would have re- posed upon a pillow of down. Just outside of the built-up part of the city there is a stony, barren hill, used as a graveyard, entirely naked and unorna- mented. It is now the camping ground of a caravan from the interior, consisting of many hundred religious devotees on a pilgrimage to Mecca. They got here a few days too late for the ship they were to join to convey them to Syria ; as a con- sequence they will have to wait here, perhaps, nine months or a year. They do not seem to value time. They are very dirty , half naked and degraded looking creatures. Their tents are made of poles, sticks and old mats, full of vermin and most forbidding in their general appearance. About all they do is to sit around the streets, sleep, read the Koran, say their pray- ers, and wash their filthy bodies in the wells and springs from which the drinking water is drawn. I saw young girls, nearly naked, bending over the walled, well curbs, drawing up water. Their faces were pretty well veiled, but all the rest of their bodies were very much exposed. I also saw them from the balcony of our hotel, bathing in a little cove of the sea set apart for their special use, as naked as they were born. They did not seem to have the slightest idea of what we would call female modesty. They, however,, con- sider it very immodest for a beautiful lady to expose her /ace to public view. The caravan of pilgrims had in their company several Mo- hammedan Saints. They wore white turbans and shirts ; they were evidently religious monomaniacs. They sit in one position all day, in the sun, reading aloud portions of the Koran and making ejaculatory speeches and harangues to those around them. We visited the palace of the Emperor, a mean looking, building from the outside view, but very prettily and delicately finished within, with carved wood and plaster in the form of 248 A Moorish Cafe. fine lace drapery. It must have taken a very long time and great patience to carve out the lace work, as it was all done with a simple knife by the hand of the artist. We also visited the barracks, jail, and place of Justice. The Emperor's horses looked like subjects for a Spanish bull fight at a dollar a head. The Kmperor has a great number of excellent saddles, but very few good horses and still fewer soldiers to ride them. We also visited one of the schools where children are taught to read the Koran. It looked like a low stable ; the teacher was sit- ting on his crossed legs in the centre and the little urchins sitting in the same manner around him. They held little pasteboards in their hands upon which was written the passage they were to learn. The teacher would read it aloud and the scholars repeat after him in concert. This they do from hour to hour and irom day to day until they have the entire book committed to memory. After supper we visited a Moorish cafe and concert room. Our dragoman assured us there was no danger, but we noticed that he provided us with quite a body guard. He walked by our side, a full-fledged Arab went ahead and the landlord, in Moorish costume, brought up the rear. We walked through a very dark, narrow street for some time till we reached the concert room, a miserable one-story building, with bamboo . rafters, covered with reed matting and branches of trees. Six Arabs and Moors were the musicians, who sat in the centre of the room on the floor, singing, clapping their hands and saw- ing upon instruments with one and two strings. There were some ten or fifteen spectators in the room, squatting around on the floor, drinking coffee, which by the way was very good. The whole affair reminded me of the old time plantation songs of our colored people. I confess I did not feel altogether safe until I was in my hotel again. While the concert was pro- gressing, a tall, lank saint entered the room. He did not speak a word. He looked toward Mecca, ejaculated a prayer, bowed his head to the ground several times, then walked around the room and kissed each of the faithful on the top of his head, after which, with great dignity, he left the room. We retired to our beds about 11 P. M., expecting, after the fatigue of the day, a good night's rest, but we were kept awake nearly all night by the howling, fighting and barking of dogs and braying of asses. I could not have believed, if I had not seen it, that six hours' travel could carry us from a city of high European cul- ture and comfort to one of such primitive customs and cos- tumes. Before leaving we took a bath in the sea. The water was quite cold, the beach and surf were equal to Cape May. Our dragoman made the necessary arrangements for our bathing TANGlE5ft. 24'^ Tdhc$. 'They were sufficient for Africa, but would hardly do for Cape May. Mine consisted of a napkin and my son's of a bandana handkerchief. A couple of turbaned Moors, evi- dently of the higher class, as they wore perfectly white clean robes, seemed very much interested in us. They were evi- dently amused at our white skins. The weather was very cool and pleasant. The thermom^ eter did not register above eighty-two and the sea breeze was -strong and refreshing. We could walk all over the hills of the city without much perspiration. The thermometer is ^never below sixty in Tangier. Those who wish to see Tangier as we have seen it must visit it soon, for the beginning of the end of this style of life and civilization is very apparent. A •new hotel on the plan of those of Paris, and to be conducted by a French company, is now being built. The one we are stopping at is conducted by an Englishman from Gibraltar. While he and all his waiters adopt the Moorish costume, he thinks it will soon be discarded for the European dress. Many of the Moors have European suits, which they wear when they go to Gibraltar or Cadiz. The dresses of the four hundred Europeans who live in the city are no longer objects of curi- osity in the eyes of the people. Several fine new houses of European architecture are now being built on the hill over- looking the city and facing the sea. I predict that Tangier^ before fifty years, will be like Cadiz and, perhaps, adopt the costumes and manners of Paris and London. I am, to a cer- tain extent, a believer in evolution. The fittest must survive-^ Electricity and steam, assisted by Peace, must eventually make the world cosmopolite. Our dragoman promised us a wild boar hunt if we would stay a week, but I remembered the sad fate of Adonis and de- clined the proffered sport. I may sum up the whole matter by saying that I wohld not have missed my visit to Tangier for ten times its cost. It has been one of the most interesting excursions of my life-. We leave here this morning at 9 to return again to Cadiz-. From there we intend to visit Cordova to see its world renown^ ed Mosque and old Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir. It will require ten hours by rail to make the journey. 25Q Tangier to Cordova. T/iV Tangier to Cordova— Cadiz Sken from the Sea — ^Delap- iDATED Cordova— MosouE of One Thousand Columns — Roman Bridge and Moorish Mills — Cordova to Pa!ris — Primitive Farming — High Taxes — Back to Madrid — The Country of Don Quixote — Avila — Valladolid —Religious Intolerance— Burgos — The I^ead Mines OF Spain— Second Thought as to the Exposition — * Eminent Men of the Past One Hundred Years. Paris, August, i88g. We left Tangier with some regret, but the fact that we were now to turn our faces homeward compensated us for our farewell to Africa. It was our first visit to the dark continent. The Spaniards call Cadiz the "silver cup in the sea," but to us, as we approached it and sailed almost entirely around it in order to enter its beautiful harbor, it seemed like a white pearl set in. azure. It looks like a city of white marble rising from the sea. The charm was broken when we landed. We found the same old Cadiz of stone, stucco and whitewash. As soon as possible we procured our tickets for Cordova, which we reached in about ten hours. By procuring the ser- vices of a good guide we were able to see the whole city in one day. In the Vllth century Cordova was the rival of Bagdad and Damascus, with a population of 300,000. It had six hundred mosques and eight hundred public schools. Its yearly income was $30,000,000. It was a city of palaces, mosques, learning and luxury. It now looks like a wrinkled but royal old widow, mourning beside the dilapidated tomb of her dead consort and buried children , In the quarrel between Caesar and Pompey, Cordova, unfortunately for it, espoused the cause of the latter. After his victory of Munda, Caesar, in cold blood, slaughtered 28,000 of its best citizens. When St. Ferdinand captured the city from the Moors, singular as it may seem, it began to decline and has slowly but steadily continued its downward course till now it can barely count 50,000 inhabitants. The ground upon which much of the old city stood is now devoted to agriculture. When the French were driven from Spain they carried with them several hundred thousand dollars' worth of silver from Cordova. The silver chandelier, stolen from the cathedral, has since been restored. Cordova.. 251 The mosque of Cordova is now its chief object of attrac- tion. It is certainly a very striking piece of Moorish archi^ tecture. It contained over twelve hundred marble columns which, at the first view, one would take to be the works of the Moorish builders, but upon a close inspection all the columns will be found to be the work of Western architects. They were collected by the Moors from alt quarters of the earth, from Rome, Greece, and every other country under Moorish dominion or in alliance with them. -Many of these columns were presents from Christian kings and emperors. They are all of about the same diameter but of various lengths. Hardly two of the capitals are alike ; on some the capital is too small, on others too large; some are in true proportion. To give them the appearance of regularity, the columns have no bases, but are buried in the ground at Unequal depths, so that the floor, which is of fine marble and iiiosaic, comes up to the same level and makes the forest of columns look all of the same size. It is said that there is nothing in the world like this mosque. I have never seen any building with which it can be compared. It is but one story high and had originally a flat roof of timber (over the horse-shoe arches, sprung from column to column), which was richly carved in lace work and covered with gold. On entering for the first time, it. strikes the mind with a pecu- liar sensation of vastness and splendor. All the columns are monoliths. Whichever way we turn our faces a vista of columns and arches is presented to the view. During the Moorish occupation, the roof and arches were hung with thou- sands of gold and silver lamps, giving to the whole an enchant- ing appearance of oriental beauty. In a word, it looks like " a wildernsss of coluoms aud arches, " The only credit, to my mind, the Moorish architects are entitled to is the unique design by which they have erected a most charming structure from materials that otherwise would have remained only as objects of curiosity in the museums of the world. The old bridge of Cordova is chiefly interesting for its great antiquit}^ grace and beauty. Even now, in its dilapi- dated condition, its beautiful arches give to the work an appearance of strength and grace. It was built by Octavius Caesar and is still in reasonably good condition. Just below the bridge are several grain mills erected by the Moors but still in running order. The rapid flow of the Guadalquivir turns the water wheels and keeps the machinery in motion as in the da^^s of 3'ore. To get out of Spain it is necessary to go back to Madrid. Like the roads of Rome, all the railroads of Spain point to- ward Madrid. From Madrid to Paris is 909 miles by the shortest route. 25"2 Back to' Madrid. The railroad passes through some of the finest scenery and tttDSt celebrated places in Spain. Some of the scenery of the Pyrenees is only surpassed by Switzerland. We were especially struck with the primitive farming throughout Spain, A good plow, such as is in common use in France and the rest of Europe and America, is seldom seen. in Spain ; we have not seen one. They are all home-made,, drawn by ropes tied to the horns of oxen, and the best only scratch the ground. The carts are also home made, wheels- and all. We are told that some. of the peasant families live on the expenditure of twenty cents a day. The whole family work in the fields. We saw a father, with a six-week-old babe in his arms, driving the oxen while the mother guided the plow and a little seven-year-old urchin ran after them with a club breaking up the clods, Mjst of the ground in the hilly dis- tricts is cultivated with great heavy hoes ; about four persons, in a row strike in their hoes at the same time and then turn over the soil which looks very much like plowed ground. Spain is at least a hundred years behind the rest of Europe. The land, while seemingly the property of the farmers, is really owned by the Crown, The rents are collected in the shape of taxes which, we are told., equal about one-fourth of the gross revenue of the land. All the taxes go directly to Madrid and never return. The thirsty city drinks dry the river of gold constantly flowing into its ever open mouth. The whole country is in about the condition of France before the revolution of 1793. Let us hope that the Spanish Government will be wise in time, and by a vigorous State policy get rid of its many drawbacks to prosperity. Otherwise the people will throw off their burdens as they did in France in 1793. From Cardova to Madrid we passed over the world- renowned " Campus de la Mancha," the birthplace and scene of many of the exploits of the " wisest of fools, and shrewdest of madmen" — Don Q.uixote de la Mancha. We saw the little village where Cervantes wrote his novel while in jail for debt. The people of the country firmly believe in the actual existence of the doughty old knight. In our journey from Madrid to Paris we passed some towns ot historic interest. Avila has a fine mediaeval cathedral and feudal castle of great apparent strength. The town itself has now a very mean appearance. Yalladolid, however, is a very handsome town of its kind. It stands 2 100 feet above the level of the sea and was the former capital of Spain. It lies about 200 miles north of Madrid. It is chiefly notorious as the birthplace of one of Spain's bigoted and cruel kings, Philip II, who burnt heretics and bnilt the Escurial. The first auto de On to Paris. 255 fe at Valladolid took place May 21, 1559. Seats sold at what would be now equivalent to three or four dollars each. Deli- cate ladies and little children witnessed the burning alive of fourteen Lutheran christians as they would look at a bull fight. I believe there are bigoted men to-day, of all denominations, who would do the same thing if they had the power. No one church is responsible for that feeling of religious intoleration. St. Lawrence, Philip II's patron saint, was fried on a gridiron as a heretic in his day, and the Puritans of New England hung the Quakers upon the same principle. The last city of Spain through which we pass e, literally translated, means " I adore thee." From Nice we went to Monaco and Monte Carlo. Monaco is built upon a high rock jutting out into the sea and helps to form the cozy nook where Monte Carlo reposes. Monte Carlo is now the greatest gambling resort of the world. The Casino, or gambling palace, is also built on a rock running out into the sea, but not as high as Monaco. Everything that art and gold can do to make the place attractive, has been done. It is filled with groves and gardens, laid out with exquisite taste and is certainly very paradisaical in outward appearance. Splendid streets and roads have been cut in the solid rock. Terraces have been built, the earth of which has been carted from places miles away. As a proper contrast to the beautiful Casino, a magnificent cathedral has been built and paid for from the profits of the gambling bank. Truly extremes meet. The Casino sits like a sleek tiger, well fed on the blood of the many thousand victims he has eaten up during the past thirty years. This sly beast sleeps during the day but his eyes shine with fascinating power at night. Crouched upon his rocky lair, he bids defiance to the world and never declines a fight. Many thousands ccmtend with him every night and, like the sheep in the fable that went out for wool, they go home shorn. One would suppose the fate of those that have attempted to battle with him would be a warning to others not to play with him, but the crowd of fascinated fortune hunters does not seem to diminish, and the fool-killer seems to have abandoned Monte Carlo. Aside from metaphor, Monte Carlo seems to be the grand center for the gamblers of the world. I saw as much as $40,000 raked into the bank in less than six minutes. The ■favorite game is Roulette, in which there are thirty-two little pockets for a revolving ball to fall into. The player that puts his money on any number from i to 32, has a chance, if the ball falls into the pocket bearing his number, to get thirty-two times the amount of his stake. The pockets are white and red ; if he puts his money on the red and the ball falls into a red pocket, he wins twice his stake and so on through a variety of complications. He can bet on an even chance, two to one and on up to thirty-two to one. To look at it, it appears per- fectl}^ fair, but, somehow, the bank gets enormously rich and the players nearly all quit poor. Some expert gamblers have 2S4 The Casino. come here with immense sums, with the single purpose of breaking this bank but they have always been the losers. An English syndicate became convinced that a certain theory, if it had suiicient capital behind it, could break the concern. They raised $250,000 and sent an expert player to experiment; but after a few v/eeks, Monte Carlo had every cent. The Casino haS eleven tables — around each, at least one hundred players can be accommodated. These tables are always full. At some tables they will take a wager of five francs ($1), at others nothing less than a IvOuis d'or ($4). Thousands of fortunes are lost here every year. The average of suicides at Monte Cailo is about one hundred and twenty-five a year. The bank, as a matter of policy, buries the suicide and pays his hotel bill. The " world, the flesh, and the devil, " seem to have possession of the place. I have some doubt whether it con- tains many more ngateous persons than the fated cities of the plain. I supp >se the church at Monaco, paid for from the earnings of th:i giiu'ng tables, saves the place from Sodom and Gomorrah's fate. It is reported that the net gains of last year reached the enormous sum of 25,000,000 francs, 2,500,000 more than' in 1890. A dividend of two hundred and thirty-five francs was declared upon each bond of the par value of five hundred francs. The bonds to-day are quoted at 2300 francs. The directors also decided to add 100,000 francs to the pension fund for the 1 100 officials connected in various ways with the bank. We made a very pleasant excursion from Monte Carlo to Mentone by carriage over one of the beautiful mountain roads. The scenery was really charming. The road, however, is lined with beggars which detracted very much from the plea- sure of the ride. We gave a red-eyed old dwarf ten centimes for which he thanked us very much and declared as soon as he got five francs he would try his luck again in the bank. So it seems that even the little charities one dispenses there go into the coffers of the Casino. From Monte Carlo we took a twelve-hour ride by rail to Florence. On our way we passed through San Remo, made famous as the place chosen by the late Emperor of Germany as a health resort and place of repose during his last sickness.. We also passed through Genoa which looked about as it did when I last visited it in 1888. From Genoa we went through Pisa and took another look at its famous IvCaning Tower. The city does not look as well to me as it did four years ago. We arrived at Florence about seven P. M. and are now resting at the Hotel de 1' Arno, facing the river from which the hotel is named. Florence is one of the centers of European travel. The weather is rather too cold for comfort without: Florence, 285 artificial heat and too warm with it. During the day, while the sun shines, it is deliciously pleasant but at night it be- comes cold and chilly, caused b_y the snow upon the mountains, always in sight. The Arno is now rushing through the city and darting with great rapidity under the bridges, muddy and murky from the wash of the mountains. It is about ten feet deep at this season ; in August it will be almost dry. We had heard so much praise of Florence that we expected too much. I was very much disappointed with the general appearance of the city. I have no doubt but that it was, when compared with the other old cities of Europe a very handsome and per- haps a splendid place a few hundred years ago, but it certainly is not, so far as its external appearance is concerned, a very handsome city now. lyike the face and form of some ladies we have met, Flor- ence improves as we become better acquainted with her. As we discover her many concealed virtues and hidden charms we learn to love her more and appreciate her better. With the exception of the world-renowned Cathedral and graceful cam- panile, or bell tower, the outsides of the churches are all ugly and forbidding in appearance ; but when we enter them we are amazed at the splendor and richness of the work, decorations, statuary and paintings they contain. Michael x\ngelo's best sculpture is found in the churches. The gallery Uffizi and its adjunct, the gallerv Pitti, contain some of the world's finest paintings. The National Museum contains the sculpture of all the old Italian artists. We see so much of the work of Michael x\ngelo, Raphael and Benevenuto Cellini, and so many life-like statues and portaits of Dante, Machiavelli and Galileo, that we almost imagine them alive and walking the streets of Florence. Some of these old artists must have been fully aware of their skill with the pencil and chisel. They attempted to produce copies of everything from a worm up to the Al- mighty. It seems to me that Michael Angelo could not have been a very modest man or he would have hesitated be- fore he attempted to paint the face and form of God. If the dignity of the Almighty ever permits him to laugh, and if he ever condescends to look upon the works of man, he must, at least, smile with pity and contempt for the conceited old artist who painted him to look like a Samson, Hercules, or John L,. Sullivan. One of the advantages of Florence is the close proximity of its most interesting places. All its art treasures may be seen within easy walking distance of each other. The church of S. Croce is the Westminster Abbey or Pantheon of Florence. It contains the tomb of Michael 286 Fi^oRENCE to Venick. Angelo, Machiavelli, Galileo and many other illustrious men of Italy. Among the sacred relics of the church they exhibit a stone about a foot square that once fell from the vaulted roof, fully one hundred feet above, and struck a pious monk on the top of his head while praying to the Virgin. The monk was not hurt but the stone was bent He was certainly a hard- headed old fellow. LXI. FLOREisfce TO VENiC:^— ^Well Authenticated MiraCIvES-^ Justice Expensive in Florence— Treasures of Art — • Masonic Emblems— The Gate of Paradise^Campo SANTO^FlORENCE to BOLOGNA^IyODGED IN A FaLACE — lyEANiNG Towers— Bologna to Venice— - Another Pal- ace— Hotel— Low Prices in Venice— ^Necessity for our Takiff Laws— 'A Unique City— Not a Horse in all Venice— The Plague— ^Titian's First Love^Othello AND Desdamona— Shylock vs. Antonio— The Inquisi- tion NOT A Religious Institution — The Lion's Mouth. Venice, March, 1892. I ended my last letter with a history of the miraculous escape of a pious priest, whose head was harder than a forty- pound stone that fell one hundred feet from the vaulted roof of a church where he was praying, and struck him upon the crown of his cranium without either cracking his skull or breaking the stone. The stone has been securely chained to one of the pillars of the church to prevent it from repeating any more such dangerous freaks. The priest who related the miracle seemed surprised at an incredulous smile which, des- pite my will, crept over my countenance. "Do you doubt the miracle ?" said he. I assured him that the evidence was too conclusive to admit of doubt, for there was the stone and I could not ignore what my eyes so clearly saw. He seemed pleased at my exhibition of faith and conducted me to the scene of a still greater miracle, in one of the chapels of St. Mark's church. The chapel is adorned with a very good life- size painting, representing several poor monks sitting around a table praying f^yr food, when suddenly two bright angels enter with their arms full of bread which they are supposed to have thrown upon the table. The miracle was performed sev- eral hundred years ago in that very chapel which has ever since been too sacred for any other purpose than a praying place for the poor and hungry, It reminded me of a miracle Treasures of Art. 287 performed some fifty years ago in the State of Delaware. I heard my uncle relate the story when I was a little boy. There was a pious old negro, very poor and too old to work. He had the faith of father Abraham, and when he was out of food, prayed for what he wanted His master was returning from the potato patch, in the dusk of the evening, with a bas- ket of new potatoes. As he passed the open window of the old negro's cabin, he saw him standing in front of his table, full of empty dishes, praying for a few " new taters," where- upon his master threw the basket, potatoes and all, at his old gray head. The potatoes fell in a shower over the table and broke some of his dishes. After the first surprise was over, he raised his eyes toward heaven and said, " Massa lyord, dem's de taters, but please don't throw 'em down quite so hard nex' time." As positive proof of the miracle, the old negro preserved the basket and triumphantly showed it to all doubters. We devoted four days, with a carriage and good guide, to the sights of Florence. We found it full of hidden treasures of art. Including the suburbs, it has a population of about 180,000. The villas without the walls are charming retreats, occupied by the rich natives and English and American so- journers. I am, however, still of the opinion that the beauties of the city, as painted by travelers, are very much overrated. As we drove over the city to take a glance at its outside appearance our guide, who spoke good French but very bad English, pointed out the several objects of interest— statues, columns, palaces, squares and churches. In one of the princi- pal streets, near the Palace of Justice, is a high column, upon the top of which stands the Goddess of Justice with a pair of scales in her right hand. Our guide tried his hand at a pun in English and, considering his want of experience in the lan- guage, he did very well. Pointing to the Goddess on the top of the column he said, " Ze justice is very high (dear) in Flor- ence." As we laughed at his pun, he seemed highly pleased. We visited all the places of interest in the city , including the galleries of painting and sculpture and saw all the famous works of the old masters. We also visited the Palace of the Medicis, which, externally, looks like a prison but internally is very rich with grand old halls, tapestry, statuary and paint- ings. To those who are fond of sculpture, Florence is rich with the works of the best artists, from Praxiteles and Phidias down to Conova. With the single exception of Rome, its churches are the richest in internal wealth of any in the world. The Cathedral is a very imposing structure in its architectural design. The campanile is built of different colored marble, like the cathe- dral, and presents from its summit a splendid view of the city 288 The Campo Santo. and surrounding country. They show the silver trowel, square, compass and twenty-four-inch guage which, they as- sure us, were the veritable tools used by the architect in the construction of the church. When I showed the guide th^ same emblems on my Masonic mark, he took it for granted that I was some great architect and insisted upon showing me the five original plans of the building. I understood the em- blems better than he did. They simply meant that the foun- dations had been laid by some old mason according to the custom of the craft — -the same all the world over. Some travelers affect to" go into exstacies over the bronze doors of the Baptistry but, notwithstanding the half hour wasted in a detailed explanation of their allegorical meaning, I could not work myself up to the enthusiasm professed by some of the spectators. The work is undoubtedly very fine. One door took twenty-four years to make. The artist was the celebrated lyorenzo de Berti. When -Michael Angelo first saw this door, he declared it fit for the gate of Paradise. It has, been called, ever since, the Paradise Door. One of the commonest old brick churches is called Saint Ivorenza. Upon entering the chapel, adjoining the church, the spectator is struck with amazement at the gorgeous profusion of fine colored and highly polished marbles with which the interior is lined. It cannot be described. Some idea can be formed of its beauty and splendor when the cost of its con- struction is known. Five million dollars was expended upon it at a time when one dollar would produce as much as three dollars will now. When I was a little boy I read, the autobi- ograph}- of Benevenuto Cellini and was, therefore, now very much interested in his work. His masterpiece in bronze stands on the portico opposite the Town Hall. It represents Perseus decapitating Medusa. Critics, however, say it shows t30 mu2h blood from the neck of the decapitated sorceress. The authorities have put a small metal apron on Perseus which, to a certain extent, spoils the effect of the sculptor's conception of his subject. We spent the last day in driving around the suburbs. We visited the campo santo, situated, like the one at Nice, on the crown of a hill over three hundred feet high. It commands an excellent view of the city and is a very pretty place to spend an hour. The burial lots, like the compartments of the railroad cars, are divided into first, second and third class. The first class are for the rich, the second class for the ordinar}^ citizen, the third class for the poor. The poor can only rest in holy ground for a few years, not over ten ; the rich are supposed to remain until Gabriel's trump shall awake them. Their tombs are marked — ' ' In perpetuite' ' — which means "forever. ' ' Bologna. 