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NicholasSynovic
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eastern chapter the eastern district of at avenue and twenty first street in philadelphia where was now to serve his sentence of four years and six months was a large structure or wall and prison ten acres in extent solemn and momentous in its mien not at all unlike the palace of the at although not so distinguished it stretched its gray length for several blocks along four different streets and looked as lonely and forbidding as a prison should the wall which its great and gave it so much of its solemn dignity was thirty five feet high and some seven feet thick the prison proper which was not visible from the outside consisted of seven arms or ranged like a central room or court and occupying in their length about two thirds of the ten acre yard within the walls so that there was but little space for the charm of lawn or the forty two feet wide from outer wall to outer were one hundred and eighty feet in length and in instances two stories high and extended in their long reach in every direction there were no windows in the only narrow of three and one half feet long by perhaps eight inches wide let in the roof and the floor were accompanied in some instances by a small yard ten by sixteen the same size as tbe proper which was by a high bride wall in every instance the and floors and were made of stone and the which were only ten wide between the and in the case of the the portion only fifteen feet high were paved with stone if you stood in the central room or and looked down the long stretches which departed from you in every direction you had a sense of and confinement not with their length the iron doors with their outer accompaniment of wooden ones which were used at times to shut the prisoner from all sight and sound were grim and to behold the halls were light enough being frequently and set with the narrow which were with glass in winter but they were as are all such matter of fact arrangements for bare wearisome to look upon life enough there was in all conscience seeing that there were four prisoners here at the time and that nearly every cell was occupied but it was a life of which no one individual was aware of as a spectacle he was of it but he was not some of the prisoners after long service were used as or as they were called but not many there was a a a carpenter shop a store room a flour mill and a series of gardens or patches but the of these did not require the services of a large the prison proper dated from and it had grown wing by wing its present considerable size had been reached its population consisted of individuals of all degrees of intelligence and crime from to minor of it had what was known as the system of for its inmates which was nothing more nor less than solitary confinement for all concerned a life of absolute silence and separate labor in separate when and his party walking along avenue were confronted by the great gray gate of the with its iron doors and its towers and the dreary expanse of high wall disappearing to either side it was beginning to the blow a few fat of which gave the whole place a somewhat and appearance which was not lost on him his comparatively recent experience in the jail which after all was not an accurate one he had never been in a prison in his life once when a boy in one of his with and others through several of the surrounding towns he had passed a village lock up as the town were then called a small square gray building with long iron barred windows and he had seen at one of these rather on the second floor a none too or to ti cr do well who looked down on him with eyes hair and a pallid face and called for it was summer and the jail window was open he get me a of tobacco will you who had looked up shocked and disturbed by the man s appearance had called quite without stopping to think i can t look out you don t get locked up yourself sometime you little the man had replied savagely only half recovered from his of the day before had been a little and frightened by the spectacle and he remembered having a keen desire to get away he had not thought of this particular scene in years but now suddenly it came back to him here he was on his way to be locked up in this dull prison and it was and he was being cut out of human affairs as much as it was possible for him to be cut out when arrived with his father brother and he was informed that his relatives could only go with him to the outer gate no friends were permitted to accompany him beyond that not even for the time being though he might visit him later the a the day this was an rule being to the gate keeper and bearing his was admitted at once the others solemnly way they bade an affectionate farewell to lo however attempted to make it as matter of fact is possible well good by for the present he said shaking lands i ll be all right tell not to worry he stepped inside and the gate solemnly him led the way through a dark wide and high to a farther gate where a x nd trifling with a large key a door at his bidding once inside the prison yard turned to the left into a	43
small office presenting ds prisoner before a small chest high desk where stood i prison officer in uniform of blue the latter the of the prison a thin practical person with narrow gray eyes and light hair the paper which the s handed him and it this was his authority for receiving ii his turn he handed a slip showing that he had received the prisoner and the latter left receiving gratefully the tip which pressed in his hand well good by mr he said with a peculiar twist of his uke head i m sorry i e you won t find it so bad here he wanted to impress the receiving with his with this distinguished prisoner and true to his policy of make believe shook hands him cordially i m much to you for your courtesy mr he said went out to his new with the air of a man who is determined to make impression he was now in the hands of petty he knew who could or increase his com t at will he wanted to impress this man with his i the utter to and obey his sense of respect for his authority without in himself he had no use for the before him speaking but the latter could be of use to him and so he prepared to be nice to him he was depressed but efficient even here in the clutch of that machine of the law the state which he had been struggling so hard to the receiving mr though thin and was a rather capable man as prison officials shrewd not particularly well educated not over intelligent naturally not over industrious but sufficiently energetic to hold his position he knew something about considerable for he had been dealing with them for nearly twenty six years his attitude toward them was cold cynical critical for he had had to do for nearly half of his life with individuals whom he considered to be thieves robbers with a modest of comparatively decent men most of them w ere dirty afraid of a real bath and physically in some way or other they were as ignorant as natural deficiency and lack of opportunity could make them he did not permit any of them to come into personal contact with him but he saw to it that in his presence carried out the of the law when entered dressed in his very good clothing a dark gray blue suit of pure wool his light made gray overcoat a black hat of the latest shape his shoes new and of good leather his tie of the best silk heavy and colored his hair and showing the attention of an intelligent and his hands w ell the receiving saw at once that he was in the presence of some one of superior intelligence and force such a man as fortune of his trade rarely brought into his net mr it the could tell at once by s simple his direct glance that he was sane and and that he was looking in a way to be and not to give stood in the middle of the room without looking at any one or anything though he saw ul called to a clerk landing him at the same time a yellow slip of paper n which was written s full name and his record from the beginning of the itself the a whose name was took it and entered it in a book the slip at the same time for the or who would eventually take to the manners gallery you will have to take off your clothes and take a bath said mr to solemnly him curiously i don t suppose you need one but it s the rule thank you replied pleased that his personality was for something even here whatever the rules are i want to obey mr made no comment seeing that was a prisoner he that he was dealing with his st mentally and but was breath him here and that was enough when started to take off his coat however he put up his hand and tapped a bell there now issued from an adjoining room an assistant a prison a weird looking specimen of the he was a small dark sided individual one leg being shorter and therefore one shoulder lower than the other be was hollow eyed and rather but enough withal he was dressed in a thin poorly made suit of striped the prison of the place showing a soft roll collar shirt underneath the and v a large wide striped cap peculiarly offensive in f and shape to ood he could not help thinking how the man s eyes looked under i s straight out standing the had a silly manner of raising one hand in salute he was a professional second man up for ten years u by dint of good he had attained to the honor of working about this office without the degrading hood customary for prisoners to wear over the cap for this he v as he now considered his superior v ith ner ous dog like eyes and looked at v it a certain cunning appreciation of his lot and a show l m c ne is as d as another to the average as a matter of fact it is their only consolation in t de that all who come here are no better n the world have them but their in their thoughts the t n thou attitude or is quite the l st and most deadly within prison walls this particular could no more than could a the motions of a wheel but ith t e superiority of the of the world he did not hesitate to think that he could a was a x k to t no less than the his one fe was that he	43
then was what society did to the criminal he thought to himself it took him and tore away from his body and his life the of his state and left him these he felt sad and grim and try as he would he could not help showing it for a moment it was always his business and his intention to conceal his real feelings but now it was not quite possible he felt degraded impossible in these clothes and he knew that he looked it nevertheless he did his best to himself together and look willing obedient considerate of those above him after all he said to himself it was all like a play to him a dream nothing more it could not last he was acting some strange part on the stage this stage of life that he knew so well surely it could not last it was too insignificant too unimportant all this nevertheless he was depressed did not waste any time looking at him however he merely said to his assistant see if you can find a cap for him arid the latter going to a closet containing numbered shelves took down a cap a high crowned shabby striped affair which was asked to try on it fitted well enough slipping down close over his ears and he thought now his must be about over there could be no more of these but he was mistaken now you can take him to mr said understood he went back into the wash room and produced what had heard of but never before seen a blue and white striped cotton bag about half the length of an ordinary pillow case and half again as which and shook out as he came toward him the use of this hood was a custom from the earliest days of the prison intended to the and drive home to the prisoner the fact that all sense of social connection was ended the hood was intended to destroy all sense of association with fellow prisoners and by preventing a sense of and direction any attempt to escape thereafter during all his stay he was not supposed to walk with or talk to or see another prisoner or even to any extent converse with his except as the latter were compelled to instruct him it was a grim theory and was really worked out to a very notable extent although when it came to actual practice there were as there are in every theory you ll have to put this on said and opened it in such a way that it be put over s head the latter he had heard of it in some way in times past not through but in some general gossip little had he ever thought that this would come to him all his wealth all his had not been able to prevent it apparently he was a little shocked looked at it first with a touch of real surprise but a moment after his hands and helped pull it down never mind the guard put your hands down i ll get it over dropped his arms when it was fully on it came to about his chest giving him uttle means of seeing anything he felt very strange very very downcast this simple thing of a blue and white striped bag over his head almost cost him his sense of self possession why could not they have spared him this he thought this way said his attendant and without seeing anything more of or his or the or the path he was following he was led out to where he could not say if you hold it out in front you can see to walk said the his guide and pulled it out thus being able to discern his feet and a portion of the floor below he was thus conducted seeing nothing in his down a short walk then through a long corridor then through a room of guards and finally up a narrow flight of iron steps leading to the s office on the second floor of one of the two tier blocks when he was there he heard the voice of saying mr here s another prisoner for you from mr i ll be there in a minute came a peculiarly pleasant voice from the distance an older more friendly one could feel it presently a big heavy hand closed about his arm and he was conducted still further you t got far to go now the voice said and then take that bag off and felt for some reason s sense of sympathy i as though he would choke chapter the further steps were not many a cell door was reached and by the of a great iron key it was swung open and the same big hand guided him through a moment later the bag was pulled easily from his head and he saw that he was in a narrow cell not very light and not very dark but lighted from the top by a small of glass three and one half feet long by four inches wide for a night light there was a tin lamp swinging from a hook near the middle of one of the side walls a rough iron cot furnished with a straw and two pairs of dark blue possibly blankets stood in one comer there was a and small sink in another a shelf for books or cup and or what you will occupied the wall opposite the bed a plain wooden chair with a homely back stood at the foot of the bed and a fairly serviceable was standing in one comer there was an iron stool or pot for giving as he could see into a large drain pipe which ran along the inside wall and which was obviously flushed by of water being poured	43
into it rats and other this and it gave off an unpleasant which filled the cell the floor was of stone s clear seeing eyes somewhat touched with regret at his took it all in at a glance he also took in mr the homely good natured cell whom he now saw for the first time a large heavy man rather dusty and looking whose uniform did not fit him well and whose manner of standing made the him k as though he would much prefer to sit down he was obviously but not strong having somewhat of a and a kindly face covered with a short growth of brown whiskers his hair was cut badly and stuck out in odd strings or from underneath his big cap nevertheless was not at all impressed quite the contrary and he felt at once that this man might be more considerate of him than the others had been he hoped so anyhow he did not know that he was in the presence of the of the manners who would have him in charge for two weeks only him in the rules of the prison and that he was only one of twenty six all told who were in s care looked around s broad stooping shoulders which were those of a man of fifty eight to the hard cell door which was barred and cross barred with great rods of steel and fastened with a thick highly polished lock he saw also that beyond this was a heavy wooden door which could shut him in even more completely than the iron one there was no chance for any clear sunlight here cleanliness depended entirely on soap and water and sweeping which in depended on the prisoners themselves the thought came to him as to who had occupied this cell before him and where he had gone and also that this would be a most unsatisfactory place to live for any length of time air by way of easy introduction went over to mr s future bed and seated himself on it he pointed to the hard wooden chair which drew out and sat on well now you re here t asked mr familiarly for he was an man generously disposed of long experience with and inclined as had judged by his voice and his big hand to deal kindly with them it was so plain the to that in the sphere to which he himself belonged was a man whom he might employ as a gardener or workman of some kind never anything more but that down here he was a genial good natured lord age and a naturally kindly temperament and a form of religious belief had inclined him to be merciful and yet his official duties as later found out seemed to have led him to the conclusion that most were bad like mr he regarded them as and ne er do wells with evil streaks in them and in the main he was not mistaken yet he could not help being what he was a kindly old man having faith in those of the weak and inexperienced mentally justice and human decency yes i m here mr replied simply remembering his name from the attendant and flattering the keeper by the use of it to old the situation was more or less this was the famous frank a whom he had read about the noted banker and treasury he and his co partner in crime were destined to serve as he had read comparatively long terms here five hundred thousand dollars was a large of money in those days much more to mr than five million would have been forty years later he was awed by the thought of what had become of it how managed to do all the things the papers had said he had done he had a uttle of questions which he usually went through with each new prisoner asking him if he was sorry now for the crime he had committed if he meant to do better with a new chance if his father and mother were alive etc and by the manner in which they answered these questions simply or otherwise he judged whether they were being or not to him all prisoners who came here were guilty there was no the doubt of that he had great faith in the machinery cf justice k men were punished it was a thousand to or c that they deserved to be but in the case of men he could not understand how they had come to do the things with which they were charged ke could not talk to as he would to the average second story store and plain cheap thief and of whom there were so many yet he scarcely knew how else to talk well now he went on looking at in a uncertain way while the latter eyed him in an attempt to appear interested and without at the same time appearing amused or superior i don t suppose you ever thought you d get to a place like this did you mr i never did replied simply i wouldn t have believed that i could have arrived here a few months ago mr i don t think i deserve to be here now though of course there is no use of my telling you that he saw that old wanted to a little and he was only too glad to fall in with his mood he would soon be alone with no one to talk to and if a sympathetic could be reached with this man now so much the better any port in a storm any straw to a drowning man well no doubt all of us makes mistakes continued mr with an amusing faith in his own value as a moral guide and we can t just	43
always tell how the plans we think so fine are coming out you re here now an i suppose you re sorry certain things didn t come out just as you thought but if you had a chance i don t suppose you d try to do just as you did before would no mr i wouldn t exactly said truly enough though i believed i was light in everything i did i don t think legal justice has really the done me in spite of his depressed state he could not suppress a smile over the old man s attitude well that s the way continued not to pay any attention to s thoughts but following his own very carefully and scratching his head and looking about sometimes as i says to some of these here young that comes in here we don t know as much as we thinks we does we forget that others are just as smart as we are and that there are people that are us all the time these here courts and and they are here all the time and they get us i mr s moral version of by god they do if we don t behave yes replied that s true enough well said the old man after a time after he had made a few more solemn owl like and yet well remarks now here s bed and there s your chair and there s your wash stand and there s your now keep em all clean and use em right you would have thought he was making a present of a you re the one s got to make up your bed every and keep your floor swept and your toilet flushed and your cell clean there t anybody here ll do that for you want to do all them things the first thing in the when you get up and afterward you ll get to eat about you re supposed to get up at five thirty yes mr said politely you can depend on me to do all those things promptly i don t want to cause you any annoyance i ll do whatever you tell me there t so much more added you re supposed to wash yourself all over once a week an i ll give you a clean for that you wash this floor up every friday without showing it you kin have hot water for that the if you want it i ll have one of the bring it to you an as for your friends and relations he got up and shook himself like a big dog you wife t yes replied well the rules here are that your wife or your friends kin come to see you once in three months and your law er you law er t yes sir replied amused well he kin come every week or so if he likes ever day i guess there t no rules about lawyers you kin only write one letter once in three months yourself an if you want anything like or the like o that from the store room yoa sign an order for it if you got any money with the an then i can it for you the old man was really above taking small tips in the shape of money he was a hold over from a much more severe and honest r but subsequent presents or constant flattery were not amiss in making him kindly and generous read him accurately very well mr i understand he said getting up as the old man did ill do exactly as you say then when you have been here two weeks added rather accidentally he had forgot to state this to before the come and and give yer regular cell down stairs kin make up yer mind by that time what y ti d like do what y u d like to work at if yoa behave yourself proper more n like they ll give a cell with a yard never can tell he went out the door with a solemn click and stood there a little more depressed than he had been because of this latest intelligence only two weeks and then he be transferred from this kindly old man s care to another s whom he did the not know and with whom he might not fare so well he had forgotten for the moment in his pleasant talk with his shabby prison suit his rough his hard shoes the sickening board cap he had on his head the bad of the cell and its now they all came back to him with a rush here he was in this narrow cell locked in if ever you want me for anything if sick er like that called after he had walked a few paces away but returning we have a signal here of our own just hang your out through these here bars i ll see it and i ll stop and find out what want when i m whose spirits had sunk revived for the moment yes sir he replied thank you mr the old man walked away and heard his steps dying down the paved hall he stood and listened his ears being greeted occasionally by a distant a faint of some one s feet the or of some machine or the iron scratch of a key in a lock none of the noises was loud rather they were all faint and far away he went over and looked at the bed which was not very clean and without linen and anything but wide or soft and felt it curiously he was by the thought of possible how could he tell the one chair was abominable the was weak he tried to think of himself as becoming accustomed to the situation but he the pot in	43
one comer and that discouraged him it was possible that rats might come up here it looked that way no pictures no books no scene no person no space to walk just the four bare walls and silence which would probably be shut in tight at night by the thick door what a horrible fate he sat down and contemplated his situation so here he was at last in the eastern and doomed the iii ui er of the butler ar r r r here four long years and longer r r y i z to him probably being z i h r r r he h d just gone through r i t v a i he h d made of himself all h he ol all he was getting ir ly tt le out perhaps already they v ent in s v ay th at he ill n t v h put his hand to his thinking hi his his friends his family he ful r his v a h but remembered that had ha there vas n ray of telling the time neither he n e r k ten or ix with which to amuse or n himself he had had nothing to eat since m still that mattered little what did matter as shut up here tight from the world quite g ii e li i knowing what time it was and that he no attend to any of the things he ou h do v ould come to see him after a v j that help a little it was a strange thing to e a solitary ner his own steps and movements s so i z ud he walked to the cell door and looked out h the thick bars but there was nothing to see nothing save a p r ion of two cell doors opposite something like his own he came back and sat in his single chair meditating but getting wear of that finally stretched himself on the dirty prison bed to tr it it not entirely he got up after a while and sat then walked then sat what a place to walk he thought this was terrible horrible something like a li ing tomb and to think he should be here now day after day and day after day until until what until the governor him or his time was up or his fortune eaten or so he while the hours slipped by it was the nearly five o clock before was able to return and then only for a little while he had been arranging for s appearance on the following thursday friday and monday in his several court proceedings when he was gone however and the night fell and had to trim his uttle shabby oil lamp and to drink the strong tea and eat the rough poor bread made of hj an and white flour which was to him through the small in the door by the who was accompanied by the to see that it was done properly great carts of these about to the he really felt very bad the wooden door of his cell was presently closed and locked by a who it rudely and said no word nine o clock would be somewhere by a great bell he understood when his smoky oil lamp would have to be put out promptly and he would have to and go to bed there were no doubt for of these rules reduced the straight jacket perhaps he scarcely what he felt grim weary he had put up such a long unsatisfactory fight after washing the heavy stone cup and tin plate for holding his tea and bread at his he took off the sickening uniform and shoes and even the drawers of the scratching and going to his bed stretched himself wearily he tried to make himself comfortable between the blankets for it was chill here but it was of little use this will never do he said to himself this will never do i m not sure whether i can stand much of this or not still he turned his face to the wall and after several hours sleep eventually came chapter iii those v ho by any pleasing courtesy of c birth inheritance or the wisdom of i s or friends r ve succeeded in avoiding making tha o the prosperous and comfortable a oi lives scarcely understand the mood o co per sit ring rather gloomily in his cell these v in spite of his great ingenuity v hat as become of him the strongest have their hour c depression there are times when life to the greatest brains mostly to the greatest takes on a hue see so many phases of its dreary it is when the soul of man has been built up into e strange self confidence some curious faith in its o m powers based no doubt on the actual presence of these same powers involved in the xiv that it fronts life it would be too to say that s mind was of the first order it was subtle enough in all conscience and involved as is v x on the great with a sense of personal advancement it was a big turning like a vast a glittering ray into m a dark comer but it was not disinterested to search the ultimate dark he realized in a way what the great philosophers and were but he could not be sure in his own mind that whatever it was it was important far him no doubt life held strange secrets perhaps it was essential that somebody investigate them however that the might be the call of his own soul was in another direction business was to make money to something would make him much money or better	43
yet save the organization he had begun but this as he now looked upon it was almost impossible it had been and complicated by evil circumstances he might as pointed out to him string out these proceedings for years out one and another but in the meanwhile the properties involved were being seriously interest charges an his were making heavy court costs were mounting up and to cap it au he had with that there were a of who would never accept anything except the full value df their claims these were the ones who had sold out to butler and incidentally to his one hope now was to save what he could by compromise a little later and to build up some sort of profitable business through the latter was coming in a day or two as soon as had made some working arrangement for him with michael a man whom had not seen as yet but who came the second day to have a look at him was a big man physically irish by birth a by who had been one thing and another in philadelphia from a policeman in his early days and a in the civil war to a ward captain imder he was a man tall raw muscular looking who for all his fifty seven s looked as though he could give a splendid account rf himself in a physical contest his hands were big md bony his face more square than either or long and his forehead high he had a vigorous growth rf short dipped iron gray hair and a iron gray very short keen intelligent blue gray eyes i complexion and even edged savage looking teeth showed the least bit in a way the when he sm ed he was really not as hard a person as he x to be nevertheless he was to a certain extent hard an l on occasions savage he was quite r to recognize that there was a mental and social difference and that now and then was ac to appear here who v ith or v influences was eminently of consideration seeing that the prison was a public jn to be at bv law ers d and the public general an i that certain rules and had enforced if for no other reason than to keep a moral and control over his own help it was to see that much discipline s and order were maintained and it was not possible to be liberal with any one there were however exceptional cases men of wealth and refinement i s of those occasional which so shocked the political leaders generally v ho had to be looked after in a friendly way as not unlike all the other was quite aware of the history of and he how money had s been and that the fire was the thing which had really brought about s the and others had already given him warning that because of his past to the community was to be treated ith special consideration not so much was said about although they did admit in conversation with that his lot was rather hard butler is down on him said to on one occasion it s that girl of his that s at the bottom of it all if you listened to butler you d feed him on bread and water but he isn t a bad fellow as a matter of fact if george had had any sense wouldn t be where he is to day but the big s wouldn t let alone they wouldn t let him give any money the although had been one of those who under pressure from had advised not to let have any more money yet here he was pointing out the folly of the victim s course the thought of the involved did not trouble him in the least who had been on how he would have to treat and decided that he might have to make a difference between them if were non to the big three it might be necessary to be indifferent to him or at least slow in extending him any special for a good chair clean linen special and dishes the daily papers privileges in the matter of mail the visits of friends and the like for well he would have to look at and see what he thought the might not want him to be nice at the same time s which though had been forcible were not without their effect on he had not been there to see when he came into the prison and had decided to wait some s until the of the place had had time to in but the morning after s entrance the received a letter from the indicating that any kindness shown to mr would be duly appreciated by him upon the receipt of this letter went up into s block and looked through s iron door on the way he had a brief talk with who told him what a nice man he thought was had never seen in his life before but in spite of the shabby uniform the dog shoes the cheap shirt and the wretched cell he was impressed instead of the weak body and the eyes of the average prisoner he saw a man whose form was vigorously erect and whose well shaped head rising the above his wretched clothes the spirit which no conditions can he lifted his head when appeared glad that any form should have appeared at his door and looked at him with large clear examining eyes those eyes that in the past had inspired so confidence and in all those who had known him was interested on the moment compared s whom he knew in the past and whom he had met on his entry this man was a force a power say what	43
you will one man respects another they are like wolves and that run best in they may eat one another ultimately but never so long as there is anything else to eat never having seen did not know who was looking at him but on the instant he suspected it must be the this isn t mr is it he asked courteously and pleasantly the glitter of his past estate still in his manner yes sir i m the man these rooms are not as comfortable as they might be are they the s even teeth showed in a friendly yet way they certainly are not mr replied standing very erect and soldier like i didn t imagine i was coming to a hotel however he smiled there isn t anything special i can do for you is there asked curiously ive been talking to your lawyer i don t want to be asking anything which you cannot reasonably give returned politely there are a few things i would change if i could i wish i might have sheets for my bed and i could afford better if you would let me wear it this that i have on me a great deal they re not the best wool that s true enough replied solemnly they re made for the state out here in somewhere i suppose there s no objection to your wearing your own if you the want to i ll see about that and the sheets too we might let you use them if you have them we ll have to go a little slow about this there are a lot of people that take a special interest in showing the how to tend to his business his even teeth showed in the slightest way again grimly and his eyes wrinkled at the outer edges you have seen a wolf or dog grin perhaps mr looked not that i m certainly very much obliged to you mr said that s all right said now that he had gone so far as to be friendly to i can t promise to do much prison rules are prison rules there are some things that can be done because it s the rule to do them for other men when they behave themselves you can have a better chair than that possibly and something to read if you re in business yet i wouldn t want to do anything to stop that we can t have people running in and out of here every fifteen minutes and you can t turn a cell into a business office that s not possible it would break up the order of the place still there s no reason why you shouldn t see some of your friends now and then as for your mail well that will have to be opened in the ordinary way for the time being anyhow ill have to see about that i can t promise too much you ll have to wait until you come out of this block and down stairs some of the have a yard there if there are any empty the cocked his eye wisely and saw that his lot was not to be as bad as he had anticipated though bad enough the spoke to him about the different trades he might follow and asked him to think about the one he would prefer you want to have something to keep your hands busy whatever else you want you ll find you ll need that they all want to work thanked the horror of idleness in silence and in a cell scarcely large enough to the turn around in comfortably had already begun to creep over him and the thought of being able to see and frequently and to have his mail reach him after a time with was a great relief he was to have his own silk and wool thank god and perhaps they would let him take off these shoes after a while with these and a trade and perhaps the httle yard which had referred to his life would be if not ideal at least tolerable the prison was a prison still but it looked as though it might not be so much of a terror to him as to other people during the two weeks in which was in the manners in care of mr he learned nearly as much as he ever learned of the general nature of prison life for this was not an ordinary in the sense that the prison yard the prison the prison lock step the prison dining room and prison associated labor make the ordinary there was for him and for the very large majority of those confined there no general prison life whatsoever the large majority were supposed to work in their at the particular tasks assigned them and not to know anything of the remainder of the life which went on around them the rule of this prison being solitary confinement and few being permitted to work at the limited number of outside tasks provided old with whom became quite friendly within a few days because of his subtle courtesy to the old man informed him that not more than seventy five of the four hundred prisoners confined here were so employed and not all of these regularly cooking in season and general cleaning being the only avenues of escape from solitude even they were strictly forbidden to talk and although they did not have to wear the objectionable hood when actually employed they were supposed to wear it in going to and from their work saw them occasionally by his cell door and it the k him as strange grim he wished sin that he were to be under old permanently t was not to be his two weeks soon passed in all conscience but they passed his few commonplace	43
tasks of bed making dressing eating rising at and retiring at nine washing his several dishes each meal etc the food he found was such a fall that to which he had been accustomed that he ht he would never get used to it breakfast as has said was at six thirty and consisted of coarse black i made of and some white flour and served with dinner was at eleven thirty and consisted or vegetable soup with some coarse meat in it same bread supper was at six of tea and bread strong tea and the same bread no butter no milk did not smoke so the small of tobacco which was permitted was without to him called in every day for two or three s until had become used to his after the second day when i on him as his new business was permitted to see him also once every day if stated though the latter felt he was a point in permitting this so soon both of visits rarely occupied more than an or an hour half and after that the day was long out on several days on a court order between and five to testify in the proceedings ist him which caused the time in the beginning to quickly chapter the lay of s sentence in so far as the newspapers and the public in philadelphia were con l was one of great moment virtue evidently had the who had on the city s innocence were properly punished it little that the new city recently d into office was already about the work of as had it the interest to go to him personally or to those who were close to him butler and knew that this would be done were quite as ready to borrow money from the city at this rate of interest two and one half per cent as any one else when they needed it s crime as he often said afterward was the however justice had been done and such varied as butler c wheat ous minor newspaper and a number of s rivals in were glad that he was gone out of the way it was once he was in prison safely shut from the world for a period of years apparently how all thought of assisting him in so far as his were concerned departed from the minds of those who had u most friendly he was done so most iii the thought the best of them the only y could do now would be to use their influence to et him out and possibly loan him money get a start in a small way again some time how soon y not guess beyond that there was nothing would never really be of any great importance to any r the one any more it was very sad very tragic if you will but he was gone his place knew him not a bright young man that observed president of the national on reading of s sentence and too bad too bad he made a great mistake it did not occur to that there was anything so wrong in being made a he too had heard of perhaps after all was merely being properly punished for a general tendency to play fast and loose anyhow he was out caught and that after all was the principal evil walter reflected as did arthur rivers and others that after this really they would scarcely be permitted to know they could speak to him appear friendly do a little business perhaps but really you know an ex it couldn t be expected in so far as his old social life was concerned was a and he himself knew it only his parents and his wife the latter with mingled feelings of resentment and sorrow really missed him because of her great passion for him was really most of all she returned direct to her room after the sentence and the door sat down and cried bitterly pour years and six months she thought if he did not get out before then she would be twenty nine and he would be forty would he want her then would she be so nice and would nearly five years change his point of view he would have to wear a suit all that time and be known as a forever after it was hard to think about but she had to face it all and as she had always been by her family there was no one to whom she could run with this sorrow her mother have with her greatly if she had known and butler if he had not been opposed to but they could not know so she looked out of the window at the the hard street where the snow had begun to fall afresh and wiped her red eyes and her lips then she turned to her mirror to compose her face determined to cling to frank whatever happened and to help him all she could the day after s had driven out and looked at the grim gray walls of the which impressed her greatly knowing nothing absolutely of the vast and complicated process of law and it seemed especially terrible to her what might not they be doing to her she drove home determined to see him but as he had originally told her that visiting days were only once in three months and that he would have to write her when the next one was or when she could come or when he could see her on the outside she scarcely knew what to do secrecy was the thing the day after his entrance to the prison had had a letter from her describing the drive she had taken past the prison on the stormy afternoon before the terror of the thought that	43
as had told him he was removed from the manners to a cell in block on the ground floor which was like all the others in size ten by sixteen but to which was attached the small yard of the same size that had been mentioned as possibly coming to him came up two days before he was transferred and had another short conversation with him through his cell door you ll be transferred on monday he said in his reserved slow way they ll give you a yard though it won t be much good to you we only allow a half hour a day in it i ve told the about your business arrangements he ll treat you right in that matter just be careful not to take up too much time that way and things will work out i ve decided to let you learn chairs that be the best for you it s easy and it your mind the and some allied made a good out of this prison industry which was enforced t was really not hard labor the tasks set were simple ind not oppressive but all that were made were sold and the profits it was good therefore x see all prisoners working and it did them good was glad of the chance to do something for he did not care for books and his connection with and his old were not sufficient now ta his mind in a satisfactory way his hands the ing would be better he thought if he seemed strange now how much stranger he would seem then behind these narrow bars working at so commonplace a task as chairs he thanked for the sheets which had been permitted to be brought in and the toilet articles that s all right replied the latter pleasantly and softly it s no more than your due we know that there are men and men here the same as anywhere it a man knows how to use these things and wants to be clean i wouldn t be one to put anything in his way he went away and awaited his transfer with interest it would be better even though he liked old man so much to have a yard and a trade both would help him to pass the time and to think cf better days to come the new had been instructed to be considerate of him that would make a difference too he thought he was quite cheerful over the prospect he began to gather up his things on the day of his transfer for being an ordinary he had to transfer all his personal by hand to his new quarters and old man seeing him observed well you re goin to go now t well i ve done all i could for i ve taught the rules as best i know i ll see you down there maybe now and then t goin so far but what i kin find maybe if everything goes right you ll get out a little earlier than you expect i see one and another here go that way from time to time grasped the old man s hand you ve been very nice to me mr he said warmly i certainly appreciate your kindness and if i ever get out of here i shall not forget it was too old a man to expect an much from life in any form he was nevertheless flattered by the interest and good v of for the average character of his charges was not high the that s all right mr i never expect fur what i consider right i hope you out though fer i think very likely you deserve to you look that way to me youve had a taste o this place now and ye see what it is k i can ever do for you i ll be glad to who was actually moving at the time gathered up an of linen books and the like and went his way in his ill fitting semi cotton striped cheap suit and with his arms full of he looked anything but the who had been such a striking personage in third street the new with whom had to deal was a very different person from his name was walter and he was not more than years of age a big sort of person with a mind whose principal object in life was to see whether this prison situation as he found it would not furnish him a better income than his normal salary provided a close study of would have seemed to indicate that he was a stool pigeon of but this was really not true except in a limited way because was shrewd and quick to see a point in his or anybody else s favor instinctively realized that he was the kind of man who could be trusted to be on order or suggestion that is if hai the least interest in a prisoner he need not say as much to he might merely suggest that this man was used to a different kind of life or that because of some past experience it might go hard with him if he were handled roughly and would strain himself to be pleasant the trouble was that to a shrewd man of any refinement his attentions were objectionable being obviously offered for a purpose and to a poor or ignorant man they were brutal and contemptuous he had a score of methods of making money out of the prisoners by selling them extra of things which the he secretly brought into the prison it was strictly against the rules in theory at least to bring in anything which was not sold in the store room tobacco pens ink cigars or of any kind it is true that tobacco of inferior grade was provided and wretched pens ink and	43
paper but no self respecting man if he could help it would endure them was not allowed at all and were as indicating rank nevertheless they were brought in if a prisoner had the price and was willing to see that secured something for his trouble almost anything would be the privilege of being sent into the general yard as a or of being allowed to stay in the little private yard which some possessed longer than the half hour ordinarily permitted was to be had for a had a peculiar face which was anything but weak yet not it was rather well but often either or lowering sometimes it was gay but in the coarse vulgar animal fashion the man had no wit in the best sense of the word he was without a real sense of humor his mind was really too on his material improvement to be of the least value to anybody else and only fools would really trust him one look on s part on his arrival satisfied him that all the things which have here been said of were true he saw that he could use him by making it worth his while and of he proposed to do so one of the things which worked in s favor was the fact that was friendly with the who had in charge because of his political friends was as has been said being liberally treated and knew of this he was not a careful reader of newspapers nor had he any intellectual grasp of important events but he knew by now that both and were individuals of great importance in the community that was the more im the of the two and that as suspected he still had money and so entirely aside from s recommendation which was given in a very quiet non way was interested to see what he could do for for a price he was actually afraid that if he did not do something who looked very important to him and who had a very considerable air as a business man although he was not a remarkable one might say something to whom he fancied they knew might complain and the latter not being like those in the other who had no one to speak their woes to would be in danger of criticism on some score trust the promptly to see on which side his bread is the day was here having been brought over by up to the door which was open and said in a semi way got all your things over yet it was his business to lock the door once was inside it yes sir replied who had been shrewd enough to get the new s name from this is mr i that s me easily and curiously he was anxious to study to see what type of man he was the latter was more than a match for the situation his manner betrayed just that of deference and confidence without which would be grateful to the thick he wanted to and yet to be considered by him exactly what he expected he received was alert courteous industrious he fell into an easy conversation with this master of the hall which was confiding and yet not familiar in a way he described mr and his pleasure in being him you ll find it a little different down here from up the there observed it ain t so these doors out in the yards make a he looked toward the tightly sealed door which gave into the narrow space as though it were some tremendous privilege for which should be vastly grateful h yes said that is the yard mr spoke about if had been a horse his ears would have been seen to lift at the mention of this magic name if was so friendly with that the latter had described to him the type of cell he was to have beforehand it to be especially careful yes that s it but it ain t much he observed they only allow a half hour a day in it still it would be all right if a person could stay there longer this was the first hint at and distinctly caught the of it in s voice he could see that some time if he wished would stretch a point in this matter that is too bad said i don t suppose good conduct helps a person to get more he smiled in a friendly impressive way i d better teach you your trade said you ve got to learn to cane chairs so the says if you want we can begin right now expressed himself as delighted and went off the door as he went returning after a time with three frames of chairs and a bundle of cane or which he deposited on the floor now i ll show you if you ll watch me he said and he began showing how the were to be through the on either side cut and fastened with uttle he had brought a a small hammer a box of and a of after several brief with as to how the forms were designed he allowed the to take the matter in hand watching over his the latter at anything manual or mental went at it in his customary energetic fashion and in five minutes that the skill and speed which would only come with practice he could do it as well as another you ll make out all right said you re supposed to do ten of those a day we won t count the next few days though until you get your hand in i ll come around now and then and see how you re getting along you about the on the door don t you he inquired he was referring to the prisoners method of calling attention to their needs yes mr explained that to	43
me replied i think i know what most of the rules are now i ll try not to break any of them went away and was left to himself contemplating the years that were before him here he must get and and his father and others to work hard in order to get him out it was intolerable to him to think that he should be compelled to stay here even so much as a single year the days which followed brought a number of of his prison lot but not sufficient by any means to make it acceptable to him in spite of his supposed influence with the connections he maintained with and others and the financial he managed to effect with he was very uncomfortable and unhappy though he bore it all a during the first few days in which he trained in the art of chairs to make it perfectly clear that there were a number of things he would be willing to do for him i see you have your lawyer and your partner here every day he said to him one morning there isn t anybody you d like to have visit you is there it s against he rules to have your wife or sister or anybody like that the except on i da s but all the rules ain t kept arc id here by a long shot had been impressed b the fact that s friends were coming to see him in larger numbers tha s sending him an occasional basket of fruit wliich he gave to the and that his wife and children had been already permitted to visit him outside t ie regular day this was a cause for jealousy on s part his fellow was i over him telling him as it were of the high in block really wanted to up and show v hat he could do or otherwise was not the man to lose a chance of this kind i ll tell you how it is mr he said ven p ii but with that engaging frankness which caused even to feel as if he were one of his oldest friends i believe you understand mj position better than most men would and that i can talk to you there are people v ho would like to come here but i have been afraid to let them come i did not know that outside of mr and mr it could be arranged if it could be i would be ver grateful you and i are practical men i know that if any are extended some of those who help to bring them about must be looked after i wish i could make ou my agent in this matter and if ou would be willing i would make it well worth your while i am in prison and i do not want to make any more trouble than i have to i am not used to this life and it s going rather hard ith me if you can do anything to make it a little more comfortable for me i will show you that i appreciate it i haven t any money on my person but can always get it and i will see that you properly looked after s short thick ears this was the kind of talk he liked to hear i can fix anything like that mr ood he you leave ii to me if there s any one you want to see at any time the just let me know of course i have to be very careful but that s all right too if you want to stay out in that yard a little longer in the mornings or get out there or evenings i can fix that i ll just leave the door if the or anybody else should be ril just scratch on your door with my key and you come in and shut it if there s anything you want from the i can get it for you or eggs or butter or any little thing like that you might like to fix up your meals a little that way wanted to smile s proposition tended to make this a very comfortable he kept a straight face however in regard to that other matter went on referring to the matter of extra visitors i can fix that any time you want to i know the men out at the gate if you want anybody to come here just write em a note and tell em to ask for me they ll let em in all right when they get here you can talk to em in your cell only when i tap they have to come out so just you let me know was exceedingly grateful he said so in direct choice language it occurred to him at once that this was s opportunity and that he could now her to come if she veiled herself sufficiently she would probably be safe enough he decided to write her and when came he gave him a letter to mail two days later at three o clock in the afternoon the time appointed by him came to see him for the first time in the prison she was dressed in gray with white velvet and cut steel buttons which uke silver and wore as additional ornaments as well as a protection against the cold a cap stole and of snow white over this rather striking costume she had slipped a long dark circular cloak which she meant to lay off immediately upon her arrival she had made a very toilet as to her shoes gloves the hair and the gold ornaments which she wore her face was concealed by a thick green veil as had suggested and she arrived at an hour when as near as he had been able to he would be alone	43
usually came at four after business and in the morning when he came at all she w as very ous over this strange adventure leaving the some distance away and walking up a side street the cold weather and the gray walls under a gray sky gave her a sense of defeat but she had worked ver hard to look nice in order to cheer her lover up she knew how readily he responded to the influence of her beauty when properly displayed in view of her coming had made his cell as acceptable as possible it was clean because he had swept it and made his own bed and he had shaved and his hair and otherwise put himself to rights the chairs on which he was working had been put in the comer at the end of the bed his few dishes were washed and hung up and his brushed with a brush which he now kept for the purpose never before he thought to himself with a peculiar feeling of artistic degradation had seen him like this she had always admired his good taste in clothes and the way he carried himself in them and now she was to see him in garments which no dignity of body could make a sense of his own soul dignity came over him however he was frank a and that was enough whatever he wore he would be free and rich some day again and anyhow his looks under these would make no difference to she would only love him the more it was her ardent sympathy that he was afraid of he was so glad that had suggested that she might enter the cell for it would be a grim e talking to her through a barred door and had been allowed to confer with him in his cell from the beginning the when arrived she asked for mr and was permitted to go to the central where he was sent for when he came she i wish to see mr if you please and he exclaimed h yes just come with me as he came across the floor from his corridor he was struck by the evident youth of even though he could not see her face this now was something in accordance with what he had expected of a man who could steal five thousand dollars and set a whole city by the ears must have wonderful adventures of all and looked like a true adventure he led her to a little room where he kept his desk and detained visitors and down to s cell scratching on the door with his key there s a yoimg lady here to see you do you want to let her come inside the cell he said to who was working at one of his chairs thank you yes and hurried away forgetting in his to the cell door so that he had to open it in s presence the long corridor with the and gray stone pavement caused to feel faint at heart it chilled her usually courageous spirit and it up she followed nervously for all her smart air for these hard steel bars seemed very menacing to her what a terrible place for her frank to be what a horrible thing to have put him here judges laws seemed like so many foaming ranged about the world glaring down upon her and her love affair the of the key in the lock and the heavy outward swinging of the door completed her sense of the and then she saw b cause of the price he was to receive after her strolled away looked at from behind her veil afraid to speak until she was sure had gone the who was retaining his self possession by an effort her after a moment or two it s all right he said he s gone away she lifted her veil removed her cloak and took in without seeming to the narrow thickness of the room his wretched shoes the cheap suit the iron door behind him leading out into the little yard attached to his cell against such a background with his partially chairs visible at the end of the bed he seemed strange unnatural it was useless for her to try to speak for the moment and then she suddenly said putting her arms around him and his head my poor frank my brave boy is this what they have done to you did his best to retain his sense of composure in the face of this sudden but for the first time in his life and the only time in all his life he lost it he lost it by some inexplicable trick of that of the body of blind forces which so readily reason at times the depth of s feeling the sound of her voice the tenderness of her hands that beauty that had drawn him all the time more radiant here perhaps within these hard walls and in the face of his physical misery than it had ever been before completely him he did not understand how it could he tried to defy the mood but he could not when she held his head close and it of a sudden in spite of himself his breast felt thick and and his throat hurt him he felt for him an strange feeling a desire to cry which he did his best to overcome it shocked him so there then combined and to defeat him a strange rich picture of the great world he had so recently lost of the lovely magnificent world which he hoped some day to regain he felt more at this moment than ever he had before the degradation of the dog shoes the cotton shirt the striped suit the reputation of a the permanent and not to be laid aside he felt now the real injustice of the great	43