289 Just out of tlie city limits, is a very fashionable drive . We tode over it to see the splendid turnouts of the rich citizens. It is called the Hyde Park of Florence. It is the place to see the beauties of th i cit}^ airing themselves behind their mag- nificent carriages and equipments. After our guide assured us he had nothing more to show us we packed our trunks and left for Bologna, four hours distant by express train. We crossed the Appenine mountains ; some of the scenery was very fine. After passing Pistola, an old walled city, we looked down upon a broad valley completely studded with white villas, presenting a most picturesque landscape. Our hotel at Bologna had the outward appearance of a fine new building, but when we entered the court-yard we discov ered we were in a palace over four hundred years old, in which one of the Popes had slept two hundred years ago. The chambers are very large, the ceilings high and frescoed ; but little woodwork is to be seen. The staircase is of pure marble., broad and imposing. It has now had the honor of having an American Sovereign to sleep within its walls. It belongs to Count Puscheck, who finds it more profitable to rent it as a hotel than keep it for a residence. The city seems well built and prosperous, but we are in- formed its business is now stagnant audits future outlook dis- couraging. It contains one of the largest unfinished churches in the world, the foundations of which were laid many hundred years ago. It also contains two remarkable leaning towers close together and leaning opposite ways, one finished, the other about half completed. These leaning towers are seen in many of the old towns all over Italy. We arrived in Venice at six P. M. Although its latitude is as far north as Halifax, the temperature was warm and pleasant. No overcoats were needed in the streets, nor fires in the hotels to keep us comfortable. We were recommended by an Italian gentleman, whose acquaintance we made in the cars, to the Grand Hotel Europa, as the best in the city. It is sit- uated on the Grand Canal, in the heart of the cit}^ and close to St. Mark's. To our surprise, we found ourselves in another four-hundred-year-old palace, belonging to the Giustiniani Family. It is in a remarkably good state of preservation. At a cursory glance one would not take it to be over twenty years old. The room we occupy is very large and looks out upon the Grand Canal and best part of Venice. The ceiling is thirty feet high, vaulted and frescoed. The stairway is of marble and the halls wide and imposing. We at first doubted the landlord's story of his palatial hotel, but, while visiting the Museum, we found a three-hundred-j^ear-old map of the city on which our hotel was marked " Palazzo Giustiniani." So we 290-' Ventcev have occupied rooms ia two palaces since our sojourn in Italy, Everything is cheap in Venice, The very best skilled labor, mechanics and even artists,, cannot earn over seventy- five cents a day. Four francs a day is considered very good wages. It does not require much intelligence in the American traveler to see the absolute necessity of our Tariff laws. If it were not for their protection, Italy alone could flood America with most exquisitely wrought glassware,, carved woodwork, musical in- struments, furniture,, tapestry,, etc.,. and sell them at a large profit for prices too low for native competition. We are highly pleased with Venice, It is one of the most interesting cities we have yet seen, A striking peculiarity of the place is its Sabbath-like quietness ; there is not a horse or carriage in the city and but few dogs, but plenty of rats. The Gondola (pronounced Gundola, with the accent on the first syllable), glides noiselessly through the canals and takes the place of the carrage^ wagon and cart in other cities. The Grand Canal completely bisects the city in a serpen- tine course from eastward to westward. All the palaces,, pub- lic buildings and fine residences face upon it or are near by it. Its water is comparatively clear and pure, but the hundreds of small canals all over the city are the most disgustingly filthy places I have ever seen. While going through them,. I had to- hold my handkerchief to my nose to protect my nostrils from the most execrable of all vile and nasty stinks. They are the open sewers of the city and contain all the offal, garbage and refuse of the town. If it were not for the three-feet tide which rises and falls twice in twenty -four hours, they would certainly be most unhealthy places ; but, while it has been scourged by the plague and cholera, bad fevers are unknown in Venice, During the Plague in the XVIth century the city was nearly depopulated. It is said that 44,000 died in twenty-seven days with the terrible disease. I saw in Florence a representation in wax of the " Plague in Venice." It was the most horrible spectacle I ever looked upon. Titian, the great painter, died of it aged ninety-nine years and eight months. His pictures are found in all the galleries and palaces in the city. When a young man, unknown to fame but celebrated as a portrait painter, a girl of seventeen, of a noble family, sat an hour for her porrtait. She became so violently in love with him that she thought it prudent never to see him again nor call for her p'cture. A year after he was employed to paint the fresco of the Doge's palace. To the surprise of all Venice he gave to one of the angels in his picture the face of the young lady so perfectly that all who knew her at once recognized her features in the fresco. It is said she died of love, and Titian in all hi Views in Venice. great paintings gave ker face to his finest female representa-- tions. There is a very beautiful French novel upon the sub- iect, called " Titian's First Ivove." As I had read the novel I was, of course, very much interested in the picture. Among the most interesting objects in Venice are St. Mark's Cathedral ; the Palace of the Doge ; the Bridge of Sighs ; the Campanile ; the Rialto : the Church of the Jesuits and Carmelites ; and the paintings in the gallery containing the masterpieces of Titian, Tintorello, Paulo Veronese, Bellini, I/orenzo Venegiano, Ghiberti. Iveonardo da Vinci and Dona- tello. I do not profess to be sufficiently skilled in the fine arts to judge of their several merits. The new school and fine modern painting in Paris gives me much more pleasure than all the thousands of religious subjects upon which the old mas- ters exhausted their skill. While the palaces, prisons, churches, theatres and monu- ments of the city can be visited by gondola, the walker can find many cozy nooks and quaint old corners which the traveler on the canalo nei'er sees. We were shown the feputed bust of Othello the Moor ; the house of the unfortunate Desdemona ; the place where the jealous Moor ended his wretched life after the mUrder of his wife, and his memorable " Farewell to all the pomp, pride and circumstance of Glorious War." We were also shown the place whefe the celebrated case of Shy lock the Jew vs. Antonio, the M-er chant of Venice, was tried, in which it was decided that hard bargains, when com- mitted to writing, are always to be strictly construed. The righteous Judge in that case decided that the Jew should have his bond, a pound of flesh nearest Antonio's heart, but if he shed a drop of blood he should suffer death, because " 'Twas not so nominated in the bond." The Bourse of Venice was at the foot of the Rialto ; the merchants^ brokers and bankers of Venice-, as they went to the Bourse would naturally meet on the Rialto. 'Twas there that proud and prosperous Antonio would meet and deliberately insult the poor old Jew and " rate him about his monies and his usances." He went so far as to call him a dog and spit upon him, but when he became financially involved, the Jew was the only one of all his friends who was willing to lend him money, without se- curity in kind. The Jew Saw his opportunity to get even with his persecutor but committed the unpardonable sin of under- taking to draw up the bond without the advice of his lawyer. The case illustrates how dangerous it is for a man to be^ his own lawyer, but it also shows how easily a skillful barrister can get a man out of a very bad difficulty. St. Mark's, the Clock Tower, the beautiful Square, facing ^2t Bridge of Sigms. the Church,, with, the Palace of the Doges and Bridge of Sighs ^ leaiiiig from the palace to the gloomy prison on the other side of the narrow canal, have been so often painted, oy pen and pencil, that any farther attempt to describe them would but spoil them by adding paint to a finished picture. Travelers are all dis- appointed with the Bridge of Sighs. It is a very small enclosed passage-vvay,. leading from one of the upper stories of the palace to the prison on the other side,, and would attract no notice were it not for the sad luemories connected with the illustrious, persons who have, for the last time,, looked with a sigh upon the sun through the window of the narrow bridge. We walk- ed half way over it and returned to the palace, which contains,, not only the splendid apartments formerly occupied by the Doges, or Grand Dukes of Venice, but also the Senate Cham- ber, Council Chamber,, once occupied by the infamous Council of Ten, and the Chamber of Inq^uisition, with its instruments of torture and dark, mouldy dungeons, where prisoners of state were confined. In one of the dark narrow passages we were shown the remains of a mechanical contrivance by which the prisoner, while apparently going from his cell to liberty,, was suddenly caught by a wooden bar across the throat, when by a powerful spring, another bar would strike his neck from behind and instantly strangle him. In another dark passage we were shown a groove in each side, where a large knife fell and decapitated, the prisoner as he leaned forward, over an ob - stacle in the passageway ; his head fell into a hole and was carried to a depository some fifty feet below,, full of quick lime ;. his body fell into another hole prepared in the same way,, so that if the body should be recovered the head could not be re- cognized. The Inquisition was not,, as many suppose, a reli- gious institution.. It was founded in Venice as a means of ferreting out plots and conspiracies against the government.. The holes in the palace walls where an 5^ citizen, without dis- covering his own name, could deposit letters denouncing others, as traitors or conspirators, are yet to be seen. One was con- cealed by a lion's head.. I will describe it more fully in. my next letter. The Inquisition, igi LXII. Venice to Paris — More About the Inquisition— Classic AND Historic Places— St. Mark's Church — Palace of THE Doges — A City on Piles — Padua— Milan Again — Its World-Renowned Cathedral — Traveleii's Hob- by — A Coincidence — Battlefield of Magenta — Turin, a City of Arcades — Shin-plasters in Italy — Macon — • An Enchanted Castle — Lake Bourget — Back to Paris and Homeward. Paris, April, 1892. I referred, in my last letter, to the Inquisition of Venice. It was instituted about A. D. 1310, by the Council of Ten, not as a religious establishment, but as an adjunct to the criminal court. Our Grand Jury, or more properly speaking, Grand Inquest, is but an evolution from, the Venitian Inquisition. In Spain it developed into a religious court to discover and pun- ish heresies against the established church. When it was in- stituted in Venice, the noble families were constantly plotting and conspiring for the overthrow of the Republic. The influ- ence of the rich nobles was so great that it was as much as the life of an humble citizen was worth to denounce the plotters or appear as witnesses against them. To give immunity to pro- secutors for treason, the Inquisition was established. The mails could not be trusted, so little holes were provided in the walls of the Palace of the Doge, into which anonymous letters could be dropped denouncing any citizen, from the Doge down to a footman. One of these holes was concealed by a carved lion's head. The letter, dropped into his mouth, fell into a box with two keys, one held by the Chief Inquisitor and the other by the President of the Council. The Doge himself could not have access to the letters deposited in this box. Unless the denunciation gave the names of witnesses, or re- ferred to circumstances sufficient to make out a prima facie case, no notice was taken of it. If, however, the names of witnesses were given, the accused was at once put under strict secret surveillance and the witnesses were brought before the Council and closely examined. If a case was made out, the first notice the accused received was an arrest and trial before the Inquisitor and Council. If condemned, he rarely escaped death. The institution grew into great favor and, for many years, preserved the State, but like all good institutions its virtue depended on the character of the men in possession of its machinery. Just as a Nero could destroy all the virtues 294 Works of Art * of the Roman system of government, so a bigoted Chief In-* quisitor could convert the Inquisition into an office of unheard of cruelty and oppression. Our English ancestors discovered the necessity of curtailing the existence of the Inquisition to the shortest period of time, and of changing the Inquisitors every three months, by which thsy received all the benefits of the institution without its evils, and this is what we now call a Grand Jury or Grand Inquest. As in Rome and Florence, so here the richest works of art are found in the churches. There are many places made famous by Shakespeare, Byron, George Sand, Browning and other poets and novelists. The Rialto is the scene of the exciting events in the " Merchant of Venice ;" St. Mark'sand the House of Desdemona, on the Grand Canal are frequently referred to in " Othello the Moor ;" Lord Byron has immor- talized the Palace of the Doges, and George Sand has thrown a halo of love around the Hospital where the Maestro (Porpora) held his free school of music for the poor girls and boys of Venice, and where poor little Consuelo learned the art of song which afterwards made her so famous all over Europe and gave hear a Count for a husband. Lucretia Borgea also had a palace in Venice where she practiced her secret art of poison- ing those she hated or who were in her way. We were conducted to the spot where the ' ' Jealous Moor," after realizing that he, " Eike the base Judean, had cast away a jewel richer than all his tribe," ended his miser- able existence b}^ plunging into his own heart the same sword with which he had slain at Aleppo a ' ' malignant and turbaned Turk " for smiting a Venitian and traducing the State, Eike many another man, he " lyoved, not wisely, but too well." St. Mark's church is unique in its architecture. It is a combination of the Byzantine, Roman, Moorish and Greek orders. It never fails, however, to strike the beholder with a feeling of pleasure and surprise. All the old churches have their superstitious legends. St. Mark's professes to contain in its crypt the veritable bones of the apostle St. Mark. It also possesses a stone, ten or twelve feet square, brought from Jerusalem, upon which Christ is said to have stood when he delivered his great Sermon on the Mount. There was a time, not many years ago, when, to express a doubt as to the truth of these legends, would have sent the skeptic to the scaffold or the stake, but those dark days are past forever. This church is undoubtedly rich with holy relics. It contains pillars from Solomon's Temple and stones from nearly all the great build- ings of antiquity, including Babylon and Nineveh. There is no more interesting place in Venice than the Palace of the Doges. Its grand halls. Council chambers, Cathedral of Milan. 295 Inquisitorial departments, instruments of torture, dungeons and long, dark corridors, leading to the fatal axe or over the " Bridge of Sighs " to perpetual imprisonment, convey a faint but sad picture of the past glory of the Doges of Venice. We visited every part of it. Venice in her best days had a population of over 200,000. Its greatest prosperity was in the twelfth century. After that it began to decline and its population fell to about 96,000. It is now increasing again in wealth and population. It is built upon alluvial ground with a rock sub-stratum only about twenty- five feet below the surface. The whole city rests upon piles driven down to the rock. There are no leaning buildings in Venice like those of Rotterdam. Some of them lean slightly. We left the city favorably impressed with its many charms. The weather was good while we were there and that added very much to our enjoyment. We now began to wend our way slowly homeward. We passed through Padua, a town of quite considerable historical importance. It is now very strongly fortified. Its present population is about 80,000. It is said that living in Padua is cheaper than in any other place in Italy. The citizens claim for their town an antiquity equal to Troy. During the reign of Au- gustus, it was reputed to be one of the richest towns in Italy. We could only look at it for a very short time and form some general idea of its constr.iction. In the route from Padua to Verona (where we stopped a short time), we passed the battle- field of Solferino, and L,ake Garda. The lake is thirty -seven miles long by from two to ten miles wide and, in places, one thousand feet deep. Its waters are beautifully blue but often very rough. Passing over a flat and fertile country we reached Milan and gave it nearly two days. We had seen the city thoroughly in 1888, but now, after having seen most of the renowned cathedrals of Europe, we felt a desire to look once more upon the gem of the world in Gothic architecture — the Cathedral of Milan. St. Paul's, of lyondon, the cathedrals of York, Cologne and Florence are noble, impressive and grand, but they all have a naked internal appearance. Westminster Abbey, Notre Dame, the cathredals at Strasbourg, Orleans, Chester and Brussels are venerable and hoary piles, but are imperfect, not finished, or overcrowded in ornamentation and monuments. They are very interesting places for the student of history, but they never inspire the beholder with that peculiar feeling of awe or wonder which he experiences when, for the fiist time, he looks up at the dome of St. Peter's in Rome, or St. Paul's in London. The cathedral at Antwerp is exceedingly beautiful and 2(^6 Milan TO TuKiN. striking in its tall, heaven-piercing spire of stone, but it is surrounded with mean shops, built up against its sacred walls which gives it, in other respects, a common appearance. The old cathedral at Vienna is curious to look at because of its mosque-like construction ; in other respects it has no distinc- tive charms. St. Sophia, St. Mark, and the restored cathedral at Marseilles are curious because of their Byzantine style and great proportions ; but they are naked within. The old Mosque of a thousand columns at Cordova, is only one story high, and from without has a mean look. Of all the cathedrals we have yet seen, St. Peter's at Rome only surpasses the Gem of Milan. Indeed St. Peter's, when first seen, is disappointing but it grows wonderful on acquaintance. The church at Milan strikes the beholder at once as a finished work. It is as perfect as the genius of man can make it. This was consensus of opinion in our little party and has been approved by all the travelers we have met. Every traveler has his own hobby. They may all, how- ever, be reduced to three heads Nature, Art and Society. Some delight in grand scenery — rocks, crags, mountains, cas- cades, lakes and plains ; others seek the works of art — old paintings, statuary, temples and ancient ruins ; while many care but little for anything but the social intercourse of men and women. Among the young people we have met the plea- sures of society seem to be their chief object in traveling. At Algiers we found our hotel full of society people from I^ondon. They spent all their time in balls, drives, billiards and cards and seemed as happy as if they were in Paradise. When we were shown our room in the hotel at Milan, everything looked familiar. The furniture, the outlook from the balcony, even the chambermaid looked like an old friend. Upon inquiry we found ourselves quartered in the same hotel, on the same story, and the identical room we had occupied four years ago. This was, at least, a singular coincidence and was the result of pure accident. After a last long look at the cathedral with the somewhat sad impression that we would never look upon its face again, we left Milan for Turin. We passed the great battlefield of Magenta where the French and Sardinians, under Napoleon III. and Victor Emanuel, gained their great victory over the Austrians on the fourth oi June, 1859. A few mounds and crosses mark the places where the great ones fell, and a great charnel-house holds the confused and undistinguished bones of the thousands of common soldiers who gave their lives for their country. This victory was the awakening of Italy from its long and deathlike sleep. Turin is the only city in which we have found bad weather. TuKiN TO Macon. 297 It rained nearly all the time we were there. We, however, found time between the showers to drive over the town and thoroughly inspect its outside appearance. Its elevation above the sea is seven hundred and eighty-five feet. It is very ro- mantically situated on the left bank of the Po, with the Alps in full view. The city was the scene of one of Hannibal's victorious marches through Italy and was destroyed by him B. C. 218. It now has a population of 305,000. It is the most regularly laid out city in Europe of its age. Its distinc- tive mark is its numerous arcades. All the sidewalks on the principal streets are arched over and vaulted, even across the intersections, giving a fine foot walk from ten to twenty feet wide, entirely protected from rain. I walked at least a mile under these beautiful arcades from our hotel to the river, with- out raising my umbrella, although it rained hard all the time. We made the acquaintance of the American Consul at Milan. He is a fine looking gentleman, from Cleveland, Ohio, and a staunch Republican. He seemed greatly interested in the debates in Congress on the silver question. He says the people of Italy are naturally very friendly to the United States and have great faith in the financial policy of our government. They think silver and gold ought to be the standards of value, but that silver ought not to be a legal tender over a reasonable sum to be fixed by the government. Silver is now very scarce in Italy and gold is never seen. Italian bank notes are at a discount of four per cent. The smallest note is five francs, about the size of the shin-plaster currency we had during the war. We were somewhat surprised to learn from our friend, the Consul, that there was quite a prosperous Methodist Episcopal church in Milan, of native Italians. While we learn, with age, to love and respect all forms of christian worship, we can but feel a partiality for the church in which our infant lips were first taught to lisp our little prayers to God with a faith that only a child can feel and which, too often, weakens with advancing years. The city of Turin is strongly fortified and literally full of soldiers. We saw ten thousand well-equipped and well-drilled men, marching out to the Champ de Mars to go through their daily evolutions previous to going to work on the fortifications. They marched through the wide streets in several columns, thirty-two deep, and presented a very fine appearance. From Turin we went to Macon, twelve hours distant by rail, through the Alps by the Mt. Cenis Tunnel. The scenery over this route is equal to any in Europe. The mountains on the Italian side were partially enveloped in a dreamlike mist. At Ambrogto, an old castle on the mountain top could be 298 Homeward Bound. distinctly seen with the sun shining upon its ruined towers, while the base of the mountain was entirely hidden by the fog. It looked like an enchanted castle sitting upon a' cloud ; more like a fantastic dream than a real mountain scene. Some of the clouds were tinted with the golden rays of the sun ; others were black and threatening while others, like the clouds of life, had beautiful silver lining. And yet I saw travelers asleep in their compartments while this enchanting panorama was passing before them. The great rocky sides of some of the mountains seemed to pierce the clouds and overhang, as if about to fall upon the passing train. At Aix IvCS Bains we passed a flowing mountain stream thirty or forty feet wide, of black and smoking water. There are great hot sulphur springs near by, which have, since the days of the Romans, a great reputation for the cure of all forms of skin diseases. We also passed and followed the shore of the beautiful lyake Bourget. At places the tract seemed to touch the water's edge. As we plunge from the lake into a tunnel and then out again, apparently into the lake, the effect is very exhilarating, a new picture being presented as we emerge from each of the forty or fifty. tunnels. We arrived at Macon in the evening. It is not a very in- teresting town, but served us as a convenient sleeping place for one night. We have made it a rule to travel by day and rest at night as much as possible. Macon is built upon the Soane. It has a population of 280,000 and lies about two hundred and seventy-four miles southeast of Paris. It was the birthplace of I^a Martine. The route from Macon to Paris is comparatively tame. We arrived back at Paris about seven P. M., having completed our previously arranged itine- rary without the slightest deviation. We have traveled over twelve thousand miles in France, Africa, Italy and on the sea since we left home on the twelfth of February. We intend to now rest nine days in Paris and then set sail for home. PART II. American Hunts and Travels. The following letters were written at intervals during my European travels. They have been chronologically arranged and may be of some value as faithful pictures of the times and places described. Since they were written, many of the scenes have materially changed. My visit to Gettysburg was only a few years after the battle. Communication by rail was then difficult. Since then it has been greatly improved and the place beautified. Roanoke was then in its infancy ; it is now a flourishing city. It is only by comparing the past with the present, that the progress of our common country can be intelligently un- . derstood. T. J. C. February 21 , i8^j. Philadelphia to Niagara Falls. 