fire the panic the political situation which had him and sent him here now he was quite alone still fighting to win but alone his friends had almost deserted him his family and home life were practically outside of the business he was trying to build up with day by day he had nothing really was with him no longer belonging to an outside world which it came to him all in a rich way more romance really than he had ever experienced and because she had pulled his head down to her shoulder under her soft chin and was it he began to cry he drew himself quickly away from her turned his back his hands drew his muscles but it was too late he was crying and he could not stop h damn it he exclaimed half angrily half in combined rage and shame why should i cry what the devil s the matter with me anyhow saw it she fairly herself in front of him seized his head with one hand his shabby waist with the other and held him tight in a grip that he could not have readily released h honey honey honey she exclaimed i love you i you they could cut my body into bits if it would do you any good to think that they should make you cry oh my sweet my sweet my darling boy she his still shaking body now completely by her emotion and with her free hand his head she kissed it his eyes his hair his cheeks he pulled himself loose again after a moment exclaiming what the devil s got into me but she drew trim back never mind honey don t you be ashamed to cry cry here on my shoulder my honey my baby the she kissed his hair and eyes and cheeks and ears the while paced the hall in the distance she loved him desperately with a strong of animal temperament she was really his body and soul he down after a few moments her against and his former composure you re a great girl pet he said you re all right just what i need but don t worry any longer about me though fm all right how are you on her part was not to be soothed so easily his many woes including his wretched position here outraged her sense of justice and decency to think her fine wonderful frank should be compelled to come to to cry she his head tenderly while wild deadly opposition to life and chance and opposition in her brain her father damn him her family what did she care her her frank was all she thought about she to him in silence while she fought in her brain an awful battle with life and law and fate and circumstance law nonsense people they were brutes devils enemies hounds she was delighted eager crazy to make a sacrifice of herself she would go anywhere for or with her frank now she would do anything for him her family was life nothing nothing nothing she would do anything he wished nothing more nothing less anything she could do to save him to make his life happier but for any one else how was it she had come to stay away so long chapter ie days passed once the understanding with was reached s wife mother sister were allowed to appear on occasions it a visiting relation between him and vas very careful to arrange that they did not appear tie same day as that was easy enough for no of them came sufficiently often to make a clash in his solemn brooding over his decided to speak frankly to his wife now he was so thoroughly removed from her and one did so he had such an excellent excuse now he ned she was in the little home for which he was ng and his financial obligations to her were satisfied who paid her one and twenty five a month for him he realized that he owed her if he could pay more but he was sailing rather i to the wind these days for him the of his old interests had come in march when ad been declared a and all his to satisfy the claims against him the s claim of five hundred thousand dollars would have a up more than could have been realized at the time not a pro payment of thirty cents on the dollar l declared even then the city never received its due y some it was declared to have its claims had not been made at the proper in the proper way this left larger portions of real ey for the others had now begun to see by a little that his business relations with were the certain to be profitable the latter had made it clear that he intended to be perfectly straight with him he had employed s two brothers at very moderate one to take care of the books and look after the office and the other to act on change with him for their seats in that organization had never l een sold he gathered all the information he possibly could daily and told it all to whose keen mind and wide experience permitted him to make suggestions which almost invariably turned out well they were of course by a lack of means and cow did not care to have it known at present that he was through he was afraid it would not do the house any good he did make suggestions as to how money be secured and where how could be and capital i which s average mind would never have dreamed of he used to look at at times with dog like eyes while that worthy solved some complicated problem for him in a rather manner and then	43
sent him cheerfully on his way showed how to use edward and joseph to the best advantage and by considerable effort finally got senior a place as a clerk the old gentleman of a in a bank to see old bustling off from his new but very much reduced home at half after seven in the morning in order to reach the small bank which was some distance away and not accessible by street car line was one of those pathetic sights which the fortunes of trade so frequently offer he carried his lunch in a small box because it was inconvenient to return home in the time allotted for this purpose and because his new salary did not permit the extravagance of a purchased one it was his one ambition now to out a respectable but unseen existence until he should die whidi he hoped would not be long day in and day out he went the back and forth in this manner pointed out occasionally by those who had known him in his better days as the ex president of the third national who had come to grief through his son he was a pathetic figure with his thin legs and body his gray hair and his side whiskers he was very lean and and when confronted by a problem a little or vague in his mind the habit of putting his hand to his mouth and of opening his eyes in an assumption of surprise which had no basis in fact grew upon him he really into a mere life its shores with such interesting and pathetic for some time as to how he would bring up the matter of his indifference to his wife and his desire to end their relationship but he did not see anything for it save the of plain truth she was in her of devotion apparently by suspicion of any kind when as a matter of fact she had never ceased to brood over what had happened since his trial and conviction she had been hearing from one source and another that he was still intimate with and it was only her thought of his woes and the fact that he might possibly be spared to a successful financial life that had her from speaking now that he was shut up in a cell she really felt very sorry for him but she did not love him as she once had she felt that he was deserving of reproach for his general conduct and that this was probably intended by the governing power of the world which makes for morality to cause him to see the error of his way one can imagine how much this attitude would appeal to once he detected it he could see by a dozen little signs in spite of the fact that she brought mm and him on his fate that she felt a little a little depressed and sad the if there was one thing that ood objected to at all times it was the air as contrasted ith the cheerful and enthusiasm of the wearied uncertainty of mrs ood was to say the least a little tame after her first burst of rage over his fate which really did not develop any tears on her part was apparently convinced that he would get out and be very successful again she talked success and his all the time because she believed in it she seemed instinctively to realize that he must be great and that prison walls could not make a prison for him on the first day she left she handed ten dollars and thanked him in her attractive voice without showing her face however which sealed that ambitious s fate completely there was nothing the would not do for the young in the dark cloak she might have stayed in s cell for a week if the visiting hours of the had not made it impossible the day that brought up the weariness of his present married state and his desire to be free of it was some four months after he had entered the prison he had become to his life by that time the silence of his cell and the tasks he was compelled to perform which had at first been so distressing in their had now become merely commonplace but not painful he had learned many of the little resources of the such as that of using his lamp to warm up some delicacy which he had saved from a previous meal or from some basket which had been sent him by his or he had got rid of the sickening of his room in part by persuading to bring him small of lime which he used with great freedom he defeated some of the rats with traps and with s permission after his cell door had been properly locked at night and sealed with the outer wooden the door he take his chair if it were not too cold out into the little yard back of his cell and look at the sky where when the nights were clear the stars were to be seen he was satisfied at times that he heard the footsteps of other in these yards but he could not be sure the high walls not permitting him to see he had never taken any interest in as a scientific study but now the the belt of the big and the north star to which one of its lines pointed caught his attention almost his fancy he wondered why the stars of the belt of came to assume the peculiar relation to each other which they held as far as distance and arrangement were concerned and whether that could possibly have any intellectual significance the of the in suggested a depth of space and he thought of the earth floating like a little ball n reaches of his own life	43
became very trivial in view of these things and he found himself asking whether it was all really of any significance or importance he shook these moods off with ease however for the man was possessed of a sense of grandeur largely in relation to himself and his affairs and his temperament was essentially material and vital something kept telling him that he must grow to be a significant personage one whose fame would be the world over who try try try it was not given all men to see far or to do brilliantly but to him it was given and he must be what he was cut out to be there was no more escaping the greatness that was inherent in him than there was for so many others the that was in them mrs came in one afternoon quite solemnly he thought bearing several changes of linen a pair of sheets some meat and a pie which she wished him to have she was not exactly but thought that she was tending toward it largely because of her brooding over his relationship to which the he knew that she knew something in her manner decided him to speak before she left and after asking her ho v the children were and listening to her inquiries in regard to the things that he needed and so forth he said td her sitting on his single chair while she sat on his bed there s something been wanting to talk v ith about for some time i should have done it fore but it s better late than never i know that that there is something between butler and me and we might as well have it open and above i am very fond of her and if ever i get out of here i v ant to arrange it so that i can her that means that you v ill have to give me a divorce if you will i want to talk to vou about that now this can t be so ver m of a surprise to you because ou must have seen this long v that our relationship hasn t been all mrs ood s thought when he first this proposition was that she ought to make some n oi astonishment or wrath but when she looked ir j steady examining eye so free from the illusion of or interest in of any kind she realized h w useless it would be he was so utterly matter of ac in what seemed to her quite ate and secret affairs very she had never been able to understand quite how he could take the of life as he did anyhow certain things which she always fancied be hushed up he spoke of with the greatest somebody s daughter was a some er high in moral affairs was much more than a squire of he said so frankly her ears led sometimes at the way he would dispose of a social situation but she thought in of his large affairs that somehow this must be characteristic of notable men and so there was nothing to be said about it certain men did as they pleased society did not seem to be able to deal with them in any way perhaps god would later the she was not sure anyhow bad as he was ct as he was as he was he was far more interesting than some of the more type in whom the social virtues of speech and modest thoughts were seemingly more i know frank she said rather peacefully although with a touch of anger and resentment in her voice i ve known all about it all this time i expected you would say something like this to me some day it s a nice reward for all my devotion to you but it s just like you frank when you are set on something nothing can stop you it wasn t enough that you were getting along so nicely and had two children whom you ought to love but you had to take up with this butler creature until her name and yours are a by word throughout the city i know that she comes to this prison i saw her out here one day as i was coming in and i suppose every one else knows it by now i think you be ashamed frank to go on the way that you have when you are certain to have such a hard fight to get yourself on your feet as it is if she had any sense of decency she would not have anything to do with you the thing looked at his wife with eyes he expected some such outburst of course it was natural that she should feel grieved and angry he did not mind that she called a thing and a creature of course was a in her eyes but what of it he read in her remarks just what his observation had long since confirmed that she was out of touch with him he was a very different man from the one he had been thirteen years before when he married her she was no longer so attractive physically and she was not s equal she was not so much he had learned that long since many of the society women who had to grace his home in his greatest hour of prosperity had proved that to him was not so vastly better but she was and the could be improved opportunity would make it had not been able to make mrs the thing to do was to make it perfectly clear to her now that the day of their comfortable relationship was over and that it would be much better and from all i of view to have her him sec him free he would provide for her	43
and the children properly as he saw that his means would permit ver liberally no doubt later on but just now she must let him go set him free so that when he came out of prison he would be at liberty to do as he chose thi was the very important business in hand ril tell you how it is he said tm not sure that y are going to get what i mean exactly but you and i are not at all well suited to each other any more you didn t seem to that three or four years ago interrupted his wife bitterly i married you when i was twenty one went on quite not paying any attention to her interruption and i was really too yoimg to know what i was doing i was a mere boy it doesn t make so much difference about that i am not using that as an excuse the point that i am trying to make is this that right or wrong important or not important i have changed my mind since i don t love you any more and i don t feel that i want to keep up a relationship however it may look to the public that is not satisfactory to me have one point of view about life and i have another you think your point of view is the right one and there arc of people who will agree with you but i don t think so we have never about these things because i didn t think it was important to quarrel about i don t see under the that i am doing ou any great when i ask you to let me i don t intend to desert vou or the children you will get a good li ing income from me as long as i have the to give it to vou but i want mv personal the freedom when i come out of here if ever i do and i want you to let me have it the money that you had and a great deal more you will get back when i am on my feet again he smoothed the leg of his prison trousers in a thoughtful way and plucked at the sleeve of his coat just now he looked very much like a highly intelligent workman as he sat here rather than like the important personage that he was mrs was very her feeling that needed her in spite of his and that if given a chance the crash that the error of his way had brought about would cause him to reform was set at naught his assurance that he would take care of her however and return her her money however material and objectionable it might seem on that score had real value for it set at rest her fears as to her own fate and that of the children in so far as money matters were concerned his word was as good as his bond he do what he said if he had it to do with nevertheless she resented his looking upon money as the sole consideration that s a nice way to treat me v she exclaimed rising and walking the short space some two steps that lay between the wall and the bed i might have known that you were too to know your own mind when you married me money of course that s all you think of and your own gratification you haven t any sense of justice in you i do believe i never saw such a man as you are you have treated me like a dog all through this affair and all the while you have been running with that little of an irish thing and telling her all about your affairs i suppose you let me go on believing that you care for me up to the last moment and then you suddenly step up and tell me that you want a divorce i ll not do it i ll not be put upon in this way i ll not give you a divorce and you needn t think it mrs went on to complain of his in the difference to his children and to her long before butler appeared as a direct influence in his affairs listened in silence his position in so far as this was concerned was very advantageous he was a to be out of personal contact with his for a long period of time to come which would gradually school her to do without him when he came out it be very easy for her to get a divorce from a particularly if she could another woman which he would not deny he to keep the name of out of it she could give any false name if he made no contest mrs was not a very strong person and speaking he could bend her to his will there was no need of saying much more now the ice had been broken the situation had been put before her and time would do the rest mrs who was dressed in a dark brown stood in the short space between the bed and the wall wringing her hands thinking over her multiplied woes don t be dramatic commented indifferently i m not such a loss to you if you have enough to live on i don t think i want to live in philadelphia if ever i come out of here my idea is to go west and i think i want to go alone i sha n t get married right away again even if you do give me a divorce i don t care to take anybody along it be better for the children if you would stay here and divorce me the public would think better of them and you co was	43
very he did not think half so badly of his future as he said ril not do it declared mrs i ll never do it never so there you can say what choose you owe it to me to stick by me and the children after all i ve done for you and i ll not do it you needn t ask me any more i ll not do it the very well replied quietly getting up we needn t talk about it any more now your time is nearly up anyhow twenty minutes was supposed to be the regular for visitors perhaps you ll change your mind sometime mrs whose life now for some reason although her husband was in the and destined apparently to remain there for years more seemed clouded over gathered up her and the shawl in which she had carried her gifts and turned to go it had been her custom to kiss in a way but it was not worth while doing so any more so angry was she and yet she was sorry too sorry for herself and she thought for him frank she declared at the last i never saw such a man as you i don t believe you have any heart you re not worthy of a good wife you re worthy of just such a woman as you re getting the idea suddenly tears came in her eyes and she scornfully and yet sorrowfully out stood there at least there would be no more useless kissing between them he congratulated it was hard in a way but purely from an point of view he was not doing her any essential injustice he reasoned not an one which was the important thing the children would not be injured any more than they had been he would look after them properly in the future she was angry to day but she would get over it and in time come to see his point of view he reminded one of nothing so much as he stood there as of a yoimg chicken picking its way out of the shell of an old estate although he was in a cell of a with nearly four years more to serve he felt within himself that the whole world was still before him he go west if he not re establish himself in philadelphia but he must stay here long enough to win the approval of those who had known him formerly to obtain the as it were a letter of credit which he carry to other parts hard words break no bones he said to himself referring to what mrs had said of him and and then thinking of his future and what he might do a man s never done till he s done show some of these people yet of who came to close the cell door he asked whether it was going to rain it looked so dark in the hall it s sure to before night replied who was wondering over s tangled affairs as he heard them here and there the ex fell to working at his of chairs measuring the and driving in the wondering what else he could do to further his future which was sure to come and soon he thought chapter the time that spent in the eastern of was exactly thirteen months from the day of his entry to his discharge the influences which brought about this result were partly of his willing and partly not for one thing some six months after he had been edward butler died expired sitting in his chair in his private office at his the conduct of had been a great strain on him and his contest with in the latter s as he had had not helped his of mind butler knew that outside of his with was no more guilty than scores of others who ware out and walking around still he did not regret his own attitude the thing that did weigh on him was the fact that from the time ood had been and more particularly after the time he had cried on s shoulder in prison she had turned on her father in an almost brutal way her attitude unnatural as a child was quite as that of a tortured sweetheart had told her that he thought butler was using his influence to withhold a pardon for him even though one were granted to whose life in prison he had been following with considerable rest and this had enraged her beyond measure carried news of s comforts and the manner ia which his friends were looking after his future to and from the outside and who were looking after s petition informed him that they understood that the governor was not inclined and would have to be worked on the was sure to be out in the course of time he not so sure and the reason that s pardon was delayed was on account of him lost no chance of being practically insulting to her father him on every occasion refusing as often as possible to eat at the same table and when she did sitting next her mother in the place of with whom she managed to exchange she refused to sing or play any more when he was present and cut to the quick the lai number of yoimg political who came to the house and whose presence in a way had been encouraged for her benefit old butler realized of course what it was all about he said nothing he could not her her mother and brothers did not understand it at all at first mrs butler never understood but not loi after ood had gone to the and became aware of what the trouble was in several ways which complicated matters for butler greatly once when was coming away from a reception	43
must in a manner one must under many circumstances look and dramatic but always dignified and refined on this occasion did so on the instant what is it he says about my sister what right has he to mention her name here anyhow he doesn t know her now don t get mad please don t i beg you pleaded feeling himself to be the of a most important event something really exciting was about to happen here and he was the cause of it a row between men of real distinction oh joy oh pride what could be more important he laid a hand on s arm but the latter half angrily half pushed it away what was it he said he asked tell me that what did he say affected to be greatly concerned lest he cause between and he protested that did not want to when he was to tell why the he s the that your sister had something to do with this man and that that s why he s just gone to prison what s that exclaimed losing the of the unimportant and taking on the serious mien of some one who feels desperately he sa rs that does he where is he i want to see if he ll say that to me some of the grim fighting ability of his father showed in his slender rather refined young face now insisted the genuine storm he had raised and being a little fearful of the result do be careful what you say you mustn t have a row in here it s against the rules he may be drunk it s just some foolish talk he s heard now for goodness sake don t get so excited s face was quite pale and he was moving toward the old room where was supposed to be the latter harry the son of a was a brandy and with a friend of about his own age when entered and called him oh he said hearing his voice and seeing him in the door arose and came over he was an interesting youth of the type educated at and rather easily in a position of his father s he had heard the concerning from various sources other members of the for one and had ventured to repeat it in s presence there were other club men drinking in the room and reading in the general which and had crossed what s that you were just saying about my sister asked grimly looking in the eye and his right hand in his coat pocket why i hesitated who trouble and the who was eager to avoid it he was not and looked it his hair was straw colored his blue and his cheeks pink why nothing in particular who said i was talking about her he looked at whom he knew to be the tale bearer and the latter exclaimed excitedly now don t you try to deny it you know i heard you well what did i say asked who despised and who now realized the mistake of ever made friends with him well what did you say interrupted grimly the conversation to himself that s just what i want to know why stammered nervously i don t think i ve said anything that anybody else hasn t said i just repeated that some one said that your sister had been very friendly with mr i didn t say any more than i have heard other people say here oh you didn t did you exclaimed withdrawing his hand from his pocket and in the face he repeated the blow with his left hand fiercely perhaps that ll teach you to keep my sister s name out of your mouth you s arms flew up he was not without training and he struck back vigorously striking once in the chest and once in the neck in an instant the two rooms were in an uproar tables and chairs were almost upset by the energy of men attempting to get to t scene of action the two were instantly sides were taken by the friends of each explanations attempted and defied was examining the of his left hand which were cut bom the blow he had delivered he maintained a calm was very much and excited he maintained that had been and lying about him the latter was protesting the that he had done the only thing which an honorable friend could do it was a nine days wonder in the and was only kept out of the newspapers by the most efforts on the part of the friends ot both parties was so outraged on discovering that there was some foundation for the at the in a general which prevailed that he his resignation and never went there again was in glory for several months the and of a scandal went to o en for an explanation who gave him one quickly the thing to do he said in is to this thing up say nothing i wish to heaven you hadn t struck that fellow it will only make more talk she ought to leave this place but she won t she s struck on that fellow yet and we can t and mother we will never hear the last of this you and i believe me by damn she ought to be made to go well she won t replied father has tried making her and she won t go just let things stand he s in the now and that s probably the end of him the public seem to think that father put him there and that s something maybe we can persuade her to go after a while i wish to god we had never had sight of that fellow if ever he comes out i ve a good notion to kill him oh i wouldn	43
was done until the march following butler s death when both and had been thirteen months a length the of r qui e to the anger c r r a i in this period had r j r e change and mentally ir s v r e ac ha a n of the minor v r il tr n ei in ways by his h d l i fc him and ha he bad been given as it were hj li of ihe place and that his family had n r ed o nevertheless he realized that i t l x d were over somebody might n send him a basket of fruit and assure rim ha v i n be to suffer much longer lu i n he i l ge out he knew that he had experience as an agent and real estate r depend or that had been precarious enough r h j v hen he as tr ing to get some small political f j h jl i would it be when he was known ai h m an had the of five hundred dollars and been sent to the for n e would lend him the wherewith to a little start even so much as four or five thousand dollars the people who were calling to pay their s and then and to assure him that he had been treated never all of them could honestly hat they had not so much to spare k he had s l security yes but if he had splendid security v not need to go to them at all and he had not th who would have actually helped him if he had was frank a could cr his mistake as saw it and co would given the money gladly v i ut any thought of return in his poor human nature considered that i i an of his and he would not have had t the or the business judgment to approach him all this time up to the day that he was discharged had been in his and the slowly a little money through he had paid considerable sums from time to time until that worthy finally decided that it would not be fair to take any more if ever you get on your feet frank he said you can remember me if you want to but i don t think you ll want to it s been nothing but lose lose lose for you through me i ll this matter of getting that appeal to the governor without any charge on my part anything i can do for you from now on is free for nothing oh don t talk nonsense replied i don t know of anybody that could have done better with my case certainly there isn t anybody that i would have trusted as much i don t like lawyers you know yes well said they ve got nothing on so we ll call it even and they shook hands so when it was finally decided to pardon out which was in the early part of march s pardon was necessarily but included a consisting of and representing as it was intended to appear the unanimous wishes of the council and the city administration and speaking for and who had given their consent visited the governor at and made the necessary formal representations which were intended to impress the public at the same time through the agency of and walter the appeal in behalf of was made the governor who had had instructions beforehand from sources quite superior to this committee was very solemn about the whole he would take the matter under he would look into the history of the crimes and the records of the two men he could make no promises he would see so in ten days after allowing the to gather considerable dust in one of his the p r j los ar l doing absolutely nothing toward r ir he issued two separate in j a of courtesy he e into the hands m and to bear mr er as they desired that he should or e er s request he gave to him the o c had called to receive them then c i ar i the afternoon of the day on which the ard r v ore issued saw and c in one and and walter l in another at the prison gate but at different n j chapter this matter of the pardon of the exact time of it was kept a secret from him though the fact that he was to be soon or that he had a very excellent chance of being had not been denied rather had been made much of from time to time had kept him accurately informed as to the progress being made as had but when it was actually ascertained from the governor s private secretary that a certain day would see the pardon handed over to them and walter had agreed between themselves that they would say nothing taking by surprise they even went so far that is and did as to indicate to that there was some to the proceedings and that he might not now get out so soon was somewhat depressed but properly he assured himself that he could wait and that he would be all right sometime he was rather surprised therefore one friday afternoon to see and appear at his cell door accompanied by there had been a little arrangement on the part of and which saw to it that the party which was taking out should have proper should be gone in fact when they arrived to whom the pardon was submitted on their arrival was quite pleased to think that should finally be going out he admired him so much	43
and decided to come along to the cell to see how he would take his the four thus arrived together finding hard at work on his task the c on the way commented on the i hat he had always been a model prisoner he k a garden out there in that yard of his he v r od to walter whom introduced to j v he had and and out c v and they did very well too smiled it was like to be r k us and even in prison such a man could v be conquered a very remarkable man that he r to replied the you can tell that by i at him ic tour looked in through the barred door where he n working without being observed having come up s ii o at it frank asked v v glanced over his shoulder and got up u thinking as always these days of what he u vl when he did get out the death of butler had i l matters much his success with in way was a great aid his wife had had time to to the thought that he did not care v with her any longer much lay before him if v not suffer some additional slap from fortune a j ho had been feeling these days that he could v i i hat his period his present period at least of storm is i ss was over tu d and nodded to and w ii i v what is this he asked a t u something on the instant all four s v and the door for the nt much frank replied v u ro a man you can gather up your traps iv ii i ht along if you wish surveyed his friends with a level gaze the he had not expected this so soon after what had been told him he was not one to be very much interested in the practical joke or the surprise but this pleased him the sudden that he was free still he had anticipated it so long that the charm of it had been to a certain extent he had been here and he had not the shame and of it to begin with had been much as he had become to it all the sense of and humiliation had worn off only the consciousness of and delay him his intense desire for certain things success and principally he found that he could live in liis narrow cell and be fairly comfortable he had long since become used to the smell used to defeat a more sickening one and to the numerous rats which he quite regularly he had learned to take an interest in having become so that he could seat twenty in a day if he chose and in working in the little garden in spring summer and fall which had been permitted him every evening he had studied the sky from his narrow yard which resulted curiously in the gift in later years of a great reflecting to a famous he had not looked upon himself as an ordinary prisoner by any means had not felt himself to be sufficiently punished if a real crime had been involved from he had learned the history of many here from up and down and many had been pointed out to him from time to time he had been escorted out into the general yard by had seen the general food of the place being prepared had heard of s modified life here and so forth it had finally struck him that it was not so bad only that the delay to an individual like himself was he could do so much now if he were out and did not have to fight court proceedings courts and he shook his head when he thought of the waste involved in them the pi that s all right he said uncertain way i m ready he stepped out into the hall scarcely j a glance and to who was loss of so profitable a customer he said see that some of these things are walter you re welcome to the chair that mirror those all of these k my linen and so forth this last uttle act of bi soul a little they went out into s office where laid suit and the soft shirt with a considerable sense l the dog shoes had long since been wi better pair of his own he put an his jf hat and his gray overcoat the one fe m m the year before on entering and expressed ready at the entrance of the prison lie looked back one last glance at the iron i into the garden you don t regret leaving that do you f asked curiously i surely don t replied was thinking of i in another minute they were at the shook the finally li and and and th i outside the large impressive vii j gates locked behind them and they drove well there s an end of that frank that will never bother you any yes replied it s worse l coming than going it seems to me we ought to in some way observed walter it n just to take frank home why don t wc all p green s that s a good idea a the i wish you t walter replied i ll get together with you all later just now i d like to go home and change these clothes he was thinking of and his children and his mother and father and of his whole future life was going to out for him considerably from now on he was sure of it he had learned so much about taking care of himself in those thirteen months he was going to see and find how she felt	43
about things in general and then he was going to resume some such duties as he had had in his own concern with co he was going to secure a seat on change again through his friends and to escape the effect of the prejudice of those who might care to do business with an ex he was going to act as general outside man and floor man on change for co his practical control of that could not be publicly proved now for some important development in the market some or something he would show the world whether he was a failure or not they let him down in front of his wife s little cottage and he entered briskly in the gathering gloom on september i t twelve fifteen high noon of a brilliant day in the city of philadelphia one of the most startling financial that the world has ever seen had its commencement the house of co the foremost financial organization of america doing business at number south third street in philadelphia and with branches in new york washington and london closed its doors those who know anything about the financial of the united states know well the significance of the panic which followed it is spoken of in all histories as the panic of nd the wide spread ruin and disaster which followed was practically in american history at this time frank was once more a a s agent doing the business in south third street and gate co on change during the six mo ii j had elapsed since he had emerged from the i he had been quietly social relations th those who had known hb co were and had oi some time and that gave him a good he lived with his in the small house i twenty first street in reality he occupied a ai in north street to which tended wife occasionally repaired the difference himself and his wife had now become a matter of knowledge in the family and although there we faint efforts made to smooth the matter over a came of it he frankly told his parents that so he was concerned he was through with the o of existence and from now on the paths of in his wife would lie in different directions the d of the last two years which they had experienced b his parents to expect the and i that astonishing as this was it did not shock s much as it would have years before they c much frightened by life to quarrel with its weird they could only hope and pray for the bs the butler family on the other hand what the of it had become indifferent to s was ignored by her brothers and who had her mother was so taken up with her ki de and her brooding contemplation of e tliat she was not as active in her observation of a life as she might have been besides his mistress wore more in their conduct they liad ever been before their movements guarded though the was the cow was thinking of the west of g slight local standing here in philadelphia and then perhaps one hundred thousand dollars in capital the out into the boundless of which he had heard so much city places then in philadelphia and the east as coming of great life and taking with him the problem of marriage with her was unless mrs should formally agree to give him up a possibility which was not manifest at this time the only thing which he could see for it was for him to take away with him and to trust to time and absence to his wife s point of view this particular panic which was destined to mark a notable change in s career was one of those peculiar things which spring naturally out of the of the american people and the irrepressible progress of the it was the result to be accurate of the and ambition of whose early training and subsequent success had au been acquired in philadelphia and who had since become the foremost financial figure of his day it would be useless to attempt to trace here the rise of this man to distinction it need only be said that by suggestions which he made and methods which he devised the union government in its darkest hours was able to raise the money wherewith to continue the struggle against the south after the civil war this man who had built up a tremendous business in philadelphia with great branches in new york and washington was at a loss for some time for some significant thing to do some work which would be worthy of his genius the war was over the only thing which remained was the of peace and the greatest things in american financial enterprise were those related to the construction of the union pacific in i was already building the northern pacific and the southern pacific were already dreams in various minds the great thing was to connect the atlantic and the pacific by steel to bind up the and newly the union or to enter upon some vast p of which gold and silver were the actually railway building was the most and railroad stocks were far and away the most v and important on every exchange in america i philadelphia new york central rock island central pacific st paul st joseph pacific and were freely there were men who were getting rich and of handling these things and such towering f william h fish and others in the east and fair and p in the west already raising their heads like vast mountains i with these among those who c most on this score was who out the of a or the p knowledge of a was ambitious to the northern reaches of america with	43
of co in spite of its significance as a and concern was a most affair four stories and a half in height of gray stone and red brick sixty by one hundred in size and most as to its height and general air space it had never been deemed a handsome or comfortable house er had been there often wharf rats as long as the of a man crept up the channels of dock street to run through the apartments at will scores of clerks worked under gas where light and air were not any too abundant keeping track of the firm s vast it was next door to the national bank where s friend still flourished and where the principal financial business of the as ran he met his brother edward who was coming to the stock exchange with some word for him from run and get and joe he said there s something big on this afternoon has failed waited for no other word but hurried off to get his brother and as directed reached co among the earliest to his m astonishment the solid brown oak doors with which h was familiar were shut at twelve fifteen of this bright and a notice posted on them which he quickly read ran september t to public we regret to be ed to announce that to unexpected demands on us our firm has been obliged to the payment in a few days we will be able to present a statement to our until which time we must ask for their patient consideration we believe our to be largely in excess of our co a magnificent gleam of triumph sprang into s eye in company with many others he turned and ran back toward the exchange while a who had come for information knocked at the massive doors of the house and was told by a porter who peered out of a diamond shaped that had gone home for the day and was not to be seen now thought to whom this panic opportunity not ruin ril get my til go short of this of everything before when the panic following the fire had occurred he had been long had been compelled to stay long of many things in order to protect himself to day he had nothing to speak of perhaps a paltry seventy five thousand dollars which he had managed to scrape together thank god he had only the reputation of s old house to lose if he lost which was nothing with it as a trading agency behind him with it as an excuse for his presence his right to buy and sell he had everything to gain where men were thinking of ruin he was thinking of success he would have and his two brothers under him to execute his orders exactly he could pick up a fourth and a fifth man if necessary he would give them orders to sell everything ten fifteen twenty thirty points off if necessary in order to trap the the market frighten the who he was too daring and then he would buy buy buy below these figures as much as possible in order to cover his and reap a profit his instinct told him how wide spread and enduring this panic would be the northern pacific was a hundred million dollar venture it involved the of hundreds of thousands of people q the r trade la i doctors a a s in i all over the land and all resting on the faith and of once not unlike the fire map co l had seen a grand i and map of the of the northern pacific land grant which had controlled a vast tr or of territory extending from the city of the l seas as in the house of representatives had called it through the and the of the to the pacific ocean he had seen how had managed to get control of this government grant containing millions upon millions of acres and extending fourteen miles in length but it was only a of empire there might be silver and gold and copper mines there if you would the land was would some day be but what of it now it would do to fire the of fools with nothing more it was inaccessible and would remain so for years to come no doubt thousands had to build this road but too thousands would now fail if it had failed now the crash had come the grief and the rage of the public would be intense for days and days and weeks and months normal confidence and courage would be gone this was s hour this was his great moment like a wolf under glittering bitter stars in the night he was looking down into the humble folds of simple men and seeing what their ignorance and their would cost them i le hurried back to the exchange the very same room in which only two years before he had fought his losing fight and finding that his partner and his brothers had not yet come began to sell everything in sight had broken loose boys and men were fairly tearing in from all sections with orders from panic struck to sell sell sell and later with orders to buy le various trading posts were masses of the and their agents outside in the street in front of co co the national bank and other institutions immense crowds were beginning to form they were hurrying here to learn the trouble to withdraw their to protect their interests generally a policeman a boy for calling out the failure of co but nevertheless the news of the great disaster was spreading like wild fire among these panic struck men was perfectly calm deadly cold the same who had solemnly at his ten chairs each day in	43
two hundred thousand dollars more that afternoon between three and seven he spent his trades and between seven and one in the morning without anything to eat in gathering as much additional information as he could and la his plans for the saturday morning came and he repeated his performance of the day before following it up with on sunday and heavy trading on monday by monday afternoon at three o clock he figured that all losses and to one side he was once more a and that now his future lay clear and straight before him as ho sat at liis desk late that afternoon in his office looking out into third street where a hurrying of messengers and anxious still main the he had the feeling that so far as philadelphia and the life here was concerned his day and its day with him was over he did not care anything about the business any more failures such as this and such as the fire that had overtaken him two years before had cured him of all love of the stock exchange and all feeling for philadelphia he had been very unhappy here in spite of all his previous happiness and his experience as a had made him he could see quite plainly to the element he had once hoped to associate with there was nothing else to do now that he had re established himself as a philadelphia business man and been for an which he hoped to make people believe he had never committed but to leave philadelphia to seek a new world if i get out of this safely he said to himself this is the end i am going west and going into some other line of business he thought of street land speculation some great project of some kind even on a legitimate basis anything not to be a any more i have had my lesson he said to himself finally getting up and preparing to leave i am as rich as i was and only a little older they caught me once but they will not catch me again he talked to about following up the campaign on the lines in which he had started and he himself intended to follow them up with great energy but all the while his mind was running with this one rich thought i am a i am a free man i am only thirty six and my future is all before me it was with this thought that he went to visit and to plan for the future it was some six months later that a train through the mountains of and over the plains of and bore to and the the west the young financial who in spite of youth and wealth and a notable vigor of body was a solemn as to what his future might be the west held much he had studied the of the new york clearing house recently and the disposition of bank and the of gold and seen that vast quantities of the latter metal were going to he understood accurately the meaning of gold was dear where money was going trade was a developing life he wished to see clearly for himself what this world had to offer two years later after there had been the appearance of a yoimg in and after had seen the opening of a grain and commission company frank a co which dealt in the great wheat crops of the west a quiet was granted mrs frank a in philadelphia because apparently she wished it time had not seemingly dealt badly with her her financial affairs once so bad were now apparently all straightened out and she occupied in west philadelphia near one of her sisters a new and interesting home which was fitted with all the comforts of an excellent middle class residence mrs frank a was now q religious once more the two children frank and were in private schools returning evenings to their mother wash was once more the general negro frequent visitors on sundays were mr and mrs henry no longer distressed but subdued and wearied the wind completely gone from their once much favored sails here too came on occasion a clerk in the city water office who much as to the strange of life had great interest in her brother who seemed by fate to play a part in the world but she could not understand him seeing that all those the who were near to him in any way seemed to rise or fall with his prosperity she did not understand how justice and morals were arranged in this world there seemed to be certain general principles or people there were but apparently there were exceptions assuredly her brother by no known rule and yet he seemed to be doing fairly well once more what did this mean mrs his former wife condemned his actions and yet accepted of his prosperity as her due what were the of that in another part of the city there had lived for some time with her mother butler who had long continued a relationship which to her seemed final and she had much as to her past conduct and her future and had rejoiced at frank s sudden to wealth and power his every action was known to her his present whereabouts and prospects not long after his wife s divorce and after many to and from this new world in which he was now living these two left philadelphia one afternoon in the winter for good explained to her mother who was to go and live with that she had fallen in love with the former banker and wished to marry him the old lady gathering only a version of it at first consented there was then their final departure which ended forever for this long continued relationship with this older world was before	43
ed for the day when the issue might be tried out physically here the thames was especially delightful the french have made much of the one of the thousands upon thousands of on the of paris these places were crowded with a gay and throng i looked to a distant table to see the figure he indicated my heavens how well she keeps up i i myself on the house fronts or backs below the there can only be one a german dance hall bursts of temper a at forty a at forty chapter i takes me in hand i have just turned forty i have seen a little something of life i have been a newspaper man editor magazine author and before these things several odd kinds of clerk before i found out what i could do years ago i wrote my first which was issued by a new york and suppressed by him heaven knows why for the same year they suppressed my book because of its alleged tendencies they published s and an s love letters i fancy now after eleven years of wonder that it was not so much the supposed as the book s straightforward plain spoken discussion of american life in general we were not used then in america to calling a a particularly in books we had great admiration for and and and de at a distance some of us and it was quite an honor to have handsome sets of these men on our shelves but mostly we had been in the literature of george charles lamb and that refined company of english sentimental who told us something about life but not everything no doubt all of these great men knew how shabby a thing this world is how full of lies make believe seeming and false it a at forty all is but they had agreed among themselves or with the public or with sentiment generally not to talk about that too much books were always to be built out of facts concerning our better natures we were always to be seen as we wish to be seen there were to be sure dogs thieves but they were strange creatures hiding away in dark places and scarcely seen save at night and whereas we all clean bright honest well meaning people were living in nice homes going our way honestly and going to church raising our children believing in a father a son and a holy ghost and never doing anything wrong at any time save as these miserable dogs thieves et might suddenly appear and make us our books largely showed us as heroes if anything happened to our daughters it was not their fault but the fault of these miserable most of us were without original sin the business of our books our church our laws our was to keep us so i am quite sure that it never occurred to many of us that there was something really improving in a plain straightforward understanding of life for myself i accept now no i do not know what truth is what beauty is what love is what hope is i do not believe any one absolutely and i do not doubt any one ab i think people are both evil and well in while i was opening my mail one morning i encountered a now memorable note which was addressed to me at my apartment it was from an old literary friend of mine in england who expressed himself as anxious to see me immediately i have always liked him i like him because he strikes me as english decidedly literary and artistic in his point of takes me in hand view a man with a wide wisdom taste rare selection he wears a in his right eye a la and i like him for that i like people who take themselves with a grand air whether they like me or not particularly if the grand air is backed up by a real personality in this case it is next morning took breakfast with me it was a most interesting affair he was late very he stalked in his shining his glowing with a shrewd inquisitive eye behind it his whole manner genial self sufficient almost and always final he takes charge so easily rules so sufficiently does so essentially well in all circumstances where he is interested so to do i have decided he observed with that air which always delights me because my soul is not in the least that you will come back to england with me i have my passage arranged for the twenty second you will come to my house in england you will stay there a few days then i shall take you to london and put you up at a very good hotel you will stay there until january first and then we shall go to the south of france nice the from there you will go to rome to paris where i shall join you and then sometime in the spring or summer when you have all your notes you will return to london or new york and write your impressions and i will see that they are published if it can be arranged i it can be arranged he replied emphatically i will attend to the financial part and arrange affairs with both an american and an english sometimes life is very generous it walks in and says here i want you to do a certain thing and it proceeds to arrange all your affairs for you i felt a at forty at this time as though i was on the edge of a g eat change when one turns forty and faces one s first voyage it is a more event than when it comes at twenty i shall not soon forget reading in a morning paper on the early	43
ride the day we sailed of the suicide of a friend of mine a brilliant man he had fallen on hard lines his wife had decided to desert him he was badly in debt i knew him well i had known his history here on this morning when i was sailing for europe quite in the flush of a momentary literary victory he was lying in death it gave me pause it brought to my mind the latin phrase i saw again right in the heart of this hour of brightness how grim life really is fate is kind or it is not it puts you ahead or it does not if it does not nothing can save you i acknowledge the i believe in them i have heard the disastrous beating of their wings when i reached the ship it was already a perfect morning in full glow the sun was up a host of were on the wing an air of delicious adventure enveloped the great s dock at the foot of street did ever a boy thrill over a ship as i over this monster of the seas in the first place even at this early hour it was crowded with people from the moment i came on board i was delighted by the eager restless movement of the throng the main deck was like the of one of the great new york hotels at dinner time there was much calling on the part of a company of ship to keep moving please and the enthusiasm of and inquiries after this person and that were delightful to hear i stopped awhile in the writing room takes me in hand and wrote some notes i went to my and there several and letters of farewell later still some books which had been delivered at the ship were brought to me i went back to the dock and my letters encountered finally and exchanged greetings and then soon found myself taken in tow by him for he wanted obviously to instruct me in all the details of this new world upon which i was now entering at eight thirty came the call to go ashore at eight fifty five i had my first glimpse of a miss e as discreet and charming a bit of english as one would care to set eyes upon she was an english of some eminence whom was fortunate enough to know shortly afterward a miss x was introduced to him and to miss e by a third acquaintance of miss e s mr g a very direct self satisfied and type of jew i noticed him strolling about the deck some time before i saw him conversing with miss e and later for a moment with i saw these women only for a moment at first but they impressed me at once as rather attractive examples of the prosperous stage world it was nine o clock the hour of the ship s sailing i went forward to the and watched the sailors on b deck below me cleaning up the final details of down the freight covering the and the like all the morning i had been particularly impressed with the cloud of fluttering about the ship but now the harbor the magnificent wall of lower new york set like a jewel in a green ring of sea water took my eye when should i see it again how soon should i be back i had undertaken this voyage in haste i had not figured at all on where i was a at forty going or what i was going to do london yes to gather the for the last third of a novel rome assuredly because of all things i wished to see rome the say and because the south of france has always appealed to me paris possibly holland surely i stood there till the her outward to the broad atlantic then i went below and began but was not there long before i was called out by come up with me he said we went to the boat deck where the towering red smoke were forth trailing clouds of smoke i am quite sure that when he originally made his command that i come to england with him was in no way satisfied that i would it was a somewhat light venture on his part but here i was and now having let himself in for this as he would have it i could see that he was intensely interested in what europe would do to me and possibly in what i would do to europe we walked up and down as the boat made her way down the harbor we parted presently but shortly he returned to say come and meet miss e and miss x miss e is reading your last novel she likes it i went down interested to meet these two for the the good looking representative of that peculiarly feminine world of art appeals to me very much i have always thought since i have been able to reason about it that the stage is almost the only ideal outlet for the artistic temperament of a and beautiful women men well i don t care so much for the men of the stage i acknowledge the distinction of such a temperament as that of david or these were great actors and by the same token i saw mr g conversing with miss e takes me in hand they were great artists wonderful artists but in the main the men of the stage are frail shadows of a much more real thing the active man in other lines on the contrary the women of the stage are somehow by right of mere womanhood the art of looks form temperament peculiarly suited to this realm of show color and make believe the stage is and	43
they are of it women the women of ambition artistic act anyhow all the time they lie like anything they never show their true colors or very rarely if you want to know the truth you must see through their pretty petty back to the actual conditions behind them which are and driving them very few if any have a real grasp on what i call life they have no understanding of and no love for philosophy they do not care for the of and knowledge book knowledge the well let the men have that your average woman cares most almost entirely for the and the of her own little world is her life going right is she getting along is her skin smooth is her face still pretty are there any wrinkles are there any gray hairs in sight what can she do to win one man how can she make herself impressive to all men are her feet small are her hands pretty which are the really nice places in the world to visit do men like this trait in women or that what is the latest thing in dress in in hats in shoes how can she keep herself and span these are all leading questions with her strong deep vital painful let the men have knowledge fame force that is their business the real man her man should have some one of these things if she is really going to love him very much lo a at forty i am talking about the semi artistic woman with ambition as for her she to these poetical details and they make her life poor little frail things fighting with every weapon at their command to buy and maintain the courtesy of the world truly i pity women i pity the strongest most ambitious woman i ever saw and by the same token i pity the poor helpless hopeless and without an idea above a who never had and never will have a look in on anything i know and there is not a beating feminine heart anywhere that will contradict me that they are all struggling to buy this superior masculine strength against which they can lean to which they can fly in the hour of terror it is no answer to my statement no contradiction of it to say that the strongest men the sympathy of the tenderest women these are facts and my statement is true i am dealing with women now not men when i come to men i will tell you all about them our modern stage world gives the ideal outlet for all that is most worth while in the youth and art of the female sex it matters not that it is you cannot that of any individual case until afterward at any rate to me and so far as women are concerned it is distinguished brilliant appropriate important i am always interested in a well recommended woman of the stage what did we talk about miss e and i the stage a little some and dramatic critics that we had casually known her interest in books and the fact that she had posed frequently for those interesting which display a beautiful young woman showing her teeth or holding aloft a cake of soap or a cream she had done some of this work in the past and had been well paid for it because she was takes me in hand ii beautiful and she showed me one of her pictures in a current magazine a set of i found that my very able patron was doing everything that should be done to make the trip comfortable without show or fuss many have this or gift sometimes i think it is a natural trait of the english of their superior classes anyhow they go about so they make fine and i have always been told that english direction and english are thorough is this true or is it not at this writing i do not know not only were all our chairs on deck here in a row but our chairs at table had already been arranged for four seats at the captain s table it seems that from previous voyages on this ship knew the captain he also knew the of the company in england no doubt he knew the chief steward anyhow he knew the man who sold us our tickets he knew the head waiter at the he had seen him or been served by him somewhere in europe he knew some of the of the of old wherever he went i found he was always finding somebody whom he knew i like to get in tow of such a man as and see him the seas i like to see what he thinks is important in this case there happens to be a certain intellectual and spiritual he likes some of the things that i like he with my point of view hence so far at least we have got along admirably i speak for the present only i would not answer for my moods or change of emotions at any time well here were the two side by side both arrayed and with them in a third chair the short stout red haired mr g i observed the personality of miss x here a at forty was some one who on sight at a glance attracted me far more significantly than ever miss e could i cannot tell you why exactly in a way miss e appeared at moments and from certain points of view delicacy refinement sweetness of mood the more attractive of the two but miss x with her face her dainty little chin her narrow eyes drew me quite like a i liked a certain snap and vigor which shot from her eyes and which	43
i could feel represented our raw american force a foreigner will not i am afraid understand exactly what i mean but there is something about the american climate its soil rain winds race spirit which produces a raw direct of soul in its children they are strong erect elated enthusiastic they look you in the eye cut you with a glance say what they mean in ten thousand ways without really saying anything at all they come upon you fresh like cold water and they have the of a hard bright jewel and the fragrance of a rich red fuu f blown rose americans are wonderful to me can men and american women they are rarely polished or refined they know little of the of life its order and but oh the glory of their i spirit the hope of them the dreams of them the desires and enthusiasm of them that is what wins me they give me the sense of being intensely alive miss x did not tell me anything about herself save that she was on the stage in some capacity and that she knew a large number of newspaper men critics actors et a chorus girl i thought and then by the same token a lady of extreme i think the average man however much he may lie and pretend takes considerable interest in such women at the same time there are large orders and schools takes me in hand of mind bound by certain variations of temperament and schools of thought which either flee temptation of this kind find no temptation in it or when confronted resist it vigorously the accepted theory of marriage and holds many people absolutely there are these who would never sin hold relations i mean with any there are others who will always be true to one woman there are those who are fortunate if they ever win a single woman we did not talk of these things but it was early apparent that she was as wise as the serpent in her knowledge of men and in the practice of all the little of her sex never ceased me in the of ship life i never saw so comforting and efficient a man oh who can indicate exactly the sound of the english oh oh there you are his are always sounded like ah now let me tell you something you are to dress for dinner ship etiquette requires it you are to talk to the captain some tell him how much you think of his ship and so forth and you are not to neglect the neighbor to your right at table ship etiquette i believe demands that you talk to your neighbor at least at the captain s table that is the rule i think you are to take in miss x i am to take in miss e was it any wonder that my sea life was well ordered and that my lines fell in pleasant places after dinner we to the ship s drawing room and there miss x fell to playing cards with at first afterwards with mr g who came up and found us thrusting his company upon us the man amused me so money was he however not he so much as miss x and her mental and social attitude commanded my attention her card playing and her accounts of adventures at os a at forty tend nice and les indicated plainly the of her interests she was all for the life that was to be found in these places burning with a desire to glitter not shine in tliat half world of which she was a smart her conversation was at once and yet i could see by s attentions to her that aside from her crude which ordinarily would have him he was interested in her beauty her taste in dress her love of a certain continental life which a portion of his own interests both were looking forward to a fresh season of it with me miss x with some one who was waiting for her in london i think i have indicated in one or two places in the preceding pages that being an englishman of the artistic and intellectual classes with considerable tradition behind him and all the feeling of the worth of social order that goes with class training has a high respect for the or rather let me say appearances for though essentially in spirit and loving america its raw force he still almost i think to that vast established order which is england it may be producing a dying condition of race but still there is something exceedingly fine about it now one of the of english social order is that being a man you must be a gentleman very courteous to the ladies very observant of outward forms and appearances very discreet in your approaches to the wickedness of the world but nevertheless you may approach and much more if you are cautious enough after dinner there was a concert it was a dreary affair when it was over i started to go to bed but it being warm and fresh i stepped outside the night was beautiful there were no fellow passengers on takes me in hand the all had retired the sky was magnificent for stars the the way the big the little i saw one star off to my right as i stood at the under the bridge which owing to the soft darkness cast a faint silvery glow on the water just a trace think of it one lone silvery star over the great dark sea doing this i stood at the and watched the boat speed on i threw back my head and drank in the salt wind i looked and listened england france italy these were all	43
coming to me mile by mile as i stood there a bell over me struck eight times another farther off sounded the same number then a voice at the called all s well and another aloft on that little called the crow s nest echoed it all s well the second voice was weak and something came up in my throat a quick lump of emotion was it an echo of old journeys and old seas when life was not safe when sailed into the unknown and now this vast ship eight hundred and eighty two feet long eighty eight feet beam with huge of engines and and polite first cabin decks and passengers chapter ii miss x it was ten o clock the next morning when i arose and looked at my watch i thought it might be or seven the day was slightly gray with spray flying there was a strong wind the sea was really a boisterous thing and heaving in hills and hollows i was thinking of s white horses for a while there were several things about this great ship which were unique it was a beautiful thing all told its long cherry wood halls in the first class section its heavy its dainty fitted with lamps writing and the like i liked the idea of dressing for dinner and seeing ever quite stately and formal the little be call boys in their blue suits amused me and the who for dinner that was a most musical sound he made in the various quarters gaily as much as to say this is a very joyous event ladies and gentlemen we are all happy come come it is a delightful feast i saw him one day in the of c deck his legs spread far apart the to his lips no evidence of the rolling ship in his heartily it was like something out of an old court or a play very nice and worth while absolutely ignorant of this world of the sea the social domestic and other of a great ship like this interested me from the start it impressed me no little that all the servants were english and that i miss x they were shall i say polite well if not that american servants i could write a whole chapter on that but we have n t any servants in america we don t know how to be servants it is n t in us it is n t nice to be a servant it is n t and i don t blame us in america with our turn for we shall have to invent something which will do away with the need of servants what it is to be i have n t the faintest idea at present another thing that impressed and irritated me a little was the of the english countenance as i encountered it here on this ship i did n t know then whether it was accidental in this case or national there is a certain type of englishman the robust rosy blue eyed saxon whom i cordially dislike i think speaking and they are too solid too rosy too as to their faces and altogether too assured and i don t like them they offend me they thrust a silly race pride into my face which isn t necessary at all and which i always resent with a race pride of my own it has even occurred to me at times that these race differences could be quickly adjusted only by an appeal to arms which is yet but so goes life it s foolish on both sides but i mention it for what it is worth after lunch which was also breakfast with me i went with the chief engineer through the engine room this was a pit eighty feet deep forty feet wide and perhaps one hundred feet long filled with machinery what a strange world i know absolutely nothing of machinery not a single principle connected with it and yet i am intensely interested these pipes and bright faced register boards speak of a vast which to me is impressive i know scarcely anything of the history of i a at forty but i know what and feed pipes and escape pipes are and how complicated machinery is and and there my knowledge ends all that i know about the rest is what the race knows there are mechanical and they devised the engine for vessels and then the they have worked out the theory of control and have vast systems with a wonderful economy as to power and space this deep pit was like some vast sad dream of a mind it and rattled and and with almost insane there were narrow steep oil stained stairs very hot or very cold and very slippery that wound here and there in strange ways and if you were not careful there were moving rods and wheels to strike you you passed from bridge to bridge under whirling wheels over passed hot passed cold ones here men were standing blue in oil stained caps and gloves thin caps and thick gloves watching the of this vast of steel far from the life of the vessel occasionally they touched something they were down in the very heart or the of this thing away from the sound of the water away partially from the heaviest motion of the ship listening only to the and and hiss hiss all day long it is a metal world they live in a hard bright metal world everything is hard everything fixed everything regular if they look up behold a huge complicated of steel noise and heat and regularity i shouldn t like that i think my soul would grow weary it would pall i like the softness of scenery the haze the uncertainty of the world outside life is y	43
better than and fixed motion i hope i trust the universe is not mechanical but blind miss x let s hope it s a vague uncertain but divine idea wc know it is beautiful it must be so the wind up of this day occurred in the lounging or reception room where after dinner we all retired tc listen to the music and then began one of those really interesting conversations between and miss x which sometimes life and make one see things differently forever afterward it is going to be very hard for me to define just how this could be but i might say that i had at the moment considerable intellectual contempt for the point of view which the conversation represented consider first the american attitude with us not the established rich but the hopeful ambitious american who has nothing comes from nothing and hopes to be president of the united states or john d the business of life is not living but roughly speaking we are willing to go hungry dirty to wait in the cold and fight if in the end we can achieve one or more of the seven stars in the crown of life social intellectual moral financial physical spiritual or material several of the forms of may seem the same but they are not examine them closely the average american is not born to place he does not know what the english sense of order is we have not that national de corps which the english and the french perhaps certainly the we are loose uncouth but in our way wonderful the spirit of has once more breathed upon the waters well the gentleman who was doing the talking in this instance and the lady who was and at times leading and represented two different and yet allied points of view is distinctly a product of the a at forty school of thought a gentleman who wishes sincerely he was not so his house is in order you can feel it i have always felt it in relation to him his standards and are fixed he knows what life ought to be how it ought to be lived you would never catch him with the rag and of humanity with any keen sense of human brotherhood or tenderness of feeling they are human beings of course they are in the scheme of things to be sure but let it go at that one cannot be considering the state of the at any particular time government is established to do this sort of thing are large servants who are supposed to look after all of us the masses let them behave let them accept their state let them raise no undue row and let us above all things have order and peace this is a section of not all mind you but a section miss x i think i have described her fully enough but i shall add one passing thought a little experience i of europe considerable of its show places had taught her or convinced her rather that america did not know how to live you will hear much of that fact i am afraid during the rest of these pages but it is especially important just here my lady prettily perfectly going to meet her lover at london or or liverpool is absolutely satisfied that america does not know how to live she herself has almost learned she is most comfortably provided for at present anyhow she has champagne every night at dinner her in the matter of toilet articles and leather bags is all that it should be the latter are colored to suit her complexion and gowns she is scented polished looked after and all men pay miss x her attention she is vain beautiful and she thinks that america is raw uncouth that its citizens of whom she is one do not know how to live quite so now we come to the point it would be hard to describe this conversation it began with some have you been s i think and concerned eating places and modes of entertainment in london paris and i gathered by degrees that in london paris and elsewhere there were a hundred a hundred places to live each finer than the other i heard of liberty of thought and freedom of action and pride of motion which made me understand that there is a free which concerns the art of living which is shared only by the there was a world in which as to morals have no place in which and religion are art is the point the joys of this world are sex beauty food clothing art i should say money of course but money is you must have it oh i went to that place one day and then i was glad enough to get back to the at forty for my room she was talking of her room by the day and the food of course was extra the other hotel had been a little bit quiet or dingy i opened my eyes slightly for i thought paris was reasonable but not so no more so than new york i understood if you did the same things and oh the life said miss x at one point americans don t know how to live they are all engaged in doing something they are such they are only interested in money they don t know i see them in paris now and then she lifted her hand here in europe people understand life better they know they know before they begin how much it will take to do the things that they want to do and they start ii a at forty out to make that much not a fortune just enough to do the things that they want to do when they get that they retire and	43
live and what do they do when they live i asked what do they call living oh having a nice country house within a short distance of london or paris and being able to dine at the best and visit the best once or twice a week to go to paris or or or two or th or four or as many times a year as they please to wear good clothes and to be thoroughly comfortable that is not a bad standard i said and then i added and what else do they do and what else should they do isn t that enough and there you have the european standard according to miss x as contrasted with the american standard which is or has been up to this time something decidedly different i am sure we have not been so eager to live our idea has been to work no american that i have ever known has had the idea of laying up just so much a moderate amount and then retiring and living he has had quite another thought in his mind the can the average american i am sure loves power the ability to do something far more earnestly than he loves mere living he wants to be an officer or a of something a poet anything you please for the sake of being it not for the sake of living he loves power authority to be able to say go and he or come and he the rest he will mere comfort you can have that but even that according to miss x was not enough for her she had told me before and this conversation brought it out again that her thoughts were of summer and winter exquisite in the way of clothing miss x open of commanding charming gambling tables at les and elsewhere to say nothing of absolutely un j sex relations english conventional women were and fools they had never learned how to live they had never understood what the joy of freedom in sex was morals they are built up on a lack of imagination and physical vigor tenderness well you have to take care of yourself duty there isn t any such thing if there is it s one s duty to get along and have money and be happy chapter iii at while i was lying in my berth the fifth morning i heard the room steward outside my door tell some one that he thought we reached at one thirty i packed my trunks thinking of this big ship and the fact that my trip was over and that never again could i cross the atlantic for the first time a queer world this we can only do any one thing significantly once i remember when i first went to i remember when i first went to st louis i remember when i first went to new york other there were but they are lost in but the first time of any important thing sticks and lasts it comes back at times and haunts you with its beauty and its sadness you know so well you cannot do that any more and like a clock it and tells you that life is moving on i shall never come to england any more for the first time that is gone and done for worse luck so i packed will you believe it a little sadly i think most of us are a little silly at times only we are cautious enough to conceal it there is in me the spirit of a lonely child somewhere and it to the hand of its big life and cries when it is frightened and then there is a coarse vulgar exterior which fronts the world and bids all and sundry to go to the devil it and and bitterly at times and and and has a joyous time laughing at the follies of others then i went to hunt to find out how i should at do how much was i to give the deck steward how much to the bath steward how much to the how much to the dining room steward how much to boots and so on look here observed that most efficient of all souls that i have ever known i u tell you what you do no i u write it and he drew forth an ever ready envelope deck steward so much it read room steward so much etc i went forthwith and paid them my soul of a great weight then i came on deck and found that i had forgotten to pack my ship blanket and a steamer rug which i forthwith went and packed then i discovered that i had no place for my hat save on my head so i went back and packed my cap then i thought i had lost one of my which i had n t though i did lose one of my finally i came on deck and sang songs with miss x sitting in our steamer chairs the low shore of ireland had come into view with two faint hills in the distance and these fascinated me i thought i should have some slight emotion on seeing land again but i did n t it was gray and misty at first but presently the sun came out beautifully clear and the day was as warm as may in new york i felt a sudden of spirits with the coming of the sun and i began to think what a lovely time i was going to have in europe miss x was a little more friendly this morning than heretofore she was a creature uncertain and hard to please she liked me and thought i was able but her physical and so far as men are concerned did not include me we	43
rejoiced together singing and then we fought there is a between experienced which a at forty waves aside all she had seen a lot of life so had i she said she thought she would like to walk a little and we strolled back along the heaving deck to the end of the first cabin section and then to the stern when we reached there the sky was again for it was one of those mornings which is now gray now bright now misty just now the heavens were black and lowering with soft rain charged clouds like the wool of a sheep the sea was a rich green in consequence not a clear green but a dark muddy oil green it rose and sank in its endless and one or two boats appeared a out all alone against the lowering waste and a small black passenger steamer going somewhere i wish my path in life were as white as that and as straight observed miss x pointing to our white wake which extended back for half a mile or more yes i observed you do and you don t you do if it wouldn t cost you trouble in the future impose the straight and narrow as it were oh you don t know she exclaimed that ugly fighting light coming into her eyes which i had seen there several times before you don t know what my life has been i have n t been so bad we all of us do the best we can i have done the best i could considering yes yes i observed you re ambitious and alive and you re seeking heaven knows what you would be with your pretty face and body if you were not so so the trouble with you is oh look at that little boat out there she was talking of the i always feel sorry for a at poor little thing like that set aside from the main tide of life and left lonely with no one to care for it the trouble with you is i went on seizing this new remark as an additional pretext for analysis you re romantic not sympathetic you re interested in that poor little lonely boat because its state is romantic not pathetic it may be pathetic but that is n t the point with you well she said if you had had all the hard i have had you would n t be sympathetic either i ve i have my illusions have been killed dead yes love is over with you you can t love any more you can like to be loved that s all if it were the other way about i paused to think how really lovely she would be with her narrow eyelids her delicate almost little nose her red s bow mouth oh she exclaimed with a gesture of almost religious adoration i cannot love any one person any more but i can love love and i do all the delicate things it stands for flowers i observed jewels hotel bills fine dresses oh you re brutal i hate you you ve said the meanest things that have ever been said to me but they re so i don t care why shouldn t i be hard why should n t i love to live and be loved look at my life see what i ve had you like me in a way i suggested i admire your intellect quite so and others receive the gifts of your personality i can t help it i can t be mean to the man i m with a at forty he s good to me i won t i m be against the only conscience i have then you have a conscience oh you go to the devil but we didn t separate by any means they were blowing a for lunch when we came back and down we went was already at table the was playing home sweet home and the river it even played one of those delicious american rags which i love so much the roll i felt a little lump in my throat at and and together miss x and i the roll as it was played one of the girl passengers came about with a plate to obtain money for the members of the and half crowns were universally deposited then i started to eat my but who had hurried off came back to interfere come come he was always most emphatic you re missing it all we re landing i thought we were leaving at once the eye behind the was of some great loss to me i hurried on deck to thank his artistic and instinct instantly i arrived there before me was and the coast and to my dying day i shall never forget it imagine if you please a land locked harbor as green as grass in this semi cloudy semi afternoon with a half moon of granite rising sheer and clear from the green waters to the low gray clouds overhead on its top i could see fields laid out in pretty squares or and at the bottom of what to me appeared to be the east end of the semi circle was a bit of gray which was the village no doubt on the green water were several other boats much smaller with red black sides white rails and at bearing a family resemblance to the one we were on there was a long pier extending out into the water from what i took to be the village and something farther inland that looked like a low shed this black hotel of a ship so vast so graceful now rocking gently in the bay was surrounded this hour by i always like the of a it reminds me of a	43
rusty car wheel and somehow it with a lone rocky coast here they were their little feet coral red their gray their bodies snowy white or sober gray and crying my heart remembers how i looked at them and that old intense sensation of joy came back the wish to fly the wish to be young the wish to be happy the wish to be loved but my scene beautiful as it was was slipping away one of the pretty i had noted lying on the water some distance away was drawing alongside to get first they said there were hurrying and shuffling people on all the first cabin decks was forward looking after his luggage the captain stood on the bridge in his great gold blue overcoat there were mail being lowered from our giant vessel s side and bags and trunks and boxes and were then sent down i saw of men and scores of formed briskly handling these in the sunshine my fellow passengers in their last hurrying hour interested me for i knew i should see them no more except one or two perhaps while we were standing here i turned to watch an englishman tall assured he had been about for some time examining this that and the other in his critical british way he had leaned over the side and the approaching a at forty he had stared and at the which were here now by hundreds he had observed the landing toilet of the ladies the material of the various men and was quite evidently satisfied that he himself was perfect complete he was aloof chilly decidedly forbidding and finally a cabin steward came hurrying out to him did you mean to leave the things you left in your room he asked the englishman started stared i never saw a self sufficient man so completely shaken out of his things in my room he echoed what room are you talking about my word there are three drawers full of things in there sir and they re waiting for your luggage now sir my word he repeated grieved perplexed my word i m sure i packed everything three drawers full my word he off stiffly the attendant hastened cheerfully after it almost gave me a chill as i thought of his problem and they hurry so at he was well paid out as the english say for being so and superior then the mail and trunks being off and that boat having away another and somewhat smaller one came alongside and we first and then the second class passengers went aboard and i watched the great ship growing less and less as we pulled away from it it was immense from alongside a vast of a ship at a hundred feet it seemed not so large but more graceful at a thousand feet all its exquisite lines were perfect its bulk not so great but the pathos of its departing beauty wonderful at two thousand feet it was still beautiful against the granite ring of the harbor but alas it was moving the cap at tain was an almost spot upon his bridge the in their way gorgeous took on beautiful proportions i thought as we in near the pier and the ship turned within her length or and out i had never seen a more beautiful sight her of was still about her her smoke flung back their graceful the left a white trail of foam i asked some one when does she get to liverpool at two in the morning and when do the balance of the passengers land we had emptied the first cabin at seven i fancy just then the lighter against the dock i walked under a long low train shed covering four tracks and then i saw my first english passenger train a looking affair the ends of the cars certainly looked as though they had started out to be and there were little doors on the sides first first first on the side at the top of the car was a longer sign ocean special london it a chapter iv servants and politeness right here i propose to my second on the servant question and i can safely promise i am sure that it will not be the last one night not long before in dining with a certain baron n and at the in new york this matter of the american servant came up in a way baron n was a young exquisite of and other european he was one of s idle fancies because we were talking about america in general i asked them both what to them was the most offensive or objectionable thing about america one said the other said the of servants on the ship going over at in the train from to london at london and later in s country house i saw what the difference was of course i had heard these differences discussed before ad for years but hearing is not believing seeing and is on i noticed for the first time in my life that there was an about the service rendered by the servants which was entirely different from that which we know in america they did not look at one so and as does the american their eyes did not seem to say i am your equal or better and their motions did not indicate that they were doing anything unwillingly in america and i am a good american i have always had the feeling that the american hotel or house servant or store clerk servants and politeness store clerk male or female was doing me a great favor if he did anything at all for me as for train men and passenger boat i have never been able to look upon them as servants at all mostly they have looked	43
on me as an and as some one who should be put off the train instead of assisted in going anywhere american are american and train hands are grand at least a porter is little less than a and a hotel clerk god forbid that we should mention him in the same breath with any of the foregoing however as i was going on to say when i went aboard the english ship in question i felt this burden of to the american servant lifted these people strange to relate did not seem anxious to fight with me they were actually civil they did not stare me out of countenance they did not order me about and really i am not a soul looking for service i am i fancy a very humble minded person when or living anxious to go briskly forward not to be disturbed too much and allowed to live in quiet and seclusion the american servant is not built for that one must have great social or physical force to command him at times he needs literally to be by threats of physical violence you are paying him of course you are you help do that when you pay your hotel bill or buy your ticket or make a purchase but he does not know that the officials of the companies for whom he works do not appear to know if they did i don t know that they would be able to do anything about it you can not make a whole people over by issuing a book of rules americans are free men they don t want to be servants they have despised the idea for years i think the early americans who lived in america after the revolution a at forty the anti tory element thought that after the war and having won their there was to be an end of servants i think they associated labor of this kind with slavery and they thought when england had been defeated all these other things such as service had been defeated also alas superiority and inferiority have not yet been done away with wholly there are the strong and the weak the passionate and the hungry and the well fed there are those who still think that life is something which can be put into a and adjusted to a theory but i am not one of them i cannot view life or human nature save as an expression of in fact i think that is what life is i know there can be no sense of heat without cold no without no force without resistance no anything in short without its contrary consequently i cannot see how there can be great men without little ones wealth without poverty social movement without willing social assistance no high without a low is my idea and i would have the low be intelligent efficient useful well paid well looked after and i would have the high be sane kindly considerate useful of good report and good will to all men years of abuse and discomfort have made me rather to servants but i felt no reasonable grounds for here they were properly they were n t staring at me i did n t catch them making audible remarks behind my back they were not upon any of my fellow passengers things were actually going smoothly and nicely and they seemed rather courteous about it all yes and it was so in the dining saloon in the bath on deck everywhere with yes and thank you and two fingers raised to cap occasionally for good measure were they acting was this a servants and politeness fiercely suppressed class i was looking upon here i could scarcely believe it they looked too comfortable i saw them with each other a great deal i heard scraps of their conversation it was all peaceful and genial and individual enough they were apparently leading private lives however i reserved judgment until i should get to england but at it was quite the same and more also these railway guards and and were not our railway and by a long shot they were different in their attitude texture and general outlook on life physically i should say that american railway are superior to the european brand they are on the whole better fed or at least better set up they seem bigger to me as i recall them harder stronger the english railway seems smaller and more refined physically less vigorous but as to manners heaven save the mark these people are civil they are nice they are willing have you a porter sir yes sir thank you sir this way sir no trouble about that sir in a moment sir certainly sir very well sir i heard these things on all sides and they were like to a brain life did n t seem so with these people about they were actually trying to help me along i was led i was shown i was explained to i got under way without the least distress and i began actually to feel as though i was being why i thought these people are going to spoil me i m going to like them and i had rather decided that i would n t like the english why i don t know for i never read a great english novel that i did n t more or less like all of the characters in it hardy s lovely country people have warmed the of my heart s english characters have appealed to me and here was a at forty but the way the train me into my seat and got my bags in after or before me and said we shall be starting now in a few minutes sir and called quietly and not yelling mind you take your seats please delighted me i did	43
leap up as i thought of our own george and what he would have done with these scenes and what the english has done though he preferred as a rule another key at four thirty one of the charming english came and asked if we would have tea in the dining car we would we arose and in a few moments were entering one of those dainty little basket cars the tables were covered with white linen and simple pretty china and a silver tea service it was n t as if you were at all i felt as though i were stopping at the house a at forty of a friend or as though i were in the comer of some well known and friendly inn tea was served we ate toast and talked cheerfully this whole trip the landscape the dining car this tea miss x and her lover miss e and finally enveloped my fancy like a dream i realized that i was a novel situation which would not soon come again the idea of this pretty mistress coming to england to join her lover and so frankly admitting her history and her purpose rather took my mind as an intellectual treat you really don t often get to see this sort of thing i don t it s in its flavor to me being a man of the world took it as a matter of course his sole idea being i fancy that the refinement of personality and thought involved in the situation were sufficient to permit him to it i always judge his emotion by that one gleaming eye behind the the other does not take my attention so much i knew from his attitude that and morals and things like that had nothing to do with his selection of what he would consider interesting personal companionship were they interesting could they tell him something new would they amuse him were they nice in their clothing in their manners in the hundred little material which make up a fashionable lady or gentleman if so welcome if not hence and talent oh yes he had a keen eye for talent and he loves the exceptional and will obviously do anything and everything within his power to foster it having started so late it grew nearly dark after tea and the distant were not so easy to we came presently in the mist to a place called i think where were great black and the ride to london flaming and lights burning wistfully in the dark and then to another similar place and finally to a third great of manufacture i should judge for there were flaming lights from great golden from open and dark blue smoke visible even at this hour from tall overhead and gleaming electric lights like bright diamonds i never see this sort of place but i think of and and the of western along the line of the railroad i shall never forget the first time i saw and and saw how was fired it was on my way to new york i had never seen any mountains before and suddenly after the low flat plains of and with their pretty little wooden villages so suggestive of the new life of the new world we rushed into and then the mountains of western the it was somewhat like this night coming from only it was not so rainy the hills rose tall and green the of with a red gleam mile after mile until i thought it was the most wonderful sight i had ever seen and then came the beyond mile after mile of them glowing down in the low valleys between the tall hills where our train was following a stream bed it seemed a great sad heroic thing then to me plain day labor those common ignorant men working before flaming stripped to the waist in some instances fascinated my imagination i have always at the of nature the way it will give one man a low brow and a narrow mind a narrow round of thought and make a slave or horse of him and another a light mind a quick wit and a at forty air and make a gentleman of him no human being can solve either the question of ability or utility is your gentleman useful yes and no perhaps is your useful yes and no perhaps i should say obviously yes but see the differences in the reward of labor physical labor one eats his hard earned crust in the sweat of his face the other at his of courses and wonders why this or that doesn t taste better i did not make my mind i did not make my art i cannot choose my taste except by v instinct and yet here i am sitting in a comfortable english home as i write the poor work ing man i nature here and now as i always do v v and always shall do as being unfair i unjust i see in the whole thing no scheme but an ac one no justice save accidental justice now and then in a way some justice is done but it is accidental no individual man seems to will it he can t he doesn t know how he can t think how and there s an end of it but these queer weird hard sad cities what great writer has yet sung the song of them truly i do not recall one at present clearly gives some suggestion of what he considered the misery of the poor and in les there is a touch of grim poverty and want here and there but this is something still different this is toil on a vast scale and it is a lean hungry savage animal to contemplate i know it is because i have studied personally fall	43
at forty could see that it might be just as well or better to call a ticket office a office or to have three classes of carriages instead of two as with us or to have carriages instead of cars or instead of street or lifts instead of what difference does it make life is the same old thing nevertheless there was a tremendous difference between the london and the new york atmosphere that i could see and feel a few days at my place in the country will be just the thing for you was saying i sent a to to have a fire in the hall and in your room you might as well see a bit of rural england first he gleamed on me with his eye in a very encouraging manner we waited about quite awhile for a local or which would take us to level and having ourselves first class as fitting my arrival fell promptly to sleep and i mused with my window open enjoying the country and the cool night air chapter vi the family i am writing these notes on tuesday november twenty eighth very close to a grate fire in a pretty little sitting room in an english country house about twenty five miles from london and i am very chilly we reached this place by some winding road inscrutable in the night and i wondered keenly what sort of an atmosphere it would have the english or country home of the better class has always been a thought to me rather charming on the whole a carriage brought us with all the bags and trunks carefully looked after in england you always keep your luggage with you and we were met in the hall by the maid who took our coats and hats and brought us something to drink there was a small fire glowing in the fireplace in the entrance hall but it was so small cheerful though it was that i wondered why had taken all the trouble to send a from the sea to have it there it seems it is a custom in so far as his house is concerned not to have it but having heard something of english fires and english ideas of warmth i was not greatly surprised i am going to be cold i said to myself at once i know it the atmosphere is going to be cold and raw and i am going to suffer greatly it will be the devil and all to write i fancy this is a very fair and pretty example of the average country home near london and it certainly none of the which might be considered i a at forty worthy of a comfortable home but it is as cold as a and i can t understand the system of which has brought about any such uncomfortable state and it as satisfactory these are actually warm when the temperature in the room is somewhere between forty five and fifty and they go about opening doors and windows with the idea that the rooms need additional they build you small weak coal fires in large handsome and then if the four or five coals huddled together are managing to keep themselves warm by glowing they tell you that everything is all right or stroll about at least looking as though it were doors are left open the windows flung out everything done to give the place air and now said my host with his usual of speech as i stood with my back to the hall fireplace i think it is best that you should go to bed at once and get a good night s rest in the morning you shall have your breakfast at whatever hour you say your bath will be brought you a half or three quarters of an hour before you appear at table so that you will have ample time to and dress i shall be here until to see how you are getting along after which i shall go to the city you shall have a table here or wherever you like and the maid will serve your luncheon at two o clock at half past four your tea will be brought to you in case you are here in the evening we dine at seven thirty i shall be down on the five fifty two train so he proceeded definitely to lay out my life for me and i had to smile that vast established order which is england i thought again he accompanied me to my chamber door or rather to the foot of the stairs there he wished me pleasant dreams and the family ber he me with the emphasis of one who has forgotten something of great consequence this is most important whatever you do don t forget to put out your boots for the maid to take and have otherwise you will the whole social of england it is curious this feeling of being quite alone for the first time in a strange land i began to my bags solemnly thinking of new york presently i went to the window and looked out one or two small lights burned afar off i and got into bed feeling anything but sleepy i lay and watched the fire flickering on the hearth so this was really england and here i was at last a fact absolutely of no significance to any one else in the world but very important to me an old old dream come true and it had passed so oddly the trip so almost unconsciously as it were we make a great fuss i thought about the past and the future but the actual moment is so often without mean ing finally after hearing a crow and thinking of hamlet s father his ghost and the chill that in the	43
thought of cock crow in that tragedy i slept morning came and with it a knocking on the door i called come in in came the maid neat bringing a large tin basin very much wider than an american tub but not so deep a large water can full of hot water and the like she put the tub and water can down drew a rack from the wall spread out the and left i did not hear her take the boots but when i went to the door they were gone in the afternoon they were back again nice and bright i on all this as an interesting demonstration of english life is not so well to do but he has all these things a at forty it struck me as pleasing soothing orderly quite the same thing i had been seeing on the train and the ship it was all a part of that interesting national system which i had been hearing so much about at breakfast it was quite the same a most orderly meal was there to breakfast with me and see that i was started right his face was smiling how did i like it was i comfortable had i slept well had i slept very well it was bad weather but i would rather have to expect that at this season of the year i can see his smiling face a little cynical and get some faint revival of his own native interest in england in my surprise curiosity and interest the room was cold but he did not seem to think so no no no it was very comfortable i was simply not yet i would get used to it this house was charming i thought and here at breakfast i was introduced to the children mary the only girl and the eldest child looked to me at first a little pale and thin quite in fact but afterwards i found her not to be so merely a objection on my part to a type which afterwards seemed to me very attractive she was a decidedly wise high spoken intellectual and cynical little maid although only eleven years of age she conversed with the air the manner and the words of a woman of twenty oh yes is that a nice place do you like it i cannot in the least way convey the touch of lofty well bred feeling it had quite the air and sound of a woman of twenty five or thirty in all the of polite speech what a child i thought she talks as though she were but i can see that she is not quite different she seemed from what any the family american child could be less vigorous more intellectual more spiritual perhaps not so but probably infinitely more subtle she looked delicate remote far removed from the more commonplace school of force we know and i think i like our type better i smiled at her and she seemed friendly enough but there was none of that running forward and greeting people which is an average middle class american habit she was too well bred i learned afterward from a remark dropped at table by her concerning american children that it was considered bad form american children are the kind that run around hotel with big bows on their hair and speak to people was the substance of it i saw at once how bad american children were well then came the eldest boy who reminded me at first glance of that american type dear to the newspaper of little here he was inquiring eyes a forehead a learned air and all at ten years and somewhat for his age a clever child sincere apparently rather earnest eager to know full of the light of youthful understanding like his sister his manners were quite perfect but he smiled and replied quite well thank you to my amused inquiries after him i could see he was bright and thoughtful but the unconscious though to me affected quality of the english voice amused me here again then came charles and james who impressed me in quite the same way as the others they were nice orderly children but english oh so english it was while walking in the garden after breakfast that i encountered james the youngest but in the confusion of meeting people generally i did not a at forty recognize him he was outside the coach house where are the rooms of the gardener and where my room is and which little might this be i asked in that way we have with children james he replied with a gravity of which quite took my breath away we are not used to this formal dignity of approach in children of so very few years in america this lad was only five years of age and he was talking to me in the educated voice of one of fifteen or sixteen i stared of course you don t tell me i replied and what is your sister s name again mary he replied dear dear dear i sighed now what do you know about that of course such a wild piece of american as that had no significance to him whatsoever it fell on his ears without meaning i don t know he replied interested in some he was to a toy bath tub is n t that a fine little bath tub you have i ventured eager to continue the conversation because of its novelty it s a nice little he went on but i would n t call it a tub i really did not know how to reply to this last it took me so by surprise a child of five in little breeches scarcely larger than my two hands making this fine distinction we	43
surely live and learn i thought and went on my way smiling this house interested me from so many other points of view being particularly english and new that i was never weary of it i had a conversation with the gardener one morning concerning his duties and found that he had an exact of the family which covered every day in the year first i believe he got hold of the boots delivered to him by the maid and did those and then he brought up his coal and wood and built the fires and then he had some steps and paths to look after and then some errands to do i forget what there was the riding pony to and saddle the stable to clean oh quite a long list of things which he did over and over day after day he talked with such an air of responsibility as so many english servants do that i was led to reflect upon the of english servants in general and he dropped his h s where they occurred of course and added them where they should n t have been he told me how much he received how much he had received how he managed to live on it how and some people were they don t know ow to get along sir he informed me with the same solemn air of responsibility they just doesn t know ow to sir i it some people doesn t sir they gets sixteen or s the same as me sir but they goes and five or six g i thought he said guns he actually said o beer in the week there t much left fer other things is there sir now that s no sir is it sir i you i had to smile at the rural accent minded so innocent apparently him not mr might in america or john or jack or some but just he was to every one the master the maid the children the maid was to every one and the nurse it was all interesting to me because it was so utterly new and then this landscape round about the feel of the country was refreshing i knew absolutely nothing about it and yet i could see and feel that we were in a he was so simple every one called as his i a at forty region of comfortable life i could hear the of guns all day long here and this being the open season for shooting not hunting as my host informed me there was no such thing as hunting i could see men strolling here and there together guns under their arms caps on their heads in knee breeches and leather i could see from my writing desk in the drawing room window english girls bounding by on light moving horses and in my limited walks i saw plenty of country places homes i was told by a friend of mine that this was rather a pleasant country section but that i might see considerable of the same thing anywhere about london at this distance the maid interested me very much she was so quiet so silent and so pretty the door would open any time during the day when i was writing and in she would come to look after the fire to open or close the windows to draw the curtains light the candles and serve the tea or to call me to luncheon or dinner usually i ate my luncheon and drank my four o clock tea alone i ate my evening meal all alone once it made no difference my eating alone the service was quite the same the same candles were lighted several on different parts of the table the fire built in the there were four or five courses and wine stood behind me watching me eat in silence and i confess i felt very queer it was all so solemn so stately i felt like some old gray baron or bachelor shut away from the world and given to contemplating the follies of his youth when through with nuts and wine the final glass of port it was the custom of the house to retire to the drawing room and drink the small cup of black coffee which was served there and on this night although i was quite alone it was the same the coffee the family was served just as promptly and as though there were eight or ten present it interested me greatly all of it and pleased me more than i can say personally i shall always be glad that i saw some rural aspects of england first for they are the most and to me significant london is an amazing city and thoroughly english but the rural districts are more suggestive in what respects do the people of one country differ from those of another since they eat sleep rise dress go to work return love hate and alike in little mechanically speaking but and even materially they differ in almost every way england is a mood i take it a combination of dull colors and atmosphere it expresses heaven only knows what feeling for order simplicity it is highly individual more so almost than italy france or germany it is vital and yet vital in an intellectual way only you would say the feel of the air that england is all mind with convictions prejudices notions poetic terribly the most nation in the world because perhaps the most intellectual how different is the very atmosphere of it from america the great open common about this house of english individuality leisure order anything you will the atmosphere was damp the sun at best a golden haze all the bare trees were covered with a thin of almost spring green moss the ground was	43