30B L Philadelphia to Niagara Falls — Mania a potu on the Cars — Incidents on the Road — Scenery — Mauch Chunk — Wilkesbarre — A Picnic Disturbed-Wyoming- — The Beautiful Genesee Falls — Buffalo — How to- See Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls,, August, 1870. The monotony of the journey from Philadelphia to Beth- lehem, was soon broken by the frantic screams of a lady pas- senger with the mania a potu. The passengers were kept in a constant state of excitement by her wild and unearthly yells, drowning even the shrill shrieks of the locomotive. She rushed like an affrighted fury from door to door and up and down the narrow aisle of the car, with her babe in her arms, bent upon leaping out to escape some imaginary demon who seemed to pursue her. She was at last secured and held in her seat while her babe was wrested from her arms, and the car in which she remained was switched off at Bethlehem. Scarcely had we exchanged mutual congratulations for our escape from the drunken woman, when the double alarm of the shrill whistle so well known to travelers, and the sudden check caused by the quick application of the brake,, admon- ished us of some new danger. " What's the matter now ?" cried a score of voices. Some said a man had been run over ; others said a boy had fallen from a cart which had just crossed the track, and that both his legs were cut off. " Poor fellow !" said a woman in front. (She was just going to Mauch Chunk to see her nephew, who had his leg cut off yesterday by fall- ing from the platform ; he had been a brakeman for sixteen years. So the pitcher which had gone so often to the well had been broken at last). Just then the conductor entered all bows and smiles. " The cruel fellow I"" said the woman in front,, "to appear so unconcerned after such an accident;" but we all forgave him when he informed us that they had only run over a cow. From Bethlehem to the head waters of the Lehigh, the scenery is picturesque and enchanting. The road follows all the courses of the meandering river. I had visited Mauch Chunk about twenty years ago, and am surprised to find it so little changed ; it was then on the stage route to Tamaqua.. It is a beautiful ^lace, and were it not for the busy crowd of cars and boats laden with coal and the veritable signs of enter- prise and industry everywhere exhibited, it would compare 302 A Picnic Pakty. favorably with a Swiss town. From Mauch Chunk up the jriver for many miles the eye is wearied with the constant pres- ence of the debris and wreck caused by the recent great freshet ; the canal from this place was so completely destroyed that nothing remains but broken locks and ruptured dams. It will never be rebuilt. The destruction must have been enormous, and the loss to the co npany incalculable. Near the head waters of the Lrchigh, the roaJ diverges to the left, and courses over the table lands b2tween the lychigh and the Sus- quehanna. The great forests have all fallen before the axe of the woodman, and the eye of t'le traveler at one rapid glance surveys thousands of acres of what was once primeval forest, but now barren waste. When within three miles of Wilkesbarre, the line of the road is twelve hundred feet above the site of the town. In order to descend the road winds down the side of the mountain for sixteen miles before reaching the place. The town is beautifully situated on the sdulu bank of the Susquehanna, which is at this place about five hundred feet wide. But few private residences in the most beautiful parts of Philadel- phia are more elegant than those along the river front. It is the county town of lyUzerne and contains about 15,000 in- habitants, and is considered one of the most wealthy towns in Pennsylvania. The country at Elmira, and for many miles up the river, reminds me of the scenery around Baden Baden. The name of the broad valley above the town, however, is hardly as romantic as its Rhinish counterpart. They call the valley here Big Flats. The whole valley of the Susquehanna is soft, luxuriant and charming, contrasting finel}^ with the Ivchigh's wild rocky banks, and is well worth a visit from the American tourist. On our way from Wilkesbarre to Elmira, we passed a pic- nic party, consisting of a lady, gentleman and horse ; the two former were enjoying their htnch in a beautiful copse- wood glen by the side of a deep ravine, and as they did not want to be selfish, they had unharnessed the horse and turned him out to pasture 071 the railroad. It was one of the most ludicrous and serio-comic scenes I ever witnessed. The affrighted steed ran several miles ahead of the locomotive, but escaped unhurt. The last I saw of the picnic party, they were endeavoring to outrun the train with the horse in front of the locomotive. The reprehensible practice, so common in America, of constantly changing the names of places, led me astray at the town of Warsaw. After expending extravagant praise upon it, as a charming spot of which I had not so much as heard, I was informed that it was the old village of Wyoming, in a new name. Thousands of acres of fine farm lands, as innumerable. Niagara Falls. 303. stump fences attest, have recently been redeemed from the forests all along the line of the road from Elmira to Buffalo - In many places large corn and oats fields have no other fences. The stumps seem to have been torn from the ground very much as one would extract a tooth, ' with the roots all intact ; the slumps are then so arranged as to form very good fe^ices. The spot where the Krie road crosses the Genesee river will be admitted by all as most charming ; the river Esk from Havv^- thorden to Roslin Castle in Scotland is not more beautiful. The river seems to have cut its way through the hills from fifty to one hundred feet deep, and has formed a splendid waterfall and cascade ; its beauty is increased b}^ its uuexpejted dis- covery in such an uninteresting country. From there to Buffalo there is nothing very striking,, except perhaps the fact that they have just finished wheat harvest, und :.re commenc- ing to gather their oats, which in many places is yet too green to cut. We left Philadelphia on Tuesday at one o'clock, P.. M., and without traveling by night, arrived at Buffalo on Thursday at four P. M. , a distance of four hundred and twenty - six miles by rail. The city of Buffalo claims 180,000 inhabit- ants ; it is situated upon the eastern end of Eake Erie, and from the palatial residences of some of its citizens on Alain Street, the tourist at once grants all it claims as being one of the wealthiest cities of the West. We were very agreeably dis- " appointed in the place. The buildings are not oal}^ substan- tial, but an unusual proportion of them are of a striking and at the same time pleasing architectural design, and .iLirrounded by green, well-shaded lawns, and flowers. There were 20,000 strangers in the town attending the races at the fair grounds, just outside the city. From this place to Niagara Falls is twenty-two miles, making the entire distance from Chester about four hundred and forty-six miles ; the journey is never- theless amply worth the trouble and time required. I was told by others who had preceded me, that I would be disappointed in Niagara, and so I was ; but it was with agreeable surprise, profound wonder, and absolute amazement. I will not attempt to describe the Falls. I have read a description by Dickens and find it tame. I think I can tell the reason why so many persons are disappointed with Niagara ; they do not take the time, nor have the patience to gaze upon it from the proper places. To see it properly, go first to the Clifton House on the Canada side, walk up the shore to the edge of the Horse Shoe Fall, then descend to the river's edge at the foot of the Falls and gaze up upon the mighty cataract, and if you have a soul and it is not stirred to its very centre, pronounce yourself a stoic, and go home and stay there, for God or Nature have no charms for you. The tourist should also cross the Suspension 304 Niagara to Saratoga. Bridge to the American side and from the lower edge of the American Falls look down one hundred and sixty-eight feet, at the glorious, descending, foaming and sparkling sheet of water ; from thence he should cross over to Goat Island and descend the Biddle staircase to the Cave of the Winds, from which he should re-ascend and walk out to the Tower at the American side of the Horse Shoe, observing the rapids above the Falls and the Three Sisters Islands ; he has then, and not till then, seen Niagara. I have seen nothing to compare with it in the world. The cascades and waterfalls of Europe dwindle into insignificance when placed in comparison with Niagara. The place is full of strangers, every hotel being crowded to its ut- most capacity. We met at the Clifton House, Chief Justice Chase and Mr. Thurlow Weed. We propose resting here a few days, after which we will pursue our journey over the lakes to Montreal, wending our way homeward via Lake Cham- plain, Lake George, Saratoga Springs, and from Albany down the Hudson to New York. II. Niagara to Saratoga — When Shai,l the Lakes be Emp- tied ?— Morgan's Watery Grave — The Thousand, IsivES — The Rapids — Frost in August in Montreal — Fine Vie;w prom Mont Royal — Lakes George and Champlain — Old-Fashioned Stages — Fort Ticonde- ROGA — A Spread Eagle Speech — Saratoga — ^John Mor- rissey's Gambling Rooms — Vulgar Display of Dress AND Diamonds. Saratoga, August, 1870. We spent two nights on the boat irom Niagara to Mon- treal. Those who have never seen the lakes have very erro- neous ideas of their size. At Toronto I cast my eye eastward and easily imagined myself at Cape Henlopen, gazing out upon the boundless ocean. The lake boats are commodious but not as palatial as those of the Hudson ; the state-rooms and table, however, are all the traveler should reasonably re- quire. In stormy times the lakes are as rough and dangerous to navigate as the ocean, but on a calm summer day they are as smooth as glass. From Niagara Falls to the town of Ni- agara, situated at the mouth of the river, where it empties into Lake Ontario, is but a half hour ride by rail over a smooth and apparently stoneless country, with little to interest Fort Niagara. 305 the traveler^ except the deep cut bed of the river with its per^ pendiciilar granite banks, undoubtedly caused by the action of the water in some remote age, when the great waterfall has been several miles further down the river than where it now is. And so. the Falls will continue for hundreds of ages to come to cut its way slowly, almost imperceptibly, but surely back^ back, inch by inch, until in the remote future it empties the great lakes into the ocean, and converts what is now their bot^ toms into rich farms and pasture grounds. Should the great city of Buffalo then stand, it will be an inland town. But we need not grieve, as we will have slept, peacefully I hope, some twenty thousand years before the great Falls of Niagara and the lakes shall disappear. It is the settled belief of geologists that the whole country around Worms and the upper valley of the Rhine was once a lake, which has been emptied into the German Ocean by the action of the water of the Rhine, as it has cut its way back from Cologne to Mayence in some pre^ - historic age. Opposite the town of Niagara stands old Fort Niagara, a place of great interest to the Masonic craft. It was said they confined Morgan in the magazine of this fort, a story which no intelligent Mason at this day believes. It nevertheless created a tremendous excitement about forty years ago, when I was a little boy. It was undoubtedly a stupendous hoax, invented by unscrupulous men, forpolitical effect. I inquired of a very intelligent old gentleman, (Mr. Thurlow Weed), who at the time of the alleged murder, was a co-actor in the comedy with Thaddeus Stevens and other great anti- Masons, as to the truth of the story. He assured me most earnestly that the Gospel was not more true. He said that he entered the fort the morn= ing after the murder, with a habeas corpus for the production of Morgan's body before the Court ; but that the judge who had granted the writ, being a Mason, gave timely notice to the brethren having him in charge, and that they, just before day= break procured two fifty -six-pound weights and a rope, and took Morgan from the Fort, gagged and tied him, and with one of the weights tied to his neck and another to his feet, they rowed him out where the water was at least six feet deep, and" with his head and feet due East and West, they threw him into the lake, a cable' s length from the shore. Our boat passed over the very spot where his bones repose, if the story is true. The boats all cross the lake forty miles to Toronto, from whence they proceed down the lake one hundred and eighty miles to Prescot, where it is necessary to change boat in order to descend the rapids with safet}^ which no boat drawing over six feet of water can do. The most interesting part of the whole journey, however, is the passage of the Thousand Isles 3o6 Montreal. b2f,re arriving at Prescot. The river St. Lawrence is there s^v^eral miles wide, and so full of most , enchanting little greea islands that in SDm2 places it is difficult to navigate the bjat through them. The scenery is very fairy -like ; in some places thi green water is so still and glass-like as to mirror the islands in the streams, where they can be seen as perfectly by looking down into the water as up on the land. The descent Oi tne rapids is exciting, but not as much so as I anticipated. Tne boat seems to be sinking, bow foremost, as she plunges over the foaming and angrv waters. The steam is all shut off and six strong men are required at the wheel, to keep the boat in her true course. At Split Rock, on the Cider Rapids, the channel between the rocks has not over six feet margin. The uaexperienced passenger naturally holds his breath as he sees the boat rapidly approach the terrible rock ; it would surely strike it, were it not for the skillful hands at the helm. With all their skill, however, they sometimes lose their boats ; we passed one, a very fine steamer, completely wrecked upon the rocks. The rapids of the Rhine, so much talked about in Europe, are not fit so much as to be named in comparison with those of the St. lyawrence. We also passed the barge used by the Fenians, in their worse than foolish raid into Canada. On the night of the i6th inst., there was frost at Mon-- trea!. The town is about eight hundred and sixty miles from Chester, and four hundred from Niagara Falls. It looks some- thing like Edinburg, Mount Royal, from which the town took its name, personating Arthur's seat. It is built of cut granite and seems more like an European town than any I have seen in America. The French language is spoken altogether in some parts of the town and surrounding country ; this together with its gold and silver currency,* several times beguiled me into the belief that I was in Havre, which is built of the same kind of stone. Montreal contains some of the finest churches and public buildings on the continent. The Victoria bridge with its twenty-four piers and tube a mile and a quarter long, with its single span of three hundred and thirty feet, sixty feet above summer high water, is alone one of the modern wonders of the world. A drive around the mountain is full of interest ; it gives a splendid view of the town, bridge and canal, while in the far distance the Adirondacks and Green Mountains of Vermont, are plainly visible. From Montreal we turned our steps homeward, by way of Eake Champlain, Take George and Saratoga. The scenery up Lakes Champlain and George is equal to any lake scenery in the world. Arriving at Fort Ticonderoga, we took stages. *NoTE.— When this letter was written the U. S^ had not resamed specie payment. Lake George. 307 for about five miles, over a rough mountain road, where we embarked in the boat upon Lake George. The stage route carried us over the battle ground of Abercrombie's defeat, who in 1758, with 17,000 troops, undertook to storm Fort Ti- conderoga. After four days' hard fighting, his shattered and broken army returned to Fort William Henry, leaving 2,000 of the bravest and best of his men dead on the battle field. The capture of Quebec and conquest of Canada rendered the vast military works of Fort Ticonderoga, Fort William Henry and Crown Point useless, and they were dismantled and aban- doned. The great hotel at the head of Lake George, occupies part of the site of Fort William Heniy, the earthworks being still visible. At Fort Ticonderoga the ruins are in pretty good preservation. As we ascended the hill with a procession of six four-horse coaches, reminding one of the caravan formed by Dan Rice's great Show, the agent of the coaches stopped them all in front of the Fort, and gave us a regular Fourth of July speech, of the most approved spread eagle kind. After recounting in glowing words the glorious deeds of our patriot sires, and a minute recital of the capture of the fort by Ethan Allen, he closed his oration somewhat in this manner : "Thus were the hated t^^rants of human libert}^ and American Inde^ pendence forever driven from our shore, and our great and glorious Republic founded, Destined like a rock to stand Till Gabriel with his trump in hand Shall rouse the living and the dead. Until the Sun shall cease to burn And the Moon to ashes turn Drive on your horses, Ned." Ned cracked his whip and the caravan advanced. Lake George is thirty-six miles long by from one to three broad. But little is lacking to make it equal to any of Europe's most favorite pleasure resorts. It sadly needs their romantic castles, mountain roads, and legends which give such an ex- quisite charm to Heidleburg, and the Black Forrest around Baden Baden. From Lake George we again take the stages, and after a six-mile journey over a very rough and elevated road, from which the Green Mountains of Vermont can be plainly seen, we arrive at Glen Falls, a town of about six thousand inhabitants, where we take the cars, and in two and a half hours arrive at Saratoga, the Baden Baden of America, and the gayest place in the State. It is the resort of the elite of New York, and the sporting men of America. The races are now in lull blast, and the Hon. John Morrissey is here keeping a first-class gambling house. The ladies here carry the infatu- ation of dress to a ridiculous extent. They appeared last night at the grand ball of the season in all the gorgeous colors of the rainbow, fairly scintillating with diamonds and glittering with 3o8 Dress and Diamonds. golden jewels and precious stones. I observed several dowagers of at least fif! y , dressed like damsels of fifteen, with low square- necked dresses which, instead of exhibiting the charms of youth, only exposed the ribs and wrinkles of age ; the sear and yellow leaf instead of the bursting rose bud. One lady was clothed in what seemed to be a snowflake, with a powdered wig and frills and a train at least ten feet long. While here and there I observed some fair faces painted in beauties red and white "by Nature's own true cunning hand laid on," the great majority of the gay ones were mere works of art, got up by nature's journeymen, and botched in the making. A lady of about forty had on her neck, ears, arms and fingers, about $25,000 worth of gems and diamonds. The foot of a cluster cross nestled on her heaving breast, which was liberally ex- hibited by her square-necked dress. She seated herself with all a woman's art where two chandeliers cast a flood of light upon her diamonds. It was amusing to observe her constantly changing position, obviously made to make her diamonds sparkle, while her bosom constantly heaved, and with each heave the diamond cross dazzled the beholder with its bril- liant rays. Her last act was to pick her tooth with her finger nail to show a magnificent diamond ring. While loath to com- ment on the frailties of our countrywomen, a sacred regard for truth requires the exposure. These lavish displays of jew- elry, instead of making the wearers, as they suppose, the centres of attraction, only make them objects of pity with all well bred people. III. BATTLEFIE1.D OF Gettysburg — Compared with Watekloo — The FieivD as I Saw It— The Terrible Struggle at CuivP's HiLiv — lyiBERTY Guarding Her BattlepieIvD— Remaining Evidences of the Great Battle. Gettysburg, August, 1871. Two years ago I visited the field of Waterloo, and al- though the dust and mould of over fifty years had covered many of its most interesting monuments, yet enough remained to mark the momentous struggle of the eighteenth of June, 1815. Hougomont had scarcely been touched since the day of the battle ; the old red brick wall bore the marks of thousands of musket balls. The abandoned well from which no water has since been drawn, and which it is said contains three hundred Gettysburg. 309 skeletons and the charred gates were very much as the battle- left them — ^silent mementos of the memorable day so fatal to the glory of France, but so significant of the liberty and civil- ization of the world. There also might still be seen " Le chemiii cre^iz d'Ohain, so graphically described by Victor Hugo ; the hollow road into which the French cavalry plunged, causing the panic which contributed so largely to the loss of a victory almost won. How little the farmers of Belgium dreamed, as they journeyed over that hollow road, and com- plained so often of its neglected water courses, Vv'hich every rain washed still deeper, that God was thereby digging the grave of the great French Empire ; nevertheless, an apparenth- insignificant lane settled the fate of Napoleon, as well as of the world. A comparison of the bloody field of Gettysburg with that of Waterloo is by no means far-fetched ; the one was decisive of the liberty of Europe, the other of the freedom of America. The natural position of the ground at Gettysburg, is much stronger for defence than that occupied by the Allies at Water- loo ; but while the Allies had 72,000, and the French 80,000 men, the Federals at Gettysburg had but 60,000, and the Con- federates 90,000 men. At Waterloo the Allies lost about 20,000, and the French 40,000 in killed, wounded and prisoners. At Gettysburg the Federals lost about 16,000 killed and wounded and 4,000 prisoners, in all about 20,000. The Rebel loss was 26,500 killed and wounded and 13,000 prisoners and deserters, in all about the same as the French loss at Waterloo. The attack upon La Poste Hougomont which was the key to the English position, cost the French about 10,000 men hors de combat. The charges upon the works on Gulp's Hill were equally disastrous to the Confederates. Both battles were fought for, and won in the cause of humanity. " Dans la bataille de Waterloo, il y a plus que de 7iuage, il y a de meteore. Dieu a passe.'' The remark can with equal force be applied to Gettysburg ; it was not Meade, it was not the superior bravery of the Federal forces that won the day, it was God. The battle cannot be clearly comprehended without view- ing the ground. The route from Philadelphia is somewhat tortuous as well as tedious. The first change is at York, which is reached via the Pennsylvania Central, from York via. Northern Central to Hanover Junction and thence to Gettys- burg. As the train approaches the town, a very good general view of the battlefield can be had from the front platform, or the large side doors of the baggage car. At the right is seen, Seminary Ridge, north and west of the town. This ridge was occupied by Reynolds' ist Corps and Howard's nth Corps on the afternoon of July ist. It was in advance of this position. 3io Gulp's Hill. wbere General Reynolds fell. Seminary Ridge was occu- pied by the Rebels on the 2d, 3d and 4th of July, the nth Corps having been driven back through the town to the posi- tion seen at the left from the cars, and southeast of the Borough, known as Gulp's Hill and Gemetery Hill. In the distance, due south from the town, Round Top and Ivittle Round Top can be easily discerned. These were the prominent points of the battlefield. A carriage, guide and good map of the field, all of which can be procured for five or six dollars, are abso- lutely necessary. The first place visited was the National Gemetery, a very beautiful and interesting spot. The monu- ment is a most exquisite work of art, but it seemed to me that the Goddess of I^iberty was either too large, or the column too small, to be in just proportion to the other parts ; but as I am not au fait in statuary, I will not criticise the work. From the Cemetery to Gulp's Hill is about a half mile ; the greater part of the way we traveled by carriage, which we left at the foot of the hill. The point where the lyouisiana Tigers charged the works held by the 12th Corps, we attained on foot over about a third of a mile of very rough and sterile ground. Gettysburg has this advantage over Waterloo ; the latter is highly fertile, and under constant cultivation, which to some extent, has destroyed its characteristics ; but Gettysburg is so hill}^ rough, rocky and sterile, that its features must ever re- tain the same marks, and like the face of a man, while it may grow old, the outlines must continue the same. The grass will never grow here, but the dew drops on the forest trees may well grieve " Over the unreturning brave — alas ! Ere evening to be trodden like the grass Which now beneath them, but above shall grow In its next verdure, wlien this fiery mass Of living valor, rolling on the foe And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low." Gulp's Hill was the key to the Federal position on the second and third days of the fight ; the remaining evidences of the tremendous conflict still visible, are truly frightful. The enemy had advanced about two miles from his position of July ist. . The town had been captured and occupied. The capture of the hill was of the first importance, and the flower of General lyce's arm}- was detailed to the work, but they never returned ; they captured the works, but had not men enough left to hold them. It is said the Rebel dead lay here four deep, and I verily believe the report. Acres of forest trees, as large in diameter as a man's body, were torn into splinters, not by artillery, but by musket balls. They must have flown thicker than hail. How any living being could survive for a moment under such a fire is a mystery to every one who has Round Top. 311 seen the ground. It is said the eiemy supposed they were charging the Pennsylvania militia, and first discovered their fatal error when they saw the bronzed faces and faded colors of their old foe behind the works, and in surprise and despair, as they were about leaping over them, cried out : " The army of the Potomac by — " and fell back in disorder and dismay. Others locate this scene at the Peach Orchard. Those who entered the Federal works were beaten back with the butts of the muskets and with stones, tbe guns being too hot to fire. In returning from Gulp's Hill, looking westward, a charm- ing picture is presented. The wood which skirts the eastern boundary of the cemetery, completely conceals all of the monu- ment, save the Goddess of L,iberty upon the top. She appears to be standing on the topmost branch of a tall oak, and looks like a great white angel, with a wreath in her hand, looking down upon her dead and guarding her battlefield. The next point of interest is the Peach Orchard, near the Rose Farm, and Little Round Top. The hill might almost be called a mountain. For its possession a terrific battle was fought at the Peach Orchard on the Emmitsburg road. But few marks of the struggle remain. Save here and there the lead of musket balls on the rocks, and scars or wounds on the inter- vening trees, nothing more remains to mark the frightful and furious charges upon this part of the field. As we approach from the Emmitsburg road the guide points out a field, now under cultivation, in which are buried over three thousand Confederate dead, who fell in the struggle for Round Top. Not the slightest mark remains to show where the poor fel- lows sleep. Round Top is two miles due south of the town, and the Peach Orchard is about one mile west of the hill. The hill is a natural fortress, and seems to be an upheaval of rocks and boulders, varying in size from a hogshead to a ha}' stack, and is somewhat difficult to ascend with no opposing bay- onets or batteries. It abounds also with stone, the size of ordinary building stone which, in addition to the roeks, had been formed into a perfect network of breastworks. It cannot be ascended in a straight line, but only by a zigzag course, and by picking our way from rock to rock. It commands the entire field, and its possession secured the victory which otherwise would have been but temporary. When once occu- pied and armed it was a second Gibraltar, which five hundred men could certainly hold against ten thousand. Meade's headquarters were at a small frame house on the Taneytown road about half way between Round Top and Gulp's Hill. Two shells went through the house, the holes of which are still i;here. The General was sitting upon a rock in the middle of the road when the dispatch bearer gave him 3t2 Relics of the Battle. the information that the hill had been occupied and could he held by our forces. A beam of triumph enlightened his some- what anxious countenance, and he at once caused the news to be signaled to Gulp's Hill. The ravine at the foot of Round Top is also full of bould- ers. At one place, not inappropriately named " The Devil's Glen," the crevices and fissures of the enormous rocks were found, after the battle, full of rebel dead and wounded. The skill of a General who would attempt the capture of such a position as Round Top may be more than doubted, neverthe- less Hood did attempt it ; the 3,000 graves on the Rose farm are the result. While the struggle was being made for Round Top, a flank movement was attempted still further South, which was promptly met and defeated by Kilpatrick's cavalry. The town of Gettysburg is about the size of West Chester; it shows but few marks of the battle. I noticed, however, one house as we came in from the Taneytown road, completely peppered with musket balls. The relics of the battle, such as shot, shells, swords, guns, bayonets, etc., have been all re- moved from the field, and can be purchased in the town by those desiring them. If the visitor desires to examine the rebel lines, he can make it an afternoon's journey. It takes all the forenoon to view the places above indicated. Thousands upon thousands of visitors come annually from all parts of the Union and world to explore this battlefield, and I feel quite sure that none have grudged the time or expense thereby incurred. Philadelphians can return by way of Baltimore, in the same time and for about the same fare, as by Harrisburg or Columbia. The Northern Central road traverses a very beautiful and fertile country from Hanover Junction to Baltimore, Pleasures OF THE Chase. ,313 IV. A Hunt in Arkansas— Pennsylvania Compared Witb Other States — The Hot Springs — Farm Houses as Hotels— An Amusing Story— A /.Negro Experience Meeting — Little Rock— Character of the People- Hunting on the Prairies^ — Rattlesnakes and Whis- ky — A Case of Buck Fever— River Rail Bird on the Grand Prairie. lyiTTLE Rock, September, 1877. Bvery sportsman must be interested in the pleasures of the chase. The intense