and set down in a narrow angle off the strand and lighted by small lead windows which in america would strongly of days in fact we have scarcely any such buildings left s private offices were on the second floor up a small dingy staircase and the room itself was so small that it surprised me by its i could not call it dingy it was quaint rather in its atmosphere with a small open fire glowing in one comer a great desk entirely o a at forty out of keeping with the place in another a table a a number of photographs of framed and the rest books i think he for or difference between this and the average american business house but i do not think explanations are in order london is london i should be sorry if it were exactly like new york as it may yet become the and appealed to me as a fit atmosphere for a healthy business i should say here that this preliminary trip to london from level so far as was concerned was intended to accomplish three things first to give me a preliminary glimpse of london second to see that i was measured and examined for certain articles of clothing in which i was according to lacking and third to see that i attended the concert of a certain singer whose singing he thought i might enjoy it was most important that i should go because he had to go and since all that i did or could do was merely for my mill i was delighted to accompany him in many respects i wish to repeat here is one of the most delightful persons in the world he is a sort of modern beau with literary artistic and he loves order and refinement of course things in their proper ways and places as he loves hfe i suspect him at times of being somewhat of a in home and office matters but i am by no means sure that i am not doing him a grave injustice a more even well and soul who to get his way in some fashion or other if it takes him years to do it i never met he surely has the patience of fate and i think the true charity of a great heart now before i could be properly presented in london and elsewhere i needed a long a glimpse of london i list of things so this morning i had much to attend to since the matter of english and american money had been troubling me from the moment i reached that stage on my voyage where i began to pay for things out of my own pocket to the ship s servants i began complaining of my difficulties now i could n t figure out the tips to my own satisfaction and this irritated me i remember urging to make the whole matter clear to me which he did later he gave me a statement as to the relative value of the various pieces and what tips i should pay and how and when at hotels and country houses and this i followed here it is in leaving the hotel to morrow give the following tips maid gold i porter who looks after i outside man i if you reckon at a hotel to give d a day to the maid and the with a of i you will be doing handsomely on a visit on the supposition that they have only maids give the two maids whom you are likely to come across each when you come away on monday i am speaking of longer periods should be figured at d a day if on the other hand it is a large establishment butler and footman you would have to give the butler and the footman for a week end for longer periods more i cannot imagine anything more interesting than being introduced as i was by to the social character of london he was so intelligent and so very nice about it all now first he said we will get your glasses mended and then you want a bag and then some ties and and so on i have an appointment a at forty with you at your tailor s at eleven o clock where you arc to be measured for your and at eleven thirty at your s where you are to be measured for your fur coat and so on and so forth well come along we ll be off i have to smile when i think of it for i of all people am the least given to this matter of proper dressing and self and within reasonable limits represents the other extreme to him as i have said these things are exceedingly important the delicate manner in which he indicated and urged me into getting the things which would be all right without openly on them was most pleasing in england you know he would hint it is n t quite good form to wear a heavy striped tie with a frock coat never a straight black and we never tie them in that fashion always a simple knot my had to be striped for morning wear and my winged else i was in very bad form indeed i fell into the habit of asking what now london streets and shops as i first saw them interested me greatly i saw at once more than one would ordinarily see in new york and more high hats and i could not tell for the coats the were of mail men messenger boys and soldiers and all being different from what i had been accustomed to they interested me the mail men particularly with a service cut square off at the top and the little messenger boys with their caps cocked over one ear amused	43
me the policeman s under his chin was new and in the stores the clerks first attracted my attention but i may say the stores and shops themselves after new york seemed small and old new a glimpse of london york is so new the space given to the more important shops is so considerable in london it struck me that the space was not much and that the and walls were dingy one can tell by the feel of a place whether it is exceptional and profitable and all of these were that but they were dingy the english clerk too had an air of civility i had almost said which was different they looked to me like individuals bom to a condition and a point of view and i think they are in america any clerk may subsequently be anything he chooses ability but i m not so sure that this is true in england anyhow the american clerk always looks his possibilities his future the english clerk looks as if he were to be one we were through with this round by one o clock and explained that we would go to a certain very well known hotel the hotel after its fashion the was a distinct blow i had fancied that i was going to see something on the order of the luxurious new hotel in new york certainly as let us say as our hotels of the lower first class not so it could be compared and i think fairly so only to our hotels of the second or third class there was the same air of age here that there was about our old but very excellent hotels in new york the was plain the simple as for the crowd well stated that it might be smart and it might not certain rich merchants a few actors and some americans would probably be here this was affected by the foreign element the d hotel was french of course a short fat black man who amused me by his the were i believe german as they are largely in london and elsewhere in england a at forty one might almost imagine germany intended england its the china and plate were simple and almost poor a great hotel can afford to be simple we had what we would have had at any good french and the crowd was rather commonplace looking to me several american girls came in and they were good looking smart but silly i cannot say that i was impressed at all and my subsequent experiences confirm that feeling i am inclined to think that london has n t one hotel of the material splendor of the great new hotels in new york but let that go for the present while we were told me of a mrs w a friend of his whom i was to meet she was he said a lion hunter she tried to make her somewhat interesting personality felt in so large a sea as london by taking up with promising talent before it was already a commonplace i believe it was arranged over the then that i should lunch there at mrs w s the following day at one and be introduced to a certain lady r who was known as a patron of the arts and a certain miss h an interesting english type i was pleased with the idea of going i had never seen an english lady lion hunter i had never met english ladies of the types of lady r and miss h there might be others present i was also informed that mrs w was really not english but but she and her husband who was also and a wealthy had resided in london so long that they were to all and purposes english and in addition to being rich they were in rather interesting standing after luncheon we went to hear a certain miss t an of about thirty years of age sing at some important hall in london hall i believe it was and on the way i was told something of her it a glimpse of london seemed that she was very promising a great success in germany and elsewhere as a concert singer and that she might be coming to america at some time or other had known her in paris he seemed to think i would like her we went and i heard a very lovely set of songs oh quite delightful rendered in a warm sympathetic enthusiastic manner and representing the most characteristic type of german love sentiment it is a peculiar sentiment tender wistful of the sun at evening and lovely water on which the moon is shining german sentiment on the is always close to tears but anything more expressive of a certain phase of life i do not know miss t sang vigorously and i wished sincerely to meet her and tell her so but that was not to be then as we made our way to brisk and smiling asked were you amused quite well then this afternoon was not wasted i shall always be satisfied if you are amused i smiled and we rode back to level to dine and thence to bed chapter viii a london drawing room i recall the next day sunday with as much interest as any date for on that day at one thirty i encountered my first london drawing room i recall now as a part of this fortunate adventure that we had been talking of a new development in french art which approved in part and in part the post and there was mention also of the a still more radical departure from conventional forms in which if my impressions are correct the artist passes from any attempt at the visible scene and becomes wholly and when	43
i reached the house of mrs w which was in one of those lovely squares that constitute such a striking feature of the west end i was ushered upstairs to the drawing room where i found my host a rather practical shrewd looking and his less obviously wife oh mr exclaimed my hostess on sight as she came forward to greet me a decidedly engaging woman of something over forty with bronze hair and ruddy complexion her gown of green silk cut after the latest mode stamped her in my mind as of a romantic artistic eager disposition you must come and tell us at once what you think of the picture we are discussing it is downstairs lady r is there and miss h we are trying to see if we can get a better light on it mr has told me a london drawing room of you are from america you must tell us how you like london after you see the i think i liked this lady thoroughly at a glance and felt at home with her for i know the type it is the artistic type with not much practical judgment in great matters but with enthusiasm temperament life certainly delighted i know too little of london to talk of it i shall be interested in your picture we had reached the main floor by this time mr the lady r a modern suggestion of the fair tall done as to clothes after the best manner of tlie such was the lady r a more fascinating type from the point of view of i never saw and the languor and lofty elevation of her gestures and eyebrows defy description she could say oh i am so weary of all this with a slight elevation of her eyebrows a hundred times more definitely and than if it had been shouted in tones through a she gave me the fingers of an poised hand it is a pleasure and miss h mr i am very pleased a pink slim lily of a woman say twenty eight or thirty very fragile seeming very china like as to color a dream of light and blue with some white very keen as to eye the perfection of as to manner so well bred that her voice seemed suggestive of it all that was miss h to say that i was interested in this company is putting it mildly the three women were so distinct so individual so characteristic each in a different way the lady r was all peace and repose weary a at forty dark miss h was like a ray of sunshine pure morning light delicate gay mrs w was of thicker texture blood more human fire she had a vigor past the comprehension of either if not their of intellect which latter is often so much better mr w stood in the background a short gentleman a little bored by the of the social world ah yes you like no doubt mrs w recalling us a lovely don t you think such color i such depth such sympathy of treatment oh mrs w s hands were up in a pretty artistic gesture of delight oh yes continued the lady r taking up the rapture it is saw human saw perfect in its harmony the hair it is divine and the poor man he lives alone now in paris quite dreary not seeing any one aw the tragedy of it the tragedy of it a delicately carved vanity box she carried of some odd blue and white with points of coral in it was lifted in one hand as expressing her great distress i confess i was not much moved and i looked quickly at miss h her eyes it seemed to me held a subtle twinkle and you it was mrs w addressing me it is impressive i think i do not know as much of his work as i might i am sorry to say ah he is wonderful i am transported by the beauty and the depth of it all it was mrs w talking and i could not help rejoicing in the quality of her accent nothing is so pleasing to me in a woman of culture and refinement as that additional of which a foreign accent if only all the lovely women of the world could speak with a foreign a london drawing room accent in their native tongue i would like it better it a touch of not otherwise our luncheon party was complete now and we would probably have gone immediately into the dining room except for another picture by let me repeat here that before called my attention to s uncertainty in the london exhibition i had never heard of him here in a dark corner of the room was the of a girl her ribs showing her cheeks and sunken her nose a wasted point her eyes as hungry and sharp and as those of a bird her hair was really no hair strings and her thin bony arms and shoulders were pathetic decidedly morbid in their quality to add to the like aspect of the composition the picture was painted in a pale green key i wish to state here that now after some little lapse of time this conception the thought and execution of it is growing upon me i am not sure that this work which has rather haunted me is not much more than a protest the expression and of a great temperament but at the moment it struck me as dreary and i said as much when asked for my impression gloomy morbid mrs w fired in her quite lovely accent what has that to do with art luncheon is served madam the double doors of the dining room were flung open i found myself sitting between	43
certain social you know the type how like a sympathetic i thought to pick a lady of this character to associate with one always finds these opposing types together the thing that interested me was to see this charming little keeping up as smart a social form as her means would permit and stiu hoping after years of effort and considerable success to be taken up and made much of she could not have been made to believe that society in its last reaches is composed of and of soul which to no schools of the or the and knows neither flights of fancy nor delicacy and tenderness of emotion individuals like miss e think somehow that if they achieve a certain artistic success they will be admitted everywhere dear little miss e she could hardly have been persuaded that there are walls that are never by art and morality any more than or religion has nothing to do with some other walls force is the thing and the ultimate art force she did not possess if she had she would have been admitted to a certain in certain fields society a at forty is composed of slightly groups some members of which enter all most members of which never venture beyond their immediate individual circle and only the most catholic minded and energetic would attempt or care to bother with the labor of keeping in touch with more than one single agreeable circle another evening i went with to call on two professional critics one working in the field of literature the other in art exclusively i mention these two men and their labors because they were very interesting to me representing as they did two fields of artistic in london and both making moderate not large but sufficient to live on in a simple way they were men of as i discovered urgent thinking types of mind to a certain extent with life and fate and doing their best to read this very curious riddle of existence these two men lived in charming though small quarters not far from fashionable london on the fringe of respectability if not of it mr f was a man thirty two or thirty three years of age pale slender remote artistic mr was in character not unlike mr f i should have said though he was the older man artistic remote cultivated living and doing all the refined things on principle more than anything else it me now when i think of it for of course neither of these gentlemen cared for me in the least beyond a mild curiosity as to what i was like but they were exceedingly pleasant how did i like london what did i think of the english how did london contrast with new york what were some of the things i had seen i stated as as i could that i was puzzled in my mind as to what i did think as i am generally by this i i v i hoped for the day when the issue might he tried out physically calls called life while mr served an opening glass of port and i my feet before a delicious grate fire already as i have indicated in a way i had decided that england was deficient in the vitality which america now possesses certainly deficient in the raw imagination which is producing so many new things in america but far superior in what for want of a better phrase i must call social organization as it relates to social and commercial generally something has developed in the english social consciousness a sense of responsibility i really think that the english climate has had a great deal to do with this it is so uniformly damp and cold and raw that it has produced a sober minded race when subsequently i encountered the of paris rome and the i realized quite clearly how impossible it would be to produce the english temperament there one can see the dark moody passionate temperament of the italian to perfection under their brilliant skies the wine like atmosphere of paris speaks for itself london is what it is and the englishmen likewise because of the climate in which they have been reared i said something to this effect without calling forth much protest but when i ventured that the english might possibly be falling behind in the world s race and that other nations such as the and the americans might rapidly be them i a storm of opposition the mr f rose to this argument it began at the dinner table and was continued in the general living room later he at the suggestion that the could possibly conquer or england and hoped for the day when the issue might be tried out physically mr good spoke of the long way america had to go before it could achieve any social f v i a at forty importance even within itself it was a of foreign elements he had recently been to the united states and in one of the british then on the stands was a long estimate by him of america s weaknesses and he fun at the careless insulting manners of the people their love of show their love of praise no englishman having tasted the comforts of civilized life in england could ever live happily in america there was no such thing as a serving class he objected to american business methods as he had encountered them and i could see that he really disliked america to a certain extent he disliked me for being an american and resented my modest literary reputation for itself upon england i enjoyed these two men as exceedingly able men against whose wits i could my own i mention them because in a measure they suggested the literary and artistic atmosphere of london chapter x some more about london sings in my	43
ears i remember writing this somewhere about the fourth or fifth day of my stay it was delicious the sense of novelty and wonder it gave me i am one of those who have been raised on and and lamb but i must confess i found little to the world of vague impressions i had formed novels are a mere expression of temperament anyhow new york and america are all so new so of change here in these streets when you walk out of a morning or an evening you feel a pleasing london is not going to change under your very eyes you are not going to turn your back to find on looking again a whole sky line the city is in a way tender and sweet like an old song london is more and therefore less hopeful than new york one of the first things that impressed me as i have said was the tinge of smoke that was over everything a faint haze and the next that as a city street for street and square for square it was not so as new york or not nearly so harsh the traffic was less noisy the people more thoughtful and considerate the so called rush which new york less foolish there is something and ill about the street life of american cities this was not true here it struck me as simple thoughtful and i could only conclude that it sprang from a less stirring atmosphere of opportunity i fancy it is harder to i i a at forty get along in london people do not change from one thing to another so much the world there is more fixed in a pathetic routine and people are more conscious of their so called in so far as i could judge on so short a notice london seemed to me to represent a mood a uniform aware state of being neither brilliant nor gay anywhere though interesting always about square square cross and the strand i suppose the average would insist that london is very gay but i could not see it certainly it was not gay as similar sections in new york are gay it is not in the himself to be so he is solid hard a little dreary like a certain type of rain bird or northern content to make the best of a rather dreary situation i hope not but i felt it to be true i do not believe that it is given any writer to wholly suggest a city the mind is like a fish it would like to eat up all the experiences and characteristics of a city or a nation but this fortunately is not possible my own mind was busy at the gates of fact but during all the while i was there i got but a little way i remember being struck with the nature of st james s park which was near my hotel the great column to the duke of at the end of the street the whirl of life in square and which were both very near the offices i visited in various streets interested me and the storm of which whirled by all the corners of the region of my hotel it was described to me as the of london and i am quite sure it was for clubs hotels smart shops and the like were all here the heavy trading section was further east along the banks of the thames and between that and street where my little hotel was lay the financial section around st some more about london paul s cathedral and the bank of england one could go out of this great central world easily enough but it was only apparently to get into minor such as that about victoria station liverpool street and the elephant and castle i may be mistaken but london did not seem either so hard or foreign to me as new york i have lived in new york for years and years and yet i do not feel that it is i my city one always feels in new york for some son as though he might be put out or even thrown out there is such a perpetual and heavy invasion of the stranger here in london i could not help feeling as though things were rather stable and that i was welcome in the world s great empire city on almost any basis on which i wished myself taken that sense of civility and courtesy to which i have already so often referred was everywhere noticeable in mail men clerks servants alas when i think of new york how its in contrast me at home i do not mind with all the others i endure it here in london for the first time in almost any great city i really felt at home but the distances and the various of streets and the endless directions in which one could go lord lord how they confounded me it may seem odd to make separate comment on something so thoroughly involved with everything else in a trip of this kind as the streets of london but nevertheless they contrasted so strangely with those of other cities i have seen that i am forced to comment on them for one thing they are seldom straight for any distance and they change their names as frequently and as unexpectedly as a thief bond street speedily becomes old bond street or new bond street according to the direction in which you are going and i never could see why the strand should turn o a at forty into fleet street as it went along and then into hill and then into cannon street neither could i understand why road should change to mile end road but that is neither here nor there the thing that interested me about london was that	43
it was endless and that there were no high buildings nothing over four or five stories as a rule though now and then you actually find eight and nine story buildings and that it was and simple and sad in some respects i remember thinking how gloomy were some of the figures i saw here and there in the smoke streets and the open park spaces i never saw such sickly shabby run down at the heels decayed figures in all my life figures from which all sap and and the freshness of youth and even manhood had long since departed men and women they were who seemed to out of and where could be neither light nor freshness nor any sense of hope or care but only eloquent misery merciful heaven i said to myself more than once is this the figure of a man that is what life does to some of us it us as dry as the wheat and leaves us to blow in wintry winds or it us and allows us to and decay within our own skins but mostly i have separate vivid pictures of london individual things that i saw idle things that i did which cheer and amuse and please me even now whenever i think of them thus i recall venturing one noon into one of the just above street in and being struck with the size and importance of it even though it was intensely middle class it was a great chamber decorated after the fashion of a palace ball room with immense of glass hanging from the ceiling and a balcony furnished in cream and gold where other tables were set some more about london i and where a large played during lunch and dinner an enormous crowd of very commonplace people were there clerks minor officials small shop and the bill of fare was composed of many homely dishes such as beef and pie and the like combined with others bearing high sounding french names i mention this because there were several quite like it and because it to an element not reached in quite the same way in america in spite of the lifted eyebrows with which greeted my announcement that i had been there the food was excellent and the service while a little slow for a place of popular patronage was good i recall being amused by the tall thin solemn english head in frock coats leading the exceedingly customers to their tables the english with his hat was here in evidence and the minor clerk i found great pleasure in studying this world listening to the music and thinking of the vast of london which it represented for every institution of this kind represents a perfect world of people another afternoon i went to the new roman catholic cathedral in westminster to hear a century chant which was given between two and three by a company of who were attached to the church in the london atmosphere a church of this size takes on great gloom and the sound of these voices rolling about in it was very impressive religion seems of so little avail these days however that i wondered why money should be invested in any such structure or or why able evidently men should concern themselves with any such there were scarcely a half dozen people present if so many and yet this vast edifice echoes every a at forty day at this hour with these voices a company of twenty or thirty fat who seemingly might be engaged in something better of religion the spirit as opposed to the form one might well guess that there was little from the cathedral i took a and bustling down victoria street past the houses of parliament and into the strand came eventually to st paul s although it was only four o clock this huge structure was growing dusky and the of and were already dim the allowed me to sit in the choir with the a company of boys who entered after a time headed by and and possibly a a solitary circle of electric gloomily overhead by the light of this we were able to make out the covering this service the and prayers which swept through the building as in the roman catholic cathedral i was impressed with the darkness and space and also though not so much for some reason inclination perhaps with the of the there are some eight million people in london but there were only twenty five or thirty here and i was told that this service was never much more popular on occasions the church is full enough full to overflowing but not at this time of day the best that i could say for it was that it had a lovely artistic import which ought to be encouraged and no doubt it is so viewed by those in authority as a spectacle seen from the thames or other sections of the city the dome of st paul s is impressive and as an example of english architecture it is dignified though in my judgment not to be compared with either or but the interesting company of noble dead the fact that the public now looks upon it as a national and that it is a monument to the genius of some more about london makes it worth while compared with other i saw its chief charm was its individuality in actual beauty it is greatly surpassed by the pure or or greek examples of other cities one evening i went with a friend of mine to visit the house of parliament that noble pile of buildings on the banks of the thames for days i had been about them interested in other things the clock tower with its great round clock face twenty three feet in	43
some one told me had been staring me in the face over a stretch of park space and intervening buildings on such evenings as parliament was in and i frequently with myself whether i should trouble to go or not even if some one invited me i grow so weary of standard completed things at times however i did go it came about through the hon t p o m p an old admirer of sister who hearing that i was in london invited me he had just finished reading the night i met him and i shall never forget the kindly glow of his face as on meeting me in the dining room of the house of he exclaimed ah the of that poor girl and how charming she was too ah me ah me i can hear the soft in his voice yet and see the gay romance of his irish eye are not the irish all anyhow i had been out in various poor sections of the city all day on that shabby mass that have nothing know nothing dream nothing or do they it was most as dark fell to return through long humble streets alive with a home hurrying mass of people clouds of people not knowing whence they came or why and now i was to return and go to dine where the laws are made for all england a at forty i was escorted by another friend a mr m since dead who was when i reached the hotel quite disturbed lest we be late i like the man who takes society and social forms seriously though i would not be that man for all the world m was one such he was if you please a for law and order the houses of parliament and the of the hon t p o meant much to him i can see o s friendly comprehensive eye understanding it all understanding in his deep literary way why it should be so as i hurried through westminster hall the great general entrance once itself the ancient parliament of england the scene of the of edward h of the condemnation of charles i of the trial of and the of the head of i was thinking thinking thinking what is a place like this anyhow but a of names if you know history the long strange of steps or actions by which life wise from nothing to nothing you know that it is little more than this the present places are the thing the present forms and that dream of the mind which makes it all into something as i walked through into central hall where we had to wait until mr o was found i studied the high arches the walls the figures of the general it was all rich gilded dark lovely and about me was a room full of men all with a sense of their own importance lords possibly call boys and here and there persons crying of division division while a bell somewhere there s a vote on observed mr m perhaps they won t find him right away never mind he come he did come finally with after his first greetings a some more about london well now we ate drink and be merry and then we went in at table being an old member of parliament he explained many things swiftly and how the buildings were arranged the number of members the and the like he was he told me a member from liverpool which by the way returns some irish members which struck me as rather strange for an english city not at all not at all the english like the irish at times he added softly i have just been out in your east end i said trying to find out how tragic london is and i think my mood has made me a little color blind it s rather a dreary world i should say and i often wonder whether law making ever helps these people he smiled that genial smile of the irish that always the bland acceptance of things as they are and tries to make the best of a bad mess yes it s bad and nothing could possibly suggest the of a that went with this but it s no worse than some of your american cities fall river trust the irish to hand you an intellectual you re another conditions in are as bad as anywhere i think but it s true the east end is pretty bad you want to remember that it s typical london winter weather we re having and london smoke makes those gray buildings look rather forlorn it s true but there s some comfort there as there is everywhere my old irish father was one for thinking that we all have our rewards here or hereafter perhaps theirs is to be hereafter and he rolled his eyes and an able man this full as i knew from reading his a at forty weekly and his books of a deep kindly understanding of life but one who despite his knowledge of the of existence refused to be cast down he was going up the shortly in a house boat with a party of wealthy friends and he told me that george the champion of the poor was just making off for a winter on the but that i might if i would come some morning have breakfast with him he was sure that the great would be glad to see me he wanted me to call at his rooms his london official offices as it were at and have a pleasant talk with him which i did while he was in the midst of it the call of division sounded once more through the halls and he ran to take his place with his fellow on some question of	43
vital importance i can see him bustling away in his long frock coat his in his hand ready to be counted yea or nay as the case might be afterwards when he had for me a tour in ireland which i must sometime take he took us up into the members gallery of the in order to see how wonderful it was and we sat as solemn as contemplating the rather interesting scene below i cannot say that i was seriously impressed the hall of i thought was small and not so large as the house of representatives at washington by any means in delicious irish whispers he explained a little concerning the arrangement of the place the seat of the speaker was at the north end of the chamber on a straight line with the sacred wool sack of the house of lords in another part of the building however important that may be if i would look under the rather shadowy at the north end of this extremely square chamber i some more about london would see him imder an immense white wig he explained in front of the was a table the speaker s table with the speaker s official lying upon it to the right of the speaker were the recognized seats of the government party the ministers occupying the front bench and then he pointed out to me mr george mr law member and leader of the opposition and mr all men creating a great stir at the time they were whispering and smiling in genial concert while opposite them on the left hand of the speaker where the opposition was gathered some m p from the north i understood a noble lord was delivering one of those intellectual in which the british are fond of indulging i could not see him from where i sat but i could see him just the same i knew that he was standing very straight in the most suitable clothes for the occasion his linen one hand poised gracefully ready to some rather obscure point while he stated in the best english why this and this must be done every now and then at a suitable point in his argument some friendly and equally intelligent member would give voice to a soothing or of the four hundred and seventy six provided seats i fancy something like over four hundred were vacant their occupants being out in the dining rooms or off in those adjoining chambers where confer during hours that are not pressing and where they are sought at the call for a division i do not presume however that they were all in any so safe or sane places i mock reproachfully asked mr o why he was not in his seat and he said in good irish me boy there are in every i be there me vote is wanted a at forty we came away finally through long passages and towering rooms where i paused to admire the intricate the splendid and the tier upon tier of kings and queens in their respective there was for me a flavor of great romance over it all i could not help thinking that as it all might be such joys and glories as we have are thus out of the dull of half articulate members the of and come such laws and such as best express the moods of the time of the british or any other empire i have no great faith in laws to me they are ill fitting garments at best traps and mental catch for the only but i thought as i came out into the city again it is a strange world these clock towers and halls will sometime fall into decay the dome of our own capital will be rent and broken and through its ragged will fall the of the moon but life does not depend upon or men chapter xi the thames as pleasing hours as any that i spent in london were connected with the thames a little stream above london bridge compared with such vast bodies as the and the but utterly delightful i saw it on several occasions once in a driving rain off london bridge where twenty thousand were passing in the hour it was said once afterward at night when the boats below were faint wind driven lights and the crowd on the bridge black shadows i followed it in the rain from black bridge to the giant plant of the general electric company at one afternoon and thought of sir thomas more and henry who married anne at the old church near bridge and wondered what they would think of this modern what a change from henry and sir thomas more to vast whirling electric and a london system another afternoon bleak and rainy i the section lying between black bridge and tower bridge and found it very interesting from a human to say nothing of a river point of view i question whether in some ways it is not the most interesting region in london though it gives only occasional glimpses of the river london is curious it is very modern in spots it is too much like new york and and philadelphia and boston but here between black bridge and the tower along upper and lower thames street i found some a at forty thing that delighted me it of of charles ii of old england and of a great many forgotten far off things which i felt but could not readily call to mind it was delicious this narrow winding street with high walls high because the street was so narrow and alive with people along under or walking in the rain lights were burning in all the stores and dark recesses running back to the restless tide of the thames and they were full of an industrious commercial life it was interesting to me	43
to think that i was in the of so much that was old but for the exact details i confess i cared little here the thames was especially delightful it presented such odd i watched the tumbling tide of water whipped by wind where moderate sized and were going by in the mist and rain it was delicious artistic far more significant than and sunlight could have made it i took note of the houses the the quaint winding passages but for the color and charm they did not compare with the indescribable mass of working boys and girls and men and women which moved before my gaze the mouths of many of them were weak their noses their eyes their their ears their flat most of them had a look but for interest they were american working crowds may be much more but not more interesting i could not weary of looking at them lastly i followed the river once more all the way from s needle to one heavily afternoon and found its mood varying splendidly though never once was it anything more than black gray changing at times from a pale or almost yellow to a solid leaden black hue it looked at times as though the thames something remarkable were about to happen so yellow was the sky above the water and the tall chimneys of over the way appearing and disappearing in the mist were irresistible there is a certain kind of which up and down the thames with a mast and sail which looks for all the world like something off the these boats with the smoke and the gray skies i was never weary of looking at them in the changing light and mist and rain over the water here very freely all the way from black to and along the they sat in scores solemnly the state of the weather perhaps i was delighted with the picture they made in places greedy wide winged artistic things finally i had a novel experience with these same one sunday afternoon i had been out all morning strange sections of london and arrived near black bridge about one o clock i was attracted by what seemed to me at first glance thousands of lovely clouds of them about the heads of several different men at various points along the wall it was too beautiful to miss it reminded me of the about the steamer at i drew near the first man i saw was feeding them out of a small box he had purchased for a penny throwing the tiny fish aloft in the air and letting the for them they ate from his hand above and about his head walked on the wall before him their bills and salmon pink feet showing delightfully i was delighted and hurried to the second it was the same i found the of small near by a man who sold them for this purpose and purchased a few boxes instantly i became the of another cloud and in hungry an a at forty it was a great sight finally i threw out the last tossing them all high in the air and seeing not one escape while i meditated on the speed of these birds which while scarcely moving a wing rise and fall with incredible swiftness it is a matter of gliding up and down with them i left my head full of birds the thames forever fixed in mind i went one morning in search of the tower and coming into the neighborhood of witnessed that peculiar scene which concerns fish fish or at least their always look as though they had never known a bath and are covered with and scales and here they wore a peculiar kind of rubber hat on which or of fish could be carried the hats were quite flat and round and reminded me of a smashed as the silk hat has been called the peasant habit of carrying bundles on the head was here to be a common characteristic of london on another morning i visited and the neighborhood of square i was delighted with the of life i found there particularly in ground and street horse road touched me as a name and street was strangely suggestive of a hospital not a wolf it was here that i encountered my first cart drawn by the little donkey you ever saw his ears standing up most nobly and his eyes suggesting the mellow philosophy of indifference the load he hauled spread out on a large table like rack and arranged neatly in baskets consisted of vegetables potatoes and the like a merchant or followed in the wake of the cart calling out his wares he was not arrayed in uniform however as it has been pictured in america i was delighted to the thames listen to the accent in ground where ere you are could be constantly heard and these ere madam in earl street i found an old cab yard now turned into a where the of a church tower were visible tucked away among the of other things i did my best to discover of what it had been a part no one knew the ex now washing the wheels of an informed me that he had only been ere a little and the could not remember but it suggested a very ancient english world as early as the just beyond this again i found the little chapel part of an abandoned machine shop with a small hand bell over the door which was rung by means of a piece of common binding who could possibly hear it i reflected inside was a chapel filled with benches constructed of store boxes and provided with an altar where some form of services was conducted there was no one to guard the shabby of the place and i sat down and meditated at length on the	43
curiosity of the religious ideal in another section of the city where i walked and still another seven kings i found conditions which i thought those in the new york in in and elsewhere i could not see any difference between the lines of store front apartment houses in seven kings and and shepherd s bush for that matter and those in or the south end of philadelphia you saw the difference when you looked at the people and if you entered a tavern america was gone on the instant the settled that and the peculiar type of found here i recall in seven kings being entertained by the appearance of the work a at forty ing men assembled their trousers about the knees their hats or caps pulled always the english accent was strong and at times here in london it became unintelligible to me they have a of their own in the main i could make it out allowing for the appearance or disappearance of h s at the most unexpected moments the street cars in the sections are quite the same as in america and the variety of stores about as large and bright in the older portions however the twisting streets the presence of the in great numbers and of the stands at the more frequented corners the peculiar of mail men street dressed like messenger boys and the varied of the gave the great city an individuality which caused me to realize clearly that i was far from home a stranger in a strange land as charming as any of the spectacles i witnessed were the scotch soldiers in bare legs and the like swinging along with a heavy stride like horses or singly making love to a english girl on a top perhaps the english for was another thing that engaged my curious attention and why any reference to a mystic and humorous character known as dirty dick should such volumes of applause chapter xii after i had been at level four or five days suggested that i visit which was quite near by on the thames a place which he said fairly represented the typical small country town of the old school you will see there something which is not so generally common now in england as it was a type of life which is changing greatly i think and perhaps you had better see that now before you see much more i promised to go and gave positive instructions as to how this was to be achieved i was to say to the maid when i would be ready promptly at that hour one of the boys was to come and escort me to some point in the road where i could see from there i was to be allowed to proceed alone you won t want to be with any company so just send him back you find it very interesting the afternoon had up so beautifully that i decided i must go out of doors i was sick of writing i gave notice to the maid at luncheon that i should want one of the boys for a guide at three o clock and at ten minutes of the hour entered my room with the air of a soldier when shall you be ready for your walk to he asked in his stately tone in just ten minutes now and have you any objection to our walking to with you are there two of you ii i a at forty yes my brother charles and myself none whatever your father doesn t mind he no he does n t mind so at three and charles appeared at the window their faces were eager with anticipation and i went at once to get my cap and coat we struck out along a road between green grass and although it was december you would have thought it april or may the atmosphere was warm and tinged with the faintest most delicate haze a lovely green moss very fine like powdered salt was visible on the trunks of the trees were in the air and an english robin is a solemn looking bird on the i heaved a breath of delight for after days of rain and chill this burst of golden light was most delicious on the way as i was looking about i was being called upon to answer questions such as are there any trees like these in do you have such fine weather in are the roads as good as this in quite as good as this i replied referring to the one on which we were walking for it was a little muddy the way lay through a patch of nearly trees the ground strewn thick with leaves and the sun breaking in a golden shower through the branches i laughed for joy at being alive the hour was so fine presently after going down a bank so steep that it was impossible not to run if you attempted to walk fast we came to an open field the west border of which was protected by a line of the banks of a which gave into the thames somewhere below the small bridge over which we passed was fastened a small that quaint little boat so common on the thames beyond that was a very wide field fully twenty acres square with a yellow path running across it and at the end of this path was in the meantime my young friends insisted on discussing the possibility of war between america and england and i was kept busy assuring them that england would not be able to do anything at all with the united states the united states was so vast i said it was full of such smart people while england was attempting to do something with its giant navy we should be buying or	43
i remember going into one where an inn might once have been and finding in there a shop a tin shop a store room of some kind and a stable all invisible from the street do you recall description of busy inn scenes you came into this one under the chamber belonging to a house which was built over the entry way there was no one visible inside though a man did cross the court finally with a wheel spoke in his hand one of the houses or shops had a little circular on it quite white and pretty and surmounted by a faded weather cock how lovely i said how lovely but i was as sad as i could be in the stores in the main street were always small many windows there were no lights as yet and the rooms into which i peered and the private doors gave glimpses of things which reminded me of the poorest most backward and desolate sections of our own country i saw an here and there not many and some girls on not very good looking say what you will you could not find an atmosphere like this loi in an american town however small unless it had already been practically abandoned it would not contain a contented population of three or four hundred instead of i saw wine and spirit merchants and also mrs jane wine and spirit dealer the butcher shops were the most american things i saw because their ruddy goods were all displayed in front with good lights behind and the next best things were the stores stores wine shops anything and everything were apparently concealed by solid gray walls or at best revealed by small windows in the fading afternoon i walked about hunting for schools some fine private houses some sense of but no it was not there i noticed that in two directions the town came abruptly to an end as though it had been cut off by a knife and smooth open green fields began in the distance you could see other towns standing out like the walls of earlier centuries but here was an end sharp definite final i saw at one place the end of one of these streets and where the country began an old gray man in a shabby black coat bending to a yoke to his shoulders to the ends of which were attached two filled with water he had been into a low gray inn entitled ye bank of england before which was set a bench and also a stone post for all the world he looked like some old man in hardy his fading way homeward i said to my f self here england is old it is evening in england and they are tired i went back toward the heart of things along another street but i found after a time it was merely taking me to another outer corner of the town it was gray now and i was saying to my young companions that they must i a at forty be hurrying on home that i did not intend to go back so soon say i will not be home for dinner i told them and they left after a time blessed with some modern which they very much before they left however we another street and this led me past low one story houses the like of which i insist can rarely be in america do you recall the log cabin in england it is preserved in stone block after block of it it originated there the people as i went along seemed so thick and stolid and silent to me they were healthy enough i thought but they were raw uncouth there was not a suggestion of gaiety anywhere not a single burst of song i heard no one whistling a man came up behind us driving some cattle and the oxen were quite upon me before i heard them but there were no loud cries he was so serious i met a man pushing a baby carriage he was a of knives and of and this was his method of his i met another man pushing a hand cart with some of furniture in it what is that i asked what is he oh he s somebody who s moving he has n t a van you know moving here was food for pathetic reflection i looked into low dark doors where humble little tin and glass lamps were beginning to thank god my life is different from this i said and yet the pathos and the beauty of this town was me firmly it was as sweet as a lay out of as sad as before a butcher shop i saw a man trying to round up a small drove of sheep the yellow of their round backs blended with the twilight they seemed to sense their impending doom for they ran here and there their queer thin noses along the ground or in the air and refusing to enter the low gray entry way which gave into a yard at the back where were the deadly they feared the farmer who was driving them wore a long black coat and he made no sound or scarcely any he called softly as he ran here and there this way and that the butcher or his assistant came out and caught one sheep possibly the bell by the leg and hauled him backward into the yard seeing this the silly sheep not the enforced followed after could there be a more convincing on the probable manner in which the customs and forms of life have originated i walked out another long street quite alone now in the dusk and met a man driving an ox also evidently to market there was a school in at one place	43
s rather curious to me it s one of the poorest i know certainly the poorest i stop at there is no life to speak of here at all if you want to see a typical english town where there s more life and business you want to see or no no you mustn t judge england by this i suppose you re to see things you re not english i see no i m from america i come from new york i had a strong notion before i came to london to go to america after i left school and to have heard him pronounce school alone would have settled his identity for those who know the scotch some of my friends went there but i decided not i thought i d try london instead and i m glad i did you like it oh yes from a money point i do i make perhaps fifty per cent more than i did in scotland but i may say too it costs me almost fifty per cent more to live he said this with a sigh i could see scotch sticking out all over him an interesting little man he proved very intelligent very cautious very saving you could see early religious training and keen desire to get up in the world in his every gesture we fell into a most interesting conversation to me for knowing so little of england i was anxious to know more despite the of my companion and his manner i found him entertaining he wanted to know what i thought of england and i told him as much as i could judge by a few days stay he told me something of london life its streets sections and so on and asked a great many questions about america he had the ability to listen which is a fine sign he wanted to know particularly what receive in america and how far their money goes he was interested to know the difference between english and american by this time the meal had ended and we were our toes before the fire we were quite friendly it s some little distance back to my place and i think i be going i said i don t know whether i really know how to get there but i try i understand there is no direct railroad connection between here and there i may not be able to find my way at night as it is well i walk with you a little way if you don t io a at forty mind he replied i have nothing else to do the idea of companionship soothed me walking around alone and standing in the market place looking at the men had given me the i felt particularly lonely at moments being away from america for the difference in standards of taste and action the difference in modes of thought and practice and the difference in money and the sound of human voices was growing on me when you have lived in one country all your life and found yourself comfortable in all its ways and notions and then suddenly find yourself out of it and trying to yourself to things that are different in a hundred little ways it is rather hard that s very nice of you i d like to have you and out we went paying our bills and looking into a misty night the moon was up but there was a fairly heavy fog and looked and gray because i stated i had not been in any of the public houses and was interested to go he volunteered to accompany me though i could see that this was against his principles i don t drink myself he observed but i will go in with you if you want to here s one we entered and found a rather dimly lighted room gas with a mantle over it set with small tables and chairs and a short bar in one corner mrs s bar had been short too only her room was and small a middle sized englishman rather stout came out of a rear door opening from behind the bar and asked us what we would have my friend asked for root beer i noticed the open fire and the array of pink and green and blue wine glasses also the machinery for beer and ale from a most and glowing sight our host sold cigars and there were boards about on the tables for some simple games this and a half dozen other places into which we ventured gave me the true spirit of s common life i recalled at once the vast difference between this and the average american small town saloon in the latter heaven preserve us from it the trade might be greater or it might not but the room would be larger the bar larger the flies dirt abominable i hope i am not a worthy class but the american saloon keeper of small town has always had a kind of horror for me the implements of his trade have always been so and ill kept the american place would be apt to be i am thinking of places in towns of the same size our host was no more like an american than a bee is like a net he was a peaceful looking man homely family marked decidedly dull your american country is another sort more intelligent perhaps but less civil less sensible and looking the two places were miles apart in quality and feeling here in and elsewhere in england wherever i had occasion to inspect them the public houses of the small town type were a great improvement over the american variety they were clean and and cheerful the array of brass the fire the small tables for games all pleased me i took it to be a place more	43