excitement of the hunt is but a crop- ping out of a part of our original nature ; a retroactive element of the mind, which carries us back to the period, when our fathers, of ages past, subsisted on the game they killed. It was then that the dog became the friend and companion of man and though not so necessary to our existence now, common gratitude compels us to love him still. When weary of artifi- cial life, and tired of the conventionalties of society, with its hollow amusements and feverish joys, how we long for the freedom of the unplowed fields, and enjoy the peaceful shade of the wild wood. To gratify this innate desire, I left home on the 28th of August, and by traveling day and night, I ar- rived upon the hunting gr^^/unds of Arkansas, on the 2d of Septem.ber. I traveled about fourteen hundred miles, passing through Pennsylvania, Western Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illi- nois, Missouri, and more than half of Arkansas, To vary the route in returning, I propose to go bj' the way of Memphis, Louisville and Cincinnati, thus passing through Tennessee and Kentucky. The weary hours of railroad travel can be profitably employed in comparing other countries with our own State. The longer I live and the more I see of the world, the more I am inclined to be cosmopolitan, and yet I never love Pennsylvania so much as when I compare it with other coun- tries. This may seem paradoxical, but it is not, for while we must like our birthplace and naturally be attached to the scenes with which we are familiar, we can also appreciate the excellencies qf .other lands and enjoy the beauties of other countries. While Pennsylvania abounds in agricultural and mineral wealth, Arkansas is trul}^ rich in her well-timbered forests, fertile bottom lands, and undeveloped, but rich prairies, every foot of which is capable of cultivation and only awaits the hand of the husbandman, to make them blossom like the rose. 514 Arkansas Customs, The climate is salubrious, the face of the country varied from broad meadows to rolling prairies, undulating hills and green mountains. The hot springs are among the natural wonders of the world, andean only be appreciated by being visited. The waters are more abundant than any others ol the kind ; _some of them are so hot as almost to scald the hand when thrust into them. To bathe in them they must be tempered with cold water. They will boil an egg or cook a fish in their natural temperature. They are highly medicinal, and are re- sorted to by invalids from all parts of the earth. The warm springs and medicinal waters, so celebrated in Europe, dwindle into absolute insignificance when compared with the hot springs of Arkansas. The people of the State are intelligent, well-informed, kind and universally hospitable. True, the laws are seldom resorted to for the redress of mere personal injuries. No man. was ever hung in Arkansas for killing his enemy in a personal rencontre, but murderers for money, thieves and burglars, re- ceive speedy justice, and seldom escape with their lives. No gentleman, however, who knows how to respect himself, need fear his ability to secure the respect of others. The men are a little inclined to profanity and undue indulgence in gaming, but they are generous in disposition and honest in their busi- ness intercourse with their fellow-men. They are exceedingly sensitive upon points of personal honor, and quick to resent insult. After close observation, I am satisfied that there is just as much refinement in the city of Little Rock, as can be found in any of our Eastern cities. This is especially true of the ladies. They are unsurpassed in personal beauty ; possess great conversational qualities and really charm one by the ease and elegance of their manners. They possess the peculiar faculty of making one feel at once at home. In the rural dis- tricts and on the prairies, the people are ver)^ primitive in their habits. No commodious and comfortable farm houses, barns, and out buildings, such as abound in Pennsylvania, are to be seen here. Well-to-do farmers dwell in one-story log houses, without carpets and with only the most indispensable rustic furniture, yet it is truly surprising to see the substantial comfort they manage to extract, from their rude accommoda- tions. There are no country taverns for the entertainment of travelers, but there is no difficulty in finding shelter for the night in the farm houses above described. Some comical stories are told of the embarrassment of Eastern travelers on such occasions. The following was told of a Jew peddler. We will per- mit him to tell his own story : ' ' Veil I vas very tired ven I arrive at Jake's house on the grand prairie. Jake said he not Negko Characte'r. 315 l^ave much room ; he said I could schlesp ou de sofa by the fire, or I could schleep mit der childrens in de bed. Veil, I say Jake, I ish much tired and I gess I schleep on de sofa by myself. I schleep first rate all night. In de morning I vas wakened by the laugh and talk of two bouncing fine girls get- ten de breakfeast. De most young vas about sixteen. I say, '' My deer, whare are de little children ?" She laugh and say ^he vas de baby, and dat she and sister vas de only children in the house. Den I feel awful bad, and I say to myself-— " By Gimminy , ish dat so o-o.''^ A correct idea of life in Arkansas cannot be formed with- out a glance, in passing, at the negro population. S3tne of them are quite smart ; all are loquacious and clannish, espec- ially in their religious societies;. Carncross & Dixey's exhibi- tions ol negro life, would afford but little amusement here. The veritable scenes witnessed in some of the social gatherings of the race, far surpass in ludicrous extravagance, all the ficti- tious inventions so ably portrayed by those artists. The Sheriff of Jefferson county vouches for the following : A bitter feud existed between the Baptists and Methodists on his plantation. The consequence was that any depredation committed by one party was sure to be exposed by the other, and therefore, his hogs, sheep and poultry were more than usually secure. At last a Baptist orother made a feast, and to supply his table, he stole one of his Methodist brother's sheep for which he was sent to jail for three months. Upon his liberation from prison, the Baptist brethren called a great meeting to condole with their afflicted brother, and hear his experience while in jail. With great unction and solemnity, he spoke as follows : " My dearbrederin Paul was in jail- Silas was dare, and so was Peter— and, bress de lyord, dis old nigger hab been dare, too. Nobody knows how near he can git to God, till he gits in jail. ^' On another occasion, the Sheriff attended an experience meeting of the Methodist brethren. An old gray -haired saint gave his experience. He told of all his trials and temptations, and how he had withstood them ; *' And now," said he, " I'se soon gwine home to glory, to dwell forever with de patriarchs and de prophets, de bims and de cherubims." The Sheriff also tells the following ivar story : He was an officer in the Union army. One night, on the eve of a very severe battle, he was waited upon in his tent b}^ one of his colored soldiers who could neither read or write and who re- quested assistance in writing a letter to his wife. He took a pen and some paper and told the poor fellow to dictate, and he would write his letter for him. The letter ran thus : "I take my pen in hand to inform j^ou that I am well and that we are 3x6 French ORicrisr. going to have a hard fight to-morrow, in which I will most likely be killed and I hope these few lines will find you in the enjoyment of the same blessing. After the battle I will write you again." He then paused, scratched his head and seemed to hesitate ; "well, have yju anything, else to say,," said the Sheriff. " I guess dats about all," said the soldier, " but don't forget to axe her to please excuse bad writing and spelling. ' ' Little Rock is beautifully situated on the high southern bank of the river Arkansas, from which the State takes its name. The name is here pronounced Arkansaw,^ which I sub- mit, upon the principle that every person must be presumed to know how to pronounce his own name„ is the proper pronun- ciation, Webster to the contrary, notwithstanding.* The city takes its name from a rock which projects into the river at the spot which was the nucleus of the town. It was called Little Rock to distinguish it from another very large one also project- ing into the river a short distance further up. In 1850 the popu- lation of the place was but 2,167. It now contains about 20,000. In 1803 Arkansas was a part of French Fouisiana,. which accounts for the pronunciation of its name. Its French origin may also be readily discovered from the peculiar pro- nunciation of all words ending with the French adverbial termination inent^ such as regiment, government, settlement,. &c., the accent here among the descendants of the original settlers, being almost universally placed upon the last instead of the first syllable. The physical configuration of the State varies from rich alluvial bottoms lands, (annually overflowed by the rivers and intersected with great swamps and small lakes), to hills and mountains, ranging from a few feet to nearly a thousand yards in height, and from vast level prairies to well watered, exten- sively wooded, and undulating lands. The State is rich in undeveloped mineral wealth, such as coal, iron, zinc, lead and copper. Many of the stories so industriously circulated in the North, of the uncivilized condition of Arkansas, are absolutely false — true it is rather a rough place for a horse thief, and the courts are seldom troubled with personal quarrels — the pistol and bowie knife are the general arbiters of all such conflicts. To live peaceably here, all that is required, is to conduct one's- self just as he would in Pennsylvania. Murders are however more frequent, and human life seems to be less secure than in other parts of the Union. Fike the rattlesnake, which, by the way, is at home in Arkansas, the offended citizen usually gives his antagonist ample warning before he strikes. When *NoTE.— Since this letter was written, Webster lias corrected his pronun elation of the name. Preparing FOR THE Hunt. 317^ he straightens himself up with indignant defiance, and says — • " B}^ G — -d, sah ! I'm a gentleman, sah ' Ef you dispute it, sah ! I'll kearv (carve) you, sah !" The offender has one of three things to do ; apologize, retreat, or prepare at once to kearv or be carved. But I am occupying too much ground. Instead of des- canting upon the life and manners of the people, I desire to give a brief description of our hunt upon the prairies. Our party consisted of six hunters, five dogs and one servant. (Among hunters the dog takes precedence to the servant). The usual mode is to take a tent and camp out wherever chance leaves you at the end of the day. We, however, not wishing to be embarrassed with camp equipments, resolved to rough it,, and sleep under our wagons if we could find no better shelter. Our provisions consisted of boiled ham, breakfast bacon, bread., coffee, tea and a little whisky. Being all temperance men we at first resolved to proscribe the whisky, but as rattlesnakes were abundant on the prairies, we concluded to take a small quantity as an antidote to their bite, and we unanimously agreed that five gallons would be enough. To our credit be it known, that we brought some of it back to I^ittle Rock, but unfortunately the keg with its remaining contents was stolen from us by the ferryman as we crossed the river at midnight, so we were deprived of the evidence of our own abstemious- ness. To reach the grand prairie from Little Rock, we traveled by rail about forty miles to Carlisle, where teams were in waiting. From .Carlisle, to the commencement of the shoot- ing ground is some ten or fifteen miles further. It was near night when we set out from Carlisle with two double teams well loaded with ourselves, our equipments and dogs. The wagons were comfortable enough but without covers, and' as it threatened rain, which soon descended in torrents, render- ing the night pitchy dark, we had the romantic prospect of spending it under our wagons, wet to the skin. To add to our trouble, the roads, (which here are only single trails, never laid out or repaired by any public authority, and often difficult to follow in daylight and impossible to find at night) ran through the edge of a wood. We had no lanterns and to pick our way through it, we had to get out and strike matches. Emerging at last from the wood, we saw a light, and without regard to the road, we pulled directly to it. It proved to be one of the small farm houses before described. The only per- sons at home were a small boy of nine years and his sister of about fourteen. Without much ceremony we took possession of the establishment, tethered our horses and mules, and pass- ed a very comfortable night. We were now on the skirt of 3i8 Hunting on the Grand Prairie. the grand prairie. It is ninetj^ miles long by about thirty broad ; looks like a great sea of grass with here and there what seems to be small clumps of wood, called islands, but which proved to be several thousand acres of woodland. These islands are the marks by which the prairie is navigated by day ; at night the compass or stars are the guides. The prairie is well stocked with chickens, quail and rabbits. It is no uncommon thing to raise a few deer. They, however are generally found in the wood, or slashes, where from the increased moisture, the grass is very tall and rank, thus afford- ing them better shelter. We commenced shooting soon after quitting our quarters for the first night, and continued the sport throughout the week. We started three fine deer, and could have secured them all if we had been provided with saddles and hounds. They were raised by the dogs about one hundred yards from our wagons. Of course, I got the buck fever, and would hardly have shot at them if they had jumped from under our horses. The hunting was all done in the wagons. The prairies can be traversed without any regard to the trails or roads. The horses were driven in a trot, and the dogs made to range on each side of the wagons. If a bird rises within range it is shot from the wagon, or if too far off, it is marked and ap-. proached in the teams to within about a hundred yards of its alighting place, often a quarter of a mile distant. The hunters then descend from the wagons and follow the dogs till they come to a stand, then advancing slowly till the bird rises, the quickest shot brings him down. But few birds, escape when thus raised. When they get up in coveys, the skill of the hunter is shown in his ability to mark the alighting places of the scattered birds, and raise and shoot them, one at a time. We saw several genuine river rail birds in the centre of the prairie. To be sure of it, I shot one and found it plump and fat, just as we find them along the Delaware. In some seasons the chickens are so plentiful that hundreds are shot in a day, but considering the size of the bird no true sportsman would indulge in sach useless slaughter. Twenty-five or thirty birds a day are enough to satisfy ordinary ambition. This was our daily average during the week, and furnished ample food for ourselves and dogs and left a large number to be thrown away, the weather being too warm to keep them over a daj^ The sport was all that could be expected or desired. The company was agreeable and harmonious, and the enjoyment was a full compensation for its cost. I am very favorably im- pressed with Arkansas. A Politician's Treachery. 319 V. A Hunt on the Blue Ridge — A Politician and a Forget- ful Party — An Unpleasantness and an Explanation — Battlefields and Beautiful Scenery — Roanoke — A Wonderful Spring — Tariff Democrats — War Rec- ollections A Divided House Good Sport The Sleep of Innocence— -" The Elegant and the Bold McIntyre" — Hunting on PIorseback — The Pleasures OF THE Hunt — Epitaph to Mahone. November 6th, 1883. On the moruing of the General Election, too early to vote, we took the 1 .30 train for Roanoke, Va., for a few days' quail shooting among the mountains, at the head of the beau- tiful Shenandoah Valley. We are four true Republicans, and that our votes might not be lost, we paired with the same number of honest Democrats at home. A sacred regard for truth requires me to confess that one of our party was a politi- cian. He boasted of the vile trick he had played upon three confiding Democrats, by pairing with them all instead of one. It was the same old story, innocence and confidence betrayed by shrewdness and treachery, " O Liberty , what crimes have been committed in thy name." Upon our arrival at Roanoke about midnight, we were greeted by our genial old friend and former fellow-citizen, Col. David F. Houston, whose hospitality we enjoyed during our entire stay. When a hunter strikes the trail of game, he may forget the cares at home ; he may, for the time, forget his wife, but never his dog. Our party were an exception to the general rule. One of us forgot his dog ; another forgot a ten dollar box of segars which he left in the car at Baltimore , another forgot a pack of cards purchased especially to while away the weary hours of travel, and the other forgot to kiss his wife before he left home, but he did not forget a good supply of medicine, pure double distilled extract of rye, a sure remed}' against malaria, snake bites, etc. The politician of our part}'- was chosen ^az/z^-^keeper, not in the English sense of the word, to preserve the game from poachers, but rather to keep the record of our games at cards. I have fully made up my mind never to trust a politician — I caught him, in the most innocent manner, recording the score in the wrong column. I, in a subdued tone, remarked that the man who would cheat three confiding Democrats out of 320 Famous Battlefields. their votes would take advantage of his friends, at card. He flew into a rage ; sprang to his feet ; thrust his right hand into his hip pocket and in a voice of thunder demanded an expla- nation. With a mildness and good temper for which I have always been noted, I told him I could conscientiously swear that he was as honest in cards as Ben Butler was in politics, and could be trusted as far. This appeased his honor, and, to the great relief of all, instead of pulling out a pistol from his hip pocket, he drew forth a bottle of whisky and we all took a drink. When his hand went into his hip pocket, all the blooded Virginians in the car jumped to their feet, expecting to be regaled with a scene of blood and carnage for which the South is notorious. They seemed disgusted at the denouement. From Hagerstown to Roanoke the scener}^ is very pretty. We passed very near the battlefield of Antietam. Gaines' Station was an outpost— every acre around Sharpsburg has been red with war's blood — 5,000 Federal soldiers sleep here. Three miles from Sharpsburg the train crosses the Potomac - One mile below is the "Old Pack-Horse Ford." Just above the ford is a rocky precipice where three thousand Union sol- diers fell, among them many of our Corn Exchange Regiment. The scenery around reminds us of the headlines to the war news — " All is quiet along the Potomac." We passed the famous L-uray Caves but had not time to enter them. We also passed within a stone's throw of the renowned Natural Bridge. While passing over the summit of the Blue Ridge we were within sight of Chambersburg, with the Cumberland Mountains plainly visible in the west. Roanoke is a thriving town of about six thousand popu- lation. It is in the latitude of Norfolk and longitude of Pitts- burgh. In 1879 it had but six hundred inhabitants. It is beautifully situated between the Alleghenies and the Blue Ridge and is about eight hundred feet above sea level. Moun- tains are all around the town. Mill Mountain is only two miles away. From its base gushes a remarkable spring af crystal clear water, flowing 5,000,000 gallons a day. The water from this spring turns several mills and yields an abundant supply for the water works of the town. The greatest industrial establishment of the place is the Crozer Steel and Iron Works. The works closelj^ resemble the plant in South Chester. The town has a good hotel, a bank, several schools and churches, planing mills, lumber yards and exten- sive car works. The Shenandoah Valley is very fertile ; there are also some A Divided House. 321 :good farms on the top of the Blue Ridge, L-and is worth about $100 per acre. The country is full of iron and limestone. I prophesy for Roanoke a successful future. The white people are as a rule Democrats, but favorable to a protective tariff. The Republican party of the South is very different from the same party of the North. The gentleman's party here is the Democratic, It is amusing to listen to the war recollections of the old soldiers. One gentleman told me he was a school boy when the war broke out. He said all the students were anxious to enter the army before the war should end and the Yankees be destroyed. They were taught that no Northern man could ride a horse or shoot a gun, and that the Federal othcers tied the cavalry soldiers to cheir saddles to keep them from falling off or running awa^-. There is, in the town, a house (now two homes), which had been built by two men. They had been close friends from youth and determined to live and die under the same roof. After the home was built, the friends quarreled over a game of cards. The feud became so furious that they determined tv minutes. If the weather had been favorable, I have no doubt we could have killed two hundred of them in a day. I never suffered so much from the cold. I thought my feet were frozen. I abandoned my mule and endeavored to warm myself by violent exercise. My only hope was that some of the party would suggest that it was too cold to hunt. I determined that if I died on the field I would not be the first to cry for quarter. Kind Providence came to my relief by sending a blast of wind and snow with terrific force in the face of the youngest of my shivering companions. " Holy Moses !" he said : "if you fellows want to freeze to death, stay here. I'm going home." Home he went, with me in his rear. The rest of the party weathered it out, and came home loaded with game, in- cluding two fine wild turkeys. The next day, two of us stayed at home to celebrate the birthdaj^ of the junior member of our part3^ Of course, he stayed with us and expressed himself as satisfied with the cele- bration. He was foolish enough to lay a wager that the ones who went to the fields would not bring home another turkey. That night they came home with a fine lot of game, including two more turkeys. A dispute arose about the terms of the wager. One side contended that the whole day was included in the time within which the turkey should be shot. The other side insisted that the time was limited to the forenoon. 392 A Moot Court, To settle this momentous question, which bid fair to dis- rupt the harmony of our little company, the parties agreed that a moot Court should be organized and the testimony should be submitted, and that the verdict should be final. After a good, cheerful supper, we organized the Court. To fill the box, it was necessary to issue a special venire. Mr. Carrington was the sheriff. The first man he summoned was himself, then his wife, daughters and son. The panel was at last filled by his servants. The case will be reported as Gart- side vs. Flower. The defendant chose as his counsel a fair, ;bright j'-oung lady, Miss Price, the private teacher of Mr Carrington's daughters, and a very interesting and accom- plished young lady. The plaintiff pleaded his own cause. The witnesses were called, sworn on a pack of cards, examined and cross-examined. The defendant would have won his case if it had not been for his innocence and carelessness. After the testimony had closed, his fair counsel moved the Court for leave to abandon the case. The reasons assigned were two. First, that she had received no fee ; second, that, as counsel, she had the right to a private consultation of at least one hour with her client, and that he had not as much as invited her to sit by his side during the trial. The Court held the reasons sufficient and granted the motion. After the testimony was all in and the case duly argaed to the jury, the" Judge delivered his charge, strongly in favor of the defendant, but the jury, because of the shabby manner in which the de- fendant had treated his counsel, concluded that no case could be good if a suitor's own counsel abandoned it, and so they found a verdict for the plaintiff, with costs. The trial consumed the whole evening, and was really well conducted and fairly sparkled with nice points, wit and humor. There are many more interesting incidents I would like to relate, but my letter is already too long ; suffice it to say that in four short winter days we secured one hundred and sixty-seven quail, twenty rabbits, five wild turkeys, one black duck and one opossum. We saw three deer, but did not get near enough for a shot. If the weather had been favorable we would have brought home at least five hundred quail. Hunt- ers must not expect success without labor. If good luck comes, all right : if bad luck overtakes you, make your own fun and enjoy yourselves all you can. One of the great charms of hunting is its absolute freedom. You are not bound to be home at ten o'clock. You are subject to no boss.. You don't even have to go to bed till you get sleepy. I must not neglect to name General Washington, the old negro servant, who chopped and carried up our firewood. For Old "Wash's" Toasts. 393 short, they call him "Wash." He is a very dignified old negro, with a fine crop of grizzly wool on his head. He reminded me very much of Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom. Every cold morning, with his master's permission, we gave him a stiff toddy, but we always required him to give us a toast before taking his drink. Here are some specimens : From my lips down to ray toes, Many a quart and gallon goes ; I takedis drink for I don't know, If I shall ever get some mo. (More). My old Massa promised me, When lie died he'd set me free ; Now old Massa's dead and gone. And left me here a hoeing co'n. (Corn). Old Massa died de 17th of April, They put him in a box made of sugar maple ; They dug a big hole down upon the level. I really do believe old Massa's gwine to the devil. The above are only selections from old Wash's manj^ toasts. When he told his old wife what "good drinks de gentlemen up Starr gib him" she upbraided him for not giving her some. "My deah, ' ' said he, ' ' I tried to hold some in my mouf fo' you, but I had to talk to de Judge, and you know its not perlite to talk to white folks wid yer mouf full." BIOQRAPHICAL SKETCM OF THE CLAYTON FAM:ILY, WITH SOME PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF BETHEL AND BRANDYWINE HUNDRED. 396 A Biographical Sketch. PART I. PATERNAI, LINE. L/OST lyiNKS — Clayton Hall, Yorkshire — Family Arms — William of Chichester, the Progenitor of the Penn- sylvania Branch — Attorney General, John Clayton, THE Founder of the Virginia Family — Joshua, of England, the First of the Delaware Line — Quakers AND Methodists — How my Grandmother Punished Her Husband for Becoming a Methodist — Family Con- nections — Anecdote of John Faulk— Saint Walter Martin — The Story of Clem Hathaway— Incident in THE Life of John Faulk, Jr — Origin of the Name Claymont — A Bad Delaware Law — Feasts at Funer- als — Aunt Lavina — Old Time Carpenters — Why I Was Named Thomas Jefferson — Origin of the Name, Whig — Why the Name Tyler was Striken from my • Brother John's Name — Clayton Cider. The family is the foundation of the State. Great Empires have sprung from humble lliance between tribes. It is but reasonable that we should desire to know something of our ancestors and delight in recounting whatever has contributed to their fame. Notwithstanding the important interests connected with genealogy, it is surprising how soon connecting links are broken and all traces of former alliances lost. It is, therefore, the duty, and should be the pleasure, of individual members of a family to preserve for posterity the information they pos- sess, especially the knowledge that depends upon tradition and which may die when they die. The authorities from which I have constructed this sketch are "Dugdale's Visitations of Yorkshire" — published in 1566 ; " The Historical Magazine of Virginia ;" "Letters of Attor- ney General John Clayton and his son John, the Botanist;" Family letters ; old deeds, wills, court records, inscriptions upon tombs and conversations with old members of the family. In the Recorder's office, at West Chester, I have found deeds from 1684 to 1787, to and from old members of the family. They are by and to William of Chichester, Thomas, Samuel, John, Caleb, Abel, David, James and Joshua Clayton. A Biographical Skelch. 397 A deed dated Octob3r 13, 1699, from William of Chi- che";ter, is for one-half of the street and market place, in the "Town of Chichester," (Marcus Hook). The other half was granted by James Brown, who was the ancestor of the Browns of Chichester, of whom the late Jeremiah Brown was one. Fredrick Brown, the druggist of Philadelphia, is a descendant of James Brown and Hannah Clayton, the daughter of my grand-uncle, Armitt. The late Henry Armitt Brown, Esq., a distinguished orator and member of the Philadelphia bar, was a descendant from this marriage. The deed last referred to, was dated the same year that William Penn made his second visit to Pennsylvania accom- panied by Joshua Clayton, a cousin of William the grantor, named in the above cited deed. Joshua was the ancestor of John M. Clayton, of Delaware. They were all Quakers and friends of William Penn. I have not been able to trace the family in England fur- ther back than 1560, when Thomas Clayton was the owner of "Clayton Hall," in Yorkshire. The Claytons, according to family tradition, came origin- ally from Sussex, England, where there is a small town of that name. In the olden time, surnames did not indicate relationship but location All the inhabitants of Claytown, (Clayton), took that as their surname. As York was then the political center of the Kingdom, it was quite natural that the bright young man of the sleepy old town should migrate to the fashionable metropolis of England. The first son of Thomas, of " Clayton Hall," died a minor. His second son was William of Okenshaw. He was a barrister of the Inner Temple. He died in 1627. The estate known as "Clayton Hall," descended to Thomas Clayton (2) who was in possession as heir in 1666. He had a son William, who came to this countr}^ in 167 1, and is the ancestor of our family, and will be hereafter called William of Chichester, to distinguish him from the many other William Claytons that succeeded him. Thomas (2) had also a son, John, who was a barrister of the Inner Temple. He died April 6, 1666. William of Okenshaw, the grandfather of William of Chichester, had a son, Jasper, who was knighted by his sov- ereign for some service which is not stated in the record. He was afterwards called Sir Jasper Clayton. The family coat of arms, as recorded in the Herald's office, is described as follows : " Arms : Argent, a cross eil- grailed sable, between four torteaux." The legend is : "Pro- bitatem quam divitias." Meaning "Honor rather than wealth." The free translation of this legend would mean " Poor but Pi-oud." The people of this country are not, as a 39^ A Biographical Sketch. rule, familiar with the language of Heraldry. I will therefore presume to translate the record of our family arms. The word '"'Arms'' in heraldry and Norman French means the ensign of a family consisting of figures and colors, engraved or painted upon a shield or banner, and which descends from father to son forever. The word " Argent'' means that the surface of the shield shall be silver-white, emblematic of innocence, purity and gentleness. The "-Cross" is emblematic of our christian faith. The word "engrailed" means that the edge of the cross shall be indented by small conical curves. The word ''Sable", means that the cross. shaM. be produced upon the white surface, by black lines drawn vertically and horizon- tally, and crossing each other. The word " Torteatox" is the plural of torteau, which means a small circular spot, ol a red color (in our arms there are fotir red cifcillar spots. Th€ " Legend" is the motto selected by the knight, expressive of soms peculiar trait in himself or his family. Oar coat of arms, as it appears upon the fly-leaf of this book, is copied from an engraving in the Supplement to the Virginia Historical Magazine. With the above explanation it can be uaders.tood without difficulty. Sir Jasper Clayton's son, Sir John of , lyondon, was also knighted July 22, 1664. He was also a barrister, admitted in 1650. His brother George was a haberdasher of lyondon, and ' would, perhaps, like many other honest tradesmen of the family — carpenters, cordwainers and tailors — -never have been again noticed in the family records, if it had not been for his marriage with Miss Hester Palmer, daughter of Sir Thqmas Palmer. Sir John had a son John, also a barrister, admitted June 6, 1682. He came to Virginia in 1705. (Nearly all commu- nication with England, at that time, was to and from the port of Jamestown, Va.). This John was Attorney General of Virginia until 1737, when he died. He was also Judge of the Court of Admiralty and a member of the house of Burgesses. He left a large volume of letters containing much valuable information con- cerning the family. He frequently refers to his brother. Gen- eral Jasper Clayton, who was Governor of Gibraltar and a Ivieutenant General in the English army. He was killed in the battle of Dettingen, in Bavaria, in 1743. The victory of the English was celebrated by Handel's famous Te Deum. B}/ his will he left his estate, which was not very large as measured by the estates of to-day, to be about equally divided among all his children except his daughter, Juliana. The clause referring to her reads as follows : "I give and bequeath to my verj^ undutiful and lost daughter, Juliana, the reputed A Biographical Sketch. 399 wife of Peter Hoo )er, who was my servant, one shilling and no more." This would seem to sustain my translation of the legend on the family arms — " Poor but proud." I do not assume to make an absolutely correct record of the family connections, nor do I profess that all my deductions are beyond the possibility of mistake. I, however, believe the facts stated to be substantially correct. My chief difficulty has been to harmonize the great confusion in family names. There can be but little doubt that the Claytons of Virginia, Georgia, Delaware and Pennsylvania are descendants of the Claytons of " Clayton Hall" in Yorkshire, England. There is a strong family resemblance in the individual members of the several branches. This is corroborated by an occurrence related by one of my brothers in Arkansas. He was on a Mississippi steamboat ' after the war and was spoken to in a familiar way by a stranger who addressed him as " Mr. Clay- ton." The mistake was soon discovered. The stranger was from Georgia and had mistaken my brother for one of his neighbors, bearing the same name, and with whom he was well acquainted. He affirmed that the two looked so much alike that their wives would not be able to tell one from the other. The Claytons of Georgia, I am informed, are the descendants of Rev. John Clayton, an Episcopal clergyman, a contempo rary and friend of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Joshua Clayton who, as before stated, came to this country in 1699, with Penn on his second visit, was the ancestor of the late John M. Clayton, and was a cousin of William Clayton of Chichester, from whom our family are descended. Joshua had a son, James, who had two sons, Joshua, Jr., and James, Jr Joshua, Jr. was a surgeon in the Revolutionary army and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He was after- wards Governor of Delaware and U. S. Senator from that State. He died in 1798. His son, Thomas Clayton, was Chief Justice of Delaware and also U. S. Senator from that State. Johm M. Clayton's father was James, a brother of Joshua, Jr. He and the Chief Justice, Thomas Clayton, were cousins. William Clayton of Chichester, the ancestor of our family before coming to America in 167 1, procured a patent from the British government for five hundred acres of land in Upper Chichester. This was before Penn became proprietor of the Province, and before the Duke of York's charter. He also owned a tract of land at Maylandville, near Philadelphia. A part of the city, known as " Forty -ninth " Street, is built on land formerly of William Clayton. It is said that his wife was named Prudence. I, however, have not been able to verify this tradition. All his deeds are signed simply, 400 A Biographical Sketch. " William Clayton." His wife must have died shortly after his arrival or, perhaps, before^ He had a daughter named Prudence, who married Henry Reynolds. The wedding was celebrated at Burlington, N. J., Nov. lo, 1678, Mr. Reynolds afterwards purchased land and came to Chichester, where he died August 7, 1724. His widow, Prudence, died in 1728. She had ten children. Their eldest son, Francis, married Miss Aston, of Salem. Francis had a son named Henry, who married the daughter of John Davis, of Radnor. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married George Martin, of Chichester, whose daughter, Sarah, was the mother of Hon. John M. Broomall. Washington Townsend, John M. Sharpless, John Sharpless and Dr. George Martin, of West Chester, are de- scendants of Henry Reynolds and Prudence Clayton. William Clayton, the father of the said Prudence, was one of the nine justices who sat at Upland (Chester) in 1681. Henry Rey nolds, his son-in-law, was one of the jurors of said court. William was also a member of Penn's Council. William ot Chichester had a son, William (2) Clayton, born about 1675. His wife was named Elizabeth. He died about February, 1727. He left five sons, named William (3) Edward Richard, Abel and Ambrose. William (3) married Mary, the daughter of Walter Mar- tin. He died about January 9, 1758. The land upon which St. Martin's Church, at Marcus Hook stands, was donated by Walter Martin, by deed dated 1699. Book A, p. 236. In consideration of the gift, the church canonized him and named the church Sahit Martin. As an evidence of his saintly char- acter he made one of the conditions of his grant, that the mortal remains of no Quaker should ever be permitted to re- pose in the burial ground which was a part of his grant, and that there might be no mistake he endorsed his deed with an explanation of what he meant by the word "Quaker." He said he did not mean to exclude Kethites or Christian Quakers, but only Quakers who did not acknowledge the divinity of Christ, be baptized by water, take the Lord's Supper and believe in the resurrection of the dead. Also such Quakers as refused to take an oath upon the Bible should be excluded. Richard Clayton, son of William (2) had a son, Curtis, and a son Richard — my great-grandfather Richard married Abigail, daughter of Robert and Mary Powell, of Concord. Abigail's mother was Mary, daughter of Joseph Rhoads, of Marple. Richard had three sons, Powell my grandfather, Curtis and Armitt. Powell has since been a favorite name in the family. Curtis was the ancestor of the Claytons of Phila- delphia and Colorado. During the Revolutionary war, my great-grandfather Richard, was the keeper and proprietor of A Biographical Sketch, 401 the hotel at the head of the pier at, Port Finn, Delaware. He had a hostler named Clem. Hathaway. When the British Fleet sailed up the river, a few enthusiastic patriots secured an old cannon which they planted upoa the pier and opened fire upon the passing fleet, which immediately poured abroad- side into the town. Clem, was half asleep, with his head resting between his hands, and his elbows on his kness, sitting in front of the old- time fireplace, whsn hs was suddenly aroused by a cannon ball which pierced the wall about six inches above his head, imbedding itself in the brick chimney and covering him with red dust. Without a word he arose and walking deliberately out to the end of the pier, he turned his back to the enemy, bending himself forward so as to present a mark for the British sharp-shooters on the ships. He remained in this defiant position for about ten minutes. The musket balls fell like hail around him but did not as much as scratch his skin. He then straightened himself up, adjusted his clothing and delib- erately returned to the hotel. It is needless to add that from that time till his death, a few months after, he was the hero of the town. His daring defiance of t tie British Fleet gave him a free "admittance to the bar," and too much indulgence in his new privilege soon ended his days. I had the above anecdote directly from my father's lips, who assured me that his father gave it to him just as I have related it, but in rather plainer language. iVfter my great -graadiather left Port Penn, he lived for several years at Marcus Hook, where my grandfather was born. His dwelling was situated on the southerly side of the main street, nearly opposite the Old Market House. In 1786. Richard purchased his Bethel farm from John Ford. He spent the balance of his life upon this farm. At his death he gave it to his son Powell, my grandfather. He gave his Port Penn property to his son Curtis, who afterwards moved to Philadelphia. He was the direct an- cestor of the Philadelphia and Colorado Claytons. His son Curtis has but recently died in Philadelphia, aged ninty-two. Much of the information contained in this sketch I obtained from him a few years ago. My great-grandfather Richard had two daughters. Han- nah and Elizabeth. Hannah married Stephen Faulk by whom she had two sons — William and Clayton — and a daugh- ter named Mary. Stephen Faulk, a merchant of Philadelphia, is a descendant from this marriage. Mary married Philip Jones, of Wilmington, Delaware. His son, Philip, was a dentist in Wilmington, in 1848. Stephen Faulk, the husband 402 A Biographical Sketch. of Hannah (Clayton) Faulk, died before his wife. She after- wards married a man named McKnight, whom she also sur- vived. She died when I was about eleven yearsold, Nov. 12, 1837. My grandfather died about six months before. These were the first funerals of which I have any recollection. They were my first object lessons upon the certainty of death. I shall never forget the terrible impression made upon my mind as I looked down upon the cold dead face of " Aunt Hannah.'' Elizabeth, his sister, married John Tweed, of Delaware. She had a son named Curtis, whom I remember very well. He was killed in an accident upon the Philadelphia, Wilming- ton and Baltimore Railroad, about 1840. Elizabeth had also a son named John, a wheelwright, of Wilmington, Delaware. He was lame from a wound, by the broad axe, in his knee. She had three other sons whom I did not know, named James, Clayton and Columbus. Colum- bus died in Philade'phia Junj 27, 1892. Elizabeth had three daughters, named Abigail, Mary and Elizabeth. Abigail married Mr. Moore, a gentleman of Illi- nois, where she died highly respected. Elizabeth was a fine looking woman and a frequent visitor at my father's house before her marriage, in 1845. She married Mr. Harrison Justison, of Hancock county, Illinois, where she died Novem- ber 16, 1891. Powell Clayton had three wives. His first wife, my grandmother, was Sarah, a daughter of John Faulk, of Dela- ware. They were married May 27, 1790. I have heard my father say that his mother was reputed to be a woman of rare beauty. We must pardon him for that expression as most men think their mothers the most beautiful of women. She died when he was very young. It was said that, when she stood erect, her loosened hair swept the floor at her feet. She also had the reputation of being somewhat proud of her personal charms and social standing. She despised the Methodists but tolerated the Quakers. When my grandfather became a Methodist, she thought the family disgraced. She shut her- self up in her room over a week and wept from shame. All the efforts of her disconsolate husband to soothe her sorrow were vain. She held the fort for about eight days. Her only terms of surrender was his immediate withdrawal from the church. At the end of eight daj^s she partially relented and re- ceived her husband with her wonted grace. Before her death, however, which soon followed on November i, 1795, she re- quested that she might be buried in the Quaker Burying Ground, in Upper Chichester, where her body now reposes without a stone to mark her resting place — (In those days the Quakers were opposed to tomb-stones). A BlOGKAl'HICAL SkETCH. 4O3 Methodism, in those days, was much more primitive than it now is. The early Methodists did not condemn shouting aloud their praises to the Lord. They sung and prayed with great spiritual fervor and did not believe in church music or educated preachers. They regarded religion as a Faith rather than as a Philosophy . They adopted the plain dress, and many of them used the ''Thee and the Thou of the Quakers." They however substituted the word Broihe} for the appellation of Friend used •by the Quakers. There was no substantial difference between the faith of the Qaakers and Methodists until after the schism in the Society of Friends caused by the preaching of Elias Hicks. The Quakers of the olden time were more aristocratic than the Methodists and more clannish and secluded. This may account for my grandmother's prejudice against the Meth- odists. Her father, John Faulk, was fine looking and rather proud in his bearing. He wore buckskin breeches, silk stock- ings and silver knee and shoe buckles. The following anec- dote of my great-grandfather, Faulk, I received from the lips of my father : — He was a skillful stonemason. When the jail at New Castle was erected he did the stone work which was considered, at that time, as a very fine specimen of ma- sonic skill. After the jail had been finished a short time, a prisoner sawed off the iron bars of his cell window and es- caped. The two ends of the cell bars had been set in sockets drilled in the sill and head stone. The question was, how to restore the bars without tearing out the sill and head stone and rebuilding the window and disfiguring the wall ? The commissioners finally concluded that, at least, the head stone would have to be taken out in order to get the ends of the new iron bars into the sockets. Proposals were invited for the work. The bids ranged from seventy-five to one hundred dollars. On the day the contract was to be awarded, John Faulk appeared before the commissioners and proposed to do the work for nothing, without tearing down any of the w^all, provided the commissioners would pay the blacksmith's bill, which should not exceed ten dollars, and, that the work should be finished to the satisfaction of the commissioners in half a day. They at first thought the old man had lost his wits, but as they could detect no signs of insanity, and as he was a man of responsibility, they told him to go ahead. He went to a blacksmith and ,in a few minutes had new bars cut. He then brought the blacksmith with his portable forge to the jail, and after heating the bars red hot he bent them in the form of a bow until the two ends could enter the sockets in the stone, then with a few strokes of the hammer the bars were straightened and chilled by dashing some water '404 A Biographical Sketch. upon them. The whole job was completed to the perfect sat- isfaction of the commissioners, but to the surprise and disgust of the contractors, in less than five hours. The Fauiks, of Delaware, are descendants of my great- grandfather Faulk. I knew his grandson, John, of Brandy- wine Hundred, Delaware, very well. In his younger days he was one of the handsomest men I ever saw. He was an athlete, worthy of comparison with the best specimens of manhood in ancient Greece or Rome, as represented by their statues in marble. He could fell an ox with a blow from his fist. I have seen him lift seven hundred pounds dead weight. When he was at his best, I doubt if there was a man living could stand before him. About 1840, the Methodists held a camp meeting, at Penney 's Wood, near a hotel called the Practical Farmer. A crowd of rowdies from Philadelphia created some disturbance, whereupon, John Faulk, who was a member of the church, ejected ihem frcm the ground. Nine of them, some of whom were krown prize fighters, made an attack upon him the same afternoon in the bar-room of the hotel. In less than forty minutes, five of them were lying senseless upon the floor ; of the other four, one had his arm broken, one had two ribs fractured and the other two had their noses smeared over their faces. It was necessary to call in a doctor before- the wounded bullies could be conveyed to the railroad station. It is needless to say there were no more disturbances during the continuance of the meeting. Soine of the fervent old Methodists actually believed that God had interfered and gave to John Faulk the strength of Sampson. I have seen John Faulk, with one hand, swing a twenty-five-pound sledge ham- mer three times around his head and then hurl it from ten to fifteen yards further than any other person could throw it. Withal he was exceedingly kind and good natured. At the age of thirty, before he had reached his prime, he was attacked with rheumatism from which he suffered all the balance of his life. It completely ruined the symmetry of his form. Some of hia joints were destroyed, his right hip was displaced, his back was bowed and for twenty years he could scarcely stand erect. Why nature made him so strong and then de- stroyed her work, is hard to understand. If he had been a dissipated man, moralists would have attributed his afilictions to that cause, but he was sober, industrious, abstemious and a christian man all his life. We will now return to my grandfather, Powell Clayton. He had two sons by his first wife Sarah (Faulk). Richard the elder was born March 6, 1791. John, my father, was born December 6, 1792. Richard married Miss Grubb, of Delaware. Upon his marriage, my grandfather purchased for A Biographical Sketch. 405 him a beatitifnlly situated farm near the present railroad station at Claymont. The mansion stood upon the hill nearly oppo- site the late residence of Rev. Mr. Clemson. He named his residence "Claymont" — an abbreviation of Clayton's Mount. This name has remained as the name of the railroad station but all dominion of the old proprietor of the mansion has long since departed. I doubt whether the oldest residents now know the origin of the name. The mansion was burned many years ago and the property was purchased by Thomas Clyde, the founder of the Clyde line of steamers. My uncle Richard died of yellow fever when it was epi- demic in Philadelphia, September 14, 1820. He left an infant son only a few days old. It died eight days after its father. His widow afterwards married a man named Buck. She died childless and intestate. By the laws of Delaware, Richard's infant son inherited his father's estate, subject to the dower of its mother. When it died, within a week of its father's death, its mother, as its next of kin inherited the estate. When she died her brothers and sisters took it as her heirs at law. Thus a fine estate bought by my grandfather, by the accident of the babe's death a week after its father's decease, vested in entire strangers to his blood. By the laws of England this could not be. There the heir, to inherit the land must be of the blood of the first purchaser. Such ought to be the law of America, and is the law of Pennsylvania. Powell Clayton died, as before stated, in 1837, in the house now occupied by Mr. Hinkson, on the road running from Naaman's creek to Booth's Corner, in the township of Bethel. From all that I can learn of him, he was a good, rather than a great man. He was a consistent christian and a man of some influence in his church. I have heard my old and esteemed friend Samuel Hance, of Bethel, recently de- ceased at the advanced age of ninety-four years, say that my grandfather was the direct means of bringing him into the church, and was his class-leader. He told me once that he always loved me because my grandfather showed so much love for him. My grandfather was content to move upon the level plane upon which his contemporaries walked without jostling an}- of them. He never aspired to be a leader either in the church or State. He, therefore, led a comparatively happy life and died a peaceful death, loved and respected by all who knew him. The greater part of his life was spent upon his farm, the mansion house of which is now occupied by J. Wesley Hance, in Bethel. When his son Nelson married Miss Jemima Booth, 4o6 A BiOGKAPHicAL Sketch. a daughter of James Booth, late of Bethel, he moved to the house a little further up the road and now occupied, as before stated, by Mr. Hmkson. He died very suddenly of heart dis- ease while taking his wonted morning walk around his farm. In those days, funerals were great events. The whole community turned out en masse to help bury a friend who could afford a funeral feast. It was the fashion then to an- nounce at the grave, "That the relatives and friends oi \h^ deceased are earnestly invited to return to his late home for dinner." All the old. women in the neighborhood were im- provised as cooks and all the laboring men were employed as assistants. The little pigs, chickens and turkeys seemed to know that their time had come and, oy instinct, calmly sur- rendered to the inevitable with remarkable resignation. It was truh^ wonderful to see how many devoted friends a dead man had as measured by the guests at his funeral feast. The funeral procession reached from his house to the church, over a mile. The feast began about noon and did not end until after dark. I was then about eleven years old and thought a funeral a real jolly thing. My old aunt Hannah, grand- father's sister, died about six months after. Her funeral was very plain and slimly attended. She could not afford a funeral feast. As I have already remarked, her death made a deep and lasting impiession upon my mind. I looked upon the Grim Monster as the only Mortal enemy of man. Since then the visits of Death have been so frequent as to entitle him to be saluted as a " friend of the family." I have fol- lowed eleven funerals from my father's home to the graveyard at Bethel, ending with my mother's. My grandfather's second wife was Mary Mattson. They were wedded June i6, 1796. By her he had a son named Mattson, born May 7, 1797. He was a rover and was lost at sea about 18 19. My grandfather's second son by his wife Mary, was Nelson, born December 12, 1800. He lived all his life in Bethel where he died May 6, 1866. She left two surviving daughters, Levina and Mary. Mary married a man named Lamplieugh. lyCvina never married. She was a highly intelligent and very strong minded woman. A short time after her father's death, she made her home at my father's house where she died. I cannot pay too high a tribute of respect to the memory of Aunt Levina. She was a remarkable woman — a great reader and profound reasoner — she wrote some very good poetry and was well posted upon all the scientific questions of the day. I never knew a person with a better memory. She was very fond of my twin brothers, John and William. Before ^ hey were five years old she taught them to read. When I A Biographical Sketch. 407 commenced reading law, she followed me by reading every book that I had read. She used to examine me in Blackstone, Kent. Cruise on Real Estate and Stephen's Pleading. When I was admitted in 1850, my old aunt knew about as much law as I did. Withal, she was exceedingly modest. Outside of our own family, but few knew much of her many virtues. Powell Clayton's third wife was Sarah Elliot, a widow, whose maiden name was Sharpless. They were married March 10, 1814. She survived her husband many years. By her he had but one son, named Curtis, born April i, 1816, who died in Bethel, leaving one son William Torbert Clayton, born September 21, 1838, and one daughter, Sarah Jane, born June 20, 1840, both living. William T., I believe, now resides in Texas. John Clayton, my father — as before stated — was born De- cember 6, 1792, in Bethel, in the house now occupied by Wesley Hance. He served a regular apprenticeship as a carpenter, under a somewhat celebrated builder of Wilmington, named John Newlin. My father followed his business for several years with some success. He worked at his trade in the cities of Wilmington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. About 1846, he took me to New York to show me a house, I think on Bond street, that he had planned and built and of which he was very proud. His greatest pride was in the very elaborate wooden mantel, which was certainly a work of merit. It looked very much like the hard-wood mantels, now so fashionable and which are only a renascence of the style of the early part of this century. In those days the carpenter was also the architect. He not only drew all the plans, but he laid out and made all the ornamental work of the building. My father and mother were married on the first day of January, 1822. They had ten children of whom only three are now living. Six of my brothers and sisters died in early life. I, the oldest son, was born July 26, 1826. At that time my father was a staunch Jeffersonian Democrat. As an evi- dence of his politics, he named me Thomas Jefferson. In 1828, two years after my birth, when the Presidential contest was between Adams and Jackson, Henry Clay, who had been a Democrat, commenced the organization of the Whig party. My father followed his fortunes and in 1831, became a Whig. There are two theories of the derivation of the word W/ng-. We were taught that it was a word formed from the initials of a motto upon the banner of-the opposition party in England, during the early days of the Commonwealth : ' ' We Hope In God." Instead of the words in full, they painted in letters of gold upon their ensigns and banners the initials only— 4o8 A Biographical Sketch. W. H. I. G., (Whig). Whether this is the true derivation of the grand old party name or not, it serves to illustrate the purity of its hopes, but the sequel proved that its hopes were vain. Others hold that the name was derived from the Scotch word " Whiggam " — -meaning Whey, a great drink of the covenanters. My father remained an earnest and energetic Whig until the party died ; he then became an enthusiastic Ropublican. Ha was a delegate to the Baltimore convention, in 1840, which nominated General Harrison for President. In that year my twin brothers, John and William, were born, (Oct. 13, 1840). They were named John Tyler and William Henry Harrison Clayton. After the death of President Harrison and Tyler's treach- erous abandonment of his party, my father, with his own hand erased the name "Tyler" from the family record, and had the boy baptized " John Middleton Clayton," after John M. Clayton, of Delaware, which name he bore to the time ot his tragic death in Arkansas, where he was cowardly assassi- nated for presuming to contest the election of Hon. R. C. Breckenridge, to a seat in Congress. He was shot, at night, through a window in Plummersville, while conversing with a friend, on the twenty-ninth of January, 1889. A biographic sketch of his life will be found in the " Secretary's Report of the Annual Reunion of the Survivors' Association, 124th Regiment, P. V." Published in 1889. My father never presumed to take much part in public affairs. After his marriage he devoted his life to farming, and by industry and ecomony, succeeded in maintaining and edu- cating his large family of children. He devoted his energies chiefly to the cultivation of fruit — ^apples, cherries and peaches. He had the reputation of making the best cider in the market. I have known him to make over one hundred hogsheads in a year. It very much resembled champagne wine and would keep for years without becoming sour. His secret for the preparation of his cider died with him. I can only remember a part of the process. In the first place, none but sound Gray House apples were used and the cider was always made in cold weather. It was invariably run into hogsheads, never in barrels. It was stored in the cellar and when at its highest alcoholic state, it was rectified with the best Russian isinglass and racked off into new hogsheads. This, I believe to be the whole secret. It reads as if it were a very easy thing to do, but the skill consisted in knowing just when the cider was in its highest alcoholic state. By years of practice my father could tell by placing his ear at the bunghole just when to treat it with the isinglass. He would sometimes fail but not A Biographical Sketch. 