used as a country club or meeting house than as in our case a resort if there were drunken men or women in any of the this night i did not see them my scotch friend assured me that he believed them ordinarily to be fairly respectable not knowing my way through the woods adjacent and having spent much time in this way i finally decided to take a train or conveyance of some kind but there was no a at forty no train to be had for some time to come the trains there were did not run my way and no fly would convey me as one bar mistress informed me because there was a hard hill to climb and the rain which had fallen during the day had made the roads bad i began to returning to the inn finally the lady observed i can tell you how to get there if you want to walk it s not more than an hour and it is a perfectly good road all the way she drew with her finger an outline of the of the road if you re not afraid of a few there s nothing to harm you you go to the bridge up here cross it and take the first road to your left when you come to a about a mile out you will find three roads dividing there one goes down the hollow to somewhere i forgot the name one goes up the hill to level it s a bridle path and one goes to the right it s a smooth even road that s the one you want it was a lovely night the moon overhead was dear and bright and the fog gave the fields a white look as we walked my friend me with what he said was a peculiar custom among english men at all english there is what is known as the men s club the man who has been present at any inn on any stated occasion for the greatest number of hours or days is president of this club the man who has been there next longest if only for ten minutes less than the first or more than the third is vice president every inn serves what is known as the man s dinner at twelve o clock or and he who is president by virtue of the above described is entitled to sit at the head of the table and and serve the roast the vice president if there be one sits at the foot of the iii table and and serves the fowl when there are two or more men present enough to provide a president and a vice president for this dinner there is a regular order of to be observed the president arriving takes his seat first at the head of the table the vice president then takes his place at the foot of the table the president when the roast beef is served lifts the cover of the dish and says mr vice president we have here i see some roast beef the vice president then lifts the cover of his dish and says mr president we have here i see some roast goose gentlemen then says the president bowing to the others present the dinner is for all and begins serving the roast the vice president later does his duty in turn the next day in all the vice president or some other becomes president and so it goes my little was most interested in telling me this for it appealed to his fancy as it did to mine and i could see he the honor of being president in his turn it was while he was telling this that we saw before us three paths the middle one and the one to the right going up through the dark woods the one to the left merely the woods and keeping out in the light let s see it s the left you want is n t it he asked no it s the right i replied i think she said the left he well anyhow here s a sign post you lift me up and i read what it says it was n t visible from the ground i caught him about the legs and hoisted him aloft and he peered closely at all three signs he was a light little man you re right he said we shook hands and wished each other luck he struck off back along the road he had come in the fog i tt a at forty and i mounted through the woods it was dark and delightfully the fog in the trees struck by the moonlight looking like moving ghosts i went on gaily expecting to hear a owl but not one sounded after perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes of walking i came out into the open road and then i found that i really did not know where level was after all there was no sign i went from house to house in the moonlight it was after midnight rousing drowsy englishmen who courteously gave me directions and facing dogs who stood in the open and i had to push one barking guardian out of the way with my hands all was silent as a church yard finally i came to a family of americans who were newly for the winter not far from level and they put me right i recall the comment of the woman who opened the door you re an american are n t you and the interest she took in being sure that i would find my way when i finally reached my door i paused in the garden to survey the fog lined valley from which came the distant bark of a dog chapter xiii a girl of the streets stood one evening in at the dinner hour staring into the	43
bright shop windows london s display of and gold and silver ornaments interests me intensely it was and i had no umbrella yet that situation soon ceases to annoy one in england i walked on into street and stopped under an arc light to watch the home crowds the clerks men and women the boys and girls the thought was with me as i walked in the rain where shall i dine how shall i do it i wandered through new bond street and looking idly at the dark stores as i came back along i saw two girls arm in arm pass by one of them looked over her shoulder at me and smiled she was of medium size and simply dressed she was pretty in the fresh english way with large too innocent eyes the girls paused before a shop window and as i stopped beside them and looked at the girl who had smiled she edged over toward me and i spoke to her would n t you like to take the two of us she asked with that quaint odd accent of the her voice was soft and her eyes were as blue and weak in their force as any girl s might well be this girl is n t hard and vulgar i said to myself i suppose we all pride ourselves on knowing something of character in women i thought i did no i replied rather directly to her question a at forty not to night but let s you and i go somewhere for dinner would you mind my friend a she asked not at all i replied there you are it was a wet night chill and dreary and on second thought i made it half a crown the second girl went away a girl with a thin white face and i turned to my companion now i said what shall we do it was nearly eight o clock and i was wondering where i could go with such a girl to dine her clothes i perceived were a mere her suit was of blue worn shiny she wore the kind of a feather and her hat was pathetic but the color of her cheeks was that wonderful apple color of the english and her eyes really her eyes were quite a triumph of nature soft and deep blue and not very self poor little storm blown soul i thought as i looked at her your life is n t much a vague thing in the softer sense of that word you have a chilly future before you she looked as though she might be nineteen let s see i have you had your dinner i asked no sir where is there a good not too smart you know well there s l s corner house oh yes where is that do you go there yourself occasionally oh yes quite often it s very nice i think we might go there i said still on second thought i don t think we will just now where is the place you go to the place you take your friends it s at no great street a girl of the streets it tt is that an apartment or a hotel it s a flat sir my flat the lady lets me bring my friends there if you like though we could go to a hotel perhaps it would be better i could see that she was uncertain as to what i would think of her apartment and where is the hotel is that nice it s pretty good sir not so bad i smiled she was holding a small umbrella over her head we had better take a and get out of this rain i put up my hand and hailed one we got in the driver obviously that this was a street but giving no sign london drivers like london are the pink of civility this girl was civil obliging i was her with the and the american type generally hard cynical little animals the english from to queens must have an innate sense of fair play in the social relationship of live and let live i say this in all sincerity and with the utmost feeling of respect for the nation that has produced it they ought to rule by right of courtesy alas i fear me greatly that the force and speed of the american his disregard for civility and the waste of time involved will change all this in the i did not touch her though she moved over near to me in that desire to play her line by line scene by scene have we far to go i asked not very only a little way how much ought the cab charge to be not more than eight or ten pence sir then do you like girls sir she asked in a very human effort to be pleasant under the circumstances no i replied lying cautiously it it ti ii a at forty she looked at me a little over awed i think i was surely a strange fish to swim into her net anyhow very likely you don t like me then i am not sure that i do how should i know i never saw you before in my life i must say you have mighty nice eyes was my rather reply do you think so she gave me a look what are you i asked i m she replied i did n t think you were english exactly your tone is softer the stopped abruptly and we got out it was a shabby looking building with a tea or coffee room on the ground floor divided into small rooms separated by thin cheap wooden the woman who came to change me a half sovereign in order that i might pay the driver was french small and	43
looking she was pleasant and brisk and her whole attitude reassured me at once she did not look like a person who would to rob and i had good reason to think more clearly of this as we came out later this way said my street girl we go up here and i followed her up two flights of stairs into a small dingy room it was clean after the french fashion it s not so bad she asked with a touch of pride no not at all will you pay for the room please the landlady had followed and was standing by i asked how much and found i was to be charged five shillings which seemed a modest sum the girl locked the door as the landlady went out and began taking off her hat and jacket she stood before a girl of the streets me with half half eyes she was a slim graceful shabby figure and a note of pathos came out unexpectedly in a little air of as she rested one hand on her hip and smiled at me i was standing in front of the below which was the grate ready to be fired the girl stood beside me and watched and plainly wondered she was beginning to suspect that i was not there on the usual errand her eyes so curiously soft and blue began to me her hair i noticed was brown but coarse and dusty not well kept these poor little creatures know absolutely nothing of the art of living or fascination they are the in life mere of beauty and living on sit down please i said she obeyed like a child so you re what part of wales do you come from she told me some name what were your parents poor i suppose indeed not she with that quaint country accent my father was a he had three stores i don t believe it i said you women lie so i don t believe you re telling me the truth it was brutal but i wanted to get beneath the conventional lies these girls tell if i could why not her clear eyes looked into mine oh i don t you don t look to me like the daughter of a man who owned three stores that would mean he was well to do you don t expect me to believe that with you leading this life in london she vaguely but without force believe it or not she said sullenly it s so tell me i said how much can you make out of this business oh sometimes more sometimes less i don t walk ii a at forty every day you know i only walk when i have to if i pick up a gentleman and if he gives me a good lot i don t walk very soon again not until that s gone i i don t like to very much what do you call a good lot oh all sorts of sums i have been given as high as six pounds that is n t true i said you know it is n t true you re talking for effect the girl s face flushed it is true as i m alive it s true it was n t in this very room but it was in this house he was a rich american he was from new york all americans have money and he was drunk yes all americans may have money i smiled but they don t go round spending it on such as you in that way you re not worth it she looked at me but no angry rage sprang to her eyes it s true just the same she said meekly you don t like women do you she asked no not very much you re a woman that s what you are i ve seen such not a woman no simply not very much interested in them she was perplexed uncertain i began to repent of my and lighted the fire cost one shilling we drew up chairs before it and i plied her with questions she told me of the police which permit a woman to go with a man if he speaks to her first without being arrested not otherwise and of the large number of women who are in the business is the great walking ground i after one o clock in the morning a girl of the streets square and the regions adjacent between seven and eleven there is another place in the east end i don t recall where where the poor jews and others walk but they are a dreadful lot she assured me the girls are lucky if they get three shillings and they are poor miserable i thought at the time if she would look down on them what must they be then somehow because the conversation was getting friendly i fancy this little girl decided perhaps that i was not so severe as i seemed experience had trained her to think constantly of how much money she could extract from men not the normal fee there is little more than a poor living in that but extravagant sums which produce fine clothes and jewels according to their estimate of these things it is an old story other women had told her of their those who know anything of women the street type know how often this is tried she told the customary story of the man who picked her up and having escorted her to her room offered her a pound when three or four pounds or a much larger sum even was expected the result was of course according to her dreadful for the man she created a great scene broke some over his head and caused a general uproar in the house it is an	43
should say or better yet a world in which never had a chance to grow the women were the birds of prey cold weary angry dull sad perhaps the men were victims of desire without the ability to understand how weary and disgusted the women were who sought to satisfy them no clear understanding of life on either side no suggestion of delicacy or romance no of or parade rather coarse hard in which robbery and abuse and bitter play a part i know of nothing so ghastly so suggestive of a totally dead spirit so bitter a comment on life and love and youth and hope as a street girl s weary commercial cry of sweetheart from this first place we went to others not so good told me it is a poor world i do not attempt to explain it the man or woman of passion is much better off as for those others how much are they themselves to blame circumstances have so large a part in it i think all in all it is a deadly hell hole and yet i know that talking is not going to reform it life in my judgment does not reform the world is old passion in all classes is about the same we think this shabby world is worst because it is shabby but is it isn t it merely that we are different used to different things i think so after buying her a large box of i hailed a and took my little girl home to her shabby room and left her she was very gay she had been made quite a little of since we started from the region of rooms her purse was now the richer by three pounds her opinion had been asked her advice taken she had been a girl of the streets allowed to order i had tried to make her feel that i admired her a little and that i was sorry for her a little at her door in the rain i told her i might use some of this experience in a book sometime she said send me a copy of your book will i be in it yes send it to me will you if you re here oh i ii be here i don t move often poor little i thought how long how long will she be here before she goes down before the grim shapes that in her dreary path disease despair death it chapter xiv london the east end as interesting as any days that i spent in were two in the east end though i am sorry to add more details to those just all my life i had heard of this particular section as grim a and sea of and depressed life nothing like the east end of london i have heard people say and before i left i expected to look over it of course my desire to do so was by a conversation i had with the poet john who if i remember rightly had once lived in the extreme east end of london he had talked of the curious physical condition of the people which he described as or little intelligence in the first place according to him seemed to be breeding less and less intelligence as time went on poverty lack of wits lack of ambition were such things are easy to say no one can really tell even more interesting to me was the proffered information concerning east end amusements calf eating singing races pigeon eating i was told it would be hard to indicate how simple minded the people were in many things and yet how low and dark in their moods physical and moral i got a suggestion of this some days later when i discovered in connection with the police courts that every little while the court room is cleared in order that terrible almost testimony may be taken what he said to me london the east end somehow suggested the atmosphere of the those crimes that had thrilled the world a few years before i must confess that my first impression was one of disappointment america is and its typical east side and conditions are also there is no degradation that i have ever seen in america the east side of new york is unquestionably one of the spots in the world if not the worst it is so full of children so full of hope too i was surprised to find how distinctly different are the two of poverty in new york and london on my first visit i took the or to st mary s station and getting out all that region which lies between there and the great eastern railway station and green and i also green it was a chill gray january day the london haze was gray and heavy quite almost at once i noticed that this region which i was in instead of being and as in america was peculiarly quiet the houses as in all parts of london were exceedingly low two and three stories with occasional four and buildings for but all built out of that gray brick which when properly smoked has such a sad and yet effective air the streets were not narrow as in new york s east side quite the contrary but the difference in crowds color noise life was in new york the east side streets as i have said are almost invariably crowded here they were almost empty the low doors and occasional figures who were either thin or shabby or dirty or sickly but a crowd was not visible anywhere they seemed to me to along in a half hearted way and i for one experienced no sense of i a at forty of any kind only a low despair the people looked too meek too law	43
governed the policeman must be an immense power in london vice yes poverty yes i saw young boys and girls with bodies which seemed to me to be but half made up by nature half done they were low yes in many cases filthy yes savage or dangerous not at all i noticed the large number of cheap cloth caps worn by the men and boys and the large number of dull gray wrapped about the shoulders of the women this world looked sad enough in all conscience so but because of the individual houses in many instances the clean streets and the dark tiny shops not even in instances i ventured to ask a london policeman they are all in london where are the very poor in the east the poorest there are well most of these people have little enough to live on he observed looking straight before him with that charming air the london have his black under his chin i walked long distances through such streets as old king edward great garden hope brick lane flower dean hare fuller row a long long list too long to give here coming out finally at st john s at green and taking a car line for streets still farther out i had studied shop windows with constant curiosity the only i saw to a dead level of unbroken by trees green places or handsome buildings of any kind were factory chimneys and endless charitable institutions covering apparently every form of human weakness or deficiency but looking as if they were much london the east end than the thing they were attempting to cure one of them i remember was an institution for the of and another a hospital for sick spanish jews the lodging houses for working girls and working boys were so numerous as to be and so dreary looking that i that any boy or girl should endure to live in them one could sense all forms of abuse and distress here it would spring naturally out of so low a grade of intelligence only a guided by the lamp of genius could get at the inward spirit of these and then perhaps it would not avail life in its farthest reaches sinks to a sad ugly mess and stays there one of the places that i came upon in my was a public and bath established by the london county council if i remember rightly and this interested me greatly it was near street and looked not unlike a low factory building since these things are always fair indications of i entered and asked permission to inspect it i was directed to the home or apartment of a small of a or manager quite spare and dark and who frowned on me when he opened his door a perfect devil of a cheap superior who was for putting me down with a black look i could see that it was one of the natives he was expecting to encounter i would like to look over the and i said where do you come from he asked america i replied oh have you a card i gave him one he examined it as though by some chance it might reveal something concerning me then he said if i would go round to the other side he would admit me i went and waited a considerable time before a at forty he appeared when he did it was to lead me with a very uncertain air first into the room filled with homely bath where you were charged a penny more or less according to whether you had soap and or not and where the were dreary affairs with damp looking wooden tops or and thence into the and room where at this time in the afternoon about four o clock perhaps a score of women of the neighborhood were either washing or dreary dreary dreary ghastly in italy later and southern france i saw public washing under the sky beside a stream or near a fountain a broken picturesque fountain in one instance here under gray skies in a gray neighborhood and in this prison like was one of the most pictures of life the mind of man could imagine always when i think of the english i want to go off into some long analysis of their character we have so much to learn of life it seems to me and among the first things is the of the human body i always marvel at the nature of the which make up some people different must produce different kinds just as they produce strange kinds of trees and animals here in england this damp gray climate produces a sort of soul which you find au only when you walk among the very poor in such a neighborhood as this here in this wash house i saw the low english au but no passing such as this could do them justice one would have to write a book in order to present the fine differences weakness of spirit a vague comprehension of only the simplest things combined with a certain gave me the here they were or strings tied around their to keep their skirts up clothes the color of lead or darker london the east end and about as cheerful hair gray or black thin all of them and weary looking about the atmosphere one would find in an american they washed here because there were no washing in their own homes no stationary no hot or cold water no suitable to boil water on it was equally true of the told me they came from blocks away some women washed here for whole the more industrious ones and yet few came here at that the more self respecting stayed away i learned	43
this after a long conversation with my guide whose principal was that they were a worthless lot and that you had to watch them all the time if you don t he said in english they won t keep things clean you can t teach em scarcely how to do things right now and then they gets their hands caught he was referring to the washing drums and the it was a long story but all i got out of it was that this was a dreary world that he was sick of his position but compelled to keep it for financial reasons that he wanted as little as possible to do with the kind of cattle which he considered these people to be and that he would prefer to give it up there was a touch of in all this trying to do for the masses but i argued that perhaps under more general conditions things would be better certainly one would have to secure more considerate feelings on the part of and some public approval which would bring out the better elements perhaps under truer however public wash houses would not be necessary at all anyhow the cry from here to bond street and the houses of parliament and the stately world of the lords seemed infinitely far what can society do with the sad shadowy base on which it rests a at forty i came another day to another section of this world approaching the east end and commercial road and cutting through to green i found the same conditions clean streets low gray buildings shabby people a large museum whose chief distinction was that the floor of its central had been laid by women i and towering chimneys so little life existed in the streets generally speaking that i confess i was depressed london is so far flung there were a great many jews of russian and nearly all bearing the marks of poverty and ignorance but looking shrewd enough at that and a great many physically english the long bearded jew with trousers about his big feet his small hat pulled low over his ears his hands folded tightly across his back was as much in evidence here as on the east side in new york i looked in vain for or show places of any kind moving pictures etc there were scarcely any here this whole vicinity seemed to me to be given up to the poorest kind of living sad gray no wonder the policeman said to me most of these people have little enough to live on i m sure of it finally after a third visit i consulted with another writer a authority on the east end who gave me a list of particular to look at if anything exceptional was to be detected from the appearance of the people beyond what i have noted i could not see it i found no poor east end with buttons all over their clothes although they once existed here i found no evidence of the home life because i could not get into the houses to see children it seemed to me were not nearly so numerous as in similar in american cities even a police court proceeding i saw in square was too dull to be in london the east end i was told i might expect the most startling crimes the two hours i spent in court developed only and but as my english literary guide informed me only time and familiarity with a given neighborhood would develop anything i believe this all felt was that in such a dull sordid world any depth of or crime might be reached but who cares to know chapter xv enter sir during all my stay at level i had been hearing more or less an occasional remark of a certain sir an irish knight and art critic a gentleman who had some of the finest in tlie world he had given its only significant collection of modern pictures in fact ireland should be for and for this he was he was the art representative of some great museum in south africa at i think and he was generally looked upon as an authority in the matter of pictures came one evening to my hotel with the announcement that sir was coming down to level to spend saturday and sunday that he would bring his car and that together on sunday we three would to oxford had an uncle who was a very learned master of greek at that university and who if we were quite nice and pleasant might give us luncheon we were i found to take a little side trip on saturday afternoon to a place called some twenty or miles from level in whence william had come originally saturday was rainy and gloomy and i doubted whether we should do anything in such weather but was not easily put out i wrote all morning in my while examined papers and some time after two sir arrived a pale slender dark eyed man of thirty five or with a keen bird like glance a poised nervous sensitive manner and that sub enter sir of reference and speech which makes the notable intellectual wherever you find him for the ten time in my life where are concerned i noticed that peculiarity of mind which will not brook equality save under where are your such minds invariably seem to ask how do you come to be what you think you are is there a flaw in your intellectual or artistic let us see so the of ideas and forms and methods of begins and you are made or in the momentary estimate of the individual by your ability to withstand criticism i liked sir as go i liked his pale face his trim black beard his slim hands and his	43
poised nervous manner oh yes so you re new to england i envy you your early impression i am for the future the extreme pleasure of reading you these little opening always amuse me we are all on the stage and we play our parts whether we do so or not it appeared that the had to be provided for sir had to be given a hasty lunch he seemed to fall in with the idea of a short run to before dark even if the day were gloomy and so after feeding him quickly before the grate fire in the drawing room we were off sir and s son and myself sir sat with me in the and and in the front seat sir made no effort to strike up any quick relationship with me remained quite aloof and talked in i could see that he took himself very seriously as well he might seeing that as i understood it he had begun life with nothing there were remarks familiar ones concerning well known painters and the social life of england a at forty this first afternoon trip was pleasant enough me as it did with the character of the country about level for miles and miles up to this time i had been on the fact that it was winter and i was seeing england under the worst possible conditions but i am not so sure that it was such a great disadvantage to day as we sped down some damp slippery where the river thames was to be seen far below twisting like a letter s in the rain i thought to myself that light and color summer light and color would help but little the villages that we passed were all rain soaked and solemn there were few if any people abroad we did not pass a single on the way to and but a single railroad track these little english villages for all the extended english railway system are practically without railway communication you have to drive or walk a number of miles to obtain suitable railway connection i recall the moss vine cottages of once red but now green brick half hidden behind high brick walls where curiously trees sometimes stood up in order and vines and bushes seemed in a conspiracy to the doors and windows in an excess of until you see them no words can suggest the of age and some old order of comfort once prevailing but now which these little towns and separate houses convey you know at a glance that they are not of this modern work a day world you know at a glance that no power under the sun can save them they are of an older day and an older thought the thought perhaps that goes with gray s and s traveller and deserted village that night at dinner before and after we fell into a most stirring argument as i recall it started enter sir with sir s that st paul s of london which is a product of the skill of sir as are so many of the smaller churches of london was infinitely superior to the comparatively new and still unfinished roman catholic cathedral of westminster with that i could not agree i have always objected anyhow to the ground plan of the cathedral namely the cross as being the worst possible arrangement which could be devised for an interior it is excellent as a scheme for three or four the arms of the cross being always invisible from the but as one interior how can it compare with the straight lying which gives you one grand forward sweep or the solemn greek temple with its and rows of columns of all forms of architecture other things being equal i most admire the greek though the even more than has a tremendous appeal it is so airy and however st paul s is neither greek nor an else very much a staggering attempt on the part of sir to achieve something new which is to me not very successful the dome is pleasing and the interior space is fairly impressive but the general effect is and i think i said as much naturally this was solid ground for an argument and the battle raged to and fro through greece rome the east and the of europe and england we finally came down to the of new york and and the railway of various american cities but i shall not go into that what was more important was that it raised a question concerning the of england the common people from whom or because of whom all things are made to rise and this was based on the final conclusion that all architecture is or should be an expression of i a at forty national temperament and this as a fact was partly questioned and partly denied i think it began by my asking whether the little low cottages we had been seeing that afternoon the quaint windows varying ik but delicious angles and the battered time worn state of houses generally was an expression of the english temperament mind you i love what these things stand for i love the of soul which somehow is conveyed by and and hardy and i would have none of change if life could be ordered so sweetly if it could really stay alas i know it can not compared to the speed and skill which is required to the modem railway trains the express companies the hotels the newspapers all this is helpless pathetic sir s answer was yes that they were an expression but that nevertheless the english mass was a beast of muddy brain it did not could not quite understand what was being done above it were intellectual classes each smaller and	43
more enthusiastic and aware as you reach the top at least it has been so he said but now and the newspapers are beginning to break up this lovely of simplicity and ignorance into something that is not so nice people want to get on now he declared they want each to be greater than the other they must have and and and they want to undo this simplicity the greatness of england has been due to the fact that the intellectual superior classes with higher artistic impulses and tendencies generally could direct the masses and like sheep they would follow hence all the lovely qualities of england its ordered its beautiful its charming castles and estates its good roads its enter sir homes and order and the magnificent princes of the realm have been able to do so much for art and science because their great impulses need not be referred back to the mass the ignorant non understanding mass for sanction sir sprang with ease to the magnificent to the princes of italy to rome and the for illustration he france and louis he declared is never going to do for all what the established princes could do is going to be the death of art not so i thought and said for can never alter the difference between high and low rich and poor little brain and big brain strength and weakness it cannot difference and make a level plane it simply the several to rise higher together what is happening is that the human pot is boiling again nations are a transition period we are in a which means change and america is go ing to flower next and and perhaps after that africa or then say south america and we come back to europe by way of india china and through russia all in turn and new great things from each again let s hope so a pretty speculation anyhow at my suggestion of american sir although he protested no doubt honestly that he preferred the american to any other foreign race was on me in a minute with vital criticism and i think some measure of the english do not love the americans that is sure they admire their traits some of them but they resent their progress the wretched americans will not listen to the wise british they will not to their noble and magnificent traditions they go and do things a at forty out of order and the way in which they should be done and then they come over to england and the fact in the noble s face this is above all things sad it is evil anything you will and the englishman it he even it when he is an irish englishman he the german much fears the of a war from that quarter but really he the american more i honestly think he considers america far more dangerous than germany what are you going to do with that vast realm which is the states it is the whole world by its nasty and this it should not be permitted to do england should really lead england should have invented all the things which the americans have invented england should be permitted to dictate to day and to set the order of forms and but somehow it is n t doing it and hang it all the americans are we through various other things an american manager who was then in london attempting to english opera an american tobacco company which had made a failure of selling tobacco to the english but finally weariness claimed us all and we retired for the night determined to make oxford on the morrow if the weather in the least the next morning i arose glad that we had had such a argument it was worth while for it brought us all a little closer together the children and i ate breakfast together while we were waiting for to come down and wondering whether we should really go it was so rainy gave me a book on oxford saying that if i was truly interested i should look up beforehand the things that i was to see before a pleasant grate fire i studied this volume but my mind was disturbed by the steadily approaching fact of the trip itself and i made small progress somehow enter sir during the morning the plan that had of getting us invited to luncheon by his uncle at oxford disappeared and it turned out that we were to go the whole distance and back in some five or six hours having only two or three hours for at eleven sir came down and then it was agreed that the rain should make no difference we would go anyhow i think i actually thrilled as we stepped into the car for somehow the exquisite flavor and sentiment of oxford was reaching me here i hoped we would go fast so that i should have an opportunity to see much of it we did speed swiftly past open fields where hay were standing in the rain and down dark of bare but vine hung trees and through lovely villages where vines and small oddly placed windows and angles and green grown sunk roofs made me gasp for joy i imagined how they would look in april and may with the sun shining the birds flying a soft wind blowing i think i could smell the of roses here in the wind and rain we tore through them it seemed to me and i said once to the driver is there no law against in england yes he replied there is but you can t pay any attention to that if you want to get anywhere there were graceful flocks of flying here and there there were the same gray little moss grown churches with quaint and odd vine covered windows there	43
cannot over the weakness of a humanity that will alternately be low and high shabby and gorgeous narrow and vast the last thing we saw were some very old portions of christ college which had been inhabited by i believe in their day and this thrilled and delighted me quite as much as anything i forgot all about the rain in trying to recall the type of man and the type of thought that must have passed in and out of those bolt doors but it was getting time to leave and my companions would have none of my delight it was blowing rain and as we were leaving oxford i lost my cap and had to walk back after it later i lost my glove as we rode my mind went back over the ancient chambers the stained glass windows and high i had just seen the heavy benches and portraits in oil sustained them selves in my mind clearly oxford i said to myself was a jewel another years and it would be as a dream of the imagination i feel now as if its day were done as if so much gentle beauty can not endure i had seen myself the invasion of the electric board and the street car in high street and of course other things will come already the western world is smiling at a solemnity and a beauty which are noble and lovely to look upon but which cannot keep pace with a new order and a new need chapter xvi a christmas call the christmas holidays were drawing near and was making due preparations for the of that event he was a for the proper of those things which have national significance and national or them whatever joy he might get out of such things much or little i am convinced that he was much more concerned lest some one should fail of an appropriate share of happiness than he was about anything else i liked that in it touched me greatly and made me feel at times as though i should like to pat him on the head during all my youth in and elsewhere i had been fed on that delightful picture christmas in england first i believe for american consumption anyhow by washington and from him for magazines and newspaper purposes until it had come to be romance ad the s head carried in by the butler of squire the ancient pie with the gorgeous tail feathers arranged at one end of the and the head at the other the log the and the christmas singing outside of windows and doors of echoing halls had vaguely stood their ground and as such had rooted themselves in my mind as something connected with england i did not exactly anticipate anything of this kind as being a part of present day england or of s simple country a christmas call but nevertheless i was in england and he was making christmas preparations of one kind or another and my mind had a perfect right to a little i think most of all i anticipated another kind of toy from that to which we are accustomed in america so many things go to make up that very amiable feast of christmas when it is successful that i can hardly think now of all that contributed to this one there was sir of whom by now i had grown very fond and who was coming here to spend the holidays there was a cousin of s a jolly theatrical manager who was unquestionably after one of the most pleasing figures i met in england a comic ballad singing soul who was as great a favorite with women and children as one would want to find he knew all sorts of ladies apparently of high and low degree rich and poor beautiful and otherwise and seemed kindly disposed toward them all i could write a splendid sketch of alone there was mr t a pale thoughtful person artistic and poetic to his finger tips of one of the famous a lover of mr s a lad a lover of ancient glass and silver whose hair hung in a sweet over his high pale forehead and whose dark eyes shone with a kindly artistic light then there was s aunt and her daughter mother and sister of the highly joyous and wife and daughter of a famous then to cap it all were the total of s very interesting household housekeeper maid cook gardener and last but not least the four charming i might almost say children there too was a host in himself for weeks beforehand he kept saying on occasion as we wan iso a at forty about london together no we can t go there or you must n t accept that because we have reserved that saturday and sunday for christmas at my place and so nothing was done which might interfere being in his hands i finally consulted him completely as to christmas presents and found that i was to be limited to very small gifts mere tokens of good will i being his guest i did manage to get him a supply of his favorite however unknown to himself the ones his clever secretary told me he much preferred and had them sent out to the house with some favorite books for the remaining members of the household but the man was in such high spirits over the whole he had laid out for me winter and spring the thought of paris and the that he was quite beside himself more than once he said to me beaming through his we shall have a delightful time on the continent soon i m looking forward to it and to your first impressions every evening he wanted to take my hastily notes and read them and after doing so was anxious	43
to have me do them all just that way that is day by day as i experienced them i found that quite impossible however once he wanted to know if i had any special preference in or and i knew very well why he asked another time he overheard me make the statement that i had always longed to eat rich cheese from germany done he exclaimed we shall have it for christmas but papa up we don t all have to have it at the same time do we no my dear replied solemnly with that and parental air which always me a sort of gay always lurking behind it a christmas call only mr need have it he is german and likes it i assumed as german a look as i might profound and i believe you like mr jones s he observed on another occasion referring to an american which he had heard me say in new york that i liked we shall have some of those are american like english inquired young charles now heaven only knows i replied i have never eaten english ask your father merely smiled i think not he replied christmas is certainly looking up i said to him if i come out of here alive in condition for paris and the i shall be grateful he beamed on me well finally to make a long story short the day came or at least the day before we were all assembled for a joyous christmas eve t sir the dearest aunt and the charming cousin extremely intelligent and artistic women both the four children s very clever and appealing secretary and myself there was a delightful dinner spread at when we all assembled to discuss the prospects of the morrow it was on the as i discovered that i should arise and accompany his aunt his cousin and the children to a abbey church a lovely affair i was told on the bank of the thames hard by the old english town called while who positively refused to have anything to do with religion of any kind quality or description was to go and a certain neighboring household of which more anon and to take young james he of the for a fine and long anticipated ride on his mo a at forty tor lord and t were to remain behind to discuss art perhaps or literature being late if there was to be any which the children doubted owing to s rather grave to the contrary there having been a number of reasons why a severely righteous might see fit to remain away he was not to make his appearance until rather late in the afternoon meanwhile we had all to the general living room where a heavy coal fire blazed on the hearth for once and candles were lighted in profusion the children sang songs of the north accompanied by their i can see their quaint faces now gathered about the piano lord and myself indulged in various artistic and mrs the aunt told me the brilliant story of her husband s hfe a great philosopher and and finally after coffee nuts and much music and songs some comic ones by we retired for the night it is necessary to prepare the reader properly for the morrow to go back a few days or weeks possibly and tell of a sentimental encounter that me one day as i was going for a walk in that green world which level it was a most delightful spectacle along the road before me with its border of green grass and green though trees there was approaching a most interesting figure of a woman a dashing bit of at once the presumption owing to various accompanying details was mine wife mother as charming a bit of womanhood and family sweetness as i had yet seen in england english women by and large let me state here are not smart at least those that i encountered but here was one dressed after the french fashion in n close fitting blue her form perfectly a little a christmas call cap of snowy whiteness set over her ear her smooth black hair parted over her forehead a white warming her hands and white the trim leather of her foot gear her eyes were dark brown her cheeks rosy her gait smart and tense i could scarcely believe she was english the mother of the three year old in white and red wool a little girl who was sitting a white donkey which in turn was led by a trim maid or nurse or in brown but it was quite plain that she was there was such a wise sober look about all this such a that i was enchanted it was such a delightful picture to encounter of a clear december morning that in the fashion of the english i exclaimed my word this is something like i went back to the house that afternoon determined to make inquiries perhaps she was a neighbor a friend of the family of all the individuals who have an appropriate and superior taste for the smart efforts of the fair sex commend me to his interest and enthusiasm neither flags nor fails being a of discretion he knows exactly what is smart for a woman as well as a man and all you have to do to make him up his ears attentively is to mention beauty as existing in some form somewhere not too distant for his what s this i can see his eye lighting beauty a lovely woman when where this day finding in the garden some bushes i had said do you know any family that keeps a white donkey paused and scratched his ear no sir i t say has i do sir i might sir a at forty down in the	43
christmas morning with the children christmas in england the day broke clear and bright and there we all were it was not cold and as is usual there was little if any wind i remember looking out of my window down into the valley toward and admiring the green upon the trees the clustered chimneys of a group of farmers and working men s cottages the low roofs of red tile or and the small window panes that always somehow suggest a simplicity that i can scarcely resist the english of fiction the simple cottages the ordered of farmers are in my mind i cannot get them out first then came a breakfast in our best and for were we not to depart immediately afterwards to hear an english christmas service imagine the pride of marching solemnly off at the head of his family to an old gray abbey church as the french say i smile we all sat around and had our heavy english breakfast tea and to my comfort and delight mr jones s had secured a string of them from somewhere think of it commented is a at forty mr jones s for breakfast are n t they comic do you like them i most assuredly do and do you eat them every day in a may charles with a touch of latent in his voice when i can afford them yes they re quite small are n t they commented old james precisely i replied by this fire of inquiry that s their charm the church that we visited was one of those abbey affairs done in good english with a touch of here and there and was outside the village of level two or three miles from s home i recall with simple pleasure the self righteous sunday go to meeting air with which we all set forth crossing fields paths passing through and along streams and country roads by little cottages that left one breathless with delight i wish truly that england could be put under glass and retained as a perfect specimen of unconscious rural poetry the south of england the pots and outside the kitchen the simple stoop ornamented with vines the roofs with their clustered when we came to the top of a hill we could see the church in the valley below beside one bank of the thames which wound here and there in delightful s s a square tower as i recall rose out of a surrounding square of trees grass grave stones and box hedge there was much in this semi ancient place as we came up for christmas day of all days naturally drew forth a history loving english audience choir boys a christmas call i were here and there some ladies of solemn who looked as if they might be assisting at the service in some way or another were about and i even saw the in full hastening up a gravel path toward a side door as though matters needed to be considerably the interior was dark heavy beamed and by no means richly ornamented with stained glass but of by gone generations at that the walls were studded with those customary and memorial with which the english love to ornament their church a fair sized and yet for so large an edifice audience was present an evidence it seemed to me of the of the protest against state support for the established church there was a great storm of protest in england at this time against the further state support of an institution that was not answering the religious needs of the people and there had been some discussion of the matter at s house as was natural the inclined were in favor of anything which would sustain whether they had religious value or not all the old and neighborhood churches solely because of their poetic appearance on the other hand an immense class spoken of as chapel people were heartily in favor of the disposition of the matter in his best clothing was for their maintenance to be frank as charming as was this semi ancient atmosphere and possibly suited to the current english neighborhood mood i could not say as to that it did not appeal to me as strongly on this occasion as did many a similar service in american churches of the same size the were pleasing as high church go the choir made of boys and men from the surrounding no doubt was not i o a at forty absolutely but it could have been much better to tell the truth it seemed to me that i was witnessing the last and rather evidences of an older and much more prosperous order of things beautiful in its way yes quaint yes but more of poverty and an ordered system continued past its day than anything else i felt a little sorry for the old church and the thin and the goodly citizens a little provincial who clung so to a time worn form they have their place no doubt and it makes that sweet old atmosphere which seems to over so much that one in england nevertheless life does move on and we must say good bye to many a once delightful thing why not set these old churches aside as or art galleries or for any other public use as they do with many of them in italy and let the matter go at that it is not necessary that a service be kept up in them day by day and year by year services on special or state occasions would be sufficient let by be by and let the people tax themselves for things they really do want perhaps and moving pictures they seemed to flourish even in these elderly and more outside in the after the services were over and we were about a few moments i found a number of touches	43
of that simplicity in ability which is such a splendid characteristic of the english although there were many graves here of the nobility and gentry from as far back as the sixteenth century there was no least indication so far as i could see of but everywhere simple names only and not virtues sometimes perhaps a stately verse or a line i noticed with a kind of english speaking pride the narrow new made grave of a christmas call i i sir robert the late great english financial of china who recently deceased had been brought over sea to this simple churchyard to lie here with other members of his family in what i assumed to be the neighborhood of his youth and it is rather fine i think when a nation s sons go forth over the world to render honorable service each after his capacity and then come back in death to an ancient and beloved soil the very obscurity of this little grave with its two feet six inch and spoke more to me of the dignity and ability that is in true greatness of soul than a soaring shaft might otherwise do on the way home i remember we discussed christian science and its merit in a world where all and all doctrines blow apparently so about like all in this fitful fever of existence mrs and her daughter and her son the cheerful were not without their troubles so much so that intelligent woman that she was and quite aware of the and of religious she was eager to find something upon which she could lean speaking the strong arm let us say of an all mighty no less who would perchance heal her of her and ills i take it as i look at life that only the very able or the very rock and dull materially can front the storms and that beset us or the ultimate dark which the gifted the imaginative see without an fears so often have i noticed this to be true that who stand up brave and strong in their youth turn nervous and eye upon this troubled in later years they have no longer any heart for a battle that is only rhyme and no reason and whether they can why or not they must have a god i for one would be the last person in the world to deny that every i a at forty where i find boundless evidence of an intelligence or far superior to my own i for one am o agree with the poet that if my sink tis to another sea in fact i have always presumed the existence of a force or forces that in some noble way maintain a and mechanical and order in visible things i have always felt in spite of all my that somehow in a large way there is a rude justice done under the sun and that a balance for i will not say right but for happiness is maintained the world has long since gathered to itself a vast basket of names such as right justice mercy and truth my thinking has nothing to do with these i do not believe that we can conceive what the ultimate significance of anything is therefore why it i have seen good come to the seemingly evil and evil come to the seemingly good but if a religion will do anybody any good for heaven s sake let him have it to me it is a case of individual sometimes of race weakness a stronger mind could not attempt to define what may not be defined nor to lean upon what to infinite mind must be utterly and thin air obviously there is a vast sea of force is it good is it evil give that to the philosophers to i fight over and to the fearful and timid give a religion a mighty fortress is our god sang he may i do not know but to return to mrs and her daughter and s children and across the sunny english landscape this christmas morning it was a fine thing to see the green of the trees and richer green grass growing and thick all winter long and to see the roofs of little towns like level for we were walking on high ground and the silvery of the thames in the valley below whence we had v a christmas call just come i think i established the basis of life quite for myself and urged mrs to take up christian science i assailed the wisdom of maintaining by state funds the established church largely i think to and protested that the chapel people had a great deal of wisdom on their side as we drew near level and s country place it occurred to me that had gone to find out if he really knew the lady of the donkey and i was all anxiety to find out himself was up considerably and it was agreed that first we would have an early afternoon feast all the christmas of the day and then if really knew the lady we were to visit her and then return to the house where i now learned there was to be a he was to arrive the courtesy of who was to him and on that account announced we might have to cut any impending visit to our lady short in order not to disappoint the children but visit we would knowing to be a good actor and intensely fond of children s especially i anticipated some pleasure here but i will be honest the great event of the day was our lady of the donkey her white and whether she was really as striking as i had imagined i was afraid would return to report that either a he did not know her or b that	43
she was not so fascinating as i thought in either case my anticipated pleasure would come to the ground with a crash we entered shall i say with beating hearts had returned with sir and t he was now his english legs in front of the fire and upon some vanity of the day at sight of the children he began his customary but i would have none of it fixed him with i a at forty a eye well he said putting the burden of the inquiry on me our friend here has been quite restless during the services this morning what did you find out yes in mrs who had been informed as to this romantic encounter for goodness sake tell us we are all dying to know yes tell them lord there will be no peace believe me until you do to be sure to be sure cheerfully exclaimed up from james i know her well her sister and her husband are here with her that little baby is hers of course they live just over the hill here i admire your taste she is one of the women i know i told her that you were stopping here and she wants you to come over and see the christmas tree lighted we are all invited after dinner very good observed rubbing his hands now that is settled is n t she charming observed mrs g a to be so politely disposed thereafter the dinner could not come too soon and by two thirty we were ready to depart having consumed heaven knows how many kinds of and english and especially for me real german it was a splendid dinner shall i stop to describe it i cannot say outside of the interesting english company that it was any better or any worse than many another christmas feast in which i have imagine the english dining room the english maid the housekeeper in watchful attendance on the children the maid like a bit of china on guard over the service in a christmas eye sitting solemnly in state at the head of the board lord t his mother her daughter myself the children all chattering and the high sounding english voices the balanced english phrases the quaint english scene through the windows it all comes back a bit of sweet color was i happy very did i enjoy myself quite but as to this other matter it was a splendid afternoon on the way over and myself the others refusing contemptuously to have anything to do with this sentimental affair had the full story of our lady of the donkey and her sister and the two brothers that they married we turned eventually into one of those charming enclosed by a high concealing english fence and up a path to a snow white door we were admitted to a hall that at once bore out the testimony as to the of the husbands twain there were guns knives sticks and swords i think there were deer and fox heads in the bargain by a ruddy man of perhaps thirty eight and all of six feet tall who now appeared we were invited to enter make ourselves at home drink what we would ale a suitable list we declined the drink putting up fur coats and sticks and were immediately asked into the room where the christmas tree and other were holding or about to be here at last there were my lady of the donkey and the child and the maid and my lady s sister and alas my lady s husband full six feet tall and vigorous and of all tragic things a forty sixteen shot magazine pistol which his beloved brother of sporting had given him as a christmas present i eyed it as one might a special of providence i a at forty but our lady of the donkey a very charming woman she proved intelligent smiling very quite aware of all the nice things that had been said about her very clever in making light of it for propriety s sake unwilling to have anything made of it for the present for her husband s sake but that french air and that romantic smile we talked of what do people talk on such occasions was full of the to the fact that had such interesting neighbors as the church ills and did not know it and that they had once to together i shall not forget either how conveyed to mrs our lady of the donkey that i had been intensely taken with her looks while at the same time presenting himself in the best possible light is always at his best on such occasions and with an air that says a mere of mine do not forget the skill that is making this interesting encounter possible but mrs as i could see was not utterly of the fact that i was the one that had been to her as a writer and that i had made the great fuss and said all the nice things about her after a single encounter on a country road which had brought about this afternoon visit she was gracious and ordered the christmas tree lighted and had the young heir s most interesting toys spread out on the table i remember picking up a linen story book new york from america i said quite i think oh yes you americans she replied me everything comes from america these days even our toys but it s rather to make us admit it don t you think i picked up a train of cars and to my astonishment a christmas call found it stamped with the name of a firm i hesitated to say more for i knew that i was on dangerous ground but after that i looked at every book or box of blocks and the like to find that	43