409 often. He had an apple orchard of not over three acres from which I have heard him say he reaped a clear profit of over one thousand dollars a year. My father died October 16, 187 1, in the 79th year of his age. He was always found of young society and bore his years well. I have no doubt but that he would have lived to be a ver}' old man but for an accidental fall a few years before his death from the effects of which he died in the possession of all his faculties and in other respects hale and strong. A MATERNAL LINE. Grandfather Clark— An Old Tory — His Sword Turned Into a Corkscrew — A Mortal Insult— Captain Wil- liam Glover — Commodore Decatur— Sixty-Four Years a Methodist — Religion and Good Sense — Family Con- nections — My Brothers. My mother's father, Captain George Clark, was born in New Jersey, in 1755. He was twenty-one years old when the Colonies declared their independence. His father was an Englishman and a Tory. His son George, my grandfather, espoused the English side of the controversy and became an officer in the British colonial army. He received his pay from the Crown up to the day of his death, February 26, 181 2. He lived the greater part of his life in Brandywine Hundred, New Castle county, Delaware. I have the following anecdote from the late Stephen Cloud, Sr., of Bethel, who was my father's first cousin, his mother being a daughter of John Faulk, the elder : After the close of the Revolutionary war, the Tories and Patriots did not fraternize as freely as fellow countrymen should. In order to be prepared to measure swords with England again, if it should become necessary, the State government by law re- quired the militia to be regularly enrolled and on stated times, called "Training Days," to be drilled and inspected. It so happened upon one of those training days, several j^ears after the close of the war, that no one present was sufficiently edu- cated in the manual of arms to act as ' ' Training Master. ' ' Making a virtue of necessity, my grandfather was requested to lend a hand and help put the boys through the drill. He ac- cepted the honor and appeared upon the ground in his full 4IO A Biographical Sketch. military dress, including, most unfortunately, a Red coat. He also carried his sword and a silver mounted musket, which had been presented to him by his old companions' in arms when the army was disbanded and which he highly prized. Scarcely had he formed the men in line, before there was a vigorous protest from the old patriots against being drilled by a Red Coat. The better class of the patriots endeavored to quell the impending storm but with no success. The soldiers made a break and, before the danger was realized, they knocked down the red-coated tory, tore off his sword, took his gun and rent his coat into shreds. To add insult to injury they thrust his sword in the hard ground up to the hilt, then broke his gun over a stump, and, with the barrel for a lever with one end in the guard of the sword, they turned it round and round till it came out of the ground in the form of a long corkscrew. I have heard my mother say that her father never got over the indignity thus put upon him, and always said that Amer- ica would come to no good until the Crown of England should wipe out the disgrace put upon a British soldier by these riotous and low-bred Republicans. The grave of my grandfather Clark maybe found near the south line of the Bethel graveyard and is marked by an old- fashioned marble tombstone. He married Miss Ann Glover ,, a daughter of William Glover, a sea captain whose ship sailed from Philadelphia to London. Among family relics in my possession is his fine marine spy-glass ; it is three feet long and is an excellent instrument. I have also a fine mahogany work table made in England, and six heavy table spoons in solid silver, hand-made, bearing the initials of my grandmother's maiden name, "A. G. " They were wedding presents from her father. She was born in 1773, and died March 3, 1830. Captain Glover was born in 1741. He died at his residence in Philadelphia, August 6, 1806. Our rela- tionship to Commodore Decatur came through this branch of the family, but although I have often heard my mother give the connecting link, I have not been able to now find it. The Glovers ^^ere strong patriots during the Revolutionary war The Toryism of grandfather Clark was a cause of constant ir- ritation and some bitterness in the families, until after my grandfather's death and until after the death of Decatur in 1820, about two years before my mother's marriage when all further dissensions ceased. My mother was born October 3, 1803. At the early age of sixteen years she became an active Methodist and for sixty- four years she mantained her standing in the church as a con- sistent and energetic christian woman. While devoted to her own church, she respected all other forms of christian worship. A Biographical Sketch. 411 She never permitted her attachment to her own form of wor- ship to lessen her respect for other creeds. During the Native American excitement, when St. Augustine's church was burned in Philadelphia, my motheir was earnest in her outspoken condemnation of that sacreligious outrage. She gathered her little family around her and tried to explain t^ us that the forms of worship were but paper walls dividing christian de- nominations, that we all worshipped ths same God and trusted in the same Savior, and that v\'e should be careful to say noth- ing that would offend others in their religious faith. Our laboring man, Patrick, was a devoted Catholic. He and my mother were the only two in the family that eat no meat on Friday or during Lent, a rule which she strictly observed to the day of her death. She used to tell us that in religion as well as in politics we were alllargeh' creatures of circumstances; that if our parents had been Catholics we most likely would be of the same faith. She said to me. during the heated cam- paign of 1840, when every man, woman and child in the county were tremendously excited over politics : "Son, have you ever thought that if your father had been a Loco Foco (Democrat) you would, perhaps, be one ?" I was so thoroughly imbued with the principles of the Whig party, that I could not then believe it possible under any consideration, that I should be anything but a Whig. During her long, patient and useful life, she had her full share of sorrow but no one heard her complain. She followed to the grave seven of her children ; two in infancy, and five when they were just entering manhood and womanhood. She was a woman of strong character and of an unbending will. She did not fear to drive the most headstrong horse, and, what was often remarked, the horse most always seemed to know that it was in the hands of its mistress. She met her approaching end of life with true christian fortitude — willing to live but not afraid to die. Death had no terrors for her. She met him as a friend and not an enemy. She died May 12th, 1883, in the eightieth year of her age Grandfather Clark had two sisters, named Margaret and Laurana. Margaret married a Mr. Wallace ; they had a son named Wesley, who was a Methodist preacher. Laurana mar- ried John Tettimary, of Philadelphia. I/aurana had a daughter named Sarah, who married Peter Williamson, of Philadelphia. Beside my grandmother (Ann Glover), Captain William Glover had a daughter named Brandling, she was my great aunt, and was married to Isaac Grubb, of Delaware. In this way I am related to the Grubbs of that State. My mother's brother, Wesley Clark, of Bethel, is still living; her sisters Letitia, Pris- cilla, Brandling, Charlotte and Laurana are dead. Letitia mar- 412 A Biographical Sketch. ried Rev. John Talley, of Delaware. Priscilla married L^ewis Talley, of Delaware ; her daughter, I^etitia, married Humphrey Pyle, recently deceased, of Chester Heights, Delaware county. Her daughter Priscilla, married William McCracken, of Dela- ware county. Laurana married Rev. William Cooper, a very eloquent Methodist preacher. Brandling married John John- son, the son of Robert Johnson, late of Bethel, who was the second husband of my grandmother Clark, nee Glover. Char- lotte married Thomas Hance, a brother of Samuel Hance of Bethel, who recently died at the age of ninety-four. My uncle Wesley married Charlotte Pool, a sister of Wesley Pool, of Bethel. Of myself and living members of our family I ought not to be expected to say much. My brother, Powell, is well known both as a soldier and a citizen. By profession he was a civil engineer in Kansas. When the war of the rebellion broke out he entered the Union army as a Captain of the First Kansas Volunteer Infantry. He fought his way from Wilson's creek to Arkansas, and when hostilities ceased, he had ad- vanced from Captain to Brigadier General, commanding a di- vision. He stopped where the war left him, and made Arkansas his home. He now resides at Eureka Springs, in that State. His name is intimately connected with the political history of Arkansas since its reconstruction. He was at one time Gover- nor and afterwards U. S. Senator of that State. He married an estimable lady of his adopted State, and has now a large and interesting family. His eldest son, Powell, Jr., although barely in his majority, is now Second lyieutenant in the Fifth Cavalry of the regular U. S. Army. My brother William, also served as Second lyieutenant of Company H, 124th Regiment of Pennsylvania. He partici- pated in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam and Chan- cellorville. When the war ended he settled in Pine Bluff, Ar- kansas. By profession he was a lawyer. He was appointed Judge of the First Circuit of Arkansas, a court of the highest original jurisdiction in the State. After two years' service as Judge, he resigned for the more lucrative office of U. S. Dis- trict Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. He was appointed to the office by President Grant, in 1874, which office he still holds. He also married a lady of Arkansas and has a large and interesting family. A Biographical Sketch. 41, PART II. THE CIRCUMSTANCE THAT DECIDED MY CHOICE OF A PROFESSION : OR WHY I BECAME A EAWYER. My Mother's Ambition — My Father's Advice — Early Efforts at Anatomy — A Fist Fight in Church — Choir AND Anti-Choir — The Tragic and Comic Side of the Church Quarrel — An Old Man's Idea of Scientific Music— A Church Trial — First Efforts as an Advo- cate — A Preacher Outwitted — History of a Business Card^History of an Old Letter — Personal Inspec- tion of Another Man's Work Worth Ten Thousand Dollars — An Angry Old Eawyer. My mother intended me for a preacher ; my %ther recom- mended me to study medicine but, by a mere accident, I chose the profession of law. In my youth I showed some taste for anatomy. I purchased a quantity of human bones from Dr. S. A. Barton and from a colored doctor of Philadelphia and spent my nights in my bedroom in arranging and wireing them together. I succeeded in preparing a tair skeleton of the human frame. I could then name the fifty bones of the head, trunk, legs and arms ; the twelve bones of the hand and wrist, and the fourteen bones of the foot. I have derived some ad- vantage from this knowledge in the practice of my profession. After months of labor I finished my work. I named it Pom- pey and, from pure bravado, I laid it in my bed and slept with it the night I completed it. I afterwards sold it to a secret society of Delaware. I am told they still possess it and use it in their initiatory ceremonies as "a sad memorial of man's mortality." I also attempted the preparation of the anatomy of a babe but the sutures of the skull bones had not sufficiently ossified to hold the little cranium together, so I gave this undertaking up in disgust. I had the name of being a bad boy, but this was unjust. After fifty years, I can look back and conscientiously denj- the charge. I was wild, untamed, overflowing with animal spirits and keenly alive to everything of a ridiculous nature,. but I was not bad at heart. My bad reputation was largely 414 A Biographical Sketch. the result of an unfortunate disturbance in Bethel Church dur- ing a protracted meeting. I was then about seventeen years old. My father always dressed well and took pride in seeing his children fashionably clad. In those days the young men dressed with more taste and elegance than the}' do now. In the winter, the Spanish circular mantles were very fashionable. They were made of black broadcloth, lined with red satin and ornamented with long silk cords and tassels. When thrown over the shoulder, with the red satin delicately exposed, held in a loop by the Cord and tassel, they were very dressy. While sitting in the church one night I threw my mantle over the back of the seat and was, like a good christian, intently listening to the fine singing and earnest praying of the good old fathers of the church. I heard a tittering laugh behind me when, turning my head, I saw a low-bred fellow (whom I will not now name because he was of a respectable family) with his pocket knife cutting a long slit in the back of my mantle. Without thinking of the consequences, I d-ealt him a stunning blow in the face, felling him to the floor between the benches. He began to scream murder, but before assist- ance came his face was covered with blood. The scene that followed cannot be described. The church was crowded. The congregation jumped upon the benches and made a rush for the place, where they supposed a man was being murdered. The women and children began to scream ; the aisles were jammed up with struggling men and women ; some of the seats were broken and each person seemed intent to outdo all others in rendering confusion more confounded. My father was the first to seize my upraised arm. When I realized what I had done I at once surrendered. After quiet was restored ani the congregation dismissed, I was informed that I must go to New Castle jail. I felt that a crisis had come in m}' life but, in all the trying events of my subsequent career, I never felt more perfect command of my faculties. I asked my captors, in a subdued but calm and earnest voice, if they would hear me before condemning me. Father King was the preacher in charge. Father Samuel Hance was then a local preacher of great eloquence and power and one of the most popular men in the church. By his upright christian life he had de- servedly earned the respect and confidence of the entire people. "Brethren," said Father King, " do not be too hasty; let us hear what the young man has to say." " Certainly, cer- tainly," said Father Hance, " we will hear the boy before condemning him." I then felt that the victory was mine. I stated my case in a most respectful manner. I expressed my profound regret that I had permitted my indignation to get the better of my judgment. I told them of the tittering laugh A Biographical Sketch. 415 I had heard, and that I saw the man I had chastised with his knife cutting mj' mantle. That it had cost my father seventy- five dollars only a month or two before, and that it was now ruined. Then, spreading out the folds before them, I pointed out the cut very much as Antony is supposed to have pointed out the "rent the envious Casca made" in dead Caesar's mantle ; after which I turned to my father and saw great big tears rolling down his honest cheeks. "Father," said I, " will you go my security for future good behavior and, if the church wish to prosecute me, that I will appear before any magistrate when required?" With some emphasis he said : " I certainly will, and will defend you, too, if it takes all I am worth." I was let off on my good behavior, upon my father agreeing to produce me when wanted. This little incident in my history has had a beneficial effect upon my whole after life. I never now condemn a man or boy without hearing him, and the experience of my life has taught me that there is generally some extenuating cause for every assault and bat- tery. In two cases out of three the man that gets beaten is in fault. Of course there are exceptions to this rule. This church disturbance, however, was the direct cause of the name I afterwards had of being a " bad boy." The man who was really in fault and who so maliciouslj'- commenced the assault by cutting my mantle left the State soon after and I never saw him again. It was reported in the neighborhood that he died in jail in Ohio, where he was convicted of some infamous crime and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. In 1847, Bethel Church was one of the most flourishing in the State of Delaware. There were but few Sundays that it was not crowded. During religious revivals which were repeated every winter it was filled to overflowing. Services were sometimes continued nightly for over a month without abatement in the religious excitement. The congregation possessed several good singers, but there was no regular church choir. They had a sort of organization in the form of a sing- ing society, which met at stated times at each other's houses to practice and prepare for the ensuing church service. About this time, the singers petitioned the trustees, of whom my father was one, to set apart two benches prepared by a four- inch-wide board nailed upon the back of each bench, for their especial use. The board on the back of the bench was to hold their open note books while they sung. The request was granted but, like most sudden innovations upon settled cus- toms, instead of proving an improvement it turned out to be the ruin of the church. The primitive Methodists looked upon it as a step toward Ritualism and High Church prac- tices. The friends and enemies of the choir ^ as the singing; 4i6 A Biographical Sketch. party called themselves, soon became divided into separate parties and, as the controversy advanced, the schism widened until, at last, it split the church and almost destroyed the con- gregation. Friends of a lifetime became enemies ; families were divided ; law suits were engendered ; church trials were instituted ; in a word, the Devil, under the guise of a note book, entered and ruined the church. At last the choirists triumphed in the tribunals of the church, but the victory was barren and, perhaps, so far as the cause of religion was con- cerned, worse than a defeat. It resulted in the withdrawal in a body of a large and influential part of the congregation and membership, and the building of the church called Siloam, only a short half mile from the old church. It may be doubted whether all the bad feeling engendered by this most unfortunate church feud of nearly a half century ago, has yet been entirely eradicated from the hearts of all of the old participants in the quarrel. I shall never cease to regret the part our family took in the unfortunate controversy. After forty-five years of reflection we can see our errors. There was no wrong in advocating improved church music ; the fault was in the way it was attempted to be done. Most of the fathers of Methodism had left the Church of England because of its extreme ritualism. The old Methodists of Bethel thought they saw signs of a return to High Church practices and conscientiously resented it. The time was not ripe for the innovation and its advocates pressed it with too much force. It is always dangerous to force even our conviction of right upon those who honestly differ with us. This spirit in the church was deeply regretted by my mother and was a source of great anxiety to her during the balance of her life. Every tragedy has a comic side. I had an old friend named Samuel Grubb, a blacksmith, at Grubb's cross-roads, in Dela- ware. Coming up from Wilmington one day on horseback I stopped to have my horse shod. He was very much excited over the church trouble and expressed his determination to take his hammer with him the next time he went to church and knock those strips the choir used as rests for their note books, off the backs of the benches. I undertook to reason the matter with him. I cited David and his harp, the music of the spheres, and even quoted Shakespeare's opinion of " The man that had no music in his soul," winding up m}^ remarks by referring to the Scriptural admonition to sing not only with the spirit but with the understanding also. He list- ened until I had finished, when he entirely demolished the structure of mj^ argument by a reply something like this : ' ' Singing with the understanding does not mean that one must understand the cabalistic signs of a note book, it means you A Biographical Sketch. 417 must understand the sense of the hymn ; it means you must understand the difference between the black art of the devil, witches and evil spirits, and good spirits. Anybody with commj.i sense ought to know that it will not help the voice to look, when you sing, upon those things you call keys, and bars, with black and white tadpoles, some with their tails up, some with their tails down, decorated with black flags, and trying to crawl through the fence. It's all the work of the devil." To shorten my story, we will return to the church trials growing out of the excitement created by the introduction of the Cabalistic Note Books. Among others the preacher was tried for maladministration, and my uncle Curtis and my father were brought before the church for violating that clause in the Discipline which forbids the drinking of spirituous liquors as a beverage. At first my father became very angry and de- termined to leave the church, but better counsels prevailed and he resolved to stand his trial. He had taken an active part in the impeachment of the preacher and, to make things even the preacher, as the prosecutor, presented the charges against him and my uncle. Remembering the successful man- ner in which I had defended myself on my trial, my father requested me to act as his counsel. Upon reflection, and after due deliberation in a family council, it was arranged that I should defend my uncle, and that Mr. John B. McCay should act as my father's counsel, but that I should prepare the points upon which he should base his defense. I commenced by a careful study of the Discipline and a commentary upon it, written by one of the Bishops who had been a lawyer. The book laid down three general principles : ist. That the trial must be in accordance with, and under the forms of, the canon law ; 2nd, That the rules of evidence must conform to the laws of the State in which the trial is held ; and 3rd, That the offense charged must be one made punishable by the civ:l law. Offenses mereh- against the Discipline of the church do not, in the first instance, subject the offender to expulsion, bat only to admonition and reproof. That is to sa}', offenses not mahim in se, that is, not criminal in themselves, but which are made offenses by the church Discipline only, subject the offenders, ist, to a private admonition. If he does not heed the private reproof, then he may be admonished by the preacher in the presence of witnesses. It he continues recu- sant, he may be brought to trial. In the book referred to, Greenleaf on Evidence, and sever- 1 books on English ecclesi- astical law were cited as authority. I procured a cop>- of Greenleaf and studied it very closely. I found in the canon law that some substantial person must be named as prosecutor, 4i8 A Biographical Sketch. and that the charges mast be clearly expressed and must be followed up by specifications of time, place and circumstances, consecutively numbered, and if the minister should be the prosecutor, he could not preside as a judge on the trial. I prepared these points in form, with full instruction how to use them, citing the authority for each point. On the day ap- pointed for the trial, the church was crowded. It was rumored that there were, at least, fifty witnesses, and that the trial would continue several days. We had taken the precaution to have the Presiding Elder present, as the immediate superior of the preacher in charge, to whom we could appeal upon our points of law. As we had anticipated, the charge was read naming the offence as " The drinking of intoxicating liquors as a beverage," and was signed, as we had hoped, by the preacher in charge as the prosecutor. After the court was opened, the preacher assuming to preside, at once proceeded to name the committee of trial. We at once raised the ques- tion of competency in the judge and produced the authority. " He was the prosecutor and could not be the judge." The Presiding Elder held the point well taken and, being the next in authority by the rules of the church, he took his seat as President of the court. This was the first point gained and presaged final victor3^ A committee friendly to the accused was appointed. The Presiding Elder naming one, the accused named one, and the two so chosen, the third. The preacher then proceeded to call his witnesses. We asked the ruling of the court upon the following point : " NO' witness will be permitted to testify to any fact except from his own personal knowledge ; and shall not state anything derived from information received from other sources than his own personal knowledge." The point was sustained. The result was that of the forty or fifty witnesses present only three could testify from their own personal knowledge. One was a woman who said she saw the accused drink a glass of ale with his dinner at a market tavern in Philadelphia. One man said he had seen him take a glass of brandy with a friend in a hotel in Chester, and the third testified that the accused had treated him at the bar of the Black Bear hotel on Christmas Day, in Philadelphia. After the testimony had closed we presented our first point: "That drinking intoxicating liquor as a beverage is not a crime or misdemeanor rmder the laws of the State, and that the defendant, according to the Discipline of the church and the canons of ecclesiastical law, could not be brought to trial until after admonition from the preacher." The result was an acquittal both of my father and uncle without "the jury leaving the box." The Presiding Elder came to- my father's house after the trial was over, and complimented me A Biographical Sketch. 419 very liighl}- upon the " master!