my suspicions were well founded england gets many of its christmas toys from america nothing came of this episode except a pleasant introduction for who had all the future before him i was leaving for after the new year and for paris a week or two later it was all in vain as i foresaw that i was invited to call again or that she hoped to see something of me among her friends in london i think i said as much to with many unkind remarks about the type of mind that to secure all merely by a process of waiting meantime he walked bravely forward his overcoat his cane an idle circle his on straight his nose in the air i could have made away with him for much less the last of this very gallant day came in the home of himself as we the house we decided to hurry forward and to say that had remained at the s for dinner while he made a wide ending up i think in some chamber in the coach house i did not see him again until much later in the evening but meantime the children the relatives the friends and the family servants were all gathered in the nursery on the second floor there was much and concerning the fact that had really had such bad reports that he had found it much against his will to come here early at least there were some rather encouraging things that had been reported to him later however and he had so some one had heard changed his mind whether there would be little or much for such a collection of ne er do wells was open to question i a at forty however if we were all very quiet for a while we should see i can see now in his attire nobly about and the four little surveying rather but the maid the nurse the and their father i wondered what had become of my small and whether my special for were in safety in s pack it was small stock i fear me much that these well behaved little english children took in this make believe but presently there was a loud at the nursery door and without a by your leave the same was opened and a vigorous headed put his rosy face into the chamber is there any one living here by the name of or or james i shall not repeat all the names he called in a high voice i ve been a long way to day and i ve had a great deal to do and i have n t had the least assistance from anybody they re so busy having a good time themselves i never saw a nose or more shaggy eye eyes or a twinkle in them and the pack that he carried was simply enormous it could barely be squeezed through the door as he made his way to the of the room he looked about groaning and in his funny voice and wanting to know if the man in the were really and whether the fat lady in the corner were really a nurse or merely an and if the four children that had been reported to him as present were surely there having satisfied himself on various counts and a great deal of innocent laughter to say nothing of awe as to his next probable comment he finally the enormous bag and began to consult the here s a marked charles a christmas call it s rather large it s been very heavy to carry all this distance can anybody tell me whether he s been a reasonably good child it s very hard to go to all this trouble if children are n t really deserving then as he came forward he added he has a very look in his eye but i suppose i ought to let him have it and so the gift was handed over one by one the presents came forth commented on in this fashion only the comments varied with the age and the personality of the there was no lack of humor or intimacy of application for this apparently knew whereof he spoke is there a writer in the room by the name of he remarked at one time i ve heard of him faintly and he is n t a very good writer but i suppose he s entitled to a slight remembrance i hope you reform mr he remarked very wisely as he drew near me it s very plain to me that a little improvement could be effected i acknowledged the wisdom of the comment when my were handed to tapped them more wretched he remarked in his high i know them well if it is n t one vice that has to be it s another i would have brought him de f or wine if i did n t think this was less he s very fond of too but they re very expensive at this time of the year a little economy would n t hurt him the maid and mrs a the nurse and miss c the came in for really brilliant compliments lord was told that an old english castle or a would be most suitable but that was all out at present and rf he would just be a little more cheerful in the future he might manage to get him one t was given books as very fitting and in a the place i a at forty was literally with wonders there were immense baskets and boxes of fruit from holland toys books and fruit from s mother in rome more toys and useful presents from ladies in london and the north of england and france and the isle of a goodly company of it s something to be an attractive i never saw children more handsomely or	43
provided for a new saddle bridle and whip for s riding pony curious german mechanical toys from and certain ornamental articles of dress seemed by the astonishing bursts of excitement they provoked exceedingly welcome now drew off his whiskers and cap to reveal himself as and we all literally got down on the floor to play with the children you can imagine with each particular present to examine how much there was to do tea time came and went unnoticed a stated occasion in england supper a meal not offered except on christmas was spread about eight o clock about nine an took lord and t away and after that we all returned to the nursery until about ten thirty when even by the most liberal interpretation of holiday license it was we elders i hope no one sets up a loud to the drawing room for nuts and wine and finally as the beloved was accustomed to remark so to bed but what with the abbey church the discourse on christian science our lady of the donkey a very full stomach and a of toys spinning before my eyes i went to bed thinking of well now what do you suppose i went to bed thinking of chapter xvii smoky england or years before going to england i had been interested in the north of england the land as i was accustomed to think of the under dog england if one could trust one s impression from a distance was a land of great social the ultimate high and the ultimate low of poverty and wealth in the north as i understand it were all of the great liverpool a whole of smoky cities whence issue tons upon tons of linen cotton while i was at level i spoke of my interest in this region to who merely lifted his eyebrows he knew little or nothing about that northern world the south of england his interest however s cousin the agreeable told me soul fully that the north of england must be like america because it was so brisk direct practical and that he loved it he was a confirmed american or we would say over here and was constantly talking about coming to this country to enter the theatrical business i northward the last day of the old year to and its which i had chosen as affording the best picture of life i had been directed to a certain hotel recommended as the best equipped in the country i think i never saw so large a hotel it over a very large block in a heavy impressive smoky stone way it had as i quickly discovered an excellent and russian bath a at forty in connection with it and five separate german french english etc and an american bar the most important travel life of here that was obvious i was told that and from all parts of the world in this particular it was new year s day and the streets were comparatively empty but the large heavily furnished breakfast room was fairly well sprinkled with men whom i took to be cotton there was a great mill strike on at this time and here were gathered for conference representatives of all the principal interests involved i was glad to see this for i had always wondered what type of man it was that conducted the great interests in england particularly this one of cotton the struggle was over the matter of the recognition of the and a slight raise in the scale these men were very much like a similar collection of wealthy in the united states great seem to breed a certain type of mind and body you can draw a mental picture of a certain keen individual not tall not small round solid ruddy and have them all these men were so comfortably solid physically they looked so content with themselves and the world so firm and sure nearly all of them were between forty five and sixty cold hard quick minded alert they differed from the typical englishman of the south it struck me at once that if england were to be kept dominant it would be this type of man not that of the south who would keep it so and now i could understand from looking at these men why it was that the north of england was supposed to hate the south of england and vice i had sat at a dinner table in place one evening and heard the question of the feeling discussed smoky england why does it exist was the question before the guests well the south of england is intellectual historic highly it is rich in military and life the very scenery is far more lovely the culture of the people because of the more generally distributed wealth is so much better in the north of england the poor are very poor and the men of wealth are not wealthy or in many cases they are hard greedy like the irrepressible americans one speaker remarked they have no real culture or refinement they manage to buy their way in from time to time it is true but that does not really count they are essentially raw and brutal looking at these men quietly i could understand it exactly their hard direct would but poorly itself to the soft of the south yet we know that types go hand in hand in any country with a claim to greatness after my breakfast i struck out to see what i could see of the city i also took a car to and another train to in order to gather as quick a picture of the neighborhood as i could what i saw was commonplace enough all of the larger cities of present day europe are of modern construction most of them have grown to their present great population	43
in the last fifty years hence they have been built not in that time a part of was nothing great cotton and machine works and was not anything either save long lines of brick cottages one and two stories high and mills mills mills mills it always me how life itself any idea in life such as a design for a house over and over and over these houses in and a at forty er proper were such as you might see anywhere in st louis in the cheap streets i had the sense of being pursued by a deadly it all looked as people do when they think very little know very little see very little do very little i expected to learn that the churches flourished here very greatly and that there was an enormous sunday school somewhere about there was at the largest in the world i was told five thousand attending the thing that impressed me most was the presence of the wooden or shoe in there was a silence hanging over i everything the pathetic of the when f he has nothing to do save the one thing he cannot do think as it was a sunday the streets were largely empty and silent a dreary narrow minded probably religious conventional world which this blank as natural ordered probably even necessary to the west and the south and the east and the north are great worlds of strangeness and wonder new lands new people but these folks can neither see nor hear here they are to cotton mills ing no doubt that god intended it to be so working from i youth to age without ever an of the fascinating i of life it appalled me in some respects i think i never saw so dreary a world as england in saying this i do not wish to indicate that the working conditions are any worse than those which prevail in various american cities such as and especially the minor cities like and fall river but here was a dark world quite by climate a country in which damp and prevail for fully three of the year and where a pall of smoke is always present i remember reading a sign on one of the railway smoky england forms which stated that owing to the of the company could not be held responsible for the running of trains on time i noticed too that the smoke and damp were so thick everywhere that occasionally the trees on the roadside or the houses over the way would disappear in a lovely like mist lamps were burning in all stores and office buildings street cars carried head lamps and dawned upon you out of a gloom traffic disappeared in a thick blanket a half block away most of these towns had from ninety to a hundred thousand but in so far as interesting or entertaining of life were concerned to their size there were none they might as well have been villages of five hundred or one thousand houses houses houses all of the same size all the same color all the same interior arrangement everywhere in and which i visited the first day and in and which i visited the next i found this curious of the same thing which you would dismiss with a glance whole streets of which you could say all alike in i was impressed with the constant repetition of front rooms or you could look in through scores of partly open doors this climate is damp but not cold and see in each a chest of drawers exactly like every other chest in the town and in the same position relative to the door nearly all the round tables which these front rooms contained were covered with pink cotton the small single windows one to each house contained blue or yellow set on small tables and containing the fireplace always to the right of the a at forty room as you looked in the window glowed with a small coal fire there were no other ornaments that i saw the of the rooms were exceedingly low and the total effect was one of clean living the great mills bore pleasing names such as rob and their towering looked down upon the at their base much as the famous castles of the must have looked down upon the huts of their i was constrained to think of the existence that all this suggested the long lines of cotton mill going in at seven o clock in the morning in the dark and coming out at six o clock at night in the dark many of these mills employ a day and a night shift their windows when in the smoke or rain are like of fine gold i saw them gleaming at the end of dull streets or across the smooth olive colored of mill or through the mist and rain the few that were running the majority of them were shut down because of the strike had a roar like that of tumbling over its rocks a rich ominous thunder in recent years the mill owners have abandoned the old low two story type of building with its narrow windows and dingy aspect of gray stone and erected in its stead these enormous the only approach to the american sky i saw in england they are magnificent mills far superior to those you will see to day in this country clean bright and every one i saw new if i should rely upon my merely casual impression i should say that there were a thousand such within twenty five miles of when seen across a of low cottages such as i have described they have all the dignity of vast temples of labor i was told by the	43
american general at london that they are equipped with the very smoky england latest cotton spinning machinery and are now in a position to hold their own on equal terms with american competition if not utterly to defy it the and of the machinery is greater than that employed in our mills i could not help thinking what a far cry it was from these humble cottages some few of which in odd corners looked like the simple huts sacred to burns and the s saturday night to these mills and the owners behind them the strong able men whom i saw eating in the breakfast room at the the day before think of the poor little girls and boys principally girls to and from work in their wooden shoes and if you will believe it i saw it at on a cold rainy january day in thin black and white straw hats much darkened by continuous wear one crowd that i observed was pouring out at high noon i heard a whistle yelling its information and then a mouse hole of a door in one corner of the great structure opened and released the black stream of mill workers by comparison it looked like a small procession of or a of black water small as it was however it soon filled the street the air was wet smoky gray the windows even at this midday hour gleaming here and there with lights the factory hands were a dreary mass in the rain some of them carrying many without them all tlie women wearing straw hats and black i looked at their faces pale dull i looked at their skirts hanging like bags about their feet i looked at their flat their hands and then i thought of the strong men who know how to use i hesitate to say what would these women do if they could not work in the mills one thing i am sure of the a at forty mills whatever charges may be brought against their owners in regard to hours of payment indifference of treatment are nevertheless better places in which to spend one s working hours than the cottages with their commonplace round of duties what can one learn washing dishes and floors in a cottage i can see some one jumping up to exclaim what can one learn tying commonplace threads in a cotton mill taking care of eight or nine machines one lone woman what has she time to learn this if you ask me the single thought of organization if nothing more the thought that there is such a thing as a great machine which can do the work of fifty or a hundred men it will not do to say the average individual can learn this method working in a home it is not true what the race needs is ideas it needs thoughts of life and injustice and justice and opportunity or the lack of it kicked into its senseless clay it needs to be made to think by some rough process or other gentleness won t do it and this is one way i like labor leaders i like big raw crude hungry men who are eager for gain for self i like to see them to force such men as i saw at the to give them something and the people beneath them i am glad to think that the clay whose wears black and straw hats in january has sense enough at last to these raw angry fellows who scheme and struggle and fight and show their teeth and call great bitter strikes such as i saw here and such as had shut tight so many of these huge solemn mills it speaks much for the race it speaks much for thinking which is becoming more and more common if this goes on there won t be so many women with skirts and flat there will still be strong men and weak but the conditions may not be so severe anyhow let us smoky england hope so for it is an thought and it cheers one in the face of all the streets and the people i have no hope of making of everybody nor of establishing that futile abstraction justice but i do cherish the idea of seeing the world growing better and more interesting for everybody and the ills which make for thinking are the only things which will bring this about chapter xviii smoky england at the mills are large and the cottages minute there is a famous old inn here very picturesque to look upon and somebody of something s comfortable but they were not the point for me in one of its old streets in the dark doorway of an old house i encountered an old woman very heavy very pale very weary who stood leaning against the door post what do you burn here gas or oil i asked interested to obtain information on almost any topic and seeking a pretext for talking to her hey she replied looking at me wearily but making no other move what do you bum i asked what do you use for light gas or oil he she replied heavily you have to talk very loud i m old and i m goin to die pretty soon oh no i said you re not old enough for that you re going to live a long time yet hey she asked i repeated what i had said no she and now i saw she had no teeth i m old i m eighty two and i m goin to die i been in the mills all my life have you ever been out of i asked hey she replied i repeated yes to not of late though i o smoky england i i not in years and years i m very sick though now i m	43
goin to die i could see from her look that what she said was true only her exceeding weariness employed her mind i learned that water came from a in the yard that the kitchen floor was of earth then i left noticing as i went that she wore wooden shoes in the public square at gathered about the city hall where one would suppose for the sake of dignity no spectacle would be permitted was gathered all the of a shabby eighth rate red w animal and domestic horse tents the moderate sized main tent the side show the fat woman s private wagon a cage and the like i never saw so queer a scene the whole square was crowded with tents great and small but there was little going on for a rain was in progress can human sink lower i asked myself feeling that the heart of things was being could utmost out this i doubted it why should the permit it yet i have no doubt this situation appealed exactly to the imagination of the working population i can conceive that it would be about the only thing that would it was just raw and cheap and homely enough to do it i left with pleasure when i came into on a car from it was with my head swimming from the number of mills i had seen i have described the kind all new but did not lose them here it was the luncheon hour and i was beginning to hungry as i walked along dull streets i noticed several small eating places fish and and and cow heels which astonished me greatly really astonished me i had seen only one such before in my life and that was i a at forty this same morning in a fish and but i did not get the point sufficiently clearly to make a note of it the one that i encountered this afternoon had a sign in the window which stated that unquestionably its were the best to be procured anywhere and very a plate of them standing close by made it perfectly plain that were meant no recommendation was given to either the fish or the peas i pondered over this thinking that such must be due to the poverty of the people and that meat being very dear these three articles of diet were here in however i saw that several of these stood in very central places where the rents should be reasonably high and the traffic brisk it looked as though they were popular for some other reason i asked a policeman what is a fish and i asked well to tell you the truth he said it s a place where a man who s getting over a goes to eat those things are good for the stomach i pondered over this curiously there were four such in the immediate vicinity to say nothing of the one and cow heels which astonished me even more and what s that for i asked of the same officer the same thing a man who s been drinking eats those things i had to laugh and yet this indicated another characteristic of a wet rainy climate namely considerable drinking at the next corner a man a woman and a child slightly confirmed my suspicion come on said the man to the woman all at once let s go to the a beer do you good the three started off together the child hanging by li smoky england the woman s hand i followed them with my eyes for i could not imagine quite such a scene in america not done just in this way women a certain type go to the back rooms of well enough children are sent with for beer but just this particular combination of husband wife and child is rare i am sure and such public houses to satisfy myself of their character i went to three in three different like those i saw in london and elsewhere around it they were pleasant enough in their arrangement but gloomy the light from the outside was darkened as it was by smoke and rain if you went on back into the general lounging room lights were immediately turned on for otherwise it was not bright enough to see if you stayed in the front at the bar proper it was still dark and one light a gas jet was kept burning i asked the second with whom i conferred about this you don t always have to keep a light burning here do you always except two or three months in summer she replied sometimes in july and august we don t need it as a rule we do surely it is n t always dark and smoky like this you should see it sometimes if you call this bad she replied contemptuously it s black i should say it s very near that now i commented oh no most of the mills are not running you should see it when it s and the mills are running she seemed to take a sort of pride in the matter and i with her it is rather distinguished to live in an extreme of any kind even if it is only that of a smoky of climate i went out making my way to th as the policeman who recommended the place pronounced it here i enjoyed such it tt i a at forty a meal as only a third rate which is considered first by the local inhabitants would supply i forth once more interested by the fact that according to from one point somewhere on a clear day whenever that might be six hundred might be seen in this fog i soon found that it was useless to look for them instead i contented myself with noting how in so	43
many cases the end of a street or the sheer dismal length of an unbroken row of houses all alike was honored made picturesque made grand even by the presence of the mills these gloomy monuments of labor there is an architecture of manufacture dreary and shabby as its setting almost invariably is which in its solemnity strangeness of outline pathos and dignity quite rivals if it does not the more forms of the world its temples and the like i have seen it often in america and elsewhere where a group of factory buildings as to arrangement and as to substance would yet take on an exquisite harmony of line and order after which a much more institution might well have been at near for instance on the which here is little more than a but picturesque and lovely i saw a half dozen immense mills with towering chimneys which for composition from the point of the stream could not have been surpassed they had the dignity of vast temples a world of under paid life which was nevertheless rich in color and enthusiasm sometimes i fancy the modem world has produced nothing more significant speaking than the vast here in they were gathered in notable clusters towering over the business heart and the various resident sections so that smoky england the whole scene might well be said to have been by it they a world of thought and feeling which we of more intellectual fields are inclined at times to look on as dull and low but are they i confess that for myself they move me at times as nothing else does they have vast dignity the throb and sob of the immense and what is more dignified than toiling humanity anyhow its vague hopes and fears i wandered about the dull rain looking in at the store windows in one i found a pair of gold and a pair of silver slippers offered for sale for what feet in they were not high in price but this sudden suggestion of romance in a dark world took my fancy at four o clock after several hours of such wandering i returned to the main the market place in order to see what it was the hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants found to entertain them i looked for and found two one of them a large show of a sudden walking in a certain direction my ears were greeted by a most clatter so and blended were the particular sounds which i recognized at once as coming from the feet of a multitude shod with wooden where were they coming from i saw no crowd suddenly up a side street coming toward me down a slope i detected a vast throng the immense moving picture had closed for the afternoon and its entire audience perhaps two thousand in all was descending toward the main street in connection with this crowd as with the other at i noted the phenomenon of the black or white straw hat the black or brown shawl the skirts and wooden of the women the dull commonplace suit and wooden of the men where were they going now home of course these must be a i a at forty portion of the they looked to me like typical mill workers out on a holiday and their faces had a i liked the sound of their shoes though as they came along it was like the rattle of many drums they might have been on a wooden floor the thing had a swing and a of its own what if a marching army were shod with wooden shoes i thought and then what if a mob with guns and swords came so a crowd like this is like a flood of water pouring they came into the dark main street and it was quite brisk for a time with their presence then they melted away into the of the stream as rivers do into the sea and things were as they had been before if there were any other than the i did not find them for entertainment i suppose those who are not minded do as they do in fall river and elsewhere walk up and down past the bright shop windows or sit and drink in the public houses which are unquestionably far more cheerful by night than by day the vast majority who live here must fall back for diversion on other things their work their church their family duties or their vices i am satisfied that under such conditions sex plays a far more vital part in cities of this description than almost anywhere else for although the streets be dull and the duties of life commonplace sex and the mysteries of temperament their quite as here as elsewhere if not more so in fact denied the more varied of a more interesting world humanity falls back almost exclusively on sex women and men or rather boys and girls for most of the grown women and men had a wearied look went by each other glancing and smiling smoky england they were alert to be entertained by each other and while i saw little that i would call beauty in the women or charm and in the men nevertheless i could understand how the standards of new york and paris might not necessarily prevail here clothes may not fit fashion may find no suggestion of its but after all underneath the of temperament and of beauty is the same and so these same streets may burn with a rich life of their own i left finally in the dark and in a driving rain but not without a sense of the sturdy vigor of the place keen if chapter xix it was not so long after this that i southward my plan was to leave london two days ahead of visit and and	43
meet with him there to travel to paris together and the from the i was to go on to rome and he was to return to england among other pleasant social duties i paid a farewell visit to sir who shall appear often hereafter in these pages during the christmas holidays at s i had become well acquainted with this irish knight and of art and while in london i had seen much of him here in his lovely mansion in walk i found him surrounded by what one might really call the grandeur of his pictures his house contained distinguished examples of van paul and others and as i contemplated him on this occasion he looked not unlike one of the of van s a pale gentleman this very remote in his spirit very far removed from the common run of life concerned only with the ultimately artistic and wishing to be free of everything save the leisure to attend to this he was not going to leave london he thought at this time except possibly for a short visit to paris he was greatly concerned with the problem of finding a which he could restore live in fill with his pictures and eventually sell or to his loved england as a memorial of himself it must be a perfect example of architecture that he invariably repeated i gained the impression that he might fill it with interesting examples of some given school or artist and leave it as a public monument he urged upon me that i ought to go about the work of getting up a loan exhibit of representative american art and have it brought to london he commended me to the joys of certain cities and scenes san outside of the villa at rome i had to smile at the man s profound artistic assurance for he spoke exactly as a the glories of his kingdom i admired the of his forehead and his hands and cast one longing look at his to think that any man in these days should have purchased for little a picture that can in all be sold for it was like walking into s cave the morning i left it was gray as usual i had brought in all my necessary from level and them in my room at the hotel packed and ready the mind of was on the qui to see that nothing was forgotten a certain type of tie must be purchased for use on the he had overlooked that he thought my hat was not quite light enough in color so we went back to change it i had lost my umbrella in the excitement and that had to be replaced but finally rushing to and fro in a loaded like a van with breathing after each venture into a shop we arrived at the victoria station never having been on the continent before i did not realize until w e got there the wisdom of s that i pack as much of my as possible in bags and as little as possible in trunks first class as most of those who have i a at forty much luggage do it is cheaper as most know one can take as many as five or six or bags in the with one and them on and under the seats which a heavy charge for excess baggage in some countries such as italy nothing is carried free save your hand luggage which you take in your with you in addition the are high i think i paid as much as thirty shillings for the little baggage i had over and above that which i took in my with me to a person with a temperament such as mine that is positively i ing it was my first taste of what i came subsequently j to look upon as greedy europe as the train rushed i did my best to see the pleasant country through which we were the region indicated on the map as north downs i never saw any portion of english country anywhere that i did not respond to the charming simplicity of it and understand and appreciate the englishman s pride in it it has all the quality of a pastoral poem the charm of fields of sheep rows of quaint chimney pots and odd houses tucked away among the trees exquisite and roofs and windows which look as though loving care had been spent on them although this was january all the trees were covered with a fine thin as green as spring leaves at the ruins of an ancient castle came into view and a cathedral which i was not to see at i had to change from the express to a local and by noon i was at and was looking for the de lis which had been recommended to me as the best hotel there at least observed quite solemnly to me as we parted i think you can drink the wine i smiled for my taste in that respect was not so cultivated as his of all the places i visited in england not oxford i believe that pleased me most the day may have had something to do with it it was warm and gray threatening rain at times but at times also the sun came out and gave the old english town a glow which was not to spring and paradise you will have to have a fondness for things english to like it quaint two story houses w ith unexpected to their roofs and and bay windows which have been fastened on in the most unexpected places and in the strangest fashion the colors too in some instances are high for england and and but in the main a smoky red brick tone the river which in america would be known as s creek	43
you faced it a large blue gray car suddenly appeared and a striking looking in a hat stepped out i had the wish and the fancy that i was looking at the himself a sound stern intellectual looking person but i did not ask he gave me a sharp inquiring look and i withdrew beyond these sacred and into the cathedral itself where a bell was beginning to ring for afternoon service i am sure i shall never forget the interior of it was the first really old great cathedral that i had seen for i had not very highly either st paul s or st s i had never quite realized how significant these must have been in an age when they were far and away the most important build of the time no king s palace could ever have had the importance of and the cry from the common peasant to the see must have been immense here really ruled the of all england and here was murdered of all known forms the more nearly to the finest impulse in nature itself that is to produce the form the of the trees are no more appealing than those of a great cathedral and the overhanging branches through which the light falls have not much more charm than some of these perfect sustained by their many arms of stone much had happened apparently to the magnificent stained glass windows which must have filled the tall pointed at periods and many of them have been replaced by plain glass those that remain are of such richness of color and such delightful variety of that seen at the end of long stretches of and they are like of blood or deep throwing a strange light on the surrounding stone i presently fell in tow of a guide it is said to day that americans are more like the than like the english but from the types i encountered in england i think the variety of american spring naturally from the mother country four more typical new england village specimens i never saw than these cathedral or guides they were sitting on the steps leading up to the choir clad in cap and gown engaged in cheerful gossip your turn henry said one and the of the three came around and unlocked the great iron gates which give into the choir then began for my special benefit a magnificent we were joined after we had gone a little way by a party of ladies from a at forty who were lurking in one of the and nothing would do but my guide must go back to the iron entrance way to the choir and begin all over not a sentence was twisted not a pause good heavens i thought he does that every day in the year perhaps a dozen times a day he was like a with but one record which is repeated nevertheless the history of the the black prince the the carving of the and the disappearance of the windows was all interesting after having made the rounds of the cathedral we came out into the the of which were all black and crumbling with age and he indicated the spot and described the manner in which had been and had fallen i don t know when a bit of history has moved me so much it was the day the gentle quality of it its very spring like texture that made it all so wonderful the grass in this black court was as green as new the and of the arches were crumbling into black sand and spoke seemingly of a thousand years high overhead the towers and the soaring as gracefully as winged living things looked down while i faced the black figure of my guide and thought of the ancient crossing this self same turf how long can be the life of grass when i came outside the gate into the little square or which faces it i found a beautiful statue of the muse a semi dancing girl erected to the memory of it surprised me a little to find it here facing in what might be called the sacred of religious art but it is placed and brought back to my mind the related kingdom of poetry all the little houses about have heavy overhanging and diamond shaped lead windows the walls are thick and in color from cream to brown they seem to modern life and yet they frequently offered small shop windows full of all the things that make it picture american shoes much advertised and the latest books and magazines i sought a tea room near by and had tea looking out against the wall where some and then wandered back to the to get my and umbrella for it was to rain for two hours more i walked up and down in the rain and dark looking into occasional windows where the blinds had not been drawn and stopping in or public where rosy waited on one with courteous smiles chapter xx en route to paris one of the things which dawned upon me in moving about england and particularly as i was leaving it was the reason for the charm of i do not know that anywhere in london or england i encountered any characters which spoke very of those he described it is probable that they were all somewhat exaggerated but of the charm of his setting there can be no doubt he appeared at a time when the old order was giving way and the new the new as we have known it in the last sixty years was itself very sharply were just coming in and being with the modern hotel was not yet even thought of but it was impending born and raised in london was among the first to perceive the wonder of	43
in a comfortable position on deck to which we could repair in case it should clear up on the way over all of this i faithfully did the chairs had the best possible position behind the deck house and one of my pieces of luggage was left there as a that they belonged to me it looked like rain when the train arrived and we went below for a and a cup of coffee but before the boat left it up somewhat and we sat on deck study a at forty ing the harbor and the interesting company which was to cross with us some twenty english school girls in charge of several severe looking were crossing to paris either for a holiday or as t to renew their studies in a paris school a lot of maidens it would be hard to conceive and yet some of them were not at all bad looking and proper conduct were written all over them their clothing was severely plain and their manners were most none of that vivacity which the average american girl would have been under the circumstances there was no undue and little if any they interested me because i instantly imagined twenty american girls of the same age in their place they would have manifested twenty times the interest and enthusiasm only in england that would have been the height of bad manners as it was these english maidens sat in a quaint row all the way over and disappeared quite into the train at this english steamer crossing the channel to france was a disappointment to me in one way i had heard for some time past that the old uncomfortable channel boats had been with and new put in their place as a matter of fact these boats were not nearly so large as those that run from new york to island nor so though much and brighter if it had rained as anticipated the cabin below would have been and as it was all the passengers were on the upper deck sitting in camp chairs and preparing to be sick it was impossible to conceive that a distance so short not more than twenty three or four miles should be so disagreeable as said it was at times the boat did not pitch to any extent on this trip over en route to paris on my return some three months later i had a experience but now the wind blew fiercely and it was cold the channel was as gray as a rabbit and bleak i did not imagine the sea could be so dull looking and france when it appeared in the distance was equally bleak in appearance as we drew near it was no better a shore line beset with gas and iron but when we actually reached the dock and i saw a line of sparkling french looking down on the boat from the platform above england was gone gone all the solemnity and the politeness of the who had brought our luggage aboard gone the quiet civility of ship officers and train men gone the solid of the whole english race it seemed to me on the instant as if the sky had changed and instead of the gray misty pathos of english life sweet and romantic had come the lively slap dash of another world these men who looked down on us with their eyes were no more like the english than a is like a great they were black haired lean brown active they had on blue and blue and a kind of military cap there was a touch of scarlet somewhere either in their caps or their i forget which and somewhere near by i saw a french soldier his scarlet trousers and coat poorly so far as goes with the splendid of the british nevertheless he did not look but raw and as one the soldiers of napoleon should be the of the made up for much and i said at once that i would not give france for fifty million i felt although i did not speak the language as though i had returned to america it is curious how one feels about france or at least a at forty how i feel about it for all of six weeks i had been rejoicing in the charms and the virtues of the english london is a great city splendid the intellectual capital of the world and the north represent as a realm as the world holds there is no doubt of that the and sweetness of english country life is not to be surpassed for charm and beauty but france has fifty times the spirit and enthusiasm of england after london and the english country it seems strangely young and vital france is often spoken of as but i said to myself lord let us get some of this and take it home with us it is such a cheerful thing to have around i would commend it to the english particularly on the way over had been giving me additional instructions i was to stay on board when the boat arrived and signal a who would then come and get my luggage i was to say to him whereupon he would gather up the bundles and lead the way to the dock i was to be sure and get his number for all french were and likely to rob you i did exactly as i was told while went forward to engage a section first class and to see that we secured places in the dining car for the first service then he returned and found me on the dock doing my best to keep track of the various pieces of luggage while the did his best to secure the attention of a customs it was certainly interesting to see the difference between the arrival of this	43
boat at and the similar boat which took us off the at there although the crowd which had arrived was equally large all was peaceful and rather still the went about their work in such a matter of fact manner en route to paris all was in apple pie order there was no shouting to speak of here all was and confusion apparently although it was little more than french enthusiasm you would have fancied that the french guards and f were doing their best to their pent up feelings they to and fro they they reassured you frequently by look and sign that all would be well must be so inside of five minutes during which time i examined the french news stand and saw how english had disappeared in this distance of twenty miles the luggage had been passed on and we were ready to enter the train had purchased a number of papers and others in order to indicate the between the national lives of the two countries which i was now to contrast i never saw a man so eager to see what effect a new country would have on another he wanted me to see the difference between the english and the french papers at once and although i was thoroughly familiar with it already i carefully examined these latest productions of the french presses the same delicious that have been flourishing in the french papers for years were there the same subtle for the absurd and the ridiculous i anew at the of these figures which never cross the atlantic into american papers we do not know how to draw them because we are not accustomed to them in our lives as a matter of fact the american papers and magazines to the english standard we have varied some in but have not the least in treatment as a matter of fact i believe that the american weekly and monthly are even more than the british paper of the same standard we think we are different but we are not we have not even anything in common with the from whom we o a at forty are supposed to have drawn so much of our national personality however the train started after a few moments and soon we were through that low flat country which lies between and paris it was a five hour run direct but we were going to stop off at to see the great cathedral there i was struck at once by the difference between the english and the french landscape here the trees were far fewer and what there were of them were not tinged with that rich green which is characteristic of every tree in england the towns too as they flashed past for this was an express were different in their appearance i noted the of red roofs swimming in silvery light and hard white walls that you could see for miles no trees to break the view and now and then a silvery thread of a river appeared it was on this trip that i gathered my first impressions of a french railway as contrasted with those of england and america the french rails were laid to the standard i noticed and the cars were after the american not the english style large clean with this improvement over the american car that they were of the corridor and style as contrasted with our one room open space style after my taste of the car in england i was fairly satisfied to part forever with the american plan of one long open room in which every one can see one else interesting as that spectacle may be to some the idea of some privacy appealed to me more the american has always seemed a criminal arrangement to me anyhow and at i had met a charming society woman who in passing had told me that the first time she was compelled to in an american sleeping car she cried her personal sense of privacy was so invaded en route to paris our large having their own private cars or being able to a whole train on occasion need not worry about this small matter of delicacy in others it would probably never concern them personally anyhow and so the mass and the stranger is made to endure what he bitterly and what they never feel i trust time and a growing sense of chivalry in the men at the top as well as a sense of privilege and necessity in the mass at the bottom will alter all this america is a changing country in due time after all the are fed or otherwise disposed of a sense of government of the people for the people will probably appear it has made only the beginning as yet there are some things that the rank and file are entitled to however even the rank and file and these they will eventually get i was charmed with the very air of when we reached there a bare gray stony city which however appeared to be solid and prosperous here as in the rest of france i found that the tower the high roof the solid gray or white wall and the thick red tile or flat combined to produce what may be looked upon as the national touch the houses here varied considerably from the english standard in being in many cases very narrow and quite high for their width four and five stories they are crowded together too in a seemingly way and seem to lack light and air the solid white or gray shutters the thick rain pipe and the severe simple thickness of the walls produced an atmosphere which i came to look upon after a time as lingering on from a time when france was a very different country from what it is to day was all	43
of this it would have seemed hard and cold and bare and dry except for these little v o a at forty of roofs and the lightness of the spirit of the people we wandered through high walled paved streets until suddenly we came on the cathedral soaring upward out of a of the dreary and commonplace i had thought was wonderful but now i knew that i had never seen anything in my life before so r imposing as pure like it was so much larger a perfect of towers arches and flying it into the sky saint above saint and from every i could scarcely believe that the faith of man had ever reared so lovely a thing what a power religion must have been in those days i or what a grip this form of art must have taken on the i imagination of some to what perfection the art of architecture had attained the loving care that has been exercised in and placing these stones is enough to the brain i did not wonder when i saw it that and had attained to a sort of frenzy over the it i bs i both and i walked around it in rev silence and i knew that he was rejoicing to know i was feeling what i ought to feel we went inside after a time because it was threaten ing dusk and we had to make our train for paris i shall never forget the vast space within those wondrous doors the world of purple and gold and blue in the windows the blaze of a hundred and more candles upon the great altar the with their of flaming the fat mothers in skirts the heavy priests with hats and pig like faces the order of attendant sisters in blue and linen the figures scattered here and there upon the hard stone floor on their knees the vast space was full of a delicious incense faint en route to paris shadows were already themselves in the arches above to into a great darkness up rose the columns giant of stone supporting the far oflf roof the glory of pointed windows the richness of the of saints set in whose details seemed the of spring whatever the flower the fruit the leaf the branch could contribute in the way of artistic suggestion had here been seized upon only the highest order of inspiration could have conceived or planned or executed this delicious dream in stone a guide for a or two took us high up into the organ and out upon a narrow leading about the roof below all france was spread out the city of its was defined accurately you could see some little stream the coming into the city and leaving it wonderful figures of saints and devils were on every hand we were shown a high tower in which a treaty between france and spain had been signed i looked down into the great well of the inside and saw the candles glowing like gold and the people moving like small across the floor it was a splendid confirmation of the majesty of man the of his the richness and extent of his the sheer ability of his hands i would not give up my fleeting impression of for anything that i know as we came away from the cathedral in the dusk we walked along some branch or canal of the and i saw for the first time the peculiar kind of boat or used on french streams a long affair at either end it was black and had somewhat the effect of a a frenchman in trousers and soft wool cap pulled over one ear was it along it contained hay piled in a rude mass it was warm here a at forty in spite of the fact that it was the middle of january and there was a feeling of spring in the air informed me that the worst of winter in paris appeared between january and the middle of march that the spring did not really show itself until the first of april or a little later you will be coming back by then he said and you will see it in all its glory we will go to and ride that sounded very promising to me i could not believe that these dull stone streets through which we were passing were part of a city of over ninety thousand and that there was much here there were so few people in sight it had a gray shut up appearance none of the flow and spirit of the towns of the american middle west it occurred to me at once that though i might like to travel here i should never like to live here then we reached the railway station again chapter xxi paris there is something about the french nation which in spite of its dreary looking cities an air of up to i don t know where america you will find the snap and y of as and romance which you find everywhere in french streets the station when we returned to it was alive with a crowd of bustling hurrying people buying books and papers at news stands looking after their luggage in the baggage room and chattering to the ticket through their windows a train from paris was just in and they were hurrying to catch that and as i made my first french purchase twenty worth of post cards of our train rolled in it was from the north such a long train as you frequently see in america with cars and rome i could hardly believe it and asked as he about seeing that the luggage was put in the proper carriage where it came from he thought that some of these cars started from st and others from and holland they had	43
a long run ahead of them yet over thirty hours to rome and paris was just one point in their journey we crowded into one car with luggage its windows damp with human breath various occupying the section and disposed of our and so on as best we could i slipped the bustling old a not so much because he deserved it but because he had such a gay and a at forty air his apron swung around his legs like a skirt and his cap was gaily over one ear he waved me a smiling farewell and said something in french which i wished i could understand then i realized for the first time what a pity it is not to understand the language of the country in which you are as the train sped on through the dark to paris i fell to on the wonders i was to see was explaining to me that in order to make my entrance into paris properly gay and interesting we were to dine at the de paris and then visit the and afterwards have supper at the i should say here that of all people i know is as capable of creating an atmosphere as any perhaps more so the man lives so heartily in his moods he sets the stage for his actions long beforehand and then walks on like a good actor and plays his part thoroughly all the way over from the very first day we met in new york i think he was either or unconsciously building up for me the of smart and artistic life in europe now these things are absolutely according to your capacity to understand and appreciate them they are if you please a of the brain a frame of mind if you love art if you love history if the romance of sex and beauty you europe in places presents tremendous possibilities to reach these ethereal of charm you must and and dispense with many things all the long lines of through which you journey must be as nothing you buy and prepare and travel and polish and finally you reach the of this thing which is so wonderful and then when you get there it is a of your ow n mind paris and the are great realities there are houses and crowds and people and great institutions paris and the remembrance and flavor of great deeds but the thing that you get out of all this for yourself is born of the attitude or mood which you take with yoa toward gambling show romance a delicious scene carries special mood life is only significant because of these things his great struggle is to avoid the dingy and the dull and to escape if possible the of age i think he looks back on the glitter of his youth with a pathetic eye and i know he looks forward into the dark with solemnity just one hour of beauty is his private cry one more day of delight let the future take care of itself he too with the of a that if youth is not most vivid in yourself it can sometimes be achieved through the moods of others i know he found in me a zest and a curiosity and a wonder which he was keen to satisfy now he would see this thing over as he had seen it years before he would observe me thrill and marvel and so he would be able to thrill and marvel himself once more he clung to me with delicious enthusiasm and every now and then would say come now what are you thinking i want to know i am enjoying this as much as you are he had a delicious vivacity which acted on me like wine as we paris he had built this city up so thoroughly in my mood that i am satisfied that i could not have seen it with a eye if i had tried it was something i cannot tell you what napoleon the the art quarter the gay the the and the a score and a hundred things too numerous to mention and all greatly exaggerated i hoped to see something which was perfect in its artistic appearance speaking i expected after reading george and others a wine like atmosphere a throbbing world of a at forty gay life women of exceptional charm of face and dress the the unique the the spirited at i had seen enough women entering the trains to realize that the dreary commonplace of the english woman was gone instead the young married women that we saw were positively daring compared to what england could show sensitive their eyes showing a of what this world has to offer i fancied paris would be like that only more so and as i look back on it now i can honestly say that i was not greatly disappointed it was not all that i thought it would be but it was enough it is a gay brilliant beautiful city with the spirit of new york and more than the distinction of london it is like a brilliant fragile child not made for and brutal battles but gay beyond reproach when the train rolled into the du it must have been about eight o clock as usual was on the qui for and advantage he had piled all the bags close to the door and was hanging out of a window doing his best to signal a i was to stay in the car and hand all the down rapidly while he ran to secure a and an and in other ways to clear away the to our progress with great enthusiasm he told me that we must be at the hotel by eight fifteen or twenty and that by o clock we must be ready	43
to sit down in the de paris to an excellent dinner which he had ordered by telegraph i recall my wonder in entering paris the lack of any long extended the sudden flash of electric lights and electric cars mostly we seemed to be entering through a or and then we were there the noisy in their caps and blue were all around the cars they ran and and paris so unlike the in and and victoria and the one we finally secured a little did his best to gather all our in one grand mass and shoulder them them on a single the result of it was that the broke right over a small pool of water and among other things the canvas bag containing my blanket and magnificent shoes fell into the water oh my god exclaimed my hat box the fool ass i added i knew he would do just that my blanket my shoes the excited was fairly dancing in anguish doing his best to get the strung together between us we relieved him of about half of them and from about his waist he another large and strung the remainder on that then we hurried on for nothing would do but that we must hurry a was secured and all our luggage piled on it it looked half under bundles as it swung out into the street and we were off at a mad through crowded electric lighted streets i pressed my nose to the window and took in as much as i could while between calculations as to how much time this would take and that would take and whether my trunk had arrived safely on french characteristics you smell this air it is all over paris the always go like this we were going like mad there is an excellent type look at her now you see the chairs out in front they are that way all over paris i was looking at the interesting life which never really seems to be interrupted anywhere in paris you can always find a dozen chairs somewhere if not i a at forty fifty or a hundred out on the under the open sky or a glass roof little stone tables beside them the crowd to and fro in front here you can sit and have your your your everybody seems to do it it is as common as walking in the streets we whirled through street after street of this atmosphere and finally swung up in front of a rather plain hotel which i learned this same night was close to the avenue de on the comer of the st and the de our luggage was quickly distributed and i was shown into my room by a maid who could not speak english i unlocked my and was rapidly changing my clothes when breathing fully arrayed appeared to say that i should await him at the door below where he would arrive with two guests i did so and in fifteen minutes he returned the car spinning up out of a steady stream that was flowing by i think my head was dizzy with the whirl of impressions which i was but i did my best to keep a sane view of things and to get my impressions as sharp and clear as i could i am quite satisfied of one thing in this world and that is that the commonest intelligence is very frequently confused or or by certain situations and that the weaker ones are ever full of the wildest forms of illusion we talk about the of life i question whether it exists mostly it is a succession of disturbing impressions which are only rarely this night i know i was moving in a sort of and when i stepped into the car and was introduced to the two girls who were with i easily to what was obviously their great beauty the artist has painted the type that i saw be paris i fore me over and over soft ruddy womanhood i think the two may have been twenty four and twenty six the elder was smaller than the younger although both were of good size and not so ruddy but they were both perfectly plump round faced and with a wealth of black hair even white teeth smooth plump arms and necks and shoulders their were rounded their lips red and their eyes laughing and gay they began laughing and chattering the moment i entered extending their soft white hands and saying things in french which i could not understand was smiling beaming through his in an amused superior way the older girl was arrayed in pearl colored silk with a black with silver and the younger had a dress of blow hue with a white lace also and they breathed a faint perfume we were obviously in beautiful if not moral company i shall never forget the grand air with which this noble company entered the de paris was in fine feather and the ladies a charm and a flavor which immediately attracted attention this brilliant was with lights and alive with people it is not large in size quite small in fact and in shape the charm of it comes not so much from the luxury of the which are luxurious enough but from their exceeding good taste and the fame of the one does not see a bill of fare here that prices you order what you like and are charged what is suitable champagne is not an essential wine as it is in some you may drink what you like there is a delicious sparkle and spirit to the place which can only spring from a high sense of individuality paris is supposed to provide nothing better than the de paris in so far as food i a at	43
forty is concerned it is as good a place to go for dinner as the city it me now when i think of how the ability of had been working through all this as the had been arranged in his mind i was to take the elder of the two ladies as my partner and he had reserved the younger for himself as a matter of fact they were really equally pretty and charming and i was interested in both until after a few and when i had exchanged a few laughing signs with the younger he informed me that she was really closely tied up with some one else and was not available this i really did not believe but it did not make any particular difference i turned my attention to the elder who was quite as if not quite so as her younger sister i never knew what it meant before to sit in a company of this kind welcome as a friend looked to for gaiety as a companion and admirer and yet not able to say a word in the language of the occasion there were certain words which could be quickly acquired on an occasion of this kind such as beautiful charming very delightful and so on for which gave me the french equivalent and then i could make complimentary remarks which he would for all and the ladies w ould say things in reply which would come to me by the same medium it went gaily enough for tlie conversation would not have been of a high order if i had been able to speak french objected to being used constantly as an and when he became stubborn and gaily without stopping to explain i was compelled to fall back on the resources of looks and smiles and gestures it interested me to see how quick these women were to themselves to the difficulties of the situation they were constantly laughing and between themselves looking at paris me and saying obviously flattering things and then laughing at my discomfiture in not being able to understand the elder explained what certain objects were by lifting them up and on the french name was constantly telling me of the compliments they made and how sad they thought it was that i could not speak french we departed finally for the where the sensation of paris was playing she proved to be a brilliant to look upon a gay slim yellow haired who seemed to the large audience by her boyish manners and her air there was a brilliant chorus in and and finally a beautiful maiden without any clothing at all who was by the of the stage before she had half crossed it the acts were about as good as they are anywhere i did not think that the performance was any better than one might see in one or two places in new york but of course the humor was much broader now and then one of their remarkable was translated for me by just to give me an of the character of the place back of the seats was a great or where a fragment of the of paris was beautiful creatures in many instances and as as you please i was particularly struck with the of and the cheerful character of their faces the companion type in london and new york is somewhat colder looking their eyes snapped with intelligence and they walked as though the whole world held their point of view and no other from here at midnight we left for the and there i encountered the best that paris has to show in the way of that gaiety and color and beauty and for which it is famous one n a at forty really ought to say a great deal about the because it is the last word the of midnight excitement and the russian and the the frenchman the american the englishman the german and the italian all meet here on common ground i saw much of life in paris while i was there but better than this like the de paris it was small very small when compared to of similar in new york and london i fancy it was not more than sixty feet square only it was not square but almost circular the tables to begin with went round the walls with seats which had the wall for a back and then as the guests poured in the interior space was filled up with tables which were brought in for the purpose and later in the morning when the guests began to leave these tables were taken out again and the space devoted to dancing and as in the de paris i noticed that it was not so much the quality of the as the spirit of the place which was important this latter was of various elements success perfection of service absolute distinction of cooking and lastly the and of sex which is and used in paris as it is nowhere else in the world i never actually realized until i stepped into this what it is that draws a certain element to paris the tomb of napoleon and the and the are not the significant attractions of that important city those things have their value they constitute an historical and artistic element that is appealing romantic and but over and above that there is something else and that is sex i did not learn what i am going to say now until later but it might as well be said here for it the point exactly a little experience and in paris in paris quickly taught me that the owners and of the more successful encourage and help to sustain a certain type of woman whose presence is desirable she must be young beautiful or attractive and above all things possessed	43
of temperament a woman can rise in the and world of paris quite as she can on the stage and she can easily from the and s to the stage though the path is on the other hand the stage freely to the atmosphere of s the and other of their kind a large number of the figures seen here and at the and other places of the same type are they are in the when they are not on the stage and they are on the stage when they are not in the they rise or fall by a world of strange devices and you can hear brilliant or ghastly stories either conclusion paris this aspect of it is a perfect of sex and it is sustained by the wealth and the curiosity of the stranger as well as the frenchman the on this occasion presented a brilliant scene the carpet as i recall it was a rich green velvet the walls a white from the ceiling six were suspended three glowing with a clear blow hue and three with a brilliant white outside a small railing near the door several negro singers a and a player several stage dancers and others were a perfect storm of people was pouring through the doors all with their tables previously arranged for out in the where a january wind was blowing you could hear a wild uproar of doors and the calls of and getting their in and out of the way a at forty the company generally as on all such occasions was on the qui to see who else were present and what the general spirit of the occasion was to be instantly i detected a number of americans three beautiful english women such as i never saw in land and their a few or south americans and after that a variety of individuals whom i took to be largely french although it was impossible to tell the english women interested me because during all my stay in europe i never saw three other women quite so beautiful and because during all my stay in england i scarcely saw a good looking english woman suggested that they were of that high realm of fashion which rarely remains in london during the winter season when i was there that if i came again in may or june and went to the races i would see plenty of them their lovely hair was and their cheeks and a faint pink and cream their arms and shoulders were delightfully bare and they carried themselves with amazing by one o clock when the majority of the guests had arrived this room fairly with white and white arms and shoulders roses in black hair and blue and ribbons fastened about of lighter complexion there were jewels in plenty and and and and there was a perfect of champagne every table was attended by its silver bucket of ice and the and in their crowded angle were i as we seated ourselves as to what drew all these people from all parts of the world to see this to be here together was eager to come here first and to have me see this without delay i do not know where you could go and for a hundred paris see more of really amazing feminine beauty i do not know where for the same money you could buy the same atmosphere of lightness and gaiety and enthusiasm this place was fairly with a wild desire to live i fancy the majority of those who were here for the first time particularly of the young would tell you that they would rather be here than in any other spot you could name the place had a peculiar glitter of beauty which was by the with great skill the were all of them swift good looking the dancers who stepped out on the floor after a few moments were of an like spanish type ruddy brown full black haired they had on dresses that were as close fitting as the scales of a fish and that glittered with the same radiance they waved and rattled and and and danced wildly and to and fro among the tables some of them sang or voices accompanied them from the raised platform devoted to music after a while red blue pink and green were introduced to the champagne bottles and allowed to float gaily in the air paper of small balls of all colors as light as feathers were distributed for the guests to throw at one another in ten minutes a wild battle was raging young girls were up on their feet their hands full of these colored weapons the male strangers of their selection you would see tall englishmen and americans exchanging a perfect of colored with girls of various laughing chattering calling screaming the in all her dazzling radiance was here exquisitely dressed her white arms perfectly willing to strike up an understanding with the admirer who was her a at forty after a time when the audience had worn itself through fever and frenzy to satisfaction or weariness or both a few of the tables were cleared away and the dancing began occasional guests joining there were charming dances in costume from russia from scotland from and from spain i had the wonder of seeing an american girl rise from her table and dance with more skill and grace than the employed talent a wine englishman took the floor a handsome youth of twenty six or eight and remained there gaily about from table to table dancing alone or with would welcome him what looked like a dangerous argument started at one time because some high considered that he had been insulted a of and the soon adjusted that it was between three and four in the morning when we finally left and i was	43
interesting features and i recall now with delight how fresh and and it all seemed paris has an air a presence from the poorest quarter of the district to the of the and the region about the arc de it chanced that the day was bright and i saw the as bright as new buttons glimmering over the stones of its shallow banks and racing madly if not a majestic stream it is at least a gay and dashing one quick tempered rapid flowing walled crossed by a score of handsome bridges and ornamented in every possible way how much the french have made of so little in the way of a river it is not very wide about one half as wide as the thames at black bridge and not so wide as the river which makes an island i followed it from city wall to city wall one day from to and found every inch of it delightful i was never tired of looking at the wine near the little bathing and passenger boats in the vicinity of the the brick hay coal and heaven knows what else between the city s heart and points past it gave me the impression of being one of the brightest rivers in the world a river on a holiday i saw it once at at what is known in paris as the green hour which is five o clock when the sun was going down and a deep palpable fragrance from a vast of perfume filled the air men were boats of hay and in their great wide trousers blue shirts and french caps were and i felt as though the world had a morning in paris nothing to offer paris which it did not already have even the joy of simple labor amid great beauty i could have settled in a small house in and worked as a in a perfume factory carrying my dinner with me every morning with a right good will or such was the mood of the moment this morning on our way to st du and the cathedral we examined the along the and tried to recall off hand the interesting comment that had been made on them by great authors and my poor wit brought back only the of but was with thoughts from to george they have a magnificent literary but it is only because they are on the banks of the in the of this whirling of life that they are so delighted to enjoy them one has to be in an idle mood and love out of doors for they consist of a dusty row of four legged boxes with coming quite to your chest in height and reminding one of those high legged counting tables at which clerks sit on tall in their these boxes are old and and weather beaten and at night the very dusty looking who from early morning until dark have had their shabby backed wares spread out where dust and sunlight and wind and rain can attack them pack them in the body of the box on which they are lying and close the lid you can always see an or two here perhaps many between the d and the we made our way through the and de into that region which the de and the in his enthusiastic way tried to indicate to me that i was in the most historic section of the left bank of the where were st du the the a at forty the the des arts and the latin quarter we came for a little way into the st and there i saw my first artists in velvet suits long hair and broad hats but i was told that they were the kind of artist who is so by profession not by accomplishment they were poetic looking youths the two that i saw swinging along together with pale faces and slim hands i was informed that the type had almost entirely disappeared and that the art student of to day prefers to be distinctly from what i saw of them later i can confirm this for the schools which i visited revealed a type of boy and girl who while being romantic enough in all conscience were nevertheless dressed and very simple and off hand in their manner i visited this region later with artists who had made a name for themselves in the radical world and with students who were hoping to make a name for themselves sitting in their examining their and the atmosphere of their streets and public amusements there is an art atmosphere strong and clear of romance emotion desire love of beauty and determination of purpose which is thrilling to experience even paris is as young in its mood as any city in the world it is as wildly enthusiastic as a child i noticed here this morning the strange fact of old battered looking fellows singing to themselves which i never noticed anywhere else in this world age sits lightly on the i am sure and youth is a mad an exciting realm of romantic dreams the from the keeper of a market stall to the prince of the money world or of art wants to live gaily briskly and he will not let the necessity of earning his living deny him i felt it in the churches the a morning in paris the department stores the the th ct streets a wild keen desire for life with the blood i the body to back it up it must be in the soil and the air for paris sings it is like poison in the veins and i felt myself growing positively giddy with enthusiasm i believe that for the first six months paris would be a disease from which one would suffer greatly and	43
recover slowly after that you settle down to live the life you found there in contentment and with delight but you would not be in so much danger of your very mortal body and your immortal soul i was interested in this neighborhood as we hurried through and away from it to the de la and dame as being not only a for art of the latin quarter but also for students of the i was told that there were thousands upon thousands of them from various countries eight thousand from russia alone how they live my did not seem to know except that in the main they lived very badly clean linen and three meals a day according to him were not at all common and in the majority of instances they starve their way through going back to their native countries to take up the practice of law medicine politics and other professions after oxford and the american this region and the itself i found anything but attractive the church of st du is as fine as possible a type of the kind of architecture which is no type and ought to have a new name modern would be as good as any it has a gray effect exceedingly with all the of a jewel box the seemed strangely bare to me large and spacious but cold the men who are not there as much as the men who are made it seem somewhat a at forty to me as a national it is hard to make a national burying ground that will appeal to all dame after and seems a little heavy but as contrasted with st paul s in london and anything existing in america it seemed strangely wonderful i could not help thinking of s novel and of st louis and napoleon and the french revolution in connection with it it is so heavy and and so sadly great the hotel the de justice and the saint all in the same neighborhood interested me much particularly to me one of the most charming and i saw in paris it is exquisite this chapel which was once the scene of the private prayers of a king this whole neighborhood somehow from the to suggested and and the flavor of this world as they presented it was in my mind and now there was luncheon at s a little near the and the de where the wise in the matter of food love to dine and where as usual was at his best the french while show in many instances entirely and allowing their chambers to look as though they had been put together with an effort nevertheless attain a perfection of atmosphere which is astonishing for the life of me i could not tell why this little seemed so bright for there was nothing smart about it when you examined it in detail and so i was compelled to attribute this impression to the probably all temperament of the owner always in these cases there is a man or a woman quite remarkable for his point of view otherwise you could not take such simple and make them into anything so pleasing and so individual a luncheon which had been ordered by a morning in paris was now served and at the beginning of its wonders mr and miss n arrived i shall not soon forget the interesting of these two for even more than great institutions persons who come reasonably close to you make up the atmosphere of a city mr was a solid sandy steady eyed who looked as though had he not been an artist he might have been a soldier swinging along with the scotch stride miss n was a delightfully american without the slightest affectation however so far as i could make out of either speech or manner she was good looking with black hair a healthy rounded face and figure and a cheerful good natured air there was no sense of either that or superiority which so often the female artist we launched at once upon a discussion of paris london and new york and upon the delights of paris and the progress of the i could see plainly that these two did not care to force their connection with that art development on my attention but i was interested to know of it there was something so solid and self about mr that before the meal was over i had taken a fancy to him he had the least suggestion of a scotch in his voice which might have said instead of away and instead of down but it resulted in nothing so broad as that they immediately gave me lists of that i must see in the latin quarter and asked me to come with them to the d and to s to dance and to some of the to see what they were like between two and three mr left because of an errand and and i accompanied miss n to her close by the gardens of the this public garden which not unlike the on the other side of a at forty the was set with charming statues by a magnificent fountain and alive with french and their charges in and and a smart world of generally impressed me greatly it was lovely the wonder of paris as i was discovering was that walk where you would it was hard to escape the sense of breadth space art history romance and a lovely sense of lightness and enthusiasm for life miss n s is in the in calling here i had my first taste of the paris the who has an eye on all those who come and go and to whom all not having keys must apply in many cases as i learned keys are not given to the outer gate or door one must ring and be admitted	43
this gives this person a complete over the affairs of all the tenants mail guests purchases messages anything and everything if you have a charming it is well and good if not not the thought of anything so offensive as a irritated me greatly and i found myself running forward in my mind picking fights with some possible who might at some remote date possibly trouble me of such is the disposition the of mr in the a lovely garden a heavenly place set with trees and flowers and of an older day in the bits of broken stone work lying about and suggesting the architecture of a period his windows reaching from floor to ceiling and by exterior were by trees in both were scores of done in the style which interested me profoundly it is one thing to see hung upon the walls of a gallery in london or disputed over in a west a morning in paris end residence it is quite another to come upon it fresh from the in the of the artist or still in process of production defended by every thought and principle of which the artist is capable in miss n s were a series of intended for the walls of a great department store in america which were done in the raw and of the flowers which stood out with the coarse distinctness of and outlines which were as sharp as those of rough buildings and men and women whose details of dress and feature were by colors which by the eye would be pronounced unnatural for me they had an immense appeal if for nothing more than that they represented a development and an individual point of view it is so hard to break tradition it was the same in the of mr to which we after some three quarters of an hour of the two painters the man seemed to me the more miss n worked in a softer mood with more of what might be called an attitude towards life during all this was in the of his glory and cheerful we took a through singing streets lighted by a sun and came finally to the where it was necessary for him to secure a table and order dinner in advance and thence to the theatre des in the des where tickets for a farce had to be secured and thence to a bar near the avenue de where we were to meet the previously mentioned de b w ho out of the goodness of her heart was to help entertain me while i was in the city this remarkable woman who by her beauty simplicity frankness and moody would shock the average woman into a deadly fear of life and make a at forty a horror of what seems a gaudy pleasure world to some quite instantly took my fancy yet i think it was more a matter of de b s attitude than it was the things which she did which made it so terrible but that is a long story we came to her out of the whirl of the green hour when the paris in this vicinity were fairly with people the world i have ever seen we have enormous crowds in new york but they seem to be going somewhere very much more definitely than in paris with us there is an eager almost objectionable effort to get home or to the or to the which one can easily resent it is so and indifferent in london you do not feel that there are any crowds that are going to the or the and if they are they are not very cheerful about it they are enduring life they have none of the lightness of the world i think it is all explained by the fact that feel keenly that they are living now and that they wish to enjoy themselves as they go the american and the englishman the englishman much more than the american have decided that they are going to live in the future only the american is a little angry about his decision and the englishman a little meek or patient they both feel that life is intensely grim but the while he may feel or believe it to cast it off he lives by the way out of books and the spectacle of life generally the move briskly and they come out where they can see each other out into the great wide and the thousands upon thousands of and make themselves comfortable and and gay on the streets it is so obvious that everybody is having a good time not try a morning in paris ing to have it that they are enjoying the wine like air the and of the the net like movements of the the dancing lights of the and the of the shops it may be chill or in paris but you scarcely feel it rain can scarcely drive the people off the streets literally it does not there are crowds whether it rains or not and they are not this particular hour that brought us to g s bar was essentially thrilling and i was interested to see what de b was like chapter three guides it was only by and by asking many questions that at times i could extract the significance of certain places from as quickly as i wished he was always or a little in his allusions in this instance i gathered rapidly however that this bar was a very extraordinary little presided over by a woman of a most pleasant and practical type she could not have been much over forty good looking self efficient she moved about the two rooms which constituted her in so far as the average was concerned with an air of considerable social importance her dresses as i noticed on my several	43
imported a london policeman to teach paris police the art of traffic but if so the instruction has been wasted this night was a of and people a paris guide one of the tribe that the morbid stranger through scenes that are evil and that i know from observation to be utterly vain approached us in the des with the suggestion that he be allowed to conduct us through a realm of filthy sights some of which he i could give a list of them if i thought any human organization would ever print them or that any individual would ever care to read them which i don t i have indicated before that is essentially clean minded he is really interested in the art of the and the spectacle which their a at forty and to a certain extent artistic lives present but no one in this world ever saw more clearly through the shallow make believe of this realm than he does he contents himself with admiring the art and the tragedy and the pathos of it this world of women interests him as a phase of the struggle for existence and for the artistic which it sometimes to him the vast majority of these women in paris were artistic whatever one might say for their morals their honesty their and the other qualities which they possess or lack and whatever they were life made them so conditions over which their and wills had little or no control he is an man one of the most i have ever known and kindly in his manner and intention nevertheless he has an innate horror of the purely physical when it to there is much of that in paris and these guides it but it is especially arranged for the stranger i fancy the average knows nothing about it and if he does he has a profound contempt for it so has the well stranger but there is always an audience for this sort of thing so when this guide approached us with the proposition to show us a selected line of vice took him in hand stop a moment now he said with his high hat on the back of his head his fur coat open and his eye fixing the intruder with an inquiring gaze tell me one thing have you a mother the small jew who was the industrious for this particular type of ware looked his astonishment they are used to all sorts of set backs these particular guides for they encounter all sorts of people three guides severely moral and the reverse and i fancy on occasion they would be soundly if it were not for the police who stand in with them and receive a for their protection they certainly learn to understand something of the t t e of man who will listen to their proposition for i have never seen them more than ignored and i have frequently seen them talked to in an off hand way though i was pleased to note that their customers were few this particular little jew had a up expression on his face and did not care to answer the question at first but resumed his announcement of his various delights and the price it would all cost wait wait wait insisted answer my question have you a mother what has that got to do with it asked the guide of course i have a mother where is she demanded she s at home replied the guide with an air of mingled astonishment irritation and a desire not to lose a customer does she know that you are out here on the streets of paris doing what you are doing to night he continued with a very noble air the man swore under his breath answer me persisted still fixing him solemnly through his does she why no of course she doesn t replied the jew would you want her to know this in tones no i don t think so have you a sister yes a at forty would you want her to know i don t know replied the guide she might know anyhow tell me truly if she did not know would you want her to know the poor looked as if he had got into some silly inexplicable mess from which he would be glad to free himself but he did not seem to have sense enough to walk briskly away and leave us perhaps he did not care to admit defeat so easily no i suppose not replied the vainly there you have it exclaimed triumphantly you have a mother you would not want her to know you have a sister you would not want her to know and yet you me here on the street to see things which i do not want to see or know think of your poor gray headed mother he exclaimed and with a mock air of shame and sorrow once no doubt you prayed at her knee an innocent boy yourself the man looked at him in dull suspicion no doubt if she saw you here to night selling your manhood for a small sum of money to the lowest and most vicious elements in life she would weep bitter tears and your sister don t you think now you had better give up this evil hfe don t you think you had better accept any sort of position and earn an honest living rather than do what you are doing well i don t know said the man this living is as good as any other living i ve worked hard to get my knowledge good god do you call this knowledge inquired solemnly yes i do replied the man i ve worked hard to get it three guides my poor friend replied i pity you from the bottom of my heart i	43
pity you you are degrading your life and your soul come now to morrow is sunday the church bells will be ringing go to church reform your life make a new start do you will never regret it your old mother will be so glad and your sister oh say said the man walking off you don t want a guide you want a church and he did not even look back it is the only way i have of getting rid of them commented they always stop when i begin to talk to them about their mother they can t stand the thought of their mother very true i said cut it out now and come on you have preached enough let us see the worst that paris has to show and off we went arm in arm thereafter we visited after high low smart dull and i can say truly that the strange impression which this world made on me even now obviously when we arrived at s at twelve o clock the fun was just getting under way some of these places like this bar were no larger than a fair sized room in an apartment but crowded with a gay and throng americans south americans english and others one of the tricks in paris to make a successful is to keep it small so that it has an air of and activity here at s bar after allowing room for the red the piano and the there was scarcely space for the forty or fifty guests who were present champagne was twenty the bottle and champagne was all they served it was necessary here as at all the to contribute to the support of the and if a at forty a strange young woman should sit at your table for a moment and share either the wine or the fruit which would be quickly offered you would have to pay for that were three each and grapes five the bunch it was plain that all these things were offered in order that the house might and prosper it was so at each and all of them chapter xxiv the poison flower it was after this night that took his departure for london for two weeks where business affairs were calling him during which time i was to make myself as idle and gay as i might alone or with the individuals to whom he had introduced me or to whom i had direct there was so much that i wished to see and that he did not care to see over again with me having seen it all before the de for instance the the and so on the next afternoon after a more or less rambling day i saw him off for london and then i plunged into this treasure world alone one of the things that seriously impressed me was the never failing singing air of the city which was everywhere and another the moody atmosphere of the of that wonderful world of celebrated dead who crowd each other like the of a narrow city and who make a veritable of names what a world one whole day i here over the of de and a long long list of my brain fairly with the of life and finally i came away sad another day i visited and all its splendor with one of the most interesting and amusing americans i met abroad a by the name of h who me with his own experiences i fairly choked at times over his quaint amusing a at forty comments on things as when at in the chambers of he discovered a small secret stair only to remark there s where louis xvi took a often enough no doubt or on one of the towers of dame when to a third person who was present he commented there s your old think of the artistic of it concerning a group of buildings which related to the arts i believe he inquired what s the bunch of stuff to the right and so it went but the beauty of its stately how it all comes back after two weeks in which i enjoyed myself as much as i ever hope to studying out the charm and color of paris for myself returned fresh interested ready for the ready for more of paris ready indeed for anything i said to myself once more when i saw him and i was very glad to see him indeed the personality of supplies a quality of comfortable companionship he is so full of a youthful zest to live and so keen after the shows and customs of the world i have never pondered why he is so popular with women or that his friends in different walks of life constitute so great a company he seems to have known thousands of all sorts and to be at home under all conditions that persistent atmosphere of all is well with me to maintain which is as much a duty as a tradition with him makes his presence a constant delight we were soon joined by a small party of friends thereafter sir who was bound for an extended stay on the a who was abroad on an important scientific investigation and the representative of an american house who was coming to paris to mr late of the poison flower and secure his book this goodly company descended upon the hotel late one friday afternoon and it was planned that a party of the whole was to be organized the following night to dine at the de paris and then to make a round of the lesser known and more picturesque of before this grand pilgrimage to the temples of vice and excitement however and i spent a remarkable evening wandering from one to another in an effort to a	43
certain mile a girl who he had informed me when we first came to paris had been one of the most interesting figures of the stage four or five years before she had held at the much the same position now recently attained by who was just then paris in other words she was the sensation of that stormy world of art and romance of which these are a part she was more than that she had a wonderful voice of great color and richness and a spirit for dancing that was greek in its quality was most anxious that i should get at least a glimpse of this exceptional type the real spirit of this fast world your true artistic poison flower your lovely before she should be too old or too wretched to be interesting we started out to visit g s bar the bar the rat s bar the the in fact the whole list of and show places where on occasion she might be expected to be seen on the way bits of her interesting history her marriages vices habits a strange of tendencies that sometimes affect the most vigorous and eager of human at one on this expedition quite by accident apparently we encountered miss x whom i had not seen so a at forty since we left and who was here in paris doing her best to the women of the gay in the matter of her dresses her hats and her beauty i must say she presented a spectacle quite as wonderful as any of the other women who were to be seen here but she lacked as i was to note the natural vivacity of the french we americans in spite of our high spirits and our healthy enthusiasm for life are nevertheless a of the english the german and some of the nations of the north and we are inclined to a physical and mental which is not common to the this miss x vivid creature that she was did not have the spiritual which the french women so far as spirit was concerned she seemed superior to most of the foreign types present but the french women are naturally their eyes brighter their motions lighter she gave us at once an account of her adventures since i had seen her where she had been living what places she had visited and what a good time she was having i could not help at the disposition which set above everything else in the world the privilege of moving in this peculiar realm which fascinated her so much from a conventional point of view much of what she did was to say the least of it unusual but she did not trouble about this as she told me on the all she hoped for was to become a woman of and to have some money if she had money and attained to real social wisdom conventional society could go to the devil for the according to her was welcome everywhere that is anywhere she would care to go she did not expect to retain her beauty entirely but she did expect to have some money and meanwhile to live brilliantly as she deemed that she was now doing her the poison flower love of amusement was quite as marked as ever and her comments on the various women of her class as hard and accurate as they were brilliant i remember her saying of one woman with an easy sweep of her hand like a willow don t you think and of another she like a it was true fine character at s an hour later she decided to go home so we took her to her hotel and then resumed our pursuit of mile after much wandering we finally came upon her about four in the morning in one of those pleasure that i have so frequently described ah yes there she is exclaimed i looked to a distant table to see the figure he indicated that of a girl seemingly not more than twenty four or twenty five a white silk tied about her brown hair her body clothed in a rather costume for a world so as this most of the women wore evening clothes had on a skirt of light brown wool a white open in the front and the collar turned down showing her pretty neck her skirt was short and i noticed that she had pleasing ankles and pretty feet and her sleeves were short showing a before she noticed we saw her take a slender girl in black for a partner and dance with others in the open space between the tables which the walls i studied her with interest because of s description because of the fact that she had been married twice and because the physical and spiritual ruin of a dozen girls was or not laid at her door her face did not suggest the which her career would indicate although it was by no means ruddy but she seemed to scorn her eyes eyes are always significant in a personage a at forty were large and vague and brown set beneath a wide full forehead very wonderful eyes she appeared in her idle security and profound like a figure out of the revolution or the she would have been magnificent in a riot marching up a street her white band about her brown hair carrying a knife a gun or a flag she would have had the courage too for it was so plain that life had lost much of its charm and she nearly all of her caring she came over when her dance was done having seen and extended an indifferent hand he told me after their light conversation in french that he had her to the effect that her career was her once lovely	43
calling chat chat chat and asking how do you talk to a cat in french there was an open carriage which came for us at one into which we threw our fur coats and blankets and then climbed by degrees mile after mile up an exquisite slope by the side of a valley that gradually became a and at the bottom of which and a mountain stream this road led to more great trees at the top of a range overlooking what i thought at first was a great valley where a fog prevailed but which a few steps further was revealed as the wondrous sea white sails a distant like a marble toy into the blue water and here and there at far below we made our way to a delightful inn some half way down and back where under soaring black pine trees we had tea at a little green table jam new bread and cakes i shall never forget the bitter assault i provoked by dipping my spoon into the jar all the of social wrath were poured upon my troubled head it serves him right insisted i saw him do that once before these people from the middle west what can you expect that night a grand row developed at dinner between and as to how long we were to remain in and whether we were to stop in or out of s plan was for remaining at least three o a at forty days here and then going to a hotel not directly in but half way between and the hotel i knew that had come here at the present time largely to entertain me and since i would rather have had his presence than the atmosphere of the best hotel in it really did not matter so much to me where we went so long as it was comfortable was greatly or pretended to be to think i should be brought here to witness the wonders of this world and then be in some side spot where half the delicious life would escape me i he kept we come all the way to the south of france to stop at candles to light us to bed and french for servants and then we go to and stop at some third rate hotel well you can go to the if you choose i am going to the palace hotel where i can see something and have a decent bed i am not going to be packed off any ten miles out of and be compelled to use a street car that stops at twelve o clock and spend thirty getting home in a this kept up until with offering solemn explanations of why he had come here why it would be advisable for us to refresh ourselves at the fountain of simple scenery after the of london and the of paris he had a fine argument for the as a dwelling site it was just half way between and it commanded all the bay on which stood cap martin with the hotel of that name here threw its sharp rocky point far out into the sea a car line passed the door in a either way we could be in either or who wants to be in demanded sir i would rather be an hour away from it instead of half an hour if i came to see i would not be about i for one will not go it was not long before i learned that did much protesting but equally much following the patient silence of coupled with direct action at the decisive moment usually won s arguments did result in one thing the next morning instead of in the sun and taking a carriage ride over the adjacent range we gathered all our and deposited them at the near by station while and i climbed to the top of an adjacent hill where was an old water pool to have a last look at the lovely high colored bay of then the long train with drawing room cars from all parts of europe rolled in and we were off again called my attention as we went along to the first of the umbrella trees of which i was to see so many later in italy coming into view in the occasional sheltered valleys which we were passing and later those of southern france and all italy the hill cities towering like great high in the air i shall never forget the impression the first sight of one of these made on me in america we have nothing save the illusion of clouds over distant to compare with it i was astonished transported the reality was so much more wonderful than the drawings of which i had seen so many outside the car windows the sweeping of the palms seemed almost to brush the train hanging over white of stone green shutters and green red roofs and bright blue the half frenchman with his face and burning eyes presently the train stopped at i struck out to walk in the pretty garden which i saw was connected with the bar a at forty to send a to show how and he could be here were long trains that had come from st and and others from and with and those from paris bore the imposing legend des et des express there was a long black train in from the south with cars marked and you had a sense from merely looking at the stations that the idleness and the luxury of all the world was pouring in here at will in ten minutes we were off again solemnly on the fact that in england a homely girl was left to her own devices with no one to make anything of her she being plain and that being the end of it while here in france something	43
first luncheon at the was an excellent case in point being on the and being host to several was in the most of artistic moods he made up a of the most delicious of d which he insisted should never have been allowed to take the place of soup but which alas the custom of the time and the of which in this case was gray a point which he wished me particularly to note sole roast lamb and in order to give our meal the flavor of the land we had coffee on the balcony afterwards and i heard much concerning the wonders of this region and of the time when the winter palace was the place to lunch a grand duke was a part of the day s and two famous english authors before whom we with dignity after lunch we made our way to the hotel which in spite of s complaints had finally selected it stood on a splendid rise between men tone and and here after some slight we were assigned to three rooms en with bath i was given the corner room with two and a flood of sunshine and such a view as i have never seen from any window before or since straight before me lay the length of cap martin a grove of thousands of olive trees reflecting from its leaves the rays of the sun and crowding it completely and beyond it the delicious sweep of the to the right lay the bay of the heights of la and all the glittering world which the of gold is proper to the left lay and the green and snow mountains of and san faintly visible in the distance never an hour but the waters of the sea were a lighter or a darker shade of blue and never an hour but a lonely sail was crossing in the high above the inn at la faintly visible in the distance rose a ruined column of a broken memory of the time when imperial rome was dominant here and when the roman passed this way to spain at different hours i could hear the of some frontier garrison sounding guard mount and the sun set call oh those wonderful mornings when i was by the clear note of a horn flying up the valleys of the mountains and sounding over the sea immediately after our arrival it was settled that once we had made a swift toilet we would start for we were ready to bring back tremendous and eager to see this world the like of which insisted was not to be found elsewhere oh yes he said i have been to and to and les but they are not like this we really should live at the palace where we could walk on the terrace in the morning and watch the he told a significant story of how once having a he came out of the card rooms of the into the grand and attempted to pour a little out of a thin with which to ease the pain i stepped behind a column he explained so that i might not be seen but just as i the four guards seized me and hurried me out of the place they thought i was taking poison i had to make plain my identity to the management before they would let me back we arrived at the edge of the which is a at forty and walked in surveying the character of the place it was as gaudy and as one might well expect this world to be it reminded me in part of that world which one finds about the arc de rich and comfortable only there are no carriages in to speak of the distances are too slight and the too steep when we reached the square of the it did not strike me as having any especial charm it was small and sloping and laid off in square beds of flowers with about and gravel paths going down either side at the foot lay the and cream white with a glass and iron over the door and a swarm of people moving to and fro not an throng but rather having an air of considerable industry about it quite as one might expect to find in a business world people were bustling along as we were to get to the or to go away from it on some errand and get back we hurried down the short length of the checking our coats after waiting a time for our turn in line and then entering the chambers where are examined and cards of admission sold there was quite some formality about this letters being examined our personal signature and home address taken and then we were ready to enter while presented our sir and i strolled about in the observing tlie and throng he showed me the exact pillar where he had attempted to ease his tooth this was an interesting world of people the german the italian the american the englishman and the russian were easily sir was convinced that the faces of the and the could be distinguished but i am afraid i was not enough of a to do this if there were any who had just lost the of gold their last dollar i did not detect them on the contrary it seemed to me that the majority were cheerful and were having the best time in the world a large bar at the end of the room opposite the general entrance to the card rooms had a peculiarly american appearance the one thing that was evident was that all here were healthy and vigorous with a love of life in their veins eager to be entertained and having the means in a large majority of cases to accomplish this end it struck me here as it has in so	43
many other places where great pleasure loving that the difference between the person who has something and the person who has nothing is one of intense desire and what for a better phrase i will i call a capacity to live the inner chambers of the were divided into two groups the outer being somewhat less decorated and those who for reasons of economy prefer to be less exclusive and the inner more elaborate in and having of an evening it was said a more dressed throng just why one should choose less expensive rooms when gambling unless low in funds i could not guess those in both sets of rooms seemed to have enough money to i could not see after some experience that there was very much difference the players seemed to wander rather through both sets of rooms certainly we did an extra charge of five louis was made for the season s privilege of entering the inner group or as it was called i shall never forget my first sight of the famous tables in the outer rooms for we were not venturing into the inner at present aside from the of the crowd which was as impressive as an opera first night and the quality of the room a at forty which was rich and brilliant i was most vividly impressed by the vast quantities of money scattered so freely over the tables small piles of gold louis of eight ten fifteen and even twenty five pieces of pale crisp bank notes whose value was anywhere from one hundred to one thousand it was like looking through the s window of an immense bank the and of the wheel i did not understand at first nor the exact duties of the many seated at each table their cry of ne va and the subsequent together of the shining coin with the little or the throwing back of silver gold and notes to the lucky my attention like a great god i thought supposing i was to win a thousand pounds with my fifteen i should stay in europe an entire year like all i watched the process with large eyes and then seeing get back five gold louis for one placed on a certain number i ventured one of my own result three louis i tried again on another number and won two more i saw myself in fancy the happy possessor of a thousand pounds my next adventure cost me two louis whereupon i began to wonder whether i was such a fortunate player after all come with me said coming around to where i stood my small sums with indescribable excitement and taking my arm i want to send some money to my mother for luck i ve just won fifteen pounds talk about superstition i replied coming away from the table i did n t believe it of you i m discovered he smiled besides i want to send some sweets to the children we strolled out into the bright afternoon sun finding the terrace comparatively empty for the draws the of gold most of the crowd during the middle and late afternoon it was strange to leave these shaded lighted rooms with their of well dressed men and women sitting about or bending over tables all on the one thrilling thing the drop of the little white ball in a certain pocket and come out into the glittering white world with its blazing sun its visible blue sea its cream colored buildings and its waving palms we went to several shops one for sweets and one for flowers in their atmosphere and duly our purchases then we went to the post office with instructions in various languages and saw that the money was sent to s mother then we returned to the and went his way while i wandered from board to board studying the crowd an occasional louis and finally managing to lose three pounds more than i had won in despair i went to see what was doing he had three or four of gold coin in front of him at a certain table all of five hundred dollars he was these in small of ten and fifteen louis and made no sign when he won or lost on several occasions i thought he was certain to win a great sum so were gold louis thrown him by the but on others i felt equally sure he was to be disposed of so freely were his gold pieces scraped away from him how are you making out i asked i think i ve lost eight hundred if i should win this though i risk a bee a what s a bee a a thousand note my poor little three louis seemed suddenly a lady sitting next to him a woman of perhaps fifty with a cool calculating face had perhaps as much a at forty as two thousand dollars in gold and notes piled up before her all around the table were these piles of gold silver and notes it was a fascinating scene there that ends me observed all at once his stock of gold on certain numbers disappearing with the of the now i m done we might walk out in the and watch the crowd all his good gold so quietly in by the was lingering painfully in my memory i was beginning to see plainly that i would not make a good such a loss distressed me how much did you lose i inquired oh a thousand he replied we strolled up and down on one type and another and yet with a genial which was amusing i remember a charming looking a radiant type of with finely features slim delicate fingers a dainty little foot who clad in a costume of black and white silk which fitted her with all the airy grace of a bon bon	43
ribbon about its box stood looking about as if she expected to meet some one look at her commented with that biting little ha ha of his which involved the greatest depths of critical sarcasm imaginable there she is she s lost her last louis and she s looking for some one to pay for her dinner i had to smile to myself at the man s indifference to the lady s beauty her obvious charms had not the slightest interest for him of another lovely creature who went by with her head held high and her lips parted in a way he observed she that in front of her mirror and finding nothing else to attack finally the of gold turned to me i say it s a wonder you don t take a there s your american bar it s the wrong time i replied you don t understand the art of drinking i should hope not he returned finally after much more criticism of the same sort arrived having lost ten louis and we for tea as usual an interesting argument arose now not only as to where we were to dine but how we were to live our very lives in now i should think said it would be nice if we were to dine at the princess you can get sole and d la there and their are excellent besides we can t drive to the every evening just as i thought commented bitterly just as i thought now that we are staying at a half hour or so away we will dine in i knew it we will do no such thing we will go back to the change our clothes dine simply and this from the man who had just lost a thousand come back here buy our tickets for the and inside first we go to and spend a time among a lot of and now we hang around the outer rooms of the we can t live at the hotel de paris or enter the but we can dine at the princess ha ha well we will do no such thing besides a little will not do you any harm you need not waste all your money on your stomach the man had a gay which delighted me merely contemplated the ceiling of the where we were gathered while sir rattled on in this fashion i expected to get tickets for the he a at forty soothed and added it will cost at least twenty to drive over to the exactly replied as i predicted we can t live in but we can pay twenty to get over to cap martin thank heaven there are still street cars i do not need to spend all my money on shabby carriages riding out in the cold it was a heavenly night i think we m better dine at the princess and go home early pleaded we re all tired to morrow i suggest that we go up to la for lunch that will prove a nice diversion and after that we come down and get our tickets for the come now do be reasonable ought to see something of the life of as usual won we did go to the princess we did have sole we did have d la we did have some excellent wine and was in his glory chapter we go to the charms of are many our first morning there to the sound of a horn blowing in the distance i was up enjoying the wonderful spectacles from my balcony the sun was just peeping up over the surface of an sea shooting sharp golden glances in every direction up on the mountains which rise sharp and clear like great back of the villages of this coast it was picking out shepherd s hut and fallen of the glory that was rome a or two was already making its way out to sea and below me on that long point of land which is cap martin stretching like a thin green spear into the sea was the splendid olive orchard which i noted the day before its gleaming leaves showing a different shade of green from what it had then i did not know it until the subject came up that olive trees live to be a thousand years old and that they do as well here on this little strip of coast protected by the high mountains at their back as they do anywhere in italy in fact as i think of it this lovely of land no wider than to permit of a few small villages and cities crowding between the sea and the mountains is a true of italy itself its palms olive trees umbrella trees and its and architecture i understand that a french half french half italian is spoken here and that only here are the hill cities truly the same as they are in italy while i was gazing at the morning sun and the blue a at forty sea and how quickly the comfortable express had whirled us out of the cold winds of paris into this sun kissed land must have been up and for presently he appeared pink and clean in his brown dressing gown to sit out on my lovely balcony with me you know he said after he had commented on the wonder of the morning and the delicious soothing quality of the cool air is certainly an old there he lies in there now ready to on us of course he isn t very strong physically and that makes him irritable he does so love to be contrary i think he is a good running mate for you i observed if he to in the matter of food you certainly run to the other extreme is a mild expression for your character you don t mean it i certainly do in what way	43