}^ manner in which I had con- ducted the defense." He then suggested that I should study law and volunteered to speak to Mr. Bates, then in full prac- tice in Wilmington, Delaware, with whom I was registered as a student and read law in his office for two years. Mr Bates was then Secretary of the Commonwealth and was afterwards Chancellor of the State. He was a man of most remarkable ability, possessing a finely cultured mind but a frail body. He died a few 3'ears ago respected and honored by all who knew him. By his advice, I chose the city of Philadelphia as the field of my future efforts. I read law for six months under Hon. Edward Darlington, of Media, and on his motion was admitted November 24, 185 1. I was admitted to the Phila- delphia bar soon after, and practised my profession in that city for about twenty five years and up to the time I took my seat upon the Bench in Delaware County. The above incidents in my life are only useful as illustra- tions of the general truth, that " man is a creature of circum- stances." The difficulty I had with the man that cut my mantle, and for which, if it had not been for the forbearance of the good old Christian men then at the head of the church, I would have been tried for a crime, was the indirect cause of the choice of my future profession. The trial of my father, which we all keenly felt as tending to disgrace the family, was the direct cause. Of all the interesting circumstances in my life, as a law- 5'er, only three will be of any interest to the general reader, and they are only valuable as illustrating the great results of small things in the life of a professional man. In 1852, while I was courting the lady I afterwards mar- ried, she was spending a few days with one of her former schoolmates who lived near the old Navy Yard in Philadel- phia. It was about four miles from my cousin's home at Seventeenth and Market, where I was then boarding. I, of course, spent a few hours in her society every evening while sh i was there. One night about eleven o'clock, when I started for home, I found myself in a furious snow storm. The snow was at least a foot deep in the streets, the omnibuses had all stopped, and I had four miles to walk. I managed to wade through the snow about three squares to the old frame ' ' Ferry Hotel," and spent the balance of the night by the fire in the bar-room. The next morning I took a look at myself in an old fly-stained looking-glass that hung upon the smoky wall of the bar-room. I noticed the edge of the frame full of business cards, stuck between the glass and the wood so as to attract the attention of persons vain enough to look at themselves in the glass. Without expecting any resulting I, in a mechanical 420 A BluGKXPHICAL SkUTCH. ical way, took a card from my pocket and stuck it in the frame. A few days after, a carriage scopped in front of my office and a gentleman on crutches came in with my card in his hand. He was a merchant from Newborn, North Carolina, and stated that he had been badly injured by a collision on the Camden and Amboy road, in which a great number had been killed and wounded. He wanted to commence proceed- ings against the corporation for negligence ard recover dam- ages for his injuries. I asked him who had recommended him to me. He said, being a stranger, he had taken the wrong ferry-boat from Camden, and had landed at the Navy Yard instead of Market Street ; that he had gone into the old Ferry Tavern to warm himself while waiting for the omnibus to bring him up town, and had, while casually taking a look at himself in the glass to see what kind of an appearance he would present after the accident, seen my card, and, as he would want a lawyer, he concluded to call on me. A minute history of the details of the results that followed this little incident will be too long to here recount. Suffice it to say, I recovered heavy damages against the company, the case. was finally settled and, for twenty-three years, I attended to all the business of the firm of which my client was a member in Newborn, and through his recommendation I secured many other clients from that city. At a rough estimate, that little card was worth to me at least five or six thousand dollars. The next incident which will serve to encourage vigilance in young lawyers happened four or five years afterwards. I had for a client an old shoemaker whose shop and dwelling were up in Kensington. After his death, his wife, in order to collect a few outstanding bills, was compelled to incur the ex- pense of an administration upon his estate. I was employed as her attorney. I inquired about his estate but found it very small. His widow asked me what she should do with a quan- tity of papers she had found in his desk which, as far as she could learn, were of no value. I told her to pack them in a shoe box and send them to me and I would examine them. I spent several nights examining and reading every paper. I was tempted several times to throw the entire batch into the waste box, but as the decedent had thought the papers of suf- ficient importance to be preserved, I resolved to patiently finish my task so that I could, with certainty, inform my client that they were worthless. After having nearly finished my exam- ination, I found a letter from Calcutta, India. It was seventeen years old, and was from a firm of lawyers in that city, addressed to the decedent, informing him of the death of a merchant of that city without known heirs and, as he was of the same name, requesting information as to whether he was in any way A Biographical Sketch. 421 related to the Calcutta merchant. I sent for my client, the administratrix, read the letter to her and asked if she knew anything about it. She said she remembered hearing her husband say, on several occasions many years ago, that he was heir to some money in Calcutta, but for the last ten years he had never mentioned it. I concluded it would not cost much to write. I accordingly wrote a letter, informing the attorneys that I represented the dead man and that he had said in his lifetime that he was heir to some money in Cal- cutta, naming the estate, and that I was informed the}^ could give me some information. About six months afterwards, and when I had almost forgotten the whole affair, I received a letter from the Judge of the court in Calcutta, stating that he was the survivor of the firm to whom I had written. That his partner was dead and that there was a large sum of money there invested in English funds at two per cent, interest, under the control of the Bank of England, China and India, in Cal- cutta, awaiting the identification of the heirs of the decedent in America — the English heirs having long since received their share. The balance of this story is too long for recount- ing the details. After unheard-of labor, and spending a good round sum of money, I found the American heirs, scattered over the different States of the Union. One was a servant girl in Philadelphia ; one was a bar-tender in New York, and one was a herdsman in Texas. In all there were only eight entitled to participate in the fund. The proofs were all regu- larly made before the British Consul and duly certified to at Calcutta. About five years after the discovery of the letter, I received a draft on London worth, at that time, forty per cent, premium, and after deducting the fee agreed upon, amounting to several thousand dollars, the smallest sum paid to any one heir was to the servant girl and her brother, the bar-tender. They received four thousand dollars each. I had heard much of great fortunes awaiting claimants in the old country, but this is the only case I have ever known to prove successful in its results. The last circumstance connected with my early practice to which I wish to refer, will illustrate the importance of de- pending on ourselves and never taking anything for granted simply because some one, who ought to know more than we do, says so. A firm of distillers on Market Street was dissolved by the death of its senior member. The surviving partner was appointed by the court receiver of the firm's assets. He was represented by one of the first lawyers of the city who had the reputation of being very skillful in adjusting complicated accounts. I was taken into the case to do the drudgery neces- 422 A Biographical Sketch. sary to be done in all contested cases, but I had no discretion- ary powers and was expected to implicitly obey the orders of the senior counsel. At the end of the year allowed by law, the Receiver was required to file an account. I was ordered to examine the books, arrange the vouchers and lay all the papers, books and accounts before a celebrated accountant whose name I will not mention because the story I am about to tell might be offensive to his surviving familj^. The accounts were prepared with a great display of statements, sheets and balance sheets, supposed to conclusively prove the result to which the accountant had arrived. When the court appointed a Master to pass upon the account and report distribution, the senior counsel appeared before him, presented the voluminous papers, as his oivn personal ivork, and assured the Master that he had carefully examined every item and voucher and could certify that the account as stated was absolutely correct. I noticed that the counsel representing the dead partner, seemed highly pleased with the result of the account. He stated to the Master that he had no objections to interpose- That he was glad the estate had fallen into the hands of such able gentlemen as our senior counsel; that it was unnecessary to prolong the proceedings, and he therefore agreed that the Master might certify the account as correct and proceed to make distribution of the estate without further delaj' — all of which tickled the pride of our senior very much. Now it so happened that our client had requested me, after the accounts were filed, to give him an opinion as to what his balance would probably be. To do this I took the books which had been returned by the accountant, and, in my own way, struck the balance and found the share of our client to be about $104,000. To our surprise the expert accountant had only awarded us $94,000, a difference of $10,000. Our client was very much annoyed that I should have made such a mistake, I looked over the great number of statements, debtor and creditor sheets and balance sheets of the expert, but could not find where the error was. At last I threw all his work aside and commenced a statement of the account in my own simple and common sense way, by first charging the Receiver with all the estate that had come to his hands, then crediting him with all the debts he had paid and all the proper expenses of settling the estate. The balance was certainly the clear estate of the firm. I then divided the balance which made the sum of $104, 000 for each partner. I then found by the books that he had paid to the wndow of the deceased partner at sundr}- times during the year many large sums of money, but instead of charging them to the / and here was the whole error, making the diiference against our client of $10,000. Elated with my discovery, I went at once to the senior counsel with my re-statement of the account, but to my surprise and disgust I found that I could not beat into his head the demonstration of the mistake. I found that his great reputation for unraveling complicated ac- counts was entirely due to the skill of his old expert book- keeper and, with all his brilliancy as a lawyer, he absolutely knew nothing about mathematics and could hardly add up four columns of figures without great labor and many mis- takes. At last he got angry and in a sarcastic manner in- formed me that I knew almost too much for one man and not quite enough for two, and that my interference would make delay and trouble in the final settlement of the estate ; that his expert accountant knew more in a day than I would be able to learn in a lifetime, and that he preferred to take the account of a man who had served him for twenty years without mak- ing a mistake in as much as a farthing, to the figures of a boy who was interested in sustaining a mistake by which he had raised false hopes in his client. I had always before this treated him with great deference and respect ; but now, being convinced of his shallow pretensions, I calmly told him that I had not yet informed our client of my discovery, but that I would now do so, and take the responsibility of filing, in my own name, exceptions to the account. I called upon our client, who, being a common sense business man, saw the error at once, and suggested that instead of filing exceptions we should call on the Master and state our discovery to him. The Master saw it in a moment and at once applied to the court to have the account recommitted and the error corrected. The result was that I had saved my client $10,000 by trusting to myself rather than taking the conclusions of one that ought to know much more than I did. My client immediately discharged the senior counsel, gave me a handsome fee, and made me his sole attorney from that day until I retired from the bar in 1875. He also sent me a great many valuable clients and never ceased, when the opportunity presented itself, to speak well of me and to tell his business friends the service I had done him. My experience at the bar has had its sad as well as its happy side — its tragedies as well as its comedies. I could un- fold many interesting tales of sorrow; open the wounds of many bleeding hearts and expose skeletons in many closets. " But this eternal blazon must not be!" 4^4 A Biographical Sketch. It would not only violate mj' oath of office but would open wounds long since healed. Why exhume the putrid carcasses of dead and buried contentions ? A Biographical Sketch. 425 PART III. RECOLLECTIONS OF BETHEL AND BRANDYWINE HUNDRED SIXTY YEARS AGO. Ante-Railroad Times — First Temperance Society — The Old Post Road— Hotel Keepers op the Olden Time- — The Fireside and Bake Oven — Anglo-Phobia — The Schoolmaster— Five Miles Around Bethel Church- Beauties — Woodmen — Whimsical Men, Witches and Fortune-Tellers — Fireside Tales — Aunty Burnett's Snake Story — Granny Eastick — Emmor Lloyd — Polly Pudding — The Bewitched Rabbit — The Hunter's Re- venge — Mousley's Adventure at the Devil's Rock — An Old Man Turned Into an old Mare — Planting Ac- cording TO the Signs — The Lucky Bone — Bewitched Churn— The Water Wizard and the Weather Wise — Ante-Mowing Machine Days — The Country Store — A Chronic Liar — Old Fanny Cherry — Molly Shade's Speak-easy — Postscript. When I was born, there was not a steamboat, steamship, railroad or electric telegraph in the world. There had been experiments in steam locomotion and navigation, but no prac- tical results had been attained. The year 1830 may be adopted as the birth-year of steam locomotion. The first patent in the United States was granted in 1828. All the ships of that day were built of wood ; the iron age had not yet commenced. The manners and customs of the people were very different from the habits of to-day. The drinking of intoxicating liquors was almost universal. Every family, making the slightest pre- tensions to gentility, had its side-board well stocked with liquors. A decanter of spirits was upon every dinner table. To make a social call and not be invited to the side-board, would be a polite intimation that your company was not agree- able. The first regular temperance society was formed in 1826, the year of my birth. It made but little headway until after 1833. In that year the first' National Temperance Convention was held. It adopted the following resolution : " The traffic in ardent spirits as a drink and the use of the same as such are morally wrong and ought to be abandoned throughout the world." This resolution made a ripple of excitement among the people and was generally regarded as an undue interference 426 A Biographical Sketch. with the social rights of a free people ; very much like the ridicule and condemnation that followed the first resolution of the society for the abolition of human slavery. It cannot be doubted but that we were, at that time, rapidly becoming a nation of drunkards. The onl}^ difference between the aristo- cratic clergyman and the poor layman in this respect was, that one drank French brandy while the other drank whisky. The radius of daily news did not extend beyond thirty or forty miles from the count}^ town. It required a month or six weeks to get the news, by the fastest sailing ships from Eu- rope. The old Post Road from Wilmington to Philadelphia, was the central artery for the circulation of general news. Im- portant messages were carried by post riders on fast horses which were changed every ten miles. Taverns were located all along the road about ten miles apart. In those days the ' 'keeper of a public house, ' ' as tavern keepers invariably called themselves, were looked upon as important persons, several degrees above the couimon herd in social and political standing. I have seen the U. S. mail coach, with an armed guard and trumpeter come up the Post road in a full gallop, and when the horn was blown, all the farmers on the road to the Phila- delphia market, immediately pulled out to give free passage to the "United States Mail." Wood was the only fuel ; coal had not yet come into gen- eral use, even in the. cities. Hickory wood was hauled by horses all the way to Philadelphia, Chester and Wilmington. There was a city officer called the " Corder." It was his duty to measure every cord of wood brought for sale to the city. Every farmer carefully preserved his woodland, as he supposed the supply would soon become exhausted and his timber lands would bring fabulous prices. The city of Philadelphia was illuminated by whale oil lamps. Gas had not been yet in- troduced. Great whaling fleets sailed at stated periods from various ports, including Wilmington, to procure whale oil for lubricating and illuminating purposes. Coal oil was only known as a quack medicine, and was sold in small bottles by the druggists to cure rheumatism. The houses, at night, were lighted by oil lamps, candles, and, in winter, by a rousing fire in the great old-time fireplace. The social meaning of the word ' ' fireside' ' is derived from the old baronial fireplaces of merry England, around which the family gathered for social enjoyments and the entertain- ment of sojourners, neighbors and friends. Some of these fireplaces were so large that an ordinary sized man could walk into them under the mantel, without stooping, while in breadth they were from eight to ten feet, and at least four or five feet deep. The backlog was the trunk of a tree, from eighteen A Biographical Sketch. 427 inches to two feet in diameter and six feet long. Andirons > two and three feet long', supported the cord wood while it burned, sending out a bright but cheerful light and generous warmth throughout the large family room, while- the blue smoke could be seen by the children on the stone seats in the chimney corner, curling and ascending to the chimney top. These great j&replaces were only in the principal family room, which was usually very large and served as kitchen, dining room, family sitting room, spinning and working room and a place ior family intercourse and enjoyment. Every farm house had an enormous bake-oven from six to eight feet long by three to four feet wide of an oval shape, in which a dozen large loaves of bread, forty or fifty pies, a little pig, a great roast, or two turkeys and several chickens could be baked all at the same time. The preparation of oven wood was a serious matter to the farm hands, so much so, that in the rustic parties and sham weddings with which the young peo- ple amused themselves, thej' required the supposed groom to promise that "He would be true, and would be good And keep his wife in oven ivood.'" As a rule the people loved the French and hated the Eng- lish. This was because of the friendship of France during the -Revolution; the recent visit of Lafayette and the bitterness en- gendered by what was then called the "Late War." (1812) There was no common school system in those days. The school houses were erected like the churches, by individual generosity; by the union of a few families or by general con- tribution. The "Master" formed and ruled his own school by a regular scale of prices per quarter, none being admitted without paying a fixed sum for tuition. In mathematics and English Grammar the schools were as good if not better than the schools of to-day. The trouble of the S5'stem was that the children of the poor and many of the middle classes were neglected and grew up without as much as acquiring the rudi- ments of an education. I have known many worthy, bright and highly intelligent men who could neither read or w^rite. Some of the respectable families of to-daj^ are descended from such grandfathers. ■ The schoolmaster had to be a man of courage as well ss learning, and able to whip the biggest boy in the school, w^hich he generally had to do before he was properly respected. Dis- cipline was enforced by a small switch for the girls but a great ox-gad for the boys. While the boys were good-hearted and robust fellows, it must be confessed the)^ were inclined to be a. little belligerent. All questions of importance were settled by 428 A Biographical Sketch. a personal combat. The one that could whip the other was always considered in the right. By the foregoing general outline of the situation sixty years ago, the reader will be better able to account for the peculiarit}^ and eccentricit}^ of some of the people of Bethel and Brandywine Hundred at that time. I ought, however, to say that my personal recollections do not cover the whole of either Bethel or Brandywine Hundred. "The Hundred," as we used to call it, extends from Wilmington to the Pennsylvania line, and from the river Delaware westward the entire breadth of the State. Its general population were as highly cultivated and were as polite as the best citizens of Pennsylvania. The parts of Bethel and "The Hundred" to which I wish to confine my- self lie within a radius of five miles around Bethel M. K- church and about equi-distance from Wilmington, Chester and West Chester. The elevation is very high; Malaria was un- known; the people lived to be very old; the men were robust and sturdy ; the women were handsome, strong and motherly; the girls were noted for their beauty in form and feature. They had sweet engaging manners and exceedingly kind hearts. I may say without fear of successful contradiction, that in all my travels I have never seen young women with better com- plexions, fairer faces or better forms than many of the young women of Bethel and Brandywine Hundred fifty years ago. The little piece of territory above described has also turned out several good and useful men. The country was heavily wooded from the river up to Brandywine Summit. If we desired we could hunt all day without leaving the continuous wood from Hickman's mill up through the lands of Preston Eyre and William Larkin and as far as Concord ; or we could take the south branch of Naaman's creek at the Post road and keep in the woods as far up as Brandywine Summit. Game was quite plentiful. With our old-fashioned flint lock guns six feet long we could shoot pheasants, partridges, wild pigeons, woodcock, wild ducks, English snipe and squirrels. Foxes were so com- mon as to make the preservation of our chickens somewhat difficult. During the hunter's moon the young fellows, with good trained dogs, amused themselves by successful 'possum and coon hunts. Rabbit hunting with hounds was great sport. There were a class of workmen in those days called ' 'woods- men." They were one degree higher in the social scale than "farm hands," who, in their turn, were one degree above "laborers." These woodsmen spent their whole time in the woods chopping fire wood, getting out fencing materials and ship timber. I have seen them with a rip saw, one man on an elevated log and one standing under it, the man above lifting the saw and the one below drawing it down, sawing out great A Biographical Sketch. 429 three-inch plank for shipping. The ' ' ship stuiF, " as it was called, would be transported on great timber wheels, drawn l)y five or six horses in a single file, to the shipyards in Wilming- ton. There was another distinct class of workmen, called " team drivers." They did nothing but attend to and drive their teams by which they transported all articles of heavy merchandise. All the business now done by railroads was then done by these " teams." My readers will now understand why many of the good people of the neighborhood above described were cranky, ec- centric and superstitious. While this little spot of earth con- tained its full share of bright, intelligent and well-bred people, it must be confessed it had more than its share of singular and quaint characters. The belief in witchcraft had, unfortu- natel}^ taken a firm hold upon the minds of many very re- spectable citizens. It was nearly universal among the farm hands, woodsmen, teamsters and working people. I am told that traces of its slimy trail can yet be discovered in some of the descendants of the old believers in the black art. It was useless to argue the question with them. They were well posted in all the passages of Scripture upon that subject. They pointed to the case of Saul and the Witch of Kndor, and cited the commandment, " Thou shalt not sufi^er a witch to live." As the Bible, in those days, was supreme authority upon all disputed questions, they had the best of the argu- ment ; just as the priests are ?aid to have silenced the argu- ment of Galileo, that the earth was round, by pointing to the passage of Scripture which declared, that at the second advent of Christ he should descend from heaven and all the world should see him ; which could not be if the earth was round, unless the inhabitants in the antipodes could look through the earth ; so, the believers in witchcraft said, "If the Bible is true, there were witches in the olden time and, if there ever was a witch, there can be witches now." The belief in witches, wizards, ghosts, dreams and for- tune-tellers was the direct result of fireside stories told by old women, nurses and weak-minded men to while away the long winter nights. When a little boy, I have listened to them by the hour until I was so excited with fear that I would not go to bed in the dark or sleep alone. Many wonderful snake stories were told. It was said they would milk the cows and charm birds and children. That if a child should be charmed by a snake and the reptile should be killed, the child would die. Snakes were then quite plen- tiful and some were very venomous, especially the yellow viper and copperhead. I remember killing one when I was quite small. It had coiled itself in my path as I was going 43° A BlOGKAPHlCAL ItKETCH. to school through the woods about a mile from my father's house. When I told my father that the snake flattened its head and hissed at me like a goose, he turned deadly pale and made me take him to the place where I had killed it. When he looked at it he said, " My son, that is a viper ; if it had as much as scratched 5^our skin it would have killed you." I have seen black snakes six and seven feet long and large enough to swallow a half-grown rabbit. I have often found them in a half-dreaming state with toads and frogs in their bellies. There was an old midwife in the neighborhood named Aunty Burnett. She had no settled home ; her skill in her profession made her welcome in every house. It was hardly necessary to have a doctor if Aunty Burnett could be secured. She had an exhaustless supply of most startling and marvel- lous stories. When I was about seven years old I heard her relate the following incident : She was employed to nurse a dying old man whom she named, and who was well known in Delaware. He had the reputation, while in a fit of anger of having whipped to death one of his old slaves, named Pompey. Just before his death they raised him up in bed when, with a stare of horror, he stretched out his emaciated arm and with his bony finger he pointed to a corner of the room and cried out aloud, " Pompey ! Pompey !" They looked at the place at which he had pointed and there was an enormous black snake slowly crawling towards the bed. The old man gave a frantic scream and fell over dead. When they looked for the snake it was gone. There was another old woman in ' ' The Hundred ' ' named Granny Eastick, who, as far as I have been able to learn, had no enemies and whose onl}^ fault was her age. She was a widow, dressed oddly, walked half bent with a home- made cane, lived alone in a log house in the woods and gath- ered chestnuts, shellbarks, walnuts and hazelnuts, which she sold for a living. In the winter, when pinched with hunger, she would sometimes solicit alms in the form of cold victuals and cast-off clothing. Yet she had the reputation of being a witch. She got her reputation in this way : One of her neighbors who, by the way, was a distant relation of mine on my mother's side, had a very sick cow. From its strange actions, the cow doctor said it was bewitched. It would sit like a dog, roll its eyes, and try to stand on its head. The doctor consulted his witch book and found that the remedy to break the charm, when a dumb animal should be bewitched, was to cut off its right ear, stick it full of new needles and then boil it in spring water. The effect would be that the witch, whoever she might be, would make her appearance. A Biographical Sketch. 431 tormented by the pain of the needles in her ear. Then, with- out speaking, some of the boiling water should be thrown upon her and the charm would be broken. While this cere- mony was being performed, poor old Granny Eastick happened to come up the lane with her basket on her arm to request some cold victuals. Without a word, some of the boiling water was thrown on her. She screamed and ran away and, as the cow got well, she was ever after reputed a witch. The following story of old Granny Eastick, I heard from an old man named Enimor Lloyd. He was a wood-chopper. His terms were fifty cents a day and a quart of whisky. He regu- larly drank his quart of whisky every day for forty years and, of course, died in the Poor House a very old man. He was chopping our winter firewood when he told the story one win- ter night, in front of a rousing fire, with a pitcher of hard cider by his side. The story ran thus : There was a very interesting girl of about fourteen years, the daughter of a re- spectable farmer in " The Hundred," who was afflicted with a most singular disease. She would run on all-fours like a dog ; she would mew like a cat ; sometimes she would (on all- fours) run backwards, and if not watched would go into very dangerous places. (No doubt she had St. Vitus' dance). It was thought the child was bewitched. Emmor was then chop- ping wood for the girl's father and he determined to break the spell and save the child. A witch doctor was consulted who said,' if the witch could be compelled, in the presence of the person under her .spell, to say '" God bless the child," the spell would be broken ; provided, the blood of the witch could be drawn with a rusty iron instrument before she had time to re- peat her curse. Emmor provided a rusty table fork and then sent for Granny to come and see the child. As soon as she en- tered the room he seized her by the throat, charged her with the crime, and commanded her to look at the girl and sa^^ ' ' God . bless the child." She at once raised her hands and said, " My God bless the child." He gave her a terrible shake and tightened his grip upon her throat saying : " You must not say 7ny God, your God is the devil ; say ' God bless the child.' " Nearly dead from his grip, she repeated the words as directed. He instantly drew blood from her forehead by scratching her with the prongs of the rusty fork and the child got well. Many good old women in the neighborhood were believed to be witches. I will only relate one more case — that of P0II3' Pudding. That was not her proper name. When Hickman's mill was being built Polly's husband, whose name was Benja- min, was one of the millwrights. It was the custom when a new mill was ready to be started to give a big dinner to the 432 A Biographical Sketch. workmen. On this occasion a very large pudding had been provided. At dinner Ben made a hog of himself and ate nearly the entire pudding. When the mill was started one of the men turned to Ben and said : "Can you tell me what the clapper says ?" "Yes," says Ben, "It says pitta patta, patta pitta.''' "No," said the other, "It says Benny Pudding — Pudding Benny.'' The rest of the workmen at once took up the refrain and began to sing, Pudding Benny, Benny Pudding, which, very much to Benny's annoyance, they kept up all the afternoon, and from that day to the day of his death he was known by no other name than Benny Padding. After his death his widow was called Polly Pudding, even the children were called Puddings. After her husband's death Polly lived in a small house in the woods near Faulk's Cross Roads. She was a sober, industrious and economical old woman. She did not meddle with the affairs of her neighbors, but bent all her energies to the support of herself and children and yet the}^ called here a witch, simply because some hunters stopped at her home one day to get a drink of milk and while partaking of her hospitality laid their guns in a heap on the floor, which she stepped over and jokingly said: "A penny for all the rab- bits these guns will shoot to-daj^" The hunters had scarcely left the door before a fine rabbit jumped out of her garden. The dogs at once started on the trail and chased it all the balance of the day. It ran through thickets, greenbriers, swamps, hedges and among the rocks. At one time the dogs were within a few feet of it when it suddenly stopped and ran back between the legs of one of the hunters. They all shot at it over and over again until night stopped the hunt and their ammunition was exhausted. They then remembered the magic words : "A penny for all the rabbits these guns will shoot to-day," and came to the unanimous conclusion that Polly Pudding had bewitched their guns and had turned her- self into a rabbit and in that form had been playing with them all the afternoon. During all the balance of her life she was reputed to be a witch. One of the hunters lived in Bethel near Booth's Corner. When he arrived at home that night he found one of his cows dead. He cut her open and found a "a^itch ball in her stomach. (A witch ball is a small roll of hair about as large as a walnut often found in the stomach of cows, supposed to be taken into the stomach by the cow licking it- self when shedding its coat). He at once consulted an old woman named Joanna Thompson, a fortune-teller, as to how he could break the spell. She informed him that the spell could be broken by drawing a profile picture of the supposed witch upon a sheet of white paper with a new goose quill, using his own blood for ink. Then with a silver bullet, twelve A Biographical Sketch. 433 steps away, naming one of the twelve Apostles at each step, he should shoot at the picture. If he should hit it, and the per- son he suspected was the true witch, she would be wounded in the same part of her body as might be struck on the picture by the silver bullet. He strictly followed the directions, took deliberate aim, pulled the trigger, but the gun did not go off. Upon examination he found the mainspring of the lock had broken. He kept his place and sent his hired man to the house for a live coal, which he applied to the touch-hole and the gun went off. The silver bullet struck the picture in the leg. He then made his man mount one of his fastest horses and ride over to Polly Pudding's to ascertain the effect. The man met one of her sons going after the doctor. Just at the time the gun went off she had fallen down stairs and broken her leg. I heard this story told by the man who shot the picture. He related it in all its particulars, much more at large than I have repeated it, to eight or ten men at the old log blacksmith shop at Booth's Corner, then occupied by a man named Mousley. A learned discussion followed the story, some holding that the coincidents tending to establish the fact that old Polly was a witch were but accidents, others taking the ground that the law ought to protect the people from such evil influences. Some of the young fellows present boldly announced their skepticism as to the existence of witches or even the devil him- self. This seemed to shock Mr. Mousley very much, and to convince the young skeptics ot their error he related an ad- venture of his own still more startling and supernatural than the tale of Polly Pudding. To understand the story the reader must be made ac- quainted with the surroundings. A short mile from my father's house, nearly due south and just over the Delaware line, there was a very remarkable rock known as "The Devil's Seat." It sloped to the eastward and had upon it a well-de- fined print of a large cloven ^oot and a hollow place as if made by a large man sitting upon it while it was in a soft state. I have no doubt but that it was a landmark made during the stone age. Stone arrow heads, spear heads and what were called Indian axes made of stone have been found around the place. Perhaps it was intended to mark the boundary of the territory of Sitting Bull, the Indian chief whose tribe once oc- cupied Delaware and a part of Pennsylvania. There are many persons now living who have seen this singular rock. There is another very remarkable rock on the farm formerly occupied by John B. McCay, deceased, covered with hieroglyphics which was, perhaps, another landmark of a long lost tribe. "The Devil's Seat" was in about the centre of a twent}^ acre field, very poor, and which had not then been cultivated 434 -^ Biographical Sketch. within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. It was called the Indian Field and was believed, by the class of persons I am trying to describe, to be haunted. I have seen as many as four or five holes, three or four feet deep and in diameter as large as an ordinary well, dug in different places in the field by unknown persons, supposed to be searching for hidden treasure. Because of its bad reputation hunters at night gen- erally avoided this field, for many strange stories had been told of valuable dogs who had chased game at night into the field and had never been seen again. The rock was destroyed a few years ago by being blasted with gunpowder; the person who destroyed it was the owner of the farm and, it was said, he expected to find a pot of gold under it. Whether he did or not I have never heard. It is certain, however, that he succeeded in destroying one of the most interesting remains of a pre-historic age. The scene of Mousley's terrible adventure was in this field at midnight and upon the above described rock. He had been hunting with three excellent dogs and had caught two coons and an opossum. While wending his way slowly home- ward, the moonlit sky was suddenly overcast with black, ominous clouds ; the dogs seemed terrified and ran trembling to where he stood under an old chestnut tree, about twenty yards from the " Devil's Seat." He heard a rumbling sound under his feet like smothered thunder, then he saw a sudden flash of light. Turning his face toward the place from whence the flash came, he saw a most terrible sight. There sat the Devil in his seat upon the rock. He was blowing a blue flame out of his mouth and nostrils, as if trjdng to warm his hands, His eyes looked like two balls of fire. He had no clothes upon him, and was as red as blood. Mousley, half dead with fright, dropped his game at his feet. Satan then threw up both arms above his head and yawned. His mouth, when opened by his yawn, looked like the open door of a blast fur- nace. Just then Mousley's best old dog picked up one of the coons and started in a full run toward the rock and, without stopping, plunged head foremost into the devil's open mouthy coon and all, and disappeared. The other two dogs immediately followed suit, each with his game in his mouth. Just then a great old owl flew out of the tree above his head with a loud hoot, and hovered over the rock. The devil looked up at the owl and with an unearthly Ha ! ha ! ha ! he sunk into the earth dogs, game and all. The dogs were never seen again. This story was told, not as a joke, but as a solemn truth, by a Christian man of a good reputation for truth and veracity. He was, perhaps, temporarily insane from excessive fright and, jn his demented state^ believed the fancies of his heated A Biographical Sketch. 435 imagination to be realities. I leave the question for psycliolo- gists to solve. It is too deep for my c6mprehension. It was a common custom in my boyhood days, after their own harvesting was done, for farmers to assist each other at " harvest wages" (which was about four times the wages of common labor) in securing their crops. There were no reap- ers, mowers, or even horse rakes in those days, say sixtj^ years ago. The wheat was reaped by hand with a common sickle and the grass was mowed by the scythe. One of our neighbors, who lived over the line, (whose name I will suppress because some of his descendants are now very respect- able people and would perhaps blush to know their ancestor's weakness) was assisting my father during harvest. One morn- ing he came to the farm very late. He looked very much out of sorts, complained of soreness in his joints, stiff limbs and backache. Being a conscientious man and member of Bethel church he hesitated to undertake to do a full day's work at "harvest wages." Taking my father aside, he said he had been so abiised the night just passed that he did not feel able to do the work of a full hand. My father asked him who had abused him. He replied that he had been turned into an old horse and had been ridden by witches all night under whip and spur and that he was so tired he could scarcely walk, much . less work My father laughed at him and told him that in- stead of being an old horse he had a night-mare . The poor fellow did not see the point and hobbled off home. He had evidently caught cold and had bad dreams. Many of the old farmers planted their crops in strict con- formity with the zodiacal signs in the almanac. They would not plant beets, carrots or parsnips when the sign was in the head, nor corn, cabbage or turnips when it was in the feet. Many persons believed in faith cure for all diseases. There were persons who believed they had the power to pow-wow away warts, skin excrescences, tumors and the like, while others believed in some occult influence possessed by certain persons born with a cowl, who, by repeating a secret passage of Scripture, could stop hemorrhages and relieve pain. Many of my readers will remember an old gentleman named Jehu Forwood, of Brandywine Hundred, who was said to possess this wonderful power. When accidents happened from run- away horses, falls from trees, or bad wounds from the unskill- ful handling of edged tools, two horses were at once saddled, one was sent at full speed to Jehu Forwood, to have him stop the blood and relieve the pain, the other was sent for the doc- tor. I am unable to explain the miracle, but almost invariably" the blood and pain stopped about the time the rider reached Mr. Forwood's house. It was said that persons injured at a 436 A Biographical Sketch. great. distance from his house were relieved more certainly than his near neighbors. He attributed this to more earnest faith. The probability is that the blood had more time to coagulate and the pain was perhaps soothed by the mucilaginous exuda- tions from the blood protecting the fresh wound from the action of the air. A very common custom with the young girls was to secure the forked bone of a fowl's breast, called the "Lucky-bone," and place it over the front door of the house. The first young man that entered under the bone was to be the future husband of the maid that placed it there. This was a sign that seldom failed. The reason is quite obvious. As both parties believed their union was decreed by heaven, they naturally submitted to the divine predestination. The witch-hazel tree was sup- posed to possess invincible powers over the charms of magi- cians. It entered into almost all domestic medicines and was a specific against all the arts of sorcery. I remember when I was a little boy one of our neighbors had great difficulty in churning his butter. He had churned continuously for seventeen hours and the butter would not come. He concluded that the churn was bewitched and at once went to the woods for a v;/ithe of witch-hazel which he bound around the churn and in a few minutes the butter came. It was, however, verj^ white and cheesej'. The fact was that he had half starved his cows ; the weather was cold and wintry and the milk had but little butter-producing substance in it. As late as 1842 respectable people professed to have the power to tell where to dig wells in order to strike water near- est to the surface, and many intelligent persons believed it. There was an old and highly respected jeweler of Wilming- ton, well known by almost everybody in the State, who boldly professed to possess this power. The corporation of Wilming- ton lost the record of one of its old water mains and had spent much time in vain endeavoring, by a system of digging, to find the lost water pipe. At last after digging up many streets where it was supposed the main might be but without success, one of the city fathers suggested that they try the skill of the old jeweler. The suggestion was adopted. He went to a neighboring wood and procured two wands of witch-hazel which he placed before him in the form of St. Andrew's cross and commenced walking over the streets where it was thought the pipe might be. In about half an hour, with hundreds of men and boys following him, he suddenly stopped and directed the workmen to dig. They did so and to the joy of the city authorities the lost main was found. One of our neighbors was a great weather-wise. He had digested a system of rules and signs by which he foretold the A Biographical Sketch. 437 state of the weather for several days in advance. Some of his rules were based upon meteorological influences and can be explained upon scientific principles of which he had not the slightest knowledge. Many of his signs were exceedingly absurd. He believed in the prophecy of St. Swithin (ground- hog day) as firmly as he did in the book of Revelation. His faith in the influence of the moon was equally as strong. A hazy ring around the moon meant approaching rain. The number of stars within the ring indicated the days within which the storm would come. When he saw the leaves of the willow tree turn upwards and the smoke from the chimney re- fuse to ascend, or when the chickens perched upon the fence and with their bills began to arrange their feathers, rain was sure to come within a day. A pig in the late fall with straw in his mouth meant a hard winter. A great harvest meant a long winter ; a scant crop of hay meant a short and mild win- ter. His rule was : "If your crop is short, save it all and you'll have enough ; if you have a great crop don't waste any for you'll need it all." His theory of the moon's control of the weather was ri- diculously absurd. When the new moon appeared with her belly down and horns up (convexo-concave) he predicted a dr}- month. His reasons were that the water in the moon could not run out. When the new moon appeared concavo convex — -belly up and horns down — of course all the water in the moon ran out upon the earth and a wet month was the conse- quence. My father used to laugh at his theories and, by many well-made arguments, try to convince him of the absurditj^ of his signs. One beautiful moonlight night, our old neighbor came to our house with a beam of triumphant satisfaction upon his honest face, and a great roll of foolscap paper in his hand. " Well, John," said he, " I've come over to convince you that the moon does control the weather." He then unfolded his mamuscript which contained the results of a year's observa- tions. He had kept a record of every rain during the year and his record clearly showed that every storm had occurred within three days of a change of the moon. My father was at first inclined to dispute the record, but as our neighbor was a man of spirit as well as physical strength, such an intimation might have led to unpleasant results. After a few moments' thought, my father burst into a derisive laugh. "Why," said he, " you old fool, don't you know that by no possibilit}" could a storm come beyond three and a half days of a quarterly change of the moon ? A lunar month is twenty-eight days ; there are four changes in the month, or one every seven days ; if the rain is four days from the last quarter it must be onh^ 43^ A Biographical Sketch. tliree days from the ensuing one, because four and three make seven I shall never forget the look of bewildered amazement in the face of our old neighbor as he began to realize the truth. " Dod Zounds," said he, "I'll hardly believe the Bible any more." Kveri the forms of religious worship in those days were very different from the practices of to-day. Whether the modern doctrine of evolution applies to the spiritual as well as the physical world, is a question too deep for me. I do not wish to be misunderstood. In my religious views I am ortho- dox, but it is quite certain that great advances have been made, not only in the forms but in the creeds of many Christian denominations during the past sixty years. I have witnessed most boisterous and extravagant ebullitions of religious ex- citement at protracted meetings and revivals in Old Bethel Church. I have seen religious fervor approach so near insanity as to be hard to draw the dividing line, and which would not be approved by the sentiment of the most fervent worshiper of to-day. And yet the persons who were guilty of the absurd antics caused by what they called the " Blessing," were un- doubtedly good, honest Christians. Under intense religious excitement they lost control of themselves and ignored the restraints and conventionalities of society. Among the many earnest old Methodist preachers of my boyhood days I can recall two whose preaching made a lasting impression upon my mind. They were eloquent to a remarkable degree. Their ideas were original and often startling. They were great revivalists and always drew together crowded congregations. I shall never forget the conclusion of a prayer made upon the occasion of a great revival meeting by one of these old preachers. After in- forming the Ivord that his Christian soldiers had overcome the devil and driven him from the field of battle, he concluded thus : " Now, O Lord, lash the devil — lash him till he lolls out his iry and blistered tongue upon the blasted and burning shoals of eternal damnation and howls for mercy, but show him none for Christ's sake, Amen !" The other old preacher to whom I have referred was ap- pointed to Chester circuit, which extended from Brandy wine creek to Philadelphia and from the river back to Downing- town. With his horse and saddle bags he rode over this great circuit and preached three times each Sunday at his different appointments. He was a man of most remarkable genius, with a mind well stored with historical illustrations and ludicrous anecdotes. A new church was to be dedicated and an effort was to be made to raise funds to pay off the church debt. His text was : ' ' The Lord loveth a cheerful giver ' ' While des- canting upon the love of the Lord for a liberal man, he took A Biographical Sketch, 439 occasion to express what contempt he must have for a stingy soul. He said that there were great souls that God could not look upon the earth without seeing them, and there were other souls so small that the Almighty had to use a microscope to find them. " So small that ten thousand of them could dance a jig upon the point of a cambric needle and have more room to jump about than a tadpole would have to wriggle in the Atlantic ocean." It was quite fashionable to preach eulogistic funeral ser- mons over the coffins of all the old sinners in the neighbor- hood. The custom became such an intolerable nuisance that the preachers were compelled to set their faces against it. To illustrate the ridiculous extent of this foolish custom, I may be pardoned for relating an anecdote told in my father's house by the Rev. J. B. Ayars, then the traveling preacher of Ches- ter circuit. He was aroused late one night by the son of one of his congregation, a boy of about ten or twelve years, who had come to request him in the name of his father to preach a finieral sermon over the remains of his brother, who had just died. The preacher took out his memoranda book to make some notes about the d ^ceased so that he could intelligentlj^ speak of him in his sermon. The following dialogue ensued : " What was your brother's name ?" " He hain't got no name." " How old was he ?" " He was no old at all, he died a bornen,''' The country store, at the cross-roads, was a great place for loungers, loafers and idlers. They met by mutual affinit}^ and drank cider, smoked common segars and talked politics. Theological questions and the affairs of State were often dis- cussed, jokes were cracked and amusing stories were told. It was a real pleasant place to spend the long autumnal nights. Among the frequenters of the place was a man named Bat^ ten. He had the name of telling very improbable stories and was never known to hear a marvelous tale without being able to tell a still more extravagant one. One of the old men of the neighborhood was very fond of starting Batten by tell- ing himself some improbable story. One night, when my uncle Wesley Clark, now a very old man, was playing a game of checkers at the store. Batten entered. The old gentleman, to whom I have just referred, turned to my uncle and said, " Wesley, have you ever heard of a larger eel than the one you and I caught down at Grubb's Landing when we were boys ? It weighed just twenty pounds." Batten pricked his ears and remarked that he, upon one occasion, when he was working at Charley Pusey's mill, saw a very large eel. He 440 A Biographical Sketch. said the mill suddenly stopped without any apparent cause. The headgate was open but no water flowed upon the great over-shot wheel. At last they found an enormous eel had got fast in the wooden trunk which carried the water from the headgate to the wheel. With great difhculty they got it out. ' ' Well , " said uncle Wesley , "how large was i t ? " " Weel , ' ' said he, " we weighed it very carefully on the scales and, sin- gular as it may seem, it just weighed twenty pounds and one ounce. ^^ On another occasion he told of a remarkable shot that he once made while at Pusey's mill. He said a party of gen- tlemen from Philadelphia came to see Mr. Pusey and brought with them veiy expensive double-barreled guns with which to astonish the country people on a squirrel hunt. They got an early breakfast and started out to a shellbark tree in the woods, near the mill. It was not long before they commenced to shoot. They shot so rapidly and so long that Mr. Pusey sent him out to see what was the cause of such incessant firing. When he arrived he found the hunters had been shoot- ing all the morning at the same squirrel on the top branch of the tree. He had taken Mr. Pusey's gun with him and asked leave to make one shot at it. The hunters laughed at his old flint-lock gun, and told him he might try what he could do. He went to the butt of the tree, stepped off one hundred yards so as to have a fair sight on the squirrel, and banged away. At the first shot down came the squirrel, stone dead. He picked it up and was surprised at its extraordinary weight but, giving it a shake, the cause of its extra weight was ex- plained — fully two pounds of shot had lodged in its hair, and about another pound had just peneh ated its hide, but none had gone into its body far enough to kill it except the heavy shot from Pusey's gun. Pusey's mill was in Upper Chichester and is now a ruin, having been burned a few years ago and never rebuilt. When my father was building the home in which I was born. Batten's father was one of the carpenters. A large chicken hawk had been carrying off the poultry and my father determined to watch for him in the early morning and, if pos- sible, shoot him. He, however, did not get up early enough. When he went out with his gun, he saw the hawk on the oppo- site side of the field at. least a hundred yards away, making his breakfast on a fine young hen. He did not expect to hit it but shot at it to frighten it away when, to his surprise, the hawk fell dead. A single slug had, by chance, struck it in the head. "Well," said he, "Batten, that was a very re- markable shot. ' ' ' ' Yes, ' ' said Batten, ' ' that was a very fair shot, but if I were to tell you how far off / shot a hawk once A Biographical Sketch. 441 with my old gun, you would say, ' O, pshaw ! that's one of Batten's lies.' " There were several other quaint old characters I would like to introduce to my readers if time and space would permit. Some of my older readers will remember Old Fanny Cherry. Her proper name was Frances Chervine ; she was an old maid of gigantic size ; I should say she was at least six feet in height and large in proportion. She could lay an ordinary man over her knee and spank him as a mother would an unruly boy. She used to boast that no man ever insulted her. She had no special calling, but migrated from house to house. Wherever she could hang her shawl she considered her home. She usually carried her entire wardrobe with her ; I have seen her come up the back lane to my father's home, with six petticoats and three frocks on, an umbrella under her arm, a parasol over her head and a band-box in her hand. Whenever she appeared thus equipped it indicated a two weeks' visit. She was a devout Methodist, and a great shouter. She never went to church without indulging in her favorite form of worship, which was, as soon as the preacher said anything that pleased her, to jump up, clap her hands and whirl round and round, like a top until she became dizzy, which she mistook for a manifestation or divine approval and ihen sat down content. There was another old female known as Molly Shades. Her home was about a mile south of my Uncle Nelson's house. It was completely isolated, being a half mile from any other dwelling. Its seclusion adapted it to the purpose for which it was used. It was an old-time speak-easy where all who wished could drink whisky and smoke tobacco on the sly. While gunning one day with my father, when I was a boy, he pointed out the old house and said : "If these old trees could speak they would tell many unsavory tales of drunken carousals, ribald songs and scenes of revelry." Many of the old, good fellows of the neighborhood would meet there to spend their leisure hours. Sometimes their festivities would not end until ' ' the wee small hours of the morn. ' ' Amid the fumes of com- mon segars, four for a cent, hard cider at a cent a glass, whisky at twenty cents a gallon, and pig-tail tobacco at a cent a yard, we may imagine how the old revelers spent their long winter nights. My father said the first time he visited the place was just ctfter his return from the city of New York, where he had lived for several years. He went into the house to buy a plug of her best Cavendish tobacco. She said she had nothing but " Pig Tail." He informed her that he did not chew pig tail. "Now John," said she, " Don't put on any of your New York airs here. Why don't you talk like other people ? Why don't 442 A Biographical Sketch. you say you don't chaw pig-tail ? I'll declare how some peo- ple do put on !" My book must now be brought to a close. Whatever my readers may think of it or of me, I feel they will at least ad- mit that my life has not been a lazy one. POSTSCRIPT. I have submitted the manuscript of my personal recollec- tions of Bethel and Brandywine Hundred to an old friend from Massachusetts. He assures me that there were in the neighborhood in which he was born, sixty or seventy years ago, just such quaint old customs, whimsical characters and superstitious people as I have described. I am inclined to the belief that there was a class of people in all the rural districts of our common country very much like those I have mentioned, and that their peculiarities and eccentricities resulted from their social isolation and the ab- sence of free schools, newspapers, railroads and telegraphs, which have now made mankind cosmopolite. T. J. C. January i, i8gj. 105 HO \i ^o. ';:^o- ^^o"^ * «? «>^, "^ •^-^..^^ o*Jife\ %../ .^i^i^^ V A^ v-^^ V-^^ <$>■ o ^ •sr 'oK I' A o. vV^i.:^'.,^-.^^ ^-.^\:l*i:./^.. .,^\^^&:.V ./ -^0^ c,vX> v> .*i:^ -5 f