have i shown myself i charged him with various crimes my lecture was interrupted by the arrival of rolls and coffee and we decided to take breakfast in the company of we knocked at his door there he was propped up in bed his face crowned by his black hair and set with those burning dark eyes a figure of almost classic significance ah he exclaimed grimly here he comes the s guide to europe now do be cheerful this morning do be remember it is a lovely morning you are on the we are going to have a charming time we go to y you are anyway commented i am the most of men i assure you commented i would do anything to make you happy we will go up to la to day if you say and order a charming lunch after that we will go to if you say and on to nice for dinner if you think fit we will go into the there for a little while and then return isn t that a simple and satisfactory and i will walk up to la you can join us at one for lunch you think he ought to see don t you yes if there is n t some de paris hidden away up there somewhere where you can again if we can just manage to get you past the so it was agreed and i would walk sir was to follow by train as the day was and perfect all those special articles of purchased in london for this trip were extracted from our luggage and duly put on light weight suits straw hats and ties of delicate tints and then we set forth the road lay in easy swinging s s up and up past and garden patches and old stone cottages and with their patient little heavily i noticed even at this height came grumbling up or tearing down and always the tree with its whispering black green needles and the graceful umbrella tree made artistic frames for the of the sea here and now i should like to pay my tribute to the tree i saw it later in all its perfection at rome and elsewhere in italy but here at or rather outside of it i saw it first i never saw it connected with anything or commonplace and wherever it grows there is dignity and beauty it is not to be seen anywhere in a at forty contact with this feverish world of it is as proud as beauty itself as haughty as achievement by old ruins in sacred burial grounds by worn gates and forgotten palaces it and sighs it is as mournful as death as in its mien as great age and experience a tree of the elders where rome grew it grew and to greek and roman temples in their prime and pride it added its sacred company plant a tree near my grave when i am dead to think of its tall body towering like a stately monument over me would be all that i could ask if some of this substance which seems to be that which is i physically here on this earth should mingle with its fretted roots and be into the noble shaft of its body i should be glad it would be a graceful and artistic way to disappear into the unknown our climb to la was in every respect delightful we stopped often to comment on the character of the peaks to as to the age of the stone huts about half way up we came to a little inn called the which really hangs on the of this great range commanding the wide blue sweep of the below and here under the shade of umbrella trees and and with the in full bloom and with some blossom which called blowing everywhere we took seats at a little green table to have a pot of tea it is an american inn this with an american flag fluttering high on a white pole and an american atmosphere not unlike that of a country in there were some chickens scratching about the door and at least three in separate bright brass hung in the branches of the surrounding trees they sang we go to with tremendous energy with the passing of a whose spotted cotton shirt and earth colored trousers and dusty skin the lean narrow life of the peasant we discussed wealth and poverty lavish expenditure and the like quality of the women of fashion and of pleasure who eat and eat and and themselves of the things of life without aim or even thought the peasant on this with perhaps no more than ten cents a day to set his beggar board while below the idle company in the shining like a white temple from where we sat were wasting thousands upon thousands of dollars agreed most solemnly with it all he was quite sympathetic the tables there he said even while we looked were with gold and the prince of was building with his useless marine which no one visited i was constantly forgetting in our about the neighborhood how small the of is i am sure it would fit nicely into ten city blocks a large portion of on french territory only the the terrace the heights of belong to the one half of a well known there i believe is in and the other half in france la on the heights here the long road we had come almost everything in fact was in france we went into the french to mail cards and then on to the french commanding the heights this particular commands a magnificent view a circle about which the turned in front of its door was supported by a stone wall resting on the sharp slope of the mountain below all the windows of its	43
principal looked out over the sea and of the wonderful view i was never weary the room had an oriental touch o a at forty and the white tables and black accorded ill with this still it offered that of service which only the french possess was for waiting for who had not arrived i was for eating as i was hungry finally we sat down to luncheon and we were the sweet when in he came his black eyes burned with their usual critical fire if sir had been born with a religious spirit instead of a for art he would have been a st francis of as it was without anything to base it on except s he had already established moral over our actions ah here you are eating as usual he observed with that touch of lofty sarcasm which at once amused and irritated me no excursion without a meal as its object sit down el i commented and note the beautiful view this should delight your soul it might delight mine but i am not so sure about yours would certainly see nothing in it if there were not a here ha i found a waiter here who used to serve me in the royal in london observed cheerfully now we can die content sighed we have been recognized by a french waiter on the ha never happy he added turning to me unless he is being recognized by somewhere his one claim to glory we went out to see the ruined monument to crumbling on this high mountain and commanding the great blue sweep of the below there were a number of things in connection with this monument which were exceedingly interesting it illustrated so well the roman method of construction a vast we go to core of and brick faced with marble informed me that only recently the french government had issued an order preventing the removal of any more of the marble much of which had already been stolen away or cut up here into other forms immense marble drums of pure white stone were still lying about fallen from their places and in the surrounding huts of the peasant of la could be seen parts of once noble pillars set into the fabric of their shabby or used as corner stones to support their pathetic little i recall seeing several of these immense drums of stone set at queer angles under the paper walls of the huts the native having built on them as a base quite as a spider might attach its net to a substantial bush or stone i reflected at length on the fate of greatness and how little the treasures of one age may be to another time and chance and ignorance lie in wait for them all the village of la although in france gave me my first real taste of the italian village high up on this mountain above in touch really with the of expenditure clothes jewels architecture food here it stood quite as it must have been standing for the last three or four hundred years its narrow streets up and down between houses of gray stone or brick covered with gray i thought of how he always turned the corners of the dark narrow streets of rome in as wide a circle as possible in order to save himself from any lurking that he might draw his own knife quickly dirt and age and and romance it was in these terms that la spoke to us although anxious to proceed to not so very far away which they both assured me was so much more a at forty and characteristic yet we lingered looking lovingly up and down narrow passages where stairs gracefully where arches curved over streets and where plants bravely in spotted crumbling windows age age and with it men women and children of the usual poverty stricken italian type not french but women with blue or purple skirts white or colored black hair wrinkled yellow or brown faces glittering dark eyes and like hands not far from the of this scene flourishing like a great at the foot of his magnificent column was a public fountain of what date i do not know the of the community were hard at their washing the wet clothes in masses on the stone rim of the basin they were and chattering their skirts up at their their heads wound about with of various colors it brought back to my mind by way of contrast the gloomy wash and bath house in green which i have previously commented on despite poverty and ignorance the scene here was so much more inviting even inspiring under a blue sky in the rays of a bright afternoon sun beside a but none the less lovely fountain they seemed a very different kind of mortal far more fortunate than those i had seen in green and what can do toward supplying blue skies broken fountains and stirring and delightful atmosphere would provide these things with many backward glances we departed conveyed hence in an inadequate little vehicle drawn by one of the horses it has ever been my lot to ride behind the cheerful driver was as fat as his horse was lean and as dusty as the road itself we were tightly we go to in the single green cloth seat on one side i on the other in the middle as usual on the charm of life and enduring cheerfully all the cares and difficulties of his exalted and self constituted office of guide and friend deep green valleys dizzy along which the narrow road skirted nervously tall tops of hills that rose about you or so runs the road to and we followed it sir so dizzy contemplating the depths that we had to hold him in was gay and i never knew	43
a man who could become so easily with life there you have it said sir pointing far down a green slope to where a shepherd was watching his sheep a cape coat over his arm a crooked staff in his hand there is your pastoral descended from the ancient to love nature but that would not bring him out here there is no d la attached to it no sole and see the goose girl i exclaimed as a maiden in bare feet her skirt falling half way below her knees crossed the road all provided my dear boy assured beaming on me through his everything as it should be for you you see how i do goose girls public fountains old monuments to caesar anything you like i will show you now nothing finer in europe we were around the green edge of a mountain its top and there i saw it my first not unlike la it was old and gray but with that dignity which anything set on a hill possesses carefully explained to me that in the days some few hundred years before the inhabitants of the and plain were compelled a at forty to take to the hills to protect themselves against that the hill city dates from the earliest times in italy and was common to the before the dawn of history up completely surrounded by a wall the only road leading to it being the one on which we were by a bridge we crossed a narrow dividing one mountain height from another and then our fat and his bony horse mounted to the open gate or arched door now quite some of the village children were selling the common flowers of the field and a native in tight dusty trousers and soft hat was entering i think i devoured the strangeness and of as one very hungry would eat a meal i examined all the peculiarities of this outer entrance and noted how like a hole in a shell it was giving not directly into the old city or village but into a path that skirted the outer wall above were holes through which could shower arrows and boiling oil upon those who might have penetrated this outer there was a blind passage at one point the into a devilish pocket where their fate was sealed if one gained this first gate and the second which gave into a narrow winding upward climbing street the fighting would be hand to hand and always upward against men on a higher level the as we found at last was now a red and gray brick ruin only some arches and angles of which were left crowning the summit from which the streets descended like the of a gray stone and long narrow bricks set on their sides form the streets or passages the houses of brick and gray stone followed closely the of the street it was a silent sleepy little city few people were about the small shops were guarded by old women or children the men were we go to sheep and farmers on the slopes below anything that is sold in this high placed city is brought up to it on the backs of slow climbing one blessed thing the problem of these older italian french cities because of their situation on the itself otherwise god help the cities insisted that there was a thought climbing up and around these various streets peering in at the little windows where tobacco fruit cheese and modest were sold we reached finally the summit of where for the first time in italy i count the italian the guide nuisance began an old woman in french insisted on about the ruins sir kept repeating no no my good woman go away and i said in english run tell it to he is the bell of this flock to safety up a cracked wall of the ruin and from his dizzy height eyed her calmly and bade her run along now but it was like king bidding the sea to retreat till she had successfully taken toll of us meanwhile we stared in delight at the at the olive groves the distant at the lovely blue and the pale threads of roads we were so anxious to get to nice in time for dinner and so opposed to making our way by the long dusty road which lay down the mountain that we decided to make a short cut of it and go down the rocky side of the hill by a foot wide path which was pointed out to us by the village priest a haggard specimen of a man who in thin and shoes and hat before his crumbling little church door we were a noble company if somewhat out of the picture as we piled down this narrow s track in a brilliant checked suit and white hat and sir a at forty in very smart black my best yellow shoes ninety in paris lent a pleasing note to my otherwise attire and gave me some concern for the going was most rough and uncertain we passed tending sheep on sharp slopes a donkey driver making his way upward with three all heavily laden an umbrella tree a peasant so ancient that he must have endured from days and olive groves whose shadows were as rich as that bronze which time has favored with its it seemed impossible that half way between and nice those twin worlds of fashion and vice should endure a scene so the of is here all that art could suggest or fancy desire a world of simple things such scenes as this remarked sir were favored by his great artistic admiration we found a railway station somewhere and then we got to nice for dinner once more a soul stirring argument between and sir	43
we would take tea at s we would not take tea at s we would dine at the we would not dine at the we would pay i forget how many louis and enter the chambers of the we would not do anything of the sort it was desired by that i should see the wonders of the sea walk with the waves the protecting wall it was desired by that i should look in all the shop windows with him and hear him instruct in the s art how these matters were finally adjusted is lost in the haze of succeeding impressions we did have tea at s however a very commonplace but bright affair and then we in front of shop windows where sir pointed out really jewels offered to the public for we go to sums one great diamond he knew to have been in the possession of the of turkey and you may well trust his word and his understanding a certain here displayed had once been in his possession and was now offered at exactly ten times what he had originally sold it for a certain cut steel very large and very handsome was designed by himself and was first given as a remembrance to a friend result endless imitation by the best shops he over and suggesting charming uses for them and then finally we came to the the with its chambers its great dining rooms its public lounging room with such a world of green chairs and tables as i have never seen the great at atlantic city are not so large being the height of the season it was of course filled to overflowing by a brilliant throng and drawn here from all parts of europe and of all sir as usual in his gentle but decided way raised an argument concerning what we should have for dinner the mere suggestion that it should be d la and champagne threw him into a chill i will not pay for it you can spend your money showing oflf if you choose but i will cat a simple meal somewhere else oh no protested we are here for a pleasant evening i think it important that should see this it need not be d la we can have sole and a light so sole it was and a light and a bottle of water for sir chapter nice not having as yet been in the at i was perhaps impressed by the splendor of the rooms devoted to gambling in this large there were eight hundred or a thousand people all in evening clothes who had paid a heavy price for the mere privilege of entering and were now gathered about handsome mahogany tables under glittering and playing a variety of carefully devised gambling games with a that at times makes in other causes to a humble minded american person like myself unused to the high world of fashion this spectacle was to say the least an interesting one here were a dozen represented by men and women whose hands were to perfection whose were all that a high social occasion might require their faces showing in every instance a keen of their world and how it works here in nice if you walk away from these of social perfection where health and beauty and and money abound the vast run of citizens are as poverty stricken as any but this collection of nobility and gentry of intellectual and savage beauties is from all over the world i hold that is something to see the tables were fairly with a fascinating throng all very much alike in their attitude and their love of the game but still individual and interesting i venture to say that any one of the people i saw nice in this room if you saw him in a crowd on the street would take your attention a native force and went with each one i wondered constantly where they all came from it takes money to come to the it takes money to buy your way into any gambling room it takes money to and what is more it takes a certain amount of self assurance and individual selection to come here at all by your mere presence you are putting yourself in contact and contrast with a notable standard of social achievement your your ability to take care of yourself your breeding and your are at once not but unconsciously do you really belong here the eyes of the attendants ask you as you pass and the glitter and color and life and beauty of the room is a constant challenge it did not surprise me in the least that all these men and women in their health and carried themselves with cynical almost they might well do so as the world judges these material things for they are certainly far removed from the rank and file of the streets and to see them from their and their pockets of gold of crisp notes that represented a thousand each and with an almost air laying them on their favorite numbers or was to my eye a experience yet i was not interested in gambling only in the people who played i know that to the of this world who are fascinated by chance and find their amusement in such playing this atmosphere is commonplace it was not so to me i watched the women particularly the beautiful women who strolled about the chambers with their solely to show oflf their fine clothes you a at forty see a certain t of youth here who seems to be experienced in this gay world that from one resort to another for you hear such phrases as oh yes i saw her at les or she was at last summer is that the same fellow she was	43
with last year i thought she was living with this of a second individual my heaven how well she keeps up or this must be her first season here i have never seen her before two or three of these young would follow a woman all around the rooms watching her admiring her beauty quite as a might examine the fine points of a horse and all the while you could see that she was keenly aware of the critical fire of these eyes at the tables was another type of woman whom i had first casually noticed at a not too good looking rather practical and perhaps type of woman usually inclined to as is so often the case with women of indolent habits and no temperament although now that i think of it i have the feeling that neither illusion nor have ever played much part in the lives of such as these they looked to me like women who from their youth up had taken life with a grain of salt and who had never been carried away by anything much neither love nor fashion nor children nor ambition perhaps their keenest interest had always been money the having and holding of it and here they sat not not apparently interested in chance and very likely winning and losing by turns their principal purpose being i fancy to avoid the and monotony of an existence which they are not anxious to endure i heard one or two comments on women of this type while i was abroad but i cannot say that they did more than ap my heaven how well she keeps up nice peal to my sympathies supposing to look at it from another point of view you were a woman of forty five or fifty you have no family nothing to hold you perhaps but a collection of dreary relatives or the of a conventional neighborhood with prejudices that are wearisome to your sense of liberty and freedom if by any chance you have money here on the is your resource you can live in a wonderful climate of sun and blue water you can see nature clad in her the year round you can see fashion and types arid exchange the gossip of all the world you can go to really excellent the best that europe and for leisure from ten o clock in the morning until four or five o clock the next morning you can if you choose silently indifferently without as long as your means endure if you are of a or calculating turn of mind you can amuse yourself infinitely by attempting to solve the strange puzzle of chance how numbers fall and why it leads off at last i know into the of and the of the are not more subtle than the strange of that are here indulged in certain people are supposed to have a and physical attraction for numbers or cards dreams are of great importance it is bad to sit by a losing person good to sit by a winning one every conceivable of thought in relation to personality is here indulged in and when all is said and done in spite of the wonders of their calculations it comes to about the same old thing they win and lose win and lose win and lose now and then some interesting personality stranger youth or other wins heavily or loses heavily a at forty in which case if he fiercely on his table will be surrounded by a curious throng their heads over each other s shoulders while he piles his gold on his such a man or woman for the time being becomes an intensely dramatic figure he is aware of the audacity of the thing he is doing and he moves with conscious gestures the manner of a grand i saw one such later in the at a red bearded man of fifty tall intense graceful it was that he was a prince out of russia almost any one can be a prince out of russia at he had of gold and he distributed it with a lavish hand he piled it in little golden towers over a score of numbers and when his numbers fell wrong his towers fell with them and the great masses of metal into his basket there was not the slightest indication on his pale face that the loss or the gain was of the slightest interest to him he handed crisp bills to the clerk in charge of the bank and received more gold to play his numbers when he wearied after a dozen failures a breathing throng watching him with moist lips and damp eager eyes he rose and strolled forth to another chamber rolling a as he went he had lost thousands and thousands the next morning it was lovely and again sitting out on my balcony high over the surrounding commanding as it did all of the bay of and cap martin i made many solemn resolutions this gay life here was and artificial i decided gambling was a vice in spite of sir s lofty for it it drew to and around it the allied of the world vain glory i resolved here in the cool morning that i would reform i would see nice something of the surrounding country and then leave for italy where i would forget all this i started out with about ten to see the museum and to lunch at the princess but the day did not work out exactly as we planned we visited the museum but i found it dull the sort of a thing a prince making his money out of gambling would it may have vast scientific but i doubt it a collection of insects and dried specimens quickly gave me	43
a headache the only case that really interested me was the one containing a half dozen of large size i stood before their and dull muddy bronze green arms studded with i can imagine nothing so horrible as to be seized upon by one of these things and i fairly shivered as i stood in front of the case contemplated solemnly the possibility of his being attacked by one of them and all he foresaw a swift end to his career we came out into the sunlight and viewed with relief by contrast with the dull museum the very new and commonplace cathedral oh exceedingly poorly executed and the castle or palace or residence of his the prince of i cannot imagine why europe this man with his fine gambling privileges unless it is that the different look with opposition on the thought of any other government having so fine a source of wealth france should have it by rights and it would be suitable that the french temperament should conduct such an institution the palace of the prince of was as dull as his church and his museum and the army drawn up in front of his residence for their morning exercise looked like a company of third rate french however i secured as fine an impression of the beauty a at forty of and the whole coast from this height as i received at any time during my stay for it is like the jewel of a ring projecting out of the sea you climb up to the museum and the palace by a series of and walks that from time to time bring you out to the sheer edge of the cliff ing the blue waters below there is expensive done here everywhere for you find vines and flowers and benches underneath the shade of palms and umbrella trees where you can sit and look out over the sea lovely you in every direction and below perhaps as far down as three and four hundred feet you can see and hear the waves breaking and the foam about the rocks the visitor to i fancy is not greatly disturbed about scenery however such walks as these are empty and still while the is packed to the doors the tables are the great and to these we ourselves invariably returned chapter a first glimpse of italy my days in after this were only four exactly in spite of my solemn resolutions of the morning the spirit of this world got into my bones by three o clock and at four when we were having tea at the palace hotel high above the i was satisfied that i should like to stay here for months as usual was full of plans for and he insisted that i had not half exhausted the charms of the place we should go to some old at where miracles of healing were performed and to and in order to see the social life there a part of one of these days we spent a performance in another day and i went to and nice beginning with a luncheon at the palace and winding up at the hotel des the last day we were in the gambling cheerfully for a little while and then on the terrace the pigeon shooting which persistently refused to contemplate this to me brutal sport was evidently fascinating to many for the of guns was constant it is so curious how our views differ in this world as to what evil and good to this was a legitimate sport the birds were ultimately destined for anyhow why not kill them here in this manner to me the of the perfect winged things was a crime i would never be one to hold a gun in such a sport a at forty it was this last day in the de paris that and i encountered and y our companions of that first dinner in paris was leaving for london was to stay on at and for the first time i faced the prospect of alone acting on impulse i turned to and said come with me as far as never thinking for a moment that she would she replied and seemed very cheerful over the prospect arrived some fifteen minutes before my train was due but she was not to speak to me until we were on the train it took some to avoid the suspicions of left for the north at four thirty assuring me that we would meet in paris in april and ride at and that we would take a walking tour in england after he was gone and i walked to and fro and then it was that appeared i had to smile as i walked with thinking how he would have been if he had known that every so often we were passing who gazed the other way the as usual were alive with passengers with huge piles of baggage my train was a half hour late and it was getting dark some other train which was not bound for rome entered and to know whether she was to get into that i shook my head and hunted up the cook s agent always to be found on these foreign and explained to him that he was to go to the young lady in the blue suit and white walking shoes and tell her that the train was a half hour late and ask her if she cared to wait with quite an american sang he took in the situation at once and wanted to know how far she was going i told him and he advised that she get off at in order to catch the first train back he a first glimpse of italy departed and presently returned cutting me out from the company of sir by a very wise look of the eye and informed me that the lady would	43
wait and would go i promptly gave him a for his trouble my pocket was with italian silver and paper five and ten pieces which i had secured the day before finally my train rolled in and i took one last look at the sea in the fading light and entered sir gave me parting instructions as to simple that i would find at different places in italy not the and expensive beloved of he wanted me to save money on food and have my portrait painted by which i could have done he assured me with a letter from him he looked wisely around the platform to see that there was no suspicious lady anywhere in the and said he suspected one might be going with me oh i said how could you besides i am very poor now the ruling passion strong in poverty he commented and waved me a farewell i walked forward through the train looking for my and encountered she was eager to explain by signs that the cook s man had told her to get off at m thomas cook il m a il je d pas she understood well enough that if she wanted to get back to early in the evening she would have to make this train as the next was not before ten o clock i led the way to a table in the dining car still vacant and we talked as only people can talk who have no common language by the most astonishing efforts made it known that she would not stay at a at forty very long now and that if i wanted her to come to when i got there she would also she kept talking about and horseback riding in april she a smart rider holding the reins with one hand and to the horse with her lips she folded her hands to show how heavenly it would be then she put her right hand over her eyes and waved her left hand to indicate that there were lovely which we could contemplate finally she extracted all her bills from the hotel de paris and they were astonishing to show me how expensive her life was at but i refused to be impressed it did not make the least difference however in her attitude or her mood she was just as cheerful as ever and repeated as the train stopped and she stepped off she reached up and gave me an affectionate farewell kiss the last i saw of her she was standing her arms her head thrown back looking after the train it was due to a railroad wreck about twenty miles beyond that i owe my acquaintance with one of the most interesting men i have met in years a man who was very charming to me afterwards in rome but before that i should like to relate how i first really entered italy one afternoon several days before and i paid a flying visit to some twenty miles over the border a hill city and the agreed customs entry city between france and italy no train leaving france in this region so i learned stopped before it reached and none leaving stopped before it entered france and once there customs seized upon one and examined one s baggage if you have no baggage you are almost an object of suspicion in italy a first glimpse of italy on the first visit we came to scale the walls of this old city which was much like and commanded the sea from a great eminence but after it was not that interested me so much as the fact that italy was so different from france in landing at i had felt the astonishing difference between england and the united states in landing at the atmosphere of england had fallen from me like a cloak and france its high color and enthusiasm had succeeded to it here this day stepping off the train at only a few miles from i was once more astonished at the sharp change that had come over the spirit of man here were not french dark vivid interesting little men who it seemed to me were so much more inclined to and stare than the french that they appeared to be vain they were keen like the french but strange to say not so gay so light hearted so devil may care italy it seemed to me at once was much poorer than france and was very quick to point it out a different people he commented not like the french much darker and more mysterious see the cars how poor they are you will note that everywhere and the buildings the trains the rolling stock is not so good look at the houses the life here is more poverty stricken italy is poor very i like it and i don t some things are splendid my mother rome i the french temperament it is so much more light hearted so he on it was all true accurate and keenly ed i could not feel that i was anywhere save in a land that was seeking to itself but that had a long way to go the men the officials and of whom there were a clad in remarkable and even astonishing appealed to my eye but the souls of them to a at forty begin with did not take my fancy i felt them to be suspicious and greedy here for the first time i saw the uniform of the italian smart looking in long round hats of shiny leather with glossy green feathers and carrying short swords this night as i crossed the border after leaving i thought of all i had seen the day i came with when we reached it was pitch dark and being alone and speaking no italian whatsoever	43
i was confused by the thought of approaching difficulties presently a customs descended on me a large bearded individual who by signs made me understand that i had to go to the baggage car and open my trunk i went supplied the only light i felt as though i were in a s cave yet i came through well enough nothing was found i went back and sat down plunging into a for italian wisdom and wishing gloomily that i had read more history than i had somewhere beyond the train came to a dead stop in the dark and the next morning we were still in the same place i had risen early under the impression that i was to get out quickly but was waved back by the porter who repeated over and over beau de i understood that much but i did not understand what caused it or that i would not arrive in until two in the afternoon i went into the dining car and there encountered one of the most english women that i have ever met she was obviously of the highly intellectual class but so haughty in her manner and so loud spoken in her opinions that she was really offensive she was having her morning fruit and rolls and some and was explaining to a lady who was with her much of the character of italy as she knew it she was of the type that never a first glimpse of italy an opinion from any one but invariably gives her own or any that may be volunteered at one time i think she must have been attractive for she was tall and graceful but her face had become and sallow and a little thin i will not say hard although it was anything but my one wish was that she would stop talking and leave the dining car she talked so loud but she stayed on until her friend and her husband arrived i took him to be her husband by the way she contradicted him he was a very pleasing intellectual person the type of man i thought who would complacently endure such a woman he was certainly not above the medium in height quite well filled out and decidedly should have said from my first glance that he never took any exercise of any kind and his face had that interesting which comes from much brooding over the midnight oil he had large soft gray eyes and a of gray hair which hung low over a very high white forehead i must repeat here that i am the poorest judge of people whom i am going to like of any human being now and then i take to a person instantly and my feeling for years on the other hand i have taken the most based on nothing at all to people of whom subsequently i have become very fond perhaps my opposition in this case was due to the fact that the gentleman was plainly and by his wife anyhow i gave him a single glance and dismissed him from my thoughts i was far more interested in a stem official looking englishman with white hair who ordered his bottle of in a low rusty voice and cut his orange up into small bits with a knife presently i heard a german explaining to his wife a at forty about a wreck ahead we were just starting now perhaps twenty five or thirty miles from and were dashing in and out of rocky and bursting into wonderful views of walled and sweeps of sea the hill town the striped with its square many arched was coming into view i was delighted to see open plains bordered in the distance by snow mountains and dotted with little huts of stone and brick how old heaven only knows here once the strayed as said italy was much poorer than france the cars and stations seemed the dress of the inhabitants much poorer i saw natives staring idly at the cars as we flashed past or taking freight away from the in rude carts drawn by oxen many of the appeared to be rattle trap dusty and some miles this side of our first stop we ran into a region where it had been and the ground was covered with a wet after with its and orange trees and its lovely palms this was a sad and i could scarcely realize that we were not so much as a hundred miles away and going southward toward rome at that i often saw however distant hills crowned with a or a in high and which made up for the otherwise poor often we dashed through a cave protected by high surrounding walls of rock where the palm came into view again and where one could see how plainly these high walls of stone made for a atmosphere i heard the loud english woman saying it is such a delight to see the high colors again england is so dreary i never feel it so much as when we come down through here we were passing through a small italian town rich in a first glimpse of italy and a world of clothes lines showing between rows of buildings and the crowds pure italian in type to and fro along the streets it was nice to see windows open here and the sunshine pouring down and making dark shadows i saw one italian woman in a pink dotted dress partly covered by a bright yellow apron looking out of a window and then it was that i first got the of italy the thing that i felt afterwards in rome and and and that wonderful love of color that is not but just giving the eye something to feed on when it least expects it that is italy when nearly all the had left the	43
car the english lady left also and her husband remained to smoke he was not so very far removed from me but he came a little nearer and said the must have their striped churches and their wash lines or they wouldn t be happy it was some time before he volunteered another suggestion which was that the along this part of the coast had a poor region to farm i got up and left presently because i did not want to have anything to do with his wife i was afraid that i might have to talk to her which seemed to me a ghastly prospect i sat in my berth and read the history of art as it related to and interrupting my with glances at every interesting scene the value of the prospect changed first from one side of the train to the other and i went out into the corridor to open a window and look out we passed through a valley where it looked as though grapes were flourishing splendidly and my englishman came out and told me the name of the place saying that it was good wine that was made there he was determined to talk to me a at forty whether i would or no and so i decided to make the best of it it just occurred to me that he might be the least bit lonely and seeing that i was very curious about the country through which we were passing that he might know something about italy the moment it dawned upon me that he might be to me in this respect i began to ask him questions and i found his knowledge to be delightfully wide he knew italy thoroughly as we proceeded he described how the country was divided into three valleys separated by two mountain and what the lines of its early almost development had been he knew where it was that had come to spend his and spots that had been preferred by and other famous englishmen he talked of the cities that lie in a row down the of italy and of the fact that italy had no system whatsoever and that the priests were bitterly opposed to it he was sorry that i was not going to stop at because at the climate was very mild and the gulf very beautiful he was delighted to think that i was going to stop at and see the cathedral and the he commented on the charms of as it had been these later years saying that there was a very beautiful and that some of the palaces of the and still remaining were well worth seeing when we passed the of he told me of their age and of how endless the quantity of marble still was he was going to rome with his wife and he wanted to know if i would not look him up giving me the name of a hotel where he lived by the season i caught a note of remarkable for we fell to discussing religion and and the significance of government generally a first glimpse of italy and he astonished me by the breadth of his knowledge we passed to the subject of from which all spring and then i saw how truly philosophic and he was his mind knew no his knowledge no school he led off by easy stages into vague speculations as to the character of race impulses and i knew i had chanced upon a profound scholar as well as a very genial person i was very sorry now that i had been so rude to him by the time we reached we were fast friends and he told me that he had a distinguished friend now a resident of and that he would give me a letter to him which would bring me charming intellectual companionship for a day or two i promised to seek him out at his hotel and as we passed the leaning tower and the not so very distant from the railroad track as we entered he gave me his card i recognized the name as connected with some intellectual labors of a most distinguished character and i said so he accepted the recognition gracefully and asked me to be sure and come he would show me around rome i gathered my bags and stepped out upon the platform at eager to see what i could in the few hours that i wished to remain chapter xxx a stop at says that has a population of twenty seven thousand two hundred people and that it is a quiet town it is i caught the spell of a score of places like this as i walked out into the open square facing the the most amazing of a monument i ever saw in my life i saw here a puffing swelling representation of i legs apart whiskers an amazing all the details of a gaudy uniform a breast like a outrageous it was about twelve or thirteen times as large as an ordinary man and not more than twelve or fifteen feet from the ground he looked like a a monster to eat babies ready to leap upon you with loud cries i thought in heaven s name is this what italy is coming how can it brook such an with the spirit of adventure strong within me i decided to find the and the cathedral for myself i had seen it up the railroad track and appealing guides with urgent melancholy eyes i struck up walled streets of brown and gray and green with solid tight closed wooden shutters and noiseless empty they were not exactly narrow which astonished me a little for i had not learned that only the older portions of growing italian cities have narrow streets all the sections which surround such modern things as are wide and up to	43
date there was a handsome car just leaving as i came out a wide shiny thing a stop at which illustrated just how fine cars can be even in italy i had learned from my that was on the i wanted to see the because of and coming from i had read the short history of given in its wars with the building of its cathedral it was interesting to learn that the had the from in and destroyed their fleet in near that once they were the most powerful of the and how terribly they were defeated by the near in i up a vast desire to read endless volumes concerning the history of italy now that i was here on the ground and when it could not be done on the instant my book told me that the great cathedral was erected after the naval victory of the at and that the ancient bronze gates were very wonderful i knew of the with its sacred earth brought from and of the residence here of his famous pulpit in the is a commonplace almost as much so as the leaning tower i did not know that had availed himself of the position of the tower to make his experiments regarding the laws of until i read it in my precious but it was a fact none the less delightful for it there let me here and now once and for all sing my praises of and his books when i first went abroad it was with a lofty air that i considered s to the fact that on occasion would be of use to me he wanted me to go through europe getting my impressions quite fresh and not disturbed by too much such as could be gathered from books he might have trusted me my longing for was constantly great but my to burn the midnight o a at forty oil in order to get it was exceedingly small it was only at the last moment when i was confronted with some utterly magnificent object that i through my one source of supply the ever to and blessed his books i think the german temperament is at its best when it is gathering all the about anything and putting it in apple pie order before you i defy the most and scholars and to look at these volumes and not declare them wonderful there is no color in anywhere no joke no emotion no artistic enthusiasm it is a plain statement of delightful fact fact so without the object before you so invaluable when you are standing open mouthed wondering what it is all about trust the industrious the laborious the the to put his finger on the exact fact and tell you not what you might but what you must know to really enjoy it take this little from page of his volume on northern italy it concerns the famous which i was so eagerly seeking the interior visitors knock at the principal entrance free rests on eight columns and four above which there is a single in the is a marble by of and near it the famous pulpit borne by seven columns by the p p on the pulpit are i and adoration of the in the temple last judgment in the and above the columns the virtues fine echo dry as dried potatoes say you exactly but go to italy without a in your hand or precious knowledge stored up from other sources and see what happens is one of the greatest a stop at germany has ever produced he knows how to give you what you want and has spread the fame of german i count him a great human benefactor and his native city ought to erect a monument to him its base ought to be a bronze stand full of bronze and to this good purpose i will contribute freely and liberally according to my means when i reached the as i did by following this dull vacant street i was delighted to stop and look at its simple stone bridges its muddy yellow water not unlike that of the new river in west virginia the plain still yellow houses its banks as far as i could see the one note was the steel railroad bridge which the have built over it it was a little to look at an old moss covered fortress now occupied as a division by the italian army and at a charming old gate which was part of a fortified palace left over from s days the force of italy was me by leaps and bounds and my mind was full of the old and powerful italian families of which the middle ages are so i could not help thinking of the fact that the had in a way its beginning here in the personality of and of how wonderful the future of italy may yet be there was an air of about it that caused me to feel that although it might be a dull field this year or this century another might see it radiant with power and magnificence it is a and artistic land and i felt it here at wandering along the banks of the i came to a spot whence i could see the collection of sacred buildings far more sacred to art than to religion they were impressive even from this distance tow io a at forty above the low houses a little nearer standing on a space of level grass the of yellow and brown and blue italian houses about them like a frame they set my mouth with wonder and delight i walked into thinking it was too bad that any place so dignified should have fallen so low as to be a dull city but i remained to think that if the are wise and they are wise and new	43
bom also they will once more have their tremendous cities and their great artistic in the bargain i think now that perhaps of all the lovely things i saw abroad the cathedral and tower and and of as they are in one lovely spacious area are the loveliest and most perfect of all it does not matter to me that the cathedral at is not a true cathedral as some have pointed out it is better than that it is italian with those amazing artistic a bell tower and a and a thrown in trust the to do anything that they do with a as i stepped first into this open square with these exquisite jewels of cream colored stone under the rays of an evening sun it was a spectacle that a rare thrill of emotion such as great art must always there they stood fretted crowded with lovely studded with lovely and showing in every line and detail all that loving enthusiasm which is the first and greatest characteristic of artistic genius i can see those noble old first citizens who wanted to be great calling to their aid the genius of such men as and of and william of and and all the noble company of talent that followed to plan to to color and to to me it is a far more impressive and artistic thing than st peter s in rome it a stop at has a reserve and an artistic which the finest cathedral in the world and are bursts of imagination and emotion but the collection of buildings at is the reserved subtle calculation of a great and a great artist it does not matter if it represents the the judgment and the taste of a hundred men of genius it may be without the of a cathedral like that at but it the high classic reserve of a temple of it is greek in its dignity and beauty not christian and in its fire and zeal as i think of it i would not give it for an i have seen i would not have missed it if i had been compelled to sacrifice almost everything else and the italian government has done well to take it and all similar achievements under its protection and to declare that however religion may wax or this thing shall not be disturbed it is a great a noble a beautiful thing and as such should be preserved forever the interior of the was to me a soothing dream of beauty there are few anywhere in this world that truly satisfy but this is one of them white marble turned yellow by age is satisfying this interior one hundred feet in and one hundred and seventy nine feet high has all the smooth perfection of a blown its curve upward and inward so gracefully that the eye has no quarrel with any point my mind was fascinated by the eight columns and four which seemingly support it all and by the graceful open gallery or in the wall resting above the arches below the so wide and so beautiful and the graceful pulpit by with its seven columns and three friendly looking lions is utterly charming while i stood and the heads of these amiable looking a at forty beasts a guide who had seen me enter came in and without remark of any kind began slowly and clearly to articulate the scale in order that i might hear the fine echo mentioned by long practice had made him perfect for by giving each note sufficient space to swell and and itself he finally managed to fill the great chamber with a charming harmony rich and full not unlike that of a wind harp if i fell instantly in love with the i was equally moved by the leaning tower a perfect thing if man is wise and thoughtful he can keep the wonders of great beauty by them as they wear but will he remain wise and thoughtful so little is thought of true beauty think of the guns thundering on the and of napoleon carrying away the horses of st mark s i mounted the steps of the tower one hundred and seventy nine feet the same height as the walking out on and around each of its six and surveying the surrounding landscape rich in lovely mountains showing across a plain the tower fourteen feet out of and as i walked its circular at different heights i had the feeling that i might over and come down to the grass below as i rose higher the view increased in loveliness and at the top i found an old bell man who called my attention by signs to the fact that the heaviest of the seven bells was placed on the side opposite the overhanging wall of the tower to balance it he also pointed in the different directions which presented lovely views indicating to the west and the mouth of the the and the islands to the north the and mount where the are and to the south rome some italian soldiers from the neighboring came up as i went down and entered the cathedral which a stop at was as beautiful as any which i saw abroad the italian is so much more perfectly on the interior than the northern and the great flat roof in gold is so much richer and more soothing in its aspect the whole church is of pure marble by age relieved however by black and colored bands i came away after a time and entered the the loveliest thing of its kind that i saw in europe i never knew strange to relate that were made or could be made into anything so artistic this particular ground was nothing more than an piece of grass set with several c trees and surrounded with a marble below the floor and against the walls of	43
which are placed the and the outer walls are solid and decorated on the inside with those light colored of the pupils of the inner wall is full of arched pierced windows with many delicate columns through which you look to the green grass and the trees and the perfectly smooth ornamented dome at one end i have paid my tribute to the trees so i will only say that here as always wherever i saw them one or many i thrilled with delight they are as fine as any of the monuments or bronze doors or carved or perfect they belong where the great artistic impulse of italy has always put them side by side with perfect things for me they added the one final necessary touch to this realm of romantic memory i see them now and i hear them sigh i walked back to my train through highly colored winding quaint streets crowded with houses the of which we in america to day attempt to imitate on our fifth avenues and a at forty avenues and squares the knew so well what to do with the door and the window and the and the wall space the size of their window is what they choose to make it and the door is instinctively put where it will give the last touch of elegance how often have i mentally applauded that artistic and reserve which will use one of colored stone or one or one lamp or one window and no more there is space lots of it unbroken until you have had just enough and then it will be relieved just enough by a marble framed in the walls a coat of arms a window a i would like to run on in my enthusiasm and describe that of a palace that is now the at but i will refrain only these streets in were rich with angles and and wonderful and solid plain fronts which were at once substantial and elegant trust the italian of an older day to do well whatever he did at all and i for one do not think that this instinct is lost it will burst into flame again in the future or save greatly what it already possesses chapter first impressions of rome as we approached rome in the darkness i was on the qui for my first glimpse of it and impatient with wonder as to what the morning would reveal i was bound for the hotel continental the abode for the winter at least of s mother the widow of an oxford don i expected to encounter a severe and lady of great who would eye the of paris and with severity my mother said is a very person she is greatly concerned about me when you see her try to cheer her up and give her a good report of me i don t doubt you will find her very interesting and it is just possible that she will take a fancy to you she is subject to violent likes and i fancied mrs as a rather large woman with a smooth placid countenance a severe intellectual eye that would see through all my and make believes on the instant it was midnight before the train arrived it was and as i pressed my nose to the window pane the beginning lamps i saw streets and houses come into view apartment houses if you please and street cars and electric arc lights and paved streets and a general atmosphere of we might have been entering for any particular it presented but just when i was to myself on the strangeness of entering ancient rome in a modern car and of seeing box cars and engines i a at forty coal cars and flat cars loaded with heavy material gathered on a score of parallel tracks a touch of the ancient rome came into view for an instant and was gone again in the dark and rain it was an immense desolate tomb its arches flung in great curves its rounded dome rent and jagged by time nothing but ancient rome could have produced so imposing a ruin and it came over me in an instant fresh and clear like an electric shock like a dash of cold water that this was truly all that was left of the might and glory of an older day i recall now with delight the richness of that sensation rome that could build the walls and the in far and london rome that could occupy the st louis in paris as an that could erect the immense column to on the heights above rome that could reach to the uppermost waters of the and the banks of the and and rule was around me here it was the city to which st paul had been brought where st peter had sat as the first father of the church where the first had set up their shrine to and and the she wolf that had nourished them yes this was rome truly enough in spite of the apartment houses and the street cars and the electric lights i came into the great station at five minutes after twelve amid a of italian and a crowd of passengers i made my way to the baggage room looking for a cook s guide to inquire my way to the continental when i was seized upon by one are you mr he said i replied that i was mrs told me to say that she was waiting for you and that you should come right over and inquire for her i hurried away followed by a laboring porter and first impressions of rome found her waiting for me in the hotel not the large severe person i had imagined but a small enthusiastic gracious uttle lady she told me that my room was all ready and	43

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